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Glenn Beck
What Impact will AIG Bailout Have?; Who`s to Blame for Financial Crisis?; Can Dems Learn from History?; Who Should Independent Voters Select?
Aired September 17, 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, congratulations, America! We`re the proud owners of the world`s largest insurance company. Yes, we`re bailing out AIG. But I`m going to tell you the good news behind all of this.
Plus, former Hillary Clinton backer throws support to John McCain. Uh-oh. The wheels on the Obama bus come [SINGING] off the bus, off the bus.
And part three of our series, "Exposed: America`s Broke." Tonight we`ll find bipartisan solutions to our massive debt problem. But don`t worry. We`ve got an insurance company now. Tonight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BECK: Hello, America.
The world is making less and less sense to me. First of all, for the first time, I think, on this program I`m going to tell you why I actually believe today -- and it may be just a today thing -- that John McCain is going to win this election. That`s coming up in just a second.
But first, congratulations. You`re now the proud owner of the largest insurance company on planet Earth. How much did it cost? Come on. Eighty-five billion dollars. You remember when $85 billion used to really mean something?
The U.S. government -- that means you and me and our paper boy -- took control of the American International Group with an $85 billion payout to prevent bankruptcy of the nation`s biggest insurer and the worst financial collapse in history.
Now, experts have all been saying -- they said it yesterday and today -- if AIG had gone under, it would have been so bad that they don`t even really know how bad it would have been. Let me you how bad it would have been. It would have been the Great Depression. But I`m not sure we`re better off at this point. America, here is "The Point" tonight.
Leaders from both parties are trying to capitalize on this mess. And it proves that at the end of the day, this is not a Democratic problem. This is not a Republican problem. This is a Washington problem. Here`s how I got there.
Reaction to the AIG bailout marks a turning point, I think, in our election. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi yesterday released a statement saying that the $85 billion bailout of AIG is a "staggering sum, and it`s just too enormous for the American people to bear the risk." Yet, she`s putting together a bailout for Detroit. She`s finally calling for congressional hearings. Oh, yes. That will fix it.
Nancy, the $200 billion to bail out Fannie and Freddie, that just wasn`t staggering enough? I don`t know about you, but I feel like I`ve been hit in the head with a baseball bat.
Now, Republican presidential candidate John McCain responded late yesterday with a new TV commercial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Reform Wall Street. New rules for fairness and honesty. I won`t tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs. I`ll keep them safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: America, here`s what you need to know tonight. We need a change. Change is absolutely what America is looking for. You know, and if you`re like me, I don`t give a flying crap who delivers it, the Republicans or the Democrats. I want change, and I know specifically what kind of change I want.
I want a change to the truth. Tell me the truth. Show me your plan. Ask me if I approve. If you`re going take the Pelosi and Obama route and promise, you know, the politics of change, you better start putting up and then shutting up. I`ve got 85 billion new reasons to back me up.
Stephen Moore writes editorials on economics for the "Wall Street Journal" and is the author of "The End of Prosperity."
Stephen, I can`t take this. You and I are both against the bailouts. They say that this would have caused the Great Depression, and I think it would have caused the Great Depression, only because nobody knows. Everybody`s all tied to each other, and nobody knows what would have happened. But three-quarters of their debt is in foreign banks.
STEPHEN MOORE, EDITORIAL WRITER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": That`s right. That`s right, Glenn, and I feel I almost owe your viewers an apology. Because just two nights ago on your show, I was applauding the Fed and the treasury for drawing a sand in the line -- line in the sand and saying no more bailouts. Twenty-four hours later I was wrong. They wiped out that line, and they drew a new line in the sand.
We have ad now three or four major bailouts. If you think about it, it started with Bear Stearns. They have Fannie Mae -- Fannie Mae, then Freddie Mac, and now AIG. And every one of them, Glenn, was supposed to calm the financial market. Calm the financial market. They aren`t calm. This is one of the most tumultuous days, and all that Washington can say is it would have been worse if we hadn`t done it.
BECK: Sure. You know what? I would rather take it. We are -- here we are. First of all, Stephen true or false. Three-quarters of the debt we bought and bailed out was foreign debt. What the hell are we doing?
MOORE: Yes. The Chinese bank and the Russian bankers are dancing today.
BECK: You bet they are, because Joe Six-pack in Iowa is bailing their ass out. Why are we doing that?
MOORE: Well, there`s two problems here. One is, you know what I did today, Glenn? I flipped through my Constitution. I tried to -- I tried to find that passage in the Constitution where the federal government has the authority to do this, and I couldn`t find it.
