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Nov. 28, 2005 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:24
November 28, 2005, Monday, Hour #3
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America's Anchorman is back.
America's Anchorman, America's Truth Detector, and Doctor of Democracy, all combined as one harmless, lovable little fuzzball, El Rush Ball with talent on loan from God.
We're here at the EIB Southern Command where it's actually hot and humid today, but 81 degrees.
It was humid today.
It was good.
Back to summertime weather here.
800.
And that happened back Thursday or Friday of last week, didn't it?
It's been that way pretty much the whole weekend.
Yeah.
Always gets great when I leave.
Never, never fails.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
Email address, rush at EIBnet.com.
All right, let's examine Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year, when many retailers say that's that day of the year they finally start showing a profit.
First from Bloomberg News.
U.S. retailers recorded sales of $27.8 billion over the holiday weekend, putting the industry on track for its second biggest selling season since 1999.
This, according to the National Retail Federation, total sales, including online, rose 22% from a year earlier, spurred by discounts.
Discounts?
Discounts.
Let me make an asterisk here.
That doesn't make any sense to me.
Hang on, just make a note.
Discounts?
Discounts on the day after Thanksgiving?
Discounts?
I mean, reducing prices is what that means.
They cut prices on Black Friday and profits went through the nose?
That doesn't make any sense.
Does it to you?
How can I make it?
Well, just hang on.
Spurred by discounts and demand for electronics.
That's what drove all this.
All right, well, that's the Bloomberg story.
Here is the Associated Press.
Their headline, holiday sales get off to modest start.
The nation's retailers had a modest start to the holiday shopping season as consumers jammed stores on Black Friday in higher numbers than a year ago, but seemed to lose interest once the early bird specials were over.
Oh, so when the discounts were over, then the shoppers sort of lost interest and went back and watched the Friday afternoon football games.
That what happened?
Does AP know this?
AP had people planted in all these stores so that they know that when the early bird specials were over, that people fled.
Here's Michael Namira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.
He said, there was a lot of hype, a lot of promotions, and a lot of people, but the results were on the lukewarm side.
Analysts said there was heavy shopper traffic for the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday.
But consumers apparently lost their enthusiasm.
If you give Americans a bargain, they will get up whatever time they take advantage of it.
But I don't think this weekend turns out to be as big as retailers hoped, said C. Britt Beamer, chairman of America's Research Group based in Charleston, South Carolina.
Okay, so there's Bloomberg says, hey, this is the second best since 99.
It went through the roof out there.
AP cites the same sales figures that says it's modest.
New York Times.
Headline, mall stores see trouble in sales data.
As the nation's retail execs began pouring over, and in some cases despairing over, sales receipts for the holiday weekend, one pattern became clearer.
Consumers mobbed discount chains with their $398 laptops and 5 a.m. openings, but largely shopped right past other specialty retailers at the mall.
The disparity analysts said could indicate a tough season ahead for clothing retailers like Gap and even deeper discounts for shoppers as the chains scramble to build momentum in the crucial approach to Christmas.
Well, now, this is the third story here where I'm seeing that reduced prices led to increased sales and that places that didn't reduce prices to match didn't do as well.
So discounts continues to be the okay.
Well, that's three out of four.
What's the fourth from USA Today?
Holiday sales dip, then they dazzle.
Season opening weekend rises 22%.
What is a consumer of news supposed to do here?
The New York Times says it sucked.
It was horrible.
Bloomberg says it was good.
The AP says it was modest.
And USA Today says it was dazzling.
Retailers' hopes for their biggest season were boosted as sales picked up steam Saturday after a Friday kickoff that was slightly down from last year.
In all, about 145 million shoppers swarm the stores and the internet spent an estimated $27.8 billion, up 22% from the weekend a year ago.
The better news came after a worrisome report from Shopper Track, which measures sales at enclosed malls only that Friday says sales eased nine-tenths of a percent from last year to $8 billion.
All right.
So basically, the same set of figures, $27.8 billion, portrayed three different ways.
