Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
And testing one, two, three, all right.
I have some voice.
I don't know how long it's gonna last, but I have I had a little bit of a voice today.
That's a problem yesterday, folks.
I didn't have a voice.
You know what I could have done?
I I I could say that I stayed out yesterday in solidarity with the protesters in Madastan, Wisconsin.
And I probably could have even gotten a fake doctor's excuse.
Uh like the Democrats there did, but I don't think you would believe me, which is a uh excuse me, is a good thing.
Great to have you here as we kick off three hours of broadcast excellence.
Our telephone number, if you want to be on the program 800-282-2882, and the email address L Rushball at EIBNet.com.
And just folks, just to satisfy some of you nitpickers out there, Donald Trump will be on the program in an hour.
Last week, I think it was last week, we got a some guy called me and said, What the hell is it really was on Trump's case?
Everything.
He's got mad at Trump for breathing, got mad at Trump for going to CPAC, got mad at Trump for pretending to be a conservative.
Said he gave money to Ron Emmanuel's mayoral campaign, Chicago.
I said, Well, he's got a bunch of real estate deals going on in Chicago.
You know how it is in Chicago, you have to pay to play.
Oh, see, so you're defending Trump.
And here it came.
My email got swamped with people defending Trump.
And I said, All right, I'll get him on the program and I'll ask him that stuff.
So I called him, he said, sure.
So we'll have Trump here in about an hour, and we'll talk about that.
We'll ask him what he didn't like about the Chaicoms, uh, whether he's running, who he fears on the Republican side as his potential nominee opponents and all that.
Um we got the phone number in there set up, right?
Uh right, Brian.
10-4.
Also, uh, tonight, the big finale of the Haney Project on the golf channel.
The big finale.
They hit me with a bunch of surprises that uh I well surprises meaning they dangled some carrots in front of me.
If I was able to achieve something to achieve various challenges, then uh I would be rewarded with certain prizes, certain gifts.
And it's a great show.
We we did this at uh at El Dorado, which is a uh golf course development in uh in Cabo San Lucas.
Well, San Jose del Cabo, uh right up the road from Cabo San Lucas.
It's a um folks, I gotta tell you about we we we used a number of places, uh filming the Haney Project or taping it all over the country.
Uh Kukillo out on the big island of Hawaii.
Uh Baker's Bay, which is recently opened over in the Bahamas.
Uh El Dorado in uh uh in Cabo San Lucas.
This is uh the these three are part of a of a uh a whole nationwide development called Discovery Land uh Comp.
Mike Meldman owns it, and I tell you these um these are some of the finest places you could live, some of the finest places you could visit.
Uh for the most they're all uh with the exception of El Dorado, which the golf course was there before Melbourne bought the place.
It's uh it's a Nicholas course.
They're all Tom Fazio courses.
And a couple of summers ago, Fazio and I and a couple of friends, we took a a guy's golf trip in the summer to a number of Fazio design courses, and a bunch of them turned out we've Madison Club in uh in Palm Springs is another one of Melman's, but I'd say these are uh just you golfers, you would not believe the comfort stations.
You would I mean every four holes, there's a barbecue grill.
I I I can't it's indescribable.
Barbecue grill, oysters, uh champagne.
I mean, it just it's it just it's indescribable.
Oh, you want to finish the course because you want to get to the next comfort station.
Uh there they're just and and the the quality of the homes on these places are just stunning.
One of the great things about golf is that wherever you go to play, it's a beautiful place.
And uh Meldman uh made available all these different places so that we could actually do a great travel log show.
And we started in Hawaii at Coquillo, uh, which got some of the greatest views of the Pacific Ocean from high up the mountain.
Uh And then El Dorado down in uh in in Cabo, which is where we finished, uh about well, we did the middle of February, so two weeks ago, two or three weeks ago.
At any rate, uh it it's i if if you ever get a chance, I mean, these are places you buy homes, but if you ever get a chance to play at one of these places from Discovery, do it.
If if if you know somebody that lives there, if you have a chance uh to uh to visit one of these places, by all means, avail yourself of the opportunity.
This is the these are the kind of places that make it worth your while to take up the game just to be able to uh visit these places.
