Point of View July 1, 2024 – Hour 2 : Issues in the News

[00:00:00] Hour 3, 2024 Hour 4, 2024 Let's take the entire week off. So nevertheless, we will be here until Wednesday and then we will run a tape on Thursday, which is actually 4th of July and I do a special 4th of July piece.

[00:01:00] We also have a piece that we have done with an individual that you would know as well, Sean McDowell, and then we have, of course, a Friday opportunity as well. So I do want to get into some of the issues in the news because, in large part, we've

[00:01:17] had these legal challenges over the head of Donald Trump and we now have some very significant comments being made about Joe Biden. Most of what we're going to probably talk about this hour will be Joe Biden, but let's at least talk about Donald Trump for just a minute.

[00:01:35] The Supreme Court usually ends on the last day of June. They postponed their final decision until today and that was the decision about immunity. In a historic 6-3 ruling, the court actually argued that the president and former president do have some level of immunity from prosecution.

[00:01:58] They didn't completely resolve it. This is another good case of the Supreme Court deciding not to decide because they ultimately returned the case back to the trial court and thus that will take a while for a judge

[00:02:14] to provide a ruling on Jack Smith, who's the special counsel's indictment of Donald Trump. And I think it means probably that this would delay any possible trial that may or may not take place until after the election.

[00:02:32] So in some respects, it is one of those cases that will maybe be out there in the future but probably have little or no impact on the election. One that will have an impact, I suspect, is the, and I'm calling it a dismal or discouraging

[00:02:51] response or performance, whatever phrase you want to use, of Joe Biden. And so I wanted to kind of work through some of that, but I also wanted to open up the

[00:03:01] phones fairly early so if you have some comments, I'm sure you do, I'd like to hear from you. Again, that on-air number is 800-351-1212. 1-800-351-1212. We'll get to those in a minute.

[00:03:17] But the first article I've posted for you to read if you would want comes from Axios. It is oftentimes identified as sort of a left-of-center news operation and I wanted to do that because

[00:03:29] I think it's better for someone who is writing an article to actually write it who had sympathy for Joe Biden. And that is indeed the case. And the article is, top aides shielded Biden from staff but couldn't hide the debate.

[00:03:47] And so the writer Alex Thompson says, Joe Biden's close associates and aides have carefully shielded him from people inside and outside the White House since the beginning of his pregnancy, presidency, excuse me. Driving the news, the current and former White House aides are actually feeling whiplash

[00:04:07] because they're now questioning whether Joe Biden could actually fulfill a second term. One of those individuals quoted here is Chandler West. He was actually the deputy director of photography in the White House there.

[00:04:20] He says it's time for Joe to go and talks about some of this as well. He said the debate was not the first bad day. It's not going to be the last. The argument is he's been dealing with these issues for some time.

[00:04:36] Then they go on in this article to say that even the White House residential staff that are responsible for serving the first family in the mansion's living quarters of the White House have been kept at arm's length.

[00:04:52] One residence official said that Joe Biden has been so protective of the president and then Anthony, who is her top aide, Anthony Bernal, protects her that they wouldn't let us do anything for them.

[00:05:07] The separation between the Biden family and the residential staff was so big and so divided and they even said it's not supposed to be that way and it usually isn't even in the Trump White House where of course there might be some separation as well.

[00:05:24] They tell just one story about this that I think illustrates that. On a 4th of July 2021, President Biden hosted a party on the South Lawn. I recognize he'd only been a president for a couple of months in which he declared independence from the coronavirus pandemic.

[00:05:42] You might remember that. It was a hot day. He was out for a while and all of a sudden they rush him inside. He sits down, the door was shut abruptly so that the aides blocked even the White House

[00:05:55] butlers and residence staff from aiding the president because they didn't want anybody to see what was going on for fear that that might leak to the press. They suggested to the staffers that the president was just a little overheated but the episode

[00:06:09] left the residence staff feeling like his close aides were creating a barrier around him because they wanted to protect many of the residential staff of the White House from even knowing some of the problems the president has.

[00:06:26] And so I think we now know what we've been talking about for some time. If you'd like to join the conversation, phone call is coming in 1-800-351-1212. But it is a question to ask some of you.

[00:06:40] I imagine that most of you that listen to Point of View have heard us talk about how the president was showing signs of what looks like dementia. Now they're saying maybe even it's early onset Parkinson's, that he wasn't on his game, he's been shielded.