Dazzling, modest, pretty good, and horrible by the New York Times.
And in all four stories, there's this curious reference here to the sales burst was spurred by discounts.
Now, this is a day that's known for monster bargains, right?
The day after monster bargains and discounts.
Retailers everywhere, as these stories indicate, slash prices.
They attract so many customers, more customers than any other day of the year, that by sheer volume, the consumer outlets instantly turn a year of nonprofit into a year of profitability.
I mean, that's the theory behind Black Friday and this whole weekend.
Bargains galore, discounts.
Well, now, folks, obviously the capitalists are lying about this.
They have to be.
People aren't dying like they are in Iraq, but people are lying.
The capitalists are lying about there.
There is no way on an atheist's greenhouse gas-filled earth that reducing prices can improve one's bottom line.
It just doesn't add up.
Well, it just doesn't add up.
Every rational, mainstream, media-loving, military-loathing, patriotic American knows that when prices are lowered, profits are lowered.
We went to public schools, even though our math scores have plummeted under the tutelage of teachers union leftists.
We knew enough and we know enough to figure out that reductions in prices only help the wealthiest 1% of Americans, who are mostly rich white Republican men.
I mean, when we talk about lowering taxes, do we talk, do we hear about all the great things that are going to happen?
No, we only hear about disaster.
Well, taxes are prices.
Tax is nothing more than a price.
Price of being an American, price for being a New Yorker, you're getting soaked.
Price for being a Californian, you're getting soaked.
Tax is the price of buying something, sales tax.
And we're always told when those taxes come down that all hell breaks loose.
The country can't survive it.
If we cut taxes and if we cut those prices, we're going to have to raise them somewhere or we're going to be bankrupt.
We're going to be in a heap doo-doo.
What is a consumer of news supposed to believe here?
Discount prices, bargains at retail outlets lead to big profits.
Why, they lead to more shoppers, more shoppers spending more money.
And that equals more gross revenue, which equals more profits.
But we know that that's not what liberal Democrats have been telling us.
It's just the exact opposite.
And look at when a liberal Democrat runs an enterprise like Amtrak or the subway system in New York, they don't cut prices.
Hey, raise prices.
If Subway is losing people, they raise the fare.
If not enough people crossing the George Washington Bridge or going through the Triburb or wherever, they raise prices to make up for the lack of business.
And they have to keep doing it, too.
You get my point here, folks.
If we can have the biggest bargain weekend of the year, the biggest shopping weekend of the year based on bargains, and yet when it comes to reducing the prices that citizens pay for basically living in the country, oh, hella break loose.
And when we cut those taxes, why only the top 1% do well.
But look what happened.
We cut prices, and the people that didn't cut prices suffered.
The rich white Republican businesses in the malls that didn't cut prices, why they're out of it.
They had a bad weekend, supposedly.
But I thought when you cut prices and when you increased all this economic activity, only the top 1% ever benefited.
But, see, it doesn't work when you get into the free market.
When you cut prices there, why get out of the way for all it?
Well, we know the same thing does happen with taxes.
I'm just trying to drive the point home with an illustration from the real world.
And the dirty little secret is it's these tight wad, skin flint, cheap rearing little liberals who are causing all those lines in the discount stores.
It's these tight wads trying to get all the bargains.
It's there.
They're the ones showing up at 5 o'clock in the morning and running out all the bargains before you bother to get up at 10 o'clock and get yourself into the store.
The liberals buying up all the bargains.
Big bunch of hypocrites.
Quick timeout, folks.
We'll be back after this.
Stay with us.
Executing assigned host duties flawlessly while having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have at the same time.
El Rushboard here at the EIB Network.
This is Mark in Binghamton, New York.
Mark, welcome.
Nice to have you on the program.
Good afternoon, Rush.
Mega Dittos from Binghamton, New York.
How are you today?
I'm fine, sir.
Never better.
Yes, my question that I put to your screener was: if that theory is true with the holiday shopping, lower prices increase profitability, why doesn't that same theory apply to the oil companies?
