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Jan. 19, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:26
January 19, 2006, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 247 podcast.
Thanks, Johnny Donovan, and uh hello, welcome in to the East Coast branch of the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Nice to be here.
And as a as a fellow student, I remind you we never have a final exam, but we are tested daily, and boy will we be tested today.
And have we ever been tested lately?
Of course, Rush is off and about at the Bob Hope Desert Classic.
I hope having a great time.
You can follow his golfing and other things that are important to you at Rushlimbaugh.com, Rush Limbaugh.com.
And of course, our phone line open to you here at the EIB, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, go always open at 1-800-282-2882.
That's 1-800-282-2882.
We're going to talk today about well, a lot of different things.
Things could happen while we're on the air that changes this, but we're we're talking about the war on Walmart.
We're going to talk about the war on terror, the war on our border with Mexico, the war on our president.
A lot of wars here.
And I generally like to make love not war, but there's a lot of war going on, and we're going to have to uh talk about it and deal with it.
Couple of heads up in the news, a couple of things going on.
Seems after all that that uh that that bombing that we had uh in uh remote area of northeast Pakistan last week apparently was a very fruitful.
Now we can't get anybody to confirm any of this, but apparently two senior members of Al Qaeda and the son-in-law of its number two leader were among those killed in those American airstrikes, and uh the officials that have given us this information uh have been reliable in the past, but again, our government isn't saying anything for sure yet.
Could have been the uh could have been Al Qaeda's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert.
Uh if any or all of those they're saying are dead were indeed killed, it would be a a stinging blow to Al Qaeda's operations.
That would be excellent.
That would be certainly very good news, and people are still upset there, of course, because eighteen civilians, uh, women and children were killed, and there's a great deal of anger, etc.
etc.
Best advice don't harbor terrorists.
And it's very unlikely that bombs will come raining down on your home.
Or your cave in this case.
So uh that uh that's the latest on that.
Of course, the latest latest news is that apparently uh bin Laden has uh given us his uh I don't know, end of your report, Christmas message.
In December, he apparently made a video tape, and now Al Jazeera is broadcasting portions, actually audio tape, the camera must be down.
You know these guys, the guy's uh a multi multimillionaire, and yet he has some of the worst video and audio equipment made.
I don't get that.
Everything's the guy's got millions of dollars.
Get some good equipment if you're gonna bring us these tapes.
So anyway, uh Al Jazeera broadcasting today portions of an audio tape, purportedly from Osama, saying that Al Qaeda is making preparations for attacks in the United States.
But this is the big but.
And people are gonna grab a hold of this big butt, believe me, a possible truce being offered to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now imagine this.
The voice on the tape says that heightened security in the United States is not the reason there have been no attacks here since September eleventh, two thousand one with the suicide hijackings.
He makes that clear because he is an astute member of the Democratic Party.
Uh the fact of the matter is this is a gift to the Democrats to further criticize President Bush's efforts to keep America safe with domestic spying and other formerly clandestine activities that the New York Times hasn't ruined yet.
But he wants it to be clear that he hasn't been stopped by what the United States has done.
Instead, he says the reason is, quote, because there are operations that need preparations.
He went on to say, if it's Osama, the delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures, but the operations are happening in Baghdad, and you will see them here at home the minute they are through with preparations, with God's Permission.
I always like that.
We're going to kill you, you Yankee dog with God's permission.
Went on to say we do not mind offering you, and this is the big butt.
This is a big thing, and there are going to be people who say, wait a second, this is a terrorist.
We don't deal with terrorists, yeah, but we can't stop these guys because as long as they're around and they do their terrorist activity the way they do, they're winning, in a sense.
So if this is Osama, he goes on to say, We do not mind offering you a long-term truce with fair conditions that we adhere to.
We are a nation that God has forbidden to lie and cheat.
Beheading isn't in there anywhere.
You know, he didn't say that.
He didn't say we're not allowed to behead.
Drag bodies to the streets, anything like that.
Kill innocent women and children or people.
No.
But they cannot lie and cheat.
So both sides can enjoy security and stability under this truce so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been destroyed in this war.
Of course, you could read that to mean they got to build them back up so they could really come at us.
I maybe there will be the first uh Osama bin Laden hospital that he would build.
I'm not sure.
He goes on to say, if it's him, there is no shame in this solution, which prevents the wasting of billions of dollars that have gone to those with influence and merchants of war in America.
