‘Not another dime’: Glenn reacts to Obama’s request for more money to quell border crisis

July 08, 2014

The Glenn Beck Program

Editor's Note: President Obama has since asked Congress for $3.7 billion to help cover the cost associated with detaining, caring for, and returning the influx of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children who have entered the U.S. in recent months. Get all the details via the Associated Press HERE.

Original story below:

President Obama is preparing to ask Congress for an additional $2 billion to deal with “humanitarian crisis” that will see some 60,000 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children cross the southern border this year alone. Meanwhile, Obama is not paying a visit to any of the border patrol outposts that have been overrun as a result of the influx in crossings even though he will be in Texas for fundraising events this week. On radio this morning, Glenn reacted to the latest insanity as he explained why not another dollar should be squandered.

Below is an edited transcript of the monologue:

I’m glad to be back from vacation, but not glad to be looking at the news again… Let's talk about the border in different terms. These people who are turning the buses away in California – I don't know anything about them. I don't like the fact that people are now starting to form militias. I think that's a really colossally bad idea. But I understand your frustration, the people who are turning the buses away. I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea. However, I do think that people need to look at what they're doing and how they're doing it.

See, none of us are PR people. We're just getting the job done. And we don't really understand how powerful the media is, and how you're going to be painted. And I urge the people in any town, what you're seeing happening right now is what's called the ‘Bubba effect.’ We said this would happen, and I didn't know what the topic would be. I think you're seeing the beginning of it now. You're seeing people who, justifiably, are standing up.

These people say the border is more secure than ever. Is it? If fences don't work how come there are fences around the White House? How come there are gates? How come there is security? How come there are front doors on the White House? Because there is something valuable inside, and so we ask that you come through a security gate. We ask that you do that. If gates and fences don't work, then I demand that the gates around our airport be taken down, our fences be taken down, because they're apparently not worth anything. They don't do anything anyway.’ If someone is going to come in, they're going to come in anyway.’ Well then why do we have the gates and the fences around the airport?

I demand to know: If gates and security don't work, then why do I have to go through a metal detector any time I go in through a federal building? How come I have to present ID whenever I'm buying alcohol? These things do work, and everybody in the world knows it. You're paying for Homeland Security. You're paying for a border fence. You're paying for the border guards. You are paying for the detention centers. You are paying a personal cost in your hospitals. You're paying a personal cost when the hospital is overrun by illegal aliens who have no insurance and are coming here to have their babies and everything else. What happens is you pay a real cost. If you are sick, you're getting diminished care because we are having to pay for people who are not paying into the system at all.

You are paying a real cost with your children… There's a town in North Carolina that the kids now speak Spanish. There are more Spanish speaking kids than there are English speaking kids. Well, that's because the federal government has been busing people in. Well I've got news for you, that fundamentally changes the culture of my town. It now has to change the teachers. I have to change the way they think. If I like my school, they have fundamentally changed it because now it will not work the way it worked when everybody was speaking English. That is not judgment on the people that don't speak English. It is an excoriation of the United States government failing to do its most basic duty.

And so people are saying to themselves, ‘Well, what do I do?’ They don't hate the people who are coming from Guatemala. How can you possibly hate somebody? How can you possibly hate somebody that is coming from a war torn country? We are the ‘give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.’ That's who we are. We've always been that people. We are always the ‘bring the boat’ people.

The people of Honduras, why they're coming here? Do you know why that country is ripped apart? Because there was a coupe that our President refused to denounce. There was a coup that happened last year. The entire world said it was a coup, but we would not say it was a coup. We stood with the people that took over that country… I think it was 43 countries went to observe these elections, and 42 of them said, ‘This was totally criminal. This was not a fair election.’ The one country that said, ‘No, it looked good to us, the United States of America.’

Well, what's happened since? Fourteen members of the press have been killed. 35 or 37 of the opposition leaders have been killed or, more or less, disappeared since the election. Why do you think these parents are sending their kids here. And once again it is because the United States is medaling in other people's business. We are medaling in their business. We're picking and choosing again. We've done this to all of South America. Why do you think they're in such poverty? Because we have chosen their leaders for them for far too long.

