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Sept. 21, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:38
September 21, 2007, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Well, thank you so much, Johnny Donovan, and welcome in to the Rush Limbaugh program.
I am Paul W. Smith from News Talk 760 WJR.
Proud part of the Rush Limbaugh program across the fruited plain.
I do the morning show there usually 530 till nine, but boy do I love getting the call to come here to the East Coast campus of the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies where I say there is never a final exam, but we are tested every day.
And what a thrill it is to be here with Bo Snerdley in the Flesh.
Now this is not the East Coast.
What do you guys call it from uh there in Florida?
The Northern Command is what you call this place.
But for those of us living in the Midwest and in Detroit, the motor city, where we're hoping the UAW and General Motors work things out.
And by the way, and by the way, for the you guys email me all the time putting down American cars, and I it was an eye-opening experience, but you should know something about American cars right now.
Cars made in America by American companies.
Well, think of this.
The most successful company in the world right now in building cars is Toyota.
Toyota's highest ranking American ever, the first American ever to be put on their board.
The first non-Japanese person to go as high as he has, and this just happened a few weeks ago that he got this position, has just left Toyota to join the new Chrysler.
He left Toyota.
He'd been there thirty seven years.
His name is Jim Press.
And that's got to mean something if a guy will walk away from someplace like that, Toyota, and go to the new Chrysler.
There's a lot of enthusiasm in Detroit for the new Chrysler for General Motors being healthy, and of course, Ford Motor Company, and a lot of it hinges on the talks that are going on right now with Ron Gettelfinger, the UAW, and the folks at GM, and then the other uh car companies as well.
It's nice to be here with Bo Snerdly.
Nice to see you, Bo.
Glad you could take time to eat a little lunch right now.
It is lunchtime many places, including apparently right here in the studio.
Mike Maimon, our engineer.
Kit Carson, our chief of staff, and of course Cookie Gleason, our executive producer, and a team far too large to mention in just the three hours that we have together.
We'll have the news of the day today.
We'll have Newt Gingrich checking in his solutions days coming up.
That's September 27th and 29th.
He's told us about it to before.
There was something on Drudge today about Newt about the possibility that he'd be needing about thirty million dollars to run for president for his campaign to run for president.
Now I didn't get to read the story, and they removed it.
Can you get that?
Can you get old Drudge News?
I don't even know if that's possible.
But that was on there earlier today while I was doing my uh my morning show.
I didn't really have a chance to uh to uh read it in detail.
Michael Ledeen is here, his latest book, The Iranian Time Bomb.
That certainly is good timing given where we are today in New York City.
Because today in New York City, in the last few days, people are all a Twitter about this madman who is uh coming in because there are a whole bunch of UN delegates, traffic is just horrible.
But that book, The Iranian Time Bomb, speaking of time bombs and Iranian time bombs, Mahmud Amadinajad is going to be here.
You know the stink that was caused when he wanted to go to ground zero, you know now he's not coming.
The man actually has said he was shocked at this reaction.
Now, first of all, understand in the same way that you won't hear me talk about O.J. Simpson at all, because I truly don't understand the fascination at all.
I generally wouldn't be speaking about this crazy, crazy nut other than the fact that he does threaten the world.
But he wants this attention.
He craves this attention.
He will have framed every story about him in New York.
Give this mad coot the boot.
Zero clue, idiot Iran Prez is amazed by uproar.
Hutzpah ripped by survivors.
The list goes on with the reactions, and people are really, really angry with him.
And if he really can't figure out no way, Jose, uh, when he is deputy commander of uh his uh Air Force says that they have plans drawn up to bomb Israel if the Jewish state attacks Iran, the semi-official FARS News Agency reporting.
The announcement comes amid rising tension in the region with the United States calling for a new round of UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed uh nuclear program.
But uh if he really can't figure things out, my listeners uh back at WJR learned a long, long time ago, because of our uh connections with some uh folks behind the scenes, those improvised explosive devices, those IEDs that are killing our young men and women and maiming many more had Iran's fingerprints on them a long time ago,
long before it came out in the institutional media, we were talking about it because we had folks from Special Forces who said they opened them up, they looked at him, they had Iranian fingerprints all over them, a couple, two, three, maybe longer.
Years ago.
