Point of View December 13, 2024 – Hour 1 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, Anderson.

[00:00:20] Thank you for joining me, it is the Friday Weekend Edition, if you would like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212, but I think most of you will probably just sit back and listen to the roundtable conversation we'll have.

[00:00:32] First of all with Jeff Mateer, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Counsel for First Liberty, as well as Dr. Merrill Matthews, and we're going to get into all sorts of issues.

[00:00:40] The way in which some people have responded to the assassination that took place of the UnitedHealthcare CEO and the actions that were taken subsequently.

[00:00:50] We're going to be talking about the new individual that is going to be placed by Donald Trump and NIH, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and we'll also talk about maybe how to lower some drug prices, whether or not the Harris campaign is still in denial.

[00:01:03] Carl Rove says that's the case. And a little bit later, next hour, we'll be joined by our good friend Robert Knight about what is called the transgender delusion.

[00:01:13] And we certainly will get some good conversation around the table, but also join with him. But I thought we'd start out as we always do with religious liberty.

[00:01:21] And Jeff, yesterday I announced that we would be talking about Georgia State.

[00:01:26] Now, you've got to understand, we have a good number of people that are in the state of Georgia, some of whom have graduated from Georgia State.

[00:01:32] And I think I created a little bit of controversy by saying there seems to be an attack on religious liberty at this institution of Georgia State.

[00:01:40] Yeah, no, and it's surprising because you think it would be somewhere in California or New York or Massachusetts.

[00:01:48] But this is Georgia, and there's an evangelist who, as part of his ministry, likes to engage in conversations with college students.

[00:01:59] And in this particular situation, he's been doing that at Georgia State.

[00:02:05] Now, colleges, what they have done for – and I really think it would be interesting if you were engaged in conversation about, like, maybe being pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel.

[00:02:18] What do college administrators do with him then?

[00:02:22] But a lot of colleges have decided, especially with regard to religious speech and, as it turns out in this case, Christian religious speech, is you can go have it in a place on our campus, but don't go outside that box.

[00:02:39] Yeah.

[00:02:39] It's this concept known as free speech zones.

[00:02:43] Because we know when we read the First Amendment that you have free speech only in free speech zones.

[00:02:51] Apparently, that's the living Constitution version instead of the actual text of the Constitution.

[00:02:58] But Georgia State has a free speech zone, which our client had been engaging in it and was engaging with students.

[00:03:06] And it started to rain.

[00:03:09] And he was having – he was invited by one of the students.

[00:03:12] He was engaging to, hey, let's get out of the rain.

[00:03:16] Let's go outside the cafe.

[00:03:20] And so they sat down.

[00:03:23] And the – I mean, it's just, again, it's stranger than fiction because they call – the university police shows up with one of the university officials.

[00:03:33] And because he's actually responding to questions about the Bible, about faith.

[00:03:41] And it's not unwanted.

[00:03:43] It's a student who wants to engage, but apparently somebody overheard.

[00:03:48] And, you know, now we live in this society that, oh, gosh, I hear something I don't like.

[00:03:53] And, therefore, I'm offended, even though it's not directed to you.

[00:03:59] And, you know, you call the cops literally on someone engaged in speech.

[00:04:04] We're hopeful.

[00:04:06] We've had since – even recently.

[00:04:09] We've had some good discussions with the university.

[00:04:11] So I do want to state that, that we're very encouraged by those initial discussions.

[00:04:17] And so we're hoping – they're saying it was a misunderstanding.

[00:04:21] That's absurd.

[00:04:22] We've had – I know you had Keisha on, I think, last week.

[00:04:26] And Keisha has a case in New York that you probably – I don't know if you talked about it.

[00:04:30] No, in the start about that we did.

[00:04:31] Did you talk about it?

[00:04:32] We did.

[00:04:32] And about the Bible Club is fixed, right?

[00:04:34] Right.

[00:04:34] And, again, it was, you know, unbeknownst to our client, we didn't know there was a misunderstanding until we let them know, hey, what you're doing violates the Constitution just unlike Georgia State.

[00:04:47] And so same thing happened in Waterville.

[00:04:50] I believe it's Waterville or Waterview.

[00:04:52] I get them confused.

[00:04:54] But where the school district says, oh, no, you just misunderstood.

[00:04:58] No, we understood what you said.

[00:05:00] It's just you're looking for a way out.

[00:05:02] Now, they misunderstood up there so much that they've terminated the vice principal who made the unconstitutional decision.

[00:05:10] So probably really didn't – really misunderstand.

[00:05:12] I hope that doesn't happen at Georgia State.

[00:05:15] I hope that it was just a misunderstanding or maybe this employee didn't realize, you know, they missed the class on the Constitution in the First Amendment.

[00:05:24] But hopefully now our client will be able to share the gospel.

[00:05:30] Do you have this – you mentioned this is these free speech zones are occurring in various – do you have a sense as to how widespread this is?

[00:05:38] It's – unfortunately, it's pretty widespread.

[00:05:40] Yeah.

[00:05:40] Even schools in Texas have them.

[00:05:43] Yes.

[00:05:43] Our positions are unconstitutional.

[00:05:45] We have another case – now, this isn't a school because cities now are adopting this.

[00:05:51] And so outside, for instance, in Mississippi, we have a case that an evangelist wants to share outside an amphitheater.

[00:05:59] And they've said, oh, no, no, you can't be near the amphitheater.

[00:06:02] You've got to be down the road.

[00:06:03] Your free speech zone is away from all the people attending the event that's on public property.

[00:06:09] But we're going to put you down the road.