Our arrogance is beyond recognition. And so you're sitting in a town in California or Texas or anyplace else and you're thinking to yourself, ‘What do I do? They're not coming into my town. I don't hate these people. I understand, but they have to understand the United States government is crippling my town. It is their children versus my children. And I want to take care of everybody's children. I will take care of these children. But they are not to stay here. They are to go back home.’

What do you think is happening on the border while we're all paying attention to this? I have not heard this anywhere. Is anybody talking about this besides TheBlaze? What is being smuggled or who is being smuggled into our country while we pay attention to the kids? Watch the other hand. What else is happening at the border? And they're talking about comprehensive immigration reform. Nobody is even willing to address the problem. And the problem is: The President of the United States, God bless him, is coming to Texas, and he will not go to the border. He will not meet with the governor of this state. This is worse than George Bush's Katrina. George Bush was actually trying to send help. He got in a plane and flew over the devastation and looked at it from the air. At least the man looked at it. At least the man was on the phone with the local authorities and with the governor every single day – sometimes many times a day.

So here is a situation where people are seeing this. And it has nothing to do with the kids. It has nothing to do with anything other than our government becoming lawless. And these poor people look at what we're trapping them into. We are trapping them into another country that is becoming lawless. They are trying to escape lawlessness.

My great uncle, Uncle Leo, he's an Italian. When the war broke out, they didn't know how it was going to end. And so the family took all their money – not just his family, the entire family took all of their money, and they sent Leo to the United States. Leo, you go, because we don't know what's going to happen to us. The family has to go on. Families have done that, as many of our own families have done that. That's what's happening at the border.

These countries are in peril. There is chaos and there is evil, and our government has supported it. And now they're coming here. So we have no malice toward any of these people, except those that wish us ill. I understand why a parent would do that. I thank God I can't relate to that because my family has never been in that much jeopardy. But I understand.

What I don't understand is the United States government not doing its job and that's why people are standing up at the border. That's why people are standing up in their hometowns and stopping these buses. But I want to talk to you about the right way to do it and the wrong way to do it. I understand why you want to do it. You're now being asked today for an additional $2 billion. For what? So you can feed people? So you can house people? So you can ship them to our cities and you can cripple our cities? No.

There is a better way. There is a better solution. But it requires people on all sides to come together and say, ‘Okay, let's just talk about the truth here.’ We have to take care of people, but the last thing I want to do is spend more money through the federal government – give them a dollar so they can take 30 cents on that dollar and spend it the way they want to spend it. Let's take care of this crisis ourselves while holding the feet to the fire.

Not another dime.

What have you done? You've lied to us every step of the way. No. We will take care of the humanitarian crisis, while we demand that you take care of the border crisis. It's corruption. And we are feeding it by sending them money every month, every two weeks in our check. We're feeding their corruption. Enough is enough.

Front page image courtesy of the AP

'Rage against the dying of the light': Charlie Kirk lived that mandate

PHILL MAGAKOE / Contributor | Getty Images

Kirk’s tragic death challenges us to rise above fear and anger, to rebuild bridges where others build walls, and to fight for the America he believed in.

I’ve only felt this weight once before. It was 2001, just as my radio show was about to begin. The World Trade Center fell, and I was called to speak immediately. I spent the day and night by my bedside, praying for words that could meet the moment.

Yesterday, I found myself in the same position. September 11, 2025. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. A friend. A warrior for truth.

Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins.

Moments like this make words feel inadequate. Yet sometimes, words from another time speak directly to our own. In 1947, Dylan Thomas, watching his father slip toward death, penned lines that now resonate far beyond his own grief:

Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thomas was pleading for his father to resist the impending darkness of death. But those words have become a mandate for all of us: Do not surrender. Do not bow to shadows. Even when the battle feels unwinnable.

Charlie Kirk lived that mandate. He knew the cost of speaking unpopular truths. He knew the fury of those who sought to silence him. And yet he pressed on. In his life, he embodied a defiance rooted not in anger, but in principle.

Picking up his torch

Washington, Jefferson, Adams — our history was started by men who raged against an empire, knowing the gallows might await. Lincoln raged against slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. raged against segregation. Every generation faces a call to resist surrender.

