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Feb. 22, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:34
February 22, 2011, Tuesday, Hour #3
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Time Text
I actually can't believe it's the fastest three hours in media.
Two of them are already gone.
And I mean, just for the heck of explaining it to you, I probably have gotten to have three stacks of stuff here today, and I've only gotten to stuff in one of the two stacks.
So we're going to try to squeeze as much in here in this remaining broadcast hour as we can.
Might speak a little fast.
You might have to listen a little fast.
Great to have you here.
Telephone number is 800-282-2882.
The email address, LRushbo at EIBNet.com.
Barack Obama is the union organizer-in-chief.
He's not president of the United States.
Well, I mean, he is, but that's not his focus.
And that's why Obama is now throwing the full weight of the Democrat Party, the Democrat National Committee, organizing for America, moveon.org.
I don't care whatever organization it is.
He's throwing every ounce of power of his administration, his regime, behind the unions in Wisconsin and in Ohio.
Instead of trying to help those in other states do what they can to deal with their crushing deficits, to deal with the real budgetary problems they've got, he is helping to exacerbate the problem.
He is helping to promote and continue the problem because he is entirely oriented behind the unions.
Here we go.
This is from the LSSC New York Times union bonds in Wisconsin begin to fray.
I'll summarize this for you.
They're basically reporting here that all is not solidly purple in Wisconsin.
Normal people, and by that I mean hardworking, tax-paying, working Americans are realizing what's happening here.
And these are normal people who are union members and format supporters, former supporters.
There are quotes here from private sector unions who are not happy with what's happening with the public sector unions.
They have stories from people in this story telling stories, people who blame the unions and why they blame the unions.
And at the end, they discussed a collective bargaining aspect.
People do not yet get what that means.
The local areas dealing with the budget and the inability to work out anything with these unions.
But it's coming.
I think more and more people are starting to understand this.
And to hearken back, this is why FDR was totally against government workers unionizing.
He knew it would lead to people hating government.
And that's not good if you're the party of government.
Today's Democrat Party doesn't care.
Today's unions don't care if you hate them.
They think they are so powerful.
It doesn't matter.
In fact, they love the fact that people fear them.
They love being intimidating.
FDR knew it was ultimately not a good thing.
So the workers of the world are not united.
No, there are some private sector union people quoted in this New York Times story.
Not happy with what they're seeing in Wisconsin.
From the Wall Street Journal, the state of Michigan approved a plan for Detroit to close about half of its public schools and to increase the average size of high school classrooms to 60 students over the next four years to eliminate a $327 million deficit.
Folks, there isn't any money.
It just hasn't been real.
Detroit having to close half of its schools, double the size of its classrooms, because it cannot get out from under its union contracts, even though it is on the brink of bankruptcy.
We're supposed to believe that teachers' unions always do what's best for the children.
60 kids in a classroom is the only way they can do it.
They got to close half the schools.
Class size has to be expanded.
They have a deficit.
They can't retire.
And once again, union contracts are at issue.
But there's good news here to an extent.
The good news is that the teachers who haven't been fired yet will still be able to collectively bargain about their number of sick days.
And then we move on to the Detroit news.
Headline: Lansing braces for protests.
Moving on to Michigan, hundreds of union members, Tea Party supporters, and citizens are expected to converge on the Capitol today to lobby the legislature, show their feelings for Governor Rick Snyder's budget plan, yet another Republican.
Labor leaders say the Michigan-controlled legislature is pushing Wisconsin-style assaults on unions through a series of bills, including one to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law and another to end binding arbitration for the cops and firefighters.
Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney said, Our problem may not be with Governor Snyder as much as it is with Republicans in the legislature.
Where we draw the line is the same place that they draw the line in Wisconsin.
It's the assault on collective bargaining rights.
This is a matter of principle for us.
They can say what they want.
The fact of the matter is, what they are doing is plain as day.
It is obvious for anybody to see.
They are protesting.
They are demanding to hold on to what they've got, no matter what it costs somebody else, including people who have lost their own jobs.
They are demanding to hold on to what they've got despite the record of their own job performance.
In the context of test scores, when talking about teachers, it isn't all that hunky-dory.
