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Dec. 12, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:16
December 12, 2008, Friday, Hour #2
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Folks, I want you to take a long, hard look.
I want you to savor this.
I want you to take a long, hard look at what is happening in Chicago.
Democrats are actually trying to railroad a fellow Democrat within three days of a scandal popping out.
This is unprecedented.
Normally, they circle the wagons around their injured member and do everything they can to attack and destroy the attackers.
But in Chicago, for the first time that I can recall in my lifetime, the Democrats are trying without due process.
Of course, that's not hard to understand.
We are talking about Chicago, to force out a duly elected Democrat, Rod Blagojevich.
They want the Attorney General to tell the Supreme Court to kick the guy out of office or to strip him of some powers.
They don't want an impeachment because that would lead to a trial, which is due process.
We can't have that now.
Not in Chicago.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
And I promise we'll get to your phone calls El Quicko in this hour.
And when we do, you can talk about whatever you wish to talk about.
Wendy is here today screaming calls.
She claims I called her Dawn last hour, twice.
Called her Dawn twice.
Dawn's not here.
Dawn has gone home on a family emergency to Pittsburgh.
So Wendy is here.
Great to have you here.
She's a dead ringer for Sarah Palin when she does her hair upright and puts on her glasses.
Telephone number 800-282-2882 with the email address El Rushbo at EIBnet.com.
One more audio soundbite here from Verge Bernaro.
He is the mayor of Lansing, Michigan, Harry Smith.
He says, let me ask you this, Mayor.
If the bailout hinges on whether or not the UAW makes concessions, isn't it incumbent upon the UAW to make concessions to save the industry?
And the UAW has made concessions.
The UAW has made historic concessions, and I'm sure they're willing to make more.
Is the U.S. Senate going to dictate exactly what an automate maker works?
Again, I think it's the height of hypocrisy for them to be demanding that we go down to standards of competitors overseas.
Verge, do you not understand what's happening right before all of our noses?
The federal government's in the process of telling everybody what they can and can't do.
That's the road we're heading down.
The government's already dictated to automakers, Verge.
The federal government's already got them making cars that people don't want with all these stupid cafe standards and so forth.
They can't compete for a whole host of reasons.
Clearly, there may be some incompetence in the management.
Look at nobody's innocent of things here.
These guys have wasted money on things.
They bought companies that didn't pan out.
They had to sell them on the cheap.
But I mean, don't you guys understand?
I mean, you've got the incompetence of people who cannot even run the United States government.
They can't even run their own cafeteria trying to tell the automobile industry and any other industry, oil industry, the healthcare industry, how to operate.
It is just, it's sad.
It is said that we have arrived at this point in American history.
Claire McCaskill, by the way, the senator from Missouri, is very upset.
Turns out that there's a lot of pork in the auto bailout bill.
She's accusing the bailout critics of hypocrisy.
She is ripping pay raises for judges that are in the bailout bill, calling them unrelated.
She said all these people that are opposing the bailout, throwing things in there, things that have nothing to do with the automobile companies.
Is anybody stunned at this?
The $700 billion TARP bailout had $150 billion worth of pork in it in order for it to sell.
All right, let's move on to Chicago here and the Blagojevich matter.
The Illinois Attorney General Amy Madigan, Lisa, I'm sorry, Lisa Madigan, has filed a motion with the Illinois Supreme Court asking justices to remove Blagojevich from office.
She took the action today as pressure on the governor intensified to step down.
The motion challenges his fitness to serve and asks the Supreme Court to get rid of him.
That press conference is still going on as we speak.
The move came as Blagojevich prayed with several ministers, the old Bill Clinton trick, in his home before heading to his office.
So he's unfit to serve.
She wants the lieutenant governor to get the gig so that he can appoint whoever he wants and get this Senate seat done.
In a continuation of the story that Blagojevich is insane, a story in the Chicago Sun-Times today, is Blagojevich's hair a sign of sickness.
