Sen. John McCain has been diagnosed with brain cancer and is in a medically-disease-free zone. Is he going to return to the United States Senate in January? Will he be able to do so, and if so, who will replace him?
00:05:14.700Okay, now Bernie Sanders, there's a lot there, and we're going to cover this as quickly as we can.
00:05:20.940First of all, the dirty little secret they don't want you to know is the Senate rules preclude them from being able to cut any more than they did.
00:05:28.520Because in order for them to get a simple majority and not the 60 votes necessary in the Senate,
00:05:32.860there was a threshold of cuts they were allowed to make.
00:05:35.600To make that, they made the choice to make the business tax cuts permanent.
00:05:38.780Now, when he says that, and he's right, that these tax cuts are going to sunset or go away in 10 years.
00:05:46.560Well, there's a lot of time between now and 10 years.
00:05:48.660They can go back at any point, and they can change the tax code.
00:05:52.340They can make them permanent on another vote.
00:05:55.900They could have made all of this permanent and made deeper tax cuts to the taxpayer if the Senate had helped them and given them 60 votes, which they refused to do.
00:06:05.000So they can lay this at the feet of the Republicans if they want to, but the fact of the matter is they are now in defensive mode.
00:06:11.080So a couple of other things that Bernie Sanders is saying.
00:06:13.760Number one, he's talking about all of these cuts, and he's talking $1.5 or $1.47 trillion in deficits.
00:06:23.160Now, I don't believe those numbers are accurate.
00:06:24.920There are many that don't believe those numbers are accurate.
00:06:26.920There's going to be the repatriation of almost a trillion dollars into the country from businesses overseas that they're not counting in their numbers.
00:06:33.780I also think that business growth and expansion and wage increases, you're going to see more money into the tax coffers.
00:06:40.500I may be wrong, but let's go with their numbers.
00:06:43.040Let's just take Bernie Sanders' numbers at face value.
00:06:46.120Let's say over the next 10 years, this adds $1.5 trillion to the budget.
00:06:51.240That is $150 billion a year added to the deficits.
00:06:55.740We have had, in the first three quarters of the year, over 3% growth for the first time in a decade.
00:07:02.140Never in the Obama administration did you have growth like this, ever.
00:07:07.560The fourth quarter of this year predicted to be even higher.
00:07:11.660The fourth quarter of this year predicted to be at 4% growth.
00:07:15.780Take a look at the Christmas spending, the holiday spending and travel setting records.
00:07:22.000So for $150 billion added to the deficit, worst case scenario, using their numbers, $150 billion added to the deficit, 3% to 4% growth the four quarters of the first year of the presidency.
00:07:38.180You then mirror that against the eight years of the Obama presidency.
00:07:41.920They're going to tell you, well, they had to fix the Bush economy.
00:08:00.640Every single year of the Obama presidency with nothing over what, 2% growth, a little over 2%, the most sluggish recovery in the history of our country since the Great Depression.
00:08:24.040I'm not getting much of a tax cut, but you take a look at the families.
00:08:29.340CBS over the weekend did exactly the same thing.
00:08:32.560They had an accountant come on, three different families across America, and the accountant found out that all three families were going to have their taxes cut.
00:08:55.940In order to do that, they have got to try to pound this class warfare thing into the heads of the people that somehow the big tax cuts go to the rich.
00:09:05.660The dollars are higher for the rich people because they pay much more in taxes.
00:09:11.480Percentage-wise, you take a look at where the tax cuts are.
00:09:14.820Families making a family of four, filing jointly, making $200,000 a year as a family.
00:11:45.920This tax reform conversation, though, if the premise is we're going to put more money in the pockets of the taxpayers, I don't understand why that's ever a bad thing.
00:11:58.080There are two different ideologies at work right now.
00:12:00.560And the one from the left, and I'm not just going to say Democrats, because I also think there are some Democrats that see the benefit in this.
00:12:08.420I believe that it was the working class Democrat families that actually elected President Trump.
00:12:12.540I don't believe it was white nationalists.
00:12:41.780But when you look at the American people and putting more money in their pockets, the left ideology is it's our money.
00:12:48.400My ideology, the ideology of a conservative or someone that is more of an individual thinker is it's your money, whether you're rich or you're poor, whether you are benevolent or you're greedy.
00:13:00.340And there's both in both categories or you're middle class.
00:13:48.900But everything I ever learned, I learned from someone else.
00:13:52.120As a tradesman, I grew up as an electrician in the trade, starting as a helper that knew nothing, an apprentice, a journeyman, a master electrician, and a business owner.
00:14:12.040We all want to make sure we work somewhere that's solvent.
00:14:15.880So when your boss gets a tax cut, and I believe that it was a working class Democrat families, there were over 200 counties in the United States that twice voted for Barack Obama for president.
00:14:26.600These were in swing states, over 200 counties.
00:14:29.100Those 200-plus counties, and I believe the exact number was 206, those counties flipped and voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.
00:14:37.380And the message in those neighborhoods and the message in those counties was, I'm going to cut taxes and I'm going to cut regulation on your bosses.
00:14:43.780So they repatriate dollars to this country, they expand their factories here, and those jobs you've been working that are paying $25 and $30 an hour will stay, and you're not fighting for a $12 or $13 an hour job.
