Bennett vs. Beck
[Posted by Karl]
Bill Bennett was not a fan of Glenn Beck’s speech at CPAC last night. He has three criticisms — all worthy of discussion — but the second one is probably the most important:
[F]or him to continue to say that he does not hear the Republican party admit its failings or problems is to ignore some of the loudest and brightest lights in the party. From Jim DeMint to Tom Coburn to Mike Pence to Paul Ryan, any number of Republicans have admitted the excesses of the party and done constructive and serious work to correct them and find and promote solutions. Even John McCain has said again and again that “the Republican party lost its way.” These leaders, and many others, have been offering real proposals, not ill-informed muttering diatribes that can’t distinguish between conservative and liberal, free enterprise and controlled markets, or night and day. Does Glenn truly believe there is no difference between a Tom Coburn, for example, and a Harry Reid or a Charles Schumer or a Barbara Boxer? Between a Paul Ryan or Michele Bachmann and a Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank?
***
To say the GOP and the Democrats are no different, to say the GOP needs to hit a recovery-program-type bottom and hang its head in remorse, is to delay our own country’s recovery from the problems the Democratic left is inflicting. The stakes are too important to go through that kind of exercise, which will ultimately go nowhere anyway — because it’s already happened.
I doubt Beck would deny that there is a difference between Michelle Bachman and Barney Frank. However, the Congressional Republican party’s record on spending and growing government during the G. W. Bush administration looks good only by comparison to the Obama administration’s plans. So Bennett ought to forgive those who are skeptical of the GOP’s current contrition. The party has not been led by the Coburns, Bachmans or Ryans.
On the other hand, Beck should acknowledge that it is not clear that the GOP would fare better if it took a couple of electoral victories as a mandate to implement a Tea Party agenda, either. Buried in a Pew poll (on science, of all things) from last summer (starting on pp. 15 of the questionnaire), you will find an overwhelming disinclination to cut spending on most any part of the federal budget. Only 2% support cuts in Social Security. Only 18% support cuts in the military (small comfort for most Republicans). Only 15% support cutting unemployment (and that number is likely lower today). Only 6% support cutting Medicare. Only 10% support cutting Medicaid and other HHS spending. Those categories make up over 75% of the federal budget. And in most categories, the number who want increased spending exceeds those who want cuts.
Of course, Republicans would be more prone to propose freezes, or reductions in the rate of growth for various programs. However, anyone who saw the Republican Congress get derailed in over the government shutdown in 1995 knows how the establishment media will play it. Indeed, these days, Democrats are looking to turn Rep. Ryan’s “roadmap” into a budget for similar reasons. Should Republicans regain power over the next couple of elections, they will face the same temptation of over-reading their mandate that they faced in 1995 — and the Democrats have faced this year. Shrinking the size and influence of the State requires an ongoing effort to educate the public before a fiscal crisis forces truly painful choices on everyone. That will take the efforts of all of the Bennetts and Becks we can find.
–Karl
Glenn Beck is an entertainer and nothing more. He has more insight and is usually better informed than a Bill O’Reilly, but he is an entertainer who can – on occasion – educate.
GeneralMalaise (0428a9) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:13 am[…] Glenn Beck Delivers Keynote Speech To Enthusiastic CPAC Patterico’s Pontifications: Bennett vs. Beck Gateway Pundit: Glenn Beck Addresses CPAC 10 – Beats Up on GOP and Thanks Barack… Millions of […]
Powerful Stuff Here: Glenn Beck’s Complete Keynote Speech at CPAC (6-part video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:21 amI don’t care for much of what Bennett says these days, but Beck’s pretty much a bloviating windbag, just like Hannity and the rest of them (and that includes the lefty windbags). Either include honest and workable programs and solutions during your rants, or close your blowholes. They need to get behind Ryan’s plan, which the Dems and their loyal MSM syncophants are feverishly attempting to demagogue before the public’s even had a chance to see it.
Dmac (799abd) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:28 am“They need to get behind Ryan’s plan, which the Dems and their loyal MSM syncophants are feverishly attempting to demagogue before the public’s even had a chance to see it.”
