RUSH: This story from state-run Associated Press. ‘The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today’s bleak landscape. The administration’s annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama’s budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.
‘The release of the update — usually scheduled for mid-July — has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.’ That’s when Obama is shooting to have health care signed, passed and signed into law. That’s how fast that they want to move this, and they’re trying to hide the actual budget numbers. Now, the interesting thing is if you go back to WhiteHouse.gov — I have it here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. I have the memo from Obama. ‘Subject: Transparency and Open government. Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. From Barack Obama, President of the United States. My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.
Maybe in his next speech, maybe in his next speech President Obama will give us a telling statistic. Maybe he will tell us how many people leave the United States for medical treatment in Canada or Britain versus how many people in Canada or Britain leave to come for treatment in the United States. Maybe he’ll tell us that number. Maybe he’ll tell us that the plan that he wants is so good, it’s a mirror image of the socialized plans in Canada and Great Britain. Maybe he’ll tell us how many Americans are leaving our country for better health care in Canada and Britain. Maybe throw in Cuba! Let’s look at a parallel situation. Government-run schools. Obama is the National Education Association’s best friend. He even shut down a charter school program in DC because he wants to kill any competition with government schools — and this was a school for minorities, and the minorities in DC and this charter school were performing great.
They loved it, their parents loved it. Obama shut it down. It was a school for minority kids. He wants to kill any competition with government schools. Yet he sends his own kids to an expensive private school. His commitment to government school is purely political. His personal commitment is to get the best education he can for his kids, so he sends them to private school. Obama and his ilk will do exactly the same thing with government-run health care. They’re going to have their own plan. They’re going to have their own exclusive doctors. This is why I suggested three weeks ago: Call your member of Congress, House or Senate, and ask them: ‘Are you going to sign on the public option you’re writing for everybody else?’
Answer: No. They will not give up their own health care plan. He and his other elites are going to find a way around every obstacle they’re putting in front of us. The public will not be able to find a way around it. It will be condemned to whatever the government dictates. We are being condemned. We’re facing an economy that is condemned, and it’s a great word to describe what Obama is doing.
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RUSH: ABC Radio News at the top-of-the-hour during the most recent newsbreak here on the EIB Network… This kind of drivel makes me sick. You know what? We ought to provide our own programming here. Don’t have any break at the top of the hour and allow our stations to continue to carry the program rather than be polluted by some State-Run Media. Get this. ‘It’s no surprise,’ ladies and gentlemen. It’s no surprise whatsoever. This is the New Castrati voice, by the way. ‘It’s no surprise that a president who grapples with tough issues should see his poll numbers drop.’ Of course not! What a brave and courageous young man this young president is, willing to risk his poll numbers for all that he believes in for the American people. ‘It’s not unusual at all to see a president who grapples with tough issues, see his poll numbers drop.’
Did we ever, ever come close to hearing any analysis like that during the Bush administration? I’m going to tell you what here, folks. All the networks are breathlessly awaiting Obama’s speech on health care as he supposedly grabs the baton. He has never let go of the baton, and he’s got this speech and there’s this little children’s hospital teddy bear logo that he’s going to be standing in front of. I think they’re in disarray. The White House is in disarray and here’s the reason why they’re in disarray. The so-called personal lovability, respectability, whatever you want to say, however you want to describe Obama’s personality. ‘Well, at least he can talk. He’s smart. He’s educated. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah’ is not working anymore. There is no Bam magic. When the approval numbers start falling, there is no Bam magic. You know, I was talking about Clinton and his poll numbers 60%.
I left out something crucial in analyzing why Clinton’s numbers stayed above 60 during impeachment and Lewinsky. The economy was roaring! The economy was roaring and people said, ‘Don’t mess with it! Don’t mess with it. We don’t like the guy. He was a reprobate but don’t mess with it. The economy is good, don’t touch it!’ Well, the economy ain’t good, and Obama’s got… There, look at that. Teddy bear for the children’s national whatever the hell it is. The logo he’s going to be speaking in front of or underneath. Obama is liked. Unlike Clinton was not liked, Obama is liked, but the economy is excrement. The only difference between our economy… It’s just bad. We’re going to see the real Obama, now. Because of this disarray and because of this frustration that that magic isn’t working, we are now going to see the real Obama starting today with this speech, how he seeks to smear and destroy people behind the scenes who disagree with him.
