RADIOMarch 15, 2025

Glenn Beck SLAMS Krugman: Chinese Slave Labor Over US Jobs?!

Glenn tears into economist Paul Krugman’s recent Substack article, “Making Sweatshops Great Again,” which laments Donald Trump’s plan to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Of course, we should manufacture things like computer chips in the US, as Krugman insists. But what’s wrong with bringing sneaker and textile manufacturing back? Would Krugman rather child slaves in China continue making them?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Paul Krugman writes, on Manhattan's Seventh Avenue near the corner of 39th Street, there's a larger than life statue of a garment worker, a man wearing a skull cap, hunched over a sewing machine. The statue is a tribute to the locale's history.

It stands in the middle of what's still called the Garment District! After all, in 1950, New York's apparel industry employed 340,000 workers, but that industry is gone now. Not just from midtown Manhattan, but from the United States as a whole!

Having moved to low wage countries, like China, and increasingly Bangladesh. No serious person mourns the off-shoring of the apparel employment.

I do! As someone who would like to wear American clothing, who has tried to help save the Cohen denim company, which made the best denim in the world. They're out. You know why? Can't afford to make it here. You know why? Because we offshored everything. You know why? Because we're stupid, that's why. So I actually do mourn that, but I don't really count in Paul's world, but I digress. For a poor nation like Bangladesh, apparel jobs are a big step up from the alternatives. Even in our heyday, mostly, it only employed immigrants, who despite being represented by powerful unions were paid low wages.

And often faced harsh working conditions. Oh. Wait a minute.

So wait a minute. Let me see if I can get this right. What about your insistence of keeping people here, because they will work for low-paying jobs. You remember jobs Americans won't do. So are you now saying, we will want to get rid of all those low-paying jobs that all Americans won't do? I mean, I'm not with you, Paul.

I'm just trying to understand your reasoning here. I mean, have you changed your mind on that? Is there no one in America that would gladly take a sewing job over scrubbing toilets in a hotel?

Nobody. As I said, no serious person wants the apparel industry to come back. Again, but Donald Trump's economic team aren't serious people.

This come from the biggest clown of my lifetime. Last week, Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary went on CNBC to explain that Trump's tariffs will bring back US production of T-shirts and sneakers and towels.

The host just started laughing at him, because we know when we all know better than he does. And there's no reason to believe that he -- he or his boss think this was a joke. And their nostalgia for industries in the past, seems to be matched by surprising hostility towards the industries of the future.

Oh, okay. All right. Now, we're starting to get good. Again, our hard-working dishwashers. Fruit pickers. Lawn maintenance. Or service style jobs. For people just like you, Paul, that will hire people at a lower wage because they're illegal, and you can get away with anything that you want.

Oops. I mean, you can help them achieve the American dream. Are these jobs nostalgic?

Because with the onset of AI in the next few years, I think they are! But wait. I'm hostile towards AI?

I'm confused, but Krugman goes on.

Now the Trumpiest view of international trade pretty much begins and ends with a view that whenever Americans buy something made abroad, no matter how much cheaper it is, it may be to import a good, rather than try to produce it domestically. And that's a win for foreigners and a loss for America.

No. Paul!

God, you're stupid.

Products that are more inexpensive. Or that are inexpensive, are always a win for Americans. Always. Unless it completely guts our ability as a country to stand on our own.

Also, why should we give so much money to the biggest slave owner country the world has ever known?

Message to you progressives, America is not so bad. Compared to what China is doing currently!

Now, instead of standing up to them, you know, we -- we just want to be independent, so we can!

And I would like to live without the slave labor of some of these countries.

You know, if we're making sneakers here in the US, at least it wouldn't be a line full of children, spraying, you know, led paint on Nike shoes, like it's most likely happening away from our shores. But I digress. Again, by shipping our jobs to China, Paul. Buying our i Phone and socks from China. Are you not doing the same things the elites like you did before and during and even after the Civil War? Well, it will hurt the economy!

We've got -- jobs here in America on our American assembly lines actually allow people to afford college for the next generation or even themselves, to better their stations. Even though you have done everything you can to destroy our universities through your horrible progressive ideas.

And, you know, through government subsidies that you have raised the cost of college.

You know, since we got into the business of getting loans for colleges, guaranteeing those loans. In 1963, tuition was an adjusted -- inflation adjusted $2,487. Now it's almost $10,000. That's an increase of 292 percent. Four times the cost, in real dollars, that was in 1963!

