Walker Wildmon: Welcome to At the Core here on American Family Radio. At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green, that's the full name of the show. We would greatly appreciate it if you would subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find us on Facebook at At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. Type in any of those keywords, and the show page should populate.
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Walker Wildmon: Let's turn our attention to the Scripture. We're in Acts chapter 20 this week, looking at how even the early church, the apostles, and the early believers had emotions. What were they affectionate about? This is Acts chapter 20, verses 36 through 38: “And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them. Then they all wept freely and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship for his departure.”
Walker Wildmon: Here we have some of the early church. They were very saddened at Paul's departure. They were very saddened by some of the things he warned them about, and their emotions were on display. It says they were weeping. They wept freely. They fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. They were sorrowful, it says in verse 38.
Walker Wildmon: What I want to point out here is a general application: As humans, we are to channel our emotions in a biblically responsible manner. God gave us emotion. It is not wrong to have feelings, although we shouldn't be driven by our feelings. We need to channel our emotions in a manner that is righteous, good, and wholesome.
Walker Wildmon: Unfortunately, in modern society, at least in America, many people are channeling their emotions and their affections toward all the wrong things. The first truth is that God gave us emotions, and we should use those emotions. Secondly, we should channel them in a manner that is responsible, biblical, and edifying to our fellow man. That's Acts chapter 20, verses 36 through 38.
Walker Wildmon: Speaking of Paul, we're going to be taking a Footsteps of Paul trip in March of 2027, and we would love for you to join us. We're going to be going to Thessaloniki, where we'll be landing, and then to Philippi, Corinth, Berea, and Athens, just to name a few, while visiting many of the main sites associated with the Apostle Paul in Greece. We would love to have you join us. You can go to tours.afa.net to check out more information.
Walker Wildmon: You can also visit Italy with my parents. They're going to be visiting Italy and looking at a lot of the early church history there. You can join them the week after the Greece trip, so you can do both if you would like. Go to tours.afa.net to look at the itinerary, pricing, and all the information.
Walker Wildmon: Let's turn our attention to the news of the week and jump into some of the content that we have for the show today. The Republicans are having their midterm convention, which is the first ever, actually, in Dallas, Texas. It's somewhat of a rally for the Republican Party as we head into the midterms.
Walker Wildmon: Just to give you the lay of the land, there are a lot of close races. I've said this over and over again, so if you've heard this before, just carry on. The midterm is traditionally unfavorable for the majority party, for the president's party. Whoever is in the White House, and in this instance a Republican, the midterm outcome is traditionally unfavorable for the party in power.
Walker Wildmon: I'm talking about a 50 to 60-year history here. When you go back past that, it's somewhat mixed. There are only two instances in which the party in control of the White House maintained its majorities in Congress during a midterm cycle. One was under President Bush, and one was under Clinton. Every other midterm election, the president's party has lost control of the House during the midterm.
Walker Wildmon: The odds are working against the Republican Party, but only time will tell. I will give you the lay of the land on the races around the country, some of the ones that are more heated, if you will, and closer than others.
Walker Wildmon: Believe it or not, according to the polling, the Texas Senate race is pretty close. By “pretty close,” I would say within two to four points, based on most polling. The Texas Senate race is between Ken Paxton, the attorney general, and James Talarico. That is in the state of Texas and is replacing Senator John Cornyn, who was defeated in the primary. That's close. How close, we'll see.
Walker Wildmon: The hesitation I have about getting really into the weeds of that race and getting my blood pressure up is that analysts and pollsters have wrongly predicted the Texas Senate race outcome for pretty much the last 15 years. We've been told multiple times, specifically with Senator Cruz's races, that the Democrats were going to take Texas, that Texas was up for grabs, and that the Democrats were going to take Texas. Every time over the last 12 to 14 years, that has turned out to be patently false.
Walker Wildmon: Some candidates came uncomfortably close, within a couple of percentage points of winning Texas, but we're still talking about hundreds of thousands of votes' differential. With that being the history, I'm not overly concerned about Texas, but we'll see, and I'm open to being proven wrong.
Walker Wildmon: It is fair to say it's a close race. How close? Pretty close, two to four points. Will Talarico win and beat Paxton? I don't think so, but we'll see.
Walker Wildmon: The other race that is close is in Georgia. The race is between John Ossoff and Mike Collins. Mike Collins is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ossoff is a Democrat from Georgia. Remember, this is the race after the 2020 election. I think that was a runoff or a special election in Georgia.
Walker Wildmon: Nonetheless, Georgia is a pretty reliably red state, at least from a presidential standpoint, and that election is between Ossoff and Mike Collins. Democrats are on defense there. For every one or two states such as Texas, where you might say, “Talarico is going to beat Paxton in Texas. They're going to flip the Senate seat there,” there is one that the Democrats are really on defense about. Georgia is one of those. Ossoff is going to have to really work overtime to keep that Senate seat in Georgia.
Walker Wildmon: The other race is up in Michigan. This is between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. Georgia's candidate is Mike Collins, and Michigan's is Mike Rogers, once again another member of the U.S. House of Representatives running for the Senate seat. El-Sayed is running on the Democratic side. There are the clips of him out there and his different policy positions that we've played on the show as well.
Walker Wildmon: That is one where the Democrats are going to have to fight hard to keep a Democratic-held Senate seat. Mike Rogers is putting the Democrats on their heels and on defense there in the state of Michigan.
Walker Wildmon: In Maine, Susan Collins is working to keep her incumbency. I'm not too concerned about Republicans losing that Senate seat in Maine, simply based on the fact that she's an incumbent and has held that Senate seat for multiple elections without a problem.
Walker Wildmon: If I asked many people around the country, and even in Maine, who is running on behalf of the Democrats, they would say, “I don't know.” That's because the former independent candidate was removed after the primary. He actually won the primary, and then the Democratic Party came in, removed him, and handpicked someone else. That's why the name recognition for that candidate is not very good in Maine.
Walker Wildmon: Lisa Murkowski is running in Alaska. She's an incumbent Republican senator. I'm not too concerned about whether or not she will lose that seat, simply because she's once again a long-term incumbent and has a pretty safe seat there in Alaska.
Walker Wildmon: Let me tell you what could alter all of this: low voter turnout on behalf of the Republican Party. That could change the game here, and not in a good way for the Republicans. There are a couple of factors at play here that could hurt the Republicans.
Walker Wildmon: I'm just objectively giving you the lay of the land based on my opinion, and you can take it or leave it. There are a couple of factors at play here that are hurting the Republicans. Number one, it's a midterm election cycle. Voter turnout in a midterm election cycle is just not as good as in a general presidential election, which is every four years. That's working against both parties, honestly, probably more so against Republicans.
Walker Wildmon: Secondly, the economic rebound that President Trump had fervently promised and been working toward has taken somewhat of a detour, largely because of the Iran conflict. You and I could debate back and forth, and we'll do some of that in the next segment, about whether we should have gone into Iran or not. We can exhaustively debate that.
Walker Wildmon: But the fact of the matter is, no matter where you fall on that, and whether you think it was a good idea or a bad idea, your geopolitical viewpoints and whatever else you think about it are beside the point. I'm just telling you as a matter of fact that the Iran war, the rising 10-year yield, rising fuel prices, rising mortgage rates, and now-rising inflation numbers are factors.