Now, I'm not jumping on the gouging bandwagon.
No, no, I understand.
What did the call screener say to you when you asked him that?
He said I'd be first up.
Oh, he didn't answer the question.
Absolutely not.
Okay, okay.
All right.
Well, let me first, are you disagreeing with the premise that lower prices leads to greater profits?
Absolutely not.
Okay.
You're not disagreeing with the premise.
So you want to know why, in the case of the oil company, why don't they just cut the price of oil and make more money?
I'm wondering why they're so quick to increase prices, whether it be a chink in the armor in the oil production or in the upcoming travel season.
It seems like it doesn't take much to sway the oil company in the middle of the increase.
You and I can be honest with one another.
The oil companies are exempt from the laws of supply and demand.
We all know that.
They can raise the price whenever they want to.
They can lower it whenever they want to.
They're dealing with a commodity that only they can produce, that only they can go get.
They're dealing with a commodity that they control.
They're dealing with a commodity that's not really subject to natural market forces like distribution and supply.
They're really not affected by hurricanes, not affected by increased usage and demand around the world, say with China and a bunch of new cars there and India.
They can just operate independently.
So the normal market forces, we all know this, don't apply to the oil companies.
In fact, there's no reason to ever lower prices if you're the oil companies, but yet they do.
I mean, who knows why?
I think it's just to keep the heat of people like you off of them, but who really knows?
Well, they may lower prices, but never before they've increased them dramatically.
Wait, it may lower prices, but never before have they increased what dramatically?
No, no, I'm saying you just made mention to the fact that they have lowered oil prices basically to keep the consumer off their back.
Yeah.
But that lowering of the oil prices usually is preceded by a dramatic increase.
Well, that's to fool everybody.
I mean, if they just started arbitrarily lowering these prices, we'd all be up.
Everybody would know what you and I know.
But they have to hide behind these calamitous events, or they hide behind OPEC or whatever.
That's how they, because there's always going to be a calamitous event somewhere in the world.
There's going to be a typhoon.
There's going to be a hurricane.
There's going to be something going on with OPEC.
They just use those events to hide behind them.
Look at the oil price.
Well, the oil price and the gasoline price two different things, but you've got the futures market keeping these prices fluctuating as well, particularly on crude oil.
But you look at the gasoline price.
It's now, it's December, almost later, November 28th.
Back in September, gasoline was finally three bucks a gallon in this country.
Today it's $1.88 in New Jersey on the Jersey Shore.
You can get it at $1.88.
Yeah, which has always been.
It's always been a confusing issue.
I mean, yes, we saw prices in my region up and near the $3.50 markets now down around $2.30.
But I was just curious on listening to you earlier regarding the whole reduced pricing for the Black Friday.
Based on sheer volume that they get through their doors, they end up quite possibly with increased profitability.
And it just makes me wonder why doesn't that same theory apply to the oil companies?
Why are they always so quick to raise prices?
Well, as someone once explained to me.
And I think we all know that dirty little secret.
What is it?
You tell me.
Just, again, I want to avoid using the term gouging, but I think it's a federalistic society, but I believe that oil is power, and they're going to make their money regardless of who it might affect in the long run.
Well, there's one thing.
One thing there's no Walmart in the oil business.
That's true.
There's no shopping mall in the oil business.
You can go to the friendly neighborhood boomtown mall, but you're not going to find a gas station in there.
You can find five different clothing stores.
You can find a bunch of different records.
You can find all kinds of different deals in there.
People in the same business, but maybe selling a little different product from the next store, not the identical.
The oil companies, they've really set it up well.
They're a monopoly disguised as a free market business.
And the one difference, if I may interrupt, is we may not need to have that new sweater, but we all need that gas, don't we?
Well, that's what I was going to say.
You don't have to go to the boomtown mall on Friday, and you don't have to give anybody Christmas presents, and you don't have to, but you do need gasoline to get to work.
You do need gasoline to get home.
