Great to have you back as the week just continues to roll on.
It's the fastest week in media and it's the fastest three hours in media.
And of course, it goes by so fast because the show is so good.
You know it and I know it.
Great to have you here as always.
Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882, the email address lrushbow at EIBnet.com.
We are in Los Angeles all this week.
Really unfortunate, too.
And this urge to go out to the beach, throw a football around, throw a frisbee.
People know that I have this urge now and then.
I see a beach, I want to go out there.
Throw a frisbee, maybe football around, but you can't.
Los Angeles County has just passed a law which fines people $1,000 for throwing a frisbee or a football on any of the county beaches.
I mean, this is the encroachment of soft tyranny.
Can you believe you can't throw a football or a frisbee on a beach?
What are they going to do next?
You know, ban volleyball on the beach?
Well, I mean, that's that.
It's a ball in the air and it's being hit.
Other California news out there trying to keep you posted on things that we discover while we are on location.
You see that the poster couple for gay marriage in California getting a divorce.
You see that?
It's true, ladies and gentlemen.
It's two women, two women, they were among the first 14 same-sex couples who got married on the day the ban was lifted in California back in June of 2008.
So they, I guess the national average, three and a half years is what their marriage lasted, which maybe it's the California average.
I'm not sure.
But I wonder if they designated one of them the husband so that he gets all the blame and has to pay holy alimony.
How does that work?
I wonder if we'll find out as the news covers this groundbreaking event, the first divorce, the first gay marriage couple.
Yep, it's $1,000.
I'm not kidding.
Snurdley doesn't believe me.
$1,000 for anyone who throws a football or a frisbee on any beach in Los Angeles County.
I don't know what the rationale is.
The updated rules now prohibit any person to cast, toss, throw, kick, or roll any object other than a beach ball or volleyball upon or over any beach between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Look, it's classic liberals.
They're trying to make everybody safe.
There are too many people probably getting hurt.
Who knows what it is?
Have you heard the great—oh, by the way, folks, this is the first day of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, their weekend convention.
And this is the, what is the second anniversary, I think, of my CPAC speech, which is one for the ages.
And since this is the, that speech actually occurred on a Saturday.
It was my first national address, first address to the nation on television.
We're going to go back and relive some highlights of that at some point during the program.
I'm not sure when, because we do everything on the fly here.
But at some point, we'll go back and relive some of the highlights and some of the post-speech commentary that took place all across the cable networks.
Marco Rubio spoke today and brought the House to Marco Rubio went just right at Obama.
Practically, not all, but practically all of Marco Rubio's address was aimed right at Barack Obama.
This is a roadmap for whoever ends up being our nominee.
Terrific speech by Marco Rubio.
So we have that coming up.
Have you heard the great news that there is so much?
The global warming hoax finally officially blown up now.
One of the early signatories to the UN IPCC deal has backed out of it totally, says it's absurd.
He feels like he's been duped.
He has written a book about how he's been duped.
And the German magazine Der Spiegel, or is it Der Spiegel?
Now they pronounce Der Spiegel.
They did an interview with the guy, and they were, you could just tell, even in reading the transcript of the interview, they did snarky.
The guy from Der Spiegel could not believe what he was hearing.
Even from one of the previously foremost trusted members of the man-made global warming community.
Okay, I was at CPAC in 2000.
Yeah, 2009.
So it's the third anniversary.
I was there six weeks after Obama was immulated.
So there's that news.
New York hotel maids are going to be given panic buttons in case French rapists show up or Democrat politicians.
Large New York hotels plan to equip their housekeepers and staff with portable alarms so they can get help quickly in case of trouble.
Any staff member who must enter guest rooms, such as maids, waiters, mini-bar attendants, will be given the panic buttons within the next year.
Said Lisa Linden, the spokeswoman for the Hotel Association of New York, she declined to link the electronic alarms to the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former IMF chief who was accused of sexually assaulting a maid at the Sauf Hatel in New York, which is where we hung out prior to the Rush to Excellence tour in New York last year.
We got a couple of rooms at the Sauf Hatel on purpose.
I wanted to see if a maid would come in and attack me.
But that didn't happen because we didn't register the rooms in my name, so none of the maids knew that I was there.
Unless they saw me go in, but they still didn't do anything.
So panic buttons for New York hotel maids to, you never know when John Ebert's going to be in town, member of the Kennedy family, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
It's Elliot Spitzer, Wiener.
You never know when these guys are in town and decide to check in.
And it's probably a good move.
Also, on the foreclosure front, big news here.
Eric Holder and the attorney generals from four attorneys general from 42 states have shaken down the country's mortgage lenders for $25 billion.
