The views expressed by the host on this show make more sense than anything anybody else out there happens to be saying because the views expressed by the host on this program are rooted in a daily, relentless, and unstoppable pursuit of the truth, and we find it and we proclaim it.
A thrill and a delight to have you with us.
Rush Limbaugh calming the seas.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
The email address is elrushbow at eibnet.com.
During the break here, I'm thinking about the call from Raphael in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Correct me if I want to make sure I heard this right, you guys.
He said that he learned self-reliance from this program that his father did not teach himself.
Is that right?
That's why I thought, and I was thinking about that during the break, and I have to admit, I was kind of blown away by that.
Even though, you know, we've done programs, like I think our most recent show on the slackers in America was like five years ago.
You know, the theory that 5% of the population is pulling the cart and 95% of the population is in the cart demanding to be pulled and never thanking the 5% who are pulling it.
We've done shows on this.
To me, the whole concept of self-reliance, I guess I learned it from my parents, the way I was raised and so forth.
It seems as natural as breathing.
And I am always stunned when I hear people say that it is a concept, a new concept that they had to learn, and that only when exposed to its explanation did it make sense to them.
And I ask myself, how can this be in this country?
One of the things that we often then realize, self-reliance is impugned.
The liberals, the drive-by media attack people who are self-reliant as though it's not fair that they are, and therefore they need to share and be punished for their achievements.
And so the whole concept of not being self-reliant is pushed by the American left with aid and abetment from the drive-by media because, of course, the less self-reliant you are, the more what you are, dependent.
And upon whom?
Well, you've been trained.
Many people have been trained to be dependent on government.
A lot of people view the concept of being an American as being entitled.
So still, though, self-reliance just seems something natural to me.
Do it yourself.
Take care of yourself.
The idea that my wants, my needs are the responsibility of others.
It's foreign to me, but yet that's another great thing about Raphael's call.
It was a wake-up that there's still a lot of people to be taught or reached or what have you.
Now, folks, as I mentioned just before the conclusion of the previous hour, this should be the year for Republicans.
Now, this sort of dovetails with the calls we had yesterday from two women who were very upset and scared over their future.
They're both doing well financially, but they think it's all going to be taken away from them in taxes.
The rising cost of gasoline is the root of this because it's raised the cost of everything that needs to be transported.
Everything.
And it's shut up fast.
It's been a very hefty percentage increase for everybody in a lickety split matter of time.
So it's had a big shock.
And I'm thinking, why are the Republicans running from this?
If the Republican Party cannot win with these gas prices and Democrats, now keep in mind who is leading the Democrats, the Messiah, Barack Obama, is an inexperienced, moron elitist who does not seem to understand why anybody would object to continuously rising gas prices, which will drive up the cost of everything.
Here you have the Democrat Party through their anointed one basically suggesting the status quo is fine, that these gas prices, in fact, Obama said the only thing he didn't like about these prices was how fast they went up.
Had they not gotten so fast, he'd be a little happier about it.
But the Democrat Party is opposed to virtually anything and everything, no matter what the idea, that would lower the cost of gasoline.
They are against the increased supply of crude oil worldwide, which would naturally reduce the price.
We get things from Obama like, okay, we can drill tomorrow, but that's not going to raise or lower the price of gasoline.
This ought to disqualify him.
There's, why go to college if you know you're not going to get out for four or five years or seven if you go to graduate school?
Why even start?
Why even grow up?
Why not just stay five all your life?
Because you can't become 21 tomorrow.
This is absurd.
Everything, be it a rollback on federal and state taxes, whatever, anything to lower the price, to lower the pressure on the living conditions of average Americans is opposed by the Democrat Party.
And they are the party that gets away with claiming to be the party of the little guy, the average American, the plebe.
It's the average American that's getting hurt.
Every American's getting hurt by this.
The Democrat Party claims that they are the ones that can protect a little guy from the excesses of the rich.
And yet what does Obama plan on doing?
He plans on raising the capital gains tax.
He plans on raising income taxes on the people who hire other people.
The very people that Obama claims to be a staunch ally of and a great protector of are the people that are going to get hurt by his very policies.
You can raise taxes on the rich.
They'll find a way around it or they'll pay it.
But they're going to be okay afterwards in real terms.
