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March 16, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:32
March 16, 2009, Monday, Hour #3
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Time Text
All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna try one more time on these bonuses.
Now I know.
I know this.
I'm going to make an argument.
I want to make a point about this, founded totally in logic.
My logic is irrefutable.
I am right in what I'm going to say.
99% of you are going to think I'm wrong.
99, maybe 95% of you are going to think I've lost it.
Or you're going to think that I've got some ulterior motive for saying what I'm saying.
And in a few months, weeks, maybe years, something will happen to you, and you'll say, gosh, you know, Rush was right a month or year or so ago.
Because I realize, I realize here that what I'm going to say, you know, logic and common sense are in short supply in much of our country today, since we thrive and live on emotions.
And about these AIG bonuses, by the way, welcome back.
I am Rush Limbaugh, America's real anchor man, the truth detector, and the doctor of democracy, a highly trained broadcast specialist.
Don't try this at home or even in a karaoke bar.
Telephone number 800-282.
Well, the great make it look easy.
There he goes.
There he goes, pompous braggart.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882, the email address L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
After I give you the irrefutable logic on the AIG bonuses, I then want to talk to you about Nathan.
I wish I still had Nathan on the phone.
Nathan said he wants to earn $250,000 a year, but he he's so caught up in what the AIG bonus people are getting that he thinks that money's not theirs should come back to taxpayers, so forth and so on.
I want to tell you how people get paid in this country.
But before we get to that, AIG bonuses.
I know the argument.
The argument is that we need to get the bonus money back from these schlubs because these are the people who ran the company into the ground today.
And that's and so they're supposed to have more sensitivity to the use of taxpayer money in the form of bailouts.
These are the people that ran AIG into the ground, and so what?
Let me try it this way.
AIG.
Think of them just as an insurance company here, and maybe they dabble in some other investment products that they sell and make themselves.
But it has been determined by the powers that be that AIG is too big to fail.
If AIG fails, we got problems out the wazoo.
So the decision was made to keep AIG running.
AIG was given money.
Federal money, taxpayer money, to stay in business.
Which means to keep doing what they were doing.
No, Rush, no.
No.
They had to change because no, there was no string, and nobody told them they had to change.
The money was given with no strings, folks.
The money was given, there was no accountability to any of this TARP money to any of these banks or companies that got bailed out.
None.
So somebody from on high decides we want AIG to keep operating.
What do they do?
Well, they sell stuff.
They sell insurance, they sell who knows what else.
Now all of a sudden, after we have made the decision that it would be calamitous for them to fail, so we have to keep them in business.
We have to keep them doing what they were doing.
No Rush, no.
What they were doing led them to being bailed.
No, folks, if what they were doing caused them to fail, we should have let them fail.
If they were behaving so badly, if they were so incompetent that they were running their business into the ground, then we should have let them run it into the ground, close the door, shut down, fire everybody, lay everybody off, and move on.
We didn't do that.
We said we want you guys hanging around.
We want you guys in business.
We want you guys doing what you're doing.
They said, okay.
Put their hands out, took 173 billion dollars.
At that point, uh, it's over.
We have made the decision to keep them in business.
That means they should do what they do.
In this case, they have employees.
And they pay those employees according to contracts.
And these contracts stipulate bonuses for certain performance criteria that are met.
So now all of a sudden, after deciding that AIB is too big, AIG is too big to fail, it's got to stay in business.
We give them the money to stay in business.
Then when they do what they do, all of a sudden there's hell to pay.
This doesn't forget forget the emotion here.
Forget the sentimentality.
They're supposed to be sensitive and they understand this taxpayer money.
Well, what are they supposed to do with it?
If they don't use the money to operate as they were, are they supposed to sit on the money?
Are they supposed to write checks to us?
Are they just a clearing house to give money back to us?
I mean, what we keep saying it's our money that bailed them out, and it is, but what are they supposed to do?
Give it back to us?
In which case, if they do, they're not going to have any.
In which case they can't stay in business.
So the decision was made, but the powers that be AIG has to stay in business.