They are the epitome of quality and and uh refinement uh in class, and every everybody I've met at one of these places is the best at what they do.
Uh and of course, so we have the big finale tonight.
George Brett, he was on the opener, he was on the uh season premiere, brought him back for the finale.
Uh and uh I I they were talking about this on the golf channel today, trying to make it a big surprise.
I'm gonna blow the surprise.
Fred Couples shows up on the on the finale tonight uh in a in a fun little uh episode.
And they had let's just go to the audio sound bites.
It's nine o'clock tonight on the golf channel uh which is Direct TV channel two eighteen.
Let's grab sound bites three, four, and five and do this.
We'll get into the Wisconsin stuff and the government shutdown stuff and all that as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears.
But they had Hank Haney on the golf channel today during their morning show to talk about the finale tonight.
And uh I get one of the guys talking to him was uh uh the Gary Williams, co-host of the morning show.
And they had this uh little exchange.
This is the first of three sound bites.
Of the three guys you worked with, and let's go in in in kind of reverse order, starting with Rush, who is the best listener?
Actually, the best listener was Rush.
He's uh an incredible talker, and I was really shocked that he was even the better listener.
Now, you might be wondering why this question.
Like Snerdley is looking at me, sort of frowning.
And this is Snardley's offended.
Fair to say that you're offended.
Because Snurgley knows me.
And with the when this program started, one of the uh and I okayed it, Snerdley, because it wasn't worth the time it would take to go to the mat with these guys to change their campaign.
I knew it wasn't going to matter, but their whole campaign was can this motor mouth loudmouth listen?
You know, that that was that was their whole theme.
And I look at it and I laughed.
I said, Did they not have the slightest idea that to know the things I know you have to listen?
Does it not make cr common sense that to learn things you have to listen?
Okay, so they've got it in their heads that I don't listen.
So that's that's their their blowhards.
Okay, fine.
So even after it's over, that's why they're asking the question.
So were you surprised because they have to carry through with their theme with their with their formula.
Now the other two guys are talking about the previous two were Ray Romano of everybody loves Raymond and Charles Barkley.
Okay, so Haney says that I was the best listener.
Now, those of you who are regular listeners understand that that's not a surprise, but it is to people who have this the what would you preconceived uh notion.
So the second bite is Gary Williams talking to Haney, says, you know, when you look at Rush specifically, obviously the finale tonight.
What's great is you did these various people who popped in.
George Brett's been on Pat Perez.
Uh there's a big time star, and I know it's on the finale tonight.
Sometimes it can be distractions.
I know George and and Russia are very, very close.
Do you get wary of these big stars being around these guys when you're trying to teach them?
Not really.
I mean, it it added to the show.
I mean, tonight's show is just great.
I mean, there's a whole bunch of surprises in there.
It has a great ending.
And it just made it a lot more fun.
I mean, Rush handled everything great with the people being around, and he's uh you know, he's very, very good on TV.
He's just he was a great student.
He was an incredible student.
He's one of the best students I've ever had.
I mean, it didn't necessarily start out that way, but he really was a great student and uh a pleasure to help.
I mean, I haven't had a student, you know, very often in my career that listened as well as he did and tried as hard as he did.
And it was a a great, you know, uh opportunity for me and uh and a pleasure to help him.
So it's Hank Haney on the golf channel today.
So after that was over, the other two guys, uh, Eric Casilius and Gary Well, Gary Williams is the one of the two.
So Gary Williams and Eric Casidius have this exchange.
They are still perplexed that I'm a good listener.
The best listener Rush.
Shocked by that.
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, I suppose, look, you know, we interview people for a living.
You the people who are good interviewers actually listen.
You have to what people are saying.
You don't have your questions where you run down, you wait for them to stop talking, so you can ask the next question.
You have to listen to what they say.
And Rush is a very compelling interviewer, so I understand that he probably does have some good listening skills.
I just didn't think that'd be the one thing he would say.
Me either.
But you asked.
Why wouldn't he say it?
You asked, was he a good listener or not?
Anyway, uh I don't interview people, Eric.
It's a rarity when that happens.