Governor's chestnut hair might be a sign of narcissistic personality disorder.
Psychologists say it's a head of hair that a man 20 years younger would envy, a chestnut helmet that brazenly mocks Father Time and screams healthy, or does it?
Governor Blago's closy locks, perfectly sculpted in rain or snow, may be, may be an indication of a sickness beneath his scalp, said one local psychologist.
Yeah, it's all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw, said Scott Ambers, who has practiced clinical psychology in the city for more than 20 years.
The grandiose sense of self.
It doesn't carry the implication that Blago's a raving lunatic, crazy and out of touch with reality, but it does suggest that he has a really over-inflated view of his own importance.
Now, this is all fine and dandy, but why in the hell was this analysis missing with the Breck girl, with John Edwards, who is every bit as narcissistic about his hair as Blagojevich may be, although I'm not aware that Blagojevich is as narcissistic about his hair.
But I mean, this is how desperate they are to portray this guy as a lunatic and as insane, so that whatever's on those FBI wiretap tapes can be discounted and anybody talking to Blagojevich can be discounted because he's insane.
He's a lunatic.
Now, for substantive details, Jesse Jackson Jr. at a press conference, very bizarre press conference, in which he didn't do anything, didn't say anything.
He was with Blogo for a month or 90 days or 90 hours, 90 minutes, whatever it was, didn't say a word.
It never came up, blah, The Chicago Tribune today is reporting that as Blago was trying to pick Illinois' next senator, businessmen with ties to both Blago and Jesse Jackson Jr. discussed raising at least $1 million for Blagojevich's campaign as a way to encourage him to pick Jesse Jackson Jr. for the job.
Blagojevich made an appearance at an October 31st luncheon meeting at the India House restaurant in Schomburg, sponsored by Oak Brook businessman Raghuvar Nayak, who is a major Blago supporter.
Two businessmen who attended the meeting and spoke to the Tribune on a condition of anonymity said that Nayak and the Blagojevich aide, Rajinder Bedi, privately told many of the more than two dozen attendees the fundraising effort was aimed at supporting Jesse Jackson's bid.
Now, here's Senate candidate number five, and on the wiretap tapes, Blagojevich is heard referring to Senate candidate number five as willing to come out a half million to a million dollars for Blago in exchange for the appointment and a fundraiser just a week ago.
It's also not a happy time for Ram Emmanuel, ladies and gentlemen.
Let's see, where's that stack?
Pardon the sniffles.
Yes, here we go.
The attempt by President-select Barack Obama to distance himself from the scandal erupting in Illinois took a big hit last night with an exclusive report from Chicago's Fox Eyeball News.
Sources within the investigation say that Ram Emmanuel, Obama's chief of staff, spoke with Blago on multiple occasions about the Senate succession that Blago had wanted to sell to the highest bidder, and that Rah Emmanuel is likely on the FBI wiretaps.
Now, as Ed Morrissey at hotair.com points out, see, this is one of the curious things.
This makes sense.
Why?
It's Obama's seat.
Why wouldn't he be talking to Blagojevich about it?
Or why wouldn't he dispatch, what's his face, Rah Emmanuel, to do it?
I also think the folks, you know, I didn't just jump off a turnip truck yesterday.
We all know how Chicago operates, and everybody in Chicago clearly and surely knows how Chicago operates.
And I will bet you a dollar to a donut that nobody in Illinois, nobody, certainly Chicago, is surprised to the least that Blagoevich was trying to profit from the appointment.
It's the way business is done in Chicago.
You cut me in or cut it out.
I refuse to believe that all of this, I'm appalled, I'm shocked, I can't believe this is genuine.
I'm reminded of the movie Casablanca, where the police inspector shocked, shocked that gambling's going on in Rick's joint.
Why wouldn't Obama have an interest?
We know he did.
We know that he wanted Valerie Jarrett, good friend, to get the appointment.
