RUSH: We had the Democrat Party, we had Barack Obama, I don’t care who in the party you’re talking about, the conventional wisdom, what everybody seems to believe, is that the Democrats care about the little guy. The Democrats are for the downtrodden, the hungry, the thirsty, the starving, the depressed, the bullied, you name it. They have the big hearts. They have all the compassion. The Republicans and their big business buddies basically just want to get rid of the everybody, kill the customers and charge everybody all these expensive prices for stuff that they need and want. They don’t care about anybody. That’s standard operating procedure for the media.
I think it’s just the exact opposite. And furthermore, I think in addition to everything else that’s wrong with Obama and his regime, his agenda, everything he’s trying to do to the country, I also think that most of the people in his administration are simply out of touch with the American people. I don’t think they have the slightest clue what life in this country is like. They are utopians. They have this dream where everybody is perfect as they define perfection, by the way, which means you and I, everybody else are totally subservient to them.
Obama’s energy secretary doesn’t drive a car. He rides his bicycle around or is driven around, but he doesn’t drive a car. He doesn’t know what all’s involved in driving a car, from the price of gasoline to tuning it up, to getting it serviced, all of this. He may have in the past, but nobody in the Obama administration’s ever held a job in the private sector. They’re all academicians. They’re all from the academy. They all just sit around the faculty lounge and dream about what would happen if they were in charge. They’d get rid of that ugly dirty oil and they’d get rid of all the filth and pollution and they’d get rid of global warming and they’d get rid of the US military, focus of evil in the modern world, and they’d get rid of all this stuff that they think is evil. They get elected and they’re clueless.
All the while they’re out there claiming that Mitt Romney is this evil rich guy who has nothing in common with anybody. Mitt Romney’s self-made. By the way, they hate that. Self-made. I had some sound bites yesterday. Cookie, do you think you could find those sound bites? They were media people who were just beside themselves that some new arrivals on the Forbes billionaire list were self-made. They didn’t believe it was possible, if my memory is right. Either they didn’t believe it was possible or they didn’t believe it, period, but either way they were agitated. Cookie, was one of them Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington? And was one of them Diane Sawyer? I forget. But they were literally irritated that billionaires had made it on their own, that they were self-made. They can’t relate to this. This is Diane Sawyer.
So they look at Romney as this evil rich guy, out of touch, he doesn’t know how real people live. Ah, listen to way he talks, his wife has two Cadillacs. He’s got all these homes. He doesn’t know how people live. Obama’s czars are as out of touch as the czars of Russia. They see no problem with a 50-dollar light bulb. Who can afford one? They think that’s progress, in fact, a 50-dollar light bulb. They don’t see anything wrong with a 40 or $50,000 car that goes 40 miles on a charge. They have literally no grounding in reality. Everything is utopian theory to these people. Look at Michelle Obama’s nonstop vacationing. And it’s not just Michelle and the girls. She takes an entourage. She and her husband going to the same vacation destination, Martha’s Vineyard last year, she flew on her own Boeing 757 four hours before her husband, the president, went. They took two airplanes. These are not people who are in touch. Either that, or they feel like they’re royalty and are entitled.
The Obama regime has given a company something like $10 million to develop a light bulb that costs $50, that the free market sees no need for. Everybody was happy with the Thomas Edison good old incandescent light bulb. Nobody was unhappy with it except Obama and his buddies on the left. And for some reason that light bulb of Thomas Edison’s was going to destroy the planet, along with oil and any other sign of progress. It was going to cause global warming or global freezing or climate change or what have you. Things, by the way, human beings are incapable of doing. We don’t have that power, folks, I hate to tell you. We humans don’t have the power to destroy the climate or to even change it. If we did there wouldn’t be winter where people live that don’t like winter.
If we had the ability there would be rain every time we needed it and no more what we needed. If we could control it, we’d make sure that no hurricane ever wiped out a city. We have no power over these things. But our vanity is such, on the one hand these leftists think that we have the power to lower the sea levels — Obama said he was going to do that — we have the power to stop climate change. We have the power to stop glaciers from melting and saving the polar bears. The polar bear population, by the way, is skyrocketing out of sight. The polar bears are not dying off. Their habitat is not threatened.
You new arrivals, you really have no idea how many lies that you have been subjected to over the last 20, 30 years. You really have no idea how much you believe that is just wrong as it can be. There simply is no way that human beings can do all these things. So on the one hand we have all this power. We can stop the melting of the glaciers. We can lower the sea levels. And a moment later, the same leftists can talk about us as if we’re no more important than a rat, when we start talking about animal rights. We’re no different, we’re no better, we’re not superior to any other life form. In fact, the earth would be better off without us. And that really is it: They don’t see any good in humanity. Humanity’s a problem. Particularly free people are a problem.
