Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to intersection of Faith and culture. This is the Wallbuilders show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Those hot topics are often coming out of Washington, DC. Not always. Sometimes it's a local or state government issue. May maybe entertainment or science or whatever it might be. Of course, Word of God applies to everything. So there's a biblical perspective on everything, obviously a historical perspective on everything as well. And yes, a constitutional jurisdiction perspective on everything. We've got a congressman coming on a little later to talk about what's happening in DC right now, and just the massive shift in mindset and the types of things that we can do to restore liberty in the country. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach here with Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of Wallbuilders. David Barton. Normally with us is our founder here at WallBuilders. David's on the road and all over the country and speaking and traveling and and Tim, I tell you what, man, the audience is out there. I don't know so far this year. If you've noticed the same thing I have, we've only got one event together. So far this year. But people are excited for the change in America. There's a new energy going on out there. 

Tim Barton [00:01:10] Yeah, there's no doubt there's there's a lot of positive things happening. The hardest part is just keeping up with what's happening. There's so much happening every day. I mean, literally before we just hit the record button on our program, we were talking about stuff happening. And as you see it, no, I heard about it. I'm not really sure. It is hard to keep up with it. And frankly, I mean, we pay attention more than most people and we're not even able to keep up with it. It's part of also the strategy, I think, that's leading to him being so successful because the Democrats can't keep up with it either. It just it's an overwhelming storm. And and just in case people are curious, as we're mentioning, my dad David's out on the road. He was in Nebraska yesterday. He's traveling back right now from Nebraska. He was up testifying one of many states that's introducing many great piece of legislation, but among them the Ten Commandments, trying to bring that back in education because it's in drama. It's foundational, seminal for Western civilization. The law of American common law upon which we were built, is is rooted and based on the Ten Commandments. So many great connecting points of American history. If you don't understand the Ten Commandments, you're gonna have a hard time understanding the foundation and framework of America. And he was up testifying on the history and tradition of the impact and influence of the Ten Commandments, among other things, in education. And so at this point, we have seen no

Rick Green [00:02:32] And that's Nebraska, only the Senate. Right. So he only has to testify once. He doesn't have to go. There's no other chamber to go over there too. 

Tim Barton [00:02:38] Well, yeah. So for for the trivia folks out there, right. How is Nebraska different legislatively? They're a unicameral body. They don't have a House and a Senate. They have one chamber. And so most most states have two. They only have one. So everybody's a senator. But yes, to that point that there's not two committees we have testify and there's only one. But that's where he is. But this is among the things where we are seeing a lot of positive traction. The fact that even there are state legislators willing to do this. I texted my dad at lunch yesterday just to check in. How are things going? The committee, I think, started at 1:30 yesterday and he said, great, I'm eating lunch with a bunch of Nebraska senators up here, and they're even mentioned. He sent an email to me late last night where he mentioned how impressed he was with how many of the Nebraska senators actually listened to the show. They get it on Bot Radio Network up there. That's super cool that BOT has a feature working me on demand. And so they go to, I guess maybe you have the bot app or the bot station online, however they find it, but they just listen to it on the they say when we're driving back from session, we just listen to it or not on the way back. So kudos to everybody in Nebraska. Yeah. If you are listening to us right now, the Ten Commandments are a really great thing for lots of reasons. 

Rick Green [00:03:55] Get it done. And there's a lot of our Constitution coaches in Nebraska. So they're sprinkled all over the state. So, you know, I haven't put anything up to them. So if you're listening today and you're coaching Nebraska a great time to let your students know about this and have them call their senators and, you know, politely say, this is not a time to go berate them. We're probably going to be in. I think it'll probably pass there, but you got to put the positive encouragement in at this point. 

