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March 20, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:33
March 20, 2009, Friday, Hour #2
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What a joke.
It's just all a joke.
It is a bad dream.
Here's Barack Obama with a press conference.
Well, no, he's talking to state legislators in the White House, and he's telling them that he's going to put in place new rules to create a new culture of accountability.
A new culture of accountability.
While he and Geithner and the members of the United States Congress have totally lied to and misled the people of this country on the AIG bonuses.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida, it's Open Line Friday.
There is no accountability on this program.
There is no accountability in this administration.
There is zero accountability for this administration.
Everybody looks the other way.
Everybody excuses the malfeasance, the incompetence, and the destruction that is being wrought on our great country.
Happy to have you with us.
Open line Friday.
Rush Limbaugh.
We go to the phones.
The program is all yours.
Meaning you can talk about things you want to talk about even if I don't care.
It's a special gift that I extend each day or Friday.
And it's a great career risk, I take at the same time.
Telephone number is 800-282-2882.
The email address, lrushbow at EIBNet.com.
This is just too rich.
Washington Post today.
The headline, Fannie Freddie, DeCry Bill to tax bonuses.
Subhead, proposal could put housing recovery programs at risk if employees leave.
This is just hilarious.
It's sadly hilarious.
It is a mess.
The Democrat Party has brought us to a mess.
We depend on grown-ups to clean up the mess.
There aren't any grown-ups anymore.
Legislation to severely tax bonuses at companies receiving government aid may imperil the Obama administration's housing recovery program by igniting an exodus of employees from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Employees at the company said, as a little aside, you employees at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac threatening to leave, just where in hell are you going to go?
Where are you going to go to get another job?
Do you realize your entire sector has been demonized?
Do you realize the entire financial sector, the business sector in this country is being scapegoated for this economy?
AIG, you name it.
Sure, they're culpable.
But half of this problem is due to what Congress made these people do.
Starting with the illustrious boy president Bill Clinton.
By including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the measure, legislators fueled feelings of fear and betrayal at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, where some employees polished their resumes and began to call headhunters who had tried to recruit them in recent months.
This silly, stupid, and probably unconstitutional legislation from yesterday could affect hundreds of people at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
By the way, what are we supposed to do here?
Play the violins?
You people of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, yeah, it's fine when somebody else's ox is being gored.
And by the way, what are we going to do with these AIG people?
You know what I think we need to do?
We need to somehow always know who these people are.
Put a giant red A, make them wear a giant red A on some article of clothing every day of their lives, so that these tours organized by unions to go harass them at their houses, so the tours will know where to go.
So that when you're walking down the street in Manhattan and an AIG employee goes by, you'll know because they're wearing a giant red A on their shirt.
And you ought to know who they are because we ought to be able to give these people hell.
We ought to be able to harass these people.
We ought to tell these people they're storing, destroying our country, because that's what the U.S. Congress wants you to believe.
So, yeah, let's put a giant red A on every AIG employee and let's put a giant red F on every Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employee.
And screw that, they're not government workers.
These are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, supposedly private sector enterprises owned by the government.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.
Oxymoron.
The legislation could affect hundreds of people at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are among the largest employers in the Washington area.
At Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where salaries often range from $100,000 to $150,000, retention payments for many people are in the low to mid-five figures.
Many employees lost small fortunes, in some cases life savings, when the government seized the firms and wiped out almost all their shares.
And which government did this?
It's the Democrat Party doing this.
Employees put aside work for a time yesterday to attend meetings focused on the potential impact of the legislation.
Workers expressed frustration that they may be penalized for decisions made by derivatives traders at AIG and top executives at banks under some of the legislation being contemplated.
You can't keep people motivated if you're going to constantly stress them out, said one employee at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae.
I'll tell you what, I would love to have sympathy for you people.
I would love to have sympathy.
But where were you when this was happening to AIG?
Only when you found out the legislation was going to affect you do you then throw up your hand and say, no, no, you started acting like a bunch of little babies in the crib.
I swear, this is just outrageous what is happening here.
You know, it's hard for me to have any sympathy now for these people at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
I want to have it.
I really do.
I really want to have sympathy.
But until everybody in this sector realizes what is being done to them and how they are being used, these are not executives we're talking about at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The worker bees.
