RUSH IN A HURRY -- Give Obama Power of Attorney Over Your Life

Arlen Specter's Defection Says Nothing About the State of the GOP
April 29, 2009

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RUSH: This Arlen Specter business. Maybe I'm outta touch. I am stunned at the way the political class, both Republicans and Democrats, are dealing with this defection of Arlen Specter to the Democrat Party. It's almost like a religious leader abandoned the religion, which is not the case. We got rid of some dead weight. It's mind-boggling. The Democrats are throwing parties. Some of the Republicans are out there getting it right, Jim DeMint and others. The Republicans that are getting it right are being bashed to kingdom come by both Democrats and Republicans. It's just amazing to watch this.

You would think, if you watch the Drive-By Media and even listened to a bunch of so-called Republicans today, that there is no more Republican Party, that there will never, ever be a Republican Party, and the Republican Party practically never existed anyway. The Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen, won the presidency in 2004. It held the Congress in 2004. The Republican Party emerged victorious in a few short years after Watergate. Everybody is just drunk with Obamaism. There's no perspective on this anymore. There's literally none, leaving it wide open for me to explain all that's actually going on here.

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RUSH: As for Senator Specter and the commentary that's going on about Senator Specter leaving the Republican Party, Senator Specter voted for one of the most irresponsible pieces of legislation in modern history. He voted for Barack Obama's so-called stimulus plan. By the way, speaking of that, you see the news today? "The American economy shrank rapidly in the first three months of the year, the government reported today, a signal that the economy is likely to remain a dominate issue." Yes. The economy's plunging, more and more people losing their jobs, recovery is practically not in sight. Let's talk about it as a political issue to see who it helps. "Economists had predicted that the gross domestic product would drop 4.7%, but it dropped at 6.1%. It was totally unexpected." I'm reading today from some of the wizards of smart, "Well, it is bad, but we can't blame Obama. It would be unfair to blame this on Obama. He's only been in office 100 days." Why can't we blame Obama? Has not the economy been stimulated? Didn't we pass the stimulus bill? Haven't we had a bunch of bailouts, starting toward the end of last year?

We've been trying to get this economy to rebound long before Obama took office and we have been using policies that are identical to what Barack Obama would have proposed, were he president last year. We have proposed political solutions, which have essentially said we're gonna grow the government, we're going to print money, and we're going to borrow money, and we're going to throw money after bad things. We're going to throw money at things that ought to be allowed to fail. We're going to stimulate this; we're going to bring your job back; we're going to cut your taxes 13 bucks a week. There's no sign that it has worked. That's too soon to blame Obama. It would be so robustly unfair to blame Obama. Now, in one sense I can see the point, yeah, we passed a stimulus bill but most of it doesn't get in really good gear until 2010, but, folks, I hate to remind you, when the rest of this stupid plan goes into action, we are really going to be in the sewer.

When his tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts expire, thus new tax increases, when inflation hits when the economy rebounds, because of all this printing of money and borrowing and spending, the idea that all of this stuff was done to stimulate the economy, and the economy's not stimulated, the things that stimulate the economy are being stopped. And that is getting regulations and obstacles out of people's way, people who run businesses, people who want to work for businesses. I made the point last night, somebody name for me a government program that's worked. Name one that's worked, from the Great Society, to the war on poverty. I said, see, we're not supposed to talk about failure. We're not supposed to talk about results. We're supposed to only examine the good intentions of people. You coulda heard a pin drop. Well, I couldn't see, Mr. Snerdley, other than the first couple of rows because of the spotlights and everything, but I assume they were looking at me like I was a zombie if there was no reaction. And I'm telling you, I was the only one saying anything like what I was saying last night on this panel.

Gillespie was good, but I pointed out when I went out, "Look, folks, these three guys are in the political world. They are about winning elections and getting votes. That's not what I do." And the place busted up laughing. And I said no, no, no, no, I'm serious. I don't lie. I don't pander. I will not tell somebody something I don't really believe just to get their vote. That's when you could hear the pin drop. You'll hear it all. I'm going to play all this stuff as the program unfolds. When there was dead silence in there, my assumption was that the majority of the crowd, "I can't believe somebody is saying this. I can't believe what I just heard." But again, I was a bit disadvantaged because I couldn't hear anything in there, other than myself, and the only reason I knew what I was saying is because I knew it was me talking. You know, I don't even have to hear myself to know what I'm saying because it's in my brain, but it was just impossible to hear the other people. So we got that to do, we got Arlen Specter. Wrap this up here. Arlen Specter supported and voted for one of the most irresponsible pieces of legislation in modern history. This is the stimulus package. He joined with the most radical liberal elements of the Democrat Party in supporting the stimulus package.

This is what provoked a challenge to him in the primary. This is when finally Pat Toomey and a bunch of others said, "That's it for us with Senator Specter, that's it. We have got to run somebody against him." Is there something obscene about that? Isn't that how politics works? But what are we getting today? What we're getting is several learned conservatives ripping Pat Toomey, ripping the Club for Growth from which he comes, because the Republicans needed Specter regardless. We do? Yes, we needed Specter to stop and thwart all of these Democrat ideas. It's mind-boggling. I'm going to lay this out in a little bit more understandable fashion.

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RUSH: Joe Lieberman was asked on MSNBC yesterday about my comments regarding the departure of Arlen Specter from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party. Norah O'Donnell said to Senator Lieberman, "Rush Limbaugh said today of Specter leaving the party, 'A lot of people are saying, "Specter, take McCain with you and his daughter."' Now, Senator McCain is your good friend, Senator Lieberman." There were people saying that to me, getting it in the e-mail: "Hey, Senator Specter, if you're leaving, take McCain with you and his daughter." I repeated that. So they asked Lieberman yesterday, "McCain's your good friend. Any chance McCain will leave the Republican Party?"

LIEBERMAN: No, I don't think so at all. And, look, this is the problem. It's good for the Democratic Party, bad for the Republican Party that Arlen Specter left them and joined the democratic caucus but overall it's not great for American politics 'cause both parties should have moderate or centrist wings in them that modifies the parties and creates more opportunity for common ground and less partisanship. So respectfully, I disagree with Rush.

RUSH: Well, respectfully I disagree with Senator Lieberman on this notion that parties need moderating influences. I'd like to know where the hell they are in the Democrat Party. You do have some conservative Democrats from the south that are over in the House. But they get squished hike mosquitoes by Nancy Pelosi. Where are these moderating influences? See, one of the things that's wrong with this, there's so many cliches and templates that are wrong with this. I keep hearing, for example, that the Republican Party is monolithic in its views and the monolithic views of the Republican Party are just right wing, ultra-right-wing. But the Democrat Party is open to diverse ideas? Really? They keep saying the Senate is filibuster-proof? Well, if the Senate is filibuster-proof, it must mean the Democrats are not diverse at all. Mustn't it mean that? Where are the conservative Democrats, Senator Lieberman, who will not vote to block filibusters? Where are the conservative Democrats in the Senate who voted against the stimulus package? Where are they, who are they? I get so sick and tired of hearing how monolithic the Republican Party is. I get so sick and tired of hearing how far right the Republican Party has moved.

