Preborn Network clinics help women choose life through a free ultrasound
>> Walker Wildmon: We're living in a time when truth is under attack. Lies are easy to tell, easy to spread, and easy to believe. But truth, truth is costly. And nowhere is the cost greater than for mothers in crisis. When a woman is told abortion is her only option, silence and lies surround her. But when she walks into a preborn Network clinic, she's met with compassion, support, and the truth about the life growing inside of her. That moment of truth happens through a free ultrasound, and it's a game changer. When a mother sees her baby and hears that heartbeat, it literally doubles the chance she'll choose life. PreBorn Network clinics are on the front lines, meeting women in their darkest hour, loving them, helping them choose life, and sharing truth. Friend, this is not a time to be silent. It's a time for courage, for truth, for life. Just $28 provides one ultrasound and the opportunity for a mother to see her baby. To help her choose truth and today, call £250. Say the keyword baby. That's £250 in your phone. And say the keyword baby. Or, give [email protected] afr that's preborn.com afr. We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage.
>> Rick Green: To speak truth, to live out your free speech.
>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope. This is at the Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us here on today's episode, brand new episode as we head into the new year. Walker Wildmon here at the Core on this edition, here on American Family Radio.
False belief that one generation sin doesoms future generations to physical ailments
Well, hope you're having a good 2026 as we're just a few days in and, busy Newsweek, busy news week. And are we surprised? Definitely not. Definitely not surprised. Ever since President Trump came down the escalator in 2015, there hasn't been much of a slow news cycle since then. So got a lot we're going to get to today. We've got a couple special guests going to join us here on the program. Let's turn our attention to the scripture. We're in John chapter nine. We've been trekking our way for the past eight to nine weeks through the book of John, one chapter at a time, looking at verses one through three in chapter nine. Now, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was Blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered them, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. That's verses one through three. So what I want to highlight here is this false belief that one generation sin dooms a future generation to physical ailments. there's just nothing biblical about that. But these Disciples had at least entertained in some way this notion that. This belief that one generation's sin, it has ah, the effect of causing future generations to have some type of physical ailment or physical suffering. Rather not physical. And so, Jesus immediately addresses this false belief and says that neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that this man's physical ailment is in existence so that the works of God should be revealed in him. And so basically God allowed this man to be blind so that The miracle of Jesus performing here, the miracle Jesus performed could be on display. now it is true according to scripture, that one generation sin can have negative effect on future generations. For example, we see this today where fatherlessness, where dads who are missing an action, that has detrimental emotional, spiritual, economical, all kinds sociological effects on children. And so one generation sin can affect future generation. That's a fact. But as far as it being a curse or a doom or causing physical ailments, that's just not the case. It's just not supported by Scripture. and so each of us, has our own struggles and our own sin. And the point to this passage is that, Number one, only Jesus can perform. And only God can perform miracles such as this one making a blind man see. but secondly, We're a fallen people. We're a fallen people. Ever since Adam and Eve, sinned against God, disobeyed God, sin entered the world. And man now suffers from. And creation as well, suffers from various ailments and evidence of fallenness. And so that's the world that we live in. That's what we have to deal with as humans until Christ returns and makes all things new. And so throughout our Suffering, our physical suffering, we should draw near to Christ and look forward, to being made new. That's what we can draw away from. John 9:1:3.
This Venezuela strike and extradition is a surprise for the world
Well, in the few minutes we have left, this segment, this Venezuela strike and extradition is just fascinating to think about. This broke over the weekend. This, Just to give a little Bit of context, and then we'll talk about what actually happened in the few minutes we have here. And then maybe on Wednesday we'll break this down a little deeper. But this had been building. Anybody who pays attention to the news and foreign policy saw, maybe not saw this coming, but saw that something was coming. President Trump has made it abundantly clear through his executive actions that the cartels and the Maduro regime, were designated foreign terrorist organizations. This authorized the President to begin the drone strikes on the cartel boats, on the drug boats running deadly poisonous drugs into our country. And so this has been building for several months now, really beginning in the early days and weeks of the administration. President Trump's administration and the U.S. military and state Department had surged a lot of resources down around Venezuela in what was really a military buildup around Venezuela. We seized at least 2 of their oil tankers, their sanctioned oil tankers that were trying to deliver oil to, various places, primarily, China, Iran, etc. but the extradition of Maduro happened in such short order, what was really a surprise attack for the world. Unless you're on the inside and we're in the know, this is rather a surprise attack, that ended, in minutes with the dictator, Maduro being arrested by the US Military and the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, various federal agencies. And it was really a fascinating feat. I mean this was one for the history books, that's for sure. When it comes to military operations, the core of the action and the core of the charges is that Nicolas, Maduro was a multi, count indicted individual. Okay. This was a designated terrorist, according to the federal government, with various drug trafficking related charges that were currently outstanding. Okay, so Nicolas Maduro had an outstanding federal warrant, with multiple charges, multiple counts under this indictment that had been outstanding for years against Maduro. And so that's the legal framework in which this was conducted. because you had drug, enforcement agency, DEA, FBI, the whole DOJ apparatus was present, to bring Maduro into U.S. custody. And then now he's being brought into the U.S. and is currently, this morning, as of this morning, at the federal courthouse in NewSong York City. So, but as far as how this happened is what's most fascinating. And once again, we'll talk more about this when we have more time. But the US Military is undoubtedly the best in the world. Anybody who suggests that there's any other military that can hang with the US either doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're being fed bad information. One of the two. or they're just outright lying. The US Military's capabilities far outpace and exceed any other military on this planet on Earth. And I'm not sure there's a close second. Maybe there is. I'm not really sure that there is though. Here's two things that took place that really should send chills down the spines of all of our adversaries around the world, including Russia, Iran and China. And Iran's got a little taste of this because we, went into their airspace without them knowing and bombed the top nuclear bunker that they had and left before they could even blink.
US cyber warfare crippled Venezuela's electricity and communication grids
All right, but here's what happened in Venezuela. Just from a high level. This isn't getting into too many of the details because that'll take too much time, but the US was able to paralyze and shut down, primarily through cyber warfare, Venezuela's entire electricity and communication grids. It is known, that in conjunction with other countries. I'm reading from a news, article from the Straits Times. I'll post this on the rundown. The show notes, it is known that in conjunction with other countries, the Americans have been working on such cyber weapons for decades. President George W. Bush was offered by his military an earlier version of such capabilities in 2003 on the eve of his invasion of Iraq. So this option to, to sink electrical and communication lines in countries has been available for over 20 years by the U.S. at the time, President Bush rejected these weapons when we invaded Iraq. He didn't use them at the time, but President Trump has now used them on multiple occasions. the infrastructure paralysis inflicted on Venezuela is likely to be repeated as a prelude to any future conflict. Meaning the US has this option on the table to use at any time. The second thing that was a feat here that is going to make this operation go down in the history books is that the US Displayed an extraordinary ability to suppress Venezuela's air defenses. This is worth noting. The country had advanced Russian made long range S300 surface to air missiles, medium range missiles and short range shoulder launch missiles, which could be lethal for the slow moving helicopters carrying U.S. forces. All right, so we disabled those as well. All of their air defenses were disabled. Since September of 2025, Venezuela has also installed an estimated seven units of the Chinese made JY27A radar systems touted as being able to detect US stealth jets. Indeed, only a few weeks ago, the Venezuelan Defense Minister boasted that these Chinese installations accurately locked on to F35 US fighter jets at a distance of 75km from Venezuela's shores. Listen to this. But neither the Russian or the Chinese air defense systems appeared to have made the slightest bit of difference. A combination of real time US intelligence, electronic warfare and US precision weapons knocked them all out. The single US aircraft that was hit during the operation appears to have been damaged by scattered bullets. The total dismantling of Venezuela's air defenses mirrors exactly what Israel achieved during its 12 day war against Iran in June. It is likely to cause a lot of head scratching among military planners in Moscow and Beijing, for it serves as a clear indication that the US military's superiority in this domain remains unchallenged. A handful of other militaries around the world possess capabilities to M mount similar operations, but none can do so at the scale that the US does. So, like it or hate it, the fact remains that at least in purely military terms, the US Continues to reign supreme. That's a direct quote from this news article, which we'll link to on the show. Notes. But I couldn't agree with this assessment more that China, Russia, Iran, they have their strengths, many of them, or at least two of them. China and Russia have nuclear weapons, which is a problem and a threat. But as far as being able to carry out something like this, this level of a surprise attack with success by the way, and zero U.S. fatalities is only something that the U.S. can do. It's only something that the US can do. And it continues to prove that we are the most advanced military in the world. And it's not even close. Bobby, you and I were talking about this this morning. It's one thing to have maybe the cyber defenses or the anti radar defenses, but to then send operators in and arrest an individual is just icing on the cake.
