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>> Walker Wildmon: We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We quit.
>> Walker Wildmon: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because. We know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is At the Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to the corps here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with you on this live edition of the program. And we'll have some special guests with us in the next two segments. Let's turn our attention to the scripture.
Proverbs chapter 16 is where we have been this week discussing government
Proverbs chapter 16 is where we have been this week. And looking at verse 12 here. It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts. For a throne is established on righteousness. It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts. For a throne is established on righteousness. That's Proverbs chapter 16, verse 12. And that scripture there gives us one of a variety, a multitude of, of evidence that government is not just an institution created by God, but it is also a institution that was intended to be righteous, that was intended to do justice. And that's why we have government as we know it today. So that directly runs counter to a lot of the modern secularist claims that government is this man made concoction and that it can be, you know, whoever's in charge, they should just be able to get their way, and things like that. That's not the way government was intended. And when government strays from its God ordained purpose, great evil exists, great evil happens and We've seen that throughout human history. And so this is why it's important that we are constantly reminding our elected officials and our citizenry that government is a God ordained institution. And it exists to be an agent of justice, an agent of righteousness. And when it loses track of that, great, injustice will occur. There's no doubt about that.
Wildman Group has several events coming up in the next few months
Well, we've got some travel coming up over the next six to eight months and I just want to mention a couple of events that we have coming up in. In early October. We're going to be here in Tupelo at a weekend with afa. This is our first ever weekend with afa. It's a three day event here in Tupelo, Mississippi. We're going to be having great fellowship speakers. We're going to be having a reception here at our headquarters in our new facility. And speakers like Jerry Boyer with Boyer Research, Tim Barton with Wall Builders. Jenna Ellis will be here and others at our weekend with AFA. That's October 2nd through the 4th. So if you want to join us here in Tupelo you can simply go over to afa.netevents afa.net forward/events and you'll see that there, that event there. another event I want to mention is our tours, our spiritual heritage tours that we do each year. We have a few seats left for the Williamsburg portion, of the September tour coming up. So the September tour, we have some seats available. You can go over to wildmangroup.com for more information on that. We'll also be going to Israel and Greece in March of next year, which is just right around the corner. In March of 2026 we'll be doing Greece and Israel, back to back. And you can do both or just one or the other, whichever your preference is there. That's also@wildman group.com well, let's jump into a couple news stories while we have time.
Over 100 dead in Texas flooding; over 100 missing still
This segment, the this Texas flooding is just tragic. that's the only way to put it. And it rivals the what we saw in Kentucky last year as far as the magnitude of damage and things like that. I want to play a clip here. This is of an individual who was actually on the ground, in the hours after the flooding from Texas. His name's Brandon Herrera. He's a resident in Texas. And listen to him describe the flooding impact here in Texas.
>> Brandon Herrera: So we first went up the night of the 4th just to kind of get a feel for the situation, it's probably 30 minutes away from where we are. So these are our neighbors, these are people that we know in the community. And it was, it was shocking to see. There's cars and trees. it's hard to believe just how violent the water is. I've seen floods before. I've never seen anything quite like this. I mean the, the amount of force behind rushing water, it's breaking trees like toothpicks. It's got conex containers, up in trees. It's just, it's kind of insane, the devastation.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's just a brief clip on some of the damage that was done in the impact. Of course we've had. There's over 100 fatalities at this point and over 100 missing still. They haven't recovered. So that fatality count, will unfortunately continue to rise as the days go on.
M. M. Cohen: The flooding in Texas is just incomprehensible
The other, clip I want to play here and then we'll kind of talk about this situation. That's a tragedy is the extent of the damage. Meaning how far did this go? this is clip two. Let's listen.
>> Brandon Herrera: Well, there was one that went pretty viral of a woman that was stuck in a tree. she was up in a tree maybe 30ft in the air, that they were finally able to get to a woman in her, her mid-20s. which was, which was awesome to see. There's a couple stories of miraculous recoveries like that. But just with the violence, of the water, you're finding people maybe 20, 30 miles from where they were picked up.
