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July 31, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:15
July 31, 2009, Friday, Hour #2
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Charlie Foxtrot, this whole administration, this whole damn Democrat Party, Charlie, Charlie Foxtrot.
And the reply to that is Foxtrot Alpha.
Greetings, my friends, Rush Limbaugh.
This, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, the Limbaugh Institute for advanced conservative studies on Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open live Friday.
Oh, no, no, no.
Oh, no.
I'm on a roll here, and you're going, oh, yes.
It's 21 years.
Oh, geez.
Here I am in the middle.
I'm on a roll.
Yeah.
It's 21 years.
And the staff is not at their seats.
The staff is in the studio here.
Just presented me an anniversary cake, 21st anniversary and a singing balloon.
Yeah.
A singing balloon.
Cool in the game.
Let's celebrate.
I can't hear you because Ed hadn't turned down the music.
But anyway, happy 20.
This is our 21st.
Well, it's tomorrow, actually, is the 21st anniversary.
I hadn't even decided whether I was going to celebrate it today or Monday.
But I guess we're celebrating it now.
21st anniversary.
Well, yeah, it's big.
You can't blow those out.
Those are sparklers.
Well, that's cool.
Who's going to eat the cake?
It certainly isn't going to be me.
I got my favorite.
It's ice cream because you're not happy.
Oh, it's ice cream.
Okay, go ahead.
It's like a giant ice cream sandwich.
Thanks, everybody on the staff.
And it is our 21st anniversary is tomorrow, August 1st, 1988.
We started the EIB network.
The Open Line Friday edition now continues.
If you want to be on the program today, 800-282-2882, the email address, lrushbo at EIBNet.com.
I just saw, I didn't know this until the top of the hour break.
Ladies and gentlemen, Senator Christopher Dodd has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is going to have prostate cancer surgery in August.
What I don't know is whether he's going to Canada or the UK for the surgery since he can't trust his insurance villains and doctors in this country to do it right.
Where is he going to get his prostate cancer surgery, Canada or the UK?
He's staying here to get it done?
Christopher Dodd's going to have his surgery in America?
Senator Dodd's going to have prostate cancer surgery in the United States with this sucky health care system we have here?
Well, not according to him.
I know it's the best in the world, but not according to him and his doofus party.
Healthcare system in this country is such bad shape, such rotten shape that the same dingleberries that screwed up the cash for clunkers thing.
You know, folks, this cash for clunkers thing, can I put this in perspective for you?
This is a transaction that everybody over the age of 16 in this country understands.
Trading in an old car for a new one.
You go to the dealer.
You make a deal.
You get your new car.
You go tell your friends how you screwed the dealer.
How you had inside information on the real wholesale price, not the lies on the sticker.
It's an American tradition.
Everybody understands how to do it.
And it's so simple.
And yet it has been turned into one of the most complicated bureaucratic mazes possible because a bunch of idiots who think they know better how to improve everything in this country are in charge of it.
We don't even know if it's suspended or not.
We're hearing both.
It is, it isn't.
It was, but it has been reenacted or reemployed or what have you.
Now, I don't want to upset people here on this, but the clunker program is a subsidy for the United Auto Workers and government-owned General Motors and Chrysler.
You think it's a subsidy for you, but it's a subsidy for them.
The other car companies are going to get some help too, but this is a subsidy for Obama motor companies and the union workers who work there.
That is why they don't want to give away too much money.
They don't want to return too much of your money.
The American people want tax cuts, deep, permanent as possible tax cuts that will allow people to buy new cars, old cars or no cars, go out and buy clothes, buy a new dishwasher, whatever people want.
It's staring them right in the face.
This program alone is right in the face telling them what they need to do to really stimulate this economy.
And of course, they won't expand on this because they want to be in command and control.
And they don't want you having too much freedom.
Now, I have a couple of stories here.
The first story is from a mega car dealer who owns 21 dealerships.
And I'm told that customers responded by going to showrooms in droves.
This dealer had about 100 applications for the cash, for the trade-in, into the government.
This dealer, who has 21 stores, who had about 100 applications, has heard back on two customers, both rejected by the government.