Those of you in the Democrat Party and the American left, I say again, the American people don't want you.
They've said it at the ballot box over and over and over again, millions of times last November.
They don't want you.
They don't want what you believe.
They don't want your policies in positions of power.
They just don't want you.
You overreached going anti-constitution, extra-constitution to put together this government power grab called health care, Obamacare.
Nope, people don't want it.
And they know that it's all lies, too.
It's not going to cheapen anything.
It's not going to lower the price of anything.
It's not going to improve coverage.
It's not going to do anything but make a bigger mess out of what's already a mess.
From Jackie Calmas at the New York Times, Wisconsin puts Obama between competing desires.
What are the competing desires?
Before I tell you what the New York Times consists or says the competing desires are, I'll tell you.
The competing desires Obama faces, the desire to be a socialist but not look like one.
That's the competing desire.
To be a socialist, but not look like one at the same time.
The battle in Wisconsin over public employee unions has left Obama facing a tricky balance between showing solidarity with longtime political supporters, i.e. the unions, and projecting a message in favor of deep spending cuts to reduce the debt.
Sorry, you're losing it, Mr. President.
You are siding with the budget busters.
Budget busters who don't produce anything.
This is the dirty little secret now is up.
It's a transfer of wealth is all that's gone on here.
Union wealth is nothing more than a transfer of wealth from producers to government employees.
Not one thing's produced.
Not one thing is made.
The GDP, the GNP, not advanced MIOTA.
The government doesn't make anything except the upcoming Chevy Volt.
So here we have the regime's House organ, the New York Times, reporting that Obama's trying to back off his overt role in the union protest in Wisconsin.
The White House says the involvement of the Democrat National Committee in organizing for America were overblown from the start.
That's what they say in the story.
Ah, we're not all that involved here.
That's really been exaggerated.
But from the story itself, before Mr. Obama complained last week of an assault on the unions by Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker, a Democrat Party had alerted its volunteers organizing for America to support the protests there and elsewhere, seeing an opening to show solidarity with the labor movement or rev up the party's liberal base ahead of the 2012 elections.
No, not rip up the liberal base, the union base, union money.
This is another thing.
It's plain as day for every Democrat to see.
It isn't about you.
It isn't about your kids.
These guys are not walking off the job for you.
How are these guys walking off the job, these senators in Wisconsin?
How is that helping America?
How is that helping the state of Wisconsin?
How is that helping the average Wisconsin resident?
It isn't.
Who's it helping?
Who's it designed to help?
People who are really not doing all that great a job teaching your kids.
Union people, union money.
The Democrats are showing what really matters to them, and that's their paymasters, not their voters.
This is Armageddon for them.
They know it.
This, folks, this is not, this is, this is, I don't know, what's the word I want to use?
It isn't going to be pretty.
It isn't going to be pretty.
This is Armageddon for these people.
What happens when they lose?
That's not what scares me.
What scares me is what happens that shows them they've lost.
When they've arrived at the point, Mr. Sterling, they know they've lost.
That's the end of it.
What's going to happen before that to make them realize they've lost?
What are they going to do to prevent the defeat?
That's where it's going to get messy.
That's where it's going to get messy.
I'll just leave it at that.
It isn't going to eventuate that some powerful hand says, okay, this issue's over.
Unions, you lose.
When that moment happens, that will be at the end of, you know, how many are left standing.
You get my drift here.
Battle's going to be bloody.
Folks, how can I explain this to you?
You know, I mean, it's, you know, that money's the driving force.
I don't, especially people who say it's not.
And what is this really all about?
This is.
I need to think of a really good analogy here for you.
Closest I can come up with here on the fly is bank robbery is legalized for 20 or 30 years, and all of a sudden it isn't.
And if the only thing you know that puts food in your kids' mouth is robbing banks, what are you going to do when they all of a sudden say can't rob a bank anymore?
I got to take a break.
But I mean, it's about money.
And it's about not having to really work very hard for it.
It's about getting it via intimidation.
I mean, literally, folks, I don't know about you.
I don't even think it's somebody else's responsibility to pay for my retirement.
I don't even, I've never thought it was somebody else's responsibility to pay for my health care.
I've never thought it was especially anybody's responsibility to give me anything once I stop working for them.
