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Dec. 26, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:09
December 26, 2007, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24 7 podcast.
I'm talking to my wife last night and I said, Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that I'd be filling in for Rush again?
She looked at me for a second and said, Uh, you've never been in my wildest dreams.
And I thought, now that's kind of harsh for a Christmas season sort of boy, is it beautiful up here in Minnesota.
We are coming to you from Minnesota today via Los Angeles, where Wayne, Tom, and Jason and the gang are holding down the fort as the uh as Rush and the gang take a little break during the Christmas holidays.
I wonder where what Rush is doing over the Christmas holidays.
I mean, given given what happened the last couple of shows and even after uh his last show, I think we can pretty much rule out a campaign stop with Mike Huckabee.
I don't know, I'm just going out on a limb here, friends, but I think that's that's pretty much out of the question.
As I say, it was absolutely gorgeous in the Twin Cities the last couple of days.
I mean big huge snowflakes coming down last night, 29 degrees, no wind chill, uh absolutely idyllic, bucolic, if you will.
I mean, no global warming in sight, even better than that, no Al Gore insight.
It was a splendid Christmas up here in the upper plains.
I hope yours was uh was a good one too.
And now it's time to get back to the to the stores.
Christmas is over, so now what do you do?
Well, we got to shop again.
It used to be after Christmas, it was the return day.
People would go to the stores and return some gifts they didn't like.
Now it's shopping.
Uh extravaganza day.
It's really quite remarkable.
Speaking of that, one thing before we get into some heavier issues that's always amazed me, Jason Lewis, little old Jason Lewis from KTLK and in the Twin Cities, filling in for the big guy.
What's always amazed me is the idea the stores take back all the returns.
Now, call me a sap for free markets, call me a sap for American business.
But think about it.
I mean, uh under contractual law, if you will, they don't have to take back things.
I mean, depending on the writing, depending on the contract, and usually they can make it explicit that look, you're the sale is final.
And yet, a day after you get the gift, six months in some cases, stores take back the gifts that you don't want.
It's never astounded me.
I know it's not a big thing.
Or I should say it's always astounded me.
I know it's not a big thing.
But if you think about it, they do it, obviously, to benefit the consumer, to benefit themselves, but that's the virtue of marketplace economics.
That's how it comes to benefit everybody.
A lot of people complain, uh, they they ripped me off or they did this.
I'm always amazed at how generous, even liberal in the generic sense of the word, that uh you know American business is when it comes to taking back some of these gifts.
But but I digress.
Speaking of Huckabee, let me get my my two cents in on this because I know that Rush and the uh the former governor of Arkansas uh went at it a little bit.
It wasn't too bad, but just I mean, Rush was defending himself from what an aide said about uh um uh El Rushboat.
And I have to be honest with you, and I don't want to, you know, pick any fights today.
The Iowa Cogs is just a few days away.
We'll talk a little bit about that, where the candidates are, McCain's surging in New Hampshire.
There's talk of Thompson gaining some steam in Iowa, but clearly Huckabee has been the big guy down there.
Romney hanging on.
It's a very, very fluid race, as everybody knows, and I think quite frankly, it's indicative of a very demoralized conservative base in America that says, you know, we're not gonna be fooled again.
We hear you guys, we've heard these last few presidential candidates really in in a whole host of arenas, not just presidential candidates, but Republican governors who are going portside very, very quickly.
Uh and they're just saying, look, we don't know whom we can trust anymore.
And therefore, they haven't attached permanently.
You don't have that sort of zeal you had with the Gipper in the Republican field right now, and the the the who knows what's going to happen come January third, and then you've got New Hampshire and Michigan and February 5th and South Carolina and all the rest.
And I do believe that the Republicans have have kind of dug themselves in a hole on this by, well, governing as liberals when they had the majority in Congress and and in other particular aspects around the country.
Especially a number of Republican governors are engaged in this sort of uh, oh, I don't know, rhino Republican in name only sort of thing.
But but before I get into to well, let's just get into the Huckabee thing.
And guys out in LA, I'm getting a little feedback in my earphones here.
The point here on Mike Huckabee is if you look at his record, conservatives have problems with it.
If you look at his record in office when taxes went up forty-seven percent, uh when the Cato Institute, which uh when it comes to domestic policies, it doesn't get much better than that.
Uh the Cato Institute uh in fact gave him, I believe, a D or very low grade.