[00:06:11] And so if someone wants to – and we think that's unconstitutional.

[00:06:13] Is this sort of based upon the notion that sometimes when protesters want to come to protest a certain event, they say, well, we have to secure the safety.

[00:06:22] So here's a zone for you to protest that's not too far away from the place.

[00:06:27] It's an overreaction too because we don't support protesters being disruptive to threatening safety.

[00:06:35] I mean we saw that on college campuses.

[00:06:37] And even those college campuses – I mean they just let them run amok.

[00:06:41] We're not arguing for that in any case.

[00:06:44] You can't be disruptive.

[00:06:46] But you – and take the case of Georgia State.

[00:06:49] This is just a young man sitting down with another person sharing the gospel.

[00:06:54] There's no disruption.

[00:06:55] There's no threats to safety.

[00:06:56] But, you know, Kirby, when you and I were in colleges, I think you could talk about anything almost anywhere and often did.

[00:07:02] Well, and I was just thinking about that.

[00:07:04] I've done a couple of those free speech platforms.

[00:07:07] Remember the one at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one also at the University of Colorado.

[00:07:13] Some of those are – I mean I was born in Berkeley and it sort of felt like home, you know.

[00:07:18] And, of course, you have people like Cliff Connectly.

[00:07:21] And, of course, you have – I might also mention we're going to have Ray Comfort in a couple weeks on the program and some of what he's done.

[00:07:27] Ben Shapiro and all the rest.

[00:07:28] And it's funny because they have the campus security show up there a couple times, especially at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

[00:07:35] Where was the campus security?

[00:07:37] Because it got really pretty hostile out there when you start talking about Jesus out there on a free speech platform.

[00:07:44] And so then to have people upset because kids were asking specific questions, and that is certainly the case.

[00:07:51] No, it's just – and again, we're hopeful.

[00:07:53] And so for our Georgia listeners, the good news is we – and I'd say, look, encourage the Georgia State to do the right thing.

[00:08:01] Our initial conversations are such that we believe they are going to do the right thing.

[00:08:06] But they need to be told that this is not acceptable.

[00:08:09] Yes.

[00:08:10] One other thing I just – you mentioned in passing last week we had Keisha talking about the fact they said you can't have a Bible club.

[00:08:16] And now they said, yes, you do have a Bible.

[00:08:18] It was a misunderstanding.

[00:08:19] Misunderstanding.

[00:08:19] One more victory for free to liberty.

[00:08:21] No, man.

[00:08:22] Actually, yes.

[00:08:23] So, again, in case you were keeping track, that's one more victory on the plus side for First Liberty out of New York.

[00:08:30] When we come back, though, I want to get your thoughts.

[00:08:31] Of course, we now have a pretty good idea who the assassin is of Brian Thompson, United Healthcare CEO.

[00:08:39] What I want to talk about is some of the really bizarre responses, inappropriate responses.

[00:08:46] We'll talk about that right after this.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:04] Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institute of Health.

[00:09:09] If you're not familiar with him, he's a Stanford University professor of medicine and health research policy.

[00:09:15] Alicia Finley calls this the revenge of the COVID lockdown skeptics.

[00:09:19] During the pandemic and lockdowns, Dr. Bhattacharya attempted to inject some common sense into the government's policies.

[00:09:26] The head of the NIH during that period was Dr. Francis Collins, who referred to the professor as a fringe scientist.

[00:09:32] Dr. Bhattacharya, along with scientists from Harvard and Oxford, put together what came to be known as the Great Barrington Declaration.

[00:09:40] The tens of thousands of scientists expressed their grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies.

[00:09:50] Once it was published, Francis Collins urged a quick and devastating takedown of its premises in an email to Anthony Fauci.

[00:09:58] In a Washington Post interview, Dr. Collins denounced the declaration as a fringe component of epidemiology and further said it was not mainstream science.

[00:10:06] Of course, we now know who was wrong.

[00:10:09] The lockdowns devastated the economy and stunted school children learning for a generation.

[00:10:14] And social media was all too willing to censor any medical view that contradicted the government's mantra.

[00:10:21] Twitter blacklisted the professor.

[00:10:23] Why didn't others speak up?

[00:10:25] Unfortunately, there was financial incentive to agree with rather than contradict Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci.

[00:10:31] It is all too fitting that Donald Trump wants to put Dr. Bhattacharya in charge of the NIH.

[00:10:37] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet, A Biblical View on Loneliness, go to viewpoints.info slash loneliness.

[00:10:53] That's viewpoints.info slash loneliness.

[00:10:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:11:04] Back once again.

[00:11:05] Let's see if we can encourage you, if you would like to read some of these articles or make a phone call, feel free to do so.

[00:11:11] But, again, we have in studio with us today Jeff Mateer and Merrill Matthews.

[00:11:15] And I thought, Dr. Matthews, I might come to you for just a minute because, obviously, we're going to be talking about some of these health care issues in just a minute.

[00:11:23] And, of course, we know there are a lot of people that are frustrated about health care.

[00:11:27] But, of course, you would assume that everybody would say, but one response is not to assassinate the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on the street.

[00:11:38] Yet that seems to be, first of all, it seems to be the very stated comment by some people on social media.

[00:11:44] But it also seems to be the sort of inside of the kind of beltway kind of mindset that says, well, we can certainly understand their concerns.

[00:11:54] And so I've posted a piece here, how to respond to assassination, how never to.

[00:11:59] Another one by Charles Cook said, you know, Elizabeth Warren was doing okay until she got to the word but, you know.

[00:12:05] But I understand.