I mean, it's been almost from the beginning.
If uh also this madman, Mahmood doesn't get it, uh as is uh listed in uh the New York Post in one of their uh editorials, if he can't really understand why we don't like him very much.
How about this?
How about sending those agents and weapons to kill Americans in Iraq?
That policy continues today as he has the guts to come here.
Was it John McCain, Senator McCain who said he should be or maybe it was uh Mitt Romney, said he should be arrested the moment he touches our soil.
Full scale war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel last year, flouting international rules and pursuing nuclear weapons to ensure regional dominance and if necessary, blow any of their enemies to smithereens, threatening to wipe a peace-seeking democracy, Israel, off the face of the earth and denying the Holocaust.
I can't understand why people are concerned about Mahmood Ahmadinejad, and uh he can't figure it out either.
The best headline, though, comes from of all places, yesterday's Daily News.
You'd expect this from the New York Post.
I gotta say, you gotta hand it to the Daily News.
Because their big front page headline has a picture of Mahmood with the international sign for no, you know, the big r circle and then a line through it, the red circle, and then the line through it, which is like don't go here, stop, whatever, internationally understood.
And it says then, our message to Iranian madman, if you even think of setting foot near ground zero, you can, and then in really, really big letters, you can go to hell.
Only in New York, I think.
Now, of course, with all of this, everybody gets it, everybody understands, everybody but I guess University President Lee Bollinger, who we had at University of Michigan, but apparently U of M was not liberal enough, so he's at Columbia now.
And they have invited Mahmood to come and speak there.
Didn't they kick the uh ROTC off their campus at Columbia?
I thought they did.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I know for a fact that they have invited Ahmadinejad to come there and speak, and they will not cancel the latest word, no matter how many people complain, and you better believe lots of people are complaining and complaining a lot.
Uh by the way, uh we probably should uh a couple of things that uh this uh day is.
This is the last uh Friday of summer, but wait a second.
First I want to say too uh uh more importantly my uh headphone is cutting out here must be like a loose wire or something here it is.
As long as it's not cutting out on the microphone that's fine.
The Jew the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, begins at sunset today.
And I want to wish our Jewish friends an easy fast.
We wish them an easy fast.
And this being the last Friday of uh summer, it's about to be autumn right here where we are today in New York.
It comes in 5 50 Sunday morning the Ottoman equinox will arrive officially there's several versions of autumn in New York but I really think at least for New Yorkers it has to be uh that one with uh Francis Elbert Sinatra as the Automaton Equinox arrives at 550 Sunday morning.
In just minutes Steve Moore arrives uh we'll hear from uh Newt Gingrich we'll hear from Michael the Dean but first up it'll be Steve Moore the senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, former president of the Club for Growth which was instrumental in finding and helping conservatives get elected lots to talk with him about including the economy and recession the R word to coming back into uh uh into uh vogue and uh some concern and your calls because this phone line is always
open one eight hundred two eight two two eight eight two that's one eight hundred two eight two twenty eight eighty two and of course also always go to rushlimbaug.com.
And this is the Rush Limbaugh program.
I'm Paul W. Smith.
The Rush Limbaugh program I'm Paul W. Smith from uh Detroit WJR the Great Voice of the Great Lakes from the Golden Tower of the Fisher Building what a pleasure it is to be here at the East Coast campus of the Limbaugh Institute for advanced conservative studies and talking with you at 1 800 2828 eight two.
one eight hundred two eight two twenty eight eighty two and with some very special guests coming our way starting right off with senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, former president of the Club for Growth, Mr Steve Moore is here joining us.
Steve nice to have you on the program.
Hi Paul.
You know with by the way let me clarify at the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal not the news side.
So I represent the conservative views on the uh on the uh Wall Street Journal pages.
The editorial side okay and uh and uh what do you think of uh the new ownership what do you think is going to happen uh you know look I think that uh well first of all we're all learning to speak Australian First of all fosters they don't drink fosters did you know that here we are we we don't have to start yet because he hasn't taken over no but they they don't like it even I'm telling you when I was the American beer well I know it's an Australian beer you know Foster's that's Australian for being that's an American beer it's a it's an Australian beer that Americans like to drink.