What happened? What changed?

What changed?

He continues. I mean, Trump has slapped high tariffs on Canadian aluminum, which is cheap, because smelting uses a lot of electricity. And Canada has a lot of abundant hydropower, and aluminum is important for US manufacturing. Yet, Trump somehow thinks Canada is exploiting us, by offering us a key industrial import at a good price.

But back to T-shirts and sneakers. We definitely shouldn't be making those for ourselves.

But what should we be making instead?

Well, here's what we are going to be making, Paul. Nothing. We're not going to make anything.

Unless, we have a hard-working, well-educated, motivated workforce, with cheap energy, and the cutting of crazy regulation. In which companies can afford to grow and build.

And want to come here. Because we have the best conditions. And the best labor. And the cheapest energy.

That's what made America, America.

But what you have done, you have killed the well-educated with your support of the teachers unions. And everybody else controlling EDU. You want an example. Just check what you were saying, while our children were out of school, during COVID. Because of your support.

You know, next thing that you cut was the motivated by advocating for higher taxes. More red tape. Plus, out of control labor unions.

You know, where the lazy and the corrupt, they think can't be fired. Can't be fired. You killed motivation.

Well-educated. You killed that one. The motivated, you killed that one. You killed that one. Because not only the red tape. But with DEI and ESG, and CRT programs. You also teach everybody, you'll never make it without us. Why try?

You've killed everything. And do I need to even remind you of your anti-cheap energy lectures? And you love the growth. Energy regulation. Because, oh, my gosh, we have to get rid of our -- we have to get rid of our hydroelectric power here. And take those dams down. Because that's so colonial.

Oh, my gosh.

I can't take this guy. What free trade purist would answer, whatever the market decides, let private firms decide what's profitable in America. And even if you're not a free trade purist. You have to admit the government doesn't have a great record of picking winners.

Oh, my gosh, have you just admitted this out loud, without even knowing this? Your support for the Green New Deal!

Your support for things like, I don't know, Solyndra. Did I miss an op-ed, where you're like, boy, that was a mistake?

Yet I, like many economists, have come around to The View. Listen to this one. This is his big announcement. That maybe we should engage in a limited amount of industrial policy, using subsidies.

Oh, wow!

Paul, the heavens have opened up for you.

You have finally come around to the idea of government subsidies. How refreshing from you.

What a shock. What an unbelievable turnaround for you. You mean to tell me, you've gone from a supporter of the public private partnerships. The green nigh deal that just funds entire sectors.

Big government programs.

To now somebody who can -- who can finally embrace the idea of government bailing out failures.

Wow!

Making partners with private corporations. With our government using the little guy's tax dollars, to give to the billion dollar companies.

Money from the average person. The average working man and woman. Right to the billionaire. Wow, you have come so far, Paul!

You really have!

Good for you. You know, there are two big reasons. Limited industrial policies, back in vogue.

That word isn't even in vogue.

One is that it's become increasingly clear that there are important positive spillovers, between technology firms, Silicon Valley is now more than the sum of the individual companies, located in south of San Francisco.

It's kind of an industrial ecosystem of shared services. A pool of skilled workers. And an exchange of knowledge!

Oh! Paul, you mean like every other industry, somehow?

But this one is different?

I mean, other than Silicon Valley being originally funded by the DOD, CIA, and the federal government, how is this different?

You know, again, other than it was the greatest concentration of wealth, perhaps ever in the history of man.

Think of that. Silicon Valley, probably the greatest collection of wealth in the history of all mankind, we've got to get the government in there to help those poor, starving billionaires.

The -- aren't these the titans. The billionaires. Are they somehow different than the titan and billionaires that have to pay their fair share.

And who are unelected fascists like Elon Musk.

I mean, I'm so confused, Paul.

Are you now admitting that Elon Musk alone is capable of creating, quote, an industrial ecosystem of shared services? A pool of skilled workers. And with his willingness and action, not to patent technology. But to release it. To help the planet.

Is he an important force, that for an exchange of knowledge, it -- wouldn't he be one of those?

If we want America to be competitive and high-tech, we need government policies to encourage the formation of these industrial ecosystems. In other grimmer reasons, we need industrial policy because of geopolitics.

Circa 2010. Listen to this. Circa 2010. No, not many people worried about how much of the world's production of advanced semiconductors, which are now crucial to almost everything, was concentrated in Taiwan. No, Paul!

You weren't! In 2010, you couldn't see over the horizon. You know that quote from Paul Krugman, that you gave me earlier? About the internet.