The executives got off scot-free at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The executives got $90 million in huge houses.
The executives are gone.
The people that raped those two places are in Fat City.
And they are among the protected, beloved class inside the Beltway.
And all of this, all of this is being done to scapegoat the Democrat Party and the U.S. Congress for the real damage to the U.S. economy.
Others in the Obama administration and Congress were not supportive of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's payments.
Yada, Barney Frank, President Obama, went into the recording studio.
So happy were they at the outcome of events yesterday.
This is what they produced.
Little duet there from Barney Frank and President Obama parodying a song from the musical Annie.
AIG.
Something else that I want some of you to think about, and I know that many in this audience, not all, but I know that some of you in this audience are part of the mob.
Some of you in this audience, because this audience spans all boundaries.
We appeal to all political persuasions, all ideologies, all three sexes, all religions, all non-religions.
And I know that some of you in this audience are part of the mob.
And some of you listening to me today just are you're flat out angry at me.
Can't believe what you're hearing me say.
Because you know the truth.
You know AIG stole from you.
AIG stole from America.
AIG is responsible to get AIG.
They got to pay.
They got to pay.
Because President Obama said so.
Their bonuses were in the legislation that Obama signed and Congress wrote.
But all that aside, something you need to know.
The banking crisis is not solved.
The Obama bank solvency program has yet to be announced.
Timothy Geithner has not yet put forward his plan to bring about two things.
The elimination of these toxic assets that are eliminating the second thing that needs to happen, and that is the free flow of credit at market prices.
Nothing has been done on that yet.
Do you know what it's going to take, you mobsters?
What is it going to take to get the banks going again?
Well, I don't know, but some people, the experts say it's going to take more money.
We've already stimulated and stimulated and stimulated, and we pumped and pumped and pumped, and the Fed announced a trillion dollars yesterday, and the market's down today.
It's going to take more money.
And at some point, Geithner or whoever replaces him, Janet Reno or President Obama is going to call a press conference.
And they're going to announce the need for another bailout or more TARP money.
To whom?
The banks.
The only problem is they've whipped you into a frenzy of totalitarian hatred toward the banks.
So what are you mobsters going to do when your president next tells you that we have, or maybe he'll have Bernanke do it, but somebody representing the highest elements and reaches of our great government will announce we need another $750 billion, maybe a trillion, to take care of these toxic assets because nothing's been done about that or to get the credit flow going again.
What are you going to do?
You just flipped your wigs over $165 million in bonuses to AIG.
You don't care a whit about $170 billion in bailout money to AIG.
What are you going to do when you find out the very people you've been told to hate and blame for everything going wrong in your life are going to get another trillion dollars?
This administration has demonized successfully in too many Americans' minds.
This administration has demonized the very people who are going to have to be made solvent if you are to be able to borrow money again and live your life.
And I can't wait till this happens.
I can't wait till they come back and say we need another $700 billion, $50 billion, trillion, whatever it is for the banks.
It's another sign of the incompetence of these people.
Everything, it's just thrown up against the wall on a daily basis and see what sticks just to make sure we keep the heat off us.
Congress, White House, ditto.
But they're going to need more money.
You're going to get mad at Obama when he wants another trillion?
You're going to get mad at Geithner?
You're going to get mad?
You're going to say, you told us to hate these people.
You told us these people are the focus of greed and selfishness is.
You told us this is where we need the new accountability.
And you're going to give them more money?
Can't wait for this to happen.
Back after this.
Phone calls on Open Line Friday start when we come back.
It's Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh and the EIB Network, and we're happy.
Happy to welcome back to the program Carol from Baltimore.
We've been trying to get her back for a couple, three days now, but she's with us.
Thank you, madam, for getting back to us.
We appreciate it.
Well, thank you.
I'm not a ditto head, but I remember that.
Huh?
I remember that from your last call.
You made that clear.
Oh, okay.
What I wanted to ask is that you tell the complete truth, Rush, when you say things.
Like, I told your screener that I would just stick to the subject, so I am.
When you said that the lady asked Obama for a car in a sink, and that the kid asked Obama for some benefits, what you did not say is the lady said she was homeless.
And they found out that she had a job.
She lost her job.
She and her husband both lost their jobs.
They were sleeping in a car.
