Ep 1118 | The Great H-1B Debate & the Keys to Keeping Resolutions

Summary

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey: Episode 1118 Summary

Release Date: January 7, 2025
Host/Author: Blaze Podcast Network
Title: The Great H-1B Debate & the Keys to Keeping Resolutions
Guest: Allie Beth Stuckey's Father

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I. Introduction to the Episode

In Episode 1118 of Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey, Allie delves into two primary topics: the heated debate surrounding the H-1B visa program and strategies for maintaining New Year’s resolutions. Joined by her father, the episode offers a rich dialogue from a Christian, conservative perspective, blending cultural, political, and personal insights.

II. Understanding the H-1B Visa Program

Allie begins by defining the H-1B visa to ensure listeners are well-informed:

"According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the H1B program applies to employers seeking to hire non-immigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability." [02:00]

She explains that a specialty occupation typically requires highly specialized knowledge and at least a bachelor’s degree, often associated with STEM fields. Allie also highlights that the program has been misused, citing Elon Musk’s acknowledgment of the issue:

"Americans have been deprioritized, they have been really thrown under the bus for cheaper labor." [02:30]

III. The Controversy Surrounding H-1B

The core of the episode revolves around the internal Republican debate sparked by prominent figures like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Allie outlines the conflicting viewpoints:

• Pro-H1B Perspective: Advocates like Elon Musk argue that the H-1B program is essential for filling critical roles in technology and maintaining America’s competitive edge.

  "I'm here and a bunch of the people who work at Tesla are here and doing great work because of the H1B program." [04:20]

• Con-H1B Perspective: Critics within the conservative camp believe the program undermines American workers by offering cheaper labor and contributing to wage suppression.

  "America first means prioritizing American workers as much as possible." [05:00]

IV. Statistical Analysis and Impact

The discussion delves into the numbers surrounding the H-1B program:

• Enrollment: In fiscal year 2023, approximately 755,000 individuals were admitted on H-1B visas ([07:51]).

• Job Market Impact: Allie references data from Daniel Horowitz, highlighting that since 2019, all net job growth in the U.S. has been attributed to foreign-born workers, while native-born workers have experienced a net loss of 773,000 jobs ([22:00]).

• Wage Concerns: Compensation for STEM workers in 2023 was reportedly 7.1% lower than in 2019, suggesting that employers might be suppressing wages by hiring H-1B workers willing to accept lower pay ([25:27]).

V. Perspectives from Public Figures

The episode features diverse viewpoints from influential leaders:

• Vivek Ramaswamy: Argues that American culture undervalues STEM fields, leading to a scarcity of qualified domestic workers.

  "We need H1Bs if we want America to succeed and be number one." [06:10]

• Bernie Sanders: Although traditionally seen as a Democrat, Sanders criticizes the H-1B program, labeling it as a means to replace well-paying American jobs with low-wage foreign workers.

  "The main function of the H1B visa program is not to hire the best and the brightest, but rather to replace good paying American jobs with low wage indentured servants from abroad." [27:52]

VI. National Security Concerns

Allie and her father address the potential national security risks associated with the H-1B program:

"I just think there's too big a risk in vetting people, especially when we allow them to go back and forth to their home countries." [15:26]

They emphasize the importance of preventing foreign influence in sensitive sectors, advocating for stricter controls on who holds these visas.

VII. Chain Migration and Family Linkage

A significant portion of the debate focuses on chain migration—the ability of H-1B visa holders to bring their families:

"Chain migration is a big, big problem. I hope they address that." [32:24]

The discussion highlights how family members of H-1B holders, such as spouses and children, can lead to unintended long-term immigration trends that may strain public resources.

VIII. Political Stances: Trump, Sanders, DeSantis

The conversation touches on various political figures' stances on immigration and the H-1B program:

• Donald Trump: Initially called for an overhaul of the H-1B system but later acknowledged the need for skilled workers to maintain technological advancement.

  "We need a lot of people because we're doing a lot of things." [28:03]

• Ron DeSantis: Echoes the sentiment that the H-1B program, as currently implemented, lowers wages for American workers.

  "I don't support undercutting American wages. The H1B program has been used to do that." [34:29]

• Elon Musk: While initially supporting the H-1B program, Musk later expressed concerns about its misuse for cheap labor.

  "H1B visa program ... Americans have been deprioritized." [02:30]

IX. Moving Forward: Immigration Policies and Solutions

Allie and her father propose several solutions to address the issues with the H-1B program:

1. Prioritizing American Citizens: Ensuring that American workers are given precedence in hiring decisions.

   "Support prioritize American citizens first. No question about it." [16:51]

2. Wage Enforcement: Implementing stricter penalties for employers who do not pay H-1B workers the prevailing wage equivalent to their American counterparts.

   "If the pay is the same, then that disincentivizes the companies from trying to recruit them just for that reason." [11:10]

3. Restricting National Security Access: Preventing H-1B visa holders from working in roles related to national security or classified information.

   "Any of these H1B visa holders should be working on anything to do with our national security or anything that would consider classified or secret. And I believe that is happening in the Department of Defense." [15:26]

4. Limiting Family Linkage: Addressing chain migration by restricting the ability of H-1B holders to bring extended family members.

X. New Year’s Resolutions and Personal Goals

Transitioning from the H-1B debate, Allie and her father discuss strategies for setting and maintaining New Year’s resolutions:

• Five Key Areas: Financial, Spiritual, Physical, Relationship, and Career. They recommend an honest assessment in each area to identify strengths and areas for improvement.

  "Write down these five things and do an honest assessment of where you are." [50:56]

• Focus on One Area: To avoid overwhelm, they suggest choosing one specific goal within each key area to concentrate efforts effectively.

  "Pick one area to grow in. If you try to put too many things, it's just overwhelming." [51:01]

• Spiritual Growth: Allie shares her approach to spiritual development through the Bible Recap and Dwell app, making it manageable for busy individuals.

  "Think of reading your Bible as eating. You eat because you need food." [58:05]

XI. Conclusion

The episode wraps up with motivational advice and reflections on personal growth. Allie encourages listeners to approach the new year with intentional goals and a focus on both personal and national well-being.

"Remember that the devil is out there every day. We gotta be on guard." [60:54]

Allie also highlights her own resources, such as her book "Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon," as practical guides for organizing life with biblical wisdom.

