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Dec. 20, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:59
December 20, 2011, Tuesday, Hour #2
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Time Text
And welcome back.
Great to have you.
Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Telephone number if you want to be on the show, 800-282-2882.
I've been asked if the media ran the same type of dispiriting campaign in 1994.
Yeah, it's a staple.
It is going to be more intense than it's ever been because back in 1994, they were just on the verge of losing their monopoly and they weren't quite sure what was happening to them.
This show was still a fad.
There was no Fox News.
And so it was based on CNN was it in terms of cable news.
94, it doesn't seem that long ago, but it's just 20, what is it?
17 years, whatever.
And it, well, yeah, but the dispirit campaign is a constant, actually.
It's just going to get ratcheted up.
Look at this.
I mean, what a coincidence.
CNN just has a new poll release.
And guess what?
Obama's up 50% approval.
Shazam.
How about that?
ABC, Washington Post, Obama up 50%.
Here's CNN.
President Barack Obama's approval rating, Gamma, a crucial indicator of his re-election chances, Gamma, is on the rise, according to a new national survey.
CNN claims that this uptick is mostly due to the bickering over the payroll tax deal.
They say the data suggests a debate over the payroll tax is helping Obama's efforts to portray him as the defender of the middle class.
Okay, so who are we to believe, Obama or our lying eyes?
Obama's not defending him.
Obama is running against the middle class.
That's the whole point of my first hour.
Working white-class voters, Obama doesn't care.
Obama can't win with him.
His own people are saying so.
And yet, here he is defending the middle class with the payroll tax cut debate.
This is exactly why they want a two-month deal so they can bring the argument back up again in two months next year during an election year because they think it is largely responsible to get Obama's approval numbers up.
That's why they're happy for this.
60%.
You will not see this poll in the drive-by media.
This is a Rasmussen poll.
60% favor building the Keystone pipeline.
All right, here it is.
I have it in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers.
Most voters support the building of the controversial Keystone XL All pipeline from Canada to Texas, believe it can be built without harming the environment.
Of course it can.
We have 625,000 miles of pipeline in this country.
625,000 miles.
As I pointed out yesterday, the Earth is just under 25,000 miles around at the equator.
625,000 miles of pipeline.
And it doesn't leak.
You know, folks, you people in New York, I bet you don't even know this.
You people live in Jamaica, you know, out near the airport, JFK.
Do you ever see fuel trucks driving in and out of JFK?
You don't.
I mean, you might see the occasional gasoline tanker to fuel gas stations nearby.
But do you know that the jet fuel that fuels the jets that powers the jets, do you know that the jet fuel is not trucked to JFK?
Do you know that that's underground pipelines, that jet fuel, highly flammable jet A, kerosene, if you will, is just feet beneath your home, perhaps.
Yeah, and other petroleum products.
In order to get it in the quantities they need, they couldn't possibly truck it there.
So it's in a constant pipeline.
Jet fuel underground in Queens.
And when's the last time that there has been a rupture in that pipeline?
I don't think you're here.
That's what I said.
Imagine you're president of the United States and you're running for re-election and you have to veto a project that will create 200,000 jobs when it's over and increase the amount of oil we have for ourselves without having to import it from a Middle Eastern country.
You have to veto that in order to have a chance to win.
No, terrorists have tried Snirdley.
In fact, two terrorists were arrested and jailed for life trying to blow up the JFK pipeline.
It wasn't that long ago.
It was August 2010.
No, it's a highly, you know, the security on it's amazing.
But my point, it doesn't rupture and leak.
There's always arguments, the Keystone pipeline.
You know, it make a little sense if we didn't have 625,000 miles of pipe under the ground in this country already.
But to say, yeah, it could leak.
It could hurt the tundra in Nebraska.
It could harm the horses and craps.
What a crock.
You're president of the United States.
You have to veto progress in order to have a chance to be reelected.
I wouldn't want to be him.
I'd rather be us.
Let's see.
Oh, Thomas Sowell has a piece.
One of my most admired columnists, Thomas Sowell, who is at the Hoover Institute out at Stanford, Palo Alto.