The Club for Growth pilloried Huckabee, so he returned the fire by calling them the Club for Gree.
Now the Club for Growth, my old friend Stephen Moore used to run that, is is dedicated to free to free markets, to low taxes, to to returning to the taxpayer and the worker the assets that are theirs.
Kind of sounds like render render unto Caesar what is his and unto God what is his.
We are all under God's plan, destined to be free, and that means keeping the fruits of our labor.
But the Club for Growth gave Huckabee a very bad rating.
Uh the Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafley, you don't get much more conservative than that.
Uh she was not a big fan of Mr. Huckabee in Arkansas.
Spending went up sixty-five percent.
There's talk about all these clemencies, over a thousand of them.
He opposed school vouchers.
We all know about the immigration situation where he where he thought that there ought to be some form of a scholarship for illegal immigrants.
He's the only guy during the campaign not to support the president on his veto of the S chip bill.
That was Hillary care on the installment plan, where on top of Medicaid for the indigent, uh the Democrats, and thankfully the president held firm on this, as did the House Republicans, to be fair, uh the Democrats wanted to add on to Medicaid a Hillary care version of socialized medicine that would have covered people earning at first anyway, up to eighty thousand dollars, that was later scaled back, up to eighty thousand dollars, you could be an adult, and yes, you could be an illegal immigrant.
In fact, some states are using that to to expand coverage for illegals and adults.
That hardly sounds like the state children's health insurance program, and Huckabee couldn't bring himself in a debate to say Bush was right to veto that.
He wants a federal ban for smoking.
Folks, I'm sorry, I hate to be a shill for the big tobacco companies, but let me tell you something about the war on tobacco.
Never ever, never ever think you can you can take away the rights of one entity without jeopardizing your own.
And some of us warned you about this, certainly El Rushbo did.
First you go after tobacco, then it's going to be alcohol, then it's going to be a new prohibition, then it's going to be trans fat, then what's it going to be?
Well, then it's going to be a federal ban on smoking on private property.
And that's the bright line here, friends.
It's private property.
Uh in Minnesota just passed a ban on smoking on private property.
If if under our deliberative democracy, we want to ban smoking, for instance, on public and in the public s uh sphere at the airport, frankly, I think it's a little bit silly, but uh, you know, I'll I'll abide by the majoritarian viewpoint here, and that's fine.
But where you cross the the line across the Rubicon, uh when you go into a private bar, when you go into a private restaurant, and all of a sudden the government says, gee, we're prohibitionists and we're gonna do for tobacco what we did for alcohol, create black markets, create criminals out of law-abiding citizens.
That's bad enough at the state level, and Huckabee's talking about a federal ban on this.
Now, those are the issues that have conservatives concerned over her Governor Mike Huckabee.
It has nothing to do with his religion, and yet some in the evangelical liberal movement.
And let me tell you something, there is a group of obviously we've known of the religious left for quite some time, and I'm talking about the Uber liberal religious left, whether they're protesting American military action someplace or demanding demanding redistribution of wealth in America.
I'm not talking about those.
What's starting to happen, and I'll be honest with you, it's starting to concern me a little bit, is in what used to be considered the evangelical right, if you will, but it's not the right anymore, the evangelical conservative base.
There's a movement afoot, and probably one of its greatest proponents right now is Michael Gerson.
He's the former speechwriter for President Bush who's written a book all about the virtue of big government conservatism.
He's an evangelical Christian, and he says compassion is the defining attribute of political heroism.
Wrong, Michael.
This whole nonsense about compassionate conservatism, conservatism was compassionate all along.
We didn't need a modifier.
And if you start to focus on compassion when government's real role is justice, government's role is justice and freedom that allows us to be compassionate if we choose.
And allows us to choose to whom to be compassionate with or to.
But the idea that big government compassion is all of a sudden a hallmark of the evangelical Christian movement has got what's got some people concerned uh about this.
And what's happening is you've got a number of people, and I think Mike Huckabee has kind of tapped into this who think being pro-life, being traditional marriage is all you need to be.
Now look, the Republican Party has already adopted the positions that that's that are important to evangelicals, and I support them.
Pro-life, uh, you know, traditional marriage, that sort of thing.
But we're moving into some unchartered waters here when we say it's not good enough that you adopt the positions that we like, you must nominate one of us.
And if you are one of us, as Huckabee seems to be campaigning on, then any other transgression like the ones I just mentioned of his tenure in Arkansas, well, they must be forgiven.
