RUSH: Now, here’s the next New York Times story. This one is unbelievable. It’s by Annie Lowrey. “President Obama says prosperity does not trickle down, and a rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats. The conservative policies predicated on those ideas, he maintains, amount to a youÂ’re-on-your-own economics, when the country really needs a weÂ’re-in-this-together approach.”
In short, what Obama is gonna say in these speeches — I want you to look at me, I want you to hear this so that you know what’s coming, because, when the press amplifies this and applauds it, you are going to become enraged. The president is going to say that prosperity comes from the middle out. “Prosperity needs to come from the ‘middle out’ rather than the top down.” Never mind that this has never, not once, worked. It has never succeeded, this formula of the middle class leading economic rebound. It’s not possible. The middle class benefits from it, but an economic recovery is not caused by the middle class. An economic expansion is not caused by the middle class. The middle class, by and large, are consumers.
In order for the middle class to consume to the level that economic growth takes place, they must be paid a lot of money. And, in order for that to happen, the businesses where they work must grow. The places where they are employed must do well. They must be making more. They must have more customers they’re servicing. Whatever the enterprise is, it has to grow so that people working there earn more, get raises, get more benefits, and so that new people get hired. This idea that the economy bubbles up from below is absurd.
That’s what Obama’s gonna sell, though. Obama is gonna sell we’ve gotta take more money from the rich and we’ve gotta raise taxes on businesses and we gotta get that money to the middle class where it will cause the economy to grow. That’s not how this happens. Just like the government takes from the private sector, the private sector shrinks. You take money away from the rich and business owners and entrepreneurs, you get less of what they do, including employment.
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RUSH: Anybody remember who it was who said, “A rising tide lifts all boats”? That’s right, it was John F. Kennedy at a speech to the Economic Club of New York in I think 62 or 63. “A rising tide lifts all boats.” President Obama has just said that’s a bunch of conservatism that doesn’t work. And this whole notion that a rising tide lifts all boats, all that is is a “you’re-on-your-own” economy, and we don’t need a “you’re-on-your-own” economy. We need a “we’re-in-this-together” approach. We need socialism, he says. We’re gonna have prosperity result from growth from the middle out.
Not possible, folks. Obama knows this, by the way. He knows this is BS. This is aimed at the vast majority of people who are not wealthy. It’s to make them think that they’re the engine, to make them think that they call the shots, to make them think they’re the ones that are important in this. And I’m not saying they’re not, please don’t misunderstand. But consumers alone cannot grow an economy. Many things have to happen first before the consumption begins. Anyway, I’ll walk through it in a little bit more explanatory way when we get back.
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RUSH: I just want to walk through this one more time because you’re gonna be hearing this for the next, what, six speeches over two months, and it’s going to enrage you. He’s gonna say this and the media is gonna applaud it and they’re gonna find people in the audience who go, “Yeah, yeah,” and cheer it. And what he’s doing is simply the shotgun approach. He’s not aiming at a small niche. He’s aiming at a large group of people who are not rich, and he’s going to tell them that the future of the country depends on them working with each other, and he’s gonna point to the Republicans and say, “They don’t want you to succeed, and they don’t want you to work with them, and they don’t want to work with me, and they don’t want you to be rich or have prosperity.”
That’s what’s coming. And it’s all part of an effort to make sure that the real dire straits of this economy do not attach to him or his policies. He is going to say that the conservative policies of a rising tide lifts all boats. This notion of trickle-down doesn’t work. It never has worked. That’s conservatism predicated on a “you’re-on-your-own” economy. You just take care of yourself and that’s it. You don’t have to worry about anybody else. You don’t have to have compassion. You don’t have to have understanding. You don’t have to be nice to anybody. All you gotta do is care about yourself. That’s all the Republicans care about.
Instead, he’s going to say, we need an economy where we’re all in this together, and, I guarantee you, Hollywood and every damn leftist in this country is gonna wilt and melt and start crying over that, folks. I’m just telling you, we’re in this together. It takes a village, a commune. We’re all just alike, and we’re all gonna work together in love. I mean, they’re smoking pot, folks. This is a bunch of people sitting around smoking pot, dreaming up theories because they have no experience, no knowledge, no ability whatsoever to accomplish what it is they claim to want. He is going to say that prosperity needs to come from the middle out.
