RUSH: Steve in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Wow. First of all, Rush, mega cigar smoking, adult beverage consuming, links hitting ex-broadcaster dittos from sunny Southern California, sir.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Wow, you know, Rush, I’ve never called you, but I will say this, I talk to you three hours a day. You’re my therapist. I speak to you and yell at the radio. Here’s the reality of this. I have to take some responsibility for this being a landlord here in Southern California. I created this mess because in the past five years, as we were able to charge more for rents, we had these people, candidly true, who went out through old spectrum lending, which is a subsidiary of Countrywide lending, they went out and they said, ‘Why am I going to pay you two grand a month for this 1,500-square-foot house? I’m going to go get my own house or condo,’ and they did, with no loan verification. True, I could have had a loan for five years, 30-year fixed, 2.5. These people — you’re almost there, but not quite. They took loans where they had no income, interest only — yeah, and we know somebody held a gun to their head while they signed the loan docs, right? They took these loans that I could have had five years ago at 2.5% because it was cheaper to get into a condo or small house here in Southern California than it was to pay the rent they’re paying me. So I’m getting ready for the White House to fax me a letter saying they’re going to seize my income property. However, having said that, these people now are going to get bailed out. They’re going to get bailed out for a piece of property that they had no business owning and be entitled to. It’s amazing to me. And for myself and Mr. Snerdley —
RUSH: Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, you see, you just uttered the one word that blows the whole thing up. You said un-entitled to. They are just as entitled to a house as you are to your rental property, and the fact that they can’t afford it means that they’re even more entitled to it, because it’s victims. They are victims of an unfair society. Those people deserve to be bailed out because of predators like you. If you hadn’t raised your rent, you wouldn’t have forced them out into that market that they shouldn’t have been in.
CALLER: That’s right.
RUSH: You are right. You are totally responsible for it!
CALLER: Right! Yes, and I feel guilty, and so I’m ready to sign title to my house, my rental income property, back to the federal government. That’s coming anyways. What about these people that got into these big SUVs — let me just say that Mr. Snerdley and myself, you will never get a break from your lender to lower your current interest payment because if you have stable income, which he does, obviously, working for you —
RUSH: I can take care of that.
CALLER: — and he probably has a good FICO score, which I believe he does working for you, they’re never going to give us a break because they know we’re going to sit and ride out the storm, mark my words. For those that play by rules, that pay your bills on time, there’s nothing in this for you but higher taxes down the road —
RUSH: No.
CALLER: — sit and wait and watch.
RUSH: No. That’s what I just got through saying. They’re not going to have to raise our taxes. They’re already confiscating assets. They’re just printing the money. They’re already confiscating assets and redistributing them. But, look, I still would call your lender. You never know ’til you make the call. Remember, the lenders are just as afraid of Washington as you used to be of the lender. Everybody in business today is scared to death. You don’t know the power you’ve got, when you call up and say, ‘I just heard the president, and the president said you’re gonna help me make my mortgage more affordable, that’s what the president said, and the president said that he’s going to make you do it. I just heard him. So I want my mortgage more affordable.’ You should make that call, ’cause I’ll tell you right now, the lenders are scared to death. You don’t know the power you have as a homeowner.
Now, you may get told to take a hike, but I still would make the phone call, and I would say exactly what I said, you just heard the president, the president said he’s going to make lenders start lending in a more affordable way, he’s going to set the mortgage rate because he’s forcing them to take money that they’re going to lend. So you want your mortgage to be made more affordable by having a lower monthly payment. You’re not asking for the whole mortgage to be paid like others are going to have their mortgage be paid. You are just asking for a more affordable monthly payment, as the president suggested. Thanks for the call out there, Steve.
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RUSH: Jeanine in High Springs, Florida, you’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi there. Thank you, sir, for taking my call. I’d like to know about property taxes. We did not do the thing where we bought more home than we could afford. We built our own home. We started out with equity in it. We were slammed with this inflation of all the home values in the area. They gave us these outrageous property taxes because we live in an area that the university doesn’t have to pay any taxes, and there’s lots of other government entities that are excluded from that. So it slams the homeowner. So we pay all these high taxes for the past three or four years, and then, the property value starts to go down. We’re trying to do the right thing. Our property taxes are still kept high. Where did all that money go?
And then, to make it even worse… You know, we are in the construction business, and we own our own business, so our business fell so dramatically that our income fell down also. So we use our savings and our investment accounts to pay this outrageous mortgage with these outrageous taxes, and so we decide, ‘Okay, we’re going to call up and ask the bank, ask the mortgage company,’ I tried everywhere, ‘to get a lower interest rate,’ because we figure, ‘Well, that will help us make our payments every month,’ and they literally said to me, ‘Why do you think that you’re entitled to any kind of help when you are a person of means?’ even though our income is dramatically reduced because of this whole nonsense that has gone on with the whole home value situation.