You need gasoline to go to the grocery store.
You need gasoline.
You need it.
And the oil companies know it, and they've got you.
They certainly do.
Well, Rush, I can't tell you, it's been a pleasure speaking to you.
I've listened to you for years.
Keep up the good work.
Mark, thanks for the – would you calm down in there, Mr. Sturdley?
I'm just illustrating absurdity by being absurd.
What's the problem?
Did I make it too believable?
Well, there was not.
Snartley's upset that I let Mark hang up, thinking that I agree with him when Snartley knows I really don't.
There was no point.
There was literally, I've tried this.
I've tried explaining how the oil companies work, and I still get beat up.
I still don't know anything when it comes to the oil business.
I know everything there is about politics.
I know I am credited with knowing everything about this or that when it comes to oil.
I don't know anything.
And so it was pointless to try to explain the similarity in how lowering prices can increase profits for the oil companies.
If you look over the course of many years at the oil company and look at the oil price and the gasoline price, and you will see that the one thing that is constantly going up in their business is development.
They have to bring it out of the ground.
They've got so many restrictions on them that they don't have the flexibility of a Walmart in a number of areas in terms of pricing.
And they are truly, you know, when you go to the boomtown mall, you're not competing.
Well, this is not even in the larger scope you are, but for this purpose, when you go to the boomtown mall on Black Friday, you're not going into stores competing with the rest of the world on a retail basis.
Now, if you were dealing with the people who supply the products at the stores at the Boomtown Mall, then you'd be more acutely aware of the global impact of the pricing on those products that are there.
But as the retail shopper, you're comparing prices within stores at the Boomtown Mall or at the Slowtown Mall down the street that you'd rather not go to or what have you.
But in the world, the oil business is a little bit different.
But the truth is that the laws of supply and demand still matter.
And all of these reports, I tried explaining this when it happened, and it didn't get anywhere.
All these reports of massive obscene profits following Hurricane Katrina end up being paper profit that is wiped out once oil comes in at a different price and that oil that's sold has to be replaced.
It's no different than if you've had your house for two or four or five years and sell it.
You think you've made a big profit until you go out and have to replace the house with a new one.
And you find out that it's going to cost you more or just as much to get a bigger house or the same house than what you sold.
So that's pay-per-profit.
But I've tried that and I've learned it doesn't work.
It's easier to agree with these people, Mr. Snookley.
Let me try to break this down.
There are two concepts here, folks.
First, can we talk about these discounts at the Boomtown Mall or wherever you want to shop on Black Friday?
Do you know the concept of loss leader?
A loss leader is where a store will break even to get you in on certain items in order to get you in the store to buy other items at full retail or reduced retail, but not the bargain basement price they advertise.
It's a typical retailer practice, and it's time-honored.
Loss leader.
I can give you examples of how it has worked in the radio business.
Let me give you an example of one in the radio business.
Let me go back to the 70s and 80s when Larry King had his overnight talk show on the old mutual radio network.
Now, radio networks, particularly networks that have five-minute newscasts at the top of the hour, make their money by selling commercials to advertisers, and those commercials run during the newscasts.
Okay, now, the Larry King show, midnight to whenever it went.
Back then, ratings were not taken from midnight to five, midnight to six.
It doesn't make sense because within the universe of people who listen to radio, nobody's up.
You could get everybody awake listening to the radio, and it's not enough to sell one tube of crest.
So nobody advertises then.
PSAs, that kind of thing.
I mean, you have some advertisers in there.
They're being lost, sold that advertising at a very low rate.
But what Mutual did, the whole Larry King show was a loss leader.
This is not put down the Larry King show because it was valuable in this way, but it was a loss leader for the network.
The five hours of the Larry King show did not make money by themselves.
But what Mutual did was say to stations that wanted a Larry King show, okay, you have to take our newscast during the day.
That way, they got their mutual news on the hour, and they were able to get more stations on the mutual news network.
And they sold advertising during the day when people are awake and listen to radio.