>> Walker Wildmon: Wow, this is There's no good way to explain what happened as far as words to comprehend the human toll that this took and the fatalities and the families impacted and children missing. M. this whole thing is just very, very sad. when you look at it, I think it's. We always as humans want solutions. We always want. We seem to want to fix things and we tend to want to blame other people for problems. And this is one of those tragedies that is unexplainable. I mean there's just nothing about it that is explainable in any way that makes sense for the human mind. And when you look at the, the likelihood of this level of flooding occurring in this area, I don't know. I haven't looked at the history, but I know for sure. In Kentucky, with last year's flooding, that was a hundred year event. That was a, once in a century or more in Some areas level flooding event. And I don't even know if it's likely that this is even worse than that. Meaning this in Texas is like a 1 and 2 century event. Or maybe there is no recorded history of this level of flooding in that area ever happening. before. I mean, there were so many records broken on the rain and the flooding totals that this is just incomprehensible. Now leave it to the media to try to blame somebody for this. Right? you know, in the, in the early hours of this, they were blaming the National Weather Service. Well, President Trump cut the budget of the National Weather Service and thus people died. I kid you not, I kid you not. That happened even though there, there is zero evidence to support that. But that doesn't stop people from making stuff up because after all, they want to go after Trump. Right? It's all about going after Trump. And they've been trying this lazy game for the last 10 years. And here we are. The reality is that the National Weather Service put out multiple flood, warnings and emergency alerts to the affected areas hours, hours before there was any flooding. So the National Weather Service did their job. But who could have predicted this, right? Who could have, predicted this level of flooding? And then, you know, another part of it that is unexplainable is the fact that it happened at night. The fact that it happened at night, everybody's asleep and nobody's thinking that, hey, my house is about to get swept away by water and I'm sleeping. Who sleeps thinking their house is going to get swept away by water. so I'm sure there's going to be a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking. There's going to be a lot of hindsight, maybe there's some warning systems that can be installed, for, tragedies like this to prevent them in the future. I'm sure there will be some, solutions presented, but, some things in life are just unexplainable. and this is why it is important to remember, that God is sovereign. And this life is but a vapor in the wind. It's brief, and that we exist as humans for eternity. Our life on this earth is designed by God to prepare us for, eternity. And how God uses tragedy for his purposes is very difficult to understand, especially when you're the one suffering, when you're the one hurting. But as we see throughout scripture and throughout our lives today, God undoubtedly every time uses, tragedy to draw people to himself and to not oversimplify this, but to yet keep things Easy to understand. When you understand the fallen nature of the world, these things are at least easier to comprehend. And I think that this is where the unbeliever gets way off track in their solutions to fix everything. The reality is this world is not intended to be perfect. Ever since the fall in Genesis, we live in a fallen world. M and so this earth that we know today is not intended to be our final resting place. It is not intended to be our heavenly resting place. And so as long as, we're here and until Christ returns, there's going to be suffering. There's going to be suffering. It doesn't matter how much technology we develop, how many warning systems we put in place, how much our medical technology and treatments advance. Now we can do our part and be responsible stewards of God's creations and stewards of our bodies because he describes them as temples. So this isn't, a lecture that we ought to neglect everything, right, and throw our hands up and lean into, our fallenness and sin nature. That's not the case at all. But my point is that we're not the ultimate fixers here. We're not here to fix everything. And when you understand that, it really gives you a sense of peace. It gives you a sense of peace because as long as you think that fallen humans can fix everything and fix everybody's problems and relieve everybody of their illnesses and relieve everybody of their difficulties, then, you're not going to have true peace because you're placing a false sense of responsibility and a false sense of power and control in your hands that ultimately you don't have. And this is the fundamental worldview difference, between the believer and the unbeliever. Ultimately, God is sovereign. He uses circumstances, both good and bad in this life to teach us about him, to draw us to Himself. And our job is to prepare ourselves to the best that we can for our eternal resting place in heaven. And when you have that frame of mind, it's a little bit easier to go through difficulty. Hello, everybody. I'm Walker Wildmon, vice president here at American Family Association. Well, my brother Wesley and I were following in the footsteps of my dad, our dad, and my grandfather, Don Wildmon, by leading tours to places of the Bible. And so this next March, we're going to be going to Greece and following the footsteps of Paul. So we're so very excited about this trip, and we hope you'll join us. Here's a couple of the places that we're going to visit. We're going to visit Philippi Thessalonica, Corinth, and, all the various Greek cities that you read about in the Book of Acts and Paul's Epistles. And so you can find the dates, locations, pricing and much more over at Wildmon. You can also find out more about my dad's trip and my mom over, to Israel. They're going to be in Israel in March as well. These trips are back to back and you can do both if you would like all the information about footsteps of Paul, Greece, Israel, all of these trips in March of 2026, just visit wildmangroup.com at. The Core podcast are [email protected] now back.
>> Jeff Chamblee: To At the Core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio welcomes two guests in studio this week
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, back to the core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this edition of the program. Just a reminder, you can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Just type in the name of the program At the Core and click the subscribe button and the show will be queued up in your library each and every day. Well, I do want to introduce our guests that we have in studio. Both guests today in studio, which is a rarity. Scott Burns is with us. He's founder of 7 Days for the Troops and that, ministry. That organization is headquartered here in Tupelo, Mississippi. And, he's a Marine, veteran. And he's with us now to talk about some of his work. Hey, Scott, welcome to the studio.
>> Scott Burns: Hey, thanks for having me.
Give us a little bit of your background, give us your military background
>> Walker Wildmon: Tell us, before we get into your organization, the work you guys do, how long you've been around, things like that, give us a little bit of your background, give us your military background and your experience.
>> Scott Burns: Well, I served in the Marines from 1991 to 1995. While I was in, I had injured, my ankle, my left ankle, and had multiple surgeries on it from the time that I got out to, probably 2012. I ended up having my left leg amputated right below the knee. Had that injury, dealt with it for 12, 13 years and wore out the right ankle. Had an ankle replacement done and, and be three years ago in November. that ankle replacement got infected and had to have it amputated. but originally from Jackson M, Mississippi and moved to Tupelo when I got out of the Marines. Actually worked here at AFA for a little while.
>> Walker Wildmon: Nice. Yeah, Bobby mentioned that when he and I were talking about bringing you in, I said before my time.
>> Scott Burns: Before your time. That was, I want to say, 97. 97 time frame. And so but loved it when I worked here. This place has, has definitely grown since 97. I've enjoyed watching it grow and watching buildings be torn down and stuff built and all the behind the scenes with that. But just love the work that AFA does.
Seven Days for the Troops is a nonprofit organization that helps veterans
>> Walker Wildmon: So your organization, Seven Days for the Troops, once again, this is a nonprofit organization based, near Tupelo here. And did you, what year did you start the organization and give us a little backstory? There's gotta be a, purpose and some kind of conviction that you had that this is something you want to do full time.
>> Scott Burns: Well, we, we are in our 19th year and basically what had happened was I was sitting at home, I was feeling bad because I really loved being in the M. Military, I loved being in the Marines. And I was at that point of the Gulf War was going on and I couldn't serve and I was kind of not, I don't. Depressed might not be the word, but just really disappointed and I wanted to do something. And I saw a story where these kids were raising money to buy calling cards to send overseas and I was like, you know what, I can do something to help them. And so I ended up calling them all here in Tupelo and said, hey, I want to do something crazy. I want to build a tower in your parking lot out of scaffolding and then I want to camp out on top of it for seven days. And that was that we just called it a support the troops event. It was going to be a one time deal. And then we, you know, we ended up doing it the next couple of years and we, we, we decided, you know, a couple years ago to form our own 501C3. Because in the past we had teamed up and we helped like cell phones for soldiers and, and the Wounded Warrior Project and other groups that were already helping veterans. But the only issue with that was, is there came a time where people knew we were raising money to help veterans and they would come to us and say, hey, I know this veteran that can't pay a utility bill or just different needs like that.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Scott Burns: And because we were raising money for a different organization, we didn't have the freedom to go and take care of that veterans bill. And a lot of the groups that we were working with, that wasn't their mission. They had, they were building homes that they were doing. And so we couldn't just call them and say, hey, do you mind paying this bill? And so we wanted to still be able to help those organizations, but be able to help Veterans as they reached out to us. And so, four years ago, we formed our own 501C3. And that's where, you know, how we got to where we're at now.
>> Walker Wildmon: What. What's the primary. I know you guys probably do a lot of things. I'm not intimately familiar with your operation, but what's. What's. What are the. Some of the things you guys do that you're most well known for, that you're good at as far as serving veterans?
>> Scott Burns: the thing that I'm good. I mean, and not this is going to sound like I'm bragging, but I'm good at raising funds. And so we're good at teaming up with other nonprofits. But the things that we do here locally are pay utility bills and pay, we even help to pay funeral expenses for a veteran that couldn't afford, you know, to bury their child and that. And so we're known for helping in emergency situations. but the other thing that, you know, we are known for is we. We just finished our second project in conjunction with a group called Purport Homes. They're based out of Statesville, North Carolina. But we've been able to build three tiny homes for veterans in North Mississippi. and those are things that people have recognized that we're doing. And because of those, I think people are reaching out to us more. And we're also of the mindset with Seven Days for the Troops is we can't help everybody.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right?
>> Scott Burns: But we've built a network and relationships with other organizations that we know who to reach out to or at least point people in the right direction. And so that's kind of what's helped us grow and help us become a trusted veteran nonprofit. And we don't have a paid staff. we don't have. Up until this year, nobody's ever gotten paid through seven Days for the Truth. But we teamed up and we formed a chapter with Purple Art Homes out of Statesville. And they've asked us. They came to me and said, hey, Scott, we like what you do. We want you to come help us, but we want to pay you to do it. And so that was something that I talked to my wife about, and I was like, you know what? For 19 years, we've given, given, given, so it's okay. So they cover a lot of my expenses and things like that. But 100% of every dollar that's donated goes to help veterans. Everything that we've ever brought in, we've never paid any expenses. Our expenses are Paid because we go and find sponsors to cover certain items that we need. so that's how we've built the reputation that we have is people know that we're helping veterans. And that's. I think people like to know that when they donate to a. Just like when they donate to AFA, they know AFA's mission and they're doing that mission.
>> Walker Wildmon: Sure.
>> Scott Burns: Well, we've built that reputation over the last 19 years that if people donate to us with the hopes of helping veterans, it's going to help veterans.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, you're doing the work.
Homelessness amongst veterans is an issue. Um, President Trump's been talking about that for 10 years
let's talk a little bit about veteran, situations. and what I'm talking about is how I know homelessness amongst veterans is an issue. President Trump's been talking about that for 10 years or longer. what do you think is the driver here? I mean, obviously everybody's circumstances are different. and some people, you know, whether it's self inflicted or, you know, through external forces or trauma that they have serving what seems to be like a common, trend, not in a positive way, but what seems to be a common theme that is causing veterans to have difficulties, whether it's marriage difficulties or financial difficulties.
>> Scott Burns: Well, I think, on both cases, veterans are the world worst about asking for help. And so a lot of times I think veterans will get so deep in the woods that they feel like that there's no way out. and they don't take into consideration, and I can say this personally, when there's something going on with veterans, they don't, they don't think about the fact that what they're going through not intentionally affects the people around them. in my case, I had an injury that I dealt with and I kept, I was being a Marine and I'm like, I'm not going to tell anybody that I'm hurting and all this stuff going on. Well, I didn't realize until after I'd gotten some help that the relief that took off of my family. And so I think that's one of the big issues with veterans is not that they just don't care about themselves or they don't, but they don't want to tell somebody that they're hurting, that the macho part of being a veteran is not there. And that's with the, you know, it's with the, male Marines or the male, veterans, the female veterans. There's something about going through that process that you feel like you can't ask for help or you shouldn't ask for help or that somebody out there deserves it more than you. And we get that. Most of the people, I would say 95% of the people that we help aren't veterans that reached out to us and said, hey, I can't pay my utility bill. It's somebody reaching out for that veteran that says, hey, I know this veteran that can't. And so I think that's a lot of what's going on. And the VA system is broken. I think that, that, you know, we talked before we got on air.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Scott Burns: I, I'm not of the mindset that the VA should take care of every problem that I have, but the problems that they should be taken care of, I think they're. They're failing at. I think, you know, if somebody gets injured in the military, then you take care of them. If somebody, you know, has a mental issue because of the military, you take care of them. Now, if I go get myself in debt because I racked up, you know, $25,000 in credit card debt, that's not the VA's responsibility to take care of that.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Scott Burns: And I think. But I think that, we, I believe, and there's a lot of veterans that feel the same way I do, is we should do away with the VA hospital.
>> Walker Wildmon: Like the physical.
>> Scott Burns: The physical hospital itself. Allow. The best thing that's happened is. And it. And you know, Trump started. I think Obama made this possible too. and Biden. Biden had done. His administration has done something to help it. But veterans being able to go get care in the community, the process still needs some work on it. But the fact that if I need a doctor, for my ankle, I can go to a doctor here locally, and I don't have to drive 90m minutes to Memphis. And I think that's another one of the problems with the system is before to get help, you had to go to like a Memphis hospital or Birmingham.
>> Walker Wildmon: To a VA facility. The nearest veterans don't want to take.
>> Scott Burns: The time to do that. And if you've got a back that's hurting, driving to Memphis to get your back looked at doesn't make sense to me. And so the system that they're working on, and I think the new administration is like, it would make more sense to make. And, I don't know if the wording right here is right, but why not make the va, the medical insurance, kind of like Medicaid, Medicare, but for veterans.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes. Yeah. And facilitate the program. Yes. Point. And then shift. You're gonna shift billions of dollars in taking Care Net of facility fees and lighting bills and, and all this other stuff that's involved with setting up infrastructure. and you can just focus in on the care, because the private systems out there are all over the place. Right. There's. There's a clinic on every corner, hospital systems in major cities, and, and so you can just funnel the money to the care, instead of funneling it to the system per se.
Reforming the VA will probably take an act of Congress
on that note, do you think this has momentum with the Trump administration? I think they've been doing so much, and granted, they've only been in office since January, so they still got three and a half years left, but, reforming the VA and doing creative things like you're talking about will probably take an act of Congress. And I'm not being sarcastic, literally an act of Congress.
>> Scott Burns: An act of Congress. And I will. You know, I'm not a political expert, but I have realized that politics has gotten way too political. Yeah, it's politics. It's party over people. And this is on both sides. And I got the opportunity to go sit in on a hearing where the secretary of the VA, Mr. Collins, is. Was being grilled and nobody was listening to him like the Democrats. And I'm just going to this because they were the ones doing it. The Democrats were so busy about trying to get the got you moment that they weren't listening, listening to what he was saying. And one of the things that he was talking about was the care in the community program. And you had a senator that got up there and was bashing because this veteran came to them and was needing this, this and this. And she goes, or he asked, did you point her to care in the community? And of course she didn't want to address that. But the solutions are there. But neither side, and I'd say this with utmost respect, is neither side really wants to hear what the other side is saying. There's very few, and I do, that Donald Trump is willing to listen to both sides. Now, he may not 100% like what this side is saying. I don't think he 100% likes what the Republicans are saying. Yeah, but he's willing to work, he's willing to negotiate. And I think for us to grow as a country and to be where we need to be, that's where we. You don't have to sacrifice your beliefs and your standards to work with the other side. And I think we've gotten to a point in politics that you don't want to work with the other side because it means Somebody else may get a victory.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right? Yeah. And that's, that's, that's unfortunate, but it's so true, because even, I mean, even when Biden's in the White House, you know, a lot of the hearings were about scoring political points or trying to get somebody to stumble up and say something they shouldn't so you can pull their nomination. and then, and then to your point about not listening to answers, I mean, I would venture to say the majority of those hearings up there are sessions where the people who like the person testifying is just going to amplify that. The people that don't like them, they're trying to do gotcha questions. And it's not really intended at actually getting to the root problem and fixing things, which is a very sad, sad state of affairs. And I think the fiscal side of things with the debt is an indication of that, too. The fact that nobody wants to fix it, they just want to blame each other for it. so it's very sad. I don't know what we do there. I mean, there's so much about our political system that's, that's messed up. you're just going to have to have people that want to fix it in charge.
>> Scott Burns: And the problem is, and I hear this. I'm. I'm 20 or I'm 20. I'm. I'm 53 years old. And I, I've heard more in the last, probably 10 years that we wish some good Christian people would run for politics. Or you hear Christians saying there's no good people in politics, then run.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Scott Burns: And, well, I don't want to get in there because of how bad it is. Well, that's the problem is everybody wants to complain about how bad it is, but nobody wants to get in there and get their hands dirty. Well, if you have good people that have standards, and I look at Brother Don, when he started this.
>> Walker Wildmon: He.
>> Scott Burns: was the enemy of the people. And if he would have just. I mean, not really, but that's the way people treated him. Yes.
>> Walker Wildmon: He was framed.
>> Scott Burns: He was framed as the enemy of the people. So he could have just said, you know what? The fight is too hard.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Scott Burns: And gave up. And look at what he's built with protecting our families and protect. Not everything that, you know, AFA has done. Everybody should 100% agree with.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Scott Burns: You know what I'm saying? And I'm not saying that there's done anything bad, but if you agree with 100% of something everybody's doing, then that's unrealistic. It's unrealistic.
>> Walker Wildmon: So, yeah, I joke and tell people who I disagree with or disagree with me, whatever, that I don't even agree with my wife on everything. Everything.
>> Scott Burns: That's.
>> Walker Wildmon: So you expect me to agree with you on everything? That's just not. Not reality. Now, we can agree on the fundamentals.
>> Scott Burns: Right?
>> Walker Wildmon: and then go from there. But, yeah, we need more serious people in Washington that are in it for the country and for the people and not in it for reelection or money or whatever else is going on up there. and we need good people to run for office, to your point.
>> Scott Burns: Pick the fights for the right reason.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's exactly right. Well, Scott, thanks for coming in.
>> Scott Burns: I appreciate y' all having me.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right. And what's your website for Seven Days for the Troops?
>> Scott Burns: The number. Seven DaysForTheTroops.org Seven Days for the Troops.org.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. All right, Scott Burns, founder of Seven Days for the Troops. Thanks for coming in. We'll see you in just a few minutes.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At the Core on American. Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
This kind of false expectation that everybody thinks like you do is not realistic
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the last segment of the program. I'm, laughing because my wife heard me, and she texted me.
>> Bobby Roza: I knew it was coming.
>> Walker Wildmon: And she put a laughing face with. And said, telling everyone on the radio that you don't agree with the radio everything I say. Oh, man. So telling the truth gets me in trouble. no, she's joking, but, But I'm glad she was listening. At least she didn't hear it from somebody else. That's right. You know. Yeah. You know, what Walker said about you on the radio? but it is.
>> Bobby Roza: He doesn't listen to you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, it is. It is so true, you know, this. This kind of. This kind of false expectation that everybody thinks like you do and everybody ought to agree with you. it's just not realistic. So, that's actually scary, I think. Yeah, it is scary to expect that. and. And. And I'll end on a light note. The. The. The. The disagreements Lexie and I have are about where we're going, where we're going to dinner, or should we have gone to dinner through this path, through town or through the other path and which one's quicker?
>> Bobby Roza: It's like you're sitting in my car.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. So, we're not. We're not. We're not disagreeing on, you know, the fundamentals or, you know, how to parent. So, find unity in the things that matter. That's the memo of this Previous segment.
Dr. Jameson Taylor gives his thoughts on President Trump's health care bill
All right, Jameson Taylor's with us. Dr. Jameson Taylor, and he's usually remote on the phone or on video, and he's in studio with us to talk about some of the political ongoings both at the state level and in Washington, D.C. jamison, welcome back.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Thanks for having me on.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, you joked and said, what are we going to talk about? As we were coming into the show. And the reality is we often don't know what we're going to talk about until we're here. But that's the good thing about live radio. No, I wanted to get your thoughts and your honest feedback on President Trump's one big beautiful bill. because you and I, we've been working on that the last month or two, pretty heavily. And then we can talk about some of the state level stuff that we're doing, the more impactful stuff. but the one big beautiful bill, Jameson, the problem with it, as far as analyzing it, is it does a lot of different things.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Oh, yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: And so we've got border wall funding, which is great. we've got defunding of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers for 12 months. Good. and then there's other stuff, provisions dropped in the bill, some of which we'll probably find out as we read it in the coming days. but what's your overall kind of assessment of where we are with that legislation?
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Well, the one thing about it was that it is must pass legislation. And you saw with Trump, he invested in this heavily. House and Senate leadership invested in this. With this deadline of get it done by July 4th, they met the deadline. So the first thing is the Trump administration and the Republican leadership, they did what they said they were going to do. Now, are there things in the bill that we don't like? Yes. For instance, the House started off with cutting funding for abortion providers at 10 years. The Senate ultimately reduced that to one year. They said it was because of the parliamentarian. I don't buy that. You know, Senate leadership is really the one that's making this decision. Nevertheless, we got a win there. We're defunding abortion providers. And what that means is that people's taxes, especially through the Medicaid program, are, no longer going to abortion providers. Now, it is such that tax money is not technically being used to pay for abortions due to something called the Hyde Amendment. But Planned Parenthood is getting about half of its funding through Medicaid, and we know that it's Medicaid, which again, is people's state and Federal taxes is paying for Medicaid. These clinics are getting Medicaid funding. It's a huge part of their budget.
>> Walker Wildmon: We were subsidizing them.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yeah, we're subsidizing them. And these are, these are, they're not providing high quality health care. If you want high quality health care, go to a different facility which is a myth.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's a myth that's thrown out there by the left is that they're providing life saving, critical health care.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yeah, I mean if you, you know, if you, if you want to get care to, for, for instance, to deliver your child and they, they say that they offer maternal wellness care, they're getting federal funding to quote, unquote, offer maternal wellness care. Are you really going to go to an abortion facility for that? No, you'd be crazy to do that. So they're getting, they're giving awful subpar care. They, they exempted in many states from safety, regulations and things like that. There's not a good reason to go to these providers. They don't serve the American public and really they do a disservice to low income people that are on the Medicaid program. And that's one of the problems with Medicaid that the quality for what we pay, we're not getting good quality. It's not good health coverage. It does not in the end offer good health care such that mortality rates on Medicaid are higher than for other programs. So that's another thing that they did in the one big beautiful bill that is pretty exciting. Basically invited states to their, well requiring them to get more involved in Medicaid and to get more involved, carry some of the burden with food stamps.
Some of the more important things in that bill would be related to Medicaid reform
So we talk about what is the one big beautiful bill. Well, okay, first what it does is it renews the Trump tax cuts. So it's a tax bill in a sense. And it's important to realize that it's not cutting taxes, it's preventing taxes from going up.
>> Walker Wildmon: Correct.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: So you know, when people assess the bill, when they go to the polls, in the future, think about this. The one big beautiful bill prevents your taxes from going way up. The second thing that the one big beautiful bill is it's a legislative package of a bunch of different things. And so some of the more important things in that bill would be related to Medicaid reform. And part of that is a work requirement for abled bodied adults without kids. Now these people should be working anyway. And we've seen the studies, we've run the data, we see that when these people get a job, they actually turn their lives around pretty quickly and they go from making no money because half of the, half of this expansion population, they're making no money. This is not the working poor. You know, contra Josh Hawley and others, this is not the working poor. These are people that are not working at all. You get them off of Medicaid and they're going to go off of Medicaid. Medicaid once you require work. Why? Because again, go back to what we said before. Medicaid offers terrible health care coverage. Nobody actually wants to pay for it. So once you say no, you're going to have to work to get this. They say, you know what, I'm just going to go get a much better job and get much better health care coverage. So that's what we're going to see is these people are going to come off of Medicaid, they're going to turn their lives around, they're going to get good jobs, support their families. But likewise with food stamps, there are new requirements in the bill that require those up to age 64 to basically work in order to receive food stamps. And again, we're talking about abled bodied adults. it shouldn't be that you just start collecting food stamps Once you turn 60 if you can still work. And so they're telling the states, hey, you're going to have to implement this work requirement. Several states were already doing that. So this just codifies this for the rest of the country. There are other things in the bill that cracks down on welfare reform. You know, as you mentioned, there's immigration enforcement. So there are a lot of good things in the bill. Now, could the bill have been better? Yes, and I think it could have been better in particular if the Republicans had been better. Working together. We look at folks like Rand Paul.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, okay.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Because Rand Paul did not support the bill. He was just not going to support it.
>> Walker Wildmon: from the beginning, he didn't support it.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yeah, but there was no sitting down with him and saying, come on, how do we get you to. Yes, right. Instead, who did Rand Paul hand the keys to?
>> Walker Wildmon: Lisa Murkowski, Liberal liberal Republican.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Liberal Republican from Alaska. So which state, I want you to guess which state benefits the most from the one big beautiful bill, probably Alaska. Niche tax cuts for like whaling captains. Alaska. So it could be exaggerating. Yeah. And no, not at all. And so Kentucky, you need to reach out to Rand Paul and say, hey, come on man. Yeah, you need to do better than this. You're supposed to Be a conservative Republican. Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot. You know, yes, stand with your principles, but make sure you get something out of it at the end of the day instead of handing the keys to a liberal Republican who's supported by big abortion groups and literally by Democrat groups.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, and to your point, to contrast Senator Paul with somebody else, Senator Ron Johnson, he came out and said, I don't like the bill as it's written today, but I'm willing to work with the White House to make it better. And he ended up doing some things to make it better. but to the contrary, Senator Rand Paul comes out and says, this bill is terrible and I'm not voting for it. And that takes him out of the negotiation when, he says that on the front end. and then instead to get the 51 votes needed, Senator, Thune, the majority leader had to go to another holdout, which was Murkowski, because the remaining holdouts were all liberals, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski. And he had to offer something. This is the nature of politics. He had to offer something to get her a vote. and he did, he offered, offered different, incentives for Alaska.
Rand Paul: Medicaid makes up a large portion of our budget
But what do you think about on the Medicaid and the welfare reform that makes up a large portion of our budget, specifically the mandatory portion of our budget. And when I say mandatory, I literally mean the way Congress has, has set it up. These programs get funded automatically.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yes.
>> Walker Wildmon: There's no, like they get this amount of money and if they run out, it's, it's over. They get funded in perpetuity unless Congress intervenes. And so, I mentioned that because it relates to the debt. One of the reasons our debt is and deficit is growing at the rate it is is because our mandatory programs continue to grow. They keep adding people to the programs who qualify under new rules and they never take anybody off.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yes. The thing to understand about Medicaid and why it's so important is that it's what's called an open ended entitlement, meaning it's an open ended welfare program. Once you get on Medicaid, whatever costs that you incur, the government pays for it. But it's also paid for by state governments and the federal government. Medicaid. Even though the states are not paying for the majority of Medicaid, Medicaid is busting state budgets in every state. And that's less money for K12 education. That's less money for safe roads and bridges. That's less money for everything that you want your state government, you expect your state government to cover. And instead, what is Medicaid covering? Okay, they're covering illegal aliens, which is one big beautiful bill.
>> Walker Wildmon: They were covering abortion providers.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Abortion providers and illegal aliens, by the way, are not even eligible for Medicaid. But the Biden administration made it very difficult for states to check eligibility.
>> Walker Wildmon: And they were giving them Social Security numbers.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: To sign up.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: And they're covering, folks that don't even want to work to keep their Medicaid. And so that's what the one big, beautiful bill cuts in terms, quote, unquote, cuts in terms of Medicaid. It's not. We're not really removing folks from Medicaid. We're reforming the program and we're looking to save some money by closing loopholes that criminals and fraudsters and others are taking advantage of. But when we think about what can we cut? If you're really concerned about the budget, if I'm Rand Paul, then what can we cut? We can cut our welfare programs. Why did Democrats like Obama, like Biden, why did they open the door wide to welfare, including tons of welfare fraud?
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Why? Because when Republicans get on welfare, they start to vote Democrat. Welfare is a get out the vote program for the Democrats. And that's why when they get in office, they do everything possible to expand welfare programs, including getting people on that are not even eligible, including people that are making six figures a year, that are signing up for food stamps and Medicaid and things like that and not really checking. You know, do you have a yacht? Do you have, a second home somewhere else? Not even checking if you live in a particular state that you've signed up for. But that is why welfare expands so much under Democrat administrations, whether it's at the state level or the federal level. Because welfare is a get out the vote tool for Democrats. And that's also why Republicans need to be laser focused on limiting welfare and do what Newt Gingrich and the Republicans did back in the day in the 90s, welfare to work. Because guess what? Once these folks get off of welfare, they go back to voting Republican because they see the money coming out of their paycheck to pay all these taxes and they know, hey, there's all these people on welfare that are not doing anything. I used to be one of them.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes. Yeah, this, this, and Republicans have opportunities in the future, over the next 12 to 18 months to do more of this. because there can be, technically, there can be another reconciliation package in the fall, and then one more before the midterm elections in a couple years. But what you mentioned about the state portion of Medicaid is a big deal for people when they're asking if, let's say they don't care about the debt, but they care about their streets and their bridges and their police departments and their services that they pay taxes, taxes for the more these states. And this gets into Medicaid, expansion, which, which I know you've been working on for several years, but expanding Medicaid, allowing Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse, it eats away at the tax dollars available because states can't print money. Only the federal government can print money. And so states are going to have to decide do we have new roads or do we keep adding millions of people to welfare and Medicaid. And that is seriously going to degrade the fundamental services that the government provides. That's right, the state government.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yeah. And then one other, you know, one good thing that the one big beautiful bill does is apply some of these same incentives now to food stamps. Because this is going on in all of the welfare programs. Medicaid just happens to be the one that has the highest amount of fraud and that is hurting state budgets the most. But still, welfare expansion hurts states. It hurts their economies. And at least in the one big beautiful bill, they're starting to crack down on that.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. I know two examples firsthand as far as talking to people over the last. Let's, say I'm 31 over the last 10, 15 years. I know one instance where the mother was deliberating on whether to have more kids based on what she was going to get paid per child, she was going to get compensated per child through the welfare system. I don't know which program it was. and then I know another example where a couple was de facto married, they had a child together, dwelling together, but not formally married or legally married. And the reason they weren't is because. Because it was going to reduce their Medicaid benefits.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: and so they said, well, let's just not get married. Well, they ended up getting married because it's the right thing to do. and in the long run, they'll be better off not just morally, but financially as well. but the system, I guess, is what I'm getting at. The program M is built in a way, in many regards that disincentivizes good behavior, including, getting married and getting a job. So hopefully some of that about to change.
>> Scott Burns: Jameson.
>> Walker Wildmon: Ah, thanks for coming in.
>> Dr. Jameson Taylor: Thanks for having me on.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, folks, there you have it. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcast. We'll see you next time.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
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