But there's a whole lot of people who expect it.
They've been told to.
Their forefathers have gotten it.
Their forebears have gotten it.
And all of a sudden, they're going to be told, it's over for you.
That's all they know.
That's all they know.
It's like it's not the best of analogies.
I'm not saying they don't work.
Don't misunderstand.
But it's like telling somebody who's never worked that if you want to eat tomorrow, you're going to have to go out and get a job.
Dudley Moore in the movie Arthur.
Hey, you know what?
Your grandmother doesn't like the way you're making a mess out of the $2 billion she left you.
It's being cut off tomorrow.
What are you going to do?
I don't know.
I don't know how to do anything else.
I mean, come up with your own analogy.
None of this has been real.
Most people do not get their health care paid for by everybody else for the rest of their lives.
Most people do not have their retirement paid for by everybody else.
Most people do not have their groceries paid for by other people.
Most people do not earn twice as much as the people who are paying them.
At some point, tipping point is reached where it can't go on anymore.
Even with fake money, even with private money, even with borrowed money, even with Chi-Com money, it can't go on anymore.
Well, if you're one of the ones who are told, guess what?
It's over.
And if part of the reason you've been able to keep this gig going is because members of your group go around, beat people up at town hall meetings to make sure the status quo remains the same?
What are you going to do if you and furthermore you, don't really have to do your job all that well?
Your students, basically in eighth grade, cannot even have to know how to read.
And you're still going to get paid and you're still going to get your retirement and you're still going to get your health care for as long as you live.
If you're in New York, you'd be stunned.
I read was that the number of public workers who retire at age 50, some of these leaders of these unions are making $600,000 a year in their pensions.
Sorry, that's not how the little people live.
Plus, yeah, disability, half of the retirees do so in disability, which adds even more to it.
The problem is that the people who don't have, never have had that kind of deal are the ones paying it.
Once they figure out that they are the government, that they are the treasury, that they are the source of all this money.
Hello.
Hello, November of 2010.
Hello, election results.
Hello, Democrats losing 700 seats in state legislatures.
Hello, Democrats losing the House of Representatives.
Hello, Scott Walker.
Hello, John Kasich.
Hello, all these Republican governors who now are going to fix this.
And into the fray, who joins the side of the takers?
The president.
Hey, listen to this.
This is a president.
This is back in Ohio.
This is in Cleveland at Cleveland State University.
He went up there to have, I guess, what do you think police think?
Breakout session, panel discussion, whatever it was, on small business and so forth.
And here's Obama talking about that they had a breakout session and then they broke from the breakout session.
Obama came to report what all had happened at the breakout session.
We spent the day in breakout sessions talking about five areas of obstacle and opportunity for America's small business.
We had a terrific discussion.
The groups that I participated in were remarkable and had great ideas.
I know the members of the cabinet had fun, which is why we're going to do it again.
Over the next several months, what we're going to be doing is teaming up with mayors and governors and small business owners to host a series of these jobs forums across the country.
Well, now, how about this?
Here we have the country just in dire economic circumstances.
There are genuine wars going on in several states here over budgets and who's going to be paid what.
There are fires all over the Middle East, and Obama's talking about breakout sessions on small business in Cleveland.
And they had so much fun, they're going to do it again.
They're going to have even more breakout sessions.
And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, in terms of the president and who he is siding with, remember now, another reason that the states, another reason that Governor Walker is doing what he's doing and some of the other governors is because they know that if Obamacare ultimately is ruled constitutional, that most Medicaid gets transferred to them.
That federal Medicaid, maybe it's Medicare, whatever, is going to be transferred.
It's going to become the state's responsibility to pay for it.
And so much, Obama is helping the states so much that 26 of them are suing him to prevent the enactment of Obamacare.
He's helping the state so much, he's forcing 26 governors, AGs to sue, forcing legislation to protect the citizens.
And here's another headline.
This is from Capitol Media Services.
The president of the state Senate, Arizona, introduced legislation Monday to ban illegal immigrants from state universities and community colleges, making it a crime for them to drive in Arizona, including new public schools reporting public school reporting requirements that could induce the parents of children not here legally to keep them home.
Arizona moves to officially ban illegal immigrants from schools.