>> Bobby Roza: In three minutes.
>> Walker Wildmon: Three minutes.
>> Bobby Roza: That's all anybody needs to know. Three minutes. Boots down to boots up.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amazing.
>> Bobby & Walker: In 100, 170 aircraft in the, in the 150.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, 50 from over 20 bases.
>> Bobby Roza: Amazing amount of logistics and coordination in a split second.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And we went into Venezuela's largest military base to arrest Maduro like nobody was even there. Yeah, so kind of like serve pro. Yeah, duly noted. Shout out to servpro. All right, there you, have it folks. U. S Military dominance unmatched on the world stage. We'll be back in a few minutes.
Tim Wildmon: Spiritual heritage tours coming up in 2026
>> Tim Wildmon: Hello everyone, I'm Tim Wildmon and I hope you're looking forward to a wonderful 2026. Let me tell you about a couple of things you might be interested in that we're going to go, on those are tours, we call them spiritual heritage Tours. We're going this year in June and September to Washington D.C. and George Washington's Mount Vernon. We're also going to Colonial Williamsburg and the historic Jamestown settlement. Then we're going also to Boston, Massachusetts. So all those tours are coming up in 2026. The D.C. and Williamsburg trip are both in June and September. So pick the month you want to go. The Boston trip is in September. So for all the information, the itinerary, the cost, everything you need to know about these tours, if you want to join us on a vacation with a purpose, that's what we call it, go to wildmangroup.com Wildmon Group.com is the website. Find out all the information and we'll see you on one of our 2026 tours.
>> Jeff Chamblee: At. The Core podcast are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
State Senator Angela Hill from Mississippi joins American Family Radio on Wednesday
Welcome, welcome back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with you on this brand new edition of the show. Well, we talked a little bit in the last segment about what happened in Venezuela with the extradition of, dictator Nicolas, Maduro, to New York City to stand trial for multiple federal counts. And so we'll look more at this on Wednesday. we might bring in, Abraham Hamilton III or Steve Crampton, one of the two, to give us kind of the legal vantage point of how this was done and some of the outstanding questions about the legality of it. We'll talk maybe about that and some other things on Wednesday. But for now, I do want to introduce State Senator Angela Hill from the state of Mississippi, who's been a guest on the program before and a, friend and ally in the cause. Senator AH Hill, welcome back to the program.
>> Angela Hill: Glad to be back. It's been a little while.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes, it has been quite a while. Senator Hill, we are going to talk about some of the ongoings in Mississippi with the session coming up here very soon. but tell us a little bit about your time in the state Senate and the state, district that you, represent.
>> Angela Hill: Well, I've been in the state Senate. This will be my 15th year. I represent a, ah, district in south Mississippi, District 40, which covers all of Pearl river county and a part of Stone county. Used to have all of Marion county before redistricting. so it's kind of moved around a little bit. But I live in Pearl river county, so, it stays centrally localized in Pearl river county. And of course I was in the legislature for all the pro life work that we did. was able to go and speak about the bill that the Supreme Court was considering to overturn Roe v. Wade. went to Constitution hall and, and spoke with priests for life at their prayer service. So there's been a lot of historic things that I've been, God has allowed me to be a part of, since I've been in the legislature. I wrote the, the, the bill to keep males pretending to be females out of girl sports. I, wrote the third grade reading gate that's propelled Mississippi to national attention. So, God has allowed me to do very impactful things with his help since I've been in the Mississippi legis. I give it all to him. I didn't do it.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amen. Well, I can vouch for that because anytime Jameson and I need either something fought or something advanced in Jackson, Mississippi, you're one of the first names that comes up, so you're a very reliable ally.
MS Senator Angela Hill: Mississippi has various laws addressing how sexual education is taught
Senator Hill, there's a couple things I wanted to talk about about what's going on in Mississippi and some of these topics, most of these topics actually affect, other states as well as far as what they're dealing with on a state policy vantage point. But Mississippi has, various, laws mainly addressing how sexual education is taught in the classroom, making sure that we're teaching age appropriate things and we're not bringing in a lot of this gender ideology and some of this other stuff that's not appropriate for young minds. but tell us kind of where we are as a state on that and maybe some of the ways that these school districts aren't following the law.
