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March 25, 2010 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:59
March 25, 2010, Thursday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Yeah, and we're up to audio sound by 15 out of 40.
I think we'll get to all of them.
Welcome back, Rushlin Baugh.
Open Line Friday on Thursday today.
So whatever you want to talk about, a fair game.
We go to the phones.
You own the content.
800-282-2882 if you want to call.
And the email address, LRushbo at EIBNet.com.
We're doing Open Line Friday on Thursday.
Again, because I will not be here tomorrow, Monday or Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday.
I've got a 17-hour trip out, 15-hour trip back, as I scout alternative health care sites outside the country since Costa Rica no longer an option.
All right, we got, it's a Thursday.
We have some unemployment news, and we have two different versions here.
First, from the Associated Press, initial jobless claims drop more than expected.
New claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week as layoffs ease and hiring slowly recovers.
The Labor Department said today that it's first-time claims for jobless benefits.
Now, remember, construction unemployment, 27%.
Underemployment, 20%.
Regular employment, 9.7%.
If you count the people who have given up and aren't working, it's 16%.
And yet we're told that the hiring economy is slowly recovering from the AP.
A labor department said Thursday, first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped by 14,000 to an adjusted 442,000.
Whoa!
That's below analysts' estimates of 450,000, according to Thompson.
What?
8,000?
They estimated 8,000 at 450 and it came in at 440.
8,000?
A measly 8,000 fewer jobless claims less than what these always wrong experts warrant such a breathless headline?
I mean, when you're talking about 450,000 and 8,000 fewer, that's a rounding error.
Most of the drop, get this now, most of the drop resulted from a change in the calculations the department makes to the seasonally adjusted data, according to a labor department analyst.
Excluding the effect of those adjustments, claims would have fallen by only 4,000.
So, once again, the labor department is adjusting how they count the unemployed.
Why should this be so complicated?
And lo and behold, this newest method just happens to lower the number of jobless.
So does 4,000 fewer unemployment claims warrant this headline?
Initial claims drop more than expected.
And the layoffs ease and hiring slowly recovers.
Now, let's go to the Reuters version of the story because the Reuters account puts the lie to the AP's headline.
Now, the Reuters headline, jobless claims fall, buoy jobs recovery hopes.
The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance fell sharply last week, boosting hopes of recovery in the labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 442,000.
The report included annual revisions to the weekly unemployment claims seasonal factors going back to 2005.
So what's happening here is the Labor Department's rewriting history.
Using the old seasonal factors, claims would have dropped to only 453,000, the Labor Department official said.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to slip to 450,000.
So in other words, in this story, unemployment claims, unemployment numbers are 3,000 claims higher than what the experts had expected.
So the AP's headline to their story, which cited Reuters analysts' initial job claims dropped more than expected, is a complete fabrication.
A total, complete fabrication.
And it's interesting that you have to go to Reuters to find an error in AP.
Normally, they are pretty consistent.
Oh, there he is.
There's Obama on stage in front of a bunch of Democrat activists in Iowa City with the aftersell.
He's got health care reform into law.
He signed it on Tuesday.
Here he is in Iowa, the first step of the aftersell.
When's the last time you ever heard anybody running around the country selling what's already passed?
I can't remember it.
To the audio soundbites, Barney Frank, Good Morning America today, was asked this question.
Do you believe that you or members of your caucus are in real danger this morning?
I don't at this point.
I will tell you in my own case, when people harp on my sexual orientation, I get more after-death threats than death threats.
They tell me what's going to happen to me for all eternity, and I very much doubt their ability to influence that.
Even if it doesn't reach the point of somebody being threatened, we don't know that.
There have been people who've shot other people.
There have been bombings.
But even if it doesn't reach that level, it's an effort to kind of hijack the debate by coercive elements.
Look, I'm not going to sit here and repeat everything I've said today until I'm blue in the face.
But you all know that the bomb throwers and the anarchists and the assassins are people of the left.
They are liberals, leftist radicals who do all the things that he's just described, to shoot people, bombings.
Name for me a conservative riot, period, and then name for me where somebody blew up something.
It doesn't happen.
