The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 245 - The Insanity Of Student Loan Forgiveness

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, Elizabeth Warren has come in with her Santa sack of toys and she

00:00:06.000 is now offering college loan forgiveness for almost all Americans. We will talk about why

00:00:11.380 her plan is not only financially unsound but also morally atrocious. And speaking of atrocious, 0.56

00:00:18.000 Bernie Sanders wants felons to vote in prison. He wants people including the Boston bomber and

00:00:23.840 convicted rapists in prison to vote and we'll discuss why that doesn't work and shouldn't work.

00:00:30.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show.

00:00:38.800 Welcome to the show, everybody. Thanks for being here. Thanks for listening. We're going to talk

00:00:42.660 about several things today, including student loan forgiveness. We'll get into that in just a moment

00:00:47.080 because Elizabeth Sanders, Elizabeth Bernie Sanders unveiled her student loan debt relief plan and it

00:00:54.520 is it's something to behold. So we'll get into that in just one second. But first,

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00:02:42.820 stamps.com, enter Walsh and you get all those amazing deals. All right. Elizabeth Warren is 1.00

00:02:50.920 drowning in the polls. Not a lot of excitement around her campaign. Even after, I mean, she's 0.68

00:02:58.620 tried a lot of things. Now she's live blogging the Game of Thrones and that didn't work. So

00:03:05.280 not working out. Now she's going with the tried and true democratic strategy of, well, if I can't 1.00

00:03:12.540 convince you to vote for me through conventional means, then I will just buy your vote. And that's

00:03:17.400 what she's doing now. If she can't get young folks to vote for her by, by drinking brews on, 0.97

00:03:22.760 on Instagram videos or by watching HBO, then she'll bribe them instead. And so that's where

00:03:30.000 Elizabeth Warren's plan for student debt relief, which she announced yesterday has, um, uh, comes

00:03:36.980 from. Now I want to talk a little bit about her plan specifically, and then I want to discuss

00:03:42.440 why the whole idea of student loan forgiveness in general or student loan relief, we're calling

00:03:48.300 it now is terrible. Uh, we'll do that, but, uh, let's start with her plan reading now from an

00:03:54.060 article on CNN. It says, uh, Warren's proposal of forgiving outstanding student debt goes a

00:04:01.020 significant step further than previous, um, democratic policy plans. Warren's plan would offer

00:04:07.440 debt relief based on income households that make less than a hundred thousand a year would get

00:04:11.840 $50,000 in loan cancellation with the amount of relief getting gradually smaller as income level

00:04:17.480 goes up with households that make more than $250,000, not eligible for any debt relief at all.

00:04:23.420 Altogether would write, it would wipe out all student debt, uh, including both federal and private

00:04:28.680 loans for more than 75% of Americans without standing loans. Um, the universal free college portion of

00:04:35.440 Warren's plan makes public college free for everyone, regardless of their finances. Uh,

00:04:40.360 while Sanders, Bernie Sanders, his 2015 proposal offered free tuition for everyone, a 2017 bill

00:04:45.740 back, uh, scaled back eligibility based on income, uh, blah, blah, blah. Okay. So by this plan,

00:04:52.300 you could be, by this plan, you could be getting, you could be making 20 grand, uh, 200, you could be

00:04:58.560 making $200,000 a year, uh, uh, in income as an engineer or a doctor or something, and you could still

00:05:07.140 get your loans at least significantly discounted. Now here's the question, of course, how are we going

00:05:14.180 to pay for this new bundle of, of goodies? Uh, go back to CNN for that. It says the campaign estimates

00:05:21.160 that the plan would cost $1.25 trillion over 10 years. Um, the revenue from Warren's wealth tax

00:05:29.480 proposal, a 2% tax on wealth above 50 million and a 3% tax on wealth above a billion would pay for her 0.99

00:05:36.480 newest proposal according to her campaign. So, okay. So she claims, um, we can pay for this whole 0.98

00:05:43.080 thing by taking money from the evil wealthy folks and redistributing it. Now there is of course,

00:05:50.480 no reason at all to believe that this responsibility would ultimately land just on the wealthy. These

00:05:57.480 kinds of proposals never remain as limited in practice as they were on paper. And this proposal

00:06:03.280 is not even that limited on paper in the first place. Not to mention you have all the familiar

00:06:07.860 problems of, of further encouraging job creators to leave the country, especially now that you're

00:06:13.440 advertising that you're going to force them to pick up the tab for all of the student debt in the

00:06:17.760 country. Um, and, uh, and you have the problem that these, these kinds of taxes tend to trickle down

00:06:23.460 as, um, as the cost gets passed on to the working class. Um, so that's just the beginning of our

00:06:33.500 problems, right? There are many other problems and I want to go through them one by one or as many as I

00:06:40.640 can name in a few minutes. Number one, from a financial perspective, you are talking about

00:06:48.640 doing something that will make inflation massively worse, which feeds the problem that you're

00:06:54.900 supposedly trying to solve. So let me, here's a few lines from an editorial this morning on the

00:07:00.160 national review, which talks about the inflation aspects of the aspect of this. Um, the says, uh,

00:07:07.920 the inflation of college costs is a genuine concern and one that is of especially intense

00:07:12.500 interest to the federal government, which thanks to the Obama administration made itself into a

00:07:16.480 monopolist in the student loan business. But Senator Warren here proposes to put out a fire with

00:07:22.000 gasoline, i.e. to mitigate the effects of inflation by dumping money on the problem. In inflation adjusted

00:07:27.940 terms, government spending on higher education has never been higher. Um, it has climbed by nearly

