All Episodes
Previous Next
April 22, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:34
April 22, 2011, Friday, Hour #3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
The views expressed by the host on this program documented to be almost always right 99.6% of the time.
And it is Friday.
Let's go.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
One big hour to go here on Good Friday.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
Email address, LRushbo, EIBnet.com.
I take one of the greatest professional career risks ever known in big media, and that is turning over the all-important content of the program to you, rank amateurs.
And I am, after all, a highly trained broadcast specialist, but you are rank amateurs, lovable nevertheless.
And on Friday, Open Line Friday, you get to talk about whatever you want to talk about.
A golden opportunity.
During the course of the past couple days, I have wondered, where's all the news reporting on the high gas price?
You remember all of the talk when gas prices were rising, oil price was rising, Bush enriching his oil buddies, Halliburton, Cheney profiting personally.
The media wouldn't let the story go.
Not a whole lot of that, hardly any similar coverage is taking place yet.
From political gas prices overshadowed deficit talk, President Obama's attempt to sell his deficit cutting plan slowly being crowded out by another more pressing issue, rising gasoline prices on a two-day trip through Nevada and California.
Obama has devoted more and more of his time to address fears that many Americans could soon pay five bucks a gallon in an effort to look proactive on an issue over which he has little control.
Oh, that's nice.
Did they ever write that about Bush?
Bush had little control over gas.
No, no, no.
The press would join in with the criticism.
Why doesn't Bush do something?
In an effort to look proactive on an issue over which he has little control, Obama used a town hall meeting on Thursday to announce the creation of a Justice Department working group to study whether illegal manipulation is driving up oil and gas prices.
Oh, that's unique.
Never done this before.
How about a task force to figure out what Obama does every day?
Why don't we have a task force to figure out how this guy is destroying economic freedom in this country?
How about a blue ribbon panel to examine what Obama is doing to add inflation to the cost of everything?
How about what Obama's doing to destroy elements of our economic wealth creation?
What does this guy do every day other than lecture everybody else about things that he is ignorant of?
And think about this.
Here he is.
Why is Obama ratcheting up all of his attacks on rich people?
I know it satisfies his base, but he doesn't care about the base.
They have nowhere to go.
But I mean, he's out there, while raising money from the rich, he is ripping them to shreds.
He's pummeling them.
He's out in California talking the Hollywood left anybody that's got any kind of money at all, and they're freely giving it to him.
The Spielbergs and the Katzenbergs and everybody else out there, the cloonies of the world, they can't line up fast enough to give this guy big bucks.
But I'll tell you what, ripping into the rich, it sure does separate them from their money.
If they think draconian taxes are coming and they've given money to Obama, maybe they can get a waiver.
Ha.
But he's scaring the fat cats.
He said, you guys better get on board with me.
You're in for a tough ride unless you're my friend.
I don't think there's any doubt about this.
Go to the audio soundbites.
Here's Obama announcing that he's going to have Eric Holder form this commission to find out what's going on with gas prices.
I asked my attorney general to look into any cases of price gouging so we can make sure nobody's being taken advantage of at the pump.
Today, I'm going to go a step further.
The Attorney General is putting together a team whose job it is to root out any cases of fraud or manipulation in the oil markets that might affect gas prices.
And that includes the role of traders and speculators.
We're going to make sure that nobody's taking advantage of American consumers for their own short-term gain.
Right on.
Right on, right on, right on.
Same old rhetoric.
It's got to be somebody in the evil private sector doing it.
And it can't have anything to do with his drilling moratorium.
Oh, no, no, no.
It can't have anything to do with his overall economic policy, which is depressing and suppressing investment economic growth.
He also suggested on Thursday that his lagging poll numbers are due to high gas prices.
That's all it is.
If it weren't for those speculators, if it weren't for those gas prices, he'd be up 60%, he thinks.
That's what he's telling people.
He'd be at 60% approval if it weren't for the gas prices.
Now let's revisit what was said the last time gasoline was $4 a gallon.
We have three stories here.
The theme is the same.