Now, the president has a good friend of his that blew up the Pentagon and is still not sorry for that.
Barney Frank then continued.
He wasn't finished.
We've been trying, many of us, to get junior high school students to stop the bullying by the state of Massachusetts.
Unanimously, Republicans and Democrats voted an anti-bullying bill.
Well, then the kids turn on and they see members of Congress engaging in that kind of activity or cheering it on when two people disrupted the proceedings on Sunday by shouting from the balcony, which is really an undermining of the fundamentals of democracy.
Oh, come on.
We can't object.
We cannot dissent from what you're doing without undermining the fundamentals of democracy.
The undermining of the fundamentals of democracy is something, Mr. Frank, you signed.
You voted for.
Because the real death threat to this country is Obamacare.
Yesterday, after a meeting at the White House, here's Barney Frank talking about large banks.
Listen to this.
There are going to be death panels enacted by the Congress this year, but they're death panels for large financial institutions that can't make it.
We're going to put them to death, and we're not going to do very much for their heirs.
Barney Frank, relishing the new power he's going to have to put companies he doesn't like out of business to kill them and not do much for their heirs, meaning their customers.
He is indeed the banking queen.
Okay, it's payback.
It's payback time.
Since I had to call attention to the fact that Casey and a Sunshine Band were played twice in a bumper rotation, we get Rinky Dink.
1959, I believe.
Dave Baby Cortez.
You know, it's a Barney song, too.
Rinky Dink.
It does remind you of the old roller skating rink music that you would play when you're falling on your butt, the rubber ball in your back pocket so it wouldn't hurt.
Boom, boom, boom.
Hey, hey, folks, lookie here.
The Associated Press, Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro today declared passage of Obama's health care reform a miracle and a major victory for Obama's presidency.
Fidel Castro, ladies and gentlemen, has endorsed Obamacare as a miracle.
We'll take a break and digest that and be right back.
So I'm watching our beloved president, our highly respected president, our brilliant and articulate president, our clean president, sell the healthcare plan that the nation loves to an audience in Iowa City, Iowa.
Now, I've seen the crowd.
I've seen the crowd sitting behind him.
I've seen wide shots of the crowd.
And I can tell you this, that if Obama were a Republican, the story would be the president today speaking before a mostly white audience in Iowa City, Iowa.
Yabba yabba da da da da.
I think we'll have that aspect of the story reported.
Speaking before a mostly white audience, I had somebody ask me from corporate.
I had a meeting on Monday with somebody corporate.
And they said, let me ask you a question.
Are you really on this BG product commercial?
Is it really you can't get it in a retail store?
And I said, yeah.
I said, well, why in the world would you agree to do that?
What do you mean?
Why would I agree to do it?
Why would you attempt to help a company sell a product that you can't buy?
And I said, because it's the best.
And they came to me and they wanted me to make everybody aware of their product.
They've got a business model and this stuff is not just oil in a can.
It has to be scientifically used, measured, and so forth.
BG products, they're out of Wichita, and you can't buy it at a retail store.
They have 17,000 dealerships and service centers, and you have to go to a website to find one near you.
It's bgfindashop.com.
But it is the best.
It's the best engine oil, a transmission fluid, brake fluid, whatever is needed for your car.
Transmission, driveline, power, steering, brake systems.
And if you use their products, your engine transmission, driveline, powertrain, power steering brake systems are protected from catastrophic failure for the life of your car, even if you sell it.
Now, if you already have an oil change already scheduled, you need to call the shop where you have the appointment, make sure they have the BG oil service.
And if they don't, cancel it and find out where to go and try it.
Especially, you know, people are holding on to their cars longer these days because of the economic circumstance.
And it makes sense to use the best and to protect your engine and all the other functioning parts of your car to keep it alive.
17,000 dealerships and independent shops nationwide can provide all the BG services just to find one near you, bgfindashop.com.
The corporate person said, well, we're proud of you.
Most hosts would not have even accepted this.
To agree to sell a product nobody can actually go out and buy.
That's right.
But companies that wish to succeed let their products and services be known on this program by me.
Jim in Green Bay.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Thanks, Rosh.
