All Episodes
Previous Next
July 13, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:15
July 13, 2006, Thursday, Hour #3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Thank you, uh Johnny Donovan.
Welcome back to the uh third hour of the big program today.
My final hour for this uh sojourn.
Paul W. Smith from Detroit will be here tomorrow, rush back on Monday.
And um I've I've been I've told you before, for those of you who haven't uh heard me before or forget or did not hear the time I was yapping about it.
Um this talks the talk show stuff is kind of a uh well, it's a hobby of mine.
My my real life is I'm I've my education, my degrees are all in finance and accounting, and I've worked in and I still run an investment firm, and that's what I do for a real life is I'm uh I'm a financial person.
I'm financially educated, I'm financially trained, I've been in the financial business since 1977.
And and so I I come to these economic stories uh and I look at them and I and I just I I gotta scratch my head because I'm sitting here and going, James Carville misses, he doesn't he is so and it's not just James, it's all it's others as well that are in the political, you know, within the beltway.
They get caught up on we versus them, how we're going to beat the other guy.
It's all about Democrats versus Republicans, and I think out here in the hinterlands, what we would like is we would like to be able to find somebody to put in office that is that understands and is willing to follow good, solid economic reasoning.
We want them to quit spending more than we bring in.
We want them to have some sort of of financial responsibility.
The difference, as we all know is that is that Democrats truly believe in their hearts that bigger government is a better deal, that people need and rely upon and won't know what to do unless the government is standing there helping them, holding them, uh pushing them, showing them, giving to them whatever it is.
And Republicans are just the opposite.
We we think, okay, that that's that's nice, but that's that's not, I mean, how about personal responsibility and get out there and do what you can do and make the best of it, and it's much more fun and much more lucrative, much more exciting.
So we've got these different ideologies, and you know what they are.
But Carvel misses the point by saying, Well, what we need to do is say that our tax deal is better than their tax deal, and they're the guys that are running up the deficit.
And yeah, I think the Democrats are smart if they do hang their message on the Republicans are running up the deficit because they are.
You can't you can't avoid it.
And when some Republicans would finally start getting the message, and there are some, and they're starting to grow in influence and getting more media attention that are saying we need to watch our financial house here.
But see, it goes against everything the Democrats want because Democrats want bigger government, they don't want smaller.
And that's why Nancy Pelosi says, I'm trying to talk to the caucus, I'm trying to get the my fellow Democrats to this place where we cut back on earmarks, but she says it's not realistic to expect that they will be eliminated because it's against the whole Democratic mindset.
Can't go there.
So again, she wants to raise taxes on the rich, and she wants to spend more, more government spending, and see, this is where Carville misses the point, because he's going, how are you going to get around that, James?
How are you going to get around that?
And the reputation, well deserved and well earned, and people haven't forgotten the tax and spend moniker of the Democratic Party.
So the other part that she goes to, and I've done this before on this program.
I'll do it again.
I'll I'll just bring new facts to you, different facts maybe than what I've talked about before.
Her other big idea is uh to increase the minimum wage.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is a um admirable uh idea.
We all would love to help, especially conservatives, would love to go out and help those that are less fortunate through no fault of their own, through illness or injury.
Let us reach out, let us be charitable, let us help these people that are less fortunate.
There's there's it's morally and ethically the right thing to do.
And what's happened with that idea is been transformed into this thing called the minimum wage, with a Good sounding idea, admirable idea.
The sentiments behind it are wonderful, but they don't work when you apply them to economics.
And they haven't worked in a long, long time.
And that's why I say this is not an economic issue.
This is a political issue because it makes whoever is for minimum wage sound good.
It makes them sound like they're for the little guy.
The Republicans have a reputation of being for the rich, and the Democrats have somehow snookered people into thinking that they're for the little guy.
Because that's what's gotten them elected many, many, many cycles ago, but it hasn't worked.
People are smarter.
They have more information.
And so what's happening is they're pulling the uh uh in California, Governor Schwarzenegger says, uh, you want a minimum wage increase?
And the Democrats go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Uh well, what do you want?
And they said, Well, well, what we want is a big raise now, and also we want it to be automatically increased every single year.
So Schwarzenegger says to them, okay, elections coming up.
He's running for uh governor this year.
And uh he said he says, All right, I'm for the minimum wage increase, but not the automatic updates every year.
I want to I want to revisit this.
So he's he's taken the wind out of their sale by saying, okay, I'm for it.
