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This is at the The Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon Welcome to the The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to be with you on this live edition of the program. At The Core is the name of the program. The show hosts are Rick Greene and myself. I'm Walker Wildmon and I'm glad to be hosting today's program with you. American Family Radio is operating in over 30 states, 160 plus radio signals and we're also on the Internet live streaming the radio network programming 24, 7, [email protected] and on the AFR app. We also, have the video up on all the major show platforms, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Just type in at The Core or American Family Radio on all the various platforms and you can find our app, find our show, find our social pages, etc. And lastly, as I remind our audience each and every day, if you would subscribe to the podcast, that would be greatly appreciated. Just type in the name of the show at the The Core in your podcast library and our show will be queued up each and every day for you to listen to, for you to share with family and friends, etc. Etc.
Acts chapter 14 is where we are this week. Seven verses, Acts, chapter 14
Well, let's turn our attention to the scripture and then we'll get into some of our stories. For Today, Acts chapter 14 is where we are this week. I'm reading here verses 1 through 7. Acts chapter 14. Now, it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Verse 4. But the multitude of the city was divided. Part sided with the Jews and part sided with the apostles. And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region. And they were preaching the gospel there. This is a lot of content. Seven verses, Acts, chapter 14. But what I want to highlight is that when the apostles were sought, after they were obviously being threatened with their lives, etcetera, they fled. But listen, to what they did when they came to their next destination, Verse seven. And they were preaching the gospel there. And so while the apostles fled, while the early church was being chased out of the cities and the synagogues based on preaching the gospel of Christ, they were. They might have been relocated, but they were undeterred in that they continued preaching the gospel. That's according to Acts, chapter 14, verse 7, specifically. Well, Pastor Bert Harper, we had him on the show last week. They're going to be having a fishbowl retreat. This is their annual fishbowl retreat for pastors and their wives. This will be hosted by brother Bert, Harper, Pastor Bert Harper, and his wife Jan. They're going to be hosting this in late October. Well, the third week of October. October 20th through the 22nd is the date that's going to be at Pickwick Landing State Paak. So if you're a pastor and you want to go to this, conference, we would encourage you to do so. If you would like to send your pastor to this conference, that is what we prefer is to have churches get together and send their pastors to this retreat. It's going to be October 20th through the 22nd at Pickwick Landing State Paak. That's in Counts, Tennessee. J.J. jasper will be there, brother. Bert and Jan Harper will be there as well. And, you can go to repairingthefoundations.net repairingthefoundations.net to find out more information and register. we would love to see you there. let's turn our attention to the news stories of the week while we have time. And we do have a guest in the third be talking housing, market, economy and where things are on that front.
Mayor Mamdani says he wants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
but nonetheless, last week we, played, clips of this, rise of the Democrat socialists of America and their really takeover of the Democrat party. That has happened. Well, part of this kind of movement and this element is Mayor Mamdani of New York City. Now, he's been, I've played clips of him, platforming these socialists and he's even bragging about these government run grocery stores in New York City that they're spending 30 million a pop on just to get them up and running. And he claims they're going to be 30% below your competitors. And this is, mark my word, this is going to be a disaster. government run grocery store, Are you kidding me? They can't even run the dmv. They're going to run a grocery store. and this is, we've got to hammer this home in the mind of the American people that these ideas don't work. They've been tested, they've been tried and they don't work. Socialism and communism do not work. They are failed experiments in human history. Not only are they unbiblical, we could have told you they're not going to work by reading the scripture. But, but in practice they don't work. They've been tried, they don't work. They lead to massive amounts of human suffering and death. That's the history of socialism and communism. Nonetheless, Mayor, Mamdani doesn't care about that. He doesn't want to read the history books. He doesn't want to be a student of history. Instead he just wants to blame the Jews, blame Israel and blame Bibi Netanyahu for everything. And so this is Mayor Mamdani, spending time out of his day in recent weeks talking about how it's his goal, if possible, to charge and arrest Bibi Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, for being a quote, unquote war criminal. That's the accusation of Mamdani. Clip 1 let's listen.
Mayor Mamdani Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people. He is responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people. For the maiming of tens of thousands of children as those who survive undergo amputation without anesthesia. For the targeting of neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers, denying newborns even the chance to live. For the countless people he starved as he blocked food and humanitarian aid from reaching them. For the gunning down of hundreds of aid workers and journalists. And just last month the UN confirmed that Palestinian children continue to to be deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli armed forces. More than eight months after the so called ceasefire. The list goes on and on. All as we as Americans pay for the bombs that do the killing. There is a reason the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest. As human beings, we have spent generations building a shared understanding that there are crimes so grave, they offend all of humanity. Anyone with their eyes, with their heart, with their conscience should recognize the devastation he has wrought and understand that he belongs before a court of law. As I've said, I agree with the ICC that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes as I do for anyone else charged by the icc. My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant with Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does. And I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. And I want to be equally clear. Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large. While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon. And we can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people. That is my commitment to you.
The accusation that Bibi Netanyahu is responsible for Gaza civilian deaths is unfounded
Walker Wildmon All right, so let's pick this apart, okay? And I hate to give credence to unfounded accusations, but for the sake of information and debate, let's do it. the, the accusation that Bibi Netanyahu is responsible for genocide is unfounded, okay? But let's break apart what we know, and let's not try to be naive either, about the effects of war. Alright? So first off, Hamas started the war, okay? That's a fact. An undisputed fact is that Hamas thought it was a great idea, which is a proxy of Iran, by the way. Let's remember Hamas, which is run by Muslims in Islam. They, thought it would be a great idea to murder, rape, and pillage thousands of Israeli civilians on October 7th. That was their idea. That's what they thought was a good idea. So they did it. Hamas invaded southern Israel and they raped, pillaged, burned alive, and murdered thousands of Israelis. Okay? Civilians, by the way. so that's how this started. And we can't forget that. All right? So Hamas started this, and Israel is finishing it. All right? Now to what Israel has done militarily in response has been devastating. It's been devastating from a, infrastructure standpoint and from a humanitarian standpoint in Gaza. But that's not the responsibility of Israel. And let me explain why, okay? One of the things that Muslims do, this sect of Muslims that run Hamas and run Iran and Hezbollah, etcetera, let me explain what these jihadis do. Number one, this ideology, doesn't believe in the sanctity of life or the human dignity, that we're all created in the image of God and we're, you know, have certain inalienable rights and protections and, precepts like that. They don't believe in that. Okay? And their false religion provides a lot of justification for actually using innocent civilians, as shields, as human shields. And so that's what Hamas has been doing. They've been hiding under hospitals, under schools, under houses, okay? And so Israel, they go. Israel goes out of their way, by the way, to avoid humanitarian problems. They are under strict scrutiny by the world and the US and so Israel goes out of their way to issue leaflets, messages, notes, etcetera, to urge civilians to flee when they're taking military action. But what does Hamas do? Well, Hamas holds the civilians hostage, and occasionally civilians are implicated in the carnage of war. And it's a very sad and tragic thing, and I'm not trying to make light of this or act like it's not a problem, etc. What I'm just telling you is that war is a dirty business. War is nasty. It's in some ways evil. It is. It's just terrible. And that's what, Israel is engaged in. They're engaged in a war against people who have no standards. And they use thousands of civilians, men, women and children, as human shields as Israel is trying to kill Hamas. And so there's no doubt there's been carnage in Gaza. There's been civilian casualties in Gaza, Number one. The number you get from Hamas is completely unbelievable. You cannot believe a word that comes out of their mouth. They are liars, they are cheaters, and they are frauds. And their false religion justifies it. And this is what they're known for. For hundreds of years, this sect of Muslims has raped, pillaged, and destroyed everything they've touched. This is what they do. And so to say that, you know, Israel, is responsible, or Netanyahu is personally responsible for 70,000 civilian deaths, no, I wouldn't believe that number if you gave me a million dollars. That number is coming straight from the mouth of Hamas. And so this notion that Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli government, that they wake up and they go to bed and all they think about is how many innocent civilians they can kill with the military, is completely not true. It's unfounded. There's no facts to back that up. But they keep throwing it out there because it's a anti Semitic trope that gathers the most radical elements of all political parties together so they can blame the Jews for everything. That's what this is all about. It's very satanic. It's very evil. We'll be back in a few.