The Republican Party is moving left and that is why it is in trouble, and there is certainly a greater diversity of viewpoint in the Republican Party. For crying out loud, I guarantee you the Democrat Party would never, ever nominate their equivalent of John McCain. The Democrat Party would never, ever nominate somebody who rips and has made his name by ripping and criticizing his own party and his own presidents. That would never happen. Democrats throw those people out of the party or they bury them. We nominated a guy whose claim to fame is criticizing his own president and criticizing his own party, and they say we're monolithic. The monolith is the Democrat Party. Again, I ask, they say he's now filibuster-proof. They got their 60 votes, 59 votes. Well, that's the bare minimum you need for cloture. Where's the diversity?

If all 60 of them, all 59 of them are gonna vote identically, where's diversity? Yeah. Conservatives had the maverick the last four years. We never hear about a Democrat maverick. I told you yesterday this was what the template is going to be, I told you yesterday this was how the press was going to play this. The Republican Party is dead because it loses Arlen Specter? Arlen Specter, who voted for one of the most horrendous pieces of legislation in our lifetime, this stupid, worthless stimulus bill? He joined with the far left of the Democrat Party who voted for that and somehow him leaving the Republican Party hurts the Republican Party? Just the opposite. Last night on Fox, On the Record, Greta Van Susteren talking to Lindsey Grahamnesty about this. And she said, "How did you first hear about Senator Specter defecting to the Democrats?"

GRAHAM: Here's the challenge for the Republican Party. Can the person running now win in Pennsylvania? I can't win in Pennsylvania. Rush Limbaugh can't win in Pennsylvania. If you're worried about giving the country over to the Democratic Party and not being a vibrant, relevant Republican Party, we need to find somebody that can win in Pennsylvania.

RUSH: Does this make sense to anybody? Parties stand for something. You are not building the party, Senator Graham; you're not expanding the party; you're not broadening it by caving on the things that identify the party. And to have somebody in the party who's not a Republican, in terms of beliefs, principles, what the party stands for, you lose by having people like that. That's what was wrong with the McCain candidacy. The McCain candidacy was gonna try to go get liberals and Democrats to join our party as liberals and Democrats. But voters are smarter than that. If you can vote for a genuine liberal and a genuine Democrat, why vote for the generic? Why vote for the fake? To what benefit is the Republican Party? Where is the benefit having somebody who's not a Republican in it?

That's actually a good idea. Lindsey Grahamnesty says "I can't win Pennsylvania," although I'm not running. He said he couldn't win in Pennsylvania. Only Arlen Specter can win in Pennsylvania. Pat Toomey can't win. I think Senator Grahamnesty could learn a lot by going to AskHeritage.org. AskHeritage.org is a repository of undiluted, unapologetic, full-fledged, pedal-to-the-metal conservatism on whatever the issue of the day is.

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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know what the conventional wisdom is in Washington, DC, you go out and find wherever David "Rodham" Gergen is and you listen to him. Last night he was on CNN's Larry King Alive, and Larry King said to David "Rodham" Gergen, "According to Rush Limbaugh, a lot of Republicans wished that Senator Specter would take McCain and his daughter Meghan with him as he exits the GOP. Do you think that more defections are coming? Do you think Olympia Snowe might go or Susan Collins?"

GERGEN: That kind of Rush Limbaugh response is... uh, Mr. Steele's response indicates sort of the bitterness among some conservatives, and yet one has to remember that when Ronald Reagan tried to build a majority party, he erected a big tent. He welcomed into the party people who did not agree with him on all of his conservative positions, and the Democrats did go into eclipse. But what Democrats did was, they started going out -- Rahm Emanuel was at the leadership of this -- trying to recruit moderates in the South and elsewhere to run as Democrats, and it helped to build up this majority. The conservatives, by contrast -- the Club of Growth and others -- have said if you're not pure enough, if you're too moderate, we're going to run somebody against you in a Republican primary, and we're going to take you down.

RUSH: I just... This is 180 degrees wrong. It is the Democrat Party that demands 100% fealty and purity, or you don't matter. You will not be allowed to count. But I have to tell you, this Ronald Reagan business. "He erected a big tent. He had all kinds of people who didn't believe his conservative issues, all of his conservative issues." That's another lie. I don't know how he passed 'em if they didn't believe him, but I'm going to tell you a story last night. In the greenroom before we went out to start the debate at the Milken Institute Global Forum, we are talking about this very subject: What do the Republicans have to do to come back? Somebody said that they'd gone to a reception the night before -- abig-time Hollywood reception, Beverly Hills reception -- and there were a lot of Republicans there, I was told. A lot of Republicans, and they all said, "You're just going to have to get rid of the pro-life position. Republicans are just going to have to become pro-choice. It's the only way the party can grow."

To which I said, "Yeah, I remember Ronald Reagan being big time pro-choice, and he won two landslides."

I said it very sarcastically. Ronald Reagan was pro-LIFE, and he won two landslides. You know what the response was? It was one of the Democrats.

"Well, Reagan was pro-life, but, I mean (muttering), he never made a big deal about it. I mean... (muttering)"

"Didn't make a big deal about it? Pat Robertson was up there every other day on the big pro-life day in January? Reagan is there making phone calls and so forth. He didn't make a big deal out of it?"

But let's accept the premise that Reagan didn't make a big deal out of it. The one thing Reagan was not was pro-choice. I get so sick and tired of hearing this, "The only way..." I heard it back in the nineties out in the Hamptons. I hear it every now and then, and I heard it again last night. "The only way Republicans can ever come back and win is if they become pro-choice and get rid of the pro-life Christians, just get rid of them," and yet there's the blueprint: Ronald Reagan, two landslides with a pro-life candidacy. George W. Bush won twice. He's pro-life. Republican Party can't win with pro-life? God help us.

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RUSH: On this Reagan business, I don't mind reminding you of something. I made this point during the whole campaign. Reagan did attract moderates, but he did it by attracting them to him. They came in as conservatives. Reagan did not change who he was to go get them. Reagan ran against Gerald Ford. He ran against the GOP establishment. He ran as a conservative. Moderates came to Ronald Reagan. Like Gergen! Gergen was slumming around with Reagan for a long while. He glommed onto him as best he could. He was a typical, you know, celebrity worshiper. That's what a lot of these guys are now. They just go where the bright light is. Gerald Ford was pro-choice; he lost. You know, if you talk to people that campaigned for Reagan in 1976 -- and I have -- they'll tell you they don't remember Gergen or a Duberstein or Colin Powell or any of these people being around.

All these great moderates were not part of the Reagan campaign in 1976. And when Reagan won in 1980, the moderates came out of the woodwork all claiming to be Reagan supporters, but they were just celebrity worshipers. But you want to hear something funny? Yesterday afternoon in Washington... You know, one of the things that really upset Arlen Specter was when Lincoln Chafee was defeated as a Republican for his reelection bid in Rhode Island. Because if Lincoln Chafee had won, Specter thinks he would have become the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. But Lincoln Chafee was unpredictable. There was no guarantee he was going to stay a Republican after he won. But here, nevertheless, is Senator Specter at his press conference yesterday afternoon.

