Biden’s Entire Agenda On The Brink of Unraveling

Today on Sekulow finds entire agenda on the brink of unraveling. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. We've got a lot to talk about today. We're going to take off just to kind of walk you through what we'll be talking about today. We're going to talk about Build Back Better and how it's having serious problems because of Senator Joe Manchin after a White House meeting between President Biden and Senator Manchin. But the battle there to stop Build Back Better or Build Back Bad, if you want to call it that, is still very much alive. It is not dead yet. And so you've got these Democrat senators and their leadership saying they think they can have a vote on this before Christmas. So another attempt to try and get something through when you're at some of your most distracted times, when you're focusing it on holiday plans, finishing out the work year and your kids' activities, your grandkids' activities, that's when they want to push through Build Back Better when you're not looking. But there are still real problems for President Biden.

We're going to talk about that. Senator Hagerty, Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee is going to be joining us because there's an attempt by Republican members of Congress right now, I hope it becomes bipartisan, to strengthen the Taylor Force Act. You remember Taylor Force Act was passed in 2018. It was after Taylor Force, who was a Marine who was killed in a terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas.

He was there not in his fatigues, but as a student from Vanderbilt University's business school, which oftentimes you'll have study abroad programs, he was stabbed to death and killed. There was then a legislative move in 2018 to bar and restrict non-humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Authority. That meant that they would not have money from the U.S. for their what we call Pay for Slay program, paying the families of those who carry out these horrendous terrorist attacks and rewarding them and rewarding those families with cash and other items. There's a tip now to strengthen the Taylor Force Act, to put more teeth on it actually, to actually prevent and deter foreign banks from making these payments to known martyrs' families so that if the banks know they will get kicked out of the U.S. financial system, they will be much more careful about these kind of payments that they see from the Palestinian Authority to someone's family.

And they'll inquire, you know, is this about, is this because they carried out some attack? And so it puts also pressure on the banks. It doesn't just cut off funding, which the Palestinian Authority can't really be trusted with when they receive funding, to be always telling the truth about how they use it, to also putting banks in real jeopardy if they violate this new provision. Right now it's got Republican support. Early on this had bipartisan support. So again, this is something that is very important if you believe, if you stand with Israel, but also this idea of fighting back against terrorism, using a smart legislative action, action that should be, as it was before just a few years ago, bipartisan to say, you know what, we're not going to fund and allow taxpayer dollars to go and be used for what is literally known as a Pay for Slay program.

Whether you are killed during the attack or arrested during the attack, your family receives money based off the scale. It's disgusting. The U.S. has done something about it, but Senator Hagerty and his colleagues, they want to do more. They want to make it tougher. We do too at the ACLJ. So he'll be joining us as well, the broadcast, and then a big victory ACLJ out of Wyoming. This is the college level involving, again, religious figures. When we come back from the break, we're going to get into exactly what happened with this big win.

Again, during this season of the holidays, it's sometimes hard to imagine what these schools try to do to students who want to utilize anything that might be attached to something that is religious. So we're going to be talking about all that today on Sekulow. Support our work at ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. During the month of December, which is our most important month of the year financially, you can double the impact of your donation by donating today at ACLJ.org.

We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift.

All right, welcome back to Secular. There's a lot to talk about today. Joining us in the next segment of the broadcast will be Senator Haggerty of Tennessee, the U.S. Senator who is working to strengthen what we just talked about before, we've talked about a lot on the broadcast over the years, which is the Taylor-Forsack, but there's an attempt to give it some more teeth.

So we'll be talking to him about that in the next segment of the broadcast. But an ACLJ victory for a student in Wyoming. Abby, we were contacted by this student.

Tell people initially what happened. That's right, Jordan. We were contacted by a student in Wyoming. She's a college student at a public college there, and she had enrolled in an English Lit class and had decided to write about the historical figure of Jesus, which was within the confines of the assignment given. However, shortly after submitting her first essay, she was given a zero on the essay because of the content of her essay, which was about Jesus. And so she gets given a zero. I mean, that's like the worst failing grade you could get in college. What was the professor's response to why she got a zero? The professor had given them some boundaries for the essay writing at the beginning of class, which was, we don't want to hear about abortion, I don't want fantasy or fiction, and I don't want to read about your religious beliefs. But this was different. She was writing about the historical non-fictional character of Jesus, not about her personal religious beliefs.

Right. I mean, Jesus being a major historical figure, whether or not you're a religious person or not, there's not a real discussion about whether he existed. And so there's a lot to write about there.

There's authors who are not Christians who have written books on the life of Jesus and pointed to where it marks in history. So she contacts us. They put those parameters on it, trying to, I'm sure for that student, it's maybe a little confusing.