I suspect he means Halliburton, I'm not sure who he's talking about there.
I I thought he'd talk about the wasting of life, but he doesn't get around to that.
No conditions for the truce, no immediate confirmation of the tape's authenticity.
It's been about a year since he last spoke, so it could really be his end of year message because it was done about in uh December.
And by the way, in that uh recording, he endorsed uh uh Al Zakwari as his deputy in Iraq, called for a boycott of Iraqi elections.
That didn't work.
So, you know, he understands that his power is waning, so maybe this is why he's waving the white flag.
And the question is, if you really want to believe this, and if you really think you should follow up on this, uh, then we have to put together a team.
Some sort of team to go meet with them.
I I'm not going.
You going?
We want you to go meet with Osama bin Laden.
I'm not going.
But what if we uh, you know, let's put a team.
I'm Vice President Al Gore always looking for attention.
He could head this team up.
He could take Howard Dean, Senator Ted Kennedy, former President Jimmy Carter.
Now there's a team.
There's a team.
They can even send Walter Cronkite to report on the meeting.
No, no, uh, Kit Walt we can't do it by email or anything.
Because you can't, you don't know for sure.
You got to do face to face.
Can't do a conference call.
So that's the latest uh from uh supposedly from bin Laden, and there are going to be people who say, hey, the guy is offering a truce.
We should listen to what he has to say.
I'm not here to tell you we shouldn't.
That's up to uh to the folks who will make these decisions uh to to decide.
You know, in the past we have not dealt with terrorists, I thought.
Well, we have a few times.
When we had to.
Anyway, there are a couple of things in the news that are very awful.
By now you know this whole story of this little seven-year-old girl.
It's all the buzz here in New York, but it's getting around the country, and it should, because it's a lesson for everybody.
Anybody who sees a child at risk has got to step up and make sure something is done to protect that child.
And this is about this uh Nick's Mary Brown, who at the age of seven was murdered by her stepfather.
The part of this that is so very bad is that she was in family services sites.
She came to protective services sites back last May.
Her school guidance counselor reported her prolonged absence from school.
Additional notes reporting bruising, an interview with her older brother, who said she'd been burned.
The caseworkers did not determine that she had suffered what is known as educational neglect.
At one point she had missed like forty-seven days of school, something to that effect.
In December, the agency received a straightforward complaint of abuse from the Brooklyn elementary school that Nick's Mary attended with several of her siblings.
Agency workers interviewed Nix Mary and her siblings at the school the day the complaint was made.
They never took the seven year old to a medical professional to have her injury evaluated.
Never again met with any family members.
Neither Nick's Mary nor her siblings attended a day of school in the month before she was found naked and dead on the floor of her Brooklyn apartment.
The child was not seen by a doctor.
No caseworker ever gained access to the child's home or sought a warrant to get inside the family's apartment after the stepfather refused to cooperate.
And you have the president of the ACS workers' union, Charles Ansley saying when this story first came out that he visited Nick's Mary's caseworkers in their office and said he is confident they won't be accused of misconduct.
Quote, I would be stunned if the city blindsided us and announced tomorrow any disciplinary action or suspension of these workers.
I talked to all three workers today, and they are comfortable with their performance in this case.
There's a seven-year-old girl who was beaten repeatedly until she was beaten to death.
And this union head can't say, we'll want to investigate this and find out what went wrong and take action as deemed necessary.
He's got to say, I am sure they didn't do anything wrong.
This is one of the main problems unions have today.
Don't stand by people who have so miserably failed at their job.
And you would fix a lot of your problems across this country.
And the only reason this one makes me the angriest is a seven-year-old girl is needlessly dead.
Now there'll be all kinds of action to fix this problem, and everyone will feel good until it happens again.
In our town, in your town.
And so I'm just saying, if you know of anything that remotely looks like child abuse...
Please don't sit back quietly.
Don't come out after it happens and say we wondered.
Do something.
Call the police.
And then make sure the police do something.
Couple of other notes in the news coming up here in just a moment.
I'm Paul W. Smith in for Rush Limbaugh.
All right, we continue here on the Rush Limbaugh program, 1-800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
I've got uh many other issues I want to bring up, but I d but most importantly when I'm uh here and uh having fun sitting in for rush uh behind the golden EIB microphone.
I'd like to talk directly with you.
So I'm gonna get to the calls right away.