Then when they do what they do, everybody gets their underwear in a wad.
Now, I I don't expect very many of you to agree with me on this.
Be no different if we bail out McDonald's.
Are they supposed to stop selling Big Macs after we bail them out?
Or are they supposed to give away chicken McNuggets?
What what what if we bail out McDonald's?
What are they supposed to do?
We want them to stay in business.
We want to sell Big Macs, make them and sell them and give them away free, whatever.
And what happens if McDonald's give some people raises?
Forget the dollars involved.
What if McDonald's gave some people some bonuses?
We're going to demand the money back.
Rush, you're missing the point.
McDonald's was not in trouble.
I know, but it's the same principle involved.
If we want a company to stay in business doing what it's doing, and we give them the money because if they fail, it's calamitous.
Then why the hell are we complaining and griping about what they do?
We've just made the decision we want them to keep doing it.
I don't mean you and me.
I'm talking about the government.
The government's out there berating Andrew Cuomo subpoenaing one all these names.
This is it's it's ridiculous here.
Either let them fail because they're running a rotten business, or admit that after we bail them out, they're gonna be who they are.
Now, while you're thinking about this 1565 million dollars in bonuses, don't forget the 93 billion over half of what they got that they gave to other banks, mostly in Europe.
Now, how do people in this country get paid?
This goes back to our call from Nathan.
Nathan was all upset about these bonuses.
He agreed with Obama, get the money back.
It's his money and every other taxpayer's money.
Well, how's it gonna help you, Nathan?
It won't, it's just fair.
This is their they're using our tax to pay these people.
And I said, Well, you know, these people working pretty low salaries and they most of their income's based on bonus.
He said, Well, I'd love to have their salaries.
I said, Well, how much money do you want?
Well, I don't want to mention anything, but I mean I said, mention the number.
There's no wrong answer here.
How much would you like to earn?
He said, 250.
Thousand dollars.
So, well, you want 249,999, so you don't get the tax increase, but I get the number.
I said, it's out there for you.
He probably doesn't believe me.
But if you want to make 250,000, it is out there.
There is 250,000 a year for you out there.
It ain't easy.
It doesn't have your name on it yet.
But there's $250,000 out there for you if you want it.
There's $175 if you want it.
There's also $50,000.
And if all you want's $30, it's pretty easy.
Now, how do people in this country get paid?
Well, the Marxists, the socialists, the communists, they have a belief that products are worth only what the labor to produce them costs.
That's why they think it's ridiculous for an automobile to cost what it costs, because they think a car should only cost what it cost to make it.
The labor involved.
That is not realistic in any way, shape, manner, or form.
And that is that that belief is one of the foundations of Marxism, communism, collectivism, whatever, whatever you want to call it.
All products, regardless what they are, including your services, the only value is relative to the amount of labor involved.
That's not how people get paid in this country.
People get paid on, at least in capitalism, based upon the value of their work to other people.
If you work for me, for example, and I assign you to do something I no longer have time to do, but I need you to do it almost as good as I do, knowing you can't do it as well as I do, but almost if you and let's say I determine that in terms of my time and my desires, let's say I'm gonna pay you a hundred thousand dollars to do that.
It is silly for anybody to start assigning, well, is that job worth 100,000?
It is to me, and I'm paying it, and that's all it counts.
Somebody who does the same thing for somebody else may make minimum wage, as an example, may make 50, maybe whatever, may not make as much, may make more.
it's worth what I'm willing to pay somebody to do it.
By the same token, if you manufacture a product that I have to have, that I just really want, then that product is worth what I'm willing to pay for it.
Not the sum total of what it costs to make it.
We have plenty of products that do end up being priced that way, but that's because of competition, not because of some moral concept that's forced on people.
Right?
The communists, the Marxists, the collectivists all assume that everybody's work is identical, their output's identical, that everything ought to be the same, and everybody ought to make the same.
It is, I mean, communism, socialism, whatever you want to call it, is just totally absent human nature.
So if you want to earn $250,000 a year, you've got to find something.
