On Wednesday’s Mark Levin Show, it’s nice to see the fight in Congress over spending, but they are fighting over discretionary spending which is a small percentage of the budget. Continuing resolutions are important, but in the big scheme, they are nothing. The majority of the budget goes to entitlements. Nobody wants to touch Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, yet they are going bankrupt. They are not serious about the debt if they won’t even talk about reforming Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Unless there’s systemic change there won’t be real change. Also, The Liberty Amendments provides eleven clear amendments to restore “constitutional republicanism” and preserve “the civil society from the growing authoritarianism of a federal Leviathan.” These amendments all deserve serious consideration by the policymakers. Later, Democrats want you to believe Biden’s foreign policy was great. They funded Iran while they were choking off Israel. They essentially told Ukraine that they couldn’t win but not letting them go on offense.
Breitbart
Pro-Palestinian Group in NYC Vows Support for Armed Resistance Against U.S., Israel
Breitbart
House Report Finds ‘No Evidence’ Trump ‘Agreed with Rioters’ Who Called for Pence to Be Hung
Breitbart
Nolte: Stephanopoulos Reportedly ‘Apoplectic’ over Trump Lawsuit Settlement
Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Rough transcription of Hour 1
Segment 1
Hello, America. Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. You know, it does my heart good to see the fight over spending. I want to welcome Elon Musk to the battle. I seem to recall at one point he was backing Obama, wasn’t he? Mr. Reduce? I’m just trying to remember something like that. But he’s come full circle and that’s a good thing. We need him. But we need more than him. 2015 in a book called Plunder and Deceit. I wrote this book. George Mason University economics professor Dr. Walter Williams rightly describes the underlying pathology driving the nation to economic and financial ruin as a moral problem. Many of you got this book. We’ve been in immoral people demanding that Congress forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another. Well. Williams the late great Walter Williams, a dear friend, he was my first guest on my first life, Liberty and Levin on the inaugural show. First one. Deficits and runaway national debt are merely symptoms of the real problem, he said. As Williams states, nearly 75% of today’s federal spending can be described as Congress taking the earnings of one American to give to another through the thousands of handout programs such as farm subsidies, business bailouts and welfare. And some of the people today leading the battle over this continuing resolution to kill it. Support ethanol, which is a subsidy. And I don’t want to take calls on this. I don’t want to hear from people who. Who are subsidized. For various corn growers and so forth that I’m somebody who loves corn. Dr. Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, at least then. Remember, this was 2015 notes that there was a time when the purpose of taxes was to pay the inevitable costs of government to the political left over. Taxes had long been seen as a way to redistribute income and finance other social experiments based on a liberal ideology. But it’s not just to the left. It’s Republicans to. The consequences for the rising generation, as I called, and future generations of the state immoral, politically expedient and economically ruinous behavior and policies are unambiguous, as evidenced by statistic after statistic which are mainly ignored, discounted or excused by most of the media, academia and, of course, governing status. Now, I’m going to tell you why almost everybody in this debate is a phony. Even many in the Freedom Caucus. Why many in this debate are phonies. They’re fighting over discretionary spending. Which is a good fight to have, but it’s also a small percentage of the budget now. A significant majority of the budget goes towards so-called entitlements. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements. Now, many of you might be shocked. You like I I’ve spent a lifetime paying into Social Security and Medicare. I’m 67 now. I received Medicare. I didn’t even want to receive Medicare. I wanted to keep my private health care. Medicare said that’s against the law. And the private health insurers said we’re not allowed to whether we could or not. So we won’t. If they’re contributing all the money have contributed to Medicare. Mr. Producer I didn’t want to be a part of it, and I was forced to. Shocking. I don’t want to be a part of Social Security, but I’m forced to. God knows how much money have poured into Social Security. I don’t want to be a part of it, but I will receive some back. And here’s the thing. Nobody in the executive branch, nobody to my mind and the legislative branch. Nobody beating their chests, pounding the drums, patting themselves on the back of their heads as real budget cutters want to touch Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and so forth. Nobody. Nobody. And yet they’re going bankrupt. The trustees for Medicare and Social Security have told us they’re going broke now, right now. And nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody. But I’ll talk about it. All the tough guys out there want to fight over what are really essentially crumbs. This is make and break. As I wrote back then, Social Security and the federal government’s health care programs Medicare and Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program and subsidies related to Obamacare will double in relative costs over the next several decades. Again, 2015 I wrote this. The past 40 years have together consumed an average of 7% of the GDP. GDP, however, they’re expected to increase to 14% by 2039. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid account for 60% of the government non-interest expenditures in recent years. It’s more than that now closer to 70%. For example, in 1970, social programs accounted for 32% of total expenditures. Social programs grew to 44% of federal expenditures in 1980 and 1990, 54% in 2000. They were promoted as safety net programs for the protection of the poor and the elderly in the vulnerable. But in each case, the programs have snowballed and have become unsustainable. The Congressional Budget Office. CBO expects their spending percentages to continue increasing indefinitely. Although this topic will be addressed and I say more fully in another chapter, suffice it to say the Social Security benefit cost explosion has been predicted for decades. There are currently 58 million people receiving Social Security benefits, probably closer to 78 million today. By 2024, that number will grow to 77 million. There I was close 2039, there will be 103 million eligible beneficiaries. Average benefits are on the rise, as is the number of people qualified to receive benefits, and they want illegal aliens to receive benefits on top of everything else. For the next ten years, there will be a 38% increase in the number of people over 65 years of age and entitled to receive Social Security benefits by 2039. CBO reports there will be an 82% increase in the number of those who are over 65 years of age. We are of a growing elderly population. Increases will be caused in significant part by the influx of retirees and beneficiaries and the outstretched benefits promised by these programs, particularly with the huge expansion of federal health care spending. These are my words. I wrote this 2015 and it was a very lonely time. Mr. Producer, I didn’t hear anybody join in. Nobody. Fact, I keep hearing people running for office saying we’re not going to touch Social Security and Medicare. Well, then you’re not serious about the debt. Because now’s the time to touch it. By grandfathering in those who receive it. Grandfathering in everybody who’s 55 and older and then anybody who’s younger than 55, adjusting the system, modifying it so they have something when they’re done. Rather than redistribution of wealth. But no, we can’t discuss it. I’ll discuss it. Over the next ten years alone. I wrote again in 2015. The percentage of people reaching retirement age will grow from the current 14% to 21%. That’s exactly what’s happened. Concurrently, the number of income producing individuals will drop from 60% to 54% of the population. CBO projects the trend to continue as life expectancy increases. So I would ask. My fellow talk show host seriously on radio, I would ask the hosts on television. To ask. Task. The most conservative among our House and Senate representatives to ask Elon Musk. And Vivek Ramaswamy danced them all. What are you going to do about the entitlements? Are you going to do anything about the entitlements? Because they take up nearly more than. More than. Three fourths of our budget. What are you going to do about it? They can go tweet right now. I’ll be happy to read it one way, Mr. Producer. The federal spending on health care increase is massive. On Medicare and Medicaid, the Children’s Health Program, subsidies for Obamacare. They’re massive. You haven’t heard a single person talk about it. Not one. Again in 2015, I wrote The GAO and CBO understate the true nature of the economic and financial calamity facing the nation. This debate they’re having on the C.R., you have to understand this is peanuts. I don’t mind the debate. It’s important, but it’s also a shiny object. It’s peanuts. On February 25, 2015, Boston University Professor of Economics, Dr. Lawrence Kotlikoff, testified before the Senate Budget Committee about America’s fiscal insolvency, and I quote him and its generational consequences. I talked about this five, six years ago. He flatly stated, There are countries broke. It’s not broke in 75 years or 50 years or 25 or ten years. It’s broke today. Indeed, it may well be in worse fiscal shape than any developed country. He condemned Congress for cooking the books. He said Congress is economically arbitrary decisions as to what to put on and what to keep off. The books have not been innocent. He said successive Congresses, whether dominated by Republicans or Democrats, has spent the postwar accumulating massive net fiscal obligations, virtually all of which have been kept off the books. He explained that the real debt picture is far worse than the