[00:12:07] No, there's no but in that.

[00:12:08] And so what about this?

[00:12:10] There's frustration, you know, is out there.

[00:12:12] You've been speaking on the subject of Obamacare, Affordable Care Act for years.

[00:12:16] People have been frustrated with all sorts of issues in the health care system.

[00:12:20] But the response that we've seen from some notable individuals is very troubling.

[00:12:25] It is troubling.

[00:12:26] And just so everybody understands, the health care system that we have, the health insurance system, is Obamacare.

[00:12:31] This is the one Democrats gave us who said it was going to be much more affordable.

[00:12:36] There's going to be all kinds of choices out there.

[00:12:40] Insurers wouldn't be denying people or denying procedures and so forth.

[00:12:44] That's Obamacare.

[00:12:45] It's been in effect for 10 years now.

[00:12:47] Passed in 2010 but didn't really go into effect in 2014.

[00:12:50] But the big issue is our health care system generally is a dysfunctional system.

[00:12:55] It has been for some time.

[00:12:56] And the reason is that we, most people get health insurance through either the government or through the employer, vast majority of people.

[00:13:03] So the employer is paying the health insurance premium.

[00:13:07] So the doctor has to ask the question, am I working for the employer who's paying me, covering the insurance, or am I working for my patient?

[00:13:15] And it's not always entirely clear because sometimes employers say we aren't going to cover these various things.

[00:13:21] In addition, and I will say this about for all the people who say the insurance companies are out there denying things and denying us care.

[00:13:31] I've been in this for a while.

[00:13:33] Many times the insurers get bizarre things they want people, doctors will ask.

[00:13:38] I've seen one where a doctor prescribes a playground set, a swing set for kids so that they would be able to get out and swing and be healthier.

[00:13:48] Prescription insurance is not going to pay for a swing set.

[00:13:52] I've seen them prescribe all kinds of supplements which are over the counter and not covered by the insurance.

[00:13:58] People get upset when they aren't covering that.

[00:14:00] And sometimes doctors, in order to be able to just make sure they've covered all their bases so they're not litigated and taken to court for malpractice, may require more tests and other things than we really need just to be sure.

[00:14:17] And then sometimes insurance says you don't need to do an extra one on this.

[00:14:22] So sometimes insurers deny things I would argue inappropriately but sometimes appropriately.

[00:14:27] But it's a mess in the way the system works and we'd like to be able to get it straightened out but Obamacare made it worse.

[00:14:34] And again, the reactions I might get you, Jeff, to speak to here, we have on this piece here John Fetterman who is, of course, a representative from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

[00:14:46] I can't even use all the words he uses there but you can read him for yourself.

[00:14:49] Yeah, you can't read Senator Fetterman's tweet.

[00:14:52] Yeah, but Senator, again, when we get into some of this, Elizabeth Warren, you would hope that you would get better statements from individuals.

[00:15:03] And whenever you say, well, we shouldn't ever justify assassinating somebody on the street.

[00:15:09] But, and as soon as you get to the word but, that looks like the word justification, doesn't it?

[00:15:13] No, it always does.

[00:15:14] I mean, if we've all taught, I mean, you know, when we're speaking with our wives, if you apologize and then you say the word but, I'm sorry, but it's your fault.

[00:15:26] No, that doesn't work.

[00:15:28] Yes.

[00:15:28] That does not work.

[00:15:30] Now, what's interesting, I mean, and this piece points out, I mean, can we say evolution of John Fetterman?

[00:15:35] Or maybe this has always been John Fetterman, obviously had the stroke and at times we were questioning whether he should even be serving because of the stroke.

[00:15:43] And, you know, is he the new Joe Manchin for the Republican Party?

[00:15:47] Is he going to be the Democrat who is a little more a rebel and independent and will side with Republicans?

[00:15:54] But, you know, this article talks about that, but he's just speaking common sense.

[00:15:58] I think the author here says he's the Democrat willing to speak truth.

[00:16:02] Which, then you're wondering, what about the other Democrats that are not willing?

[00:16:07] There's only one.

[00:16:08] Yeah.

[00:16:09] But, you know, it's interesting because most of the people who are sort of praising this effort are people who would like to have a government-run health care system.

[00:16:17] Yeah, that's the, yeah.

[00:16:18] Let me be very clear.

[00:16:19] Government-run health care systems deny care.

[00:16:22] Yes.

[00:16:23] They also postpone care.

[00:16:25] You can go to England at times and you can find people on gurneys out in the halls because there's not enough room because the government,

[00:16:32] government is the one that covers the bills and there's never enough money to go around to cover everything.

[00:16:37] The government has to help money for health care, has to compete with money for defense, social security, welfare, and other things.

[00:16:44] There's never enough money to go around.

[00:16:46] And so there's always people who either get denied care, get substandard care, or they have to wait long periods of time before they can get in.

[00:16:54] Going to government-run health care does not solve that problem.

[00:16:58] Yes.

[00:16:58] And I thought that was a very important point.

[00:17:01] If people aren't paying attention, certainly Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and AOC and all them want a government-run health care system.

[00:17:12] And they're the ones that sort of say, yeah, well, I can understand why people are so upset.

[00:17:15] Well, if you think that right now the current system that we have is bad, you don't want to go to one that in many cases I think would be worse.

[00:17:24] And yet that's what they seem to be saying.

[00:17:26] Well, we can at least understand why so many people are frustrated.

[00:17:29] Well, it's going to get worse if you go to a government-run program.

[00:17:32] There was a few years back there was a lady in Canada which has a government-run health care system.