BECK: That was my next question. Is this even constitutional? I never -- did you get a phone call last night about the $85 billion? Did you? Was there -- was there a vote? Were we supposed to go and see the senior citizens at the elementary school and vote on this? Where? What -- what authority do these people have to take our money?
MOORE: No one voted on it. No one in Congress voted on it. The Federal Reserve board is the most powerful unelected branch of government in Washington. And so, you know, you now have a system where we have to ask where is this money going to come from? I asked it every time.
Here`s where it`s going to come from, Glenn. I guarantee this. They are going to print more money.
BECK: Of course they are.
MOORE: Which is how we got in this crisis in the first place.
BECK: OK. Let me ask you this. Pelosi and Reed both say that what they want is a new -- listen to this one, a new federal agency. They never go away. Whose job is to buy bad debt from corporations so they can survive. What the hell are we creating?
MOORE: Well, that`s what we`ve been doing with these bailouts for the last...
BECK: They want to institutionalize it now.
MOORE: They want to institutionalize it. And the other announcement that was made today by Senate Majority Harry Reed was that he is ready to sign off on the bailout of Detroit. That`s $40 to $50 billion more.
BECK: OK, Stephen. Good seeing you.
OK. I told you in the beginning of the show that I believe that John McCain is actually going to win this election. Because I think everywhere you look there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what this country is in need of and what they want. And now finally, the lines are being drawn.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday, when she was asked whether the Democrats bear some responsibility for the current crisis on Wall Street, she used one word to answer it: No. Come on. Does anybody believe that? I mean, does she even believe that?
Now here`s John McCain yesterday saying something that I think feels a little closer to the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: As for the Congress, members in both parties must accept a share of the responsibility. Some members seem to measure the financial health of banks and lenders by the size of their political contributions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: All right. Ari Fleischer is the former White House press secretary to George W. Bush.
I mean, Ari, you tell me. The Republicans responsible for this, along with the Democrats, or is it just a Democratic problem?
ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, frankly, I think the real problem here is the investment people who made bad decisions and made bad investments. They`re the ones who took a lot of these products and went down and made it esoteric. Nobody can understand.
(CROSSTALK)
FLEISCHER: That`s where I begin this. I don`t think it`s...
BECK: Ari, you were -- you were there in the White House when people were trying to out-minority each other. They were like, "Yes, but I got a guy who`s black, half Filipino and has no hands, and I got him an 18- bedroom house." I mean, that`s what everybody has been doing on both sides. Yes, but you`re still not taking care of those people. It`s not a homeownership society for everybody.
FLEISCHER: Listen, I think there`s no question about it: Washington, D.C., has its fingers in everybody`s pie, everybody`s pot, and tries to make a bigger, better pot. That`s part of our ongoing problem.
But here, the first line of responsibility is with the people who make investment judgments in the private sector, who took risks, and they are now getting what they deserve. They had bad loans, bad risks, and now they have to pay the price.
BECK: See, I don`t...
FLEISCHER: That`s where the government should not be bailing anybody out on these situations. Even if things do get worse, we`re making things far, far worse by sending a signal you can keep making bad investments and the government will help.
BECK: Where is that candidate? Because Barack Obama says, well, the system is fail. It doesn`t work, blah, blah, blah. He`s not talking about the system in Washington. He`s talking about, "Hey, there`s no problems in Washington. And you know, we just need another government agency to help bail these people out."
John McCain, in the meantime, on Monday said he`s dead set against the bailout of AIG, not the -- what you just said. Now today -- it had to be done.
FLEISCHER: AIG, by the way, my life insurance policy is with AIG. I don`t want them to get bailed out by the government. It`s just not the right way to go.
BECK: By the way, Ari...
FLEISCHER: I -- there is no end in sight if the government goes down this road.
BECK: I don`t think, by the way -- I don`t think you need to pay your premium any more, because you own it. I mean, free health insurance for all of us. Solved that problem.
The bailout now for GM, you know and I know it`s going to happen because of politics. Michigan is too important. The one who makes that deal, we can buy our way in.
FLEISCHER: Well, this will be a real test of courage. This will be a test for John McCain about whether he can resist us and stand, seemingly, against the people of Michigan, but do what`s right for America. And whether that is what, at the end of the day, carries him through to win an election. That`s what elections should test, whether he or Barack Obama has the mettle to do that.
BECK: OK. Hang on just a second. We`ve got to take a commercial break. But let me tell you something: John McCain, that`s what will win this. If you really believe country first, that`s what will win this.