00:14:54.980They believed him, and they elected him.
00:14:56.780So this tax reform bill, when it comes permanent, as it's become permanent for business owners, is going to allow them to free up capital.
00:15:04.520You look at where the stock market is going.
00:15:06.600I have a story in front of me that said it's going to be the best year for stocks since 2013 as far as jump in numbers.
00:15:14.280It's the first time ever that the Dow has increased 5,000 points in one year.
00:15:19.380That's because it is a nonpartisan organization, the Dow, or the S&P, or the NASDAQ.
00:15:40.100Business owners have turned around in these major corporations and raised their standard of their minimum wage at their company to $15 an hour,
00:15:47.240trying to attract good employees and retain good employees.
00:16:01.440But there are a number of accomplishments that this president has made that I think are remarkable in the sense that they should be talked about.
00:16:07.800His first foreign policy trip, for instance, the first time this president left the United States, this president of the United States,
00:16:15.140first place he went to was Riyadh, and he talked with the Saudis.
00:16:18.360That's where they jumped into Qatar, and they tried to stop them from the terrorist activities.
00:18:11.840And I do believe the traditional media, the CNN, the MSNBCs of the world will never give him a fair shake.
00:18:17.920They will not talk about any accomplishment he's ever made.
00:18:22.140And I think that they've turned me into a defender of the president because there are some accomplishments that have been made during this administration,
00:18:29.480especially when it comes to foreign policy.
00:18:31.220I thought foreign policy was going to be a big shortcoming of this president, and he's turned out to be fairly strong.
00:18:36.500They've kept the North Koreans at bay for the most part.
00:18:38.640We've not gotten into a war with them.
00:18:40.540You look at the Tomahawk missiles in Syria to stop the chemical weapons there.
00:18:45.100There have been some things that have been done, decisions that have been made by the people he's put in place that have done some great things.
00:18:50.820That doesn't mean he's the next Ronald Reagan or he's not George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.
00:18:57.280But he's not Hitler, and he's not Satan either.
00:19:01.500Coming up, bottom of the next hour, citizens versus cities.
00:19:06.140Helping the homeless and the people in need.
00:19:07.920I'll give you a firsthand account of what I did this weekend and a story out of Atlanta that's going to leave you shaking your head.
00:19:13.500All that coming up on the next segment.
00:19:28.160You're listening to the Glenn Beck Program.
00:19:29.900You know, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us here at the Glenn Beck Program.
00:19:34.540My name is Mike Broomhead in Phoenix, Arizona, in for Glenn today and tomorrow.
00:19:38.340I believe it's Doc Thompson a few days after that.
00:19:42.040I spent Christmas Day at St. Vincent de Paul and was helping to feed homeless people there.
00:19:47.540And I have a great relationship with St. Vincent de Paul here.
00:19:49.840And so I love what they do and the way they do it here in Arizona.
00:19:53.780But wherever you are, whatever organizations you happen to work with, private organizations you happen to work with, they do amazing things.
00:20:00.620You know, Glenn in Mercury One, what they've done there is amazing work.
00:20:05.040And it is the charitable arm of what they do.
00:20:08.300And I try to align myself with organizations, and there are many of them here locally in Arizona that I believe in.
00:20:14.020These are great organizations that do work in whatever field they're in.
00:20:17.820There's a military assistance mission is one of them here in Arizona.
00:20:20.900It started by a woman named Margie Bonds, whose son was killed, was a Haditha Marine.
00:20:27.140And so she started this organization to help military families.
00:20:30.360Nobody in their organization gets paid.
00:21:50.280It was an embarrassment to the city of Atlanta, as these things normally are, when the city step in with these kinds of nonsense requirements and restrictions.
00:21:59.240And so the concern is, and I want you to hear somebody making a quote about what they're concerned about.
00:22:06.920We don't want anybody to stop feeding people.
00:22:09.620We just want it done in a way that's connected to social services, service providers, and not on the street corner because we can't make sure those connections are being made in these street corner feedings.
00:22:21.780Everything goes back to a government program.
00:22:24.300Now, I've got to tell you, I'm not a militia member.
00:23:34.180And so to watch these kids and the joy on their face when you ask them, there was a little girl that was carrying out a flashlight that she got for her father.
00:23:42.760And she was so happy to be able to buy her dad a flashlight.
00:23:46.640I don't even know if her dad needed a flashlight.
00:23:48.140But I guarantee you her dad's going to love getting that gift from his daughter.
00:23:52.360But for kids in a poor neighborhood who largely have Christmases provided for them, to give these elementary school children the feeling of being the giver is something I'm sure that they'll never forget.
00:24:05.320And it's a feeling, hopefully, that will burn in them that they'll grow up wanting to be able to give to someone else.
00:24:15.340So when we turn over the benevolence and the giving to the government, what we're doing is giving up our right and our responsibility to give to others.
00:24:30.940Now, I'm not saying social services are wrong.
00:24:33.280I'm not saying that those programs aren't viable.
00:24:35.100I'm not saying that they shouldn't be there.
00:24:36.940But for someone in the government to be of the mindset that you as a private citizen shouldn't be out there on the street feeding the homeless.
00:24:43.840Because you can't connect those people with the social services that really do something about it is such a false narrative.