Nevertheless, um the the show tonight is uh I have a rough cut, and I we watched it last night with Catherine.
And it's good.
It it was uh it was it really came together.
It's good.
I mean, this was the big test.
This is a big test.
I mean, can and by the way, they had they must have brought everybody at the golf channel.
There must have been 15 or 20 golf carts running around with cameras, microphones, hidden microphones, hidden cameras all over the place.
Uh I think it was their bonus to be able to go down to Cabo.
Uh and so there was even more performance pressure on me, the rank amateur here.
I mean, this is it.
I mean, this this is it.
You know, and there's no this is it's life to tape.
There's no shooting it three or four times to get it right.
You know, this is so that the deal is I got to break 85 and I got a surprise coming and some other challenges they threw my way.
It's uh it's uh it's a lot of fun.
It has been fun.
Uh and if three or four more people now know that I'm a good listener, that's an added bonus.
Don't get so ticked off about this uh bow.
I mean it well, you know I know you I appreciate your loyalty in there, but you you can't you just you gotta go with the flow on this kind of stuff.
It just is.
Now by the way, Coco, do me a favor, put a link to uh the Discovery Land Company up there.
You gotta see some of the pictures of the places we went.
Uh uh to shoot this series.
It it just blow your mind.
It really will.
Now, quick timeout.
Obama uh had some things to say about how we all need to support public sector union people, and and and Scott Walker came back.
I'm sure the president knows, and I'm sure the president knows, and I'm sure the president knows one of the greatest put downs ever.
One of the greatest put-down reactions to a pres.
I'm sure the president knows this, and I'm sure what he's saying is, you idiot, do you not understand that X, Y, and Z. Oh, it's it's wonderful.
We've got phony polling data out there to show that a majority of people support unions and collective bargaining.
If that's the case, how come everybody's not a member of you?
What are pulling out all the stops out there, folks?
Uh, we got polling data on the government shutdown.
We got stories in the Democrats know they're gonna lose their shirts on this if the government does get shut down.
So we've got we got uh all.
All we got to do is take a scene profit, so I'm not here to get started, then we'll come back and resume with all the rest of it.
And we are back, Rush Limbaugh with half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
The New York Times uh let's see, the uh I guess it was uh yesterday, had a uh uh story.
Obama supports easing health law mandates for states.
Uh we are being set up all over the place here.
This was this the the purpose of this story since they're seeking to appease disgruntled governors, seeking to appease disgruntled governors.
You don't really need to read anymore after this.
For the mandate is where this bill has been found to be unconstitutional.
So here's Obama supports easing health law mandates for the states.
And then the politico has a companion story.
Folks say, politico, you guys, why don't you start running last week's weather forecasts?
Because that's about how relevant the stuff that you're talking about.
Here's here's the point.
Guess what the political just figured out?
You know, the the purpose of the mandate, if you if you take this at at at face value, the purpose of the mandate is to get thirty-two million uninsured Americans to buy health insurance.
This creates an even larger pool.
And this is supposed to make premiums go down.
However, however, there is another provision.
If you don't buy a policy, you pay a fine.
Guess what the politico just discovered?
The fine is barely 10% of the cost of a policy.
Guess what else the politico just learned?
They learned that people would probably pay the fine rather than buy the policy.
We pointed this out for over a year.
I know that's why they ought to start running last week's weather forecast at the politico.
Because they're running this as though it's breaking news.
They're running this as though they've just figured this out.
There's one thing they still haven't figured out about this, though.
And that is the whole point of having the fine lower than the price of the policy is to make sure people don't buy insurance, so that ultimately they have to go to the government to get it.
It's all about charting a course to get the single payer.
Well, the Politico has just now figured out, or whoever wrote the story, I've got it here, it's Barry and the Stagler.
Whoever wrote the story has just figured out that the reason Obama's relaxing the mandate is because they realize that the fine is cheaper than the mandate, and people paying the fine does not accomplish the objective of the bill, which is to get 32 million people who are uninsured insured.
Well, Sam.
So they have no clue.
They're so wrapped up in being stenographers.
The Daily Caller blog has a has an entry today about how the political reporterette covering Michelle Obama is simply a flack.
Not even a reporter.