>> Angela Hill: Well, our, our sex education statute was, was enacted shortly before I was in the legislature. But it clearly states that you teach abstinence or abstinence. Plus, it clearly states that, you know, boys and girls are supposed to be separated when you teach any type of sex education and that parental notice is supposed to be given a week before it's taught with parental opt out available. none of the gender ideology stuff is supposed to be brought into this stuff. you know, this, all these alternative lifestyles, none of that is in our statute. Yet we find because of the Trump administration doing some audits through Health and Human Services, that the curriculum that Mississippi Department of Education adopted around the time that I got elected, included all that stuff and that apparently 29 schools have been contracted with the health department for this curriculum. And the Trump administration kind of slapped the hand of Mississippi and said, we're not funding these prep grants, these personal responsibility education program grants. We're not funding these prep grants for you to spread this gender ideology garbage to the children. But yet that's what Mississippi has been doing, and at least in these 29 schools and to some of these nonprofits that the health department has been working with. And finally, the Trump administration said, I want a response by October, some date in October of 20, 2075. And I finally got my report back and, the health department's response was, well, we got caught. So we're going to camp tell these schools that they've got to cancel these, you know, these curriculum contracts with this entity that's providing this for the school. So, you know, unfortunately, we can't be eyes and ears everywhere. And just because we have something written in statute that gives you a step by step way to do this and not bring all this garbage into the classroom, they're going to find a way to do it anyway. these bureaucratic agencies are. They do not represent American family values, the vast majority of them. They do not represent Mississippi American family values. And so unless we, somebody tells us, you know, that this is going on, like I think it was Jameson got a hold of this, at this letter from the Trump administration's hhs, that clued us in. I wasn't surprised because, you know, we had to fight to keep that, stuff out of statute because there were there, you know, there were groups working the Human Rights Campaign and some of these other people were working hard in like 2013 and 14 to change our sex education statutes to open it up to this stuff. And so we fought extremely hard to, you know, till the 11th hour to try to at least keep the statute together the way it was. And so far we have. But, you know, we find out that schools aren't following it anyway. The health department's not following it, Mississippi Department of Education is not following it. But apparently, you know, since they might think some federal money's being threatened, maybe now they might be following the law. But, you know, that still remains to be seen.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, the. Senator Hill, the problem here to your point is, is number one, you've got countless school districts, hundreds, if not over a thousand school, districts in the state. And I don't know the exact numbers, but a lot of school districts is a point, and, you know, they come up with something that doesn't comply with state law, and then you find out about it two years later by a parent and then, you know, the damage is done. Now you're having to clean it up. That sounds like basically 12 years later. Well, yeah, in this instance, 12 years later. Yeah, exactly. What do you do? I mean, I talked. I've talked to Ryan Walters, who was former state superintendent in Oklahoma. I've talked to others about this, and maybe even Jameson mentioned some type of, you know, like a review board or some type of body that reviews everything before it gets into. It was in. It was libraries is where this came up. And instead of this retroactive, like, clean it up, which to your point is like, how do you chase all this stuff down? It's very overwhelming. And then what's the consequences? When a school district has been violating the state law for 12 years, what are the consequences? So do you have any creative solutions to catch this stuff on the front end as opposed to 12 years later?
>> Angela Hill: I think the consequences should be financial because, honestly, the only thing they care about is money in a lot of these cases. So I think the consequences should be financial. It should be some type of penalty to their funding. Just like how the Trump administration is, is, you know, withholding now these, daycare funds because of what they've discovered in some of these states. The state of Mississippi can get control of these agencies if they really, truly want to.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Angela Hill: And the way they get control of them is through their budget. But until someone besides me and a couple of other people are willing to say you're not going to get the appropriation unless you're following the law, and you know that honestly, even if we find out in hindsight that they're not following the law, then we should still be able to give them some type of financial penalty. That's just my opinion. Because the purse things are what, you know, runs the world. you know, money is the, is the root to everything.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. And that's honestly what's happening in some of these instances is that the money is just too good to turn down. And these districts are going, well, I don't care what's in the curriculum. You know, look at how much money comes with it. And so, to your point, if you use that in reverse for the purpose of good, then it could cause some of these districts to really think twice about the type of curriculum before they put it in.