But then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, when it was learned that he was selling the appointment, she pulls out.
All of a sudden, it was learned.
Obama's out there saying, we didn't.
Nobody talked about pay to put we didn't talk to Blogojevich about that.
That makes no sense because it makes total sense that it's his seat that he would be talking to the guy who's going to appoint his replacement.
He's president of the United States.
He wants people he can work with in the Senate.
Do you think he went off and played tiddly winks with his little girls while Bogoyevich is trying to figure out who his replacement's going to be?
This defies common sense.
The notion that Obama and his team had nothing to say about this, no contact whatsoever with Bogoyevich, it's ridiculous.
Look at Emmanuel's ties that he's got with Chicago politics.
And here's his status as Obama's right-hand man.
Now, we must be clear, as I said yesterday, none of this means that Emmanuel knew specifically about Blago's efforts to extort money for this.
Although I have to tell you, I just don't think that it came as a surprise to anybody when they learned it.
I think the shock is that it got out.
And it's possible that Emmanuel was working with the feds.
It's possible that he's one of the sources.
It's possible that he's the one that did call Fitzgerald.
If that's the case, why not say so?
Not a snitch.
He's protecting the dignity and the honor of the president-elect and the whole appointment process.
If he's working with Fitzgerald on this, the point is, there's plenty that Obama could say here that is not incriminating at all, that would fulfill every desire he's had to be seen as ethically clean and pure as the wind-driven snow.
Yeah.
Of course I'm interested in who was in the seat, but I'll be damned if it's going to be sold.
That's not what this campaign stands for.
It's not what I stand for.
Emmanuel was talking to these people.
Of course, we're going to find out what was going on here.
People stand up and applaud here, but they're acting.
You know, Emmanuel's not talking, and Obama's saying that nobody did talk to Blagojevich.
Everybody's saying they never talked to him about this, and they were shocked and stunned when it was happening when they learned that he was selling the seat.
But that just defies credulity.
Now, there's one possible reason, again, pardon the sniffles.
One possible reason not to rush Emmanuel to the microphones to answer questions about this is that too much was said and that too many people are in the loop.
And so in that case, you have conversations behind closed doors with everybody to find out who said what to who, so that when you finally admit it, everybody's on the same page, that all of the I's are dotted and all of the T's are crossed.
Because if there is just one discrepancy, remember now we're told Fox Eyeball News Chicago reported that Emmanuel's on these wiretaps.
So Rahm's got to figure out what he said, do whom, when.
He's got to remember it all because if he goes out and says something that has just one discrepancy between what he says publicly and what's on the tape, then that's problems for Barry.
That's problems for the Messiah.
Every misstep, every inconsistency will be put under a microscope.
Emmanuel, don't get me wrong here.
Nobody knows if he did anything wrong yet.
Nobody knows anything about this yet.
If he didn't do anything wrong, fine, but he still can't be imprecise.
There's too much at stake.
Obama's too big to fail, but Emmanuel is not.
Rahm is not too big to fail.
I'm convinced that Obama does not want to get rid of him because Obama, he wants to be president.
He wants people like Emmanuel to go make it happen.
Now, that's why if he's on these wiretaps, if Rahm's on these wiretaps, there's no way he's going to talk now until they are damn certain that whatever he says will not be contradicted when the transcript of the tapes is released.
And one more thought on this, folks.
If all of this is so important, if the press is so consumed by Chicago machine politics and patronage, think about what they could all ask Hillary about.
And she's not saying anything.
She gets, well, I'm not, I don't live in Chicago.
I'm from Park Ridge.
I don't even know Chicago politics.
I'm a senator from New York.
What is she going to say about Emmanuel?
Yeah, I know Emmanuel.
He's totally capable.
What's she going to say about him?
So, a bottom line here.
Have you noticed when there is a Republican scandal, the press become the prosecutors?
