Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 24-7 Podcast.
You know, all of this is my fault.
All this Trump stuff is my fault.
I do, I think I caused it.
And no, I don't know.
I said, you want to go play golf?
He said, sure.
I said, who are you going to endorse?
He said, what tea time do you want?
You know, it was what is this?
This is Thursday, so it must have been um it was Tuesday.
Because on Monday, I got the email from Jonathan Martin from Politico.
Who, by the way, and I keep distracting myself here.
By the way, hi folks, Rush Linboy and Broadcast Excellence, here we go.
Jonathan Martin uh sent me a note last night.
Look, you understand this Florida cracker stuff.
I mean, that's what people up there call each other.
Yeah, I mean, you keep I hope you're doing shtick here.
I hope you're not really ripping me.
I said, Jonathan, Jonathan, this is shtick.
But you know damn well if it would me doing this, you and your buddies would be all over the place because Media Matters would have told you.
He said, I understand, understand the double standard here.
So yeah, this this cracker thing.
Anyway, he called or he emailed me and and um want to know about it, and we ran the story after I, you know, emailed him back and forth.
And the headline of the story was, and I'm gonna paraphrase it, I don't remember it exactly, Florida's most important Republican primary voter.
Uh what's he gonna it was a story about me, Florida's most important primary voter, and I said this is not gonna go down well with Trump.
When Trump sees this, he's not gonna be happy with it.
He's the most important Republican voter in Florida, even though he doesn't vote here.
And now look what's happened.
This is amazing.
Yesterday, last night we get the news that Trump's gonna endorse, and who who was it that first he was going to endorse Newt, right?
And then it's been changed he's gonna endorse Romney.
So the Romney bloggers have got the vitriol all over their blogs for Newt and how Newt and Trump and Herman Cain equally despise and embarrass uh women and have no respect for them.
If Trump ends up endorsing Romney today, some of these pro-Romney bloggers are gonna have some exploit because they have launched on Newt.
They've launched on Trump.
They have lumped Trump in with all the the great womanizers in world history.
And Herman Cain and Newt, they once once it once it uh first reported it was Newt, they went into a tailspin.
So if it, and I have no idea who it is going to be.
But as I said, I knew it wasn't going to sit well.
Well, I was being called Florida's most influential voter.
And the reason I know that Trump took this person, because he's doing this at 1230.
He's doing this in the middle of the show.
If he was.
If he really wanted to get the most bang for his book and get the most media attention for his announcement, he could have just called here and made his endorsement here live on this show.
But he probably didn't want to draw that much attention to himself.
So I'm I'm I'm guessing he opted to go out there to Las Vegas because that's where the next uh the next caucus are.
But you know, Donald has been saying he was toying around with the idea of running third party if his candidate doesn't win the nomination.
So let's hope that whoever he endorses turns out to be the winner uh otherwise if he goes third party.
I actually don't think that.
I actually don't believe that he's going to go third party.
Now, I just did about an hour ago, I just did an interview uh uh on my Sacramento affiliate KFPK, the radio station launched uh my career and this program.
They're having their 90th birthday, celebrating it this year, the 90th year that KFBK in Sacramento, my adopted hometown's been on the air.
And they um asked me a number of of questions about this, and I I said to them, I don't really know anymore how influential endorsements look like.
I don't think newspaper endorsements matter at Hill of Beans.
What I told them there was uh what I will tell you.
I mentioned it yesterday.
This is a really polarized Republican primary.
The people that don't like Romney, for example, viscerally don't like Romney.
And the people that viscerally that don't like Newt, viscerally don't like Newton.
I mean, there's no middle ground here.
I don't know how many undecided there are out there, but I don't think any, like if you're sitting out there today and you hate what by the way, folks.
The the audio soundbites today are all about me and what I said, my reaction to Romney and his comment, I don't care about the poor, we got a program for them.
It's all over the place.
The drive bys on cable TV are obsessing about my comments.
I'm gonna play the audio for you.
I can't get away with it.
It's the whole soundbite roster, practically.
And now today, Romney has renewed his support for an automatic increase in the federal minimum wage to keep pace with inflation.
Now, this is not conservative.
I don't care.
You all want to try to tell me that that Romney is a conservative electorate.
This is not a conservative position.
Let me tell you something.
