This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. On November 6th. I'm the cat in the hat. Look at it starting. You know the hat. I am a entertainment specialist. Now meet the cat. The clients today you have to do more to impress them. These aren't your father's kids. My father has other kids. Did he go on long business trips? Oh no. Bill Hader is. Cat. Cat. Cat in the hat. You have gone too far. You say toot farts? I said too far. Toot fart too far. I heard toot fart again. The cat in the hat. Only in theaters November 6th.
Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero. The 2026 season is underway and we are loving football on TV. Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season. I would suggest for these preseason games, I think they should do what they do on the NFL draft. You know, when coverage of the NFL draft is basically for moms and they're just like, hey, he has a dog named Spark. Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Our two Sean Hannity show toll free. It is 800-941-SEAN if you want to be a part of the program. So here we are with 36 days away from, I think, the most important midterm in our lifetime. Hence, that's why even with the, as Rush used to say, the ravages of the cold virus, I am here because it matters. I mean, we don't have a lot of time left on the clock and everything is hanging in the balance. We've just went through what the Democratic strategy is. And if you want to know what America would look like if these radicals got in power, just take a look at New York or California. New York comes out the highest taxed.
state in the entire country. And, you know, California, not far behind. How is it they have the highest income tax, the highest sales tax, the highest gas taxes. And they, you know, Gavin, you know, in communist California bragging about free health care for illegals and they can't balance their budget. That's why we keep having Steve Hilton on. That's why we keep having Bruce Blayton on. This may be the last great best hope in both New York and California for both these people, which brings us to our next guest, which will be joined in a second by Chris Ruffo.
And he exposes California's shadow welfare system for illegals. He's a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and they have created the shadow welfare system for illegals, free housing, cash, health care, food, phones, college tuition, even car insurance costing the taxpayers out there more than $10 billion per year. And they went inside the entire system and exposed it all. And here's Chris Ruffo exposing California's shadow welfare system for illegals. This is a brand new smartphone.
And here in Los Angeles, the government is giving them away to undocumented migrants for free. No proof of citizenship required. And the phones are only the beginning. In the past decade, the California state government has built a shadow welfare system for the undocumented that costs the state billions. They're giving away free food, cash, housing, health care, college tuition, even car insurance. No questions asked.
We wanted to see exactly how the system worked, so we went to the welfare office here in Los Angeles. They told us that many state welfare programs do not require American citizenship. And some, like the cash assistance program for immigrants, which provides nearly $14,000 a year in cash, are for migrants only. If you know where to look, the system isn't exactly a secret. The government is advertising it. No social security number, no problem. And Governor Newsom brags about it. We're the only state of America providing universal health care regardless of pre-existing condition, ability to pay, and your immigration status. I know how offensive that is to people.
and I get how controversial this is an outrage California families are working long hours depleting their savings and taking out record amounts of debt to survive while the government takes from their paycheck and hands out free everything to migrants who have no legal right to be here So what are we talking about? A shadow welfare system that allows illegals to receive health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low cost car insurance and even smartphones all in the taxpayer dime. The big question is, how is it possible all this has been happening and the people of California, the people in the country are not aware of it. Anyway, Chris Rupo is with us now. And Chris, we appreciate you being back on the program. Chris, if you're not familiar with him, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, contributing editor of City Journal, author of America's Cultural Revolution.
So you're exposing all this. My question, first and foremost, is we've known about health care. We've known about other services, but nothing as exhaustive and extensive as this. How did they get away with keeping it private? Yeah, that's a great question, Sean. And there's really two means. I mean, one is that the California state government is so massive and so expansive that they tuck a lot of these provisions into broader legislation. And frankly, people just aren't looking into it. But there's another bait and switch that they use, and it's called people who are residing under the color of law, which means people who have an ambiguous legal status. This includes a large number of.
undocumented immigrants or illegal immigrants. And they've created this gray zone that gives them the latitude to process virtually anyone, no social security number, no citizenship, no green card, no paperwork of any kind, through the welfare system. And so we went on the ground to a variety of welfare offices. And the conclusion on the ground is quite simple. Essentially, if you don't have any paperwork, it's no problem. And we ran a model for a household with two illegal immigrant parents, an illegal immigrant grandparent, and two U.S.-born children. In California, you can qualify for up to $100,000 a year in benefits.
