RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, how many of you (chuckles). I’m really not trying to make you feel miserable here, but I have a story here that you’re not going to like. How many of you are getting your third quarter 401(k) statements in the mail and are afraid to open ’em? Have you opened yours, Brian? You did? A lot of people don’t want to open ’em, right? You do open ’em, and you see the devastation. You say, ‘Okay, I thought all this was fixed. We were going to prevent this with the bailout.’ Now, there is a story today at InvestmentNews.com. ‘Congress,’ meaning the Democrats, ‘are mulling major changes to 401(k)s.’ The guy mulling the changes his name (you need to know who he is) is George Miller. George Miller is from Northern California.
George Miller was ‘Fort Worthless’ Jim Wright’s point man going down and making sure that Daniel Ortega, the communist leader of the Sandinista in Nicaragua did not embarrass Democrats when Democrats in the House were voting to oppose any effort to get rid of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the 80’s. That’s who George Miller is. ‘A wide range of sweeping changes to the 401(k) system were proposed on Tuesday at a hearing on how the market crisis has devastated retirement savings plans. Chief among them…’ Brian, let me ask you a question — or any of you — before I get to this. What is one of the most attractive aspects of the 401(k) to you? What is it? It’s that you get to take that money and invest it, and you’re not taxed on it, correct?
It’s a tax-free investment. Whatever amount you select up to the maximum, goes into your 401(k) and you’re not taxed on that as income until such time as you start dabbling in the 401(k), early with a penalty or when you retire, right? Okay. ‘Chief among [the new proposals is] eliminating $80 billion in tax savings for higher-income people enrolled in 401(k) retirement savings plans.’ This plan is designed to help your government. Your government needs the $80 billion in tax revenue it is losing by making 401(k) investments tax-free. ‘This was suggested by the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. ‘With respect to the 401(k), it appears to be a plan that is not really well-devised for the changes in the market,’ Rep. George Miller (D-CA) said. ‘We’ve invested $80 billion into subsidizing this activity,’ he said, referring to tax breaks allowed for 401(k) contributions and savings.’
We’ve invested! Who is ‘we’ here, Congressman Miller? Who is ‘we’? It’s our money, sir! It is not yours! At least it used to be our money. It is not yours. ‘We’ve invested $80 billion dollars into subsidizing,’ meaning government. The government is ‘we,’ and we’re losing 80 billion because you people are now getting a tax break that is now not practical. ‘With savings rates going down, ‘what do we have to start to think about in Congress of whether or not we want to continue and invest that $80 billion for a policy that is not generating what we … say it should?’ Mr. Miller said.’ What does this mean? It means that all these tax-free investments in 401(k)s costing the government $80 billion a year, are not generating what they thought it would generate.
You aren’t saving enough! You people aren’t doing what you’re supposed to do, and this is costing the government way too much. So what this guy wants, ‘Congress should let workers trade their 401(k) assets for guaranteed retirement accounts made up of government bonds, suggested Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School for Social Research in New York. When workers collected Social Security, the guaranteed retirement account would pay an inflation-adjusted annuity under her plan. ‘The way the government now encourages 401(k) plans is to spend $80 billion in tax breaks,’ which goes to the highest-income earners, Ms. Ghilarducci said.’
So once again — and I guarantee you, you three on the other side of the glass here would be among those who would lose the tax incentive you have to stash money away in a 401(k) because you are all in the income bracket that would be affected by this. Now, folks, I know everybody is all hot to trot here about Bill Ayers and ACORN, and everybody should be. It’s an election in the process being stolen. What Bill Ayers represents — more so that an just his terrorism, his unrepentant terrorism — is he’s a radical left-wing education reformer who wants to promote revolution and anti-capitalist curricula in as much of the American school system as possible. He has probably made a pretty good dent in it now. Obama is a front man for a whole bunch of far-left-wing radicals.
He is the guy that looks good. He’s the guy that does not appear to be a radical in any way. He is a radical, but he doesn’t have a radical temperament. It’s very difficult to peg Obama as a radical because he doesn’t look like one and he doesn’t sound like one, which is why his associations and his alliances are so crucial. It is why people are trying to take the time here to educate as many Americans as possible to just who he really is. Am I inciting people? Damn well good thing, then! If I’m inciting people, good! Obama is as left-wing and radical (he just can’t say it) as the people behind him. But once he’s in power if he’s elected, then all of these radicals who you wouldn’t let into the coffee shop in your neighborhood will be officially inside the government doing their dirty work.
For the first time, they won’t have to agitate from the outside. They’ll be in the cabinet. They’ll be bureaucrats in the education department, you might even not know that they’re nominated because they might go into positions where they don’t have to be confirmed. They could be at Fannie Mae, could be at Freddie Mac, could be at Sallie Mae. Again, ACORN could become an official government bureaucracy with a cabinet level position. You never know. That’s a joke, but that’s why people are trying to make these associations and these alliances of Obama because he doesn’t have the radical temperament that he is. He covers it very well. He’s a smooth talker, doesn’t say anything really far off the path, and so that’s why it’s difficult to convince people that he is who he is.
That’s why the efforts are being made. But despite all of that, you just heard what they want to do to your 401(k). You have seen the government take over. There’s a story here that sent chills up my spine today. ‘US Government Looking Into Buying Banks.’ US government looking into buying banks! What are they not going to buy? What are they not going to take over? Well, no, they may buy the auto industry. It’s going to collapse next year. And they may have to bail out science so global warming lying hoaxers can continue to do their flawed research. But here’s the thing. If the Republicans — because everybody says this election is about the economy, right? In fact, these two Democrats campaign strategists say today that the only thing helping Obama is this economic tsunami.