And then we help kind of clear the way, tell people how we got this handled. So she addressed it immediately with her professor and apparently with her supervisor, the supervisor of the program. They had mentioned their belief that there was academic freedom for the teacher there. And so what we explained for the student, we provided her with an informational memorandum that explained what her rights as a student are, which is academic freedom and the freedom to write about a topic such as Jesus, so long as it's within the confines of the assignment.

And here it was. So we armed her with the information that she needed to know that she could advocate for herself and for her rights. And she chose to do so. We offered to help further, but she was able to schedule a meeting with her supervisor again, talk through the matter. And they actually did agree to allow her to proceed with her essay on Jesus. The information letter, it's a good time to point out this. This is a step below trying to send a demand letter. It's definitely two or three steps below before filing a lawsuit. But it allows students who may be in a situation where they want to file a lawsuit against their school, but they do need help. And the second level of help would have been like a demand letter. But we were able to put this information letter and a lot of that's available at ACLJ.org for people.

It is. And we respond almost every day to legal requests with an informational memorandum. And then we provide them our contact information. Some people want to just know that that what they believe is true, that they have rights and that those rights are being violated. Some want to advocate for themselves. And this student did that very well.

And then others need the ACLJ to intervene, which we also do on a weekly basis via demand letter. And Harry, at the college level, I'm interested to know if I was talking to this professor, it's like whether or not they thought this Jesus was a fiction character or to, you know, doesn't want to read about students' religious beliefs. But again, it's like I feel like I should be able to then write about Muhammad. But if I was Muslim, would they not let me write about Muhammad? I mean, certainly a historical figure of huge significance.

Absolutely. But I think this move in Wyoming is very, very consistent with a prevailing pattern in universities and colleges throughout the United States. These colleges increasingly are rejecting the world of objective reality and objective truth. Instead, they are grabbing and accepting theories from the Frankfurt School in Germany, which rejects the notion of objective truth and accepts instead the notion of fantasy, unreality and untruth, basically as the foundations of society. So I think this move is consistent with the notion that professors, by and large, now this is seeping down into community colleges, they seek to overthrow the Western tradition.

And one way of doing that is by rejecting historical figures like Jesus. You know, one of the things, Abby, too, I thought the student was very gracious to the ACLJ. They had some issues getting help. Tell people about what happened there. She did. She actually indicated and I'll just read her statement when I reach out to her to provide the information and then I followed up with her to see how things were going. She said it really means so much that you guys responded and that this is important.

I have tried getting into contact with others for assistance as well. And you are the only ones that responded. Thank you so much. Yeah. So right there, I think that stands up so much for what we do at the ACLJ is being able to direct directly assist. And sometimes I think people think, you know, they hear about us or they see us in other media or even on this, they say, you know, maybe my situation is too small. It's not a big enough issue because I'm not really looking to sue. But this is a good time to remind our supporters, but also those people who might be in those situations, that your situation is not too small and that we'll have actual attorneys assist you.

That's exactly right. And we do on a daily and weekly basis, you know, part of our mission is to educate parents and students and organizations as to what their rights are. And here the right of a student to engage in religious expression. You know, the Constitution requires that there be neutral academic criteria, that they be judged by neutral criteria. And so that's what we did here is is make sure that she was judged by neutral criteria. Yeah, I mean, to me, it's important to just underscore that if you go to ACLJ and you feel like you're in a situation like this, it's ACLJ.org forward slash help. You put in basic information about your situation.

I always want to remind people this time of year because nativity has come up, Christmas scene has come up. We're able to handle those. We're going to be talking about that later too in the week and next week as well.

Most of those are being handled more simply as well, where if you feel like your town or your city did something that makes you uncomfortable or change their policies this year. Sometimes you can just utilize the resources ACLJ.org. But if you need a little guidance, we are here and it doesn't cost you anything. And it's certainly just to put in the information ACLJ.org forward slash help. It doesn't take long to get a response.

That's right. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Yeah, this is this is key. I want to go to Thad Bennett in Washington, D.C., too, because Thad, it kind of speaks to me. It's the core work of the ACLJ. We're there for that college student.

It's yes, we have, you know, a U.S. senator coming up next on the broadcast. But the core work of the ACLJ is those students and parents and people who who are active in their community who know that something that happened to them was wrong. And they just need a little help in how to how to put it into words, if you will, and make sure that there is law backing them. Yeah, this is the heart and soul of what we do at the ACLJ, Jordan. And to be honest with you, the work that we do up here in Washington, D.C., the work that I do every day really is done to enable the work that we do on the ground.

I mean, to preserve the liberties that people have all across this country. You know, Jordan, as you were talking to Abby, I had a couple of thoughts. The one was, you know, how crazy is this double standard, because I just have no doubt that if this student was writing about, you know, Joseph Smith or even Dr. King or Gandhi or, you know, some other some some other character affiliated with a different religion or even a Christianity, Jordan.