I mean, you were the one that wasn't concerned about semiconductors and high-powered chips.

STU: 1998. The growth of the internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in Metcalf's law, which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the squared number of participants becomes apparent.

Most people have nothing to say to each other. By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machines. That's so good.

GLENN: Well, forget about that.

Now we know the age of large-scale warfare isn't over! And it's dangerous to rely on crucial products and industrial clusters easily threatened by potential adversaries. That -- just that paragraph.

Just that paragraph -- just that, Paul, proves everything else you've said in your stupid op-ed, to be absolutely the opposite.

Or may I just say, duh!

And duh! These realizations lay behind one of the Biden administrations two major pieces of industrial policy legislation. The Chips and Science Act, designed to encourage production, unlike the Inflation Reduction Act, which sought to use industrial policy to fight climate change! Climate change.

The Chips Act has had a substantial bipartisan support. Yeah, it did. It did. As did slavery in the 1800s. As did the rounding of the Japanese under another progressive president.

In fact, wow. So did men can actually be women? Just a couple of years ago. It doesn't make it true, Paul. Even though in an era of intense partisanship, a significant number of Republicans were willing to back the effort, but during his speech to Congress last week, Trump veered off into a demand that Congress would repeal that act.

It's not clear what he has against the Chips Act. Although, according to the New York Times, many semi conductor companies attribute his hostility simply to personal animus to former President Biden.

Yeah. You can't think of another thing, that might make him against the Chip Act.

It's weird, Paul.

I went to an expert, I trust more than you. Grok!

And asked it, besides personal animus, why might the president be against the Chips Act? I'll share that answer with you, Paul.

I can't figure out, other than his personal animus against former President Biden, why he would be against the Chips Act. Uh-huh.

Thank you, Paul Krugman. So I just went to Grok, and I said, is there another reason besides personal animus, that President Trump might be against the Chips Act?

Here's what Grok told me today. Cost, and perceived wastefulness.

Trump has described that the Chips Act is a horrible, horrible thing, that involves giving hundreds of billions of dollars to companies without sufficient return.

From this perspective, he might view the $52.7 billion in subsidies, plus additional lending authority. As an inefficient use of taxpayer money.

If his goal is to save America, he could argue these funds might be better directed elsewhere.

Two, preference over tariffs for subsidies. Trump has constantly advocated for tariffs as a tool to incentive domestic manufacturing, claiming they could achieve the same outcome as the Chips Act, bringing the semiconductor to the United States without the government spending any tax dollars.

Let me point to Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing company. Increasing its US investment. As evidence that these tariffs, or the threat of them are working.

From his viewpoint, this approach avoids handing out money to wealthy corporations. Aligning with a belief that market pressure is a more sustainable way to bolster American industry.

Three, skepticism of corporate giveaways. I don't know.

Paul, that sounds like something that you would say, as you're shipping your country -- right there, on the porch in your rocking chair. Thinking, I'm so smart!

To our veterans...

Americans are bad at saying "thank you." So, this Veterans Day, Glenn wanted to take the time to make it clear: "Your country remembers you. Your country needs you. And your country is grateful in a way that language will never quite capture. Thank you."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Hello, America. It's Veterans Day, and I want to start there in 60 seconds. First, debt is like gravity. It pulls. It pulls back on you constantly, until one day you realize, you're not moving forward anymore. And the worst part of it, most of it is just accepted. We call it normal. We make the minimum payments. We don't -- the rates come down. And we keep spinning that same old wheel, wondering why we're tired all the time. But it doesn't have to be that way.

American Financing is helping people all over the country restructure their mortgage. You know, pay off high-interest debt. And regain real financial freedom.

They're family-owned. They work for you. Not the banks. Their mortgage consultants don't earn commissions. They take the time to listen and build a plan that actually fits your life.

And it will help you keep more of what you earned.

Because every dollar you save. Is a piece of your life you're getting back. It's American Financing.

They're helping you keep more of it. And in a world where everything is getting more and more expensive, that kind of control isn't just smart, it's a little bit liberating and empowering.

The start of something much, much better. Please, call American Financing at 800-906-2440. 800-906-2440. Or you can go to AmericanFinancing.net. That's AmericanFinancing.net.
(music)

VOICE: NMLS 182334. NMLSConsumerAccess.org. APR rates in the five, starts at 6.799 percent for well-qualified borrowers. Call 800-906-2440 for details about credit costs and terms.

