RUSH: President Obama, you gotta hear this, folks. He had a little press conference at the White House. Actually was meeting with his Economic Recovery Advisory Board and they let cameras in there. We have four sound bites. Here’s the first. It’s starting at 28 here, Mike. This is what Obama said today.
OBAMA: (camera shutters throughout) Need for us to make up a whole lot of job loss is going to require, I think, some bold, innovative action on our part and on Congress’ part and on the private sector’s part.
RUSH: Stop this a second! What the hell was the stimulus? Some bold, innovative action on our part, on Congress’ part, on the private sector’s part? Mr. President, you told us the stimulus would make sure that unemployment did not rise above 8%. What ‘bold, innovative action’ are you talking about?
OBAMA: (camera shutters throughout) It’s also gonna require that we look at new models for where future job growth is going to come from. Because one of the, I think, key understandings coming out of this past financial crisis is that a lot of our growth was debt driven — credit cards maxed out, home equity loans being taken out to finance, uh, a lot of purchases. Businesses are going to be more cautious in terms of how they approach taking on a lot of debt. The government is going to have to get serious about reducing our debt levels.
RUSH: This is unbelievable. It’s too late! It’s too late! We’ve got a $1.42 trillion deficit for the budget year just finished. He says that growth was debt driven? Well, the GDP growth was certainly debt driven. It wasn’t driven by any measurable activity on the consumer side or the business investment side. But this is just… This is remarkable. ‘We’re going to need a new model. It’s going to require we look at a new model.’ Mr. President, we have a model that works. It’s the past 200 years. We have a model that works. Your ‘bold, innovative actions’ are what is destroying the country. You’re not building anything. You’re not creating anything. You’re not saving anything, Mr. President. You are destroying it — and you are going to continue this destruction as you abandon 200-plus years of capitalism, freedom, and growth; and replace it with your whatever you want to call it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hi. Welcome back. Rush Limbaugh, off to a rousing start here at the EIB Network. I want to take you back to, when was this? This was — in January. This is from the Washington Post. Michael Fletcher. ‘President-elect Barack Obama, seeking to quiet concerns that his economic stimulus package would lead to an unsustainable expansion of the public workforce, said today that 90 percent of the 3 to 4 million jobs created or saved by his [stimulus] would be in the private sector. In his weekly radio address, Obama said that nearly a half-million of the new jobs would be created by investing in clean energy, while another 400,000 would be created by repairing schools, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. ‘The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small across a wide range of industries,’ Obama said. ‘And they’ll be the kind of jobs that won’t just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to lead the world in the long term.’ … Obama cited the report in underscoring the urgency of enacting a stimulus package. ‘These numbers are a stark reminder that we simply cannot continue on our current path,’ the president-elect said. ‘If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits.” None of this has happened. None of it! Let’s now go back to the audio sound bite. Here’s the second clip we have of Obama this morning at the White House with his Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
OBAMA: (camera shutters throughout) How do we get what I call a post-bubble growth model, uh, one that is sustainable? That’s what, uh, we’re going to be discussing here today. Uh, as I said, we got experts from, uh, a wide range of business sectors, and what we’re going to talk about is, are there mechanisms that we can, uh, start putting in place where, uhh, we — we see the kind of growth that used to characterize the US economy —
RUSH: This is unbelievable.
OBAMA: — export-driven growth, manufacturing growth, uh, growth that pays high wages, and provides, uhhhh, high living standards for a broad-based middle class.
RUSH: Well, then don’t do anything. Cancel the stimulus, cut some taxes, and get out of the way. Incentivize growth. You are disincentivizing everything. This is unbelievable. Here again, this is from January: ‘President-elect Barack Obama, seeking to quiet concerns that his economic stimulus package would lead to an unsustainable expansion of the public workforce, said today [in January] that 90 percent of the 3 to 4 million jobs created or saved by his [stimulus] would be in the private sector. In his weekly radio address, Obama said that nearly a half-million of the new jobs would be created by investing in clean energy, while another 400,000 would be created by repairing schools, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. ‘The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small…’ He’s clueless! He’s dangerously in over his head. Nothing has worked. I actually submit that it has worked. I think they’re getting exactly what they want out of this. They got more chaos, they got more angst, and now they have an excuse for saying, ‘Oh, we gotta do more! Oh, we gotta do more. So we gotta convene the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. We gotta go out there, we gotta do more.’ Here’s another sound bite. Get this.
OBAMA: (camera shutters throughout) We’re also in a era of fiscal constraint, which means that we gotta start finding some more creative, new approaches to, uh, financing, uh, these projects. So those are the discussions we’re going to be having, uh, not just today, but, uh, in the weeks and months to come. This is my administration’s overriding focus. Having, uh, brought the economy back from the brink, the question is: How are we gonna make sure that people are getting back to work, uh, and able to support their families? It’s not going to happen overnight, but we will not rest until, uh, we are succeeding in generating the jobs that this economy needs.
RUSH: It’s like Steve Wynn said: The government does not create jobs. The entire purpose of the stimulus bill was to create enough jobs in the private sector so that the $1 trillion would be paid back from the exploding private sector job base. That was sold as an ‘investment’ in the private sector, an investment that would wipe out the deficit, not multiply it. How’s that hope and change working for you, folks? This is just stunning. He said we’re in a postbubble growth model and that we have fiscal constraint? Discussions we’re going to be having not just today but in the weeks and months to come, as my administration’s overriding focus, having brought the economy back from the brink. The question is how are we going to make sure the people getting back to work? Brought the economy back from the brink? The media is saying the recession is over, and yet you’re convening the Economic Recovery Advisory Board to figure out how in the hell you’re going to get people back to work? Breathtakingly dangerous, is what this is. And here, get this last one.
OBAMA: (camera shutters throughout) If somebody can show me, uh, a strategy that’s gonna work, uh, then we are happy to, uh, consider it. And, uh —
RUSH: This is —
OBAMA: — I want to end by saying this. We anticipate that we’re going to continue to see some job losses in the weeks and months to come. Uh, as I said before, there is a — always a lag, uh, of several months between businesses starting to make profits again and investing again and them actually rehiring again.
RUSH: He promises unemployment is going to continue to rise, but he’s opened to ideas. ‘Oh, yeah! If somebody can show me a strategy that’s going to work, we’re happy to consider it.’ I thought you had all the answers! I thought you ‘won.’ I thought you had all the answers. You don’t listen to anybody else’s ideas. Your too bloated of an ego will not allow anybody’s ideas inside your skull. This is insulting. He tells us unemployment is going to continue to rise while saying the economy has been brought back from the brink and that the recession is over and we’re going to head north on unemployment, past 10% — and he’s open to new ideas. We don’t need any new ideas. We have an idea that has worked better than any idea in world history, Mr. President. It is called capitalism. It just so happens he doesn’t believe in it. He doesn’t like capitalism. Capitalism allows for too much freedom, my friends.