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June 18, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:49
June 18, 2009, Thursday, Hour #2
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The views expressed by the host on this show, now documented to be almost always right, 99.1% of the time.
By the way, the views expressed by the hosts on this program are not necessarily those of the staff nor management of this station.
That's just because they're holdouts.
I'll eventually get into the fold.
Great to have you with us.
We're doing Open Line Friday on Thursday today.
I'll be out tomorrow.
We got Mark Davis tomorrow, Mark Stein on Monday.
And who do we have on Tuesday, HR?
Oh, Mark Davis on Friday and Tuesday, and Mark Stein on Monday.
And so we're doing Open Line Friday today.
When you call, whatever you want to talk about is fine.
If I have to fake it, I'll do so.
Normally, we don't discuss things I don't care about.
But on the Open Line Day, whichever it is, usually Friday, program's all yours when you phone.
So here's the number, 800-282-2882, and the email address, LRushbo at EIBNet.com.
Now, the New York Times has run a story on President Obama's poll numbers.
Now, the headline has changed from when the story was first posted on the internet last night.
The headline last night to the same story I'm about to share with you was this.
In poll, Obama seen as ineffective on the economy.
That was very late last night.
By the time people got up today and read the website, that headline had been changed to this.
Obama poll sees doubt on budget and healthcare.
So the two headlines in New York, I knew when I saw this first headline, I said, it must kill the New York Times to have to report this.
State-run media.
And it did kill him.
My first thought was right.
They went around and they changed it.
Ram Emmanuel must have made that 3 a.m. phone call to the New York Times.
Bill Keller out there, the editor.
First headline, late last night in poll, Obama seen as ineffective on economy.
First thing this morning, the headline, Obama poll sees doubt on budget and healthcare.
Now, that headline makes it look like people doubt the budget and doubt health care, but they don't doubt Obama.
Here are the details of the story.
A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama's not developed a strategery to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times CBS news poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry, and close Guantanamo Bay falls well below his job approval ratings.
A distinct gulf exists.
Emmanuel couldn't get the substance of the story changed.
He did get the headline changed.
A distinct gulf exists between Obama's overall standing and how some of his key initiatives are viewed, with fewer than half of Americans saying they approve of how he has handled health care.
And fewer than half.
This is not news, really.
This is just the first time the New York Times has reported it.
We have been telling you for weeks that if you look at polling data issue by issue by issue, a majority of people disapprove of Obama's plans, but that his overall approval rating was up there in the 60s.
It's now in the 50s.
At both CBS New York Times, NBC, Wall Street Journal, fewer than half of Americans say they approve of how he's handled health care, the effort to save General Motors and Chrysler.
Majority of people said his policies have had either no effect yet on improving the economy or have made it worse, underscoring how his political strength still rests on faith in his leadership rather than concrete results.
This is in the state-run New York Times.
I'm going to tell you something, folks.
This White House, more than any other, that's a very close race between this White House and the Clinton White House, runs on polls.
And that approval number is everything to them.
That approval number, when it stays over 60%, is licensed to steal another industry or another sector of the private sector economy.
When that approval number goes south, when it starts falling, that means the power of the BAMST personality is not covering or overshadowing his failures.
And they're going to panic.
I told you, I knew it late last week, first part of this week.
This is a White House in panic.
They're taking on too much too soon.
They're not doing it well.
And when you add to it now, the perception of some of these people that he's helping out the private sector and letting the little guys starve and stay out of work.
Well, it's no wonder the numbers are coming down.
A job approval rating of 63%.
Obama has the backing of Democrats and independents alike, a standing that many presidents would envy and try to use to build support for their policies.
His rating has fallen to 23% among Republicans from 44% in February, a sign that bridging the partisan divide may remain and bridging the partisan divide, but there was never any attempt to bridge the partisan divide.
These poll numbers, those of you out there in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, whatever, these poll numbers are why Obama is not giving you people what you want.
These poll numbers are why he can't yet go ahead and rip up the Defense of Marriage Act.
And by the way, they're still mad about this.
I mean, Barney Franks weighed in on this now.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely has.
