This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” May 5, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Now tonight we bring you a special first segment of the show in lieu of our usual “Hannity Headline.”
In 1765 parliament passed the Stamp Pact provoking outrage among the American colonists. Now the leaders of the tax uprising were the Sons of Liberty who met in August of 1765 under an old elm tree in Boston to air their grievances against the tyrannical King George.
The Sons of Liberty will become an early voice for the rights of an oppressed citizenry and included some familiar names from the annals of American history including Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, John Hancock and John Adams.
At the end of that first protest in 1765 the Sons of Liberty hung two tax collectors in effigy from the branches of elm and from that day forward it became known as the Liberty Tree.
The tree became a symbol for the Colonial Revolutionaries and similar trees were planted in cities all across the colonies. The last original Liberty Tree stood until 10 years ago on the campus of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Under it, colonists held a tea party and listened to the words of founding father Samuel Chase.
But after being damaged by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the 400-year-old tulip poplar suffered too much damage and was taken down. Two years ago, the graduating class of the college planted a new tulip poplar in its honor.
Therefore, in the spirit of our founding fathers, with our liberties once again threatened, we introduce our own Liberty Tree. Now as you can see, our tree is built upon the roots of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and freedom. They support the trunk of the tree which is made of we the people. And the trunk supports the branches and the fruits of our liberty represented by the apples.
It is those apples, the fruits of our liberty, that this administration is now picking clean. So what are those fruits? Now in 1789, Thomas Jefferson famously said, quote, “It is a great truth that industry, commerce, and security are the surest roads to the happiness and prosperity of a people.”
And as you can see, on our Liberty Tree, well, industry, commerce, and security are all represented as apples. The fruits of our liberty.
Let’s start with industry. This administration has started down a dangerous road of stifling industry through expanded government control. In effect, nationalizing the banking industry.
The president has said that he doesn’t want to run General Motors or keep government control of the banks. But that’s exactly what has happened with the firing of the CEO of General Motors and the bullying of Chrysler investors to accept pennies on the dollar because it is, quote, “in the national interest.”
This administration is ignoring established precedents of bankruptcy law. They are forcing TARP money down the throats of banks by not allowing them to pay the money back. And we haven’t even gotten to their proposed cap- and-trade law yet which now even Democrats are shying away from.
During the campaign, the president threatened to raise capital gains tax rates. Just yesterday, standing next to his own tax cheating treasury secretary, he promised to crack down on corporate tax loopholes. Now tax experts say that such a move will force American companies to move overseas, unless it is accompanied by a reduction in corporate tax rates.
But that seems unlikely. And all the while the unemployment rate continues to rise, despite the administration’s promise to save or create three million new jobs by the end of this year by passing the so-called stimulus package. And some major cities in this country, unemployment is now more than 10 percent.
As such, the industry apple as a fruit of our liberty has fallen from the tree.
Next, Mr. Jefferson says commerce is important to the prosperity of the nation. Well, since the early days of the campaign, Obama has railed against the North American Free Trade Agreement. Threatening to reopen it to take into account new labor and environmental provisions that he’s spoken openly about in his opposition to the Bush administration.
And their free trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea. When China reportedly considered pushing for a single global currency, the president said he opposed it. Only to have his own treasury secretary leave that door open, sending our dollar into a freefall in one afternoon.
Here at home, the president has promised to focus on preserving and creating jobs which provided the rationalization for his massive government expansion. In his first 100 days this administration has racked up more debt than all previous presidents combined.
They have spent billions on massive infrastructure projects that up until they joined the administration in January, his own economic advisors like OMB director Peter Orszag said wouldn’t be a stimulative move for the economy at all.
And remember how the president used to oppose earmarks?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: My recovery and reinvestment plan will have — will set a new higher standard of accountability, transparency and oversight. We are going to ban all earmarks. The process by which individual members insert pet projects without review.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: He then turned around and signed an omnibus spending bill with more ear remarks than anyone could count. Racking up more money on the nation’s credit card. If commerce is vital to the nation’s prosperity, this can’t be what Mr. Jefferson had in mind when he said, quote, “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.”
And kabluey, there goes the commerce apple from the tree leaving only security. And as you can see our security under this administration, well, it’s hanging by a thread. But at least President Obama has made a new friend. The man who attacks the very promise of American life with every breath that he can muster.
Meanwhile, the mullahs in Iran continue to move forward with their nuclear agenda while we hope that they’re going to come back to the table to talk to us about it all. Clearly they are quaking in their boots because just this weekend the Iranians attacked a village inside of Iraq. Their first such attack since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Well, that sure makes me feel more secure. As does the situation along the Mexican border where drug cartels are murdering innocent people and increasingly spreading their violence to cities right here in America. While our own secretary of homeland security spent the first month of her time in office denying that anything was happening here at home.
We’re going to have a special report on this tomorrow night including some frightening video of a home invasion in Arizona. Now it’s a segment that every citizen who fears for their safety needs to see.
And then of course there are the Islamic terrorists. Some of whom he caught and stuck in Gitmo. Well, they now could be headed home. Others who are still out there might have a new purpose after reading the CIA’s formerly top-secret memos that this administration decided to release.
And faced with such a threat, the security apple falls from the Liberty Tree. And what we are left with is the collective crate of socialism. Now home to the fruit of liberty that our freedom was supposed to guarantee.
Now this administration has plucked a Tree of Liberty bare. It took more than 200 years but it now looks like we are headed back to where we started.
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