You know, particularly covering uh Mooch Hell on her dietary advice for everybody else.
So again the elements.
32 million uninsured.
Mandate.
Require them to buy insurance.
Make sure everybody gets covered.
Insurance companies love that.
32 million new customers.
Up, up, up.
You don't really have to, because there's a fine you can pay.
And the fine is much, much less up until 2014-2015.
So you pay the fine rather than pay the money for a policy.
Millions do not get insured.
Objective is not met.
Damn.
Aw damn, it isn't working.
Which is the point.
So on down the line, this leads to the only obvious solution, which is just get rid of the insurance companies and force everybody to the government to get their insurance.
Obama said it, I don't know how many times.
Could take 15, well, 10, 15 years to finally get to single payer, but that's the objective.
But they got to start out small.
So they've got this.
I mean, it it's hilarious.
They really think they're on to so they've just discovered this in the politico.
And now you've got this New York Times story.
Obama supports easing the health law mandate.
You know why?
Because they just discovered there's a fine in there.
And the uh mandate really is not a mandate because there's always a chance people could not buy the policy, go ahead and get the fine done, and then they still abiding by the law.
So all this means is that Obama has recognized, they realize they're on a losing side of a proposition here.
They they have to hedge their bets.
They have to act like they're gonna lose this if it goes all the way Supreme Court.
The constitutionality of all this.
They have to plan for that.
They have to think of a way around it because they're not going to give up the Golden Goose here, which to them is single payer government-run health care.
So how do they get there?
Well, one of the things they do is change the image.
Trying to make it look like Obama's moving to the center.
We got audio sound budget.
Jack Welch, former GE says, well, he's not moving to the center.
He looks like it, but he's not.
And this is part of that trick.
Make it look like he's moving to the center.
Relaxing some of these things.
It's all about creating an image.
But it's all phony.
Baloney.
Plastic banana good time rock and roll stuff, which we will demonstrate as the program unfolds.
Plus, continue to focus on what's happening in uh Wisconsin, all of the civility that's taking place there from people on the left.
It's funny to watch.
More fun to talk about, which we'll do when we get back.
Did you see, folks, where um where the the BAMSTE has come out in support again of the unionistas in Wisconsin.
So by the way, has the labor secretary, uh Hilda Solis.
She's gone in there.
This is this is, by the way, not the job of the labor secretary.
Uh, but it's indicative of much of the way this regime operates.
It's it's total federal federal control over everything.
The states have no rights, no concerns.
If they do, they are to be trumped.
Anyway, the uh the president told the governors at their meeting in Washington, I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon.
But apparently, at least according to Obama, non-union bitter clingers have no such rights to infringe upon.
Certainly the first and second amendments don't compare to the right to negotiate your number of sick days.
No, it's I mean, it's folks, the these these public employees, they are holier than thou.
They are of a special class.
Here is the president yesterday, National Governors Association annual meeting.
I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon.
We need to attract the best in the brightest to public service.
These times demand it.
We're not gonna attract the best teachers for our kids, for example, if they only make a fraction of what other professionals make.
Come on, convince the bravest Americans to put their lives on the line as police officers or firefighters if we don't properly reward that bravery.
Mr. President, this is so disingenuous.
We're not going to attract the best teachers for our kids if they only make a fraction of what other professionals make.
Um they're making twice what their public private sector counterparts are making.
And they're being paid by those people.
How many of you have seen the documentary Waiting for Superman?
Have you seen this?
Well, go get it.
Go download it on iTunes.
Go go go get it from Amazon.
It's a it's a what I got an hour 21-minute documentary.
It's amazing.
I I I can't believe something like this got produced.
It is an indictment of the public school system.
It is an indictment of public sector teachers.
It is uh uh it's dead on accurate.
And it makes the point that the last thing on the mind of many of these public sector union teachers is teaching.
It's all the other stuff.
It's the pension, it's the welfare, it's the sick days, the vacations, it's the it's it's the money.
Uh it really is well done.
I was I'm I'm I'm stunned not only that it got produced, I'm stunned that it survived once it got produced.
But uh it's out there called Waiting for Superman.
And I think it just, in fact, it just made it to DVD in Blu-ray.
