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Glenn Beck

What Should Congress do About Economy?; Bill Clinton Fires Back at "Vanity Fair"

Aired June 03, 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, Bill Clinton explodes over controversial "Vanity Fair" article.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sleazy. He`s a real dishonest reporter. He`s a real slimy guy.

BECK: I can`t, again, believe I`m going to defend a Clinton, but I`m going to. Shouldn`t we be able to face our accusers in this country?

Then, guess what, America? Apparently, happy hour in the housing market in California. Two-for-one homes. Problem is, I think the prices have a little further to fall. I`ll explain why it`s too early to binge on real estate.

And taking inventory of special interest groups. From the cap and trade crowd in Congress to radical environmentalists. I`ll tell you who`s really running our country, and it ain`t you.

All this and more tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: Well, hello, America.

There`s a creepy old science experiment where they put a frog in a container of water, and it`s over a low flame and little by little they raise the temperature of water by just one degree. I don`t know if I saw this in a movie or if I actually saw it -- I don`t know -- but the frog can jump out of the container at any time, but it stays put, because the difference in the temperature is so slight the frog doesn`t notice it. And little by little, degree by degree, the water keeps getting hotter and hotter, until the frog is boiling and it`s dead.

OK. I remember where I was going now. Here`s "The Point" tonight. When it comes to our economic crisis, you`re the frog and Congress keeps turning up the heat. And maybe it`s time to jump. Here`s how I got there.

Too many shows talk about complicated economic indicators. I mean, have you seen CNBC lately? I don`t know even know what the hell these guys are even talking about. I mean, just -- people who are listening and watching, the average person in America, Mom or Dad living paycheck to paycheck. That`s 40 percent of American workers.

Well, here`s the reality. That national and economic, international indicators, they do affect you, and here`s how.

Just like the little frog in hot water, prices are going up quietly and steadily. I told you yesterday that every product, from the food you eat to the plate that they serve it on, travels an average of 1,500 miles to your door. As gas prices go up, shipping costs go up. That means the price of stuff being shipped goes up.

But let`s forget about percentages. Let`s think about it this way. A loaf of bread -- and you know this -- costs 23 cents more this year than back in 2006. A dozen eggs, 73 cents more. Chicken, 10 cents more. Gallon of milk, 67 cents more. That`s real money that you have to pay every single week. It now costs a family of three $300 more a month for food.

Now, that`s just one line on your budget. We`re not like Congress, and we can just print more money. Gas prices are also up 26 percent over this time last year. That`s another $100 a month. I mean, I didn`t get one -- did you get a $400 a month raise? Because I missed my somehow or another.

Also consider that Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in America, which you know, a place that everybody shops at, it doesn`t make anything. Everything they sell comes from someplace else. And a whole butt-load of it comes from China.

So when you hear that a shipping container, you know, those big shipping containers -- yes, those things -- that they put on boats, that used to cost $3,000 to send to America. Now, because oil is up to 125 bucks, it`s $8,000. They say if oil hits $200 a barrel, it will cost $15,000 per container. You better believe that baby formula and disposable razors and the flip-flops that are sitting in those containers are going to cost us all a whole lot more.

Maybe it`s only an increase of 60 or 75 cents per item, but when -- when you`re paying more for everything, your budget`s going to take a big hit.

So tonight here`s what you need to know. You know it, I know it; Congress doesn`t! This is real. And if we don`t do something about it, demand that Congress stop spending our money like you can just keep printing more, and take action to stop the bleeding, we`re all the little frog in the water.

The moral of the story is, as fuel prices go up, it literally affects every aspect in your life. And everybody knows it. And Congress, who usually does little or nothing at all, right now is blocking the doorway to progress. And they`re aggressively making things worse. Remember, you`re the frog. The heat is on. Time to jump.

Steven Moore writes editorials for the -- for economics at "The Wall Street Journal." And Bob O`Brien is the stocks editor for Barron`s online.

Steven, let me start with this. We`re going to be talking about, in a half hour, about cap and trade. This is the largest tax program ever. I mean, this is -- this is going to impact us as much as the income tax program did back in 1916.