They're not going to be happy, but they have to make some adjustments if they're small businesses that filed their personal return as a subchapter S-Corpor.
I mean, they don't have bottomless pits of money to just soak up all these new Obama taxes.
So the very people Obama plans on helping are going to get laid off.
They're going to lose their jobs.
And he doesn't seem to care.
This is a gold mine for Republicans if they had any onions.
And I'm frankly, I'm a little tired of hearing Republicans tell us that they can't win.
I'm tired of Republicans tell us how many seats they expect to lose in the Senate, how many they expect to lose in the House of Representatives, that this isn't their year.
B.S., this year has been served up on a silver platter.
People vote with their pocketbooks, and Democrats are wrong on the biggest issue since 9-11.
They are all universally on the wrong side of this.
I mean, you almost get the impression here to the Republican Party's being led by a bunch of tards.
Little high school lingo there for those of you unfamiliar with the term.
But I look at this, I look at this as a giant opportunity.
Some people say, Rush, you're too optimistic.
You've got to get more immersed in reality.
I am immersed in reality.
I'm looking at a Democrat Party that in a sane political world couldn't win one state in November.
I'm looking at a Democrat party whose ideas fail every time they try them.
Be it ethanol, what have you, be it Social Security, be it welfare reform, not welfare reform, but the great society, everything they try, the unintended consequences seem to come.
Everything they do, they have opposed victory, they have sought defeat, and yet we are winning big in Iraq.
You remember at the Republican convention not long ago, there was a Democrat snuck somebody in there dressed up as a cigarette to try to show how the Democrats, the Republicans rather, were aligned with big tobacco.
But man, yeah, it was butt man.
Well, let me tell you what ought to happen in Denver, both outside when Obama does this silly acceptance speech.
And by the way, who's running this show?
I am convinced it's the Kennedys.
The Kennedys and Mayor Daly are running Obama.
Caroline Kennedy now remains in the campaign, is finding the VEP, and they're moving this thing outside to Invesco Field at Mile High.
It's not covered.
We can pray for rain.
75,000, the last time Obama drew a crowd of 75,000, they had a rock group in there as the lead-in.
So 75,000 people, whether they do this, and you can do it both places, at his acceptance speech at the Invesco field at Mile High or the Pepsi Center, Republicans need to have a guy dressed up like an oil well running around their convention or a guy dressed up like a gas pump or a sandwich board with gas prices, whatever they are then.
Something smart.
But this is the issue.
There is nothing else.
The Republicans ought to be all over the radio.
Everybody in a car who has a radio is a potential target for the Republican campaign.
You know how mad you get every time you pull up to the pump, every time you know you got to go to the gas station, you know how mad you get at this.
And every time you go, the price is snuck up just a little few extra cents more.
Every gas station owner is a potential Republican voter.
Every cab driver.
You heard about what's going on in New York City.
There's 14,000 cabs in New York, and these guys are having huge trouble because now they have asked the city for a $1 surcharge on every passenger just to accommodate the rise in fuel costs.
They're losing money.
They're not even breaking even.
And of course, the mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, we don't need a surcharge for cabs.
We need a surcharge on every automobile.
And the guy who banned trans fat, who banned smoking, it's absurd.
He calls himself a Republican, but he's a liberal.
He's a liberal Republican.
Every cab driver is a potential Republican voter.
Every trucker is a Republican voter, potentially.
Everybody that owns a boat, anybody who drives anything is a prime target for Republicans.
And all this doom and gloom from Republicans is insane.
Why go out and create your own negative, self-fulfilling prophecy?
Yeah, this is not our year.
Yeah, we're going to lose all these seats in the House.
Why?
Latest Ras Musson numbers have the congressional approval rating at 9%.
Here's some more details on that, by the way.
Per Ras Musson today, strongly disapprove of the job, 47% for Bush, 52% for Congress.
Disapprove, 18%, Bush, 36%.
I'm sorry, disapprove Bush, 18%.
Congress is doing a 36% fair job.
Bush, 19% approval.
Congress, 7%, a good job.
I mean, it just, no matter where you look, the numbers in Congress are below President Bush's.
And who's running the place?
The Democrats.
And who's standing that with Harry Reid going out there and saying oil and coal are making us sick?
Have you been to your own state lately, Senator?
