The World and Everything in It: November 14, 2024

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

A leader in the Church of England has resigned. We’ll hear why.

PAUL: He had a personal and moral responsibility to act, and he failed to do so. He could have prevented further abuse, but he did not.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Also today, who are the new congressional leaders now that the election is over? Our Washington Bureau has a report.

And how the stark reality of war has changed one Ukrainian soldier:

HOLOPAPA: Every day…you doing your job and hoping you will not die today. That’s what the frontlines looks like.

And WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says it’s time to reconsider a flat tax.

REICHARD: It’s Thursday, November 14th. 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: Trump, Biden Oval office » President Biden hosted President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office Wednesday.

BIDEN: Well, Mr. President elect and former president, Donald, congratulations. And, uh, looking forward to having a, like they said, smooth transition.

In public remarks before a 2-hour closed-door meeting, the two leaders set aside the combative tone of the campaign season.

TRUMP: Thank you very much. And, uh, politics is tough. And it's, uh, in many cases not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much.

The White House said Trump came prepared with a series of questions, and the two leaders talked policy and discussed major challenges facing the country going forward.

Rubio named Secretary of State » That meeting came as Donald Trump continues to fill top roles in his administration, and he just made several more major announcements.

First, Trump has confirmed that he is nominating Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for Secretary of State.

RUBIO:  It's a tremendous honor, uh, to the President would place his confidence in me in a position of such importance. Um, it's also a tremendous responsibility.

Elected to the Senate in 2010, Rubio has established his bona fides on foreign policy, serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee.

The senator was Trump’s onetime political rival in the 2016 presidential primary but had more recently become a staunch supporter of the president-elect.

Gaetz for AG » Rubio’s widely expected to sail through the Senate confirmation process.

But the president-elect’s pick for attorney general could face stiffer resistance. He has tapped Congressman Matt Gaetz to lead the Justice Department.

Gaetz became an especially polarizing figure in Republican politics last year when he triggered a vote that led to the ouster of then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

GAETZ: Resolved that the speaker of the House of Representatives is hereby declared to be vacant.

McCarthy claimed Gaetz was motivated by anger over a House Ethics Committee probe of allegations against Gaetz of sexual misconduct. The Justice Department also investigated the matter but never filed charges. Gaetz has maintained his innocence.

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said of Gaetz’s nomination …

CAPITO:  The president has the prerogative to nominate who he wishes. We will consider this in the Senate and certainly will be in the Judiciary Committee.

Gaetz resigned from Congress immediately upon news of his nomination. Republicans could fill his seat as early as January 3rd.

In a statement, President-elect Trump called him a “champion for the rule of law.” And he said “Matt played a key role in defeating the Russia hoax, and exposing government corruption and weaponization.”

Gabbard for DNI » And Trump has tapped former congresswoman from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Tulsi Gabbard is a military veteran who deployed to Iraq and Kuwait and who later served four terms in Congress as a Democrat. She broke with her party in 2022 and later endorsed Trump’s bid to reclaim the White House.

She too could face some pushback in the Senate over her lack of intelligence experience. But the president-elect wants someone in that role whom he trusts to tackle what he sees as corruption problem within the nation’s intelligence agencies.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Thune elected GOP Senate leader » Senate Republicans have elected a new leader. South Dakota Sen. John Thune will replace longtime leader Mitch McConnell, who is stepping aside after 18 years in that role.

THUNE:  We have a mandate from the American people, a mandate not only to clean up the mess left by the Biden Harris Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump's priorities.

Thune has held the Republican whip position since 2019. He won a secret ballot election against GOP Senate colleagues John Cornyn and Rick Scott who was the choice of numerous people in Donald Trump’s inner circle.

In contrast to Scott, Thune hails from the Republican Party’s more traditional wing. But he told reporters that the party is united.

THUNE: We are on one team, and we are excited to get to work without colleagues in the House to enact President Trump’s agenda.

John Thune will become the Senate Majority Leader in January when Republicans will control 53 of the 100 seats in the chamber.

Ukraine » During their White House meeting Wednesday, President Biden made his case to incoming President Trump about the need to continue backing Ukraine’s fight against Russian invaders.

And Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke Wednesday from NATO headquarters in Brussels.

