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May 17, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:17
May 17, 2011, Tuesday, Hour #3
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The views expressed by the host on this program documented to be almost always right, 99.6% of the time.
Don't doubt me.
We are here at the distinguished Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
This the most listened to radio talk show in the country.
Happy to have you here.
And if you want to be on the program, the numbers 800-282-2882.
Email address, lrushbow at EIBNet.com.
Look at the opening line of uh Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post today.
This is about Dominique Strauss Kahn.
It's almost enough to give socialism a bad name.
I told you.
I told you nobody is making the connection at this low-rent SOB is socialist extraordinaire and aristocrat in Europe, in France.
This guy is the epitome of what the ruling class is.
It's almost enough to give socialism a bad name.
Dominique Strauss Kahn, Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.
All right, I have received a lot of emails from people who said I misunderstood the guy calling from Memphis.
That made mention of the fact that essentially I missed that Obama was saying there aren't any manufacturing jobs in America anymore.
And he was asking me if I agree with that.
That's not what I heard the guy say.
I heard the guy say, and I'm not this is not a point of argument.
I just if I misheard it, it's simply he was on a cell phone and I just didn't hear what he was saying.
It's one of the challenges I have here in being deaf and having to use a cochlear implant with cell calls.
They are the most difficult for me to understand.
In fact, in you know, outside the studio, if if I I cannot use a cell phone to communicate to anybody.
I just cannot comprehend what people are saying on one.
So we have the bite that the caller was talking about.
This was Obama this afternoon to Booker T. Washington Haskrul and the commencement address.
We live in a new world now.
Used to be that you didn't have to have an education.
If you were willing to work hard, you could go to a factory somewhere and get a job.
Those times are past.
Believe it or not, when you go out there looking for a job, you're not just competing against people in Nashville or Atlanta.
You're competing against young people in Beijing and Mumbai.
That's some tough competition.
Those kids are hungry.
They're working hard.
And you'll need to be prepared for it.
Okay.
Now, having I heard that plainest day, including the godlike reverb, and I I'm sorry, I don't hear Obama saying there aren't any manufacturing jobs.
What I hear him saying is if you don't have any education, you don't stand a prayer because everybody else around the world is being educated.
It used to be you could go to a factory, not have an education to get a job.
That's true.
Back when my father was growing up, it was true.
World War II, it was true.
They didn't care in World War II if you had any kind of a formal education.
They just needed bodies.
And as time has progressed, geez, I remember doing stories on this program in Aeronautics Manufacturing Plant in Alabama.
Guy could not find educated people to do his factory work.
It was a major, major story.
The changing element was that factory work did now require an education.
"I'm not going to be a good one.
So I don't know what I misheard here.
I don't know where in this Obama bite he is saying that the U.S. has no manufacturing jobs.
What I hear him saying is that people competing for work in factories come from all over the world.
And they are educated.
Now am I am I still a lone wolf on this?
Let's let's let's play it again.
Because I mean to tell you, I've I've I must have gotten in that little period of time.
There must have been 35 or 40 emails I saw just within the break here from people telling me that I misunderstood this.
Here it is again.
We live in a new world now.
Used to be that you didn't have to have an education.
If you were willing to work hard, you could go to a factory somewhere and get a job.
Those times are past.
Believe it or not, when you go out there looking for a job, you're not just competing against people in Nashville or Atlanta.
You're competing against young people in Beijing and Mumbai.
That's some tough competition.
Those kids are hungry.
They're working hard.
And you'll need to be prepared for it.
I just hear him say get an education.
Now the danger in that is his version of an education is not going to help him.
But we still have factories.
It's called General Motors and Toyota.
their television sets made and at least assembled in this country.
It's a myth anyway that we've lost our manufacturing base.
We haven't.
That's a popular misconception, and a lot of people have stems from people who are opposed to NAFTA, who think that NAFTA forced us causes to lose every manufacturing job.
We haven't.
So I factored that in when listening to the caller from Memphis.
I know we still have manufacturing jobs.
So I just hear Obama with the God reverb here saying there's so much competition for these factory jobs, whereas they used to not be that you can't get one of those jobs without an education now.
Look at he's just saying here what he's said in his book, The Audacity of Me.
Uh and and that is that, you know, we he this is globalism.
We we have to compete in a global scale.
Look at from the UK Financial Times, and we had this story back when it came out.
This Peter Marsh, June 20th of last year, the U.S. remained the world's biggest manufacturing nation by output last year, but is poised to relinquish the slot in 2011 to the Chicoms, thus ending a 110-year run as the number one country in factory production.
