The Glenn Beck Program - 12⧸22⧸17 - 'Grade： C+'？ (Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck)

00:00:00.000 The Blaze Radio Network. On Demand.

00:00:07.660 Love. Courage. Truth.

00:00:11.920 Glenn Beck.

00:00:12.580 This has been Shapiro in for Glenn Beck. Glenn is on vacation, a well-earned vacation.

00:00:17.300 And it's an honor to sit behind the microphone for the Glenn Beck program.

00:00:19.900 A lot of news here as the year wanes. Still a lot going on out there.

00:00:24.120 And the news begins today with Nikki Haley just going off at the UN.

00:00:28.700 She did this yesterday. And as I said at the time, Nikki Haley at the UN is basically my spirit animal.

00:00:35.000 It's just spectacular. So the UN votes yesterday 128 to 9 for the proposition that the United States ought to be condemned for moving our own embassy to Jerusalem and Israel.

00:00:44.480 Now, there are some Americans who think that this is a terrible idea.

00:00:48.140 Not only is it a terrible idea, but President Trump's threats to retaliate against countries that vote against us in the UN.

00:00:54.020 And those are bullying. John Brennan, the former DIA and Director of Intelligence Agencies under Barack Obama.

00:01:02.320 He came out and he said it was dictatorial for President Trump and Nikki Haley to threaten funding for countries that don't vote our way in the UN.

00:01:09.620 Which is sort of amazing since we are the ones with a sovereign right to put our embassy wherever we damn well please.

00:01:16.840 But one of the amazing things about how the left has responded to the international community condemning Trump is they hate Trump so much.

00:01:24.260 They dislike Israel as a general matter so much that they're fine with the international community condemning.

00:01:30.720 It's always been weird to me how so many folks on the left are interested in what the international community has to say.

00:01:36.980 Is that the Europeans actually have any moral leverage with which to shame us.

00:01:40.940 Or the UN, which is filled with dictatorial, tyrannical countries that oppress their own citizens.

00:01:46.220 Like, we're supposed to sit around listening and waiting for their moral guidance.

00:01:50.660 It's the United States that has saved civilization time and time again.

00:01:54.380 It's the United States that has ensured that morality prevails in war after war over the last century and a half.

00:02:02.900 It's the United States that has stood up when standing needed to be done.

00:02:07.660 And yet there are people on the left in the United States who think we should look for our cues to places like Germany.

00:02:12.300 And Germany voted against the United States putting its embassy in Jerusalem.

00:02:16.480 As though the Germans have anything to say about it.

00:02:19.540 And the Germans should just sit down and shut up when it comes to Israel overall. 0.75

00:02:22.420 But the Germans certainly should sit down and shut up when it comes to the U.S. putting our embassy where we please. 0.99

00:02:27.980 If they don't like it, we can always remove our bases from Germany. 0.94

00:02:31.920 I mean, this notion that the international community owes us nothing.

00:02:36.300 And that they shouldn't follow our lead.

00:02:38.340 If the international community followed the United States' lead, the world would be a much better place.

00:02:42.920 If the opposite occurred, the world would be a much worse place.

00:02:45.480 So here's Nikki Haley yesterday at the United Nations going off on all these countries that were voting against the United States.

00:02:51.600 And trying to shame the United States into moving its embassy back to Tel Aviv in Israel.

00:02:56.160 The United States is by far the single largest contributor to the United Nations and its agencies.

00:03:03.100 When a nation is singled out for attack in this organization, that nation is disrespected.

00:03:09.800 What's more, that nation is asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected.

00:03:15.440 The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation.

00:03:26.940 We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the world's largest contribution to the United Nations.

00:03:33.680 And we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.

00:03:45.000 Yes. Yes, Nikki Haley.

00:03:48.500 Nikki Haley is just fantastic over at the United Nations.

00:03:51.660 And naturally, you're seeing the usual suspects suggest that there will be violence over Jerusalem.

00:03:56.720 Now, what's funny is that Hamas yesterday announced that there would be days of blood over this.

00:04:01.760 Which for Hamas, the terrorist group that occupies the Gaza Strip, for Hamas, that's basically any day ending in Y. 0.57

00:04:08.200 Any day ending in Y is a day of blood for Hamas, which is a terror group that has sought to murder Jews and dissenters in like quantities for the last 20 years, minimum.

00:04:18.980 They were founded in 1988, I believe.

00:04:20.920 And as part of their founding document, the Hamas charter specifically talks about the murder of Jews everywhere.

00:04:27.540 Not just in Israel, but the murder of Jews everywhere.

00:04:31.100 And why exactly they would riot after a resolution that went in their favor is beyond me, right?

00:04:35.000 The UNGA votes in favor of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority in this resolution.

00:04:40.800 And they're threatening to riot anyway.

00:04:42.640 And then they suggest that Israel is the one that's breaching the peace.

00:04:46.340 They suggest that Israel is the group here participating in extortion or the United States is participating in extortion.

00:04:51.940 The entire Palestinian strategy in the Middle East has been extortion for nigh on 50 years at this point. 0.92

00:04:58.020 Give us what we want or we will murder your children. 0.97

00:05:00.840 That's pretty much definitionally extortion.

00:05:03.140 Also, worth pointing out, yeah, they're saying there's going to be another day of rage.

00:05:07.660 This would make literally the eighth day of rage inside the Palestinian occupied territories in the last year, since last year.

00:05:16.560 So over the course of a year, they have eight days of rage.

00:05:18.640 As I say, they don't really need a reason.

00:05:20.680 Toilet doesn't flush properly, day of rage.

00:05:23.000 Actually, I wish that were true.

00:05:24.040 I wish if their toilet didn't flush properly, there would be a day of rage because then maybe they'd spend their money on fixing the toilet instead of terror tunnels. 0.97

00:05:30.560 But a Jew in Israel sneezes, day of rage. 0.99

00:05:34.080 I want to go through the history briefly of Jerusalem just so that folks understand that the supposed violence that's going to occur because of President Trump has nothing to do with President Trump.

00:05:44.220 The supposed violence that is going to occur because Israel is in charge of Jerusalem is not because Israel is in charge of Jerusalem.

00:05:50.720 Jerusalem has long been a point of contention for Muslims.

00:05:54.260 In 1929, before there was a state of Israel, before there was even a glimmer of a notion of a state of Palestine that would come anywhere close to Jerusalem.

00:06:05.340 In 1929, while the area was called Palestine, but it was British Mandate Palestine, there were riots by Arabs against Jews in 1929.

00:06:17.080 Again, long before the United States had any position on this because Israel didn't exist.

00:06:21.120 Why?

00:06:22.120 Because Jews made the provocative move of bringing chairs for the elderly and the infirm to the Western Wall for prayer purposes. 0.99

00:06:28.480 In October 1928, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem decided to build on top of the Temple Mount and purposefully led mules through the Western Wall area, excreting in the holy area to spite the Jews. 0.79

00:06:39.460 Which led to a Jewish march to the wall in August 1929, a non-violent march.

00:06:44.600 The next day, Muslims marched to the wall to show their sovereignty, even though the Western Wall isn't even holy to Muslims.

00:06:50.000 And the day after that, the Arabs stabbed a Jew to death in the city.

00:06:52.280 By August 23rd of 1929, Muslims were rioting across Jerusalem.

00:06:56.140 17 Jews murdered, a hospital attacked in Hebron.

00:07:01.360 Arabs massacred more than 60 Jews.

00:07:03.620 Here's the British Shah report.

00:07:04.800 Again, the reason I'm doing this is because I want to show you that when people say that violence is being caused by Trump,

00:07:09.460 or violence is being caused by America's policy on Jerusalem,

00:07:12.280 or violence is being caused by the Israelis because of Jerusalem,

00:07:14.940 it's just nonsense.

00:07:16.600 Again, this is 1929.

00:07:18.220 No Israel. 1.00

00:07:19.100 Doesn't exist yet.

00:07:20.560 No Jewish occupation of Jerusalem.

00:07:22.460 That doesn't exist yet.

00:07:24.400 No United States policy.

00:07:26.820 No U.S. embassy there.

00:07:29.120 The British Shah report described what happened.

00:07:30.860 Quote, Arabs in Hebron made the most ferocious attack on the Jewish ghetto and on isolated Jewish houses lying outside the crowded quarters of the town.

00:07:37.600 More than 60 Jews, including many women and children, were murdered.

00:07:40.820 More than 50 were wounded.

00:07:42.780 There were also anti-Jewish riots in the 20s and in the 1930s.

00:07:46.920 In 1948, Israel's existence was supposed to create a peaceful barrier with regard to Jerusalem.

00:07:52.980 Instead, if you recall actually under the 1947 UN partition plan, Jerusalem was supposed to be an international city.

00:07:59.840 Instead, Arabs cut off all roads to Jerusalem, prevented Jews from reaching the city, and blockaded the Jews who were living inside. 0.98

00:08:05.320 Thousands of Israelis had to be sacrificed or killed, trying to reach their brethren in Jerusalem.

00:08:11.500 The outcome was a split of the city between West Jerusalem, which was under Jewish rule, and did not include the Western Wall or any of the Old Testament areas, really, and East Jerusalem, controlled by Jordan.

00:08:22.320 While it was under Muslim rule, Jews were not allowed to visit Jewish holy sites.

00:08:26.900 Under Jewish rule, Muslims always have been. 1.00

00:08:28.480 Muslims actually used gravestones from the Jewish cemetery, the Mount of Olives, which, if you've ever been to Israel, overlooks the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.

00:08:36.380 They used those gravestones to pave their roads.

00:08:39.180 And by the way, between 1948 and 1967, during that period, while East Jerusalem, all the holy sites, were controlled by the Jordanians,

00:08:46.720 the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is the Palestinian Authority, the Yasser Arafat Group, which now runs the West Bank and Gaza.

00:08:54.060 Well, Gaza is run by Hamas.

00:08:55.440 It was formed in 1964, while Jerusalem was not occupied by the Jews, at least the old city.

00:09:01.860 And they openly said what their goal was, their destruction of the State of Israel, before Israel controlled Jerusalem.

00:09:07.720 In 1967, Israel won control of Jerusalem, and not only did they grant Muslims access to holy sites,

00:09:13.800 they actually handed full control of the Temple Mount over to the Islamic Waqf.

00:09:17.880 A huge mistake, by the way, because the Islamic Waqf now prevents Jews from even praying on the Temple Mount.

00:09:22.940 So you're talking about intolerance in Jerusalem?

00:09:24.960 You're talking about repercussions for rule in Jerusalem?

00:09:29.360 The fact is, just on a moral basis, on who will allow people to visit holy sites, the Jews should be in charge over there. 1.00

00:09:34.680 In 1993, Israel agreed to negotiate with those terrorists in the Palestinian Authority over a future Palestinian state.

00:09:42.540 In return, the PA said that it would acknowledge Israel's right to exist, which it never has, and cease violence, which it never has.

00:09:48.060 The Oslo Accords never made any statement about transferring Jerusalem to Muslim rule.

00:09:53.100 Despite that fact, the number of terrorist attacks on Israel dramatically increased in the aftermath of Oslo.

00:09:59.280 In 2000, Israel offered Yasser Arafat control over East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount itself.

00:10:05.180 The Muslims rejected it, and then they started a violent intifada that ended with the murders of hundreds of Jews.

00:10:11.940 In 2008, Israel again offered Mahmoud Abbas, the current leader of the Palestinian Authority,

00:10:17.760 and a man who works with Hamas, international control of Jerusalem's old city, including the holy sites.

00:10:23.060 And Olmert said at the time,

00:10:23.960 Remember my words, it will be 50 years before there will be another Israeli prime minister that will offer you what I am offering you now.

00:10:30.200 Olmert also offered a near-complete withdrawal from Judea and Samaria.

00:10:33.720 Abbas turned it down flat, launched another round of violence.

00:10:37.060 So when people say that Trump is to blame for violence by Palestinians against Jews,

00:10:41.860 when they say Nikki Haley is to blame,

00:10:44.120 when they say this sort of nonsense,

00:10:46.140 they're just historically inaccurate.

00:10:48.100 What they're saying is not historically accurate.

00:10:50.520 But as we continue,

00:10:51.880 I want to talk about the European response to President Trump's big announcement at the UN,

00:10:54.820 and why it makes no sense whatsoever.

00:10:58.420 I'm Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:11:02.820 Glenn Beck.

00:11:03.820 Glenn Beck.

00:11:27.820 Glenn Beck.

00:11:28.420 This has been Shapiro in for Glenn Beck,

00:11:32.420 talking about the UN Resolution 128-9 yesterday against the United States,

00:11:38.260 saying the United States should remove its embassy from Jerusalem in Israel.

00:11:41.700 Again, it's insulting that we're paying the bills,

00:11:43.720 paying the freight for this wretched hive of scum and villainy. 0.85

00:11:47.260 Why in the world we would pay for these people to occupy a building in downtown New York

00:11:53.160 so that they can blow through parking tickets,

00:11:56.300 commit crimes,

00:11:56.960 get away with it with diplomatic immunity,

00:11:58.740 and then go and vote against our interests?

00:12:01.040 Seems like a waste of time to me,

00:12:02.440 since our interests are the best interests.

00:12:04.920 I understand we're not supposed to say that.

00:12:06.900 I understand that that would be to,

00:12:09.260 that would be to take too lightly the interests of other countries,

00:12:12.600 except for the fact that those interests have generally led to human suffering over the last century,

00:12:17.520 while America's interests abroad have led generally to human happiness abroad.

00:12:22.400 If it were not for the United States' presence in the world,

00:12:25.280 countries would be poor,

00:12:26.580 countries would remain dictatorial.

00:12:30.060 The United States has been a force for good in the world.

00:12:32.440 I think that is a fundamental disconnect

00:12:33.680 between how some people in the United States think about the United States

00:12:36.360 and how people who are traditionally conservative think about the United States.

00:12:41.360 And that goes back to a root view of what the U.S. is.

00:12:44.660 There are a whole group of people in the United States who take the Howard Zinn view,

00:12:47.260 that the United States is a place founded in the agony and suffering of other peoples,

00:12:51.740 that the United States is built on the back of slave labor,

00:12:54.820 that the United States was built with certain principles of exploitation

00:12:58.360 that were essentially enshrined in the Constitution,

00:13:02.100 and that ever since we've been striving to break away from it but failing.

00:13:05.300 That's sort of the Barack Obama view of the universe.

00:13:07.860 And then there's the conservative view,

00:13:09.220 which is that the Constitution is the greatest document devised by human hands,

00:13:13.680 that the Constitution enshrines certain rights,

00:13:17.440 and that it represents eternal values both here and abroad.

00:13:22.460 And the Declaration of Independence does the same.

00:13:25.460 And that we've strayed from those principles from time to time.

00:13:28.480 And when we stray, it's tragic.

00:13:30.320 But that's the point.

00:13:31.760 Without those principles,

00:13:33.660 without the veracity of those principles,

00:13:36.120 without the truth and the strength of those principles,

00:13:38.660 the world becomes a darker place.

00:13:42.660 Imagine if the United States had not been there for World War II.

00:13:45.980 Imagine how that would have gone.

00:13:48.020 Folks in Britain would now be speaking German.

00:13:51.000 Imagine if the United States had not been there for the Korean War. 0.72

00:13:54.700 South Korea would now look like North Korea. 0.71

00:13:57.840 Imagine if the United States had not been there.

00:14:00.440 Yes, in Iraq.

00:14:01.560 Saddam Hussein would either still be in charge, 0.75

00:14:05.140 or the place would be now in charge of ISIS and Iran.

00:14:09.280 The fact is that when the United States does withdraw,

00:14:11.900 the world becomes a worse place.

00:14:14.120 Vietnam was a worse place because the United States withdrew.

00:14:17.360 Cambodia was a worse place because the United States withdrew from Vietnam.

00:14:21.100 Now, I'm not talking about what's in America's interest to do.

00:14:24.040 I'm not talking about whether we should have been in these places.

00:14:26.580 The point I'm making is that where American boots step, freedom follows.

00:14:32.020 Where American boots do not step, freedom is less likely to follow.

00:14:35.580 That doesn't mean that we have to put American boots everywhere.

00:14:37.840 It doesn't mean we should put American boots everywhere.

00:14:40.240 It does mean, however, that seeing the United States as a force for good in the world

00:14:43.560 is necessary in order to understand why the United States really has no interest

00:14:49.460 and should have no interest in boosting countries

00:14:51.440 and granting foreign aid to countries that are dictatorial and tyrannical.

00:14:55.080 And it is amazing to watch the Europeans try and suggest they have some sort of moral authority 1.00

00:15:01.500 over our view of Jerusalem and Israel.

00:15:04.920 That's bizarre to me.

00:15:06.940 There are more and more stories these days coming out of Europe.

00:15:09.480 Jews are moving out of Europe again. 0.99

00:15:11.780 Again, it's like the 1930s.

00:15:13.080 They're moving out of Europe.

00:15:14.660 Now they actually have a place to go because Israel exists. 0.99

00:15:16.900 Before, they didn't.

00:15:17.560 But the fact is that Jews are moving out of Europe at record numbers.

00:15:22.340 And there's a reason for that.

00:15:23.940 There's an article in USA Today from Berlin.

00:15:27.980 When telecommunications manager Mikhail Tanaev immigrated to Germany in 1998 from his native

00:15:33.420 Russia as a teen, his Jewish faith didn't matter to classmates or neighbors.

00:15:36.720 That's because Germany has taken extraordinary steps since the end of World War II to atone 0.83

00:15:40.380 for the Holocaust and prevent anti-Semitism from taking hold again.

00:15:43.920 The country has paid reparations to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, erected dozens

00:15:47.780 of memorials to those murdered, and turned anti-Semitic speech into a crime.

00:15:51.200 Yet Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision in 2015 to open the nation's arms to one million

00:15:56.580 mostly Muslim refugees has created a double threat for Germany's roughly 120,000 Jews,

00:16:01.620 rising anti-Semitism from the newcomers, and a resurgent right-wing nationalist movement

00:16:05.560 spawned by the arrival of so many immigrants.

00:16:07.940 There's another threat too, which I'll talk about in a second, and that is the secularist 1.00

00:16:10.960 threat to religion that threatens Jews as well as Christians. 0.80

00:16:15.000 The anti-Semitic sentiment has become ever more public and virulent since Tanaev 32.

00:16:19.740 When I arrived in Germany, I never saw such displays.

00:16:22.100 Last week, thousands of protesters in Berlin burned Israeli flags to protest

00:16:26.420 President Trump's decision on December 7th to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

00:16:31.020 The flag burning prompted a national outcry.

00:16:33.720 I never thought that could happen in the middle of Berlin, Tanaev said.

00:16:35.880 That's something you see in other parts of the world.

00:16:37.600 It's really disturbing.

00:16:39.300 Other instances of anti-Semitism in Germany have become more common and brazen.

