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Obama Votes “Present” on Pirates; Hillary Cackles over “Criminal Act”
April 9, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So the president of the United States today at the White House, in an exchange with reporters, was asked about the Somali pirates. The latest on the Somali pirates is — and this is a great example of American can-doism — the crew didn’t wait for anybody to be rescued over there. The captain of the ship is now being held hostage, as was the case yesterday afternoon. The crew is not and we’re now trying to figure out what to do about this. The captain of the ship is being portrayed as a genuine hero, one of the few CEOs in America who is being portrayed as a hero, by the way. Greetings, my friends. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network. Great to have you with us, as we charge forward for another three hours of broadcast excellence.

This is the exchange that took place with reporters and President Obama. Is very quick, it’s only five seconds.

REPORTER: Can we get a quick reaction to the pirates, the Somali pirates?

OBAMA: Guys, we’re talking about housing right now.

RUSH: The president of the United States declined comment about the situation with the Somali pirates and the captain of the US ship who is being held hostage. If you had trouble understanding this: “Can we get a quick reaction to the pirates, the Somali pirates?” And Obama said, “Guys, we’re talking about housing right now.” This is President Obama voting “present,” declining to comment. This is President Obama not wanting to address anything that is hard. Addressing things that are hard bring your approval numbers down. “Iran is now running 7,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges, a senior official said on Thursday, an announcement likely to increase Western concerns about the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear plans.” It doesn’t matter, though, because we’re going to sit down and talk to them. The Europeans are leading some talks and we’re going to sit down and talk to the Iranians. So it doesn’t matter they’re ramping up their nukes, we’re going to sit down and we’re going to talk to them.

Back to the pirate situation, late yesterday afternoon in Washington, press conference with the Moroccan prime minister and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, unidentified reporter says, “Madam Secretary, do you have any clarity on the Somali pirate situation?”

HILLARY: We’re deeply concerned and we’re following it very closely. Um... (pause) You know... Specifically we are now focused on this particular act of piracy and the seizure of a ship that, uh, carries 21 American citizens. More generally, we think the world must come together, uhh, to end the scourge of piracy. I think Morocco was the very first country that recognized us, going back a — a — a long time, and, uh, uh, we worked together to end piracy off the coast of Morocco (cackling) all those years ago! (cackling louder) and, uh, we’re going to work together, uh, to end, uh, this kind of criminal activity anywhere on the high seas.

RUSH: Well, this is just incredible. She sits there and laughs about how we worked with Morocco years — ha-ha-ha, we, ha-ha, we came together, ha-ha, very first country that recognizes we, ha-ha, to end piracy off the ha-ha-ha-ha, off the coast of Morocco all those years, ha-ha-ha-ha, and now the world has to come together again. Well, we probably did blow up Morocco, showed them who’s boss. The world has to come together; the world has to do something. Hillary warned us about this! During the presidential campaign, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Clinton kept reminding the United States, the people of this country, about that 3 a.m. phone call. Even the AP writes a story about this today: “Hillary Clinton said there would be days — and nights — like this. For the second time in four days and with less than three months in office, President Barack Obama has received the ‘3 a.m. phone call’ that Clinton warned about. In their bitter presidential contest, Clinton suggested that her young rival was not ready for a national security crisis.” He declined comment when asked about it.

REPORTER: Can we get a quick reaction to the pirates, the Somali pirates?

OBAMA: Guys, we’re talking about housing right now.

RUSH: (impersonating Obama) “Guys, we’re talking housing. I haven’t got time to talk about the pirates. Americans, what do you mean? We’re talking about housing right now, guys, thanks very much.” As the AP says: “Obama’s tests are coming early: first from the borderline rogue government in North Korea, then from stateless bandits preying on shipping lanes —” Look, the Somali pirates are Muslims. If this has happened in Afghanistan, what would we be doing? If Americans had been taken hostage in Afghanistan, had been attacked there, what would we be doing? Would Hillary Clinton be out there saying, (impersonating Clinton) “Well, the, ha-ha-ha-ha, world has to come together just like we did with Morocco way back. We were the first one ones to, they were the first ones, ha-ha-ha-ha.” What an inept bunch. They don’t know what to do here. The crew took it upon themselves, as did the captain, to take matters into their own hands to try to alleviate the situation that they find themselves in, but Mrs. Clinton warned about this, and even the AP is reminding us that she did.

Mrs. Clinton doesn’t sound like she’s any more prepared for this than President Obama is. I mean, she did a scripted appearance with the head honcho from Morocco, and so that’s the script. She gets a question about the pirates. (impersonating Clinton) “Ha-ha-ha, well, you know, the Moroccans were the first, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, first to recognize us. We beat the pirates way back then, proves the world has to come together to beat the pirates.” It reminds me, because of Obama’s disastrous — I mean from my perspective — from this disastrous trip to Europe, I asked Cookie to go back today and get some audio sound bites of Obama’s Berlin speech last summer, when he was citizen of the world, because in that speech he is also very critical of the United States, talks about the imperfections of his own country, talks about how Berliners have probably not seen somebody like him from America running for president, a racial comment. Then he went on to say, notice how the world came together to bring down the Berlin Wall. The world did not come together to bring down the Berlin Wall. The United States and Ronald Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall, working together with Maggie Thatcher and the Brits.

