The WallBuilders Show

Transforming Federal Governance: Decentralization, Accountability, and the Future of American Politics

Tim Barton, David Barton & Rick Green

Is the federal government ready for an important transformation? Join us as we discuss the evolving political landscape and the potential shifts a Trump administration will bring. Decentralizing federal power and strengthening local governance could be crucial in reshaping American politics. We unravel the strategic maneuvers and key figures that might define this new era.

Our journey continues through a bold agenda to overhaul the federal government. We explore measures to restore presidential authority over bureaucrats, reform national security, and ensure the integrity of institutions. Could the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission be the key to transparency and accountability? We compare these potential reforms to the sweeping changes post-2008, highlighting their capacity to redefine political dynamics and put the left on the defensive.

Accountability and integrity take center stage as we examine strategies to prevent conflicts of interest and enhance government transparency. From banning federal bureaucrats from joining the companies they regulate to relocating federal agencies outside of Washington D.C., we highlight initiatives aimed at dispersing centralized power. Discover how these actions, inspired by Elon Musk’s streamlining approach at X, could promote a government more aligned with real-world dynamics and effective governance.

Support the show


Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome the intersection of faith and culture. It is the WallBuilders Show where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about all three of us at our website. Wallbuilders.com that's wallbuilders.com our main website. Lots of great information available to you right there. The election's over, but the hard work is just beginning and you need to get equipped and inspired so get on that website today wallbuilders.com get you some good material, share them with your family and start getting in the game. David Barton, America's premier historian and our founder, WallBuilders Tim Barton, National speaker, pastor and president of WallBuilders. And I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. Thanks for joining us on this Tuesday. And guys, we talked a little bit about this yesterday, but we we kind of took a little bit of a break from the election, but we just mentioned it very briefly today. Let's dive back into that because I think a lot of people are wondering, okay, we're a week out now. What's the real impact? Will there really be any difference with a Trump administration? I have to laugh when I say that, but will there really be any difference with a Trump administration versus a Biden or Harris administration? And I think, guys, we're we're getting a little bit of a clue of just how different it will be. 

 

David Barton [00:01:12] And yeah, it's real different. I mean, he has since his election, he's been every day rolling out new initiatives are new names. He is prepared for this. And he came into this clearly prepared. We knew that. We talked about that in previous things, that he was not going to lose the first two years like he did before trying to figure out who's. I think one of the most amazing things is he said, all right, I don't care who the next Senate leader is, but whoever it is, you're going to have to agree to give me recess appointments. Because last time it took me more than two years to get all my guys appointed that I gave you names for. And so this time he wants to be able to move those guys through and not have to wait two years to start doing things. And the fact that he's using this time between the election and the swearing in to get all of his team together, have them all on the playing field. When the referee blows the whistle, they're all ready to go off and start the game. We don't have to bring anybody in from the sidelines. It is such a different approach and he's going to be at least two years ahead of where he was last time. But it's really organized this time. It's great to see. 

 

Tim Barton [00:02:07] It's also really interesting, guys, that he's doing it via like social media videos and not some big press conference, press coverage, press release, which we talked about a little bit, but I think is one of the things we will continue to analyze. I think a lot of different individuals would be analyzing this in the coming months and how there's going to be some fundamental transformations in the way that politics is done, the way that candidates or even presidents engage the people, where traditional media is becoming far less significant. And the fact that the president is able to release his message without having the interruptions, the propaganda or whatever, from whatever media outlet might be there, either at a press conference or in an interview. I think it's super interesting, but that's your point. It's very revealing. Some of the people he's picking, whether it be for the borders are or potentially secretary of state, the UN ambassador. There's a lot of a lot of things we know about some of those people. And then, of course, you have the RFK Jr's and other people like you have a think ramaswamy that we definitely presumably part of administration somewhere, probably even have been. Carson that there's so many individuals that there's so much known about them. I think maybe in my mind some of the bigger question marks is with how significant Charlie Kirk was and how connected he has been to the president. Would Charlie Kirk even be open to a position or is what he doing what turning point is he feel like this is what's so significant where, you know, sometimes we've seen governors that have said, hey, I'm not sure I went be on the cabinet like Ron Desantis probably going to say I'd rather stay here and help make a difference in Florida. I think it will be equally interesting who Trump picks and also maybe are there leaders that are are going to have a bigger influence where they are and so they stay there. But that is. 