Glad to be on.
Thank you.
One of the costs that is not pointed out by the Congressional Budget Office is the impact of federal retirement benefits with pulling health out as far as being a viewed benefit.
I'm a military retiree, 23 years.
One of the things that I considered going the extra mile and retiring from the military was not just the additional retirement pay, but the package as far as reduced medical coverage costs as well.
Well, now that the playing field is going to be level and that's going to be a given, the additional cost that's got to be put into the picture to sweeten the pot, let's say, for every military retiree and every federal employee retiree out there is going to be astronomical.
I haven't seen anything on this.
And it just, I mean, earlier you were talking about undermining and undermining of my retirement occurred on Tuesday.
I feel that my worth to the country has been devalued by possibly 50%.
So I don't know if you've touched on this topic before.
Well, not directly, but were you here at the beginning of the program?
Did you hear the first news story that I mentioned today?
Yes.
Okay.
Well, it's part and parcel of the same thing.
I mean, we're not talking about military retirees.
We're just talking about civilian retirees.
Their costs are going to skyrocket, which is also going to wipe out their net worth or put a big dent in it.
So it's basically the same thing.
But note this: while your benefits get cut in half or pared down, members of Congress and other federal employees hold on to their benefits for life after they quit or are defeated or retire.
The only thing I ask my fellow constituents of Wisconsin to do is start on a new health care initiative, and that's to get Congressman Steve Kagan back into his medical practice where he can reap the benefits of his own doing.
That's a great campaign slogan.
Thanks.
Get Congressman Kagan back into the doctor's office so he can find out the hell he's put us all through.
Oh, yeah.
All right.
Jim, thanks much.
If you were not here, folks, this is AP relief to seniors facing high prescription drug costs is one of the first changes to come under the new health care overhaul.
But ultimately, that will not offset the relentless increase in retirees' medical expenses.
A couple age 65 retiring this year will need $250,000 on average to cover medical expenses during their retirement, according to a study to be released today by Fidelity Investments.
Now, the study is based on projections for a couple of 65-year-olds retiring this year with Medicare coverage and living to 82 for men, 85 for women.
So, in addition to whatever else your retirement is going to cost you, an additional $250,000 on top of it now to handle the new health care expenses that are in Obamacare.
Jill and Columbus, I'm glad you called.
Thanks for waving.
Welcome to the program.
Hi, Gray.
I'm calling because I'm mad today at the people who are mad about this legislation passing the health care legislation because I'll bet you at least half the people who are calling in mad have voted in favor of smoking bans and have supported representatives who supported seatbelt laws, car seat laws, helmet laws, trans fat bans.
All those bits of legislation that steal our liberties led to this being able to pass.
And, you know, they've just, they've reaped what they've sown.
Yeah, but there's a tipping point, you see.
I mean, I agree with you.
They snatch a little bit here, snatch a little freedom there, under the guise of safety for all, fairness for all, security for all, equality for all.
And then at some point, they make the big bite.
They make the big chew, and this is it.
And then people finally realize what's going on.
But that's an excellent point.
All these other little bitty things, helmet laws, trans fat bans.
By the way, do you know in the just to give you an idea, in this health care bill, it is now the law of the land that restaurants have to publish calorie content of everything they sell?
I don't know if it's just because I don't have the story in front of me.
I don't know if it's just certain kinds of restaurants like fast food joints or if it's every restaurant.
But it's now, these are state laws where they exist.
Now it's part of Obamacare.
Calorie content, food items on the menu nationwide.
And welcome back.
Hi, Rush Lindbaugh, talent on loan from God.
There's a lawyer out there, ladies and gentlemen, raising an interesting question about the tax on tanning salons.
Based on who goes to them, do black people or brown people go to tanning salons?
Nope.
Do Asian people go into tanning salons?
Do they do?
You've seen them in there?
Oh, so you do go to them.
Well, then, how do you know?
If you don't go to them, how do you know that?
Oh, and you see people going in and out.
There's one right next to the breast center.
Okay, tanning salon right next to the breast center.
Fine.
