American Family Radio believes religious freedom is about people of faith being free
>> Walker Wildmon: We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are.
>> Jeff Chamblee: We equip Sacred honor is the courage to speak.
>> Jeff Chamblee: Truth, to live out your free speech.
>> Walker Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: We know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At The Core on American Family Radio.
We'll have Pastor Joseph Parker talking about Ten Commandments project
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on today's edition of the program. We'll have, Chris Woodward in with us in the last segment. Chris is one of our reporters with American Family News. AFN.net and then we'll, have Pastor Joseph Parker in the second segment to talk about our Ten Commandments project that we've been doing for a couple years now, and it's, becoming pretty popular. A lot of young people are memorizing the scripture. They're, providing three to five minute speeches on the ten Commandments. And each year we obviously pick one of the ten for, students to, recite and talk about. And so this year we're doing the first Commandment. And so we will talk to Pastor Parker in a little while about that very important project.
Proverbs chapter 12 says he who hates reproof is stupid
Proverbs chapter 12 is where we are this week. Verses 1 and 2. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. A good man will obtain favor from the Lord, but he who will condemn a man, but he will condemn a man rather than who devises evil. That's Proverbs chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. And if you got your feeling hurt when, the, Bible said that he who hates reproof is stupid, your beef is with the scripture and with God himself, not me, because that's what the scripture says, in Proverbs 12, 1, 2. So maybe we shouldn't be so sensitive. Maybe we should rather, turn our attention to the scripture and obey the word of God. That's pretty much the lesson. Anytime you get upset at the Bible, 100% of the time, it has to do with your sin nature and, your ability to have humility.
There's a lot of controversy surrounding President Trump's proposed tax reform legislation
All right, Proverbs chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. That was our scripture for the week. I want to remind you of a couple of events. First off, we're going to be going to Boston in October 12th through the 17th. And I would tell you how to register, but it's full, so there's no more seats left. We already have two buses going to Boston to look at America's spiritual heritage in, Boston and the surrounding area. In the beginning of next year, in March, we're going to be in Israel and Greece. So the tour of Greece is brand new. We're going to be doing the Footsteps of Paul. Both of these trips are in March. They're two separate trips. Greece is one trip, Israel's another trip. But they are back to back as far as the dates go. So if you want to do both, you can. All the information on these trips are available@wildman group.com wildman group.com all right, let's address the elephant in the room, and that is this, this, this debate about President Trump's bill, about what President Trump calls the one big beautiful bill. And this, this has really spiraled in recent, days and within the last week or so to such a degree that Elon Musk and President Trump are now publicly in a spat. They are now publicly refuting one another. And the essence of, of the disputes is around the legislation that President Trump is trying to pass through Congress. And this was a key campaign promise of the president. It is a key, it has a lot of the key provisions of the president's campaign in it, including border wall funding, including, deportation, dollars, including, customs and border patrol, money, including the tax cuts, renewal, and much, much more in this legislation. All the things that President Trump, campaigned on. No tax on tips, no tax on Social Security. All of that is in this legislation. Well, up until last week, there was a lot of consensus around the legislation. Even in the Senate, there was a lot of excitement about the legislation. All of a sudden, the House of Representatives passes the bill and the Senate just hits the brakes. the Senate hits the brakes. And you got multiple senators now that have issues with the legislation. And the issues vary as far as the, you know, some, some senators don't like the legislation because of this reason, some don't like it because of that reason. I'm still not sure where to fall on this issue. I lean towards being opposed to the bill as is, and here's why. I don't think it cuts enough. I don't think it cuts enough spending. And honestly, this, my viewpoint, is probably one of the most honest viewpoints you're going to get because I don't have any, I don't have any skin in the game here. Okay? Some say, some are saying Elon Musk is now opposed to the bill because it doesn't have electric vehicle tax credits in the legislation. And so that's going to hurt Tesla. That's going to hurt his businesses. So that's why he's against the legislation. I don't know. I haven't verified that. To me, that's speculation. Unless he's privately told people that and then they can verify it. But, that's not me. Here's what I think is a fair assessment of the bill without either, either throwing a whole lot of water on President Trump's agenda or without, going, disregarding the spending levels and without going all in on the Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, I'm not going to vote for anything approach, which is pretty much what they have. Here's what I think needs to happen. The tax cuts have to be renewed. There's no, there's no debate, about that. There's no option on it. The tax cuts have to be renewed because if not, you've got the largest tax cut in American tax raise, tax hike in American history on the table if Congress fails to renew President Trump's 2017 tax cut.