Joe is in Abilene, Texas, and uh checking in with us.
Joe, welcome to the program.
Greetings, sir.
How are you today?
I'm good.
I hope you're well.
Thank you, sir.
I was calling the chat real quick about the alleged Bid Laden tape.
Yeah.
I believe this is a clear sign that we're winning the war on terror.
Yeah, I think that would be a pretty clear uh indication.
We it's certainly this letter is not written from a position of strength, even though it's a threat.
It's written from a position of weakness.
Right.
It's a clear sign they're failing and they know they're losing.
Terrorists, especially ones with this ideological mindset, don't just give in and offer truces.
I think the some country throughout Europe would probably want us to go and talk about a truce, but you can right now.
You can bet, Joe, you and I know for a fact that somebody's gonna grab a hold of this and say, hey, hey, hey, this is an opportunity.
You know, the biggest thing we've done wrong is we've never listened to them, we've never understood them.
This is an opportunity for dialogue, blah, blah, blah, blah.
There'll be people in our country saying the same thing, not just in Europe, I should say.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
That's the point.
That that is the point, Joe.
And this is a time just to keep pouring on to them and not give up and just keep on fighting the fight, and we're just a clear sign we're winning.
Appreciate the call, Joe.
Thanks so much.
Uh, keep an eye on Abeline Forest.
And uh Larry is on a cell phone in Utica here at 1800-282-2882.
Hi, Larry.
How are you doing, sir?
Uh Mega Ditto's from a research Air Force retiree and a student of military history.
Good for you.
Hey, uh, I uh agree with the last caller and yourself and your analysis, but looking at this from a military perspective, um absolutely right.
This uh organization is a fighting unit is up against the ropes, and we need to keep hammering away.
This is not a typical uh organized military operation that uh we can give them quarter uh when they decide that they want to even hint at a white flag coming up.
These people are uh fanatics, and uh the the best thing that we can do as a country and as uh uh organization and a nation is to keep hammering away at them.
Well, you know, the other thing though, Larry is uh the the point is you make some very good points.
But the other point is this is not a general in charge of one big army that is saying we want to talk, let's work this out.
This is just one fanatic out of unfortunately thousands and thousands and thousands of fanatics, and so Osama bin Laden could make a deal for peace doesn't mean anybody else would accept it.
There'd be somebody else who would say that he's that he's sold out and he's working with the devil and you know they'd they'd move on.
So it's it's meaningless.
In Iraq, they've already shown that the Al Qaeda uh frack faction there is not necessarily following the same sheet of music as the Al Qaeda faction in Afghanistan.
Right.
Excellent points, Larry.
Appreciate you uh weighing in, and thanks for your service to the country.
Thank you.
We're going to the Bronx in New York, and Angela is on the Rush Limbaugh show.
I'm Paul W. Smith.
Hello, Angela.
Hello, Paul.
How are you?
I am very good.
I hope you're well.
I'm doing good.
Mega Ditto's.
Thanks.
Um listening to this whole thing with about Nick Smarry, that precious child that was murdered, uh, it takes me back to when Lisa Steinberg.
It's funny you mentioned that because I I worked here at WABC, one of our fine affiliates from uh 1980.
I was in New York from 85 to 90, and I was here when that took place.
I thought about bringing it up, but I thought it was too inside New York.
But I'm glad you did bring it up, because it's the story of Joel Steinberg, who was a learned man, an attorney, and had an Osboum who was beaten and abused, and little Lisa, who was killed.
Yes, and and you know, at the time when this happened to Lisa, I did not live in New York City.
I I'm from the Midwest, and I thought, oh my God, you know, only horrible things like that would happen in such a huge city.
But to see it happening again, and I'm sure it happens all the time.
Has this city and its agencies not learned anything from all the publicity that surrounded the Lisa Steinberg murder and the case?
Well, the s the the simple, very quick answer is no.
And the problem here is that why not?
That's the other question.
Why haven't they learned?
I don't know.
I don't how can you make excuses?
How can a how can a union leader say, I'm sure that everybody did what they were supposed to do?
All of my people did the right thing when a child was murdered on their watch and he's comfortable with their performance, their whole job, their only job in this case was to make sure this child was protected.
And and to have such a um uh a careless and and uh unthought, looking at it the way he did, so l uh lazy fair attitude, you know, really shows that these people really don't care about the children of the city.