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Notable Quotes:

• Allie Beth Stuckey:

  "Define your terms. Know what exactly we are talking about before we get into these conversations." [02:00]

• Father:

  "It's going to be okay. Pay attention. It's going to be okay." [57:00]

• Ron DeSantis:

  "I don't support undercutting American wages. The H1B program has been used to do that." [34:29]

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This episode offers a comprehensive exploration of the H-1B visa debate, intertwining statistical analysis, political perspectives, and personal reflections. Additionally, it provides listeners with actionable strategies for personal development, aligning with the podcast's mission to deliver in-depth and relatable content from a conservative Christian viewpoint.

Transcript

[Ali Stuckey]

Hey there, Ryan Reynolds here.

[Father]

It's a new year and you know what that means.

[Ali Stuckey]

No, not the diet resolutions. A way for us all to try.

[Father]

And do a little bit better than.

[Ali Stuckey]

We did last year. And my resolution, unlike big wireless, is to not be a raging and raise the price of wireless on you every chance I get. Give it a [e-mail] switch $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first 3 month plan only taxes and fees, extra Speed slower above 40 GB on unlimited. See mintmobile.com for details. Over Christmas, conservatives on X went to war over immigration and H1B visas. The Pro H1B side was spearheaded by none other than Elon Musk, who said that he would go to battle over this issue. Vivek Ramaswamy also coming in to support Elon Musk. And then we've got people on the other side of this debate like me, who took issue with some of their arguments. And here today is my dad. We changed up a little bit from what we told you would happen this week, schedule wise. He is here today to talk about this H1B debate. We've got a little bit of a variety of perspectives and disagreements going on, so I think that you'll enjoy it. Also, we will be talking about Trump's priorities and my dad will be giving some encouragement, some advice, some wisdom on how to start your year on the right foot. This episode is brought to you by Crowd Health. Go to join CrowdHealth.com use code ALLI join CrowdHealth.com code ALI FOREIGN before we start with my dad, I just want to give you a definition of what H1B is. We get into that just a little bit. But I really like for you to know what exactly we are talking about before we get into these conversations. I really like defining our term. So this is According to the U.S. department of labor, the H1B program program applies to employers seeking to hire non immigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability. A specialty occupation is one that requires the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge of and the attainment of at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. So a lot of people think of it as like a STEM worker or someone who's face card never gets denied. Like Melania Trump. Melania Trump was she actually came to America on H1B status to work as a model in 1996. The problem though is that this program has been abused and I think even Elon Musk agrees that Americans have been deprioritized, that they have been really thrown under the bus for cheaper labor. But there are so many layers, complexities and nuances to this conversation and we will be tackling as many as we can today with my dad. So without further ado, here he is. Dad, welcome back to the program.

[Father]

Gosh, it's. Glad to be back. Seemed like it's been a long time for you to be live and for me to be back on, but I'm glad to be here.

[Ali Stuckey]

I know, me too. We had a change in schedule today. So I said yesterday that my dad would be on on Thursday, that we would be talking to a British journalist today. But things have been switched around. So people will be very happy that you are back on. You are one of the most requested guests. So we are talking about this H1B debate and I knew what the H1B visa was. I didn't know that it was this much of a contentious issue, specifically on the right. So it was an intra conservative Republican Party debate that was really spearheaded by Elon Musk over the holidays. It sparked, it seems, on December 23rd when Trump announced that India born Sriram Krishnan will serve as the President's senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence. He is a tech entrepreneur, venture capitalist. Some in the MAGA camp criticized Krishnan's. Krishnan's support for increasing the immigration of skilled workers, arguing that his position contradicts Trump's America first policy. Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy chimed in with Elon Musk saying, look, I'm here and a bunch of the people who work at Tesla are here and doing great work because of the H1B program. Vivek Ramaswamy went on this whole rant which I didn't really appreciate and I can get into my take later saying, you know, American culture kind of sucks and we elevate the wrong heroes. Our sitcoms celebrate laziness and Asia. They create harder workers, they create smarter people because their education system is better, their culture is better, whatever. So we need H1BS if we want America to succeed and be number one. A lot of conservatives on the other side saying America first means prioritizing American workers as much as possible. So that's the big picture overview. We can get into the details, but what's your, what's your take on all this?

[Father]

Well, it's, you know, it's, it's like everything, nothing is simple. It's a complex subject. And if we want America first, then we need to have the brightest in certain areas. Now, would we prefer them to be American citizens? Absolutely, 100%. There is truth about our education system. As you know, our education system fails our kids day in and day out. The public education system does. And that's where the core of the issue begins. And so what we need to be focusing on is to let's. How do we improve our education system? And I know that Trump is looking at maybe abolishing the Department of Education, which I think's a good idea. It should go right back down to where the parents have the most control. That's how you get schools to be better. But in the meantime, if we do want these technologies that we need to control and be the leader in, we do need to have the brightest people. Now, I will say that we should look for American citizens first, and we shouldn't. It doesn't need to be a level playing field, in my opinion, in that we should. We should try to hire as many citizens as we can. And we've got a lot of them that maybe are being passed over because of the wage thing, which I think we'll talk about, but I'm not. You know, it's interesting. This whole program started in 1990. All right. And it started with the lower number than they have now. Now they can do about 85,000 a year is how many can. Can be given. There's many. Many more that want that. But $85,000 restriction.

[Ali Stuckey]

But many institutions are exempt. And so right now we're handing out somewhere like 700,000 H1Bs a year.

[Father]

Yeah, I don't think that number's correct, actually. But we may be more. There are. There are 55,000 put in law and 20,000 more that are exempt, so. Or 30,000 more that are exempt.

[Ali Stuckey]

According to the Office of Homeland Security, 755,000 people were admitted to the United States in H1B status in fiscal year 2023. That's a lot.

[Father]

That is a lot. Yeah. So. And there are 11 different types of visas, temporary visas. Right. This is just one of them. It is interesting to note that in 2023, over a million temporary visas were granted versus 2019, when it was 600,000. So you look at the Biden versus Trump scenario. So I do see that. I do see that changing a little bit. I'm not as opposed to it as I hear some people being opposed to it. I think there are a couple of fixes we could do. For example, we could. They're supposed to pay them the prevailing wage of what, you know, other people make in that particular field, we need to crack down on that. There needs to be a fine. If they don't pay them the same as we do, you know, say an American citizen, that would reduce the competition as well. I mean, that would help competition as well. I mean, that's one thing for sure that we can do. And we should also put requirements in that if there are similarly qualified American citizens, that they should be given first priority for that. I mean, that's, that's simply what it should do. Now, in some cases there may not be. Remember also, this is something to think about. These people come in. Let's just use India as an example. Excuse me, because that's where a lot of the software engineers, which supposedly are. What's the number one job for this? Those people want to leave that country because of poverty and other reasons. If we don't pick the brightest ones out of there to come over here and try to quote, unquote, Americanize them, where do you think they're going to go? They're going to go a lot of times to our enemies, China, Iran.