I think the legislation doesn't cut enough spending
All right. Secondly, I think The Core issue with the legislation is it doesn't cut enough spending. All right? The estimates, depending on who you talk to, is that this legislation, over the course of 10 years, cut spending by about 1.5 to 2 trillion. I don't think that's enough because when you, when you break that down annually over the 10 year period, you're looking at cutting roughly 150 billion from what is a multi trillion dollar budget in Congress. So 150 billion a year is not enough considering the debt problem, that we're facing every year. So the US Annual budget is multiple trillion. Let's look at what the. Okay, 7 trillion. So the FY fiscal year 24 budget was 6.8 trillion. And all we can find. I'm not saying 150 billion is pennies. That's a lot of money. raise your hand if you'd like to have $150 billion. Bobby, I just want a million. I mean, think about what you could do with just a million. I'm, with you. I'll take half a million. Yeah, I'll take whatever I can get. Right.
>> Bobby Roza: Take 10 grand.
>> Walker Wildmon: Take whatever we can get. But 6.8 trillion is the federal budget, or at least it was in 24. And all you can find is $150 billion. And when you look at the Doge cuts and what Doge has alleged to have found, and I don't have any reason to doubt their findings, they found hundreds of billions of dollars annually in waste, fraud and abuse that can be cut and So I don't think it's aggressive enough on the spending cuts. Now, do I expect to eliminate the deficit in a 12 month period? No, that, that's fantasy land. It's not going to happen. There's just no way to do it. It would be, it would be very, very, very problematic to do that. Even if you did, the economic ramifications of eliminating the deficit in a short period of time would be devastating. Now in the long run, would it be good? Would we recover? Probably so. But in the short term, we're talking negative GDP into the double digits, we're talking probably 1920s, 1930s, depression level, economic decline. If you eliminate the deficit in drastic short order. All right. Because of how much our economy relies on the deficit. So I think, I think, I think the Senate can cut more spending here and keep every other provision. I'm fine with everything. I'm fine with the tax cuts. I'm, fine with the border funding. I think it's all great. I mean, these are some very conservative wish list items that are in this legislation. And so all in all, this is a good bill. I think it is. I think it's a good piece of legislation. I don't think the spending cuts are aggressive enough. And that's where a lot of the genuine frustration is, is placed, is that the spending cuts aren't aggressive enough and that we're not codifying what Doge has recommended. And we're going to turn around and next year we're going to be spending, way more money than we have, you know, running a $1.52 trillion deficit. And we're back in the same boat that we are or that we have been in the past. And this is our shot. Okay? This is, this is the Republican and the conservative opportunity to really take a revolutionary approach to cutting spending and doing it in a very rational, reasonable way, such as I think we need to be cutting 300 to 500 billion a year. I think that's fair. I think that's, that's not drastic. That's not gonna, that's not Gonna severely damage GDP numbers. I think we can find 3 to $500 billion to cut. I think you can. When you look at Medicare abuse. Not Medicaid, no, I'm sorry, not Medicare. The two, the two programs. Why on earth they named them so close together? It's like a marketing nightmare. and when you're trying to decipher between the two. Okay, Medit, Medicaid. Okay. Medicaid is for younger, is for single moms, people who are on disability. Yeah, supposed to be, right. Medicare is for, for the elderly. All right, Medicaid. When you look at Medicaid alone, there is a, there is billions in waste there, there's billions going to able bodied adults that ought to be in the workforce. All right, so there's, My point is there's tons of money to cut here. You look at the Pentagon, you look at some of these other agencies, the IRS, they're so big, they're so bloated, we can find 3 to $500 billion. And I think if you do that, you've got Ron Johnson's vote, you've got Mike Lee's vote, you've got Senator Cruz's vote. Are you ever gonna get Rand Paul's vote? I don't think so. I really don't think so. Looking at Rand Paul's voting record, he really doesn't vote for anything that actually passes. For the most part, he's very much relies on voting against everything. All right? And that's his thing. He can articulate it well. He's got his reasoning. I'm not going to question his motives. Is he just a showboat? You know, what are his intentions? I don't know. I don't know. The man's heart. maybe he's just so principled that he just doesn't like compromise. So he votes no on everything. I don't know. But it doesn't matter because you don't have to have his vote. There's enough Republican senators where you can get this thing through the finish line.