I'm for a wage uh minimum wage increase.
And and in in uh this uh this article in the journal today says that um uh the idea of a minimum wage increase, sixty-four Republicans joined Democrats in a procedural vote signaling support for a $2.10 increase in the minimum wage.
So the Republicans can come out and say, I don't know if anybody will uh listen, or it'll be widely reported, say, yeah, we're for the minimum wage.
But all these people that are for the minimum wage, the sentiments like I said are great, but they're not economically sound.
I've told you this before.
The census, the United States Census has clearly shown over and over and over again that when you raise the minimum wage, the rich people get more than the poor people.
And I'm I I know everybody shakes their head and says, What?
I've never heard that before.
Yes, it's true.
Only fifteen percent of the uh of all the jobs, all the people working in this country.
That not only minimum wage, but also within a dollar fifty.
Paul uh Kersey wrote about this back in um back in 2004, July 23rd, 2004.
You can pick it out of National Review Online, you can see.
This is just one of many of these of these of these reports.
Census data shows only 15% of workers earn within a dollar fifty of the minimum wage belong to poor families.
The minimum wage, and add in a dollar fifty on top of that, and you take all those jobs and you look at them and you say, Who are these people that are making within a dollar fifty of the minimum wage, and you find out that fifteen percent belong to defined by the Census Bureau as poor.
However, twenty percent more than that group, twenty percent belong to families whose earnings exceed eighty thousand dollars a year.
The average person who makes within a dollar fifty of the minimum wage has a total family income of more than forty thousand dollars.
So what are we doing with this?
Why are it that it doesn't do anything?
It doesn't help anywhere.
The employment policy institute, they went back and they took a look and they said, here's the problem.
A lot of people, the Democratic Party primarily, that keep pushing this concept of a minimum wage, look at the at the at that minimum wage job as a dead end job.
That's where you're gonna go to work, that's where you're gonna stay, you're not gonna get any advancements, you'll never get promoted, You'll never get a pay increase without the government.
And in fact, that's not true.
The Employment Policy Institute went back between 1998 and 2002 and said that the typical minimum wage workers saw their wages go up by better than 10.5% within one year of beginning at that minimum wage job.
And during that period of time, there was no change in the minimum wage.
It went up simply because of the fact that people, and this is where it plays a valuable role.
It gives unskilled people skills.
It gives them dignity.
It gives them the chance to go in and be able to get some experience, which they can parlay then into a raise, into promotions, into having some experience where they can go to another company and get even a better paying job.
So there's a role for the minimum wage job.
It is for the unskilled worker.
15% of which live in poor families.
Twenty percent live with families that make more than 80,000 a year.
Every single economic study I've seen comes up with basically the same conclusion.
All right, let's go back and take a look at some more little little uh analysis.
This is from that wildly political group, the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
You talk to these guys, I mean, these people are just the most um geeky people because they are a bunch of stated statisticians.
I don't think they have a political bone in their body.
So their report, they went back to 90 to 91.
And when the minimum wage went up, there was a 12% decrease in employment opportunity for beginning jobs, primarily for teens.
Now, you say, aha, but Tom, you know, in 1990 and 1991, we were in a recession.
So those jobs are being lost for other reasons.
Maybe so.
So let's go look at the boom boom boom period of the late 90s.
1996 through 1997.
Same.
Not as dramatic, but there was still a substantial decrease in the number of job opportunities for first-time minimum wage jobs.
They go down when you raise the minimum wage.
I mean, think it through.
You own a small business, you now have to pay somebody that has no skills that's coming in, and they've never worked any place or they don't have any any experience in your business, and you're going to teach them the business, you're going to teach them the job, but you're going to start them at the minimum wage.
And you need three of them.
Well, if the minimum wage goes up, you might say, I need two of them.
That's just how it works.
We need to take a short break, and when we come back, we'll take your phone calls.
The phone number to join the program is 800-282-2882.
My name is Tom Sullivan.
This is the Rush Limbaugh Radio Program.
So the Wall Street Journal does this uh big interview with Nancy Pelosi, and uh and they're kind of scratching their heads, I think, and they they come back out.
And remember, this is uh the the opinion page is more to the right, the the journalistic news sections are more to the left.
They come out and they ask this question and said, All right, so so we all know what we won, and no we're just not hearing it from the politicians.
These people in Washington are uh tone deaf when it comes to fiscal management, fiscal responsibility.