federal government admits. Again, this is nine years ago. He said the US fiscal gap currently stands at $210 trillion and that would exceed 300 trillion today, unimaginable the size of the U.S. fiscal gap 210 trillion, he wrote nine years ago, is massive. It’s 16 times larger than the official U.S. debt statement. Which indicates precisely how useless. How useless official debt is for understanding our nature’s true fiscal position. In 2013, the fiscal gap stood at 205,000,000,000,020 14 it was 210 trillion. Hence the country’s true 2014 deficit. Ten years ago, the increase in its fiscal gap was 5 trillion, not 583 billion. And it’s only gotten much, much, much worse. It’s over $300 trillion right now. Do you hear a single member of Congress talking about this? No, not one. All the tough guys and tough gals. Not one. Professor Kotlikoff concluded What should be obvious to all US post-war generational policy is accurately characterized this take as you go. Over the decades, Republican and Democrat Congress as an administration have taken ever larger amounts of resources from young workers and transfer. Then the older workers, the resources taken from the young given to the old. It’s called taxes. The late Dr. Edward Gramlich, former Federal Reserve Board governor, explained that for workers to become more productive, investments must be made and education and training and all the rest. He said When the government spends more money than it has, it borrows the rest. Most of the money borrowed comes from private savings. And he went on to warn. That we cannot ignore the consequences of deficits much longer. Again, this is ten years ago. They will lead to a stagnant long term economy that will not only be unable to support Social Security and Medicare and other social programs, but will not be able to provide opportunity for today’s youth who will be paying the bills. That’s the real situation. Even the most outspoken so-called fiscal hawks, you don’t hear this stuff from Rand Paul. He likes to consider himself the real libertarian, the real fiscal watchdog. He’s a mouse. We need a lion. He’s a mouse. We need a lion. This has been known for decades. We’ve been ringing the bell behind this microphone for decades. Decades. And yet we hear crickets. Crickets. So they’ll fight over the continuing resolution. That’s good. That’s a start. But it’s a tiny fraction of a percentage of what’s at stake. They know it. I know it, and now you know it. I’ll be right back.
Segment 2
So which politician in Congress, including the Freedom Caucus, among others, want to come on this program and have a discussion about entitlement programs? Which one? Walter. Walter Williams was right. This is about morality, the devastating consequences I wrote of wealth redistribution, intergenerational thievery, massive federal spending, endless borrowing and unimaginable debt accumulation on American society. Most particularly the younger generation and future generations as a travesty. Stealing from the future does not establish the utopia promised by the status. It is our generation’s grave moral failure. We’re accumulating debt and we’re throwing that debt on the shoulders of our posterity. A debt that we that we should bear because we’ve created it. I’ll be right back.
Segment 3
You know, I don’t just write books to write books and bang the pots and pans like your typical host. Liberty Amendments was a book I wrote. I wrote that book to promote the convention of states simultaneous and unbeknownst to either of us. With Mark Meckler. Who is the president of the Convention of States Organization. And we you he his group. They’ve gone a long way in getting a number of state legislatures to pass resolutions in favor of a convention of state. Because what he knows and what I know is that Washington won’t fix itself. We go through this trauma every now and then. We go through these budget cycles every now and then. But in the end. But in the end, unless there’s systemic change. There won’t be real change. I haven’t heard Rand Paul. As one of the leaders of the convention of states movements, as he. I don’t know. Our buddy, Mike Lee. Haven’t heard him. Maybe he is. I don’t know. But you would think I’d know about it. You’d think Meckler knows about it. Andy Biggs when he was the president of the Senate in Arizona. He blocked it. We got a lot of people like to talk about this stuff and fight over continuing resolutions once again, continuing resolutions. Our important. But in the big scheme of things, they’re nothing. When you look at the size of the budget, when you look at the entitlements. In the Liberty Amendments. I propose Liberty amendments. For the state legislatures. The join together. And impose these systemic changes. And the federal government on the federal executive branch and the federal Congress and yes, even on the courts. There are two ways to amend the Constitution. It’s right there in the Constitution. But some people want to pretend there’s only one way because they know damn well that one way will never work. Why? Because it involves Congress. You need two thirds of both houses to get an amendment to the state legislatures. The other way. It’s the state