 

Rick Green [00:03:59] And Tim, to that point, though, just just to drill down on that, because some people may think, why wouldn't a DeSantis go or or a Charlie Kirk or David Barton or something like that? And it's because Washington is not the end all be all. We need really good people there and we need this team to go in. We need thousands of good people to go in. But of course, the whole purpose is, is to get the federal government to no longer do the things that they've been doing that should have been in our communities, in our states. And therefore, we need to be running organizations and states and have good governors doing it right back home in the states as well. So I just wanted to drill down on that a little bit. Just that balance is really important and a lot of our friends are being asked to go and they're having to make that go through exactly what you're talking about. It's like, I don't know the pros and cons and where can I have the most impact for the kingdom. So it is an incredible team though, that they're already putting together. 

 

Tim Barton [00:04:43] It really is. And that, as you even alluded to with some of these videos that are coming out, there was a video that President Trump did, just the last couple of days. And you wanted to make sure we had seen it. You shared it with us. Guys, we got to talk about this because when President Trump sort of giving a list of things that he's going to prioritize and it isn't several these videos and so many good things which Rick. Not on our slate today, but constitutional reciprocity. For the Second Amendment, I mean, you know, so many things that that we need to come back and talk about. 

 

Rick Green [00:05:13] Right to 50th. Education choice. I mean, he's like every day he just keeps throwing it out there. Like we're going to have we're going to be talking about it for a while. You're right. There's so there's so much good. But today we got a specific list we're going to cover. 

 

Tim Barton [00:05:24] Yeah, so many good things. But we we want to play that video. It's 3.5 minutes, something from President Trump. Around that time frame. And he lays out, I think, ten objectives of what he is going to try to accomplish in his administration. And as word he alluded to with some of these other videos, there's so many amazing things that that we have been encouraging and so many. The conservative and even the Christian side has been championing some of these ideas for a long time. Ever President Trump, to come out and say some of these sayings is really astounding. It's so encouraging. And so, yeah, let's let's let's play this video and let's go through and talk about these ten action steps that President Trump says he's going to do when he gets in office. 

 

Donald Trump [00:06:07] First, I will immediately reissue my 2020 executive order Restoring the President's Authority to remove Rogue bureaucrats. And I will wield that power very aggressively. Second, we will clean out all of the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus. And there are plenty of them. The departments and agencies that have been weaponized will be completely overhauled so that faceless bureaucrats will never again be able to target and persecute conservatives, Christians, or the left's political enemies, which they are doing now at a level that nobody can believe even possible. Third, we will totally reform Pfizer courts, which are so corrupt that the judges seemingly do not care when they are lied to in warrant applications. So many judges have seen so many applications that they know were wrong. Or at least they must have known they do nothing about it. They are lied to. Forced to expose the hoaxes and abuses of power that have been tearing our country apart. We will establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to declassify and publish all documents on deep state spying, censorship and corruption. And there are plenty of them. Fifth, we will launch a major crackdown on government leakers who collude with the fake news to deliberately weave false narratives and to subvert our government and our democracy. When possible, we will press criminal charges. Sixth, we will make every inspector general's office independent and physically separated from the departments they oversee so they do not become the protectors of the Deep State. Seventh, I will ask Congress to establish an independent auditing system to continually monitor our intelligence agencies to ensure they are not spying on our citizens or running disinformation campaigns against the American people, or that they are not spying on someone's campaign like they spied on my campaign. Eight. We will continue the effort launched by the Trump administration to move parts of the sprawling federal bureaucracy to new locations outside the Washington swamp. Just as a move, the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado. As many as 100,000 government positions can be moved out and I mean immediately of Washington to places filled with patriots who love America. And they really do love America. Ninth, I will work to ban federal bureaucrats from taking jobs at the companies they deal with that they regulate. So they deal with these companies and they regulate these companies and then they want to take jobs from these companies. It doesn't work that way. Such a public display cannot go on and is taking place all the time, like with Big Pharma. Finally, I will push a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. This is how I will shatter the deep State and restore a government that is controlled by the people and for the people. Thank you very much. 

