The World and Everything in It: March 9, 2023

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Who is responsible for starting the pandemic? That question is back at the forefront on Capitol Hill.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also COVID benefits are coming to an end. What’ll that mean for the poor?

Plus a visit to a Native American reservation where Navajo traditions live on. One pastor sees challenges to the gospel, but lives are being changed.

And commentator Cal Thomas on getting serious about the nation’s finances.

REICHARD: Who is responsible for starting the pandemic? That question is back at the forefront on Capital Hill.

It’s Thursday, March 9th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

BROWN: And I’m Myrna Brown. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden budget » President Biden today will unveil his proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters:

PIERRE: The president’s budget will cut the deficit by nearly three trillion dollars over the next 10 years.

Republicans are highly skeptical of the White House’s number crunching.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says even if that’s true, it still means the federal government would be spending trillions of dollars it doesn’t have in the years ahead.

MCCONNELL: The president’s budget is replete with what they would do if they could: Massive tax increases, more spending.

The budget is expected to lay out plans to rescue Medicare’s hospital-insurance fund from insolvency largely by raising taxes on high-income Americans.

The proposal will be dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled House, but it does outline the president's priorities for the years ahead.

DOJ calling out police » In a scathing new report, The Justice Department accused the Louisville, Kentucky police department of “an aggressive style of policing” against black residents.

Attorney General Merrick Garland …

GARLAND: Some officers have demonstrated disrespect for the people they are sworn to protect. Some have video-taped themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians from their cars, insulting people with disabilities, and called black people monkeys, animal, and boy.

He called that an affront to the vast majority of offiicers who serve honorably.

The Department of Justice is also scrutinizing the Memphis Police Department. Members the department’s special Scorpion unit were caught on video brutally beating a man during a traffic stop in January.

The DOJ says it will look into the police department’s use of force, de-escalation, and its rules for specialized units.

Hearing on Afghanistan withdrawal» On Capitol Hill, lawmakers in the House heard emotional testimony from US troops who were on the ground in Kabul during the chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews described a deadly attack at an airport checkpoint.

ANDREWS: Then a flash and a massive wave of pressure. I’m thrown 12 feet onto the ground but instantly knew what had happened. I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious laying around me.

Vargas-Andrews, now 25 years old, lost an arm and a leg in the blast … which killed 13 other service members and scores of Afghans.

Witnesses recalled seeing mothers carrying dead babies and the Taliban shooting and brutally beating people. Vargas-Andrews testified many who were turned away from flights out of Kabul immediately attempted suicide.

It was the first of what is expected to be a series of Republican-led hearings examining the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal.

Terrorist designation for cartels » A pair of Republican lawmakers say it’s time to designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. And Senators Roger Marshall and Rick Scott have drawn up a bill that would do just that.

Fellow GOP Senator Lindsay Graham says he’s on board.

GRAHAM - The drug cartels in Mexico have been terrorizing Americans for decades. We're going to unleash the fury and might of the United States against these cartels.

Designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations allows the United States to attack their financial assets more aggressively and more effectively crack down on those who provide other support to them.

That comes after four Americans were caught in a drug-related shootout in a Mexican border town over the weekend and then kidnapped. Two of them were killed in the crossfire.

China threats testimony » In another Senate hearing Tuesday, America’s top intelligence official testified that China represents that “most consequential threat” to the United States.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines:

HAINES - And we assess that during the course of Xi's third term, they will together attempt to press Taiwan on unification, undercut U.S. influence, which they perceive as a threat, and drive wedges between Washington and its allies and partners and promote certain norms that favor China's authoritarian system.

Haines’ comments come just a day after China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang said the U. S. was on-course for conflict with China.

Taiwan suspects Chinese ships cut islands’ internet cables » Taiwan says that China could be cutting its internet cables to disrupt communications. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Taiwan has accused two Chinese ships of cutting internet cables to one of Taiwan’s outlying islands last month.

It could be a rehearsal for a larger scale disruption if Beijing chooses to invade the autonomous island.

Experts say Russian assaults on Ukraine’s internet system have been a key part of its wartime strategy.

Beijing claims that Taiwan is the property of China.

And Chinese President Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take over Taiwan by force by 2027.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: how the White House and Senate are responding to the Department of Energy lab leak report.

Plus, ministering to the Navajo Nation.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday, the 9th of March, 2023.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up, COVID’s origins revisited.