00:16:42.960 Last month, thieves in Berlin made off with more than a dozen

00:16:45.460 cobble-sized plaques embedded in sidewalks memorializing Holocaust victims.

00:16:49.680 The German military found Nazi memorabilia in soldiers' barracks over the summer.

00:16:53.140 In 2016, Germany recorded nearly 1,500 anti-Semitic incidents, an increase from previous years

00:16:58.580 that has put Germany's Jewish community on edge.

00:17:01.860 According to a recent survey, 62% of Jewish respondents said they experienced anti-Semitism

00:17:06.200 in their everyday lives.

00:17:07.440 In France, Jews have been moving out at record rates.

00:17:10.300 I visited France a couple years ago with my wife, and there are certain districts in France

00:17:16.500 where you do not want to travel if you are a Jew wearing a yarmulke. 0.99

00:17:20.020 My wife was wearing a Star of David necklace.

00:17:22.320 She put it inside her shirt because she was concerned because of the violence levels that

00:17:27.380 have occurred in Paris.

00:17:29.800 In Sweden, the threat is not just from the rising anti-Semitism of the Muslim population

00:17:36.240 in places like Sweden, in Malmo, Sweden, for example.

00:17:40.300 It's also coming from the left.

00:17:43.260 Commentary magazine today reporting,

00:17:45.320 The firebombing of a synagogue in Gothenburg thrusts Sweden's anti-Semitism crisis into

00:17:48.920 global headlines.

00:17:49.940 For years, Swedish Jews have lived in fear of such violence, which is almost always perpetrated

00:17:54.080 by the country's large and ill-assimilated Muslim minority. 1.00

00:17:57.920 According to a 2013 European Union study, four out of five Jews declined to publicly identify

00:18:03.100 as Jewish in Sweden, a damning indictment of a country that likes to portray itself as one 1.00

00:18:07.640 of the continent's most tolerant.

00:18:08.720 Street-level thuggery isn't the only source of the crisis.

00:18:12.560 Swedish Jews also find themselves pressed by reigning secularism.

00:18:16.120 The Swedish state is full of solicitude for Jewish citizens after anti-Semitic attacks,

00:18:20.140 but it also seeks to limit their practice to their freedom to practice their faith.

00:18:24.980 Consider Rabbi Alexander Namdar in his six-year battle to homeschool the four youngest of his

00:18:29.020 eleven children in Sweden.

00:18:30.460 The rabbi and his wife, Leah, arrived in the country in 1991 as emissaries of Chabad, which

00:18:35.060 is a Jewish outreach movement.

00:18:36.720 They serve about 4,000 Jews in Gothenburg.

00:18:38.900 When it came to educating their kids, the public system was out of the question.

00:18:42.840 So what happened?

00:18:44.600 Sweden basically tried to force these people to put their kids in government schools.

00:18:49.700 The Namdars ended up on the sharp end of the anti-homeschooling amendment.

00:18:52.680 Soon after it came into effect, the local education board summoned them to a district court, and

00:18:57.180 they were fined for failing to send their kids to public schools.

00:19:00.320 The assault on religion in Europe demonstrates, again, you cannot trust human rights to the 0.99

00:19:06.180 Europeans.

00:19:07.140 You cannot trust freedom of religion to the Europeans. 1.00

00:19:10.060 And you certainly can't trust protection to Jews to the Europeans.

00:19:13.520 As we continue, let's talk a little bit about American foreign aid.

00:19:16.780 Where are we spending it?

00:19:17.740 Where?

00:19:18.320 And how much should we cut?

00:19:19.440 Let's save some money.

00:19:20.120 Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:19:22.680 Glenn Beck.

00:19:39.980 You're listening to the Glenn Beck Program.

00:20:04.780 This is Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck here on the Glenn Beck Program.

00:20:11.160 So typical of the left is the way that they are treating President Trump's announcement

00:20:16.160 that he is going to cut aid to countries that don't vote as we would wish them to vote at

00:20:20.760 the United Nations.

00:20:21.500 Nikki Haley, of course, said the same thing at the UN, which was just great, because the

00:20:25.100 UN exists to promulgate freedom.

00:20:26.940 The United States apparently is one of the few countries on earth that still cares about

00:20:29.860 this, having an organization where a bunch of tyrannical countries vote to feet themselves

00:20:35.040 while condemning free countries.

00:20:37.200 It doesn't seem like the kind of organization that you or I should be funding.

00:20:39.980 I don't understand why my taxpayer dollars are going to such an organization.

00:20:43.340 Not only does it seem like a waste of my money, it seems like a fundamental breach of trust

00:20:47.380 to take money out of the pocket of families that make less money than I do, or take money

00:20:54.040 out of my kid's pocket in order to pay off some foreign dictator so that he can continue

00:20:58.080 to live a life of luxury and vacation in the south of France while his people suffer.

00:21:01.580 That just seems like a waste of time to me.

00:21:04.440 Nonetheless, Phil Mudd, a CNN counterintelligence analyst, former deputy director of the CIA's

00:21:09.780 counterterrorist center, predicted that the U.S. would not pull funding from countries like

00:21:13.820 Egypt for its participation in the UN vote demanding the Trump administration rescind its

00:21:18.180 Jerusalem decisions.

00:21:19.520 He says, do you think the president's going to get on the phone and say because of one vote

00:21:22.560 that's non-binding in the UN, we're going to back down on our partnership with you as

00:21:25.900 you kill ISIS partners in Egypt?

00:21:27.660 That's not going to happen.

00:21:28.780 He said, let me be blunt here, Wolf.

00:21:30.000 This is diplomatic prostitution.

00:21:31.800 We're telling people, unless you vote with us, we're not going to give you money.

00:21:34.920 And if your heart doesn't agree with American policies, we're not going to support you in

00:21:37.880 terms of USA.

00:21:39.400 It's not going to happen.

00:21:40.320 The Americans aren't going to do it, and the president's not going to back it up.

00:21:43.120 Okay, first of all, it's not diplomatic prostitution.

00:21:47.480 That's just called using the levers of diplomacy.

00:21:49.760 Right, diplomacy is us saying, if you do not do X, we will do Y.

00:21:57.280 Right, that's all diplomacy is.

00:21:58.860 Diplomacy is a game where we say, if you do not do X, then we will do Y.

00:22:03.620 And maybe it comes to some sort of consensus to avoid this terrible fate.

00:22:07.880 But the idea that we have a moral obligation to pay immoral states to continue to pursue

00:22:12.340 immorality is beyond, it's mind-boggling to me.

00:22:14.740 Why anyone thinks that we should give $400 million to the Palestinian authorities, that

00:22:20.920 they can use that on building terror tunnels, allying with Hamas, building up a paramilitary 0.51

00:22:25.880 force that murders civilians?

00:22:27.300 Like, why that's a thing?

00:22:29.600 I don't understand that at all.

00:22:30.920 And I would hope that legislation would begin moving through the U.S. Congress immediately,

00:22:36.140 limiting funding to the United Nations, making it project-specific as opposed to broad.

00:22:40.300 We are the single biggest funder of the U.N., and I would hope that we would reconsider

00:22:44.080 aid to places like the Palestinian Authority.

00:22:47.400 I understand that the idea there is to prop up the PA in the hopes that that will prevent

00:22:52.820 the rise of Hamas.

00:22:53.540 But Hamas has already risen, okay? 0.83

00:22:54.680 The fact is that the PA was a terror group, Hamas was a terror group, Hamas is just stupider

00:22:59.420 about how they promulgate their terror than the PA.

00:23:03.020 But calling it diplomatic prostitution to say that we should use the levers of power at our

00:23:06.620 disposal is really insane.

00:23:08.460 And usually, by the way, the same people who are saying that we should never, never leverage

00:23:13.340 tyrannical countries into pursuing our interests will say that the government should leverage

00:23:17.520 you into not buying a soda, that the government should leverage you into buying health insurance,

00:23:22.480 that the government should force you to do what the government wants to force you to do.

00:23:27.000 That's absurd.

00:23:27.740 So where is your money going?

00:23:29.340 So the Washington Post had a good breakdown in October 2016, looking at the breakdown of

00:23:35.900 U.S. assistance.

00:23:36.560 Truth is, overall, it's not that much money.

00:23:39.600 I mean, in terms of the national budget every year, it's not tons of cash that we are spending

00:23:44.940 on foreign aid.

00:23:46.020 But every dollar that we spend is a dollar that is coming from somebody's pocket or from

00:23:50.260 the pockets of our children who are racking up debt, who have not yet been born.

00:23:55.620 It's about 1% of the federal budget is devoted to foreign assistance.

00:23:58.460 It's broken down into two categories.

00:24:02.500 There's economic and development assistance, and there's security assistance.

00:24:06.380 Security assistance seems like something worthwhile to me.

00:24:09.620 And that's where the vast majority of aid to places like Israel and Egypt and Saudi Arabia

00:24:13.160 go.

00:24:13.480 It's not human rights assistance or economic and development assistance.

00:24:16.420 It's assistance that is specifically meant to purchase weapons, for example.

00:24:20.720 So the aid package that we send to Israel, that money comes back to the United States almost

00:24:24.900 immediately in the form of weapons purchases from the state of Israel.

00:24:29.180 The same thing holds true for Egypt, for example.

00:24:32.720 Economic and development assistance is a little bit different.

00:24:35.760 And there we should go country by country.

00:24:37.320 Because the truth is, when you look at foreign aid and development assistance particularly,

00:24:40.960 the record is not good.

00:24:43.120 Far too often, we send a grant package to some tyrannical country with a dictator at the

00:24:49.740 top.

00:24:50.300 And that dictator just takes it and builds a second palace, and the money never sees the

00:24:53.460 light of day again.

00:24:54.740 Because who are you going to give the money to?

00:24:56.160 It's not like we drop helicopters worth of cash.

00:24:59.840 It's not like we helicopter the money and just drop it out the doors.

00:25:03.780 In Nigeria, that has to go to somebody at the top of the government.

00:25:06.660 So if the person at the top of the government is a corrupt dictator, then that money is going

00:25:10.340 to go to the corrupt dictator.

00:25:11.780 That's how you end up with Mahmoud Abbas being worth something like $100 million.

00:25:15.960 It's not because the guy is great at making iPhones.

00:25:19.980 So let's look at where all of this goes.

00:25:22.000 So in terms of economic and development assistance, the leading countries that receive economic

00:25:27.060 and development assistance from the United States are Afghanistan, which makes a certain

00:25:30.680 amount of sense since we are in a war there and we are trying to win some hearts and

00:25:34.080 minds.

00:25:34.260 Pakistan, why we're sending economic and development assistance to Pakistan is beyond

00:25:38.940 me.

00:25:39.120 They've been less than cooperative in the war on terror, and certainly there should be strings

00:25:43.040 attached to that economic and development package.

00:25:46.420 Jordan, that only makes sense in the sense that we're trying to prop up the Hashemite 1.00

00:25:51.560 Kingdom to prevent the rise of a Palestinian terror group in Jordan from taking over the place.

00:25:56.340 70% of Jordan is Arab-Palestinian.

00:26:00.460 Ethiopia is receiving $500 million from us.

00:26:03.480 Kenya is receiving $620 million from us.

00:26:05.940 Uganda, $457 million.

00:26:08.100 Nigeria, $605 million.

00:26:10.260 Tanzania, $575 million.

00:26:12.480 Zambia, $420 million.

00:26:14.300 Have we seen any market effects from this aid?

00:26:17.680 Are we seeing huge effects from this aid?

00:26:19.220 Now, I know President Bush was one of the folks who was pushing very hard for more aid

00:26:23.380 to Africa, and some of that has had an effect.

00:26:26.780 But targeted aid would be the answer here, not blanket aid to countries where, I mean,

00:26:32.560 like we give $176 million to Zimbabwe.

00:26:35.500 Until five seconds ago, the head of Zimbabwe was legitimately Robert Mugabe, one of the worst

00:26:41.100 people on planet Earth.

00:26:44.020 To the Palestinian Authority, we give $327 million a year.

00:26:48.640 That's a lot of money to give to a corrupt dictatorship.

00:26:52.340 We're giving money right now to places like Ukraine, which makes some sense, but we're

00:26:58.020 also giving money to Syria.

00:26:59.080 Like, I'm wondering where that money is going.

00:27:00.380 When we hallmark aid, when we earmark aid, rather, to Syria, $175 million worth, how does

00:27:06.000 that get distributed?

00:27:07.800 Where is that going?

00:27:09.360 Does that go through Bashar Assad?

00:27:11.100 That's unclear to me.

00:27:14.700 Okay, so then there is security assistance by country.

00:27:16.960 And this is where people are making the mistake of saying, well, you know, you're sending the

00:27:20.080 Israelis' money, or you're sending the Afghans' money, or you're sending the Iraqis' money, 0.71

00:27:24.440 right?

00:27:24.600 There's a difference between security aid and between human and economic development.

00:27:29.360 A security aid is about promulgating American interests abroad.

00:27:32.360 Economic development may be about that, but very often is not.

00:27:35.360 So the number one recipient of American military aid is Afghanistan.

00:27:42.380 Again, makes sense.

00:27:44.340 Number two is Israel. 0.92

00:27:45.400 Number three is Egypt. 0.70

00:27:47.940 Number four is Iraq. 0.97

00:27:49.180 And then you get to Syria and Lebanon and Pakistan and Jordan.

00:27:53.440 If President Trump is not already, then he should have somebody tasked to go through and determine

00:28:00.780 where this aid can be cut.

00:28:03.640 And I think that we should zero it, right?

00:28:05.460 We should start from a zero basis.

00:28:06.580 Who deserves the aid?

00:28:07.380 We shouldn't start from who's receiving and what should we cut.

00:28:09.740 We should start from who deserves it at all.

00:28:11.300 And what levers can we use?

00:28:15.160 There's no reason, again, that we should be spending millions and millions of dollars

00:28:18.300 on dictatorial regimes that are antithetical to our own interests.

00:28:21.840 That seems foolish to me.

00:28:24.800 And by the way, as I say, the arms deals that we make with these various countries,

00:28:29.160 the money comes back to us from military aid, but it doesn't necessarily come back in terms of other aid.

00:28:34.820 Okay, so meanwhile, the Trump administration is now considering a project that I am not big on with regard to immigration.

00:28:44.300 I have been in favor of the wall.

00:28:46.100 I will continue to be in favor of the wall.

00:28:47.820 I think the wall is a worthwhile idea because, again, it provides a physical barrier that forces people to think twice before crossing the border.

00:28:55.320 Because if you can't get over the border, then why would you travel the thousands of miles necessary

00:28:59.140 from the southern border of Mexico all the way up to the northern border of Mexico?

00:29:03.060 Because a huge percentage of immigration now is not direct from Mexico.

00:29:06.060 A lot of it's coming from the northern part of South America.

00:29:08.680 It's coming from Central and Latin America.

00:29:11.580 Well, the Trump administration is now considering a new policy.

00:29:14.520 And this just seems misguided to me.

00:29:17.880 And we should be increasing deportations.

00:29:20.040 We should be making it speedier.

00:29:21.160 We should be funding ICE to ensure that we are protecting our own interests.

00:29:26.740 But this seems counterproductive to me.

00:29:29.620 This is a story from the New York Times.

00:29:30.880 The story suggests that the Trump administration is now considering a plan to separate parents from their children

00:29:36.460 when families are caught entering the country illegally, according to officials who have been briefed on the plans.

00:29:41.660 The forceful move is meant to discourage border crossings.

00:29:44.360 But some people are calling it inhumane, obviously.

00:29:46.880 The policy is favored by the White House.

00:29:49.320 So what is the policy?

00:29:50.360 Apparently, it would send parents to adult detention facilities. 0.95

00:29:54.180 Their children would be placed in shelters designated for juveniles or with a sponsor who could be a relative in the United States.

00:29:59.940 But the administration may also tighten rules on sponsors.

00:30:01.880 So now we're going to take kids away from their parents if the entire family comes across illegally. 1.00

00:30:06.140 I guess the goal here, the idea here, is that we are going to try to discourage people from crossing the border illegally by separating families.

00:30:13.080 In pure PR terms, this is just foolish.

00:30:17.020 In pure moral terms, I think it's foolish.

00:30:19.860 We can deport families without separating them. 1.00

00:30:22.360 The problem here is that we're not moving fast enough to deport people who are coming across the border illegally. 0.74

00:30:26.420 Not that we need to separate them in the first instance.

00:30:30.120 Immigration has dropped rather precipitously.

00:30:32.460 Illegal immigration has dropped rather precipitously under President Trump.

00:30:34.960 Not because of the policy of separating families, but because people know, with a certain amount of reliability, that they will be deported.

00:30:41.960 Barack Obama was not deporting people.

00:30:43.520 When people passed out the false statistic suggesting that he had increased deportations, that's because they fudged the numbers.

00:30:50.520 They were suggesting that if somebody came to the border and was turned away, this counted as a deportation.

00:30:55.680 Trump has actually increased deportation.

00:30:57.940 That's good policy.

00:30:58.800 But the idea that you have to separate families in order to discourage people from crossing the border, there are some real moral problems I have with that.

00:31:07.220 Because the truth is that a huge number of people who are trying to illegally cross the borders are not criminals.

00:31:12.620 There are criminals who are trying to cross the borders.

00:31:14.240 When I say they're not criminals, it's criminal to cross the border.

00:31:16.360 But I mean aside from that, they're not coming here to deal drugs.

00:31:19.400 They're not coming here to participate in gangs.

00:31:23.020 A huge number of people who are coming from places like El Salvador, which is experiencing high levels of violence, or Guatemala, which is falling apart right now.

00:31:31.120 Those people are seeking a better life.

00:31:33.020 That doesn't mean they get to stay.

00:31:35.080 It does mean, however, that the idea of treating them the same way that you would treat a gang member is kind of foolish.

00:31:41.660 And I just don't think that, I think there's a way to be both humane and protective of American interests.

00:31:47.300 I don't think that you have to be deliberately cruel to people in order to protect American interests.

00:31:51.160 If people know they will get deported, then they're not going to try to cross the border again.

00:31:57.020 In some ways, it actually increases the tendency for people to use coyotes to cross the border because it'll keep their family together.

00:32:06.240 To avoid ICE.

00:32:08.100 The typical way that people have been crossing the border is they actually flag people down on this side of the border thinking they won't be deported.

00:32:14.900 But what this would encourage is people to avoid doing that because they know that the family is going to be separated.

00:32:19.280 The headlines are going to be terrible from this.

00:32:22.180 It's just, it's not smart policy.

00:32:24.160 It's not smart PR.

00:32:25.360 And I don't think that it's particularly, I'm not sure it's going to be particularly effective.

00:32:30.320 So I would hope that the Trump administration will reconsider this policy even as they build a wall and increase deportations.

00:32:37.060 As we continue here on the Glenn Beck Program.

00:32:40.240 Papa John's founder was forced to step down as CEO.

00:32:43.260 You will not believe the reason why.

00:32:45.240 I'm Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:32:46.340 Glenn Beck.

