RUSH: Here is Marty Biloxi, Mississippi, great to have you with us, sir, hello.
CALLER: How you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Good, thank you.
CALLER: Listen, number one, mega dittos from the Magnolia Gulf Coast. But I want to tell you something. I have the deepest respect and regard for you, and for years I have followed what you’ve said. I told people that I think you are probably the finest constitutionalist in America. You are able to articulate what it means, what it stands for, and for years I’ve told people, ‘Listen to him, listen to him, the man’s talking truth.’ Just a minute ago when you were talking, I’m a little off my subject here, but that Laxalt woman, yeah, you haven’t been elected dogcatcher but neither was Thomas Paine, and he was one of the great Founding Fathers in my mind, and in my mind you have a little bit of a Paul Revere and a lot of Thomas Paine in you because you speak common sense, but you’re also ringing the alarm. And I find that refreshing.
But I wanted to tell you, yesterday when you talked about what Obama had inherited, when he made that little namby-pamby comment about ‘I inherited,’ you know, and, yeah, you articulated clearly what the man had inherited and what he is messing up. I printed that out to a Word document and have been sending it out to everyone I know saying, ‘You’ve got to read this, you’ve got to understand it,’ because I spent 37 years in the Air Force as an artist and military historian, and above my desk, I have a sign, and I picked it up from my father, who is a sergeant major in the Army, and I think he got it from Elmer Davis, but the quote is, ‘Cowards did not found this country. Cowards will not preserve it.’ Our job is preservation. You, sir, are one of the true non-cowards in this country. You are probably the most articulate, brave man to stand up in the face of a fierce fascist aggression that I have ever seen. I believe that when all the stuff is settled and all the dust settles over the years, and if this country survives, you will probably be considered one of the greatest Americans of the late 20th and early twenty-first century —
RUSH: Now, now, now–
CALLER: — and you be the Thomas Paine who never served in the military, who never was part of our government, but he inspired and he motivated and he encouraged our Founding Fathers to do the things that they did. When Common Sense came out, it motivated the American revolution, and you, sir, are doing the same thing. And all I can tell you, Rush, is Godspeed, continue doing what you’re doing, and, believe me, you are in the right. And I don’t mean that conservative. But I will leave you one thing that’s been troubling me as a historian. Right now in my mind — and I may be wrong, God knows I hope I am — it’s 1933, the fuehrer is in the White House, the blue shirts are marching, the new Jews are Christians, and the new undesirables are conservatives. And if we don’t watch what we’re doing, we’re gonna wind up like the Axis did before World War II. Because remember one thing, they gotta tell the unions this, Adolf Hitler gave the unions everything they wanted, and after they walked away happy from the meeting, he abolished the labor unions. So you gotta be careful —
RUSH: That’s not going to happen here. I don’t associate Obama with Hitler, and I draw the line there. I know what you’re trying to say, you’re trying to say that Hitler snuck up on his own people, his own people had no clue what was happening to them. And in that sense I think you’re right, but that’s not going to happen to this country. That’s what every day in this country is about, is making sure that doesn’t happen. That’s what the Constitution is about. And there have been assaults on the Constitution since the time it was written and ratified, and there will always be assaults on the Constitution, there are always going to be leftists and there always need to be vigilant people standing up and opposing them, and there always will be. This is not Nazi Germany. That analogy doesn’t work. There are better ways to say to people what we face, what our future is, than that. But I appreciate, again, your kind comments. I really do. I gotta take a time-out here. I’m going to go through what he said. My little monologue yesterday on what Obama inherited because he keeps complaining. In fact, we’ve got some sound bites from this paygo press conference. I want you to hear this ’cause I think this indicates that Obama’s now, with all these press events and ramming Sotomayor through and all these 600,000 jobs. I think we’ve got the White House in a little bit of a panic here.