The minimum wage, you raise the minimum wage and you make it such that first time employees who are not qualified for much, aren't going to get hired because it costs too much.
You are effectively eliminating the bottom rung from the ladder of success.
You are stopping people from getting started in their lives in a job.
If you price the minimum wage so high that it makes no market sense whatsoever.
And of course, my favorite argument the minimum wage is to tell the people that want to raise it, we need to raise that minimum wage.
Russia just isn't fair.
So what is it now?
Well, I don't know, Russia, $7.50.
Okay, fine, it's raise it to $10.
That's fair, Rush.
That's really good.
Okay, then let's raise it to $15.
Rush, you know what?
Now you're talking.
That's really fair.
Minimum wage 50, okay, that's you like, let's go to 20.
Well, I don't know.
Well, why did you stop?
Why is $20 an hour giving you pause?
Well, I don't know.
First time, not quite if you now that I've reached a point where you think it costs too much.
Don't you understand that any arbitrarily applied minimum wage on the false premise of fairness is deeply flawed.
You're just going to arbitrarily pick an hourly wage based on what you think is fair, based on what you think somebody can live on, based on what you think is just.
The market determines these things.
And entry-level work is priced at entry-level work because it's entry-level.
There's no experience being brought to the gig.
The lowest rung on the ladder.
And you are taking it away.
So now we've got Romney openly reaffirming his support for an automatic increase in the federal minimum wage.
So, in the last two days, you think I've lost my place here, but I am El Rushbo and I haven't.
In the last two days, we have Romney stepping in it with a quote that's made the order to be taken out of context.
And it has been taken out of context.
I don't care about the poor.
I'm not concerned with the poor.
They have a safety net.
What I want to do is fix the safety net.
There's no problem.
No.
No.
Governor.
No, no, no, no.
The safety net is precisely what's creating dependency and destroying people's lives.
It's robbing them of your man their humanity.
The safety net needs to be totally re-evaluated.
It's a Democrat vote buying technique.
Governor, no, it doesn't need to be fixed.
It needs to be totally redone with an entirely different purpose behind it.
Anyway, so you got that.
In other words, let's put these two together.
I admit Romney, I'm not concerned with the very poor and to prove it.
I support an increase in the minimum wage.
Now today, Trump comes along and endorses him.
Is that gonna make people who don't like Romney?
You know what I'm wrong about Romney.
Trump's just endorsing.
Like I said, minimum wage stuff doesn't matter, and his slip up and not understanding the conservative way to talk about the safety net.
You know what?
That's fine.
Trump's endorsed him, so I'm gonna forget what I uh don't like about Romney, what my opposition doesn't mean.
I just don't think that endorsements matter that much at the end result.
Now they do matter for juicing the news cycle.
They do matter to the endorser.
The endorser is who's getting all the news today.
And that would be Trump, whoever he ends up endorsing.
But I think with the polarization that exists on the Republican side right now, there's not enough lukewarm opposition to either of these two guys to have an endorsement matter that much.
I mean, if you viscerally dislike Romney, you viscerally dislike Newt, here comes Trump endorsing either one.
It's not going to wipe out your visceral dislike.
It's not going to wipe out your visceral opposition.
But the drive-bys are excited.
Um, everybody in the media seems to be uh excited about this.
So we'll keep a sharp eye on it.
Whatever happens, we'll deal with it uh accordingly.
We've got for the first time in a long time.
I have a stack of stuff that's total lighthearted off-the-wall goofball.
For the first time in a long time, I've got multiple such stories.
Yeah, it'll see the light of it.
I'm gonna assist on it because I'll give you one of them right now.
From the UK Daily Mail, workers limited to eight minutes of toilet time per day.
And the opponents, the opponents is a pull quote.
This is the latest example of tyrannical toilet rules in Norwegian companies.
So companies have an eight-minute toilet time limit per day in parts of Europe.
You want another headline?
Uh you another headline, we find this one.
Uh Diet soda linked to stroke and heart attack.
Fine, perfect.
Drink more two if by tea.
Easy answer.
Hotels create rooms and floors just for women.
That's in the New York Times.
You think that's what the feminazis had in mind?
Is that what they had in mind?
Separate flo hotels, not dormitories.
Rooms and floors just for women.
Electric car collides with empty school bus.