00:07:33.960 $2,000 per student since 2001. As the, as the foundation for economic education points out,

00:07:39.940 Pell grant spending alone rose 72% in the few short years from 2008 to 2013 tuition and other expenses

00:07:46.880 have risen right along with the spending. Um, and then, you know, it goes on from there. So, um,

00:07:53.320 if you want to get control over tuition inflation, uh, as, as this, as the point, the national

00:08:03.840 review is making is you got to turn off the, you got to turn off the spigot. You can't, you can't,

00:08:07.160 you're making the problem worse, uh, by just dumping money onto a problem that has a lot to

00:08:11.660 do with inflation. So that's the financial part of it. Second, uh, there are a lot of people, a lot

00:08:18.280 of working class people who chose not to go to college, who accepted a life of lower income,

00:08:24.720 um, because they couldn't afford it, you know, and they knew they couldn't afford it and they didn't

00:08:30.320 want to take on the debt. And that, that, that seemed like a prudent and wise decision that a

00:08:36.800 lot of people in the working class made, I can't afford it. I'm not going to buy it. So what you're 0.98

00:08:41.320 now saying to them is that their prudent and wise decision to not buy something they couldn't afford 0.95

00:08:47.060 was actually foolish. They are suckers yet again, uh, because they should have just went ahead and 0.99

00:08:52.600 bought it because they wouldn't have to pay for it anyway. They could have gone and not paid is what 0.98

00:08:57.640 you're telling them. They made that sacrifice for nothing. Student loan forgiveness is a plan

00:09:04.240 that helps the upper class and screws the middle and lower classes where most non-college grads 1.00

00:09:10.720 reside. Uh, so just think about it. This is a plan to bail out people who are, you know, sometimes

00:09:17.760 making 150, $180,000 a year while those making 60 or 50 or $40,000 a year are still going to be stuck

00:09:25.280 with all of their debts, house, car, credit card, whatever. So it's, it's completely absurd. This

00:09:30.540 is basically, uh, this is, you know, student loan forgiveness is essentially welfare for the upper

00:09:37.200 class because that's where most college grads are. They're going to be middle, you know, upper middle

00:09:41.860 class to upper class. Um, whereas the millions of people who did go to college oftentimes are lower

00:09:48.520 middle to lower class. And so this is a plan that helps those people on the upper echelon while doing

00:09:53.980 nothing for the people who are below them. Third problem. Uh, what about all the people who went to 0.66

00:10:02.680 college and paid their debts? Okay. What about the person who has just paid the last dime on their

00:10:10.220 $100,000 debt and made all those sacrifices along the way and had to work very hard to pay it off and

00:10:17.780 they did it. And now they're going to turn around and see that everyone else's debt is just wiped clean

00:10:23.020 anyway. Is that not an injustice? Is that not grossly unfair? Are you going to refund them?

00:10:30.620 I mean, how can you possibly say, Oh, think about the sacrifices that these, there are many people

00:10:37.040 are going to be in this situation who are just on the verge of paying off their loans. Think about all

00:10:43.720 the sacrifices they had to make. Think about how their life has been affected by this. And now you're

00:10:49.140 going to just wipe everyone else's clean after they, do they get a refund is the question.

00:10:54.600 Um, how is it, you know, equality under the law is supposed to be guaranteed. How is it equality

00:11:00.880 under the law to give this massive unearned bonus to a certain segment of the population while everyone

00:11:07.020 else is out of luck? Fourth problem. Even putting aside the financially disastrous effects of a plan like

00:11:14.180 this and putting aside how it screws the working class and it screws people who are responsible for

00:11:19.500 their debts in the first place, we're still left with a very simple fact. Nobody forces anyone to

00:11:26.040 take on these loans. That's a choice that you make. If you have student debt, you have it because you

00:11:32.340 agreed to it. You signed on the dotted line. Now you can say, Oh, I was 19. I didn't know. Okay.

00:11:39.120 But you still made that choice. You made a legal agreement. Everything else aside, it is immoral

00:11:46.980 for a third party, such as the government or Elizabeth Warren to come in and say, Oh, nevermind.

00:11:52.960 You don't have to fulfill your obligations and keep your promises. Just, just the very idea that

00:11:58.520 Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or any of these Democrats, the very idea that they would say, um,

00:12:03.400 Oh, we're going to, I'm going to forgive that. Look, it's not for you to forgive. What do you mean?

00:12:09.460 You're going to forgive it. You didn't grant the loan. It's not up to you to forgive it. And it's

00:12:14.440 certainly not up to, to, to some other private citizen to, um, to have to come in and pay off the

00:12:21.140 loan out of forgiveness. If you took the loan out, this is your responsibility. Um, and so that's really,

00:12:31.460 you see that that's what you'd have to explain. And this is my challenge. Okay. To any college grads

00:12:37.520 who are arguing for loan forgiveness, this is my challenge to you. Or if you're listening right

00:12:42.960 now, this is what I want you to do. Present a morally and logically sound argument explaining

00:12:50.860 why some other citizen should be forced by the state to pay your debt that you assumed by choice

00:12:59.700 for a product that you bought and will keep. That's what you have to explain. And, and, and,

00:13:05.800 and maybe phrase it in exactly these terms. Um, I believe someone else should be forced to pay my

00:13:12.380 loans because, and then fill in the blank. Uh, I, I don't, I don't, I'm not sure that you can fill in

00:13:21.940 the blank with it. And, and, and the point is, you know, we talk about student loan, uh, relief and

