RUSH: We’re starting in Johnstown, Colorado. This is David, and thank you for waiting, sir. I appreciate it.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It’s an honor and a privilege to be on your program.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: I am responsible for three factories in China and have been for the last year and a half and so I’ve spent about two-thirds of my time in China, and what you see in China is a veneer of prosperity over really a mountain of poverty.

RUSH: Prosperity over a mountain of poverty.

CALLER: Because once you get outside of the main cities, there are still people plowing fields behind cows and oxen, still hand harvesting corn, grains, rice. I mean, it’s still very much a Third World economy once you get outside of the main cities.

RUSH: With a First World military.

CALLER: Yeah, that’s true.

RUSH: That’s where much of their spending goes. Their infrastructure is built on the cheap, too. Doesn’t take much wind to bring down some of their so-called powerful infrastructure. But, you’re right, and this is what President Bush was telling me, that the big challenge is keeping those peasants behind the oxen. Don’t like them into the city. The cities can’t handle them. The cities are teeming with people already. But it’s always been the case that there is this romance — the left has romance — with the romantic attachments to all these tyrannical communist regimes, and now they’re looking at China and you’ve got this Andy Stern guy and other people telling us, “This is what we need to be. We need to emulate the ChiComs. The ChiComs are doing it right.”

CALLER: Well, if he wants to emulate it then our Social Security payroll they’re talking about, you know, reducing the payroll deduction. It would be 38 to 40% out of the employer, which is what it is in China. For every dollar or RMB we play a Chinese employee, 40 cents goes to the government in the form of payroll taxes.

RUSH: Right. Well, they’d love that! They’d be all for that.

CALLER: Your Social Security’s very local such that, like in your case, having worked in New York City, if you’d left New York City to go to Florida, then all of the Social Security benefits you woulda walked away from, and there’s no guarantee that New York would have honored any of what you’d paid in.

RUSH: Of course not. That may well happen here anyway.

CALLER: Well, I don’t know. (sigh) I’m just a little past 50, and ever since I’ve been young I was told, “Don’t depend on Social Security,” and I haven’t, and it looks like that was some of the truest words ever spoken to me.

RUSH: Why are you doing business in China?

CALLER: Because I was hired to try and straighten out three factories that produce products for sale in the US, and they really don’t have manufacturing expertise in China. You have to recognize, they don’t have any upper-middle management people. Everybody that’s in their forties to sixties were all caught up in the Cultural Revolution and never got really educated. They all got hauled off to the countryside to pick rice. So the entire economy’s based on 35- to 20-year-olds that are all fresh out of school with very little experience.

RUSH: And not paid very much.

CALLER: About three — I guess in US terms they’re paid about 350 to 400 bucks a month is what the current basic salary is for somebody who works in a factory.

RUSH: Well, again, it all jibes with what people like Obama and Andy Stern would think is great. (interruption) Well, this talk about them overtaking us is a myth, too. There’s so many lies being told about the United States’ standing in the world. It is an absolute myth that this country, China, is gonna overtake us. The last I heard it was 2025. (interruption) 2017? Okay, in 2017 the ChiComs are gonna overtake us. (interruption) In what? (interruption) What? The world’s biggest economy? (interruption) Well, world’s biggest economy defined how? Are we gonna define it by standard of living or we gonna define it by output? How we gonna confine it? If that’s the case, fine! If anybody wants to go there, move, if that’s the future, if China’s the future, why isn’t there a trail?

Why aren’t there just mega trips to China, people going right now? Why aren’t people investing their money in China? If all of this is true — and I’m not trying to downplay the ChiComs, but — there’s interesting piece here. Let me find this piece. You know, Rick Perry — and I have to admit, folks, when he first said this in a debate, I looked at Kathryn, and I said, “Oh, no, no! Oh, gosh.” I cringed. But it turned out not to hurt him, and in fact it might come back and help him. Rick Perry said that the ChiComs are gonna implode. Rick Perry said that the communist Chinese government will end up on the ash heap of history; and everybody said, “Oh, how stupid is this guy?” ’cause of course the myth is exactly what Snerdley believes. Snerdley says, “No, no, no! The Chinese are gonna take us over by 2017, maybe sooner. We’re cooked!”

