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Glenn Beck

Which GOP Candidate Should Win?; Should We Trust the Saudis?; Arizona Legislators Target Human Smuggling

Aired January 15, 2008 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN BECK, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, as Republican candidates duke it out in Michigan, conservative voters say they want real change in the White House. But will they get it? We`ll find out.

Plus President Bush asked the Saudis to pump more oil. Pretty please? How did our good friends respond to the president? By saying not so much. I`ll tell you why doing business with Saudi Arabia is a very bad idea.

And with the economy on the ropes, why the Democratics` [SIC] economic stimulus plan nothing more than an election-year gimmick.

All this and more tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America. It`s primary day -- again. Just when you thought it was safe to go a diner someplace in Michigan, there`s a bunch of reporters asking questions, hogging all the booths, eating all the sticky-buns. In the morning, nothing but politicians flipping waffles and pancakes. I can`t take it anymore.

So, while the candidates seem to be constantly trying to figure out exactly what the voters want, I`d like to suggest tonight that they should just try reading a newspaper or talking to one of us.

A new "USA Today"/Gallup poll just released today shows that, by an overwhelming four to one margin, Americans want change. And a majority of Democrats and Republicans say they want a president who will change direction from President Bush. So, here`s "The Point" tonight.

I`ll let you in on a little secret. I`m one of those people, too. I want change. Only this time, I`m looking for a real conservative to put into the White House. And here`s how I got there.

Like I said million a times on this program, I`m a conservative. And I want to talk to you as a conservative here for just a moment. President Bush`s approval rating is at an all-time low, 32 percent. With those numbers that bad, you`d think that we`d pretty much want anybody but that guy. But that`s not the case.

You know as well as I do, we haven`t had a strong conservative in the White House for a very long time. And with the war and what is coming, and what I believe is coming economically, we need one now more than ever. But who could we trust to lead the cause? Is it enough just to be anti-Bush, just to be "not that guy"? I don`t think so.

Rudy Giuliani, not in the Bush mold but, I mean, there are parts of me that doesn`t even think he`s a Republican. Fred Thompson, I just talked to him today. I`m not sure if he`s still running.

John McCain, well, you know, he did win New Hampshire. But I mean, who doesn`t win New Hampshire? He`s hardly the right right candidate. You know what I mean? He appeals to so many liberals and moderate voters. It`s almost like he`s courting them instead of conservatives.

Let`s look again at McCain`s record. He has the McCain-Feingold, which of course, was a little misguided on campaign finance reform. Gave us MoveOn.org and swift boats and all that stuff. Wasn`t that great?

Actually the McCain-Feingold Act hurt personal liberty in this country.

Then there was McCain-Kennedy, which was an attempt to wholesale amnesty for illegal immigration, which you know, that`s what I wanted. McCain-Lieberman, anti-business, kowtowing to kooky liberalism and signing our sovereignty away.

Is this is the guy who is really -- the conservatives are saying is going to pick up and carry on the tradition of Ronald Reagan`s conservative foundation?

You know, would I rather have John McCain in office than Hillary or Obama? Yes, but I`d also rather be stabbed than shot. I mean, I`m not really crazy about either option here.

So tonight, here`s what you need to know. America, it is getting late. But it`s never too late as long as we have tomorrow. We need to keep in mind, not only how bad things really are now, but how good things used to be and how good things can be again.

While, John McCain may have served his country honorably in the past, we have to remember, the past is never where America finds her future.

Chris Wilson is a Republican strategist and CEO of Wilson Research Strategies. And Jonathan Allen is a reporter for "Congressional Quarterly."

Chris, let me start with you. I like John McCain. I mean, it didn`t sound like it in that monologue. I like John McCain, because he bucks the system. He doesn`t care. He -- you know, he just goes after what he believes and he stays there.

Unfortunately, is it just me that thinks he`s wrong on almost everything except the troop surge?

CHRIS WILSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, it`s not. And I think one of the challenges that McCain has is taking that message to the voters and the Republican primary voters that he`s reconsidered his position on amnesty, he`s reconsidered his position on campaign financing. Go back and review everything he voted for, the Bush tax cut.

BECK: How is this the guy is not a flip-flopper? How -- how does he get away with saying Romney is a flip flopper? Good God Almighty, man.

WILSON: It`s -- you know, McCain has this staying power that I think, if nothing else, you have to respect. Six months ago, if we`d been talking with McCain, we would have been laughed off the air. And now, it`s actually on odds-on favorite that he is -- he`s a front-runner today for the nomination. Who knows who the odd-son favorite is after tonight?