When there's a Democrat scandal, the press become the defense lawyers.
We'll be back.
Once again, folks, take a long, hard look at what's happening in Chicago.
Democrats are attempting to throw out a duly elected Democrat governor who has been charged with nothing.
They want him thrown out on the basis that he's incompetent, insane, a lunatic, and his wife cusses.
And I think it's an outrage.
We don't see this much.
That's why you should savor it.
But nevertheless, I believe that Rod Blagojevich, you people that drive by, say, quote me on this.
I believe that Rod Blagojevich deserves at least the same due process as al-Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.
And as we speak, Democrats in Chicago are denying Rod Blagojevich, the duly elected governor, the same due process rights that they are demanding al-Qaeda terrorists get at Club Gitmo.
It's an outrage.
And now to the phones.
First call of the day, T-Neck, New Jersey.
It's Wayne.
Thank you for waiting, sir.
Hello.
Hey, how you doing?
Good.
Listen, this whole thing with the UAW and Congress, I think the Congress is just picking on the union.
If you really compare the Japanese oil makers and the American oil makers, it's not the union in GM.
It's GM's management.
I mean, all those people retired.
They promised retirements.
They were promised health benefits.
That should have all been paid for years ago.
Toyota doesn't go back that far, so it doesn't have those big – see, GM keeps pushing it out to the future and hoping it's going to catch up.
That's how it happened.
The CEO of GM made $25 million last year.
Yeah.
But they lost $52 billion.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, this is the point.
The UAW, I'm going to tell you right now, their hourly wage rate isn't all that bad.
Have a plumber come to your house.
$73 an hour, but that's, you know, this is, I'm looking, I really want to try to make myself understood here.
I am not, folks, I'm the one person in this country that's not trying to cut anybody down to size.
I am the one person in this country who wants prosperity for everybody in the country who wants it for themselves and is willing to go get it.
The greatest country on earth.
Opportunity abounds.
Go get it.
It's not going to come find you.
I support workers.
I just don't like these union leaders.
I support workers, but not the unions.
But that's not the point.
The past is irrelevant.
We are where we are because of a whole bunch of mistakes.
Yes, management did stupid things like signing these deals.
Maybe they had a gun to their head.
Who knows?
Point is, they can't be maintained.
We have reached a point where none of this can be maintained as it is, but only one side is actually being made to pay for this, and that ain't right.
I want to amend my last comment to the previous caller.
I got sucked in.
And I got sucked in because they're very defensive about attacking union workers here, because that's not me.
And I have nothing against workers.
I have, I don't know how I can say this any differently than I have.
I believe in work.
I love work.
Productive work and people with ambition and desire getting up every morning, going out and doing it.
And I'm not opposed to people earning.
I'm for, I'm all for everybody earning as much as they can.
Get what you can because that's what you're worth.
You're worth what somebody will pay you.
That's why these arguments is a baseball player worth more than a teacher.
If you have a classic understanding of economics in an economic sense, yeah.
If you want to talk morality, that's another thing.
These people are being paid what they're worth.
Union people are being paid what the demands are that management will meet.
I mean, there's no personal relationship between management and the workers there.
Too many of them.
Anyway, I don't, my, where I got sucked in was this this guy said, hey, GM made a bunch of mistakes.
GM doing this.
GM doing.
And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Everybody made mistakes.
And I'm sorry.
And I will, you know, GM is a sponsor here.
That notwithstanding, I do people who have been listening here for discussion on this.
You know that I have not tailored my comments on this to suit anybody other than my version of the truth and my passion here.
Where I got sucked in is accepting the notion that management's to blame when I think it's Congress, when I think who's really to blame here, when yet at the end of the day is government.
What do you mean?
What do you people mean when they keep saying that General Motors management is to blame?
Did General Motors management or Ford or Chrysler, did that management, those groups of management teams, did they put these cafe standards on themselves?
