This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," January 26, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.GLENN BECK, HOST: Welcome to "The Glenn Beck Program."
Over Christmas -- sorry, didn't mean to -- over winter solstice, President Obama vacationed in Hawaii. He was reading a book on President Ronald Reagan.
Now, I saw that over vacation and I went -- wow. I mean, he's a progressive who views the Constitution as a charter of negative liberties. I have a hard time believing he's reading Ronald Reagan but maybe -- maybe he'll get something out of it. That's great.
I think the president did -- but nothing about limited government.
Much of the Reagan talk that splashed last night in the State of the Union address didn't work. It rang hollow, because he was also at the same time talking about merging, not reducing the size of government agencies but merging them -- kind of into like a Department of Homeland Security on steroids.
That's great.
You know what happens when you take the ideas of limited government or the words of Ronald Reagan and then the progressive actions of Woodrow Wilson, this is what you get. And this is why the whole thing didn't work last night.
Here's Ronald Reagan yumminess and here's the Woodrow Wilson big government fish sticks. You put them too close together on a cookie sheet and they bake them to one ginormous cookie fish stick blob that nobody really wants to eat.
It doesn't work.
I like cookies. I like fish sticks. But they don't really work together.
This is the State of the Union last night.
So, I don't know what you saw, but this was not a move to the middle in words. It was -- it might be cookies to you, but it had a lot of fish in those cookies.
It was a campaign speech really. It was change and hope.
Did we learn our lesson? Will America wake up and see, wait a minute, he's not really saying anything here?
This speech, underneath, was as a radical of a speech that the president has ever given. I'll show you why and what he should have said. Oh, and I didn't forget about the chainsaw, the tree and the bunny either.
Come on. Let's go!
(MUSIC)
BECK: Hello, America.
Every single Reagan-esque ode to America Obama said last night was quickly followed by a but, but, but, but government is the answer. And we're going to have to invest billions of dollars. Yes. Yes. No, I don't -- no, I don't think.
And we got to invest billions of dollars and grow the size of government and merge government, but it's really all about you and the entrepreneurial spirit of America.
Yes. That didn't work for me.
We also heard about how great China is again and how we should -- this is one of the first things that popped out of the screen -- we should follow their lead on education and how they, quote, "started educating children earlier and longer."
Oh, well, that's great! What could possibly, possibly go wrong with taking our kids away from mom and dad even more of the day and just putting them in the big government hands of teachers union? No, seriously. That's going to be good. You watch, it's coming.
Obama also said we should be more like South Korea, where teachers are known as nation-builders. I don't want our soldiers known as nation- builders. Why would I want our teachers known as nation-builders?
Here in America, he said, it's time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect.
I think when Joe Biden, he's looking over there and he's going, don't we already do that? Do you know anybody who doesn't respect teachers?
I actually feel bad for teachers -- I mean, the good ones. We should fire the bad ones, which he wouldn't say last night. But the good ones are stuck working the ones that we can't fire. I feel bad for them. I feel bad for them because they're actually working with the parents -- with the kids with parents who don't even care.
I don't know how they do it. But I have never ever heard anyone say this, "Oh, well, I'm just a teacher" or "She's just a teacher." I haven't heard that. But I have heard -- "Well, she's just a mom" -- or the worst one, "Well, I'm just a mom." I hate that. I hate that. Maybe we should elevate moms and dads.
Maybe the president needs to do a little more of this. This is him in the Oval Office. He's either sleeping or reading the plaque, like who is that? Or just thinking about Abraham Lincoln.
I think he should observe Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln said, "Everything I am, I owe my mother."
Even President Obama knows this. I think that he would agree that he got an awful lot from his mother. His mother influenced him a great deal. And he wrote about it -- he wrote a whole book about his dad in "Dreams from My Father."
So, please don't tell me about more respect for the teachers. How about we elevate our parents?
Last night, you heard the president say things like we need to out-innovate, out-educate, out-build the rest of the world. We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business.
Yes, we do! And regulation ain't the way to do it.
Here's why this failed to inspire, because he's talking about, not you the individual. He's talking about the government. It is the opposite of what Paul Ryan said later. See if you -- I was going to say hear a difference, but see if you feel a difference from the speech last night the president gave and just this one part from Paul Ryan:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, R-WIS.: The principles that guide us, they are anchored in the wisdom of the Founders and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and in the words of the American Constitution. They have to do with the importance of limited government and with the blessing of self-government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: I love that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: We believe that the government has an important role to create the conditions that promote entrepreneurship, upward mobility and individual responsibility. We believe as our Founders did, that the pursuit of happiness depends on individual liberty. And individual liberty requires limited government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: And personal responsibility.