But, it`s a staying power that he exhibits that I think a lot of Republican primary voters have a habit of falling in line. Where Democratic primary voters often fall in love. And when we fall in line, McCain is the guy to get in line behind right now. And that`s really, I think, what`s leading him to the top of the polls.

BECK: Jonathan, can you explain it better than that? Do you have a better explanation?

JONATHAN ALLEN, "CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY": When I talked to voters in New Hampshire, quite a lot of them said, "I don`t agree with McCain at all on the issues, but I really respect his leadership. He`s willing to take a courageous stand."

BECK: But he`s leading?

ALLEN: They cannot disagree with him on every issue for him to win. I think what he`s going to try to do is try to show Republican voters that he is conservative on things like spending. He`s been a big government waste cutter in Washington. That`s been one of his profiles.

And of course he`s been pro-life. I think what he has to do is sell to social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives some of those issues now that he`s gotten through New Hampshire, where voters have an affinity for his maverick streak.

And I think a lot of what goes on with him, isn`t that -- that it`s not that he`s conservative, it`s that he`s not Republican. He ends up getting beats up a lot by the Republican establishment. He does things like the McCain-Feingold reform, which I know a lot of conservatives don`t like. But also really hurt the Republican Party.

BECK: I will have to tell you this. I generally voted Republican my whole life. But I`m not a Republican; I`m an independent. I don`t really care about the party. And I think for the first time most people, at least in the Republican Party, feel the same way. They don`t really care about that stupid elephant. Shut up and have the elephant stop crapping in my living room.

What conservatives are looking for is somebody who will be fiscally responsible, who understands the economy, who understands war, who understands Islamic extremism. McCain is pretty good on the war, and yet, he`s done some really awful (ph) things. But when it comes to -- when it comes to the economy, I don`t think this guy gets it at all.

WILSON: Well, Glenn you`re exactly right. And I think the things that you bring up in terms of Republican primary voters are looking for is what they`re looking for. And right now, they see McCain as having the most consistent message on those in the states in which he is doing as well as he is.

And, as John mentioned in terms of his history of cutting spending, he`s done a very good job emphasizing that history of finding things, wasteful spending projects. I mean, that`s why you`ve sort of seen him have this resurgence in the polls that no one would have expected a few months ago.

BECK: OK. Let me flip this around, and you guys prove me wrong here, because this is the one thing I don`t understand. I believe that conservatives are looking for an actual consecutive, not someone who just claims they are. But they are actually conservative.

But that doesn`t work when you say, "Well, wait a minute, there`s Fred Thompson, and there`s Duncan Hunter." Those guys are both real conservatives. Why don`t they have support?

WILSON: You can give a million reasons why Fred Thompson`s campaign hasn`t gotten off and taken hold. And I think that we`d be here way longer than the time we`ve got to examine each one of those.

Duncan Hunter, there just hasn`t been the money to illustrate the type of candidate he would be. That`s a real challenge. You`ve got someone who`s a House member trying to run for Congress. That`s why it`s been hundreds of years since we`ve elected one. It just a real challenging opportunity.

BECK: Jonathan, I have Newt Gingrich on -- tomorrow on the radio program. He is -- he was just on the Rush Limbaugh program. And Rush and he got into an argument that -- whether or not the Reagan era was over.

I got to tell you, part of me, I think it is. Because people have lost touch with what Reagan was. It`s almost a cartoon or a caricature now. Everybody`s claiming to be Reagan, and none of them are.

ALLEN: What you`re seeing, Glenn, I think is a real division between social conservatives who used to be Democrats who came to the Republican Party in the 1960s and 1970s. And the traditional establishment fiscal conservatives.

And as long as that -- as long as that coalition can hold together, you continue to have the Reagan era. And when it falls apart, maybe the Reagan era is over. I think it`s a little early to say the Reagan era is over before the Democrats have won the White House with anyone other than Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, southern governors.

BECK: Well, to say that the Reagan era is over, it`s only over because I just don`t think that there`s somebody out there that is leading the Republicans like Ronald Reagan did.

Thanks, guys.

Coming up, the president is in Saudi Arabia. He`s almost begging them: "Please, please help us with oil." Meanwhile, we`re giving them billions of dollars in weapons. Are they friend or foe? What did they do on the oil thing. Should we be in bed with Saudi Arabia? Coming up next.

And we`ll examine the Democratic candidates` economic plans. Boy you want to talk about Frankenstein plans. Clinton, Obama and Edwards, these guys have a solution to what we`re facing economically.