Well, Angela, uh uh happily someone does because heads have rolled since all this happened when they laid her to rest yesterday.
There have been suspensions and there'll be firings.
I think there should be criminal charges, but it doesn't matter what I think.
I'm just telling you what I think.
Appreciate the call, Angela.
We had not forgotten about it, and uh and maybe some had, but uh well, I I don't think so, because that's been back in the news again uh lately.
We have time for another quick one, real quick.
Eric is in California, San Mateo.
Hello, Eric.
Good morning.
Thank you very much for taking my call.
Sure.
Yeah, the the point I want to make is that the terrorists, you know, they've shown patience in every move that they've made, including the sleeper cells.
And uh basically they'll look for any opportunity to buy time to rebuild.
And so we should never let up until they're done.
Well, I agree with you.
And uh and uh the the the point too, in fact, they're very quickly uh the Diane in Bellevue, uh I'll let you say it fast because we only have a few seconds, but it says on my screen you say the terrorists are exploiting the Democrats' desires.
Yes, I do.
I just believe that they're not as stupid as we seem to think they are, and that um, you know, the gullible press and the gullible democrats would give a chance to go for this.
And I think it's ridiculous.
Well, it also uh when he puts a line in there that it isn't the extra security precautions we're taking that's keeping them from doing this, that is directly aimed as a gift to the Democrats to say, see, see the president's spying on all these Americans and it really has been meaningless.
Osama said it hasn't stopped him from doing anything.
See, uh he's not stupid.
He's also wealthy.
He's he's also scary looking and sick, but uh that's another story, but we'll move on from that.
And uh we've got some other things we want to talk about.
We'll go back and forth uh back and forth all day today and continue with your calls at 800-282-2882.
But now we have seen another enemy.
We have seen the enemy.
And it's Walmart.
Well, we we move over to this other war, the war on Walmart.
And I have to be totally honest with you.
Certainly I'm aware of it, and it's certainly the the pace has picked up just because I think just because the sheer size and rapid growth of Walmart, uh putting the world's largest retailer at the center of many debates about its effects on workers, the communities, the environment, etc.
etc.
But I have never had a real strong feeling about it.
To tell you the truth, I uh I I'm I've been to a Walmart a couple of times, maybe, but uh as it turns out I I like Costco.
I go to Costco.
My wife doesn't like either one of them, by the way, because she doesn't like the idea of all the small stores getting run out of business.
I'm the argument goes on and on and on.
It's kind of like uh I grew up liking the Beatles, you might have grown up liking the Rolling Stones.
So Walmart, Costco, whatever it is.
Nobody's attacking Costco as far as I know, at least not yet.
But they sure are attacking Walmart, and and it's it's a bit confusing.
There are groups out there, uh Wake Up Walmart.com that uh have vilified the company and others.
Uh it's it's it's organized this this war on Walmart.
And uh I uh the Wall Street Journal uh oh, some time ago did a great uh little piece uh back in December on gauging the Walmart effect that nobody does it better than the journal and things like that, where they kind of break it down with some of the statistics and all of that.
I might get into some of those, but I want to get to a guy who's uh written a nice piece about Walmart being under such vicious attack.
Uh he is the uh residence scholar and director of economic policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research before joining the American Enterprise Institute.
He was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University.
He has served as a policy consultant to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, both during the former Bush and Clinton administrations, both sides of the political aisle, if you will.
It's a pleasure to welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program, Dr. Kevin A. Hassett.
Dr. Hassett, my name's Paul W. Smith.
Nice meeting you.
Hey, Paul, it's great to be here.
What is going on here?
Try to if you can in a nutshell, fill in why there is this war on Walmart.
Well, what's going on is that uh there's a concerted, well-organized political campaign uh against Walmart right now uh that's being organized by the Democratic Party and by um unions.
And so so the two organizations at the center of the crusade, one of them is called Walmart Watch, and the other one is called Wake Up Walmart.
And Walmart War Watch was started by Andrew Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union.
And Wake Up Walmart is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
And so what's going on is uh unions uh have you know organized, say the old grocery store in your town, and uh they don't like the competition uh from Walmart.
Uh and so rather than ch change their practices, what they're trying to do is they're trying to basically scare people away from Walmart.
And you know, in the past, in the old days, maybe the union tactic would be to put some thugs out front with baseball bats.
But now instead what they're doing is they're they're waging a media campaign.
