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In this episode, the National Crawford Roundtable delves into the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and Canada. The hosts discuss Canada’s high tariffs on American dairy products and Trump’s demand for trade fairness as a strategy to balance the economic scale. The conversation examines whether the friendly ties between the two nations are at risk or if a more equitable trade agreement can be achieved. Tune in to understand the economic implications of Canada’s policies on American industries and how this impacts the wider economy.
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 buy 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, Neal Boron, Bob Duco, and John Rush.
SPEAKER 04 :
Back with another week of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast with the guys, John Rush, Neal Boron, myself, Bob Duco. Hey, guys, how you doing? Great.
SPEAKER 05 :
Great, Bob. Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, good. Always good talking to you. And here’s what we’re going to be talking about this week, folks. First of all, the Canadian tariffs issue that’s going on between Trump and Canada. So we’ll talk about that. But then we’ll also talk about the budget. OK, is there going to be a government shutdown this week or not? And should there be? But then also the Department of Education. Should the Department of Education go away? Should it just be basically dissolved? At this point, it looks like 50 percent of the staff is going to be immediately eliminated toward a path to eliminating the entire department. So we’ll talk about that as well. But let’s start with the Canadian tariffs issue. To give you folks a little bit of simplified background on this, Donald Trump, when he got elected again, he said that the time comes when Canada has to stop ripping us off. Now, there’s a whole separate discussion regarding Mexico, but right now we’re just focusing on Canada. All right. There’s two main things. that Donald Trump wanted from Canada. One of them was for Canada to do a better job of capturing the drug cartels while they’re in Canada instead of turning a blind eye and just letting them use their backyard to come into the United States and fuel our drug industry here. even though the overwhelming majority of fentanyl comes over the southern border, there’s still enough coming over the northern border to kill several million Americans. And so Trump was like, Canada, this is on you. You do have a responsibility to do that. And then the second thing is, we’ve got a trade imbalance with Canada that is not fair. You guys in Canada don’t open up your markets to American businesses at the level that we open up our markets to Canadian businesses. And there’s a lot of things you charge high tariffs on us on, like $200 to $300 tariffs on dairy products coming into the United States. And so all Trump said to Trudeau was, You got to be more fair. We’re not looking for an advantage over you guys. We’re not saying we have to have a trade surplus over you. We’re just saying narrow the gap a little bit. Trudeau first caved in, flew to Mar-a-Lago, said, OK, yeah, let me do what I can do. OK. But then Trump was like, you know, it’s not enough. You still need to do more. Trudeau realizes, oh, no, the liberals are all mad at me. So now I better try to stand up to him. And then, of course, this Carney guy comes in and says, well, he’s going to stand up to Trump. And now people are looking at this like, well, Trump’s starting this war with our friends. Well, you know what? No, we’ve been taken advantage of in the areas of trade for way too long. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Trump to say we just want fairness in trade. That’s not too much to ask. And then we won’t have tariffs. And then, of course, you get the premier of Ontario saying, who tries to fight Trump, saying, OK, well, then we’re going to put a 25 percent tariff on electricity that we sell to some of your places around the Great Lakes states. Trump comes back, says, oh, really, you’re going to mess with me that way? Fine, I’ll take your 25 percent tariffs and hike them to 50 percent effective tomorrow morning. OK, well, the premier backs down, goes, OK, sorry, never mind. But I want to go around the table. And, John, I want to start with you, first of all. People look at this and they say, why is Donald Trump starting a fight with our friends to the north? We had such harmony before this. And my answer is we had harmony because we were just allowing Canada.
SPEAKER 02 :
Because we’re taking the shorts.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, we’re getting the short end of the stick.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And all Trump is saying is we just want fairness.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. I mean, you said earlier, our friends to the north, are they? I mean, do friends take advantage of one another the way Canada has taken advantage of us? No, I would say that no, they’re not our friends, especially when you look at and again, one of the biggest things that Trump is wanting to curb is the whole fentanyl end of things, which I’ve interviewed some folks on that of late. And a lot of the fentanyl that comes through Canada, by the way, is coming from China. Canada knows that they need to shut some of that stuff down. And to your point, I think you’ve talked about this in the past. Bob, but to remind everybody, just one pound of fentanyl, one pound, can kill 225,000 people. So when people say, well, there’s not that much coming across the border, one pound kills 225,000 people or could. Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. So this is an issue. And, Neil, to get your thoughts on this, I know that you and me both have to deal with Canadian – we have Canadian listeners, and so we have to deal with their frustration when they look at the United States. But to me, it doesn’t seem like – It doesn’t seem like they should be frustrated with us. It seems like they should be saying Trump is not asking for anything unreasonable here. It’s one thing if Trump is looking to take advantage of Canada and being a bully, but it’s another thing if Trump says, look, we’re just – We don’t want the short end of the stick anymore. We want just as much access to Canadian markets as we give you guys access to U.S. markets. That’s all I’m looking for here. Personally, Neil, I’d like to see the Trump administration do a little bit better job of selling the reasons why this is reasonable instead of going down the 51st state talk. But I’d love to get your take on this. But also, Neil, we do want our listeners to support our sponsors to this podcast. And before you share your thoughts on that, if you could, maybe remind us all, remind everybody about SunPowerLED and the great work that they do and how our listeners really can be helped by them a lot.