I think the Republican caucus owes President Trump this bill
I think if they trim, I think if they double the cuts and take it to 3 trillion over 10 years, I think you've got everybody's vote. Maybe not Rand Paul, but I think you've got everybody else's vote and I think it's doable and leave everything else alone. Nobody's arguing over do we do the tax cuts or not that I'm aware of. I haven't heard anybody argue that we shouldn't do the tax cuts. I haven't heard any Republicans say we don't need border security funding. I haven't heard any Republicans say we don't need the wall. I haven't heard any Republicans say we ought to be taxing Social Security. There is literally no opposition to anything other than the fact that this isn't aggressive enough on the spending cuts. And so this should be an easy fix. I don't think we need to break it up into multiple bills to really counter what Ron Johnson said the other day when I played his clip. I don't think we need to break this up into multiple bills. I don't think we need to overcomplicate this. I think they need to be more aggressive on the spending cuts and then move forward, and then move forward. And I think it can happen. And some of these agencies, remember, these agencies are under the direction of President Trump. And so cutting budgets from agencies should be non controversial. The commander in chief said, says we're cutting an agency budget. We say, yes, sir. And even if you're the head of the agency, you do what the boss says. And so cutting agency spending here through this budget process should be non controversial. Right? Now, maybe you're gonna have to do some layoffs, maybe we're gonna have to shrink the size of the agencies, but that's what Doge has been recommending the whole time anyway. All right, so there's nothing new here. This is nothing new here. And I think the, I think the all out opposition is a bit disingenuous. And I don't, I don't know what Elon Musk is up to. I, don't know what Rand Paul's up to. I think the all out, kill the bill. This is bad news. It'll never be good. We don't need this. I think that's disingenuous and I don't think that's being honest. And I don't think it's being practical either. The tax cuts have to be passed. President Trump campaigned on border security. The, he campaigned on no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. All these core tenants he campaigned on, and the American people overwhelmingly elected him on these core tenants. All right, so personally, I think the Republican caucus owes President Trump this bill as President Trump desires it. We'll be back in a few.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The month of June has been hijacked by the anti Christian culture to show their pride in something God calls an abomination. When you support afr, you help us continue to stand for godly values and provide the resources for you to stay in the know about the enemy's tactics. To say thank you for your gift. This month we'll give you the booklet inside the LGBTQ push of the 1990s to help strengthen your convictions. Just go to afr.netoffers afr.net Offers at The Core podcast are available at afr.net now back to at The Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon talks about the Ten Commandments Speech Challenge for young people
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. I'm, Walker Wildmon. Second segment now underway. If you want to subscribe to the show in the form of a podcast, you can do so by going over to your podcast library and clicking the subscribe or the Follow button or, depending on what podcast library you are using. And then every day the show will be queued up in your library. the latest episode will be queued up for your convenience all. Ah, right, let's jump to our next guest, friend, of the not, friend of the ministry, a colleague here, Pastor Joseph Parker, also host of the Hour of Intercession, is in with us to talk about, one of the latest projects that we're doing for the month of June. Pastor Parker, welcome to the program.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Good to be here, Walker. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Pastor Parker, in addition to the Hour of Intercession, which is a daily program here on afr, you've been heading up what we're calling the Ten Commandments Project. You've been doing this for several years now. or the Ten Commandments Speech Challenge is technically what it's called. But this has been really, a conviction of yours and a passion of yours in recent years to use this project and this challenge to encourage young people, youth to store the word of God, in their heart. So tell us a little bit, give us a little backgrounder to the Ten Commandments Challenge.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Well, you know, on the one hand, you know, the Ten Commandments, they're found in all ten specific commandments are found in at least two places in Scripture, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5. But sometimes people make the big mistake of thinking they're old fashioned or they're for children. The Ten Commandments summarize the wisdom of all of the Word of God in one unique kind of God ordained curriculum that helps us in a wonderful way to use. In other words, it's a great tool to teach and preach from it. Also, it covers the moral law of God. So when people say, well, they're outdated. God's moral law never changes. It's eternal. And so it's just as relevant today as the day, that God fingered it with his fingers in stone on the mountain with Moses. But at the same time it's critical to think of this. The biggest problems that we hear about in the news and the crimes, they're a result of people violating the Ten Commandments. So they're a wonderful tool for us to always use for teaching and preaching truth from. And it's a wonderful tool for us to use to help plant the word of God and God's truth in the hearts of young people as well as adults as well. And so, you know, we've been doing, I think close to about, nine or ten years now, but it's been a good project and it's been fun. It's been good too.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And I love seeing it. We've uploaded some of the videos, some of the speeches, and I think you've played some of them on afr, in recent years. But the speeches are, it's, it's encouraging, I mean to see 9 year olds, 12 year olds, 16 year olds giving. A lot of these kids give very good speeches and some of them do it by memorization. They don't even look down at a, at a notepad had and give, a very compelling case for, the Commandments, the Ten Commandments, why it's good to follow them. I think it's encouraging. It's not only encouraging, obviously for the young people, but for everybody listening and watching and keeping up with it, it's kind of a fun challenge. Before we get into the nuts and bolts, how to submit your speech, how many minutes it should be.
A lot of folks think that the Ten Commandments are outdated
Let me ask you one more question about the Ten Commandments, because to your point, a lot of folks think that it's outdated, it's in the Old Testament, it's not applicable anymore. but the reality is both Old and new, or first and Second Testament is the whole counsel of God and there's nothing in it. Christ came to fulfill the law, not replace it. And so there's nothing in it, or there's nothing about the Ten Commandments that is not applicable to our lives today. Correct.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: That's very true. And I, think it's so important for us to know too that like, you know, God's Word is eternal. And it's always in our best interest to follow the counsel and the wisdom of God in every part of life. And so we're wise again to use it as a tool for families, for institutions. In fact, even businesses that follow the Ten Commandments often are just thriving businesses. Because it's good wisdom. It's good, good just social wisdom, business wisdom, and really for every area of life. So again, just as relevant today as they were the day God gave them to, us on Mount Sinai.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's right. And much of our civil law and criminal is built around the Ten Commandments, especially the criminal law. It's built around the Ten Commandments, such as Thou shall not murder. Well, where does American law get that from? Well we get it from the Ten Commandments, we get it from Scripture. And when you go in a lot of these courthouses you'll see the Ten Commandments because our founding fathers and our early founding, fathers and even leaders after that in recent, obviously in like the centuries following America's founding, they understood that America's, ah, jurisprudence, America's government structure was inspired by the Bible and how God views humanity and our sin nature and the need for government to restrain evil.