Yes. Boldly push the Ryan plan. Vote on it. Campaign on it. Please.
imdw (d5778d) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:35 amBeck is entertaining and says many worthwhile things although I don’t watch his show. His speech at CPAC was a bit over the top but he does have a point that Republicans are going to have to get serious about spending or they will lose the libertarian wing that is at the base of the tea parties.
There are a number of ways to cut spending. One is moving the age of Social Security eligibility back slowly. Medicare needs to be cut by setting a fixed fee schedule, much as they have done, but allowing doctors and hospitals to charge above the Medicare payment. That would introduce a market into the health care system and would work like France’s. That way, Medicare spending is stable per beneficiary. It will still rise as more people age but it would help.
There are about 300,000 federal employees who could be let go. Just freezing the budget would do a lot.
Mike K (2cf494) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:47 amPresident Big Zero is in a virtual tie with a no-name, generic Republican (i.e., “nobody”) when it comes to the 2012 election and the Democrats in Congress have NEVER POLLED LOWER.
How’s that Hope and Change® thing working for ya, imdw? Looks like your own backyard needs a clean-up… may even require the EPA.
GeneralMalaise (0428a9) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:51 amKarl, and what does the Pew survey prove? Only that we have become addicted to government handouts, provided by the ability of the federal government to pick the pockets of the producers to redistribute that wealth to the nonproducers.
And of all those agencies you referenced, HHS, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, the military, how many of them are really addressed in our Constitution? Do you really believe that welfare programs are Constitutional?
And what is the benefit of being beholding to the goverment? Do we give up a little bit of our natual rights everytime we take a check? When you accept public housing, are you not told where you can live?
John McCain may say that Republicans may have lost their way, but it seems to me he was leading the charge over the cliff. Nothing stunk more than his Shamnesty Bill. And yet, he says nothing about his best bud leading the charge for “cap and trade”, Lindsey Graham, a Republican, in spite of the recent revelations that the AGW books were being cooked. And why isn’t McCain, who has never taken an ear mark, not out banging the drum to get ALL Republicans to do the same? Or forcing a Constitutional litmus test for all legislation that is passed?
If Beck refers to the “drunk” analogy, it is only because he has been there and it is something he can relate to. How often do we all use personal experience to relate to a subject?
I understood what Beck was trying to say, although he may have put it into words that I would not have used. Yes, it is still “morning in America” but to say we are not suffering from a hang over of the previous days actions, is pure stupidity.
retire05 (1e885c) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:55 amPew did more to help perpetrate the global warming hoax than any other single organization what wasn’t NPR I think.
happyfeet (713679) — 2/21/2010 @ 11:59 am“How’s that Hope and Change® thing working for ya, imdw”
This was a line Palin’s speech wasn’t it? But now you’re going to tell me she didn’t come up with it?
imdw (de7003) — 2/21/2010 @ 12:06 pmPew also did a survey a few years ago that showed that illegal immigrants were crossing the border knowing what they were doing was illegal but that they were hoping the United States would pass an amnesty bill.
John McCain – an illegal immigrants dream date.
retire05 (1e885c) — 2/21/2010 @ 12:06 pmPew: Don’t forget their involvement in hyping the need for the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Lie!
Glenn Beck & Ratings: Somewhere, Paddy Chayefsky is smiling, for Glenn is, or appears to be, the real-life iteration of Howard Beale.
“…an ongoing effort to educate the public…” which is what responsible political leaders in a republic would do when they want to build public support for a change of direction in the country; unlike what the Progressives have attempted to do by just imposing their will on spending and taxes and the relationship of the Federal Govt to private enterprise.
AD - RtR/OS! (b35340) — 2/21/2010 @ 12:15 pm“Pew did more to help perpetrate the global warming hoax than any other single organization what wasn’t NPR I think”.
I think you are forgetting IPCC.
GeneralMalaise (0428a9) — 2/21/2010 @ 12:20 pm[…] Glenn Beck Delivers Keynote Speech To Enthusiastic CPAC Patterico’s Pontifications: Bennett vs. Beck Gateway Pundit: Glenn Beck Addresses CPAC 10 – Beats Up on GOP and Dick Cheney at CPAC: Obama […]
Ann Coulter Brings Down the House at CPAC… Quips That Sarah Palin Has Created More Jobs Than Obama (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 2/21/2010 @ 12:34 pmBill Bennett since I know you will see this.