SPEAKER 05 :
No doubt about it. And I think people now are learning about the value of using the light God himself created to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing in our bodies. But I think largely people weren’t aware of that until more recently. And if you do a study on red light therapy, it’s actually been around for a while. And SunPower LED has made it affordable. They’ve made it something that you can utilize in your own home to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing. So people have joint pain problems or they’ve got migraine headaches that won’t go away. They’re having trouble healing because maybe they have diabetes and diabetes. They have some kind of wound, and wound care is difficult. All of these things can be really assisted by light therapy, which is essentially just taking certain wavelengths of the very light God created, and they penetrate the human body. No risk of cancer or anything like that. It’s not UV rays. and turn a health situation around. It’s what happened to me when my lungs were healed after COVID using red light therapy. You can learn all about it by going to SunPowerLED when you click on the CrawfordMediaGroup.net website. Just go there. In fact, look at some of the videos. Do some research yourself and find out how red light therapy is being used to help heal the human body. And again, it’s CrawfordMediaGroup.net. SunPowerLED is what you’re looking for. Click on it, learn all about it. And thank God they’re one of our sponsors. Bob, I want to answer your question, but I think it’s important we also thank Preborn for making these kind of conversations possible.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we do need to, absolutely. I mean, Preborn is a tremendous organization, pro-life group that saves babies’ lives all across this country. But they do this by showing ultrasound images of unborn babies to those expected moms in pro-life centers. An ultrasound image is going to save a baby’s life, keeps the mom from going across the street to Planned Parenthood. But it takes money for these ultrasound images to be shown. And you’ve got a lot of pro-life centers that don’t even have ultrasound machines in them. That’s why we’re asking everybody in our audience right now, will you help stop some abortions by paying for these ultrasound images? Number one, we need some of you out there to buy ultrasound machines. They’re $15,000 a piece. If you could buy just one, it’s a nice tax write-off for you. But your forever legacy is going to be you’re stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year. For everybody else, can you just pay for an individual number of ultrasound images? $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion, to save one baby’s life. So pray about a number of baby’s lives you’d be willing to save. Take $28 times fill in the blank. And that’s your gift to Preborn. Okay. And, you know, 100% of everything you give to Preborn goes to the ultrasounds. Nothing for overhead. That’s covered by private donors. So here’s how you give. Go right now to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on Preborn. You can give right there. Or you can give over the phone. They answer the phones 24-7. Just call 833-850-BABY. That’s 833-850-BABY. And just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. We appreciate you folks doing that. And so, Neil, I mean, it does seem to me that I will say that I believe the smart thing from the Trump administration would be Let’s keep the message very simple and focused. Let’s not get into the 51st state stuff anymore, which unfortunately Trump’s doubling down on. But instead, let’s sell the point that all we’re asking for is fairness, equity, that’s supposed to be a good positive word these days. We’re just looking for fairness in trade. And if you can give us that, we don’t have to have these tariff issues. We’re not looking for advantage. We just want We don’t want the short end of the stick anymore. That seems like a lot of Canadian people would say, that’s pretty reasonable if we can just sell that message effectively.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. And by the way, it’s not just Canadian listeners. And we thank God for our Canadian listeners. 75% of our listening audience is Canadian. We’re grateful for them. A lot of businesses support my program. And we wouldn’t exist probably without them. But I want to be clear on the issue of tariffs. Like, If somebody asked me to give a speech on tariffs, it would probably take longer to introduce me than it would for me to give the speech on everything I know about tariffs. And I think that’s probably true for most people. We hear about them, but we’re not economists. We don’t deal with global economies and so forth. But what I think people are saying, and I don’t disagree with you, Bob, I think people are nervous about tariffs. what looks like a ready, fire, aim policy towards the U.S. economy and this issue of tariffs. Because, you know, on the one hand, you mentioned, I wrote down the quote when you said it, that Donald Trump, you know, is kind of approaching this like, hey, look, it’s not fair. We just need to narrow the gap a little bit, narrow the gap a little bit. Okay, but that’s going to all of a sudden, boom, 25% tariffs. And next day, nope, 0%. We’re going to back off. We’re going to give you 30 days. Boom, 25% tariffs. And it’s up and down and here and there. And then, of course, the battle he had with Doug Ford, which apparently Doug Ford is now back down on. And Donald Trump, you know, when he makes blustery claims, gets results. I mean, scratch your head. I don’t know how he does it, but he gets results when he makes bombastic claims about things. But these are trade partners. We share, I think, the longest continuous friendly border in the world with our friends from Canada. And yeah, maybe we need to work on this, but explain it. Explain what you’re doing and start at 5% on the fentanyl issue. Like, hey, if you’re not going to take this seriously… We’re going to put a 5% tariff on you starting next month. Oops, nothing’s changed in a month. Okay, it’s going to be 10%. Like, ease your way in or something. And the reason I’m saying that is not because it would be more effective. I’m not sure if it would. But the optics would be better. And why does that matter? Because he’s got the midterm elections coming up in two years. And if it looks like Donald Trump is just willy-nilly – spur of the moment because he’s angry at Doug Ford’s reaction or Trudeau’s reaction. It’s going to cost him votes in the end, and I think that’s something he really needs to think about. Secondarily, Trudeau’s party, the liberals and progressives in Canada, were all but dead a few weeks ago. Now with the The Trump situation is standing up to him, even though, you know, I don’t think Trudeau is going to make an impact in the end with what he’s saying here. But my point is that he’s breathed new life into that party, and it’s possible they can somehow maintain control of the government of Canada rather than a more conservative government coming in on the heels of his, you know. Ridiculous leadership. Anyway, all of it, I’m just saying approach does matter. It probably won’t affect the numbers that much in the end, but it sure may affect his standing with the American people heading into the midterms in a year and a half. It’s not that far away. So I don’t know. I’m as concerned about it as you are, Bob. I think it’s something to look at.