legislatures taking the lead. You still need 38 of the 50 state legislatures to approve an amendment to the Constitution. You still do. That said. Which is difficult. You need 34 of them to get together to propose amendments. And what are they? To limit the federal budget to a percentage of the gross domestic product. What else? That the bureaucracy can’t increase spending through regulations without approval of Congress. What else? It goes on and on with one proposal after another. That Congress must balance the budget. Within four years. Wow. How radical. And other proposals that are in there. And I would encourage I would encourage Musk. And I would encourage Vivek to take a look at them. Because this isn’t about one administration. This isn’t about one four year period where they win the next crowd. The next crowd wins and then blows up everything. This is serious business. And yet. How much do you hear about convention of states? From the so-called conservatives, or at least fiscal conservatives in Congress, even though Congress has really no role. How much have you heard about this from them? Almost nothing. Some of them will give it a salute now and then a high five, and then they move on. Are they not serious? Is anybody serious? We have individuals who interview members of Congress and don’t even know what the hell the convention of states is. Morning shows, news shows, afternoon shows, and they don’t confront them with it. They don’t ask them about it. We have the same people who ask questions whether it’s of the speaker or other people. They never bring up Social Security or Medicare and Medicaid. They will now that I bring it up, just like they bring up birthright citizenship that I brought up in 2015, that it doesn’t exist constitutionally or legally. Or just like when I brought up the conspiracy to take out Trump with leaks from the FBI in March 2017. Then the rest of them followed. But on this. Every single member of Congress should be confronted, even the so-called fiscal hawks, all of them. What are they going to do? We’ll get a new speaker. Oh, that’ll fix it. That’ll do nothing. Zero. That’s what it’ll do. This is about our children and our grandchildren. What we’re leaving them. This is about our children and grandchildren. What’s happening here is horrendous. It’s been horrendous. This is a new one, continuing resolution. In his farewell address to the nation after serving two terms as president. George Washington urged his fellow citizens to quote. And I notice they never quote this part of his farewell address. Avoid the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions to discharge the debts, not throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. Don’t create debt and throw it on the shoulders of your children and grandchildren. That’s what he’s saying. And that’s what Congress is doing. And that’s what administrations, Republican and Democrat, have been doing. Don’t touch Social Security and Medicare. We can’t tell people 55 and over. We’re not going to touch it for you. You’re safe. You’re grandfathered in. It’s okay. Don’t worry. You’ve been made a promise. You’ve relied on it. Now, if you’re under 55, if you want any kind of Social Security or Medicare program, we need to adjust it. We need to fix it. People are living longer. Fewer people are contributing to the program. The program is spending more and much more than it’s taking in. But now. None of the candidates for president said so. None of the leaders in Congress have said so. Even even the media, even the hosts who claim to be conservatives, they won’t bring it up. I bring it up. I bring it up. They won’t bring it up. They don’t want to lose ratings. For me, it’s not about ratings. I’m over 65. We have children and grandchildren. It needs to be discussed. We need to be honest about it because this is about morality. Don’t we love our children and our grandchildren? Wouldn’t we do virtually anything for our children and grandchildren? Some of us would die to protect them, right? So why are we bankrupting them? Now the left, the Bernie Sanders types. They want to expand Social Security. They want to expand Medicare. They want to expand government health care, which will, of course, crash the entire society. But that’s what they want. They want to crash the entire society. They’re Marxist bastards. That’s what they are. But that’s not what you and I want. So it’s not just quote unquote, Speaker Johnson. It’s not just Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It’s not just Speaker This one. Speaker that one. It’s all of them. All of them. I look at this fan dance over continuing resolutions. I do understand the importance of getting spending under control. But you folks understand with me, I think, how unserious the virtually virtually all of them are. Because entitlements take up over three fourths of the federal budget and they’re called entitlements mean you’re not supposed to touch them. The interest on the debt is now bigger than all we spend on defense. Defence is one of the primary responsibilities of the Federal government, not redistributing wealth. So tell me, what candidate has run on controlling entitlements, Reforming