00:26:51.460But you mean to tell me that the government is saying you should not take your children on Thanksgiving weekend and provide a plate of food for some homeless people and sit with them for a few minutes and hear their story and talk with them about their life and treat them with human dignity?
00:27:37.620All of those kids serving food and interacting.
00:27:39.800This was about human dignity and kindness.
00:27:42.580This was about showing the Christmas spirit that whether you're living on the streets or you're living in a multi-million dollar home, you're a human being.
00:27:50.440And all of us on Christmas Day celebrate the same thing.
00:27:53.640If you're a faith-based person like I am, Christmas Day has the meaning of the birth of what would be our redemption.
00:28:01.840It is a very significant holy day in the Christian faith.
00:28:06.000But here in America, whether you are somebody that is a devout Christian or you're of another faith and just celebrate the holiday, this is a time of year where all of us are a lot more mindful of the blessings we've been given.
00:28:17.360So I'm not one to diminish or denounce government programs, but when people involved in government programs say you as a private citizen or a private organization or a group of people that decide to go and help people shouldn't do it because, A, you're making the problem worse, or B, you're not directing people the solution, which is the government.
00:28:37.120That scares me a little bit, that scares me more than a little bit.
00:28:43.520You want something that I promise you will give you back 10 times more than you've ever given, and it's not just writing a check.
00:28:53.080Find an organization near you, whether it's St. Vincent de Paul or the food bank near you or whatever charitable organization is near you that you believe in.
00:29:36.060He hadn't finished school yet, so he was not a hairstylist by license yet, so he was cutting hair without a license.
00:29:43.800They laughed that city out of the courtroom.
00:29:47.480They actually changed the laws in Arizona to make sure that never happened again because some bureaucrat decided this guy didn't have a license, so he wasn't allowed to provide free haircuts to the homeless.
00:30:10.260How far can we possibly go with this nonsense?
00:30:14.300Speaking of nonsense, before we close out this hour, if you haven't heard the story about United Airlines and the big apology, oh, it involves my favorite congresswoman, the gift that keeps on giving, Sheila Jackson Lee, and United Airlines, and what they had to say to a poor passenger who was forced out of her first class seat.
00:30:32.840We'll get to that coming up before we close it out.
00:31:02.580If you missed the discussion, we started off the show with discussing the tax reform that's in America.
00:31:07.820We're going to do that again, top of the next hour, talk a little bit more about it, a little more detail of what it's doing for people specifically, who it's helping and why, what's happening, and then again, why people are against it.
00:31:17.380Who would be against it, and why, that coming up just after the top of the hour, and the discussion about homelessness and helping people in need, and again, I can only give you a perspective that's unique to me.
00:31:31.460I only have my own perspective, and I've had the pleasure of being on this network for quite a few times for Glenn over the last few years, so some of you have heard me on the air before.
00:31:47.520I've had my first job at 12 years old, and I'm very proud of the way I grew up.
00:31:52.780My mother is successful in my mind, and she's not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but she is retired, and she maintains herself.
00:32:04.320She owns a small home, and she's retired.
00:32:07.760She's able to travel between my brother and his kids in southwest Florida and her home where she was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and she's able to travel back.
00:32:16.100She's able to travel back and forth and enjoy her latter years of her life.
00:32:19.280And if you had asked her 20 years ago, 25 years ago, if she ever would imagine she would be able to retire, she would have told you she will work until the day she dies.
00:32:28.740So she is the model of success for me.
00:32:31.660Growing up as I did, I'm not ashamed to say that we grew up poor.
00:32:43.200We had a friend of my mom's show up at our house one day during the summer vacation when we were out of school with a trunk full of groceries for our family.
00:32:52.980And this woman didn't realize I knew who she was and told my mother later who it was, and we did receive help when we were kids.
00:32:59.440But it surely wasn't because my mother didn't work hard.
00:33:05.180But that was by the grace of God, too.
00:33:09.020To talk about a need, people in need, I have a very different perspective.
00:33:16.040To talk about homelessness, I have a unique, very personal experience with homelessness.
00:33:20.280And for you and for me to give, whether you, everybody has three things to offer this world, money, talent, and time.
00:33:30.480And we all have it to varying degrees at different points in our life.
00:33:34.400Whether you donate your money, your talent, your time, or a little bit of all three, that's what we have to offer this world.
00:33:41.700And to turn that responsibility and that right over to the government is a shame because they're not going to manage it very well.
00:33:47.680That's just the nature of government in general.
00:33:50.060But it also takes away from your ability to feel the joy of giving, to feel the fulfillment that comes from saying, I've got my own issues, I've got my own troubles, I've got my own needs.
00:34:01.400But if I'm able to provide a little bit of assistance to someone else, it fills you up in a way that's indescribable.
00:34:08.840And so I hope that you won't turn that over to someone else's responsibility through your taxation that someone else has that covered.
00:34:18.000We should never give up that right to help others.
00:34:22.180Before we close it out, an angry passenger, United Airlines, Jean Marie Simon, 63 years old, works as an attorney in D.C., purchased a first-class ticket to go from Guatemala.
00:34:34.240She was told while boarding that her seat had been taken.
00:34:37.380She claims to have purchased the ticket on December 3rd using her frequent flyer miles and her flight on December 20th.