It's the fault of the President of the United States.
It was a crisis.
Americans were suffering.
Bush was to blame.
Bush caused a weak dollar.
He wouldn't release oil from the strategic reserve.
His energy policy was terrible.
First story is Politico.
Martin Frost, June 10th of 2008.
High oil prices, weak dollar.
Blame Bush.
Few issues focus the public's attention on politics like the price of gasoline.
It keeps going up, and the public wants relief, and politicians are held accountable for not fixing the situation.
Yet to solve the problem, you first need to know the cause of the illness.
Why do gasoline prices keep going up?
Well, is it because Congress and President Bush have not fashioned energy policies to reduce our dependence on foreign oil?
Clearly, that is part of the answer.
Our government can do more to reduce demand and increase supply through conservation, auto-fuel efficiency standards, tax breaks, subsidies for development of alternative energy sources, and incentives to drill more in the U.S.
But that's not the entire story.
The immediate cause of rising oil prices is the weak dollar.
This is Martin Frost in 2008.
Oil-producing countries are requiring more dollars to purchase the same barrel of oil because the dollar is worth less today than it was a few years ago.
Same story could be written today, but it isn't being written.
The next story, this comes from Fox News.
July 8th of 2008, Pelosi asks Bush to draw from petroleum reserve to combat surge in oil prices.
Now, remember, we're talking about $4 a gallon here.
Four years ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Bush on Tuesday to draw down a portion of the country's strategic petroleum reserves as a way to reduce crude prices and help motorists who are suffering from the rising cost of gasoline.
And then from Politics USA, April 26, 2008, Democrats blame Bush and Republicans for high gas and oil prices.
This week, Senator Frank Lautenberg delivered the Democrat radio address.
Lautenberg placed the blame for high prices of gasoline and oil firmly at the feet of George W. Bush and the Republican Party.
And the media reporting all of this with applause and happiness and an echo.
We are not seeing a replete of any of this.
No, Obama cares.
Obama cares.
Don't forget Bush caused Katrina, too.
And that drove up gas prices.
Bush steered that hurricane right in there because he didn't like black people.
That's what Spike Lee said.
Yeah, it's a comie.
Kanye West did say Bush didn't like black people.
It was Spike Lee who said they steered the hurricane in there.
You're right.
Thanks to the correction.
I want to make sure I get that kind of stuff right.
The appropriate quotes applied to the accurate source.
Now, gas prices are high.
Obama is not to blame.
He's doing everything he can to bring prices down.
So here he is yesterday, Reno, Nevada, at a town hall.
I remember before I was president, the last time gas prices went up this high.
It's tough.
And if you're somebody who's got to drive 20 miles, 30 miles to a job, and maybe you don't have the money to buy a new car that gets better gas mileage, so you got that old beater.
It's eight miles a gallon.
You know, I've been there.
It hurts.
I've been there.
When did you ever have a job?
When did he ever have a job?
That's just a sideline question.
So, gas prices are high.
You can't afford a new car.
Happily presiding over America's decline.
What are you to do?
Obama has the answer.
I've been in one of these Chevy Volts.
That is a nice car.
It drives really well.
So for all of you out there who are still driving those eight-mile-a-gallon big-ass UVs, you know, some of you, you know, that's the car you got to drive right now.
You can't afford a new car.
But when you do decide to buy a new car, think about the fact that we're putting a whole bunch of money into the pockets of some folks, in some cases, who don't like us at all.
We're just giving away our wealth.
That makes no sense.
That's it.
Folks, I really people, I get notes from how do you put up with the stupidity of some of the people that call you?
That's not the question.
Those are educational opportunities.
The real question for me is: how do I politely put up with the stupidity that is Obama?
Peter Manhattan, great to have you on the program, sir.
Welcome.
Rank amateur ditto's rush.
Thank you, sir.
A little bit earlier in the show, you were talking about the NPR correspondent, and Mr. Snardly alluded to a conspiracy which you kind of dismissed out of hand.
But I really think there is a conspiracy here.
Well, let's review for people who may not have heard it.
Grab audio soundbite number one and just play this.
We don't need to play all three, just the first soundbite.
Amy Dickinson on C-SPAN last night did a special program, Media Figures on the Feature of News, a future of news.
And this was taped on March 27th, aired last night.
Amy Dickinson talking about me.
During the day after Mooring Edition, I actually listened to Rush Limbaugh every day.
You can almost set a clock when a story surfaces on Limbaugh.
It's literally days before it surfaces elsewhere.
They actually do cover stories that are not being covered elsewhere.
Many days I hate myself.
Now, Snerdley thinks this is all a conspiracy designed to get me to get sucked in here to end up supporting NPR.
And I poo-pooed that.
You go on C-SPAN, which I think has less viewers than CNN, and the only way you get recognition is to mention your name.
But she compliments you and says that you're right and you're on the cutting edge, ensuring that she'll be fired from NPR, which is the fastest way to a gig on Fox News.
Oh, oh, so you think she's angling for a step up?
She mentioned my name in a positive way on C-SPAN as an NPR employee and you get canned.
And then you get picked up by Fox News.
That's the fastest path to career advancement.
Well, that is.
It is true.
Being fired at NPR is maybe a quick ticket to Fox.
I hadn't thought of that.
You may have a point.
But as to Snerdley's conspiracy theory, kind of, Snerdley, you disappoint me a little bit.
Do you really think that simply because an NPR reporter admits the truth, that that's going to turn my head and make me swoon?
Do you really think, Snerdley, that somebody sit there on NPR and praising me is going to make me become a giant pro-fundraising agent for NPR?
Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of reporters in 22 years who have told me the truth.
Okay, maybe she's the first NPR reporter to tell the truth about me, but the idea that you think that's going to make me melt and become an agent for fundraising for NPR?
You know, you're telling me more about yourself.
You're telling me that if some female reporter at NPR started singing your praises, that you would melt.
That's what you're telling me.
And then you're using projection.
Well, you know me better than it's nothing to do with what she looks like.
And you could find out what she looks like.
It was television.
It doesn't matter to me.
You're just projecting on me.
I'm not going to be wowed by somebody saying I tell the truth, even if it is somebody from NPR.
Michael in flyover country, Kansas.
Great to have you on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Hey, Rush, from an unashamed rank amateur.
Blessed Good Friday to you, a real holiday and an unblessed Earth Day, a government holiday.
Thank you very much, sir.
Hey, a fond remembrance of my first Earth Day back in 1970 as an eighth grader in central Iowa.
We were told by our junior high principal and his minions, the teachers, that we would go out and clean a six-mile stretch of county road highway there in Iowa, picking up the trash.
What did the prisoners do that day?
Well, we all got out of school.
We got to go do Earth Day things.
Yeah, I know, but that's normally what prisoners do.
Well, they probably got the day off.
But anyway, we were rather, well, it's six miles.
It's a long walk, but we went out that morning, headed down the highway, and our dismay turned to glee and joy as we began finding full cans of beer in the ditch.
By the time we were up at the end of our six-mile stretch for our noon lunch, we had a nice drink, albeit it was a warm drink.
But when you're in eighth grade, a beer is a beer.
So you didn't save it.
You opened it and consumed it during your cleanup project.
Sir, we did.
Well, there it was.
It was part of the earth, and you were cleaning it up.
That's a great move on your part.
And we threw the cans right in the county truck as it left.
Amazing.
Well, you know, you've reminded me of something here.
1970, you're in the eighth grade.
1970 was my first year of college.
And I escaped all of this in school.
There was no Earth Day when I was in school.
First Earth Day 22 years ago, so not 22 years ago, April 26th, whatever it was.
I was not bombarded with this stuff.
The only thing I was bombarded with in school, and it started in 1969, so I was 80s, my senior year, was feminism.
The early, early, early stages of feminism.
And I knew even then what was happening.
I wasn't able to spell it out for people, but there's something about it that I knew wasn't right.
It didn't make any sense.
It was about creating war and struggle between the sexes.