 

Rick Green [00:09:33] Wow, guys, what a list. Any one of those could have been an entire campaign and an entire administration to get that one thing done. 

 

David Barton [00:09:41] That was I was just thinking that you could take any one of those ten. And I would say that is a great accomplishment for an administration where you're throwing all ten of them in there and they're going to be starting from like month one. And it's incredible. That's great. 

 

Rick Green [00:09:55] I would I would never want to say, you know, do what Barack Obama did. But guys, remember what it felt like in eight after he won. And they did. It felt like Whac-A-Mole. They moved so fast on so many fronts. It was it was tough to play defense against it. And so maybe they're taking a page out of that. But also it's the pent up frustration of all of these things. But I think it's going to really put the left on the defense. And, you know, he may not get all of these done, but if he got half of them done, three of them done, that would be huge. And I wouldn't be shocked. Promises made, promises kept if he didn't do all of them. 

 

Tim Barton [00:10:29] Well, and to go through that because obviously listening for 3.5 minutes, it's easy to hear those go, That's incredible. And then, yeah, you. 

 

Rick Green [00:10:36] Know, I'm not sure what happened after that. He had me at hello. He didn't say hello, but, you know. 

 

Tim Barton [00:10:42] Yeah. But thinking back to all ten. So let's start with the first one. Let's let's talk through these for a little bit, because there are so much there. When he said he wants to restore his executive order to remove rogue bureaucrats. And when we think about the rogue bureaucrats, well, one of the that you've mentioned for so long, what are the major problems we see up in D.C. is that he and really not just D.C. federal government, federal workers. Is it so challenging to fire someone, even if they're incredibly incompetent? And we've told stories before about like up in New York, where the New York teachers union, where there are literally teachers who have gone to jail. There's literally teachers that have gone to jail for crimes against students, whatever that might be. And we're being careful, I say that here. But where they're not allowed to be near students, they can't even be in the same room. They have what are called rubber rooms where they keep these teachers that are not allowed to be around students because they can't fire them, which is the whole point of this. They cannot remove them from the payroll. They are not allowed to fire them, even though they were to jail for whether a sexual harassment of a minor or some kind of sexual activity or rape of a minor. I mean, all these like crazy things. 

 

David Barton [00:11:54] Or even just flat incompetence, the fact that they don't even know their subject can't teacher subject and every kid in their class fails a subject they still can't get rid of. 

 

Tim Barton [00:12:03] One. That's correct. Although those individuals are probably not in the rubber room. They're probably still in the classroom, you know. Right. Based on what we heard so much of these failed public schools. But the point is that you see from some of these government and these from some of these unions, they've created their structure in such a place that you cannot fire people for incompetence. And when you look at the bureaucracy of D.C. and recognize how much incompetence there is. One of the things that we were so excited when Elon Musk suggested maybe he could, you know, run some government department of efficiency like he did it, that that what was known as Twitter. Now it's X where he went in and fired 80% or something of the employees. That is crazy. What are we doing wasting time and money and resources and. And he cleaned it up. It's working and functioning. Many people argue better than it ever had before. And for Trump to say we're going to put that back in place, that for these rogue, ineffective bureaucrats, you can actually remove them. That's really incredible. 

