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Published January 14, 2015
This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," February 17, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GLENN BECK, HOST: Tonight, we actually have some good news for you. Sure, don't get me wrong. Don't forget. Communists have infested every nook and cranny of Washington and we're on the brink of economic apocalypse. By the way, don't let anybody at The Huffington Post know that I was joking there. Don't do it. It's just our little secret.
Glimmers of hope do exist.
We told you a few months ago that Montana is setting up a battle with the federal government over guns and state rights. There are three other states now that are also fighting with the federal government.
I want to show you, Utah first.
Utah is taking steps now to reclaim the land grab by the federal government, especially the 1.7 million acres of coal-rich land Bill Clinton seized in 1996 through eminent domain legislation.
By the way, George W. Bush didn't do anything to help Utah out when he was elected.
Now, guess how much federal land the government owns in Utah? Are you ready? Let me show you this.
Imagine this is your state — 20 percent? Yes, that's not fair. How about 30 percent? Yes — no, no. The federal government owns — are you ready? Take it — 60 percent of the state. The federal government.
Utah is making the case now that it inhibits their tax revenue, hinders funding for public schools. And opening the land could bring the state in an estimated $50 billion just for the school trust revenue.
Utah is following now Montana, sparking a legal fight with the federal government. Utah believes that this case is going to result in the state being allowed to develop their parcels of land.
Now does this mean that Utah is anti-government? No. Does it mean I'm anti-government? No. Remember our circle over here? Remember I showed you this? And this one especially — this is Debra Medina. She's running for governor of Texas.
She was on my show on my radio program. And I'm in trouble with everybody in Texas because she really didn't have a "no" for "are you a 9/11 Truther?" Put her up here earlier. But this woman actually is all about state's rights, all about property rights.
She's actually, you know — she's down here on — I'm with her on this. These are the anarchists up here. What does it mean? Well, it means that the states and the people are beginning to look to restore their power to where it rightfully belongs.
The Constitution puts limits on the power of the federal government for a reason. I happen to believe that the Founders showed great wisdom in that.
In just a couple of minutes, I want to show you other states that are trying to reclaim their rights because the people are waking up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Bill of Rights, Constitution — these are the big 10 [amendments]. This is why our Founders sat down — you've got a right to free speech, you can bear arms, yada, yada, yada. I want to focus on these two right here.
No government had ever done this before: The Ninth Amendment — the rights retained by the people, which means we just want you to know we've got top 10 rights here. And we'll tell you about the rights but we want you to know, you don't get the rights from us. You don't get them from the government. You get them from God.
You have more rights that are found in this document and you hold them. You don't get them from us. That is critical to understand the Ninth Amendment.
Any other rights? The states have rights. Anything that is not specifically mentioned here or in the Constitution, the states have that right. Got it? It's important to understand that.
You have additional rights and anything that is not mentioned here, the states also have it.
Now, the government is starting to grow and several states are starting to fight back.
The Tenth Amendment — we told you about this months ago in Montana. We just told you about it in Utah. But now, Texas and Virginia and Alabama have jumped in the action.
Virginia is taking a preemptive shot at any potential national health care legislation. A bill has already passed the Virginia House, which is controlled by the Republicans, and passed the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats.
The Virginia Bill would make it the first state to enact legislation to exempt the state from any national health care mandates.
Let me show you how many states have similar — similar forms of this: two-thirds, two-thirds. All these states passing the same kind of thing. Some of them — many of them, in fact, are constitutional amendments. All of this — from a state that Barack Obama converted to blue a year ago. How quickly they've turned back.
Then, we got to Texas. There's another fight happening in Texas now. And this one is brewing over the new EPA decision, that greenhouse gas are public health threats.
On Tuesday, Texas and several national industry groups filed separate petitions in the federal court challenging the federal government's authority to regulate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Virginia, Alabama also filed petitions in federal court.
Now, I suppose the left-wing nut jobs on the cable network that nobody watches will start jumping up and down and start screaming about how this is encouraging or leading to secession or some sort of nonsense like that.
Let them scream, because, I mean, as I see it, if a tree screams in the forest and nobody is there to see it scream or read its dramatic readings, does it really make any noise?
Instead, let's look specifically at the Tenth Amendment. What does this all mean? Can you bring it up here? "The power is not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the states respectively or to the people."
Got it? If it's not in this document, it doesn't matter. There are no provisions for national health care. You can't take the state land. You can't impose crippling regulations on states over exhaled gas.
It would seem Montana, Texas, Virginia, Utah and Alabama are within their rights if you go by the Constitution.
If California had stood for itself years ago, maybe it wouldn't be on the brink of disaster today.
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