With Republicans steadily increasing their criticism of Mr. Obama, particularly on the budget deficit, the poll found that the Republican Party is viewed favorably by only 28% of those polled.
That's the lowest rating in New York Times history.
But in contrast, 57% said they had a favorable view of the Democrat Party.
Doesn't matter.
It's all crumbling here.
The Republican Party has been out of power for six months, well, two years in six months in Congress.
So this is to be expected.
The numbers here that are bad are issue-by-issue numbers on Obama.
Now, here is the NBC Wall Street Journal poll, and the Politico runs this story with this headline, honeymoon coming to an end.
And that, by the way, is F. Chuck Todd.
F. Chuck Todd said that the honeymoon is over for Obama.
NBC Wall Street Journal, NBC News Wall Street Journal poll out last night showed that the highest level of optimism about the economy in four years, but new skepticism about the policies of President Obama, Chuck Todd, NBC News White House correspondent and political director, told Brian Williams at the top of the NBC Nightly News, the honeymoon's coming to an end for President Obama, but it's not personal, it's professional.
Now the public appears to be judging the president on some of his actions.
And right now there's a growing concern about the budget deficit, some of his government interaction into the economy on things like General Motors.
A solid majority, 56%, approve of the job he's doing.
That's down from 63.
He's still 62 in the CBS poll.
But 56, solid majority, solid majority, 56%, down six points.
Obama lost the most ground among self-described political independents.
69% are concerned about the increased government intervention into the economy.
53% of respondents disapprove of the government's decision to bail out Chrysler and General Motors.
58% say the government should focus more on controlling the budget deficit than on boosting the economy.
Can you, folks, do you realize if we are to accept this, do you realize the impact of that?
This is revealing.
The poll shows that more Americans are worried about the deficit and this runaway spending than they are the economy, big time.
They're more worried about deficits than the economy by 23 points in this poll.
Now, to translate this, even though the liberals tell us that this is the worst economy since the Great Depression, Americans have enough sense to know the problem is the deficit.
It's the deficit stupid in a landslide.
In fact, a higher percentage are worried about the deficit, 58%, than voted for Obama, 53%.
That's how I, El Rushboat, choose to look at this.
Even with that, the question's misworded.
The issue is not keeping the deficit down because the president and the Democrats are hell-bent on keeping the deficit rising.
Now, the second revealing response here is the question, who's most responsible for the budget deficit?
And the responses are not pretty.
Here they are.
6% Obama, 28% Congress, 13% all, 7% not sure, 46% George Bush.
This is the NBC Wall Street Journal poll.
We're not talking facts here.
We're talking public perception, public education, public understanding of how government works.
The factual answer to the question, who is most responsible for the budget deficit?
The answer is Congress, 100%, because not a dime of spending happens without first originating in legislation in the House of Representatives.
But less than one-third of the respondents understand this.
And that's probably you people in my audience who understand it.
Those who blame a president Bush over Obama, 46 to 6.
What does that number reveal?
Lots.
It shows that, listen to me on this.
46% of the American people who hate the deficit more than the economy, they think it's a bigger problem than the economy, are blaming Bush for it.
That's not good.
It shows that Obama is a far more dangerous president than Bush or Clinton or even Jimmy Carter because there's no media check on what he says or what he does.
The media is now state-run, government-controlled.
There is no congressional check on what he says or what he does.
There's barely any analysis of what he says or what he does.
Next year, the deficit will be four times as well.
This year, four times as large as last year.
Obama has quadrupled Bush's deficit.
And Bush is still being blamed.
While it's charged to Bush, it's being created by Obama, by Obama's porculus, by Obama bailoutulus, by Obama G. Emulus.
By Obama, where's the stimulus?
Republicans.
Let me simplify this.
Obama took Bush's credit card and ran up massive debt on it.
Bush, Obama stole it.
Let's look at that.
Obama stole Bush's credit card, has run up debt like crazy.
They've shut down the credit card, and yet Bush is getting blamed.
So there it is, is for all to see.
Americans are worried about the deficits, eventually going to be terrified by them when they see the impact.
The challenge here is to educate voters as to who creates deficits, who passes the book, and who gets to blame for them.
Can the Republicans do this by 2010, by 2012?
