Biden Begs for Help

Today on Sekulow, it's developing now, President Biden planning a Saudi trip amid the American energy crisis we're going to talk about today on Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow and on this Friday we're going to take a lot of phone calls to 1-800-684-3110 as gas prices continue to soar. President Biden now trying to do something to alleviate. Now he's not of course turning to U.S. energy independence and American energy independence to get us back on track to being a net exporter of energy and get these prices down. No, he's heading to Saudi Arabia and to OPEC countries, the organization of petroleum exporting countries. Now they already have increased their output or will for July and August 50%.

But remember, I want to play this. This is what President Biden said about the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS as people call him, while he was campaigning for President. And just how much things have changed between then and today. Khashoggi was in fact murdered and dismembered. And I believe in the order of the Crown Prince. We were going to in fact make them pay the price and make them in fact the pariah that they are. There's very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.

They have to be held accountable. So what he was calling for there is the Saudis to internally have a regime change. Take this crown prince out, install a new crown prince, because there is a king still alive. There's a whole structure there that's more complicated than just one guy.

It's a monarchy, so it's not just one guy. Exactly. And of course he comes into office. We now have all these disasters.

And guess what? There's not going to be regime change because of a President. That does also tell you about American weakness. But second, instead of calling them pariahs, what's he doing?

He's going to beg. He's going to kiss the ring, as you'd say, literally, when it comes to those countries. And instead of, if you would have had the relationship that President Trump had, it doesn't mean everything the Saudis do is perfect.

Obviously not. They're on a country of particular concern. The State Department is for how their human rights abuse is.

So everybody knows that. At the same time, they are a military ally and a security ally to the United States and Israel and our other Middle East allies. We have a shared enemy in Iran. We have a shared interest in oil. And so instead of him being able to pick up the phone as President of the United States of America and say, do this, he's now having to go to the country he called for regime change on.

Meet with the guy he wanted taken out. I mean, that's the other thing you understand. And do a photo op for them in Saudi Arabia. He's not coming to the U.S. in Saudi Arabia, so they increase oil production, which also was caused by his policies. So all this is caused by Joe Biden?

Yeah. So what you've got is, and this is, I think, the reality of what's about to happen is that you won't see the impact, by the way, on gas prices probably until mid-July to August. So that's number one. Number two, and I think this is the troubling thing, is it's fine that the Saudis are going to increase production, and that will help. Listen, we want people to be helped here because this is a mess. But you've got a very, we're projecting, Andy, tremendous weakness in a region of the world that you cannot project weakness.

Jay, if you only knew the truth, the truth of that remark is just resounding. You cannot go to the Middle East and any part of the world, but particularly with respect to the Middle East, where we have done many negotiations. You cannot go there hat in hand begging and asking and pleading because the mentality with which they deal and the mentality that they have sees that as the most ultimate weakness and pusillanimous nature of an American President or anybody coming to them asking hat in hand for a favor.

He's already been rebuffed once, and he's going back again. This is a display of American weakness that is indefensible. We want to take phone calls. We know this gas prices are affecting you. We want to know what your thoughts are on this, how it is impacting you, what it's like in your community. 1-800-684-3110. We really want to hear from our audience on this Friday to get information. 1-800-684-3110.

Yeah, because there's two things. One, the begging U.S. President who caused this crisis, but really how the crisis is impacting you. I want you to be able to tell your stories about your company, your small business, who you work for, your family. 1-800-684-3110 be a part of the broadcast today. We've got time for the segments to take a lot of your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back.

All right, welcome back to secule. We are taking your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110. There's one line open now, so grab it.

1-800-684-3110. President Biden, we now know, heading to Saudi Arabia later this month. Of course, one of the lead OPEC countries to beg. And he couldn't do it by phone because he had threatened the current Saudi government and called them pariahs and said there had to be a regime change there when he was running for President, like a lot of things he did. Now begging and having to show up there to do the photo op for him. They're not coming here and they couldn't do it by phone. We had a caller come in and said, Charles on YouTube, I'm afraid the Saudis will tell Biden to go pound sand. That's what they were doing up until he agreed to go kiss the ring.

Yeah. So I want to go to fan Ben in our office in Washington, DC and then get, what is the reaction on Capitol Hill on this? Because it's, listen, I want to see relief for the American people because this is, but this is self-inflicted. You know, when we say elections have consequences, elections have consequences, but the policies of a President also have consequences.

And that's what's happened here. What's the reaction in Washington? Yeah, no question about it, Jay. I mean, I think the main reaction is the one Jordan just delivered that the only reason this trip is happening, the only way this or reason this policy shift is happening is because the President's hand was forced, Jay.

I mean, look, Andy called it going hat in hand. I think that's a good description, but we're doing it, Jay, when we know good and well that we have the resources right here in America to produce what we need. And we know it, Jay, because we were energy independent just a little over a year ago. So that's really the resounding response from Capitol Hill is, look, now we're in a situation where we're desperate, where we do need energy production from overseas immediately. But the long term solution that people want, Jay, that the American people want is one that this administration and quite frankly, this Congress is not willing to give.

