The Eric Metaxas Show - Johnny Burtka

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Johnny Burtka, President of Intercollegiate Studies Institute, shares his book: Gateway to Statesmanship: Selections from Xenophon to Churchill.

Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to listen to a man of grace, sophistication, integrity, and whimsy? Well, so are we. But until such a man shows up, please welcome Eric Mat, Texas. Hey, the folks, welcome to the program. I don't know what day it is, but who cares? Some of you don't either. But here's the important thing. I have a wonderful guest on right now.

This is pretty cool. his name is Johnny Burka. He's written a book, Gateway to Statesmanship, from Xenophon to Churchill. Ladies and gentlemen, if you put Xenophon in your title, I'm hooked. Johnny, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me, Eric.

And you do go by Johnny. I'm not being importunate. I do go by Johnny, that's right. I figure that John is a little bit more forgettable, so, you know, about about a lot on behalf of lives. Yes. Well, my brother's name John, and I call him Johnny. But you give us your, first of all, how do you pronounce your last name? That's much more important.

Bertka. Okay, I got that right, too. Bertka. You got it right. You nailed it. Okay, you give us your background. Before we get into why you wrote a book about statesmanship, Xenophon to Churchill, what led you into this?

Yeah, absolutely. So I was a son of the Midwest grew up in Michigan. dad worked in the auto industry, and then when the waves of globalization sort of wrecked the, you know, the heartland of America, he ended up pivoting and actually opened a winery and a microbrewery. So kind of grew up hands-on in the family business, working hard, learned a lot from my mom and dad, and then had the privilege of going to Hillsdale College. And, you know, I joke with kind of, I am actually headed back there this weekend to get an alumni award. And I only, I only mentioned that, actually out of humility, because when I applied

to Hillsdale, I literally did not know what the phrase, the great books, meant. I had never heard it in my life until the admissions interview. And they said, what are your favorite great books? You know, and I said, I don't know, Romeo and Juliet, the Bible. Like I went to a local public high school, had a lot of good friends, but just really focused on sports and kind of all the things that, you know, American kids do at a local rural public school. And it was the opportunity to go to Hillsdale and to study under Larry Arns, you know, tutelage, meeting in his house every single Friday, reading through Aristotle's ethics line by line, then doing an entire semester with him on C.S. Lewis. Yeah, you're making everybody who didn't go to Hillsdale jealous. I know. It needs to stop right now.

No, seriously, I am so grateful to God that Hillsdale exists. and that it's cranking out amazing young men and women. I have to say, really, it's amazing. I just interviewed Larry Arne for Socrates in the City. We did that in Lexington, Kentucky, and people can see that on YouTube or Socrates in the city website. But Larry Arne is a treasure and a gift from God to America, I have to say. And the fact that Hillsdale, I received, I was honored 10 years ago with an

honorary doctorate from Hillsdale. And I thought that is one of the most extraordinary gifts that I've ever honors that I could ever get in my lifetime. So suddenly now I realize why it is that you wrote a book about statesmanship from Xenophonda Churchill, because that's kind of typical of folks who come out of Hillsdale. They're going to appreciate this stuff. That's right. Exactly. And I mean, it's remarkable. The students that were with me in that Aristotle class, you know, you know, one of them's in the White House, one of them's very high up at the Justice Department and other ones on the Wall Street Journal editorial board. And that all came out of, you know, those, that slow reading of a text that I actually included in my book, Gateway to Statesmanship,

from Aristotle's ethics, really talking about the virtues of a great statesman. Well, it's kind of funny when you say, so you were in high school and you're at your interview for Hillsdale, and they ask you, so what are the great books that you've written? Isn't that it's like a chilling thing when I think about where my head was, you know, when I'm 16 years old and being interviewed by college people about stuff that I was not raised, you know, in a home where my parents had been to college or where I had any sense of this. So if somebody had asked me that, I shudder to think, you know, what what great books have you read, Eric? And I, would say, oh, I don't know, Shirley McLean's out on a limb and the shining.

You know, look, what do you? So it's kind of amazing that by God's grace, we ended up landing on our feet, so to speak, when it comes to the great books. So let's speaking to great books, let's talk about your book, Gateway to Statesmanship. What made you feel that you wanted to write this book? Yeah. So the short answer is no one has put together a book like this, to my knowledge, since the Renaissance. What I mean by that is...