[Ali Stuckey]

The question is, are they really the brightest or are they. Because they are escaping dire poverty in India, they are escaping a life that most of us cannot imagine. Are they willing to do more work for less money? Yes, because many Indians come for. And I don't blame them one bit. I don't blame anyone who comes over here for a better life from somewhere like India or China. But they come over here, they typically live multiple generations to a household. So you've got typically multiple income makers and one house that already makes the housing market very competitive and a negative way for a lot of Americans who only have one income maker per household and they are willing to work a lot more for a lot less money. And how are Americans supposed to compete with that? Because Americans don't have the same motivation or the same incentive because we're not escaping the slums. We're trying to live a good life and, you know, provide for our families. But we just don't have the same desire to basically be a slave to a job. Any kind of work here is an upgrade for people coming from India. I just don't know if necessarily we're. Maybe we are. We're going to pick out the best and the brightest from India. I mean, they rank almost the very bottom when you're looking at all of the countries when it comes to education, way worse than America when it comes to the ranking of their education system.

[Father]

That's because a lot of them aren't even schooled. I think if you carved out that and you looked at their, you looked at their most educated, where do they rank? I think that especially in stem. I think Ali, it's a very simple solution though to the problem with they're willing to work for less money is we should not allow the companies to pay them 60 or 70% less or whatever the number is than they're paying their American counterparts. If the pay is the same, then that disincentivizes the companies from trying to recruit them just for that reason. That is a simple fix.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. And that's what Elon Musk said and.

[Father]

That'S what we should do and see what happens. Are they, and then we should have a. Are they really the brightest or not? You know, I think we've got a lot of bright people here in America, but I don't necessarily think like for example, when you, when you look at stem, okay, the science, technology, whatever all that stands for, and you look at in America, females that enter that field versus say India. It is a vast, vast difference. Very. Again, we're working on that. We're trying to encourage, you know, female engineers and software people and all that and we should be doing that. But other countries are way further along than we are in that. We don't have as big of a pool to pick from as, as we should have. And what I think what Vivek was saying is that what we glamorize in the United States and what we put on a pedestal are things that are not necessarily engineering, science, software based. They are people that we see on TV or people that we see on social media and what have you. And that's not, that's not always best.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah, I disagreed with what Vivek said about, you know, he was talking about different sitcoms. We lionized the quarterback and we kind of vilify the nerd. But really the American story is that whether you're the nerd, so called, or the quarterback, you can succeed in your particular field. Whereas if you look at most Asian cultures, yeah, you have to be good at math, you have to be good at science. That is your ticket out of there. That's your ticket to success. That maybe your ticket out of the slums and this kind of tiger mom mentality that we're going to beat your back until you get straight A's and that is where your worth and value comes from. There might be some good in that, but I actually think that the beauty of America is that you can be eccentric, that you can be an artist, that you can be a writer, that you can succeed in these ways. And maybe that does make it harder. Maybe we have fewer people to choose from when it comes to the STEM field.

[Father]

That's what I mean. You're actually making the own argument is that, yeah, that is great for America, but we still need these people if we want to advance technologically.

[Ali Stuckey]

But I wonder if we do. Like what? Maybe this is just a totally ignorant question, but Timothy and I were talking about this. We're saying, oh, we need to advance in AI, we need to advance in technology. Are these people coming over and making updates to Snapchat? Because I don't think we need that. Like how much more do we need AI? What technological developments are actually being worked on by these people that we apparently need from India and China that is actually helping our society and is not just making the CEOs of these companies richer?

[Father]

Yeah, well, 30 years ago we would have, could have said the same thing. What else could we invent? What else? What other technology? And then here we are today. What's happened third over the last 30 years. So we don't know the answer to that. I agree with you though.

[Ali Stuckey]

We really want to know.

[Father]

I agree with you though on the Snapchat and all that. The other thing that I would not, I don't want these people doing. And it's happening this again. It's an easy fix and it's a. I get it. You could make an argument against it. I don't think any, any of these H1B visa holders should be working on anything to do with our national security or anything that would consider classified or secret. And I believe that is happening in the Department of Defense and in their contractors. I just think there's too big a risk in vetting people, especially when we allow them to go back and forth to their home countries. You know, they can go back and forth to their home countries. And I just, I think that's a mistake.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yes, especially, I mean China and India really benefit from this in some ways. In some ways it hurts a place like India because the argument is with, you know, the H1B is that apparently India has just this treasure trove of like hidden geniuses. And for whatever reason India is not able to fix their own country, but as soon as they get to America, they're able to like advance us beyond what native born citizens are able to do. It's kind of strange to me apparently how that works, but that causes brain drain. You've got the best and the brightest people leaving them and so the vulnerable people, the really poor people, I mean, they're left destitute. That can happen to any country. But there is a kind of a short term, more superficial benefit in that those who are coming from a place like India, making money here, they're sending money back to their families. And so the people in India, those people benefiting from them, still like that. And then when you look at the ccp, we know that they steal our technology and our secrets as much as they possibly can. And I just wonder if there are any protections, as you were saying, within this program to make sure it's not just the best and the brightest. It has to be people that we trust, that love this country, that care about our values, that care about our culture, that want to assimilate to a degree and want to uphold American principles.

[Father]

I agree. 100.

[Ali Stuckey]

And that's why it seems like it would be easier to just prioritize American citizens. How are you ever going to know if a guy who is, you know, supportive of the CCP comes over here.

[Father]

And it's really trust we should support prioritize American citizens first. No question about it. Now, I do like the fact that they pay Social Security taxes and all that and don't ever get to benefit from it unless they become a citizen down the road. That's a benefit for the rest of us.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

Okay. It's not enough of it to make a difference, but I think it's a benefit. Yeah, I had a couple things written down. Again, I just believe that the temporary visa programs have some value. For example, now this is an H1B. This is actually H2 agriculture. I've got friends that own landscaping, outdoor construction companies. Right. And the very best stone masons in the Americas come from Mexico. And this gentleman's company requires, needs those people temporarily. But see, the way that works is they work six months here and then they go back to Mexico for six months during the year. Right. So they'll work during the summer months here and then they'll go back to Mexico during the winter months where they do similar work. I think those types of things, it's kind of like what the migrant workers used to. And they would, you know, pick crops when they were doing most of that by hand and still do some of that. I think those types of programs are really, really good. And it just, it really got out of hand is what happened.

[Ali Stuckey]

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[Father]

Well, I do think it was part of President Bush, the senior's thousand points of light. And I do think it was partly was a way to spread democracy in people's minds. So we thought that's.