00:34:42.760United compensated her with $500, but in their released statement, the airline said Simon canceled her flight.
00:34:50.660In response, the airline booked someone else.
00:35:44.960Um, first hour talked about tax reform.
00:35:49.140Bernie Sanders comments this weekend, what they are trying to do.
00:35:52.580And when I say they, I mean Democrats.
00:35:54.720And we know Bernie Sanders isn't a Democrat.
00:35:56.660He is a socialist and that's self-proclaimed socialist and independent.
00:36:02.980And is he caucuses with the Democrats had a very good chance if it had not been for the collusion in the Democratic Party of being the Democrat nominee,
00:36:11.240which shows you, you know, they, they accuse Republicans and it's, it's a fair accusation of sprinting right in a primary because the people that vote in the primary election are the diehards.
00:36:43.680Let's, let's pick apart some of the things that did not happen before you hear Bernie Sanders, because what he says is kind of extended.
00:36:49.800And there's a lot to pick apart in this, but one of the things that he talks about is making the tax cuts for the middle class permanent, which should have been done.
00:37:00.240I mean, you got to understand if the Democrats would have helped them get to 60 votes, they would have been permanent.
00:37:05.940Bernie Sanders has also made statements in the last few days that if the Democrats take over the Congress tax, taxes are going up on businesses.
00:37:15.700They believe that businesses should be taxed at the 35 and 40% range, 39.6% for LLCs, what they call pass-through corporations.
00:37:27.060And I look at every small business owner, I look at entrepreneurs and I see a difference.
00:37:34.160You know, an entrepreneur, someone that's made a nice living has put away a nest egg of a lot of money and they don't need to work again a day in their life, their lives.
00:37:43.860Why would they risk under the past climate, any money at all?
00:37:50.840You're sitting on a bunch of cash, you make a nice living, you don't need to do anything.
00:37:56.300Why would they risk the money they've put away in a startup with somebody else's idea when compliance, when the regulations, whether it's EPA or other government requirements are so strict and so expensive,
00:38:09.340it makes a startup almost impossible unless you've got a lot of money.
00:38:13.960But secondly, if they're going to tax you between 35 and 40%, 39.6%, why would you take that kind of a risk to give away 40% of your profits?
00:38:26.260And that was the climate they were in.
00:39:38.800But the estate tax is stealing from the dead.
00:39:41.860Are we really so broke in this country that on any level we've got to steal from the dead?
00:39:50.060The unique perspective I have, farmers and ranchers here in the state that I live in, with the urban sprawl that's been happening over the last 23 years since I've been in Arizona.
00:39:58.600I've watched very odd things happen, which is kind of, it's fun to watch happen, but very strange.
00:40:06.580When you drive in the west part of what we call the valley, you will see neighborhoods pop up.
00:40:11.600And then there will be huge swaths of cotton fields or hay fields where they're growing alfalfa and then another neighborhood.
00:40:18.720So you go from suburbs to farm to suburbs to farm.
00:40:25.600Well, it drives the value of that farmland up.
00:40:29.120Now, these are families that have been farming or ranching that land for generations, not just decades, generations.
00:40:36.300And when the grandparents pass away, who are the owners of the property, of the land, and the land is then passed on to the next generation, who have been working that land their entire lives as well and making a living but not getting wealthy, they are assessed taxes on the value of that property.
00:40:55.420And the only way to pay their tax bill is to sell off part of or most of their birthright, their inheritance, to pay the taxes.
00:41:04.160So they, in essence, become sharecroppers because they sell their land to someone else so that they can work the land that's now owned by someone else and make the same living they were always making.
00:41:17.020Oh, and by the way, if you're someone that's inherited something and you have to pay the estate tax, and in that portfolio that you've inherited is property, when you sell that property, you pay capital gains tax first.
00:41:39.980Let me defend the wealthy for a moment.
00:41:42.560These are people that work just as hard as you work.
00:41:45.140They love their families just as much as you love yours.
00:41:47.880And they have accumulated whatever it is they've accumulated to pass on to who they leave behind.
00:41:53.460You do realize that whatever it is that you pass on, whether it's the remnant of your 401k, the house that you own, cars, whatever it is that you own that you're going to pass on to your loved ones, you're not paying taxes on that, and neither are your loved ones.
00:42:52.820I'll let you, in the next part of the show, I'll let you hear Bernie Sanders in his entirety, where he launches into tax cuts for individuals should have been made permanent, business tax cuts were instead, health insurance, and people going without benefits anymore.
00:43:08.340I'll tell you the real story behind the rhetoric.
00:43:10.820The problem I have with traditional media is that they're not going to continue and ask the questions and push anybody on anything on that side of the aisle.
00:43:20.140Once in a while, and there are a few people that will.
00:43:22.320But for the most part, Bernie Sanders will get a pass for the things he says.
00:43:28.680A, either they don't have the, they don't dig enough to know where what they're saying is rhetoric and easily, easily dispelled or they're complicit.
00:43:45.660I saw it on one of the websites this morning where they went out and they took the Trump tax reform plan and they went out to college campuses.
00:43:52.180And man on the street interviews and told them it was Bernie Sanders idea.
00:44:01.280When they found out it was from President Trump, shocked, couldn't believe it.
