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Nov. 30, 2010 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:35
November 30, 2010, Tuesday, Hour #3
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Time Text
I'm going to get to that.
I can't do everything in two hours, Snootley.
Yeah, jobless aid.
A jobless aid loss could choke economic growth.
You heard right, folks.
If we don't extend unemployment benefits, there might not be Christmas.
Because there might not be a country.
I have it here on good authority from the Associated Press.
And details are coming up.
Great to have you, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, 800-282-2882, the email address LRushbo at EIBNet.com.
Obama has appointed the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the budget director Jack Liu to work with congressional Republicans and Democrats to come up with a deal on taxes in the next couple of days.
Now, there's the sissy right there.
There's Assange.
Look at that.
Look at that picture of him there on Fox.
Little twerp.
How's that?
Is that better?
Well, we're differing the names, a little variety in there.
They say here, unemployment benefits are the best way to grow jobs.
That's what Nancy Pelosi's point was.
Yeah, because that creates economic activity.
Well, that's what I said.
Let's stop working and everybody live on benefits and then get out of the way for economic growth.
Anyway, Obama has appointed Tim Geithner and the budget director Jack Liu to work with congressional Republicans and Democrats to come up with a new deal on taxes in the next couple of days.
Now, imagine having the nation's taxes in the hands of a guy who couldn't even figure out turbo tax.
That's our Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, the tax cheat.
And that little twerp, I mean, here's another one, and he's in charge now of dealing with the Republicans and Democrats on the Bush tax cut extension controversy.
Let's go to the audio soundbites.
I told you about this.
After the meeting with Obama in Washington, congressional Republican leaders spoke about the meeting.
Here's Eric Cantor.
I was pleased on a number of counts.
First, that the president did recognize that the election meant that the people want to see results out of Washington.
And I think you've heard now a process being put into place that hopefully we can begin to producing those results first and foremost, take away the uncertainty around the tax hikes or rates that exist right now.
Secondly, I was encouraged by the president's remarks regarding his perhaps not having reached out enough to us in the last session, and that this meeting was the beginning of a series in which he hoped that we could work together in a different fashion for the benefit of the American people given the problems that we face.
Well, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to just, I'm going to zip my cynicism.
I'm just going to zip it.
I'm just going to wait.
I'm just going to wait for what I know is coming to come.
You all know how.
You don't need me to analyze this.
So this is no different.
Yeah, this is like a State Department press conference.
Okay.
So the Republicans, Obama told the Republicans, yeah, I realize you guys won.
And yeah, we're going to have to work together now.
And I'm looking forward to that.
And so this is the beginning of a series in which the president hoped that we could work together in a different fashion now.
We can compromise.
Okay, here's John Boehner.
And the tone here, I guess you have to say, is conciliatory.
And Boehner, I continued it, I think.
Let's listen together.
I agree that the president did make an important point that Eric mentioned that he hadn't spent as much time with us reaching out and talking to us and committed to do so.
And as I told the president, I think that spending more time will help us find some common ground.
There's a reason why we have Democrats and Republicans.
We believe in different things about the appropriate role of the federal government.
But having said that, the more time that we do spend together, we can find the common ground because the American people expect us to come here and work on their behalf.
Okay, just trying to remember what the Tea Party people thought they were getting with this win and what they said prior to it that they wanted.
And I just don't remember this.
Now, I, you know, I could have been playing golf that day.
I don't remember the Tea Party saying, damn it, you guys compromise and work together.
We want to see you all get along for us.
I apparently have been laboring here in a total misunderstanding.
I thought that the Tea Party wanted Obama stopped.
Here's Obama after the meeting.
I appointed my Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, and my budget director, Jack Liu, to work with representatives of both parties to break through this log jam.
I've asked the leaders to appoint members to help in this negotiation process.
They agreed to do that.
That process is beginning right away, and we expect to get some answers back over the next couple of days about how we can accomplish our key goal, which is to make sure the economy continues to grow and we are putting people back to work.
And we also want to make sure that we're giving the middle class the peace of mind of knowing that their taxes will not be raised come January 1st.
Yeah, boy, I love all the compromise I'm hearing in there.
Let's just have another committee.
If you want something to die, do it, you know, point a committee.
If you want to bring something to a screeching halt, appoint a committee and then start talking about negotiations.
He never abandons his talking points.
He never, I mean, he has to get it in there.
There aren't got to be anything other than continued tax cuts for the middle class.
Stays on point with his talking points.
Here's more of Obama.
There are real philosophical differences.