Ten Commandments Project Speech Challenge 2025 is open to youth ages 7-17
So let's jump into the speech challenge because we've piqued people's interest. Maybe they have a student in their household that wants to participate in this, go through some of the requirements, some of the steps, that are helpful to know before folks really start jumping into this.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Okay, well just to mention too, one aspect, even along with the speech challenge is if a young person simply memorizes the Ten Commandments, they recite them to dad or mom, dad or mom can call us here at the radio station, give them the size and mailing address and we'll mail them a Ten Commandments T shirt. And that's been going on for a number of years and that's been a good thing to help kids bear, simply know them. The speech Challenge itself specifically is an opportunity for a young person to basically ages 7 to 17. We're inviting children and youth ages 7 to 17 to participate. we're inviting them to write a speech or else have someone to help them write the speech. Based on this year the First, First Commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. We suggest three to five minutes. But again any link they do is, is acceptable and we're asking you to record it on your cell phone or another recording device and email it to FAQ, afa.net or J. Parker fa.net within the subject line. Ten Commandments Project Speech Challenge 2025. And we're encouraging again the ages, as I said, 7 to 17 to participate. And each participant will receive a free Ten Commandments T shirt, a bookmark and a free shipping coupon code to use in the AFA Resource Center.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's great.
AFA is challenging students age 7 to 17 to give a Ten Commandments speech
So there you have it folks and let me give the URL and then we'll kind of recap some of these, some of these instructions for parents or young people listening now that have said they want to do this. the website is afr.net and 10 is spelled out simply T N. So that's afr.netforward/10commands. And it has all of the instructions here on this webpage. You can also fill out the form there. and there's the contact information for Pastor Parker on this process. our goal here is students age 7 to 17, as Pastor Parker mentioned, parents, siblings, guardians. You can help your, young people, help them write the speech, help them record it, maybe coach them along the way. So that's welcome to make it really a family project. And, three to five minutes is really a good. A good. A good amount of time. Three to five minutes for the speech. you can read from a sheet of paper for the speech. That's very normal. If you want to memorize it. We've had some students memorize it as well and not even have to look down. And then, everybody who participates is going to get a T shirt bookmark and a coupon code for our resource center. Now, Pastor Parker, in the past, and I don't see anything on this here, but in the past, we've chosen winners and losers. Not losers. We've chosen winners, who gave the best speech. Right. And then rewarded them in some way. I know you've brought some in studio, to be on your program. So what are we going to do for the best speech here?
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Well, they'll be blessed by the Lord as far as that's concerned.
>> Walker Wildmon: Okay. I didn't know if we were going to pick a winner and do that.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Well, one, I think actually, Wesley kind of made the determination to make it more of a challenge. And to be honest, Walker, I think that was a very good decision. Because the reality, it's not about competing.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's right.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: It's about planting the word of God in the hearts of our children. And every year, the judges had trouble picking winners.
>> Walker Wildmon: I know. That's tough. Yeah. Tell the 12 year old he didn't do a good enough job. Right.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Well. And in reality, all the speech. And I mean this, all the speeches were beautiful and powerful every single time.
>> Walker Wildmon: Because it's the word of God.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: I remember and I remember one little girl. Precious, little girl from Texas. Her whole speech was quoting scripture. But that was a great speech. Great speech. I think she was about 6 years old, but she simply quoted scripture. How much better of a speech can you get than quoting God's word?
>> Walker Wildmon: Exactly. Yeah, that's good to know. That's good to know. I know in the past we've done our best. We've tried to kind of rank them and pick Somebody who did the best. and that's fine. You know, competition is good for us. It's healthy. But, with this case folks, if you do your due diligence here and you do a three to five minute speech, you're going to get a Ten Commandments T shirt bookmark and that coupon code for the resource center. And the team here at AFA will obviously review those speeches and then some of them may even make it on to afr. whether it's on Pastor Parker's show or whether we do a special or something like that, there's a lot of opportunities here. and as Pastor Parker said, it's just good for you. memorizing the word of God is good for us as believers. And that reason alone is reason enough to do this challenge.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Can I mention this Parker? with the speech, a, part of what we do is we do invite every participant that was willing because sometimes for one reason or another, some don't manage to do this. But we invite them to come on a broadcast. We share the speech, let the young person maybe talk a little bit about, what they learned or how they grew, and let the parents share what they observed in the child. And to be honest, makes for beautiful programming because it encourages parents to see how God worked in their life as they put the speech together. And often we may, a third to half the students may end up being on a broadcast. Now basically every student that says I want to be on a broadcast, we work that out. But lots of them for one reason or another just don't manage to do that. So it is open to every participant though.
