- Welcome folks to thisedition of The 700 Club.

Well, the Ivy's havebeen scammed big time,

$25 million scammed, photoshopped pictures

of their children on thebodies of elite athletes.

Whoever heard of such a thing?

Well, it's happened in America.

We'll tell you more about it.

Also, down in Latin America,Venezuela, fifth day of crisis.

Those socialists and communists can't fix

their electrical grid, it's still broken.

They're plunged into darkness.

It's really a terrible, terribletragedy but it's happening.

And what else is going on?

- There is a big news day,is a big news day here,

talking about that scandal at the top.

The Department of Justice says

it's the largest collegeadmission scam ever prosecuted

and they've swept updozens of parents, coaches,

and test administrators in its net.

Heather Sells reports.

- At the heart of this case is parents.

Prosecutors have charged 33who paid enormous amounts

to get their children accepted

into some of the most elite schools.

Also charged coaches, test administrators,

and this man, the alleged mastermind,

William Singer of NewportBeach, California.

He's pled guilty in federal court.

- Wealthy parents paidSinger about $25 million

in total to guaranteetheir children's admission

to elite schools,including Yale, Georgetown,

Stanford, the Universityof Southern California,

the University of Texas.

- You're kidding.

- [Heather] Some of theparents are celebrities,

like Lori Loughlin ofthe sitcom Full House.

Also Felicity Huffman, who starred

in ABC's Desperate Housewives.

Prosecutors say the scamguaranteed acceptance

into top schools by fabricating

what every collegewants: high test scores.

- Numerous parents paid Singerbetween $15,000 and $75,000

to have someone either takethe exam for their child

or to correct theirchild's answers afterwards.

- [Heather] The scam alsoallegedly faked athletic profiles,

creating the perception that certain

students were strong athletes.

It also bribed coaches.

- In return for bribes, thesecoaches agreed to pretend

that certain applicants were recruited,

competitive athletes when infact the applicants were not.

- The NCAA says it willlook into the allegations.

Authorities believe otherparents were involved

and say the investigation will continue.

The real victims in this case?

The hard-working studentswho didn't get accepted

to the college of their choice

because of this scam that ensured a place

for those whose parents could afford it.

Heather Sells, CBN News.

- The question is, haveyou ever heard somebody say

my son was accepted to shop at Walmart?

Have you ever heard anybody say that?

Of course not.

They say he was accepted to Harvard.

Like big deal.

Well, the new model isthese students are important

just like customers are to Walmart.

And instead of making it hard to get in,

they oughta make it easy.

But the elites are trying to act like

they're so special and in a sense,

this is a black eye thatthey richly deserve.

(chuckles)

In other news, whilemore countries are either

grounding or banning the Boeing 737 Max 8

from their air space,the FAA is under fire

for not taking action.

It looks for all the world likethe flaw is in the autopilot

and the autopilot is sending signals,

they've got a couple of things in there

that are causing those planes

when they take off to actas if they are in a dive

and they push the nose down

and the pilots have todisconnect the autopilot.

When they do that, they can fly the plane.

But if they're not trainedto do that the planes crash.

So John Jessup has more of that story.

- Pat, the Federal AviationAdministration is facing

growing criticism for not grounding

Boeing 737 Max airplanes.

The FAA says there's nobasis to ground the fleet

after Sunday's crash inEthiopia that killed 157 people.

The accident coming just four months

after another deadly crash in Indonesia.

40 countries includingmany in the European Union,

Asia, and the Middle East are no longer

allowing the planes into their air space.

Both United States andCanada haven't decided yet

to ground them but lawmakers here

in the US are calling on the FAA to act.

- I think out of an abundance of caution

and frankly common sense, it makes sense

to ground an aircraft that's been involved

in two very tragicaccidents in only 6 months.

- Boeing's CEO spoke withPresident Trump by phone

and he told him he's absolutely confident

in the safety of the airplanes.

Another setback for theUnited Kingdom's plan

to leave the European Union.

Britain's Parliament voted down

Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit Plan.

That the second proposalUK lawmakers have rejected.

Now with the separationless than two weeks away,

Parliament must voteon whether to break off

without an agreement.

The so-called hard Brexitcould make it difficult

for the United Kingdom tomaintain trade, security,

and other relationswith the European Union.

Turning to the 2020 presidential race.

The big question now:

will former Vice President Joe Biden run

for the Democratic nomination?

At a rally before a groupof firefighters this week,

he might have offered a hint.