It did.
Brian's in there nodding his head.
You're just looking it up now or something.
Yeah, you ought to, Folks, take a look at this thing because it's uh the the timing of this thing hitting hitting DVD right now is awesome for it to be part.
Waiting for Superman.com is a website, okay.
You go there and check this out, waiting for Superman.com, but the uh uh I I bought it yesterday out at iTunes, and I started looking at it uh amidst blowing my nose sniffles and all this other cold stuff that uh that I was trying to overcome.
It's just it's uh it's it's terrific.
So anyway, anyway, after Obama makes the statement that you just heard, Governor Walker responded in Wisconsin, issued a statement.
I'm sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits, while our plan allows it for base pay.
They're not doing away with it in Wisconsin.
They're only allowing it for base pay, not for all the benefits.
And said the governor, I'm sure the president knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin.
At least I would hope the President knows these facts.
Furthermore, I'm sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.
And I'm sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin and isn't acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.
Folks, this is dynamite.
I mean, that's that is knife sharp.
That is just a fabulous statement.
And what it further shows is that Governor Walker does not fear President Obama on this.
Now, there's a New York Times poll in today's paper.
The headline, Majority in Poll Back Employees in Public Sector Unions.
John Steele Gordon at Commentary, the contentions blog site, says that the Times thought the story so significant they put it on page one above the fold and they even sent out a news alert last night via email.
And according to the New York Times, as labor battles erupt in state capitals and around the country, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits.
Asked how they would choose to reduce their states' deficits, the Times adds, those polled preferred tax increases over benefit cuts for state workers by nearly two to one.
Does anybody buy them?
If this is the case, how in the heck did Walker win election?
How did the Republicans take over the Senate?
I mean, this this is an out and out lie.
How do you square, how do you square these results with the results of last November's elections, in which anti-tax, anti-deficit, anti-public union forces swept to historic victories all over the place, federal and state elections.
Well, you can't.
And the Times doesn't even ask this blindingly obvious question, let alone try to answer it.
But if you read down to the seventh paragraph of the story, which is on page 17, not page one.
If you read down to the seventh paragraph of the story on page 17, an answer emerges.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted February 24th through 27th with 984 adults has a margin of sampling error plus or minus three percentage points for all adults, although Of those surveyed, 20% said they were there was a union member in their household.
25% said that there was a public employee in their household.
So although Less than 12% of the workforce is unionized today.
And by the way, the private sector numbers like eight.
Although less than 12% of the workforce is unionized today, 25% of the households in the survey had a union member.
Although government workers are 17% of the workforce, 25% of the household surveyed had one living there.
In other words, the sample was wildly skewed toward the very people most likely to give the answers the New York Times was hoping to hear.
But you have to read to page 17 to get that information.
So once again, proving a bone of contention.
Polls today are used to shape public opinion, not reflect it.
Pure and simple.
And there's a story from Reuters.
Reuters backs unions, Obama, and the fake poll.
Republic Governor Scott Walker on Monday gave absent Democrat lawmakers an ultimatum to return to Wisconsin within 24 hours and vote on a proposal to reduce the power of public sector unions or the state would miss out on debt restructuring.
The governor stepped up the pressure on 14 Senate Democrats who fled the state to avoid a vote on the bill as he prepared to unveil on Tuesday a two-year state budget that he said cuts one billion dollars from the funding.
For the second time since the controversy erupted, Obama weighed in, criticizing the Wisconsin plan.
The soundbite that you have heard that we played.
Never mind that again, now according to Obama, non-union bidder clingers have no such rights to infringe upon.
But clearly the rights enumerated in the first and second amendment don't compare to the right to negotiate your number of six days, six days if you're a member of the union.
Speaking of denigration, is this not the same guy who likes to refer to his opponents as teabaggers while scratching his nose with his middle finger?
And while we're on the subject, I thought denigration was a racist term anyway.
Wisconsin's Walker immediately issued a response saying, I'm sure the president simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin.
And then Reuters intentionally misrepresents Walker's response.
And they get to a poll.
A new poll released on Monday suggested that if the 2010 election could be replayed, the Wisconsin governor might lose.