Uh and the media campaign is is spending an enormous amount of money.
One recent estimate is they've already spent twenty-five million dollars smearing Walmart.
And finally, the last little bit that people need to know uh is i the interesting little thing of who's running the media campaign.
Because uh Walmart Watch um is uh currently uh being run uh by uh let's see, I'm gonna pull up pull up the actual names here.
Uh Paul Blank, the former political director for uh Howard Dean in this presidential campaign is managing the anti Walmart crusade for Wake Up Walmart.
Uh Kerry's former campaign manager, Jim Jordan is the political consultant for Walmart Watch.
Uh Tracy Seffel, former deputy director of research for the Democratic National Committee is that group's communications director.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
Yeah, but you know what I've learned from, in fact, your article, Doctor, is that uh some of those very people you've mentioned shop at Walmart.
That's right.
The presidential campaigns for Kerry, Howard Dean, and Ralph Nader all spent money at Walmart.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
Right.
But but but I got to say say that the the extent to which these activities are coordinated against Walmart, it's really creepy.
Imagine if, for example, Carl you know, President Bush had lost the last election, God forbid, and and and car Carl Rove were were basically running running a campaign uh to smear Walmart, and President Bush, who who would be a former President Bush would be out there giving speeches smearing Walmart as well.
The fact is that the Democratic politicians are basically all resonating the sound bites uh that are emanating from these NGOs that are funded by the unions.
And it's a very, very creepy campaign to smear America's largest employer.
Uh you know, and uh you if you wonder why is it that unionization is has declined over time.
Well the reason why Walmart's not unionized is that the workers at Walmart haven't voted to be unionized.
And would you vote to let the people in who are basically spending all this money smearing your company?
Would you want to have them organize your workplace?
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
Not if you not if you like working at your company, not if you love your company.
But you know, uh the some of the facts are facts.
Walmart's one of the great economic success stories of our time.
Uh they become the world's largest retailer, the biggest private employer in the U.S. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
Right.
They'd be the twentieth largest economy in the world if they were just an economy.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
The reason this has finally got uh our attention in a big way here at the uh the Limbaugh Institute for uh advanced conservative studies is that in fact now we're getting laws enacted that are anti-Walmart.
The Maryland General Assembly becoming the first state legislature in the nation to approve legislation, forcing Walmart to pay more for its employee health care, potentially paving the way for other states to follow suit.
They set up a law that was clearly set up only to affect Walmart.
Right.
Right.
They're attacking Walmart, and the reason really is that Walmart is the worst nightmare for the unions.
Because what unions do is they drive up costs and then rate you know firms have to raise their prices because the unions have driven up the costs, and then Walmart are come in, and then you got a choice of buying your groceries at the unionized store where the prices are you know significantly higher or at Walmart, and a lot of people choose Walmart.
In fact, Walmart right now is the nation's largest grosser.
And so the unions view it as a battle of survival.
Like they're not gonna survive unless they can unionize Walmart.
But they can't unionize Walmart because the people at Walmart don't want to let the unions in.
And so instead what they're doing is they're using the Democrats to try to drive up Walmart's costs.
Uh so rather than lower their own costs, they're gonna try to increase the competition costs.
It's shameful.
It's it's disgusting.
It is uh uh curious, that's for sure.
If Walmart is such a bad place, why so many people go there and then people argue I've heard the argument.
Well, we only go to Walmart because that's all there is.
Well, no, Walmart grew because people were going to Walmart.
It is not a chicken in the egg argument.
There is no argument here.
Walmart grew because of their incredible legendary efficiency.
And low prices.
They grew because they have much lower prices than their competition.
And if it's such a terrible place to work, how come when they just uh had a store opening in Glendale, Arizona, they received eight thousand applicants for five hundred and twenty-five jobs?
Right.
Right.
It's a great place to work.
In fact, uh you know, the other study I mentioned in my Bloomberg column, uh the average U.S. household saved more than two thousand dollars because of the presence of Walmart, either by shopping there or because the prices at the places they do shop are lower.
And so if you know, basically if they drive up Walmart's prices, then it it's gonna hurt everybody.
And and and let me ask you, do you think Donald Trump shops at Walmart?
Do you think he's ever been in a Walmart?
You know that's a good question.
Probably not, right?
Only if he thought he could get like some pictures taken of him going in or cameras following him one way or another.
