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Episode 268 - The 2024 Vice-Presidential Debate and Iran's Attack on Israel

In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, the guys review the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate and discuss the attacks on Israel by Iran.

Owe no man nothing, says the scripture.
The fact remains, however, that every single American is in debt, EVERY ONE OF US. Every day of every month, we owe someone something. That debt could be as normal as a phone bill, electric bill, cell phone or cable bill, or currently repayable credit card bills. But, we always owe something if we wish to live in any reasonable way in this world.
What that debt admonition means is that we ought not to owe anything which we cannot repay in the present in whole or in part. None of us could own a home unless we were able to borrow a mortgage for 10, 20 or 30 years, and make the monthly payments with interest thereon. If we can repay that 30-year debt on a monthly basis and timely so, that is a manageable obligation and not the kind of debt proscribed by scripture.
Debt, unpayable debt, and especially that debt which accumulates with interest, sometimes as much or almost so as the debt principle itself is crushing. It is always there, its presence a constant reminder that so much of the future has been mortgaged and that our present spending endangers and preempts our options for the future. Families are ruined by that kind of debt. So are marriages. Profligate businesses go bankrupt and governments, nations and states which over-borrow and accumulate crushing interest obligations sacrifice the future for the present. They kick the financial can down the road.
And that, my fellow Americans, is the pathway and the financial condition of our beloved America. Our once great country, operating on a current budget, the financial envy of the world, the dollar the hallmark of financial stability, is now the unbelievable debtor in the amount of:
$36 TRILLION DOLLARS.
$36 Trillion Dollars. As incredible, hard to believe, and frightening as that number is, the interest America pays on those $36 trillion dollars of debt is now at or about:
$1.3 TRILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY.
$1.3 Trillion dollars in interest alone!
That means, my fellow Americans, that every American household owes as much as $275,000 of that debt. Or that also means that every tax paying person in America, every citizen, owes the sum of approximately $110,000 to our creditors, foreigners and foreign nations, and American business entities and individuals. $275,000 PER HOUSEHOLD and $110,000 PER PERSON. That is the kind of debt with interest that scripture so aggressively warns against. But we do nothing, our leaders do nothing to stop the bleeding and solve the problem. The overwhelming debt problem. But some day, we will have no choice but to deal with this horrendous financial reckoning.
Economists now believe that the nation’s debt of at or about $36 Trillion Dollars is indeed an existential threat to our great country, and to us, we the people. The fact of the matter is that America does not owe this debt, we do. WE, THE PEOPLE, the citizens of this great country owe that $36 trillion dollars, with its unbelievable annual interest burdens. WE OWE THAT MONEY! And someday, we will have to pay it. What an unbelievable effect that will have on our lifestyles and our future. That existential threat threatens our very existence!
But our Federal Government continues in its profligate way. It spends, and it spends more. It never seems to care because it can postpone the debt, financing even more of its spending, and it always has what it thinks is the fail-safe remedy, and that is:
TAXATION.
More taxation, more taxes, for we the people to pay.
And more bad financial news. Economists estimate that by the year 2034, a decade from now, America will add $20 trillion dollars to its debt of $36 trillion dollars, which would put our country in debt by the staggering sum of $56 trillion dollars, $56 TRILLION DOLLARS! And some economists think those estimates are conservative, believing that the real debt will be as high as $60 trillion dollars or even more if spending continues as is. That would also mean that the annual interest alone on that staggering debt would be somewhere between $2 Trillion and $2.5 Trillion Dollars Annually, and possibly more. In the year 2034, our total debt will be approximately 120% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And hear these words carefully:
NO NATION HAS EVER CARRIED THAT KIND OF GOVERNMENT-DRIVEN DEBT AND ESCAPED CALAMITY. NOT ONE GOVERNMENT IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF MANKIND HAS EVER SPENT OR WILL SPEND WHAT WE AMERICANS ARE AND ESCAPED ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL DISASTER AND CALAMITY.
Not to worry, say the Democrats in charge and in power and seeking four more years of spending privileges, assuming the election of Harris-Walz. We will simply tax the rich more and more. Even if there is a sharp rise in the tax rates for the wealthy, that meager amount of additional income would never begin to seriously pay down the debt which our once fiscally responsible America now owes and will owe ten years from now.
But that day of reckoning will come when we the people will pay an unbelievable price for the profligate way our Federal Government spends our money and accumulates this strangling, bankrupting debt.
Regarding the so-called rich, the top 1% of Americans in terms of earnings reported 26.3% of the country’s adjusted gross income and paid accordingly:
Almost 46% of total income taxes!
All the rest of America’s taxpayers, 99% of them, paid the grand total of 54% of all taxes. But there is never any effort to tax more the 54% but only the so-called rich and wealthy 46%. That is fiscal policy which leads to absolute disaster!
Even more interesting, the top 10% of all earners in America provided 76% of the total revenue, tax revenue, and the other 90% of taxpayers provided 24% of tax revenue. If you were not one of the so-called wealthy, you have really gotten off cheap by taxing comparison.
Our great country, We The People, face the ever-present possibility of default in payments to our creditors, now $36 trillion dollars and in 10 years to be some $60 trillion dollars. That default of any serious kind would set off a major depression and fiscal revolution THE WORLD OVER. That economic crisis could well ruin the world.
There would also exist in America HYPERINFLATION. That is what occurred in Germany where the German Mark was absolutely worthless. If those tragic and calamitous conditions arise in America, our dollar will be just like that Mark and virtually worthless itself.
That debt-caused disaster will produce incredible internal instability, even revolution, and the very real potential of the destruction of law and order. It could also occasion the rise of dictatorship, as the very same fiscal problems in Germany gave rise to Adolf Hitler and it would undoubtedly be the end of our great democracy.
But, my fellow Americans, that debt and the problems it causes, are:
OUR FAULT.
Our responsibility. We the People allowed that debt to happen. We continue one election after another to elect a president, a senate, a house of representatives which do nothing, absolutely nothing about the problem, continue to spend, talk the talk but never walk the walk, and again do absolutely nothing about this incredible end-of-America problem, nothing but nothing. But the day of economic reckoning comes, and we will pay, WE WILL PAY! Or, our children and grandchildren will pay. The life and lifestyle which they hope for and work for will never materialize and the America we now know will never be the America they will ever know. What America once was fiscally and economically will be nothing more than an historical footnote.
Wake up, my fellow Americans, please wake up. You vote, you elect these politicians to represent you. You allow them to spend your money, to tax you, to do as they please with YOUR money but the one thing they never do is hold themselves accountable for the way they spend your money, the fiscal problems they are causing, and the insurmountable debt they are creating, which may very well never be repaid. That of course would be the end of the democratic America we now love and enjoy. But again, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We the People allow these reckless economically indifferent or ignorant politicians to do what they please, spend our money as we will, and we continue to do nothing:
NOTHING
about that spending or them. When this disaster, this calamity occurs, we will have no one to blame but:
OURSELVES – WE THE PEOPLE!

