RUSH: Thomas in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, your turn. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hello, sir. Thank you very much for taking my call.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Great honor to be talking to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I wanted to clarify something. I think it was last week, two weeks ago, you had a gentleman who called in and was talking about ‘sacrifices’ and ‘the rich don’t make sacrifices, and you don’t make sacrifices,’ and I wanted to set the record straight that they do. And their sacrifices, even though it might not be giving more money to welfare for people to just get money for doing nothing, they can’t afford to hire as many people as they want to. So now you have three people doing the job of the four; or they can’t afford to go on the road trip to go out to these job fairs to set up their stands. There are all kinds of sacrifices being made. Just because it’s not being made to the government is where some people are having issue ’cause they’re not getting their free hand-me-outs.
RUSH: Well, that’s good thinking. I remember what you’re talking about. There was some really agitated leftist that called last Tuesday and really, really got on my case for not making any ‘sacrifices.’ What was the…? Snerdley, what was the context of the discussion? What was he talking about? Was he talking about what’s going on in Wisconsin? Was it the unions and pensions and so forth? The rich aren’t…? (interruption) Yeah. Okay. ‘The rich don’t make sacrifices,’ and I remember I said to him that I don’t even think that way. I don’t believe in ‘making sacrifice.’ I don’t. I refuse to accept almost every premise the left puts forth, and whenever they talk about ‘sacrificing,’ I know what they mean.
They want the rich to give money away. They want the rich to admit that it’s unfair that they are rich, and just give their wealth away. They want the rich to make themselves poor or average or middle class. Until that happens, they’re just a bunch of greedy SOBs. I got an e-mail after the segment. The guy said, ‘You know, Rush,’ and I made the point that I had way too much class to say this to the guy: That I probably pay more in taxes in one year than he will earn in his entire worthless life. But he will not look at that as ‘sacrifice.’ He looks at that as sacrifice, ‘You wouldn’t be giving it away if they weren’t making you give it away! If they weren’t taking it from you you wouldn’t give it away,’ and you are damn right!
When you’re talking about the government and all that wasteful stuff they do with it? In fact, I probably give more to charity than that guy who called last week will make in his entire life, not just paying tax. But that really wasn’t the point. The whole point was this notion of ‘sacrifice,’ and that whole idea as it’s come to be defined is something that I reject. It’s because it’s all about ‘feeling pain.’ I like what Walter Williams says about this. He says, ‘What’s Bill Gates gotta give anything back for? How many people has he made millionaires already? How many jobs has he created? Bill Gates doesn’t have to give anything back! Nobody’s gotta give anything back except the people who have stolen from us. They need to give it back,’ and I totally, wholeheartedly concur — and I would include, among the thieves, several who have written the tax code.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The New York Times has this wacko editorial today about the need for the rich to ‘sacrifice,’ and Michael Moore says that the wealth of the rich is not even theirs, that the country’s not broke. You just need the rich to sacrifice and give away their money and everything would be fine and dandy. So… (interruption) No, he didn’t divest his, but that’s the latest template now.