Can they do it ever?
I contend, ladies and gentlemen, and I think you would all agree with me on this, to use a famous Obama tactic technique.
But that's how they all do it.
I think you'll agree with me when I say who has been the loudest, most consistent voice in criticizing Obama policies.
They have to be me and all of the conservative media thrown together.
It's working.
It is working in terms of causing people's attitudes and opinions on his policies to go majority negative.
The Republican Party isn't doing any of this.
In fact, several Republicans are still out there trying to gain their chops with the media and the D.C. social crowd by blaming Bush for this, praising Obama for reining in what could have been a bad problem.
So the public is concerned about all the spending and the expansion of government.
You know, hey, cookie, I don't know if we have the audio or if it's just text from the archives, but the public now in a New York Times poll, New York Times CBS, that's Bible, right?
That's gospel for inside the Beltway people.
What we need is audio or either the quote from General Powell, where he says people want more government and want higher taxes, because this poll is a repudiation of General Powell as well.
Well, Dawn, I mean, you're cringing in there, but it is.
You know, with some of the brainy acts on our side of the aisle say we can't have a Republican Party without Colin Powell, well, juxtapose what he says people wanted versus what they're saying in a poll taken by the D.C. Bible.
And you'll find they ain't the same thing.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, if you're one of the majority Americans upset with deficit spending, but you think it's George W. Bush's fault, don't forget it's Congress that spends the money at the end of the day.
And Barack Obama has voted for every big budget-busting spending bill since 2004 in the United States Senate.
So he's part of the mix here.
Now, we have no audio on the Colin Powell statement.
It was from May 5th of this year.
No audio, but it is in the Wall Street Journal.
And this is from the story in the journal.
The Republican Party is in deep trouble, General Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Incorporated.
The party must realize the country has changed, Powell said.
Americans do want to pay taxes for services.
Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less.
I'd say the poll in the New York Times has just repudiated General Powell, who many on our side think is the ideal definition of the modern-day Republican and should be leading the party.
Bob in Auburn, Massachusetts.
Nice to have you with us here on Open Line Friday on Thursday.
Hi.
Rush.
Glad to talk to you.
Big fan.
Thank you.
Big, big fan.
You know, I want to run the health care thing by you.
I think people are missing the whole point here, and maybe you're not, because I try to listen as much as I can, but sometimes I don't.
But Obama really doesn't care about health care at all.
He doesn't care if it costs $10 trillion.
It has nothing to do with health care.
All it has to do is blackmailing Republican voters.
And I'll tell you the reason how he's going to do this.
Once it gets passed, you know the private sector is going to bounce most of their insurance over to the government plan.
Could be 50, could be 100 million people.
40% of those people are Republicans.
Now, you go in and you cast your vote.
And do you think you're going to cast a vote for a Republican when maybe your wife has cancer or somebody in your family has got a big problem?
No, you're not going to.
Matter of fact, you probably are not even going to register as a Republican anymore because you're going to be too afraid to.
And don't be surprised if there's a landslide for him again in 2009.
Wait a minute.
I missed a step here.
100 million Americans go to the government-run health care.
40% of them are Republicans that do that.
Right.
What does that have to do with the way they're going to vote?
Well, Rush, there's an advisory council going to vote on your health, okay?
And now, if you're a Republican and anybody in your family, which over a quarter of a month, Oh, oh, oh, oh, I missed it.
You're saying that a Democrat government run by Obama, deciding who to approve and not to approve in terms of care and what kind of care will look at party affiliation and say, you go to the back of the line.
We've got to take care of it.
That's what it's all about, Rush.
Believe me.
He doesn't care one bit about health.
Well, you could have a point there.
They are doing that in other things.
Some people tried to establish that that's how they were closing dealerships, but I don't think anybody closed the loop for sure on this.
But the one thing you're really right about is it isn't about health care.
That's just the diving board, if you will, springboard to get into your heart.
It's not about health care at all.
It's about control.
It's about grabbing $2.5 trillion from the private economy and bringing it into government Obama control.
Somebody called here the other day and made a good point.
There really isn't a crisis in health care in this country.
The crisis in health care that, if you want to say that does exist, is the fear that a major illness or catastrophe could wipe you out, which isn't going to change.
In fact, the odds of you being wiped out by a catastrophe or accident once the government gets started running this stuff is greater than if the private sector is.
But day-to-day, there's no health care crisis in this country.
You can get it.
So it isn't about health care per se.
This is just about gaining control, taking money, and controlling people's lives and wiping out Republicans, a nice cherry on top.
By the way, folks, I don't want to minimize our previous caller's point that an Obama administration running health care could cause fear among Republicans in not getting treated.
I have some people, I don't know any of these people, but I have some friends who know Republicans who vote for Democrats because of the stem cell issue.
Well, their kids are sick, and they think the Democrats are the ones that care about it.
So if you're Republican and you have a sick child and you think you'll be discriminated against by Obama healthcare because you are a Republican, what are you likely to do?
Switch parties, at least in your registration.
Look at this, this administration is utilizing just this kind of fear to get everything it wants.
And they're having some success with it.
Now, Julian Epstein has appeared on an NBC cable channel this afternoon.
Julian Epstein, a Democrat strategist, he spoke about President Bush. criticizing Obama publicly last night on Guantanamo Bay and therapy for the inmates there.
A question, Julian, give me your take on Bush speaking out now.
Republicans have not had an effective national spokesman.
The head of the RNC has been a bit of a joke.
It's been basically Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney, two very unpopular figures.
So the question is, is it effective?
And I think the problem here is that President Bush is the personification of what most Americans think is everything that went wrong in the last eight years.
So I don't think it's a particularly smart thing for the president to do and for him to make these statements about therapy for Gitmo prisoners.
The fact of the matter is, Gitmo is a country club compared to what the Democrats want to do and putting them in high-security prisons here in this country.
That's what I wanted you to hear.
This is a very partisan Democrat strategist, Julian Epstein.
He was one of the Clinton Eastas back during the impeachment days.
He also happens to be leading the Democrat fight against Zycam.
More on that later.
This is the guy with a lawyer group.
It's very deceitful.
This Zycam stuff, folks, someday I'm going to be able to tell you the truth about this because this is just, it's outright.
What the FDA did yesterday regarding Zycam is unprecedented.
The FDA has never done before what it did yesterday.
This is a company being targeted for, let's face it, obvious reasons.
But more on that later.
Here we have Julian Epstein, huge Democrat strategist saying, the fact of the matter is, Gitmo is a country club compared to what the Democrats want to do in putting them in high-security prisons here in this country.
Now, that's just absurd.
What Julian Epstein's admitting here is that Democrats have a problem, soft on crime, soft on terrorism, weak on national defense.
So his strategerist to go out and say, hey, we're closing that place down down there because it was a country club.
We're going to put them, we're going to put them in some really tough places, like on the beach in Bermuda.
Linda in Louisiana, welcome to the program.
Great to have you here.
How do you pronounce the city where you live?
Moreover, great to have you here.
Yeah, I'm on the West Bank on the other side of New Orleans.
Oh, cool.
Katrina land.
I knew that.
Of course.
I'm sitting here and just, I can't believe I'm talking to you.
I have been trying for 10 years to get through.
But anyway, to make my point, your screener said, get to the point quick.
So I'm reading in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, Obama lays down the law to Wall Street, Federal Reserve, to police large firms judged a potential risk to the financial system.
Of course, now he has given new power to the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, put major restrictions, all to do what?
To clear up the credit crisis.
I thought the credit crisis was caused by people like Barney Frank.
This isn't going to help, but I do think if they're going to start checking all these things through the Federal Reserve, who we can't even look at, like credit cards, credit interest, savings accounts, mutual funds, and all that stuff, then they're going to wind up with a whole lot more information than we really want them to have.
Well, not just that.
They're going to be able to control what you can and can't do and the way that they are selling it.
The way they're selling this is they're complaining and whining about the unfair practices of lenders, banks, credit card companies, and this is to get even with them.
This is to make sure your credit card company doesn't jack up your interest rate without your permission on an exorbitant level.
So while everybody thinks that Obama's clamping down on the lenders with these new regulators, what he's doing again is expanding more federal power to where the federal government's going to be in charge of the lending industry in this country.