But if it wasn't Jesus himself, I don't think there would have been a problem. But the second thing that came to mind is that what you landed your conversation with Abby on. I just want to encourage people to not be afraid to contact the ACLJ, because so many times these issues can be resolved respectfully behind the scenes, just arming you with the information you need to go advocate for yourself. And Jordan, we can sort of dial that meter up according to how, you know, the client or the person involved here desires. If that doesn't solve the issue, we can go to the demand letter level if you're comfortable with that. If that doesn't resolve the issue, sometimes there are lawsuits that can be pursued. But I guess the bottom line thought for me, Jordan, we can't do any of that if you don't contact us, if we don't hear about the situation, if we don't have an opportunity to arm you with the information.

So kudos to the student, kudos to Abby. And just a reminder, that's why we do the work in Washington, D.C., so that these situations down on the states, down in your communities can be resolved in a satisfactory way. I thought what Diane said there is important, and I think for a lot of those individuals, the student in particular, when you're maybe, or your business, if you work in a big company, you're not looking to necessarily file a lawsuit on this big company. You're looking to correct a wrong or just make sure, you have that feeling that what happened to you was wrong, and we're there for that.

So you don't have to just think ACLJ lawsuit only. But when we contact you, that's kind of the last resort. The first resort is to try and prevent having to file a lawsuit because we want a quicker resolution. That's right, and that's actually how we handle the majority of these cases is through informational letters or demand letters. And we're able to resolve them fairly quickly, typically when someone reaches out to us.

If that legal request falls within the scope of what we do, we are able to respond within 24 to 48 hours. All right, folks. Again, that information will be up at ACLJ.org. We have a blog going up about that victory. Abby, great work representing that student in Wyoming.

A lot to talk about if we're going to continue to go on the show today. Senator Hagerty from Tennessee is joining us next. We'll be talking about the trying to add more teeth to the Taylor Force Act, as well kind of educate you about that.

Because I was back in 2018, but it's a very important law that could be strengthened. We've got Republican support for that. Can we get Democrat support for it? Support our work at ACLJ.org. Double the impact of your donation at ACLJ.org the entire month of December. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. Uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Welcome back to Sekulow. Before we get to our next topic, I just want to encourage you, just a reminder about contacting the ACLJ through ACLJ.org forward slash help, just like that student did in Wyoming. It doesn't have to be because you want to go full scale legal war against, whether it's your employer or school you go to, but you need some legal backing. You need some legal assistance. Go to ACLJ.org forward slash help, and I will tell you that's how we work through it. We start off with informational letters, and the next is potentially a demand letter if you're comfortable with that, and then ultimately a lawsuit if that's where you want to go, but it's to protect your rights, whether you're a college student, whether you're an employee or employer or state or city worker who's confused about the laws, especially when it gets time around the holidays. So I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org forward slash help.

That's ACLJ.org forward slash help. Now, we're going to switch into Taylor Force here. Now, you know, folks, we talked about this a lot on the broadcast. In March of 2016, a Palestinian terrorist murdered a U.S. Army veteran, Taylor Force, in Israel. He was an Army veteran, but he was there on a Vanderbilt Business School study abroad program. So he was not in fatigues.

He was there just as a student. He was stabbed and killed. That person who carried out the terrorist attack then receives money from the Palestinian Authority in what's called a pay-for-slay program. After a couple of years of legislative work signed by President Trump, the Taylor Force Act, which prevented U.S. dollars from going to the Palestinian Authority that could then be utilized for these pay-for-slay slush funds to go to these martyrs' families. But, as you know, over time, these groups, they try to find loopholes.

The Palestinian Authority has tried to find loopholes with this fungible cash that still goes over as humanitarian aid. U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee is joining us now on the broadcast. Senator Hagerty, first, let me thank you for being here. And second, the Taylor Force Act was a great piece of legislation, but your colleagues and your co-sponsor of this believe that it can be strengthened. Well, that's absolutely right, Jordan. It's great to be on with you, too, as you are one of the strongest conservative voices we have in the nation.

So it's always an honor to be with you. With respect to Taylor Force and the Taylor Force Act, you did a wonderful job summarizing the tragedy that occurs with these pay-for-slay payments. The fact is that Taylor was a veteran, but also a student at Vanderbilt Business School. And so it certainly rings close to home when we find out these martyr payments are being made by the Palestinian Authority. The original intent of the bill that was signed by President Trump was to stop U.S. humanitarian aid going to the Palestinian Authority as long as they were doing these pay-to-slay programs. The problem with that is that money is fungible.

And as you said, they figured ways to get around this. So what we want to do is make it considerably stronger. And what we're going to do is focus on the banking system. And this provides additional authority to designate foreign banks who are involved in money laundering and forbid them from holding or using any type of correspondent accounts in the United States if they're involved with martyr payments to terrorists or if they knowingly provide financial services to Hamas, which is, as you know, a proxy group for Iran. So this is going to be a much stronger, much tighter way to address, again, using the financial system, cutting off the payment system to these guys so that they can no longer abuse this and continue to conduct this awful pay-to-slay program where they pay people who are murderers if they martyr themselves. Senator Hagerty, back in 2018, this had bipartisan support. What's the feel like on Capitol Hill right now, which is a pretty partisan environment with Build Back Better and all these other programs, but with something like this, it's common sense that it feels like we should all be able to unite around you. Do you think it could get there again to strengthen the Taylor Force Act? Jordan, I certainly hope so.