It's one we had just a year and a half ago. And that's that's that if you get into a bind like this, you are not in such a pinch that you have to go begging because you can produce it domestically. At this moment, Jay, we can't because of the regulatory environment from this administration. This is when you start looking like a third world country, when things like this, you don't have baby formula. I mean, this is serious, folks. And I know a lot of you are having a struggle with this. This is the United States of America.

And we don't have baby formula because what are they saying? It's it's the best state has 40 percent of what it would normally need. Colorado, which has it's sold out of 44 percent of their stock. Five one in five U.S. states is 90 percent out of baby for me. Ninety percent.

That's one in five U.S. states. I asked our staff that have young kids and you do. What do you do in a situation like this?

It's a mess. We had our youngest who's almost done and we were using one that wasn't coming out of that factory. But, you know, my son was he had to use one because he had a milk allergy, no longer hasn't. And he had to use it would have been one out of that. And this would have been a mess because it wasn't like you could have just used alternatives.

There was that made him sick. So no, it's not. It is no joke. And I know from my own, because I'm in that personal world where there's a lot of people that age and babies and people who do have the economic ability are paying double whatever. But this is saying this is tell your friends if you can even find it or if you've got it like still stored from your child because powder lasts forever. And people with money can try and find it. But it really you go to the store and look. It shows you. Yeah, but let me tell you what the problem is.

For those of us that are old enough to remember, and Andy does remember this because he and I are old enough to remember. Here's the problem. This is put your heat no higher than 68 degrees and wear a sweater because we're running out of energy. Jimmy Carter. That's right. We're seeing the same thing except really on a higher level.

And I mean it's breathtaking what's happening. Well, I mean I remember that edict that was given by President Carter. You know, just keep it at 68 and freeze to death and put a sweater on in your house. But now you've got 14 metro areas in the United States out of stock of 90% or more. A 90% of baby formula.

Atlanta, Phoenix, San Antonio, Oahu, Houston, Memphis, Jacksonville, Orlando, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, New Orleans, Mobile, and Sacramento hit with 95% out of stock. Unbelievable. And we're importing it in planes from Europe and Australia. So here's what we've got. We've got a ton of calls coming and we're going to start taking those. We've said on gas we also want to talk about the baby formula situation. We want to know what you're having. That's going to help FAN.

Right, FAN? This is going to help you communicate with the members of Congress that this is affecting our members and our folks that are listening to this broadcast. And right now, today, Jay, I mean I think that's the message that the Capitol Hill needs to get. You know, on the baby formula crisis, we care for babies on the way to adoptive families. Jay, we gave our entire supply to the last adoptive family that we placed with.

Every time we go to the grocery store now, we're trying to replenish that. And Jay, I'll tell you, this is one of those areas where they are completely out. Let me tell you this, dude, just very quickly, Jay. There's an answer to this one. There are regulations in place that the Biden administration could lift today where we could get some from overseas and start addressing this.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I want to go to Esther's call first in Louisiana on Line 1. We've got, again, one line open right now, so grab it, 1-800-684-3110. Hey, Esther, welcome to Secular.

Thanks for taking my call. I've heard that gas is supposed to go up to $9 an hour, and it's getting to the point that we're going to have to choose between gas to go to work or buy groceries. What are we supposed to do, and is this one way that they're going to try to get us to socialism? Well, in the United States, too, that should never be the choice. You have a job, and so if you have a job, you should be able to buy gas and groceries. It doesn't mean everybody has a job. It doesn't mean you can do whatever you want with them. You should be able to get enough food to feed your family and be able to get to work if you have a job.

So if you're somebody who can hold down a job, you should be able to. And that's the issue here. And I think I get Esther's point, then, is this pushes people two ways.

It gets people angry at buying, but it goes on longer, and you start saying, you know what, I just need help. I don't want to worry about it anymore. And then you let the government start doing it.

Well, here's the truth. I don't like the fact that we're going to—and Saudi Arabia has been an ally of the United States and of Israel, and then there's things changing, and I think that's positive. But I don't like the idea of having to go to the Saudis and say, bail us out of this crisis.

On the other hand—I mean, I'm just being honest. We've had other issues with oil and gas. We've been able to just call them up, and they've done it. But on the other hand—and this is the problem—on the other hand, you can't—Esther's call, which is real, is they're choosing between gas and how to get to work and food. And that's not the way it works in America, or it should not be. I would hope not in the United States of America in the year 2022 when we're saying, can I eat or do I get gas to go to work? I mean, what kind of a dilemma is that in when we were energy independent and we're no longer energy independent, and we're begging the Saudis and begging the world to give us gas so that we can project our cars? This is a terrible situation.

It's very hard to imagine us being in this posture, and yet the reality is that we are, and the President is not doing what he could do locally in the United States to alleviate it. Let me go right back to the phone. Yeah, Will in Texas on Line 3. Hey, Will, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Hi, guys.