Toilet texting on the rise.
Not related to the story that limits you to eight minutes of toilet time in Europe.
I know how many of you are snotting your heads.
Yeah, you know what?
I do.
I don't read as much on toilet, but boy do I text.
Well, somebody's calculating the amount of time you text on the toilet, and there's a story.
Parents should never spank their children, say experts.
And uh there's uh a big story from the Nobel Committee, they're very upset that the uh Nobel Peace Prize went to Obama, it's been totally distorted.
This is blowback because I got screwed.
This is blowback because I didn't win the Nobel Peace right.
A lot of people upset about it.
So, Facebook, by the way, going public in the process.
You know what I love about this?
Here's what I love.
Facebook is going public.
In doing so, Facebook is going to create hundreds, thousands of new millionaires.
Thousands of new millionaires, and a handful of new billionaires.
And what I like about it here, while we we here at the EIB network celebrate their achievement.
I can't ignore the gift that this is to the Occupy movement.
I mean, that the media that so identify with the Occupy movement.
Here's a whole new crop of one percenters.
A whole new crop of people in the one percent Bracket, the Facebook crowd and the Occupy people are using Facebook in order to mobilize their protests.
And so the people they think are on their side, Facebook actually now becomes one of their enemies.
They are making this the Occupy bunch one of the elements pushing the Facebook crowd into the 1%.
It's like the chickens arranging for Colonel Sanders to be assassinated.
I just love it.
We'll be back after...
Ba-ba-do-ba-do.
Welcome back.
Rush Limboy having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
Telephone number here, 800 282-2882.
There's a companion story to the Facebook story.
It's from NBC, Bayarea.com, so be the NBC website out there, and the headline says that all teenagers leaving Facebook for Twitter.
On the day Facebook starts flouting, going with IPO, teenagers, after being friended by parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles on Facebook, have moved to Twitter to get a little more privacy.
Ha ha ha ha.
So all these people who wanted everybody to know everything about I knew this was going to happen.
I knew there was going to be blowback as somebody who is too famous to practically go anywhere.
I'm practically too famous to appear on most TV shows.
I can I know a little bit what I'm talking.
These people wanted fame.
Everybody wants fame.
Everybody wants what they think fame is.
They see fame as the way the media fawns over actors and actresses on these brainless shows at 6 30 and 7 30 at night.
They see how people in the entertainment media in the sports media are never criticized, never ripped, they're always elevated, put on pedestals, treated like royalty, and that's what they think fame is.
And they all want a little of it.
So they put everything there is about themselves on these social websites.
They put pictures, stories, all this stuff, and now too many people, particularly their parents and their grandparents and their aunts and uncles have found out stuff that the kids don't want them knowing, so they're now going to Twitter where it's a little bit more private.
I find it interesting.
And I got an email during the break.
And this is not a criticism of the email, but it is a perfect illustration of what's happening here in the Republican primary.
Mitt Romney renewed his support yesterday for automatic increases in the federal minimum wage to keep pace with inflation.
A position sharply at odds with traditional Republican business allies, conservatives, and party senior lawmakers.
By the way, folks, have you seen the teenage unemployment rate in this country?
Well, can you say 25%?
I mean, it's at 16, 80, it's way, way up there.
The teenage unemployment rates at record highs, whatever it is that the it is at a record high.
Why do you think that is in part?
It's the minimum wage.
Businesses are having enough trouble as it is in this economy, and then to be told to go out and hire a bunch of people who have no experience and pay them an arbitrary amount of money that has no relationship to the to the business's operation.
Cost structure is literally absurd.
And so the only option the small businessman has is not hiring anybody.
You can price, it's sort of like raising tax rates.
And these Doomkoffs in Washington think, well, you're going to raise the tax rate, and these taxpayers just sit out there like a bunch of idiots and they'll pay it.
And hence every time tax rates are increased, guess what?
Revenue goes down.
If you want more of an activity, you cut taxes on it.
If you want less of an activity, you raise taxes.
If you want more homes sold, then You allow the interest on a mortgage to be deducted.
If you don't want a lot of homes to be sold, take that deduction away.
If you want to spur teenage hiring, lower the minimum wage or get rid of it.
If you want to retard teenage hiring, if you want to slow down, if you want to limit the amount of teenagers to get jobs, raise the cost of hiring them.
