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Sept. 20, 2010 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:12
September 20, 2010, Monday, Hour #2
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Hey, can I point something out real quick here, folks?
I can, because A, I'm the host, and B, it's my program.
And I want to wait for Snerdley to get back.
Where's Snerdley?
I need him to hear this.
He's the official screener of calls.
Isn't it amazing?
Or better stated, isn't it interesting how much people who used to hate Karl Rove now like him?
Have you noticed that Karl Rove is inching up as Inside the Beltway's favorite analyst?
The state-controlled media's rising star, the favorite analyst, Karl Rove, they dig the guy.
What happened here?
Greetings, folks.
Happy to have you along.
Rush Limbo at 800-282-2882 and the email address ilrushbo at EIBnet.com.
67%.
This is from Ras Musen.
67% say they are better informed than 10 years ago.
While newspapers and broadcast outlets struggle to survive in the internet age, two out of three Americans, 67%, feel that they are more informed today than they were 10 years ago.
The way to read this is 67% of Americans are better informed since newspapers and broadcast outlets began their struggle to survive.
That's the way to read this.
67% of Americans say they are more informed today than they were 10 years ago since newspapers and broadcast outlets struggle to survive.
A new Ras Musson Reports National Telephone Survey finds that just 8% consider themselves less informed these days.
22% think that their level of knowledge is about the same.
Fascinating.
Once we stop depending on the old media, people get smarter and they realize it.
It's true, I was not making this up.
This is not a last little teased at the top of the hour.
The UK's tax collection agency putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and then pay the employees by bank transfer.
The proposal by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.
Currently, employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system known as pay-as-you-earn.
There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.
If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.
The next step could be to use real-time information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax, said the HMRC, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, in a July discussion paper.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs described the plan as radical, as it would be a huge change of the current system that has been largely unchanged for 66 years.
Don't know whether it's going to happen, but remember, these are leftists.
When they propose something, they never let go of it.
If they lose, they'll just buy their time and keep working at it.
And, of course, the selling point, well, you won't be faced with an audit anymore, and you'll never have to file an income tax return.
The government will determine what you owe, and that's it.
And then you'll end up, the government will wire transfer you every week or every two weeks, every month, whatever, your net pay, and you're home free.
Oh, and of course, there won't be any fraud.
The government will not make any miscalculations.
They'll not take too much out of your paycheck.
They'll never fail to refund you or pay you the proper amount.
And in the case of a dispute, how long is it going to take to resolve one of these?
And how many times would the taxpayer actually win?
But this is leftists.
All money, all property is theirs until they decide what who ends up with, whoever and how much.
All right, let's go to General Powell.
General Powell on, what was it, Meet the Depressed yesterday with David Gregory.
First question that we have from Gregory, this time about a year ago, General Powell, you were in a feud with former Vice President Cheney with Rush Limbaugh about the nature of the Republican Party.
And this is what you said in May of 2009.
Rush Limbaugh says, get out of the Republican Party.
He was talking to you.
Dick Cheney says he's already out speaking about you.
I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, you said, but there's another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again.
That was a year ago.
Is the Tea Party what you had in mind, General Powell?
You think Powell didn't know this was coming?
This is a hanging softball.
Slow pitch.
I'm kind of like a Mike Bloomberg in that he has shifted back and forth.
I consider myself a moderate Republican.
I have very, very moderate social views.
I'm pretty strong on defense matters.
And I think there is a party in there that wants to come out.
But if the Republican Party is going to come out in the way that Mike Bloomberg is talking about and others are talking about, they've got to take a hard look at some of the positions they've been taking.
We can't be anti-immigration, for example, because immigrants are fueling this country.
Without immigrants, America would be like Europe or Japan with an aging population and no young people coming in to take care of it.
I just marvel.
We're told that this is intelligence that you and I can only dream of.
This is wisdom only you and I can imagine.
We are to be in awe of this because we are on our own, unable to comprehend this kind of brilliance.
Mike Bloomberg left the party.