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RUSH: Joe, in Whiteford, Maryland. I’m glad you called. It’s great to have you with us.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, I’ve been listening to you for almost 20 years. It’s really an honor to talk to you right now.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I just wanted to say that, you know, it’s not the federal government’s job — let alone their right — to create or save anybody’s job. It is the constitutional responsibility of the federal government to protect the freedom of individuals to pursue whatever kind of lawful work or business that fits their interests and skills. Thinking back to when Clinton was running for president, I remember the Democrats wearing their little buttons that said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ Well, I think it’s time to start telling people, ‘It’s the freedom, stupid.’ I hope my kids don’t hear that because I don’t usually use that word, ‘stupid,’ but I really think that was the genius of our Founders, and that’s what has made America the greatest nation not just in the world, but really in world history. Because, you know, to the extent that the federal government controls and regulates businesses in this country — and they’re trying to extend that control overseas as well — you know, they’re going to control who works, what kind of jobs people can have and even their wage.
RUSH: And what they can earn. Now, you’re right. It’s not the government’s job to create jobs. You might argue. I could make the case. For example, if I were president and we’re heading into a recession, I would look upon it as my job to make sure that as few people as possible lost their jobs, not by spending on make-work jobs but by helping the private sector weather the recession, by lightening the burden on them that they have to send to government. See, this whole notion of ‘saving jobs’ that political sense, that brilliant creation. It’s impossible to calculate! When you have a compliant, State-Run Media, a government-controlled media like NBC or CNN or CBS dutifully reporting that you are ‘saving or creating’ whatever number of jobs, then you are being assisted in putting out a total fallacy.
Now, the government can help save jobs by making sure that people who hire other people are not punished, that they have more capital to work with. For example, lowering their tax rate, eliminating capital gains — you know, putting it out of business for a year or so — which was part of my stimulus plan back in January. My bipartisan stimulus plan, by the way, that was published in the Wall Street Journal. I know what you’re saying constitutionally. But given the fact that Barack Obama’s government is demonstrating that he is not creating or saving jobs, he is destroying them. President Obama’s policies are destroying private sector jobs, meaning there is a way to change what he’s doing so that that doesn’t happen.
I know it’s not in the Constitution, but it’s all wrapped up in how you look at government and its function, and that’s what you’re talking about in the Constitution. I agree with you totally. I know the point that you’re trying to make. But we have a situation here where way too many Americans think the role of the government is to provide for them — either a job, benefits, unemployment, or what have you. There’s a lot of work to turn all of this around. We have to do it in stages, and the first thing that has to be stopped is this assault on the US economy that has been perpetrated by this president and his administration and the Democrats in Congress. Let’s not forget Pelosi and Reid. You know, they’re not blameless or harmless here. They are partners in all of this destruction.
Here’s Douglas in Ventura, California, Doug, about a minute and a half. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush Limbaugh, good morning, my fellow brother in political arms. How are you?
RUSH: Fine, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: It’s time for America to start producing again. We need to begin to roll back those regulations, lower the taxes on production. As you have so well said, whenever you want to get rid of something, you raise taxes. Whenever you want to have something grow, you lower tax rates, and it’s time to do it. It’s time for us to take the House of Representatives back. Conservatives need to laser focus in on two issues: lowering taxes and also being able to turn loose American business and the men and women that set it up.
RUSH: Wait a second. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Just a second here. I agree with you, but the Republican Party doesn’t think that tax cuts are a way to go. To the Republican Party, that’s old hat. That’s not applicable to times today! We can’t start talking tax cuts with these deficits. I mean, that’s Reagan stuff. The party that you think is going to take back the House doesn’t buy your philosophy right now. I know you said ‘conservatives.’ You’re right. But you take a look whoever the leading spokesman for the Republican Party today is, Colin Powell, you don’t hear ’em talking tax cuts. Colin Powell, who is one of the architects of the modern Republican Party according to everybody else, says Americans want higher taxes and bigger government! Michelle Laxalt, too. Higher taxes. Yeah. Yeah. It’s time to get our minds right. Tax cuts? That’s so eighties.
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RUSH: Greenville, South Carolina, Terry, thank you. It’s nice to have you with us. Hello.
CALLER: Delighted to be here. I’m sitting here actually contributing to the economy. I’m not participating. I’m actually here working so they can steal my money from me.
RUSH: (laughing) I appreciate that.
CALLER: Somebody’s gotta do it. You and I gotta do our part.
RUSH: As we do.
CALLER: I have been doing medical billing for over 20 years.
RUSH: What do you mean medical billing? You mean for doctors?