[00:17:38] And in their system, you have to go through your primary care doctor to be able to go to a specialist.

[00:17:44] Her primary care doctor moved.

[00:17:46] And so she didn't have one because all the other primary care doctors had full caseloads.

[00:17:51] It took her two years to find to get to a primary care doctor.

[00:17:55] She had cancer.

[00:17:56] And so at that point, she's finally able to go to a specialist, but she had to wait some time to get to a specialist.

[00:18:02] By the time she gets to a specialist, the cancer has gone so far that they're going to have – she's in a late-stage cancer.

[00:18:10] She will never be able to have children.

[00:18:11] And she's doing a YouTube thing crying saying, if they had gotten me in early, this could have been treated.

[00:18:18] Now I'm 31 or 2.

[00:18:19] I'll never be able to have children.

[00:18:21] And she talks about all the problems that she had because of the government-run health care system.

[00:18:25] That Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will often point to the Canadian system as the one we ought to be modeling.

[00:18:33] So, again, you can see the frustration, but that's, first of all, not the answer.

[00:18:38] First of all, it's not an answer to kill somebody on the streets.

[00:18:40] And it's just amazing at a time when we need more civility, this has been just surfacing all sorts of anger and the rest.

[00:18:47] And number two, you don't want to go to that system.

[00:18:49] But just before we take a break, we have an action alert.

[00:18:52] And that is one that I think makes a great deal of sense.

[00:18:56] This time next week, the government runs out of money.

[00:18:58] And so this is how to avoid a government shutdown.

[00:19:01] Of course, I want to hear Jeff in just a minute because he sometimes says, I'm ready to shut it down.

[00:19:05] But the bottom line is we suggest that there would be a way in which you could contact your two senators right now and maybe ask them to do two things.

[00:19:13] First of all, prevent a shutdown, and that probably won't happen until the 11th hour.

[00:19:18] But number two, actually pass a budget.

[00:19:20] You know, I'm thinking, Jeff, that at First Liberty, you have to actually pass a budget.

[00:19:25] And you worked in the state of Texas, and they have to pass a balanced budget.

[00:19:30] Balanced budget.

[00:19:30] And, I mean, we still don't have a budget.

[00:19:33] So it seems to me that, yeah, they'll probably come up with some 11th hour way to keep the funding of the government into 2025.

[00:19:40] But at the moment, it runs out of funds on December 20th, next Friday.

[00:19:45] Yeah, and what you can expect is another continuing resolution, which just means they just continue spending money that we don't have.

[00:19:52] You know, again, and you probably, it's not going to surprise you.

[00:19:54] But what about an experiment?

[00:19:56] Let's just shut down the federal government between now until the new Congress.

[00:20:01] And let's see what happens.

[00:20:03] Let's see what happens.

[00:20:04] And obviously, I'm not doing the military would be taking care of in essential services because the word essential for the federal government is a lot broader than what I would say is essential.

[00:20:13] But even that, I'll take that for now.

[00:20:15] Let's just shut down everything but essential services and see what we miss.

[00:20:21] Because then we can get ready for Vivek and Elon coming in, and that will help them determine what really does need to go.

[00:20:30] Well, you know, we have had these government shutdowns in the past, and Congress always comes back and actually restores the pay that the people missed on those two, three weeks, four weeks, or whatever they were out.

[00:20:43] But again, I didn't save us any money.

[00:20:44] But I thought this would be just a great opportunity.

[00:20:46] A lot of individuals are complaining about the fact that it seems like about every hundred days we add another trillion dollars to the national debt and all of that.

[00:20:55] This would be a great time for you to contact your two U.S. senators about that.

[00:20:59] We've made it very easy.

[00:21:00] And again, since we have another one of those looming deadlines and government shutdown, that is the case.

[00:21:06] A little bit later, I might even get back to that idea of the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, whether you like it or not.

[00:21:14] Dr. Merrill Matthews talks about some of the people he's met in the bureaucracy.

[00:21:18] He says, yeah, Bob over there, he hasn't been in that desk for, I don't know, we haven't seen him in a long, long time.

[00:21:23] And I've got a feeling Elon Musk is going to give him his pink slip.

[00:21:27] But we'll come back and talk about that right after this.

[00:21:30] The Bible tells us not to worry.

[00:21:34] And yet, there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today.

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[00:21:43] God gives us a next step.

[00:21:46] He says we need to pray.

[00:21:48] But sometimes, even knowing what to pray can be difficult.

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[00:23:02] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:10] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:13] Back once again.

[00:23:14] It is our weekend edition.

[00:23:15] And we are privileged to have with us in studio today, Dr. Merrill Matthews, Jeff Materer.

[00:23:20] A little bit later, Robert Knight will be with us.

[00:23:22] But I think I started something when we talked about this idea of shutting down the government.

[00:23:27] And that is, of course, we have this Department of Government Efficiency, which is going to try to reduce the size and scope of government.

[00:23:34] And, Jeff Materer, let me come to you for just a minute because you had something that came from the Speaker of the House.

[00:23:39] And when I heard that statistic, I thought, we've got to share that with the listeners.

[00:23:43] Yeah.

[00:23:44] The speaker recently, a couple of weeks ago, cited a statistic that by one estimate, it may be only 1% of federal employees are going into the office working 40 hours a week.

[00:23:56] Whoa.

[00:23:57] Excluding security personnel in the building.

[00:23:59] So.

[00:24:01] What?

[00:24:01] Yeah.

[00:24:02] And, I mean, and to say, I mean, that's I mean, that's a crazy number.

[00:24:05] Right.