STEVEN MOORE, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, I was listening to your monologue, Glenn, about these huge increases in cost in everything from milk to gasoline to eggs and groceries. And, you know, listening to that, and I`m thinking, down the street from where I am on Capitol Hill, the United States Senate is now debating a Bill to make everything even more expensive.

BECK: You say the days of cheap sneakers in America is soon going to come to an end.

MOORE: Well, I think if you look at the costs of all these items. And I think partly this is a result of Congress that is spending money like it`s water and probably because the Federal Reserve board forgot how to keep control of inflation. And the combination of those two things has led to some of the highest increase in prices that we`ve seen since the 1970s.

BECK: OK. We have Bob`s truck idle right now. Truckers are having a hard time. People are starting to use the train system. The trains are now overloaded. Congestion in Chicago, everything goes through Chicago. I just saw a stat today.

UPS says a five-minute delay every day of their products from UPS, a five-minute delay costs them $100 million a year. What is -- what -- I mean, how do we fix this one?

BOB O`BRIEN, BARRON`S ONLINE: Well, you have to let marketplace forces take command here. Basically, I think, under this time -- I mean, you know, let`s just admit, we`re in the midst of a crisis right now.

And I think what the government has to do is gather together some of the leaders of industries, whether you`re talking about the trucking industry or the rail industry or the shipping container industry, and basically, put these guys in a room, keep the antitrust forces at bay for a period of time, and basically say, "Listen, you guys hammer this out." Get rid the duplicative, you know, sort of routes that many of these take.

BECK: They won`t do it. Bob, I`ve talked to airline executives who said they wanted to do this with gas. They wanted to get together and say, "Look, guys, you cover this part of the country. We`ll cover this part of the country. We can collapse oil prices on the speculation overnight." But the government wouldn`t do it.

O`BRIEN: Well, look, if the Mob could sit down in the 1950s and break up whole parts of the country in a way that made sense and allowed the Costa Nostra to thrive, then why can`t Congress get out of the way of some of these industries, recognizing that we`re in a siege mentality right now, and allow some of these industries to effectively carve out the country?

I`m not saying this is going to be a solution that`s going to last forever. However, under the current circumstances, if we don`t remedy something, this economy is going to tip...

MOORE: Well, the answer to that is because everything Congress is doing right now, Glenn, it`s almost as if they`re on the side of the -- of the speculators. I mean, they`re trying to do the cap and trade, which is a massive increase in the tax on gasoline. They`re running up big budget deficits. They`re spending money like crazy. They won`t allow us to produce our own energy. It sounds like they`re on the side of the Saudi Arabians.

BECK: You had -- we had dinner, what, about eight months ago, I think, and I said to you, "Steven, falling dollar, gold."

You said, "Glenn, don`t worry. Falling dollar, don`t worry. It will come back around." You said, "But there will come a point where you need to worry." Are we there yet, Steve?

MOORE: I am worried, because remember when we got together, I never - - I said, we`ll never see the day when we have $100 gasoline.

BECK: Yes.

MOORE: Now we`ve got $125. It is time to worry. And it`s time to tap our own resources. It`s a matter of national security and national -- and national economic security.

BECK: We had another crane accident here in New York. And we were wondering, what`s happening with the cranes? Seventy percent of the cranes are over in Dubai right now. I mean, this is a global thing. We -- America is fundamentally changing, isn`t it? We are not at the top of the food chain like we used to be.

O`BRIEN: And Glenn, there is nothing more evident of that than the transportation business right now. If you think about all those -- those cargo ships that you were talking about, every single one of them is parked outside a port in China right now.

BECK: Right.

O`BRIEN: Some of them are bringing goods back to us, but the Chinese government and the Chinese market is dominating some of these things. And one of the reasons why we`re paying so much is simply because there are no containers here. There are simply no ships to move products from, say, Saudi Arabia to Houston, and that`s hurting -- that`s hurting the economy.

BECK: Thanks a lot.

Now, oil prices aren`t easing up anytime soon. That means a whole lot more than just gas prices costing more. Food`s going to cost you more, everything else.

