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Jan. 6, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:29
January 6, 2012, Friday, Hour #3
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Time Text
It's Friday, and it's not a half day.
It's a full board day.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open live.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
The email address, El Rushbo at EIBNet.com.
Great to have you with us.
I've been crunching some of the jobs numbers during the program today.
Well, I've had the jobs numbers being crunched.
I can't do everything here.
I'm going to deal with my New York State tax audit during the program today.
You wouldn't believe.
And I'm not going to bleed on you by telling you.
You just wouldn't believe it.
And everybody said, boy, Rush, I love it when you get fired up.
Yeah, but you don't know what about.
Anyway, some details that we will never hear from the news media.
Unemployment rate has averaged 9.4% since the stimulus was enacted.
That's the average unemployment.
Forget this 8.5 thing today.
9.4% is the average unemployment rate since the stimulus was enacted.
600,000 jobs lost.
The economy has lost more than 600,000 jobs since the stimulus became law.
Frankly, I thought it was more than that.
I thought it was 2 million.
I thought that was the universe was down by 2 million, which accounts for the low percentage of unemployment.
So I get this note from Cookie.
He does the soundbite roster.
Cookie said, Dear Rush, there's something going on out there.
They're starting to put it all on you again.
There's a piece at the Daily Caller, two-page piece on how you will decide the primary.
The headline of the Daily Caller piece, Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee unless Rush Limbaugh decides he shouldn't be.
So I said, Cookie, they just sent you that, hoping I mentioned it so they get some hits on their website, which of course they've succeeded in doing here.
But Cookie is practicing suckupism like Snergly does.
Limbaugh Moment, Daily Caller.
Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee unless Limbaugh decides he shouldn't be.
That's at the Daily Caller.
So we have some soundbites.
Let's get to the soundbites.
This is MSNBC This Afternoon with Alex Wagner.
She spoke with salon.com news editor Steve Cornacki about the Republican primary.
And during a discussion about the Hawkeye Caucy and Michelle Bachman's decision to drop out, Alex Wagner, PMSNBC, said to Steve Karnaki, speaking of people who don't know when to leave, Rick Perry is still in the race.
It was a dream night for Rick Santorum because he got the opportunity to be the conservative who's going to go toe-to-toe with Romney.
And then it turned into a nightmare the next day because the other guys wouldn't get out of the way.
You know, he needed not just that he needed Perry out.
He probably needed Gingrich out.
And he needed guys like Rush Limbaugh to be like, listen, this is the moment.
If we're ever going to stop Mitt, it's now.
And instead, Limbaugh was on his radio show Wednesday saying, you know, this is going to be fun to watch.
It's kind of a train wreck.
So this Cornaki guy at Salon is saying, I'm to blame.
Over the Daily Caller, they're saying it's going to be up to me who the nominee is.
And the salon guy says, I blew it by after Santorum winning, not telling the other guys to get the hell out of the race.
Okay, that's what I thought.
The workforce has lost 2 million people.
There's 600,000 jobs.
Okay, that's.
So let's continue here with the soundbites.
This is Dana Perino.
Let's see.
We played this.
Yeah, but I want to redo this.
This was yesterday, right before this program began.
Dana Perino was on Fox News talking to Jenna Lee about Huntsman.
One of the things that happened in one of the debates, I thought it was just a slip-up.
When Governor Huntsman said America is screwed, okay, that is not presidential language, but on live TV, you can sometimes say something you wish you didn't say.
But today in New Hampshire, releasing an ad that actually says that.
And I think that just strikes the wrong note with people.
If you want to be the leader of the United States of America, you should act like it.
That was Dana Perino, who we like here at the EIB Network, being very upset with Huntsman for actually saying the U.S. is screwed.
You shouldn't do that if you're running for president.
Do you agree with that, Dawn?
Do you agree with that?
Okay.
So we mentioned, I mentioned that Dana had said this, so forth.
And then on her show, Dana Perino showed part of that show called The Five at Five on the Fox News channel.
They had this little exchange.
So I brought this up on Happy Now, and I said that I didn't think it sounded presidential.