>> Angela Hill: But to your point, we would not know about this if it had not been because this prep is a federal grant program that's run through the health Department. We would not know about this if somebody in the Trump administration was not, you know, Looking down with a microscope and trying to audit some of these things. And yeah, I think all the money that goes to non profits in the state of Mississippi, there definitely needs to be some type of oversight audit. I, think, you know, I'm, I'm to the point to where if it's not a line item in the budget, I'm, I'm beginning to believe that these state agencies shouldn't be able to sub grant this money because we, we've seen from what Shad whites uncovered, from what the Trump administration's uncovered, they're spending the money on ridiculous, horribly, immoral garbage.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Angela Hill: They're spending tax dollars in what people think is a red state of Mississippi on all kind of, you know, alternative lgbtq, you know, parties and stuff. I mean, the stuff that Shad uncovered at the health department and now what Trump's uncovered, it's obvious that somebody has to be watching this.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Angela Hill: And, you know, one legislator or we just don't have the capacity within our job to watch all of it. I'm trying to watch legislation as hard as I can watch it, you know, but, you know, that's when it gets so big that it's hard to wrap your arms around. And unfortunately, state government is there. With what's going on with, between the federal grants and the state money we have to have, we need some type of watchdog. I mean, even if we designate one person in each agency and we, give them some guidelines, it would be worth paying a salary to that person rather than millions and millions of dollars be wasted.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right. Yeah. And to your point, I'm with you on the line item budget, because this is what happens in Congress too, is we either. When I say we, I'm talking about the legislature. They either create these slush funds or, they basically allocate money that can be used for these broad, general purposes without creating clear, specific instructions and stuff like this happens. And so I'm with you. I know that sounds a little cumbersome, but it is what it is. And to the agencies, if you want the money, tell us what you want it for, we'll put it in the budget. but otherwise, no thank you.
>> Angela Hill: Right. Yeah. And I mean, if it's federal money, I think that the Trump administration is going about that. Right.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Angela Hill: you know, and, you know, with their oversight and if we could do something, you know, especially with some of our state funds, and just, you know, require more transparency, I mean, it's got to be transparency, because, you know, if nobody's Looking, you know, how the money's going to be spent in a large number of the cases. And it's definitely not going to be for the benefit the taxpayer is going to be for the benefit of whomever is, you know, has access to that money and how they want to spend it because they know nobody's mind in the store.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.
Federal court ruling on Mississippi state supreme court districts raises questions about redistricting
Senator ah Hill, before we let you go, we got about three minutes left. there's been a federal court ruling on Mississippi's state supreme court districts. tell us. And our state supreme court is elected by the people. Tell us a little bit about that situation.
>> Angela Hill: Well, it's the same thing that happened with this last redistricting that, that took place in the Mississippi legislature where the NAACP and they want us to redraw these legislative districts to, concentrate more black vote in certain areas. Because their premise is that if you're, if you're black, you vote Democrat, if you're white, you vote Republican. That's the most racist thing I have ever heard. That's what these judges saying. So even though we have, you know, some white folks and some black folks elected in the same district, and some are Republican and some are Democrat, you know, they can't seem to see this. That's the buffoonery of what these judges are trying to make us do. we complied with, with what the last court order said. Of course I voted no like I always do, because if it's not something that I think is constitutional right, I'm gonna vote no on it. But I think we have to get ahead of this one because they want us, they want to steamroll over us, and they want to make us do exactly the same thing that we did. We cowtailed and got in line redrew these legislative districts. And you saw. And that's, that's why they're saying Republicans lost the supermajority. Well, when you draw these districts to favor Democrats, what do you expect so going to happen? You know, we need to draw the districts just based on population. but when they, when they force you to look at race, nothing's more racist than that. When the courts are saying you got to look at race. Yeah, I mean, so, you know, I say our election commissioners, who are the, Secretary of State, the Attorney general and the governor's office, they need to be preparing to, to fight this as, as far as it takes because Louisiana's got a similar case pending before the U.S. supreme Court right now. And we're hoping that we have, you know, the constitutionally correct outcome on this, and that'll make this case moot. you know, and then we need to go back and redraw the Senate districts like they were in the House districts like they were, prior to this latest lawsuit. So, you know, other states are taking the opportunity to, you know, more fairly draw their districts. And then, you know, Mississippi's listening to a judge that's basically saying, oh, you know, you've got to redraw and you've got to, you know, concentrate these little pockets of black vote here and there, which is clearly unconstitutional.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. And it raises questions about why a federal judge is weighing in on state districts and district lines. That seems, a little contrary to maybe the 10th amendment. if it doesn't have to do with federal elections. That is, if this is purely.
