xfdfx BECK-01
<Show: BECK>
<Date: August 25, 2009>
<Time: 17:00>
<Tran: 082501cb.258>
<Type: Show>
<Head: BECK for August 25, 2009 - Part 1>
<Sect: News; Domestic>
<Byline: Glenn Beck>
<Guest: Phil Kerpen, Stephen Moore, Art Laffer, Michelle Malkin>
<Spec: Politics; Policies; Government>
GLENN BECK, HOST: This week, we are doing a series of special shows. On Friday, I'm going to give you a specific plan of action.
But first, you have to educate yourself. Many people are going to try to make this about anything but what this show is truly about. From a line that I read a long time ago by Thomas Jefferson, Question with boldness. Now, I don't know how many answers I can give to you this week, but I will flood -- as George Washington called it -- the battlefield of ideas with questions, honest questions.
I want you to go and get a notepad. I want you to take notes on every show this week, please. Then take those notes and do your homework, ask these questions of yourself and then demand answers from Washington, because America is at stake. And we're not talking about my America or my vision of America. It's your vision of America. What do you think America should look like?
And by the way, questioning your government is not only important, but in a democratic republic, it is required of each of us.
So, if you're somebody who watches television, scratch your head and say, That doesn't make any sense ? This week, I ask you, sit down. Write some notes. Call a friend right now and say watch the program on FOX right now. Then, stand up and come follow me.
(MUSIC)
BECK: Hello, America. This week I'm doing a special series of shows. It's called a New Republic: America's Future, but I don't know about you. Maybe I'm the only one. I didn't have a problem with the old republic. I think this special is more aptly titled Reasonable Questions for An Unreasonable Time.
All this week, we're going to be covering these topics, President Obama, but you will quickly see this isn't about President Obama. It is so much more. We're going to talk about the left and internationalists and graft and ACORN-style organizations and revolutionaries and hidden agendas -- hidden agendas. Boy, you're going to learn a lot about hidden agendas tonight.
I have to tell you that this is -- I have been in broadcast for 33 years, radio and television. This is the hardest week of broadcast I have had in my life, because I feel it is a culmination of something that started a long time ago. I have been trying to figure out what's going on in my country -- my country and your country, with my president and your president, Bush and Obama.
When Bush argued with a straight face that he could protect America while keeping our borders wide open, I looked at the television and went,
What? I knew at that time that it was a lie and so did you. You were probably angry, I was angry as well.
You didn't understand it, but you know what? Americans have this thing called a life and family. We got angry and then we just took it. You probably didn't do anything but watch closely and get more and more frustrated. Well, luckily -- maybe luckily, my family -- I go home every night with my kids and I read to them and we have a normal life, but my job is this -- I get to watch closely. I have researchers. I have access to information, so I started looking, and I started looking back then.
And over the last few years, I tell you, quite honestly, I have come to believe things that I do not want to believe. They are uncomfortable. They have -- they have made me, much to the aid of Jon Stewart's wallet, weep for my country. If you don't understand somebody who can weep for their country, well then, that's OK, but that's who I am.
I told you yesterday that there are three principles that this show is going to drum through in the next week. In fact, it may be our mantra for a very long time, Question with boldness. It's something that changed my life that Thomas Jefferson said. Question -- honest questioning, question with boldness. Then the second step is: once you find the truth, whatever it is, hold to it. Hold to the truth, and the third one, speak without fear.
I have to tell you, if you don't do those three things soon, you haven't even begun to see fear. I want to focus on the second one tonight, just for a bit. If you truly ask what Thomas Jefferson called honest questions with a sincere heart, I have found that the answers in all aspects of your life may take you to a very uncomfortable place. Tonight, they're going to take you -- and this week, they're going to take you to places that you don't want to go.
Nobody wants to think that our president is a bad guy. I don't know if he is. I mean, he actually seems like a likable guy. He may be the greatest guy ever. But is he in step with you and what you believe our country is?
When you hear evidence to the contrary, you have a decision to make. Will you bury your head in the sand, refusing to believe, because it doesn't fit your political agenda or it just doesn't fit with your comfort level, or will you hold to the truth, whatever it is? So you can be part of the solution, and not an enabler to the problem. We must look at our country not as today's politics, but the future place where our children will grow up. Will they be free?
