Posted on 03/05/2010 5:39:07 PM PST by GOP_Lady
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On Today's Show... |
March 4, 2010 |
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"The White House is out there saying how good the unemployment number woulda been without the snowstorm.
What I would say is, how good would it be without fear of tax increases, cap and tax, Obamacare."
"The Obama administration at a lot of levels, over at the Pentagon, in the White House,
they view their mission as to manage an America in decline."
"There is not going to be reconciliation.
This is Sauron getting the ring and then letting Gollum have it for a couple minutes so he'd get it back."
"Everything coming out of the Senate is a distraction intended to keep your eye off where the real action is.
The action is the head count in the House."
"The cost of doing business in the United States today, as you know, is very high.
There's no economic growth. People are being laid off. People are not being hired.
The growth is occurring in the public sector."
"This is a guy Obama wants on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a guy who thinks the chief justice
of the United States is too radical because he believes in private property rights and free enterprise.
If Obama picked this guy, that's what Obama thinks, too."
"Reconciliation is not the endgame here.
The House passing the Senate bill is the endgame."
"I'll tell you when it's too late. I'd be in New Zealand if it was too late.
I'll tell you when we reach the tipping point.
We're nowhere near it. We're still the United States of America.
A majority of American people have clearly expressed they don't want a shred of what's happening here, and we will stop it."
"The American people still, in the end, get what they want.
This is not what they thought they were getting.
They have been scammed totally.
They thought they were getting something postpartisan, postbickering, postracial."
"Whatever people's expectations were that voted for Obama have not anywhere near been met."
"We're at a time now where it's a delicate balance because to define honestly the circumstances we face and
be optimistic about it is a tough challenge 'cause I'm not optimistic about where we are, I don't like where we are.
The optimism is that we can stop it because we have.
But it's never going to stop coming at us."
"Liberalism has been on the march for centuries.
It's just never gotten this close to power in this country before."
"America is the people. The people are who make this country work, and the people are hurting."
"They're stimulating nothing but themselves, the Democrat Party and their belief in expansionist government.
They're not stimulating anything in the economy. And they know it."
"Did Obama turn himself in?
He's sitting there being interviewed by John Walsh on America's most wanted.
Oh, please let it be so. Did he turn himself in?"
"The so-called benefits from Obamacare don't happen for four years,
but the taxes and all the expenses are gonna kick in immediately to everybody --
you and me and to businesses."
"Bart Stupak is supposedly willing to hold up Obamacare because he's so committed his heart and soul to stopping abortion.
Yet the number one way to stop abortion is defund Planned Parenthood, but he voted against doing that."
"When a business sees where a government is taking the country,
and if they don't think they can stop it, they want to be on the right side of it,
because they're dealing with the Mafia, a Mafia with unlimited resources."
"We're dealing with Democrats here.
What they want is for us to give up.
They want us to give in.
Their relentless pursuit here is designed to dispirit us."
"The health bill is like the Terminator.
It starts out looking like one thing, and then it's exposed for what it really is --
and every time you kill it, every way you kill it, it keeps coming back in a new form."
"I know it's difficult to hear this. It's difficult to say it.
We, for the first time in our history as a nation, are a nation in decline --
and this administration is there to manage it, not stop it, because they think we deserve to be in decline."
"Rahm Emanuel's brother Ezekiel: 'Heavier People Bad for the Economy.'
So, Zeke, what do we do with them then?"
"If they get health care, they regulate every aspect of your life based on the costs of the government."
"Who said, 'The lingering global financial crisis has exposed the dark side of the capitalist
economic system in the West,' adding that 'the US will go down in history as the biggest thief ever'?
Was it Barack Obama or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
Normally they are on the same page."
"We're not gonna bend the cost curve down.
Obama is going to own the doctors and hospitals.
The government is going to be in charge of telling everybody involved here what they can get,
when they're going to be treated, who they're going to treat, how much they're going to treat them."
"Snerdley's gotta listen to the opening monologue to kind of know what I'm talking
about so he doesn't put somebody up there who's going to say what I just said.
'Cause if that happens all hell breaks loose in here."
Continually repeat ...
It's not about me.
I'm the President.
Past editions of "Rush In a Hurry"
Too many of them are willing to fall on the sword for Obama. But we got to give this fight all we got.
To be added or removed from the "Rush In A Hurry" Ping List, FReepmail GOP_Lady.
TODD: The nation's unemployment rate is holding steady at 9.7%. Employers cut 36,000 jobs, fewer than expected.
BRZEZINSKI: The unemployment rate is unchanged in February at 9.7%. Employers cut 36,000 jobs, which was smaller than expected.
WHITFIELD: The jobless rate held steady by 9.7%. That's good news.
SHUSTER: The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%, as employers cut fewer jobs than had been expected.
GUTHRIE: The unemployment rate did not budge, holding steady at 9.7%. That is better than expected.
KOSIK: We've been waiting for this report. The news definitely better than expected.
REID: Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.
RUSH: That was Harry Reid. This is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today. So losing 36,000 jobs, a rising underemployment number up to 16% and a 9.7% unemployment rate is what happens when Obama focuses like a laser on jobs on jobs. You want the lowlights of this? Because the Drive-Bys are once again looking at this with rose-colored glasses. It's absurd to portray this as good news. Here are the lowlights of an absolutely depressing jobs reports, this is the result of Obama's laser-like focus on jobs. Remember that. "US nonfarm payrolls declined for the 25th time in the past 26 months. Unemployment rose by 34,000 to stand at 14.9 million. The jobless rate stuck at 9.7%. Total hours worked fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.6%. Job losses in February were concentrated in construction, schools, transportation, insurance, and publishing," and except for the last two, the stimulus money was supposed to fix all that.
"The U6 alternative gauge of the unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part-time, rose to 16.8% from 16.5%." An economist, Heidi Shierholz, for the Economic Policy Institute in Washington said, "What we see in this report's essentially a job market on pause. The pace of decline has slowed dramatically but jobs are not being created to put this country's nearly 15 million unemployed back to work." How would you like to consider the prospect here that we may be a nation in decline, on purpose, and that for the foreseeable future, as long as these people run the show we're going to have a 10 to 12% unemployment rate, that that's going to be the new norm? That's going to be the new full employment. Full employment is statistically around 4.9, 5%. How about the new norm now being ten, 12%? Let me tell you something. The Obama administration at a lot of levels, over at the Pentagon, in the White House, they view their mission as to manage an America in decline. They want an America in decline. It is about time America got cut down to size.
I met with a guy today -- this is fascinating. There's a whole bunch of powerful people here in town in Palm Beach because the Club for Growth, the annual convention or whatever they call it is taking place here. And quite naturally, many of the attendees have sought a meeting with me. I have granted an audience to four of them. And one of them was this morning. I'm not going to name names. You would know them all. They come from many different spheres, if you will. One of them said to me today, "I was driving around a little over a year ago, about a year ago, and I was listening to you, Rush, and I cringed --" the guy's a Republican "-- I cringed when you said that Obama purposefully intends to destroy the country's economy, take it, pare it down to size. I said, 'No, no, that can't possibly be true.' It may be that he just doesn't get it and that he's not a leader, but, Rush, I have to tell you, I can see no other reason to explain this. We keep heaping mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. This is more than somebody just not getting it."