The US Congress, the Democrats in the US Congress were mostly against doing what was necessary, taking the steps that brought down the Berlin Wall. Many of the nations in Europe were scared to death to go along with us. The Pershing missiles in Europe aimed at the Soviet Union, going ahead with plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative. The world didn’t come together to bring down the end of Soviet communism! But Obama was there, “Look how the world came together, we gotta come together.” Now Hillary is out there with the same mantra, the world came together, must come together to stop piracy.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want you to go back to audio sound bite number 11 of Mrs. Clinton. We’re having fun here with the cackle with what she said about the pirates, and there’s something far more serious that we need to discuss here. So this is Mrs. Clinton yesterday in Washington, at a press conference with the foreign minister of Morocco, and a reporter said, “Madam Secretary, do you have any clarity on the Somali piracy situation?”

HILLARY: We’re deeply concerned and we’re following it very closely. Um... (pause) You know... Specifically we are now focused on this particular act of piracy and the seizure of a ship that, uh, carries 21 American citizens. More generally, we think the world must come together, uhh, to end the scourge of piracy. I think Morocco was the very first country that recognized us, going back a — a — a long time, and, uh, uh, we worked together to end piracy off the coast of Morocco! (cackling) all those years ago! (cackling louder) and, uh, we’re going to work together, uh, to end, uh, this kind of criminal activity anywhere on the high seas.

RUSH: So we worked... The cackle, the laugh hereto me it’s just irresponsible. We are in the midst of an American hostage situation, and she is laughing. (Hillary impression) “And we worked together to end piracy, ha-ha-ha!” As though we ended, ha-ha-ha-ha years ago, ha-ha, and, ha-ha-ha, again!” But then the key to this and what we all need to understand here, the last line: “We need to work together to end this kind of criminal activity anywhere on the high seas.” “Criminal activity” here is the choice of words here that I wish to focus on. Pirates were defeated. Global trade blossomed. She’s laughing about when the Barbary Pirates were defeated. Thomas Jefferson was the first to tackle the Muslims in this country, the — well, the militant Muslims.

Of course, we joined forces — ha-ha-ha-ha! — with Morocco to wipe out the pirates. But the pirates ended up being defeated, global trade blossomed as a result. They were not considered criminals with the same rights as, say, accused tax cheats. The pirates were considered enemies of the human race. In other words, they were alien enemy combatants who were deemed to have no claim on the rights afforded to criminals by the civilized world. When they were dealt with all of these years ago by the authorities in the world back then, they were not dealt with as simple criminals. The reason people, think, “Piracy? I mean, that’s so John Paul Jones and Davy Jones’ Locker. Piracy? Where is this coming from? Why is this returning?”

The whole reason that there is a resurgence of piracy, which is something that was thought to have been stamped out a couple of hundred years ago, is it precisely because idiots like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama think pirates and terrorists — and this is terrorism — are criminals, not enemies. This goes back to Jamie Gorelick and the wall and the Clinton administration wanting to prosecute terrorists as though they are citizens of America with constitutional rights. Prosecute them as criminals, the same as bank robbers. Of course, the leftist takeover — or majority population, if you will — of the US judicial system, is seen to just that, when discussing, say, the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay or anybody else.

They gotta be released, and released within the United States! Lawyers must defend them, as though they are criminals, not battlefield enemy combatants. So now the Obama administration and Clinton herself is looking at these people not as terrorists but as criminals, not enemies. If you start talking about these people being criminals then you gotta Mirandize them. Have the pirates been Mirandized? Have they given their Miranda warnings? No! They need to be wiped out. This administration does not get it. The left in this country does not understand the concept that this country has enemies. Well, they might understand that we have enemies. What they’re wrong about is why. They believe — and I am not exaggerating this an iota. I firmly believe this.

Hillary Clinton — the Clintons; the left; the Democrat Party, most of it, the elected Democrat Party — fervently believe we have enemies because it’s our fault. We have made enemies by virtue of our own existence. We have made enemies because we are braggadocios. We swagger. We’re the only superpower. We’re too big. We steal and we plunder all of the rich resources of the world and the treasure, and we bring those resources home and we live a lifestyle unlike anywhere else in the world and we are stealing from the world’s poor. This is what Obama believes. It is what Hillary believes. That is why throughout the G20 and Obama’s disastrous tour, the whole point was to cut the United States down to size. So these pirates, in a way, it’s brothers in arms. We don’t understand. They’re mad. They have a poor country. We don’t. We gotta understand ‘em.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, you know, I may need to be corrected here, ladies and gentlemen. I just identified the Somali pirates as “Muslim.” I could be wrong about this. The president said that we are not at war with Islam. He said it in Turkey. He said it, I think, a couple of times on his trip to Europe. He said, “We are not at war with Islam.” Now, apparently elements of Islam are at war with us, but we are not at war with them. So if we’re not at war with Islam, then it must mean the Somali pirates are not Muslim, right? ‘Cause we’re not at war with them! I hope you’re following me on this. I’m just describing what the president said while overseas on the Cut America Down to Size Tour. We’re not at war with Islam. We’re not at war with it. So the pirates must obviously be something other than Muslim.

Maybe they’re orthodox Jews! Well, if they aren’t Muslim, they gotta be something. If it’s not orthodox Jews, maybe it’s reformed Jews. Maybe it’s evangelicals. Everybody knows the evangelicals are mad as hell these days about a whole bunch of things. Maybe the Somali pirates are actually evangelicals! Maybe they’re Southern Baptists. Who knows? But they can’t be Muslim because we’re not at war with Islam. I suppose they could be a rogue band — a very, very, very tiny, small, infinitesimal minority of Islam. But we’re not at war with Islam. The president said so. So the Somali pirates, the story is they’re Muslim, but that can’t be, because we’re not at war with them. My guess is it’s the orthodox Jews. It’s Orthodox Jews committing piracy in the open seas off Somalia. There’s no question in my mind.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Sherry, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, great to have you. I’m glad you waited. Nice to have you on the program.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. The clip that you played at the beginning of the first hour, Obama, somebody asked him a question about the pirates while he was talking about housing or something like that, had me really confused because what happened to these great multitasking skills that he could deal with more than one thing at a time? I guess that doesn’t happen, does it?