Well because we thought that's what they were drinking in Australia and when I I happened to be lucky enough to go over there for the Olympics and I stood there and I said could I have a I guess I want a foster's and they all looked at me at the bar said no you don't and then they gave me all these other you know kangaroo beers or whatever and and and I found out that it was just a great advertising campaign.
I think it's a good beer but it doesn't apparently uh fosters is not Australian for the next thing you're gonna tell me that is that they don't have outback steakhouses there.
You know I don't think they do.
Anyway, Stephen uh the the big uh mystery might be the the R word the recession word it's creeping back into a bunch of stories uh how concerned are you well I think the big story I I I work and live in in Washington DC so I'm a creature of the inside the belt way mentality.
So you have no real idea of what's really happening in the world.
Yeah okay I live in the uh sanity uh free zone and so you know my take on this is that Washington everything Washington is doing right now, especially on Capitol Hill is hurting the economy not helping the economy.
And so if you listen to the rhetoric of the Democrat uh leadership in Congress and then you listen to Hillary and Obama and Edwards, what are they talking about?
They're talking about raising taxes, losing the war, increasing entitlement spending uh all of these things that have a very negative effect on markets.
And I'm generally an optimistic person on the economy, but if you think back on those terrible times in the 1970s when Jimmy Carter was president are you do you remember when we had twenty percent mortgage interest rates Well, if you think about what caused that, it was the constellation of two really bad policies.
One was very high tax rates, and the other was an inflationary expansive monetary policy.
And I do worry a little bit right now that that's kind of what we're headed towards is, you know, Washington wants to raise tax rates, the Democrats do.
And so to make up for the negative impact of the tax rate increases, they're uh cutting interest rates and and uh you know revving up the printing presses uh at the Federal Reserve, and that can be uh, you know, a recipe for stagflation, which is low growth and high inflation.
Now, again, I'm not trying to sound like a real pessimist, because I think we can get through this, but Washington is not helping, it's hurting.
All right.
Well, in that and and that's a conversation uh in itself that could take the entire program.
I I want to ask uh bits and pieces of other information while we have uh Steve Moore's expertise here with us from the editorial side of the Wall Street Journal.
Uh and that is this whole subprime mortgage uh situation, uh which I can't help but feel in many ways, it's been the perfect scam for those who have benefited from this.
We're looking at guys who made millions and some billions of dollars from this, and now are looking to be bailed out by the government, and if they're not bailed out, it's the average homeowner who got taken in.
Some were greedy, but some were really truly taken in by these people with some unscrupulous behavior, luring them into these loans that they could not afford, should their pricing of their houses go down, should interest rates go up.
Right, right.
The whole uh adjustable rate mortgage thing, and then those whole no money down, a hundred and twenty-five percent of the value of your house.
All these different things made these companies very wealthy.
But the people stuck holding the bag and losing their house are the ones that they have to save.
Well, here's here's the real danger, and here's the real scandal that's coming down the pike that hasn't gotten a lot of publicity.
So I'm gonna give you the scoop on this.
The real scandal is that as we speak, Congress is preparing a bill that will provide a 100 percent guarantee, federal taxpayer guarantee, on the on a a number of the you know, thousands, tens of thousands of these bad loans.
And so what Washington wants to do is rush in and and say to the lenders and borrowers, who I think are both equally culpable here, and saying to them, you know what, you made these bad loans, uh, we're gonna come in and we're gonna make the taxpayer responsible ultimately for the repayment.
And we're talking about shifting off of the uh uh banking industry tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars of liabilities and putting those liabilities on the back of the American taxpayer.
And that is an outrageous policy.
I think most Americans feel that it's completely unfair for the people who are paying their mortgages to have to pay more taxes for people who aren't meeting them.
And this is the Federal Housing Administration uh bailout bill that is way l it's just it's just wheeling through Congress with almost no opposition.
And uh we're talking about potentially another savings and loan bailout uh that Congress is uh entering us into here.
Well, I I think you're absolutely right, and I'm glad you were looking at it that way and talking about it.
I have some feelings too about believe it or not, kind of a bone to pick with the former Emperor, Alan Greenspan.
Okay.
Because and and I don't mean just because of his uh most unusual behavior lately.
I'm I'm talking about when he said most Americans would have been better served the last five years had they taken uh an adjustable rate mortgage, an arm.