Thanks a lot for all you're doing for us. Yeah. You know, the gas prices in Texas aren't as bad as like California or whatever, but last night I was growing up before I went home, and I have a little Subaru Impreza 13-gallon gas tank, right?

Yep. I put $60.26 into it last night, and I looked up what it would have cost me under President Trump's administration. And the lowest I ever paid under his administration was $1.29 a gallon, so that same tank of gas I paid $60.26 for last night would have cost me $16.54.

I mean, this is the problem. And this is Texas, where it's better than California or New York, because you're already seeing—listen, I filled up the other day—yesterday. I filled up yesterday, and it stopped at $100.

It's an SUV, so it takes—you know, it'll hold 20 gallons, I guess, or whatever it is. And I was low—not empty, but low—and it got to $100. It just stopped. But this is the problem, and this is the—the message we have to communicate to Washington is we can't—listen, I know it's partisan, but we have got to communicate that our members are hurting here, because this is for real. Absolutely. It's a real crisis, Jay, and there's got to be immediate solutions.

There's also going to be long-term solutions. We had Congressman Roy on this broadcast just several weeks ago, Jay, and he talked about how, look, maybe the move to ban Russian oil was the correct one in the moment, but when you do it, it's got to be coupled with unleashing American energy so that you replace the supply and you ease this burden on the American people. We didn't do that, Jay. Look, that has to happen, like, yesterday, and that message has got to reach through to the leadership. To this point, Jay, it hasn't. No.

I mean, this is the thing. They're going to beg the Saudis. They've got no problem with taking their oil, but they won't allow Americans to prosper from doing it right here at home.

Unbelievable. Which wouldn't just bring our prices down, but provides jobs and a whole industry. And we'd start it—remember, all of these problems happened with Joe Biden. You can blame him for the baby formula. You can blame him for—because, again, regulations not allowing it to come in from Europe. You can blame him for the gas prices because he campaigned on shutting down drilling in the United States and then did it.

And he did. And Keystone, but also the U.S., any kind of new drilling, and declared war on the energy companies. And then, when he does ban Russian oil and gas— Has no backup. —won't unleash American power. And because he's gone after the Saudis while he was campaigning to sound like a real tough guy, well, the tough guy, President, is now going begging and kissing the ring in Saudi Arabia.

Begging because he couldn't. President of the United States—and this is the scary thing about our country and why we're going to talk about Rick Renell about it later, the national security implications, too—is he couldn't just pick up the phone. In the past, where there's been these gas prices, they are an ally.

So you could push OPEC to start unleashing more. Not now. And now you've got to go and kiss the ring as President of the United States to even get that done. Even a 50 percent increase. It's just—it's unacceptable.

Which makes us look absurd. So weak. We're taking your calls, 800-684-3110. We want to hear from you so we can communicate to Washington our outrage. Back with more in a moment. We're going to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110.

We're about to get right back to us. But I do want to set the stage to about what we're talking about with gas prices, inflation, President Biden having to go beg the Saudis to increase the oil output, which they're going to start doing in July and August. But by 50 percent, when does that actually impact you and how long that takes to trickle down? But listen to the President here.

This is this morning in Delaware by 31. Congress could help ease the cost for families right away by passing my clean energy investment proposal that I propose that's been sitting there. Things like tax credits for businesses to produce clean energy. The tax cuts for families to make their homes more energy efficient.

That's what it results in. I met with nearly a dozen CEOs of America's largest utility companies, such as Southern Company and American Electric Power. They told me that if we pass the investments, they will make immediately lower, they'll immediately lower the average family's energy cost by about $500 a year. Except for the Amazon Washington Post even said four Pinocchios to that statement, because you know how that would take until 2030, you know, it was based on there would be more use of electric cars. So he's misusing corporate info about how the costs and some of those are nuclear energy companies. This is the Washington Post headline. Washington Post, Biden's fantastical claim of $500 in annual utility savings for Pinocchios. Four.

Yeah. So this is the left even saying pipe dream, liar. Four Pinocchios means really bad liar. And that's the left calling him. So it's not like, it's not Fox. And he's mad at his staff now because they're publicly saying that they're having to correct him to reel things back in.

But the fact of the matter is he's making these, he makes these statements. Do you remember what they used to, the way they used to beat up President Trump? Oh yeah.

Just for talking. This guy, now to the Washington Post credit, they didn't let him get away with it. But the fact that they, they say a dozen, this is, this is what it says. This is Biden's fantastical claim of $500 in annual utility savings. This is the Washington Post headline, Andy, coming on this. Yeah.

Remember, democracy dies in darkness, they say. So now they're exposing him. He didn't hear from utility executives. The report he is citing is not about household utility bill savings. Most of the claims savings come from the reduced cost of driving.

So they call him out on all these things. And there's a lot of reduced cost in driving because people can't afford to drive their cars. We got to decide whether you're going to buy a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas.

