RUSH: I don’t believe what I just heard. Obama’s talking right now about 
the potential government shutdown. Do you know what he said? (imitating Obama) “If you’re planning on going to Yellowstone Park, you can’t, it’s gonna be closed. I don’t know, you have to call, that money you put in that resort, get your money back, they may not have refunds.” And he started talking about how it’s gonna have a negative impact on the recovery at just this moment when the recovery is coming back, economy is rebounding, businesses don’t like uncertainty. (laughing) They’re gonna shut down the economy, he said. We’re gonna shut down the economy. He keeps saying that the Republicans want it to be my way or the highway. When has he ever compromised on anything? This is the guy that runs around and tells the Republicans, “I won.”
But, folks, if you weren’t around in 1995 let me tell you why this Yellowstone stuff is funny, because it’s so predictable. In 1995 during the budget shutdown, which happened in the wintertime around Thanksgiving, Christmas, the first guest during the government shutdown on CNN was some guy who, turned out was a fan of this show. But the guy owned the sleigh ride concession at Yellowstone National Park. And he’s on Larry King complaining about no business ’cause it was the government that paid him. He owned the concession but they paid him. In other words, when the government shut down so did his sleigh rides. And that became the metaphor here for the joke, and now here’s Obama, 16 years later, and the example he gives is if you’re gonna go to Yellowstone Park, it’s closed! And if you’ve put a lot of money into your resort rental I hope you can get it back. They might not offer refunds. (laughing) And launches into a discussion on how this is gonna damage the economy.
RUSH: Tom in Jamesville, New York, welcome, sir, to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, mega dittos from Jamesville.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Real conservative, listened to you for 20 years.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: You were talking yesterday about trying to figure whether or not Obama was doing all of the harm to the USA intentionally or was he simply incompetent.
RUSH: Yeah, no, I was not trying to figure it out. I was asking people what they think.
CALLER: Oh, all right. Well, I’ve come to the conclusion finally, domestically, just because of his believability with Jerome Wright, Saul Alinsky and the Keynesian economics theory —
RUSH: Yeah, right.
CALLER: — I think all of the domestic issue things that he’s doing is intentional.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, you have to wonder, because it isn’t working. Almost three years of it not working and they’re doubling down on the same policies. A normal person would say, “Okay, this isn’t working. We’ll try something else.” They’re doubling down on it and compounding the problem. So I know, I think it’s a natural conclusion to draw.
CALLER: Right. And on his foreign policy, I think he is just totally and completely incompetent. He does not have a clue what he is doing or what to do.
RUSH: Well, let me ask you this, then.
CALLER: Sure.
RUSH: If he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing or what to do, do you think he cares?
CALLER: I’m sorry?
RUSH: Do you think he cares about foreign policy?
CALLER: I do not, no. No, I do not.
RUSH: So what is it? It’s just a necessary evil he’s a gotta spend some time on, it’s —
CALLER: Absolutely. He tries to farm everything out, such as Libya, farming that out to the UN.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: If he can just keep his hands off it, if it backfires, he’s out of the way.
RUSH: Thanks for the call out there, Tom.
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RUSH: Matt, Charleston, South Carolina. It’s great to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, what’s the big deal with the corpses? Just have Obama come out with some “corpsemen” to pick ’em all up, right?
RUSH: (laughing) The elderly corpses. (laughing) Send some “corpsemen” out to pick ’em up. I love it when you can laugh at the president of the United States this way and it’s genuinely funny.
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RUSH: Robert in Hubbard, Ohio. Hi, sir, glad you called. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh! Hoyo De Monterrey, Excalibur, #1, English Claro selection dittos.
RUSH: Fine, fine tobacco, sir. Fine tobacco.
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh, look, I called Boehner’s office and I called Ryan’s office with this. The Republicans are swimming uphill when they don’t need to. They simply have to agree to what the Democrats want with this caveat: They need to go in and defund everything in that budget. Department of Education, NPR radio, et cetera, et cetera, et al. Defund it all. Then send it over to the Senate and let the Senate say — the Democrats in the Senate, of course — “Nay, we won’t accept this,” and let the Democrats in the Senate shut the government because they wouldn’t accept a proposal. Just defund everything!
RUSH: Well, here’s the problem that the Republicans would tell you that they face. At the end of the day they would get the blame that you have just said would fall upon the Democrats. Before that budget even arrived at the Democrats, it’d be reported that the Republicans want to get rid of all education for your kids; they want to close down the schools — not just the school lunch program, they want to close the schools! Your kids would be dead on the side of the street along with their grandparents.
CALLER: Can we agree, Mr. Limbaugh, that it is the responsibility of the states to provide education for those people that live within their borders?
RUSH: No, I don’t disagree. No, no. I don’t disagree with you at all. I’m giving you… What I’m telling you is what’s gonna happen PR-wise, and that’s what the Republicans care about.
CALLER: Well, you know, I think the American people deserve better.
RUSH: It’s as frustrating to me as it is you, but that’s what they say. Look, the government shutdown in ’95 was not a loser. The Republicans won reelection in ’96, but they took the bullet in the media and PR, and they don’t want to take that again. The Republicans… I don’t know if you would like it yourself — and I’m not challenging here, don’t misunderstand. But if you got up every day and read the stuff that’s written about them and it was said about you — if you were a murderer, if you didn’t care about these kids, if you didn’t care about old people — how would you react to it?
CALLER: Mr. Limbaugh?
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: I served four years on a school board. I did not get elected for a second term. I served a four-year term.