So people aren't aware of what's happening, but the numbers are starting to come together and they paint a fairly dramatic picture. All right. So if you are illegal, I mean, this part of your your investigation, I found fascinating. California has their cash assistant program for immigrants, CAPI. Now, that's a state funded alternative to supplemental security income that provides monthly cash assistance to low income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled. Now, if you're a citizen, you're not eligible for that. Yeah, that's right. So what's happening and why we're calling it the shadow welfare system is that a lot of these federal programs, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
food stamps, and other cash assistance programs, you cannot get them as an illegal alien. And so what California has done is they're replicating all of these programs, and then either for immigrants to have some form of paperwork or illegal immigrants with no paperwork, they've created a secondary system that essentially duplicates the federal system and then creates the other system where people can slot in. And the sad thing is, for many people, they are deliberately organizing the system in this way. And I think California voters, look, they've been asked this question on ballot measures and polling data. California voters do not want...
10, 11, 12 billion dollars a year for welfare for illegal immigrants. But the California political class feels a sense of impunity. They can operate according to what they believe, what their unions want and what the ideologists have demanded. And so far, they're not paying an electoral price. So we have this mismatch between what the public wants and what California's permanent political class is doing. So state leaders are proud of it. Gavin Newsom brags about his decision to extend Medi-Cal coverage, which is insurance to illegal immigrants. And his wife encouraged people to sign up.
for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, a program has promotional materials to assure that applicants that no social security number is no problem. The governor's office doesn't respond. Now, there is a federal law that, in my understanding, is prohibits states from using federal dollars to serve illegal aliens. Is that true? It prevents them from using federal dollars, but not state dollars. And so that's why they've created these separate state programs so they can evade that, you know, not by violating the law. They actually, for the most part, seem to be complying with federal law, but they're doing it at the state level. However, you know, some lawyers at the Manhattan Institute that we talked to about this.
There is a possibility that these programs violate federal civil rights law because they seem to be discriminatory on the basis of national origin. If you are born in another country, you qualify. If you are born in the United States of America, you don't qualify. You're prohibited from applying. That's discrimination based against, which is kind of an odd way, but it's actually discrimination against Americans on behalf of foreign citizens. So if you look at Medicaid as an example, and federal law prohibits states from using federal dollars to provide coverage to illegals. All right, so explain. They kind of do this dance, if you will.
And you called it a wraparound in your investigation where they use state funded, a state funded bucket of money within their Medi-Cal program to extend the full scope coverage to illegals. And then the expansions enrolled some 1.7 million people costing the state an estimated 10 billion more than twice what the state legislatively, you know, originally projected. For example, what is the annual deficit now that California is running in spite of the highest income taxes, sales taxes and gas taxes? Yeah, I mean, we're talking about an enormous deficit. I mean, it should be coming in at a multibillion-dollar deficit. And it's not because, like you're saying very, very, very clearly, they have the highest tax burden. They have enormous taxes on all categories. But they also have a runaway spending problem. And so just under Gavin Newsom, California's Medicaid budget has doubled from $100 billion a year to $200 billion a year, even though the state's population has slightly declined for the first time ever. And so what I'm really understanding about California the more we dig into it is that they want to shovel as much money through the system as possible.
They have no controls against fraud, against illegal aliens participating, against government unions wasting the cash. And so they just want to push as much money through as possible. They don't care about the outcomes. They don't care about the results. It doesn't seem like a doubling in spending has had any beneficial effect on the health of California citizens. It feels to me like the late-stage USSR when the Soviet officials no longer believed in the ideology, but they were just looting the treasury and trying to extract as much money as possible before the system collapsed.
All right, quick break. Right back more with Chris Ruffo. His investigative report. He is with the Manhattan Institute. Your call's on the other side. This Monday, 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program as we continue. On November 6th. I'm the cat in the hat. Look at it starting. You know the hat. I am an entertainment specialist. Now meet the cat. The clients today, you have to do more to impress them. These aren't your father's kids. My father has other kids. Are you going on long business trips? Oh, no. Bill Hader is. Cat. Cat. Cat in the hat. You have gone too far. Did you say toot fart? I said too far. Toot fart too far. I heard toot fart again. The cat in the hat. Only in theaters November 6th.
Football's back. Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero. Enjoy the NFL season while listening to NFL Cover Zero. We have storylines, predictions, and lots of silliness. Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season. When you meet people and you say your job's a sports announcer, it's always interesting to see what the first thing they say is. I did have one of the more difficult questions, though. He sits next to me and he sees I'm on my computer and he goes, big sports fan. And I was like, yeah, actually. And he goes, we think about my Jaguars this year. I realized like no one's ever asked me that question ever about anything. And I was like.
Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, Hasan Piker was speaking at Cornell University, and whoever this nut is interviewing him starts this ridiculous chant from the river to the sea, which if you don't know, that means wipe Israel off the face of the earth. And of course, Hasan Piker, every time the crowd does their part, raises his microphone up to his mouth and joins in. I think on that note, if you want to join me in a protest chant. Yeah, well, if you cared about a free Palestine, one might want to ask the question, how is it possible that all of this money that was donated by the U.S. government, by the Israeli government, by governments around the world, by people around the world, for the people of Gaza, built out a network of hundreds of miles of terror tunnels, we've been there, how they have the money for all these rockets that they're firing into Israel, wasn't that money that was supposed to be earmarked for the people, for infrastructure, for hospitals, for schools, for roads and things that matter?
Then over the weekend, AOC, she went to the same event at Cornell University, a young democratic socialist. And again, they're chanting, long live the student antifada, antifada meaning holy war. And again, from the river to the sea. I didn't see her joining in the chant, but I did see her sitting there silently and allowing it to happen. It's not dead. Long live student resistance. And long live the student antifada. Thank you. Just for one, you guys will be after me. From the river to the sea.
Well, if Hamas, the terror organization voted in by the people of Gaza, if they didn't spend all their money on terror tunnels and rockets and weapons to kill the Israelis, they might have been able to build out a very, very strong infrastructure, great schools, great hospitals, but they chose not to do that. Pretty amazing. All right, let's get to our busy phones. 36 days till Election Day. Let's say hi to Bill. He's in Kansas. Bill, you're on The Sean Hannity Show. Happy Monday. Glad you called, sir. Hey, thanks for taking my call, Sean. What's going on? Well...
This DSA stuff, whether you want to call it DSA or the communists or the socialists or whatever, but I guess my thought or question is if they succeed in taking everybody's money that's worked hard for what they've built, then what are they going to do when they get all that money and it's all gone? Well, I think you can answer your own question, don't you think? Yeah. Oh, yeah. But I guess I'm just thinking that these youngsters that are signing on for this, as I think it might have been Rush coined the phrase, he's mindful of mush. If they don't think about what's going on instead of feeling what's going on, they need to think about things instead of feeling it. Well, once they get all that money, just like you just said in your previous statement over there in Palestine, they took all that money and it was supposed to go for the people and what they use it for, for their own.
their own ideology stuff. Let me ask you a question, because apparently there's a tougher race than I guess people anticipated in your state of Kansas. I happen to be very fond of Senator Roger Marshall. I think he's a good guy. And in your sunflower state, he's running against this radicalized Democrat that called on his congregation to repent for driving and for eating meat. Are you voting for that lunatic, this guy Hamilton?
Would I? No. I'm like you. I like Senator Marshall. Well, Adam Hamilton seems to be doing well in the polls. What's going on there in Kansas? Well, I think he says we've got to be in the middle of the road, which is the same thing that our current governor ran on. We've got to be in the middle of the road. And everybody thought, well, we've got to be in the middle of the road, but she's governed from the far left. So they want to point out, we've got to govern in the middle of the road. But once they get there, they don't govern from the middle of the road. They govern from the far left.
Well, he once in 2020 did a sermon and the sermon was, what would Jesus say about climate change? So what I'm calling you to today and I'm calling myself to it because I've been wasteful. I've done things that wasn't, you know, I don't think I don't think about it, how it wasn't really good stewardship of the earth around me. He said, I'm calling us to repentance to say, I realize that this has an impact, even if it seems small as an impact on the world and future generations. I feel badly about that. I'm going to do something different from this time forward.
And then he goes on to say in a state with more cattle than people, he said that the people of Kansas need to repent for eating too much beef and flip flopping on the farm bill proves that, you know, he'd be just like every other liberal Democrat. So, I mean, you have a Democrat, you have a DSA guy running even in Kansas. Yeah, I believe it. And I sure hope we don't get in. I hope that people well, I hope the people across the country sit back and think about what's going on.
not just feel what's going on, because for these guys, look, like you said, what happened in Palestine? What's happened in California? They've used all the money out there from all their local people. Now they're taking it from people across the U.S. because the U.S. government, us taxpayers in this country, are funding stuff. Look at the rail to nowhere out there. Bill, all I can tell you is, and I'm speaking through you to other people as well, that's why this election matters in 36 days. If you listen to the legacy media mob, they are trying to create an impression that there's no hope for any Republican. It is not true.