You have to find somebody to whom your work is worth that, or you have to come up with a product or a service that a number of people are willing to purchase to allow you to earn that kind of money.
This is how it's done.
But rush, but rush, what about teachers?
Ah, I love the question about teachers.
I love the question about union people.
Are you saying that people are only willing to spend $50,000 a year for teachers?
No, I'm not.
If I ran my own school, and I wanted it to be the best damn school out there, I would do this.
I would pay whatever it took to get the best teachers.
And then I would charge parents who are going to send their kids appropriately.
And it would work because my competition is the public school system...
Where more and more parents wish they had the opportunity to get their kids out.
So a teacher makes $50,000 of the public school system.
A, they know that going in.
A, they know when they go to school to want to be a teacher, they know what it pays, and they do it.
They're also unionized.
And when you're a member of a union, your individual worth is canceled out.
That's, I mean, I if you like unions, you want to be part of it all, my my blessings.
But you cease being able to provide individual value as a member of a union.
The only way you can increase your wages is to hope somebody negotiates you a new deal or work your fingers to the bone in overtime and hope that the business you're in doesn't go belly up.
If you really want to earn $250,000 a year, you have to find a way to make yourself worth that to somebody.
And it takes a lot of work.
Takes hard work, takes ingenuity, it takes desire, passion, commitment, and not to the money.
It takes desire, compassion, commitment to what it is you love doing.
The money will come eventually if you end up doing what you do as well as or better than the people who are considered the best at it.
And the only person stopping you from being able to do that is you.
Yeah, there are lucky breaks that people get, it happens, but there is no substitute for hard work.
There's no substitute whatsoever to hard work.
The more valuable you make yourself to somebody, the more let's let's say you work for somebody, and you want to earn more money than your money.
Find a way to get your yourself directly involved in the revenue stream of that company.
Make sure that you do so that your boss knows that a good percentage of that revenue that he gets is the owner of the company is because you're there.
You will then have value.
But if you say, okay, I want to do that because it pays X, and I want to do this because it there's no job that pays $250,000 a year.
There are plenty of jobs that pay $30,000, plenty of jobs that pay $50, plenty of jobs that pay $60, but when you start talking about earning $250,000 a year, you're talking entrepreneurism in one way or another.
There are salaried positions of $250,000 a year.
Don't miss don't misunderstand me.
But you don't go to vote for it.
You don't go to shop class, you don't you don't go to government re-education centers and so forth.
You start off in the mail room.
You might start off in the mail room.
You gotta love it.
Anyway, I'm way long here, and I've got so much great stuff.
I got audio summits I gotta get to.
I also have to get the night shift, BBC News night shift, Danish government's been paying compensation to women who've developed breast cancer after long spells of working nights.
Prostitutes are not part of this study, I don't think.
Grab a phone call here before we have to go to another quick break.
Jeff in Bristol, Pennsylvania.
Hi, you're on the EIB network.
Welcome.
Yeah, hi, Rush.
Hi.
Um, sorry, we're busy working.
Um I just had an issue about the um bonuses.
Yeah.
Aren't these guys that you know worked and performed to get those bonuses?
Yes, according to the contracts.
It's my whole point.
They're doing what they do.
These guys went out, they sold whatever it is they're selling, insurance products or whatever.
They met their contractual requirements and they're being bonused for it.
This is why we bailed them out.
This is what they do.
If we know if we take the money away from them, think of all the tax revenue New York City and New York State's gonna lose the 165 million that doesn't get into circulation.
Well, not only that, but the list that they're putting together of all these guys, that would be a job search list to me, because they're the good ones.
They're the ones that are making you money.
You know, all the idiots are gonna be left there because they're all gonna leave.
Now you're on to some.
I know you think you're on to something.
But you're not.
Do you think Andrew Cuomo wants these people singled out because they're doing good jobs?
Or does he want them singled out because they are thieves?
Well, that's the way it's going to be produced.
He's trying to tarnish these people's reputations.
Exactly.
But if I was a good CEO of a company, I would look at that as performance.
I would look at that for a job.
