RUSH: Here’s Conan, as we go back to the phones. Conan in Charlottesville, Virginia. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Fifteen-handicap, two-supporting dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: Well, I represent an uncounted and visible member of the unemployed class: the small business owner that can no longer afford to take a paycheck.
RUSH: Well, that’s the same thing as being unemployed. How many employees do you have?
CALLER: Well, I had about 15. I’m down to ten, and my wife has gone from ten to five in her business.
RUSH: So you’re paying ten employees while you get zilch?
CALLER: That’s pretty much it, and my work week’s a lot longer than 33 hours.
RUSH: Now, people are asking an obvious question. This is what they don’t understand. ‘How can you pay yourself nothing and eat?’
CALLER: Living off of my savings.
RUSH: A-ha. Why don’t you fire another worker and pay yourself?
CALLER: Then I’d be working 90 hours a week. So I’m hoping for a turnaround. I’m hoping Obama’s war on corporate travel will end soon and my business will bounce back, and I hope people get a little more confident and my wife’s business will bounce back.
RUSH: I’m glad you said that. I have so many friends in the hospitality business, and they are hurting. The hospitality golf business is suffering. My golf trip next week features some of the premiere golf courses in the country. I had no trouble getting them. Everybody is scared to go! The hospitality business is in deep trouble because Obama’s got everybody afraid to act prosperous or go out and have a good time, while he’s living it up with luaus and trips to France and trips to Camp David and so forth. I know presidents get their own entertainment budget and food, and he’s gotta have blown past it. It’s not that much. He’s going to have to qualify all this as official state business to pay for all of it, luaus and all of that sort of thing — and the Iranians didn’t even show up for the hot dogs, or they’re not going to.
I guess they took my advice. They’re going to use Hebrew national hot dogs and keep the Iranians away. At any rate, he’s in the corporate travel business and nobody is traveling corporately. The hospitality business is in deep trouble — by design. Remember, it was Obama who said (Obama impression), ‘Hey, these days of traveling around, taking a jet to Las Vegas? Those days are over.’ He gets these big business guys in and says, ‘I’m the only guy standing between you and the pitchforks.’ Remember that? And he says, ‘Look, the days are over. We can’t just eat what we want to eat and keep our thermostats at 72 degrees and expect the rest of the world to accept that. Those days are over.’
Except for him. Interesting.