00:13:26.760 forgiveness. And we talk about it in these sorts of abstract, ambiguous terms. No, what we're

00:13:32.200 talking about. And if you are advocating for student loan forgiveness, what you are saying

00:13:37.020 is that someone else, some other citizen should have to pay your loans. Um, that's what you're

00:13:45.340 saying. And so you should at least phrase it that way and make your argument. Here's another way of,

00:13:51.620 of, of looking at it. Uh, you're in debt. Okay. And it sucks. I know it's not fun. Um, maybe it's

00:13:59.580 even unfair. Who knows? Uh, I don't know. You did agree to it, but, uh, but whatever the point is

00:14:05.340 you're in debt. The debt has to be paid. Okay. Someone has to pay it. The debt you agreed to

00:14:11.220 while purchasing the product you want and will keep that has to be paid. So it's, it can't just be

00:14:17.340 erased. The only question is who should pay it? You or someone else? Should it, should it be the

00:14:29.120 person who took on the debt, who pays it or the person who did not take on the debt? And so what

00:14:35.260 you have to do is come up with an argument to explain why, uh, yeah, this debt has to be paid,

00:14:41.040 but it shouldn't be by me. It should be by that guy over there. Fifth thing, whatever possible

00:14:48.640 argument could be made, uh, whatever you might be able to put in the blanks there to say, uh, well,

00:14:54.900 someone else should pay my loans because, um, it would clearly apply just as much to any other form

00:15:02.300 of debt, mortgage, car, credit card. So if you're struggling with student loan debt and it's making

00:15:07.660 your life difficult, um, but I didn't go to college and, but I'm struggling to pay my mortgage

00:15:13.660 where, where, where's my get out of jail free car? Well, why are you special? I mean, why do you get

00:15:18.720 to get this? And what about the rest of us who are stuck with debt and don't say, Oh, well, you can

00:15:23.760 file for bank bankruptcy. Okay. Bankruptcy ain't free. That's not the same thing. You don't have to

00:15:28.480 under these plans. You're not going to have to file for bankruptcy. You just get, you just get,

00:15:32.060 you get, you just get to walk away from it. Like it never happened. Well, what about me?

00:15:36.860 Why don't I get that? And see what I, when I make this argument, say, well, what about me?

00:15:41.640 I want something too, right? You can't say, Oh, that's selfish. That's so well, you're the one

00:15:45.720 being selfish. I mean, if this is the way it's going to go now, where you, where the government

00:15:50.080 just, you know, you've, you're, you're in a tough spot. So the government comes in with someone else's

00:15:53.580 money and bails you out. Then, then it's perfect. It is perfectly valid for me to say, you know what?

00:15:59.560 I want it too. Okay. I got this debt. I got that debt. I'm struggling with this. I want all that

00:16:03.740 taken care of. Maybe you should have to pay for it. You know, if someone else has to pay your

00:16:10.040 loans and maybe you should have to pay mine, you know what? I want you to pay my mortgage. That's

00:16:13.340 what you should have to do because I don't want to pay it. It's hard for me. I could, I could,

00:16:17.320 I could, I could pull out the violin and I could sing you a whole song, a whole sad song about how

00:16:22.680 difficult it is to pay my mortgage. And so you should have to pay it. That's what I think. Yeah,

00:16:26.540 I shouldn't have to, you should have to. Well, I mean, it was predatory. I mean,

00:16:31.380 they never should have sold me this house in the first place. They should have known I can't afford

00:16:34.660 it. Right. Sixth thing here, this whole problem can be solved long-term with a very simple societal

00:16:50.220 change. We don't need loan forgiveness or free college or anything else. There's a very simple

00:16:58.100 change that could be made. If people would just wait a couple of years before going to college.

00:17:06.940 Okay. That, that, that's, that's really, I think that could almost solve all these problems.

00:17:12.240 This idea. And I, you know, I, I just, I go on about this all the time because it's so obvious to me

00:17:19.240 that number one, as I've said many times, you know, not everyone has to go to college and, and,

00:17:25.160 and, uh, there are way more people going to college than should be.

00:17:31.200 And, but that doesn't mean that, that everyone shouldn't go. Like if, if you are going to get

00:17:39.060 into a line of work where a four year degree is actually necessary. And those kinds of jobs do

00:17:44.620 exist. Obviously, if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, architect, you know, I could go on

00:17:48.800 and on, um, those kinds of jobs exist. And so if you're going to get a job like that, if that's the

00:17:53.240 plan, then yeah, going and getting a four year degree makes sense. And you should do that. And

00:17:58.660 the good news there, there is that a lot of those are high paying jobs. So you'll be able to pay off

00:18:03.220 the debt. Um, but if you don't know what you want to do with your life, if you have no idea what your

00:18:13.680 skills are, what your interests are, what your abilities are, um, what your plan is five years

00:18:20.160 down the road, I mean, if you have no clue, and that is the, the situation that most high school

00:18:24.920 graduates are in at the age of 18 years old, then of course you shouldn't go right to college.

