Glenn Beck Program May 9, 2011

Guest Host:  Judge Andrew Napolitano

• The President’s popularity has soared after the Osama Bin Laden killing, but…
• Unemployment is at 9%.
• The national debt is moving past $14.3 trillion.
• The Federal Reserve is not ending its war on the U.S. dollar.
• The President took a Bin Laden victory lap at Ground Zero. 
• It’s an attempt to take attention away from economic problems, e.g., gas over $4/gallon
• Behind the back of the voters he is planning on asking to borrow $2.7 trillion more.

Guests

• Steve Moore:  Senior Economic Writer for the Wall Street Journal
• Charlie Gasparino, Fox Business Contributor and Author of “Bought and Paid For”  (http://www.amazon.com/Bought-Paid-Unholy-Alliance-Between/dp/1595230718/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1304994117&sr=8-3 )

(Comments have been grouped by guest, not in the order they were discussed.)

Steve Moore:

• A drop in housing prices is a drop in people’s net worth.
• Home values post the largest decline since 2008.
• Since before the end of the Bush Administration, we have spent more than $400 billion to help people pay their mortgages.
• The Federal Reserve Bank now owns over $1 trillion worth of these mortgages.
• Despite all of these innovations by Uncle Sam, the housing market has just gotten worse and worse.
• There were 31 oilrigs drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. 
• Only one of them had a problem. 
• None has been reopened. 
• Now the administration wants to get rid of the oil depletion allowance, a tax break that encourages oil companies to drill.
• Everything the administration has done has been to make oil drilling illegal.
• The Democrats want to get rid of tax subsidies for big oil, but…
• What I don’t hear is a call to get rid of subsidies to wind and solar energy.
• Presidents that don’t get re-elected have been those that don’t keep their eye on …
• 1.      Unemployment
• 2.      Inflation

·        We have one of the highest misery indexes we have ever seen.

·        The Republicans can’t blink on the issue of the debt ceiling.

·        The Wall Street bankers will be in favor of raising the debt ceiling because they will be the ones selling the bonds.

·        As long as we have this easy money policy, Ben Bernanke is as guilty as President Obama for this weak economy.

Charles Gasparino

• The principle failure of Obamanomics has been the belief that the government can prop up the economy and prop up home prices.
• Home prices have to come down.
• Another problem with Obamanomics is that the administration tries to pick winners and losers.
• The President is not getting a big bounce after Osama Bin Laden’s killing because the economy hasn’t responded to his policies.

Guest:  Jim Rogers, International Investor

• The Chinese save 35% of their income.  We save 2% of ours.
• There are much higher interest rates in China than here.
• Their currency is going up.  Our currency is being debased.
• If we don’t raise the debt ceiling, we will have some pain.  However, the pain will be greater if we keep on spending.
• California is more communist than China.  The Chinese are among the best capitalists in the world.
• The venture capitalist business is booming in China.  A lot of people are making a lot of money in China.
• China has a trade deficit with some countries, e.g., Germany.
• Washington is not doing what is right for the country.  They are paying off their friends and buying votes.
• What they are doing with the currency has never worked in the long run.
• Mr. Geithner has never been right in the 17 years he has been in Washington. 
• Mr. Bernanke has been wrong every month for eight years.

Ron Paul saw $1 million in campaign contributions after last week’s debate.

Newt Gringrich will soon announce he is in the race.

Guest:  Kirsten Powers, columnist for the Washington Post

• One CNN poll has Ron Paul as the man to beat.
• What’s most appealing about him overall is that he is intellectually honest.
• The Republicans are split on the issue of remaining in Afghanistan now that Osama Bin Laden is dead.
• This election will be about the economy.
• Ron Paul will be portrayed as a “crazy uncle” if he comes up high in the polls.
• Mitt Romney is the most reasonable Republican candidate.

Guest:  Michael Scheuer, Former Head of the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit

• Removing Bin Laden was a huge tactical victory.
• We’re still getting beat in Afghanistan.
• Our borders are still wide open.
• The fundamentalist movement is more active and violent than anytime in the last 15 years.
• We don’t have enough troops to win in Afghanistan.  We are being nickel and dime’ed to death.
• General Patraeus managed to lose in Iraq. 
• He’s managed to lose in Afghanistan and…
• He may bring the half-baked advisors with him when he takes over the CIA.
• By telling the world we have all this information, we are adding impetus to Al Queda to change everything.
• We are dead in the water if we are denied access to the port of Karachi in Pakistan.

Guest:  Former Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson

• I think I can do a good job as President.
• As governor, I cut taxes 14 times and left office with a balanced budget.
• I advocate a balanced budget.  Now.
• The government can provide a level playing field.  It should not pick winners and losers.

Guest:  Rick Santorum, Presidential Candidate, And Former PA Senator

• This is a big election.
• If Obamacare is implemented, the America we have known is gone.

Wrap Up

• The President united the country with the death of Osama Bin laden.
• The President also tried to kill an American citizen using the U.S. military without first having him found guilty at a trial. 
• This is a first since the Civil War.
• He has made the economy worse with his policies.
• Federal bureaucrats now have access to your medical records thanks to Obamacare.
• The price of gas has skyrocketed – so much for the drilling moratorium.
• The National Debt was at $9 trillion when President Obama took office. 
• It is now $14.3 trillion and…
• The President wants to add $2.7 trillion.
• What will decide our future…
• The size of the government.
• Borrowing and spending.
• Adherence to the Constitution.