CALLER: Uh-huh. I’ve done everything from dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, orthopedic, geriatric, CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services], I’ve done it all. And I can tell you, the gentleman yesterday, the second hour yesterday who said, you know, the government needed to have a pilot program and try the universal, you know, one-payer ID?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: They have. It’s called the Veterans Administration. It’s called Mmmmedicare. It’s called Mmmmedicaid. (snorts) If you can find me one vet who will state that he thinks that the health care he was promised and what he is receiving is so wonderful that he wants it for his grandchildren, he’s probably a liar. (laughing) I mean, the VA is notorious for the kind of health care they provide.
RUSH: Yeah. Medicaid is a big bamboozle, too.
CALLER: Do you know that Medicaid quarterly issues a list of drugs which they will allow you to prescribe to their Medicaid patients that they will pay for. And it doesn’t matter if a drug not on the list is far more effective for that patient. It’s not on the list. And you would not believe the loopholes that you would have to go through to get that medication, and just talk about blood pressure medications.
RUSH: Worse than that. Worse than that is that if they get this single-pay business, then people who can afford not to play ball in the Medicaid government health care route will still have to.
CALLER: Well, see, that’s just the point. The government, with Medicare for the last 40 years now, who’s been? Charge for 40 years again? Educate me. It’s been the Democrats, right?
RUSH: That’s right.
CALLER: Okay, it was so expensive that, remember, three or four years ago Bush put through this thing called Medicare Alternative for the Elderly?
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. New entitlement.
CALLER: New entitlement to where they can opt out of the traditional program and you can get into the ‘alternative’ program? And the reason they did that is because the one-payer system was too expensive.
RUSH: Well, you know, you’re —
CALLER: And it didn’t give the elderly the options that they needed.
RUSH: Let me tell you something, your point is right on the money.
CALLER: Thank you!
RUSH: We got a pilot program. Medicare, nobody likes it! The VA, nobody likes it. And we’re going to take what doesn’t work as a cost boondoggle and build a national system on it.
CALLER: You know, he’s saying, ‘I inherited these problems.’
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I love what you said earlier in your monologue about, you know, this problem. But if you want to talk about health care, the debacle that he has inherited is a Democratic one. They established it. They have stolen out of it. You know, it’s just amazing to me. You know HIPPAA. Everybody is talking about ‘gotta protect your privacy.’ HIPPAA is a prime example of a government trying to legislate common sense.
RUSH: Uhhh, yeah. (chuckling) Medical records privacy, I don’t want to go there.
CALLER: I didn’t think you would. I kinda thought, you know.
RUSH: I know the fallacy of that.
CALLER: Right, you know, so, you know, in this whole thing, you know, I have successfully raised one Rush Baby. I’ve got two more who are working their way up through the pipes. You know, my 12-year-old gets this. Last fall, we went to the Ronald Reagan museum.
RUSH: Good for you.
CALLER: And my 12 year-old, who is my youngest. I came out and he reached up and he grabbed my hand and I said what did you think, honey? He said, ‘You know, you and Papa have been telling me for a long time what a great man he was and how important he was and all the things he accomplished — and I’ve listened to his speeches and, you know, we read about him. But there’s absolutely nothing like seeing the man,’ and the kid was in awe. He still is in awe! It’s been six, eight months ago — and, you know, that’s what our hope is, is that people remember: You don’t throw away what really works. That’s what’s infuriating to me about the Republican Party right now. They know it works, but they refuse to do it.
RUSH: Yeah. Let’s not open that can of worms anymore. (laughing) ‘Cause I’ve gotta come to a commercial break pretty soon here, and open that can of worms…. Look, your passion, Terry, is just great. Did you hear her, folks? Did you hear her speaking? ‘Nothing like seeing the man!’ That’s what makes a great phone call. I can sit back here and just listen, like you get to do. I never get to hear this program, folks, because I’m always hosting it. That’s one pleasure in life you have that I’ll never have. I know, people are telling me I shoulda heard the first hour yesterday. Well, maybe I’ll go watch it on YouTube since it’s there. Anyway, Terry, thanks much for the phone call. She’s exactly right. I shoulda thought of that. There are pilot programs — and Canada is a pilot program and the UK is a pilot program on single-payer health care. Thanks again, Terry, from Greenville, South Carolina.