FOX "The Glen Beck Program" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. BECK: It turns out their (EPA) recent finding that CO2 is a hazard to your health, it may not be so dangerous after all. Our next guest says he has a smoking gun to prove the point, senator from Wyoming John Barrasso.

Hello, Senator. How are you, sir?

SEN. BARRASSO: Great to be with you. I am so encouraged and so happy with what you're doing to call attention to this very problem because you absolutely have an Environmental Protection Agency that is playing politics -- politics -- over science and over our economy.

MR. BECK: Okay, first of all, let me start with what they're going to say. They're going to immediately say, oh, no, come on, this was written by a George Bush hack, this memo, this smoking gun that you have. So let's address that right off the bat. Who wrote this memo?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, this is a memo put together by a number of attorneys. On the top of the memo, it says attorney-client privilege, but then they release the name of one person who works for the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, and they said it's a George Bush hack. Well, I will tell you this is somebody who actually got that job, Glenn, with Bill Clinton and served six years with Bill Clinton and then served eight years with George Bush. This is a career individual in this office, has been promoted four different times, and most recently was promoted in the last year.

MR. BECK: George Bush, you know, we all know how he felt about the environment. And then Bill Clinton, I mean, he hated the environment. Who did he have around him? Besides Al Gore, forget about that. Okay, let me go into the memo, and here are some of the things they say. The EPA memo on serious economic consequences -- making the decision to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act for the first time is likely to have serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the U.S. economy, including small businesses and small communities. Can you explain that? What does that mean?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, it means if you put a bill in place or they put in regulations that affect carbon dioxide, it's going to affect any building, nursing home, small business, anyone that emits carbon dioxide, and they're going to tax it. And if they don't, then they're going to get sued by different environmental groups for not taxing it. So I think the Environmental Protection Agency was way off base by saying they're going to call carbon dioxide a pollutant and then try to regulate it. What they're really trying to do, Glenn, is use this as a club to force cap-and-trade taxes.

MR. BECK: Okay. I mean, I have to tell you, you know, I don't know what kind of serious harm to the economy it would cause. According to that extreme right-wing organization the Congressional Budget Office, they said this will cost the average U.S. household about $1,600. I mean, I don't know why --

SEN. BARRASSO: Every year, $1,600 a year.

MR. BECK: Where are we getting this idea that taxing people in this economy, taxing people like this at any time is something that's good for America?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, they claim they're on a higher plane saving the planet. But I just don't buy it, and I don't think the American people buy it. The American people will tell you they think this whole thing is way overexaggerated.

MR. BECK: The more we hear about it, the lower the polls go, because people are always saying, we can't debate it, the debate is over. We're not buying it. The American people are farther and farther away from global warming and cap and trade and everything else, but the government still continues to move forward. Any idea?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, they want the tax dollars.

MR. BECK: Any idea on how to stop it?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, yeah, by exposing them in the committee, like I did yesterday with that smoking-gun memo and saying, hey, look, the science isn't behind you, you're making these claims. Glenn, I don't believe anybody that voted for this Clean Air Act a number of years ago had any idea or any conception that carbon dioxide would be used and called a pollutant. This memo goes so far as it says, if you're going to call that a pollutant, well, then you ought to call electromagnetic waves and noise a pollutant and maybe regulate that, too.

MR. BECK: They do. It's in New York. They do. Okay, Senator, thank you so much.

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