Don`t let it catch you by surprise. Prepare with my free e-mail news letter. All this week, our special series shows you how to be ready for just about anything. In tomorrow`s edition, we outline how to create your own food supply. Making a modern-day victory garden in a landscape or no landscape at all. But you`ll only get it if you sign up right now at GlennBeck.com. Remember, it`s absolutely free.

Coming up, Bill Clinton irate over a controversial "Vanity Fair" article, and he is pointing the finger at media bias, which is almost laughable. But it`s coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You know, if carbon emissions are so dangerous to our planet`s survival, then shouldn`t Congress really be going out to outlaw them? Congress doesn`t think so. No, no. They think a better plan would be to tax the companies to death that use energy and exceed their allotted carbon quotas. Which they will, of course, ultimately pass back to you, the consumer.

Congress, um, real quick question. Aren`t you supposed to be working for us? Just saying. More in just a bit.

Now, hell hath no furry like a Clinton scorned. And if you have small children watching, you may want to send them out of the room, because we`re going to talk about the Clintons. You know what I`m saying?

And actually, I find myself in a weird position. I`m going to defend Bill Clinton.

It used to be that the press loved the Clintons, like I love cheesecake, and you can see how that`s working out. But times have changed, haven`t they? A recent article written by Todd Purdum -- he`s a former "New York Times" reporter, currently "Vanity Fair" writer, so his career has really -- he painted less than a flattering portrait of the former president.

Here`s audio of Bill Clinton responding to the "Vanity Fair" article.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: He`s sleazy. He`s a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But -- I haven`t read it, but the guy told me there`s five or six just blatant lies in there. But he`s a real slimy guy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It`s all over cable news.

CLINTON: It`s totally slimy. Just blow it off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he`s married to Dee Dee Myers?

CLINTON: Yes, but he -- that`s all right. He`s still a scumbag.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Oh, that`s the great thing about our society now. I mean, scumbag titles for everybody.

Here`s my problem with this article. Shouldn`t -- you should have the right to face your accuser, shouldn`t you? I mean, this thing is riddled with, you know, unnamed sources. And if writers are going to dish it out, they better be prepared to take it. You know, a press pass is not a get- out-of-jail-free card.

Jonah Goldberg is here. He`s the editor of the "National Review" online and author of "New York Times`" best-selling book, "Liberal Fascism." If you haven`t read it yet, you should.

Jonah, let me go through some of these. First of all, here`s -- here`s the womanizing segment that was in the -- in the "Vanity Fair." "Four former Clinton aides told me that one of the president`s former assistants had heard so many complaints he felt compelled to try to conduct an intervention, because the aide believed Clinton was apparently seeing a lot of women on the road."

Two questions. Bill Clinton is a womanizer? Who didn`t see that one coming? Second, this is, as I got it here, four aides told the writer that some other person had heard -- this is a game of telephone.

GOLDBERG: Yes. Glenn, I hear you. And I know where you`re coming from. And I understand -- first of all, I agree with you entirely that this is not exactly news that Bill Clinton is a womanizer. I mean, this just in: bears are using our national forests as toilets!

But -- but that said, it`s such a weird place for you to sort of draw the line. And I salute your consistency and your integrity on this, but it`s a weird place to draw the line at Bill Clinton`s honor...

BECK: No, no, no. It`s not that. It`s not that. Here`s my problem. This is a former first president -- I mean, a former first lady -- I was -- going to be the next first lady. A former president. We all know his baggage. There is no news on the womanizing thing.

And shouldn`t we live in a society where "Vanity Fair", which, I mean, somebody told me today was credible at one time, I don`t know, shouldn`t they have at least one named source on something like this? They say there`s no evidence that he`s fooling around, but somebody heard four aides say to somebody else they heard it. I mean, come on.

GOLDBERG: Well, I think you`ve got to remember that "Vanity Fair" is probably covering it, which I agree is not necessarily covering itself in glory, but it`s also probably covering its posterior by lawyering up the piece. And they want to be -- they want to be safe from lawsuits and the like.