SPEAKER 04 :
I know. And obviously, I would much prefer Pierre Polyev to win in Canada as prime minister. But, John, what do you think about what Neil is saying here? I do have to say, though, I don’t think 25 percent tariffs is really that aggressive or that strong if it’s a thing where Canada is just not taking us seriously and saying, too bad, we’re used to having the advantage over you guys and we’re going to keep the advantage over you guys. You know, how many Canadians even know that the American farmer eats a 250 to 390 percent tariff on various U.S. dairy products? And grain and other things along those lines, too.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s not 25 percent. That’s 250 percent. That’s right. So it’s two to three hundred percent depending upon the product from ag to dairy. dairy and so on and then of course you know we buy power and oil from canada and by the way the power thing that’s a whole podcast in and of itself why in the world we’re relying on another country for our power is absolutely ridiculous you can blame that on the left and all the green energy and all the nonsense that happens on that end of things which i do believe this administration is going to do their best to fix because if we weren’t reliant on that power these tariff wars quote unquote would be much simpler at the end of the day now All that being said, I agree with you, Bob. And by the way, personally speaking, none of this tariff talk bothers me any way, any shape, any form. And yes, I’m a businessman. And yes, some of these things would affect me. But at the end of the day, I want our country to be the strongest out there. I want people to respect us for a change. I’m tired of running around the world apologizing for what we do as a nation. And the reality is I want that success that should be in our column back. You know, Canada is a country of 35 to 40 million people. We’re 350 million people strong. The reality is we by all means have a much larger, how should you say this, much larger stance in all of this than Canada does or even Mexico for that matter. And I think both those countries need to realize what I just said. In other words, they have a lot more to lose than we do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, they really do. They really do. And this is so but it does, though.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you really quick. I’m tired. I’m tired of other countries and other people and even Canadians saying that, well, you guys are just a big, bad bully. Well, no, actually, we’re not. We have we have created freedom around this world more so than any other country known to mankind since the beginning of time. So the reality is, no, we’re not. We do a lot for the entire world, but we need the respect we deserve for doing so.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. And John, I know you and me have talked about messaging a lot and branding. And usually, usually when Trump, as Neil was saying earlier, you know, makes bombastic claims or whatever. I have to say, a lot of times Trump has been proven right in that. And it turns out that, well, hey, maybe maybe you ought to just sit back and realize the guy is an art of the deal kind of guy. So I there is that certain sense of, OK, Trump. Trump does know high stakes negotiations and he knows them better than I do. So maybe. But it does seem to me, though, that that a smart strategy that there’s not enough people in America and in Canada that really, truly grasp that. Canada has been taking advantage of the United States. You can’t just say they’re ripping us off, they’re ripping us off. I think he does need to put some substance to that. I was glad to see that he put out the 250 to 390 percent numbers on U.S. dairy products. I think it would be very smart for him to say, look… Here are the examples, the nuts and bolts of the imbalance that we have. This is the reason why we are getting the short end of the stick. Here’s the numbers to prove that. I don’t disagree. I think that’s something that people would be reasonable.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I disagree, and here’s why, guys. Unfortunately, and please, I’ll ask for forgiveness on the front side, which I probably never should do, but unfortunately, guys, in both countries, We have such an education deficit when it comes to some of the things you just said. Bob, there are people out there that don’t even know what 200% equals. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. So the reality is, I know for a fact, because I watch some of the social media posts, you could literally sit down with a whiteboard. and draw some of this out to some people. And the reality is they still, at the end of the day, would not understand anything about what’s being said. So I do believe in this case, unfortunately, this is a message that is going to be really, really hard to get out to the average person because, frankly, the IQ level of most Americans, and I’ll throw Canadians into this as well, is not as high as it used to be. And I frankly believe, Bob, they just don’t understand it anyways.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
I hate to say that, but that goes into a whole Department of Education thing we’ll get into later. But the reality is we’re not as smart as we used to be, unfortunately.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I don’t. I mean, look, I get what you’re saying, but there’s there’s still got to come a point where we where we say, here’s the reasons why. Here’s the substance underneath my bumper sticker statement. OK, I agree. Bob, if that were the case, how many people out there would be substance behind it?
SPEAKER 02 :
I understand what you’re saying, but on the same token, would we be $36.5 trillion in debt as a country if everything you’re saying is true? I mean, most people should be just absolutely aghast at the amount of debt that we as a country have, and yet most of them don’t even think twice about it. Most of them don’t even know what a trillion dollars is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, all right. I hate to say that, but they don’t. Neil, what do you think the answer is here, then? How does the Trump administration handle this tariffs issue going forward? Look, I get what John’s saying, you know, and anytime you use the words like we need to educate people, okay, but if people are too dumb to be educated, okay, but what’s the alternative? it seems like you still have to, at least to me, say, here’s the reasons why I say we’re being ripped off. Here are the facts to back up the bombastic charge that we’re being ripped off and given the short end of the stick. And so I’d still like to see that, but I don’t know. What’s your take?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, I agree with you on this one, Bob, and John, I love you to pieces, but I mean, I just, I think that we need to make every effort to help people come along with, you know, the decisions that we’re making to some degree. Now, you can’t, like I’ve been in church settings before where, you know, congregationally governed churches where the entire church has to agree to spend, you know, $11 to fix the men’s toilet in the restroom. Like, okay, that’s ridiculous, but my point is that There need to be hard decisions made that have broad implications for the economy and everything else, but with some understanding on the part of the American people and even the Canadian people that this is what’s best for America. Therefore, it’s going to cause some pain on both sides of the border because it isn’t going to have an impact here. As a matter of fact, they’re now talking about the possibility of recession here. And Trump isn’t denying it. So then, okay, wait a minute. Hang on a second. The guy that said he was going to fix the economy on day one is now, like, okay with the possibility of us going into recession? Well, that doesn’t seem fun because all of us that were alive during the last one remember what that was like. So all I’m saying is that the optics in those sense matter and what people feel about it does matter. It has an impact. By the way, there’s, you know, disputed information. Okay, there’s more fentanyl coming into the U.S. from Canada, but some reports are saying there’s some getting back across the border the other way. How it’s moving the other way, I’m not entirely sure, but one said as much as 18 pounds. Well, 200,000 people per pound. Do the math. I’m not great at math, but that’s a huge percentage of the Canadian population. It’s a relatively small country in terms of population. Huge land mass, but smaller population. So I just think that there are nuances that need to be discussed, and there’s no reason. I mean, Donald Trump has surrounded himself with cabinet officials and others who are experts in things like the economy and so forth. Well, let them do some of the talking. Back off a little bit. Let people explain why this makes sense long term. And I personally just think that a ramp-up effect is better than slapping numbers like 25%. And that might not be that big, but in the long run, maybe it’s not that big. But 25%, 50%, 100%. How about 390% then?