Three years ago this week, The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Ever since the virus came out of Wuhan, China, there’s been controversy, whether it had to do with masks or lockdowns or vaccines. But one controversy is back in the news, and it returns to the very beginning--where did COVID-19 actually come from?

REICHARD: Last Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a classified report from the US Department of Energy contained new intelligence pointing to COVID-19 coming from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to the Journal, the White House and members of Congress received that report, and then went different directions with it.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The day after the Journal broke the story. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre was joined by John Kirby of the National Security Council. When asked about the DOE report, Kirby had this to say

JOHN KIRBY: There is not a consensus right now, in the US government about exactly how COVID started, what the President wants is facts. He wants the whole government designed to go get those facts. And that's what we're doing. And we're just not there yet. And when we're there yet, and if we have something that is, is, is ready to be briefed to the American people in the Congress, then we're going to do that.

REICHARD: Later, Jean-Pierre was asked if the White House would declassify the report.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: What I can tell you and reiterate from here, as he has said, as the National Security Advisor has said many times on on the airwaves yesterday, which is that the President wants to get to the bottom of this because he thinks it's incredibly important to figure out to get a sense of where COVID-19 originated from.

REPORTER: So does the administration first need to find the consensus before declassifying some of these assessments or, you know, why not put out everything?

JEAN-PIERRE: I think it's basically what we've been saying there has been no consensus. So I think they're working through that the intelligence community is working through, through getting to the bottom of this, as the President has directed and as the President wants to see, certainly not going to get into ahead of their process.

REICHARD: But one member of the intelligence community decided not to wait for internal consensus before speaking up.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY: The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.

REICHARD: FBI director Christopher Wray heard there in an interview with Fox News.

WRAY: The FBI has folks who focus specifically on the dangers of biological threats, which include things like novel viruses like COVID, and the concerns that they're in the wrong hands, the threats that those those could pose. So here, you're talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government controlled lab that killed millions of Americans. And that's precisely what that capability was designed for.

REICHARD: Back in 2021, the FBI was the first federal agency to report that COVID-19 Most likely originated in the Wuhan lab. Three days after the Wall Street Journal report, Republican senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Mike Braun of Indiana introduced a bill that would require the Director of National Intelligence to declassify the report from the DOE.

JOSH HAWLEY: We're here tonight for a very simple reason with a very simple proposition: that the American people deserve to know about the origins of COVID-19. They deserve to know how this terrible pandemic, that has ravaged the globe and our country, how it got started, and what China's role was in starting it. Well, I think it's time that the American people got to decide for themselves, it's time that they actually got to see the evidence that the United States government has collected on this issue. And that is exactly what the measure that we are introducing here tonight would do. It would make available to the American people the evidence that the United States government has about the origins of this terrible virus and this terrible pandemic.

REICHARD: Senator Braun argued that the best way to arrive at the truth is not waiting for intelligence officials to arrive at consensus, but to have an open conversation about what the government knows so far.

MIKE BRAUN: Who disagrees with transparency, the sunshine that reveals everything? I was in a committee hearing. And when you get Dr. Fauci ,Dr. Collins, first acknowledging that transparency is paramount. And that yes, we should declassify this information. I think that is why here this evening, this will go through with unanimous consent, because it makes sense and wherever it leads us, we should be happy that we finally might get to the bottom of this.

REICHARD: Later in the evening, the bill passed the Senate unanimously. Again, Senator Hawley.

HAWLEY: It's always a first step, but the truth is always the right step. And that's the action that we've taken tonight, I yield the floor.

REICHARD: The next day, House Representative Mike Gallagher introduced a companion bill to the Senate COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023. In a press release, Gallagher said, quoting here, “The question of how this pandemic began is the most important question in the world. And we should not continue to waste precious time waiting for the Chinese Communist Party to suddenly cooperate with US officials and open up access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It's time for Congress to act and force the administration to declassify the relevant intelligence surrounding the pandemic.”

While the Senate bill passed unanimously, some Democrats in the House have suggested that they may reject the bill. Pete Aguilar, the Democratic Caucus Chairman said, quoting here, “Declassification conversations are best left to the executive.”

WORLD reporter Emma Freire says these two approaches are about to come to a head.