He has spoken with other dealers around the country, and he says he doesn't know of one approval.
Now, that's not to say there haven't been any approval.
It's just this guy talking to other mega dealers can't find one approval.
Not one deal has been completed he can find out about.
Not one government check has been written yet to his dealership or to any of the other dealerships that he knows.
Here's another.
This is a clunker email.
A family tried to take advantage of the program.
We have two old cars.
I referenced this earlier in the first hour.
We have two old cars.
When the clunker thing was announced, I thought, surely our 13-year-old unreliable money pit would be a clunker.
Then Chrysler says that they'll match the $4,500.
That's $9,000.
I think $9,000 off a new car.
So I start kind of looking and I decide Chrysler has a $22,000 stripped down Jeep that'll hold my family and then $9,000 off why it might be worth rating the 401k again, right?
I'm even a little giddy at the thought of getting $4,500 of my money back for a change.
It's not like I don't pay lots more than that in taxes every year.
Well, evidently, this person's clunker didn't qualify.
The 22,000 stripped down Jeep does not qualify either.
The 13-year-old car didn't qualify and the 22,000 stripped down Jeep didn't qualify.
Well, the good car does, but the blue book is more than $4,500, so it's stupid.
But here's the rub.
According to this person's experience, nothing that Chrysler makes that qualifies will hold my soon-to-be three teenagers anyway.
That's why Romer and Stabenow have to talk about how great this is for the environment.
Because the cars that qualify don't hold families.
The question is this, folks.
One of the many questions is this.
Why is it any of Barack Obama's business or Debbie Stabenow's business or Christina Romer's business what kind of car you drive?
Your taxes go up to subsidize $1 billion that went to other people to buy new small cars is what this is going to end up being if it works.
Otherwise, people keep driving clunkers, pay more taxes.
And this is how healthcare is going to work.
This is the blueprint for all of the mess that's going to exist in healthcare.
What business does Barack Obama have determining what doctor you see?
What business is it of his what kind of treatment you seek and get?
What business is it of Barack Obama's what car you drive?
He's making every aspect of your life or as many aspects of your life as possible his decision.
His business.
Quick timeout.
We're going to get to your phone calls after this.
Stay with us.
How many of you today can honestly say you trust used car salesmen more than congressmen?
I can.
I'd much rather deal with a used car salesman than a congressman.
About Senator Dodd, I hope he goes and gets a second opinion here because based on what President Obama has said, Dodd's been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is apparently going to stay in this country for the surgery, amazingly.
But I'd get a second opinion to make sure this doctor is just not diagnosing the surgery here to line his pockets.
You know, Obama told us all these surgeons don't really have to take out all these tonsils they take out.
And Senator Dodd, you might want to get a second opinion here to make sure you actually need prostate cancer surgery.
I'm just trying to learn from our president.
We got news.
Our sales department called me yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, said that the Justice Brothers, it's an off and on client, had requested in-program commercial time for today.
And I said, what about?
And they said the beer summit.
I said, well, people are getting, you know, all right, we'll sell them a couple commercials just for Friday in the program.
Justice Brothers on the Beer Summit.
That's a nice quick $30,000 bucks from the Justice Brothers.
Thomas Lifson has an interesting comment at AmericanThinker.com.
The White House, the official White House photo, White House blog has published an official photo of one of the things that happened yesterday.
And for those of you watching on the ditto camera, let me show it to you.
I'm not going to mess with all the photo, but you see there, well, I don't want to mess with the focus.
I really don't, because then I'll never get the rest.
What you have is Obama two steps ahead of Gates and the cop walking out of the West Wing.
And what we see is Obama's like two or three paces ahead.
Sergeant Crowley is helping Professor Gates, who is walking with his cane down the steps.
And this is what Lifson writes.
Sergeant Gates, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicap Professor Gates down the stairs while Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own.
So who is showing compassion here for a minority?
It's the cop.
The cop is helping Skippy Gates down the steps, and Obama just walking two steps ahead, ignoring him.
Folks, let me tell you something.
My father, my father told me many times: one of the best ways to judge someone's character is to watch how they treat people who can't do anything for them.