>> Walker Wildmon: Okay, excellent, excellent. So anyone who wants to participate, can do it over at, afr.netforward/10commands. Afr.netforward/10commandments. Pastor Parker, thanks so much, for coming in.
>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Thank you, Walker.
>> Walker Wildmon: Appreciate it.
June 30th is the cutoff date for these speeches
All right, there you have it. Afr.net/tencommandments and we've been doing this for several years now and it's a great opportunity for young people to memorize the word of God and ah, submit their speech. And this is a good summer project. Many folks are out of school and have some time on their hands and they can participate in this challenge. Three to five minutes is a good number, is a good amount of time usually for these speeches. That's our recommendation. And they're all due by the end of June. That's the one thing I did mention is June 30th is the cutoff for these speeches. So afr.net 10commands, all the information available at that website.
The Supreme Court is set to rule on several important cases in June
All right, jumping back into some of our other news of the week. The, the Supreme Court, is set to rule on several very important cases in the month of June. And so we're going to keep an eye on that. We're actually going to talk to Chris Woodward in a little while about some of the cases that did come out, through release this, this. This week, in the last few days. So we'll talk to Chris about that. The major case that hasn't come out is that what. What's called the Scremetti case. And that. That case, is. Is going to, come out in June at some point in June, and that. That has very wide ramifications from a religious liberty standpoint, so on and so forth. So we'll continue to keep an eye on that.
Governor DeSantis speaks out against property taxes
But, back to the, the, the whole issue of spending and taxes. I came across, this clip, and if we don't have time, this segment, we'll play it in the next. how much, how much time do we have left, Bobby? We got time. this is Governor DeSantis, and this is a two and a half minute clip. We probably won't play the whole thing, but it has to do with property taxes and really the immorality of property taxes. And I know we've all been paying property taxes our whole life, at least if you've owned property and, and it's just kind of an assumed thing. But listen to Governor DeSantis, really pick apart the entire reasoning behind property taxes and how bad it is. Clip one level, ongoing taxpayer.
>> Governor DeSantis: No, you should own your property free and clear. I think to say that someone that's been in their house for 35 years just has to keep ponying up money. that, you know, that is not. You don't own your home if that's that. If that's the case. So, yes, of course I'd like to see people be able to owe. Oh, free and clear. And it's interesting because it's like you, you know, if I go to Best Buy and buy a flat screen TV and put it on the wall, I got to pay a sales tax on it. Right? But I don't keep paying tax on it every year. I mean, it's just not. That's not how we do things. It's like, okay, if you're going to tax something, you tax it at the transaction and then Let people actually enjoy their free, their, their private property, free and clear of the government. So that, I think, is the vision. That's the philosophical insight. And if you think about our Founding Fathers when they were, proposing the Constitution in one of the Federalist Papers, I think it was Hamilton he's writing about because, you know, there was opposition to the Constitution. They were making a more powerful, federal government than under the Articles of Confederation. And people worried about taxation. And they didn't have obviously a 16th amendment, which eventually came on income tax. But basically you were not effectively allowed to do any direct taxation. It had to be indirect, meaning you couldn't just, I mean, you could theoretically just apply like a tax on land federally, but it'd have to be a portion among the states. So practically it could never work. So basically Hamilton's saying, look, the indirect taxes are the most effective, efficient way to raise revenue for the government because they basically allow the individual to choose how much tax they want to pay based on how much they're consuming. And there's a security, there's a protection against excessive tax in that regard. Because if the government raises consumption tax too much, it kills the golden goose because then it causes people to stop, purchasing as much. But he said taxing property, is one of the worst forms of taxation because people don't have a choice in the matter. And you're just basically drilling these folks over and over again on tax. And so it's it's an issue that I think has pinched a lot of people. but philosophically it was not the way that, that, that the federal government was constructed. Now I understand local, there was a history of it and that's kind of been, kind of been the norm. But man, I mean, you talk about family of four having the median, having home price that is purchased in Florida. You know, that's a pretty hefty tax bill, right there. When you come in after buying, buying a home, when you consider what the average, income is throughout the United States of America, the math doesn't, it just doesn't add up. And I think that's why people want relief.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's a strong case against the property tax. Now we're going to have to get taxes from somewhere, especially locally. but does it have to be, dinged onto your property every single year forever? Probably not. I think we ought to get these taxes somewhere else. And you ought to have unconditional property ownership. Unconditional property ownership. No property tax. That's what our founding fathers envisioned. We'll be back.