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The Democrats are having trouble raising money because they're anti capitalist
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to the The Core here on American Family Radio. Well, if you didn't believe that the Democrats were in trouble, well this number will surely get your attention. And by the way, last week on Friday I talked about how the Democrats are having trouble raising money this election cycle. Why? Because they're anti capitalist. And what do you do if who do you raise money from if you're anti capitalist? Because it's the capitalist entrepreneurs and business owners and productive people in society that have the cash. They've got the money to donate to the campaigns. But the Democrats spend all their time demonizing them so I wouldn't give them money. And your very well known million and billionaires that are traditionally liberal in their politics, they're not donating to the Democrats because they don't want their tax rate going up to 70%, 80% capital gains tax, everything. Tax, tax on this, tax on that. it's just a sheer head on collision that you're having. Karen M. With the socialists and then trying to raise money using a capitalist system of campaigning and raising money to win elections. with that being said, the Democrats are entering this upcoming quarter with they're in the red so to speak from an accounting perspective. So listen to this. This is according to Fox News late report this weekend. Federal Election Commission filings showed the DNC ended June with 16 million in cash and 18 million in debts, leaving a liability of 2 million above its reserves. On the other hand, the Republican National Committee by comparison reported approximately $128 million on hand and no outstanding debt. So the RNC has 130 million. The DNC is 2 million in the red and the DNC also. You guys aren't going to believe this, but it's true. The DNC has a. Has a, open line of credit on their own, their headquarters, so they can keep the lights on. This is no joke. The DNC has a line of credit out on their headquarters so they can get cash to run on. They've got a $15 million line of credit opened on their own headquarters so that they can keep the lights on and keep the paychecks going. so this, this is just unlike anything I've ever seen. But when you, when you run on an anti America agenda in America and then you have trouble getting people to support you, you know, can't be surprised about that, that's for sure.
DSA co chair Megan Romer lays out radical agenda ahead of November elections
Well, speaking of the Democrats, they are just giving us a gold mine of information and evidence of how un American they actually are. The Democrat Socialist of America co chair was actually on the Shannon Bream on Fox this weekend and she's once again saying the quiet part out loud. This is going to be D. DSA co chair Megan Romer about all of the constitutionally authorized agencies and branches of government that they want to just light a fire to. Let's listen to.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting So we're going to put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of your platform. And I want to ask you, just give me sort of a true or false on these. abolish the Senate.
New Jersey House Candidate True.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Okay. Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as we now know them.
New Jersey House Candidate Yep.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Abolish ICE Absolutely. Abolish borders and give amnesty to anyone currently in the US Illegally as a long term plan. Yep. Defund the Pentagon. Absolutely. Abolish prisons, at least in large part.
New Jersey House Candidate Yeah.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Again, as part of a long term program.
New Jersey House Candidate Yeah.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Okay. So no prisons, government or public ownership of most large corporations. Yeah, absolutely.
Walker Wildmon Ouch. I mean that's. They are giving, they are giving the Republicans so much ammo here. So much political ammo. If I'm the RNC, I'm giddy right now. I'm giddy. I'm sitting on 130 million cash. DNC's running a $2 million deficit. Getting out a loan on their headquarters so they can pay the bills and they can't get these socialists off the television. Schumer's not doing interviews. Pelosi is not doing interviews. Barack Obama, we don't know where he is and they're sending out the Democrat socialists. I mean, this is just baffling to me and this is why I'm not sold on this narrative. Of the Democrats are going to take over the House in November? I don't know. They may. Historically speaking, they probably will. But at this rate, they're sure making it hard on themselves. the way they're talking, the way they're acting, and the, failure to raise funds to run an effective political campaign in America 2026. and this is no outlier. Got a clip here. The gifts just keep on giving. This is a New Jersey House candidate sitting down for some coffee, talking about how, you know, health care is a human right, they say. And I'll actually debunk that after the clip. health care is a human right and we ought not have, you know, this free market thinking when it comes to health care. Food, shelter and medical care ought to all be socialized. Let's listen.
New Jersey House Candidate Should medical care, which is really a human right, and health care be left to the free market, where people who can't afford it or don't have that access to capital be left out of that system? This is not a place where we should have a free market. We should be able to provide, provide for those that need for the sick and the needy. It's a market failure and it's also a government failure. I mean, this is what government exists for, right? It's supposed to be able to take care and serve its people. and what are some of the basic needs? Well, you know, it's food, shelter and like, medical care.
Walker Wildmon So this notion, by the way, and they could just get away with it. Just get away with it. I wish. We need more debates, where we can refute these, these assertions, but let's do it now.
Find anywhere in the Bible and in the Constitution where health care is a human right
So this notion that healthcare is a, quote, human right is just fundamentally not true. And you guys may cringe at this. Whatever, it's just a fact. Healthcare is not a human right. Find anywhere in the Bible and in the Constitution where health care is a quote, unquote, human right. Now, health care is good, don't get me wrong. Caring for the needy, the church, meeting the needs, physical, mental, etc. Spiritual, let's not leave that one out of fellow man, is a noble thing to do. So health care in and of itself is a very virtuous thing. Caring for people in need broadly is a biblical precept. That's not groundbreaking. That's not up for debate. Theologically, these are just fundamental precepts, based on God's character. So health care and caring for the sick is a good thing. This is why, a lot of your hospital systems, your Private ones are run by Christian charities. but the notion and the assertion that it's a human right, which means it ought to be provided by the government and protected by the government, is just fundamentally not true.
