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Aug. 17, 2010 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:37
August 17, 2010, Tuesday, Hour #3
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All right, we decided to look into this Teamsters bailout business based on the question of the previous caller.
He wanted to find out if 100% are covered.
And it turns out essentially no.
The taxpayers are the ultimate backstop.
What we're talking about here is the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
What's going to happen here is that these orphan pensions that are orphaned because the companies are insolvent are going to be folded in to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, which itself, according to quick research we did here at the top of the hour, is already significantly underfunded, and taxpayers are its ultimate backstop.
It always is going to come back to us.
Even the guarantor here, when they're out of money, guess who they come to to replenish?
It's us.
Now, the Casey Pomeroy bailout, we're talking Teamster pensions here.
The Casey Pomeroy bailout could dump as much as $165 billion in new liabilities into the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
That's $165 billion in taxpayer money.
Multi-employer plans would get a clean bill of health.
Now, the caller was right.
Under Casey's bill, payouts to current retirees of the Teamsters would be limited to $21,000 a year, a fraction of what they expect to receive.
You don't care, Snerdly?
Snerdley is shouting through the glass at me, it's $21,000 too much.
Now, this is reported, I should tell you, in an opinion piece, the Wall Street Journal Review and Outlook, the next pension bailout, August 15th, just a couple days ago.
So it's not a full 100% bailout.
It's $21,000 a year, as opposed to what the retiree expects to get.
It doesn't matter.
It's still us, still the taxpayers paying the $21,000.
We're not Teamsters members.
We haven't paid dues into any union fund.
It is our responsibility to bail them out because that's the way the Democrat Party that's ruling the roost now decides their voters are going to be made whole.
Gallup out just now, first time in its tracking poll, more Americans disapprove of Obama than approve.
It's 51 disapprove, 42% approve in the latest Gallup tracking number.
I know.
Look at, if my investment portfolio was in the tank, and by the way, my investment portfolio is made up of money that I have earned and I have then socked away in my investment portfolio.
Every dime in there is mine.
It's not been matched by anybody.
Mine hasn't.
I'm an IC.
I'm in my own sub-S.
I am not, nobody matches what I put in there.
I pay the full 15% Social Security.
I pay all the Medicare.
I get nothing from anybody.
If my portfolio went to dust, I stays at dust.
If my portfolio goes to zero, it stays at zero.
Because I would not be able to make the claim that I worked for some predatory employer or predatory company that was secretly screwing me behind my back.
But this is all predicated on the fact, I think, I mean, not all predicated, but I would assume that one of the many rationales for this is, well, of course these poor Teamsters people, they're owed this because look at the rotten scum they worked for.
Look at the evil corporations they worked for.
So we are now bailing out mortgages.
We are bailing out houses.
We are bailing out health care.
We are bailing out clunker cars.
We are bailing out solar panels on your roof.
We are bailing out what?
Appliances.
And we're bailing out people on Wall Street who have mismanaged their businesses.
We're bailing them out.
Nobody's bailing us out.
Unless you have a mortgage that's being bailed out, unless you turned in a clunker.
We're bailing out the unemployed for 99 weeks with an additional 20 weeks being added.
And now the poor Teamsters, some of them, their pensions are zilch zero nada, but we're going to pay $21,000 a year.
$21,000 a year, that's chicken feed to buy a vote for the Democrats.
I mean, you think, as far as Pomeroy and Bob Casey Jr. are concerned, that's cheap.
$21,000 to buy a vote from a Democrat union member when they're probably going to get the vote anyway.
But they want to make sure that's really cheap.
Now contrast this with the fact that I don't know what the Teamsters' corresponding numbers here are, but the NEA in 2009 took in $355 million in dues.
I don't know what the Teamsters are taking in or the pigiron workers or other unions.
$355 million.
What do you bet we're going to be bailing?
We are.
We are bailing out teachers.
We just did it last week, again, to the tune of $26 billion.
Government workers, too.
