April 21, 2025

Before DOGE there was Open The Books. For Some 20 Years, OTB Has Been Bringing the Receipts

Before DOGE there was Open The Books. For Some 20 Years, OTB Has Been Bringing the Receipts

John Hart, Open The Book's CEO is reporting on Aid For Ayatollahs: Financial Benefits to Iran Facilitated by Uncle Sam, and Professors Pool Public Dollars to Root Out DOGE. How much longer will WeThe People tolerate this fraud and waste?...

John Hart, Open The Book's CEO is reporting on Aid For Ayatollahs: Financial Benefits to Iran Facilitated by Uncle Sam, and Professors Pool Public Dollars to Root Out DOGE. How much longer will WeThe People tolerate this fraud and waste?

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Transcript
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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not

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those of w FOCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We

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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,

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explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio

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or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should

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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing

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W FOURCY Radio.

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Well glad you can joined us. Bill Martinez here, great

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to have you for the ride. Got lots to talk about,

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I'll tell you. Before a Doge and Elon Musk, there

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was open the books for over twenty years. John Hart,

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who's now the CEO of opened the books, Adam and

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Jievski before that, as you may recall, and they brought

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the receipts constantly to the American people. But thank god,

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now with Elon Musk and Doze, the people are listening

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and beginning to pay attention as to what's happening with

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their government. That fraud and waste is in something of

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a myth or just something that we suspected, but it's

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clear fraud and waste exists in our government. Though many,

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many years ago, there have been many politicians, particularly you know,

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you might say the founding father for Open the Books,

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Senator Tom Coburn, which we long respected for his efforts

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to hold our government accountable and to point out annually

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the government waste. But look, we got to stop talking

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about it and do something about it, especially in light

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of you know where we find ourselves today, thirty seven

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trillion dollars in debt. The interest payment alone is now

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exceeding the cost of our military budget. Seriously, I mean,

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this is really a national security issue, ladies and gentlemen.

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And no matter what people want to say about Doe

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Elon Musk, whether it's destroy his property or destroy Tesla's

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around the country, I mean, he is doing an incredible

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service not to mention the fact that there's threats on

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his life. Can you imagine. I mean, here we got

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two people, in particular, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and

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we'll use them in the same sentence with threats on

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their lives, as if Donald Trump hasn't had a lot already.

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But you know, there is a reason, as one of

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our guests today, Bramowitz, we spoke with him earlier, called

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the red Blues and Greens, and that's that's the sentiment.

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We've got reds, blues and greens a part of our country.

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Within that say they're American citizens, but they really don't

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care about America. They don't care about the Constitution, care

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about you and me. They only care about themselves. In fact,

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this weekend, I happened to be in West Palm Beach.

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I mean, most of you know, I'm in Florida, based

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in Florida on the East coast, about thirty minutes forty

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minutes away from West Palm and had to go in

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for a trip and was there by the mall and

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there or you know, on the streets there were protesters.

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And of course these are all anti Trump, anti American protesters.

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They think they're American. I find it quite curious that

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they can tell you very easily what they hate, what

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they don't like, but they don't tell you. Okay, So

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all right, So you don't like the idea of elon Musk,

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you know, looking into our government and demonstrating and bringing

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the receipts of the government waste. Okay, so you don't

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like that to get that. You've made that real clear.

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But what do you like, you know, what, what is

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your suggestion? What is your solution to the government fraud

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and waste that is taking place? What's your solution to

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elected officials making and earning out of whatever you want

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to call it? Millions upon millions of dollars? I mean,

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what they have in their bank accounts amazing. I mean

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they start out where they make about one hundred and

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seventy four thousand I'm talking about, you know, Congress, about

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one hundred and twenty four thousand a year, and too

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many of them end up with millions upon millions of dollars.

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You know.

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Infamous, of course is Nancy Pelosi, well over thirty some

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have estimate as much as sixty million dollars, and like,

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what insider trading didn't take place? I mean we know

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that in some cases that there's a clear abuse there.

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But you know, of course, the way she talks about

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it is like, no, it didn't happen, so shut up,

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leave me alone. Well, you know, unfortunately, I mean, you're

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not going to get the truth out of somebody who

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is lying and cheating, Okay, you have to catch them

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you have to investigate. And because it's not like always saying, oh,

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come on, as you know, let's let's be honest, tell

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us the truth. Now, ity's gonna happen. The cons don't

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give up the con They hang in there to the

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bitter end, and they keep lying through their teeth. That's

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what that's what they do. And this is what Pelosi

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and the others are doing. I mean, it's amazing. I've

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got something in you know, cross my desk here in

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the last couple of weeks about you know, the kind

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of money that some of these politicians are making. Okay,

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this is this is reported. Okay, you can check this

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out yourself. Elon Omar, for example, who entered Congress on

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public assistance. Okay, she has now twenty twenty eight million

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dollars in stock, her in her war chest. Huh, Amy

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Klobescher one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in debt. She's

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now worth nearly two hundred million dollars. This is on

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a job one hundred and seventy four thousand dollars. How

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does that happen? Yeah, I mean there must be something incredible.

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I mean, the stock research and investors that Congress has

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is real special because they can make this kind of money.

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Rafael Warnack, for example, who went from a one bedroom

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apartment in Atlanta to a six million dollar brownstone in

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DC AOC. By the way, people are always curious about

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what she's up to, and of course we know that

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she was a broke bartender. Her net worth now twenty

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nine million dollars in less than six years. Again on

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the salary of one hundred and seventy four thousand dollars

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a year. Whether it's right now, ladies and gentlemen, want

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to bring on to the show the CEO of Open

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the Books, John Hart. John, welcome, good to have you

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with us.

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How you been, Thanks, Bill, It's great to be on again.

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I've been very.

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Well, well excellent. Well, I just got down this. I

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was just going down this list of the money that

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some of these congress people have in their bank accounts.

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On one hundred and seventy four thousand dollars a year,

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I think we need new brokers, new advice and how

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to invest our money, John, because they can leverage one

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hundred and seventy four thousand a year to multiple millions

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of dollars.

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That's right. Yeah, Well, I got to tell you there's

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been a lot of you know, chatter about with all

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the tariffs and changes going through. There may have been

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some started trading during all that as well, so you

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think may have been Yeah, maybe we'll see.

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Yeah, yeah right. It's but like I was telling the audience, Jehan,

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you know, it's not like all of a sudden Nancy plugs.

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Oh you got me, you know, I confess or the

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rest of them.

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Now.

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You know, it's kind of like I always remind everybody

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what Denisiasuzas said in his experience when he went to

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jail and having some time with the convicts there, he says, Bill,

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my big takeaway is the cons never give up the.

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Con Yeah, yes, that is sadly true.

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Yeah, well, lots of talk about and as you mentioned,

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you know, with DOGE causing a lot of brain damage

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for people that don't want they just don't want the

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American people to find out. It's okay if you suspect it,

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but as long as you can't prove it, and you

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can't really bring some receipts. But the fact the matter

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is is Open the Books now, for over twenty years,

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Open the Books has been bringing their receipts, and people

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have just chosen, I guess, to ignore it and put

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up with it until now they're looking at theirty seven

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trillion dollars in debt interest payments surpassing that of our

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military budget. This is a national security issue and we

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just can't ignore it any longer.

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John Hart, Yeah, that's exactly right. Bill. Look, I had

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the chance to testify earlier this month to the to

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the Doge sub Committee, and the topic was the federal

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real estate portfolio. So we have you know, the federal

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government has has active this policy of letting people work

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remote and other trump of ministers are trying to fix that.

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But you can't both allow people to work remotely and

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then have spend billions of dollars on buildings that no

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one's using. Yeah. So one of the one of the

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byproducts of this, one of the sort of symptoms, if

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you will, of this of this disease of too much government,

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is the federal real estate portfolio and the amount we've

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spent on furniture. So we did we did a study. Bill.