He said in recent months, Washington has obligated and “pushed out the door” nearly $9 billion dollars in additional security assistance for Ukraine …

BLINKEN:  And President Biden is committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20th.

He also warned that North Korea’s decision to send its troops into combat alongside Russian forces “demands and will get a firm response.” He didn't elaborate on what that would be.

Israel intel leaker charged » The man accused of leaking classified plans for an Israeli attack against Iran...is scheduled to appear in court in Guam today.

Court documents show Asif William Rahman is charged with two counts of willful transmission of national defense information.

Fox News reports that he worked for the CIA.

Prosecutors say he was behind leaks of material showing the movement of Israeli military equipment in advance of a retaliatory strike on Iran.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: there’s a lot going on in Washington D.C. this week as US Senators and House members look ahead…

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 14th of November.

You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we thank you for listening. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

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

Up first on The World and Everything in It, Congress gets ready for a new term with new House members learning the ropes, and Senate Republicans electing new leaders.

Here’s Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno.

LEO BRICENO: Senate Republicans elected Mitch McConnell’s right-hand man to the top spot on Wednesday. South Dakota Senator John Thune.

THUNE: I promise to be a leader who serves the entire Republican Conference. We'll have an ambitious agenda and we'll take each and every Republican working together to be successful.

Thune is currently serving as party whip. That’s the number 2 position, responsible for getting party members on board ahead of floor votes.

After the closed-door election, Thune introduced his team.

THUNE: I'm excited to get to work with this team right away,

A couple other current team members are also getting promotions as Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso moved up to whip and West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito becomes Conference Chair.

New members of the team include Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Scott will lead the committee responsible for helping Republicans get elected to the Senate.

SCOTT: My passion is making sure that we defend our current seats and expand the map and expand our majority so that President Trump has four years in control of making sure that America’s agenda comes home to each and every household…

The question now becomes how Thune and his team will manage the Senate’s newly elected 54-seat majority—and how far they’ll go to implement Trump’s agenda starting with his cabinet appointees. The President-elect wants the Senate to speed up the process through a tool called recess appointments. That allows the President to bypass the Senate when Congress is not in session.

Here’s what Thune had to say about Trump’s request:

THUNE: What we're going to do is make sure that we are processing his nominees in a way that gets them into those positions so they can implement his agenda. How that happens remains to be seen.

Thune then said Trump’s nominees will go through committee hearings and floor votes, but he didn’t rule out recess appointments.

THUNE: And obviously we're going to look at -- explore all options to make sure that they get moving, that they get moved quickly.

But concerning another one of Trump’s demands, Thune was clear.

PRESS: Will the legislative filibuster remain unchanged under your tenure?

THUNE: Yes.

In the past, Trump has called for an end to the filibuster, the rule that sets a two-thirds threshold for most votes…rather than a simple majority. Eliminating the filibuster would allow the majority party to get more legislation done, but Senator McConnell long resisted calls to change the rules…saying it requires lawmakers to work with members across the aisle. Thune echoed that view on Wednesday.

THUNE: The Senate, as you know, is a -- by the founder's design — a place where the minority has a voice in our process. And we will do the job that the founders intended us to do.

Where McConnell broke with President Trump on some issues during his first term, Congress watchers are waiting to see how the new Senate majority leader works with the president-elect.

THUNE: You know, maybe John Thune will end up being more of a, you know, mainstream Republican, you know, that could happen.

Mark Green teaches politics at the Catholic University of America. He thinks the four-seat majority gives new leadership a little more leeway to deal with dissenting voices.

GREEN: Democrats had a very narrow majority in the first two years of Biden’s presidency, but they had to deal with Manchin and Sinema…

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Arizona Independent Kyrsten Sinema disagreed with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on several issues, and prevented some legislation from passing.

GREEN: So, they often effectively had less than a majority. If they had 54, 55 seats they could have said ‘sure Manchin and Sinema vote however you want we don’t care. So, in this case I would look at the makeup of the Republican conference.

While the new Republican leadership team takes shape in the Senate, new members of the House of Representatives have started learning the ropes.

SOUND: [Activity outside hotel]

On Tuesday, Congressmen-elect from both parties began arriving for a week of orientation at a hotel a few blocks south of the Capitol. The lawmakers WORLD spoke with displayed enthusiasm, optimism, and an eagerness to engage—even in the biting November windchill. Or at least, chilly by D.C. standards

BYRAN STEIL: In Wisconsin we call this August.

That’s Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the Committee on House Administration.

The committee deals with member services and part of that includes getting newly elected members up to speed on the ins and outs of legislating.

STEIL: A lot of information is coming at new members from an array of backgrounds. And in many ways, that’s the strength of the House—is that individuals, men and women, come from a whole host of backgrounds. But to really come in and try to absorb as much information as you can to be the best member and representative you can be of your respective district.

One of those new representatives is Republican Congressman Bob Onder from Missouri’s second congressional district.

ONDER: It’s an exciting time. We have a chance to make history in the next, in the first hundred days. We’re going to make our country great again.

Democrats are also looking forward to the next congress—even though they will be in the minority. Here’s Suhas Subramanyam, a new House Democrat from Virginia’s 10th congressional district.

SUBRANMANYAM: I vowed during my campaign to work with everyone, including Republicans and including a President Trump if that happened which it obviously did. I look forward to seeing what I can do for my constituents.

But that’s next year. For now, Subranmanyan and Onder are learning their way around.

ONDER: We’re just getting oriented, getting our technology, our phones our laptops really, it's just the beginning…Looking forward to getting oriented to the 119th Congress and getting to work in January.

Freshman lawmakers will take their oaths and their seats on January 3rd.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno in Washington, D.C.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a religious leader steps down.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop of the Church of England and the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion. It has more than 85 million members around the world.

On Tuesday, Archbishop Justin Welby released a letter that begins with these words: “Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury.”

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Justin Welby’s decision comes after abuse victims and members of the clergy renewed their demands for his resignation. That pressure intensified last week after the publication of a report outlining an abuse cover-up dating back to the 1970s.

About 130 boys are believed to have been victims.

Joining us now to talk about it is Ian Paul, Associate Minister at St Nic's, Nottingham, England. He’s also a member of the General Synod, and serves on the Archbishop Council for the Church of England.

REICHARD: Ian, good morning.

IAN PAUL: Mary, good to be with you.

REICHARD: For those of us unfamiliar with the abuse allegations, can you give us a little background on it?

PAUL: Yes, I could. And from the top, I ought to say that this was not abuse that happened in the Church of England. The abuse concerned someone called John Smythe, who was a barrister, and during the 1970s and 1980s, he was associated with a camp called Ewan Camps which was quite a small group of very conservative evangelicals, really attracting boys from public schools and wanting to encourage them to be future Christian leaders. But Smythe himself groomed these boys, and particularly in association with a private school in Winchester. And alongside wanting to induct them into Christian leadership, he actually groomed them and beat them quite violently. They were aged 16, 17, 18. They weren't children, they were young men.

Now, the scandal here is to do with Justin Welby. It's not that Justin was part of this or complicit in abuse at all. He did have connections with the camp. He visited the camp himself, although he wasn't aware of abuse at the time. He was warned much later when he was in Paris, when he was working as an oil executive and he attended St. Michael's Church in Paris, and Smythe had visited and he was warned away from Smythe. Somebody said to him that he's not a good character and he should stay clear of him. But in fact, Justin had supported his ministry financially in South Africa.

The people involved in Ewan camp did themselves realize in the 1980s that Smythe had abused people and so they closed down his involvement. But they didn't report it. They covered it up because they thought it would damage the ministry. And Smythe went on to abuse boys in South Africa and in Zimbabwe as he continued his ministry.

REICHARD: So Justin Welby knew of the allegations but did nothing about it. You were one of the clergy to publicly call for Welby to resign? Why after all this time?

PAUL: Yes, well, it wasn't clear whether or not the extent of Justin's knowledge before he was Archbishop. But the report we had last week, which was written by Keith Makin, who is someone with expertise in the questions of abuse and worked in social services, he identified the fact that when Justin had become Archbishop in 2013, he was informed of Smythe's abuse. And Makin said that Justin didn't formally breach any processes, but he did have a personal and a moral responsibility to act on this. And the phrase he used was he “showed a remarkable lack of curiosity” about this. Now this is only one year into Justin's term of office in Canterbury, but the fact that he didn't act on it was significant.