SPEAKER 04 :
How about us matching our dairy tariffs?
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, but how many people knew that? How many U.S. citizens or Canadian citizens even knew that statistic?
SPEAKER 02 :
And doesn’t that matter? You could be right. Really quick though, let me ask you guys a question to prove my point on the fact of what people don’t even understand when it comes to some of these numbers. people live on an average 77 years and from the day of birth until they die at age 77 if you gave them a billion dollars at birth how much would they need to spend per day to spend all that money with not any interest coming in or anything just a billion dollars how much would they need to spend per day you’re asking me i have no clue i’ll bet you it’s in the neighborhood of a i’ll bet you it’s a neighborhood of half a million They have to spend $35 million a day to spend a billion dollars in their lifetime. Yeah, because a billion is a thousand millions.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Oh, that’s right, of course, duh.
SPEAKER 02 :
So most, again, and again, I go back to, you know, we talk about all these billions of dollars of imbalance and so on, and the reality is most people don’t even know what a billion dollars is.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if it’s $35 million a day… That means in 10 days it’d be 350 million. Can’t be 35 million a day.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let me do the math again. Yeah, it can’t be 35 million a day. These are big numbers. These are hard even on the calculator to go through. Suddenly I feel better.
SPEAKER 04 :
If it was a million a day, then figure one year would be 365 million. So if it was a half a million, that’d be… Yeah, so if it was a half a million, it’d be like 182 and a half million in one year if it was 500,000 a day. And so it sounds to me the number’s probably going to be in the neighborhood of 35,000 today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
If I had to guess.
SPEAKER 02 :
That could be off of zero. I’d have to double-check mine. I did this the other day, so I’d have to double-check that. You know what?
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s a decimal point here or there. Even still, it’s a big number. What’s a decimal point? A millimeter, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and then we start talking trillions. And again, this is where my point is. You start talking about all these trade imbalances being this many billion and that many billion, and most people just throw billion around like it’s a $100 bill, and it’s not.
SPEAKER 04 :
You are absolutely right. And I do believe that when you start getting to a trillion, people are really clueless just of how massive of a number that really is. You’re absolutely right. Neil, we do, because we got a lot more to talk about in the second half. We’re going to get to the Department of Education and a budget and possible government shutdown. But we do want our listeners to support our sponsors. And certainly SunPower LED is very worthy of support.
SPEAKER 05 :
100% worthy of support and for good reason because it’s effective in helping people deal with pain and also in helping people to heal from situations that they’re dealing with, medical situations that they haven’t had the ability to see any progress on in other cases. Like for instance, migraine headaches and tinnitus. Those are two things that really are kind of annoying and can be debilitating, completely debilitating. And, you know, so people really feel like their only recourse is big pharma. And how much trust do people have in big pharma these days? You get on one medication, then you’re dealing with additional medications to alleviate the effects of the first medication. Well, if you’re dealing with migraine headaches or tinnitus, I mean, these are just two of the things that are dealt with. by light therapy from SunPowerLED. I urge you to look into it. By the way, every Tuesday night at 7 p.m., there’s a free webinar you can get in on by just going to SunPowerLED.com. They’ll let you in. You can ask any questions you want. You can learn from people that have experienced the power of light therapy and what it can do to heal the human body. But if you want to learn more about it, it’s simple. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on SunPowerLED.com. And there’s plenty of information there about the various ways it’s been used to reduce pain and swelling and promote healing in the human body with incredible results. SunPowerLED at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. That’s just one of our sponsors. Another very effective sponsor, of course, are our friends at Preborn, Bob.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I know. And Preborn does such great work, saving babies’ lives. They show ultrasound images of unborn babies to the moms in pro-life centers all across the country. And when a mom sees that picture of her baby, she usually chooses life. And she usually accepts Jesus Christ as Savior. So the mission here is to show as many ultrasound images as possible to expectant moms. Thing is, it takes money to do that. And not all pro-life centers have ultrasound machines in them. Preborn is trying to do the best they can to get as many of them out there as possible. But it does take money. So we’re asking you folks right now, will you pay for the ultrasound images? Plain and simple. Number one, we need some of you to buy ultrasound machines. They’re $15,000 a piece. Nice tax write-off for you. But if you buy one ultrasound machine… Your forever legacy is going to be that you’re stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year, okay? Now, for everybody else, $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion to save one baby’s life. So how many babies’ lives will you save? Take $28 times fill in the blank. And whatever that number is, you know, that’s your legacy. Maybe you’ve given a pre-born already, and you did last year, and it’s time to do a 2025 gift. Whatever it is, here’s how you give. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. You can give right there. And you know 100% of what you give to Preborn goes to ultrasounds? Not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donations. Private donor. So CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Click on pre-born or just give over the phone. They answer the phones 24-7. Call 833-850-BABY. 833-850-BABY. Just mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. And coming up in the second half, folks, we’re going to talk about the potential government shutdown as well as the Department of Education. Is it time for that to go? Bye-bye. More with John Rush, Neil Boron, myself, Bob Duco, coming up next in the second half of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast. This is a Crawford Media Group production. Continuing the second half of the National Crawford Roundtable podcast with John Rush, Rush to Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Neil Boron, Neil Boron Live out of Buffalo, New York. Myself, Bob Duco, The Bob Duco Show out of Detroit. All right, so guys, let’s shift off the tariffs. Let’s talk about, first of all, where we stand with the tariffs. Now, so that people understand, the United States government doesn’t run on a calendar budget. They run on a fiscal budget like a lot of businesses do. The U.S. fiscal calendar runs from October 1st to September 30th. So the new year for the budget starts October 1st every year. Okay, fine. Well, the ideal thing is to pass a budget for one year to say, here’s what our budget and our spending is going to be for the next 12 months. Well, they haven’t been able to do that. And so consequently, it’s very common for Democrats to push for what are referred to as continuing resolutions or CRs. So Democrats are constantly trying to do that. Republicans don’t like that. Well, in this particular case in December, there was a big battle about what happens with the budget. And the Republicans were saying, hey, let’s do a lot of cutting. Democrats are saying, no, let’s do a lot more spending. So Republicans reluctantly agreed to a continuing resolution that would get us through March 14th of 2025. Kick the can down there. And that way you’ve got Republicans in the House and in the Senate and in the White House in control. And we can have this battle in March. All right. Well, here we are in March and Republicans are again saying, let’s just kick the can down the road and have another CR to take us to the end of the fiscal year. And then let’s have the real budget battle this September. A lot of conservatives, understandably so, are saying, no, we were supposed to have this fight now. Let’s have this fight now. However, Donald Trump is saying, and I don’t think Trump is a fan of CRs, but Trump is saying, you know something, the timing is not right because there’s so much we’re trying to do right now. We’re trying to gain momentum right now. We’re trying to grab a hold of the economy. We’re trying to find waste in Doge and everything else. And this is just not the time for us to now try to push for some slashes in government spending that are necessary but are going to be difficult to sell. So let us maintain the momentum and then let’s make the time this September. John, I want to start with you. Philosophically, I hate the idea of that. I do. I don’t like CRs. And personally, I don’t mind the government shutting down because we do spend way too much money. But right now… The problem is those shutdowns don’t save any money. Well, okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Because everybody gets paid retroactively. So you really, I mean, there might be a little bit of savings here and there, Bob, but not much.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that is very true. But I have to say in this particular case, I can kind of understand why Trump is saying, look, to get my agenda moving right now, it’s going to be difficult to do that if we’re limping our way through a partially shut down government. So the timing isn’t right. Let’s hold our nose and go ahead and kick can down the road and keep the spending the same until the end of September. Let’s get our agenda moving and get momentum going. Let’s let the train slowly start moving. And then once it’s moving, then we’re going to be in a better position with more leverage to get the kind of budget that we should have this September. I can kind of see the argument for that. Yeah, I don’t know.
SPEAKER 02 :
Honestly, Bob, I… I don’t know that you’ve got much, or I don’t know that they have much choice given that, I mean, unless they were going to start this fight, budgetarily speaking, balancing the budget, which Trump talked about in his speech last week, unless they started that weeks ago, you weren’t going to get that done in this amount of time. So frankly, I don’t see that they have any other choice. And like I said a moment ago, despite a lot of people saying, well, yeah, just shut the government down, save all that money. Folks, you really don’t. There might be a little bit of savings on you know, a gas and light bill if the lights get shut off for a few days or something along those lines. But as far as salaries and things like that go, really all these people get is a paid furlough, which I don’t like, Bob, because all you do is pay them back pay for what they’ve missed anyway. So at the end of the day, we don’t save any money really when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Which, by the way, that’s a problem in and of itself.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. No, I know. I know. So, I mean, Neil, not to get too deep into the weeds of the budget itself, but there is a basic philosophical question of, is the timing right right now to try to have the big debate over… slashing the budget. And it just seems like that’s going to be a very, very difficult debate to have right now when Trump’s trying to get the engine of his policies moving. And so I can kind of understand the Republicans actually saying, let’s go ahead and delay the the budget battle until this September. And so far, you got pretty much all the Republicans except one in the House. All the Republicans said, OK, we’ll hold our nose and go ahead and do this. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the Senate, though, because the Senate Democrats will filibuster this because they’re wanting a government shutdown. And so I’m not really sure what’s going to happen come Friday. But your thoughts?