00:33:07.220 Glenn Beck.

00:33:12.020 Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:33:13.900 So, this is breaking news.

00:33:15.400 The founder of Papa John's International is now going to step down as CEO, handing over his company just weeks after making controversial remarks about national anthem protests by NFL players, for which the company later apologized, according to the Washington Post.

00:33:29.540 John Schnatter, who is featured on Papa John's Pizza Boxes and in the chain's commercials, will now be replaced by COO Steve Ritchie on January 1.

00:33:37.280 He's still the company's largest shareholder.

00:33:39.360 He'll still continue to serve as chairman of the board.

00:33:41.020 So, why exactly is he being ousted?

00:33:44.820 Because he blamed sagging sales of Papa John's, which is a huge sponsor of the NFL, on the league's poor leadership in response to demonstrations during the national anthem.

00:33:53.080 Okay, that was totally legit.

00:33:54.480 What he said was entirely correct.

00:33:55.840 If you spent millions of dollars, millions of dollars, on advertising on the NFL, and the NFL refused to do anything about players who are kneeling for the national anthem, even though they certainly have it within their power to do so,

00:34:07.680 they could just have a rule. Either don't come out on the field, or you stand for the national anthem.

00:34:13.360 Those are the only possibilities.

00:34:16.060 And the NFL didn't do anything.

00:34:17.860 They made foolish business decisions, and their ratings are down as a consequence.

00:34:21.280 The NFL has taken it right in the kisser over the last year.

00:34:24.200 Their ratings are down for a couple of reasons.

00:34:25.480 By the way, I think that the NFL is actually going to be a thing of the past within the next 15 years, because with all of the new information coming out about brain injuries that are being sustained by members of the NFL, it looks a lot like boxing to me.

00:34:38.260 In the 1950s and 60s, boxing was enormous.

00:34:41.540 It was the biggest sport in America through the early 1970s, really.

00:34:44.420 And then, after people realized what kind of damage was being done to these fighters, boxing is now a big nothing.

00:34:52.380 Nobody pays attention to boxing anymore.

00:34:54.320 The last fighter anyone cared about was Mike Tyson.

00:34:56.380 That was the early 90s.

00:34:57.420 I have a feeling the NFL may be experiencing a similar problem.

00:35:00.900 But it certainly doesn't help when you have players kneeling for the national anthem.

00:35:04.300 The NFL did not do its job there.

00:35:06.600 The NFL did not do its job to protect its own business.

00:35:08.780 Forget about the morality of kneeling.

00:35:11.040 It was a failure of business imagination to do that.

00:35:13.100 So the Papa John's founder said something about it.

00:35:16.260 He had the gall to say something about it.

00:35:18.420 And now, he's basically been ousted.

00:35:21.540 He's basically been thrown out of business because, uh-oh, he offended all the people who like kneeling for the national anthem.

00:35:28.100 Demonstrative of the fact, once again, that when everything becomes politicized, and President Trump was a part of this,

00:35:32.920 when everything becomes politicized, there are no common spaces for us left.

00:35:37.520 Not in football.

00:35:38.740 Not in pizza.

00:35:40.000 Nowhere.

00:35:40.800 And that is not good for the country.

00:35:42.080 It's really bad for the country in a wide variety of ways.

00:35:45.040 We need a social fabric, or we're not going to be able to live with each other.

00:35:47.720 We need a break from politics, or we're not going to be able to live with each other.

00:35:50.780 When we continue, Congress avoids a government shutdown.

00:35:54.480 We'll explain how and why.

00:35:55.860 Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:35:56.820 Glenn Beck.

00:36:14.160 Glenn Beck.

00:36:16.300 Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:36:38.000 Here on the Glenn Beck program, always an honor to sit behind the mic for Glenn.

00:36:42.400 Congress passed a stopgap spending bill on Thursday, averting a partial government shutdown at midnight on Friday.

00:36:47.900 According to the Washington Post, it pushes into January showdowns on spending, immigration, health care, and national security.

00:36:53.740 Among the issues still to be resolved, aid for victims of recent hurricanes and wildfires, apparently the House passed a separate $81 billion disaster relief bill.

00:37:03.940 The Senate did not immediately take it up amid Democratic objections, of course, because Democrats don't want Republicans to be able to solve that problem and then just put it behind them.

00:37:11.800 So here's what it does.

00:37:13.400 The stopgap extends federal funding through January 19th.

00:37:16.560 It provides temporary extensions of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

00:37:19.420 So for all those folks like Jimmy Kimmel claiming that Republicans were cutting taxes for the wealthy so they didn't have to pay for the Children's Health Insurance Program.

00:37:27.460 A program, by the way, created by Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican in the first place.

00:37:34.040 The Republicans are going to continue funding CHIP no matter what.

00:37:36.440 Like that is a program that will continue to be funded because Republicans also have an interest in ensuring that people who can't take care of themselves are able to get health insurance.

00:37:45.900 It's essential that Congress maintain government programs and services for our nation's stability, the stability of our economy, and for the security and well-being of the American people, said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Freelinghuysen, Republican of New Jersey.

00:37:59.600 It passed the House 231-188, cleared the Senate 66-32.

00:38:03.420 Those will be the last congressional votes of this year.

00:38:07.620 So what this does, it sets up in January a major showdown over government spending.

00:38:11.460 And that's a showdown that should be had.

00:38:13.400 Because, as I mentioned yesterday on Glenn's show, the reality is that the tax cuts, which I am very much in favor of.

00:38:21.060 I like the tax cut bill.

00:38:22.460 I think it's going to do a lot of good things for the economy.

00:38:24.340 People are seeing money again for the first time in a while.

00:38:26.580 Now, it does, in fact, create new deficits.

00:38:31.420 And the way to solve that is for Republicans to take up the baton and cut spending.

00:38:35.300 Now, I know that it's politically toxic to take up spending, but at a certain point, don't you actually have to use the power at hand?

00:38:42.000 This weird idea that Republicans are going to just see a continuing advance of their power on the federal level, I'm not seeing the poll numbers to support that.

00:38:49.560 I'm not seeing the poll numbers to support that.

00:38:51.760 So let's assume for just a second that Republicans are not going to retain the House in 2018.

00:38:57.060 The reason I'm assuming that is because the data suggests that they will not.

00:39:00.500 According to the latest polling data, the Republicans are down 18 on the generic congressional ballot.

00:39:06.020 That is full wipeout territory.

00:39:09.020 A lot of that has to do with the personal unpopularity of the president, even if the president has pursued popular policies.

00:39:15.040 Which, as I say, I hope that the president somehow turns it around personally because he is now inevitably connected with whatever policies he pursues.

00:39:25.600 So if he pursues conservative policies, but he's personally unpopular, that has ramifications for the policy.

00:39:31.780 I don't want to be popular just because I think Trump as a human being matters to me.

00:39:35.500 He doesn't.

00:39:36.560 Politicians don't really matter to me much as quote-unquote human beings.

00:39:39.700 I have a family for that.

00:39:40.620 I have friends for that.

00:39:41.300 I have a community for that.

00:39:42.200 But it does matter to me whether he promulgates an agenda I like and successfully makes that agenda more popular.

00:39:48.440 But here's where we stand polling-wise for 2018.

00:39:52.020 I want to go back through the polls over the last several congressional cycles and show you exactly why the polls right now are so terrible.

00:40:00.820 I don't mean mediocre.

00:40:01.920 I mean terrible for Republicans.

00:40:03.000 So, according to RealClearPolitics averages, generic ballots, this time before an election cycle, in 2002, Republicans had a 1.7% generic ballot average lead.

00:40:20.060 1.7%.

00:40:21.140 Republicans gained seats.

00:40:23.240 In 2004, it was a tied generic ballot.

00:40:26.060 Republicans gained a couple of seats.

00:40:27.480 In 2006, Democrats were plus 12, and there was a huge wave that flipped the House to Democrats.

00:40:33.020 In 2008, Democrats were plus 9.

00:40:35.700 There was another wave in favor of Democrats.

00:40:37.680 In 2010, it was Republicans plus 9.

00:40:40.400 A wave flipped the House to Republicans.

00:40:42.480 In 2012, the Republicans were plus 2, plus 0.2 is basically dead even.

00:40:47.900 There was a minor change in the Republican-controlled House.

00:40:49.960 They picked up a couple of seats.

00:40:51.300 In 2014, Republicans were up 2.4, and there was another pickup for Republicans in the House, a major pickup for Republicans in the House.

00:41:01.340 In 2016, Democrats were plus 0.06.

00:41:05.680 There was a minor change.

00:41:07.060 The Republicans maintained control of the House.

00:41:09.100 Right now, Democrats are plus 13.

00:41:10.940 So, this looks more like 2006, 2008, 2010, all wave elections than it does like 2004, 2012, 2016, even 2014.

00:41:22.940 Democrats are doing quite well in terms of turnout in a lot of these special elections.

00:41:26.780 The reason I'm suggesting this is not because I want Democrats, God forbid, to win the House.

00:41:30.960 I think that would be terrible.

00:41:31.820 I think they would immediately pursue bad policy.

00:41:34.220 The reason I'm suggesting this is because I'm saying power is temporary, but cuts have to be made permanent.

00:41:39.960 When you have power, you have to do what you can to cut where you can.

00:41:44.580 And this is always the unpopular part of the Republican agenda.

00:41:47.660 The unpopular part of the Democratic agenda is raising taxes, which is why Democrats try to avoid raising taxes.

00:41:53.980 It's why Barack Obama signed on to a re-enshrinement of the Bush tax cuts in both 2010 and 2013.

00:42:00.600 That's the unpopular part of the Democratic agenda.

00:42:02.820 And when Democrats are honest about raising taxes, it really hurts them.

00:42:06.360 Walter Mondale comes to mind in 1984 in San Francisco, announcing that part of his program was to raise taxes.

00:42:12.280 Bernie Sanders, he can talk about raising taxes all he wants.

00:42:14.900 But once he's a presidential candidate in a general election and he starts talking about raising the middle class tax rates to 60% like they are in the socialist European countries he loves so much, that's pretty much going to kill whatever presidential hopes he has.

00:42:28.340 Democrats are constantly trying to avoid that plank in their platform.

00:42:31.360 Republicans are constantly trying to avoid the plank in their platform that says you're supposed to cut spending and bring it in alignment with government takings.

00:42:38.660 And that's a problem, because the government spending is going to go up, up, up.

00:42:45.420 So this government shutdown, the possibility of a government shutdown in January, Republicans should make clear their spending priorities.

00:42:52.580 And then they should force Democrats into the position of having to argue that they want to shut down the government rather than cutting spending on foolish programs.

00:43:00.960 The party in power, supposedly, this is the typical conventional wisdom, the party in power has the upper hands during government shutdowns.

00:43:09.740 This is why even Republicans, many of them, were upset about Ted Cruz's government shutdown in 2013.

00:43:14.640 The idea being that Cruz said, we don't want to fund Obamacare, just cut the funding to Obamacare.

00:43:19.660 And then Barack Obama allowed the government to shut down, and then Republicans were blamed.

00:43:24.900 The idea for establishment Republicans, at least, I don't think this is quite correct.

00:43:28.980 But their logic was that Republicans would be blamed for the government shutdown.

00:43:33.500 And the polling numbers showed there was some truth to that, but it didn't have any long-term repercussions.

00:43:37.160 But if we're going to use that argument as establishment Republican types, as media types, well, then the same holds true now.

00:43:43.540 Trump is the president.

00:43:44.340 If the Democrats shut down the government, then it's on them.

00:43:47.080 So Trump should make his spending priorities clear.

00:43:49.000 That means funding the wall.

00:43:50.000 It means cutting funding in a lot of other areas.

00:43:51.760 Instead, however, it looks like the Republicans are going to pursue the sort of big government, quote-unquote,

00:43:58.000 compassionate conservatism that you saw during the George W. Bush era, which is to say, lower taxes and blow out the spending.

00:44:05.860 And there's no excuse for that.

00:44:07.380 Ronald Reagan also increased spending over the course of his tenure, but he was working with the Democrat Congress.

00:44:12.100 Trump has a Republican Congress, so increasing spending seems like a waste of an opportunity.

00:44:17.180 And yet today, this morning, President Trump tweeted out, quote,

00:44:21.700 At some point, and for the good of the country, I predict we will start working with the Democrats in a bipartisan fashion.

00:44:28.500 He says infrastructure would be a perfect place to start.

00:44:30.980 After having foolishly spent $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is time to start rebuilding our country.

00:44:36.120 So first of all, that talking point has always stuck in my craw a little bit.

00:44:40.200 This idea that the spending that is preventing us from growing in this country is military spending is not true.

00:44:46.240 It's just not.

00:44:47.100 The spending that's preventing us from growing is the entitlement spending.

00:44:50.920 It's the spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

00:44:53.760 That's 66% of the federal budget.

00:44:56.460 And the idea that the defense budget is really what's quashing growth is just, it's not actually true.

00:45:02.420 But it's the first part that matters.

00:45:04.500 Trump may now swivel to the left.

00:45:06.540 So I said yesterday that where we are with regard to President Trump,

00:45:10.300 Maybe we are seeing a new leaf, because the last three weeks of policy have been as conservative as any policy I have ever seen from any administration.

00:45:20.080 Incredibly, incredibly powerful.

00:45:23.040 But is that the beginning of this great long-for period of conservative ascendance?

00:45:28.920 Or is this Trump signing off on his conservative agenda so he can then swivel to the left and try and pick up some votes for the midterm and re-enshrine his election efforts in 2020?

00:45:39.900 Is he going to turn to infrastructure now?

00:45:41.340 Because there are a lot of folks who are encouraging him to move to infrastructure right off the bat.

00:45:47.680 That as soon as he got in office, he should work with Democrats and spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure.

00:45:51.280 Now, to be fair to Trump, some of the plans he's been proposing are not fully the federal government coming in and funding infrastructure.

00:45:57.520 Some of them were supposed to be public-private projects.

00:46:00.300 Nonetheless, the vast majority of infrastructure problems in the United States are not federal problems.

00:46:04.760 They are state problems.

00:46:05.780 It should be on states to do it. 0.99

00:46:08.480 It should be on states to fix their infrastructure.

00:46:12.100 The federal government really does not have a serious place in the infrastructure business.

00:46:16.020 And I know everybody loves the Eisenhower highway system.

00:46:18.740 I got to tell you, you love it because it's there.

00:46:21.900 If there had been no Eisenhower project to build the national highway system, this is sort of the libertarian idea,

00:46:27.520 then the states would have built highway systems and connected them.

00:46:31.340 You want to know why Route 66, the route about which Nat King Cole sung,

00:46:36.180 you want to know why that has become basically a barren wasteland?

00:46:39.360 It's because of the Eisenhower highway system.

00:46:41.140 People built all of their shops and stores around Route 66,

00:46:44.240 and then Eisenhower built a highway system that completely bypassed Route 66.

00:46:49.020 Now, you may love the interstate highway system.

00:46:51.280 I love traveling it, too.

00:46:52.900 But the reality is that we spent an awful lot of money on a highway system that was probably going to be built in a more convenient way by states that knew where the populations were in the first place.

00:47:02.720 Okay, and that's the most famous example of a successful infrastructure project.

00:47:05.640 Usually, when there's a massive government infrastructure project, that massive government infrastructure project ends up spending enormous amounts of money on a bunch of random nonsense.

00:47:14.960 That's what the Barack Obama stimulus package was.

00:47:17.620 It stimulated nothing.

00:47:18.800 I can remember driving through Los Angeles and seeing the big orange signs that said,

00:47:23.400 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

00:47:25.940 Ooh.

00:47:26.880 Sometimes they were green.

00:47:28.860 And invariably, it would be followed by a line of cones with no one working on the road.

00:47:32.640 That was always what it was.

00:47:34.100 The roads never got any better, but there was a sign now, and that meant that something was happening.

00:47:39.040 The obsession with infrastructure is just an excuse for Republicans to avoid cutting spending.

00:47:43.000 And that's really what they need to be focused on right now if they want to do any good.

00:47:46.120 Because we are bilking future generations. 0.91

00:47:48.220 This, again, is the part of the agenda nobody wants to talk about because it's unpopular.

00:47:52.260 But guess what?

00:47:52.980 When you have power, that's the time to do something with the power, not to sit around hoping that an infrastructure project is going to save your bacon from a bad midterm election.

00:48:01.720 Now, as we continue here on the Glenn Beck Program, Rosie O'Donnell's back at it again. 1.00

00:48:06.660 Yesterday, she was sexually harassing me. 1.00

00:48:08.340 Today, she's sexually harassing me. 1.00

00:48:09.680 No, I'm not joking.

00:48:11.140 My life has gotten very weird.

00:48:12.700 Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:48:16.940 Glenn Beck.

00:48:27.300 Glenn Beck.

00:48:31.320 Me too, folks.

00:48:32.700 Me too.

00:48:33.100 Ben Shapiro here for Glenn Beck.

00:48:34.200 And I feel the pain.

00:48:36.840 Rosie O'Donnell has now sexually harassed me twice in two days. 1.00

00:48:40.220 And I can say, honestly, it has struck me to my core.

00:48:43.900 It all began two days ago when Rosie O'Donnell tweeted out that she thought that it would be worthwhile to offer senators bribes.

00:48:52.160 She actually tweeted out that she offered Senators Jeff Flake and Susan Collins $2 million each on Twitter.

00:48:56.600 If they would vote against the Republican tax reform package.

00:49:01.460 This, by the way, is a federal felony under 18 U.S. Code 201B, which says openly that if you offer politicians bribes for votes, that you will have to pay the amount of the bribes that you offered three times that to the federal government and or 15 years up to 15 years in a federal penitentiary.

00:49:18.620 So, Rosie broke the law. 1.00

00:49:21.460 So, I tweeted out that Rosie had broken the law. 0.99

00:49:24.400 I tweeted out that if the President of the United States initiated a legal investigation into Rosie O'Donnell via Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he would immediately have his face carved into Mount Rushmore.

00:49:34.620 Human beings wouldn't even have to do it.

00:49:36.260 A lightning bolt from God would just strike Mount Rushmore and boom, Trump's face would be on there.

00:49:40.400 But Rosie O'Donnell didn't take kindly to that. 1.00

00:49:42.760 And she tweeted directly at me that I should suck her bleep. 1.00

00:49:46.920 Her bleep was a male appendage, which is weird.

00:49:50.960 So, she sexually harassed me and I said, listen, Rosie, you're already a felon. 1.00

00:49:54.300 There's no reason for you to be a homophobic sexual harasser.

00:49:57.540 Me too.

00:49:58.740 Me too.

00:50:00.400 And then she got even more angry.

00:50:03.600 And she suggested this morning, sadly, she sexually harassed me again this morning.

00:50:09.040 I don't know what Rosie O'Donnell's problem is. 1.00

00:50:10.600 But, um, she tweeted out, lick me too, Ben. 1.00

00:50:16.740 Now, there are a wide variety of reasons why I would never do that.