I think -- I think the overall piece makes a perfectly legitimate point. This guy is a former president of the United States. His wife until not too long ago looked like the front-runner and shoo-in for the presidency, or at least the nomination for his party. And you know, he is running around the world creating, you know, the appearance, at minimum, of impropriety, which is a standard of...

BECK: How is this news? How is this news? Is there anybody within the sound of my voice that`s going, "Oh, my gosh, I was going to vote for Hillary Clinton, but honey, did you see her husband`s fooling around"? Come on.

GOLDBERG: But it`s not just the womanizing stuff. He`s hanging around with a lot of fairly...

BECK: This one I`ll give you. Go ahead.

GOLDBERG: Seedy guy. You know, these billionaires are giving money to his foundation, are paying him to do who knows what. He`s influence- peddling. And the idea that somehow none of this is relevant or newsworthy, when he might be the first husband.

BECK: Here it is again, Jonah. Bill Clinton is hanging around people that are a little sketchy and they may be -- next you`ll tell me that they`re in bed with China.

GOLDBERG: Yes, but Glenn, now you`re basically playing -- you`re playing to their advantage and playing to the advantage of the liberal media that does not raise these issues because they say, "Oh, that`s old news. We don`t have to talk about this."

So what if Hillary Clinton did all these things in the travel office? So what if Bill Clinton, you know, did all these reprehensible news? That`s old news. We don`t need to talk about it. It`s no longer relevant.

BECK: The only thing you need to do is run this news in, I don`t know, like, you know, the "Cops" or something, where the stupid people are just watching, going, "Wait a minute, I didn`t know that." I mean, everybody else, we got the message. They`re sketchy.

Jonah, would you hang on for a second? I want to do a run-down here. I want to talk about the growing disenfranchisement in America. Our politicians in Washington have no clue what you really want. I`d like to find out who the government is actually working for, if it`s not you.

But first, America`s toughest border sheriff takes Senator McCain to task over illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio joins me next.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: As you will find in his new book, Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Maricopa County in Arizona, he`s been ripped apart by almost everybody, including Phil Donohue, one of my favorite people to be ripped apart by. It`s a new book called "Joe`s Law: America`s Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else That Threatens America."

Joe, great to have you in the studio.

JOE ARPAIO, AUTHOR, "JOE`S LAW": Great to see you in person.

BECK: You know, I -- I can`t believe what`s going on in the border, and yet nobody is really paying attention to. And we`ve got three candidates -- well, let me ask you: any of these three actually going to do anything on the border?

ARPAIO: I doubt it.

BECK: You actually have kind of some bad blood between you and John McCain, right?

ARPAIO: I don`t know. We were friends -- you know, I took two of his buddies to the tents, my tent city, when they were running for president in 1996, like Senator Dole and Phil Graham, they all lost, trying to get Hillary here. She was smart.

BECK: Yes.

ARPAIO: But, you know, he was angry because Bush came to see me and we shook -- you know, he wanted my endorsement, I gave it to him. So I guess it`s payback time.

BECK: So what has he done...

ARPAIO: Well, on that last election, he did support in a campaign for my opponent. Of course, the opponent lost.

BECK: Right. What is the -- what is the thing that -- John McCain, I mean, he`s from Arizona. What is he missing that you see? Or what am I missing that he sees?

ARPAIO: Well, you know, he`s a good guy. And I will vote for him. And if he calls me, I`ll campaign for him. But he hasn`t called me yet.

BECK: So wait a minute. Hang on just a second. The guy who said, you know, "Here comes illegal immigrants. Let`s just open our arms," you`ll campaign for him?

ARPAIO: Well, you know, you don`t judge someone running for president or the president by one issue. It`s not fair. There`s many other issues facing our nation. So maybe if he called me, maybe I could talk to him about this illegal immigration. I`m sure he reads the headlines every day when the mayor of Phoenix goes after me, asks the government to investigate me. And the governor just took away $1.6 million that the legislator gave me to lock up illegals.

But I got news for both of them. I will continue to lock up illegals and enforce the law. They`re not going to make me stop by taking my money away or asking the Justice Department and FBI to investigate the sheriff. It`s not going to work.

BECK: I don`t think I -- I don`t think I`m ever going to break the law in Phoenix, Arizona, as long as you`re sheriff. I mean, you are a serious, serious dude. What is the -- what is the -- what`s the violence like? You know, down in Texas, it`s going crazy. You having that problem in Arizona?

ARPAIO: Of course we`re having that problem...

BECK: But they`re having beheadings down in Texas.

ARPAIO: I don`t know. They just shoot them up in our area and tie them up, and tie them up, execute them. You know, I was a regional director in Mexico for four years. U.S. drug enforcement, plus Texas, plus Arizona. I know where the border is.

McCain and no one else has asked me my device about what I would do since I only have 14 years` experience at the border.

BECK: Yes. What would you do?

ARPAIO: I`d tell you what I`d do. It`s very simple. You lock them up. It`s a violation of the law to cross the border. You lock them up. They can`t send money. They can`t work to send money back to their loved ones. That`s a great deterrence not to come into this country. Because if you do, you`re going to jail. That`s common sense.

BECK: America, isn`t it great? He`s my favorite sheriff.

Coming up, why the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade bill, a.k.a., the largest proposed tax increase in our nation`s history, will cripple America`s economic growth for years to come, but why use common sense? Don`t miss tonight`s "Real Story," coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, welcome to "The Real Story." When you hear, you know, things like buy one, get one free. I usually think of like a bag of chips or a pair of shoes. I guess if you`re Eliot Spitzer, you might think of prostitutes. But one development company in California is now offering $400,000 homes for free with the purchase of another home at its regular price, valid only in California. This is fantastic, right? Housing prices have finally bottomed out. Economic crisis averted.

Yeah, I don`t think so. It`s still too early to buy, I believe. Housing prices continuing to drill their way down through the earth, getting lower and lower. I hope they hit oil along the way. Getting lower and lower. But don`t worry, food and gas prices are skyrocketing, which kind of makes everything balance out.

"The Real Story" is, we don`t have enough money to buy gas, how in the heck are you going to buy two homes? GM today announced today that is it is closing four North America SUV plants that will affect 10,000 workers. They may even discontinue the Hummer. I mean, that`s the very symbol of American fuel appetite. That`s like discontinuing the bald eagle.

And then there`s this. I read a story yesterday. More and more people would rather run out of gas on the highway and have somebody tow them away than pull over and fill their tank up with gas. That`s what they said, that they would rather do that. I don`t think they have the money to fill up their tank.

According to AAA, calls from out of gas drivers doubled in the past year in Philadelphia. They also have increased in Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, DC, Oregon, and Tennessee. And the number of daily fuel calls from stranded motorists has doubled in Dallas as well. This is all according to the courtesy patrol.

California, let me just share something with you. When the houses are buy one, get three free, you call me up. Because that way, when I`m unemployed and can`t afford gas and hanging out kicking rocks on the sidewalk, I`ll just hitchhike to my closest house.

Now while you may not be able to afford gas, congress is doing its part to make sure that gas goes even higher. Yesterday I told you about the Lieberman-Warner bill. Make blood shot right out of your eyes. It`s a massive principal to cut carbon emissions for Mother Earth. Uh-huh.

I told you yesterday how the program will raise energy prices and reduce our GDP by $3 trillion, which means you`ll have less money to spend. Now, naturally, our elected representatives support this, because they stand to rake in about $6 trillion. Funny, you never seem to hear that as the motivation from the senators. What you do hear is crap like this from Senator Boxer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER, (D) CA: We are going to se desperate refugees throughout the world, we`re going to see droughts and floods such as worse than the ones we`ve seen. We wouldn`t lock our child in a hot car. You know, in front of a supermarket. We cannot consign the next generation to a hot planet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: "The Real Story" is, this isn`t like leaving your kid in a hot car at the supermarket. It`s like leaving your kid in a hot car, then taking away all of his allowance, and then going into the supermarket to pay double for the milk that you wanted to get. The cap and trade bill, which is supported in some form or another by Obama, Clinton and McCain -- oh, glad we`ve got a choice between these three -- is worse than a Band-Aid fix because it creates more problems for you, the ordinary American.