Tim Barton [00:04:18] And this is one of those states, again, where it's supposed to be very close. I think Montana, it lost by two votes. But in other states, South Dakota, North Dakota, where they have an overwhelmingly Republican chamber in the House, I think it was in South Dakota where there 70 members of the House, and it's like 64 Republicans and six Democrats. And the Ten Commandments did not pass in the House because there were so many Republicans that got squishy on it. But part of why they got squishy. And I'm bringing this up because, as you mentioned, your Constitution coaches and that the citizens that have taken these courses that are out there, the the legislators that we heard from, told us that they were getting negative emails and negative calls at a rate of like 10 to 1. From groups like teachers unions or the ACLU, people working there with saying, hey, call and tell them don't do it. And they got an overwhelming response in a negative direction. So even though it's now constitutional, even though it's arguably obviously beneficial, there's been a lot of pressure on the other side. And so it really would be good, as there are different things happening in these states for people that live in Nebraska. If you have family in Nebraska, you have friends in Nebraska, let them know this is something they ought to encourage and support. There's levels of irony when people look at America and see the brokenness of America. When people talk about even even liberal Democrats that talk about how bad capitalism is because of the corruption and the greed, etc., etc.. I would love to ask some very simple questions. So you think what they're doing is not right? Well, how do we determine right and wrong? Because it seems like if you want people to be more ethical, to be more just to be more honest. We probably want them to study the Bible and things like the Ten Commandments even more, not remove it from the entire equation, and then bemoan the fact that we have immorality running rampant in society. This is something that every American can look, and we can see the decaying moral conscience around us. The fact that for the last several years, we were having government officials tell us we should pretend like boys or girls and girls can be boys, and boys can play in girls sports, and we have to use different pronouns, etc., etc. obviously we have people that have lost a basic moral foundation. This is the the prime time, and there's never been a better time than right now to restore some basic common sense, decency and moral structure to the system. And by the way, even if you wanted to argue against it from a moral religious standpoint, the bottom line with things like Ten Commandments are it still is foundational with history and tradition, so it still should be taught from ages a history and tradition standpoint. Every student should know this is the foundation upon which America was built. But practically speaking, the reason the Founding Fathers promoted the Bible and commandments, it wasn't because they wanted them to know about how important this was to the formation of Israel. It's because the Founding Fathers knew for the formation of our own government. We need a system and a code of morals. The Founding fathers called it religion and morality. Or George Washington says, like this is the indispensable support to political prosperity, where John Adams says, our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. We have to restore this. And you're going to hear us talk about this a lot throughout the year, because I think there's like 16 states that are introducing it this year. Nebraska right now is the fourth state that's done it, but we already know multiple other states it's happening in. We are already hearing from legislators that wanted to come testify in their committees on the history and tradition of this, but when it does, just everybody listening, you need to know we need to be prepared to call those legislators to those senators and let them know that we support this. They should vote in favor. It is constitutional. It is historic, and it has great moral value. 

Rick Green [00:08:10] And it just makes common sense. You know, just think about it. You want to live in a neighborhood where people think murder's wrong, or they think stealing is wrong, or they're teaching their kids to honor their father and mother where they. You know, there's just a healthier respect. You just get better citizens when you do this kind of thing. And of course, Tim, you went down to Louisiana and testified on that one last year, and it passed. Our friend Mike Peterson, a member of the legislature there in Utah with our other friend Ken Ivory, got it passed in Utah last year. So there is a new momentum. And I think it's one of the cool things that pretty much every citizen out there can participate in this part of rebuilding Liberty. They can be a part of rebuilding a a God consciousness in the culture, whether it's this Ten Commandments issue or get any God we trust on the on the dais at your local government entities like school boards and city councils or it's, you know, just teaching in your church a biblical citizenship class. All of these things are helping to raise that that God consciousness. And so if your legislature passes this, you can be part of helping those local schools, depending on how the particular bill passes. But just a lot of really, really good stuff. Roger Williams, another friend of ours, he actually serves in Congress from Texas. And oh, by the way, Texas has this bill. We have Phil King on recently. And Tim, you and David are planning to go down and testify in a week or two whenever they have that hearing. So another state that Texas better do it. You know, this is going to be embarrassing, bro. If Texas doesn't do it this year, and Utah and Louisiana and Nebraska and all these other states do it. But anyway, Roger will be with us in a second. Go ahead. 

Tim Barton [00:09:30] Well, yeah, especially when you have Governor Abbott, who's already promoting on social media. He supports it when you have a lieutenant governor who's head of the Senate is saying he supports it. We know we have the votes in the Senate. The only question in Texas is in the House, because we have Republicans doing squirrely things where 30 Republicans join with the Democrats to elect a speaker. And not that not that we have as much grievance with the current speaker as we did with the last speaker. However, when you are chosen and elected primarily by Democrats, even if you have historically a decent voting record. Now, there's a lot of question mark surrounding your name and your leadership as speaker, because you weren't chosen by the Republican body of the Republican caucus, you were chosen on the floor with Democrats backing your position. And it makes you question or makes you ask the question, did you offer them something or have you provided something for them to support you? And certainly when we see that they have a lot of leadership strengths and positions and some of these committees, it certainly seems like it's not a good thing. So the only question in my mind is what happens in the House? I think Texans support it. Again, we have a governor. Lieutenant governor supported the Senate's going to support it. So it's just it's going to be what happens in the House. And this is, again, where it's going to matter that there's positive pressure and phone calls that go in. But as you mentioned, one of our friends, friend of the program, Roger Williams, Congressman Williams, he is someone that when we do pastors briefings up in Washington, D.C., and we have pastors coming in from all over the nation to hear from Congressman. He's one of our frequent guests coming in because he is someone who is very grounded. His faith, his faith motivates him and a lot of what he does. And he's someone who is a common sense, practical, conservative. He's a business guy. His background is really kind of impressive. You would appreciate him even more on some level athletically than I do, because he's a baseball guy. He played. 