Free people get us into too much trouble. Free people start wars. Free people get rich while other people get poor. Free people exploit other people. Free people laugh and bully other people. Free people do all these rotten things and we’ve gotta stop this. The only way we can stop it is to take freedom away from people so they can’t bully anybody anymore, they can’t get rich anymore, they can’t be unfair, can’t be unequal. That’s how a guy like Obama solves a problem, take freedom away. Make everybody equal. Because freedom’s the problem. Freedom is what results in people being different, see. They can’t have people being different. That’s not right. That’s not justice, for people to be different. Just not fair.
So, we have to make sure these rich people, these free people don’t run around and destroy the planet with their jets — Obama’s exempted; Michelle’s exempted — don’t go out and do all this destruction. So we take their freedom away from ’em. And then we make ’em do things against their nature ’cause they won’t do the right thing unless we force ’em to. So in order to get ’em to buy that light bulb that we demand they use, we’re gonna take the one they like off the market. We’re gonna make it illegal to buy a Thomas Edison invented light bulb in the United States of America. We’re gonna make it illegal. Because you people who won’t give it up on your own are hurting the climate, are harming the climate, you could destroy the world. And we can’t sit around idly while you rich people who don’t care about anybody else destroy the world.
So we’re gonna take your freedom away and tell you you can’t buy that light bulb. And instead, we’re gonna make you buy this other light bulb. Costs 50 bucks, looks like spaghetti, and we gave a guy $10 million, his company to create it. Story right here: ” Government-Subsidized Green Light Bulb Carries Costly Price Tag.” It’s the Washington Post. “The U.S. government last year announced a $10 million award, dubbed the ‘L Prize,’ for any manufacturer that could create a ‘green’ but affordable light bulb. Energy Secretary Steven Chu –” who had just stepped off his bicycle “– said the prize would spur industry to offer the costly bulbs, known as LEDs, at prices ‘affordable for American families.'”
You see, the market won’t do that on its own, folks. The free market will not come up with the most efficient, cheapest, mass-produced product that most people want. No, no! Well, of course that’s exactly what the market does. That is exactly what the market does. The market comes up with the most-efficient-to-produce, the cheapest-to-buy, the best-possible-for-the-money product. It is the Obamas of the world who don’t trust the free market. When the free market doesn’t do what Obama wants it to do, it’s not enough to say, “Damn it!” Obama’s gonna step in and punish them and make them do what he wants to do.
Even if he’s going to cite powers as president that he doesn’t have from the Constitution! So Steven Chu, who doesn’t drive a car, “Nobel prize-winning energy secretary,” said that this $10 million bribe — ahem — award would spur otherwise cold-hearted, callous private sector businesses to offer up these green light bulbs at prices affordable for the American family. Because without the government stepping in, without the government getting ’em do it, no business will sell anything that’s affordable. You understand that? Every private sector business will do nothing but rip you off. That’s what Obama wants you to believe; it’s what the Democrats want you to believe.
Hell, some of you do. So they’re the white knights. They come in and they get to punish these private sector guys. They get to say, “You’re being ripped off. All these people the private sector, they’re ripping you off but we — who care about you most — are gonna give some business $10 million if they come up with a solution.” It’s sort of like this new Tesla roadster. You heard about this? A $100,000 hybrid car. The Karma. It’s a $100,000 hybrid car, high end. You can all afford a $100,000 car, right? This $100,000 hybrid electric car is being tested. It’s in its moment of glory for Consumer Reports, and it just shuts down. It went kaput. It’s $100,000. That’s right. For the upper crust, the elites. So, back to the light bulb.
The government says: Here’s $10 million. What you end up with has to be affordable for the American people and there must be a buy America component in it, which meant that portions of the bulb would have to be made in the United States. The winning bulb is on the market. It was made by Philips, and it cost $50. “Retailers say that the $50 light bulb is likely to cost too much to have broad appeal. Similar LED bulbs are less than half that cost.” Brad Paulsen, merchant for the bulb category eight Home Depot said, “I don’t want to say it’s exorbitant, but if a customer’s only looking at the price, they could come to that conclusion.”
What do you…? This guy is even afraid to tell the truth! He said: You expect me to stay in business selling a $50 light bulb? Mandated by the government? It’s the L Prize. Stands for “ludicrous.” Maybe the president… I’ll tell you what will happen next. Next, folks, certain Americans will get a $45 tax credit for every $50 light bulb they buy. That’s how they do it: Pay you to buy it since they’re so in touch. Since they already care about you more than anybody else, they’ll pay you $45 of tax credit to buy the $50 bulb. I can just see it now. After giving you a $10,000 tax credit to go buy a Chevy Volt, they’ll throw in a free $50 bulb for when you get home.
That’s how they’ll do it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ve got these sound bites I mentioned, ladies and gentlemen. Diane Sawyer and a couple of others. They’re just beside themselves that billionaires are self-made. It was Wednesday night, ABC’s World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer, the anchor, and she reported this about the latest edition of the Forbes list of billionaires.
SAWYER: The Forbes billionaires list, the richest people in the world, and today we got a look at some surprising people who made the cut this time. There are 1,226 billionaires, 16 more than last year — 104 women; that’s a record — and 128 are new. But as we scanned this list, we did notice a kind of revolution underway, because so many of this year’s billionaires bootstrapped their way onto the list.
