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| On The O'Reilly Factor...
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| All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.
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"Whenever something bad happens, some bozo will call it a 'learning experience.' With the government shutdown, it's true. I learned that 93% of the workers at the Environmental Protection Agency are 'non-essential.' I didn't major in math, but I'm pretty sure that's more than nine out of ten. That makes the EPA about as necessary as shoulder pads on a snake. So we have learned the difference between 'essential' and 'non-essential' in government. In a private business a non-essential employee would be a non-employee. A non-essential employee is what you get when you feed cash into a bloated bureaucracy without ever designating its necessity. Those EPA jobs are there simply because they can be, but also to insure the survival of a ravenous bureaucracy. It's a lot like the movie 'The Blob,' but without the happy ending."
Greg invited reaction from Tea Party official Scottie Nell Hughes and liberal talk show host Richard Fowler. "If a small business is in a crunch," Hughes said, "they go into survival mode. They cut off the fat and they do what it takes to exist. But when our government is in survival mode, all they have to do is raise taxes. The American people are siding with what Ted Cruz is forcing them to do, which is to make cuts." But Fowler contended that nearly all federal employees are truly needed for government to be effective. "If you talk to the veterans who went to the World War II Memorial and found it closed because the Park Rangers couldn't be there, they would say the Rangers are essential. So while there is a distinction between 'essential' and 'non-essential' employees, the non-essential employees are still critical to making this government run. Ted Cruz would allow us to default on our debt and destroy this country." Greg concluded with one of his inspired metaphors: "I believe the government shutdown illuminates what's not needed, like one of those infrared flashlights that shows dirt in hotel rooms." |
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| While speaking at a conservative gathering in Washington Friday, Senator Ted Cruz was heckled by some far-left pro-immigration activists. Greg welcomed FNC analyst and former White House spokesperson Dana Perino, who theorized that a few politicians actually thrive on criticism. "Some people take it as a major compliment," she declared. "If you aren't getting the far-left to come out and heckle you, then you're not doing something right. Senator Cruz handled this beautifully and he kind of loves it. He's the new guy to hate, the left has made him the bogeyman." Greg added that most protests come from the left: "There's not a lot of conservative hecklers because they're usually working. The benefit of being part of a left-wing group is that there are so many of your fellow leftists doing nothing." |
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| Greg examined the continuing Obamacare disarray with Republican Marc Thiessen and Democrat Leslie Marshall. "It's not a catastrophe," Marshall insisted. "For crying out loud, Twitter nearly crashed when it first started. This shows that so many people want Obamacare that the system crashed. Any program we've ever had in America has had numerous changes and glitches, and I think people are going to be very happy with health care reform." Thiessen ridiculed the administration's claim that it has no idea how many Americans have enrolled. "If they had good numbers they would be shouting from the rooftops. The fact that they're saying they don't know means the numbers are absolutely terrible. And if it's true that they don't know, then that's absolutely pathetic. The administration is going out and saying that 8-million people went to the website in its first week. Do you know how many people visit Amazon.com? 20-million people every day!" Greg compared Obamacare to a certain ill-fated airship, saying, "Its maiden voyage made the Hindenburg look resilient." |
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| Greg welcomed Nick Gillespie of the libertarian website Reason.com, who urged Republicans to demand tough spending concessions before agreeing to a debt ceiling increase. "Obama has been obsessed with talking about 'cleanliness' when it comes to passing a debt limit deal," Gillespie said. "He says it has to be a 'clean' bill with no strings attached, butut in fact we want a 'dirty' bill here. Any increase in the debt limit should be tied to immediate and ongoing cuts in how much we spend going forward. There should be a plan to cut entitlement spending in the future because Social Security and Medicare are going to bankrupt the country. Our debt is 100% of all economic activity in the United States and we have to start tackling it now." |
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| A student at Modesto Junior College in California was harassed by a campus cop for passing out copies of the Constitution. Greg discussed the controversy with attorney Remi Spencer and radio talk show host John Phillips. "I don't think the police officer did anything wrong," Spencer said, "he followed school policy. But this is a bad policy and that's why the student has filed a lawsuit. The suit is not really about money, it's about getting the school to change its policies. There is nothing wrong with someone passing out the Constitution and I do not believe this policy will remain in effect." Phillips groused that American colleges are almost uniformly censorious and oppressive. "Campuses are some of the most restrictive places on the planet. You have 'hate speech,' you have 'gender-neutral language,' you have 'indoor voices and outdoor voices.' Can we please just leave these poor people alone and let them do their remedial math in peace?" Unable to resist a quip, Greg admitted, "I did a lot of passing out in college." |
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| In an attempt to mock Republicans investigating the IRS, Democratic Congressman Gerald Connolly asked an IRS witness whether she is in fact a witch who can fly. Greg discussed the IRS hearings with David Callahan of the left-leaning Demos think tank. "This was a priceless moment in Congressional testimony," Callahan began. "What bothers me about this whole IRS 'scandal' is that it's missing the bigger picture, which is that the non-profit sector has become a major conduit for political money on both sides. Millions and millions of dollars go through supposedly 'non-partisan' tax-exempt organizations and this little unit at the IRS screwed things up. We've been looking for some political scandal but it doesn't exist." But Greg pointed to an obvious double standard in outrage: "Whenever a Democratic administration screws up, it's 'bungling,' but when a Republican does it it's 'evil.' If this had happened in a Republican administration you guys would be on top of it, smothering it with a giant pillow." |
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