Liberals Want Slaves to the State

RUSH: This next story, and, by the way, it’s from the Associated Press. Yes, my friends, the Associated Press, the last remaining Drive-By Media monopoly and the headline: ‘Strained States to Make Cuts Felt by Everyone.’ This is another story of widespread gloom, widespread pain. It is by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, I’m sure a doctorate in Drive-By Media-ism, working for the Associated Press, which is out to pollute as many innocent Americans’ minds as possible. ‘With a new fiscal year beginning in most states next week, budget cuts are about to bite.’ State budget cuts. Yes, that first sentence is supposed to send us to the corners, cowering in fear and quivering in panic. Oh, no! Our states face budget cuts, oh, no! ‘That means less money for school children in Florida.’ They’ve already got more than they need, and it isn’t working. So what! ‘It means the end of help with utility bills for poor Rhode Islanders–‘ Poor Rhode Islanders? Ever been to Newport? Ever been to Providence? ‘–and a good chance tuition will increase at Auburn University in Alabama.

”Everything is rising and you have to wonder — when is it going to stop?’ said Lauren Hayes, an Auburn senior. She’s expecting a tuition hike, after state lawmakers reduced higher education funding by $157 million and the university responded by proposing a $660 increase for in-state students. Overall, the state fiscal picture is gloomy and the pain from reductions — many of which take effect July 1 — will be widespread.’ You want to hear some of these widespread doom and gloom things, folks? Hear this. ‘In Florida, basic spending on schoolchildren will drop by $131 per student. And bonuses for schools that earn top grades from the state will shrink to $85 per student from $100.’ (gasping) A $15 cut. ‘In California, with the nation’s biggest anticipated deficit at $17 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed deep cuts in Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for poor families and children. In New Jersey, lawmakers have proposed eliminating free state police patrols for rural communities that lack police departments. Under the plan, those communities would pay a combined $12 million for the service, the first time they’re being charged a fee.’ Really? ‘The fee doesn’t sit well in Shamong Township, a 46-square mile municipality with a budget of less than $3 million and several state-owned properties, including a park and state forest. ‘The state really is our biggest resident, and now they’re going to charge us to police themselves,’ township administrator Sue Onorato said. The survey also found that 18 states reported their upcoming budgets will be smaller than spending plans for the current year.’

Have you ever noticed, folks, in all these stories, we’re supposed to start crying, (crying) ‘They’re cutting the state budget! The state’s going to have to do with less.’ (crying) Meanwhile, whenever there are stories about how you have to drop latte from your daily regimen because it’s four bucks, there are no tears for you. When your kids might have to walk longer distances to school in Montgomery County because of the price of diesel, there’s only expressed pain for the school district. No pain for the kids that have to do the walking, no pain for the parents. We’re supposed to feel so bad for the states. Could it possibly be that the states are already so bloated with so much money? If you looked into it, you would not believe the number of things the states spend money on that are totally irrelevant, and the states that are in big trouble, I wonder which party’s been running ’em for a while, such as California. And I wonder what the income tax rates are in these states. I’ll bet you they are pretty damn high already. I do. I get so frustrated. We’re supposed to feel so sorry when government has to cut back. It’s all our money. It never was theirs. If they misappropriate it, if they overspend it, and have to cut back, look at what happens. They make it look like suffering will be among the states, and occasionally a citizen here or a student there.

Okay, so we’re going to have to cut back the amount of money in Florida we spend per student 125 bucks. From what? Twelve thousand a student, 9,000, whatever it is? A lot of people are having to cut back a lot more than that because of things out of their control largely brought on by irresponsible leaders. You can trace all these problems to politicians in both parties at the federal and state level. It’s actually a matter of human nature. It’s far easier to spend somebody else’s money than it is your own, and it’s not their money. And they think they’ve got an endless supply just by raising your taxes or increasing fees or what have you. And then we’re supposed to cry, we’re supposed to cry a blue river because they’re running out of money. ‘That’s right, Mr. Limbaugh, where you live in Florida, it might mean less alligator control. How would you like to lose a leg to an alligator because the state didn’t have the money to come take it away from your property?’ Fine, I’ll get a gun and shoot the damn thing, Mr. Liberal. ‘You can’t do that! It’s a violation of the Endangered Species Act.’ I’ll save myself if I have to. Why am I going to rely on the state anyway? ‘Some people have to, Mr. Limbaugh, because of their misfortunate, they’re unfortunate, and they don’t have as much and they have to rely on the state.’ Well, I know that’s true. It would be wonderful if people could be taught to become more self-reliant, particularly when it comes to their needs. I don’t care if it’s federal, state, local, I don’t care, any kind of government, when you start depending on them for your needs, you are a prisoner, you are a slave, whether you’ve got slave blood or not.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Every time we get one of these sob stories, what is it that we get these sob stories? ‘The state’s running out of money! Oh, no, it’s horrible!’ Have you always noticed that when the state is running out of money, the stories always focus on cuts in, quote, unquote, ‘essential services.’ Essential services like the fire department, the police department, alligator control, education, or whatever. Those are always the areas we’re told about that we’re going to have budget cuts, all these essential services. Have you noted we never, ever hear about cuts in the bureaucracy of these states? We never, ever hear that. The state is never going to cut back itself. The state’s never going to be telling the AP nor the federal government, ‘By the way, We’re going to lay off a thousand people here from the state department of education.’ Never. They won’t do that. What they’ll do is say, ‘Oh, my God, we gotta cut the amount of money per student that we’re spending!’ and this is how they get the public to get all wrapped up.

‘You’re going to take money away from my kid?’ You ought to do some investigating, folks, in whatever state you live in. All this stuff is on websites. You ought to the find out just what your state budgets are every year. Find out, for example, if your state is trying to raise $5 million for a polar bear exhibit to amplify global warming, for example, while they are cutting ‘essential services’ to you. I will bet you a dollar to a doughnut you can find things that you don’t even know your state is spending money on, and when they come around to having to cut, they never cut themselves. They never reduce the bureaucracy.