Now, I want to be very clear when I say this again because I don’t mean this in any way as insulting or denigrating, put-down, any of that. Because the people — you know, I even say it myself — the people who make this country work are people who get up every day, they play by the rules, they work hard, they do everything they can. They are the backbone of this country. And Obama’s gonna try to make you think that he thinks the same way, but he’s going to be dishonest with you. He’s going to tell you that this economy can only grow if you, in the middle class, make it happen. But that’s not how an economy grows.
This whole notion of trickle-down is exactly what does happen. In fact, there was an AP story back in 2010. Let me start with this explanation using this story. “As Spending by Wealthy Weakens, so Does Economy.” From this AP article: “Wealthy Americans aren’t spending so freely anymore. And the rest of us are feeling the squeeze. … The answer may not be clear for months. But their cutbacks help explain why the rebound could be stalling.” And stalling in 2010 meant a 2.4% growth rate in the economy. It’s 1.8% now, and he claims we’re in a recovery. In 2010 the economy was growing at 2.4%. And, at that rate, the rich stopped consuming, and that hurt everybody.
Here’s more from the AP. “The wealthy may be keeping some money on the sidelines due to uncertainty over whether or not they will soon face higher taxes. … Think of the wealthy as the main engine of the economy: When they buy more, the economy hums. When they cut back, it sputters. The rest of us mainly go along for the ride.” That’s the way to look at this. This is not to say they’re better than anybody else in the middle class, it’s just money is like water; it’s the way it flows, folks. Water does not come up from the faucet unless you got a bad flood going on. This whole notion of trickle-down’s exactly what happened, and the AP story from 2010 proves it.
Now, Obama wants you to believe that the economy will grow from the middle out. “That is the catchphrase that the White House has settled on to signal both a diagnosis of the problems that have ailed the economy since long before the recession hit and the liberal policies that might act as an antidote.”
Right, from the same people that killed Detroit. From the same kind of people that killed Detroit, we’re now gonna hear how to fix the US economy. And they’re gonna do the exact same things they did in Detroit. My friends, the middle class grows and prospers because the places they work grow and prosper. And what must come first in this equation is the places they work growing and prospering. As the places they work grow and prosper, they’re able to pay higher salaries, they’re able to hire more people and they’re able to grow and produce a higher profit, and all of that permits the people that work there to do better.
Now, leftists right now are shouting at their radio, “They don’t share that profit. They keep the profit and they buy themselves yachts and jets.” It’s all bohunk. The history of this country proves otherwise. The only way the middle class can grow is if the places they work grow. Or if there happen to be some entrepreneurs in the middle class who start their own businesses, but they’re not employees then, they become employers, self-employed or maybe they hire a couple of people along the way as they grow. If the middle class were responsible for growth, you would be building the SUV that’s in your garage. If the middle class was responsible for growth, you’d be building the house you live in. But you don’t.
You don’t build your car. You go to a dealership and buy it. How did it get there? A manufacturer put it together. If the place that builds the cars is not doing well, they’re gonna build fewer, they’re gonna have fewer people working there, and the people that work there are gonna be paid less, and it all trickles down. If businesses do not have opportunity to grow, if they do not have customers, if they don’t have customers with money, if they don’t have people willing to buy their service or whatever it is, they’re not gonna grow, and they’re not gonna hire people, and there will not be increased profit, there will be not be increased economic activity.
There’s no such thing as middle out. Look, I know this is gonna be turned around and it’s gonna be reported to people not listening to this program in the wrong way, but I’m sorry, I can’t be held back by that. When was the last time — no, I’m not gonna go there because it’s too ripe for being misunderstood and I don’t need it. I’ve been clear enough on this the way it is. One other thing, there’s nothing wrong with a “you’re on your own.” That’s called liberty. That’s called freedom. And you know what? Everybody looking out for themselves rather than waiting for somebody else to look out for ’em, everybody looking out for themselves is gonna do better than people waiting for somebody else to look out for ’em.
Frankly, I don’t need anybody looking out for me. I do that. I don’t want to have to depend on somebody else, ’cause there isn’t anybody else that’s gonna care as much about me and my life and my wants and needs as much as I do. So why should I turn all that over to them? I don’t. You shouldn’t, either. And I know you in this audience don’t. But Obama’s gonna try to say that you’re on your own, it’s selfishness, mean-spirited. And it isn’t. Self-interest is a beautiful thing. Self-interest is what every responsible parent engages in.