Private sector teachers, publics, well, yeah, I guess private sector teachers, but other public sector employees.
Now, snurdly, you have been in New York.
Many of you have been in New York.
Those of you who live there, of course, know this.
The handsome cabs, these are the cabs, basically the horse-drawn carriages that take you on walking tours through Central Park.
And they are, they're really lovely.
It's wintertime, Christmastime, people all bundled up going through the park.
They're popular year-round.
And they are, they're fairly expensive.
And yet, every year, well, not every year, but almost every year, when it gets hot, a couple days in New York, you hear a smattering of complaints from the animal rights people about cruelty to horses.
But have you noticed they never really shut them down?
The Liberals never shut them down.
They let the animal rights people wail and moan now and then about cruelty to horses, but they never shut them down.
Do you ever wonder why there are still handsome cabs in New York City?
Well, I know it's a quaint throwback and it's romantic and it's a good way to go through Central Park.
But the dirty little secret is they are Teamsters.
The drivers of handsome cabs are Teamsters.
I kid you not.
And they make a fortune.
So while there is lip service paid every now and then to the animal cruelty, horse cruelty, and so forth, liberals and animal rights groups have put up a good fight because of the cruelty.
Yet those handsome cabs are still there.
The one time, the one time that people don't cave to the animal rights wackos, the one time, the one instance they don't cave to the liberal social do-gooders is the handsome cab because the drivers are Teamsters.
And from what I understand, they do pretty well.
Now, me, I got no problem with it.
You know, a horse is a horse.
Of course, of course, said backwards equals, this is Satan, as we were once told by an Ohio minister.
But all that aside, the biggest problem is, of course, the poop.
Central Park South on the wrong time of day can stink when you come out of your high-class five-star hotel there.
And they don't just, it's not just Central Park.
I mean, they're running around old Midtown in certain places, but the drivers are Teamsters.
You didn't know that, Snerdley?
You didn't know it?
Why?
Did you think they're just independent contractors?
Guys like push the food carts.
Yeah, well, they're not.
They're Teamsters.
Now, Nora O'Donnell, MSNBC, again on Scarborough's show today, she was queried about the Ground Zero mosque.
Scarborough said to Nora O'Donnell, do you expect a lot of pressure coming from Democrats to the president to move in their direction and move the mosque?
I think there's a question about whether what President Obama said in Bloomberg said were at least the right thing to do.
And when do we stop praising politicians for doing what is right just because it's not politically expedient?
I thought the reason everybody's groaning all the time about our politicians is because they're such hacks and nobody stands up for what's right.
Who cares about the concrete?
Somebody's got to say that, you know, we're not going to act like the people who stole freedom from Americans, the people who attacked America and killed 3,000 people.
So the libs are out there attacking Newt.
Newt said it's no different to placing a swastika next to a Holocaust museum.
And they're having a cow out there over that.
But here now, Nora O'Donnell has compared opposition to the mosque to killing 3,000 people.
And all this courage was newfound concern for property rights, newfound concern for religious freedom and religious liberty.
Everybody knows the left doesn't really care about any of that.
Zilch Zeronada and Roger Simon today in the Politico.
Obama the one-term president.
Here's how the piece starts.
Now, don't be suckered.
This is a sarcasm piece.
Will Barack Obama be a one-term president?
Answer, yes, he might last that long.
Honest to goodness, the man just doesn't get it.
He might be forced to pull a palin and resign before his first term's over.
He could go off and write his memoirs and build his presidential library.
Both would be half-size, of course.
I'm not saying Obama's not smart, smart's a whip.
I'm just saying he does not understand what savvy first-term presidents need to understand.
You have to stay on message.
You have to follow the polls.
You have to listen to your advisors who are writing the message and taking the polls and realize that when it comes to doing what's right versus what's expedient, you do what's expedient so you can get reelected.
You do what's right in the second term.
If at all possible, it'll help your legacy and not endanger the election of others in your party and not hurt the brand or upset.
What he's doing here is praising Obama's courage.
And he's comparing him to Lincoln.