00:44:05.420So instead of looking at policy for what policy's value is, it's got to be attached to an individual.
00:44:13.080We have become such a cult of personality society that we love what somebody does that we like and we hate what somebody does that we don't like.
00:45:16.820I want you to hear Bernie Sanders talking on CNN, finally admitting that the middle class in America are going to get a tax cut.
00:45:22.920So middle class Americans, just like Bernie Sanders says he's a champion for all of them will be getting a tax cut.
00:45:27.760We'll lay some of this out for you kind of piece by piece and pick apart what Bernie says, where he should be questioned on this and pushed a little further and made the answer for some of the claims he makes.
00:45:55.660And that's why we should have made the tax breaks for the middle class permanent.
00:45:59.260But what the Republicans did is made the tax breaks for corporations permanent, the tax breaks for the middle class temporary.
00:46:05.740And according to the tax policy center, that same organization, at the end of 10 years, 83 percent of the benefits go to the top 1 percent.
00:46:16.30060 percent of the benefits go to the top one-tenth of 1 percent.
00:46:21.100Meanwhile, at the end of 10 years, well over 80 million Americans will be paying more in taxes.
00:46:27.78013 million Americans, as a result of this legislation, are going to lose their health insurance.
00:46:54.720First of all, let's start with the permanency of this.
00:46:57.720Should have made them permanent for the taxpayer.
00:47:00.240Could have if we'd had 60 votes in the Senate.
00:47:02.720Democrats didn't want to get on board, so we had to limit where those tax cuts were going to be made permanent.
00:47:06.900The president decided that this time around, because of the Republican-led Congress, that they would make those permanent because they never make tax cuts for businesses permanent with the Democrats.
00:47:16.420All the business owners out there that are Democrats, I feel your pain.
00:47:20.800I know you must be torn because you understand the difficulty in running a business, even though you agree with the Democrats policy-wise and ideologically with the involvement of government in social programs and how they should lead the way ahead of military programs and some of the others,
00:47:36.300where the Republicans think it's the other way around.
00:47:41.080But I also understand that as you run a small business or a big business as a Democrat and you hear a fellow Democrat belittling businesses and saying that you should be paying more in taxes and that a 35% corporate tax rate doesn't hurt us around the world,
00:47:54.380it's got to be a little bit, it's got to be tough for you to wrestle with those two things.
00:48:04.580That leads us into the 10 years from now thing.
00:48:07.440All of that is based on the idea of Congress doing absolutely nothing down the road with taxes.
00:48:12.540They can take up another tax bill and keep that in mind because Bernie Sanders says if the Democrats take over the Congress,
00:48:19.780they will raise taxes back on businesses, they're not going to give anybody else a tax cut.
00:48:26.220They will raise taxes on businesses again.
00:48:28.800He made that promise already that that is going to happen.
00:48:31.780But the 10-year idea is because of the way this was structured, the way it had to be structured because of Senate rules and the limitations that were there.
00:48:39.520Talked about the estate tax and how horrible the estate tax is.
00:50:48.580This is a statistic that they cannot run from.
00:50:51.520Last year, the fines that were paid by individuals who did not have health insurance and paid the fine, 57% of those fines were paid by people and families with a combined income, an adjusted gross income of $50,000 a year or less.
00:51:15.220The very people that Obamacare intended to help are getting hurt by the rules.
00:51:22.460They're not going to say that to you because then they have to admit that their plan backfired.
00:51:28.500So while Bernie Sanders rants and raves about the permanency of tax cuts, they could do it.
00:52:02.400It's the cost of doing business, oil companies or otherwise.
00:52:06.460But how many of you out there that are working class conservatives?
00:52:10.080I mean, you're not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but you just believe the government screws up everything it touches, so you'd rather have a small government.
00:52:52.800We're invested in big corporate America.
00:52:54.560Our 401ks and the success of those businesses go hand in hand.
00:52:58.620Your ability to retire and the quality of life you're going to have is directly tied to the strength of those companies.
00:53:05.000So why in the world would you want to go into, why would you elect and reelect people whose goal it is to damage the value and the power of those companies?
00:53:15.240The class warfare in America is destroying Americans.
00:53:23.120I know I've mentioned on this show before, and I talk about it till I'm blue in the face on my show in Phoenix, Arizona.
00:54:18.020At this time of year, we are a lot more mindful of giving.
00:54:21.140I talked in the first hour about benevolence and giving, whether it's individually with a group of people through a private organization or social services.
00:55:06.120And I spent my day on Christmas Day, a portion of my Christmas Day.
00:55:10.800I was with my grandkids for a big part of it as well.
00:55:12.760But I spent a big part of my day with homeless people, feeding the homeless.
00:55:17.940And it's a different experience where I did it.
00:55:21.080And the reason why I'm bringing this up is we tend to, there's some ideologies at work in our country.
00:55:26.620And if we just understand the differences we have without throwing rocks at each other, a lot of times we can agree on so many different things.
00:55:35.040Because I learned a long time ago that people on the right don't have the corner on patriotism and people on the left don't have the corner on crazy.
00:58:24.100And we all have it to differing degrees.
00:58:25.880There was a time in my life where I didn't have a lot of money, but I had time.