And our good friend, who we really like, Rush Limbaugh, said he liked me but disagreed with me because he thought that that's just bold and that's true.
And I do think that if Rush Limbaugh said it, I'd be for it.
But I just, I'm old-fashioned.
I didn't think it was presidential enough, but I love it that Rush was watching.
Right.
So they still don't like the idea that Huntsman was out there using the word country screwed.
It's just not presidential.
But, you know, Dana Perino, being a woman, probably is a little bit more sensitive about language than I am as a man.
According to the survey results we just got in the UK.
Well, we talked about it earlier.
Men are more dominant.
Women are more sensitive about things like this.
I think what I'll do, I'm going to send, is he Ambassador Huntsman or Governor Huntsman?
What does he go by?
Because he's been both.
I'll send a note to Governor Huntsman and say, look, next time for when they cover you on Fox, when you do this ad, just say the country has been intercoursed.
And that way, nobody will have a problem with it.
We move on.
We're not through here.
This is John Sununu.
Last night, Fox Business News Network, Freedom Watch, the host with Judge Andrew Napolitano, talking with former chief of staff to George H.W. Bush, John Sununu from New Hampshire to Palotano.
Said, how do you feel about comments from conservatives as well as the establishment like Rush Limbaugh, George Will, that Mitt Romney is not one of them, meaning Mitt really not a conservative?
Well, I feel about it.
I put on the other side of that Dan Quayle, Vice President of the United States, solid, staunch, first-class conservative.
I put myself there.
Solid, staunch, first-class conservative.
Governor of South Carolina, Tea Party favorite.
Solid, staunch, first-class conservative.
And we can go on all night long, people like that supporting Governor Romney.
So Sununu, so what do you mean that Romney didn't have support of conservatives?
You got me, you got Quayle, you got Nikki Haley, you got all kinds of staunch conservatives out there.
This is my point.
So what?
It doesn't prove anything.
But you see, this is he was since when does Sunu become a staunch conservative?
All right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you're just thinking David Souter.
You're thinking of them.
Okay.
Okay, we move on.
It's Judge Andrew Napolitano, after talking to the staunch conservative John Sununu, then had another staunch conservative on as his guest, and that would be the huckster, the former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee.
And so the Politano says, is Romney the conservative that you are, that Rush Limbaugh is, that Ronald Reagan was?
Well, you know, it's interesting that Rush Limbaugh is attacking Romney because four years ago, he couldn't get enough of him, and he loved him some Romney.
And I don't understand what has happened with Rush's feelings because Romney is the same today that he was four years ago.
If anything, he might have kind of matured and become more conservative, at least more set in his own convictions better than he was four years ago.
But Rush Limbaugh has been attacking him.
What is so hard for these guys to understand about this?
You know, every election cycle is different.
It has different people in it.
And, yeah, of the available choices back in 2008, yeah, we loved us some Romney, as the governor of Arkansas says.
But it really wasn't hard either.
When you have McCain in the race, anybody is going to.
But McCain's not in the roster this time around.
Does that help?
It's Open Line Friday.
We're going to go back to the phones.
Just one more observation.
Four years ago, I think it's safe to say that Mitt Romney was the most conservative candidate in the race.
Time Fred Thompson dropped out.
Giuliani, some people wouldn't say he was the most conservative, but strict law and order guy.
But between Romney and McCain, there's no, when you talk about conservatism, that wasn't even a tough choice back in 2008.
Here is Tyler in Fort Benning, Georgia.
Welcome to the EIB.
You know, I want to throw that back.
You people that are asking me where the hell I am now versus where 200.
Are you the guys that were trying to sandbag Romney in 2008?
Now all of a sudden you're in his camp.
All of you people were trying to take Romney out.
You're teaming up with McCain to kill Romney.
Now all of a sudden you're in his camp.
What the hell's changed with you?
That's a real question, if you ask me.
All right.
Tyler in Fort Benning, Georgia.
I'm glad you waited, sir.
Welcome to the program.
Oh, thank you, Rush.
I just want to, you know, thank you.
It's an honor to speak with you.