Did they go to their boardrooms and say, we're going to design cars that get X number of miles that aren't going to be the kind of cars Americans want, but we're going to do this?
No, they were forced to do this by an association of extremist, stupid, destructive environmental leftists working in concert with their elected brethren in Congress.
Did management at GM Ford or Chrysler set oil policy that basically says we can't drill for any of our own, therefore we are prisoners to world oil markets and supplies and therefore fluctuating prices.
And if you don't think $4 a gallon gasoline did not have a devastating effect on automobile sales this summer and last spring, then you need to think again.
So did GM management get involved and say, you know what, we're going to screw ourselves with these oil prices and gasoline prices that are not stable, people can't count on.
They're going to make them less likely to buy our product.
No, Congress does that, ladies and gentlemen.
Did the management of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, did they give the union the power to shut down assembly lines with union shop rules?
No.
People act as a general motors management has free reign to do things.
They are limited in what they can do.
I have talked.
I've talked to them.
You want to see some of the cars they want to build that they can't build.
The cars they want to build, they're excited about.
Bob Lutz has a 12-cylinder Cadillac sedan.
He wants to, he's wanted to build this thing for years.
Can't do it because it's not going to be legal to be sold by the time they get it off the assembly line.
Doesn't get enough mileage.
And I said to him, the Germans can build these things.
Yeah, well, they're not going to be able to for very much longer, he said.
Not sell them here in this country.
They're really excited about things they can't sell.
So they have to go to the drawing board and they have to design cars that meet the requirements of a bunch dingleberries who are running up the biggest irresponsible debt in the history of this country.
Cafe standards should have been lowered last night in the bailout bill.
You really want to help Detroit get government out of it.
That's Congress.
Union rules should have been changed today.
That's a UAW.
They weren't changed.
There are people who earn a lot less than retired United Auto Workers.
Do not want to subsidize them.
We are asking, this bailout is asking people who make $20, $22 an hour to bail out people making $28 to $35 an hour.
Ain't going to fly, folks.
And management is not doing that.
That's Congress.
To the phones.
We go to Matt in Baltimore.
Matt, glad you waited.
Welcome to the EIB network, sir.
Hello.
Hey, Rush, Megadennis.
How you doing?
Very well, sir.
Thank you.
Calling you from the land of crabs, beer, and high taxes.
But I wanted to kind of change the subject and maybe get you to think of something a little bit more fun.
And that's how you think your Steelers are going to do against them Ravens.
My thoughts on the Steelers-Ravens game.
Well, I'm a Steelers fan, as you know.
I know, and I'm a Ravens fan.
Yeah, you know.
I think the hype, whether the Ravens are favored by two.
Right.
I think the hype on this game, and for those of you that are not watching the hype and don't pay attention to the NFL, this is the game of the weekend.
I'm going to Dallas for the Giants and Cowboys, but this game at 4:15 on Sunday afternoon, this is the game of the weekend.
The AFC North Division is riding on this game, plus the two that follow.
The Steelers win this game, they wrap it up.
They'll get a home field and a week one bye.
They'll end up bringing a number two seed, it looks like, but they also play Tennessee the week after.
So a lot is riding on this game.
Baltimore wins this game, and theoretically, it's possible, depending on what happens in the last two weeks, they could end up the number two seed with the Steelers and the wild card at number six.
Right.
So that's what's at stake here.
Also, the Steelers have not won in Baltimore since 2002.
You're right up there, Rush.
And that is because the Ravens are the former Cleveland Browns.
The Ravens and the Steelers have a rivalry that today is the most bloody, vicious, and genuinely filled with hate of any rivalry in the National Football League.
The Baltimore Ravens, on any given Sunday, are a fabulously vicious, mean defense.
But when the Steelers show up, it's the Crips and the Bloods.
This game is going to be marked by its genuine brutality.
And I think both teams better bring extra stretchers and extra sets of crutches.
I think Baltimore is going to win this game.