In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable Podcast, the guys discuss the issues we are told will have the greatest impact on the 2024 Presidential election, including open borders, the Economy/Inflation/Cost of Living/Debt/Taxes, Abortion/IVF and the Harris or Trump "Threat to Democracy" argument.  They'll also talk about media bias and lies, the anti-Trump propaganda, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom, Government Overreach, the weaponization of Federal Government agencies against political foes, and Wokeism.

There was a time, in America no less, when true evangelicals, real born-again Christians, were of great moral influence and persuasion numbering perhaps as many as 75-80 million citizens. The Moral Majority was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. and it was indeed a powerful organization, politically, culturally, and spiritually.
But today, far from constituting a moral majority, the evangelical Christian of today finds little tolerance, much less acceptance, by their fellow citizens, many of whom are anti-Christian to the core. The shared moral ideals of old have indeed deteriorated and no longer have the priorities they once did. That includes FAITH. Real Christianity, biblical Christianity, born-again Christianity is ridiculed or ignored by the IMMORAL MAJORITY of today’s culture. The concept and value of FAMILY are torn apart and the governments of today substitute foreign and often godless concepts and meanings which attack and depreciate traditional values and definitions. Freedom, once a burning priority, now hangs in the balance, watered down by legislation, indifference, and constant attacks on our constitution.
Especially within the last decade, faithful, biblical Christians have witnessed ideological disintegration of trusted religious institutions. That has resulted in an incredible cultural compromise. Conduct and behavior that was once forbidden is now not only allowed but encouraged. So much of the freedoms Americans take for granted was relinquished during the pandemic and even church attendance, the freedom of assembly and religious worship, was also forbidden by government action.
That sense of compromise and indifference even permeated the church pulpits. Church after church, pastor after pastor, seceded to the demands of an anti-Christian culture, accepting compromise and change to traditional and long accepted Christian tenets and the gospel message, once proudly preached, was seldom heard in one denomination after another. So many American pulpits fell silent, fearing retribution or alienation.
Many Christian believers witnessed evangelical leaders’ quart secular acclaim by compromising on conservative Christian values and, like the false prophets predicted, preached a foreign gospel or none at all. Strong Christian values that contributed to American strength and vitality but were recast by these false prophets, outmoded and second class. New concepts, often man-made were formed to water down traditional biblical concepts of salvation, born-again, faith and works, and so much more. Those believers who held fast to strong biblical principles and concepts were often depicted as “violent enemies of democracy” because they failed to recognize, accept, and give credence to the priorities and beliefs of the anti-Christian majority which seemed to be taking place in America.
Consequently, so many Christians abandoned the world of politics in their very own country. In a recent survey by the respected George Barna, more than half of the Christians surveyed reported that they did not pay much attention at all to political news, which would inevitably be essential to understanding the issues most relevant to believers. As a result, an estimated 7 million evangelicals in swing states did not participate in the 2020 presidential election. Had they done so, results would have been entirely different up and down the ballots. Barna estimates as a result of the conclusions of that survey that shockingly:
AN ESTIMATED ONE THIRD OF ALL EVANGELICALS IN AMERICA SAT
ON THE SIDELINES (DID NOT VOTE) IN ELECTIONS 2020.
Even if they did, those evangelicals not paying attention to news and information about politics and government were in so many cases incapable of making informed, educated, voting decisions.
The one presidential candidate who addressed the Christian audiences, spoke to the issues which concerned Christians, and otherwise collaborated with the National Religious Broadcasters was Donald Trump. Trump addressed in positive ways, the issues which really concern Christians including freedom of expression (First Amendment, Speech and Press), prayer in schools, homeschooling, America’s support for Israel, and the role of religion in public life. No other candidate for president did so. In fact, the Left has extended no hand of friendship to born-again believers. The Left has in fact elevated “unlimited abortion” as the non-negotiable priority of their policy agenda. No true Christian can tolerate such a position, and it leads to the question:
CAN ANY TRUE CHRISTIAN VOTE FOR ANY DEMOCRAT?
Further, and disturbingly so, many Christians will not vote for a candidate whose personality they find offensive. Many for example do not personally like Donald Trump and even though his policies are more akin to their beliefs, they will not vote for him. Many will also not vote for a candidate whose private life they do not like. Many use that excuse not to vote for Trump, at least for now a convicted felon. Perhaps even more do not like the way Trump communicates, speaks, and finding his public image objectionable, will not vote for him. What a tragic loss for America, for Trump and the republican party champion values and decision making which is far more akin to Christian values and positions than their democratic counterparts. The withdrawal and non-involvement of Christians and Christian voters is indeed tragic for America. Real Christians, many believe, have no choice but to vote for Trump and the Republican party and its candidates if they wish traditional America and traditional American values to remain.
Real evangelical Christians must thoroughly examine the records of candidates on the critical issues, including:

1. immigration and illegal immigration (the border)
2. pro-family policies
3. religious freedom (the Constitution and the First Amendment)
4. national security
5. federal spending and the incredible American debt
6. the economy and inflation (pricing)
7. parental rights (in the world of the transgender)
8. conscience protections
9. America’s support for Israel
   Christian voters must also consider the regulatory overreach of the Federal Government and the disastrous fiscal policy which the democratic government has adopted and utilized and what some believe is the weaponization of government against private citizens, including and especially people of faith.
   Christian radio, and I am proud to say the Crawford Broadcasting Co., devote much of their broadcast time, finances and concerns in programming which seriously address the concerns of Christians today and our beloved America at large. So many of us, who love our America, are deeply concerned with what is happening in all facets of our great country, and we are determined to make a difference, to educate all people including and especially Christian believers, real evangelicals, and encourage them to do their duty as American citizens and become fully involved in government, in politics, in the elections, and to take a stand for what is right, for traditional moral values, and to do everything possible to have America and its citizens return, rethink, and reevaluate the disastrous moral and cultural trends which now affect and radically change our once great country. Said one Christian politician:
   “WE ARE THE BLESSED STEWARDS OF A TEMPORAL HOME BUILT
   ON A FOUNDATION OF FAITH TO THE BEST OF OUR FOUNDER’S
   ABILITIES. WE MUST DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE IN OUR POWER TO
   SAVE AMERICA FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.”
   Amen. We, the Crawford Broadcasting Co., fully agree, and we are dedicated to that purpose, and we hope and pray you believe and act the same and that you will do so for the glory of God and the salvation of America in Elections 2024. It really is our Christian duty.

In this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable, we talk about the latest assassination attempt on Donald Trump .  The head FBI investigator is a guy who openly hates Trump.  Should Trump go out in public between now and the election?  How should Trump beef up his security?  We will also look at Trump's tax plans--no taxes on tips, no taxes on Social Security and no taxes on overtime wages.  And, should Trump do another debate?