A lawyer, a lawyer asks this question: whether the new 10% tanning tax included in the health care bill unconstitutionally discriminates against white people.
I have a question about the intersection of taxation and civil rights law.
It strikes me that the health care bill, which requires that indoor tanning salons, will charge customers a 10% tax beginning in July, will necessarily only impact tanning salon customers.
I've never been to one, but since their purpose is to turn light-skinned darker, I can only assume that the overwhelming majority, if not totality, of customers are white.
So does Adarand apply to taxation decisions as it does to spending decisions like the Section 8A program?
But what about taxing decisions as well as spending decisions?
Well, it might be fertile ground for a little test lawsuit here to see how it holds up.
Here's the proof on the phony story that Politico ran about protesters putting a coffin on the front yard at Russ Carnahound's house in Missouri.
This is an interview with Carnahan spokesman Sarah Howard, our Kansas City affiliate, 980k MBZ Morning News, Eyeball News.
This is the exchange between the co-host Ellen Schenck and Sarah Howard, who is the Carnahan spokesman.
Does the congressman feel like there's any real threat to his safety or his families?
No, I don't think he feels threatened.
No, he doesn't feel threatened because they were praying for him.
They were praying for him.
They took the coffin away.
It continued.
Did somebody go drop a coffin on the congressman's lawn and leave it there?
That's why.
No, I don't think so.
And, you know, I know that there's been some confusion about this.
I've seen some news reports that probably mischaracterize what happened.
That's what it sounds like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's what it sounds like.
And why did it happen?
Because the template at Politico and throughout the state-controlled media is what we're seeing since Tuesday.
And that is the tea parties are filled with violence and they have overthrow in their hearts and minds.
This is the accusation.
This is the thought.
Well, all the genuine violence, all the genuine rioting, all the genuine destruction of property takes place when people on the left get together and get angry about something.
I want to play Stupak.
I want to make a point about people calling Stupak.
First off, his office released a number of phone calls from unidentified callers that he alleges he's received since the passage of health reform on Sunday.
And we've put together a montage of some of the calls.
Congressman Stupak, you are one big piece of human.
Think about this.
There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill.
Stupak, you're a baby-murdering, scumbag pile of steam and crap.
That's what you are.
You and your family are scum.
You ought to feel your pockets with lid and jump in the Potomac.
So that caller is asking for Stupak to kill himself.
Basically wearing a cement swimsuit and jumping in the river.
But let's go back.
I want to go back to Thursday.
Last week, MSNBC's daily rundown, the guest Bart Stupak, and the co-host Savannah Guthrie said, Congressman Stupak, we noticed in your quote where you said that since you've come out and taken a stand like this, meaning a pro-life stance on the health care bill, that your life has been a living hell.
What does that mean?
Pussy and means that some people disagree with me, they can't have an honest discussion about it.
You get cussed out wherever you go.
Unfortunately for my wife, she's got to unplug her phone at night because you get the phone calls at 2-3 in the morning and they want to cuss you out.
She can't even do that.
My staff is overwhelmed, and we're accosted basically wherever we go by people who disagree.
We should have disagreements in this country.
I, for one, is stand on a principle that most Americans agree with.
There's no reason for that kind of language, abusive behavior to my family, my staff, or even myself.
Now, this was last week.
This was before he sold out.
So who do you think's calling him?
Pro-choicers.
Pro-choicers are calling him here.
Democrats are calling him.
They're the ones making his life a living hell.
He hadn't sold out by Thursday.
That didn't happen until Sunday afternoon.
They were working on him, but you'd have to say that most of the people calling Stupak and his wife and making his life a living hell had to be members of his own party.
I just wanted to point that out.
Daniel in Cedar Springs, Michigan.
You're next.
Great to have you here.
Hello.
It's great to be with you, Rush.
Real honor.
Thank you, sir.
I'd like to make a couple of comments about the media's coverage of Israel's building in the Jerusalem area.
Yeah.
I lived in Israel for 12 years with my family, 1988 to 2000.
And I have to say that it was really annoying, not only to me, but to most of the Israelis I knew to listen to the media hack their situation to death over there in favor of the Palestinians.
Not that I'm against the Palestinians, but I'd like to give a couple of talking points here, if I may, about what's in the media.
I get so tired.
The BBC, you know, calls it illegal settlements.
Absolutely maddening.
And even Fox Radio calls them settlements.
This is not part of the West Bank.
This is Greater Jerusalem.
Which is their capital.
And by the way, at best, this is a big misunderstanding because these are perfectly allowed under whatever agreement has been made.
Exactly.
These 1,600 have been agreed to.
Yes.
And these are neighborhoods.
They're not settlements.
They're not like some place out there that's just starting.
And in fact, the place that they're talking about is called Ramat Shlomo, or Solomon's Heights.
And this was built in 1993, started then.
16,000 people live there now.
So they're just adding apartments because there's no place for them to go.
The people that are having new families, they want to build there, and they can't live there.
There's no place to go.
And then the other point is, they talk about East Jerusalem.
These apartments, these neighborhoods are in north and northwest Jerusalem.
And that's significant because it's in the eastern part of Jerusalem where you have a higher concentration of Arab neighborhoods and they're more sensitive about building in those areas and that's understandable.
But this is not in that area.
So, you know, if your listeners are interested in talking points, you know, that I think is helpful.
I think what people are interested in here is the fact that this is a perfect example of a ginned-up controversy brought about by the Obama administration, sending Vice President Biden over there.
This administration is poking Israel in the eye every day on purpose.
I said earlier.
That if I could call Bibi and solve this problem easily, it may be tough to get it through to Knesset, but if you just change the name of Israel to Iran, problem solved, you'd be treated with respect and love and devotion, peaceful coexistence, diplomatic relations.
Nobody will tell you to give up any of your country.
Nobody will tell you to make peace with your enemies.
Nobody will tell you.
If you just called yourselves Iran, just get rid of the name Israel.
I got to take a brief time out.
We'll do it and come right back after this.
Don't go away.
Meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every day, a slam dunk, El Rushbo, behind the golden EIB microphone.
My friends, I say it and it happens.
Yesterday on this program, I warned you, I made a prediction.
I said the following.
Now, the media will pick up on my next comments here, and this will be tonight's example of hate speech on the state-controlled media.
So roll out there on state-controlled media.
If you're looking for today's installment of hate speech, here it comes.
Obama is now going to use, are you rolling?
Okay, take two.
Obama is now going to use his deceit and his propaganda skills to claim that the dire problems from his plan have not been realized.
He's going to go out starting tomorrow in Iowa City and all next week when he goes out to sell this embarrassing piece of legislation.
And he's going to say, where's all the top stars?
Where are all the dire problems?
Anybody put a plug on Granny?
He's going to go out and all of these fear-mongering scare tactics supposedly made up by people like me are going to be held up as just that.
Nobody's pulled a plug on Granny or any of that.
Exactly as I predicted this afternoon in Iowa City.
There's been plenty of fear-mongering, plenty of overheated rhetoric.
If you turn on the news, you'll see the same folks are still shouting about there's going to be an end of the world because this bill passed.
I'm not exaggerating.
Leaders of the Republican Party, they called the passage of this bill Armageddon.
Armageddon.
End of freedom as we know it.
So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there were any asteroids falling or some cracks opening up in the earth.
Turned out it was a nice day.
Birds were chirping.
Folks were strolling down the mall.
People still had their doctors.
Do I know this guy?
Or do I know this guy?
I am living rent-free in this guy's head.
It is just amazing.
Oh, yeah.
And the panhandlers were even nicer.
Why did you leave that out, Mr. President?
The homeless are not as rude when they're asking for their $3,200 a month for their shelter.
Yes, Mr. Snerdley, yes, it is fun to be me.
Speaking of being me, folks, I have told you I'm not going to be here tomorrow or Monday or Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, because I got a long trip, 15 hours out, 17 hours back.
Now, 15 hours on an airplane, not a problem for me.
One hour on an airplane for most everybody is a potential health disaster.
You don't know what kind of diseases people get on these airplanes with.
The common cold is constantly circulating.
If one person has it, it's circulating throughout the entire fuselage.