On last night's show, I asked tough questions about the president's special advisors, his czars, the White House didn't like, they called in the middle of the show. Don't call them czars! Really? Oh, does that bother you?
These people have the ear of the president of the United States. We have a right to know more about them. What are they telling the president of the United States? Is he listening to them? Who are they?
The first one we talked about was Van Jones, a self-proclaimed radical, revolutionary communist -- his words, not mine. A man who co- founded an organization whose own concluding documents, just a few -- not ancient history, just a few years ago, said, quote, All of STORM's members developed a basic understanding of and commitment to revolutionary Marxist policies -- with a particular emphasis on the historical experiences of third world communist movements. Gee, would that be anything like Hugo Chavez's Venezuela?
When we asked the White House if they knew about Jones' radical roots and if it gave them pause to make him a special advisor -- I like to call them czars -- the White House told us, he was, quote, focused on only one issue. Well, first of all, that's not an answer to the question. And beyond that, he's a communist -- focused on what? Job creation.
Let me ask the White House this question: what kind of jobs does a communist create? Let me continue to ask who has the president surrounded himself with? Who?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Who I associate with. On economic policy, I associate with Warren Buffett and former Fed chairman, Paul Volcker. If I'm interested in figuring out my foreign policy, I associate myself with my running mate, Joe Biden or with Dick Lugar, the Republican-ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or General Jim Jones, the former supreme allied commander of NATO. Those are the people, Democrats and Republicans, who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: OK. I'm only taking his advice. You want to know what he believes? See the people he surrounds himself with. That's his advice. Great. Please, America, let's follow his advice.
We already know of at least five radical leftists currently advising the president of the United States, and these are just the ones who are open about their radical beliefs and far-left ideas. One, Van Jones -- introduced you to him last night. He's our green jobs czar -- admits he's a communist!
John Holdren, the science czar -- the forced abortions guy. He has also said and I quote, Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution mentions a right to reproduce, end quote. This is in context referring to: you may have a two-baby limit and the government has a right to say no more children for you.
Cass Sunstein, another advisor to the president, the regulatory czar - - proposed bans on hunting and eating meat. He has also proposed that your dog be allowed to have an attorney in court, and also a fairness doctrine for the Internet, because it gets a little dicey out there. He has stepped away from the last one -- but we'll talk about what the czars have in mind for a fairness doctrine tomorrow, joined by Rush Limbaugh.
Carol Browner, she's our global warming czar. She was part of Socialists International. This is a group for global governance. Can we stop there? Are you are for a global government? Are you for someone who is for a global government and a socialist having the ear of the president of the United States?
Then we have Ezekiel Emanuel, health care advisor. He is a proponent of the complete lives system, which puts values on lives based mostly on age.
Now, here's an honest question: How many Marxists, communists, anti- capitalists do you have around you on a daily basis?
He doesn't just have socialists and communists advising him. Last night, I told you about the people who helped write the stimulus package, the Apollo Alliance. Let me show you a picture of one of the leaders from the Apollo Alliance here in New York. This man's name is Jeff Jones.
Now, I don't know if he has directly advised the president. I don't know that, because we can't seem to get the entrance records at the White House. But we do know this: his organization, the Apollo Alliance, that he chairs here in New York, had a lot to do with the stimulus bill.
This is according -- we showed you this yesterday -- to Harry Reid, who said, quote, This legislation is the first step in building a clean energy economy that creates jobs. The Apollo Alliance has been an important factor in helping us develop and execute a strategy that makes great progress on these goals and in motivating the public to support them, end quote.
Does the president know who this man is? Does the president -- and America demand and listen to this answer -- does the president know that he has now had two pretty big encounters with the founders of the Weather Underground? That's the group that bombed government buildings.
Do you remember he didn't really know Bill Ayers? But now, indirectly, the other founder of the Weather Underground is helping write our bills.
We asked the White House today if the president knew. We're still waiting for a response.