That's ridiculous. Back to the phones we go. Let's go to Jared in California.

We know a state that's hit with really high prices. Take Jared. Hey Jared. Hey. So thank you for taking my call. Sure.

Long time listener, first time caller. Last week our prices was $7.29 for diesel. It's got to be higher than that now because they said diesel price is almost at eight and a half, I saw. That was last week. $7.29.

I couldn't believe it. How's that impacting, from what you're gathering in California, and we're on a lot of stations in California, how's it impacting people out there right now? Well, a lot of the people that I know and work with are driving 30 minutes one way to work, 40 minutes one way to work. And they're just like, we got to get rid of our SUV, our pickup, and get a little car.

And good luck because the market was hot for those little rigs. They say car prices are up 30% in some states. Oh, yeah, because it's the used car market.

I mean, you could sell your used car, the dealerships will buy them back for you. The whole thing too, I have a V8 and you can just think about it. And everybody, I think that's probably the average commute for most people. 30 minutes is not a big, huge commute. No. But you're burning gas.

That's costing real money. You're having to fill up once a week. Yeah, so in Washington right now, what's the tenor? I mean, Republicans, Democrats, what's the tenor of what's on Capitol Hill? This is a mess. Biden has to unleash the power of the American economy and American ingenuity to beat this back. I mean, it's fine that the Saudis are our ally, but this puts us in a terrible spot.

Well, here's the problem right now, Jay. The only solutions that are being put forward from the White House and then from the leadership in both chambers, quite honestly, are spending and stimulus solutions. I mean, we've all seen this. It's spending package after spending package after spending package. And some of it clearly is legitimate. But, Jay, clearly they believe that they can throw money at the problem and make it go away. I mean, the Washington Post article that you just read from illustrates that. But, Jay, when you're talking about inflation of this magnitude, that's actually compounding and accelerating the inflation problem. So, look, the message that we're trying to get to them is that the American people actually want the government to get out of the way of productivity, especially when it comes to domestic energy exploration. But, Jay, the tenor, it's one of spending and stimulus. Yeah. Grant in Maryland on Line 5. Hey, Grant, welcome to Sekulow.

Hey, thanks for taking my call. I think the important thing to know about Biden's high gas prices is that Biden perfectly well knows how to lower those gas prices. But he has the effect he wants. He wants high gas prices to make it impossible for people to use internal combustion engine cars.

Yes. He says we're all going to be driving electric vehicles. We have to have cost $60,000 apiece. And he's building no electrical infrastructure to charge those vehicles. So a person has to see what he's showing you. That's the thing we noticed with electric cars is that it is, to everybody using one, first of all, like you said, the entry price is so high to electric cars.

Very difficult for most people. It's come down considerably. It used to be $100,000.

It's gone down to $60,000. But you can't even get those right now. They're not available on the market. Plus you don't have the infrastructure. And if we all did, let's say everybody could get one right now, the energy grid would collapse. Yeah, because you don't have the electrical capacity.

You don't have the energy capacity. It's a novelty still. But this is where you have to have planning to go into an infrastructure change like this. But we're the callers right. They will use this crisis to drive that point home. That's why they're saying the annual savings. That's the whole idea is to use – That's the politics of it.

The politics of it is exactly what you said. Use the gas crisis to force you into an electric vehicle crisis that you can't afford to pay and you can't find a place to charge it. And if you do, the whole energy grid collapses. People like Elon Musk, who have a great interest if everybody had to buy an electric car, said it's not ready for that yet.

And I say novelty in that sense. It's working. You can now, if you can afford one, you know it works. You can kind of rely on it. And they're innovating. I think it's great. And wonderful. But it's not ready for everybody yet.

Hope that you have an open – to be able to plug it in. Right, especially if you're going long – right. It's not made for everybody.

No. And that's the whole point. People can't afford it. The level to entry is high. It's something to start testing with people that have the resources to do it. And I think, yeah – But when you can't get baby formula and gas is $6 a gallon and food prices are out of sight, you know what people are not thinking about?

Buying a $60,000 electric car. But they're not going to vote Democrat either. They're going to just overwhelmingly not vote for you. So the politics of this long – the short-term problem with his politics here is this hurts Joe Biden considerably. And it hurts his party considerably. How much political pain are they willing to suffer and to put you through that ultimately just ends up in them losing elections? I mean that's the part here that – the long-term political play here, this has gone out of control I think.

So while I do agree with everybody that I think he did want the prices to go up and I do think he wanted to push people – I think now when it starts getting to $8 and $9 and that's why he's rushing to go beg and kiss the ring in Saudi Arabia. It's too much for them to even. They've let it go out of control. Their policies, we all said were going to be a disaster. And they've become quickly a disaster in our country.

So when we came out of the COVID crisis, our economy began to collapse. All right folks, we're going to be taking your calls when we come back from the break. 1-800-684-30, 110-800-6843, 110. If you're watching on our social media applications, I encourage you to share this with your friends.