Mike Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, couldn't get elected to anything as a Republican outside city of New York.
And clearly, with all due respect, Michael Bloomberg is not the role model or the definition of the future Republican that wins a majority of votes anywhere.
We got to take a hard look at some of the positions we've been taking can't be anti-immigration, for example, because immigrants are fueling the country.
What we are, not anti-immigration.
This is the kind of talk you get from the Democrats.
Mike Bloomberg's a lifelong Democrat who became a Republican in order to win.
After Rudy Giuliani, he switched parties in order to get elected.
He only registered as a Republican in 2001.
He's a lifelong liberal Democrat.
And here's general Powell let's not forget a moderate Republican who endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.
He also says the president's critics ought to be going after him on policy, not nonsense.
We're not going after him on nonsense.
The reason the TEA Party exists is policy.
Really folks.
How often have we been told since the early 90s how brilliant and how smart general Powell is and people like him?
I mean, this is this.
Is that that whole answer is a walking cliché.
And then there's this.
David Gregory said, well uh, what's happening in Arizona, something that's animating the Republicans right now?
The American people want their borders to be protected.
There's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with making sure that people come across our borders, particularly our southern border, in a legal, safe manner.
But at the same time, we have millions and millions of illegal immigrants in our country, undocumented individuals who are working, who are doing things we need done in this country.
They're all over my house doing things whenever I call for repairs.
I'm sure you've seen them at your house.
So he admits that he's hiring illegal immigrants.
Maybe not directly, they're just in the companies he hires to repair things at his house, and it includes all the rest of us.
I'm sure you've seen them.
uh if illegal aliens currently in the country were all given amnesty and were all beginning to pay taxes powell would start hiring the next wave of illegals for the same reason he hires the ones he does today why does he hire them why do you think he hires because they're cheaper It's cheaper to hire illegal aliens than American citizens who have to pay their taxes social security, other payroll taxes.
After all, the general's six-figure retirement income only goes so far.
You have to make it work any way you can, but this is um striking, is it not?
And this is the role model.
This is what we're supposed to all emulate.
This is what we are to understand represents the future of the Republican Party.
They're all over My house.
They're doing things whenever I call for repairs.
I'm sure you've seen them at your house.
We've got to find a way to bring these people out of the darkness and give them some kind of status.
Bring them out of the darkness.
The cliché.
Now, look, if he knew they were illegal, he was breaking law, was he not?
But being a moderate Republican, which also means being a Democrat, means never having to worry about breaking the law.
Laws are for the little people.
Laws are for us, the conservatives.
Never mind.
Again, if all these people currently in the country are given amnesty, it sounds to me like he would hire the next wave of illegals because that's what built the country.
After you give these, they're already here amnesty.
Why stop there?
If that's how you build a country, what is this?
American people want their borders to be protected, nothing wrong.
We're making sure that people come across our borders in a legal and safe manner.
That's not, we're not concerned that they come across in a safe manner, legal, yeah, but attitudes like his are not going to promote legality.
And then on Meet the Press, one final question.
David Gregory said that you described him as a transformational figure, this be Obama, to have potentially lived up to that, or do you find yourself disappointed in President Obama?
He has to focus on now governing, not worrying about the daily campaign problem or re-reacting to everything that comes across the cable news channel.
I think he needs to sort of get above all of that.
Yes, Mr. President, they will kick you like a dog, treat you like a dog, but hey, that's the nature of our system.
America is a great country, and this is the way we do our politics.
Well, yeah, the wisdom from on high has been pronounced on Meet the Press yesterday from General Powell.
Going after Obama on nonsense.
Is this the General Powell of Valerie Playman?
Talk about going after somebody on nonsense.
Ever heard of scooter Libby?
Going after somebody on nonsense and knowing full well that Libby hadn't done anything.
Didn't Powell let Libby and Rove get treated like dogs?
Back after this.
Don't go away.
All right, we have some amazing sound by some Obama with his financial people today on CNBC.
