GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

GLENN: But we have Stephen Moore on with us. He started Club For Growth, he is now one of the head honchos over the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. He is just an good guy. Hi, Stephen.

MOORE: Hey, Glenn, I like the idea of spanking politicians.

GLENN: I was going to say I like that idea but then Larry Craig comes to mind and I don't -- you know what I mean? Yeah. They might enjoy it too much.

Here's the reason why I wanted to get you on, Stephen. There's a couple of stories out but first of all, the trillion dollar tax fight.

MOORE: Holy moly.

GLENN: You've got the Democrats coming out with this trillion dollar tax plan. I mean, Stephen, you and I have talked about it before. How are these guys going to get elected? They keep talking about higher taxes and higher taxes and higher taxes and people seem to be gobbling it up and willing to accept it. Good heavens. First of all, tell me about the tax plan that the Democrats have. Can you do that?

MOORE: Yeah, sure. I mean, basically the Democrats have a dilemma because they promised that they weren't going to allow something called the alternative minimum tax, which is a bad name, Glenn, because it's not a minimum tax. It's actually a maximum tax. But this is a tax that started out, it was only going to hit back in the late 1960s when they put this into effect. It was just to hit a few dozen really rich people who weren't paying taxes and now they've got this quandary because this tax machine they created called the AMT is not going to hit a few dozen people next year who are rich but it's going to hit 25 million middle class people with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000.

GLENN: And that's because they do it like they do the minimum wage. They just don't index it for inflation?

MOORE: Exactly. And so it's a perfectly example, by the way, Glenn, of whenever the left says they are only going to soak the rich with new taxes, guard your wallet because that means they are coming after you. You know, it's the reason Jesse James robbed banks because that's where the money is. The money in this country is in the hands of the middle class and so if they want more taxes, they have to come after people like you and me. And so they've got -- they want to get rid of this alternative minimum tax contraption that they created, but to do that they have to come up with a trillion dollars of traditional revenues and so the question we've all been asking for the last nine months is where's that money going to come from. And you know what their answer is? The same answer they always give.

GLENN: The rich.

MOORE: We're going to soak the rich. But you know what, there aren't enough rich people out there to get a trillion dollars out of.

GLENN: So how do they come -- what is it going to look like if they get rid of this? What are they going to do? What are the -- and what are the repercussions on that on the economy?

MOORE: First of all they are going to raise taxes dramatically on the rich, see taxes like they were in the bad old days of the 1970s. And this, by the way, is when everybody else is cutting their tax rates to become more competitive, we've got these dunces on Capitol Hill who want to raise our tax rates which will make America less competitive.

GLENN: Hang on, hang on. You were talking about the taxes on the rich. That's up over 70%, is it not?

MOORE: Back in the 1970s, the top tax rate was 70%. Today thanks to the Reagan and Bush tax cuts, the highest tax rate today is 35%.

GLENN: But that was 70% and there were a lot of loopholes.

MOORE: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: Those loopholes don't exist anymore.

MOORE: That's right. And in fact, you know, an interesting statistic is that back when we had 70% tax rates, the rich actually paid a much smaller share of the taxes than they do today than the 35% tax rate and so, you know, the way to get money out of rich people is to cut their tax rates.

GLENN: Right.

MOORE: So the Democrats are going to raise the tax rates on capital gains, dividends, income and my least favorite tax, I think the most immoral tax in our whole system is the estate tax and the death tax. That's coming back, too.

GLENN: Okay. So they've got that.

MOORE: Sorry to spoil your day.

GLENN: It's just, it's always my luck. You know, I'm always behind the curve a little bit. I just get rich as the Democrats come into power.

MOORE: (Laughing).

GLENN: So next year if Hillary Clinton is in, the year after you'll be making more than I will.

MOORE: No, once Hillary comes into office, we're all going to be poor.

GLENN: So Stephen, A, are the loopholes going to come back? Are we going to -- are they really going to think -- because the impact -- I've never worked for a poor man. If you tax me, if you raise my taxes to 70%, I can't tell you how many people -- I currently personally employ about 20 people. My company employs I think close to 60 people. I can't tell you how many people I will have to cut and put in the unemployment line if they give me a 70% income tax.

MOORE: Two out of three people who are quote rich, who are paying the high tax rate in the company, two out of three of them are small business employers. They are the people who hire people in this country. You know, there's an old saying that liberals love jobs but they hate employers. You can't have one without the other.

GLENN: Right.

MOORE: You can't have jobs without people hiring people.

GLENN: So what is the impact on the economy and on jobs if this would go through?

MOORE: Very negative. And, you know, I think if we were to raise tax rates on dividends, capital gains, income and estates, it would cause an economic contraption, maybe even a recession. And the thing that's so frustrating about this, Glenn, I just wrote an editorial a couple of days about this is, you know, when George Bush cut the tax rates, we've had the biggest deluge of revenues into the government in American history. We've got a $745 billion increase in tax revenues in four years with these lower tax rates. The reason we haven't balanced the budget, Glenn, I think all your listeners are smart enough to know this, the government can't get its spending under control.

GLENN: So let me give you this. Here the Republicans are coming out. You've got the Democrats who are saying -- and I want to quote Hillary Clinton. She says, I just, I have a million ideas. The government just can't afford to implement them all. She's got a spending program that's crazy. That's an exact quote, by the way. If they've got this trillion dollar tax plan. Meanwhile the Republicans are coming out. This is the smartest thing I've heard the Republicans do maybe since 2001. They come out and they say, we're going to have a cap on taxes of 25%. You've got the lower, what is it, 10%?

MOORE: Yeah, 10% for middle class people, 25% for --

GLENN: That's fantastic. What an unbelievable unleashing of power in America.

MOORE: Well, you know, it's not quite as radical as I'd be. I'm a flat tax guy. I want one rate. You know, there are now 18 countries in the world that have flat taxes and the great thing about a flat tax, you have low rates and you get rid of all these loopholes you've been talking about so people can't, you know, game the system and avoid paying their fair share.

GLENN: So what is the chance of this actually having real Republican support and actually anything really being done with the taxes system?

MOORE: I think right now I need to tell this because I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I think taxes are going up. I think these politicians are on a tear. They want to increase taxes on all these things at a time -- I just was looking at the polls. The average American voter today thinks 40 cents out of every dollar they send to Washington is wasted. Are we going to cut the waste? No, we're going to raise taxes.

GLENN: Stephen, I've only got 30 seconds. Can I have you on again? I want to talk to you a little bit about the role of socialism in this country and a little bit of what Vicente Fox said on Larry King Live about, you know, uniting everybody, and he made some mention about, you know, when the economy collapses, or when your debt crushes you, you'll be praying for a new currency. I mean, just crazy talk. And I'd like to talk to you a little bit about some of these things and get your honest opinion. Can we have you back on maybe tomorrow or Monday?

MOORE: Sure, glad to do it.

GLENN: Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

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