So I sit here and I'm thankful that as a young skull full of mush, none of this indoctrination was ever attempted on me because I got out of school before it was actually being done in earnest.
And of course, I only went to a semester and a half of college and there wasn't much of that kind of stuff.
It was during the Vietnam War.
Kent State happened my first semester in college and that was one of the big focal discussion points on campus.
Earth Day and these social causes, environmental wacko causes hadn't really surfaced to the point that I had been the object of indoctrination efforts.
So that's why I'm a little bit more tolerant around those who did not get out of school as soon as I did.
If you spent your junior high years, your grade school years, and then your high school years being subjected to this indoctrination for all those years, it's understandable.
You're going to graduate with your mind a little bit polluted.
And it's going to take a lot more extra effort to depollute that mind than mine did because it never got polluted in the first place.
Okay, I have a Reuters story here on the debt ceiling.
You are not going to like it.
Before I tell you what it is, let's listen to Alice Rivlin.
She's a former budget director for Clinton, I believe, something to do with Clinton back in the 90s.
She's a reputed budget expert.
She was on PMS NBC last night.
Lawrence O'Donnell said, I've been asking people with expertise like yours, what would happen if we failed to raise the debt ceiling on that day that it approaches, where at the stroke of midnight we crack through it at the Treasury and we have not raised the debt ceiling, what happens?
Contractors wouldn't get paid.
Social Security recipients wouldn't get their checks.
The doctors that do Medicare wouldn't get reimbursed.
The world would know that we're a deadbeat country.
We take on obligations and we don't pay them.
And why would you want to lend to a deadbeat country?
You wouldn't.
It would throw us into a deep recession.
Interest rates would be sky high.
And we'd be in terrible shape fairly quickly.
All right, now here's an approved accredited member of the ruling class, Alice Rivlin, OMB expert, budgetary expert.
And what she says is simply not true.
We've got two to three months of revenue to service debt without raising the debt ceiling.
We've got revenues coming in from tax receipts to pay on the debt.
We have any number of alternatives to pay the debt service without raising the debt ceiling.
It is not necessary.
And furthermore, folks, it is not even arguable.
Social Security recipients would get their checks if the debt ceiling is not raised.
Contractors would get paid.
Ms. Rivlin here is simply an agent of the Panic America crowd trying to convince them that the world financial system, the American economy will collapse in a couple, three weeks if the debt ceiling is not raised.
And that is not true.
The doctors that do Medicare would not get reimbursed.
That's not true.
Although, dirty little secret, a lot of them aren't being reimbursed now in a timely fashion.
We've got any number of reservoirs of money and incoming tax revenue to service our debt for 60 to 90 days, if not longer.
In fact, Michelle Bachman and others have said we could go six to seven months without raising the debt ceiling.
Okay, so there's that.
This story just cleared the Reuters wire.
You are not going to like it.
As Washington gears, you're not going to be surprised, but you're not going to like it.
As Washington gears up for a fight over the debt ceiling, lawmakers are considering an approach, meaning Congress is considering an approach that would allow them to say they are adopting fiscal discipline over the long term at the same time they vote to raise the debt ceiling.
The approach outlined in several proposals circulating now on Capitol Hill would set specific savings targets and require automatic spending cuts and tax increases if the long-term goals are not met.
Contentious fights over taxing wealthy Americans and overhauling health programs for the poor and the elderly would be left to a later date.
In other words, they are concocting a way to kick the can down the road even further.
This path would give lawmakers political cover as they vote to allow the government to borrow above the current ceiling of $14.3 trillion, a move strongly opposed by the Tea Party movement and other fiscal conservatives who want to see government spending slashed.
Lawmakers and Washington pundits say it could head off a looming showdown over raising the debt limit that could stretch out for weeks after the limit is reached in mid-May.
It enables you to build some trust between the Republicans and Democrats and get past the debt limit, get that money off the market's back, said Joe Meneric, a budget expert at the Committee for Economic Development think tank, who helped craft the plan, pitched to lawmakers privately this week.
Let me translate this for you.