Yeah, what do you mean by that? There's this forgotten genre of literature. It's called The Mirrors for Princes. No one knows what that means, right? Mirrors for princes today. In short, this is advice for political leaders at the highest levels, both how they should conduct their politics and their morality when they are sort of, when they come to come to power.

I'm assuming the most famous example of this is Niccolo Machiavelli's book. That is the most most famous example. famous example. Absolutely. In the more modern world, so to speak. In some sense, Machiavelli perhaps gave birth to the modern world, which we can go into perhaps later. But this collection basically surveys from ancient China and India to Greece, to Rome, to Israel, and throughout the Middle Ages, the advice for statesmen in many different cultural contexts throughout the West and the East. And so as I was looking at the point where our country was at, you know, rewinding a few years ago, I was dismayed by where the country was headed under President Biden,

and I saw an opportunity to put together this collection in the hopes that a future statesman might, or at least his advisors, might pick it up and take a look at kind of these precious jewels of wisdom from the past. And so I actually dedicated the book to the 47th president, of the United States, which is customary to dedicate the book, to dedicate a mirror of princes. They're offered as a letter, typically, to a king or a queen or a president to give them advice on how they should govern, and with great humility, obviously. And so I dedicated it to number 47. This was a year before the election. And I actually had the privilege of doing a launch event for the book with now Vice President J.D. fans.

Wow. This is wonderful. Well, I was going to say, you know, in your title, the fact that Xenophon is in your title, you know, I've got some things in common with Xenophon, two things in particular, two striking things. Xenophon was Greek and I am Greek, and each of us has an X in his name. Beyond that, I'm not so sure what we have in common. But tell us a little bit about Xenophon because I don't know that I've ever spoken about. Zinifon on this program. Yeah, so if you haven't or your audience hasn't read the education of Cyrus, which I have an excerpt from in my book, I would highly recommend it. In the Renaissance, Sir Philip Sidney, who was a British, you know, author in Soldier, basically wrote that Xenophon told the story of Cyrus in narrative form, right? It's not a book of leadership maxims. It's a story.

It's a story from birth to death. give us the background. What year was Xenophon? Who was Xenophon and what century was he writing in? Yeah. So, I mean, Xenophon, you know, was basically writing in ancient Greece, kind of in Athens. And he was reflecting back on the ancient Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great, who he's essentially painting a combination of blending history and myth, kind of looking back, telling the story of this. great conqueror. This is a man Cyrus who conquered from modern day Iran, basically all of the way unto Greece, right, and then ruled from Babylon. And so it's kind of getting inside the head of this ruler from a young age and kind of seeing his trajectory over the course of his life. Sort of the claim at the beginning of the book is that political rule is difficult because

human beings don't like to have someone else in charge of them. They want to be in charge of their own destiny, right? And some have said maybe political rule is even impossible. And basically Xenophon says it's not impossible. Someone's done it before. And that's someone with Cyrus the great. And here's how we learned how to be a leader of men. Okay, hang on a moment. We're going to come, be right back. We're talking to Johnny Bertka, B-U-R-T-K-A. The book is Gateway to Statesmanship, Xenophonte, Churchill. I'll stick around. Ingredients, when I flip a container around and I can't pronounce or recognize the ingredients,

I put it back. That's why you'll find balance of nature's fruits and veggie supplements on a shelf in my home, because every single ingredient is a fruit or veggie plucked from the soil. No binders, no additives or artificial colors, no fillers, just whole fruits and veggies, gluten-free and vegan-friendly. These harvested ingredients are freeze-dried into a fine powder using an advanced vacuum-cold process to better preserve nutritional value. I can say with absolute confidence that I'm getting 31 ingredients from fruits and veggies every single day with balance of nature.

Imagine a platter with 31 different fruits and veggies on it every day. Join me in taking Balance of Nature and use my discount code Eric to get 40% off plus free shipping this week only. You've got to use my discount code Eric. Call them at 800 2468-751. Use discount code Eric. Order online at balance of nature.com. Use discount code Eric. get 40% off this week only. As you know, our friend Mike Lindell has a passion to help everyone get the

best sleep of their life. He didn't stop by simply creating the best pillow. Mike created the best bed sheets ever. They look and feel great, which means an even better night's sleep for me, which is crucial for my busy schedule. Mike is offering the best deal on his Giza dreams bedsheets. Any size and any color, just 4998. That's right. You can even get Queens, Kings, Split Kings, and Cal Kings. Any size, any color, just 4998. Order now because when they're gone, they're gone. Also for a limited time when your order is over $100, you'll receive $100 in free digital gifts. Call 1-800-978-3057. Use the promo code Eric or go to Mypillow.com. Make sure you use the promo code Eric for the amazing offer, 4998 on the Giza Dream Sheets, any size, any color, the number.