[00:24:06] And then there's a Senator Ernst did a study recently that was released and it was 6%.

[00:24:10] So we're still talking.

[00:24:12] I mean, less than 10% of federal employees actually go into the office and work.

[00:24:20] And so, you know, my is again, I think I proposed this, you know, before is, OK, just they don't want to come to the office.

[00:24:28] Great.

[00:24:28] Let's see.

[00:24:29] Let's see if we can do it without them.

[00:24:31] And reduce their.

[00:24:32] So I hope that Elon and Vivek, when they when they start doge and looking at it, that'd be the first thing.

[00:24:39] There are probably a lot of nervous federal employees right now.

[00:24:43] Oh, I've heard that.

[00:24:44] A lot of.

[00:24:45] Yeah.

[00:24:45] Dr. Merrill Matthews, I set you up because you've told many a story of just going into some of these bureaucracies.

[00:24:50] And they aren't even sure who some of their employees, fellow employees are.

[00:24:54] Oftentimes don't know who it is.

[00:24:55] And there's a standard thing.

[00:24:56] But I actually did have a friend who worked at the Department of Commerce.

[00:24:59] And I asked him one time.

[00:25:00] He's a Ph.D.

[00:25:01] Economist.

[00:25:01] How many people he thought they could eliminate and not have not actually create any problems.

[00:25:07] He said half.

[00:25:09] 50 percent.

[00:25:09] And I've heard that from other people as well.

[00:25:12] But it's people oftentimes don't go in some of these huge bureaucracies.

[00:25:17] And if they go in, they're sometimes doing union work and sometimes not doing their work.

[00:25:23] And then, of course, we had the person that the Security Exchange Commission, as I remember some years back, who spent his day looking at pornography.

[00:25:31] And they finally caught him.

[00:25:33] And I don't think he was fired.

[00:25:34] I think he was warned.

[00:25:36] But I don't think he was fired.

[00:25:37] Yeah.

[00:25:38] And I have a friend who worked in the last administration.

[00:25:40] So I'm going to I'm going to protect him.

[00:25:43] But I'm not going to name his agency.

[00:25:45] But he served as general counsel and he was very frustrated because he couldn't get employees to work more than four hours a day.

[00:25:54] He just he, you know, tried.

[00:25:56] And apparently was eventually it was just it was the bureaucracy was so strong that that they you just they no one was expected to work more than four hours a day.

[00:26:06] Now, I think they were actually going in.

[00:26:08] So now, you know, who knows how many hours?

[00:26:11] The flip side of this is staffers who work for members of Congress oftentimes put in 12, 13, 14 hours a day.

[00:26:17] Yeah, you can call.

[00:26:18] I used to that's where they used to want to call.

[00:26:21] I would wait till seven or eight o'clock at night because I know I'd get them then because they'd be in the office and they weren't on the phone.

[00:26:26] But some of those are put in long hours, usually for low pay if they're working for congressional staff, fairly low pay.

[00:26:33] But it's it's some of it can be very, very hard, difficult and demanding.

[00:26:38] But others in the bureaucracies just out there in the various agencies may not put in much at all.

[00:26:43] I want to get your thoughts about this, because you have been around for a while.

[00:26:47] And remember, when Representative Dick Armey came up with what was called the base realignment and closure process.

[00:26:54] And that's where they identify if you try to close down any one base, the problem is, well, then the congressman is going to try to defend that.

[00:27:03] So the idea is we're going to have an independent group create a list and you have to then give an up or down vote on all of those.

[00:27:09] Right. And it seems to me that that might be the way.

[00:27:12] OK, here are the agencies where we're going to cut their funding and you have to give an up or down vote.

[00:27:17] And that, I think, was something that worked very effectively in the past and actually for the first time closed down some of those bases,

[00:27:25] one of which was still trying to defend us from the British, Port McHenry, since the War of 1812.

[00:27:33] I think it's about time to close that one down.

[00:27:35] There are. And of course, the administration has made some suggestions that there are several agencies they do want to close down,

[00:27:41] like the Department of Education, perhaps the Department of Energy, because it primarily deals with nuclear energy and where to put the waste and so forth.

[00:27:50] And that can be transferred over.

[00:27:52] There's several departments that could essentially agencies that could essentially be eliminated,

[00:27:57] transfer some responsibilities over to other people and let let those other people go and find meaningful for full time employment elsewhere.

[00:28:07] So, again, some are going to end it.

[00:28:09] Others, we need to mend it. And that brings me to your piece.

[00:28:12] Interesting enough, my commentary and the piece we're talking about, we're both talking about a man by the name of Dr. J. Bhattacharya,

[00:28:18] who is a very distinguished Stanford scientist who was referred to as a fringe scientist who was deplatformed and all the rest.

[00:28:29] So tell us about that, because he has now been tapped to run the NIH.

[00:28:33] And I think there's a place where we're still going to have to have some things like the CDC and the NIH and things like that.

[00:28:40] So maybe we won't end it, but we certainly can mend it, can't we?

[00:28:43] Right. So what happened is we were moving into the pandemic and the governments began, the states began locking down things.

[00:28:50] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started putting out various kinds of guidance for masks and other things.

[00:28:57] And then the National Institutes of Health, which Dr. Fauci worked, headed an agency under the NIH.

[00:29:05] Right.

[00:29:06] And so these various kinds of dictates started coming down with really self-assured people who said, if you don't do this, you're crazy.

[00:29:14] And that got Dr. Bhattacharya and two others to write what was called the Great Barrington Declaration.