00:50:22.440 But, I tweeted in response, no means no, Rosie.

00:50:26.600 No means no.

00:50:29.400 Hashtag me too.

00:50:31.100 And then, just for the funsies of it, I let the Twitter people know that I was being sexually harassed by Rosie O'Donnell and that this was targeted abuse.

00:50:40.500 The reason I did that is not because I want Twitter to actually throw Rosie O'Donnell off Twitter or anything like that.

00:50:45.000 It's just that Twitter's standards are applied wildly and consistently.

00:50:49.020 And Twitter, like a lot of major tech companies, will target conservatives for bad behavior, but they will leave the left alone with regard to bad behavior.

00:50:55.700 Now, I have a standard which is I don't like people being banned from places like Twitter for pretty much anything.

00:51:00.620 I'm pretty much a free speech absolutist when it comes to this.

00:51:03.060 If you're going to have a standard, then I think it is fair to say that abuse like suck this or lick that, that that stuff should be ruled out of bounds by Twitter.

00:51:11.860 And it should be equally applied.

00:51:12.960 But that was my point, because, you know, imagine if I had said something similar in reverse to Rosie O'Donnell.

00:51:20.320 Can you imagine?

00:51:21.620 Well, first of all, it would end my career, right?

00:51:23.180 I mean, that would be the end of my career.

00:51:24.940 It would also be the end of my sanity and my decency.

00:51:27.200 But the left would respond with full outrage, ire, I would be banned from Twitter, no question.

00:51:33.500 So we will find out whether, in fact, there's a double standard with regard to sexual harassment, so long as you are an anti-Trump, rabid left, non-straight human.

00:51:44.340 If you are a conservative, however, then you can be banned from Twitter for pretty much anything.

00:51:50.440 So let's find out.

00:51:51.680 Let's find out how accurate their standards are.

00:51:55.800 Let's see.

00:51:58.440 Let's find out.

00:51:59.980 So, all right.

00:52:01.560 Meanwhile, the House is now looking at a plan requiring lawmakers to pay for their own sexual harassment settlements.

00:52:08.080 And when people say that Congress is just filled with terrible people, one of the reasons why they say that is because Congress apparently over the last 20 years has paid about $1.5 million in sexual harassment settlements.

00:52:18.920 Of your money, of my money, of everybody's money except their own.

00:52:22.700 The House Administrative Committee announced on Thursday that it expects to advance legislation in the new year that would force lawmakers accused of harassment to reimburse taxpayers for settlements.

00:52:32.200 A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working on legislation to overhaul Capitol Hill's reporting system for harassment complaints.

00:52:38.100 Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for more transparency toward harassment settlements and for ending the practice of putting taxpayers on the hook for members of Congress accused of misconduct.

00:52:48.980 Legislation is expected to be introduced when Congress reconvenes in early January.

00:52:52.660 This seems like a pretty easy fix and something that Congress certainly should pursue.

00:52:56.660 Otherwise, it looks like, honestly, otherwise it just looks like they're trying to pay off their Al Franken proclivities with your money.

00:53:05.320 Speaking of which, Al Franken bade a fond farewell to Capitol Hill on Thursday.

00:53:11.400 He grabbed life by the breasts. 1.00

00:53:14.120 And Al Franken gave a lengthy broadside against the policies of the Trump administration and called for politicians to commit themselves to honesty and public discourse.

00:53:22.260 Because if there's one man who knows honesty and public discourse, it's a guy who goes to rope lines and gropes women's butts.

00:53:27.760 As I have said about Al Franken before, I take thousands of pictures with people a year.

00:53:34.400 I just did an event down in Florida.

00:53:36.240 Hundreds of kids.

00:53:37.660 I speak on dozens of college campuses every year.

00:53:40.740 So when I say thousands of pictures with comely young women, okay, that is not really an exaggeration.

00:53:46.700 I take pictures with lots and lots of young people.

00:53:49.740 Okay, comely or not.

00:53:51.400 Never once has it occurred to me to sexually harass or abuse those young people.

00:53:55.180 Because that's absurd.

00:53:57.540 But that's apparently what Al Franken was doing.

00:53:59.100 He was just going to events and risking everything to grab a butt. 0.80

00:54:04.440 So Franken was, people were wondering, like me, whether he was actually going to leave.

00:54:09.100 That after Roy Moore lost his race, the Democrats ceased to have a function in shaming Al Franken.

00:54:14.940 And so instead, they decided that they would basically allow him to stick around.

00:54:19.060 There were a bunch of senators who had signaled that.

00:54:20.740 Franken himself said, I'm out.

00:54:21.700 And Franken, what he really should have done, I mean, if he were politically bright, what he would have done,

00:54:26.300 is he would have immediately said when these allegations came out,

00:54:28.500 I'm stepping down to make myself a better man.

00:54:30.220 The president should do the same.

00:54:32.080 And it's a blot on our institutions that people like me who are willing to go and fix themselves,

00:54:38.340 step out, but people who are not, stay out.

00:54:39.960 Like that would have been a smart political move.

00:54:41.620 Instead, Franken launched a broadside.

00:54:43.520 He lamented the degradation of truth.

00:54:45.760 Again, Al Franken lamenting the degradation of truth.

00:54:50.200 The irony is simply too rich.

00:54:52.920 He said, as I leave the Senate, I have to admit, it feels like we're losing the war for truth.

00:54:56.640 Maybe it's already lost.

00:54:57.940 If that's what happens, we have lost the ability to have the kinds of arguments that help build consensus.

00:55:02.640 Yes, nothing builds consensus quite like a lifelong comedian running for Senate,

00:55:07.340 basically stealing his seat from Norm Coleman through voter fraud,

00:55:09.880 and then using his seat to promulgate the most leftist agenda imaginable.

00:55:14.420 If I think unifier, I think Al Franken.

00:55:18.180 Unifying his hands with other people's body parts.

00:55:21.220 As we continue here on the Glenn Beck Program,

00:55:24.620 a lot of people, very angry about the tax cuts.

00:55:27.660 Some are making very stupid arguments,

00:55:29.480 and we will explain the stupidest of these arguments when we return.

00:55:32.400 Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:55:39.880 Glenn Beck.

00:55:58.720 This is the Glenn Beck Program.

00:56:03.840 Taxmageddon.

00:56:04.620 The effects are just brutal.

00:56:06.360 We were told everyone would die,

00:56:07.420 and, boy, the Democrats were sure right about that one.

00:56:11.020 Dying from being burdened with their additional wealth.

00:56:15.760 Okay, so Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

00:56:18.520 More Taxmageddon updates.

00:56:20.080 Okay, so thanks to the Republican tax cut in Texas,

00:56:25.340 New Braunfels-based Rush Enterprises is now planning to give each of its employees a $1,000 bonus

00:56:30.040 after Trump signed the tax reform bill into law.

00:56:33.240 It's a commercial truck dealer.

00:56:34.240 They said all of their approximately 6,600 U.S. employees will receive a $1,000 bonus.

00:56:40.560 And Wisconsin Associated Bank said on Thursday it would boost its minimum hourly wage to $15

00:56:44.980 and pay workers a $500 bonus when the recently passed federal tax reform is signed.

00:56:51.380 The Green Bay-based bank said it will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour from 10, a 50% boost.

00:56:57.400 They said this would affect about 55% of its workers,

00:56:59.980 about 3,000 workers or so, in Idaho.

00:57:04.840 Malaluca Inc. announced it would be the latest major business to give its workers bonuses

00:57:08.820 in response to Trump's tax cuts.

00:57:11.580 Frank Vandersloot, who is indeed a Republican's owner,

00:57:13.980 said in a phone interview that his 2,000 workers would get a one-time bonus of $100

00:57:17.540 for every year they have worked at the company.

00:57:19.600 On average, employees have stayed at the company for eight years, resulting in an $800 bonus.

00:57:23.720 They also have 147 employees who've worked for Vandersloot for 20 years or more.

00:57:30.040 Royal Hawaiian Heritage Jewelry in Hawaii.

00:57:32.980 The owner hopes that this is going to help her business.

00:57:35.320 She's from Kauai.

00:57:36.900 And so she has said that she is going to expand her operations

00:57:39.580 and she's going to open a couple of new stores.

00:57:42.220 By the way, it's also worth noting that there are some new reports out,

00:57:47.180 and I discussed yesterday people whose taxes are going to be increased,

00:57:49.740 people like me in California,

00:57:51.560 because of the mortgage interest deduction is going down to $750,000.

00:58:00.200 And because state and local tax deductions have now been ruled out of bounds.

00:58:03.760 And people are pointing out that may be a little exaggerated

00:58:06.420 because people who are already paying a ton of tax in the state of California

00:58:09.380 are already getting hit by the alternative minimum tax,

00:58:11.480 meaning that there is a catch-all provision in the tax code

00:58:14.700 that basically prevents you from taking enough deductions

00:58:16.860 to get below a 26% threshold if you earn a lot of money.

00:58:21.580 And so it's likely that I've already hit the alternative minimum tax.

00:58:25.160 Or if I haven't, then I guess I could lose money, I suppose, through this.

00:58:30.000 But the alternative minimum tax is already catching those people.

00:58:34.240 Jack Meckie is a tax associate of financial planning firm Vestboard.

00:58:38.640 He says, there's a lot of noise about workers in California.

00:58:41.480 New Jersey, New York, and Illinois facing higher taxes.

00:58:44.380 But 80% of our clients were already paying the alternative minimum tax,

00:58:47.920 so they don't benefit at all from state and local deductions in the first place.

00:58:51.460 I'll be honest with you, I do not actually do my own taxes by hand.

00:58:54.660 I have an accountant who does it.

00:58:55.580 I just give them all my receipts.

00:58:56.740 So I'm not sure whether my taxes would actually go up.

00:58:59.060 I have assumed they will,

00:58:59.860 but I will ask my accountant and get back to you on that.

00:59:02.780 I know everyone is fascinated with my accounting.

00:59:06.020 It's just as fascinating to you as it is to me, I would assume.

00:59:09.280 Meanwhile, Democrats and some never-Trumpers.

00:59:12.800 And when I say never-Trumpers, I don't use that in the derogatory sense that so many people use it.

00:59:17.100 I don't mean everybody who didn't vote for Trump.

00:59:18.700 I didn't vote for Trump.

00:59:20.460 People tend to group people like me into the never-Trump category,

00:59:24.280 even though never-Trump no longer applies.

00:59:26.400 And never-Trump ended the day of the election.

00:59:28.440 Now I am sometimes Trump.

00:59:30.020 When he does good things, I cheer wildly.

00:59:31.500 When he does bad things, I boo.

00:59:33.240 Because that's exactly how I would treat any other politician.

00:59:36.380 And by the way, I never said during the election cycle that you shouldn't vote for Trump.

00:59:39.560 I said I couldn't because he didn't meet my minimum standards for qualification.

00:59:43.000 But I always said, repeatedly over and over,

00:59:45.940 that if you were voting for Trump to stop Hillary, I understood your vote.

00:59:48.320 In any case, there are some actual quote-unquote never-Trumpers,

00:59:51.700 people who have basically decided that no matter what Trump does, it's wrong.

00:59:55.560 One of those people is Jennifer Rubin over at the Washington Post.

00:59:57.860 So Jennifer Rubin was taken to task by Charles Cook over at National Review,

01:00:02.560 full disclosure and outlet for which I write.

01:00:05.200 And Charles basically pointed out that Jennifer Rubin

01:00:07.340 had basically switched her positions on half of issues just to bang on Trump. 0.99

01:00:12.140 That she spends an awful lot of time just knocking Trump over stuff 0.91

01:00:14.540 that she agrees with him about because she doesn't like Trump personally.

01:00:17.840 Now that's never-Trump to me.

01:00:19.500 People who do stuff like that.

01:00:21.020 And that's real never-Trump because it really means never-Trump.

01:00:23.180 He can never do anything right.

01:00:24.300 Well, Jennifer Rubin is back at it,

01:00:26.160 complaining about these tax cuts.

01:00:28.580 And how is she complaining? 0.95

01:00:30.740 Well, she's complaining because people on the lower end of the income scale 1.00

01:00:34.160 are not getting that much money back.

01:00:36.980 So what she says is that $75, which is the amount that some people are getting back,

01:00:43.200 $75 would probably cover Trump's lunch tab at her father's club,

01:00:46.260 Ivanka Trump's lunch,

01:00:47.600 but really does nothing for low-income families.

01:00:50.000 She's quoting the CBPP, which is a congressional...

01:00:54.600 Let's see.

01:00:54.880 What does this group mean?

01:00:57.100 The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

01:01:00.220 And what they say is the final bill does nothing compared to the Senate bill

01:01:03.220 to improve lives of 10 million children in low-income working families.

01:01:07.100 Those children will get only a token increase of up to $75 per family or no increase at all.

01:01:12.140 Many working families with children under 17 with incomes that are too low or owe much

01:01:16.620 or any income tax can get part of the CTC, the Child Tax Credit, as a tax refund.

01:01:20.500 As noted, that refundable amount is limited under the current law to 15% of their earnings over $3,000.

01:01:25.960 The Senate bill lowers that threshold so that earnings over $2,500

01:01:28.940 would count toward earning a Child Tax Credit translating to a CTC increase

01:01:33.500 of just $75 for those families.

01:01:36.980 So then Jennifer Rubin says that $75 doesn't really do anything for people.

01:01:41.500 Well, she should probably ask people who are poor 1.00

01:01:43.560 because $75 does $75 worth of work for them.

01:01:47.600 This has created an awful lot of blowback.

01:01:50.380 For people who have been middle class and wealthy their entire life,

01:01:53.160 $75 doesn't sound like a lot of money.

01:01:54.820 To people who are making $12,000 a year, $75 is not a pittance.

01:02:00.680 It's not a tiny amount of money.

01:02:02.840 It's $75.

01:02:04.680 $75 will buy you, if you're a single person,

01:02:07.920 buy you a week's worth of meals.

01:02:10.560 That's not a tiny amount of money.

01:02:12.600 It just shows the disconnect.

01:02:13.780 The left is now being forced to basically play reverse class warfare.

01:02:18.260 The left is now being forced to say that poor people

01:02:20.180 don't have any value for small amounts of money,

01:02:23.120 which is really silly.

01:02:25.240 Only rich people say that.

01:02:27.080 And then there's Charles Blow,

01:02:29.000 whose name is indicative of the quality of his work,

01:02:33.000 writing in the op-ed pages of the New York Times.

01:02:36.000 And he says,

01:02:36.240 With their tax bill,

01:02:37.660 Donald Trump and the Republicans are raiding the Treasury in plain sight,

01:02:40.460 throwing crumbs to the masses

01:02:41.600 as the millionaires and billionaires make off with the cake.

01:02:44.680 Again,

01:02:45.940 it was not the Treasury's money,

01:02:48.460 it's their money.

01:02:49.860 America should be aghast,

01:02:50.960 not only at the looting,

01:02:52.200 but also at the brazenness of its execution.

01:02:55.320 He says,

01:02:55.820 Because it seems that for as long as I can remember,

01:02:58.340 Republicans have been wringing their hands about deficits,

01:03:00.260 and yet,

01:03:00.920 in this budget,

01:03:01.500 they willingly,

01:03:02.280 willfully exploded the deficit,

01:03:04.300 not for public uplift,

01:03:05.460 or rebuilding America's infrastructure,

01:03:07.040 but rather on the spurious argument

01:03:08.900 that giving truckloads of money back to businesses

01:03:11.280 will spark their benevolence.

01:03:13.740 Okay, well, again,

01:03:15.040 each and every day,

01:03:15.860 there are new stories of businesses

01:03:16.880 that are not being benevolent,

01:03:18.380 they're increasing their business,

01:03:19.360 and or paying their workers more,

01:03:20.600 so that workers feel good about tax cuts, right?

01:03:24.100 And I love this idea

01:03:25.060 that suddenly Democrats

01:03:25.860 are wringing their hands about deficits.

01:03:27.480 Okay, I said earlier,

01:03:28.200 Republicans should be wringing their hands about deficits.

01:03:30.320 Now would be the time to cut.

01:03:31.600 You just took some money out of the Federal Treasury?

01:03:34.340 That was our money?

01:03:35.540 Good.

01:03:36.760 Good.

01:03:37.580 But I'm not of the,

01:03:38.540 I've never been a big idea,

01:03:40.760 a big fan of the Laffer curve.

01:03:44.040 There's an argument about the Laffer curve.

01:03:45.340 The Laffer curve, for people who don't know,

01:03:47.340 is this concept that was created

01:03:48.540 by a guy named Art Laffer,

01:03:49.440 economist who was very instrumental

01:03:50.860 in the Reagan tax plan,

01:03:52.520 and his basic idea was this.

01:03:54.040 If the tax rate is zero,

01:03:55.720 then the income to the government will be zero.

01:03:58.320 If the tax rate is 100,

01:04:00.280 then the income to the government will be zero,

01:04:01.960 because no one is going to work

01:04:03.200 just for the government,

01:04:04.840 unless they're paid, right?

01:04:06.060 If the tax rate is 100,

01:04:07.620 then the income will be zero.

01:04:08.860 Somewhere in the middle

01:04:09.580 is sort of the ideal tax point

01:04:11.660 for increasing revenue.

01:04:13.800 And if you move the tax rate down

01:04:15.740 from 100 back towards zero,

01:04:17.440 then you will increase

01:04:18.660 the amount of revenue

01:04:19.820 in the federal treasury

01:04:20.720 by increasing the size of the economy.

01:04:22.540 So the economy grows,

01:04:23.860 and sure,

01:04:24.380 you're now only taking in 20%

01:04:25.740 of income

01:04:26.880 rather than 30% of income,

01:04:28.600 but the economy has doubled.

01:04:30.580 So 20% of a doubled economy

01:04:32.200 is more than 30%

01:04:33.240 of a halved economy.

01:04:34.620 That's the basic notion

01:04:35.700 of the Laffer curve.

01:04:36.980 It's right,

01:04:37.800 but the reason that I object

01:04:38.860 to using that logic

01:04:39.740 is because it suggests

01:04:40.780 that the quality of a tax cut

01:04:42.160 should be measured

01:04:42.680 on how much money

01:04:43.820 is taken in additionally

01:04:44.860 to the federal treasury.

01:04:46.640 I think that that's

01:04:47.520 a fool's errand.

01:04:49.380 I'd like to starve the beast. 0.94

01:04:51.080 I'm not interested

01:04:51.980 in increasing money

01:04:52.720 to the federal treasury.

01:04:54.200 I don't like using the argument

01:04:55.480 that the economy will increase

01:04:56.560 and the government

01:04:56.940 will take even more money in.

01:04:58.580 I don't want the government

01:04:59.220 to take more money in.

01:05:00.300 If the government

01:05:00.760 takes more money in,

01:05:01.520 they should cut taxes again.

01:05:02.940 They should just continue

01:05:03.660 cutting taxes.