RUSH: Well, that has to do with the teleprompter. The teleprompter wasn’t there when he was asked the question about the pirates. Obama may not be multitasking, but Biden is. This is what the vice president said this afternoon.

BIDEN: I think what you should do is, uh, contact, uh, the, uh, uh, Jim Jones and — and — and the White House. This is being worked on, uh, around the clock.

RUSH: So there you have it, Sherry, feel better? The vice president told reporters there that if they want to know anything about the pirates, call Jim Jones over at the White House, it’s being worked on around the clock. But Obama, you know, multitasking depends on what’s on the teleprompter. I know Obama did give Bush grief because he was unable to do two things or three at one time, but here’s the sound bite where Obama declines to comment on the pirate situation that she’s referring to.

REPORTER: Can we get a quick reaction to the pirates, the Somali pirates?

OBAMA: Guys, we’re talking about housing right now.

RUSH: (impersonating Obama) “Guys, we’re talking about housing right now, not the pirates.” Translation: There’s nothing on my teleprompter about pirates right now, Jim Jones is working on that ‘round the clock. So Biden is the guy that’s comforting people on the work being done to deal with the pirate situation. Again, as I said, I remain perplexed. The president of the United States said we’re not at war with Islam, and the Somali pirates, everybody has assumed are Islamic, they’re Muslims, so maybe they’re not, if we’re not at war with Islam. So who would be on those pirate ships? Maybe it’s the orthodox Jews; maybe Southern Baptists; but it can’t be the Muslims.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Topeka, Kansas. Lucas, your turn. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Good to be here. Mega ditto from flyover country.

RUSH: Appreciate that.

CALLER: First, I have to say, I’ve had a lot of professors in my day. I’m an attorney now, but I remember my school days, they aren’t far off, but you’ve easily been the best professor I’ve ever had.

RUSH: Well, thank you, sir, very much. I not only appreciate that, I understand it.

CALLER: Ha-ha. Hey, I called because you were talking about, and you were getting really close to a legal principle there earlier in your first hour of the show talking about this piracy issue. There’s a legal principle called — I hope I’m pronouncing it right, but it’s jus cogens. It’s spelled j-u-s, c-o-g-e-n-s for anybody that wants to look it up out there. Essentially, it’s a universal moral norm that if it’s violated, it basically grants anybody in the entire world sort of a universal jurisdiction —

RUSH: Are you referring to hostis humani generis, which is enemies to the human race?

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: Yeah, okay.

CALLER: Exactly. And, you know, it’s got categories: piracy, slave trade, war crimes, and that kind of thing.

RUSH: Right, and this is why they are not considered criminal. They are considered enemies of the human race.

CALLER: Exactly, and for the longest time, there’s been sort of a push, sort of behind the scenes, you know, in the courts to classify terrorism along those lines, and I think my fellow listeners out there probably would be pretty surprised to hear that it’s still quite a ways away from getting to the point where terrorists are considered enemies of the entire human race, right along with pirates and others, and it’s simply because, while the courts seem to be right in line with it, politicians — and the top two that come to mind are the Clintons, who have both now successfully referred to both pirates and terrorists as criminals, not enemies of the human race, but simple criminals, and it really gets to me. I have a friend who is a former Special Ops Marine, who’s in law school right now writing a paper with the question, “Does terrorism violate jus cogens?” And, you know, initially right off the bat I thought, of course, it has to. Well, it would, except there are still a lot of people on the left who seem to sympathize with the motives and the motivations behind terrorists, and I think that’s our problem.

RUSH: It is. The Clinton administration — I mentioned this in the first hour. I hate to disagree with you. I think a lot of Americans understand the error in approaching these people as criminals. That’s one of the reasons 9/11 happened is that the Clinton administration didn’t deal with them as enemies, enemy combatants, enemies of the human race, enemies of America, they’re just criminals, and they need to be prosecuted criminally, need to go out and collect evidence on them, turn the evidence over to grand juries, grand jury testimony is secret so whatever you discover there can’t be shared with intelligence agencies. This is widely known. Mrs. Clinton — and that’s why I brought this all up today — she did declare in the cackling sound bite with the defense minister of Morocco that these are criminals of the high seas. They are not criminals. They are enemies of the human race, that’s how they’ve always been treated. And people ask, “How come piracy is rebounding?” Piracy is rebounding precisely because of the American left and the European left’s lack of intestinal fortitude, gonads, if you will, to categorize these people as they really are and to pursue them on that basis. “We can’t torture them,” when we don’t torture.

Whatever we do is called torture. Everything we did to get answers is called torture. We can’t do that. We’re mean. We’re the bad guys. We put ‘em up in a hellhole called Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. We’re the bad guys. We’re setting a bad example for the world. These people are just from an oppressed minority. We’re too big. It’s totally understandable why these people would hate us. We’re the world’s superpower. We steal the resources of the world to enrich ourselves, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Enemies of America are friends of the Democrat Party. This was never more evident than during the Bush administration, Bill Clinton, Algore, number of Democrats that go across the oceans, make speeches condemning American foreign policy, war policy, condemning the Bush administration, criticizing their own country to build themselves up among a bunch of limp wrists in the European and world communities.