00:18:30.720 There's no reason to, there is no good argument at all that anyone can make to explain why an 18 year

00:18:38.900 old kid who doesn't know what he wants to do with his life should go right to college. What,

00:18:44.100 what would be, explain this to me. What would be the downside of an 18 year old kid who doesn't

00:18:51.180 know what he wants to do going and getting a job somewhere for a few years first, you can still go

00:18:56.720 when you're 20. It's not a race. It'll be fine. It's not a competition. Um, I mean, there is a

00:19:03.660 competition for jobs out there, but it's not, it's not a, it's not like we, you have to get to the

00:19:07.100 finish line before the other person. So the point is, if there was a simple societal change that

00:19:15.140 is perfectly feasible, that what the message we send the kids is, if you know exactly what you

00:19:21.120 want to do with your life and you know, you need the four year degree, um, then maybe you could think

00:19:26.300 about going there right after high school. But even in that case, I mean, even if you want to be a

00:19:31.040 doctor, I don't see any downside to going and getting a job for a few years, saving up some money,

00:19:36.040 getting some experience and then going. But at least in that case, I could see the argument maybe

00:19:41.080 for going right there, but everybody else just go get a job. Okay. It doesn't matter what you're

00:19:45.100 doing. Like go, go, even if you're willing to work at McDonald's or you're working at Walmart

00:19:48.320 or, uh, you know, you're moving across the country for a few years, getting a job somewhere,

00:19:52.640 whatever you're doing, just do something, get a job. In the meantime, you're making money,

00:19:57.440 you're saving, uh, you're putting yourself in a, in a, in a better position to afford college.

00:20:03.660 And most importantly, you're figuring yourself out. You're figuring out what you actually are

00:20:10.640 good at and what you want to do. Because there is a huge difference between an 18 year old kid

00:20:19.060 who's never had a job, uh, and is just getting out of high school and a 20 or 21 year old adult

00:20:26.460 who's been in the workforce for a few years. There's a huge difference in maturity and in,

00:20:30.960 in, in self-understanding in, in, in so many areas. So I don't, I mean, until someone can explain

00:20:38.780 what's wrong with what I'm saying here, until someone can explain why we need every 18 year old 0.97

00:20:46.140 to just go right to college without any interim in between until someone can explain that to me,

00:20:51.060 that I'm going to say that my solution is the solution. And that's what we should do.

00:20:55.400 And, uh, if you do that, then I think a lot of these problems start to go away there.

00:21:00.600 Ultimately, you're going to have fewer people going to college because there's a, there are a lot of

00:21:03.620 people who, if they take that interim period, they're going to discover in the meantime that,

00:21:07.780 Oh, you know what? I don't really need to go to college. I, I, I figured out that I want to be

00:21:11.240 a mechanic or I want to, uh, I want to get it to be electrician or, you know, something like that.

00:21:15.120 Um, so there are going to be a lot of people don't end up going and the people who do go

00:21:20.360 are going to be a little bit more mature and, uh, and, and wise about it. And, um, I think

00:21:26.300 colleges are going to have to compete a little more for, to get students in, in the doors,

00:21:32.640 because it's not going to be an automatic kind of conveyor belt system where you, the kids go

00:21:38.820 right from high school to college and that's going to drive costs down. I just think this is the

00:21:43.000 solution. Um, and we, so we don't need to do any of this other stuff. All right. Um,

00:21:49.360 Bernie Sanders wants the Boston marathon bomber and a convicted rapists and other assorted

00:21:57.560 ne'er-do-wells in jail to vote. Uh, watch this. 0.99

00:22:01.240 You have said that you believe that people with felony records should be allowed to vote while in

00:22:07.020 prison. Does this mean that you would support enfranchising people like the Boston marathon

00:22:12.120 bomber, a convicted terrorist and murderer? Do you think that those convicted of sexual assault

00:22:18.340 should have the opportunity to vote for politicians who could have a direct impact on women's rights? 1.00

00:22:24.480 Okay. Thank you for the question. And, uh, and let me just say this,

00:22:29.520 what our campaign is about and what I believe is creating a vibrant democracy today, as you may

00:22:37.140 know, we have one of the lowest voter turnouts of any major country on earth. I want to see us have

00:22:42.960 one of the highest voter turnouts. And by the way, what we're seeing is more young people getting

00:22:48.280 involved in the political process, but not enough. And in my view, if young people voted at the same

00:22:55.900 percentage that older people voted in this country, we would transform this nation. But to get to your 1.00

00:23:02.040 point, we live in a moment where cowardly Republican governors are trying to suppress the vote. And in 0.74

00:23:10.240 fact, right here, as you may know, in New Hampshire, the legislature and the governor are working hard to

00:23:15.820 make it more difficult for young people to vote. And to me, that is an incredibly undemocratic,

00:23:23.620 un-American process. And I say to those people, by the way, if you don't have the guts to participate 0.82

00:23:29.140 in free and fair elections, you should get another job and get out of politics. All right. So we got to

00:23:35.780 so here is, and to answer your question, as it happens in my own state of Vermont,

00:23:44.360 from the very first days of our state's history, what our constitution says is that everybody can vote.

00:23:51.880 That is true. So people in jail can vote. Now, here is my view. If somebody commits a serious crime,

00:23:59.320 sexual assault, murder, they're going to be punished. They may be in jail for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years,

00:24:07.180 their whole lives. That's what happens when you commit a serious crime. But I think the right to vote

00:24:13.940 is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people. Because once you start chipping away,

00:24:21.760 and you say, well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote, or that person

00:24:26.760 did that, not going to let that person vote, you're running down a slippery slope. So I believe that

00:24:32.960 people who commit crimes, they pay the price. When they got out of jail, I believe they certainly

00:24:37.540 should have the right to vote. But I do believe that even if they are in jail, they're paying their

00:24:41.520 price to society. But that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our

00:24:48.300 democracy. Okay, a few things here. First of all, Democrats are super excited about voter turnout

00:24:57.560 among certain demographics, right? You don't see them down in the trailer parks in Alabama trying to

00:25:04.800 rustle up some votes. And I'm willing to bet the trailer parks probably have a low voter turnout also.