[00:06:55] But there are a number of people that I've seen interviews over the weekend who were absolutely shocked at the president's performance, knowing that they had done all they could to prepare him, may have even given him certain pharmaceutical enhancements and that was the best you could get.

[00:07:14] And if you were shocked, you might want to ask yourself a few questions. First of all, why were you shocked? Were you unaware of all the other material that was available, all the other videos that were available? Why were you shocked?

[00:07:30] Did you take seriously some of the comments being made by Morning Joe or by various staff people, maybe even by the White House Press Secretary, for example, and a variety of others or by Jill Biden or whatever.

[00:07:47] And then of course the questions that you might want to ask ultimately of the media. If you have been lying about this, what else might you be lying about? If you can't tell us the straight story and be transparent about the president's health,

[00:08:05] what else do we not know that you are hiding from us? And this I think is again a reasonable question to ask. So the question obviously on the table is, would it be possible to switch in midstream?

[00:08:21] Jill Biden says Joe isn't just the right person for the job, he's the only person for the job. The argument being made that we've gone through a presidential primary process, he has those delegates and if we're going to be running on trying to save democracy, we can't subvert

[00:08:40] democracy. Whereas there are many people out there who are saying it's time for Joe to go. What's your thoughts? 1-800-351-1212. We'll be right back. This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Is much of the transgender ideology backfiring? Consider this recent poll by Pew Research.

[00:09:11] Over the last seven years they've asked this question. Which statement comes closer to your views? A, whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by sex they were assigned at birth

[00:09:21] or B, someone could be a man or a woman even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Now I acknowledge that the question is a bit convoluted and even uses the term assigned at birth.

[00:09:32] Even so, the percentage of Americans who picked the first option, we are determined by sex assigned at birth, rose from 54% in 2017 to 65% today. Notice this increase from a majority to nearly two-thirds took place when Americans have been pummeled with lots of transgender propaganda.

[00:09:50] Byron York is the chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner. He reported that at last year's Transgender Day of Visibility, the White House released a list of 42 action and policy initiatives the Biden administration has taken to support transgender people.

[00:10:06] He also reminds us that the Biden White House has gone all out even at a time when doctors in Europe have expressed growing concern about the lasting damage caused by the irreversible medical treatments known in some circles as gender affirming care. I'm convinced that transgender ideology is backfiring.

[00:10:24] President Biden has put his full weight behind transgenderism and the mainstream media have spent many hours promoting transgenderism. Yet the American people are less likely to accept some of the tenets of transgender ideology than just a few years ago. I'm Kirby Anderson and that's my point of view.

[00:10:48] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Once again, if you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212.

[00:11:08] Second article is about Kamala Harris, which we'll get to in just a minute because that fits with one of the questions on the screen here. But let's take our first phone call in Texas. KCTA and John, thank you for joining us today.

[00:11:19] Hey, Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, praise the Lord, man. It's so good to hear you. And I'm glad I'm here. I love your program. And I just wanted to say that, you know how when we have faith in the Word of God, it never will return void.

[00:11:38] And we understand that we can have faith in our Constitution because our founders based it on prayer and Scripture and Scriptural structure. And I have such a confidence in the Constitution backed by God Himself or backed by our nation, backed by the Ten Commandments.

[00:12:01] And I just want to say real quickly, it's more like a faith call. It's not, I can't base all this other than on faith and confidence in what I know is true and right.

[00:12:12] I think that Biden is nothing or just let's not, let's leave Biden out of it. This ideology, communism or so whatever it is, it's all based on lies and deceivableness, which is what the Scripture mentions.

[00:12:28] And I think Trump's mindset and even our Supreme Court leaders' mindset is that let it all play out. In the end, the Constitution will prevail. Let's see what happens. And appreciate your comment there.

[00:12:44] Let me just mention that later in the week we are going to talk a little bit about the Declaration of Independence because we're coming to Fourth of July. I actually have a teaching on Fourth of July day, but even before that, Jerry Newcomb will be with us tomorrow.

[00:12:57] And also this weekend I was actually preaching through, because we're preaching through and teaching in our Sunday school classes. Exodus was in Exodus 18 where it gives the qualifications for the judges Moses was to select.