And that's what an increase in the minimum wage is.
The minimum wage, the stock conservative answer to it is get rid of it.
It certainly isn't to raise it.
It certainly isn't to tie it to the cost of living index.
But here we have from the AP, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney renewed his support Wednesday for automatic increases in the federal minimum wage to keep pace with inflation.
Said the former Massachusetts governor, I haven't changed my thoughts on that.
Told reporters aboard his chartered campaign plane, referring to a stand he's held for 10 years.
I haven't changed my thoughts on that.
Yeah, I want to raise the minimum wage.
He did not say if he would ask Congress to approve it.
Now, to my email, dear Rush, you know Romney doesn't really believe this.
Romney has to know the harm the minimum wage increase causes.
This is probably a backtrack to show he cares about the poor.
This is so here we have this is not criticism, it's an illustration.
He's doubled down on it on an increase in the minimum wage, and a Romney supporters.
No, no, he really doesn't mean that.
What do you do?
He really doesn't mean it.
He just it's not helpful.
Now look, I'm not, I'm not being critical of this emailer.
This emailer is a teachable moment.
Mid Romney says he's doubles down.
I'm saying exactly what I believe in an automatic increase in the minimum wage tied to inflation.
Romney supporter says he doesn't really mean that.
He has to know the harm the minimum wage begets.
Well, for 10 years he's held the policy and he's telling us today he's doubling down on it.
If he knows the harm it causes, why does he support it?
Email contains the answer.
He's probably just backtracking to show he cares about the poor.
This is a way to try to make up for his blunder on the poor come.
Well, doubling down on this only makes it worse.
Because let me tell you what's going on.
There is a Republican primary going on right now.
And who votes in the Republican primary?
Starts with a C, conservatives.
There are elements of conservatism that are fundamental.
And we conservatives, we have radar.
We know when somebody isn't.
If a Republican doesn't know the studied truth, the published data on the minimum wage, then red flags go up.
So, well, it's not that hard.
By the way, you don't have to have read a bunch of conservative work.
You don't have to have immersed yourself in a bunch of uh conservative magazines and understand here.
This is a it's it's no different than a tax increase.
The minimum wage is a tax increase in small business.
Disguised in fairness to the poor.
You know what small businesses do, especially in a time like this.
Okay, I'll go hire interns.
Pay them nothing.
Just go hire interns.
There's always a way around this stuff.
There's always a way around onerous regulation.
Sometimes it's not worth the trouble, other times it is.
The national teenage unemployment rate in November, 21.4%.
The teenage unemployment rate in Washington is over 50%.
Now, who does the unemployment rate hit besides teenagers?
It hits the unskilled worker.
The unskilled worker who needs the first rung of that ladder.
And if the it's just like the two great examples here, the the comment on the poor.
Everybody knows, I know what Mitt Romney was trying to do.
I know what he was trying to say.
In the process of doing what he did, saying what he said, he made it clear that he is a stranger to fundamental conservatism.
And for the people who oppose Romney, that's the biggest red flag.
Republican primary is made up of largely conservative voters.
A lot of people think that Romney is conservative enough.
Others say he's not conservative at all.
And these two statements, I don't care about the poor, fix the safety net.
LBJ, FDR, that was the purpose in all this, to create an ever-growing and perpetually renewing pool of Democrat voters.
Who never learn to depend on themselves, who never learn the skills to support themselves.
That's fine with the Democrat Party.
That's fine with guys like Barack Obama.
Two things happen.
Those people become dependent, and then you get to run around and talk about how heartless and cruel the Republicans are foring ever more money in the policy to give them ever more benefits.
So it's a double whammy for them.
And the only way out of this is for somebody who understands conservatism in elective office to explain it.
We can do it all day here on Talk Radio.
The blogs, the conservative magazines, the conservative education establishment, they can write, they can publish all the stuff they want.
But at some point you have to have a candidate.
Who is this who instinctively understands this?
Who can say this on the stump?
A Reagan, if you will.
Not asking for a carbon copy of Ronaldo's Magnus.
Everybody knows that's not possible.
The real safety net's a job.
The real safety net is a job, and the minimum wage is one of the many obstacles in the way of people trying to find work in this economy.
But it boils down to conservatism.
