The World and Everything in It - October 27, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Moderates appear to be winning the Democratic Party’s internal struggle. What does that mean for the so-called progressive agenda?

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk about that on Washington Wednesday.

Also World Tour.

Plus, October is Pastor Appreciation month. Today, a word of encouragement. 

And an opportunity to share the gospel, courtesy of John Deere.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, October 27th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington has today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: FDA panel backs Pfizer’s low-dose COVID-19 vaccine for kids » The United States moved a step closer Tuesday to authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for millions of young children.

A panel of advisers for the FDA voted to endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's shots for 5- to 11-year-olds.

Pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit was one of those advisers.

OFFIT: It’s always nerve racking I think when you’re asked to make a decision for millions of children based  on studies of only a few thousand children. I guess the way I struggle - or try to deal it is it’s never when you know everything. You neve know everything. The question is whether you know enough.

Serious illness from COVID-19 among young children is rare. But Dr. Offit says it’s not rare enough. He added that officials do know “that there are many children between 5 and 11 years of age who are susceptible” to hospitalization or death from COVID.

Out of 18 voting members, 17 voted yes to endorsing the shots for young kids. One member abstained.

Trials for 5-to 11-year-old children have thus far shown the vaccine to be safe with some normal and relatively mild side effects. But the sample wasn’t large enough to reveal any possible rare side effects.

Another FDA adviser, Dr. Eric Rubin said Tuesday…

RUBIN: We’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it. That’s just the way it goes. That’s how we found out about rare complications of other vaccines.

Tuesday’s vote was not the final step. Next week, the CDC will have to decide whether to recommend the shots and which youngsters should get them.

Democrats tout progress toward deal on spending package » Democratic leaders continue to negotiate with more moderate Democrats on a nearly $2 trillion spending package. And party leaders said Tuesday that they believe they’re close to a deal.

SCHUMER: We remain confident that a final deal is within reach.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer heard there. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she thinks they’re about 90 percent of the way there.

But even if that’s accurate, the other 10 percent looms large. One of the key sticking points: tax hikes.

President Biden’s original plan raised the corporate tax and taxes on individuals earning more than $400,000 per year, but a pair of moderate Democrats in the Senate opposed that plan. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is one of them.

MANCHIN: We’re all working in good faith. I’ve been talking to everybody as you know, and I think that we’ve got a good understanding of each other now, better than we’ve ever had.

Democrats are now working on an alternative plan that would tax billionaires’ public assets and require a minimum 15 percent tax on corporations.

Republicans worry billionaires could move their assets to avoid taxation, and legal scholars say such a tax may be unconstitutional.

Powerful nor’easter blasts Northeast states » A powerful nor’easter began barreling up the Atlantic coastline in the Northeast on Tuesday.

Forecasters warned of possible intense flooding and hurricane-force wind gusts that could knock out power to thousands.

Kelly Clark of Burlington, New Jersey said she’s still working to repair damage to her home after an earlier storm. The remnants of Hurricane Ida clashed with another storm front last month, triggering deadly floods in the Northeast.

CLARK: Now I’m just terrified. Every time the wind picks up now, I’m scared.

Strong winds are expected to continue lashing the region throughout the day today.

Wind gusts as high as 75 mph were forecast on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, with sustained winds as high as 45 mph. The National Weather Service warned that waves off the state’s coast could reach 19 feet.

Possible cyberattack cripples Iran gas stations » A possible cyberattack shut down gas stations across Iran on Tuesday. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Thousands of drivers in Iran pulled up to gas stations and inserted their government-issued electronic cards to buy fuel only to be declined. A message then flashed on the pump screen that read “cyberattack 64411.”

The semiofficial news agency reported on the cyberattack message but then took down the article and claimed it had also been hacked.

No one has claimed responsibility for an attack, but the number is the same message that hackers displayed during a railroad hacking in July.

An Israeli cybersecurity firm tracked down the culprits as an Iranian dissident group. And that number that flashed on the screens, “64411,” is associated with an Islamic law hotline in the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

150 people arrested in US-Europe darknet drug probe » Law enforcement officials in the U.S. and Europe have arrested 150 people in a massive international drug bust.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said authorities arrested 65 people right here in the United States.

MONACO: It represents global cooperation and the recovery of more than 500 pounds of illegal drugs, drugs which contained enough fentanyl for more than 4 million lethal doses.

