Glenn Beck breaks down the newly proposed “Trump Accounts” and explains why this seemingly good idea hides a dangerous flaw that America has seen before. Drawing parallels to Thomas Paine’s rejected 1797 proposal and the Founders’ refusal to endorse redistribution, Glenn warns that once a federal entitlement is created, it never stops expanding, especially once future administrations take control. He argues that this is a line the Right cannot cross without paying a heavy price in the future. Is America about to open a door it can’t close...
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I want to talk about the Trump, you know, savings account or what is that called. Savings. Trump accounts. I -- I want to talk to somebody. And so they're -- they're lining up today, hopefully for the show today. They're lining up the person that actually was the designer of these Trump accounts.
And I want to -- I want to ask him about, what's the difference between this and Thomas Paine?
You know, Thomas Paine. Do you know what it was called? When he -- he suggested it in 1797 and it was basically a Trump account. When you turned -- and, I think, let me look at this here.
Was it 1521? I can't remember.
Yeah, at age 21, for a start-in life, you got 15 pounds. That's about $3,000 today.
Then you get 10 pounds per year after 50, for a retirement.
The problem was, the Founders, they rejected this -- just, right wholesale. Just nope!
It didn't get very far. And that's because they were like, no, you're raising taxes. On, what? Inheritance.
If you had money, they wanted to add a 10 percent tax to what you were going to pass to your children. So then that would go to others. And they were like, that's redistribution of wealth. We have no right to do that. No right to do that.
At all. So, no. We're not doing it. But you know what they called it?
You know what Thomas Paine called it? You want to talk about things just repeating over and over and over again.
He called it agrarian justice. It was social justice.
It was farm justice. Land justice.
Isn't that incredible?
STU: Yeah. The whole thing makes me very nervous.
I have to be honest with you.
You go back, obviously to the historical basis of it.
It doesn't seem. Like, a founder liked it.
It's not without any bases in our history.
GLENN: Thomas Paine was not a founder.
No. No. No.
It's very -- and I learned this.
It's actually a tight group. To be a Founder, you had to be one of them that signed the Declaration of Independence, or helped write it.
And also, the Constitution!
So to be a Founder, you had to be involved in one of those two moments. And he wasn't.
He was very important.
STU: Okay.
GLENN: But he was not a Founder.
STU: I do think of him in that category.
As an influence. But not maybe technically accurate.
GLENN: Influence. Okay.
STU: I think about the modern consequences of it as well.
Because, yeah. Sure, we can say it's a thousand dollars now. What happens when God, Gavin Newsom gets control of this program. What happens when, you know, some leftist, they're going to -- every Congress is going to have a new argument about how they want to expand that accounts. Not thousands. It's 3500. It's 6200. It's 8500. It will continue to go up, year after year after year after year. And it will be almost impossible to oppose.
GLENN: So here's where it did pass. It passed in the 1860s. Something like his agrarian justice passed. But it was called the homestead act.
And that was different because we wanted to settle the West. We had all of this land. We wanted to settle. And so we would give you the land. But you had to work and improve the land.
So the government. The country got something out of it. We had all this land, you can go settle it.
You can have a plot of land. However many acres. But you have to do something with it. You have to improve the land, because that will improve everybody ever seen lot in life. Okay?
The next thing that we did that was like this, was GI Bill.
But if you were in war, you got education. You did something for that. You weren't just born.
That's the problem with these things.
You can't just say no. Because then it becomes a right. And rights continue to grow and grow and grow. Rights are given by God. You don't have a right to this.
STU: Is there a reason -- there's a reason why the left keeps saying health care is a right. Right?
GLENN: Yeah, exactly right.
STU: Because once people are convinced of that, they can grow it to any level -- and have any level of control over you and your money.
GLENN: Yep. Yep.
STU: But there is a movement on the right, that is relatively defined at this point. I'm curious to see where Mike Lee is on the accounts. Senator Mike Lee from Utah, at times, talks about certain tax breaks, making for families and trying to improve those. And his -- the opinion there. And I think this is a growing movement on the right. Which is, we need to take steps through the government, to encourage the nuclear family.
To encourage things we think are good. Right?
The government should step in and work toward goals, that are -- that we believe are good. Rather than just letting the free market kind of run itself. And that's been a debate on the right obviously. That's been going on for the past few years. Do you happen to know where Mike Lee is on that?