SPECTER: The Club for Growth challenged Linc Chafee. Remember Linc Chafee? They made him spend all this money in the primary and he lost the general! They don't make any bones about, uh, their willingness to lose the general election if they can purify the party. I don't understand it, but that's what they say. And for the people who are Republicans to sit by and allow them to continue to dominate the party after they beat Chafee, cost us Republican control of the Senate, and cost us 34 federal judgeeees, there ought to be rebellion. There ought to be an uprising.

RUSH: Of who? Moderates? I'd love to see that! Was George Washington commanding a bunch of moderates as they sailed across the Delaware? Can you...? By definition, an uprising of moderates is not possible. There ought to be a rebellion. There ought to be an uprising of moderates. By the way, the Club for Growth is being besmirched today all across the conservative spectrum. There are some so-called conservatives who think the Club for Growth is ruining the Republican Party because demand for "purity." All the Club for Growth is... I mean Pat Toomey was heading up, Steve Moore, a great guy, used to head it up. Pat Toomey heads it up. He ran in the primary against Specter, he comes out of the Club for Growth. They just believe in private sector capitalism, which is what the Republican Party used to believe in! It's not demanding purity. It's remaining true to principles. Go to their website, check 'em out: Club for Growth. They're you! They're just a great bunch of guys.

(We Just Disagree starts playing)

RUSH: All right, folks, since Senator Specter wants an "uprising;" he wants a "rebellion" from moderates, we have a great theme song, a moderate theme song just for you right now. Who is it, Dave Mason? Dave Mason sings the moderate theme song.

(Dave Mason singing We Just Disagree)

MASON: Been away, haven't seen you in a while. / How've you been? / Have you changed your style and do you think / That we've grown up differently? Don't seem the same / Seems you've lost your feel for me / So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye. / There ain't no good guys; there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree.

RUSH: Conflict resolution 101.

MASON: Ooo. Ooo. Oohoo. That's the moderate theme song.

RUSH: "It's only you and me, and we just disagree."

MASON: Oh-oh. Oh-whoa.

RUSH: No good guy, no bad guy. All just wonderful people.

MASON: I'm going back to a place that's far away. How bout you? / Have you got a place to stay? Why should I care? / When I'm just trying to get along. We were friends / But now it's the end of our love song.

RUSH: I can see Obama singing this to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

MASON: So let's leave it alone.

RUSH: Or Hugo Chavez.

MASON: 'Cause we can't see eye to eye. / There ain't no good guys; there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree. / Ooo. Ooo. Oohoo. Oh-oh. Oh-whoa. / So let's leave it alone, 'cause we can't see eye to eye. / There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree.

RUSH: Oh, there you have it.

MASON: Ooo. Ooo. Oohoo. Oh-oh. Oh-whoa.

RUSH: That's it, that's it. Dave Mason and We Just Disagree, the moderate theme song that will provide the impetus for that moderate uprising, the moderate rebellion so desired by Senator Specter. So, you know, I want to go back to this Club for Growth business again, because even among conservatives now, there's rebellion against conservatives who don't even control the party. The conservatives don't control the party! The party's not going right-wing. So Club for Growth, the Club for Growth is now the problem, not the union PACs, not the unions, not the feminism PACs. Not all of the other left-wing, far-left groups that spend a fortune in primaries. ACORN? Oh, no!

ACORN's not a problem. George Soros is not a problem. But the Club for Growth is a problem! Club for Growth. Do you realize how insane this is? There is Republicans saying this. And, I'll tell you what: I'm to the point, if they all want to leave, let them leave. This thing's going to have to be rebuilt anyway. The conservative movement and the Republican Party are going to have to be rebuilt anyway. Let 'em go. I mean there's a perfect place for these people who want to blame their own side for all this mess. There's already a chorus blaming the Republicans for all this mess, when in fact the Republicans can't stop it. Republicans can't prevent anything Obama's going to do because it's the Democrats who are monolithic.

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Read the Background Material...

• Investor's Business Daily: Self-Serving Switch
• Wall Street Journal: What Specter's Defection Means
• American Thinker: Remembering Specter
• HotAir: What Did Specter Represent Besides Himself?
• NewsBusters: Nets: Specter 'Driven Out' of GOP by 'Right Wing' and 'Fringe of Party'
• LA Times: Arlen Specter and the Democrats: Be Careful What You Wish For
• The Hill: No Specter of Courage -Doug Heye
• American Spectator: Reagan Defeats Specter

On Day 100, an Irritated President Obama Responds to Tea Parties
April 29, 2009

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RUSH: We're back. President Obama today is out celebrating his first 100 days in orifice. He went to my home state of Missouri. He went to Arnold, Missouri, at Fox High School. I have two sound bites from President Obama. And those of you -- and there were hundreds of thousands of you -- who attended the tea parties on April 15th, I want you to know that President Obama, the president of all the people, The One, the Most Merciful, was really irritated by what you did. He does not like at all what you did. And he doesn't think what you did was worth the time you spent on it. We have two sound bites here. Here's the first.

OBAMA: Those of you who are watching certain news channels, on which I'm not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we're gonna stabilize Social Security. Let's not play games and pretend that the reason is because of the Recovery Act, because that's just a fraction of the overall problem that we've got.

RUSH: Now, this is not wise. This is a man who supposedly has great political instincts, correct? Barack Obama. But this is a bitter clinger moment here. He's looking at you people that went to the tea parties, and he doesn't like you at all, "waving tea bags around, let me just remind them I'm happy to have a serious conversation about how we are --" You know, he's not president of all the people. I mean, he's cold, and he's partisan. It's going to start trickling out. Things that irritate him, he's going to eventually let it be known how irritated he is. He says let's "have a serious conversation about how we're going to cut our health care costs over the long term." You know how we're going to do that, we're going to raise taxes, and then we're going to have government programs. Health care costs are impossible to come down the way he's going to do it. Can anybody tell me when government's lowered the cost of anything? It's not going to happen. But the tea parties were not even about health care. The tea parties were about his irresponsible spending, his irresponsible growth of government, his irresponsible power grab over individual liberty and freedom. Here's the second sound bite he had for those of you who attended the tea parties.

OBAMA: We are going to have to tighten our belts, but we're going to have to do it in an intelligent way, and we gotta make sure that the people who are helped are working American families and we're not suddenly saying that the -- the way to do this is to eliminate programs that help ordinary people and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. We tried that formula for eight years. It did not work, and I don't intend to go back to it.

RUSH: Boy, he's really fit to be tied here. We're going to have to tighten our belts? What do you call 600,000 people losing their jobs every month, Mr. President? Is that not tightening their belts? We're going to have to do it in an intelligent way, make sure that people who are helped are working American families, in other words, the only way anybody's going to get ahead in Obama's world is if the government's there shepherding you through your day. It's just plain wrong, and it will never happen, and if it's tried, it will fail. Eliminate programs, we're not suddenly saying the way to do this is to eliminate programs -- listen to this. We're talking about individual prosperity and success, and he's talking about government programs. I don't know about you, folks, I haven't needed a government program for my success. Now, I know, a lot of people -- and I'm not talking about unemployment or any of this kind of thing. I have not needed a government program for my success. And the people who have achieved great things, and many have, haven't done it with a government program.