When we come back, McCain as a change agent. Well, Barbara Walters doesn`t think so. One prominent Democrat does. Wait until you see what I`ve got lined up for you next. And we`ll go straight to the top in search of real bipartisan solutions to our massive debt and financial problems. Two ranking members of Congress and former comptroller general David Walker will join me in tonight`s installment of "Exposed: America`s Broke." I am holding both their feet to the fire, Republican and Democrat.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: All right. Back with former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
Ari, you know, it`s amazing to me that everybody`s talked about change, but nobody has been able to pin it, I think, until Sarah Palin came along. And that is the kind of change we want is take the beam out of your own eye before you start worrying about the slivers in the other party`s eye. Got it? Do you agree or disagree?
FLEISCHER: Well, I think everybody is fed up with both parties in Washington. The fascinating thing about the Palin pick in 2008, a very bad Bush year, unfortunately, a bad Republican year, is she has changed the conversation, jolted it, and changed the face and the image of the Republican Party away from George Bush.
BECK: Right.
FLEISCHER: That`s what she`s accomplished and why it`s propelled John McCain to the head of the pack now.
BECK: But it is because it looks as though it`s a -- it`s a party that is willing to say the tough things about their own party first before they point the finger to somebody else. Point it to yourself first. And I think that`s what she stands for.
But the media really doesn`t understand it. Here`s Barbara Walters and John McCain on "The View." Listen to how she doesn`t even understand that at all. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: She`ll reform Washington just like she did...
BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, ABC`S "THE VIEW": How?
MCCAIN: By doing what she did in Alaska.
WALTERS: What is she going to reform specifically?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: I wish we would have had a better clip. It goes on and on and on with "What? What is she going to reform? What`s she going to change? What`s she going to do? How is she going to do it?"
You reform things from the inside and you change your own party first. How is it they don`t understand this?
FLEISCHER: Well, what Sarah Palin did is she stood up to those who were in power who were popular and took them on because of right and wrong.
BECK: Right.
FLEISCHER: These things are fundamental. You either do what`s right or you do what`s wrong. And the problem in Washington is people have reached such an accommodating stage where they can cut a little of this corner, cut a little of that corner. And pretty soon we all, as taxpayers, the ones who are feeling the bleeding because everything got cut.
BECK: See, here`s the thing. Here`s the thing that I think. Sarah Palin in particular, she -- she goes after the oil companies, but not because she hates oil companies.
FLEISCHER: Right.
BECK: But because she hates the corruption in the oil companies. So at the same time she`s taking them down, she`s also saying, "And I`m building a gas pipeline right now." She just wants clean oil companies instead of corrupt oil companies. That`s what we`re looking for, isn`t it?
FLEISCHER: This is the refreshing thing that she brings to this campaign. Barack Obama had it, especially at the beginning. His risk now is he`s being increasingly seen as an orthodox, traditional candidate, no longer the post-partisan candidate.
BECK: Exactly.
FLEISCHER: No longer willing to stand up to powerful people in the Democratic Party.
BECK: Here is...
FLEISCHER: She has that freshness now which is the change of the debate.
BECK: Here is a quote, and this, I think -- this is all snow -- all snowballing on Barack Obama. Here is a quote from Baroness Lynn Forester de Rothschild on Obama. She`s a huge Hillary supporter.
She said, "This is a hard decision for me to personally make, because frankly, I don`t like him. I feel he`s an elitist."
Someone who`s a baroness thinks that he`s an elitist? "I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him."
She came out today and threw her support to John -- John McCain. First of all, this woman is a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton. Do you think that would happen without her calling Hillary Clinton and saying, "I just want you to know"?
FLEISCHER: Well, I wouldn`t be surprised if she got the word of some of Hillary`s people and then she went and did what she did. I don`t think it`s comfortable for Hillary Clinton. I don`t -- I think Hillary wants to be a team player.
BECK: But Hillary could have stopped that.
FLEISCHER: I`m not sure about that. Yes, I think that Hillary has an interest in being a team player now. And it`s -- in politics, individuals can still do what they want to do. Sometimes you listen to the people that you previously endorsed; sometimes you don`t.
BECK: Ari, thanks a lot.
FLEISCHER: Thank you, Glenn.
BECK: So now over the weekend, I was in what I like to call my library. My wife likes to call it the bathroom. And I was reading an article that was the first one that really explained how Democrats turned things around in 2006.
It`s by Ramesh Ponnuru. He is a columnist for "TIME" magazine, senior editor for "The National Review."
Ramesh, explain -- you`re the first person I think that has really nailed this. Explain what it seems to me that none of the politicians really understand about the message America was sending in 2006.
RAMESH PONNURU, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE NATIONAL REVIEW": Right. Thank you. I think that a lot of Democrats think the public turned left in 2006. That`s why they turned out the Republicans who were running Congress. I think it`s because they thought of the Republicans as people who were putting themselves before the public interest, who weren`t interested in turning things around in Iraq, weren`t even willing to acknowledge we were losing, who weren`t interested in reforming things like taxes and health care, and who were in many cases corrupt. And that I think is what the public was rejecting.