I would say this, though. Since we've seen this Congress come in, we've heard extreme voices coming from the left. These voices seem as though they actually support terrorist groups. They support BDS. They support Hamas. After the 11-day war in Israel, I actually flew to Israel to let them know that, broadly, America does not support this. Whether you're Democrat, Independent, or Republican, we stand with Israel. What's happened here in Washington is that we have these extreme voices coming out. I think it's a minority group in the Democrat Party, but they are basically given the image that they support this terror that's being conducted by the Palestinian Authority, and the media are amplifying that.

The truth of the matter is that I cannot imagine my Democrat colleagues, for the most part, condone this. I hope we'll get to a bipartisan place again, but the noise and the rhetoric has gotten to a fever pitch, and the Biden Administration seems to want to push in that direction, again, in the direction of supporting the Palestinian Authority as they conduct terrorist activities. You may also have seen this, but the Biden Administration were going to open a consulate to deal with Palestinians there in Jerusalem, to basically divide Jerusalem again after we took major steps to unify Jerusalem and recognize it as the one and only capital of Israel.

I was able to take significant steps to block that effort and, frankly, got the State Department to admit, under testimony to me, that it was not within their authority to do that. That provided the headroom for our colleagues on the Israeli side of this relationship to step up and really push back on the State Department. So I don't think we're going to see that type of diplomatic engagement with the Palestinian Authority that this State Department had hoped to initiate.

And they certainly haven't earned it by their actions. I mean, in fact, there is an embassy, it's in Jerusalem, it's not far away, I mean, they're talking blocks, and as you've been there, Senator Hagerty, as you said, that can be utilized, but that this special consulate, which was really for, it was like, the way I've had it described, the State Department officials who were pro-Palestinian, who would work inside that consulate. Formerly, when the embassy was in Tel Aviv, that would be the people who would work more with Israel directly.

Again, it divides the Jewish state of Israel and the city of Jerusalem into two places, which is what we are trying to solve and have fixed through putting our embassy there and finally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Senator Hagerty, Wesley Smith, you know, this should shock the conscience and I think raise the indignation level of every American. This terrorist that killed Taylor Force was killed by Israeli police, but then was hailed as a national hero and given a huge funeral.

His family to this day still receives payments. And like you said, you wonder, there's a fine line between supporting Palestinians in peace and supporting terrorism. And I was disappointed when President Biden reopened the PLO mission in Washington, D.C. But going forward with this, do you think you'll have bipartisan support on this bill? Well, I think what is required is someone like me who can step up and basically make clear to the American public what's really happening here. The Biden administration is really reliant on their ability to deflect, their ability to get their message, their, quote, narrative carried along in the mainstream media. But what I've been able to do and several of my colleagues is go on air, explain exactly what's happening. Once that is explained, once I'm able to get a State Department official opposite me in a committee hearing and get them on the record, stating that indeed they don't have the authority to do what the Biden administration is proposing, then our colleagues, our allies in Israel hear that.

That sends a very different message than what they're getting through the mainstream media. That is emboldening our allies there to realize that we will be here much longer than the Biden administration, that the Senate is going to stand firm with Israel, and they just need to realize that we are, on the long-term basis, the strongest allies that Israel will ever have. Senator Harry, we've only got about a minute left, but I know you wanted to address, we're Tennesseans. We all experienced a pretty scary Friday night, but so did our neighbors in Kentucky, much scarier there. I know your office has been really laser-focused on that.

I wanted to give you just some time to address the country on it. You know, it's been a real tragedy. It hit Arkansas less than Tennessee. It hit Tennessee significantly. We had 11 tornadoes touchdown in West Tennessee and Middle Tennessee. If you think about where the hardest hit was, was in West Tennessee. We had four fatalities there. We had two fatalities in Lake County, one in O'Brien County, and one in Shelby County. There's still about 10 people hurt.

One person is still missing there. Governor Lee has applied for an emergency declaration. He did that on Monday, and then we've supported that.

I wrote immediately to get that supported. President Biden has stepped up and given us that emergency declaration. So I'm pleased we're moving forward, but again, my heart goes out to the people that are suffering in Tennessee. Thank you so much for all the work you're doing, Senator.

We'll be right back on Secular. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Talking about freedom. Talking about freedom.

We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Secular. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. All right, folks, welcome back to Secular.

What a packed first half hour. Let me just go through it for you. You know, we again addressed a major victory for a student out of Wyoming.

