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Feb. 28, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:22
February 28, 2006, Tuesday, Hour #3
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All right, here we go.
We got big stuff here.
We got audio sound bites, lots of stuff still remaining in these stacks of stuff today.
Rush Limbaugh back.
Happy to have you with us.
It is a delight to be able to talk about these issues that matter so much to all of us together here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
A telephone number if you want to be on the program 800-282-2882.
Email address is rush at EIBnet.com.
I got a funny email here from a subscriber to my website, rushlimbaugh.com.
Dear Rush, how will the politicians in Maryland reply when Walmart demands that every citizen in Maryland spend 10% of their income at Walmart?
And if they don't, they'll have to send the balance to Walmart.
Well, what if Walmart did that?
What if any business, just to put this in perspective, what if any business demanded that everybody within a certain radius, a certain distance, had to spend X percentage of their income with that business?
If they didn't, they were going to find a way to get it anyway.
Well, Rush, don't be silly.
That's absurd.
Isn't it more dangerous and absurd when the government does it?
When the government tells a business, you're going to spend X percentage on health care for your employees.
And if you don't, you're going to send us the balance.
And now this is creeping around in all the governors.
There are 36 states thinking of doing this.
As I said earlier, you can sit out there and get all a bit out of shape about Ports deal.
This is the kind of stuff that just infuriates me.
I detest these people, folks.
I detest the way they think.
I detest their tricks.
I detest their deceit.
I detest what they're attempting to do, kill a golden goose, all for the outdated belief in a failed way of managing everybody's affairs.
The Investors Business Daily had an editorial on the 24th of February.
For those of you in Riolinda, that would be last week.
Well, wait a minute.
Yep, it'd be last week.
Last check, I could forgot what day it was today.
Called the HSA solution, health savings account solution.
You ever wonder why employers have to pay so much to provide insurance for their workers?
Here's one reason.
Free riders.
Last year, a study by Families USA found that uninsured Americans cause increases in health insurance premiums.
The hit was $922 for every family health care insurance package a company pays for, $341 for every individual package.
This is the free rider problem that economists talk about.
There's a segment in every population that'll find a way to allow others to pay for the goods or services that they consume.
In other words, they take in benefits that exceed the costs that they expend.
On occasion, the free rider problem will cause a product or a service to either go out of business or be underproduced.
But free riders typically benefit from some government-provided good or service that all or nearly all pay for, but few use.
In this case, a large number of the uninsured use the healthcare system but don't pay for the care they receive or they pay very little.
The remainder of the cost of their treatment is subsidized by higher prices charged to those who buy insurance premiums or pay for health care out of their pockets.
It's sort of like prices in a grocery store.
Prices anywhere are inflated to cover theft, shoplifters, loss.
In some cases, corporate taxes are built into the price of goods.
And then basically they're healthcare thieves.
They're free riders, free loaders.
They're healthcare thieves.
Their thieves are everywhere.
I mean, they are.
They're out there and they're gaming and scamming the system.
And so somebody's going to pay for it because nothing's free.
Somebody has to pay for it.
But don't blame providers.
They're simply recovering their costs.
If they can't get payment from the uninsured, they have to get it from paying customers and the insurance companies.
This being a painful reality is denial of care for the uninsured who either cannot or will not pay an option?
Nope, not in this country, but maybe it should be.
Many who can afford to pay for their health care or are able to buy health insurance just choose not to.
According to Devin Herrick, the National Center for Policy Analysis, 15 million adults who do not have health insurance live in households with incomes of more than $50,000 a year.
In fact, the fastest growing segment of the uninsured population is from middle and upper income families.
The uninsured among households with yearly incomes above $75,000 grew 130% from 1994 to 2003, according to census data.
Herrick reckons that the raw numbers of uninsured within this group have grown by nearly 7 million over the 22 of the 43 million, Mr. Snowdey, accounted for by people who make 50 or 75 grand and don't pay for it, don't want it.
But when emergency strikes, off they go to the emergency room and they get treated and they get covered.
Health savings accounts would help out here.
Oh, by the way, what about the poor, though?
What about the poor?
Perhaps another 14 million low-income adults and their children, Herrick believes, qualify for government programs, but haven't enrolled.
Only a small part of the population, maybe 6%, go without health insurance because they can't afford it.
That's a far cry from that massive number 43 million has thrown around all over the place.
Forget the shrieking of those who want to force a socialist health care system on the country.
They complain that HSAs will benefit only the wealthiest and the healthiest and will actually send more poor Americans into the ranks of the uninsured.
Can I ask a question?
Why in the world would anybody listen to the architects of failure after failure after failure?
The people who gave us the war on poverty, the Great Society, all the demonstrable failures.
They're the ones out there saying this won't work.
They're the ones who won't even admit their plans have failed.
No, no, no.
They're not supposed to judge the results.
They're supposed to judge their good intentions so that we conclude they have big hearts.
More than half of existing health security accounts, health savings account buyers pay between $50 and $100 a month for premiums.
Still too much?
Okay, why not make HSA premiums tax-deductible as President Bush has suggested?
Just how much more help do they people really need here?
So that's one aspect of this.
I mentioned Thomas Soule's column, and let me run through this because it deals with the attitudinal problem that we have here.
Suppose somebody left you an inheritance of a million dollars with the proviso that every cent of it had to be spent on tickets for you to go watch professional wrestling.
If you happen to be a professional wrestling fan, you'd be in hog heaven.
But what if you weren't?
How much would that million dollars be worth to you?
Certainly a lot less than a million dollars.
What if there was a clause in the will, though, which said that you could forfeit the million dollars and instead receive a cash amount of a hundred grand and you could spend that as you pleased?
Well, many of us would take the hundred grand without strings, even if that was only 10 cents on the dollar compared to the million for watching wrestling.
In short, money with strings is worth less than money without strings, sometimes a lot less.
Many of us who receive money from Social Security or other government programs are learning the hard way, the difference between money with strings and money without strings.
For example, Social Security recipients have to be enrolled in Medicare, whether they want to be or not.
Universal coverage means compulsory coverage, just with prettier political spin.
Those who are complaining about how hard it is to understand the new Medicare coverage seem not to realize that no government program voted into law by more than 500 members of Congress is going to be simple.
Everybody in Congress has his own pet notions or his own little claim to fame, and a lot of those pet notions and claims to fame have to go into the legislation in order to get the votes needed to pass the law.
The complications and restrictions are the strings attached to Medicare.
People who think that they're getting something for nothing by having government provide what they would otherwise have to buy in the private market are not only kidding themselves, but they're ignoring the taxes that government has to take from them in order to give them the appearance of something for nothing.
They're also ignoring the strings that are going to be attached to their own money when it comes back to them in the government benefits.
And that's not even counting the fact that government programs are usually less efficient than similar services provided by private enterprise.
Compare the service you get at the DMV with the service you get at AAA.
No one who belongs to the AAA is likely to go to the DMV for a service that is also available through AAA.
The baby boomers who are beginning to turn 60 are unlikely to get back all the money they paid into Social Security with or without strings.
The illusion that Social Security can provide pensions more cheaply than a private annuity or other retirement plan is the grand something for nothing political triumph.
The baby boomers are going to pay the price big time.
Something for nothing.
There's no such thing.
There are always strings attached.
It's a great analogy.
Everybody I hear complaining about the new Medicare prescription drug deal is it's too complicated, Mabel.
I can't figure it out.
I don't want to have to go to this much trouble.
Fine, then don't use it.
Go out and buy your prescription.
I can't afford it, Rush.
It's very insensitive for you to say.
They need to make it easy.
No, no, no.
There are always going to be strings attached when somebody's giving you, quote unquote, something.
Somebody, that's why I don't want the strings attached to anything.
In my life, it's spelled F-R-E-E-D-O-M.
And for those of you in Riolinda, that's freedom.
All right, we got big news involving the state of Connecticut.
Connecticut, the latest blue state to start suckling on the teat, the oil teat, of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela's controversial fuel subsidies for the U.S. poor expanded into Connecticut Monday, two weeks after U.S. Republican lawmakers questioned whether the cheap oil masked a broader anti-American agenda.
Connecticut, now the seventh state to receive cheap oil from Venezuela, which also sent shipments to Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.
The Bronx in New York City also joined the program.
And there are people who are not worried at all about making a deal with the devil down there, Hugo Chavez, who is a genuine insane man.
He's a general lunatic.
Hates this country, joining forces with every enemy of ours he can.
And yet we've got American congressmen going down to making deals with him.
This is nothing new.
The American Democrats have long sidled up to America's enemies in the Central America region, South America.
But it's just listen to this.
Listen from the New York Times today.
And this actually, this is from the New York Times News Service.
This is not really staff reporters for the paper.
The headline, for years, foreign firms have run U.S. ports.