And he has a piece endorsing Newt.
Well, he takes an adult look at Newt Gingrich and his candidacy without any hysteria and without an agenda.
Let me read this to you.
Because you all know, Thomas Sowell is very respected here, like by everybody who reads him.
In fact, there are places that publish Thomas Sowell's work and might have a problem with this because Thomas Sowell is writing and saying things here that places that publish his work disagree with, or at least don't say.
If Newt Gingrich were being nominated for sainthood, many of us would vote very differently from the way we would vote if he were being nominated for political office.
What the media call Gingrich's baggage concerns largely his personal life and the fact that he made a lot of money running a consulting firm after he left Congress.
This kind of stuff makes lots of talking points that we'll no doubt hear again and again over the next weeks and months.
But how much weight should we give to this stuff when we're talking about the future of a nation?
This is not just another election.
Barack Obama, not just another president whose policies we may not like.
And by the way, folks, that perfectly describes the Republican establishment attitude about this.
He says it here very pithy, but this is exactly the way that it's just the normal election cycle.
Obama's just the latest Democrat.
Just another election.
That's how the GOP established.
Do not see Obama as a threat to the traditional American way of life.
They do not see Obama as a threat to America's traditional economic system.
They don't.
It's just the normal ebb and flow politics of their cycle.
A Democrat happened to win.
But Sowell is right.
This is not just another election.
And Barack Obama is not just another president whose policies we may not like.
With all of Obama's broken promises, his glib demagoguery, cynical political moves, one promise he has kept all too well was his boast on the eve of the 2008 election, quote, we are going to change the United States of America, close quote.
Many Americans are already saying that they can hardly recognize the country they grew up in now.
We've already started down the path that has led Western European nations to the brink of financial disaster.
Internationally, it's worse.
A president who has pulled the rug out from under our allies, whether in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, a president who's tried to cozy up to our enemies and has bowed low from the waist of foreign leaders certainly has not represented either the values or the interests of America.
If he continues to do nothing that is likely to stop terrorist-sponsoring Iran from getting nuclear weapons, the consequences can be beyond our worst imagining.
Against this background, how much does Gingrich's personal life matter?
Whether we accept his claim that he has now matured or his critics claim that he hasn't?
Nor should we sell the public short by saying that they're going to vote on the basis of tabloid stuff or media talking points when the fate of the nation hangs in the balance.
Even back in the 19th century, when the scandal came out that Grover Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock, he publicly admitted it.
The voters nevertheless sent him to the White House where he became one of the better presidents.
Do we wish we had another Ronaldus Magnus?
Well, we could certainly use one, but we have to play the hand we are dealt and the Reagan card isn't in the deck.
While the televised debates are what gave Gingrich's candidacy a big boost, concrete accomplishments when in office are the real test.
Gingrich engineered the first Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 40 years, followed by the first balanced budget in 40 years.
The media called it the Clinton surplus, but all spending bills start in the House of Representatives and Gingrich was the Speaker.
Speaker Gingrich also produced some long-overdue welfare reforms, despite howls from liberals that the poor would be devastated.
But nobody makes that claim anymore.
Did Gingrich ruffle some feathers when he was Speaker?
Yeah, enough for it to cost him the job.
But he also showed that he could produce results.
In a world where we can make our choices only among the alternatives actually available, the question is whether Newt Gingrich is better than Barack Obama and better than Mitt Romney.
Romney's a smooth talker.
What did he actually accomplish as governor of Massachusetts compared to what Gingrich accomplished as Speaker of the House?
When you don't accomplish much, you don't ruffle many feathers.
But is that what we want?
Can you name one important positive thing Romney accomplished as governor of Massachusetts?
Can anyone?
Does a candidate who represents the bland leading the bland increase the chances of victory in November 2012?
A lot of candidates like that have lost.
Thomas E. Dewey to John McCain.
Those who want to concentrate on the baggage in Gingrich's past rather than on the nation's future should remember what Churchill said.
If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost.
Let me run that by you again.