Walker Wildmon: There are deeply Republican and conservative people who are gung-ho that we should have gone into Iran. They are glad we're fighting Iran, believe we have to take out the Iranian regime, and are all in on that. That's fine. But from a reelection standpoint, folks, there is no doubt that the Iran war is hurting the Republicans in the polling. That's a fact because that's what the polls say.
Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to At the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you back with us. I'm Walker Wildmon. Last segment, we talked a little bit about the elections coming up in November. By the way, you need to be registered and you need to vote. That's a fact.
Walker Wildmon: Wherever you land ideologically, in order to keep this great republic rolling, we have to be registered and we have to vote. It is a civic duty, and as a born-again believer, it is a biblical duty as well.
Walker Wildmon: We have been given stewardship authority over the country, over our community, over our town, over our city, over our family, and over our church. Whatever you've been given and entrusted with, we're called to be good stewards of. Our vote is another one of those things that we are called to be good stewards of. All Christians should be registered and should vote.
Walker Wildmon: Sitting on the sidelines is not an option. I want to hammer that home. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option, regardless of how you feel or whatever vibe you're getting. Sitting on the sidelines and disengagement in this culture, in this fight for righteousness, and for the preservation of Western civilization is not on the checklist. It's not an option. I want to hammer that home as much as I can.
Walker Wildmon: Let's get back into the nuts and bolts of this election and what it means. I'm going to end on somewhat of a positive note, so don't get worried. This isn't doom and gloom.
Walker Wildmon: The Republicans have a challenge here. The challenge is that President Trump inherited an absolute disaster from Biden. From an economic standpoint, President Trump inherited an absolute disaster from President Biden.
Walker Wildmon: If you remember, and I've got the charts to back this up, as a country we were on a pretty fast track toward somewhat of an economic recovery after Trump was elected the second time. I can tell you that because inflation was dropping precipitously. Inflation was on the decline, and energy prices were at roughly 20-year lows.
Walker Wildmon: We were looking at it at the pump. We were looking at gasoline at $2.25 prior to the Iran war. I don't know about you, but I don't remember the last time gas was at $2.25. We're probably going back to before Obama, but some of the fact-checkers out there can check me. I don't remember the last time we had $2.25 gas. Maybe during Trump's first term we got there a little bit, but nonetheless, regardless of the timeline, we were headed toward $2 gasoline prior to the Iran war. Some stations had it below $2, at $1.95 or $1.97. That is a big deal.
Walker Wildmon: That rapid energy affordability being put forth by President Trump and his policies was leading to the drop in inflation. The markets were doing well and still are doing well, by the way. Wages were going up, and employment was going up. All of these things were looking good, and some of the data points are still looking good, but inflation is not looking good. This is largely due to energy costs.
Walker Wildmon: That is what Republicans are up against as they try to vie for the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Walker Wildmon: One thing that is helping them, though, is that the Democrats have gone completely off the deep end. The Democratic Party at large has largely lost its mind, and we've got the receipts. I've played them on the program.
Walker Wildmon: What the Republican Party must do, and some are doing this, is put forth a narrative that says, “Look, voters, we're the party of sanity. We're the party of common sense. We're the party of solutions. We're the party of opportunity, free markets, capitalism, national defense, and a closed border. We are the party of common sense. America first, American values, embracing our Founding Fathers and American history, and getting this country back on track. That is what we're for.”
Walker Wildmon: That should be the messaging of the Republican Party. We are the party of sanity. In large part, the facts back that up. They can easily make that case.
Walker Wildmon: What we don't need to do as conservatives, and what the Republican Party doesn't need to do, is get sidetracked on bad ideas. I've got an example of this, and then we'll move on to the Democrats and talk about their problems, which are many.
Walker Wildmon: President Trump stated in Dallas during his speech this week that he was going to give $5,000 to every U.S. citizen if the Republicans keep the House and the Senate. Let's listen to this pitch, talk through it, and then jump over and talk about the Democrats.
President Trump: What we're doing is, because we've done so well and because our country is making so much money, only I can make this promise to you. Here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our tremendous economic success, like in history we've never had anything like what's happening, but because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.
President Trump: A successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders, or like last year when I gave our great members of the military $1,776. Remember?
Walker Wildmon: There you have it. That was just part of President Trump's speech. By the way, the vast majority of the speech was very good. Very good ideas, very good policies, and very optimistic, especially when he talked about getting past the Iran war, energy prices dropping, inflation dropping, and being on the road to recovery. Very, very good messaging on that front.
Walker Wildmon: Here's why this is a bad idea. I try not to be negative. I'm definitely not the one who loves to poke at President Trump like some do and do it obnoxiously. I think that's unnecessary. Many of the president's policies are absolutely phenomenal.
Walker Wildmon: Here's why this idea needs to be put in the past record book as an idea that once was and is no more. It doesn't need to be brought up only during the campaign anymore, by the way. Here's why this is a bad idea.
Walker Wildmon: First off, these types of stimulus payments, whatever they're for and whatever your reasoning is, are inflationary. We learned this lesson during COVID, when everybody was sent checks: working, not working, on welfare, not on welfare, millionaire, non-millionaire, whatever.
Walker Wildmon: These stimulus payments, which you can call dividends or welfare, whatever you want to brand them as, are cash payments to American voters and citizens. They are inflationary. It's a fact. In order to send $5,000 to every U.S. citizen, you have to print over a trillion dollars.
Walker Wildmon: We're running an over $2 trillion deficit right now, and that is set to go up. Why? Because the 10-year yield is up, and borrowing rates are up.
Walker Wildmon: By the time President Trump, or the Republicans, rather, are reelected in January and sworn in, who knows where the 10-year yield will be? Who knows where borrowing interest costs will be? Right now, we are servicing about $1 trillion in interest on the debt, and then we've got another trillion dollars of money we don't have that we're printing to fund the government.
Walker Wildmon: We have an expansive welfare state, and we spend too much money. That's a fact. Nobody can distribute that. The last thing we need to be doing is sending everybody $5,000. It's inflationary and unnecessary.
Walker Wildmon: Here's what we can do, and here's the optimism. I think we can do a cut, or elimination for some or all, of the federal income tax. If you really want to get people excited, if you really want to get Republican voters excited, you tell them, and let's not even say elimination because maybe that's overly aggressive, “We're going to cut the federal income tax. We're going to take it from this percentage to that percentage. You're going to get hundreds of dollars back in your paycheck every month,” whatever the case is.
Walker Wildmon: Let's do that. Let's not take my money, filter it through the federal government, and then send it back to me. Let's not do that. That's the problem with big government. Let's just let the American people keep their money to begin with. That's my position.
Walker Wildmon: I think President Trump and the Republicans need to pivot and talk about cutting the federal income tax. This is 100 percent achievable through reconciliation with a simple majority in both chambers, by the way.
Walker Wildmon: The Republicans right now could reduce the federal income tax legislatively through reconciliation with a simple majority. They could do that right now.
Walker Wildmon: I think that's what needs to be done. I think sending $5,000 to every American is not smart. It's bad policy. It's morally wrong. There are other ways to give financial relief to the American people that don't involve stimulus checks. Cutting the federal income tax is one of them. I think it's a great idea, and I think President Trump and the Republicans need to pivot to that.
Walker Wildmon: I think that will get people excited. I think that will change the vibe when it comes to the economic outlook, getting past the Iran conflict, energy prices coming down, and taxes going down as well.
Walker Wildmon: As I said earlier, the Democrats have a whole lot of problems. I'm going to play a clip of Representative Al Green. This is what the Democrats are talking like, and this is why I think the Republicans have a chance of keeping the House and the Senate: The Democrats are so far off the deep end.