entitlements? Not one. Not one. In part because they feel they’re going to lose. Why? Because their opponents will lie about what they’re saying. The media will lie about what they’re saying. They’ll be picked the pieces. But also. Because too many of our fellow citizens don’t want to hear about it. They don’t want to hear about it. Cut spending, but not mine. Get the debt under control. But leave me alone. And that’s how the marches succeed. The more government programs and government entanglements they can create for the vast majority of the population. The more they know. That there won’t be significant cuts. And so that’s why they’re fighting over peanuts. Discretionary spending, they call it. And what kind of a country? Is almost 80% of the spending entitlements and nondiscretionary. So we’re fighting over 20 25% of the budget. A country that’s in a debt cycle. And even our most conservative fiscal hawks, as they like to self-identify, Never talk about this. Never talk about it. Never. We’ve heard about dosh. Right. The Aussie dog. How do you spell that, doggy? Department of Government Efficiency. There is no such department yet. Maybe there will be. This hasn’t been discussed. By anybody. Why? The markets are volatile. Did you see for the. What is it? The 11th day in a row, the stock market has tanked over 1100 points. Now, those who are experts on the stock market who make their money talking about the stock, that’s okay. 11 days in a row. We haven’t seen that in a half a century. Half a century. Look where the point of the spear here. That’s where we are. I’m not running for office. I don’t want any appointments. I don’t need to be on any list about the greatest. This and the greatest. I don’t care. The reason I have such a massive audience, the reason you’re there, so loyal and I’m blessed to have you, is because you know this about me. I have no ulterior motives whatsoever. None. And I never have. I’ll be right back.
Segment 4
So I do want to be as clear as I can. This project to slash the size of government is crucial. Slash regulations is crucial. President Trump’s fight to make sure taxes remain low and even lower, that’s crucial. And on the spending side, cutting spending is crucial. It’s crucial, but you can’t leave the biggest projects off the table. You got to talk like mature, knowledgeable, intelligent adults. Otherwise they will crash these programs. And when they crash, the economy will crash with them. Now, you might think that’s fear mongering. Our economy has crashed before. The greatest depression we had was actually in the 1880s. We know of the depression of the last century, which was enormous. And what happens when you have these situations just like the pandemic of just a few years ago? So that should be fresh in mind. The government becomes more powerful, you know, as a result of the depression. The stock market crash in 29 and a depression that followed for more than ten years. Much a result of what FDR, his policies were when he got elected. The government changed forever, became much more powerful, much more intrusive. Individual liberty, much more limited. Federalism all but destroyed the private sector. Heavily regulated private sector took the blame for decisions that were made in terms of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, just like today. And we can go on and on. But it changed our country just as. The corona. COVID 19 China virus changed our country. It showed governors. And the federal government that they literally had the power to prevent us from going to synagogue or church. They literally had the power to tell us how far we had to stand from or away from each other. One, we had to wear masks and on and on, other penalty of imprisonment. What it is that you had to put into your bodies. It literally changed the face of the nation. Some people are fine with it. It’s no big deal. But those of us who understand. Liberty versus tyranny. It was a big deal. And it is a big deal. And when an economy collapses. When seniors don’t have those Social Security checks anymore, when Medicare is irrelevant because the hospital system is collapsed. When you can’t get the the medicines that you need and the treatment you need because the economic system no longer functions. Nobody’s going to be talking about the niceties of the Constitution. Nobody’s going to be talking about checks and balances and limited government and separation of powers. People are going to demand answers. They’re going to demand to have their one smack. And that’s what happens. And that’s what Bernie Sanders knows. That’s what AOC knows. That’s what they know. And that’s why addressing these issues early on. Whether it’s acknowledging what’s going on with these so-called entitlements, whether it’s convention of states. Whatever it is, these are battles that must be fought. And we must seek to persuade the American people time and time and time again. That’s what we have to do. Again, fighting over the continuing resolution is interesting to fight. That’s worth having. But it’s a PC battle. It’s a PC battle. Much bigger problems that need to be embraced and dealt with that are being utterly ignored. I’ll be right back.