RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is great. The CBS Early Show today, co-host Maggie Rodriguez interviewing Joe Biden. Nobody’s gonna mess with Joe. (laughing) Nobody’s gonna mess with Joe. (laughing) ‘Mr. Vice President, we watched the speech last night with a cross section of Americans, and we asked them if they had any questions for you, and I’d like to share one of them with you from a viewer who had to lay off the most ever staff last year, Hendrickson is his name, and he says, ‘What I’m looking for are real clear details about how the stimulus is really going to help small business.” Now, get this. Cut 11. We got a woman on CBS this morning who asks Biden, ‘I’m looking for clear details about how the stimulus package is really going to help small business.’
BIDEN: I would recommend that woman call my office directly, and I will be able to guide her as to what pieces of this package would be directly helpful to her. For example, it may very well be that she’s in a circumstance where she is not able, her customers aren’t able to get to her, there’s no transit capability, the bridge going across the creek to get to her business needs repair, may very well be that she’s in a position where she is unable to access the — her energy costs are so high by providing smart meters, by being able to bring down the cost of her workforce.
RODRIGUEZ: So expect a call from Lisa Hendrickson later today. Okay, very good.
RUSH: All right, can I translate this for you? This woman has a chance to ask Biden, ‘What’s in this stimulus package for small business?’ ‘Well, if you or your customers can’t get to your small business we’re going to build a bridge. And if your business costs are too high we’ll put a smart meter in there.’ How do you not laugh your butt off at this? And then there was this, ladies and gentlemen. Maggie Rodriguez had this exchange with Vice President Biden.
RODRIGUEZ: By the way, do you know the website?
BIDEN: You know, I’m embarrassed. You know the website number? No, I should have it in front of me, and I don’t.
RODRIGUEZ: All right.
BIDEN: I’m actually embarrassed.
RODRIGUEZ: I’m going to call your office directly, too, and get it later.
BIDEN: It is recovery.gov. Recovery —
RODRIGUEZ: Recovery.
BIDEN: — dot gov.
REPORTER: Is that up and running already?
RUSH: What’s the website number? What is the website number? He didn’t even know. Now, I guarantee you, if George Bush or any Republican had said, ‘What’s the website number,’ there would have been no attempt to bail him out here, and if somebody is shouting in Biden’s ear, ‘It’s recovery.gov.’ Have you gone to recovery.gov? Have you looked at it? It’s nothing more than an Obama propaganda campaign site under the guise of helping people keep the government informed about whether or not the stimulus money is being spent in the right way where they live. So let’s go back, Joe Biden’s greatest hit.
BIDEN: Chuck Graham, State Senator is here. Stand up, Chuck, let them see you! Oh, God love you. What am I talking about? I’ll tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up, though, pal, I’ll tell you what, stand up for Chuck!
RUSH: The guy was in a wheelchair. You know, when Bobby Jindal was making this response speech last night, Joe Biden was probably wondering who he got to sit in for him during his shift at 7-Eleven.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Sedalia, Missouri, Alan, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Maha Rushie.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: I salute the light within you, man. Hey, I’m calling because I’ve had my own business license since 1976 and when you played that quote from Joe Biden this morning, I did not hear it on the TV, but he had an opportunity to say something to small business, you know, the life of America, the creative aspect of America, and a woman calls up and asks him, ‘What is in the plan for small businesses,’ and he literally said, ‘If the bridge across the creek is out’? I mean, that just reveals what he thinks of small business people. Like we’re sitting out here in the woods and if the creek — listen, I’m an artist and a sculptor, that’s what I do, I have a weird kind of a business. But I’ll tell you something if the bridge across the creek is out, I’m going to build the damn bridge.
RUSH: Let me tell you something, I just watched a movie about a sculptor and an artist, and he had two women living with him in Spain. So it’s not a bad move.
CALLER: Yeah, well, you know, I went to art school in California in the late seventies, Rush, and I have to tell you, I used to hate you, I thought I hated you, but I didn’t know you, but I started listening to you, and, buddy, you changed my life. So God bless you.
RUSH: Thank you very much. You know, you made an interesting observation, Alan.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Here Biden has basically thrown a hanging curveball. What’s in the stimulus —
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: — for small business?
CALLER: Exactly. Don’t you think he’d be ready to answer the question?
RUSH: Well, he’d have to lie, which is not hard, but he knows there’s nothing in it for small business, other than a tax increase.
CALLER: All they’ve gotta do is turn us loose.
RUSH: In fact, folks, if you make less than $250,000 right now, let me give you a piece of advice. Stop at $249,000 on your way up the ladder. Because once you hit $250, you’re going to be paying a 40% federal tax, then if you’re small business and sub-S, you’re going to have a higher corporate tax and a number of other things. Ninety-five percent of Americans are getting a tax cut, another lie last night. Ninety-five percent of Americans don’t pay taxes. About 40% of people don’t pay taxes. They’re going to get a tax cut. It’s not a tax cut; they’re going to get a welfare payment, and you’re paying for it. But Biden was asked point-blank, ‘Well, what’s in the stimulus for small business?’ There’s nothing. That’s why he couldn’t get specific. There’s nothing in there, literally nothing. Here’s the bite. Here’s audio sound bite number 11. I want you to hear this. It’s the CBS Early Show today, Maggie Rodriguez plays a question from a viewer. The viewer basically says, ‘Senator Biden, I’ve been in small business a long time. What’s in the stimulus bill for small business?’
BIDEN: I would recommend that woman call my office directly, and I will be able to guide her as to what pieces of this package would be directly helpful to her. For example, it may very well be that she’s in a circumstance where she is not able or her customers aren’t able to get to her, there’s no transit capability, the bridge going across the creek to get to her business needs repair, may very well be that she’s in a position where she is unable to access the — her energy costs are so high by providing smart meters, by being able to bring down the cost of her — of her workforce.
RODRIGUEZ: So expect a call from Lisa Hendrickson —
BIDEN: She can call me directly.
RODRIGUEZ: — later today. Okay, very good.
RUSH: There you have it. Joe Biden with his answer to all of you in small business, what’s in the stimulus bill for small business? Well, we’re going to keep the bridge open that gets you to your work. ‘What if I don’t need a bridge to get to work?’ ‘Well, we’re going to fix your thermostat so you can keep your employees paid or whatever.’ All you can do here is laugh. The blind leading the blind and folks, the realization of what we’re dealing with here is not going to occur overnight to people, the great unwashed, it’s going to take six months to a year, so just be patient. It’s very unrealistic to sit out here and think that some single event is going to blow this administration up. The timing is not right for the administration to blow up. It isn’t going to happen yet. It’s going to be a while before all the things come together for this to blow up. We’ll be here, we’ll tell you when it’s time to blow ’em up, politically speaking, but we’re not there yet.