And Obamacare is not going to take care of you.
You're no longer going to go into the doctor's office and be treated for a cold.
There's nothing they can do anyway, except charge your insurance company $100 for the visit.
And what are they going to do?
Send you out and say you want?
Go get some aspirin.
Drink plenty of fluids.
Have some chicken soup.
No, my friends, Zycam.
I take it with me on the airplane anyway.
You never know.
Zycam, oral mint spray is my favorite delivery of the product.
Four times in your oral cavity.
That's your mouth, for those of you in Riolinda.
Every three hours at the moment you think you've got a cold and zip, zada, it stops it.
It doesn't get rid of it, but it slows down the onset.
It reduces the severity of the symptoms.
And I have testimonial letters from people thanking me about this.
That would mean it's a stack almost half as high as a health care bill.
Product works.
Zycam.
They got lozenges too.
There's any number of ways you can use it.
I just happen to like the breath spray because it is a breath spray as well as a way to shorten the duration, the common cold.
Zycam.
Here's Paul, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
How are you?
Great.
My comment, and I want to be brief.
I know it's the end of your program, is your point on the quote-unquote aggressiveness of the conservatives and the Republicans.
I mean, I just find it laughable.
It's not my experience with all the people I know who oppose this bill.
But I wanted to point out that the first thing I thought of was the aftermath of the Gore Bush election when everyone was going crazy and the Democrats were so aggressive.
And when the Republicans stood up to them, everyone was in shock.
You know, how can these Republicans be standing up to us?
A very low level of assertiveness was a shock to the libs.
And now they think that, you know, we're all of a sudden capable of this, you know, leaving coffins on people's front lawns.
You know, that's an excellent point because the Florida aftermath, especially for us in this area, because, I mean, this is, that's where the butterfly ballot was, and all these poor people thought they voted for Buchanan.
Yeah, and we had all these Democrats.
What was that commissioner's name?
Carol, what's her face?
I can't remember her name.
Can I tell you a quick story about that?
Yeah.
I was at Palm Beach International during that whole mess, and I started chatting with a guy who turned out to be a low-level curator from the Smithsonian, and he was collecting signs.
And he was shocked.
He's like, I'm a lib.
I can't believe how many people are fighting this.
Well, it was near riotous.
It was near riotous.
The Democrats were going bonkers.
So I know that some Republicans went down there and carried signs where they were counting the ballots and so forth.
And you go out of Miami-Dade, the Brooks Brothers Brigade.
These well-dressed Republicans showed up to make sure that the counting of the ballots, the recount down there was being done properly and fairly.
And you're right.
That just, that ticked off the Democrats couldn't because nobody treated them that way.
Whatever they wanted to do with government, they got away with doing.
And they were in the process of trying to steal an election.
And people stood up to them and so forth.
And, oh, yeah, I'd forgotten all about that.
Yeah, that great examples of Democrat Party civility there.
Tremendous examples of it.
Okay, I appreciate it.
Ed, yeah, Ed King, George, Virginia.
One minute.
Can you do it in one minute?
Yeah, I sure can, Rush.
As usual, Joe Biden is two-thirds right.
You know, it's not a big effing deal.
It's just a big effing.
Yeah, and we're the ones getting effed.
You got it.
Thanks much.
We'll take a break.
I love that.
Brevity and callers.
Well, folks, if I didn't know that we were effed already, I do now.
I just reported the news to you that Fidel Castro has thrown his full endorsement and full support behind Obamacare, calling it a miracle.
And now this.
The head of the United Nations World Health Organization has praised U.S. healthcare reforms signed by President Obama as a breakthrough, stepping into a sharp domestic political debate doing so.
The people in this country and their leaders are courageous.
That healthcare reform is an unprecedented achievement, said Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization Director General.
She was speaking to reporters after a lecture in which she argued that unrestricted market forces were limited as a means of redressing imbalances in global health care.
So when you got Castro endorsing it, and now the head honcho babe at the World Health Organization, trust me, my friends, if you still had hope that we weren't totally screwed, forget it.
When worldwide communists and socialists like it, we're screwed.
Have a nice weekend, couple, three or four days.
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