It doesn`t do anything about the kid in the hot car. This is like the tobacco issue. You know what, if this is so horrible, if these politicians really believe the fate of mankind rests on carbon emissions, than ban carbon emissions! That would be the answer, wouldn`t it? O oh, no, no, you couldn`t do that. It would be much too lucrative. I mean, we just have to milk the tax dollars out of it.

If hurricanes and floods are only going to get worse, then let me ask you this Barbara Boxer, why are the Democrats renewing the National Flood Insurance Program and supporting a bill to nationalize hurricane insurance? Both of these measures would lead to an increase in construction in high- risk areas. You know by the shoreline.

Washington, if this really is a life-or-death situation, than it would be criminal to tax carbon emissions. Outlaw them. Outlaw oil. Tell people they`ll go to jail if they live near the shoreline because it`s going to be too dangerous. Move the hell away from the ocean if this is true. Don`t try to tell me that your political tax answer is an actual solution to our energy crisis or global warming, because it is not.

Instead, as Senator James Inhofe said in the "Wall Street Journal", this bill will be the largest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal and the largest tax increase in U.S. history. Now how good do you feel about Washington? Senator James Inhofe is here. He`s a Republican from Oklahoma. Senator, you know what, the only thing that really -- the only thing you have to say on this is the biggest supporter of cap and trade was Enron.

SEN. JAMES INHOFE, (R) OK: Well, you have some corporations, Enron, we have Alcoa, GE, and a lot of people out there and you can`t really blame them. If I were on the board of directors, I would say, let`s jump on this, we have a chance to make a lot of money. When you think about the magnitude of the money we`re talking about in a cap and trade and the auctions that take place, people are out there wanting to speculate on this. And there`s only one loser, and that`s the guy that`s watching us right now sitting at home eating his popcorn.

This is the largest tax increase, Glenn, in the history of our country. It`s not going to pass, in my opinion. But if it did, it would be. Using their numbers, $6.7 trillion over the life of this bill. Not billion, but trillion. Now they say, will we give some of that back, Barbara says to some of the poor people, we calculated, that would be a total of 2.5, that means this is only a $4.2 trillion tax increase. I know it`s hard for people to understand what that means. In my State of Oklahoma, that means it would be $3,300 per household in my State of Oklahoma.

BECK: But that`s not -- that`s not the only cost. You have to factor in the cost. Everything is going to be passed on to the consumer .

INHOFE: Oh, everything.

BECK: They`re saying that this may reduce the GDP by 10 percent. If 70 percent of our GDP is from consumption, that means we have less to go out and consume.

INHOFE: That`s exactly right. And let`s look at jobs. We`ve got to cover all these things. Because according to all the analyses that we see, the manufacturing jobs would go down, as I said in my op-ed piece this morning, would go down by 9.5 percent. Nine point five percent. And you wonder why. The reason is very simple. If we ration energy here, which is what we`re doing, then put a cap on it, we`re going to ration it. So we have to have energy. We haven`t done a coal-fired generating plant in America in 30 years. The Chinese are building two every week.

So you wonder what`s going to happen to our jobs, they`re going over there.

BECK: Senator, yesterday it was announced over in Europe they`re going to build 27 coal fired plants over there. They`re already -- because they`ve got this nasty cap and trade kind of system over there, they`re already thinking about moving their steel industry from Europe to Saudi Arabia. I mean, you want to talk about suicide. This is it!

INHOFE: See, they are the ones, al the country in Western Europe, 15 countries embraced and ratified the Kyoto treaty. I remember talking to you on your show when that was a ripe issue. Now only two out of those 15 have met their requirements, and yet they`re starting to lose industry. But they have a huge advantage over us, Glenn. Yet they have nuclear energy over there. You know, they`re 80 percent nuclear over there. We`re 20 percent. And the only reason for that is these environmentalists used to say they didn`t want to take the risk on that. So they don`t want oil and gas, they don`t want nuclear, they don`t want coal. How do you run this machine called America?