Government should protect life, liberty and property
And let's also, let's address this angle of provided by the government or protected by the government, because that's important too, okay? Because the socialists always talk about what the government ought to. Well, the government ought to do this and the government ought to do that. Well, no, the government should protect life, liberty and property. The government ought to ensure, that if you have the ability, that if someone wants to set up a hospital, that they have the right, the constitutional right for free enterprise, for freedom of association. So the government protecting rights and the government providing goods and services are two whole different things here. One's socialism and one's free market capitalism, and one's constitutional and one's not. And so what, they commingle all these words and sentences and their positions, they commingle all of them. Where we're all confused on what exactly are we debating here? Is this socialized medicine or is this ensuring that if a hospital system wants to be established and to serve the community, they have the right to do that? Because obviously that's right, that's virtuous, that's noble, that's true. But the government forcing private medical systems to provide services to anybody and everybody, that's not the role of government here. And so it's a very uneducated view of government, a very uneducated view of the free market. And, without a doubt, 100% of the time that the government steps into something that has historically been a private party matter, such as health care, it always is worsened. The problem is always exacerbated. And this is the fundamental problem, with the government in New York setting up grocery stores. Okay, first off, biblically speaking, it's not the civil government's job to hand out groceries. It's just not constitutionally speaking, it's not the civil government's job. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that New York City needs to set up government run grocery stores. Nowhere. And this is where you need to take the strict interpretation of the Constitution that if it's not explicitly, congressionally or constitutionally authorized, it shouldn't exist for government. But these are the folks that are running the Democrat Party. And now to compare where they've come from, the, you know, the people. Like I was listening to an interview with Elon Musk, and this interviewer was saying, oh, you're Anti immigrant, you're anti Muslim, and all this, you know, this stuff we just roll our eyes at. their questions are full of accusations, and Elon Musk is like, look, if. Whatever you want to call it, but I'm in favor of secure borders and safe cities, so whatever you want to call that, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm just telling you what my position is. But President Trump has been running on this secure border from since 2015, 2016, and he's been labeled everything under the sun, and people have tried to take his life. Oh, you're anti immigrant, you're anti American, you're anti Democratic, you want to be a king, Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They throw out all these accusations, unfounded accusations. But when you look at our positions today, I love looking at these memes on social media. And, the Republican conservative position has virtually stayed the same. We've actually in some ways regressed and moderated in a negative way, or become more progressive, if you will. but Republican and conservative positions on policy has virtually remained unchanged. You know, secure border, free market system, protect individual rights and property, et cetera, et cetera. a lot of our founding ideals espoused by the Republican and conservative movement virtually stayed unchanged, with the exception of a few issues. But the Democrats here, if you're looking, watching on video, they've gone way off the deep end. Like, we're having trouble keeping them in the frame. We're, using, like, an extra wide lens here to keep them in the frame. And you have trouble, like, describing their political positions because you say, like, oh, they're left wing. Oh, no, no, they're. They're left, Left, left wing. And then what? You know, at some point, what do you call that? I don't know. We'll figure that out. But listen to President Obama. This is in 2005, US Senator Barack Obama talking about, we gotta be strong on illegal immigration. We gotta have a strong, secure border. This is President Obama, circa 2005. U.S. senator.
US Senator Barack Obama We all agree on the need to better secure the border and to punish employers who choose to hire illegal immigrants. You know, we are a generous and welcoming people here in the United States, but those who enter the country illegally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law, and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law. We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.
Walker Wildmon Where did he go? I want Obama to come back from 2005. We cannot allow people to cross our border illegally. It's disrespectful. Obama says. Let's listen to a President Clinton campaign ad in 1996 on a tough border and mass deportations Clinton is bragging about here. Clip 3.
Announcer President Clinton doubled border agents, a thousand more for California, signed a tough anti illegal immigration law protecting US workers 160,000 illegal immigrants and criminals deported.
Announcer A, record.
Bob Dole voted against reimbursing California for jailing illegal immigrants. Time magazine says his risky tax scheme could cut 2000 border agents, cut 4000 FBI Bob Dole wrong in the past, wrong for our future.
Walker Wildmon This is so good. I love going back to the old nostalgia of common sense. There you have a, Bill Clinton campaign ad in 1986 bragging about strong borders sent a thousand customs agents to California and deported 160,000 illegal immigrants, most on record. Bill Clinton was bragging about his president running for re election. What a beauty. What an absolute beauty. So these assertions that, I'm on the fringe, right, the radical right, a Christian nationalist, all these loaded terms that they throw out at us, it's just a bunch of falsehoods and it's a bunch of straw men. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, for you and I who love American history, who, you know, agree with the founding fathers and the reasons that they constituted this land and this government and this country, for most of us out there with our head on right, still, our views virtually don't change on these issues. Maybe every once in a while, but in large part the main thing is, the main thing, whether it's individual liberty, second Amendment, freedom of religion, you know, smaller government, less deficit, less debt, basically less government, everything. Strong military, strong alliances with Israel, these various political positions and policy positions conservatives have held for decades and decades and decades. And we're still standing here with the same viewpoints. And we're getting called the radicals in the political movement. No, it's the Democrats. They're the radicals.
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This is at The Core on American Family Radio with your host Walker Wildmon.
Walker Wildmon talks with Mark Minnella about financial issues and economy
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon, m here with you. Glad to have you on the program. Well, if you, if you listen to certain media heads and certain outlets and you know, social media trends, you would have thought over the past four to five years that there's a looming recession, that the stock market's in a bubble, that the housing market's going to crash. You get all these, these varying narratives, out there of the doom and gloom of which only a very small fraction is ever true. but nonetheless I wanted to talk about this economy that we're in, the housing market and some things along that line with Mark Manella with financial issues. He's the host of Financial Issues and is with us now. This is the former Dan Celias, organization that he founded that aired on AFR for years and years and years. so we have a close friendship with the financial issues team and Mark is now hosting the program Financial issues program and he's with us now. Mark, welcome to The Core
Mark Minnella Walker. Honored. Thanks for having me.
Tell folks when your financial issues program airs and how they can follow it
Walker Wildmon Well Mark, before we jump in, tell our folks, when your financial issues program airs and a couple of the ways that they can keep up with it.
Mark Minnella Sure. Monday through Friday, 9:00am till 10:00am on, on financialissues.org or one of the 500 radio stations or television stations across the U.S. you can, you can catch us live. And if you go out to the website, the financialissues.org you can get in on the chat. Of course, anybody can call in. We're live. So we actually, actually answer stewardship, financial questions, investment questions. We're you know, obviously one of the big things we, we really want people to understand is what they invest in actually gears this country's direction, that as a steward you actually have a responsibility and an opportunity to invest with biblical integrity.
Walker: There's a narrative out there that young people can't buy homes
Walker Wildmon Well, once again we're talking to Mark Manilis of Financial Issues and Mark, let's talk about the housing market. So ever since the post Covid housing boom, if you will, as far as valuations goes, has not really let up. I mean there have been some periods of easing, if you will, on housing values, on home purchase values, etc. But ah, for the most part there hasn't been much of a correction or much of a drop or anything drastic on that front. So you see home prices continue to, to gain value. talk about that. And if, if, if you think, you know, a correction is on the horizon or if this is the quote, new normal, as far as these very, generous home valuations. Very generous.
Mark Minnella That's a nice way to say it.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Yeah.
Mark Minnella When, when you get as old as me, you realize that housing seems to always go up and seldom if ever comes down. And if it does, it's just for a short period. But that's not what the issue really is here because there's something everybody forgets and that's called real wage growth. And as you know, Walker, real wage growth is how much more does the average household bring in on an annual basis than inflation takes away. So if inflation's 3.5 and you have a real wage growth that says 1.8, that means the average house has, the income has gone up 1.8% more than the inflation did. Well, what we've seen with housing, that article that you said I responded to, that was, I think that was more of a hit piece than anything else to confuse people and to divide people. If we, if they can keep the average person, ah, in America to feel like they're being taken advantage of or divided against everybody else. They. They can move in, and sooner or later, socialism and communism starts taking over. I mean, that's the bottom line on it. So instead of that, let's look at the real numbers. And the real numbers they used in that article said that housing went up, June over May, and sales in houses went down, June over May. But the reality is, year over year, if you look at the bigger picture, housing, was up, mortgage rates were down, even with. Even with everything going on with Iran war and the oil and the, everybody, attacking this administration and trying to destroy it. We even saw real wage growth over housing costs, rise over housing costs. So effectively, the cost of a house for the average household went down over the last year. But nobody's reporting that. And you and I know why, and I think probably most of your listeners do, because you bring it to them all the time, what's going on, how no matter what this administration does, it just. They just knock it down more and more and more. So in reality, yeah, we. We've seen the pricing of housing go up, but we've also seen real wage growth, supersede that.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, another. Another narrative out there is that, well, young people can't get into houses. They can't get into home ownership. And one thing I do want to, you know, make clear is that the market is. Is nowhere near what it was pre Covid. I mean, there's just. And. And will it ever, quote, go back to pre Covid levels? I don't know. Maybe not. Probably not. Will we ever have 2.75 mortgages? I don't know. I mean, I'm not a fan of saying never. So we could in the future, but not anytime soon. but with that being true that this is not the economy of 2018 or 2019, there are still plenty of opportunities for young people to get ahead, to get into home ownership. but there's this narrative out there. Well, young people just can't get into homes. And. And it creates kind of this victimhood mentality of, well, we need more. We need government. Government's gonna come in and fix this. Or we need a.