01:05:05.700 But this is one of the things

01:05:07.340 that is so bizarre

01:05:08.780 about the left's view

01:05:09.500 of deficits.

01:05:10.800 The left says that

01:05:11.600 a deficit created

01:05:12.960 by them spending

01:05:13.680 on infrastructure is fine.

01:05:14.840 A deficit created

01:05:15.480 by you keeping your own money

01:05:16.500 is not fine.

01:05:18.140 Charles Blow says

01:05:18.960 the tax bill will lead

01:05:20.200 to an increase

01:05:20.700 in the deficit

01:05:21.140 of $1.5 billion

01:05:21.940 over the next 10 years.

01:05:23.760 He says when this bill

01:05:24.720 leads to predicted deficits,

01:05:26.280 Republicans will return 0.94

01:05:27.120 to their sideline

01:05:27.800 deficit rhetoric

01:05:28.540 armed with a sickle

01:05:29.660 aiming the blade

01:05:30.640 at the social safety net

01:05:31.660 exacerbating the egregious

01:05:33.400 imbalance of the tax bill's

01:05:34.880 original sins.

01:05:36.040 That's the strategy.

01:05:37.160 Appease the rich

01:05:37.700 on the front end.

01:05:38.580 Punish the poor

01:05:39.100 on the back.

01:05:39.740 Feed the weak

01:05:40.260 to the strong.

01:05:40.800 So what he's complaining

01:05:41.740 about now

01:05:42.200 is if I keep my own money

01:05:43.720 then where's the money

01:05:44.720 for the social safety net

01:05:45.640 going to go?

01:05:47.360 And the answer is

01:05:48.440 that people should be

01:05:50.560 using the money

01:05:51.620 to invest in their

01:05:52.460 own retirements.

01:05:54.040 This is a fundamental

01:05:54.700 disconnect.

01:05:55.980 It's why Republicans

01:05:56.680 need to argue

01:05:57.520 that government programs

01:05:59.460 do not do what they

01:06:00.260 are cracked up to do.

01:06:01.100 Otherwise you do end up

01:06:02.260 in the bind that Blow

01:06:03.240 is performing for you.

01:06:05.100 Blow is basically saying

01:06:06.140 every single time

01:06:07.320 you cut taxes

01:06:08.020 you are taking money

01:06:08.980 away from entitlements

01:06:09.860 because you're going

01:06:10.780 to have to cut

01:06:11.160 entitlements on the

01:06:11.800 back end.

01:06:12.580 What Republicans

01:06:12.980 should be saying is

01:06:13.620 we want to cut

01:06:14.660 entitlements

01:06:15.180 so we can kill two

01:06:17.040 birds with one stone.

01:06:18.420 We can restructure

01:06:19.580 entitlements.

01:06:20.680 They must be

01:06:21.280 restructured by the way.

01:06:23.200 You can seize the

01:06:24.760 property of every

01:06:25.460 millionaire in the

01:06:26.040 United States wholesale

01:06:26.840 and it will not come

01:06:27.760 close to paying off

01:06:28.560 the federal debt.

01:06:29.840 It will not even

01:06:30.580 come close to it.

01:06:31.380 But Democrats are

01:06:34.260 really upset because

01:06:34.960 they figure that

01:06:35.540 every time Republicans

01:06:36.720 raise the deficit

01:06:37.600 with tax cuts

01:06:38.500 that this will

01:06:40.040 somehow lead to

01:06:41.360 cuts on the other end.

01:06:42.100 First of all,

01:06:42.440 it's not true because

01:06:43.180 Republicans never cut

01:06:44.080 anything, sadly.

01:06:45.220 Second of all,

01:06:45.960 Republicans should be

01:06:46.600 looking to cut

01:06:47.180 regardless of what

01:06:47.900 the tax rate is.

01:06:49.320 The government should

01:06:50.120 not be performing

01:06:50.900 these functions.

01:06:52.020 I'm a young person.

01:06:53.200 I'm 33.

01:06:54.860 I'm never going to

01:06:55.600 see a dime of my

01:06:56.360 Social Security cash.

01:06:57.300 It's gone.

01:06:58.120 It's going to pay for

01:06:58.960 my grandmother and

01:07:00.000 other grandmothers like

01:07:00.800 her.

01:07:02.460 Well, the people

01:07:03.340 who have made

01:07:03.720 promises, we should

01:07:04.460 keep those promises,

01:07:05.360 obviously.

01:07:06.140 But for people like me,

01:07:08.540 how about this?

01:07:09.600 How about I get to

01:07:10.220 keep more of my own

01:07:10.860 money and invest it

01:07:11.600 in the stock market

01:07:12.320 and we restructure

01:07:13.440 entitlements on a

01:07:15.160 contribution basis

01:07:16.200 rather than a

01:07:16.700 withdrawal basis?

01:07:18.440 Because it is a

01:07:19.320 giant Ponzi scheme.

01:07:20.280 This is going to have

01:07:20.940 to be restructured at

01:07:21.640 some point.

01:07:22.400 And this is why

01:07:22.920 Republicans need to

01:07:23.820 talk about restructuring

01:07:24.840 separately from tax

01:07:26.300 cuts.

01:07:26.580 Otherwise, Democrats are

01:07:27.460 going to link the two

01:07:28.000 together.

01:07:28.820 They're going to

01:07:29.480 suggest that tax cuts

01:07:30.380 are bad because

01:07:30.780 entitlements have to

01:07:32.000 be paid for.

01:07:32.840 Republicans should be

01:07:33.460 saying we need to

01:07:34.080 restructure entitlements

01:07:35.100 and also you should

01:07:36.320 have lower taxes.

01:07:38.020 Not you should have

01:07:38.760 lower taxes because

01:07:39.940 of entitlement reform,

01:07:42.120 but you should have

01:07:42.620 lower taxes because

01:07:43.800 lower taxes are better

01:07:45.120 and entitlement reform

01:07:45.900 should happen because

01:07:46.500 entitlement reform is

01:07:47.220 better.

01:07:48.520 But as we continue

01:07:49.240 here on the Glenn Beck

01:07:49.880 program, Nancy Pelosi

01:07:51.800 makes another bizarre

01:07:52.620 literary reference.

01:07:54.660 And apparently,

01:07:55.320 Democrats think that

01:07:56.200 corporations don't 0.93

01:07:57.380 mean it, but

01:07:58.120 governments do.

01:07:58.900 I'm Ben Shapiro in for

01:08:00.300 Glenn Beck.

01:08:04.120 Glenn Beck.

01:08:15.960 Glenn Beck.

01:08:18.840 This is Ben Shapiro in for

01:08:20.240 Glenn Beck.

01:08:21.320 Here on the Glenn Beck

01:08:22.240 program, always a pleasure

01:08:24.380 and honor to sit in for

01:08:25.800 Glenn.

01:08:26.060 Okay, so there's this

01:08:28.140 weird notion in a lot

01:08:29.460 of leftist circles, a

01:08:30.560 lot of people in the

01:08:31.080 Democratic Party, that

01:08:32.160 corporations don't mean 0.89

01:08:33.140 it.

01:08:33.300 If a corporation gives

01:08:33.980 you a raise, it's

01:08:34.940 because they're cynical

01:08:35.700 and cruel and trying to

01:08:37.800 buy you off.

01:08:39.920 That's the deal with

01:08:40.620 corporations.

01:08:41.220 They're just terrible,

01:08:42.440 terrible people.

01:08:43.100 They're all terrible.

01:08:44.180 They were good when

01:08:44.680 they were poor, but now

01:08:45.560 that they're getting

01:08:46.000 bigger and they're

01:08:46.680 growing, they're really

01:08:48.120 terrible to their

01:08:48.680 employees.

01:08:49.080 Now, I've worked for a

01:08:50.380 fair number of companies

01:08:51.120 at this point in my life.

01:08:52.400 I have run at least a

01:08:53.980 couple.

01:08:54.160 I run one right now

01:08:55.280 over at the Daily

01:08:56.220 Wire.

01:08:56.880 We had a Christmas

01:08:57.320 party last night.

01:08:58.360 We're pretty nice to

01:08:58.920 our employees.

01:09:00.200 I'll be honest with you,

01:09:00.800 we have 35, 40 employees

01:09:02.520 who live in the city of

01:09:04.120 Los Angeles, work out

01:09:05.000 here, and we're pretty

01:09:07.260 nice to them.

01:09:08.080 Give them some pretty

01:09:08.500 nice Christmas gifts.

01:09:10.440 We treat them well

01:09:11.360 because we like to work

01:09:13.020 with them, because we

01:09:14.240 want to treat our

01:09:14.820 employees well.

01:09:15.800 And if you ask anybody

01:09:16.380 who owns a business,

01:09:17.580 they feel the same way

01:09:18.780 about their employees.

01:09:19.640 They feel a loyalty to

01:09:20.640 their employees.

01:09:21.760 Their employees are

01:09:22.500 helping them build a

01:09:23.280 business, helping them

01:09:24.020 build a lifestyle,

01:09:25.020 helping them build a

01:09:25.700 product.

01:09:26.920 But if you listen to

01:09:27.660 Democrats, corporations

01:09:28.980 are evil, blood-sucking

01:09:31.400 leeches on the American

01:09:32.340 people.

01:09:32.860 Government, however,

01:09:34.200 which literally forces you

01:09:35.340 to give up your money at

01:09:36.300 the point of gun,

01:09:37.320 government has your best

01:09:38.680 interests at heart.

01:09:39.440 So the people who are

01:09:40.220 engaging in a voluntary

01:09:41.300 transaction with you to

01:09:43.500 build a business with you

01:09:45.380 to help enrich you and

01:09:47.020 your family in order to

01:09:48.120 create better products for

01:09:49.020 everyone, doing this

01:09:50.420 all together, those people

01:09:52.080 are the bad guys.

01:09:52.640 But the government that

01:09:53.640 forces you to hand over

01:09:54.620 your cash, those are the

01:09:56.000 nice people.

01:09:57.060 And this is what

01:09:57.340 Elizabeth Warren says.

01:09:58.920 She sends out a few

01:09:59.580 smoke signals, and then

01:10:00.920 she says this.

01:10:01.880 I want to be absolutely

01:10:03.100 clear.

01:10:03.680 I am delighted when

01:10:05.120 workers get more money.

01:10:06.620 I'm glad when it happens

01:10:07.720 at any corporation in

01:10:09.460 America, yay.

01:10:11.660 But let's be really clear.

01:10:13.080 If these corporations had

01:10:14.740 wanted to do that, they

01:10:16.300 already had plenty of

01:10:17.580 profits to do it.

01:10:18.900 The idea that this is

01:10:20.280 trickle-down economics at

01:10:21.780 work rather than just

01:10:22.600 plain old politics is just

01:10:24.800 wrong.

01:10:26.140 The corporate CEOs have

01:10:27.620 already told us what

01:10:28.920 they're going to do with

01:10:29.680 this money.

01:10:30.980 I'll give you an example.

01:10:32.300 Home Depot, right after

01:10:33.780 the Senate passed the tax

01:10:35.940 bill a couple of weeks

01:10:37.020 ago, Home Depot CEO is

01:10:39.700 executive is interviewed

01:10:41.500 and said, so what are you

01:10:43.280 going to do with all of

01:10:45.100 this money that Home Depot

01:10:46.200 has?

01:10:46.640 Because they're going to do

01:10:47.240 really well on this.

01:10:48.600 Was it we're going to

01:10:49.740 raise wages for our

01:10:50.880 employees?

01:10:51.800 No.

01:10:52.720 Was it we're going to

01:10:54.040 hire more employees at the

01:10:55.900 Home Depot stores?

01:10:57.340 No.

01:10:58.840 Was it we're going to

01:10:59.860 build more Home Depots

01:11:00.820 across America?

01:11:02.280 No.

01:11:03.220 They said what we're going

01:11:03.940 to do is we're going to

01:11:04.720 do stock buybacks.

01:11:06.800 Okay, so let's stop it

01:11:07.720 right now.

01:11:07.980 In other words, we're

01:11:08.020 going to...

01:11:08.280 Stock buybacks are where

01:11:09.920 a company decides to

01:11:10.920 increase its own stock

01:11:12.120 price by buying back

01:11:13.300 stock because they're

01:11:13.940 investing in their own

01:11:14.740 future in the company.

01:11:16.760 Okay, but the idea that

01:11:17.560 corporations, they're all

01:11:18.480 evil and they're

01:11:19.680 manipulative and they're

01:11:20.760 trying to be greedy.

01:11:21.780 The point is that in a

01:11:22.540 free market, your greed,

01:11:24.900 your self-interest leads

01:11:26.240 you to derive products

01:11:27.300 for others.

01:11:28.460 In a government system,

01:11:29.980 greed leads you to steal

01:11:30.880 other people's money and

01:11:32.000 then use it for your own

01:11:32.980 nefarious purposes without

01:11:34.060 any redress to the person

01:11:35.740 whose money you just

01:11:36.580 took.

01:11:37.260 As we continue, we're

01:11:38.080 going to do Trump in

01:11:38.880 review 2017.

01:11:40.000 How'd the president do?

01:11:41.100 I'll tell you.

01:11:41.560 Ben Shapiro in for

01:11:42.200 Glenn Beck.

01:11:44.740 Glenn Beck.

01:11:58.500 Love.

01:12:00.080 Courage.

01:12:01.380 Truth.

01:12:02.640 Glenn Beck.

01:12:03.440 Well, it's an honor to

01:12:04.040 sit in for Glenn Beck here

01:12:05.120 on the Glenn Beck program.

01:12:06.320 Ben Shapiro here sitting

01:12:07.740 with you on this Friday

01:12:08.680 just before Christmas and

01:12:09.700 I hope that you do have a

01:12:11.140 wonderful Merry Christmas.

01:12:13.260 Hope you've had a great

01:12:13.940 holiday season for a

01:12:15.020 Hanukkah celebrator.

01:12:15.780 That's over for you

01:12:16.420 already, so it's time to

01:12:17.260 move on to Christmas for

01:12:18.160 the rest of the country.

01:12:19.440 And I love this time of

01:12:21.560 year.

01:12:21.700 As a Jew, I love the

01:12:22.960 Christmas time of year.

01:12:23.840 I mean, it is just a

01:12:24.640 beautiful holiday.

01:12:25.940 I heard a really good

01:12:26.560 explanation the other day

01:12:27.360 from my friend Andrew

01:12:28.060 Klavan about somebody

01:12:28.960 asked him, why is it that

01:12:30.280 all the best Christmas

01:12:31.080 songs are written by

01:12:31.840 Jews? 0.60

01:12:32.440 He had a really good

01:12:32.880 answer.

01:12:33.360 And his answer was that

01:12:35.060 if you're a Jew in the

01:12:35.960 United States and you

01:12:36.620 watch Christmas playing

01:12:37.400 out, you're always

01:12:37.820 watching it through

01:12:38.380 somebody else's window.

01:12:39.180 And so there's always a

01:12:40.100 feeling of sort of

01:12:40.880 nostalgia about it.

01:12:43.700 Nostalgia isn't really

01:12:44.340 the right word.

01:12:44.680 There's a wistfulness to

01:12:46.160 all that kind of music that

01:12:47.280 really hits home for the

01:12:48.160 holidays.

01:12:48.780 I think there's some

01:12:49.300 truth to that.

01:12:49.700 I love the Christmas

01:12:50.420 season.

01:12:50.980 It's just, it's beautiful

01:12:51.840 to watch.

01:12:52.400 As a Jew, I am grateful

01:12:53.760 that this is a Christian

01:12:54.660 country, a country that

01:12:55.900 relies on a godly view of

01:12:58.860 man and man's role in the

01:13:00.400 world.

01:13:00.660 That's why America is

01:13:02.440 great.

01:13:02.840 It's because we are good

01:13:03.700 and we are good because we

01:13:04.800 have our roots in biblical

01:13:06.240 morality going back to both

01:13:07.920 the Old and New Testaments.

01:13:08.980 So, a little Christmas

01:13:10.880 cheer for you there.

01:13:11.860 Now, let's go through

01:13:13.700 President Trump's year

01:13:14.940 because we're at the end

01:13:15.700 of the year.

01:13:16.440 So how did it go?

01:13:17.580 How did it go?

01:13:18.280 And you know what?

01:13:18.660 I'll take your calls here.

01:13:19.500 I want to hear what your

01:13:20.300 grades are for the

01:13:21.080 president.

01:13:21.960 The number is 888-727-BECK.

01:13:24.740 888-727-BECK.

01:13:26.540 So, I'm going to give you

01:13:27.340 my grade.

01:13:27.760 First, I'm going to go

01:13:28.220 through his accomplishments

01:13:29.680 and his demerits because I

01:13:31.120 want to be as objective

01:13:31.860 about this as possible.

01:13:32.820 My model for Trump has

01:13:33.780 always been good Trump,

01:13:34.760 bad Trump.

01:13:35.200 In fact, I was the

01:13:36.180 originator of this

01:13:37.320 binary where I said

01:13:38.800 there is good Trump

01:13:39.740 and there's bad Trump.

01:13:40.840 He's bifurcated.

01:13:41.960 He's not always good.

01:13:43.060 He's not always bad.

01:13:44.200 When he's good, we cheer.

01:13:45.300 When he's bad, we don't.

01:13:47.100 But you have to view him

01:13:47.940 that way because if you're

01:13:48.780 going to be honest about

01:13:49.500 your politicians rather than

01:13:50.640 just following the leader,

01:13:51.860 you need to look at what

01:13:53.820 they're doing on a day-by-day

01:13:54.900 basis and decide whether

01:13:55.960 it's good or not.

01:13:57.340 I don't believe in

01:13:57.980 politician worship because

01:13:59.000 it's just another form of

01:14:00.060 idol worship.

01:14:01.160 I don't believe in the

01:14:01.960 MAGA MAGA MAGA 4D

01:14:03.540 underwater upside-down

01:14:04.800 chess-playing genius.

01:14:05.720 I don't believe everything

01:14:07.200 that Trump does is well

01:14:08.180 thought out or brilliant.

01:14:09.620 But I also don't believe,

01:14:11.360 like some folks seem to,

01:14:12.460 that everything that Trump

01:14:13.240 has ever done is wrong

01:14:14.580 and terrible.

01:14:15.420 And even if he does

01:14:15.980 something I agree with,

01:14:17.300 he's ruining it because

01:14:18.060 it's Trump.

01:14:18.460 I don't believe that either.

01:14:19.140 So I want to go through

01:14:19.820 his accomplishments this

01:14:20.760 year and then we'll go

01:14:21.760 through the things that

01:14:22.880 he has done wrong this

01:14:23.860 year and then I'll give

01:14:24.460 you my final overall grade

01:14:26.340 for the president this year.

01:14:28.080 Because, hey, who knew

01:14:29.620 where this was going to go

01:14:30.420 on January 20th?

01:14:31.340 I mean, did anyone have a

01:14:32.180 real clue?