Authorities also seized $31 million globally. The arrests are connected to an international drug trafficking investigation, hunting down traffickers on the dark web. Prosecutors say those arrested are connected to tens of thousands of illegal sales globally.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: moderates exert their influence over the Democratic Party.

Plus, looking for openings to share the gospel.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 27th of October, 2021.

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

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up, the president’s multi-trillion-dollar spending bill.

For months President Biden pushed a spending plan that was ambitious or reckless, depending on who you ask.

The price tag: $3.5 trillion dollars.

But among the people who found it to be reckless were two moderate Democrats, Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.

EICHER: They balked at the price tag, forcing the White House and Democratic leaders to scale back. The bill is now expected to cost under $2 trillion. Still a massive sum, but not nearly what Democratic leaders were hoping for.

In an evenly divided Senate, Democrats cannot afford even a single defection. So they can’t ignore the objections of the moderates.

And just a reminder, this proposal is separate from the roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that has already passed the Senate.

REICHARD: Democrats would pass the bigger spending bill using the reconciliation process in the Senate. That would allow them to pass it without any Republican votes.

Joining us now to talk about it is Joel Griffith. He studies spending and financial regulations in Washington for the Heritage Foundation. 

Joel, good morning!

JOEL GRIFFITH, GUEST: Hello, good morning. Thank you for having me.

REICHARD: Glad to have you. Well, from what you’ve heard, at least as of yesterday, how close were Democrats to getting a deal done?

GRIFFITH: Well, I think that they’re still far apart because there’s a growing recognition not just among senators but probably more importantly with the public that this spending proposal is quite dangerous to our long term economic prosperity. And that’s why you see many conservatives, many moderates in the Senate, and even several Democrats that have been expressing concern about this vast expansion of government power, the vast expansion of government spending, and of course to fund that spending, the borrowing and the rampant money printing by our central bank that will be required to make this plan a reality.

REICHARD: Joel, what are the biggest items Democrats have had to take out of the proposal in order to cut this down from its original $3.5 trillion price tag?

GRIFFITH: Well, to cut this down from that $3 trillion has been a lot of actually accounting gimmickry. A lot of the price estimates already were filled with gimmicks. For instance, only planning on some of these spending proposals to last for 10 years, such as the child tax credit, for instance, and they’d have an arbitrary expiration date of 10 years in order to keep the total price over that window lower. Of course we know that once you have a government program established, it's very difficult to actually roll that spending back. And so what this scaled back version did was actually add more of those gimmicks. And for instance, just having a program last for a few years, or start a few years later, and then expire two or three years later. There's a lot of gimmickry in this in order to make this price tag seem lower than it will likely be.

REICHARD: It looks like Democrats are very much leaning toward a wealth tax on billionaires now as part of this plan. What would that entail?

GRIFFITH: Well, an actual wealth tax will be unconstitutional. Congress can only enact taxes according to that which the Constitution provides. So, we can have an estate tax, the income tax, these all fit within our Constitution. To actually tax wealth would take a constitutional amendment, because we have a provision, thankfully, in our Constitution that forbids the taking of private property without just compensation. So as a workaround to this prohibition, a number of those on the left in Congress have proposed taxing unrealized capital gains. Well, that's a big danger. Number one, it does violate the Constitution. It does operate as a wealth tax. And this is going to wreak havoc on our system. Of course, for the beginning, it might only apply to those at the very upper end of the wealth scale. But that will have repercussions throughout the broader economy as individuals are forced to sell assets prematurely in order to pay tax on a gain that they haven't actually realized. And think about any of us that have even a small investment account. When you have a stock that increases from $10 to $15, well, until you sell that asset, you don't actually have that cash in hand. And that's why our system only taxes us when we actually realize and we actually sell the investment. This will be a very dangerous precedent. It's going to wreak havoc on the investment world and it's going to deter people that do have wealth from investing over the longer term.

REICHARD: What about the early talks of basically reversing the 2016 Republican tax cuts? Is that no longer in the works?

GRIFFITH: Well, increasing taxes on business operations, that is still under consideration. Now, there seems to be some movement on a compromise of just how high those taxes will go on businesses. But the initial proposal was to raise taxes on companies to a level that is actually higher than communist China. And that's dangerous, not just to those that are actually business owners, or that started these businesses. But this is also going to be harmful to those that are smaller and medium investors in our stock market, or if you save for retirement. Because when you start taking more of the profits that a company earns, well, that means that there's less profit available to distribute to shareholders. It also means that there's fewer financial resources available to actually invest in new technology or new business opportunities.