[Ali Stuckey]

And Reagan thought.

[Father]

Yeah. And George W. Bush thought the same thing. And I get it. It hasn't worked out that well since World War II anyway. But I do believe that they saw these very, very bright people that they could be an asset to America and not a negative. I don't think they thought about or didn't see the fact that they were taking jobs. It's that they couldn't find people to do these types of jobs. So that may have changed by now.

[Ali Stuckey]

Hmm. So Daniel Horowitz, he is at Blaze Media and he has been talking about writing about immigration for a long time. And he kind of articulates a lot of people's frustration with this issue and why so many in the MAGA camp say, no, we don't just want an end to illegal immigration. Yes, that's the top priority. But we also want to have a conversation about the limitations and some of the protections within legal immigration. He points out some Facts that I found startling. I did not know this. So he said. America has admitted 36 million legal immigrants since 1989. The foreign born population is at a record 50, 51.6 million. At 15.5% of the American population. The foreign born share is also a new record in American history. And this is going to continue to increase. And here's where it's relevant to this job conversation. All net job growth in the United States since 2019 has gone to foreign born workers. Over the last year, according to the Heritage foundation, native born workers have lost 773,000 jobs on net, while foreign born workers have gained more than 1 million jobs since before the pandemic. The foreign born workforce has grown by 3.7 million, while the native born workforce has shrunk by 873,000 over the past few decades. 71% of jobs in Silicon Valley have gone to foreign workers, while 74% of American stem graduates have failed to secure jobs in STEM fields. So even the STEM graduates that we do have, 74% of them can't even get a job. That might even not just be because of H1B, but because of all of the DEI initiatives that we have. If you're a white male, you're not meeting those quotas that a lot of these tech companies have during this or there was a California based lawsuit where a Federal Journey jury found that Cognizant, the largest recipient of H1B visas for many years, was guilty of discriminating against American IT workers. They said that they were actively terminating American employees to replace them with H1B workers, primarily from India. I've heard the same story at places like AT&T where actually the American employees were made to train their replacements from India. And these replacements didn't come with some amazing competitive knowledge of the field that they were going into, but they were able to work for less. If employers are desperate for more STEM workers.

[Father]

Let me interrupt you just for a second.

[Ali Stuckey]

Go ahead.

[Father]

Some of that is not people coming here to work. See, they're mixing a whole bunch of numbers and statements in here. Okay, some of that, and it's not right either, but it's AT&T hiring people from India to do those jobs. But they still live in India. They're not taking call center jobs here in a lot of cases. For example, my CPA firm that we use, they have people in the Philippines that do some of the work. Now, they don't live here.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. For no money.

[Father]

They live in the Philippines. Right. And so. And I'm not saying that's good or bad either. I'm just saying that's they're mixing some of the facts and the figures in here. Also, when you look at the number of, of natural citizens here that have jobs versus the foreign born that are getting the jobs, part of that's due to our declining population birth rate. Right. And so that, that those things we have, we have less people in the workforce than we've had percentage wise in a long time. That's because, you know, the baby boomers are retiring and so those are just natural things that are going to happen now. Could we have replaced all of those with American born workers? I don't know. Maybe not all of them. The one statistic that does bother me is saying 70% of us born people with STEM degrees can't find a job. That's a very difficult number to believe. Not saying it's not true, but that one I had not heard and it's surprising to me. And if it is, we should be doing something about it. Either either we're not giving them the right education or it's this whole thing that we're talking about, people are working for less money.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, again, this is in the article by Daniel Horowitz. He found that compensation for stem workers in 2023 was actually 7.1% lower than in 2019, which would, I mean, we're assuming here, which would correlate with this argument that actually not starving for employees, they're not starving for workers, they're just lowering the wages because they know that they can with this H1B program. So that's what a lot of people are frustrated with. They feel like it's not an even playing field. Americans can't compete. They're certainly not getting any priority. And in a lot of cases, either it's because of DEI or it's because of the lower salaries they're willing to take. Americans are really getting the shaft because of this. And people want President Trump to do something about that.

[Father]

Well, it should be America first and it should be American citizens first. No question about that. When we can't fill those gaps, we need to figure out how to get them filled. And that's the position that I would take. And I would think that's really the position that there's no value for Elon Musk to have. I mean, have, I mean, there's not enough people involved. Makes a huge payroll difference for these bigger companies. There's just not. I mean, that's. So you're talking about maybe a company like an AT&T size has a thousand people or something like that that are on this or whatever. I mean, that's a drop in the bucket to the overall revenue scheme. But we do need to fix it.

[Ali Stuckey]

Okay, let's see what Bernie Sanders has to say here. Bernie Sanders, who used to be openly against illegal immigration because he saw how it creates unfair conflic competition for the American worker. It hurts the housing market. Americans just can't compete with what they are willing to work for. And so Bernie Sanders says this and we take everything a socialist says with a huge grain of salt. But he says Elon Musk is wrong. The main function of the H1B visa program is not to hire the best and the brightest, but rather to replace good paying American jobs with low wage indentured servants from abroad. The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the, the billionaires make. So that's what Bernie Sanders has to say.

[Father]

Well, you know, and again, the stats would back some of that up. So I don't know that he's necessarily, I would say that's not the, that's not the primary or only reason.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah, Elon Musk, he was very worked up about this. And now this was before he replied to my post on, I saw that post on. Yes, but he said his one word.

[Father]

Reply, by the way.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yes. I think he just said yes or something. Okay. So he said the reason I'm in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B. Take a big step back and f yourself in the face. He said, I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend. Which is apparently a movie quote from Tropic Thunder. But he really did say it. And when Trump. I don't know if we have the clip of Trump talking about this when someone, I think he was going into Mar a Lago on New Year's Eve, but a reporter asked like, why'd you change your mind on H1B? Because when he was talking to Megyn Kelly not too long ago, he was like, oh, we need a total overhaul of the system. It's, you know, it's, it's hurting the American worker now. He's like, well, we need a lot of people. We're going to need a lot of people because we're doing a lot of things. So Elon obviously has some influence overhaul though.

[Father]

You can have both of those. Both of those things can be true.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

So what did, let me ask you this, what did I forget what you said that Trump, that Elon agreed with, said yes to. What was your, what was your quote?