The CEO is going to say, oh my God, this guy's radioactive.
He got subpoenaed by Andrew Cuomo.
If I hire this guy, who knows what government agency's going to start looking for.
This is hideous what's happening here.
This is this is my point.
The bad guys are being portrayed as the fall guys.
We are back.
I want to I want to add a couple things here to this whole discussion of making $250,000 a year.
Since that's what Nathan said he wanted to make.
First place, there are two kinds of people.
There are people who get paid, and there are people who are compensated.
And it's different.
You get paid for doing a standard ordinary everyday job.
Nothing wrong with that.
I don't want anybody misunderstanding this.
Compensation is a direct relation to the value of what you produce.
For example, the teacher question that I love getting.
But rush but rush.
We value teachers.
Teachers are so important.
Teachers are, they're just, they're so important.
And we just we we prove such a value on education, but we don't pay them very much.
Compensation comes from how rare the ability you have is.
It comes from how rare your work output is.
It comes from how rare your ability to do a job is, not how important the job is.
We have never structured compensation on the basis of importance.
After all, could somebody please tell me, in the big scheme of things, what is the real importance of Alex Rodriguez and 270 million dollars over 10 years to the New York Yankees?
To the Yankees, it is crucial.
But to our society, to our country, just how important is it really?
Just how important is it that Julia Roberts make 20 million dollars a movie?
We don't pay people on the basis of importance.
We pay people on the basis of value.
Julia Roberts gets 20 gazillion because she makes far more than that for whoever's paying her.
Same thing with Alex Rodriguez.
He gets his 270 million dollar a year contract because the New York Yankees were essentially able to expand an entire cable television network on his back.
They had it when they got him, but the subs went up, the revenue stream increased.
Some might be able to make the case Alex Rodriguez is underpaid.
But it's acceptable to him, so the deal was made.
Now, if you are one of these people and you want to earn 250 grand, I have another earth-shattering fact for you.
Some of you in this audience who want to earn $250 someday will.
And when you do, the dirty little secret is you are more likely to be underpaid than fairly paid.
If somebody's willing to pay you $250, you might be worth $3.
You might be worth $350.
You're going to think you're worth more.
No matter how much anyone is compensated or is paid, they always think they're worth more.
So But thinking it and proving it are two different things.
Because you don't make 250,000 in this country without being worth a whole lot more than that.
This this these kinds of uh theories are not taught to anybody.
In fact, old Nathan, who called about 50 minutes ago, I guarantee you when he heard me say, there's 250,000 out there for you.
Oh, yeah, right, man.
Ha ha ha ha, tell me another one.
I've often found it fascinating when I was younger, go to a dinner party or whatever, just go around the table, ask whoever, what's big money?
You'd be amazed at the numbers you get.
And back in the days when Merrill Lynch was a big ongoing concern and they weren't hated and despised, they had a theory when they were interviewing people.
Bring in prospective accounting execs or whatever, ask them what do you want to earn here?
And if they gave a number, they were disqualified.
Not that they were told.
The interviewer just a little check mark, because the theory is that, say, you know, I want to make two million, that you'll stop there.
That's your comfort level.
And they wanted people to whom the sky was the limit.
So you you I guarantee you get the 250, and you are gonna think you're underpaid.
You won't be miserable and happy unless somebody doing less than you do is getting four.
But this is just these are just the facts of life.
This is just the way it is, and we don't pay people on the basis of their importance.
Well, Brush, but Rush, I'm really important at it.
Why?
Why are you important?
If you if you are important to some outfit, it's because you have value.
It's not because you do the job, it's because of how you do it.
All right, now to the audio sound bites.
And I'm gonna get to Dick Cheney saying he loves me before this program is over today.
But first, last Friday when I was out, this is what President Obama's prompter, teleprompter told him to say.
If we are keeping focused on all the fundamentally sound aspects of our economy, then we're gonna get through this.
And I'm very confident about that.
You hear that Friday when I wasn't here, Obama's teleprompter told him that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
They told him to say it, and he said it.