>> Angela Hill: Exactly. Yeah. If you look at, you know, if you look at our US Constitution, you look at the reserve powers and the enumerated powers, there's nowhere in there that it says any federal judge tells the state how to run their elections.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right. Exactly. Exactly. Senator, Hill, thanks so much for your work. Appreciate you coming on and, hopefully we'll talk again soon.
>> Angela Hill: Thank you so much.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's Senator Angela Hill from the state of Mississippi, serving in the state senate for 15 years, and, is a great ally for the cause of advancing biblical values, pro family values in our state legislature. And, folks, these issues that we're talking about here are, relevant for all of the country. A lot of these states are dealing with a lot of the same issues when you talk about redistricting, when you're talking about where to use education funds, etc. So we're going to keep tracking it, keep covering it. we've got a good discussion coming up in the last segment with, Hayden Dubloy from Foundation for Government Accountability, otherwise known as fga, talking about SNAP fraud. We'll be back in a few minutes. This is at the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
American Family Radio welcomes Hayden Dublois from Foundation for Government Accountability
Welcome back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with you. Well, on the show with us now is Hayden Dublois from Foundation for Government Accountability. Hayden serves as data and Analytics Director there at fga, and he's with us now to talk about this mission to root out fraud within these federal programs, specifically snap, and bring, us up to speed on what he's uncovering there. Hayden, welcome to the program.
>> Hayden Dublois: Thank you so much for having me.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Hayden, President, Trump and his administration have been on this mission, starting with Doge, to uncover and stop tremendous, amounts, billions, in waste, fraud and abuse that is done through these federal programs, including SNAP and others. But, tell us, what you guys at FGA have been working on and what you've uncovered.
>> Angela Hill: Sure.
>> Hayden Dublois: So here at fga, the foundation for Government Accountability, we're a non profit organization that educates policymakers on a number of issue areas at the federal and state level, including tax reform, health care, election integrity and welfare program integrity. And you're exactly right. the food stamp program, Medicaid program and other major welfare programs have come under a microscope for good reason. For too long, the fraud and waste and abuse that has ballooned in these programs has been ignored by policymakers at the federal and state level. And we're really seeing this year a once in a generation opportunity that has shone a light on these programs in a way that hasn't been done in decades. with food stamps in particular, I mean, we're talking at a program that has ballooned to nearly 42 million Americans, costing taxpayers over 90 billion a year, with roughly one in every ten dollars on the program being spent in properly that's being lost to waste, fraud or administrative abuse of some kind. So it's long past time that we really focused in and dialed in on these programs. And I'm pleased to see that we're doing that and that President Trump and his administration is so focused on that.
>> Walker Wildmon: So what, you know, the left, number one, they have a hard time really kind of talking about this because it's true, if anything, they downplay it or say that President Trump's trying to take money away from poor people, which is not true. But there's a lot of money out there in these federal welfare programs that is just being flushed, I mean, flushed. And when I say flushed, I'm talking about it's being spent on people who don't qualify for it and on things that aren't, supposed to be spent on. What is the scale, for example, within the SNAP program, what is the scale that, that, that is at least on record of waste and, and people who are receiving SNAP benefits that are not eligible. I mean, everything that is not what it's supposed to be. What level of money are we talking about here?
>> Hayden Dublois: Sure. Well, just with food stamps alone, the reported fraud, reported waste, fraud and abuse, all improper spend, it's again, it's about 10%. So figure roughly 9 billion a year or a little over 9 billion a year every single year. And growing, because the program continues to grow and Grow and grow. So that number is ever increasing. And that's. I would just add the improper payments that we know about. There's a whole bunch of improper payments and errors that we don't know about because the bureaucracy isn't doing a good job checking and including common sense program integrity measures. And they're doing that intentionally because if they're not finding fraud, it makes them look good. So the less fraud they can detect, in other words, the bare minimum that they have to do in fraud prevention and program integrity, the more it makes them look favorable. And so the true scale is actually much larger, in a lot of these programs. I mean, Medicaid, for example, is closer to 20 to 25% improper payment rate, which is astonishing when you think about it. So, the scale is just astronomical. it is larger than many government agencies in their entirety for their legitimate spending. And it's long past time that we really shine a microscope on the extent of this fraud and what can be done about it.