We’re going to see the TV ads now. We’re going to see ACORN and other groups become even more active. We will see efforts to mischaracterize Obama opponents. We will see and hear continual lies about their motives, people who oppose either cap and tax or the health care plan. So get ready, because we are going to soon see the real Obama. The magic has worn off. Folks, who was it that…? It was Jim DeMint. Senator Jim DeMint, South Carolina, said if Obama doesn’t get this health care, Obama is over. Well, that really teed ’em off and they’re using that statement in TV ads. They’re going to be going after DeMint. But DeMint’s closer to the truth than he knows. If he doesn’t get this, this is the centerpiece of everything else. He had to destroy jobs in the private sector first. He had to… Well, he’s had to start the assault. He had to weaken the economy. He had to run around and talk about how health care is a right. You lose your health care when you get canned, when you lose your job, when you’re laid off. So Jim DeMint is more right on this than he knows.
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RUSH: I want say one more thing because Obama just finished this breathtakingly misrepresentative speech on health care. ‘We can make reforms in ways that don’t add to the deficit.’ The CBO has put the lie to that and Obama is withholding the July budget update numbers precisely because it will add to the deficit. There’s no interest in savings here. There’s no interest in efficiencies. These people are acting like they’ve got no record and that we don’t know who they are. People like them have designed every losing program that we’ve got, every money-losing, bank-breaking program that we’ve got. Now, when Obama sends his kids to public school, government-run school, when Obama lives in real public housing, not the White House, when Obama uses public transportation like he wants all of us to use, or when he starts driving around a bubble car, and when Obama’s retirement consists only of Social Security, a public pension system, then he might be more convincing about the wonders of public, i.e., government-run health care.
But the truth is Barack Obama lives off of and has gotten wealthy off of capitalism and the private sector. Despite all his talk about the wonders of big government, he lives one way, he talks another, as do all the rest of the leftists in Congress. If he actually relies only on Social Security for his retirement, sends his kids to an average DC public school, then I’ll listen to him when he tells me how wonderful the government runs things. But when he will not subject himself to the same public institutions that he’s going to require all of us to be subjected to, and tells us how wonderful they are but he won’t go anywhere near ’em, I’m sorry, that adds up to zip, zero, nada credibility.
John in Radcliff, Kentucky, as we go to the phones now. I appreciate all of you who are on hold, your patience. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. How you doing today?
RUSH: Just fine. Thank you.
CALLER: As I told Mr. Snerdley, I’ll get right to the point. I’m retired from the Army, so I got a lot of time on my hands, and I decided to conduct a survey. I called around to as many congressman as I could get through to on Thursday and Friday of last week, and I got a hold of about 75 to 80 senators and around 125, 150 representatives, and I asked them that being as how they were so intent on giving us this health care program, I asked if they would be willing to add onto it and eliminate the health care program that they have for themselves and for the president and join us in the program they want to give us. Out of all those that I got a hold of, I got no takers.
RUSH: Of course not.
CALLER: And I had one — one of the staffers that I spoke with said that my idea had already been brought up during the markup process for the bill and rejected by the Congress.
RUSH: (laughing) It was a proposal in the House Ways and Means Committee by Sam Johnson. No, that was illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants being covered, but you’re right. It did happen. This is why I say, John, when all these people, Obama, Pelosi, when they send their kids to public school, when they live in real public housing, when they take public transportation, when they avail themselves of all the wonderful benefits government-run institutions provide, then I’ll listen to them tell me how wonderful it will be for me. But as long as they exempt themselves from the very things they’re designing for us, I’m sorry, they have no credibility, and it should be rejected. They’re leaders, right? They should show the way. These are leftists, and they are elitists, and these people have a different plan. It’s called power over you. It’s called limiting your freedom. In fact, I want to go back to a sound bite from the open of the program, and I must remind you if you’re just joining us, to illustrate the hurry that Obama and Pelosi are in, I directed today that all audio sound bites about health care from Obama and Pelosi be speeded up, not quite to chipmunk speed.