And although the atmosphere in today's meeting was extremely civil, there's no doubt that those differences are going to remain no matter how many meetings we have.
And the truth is, there's always going to be a political incentive against working together, particularly in the current hyper-partisan climate.
There are always those who argue that the best strategy is simply to try to defeat your opposition instead of working with them.
And frankly, even the notion of bipartisanship itself has gotten caught up in this mentality.
But I think there was recognition today that that's a game that we can't afford.
Oh, my God.
I am literally going to get sick here.
Literally going to puke.
Bipartisan.
Who is the author of all of this lack of bipartisanship?
Whose mentality is it to defeat your opponents?
That's mine.
That's what I have been suggesting.
I'm the hyper-partisan here, I guess.
My strategy has been wipe them out.
And that's what the election meant.
Wipe them out.
They were wiped out.
I didn't see civility on the ballot box or on the ballot.
Oh, geez.
Okay, that's it.
Okay, let's see where this is headed.
Well, no, I'll hold out hope.
This is just a bunch of BS for public assumption that the real stuff's going to go on.
We've got to deal with what is.
What does my gut say?
Well, my gut can only react to what I heard here, and words are just words.
I don't, I just, what part of hell no do the Republicans not understand?
What?
It's just two words, H-E-L-L, space, N-O.
What is hard to understand about that?
Let's go to this last moment.
So I know you can't listen to Rush Limble getting things done around here.
That's right.
There's always those who argue the best strategy is simply to defeat your opposition instead of working.
Well, that's me.
Frankly, even the notion of bipartisanship itself has gotten caught up in this mentality, me.
But I think there was recognition today that that's a game we can't afford.
I guess Obama thinks that the only thing of significance happened here is that I got thrown under the bus in the meeting.
Not by name, but nevertheless, I got thrown under the bus.
Everybody's talking about how civil it was.
And political incentive Obama reached out to us.
He's really, he heard us, really wants to spend more time helping us find common ground.
He acknowledged he hasn't spent as much time with us reaching out and talking to us.
If I didn't know better, I would say that we had somehow tuned into the Oprah show.
But I know that that's not what happened.
Okay, to the phones, we go to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
And Aaron, nice to have you on the phone with us today, sir.
Hello.
Good afternoon, Rush.
I was just driving down the road here listening to those comments from Eric Cantor and John Boehner.
And I just wanted to pull off the road and kick the proverbial tire here where I can't even believe they had a meeting with this guy.
Obama is clearly way off in left field.
And I don't know why our illustrious leaders in the Republican Party feel that it's necessary to even sit down at the table of this guy.
You know, we're not going to get anywhere else.
The reason, no, wait a minute now.
The reason is Is that they're still the big minority.
This is a lame duck.
The Democrats still run the show.
Sure.
And so it's, they may have to sit down with him, but the whole, what I heard was here, you know what?
He really likes us.
He really likes us.
And he said he'll see us again.
He really likes us.
I thought, is this the epidemic awards?
Did Sally Field somehow come back to be a Republican?
Absolutely, Rush.
And, you know, I sit there and I'm thinking, you know, I think it would be a much more telling, you know, story if we, you know, if our Republican leaders and those we elected, you know, those of us Tea Party members, if we just put our foot down and said, you know, we're not going to even come to the table with these guys because they are completely off their rocker.
Well, again, they want to get this done.
They've got to get this done before the tax cuts expire December 31st.
It's not something they can put off until January.
No, this is true.
So, you know, they've got to get Obama to go along with this.
And they've obviously concluded the best way to do it is with honey.
And what you want is for them, if they have a meeting, to remind, look, pal, we won.
That's what you told us two years ago.
We won.
It's looking even worse for you in 2012.
The American people want these tax rates extended.
Now, we don't know that that didn't happen in the meeting.
All we know is the way it's being characterized by these guys afterwards.
So we've got to wait.
We don't really know what happened in there.
We only know what they're saying now.
And they're saying what they're saying is they want the media to love them.
They want, obviously, there to be no appearance of conflict or partisanship or that for that's their strategy here.
But I mean, they can't say, screw you, we're not meeting with you.
Either do it or not.
Okay, fine.
You want to meet?
Well, these things expire, and I'm going to get the higher taxes I want on everybody.
And I'd love to see those tax cuts extended, absolutely.
And I'd like to see more tax cuts.
Excuse me, where I shouldn't be talking tax cuts.
We should be just saying that, you know, the current rate is expended.
But I'd love to see that extended and cut even further.
You know, we live in Michigan.
I live in Michigan here, and we're struggling to say the least.