By the way, we also told you that the White House has tried or wanted to go around the FBI to have some of the vetting done by the White House. FBI, seemingly, is a little slow. I would think that based on what's happening here at the White House, it's pretty important to have an outside eye vet some of the people who may be advising our president.
Tonight, I will ask you, how many times do we have to find a Marxist, a communist, a revolutionary, or what seems amazing me to be, a simple anti-capitalist near or around or advising the president of the United States before we, as a people, ask the question -- when the president promises us this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Is he promising to transform us into something unrecognizable to most Americans? But not unrecognizable to someone -- Venezuela, like Hugo Chavez, who joked, quote, Hey, Obama's just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors! Comrade Obama! Fidel, be careful or we are going to end up to his right, end quote.
Is it un-American? Is it hateful? Is it shocking? Is it outrageous to sincerely and honestly ask this question -- when the communist president of Venezuela says something like that, and there are literal communists advising the president, should we maybe be asking some more questions?
Phil Kerpen is here. He is the director of policy at Americans for Prosperity.
Phil, how are you? Good to see you.
PHIL KERPEN, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY: Hey, Glenn.
BECK: I wanted to bring you here because I want to show you what's on the other side of the board and I need you to help draw this together, because I think this is stunning. We have Van Jones. We tied yesterday -- tied him together with -- right directly to Obama and right directly to the Apollo Alliance. Here's Jeff Jones.
Put the picture of Jeff Jones up again, please.
Jeff Jones is an interesting character. Jeff Jones is the founder of the Weather Underground, right?
KERPEN: That's correct.
BECK: What else has he done?
KERPEN: Well, Jeff has been involved not just in those terrorist activities with the Weather Underground. He was actually part of the Weather-buro modeled on the politburo which was the high leadership where he was with Bill Ayers. But Jones was on the run, hiding from the law for about a decade before he was finally caught in a dramatic raid where he's 4-year-old saw him arrested in 1981. He then became an advisor to environmental groups, to labor organizations and to the New York state government where he sits on a commission for Governor Paterson.
BECK: OK, hold on this just a second. You hear this what he did --labor groups, think SEIU and all the unions, oh, and by the way, does anybody -- did anyone notice that the head of the Fed here in New York is now the former head of the AFL-CIO? Hmm, that shouldn't be any problem. Here in New York, corruption with finances, New York and the unions? No, that's crazy.
OK, so, labor unions and environmental projects. Van Jones, green jobs czar. OK?
Then, what did he do?
KERPEN: Well, he's on a panel that we don't know much about, a commission that Governor Paterson put him on, called the Energy and Environment Transition Commission. I haven't been able to get any information about that.
But one of the important things that I really found notable is that he's an advisor to something called the Workforce Development Institute here in New York which is advising state and local governments and universities on how to write their grants to get stimulus funds from the stimulus bill that he and his friends at Apollo wrote.
BECK: OK, hold on just a second. OK. So, the co-founder of the Weather Underground is working for the governor of New York. Wow. And he's writing how to get money from the stimulus bill, written by the Apollo Alliance which he is the head of here in New York.
KERPEN: That's right. And he's also an advisor, a consultant for the national Apollo Alliance as well.
BECK: OK. Good. So then we have Jeff Jones and Bill Ayers. We have Rashid Khalidi, who is -- who is a radical in his own right, tied directly to Barack Obama.
The Movement for a Democratic Society, what is that?
KERPEN: That is a reconstituted version of the old Students for a Democratic Society, which was the parent organization of the Weather Underground. These were the 1960s radicals who wanted a revolution to overthrow the country.
BECK: Communists.
KERPEN: They reconstituted it now.
BECK: But here's the thing, America -- communist movement, a Movement for a Democratic Society, communist movement. What year was it founded?
KERPEN: It was just recently founded in 2006.
BECK: 2006. This is -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- this is what I see. We have Carl Davidson, progressive for -- they're all connected. Carl Davidson is connected to the New Party, which is connected to the Movement for Democratic Society, to progressives, to Van Jones, to Jeff Jones -- it's all connected. These people down here are radicals. There is no way -- they may have been --they may have been adding businesspeople and everybody else, but they're basically radicals.