And I, you know, a lot of people said, why are people going to this town hall?
Why do they expect, why do business people expect people, Obama, to change and become more friendly?
I don't know.
Why'd they vote for him in the first place?
You know, who can explain the triumph of emotion over common sense?
Who can explain that?
Obama says, is the president a hope?
Everybody's hoping he changes.
Some point they're going to realize he's not.
Jason, Fort Smith, Arkansas, welcome to the EIB Network, sir.
Great to have you here.
Hey, how are you doing, Rush?
Good.
Thank you.
I've got a bone of contention with you, I think, about your statement that independents are not ideological.
Okay.
I believe that they absolutely are, even more so now that we've had this ridiculous nuts for the past 18 months or more with the parties.
What is it that makes you an independent, then?
Why do you call yourself that?
Simply because you're not a registered Republican or Democrat?
I generally agree with the Republican side, but because I follow that quote that absolute power corrupts absolutely, generally once they get up there, they all turn into giant schmucks.
And that's why I vote independently.
I don't like to toe the party line.
I like to see who I believe is going to hold my best interest at heart and stay that way once they get in there.
So you believe that there is a Democrat now and then that will hold your best interests at heart.
Well, I have yet to find one.
Then why do you call yourselves independent?
This is my point.
You know, I think being an independent is a semantic vehicle that people use to try to hide and protect themselves from being attacked as closed-minded, either Republican or Democrat.
No, I'm an independent.
No, I'm moderate.
No, I make up my mind issue by.
No, no, no.
You can't peg me as one of those.
Well, I absolutely have no problem being attacked.
I really could give a rat's butt what people think about my opinions one way or the other.
But I do.
Well, there's got to be some reason you like thinking of yourself as an independent when you clearly aren't.
Well, generally, as Americans in general, we all like to consider ourselves independent.
That's what this country was founded on.
Yeah, okay.
Now I understand.
You just mean you're free.
You're untethered.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That doesn't mean it doesn't reflect your thinking at all.
It's just you don't want to be labeled.
Absolutely.
Okay.
So what do you have against being called a conservative?
Why does that...
Oh, I don't have anything at all against being conservative.
I consider myself, if anything, a conservative libertarian, probably.
Okay, no, you consider yourself an independent.
You are calling to defend that attachment.
Right.
Yeah.
Because I think it's important to deliver our opinions and whatnot by a particular issue.
If there is not a Democrat you would vote for, you're biased.
Healthfully so, by the way.
There's nothing wrong with bias.
There's nothing wrong with bias.
No, not at all.
So you don't vote.
I don't generally vote democratically because most of them are liberals.
I know.
Yeah, but you said...
It's liberalism.
You can't...
You have to have an opinion unfettered by bias.
And an opinion unfettered by bias is linguine.
Exactly.
No spine.
Okay.
So really, you're a conservative.
You just don't want to say so.
Is that right?
Oh, but I have no problem being independent either.
I absolutely have conservative values overwhelmingly.
Okay.
All right.
Well, and in the way you're defining it, I'm an independent, too.
I'm independent.
I don't think you are, but I'm independent of liberalism.
I think you are an independent, but you won't admit it.
You cling to the Republican label.
No, conservative.
I identify myself ideologically, proudly so.
True, you do espouse conservative, but you also cling to the Republican label far too often, I believe.
Ah.
Ah.
Headway.
I'm clinging to the Republicans.
I don't think they would tell you that.
I mean, I've got Republicans who are lined up against me right now.
Okay.
Thanks for the call, Jason.
I appreciate it.
Well, I do.
It's worthwhile to have these discussions.
This is Linda in Marrero, Louisiana.
Great to see you.
You got it.
That's me.
Well, welcome.
Great to have you.
I am spitting mad.
Oh, no.
Jason had it right up to a point, okay?
But let me tell you this.
I live in Louisiana.
I live in Marrero.
My family, I was raised as a Democrat.
My last Democrat vote was for Jimmy Carter.