 

David Barton [00:12:59] Well, I would say just going down the list, I'm going to choose one that he said about the FISA court, because the FISA courts, those have become inquisition courts, those FISA courts. And by the way, those those are federal judges. They go in and they are they operate secretly. And I think there's a point number three out of those ten, but they go in to operate secretly. And so some rogue prosecutor like we've been seeing the guys that do like the J six prosecutions and again will repeat on June 6th that there were definitely bad actors there. But we're also going to point out that most of the people sitting in jail were not the bad actors. They were just rogue prosecutors that went after these guys are a twisted law. And so when the FISA courts these you don't even know what the judges are essentially and some rogue prosecutor goes before them and says, I need a warrant to do this, and they don't have to provide the evidence to prove there's there's no any kind of opposition from the other side. They only hear from one side. And that's like those witch hunt courts that they had back in the Middle Ages. And getting rid of. That's going to be a good thing for America, no question. 

 

Tim Barton [00:13:57] Well, and just to clarify, when you say they don't have to offer any proof, they don't have to confirm that what they're suggesting is correct. So they do show like, here's the reason we should have the warrant to go do we want to do. But they could be making all of it up. And what what Trump said is that they should be held accountable. And if they lie and that's what the process is like, there's no accountability after they get the warrant. Is is what you said actually there. Did it actually happened? Was it that way? And so the fact that there is a level of accountability is huge and that you skipped over. Number two, I think it's worth going and not that you were going to go back to you. I think it's worth going back to, though, because he said it was to clean out corrupt actors and national security and intelligence apparatus. And when we think about, for example, the Hunter Biden laptop, where 51 former or intelligence officers ever was, when they signed on, they signed on it, They say they still have security clearance and they're signing on confirming, this is a Russian hoax, Russian disinformation, whatever else. And they're still allowed to get this intelligence. They still have security clearance even after they blatantly lied. This, to me is part of point number two, that these are corrupt actors that are part of national security and intelligence apparatus. And not to mention even getting into the JFK files, what really happened was CIA, FBI involved or even with some of the Trump assassinations. I mean, either there is the greatest level of incompetence we've ever seen or there's a lot of corruption going on. And the fact that, again, what I'm seeing a lot from just these early couple ones is he's just offering accountability. Where there's not been accountability on so many of these areas. And it's so encouraging that just like in a normal job, if you do a terrible job, you're probably going to get fired. It shouldn't be any different if you're in a three letter agency or if you are somebody going to get a FISA warrant or if you're some bureaucrat part of the DC or federal government apparatus, there should be accountability. And if you're not doing your job, you shouldn't be there. 

 

David Barton [00:16:00] And what the accountability, Tim, jumping to point six and point nine, that is the two points that really deal with that. Point six is when he said, we're going to make every inspector general's office independent and separate departments from what they oversee so they don't become protectors of the Deep state. So if you're actually the inspector general that's supposed to oversee the Department of Justice, you don't have an office with the Department of Justice, You're not on their payroll. You're not you know, you're not working with them. And you really like this guy. You don't want to see him get in trouble. So I'll turn my back. Now, this is this was to have an objective accountability and make sure that every one of those agencies, every one of those departments has someone from the outside. You know, it's like what happens to an average citizen when an IRS auditor walks to the front door? They're not our friends and they don't bleep claim to be our friends. And that's why everybody's scared of an IRS type of audit. And it needs to be that way with the government agencies as well that someone walks up now sad to hold them accountable. And the same thing with point nine is to ban the federal bureaucrats from and regulators from taking jobs at companies they work with. So, you know, if you're a bureaucrat and I don't know, you work with the ABC and you find all these these bad things going on, you say, you know, I think I'm going to retire this next year in your future. Hire me to work for you at about 4 million a year. I don't think I'll turn in those bad things you did if you were to hire me. That's just a really bad deal. You lose your independent accountability. If they're doing bad things, they need to be held accountable and being a regulator to go work with those companies after you've been regulating them, that's just too much temptation to too many things that happen. And so that's another good side of accountability that I was really glad to hear. Start making the government work like the real world has to work outside of that, that brotherhood or that cleric or whatever that we call the federal government swap. 

