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Rush Limbaugh: We Are Living In A Dying Country (Transcript)
Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | 4.5.12

Posted on 04/06/2013 10:30:49 AM PDT by drewh

We Are Living in a Dying Country April 05, 2013

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Folks, I don't know how else to categorize this. We are living in a dying country. I don't know how else to categorize what's happening -- 88,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate, because of a terrible statistic, is down to 7.6%. The number of people in this country who are not working is shameful. Ninety million Americans are no longer in the workforce. Ninety million. People not in the labor force grew by 663,000, and now 90 million. That's the labor force participation rate. This is 1979 levels. The only difference is that we don't have an election around the corner to fix it like we did in 1979. We had that election last November, and we blew it.

In addition to payrolls only adding 88,000 jobs, an additional 81,800 went on disability in March. We're now up to 8.8 million Americans on disability. We had nearly as many people go on disability in March as people who found jobs. I think it's official. We have a dying country. There is literally no way that our entitlement programs and our safety net and our absorption of immigrants, legal or otherwise, can be supported this way. This simply cannot be sustained. I don't know how else to describe this. The unemployment rate of 7.6% is ridiculous.

The U-6 unemployment rate is still around 15%. That is the unemployment rate you get if you add people who are out of work and looking for a job and people who are out of work and have given up looking. Those people have been out of work for a long time. They've had 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, and they've given up looking, so they're not counted in the reported unemployment percentage of 7.6%. If they were counted, the number would be 15%. And if there were not the demographic weighting -- the 7.6% number is arrived at by estimating certain factors as being in existence or being true based on demographics. There are assumptions made about employment, unemployment in the Hispanic community, with women, black community so forth.

This is from Jim Pethokoukis, our buddy at the American Enterprise Institute. If you take out all of the demographic weighting -- let me give you another example of weighting. Let me use radio numbers for it. In local markets, there are minority-owned-and-operated radio stations. This goes way back, by the way. For the purposes of affirmative action, the audiences of minority stations were always bumped a little beyond what the actual ratings were. It was part and parcel of recognition of past discrimination. It was part of making amends. It was part of affirmative action, and it was accepted. Nobody complained about it. It's the way it was. People did business that way, but nevertheless it existed. You agree with me on this?

(interruption)

What? Well, there's a whole bunch of reasons. Yeah, the ratings didn't reach minority people, was one of the explanations, the old diary system. Now it's the one-eyed, one horned flying purple people meter, whatever it is, but they didn't reach these people. So it was just estimated that audiences to minority radio stations were much higher than they actually ended up being reported as being. That's called weighting. Well, the same thing is done in employment, unemployment numbers. And Mr. Pethokoukis' point is if we just dealt with what the real numbers are, as Bob Johnson was the other day, unemployment in the black community, 15%, black teenagers, 25%, if you deal with those numbers, his point is that the U-3 number or the 7.6% number would actually be 9.9.

If we just took the data and just reported the data as it is without any demographic weighting, then we'd be at 9.9%, not 7.6%. It's like yesterday we had the report on the number of applications for unemployment compensation, which skyrocketed back up 388,000. Much higher than what was expected by the experts. And, of course, that number will be revised upward even more in a couple of weeks. You have to work really hard to find that revised number, but it will be around 400,000. In the meantime, while all this is going on, the regime's running around talking about our economic recovery and why we've gotta start making loans to people that can't pay 'em back again to boost the home market that's recovering.

It really is obscene. There is no housing market recovery to speak of. There is no recovery anything to speak of here. Now we're gonna start making loans to people who can't pay 'em back. Banks are being forced to do this by the regime so those people are not left out of this housing boom. Folks, it's utterly ridiculous, 7.6% unemployment weighed against 90 million Americans not working. The labor force participation rate also includes the number of jobs that have disappeared. They're no longer in existence. They're not there to be filled by anybody. The regime does that to get that number down to 7.6%. If the universe of jobs available shrinks, then the percentage of people out of work will be smaller, by definition. I can't tell you how many months I had to go through fisticuffs, practically, to get people who are telling me I didn't know what I was talking about, to convince them that I did. But if your universe is a hundred percent and your unemployment rate's 7.6%, then what do you figure? You got 93% or whatever of the people working.