So forgive me, but I didn't go into the call thinking we don't have any manufacturing jobs.
So therefore I never heard Obama celebrating that fact.
I don't think that's what his comment was about.
So even though I'm deaf, I heard it right.
Once again, don't doubt me.
And there also notes look at the effort employed here to get it right.
I sent cookies scurrying to find this bite.
And I had 35, 40 people in the email telling me that I'd missed it.
And they relished telling me that I had missed it.
Now, I will admit this, I still don't understand the condom caller who didn't understand why the rich don't buy condoms and use them.
This is the guy that kept calling me Rushy.
I'm still in the dark on that one.
So anyway, here's Newt at Aspen.
August of 2007.
Newt Gingrich at the Aspen Institute calling the war on terror phony.
Oh, and by the way, I had a couple of emails too from people who are quite naturally telling me that I am full of it with my newt theory.
Again, my theory on what Newt's doing here by trashing Paul Ryan and suggesting that there needs to be a mandate to buy health insurance.
Uh I'm I'm simply suggesting he's setting himself up for post-campaign riches or employment or or or what have you.
My theory is based on the fact that he's planning not to win.
Not that he.
What?
No, no, no, no.
I haven't I haven't gotten an email from Newt yet on this.
I'm sure I will at some point, but I but I haven't.
But one of the theories is no rush, you're missing this.
Newt simply knows that talking about Medicare is a loser no matter what you say about it during a campaign.
So he's simply taking it off of his table.
But he's not taking it off of his table.
When he's suggesting that any attempt to fix it is either left wing or right wing uh uh social engineering.
Um, then he's talking about it.
He's not he's not avoiding it.
I I no, Snurley, I think this is a good lesson for people who not only listen to this program but call here.
I listen with my brain as well as with my ears.
For example, a guy calls here and says, whatever he says that Obama said with the assumption that Obama's saying that there aren't any manufacturing jobs.
Well, I know that there are, so I immediately throw out the idea that Obama's talk about no manufacturing jobs because we have plenty of them.
That's what I mean by hearing with my brain and my ears.
Now, I have an ABC version of Newt's speech at Aspen.
There is also a an AP version which differs from the ABC version.
Here's ABC.
The potential GOP presidential candidate told attendees of the National Conservative Student Conference, quote, we're about to enter the seventh year of this phony war and we're losing.
Gingrich added, none of you should believe we are winning this war, meaning Iraq.
There's no evidence that we are winning this war.
Instead of the current strategy to fight terrorism, Gingrich said, quote, we should focus on energy independence.
We have to have a national energy strategy, which is basically says to the Saudis, we're not going to rely on you.
Gingrich also attacked the current regime and former Republican congressional leadership, saying we were in charge for six years.
I don't think you can look and say that that was a great success, meaning the Republican leadership.
So ABC reporting here that at the Aspen Institute, Newt attacked the war on terror at the Aspen Institute in 2007.
Here's the AP version.
In the same time, Newt Gingrich, U.S. fighting phony war since 9-11.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich charges the United States has been waging a weak and phony war since 9-11 and continues to lose ground to radical Islam.
In a speech at the annual conference of Christians United for Israel, Gingrich charged that instead of fighting to win President Bush is now pursuing appeasement through a proposed Mid East peace conference.
Comparing that to the attempted appeasement of Nazi Germany at Munich before World War II, Gingrich said we don't have a peace process, we have a surrender process.
Gingrich said the United States and Western civilization are in a global conflict with radical Islam and must choose between victory and surrender.
Now the second version, the AP version, makes uh makes Gingrich sound to be more of a hawk.
The ABC version makes him sound like a dove, but both versions quote him as being critical of a sitting Republican president, as in terms of how he's fighting not just the war in Iraq, but the war on terror.
And that's important because that happened at the Aspen Institute.
So the question would be why would you do that?
I leave it up to you to answer.
I'm just throwing the question out to think.
Why would you do that?
Why would you take on a sitting Republican president and essentially echo what Democrats are saying when you go to a place that is founded and organized and run by liberal Democrats, the Aspen Institute.
Gingrich also went on to attack the current administration of former Republican congressional leadership and saying we were in charge for six years.
I don't think you can look and say that that was a great success.
So he clearly took on Republican leadership, Republican ideas, Republican strategy at the Aspen Institute.
This is this is he supported Didi Skazafava.
He sat on the couch with Pelosi.
He did a healthcare dance with uh with Hillary, who wrote a book.
Takes a village to satisfy my husband.
And I that's why I put all of that to work in my theory, explaining What Newt's doing here.
Remember now, there's a niche to be filled.