01:14:32.760 You may have had your

01:14:33.320 suspicions.

01:14:34.160 You may have been optimistic

01:14:34.800 or pessimistic, but no one

01:14:36.460 had any idea.

01:14:37.300 So, good Trump this year.

01:14:39.780 Number one, obviously,

01:14:40.780 Justice Gorsuch.

01:14:41.440 The appointment of

01:14:42.080 Justice Neil Gorsuch

01:14:43.420 is a big move for the

01:14:44.540 president.

01:14:44.800 The president made the

01:14:45.740 smart move early on in

01:14:47.520 his administration of

01:14:48.640 basically outsourcing his

01:14:49.840 judicial picks to

01:14:50.700 Federalist Society.

01:14:51.860 For folks who don't know

01:14:52.440 Federalist Society, I went to

01:14:53.820 Harvard Law School.

01:14:54.860 I was a member of FedSoc.

01:14:56.120 FedSoc is a libertarian

01:14:58.220 slash conservative legal

01:14:59.420 organization.

01:15:00.640 It organizes conservatives

01:15:01.680 and libertarians all over

01:15:02.820 the country at the nation's

01:15:04.040 top law schools.

01:15:05.060 And basically, Trump went

01:15:05.980 to the leadership of FedSoc

01:15:07.320 and he said, select for me

01:15:08.780 judges.

01:15:09.680 They did.

01:15:10.440 He followed through.

01:15:11.180 Good for him.

01:15:11.620 So, Justice Gorsuch sits on

01:15:12.680 the Supreme Court.

01:15:13.320 Big win for President Trump.

01:15:15.560 Second, ISIS has largely

01:15:17.400 been wiped out.

01:15:18.400 They've largely been wiped

01:15:19.160 out.

01:15:19.880 Their territorial holdings,

01:15:21.000 which at one point were

01:15:22.140 their bragging point, right?

01:15:23.020 They used to claim that

01:15:23.960 they controlled an area

01:15:25.040 larger than that of the

01:15:26.360 UK.

01:15:27.860 They've basically been

01:15:28.840 reduced to nothingness.

01:15:30.340 President Trump has to do

01:15:32.460 with that.

01:15:32.880 I won't give full credit

01:15:33.740 to President Trump for that

01:15:34.580 because he basically was

01:15:35.400 following an Obama policy,

01:15:36.920 but he did broaden and

01:15:38.220 expand it.

01:15:38.740 He changed the rules of

01:15:39.720 engagement, and he did that

01:15:41.260 without toppling Bashar 0.80

01:15:42.760 Assad.

01:15:43.120 Now, there's an argument he

01:15:44.140 made that he should have

01:15:45.120 moved to topple Bashar

01:15:45.920 Assad, one of the world's 0.99

01:15:46.700 worst human beings, a man 1.00

01:15:47.580 who's used chemical weapons

01:15:48.440 on his own people.

01:15:49.240 But the idea that these two

01:15:50.260 things were integrally

01:15:51.160 related, that in order to

01:15:52.760 topple ISIS and finish ISIS,

01:15:54.200 you had to remove Assad,

01:15:55.640 that was not true.

01:15:57.400 Okay, the soaring stock

01:15:58.640 market, the unemployment

01:15:59.860 rates down.

01:16:01.440 He gets some credit for

01:16:02.340 that, but not all.

01:16:03.260 I want to be intellectually

01:16:04.140 honest, as always, about

01:16:05.800 how the economy works.

01:16:07.040 The stock market went up

01:16:08.200 in Trump's first year by a

01:16:10.440 significant amount, went

01:16:11.560 about 12%, something like

01:16:13.680 that.

01:16:14.600 In Obama's first year, it

01:16:15.440 went up 35, I think 55%,

01:16:17.040 actually, like 35 to 55%,

01:16:18.600 something in that area.

01:16:20.120 I did not attribute rising

01:16:21.620 stock markets to Obama.

01:16:23.080 I will not do the same for

01:16:24.040 Trump.

01:16:24.880 Same thing with

01:16:25.580 unemployment, but there's

01:16:27.280 no question that the

01:16:27.940 business climate is much

01:16:28.760 better now because

01:16:29.360 businesses don't fear that

01:16:30.640 President Trump is going to

01:16:31.820 come in and just destroy

01:16:32.880 them the way the

01:16:33.420 businesses feared that any

01:16:34.840 moment now, President

01:16:35.740 Obama was going to issue a

01:16:37.100 new regulation cracking down

01:16:38.400 on how businesses

01:16:39.040 operated.

01:16:40.560 Cutting regulations, big

01:16:41.540 accomplishment for

01:16:42.200 President Trump.

01:16:43.440 He brags that he's cut

01:16:44.180 22 regulations for each

01:16:45.400 new one created.

01:16:46.600 That's a big achievement

01:16:47.660 for the President of the

01:16:48.460 United States.

01:16:49.200 Now, he needs to

01:16:49.860 maintain power in order for

01:16:51.160 that to stick around because

01:16:52.680 the regulators are going to

01:16:54.040 be able to reinforce those

01:16:56.580 regulations the moment he's

01:16:57.620 out of office, but that is a

01:16:59.580 big accomplishment for the

01:17:00.440 President.

01:17:01.000 He's helped curb Iran. 1.00

01:17:02.520 So, Iran's regional power was

01:17:03.660 growing.

01:17:04.300 Trump has worked very hard to

01:17:05.800 put together a coalition,

01:17:06.920 Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan,

01:17:08.560 Israel, against the Iranian 1.00

01:17:09.880 growth.

01:17:10.980 He has also decertified the

01:17:13.420 Iran deal.

01:17:13.860 He should pull the United

01:17:14.760 States out and just reissue new

01:17:15.940 sanctions against Iran.

01:17:17.160 He's decertified it, supposedly

01:17:18.680 in preparation for that, but he

01:17:21.000 should go further there.

01:17:22.620 He announced Jerusalem as 0.76

01:17:23.780 Israel's capital, which I

01:17:24.760 thought was the gutsiest,

01:17:26.740 ballsiest move of the Trump

01:17:27.720 administration thus far.

01:17:28.960 I'm not sure that any other

01:17:30.400 Republican would have done it.

01:17:31.420 I think Ted Cruz would have.

01:17:32.320 One of the reasons I supported

01:17:33.360 Cruz in the primaries, but I

01:17:35.060 think that it's unlikely any

01:17:36.040 other Republican president

01:17:37.020 would have done so.

01:17:38.000 Good for Trump for doing it.

01:17:39.220 It was a power move.

01:17:40.120 It was a strong move.

01:17:41.080 It's one of the best moves

01:17:41.820 he's made.

01:17:42.900 It reshapes how the Middle 1.00

01:17:44.140 East operates.

01:17:45.660 He's opened public lands or he

01:17:47.000 started to move to do so.

01:17:48.620 A lot of the West, a lot of the

01:17:50.540 Western territories of the

01:17:51.420 United States are controlled by 0.64

01:17:52.880 the federal government.

01:17:53.640 That's asinine.

01:17:54.500 This is what drove the entire

01:17:55.800 hubbub over Clive and Bundy and

01:17:57.460 the Bundy family.

01:17:59.180 The Bundy family did, and they 0.73

01:18:01.900 got into it with the federal

01:18:02.560 government because they'd been

01:18:03.440 using quote-unquote public lands

01:18:05.480 to graze their cattle.

01:18:06.440 They'd been doing that for

01:18:07.080 generations.

01:18:07.920 The federal government fenced it

01:18:08.900 off for purposes of some desert

01:18:10.240 tortoise, and then they

01:18:11.540 basically attempted to take the

01:18:13.100 Bundys living away from them. 0.99

01:18:14.840 The Bundys resisted in possibly

01:18:17.620 illegal fashion.

01:18:18.280 There was just a hung jury in

01:18:19.240 their case.

01:18:20.220 The reason that happens is

01:18:21.300 because the federal government

01:18:22.120 has fenced off too much land.

01:18:23.200 If you look at Nevada, like

01:18:23.980 90% of the land is controlled

01:18:25.360 by the federal government.

01:18:26.780 Trump is opening a lot of that

01:18:27.820 up, or he's at least looking to

01:18:28.880 do so.

01:18:30.440 He's also passed new North

01:18:32.100 Korean sanctions.

01:18:32.800 Now, North Korea, a lot of 0.97

01:18:34.420 people are worried deeply about

01:18:35.440 North Korea firing a nuclear

01:18:36.480 missile.

01:18:36.760 I don't think that's something

01:18:37.680 North Korea would do simply 0.96

01:18:39.120 because it wouldn't be in

01:18:39.940 their interest.

01:18:40.720 The only thing the Kim family 0.97

01:18:42.060 wants is to remain in power.

01:18:43.520 The minute they launch on us,

01:18:44.880 we annihilate them.

01:18:46.600 So Trump has done what Trump

01:18:47.840 is capable of doing, which is

01:18:49.040 he has talked to China about

01:18:50.220 it.

01:18:50.420 He's tried to use China to 0.96

01:18:51.460 pressure North Korea, and he's 0.92

01:18:52.540 passed new sanctions through the

01:18:53.960 UN.

01:18:54.520 I don't think those are going to

01:18:55.440 be effective, but I'm not sure

01:18:56.520 Trump has a lot of other

01:18:57.280 options there.

01:18:58.860 Repeal of the individual mandate.

01:19:00.640 Big win for the president.

01:19:01.880 Takes out a central plank of

01:19:03.500 Obamacare.

01:19:04.700 Now we've got to take out the

01:19:05.580 other plank, and this is where I

01:19:06.620 think Trump is already signaling

01:19:08.100 he's not going to do it, which is

01:19:09.300 a problem.

01:19:09.900 You need to remove the federal

01:19:11.000 regulations on the insurance

01:19:12.420 companies if you want to have a

01:19:13.780 free market that is going to

01:19:14.740 lower costs in the individual

01:19:16.060 insurance market.

01:19:17.320 That's the next step.

01:19:18.440 But he does get credit for

01:19:20.160 getting rid of the individual

01:19:20.980 mandate.

01:19:21.600 Really, it's Senator Tom Cotton

01:19:22.760 who's responsible for that, and

01:19:24.120 Mitch McConnell who's able to put

01:19:25.600 this in the tax bill.

01:19:27.180 Tax reform.

01:19:27.840 Obviously a huge win for the

01:19:28.900 president.

01:19:29.220 We've been talking about it the

01:19:30.040 last couple of days.

01:19:30.980 A record number of appellate

01:19:32.780 court appointees.

01:19:33.600 He has nominated 12 appellate

01:19:34.700 court judges, more than any other

01:19:36.200 president historically.

01:19:37.700 That's a big win for the

01:19:38.560 administration, which had

01:19:39.860 pledged to remake the

01:19:40.660 judiciary along

01:19:41.300 constitutionalist lines.

01:19:42.580 He pulled out from the Paris

01:19:43.460 Accords.

01:19:43.740 Now, the Paris Accords were

01:19:44.840 never formally binding.

01:19:46.540 The Paris Accords were never

01:19:47.460 something that

01:19:48.040 we're going to trap the United

01:19:50.000 States unless we wish to be 0.57

01:19:51.080 trapped.

01:19:51.400 But as a symbolic matter, it is

01:19:53.080 important that the world knows

01:19:54.360 that we are not going to sign off

01:19:56.080 on America's domestic policy

01:19:57.880 being run by foreign

01:19:58.960 regulators from abroad.

01:20:01.680 President Trump's travel ban,

01:20:02.940 which I think is both over

01:20:03.960 broad and under broad.

01:20:05.240 It's a little too narrow in some

01:20:06.480 ways because it doesn't include

01:20:07.500 enough countries, and it's

01:20:08.340 over broad, and that includes

01:20:09.360 everyone from those countries.

01:20:10.620 But the travel ban is a step in

01:20:13.960 the direction of acknowledging a

01:20:15.220 reality, which is there are

01:20:16.080 certain countries where we have a

01:20:17.140 difficult time actually getting any

01:20:20.680 sort of vetting material from

01:20:21.720 them.

01:20:22.120 That travel ban was initially

01:20:23.260 rolled out pretty horribly, but now

01:20:25.740 it has been certified by the

01:20:26.940 courts, as well it should be.

01:20:29.000 And finally, he's unshackled the

01:20:30.440 military and he's supported police.

01:20:31.560 So being not Hillary is his number

01:20:33.060 one accomplishment.

01:20:34.520 And he passed that bar from the

01:20:36.260 very beginning.

01:20:36.660 Being not Obama with regard to

01:20:38.700 the police.

01:20:39.880 President Obama had a very

01:20:40.840 negative perception of the

01:20:41.940 belief of the police, a

01:20:44.200 perception that he really cast

01:20:45.720 out into the wind and harmed a

01:20:48.520 lot of police officers with.

01:20:49.980 You see the crime rates went up

01:20:51.140 dramatically in Obama's last

01:20:52.800 couple of years in office.

01:20:53.800 Violent crime rates did.

01:20:54.800 Murder rates in major cities

01:20:56.100 particularly.

01:20:57.400 Those crime rates went up pretty

01:20:58.480 dramatically because of the

01:21:00.300 so-called Ferguson effect.

01:21:01.980 The Ferguson effect is the fact

01:21:03.420 that the federal government and the

01:21:04.560 media have focused so harshly on

01:21:06.200 police.

01:21:06.900 And police said, fine, if you're

01:21:07.920 going to do this, if I'm going to

01:21:08.700 put my life in my hands every time

01:21:09.960 I go out on the streets, I'm just

01:21:10.940 not going out on the streets

01:21:11.780 anymore.

01:21:12.400 Crime rates arose.

01:21:13.640 Trump has done the reverse.

01:21:14.760 He's basically said to the cops,

01:21:15.900 listen, we're on your side.

01:21:17.820 We're with you.

01:21:18.960 That's a very important thing.

01:21:21.480 A lot of his appointments, a lot

01:21:22.880 of his cabinet members have been

01:21:23.800 good.

01:21:24.360 Some of his cabinet members have

01:21:25.340 not been so good.

01:21:25.980 He's had a lot of cabinet hubbub.

01:21:28.240 And I want to talk, those are all

01:21:29.580 the good things about Trump.

01:21:30.180 And that is a substantial list.

01:21:31.260 This is a consequential

01:21:32.380 president.

01:21:32.860 Okay, he has done consequential

01:21:33.960 things this year.

01:21:34.600 All of the things I just

01:21:35.760 mentioned are important and good.

01:21:39.080 And frankly, I had no right to

01:21:40.740 expect them.

01:21:42.000 I don't think conservatives had

01:21:43.240 necessarily a right to expect

01:21:44.360 them, considering that President

01:21:45.400 Trump campaigned as a guy wedded to

01:21:47.280 no ideology, a guy who is not

01:21:48.960 wedded to traditional

01:21:49.660 conservatism, a guy who went

01:21:51.040 around saying openly the

01:21:52.160 Republican Party is not the

01:21:54.000 Republican Party.

01:21:54.840 It is the is not the

01:21:55.900 conservative party.

01:21:56.600 It's the Republican Party

01:21:57.540 going around with Steve Bannon

01:21:59.040 saying he was going to be a

01:21:59.740 nationalist, populist

01:22:00.600 president.

01:22:01.640 I took him at his word.

01:22:02.740 It turns out he has governed

01:22:03.560 much more like Ronald Reagan

01:22:05.380 and George W. Bush in many ways

01:22:07.340 than he has like

01:22:08.340 Pat Buchanan, for example.

01:22:10.880 That's a great thing.

01:22:12.200 So all of these are major

01:22:13.000 accomplishments for the

01:22:14.140 president of the United States.

01:22:16.000 And as we continue, I want to

01:22:17.200 talk about the other side of the

01:22:18.100 coin.

01:22:18.740 What exactly has President Trump

01:22:20.580 done wrong?

01:22:21.720 Because there's been a lot of

01:22:22.500 media criticism.

01:22:23.360 I think some of it has been

01:22:24.760 unjustified.

01:22:25.300 I think some of it has been

01:22:26.000 justified.

01:22:26.500 And if we're going to paint a

01:22:27.200 full picture of how this year

01:22:28.620 went for President Trump before I

01:22:29.840 give my final grade for him for

01:22:30.900 the year, then we have to do

01:22:32.260 bad Trump.

01:22:32.720 I just gave you all the good

01:22:33.480 Trump.

01:22:34.040 Now it's time for bad Trump.

01:22:35.040 When we return, I'm Ben Shapiro

01:22:36.100 in for Glenn Beck.

01:22:39.680 Glenn Beck.

01:22:49.080 Glenn Beck.

01:22:51.920 Okay, so we just went through a

01:22:54.180 lot of the great things that

01:22:55.000 President Trump has done this

01:22:55.920 year.

01:22:56.080 Now I want to talk about the

01:22:56.860 other side, because let's face it,

01:22:58.480 his approval rating right now is

01:22:59.620 24% underwater.

01:23:01.420 A lot of Americans don't like

01:23:02.580 him.

01:23:02.740 Now, a lot of Americans weren't

01:23:04.460 going to like him from the last

01:23:05.340 election cycle when, you know,

01:23:07.220 let's put it this way.

01:23:08.520 You weren't getting any of the

01:23:09.620 good, or at least a lot of the

01:23:10.840 good.

01:23:11.060 You were getting a lot of the

01:23:11.800 bad.

01:23:12.040 You were getting all of Trump's

01:23:12.960 personality and none of the

01:23:13.960 policy.

01:23:14.660 Now that he's President, you get

01:23:15.820 his personality and the policy,

01:23:17.440 and the policy has been a lot

01:23:18.840 better than I expected it to be,

01:23:20.560 to be completely fair to the guy.

01:23:23.080 But you got his personality, too.

01:23:24.780 And here's the thing.

01:23:25.520 The President of the United

01:23:26.580 States basically has two roles.

01:23:27.780 To do stuff, and to push stuff.

01:23:31.120 These are not the same.

01:23:32.880 Doing stuff means all the things

01:23:34.540 we talked about.

01:23:35.220 Appointing judges, cutting

01:23:36.660 regulations, passing tax bills

01:23:38.700 and signing them.

01:23:40.140 Pushing stuff means, can you push

01:23:42.100 the conservative idea forward?

01:23:43.720 Can you push the founding notions

01:23:45.180 forward?

01:23:46.220 And this is where I think Trump has

01:23:47.720 really failed.

01:23:48.240 I was talking to a member of the

01:23:49.860 administration relatively recently,

01:23:51.960 and they asked me, you know, how I

01:23:53.960 thought they were doing.

01:23:54.560 And I said, do you want my real

01:23:55.460 answer or my fake answer?

01:23:56.260 He said, give me your real answer.

01:23:57.200 I said, on policy, I think you

01:23:58.620 guys are doing great.

01:23:59.260 On messaging, I think you guys are

01:24:00.220 awful.

01:24:01.460 And the reason for that is because

01:24:02.980 the President has problems

01:24:05.080 sticking to a topic.