I think the Somali pirates and their emergence — and you might want to say reemergence — is a clear indication that, despite all, they do not consider themselves under a severe threat. Look at what’s happened. In practically every one of these hijackings they’ve been paid the ransom. They’ve been paid. Of course they’re going to keep it up. They have been paid. There have been some accidents, sometimes the Saudis air dropped their ransom in a parachute and they missed the boat and some of the pirates went out there in a little speedboat and it capsized, some of the money went overboard with them, but they’re being paid. Now, a lot of people ask, “Rush, how come these ships aren’t armed?” Everybody says just give some machine guns to the crew when you see the pirates showing up, wipe ‘em out. You maritime captains out there can back me up on this, but the historical reason why you don’t arm the crew on a cargo vessel is to guard against mutiny against the captain and the ship, ‘cause you know how CEOs are hated today, and the captain of the ship is a CEO, and employees resent and they’re being told to resent the boss.

So the boss makes you do some things on board, if you’ve got machine guns ostensibly to gun down the Somali pirates, you could conduct a mutiny. So that’s one of the reasons that they aren’t armed. Why they don’t go out and hire private security that is armed, I don’t know enough. I’m not informed enough to be able to answer the question, especially when they’re going to be traversing waters where they know that piracy is taking place, and the pirates are active. But, at any rate, you’re right in the sense that the Somali pirates, they’re being paid, why stop? They’re not being treated as enemies of the human race, as they were in the past, 200 years ago when they were wiped out. They were considered hostis humani generis, which is enemies of the human race. In other words, they were alien enemy combatants deemed to have no claim on the rights afforded to criminals by the civilized world. Clearly they’re not being viewed or treated in that manner any longer, and as human nature would tell us, if they’re going to get paid, and if they’re going to get away with it, and even if they get caught they’re just going to slap on the wrist, what’s the downside to them?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oklahoma City. Kyle, nice to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Mega dittos from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Rush.

RUSH: It’s great to have you on the program, Kyle, from Oklahoma.

CALLER: Thank you very much. If only Hillary would have warned you there would be days like this. One thing I wanted to point out here that I think has political implications to really help out Obama is, you know, he’s being touted right now as the great peacemaker but he has to flex his political muscle on the war front. And right now you can’t take credit for the success in Iraq as he had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. But if he brings back the so-called “war on terror,” which I predict he will, in regards to Iran —

RUSH: No.

CALLER: — in regards to the piracy.

RUSH: No, no, no, no. The “war on terror” is gone from the lexicon.

CALLER: Right, yeah.

RUSH: Now we have “manmade contingencies.” This is not even piracy. This is a high seas contingency.

CALLER: But that’s my whole point. Who came up with that? That was Hillary who brought that about. If he brings it back... See, Hillary already warned us that there would be days like this. But if he brings back “the war on terror,” Obama takes away the credibility from her and gives it back to himself. In that process, and all of a sudden he’s the wartime hero we’ve been looking for, he’s the superhero in America, and he’s the one that we want. And last thing — I’ll just wrap this up here; I want you to respond to that but lastly — I want to make a special invitation to you, sir.

RUSH: It isn’t going to happen. He said we’re not at war with Islam.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: By the way, he is taking credit for the success in Iraq by going to Walter Reed and praising the valor of the troops there!

CALLER: All in hindsight, right? I understand. But what I’m trying to point out is that when he comes back, whenever he goes up and stands in front of the podium and the teleprompter tells him, “Put on the war on terror. Bring it back in full force,” he’s the wartime superhero we’ve been waiting for, and that’s what I predict will come about. That’s because he’s falling flat in this big issue of national security. Nobody trusts the guy.

RUSH: He intends to. There is... US national security is going to be improved by making us weaker. That way we’ll be less of a threat.

END TRANSCRIPT

Rush Comes Clean on His January Face-to-Face Meeting with Obama
April 9, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I need to come clean on something. If you remember — and I just got the pictures of this, by the way. I’ve gotta find a way to get these up to the website. I have them at home. The Tuesday prior to the immaculate inauguration of Barack Obama, I was the invited guest of President Bush for lunch in the dining room off the Oval Office, and that was the occasion where President Bush presented me with a birthday cake, and he and Ed Gillespie sang Happy Birthday to me, and all this is photographed, and I finally got the pictures of this.

I looked at the pictures, the memory and so forth. It was after that I went to the East Room, also by invitation to watch the Medals of Honor being presented to John Howard, Senor Uribe and Tony Blair. It was that night, if you’ll recall, that Barack Obama attended a dinner hosted by George Will for ten or 11 conservative pundits. I had missed the program that day, but I had not told the audience the day before that I would be gone. I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” And then the guest host that day, we thought we’d have a little fun with the audience, guest host that day said I had been called out of town to Washington late the night before for a secret meeting. The news of the Obama dinner at George Will’s house breaks, and immediately I hijack the story when I don’t even know anything about it, because the media, “Oh, is that where Limbaugh was? We know he was at the White House, we got pictures. Is Limbaugh at that dinner?” Because the names of the conservatives were not immediately released. They were under guarded lock and key.

I was not at that dinner, and I said that day, the next day, that I had not met with President Obama. But, ladies and gentlemen, I did. I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him to his face I didn’t want his policies to work, that I knew they wouldn’t work, that they would fail, that I didn’t think he had the executive experience to pull all this off, and he looked at me and said, “I understand, I understand, but, look, I’m the visionary. I’m going to provide a vision. I won the election. It doesn’t really matter to me what you think.” So it did happen. I lied to the audience. Well, lie is a strong word. I withheld information. It was off the record. It was trying to be respectful here of the situation. But I did meet with President Obama. In a related story from Tuesday on The Situation Room on CNN, Vice President Biden.

