Rush Addresses Illegal Alien Issue

Rush Limbaugh Show ^ | January 6, 2004

[sweetliberty]

[Moderator's note: threads regarding immigration issues and border issues have been spiralling out of control for some time on Free Republic. This is going to change. Fair warning: this would be a very poor thread to engage in flame warring, flame baiting, or otherwise being needlessly instigative. If you have not yet read this thread, you may want to before engaging in the debate on this or other similar threads. If there are any questions regarding the new scrutiny of these threads, please take them to that thread rather than cluttering up these threads.

Up until last night, people had been very cooperative with this effort, and for that I was grateful. Last night, I think there must have been a full moon or something, but we'll get that straightened out.

Thanks, and happy Freeping.]

I started this thread because there has been much discussion here about Rush never seeming to address the illegal alien problem. Today he has been talking about it in the context of President Bush's meeting with Vincente Fox and the payment of Social Security benefits to illegals who have paid into the system even though they did so with false documentation.

At the moment he is talking about the increase in black Republican voters, but said he will get back to the illegal alien issue shortly and take calls. I thought there'd be interested FReepers that might be missing it.

[JoeSchem]

I realize there are a lot of strong feelings about the illegal alien issue, but the facts are that a lot of the illegals perform work that native Americans just wont do. Can you imagine what some of your produce prices in the Grocery store would be if we had Native Americans demanding $15.00 per hour to pick lettuce?

I realize this is the view from your posh estate, but the fact is that there are many, many Americans who earn the minimum wage at $5.15, and the unemployment rate in this country was at a decades-high level for the past two years. I myself worked the summer doing landscaping, carrying heavy plants and digging with a shovel, and slamming a pickaxe into rock-hard ground, all in ninety degree heat, and I earned not $15 an hour but only $8.63 -- and by the way, there was an 'undocumented worker' on the site who told me he was receiving ten dollars an hour, under the table. But he wasn't doing my job -- they couldn't find even an illegal to do my job, and that's why they hired an American temp!

If you're wondering why illegals can get work at ten dollars an hour while Americans can't at $5.15, it's because the $5.15 the American worker receives is only a tiny part of the compensation package that American companies must pay for American labor -- in other words, when you add in government taxes and insurance, the American workers cost more than illegals, even though they're allowed to take home far less.

So I don't know what parallel universe you're talking about where American workers are so picky and choosy that they would rather go hungry and homeless than pick lettuce at less than $15 an hour. To me, that kind of thinking indicates that the Oxycontin did indeed isolate Rush from reality, and maybe he needs to spend some time getting in touch with the real America.

By the way, I'm no socialist. My recent poverty has only radicalized me in the sense of making me ever angrier at government, when I see how taxes and regulations are keeping myself and other poor American citizens down. I feel sorry for Mexicans who try to come to this country, yes, but if we open the floodgates, we're going to radicalize a lot of Americans who will see their wages drop through the floor in the short run. And there are quite a few elections that will take place during the short run.

[gitmo]

Yeah, it caught me off guard as well. Rush has often been a critic of President Bush's domestic policy, even when no other commentator in the country dared critisize Bush. But when I heard him say that today, I tried to figure out what the Bush administration had done that resembled government trying to run private corporations or private businesses. The focus wasn't spending (I don't think) but government controlling business.

The topic, as I recall, was Dean proposing that government define a "reasonable profit" for insurance companies, and to limit them to that level. He was asking where in the COTUS a president was given such authority.

[Burkeman1]

I can't think of instance where Bush has advocated government interference in a particular industry other than tariffs for steel which I believe he never followed through on. I just think Rush was letting off a little steam. But I think he was criticizing Lieberman- not Dean- I thought he was doing a Lieberman impression before he launched into that Bush hit line.

[dirtbiker]

How do we get all that wheat harvested? And whats the name of that big corporation that makes machines for this purpose?

Not all crops can be harvested by mechanical means.......tomatoes and cabbage come to mind.......at least, not yet.....

And the name of that big corporation(s) that makes machines is AGCO, John Deere Co., Case-International, and Kubota, to name a few.......

[gitmo]

You're right, it was The Whiner. I went to the car and got my Rush tape to review that part.

[Beck_isright]

"If we have some way of documenting them as Bush proposes, we will collect taxes on their income (currently, a lot receive cash under the table). Bush is on the right track."