KERPEN: They are -- they are, Glenn. And actually, the most frightening part about this is that these guys are not for the most part the public face in everything they are trying to do.
BECK: Yes.
KERPEN: They've got the mainstream guys. Carl Pope, the president of the Sierra Club is on the board of the Apollo Alliance. They've got -- they've got Leo Gerard from the International Steelworkers Union on the board of the Apollo Alliance. John Podesta, from the American for Center Progress -- all of the mainstream elements of the Obama administration and the liberal and progressive movement are tied in with these people.
BECK: Tied in -- great.
Here's what's happening, America. The radicals are all down here. They start to filter up and they come to places like the Apollo Alliance and they filter up, and they're scrubbed clean, so they don't look like radicals anymore -- but they're all tied here.
The question you have to ask, Obama never said that he was -- he claimed that he was a Marxist, he listens to Marxist professors, he was a radical, blah, blah, blah, but he was very young. In his own book, he talks about seeking out those Marxist professors. When was his change? When did he ever stand up and say, I reject Marxist --he'll laugh about it -- I reject Marxist principles, I reject these people, Marxists, I reject them ? He hasn't. Should we ask him for that?
Is it important to know -- and when we come back, I'm going to show you the anti-capitalist -- forget about Marxism. Forget about radicals. How about just anti-capitalists inviting our president? We'll introduce you to them -- next.
ANNOUNCER: Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, the dangerous roots of STORM, and the power these people still hold.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Last night, we broke all kinds of records for ratings, and I thank you for that. I thank you for waking your friends up, and please, please, there is a reason why everybody on the left is coming after this program. There's a reason for it. If we were wrong and if we were completely -- they'd encourage us, keep going, brother.
There's a special program this week. Invite a friend to watch, DVR the shows, save them, write them down. We're asking tough questions. Because when you look at one news story after another, things just don't make sense.
How can we spend our way out of debt? Why are we rushing into anything? Why won't our politicians bother to read the bills? John Conyers said something outrageous but it makes sense when you put it into context of what you're beginning to learn this week and will by the end of the week. I hope you're getting this message. Watch what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN CONYERS (D), MICHIGAN: I love these members that get up and say, Read the bill. What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: OK. So, he thinks it's reasonable to not read the bill. It doesn't make sense unless you understand the context. I think it's reasonable to read the bill.
But let me ask you this -- if your wife suggests, you know, you're going to go out to eat at some place you've never heard of, you go, because you trust her. Conyers is not being irresponsible. This is a sign that he trusts whoever put the bill together. You don't, because you've seen the ramifications of what's going on in Washington. More importantly, until this week, you probably didn't know whose actually writing these bills.
This week, you're getting a little closer to the truth. Who is it that those in Washington are trusting? It's not you. They think you're crazy. They want to put you on a watch list.
Maybe you'll end up trusting who is putting these bills together as well, and that's fine. I don't. But you may. But we deserve to know, especially because we didn't vote for these people. Whoever is pulling the strings or writing the bills-- who are they? Well, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM GEITHNER, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: To get through this, governments need to act. Great obligation, responsibility for governments to act to solve these things. The market will not solve this, and the great risk for us is we do too little, not that we do too much.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The markets are still -- a free market still needs to be able to function. But if I can steal a phrase from a former president, it was referenced about him that he saved capitalism from the capitalists.
ANDY STERN, PRESIDENT OF THE SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION: I think I'm going to win the Nobel Prize because I think I can finally prove that Ronald Reagan is wrong, George Bush is wrong. Wealth does not trickle down. It trickles up.
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: And guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal would be all about socializing --would be about basically taking over and the government running all of your companies.
HOWARD DEAN, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: I think we had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years. I think we need some regulation now.
SUBTITLE: In his 1944 State of the Union Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his plan for a Second Bill of Rights.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all -- regardless of station, race or creed.
CASS SUNSTEIN, REGULATORY CZAR: We're looking for a speech that affected international documents, thinking about human rights, even constitutions all over the world. Roosevelt's second Bill of Rights speech is -- towers, I think, above them all.