Selling food stamps or EBT cards for cash has become an industry
>> Walker Wildmon: So you may, may know a little bit about this. Maybe not. I'm pretty sure you will, though. But I didn't realize that, that selling, reselling or selling rather your, like EBT cards or your food stamps rather was, a thing. But, but apparently this is a big thing. This is like an industry in and of itself, where people receive food stamps, for example, and then they sell them for cash. I mean, this is just astonishing. There's whole, like, stores set up for this in some of these cities. Tell us a little bit about how that works.
>> Hayden Dublois: Oh, yeah. There are so many different ways that fraud manifests itself in the food stamp program. What you touched on is one of the more common ones, EBT fraud. Individuals will take an EBT card, let's hypothetically say it's loaded with $500, and they'll say, listen, I'll sell this to you if you give me $400 cash, I'll give you this $500 preloaded card.
>> Walker Wildmon: Because they pay zero. Yeah, but I want to. Sorry to interrupt you, Hayden. The reason they can sell it for 400 when it's worth 500 is because the, the beneficiary paid zero for it. Correct? Correct.
>> Hayden Dublois: Exactly. so the beneficiary has no skin in the game in that incident. And this is fraud. I mean, let's be clear. This is not legal in any way, shape or form. It's one of the reasons that we've pushed and educated policymakers on a simple solution like photo ID on EBT cards, so that individuals can't do exactly that. But it's not just EBT fraud, it's bureaucrats intentionally minimizing, how many cross checks they're doing. It's individuals misstating information on application forms and the state never following up on that. It's retailers engaged in fraud schemes. I mean, the opportunities for abuse in this program are so significant and so, paramount, that it really is, has become an industry of its own.
Do anti-fraud provisions in the big beautiful bill sunset or remain permanent
>> Walker Wildmon: Let me ask you this on the one big beautiful bill because President Trump and Republicans did address some, although not all of this, including the work requirements provision does do these kind of anti fraud provisions in the one big beautiful will, do they sunset or are they permanent?
>> Hayden Dublois: Great question. So to directly answer your question, most of them are permanent, which is great. these are not provisions that have a sunset date in effect for most of them, which is fantastic because I mean, if you look at food stamps, I mentioned 42 million Americans today, that's more than twice as much as the year 2000. Over 90 billion spent on the program. That's more than six times as much as 2000. We can't afford to have anti fraud measures that sunset. They need to be baked into federal law and they need to remain there. And President Trump and his administration realized that, which is why they made so many key changes, not only in the big beautiful bill, but even through executive action. the President and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins have taken whatever steps they can to administratively try to crack down on illegal aliens getting food stamp benefits, improving data sharing. Now, unfortunately, the left and blue states have tried to block them and sue them in court along the way, but that hasn't stopped them from, doing their best. And with the big beautiful bill, I think the most powerful mechanism in there that the President signed into law is that for the first time ever, states will have skin in the game with the cost of the food stamp program. Because previously food stamps have been 100% federally funded. Now it is partially state funded, dependent on how bad your error rates are. So if you have a really bad food stamp error rate, you have to pay a greater proportion of food stamp benefit costs at the state level. If you have a small error rate, the federal government might cover the entirety of the costs. And that's a really important, meaningful provision that actually gives states skin in the game when it comes to program integrity.
>> Walker Wildmon: The. There's talk, there's not enough, but there's some talk about another reconciliation bill before the midterms. is the. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a ton more that can be done on this legislatively, correct?
>> Hayden Dublois: Sure, absolutely. I mean, for example, today under federal law, any food stamp error made that is smaller than $60 in value in an error is not counted towards states error rates. It's just, it's lost. No one, no one keeps track of it because bureaucrats don't have to keep track of it. Why are we not counting Those errors when, $60 doesn't sound up like, like a lot. But when you add it up over many thousands of transactions that might be occurring each day, it sure as heck adds up. Yeah, there's other ways that they can be requiring in another reconciliation. bill states to talk to each other and share data so that if someone is claiming, an EBT card in Maine one month and then Missouri later that month, and then Florida later on that month. Wait a minute. What's, what's going on here? What, what type of scheme are we looking at? So there's more work to be done, no doubt about it. I'm excited about what's going to be implemented, at the forefront, and I think state policymakers really need to buckle down. But, I'm for all we can get at the federal level in terms of additional reforms.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Hayden, thanks so much for coming on the program. Tell our folks your URL so they can check out more about your work.
