Glenn Beck And Judge Napolitano: Raising Debt Ceiling “Beginning Of The End” Of GOP
Glenn Beck appeared on Judge Napolitano‘s show Freedom Watch and they agreed that if the debt ceiling is raised then no lessons have been learned by the big spending Congress. Despite the warning of Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, that not raising the ceiling would be “catastrophic” and “insanity,” both Beck and Napolitano seemed willing to accept such an “insane catastrophe” presumably because that’s the only thing that will scare our nation straight.
Beck, however, was a bit more cautious, elaborating:
The day they say we will not raise the debt ceiling, the rest of the world flees from America I believe . . . we owe that money . . . so that means we crash things, which I believe is inevitable, but I don’t think America is prepared for it.
Yet for Napolitano it’s an easy decision, “the debt ceiling should not be raised, it’s the President’s job to spend the money he collects.” Only then does Napolitano think the government will actually make the tough choices of cutting spending and would he be happy that “nobody will lend us money in the future and we will have to stick within our means.” At first Beck seemed hesitant to recommend such a radical proposal, yet by the end he seemed convinced and said it would be “the beginning of the end of the Republicans” if they agreed to raise the ceiling.
As intelligently noted at Hot Air, defaulting on one’s debts is not exactly “fiscally conservative,” not to mention the wisdom of following this advice is doubtful given that a Republican-induced economic collapse would likely be more painful for the future of the Republican party than would making compromises to raise the ceiling in return for serious spending cuts. Yet the luxury of being a television host like Beck and Napolitano is that their primary concern is not what is politically best for Republicans. Cynics might argue they are only concerned with saying extreme things to pump up their own ratings, but what seems more likely is that they have the benefit of being able to say what they truly think is best for the country without needing to fear any of the real-world consequences. Either way, the one thing Republican leaders should take away from this exchange is that if they don’t fight hard during the debt ceiling debate they will have at least two Fox hosts who are not going to be happy.
Watch the clip from Fox Business Network below:
