Glenn started off the second hour by going further into the President’s State of the Union address and took exception to the idea that government should be the cause of innovation in America rather than the individual.
“We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm asking congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies,” President Obama said in his address last night.
“Did you notice that in the speech he's not only talking about penalizing the oil companies because don't they have enough; we're talking $100 a barrel oil already. And nobody's talking about it,” Glenn said.
“Once energy went up, then you couldn't afford anything. And they're doing it again,” Glenn said.
Glenn also addressed President Obama’s statement that this is our Sputnik moment, a point where America realized our competitors have passed us. Glenn agreed with the President that we have reached that point with the Chinese developing the fastest supercomputer, but disagreed with his solution.
“How do we help people like Bill Gates when he was in his garage? How do we help him? How do we clear the red tape to help that person? Don't talk to me about how we're going to spend another billion dollars on a new agency that is going to help us come up with new information and technology ideas. Steve Jobs, how can we help you? What do you need? Bill Gates and Microsoft, what do you need? Inventors in your garage, what do you need? I can guarantee you all of them would say the first thing I need is the federal government to get out of my face. That's how you fix America,” Glenn explained.
“The private sector has to make money. The private sector must pay its bills. And so it must make sense. That's what built this country was common sense. And people who had common sense,” Glenn added.
Rather than relying on government to spur innovation, Glenn believes that we should be reducing bureaucracy and red tape to encourage entrepreneurship.
“They're creators. They're seekers. That's who Americans are. Pioneers. Get out of our way. The only mountain we have to cross is the mountain of regulation that will be coming out of Washington.”
Glenn also disagreed with Obama’s statements about teachers being the most influential figure in a child’s life. While Glenn respects teachers, he believes that parents should occupy the spot of most influential figure.
“I don't know anybody that talks down about a teacher. I really don't,” Glenn said.
Nevertheless, we as a country should be empowering parents.
“The greatest teachers are our mothers and our fathers, period. He said last night that the teacher, the one in front of the classroom is the one that affects the child the most. Well, there's your problem, President Obama. It should be the person that gave birth or the person that is raising the child. Mom and dad are the greatest teachers.”
“Empower parents. Encourage the country to stop saying I'm just a mother. No, you're not. You are the nation builder,” Glenn concluded.
