RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, we had a call earlier today from a woman and she’s got a point, that she’s afraid that people might not understand the problem with the deficit, because in her case: ‘Look, milk costs the same, gasoline costs the same, going to a movie costs the same. People are telling me the deficit is out of this world. I don’t know how it impacts me.’ So I explained it to her. I told her I think a lot of people now may not specifically understand it, but they know it’s wrong, and that’s why Obama is below 50% in his approval. That and the health care bill. The health care bill, a large part of it is we don’t have the money for it. We don’t have the money for anything he’s done! We’ve got a $1.6 trillion deficit this year. That means we’re spending $1.6 trillion we don’t have. Americans understand being in debt because most of us are. Americans understand that.
But here’s something else to help put this in better perspective and context. It is a story from the AmericanThinker.com. When you people travel on airplanes, they still give you little bags of peanuts and you… (interruption) You don’t get any peanuts? Wait a second. Wait a second. They sell ’em. I mean, you got ’em there. They sell ’em to you, right? They got peanuts and little tiny plastic cups of Diet Coke, right? Or whatever beverage you want. (interruption) You do. For now. But before that you gotta strip down to your underwear and be cavity searched while Mohammed al-Sheik al-Tari gets on board with hardly any examination whatsoever. So try this. ‘Doug Ross has been on this story and broke some news yesterday about the millions of dollars — that’s right, millions — that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has rung up in travel using military aircraft.
‘Now we learn from Doug that it appears Pelosi is using military jets to facilitate the personal travel of her children and grandchildren. No member of congress involved, just the junketing of her kids: ‘Since Nancy Pelosi took over as Speaker in 2006, she’s rung up millions in military travel expenses. Worse still, she also appears to have requisitioned entire flights for the personal use of her children and grandchildren. That is, unaccompanied by any member of Congress[;] her kids, in-laws and grandchildren are utilizing entire military passenger jets for their routine travel needs.’ I think she has spent over $2 million ferrying her family around. This is not to mention the $1 million it cost to send her congressional delegation over to Copenhagen for that bogus climate meeting. I’m also told that of that $2 million, $150,000 to $200,000 of it is food and alcohol.
Catering! For her kids and grandkids! While everybody else buys peanuts (if they’re lucky) and gets a smidgeon little beverage here and there — and then you ask for more you are shot a dirty glance: Who do you think you are? ”22-Feb-2007: A military jet is requisitioned for the sole travel needs of the Speaker’s son, Paul Jr. 13-Apr-2007: A military jet is utilized for the unaccompanied travel of the Speaker’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson. 30-Oct-2008: A military jet is requisitioned for the Speaker’s daughter and a son-in-law, Peter Kaufman to commute between San Francisco and Washington.’ Military flights cost between $5-$20 thousand dollars per hour to operate’ depending on the airplane. ‘Pelosi only reimburses the government between $120-$400 per flight. You and I pick up the rest of the tab with our tax dollars.
‘It’s all perfectly legal, of course — or is it? Even if it is, perhaps we should start asking why a politician’s children and grandchildren should have their travel subsidized at taxpayer expense?’ when there’s no other business being conducted by virtue of the flight. I mean, no member of Congress is going someplace. I talked with John Boehner back last fall. He was down there at a fundraising thing, we went out and played golf, and he told me that members of Congress are not allowed to fly on corporate jets. Period. They’re not allowed to do it, especially corporate jets owned by somebody else that they would reimburse. They cannot do it. And here’s Pelosi requisitioning these military jets for her kids and her grandkids, and this is $2 million in the two years she’s been Speaker, and $150,000 of it is for catering alcohol and food?
It’s $5,000 to $20,000 an hour to operate, depending on the jet that she’s using. I don’t know, $20,000 an hour, you gotta be flying almost a 747 for that, maybe a 767 or 757. Yeah. Certainly she can’t be requisitioning a Boeing 757 for three people. Well, I guess she could. You know, these people really do think of themselves as elite, above-all-of-us royalty. But while everybody else is engaged in a recession and everybody else is worried sick over losing their house and losing their job, and people may be concerned about deficits and so forth, here’s somebody who’s not. Here’s somebody who doesn’t have to be worried about it, and it’s not because she’s paying for it herself. Oh, and I should add: She and her husband are multimillionaires. They could pay for it themselves. Now. It may be the law that all she has to reimburse is 200 to 400 bucks, maybe the price of a coach seat, but it doesn’t make it right. But she’s got the money to do it herself. This is what infuriates me, aside from the poor judgment and the entitled attitude. She’s got the money to do it herself and is still making the government, the taxpayers pay for it. She and her husband are not poor. They are wealthy, multiple times over. That’s just infuriating and people need to find out about it. We will keep people informed
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RUSH: It was Judicial Watch that uncovered the documents detailing Pelosi’s use of Air Force aircraft, and here are the numbers: $2,100,000 in personal travel, $101,429 of which was for in-flight expenses including food and adult beverages. Now, you could feed a lot of hungry kids for $2,100,000. You could really make a dent in problems in Haiti for $2,100,000. Here’s some details: ‘Speaker Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. The average cost of an international CODEL is $228,563.33. Of the 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations (CODEL), 31 trips included members of the House Speaker’s family.’ This is obscene. This is obscene. It is a violation of her oath. It is taking advantage of the taxpayers during a period where we are in a recession, economic downturn. These people are going to have to be held accountable. This is just not right, it’s pure and simple as that. It just isn’t right.
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RUSH: California, Jackie, thank you for calling. Great to have you with us, madam.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: Wow, this is really a treat. I am so excited to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I have to tell you that three years ago today I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so now I will have a far better memory of February 1st than I did before, so this is really exciting to get to talk to you today.
RUSH: Well, thank you. I’m sorry to hear that, though.
CALLER: Well, you know what, I’ve come through it with flying colors, and I’m still here, and I praise the Lord for that and, you know, you just look forward and I know the Lord has my days in his hands so I’m just excited to be healthy and excited to talk to you today. This is like such a treat and everybody that knows me is freaking out for me right now because I’m probably you’re number one fan.
RUSH: Well, congratulations on the good result.
CALLER: Thank you. Well, I know I have to keep it quick, because Snerdley told me to stay focused although you’ve been talking about so many great things today it’s hard to stay focused on one thing. But I think, you know, the thing that we’re seeing right now, Rush, is people just want America back. They want to get back to the simple ideals of what America stands for, and unfortunately what we’re seeing with so many things that you talked about today, liberals are sold out to their ideals. They’re not sold out for America. And, you know, candidates like Scott Brown, he’s a servant, he’s an American, he’s not going to Washington so he can fly his family on jets all over the world. He’s going there to serve America, and it’s so refreshing. And I’m hoping we’re going to start seeing more candidates understanding that that is what people want.
RUSH: Well, that’s the key. You know, that really is the key. Do Republicans understand what happened here? We’ll have to wait and see, but based on what’s going on in Illinois, I’d say they do.