Or there's gonna be a new Donald Trump line of something at Walmart.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
Yeah, that's right.
Which you could yeah, with him it could happen.
But but the the point is just that the who do you think is gonna suffer if Walmart has to jack up its prices because of this legislation?
It's gonna be you know, poor and middle income people.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
But what about w when they when they say that uh uh jobs are lost, uh, when they say that uh because of that there's an economic impact on the community, I I know that there are studies uh talking about frankly how much uh how much uh savings there are, which would help the low income individuals the most.
Right.
And and and in fact, uh jobs even go up uh when a Walmart shows up into your town.
The the best study that I've seen that's been published in one of uh America's finest economics journals shows that that after uh the dust settles a town gains about fifty retail jobs after Walmart shows up.
So so there may be initially a loss, but then in the end the net net is fifty more jobs.
Right.
And and and that the whole point is that one of the arguments that I I've had, I believe me, I've had people that I never would have expected to be attacking what appears to be just a great American company, but I've had those business type people uh come to me and say, Well, yeah, but Paul, the the money goes back to Arkansas.
Instead of the money going to the mom and pop that own the store, and then they go out and buy the cars and buy the houses and buy all the stuff, the money primarily is going back to Arkansas.
It's much the same argument now about Toyota's built in America or Nissan's built in America or whatever's built in America.
They they say, you know, these are American jobs and Americans are making money, but the profit goes back somewhere else.
Well, you know, I I think that the way to think about it is supposed suppose that that I pa I suggested a law, and God knows there are people out there who might suggest such a thing, that you can uh only buy clothes if they're made by somebody who lives in your town.
Suppose we pass that law.
Then then, you know, it'd probably create some jobs in your town.
Right?
But would it be a good law?
No, because it's much more efficient to have like these big massive factories making clothes.
Dr. Kevin Hassett is with us, resident scholar and director of economic policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, and you probably would like to speak with him, and we're gonna give you that chance when we come back at 1800 282 2882.
1-800-282-2882 on the Rush Limbaugh program.
I'm Paul W. Smith.
The war on Walmart.
1-800-282-2882, 800-282-2882, the Rush Limbaugh program, and our guest, uh Dr. Kevin Hassett, and we're responding to finally the the fact that in Maryland they have uh put through this law, legislation forcing Walmart to pay more for its employee health care.
They have to spend at least uh eight percent of their payroll on employee health care or else pay into a fund for the uninsured.
Now they've got their sights on other states.
Uh New Hampshire's been talked about.
What do you think the uh the odds are, Dr. Hassett, of this becoming a successful movement across the country?
I I think the odds are pretty high.
Uh given that basically the national democratic leadership is has jumped on board on this, and given how well funded the unions are, uh I would guess that a lot of blue states are gonna see uh Walmarts with higher prices.
So nobody is going to care.
Nobody Nobody is gonna care that uh Senator John Kerry, who has described Walmart's treatment of its workers as disgraceful, nobody cares that his wife apparently owns Walmart stock.
And that he's his campaign shopped at Walmart.
That his campaign shopped at Walmart, the Dean's campaign, Ralph Naders.
They they can all say all this, but they do what everyone else is doing.
They're taking advantage of the low prices and the efficiencies.
But anyway, let's find out what uh some of our listeners have to say to weigh in on this.
We go to Columbus, Ohio, where we find Herb.
Herb, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program.
Uh good.
Hello, Mr. Smith.
How do you do today?
I'm fine, Herb.
Paul is my name.
I Paul.
Uh well, I was always brought up the Mr. and hello, sir, and the first time intimate terms good for you.
You can pretend I'm a police officer pulling you over.
Let's not.
Uh I am honored to be here today, sir.
I would uh like to just comment this.
I'm a non-union member.
I'm not a Democrat, thank God.
Uh but I I I don't shop at Walmart unless I have no choice.
And I I come from working class families.
Um I'm a truck driver.
The only time that I do shop at Walmart is when I have no choice.
I'm on a road.
It's it's the only place that I can get uh that I can get my uh truck into to do my shopping.
So I I have no choice at times.
But as a as a truck driver been all over the country and I've seen what Walmart has done to some of these towns in the South.
They've just destroyed them.
You go downtown to some of these really small towns where there's five or six small towns in one area, maybe 40 mile radius.
And Walmart's done built at Walmart, super Walmart, and there's nothing in any of these towns.
You have no business downtown.