Walker Wildmon: This is current Texas Congressman Al Green talking about his deep concern for transgender illegal immigrants and how wrongly they're being treated in federal holding facilities. This is clip two.
Al Green: Dear Secretary Noem, I write to express my deep concern over reports of hazardous conditions for transgender immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities resulting from deliberate agency policies, including the denial of medical care and removal of protections for transgender individuals.
Al Green: In recent months, the federal government has halted the provision of specialized medical care for transgender detainees in at least 10 detention centers across the nation, which experts have warned can cause physical and mental health complications.
Al Green: Additionally, the Trump administration ended a Biden-era policy of reserving detention center units for transgender women. As a result, transgender women in detention facilities have been placed either with men or in solitary confinement.
Walker Wildmon: I liked that English at the end.
Chris Woodward: That was pretty rough to listen to.
Walker Wildmon: “Boba, boba, boba.” Has already been consumed.
Chris Woodward: You could tell he didn't read his own speech.
Walker Wildmon: No.
Chris Woodward: He got up there.
Walker Wildmon: No. This is Bobby.
Walker Wildmon: The Democrats just keep giving Republicans their greatest gift, and that is these clips of them talking loony. “It might cause physical and mental damage.” I'm sorry, too late. They've already done that to themselves.
Chris Woodward: Duly noted, based on their condition.
Walker Wildmon: Folks, tell me how many voters are concerned at all with transgender illegal immigrants.
Chris Woodward: It's in the top 10.
Walker Wildmon: Top 100. Folks, this doesn't even make it on the survey summary. Even on page 49, this doesn't make the cut, folks. This is just not a concern among voters.
Walker Wildmon: Not only is it dumb, and we don't need to be catering to transgender illegal immigrant inmates, but this is not an issue. This is not a problem that voters care about. I couldn't care less.
Walker Wildmon: This is where the Democrats are. They keep talking about things that voters just don't care about. I'm talking about the general election and the broad majority of voters. They do not care about transgender inmates in federal detention facilities.
Walker Wildmon: Once again, Republicans must capitalize on this and make the case that they are the party of common sense, the party of sanity, and the party that's going to hold this country together. That's the case that ought to be made.
Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to At the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on the program. As a brief reminder, we would greatly appreciate it if you would subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Just type in At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green, click the subscribe or follow button, and the show will be queued up in your library each and every day.
Walker Wildmon: Chris Woodward from American Family News, AFN.net, is with us. Chris, welcome back.
Chris Woodward: Thank you very much.
Walker Wildmon: Chris, we've been talking about midterms for the last two segments, and we're going to continue that discussion. Then we'll get a little bit into the markets and economics.
Walker Wildmon: I did look this up for our audience. The question is whether Republicans, or any Congress, could alter the federal income tax code through reconciliation with a simple majority. The short answer is yes. Republicans, through reconciliation, could alter the federal income tax code and reduce the tax rate for certain individuals or families.
Walker Wildmon: To me, that is the most appealing, conservative, fiscally responsible path forward here. But you've done some interviews. What are your thoughts?
Chris Woodward: Number one, a lot of people are in favor of getting rid of the 16th Amendment or drastically changing it. The 16th Amendment is the one that gives Congress the power to collect a federal income tax from any source without basing it on the population of each state.
Chris Woodward: It's going to be interesting to see people get behind this. I think a lot of libertarians will get behind it, which is interesting given that it's a midterm election year. A lot of libertarians have always been of the opinion, and I would agree with this, that taxation is theft. You'll even see red MAGA-style hats sometimes that say, “Make taxation theft again,” and things like that. I think he's probably got some support there.
Chris Woodward: I don't know that you'll get a lot of support from moderates, especially moderates in bluish areas, because they're still going to want big government funding this or that.
Walker Wildmon: Sure.
Chris Woodward: They want big government to fund this or that by taking taxes from people every couple of weeks.
Walker Wildmon: Here's the thing. There are two points. Number one, you're right about the 16th Amendment as far as how it is authorized, but Congress can't unilaterally repeal the 16th Amendment. Congress does have discretion over the rate and the code, the specific code itself.
Walker Wildmon: The 16th Amendment, to your point, gives them the legal authority to dip into our paychecks and fund whatever they want. But they can alter the rate or even bring it down to zero theoretically without repealing the amendment.
Walker Wildmon: Nonetheless, just from a practical, table-talk economics perspective, we do have a massive deficit. When you talk about reducing revenue by reducing the federal income tax, the question is, where do we make up that money? I don't know the answer to that. There are probably some people out there who have a couple of ideas.
Chris Woodward: The one thing that we all agree on is that the government needs to shrink. They need to stop spending as much money.
Walker Wildmon: Yes.
Chris Woodward: Those are hard decisions. You have to shut down agencies, and you have to let people go. Those are hard decisions as far as affecting people. But in the grand scheme of our country, it's not really a hard decision. We're talking about survival here. That's a practical consideration.
Walker Wildmon: Nonetheless, Chris, I'm just giving my personal opinion here, so take it or leave it. I think President Trump and the Republicans need to respectfully ditch the idea of $5,000 stimulus payments, dividend payments, or whatever. I would not bring that up ever again over the next two months. I wouldn't even talk about it.
Walker Wildmon: I would talk about reducing the federal income tax. I would talk about shrinking the size of government. I would keep talking about how President Trump has secured the border. I would talk about him keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. I think that resonates. There are a lot of things he's done. I would hit the high points and the positive points. I would not bring up the stimulus payment one more time.
Walker Wildmon: I would also come up with a very polished response for the inevitable answer that a socialist is going to throw out at them. Let's imagine there's a debate between El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, for example. Mike Rogers in Michigan says something bad about socialism, saying, “This guy wants to take your money and fund this or that.” El-Sayed would naturally come back with, “Your guy just threw out the idea of $5,000 for everybody.”
Chris Woodward: That is being referred to by a lot of critics as socialistic. For example, I interviewed a guy named Wayne Crews at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He told me, “Trump is normalizing the idea of giving checks to able-bodied adults, which, to tell you the truth, is a dream come true for progressives. Once you get the public hooked on getting checks for nothing, money for nothing, limited government is over.”
Chris Woodward: You need to have a really good response for that inevitable comeback, and then never talk about it again.
Walker Wildmon: I agree. I think there's a lot of smart people in the campaign, and President Trump has hired a lot of good people in his administration. There's a lot to be thankful for, and there's a lot of positive within the Trump administration. I do not want to overlook that.
Walker Wildmon: But I think this was a mistake. I think they can pivot, and I think they can recover pretty quickly with a narrative shift toward more free-market and less-taxation ideas that 100 percent of Republicans will agree on.
Walker Wildmon: Chris, let's shift to the economy and the markets. This is going to play a factor in the midterms as well. Tell us what the latest is, either on energy or the 10-year yield, or whatever you have.
Chris Woodward: It's a mixed bag. We have some good numbers. The NFIB index of small-business optimism was a good, high number. You want it to be around 100, and we got that. That's a good number.
Chris Woodward: Unemployment claims continue to produce great headlines. This is from the Associated Press, and I'm sure it's paying them to write it this way: “U.S. unemployment claims dipped to 206,000 last week, remaining at historically low levels with layoffs relatively scarce.” That's a very good feather in the cap for the Trump administration.