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I don’t really know. I mean, it’s very confusing, to say the least, to see how, for instance, some of the things that Doge has been going after. We’ve talked about Elon Musk and the work that he’s doing to point out excessive waste and fraud and things that are in various bills that need to be cut, and it appears as though they’re being cut, and some people are freaking out. Then we’re talking about the closing of the Department of Education. I think we’re going to bring that up in a little bit here. You know, how does how is all of this stuff impacted? How does it fit together? I have these cuts actually been made and now they’re going to try to be made permanently made in the new budget. Is that how it works? But I’m not really sure. I just think I mean, he’s on a roll with cuts right now. Why wouldn’t you just push through the agenda and say, look, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get busy? What what could possibly be gained? I’m not 100% sure how the American people are going to view all that. But again, you know, the midterms are coming. So you better have everything in place by the time the midterms roll around or Donald Trump is a lame duck president. He’s got nothing to offer if he loses the House and or the Senate or both. in November of 26. So I think he better be really smart about, you know, all of this and convince Republicans who are in control right now to do the right thing. And apparently the, you know, the House felt kicking the can down the road was The way to go. Who knows? Maybe that’s good strategy, but I think all of it is really risky. Because, you know, if we go into recession and people, businesses start closing, people start losing jobs. And by the way, tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs. They’re government employees, and maybe they needed to be cut loose. But it starts to add up. And those are not just people, they’re voters. So, you know, that all matters. I don’t know. I think… I think avoiding the issue entirely right now by just kicking a can down the road looks weak. For some reason, it feels weak to me. But I don’t know.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’ll tell you what. Because, John, I want to get your take on this as to what you think is liable to happen and what happens in the Senate at this point with that. And then we’ll talk about the Department of Education. Sure. First, though, before we continue this discussion, remember this podcast is sponsored. We’re sponsored by Preborn. We’re sponsored by SunPowerLED. And we want you folks to support our sponsors. And with Preborn, if you haven’t given to Preborn yet, or maybe it’s been a while since you’ve given to them, would you consider giving right now? You’re saving babies’ lives. You’re stopping abortions. What you’re doing is you’re paying for ultrasound images for Preborn to be able to show that in pro-life centers to expectant moms. And this is what causes the moms to choose life and let their babies live, stop abortion. So here’s how you can do this with pre-born. Option A, buy an ultrasound machine. They’re 15 grand a piece, nice tax write-off for you. And you know something? You get to go to bed every night knowing I’m responsible for stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year after year. What a great legacy. And for the rest of you that can’t do that, pay for an individual number of ultrasound images. $28 is the average ultrasound expense to stop one abortion. So how many abortions would you be willing to stop? Take $28 times fill in the blank, and whatever that number is, is your forever legacy. And 100% of everything you give to Preborn goes to fund the ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. So here’s how you give to Preborn. Go online right now to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn. Or you can give over the phone. They answer the phones 24-7. Just call 833-850-BABY. 833-850-BABY. Mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. We appreciate you doing that. We appreciate you supporting our sponsors like Preborn and like SunPower LED, Neal.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, SunPower LED has really captured the attention of our listeners, and for good reason. I don’t think people realized how light can be used to penetrate the human body and to promote healing. Now, I’m talking about super high-powered light, and in fact, some cases… light you can’t see with your own eye. But there’s no harmful UV rays or anything like that. This is red and near-infrared light from the spectrum that is utilized to penetrate deep into the human body and wake up the mitochondria and the cells and promote healing. Once the cells start doing what cells are created to do, healing happens. Inflammation goes away and healing occurs. You’ve got Linda. You can find out about her by checking out the SunPowerLED website. She had cervical spinal stenosis and is free of that now because of the power of light therapy to heal the human body. Jose had blindness. and a detached retina and diabetic retinopathy, but after two days of treatment was able to get his eyesight back and is shown riding a motorcycle on a video because he was able to be healed with red light therapy from SunPower LED. If you want to learn how the very light God himself created, this is not big pharma, it’s not surgical, It’s just using the light God created to heal the body. If you want to learn about that, go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on SunPowerLED. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, SunPowerLED. Bob?
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely, absolutely. So, John, let’s talk about – I am curious very quickly before we move on to the Department of Education – Do you think the government is going to get shut down? Democrats are going to filibuster this.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t see where. during Biden’s four years, are the very same people that will do the same thing this time around. So they’re just a bunch of hypocrites. And do I think it has a high chance of shutting down, even if it’s for a short time? Yeah, because I think you’re correct, Bob. I think they very well could do exactly what you’re saying. Now, given the fact that the Republican House has passed this, Back to Neil’s point on what happens in the midterms, these sorts of things, and granted we’re a long way from the midterms, so these things, people have a very short memory, but these are things that don’t bode well for their side if they in fact do that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, but, John, and I’m not trying to be argumentative, but if your business closes down or you lose your job during a recession because of decisions that are made now, that’s going to have a longer-lasting impact.
SPEAKER 02 :
You could be right. You could be right. Those are the things I think we need to care about, yeah. No, you could be right. And, again, my point is if this ends up being a week shutdown or something to that effect, and if it goes a little longer than that, then that could be a whole other scenario. If it only goes a few days or even a week, will folks in the midterms remember that? If things like what you just said happen, Neil, of course. If not, I hate to say this, I have a short memory.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let’s not kid ourselves. Neil, you are too trying to be argumentative.