Lincoln got two terms by standing up and doing the right thing.
A lot of people like are misinterpreting Mr. Simon's piece here.
Now he says Simon says Obama's doing the right thing.
He came out for the mosque.
He's not doing what typical presidents do.
He's not listening to the polls.
He's not doing what's best for his party.
He's not doing what's expedient.
He's doing what's right.
This is a piece that is praising Obama in a vein of only a satirist, a good one like me, could understand this.
A lot of people have misunderstood this.
It's a controversy Obama could have ducked, but he finally decided he needed to lend his voice and the weight of the presidency to speaking out for what is right.
So on Friday night, Obama said, as a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country.
That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with the local laws and ordinances.
And Roger Simon says, see what I mean about not getting it?
John Feary, Republican consultant, told the New York Times, this is not a unifying decision on his part.
He chose his side.
I understand why he did this, but politically, I think it's a blunder.
The problem for Obama is he appears to have taken seriously all the change stuff he promised.
And he's been unable to make the transition from candidate to president.
It appears, however, that at least on this occasion, Obama doesn't care what the polls say.
Now, the reason people are buying this, because a lot of people think the liberals live and die by polls.
If you go against the polls, you're crazy.
This is a piece by Roger Simon attempting to give a huge bunch of attaboys to Obama.
There's one problem, Mr. Simon.
You don't write that Obama changed his mind the next day at the first sign of trouble.
Oh, yes.
On Saturday, Obama went, oh, no, no, no, I didn't.
I didn't mean that.
No, no, I wasn't inserting myself on a local issue.
I wasn't doing that.
No, I wasn't doing it.
So, Mr. Simon, if you're going to write about the courageous bravery of Barack Obama, compare him to Abraham Lincoln doing the right thing, and he got two terms.
Abraham Lincoln not listening to the polls or what have you.
Don't you think it'd be fair to include in the fact in your piece that Mr. Obama the very next day tried to take back his own words of courage that were uttered on Friday?
The Teamsters collected $187 million in dues in 2009.
$187 million.
The NEA almost doubled that.
Demi nets.
Can you imagine the NEA putting the Teamsters in the shade when it comes to Jimmy Hoffa?
Where are you?
This has got, if he's still capable of understanding what's going on, that would tick him off.
The teachers are collecting more union dues than his Teamsters union is?
What an embarrassment.
Teachers for crying out loud.
Wait, I want to be fair to the Teamsters.
I might have given a partial answer.
The total for the Teamsters represents national dues.
Does not include local dues.
The NEA doesn't have local dues.
So there's not, you know, the Teamsters local 6969.
There's not an NEA local 1313 or whatever.
So all of NEAs are national dues.
So we don't know what the local dues collected by the Teamsters are.
But I still going to be dwarfed at the end at the end of the day by the NEA.
Okay, back to the phones, Maher, in Wichita, Kansas.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
Hello.
Thank you for taking my call.
You bet, sir.
And I am an American Muslim, and I opposed building a mosque around the Ground Zero area.
Did I pronounce your name correctly?
I don't want to make it.
Yes, you did.
Thank you very much.
Why do you oppose it?
Well, it's common sense.
It's a sensitivity issue.
I don't think it has anything to do with constitutional rights of Muslims to build mosques anywhere in America.
I think we have to be sensitive to our fellow Americans.
And that's just a common sense to me.
There was in the first hour of the program today, I read an excerpt in an interview from a man who was, I forget his title, but he was ranking executive at Al-Arabiya TV.
And he basically said the same thing.
He said, most Muslims don't really want it there.
They know the problems it's going to cause.
This is a commercial area.
It's not residential.
There aren't a whole lot of Muslims that live there in the first place.
And it implied that there's a battle within Islam over Al-Qaeda bastardizing the religion, and that this is going to give all of Islam a bad name if this thing gets built there.
Exactly.
This is opening a can of worms, and we don't need that.
We are loyal American citizens.