Mark Minnella We need to regulate Big Brother to help us. Right?
Walker Wildmon Yeah, exactly. And so talk about how young people actually can get into homes. they've just gotta be smart with their money. They've gotta figure out a way to set aside some for a down payment. All of these things are within reach. You just gotta work.
Mark Minnella Work for it. Yeah, well, it depends on what you're calling in reach, because what they're reaching for may be part of the issue. What I looked up some numbers and what I found was an expectation creep where these young men and women getting out of college immediately want the three, car garage, four bedroom, four bath story, and a half on three acres in one of the luxury areas of your city. And that took, that took me and my wife 35, 40 years to get to there. You know, we started off with a house that cost us $60,000 and then moved to another house. And slowly, you know, things change over time. You build to that. So we have that expectations creep which is not only it's not just their fault for expecting that, but they're being told they should expect that. You got a degree, you should be earning enough money to have what your parents had after 35 years of working. Well, let's lay that aside. Getting in a house is easier than ever in my lifetime right now. If you go for a house in a reasonable price range for your income, there are better loans or easier loans. it's so much easier to get out. There's so many opportunities out there to get into a house. You just have to make it within your income level. That's the bottom line on it. So you don't get the, you don't get your forever home. Well you don't, you probably don't even have your forever, forever job right now. You're in a stepping stone. Think of it like this. As a steward, what you have is you start where God has you, you do the best with what he's given you there and then you step up to the next. I can't think of a single friend of mine who bought their forever home right out of college or even five years or 10 years out of college. So that expectation creep has caused a lot of problems. That expectation creep has come from the division that's being laid on the American family to believe that every child deserves a middle class mid level house right off the bat and that every, everybody deserves, deserves, deserves. But you and I know that's not true. It's a stepping stone, just like building a business, you know. believe it or not, Amazon was not always as big as Amazon is today. I remember when they were just a book, wholesaler that they, that you could go online and buy books on it and that was it, you know. And they started off before that as a single little store. So you know, everything grows and patience and, and understanding is very important. So you bring up the family and younger, college, ah, age or Just after college, people wanting to get a home, it's easier than ever. I really believe that's true. I've seen all the things out there and everybody I know who wants a home really can find one if they want one. I'm not saying that we have enough starter homes because that's probably the weakest area, but what we've seen with this administration is they've started creating plans to make that.
Mark: Owning is the key to wealth. That's always been the bottom line
So for example, the, the road to housing plan that Trump just signed in and, and got running, it stops corporations from buying up single family homes, usually starter homes, and turning them into rentals. So it's going to allow more supply. We also seen with what's happening with the exporting of illegal aliens is we're seeing more homes open up there as well. There's a lot going on. And mortgage rates at 6%. During my lifetime, I would have cried with happiness to have a 6% mortgage at one time. Mortgage rates hit 12, 13, 14% if we, if we're looking at them. And the average, for me, the average mortgage rate was 8%. So it's just what you're accustomed to, I guess. And we grew greatly during those times.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, the mortgage rates, the only time they're a problem is when you have these, these insane valuations on these homes. That's when your mortgage rate starts to eat at you. But, but historically speaking, 6 or 7% is not really that big of a deal. but of course when you, when you're sitting, if you're the person sitting on 3%, you know, they're loving it. but, but, but to your point, there's, there's the first time homebuyer programs out there where you need minimum down payment, I think three, three and a half percent cash. but, but the expectations was that really hit home with me because you're so right. You do have people that that are fresh out of college, in their 20s, early 30s and you know, they're trying to get the five or $600,000 house in the, in their quote forever neighborhood. And that's just not where you start. I mean my wife and I started out renting for a year, then we bought a small zero lot, you know, 1700 square foot home. And so you kind of work into that. And then once you get into home ownership, you rarely hear of people going from ownership to rent, to renting. Ah, once you get into the homeownership, build a little bit of equity and move around, you typically stay in it so it's one of those things, once you can just get past that barrier of home ownership, most people for the rest of their career stay in ownership, which is a good way, to, to grow your wealth.
Mark Minnella Absolutely. ownership is the key to wealth. That's always been the bottom line. Owning, owning and then letting that grow. A lot of people don't know it, but there's organic inflation and then there's what I call, fake inflation or imposed inflation. Imposed inflation is what the Federal Reserve does to us. They say they want to keep inflation around 2%. You know that that's what they used to say. Now they're saying two and a half percent. Well, think about this. What they're saying is we're going to keep pumping enough, money into the economy so there's enough dollars to cause everything to continue to rise in price at two and a half percent per year. That alone forces real estate and things that can't, you know, like dirt. They're not making any more dirt. So that's going to go up two and a half percent every year no matter what. So you're always going to be seeing inflation ris go up on that and as such, the pricing is going to go up. Well, if you own the dirt, your pricing is going up with it. If you own it in a popular area, it's going to go up faster. So ownership is a key. Like you said, Walker, you nailed that for everybody. For every household. it's best to own if you can.
Walker Wildmon M. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're talking to Mark Minnella host of Financial Issues, with Financial Issues, Stewardship Ministries. Hey Mark, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for your insight and hopefully we'll have you back soon.
Mark Minnella Well, thank you, Walker. It's been an honor. I appreciate it. Keep up the good work. We need you out there.
Walker Wildmon Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it.
Mark Minnella: There are some very affordable places to buy your first home
That's Mark Minnella host of Financial Issues Program, and they've got their podcast out there on all the major podcast platforms as well. you know, another factor into the homeownership dilemma is, is where some of these people are trying to move or buy in. And for example, if you're a first time home buyer and you're trying to move to Nashville, good luck with that. I mean, that's just, that's not the market you want to go into for your first time, ownership. And there's all kinds of different reports out there, and studies that I'll see on CNBC on occasion, but and on Fox Business but, you know, there's some very affordable parts of the country, especially in this remote work environment that we live in, where, you know, you got upwards of 40% of people, that are able to work from anywhere on their computer. and there's a lot of affordable markets around the country that would be a great place to buy your first home, where the valuations are somewhat sane. but if you're trying to buy in New York, Washington, D.C. miami, Nashville, Dallas, you're shooting yourself in the foot before you even start looking at houses and options. and that's why a lot of those people end up renting in those markets anyway. So a lot of good advice there from Mark Manila. With financial issues, you know, taper your expectations. Don't try to buy your, quote, forever home as your first home. And, learn that it, takes time. It takes years to build wealth and, take some people 30 years to build, what's their, quote, dream home. We'll see you next time.
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This is at the The Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon Welcome to the The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to be with you on this live edition of the program. At The Core is the name of the program. The show hosts are Rick Greene and myself. I'm Walker Wildmon and I'm glad to be hosting today's program with you. American Family Radio is operating in over 30 states, 160 plus radio signals and we're also on the Internet live streaming the radio network programming 24, 7, [email protected] and on the AFR app. We also, have the video up on all the major show platforms, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Just type in at The Core or American Family Radio on all the various platforms and you can find our app, find our show, find our social pages, etc. And lastly, as I remind our audience each and every day, if you would subscribe to the podcast, that would be greatly appreciated. Just type in the name of the show at the The Core in your podcast library and our show will be queued up each and every day for you to listen to, for you to share with family and friends, etc. Etc.