GLENN: It's Veteran's Day, and I want to speak to one person, right now.

You!

The one who raised a hand and swore an oath that didn't end when your enlistment did. It was an oath that was older than your commanding officer. Older than the branch you served in. Older than even the nation itself. Because what you swore to defend was not a government. Unlike every other oath that every military man takes all over the world, you swore an oath to an idea.

And today, in a country that sometimes feels dizzy from spinning arguments, I think we should pause and anchor ourselves again to you.

To the men and women who tethered this republic to reality, when the storms came.

We have an amazing story.

If you really know the story of Lexington when the farmers left their plows and damp fields. Because liberty whispered their names.

They met at their church. Their preacher met them out.

They didn't have a chance of them winning.

I think of the -- the Marines who fought through the gas and the mud until the Germans called them devil dogs.

The beaches of Normandy, where boys who had never even see France saw eternity in a single morning on a single beach!

And the men who fought in Korea. And Vietnam. Kuwait. Fallujah. The Skies over Baghdad.

Every generation has a chapter that is written in blood and grit, and it was written by people who never asked for a statue. All they wanted was a chance to come home! And some didn't. And their stories end on foreign soil or carved into white markers in rows so straight, it almost breaks you.

But their gift to us, never ends.

At least, as long as we remember them and you.

Because every -- every free breath we take is borrowed from them! And you. If you're a veteran listening right now, maybe you came home to a grateful nation. Maybe you quietly slipped into civilian life, wondering if anybody saw the weight that you were carrying.

No matter your circumstance, know this: You need to know this.

Millions see you! Millions are grateful. You changed the destiny of my children. And they will never know your name.

You changed my life, in ways you will never understand.

I wouldn't be able to be here, and say these things if it weren't for you!

We take -- we take all of this so lightly. It was you that stood between tyranny and who those couldn't defend themselves.

Have you kept the promise. Most citizens like me. We never make. We never have to make.

Because always did. And you continue to do so.

It's amazing to me, when you are off into war, most times, not every time, we think about you all the time.

We want to give you the very best when you're at war. And then you come home, and then, eh, and you have the worst of our health care. I mean, at least mine was go to Canada to get the health care. I don't know if it's any better up there!

We're not really good at saying thank you. Let me just take just a second, to say it plainly and clearly to you. Thank you. Thank you for walking into the unknown when the rest of us stayed home. I don't know what your motivation was, when you joined. But thank you for believing that liberty was worth more than comfort.

Thank you for the nights you didn't sleep. Thank you for the holidays you missed. Thank you for the kids you didn't see born because you were someplace else.

Thank you for the friends you still mourn. That's why you did it.

Because you're a brotherhood.

Thank you and all your brothers.

Thank you for every scar. The ones we can see, and the ones we will never see.

Thank you -- thank all the families. Thank you for what you've done. The quiet platoon behind every soldier and sailor and airman and Marine and Coast Guardsman, because you served too.

Freedom has always been a family burden. And look at what those families are like. They're usually remarkable!

We live in a world right now that feels -- feels really loud and divided. And suspicious.

And it is!

But, I mean, wanted to take a minute on this day, and let everything just be quiet.

Gratitude has a way of silencing nonsense.

And I want you to know, how grateful I am.

So before we got back into the headlines again, before the noise rises back up, let me end this with the only words that really matter, to every veteran of the United States armed forces. Your country remembers you. Your country needs you. And your country is grateful in a way, language will never quite capture.

Thank you!

The government just CONFIRMED they’ve been ROBBING you for 15 years

Buried in a recent New York Times op-ed about the end of the government shutdown is the quietest confession you’ll ever hear from the elites: "Why can’t Republicans just accept reality? These [Obamacare] healthcare subsidies are working." But who are they working for? Healthcare prices are still incredibly high! Glenn reminds us what "subsidies" really are: money "borrowed" from the future to hide the failures of the present, and lining the insurance companies' pockets.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So is the shutdown over? I mean, it has to go to the House, and now the House is saying that they're not going to pass it.

STU: Well, the House should be -- I don't think there's any real belief that they won't pass it. The hurdle was the Senate. And they got through the Senate. Now we get to watch the ongoing democratic Civil War, about whether or not Chuck Schumer will be removed or not.

GLENN: It's crazy. It is crazy.

So, you know, let me go through something that came in from the New York Times. What were the Democrats thinking?