Obama has not been able to cross the finish line himself but this economic tsunami, this collapse, why, it’s guaranteeing Obama a landslide. Now, one of the things that contributed to the Republicans losing the House and the Senate in 2006 were two words: Macaca and Foley. Now, I want you to go back two years and I want you to think about all of the hubbub, all of the incessant chattering and caterwauling about corruption that the Drive-Bys hit us with day in and day out for six weeks. First Macaca with George Allen; and then Mark Foley and these text messages to House pages. You would have thought that it was the worst set of scandals ever, and it was corruption like we’ve never seen — and in the midst of all that, they were telling us about everybody associated with Jack Abramoff, right?
Corruption after corruption after corruption. It was filthy, rotten, stinky, and it was Republican. My friends, if Republicans — if we — cannot make this Fannie Mae subprime mortgage crisis debacle, which is a corruption scandal… This is Watergate squared. This is ten times as corrupt as Watergate, what has happened here. A political party and its cronies and allies have done tremendous damage to your retirement plan. Your 401(k) is in the tank in part because of Democrats. Believe me — I keep saying this, but it’s true — if they could find one Republican to pin this on, they’d have done it by now. Your 401(k) is gone. Now they want to take away the tax deductibility of your 401(k). We changed parties two years ago because of Macaca and one congressman writing text messages to the pages in the House of Representatives.
If we can’t come up with a way to make Fannie Mae and liberals and Democrats more damaging to our nation than Macaca, Mark Foley, or Jack Abramoff, then we’ve got no business winning the election. If Republicans can’t make Fannie Mae more costly to Democrats than Democrats made Iraq costly to Republicans, we may not have any business winning this. We’re talking Watergate times five or ten here. Look around you! The Dow is down 106 again today. Your 401(k), if you dared open it, you’d see how it’s disappeared. ‘Automobile business to collapse next year,’ and sitting right in the middle of this are Democrats! Oh, before I go to the break, let me find it. Sit tight here, folks. Sit tight. Sit tight. Yes.
‘One illegal alien was arrested this year in Tucson after allegedly using a stolen social security number to buy two homes and rack up over $780,000 in bad debt. Some five million fraudulent home mortgages are in the hands of illegal aliens, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. … The problem began years ago when banks were forced to give mortgages without confirming social security numbers or borrower identification. As a result, illegal immigrants were able to obtain home mortgages which they could not afford,’ along with all the other poor and minority buyers. Five million fraudulent home mortgages while you’re paying yours! This is directly traceable to Barney Frank, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters — I could go on and on and on — every damn one of them Democrats.
The value your asset in your house, the equity in your house, if it’s gone, thank the Democrats. Your 401(k) is in the cellar? Thank the Democrats. And don’t say the Republicans had a role, too. Republicans tried to investigate and regulate this 12 times from 2002 on. Democrats blocked it every time, at every turn. Linking Obama to Ayers is necessary. It must be done. Linking Obama to ACORN is necessary. It must be done. They’re trying to steal the election. But we’re being told that this whole thing revolves around the economy. This economy is directly traceable to the Democrat Party and their allies in the media who covered up what was going on. Five million illegal aliens got mortgages without having to provide Social Security or income information. Could you do that?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let me give you the headlines of the future, putting on my hat here as Rush Nostrarushie. ‘The United States Automobile Company announced that the United States Energy Company has received a loan from the Bank of the United States of America and its subsidiary in Darfur.’ ‘The United States Chemical Company and the United States computer company have announced their approval of the loan.’ Yeah, I know it’s funny, but I mean, for crying out loud, folks, why do we even need a Constitution anymore, because none of what’s happening here is permitted in the Constitution. Here’s Obama, by the way, this morning, Dayton, Ohio.
OBAMA: In recent weeks we’ve seen a growing financial crisis that’s threatening not only banks and businesses, but it’s threatening your economic security as well.
RUSH: No kidding, Sherlock.
OBAMA: It’s getting harder and harder to get that loan for a new car or that startup business or that college that you’ve dreamed of attending.
RUSH: Yeah, right.
OBAMA: If you’ve invested your life savings in the stock market or if your pension has invested in the stock market, if you got a 401(k), you’ve probably watched a good chunk of your savings disappear.
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER: It’s now a 101(k).
OBAMA: It’s now a 101(k). It’s not a 401(k), it’s a 101(k).
RUSH: Doofuses in the Obama audience don’t understand his role and his party’s role in destroying people’s 401(k)s for now. Everybody’s always told me, my parents, my grandparents, ‘Cash is king.’ Don’t you wish you had put your money in cash instead of your 401(k)? Cash is king, cash or cash equivalents. You don’t want to do no money market funds, you’re only going to get four-and-a-half, five percent interest. That’s better than nothing. At any rate, this 401(k) business is classic. What Obama doesn’t tell you is that since the 401(k) market has had the bottom drop out of it, government is missing $80 billion that it desperately needs, and it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever had to do, but they’re going to have to take away the tax deductibility for some of you, your 401(k)s. Because the government is missing $80 billion, don’t you understand. Thank you George Miller.
This is an issue that if somebody in this country had any onions, had any competence, could turn this around. It’s sitting right out there in front of everybody. We know who brought this about. We know who propped up a fraudulent, bottomless, with no foundation mortgage market. We know who created it. We know who designed it: The Democrat Party. We know who resisted every effort to clean it up when they knew that it was worthless. And yet who gets credit for fixing it? We threw $700 billion of this, the stock market is barely above 9,000 now. What were we a month ago, at 12? At any rate, ladies and gentlemen, what’s happening right now with this economic business is only going to worsen if a guy like Obama gets to pile on top of all this taxes increases on business and personnel and so forth. It’s serious.