I'm a longtime listener, probably about eight years.
Thank you very much, sir.
I appreciate that.
I really do.
I just, you know, I want to thank you for all your continued support of the military.
It's, you know, really reassuring.
I'm an infantryman in the U.S. Army.
And, you know, you've just been there by our side the entire time.
So thank you.
You are more than welcome.
We here love the U.S. military.
And We're very upset at what's happening to it right now with all of these budget cuts and all these fingers of blame.
Are you still going to have a job by the time Obama gets through, Tyler?
Well, I hope so.
You know, I signed my contract.
I hope they hold out their end of the deal there.
It's just, I'm not the only one who's a little worried, but like I asked earlier, every day we get up, we hear Obama talk about how sacred and sacrosanct police officers are.
And anytime local government is faced with budget cuts, what happens?
The officials of the local government come out and say, well, we'll have to cut the cops.
We have to cut firemen and teachers.
And the townsfolk shriek, oh, no, no, no, please don't cut our fire.
Oh, no, don't cut our cops.
We can't be beholden to criminals, though, please.
Okay, fine.
Then we can't cut the budget.
Okay, if it means cutting cops, then we can't cut the budget.
Fine, don't cut the budget.
We'll pay higher taxes.
Okay, cool.
When it comes time to cutting the federal budget, the first thing the liberal Democrats do, we got to cut defense.
We got to get rid of the soldiers.
What's the difference?
What is the difference?
Why is Obama so hell-bent on holding on to police officers and so hell-bent on getting rid of soldiers?
Don't they do the same thing to one degree or another?
Aren't they charged with the same responsibilities, defending and protecting and guarding against crime, aggression, what have you?
Yet liberal Democrats will throw soldiers overboard with a blink of an eye and cut their budget in a blink of an eye.
When it comes to policemen and firemen and teachers, oh, no, we can't do that.
Oh, no.
And the townshull, oh, no, we can't do that.
Mitt Romney never laid off half a million people at Maine Capitol.
How come there's no outrage in Obama laying off all these military people?
We want to talk about the electability of these Republicans.
How about the unelectability of Barack Obama?
Anyway, I appreciate the call, Tyler.
Thanks much.
Next up's Tina in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Great to have you on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Well, Happy New Year, Rush.
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
Okay.
Well, as I recall in the beginning of the show, you were talking the numbers figure, too.
And I remember the recovery summer where it was going to take 230 to 260 a month in order to gain the jobs back that were lost.
Wasn't it 400,000 that was going to be?
I know that it was a lot, and it had to be every month.
Yeah.
And where are these, don't we even have one honest economist out there that can speak to this and say, well, you know, one month of 200, what do you do when you're not counting millions?
No, because they've told us it's not the numbers that count, it's the trend line.
And the trend, and the trend line is anything that be made to look like things are moving in Obama's favor, and that's what's going to be reported.
Well, we can't count on the media.
We know that.
No.
Well, these economists are not economists.
They're media experts.
I mean, they get their name in the media because the media seeks them out.
You think they're going to say things the media doesn't want to hear?
Well, you know, but it helps how quickly that was forgotten.
And that summer never panned out anyway.
We all know it.
You know, I agree.
I think we're being overwhelmed.
Forget about that.
We have a chief executive who has just dumped the biggest odorous pile of excrement on the Constitution in our lifetimes.
I agree.
With this recessed employment crap.
We've got somebody who is lawless.
We have somebody who is behaving outside the bounds of Constitution.
Where is the outrage?
I couldn't agree with you.
That brings me to my last little comment.
Is it still safe to buy green bananas?
It is.
Just checking.
Safe to buy green bananas.
I don't.
Why would it not be?
Well, you know, it goes back to the comment.
It's a time to panic, yes.
Oh, oh.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Not time to panic.
But you might, you might want to be looking at real estate prices in New Zealand just to get a feel for it.
But it's not time to panic.
This is, let's see, Michael in Joftstown, New Hampshire.
You're next on the EIB Network.
Hi.
Hi, how's it going, Rush?
I'm a first-time caller.
I've been listening to you since I was a little kid.