The state is already being sued by President Obama.
So you can see how all this is shaping up.
No less than Richard Cohen, the Washington Post today, condemns in a column the obesity epidemic of government pensions.
He says he signs for the unions, he feels for the unions, but this really is enough is enough.
We just can't keep going this way.
Richard Cohen of the Washington Post.
Now, get this, ladies and gentlemen.
This is from the McIver News Service.
As Milwaukee public school teachers left their classrooms to march on Friday, they likely earned more than $3 million to not teach students in Wisconsin's largest scruple district in Madison.
The school district was closed for three days after hundreds of teachers engaged in a mass sick out so they could attend protest rallies at the Capitol could cost the school district $2.7 million.
Hang on for how.
Late Sunday night, Madison Metro Schruel District Administration announced their schools would be shut down yet one more day at a possible cost of more than $900,000.
Many of the absent teachers converged on the Capitol to protest a bill which would alter their compensation packages and make changes in government employee unions' ability to collectively bargain on issues other than wages.
I asked if they were handing out doctors' excuses.
A guy said, yeah, asked me if I needed one, one woman told MacIver News Service Saturday.
When I told him I needed one for February 16th and 17th, he wondered if I wanted to come back here for the protest next week.
What surprised her happened next surprised her?
He said, sure.
And I received a doctor's note for the 16th through the 25th of February without a medical exam.
If all the teachers in Milwaukee and Madison are paid for the days missed, the protest-related salaries for just the state's two largest districts would exceed $6.6 million.
Using a figure of $100,000 for the average teacher compensation in the public school system, an average yearly workload of 195 days, these teachers cost approximately $513 per day in salary and benefits to employ.
If you spread over 5,960 full-time licensed teachers in the district, it adds up to $3 million in daily expenses.
The average teacher's total compensation in Madison is $74,912, according to the Department of Public Instruction.
Every day costs $384 per teacher.
The district has 2,370 teachers.
These figures do not include administrators and support staff, many of which got an unexpected paid days off thanks to the protests.
These are paid days off, is what it ends up being.
The issue extends far beyond Milwaukee and Madison, however.
More than two dozen school districts were closed for at least one day last week as teachers called in sick to attend protests over the budget repair bill in Madison.
While some speculated the absent teachers will see their pay docked, that may not be the case if they provide a doctor's note.
It's the doctor's note here that gets them paid for not working.
And the doctor's notes were fraudulent, as we all know.
And from an approving New York Daily News, the Wisconsin workers who have staged a week-long protest against their union-busting governor are getting some big Apple reinforcements.
Teamsters Local 237 represents various city workers, intends to bus a couple hundred members to Madison, possibly this week.
Yeah, this governor's awakened a sleeping giant, said Pete Gutierrez, Governor Scott Walker.
We're going to bring down as many people as possible.
It's an important issue.
It's a legitimate cause.
Damn right it is.
For these people, they've got their fingers around the throat of the golden goose.
They want to hold on.
Let me get back to the phones.
People here have been very patient in waiting.
Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Paul, thank you for your patience and hello, sir.
Great to speak with you, Rush.
I don't mind waiting at all.
Thank you.
You mentioned at the beginning of the show today that there's an election in Chicago, and right you are.
The mayoral election is going to be held where the new his honor is going to be picked.
The Day of the Living Dead is Election Day in Chicago.
Yes, the skids have been greased, the checks have been cashed, and it will happen, or something really even bad and worse than that will happen.
But anyway, Rahm didn't have any problem in the financing area.
Politico reports he raised $10.6 million in individual contributions, most of them big ticket contributions of $100,000 or more.
And just coincidentally, these were all made just before the deadline, before Campan finance rules took effect, limiting contributions to $5K.
That went into effect January the 1st.
Notable among the contributors was a man who appeared at CPAC a week before last and in a very carefully delivered speech from handwritten notes gave the impression he was a conservative.
I'm referring to the Donald, Mr. Trump.
Yeah, I saw that.
I didn't understand that either.
I didn't understand Trump giving money to Rom.
There's got to be a reason for it.
I'm going to ask Trump about it.
I'll get an answer for you.
No, wait a minute.
Let me, it gets worse.