So politicians might enjoy the boost in the revenue so they can spend more, but once again, longer term our economy suffers because we're going to deprive our economy the resources that we need to actually invest in the technology and new business ventures that help not just the wealthy but that help families all across the income scale.

REICHARD: Let’s talk about Senators Manchin and Sinema now. They were the two lawmakers preventing the $3.5 trillion plan from moving forward. What were their biggest concerns with the original plan?

GRIFFITH: Well, just their concerns are really just on the massive expansion of government that it will elicit, it will entail. And in an era over the past year in which families, regardless of income level are really experiencing this price squeeze when you go to the grocery store, when you go to fill up your car, when you go to buy a new house, I think people are really starting to connect the dots between government policy—whether it's shutdowns or borrowing or printing more money—and economic pain. And I think there's a realization now within not just conservatives, but those that typically favor an expansion of government, I think there's a realization that we are getting close to that fiscal precipice. We're starting to experience that pain now. What I find a bit amusing are that even these two senators that are now opposing—Senator Sinema, Senator Manchin—opposing this $3.5 trillion package, they actually supported a number of other proposals, as did most senators, over the past year and a half that ramped our government spending up to unprecedented levels. I mean, think about what we've spent over the past year combined with what's been proposed over the next year, we're talking about over $9 trillion in just a 12 month period. That's almost $100,000 per family of four. And these numbers have gotten so big that now you're considered a moderate if you only supported a few trillion dollars of additional spending over this past year. Just a few years ago, that would have been considered radical, and it shows just how awful the fiscal mismanagement has become where a trillion and a half sounds like a compromise when before that would have been a historically large spending explosion.

REICHARD: Many people have probably heard about liberal activists harassing Manchin and Sinema, particularly Senator Sinema. There’s video of activists following her into a bathroom to harass her over not supporting the full spending plan.

Talk about their role in the Democratic party. Obviously they seem to be on something of a lonely island, but while progressives may not like it, they’re pretty much in the driver’s seat, right ?

GRIFFITH: I think that's very true. The far left has always been present within the Democrat party, but it has become stronger in terms of actual electoral success over the past few years.

I mean, think about Senator Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats. He's a self identified socialist. He is one of the most powerful senators. He runs the appropriations committee. Or Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is amongst the most radically left wing senators we've seen in our nation's history alongside Bernie Sanders, and she is really running the Banking Committee agenda about what our financial regulatory future will look like. So they've gained a lot of power in the Senate and in the Congress, and this piece of legislation that is working its way through—this $3.5 trillion bill—is really a product of their far left agenda.

REICHARD: Joel Griffith with the Heritage Foundation has been our guest. Joel, thanks so much!

GRIFFITH: Thanks for having me.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour. Here’s our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: ISIS claims bombings in Uganda—We start today here in Africa.

A group affiliated with Islamic State terrorists has claimed responsibility for two bombings in Uganda. The first targeted a roadside restaurant in Kampala on Saturday night.

A police spokesman called the bombing an intentional act of domestic terrorism.

AUDIO: After the three suspects had left the scene, they ultimately detonated the improvised explosive device that caused injuries to a total of four victims.

One person died and three others suffered injuries.

The second attack targeted a bus outside Kampala. Police say the suicide bomber was the only victim but several other passengers suffered injuries. They also warned more attacks could be coming.

AUDIO: They have started with soft targets but we believe that they could be having a very bigger plot of carrying out a major incident on a major installation.

Saturday’s attack was the first in Kampala in many years. But jihadists with the Allied Democratic Forces have killed thousands of people in attacks during the last decade. In March, U.S. officials officially linked the ADF with members of Islamic State.

German woman convicted in Yazidi girl’s death—Next we go to Europe.

AUDIO: [Sound of camera shutters]

A German court has sentenced a woman to 10 years in prison for her role in the death of a Yazidi girl in 2015. It is the first such conviction anywhere in the world for crimes committed by Islamic State militants against the Yazidi community.

AUDIO: [Woman speaking German]

The prosecutor hailed the verdict as a strong signal that crimes against humanity would be punished, no matter where they take place.