I used to have to go to work with my old man, and he always had jobs.
Thank you very much, sir.
I just have, you know, I need to understand something.
You know, I never really was listening to all the politics, paying attention to it.
Kind of listened to my old man about it, and he led me, you know, conservative, Republican.
And I live here in Gostown, New Hampshire.
Right now I'm unemployed.
I have interviews lined up and stuff, but it's always been, you know, I'm not getting what I should be getting for the job that I'm in.
I have to stay home with my son because I can't afford daycare and working around trying to get an interview on that kind of schedule.
Are you divorced?
No, no.
My wife works.
She's a school teacher, and that's another thing.
She has to be careful what she says to people that she works with because, you know, God forbid you're a conservative school teacher.
You've got to be kidding.
Yeah, it's, you know, there's just so much politics that goes on in schools that most of them are liberals and Democrats.
Yeah.
But what I want to know is, you know, I can't find anything that is telling me what they're actually going to do for working class families that, you know, I'm not looking for handouts or anything.
I'm trying to get a job.
Well, this is interesting.
What do you want or expect from these candidates that you hope to hear something from?
What do you want to hear from them?
It's just, you know, the spending that's going on.
I just want to know how it's going to affect people like me who, you know, my property taxes are high.
I had to do a short sale on a house.
I just moved cross-country.
I had to do a short sale on a house because I couldn't sell my house.
So I had to take a hit on that.
Okay, I know what you mean.
I know what you want to hear.
I'll tell you when we come back.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have the finest mumper music known to exist in the free or oppressed worlds.
Great to have you back.
All right, our last caller, Michael from Joftown, New Hampshire.
He wants to know what candidates are going to do for the working and middle class.
I'm going to take a flyer on this.
He's an avowed, admitted conservative.
So I am going to quite naturally conclude, because he also said this, he's not expecting a handout.
He's not expecting some politician to come along and hand him a job, but he is finding a tough job market.
What he wants is an end to all of the nefarious obstacles that are in the way to employers hiring people.
And therefore, get the obstacles that prevent economic expansion and growth out of the way.
What he's really asking is, when are we going to be left alone?
When he's not looking for a handout, he's not looking for a specific policy that gives him a job, per se, that that's not the end result.
That's not realistic.
It's what liberals look at, but it's not realistic.
He's looking for a climate.
He's looking for an atmosphere.
He's looking for a community attitude, one that's filled with optimism, people uplifted and inspired, feeling like their government's not working against them.
Feeling like their government is not punishing them.
That's what he really thinks.
That's what he feels.
The government's punishing him in any number of ways.
He just wants them out of the way.
It's quite understandable, too.
A lot of people have been conditioned to believe that jobs are the result of policy.
In fact, even now, with the unemployment number now, 8.5%, oh yeah, Obama did it.
That's why we got to tell people on the left who think this, what did he do?
What policies led to those 200,000 jobs last month, which are really 150,000?
And even that's bogus, but regardless, what did he do?
He didn't do anything.
If this is real, it's happening in spite of Obama.
Obama's not doing it in create jobs.
Obama is not, there's not one Obama policy other than the extension of the Bush tax cuts that in any way lead to the expansion of private sector.
Obama is shrinking the private sector.
And by virtue of it, he's shrinking job opportunities in the private sector.
Obama's doing nothing to create them.
That caller wants to think the government's on his side.
He wants to think the government's on his team.
When you come back from an international trip, you go through customs, you hope the people welcome you home to America, not look at you as a suspect.
It's no more complicated than that.
You don't want government to be the enemy.
You don't want to be afraid of them.
Guys, look at what he said about his wife.
His wife can't be honest about what she thinks.
She might lose her job.
It's clear to be what this guy wants.
Wants freedom.
Pure and simple.
It's his freedom that's being infringed upon.
His wife's a teacher, but he has to shut up for fear of losing her job simply because of her political views.
This is not Russia, or is it?
In the old days of the Soviet Union, people used to go to the bathroom in their own homes to tell each other what they really thought.
It's where they felt safest.
Maybe that room wasn't bugged.