>> Jeff Chamblee: At The Core podcasts are [email protected] now back to At The Core on American Family Radio.
Chris Woodward talks about budget fight on American Family Radio last segment
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the Corps here on American Family Radio. Last segment now underway. Well, I know I keep coming back to this topic, but, I just can't get away from it because it is the news story. And this is gonna have to be resolved. And I'm talking about this fight over the budget, over the, quote, one big beautiful bill, as President Trump calls it. this is gonna have to be resolved somehow. And, boy, has this escalated. Chris Woodward's in with us, as he is each week. Chris, welcome back. Thank you, Chris.
The Elon Musk, Donald Trump breakup that is happening before our eyes now
The Elon Musk, Donald Trump breakup that is happening before our eyes now. Now, they could men. This isn't, this isn't irreparable. this. They could, they could mend this and hasn't gotten. It hasn't gotten that bad. But they clearly have disagreements on the bill.
>> Chris Woodward: They did.
>> Walker Wildmon: And it's. Now it's public.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes. And it would do good for the public if theoretically, President Trump were to invite Musk back to the White House for some sort of sit, down, maybe a meal, with members of the House and Senate so that way Musk can share his concerns and then they get the mic and get to voice, some of their thoughts on the subject. Because, this has, as you say, it's escalated and it's very peculiar to me. I went back and looked at the dates the House narrowly passed this bill. Somewhere, around May 22nd. Musk did not leave Doge until six or seven days later. So where were you, Mr. Musk, on these concerns? Before the House passed the bill, there were some quotes and articles where he didn't like certain things, but it wasn't this level.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Chris Woodward: And, I just, you know, did you have conversations with the President and these people that you're now bashing on social media before you left office? you know, and if so, what did they say? I mean, there's a lot of unanswered questions.
>> Walker Wildmon: There is. And the thing is that the positions are so all over the place. And what I mean by that is, number one, I didn't know that Elon Musk was a physical hawk because he's owned multiple companies that have had bookus of debt now, he's grown them, and many of them are doing very well. But to act as if the debt thing is like, an abhorrent thing that nobody should ever participate in. Anybody who's owned a public company, especially a massive publicly traded company, knows that many of these companies operate with debt now. you can operate with healthier levels of debt than our country is operating with now. But I just didn't view Elon Musk as, like, a Tea Party guy. It's really surprising to me now. He's a business person and he understands the weaknesses of debt, but I just didn't view him as a Rand Paul associate.
>> Chris Woodward: Right. I think kind of where he's coming from is that you can't run a successful business in a failed state. you can't make a car if there's no country to make the car in. And I think that's where he's coming from. But you do make a good point here, that he himself has run companies with financial problems or with a lot of debt. on the flip side, now you've got, like, Hakeem Jeffries out there, kind of applauding, the fact that Musk has come around and voiced concerns about this bill and the debt, when, you know, Hakeem Jeffries would be voting yes for anything President Kamala Harris would be wanting to do to add to the debt. Yeah. It makes the criticisms from Democrats, laughable. But then also too, part of the reason why we're in the $40 trillion worth of national debt. I'm rounding up.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: Part of the reason we're in the debt that we're in right now is because of bad decisions Republicans in the past have made. So everybody shares some blame over the debt they're all concerned about.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. I am disappointed at the Trump Musk breakup. I hope it gets repaired. I'm disappointed because the conservative movement with, with Trump at the helm and, and Musk funding it with his pac, which he has a pac, it's the America pac. This was going to be a, ah, nearly unstoppable duo here. Meaning, I'm talking the MAGA movement.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes.
>> Walker Wildmon: With the billionaires, in Musk and others, David Sack and others. This was gonna be pretty hard to stop.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes.
>> Walker Wildmon: From a left wing standpoint. And if this whole thing falls apart and Elon Musk doesn't want to be a part of the party anymore. That's not very good.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. If you're a political consultant, for somebody on the right, you're hoping and praying at this point for Democrats to continue down the road of woke and continue to push nonsense like men and women, sports and locker rooms and changing rooms and things like that. you want them to push Things like defund the police and unmask ICE agents and all these crazy things, because that's what's going to help you keep a majority, in the midterm elections at this point versus gain seats. You know, a couple of weeks ago it looked like they were probably going to gain in the midterms and now it looks like they're going to be fighting for their lives to retain the majority. And then that only spells, doom for hypothetically a, GOP presidential nominee, J.D. vance in 2028.
>> Walker Wildmon: Now if, if Elon Musk comes out and says, I'll support the bill, if they codify the Doge cuts or they just simply don't, they simply cut more spending, which is something I argued for in the first segment of the program. But he says otherwise. I'm good with the bill. It's just not aggressive enough on the spending cuts. I agree with that. I think 1.7 trillion or roughly 150 a year over a 10 year period in cuts is not enough. I think there's way more waste there that can be cut that will reduce our deficit and our debt. maybe that's where this ends up. But right now it's not looking like it.
