RUSH: Steve in Middleburg, Virginia, nice to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, well, Rush, three calls, you act like it’s your show.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: (laughter) Anyway, happy Friday to you today, and happy birthday tomorrow.
RUSH: Appreciate that, sir. Thanks.
CALLER: In any case, I wanted to let you know that last week I participated in a man-on-the-street with ABC News. I was in DC, and it was about the economy generally, and she asked me about, the news babe asked me about flat-line economic news, that was her words, her connotation, I believe. I reminded her that economies are generally cyclical, not linear, with a natural rise and fall. And she seemed visibly annoyed when I said that. So she pressed me on several other issues, mortgages, gas prices, unemployment. And without knowing that I was a grad student at the EIB Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, excuse me. So I took ’em one at a time, and I brought to attention that, you know, the mortgage crisis seemed to be brought on by predatory and unscrupulous lenders, fraudulent loan applications and the worst part about these people is they now expect the taxpayers to pay for their foolishness and fraud and pick up their casino tab. It’s not my fault or Bush’s that somebody making 30 K bought a $500,000 house. And on gas prices, she asked me about that, and I said, ‘If there’s so much concern about gas prices, why are SUVs flying out of showrooms, and how come Honda Insights that get 70 miles a gallon aren’t selling like hotcakes?’ And I suggested the logical solution, of course, drill ANWR and everywhere else, build more refineries and nuclear plants until Algore —
RUSH: Let me guess, you’re calling to tell us this because they didn’t use any of what you said.
CALLER: I doubt it. But, you know, I told her ’til Algore invents a car you can stick a garden hose into and drive it away, that’s what we need to do. And I asked her who was blocking all this from happening, and she said with a straight face, ‘I don’t know.’ And I told her that it’s not my fault or Bush’s fault that some people buy more car or bus than they can afford to fill up with gas. And then unemployment, I said that when Clinton had similar numbers, that, you know, they carried him around on their shoulders and gave him gold stars, and then I ended up by saying that these problems can be solved if we stop electing liberals and Democrats to responsible positions in government, and that you can really tell when the economy is in trouble when women stop buying cosmetics. I looked at her real close when I said that. And then I think that’s when she hit the erase button.
RUSH: (laughing) Yeah, I guarantee you, even if you had a prayer of having some of your words used on their man-on-the-street report, that cosmetics comment aced you out. But my guess is, you’re describing this woman, she was perplexed totally by what you were saying, is that what you said?
CALLER: She looked at me like a social disease, just her body language, her facial expressions, everything. I was saying nothing that she wanted to hear. That’s what I could tell.
RUSH: It wasn’t only that you were saying things she didn’t want to hear, you were saying things that didn’t compute.
CALLER: Not to her.
RUSH: Most Drive-By Media people have very narrow visions, and it’s just like all of liberalism. They’ve got this little cocoon which they’ve woven and which they live to set up this security blanket for themselves, and anything that’s at odds with it, doesn’t permeate. It’s like you were speaking a foreign language to her. The economy is good, it’s you people’s own fault for — why, I’m sure she thought you were the biggest blithering idiot on the face of the earth even though your IQ is probably three times as high as hers.
CALLER: I’ve been told, but anyway that’s my birthday present to you.
RUSH: I appreciate it. Well, thank you, that’s a fabulous story, and I appreciate it. Also, this subprime thing, who’s responsible for this? You can say that it is people who took out loans knowing they couldn’t afford them if the ARM went up, you could say it’s predatory lenders, but who made the lenders predatory? Congress! ‘The American dream, Mr. Limbaugh, we must have equality. And some people can’t have homes in this country, it’s not fair, it’s only the rich can have homes so we need people, we need to stop the process of redlining, Mr. Limbaugh, it’s discrimination.’ So, Congress makes these financial institutions go out and lend money to people that can’t afford it if certain economic circumstances occur, and voila, now bailout time. You knew it was going to happen.