 

Rick Green [00:17:46] Yeah, I had even thought about that perspective. Tim, is we're going to break here just thinking about each of these videos now, as I'm thinking back to the things that he's been saying in each of these videos, that's really what you're doing. You're restoring checks and balances. You're restoring the accountability that's that's necessary, even even even push for school choice. What are you doing? You're getting accountability. You're getting checks and balances from the parents. So it's a really good way to look at all of these things. There's so many more. We'll try to rattle off of a few more of them as we come back from the break. Stay with us. Folks, you're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

 

Tim Barton [00:18:21] Hey, guys, it's Tim Barton. And I want to tell you about our new book, The American Story Building the Republic. We start with George Washington as president, and we've already become a nation. So really now it's how do we function as a nation? And if we look back in American history, the stability, that prosperity, success we enjoyed as Americans is because of the foundation that our early presidents laid, because the examples they set, how do we live in America under the Constitution? What is the role of federal government? And really, what part did each one of these early presidents play? We go to the first seven presidents and a lot of people probably know the names Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison. Very few people know about Monroe or John Quincy Adams or Andrew Jackson. Now, we might know some of their names. We really don't know their stories. We want you to relearn, rediscover American history and see how it applies to today. Go to WallBuilders com and get your copy of The American Story Building the Republic. 

 

Rick Green [00:19:20] Welcome back to the Well-Being Show, talking about just one of President Trump's videos that he's made over the last few days about what he will be doing as he goes into office. And you know, guys, I don't know, we got just a few minutes left. I mean, even the fact that he's talking about, you know, banning federal bureaucrats for, you know, what we call the revolving door, right. Where each of these different kinds of agencies, they go straight into another one, you know, cracking down on government leakers, promoting fake news. I mean, the collusion to to to silence people. And these are good items he's talking about here. 

 

David Barton [00:19:51] Well, even point number eight, I love this. I've been thinking about it and I think I've commented a couple of times on what it might be if it were to happen. And I say it's going to happen. But actually moving the agencies out of D.C. and I've said for 20 years, can you imagine how different Congress would be Capitol would be if we were to suddenly say on Friday night, hey, we're all going to meet together in Fargo, North Dakota, as the U.S. Capitol come Monday morning. I mean, you leave all those you leave all those outside regulators, you leave all the lobbyists, you leave it all behind. And you get with people who actually know what's happening in the real world. And actually, you know, they're not entrenched in this bureaucracy. And so I was just like, I mean, take the FBI and move it to Beaver, Oklahoma. Now, I don't know that there's a liberal in Beaver, Oklahoma, anywhere. So who are you going to hire to to to run your staff? It's not going to be the swamp people that that have this civil service kind of thing that you can't fire, you can't get rid of. You know, you move something out to, you know, on the West Slope of Colorado somewhere and the town of Durango or somewhere else, or you choose some some little town in North Carolina, you start moving to towns like that, you're going to break up that swamp really quick because you start getting it again, that check and balance. You're going to have the agencies in different locations. They don't have all the same lobbyist work going on. It's just going to be such a healthier place to get outside that one entrenched. And it's just speaking spiritually to we know from Ephesians eight that we and even in the Book of Daniel, we say that those principalities and powers and rulers of darkness in heavily places and this got to be the biggest ever demons over Washington DC because there's so much power there and it's all centralized. And just breaking that up is going to break the spiritual warfare up as well. No question. 

 

Rick Green [00:21:31] You know, even even to the point of people taking jobs. Right. And being willing to work and take some of those gigs. I mean, it's going to help with that. And you know what? What did they say? The D.C. vote was 98% Democrat. I mean, it's you know, it's a cesspool. It's just it's crime ridden. It's so breaking that up. Yeah, I agree. That's a big one. Tim, you were about to say something. Go ahead. 