Well, what if your universe shrinks to 80% but you still call it a hundred percent? That's what's happening here. There aren't a hundred percent anymore. It's shrunk. The number of jobs that are available, the number of businesses which are open, the number of businesses which have jobs to fill, plummeting. We're a dying country. Everybody knows it. Even Ichabod Goolsbee, who is a former economics guru in the regime, now in the private sector making legitimate money, Ichabod Goolsbee said, "This is like a punch to the gut." And we've got some sound bites and news stories here where all these experts just can't believe this. Why, this doesn't make any sense, and of course they're blaming the sequester for this. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, the sequester, because that means it's the Republicans. Except the sequester's got nothing to do with this.

This all started January 21st, 2009. That's when the intense trend began with the immaculation of Obama and the mythical stimulus package. We're a country in decline, and the president is presiding over a country in decline. So he's gotta budget that he's gonna be presenting soon, we're told, and one of the things that the president is going to do to generate revenue -- 'cause, see, that's the problem. Do you know in the midst of all this what the big problem is? The government does not have enough money. It's not that the country doesn't have enough jobs. It's not that the people of this country aren't earning enough salary, wages, whatever. No, no. The problem is the government doesn't have enough money.

So the president is going to trying to get more money by placing a $3 million upper limit on tax preferred retirement accounts. So he's going to take even more money from the so-called rich under the guise they're not paying their fair share. Because the government's running out of money, and we cannot have that. So payrolls grow by 88,000. Eighty-two thousand new Americans on disability in March. A total of 8.8 million Americans on disability, and every damn one of them feels justified. And I'll tell you something else. All of the people -- 90 million Americans -- ladies and gentlemen, 90 million Americans are not working, but they are all eating, and they're all using cell phones. And they are all watching television. And most of them are driving.

I don't know how this can be sustained. A blogger at ZeroHedge.com, a guy named Tyler Durden, which is a stage name, says things just keep getting worse for the American employee, and by implication, the US economy, where, as we've shown many times before, it pays just as well to sit back and collect disability and various welfare and entitlement checks than to work. The best manifestation of this, the number of people not in the labor force, which in March alone grew by 663,000. They want to tell us that there were 88,000 new jobs in March, when the number is 663,000. Over a half million people dropped out of the labor force. That means they either lost their jobs or stopped looking for one.

What is this 88,000 people found work? Compared to the 663,000 who dropped out. A record 90 million Americans are no longer even looking for work. I don't even want to get into whether it's their fault or not. Folks, everybody has to eat, and they are. The Democrat Party's seen to it. This was the biggest monthly increase in people dropping out of the labor force since January of 2012, when the Bureau of Labor Stats did its census recast of the labor numbers. Even worse, the labor force participation rate plunged to the lowest level since 1979.

But, in a perverted way, that many people leaving the workforce shrinks the universe, and it makes it possible to say that unemployment's improving. I'm not kidding you. Even Mr. Durden makes the point. If you shrink the universe, then the percentage of people not working gets smaller, and you can say, "We added 88,000 jobs, not like we want, but we're working at it. We're adding 88,000 jobs. The unemployment number is coming down." And as far as low-information Americans are concerned, that's it, and that's all there is to know.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Drive-By Media, State-Controlled Media is either pretending that the March jobs report is good news -- some of them are. Some of them out there are actually trying to pump up 88,000 new jobs as a sign of Obama's robust recovery and his expertise. Others are saying it's bad news and it's the fault of the sequester. If you want to say it's the fault of anything and you want to get that specific, you'd have to look at the payroll tax holiday ending first.

But this is all happening because of the policies the president. There's no argument about that. I mean, I know that people still want to blame Bush, and I know that the president -- the Limbaugh Theorem -- is running around still trying to fix all this. None of this is his. People don't attach his policies to this. Amazingly, the low-information population still views the president as working tirelessly to fix all this, trying to come up with something that'll work, 'cause he cares about everybody. But this has nothing to do with sequester. It has nothing to do, really, with the payroll tax cut.

END TRANSCRIPT


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: Florida
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1 posted on 04/06/2013 10:30:49 AM PDT by drewh
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To: drewh

He is right in more ways than one; the people who populated this country 50 years ago are literally dying out, and being replaced by “others”. The Neanderthals are watching the Cro-Magnons move into their homes, while they watch from the bushes...


2 posted on 04/06/2013 10:33:02 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: drewh

Rush.

Finally. Now get with the program and support BUYING AMERICAN MADE PRODUCTS.

Now.

You are one of the people whose voices are strong enough to change the current mess - bring back US jobs now.

Buy American.


3 posted on 04/06/2013 10:33:07 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: drewh

Good to know that Rush is finally catching up to the rest of us. Given enough time, he may figure out that zero isn’t eligible to be POTUS.