Have you gone to Las Vegas?
Do you know what it is that keeps the lights on in Las Vegas?
You ever heard of coal?
Have you ever heard of oil?
And yet nobody responds to this stuff.
The Democrats are sitting ducks.
The Democrat Party views this country and wants this country to be in a permanent state of decline.
Most Americans do not want a permanent state of decline.
Most people want opportunity and growth, not just for themselves, but for their children and their grandchildren.
And the Republican Party has always stood for that, even when it's been run by the Rockefeller Country Club bluebloods.
It has always stood for growth.
It has always stood for this.
The Democrat Party does not.
Growth and more opportunity equals more freedom and less dependence, and they don't want that.
They are sitting ducks.
I know the president's in the White House, and I know the economy is said to be tanking, which it isn't, but it's said to be.
And I know that the president gets the credit or gets the blame, and does, as does his party.
So battle it.
Make some ads, go on radio, go on television.
Tell the American people it's the Democrat.
Here's the president up there.
I hope that the Congress will pass the legislation I want to drill way offshore and so forth.
You hope?
Get out there and do a speech and lay it on them and explain who's obstructing the very growth and progress.
Explain who is obstructing any plan, any action that would significantly increase the supply of oil and thus lower the price of gasoline.
Now, this all may sound obvious to you, and if so, I congratulate you.
I'm just telling you, the Democrat Party ought to be the party on the run.
The Republican Party ought to be full of optimism for what tomorrow brings.
That's what this country is all about.
Tomorrow is a better day than the previous day in this country.
Remember Ronaldos Magnus talking about the shining city on a hill?
Well, there is no shining city on a hill without domestic oil, coal, gas, and nuclear power.
There is no shining city on a hill with windmills and solar panels and compact fluorescents and hybrids and ethanol that has never equaled a shining city on a hill and it won't.
The Democrats have turned the dimmers on in the shining city on a hill.
The Democrats would prefer a blackout in the shining city on a hill.
This is such a golden opportunity.
The Democrat Party can be made to run and be on the defensive.
All one has to do is remind the American people of the greatness of this country, American exceptionalism, how they, the American people, are the ones responsible for this.
A little lesson on growth.
How do you think salaries increase?
How do you think gasoline prices come down?
None of the things that people want right now are going to happen via conservation.
Nothing wrong with conservation.
Don't misunderstand.
But conservation is not growth.
And there is no earthly reason why the United States of America needs to ever be in a state of decline.
And yet the Democrat Party revels.
Not only revels, but celebrates that notion.
It's time they paid the price once and for all.
Let's go back to the phones here on the EIB network, Rush Limbos serving humanity simply by showing up Father Paul in Dallas, Texas.
Hello, Father.
Yes.
Hi, Rush.
I'm a Catholic priest here in Dallas.
And what you said about Gregorian Chant, I thank you personally and on behalf of Paul Benedict.
He's promoting Gregorian Chant, too.
Well, thank you, sir.
I appreciate that.
Hey, Rush, when you said about India and the subsidy, I talked to the subsidy on gas, and it's being removed over there.
I was talking to our parishioner down in Mexico.
He said that in September, the government of Mexico is removing their subsidy.
And then when I heard what you said about India, it starts to make sense.
The other countries are going to feel the same pain we're feeling.
So it's a reason for hope.
Well, you know why these governments were subsidizing gasoline purchases for their citizenry is interesting.
They were doing it for growth.
The Indians want massive economic growth.
They got a lot of people to feed and take care of.
The CHICOMs, the same thing.
The CHICOMs don't care a whit about global warming or anything else.
They just want to grow.
And it's something crucially relevant to understand about the CHICOMs and the Chinese premier.
That is, his job, his primary responsibility, his biggest challenge right now, is creating 25 million new jobs a year.
And he's got to do this outside of the cities.
The cities are already teeming with people.
Chikom major cities are overrun.
If those people that live out in the countryside throughout China decide to come to the cities for their jobs, he's got a big problem.
He's not going to be able to control it.
He's not going to be able to keep the communist sickle poised as easily.
He's got to keep them out there.
And for that, they were subsidizing gasoline.
And now with the prices going where they are, they can't afford it.