[00:13:11] And I'd heard people say in the past that that was oftentimes used as a justification for the Republican form of government. But I saw some people criticizing that and saying that's not the right thing.

[00:13:23] So I really did a deep dive over the weekend, which I want to share with you. And it is true that many of the individuals who were framers of the Constitution actually were wanting what's called a Republican form of government.

[00:13:38] And if you want to know what a Republican form of government is, look at Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution, which guarantees to the states that we will have a Republican form of government. In other words, we're a public, not a democracy.

[00:13:53] And as I jokingly sometimes say, first of all it says that in the Constitution. Second of all, did you just say the Pledge of Allegiance? Because we did in church. And I said to the what, democracy? No, to the Republic for which it stands.

[00:14:05] So I'm going to share some of that in just a few minutes. But the next caller wants to talk about what would happen maybe with Kamala Harris. And that does, before we get to it, bring us to the second article.

[00:14:17] First one was from Axios, kind of left of center. Wall Street Journal, you know, kind of mainstream. But they said that if anything, when the Democratic media complex, they called it, decides on something, everybody pretty much sings off the same song sheet. I'm kind of paraphrasing them.

[00:14:34] But all of a sudden, everybody is now saying, well, we've got to do something different. And they, of course, raise the question of why were we told through the press corps that even though President Biden had a limited workday, he had over reliance on the teleprompter,

[00:14:52] he rarely allowed for any unscripted media interviews, that there wasn't any problem. And that reporters began to notice that he was wearing business suits with dark tennis shoes because the thought was traditional dress shoes might make it easier for him to fall.

[00:15:08] And just story after story after story they're talking about. So then when the Wall Street Journal actually did publish an investigative report, which was based on 45 interviews, they remind us that the White House rallied around, said

[00:15:25] that this Wall Street Journal was just falling for right wing trope from Fox News or something like that. And it was a hit piece and all the rest. And now they're saying, well, that's the big question, because they said this nightmare

[00:15:41] would be easier if Kamala Harris wasn't perceived by so many of the Democratic operatives as not really being qualified even as vice president, much as president. She didn't do well, of course, in the primaries. We know that. Couldn't even defend her own plan.

[00:16:00] And they said, just imagine if you the vice president were now, as they said, somebody like, I don't know, Gerald Ford, who stepped in after Richard Nixon's resignation. But that's not what you have. And I think it sets up for the next question that many people are asking.

[00:16:15] So Nancy, let me put you, have you put it on the table. What's your thought? Okay. I'm interested in this situation because it follows political science. And years ago, I was in communist Czechoslovakia when I was in college in 1970.

[00:16:31] And I got to watch the dynamics of the economics. And I don't think she understands all of it, as you said just now, that she understands what she's doing. And I think they brought her along in order for Joe Biden to gather the other voters who

[00:16:46] weren't sure whether they should support Joe Biden. And you know, I think this is all a setup by many people. And they used Joe Biden to get her into a position possibly. If he runs again and wins, and then resigns, then she has the office of president without

[00:17:09] even having to run. Yes. What's so interesting is this article, and again, you've got to trust the sources of The Wall Street Journal, I think, because they're a credible news outfit, basically

[00:17:21] say that one of the reasons that Joe Biden did not bow out last year from the primary was because there was a concern that if indeed he stepped aside, that then Kamala Harris could not possibly win. And so that's the argument actually being made.

[00:17:43] And so I don't know whether that's true, but I don't have any reason to doubt that is another issue. So there are apparently a fair number of individuals, both as part of the Biden White House and the Democratic leadership that certainly are convinced that she could not win.

[00:18:02] But you're coming up with a scenario by which, well, if Joe Biden could somehow make it across the goal line and hit the tape and then finish the race, then she would actually be the president for four years.

[00:18:16] Even if not, I think an honest person has to say Joe Biden is 81 now. He'd be 82 by then. He would be 86 almost by the time this was over. That's doubtful he would make it his way through those four years.

[00:18:32] So one way or another, as we mentioned just the other day, if you're voting for Joe Biden, you're really voting for Kamala Harris. And of course, that's assuming that there is not somebody taken out during the Democratic Convention. So good point.

