GLENN BECK PROGRAM
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GLENN: Okay. Jeff in Louisiana's very upset at me because earlier today I heard a speech given by Barack Obama where he said the churches are trying to rebuild in New Orleans and it is the local, state and federal government, they need help. For infrastructure, okay. However, we're not rebuilding it right. We're rebuilding it to a Category 3. And I'm not somebody who doesn't have any credibility on this. A year before Katrina hit, I said the biggest disaster in this country's history. Stu, I want you to -- find this audio because I want you to make sure I have this right. I said the biggest disaster waiting to happen in the United States is New Orleans. It is a bowl that will fill up with water and people will be killed. It is the ports with all the oil refineries and everything else. It will be an environmental disaster. This is a nightmare waiting to happen.

STU: Oh, yeah. We do a lot of -- we actually found the show. Now we just have to go through the audio and find the file.

GLENN: Find the stuff. I made this prediction a year before. It was clear. Now, if you want to rebuild New Orleans, then rebuild it right. Spend the money one time and rebuild it right. Build it with a seawall that will take a direct hit of a category 5. New Orleans is also sinking. In the next 100 years it will sink another meter. They are talking now about rushing people into the Ninth Ward. That is the poorest of the poor. It was the worst hit because it's the lowest point in New Orleans. Rushing people back in with the same wall that you had last time. You've got experts all over the country saying, you can't move people back into this; this is a nightmare waiting to happen. It's the same story that's been happening since the 1950s, the same warnings. And yet this time this is the biggest federal disaster aid package in the history of our country. And liberals are asking for more. People are asking for more. People are saying now you can't get insurance.

The New York Times said, talking about State Farm, their decision not to insure people anymore, they said this is only the tip of the iceberg of a much broader problem: How this country can reduce future losses from natural disasters and aid victims in their recovery efforts. Because of increasing development in hazard-prone areas and the effects of climate change, we are in a new era of catastrophic losses from natural disasters..

The Government shouldn't be in this business. Stop developing in hazard-prone areas. Stop developing. And the liberals who buy into global warming should be leading this, but they're not. Stop the development. We can correct the mistake of the 1960 -- you know, 1968 with Johnson coming in and creating the Great Society and having a flood insurance program. They said at the time that's only going to cause people to move into flood zones, it's only going to cause more problems. Well, guess what. That's exactly what it did. If private companies won't take on and insure something because it's too great of a risk, neither should the federal government. What, the federal government just prints more money? Is that your understanding of how the system works? Now, because of 1968 this decision was made in '68, and because we're already there, great. I'll take the money that we want to spend on rebuilding New Orleans and rebuilding these flood zones and you could convince me to use that money to apply it to moves and help people move to a city where they're not going to be wiped out by a hurricane to where we have to rebuild everything for another $100 billion. Build it right the first time or not at all. And I believe we shouldn't rebuild it at all. Make it a port city. That's it.

Let's see. Let's go to Jeff now who says he has never been more insulted in his life from what I just said. Go ahead, Jeff.

CALLER: Mr. Beck, I am a very conservative person. I have agreed with you on almost every issue you've ever had except for this one.

GLENN: Okay.

CALLER: I would say it is the job of the federal government to clean up New Orleans because it was their fault, not because of the recovery but because they promised after Hurricane Betsy in the early Sixties that they would build a wall that would actually withstand hurricane force winds of a 3 or a 4. Now, here in New Orleans we were actually missed by the hurricane and in the nightmare scenario you were talking about actually didn't happen.

GLENN: I know that. And yet, and yet, Jeff, and yet the Army Corps of Engineers is building the same damn system that you just had up that didn't withstand the nightmare storm. That nightmare storm is coming. Why would you be for rebuilding? Why would you be for the same damn system that didn't withstand last time?

CALLER: I want it to be as big and grand and expensive as possible because that's what's really needed. But here's the thing. The Corps of Engineers didn't fulfill its promise of the Sixties. The flooding that happened didn't happen because we only had winds of a 1 or 2 in the city itself. Compared to Mississippi, they got the full brunt of a category 3 or 4 landfall. We only got a 1 or 2 in the area of the Superdome and that was enough to get rid of the levees which were built terribly in the 1960 the. It is the liability of the federal government in the first place and it is the liability of the federal government for all the damage that happened because of the failure of those levees.

GLENN: Well, I believe it's also the liability of every local and state official that you put into office as well. You know and I know corruption is incredibly out of control in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans. There have been cries of this not since the Sixties but since the Fifties. You've got to fix this problem. Not a single politician wanted to do a damn thing about it the whole time. And if you live there, you knew it. You knew it, Jeff, did you not?

CALLER: Well, the nightmare scenario that you keep talking about and you keep mentioning wasn't the one that happened.

GLENN: Yeah, I understand. Jeff, did you not know that your city was a ticking time bomb? Did you not know that the pumps were built below sea level? Did you not know that?

CALLER: Oh, of course I knew that.

GLENN: Of course you knew that.

CALLER: But did I build the pumps? You know, the pumps, it's supposed to be a gradual process of water coming into the city, and it was. The pumps were supposed to work in a way where they wouldn't be overrun but because our government and responsive, more than anybody thought it would be, even our standards.

GLENN: Jeff, if you were also a conservative, you know that government fails every step of the way.

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