00:58:29.960And I would donate my time, and it made me feel good.
00:58:32.300I was an electrician, so I was able to go on work projects, whether it was through a church group or privately, and be able to do things and help people.
00:58:40.460I still do, you know, when I can for people with my expertise.
00:58:43.920Now, usually, somebody will call me, which I like a lot better than putting on tools and actually doing anything.
00:58:48.260If you want to call me and ask me an electrical question, I'm happy to help over the phone.
00:58:52.100If I got to show up with my tools, it's a little bit different now.
00:58:58.200Now I've got more money and a lot less time.
00:59:03.800So I choose where I give my time very, very carefully because I have so little of it to give.
00:59:11.220But we all have money, talent, and time to give to differing degrees.
00:59:16.140The story I mentioned last hour was out of Atlanta, Georgia, where people, a woman was in the park the Sunday before Thanksgiving feeding homeless people.
00:59:23.860And she got a citation to appear in court for serving food without a permit.
00:59:28.000Here in Tucson, Arizona, there was a young man going through hairstylist school, which I think is one of the most absurd things in the entire planet is hairstylist school.
00:59:38.320But don't please don't email me on this.
01:00:11.560And I guess his mother had passed away.
01:00:13.100And in memorial to his mother, he was going into the parks in Tucson, Arizona, and giving free haircuts to homeless people.
01:00:21.540Not only were they going to arrest this guy, but they were going to make him drive all the way up, which is about a two-hour drive to Phoenix, Arizona, to the state capitol.
01:00:30.100And appear before the cosmetology board, whatever power that group has, to answer for him cutting hair without a license.
01:02:00.060I was in McAllen, Texas with Mercury One Dollars.
01:02:02.740We went down there and we watched that in action.
01:02:05.740We watched the toys and the food and the benevolence of the listeners to this program and the power of unity in all of that.
01:02:13.680But as an individual, like I was just an individual yesterday, the ability to go down to, for me, it was St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix and donate my time.
01:02:23.440But I was there with about a hundred other people.
01:02:25.800We fed about 700 homeless people yesterday for lunch.
01:02:29.180In an hour and a half, about 700 meals fed.
01:02:33.340Superstar athletes were there, past and present.
01:02:43.240And to watch everybody come as an individual on Christmas Day to make a difference in the lives of people they've never met and may never see again.
01:03:17.420And for a government agent to say, you know what?
01:03:20.460We don't want to stop you from feeding people.
01:03:22.320We want you to do it through the proper channel so it all comes back to us and it connects to social services.
01:03:26.660And that, to me, is such a scary way to think.
01:03:32.040Should people be connected to services that may mainstream them and get them off of addictions and get them off the street and get them mainstreamed?
01:03:48.540But there are people in our society who have the belief that you should only give in a way that pushes people back to social services or you're doing harm.
01:04:03.480That if you don't have a food handler's license, you can't give out food in a park.
01:04:08.640That's one way for them to shut you down because what you're doing is you are enhancing the problem because now that homeless person is not going to get up and seek out a shelter or seek out social services because you fed him or her in a park.
01:04:21.080You gave a homeless person a bag of groceries and something to drink, some water.
01:04:30.540Therefore, they're not going to seek out government services, so you're belaboring and lengthening the problem.
01:04:43.580And I don't think we should ever give up our responsibility.
01:04:48.760We should never lose that sense of responsibility to give to others, nor should we ever give up our right to do it as an individual or a group we want to get together.
01:04:58.720We used to go to get together on the weekends.
01:05:00.280Everybody would bring a six-pack or a 12-pack of soft drinks or water.
01:05:03.220We'd put it on ice, and we'd walk around the parking lots in Arizona where it's 115 degrees in the summer, and we would just hand out free drinks to people.
01:07:10.400Number one, I am unashamedly pro-law enforcement.
01:07:13.720I believe that the vast majority of police officers, first responders in general, but specifically in this case, police officers, do the job they do from the goodness of their heart because they legitimately want to serve their country and their community.
01:07:26.840They don't want to violate people's constitutional rights.
01:07:29.200They want to protect their constitutional rights.
01:07:31.040That's my belief, and it comes from experience.
01:07:36.260I call them friends here in Phoenix, Arizona, where I call home, across the cities around what we call the Valley, and at home.
01:07:43.760I grew up in a law enforcement family, cousins, uncles, and most importantly, my youngest brother.
01:07:48.380My youngest brother is a sheriff's lieutenant in my hometown of Fort Myers, Florida, the Lee County Sheriff's Office, and I've said many times on this show and on my show, he is absolutely, without a doubt, my hero.
01:08:33.700He is a doting father, and that, for me, is the vast majority of police officers in this country.
01:08:38.880Nobody, nobody hates a bad cop more than a good cop because it makes their lives dangerous, it makes their lives miserable, and it tarnishes the image of the agency.
01:08:54.300So out in front of it, that's where I am on this story.
01:08:57.620I'm coming at you with a very big bias.
01:09:00.140The other thing you need to know about police officers is the scenario is a split-second decision.
01:09:39.180They know it's dangerous when they take it.
01:09:40.540They're not complaining about the danger.
01:09:41.800But when you, in the interest of community relations, do things like Chicago, police are now deterred from using stun guns, or more known as tasers, on people who are running away, intoxicated, or vulnerable to injury.