[00:29:22] Dr. Martin Koldorf at Harvard and then Dr. Sinatra Gupta at Oxford University.

[00:29:30] And the Great Barrington Declaration said, we think you ought to be looking at what we call focused care, focused attention.

[00:29:38] And that is identify those people who are most at risk at catching and perhaps being severely damaged by the virus.

[00:29:46] Make sure they're staying at home or separating and so forth.

[00:29:50] But let other people, younger people, middle-aged people, other people take precautions but go about living their lives so that they can build up natural immunity because that's what our systems do.

[00:29:59] Our immune system builds up certain natural immunities over time so that we're largely protected or at least protected from death from an awful lot of these pathogens that are out there.

[00:30:10] And he was considered, as you said, a fringe scientist.

[00:30:13] He was derided.

[00:30:14] He says in an interview that he had with the Wall Street Journal that his colleagues, he's at Stanford University.

[00:30:21] He was investigated.

[00:30:23] He was put on trial and incessance.

[00:30:25] He had colleagues who had known him for a long time that when they were coming down the street, they would cross the road so they didn't have to speak to him.

[00:30:31] And it turns out that the Great Barrington Declaration was largely confirmed.

[00:30:36] I mean, it's largely got it right.

[00:30:38] 940,000 people have signed on to the Great Barrington Declaration now.

[00:30:44] And so President Trump, President-elect Trump, has named him to be head of the National Institutes of Health.

[00:30:51] And I call that the right kind of revenge.

[00:30:53] Take somebody who was basically right but ostracized by the establishment and put him in charge of reforming the establishment.

[00:31:02] So, again, he was recommending the same kind of thing that would have prevented the problem you've had with the Navy SEALs.

[00:31:08] Can you speak to that?

[00:31:08] Yeah, no, exactly.

[00:31:10] And we're hopeful that there are more appointments like this across so you don't have these social engineering crazy policies that we've seen,

[00:31:23] you know, that we fought against, including the SEALs and DOD.

[00:31:27] So we're hoping that – and I love thinking about revenge because, in a way, this is – I mean, by putting in good personnel into positions of influence,

[00:31:39] then we won't have any of these crazy things.

[00:31:43] I mean, we've got – one of the things that we've identified is we've got four or five cases where we're against the federal government right now that are active.

[00:31:50] And we really think a different administration, just rationally looking at it, the cases should go away or our clients should win.

[00:32:01] So, I mean, there is no Navy SEALs case in a Donald Trump administration with a good DOD.

[00:32:08] And, you know, I think the – Dr. Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control could have saved itself a lot of grief if they just stepped out and said,

[00:32:15] this is a novel coronavirus, so we're just trying to – we're trying to learn from this.

[00:32:21] Our best thinking right now is this, but we may change later.

[00:32:25] They did change later.

[00:32:26] And then as you change or you develop and you learn more about it, then you might come back and say,

[00:32:30] okay, we thought that.

[00:32:31] We don't think that's the case now.

[00:32:32] We think this other thing, whether it's separation, six feet, mask, and other things.

[00:32:37] Oh, they're going to be honest and be truthful?

[00:32:39] They just didn't do it.

[00:32:41] They came out.

[00:32:42] They doubled down.

[00:32:43] Even though they knew it was wrong.

[00:32:45] Even though they knew it was wrong.

[00:32:47] Yeah.

[00:32:47] And, again, you just think about that because you talk about the fact that it devastated the economy right there.

[00:32:53] It has stunted school children's learning for a generation.

[00:32:56] I mean, I am seeing a difference just as speaking – the other day I was speaking to a bunch of college graduates,

[00:33:02] and I was saying, what's wrong?

[00:33:03] He said, well, you've got to recognize they were in middle school or heading off to college about the time,

[00:33:08] either in high school or college, when the pandemic took place.

[00:33:11] And I said, they are so different than even the ones I talked to a year or two ago.

[00:33:16] And my son teaches ninth grade.

[00:33:18] He'll say that.

[00:33:19] I mean, the kids who were then elementary, middle school, now coming and he teaches ninth grade algebra have no –

[00:33:24] I mean, the skills are not there.

[00:33:26] They're lost years.

[00:33:27] Yes.

[00:33:27] So, again, we kind of found out who was right, and it's people like Dr. Jay Buttigieg.

[00:33:32] And probably the best revenge is put the right people in the right position.

[00:33:36] And maybe common sense is coming back once again.

[00:33:39] We'll take a break.

[00:33:40] We have a lot more to cover right after this.

[00:33:55] We are about to have our first openly transgender member of Congress.

[00:33:59] Democrat Sarah McBride won Delaware's lone House seat and will be sworn in this January.

[00:34:04] Since Representative-elect McBride is a trans woman, a biological male,

[00:34:08] there's a bit of uncertainty regarding restrooms and other women's spaces.

[00:34:12] Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced a couple of measures aimed at protecting women

[00:34:18] and the spaces designated specifically for their use, i.e. restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms.

[00:34:24] One measure would prevent transgender women from using women's facilities on the House side of the U.S. Capitol.

[00:34:30] The other would extend that ban to all federal property.

[00:34:33] Representative Mace says,

[00:34:34] As a victim of abuse, I'm absolutely 100% going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women's restroom.

[00:34:41] Speaker Mike Johnson has not committed to a vote on either measure,

[00:34:45] but stated that single-sex facilities are reserved for individuals of that biological sex.

[00:34:51] Representative McBride pledged to abide by those rules, quote,

[00:34:54] Even if I disagree.

[00:34:56] Still, over time, compliance will suffer.