Again, 1-800-378-3057. 1-1-800-3057. The promo code is Eric, or please go. to MyPillow.com, MyPillow.com. Use the code, Eric. Welcome back. I am talking to Johnny Bertka, B-U-R-T-K-A, who has written a book, Gateway to Statesmanship, Xenophon to Churchill. X, Zenophon, for those of you, scoring at home, begins with an X. X, X, X, Zanophon. So Xenophon, you were just saying, Johnny, wrote, and obviously people can read this in your book. They don't need to actually find Xenophon's book, but although it's probably lying around someplace, right next to Jonathan Livingston Seagull at the Beach House. But you're saying that in your book, you quote passages from Xenophon's

book talking about the Persian king Cyrus. That's right. And it's been said thousands of years later that the story is so powerful because it captures the imagination and has the potency to actually create many more Cyrus's in the future. Now, for our religious listeners, which I assume is many, Cyrus is actually the only non-Israelite in the Old Testament to be referred to as a Messiah by the Jewish people. So Cyrus actually liberated the Jews from captivity in Babylon when he conquered the city of Babylon. Right, not the Messiah, but a Messiah, a savior of Israel. And of course, for that reason, President Truman and President Trump have been compared to Cyrus. Interesting. I mean, he certainly is a figure that, you know, if you look at the genealogy of great leaders, you know,

sorry, Julius, sorry, hold on one second. Alexander the Great modeled his rule after conscious imitation of Cyrus. Julius Caesar modeled his leadership after Alexander the Great. Napoleon, you know, sorry, yeah, Julius Caesar modeled his after Alexander the Great. Napoleon modeled his after Caesar. And Churchill actually had a bust of Napoleon on his desk and looked to him for inspiration. So there's a lot to probe here because obviously when you think of some of these guys, Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, right?

They're not all good guys. You know, one of my friends said that Napoleon was as great as he could be without actually being good. So there's this quality line. Right. That's such a great line. Say that again. Yeah, Napoleon was as great as he could be without actually being good. And so what you'll find with a lot of these people, like Cyrus, for example,

is that he had an incredible self-control and self-discipline. But he didn't have this self-control and self-discipline just because he happened to be a prudish sort of guy, right? He did have appetites like any conquering, right, ancient ruler would have, but he constrained his appetites, whether that was for women, whether that was for money. He gave almost all of his money away. He refused to kind of have any extramarital affairs.

but it was all in pursuit of building his empire, right? So he restrained his desires, disciplined himself in order to build this empire, and then ruled over it in a way that he had won all of these men and all these kingdoms to himself by his example. Well, that is extraordinary. Now, of course, I mean, it needs to be said when we talk about statesmanship, you know, you and I, we're Americans, and we believe in a certain kind of, of government and political order.

Obviously, Xenophon and Cyrus and many of those, you've just mentioned Napoleon. They didn't, and Alexander, they weren't exactly George Washington. So what is it, in other words, when you're talking about statesmanship, what do we mean by that? I mean, statesmanship is really the, you know, it's the art of governing. And I think there are kind of two dimensions to this. There's the transcendent dimension, right? Every statesmanship has a vertical relationship with God, right? And in the ancient world, this was very explicitly built into the regime itself.

What I mean is that there was no meaningful distinction between the church and the state, kind of in the ancient world. And so it was the leader's responsibility to point the people towards the gods, you know, with a lowercase G, especially in the pagan world, obviously for Israel, it was the one true God, Yahweh. In our contemporary context, you know, I actually still believe, while there's the formal separation of church and state, that it is our leader's job. And you see this in the Thanksgiving proclamations going all the way from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln, all the way to the present day, even a recent proclamation that President Trump made on Easter,

about acknowledging, right, that all nations must obey God, Almighty God, give thanks for his benefits, and recognize that the foundation of any good government is the blessing of God Almighty. So that vertical relationship is very essential for statesmanship. Then there's also this horizontal relationship with the people. right? And obviously our declaration of independence and also our understanding of Christians is that we're fundamentally created equal in the image of God, equal in dignity. And so it's the job of the statesman to really secure the common good of his fellow citizens. And what I mean by that is really the conditions, the material conditions of order, of justice, a degree of prosperity

so that families can flourish on a single income, right? Things like that in the material order that ultimately can lead us and enable us to live lives of virtue in peace and security. That's the common good at the horizontal level that a statesman needs to pursue. Well, that's what's so fascinating because here we are talking about people, as I've just said, who in many ways don't share your beliefs or mine or the beliefs of the American founding, they existed in different times. They existed in times before anyone had put those ideas forward.