 

Tim Barton [00:21:51] Yeah, I was. I mean, some of those things, it doesn't even make sense. You're going to have the Department of AG in a Washington, D.C., where there's only concrete and no AG anywhere. Or are you right, the Department of AG's should be maybe where there's agriculture, whether it's Kansas or Nebraska or Wyoming, Vermont. I mean, like really what? This doesn't even make sense. And it would be interesting to add not just moving them to geographic, right? Not random places, but like kind of but maybe even putting them in locations where more of that happens. Because then if, for example, Department of Bag was where there's a lot of bag. Presumably then more people that are working there come from Agg or there's accountability because you're surrounded by people that are part of Agg. So it definitely makes sense to to break that up. Also in point number seven, where he said he wanted to ask Congress to establish independent auditing systems to make sure that intelligence agencies are not spying on citizens or campaigns like they did on his. You know, it's interesting. There are a lot of things we can point to where intelligence, three letter agencies have spied on many American people. And by the way, that also would even include things like from the Patriot Act, where sometimes under the guise of arguably good intentions, things can be taken and it can be blown out of proportion and even the FISA warrants whatever else. But to then have something independent again, this is where those kind of Iwan must guys come to mind that somebody from the outside world looks and goes, Wait a second, you're doing what? And what constitutional right do you have to do this to be able to restrain the the growth of this cancerous tumor that these agencies think that they're not accountable to the people? We're ultimately the president, Congress, Senate. They are elected by the individual. Supreme Court, of course, is appointed by the president, but they're confirmed in the Senate. So they're being confirmed by elected individuals. So there are still some level of accountability. But when it comes to these agencies, who is the CIA accountable to? Who is the FBI accountable to? And we might argue, will they kind of like some of these three and four star generals they serve at the pleasure of the president, Except generally speaking, I think most presidents have no idea the majority of what these three letter agencies are doing. And so, again, having something independent that can come and investigate and see what they're doing and maybe even the justification for why they're doing it could provide some better constitutional checks and balances. So, so many of these things are just brilliant. As you mentioned, they could be things you could talk about for an entire campaign. And just running on one of these could make a difference. It reminds me a little bit of what Ron Paul did years ago, right, where you only had a couple of issues he ran on. That's part of what Trump's talking about. And they're the exact kind of issues that I think the majority of American people are looking at. And they resonate with them because so many Americans recognize the level of corruption they recognize. We don't have the transparency. There's not accountability. And for Trump to offer that is absolutely incredible. 

 

Rick Green [00:25:02] It's you know, I keep pinching myself, guys. I don't know if y'all are feeling the same way, but it's just like I mean, we knew would be better, but we're talking and we're talking big. I mean, I don't know how to not exaggerate to know or how you could exaggerated tectonic. I mean, this is these are major, major changes to the way business has been done. But and the difference is, we've heard politicians say some things like this before. Generally, it's an outside the beltway, you know, candidate that has no chance of winning. We're hearing this from a guy that's going in with a mandate and with a team that could actually accomplish it. And the House and Senate are going to have to go along with him to to a certain degree. I mean, it's not going be easy, but they're going to have to go along with him. 

 

David Barton [00:25:43] Well, that that'll be the thing is, what can what roadblocks can the Democrats throw up being in the minority and being the minority? Not necessarily by a large number of Congress, but by a large will of the people. When you look at popular vote and electoral vote, the people have really spoken fairly loudly. And the Democrats really want to throw themselves under the bus in that direction. Have to see. 

 

Tim Barton [00:26:03] Well, guys, this is where it's also going to be interesting. We probably maybe tomorrow we can talk about what's going to happen with the Senate and leadership where Mike Lee suggested this interesting idea that J.D. Vance could be the one helping control this, because if it's a guy like John Cornyn, there's a lot of reason to be skeptical of how much action and courage he's going to have to do this. But J.D. Vance might we might talk about this tomorrow because we're out of time today. But so much stuff to talk about. 

 

Rick Green [00:26:27] Yeah, you talk about on cold water, on all these great victories. If you put John Cornyn as majority leader, please, Senate Republicans do not do that. All right. We'll talk about that one more tomorrow as well. Be sure to check out our website today, WallBuilders.show for the radio program and wallbuilders.com for the main website. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show. 

 

People on this episode