Point of View March 28, 2025 – Hour 2 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson. Second hour today, let's if we can get back into some of the issues in the news. One of those articles, I think it's our fifth article which is entitled Canada and Greenland by Dr. Merrill Matthews.

[00:00:29] It actually leads you back to his article in The Hill, the impact of US elections of Canada and Greenland were states. And last hour we were talking about some of the inefficiency of the federal government. Sometimes the argument is, well if you go back to the state and local governments, they'll be more efficient. Let me take you to Los Angeles for just a minute. The Mayor Karen Bass, you might remember she was in Ghana during the time of the fires.

[00:00:54] They were promising that they would do rapid rebuilding and accelerated rebuilding. If my count is right, it's been 80 days since the fires. The city has approved entirely four permits. So sometimes whether you're the federal government or you're the local government, things aren't very efficient. But what about this idea, Dr. Matthews, of making Canada the 51st state or getting Greenland as part of the United States?

[00:01:23] You actually, like I believe it's probably not going to happen. But you did the math and said it wouldn't necessarily turn out the way Donald Trump might think so in terms of the US elections. Right. And you and I have remembered that occasionally they come up and say, let's make Puerto Rico a state. They do that every now and then. Washington, D.C. would like to have that status. And one of the reasons why Republicans have opposed that is because Puerto Rico tends to vote liberal, as does Washington, D.C.

[00:01:52] And you just look at the numbers in the last election. Washington, D.C. voted 90 percent for Kamala Harris. Puerto Rico voted 73 percent for Kamala Harris. And so what would Canada look like if we made that the 51st state? Because remember, the president has called the Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, governor. He's referred to governor. And so if you look at the parliament there, they have a parliamentary system.

[00:02:17] What does that parliament look like right now? Well, they had the the liberal, what's called the liberal party. That's one hundred and fifty three members. The conservative party has one hundred and twenty members. So just there you've got a the liberals outweigh the conservatives. They have the block, which is from Quebec. They're mostly focused on trying to get Quebec independence, but they vote for right or left. But they have the new Democratic Party, which is a Democratic Socialist Party. That would be like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

[00:02:46] They have twenty four votes and then the Green Party has two votes. So you put it together and you would have a significant just as based upon their parliament right now, you would have a significant liberal vote there for Canada. Plus, they would be attracting all kinds of new Republicans. Right now, the law is you can only have four hundred and thirty five members of Congress. So if we didn't change Congress didn't change that, you would have to take a number of congressional seats and move them up to Canada. And you're likely to have a very liberal vote up there.

[00:03:16] And Canada's if people say, well, Canada is just too large. Well, it's their population in Canada is about equal with California. So it would be roughly the same there. So it'd be like adding California to the to the United States. And that would likely affect elections for years to come. Republicans take notice. You don't want to bring in a lot of people who are going to vote for Democrats.

[00:03:40] And then Greenland has only got about fifty seven thousand people or so there. Their their votes mostly tend to go around independence from Denmark and that type of thing. But they tend to be they've just got a slightly center right government that they just elected. But they've come up and said, we don't want to be part of the United States and use some language I'm not going to use here on the radio. And when they just polled them, I bet the Canadians do not want to be part of the United States.

[00:04:10] And in Canada, I think it was in Greenland is eighty five percent said they do not want to be part of the United States. So it would have to be an adversarial takeover if we were going to get them. Well, again, we just thought we'd get your smile on your face for just a few minutes, because these are the kinds of things that you will probably hear nowhere else except on point of view. And Colin, we have a twenty thousand dollar match on the table. We need to hear from our listeners. We do. It's a great time as well. It is the final full hour of the truth team week.

[00:04:39] Eight hundred three four seven five one five one eight hundred three four seven five one five one. Go online at point of view dot net. Your gift will also be doubled there. Some thank yous to hand out right away. Diana in Georgia with a thousand dollar gift. That's doubled. Laura in Michigan, Miriam in Georgia, Tricia in Arizona, Paula in Arizona as well. Juan and Dawn in Texas, the Overton family in Georgia and Cynthia. All of those gifts doubled just in the last few minutes.