And yet, there's a semblance of desire for justice or, you know, depending on who the ruler is, depending on the details. But it is interesting to me that there were noble rulers. I'm writing a book on the American Revolution. And it's fascinating how so many of the founders looked back to the best, era of the Republic of Rome and how Joseph Addison's famous play on Cato was held up as a model. So you do have models in the ancient world in previous centuries. Is there anybody from that era in Rome that you write about in your book? Yeah. So a point real quick about the founding fathers.

I mean, I think you could make the case that Plutarch's, lives of the great Greeks and Romans, which these are, these are, it's a, it's essentially biographies and he's paralleling one Greek and one Roman who, you know, whose life story kind of was similar to each other, right? And there's a, there are dozens of them. And I think you could actually make the case that this biography, which is, you know, it's compelling story form, um, was just as influential on the American founding as any kind of, uh, enlightenment philosopher. or book of political theory, right? The American founders were steeped in Plutarch's lives

studying, you mentioned Cato, you know. I mean, he talks about everyone, whether it's Julius Caesar, whether it's Alexander the Great. The list could go on. And obviously, the founders were drawn towards, you know, Cicero, the ones kind of from that Republican period, because they were setting up a republic

and kind of learning the lessons. But they would have also been intimately familiar with the life of Julius Caesar, right? And both his positives and negatives as a leader. And I think you also see different levels of ambition in different ways. You know, obviously Washington, who I revere, and I actually included his farewell address

in this collection, because I think it's beautifully written, it's timeless, and it's, you know, it's Washington, I think, can stand on par with any of these great ancient leaders. But, I mean, you also have a guy, and, you know, Washington obviously is famous for not a, he didn't want to become the King of America, right? He retired back to his farm, and he was reluctantly kind of called back to public service for a limited period of time,

uh, two terms. But you also have guys like Hamilton, right, who were really ambitious, you know? I mean, Hamilton wanted a president for life. I mean, he was arguing for that at the constitutional convention, president for life. You know, he was a big, um, tariff guy. I mean, he, he, he supported kind of industrial policy. I mean, he was all about what you could say kind of making America great for the first time by harnessing the economic power and sort of building those canals, you know, building the manufacturing base that we would need to essentially eclipse Great Britain as the dominant world power. So at that time, we were stuck in this colonial system and we were essentially sending raw materials back to the mother country. Then they would sell us the finished

goods, you know, at a premium. And so I think what Hamilton saw is, no, you know, America actually, even though we're a republic, it needs to be able to kind of walk and talk and have the swagger of an empire on the, you know, and that first and foremost begins with establishing our economic independence from Great Britain and surpassing them as a manufacturing power, which we would do about 100 years later. And then obviously by the time of, you know, World War I, you know, they're knocking on our door to help save them. And how extraordinary now that we have outsourced this to Mexico and China, and we're now moving in the other direction.

We'll be right back, folks. The book is Gateway to Statesmanship, Xenophon to Churchill. Welcome back. I'm talking to Johnny Bertka. And the book is Gateway to Statesmanship, Xenophon. That's with an X. Xenophon to Churchill. So you were just talking about Hamilton,

and this stuff is so fascinating. I mean, the more I learn about history, the more I want to learn about history. I mentioned I'm writing a book in the American Revolution discovering so much and can't believe that I didn't know this or I forgot it from fifth grade or eighth grade. But what you're saying about Alexander Hamilton, who really wanted to make America great, was thinking in that way and the ups and downs. And here we are now back to, you know, President Trump trying to. to bring manufacturing back to America.

It's kind of extraordinary. It's wild. I mean, the whole story has really come full circle. And I mean, I think that's what I really see happening right now is actually that return to that original American system idea developed by Alexander Hamilton and championed by Abraham Lincoln, you know, of the United States being the preeminent global economic and technological. powerhouse, right? And that has benefits not only for, you know, the working men and women in America,

but also for the people who are creating the technologies, especially in light of everything going on globally right now. Yeah, it really, it really is extraordinary. So who else do you talk about? You do talk about Washington, you said in the book. I do, yeah, I talk about Washington. I talk about Theodore Roosevelt. Perhaps the most interesting one and little known from an American perspective is Charles de Gaulle.