Chris Woodward: The problem is that on Thursday, the market just plummeted. The Dow was down 316, the Nasdaq 171, and the S&P 44.
Walker Wildmon: Why?
Chris Woodward: Because oil broke $100 and stayed there.
Walker Wildmon: $100 a barrel.
Chris Woodward: This is an opinion show. Here's my opinion. I'm not a financial adviser. Take it or leave it, and I could be wrong.
Chris Woodward: The seasonality here and the market showing some weakness is completely normal. I'm actually surprised that we hadn't seen weakness before now. We saw a little bit a couple of weeks ago. Nonetheless, I think the market overall is healthy.
Chris Woodward: People claim there is an artificial intelligence bubble. I think there are going to be winners and losers, as there are with every industrial buildout. But overall, these companies are bringing in massive amounts of revenue and cash. That is not necessarily comparable to the 2001 bubble or the 2000 bubble.
Walker Wildmon: Overall, Chris, I think that if we can get past the Iran war energy-cost concerns, which are valid and out there, because there has been somewhat of a supply disruption, and start to trend back toward prewar energy-cost levels, that is going to be a game changer. It will bring down inflation 100 percent.
Walker Wildmon: The question is, how long until that happens?
Chris Woodward: Right. That's what voters and the public don't know. Are we going to be back on the downward trend from an energy-cost standpoint in three months, six months, or a year? What does this look like? We just don't know.
Chris Woodward: But overall, once we get past that, the fundamentals are strong. The employment outlook is pretty strong. The Federal Reserve does not need to touch rates, in my opinion. They don't need to raise them, and they don't need to lower them. They just need to go on vacation for three years and quit messing with interest rates.
Chris Woodward: If they lower rates, people will say that's going to cause more inflation. If they raise them, they're going to start breaking things. That's my opinion. I think energy costs are the main concern. If we get past that, overall market health is pretty good.
Walker Wildmon: Historically, the month of September is terrible. It's the worst month of the year historically, for decades on end. Take that with a grain of salt.
Chris Woodward: Keep in mind, we're entering the period of the year when gas prices do start to come down because people are back in school all over the country. Demand is starting to fall, and they don't require all kinds of things to be added to gasoline for environmental purposes.
Chris Woodward: We are about to enter a period when, historically, we're going to see gas prices come down. If President Trump could bring an end to this, and we've talked about this before on the show, you're going to see them come down even more. You're right: It is going to bring down the cost of a lot of things based on energy being cheaper.
Walker Wildmon: If it ends after the midterm elections, it will be interesting to see how that might shape 2028.
Chris Woodward: That seems way far away.
Walker Wildmon: My personal opinion is that 2028 is going to have the Republicans set up for success, if I could project. Once again, this is pure projection and pure opinion, but that's what we get paid for.
Walker Wildmon: I think that if you get past the Iran conflict, meaning stability in the Middle East generally speaking, and energy levels return to where they were prewar, that means inflation is on the decline, you get back to $2 gasoline, wage growth continues to grow, and the employment market seems to be stable. Wage growth, by the way, has actually been doing pretty well.
Walker Wildmon: The artificial intelligence buildout is still going strong. You're talking about success. The Republicans are going to have a strong case in 2028 for why they should continue leading the country.
Walker Wildmon: If Democrats do get control of one chamber and do a bunch of silly things every day and act like a fool on social media, Republicans can point to that as a reason why those people should never have control again, should they have to campaign that way in 2028.
Walker Wildmon: I think it's going to be very interesting to watch. Let me throw out a bit of caution here, too. A couple of months ago, we had a really terrible headline number when it came to the July jobs report. Then the August number came in and did really well, blowing out expectations. It was 162,000, when we thought we were going to see a lot less than that.
Walker Wildmon: When you look down at the bottom, where they talk about revisions, it turns out that we had a lot more jobs in the last couple of months than the federal government initially reported. Anytime we talk on this show, or somebody talks about a disappointing jobs report, give it a month. We're probably going to get a completely different number.
Chris Woodward: Take it with a grain of salt.
Walker Wildmon: The vibe changes every month depending on what the data is showing.
Walker Wildmon: Chris, I think President Trump has handled this Iran conflict as well as he can, given the circumstances. But if he and Rubio can get to 2027 and 2028 and say, “We eliminated virtually the Iranian terror regime. We neutered their ability to export terror in the region and the world. They don't have a nuclear weapon, and they're not getting a nuclear weapon, by golly. Gas is back at $2.25, the CPI is down to 2 percent or below, and mortgage rates are perhaps in the 5 percent range,” that is a very strong position.
Walker Wildmon: Considering that all your analysts and predictors would have told you that any president who went against Iran would see $200-a-barrel gas, tens of thousands of troops dead, and a decades-long war, all the doomsday predictions would not have come to pass, and the Iran threat would have been addressed. That is a strong 2028 message.
Chris Woodward: It will be interesting to see how Vance or Rubio might push that message, assuming they form some sort of a ticket. I still think it's going to end up being a Vance-Rubio arrangement. They'll promote Rubio to vice president. That would be a promotion, because if you did Rubio and Vance, that would upset somebody on the Trump side of things.
Chris Woodward: I'm tending to believe it's going to end up being Vance and Rubio, and the selling point is going to be that it gets you Ohio and Florida.
Walker Wildmon: Please, people. Let me ask you this: Who are the Democratic leaders? President Obama, we don't even know where he is. Is he at Martha's Vineyard? Is he in Hawaii? Nobody knows where he is. Who is their leader?
Chris Woodward: That's a good question. I think probably right now he's holding court, maybe talking to the Soros' and other people who have a lot of money to burn. But if I had to guess right now, there are a half dozen Democrats who are going to put their hats in the ring early.
Chris Woodward: You're going to have Gretchen Whitmer. You're going to have J.B. Pritzker out of Illinois. Gavin Newsom is chomping at the bit. You'll probably have AOC, and Harris may reenter. She'll test the waters again.
Walker Wildmon: Harris and her 1 percent.
Chris Woodward: If she gets in again and then drops out before Iowa, she's never running for office again.
Chris Woodward: Maybe you could go back to Kelly. Some people thought she was going to run. She was going to move back to California and run for governor there. But no, Becerra is the Democratic nominee going up against Steve Hilton, which is still, I think, a toss-up between now and Election Day.
Walker Wildmon: You can complain about the Republicans. You can complain about this or that. But folks, the Democrats don't have anybody. They don't have anybody who is going to make a broad appeal to the general public in a general presidential election. They just don't.
Walker Wildmon: Could somebody come on the scene? Could an Obama 2.0 come on the scene over the next 24 months? Maybe. But I'm not sure the radicals will allow it. I'm not sure AOC is going to allow a so-called moderate to come on the scene and lead the party into the future.
Walker Wildmon: They have some serious problems that I'm sure the Republicans are a little bit relieved by. Chris, thanks for coming in.
Chris Woodward: Thank you.
Walker Wildmon: Our folks are going to keep up with the news. For all things from a Christian perspective, go over to AFN.net, American Family News. Check it out. We'll see you next time.
Walker Wildmon: Welcome to At the Core here on American Family Radio. At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green, that's the full name of the show. We would greatly appreciate it if you would subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find us on Facebook at At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. Type in any of those keywords, and the show page should populate.
Walker Wildmon: We publish highlight clips from the show on Facebook each and every day on the At the Core Facebook page, so there are a lot of ways to keep up with the program. We also have a brand-new Watch Live feature over at AFR.net. Not only can you listen live to the program, but you can also listen to past episodes and watch live episodes using the Watch Live feature over at AFR.net.
Walker Wildmon: The one thing that you can't complain about is not knowing how to get American Family Radio. We've got American Family Radio on the App Store, in the podcast library, at AFR.net, on radio stations all around the country, and on social media as well.
Walker Wildmon: Let's turn our attention to the Scripture. We're in Acts chapter 20 this week, looking at how even the early church, the apostles, and the early believers had emotions. What were they affectionate about? This is Acts chapter 20, verses 36 through 38: “And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them. Then they all wept freely and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship for his departure.”
Walker Wildmon: Here we have some of the early church. They were very saddened at Paul's departure. They were very saddened by some of the things he warned them about, and their emotions were on display. It says they were weeping. They wept freely. They fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. They were sorrowful, it says in verse 38.
Walker Wildmon: What I want to point out here is a general application: As humans, we are to channel our emotions in a biblically responsible manner. God gave us emotion. It is not wrong to have feelings, although we shouldn't be driven by our feelings. We need to channel our emotions in a manner that is righteous, good, and wholesome.
Walker Wildmon: Unfortunately, in modern society, at least in America, many people are channeling their emotions and their affections toward all the wrong things. The first truth is that God gave us emotions, and we should use those emotions. Secondly, we should channel them in a manner that is responsible, biblical, and edifying to our fellow man. That's Acts chapter 20, verses 36 through 38.
Walker Wildmon: Speaking of Paul, we're going to be taking a Footsteps of Paul trip in March of 2027, and we would love for you to join us. We're going to be going to Thessaloniki, where we'll be landing, and then to Philippi, Corinth, Berea, and Athens, just to name a few, while visiting many of the main sites associated with the Apostle Paul in Greece. We would love to have you join us. You can go to tours.afa.net to check out more information.
Walker Wildmon: You can also visit Italy with my parents. They're going to be visiting Italy and looking at a lot of the early church history there. You can join them the week after the Greece trip, so you can do both if you would like. Go to tours.afa.net to look at the itinerary, pricing, and all the information.
Walker Wildmon: Let's turn our attention to the news of the week and jump into some of the content that we have for the show today. The Republicans are having their midterm convention, which is the first ever, actually, in Dallas, Texas. It's somewhat of a rally for the Republican Party as we head into the midterms.
Walker Wildmon: Just to give you the lay of the land, there are a lot of close races. I've said this over and over again, so if you've heard this before, just carry on. The midterm is traditionally unfavorable for the majority party, for the president's party. Whoever is in the White House, and in this instance a Republican, the midterm outcome is traditionally unfavorable for the party in power.
Walker Wildmon: I'm talking about a 50 to 60-year history here. When you go back past that, it's somewhat mixed. There are only two instances in which the party in control of the White House maintained its majorities in Congress during a midterm cycle. One was under President Bush, and one was under Clinton. Every other midterm election, the president's party has lost control of the House during the midterm.
Walker Wildmon: The odds are working against the Republican Party, but only time will tell. I will give you the lay of the land on the races around the country, some of the ones that are more heated, if you will, and closer than others.
Walker Wildmon: Believe it or not, according to the polling, the Texas Senate race is pretty close. By “pretty close,” I would say within two to four points, based on most polling. The Texas Senate race is between Ken Paxton, the attorney general, and James Talarico. That is in the state of Texas and is replacing Senator John Cornyn, who was defeated in the primary. That's close. How close, we'll see.
Walker Wildmon: The hesitation I have about getting really into the weeds of that race and getting my blood pressure up is that analysts and pollsters have wrongly predicted the Texas Senate race outcome for pretty much the last 15 years. We've been told multiple times, specifically with Senator Cruz's races, that the Democrats were going to take Texas, that Texas was up for grabs, and that the Democrats were going to take Texas. Every time over the last 12 to 14 years, that has turned out to be patently false.
Walker Wildmon: Some candidates came uncomfortably close, within a couple of percentage points of winning Texas, but we're still talking about hundreds of thousands of votes' differential. With that being the history, I'm not overly concerned about Texas, but we'll see, and I'm open to being proven wrong.
Walker Wildmon: It is fair to say it's a close race. How close? Pretty close, two to four points. Will Talarico win and beat Paxton? I don't think so, but we'll see.
Walker Wildmon: The other race that is close is in Georgia. The race is between John Ossoff and Mike Collins. Mike Collins is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Ossoff is a Democrat from Georgia. Remember, this is the race after the 2020 election. I think that was a runoff or a special election in Georgia.
Walker Wildmon: Nonetheless, Georgia is a pretty reliably red state, at least from a presidential standpoint, and that election is between Ossoff and Mike Collins. Democrats are on defense there. For every one or two states such as Texas, where you might say, “Talarico is going to beat Paxton in Texas. They're going to flip the Senate seat there,” there is one that the Democrats are really on defense about. Georgia is one of those. Ossoff is going to have to really work overtime to keep that Senate seat in Georgia.
Walker Wildmon: The other race is up in Michigan. This is between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. Georgia's candidate is Mike Collins, and Michigan's is Mike Rogers, once again another member of the U.S. House of Representatives running for the Senate seat. El-Sayed is running on the Democratic side. There are the clips of him out there and his different policy positions that we've played on the show as well.
Walker Wildmon: That is one where the Democrats are going to have to fight hard to keep a Democratic-held Senate seat. Mike Rogers is putting the Democrats on their heels and on defense there in the state of Michigan.
Walker Wildmon: In Maine, Susan Collins is working to keep her incumbency. I'm not too concerned about Republicans losing that Senate seat in Maine, simply based on the fact that she's an incumbent and has held that Senate seat for multiple elections without a problem.
Walker Wildmon: If I asked many people around the country, and even in Maine, who is running on behalf of the Democrats, they would say, “I don't know.” That's because the former independent candidate was removed after the primary. He actually won the primary, and then the Democratic Party came in, removed him, and handpicked someone else. That's why the name recognition for that candidate is not very good in Maine.
Walker Wildmon: Lisa Murkowski is running in Alaska. She's an incumbent Republican senator. I'm not too concerned about whether or not she will lose that seat, simply because she's once again a long-term incumbent and has a pretty safe seat there in Alaska.
Walker Wildmon: Let me tell you what could alter all of this: low voter turnout on behalf of the Republican Party. That could change the game here, and not in a good way for the Republicans. There are a couple of factors at play here that could hurt the Republicans.
Walker Wildmon: I'm just objectively giving you the lay of the land based on my opinion, and you can take it or leave it. There are a couple of factors at play here that are hurting the Republicans. Number one, it's a midterm election cycle. Voter turnout in a midterm election cycle is just not as good as in a general presidential election, which is every four years. That's working against both parties, honestly, probably more so against Republicans.
Walker Wildmon: Secondly, the economic rebound that President Trump had fervently promised and been working toward has taken somewhat of a detour, largely because of the Iran conflict. You and I could debate back and forth, and we'll do some of that in the next segment, about whether we should have gone into Iran or not. We can exhaustively debate that.
Walker Wildmon: But the fact of the matter is, no matter where you fall on that, and whether you think it was a good idea or a bad idea, your geopolitical viewpoints and whatever else you think about it are beside the point. I'm just telling you as a matter of fact that the Iran war, the rising 10-year yield, rising fuel prices, rising mortgage rates, and now-rising inflation numbers are factors.