With the crowd chanting run, Joe, run,

Biden told them to hold on to that energy.

- Save it a longer, I mayneed it in a few weeks.

(laughing and cheering)

Be careful what you wish for.

- And polls show Biden leads every

other Democratic candidateseeking the nomination.

Pat.

- You know, it's nice to see some adults

in the room in the Democratic Party.

That bunch of children and those crazies

that have been dominatingthe scene are just ridiculous

and they're leading theDemocrats down to failure.

Biden, they're gonna say we have to turn

to an ole white guy and somaybe the radicals don't want

somebody like that, theywant a young person.

And Biden's been around a long, long time.

But he's a very nice man.

But whether those radicalswill buy it, I don't know.

John.

- Pat, some Democratsdon't wanna wait until 2020

to oust President Trump.

But with House SpeakerNancy Pelosi now coming out

against impeachment, they'renot sure what comes next.

CBN News Capitol Hill Correspondent

Abigail Robertson reports

on the fallout from Pelosi's comments.

- Democrats messaging onimpeachment has been clear

for quite some time.

But after Pelosi wentpublic with her views

against impeachment,the strategy left some

of her members grasping for straws.

- I don't know, It's really hard.

She's a very smart speaker.

- [Abigail] Callingthe president ethically

and intellectually unfit for office,

Speaker Nancy Pelositold the Washington Post

she is quote "not for impeachment."

- I'm sure she hadreasons for what she said.

- The Speaker's been veryconsistent on this point.

- [Abigail] The now-publicapproach could help

insulate Democrats from future criticism

if the party does moveforward with impeachment.

- We should never proceed with impeachment

for political reasonsand we should never avoid

moving forward with impeachmentfor political reasons.

- [Abigail] But not allDemocrats are gelling

with Speaker Pelosi's message.

- There will be anothervote on impeachment.

- [Abigail] Congressman Al Green intends

to bring articles ofimpeachment to the House floor

for a third time, the firstwith Democrats in the majority.

- But the other thing is,

it's not going to pass the Senate.

- [Abigail] IllinoisDemocrat Jan Schakowsky

says a House vote is futile.

- If we do impeachment, it'sgoing to suck all the air

out of the entire message that we have.

- [Abigail] For now, Democratsare taking a wait-and-see

approach to ousting President Trump.

- We're expecting theMueller report pretty soon.

- That will be largelydriven by the results

of the Mueller investigation.

- [Abigail] Republican Senator

Lindsey Graham says he agrees.

- When the Mueller report comes out,

to me, hopefully that'llbe the definitive word

on any impropriety by the campaign.

- [Abigail] And if Mueller'sreport doesn't change

the way the wind blows,

Democrats may have to adjust their sails.

- One could imagine a Presidentwho committed a felony

and the House simply decided,for the good of the country,

it wasn't an importantfelony, it was just a mistake,

it's something we can dealwith after a presidential term.

- After Pelosi's comments,Republicans countered,

asking why Democrats would haveissued 81 document requests

to people associated with President Trump

if they're not alreadyplanning on impeachment.

Reporting from Capitol Hill,Abigail Robertson, CBN News.

- Thanks, Abby.

Pat, there's dissensionin the Democratic ranks.

- The idea of impeachment is insanity.

Nancy Pelosi is savvypolitician and she knows,

as one of those guys said,it'll suck all the energy out

and you'll spend all yourtime on a futile endeavor,

when it hits the Senate, there's no way

they're gonna vote 2/3to impeach the president.

It's not gonna happen.

So it will be an exercise in futility

and they'll lose allof the whatever issues

they've got going,they'll go away from them.

There's something else Ithink that you need to know.

My source is telling me that the Mueller

report will probably presented either

Thursday or Friday of this week.

It's very unlikely thatit'll have anything

in it of any great substance.

There's no collusion and hewon't be found in any collusion.

So what are they gonna do?

Say he obstructed justice?

I don't believe it.

There's no ground for obstruction.

So I think the Muellerreports gonna be plain vanilla

so the Democrats are gonnabe frustrated in the House.

But they're gonna do everything they can

to hurt the president,to hinder the president,

to block the president.

And what good does that do America

if our president ishobbled with a whole bunch

of subpoenas from the House?

My feeling is, and I think it's shared

by other legal experts,is that this particular

initiative is unconstitutional.

The hearings need to be presented

with some kind of legislative initiative.

They just can't be shufflingthrough the financial records

of the children of thepresident of the United States.

What legislative purposeis that going to serve?

Well, none whatsoever.

