Honorable Jim Jordan

[0:00] I've jotted a little note here to myself. The price for freedom is eternal vigilance. We all know that saying. It goes back to our founding fathers.

[0:14] But included in that eye of vigilance and eternal vigilance is that the people, the people, the we the people, must keep a sharp eye on those who govern us.

[0:34] And when our founding fathers drafted the Constitution, they did not draft it with the idea of setting forth the responsibilities of the people.

[0:45] They drafted it with the idea of setting forth the limitations of the government. And many people have lost sight of that.

[0:58] So there is a renewed interest in the Constitution and its meaning, and classes have been held all over the country and are still being held, and we are grateful for that because if there is any document with which we should be at least conversant and somewhat familiar, it is the doctrine that sets forth what this nation is all about.

[1:19] That's why it's called the Constitution. It is that that represents what this nation is constituted of or for or by, and that's what we have all wrapped up in that document.

[1:35] So if anybody wants to know what's the United States all about, read the Constitution. That's where you'll find the best definition of what we are all about. So Jim, in his capacity as a representative from the 4th Congressional District, sits in the House of Representatives, and one of his responsibilities, among others, is to sit on the committee of the House Oversight Committee, and that simply means they have the responsibility of looking over.

[2:08] In fact, the word oversight comes from an old biblical term. Actually, it's related to the word episcopal and episkopos.

[2:23] Episkopos in the New Testament is translated a bishop, and it means one who oversees or looks over something. And I'm sure that these on this committee don't think of themselves as bishops, but that's really the kind of responsibility you have is looking over things.

[2:40] And their responsibility is to keep an eye on government and see to it that government doesn't get out of control because they recognize that that threat is always there wherever you have humanity.

[2:51] That's the way it is. So we're going to ask Jim to come and speak with whatever the Lord has laid on his heart. And before you get into your message proper, I want you to explain what this thing in Oklahoma City was all about.

[3:08] I understand you were there for some kind of a war. I don't know exactly what it is, but my suspicion is it had something to do with wrestling. And Jim and his brother Jeff were not only state champions in wrestling, but they were national champions as well.

[3:24] And they have sons who have excelled also in state championship, and they made a virtual dynasty out of wrestling there at Graham High School near Urbana.

[3:36] So tell us about that. And it's not bragging if you've been asked to do it. So you tell us about that before you get to your message, would you? Thank you. Thank you, Pastor.

[3:49] Yeah, we were in Oklahoma. And I'll actually talk about one of the guys we met last week, but the National Wrestling Hall of Fame is in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on the campus of Oklahoma State. And so Mom, Dad, Polly, and I were there last week.

[4:02] The kids couldn't make it. They're all coming home this week. But we were there and was honored with two Navy SEALs, actually, who wrestled as well. I was telling my Uncle Dick before I walked up here that I thought I had the best joke of the night when I said, the SEALs' name were Colin Kilrain and Tommy Norris.

[4:23] And I said, Tommy and Colin deserve this. They put their lives on the line. I said, heck, all I do is try to keep liberals in line. So it was a nice weekend.

[4:34] Anytime you're around conservative folks like those and wrestling people, it's the kind of weekend that our family enjoyed. So we had a wonderful time. I will save time for questions.

[4:45] You guys, you've had to listen to me many times. And I tell every audience I ever get a chance to speak to, you all pay my salary. Some of you are stuck with me as your congressman, so you really have a right to speak up.

[4:58] But we have this amazing thing in America called the First Amendment. And at the appropriate time here later this morning, you'll be given an opportunity to exercise that fundamental right and fire away with any questions you have and any criticisms you have.

[5:11] It's a wonderful thing we have the ability to do in this country. I love the picture. This period in history is my favorite. That picture is somewhere in Independence Hall.

[5:22] When the committee was getting together, it looks like, to write that document that started it all. And you got Franklin on one side, Jefferson on the other. But the guy in the middle was really the driving force behind the move towards independence, the move to declare to the world why, in fact, our country would be this amazing experiment in liberty, amazing experiment in freedom that the world had never seen.

[5:47] And I asked our interns, a couple of our interns last week, I said, there's a statement that Adams made at the first July 4th when they put the declaration together where he talked about it should be a day of celebration.

[6:02] I said, I want you to find that statement. And so they dug into it and they found it. And I want to start with that because it is a day of celebration. And we're celebrating something that never happened in thousands of years of human history where a people declared to the world why this place, this thing we call America, was going to be different, founded on certain principles that no other nation had started with.

[6:25] And here's what Adams said about the first July 4th. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion, to God Almighty.

[6:36] It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows and games and sports and guns and bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.

[6:51] And it should be celebrated. It had never happened. It had never happened where a nation was started with an idea. Unbelievable. And think about the idea and how that, and I know I've shared this with you before, but I believe it just as sure as I'm standing here.

[7:05] The words in the Declaration, the document that, again, started this whole thing, next to Scripture are the greatest words ever put on paper. We hold these truths to be self-evident.

[7:16] All are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. That language, that rich romantic language, and the ideas that are contained in it, unbelievable.

[7:28] The idea that there is a Creator. And we get our rights from the Creator, not from government. This is unique. This is special about America. First time and only time it's been done where we said, we the people don't get our basic freedoms and rights from government.

[7:42] They're not grants from government. They're gifts from God. And we get them from the Creator because we are made in His image. I mean, these guys who started, these three guys and all the others who put their lives, their fortune, their sacred honor on the line, when they signed that document and declared to the world why this place was going to be different, amazing, amazing people who understood that fundamental fact.

[8:04] No other place started like that. Think about our closest relative, Great Britain, the one we were rebelling against. They actually, I mean, people in Britain actually had some rights and privileges.

[8:15] You go back to Magna Carta and how it all started, and that heritage we have as English-speaking people. But they're our closest relative, and yet we are different from them. In Great Britain, it was a top-down model where God gave power and rights and privileges to the monarch, to the king and the queen.

[8:39] And then over time, the nobles got rights and privileges. And then it was down to the merchants and the shopkeepers. And finally, it was down all the way down to the commoners, to we the people.

[8:50] But in America, we said, we're not going to adopt this top-down model. We're a grassroots, bottom-up, we the people. We the people will loan power to government to protect the rights we had, not because government gave them to us, but because we are created in God's image with this fundamental right to life and the pursuit of our goals and our dreams and freedoms.

[9:11] Amazing thing. Amazing thing. And as Adam said, it should be celebrated. It's why we have my two favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, because it's so centered around family and for a host of reasons.

[9:26] But it should be celebrated. It should be a special day. Adams also goes on to say this. I knew that there was a statement where he talked about this need for celebration and why it should be celebrated.

[9:40] But I want you to listen to what he also has to say. And this was new to me. I didn't realize this. After he said this should be celebrated from time forward evermore, you will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not.

[9:54] I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory.

[10:07] I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And focus on these words. It will cost us to maintain this declaration. Think about that.

[10:18] I mean, the word cost. It cost these guys everything. We remember Adams and Franklin and Jefferson and Washington. But most of the individuals who signed that document, they lost it all.

