Fox News 'The Glenn Beck Program' - Transcript

Interview

Fox News 'The Glenn Beck Program' - Transcript

FOX NEWS CHANNEL "THE GLENN BECK PROGRAM" INTERVIEW WITH REP. JOHN FLEMING (R-LA) INTERVIEWER: GLENN BECK
SUBJECT: PRINCIPLES AND VALUES FOUND IN AMERICA; STIMULUS BILL'S IMPACT ON HEALTH CARE AND SMALL BUSINESSES

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MR. BECK: So I said just a couple of days ago or maybe yesterday that I'm just going to have freshmen congressmen on because I can't listen to the weasels in Washington anymore. I mean, I know a lot of them are good and everything. But I just stopped listening to them. So I thought, why not just pick the apple from the tree? Let's go for the freshmen class in Congress before, you know, before their soul is taken from them in the middle of the night by their party. We have a Republican Congressman now, John Fleming in Louisiana, who called during the show.

Now, John, you're either a new watcher of this show or, you know, the dumbest man in America or you've watched this show and you're like, no, I agree with those things. But one way or another, we're going to find out. Are you ready?

REP. FLEMING: Great. Thank you, Glenn. Well, thanks for having me on this evening. And let me say parenthetically, congratulations on your new show. I'm already a big fan of yours.

MR. BECK: Thank you. All right. It's not going to help you because if you're a weasel I'm going to nail you to the wall.

REP. FLEMING: (Laughs.)

MR. BECK: So Congressman, let me just first ask you this. This might be the shortest interview ever done on television. Did you vote for the stimulus bill?

REP. FLEMING: I did not vote for the stimulus bill, no, sir.

MR. BECK: One point for the congressman. All right. Well, I'm going to talk to you about a few principles. And then if you agree with at least seven out of these nine principles, then we can have a conversation, all right?

REP. FLEMING: Yes, sir.

MR. BECK: These are the principles that I think the majority of Americans agree with. That America is a good place, do you think America is a pretty good place or were the Founding Fathers racist that just, you know, enslaved everybody?

REP. FLEMING: Glenn, I think America is the best country in the world and always has been since its founding. And I'm very disturbed, I think, like you are with those who have the hate-America mentality and keep moving the bar up. So yes, I love America.

MR. BECK: Okay. And you don't have to go all the way to the, you know, freedom fry thing, but that's all right.

REP. FLEMING: (Laughs.)

MR. BECK: Okay, here's the next one. I believe in God, and he's the center of my life.

REP. FLEMING: Yes, I do, and I was saved, accepted his son as my savior.

MR. BECK: I mean, I don't need to see your paperwork or anything. I must try to be a better, more honest person today than I was yesterday.

REP. FLEMING: Yes, I strive to do that daily and encourage others.

MR. BECK: Okay. You should encourage more of the people there that you work with. How about this one? The family is sacred, and I and my spouse are the ultimate authority under God when it comes to my family, not the government.

REP. FLEMING: I agree with that, and I believe the family is the most important unit, even above government itself.

MR. BECK: That's good. It's surprising to me that we feel like we actually have to say that today. If you break the law, you'll pay the penalty. Justice is blind, and no one is above it.

REP. FLEMING: I agree with that. And justice should be distributed evenly and fairly.

MR. BECK: Have you seen Charlie Rangel lately?

REP. FLEMING: Well, of course, you know that we made a motion to try to look into some affairs involving Congressman Rangel.

MR. BECK: He's had affairs, too?

REP. FLEMING: Well, not those kind of affairs. I mean financial affairs.

MR. BECK: (Laughs.) Oh, okay. I thought maybe somebody would care if it was happening with sex involved.

REP. FLEMING: No, I think not. No, we try to avoid those things.

MR. BECK: All right. How about this one? I have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but that is not a guarantee of equal results.

REP. FLEMING: Yes, I would agree with that. We're all born with different gifts and different talents, Glenn. And while we should have all the same opportunities, we're never going to have the same results.

MR. BECK: Okay. I work hard for what I have, and I'll share it with others when I choose, if I choose, should I choose. The government can't force me to be charitable.

REP. FLEMING: I agree with that. But unfortunately, these days and recently the government is forcing us to be charitable by confiscating our money through taxes and distributing wealth to others.

MR. BECK: What would you have done on the bailout bill, before we get to the other ones? What would you have done on the bailout bill? What would you have but that you know you would have been called, you know, a hate monger or you're starving children or you're a racist or whatever? What would you have cut?

REP. FLEMING: Well, as far as the bailout is concerned, I was against the bailout, but I was not in Congress when it was passed.

MR. BECK: I mean the stimulus, sorry.

REP. FLEMING: Oh, the stimulus package. I think the emphasis should have been three-quarters of it should have been on tax cuts, especially for those who pay taxes, on small businesses. The effect would have been immediate. And I think that --

MR. BECK: Okay. Hang on just a second. Especially for those who pay taxes or only for -- you can't give a tax cut to people who aren't paying taxes.

REP. FLEMING: Well, you can. It's called welfare. And unfortunately, the current stimulus bill has just that.

MR. BECK: Okay, all right.

Hang on. I've got two others, and I want to come back because I do want to talk to you about the other two principles but, more importantly, what happened in Washington today and what the average person can do.

Congressman Fleming will stay with us. And not just because he's a freshman on Capitol Hill but also he's a doctor and a small-business owner, what does he think about universal health care in the spending bill? What is that going to mean to you?

MR. BECK: With the Congressman from Louisiana John Fleming. And let me tell you something, he answered yes to the last two questions. But this is what I like about him. He says in the break, you know what, if I get ousted, I don't really care. I've created 500 jobs with my businesses, and I'm a doctor, and I'll just go back to, you know, being a doctor and a small-business man because that's what I like doing anyway. You think, sir, like Ben Franklin thought. Tell me about what is happening in the stimulus bill. What now are we going to have inflicted on us from the government with health care?

REP. FLEMING: Well, specifically with regard to health care, there's a very interesting provision that was put in the stimulus bill that provides for a healthy technology czar, if you will, a person who will oversee what procedures doctors are doing and help decide at what point in life they will receive certain treatments and perhaps what treatments are acceptable and not acceptable for payment.

MR. BECK: So really, this is the beginning, I mean, this is the way it happens in every society. I mean, you know, the extreme example is what happened in Germany when they actually had a chart on how many potatoes you could, you know, make, how many hours you could work, how many fields you could till, et cetera, et cetera. And if you couldn't do very much, well, then you didn't get, you know, the primo health care. That's just the way it works when everybody has to share for the common good. Sometimes for the common good, you just have to say, hey, grandpa, you've had a good life, sucks to be you. That's not compassion.

REP. FLEMING: No. But Glenn, I think you'll remember the Hillary health care plan which failed miserably because they tried to pass it all at once. And what they've come to understand is they have to do it incrementally. So they're slipping these things into bills. There were some items put into SCHIP, the bill that passed before this one that extended government health care to those who already own the insurance --

MR. BECK: Did you vote for that one?

REP. FLEMING: I voted against it as well.

MR. BECK: Good for you.

REP. FLEMING: I voted against it.

MR. BECK: Okay. So tell me what are the things that we're going to see here in either business or health care, which would be the first sign that we're in trouble? Oh, jeez, I'm getting wrapped up. We've got like 10 seconds -- quick.

REP. FLEMING: Basically, we're going to see deficits and debt skyrocket. Interest payments are going to be displacing all other spending in coming years. And the only other choice will be print more money, and we'll be into stagflation then.

MR. BECK: Thank you very much, Congressman. We'll have you on again

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