So who is the most effective voice?
They did a poll today.
Who is the most effective voice for Democrats in Congress?
So they would no, not John McCain.
HR.
John McCain's a Republican.
Oh.
Oh yeah.
Uh so they asked the question uh um Hillary or Teddy or Joe Lieberman or Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid.
Well, it uh who came in bottom as far as the uh the poll going on right now for who is the most effective voice for Democrats in Congress.
Bringing up the back of the line is none other than Harry Reed.
Old Dingy Harry himself got uh six percent of the votes.
Next last, back there in the end of the line, with seven percent of the votes, it's a tie between Teddy Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi.
So the back three are Pelosi and Kennedy and Harry Reed.
Democrats are are you're looking at your leaders and going, people are saying these people are pinheads.
Let's see, who comes in uh fourth last is uh Hillary, she got 11% of the votes.
It really comes down to two people.
Barack Obama got 30%, but number one, number Uno, who is the most effective voice for Democrats in Congress is Joe Lieberman.
Thirty-nine percent said, yep, I'm for Joe.
And that's kind of interesting.
I don't know if this is uh I don't know if the Joe is going to if this is going to help Joe or hurt him in his in his reelection bid in Connecticut.
I don't know.
But uh it looks like people like him.
And we'll see what happens come.
When is that August eighth?
It's coming up pretty quick.
Isn't it the eighth?
I think it is.
It's August, first part of August.
Another great quote from uh from an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, Kevin Hassan, about this minimum wage business, he says it is wrong to redistribute money from the worst off workers to other low income workers.
That's where it comes from.
Well, you're not if does the minimum wage change your income?
Most of you?
Almost all of you?
No, it doesn't.
So what they're doing is they're taking from low income workers and shifting the money around to another low income worker.
Isn't that really what happens here?
Kevin in uh Oregon on your cell phone.
Kevin, hello, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Yes, sir.
Yeah, it's good to talk to you.
I don't generally listen rush, but I like what you had to say.
Um I agree that um Mr. Rather's a prima donna and probably a bit of an egomaniac, and he is from Texas too, right?
Uh yes, sir.
He's one of those cowboys, he's uh he's he's got that cowboy attitude, yeah.
Yeah, so I'm a construction worker going to a pipeline job.
I agree with you can't bleed the rich.
I am a kind of a left to center Democrat, but a hundred years ago I would have been a Teddy Roosevelt Republican.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I've I've got you figured out.
Okay.
Um so I agree with you.
Yeah, you cannot bleed the rich, and if you bump up the minimum wage um appreciably, it's gonna make sh black teenagers harder to employ, et cetera.
But I think there's some compromises like uh if we're if we're gonna cut back on spending for domestic programs, we got to do something about the three uh billion dollars a month for spending in Iraq.
We gotta cut back across the board.
Defense spending, education, environmental, you name it, it should be a proportional cut, not just in certain areas.
Would you as a possible negotiating point that we have to cut across the board?
Yeah, no, I I think I like the idea.
In fact, uh what I like is uh if they have problems trying to pass a budget, just go back and use the budget from from last year, or why don't you take the one that worked fine five years ago or one that yeah, I'm I don't have a problem with doing it across the board, and it makes it very simple and it politically gives them cover, so I don't know why they why they don't do it.
But here's here's the here's here's where the boogeyman are hiding.
The boogeyman in in federal spending are Social Security and Medicare.
Those are the largest entitlement and Medicaid.
I mean, you put Medicare Medicaid in there, but it's Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
And they're the largest spending programs by far, followed up by, and it's going to get worse the more we keep spending more than we bring in, is the interest that the government pays on the debt.
That's all this other stuff.
And I I don't I don't have a problem with your with your views on that, Kevin.
Uh but I but the spending that we're doing here, there, and everywhere else is nothing compared to what we spend on uh on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
And here's the other part.
Here's the part that drives me absolutely nuts.
Here are these people that are jumping up and down about the fact that the government uh needs to do something about its spending and needs to rein in all this spending as the the evil Republicans that are doing all this spending.
And uh but when it came time to do something about it, when it came time to do something about the number well, number one, but quickly the Medicare Medicaid's growing faster, is is to fix the spending problem that we have every year and it's going to get worse is Social Security.
They voted no on don't touch Social Security, don't do any reform, don't do anything to bring it up to date.
But it's a man and and even though it's the largest expenditure out there, let's not do anything about that.
