RUSH: Ronald in Los Angeles as we go back to the phones. Hello, sir, great to have you here.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. And thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: Let me tell you, I am livid with this Obamacare proposal. I belong to a union in Los Angeles, California, in the entertainment industry, and there is no way I would consider giving up my benefits to have any kind of government-operated involvement health care. I have a 12-year-old daughter, and my union and the health care plans that they offer is only second to probably Congress.
RUSH: Now, your union offers the plan. But it’s actually from your employer. What kind of business are you in?
CALLER: Well, we’re independent contractors in the entertainment industry.
RUSH: Oh! Oh! Now the picture is coming into focus, as they say. So you’re an independent contractor — so your union does provide you the insurance?
CALLER: Yes. They are a conduit for our insurance.
RUSH: A-ha. A-ha. Yeah, the odds are two things are going to happen, well, maybe three. What’s going to happen is, first, businesses, if this public option ever comes up, are going to off-load their health care to get rid of the cost. They don’t care about anything else right now. It’s breaking their banks. They’ll be happy to off-load it to the public option. Second thing is that unions will probably feel — I mean that’s what Obama wants. That’s what they’ve elected him to do. See, Obama thinks guys like you want the government to run everything because you love the government when guys like Obama are running it. The third thing that will happen is if for some reason you are allowed to keep that plan because you’re a union and you’re exempted and he has special favors for unions, if that plan changes, if the price changes, if the coverage, if there’s a minutest change — it’s in the bill — you are no longer allowed to renew it and you have to go to public option. So one way or another you’re going to end up under Obamacare.
CALLER: Let me tell you this, Rush, let me just break in here a minute, is that he has attempted to wanting to tax the unions, and then once he got the push-back from the unions, he’s laid off of that for health care. You made me aware of that. So I don’t expect the unions to be impacted, because those are the coffers that support his existence.
RUSH: Well, I know. Remember, now, he said in 2007 and 2003 that he thinks there should be a single payer system. It may take 15 or 20 years, he may have to make you guys last because he owes you the most. But his objective is to have everybody covered by the federal government.
CALLER: Additionally, Rush, I am a Vietnam-era vet, and I have — and I’m over 55 — and let me tell you, the Veterans Administration run health care would be my last resort. I would not use a government instituted health program when I have choices. So he’s lost two areas here on the West Coast with individuals in my similar state of being as well as other union and former vets.
RUSH: Are you not the only union guy that feels the way you do in your union?
CALLER: They all do. They feel similar to what I do. They don’t want to give up their excellent health care that they get and the providers that provide those, because we have choices of where we can go.
RUSH: Exactly right. And you know something, that’s the case for over 50%, 60% of the population. They don’t want to change what they’ve got. They don’t want to.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: But, see, that doesn’t matter to Obama, Ronald, and it doesn’t matter to the Democrats. They’re going to force this on us anyway. It doesn’t matter. The contempt that they are feeling for the public right now is at an all-time high ’cause this kind of opposition wasn’t in the plan, this was not dreamed of. I appreciate the call. Very enlightening.