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[00:05:34] Eight hundred three four seven five one five one or online at point of view dot net. You know, we've talked about Doge. And of course, we even talked about Greenland. I'd like to ask Jeff for just a minute. You know, another one is this issue of deportation. And it does seem to me that that's kind of a big issue in the courts right now. Now, Maxine Waters was asked the other day who she wanted to deport. And she said, first, Elon Musk and second, Melania Trump. But other than that, you know, I had to get your smile on that one.

[00:06:01] But again, we are having right now a real question about what can a federal judge do to affect the entire nation? Because after all, federal judges of which there are six hundred plus supposedly have a region of the country that they're dealing with. But when you have an injunction, you had more injunctions in February against the Trump administration than over the entire eight years under Barack Obama.

[00:06:30] You have one hundred and sixty lawsuits as of last week. I think it's probably got to be up to one hundred and seventy now. I don't think we've ever had anything like this before. This is unprecedented. And it's something like 70 percent of those of in the history of the United States. Seventy percent of those type of injunctions have been issued against the Trump administration. So it is, you know, we get we get accused at First Liberty and others in the conservative movement get accused of forum shopping.

[00:06:59] Well, I think the Democrats have perfected the art. They know where to go. They know what and it's really just a handful of judges who are issuing these nationwide injunctions who are going beyond the parties in the case. And to me, that's the key. There could be certain situations where the parties in the case would would would would warrant the plaintiff with that might warrant a nationwide injunction.

[00:07:26] But I do think it's something that that Congress is going to look at. One thing that that Speaker Johnson said is, you know, one power. I mean, the legislative branch does have power over the jurisdiction of federal courts and they can look at that. So it I don't I'm not I do think there are certain circumstances where nationwide injunctions are appropriate, but it's very limited circumstances. And it's certainly not in the number that we've seen just in the last 30 days.

[00:07:56] We'll talk more about that in just a minute. We're coming to a break. And that's another very good time calling for some of our listeners to join with us as we come down to the last about 45 minutes. Just a reminder that you can make a pledge today if you don't have the full amount or any of it. You can make a pledge for the coming year. Just say, hey, here's what I'd like to commit to in the coming year. You can break up your gifts over 12 months or you can give a one time gift.

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[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Elon Musk is in the news again, but his comments this time are about the military. Recently, he posted that America needs a large quantity of long-range drones. He argued that anything manned will die very fast in a drone war. In a previous post, he shared a video of Chinese drones with the caption, Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35.

[00:09:25] This is a quick way to get criticized by certain members of Congress and companies that make up the military-industrial complex. But there are military strategists who believe we need to change strategies. An essay in the New York Times explores the idea of reimagining the American war machine. The war between Russia and Ukraine illustrates why the current administration wants to change the type of weapons the Pentagon buys.

[00:09:49] In Ukraine, drones of all types, from cheap quadcopters and radio-controlled boats to long-range attack drones, have radically altered the battle in the war with Russia. It's worth mentioning the speed of innovation. The Ukrainian military reportedly introduces drones with new capabilities every few weeks, and the Russians adapt, and the Ukrainians respond in turn. We're entering into a new age of autonomous warfare. However, as I mentioned in a previous commentary about killer robots,

[00:10:18] we must not allow AI, robots, and drones to fight battles with little or no human oversight. Modern warfare is changing, and the Trump administration is ready to scrap a 20th century warfare mindset and swap it for a 21st century military. Elon Musk is not the only one being criticized about the military. We need to be prepared for the future. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:47] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net. Point of view, keeping you anchored to truth. Ministries like ours depend on ministries like this one.