Even though the abuse hadn't happened in the Church of England, it was possible for Justin to have taken action through the Anglican Communion and so that Smythe's activities had stopped then and in fact it only came to light in 2017 when Kathy Newman of Channel 4 News did an investigation and challenged Justin about this. Justin then said he denied he had any knowledge of Smythe before 2013, which turned out not to be true. And he also promised that he would take action, he would meet with the survivors of Smythe's abuse, and he did not do that. And even now he has not done that. He said in his resignation letter he would now meet with them, but this is, you know, seven years further on. And Makin said that this was indicative of a culture in senior leadership in the Church of England who didn't take seriously these reports of historic abuse.

REICHARD: And what were your particular reasons to call for resignation now?

PAUL: Now the reason why I suppose I was galvanized with two other members of General Synod to take action is that this indicates the huge gulf between the culture in senior leadership in the church and what's happening on the ground. Some people have said, well, the church building is not a safe place. That's not true at all. You know, on the ground, in local churches, I was preaching last Sunday at a local church, a different church from my own, and talking about, you know, the good news of Jesus and his invitation to repent and to know his forgiveness and his healing. The first thing I saw when I walked into that church was that I saw a sign on the door saying, “we take safeguarding seriously. This is our safeguarding officer. Here's the number. If you have any concerns, please contact them.”

I'm a member of the Archbishop's Council, and you know, we talk endlessly, we spend hours in every meeting talking about safeguarding. We put millions of pounds aside in the budget. And my view was we cannot persuade people we're taking this seriously, we can't act with any credibility as long as Justin was imposed with this report in the public arena.

REICHARD: But Ian to what do you ascribe why it’s taken this long to bring these things to light and do something about it?

PAUL: I think there's a number of factors. One is that the Church of England itself is complex. You know, the different dioceses, the 42 dioceses are 42 independent legal entities. But I also think that the bishops in the church, we suffer from two things: we suffer from a culture of deference. You know, clergy do not want to speak up. And I still think that many senior leaders in the church are anxious about protecting the church's reputation. And they've done that in two ways. One is that they have as happened in the past, they've wanted to brush things aside or think they can deal with them or not confront them. But the other way sometimes, and Justin Welby I think has been guilty of this, is that they want to protect the reputation of the church by doing as much as they can and saying, look what we're doing, look what we're doing.

And in fact, Justin himself has dealt very severely with the previous but one Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, with his former colleague, John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, and with the former Bishop of Lincoln, Christopher Lawson. In each of those cases, he's been very clear that they need to remove their license and terminate their ministry early because of what were actually much more minor breaches of safeguarding. And so Justin himself, he said, you know, I take responsibility. Well, if he takes responsibility, he must resign then. He must carry the count for this. And I'm sorry that it had to take a petition and all this publicity to make it happen. Justin actually saw the Makin report as long ago as June this year. And I think it would be much better if having seen a draft of the report he'd taken action immediately.

REICHARD: Mm-hm. You know, there’s a petition in the book of common prayer seeks God’s forgiveness “for the things done and left undone”…I’m wondering, in Archbishop Welby’s case…what do you make of that statement? Which is more egregious?

PAUL: I think it's very difficult. And again, it's in the context of the fact that so much good is happening on the ground in the church and that this headline is so damaging to the reputation of the gospel and the church. And the only way of resolving these things is to get things right and not to defend, not to defend our reputation, not to defend our ministry, but to actually deal with those things.

I've had people contact me. Someone emailed me and said, you know, I suffered from historic abuse in the 1980s and 90s from someone who was on General Synod. My immediate response was to reply and say, this is where you can get support. We're setting up this scheme, the Archbishop's Council is setting up a redress scheme. Here's the person to contact. And would you like a conversation? This is the only way to respond appropriately, I think, to people who've suffered abuse.

REICHARD: Final question here, Ian. How are you praying—yourself—that God might use this moment to reform His church and His people?

PAUL: One of the things that has been an amazing comfort to me is the testimony from people who have actually found that they've survived abuse and they've recovered because of faith in God. I can't help feeling that it's a process of winnowing as well the institution of the church. And also an opportunity to talk about the possibilities as well. I was on Times Radio the day before yesterday and the woman said, well, you know, this is the end of the church and the Christianity is in decline. And I said, actually the facts on the ground are not the case. In England, the church in England is growing and thriving. There are lots of good local churches.