[10:30] They lost their home. They lost some of them gave their lives. Some of them lost sons and in the battle. I mean, they they were willing, as I said before, to put their lives, their fortune, their sacred honor on the line.

[10:41] And they did that. They gave it all to it was a big cost. But and I think Adams was talking about the cost they were going to have to endure. But I also think he was getting at this idea that's going to cost future citizens of this country to maintain this declaration, to maintain these freedoms and liberties that they had there.

[11:02] And that is that is just a basic just a basic fact of the way God made life. I tell I get the chance to speak to a lot of young people and students and student athletes from time to time.

[11:17] And I always tell them that most of the time, good things don't just happen. If you want to accomplish things of meaning, things of significance, if you want to attain those things that have importance and lasting value, it always takes work.

[11:36] It always takes effort. It always takes time and sacrifice. And I think that's what Adams was alluding to here, that there will be a cost to maintain what we have in this country, which no other nation has ever had.

[11:49] And it's something that I think today and I'll get into this, just how serious this attack on freedom is and what I believe we have to do to, in Adams words, maintain it.

[12:04] The first thing is understand this. There's risk associated with doing anything worthwhile. There's always risk. I love. I love what President Teddy Roosevelt said.

[12:17] He said, I preach not the life of ease, but rather the life of strenuous effort. Far better to dare mighty dreams, to attempt glorious triumphs, even though checkered by defeat, than to live in that gray twilight, which knows neither victory nor defeat.

[12:31] And the idea is, Roosevelt understood this, and so many Americans have understood this, nothing of importance happens in the twilight, on the sidelines. It happens by getting in the game, getting out of the shadows and getting in the game.

[12:44] And I believe we're at a point in history where we have to do, I'm not advocating and not suggesting by any means there's a need of a revolution, but we as citizens need to step forward and defend the things that make us special in the first place.

[12:57] It's that, I mean, it's that serious. Country music guy, Garth Brooks, I like Garth Brooks' song. He said it even simpler. He said, life's not tried, it's merely survived if you're standing outside the fire.

[13:10] And the idea is you've got to get in the fire. Sometimes you've got to get where it's pretty heated, pretty hot. And I think we're at one of those points in history where we need to get out of the twilight and get in the fire.

[13:22] All kinds of citizens who care about what Adams and Jefferson and Franklin and those guys who started this place understood this country was going to offer its citizens. And it is as serious as I've ever seen it.

[13:33] I've been in politics now 20 years. 20 years ago I was, I told a group the other day, just Joe Bag of Donuts, wrestling coach, never intended to get involved in politics, was going to help student athletes get to their goals on the wrestling mat.

[13:46] And you get married, you have kids, and you look at what government's doing, insulting your values, taking your money, and you think you can make a difference. And so I decided to run. And in the 20, that was 1994. In the 20 years I've been involved in this, I've never seen it like today.

[13:59] I've never seen the concern on citizens' part, and I've never seen a government doing the things that this current administration is doing. In fact, I was visiting with a friend. I actually shared this in a speech.

[14:11] I spoke to our, was it 10 days ago, to our entire Republican conference. We've had some intense times in Washington, not just with the issues we're dealing with, but with the loss of our majority leader in his primary, we had to elect a new majority leader.

[14:28] And I gave the nominating speech for the guy who lost, my friend, Raul Labrador from Idaho. And I said in that speech that I think today that so many Americans think the game's rigged against them.

[14:43] They see a Washington that's completely out of touch. They see a Washington that gives bailouts to big corporations, gives handouts to people who don't work, and for government employees to do something wrong, they're never held accountable.

[14:59] And they have had it. They have had it. I was visiting with them, and I shared this in the speech. I was visiting with a good friend of ours, Bruce Toll. Bruce and Catherine are wonderful Christian folks. Their boys grew up wrestling with our boys.

[15:12] Their kids went to Troy Christian. We're just good friends. And Bruce is a very successful businessman. In fact, he's doing great right now. They're making compressors for the oil and gas industry all over the country and doing great.

[15:26] But I was visiting his business, and I've never seen this. Bruce looked at me, and the raw emotion that he looked at me and said, Jim, do you get what's going on?

[15:38] Do you guys in Washington understand how serious the regulation, the Obamacare, the attacks on our values, our freedom? And I've never – Bruce is a tough – I mean, he's a good guy, but he was emotional.

[15:51] And so many – I see it all across our district. I speak all over the country. I see it from so many people. And it's a good thing, too. It's a good thing that that many people are recognizing what's going on and willing to get engaged.

[16:07] But this is as serious as I've seen it. There are countless examples of where the Constitution is being attacked, where our basic freedoms are being attacked, and where just fundamental truth and fundamental principle is being assaulted as well.

[16:21] And I won't go into all of them. I'm going to focus on the one the pastor was talking about, the Internal Revenue Service. But you think in the big picture, did you ever think you'd see a day where the basic institution of marriage and family would be attacked like it is?

[16:32] I mean, I never thought I'd see this. And we all know how fundamental that – I've said many times, you know, you think about the first institution the good Lord put together.

[16:44] It wasn't the church. It wasn't the state. It was family. It was mom, dad, and kids. And that's the very first institution that God created. And yet it's systematically being attacked today. And even when states, the people will stand up and speak out and say marriage should be what it's always been, you'll have some judge say no, it shouldn't.

[17:01] And it's just flat out wrong. So basic truth is being attacked. The Constitution, I mean, I never thought I'd see a president just unilaterally change the law without a vote of the elected legislative branch.

[17:16] But we see it. We've seen it numerous times with the Affordable Care Act. We've seen it with immigration law. One of the examples I point to that we tend to forget, but it was the first time I saw it in such a clear way early in this administration, when the president – this is back during the auto bailout – when the president did a press conference, and he told the bondholders at Chrysler, you're going to take the deal.

[17:46] And I thought, wait a minute. These are the bondholders. These are the secured creditors. They're the first in line. What about contract law? What about the rule of law? What about private property rights?

[17:57] You had the president telling the folks who had a contract in property law claim to be the first in line on any type of – when there was a debt – dealing with the debt.

[18:13] And he told them, you're going to take the deal. And what did they do? They took the deal. Because here was the president of the United States telling them they had to. Fundamental attack on the rule of law and on property rights.

[18:23] So we've seen countless things. But the best example, and frankly the one that I've spent the bulk of my time on as a member of the Congress the last 13 months, is what we have seen with the systematic targeting of conservative groups for exercising their most fundamental right, their First Amendment right to speech, by the Internal Revenue Service.

[18:44] Now think about this for a second. When you think about your First Amendment rights, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, your most fundamental right under the First Amendment, and this is what the founders had in mind, is your right to free speech.

[19:00] And when they wrote that First Amendment, that First Amendment and the Bill of Rights, and were thinking about your speech rights, what they really had in mind was your ability to speak out in a political fashion against your government.

[19:12] So this is as basic as it gets. And this administration systematically targeted that very thing. That's why this is, when some of the other folks on the other side criticize us for being so focused on this, I always come back to that basic fact.

[19:31] We have to be focused. This is at the heart of who we are as a country, what the founders on that very first July 4th had in mind, that you could actually speak out against your government in a political fashion and not have repercussions for doing that.