I think he actually believes that, which is why I thought it was effective last night. The best line out of the speeches last night was that one, the blessings of self-government -- the importance of limited government and the blessing of self-government.
I didn't hear from the president. I heard words -- I heard cookies and fish sticks.
The president talked again last night about how great China is, not just because of keeping their kids in the training camps -- the schools -- longer in the year and longer days. But this time, it was about how bad we are, because they're building faster choo-choo trains than we are here.
He said -- quote -- "Our infrastructure used to be the best. Our own engineers have graded our infrastructure with a D and we need to do better."
OK. Let's start here. China, of course, builds stuff with ease. They practically have what progressives used to call slave and child labor.
So, they don't have any problem with it and they also don't have any environmental restrictions to worry about. They can dump poison into the river and it doesn't really matter. They're like, what are you going to do?
They don't care if they roll railroad tracks for new choo-choo trains right over caribou mating grounds and the slave labor and child labor camps.
But let's forget about that one. Let's see. He was talking about giving more money to infrastructure. May I remind you, I've heard this somewhere before, we looked it up. In fact, it was two years ago, he said this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Ahhh!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: More than 90 percent of these jobs will be in the private sector --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Ahhh!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: They're everywhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: -- laying broadband, expanding mass transits.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: It's crazy how that's been -- I don't think any of it has been done. Do you? I mean -- that was the point of the whole trillion dollar stimulus, right? Didn't we already spend $13 billion on fancy choo-choo trains last time?
If there -- last night was all about unity. I didn't get my little ribbon. But it was all about unity. And I think we can all unite on one thing, America doesn't need any more choo-choo trains. Enough.
Amtrak loses money on 41 of 44 routes and over $1 billion every year gone. You know why? Because nobody is riding it! Making them faster isn't going to help.
Let me show you how the choo-choo train thing works. Here's the tracks. Oh, look at this. Fly California. Isn't that nice? And here's a
-- well, here's a cargo train. It's great.
Now, let me show you what happens. Here in America, because that's what we're talking about, not that fancy Europe or China -- here in America, we have one set of tracks and a choo-choo train is carrying all of our stuff is using this track -- and so are the really fast bullet trains. Uh-oh. Choo-choo!
That's why we don't build them here. We have to lay another whole set of track for the fancy choo-choo train. Also, if it doesn't go that way, then it would go this way. Here's the choo-choo using the same tracks. Bullet train going the same way. Bullet train coming really fast. This one is not going fast, really fast.
You see? That's how trains work. Choo-choo trains.
I think we're going to take that jet airplane. Yes, because the choo-choo that goes really fast and costs us a lot of money has to slow down. Chuga-chuga, choo-choo.
How do I know all this stuff? Just the GAO, that's it.
Government Accounting Office, they can't put price tag on this, because they say the high speed rail is going to require new safety rules -- oh, regulations -- constant public capital investment and operating subsidiaries. Constant. And balance that with freight rail service and the rest of the national transportation system, the planning necessary to meet the many concerns the GAO says. So, you can't trust this. Only the Government Accounting Office says it hasn't even occurred.
Choo-choo!
Could we do this? Let's fix reason firmly in her seat for a minute. Let's look at the country like this -- you're a shareholder. You're an owner, OK? Part owner.
And you hired this guy to run the country and he came in two years ago and said, I know it's going to be tough for you to swallow because even Dr. Evil said, $1 billion. They said, no, that's not a lot of money. He said, oh, $100 billion. He was only tenth of a way to trillion. I know it's a hard number to swallow, but I need $1 trillion to fix the infrastructure and new choo-choo trains. We're also going to do all kinds of new green jobs.
He knew then that he was going to have to come back here and meet with you, the shareholder in two years. Now, if I were that guy, I would have looked at my team and said, I have to face these people in two years. I got to show them that they just invested $1 trillion to revolutionize something. What do I do? Because I got to knock -- I'm not going to be able to knock it out of the park everywhere, but I got to knock it out of the park somewhere. Can you help me with that so I don't look like a dummy two years later?
Shareholders are going to kind of expect a business plan. Maybe a return on their trillion dollars. No, what does he do? No, he doesn't.
Uh-oh.
Where is the -- where is the place that he's transformed? Because last night, I don't know if you heard it, I kind of went like this -- did he just ask for double down on the stimulus to fix the same problem that he got the money for the last time?
That's not a business model. That's suicide.