And she said that she needed more than a car.
Needed a new car and needed a new kitchen and a sink.
She did not know.
And she had, look, I've looked into this, Carol.
You want truth, here's truth.
The woman's.
I watched the repeats on it.
You can play it.
The woman and her son had owned property a year prior.
They had sold it.
She was not homeless, but that you're missing the point of the recitation of that event.
This poor woman, I feel horrible for this woman.
I feel so sad for her.
She actually thinks that the election of a president means that she personally is going to get from him.
No, she didn't.
She said she asked him, could he help her?
That's all she said.
She didn't say, I expect you to do this.
I've been waiting for you to be.
When you have, see, this is where you're going to start using your brain.
Here, you're at a town meeting.
You've got one chance in the world to ask the president of the United States for anything, and you ask for specific things for yourself, it means you have an expectation of getting them.
This is what Obama has done to these people.
Her father's homeless, I would say the same.
She was offered a house by the wife of a Florida congressman.
But that was afterwards.
It was.
Yeah, and she said, I'll have to inspect it first.
She said, I'll have to inspect it first.
Carol, you know what?
You've got to understand.
I love you, and I love people like this woman.
I hate to see her life destroyed by the allegiance she has to a political party who has no compassion for her as a human being at all.
Remember those 25 DVDs that Barack Obama gave Prime Minister Gordon Brown?
Remember my question, which I hope he remembered to make them Region 2.
Gordon Brown sat down to watch one the other night.
He wanted to watch Psycho, and damned if they weren't Region 1.
The 25 DVDs given to the British Prime Minister by President Obama will only play in North American DVD players.
Officials at number 10 Downing Street called the White House for technical assistance on this.
According to the UK Telegraph and Tim Walker, a Downing Street spokesman said he was confident that any gift Obama gave Brown would have been well thought through, but referred the reporter actually called the White House for assistance on the technical aspects of this.
And Tim Walker of the UK Telegraph says that the White House spokesman sniggered at him when he put the story to him, said he was still looking into the matter when deadline came last night.
The PM actually sat down to watch these.
The writer here wonders if the movie Clueless was included in the 25.
You know what?
It just gets worse and worse and worse.
This is such an elegant man.
This is such a suave.
He's a man of the world.
Remember that.
Why he has traveled.
He is a man of the world.
The world will have newfound respect.
He's elegant.
He's suave and debonaire.
Barack Obama.
And this was said by people on our side.
Sarah Palin was vulgar, you remember.
People on our side said.
Yep, gave away Region 1 DVDs.
This next story, I will not take that bet.
I would assume that Barack Obama does not know the difference in Region 1 and Region 2.
I will also bet you that Barack Obama didn't even know that that was the gift until somebody said, Here it is.
You know, the State Department actually does this.
State Department people are the ones that actually do presidential gifts.
And what I understand now, there's some office of protocol that does this.
The president doesn't actually sit there unless he's got something personal in mind that wants to do it, but they give too many gifts away.
Somebody is assigned to do this.
But nevertheless, somebody's going to, hey, Mr. Prayer, you're going to give him 25 DVDs.
Well, I hope they're rage two.
Make sure they rage.
He didn't.
He's so elegant.
He's so cultured.
Who cares whose screw-up it is?
I don't care.
It's the Obama administration.
It's Obama's screw-up.
Honestly, these guys, these guys pass the buck.
That's why Janet Reno is going to be back in this administration.
But Janet Reno is the best at accepting the buck being passed I have ever seen in my lifetime.
So if they get rid of Geithner, they'll bring Janet Reno back and they'll put Jamie Gorellik in there to actually run the Treasury Department with her $25 million that she got from Fannie Mae.
Now, this next story, next story, is going to make unions livid.
The headline really says it all.
Walmart awards $2 billion in bonuses to U.S. hourly employees.
It's a Reuters story out of Chicago.
Walmart Stores Incorporated is awarding approximately $2 billion to its U.S. hourly employees through financial incentives, including handing out $933.6 million in bonuses yesterday after the world's largest retailer gained market share amid a recession.
This is stimulus.
This is what you call genuine stimulus.