BECK: Right. And that leads you to the John McCain "country first" idea. I don`t care about the party. I don`t care about myself. I don`t care about my career. I care about my country first. And that is -- I think that`s -- it`s here.
New Jersey, Obama is only leading by three, according to one poll. New York, Obama is leading by five. New York? Are you kidding me? I`m on this island. There`s not -- there`s nobody here that wants to vote for John McCain. And he`s leading by five. He should be way ahead, but they have fundamentally misunderstood, and they have stacked their party now all the way to the left.
PONNURU: Yes. You know, it`s really interesting. If you look at -- down the list of issues from taxes to trade to abortion, to marriage, to health care, Obama is to the left of the Clinton administration, in many cases to the left of John Kerry in 2004. And I think that`s one of the reasons he`s having so much trouble.
BECK: In some cases, left of Lenin. You have -- this is who`s running now the party. You have Obama, Reed, Pelosi, Kennedy, Biden. Show me anyone there that`s in the center. Anywhere close to the center.
PONNURU: That`s right. They -- they are well to the left of American public opinion. And in John McCain you have a center right conservative. If you look at the things people didn`t like in 2006: corruption. McCain was hot on the trail of it. Failure in Iraq, he helped turn it around. Domestic reform, he`s got a sweeping health-care reform that makes health care more affordable.
BECK: OK. So with a fundamental misunderstanding of what America is wanting -- they do want change, but they want a specific kind of change. Who do you think wins, at this point? I think -- I`ve just kind of gotten to this place where I think John McCain actually is going to win.
PONNURU: Well, I think he can win. I think what he`s got to do is say, "Look, I know that people are hurting. They`re not in need of rescue by the federal government, but they do need a federal government that works on their side."
BECK: Right.
PONNURU: And if he does that, he can win.
BECK: OK. Ramesh, thank you very much.
PONNURU: You`re welcome.
BECK: Coming up, both John McCain and Barack Obama have had more than their fair share of problems. So what does the undecided voter do? Our very own angry independent weighs up -- weighs in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: America, only 48 days left in this election. Forty-eight very, very long days. Everybody is going after the highly-desirable independent voter. The election could very well be in their hands. So I thought what the heck? Let`s see where they`re leaning, what`s on their minds.
As luck would have it, when this program`s public viewer isn`t busy keeping tabs on me, he`s keeping a disgruntled, nonpartisan eye on the presidential candidates. Our very own angry independent, humorist and author Brian Sack. He joins me now -- Brian.
BRIAN SACK, AUTHOR: Yes, hi, Glenn.
BECK: Hello. How are you?
SACK: I`m great, Glenn.
BECK: Good.
SACK: I`m in L.A.
BECK: You`re in L.A.?
SACK: Yes.
BECK: Well, that sounds independent of you.
SACK: I`m going to stop by Barbara Streisand`s house and ask her to stop talking.
BECK: Good.
SACK: Glenn?
BECK: Yes.
SACK: As an independent voter, Glenn, with no specific allegiance, I`m not alone when I say that I`m regularly disappointed that, every four years, the best the two major parties can offer us is a lesser of two evils choice. Right?
BECK: Yes.
SACK: Now, many of us independents wind up voting for obscure third- party candidates we actually believe in, while our friends accuse us of throwing our votes away. And it`s all very depressing.
But this year, Glenn, it`s different.
BECK: Yes.
SACK: This November, Glenn, it`s a win-win for independent voters on three fronts: inspiration, entertainment, and diplomacy.
BECK: Inspiration, entertainment, and diplomacy. I don`t -- I don`t think I`ve heard it -- let`s start with -- what was the first one?
SACK: Inspiration.
BECK: Inspiration.
SACK: First of all...
BECK: Go ahead.
SACK: Regardless of which party wins in November, for the first time in American history there will either be a black man in the Oval Office or a white woman in the hallway just outside the Oval Office. Maybe she has a square office. I don`t know.
But neither of them have impressive resumes. So that should be inspiration to all of us, all of us with outlandish hopes and dreams. And I want to thank "American Idol" for lowering our expectations.
BECK: OK. So there`s a slug there just like you.
SACK: Yes.
BECK: Yes, OK. And then the next one was entertainment.
SACK: Entertainment, Glenn. Regardless of who wins in November, it`s going to be a fun four years. Because we`re either going to watch Joe Biden try to out-blunder Dan Quayle or we`re going to see a president with a short temper cope with an unwed teenage mother pushing a baby stroller down the West Wing.
BECK: I don`t think...
SACK: Pure entertainment either way.