And if you attack him on those, why you must be anti-evangelical.
And so we've got this chasm here now.
Look, look, when it comes to governance, the Constitution is more important than metaphysics.
You cannot have God's plan, if you will, without having freedom first.
The ability you have no virtue if you have no choice.
So when it comes to running for the commander in chief, as opposed to say the pastor in chief, the primary, the primary goal is freedom.
The primary goal is liberty and choice.
Then, then we can start talking about compassion.
We can start talking about what's what it means to be a Christian, all of those things.
That's that I think in a nutshell, my friends, is why some conservatives, and I have to be honest, I'm one of them, and I'm not going to speak for Rush.
I would never do that.
But some of them are concerned about Governor Huckabee at this particular stage.
I am Jason Lewis.
Great to be behind the Golden EIB Mike, once again in the Utilla the Hun Chair, the Minnesota version at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Let's open it up on this day after Christmas, the number 1-800-282-2882.
That's 1-800-282-2882, and L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
Back after this.
Great to be back.
High atop the EIB Tower in Midtown Manhattan, except I am in the Twin Cities today.
This is this is absolutely gorgeous.
I'm looking out the window, snow everywhere, moderate temperatures, but no global warming.
I'm just keep I don't know where you live, folks, but the upper Midwest in the whole month of December, very, very below normal temperatures.
Quick, someone tell Al Gore.
Talking a little bit about the uh politics that are coming up in Iowa, New Hampshire, across the country, the presidential sweepstakes on the GOP side, it is very fluid, and the uh Huckabee campaign firing back at critics like me, and they had a little go-around with the big guy, Rush, last week, following up on that a little bit.
By the way, the new email address for L Rushbow is just that.
L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
To the phones we go on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
First up today, let's go to uh Jim from where is that?
Jim, you are up on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, but I can't figure out where you're from.
Go ahead, sir.
Well, Jason, I'm from Maine, the home of the Rhinos, and um I do start out by apologizing to the country for my two senators.
Uh Olympia Snow is a rhino?
Oh, she's past rhino, Jason.
Collins is is a rhino.
Why, why you know there's gambling going on in Casablanca.
Yeah.
Jason, can I say something about Mike Huckabee?
Yes, you can.
Okay, because I think this is a watershed moment for us Republicans, much like 1976 and 1980, and how we respond to Mike Huckabee will say a lot about the future of our party.
I don't have a dog in the hunt anymore now that Tom Tancredo is out.
Let me say that.
And I am an evangelical Christian.
But one thing that I do know is God has not asked me to turn my brain off and become a gullible moron when it comes to evaluating Mike Huckabee.
Um there's two facts about him that people need to know that you haven't mentioned.
One is he's been endorsed in New Hampshire by the uh National Education Association chapter in that state.
He opposed vouchers when he was in Arkansas.
Yeah.
Now his grassroots support primarily this homeschool Christian folks who I know pretty well, and if they only knew that in New Hampshire he's been endorsed by that Uber liberal uh NEA group, uh they might rethink themselves.
The other thing is that he's been called a disaster um on immigration by Numbers USA.
That's the the leading immigration group in the country.
Those two things bar me from supporting a guy that otherwise I might be interested in.
What what also appalls me is how he attacks those who dare to question him, whether it's you or Rush or the Club for Growth or any other candidate.
He just attacks them, and I find that appalling.
Yeah, you you've got you've got Peter Gabe uh Gady L sh I should say, president of the 911 Families for a Secure America says Huckabee is the guy who scares the heck out of me.
Now this group has been fighting for the real ID Act, which by the way came came around because of the carnage on the highways due to, quite frankly, a lumber of illegals driving without knowing, you know, you can't read English, kinda hard to see the signs, uh not very good drivers and that sort of thing.
I want to get into that a little later because uh the driver's license issue is is out there as well.
Look, and I don't want to turn this into a, you know uh a total bashing of Mike Huckabee, but the fact of the matter is it's hard to get around or get away from the notion, uh, Jim, that he's running on identity politics.
In fact, Peggy Noonan had a great column on this the other day.
Uh you know, this is identity politics is one of the things conservatives used to abhor.
The notion that, well, you should vote for me because I'm Hispanic.
You should vote for me because I'm a woman.
You should vote for me because I'm black.
You should vote for me for that matter because I'm white.
Uh that is not uh engender, if you will, the assimilation and the melting pot we need in America, this idea of categorical representation that that you've got to vote for me based on one particular attribute.