BIDEN: I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office, he was a great guy, enjoyed being with him, he said to me, he said, “Well, Joe,” he said, “I’m a leader.” And I said, “Mr. President, turn around and look behind you, no one’s following.” People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.

RUSH: That’s Vice President Biden describing a conversation he had alone in the Oval Office with President Bush shortly before President Obama was inaugurated. It’s about the same time I had my meeting with President Obama, which I told him to his face that I didn’t want his policies to work, the fact that I knew they would fail and that I was very distressed, that he has to know they’re going to fail, too. And I said, “What is your point, why do you want to reorder?” “Well, I won, and I’ve got the vision,” and so forth. White House aides, by the way, Bush White House aides are denying that Biden was ever alone with the president or ever said anything of the sort to the president, from Andrew Card to Karl Rove to Ari Fleischer to any number of White House aides. They don’t remember this, and I’m sure that Obama’s people will deny that he and I met privately and I told him face-to-face I wanted him to fail.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Folks, I swear, I feel like just stopping here and going back home, getting out of bed, and coming back in and starting all over.

Dear Rush:

We trust you out here. Now you tell us you met with Obama, when before you said you didn’t meet with Obama. Then you say you really didn’t lie. You sound just like Bill Clinton: parsing words. Why are you announcing that you met with Obama now? Because somebody broke the story, so now you have to admit it to us that you lied? And not only this, but at the time you developed this huge story, you told us on the air a couple days later that it was funny, and now it turns out to have been completely fabricated? You made all of this up to cover for an off-the-record meeting with the man you and we want to fail? I will never see you the same way again. I’m extremely disappointed. I am very disappointed. You are no longer trustworthy.

Signed, Doug in Milwaukee.

RUSH: (big sigh) These are days. These are days when I think I’m not paid enough. Let’s go back to the first hour of the program. Let me do this again, for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time via Doug in Milwaukee’s e-mail, in which he claims he was very disappointed, extremely disappointed, and I’m no longer trustworthy. Remember the Tuesday prior to Obama’s inauguration, one week prior, I was invited to the White House for lunch with the president, the dining room off the Oval Office. I went up there and had lunch and then went to the East Room for Medal of Honor ceremony and flew home. This is what I told you. The day prior, on Monday, I slipped up, and I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Those were the last words I said on Monday’s show, when I knew I wasn’t going to be here because I had the appointment for lunch in the White House.

So the guest host that day, Jason Lewis, informed you — at my direction — that I had received a late-night phone call, an emergency dispatch to go to Washington the next day. When I’m flying home from Washington late in the afternoon, news breaks that Obama’s dining with ten or 11 conservative pundits at George Will’s house. And everybody wants to know if I’m going. I said, “No, I didn’t even know about this.” the story came I was going to be there, and I essentially hijacked this. And I said, I didn’t meet with Obama. See, I had offered to meet with Obama. He said he would meet with anybody and listen to anybody about alternative ideas. I said I had some. I said, “I’ll get there any time you want to talk, Mr. President-elect.” I said we hadn’t met.

I got up today and I realized, ladies and gentlemen, that it was time for me to come clean, that I did meet with President Obama — after I left the White House and before he went to George Will’s house — and I told him in person. I told him in person that I didn’t want him to succeed. I didn’t want his policies to work. I told him in person. I told him tax cuts would revive this economy. He could be one of the greatest presidents ever. He could inspire people using his talents and his oratorical skills with the teleprompter to inspire people, but the way he was going about it, it wasn’t going to work and I didn’t want it to work. And I said, “You don’t have enough executive experience to be pulling this off.” He said, “That’s okay. I’m going to do it my way. I won. I provide a vision.” I never admitted this until today, when I heard Vice President Biden had said this two days ago on CNN.

BIDEN: I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office — and he was a great guy; I enjoyed being with him. He said to me, he said, “Well, Joe,” he said, “I’m a leader,” and I said, “Mr. President, turn around and look behind you. No one’s following.” People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.

RUSH: Now, the Bush White House, everybody in it is denying this took place. Biden made it up! He was never alone. In fact, the Bush administration got a policy: if you have somebody from the Senate, you’re going to have somebody from the House in there so that nobody feels upset. Bt from Andy Card to the chief of staff to the press secretaries to Karl Rove, this did not happen! Biden didn’t go in there and say, “Turn around and look behind you, Mr. President. Nobody’s following you,” and the president did not say, “Joe, I’m a leader,” but he’s out there saying it on CNN! I fully expect the Obama camp to deny today that he met with me. (big sighs) You know, in the old days the way I would have done this? I would have done this without even mentioning Biden. I would have assumed that everybody knew the Biden story and that I was making fun of Biden, that I was illustrating absurdity by being absurd, another brilliant radio bit.

But I knew. I knew today that if I came out here and said, “Folks, I lied to you. I did meet with Obama, and I told him to his face, ‘I want you to fail. I want your policies to fail. You said you’ll listen to alternative ideas. Try tax cuts. You could build this country back. This isn’t gonna work, and I don’t want it to work.’” I knew if I did that, for three days the story would be: “Limbaugh lied!” The Obama administration would be denying it — and I would be realizing on the fact that everybody would know that I’m just making fun of Biden. So today, knowing full well that that doesn’t work anymore, I decided to even put the Biden thing in it — which kills the effectiveness of the bit by 50% but I still did it — and I still get an e-mail (shaking the paper) from somebody who is disappointed, who me wants to cancel his damn subscription — cancel it yourself! — and says to me that I “can’t be trusted anymore.” (crumbles up paper) We’re gonna take a commercial break. I normally don’t take commercial breaks at this time. I’m going to take a commercial break. I feel like I’m In the Day the Earth Stood Still.

