How Long Do We Stay in the Forest?

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," September 23, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: Hello, America.

Wouldn't you just like once in a while if someone would treat you like an adult? Seriously? Somebody would just level with you?

All they ever tell us is what they think we want to hear, what we — what they think we need to hear. Why don't you just tell us the truth? And you don't need to sugarcoat it. But that's what everybody does, to suit their agenda. And both sides are sugarcoating.

Here's what you get from the right. We have to stop spending or we're going to drive ourselves into bankruptcy and we can't afford to do that. Well, now, this plan comes out and it's 2008 spending levels. OK. It was bad in 2008. I don't know if the Republicans got that.

Now, all of that is true, that we're going to spend ourselves into oblivion and we can't continue to spend. So, we have to cut. That's true. But they leave something out of that.

On the other side, the Democrats also sugarcoat. That is the opposite. Here's the example. Here's Jan Schakowsky. She's flaming on fire progressive. She says, "Spending, of course, is the answer."

Of course, she is wrong. She's wrong to think nothing bad would happen if we just keep spending. That is the sugar.

But she does touch briefly on what will happen if we stop spending. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY, D-ILL.: We talk about the deficit — the crippling deficit for our grandchildren — a lot of talk in the commission of our grandchildren. What are we going to leave them with?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Yes.

SCHAKOWSKY: But, you know, we may free them of debt, but they could also be sick and uneducated and unemployed. And that's not a good thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's not.

SCHAKOWSKY: We need to make —

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because then they're just going to to borrow to pay for those things and they're not going to be free of that.

SCHAKOWSKY: And the United States could end up like a third world country if we don't invest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK. First of all, we didn't need the Department of Education. We seem to educate this country without the Department of Education a lot more than we're educating it now. The Department of Education is relatively new, Jan. So, we're not all going to turn into dummies because we have each and we can educate ourselves and our neighborhoods and our states. We don't need the federal government to do it.

But the one thing that she said here that was accurate was the country could end up like a third world country. That's true. She says it will happen if we don't invest. Where in the Constitution do you read anything about investing in our country? I don't — it's up to you to invest. That's what you do.

What they're doing — you are not investing in our country. You are taking the money from people and then you're spending it the way you want.

Now, that's grand theft or I think it's suicide.

Now, she mentioned the third world. The United States could be a third world country. Two years ago — actually, it's about four years ago, I think I first said to my father and he said, "Oh, no, Glenn, that will never happen."

Yes, it will. Yes, it will.

The only thing that will happen are the things that we deny that could happen if we stay in that denial. This is why we needed an adult conversation. We need to be able to look each other in the eye and just say, look, here's the truth. You know, politicians, we know. We know who did it to our country and it's both of you. It's both sides. You're both in time-out corners.

And we were part — we were part of it. But here's the — here's the thing. Either road we take we're going to hit a forest. This is — this is economic darkness here. There's trouble ahead. And we're both — both right and left have taken us in this forest. Now, we're here — we're right here. And we want to go here.

The question is: how long do we stay in the forest? Do we get eaten by a lion, a tiger or a bear while in the forest?

There is one way to get to the — get to this road much faster than the other. One meanders in the forest. And I don't know what you have left on the other side. I don't know if you ever get here. I don't know.

The question is — there's pain either way. Whichever one you choose, whether it's a Republican plan or the Democratic plan, or my plan or somebody who says, let's just turn the printing presses off and close everything down — pain. The question is how much pain, how long does it last?

Now, what kind of person are you? I'm somebody who likes to rip the Band-Aid off, you know, quick. That's what I am. Just rip it off quick. If it's going to cause damage to the wound, then tear it off slow. But if it's, ow, ow, ow — just take it off, man. Let's take our lumps and let's move forward.

What we are entering is a Weimar trap. If you listen to one side, — it's Weimar trap. Now, this is a very — this is — this is — you know what, it's almost like — I mean, this is a puzzle in here that has never been solved correctly. And civilization after civilization have gone into that forest and then never come out.

"Lords of Finance" is a book I told you about, I don't know, two or three years ago. It is really a good book. It tells the story of all the lords of finance during the first and — it's been a while here, I think second — World War II.

The First World War, it tells the story of the Weimar Republic and the president of the Reichsbank. He had managed to keep his job after World War II, even though he horribly mismanaged financing the war.

Facing a choice he decided to go along with the new government's plan, and that was to print money to pay back the allies because here was the problem. The problem was they lost the war. And then all the allies, France and England, and America as well, they punished Germany. They were going to make them pay for the mistakes and teach them and the rest of the world on a lesson because they were about to embark on the new League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations.