And actually, our faith, our Islam, our religion, require us to repel evil with good and to do something that is good.
And I basically, I actually made a video clip on YouTube suggesting another idea for using that property and whether to build a charitable institution to cater for the needs of people in that area or actually to do more something drastic than that and to rebuild the towers and dedicate them to the victims of 9-11.
Interesting.
Why are they going to build one tower back?
They wanted to call it the World Trade Center, but people opposed.
They're going to call it the Freedom Tower now, I think.
Well, how many are you representative of a majority thinking in your circle?
I hope I am.
I don't know.
I hope I am because I think Muslims are also reacting to this issue emotionally as people who, Americans who are opposing building the mosque also reacting emotionally.
And if American Muslims will take some time to think about the repercussions of building a mosque in that area, they would probably be also opposing to that.
Meher, thank you very much.
That's interesting.
And, you know, I'll tell you something.
That is an excellent point.
We are always concerned about anti-Muslim backlash.
Remember the Times Square bomber, Bloomberg.
Oh, no, we're not.
Obviously, somebody didn't like Obama's health care.
The Fort Hood shooter.
General Casey comes out.
I'm going to make sure that we don't have an anti-Muslim backlash.
And yet, here they want to build a mosque at ground zero, and they're not concerned about anti-Muslim backlash, are they?
That is an excellent point out there.
Why aren't we worried about it in this case when in virtually every other case, our leaders are in panic over anti-Muslim reaction?
Think about that.
Thank you, my hair, for the call.
We'll be back.
We'll continue right after this.
The shoe on the other foot.
I always love it.
When the shoe is on the other foot, this is from the World Socialist website.
I check it frequently because I know so few other people do.
The date is today.
Indianapolis autoworkers drive United Auto Workers executives out of meeting.
Now, we fantasized about this.
When Obama gave General Motors to the United Auto Workers, they became the executives.
He's going to start negotiating union contracts.
We say, wait till this starts happening.
And it has.
Workers at a Obama Motors stamping plant in Indianapolis chased United Auto Workers executives out of a union meeting on Sunday after the UAW demanded those workers accept a contract that would cut their wages in half.
Yes.
As soon as three UAW international representatives took the podium, they were met with booze and shouts of opposition from many of the 631 workers currently employed at the plant.
The officials attempting to speak at the only informational meeting on the proposed contract changes were forced out within minutes of taking the floor.
The incident once again exposes the immense class divide between workers and union officials who are working actively with the auto companies to drive down wages and eliminate benefits.
The shoe's on the other foot.
Now the UAW's executives are the owners and they're trying to tell their own brethren to take 50 cents on the dollar.
The national UAW are the bosses now that they effectively own Obama Motors and they're the ones riding the backs of the proletariat.
And it shows up on the World Socialist website.
You have to love this.
A vote on the changes was originally scheduled for Monday, but it was canceled by the UAW after Sunday's informational meeting made it clear that opposition was nearly unanimous.
New contract would, among other concessions, cut wages from an average of $29 an hour to $15.50 an hour.
Now, that's not quite correct.
The new contract would cut the base wage, that's the starting wage.
The starting wage is $29.
It would cut the starting wage from $29 to $15.50 an hour, which is still more than the other auto manufacturing plants in the area pay, including other Obama Motors plants.
Needless to say, ladies and gentlemen, these figures do not include overtime or the lavish benefits pensions package and so forth.
Obama Motors, the UAW, and the state government in Indiana have been working to sell the plant to J.D. Norman Industries, which was demanding the nearly 50% wage cuts.
It's, oh, that's why they want to do it.
They want to sell it.
UAW management wants to sell the company.
And so they're getting UAW workers to take a 50% pay cut on the opening wage just to stay profitable.
And the UAW, now they own it.
The executives want their bonuses based on profitability.
And what are they doing?
They're asking for labor cuts.
I love it when the shoe is on the other foot.
You notice they're not encouraging a strike.
They're not doing what they would normally do if they were on the other side of the aisle.
They're acting just like management does everywhere around the world.
