SEIU is Microcosm of Soviet Union

RUSH: Robert in Fresno, California, thank you for holding on. You’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. You’re a great American. Thank you for what you do.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Appreciate it. Rush, I need you to try and help me out here understanding, you know, the difference in these unions in regards to their representation of employees and (unintelligible) of SEIU, there’s — I understand why. However, is representation not representation, regardless of where it’s coming from, whether it be a union, an agent, I mean ballplayers have unions, the Writers Guild, I mean Hollywood, all those folks over there that make millions and hundreds of millions of dollars, and I mean where —

RUSH: Yeah, but they’re not destroying the country.

CALLER: Okay. Wait a minute, though. Does that not pass along to the consumer somewhere? When you’re paying $2 million for 30 seconds to run an advertisement during a ball game, that’s gotta get down to the consumer. There’s no way around it. So that’s a tax basically.

RUSH: What? What do you mean — wait a second. I want to understand this.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: What do you mean, $2 million for a 30-second commercial has gotta get down to the consumer? What has to get down to the consumer?

CALLER: The cost of what they’re paying for ads or whatever it is. I mean, you know, the cost —

RUSH: When’s the last time you got a bill for a Super Bowl ad?

CALLER: The last time I went and bought a beer.

RUSH: Okay, fine, so what’s the point?

CALLER: Well, the point is no matter where your representation is, it doesn’t trickle down, it’s still a tax no matter if it’s an increase in cost, no matter where it’s coming from, whether it’s a union, an agent negotiating hundreds of million of dollars accurately —

RUSH: Wait a minute, wait a minute.

CALLER: Your own contract, your own advertising — (crosstalk)

RUSH: Folks, we got a problem here. When callers are on a cell phone they cannot hear me. Alexander Graham Bell could have invented the phone system that we have here with the cell phone call. It’s the equivalent of two tin cans and a string. Look, I don’t know why you are coming to this particular conclusion about unions. You’re thinking my objection is what they end up costing people?

CALLER: No, I just, you’re totally — I’m not arguing the point. I want you to explain to me what the difference is in representation, whether you’re represented by an agent that you hire or you’re being represented by a union —

RUSH: It’s not, no, no, no. (crosstalk) It’s not the representation — (crosstalk)

CALLER: There’s operating engineers, there’s SEIU, there’s multiple unions out there. They’re representing people —

RUSH: The representation is not the problem.

CALLER: So where’s the problem?

RUSH: In fact, I don’t have representation, I don’t have an agent. Why should I give some schlub 15% of what I can get on my own?

CALLER: Okay. So you negotiate your own contracts.

RUSH: Damn right.

CALLER: Regardless, I don’t need to get in your business. (crosstalk)

RUSH: No wait a minute. How does this always end up about me? I just lost my earpiece.

CALLER: Uh-oh.

RUSH: So I’ll be deaf until I go to the commercial break. Take him down because I can’t hear if he’s talking. Look, I don’t negotiate contracts. I make demands that are met. It’s called leverage. Now, you ought to see them on the other side of the glass. (laughing) They act like I have just let the biggest cat out of the bag of my life. Now, look, Robert, my problem with unions is not representation. My problem is the ideological orientation of government worker union leaders. They are stripping the country and raping the country blind. They are destroying the private sector where wealth is created. The jobs for public sector government workers do not produce anything. The taxpayers who are paying these people do not make anywhere near as much money as the people they are paying. They support liberal socialist political causes and candidates which are creating great harm to the country, pure and simple. I’m not even talking about the rank-and-file members in my criticism here.

The dirty little secret here is too many union leaders have as much real concern for their workers as socialist communist leaders ever had for the proletariat. They don’t care about them. They care about themselves, ingratiating themselves with power. The SEIU is a microcosm of the Soviet Union. Now, Snerdley, when I get my earpiece back on here and I can hear you respond, I want to know what was so outrageous about saying I don’t negotiate. We’ll be back here, folks, and when we get back, I will be able to hear. Well, my earpiece fell off. It’s held on there by a magnet and I touched a cord here while I was gesticulating wildly. You ought to see them in there. They can’t believe I would say that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, Snerdley, it’s real simple. The best way to look at this is: I don’t need anybody looking out for me. Okay? It’s that simple. That’s all I was saying. The folks need somebody to look after ’em. Not me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, back to this union business. The dirty little secret is, unions are willing to destroy the industries in which they work in order amass even more power for themselves. I’m talking about the leaders, not the rank-and-file guys. Political leaders. The guy says (grumbling), ‘What’s wrong with the SEIU?’ They’re liberals! I think liberals are a scourge! The whole theme of this program today has been how liberals are destroying virtually everything that they touch.

Here’s Joe in Chicago. Welcome to the EIB Network. It’s great to have you here.

CALLER: Yeah, Rush, it’s an honor to talk with you. I just don’t see how this country can stay together. I mean, we’ve got the Democratic liberals whose beliefs are so far apart from what conservative beliefs are, I don’t see how he ever can get together again. I just don’t know how it’s gonna happen.

RUSH: You don’t think bipartisanship’s possible?

CALLER: No. No, not with what the Democrats want. I mean, you know, you hear they treat the children in school, how they want no religion at all.

RUSH: Okay. So I got 45 seconds here.

CALLER: I can’t.

RUSH: What do you think the solution is? ‘Cause you’re right: There’s no way of working with these people. Where do we compromise with these people?

CALLER: I don’t know. It’s just getting worse. I don’t know where it would be, the way out.

RUSH: Oh, it’s there.

CALLER: (laughs) I don’t see how.

RUSH: It’s very easy?

CALLER: What?

RUSH: Beat ’em!

CALLER: But they’ll still always be here. I mean every election that’s going to come along —

RUSH: Of course.

CALLER: — for president, we’re going to have a man that’s even worse than what we’ve got now. We’re going to have to go through this over and over.

RUSH: Well, I don’t know that that’s possible to have somebody worse than what we have now. Maybe somebody just as bad.

CALLER: Well, yeah. That’s the same thing, yeah.

RUSH: But the point — you’re right — is they’re always going to be there. We’ve got to make them the electoral minority they are in real life.