And I, you know, I got out there and voted, and I want to get rid of these Democratic schools and believe me.
I know.
I know.
If it were for me, I'd go in a meeting.
Mr. President, two years ago, I said, I hope you'd failed.
The purpose here is to see to it that you do.
Your policies have destroyed the nation's economy.
But that's just me.
See, I don't have to get votes.
And I don't care whether the media likes me.
And that's the difference.
But again, that's just me.
And I'm serious when I tell you, getting votes is a whole different matter than getting listeners.
And politics is, this is, you know, why don't you run for this, this kind of stuff.
I couldn't do it.
I'm not a diplomat.
I don't want to be a diplomat.
If somebody has holes in their head, I'm going to tell them instead of saying they got an open mind.
I live in Litteralville.
Anyway, I understand what you're talking about, Aaron.
I know a lot of people agree with you.
Eugene in Odessa, Texas.
Hello, sir, and welcome to the EIB Network.
Great to have you here.
Hey there, Rush.
Just to kind of piggyback on what this guy, the previous caller, was saying, it depresses me to the extent that I let it, how much of this country has become an Oprah audience.
And when I say Oprah audience, I mean, have you seen her shows where she gives things away?
I mean, these sissies show up and they sit there and wait in orgasmic anticipation to see what crumbs dribble off from multiple chins so they can grab them.
And they go nuts.
And a big part of my country feels that way, and it just killed me.
I mean, to the point that I let it.
I got to go on.
I understand.
But, I mean, do you get what I'm saying?
It's just.
Yeah, I hear what you're saying.
Everybody's waiting around for their benefits.
Man, you ain't kidding.
I just, you know, listening to Cantor and these guys, I know I had that one little point, but why do they keep saying the Bush tax cuts?
I mean, I'm just a little guy running a little business off my kitchen table, literally here in Odessa, Texas, West Texas.
And I know that it's the Obama tax increases.
And these guys can't even say that.
They're sissies.
I said it.
Cantor's sissies.
I know.
Look, I don't know what to tell you.
You're exactly right.
We're not talking about any tax cuts.
We're talking about tax increases for Christ out loud.
And why that can't be said, I don't know.
That's the question.
Are we going to maintain current tax rates?
Are we going to have a tax increase?
Well, I get it.
I know you got it.
That's why you've went out and voted the way that you did.
Joel in Glendora, California.
Hi.
Great to have you on the program.
Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh.
You're a great American patriot.
Thank you very much, sir.
Appreciate that.
Talk to you, sir.
Honor.
You bet.
I want to go back to the animal situation.
The gentleman called in about animals and neutering and all that stuff.
You know, when Michael Vick was caught, when time in prison, which I thought was ridiculous, people out here on talk radio were calling in, wanted him to see, wanted him to get 20, 30 years.
One lady wanted him to get the death penalty, of all things.
You know, when Ray Carruth, you remember Ray Carruth?
Ray Carruth, the wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers?
I remember.
Okay, had his pregnant girlfriend murdered.
He got 20 years.
Not one person out here, not one, called in on the radio and said he should get the death penalty.
We put way too much, you know, I don't have the same fanatic love for animals that a lot of people do.
I like animals.
I've had pets, but, you know, I don't have that same fanatic love.
Well, look, let me explain it to you.
The reason why people have this reaction about Vic is because even pit bulls, people look at it, they're the essence of innocence.
You know, the pit bulls weren't bothering anybody until Vic took them over and made them what they are.
And this wanton disregard for innocent, totally innocent lifelong.
That, I think, is part of the psychological explanation for it.
But look, you're never going to...
People's ties to their animals deal with it.
Do you ever, folks, do you ever look around and see people getting older and you don't think it's happening to you, but you see it in everybody else?
It's something that happens.
It's just weird.
And sometimes people acting older even when they don't look older.
And I don't feel or like a day older than when I started this program 23 years ago.
It's just weird.
Anyway, here's this AP story.
If Congress lets unemployment benefits expire this week, the jobless won't be the only ones to feel the pain.
The overall economy would suffer too.
Unemployment benefits help drive the economy.
You know what this is?
This is a fax.
This is a fax.
It's either from Pelosi or from the White House, and AP just ran it.
I think this is a fax from some Democrat, and they're just repeating it.
I have heard all this.
I have heard this from Pelosi.
She says, listen to this.
Unemployment benefits help drive the economy because the jobless tend to spend every dollar they get pumping cash into businesses.
A cutoff of aid for millions of people jobless for more than six months could squeeze a fragile economy, analysts say.