It is our turn. Charlie’s violent death feels like a knockout punch. Yet if his life meant anything, it means this: Silence in the face of darkness is not an option.

He did not go gently. He spoke. He challenged. He stood. And now, the mantle falls to us. To me. To you. To every American.

We cannot drift into the shadows. We cannot sit quietly while freedom fades. This is our moment to rage — not with hatred, not with vengeance, but with courage. Rage against lies, against apathy, against the despair that tells us to do nothing. Because there is always something you can do.

Even small acts — defiance, faith, kindness — are light in the darkness. Reaching out to those who mourn. Speaking truth in a world drowning in deceit. These are the flames that hold back the night. Charlie carried that torch. He laid it down yesterday. It is ours to pick up.

The light may dim, but it always does before dawn. Commit today: I will not sleep as freedom fades. I will not retreat as darkness encroaches. I will not be silent as evil forces claim dominion. I have no king but Christ. And I know whom I serve, as did Charlie.

Two turning points, decades apart

On Wednesday, the world changed again. Two tragedies, separated by decades, bound by the same question: Who are we? Is this worth saving? What kind of people will we choose to be?

Imagine a world where more of us choose to be peacemakers. Not passive, not silent, but builders of bridges where others erect walls. Respect and listening transform even the bitterest of foes. Charlie Kirk embodied this principle.

He did not strike the weak; he challenged the powerful. He reached across divides of politics, culture, and faith. He changed hearts. He sparked healing. And healing is what our nation needs.

At the center of all this is one truth: Every person is a child of God, deserving of dignity. Change will not happen in Washington or on social media. It begins at home, where loneliness and isolation threaten our souls. Family is the antidote. Imperfect, yes — but still the strongest source of stability and meaning.

Mark Wilson / Staff | Getty Images

Forgiveness, fidelity, faithfulness, and honor are not dusty words. They are the foundation of civilization. Strong families produce strong citizens. And today, Charlie’s family mourns. They must become our family too. We must stand as guardians of his legacy, shining examples of the courage he lived by.

A time for courage

I knew Charlie. I know how he would want us to respond: Multiply his courage. Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins. Out of darkness, great and glorious things will sprout — but we must be worthy of them.

Charlie Kirk lived defiantly. He stood in truth. He changed the world. And now, his torch is in our hands. Rage, not in violence, but in unwavering pursuit of truth and goodness. Rage against the dying of the light.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck resurrects the 9-12 Project to support Charlie Kirk's family

Glenn Beck is once again calling on his loyal listeners and viewers to come together and channel the same unity and purpose that defined the historic 9-12 Project. That movement, born in the wake of national challenges, brought millions together to revive core values of faith, hope, and charity.

Glenn created the original 9-12 Project in early 2009 to bring Americans back to where they were in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In those moments, we weren't Democrats and Republicans, conservative or liberal, Red States or Blue States, we were united as one, as America. The original 9-12 Project aimed to root America back in the founding principles of this country that united us during those darkest of days.

This new initiative draws directly from that legacy, focusing on supporting the family of Charlie Kirk in these dark days following his tragic murder.

The revival of the 9-12 Project aims to secure the long-term well-being of Charlie Kirk's wife and children. All donations will go straight to meeting their immediate and future needs. If the family deems the funds surplus to their requirements, Charlie's wife has the option to redirect them toward the vital work of Turning Point USA.

This campaign is more than just financial support—it's a profound gesture of appreciation for Kirk's tireless dedication to the cause of liberty. It embodies the unbreakable bond of our community, proving that when we stand united, we can make a real difference.
Glenn Beck invites you to join this effort. Show your solidarity by donating today and honoring Charlie Kirk and his family in this meaningful way.

You can learn more about the 9-12 Project and donate HERE

The critical difference: Rights from the Creator, not the state

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

When politicians claim that rights flow from the state, they pave the way for tyranny.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) recently delivered a lecture that should alarm every American. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he argued that believing rights come from a Creator rather than government is the same belief held by Iran’s theocratic regime.

Kaine claimed that the principles underpinning Iran’s dictatorship — the same regime that persecutes Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and other minorities — are also the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

In America, rights belong to the individual. In Iran, rights serve the state.