But, I don’t want to hold my breath on that one.


4 posted on 04/06/2013 10:38:59 AM PDT by DustyMoment (Congress - another name for anti-American criminals!!)
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To: drewh

I agree with Rush on this one. Actually the entire West is a dying civilization.(America was part of the West). It is a spritual lack.-(I don’t mean the Old Time Religion). The Western man cannot even raise one finger in his own defense. Indeed many Westerners even help the “Third World’ in its conquest!


5 posted on 04/06/2013 10:46:49 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

I agree with “buy American.”

However, we must understand how our government has made so many American industries non-competitive through payroll taxes and taxes/regulation on employers.

I think everyone agrees that purchasing power has decreased for the American consumer so when they go into Wally world with their limited funds they purchase the cheapest product. That product is Chinese. Why? Because our government makes it far more expensive to produce the same product in the United States.

It’s a death spiral for our nation and sadly, the only solution some offer is tax the products from overseas. If only it were that easy and the only real benefit from that is to the government. The consumer is still going to buy the cheaper product with their limited funds. It sounds good, but it won’t work and it will only grow government - not American jobs.

At every turn the American businessman takes it in the shorts. Permits, environmental impact studies, cost of energy, water, or waste, payroll taxes, Obamacare, unemployment, disability insurance, licenses, liability insurance, and the list goes on and on. Industry in the developing world does not face these problems. I bet some American companies pay more to lawyers in a year than the same company pays for everything in China.

I wish there was an easy answer, but we are so far beyond the American model we still hold in our minds that it is impossible to return.

We are in a death spiral and even the eternal optimist, Rush, is beginning to see it clearly.


6 posted on 04/06/2013 10:46:51 AM PDT by volunbeer (We must embrace austerity or austerity will embrace us)
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To: volunbeer

I disagree.

Rush is a uniquely powerful voice, and if he gets it can actually drive productive change.

Rush: support America first. Vocally. Say it clear, and say it often.

Never ever give up.

Rush listen to me. America is at a crossroads right now.

China is becoming as strong as America. Right now.

China is taking American businesses away, and BOTH PARTIES ARE PLAYING ON CHINA’S SIDE.

Rush get with the program:

America first.


7 posted on 04/06/2013 10:50:48 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: kearnyirish2
The Neanderthals are watching the Cro-Magnons move into their homes, ...

It's the other way around.

8 posted on 04/06/2013 11:15:52 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: drewh
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Bureau of Lies and Scams) via Karl Denninger:

The "Employment Rate" of the population hasn't been this low since the dying days of the Carter administration.

9 posted on 04/06/2013 11:18:38 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: drewh

This is where the great fiat rooster has come home to roost.

In the early part of the 1900’s, the government wanted more money. The bankers convinced the government that they would be happy to “loan” the money.

Thus, the creation of the Federal Reserve and the fiat currencies.

Government now had the power to create money, to buy and sell what it wanted, to encourage policies it liked and discourage policies it didn’t. To basically buy votes if needed. It was no longer dependent on direct taxes to get a piece of the wealth being owned by people in the various states.

The banks were now happy as clams, urging the government to spend more and more, borrow more, and pay more interest.

Now, they are painted into a corner.
They wanted power to just sorta wave a magic wand and create money. They got that power and spent like drunken sailors. Because of that, MILLIONS of people are dependent on them, and if they don’t get TAKEN CARE OF, there will be hell to pay.


10 posted on 04/06/2013 11:28:49 AM PDT by djf (I don't want to be safe. I want to be FREE!)
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To: drewh

We have Dr. Kervorkian(sp) in the White House administering his death sentence to the country. The majority of the people are clueless to what is happening.


11 posted on 04/06/2013 11:31:30 AM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: drewh

Still Rush hasn’t got it as far as the Country is run by the COMMUNISTS DEMOCRATS. Rush! It is the communists that have taken over America bit by bit. They will continue pecking away until America is a dictatorship anti God Country. And the sick ignorant still insist it can never happen. It is happening.


12 posted on 04/06/2013 11:47:06 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: kearnyirish2

That’s why we need a horrid financial or physical catastrophe to thin the deadwood out.


13 posted on 04/06/2013 12:01:11 PM PDT by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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To: drewh; All

Thank you for posting this material from Limbaugh drewh. Noting that I’m no longer a fan of Limbaugh (Levin, Coulter, Fx News, et al.), please don’t take the following critique of Limbaugh personally.

