RUSH: Kevin in South Fort Myers, Florida. Nice to have you here, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Good afternoon. Mega dittos from sunny southwest Florida, sir.
RUSH: Appreciate that.
CALLER: Quick question for you. Ever since I heard you say you support the workers but not the unions, I’ve been hitting redial for about an hour-and-a-half. I wanted to know how you would perceive someone saying I support the military men, the war fighter, but I don’t support the war. What is the difference between I support the worker but not the union and I support the military war fighter but not the war?
RUSH: Well, to be correct, what they said was they support the troops but not the mission.
CALLER: Understood, and I hear your point on unions, being a Teamster for ten years —
RUSH: You’re a Teamster?
CALLER: I was, sir. Yes, for ten years, a UPS driver, and I saw some of the little local corruption —
RUSH: See, this is the point, this is the point. I love what you do, I depend on UPS.
CALLER: Well, I stood up to UPS.
RUSH: And I depend on FedEx, and sometimes I depend on DHL. I used to depend on Flying Tigers. I like the fact that you have get up and go. I like the fact that you have initiative, that you’re out there performing a service, I love the work that you do. I just don’t like your union leaders.
CALLER: I would have to say I agree with you, because in my tenure, I filed 29 grievances and never lost, and a good portion of them were to change contractual language for the next upcoming contract so it had no benefit to me other than me sticking my neck out for the little guy because of the way they were collecting their union dues is same across the board regardless of your pay rate, and it was a violation of the contract —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — because it was too hard to collect the right amount and do the math.
RUSH: Nothing you could do about it.
CALLER: They collect the maximum amount no matter how much money you make. These guys make from $11 an hour to $25 an hour.
RUSH: That’s right.
CALLER: They’re not supposed to take more than twice their hourly rate, but everybody was paying the same maximum amount like they were making $44 an hour —
RUSH: Yeah, yeah. If you go out and say something to the wrong person about it, you got more than a flat tire on your truck to look at.
CALLER: Yeah, well, when people stood up and said, ‘Hey, we overpaid for the two years it took to get to the top pay scale,’ they said, ‘Okay, you have to come forward individually —
RUSH: That’s right.
CALLER: — and request your money.’
RUSH: And you didn’t do it because you wanted to live.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Nancy Pelosi likes the idea of a car czar. The car czar is part of the bailout. Ladies and gentlemen, between Washington and the unions — remember, we love the workers, we support the workers; we don’t support the unions — between the Washington people and the unions, there’s not going to be any room for a profitable company here. I think some auto company’s next ad campaign ought to be running against Pelosi and Washington, not taking the bailout money, telling Congress, ‘We don’t need any help from the same people who wrecked our economy! We don’t need help from the people who wrecked our company!’ Think they can find an ad agency come up with that campaign? ‘Hi. I’m so-and-so from the XYZ Motor Company and we are not taking a bailout and furthermore, we don’t want the people who wrecked your home mortgage to wreck our car company. We don’t want the people in charge of ruining the US economy anywhere near our car company.’ You think that company would start selling cars?
Guess who Pelosi wants as the car czar? Paul Volcker. When’s the last time Paul Volcker was inside an assembly plant? Ron Gettelfinger, the union guy, declined to say whether his union would demand a seat on GM’s board in exchange for contract concessions. This is also being proposed. I predict the unions are going to end up owning these companies. Before it’s all said and done, the unions are going to end up owning the companies. ‘The proposal gives the car czar say-so over any major business decision by the automakers while they take federal aid. The companies would have to open their books to the government including informing the car czar of any transaction over $25 million or more. Nancy Pelosi said these companies will accomplish nothing if executives were left to their own devices.’ I’m sorry, folks, I know it’s a sitcom. We’re being led by the genuinely insane. Nancy Pelosi and the car czar, Paul Volcker, oversee every decision, have to approve any decision over $25 million, the same people who gave us the mortgage crisis, the subprime crisis; the same people who have given us the financial crisis and the lending crisis; the same people who have, in large part, wrecked the auto industry now want to run it because Nancy Pelosi says executives, if left to their own devices, will destroy the car companies. Lord, help us.