[00:18:48] Let me get another phone call here relates back to this idea of presidential immunity. So Scott in Illinois, thank you for calling. Hey, Kirby, thanks for taking the call. And I don't my my comment is, don't you think that to a certain extent, presidents do not

[00:19:04] have absolute immunity because that's what the whole impeachment process was developed for? Right. You know, it's essential. That's essentially the court system for the president. And I keep I'm tired of this narrative that somehow presidents are immune. Your comment.

[00:19:20] Well, again, I think Kelly Shackelford summarized it pretty well. But let me try to do it again, because as his argument was, the Supreme Court had to really thread a needle. They decided not to decide.

[00:19:31] On the one hand, you don't want no immunity because then and the example uses, let's imagine that Joe Biden loses and then you could sue him. I think this would be a crazy lawsuit, but nevertheless, sue him because of somebody who

[00:19:46] died, who was killed by a person who was here illegally. And so you do want to have some kind of shield. And we've provided that shield for mayors, governors, presidents and others, because there is a sense in which you otherwise would have incredibly frivolous lawsuits.

[00:20:04] But back to your point, you certainly don't want absolute immunity, because that would suggest that then you could take your political opponent out to the South Lawn and kill him or whatever it might be.

[00:20:15] So this is a tough call, even for people who aren't so sure what immunity should be. And over the next couple of days, I might try to quote a little bit from Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, because they had very scathing dissents in this issue, because I

[00:20:34] think this issue of immunity needs to be resolved. And since the court wouldn't resolve it, maybe it needs to be resolved in Congress or something, because we do want to have some protection around a government official, but at the same time, you don't want to have absolute immunity.

[00:20:51] So I think your point's well taken, and we'll take some more phone calls, but we need to take a break. If you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212. We've only gone through our first two articles.

[00:21:02] Let me take another one, and then we'll take some more phone calls after the break. We are in uncharted territory. We've had presidents resign before. Of course, the most recent one I just mentioned, Richard Nixon, who was easily replaced by Gerald Ford. What would happen now?

[00:21:21] What could happen in the Democratic Convention? I have no idea, but we'll talk about it right after this. In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs, but words and ideas.

[00:21:40] London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism, and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. London was in many ways the center of the world economically, militarily, and intellectually. Marx sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports. Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers.

[00:22:04] Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth. It is truth for all of life. Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today? Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign

[00:22:21] up for the Viewpoints Commentary at pointofview.net slash signup. Every weekday in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time. It's free, so visit pointofview.net slash signup right now. Pointofview.net slash signup.

[00:22:48] Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:40] The ugly meltdown of Joe Biden on the debate stage on Thursday launched at least a thousand opinion pieces. You think? I've only given you three, because I have concern about your time. But everybody's going to be writing about this.

[00:23:52] Of course, everybody's going to be talking about it for quite some time. And the bottom line is that he says this is kind of illustrated again that we live in this world of lies and gives us a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn who said of his own

[00:24:06] country, we know that they are lying. They know they are lying and they know that we know they're lying. We also know that they know that they know that we are lying. They, of course, know that we certainly know that they know that they are lying too well.

[00:24:19] But they're still lying. And the point he was making is that was a statement that Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a dissident in the Soviet Union, said about his own country. But it's sort of becoming that way here.

[00:24:33] You had a debate the other night where, of course, President Biden claimed that the border patrol endorsed him. And, of course, almost immediately, the Border Patrol Union chief, Brandon Judd, went on Fox News to make a statement. We have not nor will we ever support him.

[00:24:51] Of course, the argument that the media has been making that this is a man in his prime and it has complete command of the details of the job. And it gives some examples which we now know are not true.

[00:25:04] And then illustrating that and then, of course, the argument that many people in the liberal world knew and in the Democratic press knew. He talks about all sorts of things that the Secret Service said about Vice President Joe

[00:25:21] Biden, not to mention some of the articles even written by the leftist center Vox. What are we going to do about creepy Uncle Joe Biden, his behavior around women and the rest? And then, of course, talks about the fact that, again, he repeated a claim that,

[00:25:39] as you've heard us talk about before, that the president somehow previous President Joe Donald Trump called neo-Nazis and white supremacists very fine people. And that was debunked even by the again leftist center Snopes seven years too late.

[00:25:54] And then goes into this long set of other issues, you know, individual getting in trouble for using the term illegal alien, which is accurate or the medical interventions in children or the issue of D.I. The question about inflation.