Some business may have gotten tax breaks and so forth, but what Obama means is a government program that shepherds people and does things for them, rather than them doing the work. And that's an illusion anyway. He just wants people to think that's going to happen so they'll continue to sit on their hands and wait for it to happen. Like how many people are still waiting for them to pay their mortgage or find them a home or fill their gas tank? Make no mistake there still are people out there. "And give more tax cuts to the wealthy." Tax cuts to the wealthy. Do you know that the bottom 50% of taxpayers in this country pay less than 3% of the total tax burden. Would somebody tell me all these tax cuts for the rich, the rich are paying a greater and greater share of the tax burden every year, with a lower percentage. They're reporting earning more dollars. This is academic stuff. It's been proven. He's trying to rewrite history here.

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Read the Background Material...

• Politico: Obama Targets Tea Bags
• American Thinker: When the Obama Backlash Comes
• Obama?s Liberal Arrogance Will Be His Undoing

Sign Your Life Over to Obama
April 29, 2009

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RUSH: This is April the 29th, 2009. What are you doing today, ladies and gentlemen, to honor this day? What are you doing to honor April 29th of 2009? It's one of the greatest days in our nation's 233-year history. April 29th, today. A day shall live in ecstasy. Because today, ladies and gentlemen, is the one-hundredth day of the reign of The One. The Messiah. Lord Barack Obama the Most Merciful. We are blessed with the smartest president in our nation's history, but he is more than smart, ladies and gentlemen. He is wise. Barack Obama not only knows what's best for our country. He knows what's best for your family. He knows what's best for your children. Barack Obama knows what's best for you. Amidst such greatness, what are you doing to honor the one-hundredth day of Obama?

I'll tell you what I would like to propose, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to propose, since most of the country -- no, not most, but a decent portion of the country -- has already effectively done this. I would like to propose the Obama Power of Attorney Letter for any and all Americans to sign on this, the one-hundredth day of his magnificent presidency. You can honor President Obama and at the same time sign over complete control of your life to him, because he knows what's best for your country. He knows what's best for your family. He knows what's best for your children. He knows what's best for you. Why not sign over complete control of your life to President Obama, with the Obama Power of Attorney Letter? No more worries about taxes. Obama will take what's fair. Career decisions? You're worried about career decisions? No problem!

Obama will tell you what to do. He will tell you where to do it and he will tell you what your compensation will be. (For those of you in Rio Linda, that's your salary. For those of you in Port St. Lucie, it's your wages.) Regardless, Obama will tell you what to do, where to do it, and what your compensation will be. Health care? No worries! Sign it over to President Obama in the Obama Power of Attorney Letter. Obama will assign you a doctor, Obama will tell you when you can go see your doctor, and Obama will tell you and your doctor how much your doctor can charge you. And you won't pay. Obama will pay! Who wouldn't sign the Obama Power of Attorney Letter? He's gonna get you a job. He's going to tell you where to do that job. He's going to tell you how much you're going to make. He's only going to tax what's fair. He's going to assign you a doctor.

He's going to assign you a health care plan. He's going to tell you your doctor how much or how little the doctor can charge, and Obama's going to pay for it. You will not have to pay a thing. You won't have to worry about what to wear; you won't have to worry about what to think. You won't have to worry about where to pray. You won't have to worry about what car to drive, because the smartest and wisest man in history will plan this for you. He will decide for you what you are to wear, what to think, where to pray, and the kind of car you should drive. Best of all, the power goes not to President Obama for a mere four-to-eight years, but to Barack Obama himself for his entire lifespan, because, ladies and gentlemen, do you realize how rare it is that a person of such magnanimity and greatness and compassion and intelligence walks among us?

Do you realize? Obama's greatness cannot be contained by a four- or eight-year presidency. The greatness of Barack Obama is such that even after he leaves office, he should still run your life. He's that good. He's that compassionate. He's that understanding. Turn over every aspect of your life to Barack Obama -- not the president. Barack Obama the man. All it takes is your signature; notarized, signed by two witnesses and your spouse. The Obama Power of Attorney Letter. You will never again have to make one of our irresponsible, ill-considered decisions ever again. Obama will make all of the wrong decisions for you. As the years go on, we will have testimonials from people who have signed the Obama Power of Attorney Letter, who will tell us how Obama has just made their life perfect. I have a sample of what the Obama Power of Attorney Letter is. It's very simple. I have it right here. (shuffling papers) I'm holding it here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers.

"I (fill in your name and address) do hereby appoint Barack Obama, my attorney in fact, to act in my name, place, and stead in respect to the following matters: the vehicle I drive, the salary and bonuses I receive, the job I get, the education my children get, all medical matters, and all tax matters. This durable power of attorney shall extend through his entire term as president, and beyond: through the rest of his remaining years as a mortal walking the sod of planet Earth," and then you simply sign it, and you get a notary public out there to day-date and signature it and so forth, and your problems are over. Your cares have ended; your worries cease to exist, all because you realize the greatness you found yourself among on the one-hundredth day of his presidency: blessed with the smartest president in our nation's history, more than smart, he's wise. He knows what's best for our country; he knows what's best for our allies. He knows what's best for the world! He knows what's best energy-wise. Why, you sign over your power of attorney to Barack Obama, and you never again have to worry about a thing! McDonald's will always have McNuggets, and you'll never, ever have to call 911 when they don't. There's also a simpler way, ladies and gentlemen, to sign the Barack Obama Power of Attorney Letter, and that's just vote for the guy.

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Rush Rocks Milken Institute Forum
April 29, 2009

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RUSH: Last night I was in Los Angeles, flew out there right after the program yesterday -- actually, Beverly Hills. Michael Milken, who is a friend of mine, who I've met during charitable endeavors, he runs the Prostate Cancer Foundation. I actually met him via our, you know, Night of the Century cigar nights that Marvin Shanken, Cigar Aficionado, puts on every year in New York, canceled this year, by the way. They didn't want to do the deal this year because it would be ostentatious to have a black tie dinner at a restaurant in New York during the economic downturn, so they didn't have it this year, but Milken has this thing every year called the Milken Institute Global Forum, and he brings in people from all over the world, some of the wealthiest tycoons in the world, and it's a three-day seminar, and there are programs, speakers, panel discussions all day long. Last night was a debate, and the participants in the debate were Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, and Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, and the speaker of the California assembly and myself with Ed Gillespie, who is the former chairman, Republican National Committee, and he was the assistant to George W. Bush after Karl Rove left.

The moderator of the debate last night was the estimable Frank Luntz, and I will admit this. We've got audio sound bites from it, but it was a profound challenge. I tried to warn 'em about this. It was in the main ballroom of the Beverly Hilton, which, if you're a pop culturite, if you watch the Golden Globes, it's the same place that they do the Golden Globe awards. But the acoustics in there were just such that I was unable to understand one word any of the other participants were saying, other than Gillespie, who was seated to my left. I got most of what he said, but the sound system speakers were in front of us, and there was nothing but reverb and echo. To this moment, I can't tell you one thing Harold Ford said last night. I know a couple things that Willie Brown said. But I was unable to interact as a result of this because I had no clue. I was turning my head toward them and I was covering my ear to try to hear them. It wasn't room noise, it was just the reverberation and echo. A lot of people, even though I go to great pains to explain it, it's hard to understand, if you can hear it, they think it's automatic you can understand it. It's hard to explain to people how, yeah, I hear the noise, but I can't make out the words. 'Cause nobody's experienced that, that can hear.

If you don't use hearing aids, if your hearing is normal, if you can hear somebody in a crowded room, if you can hear the words, you can make it out, but that was not the case and often isn't the case for me in crowded circumstances or places with bad acoustics. So I was unable to interact. I was able to answer Luntz's questions about this, but, folks, I've got the audio from it. It went about an hour and ten minutes or so. I flew back and we touched down about five o'clock in the morning here, and I slept about an hour-and-a-half on the airplane. I knew if I went home and tried to sleep two or three hours, I would feel horrible all day today after having awakened after only two or three hours. These kinds of nights with only 90 minutes sleep I tend to get giddy during the course of the program. Yes, the staff looks very much forward to this each and every time. So, anyway, I want to talk to you about the audience that was there. Now, I didn't have a chance to meet the audience. We were in a greenroom, so to speak, backstage, the speaker's prep room, but I knew who they were.

These are the Masters of the Universe. These are some of the most achieved, some of the most accomplished financial and business people from all over the world, including here in the United States. And they've been corrupted, these Masters of the Universe. Not all of them, but many of them, I could tell by the applause I got. They don't really dig many of Obama's policies, but they love him, and they don't react well to criticism of him. It was disappointing, in a way, because there's a definite left-ward tilt in the corporate world, not just corporate America, but in the corporate world, and these are the people this man is targeting. For example, last night, one of the comments I made, I said, "Look what's happened to the hospitality business. Obama is actually urging people not to go to Las Vegas." Well, now, were there people in that room last night who own hotels in Las Vegas and somebody told me after the evening was over, somebody came and said, you know, somebody shouted "screw Las Vegas" when you said that. So here you have a room of highly achieved tycoons who have the same attitude as people who have fallen victim to class envy in the middle class or whatever.

It was interesting. It was very fun. It was a lot of fun, it was friendly, and I've met Harold Ford and Willie Brown numerous times before, get along with both of them, we had a great time, fist bumps with them all night long, and Willie Brown's a fun guy. But there were so many cliches last night, "The last eight years of Bush were just horrible. We need to resurrect America from the horrible last eight years." What do you mean? We had a great economy the last eight years, in this room, you could hear a pin drop. It's like they just don't hear this. Everybody has so bought into the myth that everything that happened the last eight years was a total disaster. It was an eye opening experience, and we'll talk about it further as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears.

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RUSH: We're gonna start with audio sound bites from the debate last night, the Milken global forum, Milken Institute Global Forum. The subject was Obama's first hundred days, various political topics. And the first sound bite here, the moderator had asked everybody to rate Obama's first hundred days. Harold Ford gave Obama an A-minus, Willie Brown gave Obama a straight A, and then they asked me for my grade, and this is how it started.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Barely a D. (laughter and cheers) Now, look, we have been chatting backstage before we came out and it's very lively, and right now we're all friends. (laughter)

LUNTZ: (snickering)

RUSH ARCHIVE: But these three people are all involved in electoral politics. That's their business. And I'm not. You know, I look at these in an entirely different way. (laughter) No. Getting an audience and getting votes are two different things. I don't pander. I don't lie. I don't say things I don't believe to get an audience. No, no. Everything's from the heart. I mean, when I say, "I want Barack Obama to fail," I mean it. (laughter) But let me tell you -- let me define it. I do -- and he has not failed, by the way. The country is going to need to be resurrected if he's not stopped. I do not want the federal government and the United Auto Workers owning General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford. (applause and cheers) In fact, I'm afraid if you go guy a car in the next six months you're going to automatically be registered as a Democrat. (laughter) It's going to come with an Obama hood ornament and a built-in bumper sticker that you can't remove. (laughter) And you're going to go out and all the union guys are going to be the salespeople. If you don't buy it's either your kneecaps or your signature. (laughter) I don't want the federal government owning the banks and the financial system. (applause)

See, I have a different view of government. I am really, really fed up, more with the US Congress than I am with Barack Obama, because Speaker Brown is right: Barack Obama is who he is. He told everybody what he's going to do, and he was going to do it. Most of his supporters really don't care what he's doing. He's a cult-like figure. He makes them feel good. All of these... Like the airplane, Air Force One. His own office of military whatever it is in the White House. You can't get more "we" than his own White House staff, and he said, "I learned about the flyover in New York City the same time you didn't." He didn't know? I'm sure that his supporters are going to say six months down the road, "He didn't know this was gonna lead to even more unemployment. He didn't know," because there's a cult-like attachment to him. But the US Congress, these people have helped create the problems in the subprime mortgage mess, the banking system that we have, and it offends me that they get to sit around and act like spectators like they had nothing to do with it and then bring everybody in and crucify 'em. If we're going to do that, then bring Barney Frank in and crucify him and Chris Dodd, and (applause) some of the other people who forced the banks to go do something. We have really, really, really big problems.

RUSH: So those were my opening remarks last night at the Milken Institute Global Forum, and we have, let me see, how many more sound bites here? Three, four, five... Looks like we've got six of them. So we've got five more to go.

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RUSH: I don't really remember the questions that I was asked -- and, again, I have a hearing problem, and I had trouble interacting with people. So I basically said what I said in response to questions that I got from the moderator. Here's the second sound bite.

RUSH ARCHIVE: Let me sum up the Barack Obama domestic agenda in one sentence and idea: I believe it is Obama's purpose to return the nation's wealth to its "rightful owners." I believe that Barack Obama comes from a life experience that believes that the wealthy, the accomplished, and the achieved come by their gains in an ill-gotten way, and they need to have it taken away and redistributed. See, I believe the smallest minority in the world is the individual. And if you don't respect the individual, then you really can't say you're for minority rights. We're all different. We were all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. The Democrat Party is not supporting any of those three. They're not supporting life. They're not supporting liberty. We're losing liberty every day.

RUSH: Again, the audience here was 1500 to 2,000 of the wealthiest tycoons from all over the world. In that bite you could hear, you could hear a pin drop in there, right? Because I will guarantee you, they're not hearing these kinds of things either at things like this or within even their own closed circles. In the next bite, I take on the myths of "green energy," the Bush economy. You will hear the audience groan here.

RUSH ARCHIVE: This notion that we have to become a collective and all work together toward what? A lawnmower with two seats on it and call it our new car? (laughter) Green energy, which is a total myth. The eight years of Bush were a disaster? The eight years of Bush as a disaster, is a media myth. (groaning) The economy, under the Bush admin... He can tell you better than I can, but the economy during the eight years of Bush, coming out of 9/11, tax cuts created all kinds of prosperity for people. This belief, though, that somehow the rich take what they have from the middle class and the poor is just silly. Look at what President Obama has done to the hospitality business. Talk to anybody in Las Vegas. He's urging people not to go! CEOs are afraid to fly their planes 'cause they're going to be tattled on. So if you have this class envy that is so popular -- that all we're here to do in America is get even with those who have achieved -- then this administration is for you. Otherwise, we are headed to a place where we are going to have to be resurrected.