Most Americans would have been better served.
Well, he said that after those five years had gone by.
That's right.
But what people heard was I heard that Greenspan guy say we ought to do an arm.
We ought to do an adjustable rate mortgage.
And it's those people who started right about then getting them that got into so much trouble and are in that trouble today.
Very well put.
I mean, the people who are really having the toughest time making their mortgage payments are people who took out these subprime loans, many of whom, by the way, were not very credit worthy to begin with.
Let's let's talk about that and continue talking about That uh right after our break.
We must take a break right now.
We're with Steve Moore, senior economics writer for the editorial side of the Wall Street Journal.
And you're going to want to hear what he has to say about those adjustable rate mortgages, about Alan Greenspan, about recession and more here on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Thank you, Johnny Donovan, and uh pleasure to be here in from Detroit and uh in New York City at the uh at the you guys say Northern Command, I say East Coast.
And uh and and speaking with Steve Moore, senior economics writer for the uh on the editorial side, the Wall Street Journal, former president of the Club for Growth.
We're getting lots of calls, uh Steve.
People want to talk with you, and I want them to be able to talk with you.
But we were talking about Alan Greenspan, who uh most recently criticizing the Bush administration's track record uh on spending in his new book.
And let's face it, a lot of us have criticized President Bush, who had been uh great supporters of his, but still are very upset and concerned about the spending that's uh run amuck in Washington.
But I want to finish that thought uh with my bone to pick for uh the for for Alan Greenspan with him saying, and I'm glad you you recognize that fact.
Uh when he said it, I said, Wait a minute, he's saying that now five y years after the fact.
People are going to misunderstand that, just like they misunderstood the irrational exuberance.
Right.
Which by the way, he was talking about, I think in Japan at the time.
Right.
Well, uh Paul, what you're talking about is Alan Greenspan's Monday morning quarterbacking.
And that's exactly what he was doing in this book because he wasn't warning against the uh uh these uh these loans back during the bubble.
And I would make the case, and uh look, I'm a supporter of Alan Greenspan.
I think for the most part, during his uh tenure at the Federal Reserve Board, he did a fantastic job and we had solid growth with no inflation.
However, his biggest mistake that he made as Fed chairman was back in the early two thousands when we created this bubble of excess liquidity where you could literally, Paul, walk in a bank with no credit and walk out with a loan because there is so much money slashing around because of the low interest rate.
So I think Alan Greenspan deserves some of the blame for the mess that we're in right now with the uh subprime loans and so many people now facing situations where as these uh balloon uh interest pay uh uh rate uh loans start to turn over in the next six months.
A lot of people, Paul, are gonna see uh a doubling of their mortgage payments, and that's what's scary, because a lot of people aren't going to be able to make those payments.
Boy.
But who knew at the time we certainly didn't know.
And as it turns out, if you read the book now, you realize that when he said all those things and we thought they were really special and and very confusing, hard to follow because he's so bright and we're so dumb.
We now find out he really wasn't saying much of anything.
Well, the other thing that I think that he said about uh President Bush that was unfair.
I mean, I think his criticism of uh Bush's spending habits was certainly on the market.
Yeah.
Republicans did spend like drunken sailors, and Bush did too.
No, no, no.
My line is that Republicans were spending like drunken Democrats.
Even worse.
Yeah.
Well, you know, b uh President Reagan used to say that to compare uh uh Congress with drunken failures and insult to drunken failures stuff.
But uh in any case, I think it's really unfair to say, well, look, you know, George Bush squandered the big surpluses under Bill Clinton.
What people forget is that when George Bush took office, the Bill Clinton bubble burst.
You know, uh George Bush took over during won a recession.
Uh nine months later we had nine eleven.
We had the stock market burst, and I think you gotta give George Bush credit for uh engineering and commanding this pr this economy through those uh tough waters.
And we've had a pretty good economy now for five or six years under Bush.
So I think his tax cuts were exactly what were needed, and the dumbest thing we could do for the country right now would be to repeal those tax cuts, which of course is what Hillary wants to do.
That and also have the government take over health care.
Don't get me started on that.
Well, get started on it.
But I do want to take some calls.
How long do we have do we have you to the top of the hour?
I'd be happy to.
All right, because uh and uh Bo, uh when do we uh when do we start taking calls?