BECK: You can`t run a hydro-electric plant in this -- I can promise you that they would never allow us to build a new dam in this country because of the damage it would do to the ecosystem and the fish and everything else. They don`t want us to have energy. Well, you know what? Some of us do like the light bulb. I`m just saying.

Senator, thanks. That`s "The Real Story" tonight. Coming up in just a minute, it`s clear our leaders in Washington don`t answer to the people, so who are they answering to? We`re going to ask Jonah Goldberg here in just a second. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: You can`t figure out how we have, out of the 400,000 people that were running for president, three candidates who are all soft on the border, which we`re very strong on, as 70 percent of the American people say, shut it down, get control of it. And then you`ve got all three candidates that also for cap and trade, higher taxes. How is this possible, Jonah?

JONAH GOLDBERG, AUTHOR, "LIBERAL FASCISM": Well, it`s possible because it`s happened. I mean, this is actually nothing new. This is the story of both of our lifetimes. I think you can find all sorts of places where the story begins. You can argue with the rise of progressivism where we went from a government that was supposed to be a government by the people to the state, which is a different concept. Der Stat (ph) which is supposed to run everything and do everything for everyone`s own good. Or you can look at the New Deal, where FDR turned the idea of government by the people into a state that treated people like clients, where they were dependent upon the state for goodies and all of the rest. You can look at the Supreme Court, which now sees itself as basically a nine-person monarchy that makes its decisions based upon foreign laws or whatever.

I think you can look at things like global warming, where you see that basically this transnational elite of progressive, economic and social planners who want to use global warming as a moral equivalent of war to basically plan societies regardless of people`s sovereignty.

BECK: That sounds a little like Woodrow Wilson. Do you think, Jonah, do you believe in the global elite, that is in some backroom you know making deals?

GOLDBERG: No. I think the global elite is largely on C-SPAN. I have no problem with people who complain about the loss of sovereignty and the power grabbing of these organizations and institutions. What bothers me is the conspiratorial tone, that these are all people hiding. This has all happened in plain sight. When you vote for the Democratic Party, you`re voting for a lot of it. When you vet vote you`re voting for the Republican Party you`re voting for some of it.

It is part and parcel of the national discourse. AARP has millions of members, and they`re one of these people behind the scenes. It is part and parcel of how our democracy works these days which makes it all the more difficult to unwind.

BECK: That`s why we have Bob Barr on Friday`s shows for a full hour. Let me give you this. Because I think it`s more -- it`s changed. It`s more than just stupidity. I don`t even understand it. This is what Nancy Pelosi said about the search. By the way, we`re at the lowest casualty rate of the entire war right now. Down 83 percent since the surge began -- or since this time last year. Try this on for size. This is what she just said, why the surge is working. Some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians, they decided in Basra when the fighting would end. They negotiated that secession of hostility. The Iranians, the goodwill of the Iranians?

GOLDBERG: I think -- look, don`t get me started on Nancy Pelosi, but I think you`re getting at something that is part of this. There`s this sweeping generalization, obviously with exceptions to it. But I think one of the main things that defines the left/right divide in America today is that the left, again, a sweeping generalization, assumes that America is part of the problem, not the solution, and there are all these very clever people who sit in hotel lobbies around the world, eating clever cheese and drinking bottled water who know how to run things better than the America people.

BECK: I would like to know what clever cheese is, but Jonah, I`m out of time. Thanks.

GOLDBERG: I would like to go to tonight`s "Real America" brought to you by CSX. It started back in 2005. Lima Company, it`s a Marine reserve unit, it went to Iraq for its first tour, 22 marines, one navy corpsman never came home. Of those 23, 17 were from Ohio. The death of those troops hit these communities in Ohio extraordinarily hard, including one woman from Columbus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANITA MILLER, ARTIST, LIMA COMPANY MEMORIAL: Peace, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness.

BECK (voice-over): Anita Miller will never forget hearing the news about lima company.

MILLER: My heart tore just like the rest of Ohioans tore and ached for those families and for those fallen.

BECK: The Ohio-based marine reserve unit once known as Lucky Lima has been one of the hardest hit. Losing the most members fighting in Iraq than any other U.S. military company.