Churchill, if the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost.
If that means a second term for Barack Obama, then it means lost big time.
So there's Soul.
He's basically saying, keep things in perspective here.
What's somebody's past, tabloid past, to boot, when you're talking about saving the nation?
And he's reacting to the scorched earth negative campaigning that's going on and the fact that there's nobody perfect and that we have to deal with the cards that are in the deck and all that.
So I just wanted to share that with you because it's a, again, there are a lot of places that publish Thomas Sowell's columns, which might forget about this one.
May not make the cut because it's so diametrically opposed to those places' current stated, endorsed candidates or positions.
Be right back, folks.
I'm going to have to get some phone calls here, just to be fair here.
But folks, I barely scratched the surface of what I've got available here.
I do want, before we go to the phones, grab audio soundbite 28.
I referenced this earlier in the program.
This is Governor Christie.
He is on Scarborough Show on PMS NBC today, and he's talking to Mika Zezhinsky.
He told me he's very disappointed in her, that she used to be down the middle of the road, but now she's gone full-tilt leftist, and he's disappointed.
Guest panelist here was Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin.
And he said to Governor Christie, what have you heard from your fellow Republican governors and other leading Republicans about what would happen if Newt Gingrich were at the top of the ticket?
I think that the problem for us, if Speaker Gingrich were at the top, is that the election would be about Speaker Gingrich and not about the president.
And I think as Republicans, this election has to be first and foremost about the president.
And I think the speaker just can't help himself but to make himself the center of attention all the time through the comments that he makes.
And as a result, even though, well, some of his ideas I think are fine, I think some of them aren't.
And in the end, he's going to carry so much of that into an election that the election is going to be about Newt Gingrich.
And I don't think that's a good thing for our party.
It's going to be.
This is the classic error that moderate Republicans make.
The classic Republican moderate error.
They think that being a moderate buys them something with the media.
They think, I get what Christie is saying here.
Oh, they won't talk about Mitt.
They won't be mean to Romney.
Romney won't make the campaign about him.
Romney's not an egomaniac.
Romney's not going to run around and say stupid stuff.
Romney is a pretty bland guy.
So with Romney as a nominee, everybody knows the campaign will be about Obama.
Really?
That's not how it works.
Now, if anybody knows anything at all about making oneself the center of attention, it would be Governor Christie.
Governor Christie knows how to do it.
Governor Christie likes being the center of attention, and he can handle it.
So can Newt.
But the idea that, oh, we can't have Newt because that means, oh, since Newt's going to be all anybody will be talking about.
And see, the classic thing is, so we'll nominate a moderate.
Media likes us, moderates.
The media likes us.
They will not be mean to us.
It doesn't work that way.
Classic, classic Republican moderate.
Error.
All right, to the phones, James Incoming Georgia.
It's great to have you up first today in the EIB Network.
Hello, sir.
Hello, Rush.
Thanks for having me.
Maybe, sir.
This is the birthday of Jesus dittoes to you.
Appreciate that.
Hey, I wanted to ask you a question, if I could, off the top here.
Did you coin the phrase dumbing down America?
No, I don't think so.
I don't know who coined the phrase dumbing down America.
I'll take credit for it.
I think Governor Christie did, actually, but might have been Newt Gingrich.
I'm going to give Obama the status no president, if I could.
I think that has a nice ring to it.
Okay.
Status no.
All right.
My call today, though, I wanted to discuss with you the disparity between billionaires and the millionaires, if I could.
The disparity between millionaires and billionaires.
Yes.
It's a lot of zeros.
That's for sure, but I don't think people appreciate what all those zeros mean.
And I think a great way to put it in context is to say that a millionaire in America who is ganged together with billionaires is only $20,000, $50,000 a year men, whereas a billionaire is $1,000 million a year men.
Too many numbers.
I'm confused.
A millionaire in America is ganged together with $20,000, $50,000 a year.
So you need 20 people making $50,000 a year to make a millionaire?
You got it.
And you need $1,000 million a year, guys, to make a billionaire.
You hit the nail on the head.
And that distance is the difference between being a healthy human being and being deadened in the ground.
And we're letting the media get away with wrapping guys up that are so close.
You know, a $50,000 a year man is a lot closer to being a millionaire in America than he knows.
Well, let me just say one thing.
The media gets away with nothing on this program.
We don't let them get away with it.
I know what you're saying, this whole business of the millionaires and billionaires get lumped.
Try this, folks.
From CNN, in fact.
Some private colleges are paying their top executives millions of dollars at the same time they're raising tuition prices for students.
Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt University paid its chancellor, Nicholas Zepos, $1.9 million in 2009, according to latest data, enough for up to 43 students to attend Vanderbilt at current prices.
That same year, Vanderbilt's tuition jumped 4.3%.
Since then, the college has increased tuition more than 3% annually.
His overall pay was actually 21.5% lower than it was the previous year, according to the scroll.
Anyway, the bottom line here is 36 college presidents make a million dollars a year or more.
Where is Occupied Wall Street?
Has somebody told them about this?
The tuition keeps going.
We keep pointing it out here.
The tuition keeps going up.
Nobody ever talks about the greed of big education because that's where Obama's buddies are.
And all these people do, run around and think Wall Street's their big problem and college presidents earning all that.
Look at how many students are going to school for what the president makes.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's.
All of us here at the EIB Network, to all of you, Rush Limbaugh in the spirit.
So big education keeps raising prices.
Tuition keeps going up.
As we know, the Occupy crowd and a lot of students all over the country are unhappy.
Student loan situation.
And never once do we hear about the greed of big education.
Never once do we hear about the millionaires that are the college presidents.
And you know all a college president is these days?
You know what the primary role of a college or university president is today?
Fundraiser.
Exactly right.
Primary role.
Go out and raise money.
That's why there's so many millionaires now.
They're working on commission.
They get paid very well for it.
That's why the football program is so important.
It helps booster money, helps fundraise and so forth.
But you never, you never hear the Democrats, you never hear the media, you never hear Congress talk about the greed that is in big education.
And tuition, college tuition goes up on average about 5% every year.
Maybe you have a university president who goes out and begs the alumni.
That's essentially what they do.
There are exceptions, of course.
Dr. Larry Arn of Hillsdale, they all have to raise money, part of the gig, but I mean, Arne also teaches.
He probably knows where the classrooms are.
That's very rare the college professor or a president teaches.
Oh, I know Arne is brilliant.
Snurdley was just yelling at me here that he read one of his books.
He is brilliant.
I don't know how many university presidents could find a classroom on their own campus.
It is not in the primary administration building.
They don't know where it is.
But I'm just, I'm really struck by the fact that nobody ever talks about the greed in big education.
And the students, the children, the future, they're going into hawk.
Student debt, loan debt, all of this.
And what's the solution?
It's never to be critical of the institutions of higher learning for charging too much.
No.
No, we need new loan programs.
We need new forgivement of loan programs.
We need new payment plans.
Because, as we all know, most citadels of higher learning are the incubators of Marxism, liberalism, socialism.
That's where the indoctrination takes place.
That's why that's where Obama's educated elites are.
That's the group of people Obama goes after in his reelection campaign.
So 36 college presidents making over a million dollars now.
And the Democrats, millionaires and billionaires, caller was right.
The Democrats just throw the word millionaire around.
The New York, you know, Andrew Kumo, he caved, you're going to raise taxes on millionaires starting at $200,000 a year.
That's a millionaire now.
$200,000.
Used to be $60,000 back in 1984.
This is hilarious.
Los Angeles schools have rejected First Lady Michelle Obama's school lunch program.
This story from three days ago said the Los Angeles Times.
For many students, Los Angeles Unified School District's introduction of healthful lunches, part of a campaign against obesity, diabetes, and other problems, has been a flop.
The district says the menu will be revised.
Here's how the story begins: it's lunchtime at Van Nuye's Haskruel.
Students stream into the cafeteria to check out the day's fare.
Black bean burgers, tostada salad, fresh pears, and other items on a new healthful menu introduced this year.