RUSH: I remember now. I was following a comment that Willie Brown made, that Barack Obama is "resurrecting" this country from the previous eight years, which were a disaster. Now, the next... The estimable moderator, Frank Luntz, ran around and asked everybody about the AIG bonuses. Should the AIG bonuses have been retracted? Should they not have been paid? Should the executives at AIG have been forced to give them back? And, of course, Mayor Brown, Congressman Harold Ford, said, "Yes, yes! Get that money back! That's outrageous. They shouldn't have that money," blah, blah. They went to Gillespie; Gillespie offered what he had to say, and then they came to me, and they said, "Okay, what about the AIG bonuses?"

RUSH ARCHIVE: These bonuses, folks, are irrelevant! It was 100-some-odd million compared to $176 billion they were given. Where did that money go? Some of it went to Goldman Sachs. This business of harping on the achievers is nothing but pure political class envy that is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator of American voter, which right now more and more of them are having to be unemployed. (applause) This is about building the Democrat Party. It's not about building America. All this talk... There is not one government program of any size that has worked. We started the War on Poverty; we still got it at the same percentage. We have started the Great Society. None of these programs work, but we're not allowed to say that. We're not allowed to look at the results. We're supposed to look at the good intentions of the people who do them. This country is in debt to the point that people who have not yet been born are broke! (laughter) We have tried spending money to fix problems, and it never works. And the premises here, "What would you do different? What would you do with the TARP money?" Why do we need TARP money? (applause) "What would you do with the stimulus?" Who says government can stimulate the private sector? It cannot. Government stimulates the Democrat Party. (laughter) Nationalizing businesses, nationalizing banks is not a solution for this Democrat Party; it's the objective. And that's not what this country was founded on, and it's not what made this country great, and it's not how individuals and entrepreneurs prosper. The environment's getting much, much tougher. All of these premises... AIG bonuses are irrelevant.

RUSH: Now, I think the money quote, if I have allowed the money quote myself -- May I money quote myself? Yes. "Nationalizing businesses, nationalizing banks is not a solution for this Democrat Party; it's the objective." It's simple, sweet, brief. "Brevity is the soul of wit." (interruption) You don't think that's the money quote, Snerdley? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Well, okay, yeah, yeah, "Government stimulates the Democrat Party." Yeah, okay. I said that before, "Government stimulates the Democrat Party." True. All right. Next, I guess there was a discussion of the tax code and raising taxes and how that was justified and so forth. It got around to me, and this is what I said.

RUSH ARCHIVE: What is the purpose of the tax code? For Barack Obama, the purpose of the tax code is to take money away from people so that they become more dependent on government. Pure and simple. What's the proper amount of taxation? As little as possible to inspire people to work their asses off, so they will work hard and pay as much taxes as their rate requires. (applause) Ronald Reagan takes office 1980, '81. The top marginal tax rate is 70%. Total take to the Treasury, $500 billion. Eight years later, the top rate's down from 70 to 28%; the take to the Treasury is $950 billion. Look at the Bush tax cuts. They generated revenue for Washington. They also created individual liberty and freedom and entrepreneurism. That is what the Democrat Party doesn't like. The more people freed, the more people entrepreneurial, the more people who are independently achieving, the less chance you have to control them. So this notion, you know, we're gonna... I guarantee you that Obama's tax increases are gonna reduce the amount of revenue that Washington produces. The deficits are going to be twice as high, at least, than what he's projecting, because the revenue's not gonna come in. Look, we're losing 600,000 jobs a month. They're saying it's not going to improve until we get to 10%. Would somebody tell me how an unemployed person contributes to deficit reduction? It just doesn't happen. So all of this is just... We're 180 degrees out of phase here in terms of, "What's the goal? Raise revenue to run the government. How best to do that? Turn the American people loose.

RUSH: It really is. This is a point that I've been arguing with Democrats and liberals about all my life. If you really want to raise revenue to the Treasury, there are blueprints of how to do it. Kennedy cut taxes, raised revenue. Reagan did it. Bush has done it. Raising taxes on people does not raise revenue. Raising taxes depresses the activity that's being taxed. It causes less of that activity to take place. But as I say, there were just so many myths and cliches that were being discussed last night that it afforded me the opportunity to speak outside them. This is... I guess we're getting toward the end, and they had to get on to foreign policy, and this is what I had to say. I think Luntz was asking people, how is it for the president to run around and speak to our enemies. And this was my contribution to that.

RUSH ARCHIVE: The United States is a great nation at great risk. We have a lot of enemies. The enemies range from people who don't like us because of our size, our achievement, our economy, our productivity; they don't like our way of life; they don't like our allies. Talking to people who dislike us, this is Conflict Resolution 101 from the seventh grade. It's not going to solve any problem. We cannot. It really pains me to see the president of the United States go around the world and apologize for this country hoping that... (applause) I know what he's trying to do. He's Barack Obama thinks that -- and a lot of Democrats think -- the country is unjust and immoral, has been for a long time, compounded under Bush. I know what the template is. And that if we just run around and say, "Look, we're different. We're morally superior. We're better people. We're different now. You can trust us. We're not from the old country here that was racist, sexist, bigoted, and so forth and so on," and I think all that does is convey weakness to our enemies. I think it generates laughter. I think Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's insane. He's sworn to blow Israel off the map. He believes -- and his fundamentalist religious beliefs are what propel him. The idea that we can somehow change Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's attitude towards us by having talks is ridiculous.

RUSH: Gotta take a brief time-out.

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RUSH: To the phones, and we're going to go to La Jolla, California, we have somebody who was in the audience at the Beverly Hilton last night for the Milken Institute Global Forum. It's Noni. Am I pronouncing that right? Hi, Noni. Welcome to the program. Nice to have you here.

CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush. It's a pleasure.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: Yes, I was at the conference last night. My husband is there right now, and when he'd heard that you were on the panel he called and I raced up yesterday afternoon. He was able to get me a pass. And, Rush, I was thrilled to be there. I absolutely loved your tie. And we were at a table of ten people. Our host and hostess, she was from Russia; he was from Budapest. And probably out of the ten of us, four were conservatives, the others were liberals. And acoustics were bad in that room, Rush. I could tell you were having trouble hearing, but I just wanted you to know that you did have many fans there. But when you were speaking, of course, the liberals at the table several times were booing, and my one Russian hostess was cheering, and I was a little bit more conservative with my clapping, because I didn't want to embarrass my husband, who is not an outgoing conservative as I am. And she just said, "Noni, don't hold back. I was in Russia with a socialist. I wasn't able to get my feelings out, and I lived in New York and I was intimidated by liberals," and she said, "No more." So I just really enjoyed it, Rush. You did a great job.