RUSH: So many of them “bootstrapped” it. Well, how else do you get there? I want to know: Who gives people a billion dollars? How else is somebody going to come up with a billion? That’s a lot of money, folks. How do people become billionaires in Diane Sawyer’s view, in her world? Do you go to Harvard and they just give that to you for graduating? Are you a Kennedy family member and you inherit it? Of course now they’ve squandered it all. There isn’t that kind of money left with the Kennedys, not to spread around to all of them. So where do you get it? Where did Warren Buffett get it? Where did Gates?
Where did these people get their billions? What does she think? “[W]e did notice a kind of revolution underway, because so many of this year’s billionaires bootstrapped their way onto the list.” Yeah, they worked for it. Golly! Imagine! They worked for it. Nobody gave it to them. Why, that doesn’t compute. So the next sound bite we have, Wednesday night on ABC’s World News Tonight, the business correspondent, Bianna Golodryga reporting about who’s on the latest edition of Forbes billionaire list. This reporter’s husband is Obama’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag. So this babe doing the reporting is the wife of a former Obama administration official.
GOLODRYGA: The creator of Spanx was only 29 when she invested her entire life savings, $5,000, into an idea, inspired when she heard Oprah saying she made her own version of a tummy flattener. (Cha-ching!) Kevin Plank, the self-proclaimed sweatiest guy on the football field, turned that sweat into gold, coming up with Under Armor, a moisture-absorbing sports apparel line. (Cha-ching!) Car aficionado Elon Musk raced his way to a cool two billion, thanks to his electrifying electric car company, Tesla. And less than a year after the death of Steve Jobs, his widow, Laurene, entered the list with an estimated $9 billion. Out of the 128 newly minted billionaires this year, two out of three are self-made, inspiration for all of us.
RUSH: Whew. “[T]wo out of three are self-made, inspiration…” At least they said that. What a shocker, folks. Entrepreneurs become billionaires in America! Who would have thought it? Who woulda thought that could possibly happen? Entrepreneurs become billionaires in America! Two out of three “bootstrapped” their way up! Do you understand that? You didn’t know that was possible, did you? Some of you might not have known. I remember now we’ve got a lot of new arrivals here this week. Maybe some of you think that’s grossly unfair, but I don’t know how. They worked for it. And on Nightline the same night on Wednesday night, this is John Donvan’s report on the Forbes list.
DONVAN: (funky music) So who is really way up there where the network gets into the forties and the fifties and the sixties of billions? Well, some familiar old faces, and we could list their products, though all of them, what they really make — no matter what — is money.
RUSH: Oh. See, you have to get the dig in. What billionaires really do is make money. That’s about it! They don’t do anything but make money.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look at this as Rush 101 today. Remedial Rush, to bring up to speed those who are new arrivals to the program this week, and they are here in droves, in the millions. We just had in the last half hour, although I didn’t call attention to it, but we nevertheless had a side-by-side illustration of socialism versus capitalism. On the one hand, you have the United States government, Barack Obama via his energy chief who doesn’t have a car, Steve Chu. You know what this country needs is a good new light bulb, a green light bulb, that’s what we need, a green light bulb, because we’re destroying the planet with our regular light bulbs. And we are using too much coal, and we are wasting too much energy. Never mind how much coal is used in electric cars.
But nevertheless we are destroying the planet. We have to get rid of oil. We have to become more responsible, Mr. Limbaugh, in the way we use our energy. So the government decides to bribe with $10 million anybody who can come up with a replacement light bulb. An LED light bulb that can save America, that can save our electric consumption, that can save the climate. Ten million. The Obama administration didn’t wait for the market to create this because of need and desire and all the other human factors that go into making the market work. Nope, the regime didn’t trust the market. Obama says the market won’t do what’s right. I am what’s right, I know what’s right, and it doesn’t do it on its own. I’m gonna have to command-and-control it.
So here’s this $10 million incentive, they called it the L Prize. Stands for ludicrous. And a company called Philips, for $10 million, invented a $50 light bulb for average Americans to save the planet and to go green. Shortly after that we played sound bites from an incredulous Diane Sawyer and her reporterette on ABC about all the new billionaires on the Forbes list. Over a thousand new billionaires. Not one of them, by the way, had invented a light bulb. Not one of them received a government grant. Not one of them was paid $10 million. That was the point of the story. ABC’s Diane Sawyer is stunned that these people bootstrapped themselves to wealth. John Donvan, the Nightline reporter said, (paraphrasing) “Yeah, well, what these billionaires mostly do is have money.” So they got their snark in there.
But it was pointed out that one thousand some odd new billionaires are utilizing the United States free market, capitalism. Obama wasn’t involved. Obama had nothing to do with it. The Democrat Party, as far as we know, had nothing to do with it. Side by side illustrations there, folks, of what is the better of the two. Ten million dollar government prize, government involvement, government command-and-control, create a light bulb. Here you go, $50, requires a $45 tax credit to buy one. So I just wanted to point that out.