[00:11:08] We can win cases, and we do at all levels of courts, including the Supreme Court, every day of the week and twice on Sunday. But if people don't understand those rights and don't put them into practice, then our wins will not mean that much years from now. And this is a way to have a conversation about them where people can learn more about them.

[00:11:32] And as I've said many times, you don't have to be a lawyer or a constitutional scholar, but you do need to know enough to know when your rights are being violated and when to come find us for help. And pointofview is invaluable in helping get that message out. Pointofview, anchored to truth. Latham Watts with Alliance Defending Freedom, first of all, was with First Liberty. And both First Liberty Institute and ADF and others have said, you know, when we bring a case to the courts, we get a lot of publicity.

[00:12:01] When we win, they don't talk about it as much. And, of course, I just pointed you a few minutes ago to RFIA.org because that's just a great opportunity for you to begin to recognize how you can be restoring faith in America. And that's just one of those resources that we actually continue to tell you the story and we complete the loop because, in some respects, the victory then gives you an opportunity to take some action.

[00:12:28] But, Colin, we need to take some action right now because we still have a match on the table, and I'm surprised that we haven't finished it off. Well, we're doing well. We're not there yet, but there's still time. A $20,000 gift was put on the table by a lovely lady that said she wanted to urge others to give. And we're down to $11,115 of that remaining. So any gift right now up to $11,115 can be doubled. Connie in Ohio, your $50 just got doubled.

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[00:13:19] And we're hoping that maybe some of those leadership gifts will come in as well and help us reach where we certainly would like to get to the point where we can continue these programs as well. Let me, if I can, go around the table for just a minute and get some thoughts because at $36 trillion in national debt and in terms of the need for to eventually have a budget, even an idea of a balanced budget, wouldn't that be a concept?

[00:13:47] There's a lot that needs to take place. And I know that's one of the things that Speaker Mike Johnson is dealing with right now, trying to herd all those cats and get some of these things passed. No, absolutely. I mean, I think that's the goal. And, you know, the deal that was cut, I guess now it's been... Nine years. It's 2017. Yeah, 2017.

[00:14:11] And the idea being we need to be about attempting not just to curtail future spending because, I mean, that's the future, but actually one, that needs to happen, but actually make real significant cuts. And I know the article that you posted, I mean, yes, let's get rid of... Do we really need PBS?

[00:14:39] I mean, I actually do subscribe because there are a couple shows that my wife and I enjoy, but does it need to be publicly funded? Does PBS... And maybe bring out some folks on the calls, but, I mean, do we need the public broadcasting system to be publicly funded? Um, when we are... We're not even close. We're not even close. We're not even close to getting to a balanced budget amendment.

[00:15:06] Well, as the only person here who's actually been a commentary, commentator on National Public Radio in the late 90s and early 2000s, it's interesting because when Yuri Berliner came out and he was a longtime employee there, a guy on the left, and complained that NPR had just shifted so far to the left, and he's right, and I wrote about that in The Hill. I mean, I used to go in there and give the... They'd go and do the recording of the commentaries and so forth, and it was, you know...

[00:15:34] And Cal Thomas for a while did commentaries for NPR, and I've been on NPR, so have you. It was interesting because you and I have been in radio long enough. Sometimes you go into a radio station and you're in the entry room, you know, where they have the entrance, and then you go past that door, and it looks like... It's a low-quality looking place afterwards. I mean, things are old. WBAP in Dallas used to be that once you went past the... I remember.

[00:16:04] NPR is not that way. It is a very nice building. PBS, very nice. And we have the documentation for that on this article. Go ahead. And I don't want to take anything from them, but it's 8% going to NPR, and I think about 12% going to PBS. And the point that is made is they can probably get by without that funds, and I think that's probably correct.

[00:16:27] Others will step up, private charities and other things, and we'll probably hear more fundraising on PBS, where we hit the record and just go through the other things. But... Fast forward. It's probably time to cut the cord. Yes. Well, again, you mentioned two things. First of all, NPR, according to Senator Kennedy, $200 million facility where Host makes $500,000 a year. Fresh shoesie is artistically made before the diner's eyes in the company cafeteria.