American ports are considered somewhat backward by shipping experts outside the country.
For example, most major ports overseas operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But in the United States, until very recently, ports were shut down at night.
And transmitting shipping orders electronically to some American ports does not necessarily save time because the orders need to be re-keyed into the port's computer systems, a concession to unions trying to preserve jobs.
That's in the New York Times.
It said that the basically what the paragraph means is that our ports are antiquated because we have to sit around and pander to unions and maintain jobs, and we're not modernizing in the process.
Unions, like the longshoreman, like the guy that threatened me, we have relaxed our security from last week, by the way.
was no threat made beyond that on the phone we uh uh the uh yeah okay i can admit it wouldn't take hr's now panic that i've admitted that we have relaxed our beefed up security HR, there's always security here.
We just beefed it up.
No, I'm not going to give away what we do and how we secure ourselves here at the EIB Southern Command.
He's really upset about this up there.
We didn't get rid of security.
We just relaxed it.
It was just one phone threat, and it was made to the world.
Everybody could hear it.
But yeah, apparently our ports are pretty old-fashioned.
All right, who's next on this program?
Rory in Minneapolis.
I'm glad you called, sir.
Welcome to the EIB network.
Hi, Rush.
I am 28 years old, a small business owner, and about six months ago, I switched over to a health savings account.
And I am just calling to say that it has definitely affected my buying behavior.
This morning, I had to go get my eyes checked.
And for the first time in my life, instead of just going to the nearest doctor, I called up three local eye doctors, found the one that's the least expensive and the most competitive and best service.
And that's where I'm going today.
Good for you.
Good for you.
Explain to people who don't understand this how your health savings account works.
How much did it cost you and what's the deal with it?
Well, essentially, it's a high-deductible health insurance plan, except it's also a savings account.
So instead of us just paying into an insurance company, we actually get to keep what's left over at the end of the year and invest it how we see fit.
So it's the freedom of the money like you were talking about earlier.
Right.
And with no strings attached to it and with a benefit on the end.
So you run around, you can shop your service.
And of course, this is just a regular trip to the eye doctor.
This is not catastrophic.
Everybody knows that this is not going to handle catastrophic.
That's a whole different thing.
You know, pre-existing conditions.
They want me to ask you here, Rory, if it was a real hassle to call three different places to find the best price.
They also want me to ask you if it cost you money, your small business owner, did it take valuable work and production time, productive time, away from you to have to go through this arduous process of making three calls to three different eye clinics.
No, in fact, it was my pleasure.
It took about five minutes to find one that was close to my house that had a better deal.
And I'm very happy.
That's the way I feel.
It's the way it should be.
This is how I'd want customers approaching my company.
Well, I'm glad to hear that.
You have an amazing work ethic.
You've got a lot of inspiration and motivation.
Done something that most Americans wouldn't do.
You've actually done the heavy lifting.
And a lot of people are intimidated by this.
A lot of people say it's just more than Americans should have to do.
He actually shopped.
He actually called three different doctors to get the best location and price based on what his criteria was.
Now, that's asking a lot of the American.
I know it's going to take a lot to get people to actually do that.
But he did it.
And he's proof.
If he can do it, folks, you can do it too.
I know you probably buy your cars that way.
How many of you first, when you buy a car, you go to the internet and you find the car and you try to find whatever the sticker price is and a wholesale price and a dealer's real cost is so that when you go to the dealer, you think you know more than he does or as much as he or his stupid salesman does about the car.
And if you don't get what you want there, then you probably research three or four cars.
You've got to go to four or five different dealerships.
You've got three or four cars picked out and you're going to make the deal with the best prices you can get.
You do it in other avenues of your life.
You could do it with health care.
I know you can do it.
But it's, but you don't think you should have to.
Well, most people, well, you do ask who's a good doctor, but when you put the financial incentive into it, that's going to matter.
That's the whole point.
You most certainly do.
Snurdley's telling me that you don't discuss money with doctors.
Well, you better start.
The only reason people don't discuss money with doctors now is because they don't think they're going to pay for it.
That's why.
Well, let them be intimidated.
It's just like shopping for anything else.
I mean, you think the doctor's going to get revenge on you for asking about his price by either not curing you or wounding you further, leaving the scalpel inside you after Marie in York, Pennsylvania.
Welcome to the program.
Hi, Rush.
How are you?
Fine, thank you.
I'm going, I wanted to dovetail on your last caller.
I'm a healthcare professional.