I then switched.
Once I realized that that fool and what he was doing to our country, I said, oh no, I'm not a Democrat.
I switched.
Thank goodness I could vote for Ronald Reagan, who is my president.
That's the only president I've ever seen that's worth a darn.
Well, I continued voting Republican, registered Republican, continued to vote Republican, all the way up until the midterm of George W. Bush.
My husband looked at me and said, you know what?
They're taking us for granted.
Which midterm?
04 or 02 or 06?
Second term.
Second term, midterm of Bush.
06.
George W. Right, 06, right, okay.
Yes.
So we both went down and we said, we're tired of them taking us for granted.
We're tired of them calling us for money.
And every time they call us for money, we give them the money, but we say, stop doing what you're doing.
You've got to change this thing.
All right.
You're not even.
You need to relax out there, Linda.
You're not even the person I'm talking about when I describe my attitudes about moderates or independents.
And back to the phone.
No, no, we're not going to go to the phones.
I want to go to the audio sign by Sheriff Obama and his town hall meeting on CNBC this afternoon.
It happened at the same time as this program, which means you didn't hear it.
During the QA, and it took a long time to get to the QA in a town hall.
For the longest time, it was just Obama and the moderator, John Harwood.
Here is an unidentified woman speaking to our president.
I am a chief financial officer for a veteran service organization here in Washington.
I'm also a mother.
I'm a wife.
I'm an American veteran.
And I'm one of your middle-class Americans.
And quite frankly, I'm exhausted.
Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.
I've been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class.
I'm one of those people, and I'm waiting, sir.
I'm waiting.
I don't feel it yet.
And I thought I would feel it in some small measure.
I have two children in private school, and the financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family.
My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs and beans era of our lives.
But quite frankly, it's starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we're headed again.
Quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly.
Is this my new reality?
That's an Obama voter.
That's an Obama supporter.
We're headed to beans and hot dogs again.
Is this our new reality?
And it's exactly as planned.
Meanwhile, the Obamas are living high on the hog.
Are they not?
Traveling all over the world.
Here's what Obama's answer.
What?
The life you describe, one of responsibility, looking after your family, contributing back to your community, that's what we want to reward.
Now, as I said before, times are tough for everybody right now.
So I understand your frustration.
There are a whole host of things that we've put in place that do make your life better.
So my goal here is not to try to convince you that everything's where it needs to be.
It's not.
That's why I ran for president.
But what I am saying is, is that we're moving in the right direction.
And nobody feels it.
Nobody sees it.
Not even his voters.
I understand your frustrations.
A whole host of things we put in place that do make your life better.
So no matter how bad you think your life is, it's actually better than it would be if I weren't president.
We're headed in the right direction towards Beans and Franks on purpose, ma'am.
What's happening to your life, your new reality, is by my design.
People like you, we want to reward with tax increases.
You and your husband make far too much money.
We are going to balance our budgets on your backs.
We are going to make up all the deficit spending on the backs of you and your husband, ma'am.
You got suckered in by my clean, articulate rhetoric.
This is what Obama's thinking as he's mouthing the answer.
Next up, Ted Brassfield, an audience member, said this to Obama.
I'm 30 years old.
I recently graduated law school.
And I went back to law school in order to pursue a life of public service, like you have.
And what I found was that I simply there aren't jobs out there right now.
I took advantage of the loans that you were just speaking about, but I can't make the interest payments on those loans today, let alone think about getting a mortgage, having a family, having even a marriage.
Like a lot of people in my generation, I was really inspired by you and by your campaign and the message that you brought.
And that inspiration is dying away.
It feels like the American dream is not attainable to a lot of us.
I really want to know, is the American dream dead for me?
Well, I asked a couple of questions.
Is this the new reality?
And is the American Dream dead for me?
Which translates, why haven't you paid my student loans?
I thought you were going to pay my student loans, and I thought you're going to buy my first house.
How come you haven't done any of that?
I really was inspired by you.
I thought you're going to take care of all this for me.