[Ali Stuckey]

Well, this, it actually didn't have to do with this. It did have to do with mass migration. It had to do with. And this is what we were going to talk to the British journalist about today. The Rotherham scandal, the transcripts of the trials of these Muslim grooming gangs in Britain were just recently released. And Elon Musk was talking about this. And it's not just the story of the horrific, and I will not say, but the horrific thing that happened to these young British girls, but the COVID up by the police and by the British government because they didn't want to speak against immigration, they didn't want to speak against Muslims. They were scared of Islamophobia, they were scared of a backlash of Muslims. They were probably scared of terrorist attacks. But there is a consequence to saying we are importing these people because, you know, we believe that anyone can come here. As long as you're willing to work, as long as you can come into the STEM field, as long as you're willing, willing to take a job that other people won't take, no matter what you believe, no matter what your background, there's going to be consequences to that. Not all cultures are equal, not all ideologies or belief systems are equal. That's not to say every Muslim is going to do that. That's not what I'm saying. But you can't just adopt this kind of relative relativistic mentality that anyone who wants to come here and work hard can.

[Father]

Right.

[Ali Stuckey]

You have to have some kind of standard.

[Father]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

And at least Elon Musk seems to agree about that.

[Father]

He would agree with that, I would think. I mean, obviously I don't know him personally, but reading enough about him, I would think, and I, and I would think that Vivek would too.

[Ali Stuckey]

And Vivek going in, going in on American culture, that really bothered me. And he talked bad about Boy Meets World, which I just find that is a big problem. It's a big problem. But I, okay, I agree with. Progressive ideology has certainly infected parts of American culture and that has created laziness, blah, blah, blah, all of this stuff. But American culture, like the goodness of it, is awesome. American culture gave us, if you want to call them the jocks or whatever, heroes storming the beaches of Normandy. It gave us It's a Wonderful Life. It gave us Ronald Reagan, it gave us landing on the moon, it gave Us.

[Father]

It was Back to the future.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yes.

[Father]

Nothing better than that.

[Ali Stuckey]

Back to the future. It gave us Steve Jobs. Like, it gave us an absolutely incredible culture where we have accomplished amazing things, no matter what your background is or socioeconomic status or skin color. But American citizens who consider this place home, not just an experiment, not just an idea, but home, have done amazing things. And I just don't want to see that discredited or belittled at all. But I agree with him that we want to get back to that place. I think we can do that without H1B abuses, though.

[Father]

Oh, I agree. I don't think with any, with any of our visa abuses. Right. The other, you know, if you really want, if you really want to do the most, and this happened around similar time as well, is you can get rid of what Schumer did and adding this family linkage onto all the immigration.

[Ali Stuckey]

Is that chain migration?

[Father]

Yeah, chain migration. And again, that's allowed under the H1B program too. They can bring their wife and kids, right?

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Can they bring their parents and.

[Father]

Yeah. And so. So that's where you just gotta. I get it. If you're married and you're coming over here and you got little kids, you should bring them with you. But it should be temporary. Yeah, but this whole chain migration thing is a big, big problem. I hope they, hope they address that.

[Ali Stuckey]

It's a new year, but we've got the same amazing meat from good ranchers in this ducky household. We've got a freezer full of it. We've got seafood, we've got the beef. We've got the better than organic chicken. We love that this is always American meat. We also love their seed oil free chicken nuggets. These have been sold out for a while. Wildly popular because it's so difficult to find seed oil free chicken nuggets, especially those that your kids will actually eat. But they have all of that. They have such a wide variety of meat. They're always supporting American farms and ranches and it makes it so easy to have a box of meat. Whatever you want, whatever you pick out online, show up on dry ice in a box to your front door every month. You don't have to spend a bunch of time, energy and effort at the grocery store trying to decipher if the meat is really from an American farm or if it's just packaged in America. They make all of that really easy. Plus, this is a Christian conservative family owned company. They've been partnering with Relatable for a long time. And we just we genuinely love not only the owners of the company, but the products that they create. Go to goodranchers.com Alli you'll get $25 off and your choice of free ground beef, chicken or salmon in every order for an entire year. That's goodranchers.com Ally Code Alley let's see what Ron DeSantis has to say about this because we do have a clip of him talking about it. Here's saw one.

[Father]

The problem is the way that has been implemented. They will bring in people in technology from, from other countries who work for lower rates than what Americans work for. And so I don't support undercutting American wages. And the H1B program has been used to do that. I used to kind of when people would say, hey, why not just have people that are, that are credentialed coming up, like, yeah, yeah, why not? But the way it's operated, I think has lowered wages for Americans and that's what you don't want. If it's an addition for the economy that benefits the American people, that's one thing. But if it's displacing an American worker, that's not good. He's basically saying what we're saying today. That's right. So.

[Ali Stuckey]

And hopefully most people would agree with that.

[Father]

I think they would. And I think President Trump would agree with that.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. And I think Elon Musk even kind of backtracked and clarified a little bit with that. Day one for Donald Trump. Do you think the mass deportations that Tom Homan is promising, we talked about this yesterday, where they will prioritize national security threats and criminals. Like, do you think that's going to happen day one or as soon as possible? Is it a top priority? Is the media gonna freak out? What do you think about that?

[Father]

I say yes to all of what you just said, including the media freaking out. But yes, that is going to happen. There's no question about that. That will be day one. And there will be lawsuits. Okay, there's going to be lawsuits because, you know, Biden has given a lot of these people temporary status and what have you. But they, I believe that we'll be as aggressive as you possibly can be. And, you know, we'll let the chips fall where they may from a lawfare standpoint. But yes, I absolutely believe that. And there will be, there'll probably be some reports on, well, this person, you know, he took him away from his family. Of course the family has the right to go with them, too. Right. They could go back to. If they want to.

[Ali Stuckey]

That's what Tom Homan said.

[Father]

I mean, come on. We're not going to scalp you from taking your family. We get that you're going to be the one that decides whether or not they separate. It's not going to be us.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

We're just going to uphold the law. So no question, that's the number one issue out there, is immigration. I mean, inflation is right behind it. That's a slower thing to work on, but you can have some real wins right off the bat.

[Ali Stuckey]

There was that horrible story that we didn't talk about because it happened over the holidays, where this woman on a New York subway was lit on fire while she was sleeping. My goodness. By an illegal alien. And that's not to say that a citizen couldn't do that. I mean, the subway has a lot of problems in New York, whether they're a citizen or not. The point is, is that every crime committed by an illegal alien is preventable.

[Father]

Yeah. 100.

[Ali Stuckey]

And we don't. We already have criminals here. We have homegrown criminals. We don't need to import more.

[Father]

The other thing about that particular scenario was that nobody helped the lady.

[Ali Stuckey]

No one helped.