Walker Wildmon: There are deeply Republican and conservative people who are gung-ho that we should have gone into Iran. They are glad we're fighting Iran, believe we have to take out the Iranian regime, and are all in on that. That's fine. But from a reelection standpoint, folks, there is no doubt that the Iran war is hurting the Republicans in the polling. That's a fact because that's what the polls say.
Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to At the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you back with us. I'm Walker Wildmon. Last segment, we talked a little bit about the elections coming up in November. By the way, you need to be registered and you need to vote. That's a fact.
Walker Wildmon: Wherever you land ideologically, in order to keep this great republic rolling, we have to be registered and we have to vote. It is a civic duty, and as a born-again believer, it is a biblical duty as well.
Walker Wildmon: We have been given stewardship authority over the country, over our community, over our town, over our city, over our family, and over our church. Whatever you've been given and entrusted with, we're called to be good stewards of. Our vote is another one of those things that we are called to be good stewards of. All Christians should be registered and should vote.
Walker Wildmon: Sitting on the sidelines is not an option. I want to hammer that home. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option, regardless of how you feel or whatever vibe you're getting. Sitting on the sidelines and disengagement in this culture, in this fight for righteousness, and for the preservation of Western civilization is not on the checklist. It's not an option. I want to hammer that home as much as I can.
Walker Wildmon: Let's get back into the nuts and bolts of this election and what it means. I'm going to end on somewhat of a positive note, so don't get worried. This isn't doom and gloom.
Walker Wildmon: The Republicans have a challenge here. The challenge is that President Trump inherited an absolute disaster from Biden. From an economic standpoint, President Trump inherited an absolute disaster from President Biden.
Walker Wildmon: If you remember, and I've got the charts to back this up, as a country we were on a pretty fast track toward somewhat of an economic recovery after Trump was elected the second time. I can tell you that because inflation was dropping precipitously. Inflation was on the decline, and energy prices were at roughly 20-year lows.
Walker Wildmon: We were looking at it at the pump. We were looking at gasoline at $2.25 prior to the Iran war. I don't know about you, but I don't remember the last time gas was at $2.25. We're probably going back to before Obama, but some of the fact-checkers out there can check me. I don't remember the last time we had $2.25 gas. Maybe during Trump's first term we got there a little bit, but nonetheless, regardless of the timeline, we were headed toward $2 gasoline prior to the Iran war. Some stations had it below $2, at $1.95 or $1.97. That is a big deal.
Walker Wildmon: That rapid energy affordability being put forth by President Trump and his policies was leading to the drop in inflation. The markets were doing well and still are doing well, by the way. Wages were going up, and employment was going up. All of these things were looking good, and some of the data points are still looking good, but inflation is not looking good. This is largely due to energy costs.
Walker Wildmon: That is what Republicans are up against as they try to vie for the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Walker Wildmon: One thing that is helping them, though, is that the Democrats have gone completely off the deep end. The Democratic Party at large has largely lost its mind, and we've got the receipts. I've played them on the program.
Walker Wildmon: What the Republican Party must do, and some are doing this, is put forth a narrative that says, “Look, voters, we're the party of sanity. We're the party of common sense. We're the party of solutions. We're the party of opportunity, free markets, capitalism, national defense, and a closed border. We are the party of common sense. America first, American values, embracing our Founding Fathers and American history, and getting this country back on track. That is what we're for.”
Walker Wildmon: That should be the messaging of the Republican Party. We are the party of sanity. In large part, the facts back that up. They can easily make that case.
Walker Wildmon: What we don't need to do as conservatives, and what the Republican Party doesn't need to do, is get sidetracked on bad ideas. I've got an example of this, and then we'll move on to the Democrats and talk about their problems, which are many.
Walker Wildmon: President Trump stated in Dallas during his speech this week that he was going to give $5,000 to every U.S. citizen if the Republicans keep the House and the Senate. Let's listen to this pitch, talk through it, and then jump over and talk about the Democrats.
President Trump: What we're doing is, because we've done so well and because our country is making so much money, only I can make this promise to you. Here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our tremendous economic success, like in history we've never had anything like what's happening, but because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.
President Trump: A successful company will do a cash distribution to its shareholders, or like last year when I gave our great members of the military $1,776. Remember?
Walker Wildmon: There you have it. That was just part of President Trump's speech. By the way, the vast majority of the speech was very good. Very good ideas, very good policies, and very optimistic, especially when he talked about getting past the Iran war, energy prices dropping, inflation dropping, and being on the road to recovery. Very, very good messaging on that front.
Walker Wildmon: Here's why this is a bad idea. I try not to be negative. I'm definitely not the one who loves to poke at President Trump like some do and do it obnoxiously. I think that's unnecessary. Many of the president's policies are absolutely phenomenal.
Walker Wildmon: Here's why this idea needs to be put in the past record book as an idea that once was and is no more. It doesn't need to be brought up only during the campaign anymore, by the way. Here's why this is a bad idea.
Walker Wildmon: First off, these types of stimulus payments, whatever they're for and whatever your reasoning is, are inflationary. We learned this lesson during COVID, when everybody was sent checks: working, not working, on welfare, not on welfare, millionaire, non-millionaire, whatever.
Walker Wildmon: These stimulus payments, which you can call dividends or welfare, whatever you want to brand them as, are cash payments to American voters and citizens. They are inflationary. It's a fact. In order to send $5,000 to every U.S. citizen, you have to print over a trillion dollars.
Walker Wildmon: We're running an over $2 trillion deficit right now, and that is set to go up. Why? Because the 10-year yield is up, and borrowing rates are up.
Walker Wildmon: By the time President Trump, or the Republicans, rather, are reelected in January and sworn in, who knows where the 10-year yield will be? Who knows where borrowing interest costs will be? Right now, we are servicing about $1 trillion in interest on the debt, and then we've got another trillion dollars of money we don't have that we're printing to fund the government.
Walker Wildmon: We have an expansive welfare state, and we spend too much money. That's a fact. Nobody can distribute that. The last thing we need to be doing is sending everybody $5,000. It's inflationary and unnecessary.
Walker Wildmon: Here's what we can do, and here's the optimism. I think we can do a cut, or elimination for some or all, of the federal income tax. If you really want to get people excited, if you really want to get Republican voters excited, you tell them, and let's not even say elimination because maybe that's overly aggressive, “We're going to cut the federal income tax. We're going to take it from this percentage to that percentage. You're going to get hundreds of dollars back in your paycheck every month,” whatever the case is.
Walker Wildmon: Let's do that. Let's not take my money, filter it through the federal government, and then send it back to me. Let's not do that. That's the problem with big government. Let's just let the American people keep their money to begin with. That's my position.
Walker Wildmon: I think President Trump and the Republicans need to pivot and talk about cutting the federal income tax. This is 100 percent achievable through reconciliation with a simple majority in both chambers, by the way.
Walker Wildmon: The Republicans right now could reduce the federal income tax legislatively through reconciliation with a simple majority. They could do that right now.
Walker Wildmon: I think that's what needs to be done. I think sending $5,000 to every American is not smart. It's bad policy. It's morally wrong. There are other ways to give financial relief to the American people that don't involve stimulus checks. Cutting the federal income tax is one of them. I think it's a great idea, and I think President Trump and the Republicans need to pivot to that.
Walker Wildmon: I think that will get people excited. I think that will change the vibe when it comes to the economic outlook, getting past the Iran conflict, energy prices coming down, and taxes going down as well.