00:25:11.080 But you don't see that. They're not down there, not trying to get those folks out. Why is that?

00:25:14.640 Well, because those people are less likely to vote Democrat. So that's what this is about. Sanders

00:25:18.780 pretends to care about participation in our democracy, but he only wants certain people to

00:25:24.400 participate. So he's no better than the, quote, cowardly Republican governors that he's railing 0.92

00:25:29.660 against. Second, I'm doing everything in list format today, if you hadn't noticed. Participating in our 0.84

00:25:36.280 democracy by voting is not an inherent right. It is not a God-given right. It is not something that we

00:25:45.780 necessarily want everyone to do. It is not something that our country benefits from. Our country does not

00:25:53.200 automatically become more vibrant just because everyone is voting. Voting should be seen as much

00:25:59.940 more of a responsibility than a right. And in fact, in general, I think that we should be, if we're,

00:26:08.060 we should be using the, the R word responsibility more often than we use the R word rights. We should

00:26:16.580 be talking about our responsibilities more than our rights. And every right is, is accompanied

00:26:23.400 by a responsibility. And I think we should start looking at it more on those terms. So when you

00:26:30.940 frame it that way, um, instead of saying, oh, we all have, we all have a right to vote. No, we all

00:26:37.420 voting is a responsibility. And if it's a responsibility, that means that you should only do it

00:26:45.040 if you are a contributing, informed, knowledgeable member of society. Uh,

00:26:54.420 those are the people who we want voting. And that is how our democracy and our country becomes more

00:27:02.140 vibrant when you have contributing, informed, knowledgeable members of society voting. 0.99

00:27:07.360 But when you've got just a bunch of ignorant, when you've got a bunch of ignoramuses who, who you, 0.97

00:27:12.360 who you manage to, um, to shuffle into the, to herd into the polls on, on election day, 0.99

00:27:19.240 like cattle, and they just go in there and start pressing buttons randomly, or, you know,

00:27:25.060 based on the letter next to the name or based on whose name is prettier or, or, or based on whatever

00:27:29.680 poster they happen to see when they were stumbling half drunk into the polls that morning. Um,

00:27:35.100 that does not make our democracy more vibrant. That doesn't, that doesn't help our system at all.

00:27:40.600 All you're doing in that case is you are, you are canceling out the informed votes with all, 0.99

00:27:48.420 with all of these ignorant people. And that doesn't help us. So really what we want in this 0.97

00:27:55.900 country are fewer voters, not more. There should be fewer, whatever the voter turnout is, it should be

00:28:02.620 like half of that or a 10th of that. And, and that's how, that is how we make a, uh, a more powerful

00:28:10.940 and vibrant democracy. Um, but the whole idea is as far as prisoners go, uh, the whole idea is absurd

00:28:20.180 because they're in prison. Okay. We, we already take away their fundamental right to like walk outside

00:28:26.900 and look at the clouds, right? I mean, all of their rights really, or most of them are suspended in

00:28:32.120 prison. Your first amendment right is curtailed severely. Uh, you can't say whatever you want.

00:28:36.800 Uh, your second amendment right obviously is gone. You're not carrying guns. Uh, your fourth amendment

00:28:43.180 is basically gone. Prisoners have some basic rights, very basic, but by necessity and also for punitive

00:28:49.260 reasons, uh, many of their essential rights are either gone or severely limited. And we already know

00:28:54.740 that that's, that's the nature of prison. So voting is just one of them. It's not even the most important

00:28:59.540 one. Um, so this idea that there's some extra injustice and not allowing them to vote. I mean,

00:29:06.720 we keep them locked in a cage, right? For 20 hours a day. Like, what do you, I mean, and you're worried

00:29:13.200 that they're not voting. It seems to me that if we're saying, oh, well they, they have an inherent

00:29:18.140 right to vote. Well then I guess they have an inherent right not to be locked in the cage in the first place

00:29:22.280 too. Well then of course, at that point, now we have no more prisoner prisons and we have anarchy.

00:29:27.360 So it doesn't make any sense. Um, and, and the last thing is I agree actually with, uh,

00:29:35.100 with those who say that felons who get out of prison should be able to vote. Now I do think it's an

00:29:40.700 injustice that someone who's paid their debt to society and, um, you know, has gone through the

00:29:47.640 punishment and has reformed themselves. Uh, the idea that they can never vote again. Like if you,

00:29:53.180 if you commit a, you know, let's say you're someone, uh, robs a liquor store when they're 19

00:29:58.920 years old and they go to prison, they do their time. Uh, they get out, they get a job, they start

00:30:04.020 a family and now they're 50 years old. It's, it's been over 30 years since they committed the crime.

00:30:09.800 They have long since paid their debts to society. And at the age of 50, they still can't vote. Um,

00:30:16.340 that doesn't make any sense to me. And so, yeah, I think those people should be able to vote. And in

00:30:21.720 fact, those people could be very valuable voters. I mean, these are people who've, they've been in

00:30:26.160 the system. They've seen the government from sort of a different angle than a lot of us have. Uh,

00:30:31.320 they've got an experience. They've had, they have a sort of life experience that I think makes their

00:30:37.640 perspective interesting and valuable. Um, and so, yeah, I think those people should,

00:30:43.300 but the, those who are in prison are still paying their, are, they're still in the process of paying

00:30:49.860 their debt to society. Uh, and what's more, and this is the important fact, they are not contributing

00:30:57.580 members of society. Okay. These are people who have, because of their own actions, we have had to

00:31:04.420 segregate them from society and keep them locked away and take care of them, you know, pay for them 1.00

00:31:10.020 to pay to house them and feed them and everything else pay for medical care, everything else. Uh,

00:31:15.040 so these are in prison. I mean, these people are, are strains on society. They're not contributing.