Now, De Gaulle and Churchill didn't always get along. I mean, they're, again, two great men kind of in their own rights. Don't we wish we had a Charles de Gaul in France today? Oh, boy. Amen. Yeah, don't we ever? I mean, you know, De Gaul and he, every French leader claims to be

sort of a governing in the image of De Gaul, right? But de Gaul is really interesting, because he, you know, devout Catholic, he during World War I, became a prisoner of war. And so while he was a prisoner of war, he had a great deal of shame that he wasn't out fighting. So he spent a lot of time reading and studying. And what he did after the war is he essentially wrote his own mirrors for princes. It was called The Edge of the Sword. And this was his portrait of an ideal leader.

And it's really inspiring. And basically what he did is he then devoted the rest of his life. to becoming the man that he described on those pages. And he eventually would obviously lead the resistance against the Nazi invasion in World War II. He would be the founder of the Fifth French Republic. He would serve as its first president and kind of usher in the 30 glorious years

of economic and political prosperity. And so it's a remarkable story of what your listeners, you hear these stories and you think, I could never do this, right? But when you dive into biographies, and I would encourage everyone, you know, listen, watch, read as many biographies as you can, because you can see yourself in these heroes at every stage in their life. You can learn from their mistakes. And then all of a

sudden you realize that what they did is not that far away if you surround yourself with the right examples. And we can all be heroes, whether it's as a mother, a father, a neighbor in our churches, schools, and local communities, or, you know, God willing, at the highest levels of of our government. So just want people to know, this isn't just pie in the sky stuff. This has applications for every everyday people in their lives. I've made this point many times. I have by now written seven volumes of biography, seven of my books.

And I didn't intend this when I started, but I realized that part of the way we learn, one of the greatest ways we learn, is from other people. Often that's in person, you know, whether it's from our father or our mother. But biographies are the next best thing. And there's no doubt about it that I wrote, you know, my book, Seven Men, Seven Women,

specifically because I said, people need to know these great stories of actual human beings. You cannot help but be affected. That's what's amazing somehow. And you've touched on it. You cannot help but be affected. When you read the life of someone, you're comparing yourself to it. You're thinking about your own life. So it really is a kind of devotional in a way when you're reading biography.

That's right. And I think in order to really save America, right, and restore Western civilization, we have to, yes, tell the principles, right? Tell the theory of it. But most importantly, we have to tell the story of these great men and women that founded our country. And that's what we're doing, you know, on campuses across the country through ISI, identifying the best student leaders, giving them that men. telling the story about America and the West. And with that, I think we can capture the hearts and minds of the next generation. And by capturing that imagination can truly save America and

restore the greatness of Western civilization. And forgive me, what is your role with ISI? I'm the president. Yeah. I was going to say, you are the president. I thought so, but I wasn't sure if that was your title. And what is the website for ISI? It's www. ISI.org. And of course, ISI stands for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Thank you very much. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute of which you're the president. I should have mentioned that in the opening segment because that's, it's very, very important. We've just got 30 seconds, but tell my audience about it. Yes, so we were founded in 1953, where the oldest conservative institution in America,

William F. Buckley, Jr. was our president and really our fundamental mission. is to identify, educate, mentor, and launch the next generation of principled and courageous conservative leaders. So we're at all the top schools, the best Christian schools, and we form them, and then we really help connect them in influential careers. And so our students are in the White House, they're in the media. And the website again, isi.org. Yesi.org. Folks, check it out.isi.org. And Johnny Burka, congratulations. Congratulations. The book is Gateway to Statesmanship, Xenophon, to Churchill. Wonderful to have you. Thanks, Eric.