Plus, Big Brother goes online. This should scare the pants off you. How our government is planning to watch your every move on the Internet. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, have you ever had your house foreclosed on? Yes, yes. Me, neither. And then you didn`t know what to do. Here`s an idea in case it ever happens to you: why not trash the place? That`s what some unhappy former home owners are now doing. In fact, one of them set three pigs loose, locked them in the house and just left. We have the pictures for you in tonight`s "Real Story," coming up in just a bit.

First, good news for Citigroup today. After reporting the biggest loss in its 196-year history, just over $20 billion today. The bank is getting by with a little help from their friends. Just who`s writing the checks may surprise you. Billions came courtesy of the governments of Singapore and Saudi Arabia. Isn`t that great? I hear China turned them down.

President Bush is over in Saudi Arabia right now. He`s begging not for money; he`s begging for oil. Please help us pull our economy out of the basement.

Meanwhile the Saudis are essentially buying our banks right out from under us. And to put it mildly the United States and the Saudis have an unique relationship, because they`re buying and we`re selling. And -- and just like us, the Saudis fear Iran`s insane leadership. Saudi Arabia has a majority Sunni Muslim population. Iran is Shiite -- or it might be the reverse.

So how can we help? Well, we`re there for you, Saudi Arabia. Let us give you a chance to buy 900 J-DAMs. Those are state-of-the-art precision- guided smart bombs, because nothing could go wrong there. And if you call right now, we`ll also top in some more advanced weaponry, including a Patriot missile, for a total estimated value of $20 billion. Can we have some more oil please? No?

We arm these kooks out in the middle of the desert. What happens if they ever decide to use those weapons against us or our pals in Israel instead of our enemies in Iran, because they don`t have a history of ever picking up a gun against anybody we`re against.

Here`s the thing: you can`t really say very much, because George Bush has dusted off the presidential knee-pads to plead for our needed oil. The Saudis are responsible for almost one-third of OPEC`s total output. So, God forbid we say anything bad about the Saudis. We`re their slaves.

So what`s next? No, I`m asking you. I have no -- I have no freaking clue.

Let`s check in with Bob Baer. He`s an intelligence columnist for TIME.com, knows the Saudis inside and out.

Bob, friend or foe, Saudis?

BOB BAER, COLUMNIST, TIME.COM: They`re foes. Glenn, let`s don`t forget the facts of 9/11. There were 15 Saudis on those airplanes. All of the money came from Saudi Arabia. And until today -- how many years has it been? -- there hasn`t been a single indictment of a Saudi. The Saudis have not told us who paid for 9/11. The Saudis have not told us who recruited the 15 Saudis.

The majority of the suicide bombers killing our troops in Iraq are Saudi citizens.

BECK: Bob, I just saw this picture, and we`re showing it on the screen now, George Bush coming down off of Air Force One, and he`s saying hello and kissy-face with the prince and everybody else. And for the first time in my life, I see the president of the United States as a slave.

Here he is, coming down and he is kissing their ass, because we need their money and their oil. We have put ourselves in a situation to where we are slaves to Saudi Arabia, right or wrong?

BAER: Glenn, they own us. They own us. Face it. They bailed out Citibank. We`re begging them to bear us out of the oil markets. Otherwise, we`re going to have a recession like you wouldn`t have seen. They own us.

We are addicted to cheap oil. They provide cheap oil. And they call the tune. It`s the facts.

BECK: OK, $123 million in weaponry that we have given them. You would know this because you`re a guy who used to be in the CIA. You used to live under cover in the Middle East and did all kinds of stuff that I don`t want to know. Tell me -- help me out on the history. Has Saudi Arabia ever fought anybody that is on our side? Have they ever -- where they were with Kuwait?

BAER: They have never fought a war, Saudi Arabia. End of story. They fought in the desert in the 30s and the 20s. It was on camels. They never fought a war. They have never come to our side in any single war. They fought one battle against Iraq in 1991, Kakji (ph), and they ran. They ran. Every one of them ran.

BECK: OK.

BAER: The Marines had to bail them out. They`ve never fought a war. So I don`t know what they`re going to do with those weapons. They`re normally used to pay out bribes.

BECK: May I -- may I just -- may I just line out a spooky scenario. Our economy goes down in the crapper, because we can`t get cheap oil. And our banks are now owned by Saudi Arabia and everything else. So we have a real hard time, which in turn hurts the rest of the world and the Middle East. We all start going down in the crapper.

Already Saudi Arabia is destabilized from within. They`re surrounded by their enemies from within. They`ve been doing to their enemies what we have done to them, just try to make peace with them, just leave us alone. Just leave us alone. What are the odds of those weapons falling into hands of our real enemies?