00:31:21.640 And that should be that, that is the, uh, that should be the litmus test is it should be contributing

00:31:32.080 members of society. And that's, that is how our system was originally set up. Now, obviously back

00:31:38.500 in the, you know, in the early part of, of, uh, of our country's existence when, well, you could only

00:31:43.280 vote if you were a landowner. Well, the problem there is that you couldn't be a landowner if you

00:31:47.040 were a woman or if you were a black person. Uh, so obviously that was unjust because you're 0.86

00:31:51.500 disenfranchising people then based on gender and race. Clearly we can't do that. But these days,

00:31:56.980 um, that's, that's not the case anymore. It doesn't matter your gender, your race, you can be

00:32:02.040 legally and in every other sense, a contributing member of society. And so that's how I think we

00:32:06.440 should decide who can vote. Um, let's go to, uh, yeah, we'll do emails now. Uh, Matt wall show at

00:32:13.460 gmail.com. Matt wall show at gmail.com says, uh, this is from Carrie says, Matt, seriously,

00:32:21.760 what's up with the bee thing? I don't understand it. So Carrie is referring, I guess, to my flurry

00:32:27.460 of posts this weekend, talking about the arrival of my bees who, uh, I'm going to pick up a, an order

00:32:32.880 of bees, uh, today, actually, I'm starting a beehive. I'm becoming a beekeeper, as I mentioned

00:32:38.220 before. And, uh, so I was, I was, you know, I was, I think I tweeted about it this weekend, just,

00:32:43.940 you know, out of excitement, uh, to begin my, my journey as a beekeeper. The funny thing is that

00:32:48.420 my wife, you know, she agreed to this arrangement. I mean, she's known for like two years and I wanted

00:32:53.120 to start being a beekeeper. And so now it's finally happening. Then I was talking to her this weekend

00:32:57.240 and say, Oh, you know, I'm going to pick up the bees this week. And, um, and she said, Oh, so it's,

00:33:01.920 uh, so, you know, how many bees is it going to be? It's going to be like 200, 200, 300 bees. Right.

00:33:05.440 And I said, no, the original package will be about 10,000 bees. And then it will,

00:33:10.520 the hive will grow to 70 or 80,000 bees. And then I'll probably get more hives. Um, and she was

00:33:17.540 not pleased to learn that fact, but I mean, it's too late now it's happening. We're, we're going to

00:33:24.500 have 70,000 bees in our backyard, um, with our kids running around and playing. It's just, it is

00:33:29.720 happening. And then she said to me, she said, uh, she said, well, but, but my mom is allergic to bees 0.99

00:33:34.780 and now she's not going to be able to come over. And I said, Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that.

00:33:41.640 I mean, that's not like that was the whole point here. Um, now, why do I want to be a beekeeper?

00:33:46.360 Well, uh, because for, for one thing, why not carry? I mean, why not be a beekeeper? Okay. Give

00:33:52.040 me one good reason to not be a beekeeper. And then maybe I won't be. And, uh, and also I think that it's,

00:33:57.520 uh, well, secondly, I think bees are fascinating creatures. And third, I think that, that I, I,

00:34:03.300 I'm, I believe that it's important for a man to have hobbies. Um, and if that hobby is one that

00:34:10.400 scares your mother-in-law away, well, that's just a win-win folks. That's all that is. All right.

00:34:15.740 This is from Steven says, Hey Matt, I've been a reader even before you started at the blaze. So

00:34:19.540 I'm happy to see your success so far and hope God continues to bless you as you continue to share

00:34:23.260 your viewpoint regarding speaking in tongues. I am a hundred percent on board with you. I've been in

00:34:28.240 multiple churches where speaking in tongues was widely accepted in most churches where this is

00:34:32.420 accepted. Speaking in tongues is equated with praying in the spirit. Um, despite absolutely

00:34:37.420 ignoring Paul's admonition that if someone speaks in tongues, there should be an interpreter.

00:34:41.580 I've seen multiple people spew out nonsense gibberish on a regular basis. In my opinion,

00:34:45.980 it's a show purely for self-aggrandizement, aggrandizement to put themselves on a pedestal

00:34:50.940 as being the holiest of the congregation. Every time that, that tongues are mentioned in the New 0.85

00:34:55.380 Testament, it is of the effect of preaching the word to someone that does not know of Jesus,

00:34:59.740 not just a bizarre prayer language. Paul also said in Philippians, um, do nothing from selfish

00:35:05.860 ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. This idea of

00:35:10.780 speaking in tongues, as I've seen it in multiple churches does nothing more than elevate certain

00:35:14.940 people as being more holy than others. Uh, so in every sense, the way that speaking in tongues is

00:35:20.640 practiced in the vast majority of churches directly contradicts what the Bible tells us.