Folks, have you ever heard of this whole notion of these predatory lenders and people being tricked into taking out a mortgage?
Have you ever heard of that happening?
People wandering innocently by a bank on the street, and some guy inside the bank with a hook grabs them in, okay, pal, you're taking out a mortgage.
Ever heard that's what the regime wants us to believe happened with this?
So as part of a campaign effort here, re-election effort, $25 billion from the country's mortgage lenders to give to customers who were hit upon and forced under duress to take out a mortgage.
This, what was that?
Can you get a piece?
Perhaps I think everybody's share comes out to $2,000 is if I'm reading.
You might get paid off $2,000 here if I'm reading it right.
Now, what this is, folks, is social justice at work.
Because after all, after all, the banks were forced by the government at the point of a gun to loan to people they knew couldn't afford the mortgages.
That's what really happened.
That's the root of the subprime mortgage crisis.
It was the government forcing the banks to lend money to people that had never had a chance, would never be able to repay the loans.
Social justice, affordable housing, the so-called good intentions, and don't judge us on the failure of our results.
So now the banks have to pay the price for making those bad loans.
This is all part of continuing the ruse that the banks were the originators of this scandal and the originators of the problem.
And so now there's a $25 billion shakedown.
I'm going to tell you, Snerdley, you can apply for it, but I'm going to tell all of you mortgage people, you are not going to see a dime.
This is nothing but a slush fund.
What Obama has done is gone to the bank because they're having trouble fundraising.
They're nowhere near their billion dollars they've been bragging about.
You ought to see what they're going to do at their convention.
They're going to charge, what is it?
Well, I read a million dollars for a skybox, a million dollar donation, or something like that to witness Obama's acceptance speech.
I think there's a million-dollar charge or donation for something, but clearly the Democrat National Convention closing night for Obama's acceptance will be accessible primarily only to the 1%.
They're going to be the only people with the money to get in there, at least in a highfalutin way.
So back to this foreclosure business.
The banks were forced by the government at the point of a gun, Janet Reno threatening them with investigations if they didn't participate in the program.
So they had to lend money to people that could not afford mortgage.
And now the banks have to pay the price for making these bad loans.
See, the banks, these evil, rotten bankers who tricked people into taking out a mortgage.
I still want you to visualize that.
I want you to visualize how, in your own life, how you could be tricked into taking out a mortgage.
But the ruis must continue.
So the banks have to now pay again.
They've got to pay $25 billion.
I'm told that somebody in the regime was actually fighting for $300 billion for the banks.
And that's too much.
That's a big overreach.
We're going to have problems.
We'll settle for $25 billion.
Nobody will have a problem with that.
Now the banks are going to have to give $25 billion, ostensibly now, to the people who should have never gotten these loans in the first place.
People are underwater, who were foreclosed on textbook cases, social justice.
This is a you hear the term.
This is exactly how it manifests itself.
Now, well, no, he does have a stash.
He just, he's one once again, what you have here is the force of government threatening The banks.
The attorney general, Eric Holder, and the Attorneys General to 42 states, i.e., the government, calling on the banks, hey, guess what we need from you, gang?
We need a grand aggregate here of $25 billion.
What if we don't pay?
You don't want to know if you don't pay.
It's a shakedown.
Now, this is Obama servicing his constituents.
He is fulfilling that campaign promise he made to pay their mortgages.
And you may think, come on, Rush, he didn't promise that.
We ought to dig out soundbites from one of his early town halls in 2009, the famous one that was in, I think, Tampa, where a woman who it turned out had a couple of houses or whatever stood up and wanted a new kitchen and wanted a new, thought that's what the election of Obama meant.
That's what she thought it meant.
I'm sure a lot of people have voted for Obama, thought that's what their lives held in store for them.
Obama was going to give them a house.
Obama was going to make sure that all the transgressions and all the discrimination and all the evil that had been perpetrated against these people in all of these years that the country is going to be fixed here, Obama is going to make sure they get what they've been denied.
That's what they thought.
They even showed up at Tom Halls and asked him.
And as I said previously, mere moments ago, and I think quite accurately, you'll be shocked if any of these people ever see any of that $25 billion.
It's just going to get laundered back to the Democrat National Committee, which most union salaries end up being laundered back, at least a percentage of them, to the Democrat National Committee.
That's where all of this kind of money, most of it ends up ultimately.
But we're told that 1 million underwater homeowners could be eligible for as much.
Oh, it's 20,000 sterling.
I'm sorry, I said 2,000.
That's what the news is.