And then this person said to me, "We know some people in this administration. You get a couple of drinks in them and they really open up because their egos are huge. These two guys are over at the Pentagon. And they said quite honestly and very proudly, 'We are here as part of the administration to manage America's decline. Whatever you think that means, you're watching it, America's decline. We are here to manage it.'" Not fix it, not correct it, but to manage it because they think this is what we deserve, that we've been too big shot for too long. I knew all this by instincts because I know people like this and I said to the guy to whom I granted the audience when he said, "I cringed when I heard you say that." I said, "I know it's hard to hear." I said, "It's difficult for me to hear myself say it." So this now makes four people who have said, "You know, a year ago, when I heard you talking about how radical this guy was, I said 'no, Rush, it's just the Democrats, it's just some young, unqualified Democrat, that's all it is.'" Nobody thinks that anymore. They may think he's unqualified, they may think he's not a leader, they may think that he doesn't get it, but they all understand now that his agenda is his agenda, and it doesn't matter the impact his agenda has on the country.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let's see. You want to talk about a tsunami? And, by the way, this unemployment number, don't forget now that the first wave of temporary Census workers is factored into this employment report. But this is the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, and basically this tsunami that's coming in May is college graduates. Now, I'm not sure if this number is national or just in North Carolina. I can't tell. But, at any rate, "About 3 million students will graduate from college this year, and many will be looking for jobs," and you know kids today. They think that the moment the diploma's in their hand that Goldman Sachs is going to call and offer 'em 250 grand a year and the house that their parents grew up in.
• 741,000: Number getting associate degrees.
• 1.6 MILLION: Number getting bachelor's degrees.
• 659,000: Number getting master's degrees.
• 94,400: Number getting first professional degrees, such as law or medical degrees.
• 63,500: Number getting doctorates," and the job market is "bleak."
So you have to add these people who are going to be looking for jobs as they graduate in May, and they're going to be listening to all these commencement addresses telling them how the future is theirs, how important they are, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It ain't going to be a pretty sight.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: While Obama's focused like a laser on jobs and granting amnesty to illegal aliens and clean energy to create jobs, all of this is the part that Obama relishes, managing America's decline. That's his purpose. That's why the people with him are with him. He's chosen people who are his mirror image. They are as radical as he is. In fact, he doesn't appear radical, but if you look at every one of these people he finds, this latest guy that he's appointed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals thinks that John Roberts is unqualified to be on the Supreme Court because he believes in free enterprise, he believes in private property rights.
This is a guy Obama wants on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a guy who thinks the chief justice of the United States is too radical because he believes in private property rights and free enterprise. Well, if Obama picked this guy, that's what Obama thinks, too.
END TRANSCRIPT
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I think this is a clear majority. Rasmussen: "55% Say Congress Should Start Over on Health Care." Clear majority, don't you think? I mean that's four percentage points more than what Obama wants to get. I'm getting e-mails from people: "Rush, you gotta remind people now the real trick here is there isn't going to be any reconciliation. If the House passes the Senate bill, it's a done deal." Obama had a meeting with all these guys yesterday, different groups of people. He said we don't have the votes for the public option right now but don't worry we're going to get it; we're going to ram this down people's throats. This is just the foundation, just the starting point. And that's damn true. This is just the foundation if they get this. They don't have the votes now. They don't have the votes now, and I'm still not convinced that they're going to get close to having the votes in the House for the Senate bill. We'll keep a sharp eye. There's two weeks to go here before Obama's resurrection deadline of Easter Sunday.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
From TheHill.com: "Democrats plan 'pain' for Republicans who seek to slow or block passage of healthcare legislation, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Wednesday night. Brown said that if Republicans try to offer amendments and use parliamentary maneuvers to grind out the legislative process, Democrats would retaliate with all-night sessions and other methods of fighting back." No! No, don't say it! All-night sessions? That's cruel! All-night sessions? How can they do it? That's torture! That's sleep deprivation. That's the kind of stuff that went on down at Club Gitmo.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So Sherrod Brown is now threatening "pain" for the Republican Party if they drag out health care. "'I think they're going to try to do amendments, as many as they can get away with,' Brown said Wednesday evening during an appearance on MSNBC. 'I think we keep them here all night -- tonight, the next night, the next night, the next night." Again, sleep deprivation. This is what went on at Club Gitmo and here's a Democrat now advocating torture to be used on the Republicans. "If they're going to try to filibuster in the traditional sense or the more modern sense that they do, they're going to have pain, too,' Brown added." They're going to have real pain. There's not going to be a reconciliation. That's what that meeting at the White House was all about yesterday. He's bringing up these various groups of House Democrats and saying, "Look, we're not going to be able to get the public option. That's not in the Senate bill. We can't get it now. We're going to build the foundation. It's a first step." So there isn't going to be reconciliation.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I got an e-mail question: "What do you mean, there won't be any reconciliation?" I spent some time on this yesterday afternoon and it's embarrassing that I missed this whole thing myself. All of this talk of reconciliation is just another head feint. All this talk of getting the Senate bill passed in the House and then back to the Senate for reconciliation where all the things the House wants get added in, the second bill, a third bill, not going to happen. The point is it was never the intention. It's all been a head feint from the get-go. Once the House passes the Senate bill we've got Obamacare. The Senate's already passed it, the Christmas Eve bill, and the objective is what? To pass the Senate bill. There is no new bill. There is no new Obama bill. Pass the Senate bill. "But, Rush, but, Rush, it has the abortion lingo in it." Yeah, I know, and they're telling Stupak and the boys, "We'll fix that in the reconciliation." There isn't going to be a reconciliation.
This is Sauron getting the ring and then letting Gollum have it for a couple minutes so he'd get it back. There is not going to be reconciliation. The minute Pelosi gets whatever she needs, 216 or 217 for that Senate bill, it goes to Obama, he signs it. In fact, even if there's reconciliation he has to sign it. And so Obama's bringing these people up to the White House yesterday, the various factions of Democrats in the House, Barbara Lee was up there, I think she's chairman of the black caucus: (paraphrasing) "I don't like it, there's no public option." Obama: "We don't have the votes for public option. We just don't have the votes right now for the public option, that's why it's not in the bill over in the Senate, and we can't get it in there. But this is just the foundation. This is just step one. We're going to have all kinds of goodies in this thing before it's all over with. But we've got to take the first step." That's why all the action is focused on the House here. Can Pelosi get the votes? Ignore the Senate. Everything coming out of the Senate is a distraction intended to keep your eye off where the real action is. The action is the head count in the House.
Now, one other thing, 'cause I have granted audience to some of these powerful forces that are in town for the weekend, and I've asked them what I told you I was going to ask them yesterday. What about repealing it after it gets done? Here is the problem with that. It's a realistic matter. Once Obama signs the bill, Obamacare is law. There are several things which happen immediately that will force businesses large and small to off-load their employee benefit health care plans. If, for example, a small business, medium size, large business, any business has health care costs as 14%, 10%, whatever, cost of doing business, it's around that or higher, in this bill, in the Senate bill is an option for employers. You can keep paying your own employee benefits for a while, or you can drop your employee benefits, just pay the government 8%. Pay the government 8% instead of whatever your health care expenses, just pay it to the government, and thereby all those -- it could be that within two years 50 to a hundred million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance because there is a big come-on in this bill, an employer can pay the government 8% per year off the top instead of whatever it's costing the employer to provide health care for all the employees, and where do the employees go to get insurance? To the Obama exchanges.
Now, once that happens, the genie out of the bottle business. Once a significant number of businesses have off-loaded their health care benefits and the government is now providing that insurance, how do you stop that? Okay, we're going to repeal this now. The Democrats are going to be out there saying, "See? We told you. Republicans don't want you to have health care. Republicans want to take your health care away. Just like you senior citizens, the Republicans want to take your Social Security away from you." The cost of doing business in the United States today, as you know, is very high. There's no economic growth. People are being laid off. People are not being hired. The growth is occurring in the public sector. In fact, for the first time, public sector employee average salaries are $7,000 a year higher than in the private sector. Sixty-seven thousand versus 60 is the average, not the mean, the average. And this is a trend that has been ongoing for quite a while.
So any business -- you go out and talk to them, the whole health care situation bugs 'em. They have to provide it. Employees expect it. They have to provide it to get quality people. But they hate it. The costs keep going up, the employees are never satisfied with all of what they're getting, even though the employees are paying no tax on it, it's a free benefit. Companies now have to have entire departments just to deal with that aspect of running their business, which has nothing to do with running the business. If you think a company will not choose an 8% off-the-top option payment to the government rather than 14 to 15% that is costing them to provide benefits for their employees, you got another thing coming, with as much pressure and stress on these people to stay open. All of this is by design, by the way. The other thing about repeal, and let me tell you something, don't misunderstand me here. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it would have to be done quick. The other thing is you have a president here who can veto any effort to repeal and do we have supermajorities in the House and Senate to override vetoes. You know he's not going to vote or sign legislation coming out of the House or Senate that repeals his most important baby, health care, Obamacare, Obama reform monument care. So that's a practical aspect of this too.