Banks, credit cards, you name it.
It's breathtaking to watch every day.
Every day, this little man-child reaches out and grabs something else.
It says, mine, it's mine, it's mine.
Well, of course, I don't make him sound like a child because he's far more dangerous than a child.
But you see, look at this kind of fear that's arising, though, that's the invasion of privacy.
Are they going to know everything about me?
Yeah, they're going to know that when they get your medical records digitized, which is going to be part of national health care, under the guise of facilitating your care.
But the purpose will actually be for them to know and to be able to blackmail you or use whatever information they have about you in your treatment, denying you tribute, this or that, and the other thing.
I'll tell you, this is the leftist is solidifying its control over as many public aspects of this country as quickly as possible.
And the American people, they're starting to understand.
They don't like what he's doing.
They still like him, at least in the New York Times poll, not so much now in the NBC poll.
But 2010, 2010 is where this Waterloo is going to be next met.
What aspect of your private life aren't they going to be into?
Well, I don't imagine they'll be in your bedroom.
I mean, not with cameras.
They might be.
Who knows?
They're trying to get into as many aspects of people's private lives as they can for the purpose of control.
You know, people, you say that, and people say, well, they don't understand somebody wants to control Americans.
Why would somebody almost like back in the 80s, if you started throwing the word communist around to describe certain Americans, it wouldn't persuade anybody because Americans didn't want to think there were communists running around in their country with any power.
And so to say now that you've got these authoritarians that are out there trying to wrest control, I'll say, look at, I harp back on these two events, the call yesterday and the story in the Wall Street Journal today.
People that voted Obama who are getting upset, but not, they don't understand what he's doing.
They misunderstand totally.
They were expecting Obama to throw shovels of money at them.
Instead, they think he's bailing out Wall Street and big business.
They think he's just another typical Washington Republican Democrat conglomerate politician who cares about big business.
They don't see what he's doing to big business.
They don't see that he's destroying future job opportunities, creativity, competition.
They don't see the destruction the man is wreaking.
They see him playing favorites, and they thought they were going to be the favorites.
And now they're not.
And that's why they're upset.
So that's at least a baseline from which to start.
They're upset.
Not for the reasons they should be, but at least something there to build upon.
Anyway, I got to take a brief time out here.
We'll be back and continue after this.
We're doing Open Line Friday on Thursday today, so we go to the phones.
Whatever you want to talk about is fair game, and I have not yet today had to fake it.
I hope it hasn't sounded like I faked it, because I have not faked it.
Not once.
If you people in the radio audience will pardon me for just a moment, I must answer a question that I am being peppered with more and more frequently here by people who watch this program via the Dittocam at my website, rushlimbaugh.com.
They ask, why are you constantly tugging on your shirt?
Is that a habit?
It is not a habit.
It is simply that these shirts tend to go backwards and fall away from the collar in the back.
And I don't like the sense of feeling around my throat, which is why I seldom wear a tie.
So I'm constantly tugging the shirt forward to feel the collar on my neck in the back, not the front.
Pure and simple.
There is a reason.
I am not a person of habits.
Really, this is the problem.
The problem with televising radio is that people see all these things.
They want to not hear anything.
This business about being afraid of your government if it runs health care.
Being afraid to oppose government if government is in charge of health care.
What do you think is going to happen when the government runs banks lending credit card salaries?
You think people are going to be even more afraid to oppose the government when the government's in charge of having, whether they have a credit card or not, what their salary is?
Folks, this is insidious what is happening here.
It's designed to do two things, cement more and more power in Washington and create constant fear of Washington out in the hinterlands so that Washington is unopposed.
And instead of, let me say Obama instead of saying Washington.
This is all about Obama and whoever's running him or running alongside him.
Here's Alex in Houston.
Alex, next to have you here on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi, Rush, Mega Dittos from Houston.
It's an honor to talk to you.
Thank you, sir.
Hey, I just wanted to say real quick that you motivate, you inspire, and, you know, we're out here, my family and I appreciate everything that you and Hannity and Levin do.
We appreciate it.
Thank you very much, sir.