I think that they are, when the Steelers come to town, I think they get so It's like they're shot up with adrenaline before they take the field.
They just get so motivated.
This is the game for the Baltimore Ravens every year.
There's the Heinz Ward factor.
Right.
The Ravens despise, they have a lot of respect for him.
They hate Heinz Ward.
He's a little guy.
He's in his 11th year.
He's number 86, a wide receiver, plays in the slot now for the Steelers.
He is the best, without exception, downfield blocker when he's not the primary target in a pass play.
He laid out a Cincinnati Bengals rookie linebacker this year with a legal block that broke the kid's jaw out for the season.
He has done the same thing to a couple of rape, didn't break their jaws, but really laid them out.
And earlier this year, Terrell Suggs, a linebacker, number 55, said that we have a bounty on Heinz Ward.
Now, the commissioner said, oh, no, we can't have this.
Oh, we can't have this.
And he said it on the radio.
She had to apologize.
Say, oh, this is just football talk.
We love Heinz.
There is a, I guarantee you, if somebody in the Ravens can take Heinz Ward out, there will be a big party thrown.
This is a genuine hate fist.
And I know that some of you people think, come on, Rush, this is just a league hyping the game.
No, no, no, no.
You're a Ravens fan.
You confirm everything I'm saying here is right.
As a person from Baltimore, you haven't said one thing that isn't actual and factual.
The bottom line is we hate the Steelers.
We hate the terrible panel.
We hate the player.
We respect them, but we hate them.
And with the exception of Joey Porter, he's not there anymore.
All right, no, hold on.
Hang on.
Hang on here a second.
By the way, your cell phone connection is pretty bad.
What he's saying is that we've got a lot of money.
Are you driving?
Are you moving?
No, I'm staying still, and I've got four bars.
Okay, then don't move.
Okay, I'm not moving.
Who's your cell phone signal company?
Who's your cell service with?
Verizon.
Who?
Verizon.
That explains it.
Yeah, I know.
Now, here, what he said was, one thing I didn't say.
He said Ravens fans hate Pittsburgh.
They hate the Steelers.
They hate the players.
They respect them, except for Joey Porter.
But Joey Porter isn't there anymore.
He is in Miami.
Right.
He's with the Dolphins.
Now, I understand that.
I wanted to get my score prediction in, too.
In a twist of fate, the Ravens are going to beat the Steelers 11 to 10.
Well, now, the theory is it will be a very low-scoring game because last game was 30-27 in Pittsburgh overtime with this rookie quarterback that the Ravens have from Joe Biden State.
He's from the University of Delaware.
His name Joe Flacco.
And he's stunning everybody with his poise and so forth as a rookie QB.
But this game's expected to be defense.
The Steelers are number one.
The Ravens are number two.
Both teams' offenses are kind of, eh, haven't gelled yet.
So they're expecting this game to be field goals, six to three or what have you.
Now, watch it all be wrong.
Watch it be, you know, 35, 28, who knows?
But I just, I think the Steelers lose this one.
I think they win the next two.
I think the Browns lose, or the Ravens lose one of their next two.
I think the Steelers are going to end up number two seed with a home with a bye week.
And home field advantage is a number two seed.
And I think they're going to beat Tennessee next week.
But I think, you know, you get Ed Reed and Suggs and Ray Lewis.
Oh, man.
I just Steelers have their bruisers.
I mean, the Steelers, but they don't, their defense is solid, but they don't have individuals that make you think you need to be armed.
It's the best I can say, and it's going to be brutal.
John Harris, this is one done.
John Harris, chief of staff to Blago, has resigned.
Three days after he was arrested on government corruption charges, a Blago spokesman said Friday Harris had resigned.
No other details.
General Motors says that it will cut another 250,000 vehicles from its first quarter production schedule by temporarily closing 21 factories across North America in the first quarter of next year.
The move affects most plants in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Many will be shut down for the whole month of January.