Well, in many ways, what some in the campaign, and I'm not suggesting Mr. Huckabee's just come out and say that said this, but there's no question he's trying to round up the social conservatives in Iowa, and that is that has in fact vaulted him to the top in many areas.
But the bottom line is it's coming close to identity politics.
It's not good enough that the Republican Party has adopted the positions of evangelical, and I think they should, because I happen to be pro-life and pro-traditional marriage and all of that.
But you now have to nominate one of them an evangelical.
That's identity politics.
And that's offensive to people.
And more importantly than that, that you have to not only be one of them, but if you are one of them, any of the transgressions that you just mentioned, Jim, must be forgiven.
And you are right about this.
This is a time for choosing.
Remember the the Gippers famous speech in 1964.
This is a time for choosing for the Republican Party.
The reason the Republican Party lost in 06, and you know it and I know it, and as Bob Dole used to say, the American people know it, is because they were governing like l like liberal Democrats.
Spending went up fifty percent since 2000.
The president wasn't vetoing anything until recently.
Earmarks as far as the the bridge could see and the bridge to nowhere.
So naturally, the Republicans are saying, we're not gonna be fooled again.
We need a Reagan revolution, and we're going to hold these people's feet to the fire.
And all of a sudden the defense to that is, hey, you can't do that to me, and if you do, somehow you're anti-evangelical.
Look, there are a lot of wonderful evangelicals out there that share the view you do.
But there's also a growing chorus out there that says, No, oh, you shall not criticize us.
We not in fact it was Huckabee himself, I think.
The other day you said something along those lines, and it was pretty revealing, I thought.
He said, quote, oh my gosh, now they're serious talking about the evangelicals.
Oh my gosh, now they're serious.
They don't want to just show up and vote.
They actually want to be a part of the discussion and really talk about issues that include hunger and poverty in things.
That was Huckabee's response being being um kind of a satire of what the establishment was saying.
Why these evangelicals want to be at the table now.
We can't allow that.
They have been at the table.
The parties adopted their view.
What the party hasn't adopted is this notion that there ought to be identity politics and all of the other, you know.
I tell you what, I tell you what, let me just succinctly put it this way.
Being a pro-life liberal is not enough.
Is not enough for conservatism for a movement for a party.
And if you want to invoke the Almighty, the Almighty not only obviously wants to protect life, he also wants to protect liberty.
Because with you know, the the goal of the pro-life movement wasn't to preserve life and then sentence people to a lifetime of enslavement from the tax man.
So all I'm all I'm saying is and what you're saying, Jim, is that there's more to all of this than being, you know, right on the social issues.
What conservatives are looking for today is someone who has who obviously is right on the Social issues, but also believes in liberty on economics.
Welcome once again.
Good to have you on the program.
Excellence and broadcasting network up and running for the day after Christmas.
Hope your uh Christmas went very, very well, the holiday season working well for all of you.
I sincerely sincerely wish.
Talking about uh the political campaign, obviously.
Want to get into some immigration issues a little later in the program.
Also the mortgage crisis, or is it a crisis?
If we just you know, sometimes doing nothing is the best recipe, especially when it comes to government intervention.
We've got this crazy notion that no matter what misfortune befalls us, government ought to fix it.
Government ought to be there to fix our life's problems.
And of course, uh number one, it doesn't work.
Number two, that's not the role of governments in a free society anyway.
The phone lines, or I should say the phone number is always one eight hundred two eight two eight eight two.
That's one eight hundred-282-2882.
L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
I am Jason Lewis, and this is Ash from South Carolina.
You're on the Excellence and Broadcasting Network.
Ash, we'll get to you right after this uh oh, there you go.
We got you up and running.
Go ahead, sir.
Uh hello?
Hi.
Yes, go ahead.
Um, my name is Ash, and I'm from I'm an independent from South Carolina.
Um it's uh it's kind of the first time I get the Republican Party in details, but um it kind of surprises me that all the questions they're being asked or put up to answer are extremely um trivial.
They're not uh I don't I don't think many of the questions are really in part with this country reason out.
Even when it comes to the war on terror, it also seems as though they're just answering poser questions than you know, really talking about how to solve the problems.
Such hands.
What what do you consider paramount as opposed to trivial?
Um okay, for for example, when when when there's uh a detailed discussion about what a candidate how the can how the candidate practices religion or what he believes to be the right way of God and like you just said earlier in the program, you know, that's completely not presidential, and and and it goes even on more than that.