The prevailing opinion on the Republican side is it is pedal to the metal conservatism, Tea Party conservatism, anti-Obama.
That's what wins.
There's no McCain in this campaign yet.
Now, Daniels, some people say, will fill that bill if he decides to run in certain ways.
And right now, Daniels hasn't announced.
Palenti is trying to run away from anything and everything in his tenure as as governor that would tie him to that.
So why why go for that niche?
In a primary, that does this is just simply not how you win Republican primaries, is campaigning against or running against or having positions opposed to um rock ribbed conservative issues.
Ergo, my theory.
And now a brief time out, my friends, on the EIB network in El Rushbo, thinking with my head, listening with my ears and my head.
Back after this.
Who's next?
Ted in Muskegon, Michigan.
Hello, sir.
And it's uh great to have you here on the EIB network high.
Thank you, Rush.
Hi.
Um I've got a question.
Yesterday I was far uh part of a phone uh bank with Mitt Romney.
Uh I'm really kind of troubled, and I want you to set me straight.
You've spoken so much about Newt today.
You've spoken so much about Trump over the last two weeks when Mitt Romney had a sensational fundraiser, and he is conservative, with this fundraiser with unprecedented success, but you have not spent the time talking about that, and I want you to set me straight and tell me why.
Just today I made mention of the fact that uh Romney is the front runner, front runny, front runner because of money.
And I pointed out they raised ten million dollars in eight hours, and that he is likely to also raise a billion dollars to match the billion dollars they claim Obama is going to raise.
Well, then why what do you attest for that?
A good conservative sweep across the country?
What is it what you think I you think I got some animals toward Mitt?
You know what?
I'm gonna say this.
There's something wrong here, Rush, because I listened to you faithfully, enjoy you.
But what am I missing about Mitt Romney that isn't conservative across the board?
Set me straight and I'll move I'll move on to another candidate, but I cannot see one thing about it.
I'm not for one thing, I'm not trying to talk you off another candidate.
Fine.
I'm not trying to talk anybody onto a candidate.
You seem very you've you seem excited to talk about Trump.
I don't know if because Trump is kind of a fun character to talk about to talk about payments.
Because I'll tell you why.
Why?
Trump is the only guy on our side taking it to Obama.
Trump's the only guy acting unafraid of Obama.
Trump's the only guy willing to tell the truth about what this Obama regime is all about.
Everybody else on our side, everybody is scared to death of being called a racist, or they're scared to death of being criticized by the media, or what have you.
Do you like Mitt?
Yes.
Okay.
I know Mitt.
Mitt came to my twentieth anniversary party, sat next to him for a while at the dinner at my 20th anniversary party.
Mitt's been to my house.
Yes.
I'm almost concerned because you don't talk about him enough that there's something about that you know about him that we do not.
No.
Okay.
Not a thing.
I just think he's gonna have problems at Romney care.
Okay.
Well, then that's all I need to hear, Rush.
Thank you.
I'm glad you're a Mitt.
I have not made a choice here.
And by the way, I th I think I'm on record of saying I didn't think Trump was going to run from the get-go as well, but that I still thought he had value as showing the way.
Oh, wow.
Look at that.
Dingy Harry, look at that shiner.
I saw last week a Dingy Harry took a fall.
That looks like somebody sucked him in the face.
Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh.
The truth about U.S. manufacture.
We had this story.
This is from the Wall Street Journal as an opinion piece.
February 25th of this year, the truth about U.S. manufacturing.
And here's a pull quote.
In 2009, the most recent full year for which international data are available.
Our manufacturing output was 2.155 trillion dollars, including mining and utilities.
That's more than 45% higher than the ChICOMs, the country we are supposedly losing ground to.
Despite recent gains with the ChICOMs and elsewhere, the U.S. still produced more than 20% of global manufacturing output in 2009.
The average American factory worker today is responsible for more than 180,000 of annual output triple the $60,000 in 1972.
The piece opens this way.
Is American manufacturing dead?
You might think so, reading most of the nation's editorial pages, or watching the endless laments in the news that nothing's made in America anymore, and that our manufacturing jobs have vanished to the Chai Kams, the Mexicans in South Korea, yet the empirical evidence tells a different story of a thriving and growing U.S. manufacturing sector, and a country that remains by far the world's largest manufacturer.
It's all there.
We'll link to it at RushLimbaud.com.
It prints out to three pages.
Thank you.
Not too much to read.
Paul Ryan this morning on CNBC on the squawk box.