Spokesman Tony Sapienza said that normal production would be around 750,000 cars and trucks for the quarter, but they're going to pare that down by 250,000.
GM and nearly all automakers who sell in the U.S. are mired in the worst sales slump in 26 years.
But it doesn't matter because the United States Congress is working on a way to get the American people in to buy cars.
Oh, no, I'm sorry.
They're not doing that.
They wouldn't know the first thing about that.
Karen in Lansing, Michigan, welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
How's it going?
Pretty well.
Thank you.
Okay, the reason I'm calling is maybe to show you a different point of view.
My husband worked for one of the big three for 33 years as an electrical engineer.
And in that time, he put in an average of, and I'm saying sometimes more, 60 hours a week.
He very, very seldom, ever, ever, ever got something called overtime.
He even worked Easter Sunday once to make sure a car platform was going properly.
He worked constantly.
As he did that, you would never see a union person work overtime.
They would stand in line to wait to get out the door at 5 o'clock.
And as the union people got more and more benefits year after year, we watched our benefits go down further and further.
I need to understand something here.
Yeah.
Your husband was not a union member or he was not a business?
He was not a union member.
He was an electrical engineer.
He was very low management.
And he would put an average 50 hours a week in, even Easter Sunday, and he did not get paid overtime.
He also did not gripe.
That was his job.
At the same time, you would watch the union people never work a bit of overtime unless they got paid and stand at the door and wait to get out at 5 o'clock because that's what the union said.
As the union demanded more and more benefits, such as insurance for their pets, which thank goodness they didn't get, my husband's benefits dropped.
The more the union got, the less we got.
And we saw this happen year after year after year.
The automobile industry is in trouble because of government and because of unions.
Unions don't give up.
Unions demand.
Government demands.
They want cafe standards.
They want admission standards.
They want everything.
And the average person in that company works.
It's not their fault.
It's not even big management's fault.
It's union's fault.
It's government's fault.
Okay, you sound very passionate about this out there, Karen.
I am very passionate about it because I've lived it for 33 years.
And now, now that after 33 years, my husband retires, we sit here and go, okay, what's next for us?
You know, we will survive.
I don't honestly want to see a male house.
No, wait a minute.
You retired, so what?
What about your, I mean, sure, he gets his salary in full and retirement, at least 80% of it, plus his pension.
What are you worried about?
Well, I'll tell you what, because I don't think if this works the way everything else works, unions will not give up, but the person like my husband will.
Will he get a pension?
He doesn't have that great of a pension, trust me.
It's not like the unions.
Okay?
Well, but I'm sure, but doesn't General Motors pay him 80% of his salary even when he's not working?
No, that's not true.
That is not true.
That is not true.
He does not get that.
Absolutely not.
Oh, it's only the unions that get that.
Yes, it's not my husband.
My husband worked hard.
He does not get that.
And so our fear is, should this not, I mean, we have mixed emotions.
You know, part of us goes, don't bail him out.
Let the union finally have to give up everything.
Get him off the job banks.
And the other part of you goes, okay, if they do do a bailout or if they bankrupt, this is the problem.
If they bankrupt, do we lose our pension, half our pension?
We will probably lose all of our health insurance.
I'm very blessed to have an adopted little boy.
I'm worried about his health insurance.
I'll survive.
But you know, there's a lot of things that we look at now and go, yes, we saved money.
We scrimped.
We saved.
We did not take huge vacations.
We don't own second homes or motor homes.
But the truth of the matter is, what will be there if all this, either way, I mean, the bailout may help for a while, but truth is, if they do bankrupt, we will be the first to lose.
It won't be the union people.
It will be ours.
I'm digesting this.
I just feel very sorry for everybody in a circumstance like this.
Greatest country in the world to have this kind of fear about tomorrow.
It just distresses me.
I want you to remember the fear in Karen's voice that you just heard.
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