That claim exposes either a profound misunderstanding or a reckless indifference to America’s founding. Rights do not come from government. They never did. They come from the Creator, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims without qualification. Jefferson didn’t hedge. Rights are unalienable — built into every human being.

This foundation stands worlds apart from Iran. Its leaders invoke God but grant rights only through clerical interpretation. Freedom of speech, property, religion, and even life itself depend on obedience to the ruling clerics. Step outside their dictates, and those so-called rights vanish.

This is not a trivial difference. It is the essence of liberty versus tyranny. In America, rights belong to the individual. The government’s role is to secure them, not define them. In Iran, rights serve the state. They empower rulers, not the people.

From Muhammad to Marx

The same confusion applies to Marxist regimes. The Soviet Union’s constitutions promised citizens rights — work, health care, education, freedom of speech — but always with fine print. If you spoke out against the party, those rights evaporated. If you practiced religion openly, you were charged with treason. Property and voting were allowed as long as they were filtered and controlled by the state — and could be revoked at any moment. Rights were conditional, granted through obedience.

Kaine seems to be advocating a similar approach — whether consciously or not. By claiming that natural rights are somehow comparable to sharia law, he ignores the critical distinction between inherent rights and conditional privileges. He dismisses the very principle that made America a beacon of freedom.

Jefferson and the founders understood this clearly. “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” they wrote. No government, no cleric, no king can revoke them. They exist by virtue of humanity itself. The government exists to protect them, not ration them.

This is not a theological quibble. It is the entire basis of our government. Confuse the source of rights, and tyranny hides behind piety or ideology. The people are disempowered. Clerics, bureaucrats, or politicians become arbiters of what rights citizens may enjoy.

John Greim / Contributor | Getty Images

Gifts from God, not the state

Kaine’s statement reflects either a profound ignorance of this principle or an ideological bias that favors state power over individual liberty. Either way, Americans must recognize the danger. Understanding the origin of rights is not academic — it is the difference between freedom and submission, between the American experiment and theocratic or totalitarian rule.

Rights are not gifts from the state. They are gifts from God, secured by reason, protected by law, and defended by the people. Every American must understand this. Because when rights come from government instead of the Creator, freedom disappears.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

POLL: Is Gen Z’s anger over housing driving them toward socialism?

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A recent poll conducted by Justin Haskins, a long-time friend of the show, has uncovered alarming trends among young Americans aged 18-39, revealing a generation grappling with deep frustrations over economic hardships, housing affordability, and a perceived rigged system that favors the wealthy, corporations, and older generations. While nearly half of these likely voters approve of President Trump, seeing him as an anti-establishment figure, over 70% support nationalizing major industries, such as healthcare, energy, and big tech, to promote "equity." Shockingly, 53% want a democratic socialist to win the 2028 presidential election, including a third of Trump voters and conservatives in this age group. Many cite skyrocketing housing costs, unfair taxation on the middle class, and a sense of being "stuck" or in crisis as driving forces, with 62% believing the economy is tilted against them and 55% backing laws to confiscate "excess wealth" like second homes or luxury items to help first-time buyers.

This blend of Trump support and socialist leanings suggests a volatile mix: admiration for disruptors who challenge the status quo, coupled with a desire for radical redistribution to address personal struggles. Yet, it raises profound questions about the roots of this discontent—Is it a failure of education on history's lessons about socialism's failures? Media indoctrination? Or genuine systemic barriers? And what does it portend for the nation’s trajectory—greater division, a shift toward authoritarian policies, or an opportunity for renewal through timeless values like hard work and individual responsibility?

Glenn wants to know what YOU think: Where do Gen Z's socialist sympathies come from? What does it mean for the future of America? Make your voice heard in the poll below:

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism comes from perceived economic frustrations like unaffordable housing and a rigged system favoring the wealthy and corporations?

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism, including many Trump supporters, is due to a lack of education about the historical failures of socialist systems?

Do you think that these poll results indicate a growing generational divide that could lead to more political instability and authoritarian tendencies in America's future?

Do you think that this poll implies that America's long-term stability relies on older generations teaching Gen Z and younger to prioritize self-reliance, free-market ideals, and personal accountability?

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