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Flashback: Obama’s Berlin Speech
April 9, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to go back to Obama’s Berlin speech where he addressed the world as a “citizen of the world,” and I want you to realize the pattern — and, frankly, show you how badly I misread the public mood or misunderstood the power of cult followers. I thought after this speech and as wide coverage at it got, because this speech in Berlin ripped this country to shreds in no uncertain words, “There’s no way this guy is gonna get elected. We have not gotten to the point, have we,” I said, “where you go overseas, rip your own country, and get elected president?” But I’m wrong. I can also remember 20 years ago if Fidel Castro had endorsed you and you were a political candidate — or a sitting elected official and Fidel Castro said he wanted to do whatever he could to help you — you were finished. It was the kiss of death. Not today. Fidel Castro can say he wants Obama to succeed. He can ask the Congressional Black Caucus what he can do to help, and this is regarded as a sign of progress. So let’s go back in time, shall we, to our archives. Here’s audio sound bite one of Barack Obama in July 2008 — less than a year ago, folks — in Berlin.

OBAMA 2008: I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before; although tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen — a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world. (cheers and applause) I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.

RUSH: Yay! Right on, right on, right on. Once again, this illustrating that it was the Democrat Party introducing race throughout the presidential campaign. “I don’t look like... I don’t look like the Americans who have previously spoken in this great city,” meaning, “I’m not the same old racist thug pigs that have come over here and spoken to you in the past.” Here is the next one. This is Obama telling the world to look at Berlin as an example of how the world came together as one.

OBAMA 2008: Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle. (snip) Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity. People of the world — look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one. (applause)

RUSH: Right on, right on, right on, right on. It’s a total misrepresentation of truth. The world did not “come together as one” after World War II, even. (snorts) World War II gave us East Germany, communist East Germany. It gave us the Soviet Bloc, gave us the Soviet Union. The world coming together had nothing to do with the Berlin Wall falling. Two countries made that happen: the United States and Great Britain. But, of course, in the modern era it’s Gorbachev that made it happen. Gorbachev! Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika and glasnost, brought it about. World didn’t come together. The world could not become united against communism. Most of it is communist or socialist! The world didn’t come together to bring down the Berlin Wall. If anything, the world came together to opposed the Berlin Wall coming down. But it didn’t stop Ronald Reagan. Here’s the next one.

OBAMA 2008: The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers — dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean. Think about it: The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil. As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

RUSH: “[C]ars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya,” all the while his half-brother lived in a nine-square-foot hut. For all we know, he still does live in a nine-square-foot hut. That’s probably the fault of automobiles in Florida. One more before we go to the break...

OBAMA 2008: Will we acknowledge — Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we — Will we — Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don’t look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people? (applause) People of Berlin — people of the world — this is our moment. This is our time.

RUSH: “[N]o more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law.” That’s ripping the United States of America. He’s being critical of his own country at every opportunity. The one thing that’s missing, purposely so — and it’s missing because it cannot possibly be there with this bunch — is the notion, the concept of American exceptionalism. Now, there’s no question America is exceptional. Not because we’re any better or different as human beings. Not because our DNA has some secret code in it that makes us better people. That’s not it. But there is the concept of American exceptionalism, and this guy hates it. This guy doesn’t like it, doesn’t agree with it, thinks the only thing we’re exceptional about is being bullies. We’re too big. We’re thieves. We steal the world’s resources. We need to be cut down to size! There’s more to this, but there’s a pattern here, and the reason I wanted to play the Berlin speech, ‘cause it’s really no different than the speeches he made at the G20. Rip America, blame America. America has to change. Yes, it’s America’s fault, financial crisis. The world must come together! He doesn’t look at himself as president. He’s leader of the world. All this is about him. It’s not about representing the interests of the United States wherever he goes.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One more sound bite from our archives. President Obama in Berlin on July 24th, last summer.

OBAMA: People of Berlin — people of the world — this is our moment. This is our time. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

RUSH: So there you have it, and this is the essence of Barack Obama, to go around the world, apologize for America, admit what he thinks are the imperfections, to disown and ignore the entire concept of American exceptionalism. Somebody with this view of America has been elected president is still something I have trouble believing. I don’t know that I’ve actually gotten over this. I mean, I’m an adult, and it is what it is, and you have to deal with it. We’ve actually elected somebody with this attitude about his own country to be president. I’m not gonna bother analyzing the voters. They’re cult followers; they don’t care what he says; it’s how he says it, blah, blah, blah, blah. There’s no suitable explanation that’s good.

There’s no explanation that will excuse this. Even if you want to say, “Rush, the people were fooled.” That’s not good. “Rush, the people are basically ignorant.” That’s not good. “Rush, it’s the education system.” That’s not good. There’s no good explanation. “Rush, he’s African-American.” That’s not good. That’s not why we elect our promote people. “Well, Rush, but he’s so smart.” That’s not good, ‘cause he’s not. We gotta redefine smart. “Well, Rush, but, you know, he’s so eloquent, he’s so elegant, he speaks so well.” Listen to what he says. “Sorry, Rush, you’re asking too much of people. They don’t listen to what people say. It is the image that is cast.” That’s not good. “But, Rush, he was running against McCain.” (pregnant pause) That one might work, but I mean that one’s even iffy.