Among the consequences they envision over the next year, if the benefits are cut, number one, annual economic growth could fall by one half to nearly one percentage point.
Up to one million more people could lose their jobs.
Hundreds of thousands would fall into poverty.
Look for homelessness to rise and food lines to get even longer as we approach Christmas.
If the situation can't be resolved, said Diane Swunk, the chief economist at Messerau Financial.
The money ripples through the economy into supermarkets, gasoline stations, utilities, convenience stores.
That allows those businesses to hire more people who in turn spend more money.
No, there's no history to prove that this works.
If it did, we wouldn't have an economic problem.
The answer to this would be everybody just quit their job and go on unemployment.
If unemployment compensation benefits were the way to stimulate economic growth, then why would anybody work?
Look, I know this is easily nuked.
This is not the point.
Point is the AP, this is a fax.
I'm telling you folks, this is talking points from some Democrat, either in the White House or Nancy Pelosi's office or whatever.
She said this in almost this exact words.
These unemployment extension benefits have got to continue because it propels the economy.
Something like for every dollar of unemployment benefits, there's a dollar 39 benefit in spending in the economy.
If you've been unemployed for six months, you've gone through your savings, said Heidi Scherholtz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
You have no choice but to spend immediately.
By contrast, money given to higher income families, say through tax cuts, I tell you, my gaskets are not going to hold today.
They are not going to hold.
Nobody is given money with a tax cut.
Money does not start in Washington.
It's not there.
And then Washington.
This is, well, it's lame, it's stupid, and it's insulting.
Let me read this whole thing.
By contrast, money given to higher-income families, say through tax cuts.
Really, people go out and work, let's say somebody earns $100,000 a year, and their taxes take away, let's say, $30,000.
They get net $70,000.
And then we get a tax cut.
So the government, according to this idiocy, the government's going to say, okay, we're going to give you a tax cut.
So we're going to send you $5,000 additional dollars at the end of the year.
We're going to give you $5,000.
That's not what happens.
What happens is that less money is taken from them from the time they earn it.
Sorry for yelling.
I can't help it here.
By contrast, money given to higher-income families, say through tax cuts, tends to deliver less economic benefit because those taxpayers typically save a big chunk.
Well, they don't because the next story is all about how the savings rate stinks.
I mean, the absolute abject ignorance in this story.
Is there one more excerpt that I want to share?
Well, yes.
For most recipients, the average $300 weekly unemployment check doesn't go very far.
It covers just half of basic household expenses, according to the National Employment Law Project.
The theory is they've got to spend it all.
Okay, but where do they get it?
This is so rudimentary.
My dog would understand this after one lesson.
I wouldn't have to reteach this.
My dog would understand this in one lesson.
Here it is very simply.
American people who are working pay taxes.
That money goes to Washington.
People who don't lose or who do lose their jobs get unemployment benefits.
Where does that money come from?
That money comes from people who are still working and from the businesses who hired them and fired them.
So the unemployment check that they get takes away from people already working.
There's not a net addition of dollars added to the economy because people are out of work.
It's just the exact opposite.
All we're talking about here is a transfer of money from people who work, so they end up with less, to people who aren't working, so they have some.
It's a wash.
There's no new money in the economy.
There's no economic growth taking place.
A different group of people are doing the spending.
And all the while, everybody is getting poorer.
Simple.
That's it.
But no.
To listen to this stupid story from the embarrassingly AP.
I mean, it's so stupid, I don't know how to explain it to you.
Let me try here on the fly.
As AP views the world, government is in Washington with a giant stash of money.
Benevolent Democrats decide who will earn what.
And at the end of every month, benevolent Democrats send some people $100,000, $10,000, $5,000, $20,000.
And the government sends some people $2 million a year because you realize that no matter what you earn, the government's giving it to you.
That's how you get it.
It's coming from the government.
And then you can get even more if you can convince the government to give you a tax cut.
At that point, somebody like Tim Geithner is going to get your name on the list.
This person just got a tax cut and guys can say, okay, I'm going to write them an additional $5,000 check next.
Well, they're going to send it to them.
But then we get to the people who are unemployed and for some reason, they don't have any money because the government somehow forgot about them.
People are working.
They lost their jobs, so they have nothing.
So somebody's going to send Geithner a note.
Hey, guess what?
Enos Slobodnik here just got fired at Walmart.
Now he's got nothing.
Guys, don't worry, we'll send him some money.
And the money we send Inos Slobodnik, it's going to be far more valuable to him because he doesn't have any.
And so he's going to go spend it all.
And voila, we've got massive economic activity.