So, the question was how to pay for it. Germany couldn't pay for it. So, they just started to print money — exactly what we're doing now, OK?

The president of the Reichsbank Bank said that will lead to massive inflation.

Now, the question is, why did he do it? Because he knew it would lead to the Weimar trap. You'll never get out of the forest, ever!

So, why did he do it? Well, no one knows for sure but there are three possible answers. One, he wanted to teach the new incoming government a lesson. Two, complete and total economic ignorance. He had no idea what was going on.

Or the third answer and most likely — and this is the one most people agree on — is he didn't have a choice. Why? Because once you're in this forest, it gets spooky. It gets — it gets dark and spooky and you don't want to spook all the people you're with. You're trying to lead them out of the forest. And you have — once you're in here, you have no idea which direction you're even going on.

Well, inflating the money — here was the choice — inflating the money will lead to interest rate increases, high unemployment and turn revolution out into streets. But his other option was to not print the money, and that would lead to high unemployment, people losing their houses and their jobs, and revolution in the streets.

So, there is no good answer in the forest — unless you stay true to your principles. If you find your true north and you say, what has never worked — printing money, borrowing more — that's never worked, we know it's never worked.

But what happens when you're in this forest is people get afraid. And they're like, no, no, no. No, no, no. We'll be eaten by a lion and these people behind us, we're trying to lead them out and they're all going to freak out. You can't tell them, we're all going to die in the forest!

That's what happens. And then somebody says, "Here's a match. Print more money." And so then, people in the line and everybody who is in the forest goes, "No, no, I got money. I got money. It's on fire, but I got money over here." It's a trap.

That's what happened to Weimar Republic. They owed too much money, just like we do. How to pay for it? They print it — and they never got out of the forest.

And then there's always someone here always someone here who says, "I'll lead you out of the forest." That time it was Hitler, because everybody — once they get to the edge of the forest, they are so freaked out and they have no food left. They have no money left, they have no houses left, they have nothing. That's how it always ends.

Now, in a completely unrelated note, President Obama was at the U.N. yesterday continuing to promise all the countries around the world that we'll still be sending them more foreign aid. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Put simply, the United States is changing the way we do business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: First, we're changing how we define development. For too long, we've measured the efforts by the dollars we spent and the food and medicines that we delivered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: But aid alone is not development. Development is helping nations to actually develop, moving from poverty to prosperity. And we need more than just aid to unleash that change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: OK. All right. Boy, do I agree with that. I wish we would have gotten that about — oh, I don't know, 1908.

OK. So now, here we are sending our own people into unemployment lines and soup kitchens, and now, we decided we're still going to send all the money over there but we're going to teach the rest of the world how to fish. Hey, fishermen, fish yourself first. What is it, physician heal thy self? Yes!

President Obama, once you — once you snag and reel it in the boat, then you can tell the rest of the world — you want to talk about arrogance — then you can talk to everybody else about how to create jobs.

Look, here's what you need the politician to say. Other nations, I feel bad for you. I really do. But all the money you're getting from us is a loan from a loan. And you ain't never going to pay it back. We know that and you know that. And we're going to have to pay ours back because nobody is going to forgive the big, bad, evil United States.

Just like in Germany after World War I, we can't afford it and no one will release us from this debt. Germany kept printing money after World War I until they hit the point of no return and it finally collapsed.

Now, are we going to reach that point? Yes, maybe. I hope we don't, but we could.

We won't even see it coming because our politicians refuse to treat us like adults and act like adults instead of children. Instead, they just want to keep us being fed candy. Here's some candy, little kiddies.

Now, what happens on the future? What happens in the future? It depends on us.

I want you to know: we're going into this forest whether you listen to the Republicans or the Democrats. But only one road takes you out. And that is depend on every skill that you have, depend on the people in the line.

As long as you know, going in to the forest — guys, it's going to be really spooky, here's what we're going to face. Everybody hold hands, everybody band together, everybody have firm reliance on Divine Providence — you hang together! As long as you're saying that here, you'll make it here. But nobody is telling you about this forest, are they?

Here's what our future will be if we do not change our past if we don't — if we don't change our behavior now. We're going to either default on these loans — which they're not going to default, they won't — they won't allow us to default. We will print the money.

Other countries, when they say, "Wait a minute, that's worthless, we want our money," what do you think, they're going to let us keep our oil? You think they're going to let us keep the ANWR? The Gulf?

We default or we end defense. Now, what does that mean we end defense? Well, there's going to come a time where we can't pay for one or the other. So, oh, my gosh, but if you are really cool — if you're like totally cool with the United Nations and the Blue Helmets, that's not a bad option. Why don't we just have the United Nations army represent us?