OBAMA: A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street. And a regulatory regime basically crafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis -- the Great Depression -- was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy. So, today, my administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the financial regulatory system, a transformation on a scale not seen since the reforms that followed the Great Depression.
BILL AYERS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PROFESSOR: I would like to elaborate the point, down with capitalism.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BECK: Down with capitalism. By the way, the former partner of the guy who runs the Apollo Alliance, the guy who helped write the stimulus bill.
Former economic advisor to President Reagan, Art Laffer is here; and senior economic writer for the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Moore. They are both authors of the book, The End of Prosperity.
Guys, I want to stick to who these people are, and I'm going to give you a few words of some of them, and then you tell me what it means. This is from are the science czar, John Holdren, The need for de-development presents our economists with a major challenge. They must design a stable, low-consumption economy in which there is much more equitable distribution of wealth than in the present one. Distribution of wealth both within and among nations within and among nations is absolutely essential if a decent life is to be provided for every human being.
Stephen, do you want to take that?
STEPHEN MOORE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yes, it's not too surprising that we're not creating wealth and we're not creating jobs when Mr. Obama's advisors are against wealth and creating jobs. I mean, what de-development means is less development. And this is clearly anti-capitalist but it's also anti-jobs, it's anti-wealth, it's anti-prosperity. And this is the guy who wrote a book back in the 1960s with Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich. They were the authors of The Population Bomb (INAUDIBLE) about the whole world was coming to an end.
BECK: Right. Art, help me out on this one, this is from Cass Sunstein.
ART LAFFER, FORMER REAGAN ECONOMIC ADVISER: Thank you.
BECK: Without taxes, there would be no liberty. Without taxes, there would be no property. Without taxes, few of us would have any assets worth defending. It is a dim fiction that some people enjoy and exercise their rights without placing any burden whatsoever on the public fisc. There is no liberty without dependency. That is why we should celebrate tax day.
What does that mean?
LAFFER: I don't really know how to take -- that's one to take on, isn't it? I mean, we all know there is a need for taxes, to raise the revenues that the government has to do, but the question is, we should try to minimize the damage that taxes do. We should raise the records of revenues doing the least possible damage to the economy, not praise taxes. Taxes are a necessary evil at times, Glenn, but they are not something that we should praise and we should.
(CROSSTALK)
LAFFER: It is like praising cancer because it.
BECK: Here's what I'm asking both of you. Brian Deese is a guy who is -- according to The New York Times -- who knows nothing about the automobile industry, helped redesign what we're doing now with General Motors and Chrysler, et cetera, et cetera.
MOORE: And Nancy Pelosi.
BECK: And Nancy Pelosi. And he is -- he is not a capitalist.
MOORE: Right.
BECK: How is that we find ourselves with the president surrounding himself with people who are not capitalists at best?
MOORE: Because, Glenn, that's an easy question to answer, because the president doesn't believe in capitalism himself. I mean, and he's made this very clear. The people he surrounded himself share his belief system. It is anti-capitalist. I would also describe it, and I think, I don't know if Arthur would agree with me on this, but I think it's radical redistributionism -- to rob Peter to pay Paul.
BECK: Art, what is the question that America needs to ask to get that and to pin the president down? He is either a capitalist or he is not. They use all this language -- and me, personally, what we're doing this week is taking the president at his own words. You want to know what I believe, look at the people I surround myself with.
Well, Stephen, you look at these people.
LAFFER: Yes.
BECK: So, Art, what should we ask?LAFFER: Well, I mean, the question here is that he clearly doesn't believe in the system we have as we have it. His proposals demonstrate that very clearly. His healthcare proposal - we all know he wants a single payer, and he wants that to be the government.
BECK: OK.
LAFFER: We all understand that he doesn't think consumers control prices.
BECK: OK.
LAFFER: I mean, he doesn't propose many things we should do and less with the law that we know are wrong.
BECK: All right. I need you to hang on. America, please give me another 30 minutes tonight. I'm going to show you some stuff that I think is just downright spooky. But I also have to come back and share with you the one question, why is the fed in New York now being run by the unions?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)