Obama Motors and the UAW are now denouncing workers for opposing the destruction of their living standards.
Obama Motors and the UAW are now denouncing workers for opposing the destruction of their living standards.
That's in the story.
That's at the World Socialist website.
So the World Socialists are upset at Obama Motors and the UAW executives because they say they want the executives or the workers to go along with the destruction of half of their living standards.
Now the only thing missing here, what's the next thing that could happen?
The next thing that could happen is that the UAW management take a hint from their brethren, the owners of the National Football League, and consider a lockout.
Lock out the rank and file.
Lock them out before there's a strike.
Yeah, I'm laughing at it.
Yeah, I love it because I knew this was going to happen.
We talked about it and I've been waiting for it.
And you don't see this anywhere else in state control media, do you?
You didn't know this was happening, did you?
Now, you might know it in Indiana.
The local Indianapolis drive-bys might be writing about it, but you didn't know about it.
You have to go to the World Socialist website.
Lock them out, UAW.
Lock them out before they strike.
And Limbaugh is enjoying this way too much.
That's right.
Although I don't know I could enjoy it too much.
This is one of the stories that just keeps giving and giving and giving.
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I can just imagine when I get to my email, there's going to be some, are you really laughing at the misfortune of people who are having half of their salaries taken away?
Well, it may look like that, but that's not really what I'm laughing at.
What I'm laughing at is the life lesson learned.
The very people who used to go on strike over these kind of proposals are now causing the very action that used to cause the strike.
And they're formerly, they're union people.
They just now happen to be owners.
Look what happens to them when they become owners.
They learn that the single biggest cost in running a business is labor.
And that if you're not showing a profit, and if you need to very quickly, the first thing you can look to cut is labor costs.
It's the way of the world.
It just is.
It's a sad thing, but it just is.
And add to this, the reason they want to do it is they want to sell a company.
Because I'm sure there's a premium they're going to get because they're selling this thing at a profit or hope to.
There's an influx of cash, but the new owners aren't going to buy it at current wages.
So there's, I mean, there's an economic lesson here being learned left and right.
The sad thing is that nobody knows about it other than those of you listening here on the EIB network.
Now, who else, and you want to talk about, you want to talk about chutzpah.
Who else but the United Auto Workers would have the chutzpah to demand that they cut their salaries by half?
The executives.
I don't know that General Motors ever went that far.
I don't know that Chrysler ever went that far.
I might have laid people off.
Yeah, new hires.
The new hires are significantly lower wage.
And that's what we're talking about here.
Not people who have been around for quite a while.
If the rank and file, if they don't accept this deal, outsource the jobs.
I mean, teach the lesson.
I can't believe Lindboy family's fun of it.
Look at, I am not reveling here in the pain and discomfort of others.
This is just, this is too big a teachable moment.
Because, you know, the Chikoms, the Vietnamese, Indian, all have cheaper labor.
That's why it's over there.
Anyway, let's take a brief break.
We'll come back and continue here on the EIB network right after this.
From the EIB archives.
My website, quick hits, stack of stuff.
May 20th, 2009.
I predicted this very thing would happen.
May of 2009 when Obama gave Chrysler to the UAW.
Now get this.
Get this.
Snerdly, the UAW executives have said they will close the plant if the rank and file don't take the deal.
They're going to lock them out.
I read further in the socialist worker story.
They're going to close the plant if they don't take the deal.
Now here's the deal.
We're talking starting.
The cut here is to starting wages.
And it works out this way.
Starting wage right now, 30 bucks an hour.
They're cutting it back to $1,550 an hour.
$15.50 an hour is $620 for a 40-hour week, which is $32,240 a year.
That's starting.
That does not include overtime or benefits.
That's the base starting salary.
The median salary in the U.S., still somewhere under $40,000.
This is a starting gig down from 30 bucks an hour to 15.50.
And they're going to shut it down.
Is there a conflict of interest here?
I have to ask.
The UAW is shutting out its own workers.