And then there is the question -- you know, entitlements are entitlements -- have you ever seen one repealed? So the focus here is stopping this. Also, don't fall for this notion, if he doesn't get it by Easter and if he doesn't get it by graduation in May, whatever, then it's dead for ten years. How many times have we heard that since last Thanksgiving? They're never going to stop coming back for this. Whenever they don't get the votes one day after one period, it's just the start of another period to try to get them.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So repeal is going to be a campaign theme, it better be, getting it done quickly. But the focus has to be stopping this, and that's putting pressure on Democrat members of Congress from every which way it can be brought, even with Republicans in the House going and talking to them, appealing to them in whatever way necessary to get through. Who knows. But it's what has to happen. Reconciliation is not the endgame here. The House passing the Senate bill is the endgame. And that's why Obama -- again, not to be redundant, but to drive the point home -- that's why Obama had all these different factions of Democrats in the House up to the White House yesterday, to assure them that though they are unhappy with various elements of the Senate bill, it's just the foundation, it's just the start.
Quick time-out. Rahm Emanuel's brother, Ezekiel, said we have too many fat people in America.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You are kidding me! He's serious? Oh. Oh, no. Well, the troops out there are ticked off at me. "Hey, Rush, thanks for the encouragement. Thanks for helping to convince me today that we're doomed to Obamacare. Thanks for nothing, Rush." "Dear Rush: You're being suckered on repeal. The insurance bill does not take effect for three years so there's no government insurance to convert to. Yeah, it will take two-thirds with Obama to override a veto, but after 2012 it might just be a simple majority -- and, yes, there was an entitlement repeal back in '84-'86. A health-related entitlement was passed into law, but the outcry from senior citizens was so great that it was repealed one year later." This was an addition to Medicare. It was catastrophic insurance, and it was going to cost seniors an additional $325, and they followed Dan Rostenkowski home, practically beat him up when he got out of his car, a cheap Buick, in front of his Chicago mansion.
Look, folks, I'm not trying to discourage you here, but the truth is the truth. Now, the government exchanges and so forth, yeah. The so-called benefits don't happen for four years, but the taxes and all the expenses are gonna kick in immediately to everybody -- you and me and to businesses. Look, all I'm saying is, the effort and focus at this point must remain on stopping it so that we don't get to this nightmare of trying to repeal things. I don't think they have the votes. I said this at the end of the program yesterday and the day before. I know they don't have the votes or we'd have health care right now. They do not have the votes, and I don't think they're close to having the votes. I don't believe anything Pelosi or Reid say about how, "Oh, yeah, we're getting close," or Stupak coming in and out of there.
By the way, don't put your eggs in Stupak's basket, either. It's possible he's being legit on this, but he's still a Democrat, for crying out loud -- and don't forget this. You know, Stupak had a chance to vote to defund Planned Parenthood and did not vote for it. Now, Planned Parenthood conducts most of the abortions that take place in this country. If you could defund Planned Parenthood, you would reduce the number of abortions that take place in this country by an astounding percentage -- and the Republicans last year, they knew they were not going to get this past. They didn't have the numbers. But they submitted a bill that would defund Planned Parenthood as part of another spending bill of some kind, and Stupak would not vote for it. Now, this guy is supposedly willing to hold up Obamacare because he's so committed his heart and soul to stopping abortion?
Yet the number one way to stop abortion is defund Planned Parenthood. Just stop the federal grants to Planned Parenthood like you stop the federal grants to ACORN. But he didn't vote for doing that. We're dealing with Democrats here. We have to know who we're dealing with. What they want is for us to give up. They want us to give in. Their relentless pursuit here is designed to dispirit us. You cannot get angry at anybody for telling you the truth of their strategy and what's going on and how close they are to it and say, "Okay. Well, I give up," because I'm not saying give up. I'm not saying it's over. I'm not saying they have the votes. I'm saying they don't right now. They want us to just assume the fetal position, lose our steam, and they'll run over us. We have to keep opposing this in every way available to us. We, folks, are the only reason Obamacare hasn't passed yet.
The Democrats, up 'til January 19th, had more than enough votes to get this done. The only thing that stopped 'em was you: The tea parties, the elections in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and there are going to be others. The unions are behind this. The unions desperately want this. Obama desperately wants it, too. There is a movement happening, and you are it. You are part of it. You are part of this conservative ascendancy that can stop it all. You have stopped it all in less than a year. All I'm saying is: If he doesn't get it by Easter, don't think it's dead. Don't believe this "Well, it's dead for ten years." Folks, I wish I could come up with an analogy. Think of Obama having been told by whoever he respects most that his life is over and he will die if he doesn't get this, and he loves life. I don't care. Whatever analogy you can come up with yourself to persuade you how important and intent he is on getting this done.
Now, the Republicans up there in Washington have to do everything they can to plug the holes in the dike up there. When they have done a good job of it, until we can get more elected help up there to reconcrete the walls, we've got to hold out here and toxin this, put the brakes on through November -- and actually then through January when the new House gets sworn in. There's a chance, and the best evidence of the fact that there's a chance is that they don't have it now. With all the majorities that they had, with all the media help that they had, with all the propaganda that they had, with the power of the personality and the persuasive abilities of Barack Obama, they don't have it. Look at the public opinion polls on this: Fifty-five percent want to start over, want to scrap it. That's a clear majority, Mr. President, bigger than the 51% you claim you want with reconciliation. The action is in the House.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's a good analogy. Not of how to look at Obama, but how to look at the health care bill -- and maybe Obama, too. The health bill is like the first Terminator, the first Terminator movie. It starts out looking like it's just what we need, and then it's exposed for what it really is. It's nothing at all like we see it or imagine it. But every time you kill it, every way you kill it, it keeps coming back in a new form. That's the way to look at this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's Bart Stupak last night on Greta Van Susteren's show on the Fox News Channel. She said, "Has Chairman Waxman said, 'Don't worry, you're going to get the language that will satisfy you?'"
STUPAK: Chairman Waxman is very concerned about my language, but he's also very concerned we don't have the votes, so we're trying to work out -- we're having good discussions. No negotiations 'cause there's no bill. The president has to put his proposal in writing. There is no proposal. The president could take this issue right away from me and just put in there, "Here's my proposal, Congress. No federal funding for abortion." That resolves the issue.
RUSH: He doesn't have a bill. Everything he said in his 440,000th speech on health care this week was meaningless. There are no Republican compromise ideas. I still think it's ridiculous to say, "Oh, yeah, we're going to get rid of Medicare waste and fraud, that's a good Republican idea," as though if the Republicans hadn't suggested it, we'd keep waste and fraud in it. And then some grants to study tort reform? But they're not in there because there is no bill. Here's Dick Turban yesterday morning on the Senate floor talking about Medicare.
DURBIN: Some of our critics on the other side of the aisle said, "You know, they're going to cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicare," and the simple answer is, yes.
RUSH: Now, remember what they did to Newt Gingrich when they lied about, "Newt just wants Medicare to wither on the vine." But here's the truth. They're not cutting Medicare. They're going to take $500 billion out of Medicare and transfer it over to Obamacare. And they're doing this so that they can create the illusion of reducing an entitlement, cutting Medicare, bringing it into a more responsible financial position.
Harry Reid: Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.
RUSH: (laughing) Dingy Harry. I hope all of you people hear this. Obama's basically saying the same thing. Okay, I just want you to try to follow this answer. This is yesterday morning in Washington on Capitol Hill, and it's Pelosi and her press briefing, and the question from a reporter: "One issue you didn't mention is abortion, and that apparently is not going to be a part of this corrections package. You've heard Bart Stupak and I'm sure you talked to about a dozen or so anti-abortion Democrats who say, 'Forget it, you're not going to have my vote anymore if this doesn't change.' How are you going to deal with it?"