No, no, I'm not saying that now, but I'm just, this is the way it was then.
Human nature is what it is.
Irving, Texas is next as Open Line Friday continues.
This is Will.
Great to have you, sir, on the EIB network.
Hi.
Greetings, Russian pterodittos, and happy Epiphany from Irving, Texas.
Well, thank you very much, sir.
Yeah.
Hey, I was thinking that what Mike is about there, he wants to be left alone, like you were just saying.
Yes.
You know, the Republicans have blocked the son of stimulus, and things have started looking up a little bit.
I think that's why Obama went wild and did these non-recess, recess appointments, because he's got to look like he's doing something because he's in danger of actually having nothing happening, having him do nothing.
Now, that's very shrewd of you because part and parcel of that is Obama's running against a do-nothing Congress.
Right.
So he needs them.
He needs the perception that they aren't doing anything.
So once he goes out and says, hey, if they're not going to do things for the American people, if they're not going to go out and create jobs, if they're going to put the middle class first, I'm not going to wait.
I'm going to do it myself.
I'm going to hell with them.
And that serves the purpose of running against the dude in Congress and taking matters in his own hands for the people and doing it and so forth.
Who cares about the Constitution?
Exactly.
And doing nothing is working.
It probably would have worked when the first stimulus was passed.
You know, had they allowed the free market to operate, then there would have been no need for all of this debt and all this appearance of Obama having accomplished something.
So I've got the outrage for this.
This extra-constitutional activity by Mr. Obama has just twisted my chain.
I am just very, very upset about this.
A lot of people are.
I beg pardon?
A lot of people are.
Yeah.
Livid.
Livid about it.
And here's the thing.
Talk about team.
People like you who are livid about it.
What do they hear the Republicans in Washington say?
It's not that big an overreach.
A consumer guy, it's not that.
This is not the place to plant the flag and take the hill.
Really?
A guy who just basically takes a leak in the Constitution, this is not the place to plant the flag.
Well, when is when is.
That's exactly right.
Well, it's a part of don't let a good crisis go to waste.
Hey, if the crisis is starting to evaporate, create a new one.
Right.
Go to war with the Congress.
Exactly.
He's got to make it look like Congress is obstructing him.
Right.
As if what he was doing was making things better.
But in fact, what he was doing is making things worse, just like FDR.
You know, FDR didn't end the Depression.
He actually, through his policies, delayed the recovery from the Depression.
This is true.
With Obama.
This is true.
But you're trying to make a liberal believe that today.
No.
I try to get them to believe it.
I've taken classes in public speaking and that sort of thing.
And, you know, you got to do what you can to convince people of what's right and good and true.
It's all you can do, too.
And at some point, it's up to them.
Well, I'm sorry, was there something else?
Oh, no.
And we're talking at the same time.
I might have spoken over you.
I didn't want to be rude.
No, my bad.
You're the host.
All right.
Oh, cool.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks much.
I tell you a short little story.
Catherine and I went to Honolulu for Christmas.
We were there the same time Obama was, but there was no reason to be public about it this time.
Nothing happened.
But one of the reasons we went a little earlier than usual because Catherine has a nephew who succeeded in getting into the Honolulu boy choir at age seven.
This is unheard of.
And the Honolulu Boy Choir, it's a total volunteer organization.
And they were running around the whole island of Oahu doing Christmas concerts throughout December and so forth.
And we wanted to get over there early enough because Catherine wanted to see him, his name, Justin, in a couple of them.
And I went on Christmas morning at the Sheraton Owaki Key in the lobby.
And I figured, okay, I'm just being good husband here.
I'm going to troop down there Christmas morning and I'll watch some teenagers sing Christmas carols and I'll score my points for the day and be free to watch football that night.
And I have to tell you, I was blown away by these are young boys, like I said, Justin's seven or eight years old, all the way up, I think, to mid-teens.
But I was blown away by how professional they are and how great they are.
And their conductor was a guy whose last, Mr. Pellekai was his name.
And this guy was awesome.