01:24:06.880 The President has an unfortunate

01:24:08.120 tendency to be reactionary.

01:24:10.100 Anybody who likes him is his

01:24:11.040 friend.

01:24:11.340 Anybody who dislikes him is his

01:24:12.360 enemy.

01:24:13.220 And you see that on display when

01:24:14.440 we get to bad Trump now.

01:24:15.400 So again, I'm trying to be as

01:24:16.440 fair-minded about this as

01:24:17.380 possible.

01:24:18.320 I don't think everything Trump

01:24:19.100 does is genius.

01:24:19.700 I don't think everything he does

01:24:20.420 is terrible.

01:24:20.900 So, let's start with, let's do

01:24:22.960 bad Trump now.

01:24:23.580 I gave you all his

01:24:24.060 accomplishments.

01:24:24.620 Now it's time for bad Trump.

01:24:25.360 Here are the things he's done

01:24:26.100 wrong.

01:24:26.820 Number one, Charlottesville

01:24:28.340 response.

01:24:29.040 There is no way the President of

01:24:30.640 the United States should have

01:24:31.780 responded to the killing of an

01:24:33.380 innocent woman by white

01:24:34.780 supremacists in Charlottesville,

01:24:36.680 by a white supremacist after a

01:24:38.280 torch-lit rally, by actual people

01:24:40.640 running around chanting racist

01:24:41.960 slogans.

01:24:42.780 There's no way that he should have

01:24:43.900 said there were good people at

01:24:44.880 that Friday night rally.

01:24:45.820 It's just asinine.

01:24:47.660 There's no way he should have

01:24:48.580 equated the protesters against

01:24:50.240 white supremacy to the actual

01:24:51.700 white supremacists.

01:24:52.380 If he wants to rip Antifa, by all

01:24:54.020 means do it.

01:24:54.580 Listen, Antifa ain't a friend of

01:24:56.180 mine, right?

01:24:56.560 I'm the guy who got protested at

01:24:58.060 Berkeley to the extent that they

01:24:59.180 needed 600 police officers.

01:25:00.740 So, I have pretty good credibility

01:25:01.700 when it comes to ripping on

01:25:02.860 Antifa.

01:25:04.280 But that was not really the time or

01:25:06.480 place to do it.

01:25:07.260 There are plenty of times to rip

01:25:08.200 Antifa.

01:25:08.880 The President botched that one.

01:25:10.100 It botched it in a really bad way,

01:25:11.440 and it helped polarize the country.

01:25:13.520 It also allowed Democrats to shift

01:25:16.120 all discussion toward race, which

01:25:19.180 was not a good move politically.

01:25:20.840 Forget the moral.

01:25:21.400 I think that it was bad that

01:25:24.020 Trump, the way that Trump pulled

01:25:25.200 out from the Trans-Pacific

01:25:26.100 Partnership deal, not because I

01:25:28.000 was a huge fan of TPP, but because

01:25:30.020 the way to do it would have been

01:25:30.960 to renegotiate TPP.

01:25:32.460 Trump didn't really know what TPP

01:25:33.800 was.

01:25:34.160 He thought that China was a member

01:25:35.340 to TPP, that it was a sort of

01:25:37.540 trade block that included China.

01:25:39.920 The entire TPP structure was

01:25:41.540 created in order to cut China out. 0.97

01:25:43.780 China has maximized its trade 0.63

01:25:45.260 influence in the region because we

01:25:46.840 pulled out from TPP.

01:25:48.220 They've cut a bunch of deals with

01:25:49.460 surrounding countries.

01:25:50.140 That's not good for U.S.

01:25:51.680 foreign interests.

01:25:53.440 Failure on Obamacare repeal.

01:25:54.640 So we tried it twice this year.

01:25:55.660 We failed both times.

01:25:56.760 We got the individual mandate

01:25:58.040 repealed, but none of the

01:25:58.900 regulations have been repealed and

01:26:00.060 no substantial changes to Medicaid,

01:26:02.080 which continues to be a need-based

01:26:03.420 program funded by the federal

01:26:04.620 government.

01:26:06.280 He picked Steve Bannon.

01:26:07.660 Steve Bannon never should have been

01:26:08.700 anywhere near the levers of power.

01:26:10.020 I'm going to talk about Bannon a

01:26:10.900 little bit more in a little while.

01:26:12.220 There's a big article at Vanity Fair

01:26:13.580 about Bannon.

01:26:14.340 I know Steve pretty well.

01:26:16.300 I was, of course, an editor-at-large

01:26:17.920 over at Breitbart for four years.

01:26:20.220 For two of those, I was in the

01:26:21.280 institutional editorial structure.

01:26:22.920 I was on a phone call with Steve,

01:26:24.220 an editorial phone call, twice a day

01:26:26.000 for an hour a day for two years.

01:26:27.900 So I know Steve pretty well.

01:26:29.580 Steve Bannon as part of the

01:26:30.640 administration was a disaster area

01:26:32.040 from the beginning.

01:26:33.500 Steve always had Steve's interest at

01:26:35.000 heart.

01:26:35.800 His willingness to collude, not with

01:26:37.920 the Russians, but with the alt-right,

01:26:39.500 was morally despicable during the

01:26:40.900 election.

01:26:41.160 And his self-aggrandizing sense of

01:26:44.760 personal power was damaging to the

01:26:47.560 administration in the utmost.

01:26:49.780 I mean, his advice to Trump was just

01:26:50.920 not good.

01:26:51.720 Picking Mike Flynn.

01:26:53.220 Terrible idea.

01:26:54.280 There are a lot of people like me

01:26:55.160 warning, do not pick Mike Flynn.

01:26:56.780 The guy has a checkered past.

01:26:59.500 Picking Flynn is going to get you in

01:27:00.500 trouble.

01:27:01.200 Bad move.

01:27:01.980 He never should have fired James

01:27:02.880 Comey.

01:27:03.800 If he was going to fire James Comey,

01:27:05.200 he should have fired him right up front.

01:27:06.340 He should have said, listen, new

01:27:07.180 administration, new FBI director.

01:27:08.740 Would have been very simple.

01:27:10.320 Firing him when he did, and going on

01:27:12.060 national television, and saying that

01:27:13.460 he did it, and it relieved pressure

01:27:14.740 over the Russia scandal, and then

01:27:16.840 telling the Russians that.

01:27:18.520 Just stupid.

01:27:19.680 Most of the problems that Trump has

01:27:20.820 made are problems he's made for

01:27:22.300 himself.

01:27:22.580 They're not problems made by

01:27:23.280 circumstance.

01:27:24.040 They're not problems made by the

01:27:24.900 media.

01:27:25.760 And the media can only follow on

01:27:27.220 problems Trump makes for himself.

01:27:30.080 And the media will make up things.

01:27:31.300 The media will.

01:27:31.820 They'll create false narratives, like

01:27:33.780 that the tax bill hurts poor people.

01:27:36.260 They will make things up.

01:27:37.140 But a lot of the things that the

01:27:38.180 media criticized Trump on,

01:27:39.520 was them taking a kernel that Trump

01:27:42.060 had given them, and then spinning it

01:27:43.920 into an entire yarn.

01:27:47.120 The overall Russian investigation

01:27:48.820 botchery is really Trump's fault.

01:27:50.180 He fired Comey.

01:27:51.440 He did so by using Rod Rosenstein.

01:27:53.100 Sessions had already accused himself,

01:27:54.300 and you end up with a special

01:27:55.100 investigator.

01:27:55.680 Just stupid.

01:27:57.260 No border wall.

01:27:58.260 Lack of a border wall.

01:28:00.500 Ann Coulter's been fighting mad over

01:28:01.740 this one.

01:28:02.020 She has a right to be.

01:28:03.400 This was supposedly his number one

01:28:04.700 promise.

01:28:05.320 The push for a new deferred action for

01:28:07.320 childhood arrivals program in Congress.

01:28:09.800 Now, that was something that Trump

01:28:10.780 said he was not going to do,

01:28:12.660 and then he's basically done it.

01:28:14.540 The biggest thing is the constant

01:28:16.000 barrage of nonsense.

01:28:18.100 From shouting fake news at Real News,

01:28:20.000 saying that all of the media are fake

01:28:21.500 news, jabbering about crowd size

01:28:23.380 nonsensically at the beginning of his

01:28:24.520 administration, asking why there's a

01:28:26.740 civil war, telling this about

01:28:27.840 General Pershing, a weeks-long

01:28:29.860 crusade against the NFL.

01:28:31.280 Been fine.

01:28:31.860 You want to say that it's dumb to

01:28:32.780 kneel for the anthem?

01:28:33.460 Go for it.

01:28:34.000 Weeks-long crusade against the NFL.

01:28:36.120 Polarizing some of the only common

01:28:37.340 area we still have, when there were

01:28:39.220 like two guys kneeling at the time.

01:28:41.000 Going after LeVar Ball.

01:28:43.220 I mean, it seemed like every week

01:28:44.380 there was some sort of Twitter

01:28:45.220 outrage.

01:28:46.120 If someone could get to the

01:28:47.280 president's phone and just unplug

01:28:48.700 it, or install a dummy version of

01:28:50.720 Twitter where people are giving him

01:28:52.300 feedback in real time, but they're

01:28:53.320 fake people, it's all members of the

01:28:54.440 administration telling him he's

01:28:55.360 doing great, but the tweets never go

01:28:56.920 out to the public, his public

01:28:59.680 approval rating would be up 10

01:29:00.680 points.

01:29:02.580 The endorsement of Roy Moore, the

01:29:03.900 late endorsement of Roy Moore,

01:29:05.300 Trump should have stayed out of this

01:29:06.580 race.

01:29:06.820 He had no business in this race. 1.00

01:29:09.080 It damaged his credibility.

01:29:11.000 It made him look like he didn't care

01:29:12.120 about the allegations against Roy

01:29:13.420 Moore.

01:29:14.240 There's one thing to say, vote

01:29:15.280 against Doug Jones.

01:29:16.580 I get it.

01:29:17.760 It was a totally another thing to

01:29:19.280 campaign for Roy Moore.

01:29:21.300 Attacking his own staffers, people

01:29:22.500 like Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

01:29:23.960 I think Attorney General Sessions

01:29:25.340 has actually done a pretty good job.

01:29:27.880 I thought he was a pretty good

01:29:28.640 senator.

01:29:28.940 I think he's a pretty good

01:29:29.480 attorney general.

01:29:31.260 Attacking Rod Rosenstein, attacking

01:29:33.640 the Health and Human Services

01:29:34.720 Secretary, attacking Rex Tillerson,

01:29:37.660 attacking members of your own

01:29:38.640 administration publicly is not a

01:29:40.220 smart move.

01:29:41.940 And biggest problem, I think, you

01:29:43.280 know, in terms of actual policy is

01:29:44.980 failing to staff up the federal

01:29:46.020 government.

01:29:46.980 Trump has done a good job nominating

01:29:48.120 appellate judges, but he has not

01:29:49.500 done well in filling career posts at

01:29:51.040 various agencies.

01:29:51.780 So what do you make of it?

01:29:53.240 What's the overall?

01:29:54.040 So here is my overall assessment.

01:29:55.580 My overall assessment is that Trump

01:29:56.860 has made some serious strides.

01:29:58.160 He's made a lot of accomplishments,

01:29:59.880 particularly he's accomplished a lot,

01:30:01.540 particularly in the last weeks.

01:30:03.000 The last three weeks, as I say, have

01:30:04.180 been stellar for conservatives.

01:30:06.900 But a huge number of setbacks are

01:30:08.940 helping cripple his own program.

01:30:10.660 It's making it difficult for him to

01:30:11.960 pass things.

01:30:13.240 He loses leverage with his own senators

01:30:15.040 when he attacks them.

01:30:16.380 That has not been helpful.

01:30:18.200 That's why his approval rating is so low.

01:30:20.400 So final yearly grade for the

01:30:21.820 president, I give him a C+.

01:30:23.500 That's an optimistic view, because a

01:30:27.640 month ago it would have been a C-.

01:30:29.240 I give him a C- for tax reform and

01:30:31.100 move to Jerusalem.

01:30:32.060 He's really making strides in the

01:30:33.280 right direction.

01:30:33.760 If he continues that up, he could be a

01:30:35.460 very consequential and, yes, a good

01:30:36.880 president.

01:30:37.680 But he's going to need to shift his

01:30:38.940 rhetoric to meet his action.

01:30:40.640 If he can do that, things will

01:30:41.540 change.

01:30:41.960 I'm going to get your thoughts coming

01:30:43.220 up on your grades for President Trump,

01:30:45.200 Ben Shapiro, and for Glenn Beck.

01:30:46.180 Glenn Beck.

01:31:06.500 This is the Glenn Beck Program.

01:31:10.200 Alrighty, so I gave you my grade for

01:31:11.840 President Trump, year one.

01:31:14.200 The reality show has been pretty

01:31:15.820 spectacular.

01:31:16.820 And the last month, the policy has

01:31:18.840 been great to match.

01:31:20.500 But my overall grade for the

01:31:21.940 president is C+.

01:31:22.800 That's an optimistic-looking C+, because

01:31:24.560 a lot of the good stuff was coming

01:31:26.320 right at the end.

01:31:27.340 If you had told me a month ago, grade

01:31:29.060 President Trump, I give him a C-.

01:31:30.620 If you told me to grade him the end

01:31:32.680 of this month, I give him a C+.

01:31:33.680 He gets the tax reform package passed.

01:31:37.300 He's making a strong stand against

01:31:38.560 the UN, a movement of the embassy to

01:31:41.140 Jerusalem at the opening of public

01:31:42.460 lands.

01:31:42.780 He's gotten a lot done in the last

01:31:44.220 three weeks.

01:31:44.820 It's a big Christmas rush.

01:31:46.980 So good for President Trump there.

01:31:48.560 Now let's get some of your grades.

01:31:49.480 Susan in Pennsylvania, you're on the

01:31:50.680 Glenn Beck Program, Ben Shapiro.

01:31:54.180 Hi, Ben.

01:31:54.840 Thank you very much.

01:31:56.400 I couldn't agree with you more.

01:31:57.880 And I think if I was to divide it up

01:31:59.360 between foreign and domestic, I give

01:32:01.320 Trump actually an A on the foreign

01:32:02.920 stage, the return of the concept of

01:32:05.100 peace through strength, that we're

01:32:06.500 America, we're for freedom, and that's

01:32:08.040 better.

01:32:08.360 I'm sorry.

01:32:08.920 Deal with it.

01:32:09.480 All of that.

01:32:11.620 Nikki Haley has been tremendous.

01:32:13.220 So on that front, I give him an A.

01:32:15.720 On the domestic front, I give him a C- and

01:32:18.480 that came up from a D- because of the

01:32:21.300 tax bill.

01:32:22.040 But just because of so much of what he's

01:32:23.760 done is so easily reversible, as you were

01:32:25.560 mentioning yesterday, and because I think

01:32:27.540 he hopefully maybe now is realizing, because

01:32:30.160 he kept quiet during the tax bill debate, that

01:32:33.460 when he speaks stupidly, he becomes political

01:32:37.100 poison.

01:32:38.380 And so it's more difficult for legislators to

01:32:40.700 align with him because they're thinking of how

01:32:42.900 they have to justify themselves when they go

01:32:44.460 back home.

01:32:45.720 I think that's exactly right, Susan.

01:32:47.020 Yeah, I totally agree with you.

01:32:48.240 And I think that this is the thing that a lot

01:32:50.140 of Trump supporters should realize.

01:32:51.540 It's not when people criticize him for his

01:32:53.700 rhetoric.

01:32:54.060 It's not because we want him to fail.

01:32:55.760 It's because we'd like him to succeed.

01:32:57.340 Like, do better, Mr. President.

01:32:59.040 Right.

01:32:59.180 That's that.

01:32:59.660 It's coming from that place for me, because I

01:33:01.100 always want the president to succeed, especially

01:33:02.980 when he's pushing policies that I like.

01:33:05.000 So I'm with you, and I obviously agree with

01:33:06.800 your assessment.

01:33:07.380 Thanks for the call.

01:33:08.740 I see John in Louisiana.

01:33:09.960 Go for it, John.

01:33:11.680 Hey, Ben.

01:33:12.300 Thank you.

01:33:13.220 I actually agree with you just about 100% on

01:33:17.000 your good Trump, bad Trump assessment.

01:33:19.160 However, apparently I rate some of the more

01:33:22.240 substantial things he's done more heavily.

01:33:24.700 So I give him an overall score of an A, not

01:33:27.780 an A minus, but an A.

01:33:29.760 Tax reform is absolutely gigantic.

01:33:31.840 It jumps off the page.

01:33:33.660 Reduced business regulations.

01:33:35.380 Look at the stock market.

01:33:36.840 The stock market is a forward-looking entity, not

01:33:39.720 backwards-looking.

01:33:41.020 He gets full credit for this.

01:33:43.260 The reason I don't bump it up to an A plus or even a

01:33:47.140 solid, a higher A is his style is absolutely

01:33:51.320 horrible.

01:33:52.260 I think he's his own worst enemy.

01:33:54.340 I get the Twitter thing.

01:33:55.800 He gets to go straight to the people.

01:33:57.720 He can bypass the media.

01:33:59.320 The media, in theory, that's fantastic.

01:34:02.440 If he could throttle back the rawness, the stupidity of

01:34:06.480 his Twitters, there's got to be somebody in the

01:34:09.140 administration that agrees with this and can filter out

01:34:12.800 the raw stupidity.

01:34:14.400 Yeah, John, the real question is going to be whether Trump

01:34:16.080 allows that to happen.

01:34:17.180 You know, I think that's really the question.

01:34:18.640 Everybody knows in the administration, everybody knows that

01:34:21.220 this is a problem.

01:34:22.080 I think Trump may be getting to realize that.

01:34:24.080 But if he realizes that, then he's actually going to be a

01:34:26.240 political force.

01:34:27.320 And, you know, the thing is, you and I agree on, I think,

01:34:29.840 pretty much everything that you just said.

01:34:31.480 I think that you're just suffering from a little bit of

01:34:32.720 grade inflation here.

01:34:34.360 Like, I'm actually using the lower end of the grading

01:34:36.600 spectrum for some of this stuff.

01:34:38.120 But I don't disagree with anything that you just said.

01:34:40.960 My hope is that he will bring, like, I'm giving him room for

01:34:44.300 upward trajectory, upward growth.

01:34:45.900 It seems like you're giving him room to move from a 92 to a

01:34:48.040 97.

01:34:48.420 I'm giving him room to move from basically like a 78 to a 97.

01:34:53.600 Right.

01:34:53.740 I think there's a lot of room for growth for the president.

01:34:56.220 A lot of this is going to be reliant on the president.

01:34:58.600 And John, thanks for the call.

01:34:59.440 A lot of this is going to be reliant on the president really

01:35:01.980 continuing to pursue conservative policy agenda items.

01:35:05.620 So some of the things he's talking about doing for 2018

01:35:07.760 include welfare reform.