So I guarantee you there are a lot of people who oppose Romney in conservative circles who are pointing to these two examples, saying, see, this is what we've been trying to tell you.
And what are they up against?
Well, you know, he has to know the minimum wage causes problems.
Well, if he has to know, why is he supporting it?
Well, he has to, Rush, the media is liberal, he's got to act like he cares about the poor.
Well, that's we are tired.
That's McCain.
We're tired of having to tailor what we do and say to get the approval of the New York Times or the Washington Post or everybody else in the media, the Democrat Party.
Wants somebody who can teach, who can inform, who can explain, who can persuade the way we can.
Pure and simple.
And I it is businesses, you you think that they're sitting around getting screwed, and they are in their own ways, all these regulations, but if the minimum wage gets to the point, and it arbitrarily is, because it's never related to market forces, so whatever the minimum wage cost is is a what do businesses do?
They'll just hire young people as interns.
Not pay them anything or pay them very little.
Don't pay them at all.
And so internships Become the only entry-level position open up to young people.
That's not good.
They get college credits from Obama's friends in big education for doing the internship, but that's it.
Your first job, you know nothing.
You don't know anything.
They're training you.
They're teaching you.
You learned, I learned shining shoes.
And there wasn't a minimum wage, but I made $50 in three months.
There was no minimum wage.
It was whatever I earned, which was fine with me.
And then there's this added distortion that everybody who earns a minimum wage has a family of four to support.
This is another part of the charade the Democrats play and try to convince you that every minimum wage earner is a 40-year-old bedraggled person who the Republicans don't care about, who the Republicans are trying to keep poor and homeless, trying desperately in this horrid country to support a family of four.
And the vast majority of people in the minimum wage are teenagers.
Young people.
The minimum wage gets too high and then they start cracking down on interns, then what's the next place a business will do?
Illegal aliens.
Do you see how this works?
The minimum wage can be said to be responsible for a whole bunch of problems in this country.
Thank you.
While a bunch of Doomkoffs run around thinking with their hearts, oh boy, is that can pass.
That's really we need a high minimum wage, Mithra Limbaugh thought that the fourth line of people could at least go out and buy some swith chief.
That's the kind with halt that it's got to be cheaper than the real thief, right, Mr. Limbaugh?
No.
No.
So it all gets couched as people who oppose it, mean-spirited, cold-hearted, want people to be poor when it's just the opposite.
We want the best for everybody.
We want everybody to be able to taste the opportunity this country provides.
And you take the bottom rung of the ladder away from them, and you create a bunch of dependent people who then beget a whole bunch of other dependent people who number one most important thing about them is they vote Democrat, which ensures they're going to be kept dependent.
That's why it matters that a Republican conservative be able to counter that and all the other distortions that are out there about conservatism.
That's why this matters.
It's why it matters that, well, I don't really care about the poor people.
They've got a safety net.
If that needs repairs, I'll fix it.
Everybody knows he was trying to zero in and say the middle class is who's getting hurt.
And I appreciate that, but that's been lost in this, hasn't it?
Why has it been lost?
Not because the media is unfair.
Everybody knows that going, it's not because the media is doing something dirty to Ronnie, it's because he gave them the chance.
If you don't instinctively know that saying I don't care about the poor, whatever follows is never going to be heard.
If you don't instinctively understand that, then people are going to question just how conservative really are you.
And that's what's happening here.
Just trying to explain it to you, folks.
So Mr. Limbo, does this mean that you endorsing Newton?
No, no, no, don't go there.
Snerdley don't put up a bunch of calls today.
They're going to try to apply pressure because it isn't going to happen.
God bless him, snurdly believes the only way we're going to get the right nominee is if I endorse whoever the right nominee is.
That's what he says.
He's trying to maneuver things here.
He's trying to manipulate this program via callers.
Get me to do that.
And it isn't gonna happen.
I got a break, we'll take it, get some phone calls when we come in, and we'll start with the audio soundbite roster, where the drive-by is obsessed.
It was it was me and Krauthammer who reacted to um what Romney said that the drive bys are obsessing over.
And it yet.
They can't believe the opportunity that was put right in their laps.
They just can't.
Be right back after this.
Be right back after this.
The uh Reagan administration, by the way, is the only administration in recent history to not raise the minimum wage.