BAER: It`s almost inevitable. I don`t like to make your day, but it`s almost inevitable this is going to happen. Look, if we go into recession or a depression, let`s consider the worst, oil goes back go down to $10. The Saudi monarchy collapses. And you have these crazy Wahhabis who will have the weapons.

I don`t know what they`re going to use them on. Probably us more than anybody else. You`re right. So, that is a scary scenario. But it`s not completely off...

BECK: So I started -- I started -- you know, I asked Americans, so what do we do? I don`t know. Do you have an answer? What do we do?

BAER: I don`t know, Glenn. I came to this interview in my SUV. I should give it up (ph). Sorry.

BECK: In the name of full disclosure. No, seriously, what do we do?

BAER: We`ve got to get -- we have to be energy-independent. You can`t rely on the Middle East, because that place is going to collapse. You can put a million Marines in the Middle East. It`s still going to collapse. I guarantee it.

BECK: Bob, it`s always a delight talking to you. It is. It`s always sunshine and lollipops with Bob Baer. Thanks a lot, Bob.

Coming up, the ongoing battle for the border takes a new turn to drop houses. These are places where smugglers hold their customers until they`re paid. Well, it`s a charming little story. We have that coming for you next.

Also our struggling U.S. economy has left us with bad mortgages, housing foreclosures and homes that look like they have been in the middle of a battlefield. You won`t believe what people have done to their homes after they return them to the bank. And we have the pictures. All coming up next.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, who would have thought that stopping illegal immigration, the secret would be found in real estate? Officials in Arizona are now targeting drop houses. These are homes were smugglers hold customers, if you will, until travel arrangements can be made and the illegals pay up.

Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano wants to go after the property managers who knowingly rent homes to smugglers, who often use the houses to commit gruesome crimes: assaults, rapes, hostage takings.

Now, there`s a Republican -- his name is Russell Pearce. He`s a state representative. He actually wants to take the step, takes the plan one step further. And he`s with us now.

Russell, tell me what is the next step you want to take?

RUSSELL PEARCE, STATE REPRESENTATIVE, ARIZONA: Well, first of all, you know, we passed probably the toughest employee work-site enforcement bill in the nation, which you know, the governor signed it. And you have to keep ratcheting this up. Enough`s enough.

And this illegal smuggling of people has become such a violent, violent crime. And it`s big problem. So you`re right. It`s just like renting. It`s against law to harbor, aid and abet illegal aliens. Well, we have worse than that in this case. You have landlords that know what`s going on with this violent activity of captives -- and it` really kidnapping in some cases. And there`s executions (ph) related if they don`t pay, and they take somebody out...

BECK: Give me -- give me some examples on what -- some of the bad things that happened in drop houses? I mean, some real examples, not just...

PEARCE: They just didn`t cover -- in the last few weeks we`ve had several drop houses where they escaped their window and called. They were being held hostage. They were tied up. They were beaten. Some of the women are sexually assaulted. And we`ve had others where they`ve been taken -- even taken from the group. Taken out and executed as an example what happens to the rest if they don`t pay up. I mean, it`s a -- it`s really a violent, violent world.

BECK: So who are the -- who are the smugglers? Are these American citizens? Are they Mexican illegals?

PEARCE: Oftentimes, they`re a combination of -- but many of them are involved in the drug cartel, and they`re illegals themselves in most cases.

BECK: OK, and so you want to take, you not only want to go after them, but you also want to go after the people who rent the houses. And you say take their assets.

PEARCE: Absolutely. Well, we already have some pretty good smuggling laws in the state of Arizona for human smuggling, going after the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the smugglers. But you`re right.

But we have a loophole in there. And that loophole is people can knowingly rent to these organizations which, again, this barbaric practice that they have. Millions of dollars, and their assets ought to be up for grabs. If they knowingly -- and again, the culpability factor. And if they know that you`re running that house to participate in that illegal activity, then we`re going to close that loophole.

REGAL (ph) covers it as far as the organization is concerned. But that loophole doesn`t cover the landlord, because he`s not a criminal enterprise. So we`re going to close that loophole, and if you transport, house, aid and abet these kind of organizations in any way you know about it, we`ll take everything you own. Enough is enough.

BECK: And the odds that this thing is going to pass?

PEARCE: I think fairly good. I mean, I`ve had -- I actually ran this bill in another form a couple of times, and it`s not passed. With the governor`s help, I`m hoping that we can get it out of here...

BECK: How she said she will help.

