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GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN:
888-727-BECK. 888-727-BECK. Stephen Moore who I have -- some of my favorite
things in the morning, getting up and reading the Wall Street Journal editorial
page and saying, yes! Finally somebody is saying it, especially when it comes to
tax policies and everything else, and Stephen Moore is the guy who writes those
editorials for the Wall Street Journal. A lot of them that I have been -- I've
practically run to Stu and said, read this one; how great is that.
We met on Saturday and we had a chance to sit down and talk about the economy,
and I don't want to, you know, bore the audience with it. I'm just trying to
really do my homework and, Stephen, I've talked to pessimists, I've talked to
optimists, I've talked to people who are in Wall Street, I've talked to people
who have very high levels of international banking. And the bulls and the bears
all say we're, you know, we're headed for -- the best is we're headed for a
natural correction and it's just going to be fine. However when I started this
conversation with you today, I was talking about Osama Bin Laden and he says
that he destroyed Russia. Well, what's true about destroying Russia was it was
several factors. It was Reagan and spending them into oblivion, it was the price
of oil, and it was also Afghanistan. So -- and others, but it was mainly those
three things that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. When you look at the
things that we are facing now, a natural correction at best, taxes going much
higher than they are now, spending completely out of control, our debt out of
control, oil at the highest it's ever been and could easily be $100 a barrel.
The subprime stress. We're fighting a major war. We have people who have stated
they want to destroy our economy, they could hit us with another September 11th.
We have a very weak dollar. With people saying that they want to destroy us
through our economy, if they hit us strategically at the right time with all of
these pressures on the economy, could it collapse our economy? Could we look at
another Depression?
MOORE: Oh, I don't think a Depression is in the cards. I do think obviously
terrorism has a very negative effect on our economy. Look what happened to the
stock market and to the economy after the hit of 9/11 but, you know, what's
really remarkable about the American economy and the animal spirit of the people
who make our economy work is that, you know, we are a resilient people. I do
think that even if we got hit again, I think we would bounce back. I think we
would see our economy continue to grow. Let's not forget that since the Gipper
came into office in 1981 and turned our economy around, the U.S. economy, Glenn,
since 1981 has been growing 94% of the time and it's only been in recession 6%
of the time.
GLENN: Right.
MOORE: So we've been in a growth mode for a long time. But what has me most
worried is not even the terrorists and the people from foreign lands who would
do us harm. It's our own politicians who just don't get it. When you have the
three major Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John
Edwards all saying that if they are President, they would raise taxes, I don't
know any economist anywhere who thinks that raising taxes can help grow the
economy.
GLENN: Did you see what Barrack Obama said yesterday?
MOORE: I'm afraid to ask.
GLENN: He said that on the upper level income that he thought that taxes needed
to be raised and his tax proposal was 15 to 20% higher for the wealthiest in
America.
MOORE: Yeah. And, you know, this is the theme of liberalism in America is bash
the rich, class warfare. You know, I mentioned in my speech the other day,
Glenn, that when you talk about those evil rich, the people who are in the
highest income bracket in America who Barack Obama wants to soak, two out of
three of those people are small business owners, people who employ Americans. If
you bring down the employers, you are not going to have jobs in this country. I
mean, that seems pretty self-evident and yet Barack Obama's going around the
country saying that, you know, what we have to do is have higher taxes. As I
look at Barack Obama's economic record and what he has voted for, ladies and
gentlemen, this is not some new Democrat. This is an orthodox liberal.
GLENN: Okay. One last quick question for you.
MOORE: Yeah.
GLENN: The Saudis, a lot of people don't know the Saudis are in real trouble
economically as well, and they were talking last week about unpegging from the
dollar.
MOORE: Yes.
GLENN: Everybody in the world, and it was by treaty, that they hold dollars as
the gold standard because we were on a gold standard.
MOORE: Yes.
GLENN: But our dollar is becoming so -- has lost so much value that they were
talking about unpegging from the dollar.
MOORE: Right, right.
GLENN: What does that mean?
MOORE: What it means is that more and more foreigners and more and more
Americans are getting very nervous about the value of the dollar. Again going
back to Ronald Reagan. Reagan helped get inflation under control with his famous
phrase that he said, "I am going to make the dollar as good as gold again."
We've gotten away from that policy over the last few years.
GLENN: Right.
MOORE: Now the dollar has fallen -- I mean, if you go back since 2000, the
dollar was selling at -- I think you could buy gold at about $300 an ounce.
GLENN: Yeah.
MOORE: Now it's something like $750 an ounce. So just in seven years the price
of gold has almost tripled.
GLENN: So I've only got about 45 seconds here.
MOORE: Yeah.
GLENN: But if countries unpeg from the dollar and release those dollars and
they're worried about, you know, our economy, how does, you know, the dollar
being devalued by 50% not put us into a real situation reminiscent of the 1930s?
MOORE: Well, what we're going to need -- because hopefully the Federal Reserve
will recognize what happened and stop, stop the printing presses. You can't keep
printing dollars and dumping them out of helicopters and think that that's the
way you get an economy going. You've diagnosed the right problem, Glenn. There
are too many dollars in this economy. People around the world are losing
confidence in our currency and that really is a prescription for a recession.
GLENN: Stephen, I hope it hasn't been too tedious for you. I'd love to have you
back.
MOORE: Anytime.
GLENN: Okay. Thanks a lot. Stephen Moore from Wall Street Journal and the
National Review, et cetera, et cetera. All right, back in a second.
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