So they're going to end the subsidies gradually, which is causing less usage by the subsidized customers, these citizens, which is putting additional, well, it's relaxing pressure on supply now.
And I'm just positing that as a possibility why the crude oil price is down about $10 from its all-time high.
I haven't checked it in the last half hour to see what's happening.
And Mexico, as you point out, Father, the same thing.
The Mexicans, they were subsidizing gases.
$2, and Americans are driving across the line to buy gasoline in Southern California.
And they did this not because they're nice people.
I mean, they wanted economic growth.
Which reminds me of something else when we get back.
As usual, I have my brand tied behind my back just to make it fair.
So let's talk a little bit more about these gasoline subsidies that governments around the world are using to facilitate their citizenry being able to get around and create economic growth.
I mean, just stop and think of that for a second.
I'm not advocating subsidies.
I'm talking about the whole subject of growth here.
They have a population which is, in most cases, very poor compared to ours, and yet they need growth.
The governments need growth.
They've got to feed these people.
They have got to keep these people fed.
They've got to have jobs for them, otherwise they're going to have anarchy.
And so one of the ways they've done it is to subsidize gasoline.
But up till now, price has gotten so high that they're removing all or part of the subsidies.
I wish I could remember the exact figure, but I think in India, as recently as a month ago, a gallon of gas was 80 cents.
Now, don't quote me on that.
I can find it.
It's just, it's my memory here, not clear on the exact number, but it's cheap.
It was nowhere near the worldwide street price.
And the same thing in China and the same thing in Mexico.
And why were they doing it?
They weren't doing it out of benevolence.
These governments weren't looking at the poor and saying, oh, we're going to help you.
They needed growth.
And the fuel price, the use of energy, is fundamental to growth.
These people had to be able to move around.
They had to be able to have enough money left over to buy products in stores, grocery stores, or what have you.
Be it in India, be it in China, be it in Mexico, wherever it was happening.
So the lesson learned is that you cannot separate fuel price from growth.
You cannot separate energy from growth.
Now, it's all fine and dandy to start talking about alternative fuels and windmills and all these wonderful pie-in-the-sky dreams.
And it ain't going to have any effect today.
We may as well not do it, right, Senator Obama?
We may as well not even start these new technologies because it's going to be decades before they come online and mean anything significant.
Of course, that's not the way we do things.
We start a process, we give it a shot.
Entrepreneurs, as opposed to government, make these kinds of things work.
And yet here in this country, nobody's talking about subsidizing gasoline, but at the same time, the Democrat Party is opposed to everything that would make energy cheaper.
India just raised the price to 70 cents per liter.
So it was less than that.
And even at that, it's still being heavily subsidized.
So what are they charging two bucks a gallon basically is what people, is that what you're five cent increase yesterday?
$2.66 a gallon is what Indian citizens are paying for a gallon of gasoline.
And that's an increase over what it was because it's gotten to the point the governments can't afford the large subsidies.
Well, this is going to cause a downturn in usage, and it's going to relieve some of the pressure on supply.
But the whole lesson to learn here is when entities, bureaucratic governmental entities realize that growth is necessary, they realize that energy must be affordable and it has to be as cheap as it can be for people.
And the Democrat Party is the party in this country opposing that very concept, which is why this is a goldmine year for the Republican Party.
How can a party whose essential belief is that this is a nation in a state of decline and deserves to be in a state of decline, by the way, because the rest of the world justifiably hates us because they justifiably recognize we have stolen all of their resources, that we have sent our armies and our Air Force all over the world and we have killed innocent civilians.
Of course, the rest of the world should hate us because so many leftists hate us for the very same fallacious reasons.
And so we owe a debt and we need to pay a price.
We need to be in a state of decline.
We need to learn what our imperialism has forced other people around the world to experience and live.
This is the Democrat Party today.
This is the American left.
They smile when you suffer because they think it'll mean electoral success for them.
But in the real world, how can a party identified proudly as a party that believes in a state of decline and thinks this country deserves it have a chance at anything?
I don't know everything, but close.
And one of the things I know is that a vast majority of Americans does not want this country in a permanent state of decline.
Vast majority of Americans have much higher expectations.
I don't understand how the Democrats have a prayer.
Well, I do because I know that there have been 50 years of lies about Republicans and Democrats promulgated and spread by the drive-by media.