END TRANSCRIPT

A Supply-Side Economics Lesson
April 9, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We have a junior from the University of Tennessee, the Tennessee Vols. This is Jordan on the phone. Hi, Jordan. It’s great to have you here. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. It’s an honor to speak with you.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: I just have a quick question. I am in a macroeconomics class. My minor is economics, and my professor drones on and on and on about the supply-side economics and how it does not work. And constantly in my test and even an essay, we had to talk about why supply-side economics does not work and why it’s not fair to the poor and why it increases income inequality. I just want to know the truth, I guess. I’m just tired of this.

RUSH: Okay, so, in the first place, it does work — and it works every time it’s tried, and it’s brilliant. It’s very simple to understand, and explain. But your professor...? I just want to understand this. Your professor said it doesn’t work?

CALLER: It doesn’t work, and it never has worked.

RUSH: And it never has worked because it’s not fair to the poor and it increases income inequality?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: What does he say trickle down or supply-side economics is? Does he define it for you in the class?

CALLER: Yes. Lower personal income tax rates, reduce tax on incomes and savings, reduce tax on capital gains, reduce corporate income tax, is how he defines it.

RUSH: Well, those are the results of a belief in supply-side economics. Supply-side economics is simply capitalism. Now, let me give you some numbers. In 1981, when Ronald Reagan took office, and the top marginal — are you recording this?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: I’m writing it down.

RUSH: Top marginal tax rate, Ronald Reagan took office, the top marginal tax rate was 70%. There were a bunch of different tax rates. Has he adequately explained to you what a marginal tax rate is?

CALLER: Not really.

RUSH: Okay. Let me explain, because that’s central to understanding this is understanding what a marginal tax rate is. In 1980... I’m guessing here, but let’s say there were 13 or 14 tax brackets. These are arbitrary numbers. I’m making these up. I don’t have the actual tables in front of me, but the way it worked is the first $10,000 you made, you paid 10%. The next $10,000 up to $25,000 a year from $15,000, you paid maybe 15% and on and on and on and on, until the top marginal rate — ‘til you had you’d earned over let’s a $150,000 a year — every dollar over $150,000 was taxed at 70%. Okay? Did you follow that?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: Okay. This was called “bracket creep” back then. As you earned more, you end up in a higher tax bracket, and it’s the marginal dollars, the last dollars you earn — and the last dollars you earn are the dollars that define your wealth, or define your income. So when Reagan took office, the top marginal rate was 70%. Now, very few paid it, Jordan, because there were all kinds of tax loopholes that were built into the system back then. Not loopholes, but there were incentives to invest in this area of the economy. If you put your money here, you would not be taxed on that money. But still we had a top marginal rate of 70%, and the total take in tax revenue to the government in 1981 was about $480 billion. Okay?

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Now, in 1989, when Reagan left office, the top marginal tax rate had been reduced from 70% to 28%. The take to the Treasury almost doubled. It was $950 billion. So reducing marginal tax rates from 70% to 28% doubled Treasury receipts. Now, how did this happen? It happened because it created more taxpayers. It created more jobs by reducing the top marginal rate on people. If you tell people, “You’re going to keep 72¢ cents of every dollar you earn,” you’re going to go out and earn dollars and not going to worry about sheltering them or hiding them. You’ll report your income. You don’t look for places to hide it. At 70%, you look for places to hide your income.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: So at a top marginal rate of 28%, more people were hired, because small businesses are Subchapter S corporations. Most of them file their income tax on a personal form, as they’re allowed by law, and so they weren’t hire more people. Corporations of all kinds were able to hire more people. The capital gains tax came down. The corporate tax came down. This meant that there was more money in the private sector and not at government.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Supply-side simply means leaving the money of creativity and productivity in the hands of the people who produce and create: the citizens. It’s their money! They earn it. Now, the reason that your professor it says it doesn’t work, income inequality, is because we’re all different, and so many people don’t want to work as hard as others. You are finding yourself in a macroeconomics class, but many at your school are majoring in PE because they think it’s going to be easier. They’ll get a degree in that. They’re not going to go the hard route. You have an interest in economics. Some people don’t. Some people have an interest in being rocket scientists and going to the moon or Mars. Other people are content to get to 7-Eleven.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Okay?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: We’re all different, Jordan, and in a capitalistic society... He calls it supply-side, your professor. Your professor — I hate to say this, but your professor — is a walking liberal cliche who doesn’t understand economics, and if he does understand it, he’s threatened by the concept of individual freedom and liberty and is trying to mold you students into people who are going to conform so that you agree with the concept that nobody should earn anything more than anybody else, that there should not be any poor people.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: But the only way that we can guarantee that kind of equality is to make everybody miserable.

CALLER: He went to Princeton, so...

RUSH: Princeton, Brown, I don’t care.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: He could have been gone to the University of North Pole, and I’m sure the curriculum there is the same thing.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: But it’s just capitalism. Now, let me give you some figures that just came out today. The federal government announced — the IRS announced today — that last year they took in, just in the income tax, around $500 billion or $560 billion. This year, the federal government’s going to take in 25% less: $450 billion. Why do you think that is, Jordan? You’re the student; I’m the teacher. We’ve raised tax rates now from the 28% and we’re back up to 35%. Soon we’re going to be back to 39.6% federal.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: We have a federal deficit. With these numbers today, this year’s federal deficit guaranteed to be $2 trillion — not the $1.2 trillion, not the $1.7 trillion. We’re going to have a $2 trillion federal deficit. Now, why is it that April 15th is going to be a down day for the government? Their collection and income tax revenue is going to be down 25%. Why?