PEARCE: Well, that was her indication. We`ll certainly see. She has vetoed about 16 of our bills to deal with these kinds of issues. So I`m hoping with her help that we can have a good bill and get it out of here and go after these -- these folks. I mean, it`s a terrible -- it`s a terrible activity, a violent activity.

BECK: Thank you very much, sir. Appreciate it.

Coming up, it is not just Republicans who have come up with some really bad ideas for helping our economy, although they`ve had their share. But the Democrats have their own stimulus plans. We`ll have the real story in just a bit. Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You know, since 9/11 each one of us have been forced to ask ourselves, how much freedom should we sacrifice to be safe? Well, here`s a new scenario. That`s the question comes to mind when the country`s spy chief talks about Internet surveillance plan that will allow the government to read all information that passes through the Internet. That`s your e- mail and my e-mail.

Does this infringe on personal liberties? Oh, I think so. Find out all the story coming up in just a second.

But first, welcome to the "Real Story."

Well, it seems like every day brings another signpost on the road towards economic ruin. The truth is, an economy like the United States economy doesn`t collapse overnight. It happens slowly and it happens over and over again, and most people never pay attention. It`s almost like waves crashing onto a beach.

So while everybody now is focusing on the waves that we have identified just today, the waves today that we have identified like slowing consumer spending, the largest increase in wholesale inflation in 26 years, and Citigroup`s largest loss in their 196-year history, we have got to remember that the first and biggest wave still heading towards the beach is housing. Now, there`s a lot of people on television that will tell you, oh, please, we have already hit rock bottom. Believe me, we aren`t even close to the bottom on that one.

The "Real Story" is, on housing, it is not what you read in the newspaper headlines about falling sales and prices. It`s what is happening in the cities where things have already gotten the worst they could be, and they are a sign of things to come for the rest of America.

The trend is something that actually began back in the housing collapse of the early 1990s. People whose houses are worth less than their mortgages, they just stopped paying. And so they put their keys in an envelope and send them to the bank. They just walk away. It`s called jingle mail, because when the banks receive the envelopes, they hear the keys jingling inside.

Trust me, lenders would much rather have an empty house than a trashed one. And that is, unfortunately, the other new trend that we`re beginning to see now.

Foreclosed homeowners who want to leave their tender little reverse home -- or house warming gift, are destroying their homes before they leave. One guy -- you`re seeing the pictures here -- actually, he`s from Oregon. He went as far as to lock up three live pigs inside of his house before he left. You can se how much fun they really had.

Of course the buyers of these foreclosed homes aren`t laughing, and that could result in even fewer sales. It`s also mean to the pigs. Am I the only one who thinks that? And the banks, who have been pigs themselves, they`re now stuck with empty, sometimes completely trashed, unsellable homes, along with mortgages that will now never be paid.

The result of all of it? The next wave to crash, if you will. It is now happening to Countrywide, the nation`s biggest lender, and Citigroup, the country`s biggest bank. Massive write-offs and historic losses bigger than what we saw in the Great Depression, and a business that is saved, at least for now, by our good friends in foreign governments, who, in the greatest of ironies, are bailing us out with our own money that we have given them for oil.

All of which keeps the whole charade going on just a little bit longer.

Nicolas Retsinas, he is the director of Harvard University`s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Nicolas, first of all, why are people doing this? Why are they trashing their house?

NICOLAS RETSINAS, DIRECTOR, JOINT CENTER FOR HOUSING STUDIES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: They`re angry. They`re angry and they`re desperate.

People thought they were buying into the American dream. It turned out to be a nightmare. They`re mad at the people who led them there, and they have no value there anymore anyway. So they figure it`s not theirs, so why not?

BECK: OK. But aren`t they also responsible for getting -- I mean, there`s a few stupid people in there that went to a bank, to a slimy bank, and were misled. But, I mean, I remember being on the air, what, four years ago when they started saying these adjustable rates where it was interest-only, I said, you`re out of your mind, don`t do it. It only took common sense to not buy these homes.

RETSINAS: Well, it did take common sense, but a lot of Americans suffered from what I call extreme extrapolation comfort. That is, when they were in the housing market, they saw prices going up double digits, they thought, this could go on forever, let me get on this carousel. As it turned out, what goes up does come down.

BECK: Yes.

There were 7,000 homes in metro Atlanta that have just foreclosed in, what, the last quarter?

RETSINAS: Right.

BECK: Do you know? Last quarter? What does it cost for a bank to foreclose on a house?

RETSINAS: Well, according to research, a paper that we recently reviewed as part of a symposium here, the moment the foreclosure process begins, you`re almost guaranteed for an average price home to lose about $75,000 in value. And that`s before any trashing or any of that kind of behavior. So it`s an automatic devaluation just at the beginning of the foreclosure process.