Rick Green [00:11:20] He chose the right sport. Is that what you chose? The right sport? Yeah. 

Tim Barton [00:11:23] I mean, depending on who you ask. Right. So he played college baseball. TCU ends up getting drafted, plays in the minor system for the Braves for several years, ends up being the head coach at TCU. He's got a big athletic background. He got into the business world. He's a small business owner, but he understands things in a very practical sense. And he's one of these guys that with with Trump doing stuff, he really gets it. And as we're talking about the positive momentum going forward, he's one of these guys in Congress fighting for and promoting so much of the positive momentum that's happening. And we need more guys like him in Congress. For sure. 

Rick Green [00:11:57] We're going to be catching up with Congressman Roger Williams. Be good to have him back on the programs. And by the way, I was thinking, Tim, before we go to break the the whole speaker thing in Texas, what a great way to prove that your deal you made with the Democrats didn't make you a liberal, but in fact, you're going to get all this good conservative stuff. Pass the Ten Commandments bill. That'd be great. You know, school choice, a lot of these, you know, the more conservative stuff that comes out, the more they can say, see, we told you so and we'll be perfectly fine with see, we told you so as long as we get the good policy, because we don't care who gets the credit, we just want the good policy. All right, quick break. We'll be right back. Roger Williams joining us here on the WallBuilders Show

Rick Green [00:13:35] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Always good to have Congressman Roger Williams with us. Congressman, great to see you, sir. Thanks for coming on again. 

Roger Williams [00:13:42] Good to see Rick. Always glad to be with you. 

Rick Green [00:13:44] Well y'all are in the thick of it. How's it feel to have a White House actually supporting the things that you're doing instead of trying to kill everything that you're doing? 

Roger Williams [00:13:52] Well, they're not trying to kill in any place or thinking of new ideas to. We haven't had in a while, but but let me tell you, as you know, President Trump's doing everything he said he would. But he ran on everything he's doing. Well said, if I may, and people agree with him. So I think he's great. And I think we saved our country November 5th, don't you? 

Rick Green [00:14:09] Amen, brother. 

Roger Williams [00:14:10] We really did. And people spoke out. They want less garment. They want lower taxes. They want an energy policy. They want peace and all that. Trump's gave them to us in two weeks. It's it's it's hard to imagine how fast things have changed for you as a, as a member of Congress right now, knowing that things are moving so fast. How do you decide what what what you want to put your, you know, focus on? I mean, this is a target rich environment to, to save the country, as you said. So what do you what do you choose it as the main things to work on? 

Roger Williams [00:14:41] Well, well, we've always chosen, you know, I chair the small Business Committee and I'm on the financial Services committee, so. But I've always been focused on tax cuts. We focus on less regulations. Regulations, for example, are killing Main Street America. I mean, you guys see it in your business and we need to reduce regulations. We need an energy policy. These strong border, I mean, all the things we talk about. But we're able to get a lot of this done as small business committee. We're, you know, a lot of pro-business legislation up to to where we get it voted on regulations are getting cut. Banking business. I just got a bill out 1071 that reduces regulations to community banks and basically saves community banks from being out of out of business. We need an energy policy. We're all going to be for Keystone Pipeline and drill, baby drill, as the president said. And look within the border, I mean, the border has been phenomenal, right? I saw today 200 crosses, lowest it's ever been. And he's taking it from the highest to the to the to the lowest. We told America, the world America wants you, but you gotta come right way, not the wrong way. 

Rick Green [00:15:41] That's right. You were speaking of the regulations. Yeah. I was surprised at how many of the executive orders and even just some of the things President Trump said with regard to how much regulation increases the cost of things and how people, you know, if they had to choose between a tax cut, a regulation which thankfully you're not having to choose, you're going to do both. They would go with the rate, get rid of the regulation because it's that ongoing just albatross around our necks, right? That that keeps us from being able to start that new business or expand that business. And you got to go through all these hoops and paperwork. I think I read 30% of the cost of a house now is all these government regulations. So that seems like, you know, a real focus for the president as well. Like you said, you've been working on this for years and already lay a lot of that groundwork. So we're able to take that ground back very quickly. It seems like,. 

Roger Williams [00:16:25] Well, one of the interesting things and you've probably seen it, but under Biden's in his time as president, he added $1.73 trillion worth of regulations on Main Street America. Unbelievable, isn't it? And the fight goes $1.73 trillion. It takes 220 million man hours to offset all that in a time. And it's hard to hire people. And they and those man hours can be converted not from a compliance director, but say, to a loan officer in a bank or a car salesman. And in my industry or somebody in your initial model, you go and sell, advertise or sell the show, but you get to comply and that's that's a hindrance. And we're fixing that and it's a big deal. And you're right, a lot of people would rather have less regulations. Here's the thing. If we're so tired to compete with the government, are we? I want to compete against you. I want to compete against my competitors. I don't want to compete against federal government because you never win that way. And that's what we had with Biden. He was choking. He was choking everybody that sends down the paper. Only he was a survivor. Yeah. And even if it's the if it's the government putting the thumb on the scale where they're helping a particular person instead of instead of somebody else or a particular business. Back to the border, Congressman, you're you again had been working on all of this. That had to be so frustrating to see, you know, have your own government opening that border and allowing all that. And you're there in the government trying to stop it. And the president, Americas and the rest doing what they did. How quickly that spigot has been turned off and how quickly that policy has changed. Do you think people are already feeling that in in the safety in the streets and that sort of thing? I mean, we're only a month in, barely a month in, And. But it's already having an impact. 

Roger Williams [00:18:02] No it is. People are positive. I don't know if they're seeing in the streets yet, but the common sense tells you if you get in the bad guy and take him off the street, the streets are going to be safer and we're all the bad guys, and that's what we're doing. We're taking to Gitmo and we're taking where we need to be. But, you know, it's just a situation where we're back to being America again. You know, woke is broke. Now you can talk like you can talk. You can be who you all want to be. You can say, I voted for Trump. I mean, we're back to being America. And it didn't take that long. It didn't take long to destroy. It didn't take long to bring back. And now, of course, that's setting up ourselves on the world stage to remind the world, though it had a strong America spiritually, economically, socially and militarily, the world would blowed. We're getting back to being number one cause our enemies do fascist now. I mean, look at you take Russia. I mean the Putin. Then you're not comfortable with Trump being president way. There's not either, you name it. So we're getting back quickly where we need to be. And I think America feels that they are excited about it. 

Rick Green [00:19:00] Leadership matters and it does have such an impact so quickly. Last thing, just in terms of legislation coming up, the, you know, the tight majority, the slim majority, I know everybody ask you about this, but for our listeners, you know, y'all are still getting things done. So even with that slim majority we've seen some really good bills get get through. So how are y'all pulling that off I mean that's that's hard to hold the whole caucus together. And and actually I've had some Democrats with you on some of these bills as well. But you know, it's just surprising, I guess. What are your thoughts on that, how y'all have been able to get things through even with that tight majority? 

Roger Williams [00:19:35] It's been pretty phenomenal. You know, it's the lowest majority ever. And but we have common sense bills right. We have commonsense bills. Empower the people not the government that says, hey, we're going to have less government, not more government. And it's and it's it's power to the people if you want to say that. So we've been doing that. And of course, we just passed a budget out of the committee. You has got to go to the floor so we can pass a budget so the president can do really what he what he needs to. It needs to be doing. And the debate is whether we're going to put border ahead of taxes or taxes ahead of border. We'll get that done next week and and get some legislation passed and get going. I'd like to see tax cuts and border done by the end of March. So see what ends. 

Rick Green [00:20:15] That'd be fantastic. And like you said, I mean it's it's literally power to the people that I mean, all these issues, 60, 65% issues. And the Biden administration was going against what the American people wanted. So everybody's so relieved and so excited as y'all pass these things. It just feels like such a fast turnaround. So good. I hope that it causes people to to start taking the risks that they were afraid to take before start that business, go out and expand, go do all of those things that that that American ingenuity and and spirit used to be, but just seem to be dampened in such a big way for the last four years. 