GLENN: I just texted him. I'll see if he texted me back there.
STU: I was going to Google it. I'll just text him. That's much better.
GLENN: I guess I could Google.
STU: Yeah, no.
GLENN: He's probably like, why don't you just Google it?
STU: That --
GLENN: It will be easier to have you write it to me.
STU: It is an interesting thought. Because I think the motivation here by Trump is -- is good, right?
He's trying to say, hey, kids, get a positive start in life.
GLENN: No.
STU: Obviously savings is good. Sometimes parents start off on the wrong foot, they're not able to save for their kids. I get the motivation being good. Obviously, we could see how this spirals out of control. It's not the way the government is supposed to run in my view. The concern level for me on these is massively high.
GLENN: And rightfully so. Because you're absolutely right. What it starts as is not necessarily what it's going to end as.
And what other doors open up because of this.
And that's -- that's my biggest concern -- so he says I haven't spoken about them.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: But between you and me. So I'm not going to tell you. Between you and me.
STU: I was going to say, please just don't just read this text cold.
GLENN: No. When we get into the break, I'll write it back. With what can I say about your opinion?
STU: Yeah. That's interesting.
GLENN: It's the interesting. What I'm reading from him is actually interesting.
STU: Tilt that screen.
GLENN: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
But, anyway, yeah.
I mean, the -- the idea is noble. And it is good.
It's -- it's honestly.
It's -- it's a little like getting rid of the filibuster.
If you return the filibuster back to what it was, before the progressives destroyed it. So you had to stand up, and you had to make your case.
And as long as you could stand there, you can make your case, and you can stop things. But the progressives got rid of all that. Okay?
Now, you don't even have to stand there.
Just vote on a filibuster.
Yeah. I don't even know. But if you want to return it to the way it was. Which was nothing, but a break. It was not a stop.
It was a break.
So you could -- you could slow the system down, so people could go, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
I disagree with this. You know, let's -- let's rally the people. And let's rethink this.
That's good.
But to get rid of it, it might be good for us right now. I can guarantee you, it will be very bad for us in the future.
Because you're not going to have control of the House and the Senate.
You're just not. And when they have it, I mean, that's what they wanted to do. And we were against it. And we were against it because we know what they would have done with it. Well, you're going to have it. And then, what?
And then when you lose it, what do you think they're going to do with it?
You just can't cross these lines. Because it -- it will come back to roost with you. And you won't like it. This is why -- this is -- we say this all the time.
You can't -- the Constitution cuts both ways. You know it's Constitutional -- you know, when you look at something and go, oh, I really want that to happen, but it's not constitutional. Okay.
Then we don't do it. Because the Constitution will slap you in the face sometimes. And be your best friend the other time. It cuts both ways. It doesn't cut the way you always want it to.
That's the problem. People try to make the Constitution. And our system into something that always serves us.
Well, it doesn't.
It will serve the other side. It will serf the purpose that is across to your purpose every once in a while.
But it's steadfast.
It's always based on something real, and eternal. Not your emotions. Not what you want to happen. But what is the best system of fairness man has ever devised. And once you start getting into the mix of that. You are going to screw everything up.
And that is why our country is in the mess it's in.
STU: I think, Glenn, too. When you break the seal for a thing like Trump accounts. You just wind up with all.
Medicare is a good example of this to me.
Medicare is this program. Obviously, even though a Democrat started it. Like, in theory, outside of their behind the scenes motivation of wanting to expand the government and all of that.
Of course, it's a good motivation for health care for seniors. Right? Of course.
GLENN: Yes. Yes.
STU: And also, I will say this, you know, when Medicare Part D comes out.
Which is the medicine, prescription drugs.
And that was a massive expansion of Medicare. That happened under a Republican.
And while I don't want that massive expansion, once you have Medicare, how is there not a Medicare part D? How is there not a prescription drug part of it?
GLENN: So that is my case, and we're seeing it now. Once you have Obamacare. Once you have universal.
Then you have the right to tell people. You must tell people, you can't have that food!
You can't have it. Because it's costing all of us money.
Your health is now -- it now involves all of us.
So now, how do you have that? It's just this horrible slope, that once you start going down. It's logical. You just to have logically think it all the way through. And not say, that will never happen.
Because it always does.