It just seems as though they're all saying the same things, which is you know, usual.
For example, how would they really fight the war and how would they really form alliances that gather in tone?
Listen, hold on, I want to I want to get to that, but l let me let me defend the GOP to some degree, and even Huckabee to some degree.
I try I try to be objective here, and that is for for literally decades, most of my adult life, the only group in America you could legally discriminate against, culturally discriminate against, were born-again Christians, were Christians.
They they were the whipping boy for everybody.
And th they became, because of that, part of the GOP because the GOP had the audacity to defend their religious liberties, their their practice, and not consider them off base.
So it you know, so some people say okay, they're pandering to them, but that's no different than what the the Democrats do to pander to the ACLU or the religious left.
Now, can it go overboard on either side?
Sure it can.
And is that the only issue?
Is that the only litmus test?
No, of course not.
And that's the that's the the center of the debate right now.
But look, we do have, you know, Article 4, Section 3 that says there shall be no religious test when you run for public office in America.
And so you're right.
While we embrace these issues that might have commonality with certain interest groups, uh with with certain um factions, if you will, uh th that is not the identity of the Republican Party.
And that's what I think some people are uneasy with in the in the Huckabee debate right now.
And I think you are you're probably one of them.
Yes, yes, yes, I am.
I mean, I'm I'm uh I wouldn't I'm not a Republican voter, but it wouldn't come to the Republican side.
There's many candidates that I would vote for.
Yet I feel that I'm as though I'm not hearing their exact message because it's been clouded by this religious you know, uh like you said, the religious litmus stuff.
I think John McCain's a great candidate, but I think he's being extremely discounted or not even looked at because of, you know, well, not in New Hampshire, although not in New Hampshire right now.
Most of the polls show McCain's surging in New Hampshire to the point where Romney's starting to level some serious attacks against him.
I think he's the most one that's not not in qualifications, but uh like honor like wise.
I mean, he's the most one that's really bled for this country to you know what I'm saying.
Boy, you have just brought up a a absolutely fascinating analogy where you and I are going to disagree, my friend.
And there's no question that how can you not honor a John McCain, POW, and what he went through.
But let me give you sort of an analogy on the left that hopefully will make sense to all of you when we're talking about the criticism of Huckabee relying too much on religion in the campaign.
And that is those liberals running in congressional seats all over America, the liberals fielding a military veteran, but nevertheless extremely liberal, to run in a conservative district.
And they're doing the same thing that the critics of Huckabee say he's doing.
their military service in that particular situation has a a shield if you will against their liberal well you can't you can't call me a liberal I was in the military.
Well you know what George McGovern was in the military.
I believe he was an honored World War II bomber.
I wouldn't have voted for him any more than the man in the moon.
So just because one facet of your life whether it's the military s military service or your religious background what what conservatives or movement sorts of individuals feel that's not enough.
We're talking about an overarching philosophy of government here.
And I'm tying that into the McCain thing because obviously his service was honorable.
But when you start sounding like a Democrat on economic policy and calling Bush tax cuts, tax cuts for the rich.
And by the way, let me remind you, if you believe we ought to cut taxes for people that pay for taxes, if you believe we need to cut tax reduction for the people that are paying the burden, you are in favor of tax cuts for the rich.
Because the top 1% now pay 40%.
The top 5% now pay sixty percent the top fifty percent pay ninety seven percent of the income federal income tax burden I don't know how you cut taxes for people who pay taxes and not be in favor of tax cuts for the quote unquote rich.
Well McCain was against that now he says he's in favor of it.
We all know about McCain Feingold which has given us the five twenty sevens and George Soros and the like and we all know about his immigration plan.
So just because and this is analogous to the Huckabee situation just because somebody has served honorably and God bless them you know during this season especially that does not inoculate people from veering portside on every other issue.
I never thought of that as character politics the the the that's what like I never I I you you you're right to classify it as such but uh it kind of just seems as though you know if if there's anybody on the Republican side that served the country, not only military, but I'm talking about is in t it seems as though Jim McCain's entire career I mean the man looks like he's old and he's still out there you see what I'm saying way more than I'd say McCain's service in in in the long run I'm sorry I meant like Huckabee or Romney or that well you're right to characterize it and put it as character politics because you you know
it could be looked at as oh he's a veteran oh he's a priest.
Right, exact exactly.