Welcome back, folks. It's my privilege to speak with our friends at Americans for Prosperity. Today, I have their policy fellow, Graham Owens. Graham, welcome. Thank you. Excited to be here. I just want to ask you, policy is not something that I'm good at. So this is why whenever I get to talk to anybody from Americans for Prosperity, I'm going to get help. on this. So let me ask you, the biggest thing everybody's talking about, like right now this week, is the Senate wants to get a yes on the big, beautiful bill. It's making its way through legislative process. By the time this airs, I don't know where it will be. But what does this bill mean for American small business owners? Yeah, honestly, it would mean the world to them, not only

in terms of preventing a massive tax hike and likely the largest tax hike in American history, but also enabling small businesses and R&D heavy industries to actually utilize the money towards research and development. We've really fallen behind in the R&D space. So things such as making permanent $199A tax deduction for small businesses, that would go from 20% to 23% deduction. That means more money going back into the businesses, more jobs, more people being hired, and then on the R&D side, expanding the R&D tax credit, ensuring that, you know, money that's invested, that that's going to American innovation,

that's going to American jobs, especially, again, manufacturing biotech, those R&D heavy industries. So it would absolutely mean the world to them. Well, I mean, I know Americans for Prosperity gets this policy stuff that I don't. And I'm amazed. What really amazes me, though, is how people as smart as Elon Musk don't seem to get this. They don't seem to understand that. The idea, of course, is that you want to unleash. the economy, so you're producing revenue.

At least that's the idea behind it. But it's, I'm glad you just said that. Now, actually, let me ask you, if Congress is able to pass the one big, beautiful bill, I laugh every time I say it because it's so Trumpian, the one big beautiful bill, what's on their horizon, legislatively speaking, after this? Because this is obviously huge, but we forget that there's life. after this. What happens if we pass this bill? Right. Yeah, well, fingers crossed, we're nearing the end of the road here. I think all signs point to that. My understanding is they've

said themselves to July 4th deadline. So we are holding our breath and hoping that that is the case, like they say, all good things take time. But after that, all signs that we're hearing are telling us that we're going to want to prioritize re-enpowering Congress, restoring Article 1 supremacy, as the Constitution imagines, that Congress, shocker, would be our actual lawmaking body. And part of that is also right-sizing the regulatory state and reducing that capacity and removing and realigning that power back to Congress where it was initially meant to be. And this is actually particularly important following the Loper Bright decision where the Supreme Court overturned the decades on Chevron deference, meaning these regulatory agencies will no longer get this, you know,

made-up court deference where they can do anything they want so long as there's some ambiguity in the law. That's gone. And now so Congress, is going to have to take up that mantle, learn how to legislate or relearn, and really take it on. And all signs are important that they're ready to take that up and ready to right size of the regulatory state. And I think the greatest sign to that is very recently there was a report released by the post-Chevron working group led by Senator Eric Schmidt in the Senate, along with 23 Senate Republicans, where they kind of laid out a roadmap of legislating after Loper, legislating after Chevron, and setting forth long-term, midterm and short-term goals. that they can achieve to achieve that dual mission of, again, of reducing the regulatory state, reempowering Congress as the Constitution was meant to me. How did we get to a place where, I mean, how do we describe this?

I mean, we're talking about the deep state. We're talking about big government. How do we get to a place where Congress has allowed people that are not elected to create these regulations? I mean, it's just amazing to me that this has happened. So it's exciting to me that we're on the verge of undoing it. But it is amazing and horrifying that we've gotten to this place. I mean, is it laziness? Is it just bureaucratic drift?

I can never understand how we can get to a place where people who are elected by the people are not acting on behalf of the people, but are sort of turning it over to somebody else to do. Yeah, well, a colleague of mine referred to the Chevron doctor as sort of the zombie doctor, meaning we just kind of got used to it. we just accepted it. And so that meant for decades, if a statute had ambiguity, if Congress didn't expressly give an agency authority authorization to take an action, and somehow the courts read that as an affirmative grant of authorization. And so for decade, after decade, agencies were able to take these ambiguities, sometimes in statutes that were written, you know, long time

ago, and claim authority to take an action. And unless they were truly, truly far and left field, the courts were going to uphold it. And so, Over time, you know, that just became the norm. And as a result, the regulatory state, administrative state continued to grow and grow and grow. And Congress kind of sat on their hands. And I don't, you know, not calling anyone out in particular, but they were kind of able to eat their cake and eat too. Why not? Let's call them out. There's too many.