PELOSI: This is not about abortion. It's about bringing many more women into the health care loop in terms of their access to health care. So if you believe that there should be no federal funding of abortion and if you believe there should be no change in the policy, and if you believe that we need health care for all Americans, we will pass the bill, and we will pass the bill.
RUSH: She needs a teleprompter. So if you believe that there should be no federal funding of abortion, we will pass the bill, leave out all the other extraneous stuff. If you believe that there should be no federal funding of abortion, we will pass the bill. If you believe there should be no federal funding of abortion and if you believe there should be no change in the policy, and if you believe we need health care for all Americans, we'll pass the bill. And we will pass the bill. Marco Rubio, Your World with Neil Cavuto.
RUBIO: The central issues of this campaign is that this country today is being run by people who don't believe in the free enterprise system and are forcing America to abandon it through the public policy they're trying to impose on the American people. You're seeing today the president's statements. In three weeks he wants this passed and he's even strong-arming members of his own party to do it. If he has it all signed, sealed and done I think, number one, they're going to pay a heavy price in November for doing it, and then number two, hopefully we're going to elect enough people in November to the Congress and to the Senate so we can undo the horrible things that are going to get done if this legislation passes.
RUSH: Marco Rubio, Florida, running against Charlie Crist, the Republican primary here.
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RUSH: Suzanne in Atlanta, welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Dittos, Rush. This is a dream come true for me.
RUSH: Well, thank you very much.
CALLER: And I love turtle soup. But the reason I'm calling, I went on the bus to DC last September, I'm very concerned about the health care bill. But I want you to tell me I'm wrong about something. I think that small businesses and big businesses really secretly want this public option because it will let them off the hook for health care benefits. And I know the FBIU or whatever that union is called wants to take care of their health --
RUSH: That's the SEIU, also known as the USSR.
CALLER: Okay. (laughing) Wants them taken off the hook for all the benefits they've promised. My husband's company told him at one of the last meetings they had that as of March of this year, they will no longer be offering their very generous health care benefits for people who retire.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: As of this year.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I think the reason they're doing that is because they're hoping and praying that the government's going to take care of everybody.
RUSH: Well, I don't know if what you're saying applies to all small, medium, and large businesses, but I do know a lot of them would be happy to off-load the burden of health care benefits to their employees.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: They would love to. In fact, one of the things I was saying earlier in the program, Susan, is this. In this Senate bill, which they are going to try to get passed in the House and therefore close the deal, and Obama signs it, we have Obamacare, there is a provision for employers to do one of two things. They can continue for a time to provide their employees with health care benefits. That average cost is 14%. The second option that's in the Senate bill is that you can, as an employer, decide to dump all employee coverage in exchange for paying the government 8% off the top of your business. This is done purposefully. Everybody in business knows that 8%'s a lot less than 14%. And bye-bye hassles. There are many triggers like this that will be incentives for private sector businesses to off-load their health care coverage plans to the government.
Now, they're not being called these exchanges, but regardless, it's all going to end up as public option. The single payer is where this is all headed even if they can't get it in their first big bite. So, yeah, I don't know if it applies to all, that would be a stretch, but a significant number. And, look, I've talked to people own businesses who have the same worldview and ideology that I do, and they're fed up with the rising costs of health care, they don't want to be part of it. It's such a distraction from running their business. I remember the guy that Obama fired as the chairman of General Motors, Rick Wagoner. Shortly after he took the job he said, "I had no idea, I thought I was becoming CEO of a car company, all I am is a CEO of a health care plan for the UAW and my nonunion employees." That was his number one job and it's very easy for a lot of people to take the incentive to dump that, off-load it to the government. And of course with Obama standing at the door saying, "Come on in, come on in, we'll be glad to have you," it's made even easier.
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RUSH: Here's a good question. What good does it do a business to off-load health care costs if the entire damned economy goes to hell? Any smart business owner does not want Obamacare. Au contraire. Have you heard of Big Pharmaceutical? Have you heard Big Pharmaceutical is signing on, giving Obama $150 billion to support advertising that would support his health care plan? Why do they do it? It's a protection racket. When a business sees where a government is taking the country, and if they don't think they can stop it, they want to be on the right side of it, because they're dealing with the Mafia, a Mafia with unlimited resources.
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let's go back to me yesterday on this program, audio sound bite number three. This is one of the many fluent things that I said yesterday.
RUSH ARCHIVE: Culling the herd. The whole point of getting control of health is to regulate everybody's life and look at how they decide now whether somebody should get treated or not: age, how sick are you, how much it's going to cost to invest in your recovery and are you going to recover. And when the government is in charge of making those decisions and not you and your doctor...
RUSH: You are in heap big doo-doo. So now we go to February 26, 2010. On the New York Times Freakonomics radio podcast, Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of Rahm Emanuel, he's head of the Department of Bioethics at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health, and he's a big medical advisor there, health advisor to Obama. And he said this about obesity in America.
EZEKIEL: I mean we all focus on health care and diabetes and heart disease but there's all sorts of things like the simple fact that, you know, heavier people, transportation is more, so there's more spent on gasoline, more on jet fuel, people have had to change, you know, the size of doorways, the size of chairs on airplanes and at sports stadiums, so there's a lot of hidden costs as well to the increasing girth of Americans.
RUSH: Now, what's the point of saying that? "Well, when we get this health care done, America, we're going to be able to have regulations on how heavy you can be. And we're going to be able to set up various tax penalties, for example, if you weigh more than we think you should or we just may not let you get on that airplane because your carbon footprint, you're gonna waste so much jet fuel, we may not let you get on that bus, we may not let you drive your car, we may not build a bigger doorway for you to get through, may not give you a bigger toilet." This is the thing, and these are the arrogant, effete snobs that are running this, and everything is their business. Everything about your life is their business.
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RUSH: Eric in Jacksonville, Florida, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello. He's gone. He probably got tired of the turtle story. It's a risk that you run. This is Doug in Woodbine, Georgia. Nice to have you on the program, Doug.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. Anyway, Rush, I need some help with some logic in terms of the health care and I'm going to try and keep it as simple as I possibly can for the benefit of some of the friends of Rahm Emanuel. We're demonizing health insurance companies and allegedly going to lower premiums with this health care bill. When in fact if you look at the concept behind health care, it's one of the pooling of risks so that we all have to pay our own medical bills individually, and our premium dollars are then used to pay the actual claims. How is changing the price of the premiums going to change the price of health care?
RUSH: That is an excellent question.
CALLER: It seems to me that we've got doctors, we've got lawyers, we have hospitalized, and the last time I looked the health insurance companies don't own the hospitals and don't employ doctors.
RUSH: No.
CALLER: Including those guys in the equation, we're not going to bend any cost curve.
RUSH: No, of course we're not gonna bend the cost curve down. Obama is going to own the doctors, effectively. The government is going to own the doctors. The government is going to own the hospitals. The government is going to be in charge of telling everybody involved here what they can get, what they're going to be treated, who they're going to treat, how much they're going to treat them. That's where all this is headed. It's all going to be based on cost containment, and with the Obama people probably a political calculation will also exist. "Do we really want to save that Republican versus do we really to want save that Democrat? We might." I'm not joking.
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| Read the Background Material... |
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| • Business Media Institute: White House Adviser Rahm's Older Brother: 'Heavier People' Bad for Economy |
CALLER: Hi.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: Rush, it's just a question, a quickie, and it's a change of pace. I thought yesterday when you closed your program you said you had something interesting about Governor Christie.
RUSH: Yeah. He doesn't like sea turtle ordinances, either.
CALLER: (laughing) Oh, you're kidding. Is that what it was about?