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We looked at just the expenditures of furniture, and we

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found four point six billion dollars of decorating and redecorating

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and demon trade of state. Now to put that in perspective,

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So furniture is when I testified, I talked about the

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cost of furniture is literally a kitchen table issue because

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everybody can relate to the cost of furniture. So for

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that amount of money you could buy for four point

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six billion dollars, you could you could provide nine point

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two million American families with the modest five hundred dollars

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kitchen table. So that's that's it's a lot of money.

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And you know, we found everything from you know, the

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Stage Department spend one point four million on artwork for

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various embassies, two hundred thousand dollars to produce a couple

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of custom pieces of abstract art. We found that at

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the embassy in Islamabad they spend one hundred and twenty

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thousand dollars on Ethan Allen recliners. And during the COVID

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is that the.

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Recliner that you put the quoter in and it vibrates too.

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I think I don't think it's quiet. That would have

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been a little bit more so you can instead we're

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trying to be frugal bills, yeah, yeah, and it's assumption

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that even during during the COVID, the height of the

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COVID emergency, when they were encouraging people to work remotely

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and from zoom, agencies still spent three point three billion

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dollars on furniture and for what, for what purpose? It

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doesn't it doesn't make any sense.

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Yeah, you're just furnishing an empty building.

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That's right, that's right, off and off. Yeah. And one

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of the one of the best ones that that they

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held up a poster for during the hearing is that

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the CDC, the Center for Centers, I'm sorry, Centers for

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Disease Control, they bought solar powered picnic tables.

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Oh, I love that.

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Yes, that included charging ports. Yeah, and and these picnic

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tables they actually violated the social distancing guidelines that Anthony

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Fauci put put forth. So so there's just there's just

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a lot of ridiculous spending that's going on within the

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federal agencies. But but it really gets to the reason

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this hearing was important, Bill, is because we One of

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the things I talked about too, is that this is

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one hundred year project where the progressive left has been

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trying to banned the administrative state and in my opening

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comments I talked to I talked about the administrative state,

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and then the Democrats that are you, what is your agenda?

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It's like, well, my agenda is pro freedom. You know,

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I want I want to every dollar saved in Washington

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is a dream realized somewhere in America. And then when

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and when we instead of growing federal agencies, we ought

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to be focused on growing your agency and your capacity

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to pursue happiness on your terms, with your resources. And

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and so we've spent you know, billions and billions of

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dollars on federal agencies. And one of the byproducts of

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that is this lavish, expensive, totally unnecessary, uh you know,

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body of furniture, and it's the high cost of decorating

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and redecorating the administrative state.

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Well, it's totally irresponsible to its constituency. I mean, this

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is disgusting. And as you said, you know the whole

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purpose of our constitution was to ensure freedom. And with

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every invents or expense that the government takes on, it

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has to be focused on does it allow us to

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enjoy more freedom or less freedom? And when you become

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more indebted, well then that's real easy you don't have

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to do. You don't need, you know, financial econ experts

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to come in and do some sort of forensic study

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on it. You know that it chokes off freedom, right, John.

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That's exactly right. And look it's important even you know,

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let's step back and think about the Declaration of Independence. Right.

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The text of that described this concept. If you remember

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political science class, the social contract theory. Yes, the idea

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is that as tax payers, and this is important to

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think about it the wake of tax day, is that

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we give up a little bit of our freedom and

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we give it to the government. And the quote social

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contract is in exchange for us surrendering some of our

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resources and freedom, we get back a net gain of

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freedom because we fund the government that provides for a

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national defense, that provides minimal regulation of interstate commerce. And

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that's really about the only two things the federal government

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was supposed to do in the enumerated powers is provide

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for the national defense. There's an argument to make for

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a Treasury department, Justice department, defense, as I mentioned, state department,

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and maybe some interstate commerce, but very very limited, and

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we've grown way beyond that. So most of the dollars

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we spend we lose freedom. We're handing our freedom to

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Washington and they're squandering it on objects of their benevolence

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and this counterfeit compassion agenda where they're quite trying to

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help us by providing programs and services, but they're really

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making it more difficult for us to live the lives

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and pursue our happiness and our dreams on our terms.

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Well, the key word that you use was minimal. That's

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what our founding fathers had envisioned, a minimal amount of government.

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But being what it is, it's it's like I remember

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when I was a kid growing up, the scariest movie

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I ever saw was The Blob. Remember the Blob. You

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might be a little bit young for it, but anyway,

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but anyway, the Blob and it just came in and

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shoot up everything. And this is the administrative state. It's

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of its own desire, it's its own level of growth,

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and it just keeps growing massively and has convinced it's constituent.

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Of course, they've really bought and sold a level of constituents.

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Probably maybe you could say thirty forty percent of the

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country is in that. They're locked into it. They depend

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on the teet of the administrative state, and so anytime

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that has threatened the course, they played that card and

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it's been very successful for them for over one hundred years.

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John. Yeah, And there's a kind of an alliance between

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the group that wants the dependency state to continue. But

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then there's the class of elites that preferred of virtue

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signal as opposed to pursuing actual virtue. And there's a

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quote that I used during this hearing. A guy named

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Herbert Croley, who was one of the kind of the

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godfathers of the modern progressive movement. He wrote and dreamed

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of actually creating and managing this complex new world of

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the early twentieth century, of the nineteen tens. He wanted

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to manage it with a managerial class. The belief was

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that we could create the sort of legion of experts

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they would enable they would enable us to solve problems

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or previous generations couldn't solve. Now. The founder saw this coming,

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which is why they created a limited government with checks

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and balances. Because they studied not just one hundred years,

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they looked back at the past twenty four hundred years

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of political history. So they had a very deep and

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broad breadth of history that they drew from. But crally believed,

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in quote and direct quote from him, is increasing control

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over property in the public interest. And so he would

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have been thrilled to see how the administrative state has grown.

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And and that's what that's what that's really the kind

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of the fight that we're involved in. I think you're

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you know, your listeners are obviously in tune with that.

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But we need to get members of Congress more engaged

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and to really make some of these changes permanent. Uh

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So it's fantastic to have Doze to have executive orders,

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but we really need members of Congress to step up

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and enact laws that enact durable changes that that reimagine uh,

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the federal government in accordance with what the founders designed.

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And it's not it's not just a demolition project. There

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when you have a bad upgrade to a house or

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a property, sometimes with the knockout walls, you've got to

301
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get the sledghammer out. So there's definitely a role for

302
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the sledghammer. But fundamentally this is this is not a

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demolition project. This is a restoration bok about restoring the

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founder's vision or freedom and limited government. Well, if you're

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in government, back within its within its boundaries.

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But you're exactly right. I mean, the tools that have

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to be used are the right tools for the right job,

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and we need to understand what is the job at hand.

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I think a growing number of Americans understand that. But

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they have to understand also that they need to come

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and participate in this remodeling proposition that is before us.

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That we cannot sit there and rely on the elected

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officials to do this because you have to remember, and

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this is critical, that the elected officials are the ones

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that got us in this mess. That's right, And so

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we just can't just say, hey, you guys, go ahead,

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We're going to trust you to fix it up. I mean,

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we need to be grateful first of all that you've

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got the likes of Donald Trump and Elon Musk there,

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you know, on our side, on the side of the Constitution.

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And you have to be focused on the mission in

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such a way that this small loud percentage of people.

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And it's a small percentage of people, but they say,

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you know, they're loud, and they seem like anything that

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is loud seems like it's bigger than it is. Uh,

326
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but it really at the end of the day, is

327
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not as substantive in every beneficial aspect of the meaning

328
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of it. They're not as substantive as as you think

329
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they may be.

330
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Yeah, And one of the things that one of the

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things that Elon has said that it's really really valuable

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is he said, look, we're going to we're going to

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be really aggressive, but we're going to make mistakes and

334
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we want to know what we what we need to

335
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do better. And that's what a great model of leadership

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is that most people just want to get pats on

337
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the back constantly, but secure enough in his success as

338
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he well should be that he's really trying to do

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the best thing and so uh so that's what that's

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why we continue to provide oversight, provide information because we

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believe that they really want to do the right thing,

342
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they want to do the best thing for taxpayers. Yes,

343
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And one of the things that we've done concurrently as

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DOGE is doing its work is we did a study

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on all of the federal agencies. So there there's something

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called the Federal Register that lists four hundred and forty

347
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one federal agencies and the first thing we found is

348
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seventy five of those didn't actually exist, but they were

349
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listed because of poor record keep. Now the ones that.

350
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We are they getting Are they getting money?

351
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No, No, they're not. Some some some are, but most

352
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or not. They're just they're like zombie agencies. Okay, but

353
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there's actually this what's so crazy about the federal government

354
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is there's there's an office that employs people to update

355
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this site, but they didn't update it, which is another

356
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which is another problem. It's just that's indicative of how

357
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the federal government operates. So you really have to look

358
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and dig to find out what's happening. And but what

359
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we did find is a really clear pattern that really

360
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the number of personnel has been relatively stagnant, which is surprising.

361
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We thought there would be more of an increase, but

362
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it was relatively stable since two thousand. But we found

363
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that the spending on federal agencies went up almost four

364
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hundred percent, So in other words, the line line of

365
00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:04.119
employees was relatively flat, but spending went up. Like that,

366
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you know, in a good example.

367
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Why the money, Why the increase?

368
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That's a great question, is well, to do more good things,

369
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to do more things for it's to finance the administrative state.

370
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And this idea of counterfeit, compassion and this virtue signaling

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of For example, a Department of Education head counts, the

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staff count increased by about fourteen percent, but the spending

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increased seven and forty nine percent, which is astonishing. At FEMA,

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there was a significant growth in the headcount of two

375
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hundred and ninety percent, but the spending swelled by over

376
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two thousand percent.

377
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So these all overhead expenses. I mean, where you get

378
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these administrators because they're so wonderful an elite that we

379
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need to say that more money is that? Is that

380
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where that money's going.

381
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That's that's some of it. Yeah, some of it is

382
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going to increase staff salary, and there has been some

383
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there's some subcontracting where the head count growth means an

384
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asterisk because some of that has been outsourced to other

385
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:05.039
other subcontracts. But not all, but most of it literally

386
00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:08.000
is just that blob that you talked about earlier. It's

387
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that it's just the ever expanding growth of agency programs

388
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to do more quote good things for people. But but

389
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that's that's what we've got to reverse. And uh, when

390
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:21.359
we were going after earmarks during the when I worked

391
00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:25.160
for Coburn, is members of Congress would always argue, well,

392
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I need I have the right to send this money

393
00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:29.440
back to my state, you know, I don't want the

394
00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:33.000
federal bureaucrats to manage it. And our response was always well,

395
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the effective member is not the member who sends money

396
00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:39.319
back to the district. The effective member is the one

397
00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:42.279
who keeps money from leading the district. Because we should

398
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trust individual families and taxpayers and small businesses to allocate

399
00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:50.960
those scarce resources better than members of Congress. And that's

400
00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:56.519
that's the common sense answer that that resonates profoundly with taxpayers.

401
00:21:57.079 --> 00:21:59.920
And because the goal, the goal John is in conflict

402
00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:04.200
because in Congress, their number one job is to get reelected.

403
00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:08.079
That has nothing to do with managing, as you say,

404
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:12.720
the resources that are necessary to keep the state going

405
00:22:12.839 --> 00:22:15.039
and to take care of the people in the state,

406
00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:20.039
because they don't care about getting reelected, and so there

407
00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:23.200
is there's a conflict in mission just to begin.

408
00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:26.200
With, right, right, And I think yeah, And I think

409
00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:30.200
when tax payers go to the ballot box, the one

410
00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:32.880
question they should ask themselves is is the person who's

411
00:22:32.920 --> 00:22:35.759
running are they going to get a promotion from this

412
00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:39.680
job or a demotion? And you should always elect. Try

413
00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:41.960
to elect the people that are going to get a demotion. Yes,

414
00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:45.279
Vdeln Musk took a demotion to do what he's doing

415
00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:48.880
with Dad. And Tom Coburn took a demotion. He was

416
00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:52.319
a very successful doctor, businessman. He made a lot less

417
00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:54.960
working in Congress than what he was doing. The governor

418
00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:57.920
of Oklaholma is a good friend. He's a very successful businessman.

419
00:22:58.359 --> 00:23:00.599
Took a demotion to work. To run is to run

420
00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.480
for governor, you governor of Oklahoma. So they're really good

421
00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:06.200
people all over the country who are doing it for

422
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.000
the right reason. And so one of the wonderful things

423
00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:12.039
about our system is there's a lot to be frustrated

424
00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:14.359
about and a lot that we need to fix, but

425
00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:18.519
there is an openness to our political process that hasn't

426
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.559
existed before in our history, where because of social media,

427
00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:25.119
because of your ability your show and other shows where

428
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.160
you can have guests who talk about real issues, you

429
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:31.599
can elevate these ideas and give people the information they

430
00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:34.920
need to be good citizens. And the barriers of entry

431
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:38.000
have gotten lower and lower, which again it puts the

432
00:23:38.039 --> 00:23:43.279
responsibility back on citizens, where it's our job to be informed,

433
00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:45.680
to be involved, to ask the right questions and then

434
00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:48.599
to elect the right people and then to hold them accountable.

435
00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:51.200
And so we're trying to create the virtuous cycle of

436
00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:52.440
truth and transparency.

437
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.640
Exactly. Well, this is where people need to understand the

438
00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:01.119
era of the low information voter has got to end,

439
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:03.240
you know, and especially where we are right now, We've

440
00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:07.119
got a precious opportunity, thank God for the last election,

441
00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:11.720
Donald Trump surviving an assassin's bullet and God only knows

442
00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:16.599
how many other assassin attempts on his life, you know,

443
00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:19.039
And here it is. We've got to make the most

444
00:24:19.079 --> 00:24:21.720
of this opportunity if we're going to get this country

445
00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:26.079
back on track, because meanwhile, the Democrats are lost. I mean,

446
00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:29.039
you would think, especially with so many of these eighty

447
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:31.279
twenty issues, John, you know, whether it has to do

448
00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:36.240
with the border, immigration, national security, spending, this sort of thing,

449
00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:40.119
that the Democrats, yes, you know, they got their butts

450
00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:43.559
kicked in twenty twenty four, but their loss and all

451
00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:46.480
they can talk about is how much they hate Elon

452
00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:49.920
Musk and Donald Trump and threaten, you know, threatening the

453
00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:53.720
constitution even further. Because could you imagine number one, if

454
00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:56.720
they were successful, if that kid was successful in taking

455
00:24:56.759 --> 00:25:01.039
out the president where we'd be right now or even still. Uh,

456
00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:05.000
the attempts haven't stopped. They're still you know, uh, the

457
00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:09.039
FBI and CIA are discovering. You know, it's it's almost

458
00:25:09.079 --> 00:25:12.200
on a monthly basis, new attempts to assassinate this president

459
00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:16.119
and Donald Trump. And then you read some information here

460
00:25:16.519 --> 00:25:19.960
about uh, you know, people's attitude about it. I mean,

461
00:25:20.359 --> 00:25:24.920
it's unconscionable that citizens of the United States have no problem.

462
00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:28.559
In fact, it's almost like they're cheering on the assassination

463
00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:31.359
of the president of the United States. This is sick.

464
00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:34.680
Yeah, it's very very dark. Yeah, and and and it

465
00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.200
isn't hard to imagine a time just five years ago.

466
00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:39.400
We just did a report to on on how much

467
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:42.279
Anthony Fauci and his wife were I was going to.

468
00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:45.759
Bring yeah, and I want to get into into that

469
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:48.400
because it was, you know, the big the big report

470
00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:53.359
this morning was how uh how the White House had

471
00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:58.839
adjusted uh you know, the the website to finally declare

472
00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:02.039
what we all knew is that you know, it was

473
00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:03.599
the wuhan virus right.

474
00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:07.119
Right right, Yeah, and and and there was again five

475
00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:12.880
years ago, Uh, Anthony Fauci just decided to declare what

476
00:26:12.920 --> 00:26:16.160
the quote the science was and whenever whenever politicians talk

477
00:26:16.200 --> 00:26:19.119
about you know, when they talk about these science as

478
00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:23.559
opposed to science, they're talking about ideology masquerading a science. Right,

479
00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:27.440
So we now know that there were claims that that

480
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:32.240
Anthony Fauci made, that that good people on all sides questioned, said, well,

481
00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:34.640
this doesn't make sense. This seems like it was came

482
00:26:34.680 --> 00:26:37.960
from a lab. And there were questions about the social distancing,

483
00:26:38.119 --> 00:26:41.640
about the transmit whether the virus can be transmitted if

484
00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:44.640
you have the vaccine. A lot of legitimate debate was

485
00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:49.759
censored and silenced because it violated what Anthony Fauci and

486
00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:50.920
the government expert.

487
00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:54.920
Said exactly, and so many platforms as well. John, It

488
00:26:55.039 --> 00:26:56.680
was all one big, huge cabal.

489
00:26:57.119 --> 00:26:59.680
It should never happen in a free society. We should

490
00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:04.160
never tolerate authoritarianism, regardless of who's who side it is.

491
00:27:04.200 --> 00:27:07.200
That is contrary to what the founders, it's country, to

492
00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:11.000
what people died for to protect exactly, and it's unconscionable.

493
00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:13.559
And and so we're we're going to expose that and

494
00:27:13.559 --> 00:27:14.680
hold hold them accountable.

495
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.960
Well, you went deep into it, and you you demonstrated

496
00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:21.599
I mean we're talking earlier about these elected officials and

497
00:27:21.640 --> 00:27:24.400
the money that they made. You you know, you brought

498
00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:27.480
the receipts on the income that you know, suddenly you

499
00:27:27.480 --> 00:27:29.720
start looking at this and go, this doesn't look good.

500
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:33.880
Yeah. Yeah, So his his household got three three point

501
00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:37.279
five million dollars wealthier in the first year after they

502
00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:40.519
left office. Now, in the documents that we were able

503
00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:45.480
to obtain through different FOY requests and other ethics ethics documents,

504
00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:48.720
they don't provide direct receipts. In other words, they don't say, well,

505
00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:51.079
he got it from this speaking event. But there are

506
00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:53.880
a lot of awards listed in public speaking events that

507
00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:56.839
he did participate in, so you can you can kind

508
00:27:56.839 --> 00:28:00.599
of put two and two together. But you know, Fauci

509
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:05.559
is not this bleakered doctor who's who's unfairly criticized. When

510
00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:10.079
he was he's very wealthy, uh successful, and he leveraged

511
00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:15.440
his celebrity, uh for for personal gain and all all

512
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:20.599
while denigrating people that had legitimate questions about that that

513
00:28:20.680 --> 00:28:23.160
we now know he was he was wrong about.

514
00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:26.720
Right and millions of people died because of it. John,

515
00:28:27.400 --> 00:28:31.200
And with impunity, I mean, there's no accountability whatsoever. And

516
00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:34.880
you have Joe Biden giving him a preemptive part, which

517
00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:37.039
is unheard of. Who gets a preemptive pardon?

518
00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:39.880
Yeah, yeah, you don't. You don't pardon someone who didn't

519
00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:41.640
do anything wrong and.

520
00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:45.200
Or was convicted, wasn't even convicted, was even didn't go

521
00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:47.720
through a trial. You know, it was just like a

522
00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:49.440
just in case, we're going to give you a get

523
00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:50.240
out of jail card.

524
00:28:50.599 --> 00:28:52.680
Yeah, yeah, just just kind of holding him, holding him

525
00:28:52.680 --> 00:28:55.759
above the law. Yeah. So so, you know, we we

526
00:28:55.799 --> 00:28:58.680
need kind of a truth and Reconciliation commission on just

527
00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:04.440
the COVID she to and we're within that process right

528
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:07.880
now where these findings are finally coming out and we

529
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:09.799
just have to learn from it and never ever go

530
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:12.400
back to where we were. It was a very very

531
00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:13.079
dark chapter.

532
00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:16.200
And going back to what you said earlier, John, if

533
00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:18.480
you don't arrive to the truth, if you don't have

534
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:20.480
the truth, and you know, generations are going to look

535
00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:23.359
back in this period of time and they're gonna it's

536
00:29:23.359 --> 00:29:24.680
going to be hard for them to make heads or

537
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:26.079
tails out of what happened here.

538
00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:29.359
Yeah, that's why we've got that's why we're so committed

539
00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:32.240
to making sure transparency flows. You know, I have to

540
00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:35.480
talk about. You know, transparency is a first principle in

541
00:29:35.559 --> 00:29:39.759
a free society. Yes, founders wrote transparency into the Constitution,

542
00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:43.079
and it precedes the Bill of Rights, so it proceeds

543
00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:47.200
free speech itself. So in the public square, transparency is

544
00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:50.920
like oxygen, and we can't speak if we can't breathe exactly,

545
00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:54.079
we have to have this basic information so that and

546
00:29:54.119 --> 00:29:56.559
we're not telling people what to think. We're just believing

547
00:29:56.559 --> 00:29:58.920
that people should think, they should be allowed to think it,

548
00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:01.720
should be allowed to see the receipts and then make

549
00:30:01.759 --> 00:30:04.119
their own determination as to what kind of government there.

550
00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:07.119
And the founders had faith in we the people. They

551
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:10.880
believed that if you let truth and falsity grapple, whoever

552
00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:13.359
knew truth to be pinned in a free and ocle

553
00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:16.559
exchange except Milton who wrote that one hundred years before

554
00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:20.160
the First Amendment. That's the tradition that they were in.

555
00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:24.440
And so the progressive tradition is very, very shallow. It's

556
00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:28.119
like a shallow weed. Is very recent. And so the

557
00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:32.039
founders of our country there drew from again over two

558
00:30:32.039 --> 00:30:35.440
thousand years of political history and successes and failures throughout

559
00:30:35.480 --> 00:30:37.000
history of representative government.

560
00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:39.799
What we're talking with John Hart, the chief executive officer

561
00:30:39.880 --> 00:30:42.799
for Open the Books. John, you know, we were talking

562
00:30:42.839 --> 00:30:47.039
about the low information voter. It's like we're hamstrung a

563
00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:51.319
bit and we're crippled caring. I don't know thirty forty

564
00:30:51.359 --> 00:30:55.960
percent of the constituents here who have not exercised their

565
00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:02.680
critical thinking skills. They have been accepting of what they're

566
00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:06.119
told instead of what they know. Because even you know,

567
00:31:06.279 --> 00:31:08.119
a big part of our show is saying, look at

568
00:31:08.319 --> 00:31:10.440
whatever whoever we're talking to you today, we're talking at

569
00:31:10.519 --> 00:31:13.559
John Hart. Hey, don't take our word for it. Okay,

570
00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:18.160
research it for yourself, own your own knowledge. Do not

571
00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:22.559
listen to some talking head and some new show or

572
00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:26.599
some politicians. Verify, you know, And I don't even say

573
00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:28.440
trust and verify. I just say verify.

574
00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:33.000
Yeah, yeah, and exactly. Yeah. We You know a lot

575
00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:36.960
of our work is based on this website called USA Spending.

576
00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:39.839
And as I've shared before in your show, is when

577
00:31:39.839 --> 00:31:43.000
I worked for Coburn, we teamed up with a Democrat,

578
00:31:43.319 --> 00:31:46.240
a senator who is really ambitious and bright over twenty

579
00:31:46.319 --> 00:31:49.039
years ago named Barack Obama. So Tom Cober, and very

580
00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:53.880
conservative senator from Oklahoma became friends with Barack Obama, progressive

581
00:31:53.880 --> 00:31:58.319
liberal senator from Illinois, but they agreed that that transparency

582
00:31:58.359 --> 00:32:02.039
as a foundational principle. Democrats would maybe argue, well, gosh,

583
00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:05.160
if people could only see how little we spend on

584
00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:07.720
things like foreign aid, maybe they'd support it more. And

585
00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:10.559
they believe that if you give people the information, they'll

586
00:32:10.680 --> 00:32:14.000
come to conclusions that will be more favorable to their side.

587
00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:16.799
And that's what our free society is about, is that

588
00:32:16.839 --> 00:32:20.400
when we let the information out and then I'm not

589
00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:22.559
shy about my biases. You're not shad about your bio.

590
00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:25.680
We're not trying to manipulate or deceive anybody. We're trying

591
00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:29.960
to give people information, and we're direct about what our

592
00:32:30.119 --> 00:32:33.720
belief system is. But fundamentally we trust the system our

593
00:32:33.720 --> 00:32:37.759
founders created of one of transparency and one where you

594
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:41.839
give people the information they need, the whole elected officials accountable,

595
00:32:41.880 --> 00:32:43.880
and then you trust that you trust that result.

596
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:49.279
Right, Well, we know by experience, John, that we're better together.

597
00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:51.880
I mean, I don't need the same opinion in the

598
00:32:51.880 --> 00:32:54.759
same room. One of us is redundant, right, we need

599
00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:59.200
somebody of despairing viewpoints that can advance the cause. As

600
00:32:59.240 --> 00:33:01.440
long as we unders and it's been a number of

601
00:33:01.559 --> 00:33:06.440
years since both parties have been in step in terms

602
00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:08.160
of the mission of what we're trying to accomplish. I

603
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:10.240
can get it that. Hey, you may come from it

604
00:33:10.440 --> 00:33:12.599
from a lefty point of view. I may come from

605
00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:16.200
it on a right right side of the uh point

606
00:33:16.200 --> 00:33:20.640
of view spectrum. But together we're ending up in somewhere

607
00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:23.839
close in the same zip code right now. We're like

608
00:33:23.960 --> 00:33:25.039
Venus and mars here.

609
00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:28.519
Yeah. Yeah, And that's and that's really it's really troubling

610
00:33:28.559 --> 00:33:30.640
because I think you know, and there's and there's a

611
00:33:30.680 --> 00:33:34.400
scriptural principle. I'm sure you've read this as iron sharpens irons,

612
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:39.000
So one man sharpens another exactly. And and what there's

613
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:41.240
a lot to unpack there, because when you have iron

614
00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:44.400
and iron together, you have sparks, you have heat, you

615
00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:49.359
have conflict. But the practice of engaging is it sharpens

616
00:33:49.359 --> 00:33:52.519
both both sides, right. And another way to think of

617
00:33:52.559 --> 00:33:54.720
it is, what if you have a pair of scissors,

618
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:57.799
what what blade on that on that pair of scissors

619
00:33:57.880 --> 00:34:01.200
is the most important? They're both important, and so as

620
00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:03.799
in a free society, when we're debating, when we're having

621
00:34:03.799 --> 00:34:06.359
this conflict of ideas, when we're saying no, if you

622
00:34:06.400 --> 00:34:08.719
give people more more information, they're going to want a

623
00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:11.559
whole lot less government. And then you have the other

624
00:34:11.719 --> 00:34:13.159
point of view that says, well, if you give people

625
00:34:13.159 --> 00:34:15.199
all the information they need, they're going to decide that

626
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:17.920
a little bit of government is really the right thing.

627
00:34:18.039 --> 00:34:20.000
And the fact that you do more in these areas

628
00:34:20.360 --> 00:34:22.719
and then we have a fight and argument about that

629
00:34:22.719 --> 00:34:25.320
that makes the country stronger. That's what That's what the

630
00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:29.400
founders believe. They believe that give people the information they need,

631
00:34:29.880 --> 00:34:33.119
trust them and make sure that the powers invested in

632
00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:36.320
get and we the people that it isn't imbalanced and

633
00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:40.440
you don't have these unaccountable agencies. That's why That's part

634
00:34:40.440 --> 00:34:42.920
of why I'm so critical of the administrative state is

635
00:34:43.079 --> 00:34:46.079
it's so hard to hold it accountable because neither the

636
00:34:46.159 --> 00:34:49.360
executive branch or the legislative branch wants to own it.

637
00:34:49.639 --> 00:34:52.000
And to Trump's credit, he's trying to downsize it, and

638
00:34:52.039 --> 00:34:56.039
he's getting a lot of flack for it, obviously, But Congress,

639
00:34:56.039 --> 00:34:58.679
wherever they're falling short, it's I see it as more

640
00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:02.480
Congress's job. They need to be jealous of their power exactly,

641
00:35:02.599 --> 00:35:05.920
power back And why would.

642
00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:08.079
You send it out to regulators and let them do

643
00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:11.519
your job. I mean, your job is to codify the

644
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:14.519
law to make sure it's specific. But no, let's just

645
00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:17.199
go ahead and make it nebulous. Let the regulators run

646
00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:19.920
and these agencies run with it and interpret their own

647
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:23.119
laws and then create laws, you know, amongst themselves. And

648
00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:24.280
they weren't even elected.

649
00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:28.559
Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. And again back in the

650
00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:31.119
when we were fighting ear marks in the Curbenteir and

651
00:35:31.159 --> 00:35:34.559
the tea partner, is the argument again they would say,

652
00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:36.400
We would say, well, the effective member is the one

653
00:35:36.440 --> 00:35:39.239
who sends money back to the district. And then to

654
00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:42.320
your point about the power of the bureaucrats is, bureaucrats

655
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:45.960
have no power other than the power that Congress gives them.

656
00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:50.199
So you can't blame the bureaucrats if they're doing something

657
00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:54.039
you don't like, Member of Congress, it is your fault, right,

658
00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:56.599
isn't that power? You need to take it back, hit

659
00:35:56.639 --> 00:35:59.760
it back and then pass the law. And if then

660
00:35:59.800 --> 00:36:02.519
the is it veto's that law, then you hold the

661
00:36:02.519 --> 00:36:04.760
president accountable. Then you take your case to the to

662
00:36:04.880 --> 00:36:07.519
the to the voters so they elect a different president.

663
00:36:07.559 --> 00:36:09.880
But right now we have a president if Congress were

664
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:12.599
to step up and enact some of these laws, do

665
00:36:12.679 --> 00:36:15.039
you I don't think Donald Trump at veto an agency

666
00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:19.079
reorganization bill thrill to see it happen, right, But it's

667
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:22.440
not right to expect him to do that. He's not

668
00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:26.400
a member of Congress. Mosca is in a member of Congress.

669
00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:28.880
Congress need to step up and do their part right

670
00:36:29.320 --> 00:36:31.760
and not just let Elon take all the heat.

671
00:36:32.599 --> 00:36:35.320
Well, they need to understand, I guess, and on both sides.

672
00:36:35.800 --> 00:36:38.119
I think the right understands more than the left, certainly

673
00:36:38.159 --> 00:36:41.639
because the left is so emotional that they really cannot

674
00:36:42.039 --> 00:36:45.000
open their minds enough to see this. I mean, maybe

675
00:36:45.039 --> 00:36:46.719
at some point they may wake up John in the

676
00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:48.360
middle of the nine three o'clock in the morning and go,

677
00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:51.000
my god, what was I thinking? You know, because this

678
00:36:51.159 --> 00:36:55.639
is so absurd and it's so obvious that here we are,

679
00:36:56.280 --> 00:36:59.320
under Joe Biden, we let in millions of people who

680
00:36:59.360 --> 00:37:03.800
come in and you know, they absorb all our resources,

681
00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:08.639
They put states in jeopardy and on the verge of bankruptcy,

682
00:37:08.920 --> 00:37:11.599
all for as you said, compassion. This, this word of

683
00:37:11.719 --> 00:37:15.920
compassion is so overused and abused that the left, I

684
00:37:15.960 --> 00:37:19.920
believe they've lost the context of what true compassion really is.

685
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:23.480
John, that's what that's what I call it. Counterfeit. Yes, compassion,

686
00:37:23.559 --> 00:37:24.199
it's not real.

687
00:37:24.599 --> 00:37:28.159
No, it's not. And meanwhile, guess who's paying for it?

688
00:37:28.280 --> 00:37:29.920
You know, we the taxpayer. But it goes back to

689
00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:33.639
what you were saying earlier. And yes, it's Congress's job,

690
00:37:33.960 --> 00:37:36.599
but it's our job. It's we, the people's job to

691
00:37:36.679 --> 00:37:40.920
hold Congress accountable. You cannot keep electing these knuckleheads in

692
00:37:41.159 --> 00:37:43.679
and see, and the thing is part of what you know,

693
00:37:43.719 --> 00:37:45.559
the fix is in in a sense because you know,

694
00:37:45.599 --> 00:37:47.960
of all the districts that are out there, John, how

695
00:37:48.039 --> 00:37:50.960
many are given they're given to the you know, they

696
00:37:51.079 --> 00:37:54.079
got the blue, blue seats and you got the red seats,

697
00:37:54.400 --> 00:37:58.559
and they've all been gerrymandered to, you know, to give

698
00:37:58.599 --> 00:38:01.480
you a specific result. And so then we're you know,

699
00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:05.679
we're haggling over what, uh you know, how many how

700
00:38:05.679 --> 00:38:07.880
many less than one hundred seats that you know on

701
00:38:07.960 --> 00:38:08.840
both sides.

702
00:38:09.079 --> 00:38:14.679
That competitive, Yes, exactly, that's maybe maybe ten ten. Right,

703
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:18.119
we don't want to live in a system where the

704
00:38:18.159 --> 00:38:21.519
politicians choose the voters, right, The voters need to choose

705
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:22.679
politicians right.

706
00:38:23.079 --> 00:38:25.480
Well, you know it's like uh, you know, it's like

707
00:38:25.519 --> 00:38:29.119
what's happening with lawfare. You know, they're choosing the judges

708
00:38:29.159 --> 00:38:31.199
to give them the end result. Everything is that way.

709
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:33.000
You know, nobody wants to be able to you know,

710
00:38:33.079 --> 00:38:36.119
nobody wants to debate this, especially the left, because they

711
00:38:36.159 --> 00:38:40.559
want they just soon you know, cancel you invalidate your

712
00:38:40.599 --> 00:38:43.400
opinion so they can move on. Nobody wants to get

713
00:38:43.400 --> 00:38:46.079
into this process as you as you mentioned rightfully, so

714
00:38:46.599 --> 00:38:51.719
our founding fathers designed this government to operate very deliberately

715
00:38:52.239 --> 00:38:55.920
and very slowly. We're not you know, this isn't a

716
00:38:56.079 --> 00:38:58.880
microwave type of government process, right.

717
00:38:59.079 --> 00:39:03.960
Yeah, or just water Yeah, yeah, exactly, So actually just

718
00:39:03.960 --> 00:39:06.880
stand transparency then yeah, we have that. Eventually, it's going

719
00:39:06.920 --> 00:39:08.199
to word. It's going to take time, though, it's going

720
00:39:08.280 --> 00:39:09.840
to take time, but the right.

721
00:39:10.119 --> 00:39:15.000
So to wrap up, you know, the situation with Fauci, Uh,

722
00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:17.480
he's got to get out of jail card he had

723
00:39:17.519 --> 00:39:22.280
a preemptive pardon along with several other uh characters in

724
00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:27.119
the Biden administration. Uh. And meanwhile, it's been a disaster.

725
00:39:27.239 --> 00:39:30.760
The people have suffered for this, and we the people

726
00:39:30.840 --> 00:39:33.360
need to understand. I think people on the right understand

727
00:39:33.440 --> 00:39:36.639
more and more every day because it's hard because most

728
00:39:36.719 --> 00:39:39.599
people on the right, John, we want to think fairly

729
00:39:39.639 --> 00:39:42.119
towards one another. We don't think that people are liars.

730
00:39:42.760 --> 00:39:45.599
You know, that's not our knee jerk response, you know.

731
00:39:45.639 --> 00:39:48.840
We we want to believe that people are honorable until

732
00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:52.440
they until they demonstrate different. Uh, And we need to

733
00:39:52.480 --> 00:39:54.960
call it out for what it is, and that is

734
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.039
that we've had, uh, you know, four evil years under Biden,

735
00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:03.880
where people lied to us, people died this you know

736
00:40:03.920 --> 00:40:07.199
that you had the left talking about the jeopardy of

737
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:11.039
the Constitution. It was them that put the Constitution in jeopardy,

738
00:40:11.480 --> 00:40:12.440
not Donald Trump.

739
00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:15.440
Yeah, and I think Fauci, Look, Fauci left is the

740
00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:18.639
highest paid bureaucrat of all time at four hundred and

741
00:40:18.679 --> 00:40:20.079
eighty thousand dollars a year.

742
00:40:20.480 --> 00:40:22.960
Well yeah, more than more than the president of the

743
00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:26.440
United States. Go figure, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, how does

744
00:40:26.440 --> 00:40:26.920
that happen?

745
00:40:27.159 --> 00:40:29.239
Well, because he was he was he was the high

746
00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:32.360
he's been the high, the high priest, the chief doctor.

747
00:40:33.239 --> 00:40:36.079
He really represented just a way of thinking that that

748
00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:39.400
we're trying to move away from. And the sort of

749
00:40:39.440 --> 00:40:43.239
class of elite experts that that are empowered to micromanage

750
00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:45.880
and control American lives. Is that we need to again

751
00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:49.239
to shift that balance back to the people and get

752
00:40:49.239 --> 00:40:50.639
people the information they need.

753
00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:53.360
Well in this idea of these elite experts that you

754
00:40:53.440 --> 00:40:56.480
talk about, I mean, look at the track record, John

755
00:40:56.840 --> 00:40:58.880
I mean you might even say, I mean you like,

756
00:40:58.920 --> 00:41:00.840
you say, go back one hundred years and you saw

757
00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:04.400
this movement that happened. You know, Crowley's you know, in

758
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:07.440
a sense, puts this on paper, puts these ideas down

759
00:41:07.480 --> 00:41:09.960
the paper Woodrow Wilson picks up on it and says,

760
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:12.559
oh yeah, and then next thing, you know, uh, and

761
00:41:12.599 --> 00:41:15.840
then uh, you know, then after that we get FDR

762
00:41:15.960 --> 00:41:19.760
coming in and uh then after that Johnson and each

763
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:23.800
in each increment, the administrative state just kept gobbling up

764
00:41:23.880 --> 00:41:27.880
power and control and here we are, uh, you know,

765
00:41:28.159 --> 00:41:31.920
like the proverbial uh you know, what do you call

766
00:41:32.039 --> 00:41:35.039
the proverbial frog and boiling water frog in the pot

767
00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:35.760
right right?

768
00:41:36.159 --> 00:41:37.800
Yeah? I think you know the one thing that gives

769
00:41:37.840 --> 00:41:41.000
that gives me hope is that the really history also

770
00:41:41.199 --> 00:41:44.719
includes it includes these kind of ears of backsliding where

771
00:41:44.719 --> 00:41:47.960
we forget, we have collective amnesia. But then there are

772
00:41:47.960 --> 00:41:53.400
periods of renewal where if you think about like the

773
00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:57.559
Clapham Group and William Wilberforce who led yes rebelition movement

774
00:41:57.559 --> 00:41:59.559
in the UK. So one of the great stories of

775
00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:02.800
history is how the small group of highly committed people

776
00:42:03.320 --> 00:42:06.239
were the ones that really led the abolition movement and

777
00:42:06.239 --> 00:42:09.920
then of course the US. But that wasn't automatically going

778
00:42:09.960 --> 00:42:12.880
to happen. There was no force at work. All the

779
00:42:12.920 --> 00:42:16.039
forces were working against them. But they decided, we're all

780
00:42:16.039 --> 00:42:18.239
created equal in God's eyes, We're going to lead this

781
00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:21.199
abolition movement. And and so I think there can be

782
00:42:21.239 --> 00:42:24.239
there are movements, and can be movements today where we

783
00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:26.119
really do restore. I don't think this is a pipe

784
00:42:26.159 --> 00:42:29.000
tream at all. I think the founders built into our

785
00:42:29.039 --> 00:42:33.000
system the capacity to self correct and put things back

786
00:42:33.199 --> 00:42:36.519
on this on this course. And and that's that's why

787
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:40.239
the doge kind of this moment is so important. And again,

788
00:42:40.440 --> 00:42:42.679
not everything has to happen immediately. That's the other thing.

789
00:42:42.719 --> 00:42:45.480
People were so impatient. We want, oh, this all needs

790
00:42:45.519 --> 00:42:48.639
to be fixed in whatever short periods of musk is

791
00:42:48.639 --> 00:42:48.920
at don't.

792
00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:51.199
Yeah, And I want to get skinny overnight too, John.

793
00:42:51.400 --> 00:42:54.480
Yeah, right, yeah, Look you're looking for you to pretty

794
00:42:54.480 --> 00:42:58.400
get but we want, we want to be in this

795
00:42:58.840 --> 00:43:01.559
and for the long term and never ever, ever, ever

796
00:43:01.599 --> 00:43:02.000
give up.

797
00:43:02.239 --> 00:43:03.119
Yeah, exactly.

798
00:43:03.239 --> 00:43:06.079
And that's not a superficial hope. It's not a pie

799
00:43:06.079 --> 00:43:09.239
in the sky hope. It's a condo, just a word

800
00:43:09.239 --> 00:43:13.960
of determination and just persistent believing that the forces of

801
00:43:14.400 --> 00:43:15.519
freedom can prevail.

802
00:43:15.920 --> 00:43:18.800
Well, when you talk about Wilberforce and the Reformation movement,

803
00:43:20.079 --> 00:43:25.360
it started with an opportunity for people to look to

804
00:43:25.400 --> 00:43:29.360
God because that's where truth resides, as we talked about before.

805
00:43:31.079 --> 00:43:33.480
And I think we have this small window of opportunity

806
00:43:33.599 --> 00:43:36.320
in which to be renewed. I mean it's interesting. I mean,

807
00:43:36.360 --> 00:43:39.800
here we are the day after Easter, time of renewal

808
00:43:39.840 --> 00:43:42.280
and rebirth. Maybe this is it.

809
00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:42.639
John.

810
00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:46.000
My prayer is for this country because well, can you

811
00:43:46.039 --> 00:43:50.760
imagine what this would do to really release the full potential,

812
00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:55.119
the God given potential of three hundred and fifty million

813
00:43:55.199 --> 00:44:00.199
citizens in our country. I mean, yeah, Donald Trump his

814
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:03.800
vision for a Golden Age for America, I'm with him

815
00:44:03.800 --> 00:44:08.000
on it, but it starts with a re embracement of

816
00:44:08.039 --> 00:44:12.599
the truth and godly principles which were embedded in our constitution.

817
00:44:13.039 --> 00:44:15.400
We've only got about four minutes left, and I did

818
00:44:15.480 --> 00:44:17.559
want to address something else that you added open the

819
00:44:17.559 --> 00:44:20.320
books and that was aid for the iatola. Is tell

820
00:44:20.360 --> 00:44:21.239
our audience about that.

821
00:44:22.199 --> 00:44:24.280
Yeah, yeah, Bill. So, one of the things that we've

822
00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:27.480
that we've done is we've looked at all of the

823
00:44:27.559 --> 00:44:32.239
money that's gone to the Iranian regime kind of indirectly

824
00:44:32.639 --> 00:44:36.039
that we facilitated over the years. And what we found

825
00:44:36.199 --> 00:44:39.440
is that we've we've kind of directed about one hundred

826
00:44:39.440 --> 00:44:43.760
and sixty billion dollars through Iran. It's primarily facilitated during

827
00:44:43.760 --> 00:44:48.039
the Biden years, and that was by relaxing sanctions and

828
00:44:48.119 --> 00:44:51.039
also payouts to pay for the release of Americans who

829
00:44:51.039 --> 00:44:55.159
have been in prison. And this is really shocking that

830
00:44:55.159 --> 00:45:01.519
we've done this, and you have with Iran, Russia, China

831
00:45:01.760 --> 00:45:06.039
and Hamas, you have this new axis of authoritarianism, an

832
00:45:06.079 --> 00:45:08.719
access of evil in the world where they will really

833
00:45:08.760 --> 00:45:13.360
behind October seventh and uh So the chirp administration is

834
00:45:13.400 --> 00:45:17.079
now I think, finally putting pressure on Iran and saying

835
00:45:17.519 --> 00:45:20.639
you will not have a nuclear weapon. Now. I hope

836
00:45:20.679 --> 00:45:22.960
that they don't have to use military force to get

837
00:45:22.960 --> 00:45:25.639
their way, But I don't think he's bluffy. I think

838
00:45:25.679 --> 00:45:29.079
when he says, I Ran will not have a nuclear weapon,

839
00:45:29.559 --> 00:45:32.440
I Ran has a choice of doing that either peacefully

840
00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:36.000
or it will or they will have that opportunity removed

841
00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:38.880
through the use of force, whether that's Israel or the

842
00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:39.679
United States.

843
00:45:40.599 --> 00:45:42.840
Is anything in their character tell you that they will

844
00:45:42.880 --> 00:45:44.039
surrender that, John.

845
00:45:44.840 --> 00:45:48.400
I don't. Well, I think I think this the the

846
00:45:48.480 --> 00:45:51.920
survival instinct in human beings is quite is quite intense,

847
00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:54.440
So that may that may be enough, but I'm not

848
00:45:54.599 --> 00:45:57.519
particularly hopeful. Yeah, that's my honest view.

849
00:45:57.840 --> 00:46:00.840
That's way I feel. I feel that this is what

850
00:46:01.119 --> 00:46:05.880
they know. They know strength, they know power. They're not going,

851
00:46:06.039 --> 00:46:08.679
you know, no matter what. And Donald Trump, I mean

852
00:46:08.719 --> 00:46:11.920
wants to do everything he can to avoid uh, you know,

853
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:16.760
death more death, uh and wars and and I respect that,

854
00:46:17.360 --> 00:46:19.840
but the Bible also says that there's a time for

855
00:46:19.880 --> 00:46:21.920
war and a time for peace. And the way it

856
00:46:21.960 --> 00:46:24.519
says that is that you better know the difference. And

857
00:46:24.519 --> 00:46:27.599
I think we're at that point, even though and I

858
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.679
respect this president to try to do everything he can

859
00:46:30.760 --> 00:46:33.519
to avoid it, but sometimes it's inevitable.

860
00:46:34.360 --> 00:46:37.559
Yeah. Yeah, well, well we'll see and and look and

861
00:46:37.559 --> 00:46:39.239
a lot of the money too, which I ran was

862
00:46:39.239 --> 00:46:43.559
just through through lacks, it was non enforcement of oil sanctions.

863
00:46:44.159 --> 00:46:46.119
We're talking to it. This is a it's a huge amount.

864
00:46:46.239 --> 00:46:48.480
We just talked earlier about, you know, the four point

865
00:46:48.480 --> 00:46:50.519
six billion dollars in furniture. Well, this is a lot

866
00:46:50.559 --> 00:46:53.239
more than that, right that we allowed to flow to

867
00:46:53.320 --> 00:46:56.960
a regime that's barbaric and murderous and was behind the

868
00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:00.320
massacre of on October seventh, and we just can't allow

869
00:47:00.360 --> 00:47:01.039
that to continue.

870
00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:04.199
And the thing is is that you saw this happening, John,

871
00:47:04.440 --> 00:47:07.880
and they did nothing to preempt it. They could have said, Okay, boom,

872
00:47:07.880 --> 00:47:12.000
we're going to cut back, we're re instituting the sanctions

873
00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:14.400
and that sort of thing, and for four years it

874
00:47:14.519 --> 00:47:18.960
continued to run without any kind of resistance whatsoever.

875
00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:22.079
Yeah. Yeah, And you know, appeasement is a very very

876
00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:25.519
dangerous thing. Is that is that we you know, Reagan

877
00:47:25.760 --> 00:47:28.920
modeled a peace through strength and I think a lot

878
00:47:28.920 --> 00:47:30.719
of folks who President Trump and a lot of people

879
00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:34.400
in his administration believe in that as well. And so

880
00:47:34.440 --> 00:47:36.559
hopefully we'll get to we'll get to a good result.

881
00:47:36.639 --> 00:47:38.880
But I'm you know, I wish I could be optimistic

882
00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:42.760
about the avoiding military force, but I'm not particularly I.

883
00:47:42.679 --> 00:47:45.480
Think sometimes, yeah, we can be optimistic till the point

884
00:47:45.480 --> 00:47:49.320
that reality enters in, and that's okay. I mean we

885
00:47:49.400 --> 00:47:52.559
pray that that would not be the case. But I

886
00:47:52.599 --> 00:47:56.159
mean we've had enough death you think about it already

887
00:47:56.679 --> 00:47:59.079
in Ukraine and Russia and other parts of the world

888
00:47:59.159 --> 00:48:03.039
right now. We don't need another war, although their military

889
00:48:03.039 --> 00:48:07.079
industrial complex is licking their chops. John Hart, the CEO

890
00:48:07.480 --> 00:48:11.280
of Open the Books. John, again, I cannot thank you

891
00:48:11.400 --> 00:48:12.880
enough for all the great work you and the team

892
00:48:12.920 --> 00:48:15.400
are doing on behalf of we. The people I want

893
00:48:15.400 --> 00:48:18.119
to encourage our audience are those that are watching us

894
00:48:18.159 --> 00:48:22.119
and listening to us that they support Open the Books, because,

895
00:48:22.920 --> 00:48:25.639
I mean, you guys are It's not like you're getting

896
00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:29.559
hundreds of billions of dollars. You know that somehow are

897
00:48:29.599 --> 00:48:33.039
coming to you to support this effort. Slice of all

898
00:48:33.079 --> 00:48:35.639
the numbers that's thrown out today, I can atturee right exactly.

899
00:48:35.760 --> 00:48:39.719
So tell people how they can subscribe and partner with

900
00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:40.559
Open the Books.

901
00:48:40.920 --> 00:48:42.480
Yeah, the best thing you do is go to our

902
00:48:42.480 --> 00:48:45.320
website and sign up open to Open the Books dot com.

903
00:48:45.360 --> 00:48:47.840
You can also go to our sub stack and sign up.

904
00:48:47.880 --> 00:48:49.599
Sign up at both places to go and get all

905
00:48:49.599 --> 00:48:53.639
of our newsletters and material and would be grateful to

906
00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:55.920
have your have your support and if you follow.

907
00:48:55.719 --> 00:48:59.519
Us well, John again, we're grateful to Open the Books

908
00:48:59.840 --> 00:49:02.079
and it's an honor always to have this time together

909
00:49:02.159 --> 00:49:05.000
to get an update on you know, what's going on

910
00:49:05.199 --> 00:49:08.960
as we continue to push forward for the truth and

911
00:49:09.039 --> 00:49:12.039
to get this country back on track and do something

912
00:49:12.440 --> 00:49:15.599
to make it truly efficient. But it requires all hands

913
00:49:15.599 --> 00:49:17.960
on deck. We need everybody to be of the same

914
00:49:18.039 --> 00:49:21.760
line and the same purpose to discover the truth and

915
00:49:21.800 --> 00:49:25.599
to do away with this inefficiency in our government. After all,

916
00:49:25.719 --> 00:49:28.239
a look at ladies, yelm, it's your money, right.

917
00:49:28.199 --> 00:49:30.400
That's exactly so your money, it's your future, it's your

918
00:49:30.440 --> 00:49:31.039
kid's future.

919
00:49:31.280 --> 00:49:34.599
Amen. And the way the government has been spending it's

920
00:49:34.639 --> 00:49:37.440
not just the kids, our grandkids. Is our great grank

921
00:49:37.519 --> 00:49:41.840
I mean we're going into generations here, right, this is crazy. Well,

922
00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:43.719
John Hart again, thank you so much for being with us.

923
00:49:43.719 --> 00:49:47.000
Take care, blessed you got it, lady Jellmen, thank you

924
00:49:47.079 --> 00:49:49.159
for being with us and sharing a part of your day.

925
00:49:49.159 --> 00:49:52.159
We're grateful for John Hart, the CEO of Open the

926
00:49:52.199 --> 00:49:55.559
Books and as I suggested, go to open the books

927
00:49:55.599 --> 00:49:59.559
dot com, and do what you can think about supporting

928
00:49:59.599 --> 00:50:01.199
the cause. I mean, they've been doing this for a

929
00:50:01.199 --> 00:50:04.800
couple of decades and working on our behalf, and they

930
00:50:04.840 --> 00:50:07.800
need our support, and especially right now, we have got

931
00:50:07.800 --> 00:50:11.840
to keep the pressure on the inefficiency and the administrative

932
00:50:11.840 --> 00:50:14.079
state if we're truly going to get this country back

933
00:50:14.119 --> 00:50:17.800
on drug If you're interested in this constitutional government and

934
00:50:17.960 --> 00:50:21.280
these first principles that you and I we took for

935
00:50:21.360 --> 00:50:24.360
granted for many years, and we saw what happened in

936
00:50:24.440 --> 00:50:27.480
the last couple of decades. It's been a slow and

937
00:50:27.559 --> 00:50:31.199
deliberate erosion. And it's been going on. As John Benjamin,

938
00:50:31.280 --> 00:50:33.480
you actually go back over one hundred years and you

939
00:50:33.559 --> 00:50:38.199
saw this slow progressive growth and expansion indsto the institutions

940
00:50:38.239 --> 00:50:43.840
of our government, taking over every institution, from our educational system,

941
00:50:44.119 --> 00:50:47.599
the governmental process, all these agencies and everything. And here

942
00:50:47.639 --> 00:50:50.800
we are, all these years later, trying to do something

943
00:50:50.840 --> 00:50:54.199
about it. But it requires all hands on deck. Again,

944
00:50:54.920 --> 00:50:56.559
thank you so much for being with us. I will

945
00:50:56.559 --> 00:50:58.960
say to you on this Easter week as it continues,

946
00:50:59.239 --> 00:51:02.000
happy Eastern to you. May God bless you, May He

947
00:51:02.119 --> 00:51:04.360
keep you, May He make his face shine upon you,

948
00:51:04.840 --> 00:51:07.760
and may he give you his peace, take care, God

949
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bless