[19:48] And this administration set out to target groups for doing that. And you've got to understand the history here. And we've walked through, walked groups through this before, but you have to go back to when the Citizens United decision was handed out by the Supreme Court.

[20:02] And this allowed more engagement from corporations to exercise their speech rights and for groups to form and speak out. And this sort of coincided with the whole Tea Party movement and conservative groups coming together and saying they were going to get involved in a more intense way politically.

[20:24] And remember when the president first made note of this, was in the 2010 State of the Union Address. You guys remember when he called out the Supreme Court? He called out Judge Alito right on the front row there.

[20:36] And then that whole year you saw high-ranking officials in the government, in the Democrat Party, Senator Schumer, Senator Durbin, Senator Levin, speak out against this.

[20:49] The president was doing it every week in that entire year as we headed into the midterm elections. Many of them were writing the IRS telling them to look at the activity of C4 organizations, conservative organizations across the country.

[21:05] So this was the climate. And in that climate, there was an individual at the Internal Revenue Service, Ms. Lerner, Lois Lerner, who took it upon herself to really get engaged. And it was 2010 when the targeting began.

[21:20] And we haven't found that, you know, the so-called smoking gun, the email from the White House or the phone call from the chief of staff at the White House to the Internal Revenue Service telling them to do this.

[21:33] But what you had, and there's been several folks who have written about this, most notably Kim Strassel at the Wall Street Journal, who said that most likely they didn't need a direct, you know, order or some kind of direct communication because they were hearing it every week.

[21:48] And they were politically inclined to do what they were hearing from Democrat senators and from the president. And we think that's most likely what happened.

[21:59] They took it upon themselves to systematically target and harass groups who were applying for C4 status. The most notable, the one I've used as the best example, was a wonderful Christian lady from Houston, Texas, Catherine Engelbrecht, who started an organization called True the Vote.

[22:17] They had this somewhat novel idea that elections should be fair. Elections should, only people who are actually registered to vote and live in that district should be able to participate in the election.

[22:30] And they started this project educating folks all over the country on how to clean up voter registration rolls and impact in the right way the election process.

[22:42] And she filed for C4 status, had to wait three and a half years to get it. Her and her husband have been in business for, have been in business 20 years. The first 16 years before she established this organization, she had virtually no interaction with the federal government.

[22:57] In fact, the only interaction she had was filing her annual tax return, both for her business and for her family. Once she files for C4 status, the whole thing changed in the full way the federal government came down on this lady.

[23:12] She was visited by OSHA, the EPA. She had six visits from the FBI, four on the phone, two in person. ATF visited her business.

[23:24] She was audited both personally and her business by the Internal Revenue Service for the previous two years. And, of course, the other side will say this is all just one big coincidence. But she felt the full force.

[23:36] I mean, she understood the cost, as Adams talked about, to maintain what the declaration was all about. And we had her in front of our hearing. And I asked her, I said, Ms. Engelbrecht, why do you think you were targeted?

[23:48] She said, well, because we applied. And I said, I don't think that was the reason. I think you were targeted, yes, because you applied for C4 status. But I think you were targeted because you were being successful. You were making a difference.

[24:01] And it wouldn't have bothered them if you had this organization, you know, out there talking to folks. But you were having an impact. And so the full weight of the federal government came down on you.

[24:13] And it is as wrong as wrong could be. And here's the part that scares me. The criminal investigation, the criminal investigation going on at the Justice Department is a complete sham.

[24:24] And this, too, shows how we're drifting away from the principles that the country was founded on. If you can't have a Justice Department, remember the Justice Department.

[24:35] What's the symbol of the Justice Department? It's the balance scales and it's the blindfolded lady, right? If you can't have a Justice Department that's truly focused on justice, you got a problem. And this, and I have, I will harp on this for until we get to the truth.

[24:50] This Justice Department, think about this. Even though the president, back in May of last year when this story broke, the president said we're going to get to the bottom of this. This is wrong. This is outrageous. The attorney general says we're going to get to the bottom of this.

[25:01] We're going to start a criminal investigation. Even though they said all that back in May of 2013. What's actually happened is January 13th of this year, the FBI leaked to the Wall Street Journal. No one's going to be prosecuted. Super Bowl Sunday, the president goes on national television and says there's no corruption here, not even a smidgen.

[25:18] And the person leading the investigation is an attorney, Barbara Bosserman, who gave $6,750 to the president's campaign in the Democrat National Committee. She's a max out contributor to the president's campaign.

[25:29] And the president could potentially be a target. And here's someone leading the investigation who has a vested interest in his success, actually a financial interest in his success. That's the one leading the investigation.

[25:39] And they tell us it's a fair and impartial investigation. Now, there's some good news here. And I know I'm jumping around a little bit, but there is some good news.

[25:50] We passed a resolution six weeks ago calling for a special prosecutor. And every single Republican in the House of Representatives voted for it. But most importantly, 26 Democrats.

[26:02] And this is a huge sign. We'll pass things in the House sometimes where we'll get two or three, four Democrats. There's still a handful of sort of Southern Democrats who are somewhat conservative.

[26:15] But when you get 26, that's different. 26 Democrats said, yeah, we need a special prosecutor because they see what we see. So that's some of the positive there.

[26:26] The other thing I would say is this. The pattern we have seen from the administration as this story has unfolded is frightening as well.

[26:40] When we first confronted the Internal Revenue Service, they denied it. It came back in 2012. They said, no, we're not. We actually had Lois Lerner with one of our staff, our personal staff members, and three staff members from the Oversight Committee in a meeting with her in a room in the Oversight Committee staff area.

[27:03] And we asked her, and she says, there's no targeting taking place. And then if you remember when former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Doug Shulman, was called in front of the Ways and Means Committee in early 2013, he said, I can give you assurances there's no targeting taking place.

[27:21] So initially they denied it. Clearly back when Ms. Lerner, though, met with us, we asked for the Inspector General to do an investigation. We just, we didn't trust her.

[27:33] We didn't believe her. And so they initially denied it. Then when they find out the Inspector General's report is going to say, yeah, there was targeting taking place, they tried to spin it.

[27:45] And I said this the other night in committee. First there was the denial. Then there was the spin and the blame. And the spin was, Ms. Lerner, unprecedented. This has never happened. Before an Inspector General's report goes public, she went and gave a speech three days before.

[27:59] So this report went public May 13th. May 10th, she went and gave a speech to the Bar Association in the District of Columbia. And it had a planted question from a friend. Ms. Lerner tried to spin it and say, not a big deal.

[28:13] We did some things that were wrong. And the blame was two rogue agents in Cincinnati. Remember this story? All this turned out to be false.

[28:24] And then they did what always happens in an investigation. Deny it, spin it, blame it, and then say, oh, wait, the fact finders are wrong. They tried to attack the messenger, attack the Inspector General.

[28:35] They said, oh, Mr. George's report, Russell George's report, it's inaccurate, da, da, da. And they tried to do all kinds of things to attack the messenger. And now they're down to the last thing you can do.