Limbaugh is as much an Obama guard dog as Fx News is imo. This is because, like Fx News, Limbaugh not only swept unanswered questions about Obama’s citizenship qualification to be president under the carpet, but like Fx News Limbaugh never mentions Congress’s Article I, Section 8-limited powers, Article V or the 10th Amendment. Widespread voter knowledge of these constitutional statutes would arguably close down the unconstitutionally big federal government overnight.

Like many patriots, I had fallen into the trap of using Fx News and Limbaugh as a comfort zone for conservatives. But then I started studying the Constitution and its history and realized that Fx and Limbaugh must be broadcasting for the money.


14 posted on 04/06/2013 12:09:54 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: drewh
OK, Rush, we got it. We got it long before you did. Now please stop stating the problem ad nauseam (like every blessed day since the election) and offer solutions -- or at least some creative thoughts. Other conservatives are. And you've got money, contacts, and resources that they can only dream about. What are you doing with them?


15 posted on 04/06/2013 12:38:14 PM PDT by Cinnamontea
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks drewh.
...88,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate, because of a terrible statistic, is down to 7.6%. The number of people in this country who are not working is shameful. Ninety million Americans are no longer in the workforce. Ninety million. People not in the labor force grew by 663,000, and now 90 million. That's the labor force participation rate. This is 1979 levels. The only difference is that we don't have an election around the corner to fix it like we did in 1979. We had that election last November, and we blew it.
No, Rush, "we" didn't, I showed up in the primary season, and showed up in November. There are those who helped usher in the first and second terms of Obama though. And in 2008's primary season, Rush pushed Zero at the expense of Hitlery, and we got both instead.


16 posted on 04/06/2013 12:44:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network; volunbeer
Volunbeer is right, and defined the problem. You however give platitudes and cheer-leading. Eliminate the EPA with all the other alphabet illegal government agencies, and business will boom in the US.

Stop taking half of the production of factories for compliance paperwork and taxes, fees and permits and watch the economy turn around. Business is not stupid, if you have to pay more for paperwork than raw materials, you either go to where you can just pay for materials or you go out of business.

Most of the American businesses that stayed, went bankrupt. They did not move overseas.

For example, you can not deal with mercury to build light bulbs in America cost-efectivly, because we pretend mercury is so toxic that it is industrial waste. But we get ordered to buy them from china and have to IMPORT mercury into our homes.

How stupid is that!

I buy American when I can, we build better stuff. But we are not allowed to build much at all anymore. It's a share the wealth scheme.

17 posted on 04/06/2013 12:55:30 PM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: SunkenCiv

That’s what I hate about Limbaugh.

I already know the problems. What is the solution?

America: nation of morons.


18 posted on 04/06/2013 12:58:40 PM PDT by bicyclerepair (Except at FR)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS

“The Western man cannot even raise one finger in his own defense.”

I agree with this, and I think it is in part due to advanced general demoralization. I think people generally feel that resistance is futile, and that the future - as painted by the media, pop culture icons, ‘progressive politicians’, and ‘educators’ is inevitable. “I can’t fight it. I can’t win. What difference does any of it make. China is the future. Demographics have shifted. etc. etc.” There is sad acceptance amongst the portion of the populace that sees and acknowledges what is happening, delusional chosen ignorance by a significant percentage, and then there are those who are driven by resentment, ideology, or selfish interests who want the end to come.


19 posted on 04/06/2013 1:06:39 PM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: volunbeer; Pride in the USA; Stillwaters
We are in a death spiral and even the eternal optimist, Rush, is beginning to see it clearly.

I believe this is true. Rush has been sounding increasingly defeated. For years he's promised his listeners that he would tell them when he thought it was time to panic. He hasn't said that it is yet, but it's hard not to hear the defeat in his voice and the content of his show.

Another one who surprised me this past week was Dennis Miller, whose radio program I listen to for an hour or so on most days.

Miller, who describes himself as a fiscal conservative and a social libertarian, was an early endorser and active campaigner for Herman Cain in 2012. When Romney won the nomination, Miller campaigned hard for him.

During one of his shows last week, Miller declared that it doesn't matter who the candidates for either party are in 2016, a democrat will win the presidency. He said it's over, and he won't be talking about politics much anymore because there's no point.

There's a foul, chill wind blowing.

20 posted on 04/06/2013 1:07:24 PM PDT by lonevoice (Today I broke my personal record for most consecutive days lived)
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