This is what I meant yesterday. You notice how seductive? Snerdley knows these people lie to him and he’s sitting there, he’s prepared to believe that the ChiComs are about to overtake us. How do you supposed to measure economies. One thing… (interruption) Oh, gosh. “How do you measure economies.” Do you really have to ask me that? You — you — (interruption) Of course it’s every statistic, and who is making the reports? Who is making these reports and why do they make these reports? What’s the purpose? Demoralize us, make us think our system doesn’t work, make us think our system is the failure, that the ChiCom system better. That’s what the president’s doing, for crying out loud. You believe what he says? He says, “I wish I was running China.

“You see how they can build buildings? You see how they got ready with the Olympics? You see all their great infrastructure? We can’t build anything!” This is like Colonel Sanders saying, “Trust me with your chickens, I love ’em.” I want to go back to this Rick Perry business, because James Taranto (again, in his Wall Street Journal Best of The Web today): “Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson is in Red China, where his shoe-leather reporting has turned up evidence that . . . Republicans are stupid. Seriously, that’s the subject of the first of what he promises will be several columns filed from Beijing. Let’s examine his closing argument, which responds to a quote from Rick Perry: ‘But this ignores the big picture.

“‘Yes, China is governed — in an authoritarian, repressive, at times shockingly brutal manner–by a regime that calls itself communist. But communism self-immolated two decades ago. Walk down any commercial street in Beijing and you see storefronts, venders and hawkers selling anything under the sun. Communism is no longer a system in China. It’s just a brand name that officials haven’t figured out how to ditch. I’m aware, of course, of the shameful human rights violations that the Chinese government commits every day…'” Yeah: Hello, Walter Duranty Jr. Listen to this again. “Yes, China is governed — in an authoritarian, repressive, at times shockingly brutal manner–by a regime that calls itself communist.” They just call themselves that ’cause they haven’t figured out how to “ditch” the brand.

“I’m aware, of course, of the shameful human rights violations” to go along with the “authoritarian, repressive, shockingly brutal regime,” and I’m aware that they commit these rights violations “every day.” I’m aware of “the government’s selfish, corrupt insistence on maintaining a monopoly of power,” but this is not communism! “These atrocities can never be forgotten,” but I’m here, and I see vendors, and that means they’re not communists anymore. But they still brutalize people, and they put people in jail for their religious beliefs, and they violate human rights, but it’s not communism, he says. “But I’m betting,” writes Mr. Robinson, “that the burgeoning middle class will find a way to cast off these shackles.” How? “But I’m betting that the burgeoning middle class…” Have you talked to the Falun Gong lately? Have you talked to the Tibetans? Have you talked to the Mongols? For crying out loud!

And this is what passes for intelligence!

Rick Perry’s stupid; Eugene Robinson is brilliant. He’s not through. “But I’m betting that the burgeoning middle class will find a way to cast off these shackles,” which are communism but we don’t call them that any more. “The correct response would be to cheer them on,'” the middle class. Taranto: “So, to recap: China’s Communist Party has already abandoned communist economics for something that looks very much like American commercialism. Politically, however, it remains a brutal and corrupt one-party state. But that can’t last. Robinson both thinks and hopes that the Chinese people will rise up and change the regime. OK, now here’s the Perry quote: ‘I happen to think that the Communist Chinese government will end up on the ash heap of history.’ Perry said the same thing Robinson did, only much more pithily and memorably.” (Brevity is the soul of wit.) “How does that make Robinson the smart one?” Eugene Robinson is Walter Duranty Jr.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I think what the ChiComs are trying to do is what Gorbachev tried to do. Gorbachev tried to hold the Soviet Union together but he knew economically that country could not exist with a centrally planned economy. Command-and-control could not exist. They needed capitalism. They needed free market. So he tried to implement free markets, still call it communism, and this upset the Politburo, and there was an assassination attempt against Gorbachev — and he really fell upon disfavor in some media circles in this country for trying this, then he got it back ’cause they hated Reagan more. (interruption) Oh, oh, of course I do! Because they were trying to claim back at the time that Gorbachev was the savior of the planet, glasnost and perestroika!