CALLER: Crowding out, possibly? I know it’s okay to have a budget deficit when you’re in a recession, so isn’t that okay?

RUSH: No.

CALLER: To have that is not good?

RUSH: No. No. Forget that. That’s another concept altogether. That’s Keynesian, and that means... Have you been told about John Maynard Keynes?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: Yeah: spend money you don’t have to stimulate an economy. It never works. It’s never, ever worked. It prolonged the Great Depression.

CALLER: That’s what we’re learning right now, as a matter of fact.

RUSH: This is sad. You are paying nothing to call me and learn the truth, and how much are your parents paying to send you to this worthless class?

CALLER: (chuckles) Thank you, sir.

RUSH: At any rate, the government is going to collect $150 billion less in tax revenue because of unemployment.

CALLER: Oh.

There are fewer people working. There are fewer people paying taxes. Why is that? Because we are in a recession. The government is borrowing so much money and printing so much money and yet taxing people at increasing levels so there’s not the money in the supply-side sector, in the private sector. Government has all the money. Government is deciding who’s going to get it — like the banks, and the auto companies, and how they have to spend it. There’s less money in the private sector for people to be hired, and if you’re not working, you don’t pay taxes. That’s how you explain $450 billion in tax revenue, 1981, doubling in eight years by reducing tax rates from 70% to 28%.

CALLER: Wow.

RUSH: The Bush tax cuts, after 9/11, is what kept this country in an economic boom, because any... Look, it’s very simple. If you’re a capitalist, and if you believe in the concept of individual liberty and freedom, then you have to accept the notion that what you earn is yours and that you are entitled to earn as much as you desire. Following rules, of course. And that there is nothing immoral about earning more than somebody else, just like there’s nothing immoral about you becoming an economics graduate and somebody else going to a junior college. You made the choice; that other person made the choice. Why should that person who decided to go to a community college come out and be vo-tech and learn how to use a scratchall, make as much as you who are investing whatever you’re going to invest in college to be an economist and perhaps go somewhere?

Why should you two make the same, and whose right and whose authority determines what either of you should make? That’s what your professor wants some central planner to decide, that you’re no better than somebody with somebody that works with a scratch-all in terms of your value. I’m not talk about your morality or as a person. I’m talking about your value economically. You know, your value is something. You look at athletes. I’ll bet your professor thinks athletes are overpaid.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: He probably doesn’t think movie stars are overpaid ‘cause they’re libs, but he probably thinks athletes are overpaid, and he probably thinks that the school gets, you know, they bend the rules too many times and let the football team not go to class all the time.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: Right?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: What’s the value? What’s the value of a professional baseball player? Alex Rodriguez gets $270 million over ten years, whatever it is, because somebody’s determined he’s worth it.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: Okay? Now, your professor probably blanches at that notion. While Alex Rodriguez is making 270, some pauper playing for the Kansas City Royals is only making $2 million. “Only” two million! That’s gotta be grossly unfair.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: How can Rodriguez get $270 million and some pauper shortstop for the Royals only get two million? Oh, the injustice of it all! What a rotten country.

CALLER: I just —

RUSH: Supply-side economics is not just tax cuts. Tax cuts are the result of a principle, and the principle is that we are individuals and that we have freedom to compete, to invest in ourselves, to become whatever we want. We could become slackers. We can become wealthy. We can become accomplished; we can become semi-accomplished. It’s up to us. No two people are the same. Now, he’s saying that supply-side doesn’t work because he’s looking at the various inequalities throughout, not just income, but other inequalities, and he looks and says, “It’s just unfair. It’s just unfair.”

CALLER: Mmmm.

RUSH: And then he also couples this... I’m sure he has the attitude that the rich are a bunch of SOBs, just on general principles.

CALLER: Uh-huh.

RUSH: They’re mean, rotten cheaters, thieves, and liars. Of course, rich Democrats are not. Like Ted Kennedy and the whole Kennedy family.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: All they have to do is get up and their billionaires.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: They never had to work a day in their lives. They just get up. But that’s wonderful because they talk about the things your professor talks about, but you don’t see Ted Kennedy or any other liberal walking neighborhoods giving money away — unless he’s taken it from somebody else first. I implore you, Jordan, my man, to investigate independently the economist Friedrich Von Hayek (H-a-y-e-k) from the University of Chicago. He’s long dead. I urge you to. Does your professor ever talk about Milton Friedman?

CALLER: Uhhh, no, sir.

RUSH: He does?

CALLER: No he hasn’t.

RUSH: Oh, he doesn’t. I’m not surprised. Milton Friedman. There’s a videotape, DVD series that Milton Friedman did that explains everything you want to know here in a classical economics sense. He’s written many books. He was brilliant, Milton Friedman. So is Thomas Sowell, who is at the Hoover Institution on campus at Stanford. But read Friedrich Von Hayek, read The Constitution of Liberty, and read The Road to Serfdom. They’re tough reads. These are intellectual treatises, but you will not be disappointed.

CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush. I appreciate that.

RUSH: You bet. Hang in there, because the country depends on people like you being open to the concept of individual liberty and what that results in.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: Thanks, Jordan. All the best to you.

CALLER: Thank you, sir.

RUSH: Go Vols!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s a good supply-side, demand side question to ponder. How many wheelchairs with motors is General Motors going to have to make before anybody wants to buy one?

END TRANSCRIPT