But essentially, you know, you can have your cake and eat it too, meaning you could avoid a tough vote knowing that a regulatory agency was probably going to take care of this policy. That's gone. Yeah. Congress has to take up the responsibility of. taking tough votes, deciding what defines clean water, what defines health and safety, where are regulations actually necessary? And they're going to have to write the type of robust and clear legislation that does not leave these ambiguities. And if they want an agency to have any authorization taken action, they have to expressly state it and state it with clarity. No more using terms

like reasonable and hoping that they'll just go fill in the blanks of putting the tough work. Those days are gone. And so, you know, they say necessity is the mother of innovation or invention. I think it was the necessity that court had to force their hand, overturning Chevron, and removing that ability to have your cake and need to is hopefully that that necessity point where Congress saying, we have to do this now. And again, I think there's a really strong core

of Republican Center leading the way and a good core in the House as well. Okay, so what we're talking about with the passage of the big, beautiful bill, is the restoration of the Trump tax cuts of 2017, which is huge. What else, and we've been, just got 30 seconds, but is there anything else Congress can do to help small businesses

get out from under this regulatory burden they've been dealing with? Yeah, and only have 30 seconds. I would point our listeners to go to America's Prosperity and Google Doge on Main Street. We actually put out a really nice document that lays out bills like the Reorganizing Government Act, the Provid Act from Senator Ernst, the Raines Act, repeal the Corporate Transparency Act, and permanently extend the 2017 tax cuts. All of these are going to go a long way to empowering Congress and empowering small businesses. I think the two will work in conjunction.

If you're empowering Congress, you're empowering small businesses and vice versa. Okay, folks, check it out at Americans for Prosperity. Americans for Prosperity. Graham Owens, thank you so much. Thanks, sir. Appreciate it. Folks, welcome back. It's my joy to continue my conversation with Robert Netsley, the CEO and founder of Inspired.

hire advisors. And Robert, I'm a little bit like a broken record. Every time I have you on, I'm just excited that it's possible to do something. You know, most people have money invested. They're not quite aware of it. The very idea that we can kind of wake up to the reality that we do have choices, that we can have God's money invested in things, not just that we approve of, but that are actually making it possible for you and other advocates to say on behalf of these shareholders going to a big company and say, we don't like this. Can you change this? And many of them are going along with that. That is absolutely amazing to me. What you just shared about Walmart and Kroger, this is great news. It makes me want to run to Walmart and spend money

because I want to bless them. In this case, they're taking a big step. Absolutely. And, you know, and praise God. And there really is a movement. And when you think about Walmart, they employ millions and millions of people around the country or around the world. How many people shop there. We really are making a difference. And it's, you know, getting recognized beyond a scale that I could imagine. So our firm were managing over $3 billion at this point. We've been ranked in the fastest growing firms in the nation. But just last week, the USA Today came out with their rankings and ranked, inspired advisors, the third best financial advisory firm in the country, across all categories, all states. And, you know, much to the chagrin of the, you know, extreme leftists who say that our viewpoints are backwards and on the wrong side of history, and we can't possibly deliver good returns or good results if we're managing things

according to this antiquated, anachronistic Bible that we tote around, you know, and ostentfully thump people. people over the head with. It's just ridiculous to them. But here we are, the top three in the entire country across all firms, all sizes, every state out front leading with biblical values and advocating for these things that we believe in. And that's a win for everybody who invest with us, every client, every client to send us a referral, everybody who has talked to their aunt Sally about where her money is and told her she needs to take a look at that too. People like you, Eric, who are so passionate advocates for this movement, we're, you know, it's getting attention.

And, you know, in our industry, the wolf management industry is not exactly a conservative bastion. You know, Wall Street's not exactly known for that. You know, conservative values, particularly in the social values. And they just, a lot of people just sort of stand aghast and they're confused. How could these, how could this be at all successful? But you and I know that there are still a lot of people in this country, probably the majority of people I'd imagine, who do believe that these things are important. And they want their money to be supporting the values they hold dear. They don't want to give the vote of their dollar to a firm like BlackRock, who is using it to advocate for things completely in opposition to everything you hold dear.

So it just makes sense. And so as the word gets out and people are waking up, I'm just so thrilled to see. the results we're having like we've been talking about with Walmart and Krober, just keeping the abortion pill out of their pharmacies. It's huge. Look, these are monster wins. Monster wins. I can't even believe it when you're telling me this. I'm thinking, wow, is this possible to influence a gigantic, a BMOF like Walmart to do the right thing not to carry this evil abortion pill? It's unbelievable, folks. And this is the free market.

You know what? If you want to, you have an abortion or you want to go to, to whatever, you can do that, but we're in a free country and Walmart can choose to do the right thing. And so we have to support those who are doing what we believe in. And so this is something, it's why I talk about this action point. Folks, I don't know why you wouldn't do this. Go to inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Please be a part of what God is doing.