BECK: I read a book -- I`m trying to remember what it was, "710 Park Avenue" or something. It`s about this condominium, first real condominium in New York City for really, really rich people, and they broke ground in September 1929.

Then October hit, and the banks decided during the Depression, you know what? We`re going to let people in their houses and we`re going to renegotiate, et cetera, et cetera, and we`re just going to let them pay minimum payments because we`re losing too much money. It`s better to have people in that house taking care of it than just an empty house.

Do you see us coming to that point at any point? I mean, how many houses are going to come up with an adjustable rate in the next 12 months alone?

RETSINAS: Oh, probably about 1.5 million are coming up. And while some of those will be paid, there`s no question a lot of them will not. And where you`re going to get the serious problem is when you have concentrated foreclosures, because it`s not just the devaluation of the foreclosed property, but it has a contagion effect. It`s contagious in the entire neighborhood.

So this could have a very severe and devastating effect not only on our economy, but in our communities.

BECK: OK. Thanks, Nicolas.

Now, if you want to see more of these unbelievable pictures, showing what the pigs did to the inside of this foreclosed house, we`ve got them up at glennbeck.com right now. It`s something you`ve got to send to your friends, because it`s amazing.

Now, if there`s anything worse than an impending recession, it is an impending recession during a presidential election cycle. It`s only happened four times before in our nation`s history, and each time the non- incumbent party won. Evidently because of that one thing Americans crave, and that is change.

So, if history repeats itself and a Democrat takes the White House, what kind of stimulus package should we expect them to pass? Will it help or in the case like FDR, who took the top tax rate from 25 percent to 94 percent during his term, will it just make things much, much worse?

Stephen Moore, senior economic writer at "The Wall Street Journal," former president of the Club for Growth, is back again tonight.

I have to tell you, I said on my radio show today, I`m beginning to come to a place where I just -- I love my grandfather, but I just want to slap himself across the face for liking FDR. I think that was one evil son of a bitch.

STEPHEN MOORE, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, he certainly left us the bills, no doubt about it.

BECK: He sure did. And he was the first one to go in and say, hey, let`s nationalize health care and energy and everything else. And made this depression go on and on and on for a decade.

MOORE: And he was the one, Glenn, who was the first president in history, who said, you know, deficits are good.

BECK: Yes.

MOORE: Let`s run up the deficit. Let`s live high on the hogs. Well, and then we`ll let the future generations, our kids pay for it.

BECK: So help me out on this one, Stephen, because we just had Democrats saying that deficits are back. This evil Bush spending, deficits are back. And now we have Hillary Clinton on "Meet the Press" saying, well, this is a stimulus package. Stimulus packages don`t even need to be paid.

What does that even mean?

MOORE: Well, this fits in with your previous segment about the pigs, because there`s a lot of pigging out going on right now in Congress. And both Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and unfortunately many Republicans, too, Glenn, are using this recession as an excuse to open up the piggybank and spend on all sorts of things.

If you look at Hillary`s proposal, lot of thing in there have nothing to do with stimulating an economy. I mean, my goodness, extending unemployment insurance? That`s going to keep people unemployed longer, not put people back to work.

She wants to have a quadrupling of home heating subsidies for low- income people. I mean, I thought we were supposed to be conserving energy, not encouraging people to use more energy. It`s something like on the magnitude of $70 billion new dollars of spending in this proposal not paid for.

BECK: Now you also have Obama`s tax plan. Hillary is $110 billion.

MOORE: Yes.

BECK: Obama is $120 billion.

MOORE: Now, what Obama wants to do is something unfortunately, again, a lot of Republicans want to do, too. They say, let`s get more money into the economy.

Now, anybody who`s been following the Federal Reserve Board and all of the money that`s been pouring out knows there`s plenty of money in this economy, Glenn. And so what he wants to do is basically the equivalent of having helicopters go up over New York City and drop $100 bills out so people will get the $100 bills and spend them. But, there`s no such thing as free money in Washington.

BECK: Stephen, I know. Is that`s what`s causing...

MOORE: I mean, where do they think the money comes from?

BECK: ... what`s causing the dollar to spiral out of control?

MOORE: Exactly.

BECK: For the love of Pete. Now, here...

MOORE: Glenn, this is important.

BECK: Yes.

MOORE: If I were president, God forbid, I would actually be cutting wasteful spending. I mean, we are misallocating our nation`s money, tax dollars, and resources to wasteful spending like the bridge to nowhere and teapot museums and indoor rain forests. Let`s get rid of that, give the money back to people.