[00:26:09] And it really brings you back to the need that we've talked about on this program for us to have tremendous amount of discernment and check all sorts of statements being made. And isn't it interesting that even today our good friend John Stone Street in Breakpoint

[00:26:25] talks about truth and counterfeits, discerning the lies that take people captive. So it's becoming so significant that even others are saying we're going to just need even more discernment during this election season. And so let's see if we can take a few more phone calls.

[00:26:41] We'll head out to Alaska. KJMP Elmer, thank you for joining us today here on Point of View. Hey, hi. So I guess I just hope that the Democrats come to their senses and give us somebody else to put on the ticket. But I wouldn't choose that person anyway.

[00:26:59] But I would also I would also like it. The Republicans would give us somebody to choose besides Donald Trump. And in fact, you talked about the coalescing of the left liberal media. It seems like the Christian media and the lobbyists all coalesced behind Trump and because

[00:27:18] of the MAGA supporters who were his base. And I guess that that's a problem for me in that I if there was Tim Scott or Mike Pence or Nikki Haley or John Kasich, who was even I don't know if he'd take the job or not, but

[00:27:35] he had experience and he was sure the best candidate in the last two thousand sixteen elections. Mike Pompeo comes to mind, Tim Scott. I mean, yeah. So why do we not have the choice?

[00:27:46] I know. And I did by the time I got to vote in Texas, that choice had basically been made. And of course, you know that there are there are other alternatives. And I've said before, Elmer, and you probably heard me say that I wondered whether we would

[00:28:00] have either Joe Biden or Donald Trump in the fall. We might not have either. And I don't think lawfare is going to remove Donald Trump. I'm not so sure yet if the Democrats are going to remove Joe Biden. But you're right.

[00:28:14] I mean, there are some talk shows where I listen to and never has heard a discouraging word about Donald Trump. But I'm thinking, really? There are all sorts of things that we've talked about.

[00:28:23] And I think anybody who looked at his character, some of his actions, some of his policies, I've tried to cover some of that. But I mean, there are some of the places where you just never hear any of that.

[00:28:35] And the bottom line is, I think there's a tremendous number of people in this country that are frustrated. I think the numbers are almost up to two thirds saying they don't like either choice. But that's where we find ourselves in really uncharted territory.

[00:28:50] I don't know that you are going and the Democratic Party removed Donald Trump, but I'm not going to make that prediction because I wouldn't have ever predicted that Donald Trump would have been the nominee in 2016.

[00:29:01] So it shows you how much I can make in terms of any prophetic comments. But I'll give you a last comment before we move on to some other topics. My last comment is, is that the idea of Trump deciding that he should be pardoned or

[00:29:15] that the not prosecuted, that is disgusting. Just the idea that he would he would have the choice, have the power or the authority to to dismiss any charges against him. That sucks. Anyway, OK, thanks for the opportunity.

[00:29:31] Yeah, let me mention, too, I think in the next day or two, I'm going to try to dig into this issue of presidential immunity because I do appreciate Scott's question. And to be fair, let me at least dig into the dissent.

[00:29:45] As I understand it, Elena Kagan had a somewhat scathing dissent of this decision that came down today. And Sonia Sotomayor had a concurring dissent and see if they've got some arguments. But the biggest argument is whether you like Donald Trump or not, whether you

[00:29:59] like Richard Nixon or not, whether you liked an impeached president. And of course, we're talking about now, of course, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. This issue of immunity is difficult because we need to find some way to actually shield

[00:30:17] at least a sitting political appointee or a sitting elected candidate from some kind of civil suits and things of that nature that could be nothing more than a nuisance suit. But as I think Scott aptly said, we can't give absolute immunity.

[00:30:37] And also this idea of being able to pardon yourself. Seriously, does that even make any sense? So it's worth a conversation and I think it's worth trying to dig into it just a little

[00:30:49] bit. Let me just before I take a break, I mentioned some of the other resources that we might want to put in your favor here because tomorrow we'll have Jerry Newcomb. I wanted to make available today his article about the Ten Commandments in his article,

[00:31:05] I think is a good one. Are the Ten Commandments making a comeback? And the reason he brings that up is Governor Landry in Louisiana, Jeff Landry, has actually, of course, signed a bill that would require the posting of the Ten Commandments.