[28:46] Hide the evidence. Right? I said this in committee Monday night. I said, this is as old as the hills. Any third-rate B-actor movie follows the same script. Right? The bad guy says, I didn't do it.

[28:58] Joe did it. I didn't. I didn't. Officer, it wasn't me. And you got the wrong guy and you're harassing me. You know, and finally they say, I didn't throw the gun in the river. I don't know what happened.

[29:08] I mean, it's as old as the hills. And it's the same pattern. But when you have a government do this kind of thing, again, it undermines the basic freedoms and principles that are so special in this country.

[29:21] I think we're going to get to the truth. I think those emails are on a server somewhere. And we have subpoenaed. We just keep issuing subpoenas. I forgot one other thing. They were never going to tell us.

[29:32] This is the other thing. They were never going to tell us until they got caught. They weren't going to tell us about the targeting until they got caught. And they weren't going to tell us about the emails until they got caught. And here's how we figured out. Here's how I think we pressured them into actually disclosing that they had lost two years of emails from Ms. Lerner that went outside the Internal Revenue Service.

[29:51] If you remember, it's been two months ago when Judicial Watch did a Freedom of Information request. And they discovered that the Justice Department was communicating with the Internal Revenue Service back in early 2013.

[30:06] And the lawyer at the Justice Department was a lawyer named Richard Pilger. And so because we learned the name from the emails that Judicial Watch made public, we subpoenaed Mr. Pilger to come in for a deposition.

[30:20] These depositions are a five- or six-hour ordeal where you ask a bunch of questions. And I sat in for several hours at that deposition with our attorneys. And in the course of that deposition, we actually learned that Mr. Pilger not only communicated with Lois Lerner in 2013, but he communicated with her clear back in 2010.

[30:40] That was a huge piece of information we discovered. And so we said, wow, if Justice was communicating with the IRS in 2010 when this started, that's a big story.

[30:51] And we found out also in that communication that there were 1.1 million pages, 21 disks of information that the IRS had sent to the FBI in 2010 about C4 organizations.

[31:03] And a small amount of that information sent over contained what's called 6103 confidential taxpayer donor information that you're not allowed to disclose. So the IRS actually broke the law when they sent that to the Justice Department.

[31:16] And so when we got that information, we then subpoenaed justice. We said, okay, we want all the emails and correspondence you have with the IRS over the past four years.

[31:30] Once the IRS saw that we were going to get information from the Justice Department that they maybe couldn't provide us, because we then asked the IRS, hey, Haskam, you haven't sent us some of these emails we're getting that show this coordination clear back in 2010.

[31:46] We sent that letter to the IRS on June the 9th. It was four days later that the IRS released in the letter to Senator Hatch and Senator Wyden that they, in fact, had lost two years of Lois Lerner's emails.

[32:02] I don't think they were ever going to tell us until we, somewhat by accident, in the work of Judicial Watch, we were able to figure out this coordination clear back in 2010. We're going to keep after it.

[32:14] I think it's, again, as I said, when you have something this fundamental, this basic, you have to do everything you can. And that includes the contempt resolution of Ms. Lerner.

[32:29] We want to use every means at our disposal to get to the truth. We're hopeful that this will, in fact, get in front of a judge. It's supposed to, according to the statute.

[32:41] And the judge will tell Ms. Lerner, you know, it's amazing. When a judge says you either go talk or go to jail, it's amazing how going to jail helps people find Jesus, if you know what I mean.

[32:53] And we're hopeful that it gets to a judge and the judge will actually do that and compel her to come answer our questions and get to the bottom.

[33:05] Let me finish with this and I'll take your questions. And I know I spent a fair amount of time on this. But, again, this is the one that I think the American people understand and highlights and underscores what's really at stake here.

[33:20] But the question becomes then, how do we, in Adam's words, how do we maintain what the Declaration said?

[33:31] How do we maintain what the founders envisioned and what the rights and the liberties and the constitutional form of government we have? What does it require? And I think the answer is really pretty basic.

[33:44] It just requires us to stand up and speak out and defend the truth. I get asked all the time, what's it going to take for Republicans to win?

[33:55] And I don't want to get too partisan, but what's it going to take? And I said, we can't be afraid to defend who we are. But what's wrong with saying that I actually think that the Constitution is the right way to go and we should respect it?

[34:10] I actually think that marriage and family are the cornerstone and the key institution in our culture that determines the strength of our entire culture. I actually think that the Justice Department should administer justice. What's wrong with just standing?

[34:22] So I don't think the solution is that profound. It just takes a willingness on the part of people to stand up and defend truth, defend freedom and defend the Constitution. And we need more and more citizens to do it.

[34:33] And as I said before, one of the things I do in a lot of speech, I did this down in Florida. I was speaking to a group of donors for the Heritage Foundation. And I started off asking, how many of you are nervous?

[34:47] And of course, every hand goes up. And I said, well, that's the good news. You're all concerned. You're nervous enough to be involved in the Heritage.

[34:58] You're nervous enough to step up. That's what it takes. And it's an amazing place. That speech I gave last week, I used a line in there, too, that it's one of my favorites.

[35:11] Actually made by a baseball player, Hershiser, pitcher for the Dodgers. He said, great things can happen to ordinary people who work hard and never give up. And I love that statement for one word.

[35:25] Ordinary. Stop and think about it. We're all just regular ordinary people. Nobody's any better than anybody else. We're all regular folks in need of God's grace. None of us more special than anyone else.

[35:37] But in this country, ordinary people have done extraordinary things if they work hard and never quit. And that's all it takes is a bunch of ordinary people.

[35:48] These guys, we think they were great men. Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, these great men. But they were also just ordinary folks. They were pastors and merchants and farmers and lawyers who decided they were going to stand up, rebel against the greatest nation in the history of the time, the greatest military power in the time, and set out on this quest where they can make a country where freedom mattered.

[36:13] Polly and I have had two individuals I want to highlight that I think maybe exemplify this better than anything I've seen of late. But the first one was a guy I never met, but one of our greatest presidents.

[36:27] We were up. So Easter weekend, we were, some of you know, we got four kids and they're all over the place. We got our oldest, Rachel, and her husband are down in Fort Benning. But our other three are out in the Midwest.

[36:38] And Jesse goes to school in Iowa. Ben works just outside of Chicago in Rockford, Illinois, and Isaac's up in Madison, Wisconsin. And so we were making that triangle out there in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin to see the kids over Easter weekend.

[36:49] And we're driving from Iowa City to the Chicago area. We're coming across Illinois on 88, the tollway there.

[37:01] And Polly's driving. I'm half asleep in the passenger seat. And we're driving along and we see Dixon, Illinois, hometown of, anyone know? Ronald Reagan.

[37:12] And Polly just whips the car off the road and she made the decision we were going to see Reagan's hometown. And we had plenty of it.

[37:23] And it was a wonderful, wonderful little experience. Dixon, Illinois is like Urbana, Ohio, Springfield, just apple pie, small town.

[37:34] Reagan's house, little side street, this modest little white, typical average home. I mean, you went through it. Two little old ladies gave them $5 and they took you through the home.