Jennifer Wenisch converted to Islam in 2013 and moved to Iraq, where she joined ISIS. The militants recruited her to patrol city parks in Fallujah and Mosul as part of the group’s morality police.

While living in Mosul, she and her husband “purchased” a Yazidi woman and her 5-year-old daughter to serve as household slaves. The couple chained the child up outside, where she died of dehydration in the heat.

AUDIO: [Woman speaking German]

The lawyer representing the girl’s mother said no punishment would ever be enough for taking the child’s life. But she said her client was satisfied that the world now knew who was responsible for her daughter’s death.

Amnesty International leaves Hong Kong—Next, to Asia.

AUDIO: [Sound of door closing]

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International announced Monday that it would close its offices in Hong Kong. The group said the national security law China imposed on the territory made it impossible for it to work freely and without fear of serious government reprisals.

The decision came the same day a court in Hong Kong convicted a food delivery driver of inciting secession by shouting pro-democracy slogans.

More than 70 people have been charged with security crimes since the law took effect two years ago. Many of them are pro-democracy activists.

Dozens of civil society groups have disbanded in recent months, often after being labelled "subversive" by China's state-controlled media.

Nigeria launches digital currency—And finally, we end today back in Africa.

AUDIO: [Sound of clapping]

Nigeria launched a national digital currency on Monday. It’s called the eNaira and will be issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari made the announcement.

BUHARI: We have become the first country in Africa, and one of the first in the world, to introduce a digital currency to our citizens.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and largest economy. Buhari touted the effort as a way to expand the nation’s tax base as more people and businesses move into the formal economy, especially in rural areas.

Five countries now have national digital currencies. Fourteen others have them in a pilot stage.

That’s this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: If you were under the impression that Pop-Tarts with fruit are good for your health, we’ll do our best to let you down easy.

Turns out that the minuscule amount of strawberries in Kellogg’s “Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastries” does not make them good for you.

But a woman in New York claims Kellogg’s is marketing and packaging the pastries to exaggerate the strawberry ingredient.

Elizabeth Russett seeks $5 million for what she calls misleading marketing.

The company counters that its labeling fully complies with all legal requirements.

Russett’s petition says the nutrition label shows the Strawberry Pop-Tarts have more pears and apples in them than strawberries.

Another lawsuit out of Illinois claims something similar.

I’d say the company is in a real jam.

REICHARD: That is not a legal term.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 27th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a word about pastors.

Many churches celebrate October as Pastor Appreciation month. And, it’s not too late to say thanks to your pastor! Just sayin.

EICHER: Back in January, pastor and author Steven Lawson spoke to an auditorium full of pastors. He was at Founders Baptist Church in Houston for the annual Speaking the Truth in Love conference. His message was titled: “Preaching in Perilous Times.” Today we highlight a portion of Lawson’s hour-long challenge and encouragement for shepherds from the book of 1 John.

STEVE LAWSON: Perilous times are usually seasons of chaos and confusion in the world. And it has its effect upon the church, as well. Perilous times become the opportunities for the sowing of damnable heresies in the church. Because the church in difficult days has a way of taking their eye off the Lord Jesus Christ and become concerned with what's going on around them on a horizontal basis.

With the overturning of society with the tearing down of morals. With the proliferation of reprobate minds, spewing its lies. In the midst of the death of the culture, with the vanquishing of all human decency. With the propaganda of the crooked and perverse generation, brainwashing people on every side...the pulpit must speak the truth in love.

And I want you to note first, the discernment. The discernment needed. And John begins with what is the duty of every believer, he says, “Do not believe every spirit.” Stop believing every spirit. Stop being so gullible. Stop being so foolish. Stop being so naive. Stop being so undiscerning. Do not buy everything you hear. That is what John is saying, to the first century church. And as it's recorded in the canon of Scripture, this is what God is saying to His church tonight.

You need to discern between truth and error. You need to discern between the pure and the vile, you need to discern between what is of God and what is of Satan. There are no other options. You need to discern between divine revelation and satanic reason. Between heavenly wisdom from above, and hellish wisdom from below.

So this leads now second to the danger. The second half of verse one here is why this is so critically important and absolutely necessary, this is why you and I must be on red alert. He says beginning in the middle of verse one, “because many false prophets have gone out into the world...” Many, not a few, many. It's a Greek word that means great numbers, a proliferation of false teachers and false prophets. And it can be argued very easily that there are more false prophets than true preachers.