And so the King program, in and of itself, this is why I never wanted to work at night.
It's just not the people who are watching television and are out getting drunk or whatever compared to the number of people in the daytime.
So the King show was a loss leader.
Mutuals on the balance sheet was willing to break even or lose money on the King Show because it was turning a huge profit during the day.
That's a loss leader.
You don't have lost leaders in the oil business because people only buy what they need at the time.
You're not going to go shopping for gas when you don't need it.
You're not going to go shopping for gas at a reduced price and stock up and keep it in the garage.
You buy it as you need it.
And of course, that is going to even further sharpen the whole concept of supply and demand.
The, you know, these mega, like the boomtown mall and so forth, you know, that's discretionary spending.
You don't need the new giant screen TV, but you may want it.
So you go get it.
And if the boomtown mall's got a store that's offering one at a price for, say, X, the trick is to get you in there.
Then you look at it.
Oh, but I like that one better.
Well, the salesman, it's only a couple thousand dollars more.
Now that you're here, why don't you go for the best?
The whole process starts.
It's called the wacky world of the free market and commerce.
And I absolutely love it.
But none of that exists when you go out and buy oil.
You don't go shop for it.
You don't go shop for gasoline.
Most of us hate the gas station.
My car, I have to fight it.
My car uses so much gas.
It wants to pull into every gas station every day.
It goes buy one.
I'm having to constantly steer this thing away from it.
But that's odd.
Most people, gas station is the last thing you want to do.
I got to go get gas.
I got to do this because it's a whole different shopping experience.
And it's not a loss leader for something that the oil or gas company sells.
They don't lure you to the gas station, buy our gasoline at only $1.88 a gallon, and then go out and buy whatever because there is no whatever.
They use, a lot of these gas stations use the snack bar and go in and buy the junk food and whatever else you get in there.
You gotta see how that stuff is priced?
That stuff's sky high.
You spend a lot less for it if you go to your giant supermarket at the Boomtown Mall than if you go into one of those little convenience places.
But it's at the gas station, but it's convenient, so you pay for it.
Yip, yip, yip, yip, yahoo.
The thing about oil that everybody has to make up or remember here that the replacement cost is where the profit is or isn't in oil and gasoline.
And so the theory all still applies, but there are a whole bunch of theories.
And some of them are not applicable in some transactions, as are others.
Most best illustration is how the whole loss leader circumstance is not really applicable in the oil business because they can't entice you to buy more than you need.
You only buy as much as your little gas tank will hold.
And that's it.
Or as empty as it is.
Jill in Ithaca, New York, welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hello, Rush.
Hi.
Hi.
I'd like to know what you meant by that statement that all the liberals were running out to buy these bargains.
You made that statement about 15, 20 minutes ago.
Yes, I did so proudly.
I don't understand what that means.
Well, the media is here talking about these big, robust shopping days, and they're basing it on the fact that it was all bargain-related and discount-related.
And they said in the stories that once the discounts were over, that people got less excited and didn't stay in the stores as long and basically went back home to watch football, have secondhand or leftover turkey.
What does it have to do with somebody's politics?
Well, it's quite obvious because the liberals are very much against discounts.
They want us to, they're against tax cuts.
Oh, yes.
Oh, liberals are totally against tax cuts.
But when it comes to tax cuts for them, they're first in line.
Oh, that was.
Excuse me.
I think you're talking about a whole bunch of people that have very different ideas, and you're making some statement that's not critical thinking.
You're just labeling, and that's not critical thinking.
That's not intelligence.
That's name-calling.
And it really has nothing to do.
I mean, did people take surveys of people's politics when they went in there?
No, I don't need to.
I know liberals like every square inch of my naked body.
Not back in my eyes.
That's not a pretty picture.
I know what liberals are going to do before they do it.
You don't know person per person.
And some may be liberal about certain things and conservative about others.
So your statement is totally whacked out.
This trick has been tried on me.
It's not a trick.
This is a tiger.