[37:48] You watched a video on Reagan. You appreciated where this guy came from. Amazing individual. And you understood why he was so great when you saw the humble beginnings of Ronald Reagan.

[38:00] We were talking the bathroom. The sink was about the size of a bowl. You could just... Reagan's mom was a seamstress just so they could have enough money to do...

[38:12] I mean, amazing people. And here was a guy from Dixon, Illinois, little white house on a side street who became one of the greatest presidents in history. Did more for freedom around, not only in this country, but around the world than maybe anyone else in modern times.

[38:28] Just a regular, ordinary guy who did extraordinary things because he was willing to work hard and never quit. Remember Reagan? He ran... Reagan in 64 gives the speech for Goldwater.

[38:39] We all know how that election turned out. Goldwater got his clock cleaned, right? But Reagan keeps talking about conservative principles. Keeps fighting. Runs in 76 in the primary against a sitting president.

[38:50] That's a no-no in party politics. Reagan didn't care. He ran anyway. Almost won. But the fact that he almost won and we lived through Jimmy Carter set up 1980.

[39:02] And sometimes I tell my colleagues, we think it's bad now. I'm old enough to remember 1979, 1980, 1981. Remember those days? Some of you are old enough to remember that too, right? Unbelievable how bad it was.

[39:14] And three, four years later, what we had, the Soviet Union starting to come apart. You know what the economic growth rate was in 1985? Last quarter we had negative growth.

[39:26] We're meandering along about a percent and a half annual growth rate here today. 1985, first year of Reagan's second term, you know what the annual growth rate was? Seven and a half percent.

[39:37] Oh my goodness. You got an economy humming along like that? It gets Medicare and Social Security concerns get a lot easier to solve when you're growing like that. Ronald Reagan, a regular kid, ordinary kid from Dixon, Illinois, and the things he did.

[39:52] And the second guy was the guy I met last week. I mentioned him earlier. His name was Tommy Norris. Amazing guy. I've been telling everyone this entire week about this guy's story.

[40:05] Tommy Norris wrestled at the University of Maryland. He's actually my dad's age. He graduated from college in 1966. He, two-time ACC champion.

[40:18] After he graduates, decide, you know what, I'm going to join the military. I'm going to help our country. And I'm going to become a Navy SEAL. And he did that. Became a Navy SEAL. Went to Vietnam.

[40:31] Wins the Medal of Honor. There's a pilot who's been shot down. The pilot had critical information that they did not want to fall into the hands of the enemy.

[40:43] They wanted to rescue. He's American. They wanted to get there. You always go rescue your guys. But it was particularly important because this guy had critical information. So Tommy Norris and his SEAL team are sent on the mission.

[40:53] Tommy's a smaller guy. Sent on the mission to go rescue him. They tried several times. Finally, third or fourth try, they make it up to the rim. And what he did is he dressed up like a North Vietnamese in one of those little boats, paddled up the river.

[41:07] He had some of his teammates on the side of the river helping. But there were enemies all over the place. And he gets to the guy, puts him in the boat, covers him up with bamboo and reeds and vegetation, comes back out.

[41:23] On his way back out, he comes under enemy fire. He calls in airstrikes and saves this guy's life. Wins the Medal of Honor. Six months later, he's back on another mission.

[41:35] Gets shot in the head. They think he's dead. And his SEAL team partner pulls him out. Had to swim two miles with him. Pulls him out. His partner wins the Medal of Honor.

[41:48] Only guy in the last 100 years to be a part of two events that resulted in someone winning the Medal of Honor. Unbelievable. Takes him three. Loses his left eye.

[41:59] Takes him three years to recover. He recovers and he says, I always wanted to be an FBI agent. So he applies to be an FBI agent. William Webster is the FBI, the director of the FBI at the time. And he says, you can't.

[42:10] What are you talking about? You can't do it. You're disabled. There's no way. He keeps pestering the FBI. He's a Medal of Honor award winner, of course. And keeps pestering. Finally said, OK, OK. If you can pass all the tests, we'll let you be an agent.

[42:23] He passes all the tests with flying colors. Serves 20 years in the FBI before he retires. And you meet this guy. He is the most humble, just amazing individual that you will ever encounter.

[42:38] And you can just tell he's got a Christian spirit, just a wonderful human being. Just a regular kid, a regular guy who did unbelievable things because he was willing to get off the sideline, stay out of the shadows and get in the game and put it on the line.

[42:53] And so when I think about where we're at, and I don't just do this because it sounds right. I really believe it. I don't think there's anything that Barack Obama can do that will ultimately hurt this country.

[43:09] I think we can overcome anything he brings up. I really do. Because there is something, I just see it too odd. There is something in the DNA of Americans that says we will, when it really comes down to the critical point, the critical time, we will step forward and we will do it right.

[43:28] And I'm confident that that's where we're headed again. There is a scripture verse I always share. I know I've talked with, shared it with you all. It's my favorite, 2 Timothy 4, 7.

[43:39] Fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith. And it is a verse that, you know, I'm probably taking this out of context. I'm not doing it right. But it's a verse that I think is about our country because it's a verse of action.

[43:53] Fight, finish, keep. That has always characterized America. It was there in 1776 when they did it. And I think it's there today. We just have to have enough citizens who are willing to step forward and engage.

[44:07] And I think we'll be just fine. And I got 10 minutes left. And you guys can ask any question you would like. Thank you for letting me have a chance. And I feel bad.

[44:17] Polly and I haven't been here for two months. We've been traveling all over the place and stuck in doing all kinds of things. So it's good to be back and good to have a chance to visit with you today. But your chance for questions and comments.

[44:30] I got a couple questions, Jim. We've got one back here. So we'll go to the microphone. Then we'll break the microphone. Okay. Yeah. Okay. If the House has the power of the purse, why don't the House dramatically reduce the budgets of the IRS, the EPA, and Justice Department?

[44:51] Great question. Yeah. Question number two. If the people that you've been talking about gets indicted and sent to jail, do we have any recourse when President Obama pardons them in 2016?

[45:06] You wouldn't have recourse on a pardon. That's just one of the powers that the founders thought you should leave with the executive branch in the end.

[45:17] But to your first point, there are really three basic ways you can keep the executive branch in check. One is the one you referenced, the power of the purse.

[45:28] Spending and taxing authority reside in the legislative branch, and in particular, taxing authority in the House of Representatives.

[45:39] Again, the wisdom of the founders is they wanted that taxing and spending authority to be with the body closest to the people, the House. And the House is certainly the one closest to the people because we're up for election every two years.

[45:55] I tell folks all the time, that's a great thing. Every two years, you all get a chance to throw me out if we're not representing the people. So you have that power.

[46:06] This week, in fact, or excuse me, next week when we're back in session, you will see us exercise that in the House of Representatives. We will pass the appropriations bill that funds the Treasury, and we will significantly reduce the dollars going to the Internal Revenue Service.

[46:23] Now, the Senate and Senator Reid, in all his wisdom, they may do something different. But in the House, you will see that, and that will set up a fight for September when the fiscal year ends, and we actually have to fund the government.

[46:40] But we have that power. We also have the power of oversight, and it's what we've been doing. The pastor talked about that in his comments that, again, the founders wanted the legislative branch to exercise oversight over the executive branch.