BECK: I don`t think so. I don`t -- although I did see the first -- what was it, the first dude. He had a friend on TV last night wearing a hoody. When was the last time we had anybody in politics -- in a hoody.
SACK: Basically paint guns going to be in the White House.
BECK: Yes. Great.
All right. The last one was diplomacy.
SACK: Diplomacy. A President Obama, of course, would definitely improve America`s tarnished image overseas, and we really do need that. But if McCain is elected president, more than 80 percent of France will be absolutely miserable, and that`s something that will bring joy to all of us, really.
BECK: I like that.
SACK: It`s a win-win, Glenn, either way in November. I`m very excited for us. And I want to thank the two major parties for finally giving us something to look forward to in November.
BECK: Right. OK. So you`re just saying I don`t really care.
SACK: No. I care so much. Pinch me. It`s a dream.
BECK: No. You don`t have to tell me who you`re leaning towards, but are you actually leaning towards one or the other at this point?
SACK: I`m leaning towards Canada.
BECK: Right.
SACK: You know, I`m leaning -- I`m probably going to vote for an obscure third-party candidate like Bob Barr. Then all my friends will make fun of me for wasting my vote.
BECK: "Throw your vote away." Right, right, right.
All right. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it.
Upcoming, bipartisan solutions to our country`s massive debt problem as we continue our weeklong series, "Exposed: America`s Broke." You don`t want to miss -- you don`t want to miss a second of this, coming up. Stand by.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Well, welcome to day three of our week long series, "Exposed: America`s Broke."
And with our government buying up bad mortgages and nearly bankrupt companies, aren`t you glad we got that insurance company now? That title rings more and more true.
The numbers are simple. Not counting the hundreds of billions of dollars that we`re using to bail people out who made bad decisions. We have already made social promises to people totaling over $53 trillion. We don`t have $53 trillion. We don`t have it today and given the course that we`re currently on, we`re not got to have it tomorrow or the next day or the day after that.
But closing the gap, I mean it`s simple on paper. Take out your red pen and just start crossing things off, but it is virtually impossible in practice because of politics.
You picture yourself as a senator that`s running on the offshore drilling and 110 percent social security tax increase platform. You and your wife maybe, maybe your wife will vote for you. Or you ask some focus group whether they`ll vote for you if you ran on the pro-life and pro-50 percent cuts in Medicare benefits platform; probably not going to happen.
All of which is why they call the issues the third rail of politics. It`s like touching that third rail you know in the New York subway system that electrifies the subway. A politician who tries to touch Social Security or Medicare sees their career begin to smoke and burst into a ball of fire.
Now, David Walker, he is the Former Comptroller General of the United States of America; basically it means he was our nonpartisan chief bean counter. He has been on this program I don`t know how many times. The last time he was here was about a month ago. And I asked him, David, who can we trust in Washington to lead us out of this mess? And here is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID WALKER, FORMER COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And Jim Cooper, who is a Democrat in Tennessee, Frank Wolf is Republican from Northern Virginia and Senator Conrad from North Dakota. Senator Gregg from New Hampshire, Senator Voinovich from Ohio and they`re all trying to help create a fiscal future commission to help us deal with our $53 trillion hold. That`s leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: We`ve got a problem with a leadership deficit. I don`t trust anybody anymore and I want to get out that place. We are about to put David Walker`s recommendations to the test. Because two of the five you recommended are here today, Republican Senator Judd Gregg he is from New Hampshire, he is a ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper. He is from Tennessee and he is on the House Budget Committee. And of course we also have David Walker, the Former Comptroller General of the United States and current president and CEO of the Peterson Foundation.
David let me start with you and what I just said. I mean I was preparing for this interview today and I`m afraid that our politicians in Washington will find me a little hostile. And I don`t mean to. I just don`t trust any of them. We have a deficit in leadership. Explain that.
WALKER: We clearly do. I mean we have a budget deficit and a savings deficit and a balance of payments trade deficit. But the biggest one of all is the leadership deficit. But there are exceptions and two of the exceptions are going to be on your program today, by the way Happy Constitution day.
BECK: Yes, I have run it through the shredder this week.
Ok, let me go to Congressman Gregg then. I`m sorry, Senator Gregg. Senator, you are a Republican. I`m a Conservative. I generally vote for Republicans. But I have to tell you, convince me that I can trust a Republican. You guys gave us prescription drugs, which was $8.7 billion on top of what we`ve already done.
SEN. JUDD GREGG, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: Trillion.
BECK: I`m sorry, trillion. I`m sorry.
GREGG: Right, I voted against that, I actually voted against the prescription drug and railed against it innumerable occasions on the floor of the Senate, because of the $8 trillion unfunded liability which increased the overall unfunded liability by about 10, 15, 20 percent.