[00:31:22] Now, the overreaction to that, including from individuals that I respect who are Christian or even somewhat conservative, maybe is a little over the top, because really, if you think that are we going to be that concerned about whether the Ten Commandments are posted or not

[00:31:40] posted? But at the same time, he reminds us that in the classic decision that came down in what was known as Stone versus Graham, there was this concern, at least on the part of those individuals, that young people might actually read the Ten Commandments and might

[00:32:00] even decide to follow those. The actual quote is, if the posted command copies of the Ten Commandments were to have any effect at all, it would be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon and perhaps venerate and obey the Ten Commandments.

[00:32:18] And I'm thinking, that sounds like a good idea. I mean, is there anything on the Ten Commandments you've got a problem with? Stealing, lying, whatever? That would be something that would be so controversial.

[00:32:30] But we will get into that more tomorrow because as we get to the Fourth of July, it seems to be a good time to talk about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and maybe even his article on the Ten Commandments.

[00:32:46] But as one friend the other day said, the only concern I have about this idea of the Ten Commandments being posted is it seems like whenever government gets involved, it always ends up the wrong way.

[00:32:58] So we'll get into kind of the pros and cons of this because after all, now that you have the state of Louisiana requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments, other states might follow suit.

[00:33:10] And so let's have the conversation now rather than in the halls of Congress or state legislature. So we'll see where that takes us. And that is the case. When we come back, I thought I'd real quickly also end with a piece on Andy Kessler, the

[00:33:26] tyranny of today's tipping. It's become kind of an interesting issue because after all, candidate Donald Trump has talked about whether or not to no longer charge taxes on tips. So we'll talk about that right after this. Listening to Point of View. Back for a few more minutes.

[00:34:02] And if you'd like to join us again, we're going to be talking about tipping. I'd love to get your thoughts about that. 1-800-351-1212. I'm sure that it will not be the only time we talk about it because it is, number one, becoming almost mandatory.

[00:34:17] Andy Kessler puts it this way. The screen reads, add a tip 18 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent for a takeout sack of burgers and soggy fries. Come on. He says it takes extra taps to change it to 10 percent or zero. Instead, we sheepishly tip and feel resentful.

[00:34:35] In some cases, it's even required here. He talks about one where on a restaurant, it says for parties of one or larger, an 18 percent gratuity is automatically applied. So first of all, there is the reaction to tipping that many Americans are talking about.

[00:34:53] But then there's the political issue, because the other day, this is a direct quote, when Donald Trump was in Nevada and he didn't just say it once, he said it more than once.

[00:35:02] But when he was in Nevada, he said, when I get to office, we're going to not charge taxes on tips. Now, again, you could think he was just pandering to the individual there that various individuals in Nevada that work for tips. But he said it more than once.

[00:35:20] And it's no small amount. The best numbers I can come up with are that the IRS numbers for and this was 2018. I'm sure we've got better numbers. That's the best we have at the moment. Thirty eight billion dollars in tips. So no small amount indeed.

[00:35:39] And if all of a sudden you receive a tip and you don't have to pay tax on it, of course, there's all sorts of many times unintended consequences. Maybe I really can just pay you minimum wage and then say you'll survive on the tips that

[00:35:55] you aren't going to be paying taxes on. So we can see how that could work in a very negative way. But let's put this in perspective. Five million Americans work for tips. About 70 percent of those people who work for tips are women.

[00:36:13] And so in some respects, you want to, of course, pay attention to that, especially given the fact that in the past there were jobs. And he talks about one when he was age 16. He was a car hop.

[00:36:26] No roller skates at Stewart's Root Beer, delivering trays to car windows with food and root beer. No tip. He said we call that getting zapped back then. Minimum wage was two dollars and ten cents an hour. That shows how old he is and me.

[00:36:43] But we got one dollar an hour plus tips. And because the argument is the tips would actually make up for that. So he says, I always tip, although these days more reluctantly. And he's not the only one who is somewhat reluctant about this.

[00:37:00] The Bank Rate Survey, which was done a while back, actually found that two thirds of Americans have a negative view of tipping, probably because we're being inundated. And so we've got to start thinking about what this might mean, because it could certainly affect the individuals.

[00:37:20] So what's your thoughts if you are actually required, especially if you're paying by credit card, it's almost impossible not to be forced to tip because you have those little screens up there where it says, you know, 18 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent.