>> Chris Woodward: No, it's not looking like it. And you know, I talked to Jenny Beth Martin yesterday or Wednesday, about this and she likes, the big beautiful bill specifically because of the tax cuts, the tax cuts for individuals. There's a lot of tax cuts and relief for business owners. And people need to realize when a business owner is getting tax assistance that only impacts the community, that, that can only impact the community around that business because he or she is able to operate a little more freely. Ah, so that, that's all good stuff. But even Jenny Beth told me, listen, as head of the Tea Party Patriots Action, we want more done in the way of spending. and so I hope the Senate does make changes. I'm quoting her. so she does want the Senate to make changes with spending. I did ask her about Elon M. Musk and she said, look, he's got a good point. We are on the edge of fiscal collapse here. we've got to start doing something. We really should have done it a long time ago. but that's why the Senate needs to make changes here. So maybe that will be done. But to be honest with you, like somebody, I don't know if it's the Chief of Staff at the White House or somebody that's the current head of the gop or whatever. They really need to get everybody off camera.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's a good point.
>> Chris Woodward: Inside. And take the Democrats path to fighting in private. everybody knows that Hillary and Obama and everybody, they all hate each other's guts, but they're not punching each other in the face in front of a TV camera like we're seeing right now with Mike Johnson and others.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's right. This, this was the risk with, with, with partnering with Musk. If we're being honest, and there were honest.
I honestly didn't raise the concern. So I can't take credit for this
I honestly didn't raise the concern. So I can't take credit for this. There were some people, although it was probably a very small crowd that were. I. We got emails here, people asking like, is this whole must thing a good idea? Because like, where. What is Musk World view. Right. I mean, what's he got over 10 kids from like 5 women or 4 women?
>> Chris Woodward: Maybe more than that?
>> Walker Wildmon: I think so. I mean, clearly this guy has no traditional mindset of the nuclear family. I haven't heard him express anything of a biblical worldview or anything about his knowledge of the Constitution. He's a capitalist, he's a business owner. he knows how to run things. but as far as like hitching your wagon, to him it was a little risky. He's a multi billionaire and he clearly has an inkling towards freedom because he's an immigrant. He understands the blessing that America is, but he's definitely no ideologue. And, and I think, I think this right now has, as is going to come back to bite the entire Republican movement if Elon continues to go off the rails.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes. I would agree with everything you said there. I think Trump was trying to just make sure that he was going.
>> Walker Wildmon: To win because he was trying to build a coalition.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, because they built. They. Because they brought so many people into the tent, so to speak. That's why he was able to win not only the electoral college and become president, but he beat her, Kamala, in the popular vote because he had all these people that had not voted for Republicans in a while, if ever actually vote for him in 2024. They do need to really make sure that they get a lot of these tax cuts in there because one of the things was something he ran on, that being no tax on tips, which I know some people may find silly, but for a lot of younger people that are working and they're living on things like tips, that will help them and that was something that some people decided to vote for him for. So you need to make sure, that stuff stays in there. There's some, tax deductions in the way of Social Security. It's kind of convoluted, but that will help people that are on Social Security or that are about to be on it. and one thing we haven't even gotten to. The House version of the bill seeks to defund Planned Parenthood. If that doesn't make it in the Senate version, that's probably going to be changed. There's going to be a whole bunch of pro life groups that are mad, and you risk looking, you risk having millions of people that voted for you upset with you going into six months before campaigning for a million.
>> Walker Wildmon: What you just described is the Stephen Miller position, and that is the alternative to the big, beautiful bill is the Schumer bill. Because if you, if you lose six Republican senators, I'm just throwing out numbers because, because they don't want to vote for the bill and they all got their different reasons. And then you, and then you, lose Freedom Caucus guys over in the House because the pro life provision got yanked out of it. Then you've got a Schumer Jeffries bill. I mean, that's the only way to get the bill through is you got to get 60 votes and you got to get Schumer on board with it.
>> Chris Woodward: It's probably not happening.
>> Walker Wildmon: and so Stephen Miller's position over the last few days has been, oh, okay, so you got a problem with this bill, you just wait till we have to cut a deal with Chuck Schumer.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: To get the tax cuts through. it's going to be ugly. And you're going to vote against it, too.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I will tell you that, before and right after the House passed the bill narrowly again, I did talk to, ah, Congressman Ralph Norman. He was one of the people that voted present in one of the early votes for the beautiful bill because he had some issues with spending and some tax cuts and whatnot. He ended up, coming around and did vote in favor of it once, it got passed. So there are people that didn't like some things in it that finally just said, you know what? I'll bite my lip and vote yes here. And I think that may be what we, have going on. But this very well looks like something that's going to be going past 4th of July. I mean, we might have fireworks in July for something other than Independence Day, depending on what happens.