Just shows the work of the ACLJ, how quickly they actually can be. The student was given the task, write about a historical figure, but it can't be your personal religious beliefs, and I don't want to hear about abortion. Okay, so that was the two.

Of course, they picked that out. Well, the student said, I can write about Jesus in a non-religious way, just as a historical figure. And I was just thinking during this, you know, I mean, I would dare them to say you couldn't write about Muhammad as a historical figure, which I think you could.

I definitely think you could. I mean, you don't have to agree with these historical figures or believe in them as a faith way to understand the impact they had, for good or for ill. I mean, there's lots of people throughout history. This student chooses to do it on Jesus. They submit the assignment they're given, not just so they can F, a zero, like zero points. They contact us.

You know what the student said to? They had contacted a lot of other legal groups. We're the only one that responded. That speaks a lot to the ACLJ's legal team. And when Abby was on talking about that, you know, how quickly we do respond and how we were able to resolve this with an informational letter.

It didn't take a demand letter or the threat of a lawsuit. Now, certainly we're always ready to do that, but it just underscores that work of the ACLJ. If you can support that work, this is a great time. You can double the impact of your donation at ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org. It's always great to have our good friend Senator Bill Hagerty on. He is standing up for what's right, especially, you know, when it comes to its foreign issues.

You know, I didn't get to mention this time, but many of you know he was an ambassador to Japan under the Trump administration with the Taylor Force Act and the strengthening of the Taylor Force Act that Congress wants to do. That is something that we all need to get behind and make sure it doesn't remain a partisan issue, that it goes and becomes the bipartisan issue that it was before and the support should be there. It's just to strengthen the law because when you pass laws to put in restrictions on funding, the bad actors find out ways to work around those laws, those pay-for-slave programs. So you've got to add more teeth than going after the banking industry so that they've got to think twice before allowing one of these payments to go through or know that if they do, they'll be kicked out of the U.S. financial system. Basically, their bank will be shut down. This is, again, it's using smart legislation to combat terrorism and to, again, take away the incentives from these families to put forward a family member to carry out a horrendous attack against innocent Israelis.

And in this case, the Taylor Force Act, it was an American student studying abroad, a member of our armed forces, but he was in regular clothes, not his fatigues, at a Vanderbilt University program for their business school. And so there was action in 2018, now we're looking for action in 2021. But we're going to shift here to build back bad, build back better, whatever you want to call it. This is the administration's final year in push. I want to go right to Thanh Vinh in D.C. Thanh, it seems right now it's all about Christmas, not even the year end. It's about can we get it done before Christmas? And we're hearing from people like Senator Christa Gillibrand in New York, they're starting to say, yeah, they think they can get it done before Christmas.

That would be that they've got they would somehow be able to convince Joe Manchin to join their team. Well, first of all, Jordan, we've had about 12 different versions of this bill and we've had about 10 or 15 different different drop dead deadlines. This Christmas deadline is just the most recent of those.

Jordan, I would tell you two things that might seem to contradict each other. But on the one hand, I would tell you that I don't think they're going to be able to pass it before Christmas. But I would quickly follow on that and say you should not assume that because I will tell you this, as soon as they can get 50 votes in the United States Senate, it doesn't matter if they've written the bill yet or not. As soon as they can get 50 votes in the United States Senate, they will vote on it. So if Chuck Schumer says that he's trying to work with the President to get Senator Manchin on board before Christmas, we have to operate on that timeline. I know we're going to talk about this more on the other side of the break. But Jordan, I would tell you this, there's really only two versions of this bill that we can go by right now. The one that passed the House, which is scored at 1.75 trillion or 1.85 trillion if you count the immigration provisions.

Of course, there's budgeting gimmicks in that. Or this one that I'm holding up, Jordan, it's a blank sheet of paper. This is the piece of paper that is in front of Senator Manchin. Whatever he writes, that's what's going to be on the Senate floor eventually. I mean, that is very significant.

I mean, when Thad makes that push, it really comes down to, does he want to give him a win? And how big will he go? That's the question. Now, there's also a question, what does the House do? What does the Senate do if they don't think he's going big enough?

Will they lose progressive votes? We'll be right back on Secular. This is the time you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Here's my question for you. Why should one U.S. Senator have the power to decide how many trillions of dollars we're going to spend in our country? Have we really gotten to that point?

Really? Where he's told time and time again he doesn't support it, he doesn't like it. And will he have that kind of power?

Should anyone have that kind of power? Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. To punish all of us because of the pork he might bring back to his state. I mean this is when Joe Manchin's feet really have to be in the fire because he plays off as a moderate.

But if he comes back with something even close to the trillions and trillions the Biden team wants to spend. Let's again remember this is a guy who holds sides for Planned Parenthood. This is a guy who tries to play both sides of every issue and on this one it's going to be very tough. He's got the entire Democrat party apparatus pushing against him. I mean I don't want to, again I'm not trying to go full negative.