Roger Williams [00:20:49] Yes, but they get back to what you said. Is it part of the thing about regulations that reduce regulation of community? Banks in the past had so many regulations, it was easier not to make the loan than to make the loan. Regulations are being reduced now. They can go out and make a loan. Now they can go hire a loan officer instead of a compliance officer. Now you're back in business. You can take risk and get reward. A thing called American, right? 

Rick Green [00:21:12] That the ripple effects are huge are exactly what you just you just talked about. Congressman, thank you so much, ma'am. Appreciate you. God bless you. We look forward to getting you back soon. 

Roger Williams [00:21:20] God bless you. 

Roger Williams [00:21:22] That was Roger Williams, congressman from Texas. We'll be right back with Tim Barton here on the WallBuilders Show

Rick Green [00:22:33] Welcome back to th WallBuilders Show. Back with Tim Barton. Now, Tim, of course, you know, Roger's been a great friend to Wallbuilders for for a long time. You can hear it in his voice. He's glad to to to be able to reap some of the fruit and the, you know, reward of all of those years of just trying to get it done. And they he sounds ready, man. It sounds like the house is ready to move. 

Tim Barton [00:22:53] Well, as you mentioned, there's been a lot of things that have been happening. And certainly we don't generally see the news covering really anything happening in the house, because it's always what Trump is on. It's a new executive order. It's a new something coming out from somebody he's appointed to some cabinet position. And so we just we're not seeing what's happening in Congress. We know there's a slim majority and there's a lot of question marks. But I also appreciate about Roger that. Congressman Williams, not to be insensitive or not respectful, but one of the things I so appreciate about him is he's been having this same message now for decades. He's not changing. 

Rick Green [00:23:31] His tune because the politics changed. 

Tim Barton [00:23:33] No! He's been talking about getting bureaucracy out of the way, right? I'd rather compete with other businesses, not with the federal government he's been talking about. We need a strong border. These are these are not new things. But we finally have a leader in the white House willing to take bold and courageous steps and a stand for this kind of stuff. And, I mean, when we're talking about all time low immigration, illegal immigration, crossing numbers. When we're talking about stuff happening, there's so much good news. But, you know, we've talked about this some more off air than on air. But part of the challenge President Trump has is he when you are a leader, you can't just blame your your leadership position on the last guy that was there, no matter how relevant it was. Now Democrats are masters at doing this right. Eight years into President Obama, he's still blaming Bush for whatever's happening. Democrats have mastered that skill. You blame your blame your political opponent for any problem you have. And President Trump is a better leader than that. However, he has been dealt a very, very bad hand when it comes to things related to the economy. When it comes to inflation, when it comes to even some of the trade deals that we've had with other nations. And so it it is going to be a challenge for him. He's only going to have really this year to try to make some serious ground, because if he does not When you have midterm elections next year, and you're gonna have congressmen out that are on the road and they're running for reelection, and so they're not going to be getting as much done in Congress. It it's going to stagnate. And if he doesn't get it done this year, then you might not win the midterm next year if you don't. And by winning midterm we're talking about Congress. If Republicans don't win Congress, if we don't have the majority there, then he certainly can't get a lot of his agenda policy done because you need Congress to pass it into legislation. So it becomes the law of the land. So he really does have a very a very challenging time that he's got 6 or 8 months to try to get a lot of this done and move forward if he's going to be able to accomplish this. But the good news is there are guys, again, like Congressman Roger Williams, who have been echoing and chanting for this for decades, and there are people that know what to do again. Roger Williams, a small business owner. He understands the challenges of what the government does and where they interfere. And so he therefore knows part of how to how to get these out of the way. And there are congressmen working to do that again, as you mentioned. There's a lot of good stuff that's come out of Congress and we're just not hearing about it. So there is a reason to be hopeful and optimistic. But there certainly are some unique challenges that President Trump is facing that are not always the normal condition for every president. 

Rick Green [00:26:15] You know, you mentioned that Congressman Williams was a baseball player. I don't know if Congressman Williams sings or not, but if he does, we should rerecord Barbara mandrell. I was country when country wasn't cool. And and I was Doge before Doge was cool. Now it just it doesn't have the same ring. Doesn't. Doesn't sound quite as good. But Roger could do that. He could say that I was doge before Doge was cool. All right. Great program today. Appreciate Congressman Roger Williams joining us today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show