So that was a serious mistake and it shouldn`t have been done, it should have been done the way it was done. We should have paid for it.
BECK: Ok.
GREGG: The issue here really is how do you get folks who as you mentioned in your lead in are concerned about the next election and to look at the next generation. And that`s been our problem.
Congress is good at dealing with the next election but not the next generation. And Jim and I have come up with a proposal along with Congressman Wolf and Senator Conrad to try to do that and it basically puts in place a bracket-like approach where you set up a group of folks who are committed to doing something right and doing something aggressive in the area of Medicare and Social Security and tax reform and puts them in a room and says come up with a plan and then the Congress with that amendment has to vote the plan up or down. And it`s a fast track way to get some results.
BECK: Ok. Congressman, you know Senator it`s your turn to point to the Congressman.
Congressman how can I possibly believe you guys because when you guys took control of Congress, you said we`re the most ethical. I mean let me remind you of what`s his name, Charlie Rangel. You`ve given us a huge deficit. You had the pay go system and yet that isn`t doing anything. Pay go you`re still violating that. I mean why should I trust you guys?
REP. JIM COOPER, (D) TENNESSEE: Well Glenn, we put pay-go back into place and largely we`ve stuck to it which is an improvement because the Republican Congress let it expire entirely.
BECK: Largely?
COOPER: Alan Greenspan said the single most important reform we could undertake will be to put pay-go back in place and we`ve largely done that. But let`s look to the future, on December 15 of this year, Hank Paulson the Secretary of Treasury, a good Republican and a good Secretary of Treasury will issue a report with the real numbers for America in it.
These are the only audited numbers for America using real accounting. It`s essentially the annual report for America. But Secretary Paulson will hide that report and he will bury it and he will not have a press conference. We know this because last year`s report was completely hidden.
And that`s where you get the $53 trillion number in liabilities for America. We`ve got to expose this to the American public.
BECK: David, you know it as well as I know, this has been hidden for a long time. O`Neill tried to get it into the 2003 budget and he`s left to go spend some time with his family. And finally got it into the Appendix of the Social Security budget when the plan was there called the Index or Pain Index or what was it Menu of Pain. Do we have that chart up here?
How is it, David, that we can get anybody to pay attention to this when the numbers are being buried and when you`ve got a couple of people in Congress in the Senate that want to do the right thing, but nobody on the election -- McCain, Obama, they`re not really talking about any of this stuff.
WALKER: Well, the numbers are in the financial statements of the U.S. government they had been for a while. And the problem is nobody reads them. And so the fact of the matter is, is you need to figure out how you can get this important information out to the public in a usable form.
It`s in the movie IOUSA. We at the foundation are doing a lot of things through the Internet with it. Stay tuned you may well see a federal burden clock rather than a federal debt clock in the future. The problem is not the debt, it`s the unfunded obligations. The $53 trillion plus; $455,000 per household.
BECK: But how again, here`s how much politics plays a role into it. Doug Holtz-Eakin, he was the director of the Congressional Budget Office, we tried to get him on I think on Monday night`s program. He is the guy who has been doing -- he`s the director of the CBO, couldn`t get him on.
Why? Because he is now on as part of the John McCain campaign and the McCain campaign said no, we are not making any comments on this stuff right now.
What are you talking about? We`re not asking him to speak for the campaign. We are asking him to enlighten the American people of the kind of games that are going on. If you can`t get somebody who both parties are saying they`re reformers, if you can`t get them to come on and speak about it, but what the hell does that even mean?
WALKER: Well, the truth is that neither one of the major candidates are really focusing on our fiscal whole. And one of the things we`re doing at the Peterson Foundation is we`re analyzing the position of both major candidates and we`ll make that public within the next week or so to be able to show whether or not they`re making progress or actually making it worse.
BECK: Ok, Congressman and Senator, I hate to be so harsh on you because you guys are some of the good guys in Washington. And you are trying to do the right thing. The people are very, very frustrated. You guys in Washington just took another $85 billion away from us last night without even asking us. I don`t know where anyone finds that in the constitution.
Let me ask you this. Assuming that people in Washington really do want to make a difference, what can we the people do to empower the good people to make things happen and to put country first as John McCain would say.
GREGG: Well, I think the first and most important thing that people can do is speak to their people who are running for Office and say do you support the Gregg/Conrad, Conrad/Gregg, Cooper/Wolf proposal which would set up a procedure which would guarantee that ideas for correcting and maybe not resolving, but significantly improving these fiscal plight that we`re facing are voted on up or down.
And so if everybody is held to the test of whether or not they would support such an approach and we get a majority of people elected who have at least committed in their campaigns that they would support such an approach, and it shouldn`t be hard for them to commit to that. Then we can get some progress.