But I wanted to ask you this Dan. Are we at a point yet where it's Joe Manchin is going to do something? Like there's no question there will be some kind of build back better because of him?

Or could he actually just return the page like you held up, blank, blank? Yeah I mean I think it depends who you ask Jordan. But if you're asking me I think he will cave at some point.

I've said this from the beginning. I mean Joe Manchin always caves at the end when it comes to liberal priorities, big spending bills. Like you said he typically gets something in there for West Virginia. And look there are going to be different views on this bringing money back to your home state.

Maybe in some ways people see that as a role for a home state senator. But Jordan this is almost a true trillion dollar bill according to their score. And as you know there was actually a new CBO score that was put out at the request of Senator Graham and some others on the Republican side and said look let's take a real world look at this. We know that you're not going to end these programs after one year or three years or five years as you say in the bill. We know that they're going to continue into perpetuity because that's what every federal government program does.

It continues into perpetuity. If we score it that way what's it going to cost? The CBO came back Jordan and they said it's not going to cost one point seven five trillion. It's going to cost five trillion dollars. So if Senator Manchin comes back and says look I got a few cuts here and there and the real score isn't five trillion it's only four trillion.

Jordan that should not be enough. And I would tell you this one senator shouldn't certainly should not have the power to spend that much money. But I would remind the American people this. There are 50 senators 50 senators on the Republican side of the ledger who have said no who have said this is too much. Inflation is too high. The American people are suffering too much. Jordan that should be the final say in the United States Senate. But if you're asking me to make a prediction I think Joe Manchin is going to cave eventually.

Yeah I mean this is that is troubling it's why you got to kind of double down and make it impossible almost to cave. Because what what here is is the progressives are not going to like that. The question is are there enough progressives that would actually stand in the way of a massive spending bill that's trillions and trillions of dollars. You know it stood at two trillion. Now it's been scored at five trillion dollars over ten years.

I want you to take a listen. This is Peter Ducey talking to Jen Psaki yesterday about Build Back Better and this new CBO score. She tries to call it fake.

Fight one. The President says that the Build Back Better is not going to add a penny to the deficit. The CBO has this new score where they assume that social programs are going to be made permanent.

And in that case it would add almost three trillion dollars. So does that mean that President Biden will commit that these programs are not going to be made permanent? Well first of all what you're talking about here is a fake CBO score that is not based on the actual bill that anybody is voting on. Okay.

Now that's because you've got to do this prepared. Now there have been bills voted on. Let me go say it again. There have been bills voted on in the House. So that's not true. And so if you look at again if they got everything they wanted what would it cost. If they got some of what they wanted this is what it would cost. That's what the CBO has been looking at. Of course they don't look at the final bill because you don't get the final bill until moments before the final vote.

Well two things here Jordan. It is absolutely not a fake CBO score it's a score based on the presuppositions that Senator Graham and others gave to the CBO. Which simply said I'm going to take all of the programs that Democrats have put forward and I just want you to give me a real world score. If they never expire if they never repeal them because of course they won't what would that cost.

That's what the score came back. Jordan I will tell you this I do have one small it's a rather ironic point of agreement but one small point of agreement with Jen Psaki. She says essentially there is no actual bill.

Now she's correct on that and here's why. The bill that passed the House is actually going through a budgetary process in the United States Senate that they call the birdbath. They have to scrub it of provisions that are not budgetary in nature. And Jordan a bunch of provisions are going to be pulled out and then they're going to do what always happens in Washington DC. At the last minute literally probably the day of the vote or the day before the vote they will drop the bill that will actually be voted on.

So look I don't think it's a good thing that she's bragging about this. She says there's no actual bill. That's true there is no actual bill. We don't know what people will be voting on but it's not a fake CBO score.

It's a score that is based on if all of the programs that have been put forward are carried forward for the full 10 years of the program what would it cost. It would cost nearly five trillion dollars. Let me ask you this folks to the inflation the idea I want to know how it's impacting you.

I want people to be able to tell their stories because we you know we hear the news oh it's not is it that big of a deal maybe it's not. But then other news so I think it was Norah Donald something like that who said basically anybody's Christmas bonuses if they look at it statistically they're being wiped out by inflation. So it's like you might be getting a bonus but to live the way you did even like last year because of inflation that's gone up you'd be utilizing all of that bonus just to stay where you were.

So you weren't saving it or putting it away you were having to utilize it and it was basically being erased through inflation. So I want to ask you that is that experience that you're having right now how is inflation impacting you as we get closer and closer to Christmas and the end of the year. 1-800-684-3110 if you want to talk to us on air that's 1-800-684-3110 these impacts of inflation they're very real.

You know with apologies to the Grinch and their push for passing this by Christmas this could be the bill that stole Christmas. People are struggling Jordan with rising prices inflation is the highest it's been in 40 years. Inflation is partly fueled by government spending and just just the figures just came out this week producer prices for the month of November and producer prices are passed on to consumers when we buy the things that they produce. Just in one month alone producer prices went up 9.6% in November alone. Inflation is hurting people.