I said the next two possible — these next two years are possibly the most dangerous time in American history, even if the GOP takes over in 2011. So what? First of all, since when have we been tight with a pocketbook? Secondly, President Obama still has a big fat veto pen. He's not going to allow any cut to go through unless he thinks it helps him and the Democratic Party.

We're not looking — the people in Washington are not looking to help the country. They are fundamentally transforming the country. I believe — because of what Van Jones has said — anything that stirs his base to anger like cutting education, he's going to be totally fine with. Any cut is going to hurt in the short-term, but we have to cut to show the rest of the world that we are serious. And we also have to cut now because we are on this path.

And right now is the time that we say, wait, wait, wait, don't eat all your provisions. We might be in there for a while. No, no, no. Don't spend all your money. Don't use your flashlights. We're going into a dangerous place. That is what we must do now.

No one, not Bush, not anybody, have truly articulated what your real choices are. The closest came from Joe Biden when he said you had to keep spending. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN: When I say that, people look at me and say, "What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we got to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" The answer is yes! That's what I'm telling you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: No, that's not entirely true. You have to spend money to keep the illusion that you are going bankrupt going. You just want to keep the illusion that we're not going to — no problems are ahead. That you're eating all the food. You're using all the batteries.

Joe, what's you're doing is a Ponzi scheme. It's not a solution. If we keep spending, we will fall right off this cliff into the Grand Canyon, and then we won't have anything left to get us back out. If we remain standing on the edge, you're in trouble.

Have you heard anyone in the media ask the president or any of his genius economists this question: hey, Mr. President, you know, I read, I can figure out Weimar. Spending is really bad. What is your — what is your exit strategy?

I mean, because if you're spending to jumpstart the economy, and it's not work so far: (a), when do you say that's enough, we've tried it enough, the car is not going to start? Or when do you stop?

Because right now, here is how it's playing out — we need more stimulus money so teachers don't get fired. Then they pass a bill and give teachers enough to last the year so they don't get fired.

What happens when the year is over? Hey, we need more money so the teachers don't get fired.

Well, at what point do we stop getting industries and unions and keeping them afloat with money that we don't have?

Closer to home on this one — at what point do we tell the unions we are not responsible for your pensions?

We cannot afford the pensions. We are entering a place where people cannot afford to even eat. You're not going to get your pensions. I'm sorry. It's jobs and the country or your pension. Let the unions figure that one out. But that would require a grown-up in the room — a grown-up that will level with the American people and their union members.

You people that lead these unions, you got your pensions. They're fully funded. They're 120 percent. The workers, you're screwing them. You face them. We're big boys and big girls. We can handle it. And we can handle it calmly.

Explain the grown-up choice because you know what? You know what? You can handle anything calmly here. And this is where we are. You cannot handle things calmly when people are afraid in the forest and you've lied to them and said, what forest? There's no trees on this path.

You can either pin our hopes on a globalist, redistribution of wealth, anti-free market policies that have never worked in the history of mankind. We can cross our fingers and hope to die, and stick a needle in our eye and pray — well, not if the ACLU is anywhere around — that Marxism and printing money for the very first time will create prosperity. Yes.

Oh, and it doesn't bleed the country dry. So, no resources are left and money is completely worthless and we've already chased all the business leaders and all the businesses overseas. And all the industry and all of the union and the leaders are already overseas looking at us going, "See you later, suckers."

Or, do you have an adult conversation like this? Cut spending, dramatically, now. It's not going to be pretty at first. It's going to hurt all of us.

Remember, all the trillions our government is spending is — they're spending it so that they can take the Band-Aid off really slowly. They have artificially propped up failing institutions, when what we need to do is let them fail and build a better one.

You know, when we cut, you might lose your job. I might lose my job. You might lose your home. I might lose my home. We could slide into a depression. Pensions might be lost. There may be unrest in the streets. But we have each other.

What is more important? What is our biggest asset? Our houses? Our jobs? Or each other?

If it gets bad, we have each other. We must be prepared for it, prepared to band together, come together, figure out the new ways to pay off our debt. Neither option is good.

So, why is the second option the best option? Because if you don't choose it, we get option number one automatically. We get a country with no work ethic. We have a dollar that is worth zero, you know, like France or Greece, a few years ago.

We're going to take our medicine now and get the truth or not. Are we going to do what other societies like Rome and everybody else have done, and slowly slide in collapse until there's nothing left? I prefer the truth. I prefer a shot.

We are in trouble either way. Yes. But we are also the same people that changed the world because we did the hard things. We are the people that went to the moon and back. We can certainly find our way out of a forest.

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