RUSH: No, I'm just kidding. He made a great speech. I'm glad you actually reminded me of this by calling. He made a great speech on February 24th at the statehouse in Trenton to the New Jersey league of municipalities, and I've got some sound bites. I've got some excerpts of it. Marie, thanks for calling and reminding me. Chris Christie, the new governor of New Jersey. Let's just get started in listening to what he told the New Jersey League of Municipalities. He's talking here to mayors here and town managers and so forth.
CHRISTIE: Our citizens are already the most overtaxed citizens in America. The public appetite for ever increasing taxes has reached an end. So now when we freeze $475 million in school aid, I'm hearing the reverberations from school boards saying, "Well now you're just going to force us to raise taxes." I'm tired of hearing school superintendents and school board members complain that there are no other options other than raising property taxes. There are other options. There has to be parity between what's happening in the real world and what's happening in the public sector world. The money doesn't grow on trees outside this building or outside your municipal building. It comes from the hardworking people of our communities who are suffering and hurting right now.
RUSH: And the next bite, February 24th, this year, Trenton, New Jersey, Governor Christie targets the political class.
CHRISTIE: The political class -- which unfortunately for us all of us are a member of. The political class is lagging behind the public on this. The public is ready to hear that tough choices have to be made. They're not going to like it. Let me not confuse the two. But they are ready to hear the truth. In fact, they find it refreshing to hear the truth and the pabulum that gets spewed sometimes about, "Don't worry, I can save you from the pain," they've been hearing that for a decade. As we've borrowed and spent and taxed our way into oblivion. We have done every quick fix in the book that you can do, and now we are left literally holding the bag.
RUSH: This is amazingly great! One more bite. No difference between Republicans and Democrats, eh? Huh? Do any Democrats say this?
CHRISTIE: You all know that these raises that are being given to public employees of all stripes we can't afford, you all know the state can't continue to spend money that it doesn't have, and you all know that the appetite for tax increases among our constituents has come to an end. And so the path to reform and success is clear. We know what it is. We just have to have the courage to go there. What we're doing is showing people that government can work again for them, not for us. Government has worked for the political class for much too long. There's no time left. We have no room left to borrow. We have no room left to tax.
RUSH: Right on, right on, right on. That's Governor Christie and that's why he won: A Republican in New Jersey.
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| Read the Background Material... |
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| • New York Post: We Have No Choice- Chris Christie • Baltimore Sun: Chris Christie Opts for Painful Honesty in NJ - Ron Smith |
There are some people supposedly out there marking where the nest is so that people don't disturb it, and then some weeks later the hatchlings hatch and they burrow up out of the sand and they are supposed to go to the ocean where 90% of them end up as food, but 10% of them survive. Now, the theory from environmentalist nutcase wackos is that lights on the beach distract the hatchlings and cause them not to go to the ocean but inland. So, those of us who live on the beach have to turn the lights off. It's a $250 penalty if we don't and we have the Environmental Turtle Police wandering the beaches, and they report us. They go out there with cameras, little cheap Instamatic cameras and they'll take a picture of your house. Of course these cheap little Instamatic cameras with no flash at night, the shutter opens wide for ten seconds and it does make your house look like a Christmas tree when all you have is one lamp lit inside.
Then they come show it to you, "Hey, you're violating the ordinance." From March 1st until October 31st, eight months: Darkness. Which poses a lot of problems. It adds to security costs. It makes it difficult to use outdoor facilities at night. By the way, I am totally devoted to preserving turtles, but I don't think they arrive here 'til May, and the latest thing that's happened is, now they are telling us that the arriving sea turtle mothers will not come ashore if they see light. Yet I have found pictures of actual turtles in broad daylight on beaches. We can't put out the moon, and it's up there every night even if there's cloud cover. A sea turtle sees the light and the moon and tries to climb to the moon? What does it do? So it used to be that we had to turn the lights off in May and turn 'em back on in October, which is fine. That's great. But eight months a year? So I, ladies and gentlemen, am seriously considering founding the forthcoming Turtle Preservation Society of Palm Beach.
There has to be a balance here between the rights of human beings, their security and their property, versus the turtles. We all must adapt. The environmentalist wackos would prefer it if nobody lived on the beach so that the turtles wouldn't be interrupted by anything. You can get exemptions. If you want to call 'em up, call the town, get an exemption from the ordinance and throw a party one night, you can do it. I said, "Well what happens if the hatchlings happen to burrow up that night?" Everybody tries to work with each other on this, but it's gotten to be eight months a year gotta be dark. I've even been told that you have to lower blackout shades if you're going to have lights on in the second floor, inside the house. So this has been a sticking point with me for many moons since I've lived here, and of course me being who I am and these environmentalist trolls are out there on the beach spying as often as they can. (interruption)
The trolls out on the beach, why can't they redirect the turtles when they're out there? That's an excellent question. The broadcast engineer said, "If these environmental trolls are on the beach, why can't they just redirect the turtles when the hatchlings bop up?" They're not out there every night. They make weekly surveys to see who's in compliance and who isn't. I remember one night it was pouring rain, and my front gate buzzer rang. I wasn't there, but the gate buzzer rang. The property manager goes and looks. It's a cop out there with an environmentalist wacko claiming my house is lit up like a Christmas tree. The policeman didn't even know what the ordinance was. We were in compliance, took him to the backyard and showed him. It was pure harassment. So I've looked into doing things but there's three different groups: the county, the town, and the state.
I've looked at some of the reports from whatever bureaucracy that the state, county, or town deals with, and reading these things is scary. (interruption) Well, people do eat turtle soup, yes, but I don't think they're turtles captured in Palm Beach. I certainly don't know if that's going on, so don't go there. Last time I had turtle soup was in New Orleans where there really aren't beaches, just deltas out there. Yeah, people still eat turtle soup. Have to get 'em from somewhere. Let me tell you something. A sea turtle has gotta lay eggs. I mean, you know, you don't make a reservation for that. You don't call ahead, give an American Express number and say, "I think I'm going to be in. Maybe if I'm late I'll show up the beach the next day." You gotta lay the eggs -- you gotta lay the eggs. Now we're being told that lights on the beach will send the mother sea turtles dashing back into the ocean. (interruption)
Well, that's a... I'm being asked if they closed down South Beach. I don't know. I have no idea if they closed down South Beach. I do know that I've seen people... I've been at parties where houses three feet from the water line on the beach were blazing. It's not uniformly applied. We get this note from the town every February 25th reminding us. It has little turtle graphics all over it. "It's time, once again, for beach residents to turn off the lights." I don't think there's been a sea turtle show up here (that was sane, anyway) in March. I've never heard of it. Before the environmentalist wackos got hold of everything, it was May 1st. You know, May 1st to October, fine and dandy. But the Turtle Preservation Society. So I'm thinking of going out and parking when the weather warms up. I'll take some Château Pétrus, Chateaubriand, head out there to the beach with some bread and some cheese and just wait for him and say hi. "Heeey, we're glad you're back! Our lights are dimmed. We're out here. We know you're not going to be here for a couple months, but we wanted to get here early just to get a reserved seat for your return." Thank you for indulging me on this, folks.
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RUSH: Jennifer in Mooresville, North Carolina, welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It's an honor to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: I just wanted to tell you something about the sea turtles. I homeschool my son and we just finished a homeschooling unit on ocean life and we did a unit on sea turtles and everything and they actually don't have very good vision. They're actually nearsighted, so they can't see far. I'm doubting that they could see the lights from your house anyway.
RUSH: So they wouldn't be distracted by the flash from a muzzle.
CALLER: No, I don't think so. You have to at least think about this. At least you're making the environmentalist wackos happy by reducing your carbon footprint by not having any lights on.
RUSH: I know. It's eight months out of the year. It's absolutely ridiculous. I don't want to belabor this. You know, I get this off my chest every March when this happens, but I'll tell you one other story. When the house was being built we didn't light the construction project at night. There were no lights there and we showed up the next day at the construction project and the contractor, foreman came up, said, "We got some dead sea turtles here, babies." I said, "What?" Yeah. So I went and looked at them and I said, "Why the hell did they end up here? There weren't any lights on here last night. They don't light the construction project." We have foxes around, so we thought maybe a fox brought 'em up. But, no, the fox would have eaten them if that was the case. Something killed them. So the next night we did a little survey and we found out that the moon came up at a certain time, the moon was in the western sky, and maybe that's what attracted them. Well, no, no, no, it was overcast, and the lights from the power plant across the Intracoastal you could see in the clouds. And I said, "This cannot be."