If you go to the Illinois State Board of Elections website and look at his total contributions, he also gave multiple contributions to Rod Blogojevich.
Yes, Blago, two contributions.
He also gave two contributions to the Cook County Democratic Party.
Look, look, look, look, look, look.
Trump's got a whole bunch of real estate going up in Chicago.
He's got a bunch of condos.
He's got a couple of buildings.
I don't know what the status is.
I think they've run into some problems.
It's all from the top of my head memory.
So what does that make him, Rush, a political opportunist, right?
If you're doing business in Chicago, what are you going to do?
If you want to build a condo high-rise in Chicago, there is the Chicago Way.
And okay, look at all of his other contributions.
He's also given money to turn coat Republicans, Charlie Crist, Arlen Specter, both of them turncoats.
And you get on the list, they're all rhinos.
What we have here is a dyed-in-the-wool rhino that the rhinos have picked to be there, hired guns, so to speak, to run for the presidency this year.
Look, Trump has expressed a desire to answer these questions.
He'll answer these.
Well, I'm sure he has other skeletons in his closet, but right now, he's got a dead fish in his closet.
What is your ⁇ wait a minute now.
Out of the blue here, you're dumping on Trump, and you reminded me of something.
You know, there's a great episode of the Haney Project tonight, and I got so caught up in this.
And it occurs in one of Trump's courses out in Palos Verdas, California.
I forgot to mention, I really want this week, tonight, and next Tuesday night's the finale, and they're both great shows tonight.
He's got Al Michaels.
Al Michaels and I play around NBC Sports Sunday Night Football.
It's a great, great rounded show, and I forgot totally to mention it.
I feel remiss here, but I got to ask you, what do you got against Trump?
I mean, Trump is not yet for sure running for anything.
What's the deal?
No, I have nothing against Trump.
What I want him to do is to be forthright about what his beliefs are.
He was very non-committal on most subjects when he made his speech at CPAC.
And why would somebody make a 50K contribution to a political hatchet man of the other party a few weeks before he appears at a conservative political action conference?
This contribution was made on December the 23rd of last year in the amount of $50,000.
I don't know.
It's so they don't find him at the bottom of the New York Reservoir with a cement swimsuit on.
Well, there was an offer made, I'm sure, that he couldn't refuse, but the offer was made by the Rhinos in the Republican Party who want him to be the hired.
Look, you claim you got nothing against Trump here, but you clearly do.
Well, what I have against Trump is that he has not been straightforward with everybody so far.
He needs to come clean and explain why he's not.
But he's not running for anything.
If he decides to run, I guarantee you, you'll be among the many asking these questions.
Well, I'll be very interested to see how he explains it.
But his speech at CPAC is very unconvincing to me.
And not only that, but the committee, okay, you'll remember his appearance at CPAC was a surprise appearance.
Okay, to quote Virginia GOP chairman, former chairman Frederick, he said this was the most important event at CPAC.
Trump came out of the closet in the sense of revealing he is a conservative.
Well, he didn't reveal he was a conservative as far as I'm concerned.
But he's not, he's not.
Relax out there.
Relax.
I mean, you're sounding like the left does when they hear Sarah Palin's name.
No, I want a genuine Republican to carry the banner for the party this year, not another rhino.
Well, right now, Trump is a very important thing.
That's an interesting question.
Is a genuine Republican a rhino?
That's what we're still trying to determine here.
What does rhino mean, Republican and name only?
Yeah, well, the Republican establishment, we would all think, are rhinos.
Exactly.
All right.
So what we're looking for is a conservative, not a genuine Republican.
Trump's not a conservative.
Well, I'm not saying he is.
Did you lose a lot of money at one of his casinos or something?
Well, people who have invested with him have lost billions over the years.
As you know, he's bankrupted a half a dozen companies.
So his claim to be a tremendous financier is due strictly to the fact that he's worth more out of jail than in jail to the banks at London.
All right.
There's some personal animus going on here or something you don't want to own up to.
I mean, out of the blue, out of the blue, here we are in the midst of a Hall of Fame show, and you hang on.
He's been on hold for an hour and 45 minutes.
That means he's passionate about this, folks.
So something about Trump, something about Trump.