After listening to these four, I myself personally think they’re much more palatable to listen to. They go by quicker, they don’t sound as offensive, and it doesn’t irritate me as much as listening to them at regular speed. I want to play this particular sound bite of Obama discussing the opponents of his health care plan.
RUSH: Now, let’s examine the meat of this right in the middle. And it’s, again, the straw dog argument that Obama uses, the either/or. He says: ‘I don’t believe that government can or should run health care,’ which he does believe government can and should run health care. It’s what his plan is. But then he says, ‘I also don’t think insurance companies should have free rein to do as they please.’ Now, having free rein to do as one pleases is a pretty good definition of freedom, is it not? We know that Obama despises free markets, he despises free companies, and he really is threatened by free people. None of us in his view should have free rein to do as we please. His health care plan will prevent us from getting the health care coverage we want. That will not be available to us. It will be available to him and members of Congress and other select few in government, but not us. So typical Obama pattern here, ‘I don’t believe government can or should run things, but I also don’t think insurance companies should have free rein to do as they please.’ So demonize every free market business and industry that you can, go out and say, ‘I don’t think government ought to run things, but I don’t think the insurance companies,’ which is designed to make people say, yeah, you punish them, you take care of it, Obama. I think it’s frightening what is in store if this ever becomes reality.
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RUSH: I mentioned a moment ago that we’re going to see the real Obama, how he seeks to smear and destroy people, behind the scenes, who disagree with him. Only now he’s doing it in public. He takes on Jim DeMint here in an upcoming sound bite. We’re going to see the TV ads. This is Obama. The White House is in a state of disarray. The Obama magic not working here selling this. So it’s, you know, pedal-to-the-metal time. We have three sound bites. Children’s National Medical Center, Obama delivers remarks on health care. Here’s number one.
OBAMA (sped up): We spoke about some of the strains on our health care system and some of the strains our health care system places on parents with sick children. We spoke about the amount of time and money wasted on insurance-driven bureaucracy. We spoke about the growing number of Americans who are uninsured and underinsured. We spoke about what’s wrong with a system where women can’t always afford maternity care and parents can’t afford checkups for their kids and end up seeking treatment in emergency rooms like the ones here at Children’s.
OBAMA (sped up): Just the other day one Republican Senator said — and I’m quoting him, now — ‘If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.’ Think about that. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. It’s about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy.
RUSH: It is about him. He’s talking about Jim DeMint. I told you we’re going to see the real Obama now. We’re going to see. He’s surfacing. ‘It will be Obama’s Waterloo. It will break him.’ It is about Obama! Read any Drive-By Media publication, and it’s all about, ‘Can Obama win? Is Obama winning this or will Obama lose this.’ We’ve got one more to play for you.
OBAMA (sped up): The reforms we seek would bring greater competition —
RUSH: Nope.
OBAMA (sped up): — choice —
RUSH: Nope.
OBAMA (sped up): — savings —
RUSH: Nope.
OBAMA (sped up): — and efficiencies —
RUSH: Nope.
OBAMA (sped up): — to your health care system —
RUSH: Nope, nope.
OBAMA (sped up): — and greater stability and security —
RUSH: Nope.
OBAMA (sped up): — to America’s families and businesses.
RUSH: No!
OBAMA (sped up): For the average American, it will mean lower costs, more —
RUSH: No.
OBAMA (sped up): — options and coverage —
RUSH: Nope.
OBAMA (sped up): — you can count on.
RUSH: No.
OBAMA (sped up): It will save you and your family money if we have a more efficient health care system. We can and we must make all these reforms, and we can do it in a way that does not add to our deficits over the next decade.