BECK: Stephen, I`ve got 10 -- I`ve got 10 seconds.

MOORE: Yes.

BECK: Give me the best Democratic candidate out there for the economy.

MOORE: Well, it was Bill Richardson, who cut taxes when he was the governor of New Mexico. He`s not in the race anymore. He`s too conservative for the Democratic voters.

BECK: The worst one?

MOORE: Boy, that`s a tough one.

BECK: I know. I know. It`s like, do you want to be stabbed or do you want to be shot? I don`t know.

MOORE: Who`s the ugliest duckling? I don`t know.

BECK: OK.

Thanks, Stephen.

MOORE: Thank you.

BECK: That`s the "Real Story" tonight.

Coming up, if you think the email you sent this morning is private, you better think again. We have the latest on the government`s plan to monitor your Internet activity -- all of your Internet activity.

That`s coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Those who worry most about us morphing into some kind of Orwellian, totalitarian "1984" state -- you can count me on that group now -- realize that it won`t happen overnight. Instead, it happens a little by little.

First, it`s cameras out on the streets to help deter crime. Then it`s giant databases that store information about suspected terrorists. And then, before you know it, we`re all being branded at birth with serial numbers on the back of our frickin` necks and they`re shooting chips into our head.

Oops. Did I say that out loud?

I understand that sometimes it`s tough to figure out with where the line is. But wasn`t there a Supreme Court justice that once said about pornography, "I just know it when I see it"?

Well, I`m pretty sure I saw it today. According to a recent interview, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is reportedly drafting a cyberspace security plan that would give our government the ability to read every single piece of Internet information that crosses into the U.S.

OK. I guess figuring out where the line is isn`t so tough after all. Storing terrorists` iris scans in some data bank? OK. Storing information about my eBay searches? No, I don`t think so.

Lawrence Wright is the author of "The Looming Tower" and the "New Yorker" writer who interviewed Mike McConnell.

Where did this -- at what point did this -- did you sit in the interview and go, well, this doesn`t sound good?

LAWRENCE WRIGHT, "NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: Actually, I found out about this from another source. McConnell didn`t tell me initially about it at all because it`s still a secret plan. And when I asked him about it, he wasn`t really very enthusiastic about having me surface it now. It`s still in draft form.

BECK: Good. So the ability to stop it is out there.

You know, I have to tell you, I`m a conservative. I`m a guy who says, let`s get tough on them, let`s nail these guys to the wail, let`s -- I`m for the Patriot Act, as long as it has a sunset. Show me those -- show me those people who have been abused by it.

But you know what? I`m to the point to where I don`t trust the government. And not necessarily the government we have now, but with a government we could have in the future.

Enough is enough, Lawrence. What is -- what is this plan?

WRIGHT: Glenn, this plan would allow the government to monitor all e- mail, file transfers, Web browsing that anybody does.

BECK: Even if I -- even if I -- my Aunt Jo Ann (ph) in Washington, I`m in new York, it doesn`t leave the United States, they read that e-mail as well?

WRIGHT: They have the potential of doing that under this plan. They may not, but they could.

The dilemma that we`re being asked to solve here is this -- as one of my sources said, in this game, privacy and security are zero sum game. If you want more privacy, then the whole Internet that the whole global economy depends upon is left vulnerable to a cyber attack. If you`re afraid of that and you want to protect that, you`re going to have to surrender some of your privacy. And you have to trust the government to do that, and it`s historically been unworthy of that trust.

BECK: What do they say is going to happen? A 9/11 cyber hit where it shuts everything down?

WRIGHT: Yes.

BECK: What are they afraid of?

WRIGHT: yes, exactly that. A digital Pearl Harbor, if you will.

The truth is, this is another one of the ironies. The Internet was created by the Defense Department in order to create a survivable government. It wanted redundancy.

It wanted to create an open system. But that very openness of the architecture left it vulnerable. And now we`re trying to figure out a way to retrofit that in order to make it safe. And it`s very difficult to do.

BECK: Your article comes out with all of the details next week, right?

WRIGHT: No, it`s out on the stands now.

BECK: It`s on the stands now? And it looks like Bush -- if all goes all according to plan, this may be proposed in February?

WRIGHT: The plans, as I heard them, are that he was going to roll them out in early February, maybe in the State of the Union message.

BECK: Holy cow, man. We`re living in a scary, scary time.

Thank you very much.

WRIGHT: A pleasure.

BECK: It`s time for tonight`s "Real America," brought to you this evening by CSX.