Hey, we wanted to mention that I am from El Salvador.
I'm in the medical industry, and El Salvador does have national health care.
It's a social security health care.
And it just, it doesn't work.
I was there.
You know, the medication and the pharmaceuticals that people think they're going to get from this doesn't exist.
It will not exist.
And, you know, it's supposed to be a prestigious honor for the doctors to work in the hospitals out there.
And the bottom line is, if they don't participate in the Social Security hospitals, they get bullied.
They magically get audited.
Their license gets yanked for a couple of two or three weeks, and they actually truly bully you into giving up a few of your hours to work at the hospitals.
And I think somehow that's going to happen here.
One way or another, some strain of it will no doubt where the government's in charge of this.
There's nowhere else you can go for a grievance.
There's nobody else you can work for when they control the industry.
If you complain, you're up deep, doo-doo.
And, of course, we had a great call yesterday from some guy in Ontario, right across the lake, right, the bridge from Detroit.
And he's got stage four melanoma.
Only there's two hospitals that are great in treating the kind of cancer he's got 30 minutes away in Detroit.
Canada approved him only to go to Buffalo, four hours away.
Approved.
You think health care is a crisis and you want it fixed and so forth.
Think about some bureaucrat that you will never meet having to approve whatever treatment you want or need.
Approve.
And then think about the likelihood of being approved if the bureaucrat happens to know that you oppose Obama or Biden.
Whether it happens, see, the point here is not, ladies and gentlemen, look at me.
I want you to understand this.
The point is not whether that would be the determining factor in how they decide.
All they need is the fear in you.
All they need is you thinking that you'll be discriminated against if you're not a Democrat.
Whether they discriminate or not, all they need is the fear to get you to get your mind right, to get in line with the right people.
All they have to do is create that fear.
It's like Republicans voting for Democrats because they've got a kid that they think stem cell research will cure when there's been no, there isn't any progress at all in embryonic stem cells.
And these Democrats see the Republicans not caring about it.
The Democrats are the only ones interested in it.
So they're voting for them.
It's really convoluted.
And this is what you get when you have a political party, among other things, that can't explain itself because it doesn't know what it stands for.
Individuals in the party can, but the party itself doesn't at this stage of the game.
Debbie in Jacksonville, Florida.
Hi, nice to have you with us on the EIB network.
Thank you, Rush.
I'm a longtime listener.
Thank you.
And I just, over the past few days with the uprising in Iran, I have heard nobody even mention that this could probably be because Iraq is free and that the people in Iran want the same freedoms.
And of course, no one wants to give George Bush any kudos for that, but I really believe that that's what's going on.
Well, you may have a point that there is partial consideration has to be given to that, but I must tell you, the Iranian population has long been simmering and a large percentage of it, long simmering with opposition to the mullahs, the Ayatollahs, the Ahmedini Zad.
And that opposition has grown and grown and grown.
And as the mullahs try to make the world think that they're engaging in a democracy by staging elections, which are just as fraudulent as they can be.
I mean, they're totally irrelevant elections.
They're just for show for the rest of the world.
Iranian people think, okay, well, we got a chance here.
And then when they find out they've just been duped and they're participating in a fraud, they erupt because they've been simmering for many years.
I don't doubt that the situation in Iraq plays, and that's a good point, plays a role here.
I wish I could say it's big, but I don't know what Iranian media allows in.
So whatever the Iranian population knows about Iraq has to be from word of mouth, people going back and forth.
I don't think the Iranian media is touting Iraq and freedom there.
I know they're not.
Maybe the mullahs are not going to do that.
Look, I got to take another brief break, ladies and gentlemen.
Fastest three hours of media.
I can't believe how fast time's flying today, but it is.
So we'll take a brief time out.
We will continue straight after this.
Don't go away.
It has been the of the Obama world the past couple of days, his opposition to, well, his refusal to tear apart the Defensive Marriage Act, the gay voters, gay community, very upset at Obama.
Everybody's trying to understand why is Obama doing this.
Let me throw another one out at you, folks.
If Obama appeared to be gay-friendly, would it harm him in the eyes of the Muslim world, which is not gay-friendly?
Cairo speech.
Hello?
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