Rick Grenell is going to be coming up in the next half hour as well. We'll take your calls. It's very important we hear from you. We want to be able to – listen, this is why we have an office in Washington. To communicate the desire, to communicate the concerns to the lawmakers.

1-800-684-30, 110. Don't forget to support the work of the ACLJ. You can do that at ACLJ.org. And follow us on Twitter, on TruSocial, and of course on other social media platforms. We'll be back with more in just a moment. If you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today, ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. For the President of the United States who called the Saudi Arabian government – this is President Biden – a pariah saw no worth in that government. The Saudi government was basically calling for, when he was campaigning, for the Saudi government to do their own regime change, which a monarchy can do.

Of course, they didn't do that. And now what's he doing? He's flying over to Saudi Arabia to kiss the ring because OPEC just announced that they would increase oil production 50 percent in July and August. But he couldn't do that by phone. And the reason why he couldn't do that by phone, it's not because eventually as your President you don't meet with the Saudis and sometimes go there. They're a strategic ally. President Trump did it to fight terrorism. And we had them as an ally to fight terrorism. It doesn't make them perfect by any means. But what I've said is the crisis he created here at home has now gotten out of his control.

It has. It's not like, I just want to put some pressure on people to buy more electric cars. Because now people can't afford electric cars.

They can't get baby formula. And they're choosing between food and driving. And I want to go right… Take Ron's call. He's coming and calling from Montana. This is very, very interesting. Hey Ron, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Hey Ron.

Oh, thank you. I'm seeding wheat in eastern Montana. And we have had loads of fertilizer come in for years.

We've been here since 1923. Last year, an 11-ton load was $4,000. This year, thanks to Biden, it's $11,000 a load.

And we have really been wondering how to make this work. We're still putting grain in the ground. And the prices of diesel is around $5.44 a gallon here.

And what's really a mystery is Williston, the Bakken oil in eastern Montana and western North Dakota has more oil than the world has. And we could make the prices go back down. That's exactly the problem is that we have the capacity and the resources here in the United States, but we have an administration that will not allow it to happen.

And then I want to focus on something you said, Ron. Fertilizer costs have tripled. Fertilizer costs have tripled. Now, you impact our farmers like this.

Guess what you've run into? Food shortages, food prices out of control because they've got to be able to make a living doing this, and it creates a country-wide problem. It's not just the farmer in Montana. It's anybody that is producing grain, food, items when these costs are out of control like this. So this, like Jordan said, this isn't helping him politically, but it's really hurting the United States.

Of course it is. I mean, I sympathize with Ron's call. And as he said, in Montana, the fuel available in Montana, if we would allow the drilling to take place, would alleviate these things. But this is the administration's policy that he has taken in an effort to force us to do something that we, and that is what, like Musk said, that we are not prepared to do, and that is electric cars. But the President is determined to force us to do it even at the hands of humiliating us before the Saudis. It really is, Jay, a humiliation to the United States to do that.

I think you're right. Yeah, I mean, this, again, it's a President who wants to blame everything on Russia, but it's not just Russia. It's the policy they took towards Russia because, remember, this is his fault.

He decided, like we said, he cut off Russian oil and gas without having a plan. That same thing goes for the fertilizer. Exactly.

It comes from Russia and Ukraine. You're fertilizing for these. Cut it off until you know, like we were talking about with Congressman Roy, we were talking about that. We can all agree we'd like to get to that point. When you get to that point, better have your backup plan ready. This White House, because it's run by liberal kids and an old man, has no backup plan for anything.

They have no backup plan. So, folks, again, I want to take your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. A little bolt of music there. We thought we were running over. But we do have another, we have about 42 seconds left. Let me say something in 42 seconds. We're going to hear from Rick Renell coming up. We're going to take your calls with Rick, but we really need to hear from you.

Fan, 30 seconds. Do this in 20. We've got to communicate to Washington. You're doing that today. You've got to do it, Jay. There's political pain, but guess what? We haven't seen the policy pivot yet.

We've seen the desperation going to OPEC. Jay, we need the full policy pivot now. All right, folks, we're going to continue to take your phone calls while we've got Rick on, too, because we're going to look at this coming up next. There's a national security issue.

Because we talked about the weakness, but how specifically does it make us weak and how it impacts our national security. But right back with Rick Renell and Sekulow. All right, welcome back to Sekulow. We're going to continue to take your phone calls.

We're joined now by our senior advisor for national security and foreign policy, Rick Renell. And, Rick, we've been talking about the gas price. We've been talking about the baby formula. We've been talking about fertilizer, the trip to Saudi Arabia, and having a begged OPEC.

But I want to also to get to people. So we've been hearing the personal stories. We're going to continue to take those. But I know today you want to talk about, too, how this impacts our national security. Definitely we all see how it makes us look weak.