BECK: Congressman?
COOPER: Judd is right, every businessman back home knows if you can`t measure it, you can`t manage it. And if you won`t measure it, you don`t deserve to manage it.
And that`s the position the Washington is in right now. We need people who`ll tell the truth about the national debt and the national fiscal gap and the annual deficit. And right now we don`t have enough people willing to tell the truth on those key numbers.
BECK: Have you guys both talked to your party leadership and said, I`d like to know what our candidates are talking about, when you know when John McCain says we`ll make up the difference if you`ve lost a job and you`re going to a lower wage job? That we`re the country and we`re going to make up that difference, I never even heard to that? Where do you find that in the constitution?
Or you go to a Senator Obama and say we don`t have the money for universal health care. Have you guys went to your own people and said, what the hell are you doing to us?
COOPER: Amen, Glenn. I`ve been with Barack Obama and he gets it and now it`s difficult for any candidate during the hit of the campaign. He gets it. He knows this issue cold. He does.
BECK: David? I thought you were giving me a couple of plain speakers.
A guy who said who said, who wants universal education and universal health care? Congressman, you`re telling me he gets it?
COOPER: There is a scored bill, you need to look at it Glenn, it`s called the Widen Bennett, completely Bipartisan, 16 Senate co-sponsors it pays for itself. No tax increases. It covers --
BECK: No, no I`m sure it does. The magic money that grows on trees, Senator have you gone -- I have done my homework, Congressman. Senator, have you gone to your party and said what are you thinking?
GREGG: Yes, actually I have on numerous occasions. And we had actually the senate leadership signed off on the Conrad/Gregg, Greg/Conrad everyone has got the deal, unfortunately they got side tracked when we try to get some of the House leadership involved and the White House involved.
But I believe there is a consensus and an agreement that can be reached here in the Congress to do something if we can back the politics out of it a little bit and set up a procedure which leads to action.
BECK: Ok.
GREGG: The problem here is that when you put policy on the table, everybody attacks it. But if you set up a procedure which requires that policy follow it, then you can get something done. And that`s why we proposed this sort of bracket approach.
BECK: Senator, Congressman and David, thanks a lot.
That is our week long series, it`ll continues tomorrow with a closer look at what might just be the biggest deficit, of all the leadership deficit, do you think that was solve there?
David Walker will be back and be joined by Robert Bixby from the Concord Coalition who was featured in the recent documentary, IOUSA.
And if you missed any part of this week`s series, just sign up for my pre-email newsletter tonight at glennbeck.com, we`ll link to all of the video from this week and give you all the information you need to demand real action from all of our leaders on both sides.
Coming up, we take an unconventional look at the state of our economy with "Freakonomics" author, Steven Dubner.
Stick around that`s coming up.
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BECK: All right we`ve talk a lot of complicated issues on this program. I do my best to make them easy to understand and not necessarily for you, but for me, I`m a pinhead.
You take the economy and I mean you ought to be hit in the head with a bag of rocks to not think that you know maybe there`s some problems here.
We know that billions are at stake. But if you`re anything like me when you watch TV, you`re like what the hell are they even talking about? I don`t want to talk about, you know talk to the experts that they have on over at CNBC because they`ve been wrong a lot.
Instead let`s go to Steven Dubner, he is the co-author of "Freakonomics, a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything." Now, you`re not an economist?
STEVEN DUBNER, COAUTHOR OF "FREAKONOMICS": I am not, proudly not.
BECK: Yes, because you are a journalist.
Ok, all right, in "Freakonomics" you talk a little bit, well first of all, let me start here, how do you feel about the last conversation we had with.
DUBNER: I like your questions more than their answers. To me when you look at a problem like this, you`ve got all kinds of what you`ve just said now complex problems. How do you solve them? So there is nice lip service put in there.
BECK: Yes.
DUBNER: If you can`t measure it, you can`t fix it, Peter Drucker beautiful, but the fact is that our political system looks kind of like a market, but it`s not. There`s only two parties, right? So it`s kind of like, if all the cars in the world are made by either GM or TATA and they both offered only one model, and that`s was all of the consumer had to choice that`s kind that where we are now with DEMS and Republicans.
And there`s kind of this arbitrage game trying to grab the middle.
BECK: That`s why these are coming more and more handy.
DUBNER: More handy aren`t they.
BECK: Yes, they`re really handy. I mean, how do you fix them? And you say in "Freakonomics," that the president really doesn`t even have control over the economy.
DUBNER: People misplace a lot of their vigor, hoping, praying and thinking that their guy or gal if and when she gets in they`re just going to fix the economy. And first of all, the president doesn`t have that much control over the economy as we`ve seen really intensely these last several months.