The way you can shock the world and shock the establishment is to show up in massive numbers and vote. And at the end of the day, you know, I'm not saying Republicans are perfect, but I don't know one Republican that's talking like this lunatic preacher that's running as a Democratic Senate candidate. I don't know one. And I don't think it fits in with Kansas values. And I hope the people of Kansas are paying attention.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. And one more quick thought. If right now we have the Constitution and we have the rule of law, if we lose that, then what are we down to? We're down to another civil war taken by force. Right now, if we lose that, then we have no, well, the last shiny city on the hill. If we lose that, there's nowhere else to go. 250 years of freedom down the tubes. A republic if you can keep it, Ben Franklin famously said. Thank you, Bill. Back to our busy phones. Toll free, it's 800-941-SHAWN if you want to join us this Monday. Todd is in Texas. God bless Texas. Todd, how are you? Glad you called.
Thank you, sir. Sean, it's an honor to speak with you. My statement, I guess, is I live in a small corner of southeast Texas. I feel like we're a much more conservative area. My job takes me into Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, those areas. So I see a very high presence of Tala Freca. You know, you're seeing the Tala Freca signs. You're seeing the bumper stickers. You're seeing things like that. Today, I'm down in my area. I saw my first Patrick yard sign. Wow. And it's like, I think it was the week before last you and Mr. O'Reilly were speaking. And, you know, my vote is not going to be.
For Paxton, my vote is strictly to vote against Calarico. Well, I mean, look. There is not a single Republican that supports the DSA agenda. There's not a single Republican that thinks there's six genders. There's not a single Republican that says God is non-binary. There's not a single Republican that wants a welcome mat on our border. There's not a single Republican that I know of running a vegan campaign, especially in your cattle state, or running on an anti-energy platform in an oil state. There's not a single Republican that I can think of that wants biological men to have the right to play women's sports. That's Telefrico. Now, if Texas goes blue...
I'll tell you where, you know, I'm just telling you, it's a real possibility. You've got everybody in Texas pay attention. And Governor Abbott has done a great job as your governor. He deserves to be reelected. I don't know if these polls are real. I think these polls are have been so off this entire election cycle. I'm telling people not to pay attention to them. But hypocritically, I pay attention to them because it's my job. But if I wasn't so, you know, dead certain that they're so wrong so often, I wouldn't even bring it to your attention. But I'm telling you, there's only one way to stop this.
And that's for everybody listening to my voice to get out and vote. So take it seriously. That's all I can say, Todd. Appreciate you. 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program. John in New Jersey. What's up, John? How are you? Glad you called.
Hey, John, nice to finally speak with you. I've been listening to you for years. Thank you. I think you're a stand-up guy and a good American. So with that said, you mentioned previously about a cashless society that we're in. And you said you're one of the few guys walking around with cash in your pocket. Trust me, we're not the only one. I, too, walk around with cash in my pocket. But I'm starting to see this evolution to where we are going cashless. And about a year ago, my daughter took me to a Who concert at Prudential Center in Newark. And we're on the train. We're getting all excited. She says, oh, Dad, by the way, the arena is completely cashless.
And I'm like, well, how do I pay for things? I don't want to buy a hot dog. I want to buy a beer. I want to buy a t-shirt. Well, I'm sure you have a credit card. I mean, I still carry cash with me, but I have a credit card. I have a bank card. Do you not have that? No, I do. But I'm from the school where I have two credit cards with no balance. To me, I use cash. The credit cards are my emergency. But we've completely evolved now to where it's you use your credit card, use your Apple Pay. But I got to tell you, I'm learning to adapt because it is so much easier. As much as I like cash, I still walk around with cash in my pocket. It is easier. Listen, I have tried in vain to get my kids to carry cash.
Even for like a year, every time I'd see them, I'd say, well, how much money in cash do you have? They'd have nothing. And I'm like, you need to always have cash on you. What if the card gets rejected? And I just failed in that mission. Totally, completely, utterly failed. But I tried. I've been trying. I've had kids in their 30s. We're kids. And believe me, I've tried to. But they're just, oh, dad, just use your phone. It's so much easier. It's this generation. Things are just different. They are. Well, listen, that's the least of our worries right now. I'm just saying. But I'm a little low. I like to tip in cash.
I like to give people just hard cash. They look at it. They can tell what they got. That's just the way I roll. I don't know. Old school. What can I tell you? Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero. The 2026 season is underway and we are loving football on TV. Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season. I would suggest for these preseason games, I think they should do what they do on the NFL draft. You know, when coverage of the NFL draft is basically for moms and they're just like, hey, he has a dog named Spark. Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.