Glenn Beck: Are You 'Poor'?

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This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," March 10, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Remember when I told you that the president wanted to move the Census so the White House could oversee rather than the Commerce Department? And that was for power and control and money. And people said, Oh Gee, what could he possibility do with the Census — really?

Here's what he could do with it — in fact, here's what he is doing with it now: He will use the full power of the census to continue these big bloated government programs. Not continue them, but expand them in perpetuity with one tweak of the system — you move from it the Commerce Department to the White House.

Here is the latest from President Barack Obama. He is now proposing a new experimental scale to determine America's poverty level. Wow, I'm glad — he must never sleep thinking of these things.

Right now, we base the poverty level on purchasing power. In other words, you're poor, how many potatoes can you buy? How much money do you need for a house and potatoes for your family? It is based on what you make and what you can buy.

Obama's new scale would base poverty on what you can buy relative to what other people can buy.

Excuse me?

This is another way to redistribute the wealth. Your income can go from the current poverty level of $22,000 depending on family size to $70,000 or $80,000 or more and you'd still be considered poor. Because what do your neighbors have?

Excuse me? Again, excuse me?

This new system will artificially increase the number of Americans considered poor. They need our help, they're poor. For instance, the number of Americans, 65 and older, considered poor, will double — 9.7 now to 18.7 under the new measurement.

Wow, how will that change the debate about Medicare, Medicaid and health care?

It will also likely send the number of people considered poor in the U.S. beyond the numbers of poor in impoverished nations like Bangladesh and Albania.

Does anybody really believe that the United States has more poor people who are worse off than the people in Bangladesh? I don't think so.

The Heritage Foundation looked at some government data. It shows the average typical American poor person, according to the traditional pre- Obama poverty measure, has two color televisions. Poor. They have satellite or cable TV service. They have a VCR or DVD player. They have a stereo.

Now, I don't know — this could be an old boxy 1990s not a flat screen. I'm not sure. It didn't mention about, you know, anything at all about broadband, you know, high-speed Internet.

How many people living in cardboard huts in southern Ethiopia can microwave a bowl of popcorn while watching HBO? Not too many, I'm guessing.

I want you to know I'm not saying being poor in America is sweet. It's not. It is never fun being poor. It is not opulent or overly ostentatious to be poor in America. But this isn't Zimbabwe. Have you ever seen what life is like for those people living in the outskirts of Mexico City? They live in boxes.

When everybody gets a participation trophy at the end of the season, it doesn't mean anything. Americans aren't about participation trophies or we better damn stop it. We're about telling the coach, take the trophy back. That's where you need to stand. Teach your children now. My son, my daughter didn't earn the trophy. They played hard. They played well, but they didn't win. We maybe will get the real trophy next year. Don't give me this bogus trophy.

Life isn't about the trophies. It is about improving yourself. It is about accomplishment.

There are two sports that are very, very similar in many ways, but they have key differences: track and cross-country. Both involve a lot of running, require endurance and, in some cases, running long distances.

The track, the focus of the competition is to beat everybody else on the track with you. And everybody else is a pack of losers. Well, that's not the capitalist system. They are trying to convince you that it is.

There's only a few winners and everybody else is a loser. No, no, no. Everybody has the opportunity to run. Some grab the medal, some don't.

Then, there's cross-country. This is the idea that you're competing against yourself. In cross-country, you want to beat your personal best. You help the team win. You may not be the first person. You may be the last person, but you helped the team.

My daughter has cerebral palsy. When she first went out for cross-country, her coach said, look, you can just sit down in the middle of the race. Don't expect to finish it.

That offended her.

When she graduated from high school, she was the captain of her cross-country team. She completed every race she ran in. She finished last — in last place — every single race she ran — every race. We had to watch the time ourselves because they took down the big official clock. By the time she finished across the finish line, they were all gone.

I guess some people could say, well, she failed and try to compensate her for her perceived failure forcing those all around her to start later, maybe dishing out time penalties to others, because that would give her a better chance. That wouldn't help her; that would cripple her.

She beat her personal time — her personal best time — every single race because of her hard work. She was competing against herself. She earned better times as she ran. She was a winner because she continued to make herself the best she could be.

She overcame her own personal obstacles. She didn't worry about anybody else being handicapped, you know, so she could compete. She competed. She finished every race. She did so with honor and integrity.

When she graduated, they asked her to give the speech at the end of the banquet. She was the team captain in her senior year. She said, "I was told I couldn't compete. I was told that I wouldn't finish the race. It has been my goal to finish every race, and I did."

America, we need to overcome our obstacles. We need to finish the race. Forget about the trophy. Others are going to have it better than us. Others will run faster — that's OK. We just need to become the best we can be.

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