Now, these people were hand-picked.
Folks, you have to understand they had a tough time filling this town hall.
These people were hand-picked.
That first woman is a government worker.
She is the woman, one of the people getting all the stimulus money.
She's a government worker.
She has a fat pension.
She has job security.
She's getting twice as much or three times as much as somebody who does what she does in the private sector.
And Obama is telling the truth.
He has put in place trying to reward people like her.
She is a public sector employee.
Most of his stimulus has gone to public sector government employees like this woman who was handed her kids in private school.
These people were hand-picked, and even they are unhappy.
I guess the Obama people thought a government worker and a lawyer working for the community would only give Obama softball questions.
I do not think this was expected.
I can tell by Obama's answers that these questions were not expected.
This is interesting.
I mean, that first woman's a government worker.
I mean, the recipient, one of the many recipients of all the stimulus money.
She's a public service employee.
Now, this is John Harwood to Obama.
President Orzog, Peter Orzog, says that we can't afford to extend the Bush tax cuts for anyone after a year or two.
Is he right?
It's very important that everybody understand this.
What the Republicans are proposing is that we, in addition to that, provide tax relief to primarily millionaires and billionaires.
It would cost us $700 billion to do it.
On average, millionaires would get a check of $100,000.
And by the way, I would be helped by this.
So I just want to be clear.
I'm speaking against my own financial interests.
It is an irresponsible thing for us to do.
Those folks are the least likely to spend it.
Oh, Least likely to spend it because they aren't spending it.
Our economy is in a shambles.
And your own associated presses have the story.
Oh, by the way, nobody is going to have a check of $100,000 written to them.
And it's going to cost $700 billion.
Nobody's talking about tax cuts.
I want to repeat this from last Thursday.
Nobody is talking about tax cuts, not even Obama.
They're trying to make you think that Obama is going to cut taxes in the middle class.
Nobody, Obama, nobody is talking about tax cuts.
What's on the table is extending the current tax rates, which are the result of a Bush tax rate reduction in 2001-2003.
But nobody's talking about cutting taxes.
Obama's actually talking about raising them.
And this is why so many Democrats are distancing themselves from Obama.
They understand that you don't raise anybody's taxes during an economic recession like this, no matter who you're talking about.
But he's hell-bent on doing it because his objective is not economic growth.
His objective is not really to help that woman.
I mean, this, I, I, you know, this, this, if the stimulus money did not help this first work, grab that sunbite again because this is profound.
This number 34, this unidentified woman, this woman is a government worker.
This woman got the stimulus money.
And if this woman was not aided by the stimulus money, then nobody was.
I am a chief financial officer for a veteran service organization here in Washington.
I'm also a mother.
I'm a wife.
I'm an American veteran.
And I'm one of your middle-class Americans.
And quite frankly, I'm exhausted.
Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.
I've been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class.
I'm one of those people, and I'm waiting, sir.
I'm waiting.
I don't feel it yet.
And I thought I would feel it in some small measure.
I have two children in private school, and the financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family.
My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs and beans era of our lives.
But quite frankly, it's starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we're headed again.
Quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly.
Is this my new reality?
Yeah, and he's, well, people like you, we want to reward.
We put things in place to help you.
You're better off than you would be if it weren't for me.
But this woman knows it isn't getting any better.
He just told her life's better, but she knows it's not.
He just told her, your life is better.
We put policies in place for you.
That's what he told her in the answer.
Again, she is a stimulus recipient.
She is a public sector employer.
She has a pension, guaranteed.
She's got health care.
Even the highly partisan CBO says extending the Bush tax cuts would help the economy.
But that's not what Obama's agenda is.
His agenda is not helping the economy.
And slowly but surely, even some people have voted for him.
They don't want to admit that.
You know, he's not really trying to help.
They are starting to question their own wisdom in supporting the guy, starting to question themselves when they question him.
Well, when is this going to kick in?
You know, we really had hope dreams of what you were going to talk about.