In fairness, Pence and DeMint have always been saying what they are saying and the Republican establishment has blown them off.
If the GOP has stuck to what got thenm elected and listened to Pence and DeMint there would possibly have been no mortgage crists and no President Obama.
Chuck Norton (992e33) — 2/21/2010 @ 12:37 pmI know many are not fans of Pew. If anyone has a poll showing that Americans hunger to cut Social Security and Medicare, I will gladly link it.
Karl (bfd329) — 2/21/2010 @ 12:59 pmWhat you will probably find are polls of those generally under-50 who doubt whether there will be either of those programs when they are old enough to apply for them.
AD - RtR/OS! (b35340) — 2/21/2010 @ 1:10 pmThis is so much like Nigeria. I feel at home already!
Nigerian Observer (36e47a) — 2/21/2010 @ 1:16 pmBuried in a Pew poll (on science, of all things) from last summer (starting on pp. 15 of the questionnaire), you will find an overwhelming disinclination to cut spending on most any part of the federal budget.
A sign that a lot of people, in private, are guilty of behaving like limousine liberals, meaning they end up speaking out of both sides of their mouths? Certainly if when it comes to bloated budgeting they don’t consider themselves of the left?
Mark (411533) — 2/21/2010 @ 1:25 pmI would abolish Medicare and Medicaid altogether and establish free community hospitals and clinics, which provide free care and medicines, to anybody who walks in. Private doctors, hospitals, clinics and pharmacies would be free to compete as much as they’d like. Kind like the way our schools and universities work. This Medicare/Medicaid thing is more like a voucher system.
nk (db4a41) — 2/21/2010 @ 1:26 pm#15 – Karl, who said that Americans “hunger” to cut Social Security and Medicare? No one. But it doesn’t eliminate the fact that Americans have become more willing to allow the nanny state to take care of them, giving up certain freedom along the way.
If the federal governement would offer to give me back every dime I paid into Social Security and Medicare, along with every dime my employer paid into that system in my name, I would take it and run. Hell, they would not even have to give me any interest. Just the actual dollar amounts. And I would relinquish my claim to any further help from the federal government, giving up Medicare if they would change the law allowing my private insurance to remain as it is now, instead of forcing me on the Medicare rolls reducing an insurance benefit I worked all my life to have as a secondary benefit.
How much money would the federal government save if they allowed retirees, who negotiated for retirement insurance as part of their employee package, to keep that insurance as their primary insurer? but noooooo, we are all forced to use Medicare first.
It is not the government’s responsibility to protect us from ourselves.
retire05 (1e885c) — 2/21/2010 @ 1:34 pmI think that many people have gotten used to the free stuff. I work in the workers comp field and workers comp patients are notorious for never getting well and expecting workers comp to pay for everything. The only way to deal with this is to gradually reduce the things that are paid for and keep the payments fixed over time.
The doctors are staring to refuse Medicare patients and have been avoiding Medicaid patients for years. If Medicare would allow extra billing, also called balance billing, you would have a market system. Medicare would then become a voucher system without really any other change. Many doctors are going to the cash practice system and dropping out of Medicare since it doesn’t allow any balance billing. A voucher system would allow the poor to find doctors who will see them. Soon they will have a really hard time finding a doctor.
These things can be done because people are starting to understand that present course is unsustainable. Not everybody, but many.
Mike K (2cf494) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:00 pmBennett serves up a classic red herring in court bouillon. Beck delivered a traditional closing speech – a stem winder. Rouse the rabble and send them out ready to storm the ramparts. Did it rather well, too.
Roy Lofquist (96e89f) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:01 pm“This Medicare/Medicaid thing is more like a voucher system.”
The Ryan plan is to turn them into vouchers. And lower funding. At least medicare.
imdw (f7b257) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:03 pmBennett is correct about Beck’s projection of his personal demons onto the GOP. Bad form, indeed.
But Bennett is dead wrong as to the GOP’s recognition of the exact nature of its wrongs. Michael Steele is the clear leader of the party apparatchik and he continues to strike a moderate pose. More damning is the House and Senate GOP campaign committees continued endorsement and support of moderates over genuine conservatives on primary battles (Think NY 23). Where is the full-throated endorsement of Rubio in Florida?