If they treat people who can't do anything for them like dirt, then you're dealing with lowbrow plastic banana good time rock and roller phoniness.
Bad guys, no character whatsoever.
All right, to the phones.
We're going to start in Pittsburgh.
Bill, great to have you with us, sir, the EIB Network.
Hello.
Thanks, Rush.
It's a pleasure talking to you.
Yes, sir.
But I heard you talking about this cash for clunks, and I just had to chime in and just kind of tell.
Last night, here they are, the government's saying, you know, they shut it down, then they didn't shut it down.
And last night when I was at work, we actually could not process any more applications because the government computers were shut down.
You couldn't even access them.
Wait, you're a car salesman, right?
That's correct.
Okay, so.
And I'm not running for Congress, by the way.
You just are.
Okay, so you work in an auto dealership.
Right.
And last night, you heard the government's shutting down the program.
So take it from there again.
Well, they had told us, they started showing us news reports.
You know, the general manager's very conservative guy and Republican, and he kind of printed out something from the news, and we all looked at it and shaked our heads.
You know, there were customers in the showroom.
Well, you're supposed to take these applications of people that want the cash for clunkers, whether it's the $3,500, $4,500, and then you take their clunker and put it in the back, and then you take this application, and you've got to put it all through the computer.
Once you find out that they're approved to get either one of those rebates, then you have to take it and the whole application, and it's really a lengthy thing.
You have to fill in in a computer.
And they went and tried, we had a backlog of about nine or ten applications last night, and they couldn't even put them in because the computer, you just can't access it.
It was actually shut down.
The computer system shut down.
It was overwhelmed.
But I want to know the mechanics of this.
Let's say I come in and I think I've got a clunker and I want $4,500 for it for a new car from your dealership.
So I have to leave the clunker with you at that moment, even if I don't get to drive off with the new car.
Oh, sure.
We'll make the difference.
Well, basically, what they've been doing is making the car, the new car go with you, but put a dealer plate.
In other words, it's not.
But when do I get the $4,500?
And what happens if after I drive off, you hear back from the government that the whole process that I didn't qualify?
Well, see, that's where it's all in question.
Even the dealers are not sure they're going to get, unless we get a definite approval, and we have on some, have driven away already, okay?
But now it's pending because they're, you know, I went walking in there yesterday and they said we're not sure if any of some of these are even going to go through.
So we'd have to actually call those people back because, you know, a dealership's not going to get strapped $4,500 10 times.
You know, you're not going to let somebody walk out and not say that.
We have to get the money.
The government gives us the money.
On the $4,500, it's the dealership that gets reimbursed by the government, right?
Exactly.
You deduct that from the price of the car.
The new car buyer gets that taken off, walks out, drives off.
You then are on the hook for the 4,500.
And if it's not approved and you've got a car that supposedly is now used and it's been driven and you got to get it back.
Well, the only ones we're letting drive away on a certain finished done deal are the ones that have been approved by the government.
So now we have a backlog, and we're a small bush.
Let's say we have a backlog of 10 of them that we couldn't put in last night.
A bunch more people come in today.
Well, I'm still not sure if the computers are up or not.
I haven't checked.
Yeah, we're on the hook for that $35, $45, on the average, $4,000, okay?
Because it depends on how much mileage you're saving on the vehicle you pick.
Yeah, good luck getting it.
I understand how all that works.
I wish I had more time, but you've got a lousy phone connection.
Your cell phone's going in and out.
I wonder what...
I'll ask the question when we get back.
This is unfreaking believable.
I'm watching MSNBC.
They got this headline up on the screen.
Obama working on a bipartisan solution to continue cash for clunkers.
Oh, so Obama's doing it now.
Obama's working on a bipartisan solution to continue the cash for clunkers program.
Meanwhile, ABC News reporting that the House of Representatives has pumped an additional $2 billion into the cash-strapped cash for clunkers program.
That was just after the top of the hour here.
Well, now, wait a minute.
The House says they've done it.
Obama says he is working on a bipartisan solution to continue cash.
You know, I'm used to being surrounded by idiots, folks.
We all are.