I don't want to shortchange these uh Rush Limbow.
Let's do let's do it now.
Because they'll ask you some of the same questions I would.
I'd rather they ask you, that is, ask Steve Moore your question at 1-800-282-2882, 1-800-282-2882.
In Houston, Texas, we find Mike calling in on the Rush Limbaugh Show to speak with Steve Moore, and I'm Paul W. Smith.
Hello, Mike.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Hi.
The question that I had, you know, there's been so much made about the subprime market and all the foreclosures.
What I'd like to hear discuss if half of them are called or in the subprime market, that means the other half isn't.
Talk about the other half.
Uh Well, very good point.
I'm glad this gentleman called.
Uh it it's actually a lot more are in the uh regular uh market, not the subprime.
In fact, only about fifteen percent of the loans are subprime.
And so this is a good point this gentleman has made.
The other eighty-five percent of the loans, Paul, are actually in very good shape, you know, and it's really just a a contamination of the subprime market.
And I wanted to make one other point if I could, Paul, because it's a perfect example of how government creates a crisis and then blames it on the private sector.
For the twenty years before we had the subprime market mess, the banks were being hit over the head by members of Congress uh in interest groups in Washington saying, you're not making enough loans to low income and minority people.
Remember that?
Right.
For twenty years they said they would even penalize the banks if they didn't make more of these loans to people who are uh financially stressed or or people who of uh you know minorities and so on.
And then the banks went out there and did that.
They made some of these more risky loans, because obviously people with lower incomes are generally more risky than people with higher incomes.
And then when the bubble burst, they say, What were you banks doing?
What's got into your head that you would make all these loans?
I mean, the government told them to make these loans.
Sorry to...
I've got to relax.
Gee, I thought they had boosted your...
All of a sudden, you jumped out of the radio there for a second.
That's a perfect example of how two-faced these people are.
When I hear Hillary Clinton saying, Boy, these banks should have never made these loans.
He was first in line telling these banks you're racist, you're not making enough loans in inner cities.
Well, those ladies and gentlemen, were the subprime loans that are now being defaulted on.
Good job, Mike, you got him going here.
Uh and let's go to John in Modesto, California.
John, you're on the Rush Limbaugh program.
I'm Paul W. Smith.
Hello, John.
Paul, see, thank you very much.
Um there is a run on the bank in Britain.
I haven't heard anything about it in the mainstream news.
There are people sleeping in sleeping bags, wrapped down the block, around the corner.
Uh why are we not hearing anything about this?
Well, you're right that the Britain is now facing the same kind of contamination in their banking industry that we're facing, but on a on a bigger scale.
And it has not a been a big uh story here in the United States.
And and a related story, by the way, Paul, that really makes me nervous that should have gotten more publicity because it's kind of a low uh mark for the American economy.
Did you see yesterday the American dollar fell below the Canadian dollar?
I have been I have been talking about trouble with our dollar and talking about the people who could sink our dollar and do us in in a minute are not people who are our friends.
And it bothers me and worries me.
And then people say, well, you know, uh Russia, China, these guys are not gonna ruin us because uh they get a lot of money from us.
They do business with us.
And a long time ago, uh uh a great friend, David Littman, a great economist, said that you don't go to war with your customers.
And that's uh that's a good line, and it's and it does make sense, but I I still think that if they can squeeze us and uh and uh do some harm and damage to us, which they can through the dollar, uh it it worries me.
So I'm glad you brought that up again.
And John, I am so glad you brought that uh run on the banks up because frankly, I just saw a picture in one of the institutional uh newspapers somewhere, and I saw these people and I said, What is going on?
I haven't heard a thing about this.
A run on the banks in Great Britain.
So I'm glad you brought that up, and I'm glad that you're addressing it as well, Steve.
I interrupted, but take over again.
Well, I just think that you know, when we have a weak dollar as we do now, it's probably one of the most troubling signs in the economy because I'm a big believer uh in the Ronald Reagan creed.
Remember when he came into office, he said, I'm going to restore the dollar to being as good as gold.
And in the 1980s, we swept inflation from 14 percent back down to about two percent, and and that was one of the reasons we've had this long swing of prosperity.
And I'm very worried now that when you have the dollar at its lowest level in in decades, that the that we're gonna pay a high price from this in terms of uh of higher inflation because people are selling their dollars right now.