The public policy polling, PPP, found that if the election were repeated, the result would flip with Walker's Democrat opponent Tom Barrett getting 52%, Walker 45%, Walker 1 with 52% in November, the shift came mainly from union households.
So isn't this amazing?
But if you take a look, the the public policy polling sample is in itself skewed to get the result that it wants.
All of this means that public opinion is actually against them.
And they're now having to take drastic action and go to heretofore unseen lengths to start fabricating news in the form of flawed poll results, which basically say to the American voter, guess what?
Everything you voted against and everything you voted for last November is done a 180.
Guess what?
The vast majority of the American people want taxpayers to continue to pay public sector unions twice what the taxpayer earns.
Guess what?
That's that's what that's really happened now.
Since since this all became public in Wisconsin, our polling data shows that the average American taxpayer thinks union people are being cheated and not being given their fair share.
And it and they also believe collective bargaining is as important a right as anything that's in the Constitution.
And guess when all this started to change?
All this started to change when the news out of out of Wisconsin went public and people finally got to see what a mean, evil, rotten guy Scott Walker is.
Well, that's what they're asking us to believe here, that public opinion has done a massive 180.
Now you and I know that this is not the case.
This is the um this is how desperate all of these people are getting.
Here we are poll question.
Do you agree to pay higher taxes so that state government employees can have higher pay, twice what yours is, more time off, better health care benefits, better retirement plan than you will ever get?
Ask them that question, New York Times.
Ask them that question, public policy polling.
What do you think the responses would be for that question?
Apart from union households, of course.
And while you're at it, when you ask that question, make sure that the number of union households represented in your poll is no more than 12% to make it accurate.
Quick time out.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
You know, in a way, the U.S. Constitution was on the ballot this past November, and you saw the resounding response.
And now you see the attempt by the losers to change the game.
There's no question Americans want to hold on to the freedoms guaranteed by a constitution that calls for a limited government.
But getting you and every other concerned American up to speed on what we face when it comes to preserving those freedoms, well, that's the next challenge.
Now there's an easy way for you to learn or relearn those freedoms.
For the next few days, you can access many of the documents of our founding fathers on a website set up by Hillsdale College.
It's the website we refer to often when we talk about Hillsdale, rush for Hillsdale.com.
On that site right now, Hillsdale's virtual professors have posted all kinds of documents for you to read through.
It's all there from George Washington's farewell address to the Articles of Confederation, so many more.
And when it's brought to life, this is the stuff that gets the professors at Hillsdale and the students energized.
It'll do the same for you.
Everybody can access this for a limited time.
Teachers, counselors, tutors, pastors, boy sprout leaders.
I mean, you're all invited to access the information.
Take the site over if you want to.
Rush for Hillsdale.com is the website address.
You'll be amazed at the wisdom you'll find in documents like these and understand why informed people are so energized about our rights and how they are under assault.
And ostensibly by one of the guardians of those rights.
And that would be the press.
Think of it as a football game, basketball game, whatever.
You've got the Republicans on one team and Democrats on the other.
The conservatives on one team and the liberals on the other.
The Americans on one team, the Marxist communists on the other.
Who's a referee?
Well, the referee's the media.
Ideally used to be.
Problem is the media is on the side of the Democrats.
The media is on the side of the communists.
The media is on the side of the liberals.
That's why you need to be independently able to inform yourself.
And why you need to be able to inform yourself sufficiently so that you are confident in what you know and what you believe, so that you can't be shaken by these laughable excuses for news stories called these polls coming out on care whether it's health care, the government shutdown, or Wisconsin.
Have you noted that every poll out there shows the Republicans losing?
Every poll on every seminal issue shows the Democrats winning, and yet they got shellacked.
Are we to believe that that record turnout last November is going, ah, damn it, we screw all?
No, what and yet?
After two years of watching a president try to destroy the American economy, they still haven't come to grips with that happening?
Is that what they want us to believe?
They do.
And if you are not confident in what you know and understand and believe, they can shake you.
Don't let it happen.
Be right back.
Yeah, isn't it amazing?
Every poll you look at, the huge winners last November are now losing every important issue in the country, according to polling data done by state-run media.