And then on Sunday, meet the press, David Gregory talking to the White House Council of Economic Advisors, Christina Roomer.
And uh, she said, Are the fundamentals of this economy sound?
Well, of course the fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology.
Whoa, what is this?
I go on vacation, all of a sudden the economy rebounds, and Obama's teleprompter tells him so.
It was just running down the economy a week ago.
It's gonna be bad.
We may if we don't do this now, we may never recover.
Remember that?
We've got to do all of this now.
It's gonna be a long time.
Gregory couldn't let Roomer's comment go by.
He said, Well, all right, but what's different between now and then when the economy was in better shape than it is now?
When McCain was saying the fundamentals were strong and Obama's teleprompter told him to say no.
What we're saying is that the um you know where we are today is obviously not good.
Um we have a plan in place to get to a good place.
I think that's the the crucial uh uh a fundamentally crucial difference is to make sure that you have put in place all of the comprehensive programs that'll get us back to those fundamentals.
Well, wait a minute, the fundamentals are so the fundamentals were stronger back during the campaign than they are today.
And McCain said that, and he got beat up over the head back August 21st in Chester, Virginia, John Tyler Community College, Obama had a town hall Meeting on the economy, and this is what his teleprompter told him to say.
I guess if you think that being rich means you gotta make five million dollars, and if you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong.
So back then, on August 21st, Obama's teleprompter told him to make fun of McCain because McCain was saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
Then, throughout the campaign and through his immaculate uh inauguration, the Immaculation, he kept running down the economy.
Hopeless.
If we don't do this now, we may never recover all that rot.
And then last Friday, when El Rush Bowl was on the charity circuit, Obama's teleprompter told him that the fundamentals of the economy are sound.
By the way, my offer to debate Barack Obama's teleprompter is still open.
I know that the White House has sort of thrown cold water or ice on this, but I just I want everybody to know that my offer for the president to bring his teleprompter here to the EIB network so I can debate the teleprompter is ongoing.
By the way, Christina Romer back on Meet the Press, David Gregory says final point here.
What is the responsible thing for consumers to do at the height of this global crisis?
We know that consumers have lost a lot of wealth, and that normally what you'd say is they should be saving more.
Um I think the truth is consumers have also not done a lot of spending for the last 14 months.
So what I would predict, and I think would be a perfectly reasonable thing is you go out and you buy that car that you've been thinking about for 14 months and you do some of the spending.
Oh, oh, oh!
I'm feeling like a heart attack and I'm not in traffic.
Oh they've been telling us all of our lives we're not saving enough.
Now we're saving.
There's even a big news story in Newsweek.
We're saving too much.
Your saving is causing the economy to collapse.
And now Obama, the fundamentals of the economy are so strong, his teleprompter said so than Christina Romer says, Go buy the car.
But there's no credit with what are we supposed to buy the car when we're bailing out our neighbor's mortgage, Christina.
Okay, we're back.
Great to have you here.
Dick Cheney on uh CNN State of the Union yesterday with John King.
One question was this is that how you see it?
It's just about every day, I I assume.
Oh, wait, wrong question.
King says there has been a big dust up in recent days, in part stoked by the White House about Rush Limbaugh making some comments.
David Frum, conservative who worked in your administration, says that Limbaugh's kryptonite, as he drives away the voters, the Republicans need to build a road to discovery.
Is Rush Limbaugh kryptonite?
No, Rush is a good friend.
I love him.
I think he does great work and has for years.
Uh he's now offered uh to uh debate uh President Obama on his radio show.
Oh, hell, I'd pay to see that.
Would be interesting to have developed.
I think Russia's a good man and serves a very important purpose.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President Dick Cheney.
Uh one correction.
I'm offering to debate Obama's teleprompter.
And now Chuck Buckley, Chuck Barkley was on a Philadelphia radio store.
I want to contrast this now.
You just heard Vice President Cheney say I'm a good man, loves me.
Um would pay to see me debate Obama's teleprompter.
Doing great work, have for a long time.
Radio talk show in Philadelphia, sports radio this morning, Chuck Barkley, this conversation with the host.