BECK: Yes.
DUBNER: If he or she did and if there were big levers that could be adjusted, they would be doing that.
So whoever wins, the election, if his supporters are going to thank God and say ok, everything is going to be fixed now and the people who voted against they will going to say oh God it`s going to get terrible. And they`re both wrong, because really the economy doesn`t work like that.
It`s this big complex system with all these inputs and outputs, you want to talk about fixing it? That`s one issue, you want to talk about how politics can fix it. It`s kind of a separate issue because politics is not good at the economy.
BECK: Where was the president, where was anybody? I mean you had the Secretary of Treasury who is just good with the printing press and then you have Fed working out all of these deals.
DUBNER: I`ll tell you, the one thing that the American public should be thankful for, is the Fed Chairman that we`ve got right now Ben Bernanke, his area of expertise, from long ago, he`d written about the bid depression.
BECK: Yes, I know.
DUBNER: So he`s been preparing his entire life for how not to get into what most people they think we`re about to get into.
BECK: Oh I don`t know, your work cut out for you Ben.
Ok, so Obama`s polls are starting to tighten.
DUBNER: Yes.
BECK: And he should be running away with this thing.
DUBNER: Yes, yes.
BECK: Especially in certain states where he`s not. Well, I mean the polls here in New York, he leads by five. In New Jersey he`s something like by three. There`s nobody living in New Jersey that is a conservative anymore.
DUBNER: Well, if you`re an Obama fan, what I`m about to say is even worse news which is this, throughout the history of electoral polling, you find that when there is a minority candidate or any kind of hot button candidate, the polls don`t do a very good job of reflecting the reality.
So economists have this fancy phrases for this, your declared preferences is what you say you are going to do and your revealed preferences of what you actually do. It`s really a difference between what you say --
BECK: Right.
DUBNER: -- and what you do. People tell pollsters one thing and then in the privacy of the booth, they often do another. Minority candidates often do worst than they reflected in polls.
BECK: Is that because we`re racists or because it`s the "it" thing like Prius. People are driving a Prius because it`s green; it`s because it says something about you?
DUBNER: Probably because if I`m talking to a pollster on the phone, even if I don`t know that person, they`ll never see me and I`ll never see them, I want to sound like the kind of person who, when you asked the question, would you vote for x candidate, I say, yes of course.
BECK: Open-minded, that`s who I am. All right, Steven, thanks a lot.
Coming up, while everybody is focused on politics or finance, there are actually other news. And you`re not going to believe the other news that you haven`t heard about this week.
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BECK: Well, while we`ve been paying attention to the election and the financial melt down; the rest of the world, it hasn`t stopped. There are stories that we have been following closely, even though we haven`t had time to talk about them lately. I want to keep you updated on those stories.
Today President Bush said we remain at war with Islamic extremists. What`s his evidence? Well, our embassy Yemen was attacked by a car bomb killing 16 people including six terrorists. The bombs had all hallmarks of a strike from Al Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.
It was a failed attempt to breach the walls of the embassy and only new security upgrades along with the quick response of security officials stopped it from being much, much worse.
Then we jump over to Iran. The U.N., not the U.S., but the U.N. made a little presentation of about 35 nations focusing on the evidence of new photos showing that Iran is refitting its missiles to carry nuclear pay loads. Wait a minute, I thought the nuclear program only had the best of intentions. Maybe they`re just shipping off heaters to Israel. They are, kind of.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report was called compelling and credible yet still unverified at this point. The missiles shown in the pictures, in the diagrams are the Shihab 3, which personally I love the original, the Shihab 2 wasn`t nearly as good. You can go about 1,250 miles, conveniently putting Israel now in its range.
Iran says the pictures are fabricated and I believe it was Nancy Pelosi who informed us that some of the success of the search, quoting, "is from the goodwill of the Iranians," end quote. So, of course, they`re trustworthy.
And a lot closer to home. Mexico is still dealing with a rash of beheadings. According to "Time" magazine, during August alone, gangsters hacked off 30 heads across the country adding the total of almost 200 beheadings in 2008 so far.
That doesn`t include at least 12 beheaded bodies in the last couple of weeks. Drug cartels have murdered 2,680 people this year. As much as a month ago, many of them have been posted on Internet sites like YouTube, which removes them as soon as they can be found.
I want you to think about that the next time somebody tells you that you really only care about border security because you`re a racist.
For more in depths on these stories and so much more, including one of the most compelling hours that I have done on radio about Barack Obama, that is free, in our daily e-mail newsletter, please, this is a power- packed newsletter tonight. Sign up for it right now. It is free, at glennbeck.com.
From New York, good night, America.
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