[46:57] So when the executive branch messes up, it's entirely appropriate for us to call them, put them under oath in front of a committee, and harass them, and ask them questions, and do what we do. And draw attention to the fact, hey, what you're doing is wrong.

[47:10] In fact, that is so important because that also helps set the context for elections, which is, again, another area where we have some power to influence what goes on.

[47:23] And then, finally, the last thing you can do, the last real check you have, and this is a big one, and one that you have to be very careful when, in fact, you move in this direction. But that's the impeachment power that the legislative branch has.

[47:37] And it hasn't been exercised very often. I would argue that it's, when you think about the whole picture in the context and the makeup of the Senate, it's not something we should do relative to the president, relative to even the attorney general, although I think the attorney general is doing a terrible job as the guy who heads the Justice Department.

[47:57] But it is something I think we should think about for the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service as we move forward. I think this guy, he had three duties.

[48:07] I should say the Internal Revenue Service had three duties relative to them. I'm just talking about the emails from Ms. Lerner. They had a duty to preserve them.

[48:19] They didn't do that. They have a duty to produce them. We've subpoenaed them over six months ago. We've yet to get all of them, even the ones they have. And then they had a duty to disclose when they lost them, and I think they failed at that.

[48:31] In fact, this is what I harped on in our committee hearing on Monday evening. I said, you found out that you had lost them in April, and you didn't tell the Congress until June. At what point does it become obstruction of justice, you not sharing that critical information?

[48:46] More importantly, he didn't share it with the Justice Department. So I think they breached three duties, and he's the guy who's leading the agency, and he should be held accountable. Okay, we've got one up here, too.

[49:00] If we can work up that one. We'll go with the mic. I won't leave you hanging. We'll get to you. Okay. I guess a couple quick comments and then a question. One is that I appreciate what you said about Lois Lerner planning the question, because I hadn't understood why she would do that, but you answered that one.

[49:19] Secondly, I think if you think about Obama and being the president of a country, I liken it in some small way to being the president of a small company, that if you saw that something was drastically wrong down someplace in your organization, I think you would want to find out what's going on.

[49:37] And I think the absence of that motivation to find out what's going on, which we have seen, is an indication that he either agrees with it or he was part of it, one of the two.

[49:48] So I guess the last thing that concerns you is the establishment, at least that's what we know of, the establishment Republican Party and the Tea Party.

[50:00] I always thought of the Tea Party as espousing the conservative values that we always looked at the Republican Party to do, and yet it seems like the establishment is just pushing as hard as they can to hurt or to move the Tea Party out of existence.

[50:19] So I guess what can be done with that? Well, the last point there, Gary, I get that question and concern a fair amount, and it's a good point.

[50:32] I will go back to the example I was talking about. When we visited President Reagan's home that weekend, it was interesting how, you know, it's always amazing how God's timing works.

[50:47] We got home the following week, and I had a book that was sent to us from the Heritage Foundation, and it was a book about Reagan. And it talked about the fact that Reagan spoke at CPAC, which is the big conservative meeting each spring in Washington, 14 years in a row, as he was coming to power and then while he was president, he spoke every year.

[51:08] And every year he said Reagan's message was, about the Republican Party, we have to bring it together. And back then it was not called Establishment Tea Party.

[51:20] Back then it was economic conservatives, social conservatives. And Reagan said, we're one party and we should work together. And he did it better than anyone. And what was amazing about Reagan is not only did he unite the Republican Party, but when he did that, he united the country.

[51:37] And all kinds of folks in the Democrat Party said, we're going to follow this guy who believes in these core principles. And so to me, that's the model. And this, one of the roles we try to serve in Ohio is, because I'm seen as the, I'm viewed as the conservative Tea Party member of Congress.

[51:57] And what we try to do is, whatever happens in a primary, we had a primary with a colleague of mine up in northern Ohio who had a Tea Party challenger. He's viewed as more establishment. I said, I'm not weighing in the primary, but whoever wins, we're going to get behind, bring the team together.

[52:14] And that's the attitude we should have. I was a little disappointed in how things were done in Mississippi, but Mr. Cochran won. And you know what? We should support Mr. Cochran. And the same token goes, the same thing goes for Virginia, where Mr. Bratt beat Mr. Cantor.

[52:32] We should support Mr. Bratt. That, doing that, I think, helps not only the party, but ultimately will help the country. There are some things happening. Last week, we passed an amendment to the, it's actually to the defense spending bill, where it was right and left working together.

[52:52] I think I probably shared with somebody before. One of my good friends in the, when he was still in Congress, and we were about as opposite as you can imagine, but Dennis Kucinich and I are good friends.

[53:04] And there were lots of issues where left and right can actually work together. Typically, they're on civil liberty issues. Dennis and I were against the bailouts for big banks.

[53:14] We worked together trying to stop that. We, on civil liberty issues and executive overreach, we worked together, but we had an amendment that passed 270 votes in the House. It was sponsored by Thomas Massey, a buddy of mine from Kentucky, conservative guy, and Zoe Lofgren, a liberal from California.

[53:31] And it dealt with the Fourth Amendment and this whole NSA, and can you have a generalized warrant versus we want a specific warrant, which we think is what the Fourth Amendment is all about. And this, quote, establishment was against it.

[53:43] President was against it. The Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee was against it. But Mr. Massey and Ms. Lofgren sponsored it. Mr. Poe, conservative from Texas.

[53:54] Myself, John Conyers, were also sponsors of the amendment. And we won with 270 votes. So there are some positive things happen where I think you're getting a focus back on the Constitution.

[54:05] But the model is Reagan. The model is Reagan, and let's unite. And that will help the country as well. I know this gentleman up here had one. All the way up here in the front row or second row.

[54:28] Anyway, I heard this week that President Obama, what I think, took a shot at the military, even though it seemed kind of small.

[54:39] I heard he passed signed legislation that said we will no longer acquire or use landmines.

[54:52] I will have to check what the stipulations and qualifications are on that. It's, I mean, we'd be happy to get back with you and find out. I've not seen that.

[55:03] But we'll look. You know, it's, without commenting on the landmines, I'll tell you this. There are some who say we shouldn't have nuclear weapons.

[55:14] But, you know, the bad guys do. So you always have to, I think, be careful of saying we're going to not use a particular type of weapon because the bad guys, they don't follow the same kind of standards that we do.

[55:30] But I've not heard specifically about the landmine issue. Okay. Thank you. And one more. I would like to just know how immigration reform is going.

[55:45] Because there is the president's trying to stop all deportation. Yeah. And is there anything being done to protect borders?

[56:00] Well, unfortunately, I think the president's comments and his actions that relative, particularly to the, quote, dreamers, kids who came here, I think his statements have encouraged what we see on the southern border today.

[56:15] What's being done on the Republican side, we've actually passed, and this is the frustrating part, because we've actually passed four pieces of legislation in the Judiciary Committee, which I'm a member of, that had strong bipartisan support.

[56:33] People as far to the right as Steve King from Iowa and Miss Lofgren, who I mentioned earlier, from California supported all or most of the four pieces of legislation.