RUSH: I will say, folks… I literally… You don’t know how difficult it is for me to say the president of the United States is lying through his teeth. I — I don’t know how else to say this. None of that last sound bite is accurate. None of it is true. If you don’t believe me, listen to the governors who don’t like this. It’s just such a pity it has come to this.
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RUSH: Let’s move forward and let’s be hypothetical. Let’s say we get Obamacare. Let’s say we get it next month, let’s say we get it in August. What’s going to happen to abortion? Certainly the government cannot refuse to pay for abortions when it’s the only way people can get them. What do you think is going to happen to the number of abortions when the government’s paying for it? In
So they’ll abort the kid and then I said, ‘What happens if they do identify –‘ just pure speculation, ‘– but what happens if they ever identify the genetic marker that defines whether somebody’s homosexual and they tell the parents? You’re going to see the biggest switch around from pro-choice to pro-life you’ve ever seen in the gay community. But I said, ‘If we’re going to decide who lives and dies at the beginning of life and then if we’re going to decide what kind of people they’re going to be, we don’t want any redheads, we don’t want any fat people, we don’t want any freckle-faced — whatever parents would find objectionable, we don’t want any blondes, who knows whatever they come up with, it doesn’t matter. What happens at the end of life? What happens then? What happens if you can see the child that has Down syndrome? The government says we’re not going to pay for that child to be born. Aren’t they mad at Palin for having a Down syndrome child? Folks, this is all possible. That’s why everybody is trying to alert everybody as to what this health care plan really is.
It is the single greatest tool to regulate every aspect of our lives this government could ever have, all predicated on whatever they want to say: quality of life, costs. We decide who lives and dies at the beginning of life, we’re certainly going to decide who lives and dies at the end. An 84-year-old guy needs a quadruple bypass and a heart valve, ain’t going to happen. By design it won’t happen because it wouldn’t facilitate saving any money. It wouldn’t be worth the investment. This is dreadfully serious stuff that is being talked about here in the most irresponsible, dreadfully irresponsible way by this president to talk about it in terms of a crisis, mom and dad can’t afford checkups for the kids when nobody’s leaving this country to find health care for themselves or their kids. It’s just irresponsible. I think they’re in a state of disarray. You have Mitch McConnell now out saying Obama’s Porkulus is a failure, and the media jumping right on that. Of course, they love that. So the magic is sort of on the wane here.
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RUSH: Cameron in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, hi, and welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, those sound bites sound like a bad Ross Perot imitation. But anyway, with regard to health care, this isn’t rocket science. We need to get back to the time when you can — as an individual or family you can — deal with the doctor and the hospital directly. Get the insurance company’s out of business except for catastrophic situations. I realize people would need insurance for situations like that. But get the insurance companies out, deal with the doctor in the hospital directly, therefore costs would come down.
RUSH: Well, there’s one way of getting started on this, and that’s the concept known as HSAs, health savings accounts. The health savings account idea, naturally, sprang from conservative thinking — or sprung. Well, it originated with conservative thinking. And it basically is this. The federal government is spending X on health care every year per person. So theoretically, you would divvy up the amount of health care per person and you would give each adult that amount of money to spend themselves on health care for them and for their children. And they would go shop, and they’d find the best deal — whatever doctor they wanted, whatever price — and whatever they didn’t spend on health care, they got to keep. It’s just returning their money to them. They’re already being taxed for this. The government’s not giving anybody anything.
Under HSAs, the government is returning what was money earned and produced by people in the first place and letting them spend it. That’s the way you get started on the consumer choosing services he can afford to pay, like hotel rooms, airplane flights, and so forth and so on. And then you get started here on bringing a free market, cost-and-ability-to-pay oriented system back into health care. HSAs have been specifically killed in the House plan. There is no way we are going to survive the Obama administration of Pelosi do not want you having that freedom or that ability to spend your own money on your own health care. And, by the way, whether it’s with the health savings account or not, they do not want you having the ability to pay your own money for your own health care. This bill is not about health care, folks. It’s not about health care reform. It’s not about making your health care better. It’s not about giving you more access. It’s gonna give you less. It’s not about anything they are saying it’s about.