I mean, it's not as though old General Motors execs are doing this.
Experts say that union leaders are worried about being in an uncomfortable position of being blamed by membership if management means union management.
There's a conflict here.
There's no question.
Let me grab some calls before we have to wrap it up here today.
Simon in Spokane, Washington.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Thank you very much for taking my call.
Truly an honor.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but how I see the mosque is that if you're in favor of this mosque or anything else Muslim, then really you're in favor of the general mutilation of teenage women and the summary execution of women.
Why should we give freedom to those who don't just practice acts of worship, but they practice atrocious acts of violence?
Well, some people would agree with you that that is in the basic teachings of Islam, the discrimination of women and so forth.
And why would you want that kind of intolerance in your neighborhood?
That's basically your question.
Yes, yeah.
So if you have that view, then you do have to ask yourself, why in the world are people for it?
Which is my point all along.
Why are the people who are for this so hell-bent in favor of it?
Yes.
All right.
Simon, thanks much.
Mike in New Gloucester, Maine.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Yes, good afternoon, Rush.
Nice to talk to you.
Thank you.
Hey, listen, I got to hear me out on this because your heart's in the right place, but I don't think you're thinking it all the way through.
I have a family of seven brothers.
We love this country.
We've all been in the military, but the youngest boy brought, I mean, my youngest brother.
And we would do anything to defend this country and what it was founded on.
But here's the problem with the mosque.
I'm a born-again Christian, and I believe in keeping the Sabbath day.
Now, what happens if the Vatican or some other government all of a sudden turns around and says, you know something, we ought to keep Sunday holy and let's get rid of Sabbath-keeping churches.
I mean, you've got to be careful with what it is you're saying we should or we shouldn't do because the mosque has a right, even though I am, I absolutely agree with you, they are doing this to get up beneath our collars.
But that's not where we go.
We should go to the government and get on their case to get off of our case and allow us to build our crosses in our churches, pray in school, or pray whatever how we want to, and leave us alone.
But never, ever forget that the Constitution was built on the very freedom to worship how we wish.
Yeah, but in this case, nobody is preventing Muslims from worshiping, and nobody is altering the Sabbath or anything about Islam.
There are 100 mosques throughout New York City.
And if this one doesn't get built, it doesn't mean that Muslims are being prohibited from worshipping as they choose.
Well, it just shouldn't be up to us.
By the way, we can't put a cross wherever we want.
Well, we ought to be able to.
That's the problem.
Well, we need to.
But we need to go after the government.
We need to get the government to get off our case.
Never mind trying to stop the mosque.
Well, this is the government from trying to stop the mosque.
Wait a minute.
The government's not doing anything to stop this.
Well, there are people playing some games in New York to see if they can find some loopholes to stop them.
No, they're trying to use public opinion pressure here to cause a sensitivity to take the mosque location someplace else.
There's no long arm of government involved here.
The only long arm of government that's involved is saying build it there.
Well, I tell you what, Rush, we love you.
We love listening to you.
Most of the time, we are absolutely behind you.
I just, I'm saying, tread carefully because what we set up now may come to bite us, whether you're a Baptist, a Lutheran, a this, or that, or what have you.
Look, Mr. Speaker, I don't understand your theory.
I understand your theory, but the circumstances of this mosque are not analogous.
You talk about if the Vatican came out and changed the Sabbath, nothing of the kind is happening here.
If this mosque does not get built, there's not one change occurring in Islam.
Not one.
We have ordinances, laws, and everything that say where things can and can't be built.
Homes, you name it.
There's nothing unique about this.
And there's nothing.
The harm would come with this thing going up.
That's the thing that people have got to understand.
We'll be back after this.
ACLU has come out in favor of the mosque.
ACLU praises the Muslim center in the mosque near ground zero.
And we all know how the ACLU is always going around demanding free exercise of religion, Christmas time, and so forth.
I mean, they're famous for this, right?
Ah!
All right, folks, another exciting excursion, Broadcast Excellence in the Can.
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