[00:16:57] But then this one, and this one, of course, came from, I think it was, was it Pat Fowlin? I think it was, the 87 editors at NPR and 87 are Democrats and zero Republicans. So, you know, there's a point in which the bias issue shows up, but also can it survive without it?

[00:17:15] And to actually have some of those around the table saying, well, is Big Bird or Bernie a communist and all those kinds of lines that were used was an attempt to just try to distract from the fact that it probably didn't make sense back when Lyndon Johnson thought we should have public broadcasting. But it makes even less sense when we're $36 trillion in national debt. Right. And I think it's a good, I mean, let's compare it. We're sitting here and at a point where we're trying to raise funds on behalf for point of view, right?

[00:17:44] And how much, by the way, Kirby, do you all get? How much did the federal government give you guys? Yeah, absolutely. Zero, right? Those will not be taking any back because we didn't get any. That's right. And there is no, if there ever was a need for public broadcasting for NPR, it no longer exists. It no longer exists.

[00:18:08] And especially when, as this article points out, 87 out of 87 editors at NPR are leftist Democrats. But that's what the mainstream media has. And that's why, you know, point of view is so necessary, right? I mean, we've got to have, we have to have more than a balance, just an actual refudiation that is a leftist agenda. Yeah, and I will make a distinction. From the leftist standpoint, NPR is much worse than PBS.

[00:18:37] I mean, PBS has a lot of good Masterpiece Theaters. We love those. We watch those on Sunday evening. Like I said, I have to confess, I am a supporter because we do watch those shows. And I listen to NPR every day. And it has shifted to a far left thing where you just think, well, you didn't even mention this aspect of it. Or you didn't bring anybody on this aspect of it. But you've got to listen to NPR to know what the enemy is up to. So, again, I just wanted to bring that up. And, again, we'll hear a little bit later, Pennedexter's commentary on the Department of Education.

[00:19:06] But you can't solve a problem if you don't acknowledge it's a problem. And for a long time, people have just turned a blind eye to the fact that we have, up now, $36.5 trillion national debt. And sometimes people say, we're not broke. I said, no, we're not broke. We're $36 trillion past broke. And we're going to have to address a lot of issues that you've talked about before. But we're also wanting to raise some funds. And we don't receive anything from the federal government.

[00:19:33] No federal government money, no grants, no endowments. It all comes from you. This is listener-supported radio. You're able to listen today because somebody before you gave a gift in the past. And you're able to do that now. Also think about we've had Liberty McCarter on this week. And she talked about how, as a child, she was impacted, even in those early days, by point of view. Your kids, your grandkids can benefit from what they're hearing and ultimately might make an impact in their lives as well.

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[00:20:30] And when we come back, I want to go around the roundtable and learn a little bit more about some of the cases First Liberty Institute is dealing with. Also, of course, I might even give you a preview of another article or two Dr. Merle Matthews will be writing about. All of that is available on our website, and you can read a lot about that right now. But most importantly, as we go to a break, I know that some of you don't like to take any time away from the broadcast because you learn so many things.

[00:20:58] And let's face it, all of us around this table learning different things that are being expressed. So that's why I think this would be a perfect time to call. Again, you can go to the banner which says Anchored to Truth and click on that button at pointofview.net. That's a very simple way to support this ministry. But, of course, if you'd like to talk to someone, it'll be very quick. 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net. 347-5151. We'll take a break. Be back with more right after this.

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[00:22:57] 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. Back once again, we're going to give you some prayer targets, a praise and a prayer target, and certainly some other things that we'll talk about in terms of First Liberty Institute. Also, another piece by Dr. Merrill Matthews. We'll get to that in just a minute.