But I mean, not governed by them, not governed by them, and not told what I have to drive, can't drive, bipartisan solution to find the cash for the cash for clunkers program.
Politico has this story.
Four of the most powerful business leaders in America arrived at the White House one day last month for lunch with President Obama sitting down in his private dining room just off the Oval Office.
White House staffers collected credit card numbers from each executive and carefully billed them the cost of the meal with the president.
The White House defended the unusual move as a way to avoid conflicts of interest.
Now, I have had lunch in that dining room twice, and I've had dinner up in the White House residence twice during the eight years of George W. Bush.
I never was asked for a credit card, nor was I sent a bill.
The political story says that the Bush administration never charged presidential guests for meals.
And at least one etiquette expert found the whole thing unseemly, suggesting it was a serious breach of protocol.
Letitia Baldridge, who headed up Jackie Kennedy's White House staff in the early 60s, says, I'm sure they have their political reasons for doing that, but I think it's not what, quote, hospitality, unquote, is all about.
We've got to relax about this.
To have people to White House and worry about the price of things is laughable.
It is.
It is stupid.
It's Jimmy Carter taking his own suitcase off Air Force One.
We all know it was empty.
It was a prop.
But this is not to avoid conflicts of interest.
This is Obama telling these guys who's boss.
It's always an honor to be invited there.
Did you notice, by the way, if you watched any video of the beer summit yesterday When the butler, when the waiter went out there to serve.
Did you notice there was not even an acknowledgement of that guy from Biden, from Gates, or from Obama?
Not even an acknowledgement, not even a look.
Oh, thank you very much.
None of that.
Indentured servitude.
But charging people for lunch in the White House.
Good.
Lord.
This is.
Yeah, I'll bet he writes a check for a $55,000 date in New York.
I'll bet he wrote a check to get his wife and kids flown over to Paris on a 757 and back.
I'll bet he paid for all the shopping spree.
I'll bet he paid for all of that.
Look, the guy makes $400,000 a year.
I know he's got a reserve there because of the gazillions in royalties he earned from his book.
But, you know, there is sort of a budget presidents have.
Certain things, like their personal meals in the residence, they do have to pay for that.
Oh, yeah, they do.
But stuff like this, they don't.
This is expensible.
You're doing business having lunch in the White House?
You don't charge.
I've eaten the White House mess.
I've never gotten a bill.
Well, I'm not allowed in a mess.
I've been in a wardroom of the mess.
But you got to work there or be military to get in the mess.
But I've never, ever gotten a bill.
John in Westminster, Maryland.
Great to have you.
It's Open Line Friday.
Hello, sir.
Hi, Rush.
You know, who should be very terrified right now are first-time homebuyers and home builders, realtors.
Anybody who's planning on taking advantage of that $8,000 credit that the government supposedly is promising and guaranteeing until a certain date, because a lot of these people are planning their business decisions around this and their lives, where they live.
You know, some of the people who are buying.
Why should they?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, cut to the chase.
Why should they be afraid of it?
Oh, they might just pull the plug at any time.
You never know.
You know, the same people mismanaging the Cash for Clunkers program are the ones who are administering that program.
And they're all good.
I don't know why you would think that.
Just because this bunch is goofing up this program doesn't mean they're going to goof up that program.
That program lasts until November.
Supposedly, you know, if they missed a program, I have to admit this is a relevant point that you were making.
$8,000, max 10% of subsidy for your mortgage if you are a first-time homebuyer buying a new house.
But don't worry, Obama is working on a bipartisan solution to the cash for clunkers program.
What the hell, bipartisan solution?
Have you ever had to have anything bipartisan to get a trade-in done?
It's a trade-in.
Except now, instead of the factory, instead of the corporate outfit taking care of the dealer on whatever rebate or incentive, you're dealing with a government agency or a series of them doing it, and they can't keep track of it.
And it's a tiny $1 billion program.
Aaron in Chico, California, nice to have you with us on the EIB network.
Hello.
Rough, conservative dittos.
Thank you, sir.
And I want to give you a quick anniversary present.
I recently just became a member of App Heritage, and I renewed for a two-year subscription to your 24-7.
Thank you for everything that you do, sir.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that very much, sir.
