RUSH: We’re going to go to Vancouver, Washington. This is Toni. Welcome, and great to have you here on the program.
CALLER: Oh, thank you, Rush! You know, I am just so excited to be able to have my voice heard on your powerful program.
RUSH: I can imagine. I can imagine what that’s like.
CALLER: (giggling) Yeah, it is because let me tell you, I think I’m a middle class American. By today’s standards I may be, you know, in a lower class than middle class. My husband and I this year had a combined income of just over $70,000. It was down about 20,000 this year. We live in a two — our mortgage is 240 on a house that’s now worth about 189 on today’s market. And, you know, I’m not a politician, I’m not a college professor, I’m not a tax accountant. So I don’t have anything probably real profound to say to you other than to speak my voice for the voice of other millions of people in my position in this country. I listen to you every day. I have a delivery route.
RUSH: Very wise, very, very, very wise, thank you.
CALLER: It allows me to listen to you. I go home at night; my husband and I watch Fox News. So we try to keep ourselves informed. And I have to tell you, I have never in my adult life — and I have lived through as many presidents in my adult life as you have because we’re the same age and I have never — been so — in my life as I am this one.
RUSH: Join the club. I mean you’re not alone out there, don’t ever think you’re alone.
CALLER: Oh, I know I’m not, Rush. And I thank you for stirring up the dust and getting so much of us mad, because America is pissed off right now. And he’s going to hear our little tiny voices when it comes to election time. You know, I wish… Wouldn’t this have been a great scene: To have a president come into office at a time when this country has been so economically devastated and tighten his belt and maybe not board Air Force One to take his wife to a Broadway play and maybe not gone off to Copenhagen twice for nothing at the expense of taxpayers dollars? Or how about just leaving the White House like it was and not spending our taxpayers dollars to tweak it to how he wants it. What about saying to America, ‘You know what? Because of how things are right now, I’m going to tighten my belt and I’m going to do this for you guys because you’re having to tighten your belt.’ You know?
RUSH: Well, now, this is interesting. I’m going to tell you something.
CALLER: I’m sick of it.
RUSH: I’m going to tell you something. You credited me with rousing people up. I didn’t really do much. You’re roused up on your own. I have never suggested that Obama cut back his lifestyle to show other people that he feels their pain. I have never mentioned that. You came up with that all on your own. I have laughed about the fact he flies off to Copenhagen and has it slapped down his throat that they’re not going to get the Olympics, and I’ve laughed about him getting the Nobel Peace Prize (that I now rightfully should have won in 2007, not Gore and not the IPCC), and I’ve laughed about him taking his wife out to dinner in New York and so forth. But I’ve not suggested that he do anything in terms of his own austerity. I have laughed at him serving Kobe beef. You came up with that all on your own. My point in telling you this is that millions of people are doing the very same thing. They don’t need to be riled up; they already are. They don’t need to be agitated; they already are.
The service I provide is validating what you think and giving you information before you know that it comes down the pike. I’m flattered by your compliment, but don’t sell yourself short on this. You and multiple millions of others have had it, for whatever reason. If it bugs you that he’s not being austere in his own life while everybody else has to tighten their belts, fine and dandy. What bugs me more is this guy is single-handedly, along with his Democrat buddies up on Capitol Hill, making it worse on purpose! That’s what frosts me: Making it worse on purpose while living the high life himself. The guy has no compassion. He has no emotional connection to people. You know, basically, Axelrod and these guys are salesmen. That’s what Axelrod’s been his whole life. He’s been a salesman, political salesman. These guys have no experience in the real world governing, and we’re seeing it now. They’re trying to do what they did in the campaign: Trying to sell things. They’re trying to continually sell things. They’re not accomplishing anything. They’re destroying. It really is a devastating thing to sit here and watch, frustrating as well. And people are P’d off, as you said.