Glenn Beck: The Perfect Storm Of Deceit

Written by Administrator on 05 December 2010.

As a former Glenn Beck fan, I resent that fact that he continuously says that those who say he is full of it only do so because they don't watch (or listen to) the show. I used to be an avid listener to the radio show, now I occasionally listen to his tv show on sirius radio. Glenn likes to challenge people to prove him wrong. Consider this the challenge being met.

I'm going to start off with Glenn Beck making the case that our military is underpaid while our politicians are overpaid. While, as a former Marine, I happen to agree with that point, I do not agree with his use of lies and deception to make the point. First, here is Glenn.

Do you know what the base salary is for six years of experience — six years of experience in the U.S. Army? You're a private in the Army. You've been in service of your country for six years. It is $19,465.

Now, what's the poverty level in America? Let's say you have a family of four — a family of four. The poverty level for a family of four is $44,100.

By the way, poverty level for one person, according to the U.S. government, is $21,660. These guys are in poverty whether it's one person or a family of four.

Now, people will say well, yes, but they get government housing. Do they? Really? Government housing. And that covers — that covers — that makes up this difference?

Yes, but they get health care. Oh, yes, you mean the healthcare they're now looking to charge our soldiers for. That free health care.

Need I also remind you $175,000 is what a congressman makes? Don't talk to me about poverty and don't talk to me about freezing their salaries. These people are risking their lives. These people are getting rich.

You want to talk about the rich? Let's talk about Congress, shall we? I don't have a problem with being rich. You earn your money.

Let's start with an Army private that has been serving in the Army for six years. How does that even happen? As you can see here, E-2 through E-4 are time in grade/service promotions.Hence, barring disciplinary problems, all one has to do is show up and they would be an E-4 after 2 years. Thus, while it is possible to be a 6 year Private, it can only happen as a result of problems brought about on oneself. But, we will use Glenn's six year private anyway.

Now, it is true that for this private, his annual income would be $19,465.20. However, he does also get a little more than housing and medical. He also gets dental benefits and the GI bill for his college. He also receives a meal card that allows him to eat all of his meals free on base. But this is all assuming he is the individual in discussion. If indeed it is a family of 4, does this private make the same amount? Not exactly. He then has the option to either have base housing provided for him, or receive basic allowance for housing which would increase his pay by up to $3,000 a month, depending on where he is stationed. This would increase his annual income to potentially as high as $55,465.

The deception starts with using a six year private. In 2 years, an average member of the Army would have achieved the rank of E-4 and receive a base annual salary of $27,525.60. This number was inconvenient for Glenn, because it exceeds the poverty level by nearly $6,000. So he uses an unrealistic scenario, then downplays the benefits of housing, meals, and full medical coverage at no cost, and implies that our servicemen are paid below the poverty level. Anyone reading this likely pays either rent or a mortgage, they presumably eat, and they may even have to pay for their health insurance. Hence, I will allow you to do your own math on what these things cost you monthly and add that to the above stated salary to come to a conclusion on what these guys are actually paid.

Furthermore, it is ludicrous to compare the salary of the lowest ranking trouble maker in the army to that of one of our highest ranking Government officials. So, while a Congressman does make $175,000 it is reasonable to expect that a person old and experienced enough to serve there would make more than a guy young and dumb enough to be a 6 year private. I believe it would be much fairer to compare them to an Army Colonel with 20 years experience, who would receive a salary of $109,148.40 a year or even a General with 30 years who would earn $203,270.40 a year. I'm all for paying our Military a decent wage. God knows they earn it. But can we at least look at the issue realistically?

(if you wish to check my numbers, see this military pay chart)

Bailing Out The Globe

But this is calm compared to his Friday December 3rd show from Pittsburgh, where Glenn made the most idiotic case for (this is my guess here) how Texas would secede from the Union. I'm only guessing that this was his point, because it was the conclusion of his hour of mindless banter. Here are some of the highlights, make sense of them if you can. The entire transcript can be found here. Remember, I am only dealing with the lies and deception here, not the stupid statements. In this case, however, they tend to overlap so excuse me if I stray for a good laugh here and there.

Laugh #1. (notice how quickly I got to that)

We are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, because tonight, in movie theaters all across the country, we're going to fill this theater with about 3,000 people and we're going to talk about the greatest American car ever built, the Mustang.

This is — this is what it is. It's a Mustang. Unfortunately, we have taken this Mustang. We put bus parts on it and now — now, it's not running right and people are saying, gee, I don't know. I hate this Mustang, maybe we should just throw the whole thing out.

No, before we throw out our system, capitalism, maybe we should look what it really is. And maybe we should decide. We should decide.