I've seen these animal shows where they show animals eating each other, these National Geographic shows, and I've seen little turtles, they bop out and the camera people, they can't have lights, it's nighttime. And they have lights on the beach, and here come the turtles, they come out and the cameraman is standing behind the sea turtles, not down toward the water, and the little baby hatchlings, they burrow up through the sand, and, bam, they make a dash for the ocean. They're small and tiny and there's a giant light illuminating the camera and showing us all this. I said, "Wait a minute, how come the light from the camera didn't attract the turtles to the cameraman?" Next thing they're going to tell us is that we gotta turn the lights off year round simply 'cause Limbaugh was complaining. (interruption) Yeah, fence is up. It's not just a fence. There's a sea grate, there's a dune, there's all kinds of things. It's an obstacle course out there. Land mines, I got it all. Well, I'm just teasing about the land mines. Anyway, Jennifer, thanks for the call.
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| Read the Background Material... |
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| • Palm Beach Daily News: Sea Turtle Nesting Season to Begin; Oceanfront Residents Urged to Dim Beach Lights - 02.27.10 |
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We're going to start in Cincinnati. This is Jerry, it's great to have you here, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, sir. How are you? I was watching Hannity Sunday night, and they had two guys on there that were talking about how bad things are and the economy and spending money and all this and that and how there is a tipping point to where we will not be able to recover from. And I'll be honest with you. I've never felt this bad about the situation that we're in since I was in the third grade in school and --
RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened in the third grade in school?
CALLER: Well, they had us crawling under desks because of the bombs.
RUSH: Oh, yeah.
CALLER: (laughing) I have not felt this helpless since then.
RUSH: You know something, I had to do those drills, too.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: We had to go with my parents to look at bomb shelters.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: I was never as concerned about that then as I am about this now.
CALLER: I know. And I have the same stupid feeling, like, what is going to happen? You know. Is it too late, or what's going on?
RUSH: No, it's not too late.
CALLER: I didn't think it was.
RUSH: I'd be in New Zealand if it was too late. I'll tell you when it's too late. I'll tell you when it's time to panic. I'll tell you when we reach the tipping point. We're nowhere near it. We're still the United States of America. A majority of American people have clearly expressed they don't want a shred of what's happening here, and we will stop it.
CALLER: Well, thank God.
RUSH: The American people still, in the end, get what they want. This is not what they thought they were getting. They have been scammed totally. They thought they were getting something postpartisan, postbickering, postracial. They thought they were getting smooth talking and everybody was going to love us. They've gotten nothing, nothing, zilch. Nobody, nobody -- I mean you got some statistically 20, 30% -- nobody is happy. The left thought they were getting somebody who was gonna stop the war in Iraq and close Gitmo the first day in office and put Bush and Cheney in jail and so forth. They're unhappy. You have people in the middle who thought, oh, wow, okay, we're going to get rid of the extremes on all sides, we're going to be reasonable here, we're going to get along and put people back to work. Whatever people's expectations were that voted for the guy have not anywhere near been met.
CALLER: Well, thanks for your efforts because you're one of the few lights out there still shining.
RUSH: Well, it's a real dilemma for me here, a challenge, because those of you who have listened to this program since its interception -- that would be its beginning for those of you in Port St. Lucie and Rio Linda -- know that one of the defining characteristics of this program has been optimism, can-do, best country on earth, best people on earth, most opportunity on earth, everything's going to be okay kind of program, encouragement, good cheer, all this kind of stuff. But at the same time we have not delved into false optimism. I have not told you things that I think are better than they are just for the sake of saying it. We're at a time now where it's a delicate balance because to define honestly the circumstances we face and be optimistic about it is a tough challenge. 'Cause I'm not optimistic about where we are, I don't like where we are. The optimism is that we can stop it because we have. But it's never going to stop coming at us.
Liberalism has been on the march for centuries. It's just never gotten this close to power in this country before. But I am encouraged. Now, after the election last year, if you woulda pinned me down and said, "Are you depressed?" I would have said, "Yeah," because I knew, and a number of us knew, that Obama was a 100% fraud, and it was frightening that so many people got taken in by the guy, 'cause that makes us think, oh, we've lost the country. If you lose the people, if the people decide they want to go Europe socialism, they decide they want to be wards of the state, then we're finished. And I was wondering, has that happened? 'Cause I knew exactly who Obama was, what he was going to do, and it was easy for anybody to spot, just look at who he's hung around with, just look at who raised him, who's educated him. He was apologizing for the country while he was campaigning. He was apologizing for the country all over the world, in Berlin, wherever he went he was apologizing for America and his buddies were doing the same thing. So he was not a mystery to me, but the fact that so many people got fooled by the guy really depressed me.
So then in January even before the guy is immaculated, the Wall Street Journal says, "Can we have 400 words from you on your hopes for the Obama administration." "I got four for you: I hope he fails." And the tide began to turn. And even people on my side, "Rush, you can't do that!" Somebody had to say it. I said it 'cause I meant it from the moment he won the election. His brand of politics, his view of the world, his view of the country has got to fail. So, as usual, my friends, I was out in front, this time by about six months. Then the tea parties sprung up and nobody led them, I mean those tea party people effervesced right out of the grassroots. A lot of them were people who had never, ever been to a town hall, had never been to a town meeting, were really casually invested in politics. But they knew, they said, "This is not our country, this is not what we voted for," or what have you. This kind of debt that's being run up, this spending, it's gonna trap us all, it's going to roll back our lifestyles and opportunities for kids and grandkids, people instinctively knew this.
So for the sake of time here, my depression evaporated very soon once I learned, once it became apparent that a clear and sizeable majority wants no part of Barack Obama's agenda. So America is still America. America is the people. The people are who make this country work, and the people are hurting. Many millions are out of work and are forced to depend on government to get by, and a lot of them are embarrassed by it and don't like it. But it's their only hope, it's their only chance. They see that nothing is being done from their government to facilitate a change in their lives for the better. They see it continually deteriorating. As such, more and more people are joining the clear majority who want no part of this. So are we at a tipping point? Well, you have to define the tipping point. But if the tipping point is an aroused populace who's simply not going to take it anymore, yeah, we're there, and you'll see the result in November and even before.
It's going to be an ongoing daily struggle because these people are on the march, and they have only one intention, and that's to manage America's decline and see to it that it happens, because they think we deserve to be a nation in decline. If I could wave a magic wand one time and make everybody believe something for just two minutes, it would be this bunch of people in the White House and throughout Washington who are with Obama, been appointed by him or whatever, do not like this country as founded, they resent it, they think it's unfair, immoral, unjust, from our military to our capitalist system, and they are out to change it because we deserve a comeuppance. We've been too rich, we have stolen all the goods and services from around the world, we've kept the rest of the world poor while enriching ourselves, and even the people that really made this country, they've gotten the shaft, too, the blue-collar world, these people are going to fix it. They're going to give this country a bitch slap.
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RUSH: David in San Antonio, Texas. I'm glad you waited, sir. You're up next.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, how are you?
RUSH: Fine, sir. Thank you very, very, very, very much. How are you?
CALLER: I'm doing well. First-time caller, longtime listener, and I wanted to tug your ear on this issue about China. We've talked a lot about how in debt we are to China.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I wanted to know, how much are we in debt to China? And then I have a follow-up question. Depending on how much that is, why can't we use this unspent stimulus money to pay off that debt?
RUSH: Well, it doesn't work that way.
CALLER: It doesn't? Okay.
RUSH: The debt to China is that they have purchased -- now it's Japan because they started selling some of the T-bills, but Japan is the largest holder of our debt, meaning they are buying Treasury bills at a interest rate, and that's where the debt is. We're essentially financing our deficit with money that we don't have by selling futures, by selling Treasury bills that they buy that they can hopefully at some point down the road when they redeem 'em they'll show a gain on them. And they're very worried here because we keep adding to the debt and adding to the debt, which makes their percentage of it worth less at the time, and they can't call it because they need us for their own economic growth so they're in a little bit of a catch-22, but they are showing signs of selling it off. They did sell off about -- I forget the exact number, $75 billion worth of T-bills, which makes the Japanese the number one holders. I don't really know the exact number of Treasury bills that they hold. I think it's in the seven or $800 billion range, but that's a wild guess. I'm gonna have to look that up.
CALLER: So we would not really be able to pay off our debt to China, really?
RUSH: With unused stimulus money?
CALLER: Yeah, or any kind of money, actually.
RUSH: No. If we pay China off we're just paying somebody else to assume their debt, we're not solving anything.
CALLER: Oh, okay. Then why is it such a big deal?
RUSH: Why is what such a big deal?
CALLER: Well, why is it such a big deal that -- I mean I think in the political arena, you know, we've talked about, you know, China is owning us and with this huge foreign debt to China it is such a big deal, it's always talked about, and it's like we can never get out from under it, it seems.
RUSH: It's a big deal because they have a hammer over us.
CALLER: Right. Right. There's not a way to get out of it, though, right?
RUSH: They have assumed the responsibility of keeping us afloat.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: And if they decide to turn it against us and use it as a hammer there's not a whole lot we can do other than nuke 'em.
CALLER: (laughing) Okay.
RUSH: Well, that's a bit extreme, but --
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: The bottom line here -- look, David, the bottom line is the reason we're in this problem is that we've gone in debt to get further in debt. This stimulus money, we don't have it. The stimulus money was printed or borrowed. We're not paying anybody back. We're paying interest, but we're not retiring our principal. This is like a credit card you pay the minimum for the rest of your life and the principal keeps going up. That's what we're doing. We don't have this money. The stimulus is a great example. In fact, the whole concept of government stimulating the economy is absurd. The only way that would work, David, is if somewhere in Washington there is some actual money that has full value that's stashed somewhere that is not borrowed and not printed. And we take that money and we inject it in the private sector, that would put more money, more capital into the private sector, and then you would have stimulus. But that's not what we did.
To get that $787 billion of stimulus we had to take it out of the private sector. It comes in the form of taxes or we borrow it. But there's no new money, there's no additional capital in the private sector. In fact, capital has been taken out, it hasn't been put back in. Less than 30% of the stimulus has been spent. It's in Washington. It's used to grow government. Federal workers now earn more than private sector workers on average. The federal workforce is growing. The unemployment rate there is only 3%. In the private sector it's 10%. The government's growing. They're stimulating nothing but themselves, the Democrat Party and their belief in expansionist government. They're not stimulating anything in the economy. And they know it. When I hear people say, "Well, you know, Obama just doesn't get it." Yes, he does! And if he doesn't know what he's doing the people advising him to do this know what they're doing. There's not one sane individual who would do what they are doing if they honestly wanted the private sector to grow. Not one person.
Obama, he talks Alinsky very well. (imitating Obama) "Private sector? That's where all jobs are, we need to grow the private sector." Well, then do it, get out of the way, get out of their way. They're telling you you are in their way. Your expansionist government plans, cap and tax, health care, amnesty for illegals, they don't know what they're dealing with here. They're not going to invest in growth until all this shakes out. And if it shakes out with Obama getting everything he wants, they're going to close shop. This is purposeful, managing the decline. Think of it that way. If it's a little easier for you to get your arms around and have it not be so disturbing: "They're managing the nation's decline." If, "They're destroying the country on purpose," is just too coarse and too harsh, you don't want to believe that, then "managing America's decline." Because you have to agree we're in decline, don't you? Would you all agree with me that we're in decline? Well, we certainly aren't ascending.
The one thing that's ascending right now is conservatism. But you have a job, your prospects look good, gonna flood the market with three million more college graduates, and this bunch, they think the minute they have the diploma in their hands, that a $250,000-a-year job and a $500,000 house is waiting for them the next Monday. The Baby Boomers, they don't want to quit. They don't want to retire. They like working. And even if they wanted to quit, they can't. If they wanted to retire, they can't. So they're not going to leave their jobs, unless they get canned and get laid off or what you. And in addition to that, these Baby Boomers are going to start putting all kinds of new pressure on entitlements: Social Security and Medicare and all the rest. I hope that helps, David. Debt is a bad thing, personally, for a family, for a country. The only difference is, a government can print more money and go into greater debt on its own. A state can't do it, you can't do it, personally or in your family.
Here is Kevin in Slayton, Minnesota. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Dittos.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Is that still acceptable?
RUSH: Always.
CALLER: Very good. My question, Rush, is I became aware that a neighboring state, South Dakota, a state attorney made a news announcement concerning joining 17 other states and looking into possible legal ramifications with the federal government over this health care program.
RUSH: There are a lot of states that are trying to opt out of it. There are a lot of states that are trying to constitutionally insulate themselves from it. I think the number 17 is right. It may be a little higher now. It's on a constitutional basis and John Boehner, by the way, is being very vocal about the fact that all this is unconstitutional. The federal government cannot mandate you buy anything. This whole health care bill, if it were to be challenged constitutionally could be wiped out, but somebody has to bring the challenge. Somebody has to bring it, and you have to wait 'til it actually happens before the challenge is brought. Sort of like you can't go to the police and say, "Hey, my house is going to get robbed Saturday, I heard people talking." "Well, we can't do anything about it 'til it actually happens." Same thing here. I'm confident there are people you and I have never heard of that are working on ways to defeat this that you and I probably haven't considered.
You know, folks, I was thinking about something in the last break, because I'm getting not a lot, but a decent number of e-mails today: "Thanks for the help, Rush; thanks for the encouragement; really, Rush, why, you've convinced me there's no hope," this kind of stuff. Let me tell you the truth of things out there, ladies and gentlemen. Even if -- I want you to hear this, Snerdley -- even if I said to you today, "Folks, it's over, we can't stop it, we've gotten beyond the point of no return," that would not affect what's gonna happen. People in this country are going to continue because it's their life. People are not mind-numbed robots here. The people who oppose Obama do not oppose Obama because they've been told to, because they have been hypnotized or any of that, they oppose him because in their hearts, in their good old American hearts they know this is not their country.
We are not a nation of people that's going to roll over and say, "Okay, have at us, have your way," no matter what I say. The people inside the Beltway, even our smartest political minds there, do not understand that aspect of the American mind-set today. There's a bubble when you're in DC and you don't really see the things going on outside the place. But trust me, it is a severe and serious outrage that is bubbling up out there. People are not going to accept this. They'll do whatever they have to to stop it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: RUSH: Hey, folks, I was wrong. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. No! I was not wrong. I didn't know something. The ChiComs are still the largest holders of US debt, and they're proud of it. (laughing) They're upset that the Japanese have the title. So I have here the ChiCom Post: "The government now says that [the ChiComs] did not lose its place in December as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt. The Treasury Department said that under annual benchmark revisions released Friday," this is a February 28 story "China's holdings of U.S. Treasury securities stood at $894.8 billion at the end of December, keeping it in first place ahead of Japan." (laughing) I frankly am stunned! The ChiComs are bragging. They don't want to lose the title as the number one holder of American debt. (laughing) Folks, that's like you wanting to have the largest balance MasterCard has ever seen and they believe along and announce that your neighbor has the largest balance. "Oh, no, no, no! I still have the largest balance."
END TRANSCRIPT
CRAWFORD: Keep in mind, this was the single biggest break from the Bush administration on these war on terror policies. The attorney Eric Holder in an appearance on Capitol Hill told senators, failure was not an option, these cases must be won; this was the course they were going to pursue. So now to see them retreat on this is a failure, it is a failure to get through a major policy shift, the left, the civil rights organizations, civil liberties organizations, are going to be absolutely incandescent.
