RUSH: Grand Junction, Colorado. This is Candy. It’s great to have you with us, Candy. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush.
RUSH: Yeah, hi.
CALLER: I just got my new federal tax tables in the mail yesterday. I have a little business, and support my husband and I, along with my Social Security and we also have a full-time employee and a very part-time employee. Now, I was under the impression that our federal taxes were to be reduced, Rush, weren’t you?
RUSH: Well, I have never been under the illusion that the Obama administration was about reducing anybody’s taxes, and I have been trying, you know, I’m in a foul mood today, I was in a foul mood yesterday, I’m in a foul mood today so I don’t mean to be taking it out on you.
CALLER: You can take it out on me.
RUSH: I get so sick and tired of saying, ‘I told you.’ Not you personally, but there are no tax cuts, there are no budget cuts, there are no cuts in anything except the military and freedom with this administration, zip, zero, nada. So you got your tax tables now for your little small business with a part-timer and a full-timer and you’re going to tell us how your taxes are going up, right?
CALLER: My taxes are going up.
RUSH: But you’re the backbone of America, you are small business, you hire people and your taxes are going up. How can this be, Candy?
CALLER: Well, now, Rush, not only my taxes are going up, but everybody in the whole United States’ taxes are going up. They will not be able to earn one dollar in full, if they make one dollar a month, they will only receive 92 cents of it. The tax tables start at zero. If you make one dollar, they want 7.65% of it. Ironically that’s the same amount that you withhold —
RUSH: All right, all right, hang on. Last year, what’s the change in last year’s tax tables?
CALLER: Well, last year’s tax tables, if you were on a weekly table, you could earn up to $160 a week with no federal taxes.
RUSH: Now they tax your first dollar?
CALLER: Now they tax your first dollar.
RUSH: At seven point some odd percent.
CALLER: 7.65%.
RUSH: 7.65%, so you keep 91 or 92 cents —
CALLER: Ninety-two cents.
RUSH: Ninety-two cents. So that means you gotta start deducting from the first dollar for your part-timer and full timer in your business?
CALLER: That’s right.
RUSH: And they’re going to look at this as though you’re cutting their pay, they’re not going to blame government, they’re going to blame you, you understand this, Candy?
CALLER: Well —
RUSH: You can show ’em the tax tables and they’re not going to be able to understand it.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: How long have they been working for you?
CALLER: Well, I’ve got one employee that just went to work for me and my husband and I have been working here for two-and-a-half years. We’ve owned this business for two-and-a-half years, it’s a little corporation. We made about $140,000 gross last year.
RUSH: All right, what’s going to happen is that your employees’ paychecks are going to be smaller once these tables are required by law to be applied.
CALLER: Well, they’re asking us to apply them now.
RUSH: Fine. So the next pay period your employees are going to have less take-home pay and guess who they’re going to be mad at? They’re going to accuse you because you’re rich.
CALLER: Well —
RUSH: What you’re doing is you’re trying to save money. They think Obama is going to tax you out of existence, which is true, and so they think you’re going to be hoarding your money. You’re going to have an interesting time explaining to them — you can show them the tax tables.
CALLER: I will.
RUSH: And they’ll blame Bush. Do you know what their political inclinations happen to be?
CALLER: Do I?
RUSH: Yeah. Are they Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, communist, Marxist, what are they?
CALLER: Power and money.
RUSH: No, your employees.
CALLER: My employees?
RUSH: Your employees, yeah, what are they, liberal, conservative, Marxist, socialist, communist?
CALLER: You know, I don’t know. They’re both gay.
RUSH: You can’t assign an ideological —
CALLER: To that, you’re right.
RUSH: You can’t do that.
CALLER: But they’re good kids. They’re really good kids, they’re hardworking kids.
RUSH: Yeah, exactly. I’m sure they’re great employees.
CALLER: They are great employees.
RUSH: All right, then what you need to do, you need to tell ’em that this is the result of Barney Frank.
CALLER: (laughing) Okay.
RUSH: Do it. I mean Barney Frank, Chuck Rangel. It’s all Pelosi, it’s all coming from the Democrat Ways and Means Committee, it’s the Democrats doing this, so you can say Barney Frank.
CALLER: This is gonna affect everybody’s payroll. It’s going to affect your payroll. It’s going to affect everybody in the whole United States. I’ll have to reevaluate. I’d like to give my employees more money. I’d like to give that money to them.
RUSH: I know. I know. I know. At least you got it. It took the tax tables, but she now knows I was right.