And that's what I think the people are have some trouble with and certainly I do here's the here's the only thing and I can't remember if it was Patrick Henry someone said the you know the the only lamp that shall illuminate your the future is history.
I'm paraphrasing of course but you've got to look at at the at the history of individuals and countries to determine the future and start looking at the way these people voted.
Start looking at not what they say today but the way they governed whether it's in the Senate in the House as a governor and I think that's going to give you a better indication of uh the way they're going to govern in the future.
Ash thanks for checking in I do appreciate it.
Let's go to Beth from uh my home state of Minnesota you're next up on the Rush Limbaugh program with Jason Lewis.
Hi, Beth.
Good morning, Jason.
Just wanted you to know that when you mentioned earlier what was Rush doing today, I saw him clearly in my mind's eye this morning for a couple minutes.
He had his feet up, smoking a stogie, listening to the weather report out of Southern California.
He's probably on the second hole putting for par.
That's my guess.
Possibly, possibly.
Anyway, on another note, I don't know.
It's not just the drive-by media, I'm afraid.
It seems to be everybody pretending Fred Thompson ain't out there and he's my man has been since last July he's the one that stood up and did not raise his hand on global warming.
That was a it was a wonderful retort he had to that ridiculous question in the debate uh in Iowa where you know in in raise your hand you believe global warming is real well I'm not into hand raising today Thompson said and she's and then he said do I get a minute to answer and she says no just raise well then I'm not going to raise my hand if I can't explain my position.
If you take a look at somebody's record uh Thompson scores very very well I saw him way off a long time ago and I've every nickel's going to him as as far as I'm concerned.
And uh my dearest Reagan oh love of my life and hero of my lifetime I knew he was a Christian because he loved this country.
And he loved what birthed this nation.
And he didn't have to I knew just by You didn't have to wear it on your sleeve.
Yes.
That's right.
No, Beth, thanks for calling.
I I appreciate it.
Uh and it's great to have you on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Yeah, th that's right.
Again, I understand people, you can't exercise virtue without freedom.
We all believe in faith, hope, and charity.
None of those is possible without freedom.
That has got to come first when you're talking about governance and politics.
Not not anything else.
Anyway, Beth, great call.
I'm glad you did.
Let's go to uh Joe from Pennsylvania.
You're next up on the Rush Limbaugh program.
Hi.
How are you doing, Jason?
Could not be better, sir.
That's good.
I'm glad to hear it.
Although I didn't get everything I wanted for Christmas, I have to admit.
The Democrats are still in control in Congress.
So you know, one president didn't come.
I wish somebody'd show up.
I've been uh I got uh a couple of notes from uh Fred Thompson all the way back, and I sent him some money, and then I got another note from him again, I sent him some money again.
And uh it's like what that last lady said.
You don't have to wear it on your sleeve.
You can tell.
Uh when somebody's noble uh if they have character.
Uh Fred Thompson shows me that.
And uh uh he he does it in a quiet way.
I hear his polls are going up uh in Iowa.
In Iowa, uh there has been there has been some uh an uptick in Iowa by a number of reports.
The thing I like about Thompson is, and I saw him speak in uh in July in Philadelphia at the American Legislative Exchange Council convention, and that he truly is a Federalist.
And that's one of my big issues.
The idea that we have divided government.
The best way to limit government is to limit its jurisdiction.
And you have all of these states as these laboratories of democracy, and and Romney invoked this the other day as well.
But these laboratories of democracy, as Justice Brandeis once said, that will allow you the ability, if all else fails, to vote with your feet.
And it's even true on the life issue.
The proper conservative position and with all with all humility on the life issue is Roe v.
Wade is horrible constitutional law.
It should be overturned, and the issue is sent back to the states because the federal government doesn't have police powers on this issue.
And then of course the politicians in the v individual states would have to vote on them.
That's right.
That they don't want.
And again, you've got I mean, uh I hate to go back to Huckabee, but he says, No, no, no, that's not gonna do.
We need one size fits all for all fifty states.
If he said the other day, you know, why why Thompson's weak on abortion because goodness gracious, uh he's he's for overturning Roe v.
Wade and turning it back to the states.
Yeah, that was the design of the Republic.
We most laws, for instance, against murder are state laws against rape, arson, robbery.
They're state laws between two citizens of the same state.
Guess what?
There are no enumerated powers in the Constitution for the federal government to act.
I am not or willing to overturn what the framers built in the name of gathering constituencies.
