Glenn Beck: Why Health Care Reform Is Like Cup Stacking

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," March 22, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: I want to ask you a question: You know what's really wrong with America? When you boil it all down, do you know what our real problem is? May I? Bring it on: Cup stacking.

I mean, they're not the only problem, sure. But after this weekend we might want to start with some of these stupid cup stackers.

Cup stacking is not a sport. It is not even an activity. It is something when you were really bored as a kid, you would do it for a few minutes and then you'd move on with your life.

It's not a sport. I think it is even — it might even be something you should get an allowance for doing, you know what I mean?

Yet, if you stack cups efficiently enough, you, too, can win a fancy trophy. Yes — a trophy of a cup.

Back when I was a kid, kids had real games like kick ball or dodge ball — other sports that routinely featured someone like me getting a big red rubber ball right to the face. I mean, that's what growing up is really all about.

Now, for anybody who went to school with me, you can testify how much I sucked at all of those games. But I learned from all of my disastrous failures in sports: With failure comes consequences.

You see, I got the red rubber ball in the face a lot as a kid. I was always picked last. I got — I got hit so many times it really wasn't pretty. You know what happened after getting hit by this thing several times? I realized there is no sport in my future, really. I mean, I realized I'd better learn how to make it another way unless I wanted the imprint — the pattern — of this ball, right here on my face for all eternity.

My parents didn't try to discourage me from, you know, following my dreams, but they also didn't lie to me by giving me a trophy for not accomplishing anything.

They didn't lie to me and tell me that my life was going to be filled with people who loved me, just like mom and dad. For a while there in my life, I wasn't even sure Mom and Dad really liked me. Well, they loved me.

They told me that life would be filled with people trying to compete as hard as they could and try to hit me in the face with a rubber ball.

So how does this tie into health care and the future of America?

Oh, yes. Well, I just filled out this certificate. It's fantastic. It's a certificate for participation. And I filled it out with a purple pen to MSNBC, you see. It's for participating in cable news. I issued it. And I used a purple pen because red is too harsh.

Really? Our kids need to grow a spine. And only us as parents can give it to them. You want to fix America? Stop making them think that there are handouts. Stop having them depend on mommy government. Oh, not my child. Yes, your child. Your child's a snot. Let's just start being real.

Get rid of the universal trophy program. Get rid of the stupid purple pen. Save the certificates for someone who actually accomplishes something. Sorry, NBC, I mean, you were the obvious choice here.

We can't fix our country by keeping our children weak. They need to have spines. They need to get hit in the face a few times with a ball, you know what I mean? They have to learn how to live with and thrive on past failures.

Remember: Think globally, act locally.

Here's what you need to start doing: If you are sick and tired of this, you need to make the change in your own house. You need to start showing up at your kids' school, be the parent that all the teachers go, "Oh geez. They are here." Be that person.

Be the parent who asks every twist and turn in your history in your kids' homework assignment. You correct their history assignments. And if the teacher is wrong, you tell them that. Be there arguing against the banning of tag.

Be there returning every trophy your kid got for finishing 431st place, "No, it's just really" — "no, it's for participation." You can keep it for some other loser kid. My kid didn't accomplish anything. He enjoyed participating — that's enough.

You know, it's going to feel uncomfortable. It really is because I've been that parent for a while. Oh, schools love me. No, they do. And afterwards — and I can guarantee this going to happen — when nobody else is looking — you stand up at the school board and everybody is going to be like, oh, geez.

But here's what's going to happen. Once everybody is gone and nobody thinks, you know, they will notice, you'll have parent after parent come up to you and go, "Keep it up, thanks." And those parents that don't, hit them in the face with a giant rubber ball.

Content and Programming Copyright 2010 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2010 Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.