'Glenn Beck': Who Is Donald Berwick?

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," July 8, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: I told you before I think Cass Sunstein is the most dangerous man in America. But tonight, I'd like to introduce you to number two.

The second most dangerous man in America — his name is Don Berwick. NPR called him something of a rock star in health policy circles.

That is great because he is your brand new head of Medicare and Medicaid services. Oh, grandpa, you're going to love this. You probably haven't heard of him because, well, President Obama bypassed the Senate confirmation process and just appointed him to the post. Enough of the pesky conference there in Congress.

Now, I want you to know this happens all the time. Ninety-nine percent of presidential appointees are — well, they go through the whole process by the Senate. But there is that wealthiest one percent like him that doesn't go through.

The media is no longer interested in this story, which is strange because the media was all over the Berwick appointment when they were concerned about Berwick making it through the appointment process. It's almost like — it's almost like they are doing the bidding of the White House.

The Washington Post called Berwick, quote, "The most important health care reformer you've probably never heard of." Here it is. It's great. Oh, boy. They said the chances he moves smoothly through the process are next to zero.

Little did they know they've got a friend in the White House. Post also reported, quote, "Nominee to lead Medicare-Medicare group may face tough hurdles." New York Times also reported the confirmation fight on health chief, "Dr. Berwick" faces a long, uphill struggle to win Senate confirmation.

Reuters — Reuters, they said, He's likely to face a tough confirmation fight in the U.S. Senate. Yes. Yes. Why were they so concerned? Well, maybe that he's a revolutionary. Oh, boy. Did I say that? I did.

But so did The Boston Globe. They did a story on Berwick. They called him the revolutionary. They went on to say, "The deeper Berwick has gotten into the problem over the last decade, the more radicalized he's become. His conclusion — to save the health care system."

Not Medicare and Medicaid — the health care system. It first needs to be blown up. How? That's like, to save the free market, I've got to abandon the free market. Oh, that one is working out well, isn't it?

So not only does he want to blow up the best health care system in the world — not perfect, but the best in the world — his idea of a fix is to make our system just like Great Britain's health care system.

He says he is, quote, "in love" with NHS. He went on to explain it's a global treasure. And, quote, "It's such a seductress," end quote. Hey, Don, seductress? I think of maybe Angelina Jolie. Oh, yes. She scares me, but she is a seductress, OK?

Britain's health care, I say about as sexy as — I don't know. You know what I'm saying? Not real sexy. Unless you define seductress as pregnant woman being forced to give birth in hospital corridor. Yes, that's right.

After being turned away from two other hospitals when they go into labor, like Emma Johnson at the Princess Royal Hospital. Or if you think you are turned on by this story, think how aroused you're going to be about the story of a 22-year-old man who died of thirst in at St. George's Hospital in South London after being neglected by the staff.

He called for help. When emergency personnel arrived they were told by the hospital staff that he was fine. He wasn't. No.

If that is your Angelina Jolie — whatever floats your boat, Don, but I'm not crawling into bed with you. You know what I'm saying? Sounds a little Jack Kevorkian to me.

Now, here he is giving a prep talk to British audience, patting them on the back, because, hey, they could have done what we did with health care, but no, no. They didn't. Watch him:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DONALD BERWICK, ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: You could have let an unaccountable system play out in the darkness of the private enterprise instead of accepting that a politically accountable system must act in the harsh and admittedly sometimes very unfair daylight of the press, public debate, and political campaigning.

You could have had a monstrous insurance industry of claims and rules and paper-pushing instead of using your tax base to provide a single route of finance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Oh, boy. That sounds — I am so hot right now. How about you? The darkness of private enterprise. Oh, wow. Again, what horrible luck President Obama has. Here is another guy that he directly appoints to head up an agency that will disburse more than $800 billion in benefits. That's larger than Denmark, South Africa, and the Israeli economies combined.

And again — what horrible luck. He's a global redistribution of wealth socialist guy. Wow. Well, remember when I told you last year the healthcare reform was all about the redistribution of wealth?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: What these bills are about here — this health care stuff — what this is about — this is about redistribution of wealth in America. That's what this is about.

This will take money from the poor. It will take good healthcare and destroy it and it will suck nationwide. It's also about destroying businesses and any kind of wealth in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Well, The New Yorker — they caught me. There is that story with my big fat face on it. A year ago, they wrote this about me, "His ratings have gone up, from his bottomless grab bag of fear-mongering, and insightful" — I don't think they mean that in a good way — "insightful comments about the coming redistribution of wealth."

What fear mongering. What could I have possibly been thinking? We need to clear it up right from the horse's mouth, from the guy who Obama has just appointed the head of Medicare and Medicaid. He'll straighten this out. Don Berwick — let's hear it for Don:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERWICK: Any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must — must — redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent healthcare is by definition re-distributional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Do I need to say anymore? I think that pretty much puts me in my place, doesn't it? Now, how does the president respond to this blatant socialist running our health care system? Oh, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: All right. The president has just skipped the confirmation process for Donald Berwick, an expert in health care rationing. He's called for it. He said we have to do it. OK. That's cool. But I was told that we didn't have to worry about that under Obama-care. In fact, do you remember when the president said this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I recognize there is an underlying fear here that people somehow won't get the care they need. You will have not only the care you need, but the care that right now is being denied to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Here is Berwick on rationing, quote: "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care. The decision will be whether we ration care with our eyes open."

Mark my words, complete lives system. No one in The New York Times will even know what that is. But you will because we talked about it a year ago. It confirms everything that we said. Everyone, everyone, everyone denied this except for Fox News and a CNS reporter who actually asked Robert Gibbs about his confidence in Berwick's nomination considering his rationing comment. Showed to you earlier, here's the Gibbs' response again:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Is there like a secret comment book that somehow you got that nobody else got and you just read a couple to me and somehow they wouldn't have come out? Did he — did he say things like, "Rationing happens today; the question is who will do it"? Did he say that? Did he say that?

FRED LUCAS, CNS REPORTER: There was one comment —

GIBBS: That was Paul Ryan. That was Paul Ryan. He's a Republican in Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: He was prepared for this question — marginalized, attacked. Secret. This is — what's his name? The most dangerous name in America — Cass Sunstein. Cass Sunstein — make them to look like conspiracy theories. It's true. He's made to look like a conspiracy theory and then he was armed with very specific Paul Ryan quotes.

Wow. They were preparing a defense. They knew this was going to be easy so they forced him through and then prepared the defense. Marginalized, make him any conspiracy theories, and notice how the press laughed.

The White House said they wanted to avoid political games and stall tactics of the Republicans. But the truth is, the Republicans weren't stalling this hearing. The Republicans wanted the hearing.

It only helps them to have a socialist rationing guy in charge of the healthcare for Medicare and Medicaid getting grilled. You think grandma and grandpa are going to like that one? I don't think so.

Not one hearing was scheduled. Not one hearing was called, because the Democrats would be completely humiliated by this guy and so it was they who were stalling, those guys that were avoiding.

All this has proven is the Congress is becoming completely irrelevant. I told you this a year ago. Congress, please, listen. One branch is eating all of the other branches. The government is going — the president is going around you.

Too much executive power is no good. I don't care if it's George Bush or Ronald Reagan. Not so much power in one branch. When will someone in the media, and more importantly, people in Congress start to realize this and actually start to stop it and report on it?

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