RUSH: Thank you, Noni, very much. It was fun. It was fun, but the acoustics were bad. I couldn't hear what any of the guys up on stage with me were saying, but I could gauge reaction, I could distinguish between applause and boos and hisses, and I could hear silence, I could hear when they were doing nothing. And I loved it because I guarantee you there were a lot of people in that room who showed up not having any idea they were going to hear anything close to what I said, and I'm sure that a lot of people were, "Whoa, what is this?" They are thinking about it a lot today.

CALLER: You made it entertaining. I mean people were laughing and I think they were enjoying you in spite of themselves. I mean, it was just great, and I think my husband is definitely more of a fan now than before. I mean I listen to you constantly, and he doesn't listen to you as much, but I think after last night, he's come around.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate it, that's great. I'm glad that you were able to get through today, Noni, and I'm glad that you were able to get up there to see it. Mr. Milken only called me last Wednesday to ask me if I could do this, and I was fortunate to have the date open. He also just secured Speaker Brown, Mayor Brown late last week as well, too. He always had Harold Ford and Ed Gillespie. But it was fun. I enjoyed it. I'm glad you were there. I'm glad you called. Thank you so much.

CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush.

RUSH: All right.

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Scare Force One Scandal Grows
April 29, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Gloria in Bonita, California. It's nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I am absolutely delighted to get my call through today.

RUSH: So am I. Thank you very much.

CALLER: And it really makes me very angry when I hear the comics on television, et cetera, put you down because I think you're great. And Mark Levin is my mentor. So I could easily get back as one of those guys if I had a chance, and I want to say: taking that jet aircraft for a joyride demonstrates the contempt Obama and his appointees have for America and the American citizens. And I want to say thank you for letting me express my opinion.

RUSH: Well, thank you very much. I'm glad you called, Gloria. It's always great to have somebody here like you. Here, here. This is the story I've been looking for. This is just unbelievable about this. And where is this from? This is from ABC News: "911 calls just released by a New Jersey emergency office communicate chilling on-the-ground scenes of the panic and terror that besieged many eyewitnesses of yesterday's botched Air Force One promotional photo op over Lower Manhattan. 'Oh my god,' one caller says again and again, later telling the operator, 'They are following an aircraft, a big aircraft coming like the 9-11.' Also ... the Air Force released an estimate of the cost..." It's $300,000 and basically $29,000 for this.

That $329,000 does not include all of the dry cleaning that's needed to be done in New York today from people wetting their pants in their office buildings. And then you go later in the story, and you find out the FBI director had no clue, and the secretary of defense had no idea it was happening, and they're both furious, and Obama didn't know it was happening, and Obama has called and demanded for a review that will take two weeks. They're dumping on this Caldera guy. He's part of the White House staff! There are so many logical questions about this. The Drive-By Media isn't asking any of them. You can say that it's contempt for the people of New York. I would say also, you know, Obama said he's going to go through the budget line by line and he's gonna get rid -- of course that's a lie because he doesn't have a line-item veto. He can't do what he promises to do here.

He cannot go through the budget line by line and get rid of what he thinks is waste and fraud. He just can't do it. He doesn't have the power. But he isn't going to do it anyway. He's just saying it. And while he says he's gonna cut the deficit and cut back and save money with health care costs, here's 329 grand for the photo-op for Air Force One. And the defense department didn't know about it and the FBI didn't know about it and the mayor of New York wasn't told about it? They couldn't do this on a Sunday morning when the sun's coming up? How about a Sunday morning with the sun coming up right over the Statue of Liberty? What a great photo-op that would have been. They couldn't do it? They had to do it at the beginning of the business day on a Monday? Folks... You know what it also did? Look at who didn't know about it. The Department of Defense didn't know about it. The FAA did. Air traffic control had to know about it, but it demonstrated... (snorts) I hate to say it. If you want to fly a plane at a thousand feet over Manhattan, I can you can find a way to get away with it.

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RUSH: Here's Don in Lorenz, South Carolina. Am I pronouncing that right, it's Lorenz, or Lorenz.

CALLER: Lorenz.

RUSH: Great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: It's a pleasure to speak with you Rush --

RUSH: I can imagine.

CALLER: -- 24/7 dittos.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I got to thinking about this with the Scare Force One incident.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Obama is trying to delegate responsibility, which you can't do, something I learned when I was in the Navy. You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility. And as long as he gets away with doing that, nothing's ever going to stick to him.

RUSH: I understand what you mean by delegating responsibility and I like your choice of words. That's a very clever way of putting it. I prefer pass the buck.

CALLER: Yeah, same thing.

RUSH: Because I think it has more impact. He's passing the buck. It's ridiculous. He's the only guy that can order Air Force One -- he's not the only guy, but, look, I've been through this a bunch of times, I don't want to be redundant, but he has to know what that airplane is doing because he has to be told he can't fly it that day.

CALLER: Even if he doesn't, the thing is, he's responsible. It's somebody in his cabinet, his administration --

RUSH: It's the White House staff, the office of military planning is part of the White House staff. You can't get more "we." Like Obama said, "We found out about it same time you did." We? We is him. It's like his idiot press secretary saying "call the White House" in a press conference from the White House. You gotta call the White House to find out what happened with the airplane.

CALLER: It's just more Barbra Streisand out of him.

RUSH: Yeah, it's Clintonesque, and the story saying about how mad he is. Oh, he was furious yesterday. He's triple furious today. He has ordered a review, a top-to-bottom review to find out how this happened. It's gonna take two weeks. A two-week investigation, and then they're gonna tell us how this happened and how it will never happen again, and the last thing we're going to hear about this, in whatever their investigation report is, the truth. It will be the last thing we're told about it.

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RUSH: Here's a question I want to ask you. I want you to consider this, folks. If an Obama photo-op costs $330,000, what do you think an Obama automobile is gonna cost you? What do you think an Obama flu shot is gonna cost you? I mean, if you're bothered by the cost of that Obama photo-op flight, $329,000 plus the film costs. Remember, he went over the expenses line by line. He's gonna save billions and trillions. He cut that to the bare minimum. So I just ask you, what is your first Obama car gonna cost you? And then when you get it fixed six months later, what's that gonna cost?

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RUSH: I just got a note from a friend, Steve Gilbert, tells me -- I hope he's not joking me -- Greg Craig has been named the investigator to see how in the hell it coulda possibly happened that Air Force One flew to New York for a photo-op and buzzed Ground Zero at a thousand feet. Greg Craig! This is the guy who represented the guy from Cuba, the father of Elian Gonzalez, Greg Craig, who was one of Clinton's impeachment lawyers. He's in the Obama White House legal counsel office. Greg Craig. I mean this is unbelievable! (interruption) Oh, that's right. Glad you reminded me of this, Snerdley. Cookie will dig this out. We may not be able to find it today from our archives, but back early on in the Bamster's first few days of his administration when he was issuing all these executive orders, he was signing these executive orders and he was starting to tell people what they meant, and he got lost, and Greg Craig had to tell him what the executive order was. It wasn't on the prompter, there was no prompter that day. But I mean this is just beyond laughable. Greg Craig to investigate how Air Force One ended up at a thousand feet over New York City in a photo-op. How stupid must they think we are? Pretty damn stupid. If I were Obama, I'd think the country is stupid. I must admit. If I'm Obama, I gotta be laughing every night at what I'm getting away with, and I gotta think the dumbest people in the country are the press corps.