Since I've been in the joint, what have you been saying about Rush Limbaugh?
I haven't gotten into Rush Limbaugh, uh, to be honest with you.
Y'all got to get that fat ass off the brother.
You hear me?
Why do y'all let him just say what the hell he wants to say?
Somebody has got to say Rush Limbaugh sit your fat ass down somewhere and quit embarrassing the country and yourself.
There's a lot of idiots out there.
Rush Limbaugh has a lot of influence on people.
Now, Barkley is calling this outfitter, they called him, but he's since I've been in the joint, he's he's in jail on a DUI thing.
He wants to know of all things what this sports station's been saying about me, and the guy says, I haven't brought him up.
And Barkley says, You gotta get that fat ass off the brother, meaning Obama.
You hear me?
Why the world you let him just say?
Now, this this is from a man.
I have to tell you this.
It's amazing.
I have not changed in the 20 years I've been on this program.
Back in night in in in the mid-90s sometime, Charles Barclay hosted a charity golf tournament in Disney World at Orlando with a bunch of his NBA player buddies.
A whole bunch of people there.
And he invited me to come be the keynote speaker, the inspirational speaker for all of the people.
Deserving kids, young people, uh his uh charitable golf participants, so forth.
And I went there and did it.
And I have, you know, I've seen Charles a couple times, and so I'm out in Las Vegas prior to the Super Bowl shortly after 2000 or something.
So I'm in the restroom, told him to tell Tiger that I admired his courage and his mental toughness and so forth.
Yeah, me and T, we hang out, we have good times at T's house.
And he said, Look, uh, don't worry, don't worry about Oh, it was I guess it was before 2000.
Don't worry about Clinton Rush, he's gonna be gone pretty long.
Uh not too long in time.
Now, I have not changed.
I'm the same guy who addressed.
I mean, there's a thousand people in there in this ballroom.
And now all of a sudden, Charles Barclays calling a Philadelphia sports talk station from jail, asking the host.
What are you saying about me?
And by the way, Chuck, you want to compare fat asses.
You aren't a that's close, Chuck.
I mean, you're you're you're not exactly Slim Whitman out there.
Here's uh uh John and uh and my golf swing.
I'll put my golf swing up against Chuck's John in Milford, uh, Michigan.
Hi, welcome to the EIB network.
Hello.
Mr. Limbaugh.
Yes, sir.
Uh my question is about insurance as an institution or a business or whatever it is in general, and how it ever came into being to begin with.
Well, now I know that.
I uh I have a uh I actually know the history of insurance.
I'm having a metal block on how it came about, but it came out because of the market.
I mean, people wanted to insure themselves against loss.
Umsurance right now is one of these things you almost have to buy it.
I mean, the government forces you to have car insurance.
That's my question.
I'm not sure how such a concept could even you know, you mentioned uh Bugs Bunny cartoon or a Warner Brothers cartoon earlier, and it reminded me of another one.
I don't know if you've ever seen the one with Daffy Duck as an insurance salesman trying to sell Porky Pig policy.
It's it's funnier than anything, but though those were made in the 40s, and I began to think, how long has this been going on?
Oh, insurance has been around since biblical times.
Indeed.
Yeah.
No matter how I look at it, I know what you're thinking.
You gotta buy a car insurance.
Then you have an accident, and you file a claim, they may pay it, then it'll cancel you.
You've got no insurance.
Your house burns down somehow, it's your fault.
They pay it, maybe third of it, and they cancel you.
And you get a racket.
What do they do with all the money?
They don't have all the money that they're insuring all people.
That's why they have to make investments with the money that you pay them.
Uh anyway, I'm I'm a little long here, folks.
I have to take a brief time out here on the EIB network back after this.
Stay with us.
Well, the fastest three hours in media's gone.
If you're in traffic, this program is ending, and your heart attack risk will now resume its normal um well, it's three times above normal uh factor, according to the latest dumb, stupid research and bunch of ninety nannies that don't have real jobs.
Great to be back, folks, and we will see you tomorrow.
Look forward to it.
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