The party itself refuses to change the calculus to a degree satisfactory to conservatives and continues to blur distinctions between the Dems and themselves. Beck overstated this truth, but Bennett is a fool, or is disingenuous, for not professing to understand that the GOP is failing in this regard.
Ed from SFV (f6a87d) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:07 pmMedicare will be bankrupt in less than a decade, at least if you go by those horrible Dem – appointed hacks at the CBO:
http://sayanythingblog.com/images/Trust_Fund_Accounting.pdf
So what’s your brillinat solution to save the system, cupcake?
Dmac (799abd) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:11 pm#19, how would fee for service clinics compete with free clinics? And who would pay for those free clinics? Do you think a doctor is really goint to spend approx. $250K for six years of education to work for free?
And if you think Medicare is working, explain why 52% of all doctors in Texas refuse to take it.
How about we get big mouthed liberals like George Soros, John Kerry, Barbara Streisand, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, et al, to pony up enough money to build clinics that charge according to income?
Naw, they would rather send their money off shore to avoid paying taxes on it.
retire05 (1e885c) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:12 pm“brilliant”
Dmac (799abd) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:13 pm11. Glenn Beck & Ratings: Somewhere, Paddy Chayefsky is smiling, for Glenn is, or appears to be, the real-life iteration of Howard Beale.
Often Beck comes across more along the lines of Soupy Sales– or more darkly, Lonesome Rhodes, than the ‘angry-profit-denouncing-the-hypocrisies-of-our-times’ Beale. But CNBC’s Cramer has the stink of ‘Sybil the Soothsayer.’ Chayefsky’s lampoon of television remains quite prescient. Watch and absorb ‘Network’ and you’ll view television, and particularly cable news, with a fresh perspective, and perhaps see ‘the corporate cosmology of Arthur Jensen’ at work.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:48 pmIMP is amazingly tiresome.
JD (ef0c18) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:55 pmBut CNBC’s Cramer has the stink of ‘Sybil the Soothsayer.’
…since Von Braun has actually crammed his face into Rush Limbaugh’s armpits, he’s an expert on all things stinky.
Watch and absorb ‘Network’ and you’ll view television, and particularly cable news, with a fresh perspective
…which Von Braun’s also an expert on, since he worked as a Men’s room attendant at CBS.
Dmac (799abd) — 2/21/2010 @ 2:59 pm— The party has not been led by the Coburns, Bachmans or Ryans. —
cboldt (60ea4a) — 2/21/2010 @ 3:18 pmThe party endorsed Specter, Dede Scozzafasa (or however it’s really spelled), etc. One can no more point to DeMint and Coburn as “the GOP” than one could point to one of the whack-job black lady Congresspeople as “the DEM party.”
Bill Bennett is a smart guy, and he has diminished his own credibility by insinuating that Beck is making comparisons of equivalence between “right side of the GOP” and “left side of the DEM;” specifically, in Bennett’s words, “Glenn truly believe there is no difference between a Tom Coburn, for example, and a Harry Reid or a Charles Schumer or a Barbara Boxer? Between a Paul Ryan or Michele Bachmann and a Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank?”
So, assuming the GOP hears the criticism, it’ll begin enunciating it’s specific legislative programs for the future, and at the same time, it’ll slough off vague comparisons and vague criticisms, such as Beck’s.
Bennett has not come to grips with his own demons, and Beck has. Beck is goofing on the Republican party that somehow sees Obama’s failure as a “victory” while continuing to do business as usual.
Please. In 1994, we all saw a chance for real change with Republican leadership. That chance was blown. Republicans need to own that, and no-names like DeMint, Coburn, Ryan etc. have no marquee value except to the few listeners of the Hugh Hewitt show.
Beck is an entertainer, yes. But dismissing his message, by putting him in the same category as a juggler or stripper, doesn’t make it any less true. Bennett, you have been part of the problem. Own it.
TimesDisliker (e9bdcc) — 2/21/2010 @ 3:46 pmBoth Democrats and Republicans demagogue any responsible attempt to cut spending. Remember how “Bush wants to cut your Social Security”? now it’s Obama wants to put your life in the hands of a “death panel”. It’s near total symmetry.