It is an opportunity to say, this isn't the whole story. It may be the headline in the tabloids, but actually, let's talk about the truth. By God's grace, there are moments, there are opportunities to say, this isn't the whole story. Come, find out for yourself. As Jesus said to the very first disciples, He said to them when they asked Him, He said, come and see for yourself. So there are moments of grace and moments of opportunity.

REICHARD: Ian Paul is an author, professor, and minister within the Church of England. Ian thanks for speaking with us today.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Talk about things getting out of hand!

In June, four college students in China hopped on bikes in the dark of night and rode nearly 40 miles in a quest for breakfast dumplings.

The ladies chronicled their “Night Ride to Kaifeng” on social media and it took off like crazy. Last week, more than 100,000 people joined in, overwhelming even a six-lane expressway. 

Police used loudspeakers to shoo the bikers back home. And now there are restrictions to discourage it in the future.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Guess they got steamed up instead of just rolling with the dough.

BROWN: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, November 14th.

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

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

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

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: on the front lines in Ukraine.

Both Russia and Ukraine have taken heavy losses since the war started three years ago,  and Ukrainians continue signing up to defend their country.

REICHARD: Thousands have returned home from the front lines with disabling injuries. Now they’re left to figure out how to reintegrate into society as the war rages on.

Here’s WORLD’s Mary Muncy with the story of one Ukrainian soldier.

MARY MUNCY: In October of 2022, 18-year-old Andriy Holopapa’s battalion took up positions in Donetsk.

HOLOPAPA: I was with my mates, and actually a lot of them was also first time on the front line, but we had very experienced command.

At the time, it was the front lines of Russia’s war with Ukraine.

HOLOPAPA: We arrived at night, so I couldn't actually see all the positions

The next day, they started looking around the post. It was in the country, a small forest was on one side but the rest was bare, less than 100 meters from the Russians. He felt very exposed.

HOLOPAPA: They had some positions, but they were very, like, very poor, I would say, so we needed, like to dig it more.

As he tried to dig past roots and frost, he thought about home.

Holopapa never wanted to join the military. After high school, he planned to do what everyone else did. He wanted to go to college and maybe become a teacher… but he felt like he was drifting.

Then, in the fall of 2021, things started to change.

HOLOPAPA: I had a lot of time to think about it, and I was thinking very hard, and like in some moment, I just understood that I see no other like, possible ways for me than just struggling in the Army, because it would be like, the only way I could like, I don't know, give a maximum effort.

He told himself he would join if there was a full-scale invasion.

HOLOPAPA: Even the week before the day of invasion. I was full, fully on the stress. I was thinking, like, it's gonna happen tomorrow, no, it's gonna happen the day after tomorrow.

When the war started, it was almost a relief. There was no more guessing.

Within a week, he was sitting at a post just outside Kyiv with a gun in his hands and without any training. He wouldn’t get any for almost six months.

When he got back from training, he moved from post to post before finally ending up on the front lines in Donetsk.

HOLOPAPA: Every day, you just waking up, you doing your job and hoping you will not die today.

At first, there wasn’t enough food and water to go around. That eventually got better but the shelling only got worse. After about a month, the Russians were firing everything but the heaviest weapons at Holopapa’s position.

For days, Holopapa only left the battle line to sleep.

HOLOPAPA: I'm thinking that okay now I will get some rest for at least three hours, and then commander says “Russians trying to attack. All to your weapons,” and you just have no other choice than to defend your position.

He did get to talk to his girlfriend and family for about five minutes everyday until the Russians brought in a signal jammer. His calls home ended abruptly.

About a week later, Holopapa was drinking coffee at his position when he heard a hiss.

HOLOPAPA: I realized that something is flying.

Then an explosion.

HOLOPAPA: I'm laying on the earth.

He couldn’t feel his legs.

HOLOPAPA: I then heard some soldier, to the right of me was screaming.

Another screamed for a tourniquet.

HOLOPAPA: And then I just like, come back to my feelings. [But twice as much.

His mates put a tourniquet on each of his legs. But he was losing a lot of blood, so they put two more on, just to be sure. Then they started the almost two-mile trek to where an evacuation van waited.

HOLOPAPA: So my like battle brothers needed, to carry me about three kilometers. And from time to time, laying down because of shells, and also covering me from shells.