[56:47] And there were four things that everyone agrees with, that we should actually follow the law and secure the border. And we're willing, if there's something else that needs to be done to actually enforce our southern border, we're willing to look at that.

[57:00] But let's enforce the law. Second is for a guest worker program that actually works, where you have all kinds of folks who want to come here and work and then want to go back to their family.

[57:11] We should make it work for those industries, particularly the agriculture industry. Everyone agrees with that. It passed the committee with strong support from both sides. E-Verify, where employers can actually verify through an electronic database system that the person they're seeking to hire is actually here legally.

[57:33] And then the final one was the high-tech, the high-skilled, so-called STEM, science, technology, engineering, math. Those individuals who come to the United States, get educated in our great university system, and then go back home because there aren't the visas that are available for them to do some of these engineering jobs, and particularly companies like Microsoft and Google, some of the bigger tech companies.

[57:56] There's legislation that would address that. Again, these are issues that 90% of the American people are thumbs up to. But the president has said for political reasons he won't address things that we all agree on unless he can deal with the 11 million issue and the comprehensive approach in the Senate.

[58:14] And so we're at this standstill. And frankly, the big problem is, and I know I'm sounding too partisan. I don't like to do that because, look, the party I belong to, we got our problems too.

[58:26] And we're far from perfect. I understand that. But the truth is, this president, it's just tough to negotiate any type of good faith with this administration in light of what they've done.

[58:39] If you remember when the sequester happened a year and a half ago, we had John Morton, who was then head of Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement. I remember questioning him in front of the committee.

[58:50] They released 2,238 illegal detainees. Eight of them were level one felons. And they did it because they said, oh, the sequester is making us, we can't house these people.

[59:02] It was baloney. I mean, the eight level one felons, they just let go. And so we called him on it. And, you know, he's since left. But with that kind of background, it's tough to have any type of good faith negotiation with the White House on a solution.

[59:20] And we do need to make our legal immigration system work better, faster for those who want to come here for the right reasons, who want to learn our language, be a part of our... You can't fault people for wanting to come to this country.

[59:34] I know I've shared with you before, I've had the chance to travel. I went to the Soviet Union when it was the Soviet Union. I've been to Cuba a couple times with wrestling, visited Iraq when our troops were there back in 2007.

[59:46] You go to places like that, you thank the good Lord you live here, and you can understand why people want to come here. So we want to make that system work better. But it's just tough to do that with a president who's in light of what we've seen.

[59:59] Last thing I'll say on immigration is, and this, one of the special things you get to do as a member of Congress is get to go to naturalization ceremonies. And I've been to four of them.

[60:11] They're actually a federal court proceeding. I went up to Judge Zuhari's court in Toledo. First one was there. Some we've had at Finley University and Lima Road State.

[60:22] But each one you go to, it is amazing. You see, the last one, there was 32 new Americans. And I tell folks, it's the rainbow.

[60:33] You see people from countries you've barely heard of. And when they take the oath, in English, and that judge says, congratulations, you are now a citizen of the United States of America.

[60:46] The smile on their face when they now realize they are a citizen of the greatest country, the country that Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin started. It is unbelievable.

[60:57] I mean, there are smiles from ear to ear. They always want to get their picture with you. It's funny. I didn't do anything. I just showed up. But they always want to get their picture with me. I mean, it's just an amazing thing. And we need to make the system work better for people like that.

[61:09] But do it in a way that's respectful of the law. Thank you. And one more thing. John Bain. Only senators are allowed to filibuster, you know.

[61:23] I'm kidding. Go ahead. I'd like to know one more thing. John Bain is suing President Obama for being a bad president.

[61:33] Well, unconstitutional, yeah. I think it's right on target. I thought the timing was great from the speaker. The suit was announced the day that the Supreme Court said 9-0 that what the president did relative to recess appointments in the National Labor Relations Board was wrong and unconstitutional.

[61:53] So I think the timing couldn't have been better. Again, if you're looking for some positives, there's another one right there. Someone said, you know, why was the Supreme Court decision 9-0?

[62:04] Because it couldn't be 10-0. I mean, they all knew that this was wrong. You cannot do what they did, what this administration attempted to do. So, yeah, the speaker's lawsuit is great.

[62:22] We've heard a lot of talk about appointing a special prosecutor. And my understanding is that that appointment would have to be made by the attorney general, which makes it chances slim to numb.

[62:34] Right. But even theoretically, can you explain to us, a special prosecutor is almost spoken of as if it's like a silver bullet. If we just had a special prosecutor, then everything would be found out.

[62:47] Yeah. And yet, I'm not terribly optimistic about that either. So exactly how does that work? And what would guarantee that a special prosecutor would really be able to put the lid on things? Great question, Pastor.

[63:00] And there's no guarantee. And you're right. The attorney general would have to select that individual. What we're hoping is the amount of pressure and focus we put on the issue would compel the attorney general to say, OK, OK, look, we're going to pick someone everyone can agree is impartial and is fair.

[63:22] That's all we're asking for. And if you look at the statute that that allows for the attorney general to to pick a special prosecutor, it talks about a criminal investigation is warranted.

[63:37] Well, we know it's warranted. Attorney general said so himself three days after the story broke last May. The American people would be served to have a special. Well, of course, we would be served.

[63:47] This is this is as fundamental as it gets. I talked about what's at stake here. Your free speech rights under the First Amendment. And then the second element or the third element is that what's going on shows that there's a lack of impartiality, that there's a bias and that, you know, the person doing the investigation is compromised.

[64:08] Well, of course, when you have the lead attorney is a max out contributor to the president's campaign. I mean, so when you run through the three elements required to justify appointing a special, they are as rock solid as you can get.

[64:22] This attorney general just refuses to deal with it. I mean, you he should have in the thousands of lawyers of the Justice Department. You can't find one lawyer who didn't max out to the president's campaign.

[64:34] Well, of course you can. So why did they pick this one? That's that's that's that's the point. So there are all kinds of folks. I typically reference the guy who is now the inspector general on Treasury. He worked in the Justice Department for Clinton for excuse me, for Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama.

[64:49] I think he's actually a Democrat. His name is Michael Horowitz. I would there's someone like that. In fact, it would be that it would be great if it was a Democrat that every Republican could say this guy's a fair guy or this lady is a fair person.

[65:01] That's all we're asking for. Put someone further who will do a real investigation. And I just don't think I just I'm like you. I don't think Holder's going to go there, but we will continue to put the pressure on.

[65:12] I said in the hearing last week, I want to see one Democrat. Excuse me. One person in the administration show the courage that 26 Democrats showed when they voted for the special prosecutor resolution.

[65:23] That's all we're asking. 26 Democrats had the courage to go against their party and say this is warranted. Why can't one and who better than John Koskinen, the head of the Internal Revenue Service, where the targeting took place? But he won't.

[65:34] And that's why we need to continue to go after Mr. Koskinen. So that's what's at stake. It's not the independent statute that was in play. That's expired. It's just pick someone who's fair and impartial.