In a memo to Walmart employees obtained by Reuters, the CEO Mike Duke said that Walmart's awarding roughly $2 billion to hourly workers at Walmart, including the $933 million in bonuses, $788.8 million in profit sharing and $401 contributions, millions of dollars in merchandise discounts, and contributions to its employee stock purchase plan.
You want to hear this again?
Because remember, the unions are trying to shut Walmart down.
Unions hate Walmart.
When has any union member ever gotten a deal like this?
That's what the unions are going to be outrageous.
Union leaders, let me specify.
Union thug leaders are going to be outraged over this.
Walmart is awarding $933.6 million in bonuses, $788.8 million in profit sharing and 401k contributions, millions of dollars in merchandise discounts and contributions to its employee stock purchase plan.
Wow, look at what all the benefits they've got.
And they're not unionized.
Well, look at all the benefits here.
Bonuses, profit sharing, 401k contributions, merchandise discounts, employee stock purchase plan?
Whoa, man, oh man.
While economic challenges forced others to step back, we moved forward, said the CEO Mike Duke in the memo.
Said Walmart now needs to accelerate and broaden all of our efforts.
A year ago, Walmart awarded almost $1.2 billion in financial incentives to its U.S. hourly employees, including more than $636.4 million in bonuses.
So if you add the $2 billion to the what you get, $3.2 billion in bonuses the last two years from Walmart.
Ladies and gentlemen, time for a pop quiz.
We haven't done one of these pop quizzes in a long time, but I think the time now is right.
And Open Line Friday, a perfect day to do a pop quiz, just to make sure that you are up to speed on current events.
First question.
Ready?
Which national leader this week demanded the power to seize businesses he says are failing?
Was it Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's thug dictator?
Barack Obama, President of the United States, or former KGB thug Vladimir Putin of Russia?
Your time is up.
The correct answer, ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama.
But we don't want to short Chavez or other dear leaders because he's only following their model.
Next question, ready?
Which political party vilified a private company so much that an outraged public sent death threats to employees?
Was it America's Democrat Party?
Was it the CHICOMs, the Communist Party of China, or Britain's Labor Party?
Your time is up.
The answer is American Democrats who have created an atmosphere of hate speech and death threats targeted at AIG execs.
Next question, ready?
Which politicians got huge campaign donations from AIG?
Democrat Senator Chris Dodd, Connecticut?
Democrat President Barack Obama?
Your time is up.
The answer is both and a hell of a lot more.
In fact, I've got, let me see here.
We have, ladies and gentlemen, an actual list of people who gave money, and it's like something like $500,000 went to Democrats and $144,000 from Republicans to AIG.
In which stack did I place this?
So I organize these stacks so I can find things fast, and I can't find it in any stack.
Must have pitched it.
But really, I mean, the percentage of the contribution, it might be 700,000 to 144 Democrats to Republican contributions or AIG contributions to members of Congress.
Next question, are you ready?
In which country does the government attempt to intimidate members of the media who oppose its policies?
Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, or the United States of America?
Your time is up.
The answer is all of them, including the United States of America.
Next question.
Ready?
Which national leader accuses citizens of his own country of being greedy and destructive because they are compensated too much in his view?
Hujentao, China.
Bashir Assad, Syria.
Mullah Omar, Taliban.
Mahmoud Ahmadinezad, Iran.
Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda.
Barack Obama, United States of America.
Your time is up.
The answer, only Barack Obama of the United States of America accuses citizens of his own country of being greedy because they are paid too much.
And finally, ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who remember what freedom was like, your time is up.
We'll be back.
President Obama, Vice President Biden, once again threatening people today, this time state legislators, if they don't follow Obama's newer rules, they're going to send Biden out there to give them what for.
And the teleprompter today told Obama to say this.
The rules I'm putting in place today will help create a new culture of accountability.
I'm pleased that the U.S. Conference of Mayors is committed to joining us in this effort.
I don't need to remind you that the American people are watching what we do.
Half of them.
They need this plan to work.
They're skeptical.
And understandably, because they've seen taxpayer dollars frittered away before.
They expect to see their hard-earned money spent efficiently.
And this extraordinary moment requires extraordinary responsibilities on all our part.
There's little room for error here, especially in a time for crisis.
This teleprompter is a card.
This teleprompter is a gentleman.
I mean, the things that this teleprompter gets this man to say in the midst of the least accountability on spending of government assets I have ever, I love this teleprompter.