And it looks really sad when we're having to import baby formula like a third-world country off of military planes. So, Rick, just to talk to people about how this impacts our national security and our standing in the world. Well, look, I think one of these concepts that we've always pushed here in America is having a credible threat of military action, which shows our strength. And I think with Joe Biden, there is a difference between Donald Trump having a credible threat of military action. Joe Biden just has a threat. It's not a credible threat.

And that credibility translates in so many different ways. I think it actually translates into the baby formula. I mean, look, we're having the country of Germany is having to bail us out.

Do you think that the German government and the German people are looking at the Biden administration and saying, OK, here's an administration that totally dropped the sanctions on the Russian pipeline at our request? Now they can't, you know, pay for baby formula. They can't produce it.

They can't manufacture it. It's a real problem when the Europeans are looking at us as weak because the fact is the Europeans are weak. This is going to translate into our economy, our national security.

And we talk about it a lot, but now we're feeling it. We are seeing how other countries are having to give us foreign aid. Rick, I want to get us with it. Other countries are having to provide the U.S. foreign aid. Think about that for a minute. I mean, that's why I was about to jump in with because, Rick, I think you just summed up what the problem is. The United States of America needs foreign aid from Germany and other countries because we can't get baby formula. And this is what we're talking about.

In the United States, we've gone from, you know, you didn't like Donald Trump's tweets, but you like not being able to get baby formula and paying, you know, $5.50 for gas? I don't think so. Let's take a phone call so they could talk to Rick as well. Let's go to Ken. Hey, Ken, calling in from California online. Hey, Ken, welcome to Secular. You're on the air.

Yeah, thanks for taking the call. My experience has been the prices on pet food and lumber, but pet food has just been through the roof. We used to go over here to Walmart and buy pet food for like 20, 32 cents a can, and those cans are all gone now, and the shelves only have the same size of pet food with a different name on it, and they're wanting 66 cents a can. This is the thing, and people are thinking about that too.

It's like feeding your pets, which used to be so nominal of a cost, even if you wanted to buy the higher-end pet food, but now you can't even buy that. I mean, Rick, I know you're a dog lover. Two cats I feed, one outdoor cat that I help feed, right?

I'm a dog. We don't use the same brands. Ken's right. The name brands, they're not there anymore. It costs ridiculous amounts. I used to just have it on Amazon Auto Delivery.

That's gone because they don't have the stock. Rick, these are the things in America that people that work should be able to fill up their car with gas, have food on the table, and be able to feed a pet. They should be able to pay for dog food from Walmart. Look, I think that our listeners realize it's not just a problem with baby formula.

It's not just a problem with pet food. We know that there are lots of items that have just skyrocketed. I'm hearing individuals now who are in college and who live off campus now having to go online because they literally can't afford the gas. We talk about the price of gas all the time, but this is absolutely Joe Biden's fault. This is a simple supply and demand issue. When you don't supply enough, when you cut all of the production, then you are going to have a problem with demand. The equilibrium price is going to skyrocket.

I'm no economist, but this is pretty basic. Let's go to Bonnie in Oklahoma on Line 1. Hey, Bonnie. Welcome to Secular.

You're on the air. Hello. I just wanted to reiterate that I spent part of the afternoon last week canceling services that we were normally having come, like lawn care, pest control, things that we need to try to do without now because the money is going out our bank account so fast. We're upper middle class. It's shocking. I'm telling you, it's impacting everybody.

When you cancel those services, which you need to do, it impacts those companies. Again, it's costing those companies more just to get to your house and even provide the insecticide. Everything costs so much more. But Rick said something that I think we have to reiterate here. And Rick, we are needing foreign aid to put baby formula into parents' hands. We're needing foreign aid to get OPEC, begging OPEC to get our oil production up when we could have been doing this in the United States. I mean, this puts our whole country not just in weakness, but in a national security situation, in my view. Am I wrong on that?

No, it's totally true. Look, Mother Nature is laughing at us because we have a bunch of left-wing lunatics in Washington, D.C., who are telling us that we should get oil from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, but not from the coast of California. I think that we do a better job, a cleaner job with the technology. We can pump it out and produce it in a much safer, cleaner, better way than just saying, well, let's get it from Venezuela or Saudi Arabia. This is a crisis that's going to get worse. Remember Jamie Dimon, who is a pretty moderate guy, J.P. Morgan Chase, CEO. He is saying that this is going to be a hurricane in the economy coming forward.

It is going to get worse, and it is all because the Democrats are literally implementing policies that are far left of world policy. Let's go to Bobby in New York, online. Hey, Bobby, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Hi, I just want a great show.

I just want to, in Niagara Falls, New York, I should say. I just want to know, are we stuck until we get a new President before we begin our own oil production again and open up the leases and start the drilling? Are we stuck to wait for a new President?

Maybe. And this is the problem. I mean, you're just being politically honest, but I'm going to go to Washington to Than on this for a moment. What about pressure coming from the House and Senate?

I know it's tough in the House, but it's so close in the House. I mean, let's be realistic. And the midterms are around the corner here. Is this enough of an issue to push over the House and the Senate to Republican control?