They made it to the medics in about 30 minutes. But they couldn’t leave until two other wounded soldiers arrived.

Then they went from a triage facility to a hospital. It was the worst pain he’d ever felt.

HOLOPAPA: It was very scary because, well, honestly, I never even thought about that. What would happen if I get injured.

When Holopapa woke up in the hospital, one leg was gone below the knee, making him one of the nearly half a million Ukrainian soldiers wounDed in the war.

A week later, his parents and girlfriend visited him.

His girlfriend had him close his eyes and then handed him a ring; they got married soon afterward and Holopapa spent the next year recovering.

The war and his injury turned his life upside down, but he’s no longer drifting.

HOLOPAPA: It completely changed everything. Maybe it even like, make me some other person than I was before.

He and his wife got an apartment in Kyiv where he attends university. Most weekends, Holopapa volunteers with veterans organizations and he’s working with a military contractor.

HOLOPAPA: Now I have, I have a lot of friends in the military, in the civilians. Everything that I'm doing is, like, completely lays on what I believe in—what I want to do.

He’s not sure he can forgive the Russians for what they’ve done to his people. He says the crimes are too big to punish, but he’s not sure he would go back to his old life either.

HOLOPAPA: I'm like, liking this person more than who I was in the past.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, November 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says the time is ripe to change the way Americans pay taxes.

CAL THOMAS: If any constitutional amendment can be hated, it would be the 16th Amendment. Passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified by the states in 1913, it allowed Congress to “levy income taxes without apportioning them among the states based on population.”

At first, the collection of revenue came from the very wealthy and in a small percentage. But World Wars I and II put the country in debt and Congress, using the power given to it by the 16th Amendment, began spreading the burden around.

Today, about half the country pays federal taxes. In some states like California and New York, when you add that bill together with state, local and other taxes…it amounts to more than half their income.

President-elect Trump has asked Elon Musk to help reform our broken tax and spending system that has resulted in a $36 trillion debt. It’s a rare opportunity. With all three branches of government under Republican control, Trump and Musk should simultaneously address the debt, including the size and cost of government, and also the way we collect taxes.

On that latter point, Trump and Musk might take another look at a proposal by magazine publisher Steve Forbes. He called it: “the flat tax.”

In 1996 and 2000 when he ran for president, Forbes published a detailed proposal for reforming the annoying, and for many incomprehensible, federal taxation system. At the heart of his plan was reconstructing Social Security while saving it for future generations.

In an essay for Americans for Tax Reform, Forbes wrote that under his plan “the current Social Security benefits of every American 55 and older will be fully protected—no benefit cuts, no tax increases, no more raiding the Social Security Trust Fund.”

At the time, Democrats criticized the plan because it allowed people to put a small percentage of their income into the stock market, which they said was unreliable. Anyone checked the record high market lately?

Younger workers would have freedom of choice—a phrase Democrats like when it comes to abortion, but oppose if it involves schools and the stock market. Workers could choose a new retirement system. Forbes called it Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs).

Under his calculation, in 1999, younger workers could deposit 4 percent of their Social Security taxes into their own PRAs and then after four years in the market, increase the investment amount by one percent annually over the next four years. Capping at 8 percent.

Forbes wrote that if his idea had been adopted, a single working mother who was 25 in 2000 and retires in 2040 could have earned a nest egg of more than one million dollars in her PRA. She could then purchase an annuity that pays her $100,000 dollars annually—nearly twice as much as she would receive under Social Security. Forbes adds that a high school graduate who was 18 in 2000, and retires in 2040, would have a nest egg of $2 million dollars.

Among the reasons Democrats have refused to reform Social Security and Medicare is politics. Both programs are projected to become insolvent in the next decade without reforms.

Trump and Musk should revisit the Forbes flat tax plan and update it as necessary while they have the power. Doing so would have a lasting and beneficial effect on every citizen.

Congress has made many mistakes in the past and the 16th Amendment was among the biggest. A unified Republican government now has an opportunity to undo the damage…if they have the nerve and can take the heat.

I’m Cal Thomas.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Tomorrow: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. And, we review a stage production of C.S. Lewis’s book: The Horse and His Boy. Plus, Word Play with George Grant. 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.

The Bible says: “[Therefore,] if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. —II Corinthians 5:17, 20

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.