I think the idea of the president's

legal team would be to askfor declaratory judgment,

take the Democratic congressmento court every time,

sue them every time, andput them on the defensive.

So if you're gonna win, youdon't win by covering up,

you win by going on the attack.

As we have pointed out,Venezuela is in crisis

and John has more.

- That's right, Pat.

The blackout in Venezuela continues

as people suffer withoutfresh food or water

and hospitals remain in thedark while patients suffer.

This as the political crisiscontinues to rock the country,

Secretary of State MikePompeo was lashing out

at Cuba and Russia for continuingto support the country,

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro

saying the United States is contributing

to his country's economic crisis.

Pompeo told reportersat the State Department

the US is interested only in the welfare

of the Venezuelan people.

When an EF-4 tornado ripped through

Lee County, Alabama, earlier this month,

Kathy Brown's first thought was to

protect the disabledveterans under her care.

While 23 people died in the twister,

Kathy and the veterans were spared.

But one of their buildingswas hit by the tornado.

As Mark Martin shows us,

CBN's Operation Blessing is helping

them clean up and rebuild.

(laughing)

- [Mark] Kathy Brown isan owner and caregiver

at Loving Touch, a homefor disabled veterans

in Lee County, Alabama.

She serves 14 veterans atthe home and lives next door.

Her husband is also a disabled vet.

He was awarded the Purple Heart

after suffering woundsfrom a mine in Vietnam.

- I'm a nurse by trade and that's

what I always wanted to be.

I'm retired now, but I just always try

to make other people feel better.

To me it was always aboutother people and not myself.

- [Mark] On Sunday, March 3rd,

Kathy turned on the newsand heard the warning:

severe weather in the area.

Rushing next door to makesure the veterans were safe,

her worst concerns came true.

Two tornadoes touched downnearby, one on her street.

- So we got the veterans in a safe place

and just prayed that we would be okay.

And thank God, we wasn't hurt.

We had no damage to the veteran home.

- [Mark] Miraculously,the tornado did not damage

her home either, but apath of destruction blew

right by her house.

The tornado took offalmost the entire roof

of the veterans' recreation center

and threw debris all over her yard.

It also blew apart hergrandchildren's play set.

(metal clanging)

That's when Operation Blessing stepped in

to remove the heavy debris.

The crew also got up onthe roof and covered it

with a blue tarp to keepthe recreation center dry.

- Thank you, thank you, thank you.

- Kathy believes the Lord sentOperation Blessing workers

to her because she did noteven have to make a phone call.

Her friend reached outto the organization,

saying you just have to help this woman.

She's the sweetest womanI know besides my mother.

- It's hard for me.

I like to be the one that give.

And when Operation Blessingcame and they showed up

and I didn't even call for 'em,

it's just something that I can't explain.

I was so grateful to knowthat God got somebody

that would come and youdon't even have to ask

for their help, He would just send 'em,

not knowing that you all was gonna come

until someone calledme early this morning.

I was just so grateful for youall showing up and helping.

It's just something Ican't hardly explain.

- [All] Amen.

- [Mark] Mark Martin, CBN News.

- God bless the people like Kathy Brown

and people like her suffering in Alabama.

Pat, back to you.

- Operation Blessing, Isaiah 58,

here's what the fast that God has chosen,

that you deal your bread to the hungry,

you see the homeless, you take 'em in,

you see the naked, you clothe them.

And Operation Blessing after many years,

40 years or so, is still outdoing the cleaning up debris,

putting tarps on roofs, helping survivors,

praying and lending spiritual support,

and also food and water andmedical help and all the rest.

If you want to help Operation Blessing,

you can call 1-800-700-7000,

be a volunteer, or you can make a donation

to Operation BlessingDisaster Relief Fund.

And let me tell you, there's been some

serious, serious problemsand that's just the start

of what Operation Blessing is doing.

These tornadoes, this vicious weather,

the things that arehappening, not only in America

but all around the worldOperation Blessing is there

and helped probably asmany as 300 million people

with their work.

It's really a very wonderful thing.

Something else.

I said the other day that wehad an entitlement crisis.

We got a lot of calls, like how dare you

mention that SocialSecurity as something bad.

Well, let me tell you some facts.

I want to bring these to youbecause you need to know.

First of all, the SocialSecurity Trust Fund will run

out of money in 2034.

And the Medicare Trust Fundwill run out of money by 2026.

And these funds are only used when

there's not enough taxmoney to pay for benefits.

But let's look at some ofthese unfunded liabilities.