Everything costs more but especially the essentials like gasoline and bread and meat and things like that. And the idea that they would add another 5 trillion dollars to this government spending spree when it's already the inflation is the highest in 40 years does not make sense. Back to what Dan was saying and I'm not a political operative like he is but the idea of voting on something before it's written I think defies logic and is an insult to the intelligence of the American people.

The average American like me and you would never dream of agreeing to something when it's not written yet. I want to go to Pam on YouTube she wrote it build back better will allow the federal government to take over the rest of the economy they don't already control. And that's their main priority to stay in power to control the economy. I mean Harry when you look at this and you look at the economics and the legal theories behind this I think Pam is onto something. It's how much control they can have over every decision of your life including the fact that deep down they don't hate this inflation especially when it goes to gas prices because they want to kill that industry. They've told people that. They've gotten to the point where corporations are putting out dates saying we won't make anything but electric cars by 20 something and the more they can do to kill that industry I think the better is what they think. I think that's correct.

So I think Pam's analysis is absolutely accurate. Essentially the Democrats have an objective. They want to dis-employ auto workers for instance in Michigan and Ohio and Texas. And if we turn to the bill or the fake bill itself the Senate is not likely to be voting for a specific bill. Instead they are going to be voting for something else. They're voting for an ideology.

An ideology that allows the progressives to control each and every aspect of our lives and essentially to enslave the American people to the government. To me again, Thanh you were talking about Christmas trees. Same experience. They're costing more. Everything costs more. We're trying to build a house right now and some of the wood prices are up 75% in the last two years. So that costs you 75% more to build the same house. That is impacting everybody but especially middle class Americans who might be in the position of building a house.

Yeah there's this narrative in Washington D.C. Jordan that this is only impacting high earners. Look anybody that shops at a grocery store. Anybody that goes to a gas station and fills up their tank.

Anybody who bought a live Christmas tree this year Jordan, you know I was telling our producer Will, had I not had my kids with me when I went to the lot, when I'd have seen the sticker price on the tree which was double what it was last year, Jordan I would have turned around and left. So look people in Washington D.C. might be disconnected with these real expenditures that face every family's budget but I'll tell you who's not connected. Democrat voters. Jordan, Democrat voters who understand that their inflation costs are going through the roof.

I don't think they're going to be in favor of this bill when it comes down the line either. Yeah I mean let me tell you something folks. There's a lot to talk about here. We've got calls coming in, comments about the power of the mansion vote. I want to hear from you how inflation is impacting you. Give us a call to your family 1-800-684-3110 because we're being told like Dan said it's really not impacting you in the middle class.

It's not impacting most Americans. Give us a call 1-800-684-3110. I really do. Get to as many calls as we can in the next segment of the broadcast. Give us a call on that. Support the work of the ACLJ. Double the impact of your donation. That's at ACLJ.org.

We'll be right back. This is a publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn. It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. All right, folks. We've got a lot of calls coming in.

Let me just tell you something. Remember, the initial cost of this was supposed to be $2 trillion. That's $5 trillion based off if these programs don't expire. Now, you don't have to be an expert at all in legislation or handout programs or new social spending programs to realize in America you start one and you tell the budget office, oh, score it for three years because I don't think we'll need it after that.

No. They don't ever go away. Once you give people these programs, even if they thought they didn't like them, they are extremely difficult, even to reform. Social Security reform was really difficult. Think about immigration reform.

Has it happened? The tax cuts that Donald Trump was able to get through were historic because they actually took money out of the federal government. Again, they said we're not going to keep giving you so much.

Now, the idea was that if you free up people's incomes, they will spend and there will be taxes on that spending and it will actually be better for the government instead of these forced tax hikes on the American people. Let me go to the phones. Lawrence in Nebraska on Line 1. Hey, Lawrence, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air.

Thank you. I was calling about how this, the more I want to say, everything is costing us more money. I hear that I'm on Social Security, disability, that we should get six to seven percent back, seven percent, eh, six percent would be great, but even if we get the six percent back, oh, Biden's going to grab half of that and throw it into Medicare, which I have never used. My Medicare or my health insurance from when I was 19 years old, I just wouldn't put money in there for the junkies. I'm tired of that.

I want my money. Well, I think this is the issue is, Lawrence, you realize how even when they try to say, oh, we'll take care of you, it's not it's not ever just real cash back to you. That was done under the early days of the pandemic.

Real cash checks were sent out, cards were sent out to people to boost their ability to spend. But then you talked about this, and I think this, Lawrence, ties directly to kind of his anger about it, and I get it, is that the child tax credit, they say right now to their current score, they're going to let it expire right before the next election. Like that would be that would be wonderful for Democrats, right? They're going to really let a child tax credit expire months before they may lose the House and Senate.