And that's you're right.
That's one of the things I like about Thompson.
The other thing about Thompson, and I got a break, but I appreciate the call, i is I think he went into this thinking, look, we're we're grown-up boys and girls here.
I'm not gonna go out there to say, look at my performance in the debate.
Uh I'm not gonna be this Rasmatazz pizzazz sort of candidate.
I'm gonna engage in this deliberation that the president will have to engage in in the Oval Office.
And to some degree, some say that's that's hurt him a little bit, that he hasn't been more flashy.
But that's up for you to decide.
I'm Jason Lewis on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
We are back after this short pause.
listening to the EIB Network.
EIB Network.
I am Jason Lewis, Minnesota's real anchor man, having more fun than a human being should be allowed as I sit in for the big guy once again, rush taking the week off.
Mark Belling in the next couple of days.
I'm back on the New Year's Eve, and then the Great One returns on January second to lead us into the Hawkeye cockeye.
John from South Carolina, thanks for waiting.
You're next up on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
Hi.
Hey, Jason, I support Governor Huckabee in the January 9th primary because he supports the fair tax, which will eliminate all of our income taxes, taxes on business and investment, and make America the best place in the world to do business.
Ron Paul supports eliminating the income tax without feeling the need to have to replace it with other research that shows that his plan will work.
Our plan is twenty million dollars in research showing it will work and grow the economy.
Really?
Well first of all, here look I I happen to think that that is a a a paramount issue as always in in the Republican primary the issue of taxes because if they can take your labor, uh the first amendment doesn't mean anything.
The Fourth Amendment doesn't mean anything.
So I agree with you and this tax code is uh is an outrage.
And it's all it's hard to to um to keep con continually trying to under or tell people that taxing the wealthy is unjust if they're paying disproportionately more as opposed to proportionately more.
So I agree with reforming the tax code.
I mean you can do it with a simplified flat tax or you can do it with a sales tax but I also agree in objectivity and honesty.
And let me tell you where the problem is for the fair tax.
One, and this is this is a question of not integrity I guess, but just uh salesmanship it is not a twenty three percent national sales tax.
Yes it is if I if I spent a dollar on an item what is going to be just the federal sales tax on that item?
Well let me explain this.
If you owe a hundred thousand dollars in federal taxes you can no I don't know John John I don't want a speech from the Fair Tax Group.
What I want is an answer to my question.
If I spent a dollar with a new fair tax plan enacted what is the sales tax on that?
Twenty-three percent it is not twenty-three percent it is thirty cents isn't it if you if you figure it like thirty cents isn't tax it is it's thirty cents isn't it the only way you get twenty three percent is by then dividing then dividing the thirty cents by a dollar thirty and what those individuals out there who are in the wholesale or the retail business know that's the difference between the gross margin and a markup those are two different items.
And frankly I think it's disingenuous to be running around telling people it's 23 percent when the actual tax will be thirty cents for every dollar purchased.
Well Jason that's just not true because our research shows it and uh right now the average cost of the goods you buy is twenty two percent more expensive because the tax cost on to the consumer write those out and you add the fare tax the cost of goods are about the same but you get to keep your whole paycheck and you get prevate.
So you cut no government because you're going to raise another two point seven trillion from that just the way the income tax does.
I'd love to cut government well are you going to eliminate the 16th Amendment first before you enact it?
Because if you don't you're gonna end up with a sales tax, a national sales tax and an income tax.
It'll take it today Jason but we want to hold our politicians accountable to make it I would support I I do believe taxing consumption is much, much more beneficial to the economy than taxing work savings and investment.
I could I agree a hundred percent with you.
But I'm not going to do that until we repeal the 16th amendment which is going to take a long time and here's why every place they've imposed a VAT or a sales tax they've always had the income tax side by side or it's come back.
And if you don't im if you don't repeal the 16th amendment first you run that risk don't you?
Well Jason well when people get used to keeping their entire paycheck nobody will let the politicians go back to an income tax.
How old are you by the way?
I'm 47.
So you're gonna retire in what twenty fifteen years we'll say fifteen, sixteen years?
Whenever I'm ready.
You will have paid you will have paid all of those income taxes.
Now you retire and you're gonna get hit with a thirty percent retail national sales tax?
I'll get to keep all of my retirement savings plus I'll get a monthly prebate check just like you will thanks for the call I do have some concerns but I I'm sympathetic to the overall movement.
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