“This man is the vision we’ve all been waiting for. We have Reagan, that old man. His finger is poised on the nuclear button! Gorbachev is great.”

I’m saying, “You guys, everybody is missing the boat. This guy is a flat-out communist with a capital C and he’s trying to hold onto his country as a communist country by implementing a little economic reform here but the problem he’s gonna have is you can’t dole out our parcel out freedom. Once you give ’em a taste of it, that’s it. Once you let ’em watch ‘Dallas’ and once blue jeans are in the grocery stores and the department stores, it’s over. Once all the lies that you’ve been telling your people about the United States are known as lies, once your people find out you’ve been lying to ’em, you’ve lost ’em,” and it’s exactly what happened. I took grief like you can’t believe for this. The Gorbasm was when he arrived for the first summit with Reagan here. The Gorbasm was what happened when he got off the airplane. The State Department wimps, the media were all out there and Gorbachev got off the plane and…

Yeah, Gorbasm, that’s true.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Charlie in Lavern, California, great to have you on the EIB Network. Welcome.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It’s an honor to speak with you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: This article, I can’t understand where the Wall Street Journal can give any kind of legitimacy to a man like Andy Stern. It’s as if he believes that China’s economy operates in a vacuum. There’s a grisly article in the Weekly Standard today with several doctors from China who actually participated in the harvesting organs from political and religious dissidents in remote countryside areas where they were in these antiseptic vehicles parked right next to open ditches, and the bodies were brought in recently killed, and they just harvested the organs and threw the bodies in a ditch, and for Andy Stern to believe that an economy is effective —

RUSH: How do you know that he didn’t teach ’em that?

CALLER: (laughing) Well, you’re probably right about that! (laughing)

RUSH: Well, who are we talking about here? Actually, I am glad that the Wall Street Journal published the thing. If it was in the Communist Party USA I woulda missed it. I’m glad the Journal published it. You know, I had not seen the Weekly Standard story, but that doesn’t surprise me, so the ChiComs get their political enemies, they wipe ’em out, and they harvest their organs for the party members. Look, this is not something that Andy Stern would find reprehensible. I don’t know how to explain this. I know that sounds pretty extreme, but look: People who live in authoritarian, centrally planned governments who want that kind of concentrated power want it for a reason. When you’ve got a guy who runs the SEIU who writes a column longing for the power — which is all this is — that leaders in communist countries have, then everything else goes.

Don’t think Andy Stern doesn’t know stuff like that happened and don’t think he doesn’t know of the one child policy and the abortions that take place and all the other human rights violations. He knows exactly what’s going on. That’s why he likes it! Liberals are who they are. “Rush, you can’t possibly believe that.” Yes, I do. Without a doubt. Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand. I’m not saying that Andy Stern would be in charge of the organ harvesting program set up by the Obama regime if they turn this place into China. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just telling you that when you have people who look at China and envy the power, and then you understand that there hasn’t been a communist regime on earth that has not done things like that, how would Andy Stern’s communist regime be any different?

Communism is what it is.

Liberalism is what it is.

Conservatism is what it is.

Freedom is what it is.

This is the problem.