[00:23:26] But again, I've noticed we had a number of people on the phones. Just as we come back from the break, everybody hangs up the phone. And I think that's the problem. People are not calling during the program. But we encourage people to at least go on the website, pointofview.net, and make their gift. They come in little flurries. So we're needing a flurry here for the last half hour of the program today. Last half hour. Laura in Alaska, who might be dealing with some flurries, she gave a gift. It was doubled. Margarita in Arizona gave a gift.

[00:23:55] Liberty in Texas and Glenn all gave gifts. Those were just doubled. We're down to $5,795 remaining in this dollar-for-dollar match. So we're seeing action. We're seeing people on the phones. We're seeing people click in online at pointofview.net. But again, $5,295 to go. So it is the final day, the final minutes of Truth Team Week. We need to hear from you.

[00:24:21] If you've been waiting to help put us over the top, you can help put us over the top right now with your gifts at 800-347-5151 or pointofview.net. Less than a half an hour left. And if you've been waiting to that last hour, that last few minutes, we certainly encourage you to make that phone call. If we do meet our goal, that would be historic. It would be. There's $150,000 for this spring Truth Team Week, and that would be a record.

[00:24:51] And so you can help push us to that record. But it's going to take, even in the minutes remaining, everybody doing something, everybody getting to the phone, giving a little gift. Whatever you can give, it will make a difference in the lives of so many people through the ministry of Point of View. Let's talk about prayers for just a minute. We always encourage people to pray for First Liberty cases. And you've got one where you've had a CVS nurse who actually has reached a settlement. So that's kind of a praise, if you will, a prayer praise.

[00:25:20] And then another one that I've been following for some time, if for no other reason than I used to live in Connecticut. And this teacher in Connecticut, in her workspace, has a very small crucifix. And you can see the picture. And there is retaliation and all sorts of actions. So talk about those, if you might, Jeff. Yeah. So first, I guess we'll go. Do you want to go positive first or negative first? So positive.

[00:25:44] In a case that we've had for some time, represented a CVS nurse practitioner out of Florida. CVS, after the Dobbs decision over ruling Roe v. Wade, reversed a nationwide policy in which they had been giving their employees a religious accommodation to not have to participate in anything that relates to abortion.

[00:26:12] And so we ended up having a few cases across the country, one here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and then one in Florida. The one in Dallas-Fort Worth resolved itself fairly quickly. The one in Florida was a little bit longer. And we represented just a wonderful woman. And I like saying her name. And, Dr. Matthews, you'll appreciate this name. I can't spell it, but I can say it. Gunna Christopher's daughter.

[00:26:42] And so Miss Christopher's daughter objected and asked for an accommodation in the past. CVS had given it. And they took it away from her. And so we were successful in resolving that and entered into a confidential settlement. And our client and we are very happy about that case. So that is a praise, no doubt about it.

[00:27:09] One that we need to pray for is obviously the Coach Kenny case and what we've been talking about. You can win a Supreme Court case, but you have to convince people that it's actually the law of the land. Unfortunately, in Connecticut, they're going to need a little more convincing. And so we represent a teacher who had a very small cross. You know, other teachers have other things displayed. You can have your picture of Tom Brady. It's Connecticut. They're Patriots fans.

[00:27:38] You can have Star Wars memorabilia. You just can't have, according to the school district, a cross. And we raised the claim. How does the school district respond to that? Well, they said, well, we're going to take you out of the classroom while we investigate. They've been investigating. So they have retaliated against her. And so we went ahead and did file with the EEOC.

[00:28:02] We filed our federal lawsuit in addition claiming not just discrimination and based upon them forcing her to take down her cross, but also now they are retaliating. So that's an ongoing matter and one that we would seek folks' prayers about. Well, again, I just encourage you to go to the website. We have a link to First Liberty, and you can find out all those various issues. And just go to recent cases or press releases. You'll learn a lot of that as well.