Speaking of all of this and New York pig flu, Greta Van Susteren, I was watching Greta last night as we were flying home, she was discussing this photo-op that scared all the people in lower Manhattan. You saw the video of people leaving their buildings, running away, and she interviewed a lot of people, person after person interviewed describes their total abject fear as a result of this little White House stunt that nobody can explain how it happened. So it made me wonder, I'm watching this, these people in New York whose greatest fear is another plane hitting another building in Manhattan, voted overwhelmingly for a guy who does not in any way share that fear. What does it say about Obama voters and the cult that has sprung up around him? And those very same people running for their lives in abject fear are the same people who think the last eight years were an utter horrible disaster unlike this country has ever seen before. Well, I know they were told the war on terror was just a ruse. But, see, what that incident proved is they don't really believe that. They know 9/11 happened. Didn't take much for them to think it was happening again.

I'll tell you, folks, the irony is that for seven-and-a-half years it didn't happen again. Within a hundred days of the Obama administration, people in New York think it's happening again, and 89, 90% of them voted for the guy. I'm sure they're all saying, "He didn't know, he didn't know. That's right, Mr. Limbaugh, he didn't know. He's conducting an investigation, and he will find who's responsible, unlike George Bush, who would have covered it up." That's the voice of the New Castrati, by the way, the average liberal.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Investor's Business Daily: In New York, 9/11 Isn't Over Yet
• Sweetness & Light: Greg Craig Is Investigating AF1 Flyover?
• ABC News: Photo Op Panic: 911 Calls Reveal Terror during NYC Air Force One Flyover Air Force Estimates Photo Op Cost at Over $328,000
• WCBSTV: FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic

Americans Fear Their Government
April 29, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Joseph in Pottsboro, Texas. Hey, Joseph, nice to have you on the program, sir. Yes, hi.

CALLER: How you doing?

RUSH: Good.

CALLER: Let me try to close the loop on two subjects. One, you've been talking about, one I think might be new. Why did the corporations in the United States buy the government for the Democrats, and what will the new super tax be? First of all, the corporations want to dump the unfunded liabilities in pensions and health care on the federal government and get out of the benefits business because the unfunded liabilities are an overhanging monstrosity to their profits.

RUSH: Not only that, you have a lot of big business that's really not opposed to illegal immigration. Cheap labor, you know, one of the primary objectives of business is as low labor costs as you can get. But you're right, they would love to get rid of their health care plans. They don't want to have happen to them what happened to General Motors and Chrysler.

CALLER: When I was servicing the General Motors pension fund in the early nineties, the General Motors unfunded liability was over $22 billion.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: It's now over $42 billion, and that's one corporation. Now the more important part, Rush, is the super tax. How in the world are we going to sell Treasuries to fund the deficits which are going to be behind carrying the unfunded pension liabilities and the health care Medicare costs? Right now we tax income in this country. The federal government, in my opinion, will have to also tax wealth, and that means eventually, as you and I know it, confiscate savings, IRAs, and pension plans, liquidate them, and buy treasuries, and there's your source of funds for the deficits. It's a massive training in the way we --

RUSH: That still isn't going to work. I'm not saying they won't do it. I have been paranoid about a wealth tax for decades, for 20 years, but you can confiscate all that wealth only one time.

CALLER: Hm-hm.

RUSH: And that's it, it will never exist again because the people who went about creating it are not going to waste their time.

CALLER: Well, that's why I'm in retreat, and I don't think these guys, in the long run, are going to succeed. And the devastation will be --

RUSH: Oh, they can't succeed. No, that is what's so devastating about this. It can't succeed. You know, I hope Obama fails, it's not a question of hope, he will. This just can't work. It will not work.

RUSH: It hasn't worked anywhere else around the world.

RUSH: The further we go down the road trying to make it work the deeper the well we dig for ourselves, the deeper the pit and the harder and longer it's going to be to get out of it. This shift of the Masters of the Universe, the corporate elite from around the world, this shift of theirs leftward is made up of many things. It is made up of, yeah, they would love to off-load all their unfunded liabilities, the health care plans that they have and pension plans, what have you. But they're also, many of them, as time has evolved, they're Democrats, they've come out of business schools, and they're liberals, they're Democrats. It's another myth that big business is a bunch of fat cat Republicans. Plus, you add to this, now, that these people are running scared of every government, they're just running.

Obama is making it clear, I mean if you ran a bank, if you ran any kind of business today that this administration thinks is a problem, Obama has just made it very clear, if he wants to, he can come claim your business, and he can fire you, and he can tell others what people that work in your business are going to make. When things like this happen, a lot more people than you would realize become cowards, rather than standing up and fighting it, they just slink away, try to go along with it, take care of themselves, not make any waves so as not to aggravate the beast that's out there breathing fire and brimstone at others, 'cause you don't want the fire and brimstone being breathed on you. So you don't say anything, you go along with it. In my 58 years, I have never had the sense that so many people are so genuinely afraid of their government, from all walks of life, as they are today. And, believe me, that is being exploited by people who love us being afraid of them.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Remember I was just talking about how the leftward tilt of corporate America and the corporate world and they're just frightened? Plus a lot of them are liberal Democrats anyway coming out of MIT, Wharton, the Harvard Business School and so forth. But here, Wall Street Journal today: "Citigroup Inc., soon to be one-third owned by the U.S. government, is asking the Treasury for permission to pay special bonuses to many key employees," These are the famous retention bonuses. "The request comes as Citigroup is grappling with broad government pay restrictions that could break apart its legendary energy-trading unit. People at that unit, Phibro, are threatening to leave because of pay caps," caps on their pay, "tied to the U.S. bailout of Citigroup. Phibro has been the source of hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for the bank, and has paid out hefty compensation, including a roughly $100 million windfall last year for the unit's leader, Andrew Hall."

Now, uhhh, I understand. If you're going to take federal money, they're going to have common stock and they're going to own it, but I have to tell you. I have to tell you, folks, as a good old-fashioned red-blooded American, I cringe. It just rubs me the wrong way for a bank to be asking Obama -- asking Treasury or asking Obama -- for permission to pay bonuses. Good! Lord! Citibank is a big bank. I know the government's going to own a third of it. That's not a solution; that's an objective. But they have to call the Department of Treasury and ask for permission to pay bonuses to keep key people? That ought to embarrass everybody. And after it embarrasses you, it ought to make you mad. And you might be saying, "Well, they ought to have to ask permission, Mr. Limbaugh. They have screwed us blind! They have raised our credit card interest rates. They are unkind, charged us ATM fees." Alright, fine. You sit back and let this happen, and pretty soon it isn't going to be long before you're going to have to call the government for permission to go to the bathroom and use a certain kind of toilet paper.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Wall Street Journal: Citi Seeks Approval to Pay Out Bonuses
• Investor's Business Daily: In New York, 9/11 Isn't Over Yet
• American Spectator: FDR and Obama: Their First Hundred Days

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