RUSH: So my friend Andy McCarthy at National Review Online says, whoa, wrong take here. "Hold the Champagne on Military Commissions -- It's a Head Fake." He cites a Washington Post article about all this. "President Obama is not caving on military commissions. He has already caved on them: He failed (thankfully) to abolish them, Congress enacted legislation endorsing them again in 2009, and the administration has already directed a commission trial for the Cole bombers. The real agenda here is to close Gitmo. That’s the ball to keep your eye on. The Post is trying to soften the opposition to shuttering the detention camp by portraying beleaguered, reasonable Obama as making a great compromise that will exasperate the Left. The idea is to strengthen Sen. Lindsey Graham’s hand in seeking reciprocal compromise from our side.
"This, however, is a matter of national security, not horse-trading over a highway bill. You don’t agree to do a stupid thing that endangers the country just because your opposition has magnanimously come off its insistence that you do two stupid things that endanger the country. If a deal to grant military commissions in exchange for closing Gitmo happens, it is a major win for the Obama Left and an enormous loss for public safety. We were headed inexorably toward military commissions for the 9/11 plotters. We don't need to cut a bad deal to get it. Congress was not going to approve funding to transport trained terrorists to the U.S., nor to hold civilian trials." It wasn't going to happen.
"We've already got military commissions for some enemy combatants, and if we play this out, we are likely to get them for most if not all of the combatant war crimes trials. And we are likely to get them at Gitmo -- the best place to have them, and the place on which the public has expended hundreds of millions of dollars to construct a safe, humane, fastidiously Islamo-friendly prison with state-of-the-art trial facilities." Hell I just saw a video of two Islamofascist terrorists playing soccer at Club Gitmo, with a soccer ball. So Andy's point is here, this is just to get Lindsey Grahamnesty on board with the idea of closing Guantanamo and to give Grahamnesty something that was going to happen anyway. There was not going to be civil trials, there's no money for it. Congress was not going to authorize the money, New York didn't want it. Those trials were not going to happen. Obama gets, (imitating Obama) "Okay, well, I'll give you the military commission, and I'll go along with your idea of closing Guantanamo." That's Andy McCarthy's point of view, and I have yet to experience Andy being wrong on a national security issue involving Obama's motives.
END TRANSCRIPT
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, folks, who said this? "The lingering global financial crisis has exposed the dark side of the capitalist economic system in the west," and added that "the US will go down in history as the biggest thief ever." Who said that? Was it Barack Obama or was it Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Because normally they are on the same page. You're right, Snerdley. It's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a close one. Very close one.
END TRANSCRIPT
| Read the Background Material... |
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| • PressTV: Ahmadinejad: Capitalist Greed Behind Global Crisis • UK Times: Task No 1 for Barack Obama: Reinvent Capitalism |
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's Donald in Boca Raton, Florida. Welcome, sir, to Open Line Friday.
CALLER: Hello, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I got a little bit of a complaint. I've been listening to you for close to 30 years now and I --
RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. Wait a minute, now. Thirty years.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Thirty years. It's 2010. You had to have been listening to me in 1980 --
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: -- when I was working for the Kansas City Royals.
CALLER: Well, I said "somewhere in that vicinity."
RUSH: Well, okay. Close enough.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Somebody from Boca Raton.
CALLER: I'm very upset about you poking fun at the poor people in Rio Linda and now, what is it, Stuart, Florida?
RUSH: No, Port St. Lucie.
CALLER: Port St. Lucie, okay.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: You remind me of my rich, wealthy millionaire ex-brother-in-law. I was in his hot tub one day and he said, "Ho-ho-ho, I wonder hour the poor people are doing," and I think that --
RUSH: Now, wait a second.
CALLER: I think that's pretty low.
RUSH: Donald?
CALLER: Yes?
RUSH: I have never said, "I wonder how the poor people are doing?" I did ask, "What are we going to do about the Christians?" yesterday, but I have never said, "I wonder how the poor people are doing?" and that's not what I'm doing when I talk about Rio Linda or Port St. Lucie. Donald, in Port St. Lucie they went in to get some Chicken McNuggets, they didn't have any, and they called 911 thinking they're going to get Obama. Now, that doesn't have anything to do with poor. That has to do with stupid.
CALLER: Well, I don't think the people in Rio Linda are stupid, either.
RUSH: Well, they know. The people in Rio Linda love me. You know what's happened on their property values since I started pointing out that Rio Linda even exists? Do you know the Rio Linda story?
CALLER: Well, I've been there. I've gotten lost there, had to be helped out, and they helped out very well in getting to where I wanted to go.
RUSH: How in the world could you get lost in Rio Linda?
CALLER: It's only a little place. It's at the end of --
RUSH: Well, I know, but it's not possible to get lost there.
CALLER: Well, I was looking for someplace else, and they helped me find it.
RUSH: And how did you know you weren't someplace else where you were in Rio Linda?
CALLER: Well, I asked people.
RUSH: It wasn't the cars jacked up on concrete blocks? It wasn't the washing machines on the front porches?
CALLER: Not when I was there. I must have been in a better place.
RUSH: Well, there are some nice places of Rio Linda but you have to look hard to find 'em. You gotta be going there to get there.
CALLER: It was just the fact that you try to make the whole town of Rio Linda be stupid people, and they're not really stupid.
RUSH: Well, okay, maybe not all of them, but that's not the point. I'm making a joke. (laughing)
CALLER: There's stupid people right here in Boca Raton.
RUSH: Oh, we know, these are people that needed psychological help after Kerry lost the election in '04.
CALLER: Heh. What am I going to tell you?
RUSH: You've already told me. What are you doing in a hot tub with your ex-brother-in-law anyway?
CALLER: Well, I was with my wife, of course, and he was a millionaire, multimillionaire.
RUSH: What's wrong with that?
CALLER: Nothing wrong with that.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: But they're poking fun at the poor people. I resent that.
RUSH: That's just classless.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: That is no class. So he's an ex-brother-in-law. There's obviously a reason.
CALLER: Well, yeah, my wife passed away two years ago.
RUSH: He passed away two years ago? I'm sorry to hear that.
CALLER: And he passed away about seven years ago. I should say four years ago.
RUSH: Oh, his wife two years ago, okay. Okay, well, the story of Rio Linda, very simply: When I moved to Sacramento, I had basically five days to familiarize myself with the community. I'm surveying, and nobody's talking about politics. It's October of '84 and they're talking about carrot cake recipes for the coming holidays. Oh, this is a golden opportunity. So I started driving around the place, learning about it, and I found this place, Rio Linda, no number on the population sign. I said, "Nobody will admit living here," and you go through the main drag, and literally there were cars on concrete blocks and dishwashers and so forth on the front porch, and, I said, "Whoa, what is this place?" and one of the first things I did was offer to move there if they would rename it Limbaugh, California, to elevate property values. They turned me down.
END TRANSCRIPT
| Read the Background Material... |
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| • AP: Woman Goes McCrazy Over Chicken McNuggets |
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If the House passes the Senate Bill, its all over.
Here's the official Code Red List for the selected HOUSE DEMOCRATS THAT NEED TO BE PUSHED HARDEST.
The clickable links go to their online Message System. You can use the same City, State, Zip, and Area Codes as one of their local district offices (usually listed on the same page) with any street address you want --- you're using local information to get through their spam filter. For Zip+4, use any 4 digits added onto the selected Zip Code.
Write a brief, punchy letter in your Word Program, and cut-and-paste it to one congresscritter after another from the CODE RED LIST.
It is easy to do 15 or 20 of them in an hour.
Each Congressional website also has the phone, fax, and district office addresses for each Representative. I strongly urge you to phone, fax, and if at all possible, personally visit a District Office. This makes a huge impression.
No Liberalism; no Obama; No Government care; NO Nanncy State. . .let freedom ring!
Thank you for RUSH IN A HURRY!
You are welcome!
Great show today!
I like the new Rush Media Center!
Thank you, Mrs. Don-o!
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