Glenn opened the radio program this morning with some incredible audio from yesterday’s Fox News Sunday interview between Chris Wallace and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. Wallace grilled Lew – repeatedly asking him questions regarding President Obama’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans.
“Chris Wallace, I think, hit a home run with Jack Lew. I think most of our audience will understand this, but most of America will not,” Glenn said. “They will say, ‘I think Jack Lew is making some great points’ because they have no foundation on which to build anything. Listen to the lying liars lie.”
LEW: Good to be with you, Chris.
WALLACE: This week both you and the President seem to be trying to panic the markets about both raising the debt ceiling and the government shutdown saying that they should be more concerned. Here's the President:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think this time's different. I think they should be concerned. When you have a situation in which a faction is willing to default on U.S. Government obligations, then we are in trouble.
“Stop. This is really important for people to understand. Never before. Why did I say in 2008, the President is not telling you these things,” Glenn said. “I sat with George W. Bush and I asked him specifically, ‘Mr. President, this is what the American people need to hear.’ And he said, ‘I can't. First of all, I made a promise. Second of all, the president has a bully pulpit unlike any other bully pulpit. They're watching everything I say all around the world. I cannot telegraph any kind of trouble because if I say it, it's worth ten times.’ For the president of the United States to say specifically on CNBC to the markets, ‘You should be worried.’ That's the president yelling fire. Now, here's the good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it. Bad news long term. This president has such little credibility that it didn't panic the markets. The markets stayed flat. Nobody believes the President of the United States.”
WALLACE: The markets are shrugging it off. The Dow Jones dropped just 1.2% this week. NASDAQ was actually up more than half a point. Aren't your efforts failing to try to use the markets to put pressure on Republicans to cave?
LEW: You know, Chris, it's my job to make sure that we strengthen the economy and I spend every day trying to do that. That's why it's so important owner Congress to act, to open up the government, to make sure we pay our bills.
“We have closed 15% of this government… If you can't make it with 15% of this government closed for two weeks, six weeks, six months, you can't make it for six months with 15%, then let me tell you something: You are the leanest corporation I've ever seen. Ever seen,” Glenn interjected. “Does anybody believe that they don't have 15% of fat to cut? This is the biggest game I've ever seen in my life. This is the biggest lie I've ever seen anybody try to pull off in the United States of America.”
LEW: …There's no question that if we were to have the unthinkable happen and have the United States default, it would cause real problems. The only question is how serious the problems would be and there's kind of ‑‑
“Nobody's talking about defaulting. By not raising the debt ceiling, you don't default. It means you can't take on additional debt. It means you're going to have to go back and cut,” Glenn said. “Are you telling me that you don't want to get another credit card? Well, then we default on our car and our house and there's no food. No! No. You pay for the important things. You're going to have to cut some spending, money, and we're not taking on any new debt. That's what that means.”
The President and many on the left have been claiming that Republicans are the fearmongers; Republicans are the ones looking to shutdown the government. But Glenn argued the actions of those like President Obama and Lew prove they are the ones who want American to default.
“Now, I find it amazing the lies that they are telling. And our President and our Treasury Secretary are trying to spook the markets. This goes into a longer conversation, but I think that they have everything they need,” Glenn said. “I think the fundamental transformation of America is done… I will tell you that they are farther ahead on taking control than you think. And I think they do want to go into default.”
“So you know, what the Treasury Secretary is saying here is the Republicans want us to go into default. The President is legally required to pay the interest on our debt. Nobody's going to be defaulting,” he continued. “The countries that say, ‘I want my money,’ we are legally required to pay those bills first. It's exactly the way bankruptcy works. We're legally required to do that. Now, the President picks and chooses laws to enforce and not to enforce all the time, so he might throw us into default. But that's not what a debt ceiling means.”
While Lew continued to pedal the Democratic talking points that the U.S. has never been in this situation before, Wallace was not about to let him get away with the lies.
WALLACE: What's unprecedented is not Congress tying strings. What's unprecedented is the President refusing to negotiate.
LEW: You know, Chris, let me be clear. The President has always been looking for a way to negotiate with a bipartisan group of members and Senators to do the right thing for the American people. He was. He is. He put out a budget that actually took an enormous step to do that. So the President is open to negotiation.
“I love this. He's put out a budget. He's put out a budget every year. His own party rejects it every year. He is not willing to negotiate. Who is he negotiating with,” Glenn asked. “His own party rejects it. 98‑0. I mean he doesn't even get anybody in his own party on board.”
LEW: And frankly I think your history is wrong. If you look at places where the debt limit was involved, there were many other things attached to the debt limit. The question of threatening to cause a default of the United States, not until 2011 did it become a positive agenda.
WALLACE: With all due respect, your history is wrong. In 1973 Democrats in the Senate to put in Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale wanted to attach campaign finance reform under Richard Nixon during Watergate to raising the debt limit. It ended up being a filibuster. Republicans had to filibuster to defeat it and take it out. This has happened over and over again, and presidents have negotiated and this President, what's unprecedented is, he's refusing to negotiate.
LEW: You know, Chris, I loved through the budget debates of the 1980s, the 1990s, the early 2000s. I know that there were many occasions when the debt limit was tacked onto other things. I actually remember ‑‑
“Oh, wait a minute. Now he admits he knows there were times when it was tacked onto other things,” Pat said exasperatedly. “You just said that never happened!”
“No, no, no. What he's saying is, they always intended on passing it,” Glenn corrected. “There were just never any terrorists in the Republican Party. That's what they're saying here. Unbelievable.”