Let's instead just pretend that we're against government spending and uh well, we'll just raise taxes.
That's what we'll do.
That's the answer to everything.
We'll talk about it more when we we come back.
Tom Sullivan in for Rush Lindbaugh.
Just uh looking at the market, uh another big down day, down 143 on the Dow right now, but I gotta here's another little part about all of this, folks.
Um we're going through something that's also well, first of all, whenever you stir things up in the world, you're gonna get you're gonna get uh this sort of uh reaction and you're gonna use the Wall Street uses it as a tool to be able to do some selling.
We up until just the last few weeks.
We have not had a correction in the stock market since the first quarter of two thousand three.
It was pretty long in the tooth waiting for something to go backwards on us, and we're okay.
We're we now have officially have a correction going on.
I think it's gonna be you know, corrections take uh weeks to months to go through.
I wouldn't be all that worried about what's going on today, besides you should be looking at what's going on three to five years down the road.
And speaking of trends, uh who's this from?
This is oh Congressional budget office.
That's uh they've got this uh the numbers down on uh what I just said to the the last caller about Social Security Medicare Medicaid and how much it's costing.
Let me just give you a little uh goodie here.
Social Security Medicare Med Medicaid, uh they start here with 1962 to 2001.
Social Security Medicare Medicaid was two percent of the gross domestic product in nineteen sixty-two.
Two percent.
It's now almost eight percent.
Meantime, defense spending has gone from nine percent of the of the GDP down to three percent.
That's what we're doing.
We're reducing our spending, and we have for many, many decades on defense so that we can boost spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and yet nobody wants to fix any of that.
It's not going to last.
It uh it won't work, especially when the boomers start retiring.
Mark in New Brunswick, Texas.
Hi, Mark, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Uh yes, it's new Braunfulls.
Um, I just had a comment about Nancy Pelosi's uh master planned.
And it's really simple arithmetic.
Uh if there's gonna be $13 billion for deficit reduction and then $13 billion in new spending, the result is zero change on the budget.
Oh that's pretty hard to figure out, isn't it?
Yeah, well, I and I even had a public education in in the US, you know.
And you still got it.
Yeah.
The whole thing is based on the assumption that the tax increases will actually bring in new revenue.
Of course, they've never heard of the lapper curve, or they forgot the sixties and the eighties, and more recently the boom that we're encouraging uh currently uh experiencing based on tax reduction.
Well, yeah, that they do they do static analysis, which is well, right now so much is coming in, so if we raise the rate, so much more will come in.
But what they don't do is dynamic scoring, which says, hmm, if you raise the rate, how many people are gonna do something to not pay as much?
And that's what they don't do, because I'm with you, they will not meet their revenue projections they never do whenever they do static testing.
Never has happened in the past.
Appreciate the call, Mark.
Let's go to Gerard in Marietta, Georgia.
Hi, Gerard, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program.
I can't tell you how mind blowing it was to have the phone actually ring since 1991.
Always busy.
I I have to say something before I get into it.
Uh I always thought Tony Snow was the only one that could replace Rush Limbaugh and make it interesting.
And now I find out there's another one with the same initials, Tom Sullivan that's equal to the job.
It's very interesting.
You're very you're very kind and I know Tony and I like him, but I does that mean that uh I get to be the next next press secretary.
You really want you really want it.
Are you are you kidding me?
I'm not that I don't sound that stupid do I?
No, not really.
That's why I asked.
I I got to tell you though, well a few minutes ago when you were talking about the profile of Democrats and Republicans, big government, small government.
I think you were being way too kind to the Democrats.
I don't believe it's philosophical at all.
I think it could they learned it from Roosevelt with all his programs divide and conquer that uh maybe there's some Democrats who believe a bigger government does better things and helps the country more but the bulk of them want power.
They want to get back in power and all I've got to do is look at an issue and say which one would generate the most likely the most votes and you can see Democrats standing in line and I put immigration is the perfect one that's major right now.
The war, they were all for the war.
Then then as they saw the trends changing they started creeping back into the true ideology which by the way I do think is against the American military but it's down to the votes again and I get so sick of it.
No I I don't I don't disagree with your comments but I got to correct something.
What I'm talking about is the way that they play the the elected play to the Democratic electeds play to the Democratic members of the the citizens that are that are registered Democrats in this country they go out to them and say let me bring you more big government and people go yeah yeah yeah I like I like gifts that are voted for me.
I'll I'll go for more of that.
That's what I was talking about.
Not the not the people in office.
I agree with you it's a power grab it's hardball politics that's all it's about but they hide behind the skirt of let me give you something for free let me bring you bigger bigger government and that's where the rank and file everyday go to work Democrat goes yeah that's what I'm for I think that's the difference numbers might win and that's sad.
Yeah it's not about the country it's about it's about uh how can I uh beat the other person so hey Gerard thanks for your for your uh kind comments too Lawrence in uh St. Petersburg Florida hi Lawrence you're on the Rush Limbaugh program hi Tom in regards to that shrill Nancy Pelosi's uh comments about uh raising a minimum wage um the dinosaur unions the majority of them uh their pay increases are predicated in their
contract to the minimum wage.
So Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are playing to one of their biggest groups, which are the unions, and the biggest unions happen to be government.
And so that is the largest, other than the goodwill and the good thoughts and all that baloney, the fact is, is those people will gain the most.
then who gets screwed the most we the voting public.
Yeah, all the taxpayers, all the people.
That's right.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
So most people don't think about that.
And I think the last time I saw the number of jobs in this country that are union is something like 7% or 8% other than if you throw in public employees, government employees, it brings it up to, I think, 12% or 13%.
So then everyone will be crying about the stamps going up at the post office and all this kind of stuff because the minimum wage is set and their raises are predicated on that minimum wage.
I forgot about that, but I know I've heard that before, that, yeah, their contracts are based upon the minimum wage.
Even though it's not the minimum wage, it's based upon that as the multiplier.
And, yeah, you're right.
I mean, what that then says is they don't give two hoots about one of those persons from the 15% of the minimum wage jobs out there, the poor folks.
They're not worried about the poor folks.
They're just pretending they are.
They're looking for the labor.
And, yeah, labor unions still have an overabundance.
of power in this country because of The fact that they do have few people that belong to them, but they got a paycheck to be able to buy a lot of uh politicians.
Uh Jim in Tampa, a lot of Florida calls today.
Hi, Jim, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hi, Tom.
Uh, your last call caller was r really right on uh what I was gonna say, and the unions are are pushing and driving that.
I'm retired, and the people who have to be against it the most are retirees, particularly those that are on fixed incomes, whether it's just social security or social security and other uh kinds of uh retirement uh uh plans, we lose.
Uh cost of living goes up.
Uh we we don't get to buy the hamburgers anymore because they've gone from uh three dollars to six dollars because of uh cost of uh living, and if you increase minimum wage, you're gonna multiply uh those kinds of factors.
Yeah, but you know there's somebody right somebody right now listening to you, Jim is saying, Well, well, but but wait a minute, if inflation goes up, then your wages uh the the increase in social security and all these pension benefits, you get a big increase from there, but uh but uh you know and I know that's gonna be kidding.
Yeah, I know it doesn't work.
No influence is there.
There's the companies are the big losers and and uh specifically, but the whole the whole economy loses because of it.
Well, but mostly it starts with inflation hurts the lowest income and the fixed income the most over anybody else.
The rich folks are still going to be rich and they can afford the adjustment, but it's it hurts the people who can least afford to be hurt.
So your point's well on.
Jim, thanks for the call.
We're gonna take a short break and come back 800-282, 2882, Tom Sullivan sitting on the Rush Limbaugh radio program.
All right, all right, all right, all right.
So we gotta we uh we've got some calls that uh said, Oh, you know, government, government jobs uh are not tied to the uh to the minimum wage.
They're they're on uh they just negotiate their contracts.
Yeah, but in the contracts, you can darn well bet that they're sitting at that table going, look at we gotta, you know, if the minimum wage goes up, we gotta get an increase too, because and and I wouldn't blame them for doing that because if you're making uh seven bucks an hour, minimum wage is at five dollars and some change, and they raise it to to seven dollars and some change, you're gonna go, excuse me, me too, I want my raise.
Tell you about jobs in this country in just a minute.
Let's get Susan in here from Houston.
Hi, Susan, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hi, Thomas.
Um, you when talking about Tom Rather, you ask if I mean Dan Rather, you ask if any of us ever known people who wouldn't leave when they said, and I would say that we have a whole crowd of them on Capitol Hill, a bunch of dinosaurs who need to leave.
I don't think our forefathers intended people to go up there and spend forty or fifty years.