We want our dollar to be strong, not weak.
Well, excellent point, Steve Moore with us and excellent callers.
Uh I'm not surprised because uh right here on uh on your favorite radio station, listening in to Rush Limbaugh every day.
Uh you become very bright, uh very intelligent, and you ask very good questions.
Let's go to is it May Ann or Mary Ann?
May Ann?
Yes, good morning, Paul.
Thank you for taking my call.
All right, ma'am.
Uh with the problem that I can see with the economy and everything is companies.
The oil companies?
Did you say the oil companies?
You're breaking up just a little bit, Mayan.
Yes, I'm on my cell phone.
Okay.
Um I'm out.
The oil companies are making more money.
You can go I live in Arkansas.
You can go from one part of Arkansas to another part, and you can find twenty cents difference in gas.
And if you look at it realistically, do you think you could find a twenty cent difference in the price of gas from one service station to another?
That was it's it's about a forty mile difference.
Well, you're looking at a good hour right.
Well maybe that explains.
You know, I I just want to point something out because we did this on the program.
We had Ben Stein on one of the other times I was lucky enough to fill in for Rush Limbaugh, and Ben Stein said it best.
And you probably know what I'm going to say, Steve Moore.
When people get down on the oil companies for making all that money, who do we really think is making the money?
It's the people who have invested in them the stockholders, the people who ha who buy uh mutual funds, the people who have 401ks, retirement programs, teachers, unions, everybody.
Well, Paul, it's not just that.
I mean, that you're exactly right that that uh you know, sixty percent of Americans actually own the oil companies.
But the other point is, you know, look, no none of us like to see eighty-one dollar a barrel oil, which is what we're seeing right now, and and three fifty in some uh markets three dollars and fifty cents a gallon gasoline.
But if you look at the policies again of Washington, everything that we do in this town is to discourage domestic investment in our own resources.
You know, Paul, we have more oil offshore in America than Saudi Arabia has oil.
And yet the environmentalists and Congress will not allow us to drill for our own oil.
If we if we had drilled ten years ago in Alaska, we would be facing a situation where we wouldn't have to import so much foreign oil.
And so the very same people who complain I'm not talking about this lady, but generally the people who howl in Congress about the the high prices of oil are the same ones who won't let us produce it.
Absolutely.
Steve Moore is with us.
Your chance to speak with him continues here on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Looking ahead, Newt Gingrich will check in with us at the top of this next hour.
We're certainly glad you're here every day listening into your favorite radio station, the Rush Limbaugh program.
I'm Paul W. Smith.
This is a great last Friday of summer.
Don't you think?
It is a fa it's Autumn arrives uh uh Sunday, five fifty Sunday morning, the automaton equinox arrives.
It's gonna still feel like summer in a lot of places.
Sunny and beautiful here at least, uh and back home too.
And uh we're at 1800-282-2882-1800-282-2882.
I'm Paul W. Smith in for Rush Limbaugh.
Rush is back Monday.
I know you want to know that.
Steve Moore is here, senior ec uh economics uh writer uh for the Wall Street Journal, the editorial side.
Uh does this worry you at all?
Uh everybody went up in arms and and people say it was uh talk radio that helped the uh Dubai world not be able to buy the ports.
I haven't heard anybody talking about the fact that Dubai is moving to acquire twenty percent of the NASDAQ in uh New York.
And and by the way, in that same transaction, Dubai will also acquire twenty-eight percent of the London Stock Exchange, one of the oldest and largest in the world.
Any concern for you?
You know, we we at the journal have thought that that uh was a bit overblown.
Um look, foreign investment in the United States uh over the last twenty years has been a huge net asset to us because that means uh uh companies from abroad are investing here and creating jobs here rather than creating them abroad.
And so when foreigners are investing uh here, it's actually a net asset to us.
Now I do agree with you, Paul, that when you're talking about uh i uh uh types of inf infrastructure or investments that are part of our national security, yes, we have to be very clear that we're not selling off of our national treasures or things that could affect our national safety or our national defense.
But in this case, I'm not too troubled by uh Nasdaq being uh bought up uh somewhat by the Dubai folks.