I was telling your screener that usually there's much more waste in Medicare and Medicaid due to less scrutiny that is involved.
In other words, like you said before, most people just go in and they expect services.
They even get services that they don't need or don't want because they know it's a cash cow.
Whereas insurance companies, they're a little bit more, they look at what's being bought and sold as far as health care.
And even more so now, a lot of healthcare insurance companies are doing what your last caller is doing.
They're actually making them look and challenge what they're actually buying from a hospital.
So there's a lot of things.
I don't know about a hospital.
This guy, the hospital is another thing.
If you have to go to hospital, that's usually unelective, and you don't have time to go shopping when you're in the ambulance.
You don't tell the driver, hey, go to three emergency rooms and check the price here.
We're not talking about that, folks.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have utilizing talent on loan from God.
Now, since we're talking about health care, we have our medical tip of the day.
As you know, yesterday's medical tip was that there's a new study out there that says chocolate milk could be a better sports drink for athletes than Gatorade or Endurox R4.
Chocolate milk may be as good or even better than these common sports drinks.
Intense endurance exercise reduces supply of stored glucose, a key source of fuel for exercise to the muscle.
Common sports drinks like Gatorade supply the carbohydrates as well as fluids and electrolytes lost through sweat.
But more recent research suggests that adding protein to the mix may further hasten recovery.
Reported the health portal WebMD.
The new study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism countered the notion that high-tech, expensive supplements are better than whole foods when it comes to athletic performance.
Now, as I said yesterday, all of a sudden we're going to get rid of Gatorade, get rid of all these other things and put chocolate milk out there on the sidelines.
Aren't we banning chocolate milk from schools because it makes kids fat?
Here's another little story about chocolate.
Leave it to the Dutch to help demonstrate the health benefits of chocolate.
A study of older men in the Netherlands, known for its luscious chocolate, indicated that those who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day had lower blood pressure and reduced risk of death.
Chocolate is linked now to lower blood pressure.
Cocoa beans contain flavonols, which are thought to increase nitric oxide in the blood and improve the function of blood vessels.
This is funny.
This is hilarious.
Top Democrats are furious with Ohio State Senator Charlie Wilson, a Democrat, who failed last week to get 50 valid signatures to qualify for a ballot spot in a Democrat congressional primary.
Rahm is mad as he should be, a top Democrat official said, referring to Rahm Emanuel.
Good grief.
If you can't do petitions, how can you do anything?
It was totally misplayed.
Charlie appears to be in over his head, and Democrats are pushing him to get professional help from strategists in Washington who can raise money nationwide.
Another Democratic aide said, prior to having this problem, he was too confident.
Now he has a healthier attitude about the race.
He should be scared.
All this from a guy who didn't get enough signatures on a petition.
His people would canvass the wrong district.
Not even the district he was going to try to get the nomination in.
And this is something you can't blame on Republicans.
But listen to the way they're talking about this.
If you can't do petitions, you can't do anything.
He needs to get professional help.
Prior to having this problem, he was too confident.
Now he's got a healthier attitude.
The Wilson debacle came a week after Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett quit his bid against Sherrod Brown in the Democratic Senate primary.
So can't blame any of this on the Republicans.
This is an interesting headline.
This is in the Washington Post: unions in push to help Democrats win Congress.
Do you know the?
I saw a number the other day.
The unions lost a total of 5 million members last year.
5 million members.
The era of dominant influence in big labor is waning.
AFL-CIO leaders on Monday approved an ambitious and expensive political strategy aimed at mobilizing their members to put Democrats back in control of Congress and several state legislatures.
Of course, it's worked out so well for them in the recent past.
Why shouldn't they continue?
Makes total sense.
Donald and Long Island, I'm glad you waited.
Welcome to the program, sir.
Hi, Rush 24-7.
Dittos to you.
Thank you.
You're very welcome.
I hope you're well.
The reason why I'm calling is about this health issue that you're talking about, the health insurance.
Yeah.
And truly, my belief is that the government or businesses were not covering insurance for people, and the individuals had to go out.
There would be less money flowing to the insurance companies as far as guaranteed premiums.
And what would end up happening is the health insurance companies would have to lower their premiums to become more affordable to people in general so the individual could go out and get their own health insurance.
This happened in the life insurance industry over the past few years.
They had a lower premium because people were getting less life insurance.
Of course.
That's the way it works.
And health care providers, not just the insurance companies, would also have to lower their prices as well.
That's the whole point of the plan.
Try to reintroduce some sort of market structure into something that's out of control.
Also, what would happen is individuals who now run to doctors because it's covered for them for every little thing would maybe look at things a little differently and not always run out because it was getting covered for them.
And they would go out when they really need it.
So just there would also, I believe, be less fraud would happen with the industry, too, and costs would come down.
It would have to.
No, you're absolutely right.
I don't want to lose focus, though, here.
One of the problems with bringing up any story related to health care is that we start getting anecdotal testimonials from people in the business.
And we're all aware of how messed up it is.
We're all aware of how screwed up it is.
Let's not forget what got this started.
And it was in the top of the second hour.
Brendan Meniter, the Wall Street Journal today, has a column on what the real objective is in Maryland in going after Walmart, the Walmart law.
If you remember, the Walmart law states that any business in Maryland with 10,000 or more employees has to pay, what is it, 8%?
8% in their pay, 8% of their payroll has to go to health care insurance for their employees.
And if they don't pay 8%, they've got to make up the balance by giving it to the state.
So if 6% of their payroll goes to health care, the remaining 2% will go to the state.
And Brendan Meniter called up some guy named Hubbard, state representative in the legislature there, to ask what the game plan is here.
And Hubbard, oh, this is first step.
We're going to next go to companies that have less than 1,000, more than 1,000, and less than 1,000, and less than 500, then 200, and so forth.
And we're going to do the same thing.
And we're going to get 2% to 3% of their payrolls.
We're going to get 3% to 4% of other payrolls.
Other states are doing this now.
This is pure socialism.
This is extortion.
And as long as this kind of thing is happening with these businesses being shaken down, and you note who they are, all the businesses that are, all the enemies of the American left, the Democratic Party, are big businesses.
Walmart, big pharmaceutical, big oil, automobiles.
It's obvious their enemies list is.
But this is just flat out socialism.
And it is an assault.
It's extortion.
And it's just obscene.
And this really has not much to do with health care.
I know we've got sidetracked onto that, which always happens.
It's like if we somehow start talking about education, the same thing happens.
We get horror stories of what's going on out there in various places.
But I don't want to lose focus of what got this all started.
The idea that the federal government or a state government in this case can go to a private company and say, we are going to make a claim on 8%.
And next year they might change the law to go 10%.
And what's to stop them from going up to 12%?
And what can these companies do?
There's nothing they can do.
They can't close down.
They can't.
I mean, it makes no sense to shut down and move.
These are, in Walmart's case, and other states are just going to implement this.
This is, to me, it is near criminal.
And the arrogance and the elitism that propels this in the minds of these legislators Is also frustrating and maddening.
Here's Dawn in Indiana.
Dawn, welcome to the program.
Great to have you with us.
Hi, Rush.
Hi.
Hey, just wanted to say, you know, I didn't have health insurance for four and a half years because I stayed home with my kids.
And we could have gone on government assistance, and we didn't because we feel that there are people out there who really, really do need that.
And I went and got a job and actually went to Walmart and got a job so that I could have health insurance.
And this really, really just burns my biscuit that they're going to do this to the company that I'm working for.
I mean, it's not like people are not getting paid enough money.
They make money.
If you don't think you're making enough money there, they should maybe find another job.
I mean, they just frustrating me.
Well, it should.
It should, and I would hope it frustrates a lot of other people there.
Because what's behind this, if you look at what's being done here, folks, now the reason I call this socialism, they are using the power of the state to try and force Walmart to support Democrats and Democrats' special interests.
It's a protection racket.
These legislators are going to Walmart and say, do what we want you to do, or we're going to come get you.
You pay 8% or 10% of your blah, blah, in health care because we're trying to expand government.
This is what this is all about.
This is the government telling these private businesses how to operate.
This is Democrats and liberals trying to make the government bigger, interfering.
And you just think it's Walmart right now, and you think, it'll never going to happen to me.
They're targeting every business, even right down to small businesses.
This is how they're going about expanding government and making business owners adopt their policies by enforcing them to put these policies in effect and then pay the state for the privilege of doing it.
Under the guise, healthcare is just a ruse.
They know that health care is a way to get the public on their side.
They know that everybody's mad at the health care system, and they know everybody thinks that health care is too expensive.
So here come your white knights, in this case of the state of Maryland.
Don't worry, citizens.
We are here to protect you.
We know the challenges you face in healthcare.
We're going to make these evil businesses make sure that you have it.
It's just a way to get their own big government ideas in the free market and operating.