I’m going to try what you suggested, call and say, ‘Well, the president said so, so now you gotta lower my monthly rate, and that will help me make my homeowner payment.’ We put our house up for sale even because we wanted to be responsible. We didn’t want to be late in our payments, ruin our credit, and no matter which way we go, nobody will give us any answers or any help. So we’re going to have to sell this beautiful home. It does have equity in it. And the mortgage company says, we can give them… They’ll give us a forbearance. They’ll be glad to take our home off our hands. It has equity in it. If we had no equity and we had put ourselves up to the hilt, then they might help us.
RUSH: You had a lot of questions there.
CALLER: Yeah!
RUSH: Your first question is why isn’t your property tax coming down when the value of your home plummets.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Right?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: (chuckles) I don’t mean to laugh. Your situation boils my blood. You see, you’ve heard me talk about the people who make the country work? You’re it. Jeanine, you’re the target. The banker told you.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You’re a person of means. You’re not going to get any understanding. You’re expected to take it! You’re expected to suffer, to find out what it’s like, Jeanine. You are expected to find out what it’s like for people who haven’t been as lucky as you.
CALLER: Except we lived beneath our means for decades in order to afford the home that we’ve built and to run the business that we run.
RUSH: Cry me a river. They don’t care. They don’t care about any of that.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You’re a ‘person of means’ now. How you got there, you probably cheated and broke a bunch of people’s lives in the process, is what they think. You know, the days of rewarding hard work and honoring hard work, at least from government officials…? You’re the target now. You have victimized other people by your hard work. You’ve obviously taken something that was really not yours, you’ve taken more than your share, however you want to define it.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Your property taxes aren’t going to go down because when do they ever?
CALLER: Right. And the business is —
RUSH: But I have to ask you, you’re in Florida. Is this place homesteaded?
CALLER: Our personal home? Yes.
RUSH: So the max that your property taxes can go up every year is 3%.
CALLER: Except we transfer. We built our other home that we moved from, and we put it up for sale —
RUSH: Ohhhhh, I see.
CALLER: — after we moved in to our new home.
RUSH: I got you. Jeanine, your story angers me to no end — as it does, I’m sure, everybody in the audience. I’ve gotta take a break. I’ve got no time left, but I’m glad you called.
CALLER: Well, thank you so much.
RUSH: Thank you. Make that phone call to your bank about the loan.
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RUSH: Paul in Gainesville, Georgia. Paul, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. My house was foreclosed on in 2006. The bank —
RUSH: Why?
CALLER: Well, actually, sir, part of it was my problem. My wife and I both owned our own businesses, and they started to fail, and we couldn’t make the payments.
RUSH: So what do you want to do now, now that you’ve heard the plan?
CALLER: Well, actually I’d like to find out who’s going to help me. If not, my taxes are going to help these people out.
RUSH: Well, I raised this question earlier. You have a legitimate question. Who’s going to help you? What about people who were foreclosed on before the Savior announced the plan today?
CALLER: Exactly! I mean, I want to get my house back or get some money — and here’s another thing, Rush.
RUSH: I think you’re stuck. I don’t think there’s anything. Blame it on Bush is about all you can do.
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RUSH: Ken in Corona, California. Hi. Nice to have you on the program.
CALLER: Dittos, Rush.
RUSH: By the way, one of the things I intended to get to today is the Republicans in the California Senate are holding firm, and they got rid of their Republican leader out there, and the Republican leader is on television last night in Sacramento blaming calls from all over the country from this show. It’s one of the many sound bites I have, and I have not had a chance to get to today. I apologize for that. We’ll try to save ’em for tomorrow. Yes, Ken, what’s up?
CALLER: I’m just say, dittos from Southern California and Comrade Schwarzenegger. I guess the problem is… I don’t have a problem. I’m 63 years old, a Viet vet. I worked all my life. My wife and I would make nowhere close to $100,000 a year. We bought our home, not as an investment, but as a retirement. We’ve lost about 35% of the value. I’m unemployed now. I’m still looking for a job, and I don’t want the government to do anything for me —
RUSH: Don’t worry, you’re not going to get anything.
CALLER: — except get outta my way.
RUSH: You bought the house?
CALLER: We bought the house.
RUSH: Is it paid for?
CALLER: No, sir. We’re not under. The house is worth more than what we paid for it, but we didn’t buy it for investment or something to dump it real quick. This was going to be our family, out kids’ home.
RUSH: It’s a good thing you don’t want help because you’re not qualified for help. You’ve been too responsible.
CALLER: I realize that. You know, Rush, since I was eight-years-old my dad died. He left my mother with six kids, and she never worked a day in her life. We’re originally from a little town in Virginia. But she never worked a day in her life, but she went to work for 55 cents an hour at a laundry. She turned down welfare. They kept trying to send us welfare, she turned it down, and she taught us the value of work. No one would give you nothing; you have to work for what you would get because you’re in the land of the free. I don’t understand what’s going on.
RUSH: I know. I have to interrupt you. I know right where you’re going. I have to interrupt you because of the constraints of time. You don’t recognize your country. You are not alone, and it’s not even been a month yet.