[Father]

And part of that's the Daniel. Daniel Penny syndrome. If I help, Alvin Bragg's gonna come try to put me in jail and ruin my life. Right. Because Daniel Penny's still going through a civil lawsuit. Right. He's still being sued. I mean, it's a. It's a total. I get it.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yes. By Jordan Neely's scumbag family, who completely abandoned him as a child as he went to different group homes. Apparently, he was autistic. I feel for Jordan Neely. I really do. But his dad coming out of the woodwork now saying, I want justice for my son. No, you want to get rich and you're a scumbag. And I feel for Daniel Penny. I really do. Because who knows who would have died if he hadn't stepped in? And all of us, especially us women, like, we hope that if we're in a scenario like that, that there's going to be a brave guy who is willing to take the risk. But that gets rarer and rarer. The more Alvin Braggs you have.

[Father]

No question. No.

[Ali Stuckey]

The more social justice you have.

[Father]

Joe Biden gave George Soros the Medal of Freedom.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

You know who. Who funded the Alvin Braggs of the world. That's just disgusting.

[Ali Stuckey]

Disgusting. And Hillary Clinton. But I could understand Hillary.

[Father]

Whatever.

[Ali Stuckey]

I mean, I obviously don't like Hillary, but George Soros is the source of so many.

[Father]

Slap in the face to every American.

[Ali Stuckey]

In my opinion, yes, he is the cause of countless deaths because he funds this restorative justice, social justice movement, this soft on crime movement that has been responsible for the progressive das, the progressive judges in places like Houston and other Democrat run cities, and that has caused people's deaths. And not only what did you think? Because we didn't talk about this, and I don't even have the specifics in front of me, but Joe Biden using the last few days of his tenure to pardon and commute the citizen the sentences of all of these heinous murderers who committed the very worst crimes against children.

[Father]

It's a shit. I mean, it's just a, again, it's a slap against the victim's families for sure. And all of those that believe in what the law is, the law convicted them under the law by a jury of their peers and they, they received the sentencing. That should be carried out. I'm sorry. Unless you can find a reason that they were wrong, which that's not what they're saying there. He's not even, nobody's even saying they didn't, you know, that there's new evidence. It's just. No, we just decided to do this. It's, it's pitiful.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yes, it is pitiful. And it's just all this belief too. They don't believe in the death penalty. Even some of these, some of these murders, I mean, brutally tortured and murdered children, babies, elderly people. He's saying they don't deserve to die. And that is against God's justice. That is calling evil good and good evil. And I do think that we will probably see, just like we did with the last Trump administration, resuming execution for those who are in federal prison on death row.

[Father]

That's why he commuted the sentences, so that he wouldn't do it to those particular people.

[Ali Stuckey]

Just evil. Okay. What else can we expect when it comes to Trump's first 100 days?

[Father]

Well, we're gonna, I think he's gonna really be pushing for a, for a bill, a comprehensive bill. You know, he doesn't want a bunch of small bills. He wants a comprehensive bill. Probably will not deal with the tax issue as much because that will take a little bit longer. But on immigration, on political wokeness, on dei, on the transgender issues, I think a lot of that'll be in one, one bill.

[Ali Stuckey]

Okay.

[Father]

And I see that, I see that coming out pretty quickly now. It's. The House can pass it, you know, if our crazies get on board. The Republicans can pass it on their own. It's a little bit tougher in the Senate because in the Senate, unless it's related to the budget. Okay. So you have to be tricky in how you word these things so that there's a budget impact on it. If it's not related to the budget, it takes a 60 volt threshold to what they call cloture to take the vote. If it's related to the budget, they can do it under reconciliation, which is another thing that the Democrats put in that's now biting them in the backside that they can do with 51 votes, which we have that. So.

[Ali Stuckey]

Okay.

[Father]

I think it's. I think he's gonna. I think he's gonna do. I also think he's gonna. I do think we'll see some significant movement towards peace in the Middle east and peace in Ukraine and Russia.

[Ali Stuckey]

Do you think we'll get all the hostages back or Israel back?

[Father]

They may not all be alive.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

Unfortunately.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. It's interesting how Trump not even being in office yet has created a shift amongst our enemies and our allies when you have Justin Trudeau.

[Father]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

Potentially resigning. I guess. He didn't officially resign. He said he's going to resign. You even have Mexico.

[Father]

Well, you stay. Stay prime minister till they get another.

[Ali Stuckey]

Till they get someone else. You've got Mexico saying, oh, please don't give us tariffs. Okay. We're gonna secure our. Secure our borders. Like he's not even in office yet.

[Father]

Well, I think what he did. Which is a lesson for us. Okay. Is that as soon as he won the election, he decided to lead.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Where is Joe Biden even.

[Father]

Because there's. And just remember, there's never a vacuum. Right. Somebody will step up. Now we're glad that it was President Trump.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Praise God.

[Father]

We should remember that as well. Is that if. When our president. President Trump, which I don't think he will, but when he. When it's time for him to go, when the next person's elected, which will happen in four years. He's only got one term. Then he needs to continue to lead until the 20th.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

Of January 2028 or 29.

[Ali Stuckey]

So crazy.

[Father]

Yeah.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Which I. I think he will because he understands it. I don't think Biden or Kamala want to be in power. I don't. I don't think. I mean, I know they want Democrats to be in charge, but I don't think either of them really wanted that.

[Father]

They're both ready to go and cash in. Continue to cash in.

[Ali Stuckey]

You think Mike Johnson will be an effective speaker.

[Father]

Yes, I do think he'll be an effective speaker. He's got pretty good people around him. You know, I went to the swearing in. I had a friend that's a new congressman up there that I served in the Texas Legislature with. And so I was fortunate enough to get in the gallery, which, oddly enough, there can't be more than 100 or 200 seats in there. So I was really lucky and watched that whole thing. And I think what Mike is, is he is probably a very good example of a servant leader. Now, to be a servant leader in a body like that, you need to have strong people around you. Cause somebody has to be the enforcer in politics. That's the way it is.

[Ali Stuckey]

Whereas Kevin McCarthy was more. Was just stronger.

[Father]

Yeah, just much more like that. And so, so I think he will be and I hope that people will continue to rally around him. I was very disappointed in some of the people that didn't vote for him in the, when the, when it first came through, I thought that was just a joke. I was very glad that President Trump stepped in and helped with that. And I'm glad they did something very smart that they didn't do with McCarthy. They held the vote open, see, because technically the Republicans still control the House. So they controlled that whole process. All right. And so they had to held the vote open rather than having to revote again. Right. And so they just had to see if they could change these couple of people's minds. And that's what they did. Otherwise they'd had to go through all 435 again. Which let me tell you, when you're sitting there watching that, that's a beat down.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

Right. Because every one of them have something special. They want us. Most of them just say Mike Johnson or.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

Hakeem Jeffries. But some of them want to give a speech.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah, right.