>> Hayden Dublois: Yeah, please, check us [email protected] we're always producing great research on welfare reform, across the, the country and appreciate, you having me on.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely appreciate you coming on. That's, Hayden Dublois from Foundation for Government Accountability talking about SNAP fraud and other fraud as well through these welfare programs and what Congress has done and can do about it in the future.
The more I read, the more justified the Trump administration's intervention here
Well, in the last few minutes we have on the program, I just want to wrap up or continue this discussion on what happened in Venezuela. And I've got to admit, I'm no expert on Venezuela and I'm still learning about what all went down and what all has been going down in Venezuela. but the more I read, the more justified the Trump administration's intervention here, is becoming now the full legality of the extradition. I'm still trying to figure out what I think about it. The Trump administration's, talking point, their position, rather, from Secretary Rubio and others, is that, Nicolas Maduro was an illegitimate leader of the country. He was a dictator and he's indicted on multiple federal counts that he has an outstanding warrant for his arrest, and they were simply extraditing him, through force to the US to stand trial for his charges. All right, that's the Trump administration's basic position on their legal reasoning. And we'll talk more about this on Wednesday. But, I'm not going to. Not going to try to get into those waters. It's a little bit too deep for right now.
Venezuela had partnerships with terror groups and Iran
Nonetheless, I do want to give you a little backgrounder on some of the dirty deeds of Venezuela, because the more you read, the worse it gets. Trust me, when you start reading about all that Venezuela was doing. So not only were they mass producing and shipping, deadly poisonous drugs to the US and other places in partnership with Colombia and others in Mexico, but Venezuela actually had various, partnerships and deals with terror groups like Hezbollah and countries like Iran, not to mention their partnerships with China and Russia. But make no mistake, Venezuela had basically become a Western hub for Russia, China, Iran, and all of their proxy terror organizations. And that. That is no overstatement at all. That is no overstatement at all. Consider this. Just last week on December 30th, this. This is days before the U.S. mission in Venezuela to capture Maduro. Listen to this headline. US Slaps Sanctions on Venezuela, Iran Drone Pipeline and Missile Supply Network. This was released on December 30th. In the days leading up to the U.S. intervention there, the Treasury Department slapped additional sanctions Tuesday on 10 people and entities based in Venezuela and Iran accused of aiding Tehran's drone and missile programs, including a Venezuelan firm that assembles Iranian designated combat drones. Folks, these are the same drones used on the US Forces and used on Israel and our allies in the Middle East. Where are they being produced and assembled? In none other than Venezuela. Bobby, this is big when you talk about connecting the dots from a legal vantage point. How Venezuela. It's not just a drug problem, but we're talking about partnerships with Iran and Hezbollah to provide them with drones and weapons to attack US Troops and Israel.
>> Bobby Roza: Yeah, for sure. And, we've seen some of that happen in Iran here, recently, with all the protests and some of the other things taking place there, along lines of somewhat of a military nature, as you talked about with the drone attacks. And, Yeah, it automatically makes Venezuela a main accessory, to this whole situation.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Bobby Roza: in terms of, you know, trying to break it into somewhat layman's terms there.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Bobby Roza: That we understand as an accessory to murder and accessory in war and.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes.
>> Bobby Roza: And so on and so forth. They are the supplier. They are. They are the logistician. that's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. And, there's consequences to be remedied from that. Aside from the narco terrorism aspect of it as well.
>> Walker Wildmon: Correct. Yeah. And to your point, and the reason I bring this up is, you know, people think about this as well. You know, Mexico has cartels and Colombia has cartels, and, you know, they go through. Well, these 10 countries have cartels and. And they're shipping drugs into the U.S. you know, do we capture all of their leaders? Folks, that's. That's a little bit too simple of a view of this. This is way more complicated, or, rather not complicated, way more complex of an issue when you have Venezuela in our own backyard, in our own hemisphere, shipping Hezbollah drones to Iran.
>> Bobby Roza: Yeah. Essentially calling the shots.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, exactly. shipping oil, sanctioned oil to, China, and to other places, to Iran, once again, in our own hemisphere. So the. The mountain of evidence against Venezuela and against Maduro is continuing to build. We'll see you next time. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