You know, I don't do, as you know, the number of guests I do on this show you can count on one hand over a course of a year.
But I'll call Trump and see if he wants to come on the program and talk about all this.
We'll see.
He may.
I don't know.
But I did need to, I intended to tell you about the Haney Project show tonight.
It's Al Michaels and I at Trump National out at Palos Verdes.
And it's, it's a shame they couldn't make a two-hour special out of this because it was a laugh riot.
And we taped it over two days.
Al Michaels and I played a round of golf one day, and then the next day, Haney and I go out, and there's some instruction and stuff.
And then the finale is a week from tonight.
And we shot that at Cabo Santa Lucas down in Mexico, the Baja Peninsula.
We shot it at a Discovery Lands property, which is just stunning called El Dorado.
It's a Nicholas design course.
It used to be a public golf course property.
Mike Meldman Discovery took it over, bought it, and it's turned it into just a, man, a fabulous place right there on the beach at San Jose del Cabo.
And Haney wasn't around when Al and I played.
Haney showed up.
It was just Al and I out there.
Al and I played on a, well, I guess Thursday, Haney showed up on Friday.
It was a two-day shoot.
So I don't think Hank, no, Hank was not there when Al and I were motoring around the place.
But in the finale, I took George Brett with me to close the loop.
He was with me in the first episode.
I took George Brett and Fred Couples was down there just spending some time before going to L.A. for the Northern Trust Open, which he ended up playing pretty well in.
And he has a little cameo, a couple appearances in the finale next Tuesday night.
That was a hoot.
That was a hoot.
So it's a Haney project tonight with Al Michaels, and Trump's not in it.
So if you got a problem out there, in fact, Trump called us.
We're playing golf, and Trump called us.
Trump's a funny guy.
You know, Al and I are standing.
We're on the driving range after the round.
We're looking at it.
It's a crystal clear day.
You can see Catalina.
There's no smog, no nothing.
And Trump calls, and he's just, he's a constant salesman.
And they put his call on the speaker, and we're talking to him.
He says, look, guys, look out there.
This is the best course in California.
Hands down.
There's not a course that compares to it.
We have to say, wait a minute, have you ever heard of Pebble Beach?
He said, hell, Pebble Beach, look at Pebble Beach.
When you're at Pebble Beach, where are you?
So, well, Carmel Bay.
Exactly.
Exactly right.
You're on a bay.
But when you're at Trump National, you're on the ocean.
You've got an ocean to look at, not just a little bay.
I mean, he starts talking about the greatest course in the country, greatest layout in the country.
He's just, wherever you are with him, whatever it is is the best.
And if you don't believe so, he'll tell you.
Anyway, folks, very quickly, timeout here.
We got to come back and wrap up here after a brief obscene profit timeout, so don't go away.
Pacific Palisades, California.
Hi, Bart.
Welcome to the program.
It's an honor to speak to you, right?
Thank you very much, sir.
I wanted to ask you, is this not a Clinton aspirin factory moment for Obama?
I mean, he could easily launch a couple of Tomahawk missiles, take out the Somali pirates that just killed four Americans, and divert a lot of attention from the Republicans in Wisconsin and the CIA agent Davis in Pakistan.
Well, the Pakistan thing, that's a different thing.
They might do it.
You remember, we did nail some Somali pirates, and they did actually send a press release out that Obama ordered that it was Obama who said pull the trigger at that moment.
In fact, it was Obama who pulled the trigger, giving the orders.
We know it was kind of smoked up.
They still could do that.
That could still happen.
We give that a while.
Once they figure out in the White House, they could distract with an attack on the Somali pirates.
Could well happen.
Bart, thanks for the call.
Pacific Palisades, another great place.
And they've never done anything for me either.
Trump does not have a place in Pacific Palisades.
Please give me a break, will you?
What is this with Trump?
All right.
Again, Haney project tonight at 9 on the golf channel.
Al Michaels and I on the links.
And to the you people wondering, where is the Android version of the app we have for the iPhone, our developer got a hernia out there, folks, working on the app for the Android.
I don't know what that means.
But until that gets resolved, it's going to be a while.
I don't know if there's any connection between Android and hemorrhoids or hernias.
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