Walker Wildmon: As I said earlier, the Democrats have a whole lot of problems. I'm going to play a clip of Representative Al Green. This is what the Democrats are talking like, and this is why I think the Republicans have a chance of keeping the House and the Senate: The Democrats are so far off the deep end.
Walker Wildmon: This is current Texas Congressman Al Green talking about his deep concern for transgender illegal immigrants and how wrongly they're being treated in federal holding facilities. This is clip two.
Al Green: Dear Secretary Noem, I write to express my deep concern over reports of hazardous conditions for transgender immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities resulting from deliberate agency policies, including the denial of medical care and removal of protections for transgender individuals.
Al Green: In recent months, the federal government has halted the provision of specialized medical care for transgender detainees in at least 10 detention centers across the nation, which experts have warned can cause physical and mental health complications.
Al Green: Additionally, the Trump administration ended a Biden-era policy of reserving detention center units for transgender women. As a result, transgender women in detention facilities have been placed either with men or in solitary confinement.
Walker Wildmon: I liked that English at the end.
Chris Woodward: That was pretty rough to listen to.
Walker Wildmon: “Boba, boba, boba.” Has already been consumed.
Chris Woodward: You could tell he didn't read his own speech.
Walker Wildmon: No.
Chris Woodward: He got up there.
Walker Wildmon: No. This is Bobby.
Walker Wildmon: The Democrats just keep giving Republicans their greatest gift, and that is these clips of them talking loony. “It might cause physical and mental damage.” I'm sorry, too late. They've already done that to themselves.
Chris Woodward: Duly noted, based on their condition.
Walker Wildmon: Folks, tell me how many voters are concerned at all with transgender illegal immigrants.
Chris Woodward: It's in the top 10.
Walker Wildmon: Top 100. Folks, this doesn't even make it on the survey summary. Even on page 49, this doesn't make the cut, folks. This is just not a concern among voters.
Walker Wildmon: Not only is it dumb, and we don't need to be catering to transgender illegal immigrant inmates, but this is not an issue. This is not a problem that voters care about. I couldn't care less.
Walker Wildmon: This is where the Democrats are. They keep talking about things that voters just don't care about. I'm talking about the general election and the broad majority of voters. They do not care about transgender inmates in federal detention facilities.
Walker Wildmon: Once again, Republicans must capitalize on this and make the case that they are the party of common sense, the party of sanity, and the party that's going to hold this country together. That's the case that ought to be made.
Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to At the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on the program. As a brief reminder, we would greatly appreciate it if you would subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Just type in At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green, click the subscribe or follow button, and the show will be queued up in your library each and every day.
Walker Wildmon: Chris Woodward from American Family News, AFN.net, is with us. Chris, welcome back.
Chris Woodward: Thank you very much.
Walker Wildmon: Chris, we've been talking about midterms for the last two segments, and we're going to continue that discussion. Then we'll get a little bit into the markets and economics.
Walker Wildmon: I did look this up for our audience. The question is whether Republicans, or any Congress, could alter the federal income tax code through reconciliation with a simple majority. The short answer is yes. Republicans, through reconciliation, could alter the federal income tax code and reduce the tax rate for certain individuals or families.
Walker Wildmon: To me, that is the most appealing, conservative, fiscally responsible path forward here. But you've done some interviews. What are your thoughts?
Chris Woodward: Number one, a lot of people are in favor of getting rid of the 16th Amendment or drastically changing it. The 16th Amendment is the one that gives Congress the power to collect a federal income tax from any source without basing it on the population of each state.
Chris Woodward: It's going to be interesting to see people get behind this. I think a lot of libertarians will get behind it, which is interesting given that it's a midterm election year. A lot of libertarians have always been of the opinion, and I would agree with this, that taxation is theft. You'll even see red MAGA-style hats sometimes that say, “Make taxation theft again,” and things like that. I think he's probably got some support there.
Chris Woodward: I don't know that you'll get a lot of support from moderates, especially moderates in bluish areas, because they're still going to want big government funding this or that.
Walker Wildmon: Sure.
Chris Woodward: They want big government to fund this or that by taking taxes from people every couple of weeks.
Walker Wildmon: Here's the thing. There are two points. Number one, you're right about the 16th Amendment as far as how it is authorized, but Congress can't unilaterally repeal the 16th Amendment. Congress does have discretion over the rate and the code, the specific code itself.
Walker Wildmon: The 16th Amendment, to your point, gives them the legal authority to dip into our paychecks and fund whatever they want. But they can alter the rate or even bring it down to zero theoretically without repealing the amendment.
Walker Wildmon: Nonetheless, just from a practical, table-talk economics perspective, we do have a massive deficit. When you talk about reducing revenue by reducing the federal income tax, the question is, where do we make up that money? I don't know the answer to that. There are probably some people out there who have a couple of ideas.
Chris Woodward: The one thing that we all agree on is that the government needs to shrink. They need to stop spending as much money.
Walker Wildmon: Yes.
Chris Woodward: Those are hard decisions. You have to shut down agencies, and you have to let people go. Those are hard decisions as far as affecting people. But in the grand scheme of our country, it's not really a hard decision. We're talking about survival here. That's a practical consideration.
Walker Wildmon: Nonetheless, Chris, I'm just giving my personal opinion here, so take it or leave it. I think President Trump and the Republicans need to respectfully ditch the idea of $5,000 stimulus payments, dividend payments, or whatever. I would not bring that up ever again over the next two months. I wouldn't even talk about it.
Walker Wildmon: I would talk about reducing the federal income tax. I would talk about shrinking the size of government. I would keep talking about how President Trump has secured the border. I would talk about him keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. I think that resonates. There are a lot of things he's done. I would hit the high points and the positive points. I would not bring up the stimulus payment one more time.
Walker Wildmon: I would also come up with a very polished response for the inevitable answer that a socialist is going to throw out at them. Let's imagine there's a debate between El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, for example. Mike Rogers in Michigan says something bad about socialism, saying, “This guy wants to take your money and fund this or that.” El-Sayed would naturally come back with, “Your guy just threw out the idea of $5,000 for everybody.”
Chris Woodward: That is being referred to by a lot of critics as socialistic. For example, I interviewed a guy named Wayne Crews at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He told me, “Trump is normalizing the idea of giving checks to able-bodied adults, which, to tell you the truth, is a dream come true for progressives. Once you get the public hooked on getting checks for nothing, money for nothing, limited government is over.”
Chris Woodward: You need to have a really good response for that inevitable comeback, and then never talk about it again.
Walker Wildmon: I agree. I think there's a lot of smart people in the campaign, and President Trump has hired a lot of good people in his administration. There's a lot to be thankful for, and there's a lot of positive within the Trump administration. I do not want to overlook that.
Walker Wildmon: But I think this was a mistake. I think they can pivot, and I think they can recover pretty quickly with a narrative shift toward more free-market and less-taxation ideas that 100 percent of Republicans will agree on.
Walker Wildmon: Chris, let's shift to the economy and the markets. This is going to play a factor in the midterms as well. Tell us what the latest is, either on energy or the 10-year yield, or whatever you have.
Chris Woodward: It's a mixed bag. We have some good numbers. The NFIB index of small-business optimism was a good, high number. You want it to be around 100, and we got that. That's a good number.
Chris Woodward: Unemployment claims continue to produce great headlines. This is from the Associated Press, and I'm sure it's paying them to write it this way: “U.S. unemployment claims dipped to 206,000 last week, remaining at historically low levels with layoffs relatively scarce.” That's a very good feather in the cap for the Trump administration.