We talk about the budget.

The unfunded liabilities ofthese two agencies right now,

let me tell you, in SocialSecurity has unfunded

liabilities over $37 trillion

and Medicare liabilitiescan go over $50 trillion.

And so we talk about theenormous amount of public debt.

But these two unfunded liabilities

for these so-called entitlements.

Now when Alan Simpson, former senator,

and Erskine Bowles from theUniversity of North Carolina

got together, they puttogether a splendid budget

that included a realisticappraisal of Social Security.

Here's what happened and you need

to understand what happened.

When Social Security wasfirst set up in 1935 or so,

the average life expectancy of a citizen

in America was about 65 orless, sometimes 60, 62, 63.

So the cap on SocialSecurity started at 65

so people were already deadby the time it started.

So this was a small group andit was a few hundred dollars.

Now, the cap has stayedthe same but the people,

let's face it, they're working longer,

they're healthier longer,they live 'til 70, 75, 80.

I'm coming up on 90 pretty soon, 89.

Because of health, becauseof all these wonderful

things we've got, people live longer.

And the charge on thismaterial has been extremely.

Now what happened wasthere was a tax taken out

of your paycheck and you see your paycheck

and it says income taxesand it says so much

for Social Security and itsays so much for Medicare.

Everybody's paid it.

But it's gone into the government

and what do you think the government did?

What does Congress do?

They said these are tax revenues,

we count them against the budget,

and so they spent the money.

Every time.

Did you know that?

- They spent the money.

It's gonna run out, you say, in 2034?

- Yeah, but I mean they spentthe money as it came in.

- They didn't put it away for--

- I guess they got somebonds or something out there.

But we gotta pay for the bonds.

But they have a so-called trust fund

and people act like there was a lockbox

and all that nonsense.

It was only part.

And when this runs out,

this money's gotta come out the budget.

And we're talking againabout trillions of dollars

and something has gotta be done.

And the first thing they've gotta do is

to make Social Security more sustainable

and Medicare more sustainable.

And in order to do that, they'vegot to raise the age limit

when this stuff comes into play.

They cannot any longer have 65s, 66, 67.

It's gotta be more, let'ssneak up into 70, 71, 72

and they've gotta do it gradually.

But I know for some people,you don't have any savings.

The American people don't havesavings, it's just shocking.

The small amount ofmoney that is available

to the average household,it's a few thousand dollars.

You couldn't possibly live more

than a few months on the savings.

Do you know that?

It's just, people are--

- It's scary.

It's scary, but you know,since it's not gonna run out

'til 2034 or around then,

isn't there time to fix the problem?

Maybe?

- It's been the time forthe longest kind of time

but Congress, it's the third rail

and nobody wants to touch it.

You even mention it likeI did on this program

and I get all thesecalls, oh how dare you.

Because this is the lifeline of people

and they have to live on Social Security.

Well, that's fine.

But the truth is, we cannotcontinue to pay benefits

to people who are healthy of working age

and the age of retirementmust be pushed longer.

That's the way it is.

The total amount that somebody here,

we've got that available to us.

If this married couple withan average earnings turns 65

in 2028, that person will pay $295,000

in Social Security andthey will receive $535,000.

So they say that's my money.

Well, yeah, that's howmuch extra it's gonna be.

As far as Medicare--

- [Wendy] They're gettingtwice as back what they put in.

- Twice, twice.

And they'll pay $81,000 in Medicare

and they'll get $495,000 in benefits.

These are just some of the numbers, folks.

And the biggest problem is the so-called

trust fund is gonna run out and

it's gonna hit the federalbudget and when it does,

it's going to be a monstrous problem

because they'll be how many millions

of dollars has got to be spent now

on entitlements as partof the federal budget.

There won't be enough money for the fence.

There won't be enough for all

these other things the government does.

And not to mention, the interest charge.

We're coming down on a fiscalcrisis of mammoth proportion

and people have got torecognize what's happening

and we've got to do something about it.

- [Wendy] Amen.

(claps)

- Does that tell you anything?

- Tough love, you had to getit out there, I'm glad you did.

- Well, it's tough love.

But let's face it, wejust have got to move up

and you can ratchet it slowly,

make it a couple of years and then another

couple of years and before long,

you've got it up intoa more realistic number

and everybody can live with it.

That's what Simpson and Bowles did

but it was given toObama and he just put it

in a drawer and ignored it.

It was brilliant.

It would have balanced the budget.

It was a wonderful planbut they didn't take it.