[Father]

Which is like, oh, goodness, of course, they all do.

[Ali Stuckey]

That's why they got into politics. Are you surprised at the seeming lack of opposition that we've seen? It just seems to me like it's been kind of quiet. When Trump won last time, it was immediately Russian collusion. This is not legitimate. He cheated and all of this stuff. And of course, we had a clamoring on our own side when Biden won in 2020. It just seems to be going more smoothly than I anticipated. What do you think Democrats are planning?

[Father]

Here's what I think is happening. First of all, I think the, they are being somewhat self reflective in that obviously what we had didn't work. Now we still. They still believe in their base beliefs. Right. But they are figuring, how do we communicate better? We know we're right. Okay. They still believe they're right, but how do we communicate it better? Now, as soon as Trump starts taking official action, they will be just like they were in 2017. And the media will be as well.

[Ali Stuckey]

You think the media will be. Because it seems like a lot of places, even like, you know, cnn, they're realizing that the anti Trump gimmick is just kind of.

[Father]

I just don't think Jake Tapper is going to change his stripes.

[Ali Stuckey]

Probably not.

[Father]

You know, maybe there'll be some. Maybe there'll be more news related. And again, I don't mind their opinion. People criticizing if that's what they like. I just want their news people to tell me the news, though. I don't want their news people to give me their opinion. It's kind of like, kind of like my lawyer. I've had to tell lawyers in the past when I've done business deals. I want your legal advice. Do not give me your business advice. Not hiring you to give me your business advice.

[Ali Stuckey]

Right. Stay in your lane.

[Father]

Stay in your lane. It's okay.

[Ali Stuckey]

There's been such a shift in the culture towards some form of conservatism and towards Trump. It's very different than 2016 that we've got comedians and even some celebrities and mainstream people who are probably moderate, but they're at least willing to say, yeah, I didn't want Kamala Harris. That's really changed things.

[Father]

That really has. You know, I do believe that we, people, we as people, the Christian faith. Back to Mike Johnson a little bit and others, man. And there's people that Trump has appointed to some of his, you know, our good friend, my good friend Scott Turner. I mean, his, you know, his.

[Ali Stuckey]

He's solid.

[Father]

Solid. Brooke Rollins, who's another friend of mine who's gonna be head of ag that basically oversees all of the welfare SNAP benefits. I mean, these are huge, huge things that. And Susan Wiles, evidently.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. I don't know her, but we've heard that she does have a strong Christian faith.

[Father]

Yeah. So I think we've got a really. Now this puts us out there on the spot. Right. Are we going to follow through on it or are we going to compromise? That's really the question. But you know, just like something we all need to think of. It's going to be a brand new year and a brand new time.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. You know, we haven't, we don't have too much time to talk about it. But I'm just wondering if we're going to continue to see some of the attacks that we saw at the beginning of the year, even after Trump is president. I just imagine just, just with a law and order administration, there will hopefully be more fear of committing any kinds of crimes. But it's been very disturbing to see like the homegrown terrorism that we had to endure.

[Father]

That's a good question. We got to get the, the FBI re centered and the Department of Justice and, and focusing on those types of things as opposed to focusing on the lady protesting outside the abortion clinic and things like that.

[Ali Stuckey]

So the parents at the school board meeting.

[Father]

Oh yeah. Hopefully that in itself will be a deterrent.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Gosh, I hope so too. Last sponsor for the day is Crowd Health. I don't have to tell you how crazy and chaotic and burdensome the health insurance system is. Often it feels like you don't even have insurance even though you're paying for it. So maybe this is the year where you just opt out of the health insurance scam system altogether and you join crowd health. Crowd health is a health insurance alternative. Here's how it works. For $175 for an individual or $575 for a family of four or more, you get access to a community of people who are willing to help you out in the event of an emergency. You also get access to telemedicine visits, discounted prescriptions. So much more. And you don't have to worry about doctors networks or rising premiums or anything like that. You join the crowd. It's a group of members just like you who want to help pay for each other's unexpected medical events. Go to joincrowdhealth.com and use code Ally. When you do, you can get started for just 99amonth for your first three months. JoinCrowdHealth.com, code ALI Crowd health is not insurance. Learn [e-mail] Code Ali I did want to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit about. I don't know if it's New Year's resolutions, but what are some goals or some strategies that you put in place at the beginning of a year?

[Father]

I noticed yesterday you avoided the term rosary of resolution as well.

[Ali Stuckey]

I don't typically have a resolution. I do have some goals, but I don't know. Do you have resolutions?

[Father]

I don't know that I ever thought about it one one way or the other, honestly. But here's I do Love the end of the year and the beginning of a new year. Some of my favorite times, not only because you spend time with family, which we're able to do throughout the year, it's because it seems like freshness, right? And I'm somewhat of a numbers guy, so I like to look at all my financial numbers and then I like to think about, okay, where in all the areas of our lives, what did we get done? Right? And so what I try to do, and I wrote this down, so I think it would be helpful to people is there are five, what I call five areas of people's lives. It's their financial, their spiritual, their physical, their relationship, and their career. Career and finance don't always go together, okay? And so what I encourage people to do is to write those five things down. Financial, spiritual, physical, relationship, career, and do an honest assessment of where they are. It's kind of like we talk about in my book. You know, you need to know where you are in the wagon. Where are you with your finances? Where are you now? Okay. At the year end, what did you spend? What did you spend on all of your. Wherever you have all your money, you can download all that information pretty easily. Say, how did we spend our money? Did we spend it the way we thought we were going to this year? And then what would. When we sit here a year from now, what would we like for that to look like? What would that need? What would that look like? Did we kind of get out? Do we have too many lattes? Or did we. Did we. Was there an unexpected thing come up?

[Ali Stuckey]

Too much coffee and a treat for me.

[Father]

Yeah. Or whatever it was. Right. And so I encourage you to do that. The other thing on the spiritual is I just want to pick one area to grow in. Okay. If I try to put too many things, like I want to pray more, I want to read my Bible more, I want to witness more, and they're too generous. It's just overwhelming. I won't accomplish any of them. I want to pick one area. Okay? And then in physical, I would encourage people, they can just Google this, go on to your biological age calculator. It's a questionnaire. And wherever it is, are you happy with that? If not, where do you want that to be? And then again, it's kind of down to one thing. What are you going to do about it? But again, if you do too much, well, I'm going to eat right and exercise and da, da, da, da. You won't do all that. I mean, very few people do all that and then when you get down to relationship, this is probably the harder one is who do I need to reconcile with? Who in my life do I need to reconcile with? And the second part of that is who do I need to reconnect with? And we all need to do that. You know, it's easy just to move on and what have you. And then career, it's. Does my current job meet or put me on a path that can meet my financial goals? Now, it doesn't mean that you should change jobs to make more money, but you need to. The two have to match up. Like, if you're really passionate about what you do and people know you are, all right. But you could make more money doing X. Okay. Being a software engineer, maybe.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. Wow.