This teleprompter has more power over this man than his wife does, than Jeremiah Wright does.
Do you realize this teleprompter is forcing Obama to say stupider things than Jeremiah Wright's probably telling him to say?
Or Bill Ayers?
I love this teleprompter.
All right, back to the phones.
It's Open Line Friday.
Dan in Muskegon, Michigan.
Hello, sir.
Thank you for waiting.
Hey, Rush, dittos, mega dittos, and continuing and ongoing mega mega dittos.
Thank you, sir.
You are my savior, to be sure.
I am humbled at your feet, sir.
Well, now let's not go that far.
I can't make a cabinet either.
Just like Obama can't.
You know what I find just outrageous is the difference of the media coverage.
Like when Katrina smacked New Orleans, Bush was just ripped right apart by the forest.
Bush steered that hurricane into New Orleans.
Exactly.
But now we've got our economy in the toilet, and the media is fawning over this guy while he goes on a comedy show like a third world tin horn dictator.
It is just amazing.
Well, you know, I understand your frustration.
You're going to have to come to understand something that I have figured out.
We live in a bipolar country now.
People like you and me, Dan, we look at, you know, forget the Special Olympics comment from, we just look at presidents don't go on comedy shows at any time, particularly during.
I mean, George W. Bush stopped playing golf during the Iraq War.
George W. Bush stopped going on vacation during hard times and controversial times.
It didn't help him at all.
Didn't help him at all.
Barack Obama is not working.
He's going on comedy shows.
He's doing town meetings, which don't accomplish anything for the country.
They do for him.
He's bowling.
He's comparing his bowling to the way Special Olympians bowl.
And you and I look at this and say, this is just demeaning the office.
This is not presidential.
But we live in a new America, and there are millions and millions of Americans who think just the opposite.
They think these town meetings have substance because Obama's listening to them.
They think Obama's cool because he's on the cover of People magazine.
They think Obama's cool because he could go on Trump Show Apprentice.
He could go on Dancing with the Stars.
And he would be even more loved because he's one of us.
Because he, to these people, is a celebrity.
He's a pop culture celebrity and icon.
He could go walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
He could be a presenter.
He could do anything of this sort.
He could do anything that degrades the office of the presidency in the pop culture.
And many, many Americans are going to think it's a welcome change from the stuffiness that he gets out of that town.
He's out circulating among the people.
The people that voted for Obama wish they could go on these shows.
They wish they could be on the tonight show.
They wish they could get into the audience to see it.
They don't care what he says.
It's just that he's there.
They don't listen to what he says.
All it matters is what they think he hears them saying at a town hall.
He didn't have to do diddly squat.
He doesn't have to get Henry out of Hughes' house.
All he's got to do is listen.
Mr. President, I love you.
I love you.
All he has to do is act like he heard what she said.
He's a pop culture celebrity.
He is a man of very little substance.
He's a man of show, a man of the teleprompter.
But when it comes to real substance, he's lost without the teleprompter.
He's a walking gaffe machine.
And the reason they keep that teleprompter tied to him at all times is because when he's off that teleprompter, in addition to the stutters and the lack of focus, find out what's really in his mind.
We find out what's really in his heart.
And this is an angry man.
His wife's mad, too.
And he's not cool.
He's cold.
This is a cold, cold guy.
Takes the prompter to create the aura of feeling and compassion.
Think about that.
It takes an electronic gizmo with a hard drive that works with nothing but ones and zeros, the binary code, to give humanity.
Now, I know a lot of Rush, how can you say this is one of the most warm and sensitive and this man is participating in the destruction of the concept of individual.
This man is participating with his party in the wholesale assault on the concept of the individual and individual liberty in the process of remaking this country in an image that he thinks is more just.
You know what I really wonder?
We'll never know this.
I really wonder how many real Democrats are scared out of their pants over what they see happening.
Time magazine's already working on the man or person or it of the year for 2009.
The teleprompter right now is in the lead.
Snerdley says I need to explain to you why the individual is important because I'm saying Obama's out there, the Democrats trying to destroy the individual.
What's so important about the individual?
I'll give it a shot, but there's other things I want to...
I mean, if people don't understand that, it's pointless.
If we've lost that, then there's nothing I can do about it.
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