But Irides Renteria and Myra Gutierrez don't even bother to line up.
Renteria said that the school food previously made her throw up.
Gutierrez calls it nasty, rotty stuff, so what do they eat?
They pull three bags of flaming hot Cheetos and soda from their backpacks.
This is what we eat for lunch.
We're eating more junk food now than we've ever eaten at this school.
For many students, LA Unified's trailblazing introduction of healthful screw-a-lunches have been a flop.
Earlier this year, the district got rid of chocolate and strawberry milk, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, nachos, and other food high in fat, sugar, and sodium.
Instead, district chefs concocted such healthful alternatives as vegetarian curry, tamales, quinoa salads, Thai noodles.
They're just one problem.
The meals are being rejected en masse.
Participation in a screw-a-lunch program is dropped by thousands of students.
Principals report massive waste, unopened milk cartons, uneaten entrees being thrown away.
Students are ditching lunch.
Some say they're suffering from headaches and stomach pains, even anemia.
At Mini Kampie, an underground market for potato chips, candy, fast food burgers, and other taboo fare is thriving.
So here's Michelle Obama trying to co-opt and take over the school lunch program for healthful eating.
And just like everywhere else in the free market, if people can find a way around what's dictated to them, they will do it.
And a black market ends up being created.
Now, the Los Angeles Unified School District's second largest in the country, it's the largest to try government-approved school lunch menu that was championed by Michelle Obama.
They bragged about this three months ago.
The only problem is the kids are refusing to eat the stuff.
You know what?
The participation in the school lunch program by the students has plunged to 13%.
73, 80, 87% of the students are finding lunch on the black market.
There is a mafia.
There's an organized crime of alternate food at lunch.
Back alley lunches.
Look at what the look at what the kids are learning at the Los Angeles Unified Scruel District.
This is another thing.
That's another thing.
The Screw-Al lunch, of course, is provided El Fribo.
The kids are refusing to eat it.
Instead, there's a black market for burgers, tacos, whatever.
Where are they getting the money to buy this stuff on the black market, folks?
Hmm?
Hmm?
Weren't we told that the students and their families were so financially disadvantaged that there was so much financial struggle going on?
They couldn't afford their own meals.
That's why we even had to start serving school dinner in Memphis.
And yet, students seem to have plenty of money for a black market school lunch menu.
And by the way, you know, somebody's making a profit in that black market.
This is not being done out of the goodness of somebody's heart.
So back alley lunches at the Los Angeles Unified Public School System.
One teacher, this isn't a story, one teacher asked his 11th grade U.S. history class to write letters about the food in the scrolls to the mayor, to the media, and to Michelle Obama.
A history class was asked to write letters to the first lady about the abomination that the school lunch program had become.
I love this.
I absolutely simply love this, folks.
And here's a story.
This is from September 1st of this year.
Los Angeles Unified School District's I'm In campaign promotes healthy lifestyles, invites districts locally and nationwide to join the effort.
This is a story trumpeting the great arrival of the new healthful school lunch program.
They're so proud of it.
Los Angeles Unified School District launches a wellness campaign.
Are you in? is the headline.
It has been a dismal failure.
Black market food for lunch at the Los Angeles Public Schools.
Back alley lunches.
Brief timeout, folks.
Back with much more here on the EIB Network after this.
By the way, the Los Angeles Unified School District has now said they're going to bring back hamburgers.
Hamburgers will be offered daily as well as pizza.
Even bringing back pizza.
Have you noticed, folks, in one of the truly great outrages of the week, none of the news media is mentioning the great strides that Kim Jong-il made in nationalizing North Korea's healthcare system.
It's a complete shambles.
North Korea's healthcare system is a complete shambles and Kim Jong-il nationalized.
We're not hearing one word.
Not, no, we're not hearing.
We're not hearing about any of the great things Kim Jong-il did.
No, we're just mercurial, enigmatic.
What a wonderful guy.
Madeline Albert.
Well, he's not a nut.
No, we don't want to make fun of him.