[00:28:30] And, Colin, again, I think we were just telling a story a minute ago about Liberty listening to the program. Think of all the individuals that decided to run for school board, city council, the legislature, congress, even for the presidency, who actually started out listening to Point of View. Yeah, well, I mean, I'm here today. Not that that makes much difference to most people. I'm not discussing the big issues of the day. But I started listening to Marlon when I was a kid, even before I had gotten into radio.

[00:28:58] I was listening to Marlon Maddox and through the years with you, Kirby. So that is a great, great thing to be able to look back on and see how much I learned and how much it impacted my own life. So grateful for your ministry and what you do each and every day. In fact, we got a call just a little while ago from a lady in Arkansas. She says she literally just started listening this week, and she said, I had to call and give.

[00:29:23] And so she called and gave a gift, and she's going to let all of her relatives know they need to be listening to this program, too. So whether you've been listening a short amount of time like this lady from Arkansas or you've been listening a long time, how about getting your gift doubled right now? Because we've got a dollar-for-dollar match on the board. It started at $20,000. We have $4,785 remaining. We've only got about 20 minutes left in the live broadcast.

[00:29:48] Can you be part of that $4,785 dollar-for-dollar match? We don't want to leave any of that on the table. 800-347-5151. 800-347-5151 or pointofview.net. Dr. Merrill Matthews, one of your articles has to do with, of course, the popular vote. And, of course, this time Donald Trump won the popular vote. He, of course, won seven swing states and the rest.

[00:30:15] But he sometimes makes it seem like this was just an overwhelming success and actually a tremendous mandate. But if I read through your piece, it's a reminder that we're still a very divided country, which I think also makes the case for why we need point of view. Because in many cases, you move a couple of votes around in Wisconsin, Michigan, a few places like that, it wouldn't look quite so overwhelming. That's absolutely right.

[00:30:41] If our listeners can just imagine 100 people lined up, you draw a line in the middle and you move 50 over one way, 50 over the other way, and you take one of those people and move them over to one line, that's a 51-49. Yeah. And Donald Trump didn't get that. Yes. He got 49.8% of the vote when Kamala Harris and those who voted for third-party candidates came together. It was over 51%. Donald Trump did not win the majority of the votes.

[00:31:10] And Republicans, since 1988, when George Herbert Walker Bush won the popular vote, only one Republican president has won the majority of the voters. And that was George W. Bush in 2004. He won with 50.7%. And it's very, very close. And Donald Trump says he tweeted in a reaction to a judge. He said he won all seven swing states. He did. But there were five Senate races in those seven swing states.

[00:31:39] Democrats won four of those five. And the one Republican who won in Pennsylvania just by 15,000 votes. And it's very unusual for a state to vote for the presidential candidate and then go for the Senate in the opposite category. And that's what happened. North Carolina didn't have a Senate race. It had a governor's race. And that governor won, the Democrat won by 15 percentage points. So the point is Donald Trump won, given all the challenges he faced. He did a good job in that.

[00:32:08] But it is a very close race. And it may not be the mandate that he says that he has right now because he didn't even get the majority of the population. And that's, I think, back to the pushback that we'll talk about after the break. Because in some respects, there has been this assumption that, well, I want all that so I can do anything that I need to. I think if there is a mandate, it was certainly to address inflation and to address immigration. The two lies. I think those are the two main. And yet he's also had some Ds, and that is doge and deporting.

[00:32:37] And so those sort of fit as well. But when you start talking about impeaching judges, tariffs and some of those, probably not as much. And so those are some things we'll talk about in just a minute. But, Colin, we are really down to the last couple of minutes, aren't we? We are. And we're down to $1,685 of that $20,000 dollar-for-dollar match that just dropped again. So $1,685 remaining.

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[00:33:28] As we go to the break, those of you listening on the computer will hear Penta Dexter's commentary when she talks about the Department of Education. Do you want to talk about that when we come back from the break? And we probably won't get final totals, but, of course, I'll be here on Monday to give those to you. But help us reach that total, 800-347-5151. We'll be right back.