01:09:59.960What about the cop that's vulnerable to injury?
01:10:03.960So critics say the policy has been too permissive, while the union representing rank-and-file cops argued the department did not have the right to change rules without its input.
01:10:14.040Again, when you, if you're a doctor, you know what they do?
01:10:18.560As a doctor, you go before a review board of your peers, of other doctors, not the cops.
01:15:32.600And what happened to the economy the last couple of years of his presidency.
01:15:37.660Thought there should have been spending cuts to go with the tax cuts.
01:15:40.380By the way, we could talk about that in this tax reform bill.
01:15:45.540I will say this to you about tax reform.
01:15:48.260The United States of America does not have an income problem.
01:15:53.860Bernie Sanders laments that we didn't make tax cuts permanent in the addition to the debt that may be happening because of the Republicans' tax reform plan.
01:16:04.820Let me remind everyone that in every quarter of every year of the Obama presidency and including every quarter of every year of the Trump presidency, the United States Treasury has set records for income.
01:16:18.460Year over year, the Treasury has taken in more money than it ever has before every single year.
01:16:25.460And yet we have created deficits every single year.
01:16:31.460Everyone's right now getting ready to do their taxes for the year.
01:16:34.340If you're an employer, you're getting them ready for your employees.
01:16:36.620If you're an employee, you're waiting on your W-2 so you can file your taxes.
01:16:40.080If you sit down with your husband or your wife or your significant other, whatever, and you do your taxes for the year and you look at the W-2 and you say, wow, we have made more money this year than we have ever made in our lives.
01:16:52.880It's not even close, more money this year than last, and yet we're still living in debt.
01:17:01.320Is that an income problem or is that a spending problem?
01:17:06.160America does not have an income problem.
01:17:08.720The United States government has a spending problem.
01:17:11.560You can't lay that at the feet of Barack Obama only.
01:17:14.040There has been Republican-controlled Congress for a long time while Obama was president.
01:17:20.100This is a nobody-wants-to-be-told-no problem.
01:17:23.800Don't let them give you the narrative that this is an income problem and we need to raise taxes on rich Americans or raise taxes on business owners.
01:17:34.880There's plenty of money in the United States Treasury.
01:17:57.480We give foreign dollars through USAID or other organizations to foreign governments and NGOs, non-governmental organizations, to help foster whatever it is we're trying to foster in other nations.
01:18:08.460And we as a government, as the people of this country, we gave over $300,000 to a clown school in Argentina.
01:18:24.540I want you to let that sink in the next time somebody tells you that we have a problem with the way the government works here and the things that we do.
01:18:35.480And that we need to tax people more, that they are not paying their fair share.
01:18:42.180Does anybody not understand the absurdity of this?
01:18:48.080We, as a government, spend money on the most ridiculous things.
01:18:59.480$324,015 to pay for a clown school in Argentina.
01:19:03.980That was the accusations tweeted as part of his annual airing of the grievances.
01:19:11.480The U.S. agency provided foreign aid to a circus school in Argentina for their youth.
01:19:19.060Paul released a waste report each year, draws attention to the federal dollars spent around the globe.
01:19:23.780In 2017, a tongue-in-cheek example ranging from $100,000 to teach farmers how to use Facebook, $1.8 million to remind Cambodian motorcycles to wear helmets.
01:19:34.200And he also tweeted out $300,000 for a clown school in Argentina.
01:19:38.620Well, listen, that's going to pay huge dividends as soon as the Argentinian circus comes to America.
01:19:44.400You and I will be entertained for years to come.
01:19:48.100The school funding comes from the Inter-American Foundation.
01:19:51.160The U.S. agency provides an unorthodox alternative to traditional foreign aid.
01:19:55.380It has awarded 5,100 grants worth more than $720 million since 1972.
01:20:01.140The most creative ideas for self-help for Latin America and the Caribbean.
01:20:24.020Nancy Pelosi says it's the worst piece of legislation ever.
01:20:27.560And in the meantime, we are sending hundreds of millions of dollars overseas for clown schools.
01:20:37.660What is it exactly that's being done now this year?
01:20:41.980By the way, we're going to talk a little bit about Israel in the next segment.
01:20:46.600The president deciding that we're going to make good on a promise America made years ago to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
01:20:54.180Another nation, albeit not a big nation, joining us in that.
01:20:59.120And what happened to all that violence that was going to happen in the streets?
01:21:01.680If you remember, if we do this, there's going to be mass chaos around the world and violence everywhere.
01:21:07.100Even the New York Times had to admit it never quite happened.
01:21:10.320So a little discussion about Israel and our plans there.
01:21:13.100And then coming up a little after the bottom of the hour, immigration and what illegal immigrants are now doing to circumvent federal law.
01:23:38.580They destroyed historical religious relics all across the globe.
01:23:44.460But if you insulted Koran, we're going to blow up a train.
01:23:50.420That's just one example of the foreign policy mess that that president created.
01:23:57.060How about the story we now know about Hezbollah dealing drugs in the United States and high-ranking members of Hezbollah being blocked from arrest that the DEA worked on for years so that John Kerry could complete the nuclear deal with the Iranians?