That isn't a joke, that is really how he started the show. Capitalism is a mustang, Obamanomics is a mustang with bus parts on it. I guess? Couldn't it just be sub standard after market replacement parts? Anyway, I digress.

What Glenn is doing here is trying to make a comparison between the European Union and the United States. Here is how he lays out this flawed parallel. If you read the transcript, you will notice I'm going to skip a big chunk here to show how he draws this.

BECK: Come here. Greece is a state of the European Union.

BUCKNER: It is.

BECK: They're a capital S. It's a state, OK? A sovereign nation. So, it's a state in the European Union. Tell me about Greece.

(skip)

BECK: You understand so far? Two-point-five percent can stop the world's largest economy. So, that would then domino into the rest of the world.

Now, let me show you the small "s" state, because that's really — that's the difference, E.U., they got all the stars on the flag just like our original, have all the stars on the flag. They're just capital "S" state, small "s" state. But it's the same exact concept. We have 50 of them.

California makes up this. Greece is 2.5 of the E.U. economy.

Is it the same exact concept? Not exactly. In fact, not even close. First of all, the European Union is not responsible for the defense of the countries in the Union. Furthermore, many of the laws enacted, although being official laws of the EU, have to be adopted by each member country before they apply in that country. There are many other differences that I won't take the time to lay out here, because it is more important to notice how he is trying to compare the two.

BECK: How about this? You have to really think out of the box for this one. That Germany says, we are Germans! And we were the ones that had the right idea we lived our life? And they start to do the exact opposite of what they're now being forced to do, join or die, and they get pissed off at the rest of Europe for forcing them to lose their lifestyle, and you start heading in towards nationalism again.

(skip)

BECK: Let's go back to the United States analogy here. Germany, what did I say was a state in the United States?

BUCKNER: Texas.

BECK: You've ever been to Texas? You know Texans.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes.

BECK: Texas are like, we're Texas. We're Texans. You want to do that little thing in California, you do that little thing in California, we'll kick your ass.

(LAUGHTER)

BECK: That's the way they are, right? And they're not — they're not bad people. But they are proud of Texas.

Now, if we force Texas to bail out New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California, do you think Texans are going to say, "You know what, I'm cool with that"? Or are they going to say, "I don't want anything to do with you guys"?

It's not nationalism. It's statism, if you will. It's self- preservation. It's self-preservation.

The usage here is an important distinction, and it shows Glenn Beck's deception here. In the EU, the member countries come together to decide if and on what terms they should bail out a member nation. In the United States, however, we don't have a meeting of the States in which we decide that certain states will bail out certain other states. To compare the two processes in this manner is deceitful. His conclusion, however, borders on complete fraud.

You see, a bailout is the giving of money from one entity to another to keep the recipient solvent. Are some states currently sending money to other states to keep them solvent? Of course they are. In the United States, we don't take money from one State to give to another, we tax each individual citizen and then return the money to States, a much different way of redistributing wealth than that of the EU. Hence, we can determine if a State is being bailed out by seeing how much they send to Washington and how much they get back. You can see where each State ranks here.

Using this list, you can see what States your State is bailing out. For example, New Mexico is getting $2.03 back for every dollar they send to Washington. That money is coming from the people of States who see less money returned than what they sent out. So yes, Texas is already bailing out New Mexico. What is interesting, however, is the States mentioned by Glenn Beck. For every dollar they send to Washington, they are getting (New Jersey) .61, (Illinois) .75, (New York) .79, and (California) .78 back. So, where does Texas rank on this list? You guessed it, above each of these states. Texas gets $0.94 back for every dollar it sends to Washington. Hence, it would be fair to say that New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California are already bailing out other States. As is Texas, to a much smaller degree.

Now I realize that the goal of Glenn Beck is to monger fear, and the truth is completely irrelevant to this mission. But what I do get sick and tired of is Beck's little cyber followers running around acting like they are the enlightened ones. Do the math, folks.  It is easy to create a rabbit trail of logic and send uninformed people to sniff it out. It is much harder to look at a situation and figure out what is really going on.

Glenn Beck says that so many of his predictions have already come true. Examples? Clothes and food will become more expensive. And? When hasn't that been true. When he tries to get into more precise and detailed predictions, his rate of accuracy goes way down. He predicted on 9 August 2006 that 22 August 2006 would be "... the day that Israel might be wiped off the map, leading to all-out Armageddon. ... [It] could be the day that Agnostics get down on one knee and start to pray, 'Sweet Jesus, are you coming today'? " As is evidenced by the fact that you are reading this, he was way off there.  The point of concern is the lies and deception Glenn uses to exploit the fears of his audience in these tough economic times.

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