And the threat to these businesses is: if you don't do this, we're going to come after you in other ways.
And Walmart, they're starting to figure it out.
It's not just an ideological battle with Walmart.
It's not just a union battle, but the states, by the way, state legislatures are using the friendly alliances they have with unions who are mounting their own case against Walmart to add up and ratchet up the threat.
As I say, this, I detest these people.
I detest people who do this.
I detest this whole way of thinking.
And it, to me, poses far greater threat than the port deal ever could.
Because this is a, I think the worst thing that can happen to this country is liberalism.
The worst thing that can happen to this country is socialism.
But we've got a bunch of dunderheads who actually think, despite evidence the world over of failure after failure after failure of it, that it's the way to go.
And I'll tell you why.
They don't care about the failure, just like they don't care about the failure to create society.
They don't care about the failure to war on poverty.
They don't care about their civil rights movement failures.
And that's an absolute disaster because these programs are not designed to succeed or fail.
They're just designed to keep liberals in power and to keep them on the side of the aisle.
So we care.
We're compassionate.
It's designed to keep people victims, designed to keep people from realizing their full potential to be the best they can be.
I hate these.
I just hate this stuff.
I hate the contempt with which liberals look at their average citizens, staring at them down their nose from this elitist perch, assuming people don't have what it takes to provide for themselves, to make the right judgments in life.
And it burns me to see people turn over their future to a bunch of vagabonds like this who are not even interested in their well-being.
They just say they are.
A little long here.
Be back in a moment.
Stay with us.
All right, at West Palm Beach, Florida, this is David.
You're up, sir.
Welcome to the program.
Thank you, Rush.
I think the people of Maryland have spoken through their representative government.
If you're a corporation, you have a certain responsibility to the community.
And what Maryland is saying, if you have 10,000 employees, that responsibility is you have to offer another benefit.
In other words, it's almost like upping the minimum wage.
And they're saying, just like you said, if you don't like your job, you're not getting paid enough.
Get another job.
If Walmart cannot do business that way, then they need to leave Maryland.
It's simple.
I mean, I don't know what the problem is.
The people have spoken, Rush, and this is what they've said.
Well, you scare me.
Well, I mean, I don't want to scare you.
I just think.
No, you do, because it's thinking like yours that will result in all of us losing freedoms over a course of period of time.
Because you want to invest all good.
You don't ever question government.
You will sit there and say Walmart must be accountable to the government.
You will not even, it doesn't even register with you, apparently, that the government telling a business how it must operate in this sort of thing is just the first step.
Let me ask, what do you think, David, about the Patriot Act?
Well, I have a problem with not the whole Patriot Act, just parts of it.
And this is parts of it also beneficial for America at this time.
So you have a problem with the Patriot Act, but you don't have a problem with what the Maryland legislature and other states are going to do involving Walmart and other businesses.
But it just really scares me when I encounter people who think the way you do, who think that government is the be-all-end-all, and that government should be able to dictate to businesses how they run, what they do, should be able to extort them, should be able to demand they spend X on this.
Where does this kind of thing stop?
At some point, if we don't get a handle on this, they're going to change this law to say you've got to spend 12% of your payroll on health care.
And you probably would support that at some point down the line, too.
It's like the minimum wage law you mentioned.
The minimum wage law is, well, I don't have time to get into it, but the people of Maryland have spoken in the sense that their elected representatives overrode a gubernatorial veto, the governor's veto on this.
But what you're telling me is that you firmly believe in government when it works to spread socialism and even extorts private businesses to do it.
And that scares me.
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Hi, how are you?
Hill Rushboard here, half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair.
We just had a call from David at West Palm Beach who said basically that he has no problem with the Walmart deal.
The people of Maryland have spoken, and these companies must be accountable.
Well, what's going on here in the Maryland-Walmart situation?
Not only is it absurd that they can demand that Walmart spend X percent on health care, but then when they say if you don't, you've got to pay us the balance.
What you have there is theft.
You have a state government acting on behalf of the people of Maryland stealing money from the shareholders of Walmart.
Where do you think this money comes from?
The people of the state do not get to steal money from each other.
Not legally.
That's what this is.
But the Libs apparently believe that's fine.
I've got an idea here.
If you're a union of over 8,000 members in a state, you have to provide every member with health care.
Not the business, but the union.
Some unions do it already.
We make it mandatory.
If you're a union over 8,000 members, you provide the health care with all those dollars you're getting from dues and other extortion scams you run.
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