EMMA FREIRE, REPORTER: Despite the opposition of some Democrats, this bill is very likely to pass and then President Joe Biden will have to sign it. Now the White House hasn't yet indicated if he will veto the bill. But the pressure on him not to veto will be huge, especially because the Senate version passed unanimously.

REICHARD: whatever happens next, getting to the bottom of COVID origins will have serious consequences.

FREIRE: If the virus was man-made, then that demands some kind of response. It's very difficult to say what exactly that response should be. But it does need to be there. And that would be very complicated for America's already very complicated relationship with China. So the idea that the virus had natural origins is perhaps politically more convenient, it means no one is really responsible for this. And so there's a strong political incentive to keep the origins vague to avoid having to ask a lot of difficult questions.

REICHARD: WORLD’s Emma Freire.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

Scaling back certain welfare benefits.

The Biden administration announced in January that it will not renew the COVID-19 public health emergency. That means that many of the policies put in place back in 2020 will expire in May.

Some of those emergency policies increased help for families on welfare. How will their situation change?

Well, Angela Rachidi is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and she joins us today to talk about it. Angela, good to have you.

ANGELA RACHIDI, GUEST: Thank you for having me.

BROWN: Congress made a decision in the early days of the pandemic to provide households receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--of course, that stands for SNAP--with extra benefits or emergency allotments, which can be called EAs. Now, at the end of last month, those EAs ended. And with that came lots of headlines, implying American families will experience hunger and dramatic benefit cuts. So how big are these cuts? And how will they actually affect families?

RACHIDI: Yeah, I think some of the concerns over these cuts, as you call them--I would maybe not characterize them that way--but some of the concerns are somewhat overblown. Just to give a little bit of background on these emergency allotments, as you said, they were implemented in actually the first few weeks of the pandemic. And the reason they were put in place is because policymakers recognized that SNAP households would have difficulty reporting changes to their income to offices. And so what the emergency allotments did is it just gave everybody the maximum, recognizing that people would not be going into an office, physically going into an office, and that many households would likely face unemployment because of the pandemic. So that was the original purpose. And you know, three years into the pandemic, obviously that is not or was not the situation that households were experiencing. So it was entirely appropriate to end those emergency allotments.

BROWN: Now, Angela, I did mention in my introduction to that first question, I used the word 'cuts.' And you said you would not use that terminology. Why wouldn't you? And why is that important that we make that distinction?

RACHIDI: Well, I think the kind of using the term cut does suggest that this is something that is trying to save money or something where households are getting below the benefits that they are due, when in fact, I think any emergency measure once it serves its purpose, it should be ended. So benefits rather than being cut, they actually have been increased quite dramatically over the past few years. And so I think it's a little bit misleading to try to suggest that ending an emergency program is actually a benefit cut.

BROWN: Noted. What about work requirements for people receiving SNAP benefits? Will these be reinstated when the COVID-19 public emergency ends?

RACHIDI: Yes, so SNAP has a very kind of narrowly focused or limited work requirement. It only applies to what we call able-bodied adults without dependents, which basically just means individuals who are not disabled who are aged 18 to 49. So kind of prime age people, and they don't have children in the household. But when that law went into place in the 1990s, there were exceptions that states could apply for. And the idea was that when the economy was not performing, when it was, you know, jobs, were hard to find that those SNAP recipients should not be subject to a work requirement. But again, we're three years in, economic conditions improved quite dramatically after the first, you know, few months, several months of the pandemic, to the point where there was actually a labor shortage. And so states will have the ability to impose that work requirement again, assuming the economic conditions meet the need to do that. And that is a change, because that has been waived throughout this entire time because of the public health emergency.

BROWN: And what about Medicaid? How will that be impacted?

RACHIDI: Well, there were a few things that happened with Medicaid, but I would say the biggest one was that eligibility for Medicaid continued throughout the pandemic. Typically, in all of these safety net programs, people have to, we call it recertify, or kind of get their benefits reauthorized based on changing circumstances within the household. What happened during the pandemic is for Medicaid, there was a provision put in place that households receiving Medicaid did not have to recertify. So households who are receiving Medicaid have basically been receiving it this entire time, even if circumstances changed in their household that made them no longer eligible for Medicaid. So what is happening now with the end of the public health emergency is that states will need to go in and reevaluate all of those households and ensure that they are still eligible for Medicaid.

BROWN: I wonder, should we characterize ending these benefits as uncompassionate?

RACHIDI: I would not use that term at all, actually, I mean, we do not have a safety net in this country that's universal, meaning that government benefits are available to everybody. The safety net in our country is just that a safety net. It's based on an assessment of people's needs. And so it's in my mind compassionate and perfectly appropriate to ensure that households are receipt that are receiving benefits are eligible within the parameters of the program.

BROWN: Well, Angela Rashidi is senior fellow and Rowe Scholar for the American Enterprise Institute. Angela, thank you for your time today.

RACHIDI: Thanks for having me.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Well, kids in school used to see educational films about good health. Like this from Disney in 1956 called You and The Living Machine.

Eat right. Good advice from Jiminy Cricket, but I'm not sure what he’d think about this. One ice cream parlor in Germany serves up strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla ... and also offers cricket flavored ice cream.

BROWN: Ooh, I'm not having that.

This shop also offers unique flavors, like liver sausage and Gorgonzola cheese ice cream.

BROWN: Yeah, still not having it.

Yep! Here’s the backstory. The E. U. passed a regulation to allow the use of insects in food, so an enterprising sort added cricket flour to heavy cream and topped it off with dried crickets.

BROWN: Entrepreneurial.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 9th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Ministry to the Navajo.

The Navajo Nation stretches across the northeast corner of Arizona and into parts of New Mexico and Utah. It’s the largest Indian reservation in the United States.

BROWN: It’s a big mission field, too, with close to 300,000 people. WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson recently spent some time on the reservation and brings us this report.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR WRITER: To get a taste for what life is really like in Gallup, New Mexico, you go to Earl’s. It’s a throwback diner on Historic Highway 66.

Then, of course, you order a Navajo taco.

WAITRESS: It comes on a fry bread. Comes with beans, ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and then your choice of red or green chili. And then if you want more red or green, just let me know.

Looking through the window at Earl’s, it’s easy to see why Gallup provided the backdrop for more than 100 Western movies back in the day. It’s the desert … the kind of place you’d see a tumbleweed or two. Gallup is also a reservation border town. It’s inextricably linked to the Navajo Nation.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave a speech titled, “The Forgotten American.” He said Native Americans faced problems caused by exploitation that would take years to overcome. He was right, if the Navajo reservation is any indication. Broken promises and broken systems have fostered dependency. Despondency.

KLEEBERGER: There's a sadness. They will smile. They can laugh. They have a wonderful sense of humor. But when you're just genuinely looking at the kids—the young people—you don't see hope and joy.

That’s Mike Kleeberger. He and his wife and their six kids moved to Gallup 26 years ago.

Kleeberger is pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. He’s also the one who suggested Earl’s, this diner. But he’s not focused on the food. He’s moved to a table where he’s talking to a woman and her children. He’s handing them a tract.

Kleeberger has a great love for the people of Gallup. And a great concern.

KLEEBERGER: Ultimately, they don't know Christ.

In Gallup, suicide is common. Family disintegration is, too. Alcoholism is a big problem.

KLEEBERGER: The presence of alcohol is this overriding fact. And it controls people's lives. The life expectancy is much different than most everywhere else.

The reservation itself is dry, so Gallup is where many Navajo go to buy liquor. One of the consequences is a high incidence of pedestrian deaths.

Kleeberger remembers when he first noticed the big lights on a road 10 miles out in the country.

KLEEBURGER: They put the lights out there because people would become intoxicated in town, start walking home, pass out on the road, and get run over.

And it’s not just a problem on roadways. Gallup is a big train hub.

NEWS CLIP

KLEEBERGER: Just about 100 percent of the cases, the one common factor is alcohol.

Kleeberger says many Navajo cling to their traditional religion, which offers them no hope.

KLEEBERGER: At best, you’re dealing with the occult. At worst, it's just stuff that's been around so long, it doesn't even have any teeth left . . .

Navajo traditions include great fear of death.

KLEEBERGER: I don't know how many funerals that I have done that, at that point, everything is taboo.

Death is taboo. It’s forbidden to even talk about it. So after Navajo attend a burial, they must go through a religious ceremony.

KLEEBERGER: Certain plants are burned, and they go through a ritual cleansing when they walk away from the cemetery. The missionary, the pastor, is invited in at that time, because they have no real hope beyond this life.

Superstition shows up everywhere, even in the Navajo traditional dwelling, the hogan. It’s eight-sided for a reason.