A man and wife interested in the improvement of the lives of their children are engaging in self-interest. And as they engage in activity that improves their lives, it improves the lives of their children, and there are ancillary effects. As people in a neighborhood do better, the neighborhood does better. As people in a town do better, the town does better. As people in a city do better, the city does better. And it’s the reverse. See Detroit. When people in the country do well, the country does better. And there’s nothing wrong with people taking care of themselves. And that’s all “you’re on your own” means, taking care of yourself. You’re gonna do a much better job of it than somebody else because nobody’s gonna care as much about you as you do.
Nobody’s gonna care as much about your children as you do. Nobody’s gonna care about your job, your career, your future, your life as you do. There’s no reason in the world you shouldn’t be interested in yourself. There’s no reason in the world you should not want to better yourself. There’s no reason in the world and there’s no reason to feel guilty over it. And yet liberalism contains never-ending guilt trips for people who do happen to do very well for themselves. That’s called selfishness.
That’s what this man is all about is destroying self-interest, self-reliance, individual achievement, this man abhors that, this party abhors that. Self-reliance and achievement equal people that do not need Barack Obama or the Democrat Party. And if you don’t need them, you are their enemy. And that’s why Obama is trying to promote this notion that you should turn everything over to his policies and not yourself. The scary thing is, there’s gonna be a lot of people that buy this, folks. There are gonna be a lot of people that buy it because of fairness, the word that’s done more damage to this country and our culture than anything I can imagine. Ah, I know, abortion, but the whole concept of fairness and what it means to people has led to more messes.
If you recall, Obama used to say that the economy wasn’t growing because rich people were sitting on their money. Remember that? Obama was criticizing rich people for hoarding. He said the economy wasn’t growing because rich people were sitting on their money. Now all of a sudden he’s throwing that away and coming up with this new concoction that is designed not to grow the economy and not to improve your life, but to make you think that he thinks you are important. That’s all this policy is.
All right, that’s enough. I mean, I could go on with this for the rest of the program. And, frankly, folks, it’s a sad commentary that this kind of basic economic explanation is even necessary. But because of the success the Democrat Party has had in destroying the whole notion of capitalism, these kind of things are necessary now and then.
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RUSH: And to Elizabeth, Lake Forest, Illinois. I’m glad you waited. I really appreciate your patience. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you. I wanted to read two quotes that Mr. Obama made recently. One is in reaction to the verdict, the Zimmerman verdict. He said, and I quote, “I think it’s important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.” About a month ago he was in Northern Ireland visiting Belfast and talking to a mixture of schoolchildren, both Protestant and Catholics.
During that meeting, he said in front of the children, “If Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs — if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden — that, too, encourages division and discourages cooperation.” So I guess my somewhat rhetorical question for you is how…? I don’t understand how this man is allowed to get away with this kind of doublespeak where he encourages divisiveness with regards to race but he tries to, you know, dismiss it with relationship to religion.
I don’t know about you, but to me religion is far more important than race.
RUSH: Well, it’s a fascinating question. He’s divisive on both counts. He’s trying to rip the Catholic Church apart.
CALLER: Absolutely, and I’m a proud Catholic. I take it to heart.
RUSH: He’s trying to rip the Catholic Church apart, and he’s trying to rip racism. He’s not trying to unify anything here.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: He talks this game of unification, togetherness, and so forth, but clearly this man harbors a big chip on his shoulder about a lot of things. He harbors a lot of resentments and his ego is such that the things he really resents are the things that resist him. And because he wants to be universally accepted and dominant, the people that do not — because of their loyalty to other traditions and institutions — thus become targets. Now, how does he get away with it?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Well, he gets away with it by virtue of his appearance. He appears nice, soft-spoken. He comes across as very smart, and he’s got a slavish media, which presents what he says in a nonthreatening — in fact, very productive and cooperating — way. So the actual message that he imparts is camouflaged or masked, as are the actions he takes that result from his remarks. His remarks are not just static. They’re not just words that vanish into the ether. There are always policies or actions that result, and to try to put into play what his words mean.
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RUSH: Hey, folks, did Obama tell Joe the Plumber that the economy works from the middle out? He didn’t tell Joe the Plumber that, did he? This is just Obama’s latest edition of class warfare recast and reimaged.
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