That's what, if you're underwater, if you're a victim of predatory lending, what they're going to tell you is if you're one of the 1 million underwater homeowners, you could be eligible.
Not that you're automatically qualified, but you could be eligible for as much as $20,000 in relief of the principal you owed, not the interest, in relief of the principal that you owe.
Now, even if, let's just extrapolate this, let's play this out.
Even if that miracle should happen, and it won't, where's the justice in it?
Why should people be rewarded for being behind in their house payments?
Why?
Just because they shouldn't have been lent the money in the first place.
Why should the rest of us, including responsible homeowners and renters, have to pay higher ATM fees and banking fees?
Because that's where the $25 billion is going to come from.
You think the bank's just going to give it up?
Wait till you see what happens to your checking account service fee, your ATM fee, your credit card issuance fee, whatever.
There are going to be a series of fees added to your banking experience to pay for this $25 billion.
And why?
Why should you have to pay for this?
Plus, there's a story here in the stack somewhat down that's been learned here that the government, i.e., taxpayers, is paying for cell phone service for the poor.
We're actually paying the bills.
We are paying not just landline telephones for rural people.
Now we're paying cell phone charges for the very poor and the moderately poor and the not really poor.
And it's all part of this, a great story on dependence in this country and how many people have become dependent and how so and on what.
As I say, we're loaded with stuff.
This is going to be a barn burner today as we go through it all.
Now, out of curiosity, I just, I want to let this go.
I want to ask this again.
Have any of you ever met anyone who was tricked into a mortgage?
A lot of you have people who live in homes that they're paying a mortgage on.
How many of them?
I'm sure you've talked to them.
How many of them have told you they were tricked?
Not with the terms of the mortgage, not the interest rate, but tricked into getting one.
How many of these people are?
This is what they want us to believe.
The regime wants us to believe there's some innocent, clean and pure as the wind-driven snow people out there minding their own business.
Some evil bankers came along and tricked them into taking out a mortgage.
That's the basic claim that these evil bankers who are all big supporters of Obama, the Democrat Party, JP Morgan Chase, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, Bank of America, they trick poor people into applying for mortgages.
They tricked people into lying about their incomes and assets.
And they used robo-signing.
You ever heard of robo-signing?
You have?
You know what robo-signing is?
I didn't know what it was.
I had to dig deep and find out.
You know where the term comes from?
What it really means?
Robo-signing is a term that was coined by a foreclosure lawyer in Florida way back in October of 2011.
It was just made up out of whole cloth.
And it refers to imaginary evil bankers who they claim didn't read all the documents they signed when they gave mortgages to these poor people that they tricked.
Normally, we hear about the lender not reading the documents.
In this case, the banks didn't read their own documents.
As though we're supposed to, the banks prepare the documents, their legal teams, but nobody at the bank read the document.
They just robo-signed these things.
In other words, the evil mortgage lenders might not have verified all the information that was put down on some mortgage applications.
Isn't that criminal?
So these robo-signers ought to go to jail for not having been more thorough in preventing poor people from getting loans, even though at the exact same time the federal government was twisting their arms to give out even more loans to poor people.
I got to take a break here.
We were well underway on today's excursion into broadcast excellence.
Sit back and we'll continue before you know it.
By the way, on this foreclosure story, just one more thing on this.
If you'll notice, all of the drive-bys reporting on today's foreclosure settlement always list Ally Financial, A-L-L-Y, maybe pronounced Ally, but if it was a name, it'd be Ally, but Ally Financial as one of the top five banks involved.
Ally Financial going to be forced to pony up the $25 billion.
They never bother to tell you that Ally Financial is really General Motors.
Ally Financial is GMAC.
That's General Motors' lending arm.
They changed their name from GMAC in 2010 to Ally Financial.
And lest we forget, folks, GMAC was bailed out to the tune of $12.5 billion in the original bailout in 2008, late in that year.
Now, as of January 2012, Ally Financial or General Motors Acceptance Corporation still owed the U.S. taxpayer $12 billion.
So today's deal means that we, the American taxpayers, will now also have to pay for their share of the $25 billion shakedown.
Just to close the loop on all of this.
Now, there's a story been digested, written in a number of places.
First from the Heritage Foundation, dependence on government at an all-time high.
It's from Patrick Terrell at the Heritage Foundation.
And there's a, actually, this is a companion piece to a CNN story from earlier in the week about how one-third of Americans are on means-tested government programs.
The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government released today should be a wake-up call for America, published by the Heritage Foundation for the past 10 years.
The index tracks the growth in government dependence dating back to the early 60s.