SPEAKER 05 :
Everyone take note of the fact that John Rush said that you’re all dumb and you have a short memory. Apparently that includes me and you, Bob. So, all right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Who was it that just said, oh, come on, I’m drawing a blank now, went on The View and said that the Trump supporters, Trump voters basically are having forming brains. We’re like screaming teenagers with forming brains. I don’t know. Somebody just went, I don’t remember. No idea. I know. It’s like now I’m drawing a blank. Okay. Okay. Anyway, let’s talk about the Department of Education. So it’s been announced that about half of the staff of the Department of Education’s jobs are being eliminated. And this is toward the ultimate goal of eliminating the Department of Education itself. You know, and there’s so many people… Neil, that are acting like this is just some crazy, insane thing to do. But, you know, we’ve got to remember, just because we have a Department of Education now doesn’t mean that we have to have a federal oversight of education. I graduated high school in 1978. When I graduated high school, there was no federal Department of Education. That came about the next year from Jimmy Carter. Individual states handled education, and that’s the way that it ought to be. The standards in Alabama… are not going to be the same as they are in Colorado or New York or California or Michigan or whatever, okay? You let individual states handle this. Why does everything have to be federalized from the top down? I say that federalizing education with one template standard has proven to be a failure of an experiment, and I think the Department of Education ought to cease to exist. Now, that’s my take on that. I agree. Neil, what do you think?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, I agree. And I graduated the same year you did, Bob. You know, we made it and we’re alive and we’re well. Yeah. But no, I mean, like, look at like, look at the results of what we have in terms of education in the U.S. versus other countries around the world. They’re paltry. And like, I saw one thing on social media, it was pretty funny, actually, but it was some kind of a statement like, hey, look, if the Department of Education closes down, don’t worry about it, because only 25% of fourth graders through 12th graders in the U.S. would even be able to read about it and understand what they’re reading. Right. you know i mean it was and and can i just say i know but let me say for a second how grateful i am for really high quality teachers that love and care about students because there are some and you know there are teachers every year that we hear about a national teacher day whatever we open the phone lines and we say tell us about somebody who changed your life they call in they talk about a teacher that had a huge impact on their life but you know because in general education has moved in the direction of pushing woke policy and dei and critical race theory And they got away from actually educating students. A lot of this stuff is coming from the top down. These are ideas that are not generated by parents in local communities who are part of the PTA. This is coming from elites, liberals, progressives, whatever, in high-level positions. I don’t believe that the Department of Education is necessary. I think education should be controlled by states and filtered down to let major decisions be made by local school districts. What’s right for rural Arkansas? What does that have to do with inner city New York or the south side of Chicago? Right. I mean, are we tailor making education to be right for the kids in our own communities or with a broad brush? Are we just saying, hey, look, we’re just going to be woke. And who cares if the kids can read or write or do mathematics? It really doesn’t matter. We’re the Department of Education and keep sending us hundreds of billions of dollars. We’re not effective, but we really like cashing the paychecks.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and you know something, John, even setting aside the philosophical garbage that the Department of Education has pushed from the top down in this country, just the notion – we’ve got this thinking, this paradigm in our heads that once a new government agency has been created, it can never be treated like an experiment. It can never be undone. It has to be permanent now forever. Like the church.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s this mentality in the government that says all we can do is accumulate upward in size. We can never scale back. Whatever is added must stay there, let alone if it’s for a generation. Well, then it’s permanent for sure. Why? Why not get rid of it?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and I’m reading this right now. From 1950 to today, there’s been 100% increase in the number of students in public schools, 243% increase in the number of teachers, 709% increase in the number of non-teaching staff, which are largely administrative positions. Only 47.5% of the people in the public school system are actually teachers. Tell me how the Department of Education has been effective.
SPEAKER 04 :
They haven’t been. Not to mention, let’s look at the actual results, if we could. We both know that when you federalize something – now, some things need to be federalized. The military, okay, fine. I mean, I understand that. But when you federalize something – By the way, that’s it, Bob.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s it.
SPEAKER 04 :
That is about it. Because I can’t really think of anything else.
SPEAKER 02 :
States can handle every other thing out there on their own very easily.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because you know what? What happens with the delivery service? How does FedEx compare to, we’ll say, USPS? There’s no comparison. There isn’t. OK, go into your typical government run office somewhere and look at the level of low productivity. Look at the scores of the SAT scores in public schools versus private schools. Yet private schools on average spend about their tuition is about half of what public schools end up receiving per child. So you’re paying twice as much to get poor quality results. That’s what happens when you federalize things. You’d think we’d learn our lesson.
SPEAKER 02 :
The only other thing, Bob, that I would be for federalizing coast to coast is not that I’m a fan of gun control, but if we’re going to have any type of gun laws, that should be on a federal level because the Second Amendment is an actual right. It’s not a privilege like driving and education and other things along those lines. That’s a whole other topic maybe for another podcast.
SPEAKER 04 :
But that’s a legislative thing. That is a law codifying our Second Amendment rights. Correct. So I wouldn’t even put that in the category of federalizing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, if you look at what I’m talking about.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s already federalized. It’s in the Constitution.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, but what I’m talking about is, for example, every state, some cases cities, have their own laws when it comes to concealed carry, for example. There should be a federal law that trumps all of that, in my opinion.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Well, and I would say run that through the legislature and see if you can get that through Congress. Let’s sign it into law and then let’s get the Democrats seeing if they can get enough of a lead in the future to try to repeal that law.
SPEAKER 02 :
But but no, I mean, back to education, Bob, every single. And then, of course, we could talk for probably another whole podcast on school choice and things along those lines. And I know there’s some people that are against school choice, some that are for it. I’m for competition. And the more competition you have, the more you fix things. All day long.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 04 :
All day long. By the way, Neil… A school choice would really benefit in this. And you know who’s going to benefit the most when you have more school choice? If the Department of Education goes away and this gets put to the states, I believe that inside the states you’re going to have more school choice. You’re going to have more voucher programs and things like that. And, Neil, that’s going to benefit poor inner city families more than anybody else.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and because they’re going to be able to do what’s right for their kids and have say over how any tax dollars they’re contributing to the system are used, right? I mean, why should we have to pay taxes and then not have any say over where our kids go to school? And if the system that we’re in is failing, well, obviously we could move. But how about improving the system by introducing some competition? If parents are able to say, you know what, I’m going to send my kid to that parochial school over there, that private school over there, because I don’t want them in the public schools. Our public schools here are not good. Well, the public schools that are going to have to improve or they’re going to be out of business, so to speak. By the way, I’m looking at a Pew Research poll on science, mathematics and reading. And the U.S. ranks, I didn’t count, but 25th or 30th worldwide behind countries like Macau, South Korea, of course, France, Portugal, Italy, Iceland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta. I mean… We’re way down. Singapore ranks number one, by the way, in science, mathematics, and reading. I’d be interested to find out what they’re doing there that’s working. But anyway, the United States is way down the list in all three categories, and yet our overall spending is way beyond what every one of these countries are spending per pupil. So what does that say? It says that we’re failing. Something’s wrong. It needs to be fixed. Let’s get rid of the Department of Education as job one and start there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Well, you know, John, it is a quote-unquote disruptive thing, but I don’t know why. Well, or is it?