They're boarded up, closed up, out of business.
We hear that.
Where do these people work?
They worked for Walmart for eight dollars an hour, struggling to make it.
It's it it it you know, I and I I I fell into the trap.
I shopped at Walmart for many a year, up until I I said as I traveled around this country more and more, I started seeing what they've done.
And I I Sam Walton, I think, would spin in his grave today if he saw what has actually happened to his company.
I think he started this company out as a good thing to get you could buy an American-made product at a competitive price.
If I had a store that sold that item at five dollars, he'd come in and offer it for four dollars and eighty cents.
The people that run his business now, you have an item for five dollars, they will slash it to two dollars, put you out of business, and then walk that price back up to five dollar range.
Well, they did buy it in China anyway.
I wonder if Sam was buying in China before his death.
That's where m much of I don't know what the percentage is, but an awful lot of it coming from China.
But uh, Dr. Hassett, your reaction to what Herb is saying, because Herb reflects uh lots of people's opinion.
No, no, and and and Herb is correct that that say the little shoe store that used to be in in the town isn't there, but the anymore after Wal Walmart comes.
But what what happens is the the these towns sort of reorganize their workforces and and people go on and do more productive things.
And so so the the research shows that that after Walmart's been there a while, in fact, employment is higher uh in in the town and and incomes are higher uh because Walmart's uh you know basically a much more efficient way to do retail.
It's kind of like the family farm.
Uh so you know big agribusiness has more or less destroyed the family farm.
And it used to be nice to see all those little family farms all over the place, but the fact is that the people who lived on those small little farms didn't necessarily have the best uh the best uh existence and the highest income.
And government subsidies that uh that were kind of odd too along the way.
Let's go to uh Atlanta, Georgia.
Mike is on his cell phone.
Mike, welcome in.
Hello, Paul Gobby.
Good to speak with you.
I'm on a out of Toledo, actually.
Oh, good.
Um, I had I had two things to say now, I guess.
One, I just listened to that gentleman who spoke, and although it may be true, you're saying about the small towns, I believe Kevin agreed.
I think it's capitalism, and if you truly are for capitalism, it's the people that have decided not to shop at those little mom and pop stores.
It's not it's not Walmart taking taking people away from them saying you can't shop there.
It's price dictation, and people are going to go where they get the best deal and the cheapest thing.
And there are going to be times when you choose to pay more to get the service.
But unfortunately, a lot of the places that you pay more, you don't get the service anymore.
Exactly.
Second point I wanted to state was I think Walmart needs to call this bluff.
These these egotistical, hypocritical Democrats to get in there and start lobbying for the unions, get laws passed so they can get, you know, what the union wants so they get their big kickbacks.
I think Walmart needs to say, hey, you know what?
You don't want us here unless we pay for this health insurance.
Fine, we'll move right across the line into Pennsylvania, right across the line into Delaware, right across the line into Virginia.
Let your shoppers come out of state, give those other states your guys' cut of the tax money, and let's see how you like that.
I was waiting for somebody to bring that up.
And uh appreciate the call, Mike, and we're running out of time, but uh, if you want to just wrap up uh Dr. Hassett with a final thought for our listeners.
Well, I think there's clearly a lot of interest in this.
The final thought is that there's there's an orchestrated political campaign against Walmart that's being run by the Democrats.
And you know, if you shop at Walmart and you think it's kind of an okay place, then you might have to stand up and defend them uh if they're still going to be around, because they're really Democrats have Walmart in their side.
Be aware that uh that that they say they've increased consumers' real disposable income by bringing costs and prices down, that they have looked into the child labor violations and stopped doing business with companies that were doing that, that they that they have tried to do a lot of things that uh that they would say make them a good neighbor and a good friend to the community.
So you're right.
You have to look at it and realize there's a lot of politics behind this.
Dr. Kevin Hassett, thank you for joining us.
We do appreciate it.
It's been a real pleasure.
We continue uh the Rush Limbaugh program on Paul W. Smith.
Well, we've looked at the war on terror.
The war on Walmart and coming up.
The war on our border.
If I told you a foreign army, it violated our border, not once, not twice, but dozens and well, no, hundreds of times over the past ten years, you'd say we got a serious problem.
That serious problem is uh, I guess you'd call it a uniformed immig immigration problem with Mexico.
The war on our border with Mexico in our sights up next here on the Rush Limbaugh program.
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