KLEEBERGER: Because the devil can get you trapped in a corner. But if it doesn't have a corner, you can escape.

Kleeberger admits Gallup is a hard place to do Christian ministry. He stands in opposition to long-held beliefs.

KLEEBERGER: Our hope is not in a rite or a ritual. Our hope is in the one who has conquered death.

About 80 percent of Kleeberger’s church is Native American. Those members have to take hard stands, too.

KLEEBERGER: Family and friends will say, “You're leaving our culture.” The question should be, “Is the culture Jesus Christ?” It's not comparing a group. Our whole guide is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He calls us to a life to reflect Him.

Most of these church members have come to Christ as adults. Kleeberger says he sees them working out their faith in day-to-day decisions. Those decisions bring encouragement to Kleeberger and glory to God.

KLEEBERGER: They're putting the principles and truths of God's Word first, in spite of a lifelong upbringing of fear and superstition.

Kleeberger ends his time at Earl’s by giving an example of a church member, a woman, driving home to the reservation. The Navajo have a superstition about crossing a coyote’s path.

KLEEBERGER: And there were vehicles lined up both sides of the road, off to the side of the road. She said, “I just drove right through.” A coyote had passed there. And she wasn't afraid. That's a victory. That's taking your lifelong superstition and saying, “Jesus Christ will protect me.”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Gallup, New Mexico.

To learn more about life on the reservation, including the challenges facing the Indian Health Service, look for Kim’s story in the March 11th issue of WORLD Magazine. It’s also available online tomorrow.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 9th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next, Commentator Cal Thomas on our government’s budget crisis and how to fix it.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: President Joe Biden has announced he will raise “some taxes” in the budget he is proposing this week to Congress. Biden again claims no one making less than $400,000 a year will pay more taxes.

The federal government receives record amounts of revenue, but spends and borrows in ways that add to the unsustainable $31 trillion debt. As The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial, “The Internal Revenue Service recently released its income and tax statistics for 2020 and they show the top 1 percent of earners paid 42.3 percent of the country’s income taxes…a two-decade high in the share of taxes the 1 percent pay.” The president repeats the false claim that “the rich” aren’t paying their “fair share.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, is partially right when he says “You can't basically just tax your way out of debt. You can't borrow your way out of debt and you can't cut your way out of debt." In fact, you can cut the debt by spending and taxing less.

Let’s start with improper payments made by federal agencies. According to reporting by The Washington Examiner, such payments totaled $175 billion just in 2019, as calculated by the government website PaymentAccuracy.gov. Auditors for OpenTheBooks.com discovered the most wasteful federal programs were Medicaid, Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Then there was the money wasted on COVID-19 relief, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). NBC News reported “many who participated in what prosecutors are calling the largest fraud in U.S. history couldn’t resist purchasing luxury automobiles…mansions, private jet flights and swanky vacations.”

They came into their riches, the network reported, with “the theft of as much as $80 billion — or about 10 percent — of the $800 billion handed out in…the PPP.”

There’s more. During the pandemic, Congress approved more than $3.5 trillion in emergency funds that went to individuals and businesses, according to reporting by the Hill newspaper: “Of that amount, hundreds of billions reportedly were fraudulently paid out.”

The Hill reported a few of many examples of fraud that should outrage members of Congress and might if they weren’t spending other people’s money. It cites eight people in Georgia who allegedly stole $30 million by filing unemployment claims for 5,000 people. Four people in Texas allegedly swindled $18 million in PPP loans and were trying to steal $17 million more.

The inspector general for the Department of Labor has reported that $163 billion of the $794 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance was improperly paid out. But The Hill reports that independent analysts suggest the number could be closer to “$400 billion with 70 percent leaving the country and lining the pockets of criminals from China, Nigeria and Russia,” among others.

As the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., quipped “A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” Except today it’s a trillion here and there.

Congressional Republicans have an obligation to taxpayers to uncover more fraud. They should also reform the main drivers of debt – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Taxes need to be cut, not raised, to deprive the Washington beast of revenue it wastes. Spending should be substantially reduced, unnecessary government agencies eliminated, and as much misspent money recovered as possible.

All of this should be an issue in next year’s campaign.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet.

And, we’ll have a handful of worthwhile streaming options for children that promote values they need to hear.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said to the woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” John 4: 13-15

Go now in grace and peace.

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