It's good for you, too.
Yes, it is.
Thank you.
But my comment this morning was regarding Bill Crystal, apparently, was on the Daily Show earlier this week.
And apparently, Jon Stewart got him to admit that government-run health care works, but through the office of working through the military.
And this was brought to my attention by a liberal friend of mine at work.
And I didn't get a chance to say it because we were kind of back and forth as far as working.
But what I didn't get a chance to tell her is that the government owns you and you are property of the government.
And they want you in and out taken care of so you can be put back in your position as far as working in the Coggin machine of being in the military.
I was in the military and I know what it's like, but she doesn't get the point, the fact that the government owns you.
And you have pretty much.
I need to go back and not you said that Bill Crystal was on the Daily Show.
Yes.
What's the Daily Show first?
The Daily Show was stoned with Jon Stewart?
Oh, the Comedy Central thing that most young people think is real news.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay.
Okay.
I was having a mental block there.
Okay, so Bill Crystal goes on with Jon Stewart.
And did you say that Stewart gets Crystal to admit that government-run health care works using the military as an example?
Yes.
And so your point is, well, of course it works because they own you and they get you in and out as fast as they can.
And it's, well, I hear a lot of complaints from military people about their health care at the hospitals, the VA, and a number of other things.
Well, this is just far as like when you go to the TNC, as far as your basic treatment or your basic care or what have you, as far as like if you're sick, if you break a bone or whatever, they get you in.
You go to the TNC, they send you back to your unit, you're set with a certain amount of...
What's a TNC?
It's the medical center for on-site wherever you are on your base.
There's a certain number.
It's called a TNC.
Sort of like sort of like the hospital of the PXs.
Yes.
In a way.
But they send you to the one that's at your unit.
You go in, you wait, you're seen.
They prescribe you whatever for your duties that you can and can't do.
And then they send you back to your unit.
But they send you in, they send you out so you can go back to your unit, perform your task that you're meant to do in the first place.
Yeah, but these are.
These are, in these circumstances, these are also military personnel who are the doctors and the nurses, correct?
Correct.
You're not dealing with the private sector at all.
No, not at all.
I mean, you might, there has been some times where people, whether it be for like pregnancy or certain related things, where they'll have hospitals just outside the base hospitals that people can go to because it's closer to their home.
Some that are traveling from their home off-post.
The point here is that you think Crystal got tricked into admitting it works and you're trying to tell us it doesn't.
Right, because it's a small little niche situation where it's specifically controlled where the thing that gets me about this, I mean, I know Jon Stewart's a state-run lib Democrat.
And if he's having to resort to pointing to the military as something that works in order to sell a program, that's a huge sellout.
These people hate the military.
We'll be back.
Stay with us.
Okay, we're back.
Rush Limbaugh Open Line Friday with talent on lawn from God.
Here's a story from Iowa.
A 78-year-old woman from Caro, Iowa says she is so tired of seeing Obama on TV that she is selling both of her TV sets.
Dolores Nissen, a retired nurse's aide and former Kmart employee who was raised on a farm near Audubon, placed a classified ad with the Daily Times-Herald for Friday's paper.
The ad cost her $5.5.
She tells readers she has two TV sets for sale, a reason Obama on every channel and station.
In an interview, Nissen said she's serious about selling the two TVs, genuine about her disgust with what she believes to be an overexposed president.
I just got tired of watching him on every channel.
I thought, my gosh, does he ever stay at the White House?
You know, I have to agree with her.
I think she's, I'm not selling TVs.
I just don't watch, but it's just oppressive.
Obama is everywhere and is driving a lot of people.
This woman's selling her TVs.
Now, I know you're thinking, Rush, she could watch other channels.
I'm sure the woman wants to watch news.
She's 78 years old.
She's waiting for the media to tell her what's the latest substance that she's eating.
It's going to kill her.
And she can't get away from Obama.
Speaking of health care, ladies and gentlemen, this morning on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, discussing the new NBC Wall Street Journal poll that's not good news for Obama on health care.
You've got 47% of the people in our NBC News Wall Street Journal poll who have health insurance who don't like what the president's doing.
