RUSH: To Oklahoma, here is Dustin. Dustin, it’s nice to have you, sir. He’s 23 years old. Nice to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hey thank you, Rush. Hey, I’ve heard a little bit about what is wrong with the health care plan, but what is right with it, and can it be fixed?
RUSH: Now are you asking me what’s right about the American health care system, or what’s right about the health care reform plan that Obama’s trying to pass?
CALLER: What’s right with his plan, if anything. I mean, is there anything that can be taken from that and made into something good?
RUSH: No.
CALLER: (chuckles) Well, I’m sorry. I’m the ignorant American. I don’t know what exactly he’s talking about. I just hear a little bit here and there.
RUSH: Let me tell you why. That’s a legitimate question. It’s sort of a variation of the question, ‘Rush, is there anything good you can say about Obama?’ Yeah. He’s going to Martha’s Vineyard and he rented a house owned by a Republican. See? I can say good things about Obama. The reason this plan is bad is because this plan has nothing to do with health care. This plan does not improve health care. It does not extend health care to people that have it. It doesn’t do anything it’s advertised. All it does is put the government in total control of every aspect of your life, Dustin.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: The government is going to determine what diseases are treated, how much is spent treating them, who gets treated. There’s nothing in this that is redeemable at all. You know, you’ve heard probably that there are 47 million uninsured Americans, and ‘That’s just horrible! In a country like ours have that many uninsured Americans,’ right?
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Okay. The House bill has been analyzed by the Washington Post and the Congressional Budget Office. This monstrous, 1,017 page bill, after it passes — ten years after it passes — there’s still 17 million uninsured Americans! It does even accomplish its primary, advertised objective. But the reason it’s bad and the reason there’s nothing in it that’s good is because the government is going to be totally in charge of it. There’s nobody in government that understands health. Obama’s never been a doctor. Obama’s not a businessman. It’s none of his business what you eat, what kind of car you drive. It’s none of his business where you go to the school. It’s none of his business, period, how you live. It’s none of his business if you choose to smoke.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: If you’re not breaking the law, it’s nobody’s business what you do.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: These people have the power, if this plan passes, to regulate behavior based on the impact your behavior will have on our health care system. I guarantee you there’s nothing about it that’s any good. But socialism. It is liberalism. It expands the government at the expense of your liberty. I’m not interested in cherry-picking what might be a page or two in here to have some good ideas, because the whole thing has gotta be stopped.
CALLER: Okay. You know, I do building maintenance, and if they run a building like they run the health care system, it’s just going to be a mess.
RUSH: Well, did you hear the president the other day? He was out doing a town hall meeting, and one of the falsehoods that he’s telling people, he says — and I want you to understand the logic of this. There’s two parts here. The president says first thing, ‘Our health care system is broken. It’s gotta be fixed. It’s just immoral and unjust! We’ve got to do something about it,’ right?
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Then he says, ‘If you like your insurance plan and like your doctor, you get to keep it.’ Well, now, wait a minute, Dustin. I just thought he said the whole system is broken, yet if you like yours, you can keep it?
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: Those two don’t go together. The second thing is he said that he wants a government option in insurance to compete with all the private insurance options that people have, to keep the insurance companies honest. Now, to people who were objecting to this, he said, ‘Hey, look, UPS and FedEx are doing fine. It’s the Post Office that’s in trouble.’ Now, this was one of the most unfortunate things for him he’s ever said. He just told the American people that a federal agency, the Post Office, is in debt. It’s not doing well. It’s a mess.
Private sector companies delivering packages are doing much better than the government plan, and yet he went ahead and made that comparison. The reason he did it is because he’s trying to convince people that their private insurance plan will remain intact. It will not. Eighty-three percent of people who currently like their health care plans through their employer will lose it and have to go to the government option within five years of the program passing, by design. The president himself has said numerous times since 2003 that he’s for a single-payer system, which is government-controlled health care. So just in a philosophical sense, Dustin, your instincts are right on the money, your analogy is. You do building maintenance, and you say, ‘If they run a building like they run the health care system, it will be a disaster.’
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Your instincts are right on the money. There is nothing redeemable in this plan. This is nothing redeemable of putting Barney Frank or Henry Waxman or Nancy Pelosi in charge of your life.
CALLER: Well, they wouldn’t be on the same health care plan themselves, would they?
RUSH: No.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: They will exempt themselves. There will be no government-run health care for them. Their health care insurance and doctors will remain private sector as they are now. They’ve got great health care options, as elected officials. But the big mistake is people think that that’s a government-run plan. It’s not! It’s government paid for, us, taxpayer.
CALLER: Ugh!
RUSH: Senator Kennedy didn’t go to some government doctor.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Senator Kennedy went to a private hospital, private doctor.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: The government doesn’t run any of those health care plans, but they’re going to run ours if this thing passes. So, you got a good head on your shoulders. You follow your instincts out there.
CALLER: All right. Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: All right. I like that question: ‘Is there anything good in the health care plan?’ See, you know what that question does? Is it illustrates the desire that a lot of Americans have: ‘Can’t we just get along? Can’t you find something to say good?’ In this case, bottom of my heart honest, there is nothing in this bill worth having if we have to take everything else along with it. There may be a couple good ideas, I don’t know, but they’re not worth having if all 1,016 other pages are filled with the garbage that they are filled with. No, no. This has to be stopped. You don’t compromise with socialists. You beat them. You don’t compromise with people who want to take your freedom away. You beat them.