[Father]

That doesn't mean you should be a software engineer. It might mean you need to adjust your financial lifestyle to meet what you're really passionate about. Now, for me, I liked my job, my work, my business, but it was really all about financial for me. Okay.

[Ali Stuckey]

I wasn't providing for your family, not just making money for the sake of money. But you wanted freedom and flexibility.

[Father]

I wanted to eliminate financial mediocrity and give us a base and y'all a base to start with. With. And if I needed to have changed the industry that I was working in to do that, then I would. It wouldn't have bothered me.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

Okay.

[Ali Stuckey]

I'm not about retirement for pilots necessarily.

[Father]

I loved it. It was a great job. I'm very blessed to have had that career. But that wasn't the thing for me. For some people, that's not that way. Right.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

And so they have to adjust their other.

[Ali Stuckey]

Hear that. That's okay. Because I have friends, people in my life who sometimes they have felt paralyzed because for me, Okay. I always knew that. I like to talk and really, I know you're surprised by that. I'm letting you know that for the first time. But I have always known that I wanted to do something like this. In high school, I thought it would look like Megyn Kelly. I just wanted to be like Megyn Kelly. Obviously, the landscape changed and I was able to do something like this. And I think some people believe that that is the only picture of fulfillment and success, that you have to find what you love doing as a hobby and find a way to make money doing that sometimes, yes, but not always. And that doesn't mean just because you don't have a clear cut dream or specific passion that aligns with the way to make money does not mean you cannot Be successful or fulfilled.

[Father]

No, you can, you can, you, you have two choices. You can either. Like for me it was the things outside of work where I got my fulfillment. Right? I enjoyed my work, but I got my fulfillment because it helped me to be able to accomplish the things that I wanted to accomplish. For other people, the fulfillment is their career and whatever that pays them is what it is. And they need to reduce their financial budget or needs to meet that. Otherwise it will cause tremendous conflict within themselves for sure. But even more likely in their marriage relationship. That has to be very clear. Yeah, can't have it both ways.

[Ali Stuckey]

I'm about to be 33 next month. What would you tell your 33 year old self if you were sitting across from him?

[Father]

I would tell my 33 year old self I was sitting across from him that it's going to be okay. Because at 33 it's odd that you're saying that 33, I had my boss walked in. The owners of our company that owned the majority of it walked into me and said, hey, we're getting ready to fire the CEO of this company and you can be the CEO. You'll be the CEO starting next week. Or if you don't like that, you can leave as well. And so my friend who was CEO but had done some things, not illegal or anything like that, but just conflict wise, was fired. And it was a very nervous time for me.

[Ali Stuckey]

I was 33, mom had just had your favorite daughter.

[Father]

Yeah, just had my favorite daughter. And so how am I going to take care of all that? But it would just be that it's going to be okay, that things are going to be okay. Pay attention. I mean, I didn't work any less, I worked probably more, but pay attention. But it's going to be okay.

[Ali Stuckey]

That's very good. I did just want to give a shout out. You mentioned the spiritual. And I kind of have the same categories of goals, resolutions that I have written out as well. But a lot of people have asked me, okay, spiritually, what are you doing this year? So many people are wanting to read the Bible for the first time this year. I had a friend the other day saying, you know, I feel like I should know more about the Bible. And now that I'm a mom, I want to teach my daughter and I don't feel like I know enough. And this is one of those things where it can very quickly become overwhelming. If you say, well, I'm just going to read the Bible this year here, that's tough, that's really hard. So I'M doing something that I haven't done before. And this is not like I, I haven't done this particular program. And so I'm can't endorse all of the interpretations and opinions that might be shared. But I'm doing the Bible Recap and I've had Tara Lee Cobble on before. She started the Bible Recap podcast a few years ago. Go listen to the episode with her if you haven't already. But she's got a chronological reading plan, so it's not Genesis to Revelation. We started in Genesis, now we're in Job. And I have been listening and I think that that could be a cheat code for a lot of busy moms out there, that maybe you're like, I don't even have 20 minutes in the morning to sit down and read. I have something called the Dwell app. And again, this is not an ad or anything, but I listen in my car on a walk, folding laundry, cleaning the dishes, and I, I can listen to the passages on the Dwell app and then I can listen to Tara Lee Cobble's recap. A really good job of everything that I've heard so far. So maybe that's something that you want to join in on. I love my ESV study bible. You can get it for maybe 18 bucks on Amazon. They also have plans at the back of that. But let this be your year. If you get behind on it, it's no big deal. Think of it as. I heard this analogy a few years ago. Think about reading your Bible as eating. Just because you forgot to eat breakfast this morning doesn't mean that you're not going to eat lunch. You eat because you need food. And so you eat as much as you can when you can. Don't think of it as this perfectionist task. And it's okay if you don't understand everything, too.

[Father]

Yeah. That's for. That's a really good. That's a really good lesson. You know, I, I even, even if you only get through half of it, that's half more than you had. So it's. Again, it's, it is. It is. Okay. But I do believe that as Christians, we got what we asked for for the most part, so now we need to act on it. It's not time to sit idly by. Remember that. The devil with everything.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah.

[Father]

Satan is out there every day. He has not given up.

[Ali Stuckey]

No.

[Father]

And so we gotta be on guard. And we will be. And we can't expect for other people to do everything for us.

[Ali Stuckey]

Yeah. And actually he could use this time that we're about to see. Hopefully it's a time of prosperity and positive change to lull us into complacency.

[Father]

Easy to do. All you got to do when you're reading your Bible through. You'll see that time and time and time again. The greatest, the greatest king of all outside of Jesus. King David. Sure happened to him.

[Ali Stuckey]

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, dad. And I do want to remind people because I saw this repost on my Instagram. Someone started out the year reading Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon. And I'm not just saying this. This is, I would say say more than my books that I've written. This is a great book to start your year out on. Of course, you can read it at any time, but it's just a very practical. It's storytelling, but it's also a practical guide for how you can order your life in a way that is not just biblical, but lends itself to wisdom and success. So you can follow the link in the description of this episode. Dad, thanks so much.

[Father]

Thank you. Congratulations on getting another year going. It's going to be awesome.

[Ali Stuckey]

Thanks. You bet.