The bipartisan deficit panel is not particularly inspiring but what else can be done? congress is useless.
kieth nissen (98e299) — 2/21/2010 @ 4:37 pmKeith – explain to us how Obamacare is going to cut spending, or even the deficit for that matter.
JD (ff0edb) — 2/21/2010 @ 4:49 pmJD unless #33 is that rarissima avis, he cannot even spell his *own* pseudonym correctly …
How many kieth’s do *you* know ?
Methinks we see the Freudian spelling-slip of “kieth” … as testament to his veracity …
Alasdair (205079) — 2/21/2010 @ 8:53 pm> it is not clear that the GOP would fare better if it took a couple of electoral victories as a mandate to implement a Tea Party agenda, either.
This is a problem, of course, in that all too many people want to, indeed, have their cake and eat it, too.
Too many people out there have a sense of entitlement, too many think they can get everything the government promises and yet not have to pay the price.
I think one difference is that, when the GOP attempts to justify what they do, they’ll actually make the case for it with the people, and not ram it down everyone’s throats like the arrogant pr***s the Dems are.
IgotBupkis (79d71d) — 2/22/2010 @ 1:37 amThe one comment of Beck’s that Bennett needs to address is the it is not OK simply to “suck less” than the Democrats. Bush’s second term did great damage to the Republican Party in many ways.
Yes, Bush sucked less than Kerry would have, and the two appointments to the Court were good, but he still sucked.
Kevin Murphy (d1559d) — 2/22/2010 @ 7:01 amKevin,
the Republican brand was damaged by two things
1. An out of control Media willing to lie for Democrats
2. 9/11
If you examine the latest historical budget tables
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
From 2002-2006 the 5 years that Bush and the Repubs had nominal control over the fiscal agenda Bush ran deficits of 1.35 trillion for those 5 years, however in that same period for the first time since 1935 Federal Revenues dropped for several years in a role and significant numbers
revenues to Federal – All
2002 (from 2000) dropped 175 billion
2002 Deficit 153 billion
2003 dropped 243 billion
2003 Deficit 377 billion (100 billion Homelnd sec)
2004 dropped 145 billion
2004 Deficit 412 billion (Iraq war full blown)
2005 gained 128 billion
2005 Deficit 318 Billion
2006 gained 382 billion
2006 deficit 248 billion
Now Pelosi and Reid take over
2007 gained 543 billion
2007 Deficit 162 billion
2008 gained 498 Billion
2008 Deficit 410 billion
2009 gained 674 billion
2009 deficit 407 billion
Bushes Net increase in revenue over 2000 (before 9/11) was a loss of 53 billion – for 5 years revenues were actually less than the year 2000 we did not catch up and pass net revenues less lossess until 2007, which also when Pelosi and Reid took over running the fiscal managment of America
In those three years they had a boom of 1.715 trillion in receipts in three years vs a loss of .053 trillion for bush who actually in 5 years with no revenue growth spent 1.315 in deficit spending in 5 vs .967 trillion for the dems with 1.715 trillion more to spend than Bush
In Other words using 2000 as the ad naseum Clinton benchmark that pundits like to point to
Bush spent 1.273 trillion more in 5 years but the dems from 2007-2009 spent nearly 2.7 trillion or an avg of 240 billion for bush vs 900 billion a year for Pelosi and Reid
And that was BEFORE Obama
EricPWJohnson (87a18a) — 2/22/2010 @ 8:07 amBennett avoided addressing that comment by dishonestly mischaracterizing it as Beck saying that the parties were “no different.” Beck never said that, and Bennett should know better.
Alex (8d0e39) — 2/22/2010 @ 9:21 amBennett is being dishonest in his criticism. Beck made great points and his use of his personal life was very effective in making them. But frankly, you need a brain and some desire to listen to get it. Bennett struck out on this one IT SEEMS.
Notwithstanding, “sucking less than the other party” might not be a platform to win with but it is a statement of fact in the ballot box. And yes, Republicans should aim every day to suck less than Democrats — and by suck less be more Conservative.
HeavenSent (c3c032) — 2/22/2010 @ 11:51 am