I'm going to ask you that too, Jordan. But Than? Oh, I thought, yeah, I think it might be enough to push it over to control. Look, the only way that the pressure from the Congress is going to get to the place that it actually moves the administration, I think it will take a party control because right now, Jay, you know, look, this is just the fact on the ground. The Democrat Party is dominated by progressives. That's why Joe Biden's policy is what it is. But, Jay, it all comes down to this. An energy company has to be able to reliably forecast in order to make the outlays to explore, refine and then distribute. They don't have that right now. That's what you've got to give them.

A reliable ability to forecast. Let's go to Tammy in California on Line 2. Hey, Tammy. You're on the air. Hi, guys.

Hello. I just wanted to make a comment because up in Northern California, we're paying, I just filled up, it was $6.19 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. And I drive, I work about an hour away from home, so I'm spending about $125 a week in gas. Unreal. My question is, is nobody is asking, well, we have our governors pushing the electric cars and we have this crazy President pushing the electric cars. Is here in California, we get what they call a rolling blackout. Yeah, I know. I know you have that problem. And, Rick, of course, you live in California and we're hearing from a lot of Californians.

We're on a lot of stations there. This is a real problem. And Tammy is expressing a real concern, Rick, here.

People trying to just get by. This is really getting tough. Well, Tammy and Rick Grinnell both have a problem in that we're getting a double whammy of being in California.

Look, she's right. We've rolling blackouts because we are not participating in the LNG explosion that the rest of the country is. There's not a single LNG terminal on the entire West Coast.

Unreal. We live on the ocean. And yet we have literally ads on television telling us to conserve more water. We can't conserve anymore. We're already supposed to take bath showers and you're supposed to not water your lawn on certain days. So all of our lawns are becoming brown and gross. And they're just saying, we'll put rocks in. You literally in the state of California are being told to unplug. There's commercials.

Unplug your kitchen appliances. I saw that. Here's the thing. And Rick, I appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the broadcast.

We appreciate you tonight. We are looking, like Rick said, foreign aid. The United States needs foreign aid.

We'd look like a third world country. We're going to take your calls in this last segment. We need to hear from you. I want to hear from some parents on this formula situation too. 1-800-684-3110.

If you can get through 800-684-3110. You know what's tough and why I think we haven't heard so many of the parents directly is because they're spending their day with their free time trying to find formula. Is it that big of a thing? Yes. If you're in that age group, I am.

I see the post every day. They will pay anything. And that's a group that can pay.

It's not even double, triple. It's just anything. And they've got to ship it to their friends somewhere else. So it's not even just the local issue.

It's also people trying to help people in other places. 1-800-684-3110. Join us. All right. Welcome back. Can we take your phone calls too?

This is 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grenell said something I think that we really have to. And we were asking Rick to write this up. And Andy, I think this is important. We do a lot of international work.

But Rick said it right. The United States is needing foreign aid. I mean when you think about it in those terms, that the United States of America in a period of less than two years has gone from an energy exporter, energy independent, to now begging the Saudis and begging the Germans to get formula over here so babies can get their formula. That we're getting foreign – think about it in that context – we're getting foreign aid.

When he said that, it was a chilling thought that went down my spine to think that the United States of America is dependent on foreign aid that is aid from other countries in order to survive, in order to drive cars, to eat bread, to have to feed children. Isn't that shocking? It's not only shocking. To me, it's frightening that we have reached this in this short period of time. The man has only been in office 18 months. Well, it just shows you what he campaigned on and immediately started doing.

He went to war with the American energy companies and he's also started cutting us off from foreign sources without having a backup plant. Shut down the baby formula plant without having the backup plant. It shouldn't have been an emergency situation. If we needed to shut down that plant temporarily, we should have talked to our allies around the world and just had it shipped in. Not to where it looked like we're bringing in C-130s with baby formula. And that's what we look like. We talked about it in our meeting. It's like a tornado or something like that happened, but we're the country that needs Samaritan's Purse.

Yes. That is pretty shocking. We need to feed our babies.

It's unreal. Let's go back to the phones. Warren in Idaho on Line 5.

Hey, Warren. Hey, thanks guys for taking my call. As a small business owner, you know, the fuel prices are killing us, but I believe and I've talked to a lot of people here that they know exactly what they're doing and they're just trying to destroy this economy to cram socialism and government independence. I think it's up to a point, but I think that they went too far, which is what we all warned, was that their bad policies would not just push you a little bit and say, ah, you know what, maybe I'll buy an electric car next because no one can buy an electric car if you have no money to buy one. And if there's none available, which there aren't, it doesn't matter because of supply chain issue. We talked about baby formulas to the supply chain issue, but the bigger supply chain issue we haven't gotten to today. So I think I agree. I didn't want to punish people to an extent, but now it's gotten out of control and they're running around the world begging for, as Rick said, foreign aid and OPEC to produce more oil and gas. So here's the question for Than. Well, we're not at war.