Bush is wrong. We have approximately 40 million citizens who are not filing their income taxes. Just how do you propose a historically inept bureacratic nightmare suddenly see the light and do their job to track just 8 to 10 million illegal aliens?

[Burkeman1]

Ever notice that Rush is not a half bad impressionist? He is no Rich Little- but he does get the basics down when he does an impression.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Great post. (#33) Add to that the jobs that are lost due to money made here by the illegals being sent to Mexico. How many jobs are being lost due to the revenue not circulating here?

[gitmo]

Mighty good for a deaf guy, isn't he? Ross Perot, Clinton, algore, Buckley, Lizard-Head, ...

[FITZ]

but the facts are that a lot of the illegals perform work that native Americans just wont do.

Where's the evidence that any of those jobs are ever posted where Americans can know about them? Do they ever post their "help wanted" ads in the low income neighborhoods where they might be some Americans looking for jobs?

[Re-electNobody]

I have heard Laura Ingraham talking about this issue 2 or 3 times recently and I don't get to listen to her show daily, so it apparently is something she discusses periodically.

[FITZ]

I never see all this cheap food we're supposedly getting --- I've seen lettuce selling for over $1 a head, milk for $3.50 a gallon. Tomatoes for $0.89 a pound?

[FITZ]

They should match the rate of immigration with welfare, SSI, and unemployment rates. When there are as many people on welfare as there are and high unemployment --- there is no need for any immigrants --- legal or illegal. If welfare goes down to about 0 and fulltime unemployment below 3 or 4%, then it would be time to open the doors a little.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

I see that you are a cold clear seeker of wisdom and truth! The truth is that NO DEM in the Whitehouse is a good thing. President Bush is not just the President for American Conservatives. I never, not once, heard this President say that he was a conservative while on the campaign trail.

It was not this administration that let in all those illegal immigrants (who would illegally vote for the Clintons). Now that there are 8 million of them here how the hell are you going to get them all out? I don't have an answer, and neither do you. But something has to be done to stop illegal entry now. I'll listen to whatever proposition is offered. Then I'll form an opinion. Let me remind all of you of Italian descent, Irish, etc., the Americans felt this way about your ancestors, too.

[Burkeman1]

He isn't deaf any longer with his implants- but when he didn't have them and he was still doing his show via teleprompter- you knew it.

[gitmo]

The thing I noticed the most was that on several occasions he seemed to purposefully misunderstand a caller ... he got the words right but it was obvious from the caller's tone and inflection he meant something different that what Rush was inferring. I remember giving him the benefit of the doubt, but wondering how he could keep making those sorts of mistakes and slam callers for something when it was obvious they meant something else.

In that respect, I was relieved when he told about being deaf. A lot of people were wondering what was going on with El Rushbo.

His show came back with the pizazz it had in the early days.

[blueriver]

I never see all this cheap food we're supposedly getting --- I've seen lettuce selling for over $1 a head, milk for $3.50 a gallon. Tomatoes for $0.89 a pound?

Yes, whatever savings are occurring by this "cheap" labor is not being extended to the general public. Tomatoes here cost $1.29 - 2.69 a pound. Broccoli $2.00 a bunch, peppers - $1.00 each for the green $2.00 each for the red. It is getting worse. So much for cheap labor.

[blueriver]

It was not this administration that let in all those illegal immigrants

Come on now - in the last 3 years millions have entered this country.

[Burkeman1]

Yeah- it was weird. Rush was responding to callers very strangely- not so that you it was totally out of line- but for most long time listeners it was not the same Rush we knew. I also noticed he was not up to par one or two weeks after he got out of Rehab.

Example

Rush was commenting on how the UN was trying to make genocidal media broadcasts a war crime. The UN was specifically targetting the blatant calls for mass extermination over radio stations in Rwanda against the Tutsi. In these radio broadcasts the announcers were literally calling on all Hutu to kill and exterminate and hack to death all Tutsi. Rush then compared that to when Clinton tried to obliquely blame the Oklahoma city bombing on him and the right wing and was saying how this was PC and liberal nonsense. A Rush Supporter called up and was very respectful and submissive and tried to suggest to Rush that the two instances were not even remotely related. Rush went wild. The caller- actually beat him up pretty good and I was embarrassed for him. It was the only time that I can remember Rush being beaten by a caller.

[Ben Bolt]

That is precisely why I wish I had heard the comment . Still cubicle bound so please excuse the delayed reply .