It starts out, in this op-ed, back in September, when I was reporting an article, Democrats should shut down the government, I kept hearing the same warning from veterans of past shutdown fights.

President controls the bully pulpit, and parts of the government will stay open, and he decides what parts close.

It's very, very hard for the opposition party to win a shutdown. Blah, blah.

Now they have brokered a deal over the weekend, as the Senate Democrats broke ranks and negotiated a deal to end the shutdown, and return for, if we're being honest, very little according to the New York Times.

The guts of the deal are this. Food assistance, both SNAP and WIC will get a bit more funding. There will be a few more modest concessions on spending levels elsewhere in the government.

Laid off federal workers will be rehired, and furloughed federal workers will be given back pay.

Most of the government is funded, only until the end of January. Get ready, we'll be doing this again.

The deal does nothing to extend the aspiring affordable care tax credits, which Democrats essentially have shut down the government for, in the first place. First of all, it's not the affordable care tax credit.

That's -- that's not why you shut it down.
There are tax credits, yes.

But this is different. These were the government subsidies. Leave it to the New York Times. Let me lay this really clear. Democrats demanded a continuation of the enhanced subsidies for the American care act. Okay?

They were temporarily expanded during the pandemic. These were not the tax credits. These were extra subsidies stuffed into the 2021 American rescue plan, as an emergency measure. Remember, the one, we had to pass this in the middle of the night. And nobody could read it. Well, that's what it was in it. And these subsidies lowered the premiums more than usual. Expanded the eligibility far above the original ACA income caps. And was always designed to be temporary just for COVID.

So if you were in COVID, and I lost your job, and you didn't have health care or whatever, you could get on the ACA.

Even though, you're -- you're -- your salary was higher than it would be accepted.

Normally. You could get on it.

But once -- once they created this, Washington does what Washington always does, and they won't let it go.

Okay.

It's not the tax credit. To understand why this shutdown will end with such a whimper, you need to understand the strange role the ACA subsidies played in it. Democrats said the shutdown was about subsidies. But for most of them, it wasn't. This is the New York Times saying this.

It was about Trump's authoritarianism. It was about showing their base and themselves, that they could fight back. It was about treating an abnormal political moment, abnormally.

The ACA subsidies emerged as the shutdown demand because they could keep the caucus sufficiently united. They put Democrats on the right side of public opinion, even though self-identified MAGA voters wanted the subsidies extended.

And they held the quivering Senate coalition together. You shut the government down, with the Democratic caucus that you have, not with the Democratic caucus that you want.

But the shutdown was built on a cracked foundation. There were Senate Democrats who didn't want a shutdown at all. There were Senate Democrats who did want a shutdown. But thought it was strange to make their demands so narrow. Was winning on health care premiums really winning the right fight?

Shouldn't Democrats really vote to fund the government, turning towards authoritarianism, as long as health insurance subsidies are preserved? And what if winning the health care fight was actually a political gift to Trump. Now, this is the New York Times.

Absent a fix, the average health insurance premium for 20 million Americans were more than double. The premium shock will hit red states really hard.

Trump's long time pollster had released a survey of competitive house districts. Showing that letting the tax credits expire. Might be lethal to Republican effort to see hold the House. Why were the Democrats fighting so hard to neutralize their best issue in 2026. The political logic of this shutdown fight was inverted. If Democrats got tax credits extended, if they won. They would be solving a huge electoral problem for the Republicans. If Republicans successfully allowed the tax credits to expire if they won, which would be handing the Democrats a cudgel which would beat them in the next elections. This is unbelievable!

I mean, they're saying -- they're saying it out loud. You know what I mean?

They go on in this, to say, you know. Quote, why can't Republicans just accept reality. These health care subsidies are working.

No. They're not. No, they're not.

They are propping. Okay?

They're scaffolding. Holding up a structure that was never sound.

They were a COVID-era brace jammed under a tottering wall. And now, the same architects who swore the House -- the House was safe. They're telling you the splintered wood was actually part of the design. What?

This is the power the mainstream media has. The press still has over mainstream Americans. It's kind of like a hypnotic choke hold.

You say the word subsidy enough times with the right sad piano music under it, and suddenly, we forget what subsidies are. Here's what subsidies are, gang!

Money borrowed from the Chinese. But we're not on the hook for it. We're not on the hook for it.

Money borrowed from the Chinese, from the future, to hide the failures of the present on decisions that were made in the past. Okay?