[00:33:54] President Trump has signed an executive order directing U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to dismantle the Department of Education. The order recognizes the fact that the administration cannot shut down the department on its own. Congress must be involved. However, there is much the secretary can do to begin the process of closing the agency. She is quickly proceeding to slash the Department of Education's staff by half, eliminating 1,950 positions.

[00:34:21] She has ended some of the department's smaller programs, including its research arm. She has scaled back the Office for Civil Rights. The Department of Education carries $1.6 billion in student debt on its books. The Wall Street Journal's Kim Strassel figures that this would make it the nation's fifth largest bank. The program has become an entitlement and is ripe for reform. President Trump has suggested it be managed by the Small Business Administration or the Treasury or Commerce Department.

[00:34:49] Secretary McMahon points out that test scores have been falling since the department was formed in 1979. She frames the task of shutting down the department as her final mission. In a column, the Journal's Kim Strassel says, Never has a department been more deceptively titled. The reality is, our federal education bureaucracy takes no part in the daily hard-fought grind of teaching. The department's only job, she continues, is to act as the keeper of the education treats.

[00:35:17] The agency hands out about $80 billion per year to get school districts to comply with its directives, one of the most recent of which was former President Biden's transgender requirements. Until Congress sees fit to close the Department of Education, reform-minded governors should be tapped for expertise. Funding should be in the form of block grants to states and school districts, removing the conditions on how these funds are spent.

[00:35:42] Better yet, authority over how children are educated should fall to parents through school choice. For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter. Point of View, keeping you anchored to truth. Over the years that I've been involved in ministry as a pastor, as a seminary professor, and now in what we do, it was at one point difficult for me to ask people to support a ministry financially.

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[00:37:09] And you'll be with me on Friday along with Pennedicture. So there's a lot coming up next week. But we have just a few minutes left. And I heard a very large gift just came in. Yeah, we're still waiting to get to that information. We are down to $685, I see. $685 in this dollar-for-dollar match. We'd love to hear from you at 800-347-5151. 800-347-5151. PointofView.net. Yes, down to the final 11 minutes or so in the hour.

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[00:38:34] Every size gift right now so crucial in these final moments. 800-347-5151 or PointofView.net. One of the questions, of course, we've talked about NPR, but how about the Department of Education? Pentatexture's commentary here. Dr. Merrill Matthews, as she points out, you have an executive order trying to shrink the size of the Department of Education. But since it was established by Congress when Jimmy Carter was leaving office, it would have to be removed by Congress.

[00:39:03] But that doesn't mean you can't reduce the funds rather dramatically. That's right. You can shut them down or at least remove some of the employees. And that's going on in large numbers out there. They don't have a right. In fact, President Trump has signed an executive order to try to get past some of the unions that are part of the federal government. That was something that was put in by John Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, in the 60s, even though FDR and others said government workers should not be part of a union.

[00:39:32] Kennedy needed some votes, so he'd assign that. Later, Congress made it a law. And now Trump is trying to roll that back. And I agree with that. I'm not sure that federal employees should be members of a union. And, again, I'd love to ask just a legal question. I look at my Constitution here, Jeff Mateer, and I see certain enumerated powers which are given to the federal government. The rest supposedly, according to the Tenth Amendment, are reserved to the states and the people. And I don't see education in that list. No, education's not.

[00:40:01] But there are others as well. And perhaps we'll get to that. I think it does – it is – everything directed to the Department of Education is going to eventually decide in the courts. Yes. And which means, ultimately, the Supreme Court. And so it does raise some interesting issues about, you know, Congress authorizes something.

[00:40:24] The president is no longer – is not taking the action that Congress authorized. That could be some – there could be some constitutional issues there. Although the president does lead the administration of his executive agencies.