A guy at a think tank probably was asked to come up with a way that members of both parties could deal with this and make it look like they're dealing with it while not dealing with it.
So the plan they came up with was to raise the debt ceiling while promising severe cuts and spending restraints down the road.
The length of the road not specified here, but I guarantee you we're talking years, months, years.
And then if months and years after the deal is reached, the spending limits are not met, then taxes go up and spending cuts supposedly take place.
So what they're basically going to tell us if this flies, Let me pretend to be a member of Congress on the program.
Yeah, Rush, what we're going to do, we're taking this very seriously, a debt ceiling.
Now, you know, the government can't operate Rush if we reach the debt ceiling.
We can't really face that.
We have to be able to borrow to service our debt and to continue meeting our obligations.
Everybody knows this rush.
I mean, you know it's intellectually understandable.
Everybody, we have to keep borrowing, but we've got to get a handle on this rush.
We just can't keep spending this way.
We've got this crisis.
We've got to get past this.
Everybody knows this rush.
We don't want Social Security recipients not receiving their checks, and we want to make sure we service the debt.
We don't want to damage our credit rating rush.
I'm sure you understand this.
So we are going to raise the debt limit, whatever it is, and in it, we are making promises to ourselves six months, a year down the road.
We're going to have serious cuts to deal with this.
And if we don't do those cuts in six months to a year, then there are writers attached to this will automatically enforce the reductions in spending and maybe some tax increases.
To which I would then say, well, then a month before that happens, you just rewrite the bill so that all that you agreed to nine months ago doesn't happen.
Now you're being very cynical about it, Rush.
Yeah, I'm very cynical about all of this.
I'm very cynical about any of you who claim you want to cut spending going to strike a deal like this.
Now, let's keep in mind this is Reuters.
It's Reuters.
Headline, U.S. deficit deal could head off debt limit fight.
As is the case with any story in the drive-by media, we'll wait till it actually happens, but we will wait with the idea that this is a legitimate possibility.
Well, yeah, the leadership, it was last week or the week before.
Here's what's the progression of events.
I did predict this.
Told you what it would be.
Okay, we're going to kick the continuing resolution.
Can't we kick that down the road?
We'll kick that down the road.
And I said, and then folks, when the debt sitting comes, we'll kick that down the road.
And we'll say, no, we can't worry about the debt sitting now.
We've got to worry about the Ryan budget.
And then when the Ryan budget comes up in the fall, we can't worry about that now, Rush, because we've got to worry about defeating Obama in 2012.
So what will happen is, if my prediction is right, we've already punted on the continuing resolution.
Debt ceiling is next.
And this says, but we're not going to really punt.
They're going to try to make us think they've dealt with it.
They're going to raise the debt ceiling.
But Rush, you've got to understand, yes, we're raising the debt ceiling, but we have severe measures in place here to roll back spending if we don't meet our targets down the road.
Okay, we get down to that point in the road.
We're going to be told, you know what?
It's now time to do the next fiscal year budget, the Ryan budget.
That's what we've got to work on here.
We can't be distracted with this debt ceiling stuff, so we're going to focus on that.
Then when the Ryan budget becomes a little bit much to defend, the Republicans will say, we can't spend time on that.
We're too close to the 2012 presidential race, Mr. Limbaugh.
We really need to focus all of our efforts on that.
So thank you for reminding me of my prediction there, Snirdly, because it looks like, sadly, for us, that I'm going to be right about it.
Take a brief time out while you digest this.
We will return mere moments from now with more of your phone calls.
As you know, today is Good Friday, but it's also Earth Day, as we have mentioned previously, founded years ago by it wasn't just this idiot who composted his girlfriend, Ira Einhorn.
Was also another founder, the late Senator Gaylord Nelson.
Conserving our good earth is something everybody agrees on, but how you preserve it is where a great debate starts.
For the left, the approach is if it moves, regulate it, tax it, regulate the cars we can drive, restrict domestic drilling, dictate the kind of light bulbs we'll use in our homes.
The list goes on and on.