00:35:24.240 I believe that God can cause us to speak in tongues, to spread his word. But the way I see

00:35:29.900 it in our modern churches is, is it is nothing short of blasphemy. Sorry to write such a long

00:35:34.360 screed, but having seen this in practice in so many places, I feel very strongly about it. And, uh,

00:35:39.260 I will let that stand on its own because you put it very well. So thank you for that,

00:35:44.440 Stephen. This is from redacted great theocratic dictator, Matt. I am a recent seminary grad with

00:35:54.320 quite a bit of debt to pay off. You said you don't want to hear a recent grad with debt to advocate

00:35:59.420 for it because they're biased. So I will offer the complete opposite. I find this student loan

00:36:04.520 forgiveness by Warren to be absurd, though I stand to gain a lot financially from it. It is complete

00:36:09.440 exploitation of those that gave me a loan. And it is immoral to expect the American people's

00:36:14.280 tax dollars to pay for something I contractually agreed to pay. Long story short, I do not want

00:36:19.100 my student loans forgiven. I have my pride and my dignity. Uh, that is a wonderful attitude.

00:36:26.800 I, I, it grieves me that your attitude is so rare, right? I mean, but that is, that's an American

00:36:36.580 attitude, right? That's, that's, that's how Americans should be that I don't want you to, I, I would,

00:36:43.920 I would turn it down if you offered it. I don't want you to just pay, take care of my responsibilities

00:36:48.140 for me. They are mine. And it, it means something like dignity and just being a self-sufficient

00:36:54.220 person and, and manning up and, you know, taking care of your, of your own business. I mean, that,

00:36:59.920 that means something. I want to do that. I don't want you to take that away from me. I don't,

00:37:06.360 I, and I especially don't want you to do it by taking from someone else.

00:37:10.160 I don't want some millionaire to be my sugar daddy and come in and, and, and do that. I'm a man,

00:37:17.300 you know, I've, I've got dignity. Um, that appears to be your attitude. And, uh, I think it's,

00:37:23.060 I think it's great. I just wish that you weren't such a rarity. I mean, I wish that you weren't one

00:37:28.640 out of a hundred. I wish that you were, you know, 90 out of a hundred had that attitude. And I think

00:37:33.360 there was a time in this country when most people had a similar attitude to yours. Um,

00:37:39.420 but these days people, they just, they, they have no, they certainly have no dignity. They have no

00:37:44.620 desire to be self-sufficient. Um, they just are looking for the easiest way. And so for them,

00:37:52.200 there's just, there's a total disconnect because it's like, they can't even, they can't offer any

00:38:02.100 arguments. They don't even understand why they need to offer arguments because for them, they say,

00:38:07.860 well, what do you mean? I mean, I have these loans. It's hard to pay them off. I don't like them.

00:38:13.120 Uh, so someone else should pay them. Of course they should. And if you ask them, well, why should

00:38:21.140 they pay? Well, because it's, it's, cause it's hard for me and I don't want to have to do it.

00:38:25.240 And that's their whole argument. It's not even an argument. It's, it's, it's the argument of a

00:38:29.100 two-year-old, but you hear this from grown adults. Um, all right, let's see from, uh, from Sam says,

00:38:40.880 hello, Matt, I recently joined a church. This is a first and a big first for me before this. I was

00:38:47.080 religious, but not in a good way. So I'll just leave that there. I have no education on church

00:38:52.420 or the teaching and have never read the Bible, honestly. So do bear with me if, if it, um, if

00:38:57.300 anything I say sounds wrong, since it probably is, and I'm new as new can be, but learning my fiance

00:39:03.240 got me to go and join. I'm 21. I never thought I would do this. So I've been going for something

00:39:07.520 like six weeks now. I'm enjoying it. And the lead pastor, I feel is good. My issue is thinking

00:39:12.460 about everything I'm being told here. They talk a lot about feeling the Holy spirit and hearing

00:39:16.540 Jesus and the word of God in one's life. Does feeling this or the ability to recognize what

00:39:21.300 God slash Jesus slash the Holy spirit is trying to tell me or lead me to get easier or more obvious.

00:39:27.240 I feel like I'm being told about a brand new color on the color wheel and people will point to it

00:39:31.320 and saying that it is the color, but I'm having a hard time seeing this color. Also talking about

00:39:36.180 how God has given me a purpose and a gift to fulfill that purpose. Um, how do you know the

00:39:41.300 purpose given and how do I know the gift slash talent given to fulfill that promise? If I find

00:39:46.120 the purpose, uh, I will chase it and build it. I remember something about three people going to

00:39:50.060 Jesus with gifts to showing that they had taken the gifts and created more gifts and the last one

00:39:55.180 didn't. And he was slothful and wicked. So how do I figure all this out? Any help with any of this 0.79

00:40:00.020 is greatly appreciated. Uh, well, great question, Sam, and congratulations on making a positive change in your

00:40:05.760 life. It takes guts to make changes. I mean, it takes guts to make changes, to, to realize that

00:40:11.000 changes need to be made and to, uh, and humility to realize that, okay, this is a, this is something

00:40:17.940 that I don't have in my life. I want to have it. And so I'm going to take that step. So that's,

00:40:22.020 that's awesome. Um, we've got two emails in a row here from people with, with an attitude that I wish

00:40:30.040 everyone had in our country would be so much better if everyone, if everyone was like Sam and, uh,

00:40:34.580 in the last email, we'd be in a much better country. Now as to your question, it is an

00:40:39.020 excellent question and an important one. I think it brings up an interesting point.

00:40:42.680 You talk about feeling the Holy spirit and hearing God in your life. And you're basically saying,

00:40:47.140 okay, well, when does that happen? Cause I'm going to church. I don't really feel it. I don't hear it.

00:40:51.280 Um, the comparison you made about a new color on the color wheel is very apt and insightful.