And look how that hurt the economy.
Yeah.
Thomas Sowell once called the minimum wage the Black Youth Unemployment Act.
I get emails from Greg Mueller a lot.
Greg Mueller is a public relations guy who always sends me notes about what his clients think and what he wants me to say about them.
And he sent me this.
He said, hey, Rush, here's my view in today's National Journal.
Some Republicans said that Romney spoke a simple truth, one the middle class understands.
Romney was saying that the very rich can take care of themselves.
The very poor receive numerous benefits, that it's the working middle class that's often overtaxed and neglected in tough economic times, said Mueller.
This is true.
And Romney's point was the best way to raise all boats is through limited government and a free economy, not socialism.
We'll win that argument.
Did Romney say raise all boats and limited government and all that?
But I don't care.
No, that's here again is let's read between let's look at what Romney didn't say for what he means.
And there are people, I should tell you this.
Just to be fair, there are people who are sending me notes saying, Rush, you're missing the boy, the boat.
Romney is genuine.
This is authentic.
He's not worried about saying it the right way.
He's not worried about this is authentic.
Here's a guy who's not trying to shape and form his comments for consumption.
He's just open book.
He's just telling us who he really is and what he really thinks.
And that's authentic, Rush.
And everybody says we need more authenticity in our candidates.
This is my point.
It's all over the board, and I don't think an endorsement is going to change anybody.
That's my point.
By the way, is Trump's endorsed-I thought it was 1230.
Is that 1230 Pacific time that he's doing this thing?
I was led to believe it is 1230 Eastern in the middle of this show, but obviously nothing's happened, so I wonder if that's Pacific time.
Let me grab a call.
Ron in Burnham, Maine.
Welcome to the EIB Network, sir.
Great to have you here.
Thank you, Raj.
I guess I might call in is all about the longtime call as it keep calling you up and chewing you out because they want you to do the do it do your thing their way.
And I say, listen to you.
Like you say, politics is politics.
I'll have to vote whoever gets nominated Republican nomination, whether I agree with him 100% or not.
That's what it boils down to, doesn't it?
Because you're not going to support Obama.
No.
He's ruining us, but people need to keep being told that.
No matter what.
Well, look, you know what I appreciate your sensitivity.
You're hearing all these quote unquote longtime callers.
You probably think they're not longtime callers.
Probably think that they're just newbies who are trying to say they've been a longtime caller, give themselves credibility, and then say, you know, I normally agree with you, but on this rush, you're departing from where I thought you should be.
it's the nature of the game and like you say it is politics I appreciate the call this is Joe in Houston Joe you're next on the EIB network Hello, sir.
Hi, uh, Rush.
It's a pleasure to talk to you.
Uh, by the way, this is the first time I've called.
Anyways, I'm a conservative here in Houston, and uh I think that it might not be a bad thing if uh Obama did get re-elected, and I'm gonna give you my uh my reason for that.
You don't have to.
You don't you I'm gonna tell you right now, no.
Why does this keep coming up?
In 1992.
No, 1988.
Rush, let the Democrats win.
And let people find out how rotten they are and wipe them out forever.
1992.
Rush, let Clinton win.
You know, let's expose these rhino Republicans like George Bush, and let's make sure people understand what a bunch of worthless creeps a Democrat.
Let them ruin the country, Rush, and then they'll never get elected again.
And then in uh 2000, Rush, come on.
Let them elect El Gore.
We got a rhino.
George's.
Let me tell you something.
In 2008, the most destructive leftist socialist Marxist American ever elected was elected.
And as we sit here today, he's got a chance of being reelected.
So the theory doesn't work.
Now, I really, you're new to politics, and I appreciate your calling.
This comes up at least once a month here.
I'm doing my best to maintain my composure.
But it it will not, well, you're ruining the country in the process of this.
Every time a Democrat wins the presidency, we lose a little of this country, and we have lost a large part of it.
It doesn't matter how bad people think it got.
Getting it put back together is gonna be a night that no, it just no.
It doesn't no.
Okay, the Trump announcements uh always been 12 30 Pacific time.
I read the Las Vegas newspaper story.
12 30.
So Trump did not schedule this in the middle of the uh Rush Limbaugh program.
It's at 3 30 p.m. Eastern time, 12 30 in uh in Las Vegas.