The guest host, the business correspondent, Andrew Royce Ross Sorkin, said to Paul Ryan, how much pressure are you getting from people on Wall Street who say, you know, that August 2nd deadline, if it actually gets there, you're you're actually going to feel it in the markets weeks before then.
I talked to lots of bond traders, I talked to lots of uh, you know, lots of type people like gross and Drucker Miller and economists, they all say, whatever you do, make sure you get real spending cuts.
Because you want to make sure that the bondholder has confidence that the government's going to be able to pay them.
You're putting the government in a better position to pay them on their bonds.
That's more important than getting a deal before August 2nd.
Yes, it's more yes, it is.
That's what I'm hearing from most people, which is if a bondholder misses a payment for a day or two or three or four, what more is more important that you're putting the government in a materially better position to be able to pay their bonds later on.
Look, what Ryan is saying, and it's really simple, if we don't fix the mess we're in, nobody's going to be worth anything at some point.
That is uh is where we're headed.
And they're trying to create this panic on the death on the debt limit.
Uh deniers, default deniers.
Here's our buddy Jacob Tapper.
Last night on ABC's world news tonight.
This is a portion of his report.
Republicans in Congress are refusing to raise the debt ceiling without slashing spending.
If the U.S. even came close to defaulting on its debt, interest rates would skyrocket the stock market would plummet, as with the gross domestic product, and there would be immediate layoffs.
Okay, now get get ready for this times a thousand as we get closer to August.
The pressure on the Republicans is going to be immense.
Default deniers, you want to be responsible for the United States ending its run as the economic engine of the world and the leader of the world.
It's all gonna the same tactic that they use to get TARP, same tactic they use to get the uh the porculus and spending bills.
It's a catastrophe.
It's Armageddon.
It's the end of the country, it's the end of the world as we know it, unless we act soon.
And as it was then and as it is now, that's not the case.
Also, the uh the notion here that Obama is a slam dunk victor this morning on Morning Joe PMS NBC, Eugene Robinson, who again, his uh his column today begins, it's almost enough to give socialism a bad name.
It's a piece about Dominique Strauss Kahn, who heads the IMF.
Until a few days ago, was likely to be the Socialist Party candidate for President of France.
We don't know whether he's guilty of the alleged sexual assault for which he was arrested like anyone he's presumed innocent until blah blah.
How we do know, however, at the time of the reported incident on Saturday, he was a resident of $3,000 a night luxury suite in a posh midtown Manhattan Hotel paid bar by somebody else.
We also know that when he was taken into police custody hours later, aboard a Paris bound jetliner that was moments from takeoff.
Police found him comfortably ensconced in the first class cabin.
I don't think I didn't think this was how socialists were supposed to roll.
Mr. Robinson.
You can't be serious.
Mr. Robinson, are you are you are you genuinely serious that you think socialists live the lives of middle class people?
Did you really think that?
Can that possibly be true that Eugene Robinson thinks that the elite socialist leaders around the world live the lives of the bourgeois of the Hoy Poloi?
Is he really shocked that a ruling class elite socialist wouldn't be sitting in coach?
I I'm I'm I'm mystified.
It's almost enough to give socialism a bad name.
For where does Castro live?
Where did Mount Situng live?
Have you checked out the Kremlin and the DACAs where all the Soviet Union poopas lived?
And the way they got a I this is amazing.
It's almost enough to get socialism a bad name.
The tinge of opulent decadence that colors this whole episode would seem to cast a dishonorable light upon powerful, unaccountable, jet-setting international bureaucrats in general, with perhaps a special spotlight of shame for the French intellectual variety.
But Strauss Kahn, who is based at IMF headquarters in Washington, was apparently in New York on private business.
It is conceivable that he and his peers, while carrying out their official duties on behalf of humanity, make do with hotel rooms costing less per night than most workers of the world earn in a year.
It's conceivable.
My God, folks.
whole column on this.
There's a whole column on his shock at the way Dominique Strauss-Kahn lived.
That gives socialism That's right.
How about the World Economic Forum at Davos?
Unbelievable.
Anyway, where was I?
Eugene Robinson.
Morning Joe.
They were talking about the 2012 presidential race.
Joe Scarborough said to Eugene Robinson, Huckabee.
Donald Trump have announced they're not going to run for president.
Where does that leave the Republican field?
The field is a mess.
And who in this field is going to be the credible viable challenger to an incumbent.
This is not a slam dunk.
This is an opportunity for Republicans, even though it may be uphill, but it's not that steep a hill.
I can't believe that other major figures are not diving in.
That's what Eugene's saying.
The field is a mess.
And who in the field is going to be criminal?
Viable Challenger!