And now we're told, if we don't just keep borrowing forever, America will collapse. No. What collapses is this crazy illusion. Let's be clear about something the op-ed never will admit. The Affordable Care Act didn't fail because of Republicans. It failed because math is a stubborn thing because insurance is not health care.

Because a program bent around bureaucrats and middlemen will always cost more and deliver less!
We have been subsidizing the symptoms. We never treated the disease here. And now, when a shutdown touches those subsidies, suddenly we're told the sky is cracking. TikTok is flooded with panic videos scripted by algorithms that can't really be trusted.

The influencers don't even know what they're defending. They just know fear pays better than the truth. And here the truth. The system was failing long before Trump. Long before Biden. Long before COVID. And maybe, just maybe, this moment is not a crisis, but an opening.

You know, I've said this for months now.

The greatest political opportunity of our lifetime now, is health care reform! Real, actual reform.

Not another Washington quick fix. Not more subsidiary easy or anything else. Not a Band-Aid over a bullet wound. But the Republicans won't do anything about it. I believe, and I say this without hesitation, I think. That Trump and RFK Jr. together may be the only combination force in American politics with the will to take a flamethrower to the bureaucracy, that is choking doctors and nurses. The pharmaceutical lobby, the insurance labyrinth, the 50 states wrapped in 50 different versions of red tape. All of it has to be confronted. And here's why Trump can't afford to miss this: If he solves even a quarter of this problem, if he can find the way to lower costs, if he increases access. If he frees the market to actually work across state lines, he'll not only win in 2026.

He'll be launching a momentum, that will carry Vance into the presidency in 2028.

This is the key here!

But he has to remember something Washington has long forgotten. The people he's negotiating with, they don't want a deal. They don't fear collapse.

They come it. They have been playing a slow motion Colour Revolution. One that the company has to be impoverished. Has to be frightened. And has to be divided to accept the new power structures.

Colour Revolutions only work if your people are hungry, if they're afraid, and they believe the people in the head of the government are authoritarian.

When that happens, you can have a Colour Revolution. And every day, America does not break. Every day, the economy still stands. Every day, people wake up and realize their lives are not as hopeless as the media insists.

The revolutionaries lose their leverage. So the shutdown is not the crisis.

The crisis is the addiction to government medicine. So here's the battle line that matters, I think, most right now: While the press spins, you know, panic, Trump has to gather the brightest minds. The innovators, the disrupters. The people who build things, rather than manage decline. That's what he does best. You know, if Elon Musk could do for NASA, what Washington could not. Then why can't we find. Maybe even get Elon Musk. Why can't we unleash the same kind of thinking on health care.

It's time for radical thinking!

Imagine a system where your doctor spends more time listening, than actually checking boxes.

Imagine competition across state lines. Imagine prices that behave like normal prices because the market is finally allowed to work and government doesn't have its finger on the scale.

Imagine freeing the nurses and the physicians from the paperwork prisons they're in. And letting them practice medicine again.

This isn't utopian. That's just uncaptured America. The America before the bureaucratic glacier, settled over absolutely everything in our lives.

Trump is the one that can do this. He's -- he's hitting home runs, grand slams, all -- all the time.

All the time.

Health care is the crack in the wall, where sunlight is still getting through. If you solve this, if you solve the pressure and you -- you lower the pressure on the engine behind the Colour Revolution, you win!

You win. I'm not even talking about election.

You save the republic.

You solve this.

And you solve the fear that drives half of our political dysfunction.

Washington thinks the shutdown is a battlefield. It's not!

The battlefield is health care. The future is decided there. And the man who breaks that system open. And let's Americans breathe again, will shape this country for a generation.

And the only guy to do it, is Donald Trump.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

They're WATCHING You... The Terrifying Truth about Phone Surveillance

What if your phone knows what you’ll do before you do? Glenn Beck and former Navy SEAL Erik Prince expose the terrifying reality of modern surveillance, from the government’s secret data networks to Big Tech’s behavioral tracking systems. A global “surveillance capitalism” industry has been born, merging private corporations with intelligence agencies. Today, every app, ad, and algorithm harvests your movements, conversations, and even your thoughts. This conversation reveals how smartphones have become digital soldiers quartered in your home, and how privacy, freedom, and free will are vanishing in the age of data control.