Well, while we're doing this, we can't send any more money to other people out there because it isn't fair because there are other people that don't have any.
Therefore, the people that we're giving X, we're not going to give any more to.
But the unemployed, we're going to give them some.
So we're going to take from our stash over here and we're going to give to these people.
And so therefore, we're going to pump an additional $300 a week per person into the economy from our stash here at the Treasury.
And therefore, we're going to do economic activity.
The AP doesn't think to ask, okay, Mr. Geithner, where does that stash come from?
Well, it's a government stash.
Everybody knows that.
Yeah, but Mr. Geithner, where do you get it?
I mean, you got that pile of money here and you're giving, for some reason, I don't know, you're giving Bill Gates $48.
Well, you're giving Bill Gates, yeah, $48 million a year.
And you're giving somebody else $150,000.
Okay, I don't know why you're doing this, but you're giving all these different amounts of money.
Where's that money coming from, Mr. Geithner?
Well, we print that money.
Oh, is that where it's going?
That's the money?
Okay, so Bill Gates has his money because he's getting it from you.
Warren Buffett, everything Warren Buffett has it because somebody, the government decided to give it to him all these years?
Well, yeah, that's how it works.
I would say even my dog would understand that's not how it works because that stash of money, none of it exists until somebody earns it.
And that happens by virtue of somebody willing to pay it to somebody for the work that they're doing.
Well, anyway, there you have it.
If we don't extend these benefits, there won't be a Christmas.
And there might not be a country.
This is one of those days I just wish I had not even awakened.
Honest to God, I wish I had.
I have not had one class in economics since Haskrule in the 1960s.
Not one.
And I understand more about this my own self-education than these wizards at the AAP.
And I'm still convinced they just repeated it, just printed a facts from Pelosi's office or whatever.
You know, if I didn't have a stronger constitution, I don't get a story like this and say, you know what?
It isn't worth the time.
I've made my score.
I'm out of here.
I'm an utter failure.
After 23 years, we still get trash like this in our major number one news wire service.
I guarantee you whoever wrote this story is an absolute abject ignoramus.
I don't know about you folks.
I don't like being surrounded by stupidity.
I just, you know, I don't, I used to suffer fools pretty well, but I don't anymore.
I just, well, I don't know if it, well, it is entertaining.
I just got a, I got a note from somebody watching on the Ditto Cam.
This is hilarious, Rush.
Why?
I'm rolling on the floor laughing myself silly here watching you explain where Libs think money comes from.
It may be funny to listen to folks it is, this is, this is.
It's worse than depressing.
We're talking about the country here and you, you put.
You put this in the same show with these sound bites of Boehner and Canada.
Today, after meeting with the, with the one, he loved us, he really loved us.
God save us.
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Tom and Ridgely, West Virginia, welcome to the program.
I got about a minute and a half, sir, but I wanted to get to you.
Thank you, and Dittos.
My point is that compromise and common ground are opposites.
People keep using them as if they're the same thing.
That's a great point.
Compromise means I'm going to vote for your crummy idea if you'll vote for my crummy idea.
If you get four or five hundred crummy ideas, you put them in a 2,500-page bill, and we get it to pass, but it's all crummy ideas.
Right.
Common ground is when you have a good idea, and I'm going to vote for it with no quid pro quo, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican.
You come up with a good idea, and I'm going to vote for you.
Well, but wait a minute.
The point is that common ground is elusive.
Right now, in what should be normal circumstances, there isn't any common ground between Obama and the Republicans.
There's none to be found.
You're absolutely right.
One guy wants to destroy the country as it's founded.
The other guys want to preserve it.
Now, where's the common ground there?
There isn't any.
You can't make common ground with compromise.
No, I know.
That's exactly right because they think it sounds wonderful.
They get what people want.
Get along.
Compromise.
Get along.
Republicans even have it wrong with this idea on earmarks that they're going to turn everything over to the president.
That isn't what we ask for.
We ask them to stop combining the joint strike fighters and welfare and financial reforms all in the same bill.
Put a single topic in a bill, and if the Congress wants to spend money in a given way, I'm okay with that.
But single topic bill, not put everybody's private pet project in there and come up with 700 big ideas that cost us a bunch of money.
I hear you, Tom.
That's great.
I'm glad you called.
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
Folks, I have to run here.
We'll be back.
Close it up.
Yeah, everybody thinks I've been too hard on Julian.
Well, some people think I've been too hard on Julian Assange and calling him a sissy over and over again.
I could have been harder.
This is what people don't stop to consider.
I could have been much harder.
For example, I could have said that he looks just like Bill Maher.
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