Acts chapter 14 is where we are this week. Seven verses, Acts, chapter 14
Well, let's turn our attention to the scripture and then we'll get into some of our stories. For Today, Acts chapter 14 is where we are this week. I'm reading here verses 1 through 7. Acts chapter 14. Now, it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Verse 4. But the multitude of the city was divided. Part sided with the Jews and part sided with the apostles. And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region. And they were preaching the gospel there. This is a lot of content. Seven verses, Acts, chapter 14. But what I want to highlight is that when the apostles were sought, after they were obviously being threatened with their lives, etcetera, they fled. But listen, to what they did when they came to their next destination, Verse seven. And they were preaching the gospel there. And so while the apostles fled, while the early church was being chased out of the cities and the synagogues based on preaching the gospel of Christ, they were. They might have been relocated, but they were undeterred in that they continued preaching the gospel. That's according to Acts, chapter 14, verse 7, specifically. Well, Pastor Bert Harper, we had him on the show last week. They're going to be having a fishbowl retreat. This is their annual fishbowl retreat for pastors and their wives. This will be hosted by brother Bert, Harper, Pastor Bert Harper, and his wife Jan. They're going to be hosting this in late October. Well, the third week of October. October 20th through the 22nd is the date that's going to be at Pickwick Landing State Paak. So if you're a pastor and you want to go to this, conference, we would encourage you to do so. If you would like to send your pastor to this conference, that is what we prefer is to have churches get together and send their pastors to this retreat. It's going to be October 20th through the 22nd at Pickwick Landing State Paak. That's in Counts, Tennessee. J.J. jasper will be there, brother. Bert and Jan Harper will be there as well. And, you can go to repairingthefoundations.net repairingthefoundations.net to find out more information and register. we would love to see you there. let's turn our attention to the news stories of the week while we have time. And we do have a guest in the third be talking housing, market, economy and where things are on that front.
Mayor Mamdani says he wants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
but nonetheless, last week we, played, clips of this, rise of the Democrat socialists of America and their really takeover of the Democrat party. That has happened. Well, part of this kind of movement and this element is Mayor Mamdani of New York City. Now, he's been, I've played clips of him, platforming these socialists and he's even bragging about these government run grocery stores in New York City that they're spending 30 million a pop on just to get them up and running. And he claims they're going to be 30% below your competitors. And this is, mark my word, this is going to be a disaster. government run grocery store, Are you kidding me? They can't even run the dmv. They're going to run a grocery store. and this is, we've got to hammer this home in the mind of the American people that these ideas don't work. They've been tested, they've been tried and they don't work. Socialism and communism do not work. They are failed experiments in human history. Not only are they unbiblical, we could have told you they're not going to work by reading the scripture. But, but in practice they don't work. They've been tried, they don't work. They lead to massive amounts of human suffering and death. That's the history of socialism and communism. Nonetheless, Mayor, Mamdani doesn't care about that. He doesn't want to read the history books. He doesn't want to be a student of history. Instead he just wants to blame the Jews, blame Israel and blame Bibi Netanyahu for everything. And so this is Mayor Mamdani, spending time out of his day in recent weeks talking about how it's his goal, if possible, to charge and arrest Bibi Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, for being a quote, unquote war criminal. That's the accusation of Mamdani. Clip 1 let's listen.
Mayor Mamdani Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people. He is responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people. For the maiming of tens of thousands of children as those who survive undergo amputation without anesthesia. For the targeting of neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers, denying newborns even the chance to live. For the countless people he starved as he blocked food and humanitarian aid from reaching them. For the gunning down of hundreds of aid workers and journalists. And just last month the UN confirmed that Palestinian children continue to to be deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli armed forces. More than eight months after the so called ceasefire. The list goes on and on. All as we as Americans pay for the bombs that do the killing. There is a reason the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest. As human beings, we have spent generations building a shared understanding that there are crimes so grave, they offend all of humanity. Anyone with their eyes, with their heart, with their conscience should recognize the devastation he has wrought and understand that he belongs before a court of law. As I've said, I agree with the ICC that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes as I do for anyone else charged by the icc. My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant with Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does. And I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. And I want to be equally clear. Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large. While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon. And we can examine every tool we have to defend the humanity and dignity of all people. That is my commitment to you.
The accusation that Bibi Netanyahu is responsible for Gaza civilian deaths is unfounded
Walker Wildmon All right, so let's pick this apart, okay? And I hate to give credence to unfounded accusations, but for the sake of information and debate, let's do it. the, the accusation that Bibi Netanyahu is responsible for genocide is unfounded, okay? But let's break apart what we know, and let's not try to be naive either, about the effects of war. Alright? So first off, Hamas started the war, okay? That's a fact. An undisputed fact is that Hamas thought it was a great idea, which is a proxy of Iran, by the way. Let's remember Hamas, which is run by Muslims in Islam. They, thought it would be a great idea to murder, rape, and pillage thousands of Israeli civilians on October 7th. That was their idea. That's what they thought was a good idea. So they did it. Hamas invaded southern Israel and they raped, pillaged, burned alive, and murdered thousands of Israelis. Okay? Civilians, by the way. so that's how this started. And we can't forget that. All right? So Hamas started this, and Israel is finishing it. All right? Now to what Israel has done militarily in response has been devastating. It's been devastating from a, infrastructure standpoint and from a humanitarian standpoint in Gaza. But that's not the responsibility of Israel. And let me explain why, okay? One of the things that Muslims do, this sect of Muslims that run Hamas and run Iran and Hezbollah, etcetera, let me explain what these jihadis do. Number one, this ideology, doesn't believe in the sanctity of life or the human dignity, that we're all created in the image of God and we're, you know, have certain inalienable rights and protections and, precepts like that. They don't believe in that. Okay? And their false religion provides a lot of justification for actually using innocent civilians, as shields, as human shields. And so that's what Hamas has been doing. They've been hiding under hospitals, under schools, under houses, okay? And so Israel, they go. Israel goes out of their way, by the way, to avoid humanitarian problems. They are under strict scrutiny by the world and the US and so Israel goes out of their way to issue leaflets, messages, notes, etcetera, to urge civilians to flee when they're taking military action. But what does Hamas do? Well, Hamas holds the civilians hostage, and occasionally civilians are implicated in the carnage of war. And it's a very sad and tragic thing, and I'm not trying to make light of this or act like it's not a problem, etc. What I'm just telling you is that war is a dirty business. War is nasty. It's in some ways evil. It is. It's just terrible. And that's what, Israel is engaged in. They're engaged in a war against people who have no standards. And they use thousands of civilians, men, women and children, as human shields as Israel is trying to kill Hamas. And so there's no doubt there's been carnage in Gaza. There's been civilian casualties in Gaza, Number one. The number you get from Hamas is completely unbelievable. You cannot believe a word that comes out of their mouth. They are liars, they are cheaters, and they are frauds. And their false religion justifies it. And this is what they're known for. For hundreds of years, this sect of Muslims has raped, pillaged, and destroyed everything they've touched. This is what they do. And so to say that, you know, Israel, is responsible, or Netanyahu is personally responsible for 70,000 civilian deaths, no, I wouldn't believe that number if you gave me a million dollars. That number is coming straight from the mouth of Hamas. And so this notion that Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli government, that they wake up and they go to bed and all they think about is how many innocent civilians they can kill with the military, is completely not true. It's unfounded. There's no facts to back that up. But they keep throwing it out there because it's a anti Semitic trope that gathers the most radical elements of all political parties together so they can blame the Jews for everything. That's what this is all about. It's very satanic. It's very evil. We'll be back in a few.