And speaking of which, remind me, these light bulbs, there's carcinogens in these CFCs, I've just learned.
Here is Warren in South Elgin, Illinois.
Warren, thank you for waiting.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
How are you?
Very well.
It's an honor to talk to you.
Thank you, sir, very much.
I've been listening to you since the late 90s.
Appreciate that, sir.
And that's about the time that something that has really gripped this country is causing a lot of deaths, a lot of increase accidents, and a lot of fines that really don't need to happen, and that's red light cameras.
There's about 6,800 of them in the country nowadays, and the big expansion happened in Illinois, land of corruption.
Say, Warren, just a second here.
I just want to clarify what you red light cameras.
We're not talking about whorehouses.
You're talking about... Photo enforcement.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, I just, if people are real in the might get confused.
You're talking about red traffic light cameras.
Exactly.
Right, okay.
No, no, not the House of the Bill repeal.
Right, right.
We just wanted to stipulate that.
Yeah.
And basically, they started in New York and expanded in the Chicago area when Mayor Daly brought them around in 2003.
And they've really taken off around the country since then.
And I just wanted to discuss these with you.
And back about a year and a half ago, I started a political action committee because there's a lot of people complaining about these things, but nobody's really doing anything about it.
And I helped get three congressmen elected in the U.S. Congress, and I'm going to be working to change some laws.
And I just wanted to let people know if it's okay with you, the name of my political action committee, and its website.
Very quickly, and then I have to move on.
All right.
It's nomorecameras.com is the website, and it's no more cameras, NFP.
All right.
No morecameras.com.
All right, Warren, thanks much.
Here's Yvonne in Port.
What?
Port, Arkansas, Texas.
Is that right?
Welcome to the program.
Yeah, it's Texas.
It's on the Gulf.
No, I knew that.
You wouldn't believe.
I just had to guess, but I got it.
So anyway, great to have you here.
I can't believe I got through to you.
I have been listening for about the last three years, and I am a convert.
I mean, I believe the drive-by media for years and years, and thank goodness you're out there.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
I totally agree.
Real quickly, I just wondered your take on, I don't know if you saw the 60-minute piece on Greg Morrison, the guy who did Three Cups of Tea, that book.
Yeah, you know, I have read about the 60 Minutes piece.
I've not read the book.
I've read the book, and it was much better than Obama's book, I got to say that.
But I'm just so surprised that all of a sudden this guy is going under the bus big time.
You know, actually, Obama had given him like $100,000 of his peace prize.
And now all of a sudden they're after him.
I don't know what he did.
Yeah, I'm having a mental block.
I have read what this controversy is about, and it's not coming to me.
I don't remember what it's about.
All I know is when lib-on-lib criticism happens, it is because the libs doing the criticizing think that the guy is going to ultimately cause them harm or is stealing somebody else's stuff and is getting rich off of it.
Yeah, well, the thing is, is like they're saying, you know, he was getting, he's a millionaire.
It's all false, you know, that he didn't actually get saved by the Sherpa and all that.
But, I mean, this has been out there for years and years.
And all of a sudden, this comes out that it's not true?
I mean, it's just bizarre to me.
Why?
Something that a liberal wrote isn't true is bizarre.
Well, yeah, but I mean, it's just one more proof of the manipulation going on.
Yeah, exactly right.
The only thing this guy hasn't done is go on Oprah.
That would have closed the loop on it.
Cybercast News Service, at a time of growing concern about government spending, the federal government made $125 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2010.
That's more than 11 times the total 2010 spending by the U.S. State Department.
Now, if we made $125 billion in improper payments in 2010, enough to fund the State Department 11 times over, what is this?
Raise the debt ceiling garbage?
What is this?
Folks, I'm telling you, Andy McCarthy has a piece today, National Review Online.
We don't need to raise the debt ceiling.
Any number of people have written about this.
There's plenty of revenue to service our debt.
That's another scam.
It's another crisis.
And it puts Obama and Geithner in charge of what gets paid out and what doesn't.
See you Monday.
▲
Export Selection