>> Walker Wildmon: Here's when I look at this, setting all the details aside, because we could talk all day about, you know, how much we should reduce the deficit. How do you, get all the votes, by the way? They're having to get. They're having to get. Let's see if we got 435 in the House, you've got 100 senators, you know, whatever 51% of that is. When you add in the Senate and the House, you're having to get hundreds of votes here with, both chambers, you're having to get hundreds of votes to get this built to the finish line. That's a lot of people that all have to agree on something. M. you can't even get 10 people at a church to agree on what to do with remodeling the sanctuary. Like, how are you going to get. So my point is, the challenge of getting consensus here is a real thing. It's a real challenge getting everybody on board. But, Chris, the point I want to harp on is how quickly this spiraled and how this is. This is out of control where you've got Trump and Musk online going after each other, like, with a knife.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: And these. They were in the Oval Office together last week doing a photo op, talking about how great each other were.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. This is. It's a huge breakup and it's. It's disastrous.
>> Walker Wildmon: It feels like middle school.
>> Chris Woodward: We might actually, in the bizarro world in which we live, we might go from conservatives, saying, we're going to buy Tesla's I love Elon Musk Dark maga.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: Now we're going to have them like, there are going to be some people on the MAGA side, I think, that probably start saying, I'm. I'm done with Elon Musk.
>> Walker Wildmon: They're not leaving. They're not leaving Trump.
>> Chris Woodward: No.
>> Walker Wildmon: The loyalty is to Trump.
>> Chris Woodward: They will turn on Musk and then you'll start to see nasty things about Tesla and Green New Deal and all these other things.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. This is an unwise, decision on Musk part, in my opinion, to go this route, to go this low.
>> Chris Woodward: And again, I come back to, where were you? Like, why didn't you say these things before? They voted on. Right. I mean, there were occasionally some stories, but oftentimes they were kind of dismissed. Or, Elon's a great guy. We're working together. I love Doge. This is a big, beautiful.
Elon Musk might have had his feelings hurt over all he did in the election process
All these things, but nothing. Nothing on the level of what we've seen in the last 48 hours.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: I don't even think we thought we'd see on Monday now.
>> Walker Wildmon: Now, this could be because Elon Musk is not a good articulator. I don't know if you've ever watched his press conferences. He's not kind of everywhere.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: his best thing to do is to write on X. He's not a good articulator. But, but this could be Chris. He might have his feelings hurt because they didn't implement the dose cuts.
>> Walker Wildmon: He might have been told as part of the deal during the campaign, you'll be overdose and we'll do your cuts.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: And here they are sending hundreds of billions in recommended Doge cuts to Congress and Congress is laughing and saying, no, we're going to keep spending money on own dumb stuff. And Musk could have his feelings hurt that I did all this work, bankrolled the Trump campaign, put my business on the line, got my Tesla's firebombed and Congress and Republicans can't even get their act together and cut $100 billion.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's a fair point.
>> Walker Wildmon: I mean, and if that's his position, I can understand that, but he hasn't articulated that. I'm just totally theorizing.
>> Chris Woodward: I would go with your theory versus what I would hypothesize if that's the word to use here. I mean, who's to say somebody at one of his companies is like, look man, we're losing our shirt over here based on your work over there. Do something.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, I think that was part of his decision to leave Doge and to go back into the private sector was the pressure that was on his businesses.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: But I think, I think that in and of itself, Chris is very unfortunate that to me that was a loss having the, the Tesla terrorist basically firebomb his businesses for weeks and, and his stock drop, sales drop and all that and be publicly smeared and, and basically push him out of helping Trump. That's to me that's bad news. because to me that's giving in to the enemy.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: if that's way it went down. But we'll keep tracking it. Very interesting times. The Trump Musk breakup is playing out in real time. We'll see you next time. As we celebrate the many pro life victories going forth. We rejoice. PreBorn's network of clinics has a unique opportunity to advance even further without political persecution. What does this look like? PreBorn is the greatest threat to the abortion industry. By rescuing on average 200 babies lives a day, they are putting a serious dent into the abortion holocaust. But there are still thousands of babies who are slain daily. And PreBorn's goal is to rescue them all. With the help of the pro life community, meaning you, we can save so many more. Please join us in saving all these precious lives. The ultrasound is a game changer. Once a mother hears the precious heartbeat, she is twice as likely to choose life. If you consider yourself pro life, we need your help. One ultrasound is just $28. Five ultrasounds are $140. $5,000 sponsors ultrasounds for the entire PreBorn Network for an entire day. How many lives can you save? Every child is a beautiful gift from God. Please join the cause. To donate Securely, please dial pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound250. Say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr the views and.
>> Jeff Chamblee: Opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.
Live
Did you know American Family Radio is listener-supported? Your monthly financial support will allow us to continue upholding Godly values through our numerous channels, like American Family Radio, One Million Moms, The Stand magazine, and many more.
Become a Great Commission Partner TODAY to help AFR transform culture by rebuilding the family. When you donate today, you’ll get access to:
