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In today’s episode, Neil and John shed light on the whirlwind changes happening within the federal government, focusing on the Department of Government Efficiency. As they navigate through the complexities of this initiative, tune in to learn how the historical roots of government programs play into today’s politics. Discover the surprising parallels between past and present policies, and why this is igniting discussions on both sides of the aisle. This episode is not just about policy but about the human stories behind those numbers and regulations.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the National Crawford Roundtable podcast, a view of culture, current events and politics through a biblical lens brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the Preborn logo to donate to save babies now. and by SunPower LED Light Therapy Devices. Bring light to your pain. visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. And now, here are your hosts, Neil Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, good to have you with us for another edition of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast. My name’s Neil Boron, host of Neil Boron Live in Buffalo, New York, and usually joined by Bob Duco of WMUZ in Detroit and John Rush of Rush to Reason, but It’s just going to be John and I today. John hosting, of course, the Rush to Reason show on KLZ in Denver. So we’re, this isn’t solo. We’re the dynamic duo today, John. It’s good to have you with us, man. How are you?
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s always a joy. And yeah, you know what? Stuff happens and we continue on regardless. And appreciate, as you always say, appreciate everybody listening and all the reviews and different things that we get. But it’s always a joy. And I mean this sincerely. you know, you guys and our listeners and all the folks that we have is, is I probably do any other way. So I’m always happy to be here.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, if I could make an honest confession before we even get into this today, like I used to detest doing the roundtable each week. It was just this extra thing. You know, you’re a husband and a father and a grandfather, and you’ve got work responsibilities and other things, church-related stuff, and it was like just an extra thing. But I’ve really actually come to look forward to it because it’s an opportunity to learn from you guys and express some of the stuff that we’re not talking about in other places. Yeah, it’s good. Well, there’s so much to talk about. The, you know, Trump 47 is unbelievable. Like we talked about it as like a fire hose earlier. I mean, the news just keeps coming at you. And there’s a variety of things we could talk about. But I wanted to kind of begin today’s conversation, John, just talking about Doge, you know, the Department of Government Efficiency, this new arm of the federal government or whatever officially it is. And by the way, that’s a good question. Is it official or is it just… Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
In fact, we, I mentioned this briefly. I want to say, I think last week we, I mean, just touched on this just for a second, Neil, because there’s a lot of folks out there, a lot of Democrats even that are like, well, this isn’t a legit deal. And, and this isn’t, you know, this isn’t right. And there’s no way this should be, you know, you know, he should have as much power as he does and blah, blah, blah, talking about musk and does. And the reality is Trump being in, whether it was all Trump or it was some of his advisors on the inside or what, uh, Point being, they took a Obama program that had already been instituted all the way back in Obama’s presidency and just rebranded it. So the reality is, pretty smart move on their part. It is 100% legit. There isn’t anything about it that isn’t. They literally took something that was already in existence and just, you know, in a way, sort of revived it and revamped it, made it better, I guess you could say. And the reality is, yes, it is 100% legal. There is nothing unconstitutional about what they’re doing. In fact, I would argue, Neil, that all of these Democrats and others that talk about how it’s unconstitutional for us as citizenry to understand what’s going on with our tax dollars and how they’re being spent has to be one of the most ludicrous things I could ever imagine. It’s like, okay, time out. You’re telling me there’s a taxpayer. The hard-earned money that we all make and we pay into the system that requires us to do so, by the way, at the end of the day, I don’t have any rights to know how that’s being spent. Neil, I can’t think of anything more laughable.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and it’s pretty naive to think that there are billions upon billions of dollars floating around and that there’s no waste, no fraud, no corruption going on anywhere, that there really shouldn’t be any oversight. And I think that kind of plays to the heart of where many people are at. We just want to believe that everything’s OK. Stick our head in the sand. You know, there’s no reason to worry about these things. And it didn’t take long before all of a sudden they were uncovering. massive amounts of fraud and waste. And what’s really, you know, the other side must really hate it when when you can say, well, actually, this wasn’t Donald Trump’s idea. It was Barack Obama’s idea. It must just drive him crazy. I’ve seen footage as well. things that previous presidents have said including Obama about you know those who come to our country illegally and What ought to happen to them as far as deportation goes and then you play back the video? It’s like well Donald Trump isn’t the first person to say this Yeah, so Anyway, so there’s some comfort in that for sure. But this, you know, the whole Doge thing has really captured the attention of the media. And I think of people in the United States and obviously some people have lost their jobs as a result because of their involvement with some federal agency, including Trump supporters. And that was kind of weird even to see that people were talking about that on social media, John, because obviously no one’s making a distinction here. Hey, we’re going to let all the Democrats go and just keep the Republicans. If they feel like there’s too many people working in some agency and they’re not really doing their job, let’s cut it back. And it doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is. I kind of like that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I do too, Neil. It’s like, okay, it doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on. This is business. I mean, as an owner, Neil, I mean, I still write payroll checks and do things along those lines. And the reality is if the ship is sinking, which in this particular case, the United States of America is because of where we’re at in regards to spending and our national debt and the deficit itself and so on. So this is like you bring a CEO in to turn a company around. The first thing the CEO does is he, not himself or herself, but they get people in line to figure out, okay, where are we losing money? What’s going on? Where are we inefficient? And typically, I’ve taken over other types of fledgling businesses in the past, and the only first thing you look at is, okay, number one, how do we increase revenue? Which, by the way, we’ll probably talk about today as well, because that’s another thing that Trump is looking at. So we increase revenue, but at the same token, we have to cut expenses because we can’t keep doing what we were doing prior. There’s a reason why, in this particular case, this company, or in our case, our country, is in this position, meaning we’ve got to make drastic changes and we’re going to continue to go down that same path. So the reality is, yeah, it doesn’t matter what side of the political aisle you’re on. If your job in the federal government, in this case, because this is only affecting the feds, it’s not affecting state, which, by the way, we should talk about this at At some point, maybe next week, we’ll get into this in the podcast, but I think every state should have a doge, by the way. In fact, that’s something that I know the feds can’t do because we have states’ rights and so on, but I think a lot of people would be shocked at how much their own state, local cities, counties, and so on waste money. But in this particular case, it’s the feds. They’ve come in. They’re identifying all those programs that essentially – programs and jobs, Neil, that are not – are not productive that are not having an end positive result i guess you could say for us as taxpayers and i’m one to say and i’ve said this on my program many times there’s 2.4 million federal workers and i don’t think i’m out of line in saying this and i might even be high in this projection i think we could do everything we’re doing and cut that number in half in other words we could go to 1.2 million federal workers with no problem whatsoever if you get rid of a bunch of the nonsense that we spend money on as a country and i might be high on that you know you might be able to run the country with you know half of that again you might build it with 600 000 workers when it’s all said and done if you eliminate some of the actual agencies that are redundant and that lay on top of what states are already doing i.e the epa Neil, you could cut thousands upon thousands, millions, as we say now, jobs in the federal government. And I guess my advice to those of you that are, you know, conservatives, you know, God-fearing, you know, Christians and so on, and you work for the federal government, number one, good for you. You’re probably some of the few that are actually, you know, generating a positive return. But what I would advise everyone to do, Neil, is really look hard at what agency am I in? How needed is this agency really at the end of the day? Because frankly, you might want to start looking now.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and you know, I want to talk about our sponsors, but when we come back, I want to talk about the email that Doge sent out to federal workers saying, hey, you’ve got to respond to this so that we know that you’re actually there and you’re alive and you’re human and you’re actually doing some work. And if you don’t, then we’ll just consider that your resignation letter. You know, you probably know this, but only about half of the people who got that email responded, which means you might cut the federal workforce in half. You might get your wish on that, John, seriously, because… Anyway, there was a lot of controversy about the email. We’ll talk about it here in just a minute. But first, I really want to thank SunPowerLED for making this program possible. Our ability to do the podcast, talk about these things freely and openly, is in large part due to their support and the support of Preborn, which you’ll hear about in just a minute. But you might ask, what is SunPowerLED? I’m just not that familiar with it. Well, it’s essentially taking the very light God himself created and then use that light certain wavelengths of that light to help reduce pain and swelling and promote healing in the human body now you’ve all seen the opera singer who can sing a particular note at a particular volume for a particular length of time and then explode a champagne glass why is that because sound waves make you know molecules move and it has an impact on the world around us well so do light waves and Red and near infrared light can literally be used to penetrate the skin. No UV problems, no skin cancer, none of that. But goes deep into the human body, get to the cells that are kind of falling asleep, wake up the mitochondria and get them to do what the body was meant to do. And that’s to heal the human body. If you want to learn more about it, listen, there’s no big pharma involved. There’s no surgical procedures. It’s about using light that God created. Check it out at SunPowerLED. You can find it on our webpage, CrawfordMediaGroup.net. SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. They’re just one of our sponsors. John Preborn is the other.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you hear Bob talk about this a lot occasionally when Bob’s not here, I’ll fill in for Preborn because I have the same, well, for both of these sponsors, SunPower and Preborn. Neil, I have great familiarity with both, but Preborn, for all of you listening, where you’re thinking, okay, What can I do? I value life. We as a, not only as a party, Neil, but as Christians believe in life. It’s God-given. I firmly believe in that. When we take a life away, it’s murder. I don’t care how else you want to sum it up. That’s exactly what it is. and what pre-born does is they don’t come at it like that probably wouldn’t be as effective if they wouldn’t be as effective me running it versus them so they’re much kinder and gentler they use ultrasound images to show the mom what’s going on inside of their womb and through all of that and explaining what’s really happening inside of their own bodies through that process neil and all of you listening they really do change a lot of mom’s decisions on what they need to do when it comes to having that baby moving forward. In other words, not aborting the baby, but keeping that baby going to full term. In some cases, that may mean an adoption. That may mean some different things that happen in that particular lady’s life when it’s all said and done. And as I’ve said many, many times, this affects entire families, guys. This is not just… the mom it is entire families that are changed forever and I mean that sincerely and you guys can take part in that it’s your donations that make this happen you hear Bob talk about it all the time how little bit of money we give can save a baby’s life if you really got some some things you want to do tax wise and so on fifteen thousand dollars buys an ultrasound machine which then helps thousands upon thousands of lives so guys whatever you can do every dollar counts Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, look for Preborn there, click on that, and please either call, click, donate, whatever you need to do, but put your money where your mouth is, as I always say.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, check it out. All of it available at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Just click on Preborn or SunPowerLED. So we went into the break there. I wanted to talk about the email thing because it was pretty controversial. Obviously, the left was going bananas over this thing. Absolutely. And the press, you know, got in the face of the president and said, you know, tell us about what is happening here. These people are supposed to reply saying, like, just name five things you did this week. You know, tell us you’re alive and that you’re actually breathing and that you’re doing something. So he said, you know, the email was intended to ask the question, are you actually working? And then he said, if you don’t answer, you are sort of semi-fired or you’re fired. Well, people are like, really? That’s the standard? People just need to respond in order to get their jobs? And what is this all about?
SPEAKER 04 :
How hard is this?
SPEAKER 02 :
And it isn’t. So on the one hand, you scratch your head and you go, hey, folks, they’re not asking for much here. They’re just saying, are you out there and are you real? And can you respond? Can you prove it?
SPEAKER 04 :
And really quick, Neil, I want to jump in because, as you know, I consult businesses nationwide and I’ve got multiple clients, all sorts of different clients. you know, walks of life business-wise and so on. And I will tell you that especially when I get into a business where I’m not always called in because things are going well. I’m either called in because something’s getting started or… In some cases, Neil, there’s a turnaround that needs to happen or they want to grow. Maybe they want to sell the business, whatever the case may be. Want to improve bottom line, whatever. I mean, I coach for all different reasons. But in some cases, it’s to get things turned around. I will tell you, Neil, that one of the first things that I will do in a company, especially that has employees, is exactly that. what they’re doing right now with the federal government I will say okay I want all of your people you as an owner included I want you for everything I get more detail than what they’re even asking for I will say I want every 30 minutes to an hour broken down what you’re doing in an entire day for an entire week and I want your employees to do the exact same thing so we can look and determine Where can we improve efficiencies when it’s all said and done? Because without doing that, you don’t know what to fix. This is all they’re doing. At the end of the day, this is not hard, and they’re not getting near the detail that, frankly, Neil, that I would be asking for. This is an easy ask if you ask me, and if they can’t answer this, they should go.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I totally agree with what you’re saying. I absolutely think something needs to happen to get to the bottom of the waste, the fraud, et cetera, because it’s there. Let’s face it. It exists. We need to root it out. We got to find it. On the flip side, how do you manage something like that? I mean, you’re a business owner. John, I get flustered when I get 25 or 30 emails in a day. I would prefer about 10 or 15 max. Don’t send me stuff. Ask my producer, ask somebody else. But how do you manage a million emails? Who’s reading these emails? Who’s determining AI or something?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I don’t know their chain of command on this. I’m guessing that like any organization, there’s a hierarchy. And these are probably going into the individual managers, I guess you could say, whoever the leaders are in that particular division of government that we’ve got. Yeah, I highly doubt all of these are coming back into Elon Musk and Donald Trump, definitely not coming into Donald Trump, not coming into Elon either. Now, on the same token, Elon’s got a large team of Doge. And yes, they may be using AI and some things like that, Neil. But I guarantee you, this is a pyramid, if you would, in effect, to where you’ve got somebody at the top, there’s branches underneath them, and all of those little layers, those tiers. And again, we’ve got 2.4 million federal workers. So yeah, there’s no way that Donald Trump or Elon Musk is looking at each one of those. But there’s a hierarchy, I’m guessing. Again, I don’t know this for sure. I don’t know the inner workings and how they’re doing this. That’s how I think this is probably getting broken down. Typically, there are some situations, Neil, where somebody might be managing a team of 40, 50 people. That’s large. Typically, it’s broken down even further than that to where each team member is probably managing… You know, maybe a couple of dozen. And you hear those stories of somebody saying, well, I managed 150 people. No, you didn’t. You probably managed a portion of those. And there was a hierarchy even in that because the reality to your point a moment ago, Neil, you can’t manage that many people effectively. And if you are, you’re not doing it very well. And by the way, maybe that’s some of what they’re trying to get down to when it comes to the federal government as well. If it isn’t in the case that there’s one particular individual that’s managing that many different people, no wonder government is ineffective because you can’t manage that many.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and I appreciate what you’re saying there, but I, you know, I said, I don’t know if anybody ever saw the show hoarders, but like things get so bad that all of a sudden you just need an intervention. Somebody’s got to step in and do something. That’s right. And that’s kind of where we’re at. But, and I, I think John, I think, If we’re going to be real about this, if you stop the average person on the street and say, hey, do you work? You pay taxes? Okay, well, how would you feel about the fact knowing that hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars are going to fund irrigation canals, farming equipment, and fertilizer used to support poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan?
SPEAKER 04 :
people would be like what what are you talking about well that’s right we’re funding that um we’re funding diversity equity and inclusion and really quick really quick and you all want to step in for a second too because people think well you know we’re funding that well keep in mind that the funding of goes back to some of what you and i were just getting you know just got done talking about there’s people that are involved in all of that funding there’s just not one blank check that gets sent over there then Then nobody does anything with at least I hope that’s not the way it works. There’s typically people that are involved in that. How’s the program working? And there’s people on the ground and there’s all sorts of things going on. So in your particular one example, I don’t know how many dozens of people are involved in that particular process. But frankly, to your point, we shouldn’t be doing it at all. And most people on the streets would be horrified to know some of those things.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I really don’t want any part of heroin production in Afghanistan to benefit the Taliban. Like what? Correct. Okay, so then you’ve got people involved, which leads me back to the point I wanted to make about all this and how I got off on the rabbit trail a little bit. You know, one of the initial cuts that Doge handed down was with the national nuclear deal. Security Administration, and after they let a bunch of people go, then it was like, oops, wait a minute, better bring some of these people back because they’re actually responsible for some critical, you know, roles that they play in national defense, etc. So at what point, this is just a street level question, but at what point do the American people lose confidence in this process saying, this is happening too quick, there’s no way you can know for sure who you’re letting go, or what important role they play? and somehow begins to come back on the trump administration because i think the early returns are this is great man cut the waste cut the fraud get rid of it but if there’s the sense maybe you’re moving too quick and this could harm us somehow in the long run is this going to be good or bad
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think my answer to that, Neil, for most of the people out there that are listening and that would really have any input, keep in mind there’s only a small percentage of people that even, number one, vote or even pay attention to what’s going on politically speaking and so on. Unfortunately, yes, they get their news off of that. Nightly News, MSN, NBC, and others. And by the way, it’s very tainted when they do that. They’re not really looking at things correctly. But I think, Neil, the answer at the end of the day is as long as the average American sees no disruption in how their daily life works when it comes to what’s going on in the federal government, I think you can cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, and keep going. And as long as at the end of the day… Yeah, there’s going to be a few people that are crying about this particular perk they used to get or this particular benefit they used to get, which that’s a whole other conversation we could probably get into in the future as to how many of those we should even be doing in the first place and why are some of these people still on it. But really, at the end of the day, as long as people don’t see a huge disruption in their day-to-day life, Neil, I think you just keep cutting and cutting and cutting. You don’t worry about it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I’m sure that somewhere along the line, somebody’s collecting a fat paycheck and they’re still living with mom and they’re playing video games in their basement. That’s going on. However, somewhere along the line, there’s a really studious individual who’s taking their job seriously. They’re working hard. and they feel like this is happening so fast. Nobody really took a look at what I do, the contribution I make to society and to the United States of America.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, but this goes back to, Neil, I talk about these things on a daily basis, given I’m a business owner and I try my best to try to help you know owners across the board do better and even people do better anything that that as an employer that I will tell you that I think the vast majority of employers look at we as government should be doing the same thing now is what are you bringing to the table as an employee in other words what value are you bringing in are you making yourself more valuable on a daily basis not your position not your job itself but you personally what are you bringing table in this is a This is a lesson, I think, Neil, even to a lot of the Christians that we have listening, because I’ve hired and fired Christians over the years that frankly didn’t bring any value to the table just because they’re Christian didn’t mean they were a great worker. So point being, if you’re not bringing value to the table, making yourself literally indispensable in that particular organization, and you’re not noticed for doing so, shame on you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it’s fascinating to watch because I feel like this should have been something that was happening all along. And there are some kind of shadow organizations, you know, the Office of Government. No, what’s it called? I got it written down somewhere. I’ll find it. It has to do with, you know, oversight. There are oversight organizations built into the federal government. that i think should have been doing this job all along and aren’t really paying attention or haven’t been paying attention which is why this problem got as bad as it did i agree and people like uh what’s our good friend there the uh elizabeth warren and others oh yeah ranting and raving about this saying we already police ourselves okay well then why was it so easy to find billions of dollars of fraud and waste like who was asleep on the job at that one but I think, by and large, the American people are happy. I personally have to say, though, I’ve been a little nervous about, like, the chainsaw thing. You know, you got Elon Musk on stage. Who is this guy, right? He’s got the sunglasses and he’s got the chainsaw. And it’s like they’re having a party. But if I had lost my job, if I was a studious worker and I was contributing to the betterment of society and they’re having that party on stage, I’m not sure how I’d react to it. I’m happy that they’re cutting back. Don’t get me wrong. But I’m worried about the optics and how it could affect us long term. I don’t know. What do you think?
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m not as concerned about it because I still think, and maybe I’m unique, maybe I run into different types of people on the streets and in what I’m doing and so on, and maybe it’s where it’s different for me than it is others. But I will tell you, Neil, that the majority of people that I run into can’t stand government, can’t stand government workers. And I know that’s a blanket and I know there’s a lot of people that are good, solid, and I’ve known some individuals that are inside of government that do a really good job and they’re very needed and so on. And by the way, I think those particular individuals have nothing to worry about when it comes to their job. If they’re really studious and they’re doing a great job and they’re bringing value to the table, then I don’t think those people have anything to worry about. But I will tell you, Neil, that I think the average person, going back to that The person on the street, when they go into – in a lot of cases, and this is where it’s hard because a lot of cases, the individuals and how they look at government is based upon what they’re seeing locally because they go into their DMV. They go into the county clerk. They go into the court system or whatever the case may be, and that’s how they’re viewing government, and it’s not quite the same there versus nationally. Or is it? I mean, I think that’s the biggest question people have, Neil. I mean, a lot of times you walk into some of these agencies and you look around and just think to yourself, okay, wait a minute. I can see about half a dozen people here that are literally doing absolutely nothing. In fact, some of them might be having a conversation, drinking a cup of coffee. So at the end of the day, what are they really doing? So I think on average, Neil, most people look at government workers very much that way and think, what are you guys doing? Am I getting my money’s worth anyways? I don’t think most people care.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, John, you would understand this better than I based on the kind of business you’ve been involved in. But sometimes in Buffalo, New York, we get a lot of water main breaks just because of the freezing and the, you know, warms up and it freezes and whatever. And you’ll drive by one of these sites and somebody’s working a backhoe and someone’s down in the hole doing something. And about eight or 10 guys are standing looking down into the hole doing nothing. And you’re wondering, why are these guys on the payroll? Anyway, yeah. It’s high time we cut back and we cared about these kind of things. We got to move quicker. I just want to say again, thanks to SunPower LED for making the National Crawford Roundtable possible. There have been so many stories about how the very light God himself created was used to improve someone’s physical condition, to help heal their body after surgery or after some kind of a wound because of some situation. Mark talks about how he was helped to recover from a knee surgery quickly using SunPower LED. Diana tells a story about seeing significant improvement in her tinnitus. Mary suffered debilitating back pain for a better part of 10 years after And the relief she found changed her life. So I don’t know what kind of pain or swelling you’re dealing with, but SunPowerLED is literally taking the very light God himself created and then using that light to help reduce pain and swelling and heal your body. And you can learn about it. They’re one of our sponsors. Find them at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on SunPowerLED. and watch some of the videos. Learn about how light therapy can help heal your body. They’re one major sponsor. Our other is Preborn. John, tell us about it.
SPEAKER 04 :
And if you really want to change a life, and I mean that, not only save a baby’s life, but change lives, many lives, by the way, entire families can be changed through this. Because, you know, every time, Neil, I look at my grandkids and I just look at the blessings that they are and the, you know, what they literally bring to the table. And I think, okay, pre-born is allowing some of those same things to happen for, you know, generations, plural now, that’ll happen on down the road out of that one life. So folks really believe me. And those of you that are listening, if you really want to make a difference in our world today, we talk about a lot of things on this program. We get into a lot of different things. We just talked about Doge and government workers and all sorts of things. But really, folks, if you want to make a difference in our world today, give to Preborn. They are doing what you and I and others cannot do. The ultrasound images that they produce for that pregnant mom and the decisions that will come off of that are just invaluable, and you can be a part of that. Just go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net for pre-born there. Give, and I say it all the time. I mean it sincerely. Give like you’ve never given before and put your money where your mouth is.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, my wife, by the way, is a sonogram nurse at a pregnancy care center, and it is astounding how many women choose life for their babies when they get a chance to see their baby and the development of their baby in the womb. So, yeah, support pre-born and SunPowerLED. You’ll find them at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Well, we’ll be back with the second half of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast in just a moment. My name is Neil Boron. John Rush is with us, and we will continue right after this.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is a Crawford Media Group production.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, let’s get back again to the conversation here on today’s edition of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast. Joining me today, John Rush, host of Rush to Reason on KLZ in Denver, Colorado. Bob Duco of The Bob Duco Show, unable to be with us today. My name’s Neil Boron, host of Neil Boron Live on WDCX Radio in Buffalo, New York. So it’s just John and I, and we spent the first half talking about DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, And the need for cutting back and being more frugal in our spending. I mean, the United States – John, by the way, before we go on, did you ever – have you ever been – is it Times Square or is it near Wall Street? But have you ever seen the clock that counts down? Oh, my goodness. It’s counting up, actually.
SPEAKER 04 :
When I watch the world, I have the U.S. debt clock as a bookmark in my browser that I look at continuously, which sometimes is very disappointing. Yeah. uh to look at uh and by the way there’s now a doge clock on there to you you can look and see how much government waste has actually you know been saved and right now it’s about 100 and not not quite 140 billion but it’s you know it’s climbing unfortunately so is the national debt to your point uh you know 36 and now 500 so 36 trillion 528 billion dollars. And Neil, going back, and I don’t want to get too, you know me, I try not to be super spiritual about these things because I know everybody comes from a different place and all of that, and it’s not my job to preach to people. I’m not a preacher or anything along those lines. But We are called, as you know, to be good stewards of the money and the resources God gives us. And I look at this as a country and say, okay, those of you that are even in the government workforce that might be a little bit upset about what’s going on, the reality is you might lose your job. On the same token, we as a country are called to be good stewards of what God has given us as well. And I will tell you, Neil, that Some of the programs, and you mentioned one in the last half hour, some of the programs that they have uncovered and you look at and think, okay, that is definitely not being a good steward of what God has given us as a country. And I know there’s a lot of Christians even, I’ve had some debates even with people on some social media sites as to, you know, some of the things that USAID was doing around the world in regards to helping other countries and so on. And Well, my heart goes out to a lot of those things, and I get it. There’s also many a church organization, Neil, that have missionaries. They’re on the ground. They’re doing a lot of the things, by the way, that USAID does. And I look at that and say, okay, we can still be just as effective as a country in some of those areas without government intervention. In some cases, do it better than what government can because you’ve got real people on the ground that understand that community, missionaries and so on, because they live, eat, breathe, drink that particular food. And they know full well what needs to happen. The bottom line where I’m going with this, Neil, is we are called to be good stewards. It’s not just of our own personal finances, but we should be looking at that on a local, county, state, and national level as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and we’ve all heard the story about, you know, the government hammer that costs $1,900 when you can get one at Home Depot for 20 bucks. Once government gets involved, things get really cloudy really fast, and there’s opportunities for waste and fraud, which leads me in some ways to the next part of our conversation. I wanted to ask you about the Russia and Ukraine thing and how all that’s playing out right now. There’s a lot of different things and aspects, you know, things we could talk about, different aspects we could look at. But One of them has to do with Donald Trump saying, hey, we’ve been sending you billions of dollars. How about you begin to pay us back with some of those rare earth metals, right? Boy, talk about being frugal. Talk about getting to the heart of the matter pretty quick. Any comment on that? Because apparently on Friday, potentially this Friday, Trump will sign an agreement with Ukraine, with Zelenskyy. for access to those rare earth metals. And I think that makes a whole lot of sense to me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I want my money back. I mean, as a taxpayer, Neil, I want my hundred and whatever it is, 60 plus billion dollars that we’ve given them, which by the way, in some cases, they don’t even know where the money has gone. That’s a whole podcast in and of itself. And I’ve made myself very publicly clear on this from day one when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine thing. I’m not on either side. Russia did something that they shouldn’t have done, and I won’t back them. On the same token, Ukraine is no angel like a lot of people think they are. In my opinion, that regime can be about as corrupt as some of what’s out there, period. Coming over to the United States of America, begging for money. not knowing where that money goes or where that money was spent. A lot of those folks have gotten richer and richer, while a lot of us as Americans have gotten poorer and poorer. Something is wrong with that picture at the end of the day. And again, I don’t want to get into a lot of deep discussion on Ukraine, but there were things that they did they shouldn’t have. Definitely Russia invaded they shouldn’t have. At the end of the day, that thing needs to end. But yeah, Neil, I want my money back.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, you know, just as you were saying that, I was thinking about the history of the National Comfort Roundtable, and I think we’ve been doing this for the better part of five years. I think this summer will be five years. Our trustee producer, Gail Conroy, could confirm that one way or the other. But, you know, early, let’s just say three years ago, obviously the conversation became, you know, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and all the conversation was about that and how much money was going to help support Ukraine in this process and so forth. But prior to that, During the first Trump administration, when he was president, 45, not 47, the impeachment process, the first impeachment, if I’m not mistaken, revolved around the fact that President Trump had asked that Zelensky look into the Biden crime family. and investigate Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma, right? That energy company. That’s right. He’s getting millions of dollars from Ukraine for what? He doesn’t know anything about energy. And there had to be something corrupt going on there. But either way, he was calling for an investigation into that. And at the time, John, we were talking about Ukraine being one of the most, this is at the beginning of the roundtable, like five years ago, one of the most corrupt countries on the planet. Well, then Russia invades a few years later and a well wait a minute like do we really actually know who we’re dealing with here and we better move carefully in our negotiations and dealing with them down the road and i think some people are aghast right now donald trump’s having conversations with putin and they’re like wait a minute russia invaded ukraine then he turns around and says zielinski started the war donald trump is famous for stirring the pot i don’t know what your thoughts are about any of that well and yeah and in a way and again i don’t want to get off on a rabbit trail maybe we should do an entire you know podcast
SPEAKER 04 :
know dedicate you know dedicated to this but i know from doing some of my own research which by the way i don’t think a lot of people do uh you know the whole you know ukraine wanting to be a part of nato that was actually going against a treaty that had already been established you know years prior that that you know russia was involved with as well they didn’t want ukraine to be a part of nato on and on we go so yeah there were things let’s just say this neil there were things that i believe both countries did wrong russia should have never invaded on the same token i am not sure and this is this is again you’re going to get differences of opinion from even christians and and conservatives that are out there neil but you know i for one don’t think we shouldn’t have should have given near the amount of support to ukraine that we did if we did there should have been some strings attached to how that was done Should have been done on loans, should have been done something like what Trump’s doing right now when it comes to the rare earth metals they have and so on. They’ve got natural resources. I mean, there’s all sorts of things that I think you could have done along with that rather than just giving, in a lot of cases, a blank check or blank arms. yeah and this again we could do a whole podcast on this because i do think there was a lot of defense industry individuals involved in this because in a way we have been fighting a proxy war we’ve been able to test a lot of our weaponry and things real time real life that we would not have been able to do otherwise has that been a benefit to the united states of america yes it probably has unfortunately neil there are still people that have died over all of this or souls that have been lost if you would at the end of the day so while that might sound great on paper the reality is this has torn up you know parts of a country that it never should have done in the first place never should have started and let’s not forget all the way back to when joe biden took office had he not done some of the things that he did to create oil at a hundred dollars a barrel at that time Putin wouldn’t have had the war chest to do what he did. So many mistakes were made along the lines. And I think what’s happening now is you’re seeing Donald Trump try to come in and pick up the pieces and fix it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and it appears to be coming to an end, which is good news, I think, no matter how you look at that. And then, of course, the news that I mentioned earlier, that on Friday, supposedly, Vladimir Zelensky is going to sign a deal with the United States to allow us to have access to some of those rare earth metals. Donald Trump was quoted as saying it could be a trillion dollar deal. It could be whatever. When asked directly what Ukraine would get in return, instead, he pointed to past U.S. weapons deliveries. And I got to say, hearty amen to that. But anyway, he concluded by saying Biden was throwing money around like it’s cotton candy. We want to get that money back. And I think that’s the heart of what I was just saying a moment ago.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, to me, that goes back to the whole Doge thing. Neil, there needs to be accountability, even with, well, especially with these other countries when it comes to the money and the aid and the things that we do. I don’t think the average American has any idea how much foreign aid we as a country actually do, and it is an astronomical amount of money.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And stop and think about for a minute how much can be accomplished with a small gift to pre-born, John. Unbelievable. Talk about accountability. Human lives are being saved for relatively small amounts of money. Tell us about our sponsor.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, let’s just say this. They’re not getting $71 billion, which is what our foreign aid package is roughly, Neil. Preborn does it all off of the donations of folks like myself, like you, like Bob, like a lot of you that are listening. And the reality is they are, in fact, saving not only – I know Bob says it all the time – saving babies’ lives. And yes, that’s exactly what they’re doing. That’s the first line of what they’re trying to make happen. But Neil, you know, even from what your wife has experienced over the years, it’s literally families, it’s moms, it’s dads, it’s grandmas, it’s grandpas, it’s other siblings that might come along on down the road or even current siblings that are there. The reality is it’s changing multiple lives, not just the life of that baby and saving that life, but it’s literally changing entire families. And I think at times we don’t do enough service to let people know that by just changing and saving that one life, We are literally, Neil, probably affecting hundreds, if not thousands of other lives based upon that one life that gets saved. So folks, it’s huge. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, give to Preborn today. You can do that by going to that website. And like I say many, many times, put your money where your mouth is.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and I think it’s $28, a gift of $28 saves a baby. 10 babies saved for $280. I mean, look into what Preborn has done, and lives are tremendously being changed through that ministry and organization. You’ll find them at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. The other, of course, is our friends who offer red light therapy using red and near-infrared light, an organization called SunPowerLED.com. Now, I don’t know if you guys were with us in the first half of the podcast, but I realized I coughed with an open microphone. Normally I would have shut it off, so my apologies. But my cough today is nothing like what it was five years ago when I was trying to overcome the effects of COVID. I got whacked with COVID and I think nearly lost my life. I don’t think I’m… told me I was on the verge of going to a hospital and being put on a ventilator. Three different emergency visits to our home. They did breathing treatments, whatever. I couldn’t get better. But Tom Kerber of SunPowerLED heard about my situation, said, Neil, you need to be on one of these palm devices. You can hold it against your chest. Let the light penetrate into your chest and heal your lungs. and it was unbelievable john in a matter of just a few weeks i went from a blood oxygen content of 79 to 82 to like 99 or 100 it was unreal how fast it happened and that’s because the mitochondria in my cells in my lungs woke up and started healing me like they’re supposed to that’s how god created me listen if you want to say goodbye to pain in your joints migraine headaches you know you’ve got a wound that won’t heal and you need help with that learn about sun power led just go to crawfordmediagroup.net click on the link there and learn about what this can do for you there’s so many different applications and it uses nothing more than the light god himself created sun power led crawfordmediagroup.net John, I wanted to ask you about the $5 million gold card. Donald Trump’s now talking about asking investors, more or less, people from around the world who are willing to invest $5 million in the United States, you can come here, get a gold card, and be an American citizen. Obviously, they would vet these people, find out who they really are, but they’re talking about potentially offering $1 million different five million dollar gold cards and you did the math for me earlier i think what did we decide that was five trillion five trillion yeah five trillion dollars could be generated if this goes through i mean it’s really out of the box and i want to commend the trump administration for coming up with ideas that are way out of the box this one’s pretty intriguing but as a businessman what are your thoughts about it
SPEAKER 04 :
It actually replaces the current program we already have, so this isn’t anything new. It’s just Donald Trump supersizing it, I guess you could say, Neil, making it much bigger, making it maybe a little bit more attractive. Now, there’s a lot of naysayers out there, and I read some of these naysayers who, by the way, I want to remind everybody. Most of the naysayers when it comes to any type of program along these lines have never written a payroll check in their entire life, and I mean that sincerely. These are folks that come out of academia or they’re a quote-unquote expert in this, that, or the other, and the reality is These people probably never even manage another employee, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that. So be careful when you see some of the naysayers that are out there and you read some of these things because you’ve got to put, if you would, that lens on it to know that, wait a minute, these are people that are – For sure, globalists, they don’t want to see anything like this happen in the first place, Neil. They’re going to try to poke holes in this as many times as they can. And the reality is, yeah, I think this is a great idea. This is something where, yes, they definitely will be vetted. There are strings attached. They have to agree to come here and do X amount of investment, in some cases even employing X amount of people. So, I mean, the byproduct of this, Neil, not just the $5 trillion that they would bring in through the gold program, you know, the gold card program itself, but the ancillary things that would come off of this. And I said this before on my program. I don’t think I’ve said it here on the roundtable. This is a perfect segue to do so. Right now, the way the economy works, Jerome Powell on the Fed is doing nothing. I mean, literally nothing to help the economy grow right now. In fact, if anything… I think they’re doing some things to hamper it because despite what anybody says, I think the Fed is a lot more political than what they try to portray that they are. They’ll try to portray this neutrality, which frankly I don’t think they are. And I think frankly there is a rift between Jerome Powell and Donald Trump even though Donald Trump – appointed him back in his first term. The reality is that there is some bad blood between those two. So my thought process is because the Fed won’t do anything to help get the economy going, between the likes of Elon Musk and other advisors and Donald Trump, they are looking at ways to get the economy back on track despite the the fed now what’s going to happen is they’re gonna do some things they’re gonna generate some economy they’re gonna make some things happen and then by the way because the fed is so stinking egotistical they’re not gonna have that so they will then come in lower rates take the credit for the economic boom that might be coming just around the corner because they don’t want to be left out there and be said that well while they were waiting on the sidelines the economy went ahead and took off so i think what donald trump is actually doing to push the fed into lowering rates knowing that’s going to help out housing and other things He’s working around them or in spite of them. And because of that, the Fed’s going to have no choice but to lower rates at some point.
SPEAKER 02 :
Fascinating description. I appreciate you bringing that up. And, you know, I am not an economist and I’m not a business owner. So you have far more experience talking about things like that. But, you know, one criticism that I’ve noticed when you watch the media and what they’ve said about the Trump administration thus far. Remember, I think it was probably the second day after the inauguration. So probably around January 22nd or something. He had several billionaires standing around him talking about investment in future economic endeavors. I think one of them had to do with vaccines or something. What were those three guys doing in his office? It’s slipping my mind right now, but either way, he surrounded himself with a bunch of guys that were talking about No, it was AI, that they were going to be involved in helping to develop future AI. Okay, but my point is, the immediate criticism was, here you got this billionaire president who doesn’t understand the needs of poor people in the United States and blah, blah, blah. And now he’s surrounding himself with Elon Musk, who’s the richest man in the world. So you got the richest man and the most powerful man hanging out. These three guys are coming to say that they’re going to launch this AI thing. Now, you know, with the gold card program potentially inviting millionaires, $5 million is no small investment. People who are around big money coming to the United States. So Donald Trump really only cares about millionaires. And and yet you contrast that with the approach of the Democrat Party over the last four years, which was, hey, if you’re poor and you’re struggling, don’t worry, the government will take care of you. We’ll send you money. We’ll just write checks and you can stay home. You don’t have to work because of covid. We’ll just send you money. and we’ll keep you on the government dole. Don’t worry about it. Endless supply of money, which led to increased inflation and had a tremendous impact on the American people. Anyway, all of that to say, one thing I do know about economics is printing money is not a good idea. and ever and so these programs that he’s talking about like this five million dollar gold card thing is a trickle-down kind of program somebody comes here they start a business they start employing people those people get jobs they start paying taxes uh john ultimately that it’s pain it’s painful it takes time it doesn’t happen overnight but it’s ultimately good for our economy i think we need
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Oh, absolutely, Neil. And you’re right. I mean the Democrats’ way is let’s expand government. Let’s keep you on the dope. By the way, that’s part of the Marxist movement. Let’s make you dependent upon government because then we can control. You keep in mind this is all about control, good versus evil. Evil wants to control. Good wants – The good side wants you to be able to control your own self, your own decisions. By the way, that’s how God made us free will. Don’t want to get down that rabbit hole, Neil. But the reality is it’s the way God made us. We have free will to choose what we want to do, good versus evil. That’s not the Marxist way, though. They want you having zero choices. They do want you controlled by government. They want to control the masses. That, at the end of the day, is how they make things work for them. So to your point, that’s exactly the way they look at it. They don’t like this whole freedom thing. They don’t like the fact that these ideas that Donald Trump is bringing to the table would actually generate and stimulate the economy. They don’t want any of that. At the end of the day, they want everybody downtrodden because they want people dependent upon them.
SPEAKER 02 :
100%. Yeah. Well, thank God change is on the way. Let me mention while I’m at it, I’m just going to go for it right now, that one of the big areas where people are just sick and tired of seeing no change is in the area of our health. And there’s an awful lot of excitement about RFK’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services, largely because he’s going to shake things up. I mean, he’s not an establishment guy. He doesn’t really care. what big pharma uh he cares about what big pharma has been doing he wants to expose it and root it out ultimately he’s not an establishment guy in that sense and i think people are going to welcome this with open arms the reason is we’re living as long as we ever have and in some cases living longer but not healthier american people are not healthy we’re struggling with all kinds of disease and as a result we’re having to pay for that you know by taking medications and Big Pharma is the only one who’s benefiting in all of that. We’re living these disease-riddled lives, and that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Ultimately, medicine is designed to heal us, and it’s not happening quick enough. Well, SunPower LED… has nothing to do with pharmaceuticals. It has nothing to do with surgical intervention. It’s simply using light that God created to reduce pain, to reduce swelling, and ultimately heal our body. There’s one particular device that SunPower LED offers. It looks like a kazoo helmet, if you ever remember kazoo from the cartoons. And it goes over your entire head. But it’s been used to help reduce migraines, in some cases, seizures, tinnitus. I mean, that’s just one of the products that they offer. But the point is light can be used to penetrate your body and heal your body. And you can learn about it. You can watch the videos, find out what SunPower LED can do for you. You’ll find them on… Our homepage, CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on sun, like sun in the sky, S-U-N, sun power, L-E-D, and learn about how the light God created can be used to help heal your body. They’re one of our major sponsors. Another, of course, is Preborn, John.
SPEAKER 04 :
And again, as I said earlier, just a great organization. We tend to get a little bit pigeonholed, I think, at times. And I know Preborn would attest to this, Neil, that it’s not only the life of that maybe that they’re saving or even the the change will happen in mom’s life but literally the hundreds if not thousands I mean if we look at our own lives and you look at how many people over the course of time have you known have you had impact on or how many have impacted you So that’s at the end of the day, Neil, what this is all about. We are creating life. I should say allowing life that God already created to be born. That’s really what’s happening here at the end of the day. God created it. All we’re doing through pre-born is allowing it to be born, come into this world. make a difference in the lives of those that that baby then will be around in effect and at the end of the day yeah we’re not only saving babies lives we’re literally near an outset I’ve said this many many times as an employer part of the problem we have economically speaking and why we need immigration is because our birth rate is so far down we can’t economically survive where we’re at we have literally killed off generations of workers that are now affecting the likes of folks like me that own businesses so yeah Let’s let these babies live. Let’s let them be a part of society. Hopefully they’ll come to the point where they love the Lord. And at the end of the day, that’s really what this is all about. And by the way, preborn has a huge impact upon that last statement I just made because they’re literally transforming lives. A lot of these women come to know the Lord. And in turn, as you know how that works, Neil, when mom knows, typically kids do as well. That’s the impact that moms have. Dads do as well. But moms have a huge impact in that area. So, guys, change a life today. Go to Preborn and Give. You can find them at CrawfordMediaGroup.net.
SPEAKER 02 :
John, I remember well, it was 1970. I was sitting in class, and I think I was in Mrs. Gleason’s sixth grade class, and they started talking about Earth Day. I’d never heard of it before. They were talking about saving the planet, and they were saying, you know, the population is going to explode at such a level we won’t be able to feed everyone, and, you know, the Earth will cease to exist because of overpopulation. today, and it’s interesting you were talking about pre-born, today the problem is not overpopulation, it’s zero population growth. It’s that countries are shrinking to the point where they’re welcoming immigration because they’re saying we need people to be able to survive, to help pay the bills and to run equipment and whatever. We need human beings. It was God’s plan all along, and John, long and short of it, human life matters. We want all of you to support Preborn. Go to sunpowerled.com and do what you can to support human lives.
SPEAKER 04 :
Real quick, John, we got like two… It’s actually Preborn, not to correct you, but go to Preborn and do that. Sunpower also helps you with your health and all of that, but best just go to carformediagroup.net and give to both, by the way, or buy the red light therapy and give to Preborn at the same time.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m silver-clumped, John. I’m silver-clumped. I’m having trouble here. Hey, real quick. Donald Trump’s been talking about declassifying the documents related to the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK, Martin Luther King. In your estimation, are we going to see anything we don’t already know? Is there any deep state secrets in there, do you think? I think so.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think there’s been so many conspiracies around that I think you’ll end up finally getting to the truth of what actually happened. I mean, Neil, let’s look at it this way. Why have these things been kept secret for so long if there wasn’t something there to hide?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I kind of feel the same way. I don’t know. I’m not a great historian when it comes to these things, but I would really love to know what’s in there. If there’s anything, let’s see it. The American people deserve to see it. Same thing with the Epstein files. Anyway, we’ll keep an eye on that and we can talk about it on a future podcast for sure. But that’s going to do it for today’s edition of the National Crawford Roundtable. Hopefully Bob Duco will be back with us next week. For John Rush, host of Rush to Reason on KLZ in Denver, and myself, Neil Boron of Neil Boron Live on WDCX Radio in Buffalo, New York, have a great week, and Lord willing, we’ll see you again next time right here on the National Crawford Roundtable.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’ve been listening to the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, a view of today’s culture through a biblical lens, brought to you by Preborn, saving babies and souls. Join us in the fight to save babies from abortion. Your gift provides a free ultrasound for a mother in need. 80% of the time she will choose life. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on their logo to donate. And by SunPower LED light therapy devices, bring light to your pain. Visit CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on the SunPower LED logo to get out of pain and improve your overall wellness. You can download this podcast from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and more. from your local Crawford Media Group station’s website or at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. And please give this podcast a five-star rating on your Apple app. Look for the notification on your app for when the next weekly edition of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast is ready for you to download. This is a Crawford Media Group production.