[65:45] That's all we're asking. All right. I'll go a few more. I don't want to keep you all too long, but there's a couple more. I'll get out here. Way back. Let's start way back. Why have so many people in leadership turned their backs on constitutional principles and just walked away from all of that?

[66:05] So I say so quickly. In your opinion. Well, I guess in a basic sense, it's it's it's just human nature.

[66:19] There's a there's a line. And I know we've maybe talked about this before. There's a line I like that our that our wrestling coach used to used to use.

[66:30] Coach McCann was our wrestling coach at Graham. I mean, he was he was he was the toughest teacher in our school. He's passed away. Wonderful guy. Christian guy had a huge impact on so many student athletes and students at our school.

[66:44] Taught chemistry and physics. Toughest teacher in the school. Toughest wrestling coach in the whole darn state. Every day he talked about discipline. And he he would say I can still remember this guy.

[66:57] He'd say and he said, hey, Jordan, this is this is not any old class. This is chemistry. You want to do well, my class is going to take discipline. It's going to take self. You have to be studied the night before. Be prepared.

[67:08] Participate. It's going to take this. And then the wrestling room. Oh, my God. Self-discipline is the most important character quality necessary to accomplish. And he would go through this night. Like, but that guy be quiet. He sounds like my dad, for goodness sake. Get it.

[67:18] Get it from my dad all the time. Now I got to get it from coach. Coach. And in our wrestling room, he had a definition. And it hangs in our wrestling room. And it's, I would argue, the way Jeff runs runs the thing.

[67:30] It's why our team is so good every year. Discipline is doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it. And the problem is so many folks want to do things the convenient way instead of the right way. And we're all that way.

[67:41] It's just human nature. It's just the old nature we have in us. So we all want to do things the convenient way. And politicians in Washington are no different than any of us. Sometimes it's more convenient to say, let's just spend the money versus, you know, tell someone no.

[67:54] And live within our means and balance our budget. Let's just do this because it's convenient. And we know that Constitution can get cumbersome and get in our way. And do we really want all these checks and balances when this sounds pretty good?

[68:05] And, you know, a lot of people like it that cool. So it is, it's really that basic. And now the good news is when you start to see such overreach, like I think we're seeing out of the administration today, it begins to focus us back in on first principles.

[68:21] And we're seeing more and more of that. You're seeing, as I said several times a day, you're seeing all over the country. And that's a good thing. But it's done for convenience. It really is. And we, the citizens, need to stand up and say, let's do it the right way, not the convenient way.

[68:41] All right. I think maybe we'll go this one, the last one. Is that, or is there more? Can we make, all right, these last two. Then we'll, Japers, you guys will be, let me out of here. I'm hungry, right?

[68:51] Let's go. Not me. I mean, you're all saying that. While you're cutting the budget for the IRS, why not the EPA while you're at it?

[69:02] Because of the coal and regulations is going to wipe out our energies. But for natural gas, this huge, we are now the natural gas leader in the world.

[69:14] But for that, the price, because what the EPA is doing to coal, the cost of electricity would be going through. I mean, it's going to go up because of what they're doing with the coal.

[69:24] But natural gas is mitigating that to some degree. But you're exactly right. There is a war, and that's the term being used by so many on carbon-based coal-fired plants.

[69:37] That provide our electricity. Again, this is the thing that just bothers me. The world is a better place when America leads.

[69:48] It really is. I know I've shared this with you. Polly and I have traveled to Israel three times in the last five and a half years. And every time you go there, when you talk with people in the private sector or the government, it doesn't matter. They will all say the same thing.

[69:59] The best way you can help our country, the best way the United States can help Israel is for America to stay strong. You're stronger, we're better. You're stronger, we're safer. And the fact is, the world's stronger and safer and better.

[70:10] It's a scary, dangerous place out there, but it's less scary, less dangerous when America leads. And to lead militarily, to lead diplomatically, you have to lead economically. Just the way it works. You want to be the military superpower?

[70:20] You better be the economic superpower. Reagan understood that. Reagan understood that better than anyone. To lead economically, you have to have energy. It is the base.

[70:31] It's the foundation. If you don't have readily available energy at affordable costs, it's difficult to lead economically and therefore difficult to lead diplomatically, militarily, and therefore the world is less safe. And for the left not to get that fact, that's dangerous.

[70:44] That has implications for safety and peace around the planet. And I get so fired up because they think it's all about this just, you know, alternative energy.

[70:56] And we're all fine with that. But let the market get us there. Don't destroy a source of energy we have in abundance that we have a huge advantage with, like gas and oil and coal. Don't do that.

[71:07] Because when you do, you make the world less safe. And I got to preach in there. But it's like that is just so basic and they don't get that fact. It is. It's scary.

[71:17] It really is. And it's something else we've got to fight about. All right. This guy gets the last one. You got it? God bless you. Have a great fourth with your family. It's been good to be with you this morning.

[71:28] Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jim, we really appreciate, I mean this very sincerely, we really appreciate you being in Washington.

[71:44] But we especially appreciate you being here this morning. And if it wouldn't be too much of an imposition, I would really like for you to come back and address the issue in a more comprehensive way of immigration.

[72:00] Because all Americans have a vested interest in that. And we are all a nation of immigrants. I mean, our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, however far back you have to go, were immigrants themselves one day.

[72:16] And we are the children of those immigrants. And we have been a nation, historically, that has had open arms to those who want to come to this country and do so in a legal way, in a proper way.

[72:30] And when people come in illegally, they undercut all of those who are applying in a legal way. And they avoid our laws or break our laws.

[72:42] And this is having severe ramifications, particularly now in the Southland. And this situation with all of these innocent children coming in, they are just pawns, really.

[72:54] And anybody who opposes that is pictured as cruel and heartless and would do detriment to the children.

[73:05] Have you no heart? This kind of thing. And yet this all seems to come across as a ploy, as just a means to an end for something else. And that, too, needs to be addressed in the securing of our borders.

[73:17] So I wish you would give some thought to that. And if you're going to be available sometime in the next few weeks, let us know, and we'll publicize it and invite you back.

[73:28] And we'll have more time for Q&A than addressing that. Also, I want to remind you that within about five or ten minutes after we dismiss this morning, Jim's message will be available on CD.

[73:43] So if you can wait around for 10 or 12 minutes, there will be copies of it. We'll be coming off the mass duplicator, and you can take one home with you or share it with a friend.

[73:53] Also, remember the handouts on the back and the book table and the CDs back there. You're welcome to take whatever is of interest to you. Would you stand, please? Father, we are truly grateful for information received this morning.

[74:09] And now that we have it, we are responsible for our attitude and actions regarding it. And we thank you that you have not called upon us to do anything, but what you have not also given us the ability to do it.

[74:23] We are grateful for Jim's message, for the clarity of it, and for the importance of it. And we pray that each of us will take it to heart. We want to see this whole thing resolved in an American way, not a Republican way or a Democratic way, but in a way that is really right and best and truthful for all Americans, because that benefits everybody, regardless of our party affiliations.

[74:53] We thank you for what you have done and are doing in this great nation. And we want to be a part of whatever you want to accomplish with it. We dismiss and stand out.

[75:03] We pray with your blessing in Christ's name. Amen.