RUSH: Economic news: “US Economic Growth was More Tepid Than Previous Estimated in the First Quarter.” For those of you in Rio Linda, that means it’s a little cooler than they thought it was gonna be, and there wasn’t as much economic growth in the first quarter as all the experts figured. “US economic growth was more tepid than previously estimated in the first quarter, held back by a moderate pace of consumer spending, weak business investment and declining exports.

“Gross domestic product expanded at a [puny] 1.8% annual rate, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate on Wednesday. Output was previously reported to have risen at a 2.4% pace,” but it didn’t. It was only 1.8%. “Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-quarter GDP growth would be left unrevised at 2.4%. When measured from the income side, the economy grew… slower than the fourth-quarter,” which was exaggerated.

So excluding inventories, the economy grew at a 1.2% rate, the slowest in two years, and that’s the take-away here. It’s likely only to get worse, because this is the result of economic policies put in place on purpose. Folks, we’re now well into the fifth year of this. It’s well enough time for people to have determined that we’re headed in the wrong direction and that maybe there needs to be a shift in policy. But instead, we are doubling down on what has created the problem.

We’re approaching the midpoint here of the fifth year. At this point, we have to abandon the idea that it’s just due to Obama’s policies not working. We have to abandon the idea, “It’s a valiant effort going here to revive the economy, but, damn it, this thing is stubborn!” We have to abandon that. We have to start being open to other possibilities, other explanations for this putrid, “tepid,” nonexistent growth in the economy.

We have to be open to the idea that the economy is under attack, that disposable income is the first casualty. There isn’t any growth and there isn’t any plan for economic growth. With the president’s announced executive orders yesterday to impose even more burdens on this economy in an effort “to stop climate change,” there’s nothing that’s going to change direction that we’re going. There’s nothing that’s gonna result in the economy getting bigger.

It’s gonna keep getting smaller, and more and more of the economy is going to be usurped by the government. So what used to be a big pile of money that you had a chance to access — a growing pie of wealth that you had a chance to attack and get your piece of — is getting smaller and smaller. The pie is getting smaller. Your opportunities to get your piece of it is getting smaller and smaller because the government’s taking more and more of it.

They took one-sixth of that pie for Obamacare.

Now we’re gonna dump anywhere from 11 to 46 million low-wage and unskilled people into the country competing for jobs, which is only going to force wages lower. So it means your opportunity for your piece of the pie is going to be spread around to even more people who are gonna be much more attractive to hire ’cause they’re not gonna cost very much to hire. And if the law gets implemented as designed, the amnesty law, they won’t be eligible for Obamacare or welfare benefits for couple years or longer.

That means they’ll really be affordable to hire because businesses will not have to provide them those benefits, as opposed to hiring you, they would have to. So it becomes more and more attractive for American business to hire the incoming low-wage, low-skilled, uneducated workforce that they crave. So the people you’re competing with for jobs are people that are going to be willing to do the job for peanuts compared to what you would accept for it.

So the opportunity to get your piece of the pie is under assault in any number of ways. The biggest one, though, is the pie is shrinking ’cause the government’s taking more and more of it. So there’s no growth, there isn’t any plan for any growth, but there is a plan for more central control of the economy, command-and-control, planned economy — a stupidly planned economy. I mean, to heck with free markets, the economy, and the people, ’cause Obama is here to help.

Just be patient!

Juuuust be patient.

So Obama announced yesterday a bunch of executive orders ’cause he can’t count on Congress. He signed a bunch of executive orders to finally fight climate change. Algore called it historic. That should be all you need to know that it is a disaster. It is more crony capitalism. It is corruption. It is an alliance of participating industries with government. It’s executive orders for the government to just run in and do what the people and their representatives would not authorize.

It’s under the guise of saving the world, under the guise of saving the planet. And again, the low-information, uninformed crowd thinks that’s really cool and fair, very nice, that somebody cares about them. The problem is that Barack Obama doesn’t know and doesn’t care about climate science. With him, everything is about political science. Citing climate change for Barack Obama is an excuse to exercise wildly… I don’t want to say dictatorial powers, but maybe I should as a means of being illustrative.

It’s what all tyrants do. They take unilateral steps to “help” because they “care.” In this case, they care about the planet. They’re for the people, and you won’t do the right thing unless you are forced to. You won’t live the right way unless you are forced to. You won’t behave the right way unless you’re forced to. The fastest way to be accepted by your leader is to not oppose anything he wants. That’s how you get real love and real affection.

So as far as the low-information crowd is concerned, Obama’s fighting for us. Forget that electricity will skyrocket because of his war on coal, which is the primary source of electricity for most of the people in this country. Forget that the electricity price skyrocketing will result in a lot of people losing their jobs, because it’s gonna become more costly for businesses to operate, and the first thing they’ll get rid of is people in order to stay in business.

The objective of a business is to stay in business.

All this as a result of a mission to “save the planet.” The only way the planet could be saved is to protect it from individuals. The climate and the planet must be insulated, protected from individuals and their irresponsible behavior. Barack Obama is expanding and consolidating massive power over people and their health insurers via Obamacare, financial institutions via Dodd-Frank, and the energy sector via EPA regulations.

He’s dictating policy. He’s on the verge of making it impossible for Republicans to ever win another election with amnesty and the get-out-the-vote efforts that are part of Obamacare. See, Obamacare wasn’t about insuring poor people. Did you think that? Did you think the purpose of Obamacare was, “Yeah, there are 30 million uninsured and Obama’s just gonna insure them”? No, no. No, 30 million people are gonna remain uninsured. We have now been told this by the CBO.

Thirty million people will remain uninsured. Three hundred million will have unaffordable health insurance, but every damn one of them possible will be registered as a Democrat voter, thanks to the Obama exchanges. Obama’s war on coal is not about global warming, it’s not about climate change, ’cause there is none! There isn’t any global warming. Obama’s war is on the private sector economy, and the winner is gonna be an all-powerful federal government — which, of course, is for the good of all the people.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Some clown in a regime actually said that a war on coal right now is exactly what’s needed. A war on coal — coal, as some detestable enemy! You wait ’til we try to get along without it. All these people… I’m reading about all these tech wizards thinking they’re so damn smart protecting and saving the planet, driving around their electric cars, talking about all the time it takes to charge the damn things.

What do they think is powering the charge? These people are using coal out the wazoo to charge these electric cars. How does that escape them? “But there’s no pollution from our carbon system, driving electric cars.” No pollution from your car? You’re burning coal left and right! You’re not reducing the use of the coal that you hate whatsoever! It’s all about stupid, feel-good nothingism.