MILLER: Inner growth. Communication.

BECK: One morning Anita, a painter, woke up haunted by a dream.

MILLER: I saw eight life-sized painting arranged in an octagon in the statehouse rotunda. And I knew that on the front of those paintings were portraits of the Lima company marines.

BECK: The vision was a larger than life tribute to the fallen soldiers.

MILLER: I don`t have the money, I don`t have the time, I don`t have the space, I don`t have the resources, I don`t know if I have the contacts.

BECK: But Anita couldn`t let it go.

She contacted the marines, tracked down family members, and then she took out a home equity loan to build an addition to her studio to fit the life-sized portraits.

MILLER: One by one, the families started calling me and bringing them pictures of their child, telling me stories about their son. This would be a great healing for these families if they could connect with their sons through the paintings.

BECK: For two years, she worked on nothing but the Lima Project. And on Memorial Day, the paintings were unveiled at the Ohio statehouse, with family and friends looking on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Timothy M. Bell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has been three years, but honestly it hurt just as much today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justin F. Hoffman.

BETHANY LYONS, WIDOW OF LCPL CHRISTOPHER LYONS: It`s important to be here. He was born in April of 2005 and he was killed in July of 2005. We just tell her that he was a very good man.

BECK: So now the 23 fallen soldiers of Lima Company stand together forever, just the way Anita Miller envisioned.

MILLER: When I stand here and when I`m with the paintings, I`m overwhelmed with a profound sense of gratitude. And I think in a lot of ways, that`s part of what the message is, that everyone that goes to serve, they`re offering and laying down their life for the rest of us. The process has been painful, but beautiful at the same time.

(END VIDEOTAPE0

BECK (on camera): Another amazing story.

The Lima Company memorial is on display now at the Ohio statehouse now through Veterans Day. After there, there are hopes that the memorial will become a traveling exhibit. If you would like to see more stories like this one, click on cnn.com/glenn and look for the "Real America" section. Tonight`s "Real America", sponsored by CSX. It`s how tomorrow moves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: Well, if you watched this show at all, you might have heard me mentioned, I`m a tad apprehensive about the state of the economy. I want to say something here. And I want to say it clearly, concisely.

What we`re seeing now is an absolute economic catastrophe, that`s never been seen before, at least not in this country. It is literally hundreds of thousands of times worse than the Great Depression. Yeah. Something has to be done and I don`t know anybody in the upcoming election that can turn this thing around. Oh, by the way, I should have pointed out in the beginning, I`m not talking about America. We`re sweet. I`m talking about Zimbabwe. They also have an upcoming election June 27th. And the economy might be an interest -- an issue of interest.

To give you an idea, our inflation rate usually between two and four percent. In Zimbabwe under dictator Robert Mugabe, inflation has now hit 165,000 percent.

Now, those are according to government numbers and those numbers are ridiculous, they`re far too low. Independent analyses say it`s actually 1.7 million percent rate of inflation. What happens when you have money that`s worth that little? Well, you get stuff like this. There it is, the $10 million note. But why stop there? At the beginning of last month, Zimbabwe introduced the $250 million dollar bill. Then two weeks later, a $500 million bill. Now, you might think that life in Zimbabwe stinks on ice, but consider this.

The progressive teachers union of Zimbabwe just finished up their negotiations for salary. Unfortunately, they lost, but the good news is they`re all billionaires. Yeah, yeah. What do we pay our teachers in the richest country in the world? The lowest paid teacher in the country will now be getting paid $63 billion a month. Bad news is experts say a typical family needs $100 billion a month just to beat basic needs. But, hey, at least you`re a billionaire. You can hang out with George Soros. I hear he likes progressives.

And don`t forget, we`re four days away from the start of my summer tour, it`s a comedy tour. Beck `08 "Unelectable." This is not P.C. We kicks things off Saturday in Atlanta. Then we move on to Oklahoma City, Harrisburg, Portland, Maine, Syracuse, Springfield, Akron, Houston and Columbia, just adding Dallas, I believe.

For more information or to purchase your tickets, go online at glennbeck.com. From New York, good night, America.

END