[00:37:36] Sometimes you can click on the one that says no tip. And I tend to be very generous as well. My wife will tell you that and my son in law even more generous. But that again is going to have an impact, especially if indeed Donald Trump becomes

[00:37:51] president and people start agreeing with that idea, that tips are just a way of showing appreciation and shouldn't necessarily be considered part of your income. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers receive a tip credit between about two

[00:38:11] dollars and 13 cents an hour and the federal minimum wage about seven dollars and 25 cents an hour. So your pay pays part of the base salaries. Those of you in California does not. California as a state does not allow tip credits.

[00:38:29] Workers receive a minimum wage of at least 16 dollars plus all tips. And of course, you can imagine what that has done, of course, to the cost of food and all sorts of other things. Then California restaurants sometimes sneak on fees like a six percent San Francisco

[00:38:48] health care security ordinance surcharge. Not making this up. This is the more you dig into this, the more you have to smile a little bit. Then Andy's Kessler says I've heard diners tipping 14 percent instead of 20 percent

[00:39:04] because they know of the six percent San Francisco health care security ordinance surcharge. Again, there's all sorts of unintended consequences that might unfold in this regard. And he says a more honest approach would be to increase prices by six

[00:39:21] percent. And then on Monday, now Senate Bill 478 in California goes into effect prohibiting drip pricing, meaning prices that are only a portion of what someone actually pays because of fees. So, again, the bill goes into effect, but then you have various groups that are exempt

[00:39:43] and that would be Uber Eats and DoorDash and a variety of others. And then, of course, you have New York and Seattle now mandate food delivery pay increases and orders are dropping. And so you're really going to see very quickly that this whole idea of tipping, which

[00:40:02] has already been a little bit under the microscope because more and more people are really frustrated that they're expected to shell out a 25 percent gratuity on soggy takeout fries, is going to be even more of an issue because at least candidate Donald

[00:40:19] Trump has declared that we're not going to charge taxes on tips. So it's an issue that I thought I'd put on the table, one, because it affects you and your family every single day.

[00:40:31] And it's really hard if you're trying to make ends meet to all of a sudden go to a takeout restaurant and be expected to tip like you would if you went to a fancy restaurant, because the reason you went to a takeout is maybe because you only have

[00:40:46] ten or twenty dollars in your pocket or your purse. And so it's an important issue. And we'll probably come back to it again sometime in the future if for no other reason than it's all of a sudden become a campaign issue as well.

[00:40:59] But just before we wind down for today, if you're just joining us last week, of course, we talked about our budget for fiscal year end and we came within five thousand dollars and seven hundred five thousand seven hundred dollars of it.

[00:41:13] And I just thought I would mention one last time, even though as we go off the air, if you appreciate some of the conversation we have every day here on Point of View, we would encourage you to maybe make that phone call.

[00:41:25] It's eight hundred three four seven five one five one. You may have missed last week. You may not have heard the first hour. So I just thought I'd give you an update on that as well.

[00:41:34] And of course, anytime you can go to the website point of view dot net, there's the charge opportunity there. Yes, you can put on your credit card and you don't have to tip. We would take it if you'd like it.

[00:41:45] But it's a banner that says biblical clarity in cultural chaos. Give now and whether you want to give a one time gift or maybe even join with us on a monthly basis, just help us put us over the top. This is the last day I'll mention it.

[00:41:59] But I just thought I'd say thank you for those of you that have already given a significant number of you did so. Thank you for your support. Thank you for those of you that actually helped us meet the match.

[00:42:11] And we're within five thousand seven hundred dollars of finishing off what we wanted to finish off. And perhaps we can do that today. And we'll be done with it. Whatever you want to do, we would greatly appreciate it.

[00:42:23] I hope that you will find the articles we posted on the website helpful. It includes, of course, the book by Curtis Chang, a number of different articles about the circumstances involving the president and vice president and what that might mean

[00:42:40] in the future. One on the Ten Commandments we'll talk about tomorrow and even one on tips. Got to cover a lot of different issues every day here on point of view. When I thank Megan for help engineering the program, bringing the music that we get to

[00:42:52] hear during the breaks. And Steve, thank you for producing the program. I think you will enjoy our conversations tomorrow. We're going to talk about Christian economics. We're going to talk about America's godly heritage. So we look forward to seeing you tomorrow right here on point of view.

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