You know, we're not at war in the Middle East right now and we're having to beg OPEC to do more oil and gas. So here's the question, Than, and we're hearing the frustration. We're going to take more calls in a moment. The frustration is real.

This is a serious issue. That's why we wanted to do this broadcast today. What can we communicate this afternoon? What can your team communicate this afternoon from just what we've heard so far?

Because this is pretty frightening stuff. Jay, I think we've got to communicate the pain and then we've got to provide the political pivot for this administration because, look, Jordan is correct that I think it's time to pivot. Jay, they don't know how to pivot. They've got to listen to people like Elon Musk who say, look, there's no bigger proponent in the world than me of electric cars. Guess what we need to get there? We need a fossil fuel industry that is robust and that can supply the bridge to get there. Jay, that bridge, that bridge to electric cars is what this administration is opposed to. So this afternoon, I think that's the message we communicate. Look, you can have your vision for an electric car future, but to get there today, the American people have to have that bridge for fossil fuels.

At this moment, Jay, this administration is opposed to that. Let's go to Matt in Connecticut on Line 6. Hey, Matt. Hey, guys. Pleasure to speak with you and thank you very much for what you're doing for us.

Thanks, Matt. So I'm in the construction industry. I sell heavy equipment, wheel loaders and excavators and such. So, you know, I made my living selling heavy iron where I just had a customer return a machine that he had planned to rent for about five months and then purchase. But now not only are there supply chain issues where they can't get their materials, the pipe going in the ground that are now five months out. Right. He expected them on site, you know, this week. He just returned that machine.

I just lost about a $10,000 commission. Now, that's me personally. Now, on his end, he's got rising diesel fuel costs and delays in materials, and yet he's having to pay labor higher prices. This is the problem. I'm going to cut you off if we're running close on time. This is the problem.

It's not just – it's the impact that each industry has on the other industry, and that's how you end up in a recession. And this is where you have to be very careful and very cautious, and that's why this program has been so enlightening. Let's try to get at least one more call in. We probably may be able to get you in. You want to go to Samuel Jordan? Yeah, Samuel, Michigan on Line 3. Hey, Samuel. Hey, guys. Thank you.

Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, so I work for an engineering consulting company out of Michigan, and we drive around all kinds of construction sites, and I average almost 300 miles in a day. And as you can imagine, that kind of puts a huge toll on the company that I work for just in gas prices. But not only that, the contractors that hire us, they're also seeing the bill because we've got to compensate that in some way.

So now you've got contractors that are trying to meet this new infrastructure push to increase infrastructure in all these big cities that are – This is the ripple effect of what's happened. Elections have consequences, policies have consequences, and bad policies, Andy, have really bad consequences. And we have bad policies.

Yeah, bad policies. Johnny in Kansas line at 4. Hey, Johnny. Hi. You're on the air. Hello? You're on the air, Johnny.

Hi. Yes, I'm calling from Kansas, and I'm addressing the baby formula shortage. I have a daughter that lives in Oklahoma and a niece that lives in Missouri.

Shelves are very bare at all three states. I have tried to find it for my daughter. We're about to possibly have to go to goat's milk. It is supposed to be the closest to breast milk.

Her pediatrician said it is an excellent choice, but you just need to add vitamins to it. Yeah. I mean, this is the issue, and it's – This is when Rick says we're dependent on foreign aid.

Again, if that's what you wanted to choose from in the beginning, that's one thing, but you're having to shift, and that's a whole – causes all this. This is the percent, 74 percent nationally out of stock rates. That's the national out of stock rate. So, I mean, 75 – you know, 74 percent. In one in five states, it's 90 percent. In the best states, it's 44 percent.

It's almost half. So, I mean, again, this idea that we're relying on foreign countries to feed our babies in the United States. Blame Joe Biden. Blame the Democrat Party.

Seriously. Blame Joe Biden. Never stop, and don't ever forget to blame Joe Biden when you vote in November. Blame the Democrat Party. It is their fault. It is the liberal – it says two things. It's a guy who certainly does not have full control over his administration because he's appointing a lot of 30-year-olds to run it. And they're doing a horrible job.

And these 30-year-olds don't realize reality because they're a bunch of rich kids who don't worry about bills and live in cities that they don't drive. Right. So, Than, here's what I want to do. I want to know – I would like you to be able to contact our key members on the Hill and say, we've done an hour of broadcasts today, and the American people from coast to coast are really hurting and are very concerned about where we are. We need to communicate that today. We'll communicate it, Jay.

We'll also communicate it. It's a national security issue. The country that gives the foreign aid, Jay, they have the leverage. Guess what? We've lost the leverage. I'll tell you something. If we don't react on this like you just said and hold a party responsible, shame on us.

Shame on us. China becomes the superpower easily. Russia continues their aggression in Ukraine and probably continues elsewhere.

And the world goes to you nowhere. Okay? So go to ACLJ.org and stay up to speed. We want to hear your outrage and we want you to remember your outrage when you go vote November 2.