And in Matthew 7:15, Jesus said, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves…” Oh, they look so slick on the outside, but on the inside, they have the devil's initials carved in their heart.

They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, just listen to them. They have a worldly message, worldly wisdom, worldly philosophy, worldly thinking, worldly mindset, worldly values, worldly perspective, worldly agenda, carnal, fleshly message with just some Bible words scrambled in.

They preach another gospel, they preach another Christ that the flesh loves to hear about. Now, verse six, the positive. We, and when he says “we,” is referring to John, and the other writers of Scripture, and true teachers of the word, “we are from God, we have been sent by God.” We have been born of God, we have been taught by God, we have been commissioned by God, we are men of God with the message of God, the gospel of God, we are from God.

By this we know where the Holy Spirit is at work. By this we know where the pure, unvarnished, unadulterated gospel and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ is being preached and being received by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, you you will be able to discern and to differentiate between the true and the false because you have the Holy Spirit inside of you.

EICHER: That’s Steven Lawson from this year’s Speaking the Truth in Love conference in Houston, Texas. We’ve posted a link to the full message in today’s transcript at wng.org.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 27th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

A quick reminder for later this week: Friday we’ll be hearing Listener Feedback. So if you have something you’d like to share, now’s the time to send it! We welcome your emails, of course. But we really like to hear your voice! You can call our listener feedback line and leave a voicemail. That number is 202-709-9595.

REICHARD: Or better yet, record your comments on your smartphone and email them to us. You can find instructions for recording a voice memo at wng.org/preroll.

Alright. Here now is WORLD founder Joel Belz on thinking a second time about neighborhood annoyances.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: I’d never thought of a John Deere tractor as a tool of evangelistic outreach. And even now, I’m still not totally sure I’ve got this whole picture in proper focus.

I’ve been thinking about this since a recent Sunday morning when one of our neighbors uncharacteristically interrupted our typically quiet agenda with the roar of her green and yellow lawn mower. Never before had she invaded our Sunday serenity in such a manner. What had happened in her life to prompt such a change?

All sorts of crazy questions and silly conclusions raced through my brain. Was she listening to a new preacher? Was she going suddenly to a different church? Had she simply changed her mind about sabbath keeping? Does she even know what that quaint phrase means in this secular society?

The fact is that all of us—would-be covenant keepers and covenant ignorers—are constantly sending messages back and forth about changes in our circumstances. But who knows? What we’re watching might be something as monumental as a death in the family, dictating that somebody new has to step forward to mow the lawn. Or it might be as trivial as someone having forgotten to fill the gas can, leaving one of yesterday’s tasks for today.

In this case, I found myself trying feebly to interpret the signals as best I could. In that process I was seriously falling back on some highly outdated tools. I say “outdated” because I think those tools were probably shaped in my childhood. When as a youngster I saw an Iowa farmer ploughing a field on Sunday, I tended immediately to pronounce him a non-believer. If I saw a gas station on Sunday with a “CLOSED” sign on the door, I glibly concluded the owner was a serious Christian. I do remember my mother’s pointedly reminding me once: “Joel, don’t forget there are other things to keep in mind!”

“But when I became a man, I put away childish things.” And among those less mature habits are the knee jerk responses we too easily resort to in determining who is in the kingdom and who is not. Even for the leaders of Christ’s church, who are assigned the task of saying “yay” or “nay” to new members, it can be a nuanced decision. I think I’ve spent too many hours of the time of God’s people chasing those nuances.

But back to John Deere tractors. I wish I had through the years formed a friendship with my neighbor. That would have made it easy and natural for me to wander over and ask what had brought about this sudden change in her schedule.

Certainly, this was not quite the time to do that. I yearn instead to be ready to tell her of the freedoms God’s people are privileged to enjoy. If she has ever noticed what my mowing habits might be, does she have any sense that they are shaped more by joy than by duty? I hope so.

And if my neighbor’s John Deere helps me read the signals about what’s happening in her family’s life, isn’t that almost certainly all to the good? I need all the help on that front I can get. If we had 50-100 believers in every community sensitively reading such signals and giving faithful witness about the freedom God showers on his people, we just might end up with a huge revival.

I’m Joel Belz.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: kinks in the supply chain. We’ll find out how they might affect your Christmas shopping.

And, school-board protests why the Department of Justice is making a federal case of it.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

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, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Go now in grace and peace.

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