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, no offense, but if you just said, okay, we’re going to go away, you’ve got X amount of time to make sure that you as a state have your ducks in a row, which, by the way, they all do anyway. So at the end of the day, how much disruption would there really be?
SPEAKER 04 :
When I say disruptive, I’m talking about the perception of it. I agree with you that logistically, it actually would not be that disruptive. It really wouldn’t, okay? Yes, you have federal – you have Department of Education employees, federal employees that are going to have to now go into the private sector unless there’s somebody somewhere else in the federal government that they can go over to. But other than that, as far as the students themselves, the teachers themselves, okay, well, Randy Weingarten, boo-hoo, okay? Go figure out something else to do then. Mm-hmm. Well, she still gets to, you know, they’re still going to have teachers unions nationwide. You just don’t have a Department of Education. And the kids will be better served. I would argue the teachers will be better served as well. So anyway, so yeah, I’d gladly say goodbye to the Federal Department of Education. And it kind of makes me wonder.
SPEAKER 02 :
If I had my way, Bob, we would take a lot of three-letter agencies and disband. them.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree. I completely agree. There’s no reason a lot of things cannot be absorbed into other departments. Why have a government behemoth that can never, you know, take USAID and get rid of it and absorb it, you know, absorb the necessary parts of it into something else, you know, like Marco Rubio’s taken on. So no, I’m all for that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Remember under the Biden administration, there was like 80,000 new IRS agents. Whatever happened to them? Did they get let go because of Doge, or are they still out there doing their thing?
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know the answer to that.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think that’s getting restructured last I heard. It probably is. Some agents have been laid off here recently.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. You know, folks, we do appreciate you listening to this podcast. We do. We appreciate your five-star reviews. We always do. And we certainly appreciate you supporting our sponsors like SunPowerLED, like Preborn. Remember, if you haven’t given to Preborn in a while, maybe it’s time to give again. We want you to save babies’ lives, stop abortions. And you can stop abortions by paying for ultrasound images. That’s really what you’re doing. with pre-born, okay? And here’s what you do. You say, okay, well, how many babies’ lives do I want to save? Well, how many ultrasound images are you going to pay for? It’s really that simple. $28 stops one abortion, saves one baby’s life. So take $28 times fill in the blank. Pray about it. Maybe God lays a number on your heart. And it’s like, these are the number of babies’ lives I want to save. Well, that’s your gift to pre-born. And 100% of what you give to pre-born goes to the ultrasounds, not a penny for overhead. That’s all covered by private donors. Now, for some of you out there, we need you to buy ultrasound machines. They’re $15,000 a piece. Nice tax write-off for you. Your forever legacy is you’re stopping thousands and thousands of abortions year after year. So either way… Would you give to Preborn right now? Here’s how you do it. Go to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and click on Preborn. CrawfordMediaGroup.net, click on Preborn, and you can give right there. And also, if you want to give over the phone, they answer the phones 24-7. Just call 833-850-BABY, 833-850-BABY. Mention National Crawford Roundtable when you call. We appreciate you folks doing that, supporting Preborn. We appreciate you supporting SunPowerLED. And Neil, I got to tell you, this photobiomodulation is incredible technology. It Completely got me out of knee pain from a severed ACL that I had, and I developed arthritis in it and such. But it helps a lot of people in a lot of different areas. And it’s all natural. No drugs, no shots, no side effects, no none of that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. A lot of people recovered from knee surgery and torn Achilles tendons, et cetera, as a result of using light therapy, photobiomodulation, to heal the human body. I mean, everybody’s seen the opera singer who sings a particular note, at a particular resonance for a period of time, and all of a sudden the champagne glass explodes. That’s because sound waves have energy. So do light waves, and they can literally be used to penetrate the human body, get deep into the body, and wake up the cells to begin healing the human body the way it was intended to do. And it’s absolutely fascinating how the very light God himself created Not big pharmaceutical drugs or surgery. None of that. Just light that God himself created is used to penetrate the human body, promote healing, and reduce swelling. It’s an amazing thing. And so it doesn’t really matter what you’re faced with. It could be knee pain, joint pain, back pain, migraine headaches. Maybe you’ve had tinnitus or other issues. Even people dealing with seizures have been helped effectively using photobiomodulation. And you can learn all about it by going to CrawfordMediaGroup.net and just click on Sun Power LED. That’s like sun in the sky, S-U-N. Sun Power LED. Find it at CrawfordMediaGroup.net. Watch the videos. Learn all about how the very light God himself created can be used to help heal the human body.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And it works, folks. It really does. We always appreciate you folks listening to this podcast. Again, we appreciate your five-star reviews very much. We appreciate you supporting our sponsors. And, of course, John Rush, Rush to Reason out of Denver, Colorado. Neil Boron, Neil Boron Live out of Buffalo, New York. Myself, Bob Duco, The Bob Duco Show out of Detroit. It’s the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast. Looking forward to being with you folks next week. And John, Neil, looking forward to talking to you guys next week. Thanks, Bob. Thanks, Bob. You bet we see. Thanks for listening, everybody. God bless.
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 stations 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.