And these kids had been taught, these are 10, 11 year olds, they've been taught proper stage projection and enunciation when they were speaking and introducing songs and when they were singing.
And I was blown away by it.
And then when I found out that this is, it's obviously young kids, it's an amateur organization.
I wanted to give them a shout out here because they were that good.
And this conductor, Mr. Pellek, he's a fireman.
He donates his time to this.
He's not, he could be, but he's not a professional singing instructor or choral director or conductor or what have you.
He does it in his own spare time.
And these are just fine and dandy, just cream of the crop, young people.
And you see instances like this, and you balance it against all the cultural rot you see elsewhere.
And it just makes you feel good.
And it did me.
It's been a Christmas morning, and these kids are out singing the Christmas carols and attracting crowds of hundreds of people walking through.
I remember the K-State basketball team was coming back from a basketball.
It was Christmas Day.
Of course, everybody plays sports on TV for ESPN now.
So these K-State behemoth basketball players are walking through the lobby back and then they stopped to watch what was going on.
The kids did about 45 minutes, and they're kids.
They really, it's a tuition-free program.
It's an honor to be admitted into this choir.
And Catherine's nephew.
What is it?
It's Catherine's nephew.
Is my nephew three times removed or so?
What is it?
Who knows?
Call him my nephew.
His name is Justin.
Justin Hazel is his name.
But it was really cool.
And I had a chance to meet Mr. Pellachi, who's a fireman.
And I made a point to tell him how teaching these kids to be professionals.
I can't, you know, there's a way to sing and project on stage.
You don't go on stage and go, aloha, everybody.
It's aloha.
You extend it.
There's a way of stage speaking and singing, and these 10-year-old kids have been taught it.
And I thought I was watching a group of people who are far more trained and professional than 10-year-olds, and it was because Mr. Pellachi was, and everybody, he wasn't the only one.
There's a bunch of, there's an executive director and so forth.
But I don't know, I just think people like that deserve a shout out.
They're doing the Lord's work.
The kids could be doing a whole lot of other things.
But this is good for them, and it's something that it's a talent they have that he's helping to develop and so forth.
It was all good.
It's their version of being a little league baseball and their version of being on a team.
It was great to see.
I got to take a brief time out.
We'll be back and continue right after this.
Don't go away.
Aaron in Colorado Springs.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Good.
How are you doing today?
I'm very well, sir.
Thank you.
I have two questions for you.
First one, how is nobody, you talked about perception.
How is it nobody perceives that he talks about Barack Obama, talks about getting everybody job, yet he takes constant vacations from his job and nobody says anything from it?
Yes, they do.
It just isn't reported.
One of the biggest jokes in the country among real people is how little the guy works and how many vacations he takes.
It's just not reported.
The media treats this guy like a king.
But believe me, people comment on it and they joke about it.
This guy is becoming a regularly discussed joke.
He really is.
I need a job where I can take 90 days of vacation a year and not show up to work.
Yeah.
Right.
And get paid for those 90 days.
Yeah.
The other question I have is: being a Bronco fan that I am, if you can change the perception on that, the last three games that we played to being scrimmages where we're focusing on fundamentals of being offense, defense, and a quarterback.
I'm just going to tell you.
I'm going to tell you, you're asking me about the Steelers game.
It's the late game on Sunday.
I'm just telling you, of the four games this weekend, this is the upset special.
This is the one game I can see the underdog winning.
I don't see the Lions beating the Saints.
I don't see the Falcons beating the Giants.
Yeah, I can see it.
But there's something about this.
The Steelers are not scoring any points.
They're just bugs me.
And they're on the road.
On paper, this ought to be Waterloo for the Broncos because the Steelers' defense.
But I've just got one of these bugaboo feelings about this.
I don't know.
I just, I'm not confident about it.
I'm just saying the Steelers are not scoring points against bad teams.
The Cleveland Browns are not scoring.
And then the Broncos' defense is great if it shows up.
And, you know, if God decides to watch, who do you think God's going to be for?
Rothlessburger or Tebow?
I don't know, folks.
This one, Steelers are probably going to win this, but I am not.
I wouldn't be comfortable picking it.
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