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The Democrats are having trouble raising money because they're anti capitalist
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to the The Core here on American Family Radio. Well, if you didn't believe that the Democrats were in trouble, well this number will surely get your attention. And by the way, last week on Friday I talked about how the Democrats are having trouble raising money this election cycle. Why? Because they're anti capitalist. And what do you do if who do you raise money from if you're anti capitalist? Because it's the capitalist entrepreneurs and business owners and productive people in society that have the cash. They've got the money to donate to the campaigns. But the Democrats spend all their time demonizing them so I wouldn't give them money. And your very well known million and billionaires that are traditionally liberal in their politics, they're not donating to the Democrats because they don't want their tax rate going up to 70%, 80% capital gains tax, everything. Tax, tax on this, tax on that. it's just a sheer head on collision that you're having. Karen M. With the socialists and then trying to raise money using a capitalist system of campaigning and raising money to win elections. with that being said, the Democrats are entering this upcoming quarter with they're in the red so to speak from an accounting perspective. So listen to this. This is according to Fox News late report this weekend. Federal Election Commission filings showed the DNC ended June with 16 million in cash and 18 million in debts, leaving a liability of 2 million above its reserves. On the other hand, the Republican National Committee by comparison reported approximately $128 million on hand and no outstanding debt. So the RNC has 130 million. The DNC is 2 million in the red and the DNC also. You guys aren't going to believe this, but it's true. The DNC has a. Has a, open line of credit on their own, their headquarters, so they can keep the lights on. This is no joke. The DNC has a line of credit out on their headquarters so they can get cash to run on. They've got a $15 million line of credit opened on their own headquarters so that they can keep the lights on and keep the paychecks going. so this, this is just unlike anything I've ever seen. But when you, when you run on an anti America agenda in America and then you have trouble getting people to support you, you know, can't be surprised about that, that's for sure.
DSA co chair Megan Romer lays out radical agenda ahead of November elections
Well, speaking of the Democrats, they are just giving us a gold mine of information and evidence of how un American they actually are. The Democrat Socialist of America co chair was actually on the Shannon Bream on Fox this weekend and she's once again saying the quiet part out loud. This is going to be D. DSA co chair Megan Romer about all of the constitutionally authorized agencies and branches of government that they want to just light a fire to. Let's listen to.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting So we're going to put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of your platform. And I want to ask you, just give me sort of a true or false on these. abolish the Senate.
New Jersey House Candidate True.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Okay. Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as we now know them.
New Jersey House Candidate Yep.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Abolish ICE Absolutely. Abolish borders and give amnesty to anyone currently in the US Illegally as a long term plan. Yep. Defund the Pentagon. Absolutely. Abolish prisons, at least in large part.
New Jersey House Candidate Yeah.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Again, as part of a long term program.
New Jersey House Candidate Yeah.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Okay. So no prisons, government or public ownership of most large corporations. Yeah, absolutely.
Walker Wildmon Ouch. I mean that's. They are giving, they are giving the Republicans so much ammo here. So much political ammo. If I'm the RNC, I'm giddy right now. I'm giddy. I'm sitting on 130 million cash. DNC's running a $2 million deficit. Getting out a loan on their headquarters so they can pay the bills and they can't get these socialists off the television. Schumer's not doing interviews. Pelosi is not doing interviews. Barack Obama, we don't know where he is and they're sending out the Democrat socialists. I mean, this is just baffling to me and this is why I'm not sold on this narrative. Of the Democrats are going to take over the House in November? I don't know. They may. Historically speaking, they probably will. But at this rate, they're sure making it hard on themselves. the way they're talking, the way they're acting, and the, failure to raise funds to run an effective political campaign in America 2026. and this is no outlier. Got a clip here. The gifts just keep on giving. This is a New Jersey House candidate sitting down for some coffee, talking about how, you know, health care is a human right, they say. And I'll actually debunk that after the clip. health care is a human right and we ought not have, you know, this free market thinking when it comes to health care. Food, shelter and medical care ought to all be socialized. Let's listen.
New Jersey House Candidate Should medical care, which is really a human right, and health care be left to the free market, where people who can't afford it or don't have that access to capital be left out of that system? This is not a place where we should have a free market. We should be able to provide, provide for those that need for the sick and the needy. It's a market failure and it's also a government failure. I mean, this is what government exists for, right? It's supposed to be able to take care and serve its people. and what are some of the basic needs? Well, you know, it's food, shelter and like, medical care.
Walker Wildmon So this notion, by the way, and they could just get away with it. Just get away with it. I wish. We need more debates, where we can refute these, these assertions, but let's do it now.
Find anywhere in the Bible and in the Constitution where health care is a human right
So this notion that healthcare is a, quote, human right is just fundamentally not true. And you guys may cringe at this. Whatever, it's just a fact. Healthcare is not a human right. Find anywhere in the Bible and in the Constitution where health care is a quote, unquote, human right. Now, health care is good, don't get me wrong. Caring for the needy, the church, meeting the needs, physical, mental, etc. Spiritual, let's not leave that one out of fellow man, is a noble thing to do. So health care in and of itself is a very virtuous thing. Caring for people in need broadly is a biblical precept. That's not groundbreaking. That's not up for debate. Theologically, these are just fundamental precepts, based on God's character. So health care and caring for the sick is a good thing. This is why, a lot of your hospital systems, your Private ones are run by Christian charities. but the notion and the assertion that it's a human right, which means it ought to be provided by the government and protected by the government, is just fundamentally not true.
Government should protect life, liberty and property
And let's also, let's address this angle of provided by the government or protected by the government, because that's important too, okay? Because the socialists always talk about what the government ought to. Well, the government ought to do this and the government ought to do that. Well, no, the government should protect life, liberty and property. The government ought to ensure, that if you have the ability, that if someone wants to set up a hospital, that they have the right, the constitutional right for free enterprise, for freedom of association. So the government protecting rights and the government providing goods and services are two whole different things here. One's socialism and one's free market capitalism, and one's constitutional and one's not. And so what, they commingle all these words and sentences and their positions, they commingle all of them. Where we're all confused on what exactly are we debating here? Is this socialized medicine or is this ensuring that if a hospital system wants to be established and to serve the community, they have the right to do that? Because obviously that's right, that's virtuous, that's noble, that's true. But the government forcing private medical systems to provide services to anybody and everybody, that's not the role of government here. And so it's a very uneducated view of government, a very uneducated view of the free market. And, without a doubt, 100% of the time that the government steps into something that has historically been a private party matter, such as health care, it always is worsened. The problem is always exacerbated. And this is the fundamental problem, with the government in New York setting up grocery stores. Okay, first off, biblically speaking, it's not the civil government's job to hand out groceries. It's just not constitutionally speaking, it's not the civil government's job. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that New York City needs to set up government run grocery stores. Nowhere. And this is where you need to take the strict interpretation of the Constitution that if it's not explicitly, congressionally or constitutionally authorized, it shouldn't exist for government. But these are the folks that are running the Democrat Party. And now to compare where they've come from, the, you know, the people. Like I was listening to an interview with Elon Musk, and this interviewer was saying, oh, you're Anti immigrant, you're anti Muslim, and all this, you know, this stuff we just roll our eyes at. their questions are full of accusations, and Elon Musk is like, look, if. Whatever you want to call it, but I'm in favor of secure borders and safe cities, so whatever you want to call that, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm just telling you what my position is. But President Trump has been running on this secure border from since 2015, 2016, and he's been labeled everything under the sun, and people have tried to take his life. Oh, you're anti immigrant, you're anti American, you're anti Democratic, you want to be a king, Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They throw out all these accusations, unfounded accusations. But when you look at our positions today, I love looking at these memes on social media. And, the Republican conservative position has virtually stayed the same. We've actually in some ways regressed and moderated in a negative way, or become more progressive, if you will. but Republican and conservative positions on policy has virtually remained unchanged. You know, secure border, free market system, protect individual rights and property, et cetera, et cetera. a lot of our founding ideals espoused by the Republican and conservative movement virtually stayed unchanged, with the exception of a few issues. But the Democrats here, if you're looking, watching on video, they've gone way off the deep end. Like, we're having trouble keeping them in the frame. We're, using, like, an extra wide lens here to keep them in the frame. And you have trouble, like, describing their political positions because you say, like, oh, they're left wing. Oh, no, no, they're. They're left, Left, left wing. And then what? You know, at some point, what do you call that? I don't know. We'll figure that out. But listen to President Obama. This is in 2005, US Senator Barack Obama talking about, we gotta be strong on illegal immigration. We gotta have a strong, secure border. This is President Obama, circa 2005. U.S. senator.