Chris Woodward: The problem is that on Thursday, the market just plummeted. The Dow was down 316, the Nasdaq 171, and the S&P 44.
Walker Wildmon: Why?
Chris Woodward: Because oil broke $100 and stayed there.
Walker Wildmon: $100 a barrel.
Chris Woodward: This is an opinion show. Here's my opinion. I'm not a financial adviser. Take it or leave it, and I could be wrong.
Chris Woodward: The seasonality here and the market showing some weakness is completely normal. I'm actually surprised that we hadn't seen weakness before now. We saw a little bit a couple of weeks ago. Nonetheless, I think the market overall is healthy.
Chris Woodward: People claim there is an artificial intelligence bubble. I think there are going to be winners and losers, as there are with every industrial buildout. But overall, these companies are bringing in massive amounts of revenue and cash. That is not necessarily comparable to the 2001 bubble or the 2000 bubble.
Walker Wildmon: Overall, Chris, I think that if we can get past the Iran war energy-cost concerns, which are valid and out there, because there has been somewhat of a supply disruption, and start to trend back toward prewar energy-cost levels, that is going to be a game changer. It will bring down inflation 100 percent.
Walker Wildmon: The question is, how long until that happens?
Chris Woodward: Right. That's what voters and the public don't know. Are we going to be back on the downward trend from an energy-cost standpoint in three months, six months, or a year? What does this look like? We just don't know.
Chris Woodward: But overall, once we get past that, the fundamentals are strong. The employment outlook is pretty strong. The Federal Reserve does not need to touch rates, in my opinion. They don't need to raise them, and they don't need to lower them. They just need to go on vacation for three years and quit messing with interest rates.
Chris Woodward: If they lower rates, people will say that's going to cause more inflation. If they raise them, they're going to start breaking things. That's my opinion. I think energy costs are the main concern. If we get past that, overall market health is pretty good.
Walker Wildmon: Historically, the month of September is terrible. It's the worst month of the year historically, for decades on end. Take that with a grain of salt.
Chris Woodward: Keep in mind, we're entering the period of the year when gas prices do start to come down because people are back in school all over the country. Demand is starting to fall, and they don't require all kinds of things to be added to gasoline for environmental purposes.
Chris Woodward: We are about to enter a period when, historically, we're going to see gas prices come down. If President Trump could bring an end to this, and we've talked about this before on the show, you're going to see them come down even more. You're right: It is going to bring down the cost of a lot of things based on energy being cheaper.
Walker Wildmon: If it ends after the midterm elections, it will be interesting to see how that might shape 2028.
Chris Woodward: That seems way far away.
Walker Wildmon: My personal opinion is that 2028 is going to have the Republicans set up for success, if I could project. Once again, this is pure projection and pure opinion, but that's what we get paid for.
Walker Wildmon: I think that if you get past the Iran conflict, meaning stability in the Middle East generally speaking, and energy levels return to where they were prewar, that means inflation is on the decline, you get back to $2 gasoline, wage growth continues to grow, and the employment market seems to be stable. Wage growth, by the way, has actually been doing pretty well.
Walker Wildmon: The artificial intelligence buildout is still going strong. You're talking about success. The Republicans are going to have a strong case in 2028 for why they should continue leading the country.
Walker Wildmon: If Democrats do get control of one chamber and do a bunch of silly things every day and act like a fool on social media, Republicans can point to that as a reason why those people should never have control again, should they have to campaign that way in 2028.
Walker Wildmon: I think it's going to be very interesting to watch. Let me throw out a bit of caution here, too. A couple of months ago, we had a really terrible headline number when it came to the July jobs report. Then the August number came in and did really well, blowing out expectations. It was 162,000, when we thought we were going to see a lot less than that.
Walker Wildmon: When you look down at the bottom, where they talk about revisions, it turns out that we had a lot more jobs in the last couple of months than the federal government initially reported. Anytime we talk on this show, or somebody talks about a disappointing jobs report, give it a month. We're probably going to get a completely different number.
Chris Woodward: Take it with a grain of salt.
Walker Wildmon: The vibe changes every month depending on what the data is showing.
Walker Wildmon: Chris, I think President Trump has handled this Iran conflict as well as he can, given the circumstances. But if he and Rubio can get to 2027 and 2028 and say, “We eliminated virtually the Iranian terror regime. We neutered their ability to export terror in the region and the world. They don't have a nuclear weapon, and they're not getting a nuclear weapon, by golly. Gas is back at $2.25, the CPI is down to 2 percent or below, and mortgage rates are perhaps in the 5 percent range,” that is a very strong position.
Walker Wildmon: Considering that all your analysts and predictors would have told you that any president who went against Iran would see $200-a-barrel gas, tens of thousands of troops dead, and a decades-long war, all the doomsday predictions would not have come to pass, and the Iran threat would have been addressed. That is a strong 2028 message.
Chris Woodward: It will be interesting to see how Vance or Rubio might push that message, assuming they form some sort of a ticket. I still think it's going to end up being a Vance-Rubio arrangement. They'll promote Rubio to vice president. That would be a promotion, because if you did Rubio and Vance, that would upset somebody on the Trump side of things.
Chris Woodward: I'm tending to believe it's going to end up being Vance and Rubio, and the selling point is going to be that it gets you Ohio and Florida.
Walker Wildmon: Please, people. Let me ask you this: Who are the Democratic leaders? President Obama, we don't even know where he is. Is he at Martha's Vineyard? Is he in Hawaii? Nobody knows where he is. Who is their leader?
Chris Woodward: That's a good question. I think probably right now he's holding court, maybe talking to the Soros' and other people who have a lot of money to burn. But if I had to guess right now, there are a half dozen Democrats who are going to put their hats in the ring early.
Chris Woodward: You're going to have Gretchen Whitmer. You're going to have J.B. Pritzker out of Illinois. Gavin Newsom is chomping at the bit. You'll probably have AOC, and Harris may reenter. She'll test the waters again.
Walker Wildmon: Harris and her 1 percent.
Chris Woodward: If she gets in again and then drops out before Iowa, she's never running for office again.
Chris Woodward: Maybe you could go back to Kelly. Some people thought she was going to run. She was going to move back to California and run for governor there. But no, Becerra is the Democratic nominee going up against Steve Hilton, which is still, I think, a toss-up between now and Election Day.
Walker Wildmon: You can complain about the Republicans. You can complain about this or that. But folks, the Democrats don't have anybody. They don't have anybody who is going to make a broad appeal to the general public in a general presidential election. They just don't.
Walker Wildmon: Could somebody come on the scene? Could an Obama 2.0 come on the scene over the next 24 months? Maybe. But I'm not sure the radicals will allow it. I'm not sure AOC is going to allow a so-called moderate to come on the scene and lead the party into the future.
Walker Wildmon: They have some serious problems that I'm sure the Republicans are a little bit relieved by. Chris, thanks for coming in.
Chris Woodward: Thank you.
Walker Wildmon: Our folks are going to keep up with the news. For all things from a Christian perspective, go over to AFN.net, American Family News. Check it out. We'll see you next time.
President Trump is promising a $5,000 payment to every American adult if Republicans retain control of Congress in November. Walker Wildmon and Chris Woodward discuss that proposal, Rep. Al Green's focus on transgender immigrants in ICE custody, and George W. Bush's message about Islam as the nation marks 25 years since 9/11.
Live
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