Now, I`m a capitalist at heart, and I understand that a company`s first priority is profit. But, when a business can combine capitalism with compassion because they feel it, that is a story worth telling. And for Beth Mercante, it is a story and a treatment that saved her life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH MERCANTE, SUFFERS FROM HEREDITARY ANGIODEMA: My first attack was when I was about 4 years old. I had a limb swelling attack. My hands swell. My arms would swell. And my face would swell.

BECK (voice over): Beth Mercante suffers from HAE, a rare genetic blood disorder that affects only 6,000 people in the U.S. Beth and her mother are two of them.

MERCANTE: Every time I was in bed doubled over in pain, thinking, you know, this is just cruel, you know, why should it be me?

BECK: The attacks have no warning and can last for days at a time, making even getting out of bed an impossibility. The disease has crippled Beth`s limbs. But it wasn`t until her son was diagnosed that HAE broke her heart.

MERCANTE: The fact that he doesn`t have to miss school and go through what I went through is incredibly important to me.

BECK: Until two years ago, steroid treatments had been Beth and her family`s only option. The side-effects were awful, and even with their treatments, she and her son still suffered the attacks.

Then, her medical miracle happened. A little known drug company called Lev Pharmaceuticals answered her prayers.

JOSHUA SCHEIN, CEO, LEV PHARMACEUTICALS: We`re a patient-focused company, and we set up this company with a very clear and simple objective, and that is to bring a therapy that`s been available in Europe for more than 35 years here to the U.S.

BECK: Lev provides twice-weekly infusion treatments for Beth, her mom, and her son, free of charge. It started as a clinical trial, and now it has become a way of life. The treatment has given Beth her life back.

MERCANTE: I can wake up every morning and get my kids ready for school, and pick them up every day, and take them to activities, and go away on weekends and not worry about, do I have all of my medicine? You know, am I going to need my pain pills? You know, am I going to have a attack somewhere and not be able to make it?

I got my life back, absolutely.

My son`s future is just going to be amazing compared to mine. You know, he`s going to be able to play all the sports he wants. He can probably play contact sports if he wanted to now, whereas before, there was no way he could ever do anything like that. But now that we have the Lev product, I`m not scared I`m going to lose my son.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: People keep saying to me they want more good news. Well, there it is. And I have plenty of stories just like this one.

You can go to CNN.com/glenn and look for the "Real America" section.

Tonight`s "Real America" sponsored by CSX, how tomorrow moves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, with all the buildup to Michigan, you may have missed the really important news facing our world over the past few days. So let me get caught you up.

First of all, you`re going to hear lots of talk in the presidential campaign about energy independence and global warming, right? But you aren`t hearing about what is getting in the way of solving all of our energy problems.

Strippers, that was one headline revealed today. Las Vegas strippers may influence global nuclear waste policy. How, you might ask? Well, they`ll be voting in Nevada caucuses on Saturday. And because Nevada is now so early in the process, it has become more influential than ever.

Now, of course you can`t campaign in Nevada and support the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. So you basically have to be against it.

Good to see that politics and strippers are deciding the future of our energy.

Can you imagine the pressure of having to learn the ins and outs of global nuclear policy and how to pole dance in the same week? Imagine the stress.

Can I also point out here that we are the only show on television that has a story about nuclear power and strippers and decides to show the nuclear power plants. I`m just saying.

Now, over to Poland.

The sex industry is powerful in generating news as well, including this headline -- "What are you doing here?" Man asks wife at brothel.

Yes, it`s exactly as it sounds. Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Boy gets bored of girl. Boy decides to put sex with another girl on his Amex card.

Girl has been working at same brothel that boy is looking to do business at for some time. Boy not too happy.

It`s shocking, I know, but it looks like they`re getting a divorce. I personally think this is case where it`s a draw.

By the way, no stripper footage here, either. No brothel footage.

These are good choices for ratings. No, they really are.

Finally, a base jumper who was about to jump off the Empire State Building is suing because the security guards who stopped him caused him severe emotional distress and were endangering his life. Apparently, it wasn`t the fact that he wasn`t jumping off a building that put his life in danger, it was the security guards.

Well, either that or gravity. One of the two. I`m not sure.

And if you`re keeping score at home, that`s one shot of nuclear power plant, one shot of a building, and zero footage of strippers and brothels.

Look out "American Idol." Here we come.

If we can make TV this sexy, imagine what we can do with that Internet thing that everybody`s talking about.

Check out our free email newsletter with daily updates at the newly redesigned glennbeck.com. Lots of strippers there.

From New York, good night, America.

END