[00:34:58] Chris Enloe, writer for The Blaze, says Nancy Mace should be commended for fighting back against the encroachment of transgenderism.

[00:35:05] But on social media, she touts her support for same-sex marriage, stating,

[00:35:09] I voted for gay marriage twice, in fact, and would do it again.

[00:35:13] The Blaze's Chris Enloe points to the dissonance between these two positions.

[00:35:17] He says,

[00:35:28] It's right there in Matthew 19, 4.

[00:35:30] God's design for marriage is based upon the way He created us, male and female.

[00:35:36] But society has elevated personal feelings and discarded sex differences as a requirement for marriage.

[00:35:42] We're here, says Chris Enloe, because of those who tried to erase biological realities when it was convenient.

[00:35:48] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter.

[00:35:55] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:36:00] Weekend edition.

[00:36:02] And again, I think you are going to certainly appreciate some of the conversation we're going to have next hour,

[00:36:06] because we'll also have with us, continuing, of course, Dr. Merrill Matthews and Jeff Mateer,

[00:36:10] but we'll also have Robert Knight joining us, because we've also posted his piece on transgender delusion.

[00:36:16] We're going to get his thoughts about some of the transgender issues.

[00:36:19] I know Jeff Mateer wants to talk about the oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

[00:36:24] I know Dr. Merrill Matthews has some thoughts about that as well.

[00:36:27] And so those are some other things to be looking forward to next hour.

[00:36:31] Also have a very good piece by Karl Rove about the Harris campaign is still in delusion and still in denial.

[00:36:38] So I've got to talk about that in that last half hour.

[00:36:41] If we have time, we'll get to the one by Steve Gruber.

[00:36:43] The unfriendly skies, all these drones and everything.

[00:36:46] There is so much to talk about.

[00:36:48] And last week, Dr. Matthews, it was funny because you have been around for a while.

[00:36:52] Penna Dexter and I talked about that usually in December, back in the old studios in the old days,

[00:36:58] sometimes December was pretty quiet.

[00:36:59] You know, Congress was on recess.

[00:37:01] Supreme Court wasn't issuing any statements.

[00:37:03] And we were talking about doing the point of view home and garden show because there just wasn't much happening.

[00:37:08] And it just seems like there is so much happening right now.

[00:37:12] And so we'll get into some of that as well.

[00:37:14] But one of the other articles was by you as well.

[00:37:17] And that is the idea of lowering drug prices.

[00:37:20] We've been talking about, OK, we've got some problems with our health care system.

[00:37:24] And I guarantee you there are some listeners right now that are saying, OK, smart guys,

[00:37:29] what are we going to do to see if we can lower drug prices?

[00:37:31] There is an answer.

[00:37:32] Well, there is an answer.

[00:37:34] I don't think it's going to be what was in the Inflation Reduction Act where they're trying to impose price controls.

[00:37:39] We'll see if Republicans are able to make a change on that.

[00:37:42] But one of the things that was passed in the 90s is what's called the 340B program.

[00:37:47] And what that was was that that was and drug companies did this beforehand.

[00:37:51] They made a law to sort of establish this.

[00:37:55] But drug companies gave to nonprofit hospitals discounted, deeply discounted drugs so that they could give them to give them or sell them to low income,

[00:38:07] uninsured patients.

[00:38:08] We didn't have Obamacare back then when it first started to give them a break on the price.

[00:38:15] So there's a way to try to make sure that low income people could get drugs that they needed through the hospital and get them at a much cheaper price.

[00:38:23] Well, the hospitals sort of saw this as they began saying, well, we can actually bump up the price a little bit on this.

[00:38:30] And they bumped it up more and more.

[00:38:32] And then in addition, a lot of pharmacies have connections to hospitals now.

[00:38:36] So they've been getting the discounted prices but selling it at a higher price.

[00:38:40] So essentially what's happened in the 340B program is a program meant to help low income people.

[00:38:46] You have other people who become middlemen in here making most of the profit and not actually passing the discounts on.

[00:38:53] So the drug companies themselves are trying to get this changed and get back.

[00:38:58] And I suspect that's one of the things they'll look at.

[00:39:00] One of the things that the Republicans want to look at is, and this is bipartisan really, is the pharmacy benefit managers.

[00:39:06] Those are the middlemen in between where the drug companies make the drugs and the pharmacies that are actually out there.

[00:39:13] There's been a case made.

[00:39:15] I think it's probably justified that the third-party people, the middlemen, end up taking an increasing share of the discounts that are offered out there.

[00:39:24] And so the drug companies get hit for having high prices.

[00:39:28] But it turns out the drug company will say maybe lower the price by half through the pharmacy benefit manager.

[00:39:34] But the pharmacy benefit manager takes a good share of that and then passes it on to the pharmacy.

[00:39:40] So it's a very, very dysfunctional system now that needs to be some fundamental restructuring in the whole system.

[00:39:47] Well, again, you've worked with the Attorney General of the state of Texas,

[00:39:51] and there are times when we are concerned about people that are poor and need access to quality health care.

[00:39:57] And it does seem to me that whether it's a state legislature or Congress, everything from Medicare to Medicaid,

[00:40:03] some of these changes need to take place at the legislative level, don't you think?

[00:40:07] Yeah, no, I think what I certainly agree with is it's a broken system.

[00:40:11] And a lot of times that the incentives are reversed.

[00:40:14] And I think that's what legislatures – I know we actually – one of the things that we had actions against were a few of the benefit managers.

[00:40:23] And because, as Dr. Matthews said, I mean, it just – there's so much money involved.