RUSH: Right?
CALLER: As president of the school board.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: Under my tenure, because the budget went in the Dumpster, we had to do away with bussing and go do away with sports. They picketed my home. They called me every name they could think of at the newspapers. I did not back down.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: I didn’t care if I got reelected, Mr. Limbaugh! We need people in political office with a backbone, not interested in getting elected to a second term.
RUSH: Well, I totally agree with the backbone business — and kudos to you. You are rare if you cannot care about that stuff. I don’t either, but most people do.
CALLER: Huh. I had ’em picket my house!
RUSH: Do you understand…? Look, I’m just talking human nature, and this is what we’re up against. Do you understand how many people are totally governed, not by what people think about them, but by what they think people are gonna think about ’em? It’s even worse than that. Most people are paralyzed, the way they live their lives, by what they think everything they do is gonna be thought of.
CALLER: Well, I have to tell you that if we don’t start getting individuals in places of responsibility, the country is doomed. It takes… You have to be able to make tough decisions.
RUSH: I will tell you when the country’s doomed, and it’s not doomed yet.
CALLER: Well, we’re still in there fighting.
RUSH: That’s right!
CALLER: And thank you.
RUSH: That’s right, because guys like you are running for the school board. You can’t say the country is doomed with guys like you out there doing what you’re doing.
CALLER: Well, you know, you’ve gotta get in there and you’ve gotta fight and you’ve gotta make a difference, and the bottom line… Oh, and, by the way, Mr. Limbaugh, I also fired 86 people out of the school system.
RUSH: God, I love you. Firing people like that, that’s guts.
CALLER: I mean, it’s the board I served on, the people I served with, but the bottom line is we had to reduce literally thousands of dollars out of that budget, and we did.
RUSH: This is in Hubbard, Ohio?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: What’s the population of Hubbard?
CALLER: Sixty-eight hundred in the city and about in our 4,000 in the township.
RUSH: Boy, you fire 86…
CALLER: But it’s a very nice community. It’s a lovely community here in Ohio. We’re right on the Pennsylvania border on Interstate 80, a lovely community.
RUSH: You fire 86 people, that’s a large percentage.
CALLER: Well, this was in 1984 when we did this. We had to get the budget under control. We were broke!
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: We had no money, and here’s the thing, too: We did not want to go to the taxpayers and say, “We want more money out of your pocket.”
RUSH: Now, did you run for reelection, or just retire?
CALLER: Oh, yes! I did run for reelection. I lost by four votes. I got 2600 votes and my opponent got 2604.
RUSH: Clearly you’re not a career politician.
CALLER: Oh, please! Oh, no, sir. I don’t believe in “career” politics. I’m a term limits guy. I have to be very honest with you. If I had my druthers we’d have term limits. The Founding Fathers — and I know you’re brilliant in history. The Founding Fathers didn’t perceive these jobs as tenured service. Nobody should have squatter’s rights on these jobs. You go, you serve, and you go back home. Unfortunately —
RUSH: Well, certainly they viewed the House of Representatives as you described. They did view the Senate as an aristocracy. In fact, in the original days, the people didn’t even elect the Senate because the Founders thought they were too stupid.
CALLER: Well, it’s unfortunate that we have put ourselves in this position in this country. I also served a term as director of public safety for this particular jurisdiction where I had to remove employees as well.
RUSH: Did you demand a recount? You lost by four votes.
CALLER: Well, but I got 2600, and you need to look at it in that way. You know, you really need to look at it from a positive standpoint.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Actually, I got more than that, I think. To be host with you I think it was like 2480, if we’re talking numbers. It was 2480 and the person that beat me got 2490, something like that. It was like a few votes. As a matter of fact, we went to bed that evening thinking I had been reelected and got up the next morning (laughing) and found out I had not. But we cut busing, Mr. Limbaugh. You know what color my campaign signs were? … Black and yellow.
RUSH: Black and yellow.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Well, you’re close to Pittsburgh.
CALLER: Heh-heh-heh-heh. We are indeed.
RUSH: Yes, you are.
CALLER: We are indeed.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: I’m gonna go back and enjoy my Hoya.
RUSH: I don’t blame you. Gotta have your priorities, and I don’t blame you. That’s Robert in Hubbard, Ohio. Thanks, Robert, for the phone call.
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RUSH: Quincy, Illinois. Hi, Rich. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Wonderful to talk to you. Long, long-time listener. Finally got through.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I am just so curious about why people are so worried about a government shutdown. I think the reason actually is that nobody may notice. That’s probably why the politicians are worried about it.
RUSH: Well, I think you’re right. Rich, you got a point, but I want you to listen, I don’t have much time. Grab sound bite 23. This is Obama, what I just talked about, he’s in Pennsylvania.
OBAMA: Folks who were planning a vacation to Yellowstone. Well it turns out the national parks, suddenly you are closed, you’re outta luck. You may have to try to figure out if you can get your money back for that resort you were going to stay at. I mean, you know these are things that affect ordinary families day in, day out. And it affects our economy —
RUSH: Stop the tape. This guy is so arrogant he doesn’t realize what an idiot he is. Resume the tape.
OBAMA: — right at the time when our economy is getting momentum. We had the best jobs report we have had in a very long time this past Friday, but you know what? Companies don’t like uncertainty and if they start seeing that suddenly we may have a shutdown of our government that could halt momentum.
RUSH: Really? Talk about uncertainty? How about your regime? Your regime personifies uncertainty.
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