Andrea Mitchell, NBC.
I met him.
You know what?
I really met him.
I met him.
I met him.
Yeah.
I met Kim Jong-il.
I was over there with Matt Albert.
I actually met Kim Jong-il.
Aren't I cool?
Well, not a word about his wonderful nationalized healthcare program, which features amputations without anesthesia because they don't have any.
Joseph in Lake Mary, Florida.
Joseph, thank you for calling.
Thank you for waiting.
And welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello, sir.
Hi, Rush.
Merry Christmas and mega, mega, mega ditto.
Thank you, sir.
Thanks very much.
I just wanted to call and let you know that what I have in my hand right now is something I've been waiting for since ever since you and Catherine started talking about sampling other flavors from your Toothby Tea.
I have my favorite, the peach tea in my hands, delivered an hour ago as I've been waiting.
And let me tell you, I have already had it.
I've been sipping on it, and it is the best tea.
I'm a big peach tea fan, Rush.
And I cannot thank you enough for actually creating this and my favorite flavor.
My son, Jason, and Michael, my two boys, I have twin boys, and they would not let me even try it.
It was so funny.
We opened it.
I go, this is the tea I've been waiting for.
And let me try it.
Let me try it.
And they went crazy for it.
Well, I'm glad you like it.
Sounds like you love it.
I have a bottle of peach right here in my hand, too, and it's delicious.
It is.
I'm so happy.
I'm so happy.
My wife, I need to thank my wife.
I've been talking up to your tea ever since you came out with it.
I said, I want him to come out with the peach tea.
Well, when you announced it, I could not believe it.
I just came out last week when you announced.
I told my wife, see, he just came out with it.
We've got to try to get some.
And sure enough, she surprised me for Christmas, early Christmas gift.
And I just got it today.
FedEx has dropped it by, and it's so good.
It's cold now.
It's delicious.
I can't thank you enough.
You get into a business like this and you understand this is the key.
I mean, this is the whole thing about resale and reorders.
If people don't like it, then you're stuck.
You're finished.
And you're echoing sentiments that we've been hearing from people since we introduced this.
I'm biased.
I'm partial to it.
But I think it's the best iced tea you can find anywhere.
I don't care what the flavor.
And we have more coming, too.
John in Tucson, Arizona.
It's great to have you with us, sir.
Hello.
Mr. Limbaugh.
First of all, Merry Christmas.
Same to you, sir.
A splendid new year.
And let me be the first to wish you a happy birthday for next year.
I appreciate that.
Thanks very much.
You are on the cutting edge.
I do have a major question that I work with a nonprofit business group.
I don't want to name, but I see hundreds of business owners a month and try to get them engaged to stand up for free enterprise.
And first of all, though, wanted to thank you also.
I got turned on to you 21 years ago, and you've taught me how to think more clearly.
And that's kind of take whatever the media tends to say as a mass, look at the opposite view, and usually go that direction.
I appreciate it.
Thanks very much.
No, sir.
So, my simple question is: in the Senate, when they have not been passing budgets over the last two and a half or three years since Harry Reid took over, I don't understand how they've been able to keep working with the federal budget.
And I knew you could explain it.
Yes, very easily.
If the opposing party is not willing to do anything about it, then this is what happens.
If the Democrats refuse to produce a budget and the Republicans go along with it, then there won't be a budget.
That's where we are.
The Democrats run the Senate, so the Republicans can't do anything about it in the Senate.
All you can do is bellyache.
If you want to say it's a violation of the Constitution or some other regulation, if somebody's not willing to make that charge and follow it up, then it's just going to go on as it is with continuing resolution after continuing resolution.
If the Democrats think there's a political advantage to it, not doing a budget, and the Republicans aren't willing to do anything other than say, hey, they haven't produced a budget, then they're going to keep doing it as long as they think it's an advantage.
Until it can be made something that's an albatross around their neck, and you have to try to make that happen, they're going to keep doing it.
Okay, another brief pause here at the top of the hour, folks.
It's the fastest three hours in media.
What can we do?
We just be patient.
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