US Senator Barack Obama We all agree on the need to better secure the border and to punish employers who choose to hire illegal immigrants. You know, we are a generous and welcoming people here in the United States, but those who enter the country illegally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law, and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law. We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.
Walker Wildmon Where did he go? I want Obama to come back from 2005. We cannot allow people to cross our border illegally. It's disrespectful. Obama says. Let's listen to a President Clinton campaign ad in 1996 on a tough border and mass deportations Clinton is bragging about here. Clip 3.
Announcer President Clinton doubled border agents, a thousand more for California, signed a tough anti illegal immigration law protecting US workers 160,000 illegal immigrants and criminals deported.
Announcer A, record.
Bob Dole voted against reimbursing California for jailing illegal immigrants. Time magazine says his risky tax scheme could cut 2000 border agents, cut 4000 FBI Bob Dole wrong in the past, wrong for our future.
Walker Wildmon This is so good. I love going back to the old nostalgia of common sense. There you have a, Bill Clinton campaign ad in 1986 bragging about strong borders sent a thousand customs agents to California and deported 160,000 illegal immigrants, most on record. Bill Clinton was bragging about his president running for re election. What a beauty. What an absolute beauty. So these assertions that, I'm on the fringe, right, the radical right, a Christian nationalist, all these loaded terms that they throw out at us, it's just a bunch of falsehoods and it's a bunch of straw men. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, for you and I who love American history, who, you know, agree with the founding fathers and the reasons that they constituted this land and this government and this country, for most of us out there with our head on right, still, our views virtually don't change on these issues. Maybe every once in a while, but in large part the main thing is, the main thing, whether it's individual liberty, second Amendment, freedom of religion, you know, smaller government, less deficit, less debt, basically less government, everything. Strong military, strong alliances with Israel, these various political positions and policy positions conservatives have held for decades and decades and decades. And we're still standing here with the same viewpoints. And we're getting called the radicals in the political movement. No, it's the Democrats. They're the radicals.
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This is at The Core on American Family Radio with your host Walker Wildmon.
Walker Wildmon talks with Mark Minnella about financial issues and economy
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon, m here with you. Glad to have you on the program. Well, if you, if you listen to certain media heads and certain outlets and you know, social media trends, you would have thought over the past four to five years that there's a looming recession, that the stock market's in a bubble, that the housing market's going to crash. You get all these, these varying narratives, out there of the doom and gloom of which only a very small fraction is ever true. but nonetheless I wanted to talk about this economy that we're in, the housing market and some things along that line with Mark Manella with financial issues. He's the host of Financial Issues and is with us now. This is the former Dan Celias, organization that he founded that aired on AFR for years and years and years. so we have a close friendship with the financial issues team and Mark is now hosting the program Financial issues program and he's with us now. Mark, welcome to The Core
Mark Minnella Walker. Honored. Thanks for having me.
Tell folks when your financial issues program airs and how they can follow it
Walker Wildmon Well Mark, before we jump in, tell our folks, when your financial issues program airs and a couple of the ways that they can keep up with it.
Mark Minnella Sure. Monday through Friday, 9:00am till 10:00am on, on financialissues.org or one of the 500 radio stations or television stations across the U.S. you can, you can catch us live. And if you go out to the website, the financialissues.org you can get in on the chat. Of course, anybody can call in. We're live. So we actually, actually answer stewardship, financial questions, investment questions. We're you know, obviously one of the big things we, we really want people to understand is what they invest in actually gears this country's direction, that as a steward you actually have a responsibility and an opportunity to invest with biblical integrity.
Walker: There's a narrative out there that young people can't buy homes
Walker Wildmon Well, once again we're talking to Mark Manilis of Financial Issues and Mark, let's talk about the housing market. So ever since the post Covid housing boom, if you will, as far as valuations goes, has not really let up. I mean there have been some periods of easing, if you will, on housing values, on home purchase values, etc. But ah, for the most part there hasn't been much of a correction or much of a drop or anything drastic on that front. So you see home prices continue to, to gain value. talk about that. And if, if, if you think, you know, a correction is on the horizon or if this is the quote, new normal, as far as these very, generous home valuations. Very generous.
Mark Minnella That's a nice way to say it.
Fox, Shannon Bream Reporting Yeah.
Mark Minnella When, when you get as old as me, you realize that housing seems to always go up and seldom if ever comes down. And if it does, it's just for a short period. But that's not what the issue really is here because there's something everybody forgets and that's called real wage growth. And as you know, Walker, real wage growth is how much more does the average household bring in on an annual basis than inflation takes away. So if inflation's 3.5 and you have a real wage growth that says 1.8, that means the average house has, the income has gone up 1.8% more than the inflation did. Well, what we've seen with housing, that article that you said I responded to, that was, I think that was more of a hit piece than anything else to confuse people and to divide people. If we, if they can keep the average person, ah, in America to feel like they're being taken advantage of or divided against everybody else. They. They can move in, and sooner or later, socialism and communism starts taking over. I mean, that's the bottom line on it. So instead of that, let's look at the real numbers. And the real numbers they used in that article said that housing went up, June over May, and sales in houses went down, June over May. But the reality is, year over year, if you look at the bigger picture, housing, was up, mortgage rates were down, even with. Even with everything going on with Iran war and the oil and the, everybody, attacking this administration and trying to destroy it. We even saw real wage growth over housing costs, rise over housing costs. So effectively, the cost of a house for the average household went down over the last year. But nobody's reporting that. And you and I know why, and I think probably most of your listeners do, because you bring it to them all the time, what's going on, how no matter what this administration does, it just. They just knock it down more and more and more. So in reality, yeah, we. We've seen the pricing of housing go up, but we've also seen real wage growth, supersede that.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, another. Another narrative out there is that, well, young people can't get into houses. They can't get into home ownership. And one thing I do want to, you know, make clear is that the market is. Is nowhere near what it was pre Covid. I mean, there's just. And. And will it ever, quote, go back to pre Covid levels? I don't know. Maybe not. Probably not. Will we ever have 2.75 mortgages? I don't know. I mean, I'm not a fan of saying never. So we could in the future, but not anytime soon. but with that being true that this is not the economy of 2018 or 2019, there are still plenty of opportunities for young people to get ahead, to get into home ownership. but there's this narrative out there. Well, young people just can't get into homes. And. And it creates kind of this victimhood mentality of, well, we need more. We need government. Government's gonna come in and fix this. Or we need a.