Yeah, there is no liberal on certain things in conservative on the liberal's a liberal.
Please.
Well, a tiger's a tiger.
A liberal is a liberal.
There is a definition of what a liberal is.
They're not a partial liberal.
Sometimes a liberal's a liberal.
A person is a person.
They have different components.
And if I don't choose to watch or have children watch naked bodies on MTV because I don't approve, that doesn't mean that I approve of the war in Iraq or being misled by the people.
No, no, let's wait a minute.
Now, that's a non-sequitur.
Let's take it.
You have children and you don't want them watching.
You gave an analogy.
What did you say?
I don't choose to have, you know, children.
I respect children.
I don't have to.
Okay, if you don't choose to watch or have children watch naked bodies on MTV because you don't approve.
Right.
The point is, you will not approve, but you'll not stand up and say it's wrong and try to convince other people not to do it because everybody's an individual.
They all have their rights.
So when it comes to moral and right and wrong, you will not take a stand.
You're a liberal.
If I didn't take a stand, I wouldn't be talking to you right now.
You're not taking a stand.
You're just griping at me.
I'm taking a stand by telling you what I think.
But you're taking a stand by telling you what you think of me.
What I think of your concept.
My concept?
Yes.
I don't know you as a person.
I mean, you're free to disagree with it, but you do so at your own risk, because I'm right.
You're right of center, yes, but that doesn't mean you're correct.
No, I'm correct.
According to you, yes.
There's no way to measure that, Russ.
Well, see, you're a definite liberal.
Can't measure right.
Can't measure accuracy.
Can't measure.
Not in this case.
Not in this case.
Thank you.
When you can't measure these things, because you always have to allow for somebody to disagree with you, and that makes you a good person.
That makes me what?
A good person.
When you can allow that somebody's different from you, and then whatever they do, it's not up to you to say it's right or wrong or good or bad.
I can't believe that.
That makes you a liberal.
You are a good person.
That makes you a liberal.
Oh, so all people that are conservative are bad people?
Is that what you're saying?
No, no, no.
Didn't say anything of the sort.
Well, that's the converse of what you're saying.
No, no, it's not.
You're also a liberal because you don't listen.
You're so focused on what you're saying that you're not hearing a word I'm saying.
I've heard words you're saying.
I don't have a problem.
You haven't.
Excuse me?
You haven't.
I didn't say anything about all conservatives are bad people.
Well, you're saying all liberals are good people.
No, I didn't say that.
Didn't say that either.
I said you.
Right.
You are a liberal because you want to always allow for people to be different, whether it's right or wrong.
It's not for you to judge, and that's how you define a liberal person.
You yourself are a good person because you don't label, because you don't judge.
You're a liberal.
You have judgment.
I do judge.
I do in certain circumstances.
According to you, if a teacher really believed in teaching that bistiality was okay, having sex with animals was okay.
You wouldn't condemn it because you don't think you have the right to judge another person.
That's not true.
Of course that's not acceptable.
It's not acceptable, but is it wrong?
Absolutely.
Well, progress.
I think you just don't want to, you know, I just think you can't back up your statement about it was the liberals that went out and bought the bargains.
I really don't think you can do that.
Were you shopping early on Friday?
No.
Did you go early on Saturday?
I haven't gone yet.
You haven't gone yet?
No.
Okay, that means you're just even a bigger liberal because you're waiting for the bargains on Christmas Eve.
No, it means that I don't have the financial means that I will have closer to Christmas.
Okay.
You're waiting for a bargain.
No, I'm waiting to get for people that I care about what's appropriate for them.
Why do you have to wait for that?
Because I don't have the financial means this moment.
I will have more money toward the end of Christmas, towards the end, you know, by Christmas.
Why is that?
Do you get paid at irregular times?
Because I'm semi-retired and I'm looking for additional work right now.
Ah, I see.
Okay.
All right.
Well, I hope that you're able to get everybody what you want and when you want to do it, because as we all know, the spirit of Christmas is giving.
Did we lose her?