But that's a battle that we are winning.
We are taking huge chunks out of the influence of the drive-by media.
And it's certainly no reason now to cash in the chips.
Not when one of our political parties basically wants the demise of the capitalist system that's created the greatest opportunity and standard of living in the course of human history.
How does a party which seeks to undermine that very status, the greatest standard of living, greatest opportunity in the history of human civilization, how does a party like that stand a prayer?
Yet they do.
50 years of class envy or more.
50 years of telling people that they can't take care of themselves because there's not enough of the pie left for them that the rich are taking it all from them.
It's easy to sit around and do nothing if you think somebody's going to take care of you.
It's easy to sit around and be resentful.
But none of those characteristics built this country.
And yet they are the characteristics of the Democrat Party.
So go figure.
Back to the phones.
Jeff in Woodland Park, Colorado.
Thanks for calling, sir.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Retired military officer Dittos from the media reported swing state of beautiful Colorado.
Yes, sir.
Thanks very much.
I got something to report to you.
And then if you will, if you'll allow me, just a quick observation at the very end.
First, the report.
Yesterday during one of the news breaks, there was something that's only like the five-minute news break, top of the hour.
The report was out of Colorado that the legislature is considering raising tolls on roads that previously didn't have tolls because of the revenue drop with people driving less.
I did a little more research on that because you don't catch all the details on those quick news bites at top of the hour.
And Reuters had reported back on June 20th the amount of Americans that are driving less.
And then into the Rocky Mountain News, where it reported that between I-70, the main road going out to all the ski areas from Denver, we're considering major tolls coming up in the future, things that didn't previously exist.
So I'm going to encourage all my fellow Coloradans to go out there and buy more sport utility vehicles and trucks and any kind of gas-guzzling vehicles they can get because if we continue buying the higher mileage vehicles, they're going to impose tolls on places to keep those revenues up in the coffers of the state.
So basically an imposed tax, a shoot-from-the-hip tax, because we're driving less.
And I just think that's right in line with everything you were saying before in a way that the Democrats.
Let me take the occasion of your news item to point out that this is happening in many states all across the fruited plain.
First place that I am aware that this happened was in the great state of California.
What happened was that in California, Governor Schwarzenegger and all of the glittering jewels of colossal ignorance in the assembly out there started demanding people, hey, you need to clean up this state.
This state's got smog.
We got pollution.
You need to drive smaller cars and you need to get more miles per gallon.
You need to do that for yourself.
It'll reduce your travel budget, all these great things.
So a lot of people went out and did it.
Because, of course, people are loyal to their governments.
And if they believe they're trusted elected officials, then of course they'll do what they can to help, which is why so many doofuses buying a stupid man-made global warming hoax.
Anyway, it didn't take long for the state of California to realize out there, Jeff, that with all these new little lawnmowers disguised as automobiles getting a lot more mileage, that the fuel tax was not producing as much revenue because people weren't buying as much.
The gasoline tax out there was not generating what it had been projected to be in the budget.
And California's like 76 gazillion billion in debt out there.
And so guess what?
They raised the tax, wiping out every saving that the dutifully patriotic citizens of California had matched and enjoyed by following instructions.
The lesson here, and this is in North Carolina, they put water restrictions on because of a drought.
So people by law could not water their lawns as much.
And guess what?
The municipal water supply was not used as often, and thus sales of water and tax revenue declined.
And so local communities decided to raise water rates while less was being used.
Everything in government happens the exact opposite of supply and demand.
And the reason for it, Jeff, is that there is not one government and there's not one media person who understands the concept that government can do with less too.
Where did this notion come from that government can never do with less, that government by fiat has to have more every year?
You and I need more every year, but we don't just by fiat wave a magic wand and get it.
They can and do.
It's an interesting explanation, too, in terms of how they sell it.
Something similar happened here in Florida just recently.
I don't know what it was.
I forget what it was.
It might be a changes in property tax revenue proposals or what have you.
But all these local communities here in the county in which we survive, Palm Beach County, these local communities all said, we're going to have to cut basic services.
We're going to have to close some child care centers.
We may have to close a couple fire departments and fire some cops.
And that's how they do it.
Anytime a state bureaucracy faces a cut, they caterwall, they moan, they cry like babies, and then they tell people, well, if your house is going to burn down, too bad.