01:35:08.940 This would be great.

01:35:09.800 We need to add more work requirements to welfare. 0.99

01:35:12.500 We do.

01:35:13.880 Some of the things that he's talking about doing include, you

01:35:16.820 know, new military builds up, builds up.

01:35:19.060 So I think that that would be a worthwhile thing.

01:35:21.760 But some of the stuff that he's talking about, these

01:35:23.440 infrastructure plans, that ain't great.

01:35:25.720 We may have gotten the most conservative period out of the

01:35:27.700 Trump administration already.

01:35:29.080 Right.

01:35:29.200 We may we may have moved beyond conservative Trump and now he's

01:35:31.520 going to go bipartisan, try to work with Democrats.

01:35:33.820 The only saving grace here.

01:35:35.180 And this is the thing about the Democrats being so out of their

01:35:37.360 minds with regard to Trump himself.

01:35:39.460 Is that what could keep Trump in the conservative box is the fact

01:35:43.820 that Democrats will not work with him.

01:35:46.820 Right.

01:35:47.200 That's what could keep him in the conservative box is not that

01:35:50.180 Trump wants to stay there.

01:35:51.360 Trump may want to do an infrastructure plan with Chuck

01:35:53.080 Schumer, but it's quite possible or DACA with Chuck Schumer.

01:35:56.140 It's quite possible the Democrats will refuse to work with

01:35:59.420 him and Trump will end up being conservative by default.

01:36:02.380 That's something I can live with.

01:36:04.220 I just hope that he can shift the public perception of him so that

01:36:07.340 the programs that he sides with, which are now largely programs I

01:36:10.160 agree with, are more and more popular.

01:36:12.480 Larry in Florida, how do you assess the president, sir?

01:36:14.140 Uh, thanks for having me on, Ben.

01:36:17.120 You know, the, my initial reaction is emotional.

01:36:19.940 And so I went straight A because I have lived through, and I would

01:36:24.780 say tolerated eight years of the Obama administration, which on a

01:36:28.580 daily basis made me cringe.

01:36:30.380 And this is so different from that, that my initial reaction is to go with

01:36:35.860 the A, but then, you know, in being honest with myself and everybody else,

01:36:40.060 I'm going back to B plus from a, for style, I'm taking points off for style

01:36:45.560 for exactly what you're talking about.

01:36:47.400 And I have to say that overall in life in general, I am so much more encouraged

01:36:54.340 since the presidential election and since, believe it or not, since I started

01:36:58.800 following you and, and many of the things that you're doing, you're 20 years, my

01:37:03.020 junior.

01:37:03.340 And I am so encouraged that there's somebody younger than me that actually

01:37:07.020 thinks the right way.

01:37:08.880 So I appreciate it.

01:37:09.560 It's very kind of you.

01:37:10.540 And I think, I think that, you know, this is an opportunity and that's why what you

01:37:13.920 say, you know, bringing Trump back down to a B plus, I think that's actually

01:37:16.640 important because if you want to have an upper trajectory with young people,

01:37:20.160 particularly, one of the things to notice about the polls is that older

01:37:22.920 Americans are basically cool with Trump.

01:37:24.980 It's younger Americans who have a problem with him, having a problem with him

01:37:27.520 because his style really clashes with sort of what they've been taught to

01:37:30.680 believe is decent and right.

01:37:32.640 And Trump does need to play within a few more boxes.

01:37:35.620 I understand that everyone thinks he won because he was playing out of the box.

01:37:38.320 There is some truth to that.

01:37:39.520 But he also won because Hillary Clinton was the most disliked candidate in 1.00

01:37:42.740 American history.

01:37:43.360 I don't know that Democrats are going to repeat that feat by nominating someone

01:37:47.240 remote.

01:37:48.200 Is there another human being as unlikable as Hillary Clinton? 1.00

01:37:51.160 I'm not sure.

01:37:52.500 They're going to have to dig to come up with one.

01:37:54.120 They may have to actually unearth a grave and then revivify a corpse to come up

01:37:57.540 with somebody more unlikable than Hillary Clinton.

01:37:59.360 Larry, thanks so much for the call and thanks for listening.

01:38:01.740 Okay, so one of the things that I think that we are learning is that, you know, the

01:38:06.580 president with good guidance can do a lot of damage.

01:38:09.660 One of the people who he got rid of, and you've seen some good changes,

01:38:13.360 thanks to it, one of the people that he got rid of was Steve Bannon.

01:38:16.620 There's a big article at Vanity Fair today about Steve Bannon, as I say, my old boss over

01:38:21.460 at Breitbart.

01:38:22.880 And in it, Steve basically rips the president up and down.

01:38:26.080 He suggests that the president is like an 11-year-old.

01:38:28.440 He suggests the president's not going to run for re-election.

01:38:30.240 And Steve talks about how he wants to run for president.

01:38:32.160 And Steve is saying this because Steve is entirely driven by his own perception of self-importance.

01:38:40.440 He thinks he's the most important person who has ever walked the earth.

01:38:42.520 Steve does not actually have a thoroughgoing ideology.

01:38:44.660 He doesn't have a serious philosophy.

01:38:47.260 You know, the fact is that Steve is really more about the perception of his own power

01:38:52.300 broadly than he is about any sort of program.

01:38:55.000 And one of the things I've been encouraged by is the return of a programmatic element to

01:38:59.440 the Trump administration in the absence of Bannon.

01:39:02.120 Bannon was doing this whole, we're going to do something new, nationalist populism.

01:39:06.100 What's wrong with founding principle?

01:39:07.880 What was wrong with Ronald Reagan's small government conservatism?

01:39:10.820 Was there something deeply off-putting about it?

01:39:13.300 I missed that part.

01:39:14.240 Why did we need these BS words that were being trotted out?

01:39:17.600 Things like populism.

01:39:18.920 Populism is not a policy agenda.

01:39:20.980 Populism is you just shouting the word elite over and over

01:39:23.340 until you get a bunch of blue-collar folks to believe you're on their side.

01:39:26.980 That's not an actual group of policy preferences.

01:39:30.600 Bernie Sanders is a populist.

01:39:33.020 Does that mean he's right?

01:39:34.760 No, actually.

01:39:36.960 And Steve Bannon's notions of nationalism, right, as opposed to patriotism.

01:39:41.300 Patriotism is the idea that you believe in America

01:39:43.040 because the American creed is better than any other creed ever come up with,

01:39:46.580 and the American people have been shaped by that creed.

01:39:49.700 Nationalism is just the idea that you live in the country, therefore you're better.

01:39:53.340 That's nonsense.

01:39:54.520 It's been nonsense everywhere it's been tried.

01:39:56.520 Patriotism is the belief America is better because America is better,

01:39:59.580 not because we are here.

01:40:02.300 And there is a big difference there.

01:40:03.560 The reason that I bring up Bannon now

01:40:04.780 is because I think that if Republicans want to win the future,

01:40:08.220 if conservatives want to win the future,

01:40:09.920 then they are going to need to set some moral standards.

01:40:13.260 And this has been the drawback for Trump,

01:40:14.520 is that he's pushed a lot of policy I love,

01:40:17.020 but he hasn't set moral standards yet.

01:40:19.640 Maybe it's hard for him to do so.

01:40:21.200 He's going to need to do so.

01:40:23.140 Because what you see is that

01:40:24.320 when the intestines of the party,

01:40:27.720 the folks like Bannon,

01:40:29.460 run the party,

01:40:30.520 what you end up with is embracing

01:40:31.680 a bunch of people who end up crippling you in elections

01:40:34.280 just for the temporary high of supporting them.

01:40:36.920 And I speak right now of Roy Moore.

01:40:39.320 Bannon actually suggests in this piece

01:40:41.840 that George H.W. Bush,

01:40:43.400 who's been accused of grabbing a couple of women on the behind,

01:40:47.240 that George H.W. Bush is a pervert.

01:40:50.900 Forget the fact he's a war hero.

01:40:52.220 Forget the fact that he served heroically in World War II

01:40:54.680 and spent his life in public service.

01:40:56.340 He says he's a pervert.

01:40:58.080 But Roy Moore is hunky-dory.

01:41:01.740 And that was Steve Bannon's perspective.

01:41:03.520 And even the people that Steve Bannon runs over at Breitbart

01:41:05.560 don't believe this.

01:41:06.180 There's an article today over at CNN

01:41:08.520 where Alex Marlowe,

01:41:09.660 a guy with whom I used to work,

01:41:10.660 a guy with whom I'm friends,

01:41:12.360 now Alex says that even at Breitbart,

01:41:15.180 they believed that Roy Moore was guilty.

01:41:18.560 But they went out of their way to try to exonerate him

01:41:21.140 because they were trying to make excuses

01:41:22.560 for accusations against President Trump.

01:41:25.540 Hey, that is not moral behavior.

01:41:27.640 That is not moral behavior.

01:41:29.480 Conservatives only win 1.00

01:41:30.500 when they are perceived as both efficient and moral.

01:41:33.140 If you are perceived as immoral,

01:41:35.540 you will not win hearts and minds.

01:41:37.000 You will not win the future.

01:41:38.260 You will not win anything.

01:41:40.300 So yes, I'll take all the policy wins.

01:41:42.940 But now we need to reestablish the notion

01:41:45.060 that America is a moral place

01:41:47.480 with moral leadership

01:41:48.300 and that the conservative movement

01:41:49.380 is built around values and virtue and morality.

01:41:51.760 This is why I think that

01:41:52.880 what Trump does on foreign policy

01:41:54.440 resonates so much more

01:41:55.340 than what he's doing on domestic policy.

01:41:56.760 Because on foreign policy,

01:41:57.840 there's no question that Trump is acting in moral fashion.

01:41:59.940 There's no question that President Trump

01:42:02.280 is pursuing a virtuous moral policy abroad.

01:42:05.640 What we need is for that to be extended here at home.

01:42:08.380 We need to feel like Trump is fighting for the right things.

01:42:11.780 I mean morally right,

01:42:12.700 not just the things that we like.

01:42:14.820 If he does that,

01:42:15.780 then maybe we can shift perceptions.

01:42:17.640 If not,

01:42:18.480 Republicans can argue efficiency

01:42:19.660 until the cows come home.

01:42:21.340 But if people believe the Democrats

01:42:22.700 are the people with the better hearts

01:42:24.220 and the more moral policy,

01:42:25.680 then Democrats will win

01:42:26.580 no matter how successful the economy is.

01:42:28.180 And remember,

01:42:29.060 the economy is doing great right now

01:42:30.180 and Trump is still at 37%.

01:42:31.600 So something needs to change.

01:42:34.120 But as we continue

01:42:34.920 here on the Glenn Beck program,

01:42:37.500 another court has stepped in

01:42:39.000 doing something it ought not do,

01:42:40.600 exceeding its boundaries,

01:42:41.680 exceeding its abilities under the Constitution.

01:42:44.620 We'll talk about it.

01:42:45.400 Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck.

01:42:49.520 Glenn Beck.

01:42:56.580 Glenn Beck.

01:42:58.180 Ben Shapiro here for Glenn Beck.

01:43:01.740 It's an honor to join you

01:43:02.840 right before the end of the year

01:43:04.000 and especially on Glenn's show.

01:43:05.680 Glenn is a personal hero of mine and a friend.

01:43:09.100 So a three-judge panel

01:43:09.960 on a federal appeals court

01:43:11.180 ruled Thursday

01:43:11.860 against the Trump administration's efforts

01:43:13.680 to delay accepting transgender recruits

01:43:15.500 into the military.

01:43:16.820 So you recall that President Trump

01:43:17.960 had tweeted out

01:43:18.600 that the military would no longer

01:43:20.640 accept transgender recruits.

01:43:22.160 And then he had said

01:43:23.020 that he had issued a policy

01:43:23.900 along those lines

01:43:24.640 and the Defense Department

01:43:25.360 was unclear whether they were

01:43:26.440 implementing or not.

01:43:28.100 And now judges say

01:43:29.400 that the Trump administration

01:43:31.000 cannot do that.

01:43:32.420 The judiciary needs to be remade.

01:43:34.900 It needs to be remolded.

01:43:35.780 One of Trump's best accomplishments

01:43:36.920 is his appointment

01:43:38.920 of 12 appellate court judges

01:43:40.080 that's more than any other president

01:43:41.480 in his first year ever.

01:43:42.320 That's great.

01:43:44.160 It needs to be accelerated.

01:43:45.800 The appeals courts are just egregious.

01:43:48.460 And these panel decisions

01:43:49.740 that stay obvious authority

01:43:52.180 that the President of the United States

01:43:53.400 has, just absurd.

01:43:56.200 The President of the United States

01:43:57.140 is the Commander-in-Chief.

01:43:58.100 He's the Commander-in-Chief

01:43:58.960 of the Armed Forces.

01:44:00.280 He has the capacity

01:44:01.120 to make calls like this.

01:44:03.020 There is decent logic behind it.

01:44:04.700 I would prefer to let

01:44:05.340 General Mattis

01:44:06.400 lay out the rationale

01:44:07.200 for why transgender troops

01:44:08.500 in the military

01:44:09.040 breaks down social cohesion.

01:44:10.780 But does Trump have the power

01:44:12.700 to do it?

01:44:13.020 Of course he does.

01:44:13.940 Just another institutional obstacle

01:44:15.360 the President has had to overcome.

01:44:17.380 Okay, so we're nearing

01:44:18.700 the end of the program.

01:44:19.580 It's right before Christmas.

01:44:21.320 And I think that we should

01:44:22.840 dedicate ourselves this year

01:44:24.160 to moving beyond politics.

01:44:26.360 You know, I talk about politics

01:44:27.200 full-time.

01:44:27.620 I spend my days

01:44:28.360 talking about politics

01:44:29.300 and thinking about politics.

01:44:30.680 But one of the things

01:44:31.480 I've been really thinking about

01:44:32.480 over the last year,

01:44:33.560 last couple of years,

01:44:34.480 is that we are really

01:44:35.840 at each other's throats

01:44:36.700 over politics all the time.

01:44:37.780 And it's easy to get caught up.

01:44:39.320 In the gamesmanship,

01:44:40.160 if we got something we wanted,

01:44:41.280 if we didn't get something we wanted.

01:44:43.100 In order for us to share a country,

01:44:44.860 we're really going to need

01:44:45.680 to rebuild our social fabric.

01:44:47.240 And that's what the holidays

01:44:48.180 are for.

01:44:48.420 That's what Christmas is for.

01:44:50.060 That's what this time of year is for.

01:44:51.380 That's what we should be doing every day.

01:44:53.040 It's why it's important

01:44:53.780 that we go to church together.

01:44:55.520 That we go bowling together.

01:44:57.320 It's why it's important

01:44:58.180 that we spend time together

01:44:59.260 as family

01:44:59.900 and not think about politics.

01:45:01.380 That we turn off our phone.

01:45:03.160 That we turn off our TV.

01:45:05.340 That we spend some time

01:45:06.140 thinking about

01:45:06.760 how to shape our own communities,

01:45:08.240 our local communities

01:45:09.140 in better ways.

01:45:10.380 Because without that social fabric,

01:45:11.640 the founders believed

01:45:12.280 we would crumble.

01:45:13.460 They believed

01:45:13.960 that the necessity

01:45:15.400 for freedom,

01:45:17.160 that that requirement

01:45:18.140 for freedom

01:45:19.040 could only exist

01:45:20.080 among a moral

01:45:21.560 and religious people,

01:45:22.580 is what John Adams said.

01:45:24.160 And those moral

01:45:25.100 and religious people

01:45:25.760 could only fill the gap

01:45:26.860 left by

01:45:27.480 a non-overarching government

01:45:29.500 if they're willing

01:45:30.600 to act communally

01:45:31.640 in ways to help each other.

01:45:34.760 That's what building

01:45:35.460 a social fabric

01:45:36.100 is all about.

01:45:37.920 It's something that we need

01:45:39.000 to restore

01:45:39.860 to the United States.

01:45:41.160 The idea that our neighbor

01:45:42.200 is our neighbor

01:45:42.740 and that our neighbor

01:45:43.420 may need our help.

01:45:44.820 The idea that our neighbor

01:45:45.760 is our neighbor

01:45:46.260 and even if we disagree,

01:45:47.780 we need to cultivate

01:45:49.060 a similar vision

01:45:50.220 for happiness in the country.

01:45:51.420 A vision built on

01:45:52.220 virtue and purpose.

01:45:53.820 That can't happen

01:45:54.680 if we see ourselves

01:45:55.480 as atomized individuals

01:45:57.200 in a cold

01:45:58.200 and meaningless universe. 0.91

01:46:00.320 And when this time of year

01:46:01.360 we think about God,

01:46:03.360 when we think about

01:46:04.240 the purpose of our lives,

01:46:06.100 when we think about

01:46:06.980 what it is that we'll be doing

01:46:08.140 on our deathbeds,

01:46:08.940 very little of it

01:46:09.940 will have to do

01:46:10.680 with how we voted.

01:46:12.360 And a lot of it

01:46:12.940 will have to do

01:46:13.460 with how we treated

01:46:14.260 our neighbors,

01:46:15.060 the time that we spent

01:46:15.880 with people in our community,

01:46:17.720 the time we spent

01:46:18.260 with family.

01:46:18.780 So let's all treasure

01:46:19.920 the next week

01:46:20.420 and let's come back refreshed

01:46:21.480 and rejoin the fight

01:46:24.820 in January

01:46:25.420 with the notion

01:46:27.500 that our neighbors

01:46:28.040 are still our neighbors,

01:46:28.900 our brothers

01:46:29.220 are still our brothers,

01:46:30.020 our sisters

01:46:30.340 are still our sisters

01:46:31.140 and that together

01:46:32.240 we're going to move forward

01:46:33.420 in a cruel and dark world

01:46:34.940 where we are maybe

01:46:36.620 the only remaining light.

01:46:38.400 I'm Ben Shapiro

01:46:38.880 in for Glenn Beck.

01:46:51.100 Glenn Beck.

01:46:55.420 Thank you.

01:46:56.440 Thank you.

01:46:58.420 Thank you.

01:46:58.980 Thank you.

01:46:59.560 Thank you.

01:47:00.500 Thank you.

01:47:01.400 Thank you.

01:47:09.840 Thank you.

01:47:15.160 Bye.

01:47:15.820 Bye.

01:47:16.860 Bye.

01:47:16.920 Bye.

01:47:17.860 Bye.

01:47:18.840 Bye.

01:47:19.000 Bye.

01:47:20.020 Bye.

01:47:20.460 Bye.

01:47:21.760 Bye.

01:47:22.400 Bye.

01:47:22.740 Bye.

01:47:23.400 Bye.

01:47:24.140 Bye.

01:47:24.580 Bye.

01:47:25.160 Bye.

The Glenn Beck Program - December 22, 2017

12⧸22⧸17 - 'Grade： C+'？ (Ben Shapiro in for Glenn Beck)

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