[00:40:31] And then you've got a middleman who keeps taking more and more.

[00:40:34] What are they really doing?

[00:40:36] And what's the purpose?

[00:40:39] You know, generally I'm always for less regulation.

[00:40:44] It needs to be – to the extent it is, there needs to be targeted,

[00:40:47] and it needs to actually have positive outcomes, not negative outcomes, which is where we are now.

[00:40:53] So this is just a mess.

[00:40:55] I mean, it's just absolutely a mess.

[00:40:57] During the Thanksgiving break, I don't know if you've had her on, but Dr. Casey Means, do you know that name?

[00:41:02] I do know.

[00:41:03] Tucker has had her on.

[00:41:05] I've been thinking about it, yeah.

[00:41:06] And I think Dana Perrin – and so, I mean, she's – part of her book is about – it's a book called Good Energy.

[00:41:12] Part of it is about just personal, being more healthy.

[00:41:16] But it's also a book about just the messed up – how the pharmaceuticals companies are messed up, how doctors are messed up.

[00:41:25] I mean, look, she may.

[00:41:26] And she never studied nutrition in medical school.

[00:41:28] No, no, she was a surgeon.

[00:41:29] Yeah.

[00:41:30] And she tells her story, which is she was a surgeon.

[00:41:33] And, you know, what – the whole practice of medicine is backwards.

[00:41:37] I mean, we're not about preventive.

[00:41:39] We're about reacting.

[00:41:40] And the incentives for doctors are to prescribe, are to do more, bill more.

[00:41:47] And as you mentioned earlier today, I mean, they're running every test possible.

[00:41:51] It's – the objective is to extend life at all means, even when that's an unreasonable thing to do, to do whatever it takes.

[00:41:59] And so we just – we have a messed up – we have a messed up.

[00:42:03] So maybe RFK Jr. is going to fix it all.

[00:42:05] So just as one example here, under Medicaid – Medicaid is the federal state health insurance program for the poor.

[00:42:12] By law, the drug companies have to give the Medicaid programs, the state Medicaid programs, the lowest price on their drugs.

[00:42:19] That's by law.

[00:42:20] But the state said, well, how can we milk this system a little bit?

[00:42:25] So what they said to the pharmaceutical companies is, if you will give us some money, we will put you on a preferred list.

[00:42:32] There you go.

[00:42:32] So the drug companies then have to give the states some money to get them on the preferred list that Medicaid will pay for.

[00:42:39] But then if you're giving the money to the states, then are you having to ultimately sort of raise the price for this?

[00:42:46] And so it just – and if the drug company says, no, we're not going to give you money to be on the preferred list,

[00:42:52] then if you're a patient on Medicaid and this is the drug that works for you in a certain state,

[00:42:57] you may not be able to get it because they're not on the preferred list.

[00:43:01] Yeah.

[00:43:01] And the cash – I mean, so I've got a personal example.

[00:43:05] I'm insured with First Liberty, but if I went through my insurance for one of the – the only prescription I take,

[00:43:15] it is – it costs more to go through insurance than when I pay cash for the exact same drug.

[00:43:23] That's exactly right.

[00:43:24] In what world does that make sense?

[00:43:26] I have a prescription dental cream, just a fluoride that I use.

[00:43:30] And if I go through my insurance, it is $15 copay.

[00:43:34] If I pay – if I'm uninsured, it's $7.50.

[00:43:38] Yeah.

[00:43:38] So there you go.

[00:43:38] I've got to say mine is $30 for 90 days through the insurance, $21 without.

[00:43:45] Yeah.

[00:43:45] So again, we're going to fix this, but again, we're going to keep talking about this here on Point of View.

[00:43:50] But if you'd like to read your article on lower drug prices, we may even make that an action item.

[00:43:54] That will be the case.

[00:43:55] But the action item for today – and when we come back, we're going to talk about transgenderism for a while.

[00:43:59] But the action item that we have for today is that back in September, the United States Senate,

[00:44:05] in its inscrutable wisdom, said, well, let's extend this continuing resolution to December 20th, which is next Friday.

[00:44:12] And so next Friday, the government runs out of money.

[00:44:15] Yes.

[00:44:16] And so obviously, I think, first of all, we recognize we need Congress to obviously fund the government into 2025.

[00:44:23] But I saw this as another opportunity for you to also add to it.

[00:44:28] You know, it's really about time for you to pass a budget.

[00:44:31] After all, the House of Representatives sometimes has passed a budget.

[00:44:34] The Senate never has in recent memory.

[00:44:37] And so that seems to me that we're giving you an opportunity to contract your two members of Congress.

[00:44:41] And all you have to do is go to the website, pointofview.net.

[00:44:45] Middle column there says take action.

[00:44:47] Click on the button that says take action.

[00:44:49] Put in your zip code, which is really very simple.

[00:44:52] I'm doing that right now.

[00:44:53] And then we have a suggested letter.

[00:44:55] And you can change it all you want and then send it off and do your civic duty.

[00:45:00] I think you need to take the time to do that and let your members of Congress know that you're looking at the budget and concerned.

[00:45:07] We'll be right back.

[00:45:10] If you have ever wondered what kind of impact you have when you give to point of view, let me introduce you to Bill.

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[00:45:33] We have four generations in my family who have been taught these things, these truths.

[00:45:38] And the fifth generation we've just been blessed with, who I'm sure will be blessed by this ministry also.

[00:45:45] So I just appreciate the fact that it's solid, it's truthful, it's honest, and there's no changing God's word.

[00:45:52] And that is the kind of multi-generational impact you have when you support point of view.

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