Watch the FULL Interview HERE

The harsh truth about America's ailing economy

Glenn Beck warns that America’s economy is suffering from a deeper disease... one that can’t be cured by printing money, free checks, or political spin. With inflation rising, housing unaffordable, and healthcare collapsing under government control, Beck argues the nation faces a “cancer” that only painful but honest reform can heal. He and Stu Burguiere break down why short-term fixes like subsidies and stimulus will only fuel the crisis, and why the only real solution lies in deregulation, competition, and courage. Will Americans endure the hard medicine needed to save the nation, or turn to socialism out of desperation?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program.

Stu does not share my -- my optimism. And I -- you know, I think that's too strong of a word. I'm not optimistic.

I am hopeful that someone in Washington, on our side understands what we're facing here. That health care is the biggest win!

It's the biggest win. And totally winnable.

STU: Yeah. And I do think -- if -- you know, if it was the top priority of Donald Trump. I think, he would be able to move Republicans toward trying to come up with something, I guess.

But I don't show much optimism on that. Because as I was going through that whole scenario, it wasn't just that we said these rates would go up, and that the Affordable Care Act wouldn't be affordable and gave all of the reasons that wound up playing out with risk pools and everything else.

And it wasn't also that we would say, hey. They're going to try to solve this by more government subsidiary easy. And more dependence on government.

We said all that stuff. And that's what we just talked about.

But other thing we said was that after this thing got passed, the Republicans would bail on opposing it. We would no longer have an opposition. We're now to the part of the story where the right-wing position is just normal Obamacare.

And the left-wing position is new expand, fancy, times ten Obamacare. The question of whether we triple down on Obamacare.

Or double down on it. That's now a conservative position.

GLENN: Okay. So let me give you some hope.

I talked to Dr. Oz. And he said, they're introducing something here in the next couple of months.

Should be, any time now.

And it will be done at the state level. And it will be to stop all the barriers from state to state.

And you get -- you get your -- your -- your funding for different programs if you get rid of those barriers for your insurance companies.

And if you don't, well, you don't get your funding. And so they will be incentivized to do it.

So I do think that there's some thinking about this, that's going on, with RFK and Dr. Oz.

In fact, let's see if we can get them on. Maybe I'll go up to Washington and do a podcast with him.

Because I think this is the big win here. Because if you look, you have to -- you have to change the life of people, in the next 15 months. Twelve months, if you want to win the election!

And if you -- if you want to win with J.D. Vance. You're going to have to do it in the next 18 months, at the very minimum, okay?

It's going to get harder and harder to do it.

So you have -- you have the things. What are the levers the president has in front of him?

Housing. What is the problem with the housing market?

The housing market, there's a couple of problems.

One, we don't have -- we have a shortage of housing. Okay. Because everybody freaked out. You know, 2008, we had a housing glut. Now, maybe we should go to other way.

So we didn't build enough houses. So now we have this giant housing shortage.

So can the president fix this one quickly?

No. Millions of houses need to be built. And how is he going to do it?

Unless there's a land grab, okay?

Unless he opens up federal land, which we saw how that one went. So he can't really fix the housing thing. He could help it, by saying, "Hey, BlackRock, you guys stop buying houses."

But how do you do that?

I mean, is that the right thing to do? I mean, it's the right thing to do for the people. Constitutionally, can you do that?

I don't know. I don't think so.

The next cost that people are feeling. Electricity. What are you going to do with that?

Well, we know that he's building power plants. Or he is -- he is letting the red tape go, on the power plants.

So if you want to build a power plant, you can build a power plant, in record time.

But that, again, is 18, 24, 36 months away. Minimum! Before you have new power plants, where you'll start to see your electricity costs go down. So you can't do that. Food costs. What is he going to do?

Import cheaper food. That's not a good idea.

So what are you -- how do you affect the average person's money? Well, you can send them free money. Which means, we have to print more.

He's going to send free money. It's the money that he's been taking in from the trade barriers.

So he's saying, he's going to send a $2,000 check to people. And that's the first time I've ever seen a check where the money was actually money.

That we had. Not printed money.

But that's all you can do. You can even do that. That's all you can do. Because you can't print money. You can't have a stimulus. Or you will Jack the prices of everything up.

And you're in the same loop over and over and over again.

The only place where the government has the tools, has enough sway, Donald Trump could do this.

To start breaking this thing up.

Is health care. And that could change things pretty much overnight.

Within 12 months, if he acted today, within 12 months, you would start to see prices come down. You would start to see competition.

You would start to see some sort of relief. But what else does he have, Stu. What else can he do, that will change people's lives. And he knows he has to do that.

STU: Well, I mean, I -- generally, I think I agree with most of that.

I think that the health care is one, you could do.