We did.
We lost her.
I'm just hearing myself echo back.
I think the giving comment got her.
I hope I didn't make her cry with my sensitivity.
Back after this.
Okay.
Let's see.
Where are we going next?
This poor guy, Steve's been waiting for over an hour.
Steve, I appreciate your patience.
He's a two son.
Welcome to the EIB Network and Merry Christmas, sir.
Merry Christmas to you, Rush.
Thanks for taking my call.
I wanted to ask you, the president's getting ready to visit here in just a couple of hours, and I wanted to get your take on it to see if we can expect anything magnificent coming out of his speech.
And I have two reasons for asking.
One, you know, our Congressman, 22-year Congressman Jim Colby, just decided to retire.
A guy by the name of Randy Graff almost beat him last time.
And two, we're afraid down here that the president is going to say with John McCain the problem is solved when in reality we'll know differently.
I just wanted to get your take on it.
Well, all I know about this is what's in the newspapers today.
And I also know that Ted Kennedy has a column in the Phoenix paper supporting McCain on his immigration policy, which I think is in opposition to Bush's.
Now, I got two stories here.
According to the Washington Times, President Bush today will call for a crackdown on illegal immigration, a move that move aimed at further rallying conservatives who are recently cheering Bush's tough talk on Iraq in the Supreme Court.
But the president will also renew his call for a program to allow Mexicans who have already entered the U.S. illegally to remain here for up to six years.
This is what they say is not an amnesty program that sounds like an amnesty program.
That initiative has long angered conservatives who do equate it with amnesty.
Bush will deliver his speech in Tucson at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base there, about 90 miles from the Mexican border, after being briefed by Customs and Border Patrol officials.
And then tomorrow he will meet with another group of border officials in El Paso.
On October 18th, the president said we're going to get control of our borders.
Our goal is clear.
Steve, from the looks of this, what he's going to do is continue to talk tough and even tougher on border security and re-emphasize this.
He's going to emphasize the need for stricter enforcement, greater use of technology like unmanned aircraft, as well as overhaul of laws that now clog the courts with immigration appeals and the tightening of rules that sometimes require the release of illegal immigrants whose home countries won't take them back.
But at the same time, while he's going to talk tougher and sound tougher and propose tougher, he's still going to ask for, they don't like to call it amnesty, but people, what else is it when you grant people already here illegally the right to stay here for a while and get legal?
So look, I think this is what I've always said that it is.
This is recognition that this is a big issue the Republican Party cannot afford to sacrifice to the Democrats.
It's too important an issue.
I think the president understands it.
And I expect that his talk will be well received other than this amnesty bit, depending on how much he emphasizes that.
But this is a good sign, I think, overall it's long overdue.
And there's a story I should tell you: the Republican Party is riven by two forces on this.
On the one hand, you have the average, normal, everyday people who are paying through the nose when it comes to taxes and other things to provide education and health care and employment opportunity for illegals.
And it grates on them and it's bothering them all to hell.
Not to mention the lack of cultural acculturation that is happening among immigrants.
They're setting up their own beachheads and remaining basic foreigners while in this country.
They're not acculturating.
Second thing, they're assimilating.
The other side of it is the business community.
The business community is out there saying, wait a minute, we're able to keep our prices low because we've got entry-level wage employees here.
And if you force us not to be able to hire those, then these prices are going to go up.
And that's the pressure on the Republican Party, the donors versus the voters.
If you want to look at it, big donors versus the voters.
And the president appears is, in terms of his speech, is going to side with the voters on this.
We'll know more after he speaks, and it's due soon.
Quick time out.
Back with more in just a second.
Before I didn't even get to the audio soundbites today, hold those audio soundbites for tomorrow.
Some good stuff in there.
It's as typical, you know, first day back after Black Friday with so much economic activity out there.
There's a whole lot of explaining going on that needs to take place.
So we'll get that tomorrow.
And whatever happens between now and then, we'll add that to the list as well.
It's been great being with you.
It always is.
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