01:24:21.140Bill Clinton stands at a podium and says, this landmark deal we've cut with the North Koreans will ensure that they never proliferate a nuclear weapon.
01:24:30.460And it's going to be that way that they're going to keep their centrifuges for nuclear power, but they will never enrich to weapons grade.
01:24:37.140And we are going to ensure this because we are going to have inspectors there.
01:24:40.460They are going to have strict oversight.
01:24:41.900We will have 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week access.
01:24:46.380Therefore, the North Koreans will never have a nuclear weapon.
01:24:58.160Barack Obama stands at a podium with his vice president over his right shoulder and says to the world, we've cut a deal with the Iranians, that they're going to be able to keep their centrifuges.
01:25:08.540They'll be able to create nuclear power, but they will never, ever enrich to weapons grade.
01:25:15.860We're going to have access 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure that the Iranians never proliferate a nuclear weapon.
01:25:22.100The entire world lost its mind, including the nations in the Middle East.
01:25:26.820When that deal was being made, our president stopped Hezbollah from being arrested for dealing drugs in the U.S. in order to make that deal go through.
01:25:39.820Foreign policy of that president was abysmal.
01:25:42.840So for all of you on the left, I feel your pain.
01:25:51.060So, and you know what I never did that you're doing is I never threatened to move to another country, and I never said he wasn't my president.
01:30:42.840It always strikes me as odd that the approval rating for Congress is in the low teens.
01:30:48.280And yet, almost every representative gets re-elected.
01:30:50.600It seems as if most representatives are liked by their constituents.
01:30:53.760But as a body, they don't seem to get much done.
01:30:57.340I am much happier now that I am an observer of American politics.
01:31:02.260I'm not as immersed in the decisions that are made anymore.
01:31:05.180And I've kind of gotten away from the cult of personality.
01:31:07.500There are a few people that I've gotten to know in, you know, our state legislature, local legislators, and, you know, in the federal government.
01:31:14.760And I've gotten to know and respect some people.
01:31:17.500And, but for the most part, what I've stayed away from is getting emotionally involved anymore.
01:31:23.580I'm much happier for it as an observer.
01:31:25.960So watching it like I do anything else, professional sports or otherwise, it does shock me.
01:31:32.060Because when it comes to leadership, it isn't about good guy, bad guy.
01:32:19.500Went on to different things, bigger and better things for him, and bigger and better things for the Philadelphia Eagles and that organization.
01:32:25.640Because it's a performance-based business.
01:32:27.780It's why the NFL prints its own money.
01:32:30.420With the exception of what's happening with the kneeling, which I'm in full support of the people that leave the stadiums for a multitude of reasons.
01:32:39.420I don't believe it's the time or the place.
01:33:34.300You're there for an escape from the everyday world that you're in.
01:33:39.780And so, dragging something like that into it seems odd.
01:33:45.200And I don't understand why the NFL doesn't do something.
01:33:47.560Because the NFL, they call the NFL the No Fun League.
01:33:50.880And they call it the No Fun League because of the rules they've created.
01:33:54.500The Dallas Cowboys wanted to wear something on their helmet to commemorate all those police officers that were killed in that terrorist attack.
01:33:59.720And the NFL told them, no, that it wasn't a league-wide thing.
01:34:02.440And as a team, you can't do anything individually.
01:34:05.040Nobody thought that the NFL was being anti-cop, anti-fun, anti-individual, of course, but not anti-cop.
01:34:14.160So, when this happens and they don't stop it, it makes you scratch your head and wonder why it's such a uniformed league.
01:34:20.600They are so concerned about the way the uniform looks and everybody being the same.
01:43:23.820There's a district in Arizona where I live that literally goes from northern Arizona to southern Arizona.
01:43:29.180And it's like a skinny little snake that makes its way down.
01:43:32.300How is one member of Congress going to cover that many hundreds of miles and the diversity from northern Arizona up in the mountains to southern Arizona down in the desert and still be able to serve those constituents?
01:43:42.380Instead of just small groups of people in a small area, sending a representative from that neighborhood, whoever they believe that right person is, to what's called the people's house.
01:44:44.140This woman's overqualified the day she walks in the door.
01:44:48.500According to the indictment, she filed fraudulent claims with the Summer Food Services Program of part of the Jobs Community Outreach Development Corporation.
01:44:58.540By inflating the number of children from low-income families and their records in order to receive more money.
01:45:04.980Her organization received roughly $803,000.
01:45:09.200So she's already toying with numbers in federally funded programs to inflate the dollars that she gets.
01:45:16.480If that isn't proof that she is legitimately ready to be a member of Congress, I don't know what is.
01:45:24.080You know, usually as a freshman, you're just kind of wide-eyed and you go in kind of watching what everybody else does so that you can see how it works.
01:45:33.580She could be training people the day she walks in.
01:45:39.420She denies the wrongdoing and she says she'll vigorously defend.
01:45:45.680She's scheduled to be in court January 12th.
01:45:49.220So Sean Brown, I think, is already overqualified for a job in the Congress.
01:45:53.540I want to thank you for being a part of the show today.
01:45:55.100My name is Mike Broomhead, at Broomhead Show on Twitter, the Mike Broomhead Show fan page on Facebook, or Mike Broomhead, all one word, on Instagram if you want to follow me.