Again, that's something you sign up for on an annual basis.

Even if the prices did drop, it would take a while for that to come in.

The easiest way to do this -- and he's, by the way, done a lot of this -- is deregulation. You know, I think what's happening with some of that. And we're not seeing tons and tons of results from that, is because I think he's doing things on the other side as well.

That are affecting prices the opposite way. So we're not going to see massive drops.

Of course, a lot of this -- there's a lot of big promises that are being made. When you talk about prices coming down, really fast. It's not always achievable.

The president of the United States. We said this for 100 million years, I feel like again, we're on repeat here. The president of the United States is not the guy that sets prices. That's not his job, right? He doesn't micromanage the economy.
He can do things that can help the economy. I think what's happening now, as you're pointing out. I think this is the desperation a little bit seeping into our politics.

Is that there were -- Trump won the election with a lot of people who had faith in him. Not because he was good on even the border or on -- you know -- you know, trans kids. You know, trans men playing women's sports. It was about -- it was that affordability issue. He was really good on that.

People believed that they would see an economy like they saw in 2018 to 2019, in his first term. And we're just so far, not really seeing that.

Now, there's a lot to unwind. From where Joe Biden was. And the way these prices work. When it comes to inflation. Is not necessarily that prices drop down.

That's what is so devastating about a long-term inflation like the one we got from Joe Biden.

The prices get to a set level.

You don't necessarily bring those prices down. As much as, you slow the increase.

Which is difficult.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: Again, one of the focuses of Trump's economic plan is to try to draw a lot of these products to be made in the United States.

As you point out, that is a long-term process.

You're talking about way after Donald Trump is -- is out of office, before you're seeing the -- what -- the potential theoretical benefits of new factories being built in the United States.

It's going to be to take a long time for that to work, if you believe it's going to work. When you're talking about the other side of that. Which is, you know, increasing prices, based on different taxes and such.

You're -- you're winding up with a situation where you're taking the medicine, and you're waiting for those results to kick in over multiple periods of years.

So I think the way he can do a lot of this stuff.

The best thing he can do in a quick way. Is cutting regulation.

You can cut out a lot of this stuff, to increase the speed of the improvement. Like, you want to build a new power plant. He can cut those things from 12 years, to four!

But that's not going to -- it's not an immediate, you know, economic win.

GLENN: No.

STU: What you're talking about.

GLENN: The country has cancer. That's the problem. The country has cancer.

And we can survive. But it's -- going to take chemotherapy and a long time. And so you can't just go in.

If you have cancer, you can't go in and say, well, you know, you told me yesterday, you were going to start chemotherapy, and I had my first chemotherapy, and I feel worse.

And I'm not getting any better.

"It's been six months, Doc. And I'm not feeling any better."

Yeah. You're not going to feel any better at first. Because it's a serious disease. That's the issue that we're dealing with. The damage -- and we said this under Biden. We said this under the first Trump. We said this under Bush. You know, Reagan was saying this. At some point, the -- the sickness is going to be so bad, that there's not going to be anything that feels good to do. And it's going to get harder and harder to take the medicine.
And unfortunately, you know, everybody wants a quick fix. You know, when Reagan came in. And everything was out of control, you remember what Paul Volcker did?

You remember this, Stu?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: You weren't old enough. But you know it through history. What did he do?

STU: He had to get rid of inflation. That meant jacking up rates. And that was a painful period.

GLENN: To what? To what?

STU: Eighteen to 20 percent, in that range.

GLENN: I think at the top it was 20 percent interest rates. I remember 19 percent interest rates. Nineteen. People are freaking out over five or six. We had 19 percent interest rates. That stopped everybody from buying. You want to talk about not being able to afford a house.

That was it! But that's what sucked all of that money back in.

Well, you can't do that right now. Because the patient is so sick, you can't -- those interest rates will kill everything. It will kill all the jobs.

The whole thing will collapse. So you can't do that. But we're complaining on 5 percent. You know, and we're wanting them lower and lower and lower and lower.

Well, yes.

I want that too. Because there are signs that jobs are going away. But jobs going away is not just the interest rate. It is also AI and automation.

We are in this really ugly place, that we don't have these honest questions, and really explain to each other, exactly what's -- what all of the forces are. You're going to get socialism.

Because that will seem like the only answer.

Just make it stop. Just make it stop.

Well, okay.

But know what all of the forces are that are causing all of these things.

And there is a way out of it.

It just cannot be done in two years!

It can't be!