The problem he's got, 47% of the people who've got coverage don't want change.
They don't like what they're hearing.
Now, they may not know what's good for them, but the problem is that he always knew he was going to have to persuade people with insurance.
That's the largest number, not the people without insurance for expanded coverage.
So they've got a real problem.
They may not know what's good for them.
Sums it up, folks.
That's how the state-run media propagandizing for Obama.
These 47% of the people who don't want, they don't like it.
They don't want to be part of it.
And actually, in most polls, it's over 50%.
Well, they may not know what's good for them.
But that's still a problem for Obama.
They may not know what's good for him.
So the conclusion is, Obama's brilliant.
The plan is flawless.
The plan is so good for all of us.
We just too stupid to know what's good for us.
And Andrea Mitchell calls herself a journalist.
Remember when Bill Clinton in Buffalo said, well, the reason I'm not crazy about tax cuts is because I don't think you spend the money as well as we will.
Do you remember that?
We don't know what's good for us.
That's, I mean, that's a foundation of liberalism.
You're too stupid.
You're too ungrateful.
You're too obtuse.
You're too stubborn.
You're just dumb.
You don't know what's good for you.
So Andrea Mitchell and Obama have to do everything for you.
You're even too stupid to know what's good for you in the cash for clunkers program.
We have to tell you what kind of car you can drive because you're too stupid to drive the real car.
Barney Frank, last Monday in Washington National Press Club, unidentified reporter for singlepayeraction.org had this exchange with Barney Frank.
Congressman, real quick, why is single payer off the table?
You guys are not the votes.
I wish you weren't.
I'm all for it.
I'm a big sponsor.
I've been a co-sponsor of single pay for a very long time.
Don't you think we should scratch everything and start anew with single payer?
No.
Why shouldn't we start with single payer new?
I love because we don't have the votes for it.
I wish we did.
I think if we get a good public option, it could reach a single payer, and that's the best way to reach single payer.
I think the best way we're going to get a single payer, the only way is to have a public option to demonstrate his faith and his power.
The money quote here from Barney Frank is, we don't have the votes for single payer right now.
I wish we did.
But if we get a good public option, that'll lead to single payer.
So there you have Barney Frank admitting what the public option is all about.
You lose everything about your health care now.
Nancy Pelosi last night on PBS the News Hour with Jim Lara, senior correspondent Judy Woodruff says the proposal to tax these so-called Cadillac gold-plated health insurance plans.
Are you open to that idea to raise money for this?
I think there's a lot of interest in taxing the insurance companies because people really do say across America that they know that they have caused the problem that we have with their antitrust exemption that they have and the immoral profits.
They're making billions of dollars in profits on the cutting off people for benefits that they are entitled to under their insurance.
Immoral profits, demonizing, villainizing the insurance companies.
Vicki in Belgium, Wisconsin, back to the phones on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Happy Friday to you, Rush, and happy anniversary.
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
You know, this health care issue, one of the things that I've not really heard anyone discuss, I work for a small business and I'm a manager.
When people talk about the fact that, you know, the companies will offload the health insurance costs to a public option, which I think absolutely will happen.
But one of the things that I haven't heard anyone say is that most employees at small businesses will want that to happen because the health care costs to small businesses, insurance-wise, are so ridiculously expensive because government has not allowed companies to do group buying of insurance.
So the rates are so high, they would be better off.
So you're saying that even despite what the president's saying that everybody's going to rush to the public option, or a lot of people will El Quicko, because they're all going to think it's a better thing.
It's going to be less expensive for them initially, or they're going to perceive it that way.
And it's going to not, private insurance is not going to be available if they go through with this.
Because whether it's the company wanting it or the employees wanting it, they are not going to continue paying ridiculous rates.
The Heritage Foundation hired an independent group to look at this, the Lewin Group, and they came out and they said it's easy.
83 million people will lose their private insurance with the Obama bill, the House version of that bill.
Well, now it's getting serious.
President Obama has lost or is very close to losing the support of Larry Flint, who has posted an angry, angry tirade aimed at Obama on thedailybeast.com.
Details are coming up, and we've got an hour to go.
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