RUSH: Luanne… (chuckles) It says, ‘Luanne leaving Madison, Wisconsin.’ Are you on the road outta town? Is that right?
CALLER: (laughing) I am leaving Madison, Wisconsin. I was there the last couple days, and you cannot believe the stuff going on there. The papers? Unbelievable. I have fire coming out of my ears, I’m so upset. For one thing they’re screaming and yelling, the union people are screaming and yelling, that Governor Walker is being touted by the unions of the firemen and the policemen and, blah, blah, blah; and I am just livid because I am like, ‘You know, for several years now Governor Doyle has just been run by the teachers union in the state.’
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: I mean he was told what to do. They would put something before him; there was no question. He was just owned by them. And now the shoe’s on the other foot and they are like up in arms, you know, ‘Governor Walker’s campaign was funded by,’ blah, blah, blah, and I’m like, ‘Wow, okay. Now you guys know how it feels. We sat back for several years and watched the teachers union just control Doyle completely, and they’re just livid. They’re livid. They don’t know what to do. I hope those senators that got on the bus, I wish they would stay there — and do you know that the teachers have not taught in Madison for two days? And, you know, their slogan — what, a few years ago? — was ‘Kids First.’ I say baloney. It’s not Kids First; it’s never been Kids First. It’s their own power and their own money. That’s all they care about.
RUSH: Let me ask you this, Louanne. Are the schools open for school breakfast and school lunch even though the teachers are not there?
CALLER: No. No.
RUSH: Really?
CALLER: I went by one of the high schools and the kids were picketing saying, ‘Who’s thinking about us? Why aren’t teachers here teaching us?’
RUSH: Are you kidding? (laughing) The kids are picketing, ‘Who’s thinking about us?’ (laughing and banging desk)
CALLER: Absolutely. Because they know they’re having to be making it up and they don’t want to be making it up in June and so they’re like, ‘Hey, what about us? We want to be in school being taught. We want to get our hours in for the year and these idiot, stupid teachers who are so selfish…’
RUSH: My gosh! Wait a minute, now, no, no, no. I have to step in. Somebody’s gotta say to these kids, you get a day off from school, take it!
CALLER: (laughing) Well, they’re pretty livid. I think after a couple days they’re like, ‘No, we want to be back in school, and will somebody teach us?’
RUSH: That’s not normal. I’m sorry, that’s not normal!
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: A snow day, teacher strike, whatever, take it! Don’t join a picket line. Well, I don’t mind, ‘What about us?’ That’s probably there’s no food being served. What about that? The school districts care so little about the kids even when the teachers are gone there’s no school breakfast or school lunch?
CALLER: As far as I know the schools are shut.
RUSH: Where are these kids eating? I mean, for crying out loud, now we’re gonna have kids’ starvation added to all the other indignities!
CALLER: They don’t care about the kids. I mean, let’s face it: They have not cared about the kids in a long time.
RUSH: Obviously not! The teachers will be letting kids starve in Madison, Wisconsin.
CALLER: (chuckling) Well, I’m telling you — and the paper was just a joke. I was reading it this morning, and I thought, ‘I can’t even stand reading this.’ It’s so biased, it’s not reporting at all, and it’s just incredible. For those of us who, you know, fought and fought and fought to get Walker, Governor Walker in —
RUSH: Yup.
CALLER: — and he’s now doing exactly what we hired him to do, and people are just… And, you know, I mean let’s look at it. Like I said, I said to many people the last couple days, ‘If our budget in our family is tight, we’ve had to say to our kids, ‘Guess what? We’re not going on a vacation this year,’ or, ‘No, you can’t have that.’ I don’t care if you picket outside my house. (giggles) picket all you want but this is the way it is, this is our budget, and this is the way we’re gonna get our household back in order.’
RUSH: I’ll tell you what —
CALLER: So I’m telling you: I hope Governor Walker just holds his ground. I don’t care how many thousands of people, 20,000 people outside the capitol. Who cares?
RUSH: I do, too. I do hope he holds firm there, no question. I’m still struck by the fact they’re starving the kids in Madison. You know, all we heard about was Republican school lunch cuts back in 1995, and here they’ve closed the schools to school breakfast and school lunch, and the kids are outside protesting, ‘What about us?’
CALLER: Yeah! (chuckles) Can we come back to school and be taught by somebody?
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: I say get rid of all of them. ‘If you want to go picket us, guess what? Your job’s not going to be there when you show up on Monday,’ that’s what I say. ‘You know, someone’s gonna take it,’ because there’s a lot of people that would love to have a job.
RUSH: Well, somebody needs to tell the people of Wisconsin, elections have consequences and —
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: — these are them, and they’re supposed to.
CALLER: I love your comments about the union. I have three children, and both my husband and I have encouraged our children not to go into teaching because you would probably have to pay union dues if you work at a public school, and we said no.
RUSH: What did you like about what I said about unions? ‘Cause I said a lot about them. What did you like about what I said?
CALLER: I loved that you said people should have an option! It’s unbelievable that they do not have an option to pay for this. I mean, when you see what the Wisconsin teachers union money goes to, there’s no way I could. There’s no way in my right mind I could be a teacher —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — and say that that money is going towards that, no way. So we’ve encouraged our children, ‘No, don’t go into teaching. Just don’t do it.’ I mean, teaching is a great profession in the right setting, and you’re forming young minds, that’s wonderful. But it is so powerful in this day that it’s unbelievable. I mean, you do not have a say. You do not have a say.
RUSH: Luanne, thank you very much for calling.
CALLER: Thanks. Thanks.
RUSH: You did a great job.