I think it was supposed to be our peers, shopkeepers, farmers, whoever go spend a few years to serve the country and then go back home to their businesses and live in the real world.
We got a bunch of people who won't give up their perks and it's a good analogy.
Good analogy because of the fact they believe they're self-important and they also start getting, like you said, they start to become big deals and they like being a big deal because they're not a big deal when they go back and live like the rest of us in any town USA.
Your your analogy is perfect, Susan.
They've totally lost touch with with real people who run businesses, you know, and just work day to day or whatever.
And I I want term limits, but it's never gonna happen since they are the ones that have to make it happen.
Yeah, they've tried before, and uh the court said you can't do that.
So yeah, there's not gonna be term limits at the federal level.
There are at a number of state levels, but uh but but no, I'm uh that's a good analogy.
Dan rather isn't gonna leave uh and and there's a whole bunch of members of Congress that they get in these jobs.
And and then the other thing, it in um in in states where there is term limits, what they do is they most of these people have never ever, ever run a business anyway.
In fact, it's one of those rare campaigns where you see somebody and they always put it in if they've done it.
Say, I met a payroll.
I've employed people, I know what it's like to be you.
And uh that's always a big deal, but you rarely see them in ads because most of these people have never been In business for themselves, have never met a payroll, have never had any economic requirements on them.
They've always had somebody else's checkbook to help them get through the day, through the week, through the month through the year.
And uh so I yeah, I I I you know, if you go back to the to the farmer citizen, lawmaker.
Oh, we're so far away from that.
But in states where there is term limits, you get the person who's termed out of being a senator, and they go run for the state house as a representative.
And then they get termed out of there, and they go run for state treasurer or senator.
They run for lieutenant governor, they run for they just go from or they get appointed to some commission or some agency by all their buddies, and the same group is still running government that was before.
It never seems to change.
Walter in Irvine, California.
Hello, Walter, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hello, Tom.
Thanks uh for the opportunity.
You bet I enjoy very much the program.
Thank you.
I wanted to explore with you and your your your economic uh background uh some advantages of the minimum wage looked at from the technical and uh I'm an engineer mechanical engineer.
So basically I spend my life uh designing little things that put people out of work.
So every time there's a a uh uh increase.
No, you didn't put you in put people out of work, you increase productivity, which has helped the economy tremendously to make up for the gap in the number of people that are following the big bulge of baby boomers.
I congratulate you.
True, true, but I I mean I'm talking about the minimum wage people is the one I'm putting out of work.
Oh, oh, okay.
Well, if if you increase the minimum wage, the stuff that I design and try to sell you is going to be much more exciting for you to look at because uh to change from uh from labor uh uh value to technical value uh added to your product.
And if if I get a chance to to to develop that thing because now the minimum wage is is making my product uh affordable, then I have to hire a bunch of people that are way above the minimum wage.
So it does have an advantage in my view to uh to a little like a booty.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But here's here's the difference, though.
Here's the difference, Walter, is what you're talking about is somebody who has a skill, a skilled job, a skilled craft, and skilled people can have uh problems when a machine comes along and does the same thing for a lot less money and also shows up seven days a week.
But when you're talking about the unskilled person, I know you can design some things to do some rudimentary jobs, but there are always, and there have always been entry-level jobs where something needs to be done by a human, not a machine, and that is where uh that is where the the entry-level jobs are, and that's where the minimum wage jobs are.
But even if you do say have an impact on this, remember again, the slim, small 15% of the people that make minimum wage live in homes that are in poverty.
The rest of them don't.
And and more than not live in fairly well off homes.
Short break, we'll come right back and uh wrap up this program.
Tom Sullivan sitting in on the Rush Limbaugh radio program.
I have um I don't know, I had this overwhelming urge uh as we're wrapping up the uh the program today, and and uh I'm out to uh Paul W. Smith's back tomorrow, and then Rush is back on Monday.
I just have this urge to end the program today by just saying courage.
I don't know why.
It's just it's uh the word came to me.
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know either.
All right, so so the jobs, folks.
Take a look at the economy.
We're adding uh an average of about a quarter million jobs a month.
Wages are going up the little inflationary, but wages went up better than four and a half percent in the second quarter.
It's the best, the fastest quarterly gain since ninety seven.
Wages tend to grow when the job market gets tight because people want to hire those good people.
That's what gives people more money.
It's been a pleasure to be with you.
Have a great day, and uh Russia will be back on Monday.
▲
Export Selection