*Sings* *Sings* *Sings* *Sings* *Sings*
Okay, let's go get the Democrat media point of view on the Republican presidential nomination.
Last night CNN's in the arena, hosted by Elliot Spitzer.
Is on the bench.
I mean, CNN's got the perfect guest host for when Spitzer can't get there, Dominique Strauss Kahn.
And David Rodham Gergen to discuss the Republican presidential field.
And client number nine said first Paul Ryan's Medicare plan, intensely unpopular.
Somebody thirteen, by the way, Mike.
And now Gingrich and Romney have said conflicting things about Obamacare, Romney care.
Is the Republican Party flubbing on an issue they thought would be their path to victory?
Mitt Romney, it looked like healthcare would be a real albatross, but that was last week.
This week Romney is the one who I think gets the greatest benefit from both Huckabee and Donald Trump pulling back.
He does now emerge, I think, as a clear front runner, and he's the big winner of Huckabee and Trump pulling back.
Trump was was never really in.
So I I'd throw that out.
Uh Huckabee.
If you remember, I don't know about this.
Huckabee steered the nomination from Romney to McCain.
It all started in West Virginia.
In their in their strange primary there.
After the first ballot, nobody had enough to win, so the Huckabee crowd was thrown to McCain.
And that took new doubt.
Then they got down here to Florida and they arranged with Charlie Chris to endorse McCain, and that was it for Romney.
But nevertheless, Gergen says that there's a commonality here between Huckabee supporters and Romney, that now that there's no Huckabee to support, that those supporters are all gonna go to uh to Mitt, and he continued with this.
If Mitch Daniels gets in from Indiana and Governor Huntsman from Utah gets in, that could really begin to uh build a serious national conversation around jobs and around government spending that we haven't yet had among the candidates.
I actually think it might strengthen the whole Republican sense of gravitas.
Right.
Mitch Daniels and Huntsman will add weight.
Right now, everybody else in this race kind of lightweights.
But this is the conventional inside the belt way thinking.
That uh that Mitch Daniel remember we had stories last week.
The Obama regime, they're really worried about Daniels.
That's that's gosh, that's that's the person that given the biggest problem would be uh Mitch Daniels.
Last night on uh on Hannity spoke with uh Dick Morris.
Hannity said he got some entering uh exciting stuff here.
The big news is that Trump and Huckabee are out.
How does that impact the field?
My polling showed Romney at twenty-two, Huckabee at twenty, Trump at fifteen, and Gingrich at eleven.
So the second and the third candidates pulling out is a big deal.
And obviously the big winner is Romney.
And so Morris then continued.
I think the person that really could shake up this field right now is Michelle Bachman.
The evangelicals and the Tea Party people are 70% the same people.
With Huckabee out of the race and Palin perhaps not running, Bachman really has the capacity to roll up a lot of that vote.
It's interesting.
We'll see.
Could become some conventional wisdom.
Let me grab a call Stewart, Florida, right up the roads.
Paul, I great to have you on the program.
Thank you for waiting, sir.
Thank you.
Howdy, neighbor.
Very good, sir.
Thanks.
Go ahead.
Uh quickly, um, I just wanted to make a comment and see how you feel about it.
The all this talk about our troubled relationship with Pakistan reminds me of a uh a line from the the movie The Godfather, where the Godfather Don Colleone looks to his son and he says, Remember one thing, he says, keep your friends close.
But keep your enemies closer.
Is that relate to this to our relationship with Pakistan Rush?
You mean the uh us considering Pakistan an enemy.
Yeah, that we have to keep close.
Exactly.
Well, keep them close.
Uh to a certain extent, it's it's a it's uh it's they present a dilemma.
They're they are firing on us, and they have been for a while.
And you know, the the Taliban Al-Qaeda would love to overthrow the regime in Pakistan, and the Pakistani regime knows it.
So they've got they've got to that they have to go through the motions of acting like we are an enemy to help keep some of those people at bay, and at the same time, satisfy us that they are enough of an ally to warrant the 20 billion dollars or uh whatever That we could uh uh cease to pay.
I would add, you know, Dick Dick Morris left out a name here when you start talking about appealing to the evangelical crowd, and that'd be Rick Santorum.
You know, don't discount Santorum.
He had a very great showing in the first Republican presidential debate a couple weeks ago, or last week, I think it was.
By the way, lost in all of the news about all the waivers that Pelosi got, Harry Reid got waivers from Obamacare for the entire state of Nevada.
Nevada totally waived from uh complying with Obamacare.
That's it, folks, sadly, but we'll be back in 21 hours.
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