00:40:56.340 So I think this is part of the problem with the kinds of the kind of like charismatic movement in

00:41:05.060 the church in America and modern times. And I don't know if this is a charismatic church you're

00:41:08.660 going through, but there is a charismatic vein that you can find in almost any church in America,

00:41:14.480 um, where there is this incredible emphasis that is put on feeling so much so that you begin to think

00:41:24.080 that religion really is supposed to be like a drug, like opium, like Karl Marx famously said that

00:41:29.360 religion is the opiate of the masses. And, uh, and you start to feel defective. If you don't have that

00:41:35.080 feeling, if you don't get that high, that rush, um, if your experience is more dry, more sometimes

00:41:40.660 lonely, sometimes confused, even, even desolate, uh, at times. And what I would say is don't worry about

00:41:47.720 that. Um, don't worry about the feelings because they'll come, they'll go, they'll come back again.

00:41:52.960 It's not about that. Feelings are notoriously difficult to conjure up. And once you do,

00:42:00.040 they're notoriously difficult to retain and hold onto, and you can't slips out of your hands like,

00:42:04.960 like, like water. Right. Um, and the people who claim to always be moved by the spirit, uh,

00:42:12.700 to always be overcome with these feelings of, of joy and peace and so on. Maybe some of them are,

00:42:18.000 I mean, maybe some of them really that that's how it is, but there are also people who are moved.

00:42:22.220 I think they, they think that they're moved by the spirit or by God, but, um, but often I think

00:42:28.380 they're moved by the experience or by the music or, or just by the, uh, the, the sort of power of

00:42:35.360 suggestion from the people around them. Um, it's not necessarily the Holy spirit all the time. It

00:42:41.060 could be, you know, uh, but, but it's not always. Um, and there are people who are just more susceptible

00:42:49.180 to getting caught up in the moment in an environment, in a crowd where everyone is sort of feeling a

00:42:53.840 certain way. And there are people who are more likely to, to kind of share that feeling because

00:42:58.300 they're in the crowd. And it's, it's not necessarily because they're more spiritually in

00:43:02.540 tune than you are. It's just, they're a different kind of person. And especially if you're a more kind

00:43:07.460 of independently minded person, uh, a little bit less susceptible to suggestion and all of that,

00:43:12.680 then you're not going to be as caught up. Uh, and that's okay. I was talking to someone recently

00:43:19.780 who told me that, uh, they are overcome with a feeling of peace and comfort every time they go

00:43:27.840 to church. And I said, every time, really, every time you go to church, your whole life,

00:43:33.060 you're overcome with peace and comfort. And they said, yeah, every single time. And, and, uh,

00:43:38.320 now I very rarely feel that when I go to church, I'll be honest, sometimes on rare occasion,

00:43:43.840 but most of the time I am not overcome by peace and comfort. Um, and I'm not saying that this person

00:43:50.140 is lying. I believe that they really are. And I think that's great. That's a grace that was given

00:43:53.660 to them. It's good for them. Wonderful for me though. It's a struggle. And I think for most people it is.

00:43:59.420 And that's also okay. Um, and it's, it's not because I'm spiritually defective or, or you are,

00:44:04.140 we're just different sorts of people. I think the point here is that there is too much emphasis put

00:44:09.240 on the emotional experience. Uh, and faith is portrayed too much as a sort of joy ride,

00:44:15.900 a source of constant comfort or whatever. And so it ends up with this kind of gloss to it,

00:44:22.000 this air of unreality. Um, when the reality is for many Christians that faith is going to 0.90

00:44:29.280 often be a struggle and it's going to sometimes be painful and it's going to sometimes be dry

00:44:34.280 and difficult and a lot of other things. And the church doesn't want to deal with that much of the

00:44:41.480 time. We don't want to confront it. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to look at it or

00:44:45.400 acknowledge it. And that makes it all the harder for those of us who are not blessed with that

00:44:50.920 charismatic gene. Uh, so I just, that's something to, to, to know going in. And once you know it,

00:44:59.160 put it to the side, don't worry about it. And if you're at church, it's good that you're there,

00:45:03.960 you're doing what you should be doing. Um, what I would recommend is don't, don't stand there or sit

00:45:09.660 there trying to get yourself to feel a certain way. Don't worry about that. Just be there, listen to the,

00:45:15.300 to the word that's being spoken. And, um, and that will come and go and, and don't, don't focus on

00:45:21.840 too much as for figuring out your purpose. Well, the good news is you're 21. You've got plenty of

00:45:25.660 time to do that. Uh, the fact that you're thinking about it and that you're searching is a great start.

00:45:30.620 It's, it already sets you apart from a lot of people who are in your position at your age, um,

00:45:37.280 who aren't even thinking about it or worrying about what they're going to do or what their ultimate

00:45:42.320 purpose is. So the fact that you want to know and are searching is good. And I would say,

00:45:50.420 so that would be my answers right now. It seems to me knowing almost nothing about you.

00:45:56.040 It seems to me that you're right now, your purpose is to seek and to search. And so that's what you're

00:46:02.300 doing and do that. Uh, and I think over time the picture will get clearer for you. So, all right.

00:46:09.040 Thanks for that. Thanks for that email. Uh, we will leave it there. Um, thanks for listening

00:46:13.400 everybody. Thanks for watching. Godspeed.

00:46:28.560 I'm Michael Knowles, host of the Michael Knowles show. Democrats kick off a major 2020 town hall by

00:46:33.960 endorsing voting rights for terrorists and rapists. We examine the novel electoral strategy.

00:46:39.040 Check it out at dailywire.com.

The Matt Walsh Show - April 23, 2019

Ep. 245 - The Insanity Of Student Loan Forgiveness

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