If you want to talk about future being green jobs, well, you said it two years ago. In fact, do you remember this example? Solyndra. Oh, here he is. Let me hold up this solar panel here. Wow, it's quite light. That's fantastic. Hmm, I think it is, light enough to be the future. Green jobs are the answer! This company was fantastic.
He did this story and he's bragging about it -- two years ago.
Now don't you think that after learning so much stuff about this light, black thing I'm holding up here and shaking that person's hand, don't you think that maybe I should come back to the American people, because I held it up as if we could just help this country, this company is getting half a billion dollars in stimulus money, I got to show how great they are now, because you remember them two years ago. Yes, he didn't do that. He didn't do that, because that company had to lay off workers and close factories after getting half a billion dollars.
It's that much of the company of the future.
So, what did he do? Well, he couldn't talk about that company, so he had to give a shout-out -- and I'm not kidding you -- to two guys in a shingle company. Whoa! Shingles? Two guys and shingles.
You are giving me the shingles, President Obama!
I don't know about you, but if I spend $1 trillion, I think I need a full report on what the money is doing -- the charts, the stats, the graphs, you know, not just, hey, I got two guys and who we're living the dream on your dime making shingles.
Not an investment. It's a scam.
The president has also announced he would be investing in biomedical research. Can anybody find that one in the Constitution? Oh, and information technology, especially clean energy and technology.
All right. Let's take these apart one at a time, shall we?
Biomedical, Maybe it's just me as an American citizen, but I don't want the government now dabbling with creating our drugs, period.
Information technology? I don't know, thought we're doing pretty good with Steve Jobs. Bill Gates is doing good, you know? Newcomers coming in that field all the time. I think we're good. Have you seen the iPhone? Next to post office. I'm going with Apple on that one.
By the way, the new Internet bill being pushed, the one with the "kill switch" so the president can just shut down the Internet anytime he feels it's necessary contains new language. They rejected it last time.
This language this time says that the federal government's designation of vital Internet or other computer systems -- quote -- "shall not be subject to judicial review."
Oh, that sounds great. I mean, sure, at first I didn't want the government involve, but then they said no judge can do anything about it. I'm in.
How do I sign up?
What was it the president said about Tunisia? This one kind of rang true to me -- quote -- "The will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator." I bet the will of the people worked again.
Green technology. The president once again vilified oil companies last night. He wants us to stop using it and turn to wind and solar. All we need are some of those light black solar thingies right here on this high-speed train. It's going to be great. It's going to be cost effective, too.
Now, we all know that green energy isn't cost effective. So, how did the president last night decide to solve that problem? He said he wants to raise taxes and penalties on people that are using that old fashioned technology.
Oh, that sounds -- that sounds insane.
Let me show you how far away we are from using wind and solar panel. May I just point this out? Right now, all of the energy, all the electricity we get, we get 0.6 percent from wind. For those who went to public school, that's less than 1 percent.
Now, how about solar? Point -- are you ready -- 0.1 percent. Those two combined, not 1 percent of our energy comes from solar or wind.
How much do we get -- are you ready for this one? We get 2 percent from wood. From wood! Who besides the Amish and brick oven pizza places are using this for energy? Who?
We get double the amount of energy with this than a new green solar and wind power. Yes.
What do you say we -- what do you saw we work on that one a little bit longer before we take oil away, you know, and coal? Because I think that's kind of like the idea of our military just trashing all of our fighter jets and, you know, the vehicle and the armor and the GPS missiles and this stuff and say, you know, what we're going to do? We're going to rely -- we're just going to use the Millennium Falcon and the force as our primary defense. I just got to point out, that was a movie. And so was "An Inconvenient Truth."
I don't know how you can spend vacation reading President Reagan's words and missing the whole point, but he did it. So, let me remind him the words.
Mr. President, the government is not the solution to our problem. The government is the problem.
Here's an idea -- let we the people sort it out. If someone creates cars that run on chief magic fairy dust, guess what? We're all going to be driving fairy dustmobiles real fast.
He tried to channel Reagan. He said -- quote -- "What America does better than anyone else is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices." He said, "We're the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers and Google and Facebook."
Let me ask you something: where any of these people, do they work for a government agency? Were they getting subsidies? I mean, besides Google here, honestly. I mean, they're now -- do you hear this? This is kind of spooky. Google is now partnered with the NSA. Hmm.
Oh, well, go back to sleep, America. In many cases, these guys, the government tried to shut those people down.
Let's not confuse thinkers and creators and inventors with the government. The government does not create.
Do I need to go over the trillion dollars we spent on the choo-choos and the infrastructure again? I mean, we could. How about the post office? No, I think you get it.
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