Who would have ever believed that we would have elected a president who could literally pass such a freedom-killing piece of legislation called Obamacare? Who would have believed that we would have elected a president who has purposely, systematically destroyed how many millions of jobs in the private sector for one reason, to grow the government (i.e., increase his own power)? It’s happening right before our very eyes. The history of communism worldwide is well documented, as is the history of all of its apologists. The history of people who live in tyranny is also well documented, and it’s happening around the world to this day. We’ve always been the exception to that. But believe me: The history of the human race is not the United States.

The history of the human race is more commonly found in tyrannical regimes. That’s what’s been so amazing about this country, and our existence has been in part to liberate as many people from those types of regimes as possible. So I don’t… I’m unable to sit here and say, “Well, you know, that kind of stuff I’m sure Andy Stern doesn’t know it goes on.” I don’t know that. I would be forced to bet the other way. There isn’t a person alive other than a deranged, uneducated college student — in other words, young, naive, maleducated, ill-educated person. There isn’t a person alive of any age and maturity and power who is suggesting or promoting a communist-type government without knowing what it is. Because they know what it is is precisely why they love it.

If you’re having trouble believing this, then welcome to the club, ’cause I’m like you. I don’t understand how anybody can hate this country. I told you yesterday that I know it sounds naïve. I understand it, I know all of this. I hear think explanations, but I’m telling you in my heart I don’t understand how others in their hearts can hate this country. It does not compute. But I know they do, and I take ’em seriously as to why — and Andy Stern is one who does. So if you think that all these kinds of atrocities couldn’t happen, well, they couldn’t happen here at one time, and they still can’t, but for how long? I’m sure the people that lived in Germany never thought what happened there was going to happen. Otherwise they woulda stopped it. But it was too late when they all figured it out.

That’s world human history, folks. That’s been the norm. We are the exception, but only for 200-and-some-odd years. Human beings have been walking around for thousands of years, and the lone exception to that’s been this country. Well, the Brits and so forth, but even in their history. So, yeah, I know it sounds odd, a little bit extreme here, but I don’t want to give ’em even the chance to get close to it. People that want that kind of power over other individuals, red flags ought to go up with everybody. We’ve got a history with Andy Stern. We know who he is, the things he believes in, the things he’s said. These people have a history of undermining the whole notion of individual freedom and liberty in this country. It’s just there. Some people that can’t believe it so don’t want to think about it. “No, those people aren’t gonna win Rush. We don’t have to worry about it. There are always gonna be fringe people.” Well, I never thought we’d elect a president who would purposely destroy jobs.

I never thought that would happen, but it has.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Josephine in Charleston, South Carolina. Joseph, it’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Mega fellow talk show host dittos, Rush! How you doing today?

RUSH: Very good, sir. Thanks.

CALLER: I wanted to comment on what you were talking about before. They think basically… You talk about zero baseline budgeting. They’re doing zero baseline socialism every year. They start off with a power base that they accrue and then once they’ve got that they keep moving. Because, I mean, President Obama is a product of the Reagan administration. He was in the schools during that time. I can only imagine what they’re producing now.

RUSH: Yeah, well, he’s openly talked about how his mission in life was to fix all the things that Reagan and his minions screwed up. He grew up hating Reagan, he grew up despising everything about him. That’s what he was taught. But, you know, you have a got a point about this. People always say to me, “Rush, you can’t be right about this, the liberals, everybody knows communism doesn’t work.” No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You can say the same thing about liberalism. It doesn’t work either. Look at Great Society, war on poverty, you name it. Everything they do falls apart, everything they do is never a solution. It just creates a new problem needing a new program! What they tell themselves is, “There nothing wrong with communism, nothing wrong with liberalism. It’s just the right people haven’t tried it yet,” or, “It hasn’t been properly funded yet. Let us run it, and we can make it work,” and every new generation of bubbling-up young liberals thinks the same thing. Even now, I guarantee you, the Occupy people thin, “Okay, Obama blew it. The right people could pull this off; the right people could make it happen,” and therefore the dream stays alive.