[00:40:46] So it – really interesting issue that, again, they'll probably get some district court, probably in D.C., some liberal judge who issued an injunction stopping all the dismissals. That will go to the D.C. Circuit. D.C. Circuit is not – will not be friendly to the Trump administration. So, ultimately, it's going to be a decision that the Supreme Court will have to decide. And I'll just say in that, there's some sympathy for people who are just told, you've lost your job today and not pack up and walk out.

[00:41:17] We can all sort of sympathize with people who do that. That's hard. On the other hand, don't be too concerned about their – losing their salary. They had big salaries. It used to be the notion that if you worked for government, there was a public service and you were making less than everybody else. That is not the case these days. With the federal government, you're making a very nice salary, lots of benefits, lots of job protections. It has changed in that regard. Well, again, I've said before, sometimes your angry is misdirected.

[00:41:44] If you're upset about the fact that certain individuals are losing their jobs, maybe you should be upset about the people who created all those jobs. If you're upset about cutting the cost of government now, maybe you should have been upset about the people that were spending all that money before. If you're upset about certain people being deported, maybe you should have been upset about the people that allowed them in in the first place. So we'll see where that goes. Just real quick, Harry. I was in – as you know, I was in D.C., so I was in our D.C. office, which is a block from the White House.

[00:42:14] We're in this building, wonderful, beautiful building that houses other – houses federal agencies. And I think I said before, I've been in there and I've never seen anyone. Yes. This past week, I saw people. And I really – I was in the – Did you see fear in their eyes? Well, I was in the – I was in the – I have never gone to the restroom where there have been other people in there. And I was like, there are two other – they were gentlemen, which was positive.

[00:42:43] I know the difference from the Biden administration. I literally thought – I was going to ask them, are you guys working on your email for what – the five things that you did this week? Or sending out your resume. Or that, yes. But there were – I mean, so that – I mean, yeah, I've been there going there for over two years at our offices. There are actually people working there now. I know. And, again, they've shown some of these videos just walking through, like, the Small Business Administration. Small businesses had to come back after the pandemic, but nobody came into Small Business Administration.

[00:43:11] So – and Dr. Merrill Matthews and I have shared some stories walking through those halls in the past, and it's pretty amazing. But we're down to two minutes. So, Colin, finish us off here. Yeah, here we are with this gracious gift right at the end of this hour, $10,000 added to what was remaining. $10,370 available in a dollar-for-dollar match. Let me just say here in the last few minutes, call or click through 800-347-5151, pointofview.net.

[00:43:40] Also, if you're listening to this on a tape delay, you're listening to it later in the evening or on another day on a podcast, those funds may still be available. So just keep giving. We'll give you updates beginning of next week. Kirby will be able to do that. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everybody. Everybody who has given this week, thank you to those who've provided those matching gifts. Those have been so helpful. And again, $10,270 now remaining in this dollar-for-dollar match.

[00:44:07] Let's see some big gifts come in here and wipe that out this afternoon or this evening. 800-347-5151 or pointofview.net. Well, I say thank you. Thank you to you for being with us all week. And your wife was with us for a couple days before she had to head back. So it's been great to have you here. I certainly want to thank Megan for her help and Steve for his help as well. You guys, I really appreciate you coming in here. We will certainly next week have a chance to get everybody the full meal deal and have a chance to hear all of that.

[00:44:37] But thank you both. And Dr. Merrill Matthews, we've been doing this for many years. Many years. So it's great to have you here. And Jeff, again, I always appreciate your perspective. If you would like to know more about First Liberty, if you'd like to know more about some of the articles by Dr. Merrill Matthews, those are all available on the website. But again, just as we go off the air, 800-347-5151. You can always go to the website pointofview.net. Have a great weekend.

[00:45:03] March Madness, NFL and NBA and Major League Baseball. We'll be back on Monday. Truth Team Week is almost over, but there is still time to join. We started the week with a goal of raising $150,000. And you can still help us get there by visiting pointofview.net. We can all agree that America needs a source of clarity to turn to in confusing times.

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