All right, Steve Moore the the Republican base, actually rather the conservative uh base is unhappy with the with the way the Republicans uh blew it when they had the power and the way they've uh been spending like uh drunken Democrats.
Right.
Uh what are the conservatives going to do for 08 in 08?
Well, you know, I think this is gonna be the most important election um since the nineteen eighty election when God smiled on America and he gave us Ronald Reagan and and got rid of Jimmy Carter.
I think those are the kinds of stakes we're facing in in 2008.
I think the big uh factors here are number one, if you put Hillary Clinton in the White House, I always say the the most uh the five most dangerous words in the mer uh English language are Hillary Clinton commander-in-chief.
I mean, those words just scare the hell out of me.
But you know, that you're talking about a situation where the next president is gonna have let's just talk about the Supreme Court.
The next president, Paul is likely to have two Supreme Court nominees.
As you know, right now, we have four conservatives, one swing vote, and four liberals on that Supreme Court.
The next president, uh hopefully it'll be someone like Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, God forbid if it were John Edwards or Hillary Clinton, they would put hardcore liberals on that court, and we would see a shift in the court for a generation.
Uh where whereas if we get uh a conservative Republican in the White House, the re we'll have a conservative court for the next twenty years.
So I think that may be the single most important issue at stake uh in the presidential race in two thousand eight.
Isn't this sad?
And I mean this because I think he's a nice guy, and we're kind of uh semi-colleagues because we both have filled in for Paul Harvey and both have worked for ABC.
Uh uh you just mentioned, and you're this conservative guy talking about conservatives, and before he entered the race, the guy who was talked about the most as the conservative hope was Fred Thompson.
And just now you just said Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.
It was an accident.
I I love Fred too.
Uh my point was simply that it matters a lot which party wins.
And by the way, can I make one other point about why it's so important that you're sorry.
I'm sorry, we're not gonna let you, Steve.
Of course you're gonna do it.
Take your time.
Take your time.
Steve, this is not like uh and I like O'Reilly, but this is not O'Reilly.
You go ahead and do whatever you want to do.
My friend, you're a guest in my home.
I am I am here in place of Mr. Limbaugh who would welcome you with warm loving arms.
Well, thank you.
I'm used to being cut off.
So I don't that doesn't happen here.
Gotta go.
No, it's not a good thing.
Wonderful, Paul.
I mean, to watch the dev the liberal base of this country just have a nervous breakdown.
I mean, they the liberals in this country would give up their first born to win the White House in 2008.
So we gotta deny that.
Well, you know, I uh you I understand what you're saying, and yes, I agree with you.
But I have to tell you uh further and and beyond all that, as just a plain old citizen.
Right.
I'm really tired of the battles that have nothing to do with what's really important to us as Americans, but has everything to do with the party.
And I'm tired of it.
Yeah.
I really am on both sides.
On both sides.
We certainly learned, Paul, that you know, uh there's a big difference between a Republican and a conservative.
And uh the lesson we're Well, wait.
Yes, you're right.
You're right.
Yeah, but the lesson we learned when we you know, Republicans over the last four years, until they won the Democrats won this election, they controlled everything.
The House, the Senate, and the White House, and we had the biggest run-up of the federal budget uh virtually in American history.
Uh, you know, when when George Bush entered the White House, the three-free minute, save this thought.
Because wait, wait, wait, wait.
I am not only not going to cut you off.
No, I'm going to come back and let you have the final word.
Okay.
So stay with us.
And uh final word from Steve Moore here on the Rush Limbaugh program, I'm Paul W. Smith.
Less than a minute, Steve Moore, wrap it up.
Less than a minute, your final word.
Well, I was just going to say that when uh when uh President Bush entered office, we had a 1.9 trillion dollar budget, and now we're at 2.9 trillion.
So we've increased uh federal spending by a trillion dollars in seven years.
And the number of pork barrel spending projects like the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska has increased by fifty percent in seven years.
So we've got our work cut out for us if we're gonna re-establish free enterprise and freedom in this country.
Absolutely right.
Uh in a word, biggest threat to the economy right now.
Hillary Clinton.
Thank you very much.
Steve Moore, a pleasure speaking with you.
We'll be reading you in the editorial side of the Wall Street Journal.
Coming up, Newt Gingrich will be here on the Rush Limbaugh program.
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