It's probably the best example of what you know would never happen, Jordan. There's a child tax credit that's in the current law. Probably many people that are listening to this broadcast are getting checks in the mail for this child tax credit. You might support it.

You might oppose it. But either way, Jordan, here's what I can tell you absolutely would not happen. In the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, do you think that the people that are in control of the White House, the Senate, and the House are going to repeal that tax credit and then tell voters to go to the ballot box?

That will never, never happen, Jordan, and yet that's what the original score from CBO calculated in. That's the gimmick that Senator Graham took out just to give the American people a real look at what would happen. And the other thing quickly that I would just say to Lawrence, Jordan, I mean, he asked about what's going to happen in this bill. Here's the ultimate truth.

We try to be candid with our listeners. I can't tell him if that provision will be in the bill. And even worse, Jordan, I won't be able to tell him because I almost guarantee it. They're going to put this bill out and then they're going to vote on it before any of us had a chance to go all the way through it. That's just the reality, Jordan.

That is how they do things. The Affordable Care Act, you know, we'll find out what's in it after we pass it. The American people will build that back better. What Nancy Pelosi said is they'll like it after they see it go into effect. And it's the idea that they'll like the handouts.

They'll like the social spending. Let me go back to the phones. Donna in Alabama on Line 3. I know Gordon's got to call it on.

Taylor Force will take that after Donna. Hey Donna, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Thank you, Jay.

And thank you for everything that you do. You had made a comment about what normal Americans think about the inflation. And I wanted to call in and say I'm one of your average Americans. I have three young adult children, three of which are in college, and this has really affected them. They're only able to work part-time because they are taking full-time class loads. And when they were paying $1.79 a gallon versus $3.50 a gallon and they make the same amount of money, 10 bucks an hour, that's tough. And as their mother, it's also cut into me because obviously food's more expensive and the gas is more expensive. Living expenses have went up because, as usual, when one goes up, it goes effect. I mean, we've been working on our home. Things to buy and build for the house has gone tremendously skyrocketed. And so, yeah, I'm angry at the inflation. I'm angry at Congress and really wish this would just go away. No, I understand that.

I mean, that's why I wanted someone like you to call in. So you're talking about your kids in college. They're working part-time jobs to help cover their costs. And the part-time job, the wages haven't gone up, but the cost of living has. And so it's making it that much more difficult just to – people say it's not the top income earners that are hurt by this the most. They may be making different economic decisions based on inflation, but they're not worried about filling up their car with gas.

They may make them angry, but it's not impacting their bottom line the same way. It is hitting middle-class America, people who are spending, people who are working, people getting educated like your kids, and you who are trying to help your kids along that way. Let me take the final call of the day. Back to the Taylor Force bill. Gordon in Virginia online too. Hey, Gordon, welcome to Sekulow.

You're on the air. My perspective on the pay-for-slay issue is while granting the authorization to take those kind of financial and banking institution actions is probably a good step, if it's not required of State Department, Commerce, and Treasury to implement those when certain thresholds are broken, the deep state's just going to come up and go, well, we're still thinking about it. And so I think there needs to be actual directive language in the law that requires those kinds of steps, not just merely an authorization of the deep state to do so. So, Thanh, I think what's important about this law, so initially what this law did is it would cut off a significant amount of funding that went to the Palestinian Authority. Hundreds of billions of dollars got cut off, and there's only a limited way they're able to receive money.

That's really humanitarian aid, so nothing lethal, no weapons and things like that. But we've seen now over three years that they are playing with funny money and fungible money so that the best idea is to go after the banks, and when you go after the banks, they think twice differently than a radical group. Yeah, Jordan, Taylor Force Act in itself was a terrific step in the correct direction. I will tell you this, President Biden heard it significantly when he released funds. Now Senator Risch and others have worked very hard to make sure that the funds that President Biden released only go to humanitarian purposes, but we all know money is fungible. Jordan, I did want to quickly say to Gordon, if he looks at Section 3 of this new bill that Senator Hagerty talked about today, it actually does make a statutory change in the definition of what constitutes terrorism financing. So if any of these foreign banks violate that new enhanced provision, they would be subject to mandatory penalties under terrorism law.

I totally get what Gordon's saying. Does he trust the Department of Treasury to adequately enforce that? Maybe he doesn't, and Jordan may be with good cause, but look, you've got to make the statutory change, you've got to require the executive branch to enforce it, and then Jordan, if they don't, then you have an ability to come back over the top.

But this is the correct statutory change, and I think Gordon would be happy if he looks at Section 3. I encourage you to support our work at ACLJ.org. This show encapsulates just everything that ACLJ does, international, domestic, representing you individually, working with senators to get things done. Support our work at ACLJ.org. Make that financial contribution if you can. December is our most important month of the year financially. Double the impact of your donation through the matching challenge and donate today at ACLJ.org.

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