Mark Minnella We need to regulate Big Brother to help us. Right?
Walker Wildmon Yeah, exactly. And so talk about how young people actually can get into homes. they've just gotta be smart with their money. They've gotta figure out a way to set aside some for a down payment. All of these things are within reach. You just gotta work.
Mark Minnella Work for it. Yeah, well, it depends on what you're calling in reach, because what they're reaching for may be part of the issue. What I looked up some numbers and what I found was an expectation creep where these young men and women getting out of college immediately want the three, car garage, four bedroom, four bath story, and a half on three acres in one of the luxury areas of your city. And that took, that took me and my wife 35, 40 years to get to there. You know, we started off with a house that cost us $60,000 and then moved to another house. And slowly, you know, things change over time. You build to that. So we have that expectations creep which is not only it's not just their fault for expecting that, but they're being told they should expect that. You got a degree, you should be earning enough money to have what your parents had after 35 years of working. Well, let's lay that aside. Getting in a house is easier than ever in my lifetime right now. If you go for a house in a reasonable price range for your income, there are better loans or easier loans. it's so much easier to get out. There's so many opportunities out there to get into a house. You just have to make it within your income level. That's the bottom line on it. So you don't get the, you don't get your forever home. Well you don't, you probably don't even have your forever, forever job right now. You're in a stepping stone. Think of it like this. As a steward, what you have is you start where God has you, you do the best with what he's given you there and then you step up to the next. I can't think of a single friend of mine who bought their forever home right out of college or even five years or 10 years out of college. So that expectation creep has caused a lot of problems. That expectation creep has come from the division that's being laid on the American family to believe that every child deserves a middle class mid level house right off the bat and that every, everybody deserves, deserves, deserves. But you and I know that's not true. It's a stepping stone, just like building a business, you know. believe it or not, Amazon was not always as big as Amazon is today. I remember when they were just a book, wholesaler that they, that you could go online and buy books on it and that was it, you know. And they started off before that as a single little store. So you know, everything grows and patience and, and understanding is very important. So you bring up the family and younger, college, ah, age or Just after college, people wanting to get a home, it's easier than ever. I really believe that's true. I've seen all the things out there and everybody I know who wants a home really can find one if they want one. I'm not saying that we have enough starter homes because that's probably the weakest area, but what we've seen with this administration is they've started creating plans to make that.
Mark: Owning is the key to wealth. That's always been the bottom line
So for example, the, the road to housing plan that Trump just signed in and, and got running, it stops corporations from buying up single family homes, usually starter homes, and turning them into rentals. So it's going to allow more supply. We also seen with what's happening with the exporting of illegal aliens is we're seeing more homes open up there as well. There's a lot going on. And mortgage rates at 6%. During my lifetime, I would have cried with happiness to have a 6% mortgage at one time. Mortgage rates hit 12, 13, 14% if we, if we're looking at them. And the average, for me, the average mortgage rate was 8%. So it's just what you're accustomed to, I guess. And we grew greatly during those times.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, the mortgage rates, the only time they're a problem is when you have these, these insane valuations on these homes. That's when your mortgage rate starts to eat at you. But, but historically speaking, 6 or 7% is not really that big of a deal. but of course when you, when you're sitting, if you're the person sitting on 3%, you know, they're loving it. but, but, but to your point, there's, there's the first time homebuyer programs out there where you need minimum down payment, I think three, three and a half percent cash. but, but the expectations was that really hit home with me because you're so right. You do have people that that are fresh out of college, in their 20s, early 30s and you know, they're trying to get the five or $600,000 house in the, in their quote forever neighborhood. And that's just not where you start. I mean my wife and I started out renting for a year, then we bought a small zero lot, you know, 1700 square foot home. And so you kind of work into that. And then once you get into home ownership, you rarely hear of people going from ownership to rent, to renting. Ah, once you get into the homeownership, build a little bit of equity and move around, you typically stay in it so it's one of those things, once you can just get past that barrier of home ownership, most people for the rest of their career stay in ownership, which is a good way, to, to grow your wealth.
Mark Minnella Absolutely. ownership is the key to wealth. That's always been the bottom line. Owning, owning and then letting that grow. A lot of people don't know it, but there's organic inflation and then there's what I call, fake inflation or imposed inflation. Imposed inflation is what the Federal Reserve does to us. They say they want to keep inflation around 2%. You know that that's what they used to say. Now they're saying two and a half percent. Well, think about this. What they're saying is we're going to keep pumping enough, money into the economy so there's enough dollars to cause everything to continue to rise in price at two and a half percent per year. That alone forces real estate and things that can't, you know, like dirt. They're not making any more dirt. So that's going to go up two and a half percent every year no matter what. So you're always going to be seeing inflation ris go up on that and as such, the pricing is going to go up. Well, if you own the dirt, your pricing is going up with it. If you own it in a popular area, it's going to go up faster. So ownership is a key. Like you said, Walker, you nailed that for everybody. For every household. it's best to own if you can.
Walker Wildmon M. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're talking to Mark Minnella host of Financial Issues, with Financial Issues, Stewardship Ministries. Hey Mark, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for your insight and hopefully we'll have you back soon.
Mark Minnella Well, thank you, Walker. It's been an honor. I appreciate it. Keep up the good work. We need you out there.
Walker Wildmon Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it.
Mark Minnella: There are some very affordable places to buy your first home
That's Mark Minnella host of Financial Issues Program, and they've got their podcast out there on all the major podcast platforms as well. you know, another factor into the homeownership dilemma is, is where some of these people are trying to move or buy in. And for example, if you're a first time home buyer and you're trying to move to Nashville, good luck with that. I mean, that's just, that's not the market you want to go into for your first time, ownership. And there's all kinds of different reports out there, and studies that I'll see on CNBC on occasion, but and on Fox Business but, you know, there's some very affordable parts of the country, especially in this remote work environment that we live in, where, you know, you got upwards of 40% of people, that are able to work from anywhere on their computer. and there's a lot of affordable markets around the country that would be a great place to buy your first home, where the valuations are somewhat sane. but if you're trying to buy in New York, Washington, D.C. miami, Nashville, Dallas, you're shooting yourself in the foot before you even start looking at houses and options. and that's why a lot of those people end up renting in those markets anyway. So a lot of good advice there from Mark Manila. With financial issues, you know, taper your expectations. Don't try to buy your, quote, forever home as your first home. And, learn that it, takes time. It takes years to build wealth and, take some people 30 years to build, what's their, quote, dream home. We'll see you next time.
The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Chapter Notes:
00:00 - Preborn needs your help to provide ultrasounds for pregnant women
00:59 - American Family Radio is operating in over 30 states, 160 plus radio signals
02:17 - Acts chapter 14 is where we are this week. Seven verses, Acts, chapter 14
05:40 - Mayor Mamdani says he wants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
09:45 - The accusation that Bibi Netanyahu is responsible for Gaza civilian deaths is unfounded
16:11 - The Democrats are having trouble raising money because they're anti capitalist
19:14 - DSA co chair Megan Romer lays out radical agenda ahead of November elections
22:57 - Find anywhere in the Bible and in the Constitution where health care is a human right
24:24 - Government should protect life, liberty and property
34:23 - $28 sponsors one ultrasound. And now through a match your gift is doubled
35:00 - Walker Wildmon talks with Mark Minnella about financial issues and economy
36:13 - Tell folks when your financial issues program airs and how they can follow it
37:12 - Walker: There's a narrative out there that young people can't buy homes
45:05 - Mark: Owning is the key to wealth. That's always been the bottom line
49:04 - Mark Minnella: There are some very affordable places to buy your first home
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