Our budget's been cut.
We don't have enough money to have a fired truck get to your house where you live.
And of course, the citizens go, you can't do that.
What they never do is lop off the top-heavy bureaucracies.
They never get rid of useless policies, never get rid of useless people.
They never get rid of redundant things.
They always seem to go out with their PR offensive where they've got to cancel quote-unquote essential services.
And hence, they rope in people with fear.
Yeah, we're going to have to cut a couple fire departments out there.
We're going to maybe even have to close one of the police stations.
You mean if my house gets robbed, I got a burglar in there?
That's exactly right because of budget cuts.
Now, who in their right mind, who in their right mind, who is a genuine public servant, state or federal or local, when budget cuts come along, would have the audacity and the mean-spiritedness to tell citizens, guess what?
We're cutting the essential services that you need rather than look for places other than that to cut.
And there are plenty of them.
They don't need to build the Panda exhibit at the Wayward Zoo 25 miles out of town.
They don't need to build the latest art expo with the latest liberal cultural rut on display for $5 million.
They don't need to build a testament to some wacko liberal politician, some honorary monument somewhere.
They never cut the junk.
They always claim to have to cut essentials so that you caterwall and moan to higher authorities, canceling out the budget cut.
Quick timeout, back after this.
A little Steppenwolf.
Oh, we're doing...
No, it's not a medley.
It's the same song, Rock Me.
Remember that tune, Snerdly, from the late 60s?
Rock me, baby, rock me, baby, all night long.
John Kay, the lead singer.
Back to the phones we go.
This is Jill in Birmingham, Alabama.
You're next on the EIB network.
Great to have you here.
Great to be here, Russ.
Thank you.
We're able to talk to you.
Good pleasure, man.
I am calling to, I guess, rebuttal the lady yesterday that said that you were wasting her time and our time.
Yeah, she did say that.
It wounded me to the heart.
Well, I was screaming at my radio.
You are never a waste of time.
Thank you so much, Jill.
You make us think.
You do hard work.
I think you work, you know, the hours you're sleeping.
You're probably working because your brain, of course, is, you know, high power.
So this is a very, very shrewd and astute observation that you've made.
Well, I agree.
I mean, I think that you do a lot of legwork and reading to make us all smarter that none of us have time to do.
Maybe we don't have the will to do it, and you choose to do it for us.
You're busy.
You have your own job.
You have your own responsibilities.
I have mine.
I happen to, you know, nothing I do really feels like work to me because I love all of it.
Wow.
That's what I like to do.
There are certain things about it I don't like, but I'm not going to whine.
No, never be a whiner.
No, never be a complainer.
So that was my comment about your, you know, contract last week.
I'm like, go get it.
Get all you can get because you work really hard.
Thank you very much, Jill.
I do appreciate that.
More than you know.
Well, I just appreciate what you do.
Love to listen.
Hate it when I miss the show, but I do get the email update.
So that's a great thing.
And anyway.
Why do you miss the show, Jill?
Well, when I'm working, I teach school.
So when I'm at work, are you out of school for the summer?
I'm out of school and I'm loving every day.
At 11 every day?
No, I'm loving every day.
Oh, you're out of school.
You're loving every day.
What do you teach and how old are your student pupils?
Well, I'm a high school computer teacher.
So I teach kids that usually want to be doing what we're doing.
You teach, you're a haskrill computer teacher.
Yes.
I guess you use Windows.
Yeah, usually.
I hadn't delved into the Mac world yet, but a lot of people do.
Well, everybody has to start somewhere, I suppose.
It's not a bad thing.
So that's interesting.
Teach computers.
Yeah.
Okay.
So when I'm home with my two boys in the summer, so that's a great thing.
And life's good.
How old are your kids?
Eight and five.
Eight and five.
So never a dull moment.
No, they're just getting to the real troublemaker stage now, Jill.
Trust me on this.
Well, they're partners in crime.
I'm sure you have a great time with them.
Look, I've got to run.
Thanks so much for the moral support.
Brief time out.
We'll be back and continue here right after this.
I just watching Fox.
They just had a roundtable discussion, and the topic was, what role will Hillary take at the Democrat National Convention?
I have the answer.
Her role will be to secure the nomination away from Obama.