Well, yeah, well, I'm just telling you, you're the kind of people we want to reward.
Yeah, well, when?
Then the next guy comes along and says he can't even pay back his student loan interest, much less get married, because he thought Obama was going to take care of that.
A couple of more Obama soundbites from the CNBC Wall Street bashing.
And then back to the phones.
Nobody seemed happy at this thing.
Here's a question from a former law school classmate of Obama's.
And I represent the Wall Street community.
We felt like a piñata.
Maybe you don't feel like you're whacking us with a stick, but we certainly feel like we've been whacked with a stick.
I have been amused over the last couple of years, this sense of somehow me beating up on Wall Street.
I think most folks on Main Street feel like they got beat up on.
And they, and I'll be honest with you, there's probably a big chunk of the country.
Hold on, hold on a second.
There's a big chunk of the country that thinks that I have been too soft on Wall Street.
Yeah, and there was some applause at that.
So he's back to bashing Wall Street.
And this is for Wall Street.
Wall Street people showed up, and they had a lot of hope today that Obama was going to become more pro-business.
It's never going to happen.
The New York Times has a story today.
Wall Street's engines of profit are slowing down.
And it's all about future layoffs and profits at Wall Street firms are down.
Inside the great investment houses on Wall Street, business is taking a surprising turn downward.
After an unusually sharp slowdown in trading this summer, analysts are rethinking their profit forecast for 2010.
They're talking about layoffs.
This is going to result in less tax revenue for New York City and for New York State.
So everything he's doing is working from his standpoint.
The destruction that this man has wrought in just over a year and a half is profound.
Audience member, Georgetown MBA student, Andy Conti, asked Obama, my dad and I were talking about the Tea Party.
What will you do if these activists are elected?
America has a noble tradition of being healthily skeptical about government.
That's in our DNA.
We came in because the folks over on the other side of the Atlantic had been oppressing folks without giving them representation.
What is the problem that I've seen in the debate that's been taking place in some of these Tea Party events is I think they're misidentifying sort of who the culprits are here.
Oh.
We had two tax cuts that weren't paid for, two wars that weren't paid for.
We've got a population that's getting older.
We're all demanding services, but our taxes have actually substantially gone down.
And so the challenge, I think, for the Tea Party movement is to identify specifically what would you do.
They are.
That's why they are growing in popularity.
The deficit was going down sharply until January 2007.
The deficit was going down.
The national debt wasn't going down, but it wasn't being added to as rapidly.
Unemployment was down.
This man has totally broken the bank.
You talk about taxes and spend.
It doesn't matter what the tax rates would have been.
If we'd have confiscated everybody's income in this country, the national debt would have still gone up.
The deficit would still be unmanageable if we had confiscated everybody's income, not just taxed it.
I'm in a good mood, so I'm not, I'm not.
I could really get ticked off at this answer.
And every one of these answers, they are just blatant lies.
Tea Party events, they've misidentifying sort of who the culprits are here.
They know who the culprit is.
It's Washington and whoever is there supporting what Washington is doing.
The Bush tax cuts were helping the deficit.
The capital gains tax rate reduction actually caused more revenue to flow into Washington than the so-called experts were thinking.
Now, if the tax cuts caused the recession, and this is the Democrat line, if tax cuts got us into this mess, how come so many Democrats are pushing for their extension?
If tax cuts are what got us here, the American people are not buying this, Mr. Obama.
If tax cuts got us in this position, why aren't you succeeding with all of your economic ideas in landslide numbers?
Why don't 80% of the American people support what you're doing?
Quick time out.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
I'll tell you what, folks, Obama's answers at this town hall meeting today are exactly why there's a Tea Party movement.
Citizens are rising up.
It is why people are abandoning the Democrats and the president.
The man is delusional about what's going on in the country and what he's doing about it.
He's in total denial about it as far as they're concerned.
That's why there's an uprising.
You don't pay for tax cuts.
That's not the purpose of taxes in the first place, is to be paid for.
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