This year's edition shows an alarming trend with some incredible facts about dependence on government at an all-time high.
Back with details in a moment.
That's right, my friends.
According to the Heritage Foundation, dependency is up 7.5% the past two years under Obama.
And you have to ask, how can that be?
We've got millions of jobs being created out there.
The administration is going to project for 2012 2 million jobs, net addition, 2.2 million jobs in the last 12 months, 3.7 million added in 23 months, net job growth.
That's what they're putting out there.
The regime is telling us they've created 3.7 million jobs since they took office with their stimulus bill.
And yet, government dependence is up higher than ever, according to the Heritage Foundation.
One in five Americans, which is the highest in the nation's history, 20% relies on the federal government for everything.
20% rely on the federal government for everything.
Housing, health care, food stamps, college tuition, and retirement assistance.
To put that 20% to a number, that's more than 67.3 million Americans who receive subsidies from Washington.
And how do you think they vote?
And for whom do you think they vote?
20% totally supported by the federal government.
Government dependency jumped 8.1% in the past year with the most assistance going toward housing, health, and welfare, and retirement.
Retirement.
The federal government spent more taxpayer dollars than ever before in 2011 to subsidize Americans.
The average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748.
That's more than the nation's average disposable personal income, which is $32,400.
The average disposable personal income, $32.4,000.
And the average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,700.
No wonder so many people are leaving the workforce.
Why work when you can get this?
At the same time, nearly half of the American population, 49.5% now, does not pay any federal income tax.
And none of this is accidental.
None of this is coincidence.
This has all been part of a grand design, actually started back in the days of Woodrow Wilson, but really given a kickstart by FDR.
As of now, according to the Heritage Foundation, which tracks this documents, it keeps the data.
It is inarguable.
70% of the federal government's budget goes to individual assistance programs.
And you hear from the regime about all the money we're wasting on wars.
And you hear it from Ron Paul.
They got too many wars.
We've got to stop all the wars.
And yet 70% of the federal government's budget goes to individual assistance programs, up dramatically in just the past few years.
Not only is that astonishing, it is unsustainable.
Now, here's the CNN report that I referenced earlier.
It's from earlier this week.
And it's posted at CNN under a section called The New American Dream.
That's what it's a story on means-based assistance from the government.
And the number is 33%.
One-third of Americans get means-based assistance.
And that is reported by CNN under the title, The New American Dream.
Did you ever think you would see the day when more than a third of Americans were dependent on the so-called social safety net?
20% live entirely on government subsidy.
20%.
One out of five, two out of 10, however you can best visualize this, live entirely off the government.
The federal government sent out a record, get this?
$2 trillion to individuals in 2010.
That's up 75% from 2000.
Not only is that shocking, it's unsustainable, to use the favorite word of the left.
Federal government sent out a record $2 trillion to individuals in 2010.
More than a third of Americans dependent on the so-called social safety net.
And that $2 trillion is up 75% what it was when Bush took office in 2001.
And this article is unusual, a CNN story.
It's unusual because it distinguishes between those on means-based government assistance and those on Social Security and Medicare, which after all are supposed to be programs that we paid into.
So this is entirely above and beyond Social Security and Medicare.
Usually the media does its best to blur the line between the two kinds of government payouts.
But this CNN story is remarkable because they separate them.
And the number is still going up, even though the Great Recession officially ended back in June of 2009.
That's what they're telling us.
More than two and a half years ago, folks, the recession ended.
The elections are still nine months away.
The regime wants to get as many people as possible dependent on government before then.
And they are doing a bang-up job.
Grab audio soundbite 25.
I'm going to take you back.
It was in Fort Myers.
It wasn't in Tampa.
It was February 10th.
Not even a month after Obama had been immulated.
He goes out and does a town hall in Fort Myers, Florida.
Member of the audience, Henrietta Hughes, stood up and said this to the BAMSTer.
I respect you and I'm so grateful for you.
Thank you.
I've been praying for you.
I believe in prayer, so I appreciate that.
I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and I to live in.
We need urgent, and housing authorities have two years waiting lists, and we need something more than the vehicle and the parks to go to.
We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom.
Please help.
Well, listen, what's your name?
What's your name?
It's Henrietta Hughes.
Okay, Ms. Hughes.
Well, we're going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you.
And we're going to do everything we can.
All right.
But I'll have my staff talk to you after the town hall.
I have an urgent need.
I'm unemployed and I don't have a home.
It turns out she did have a home at the time she mentioned this.
And later on, a couple of Republicans gave her the use of a vacation home that they had.
This woman was not homeless.
She just said she was.
But she needed a new home.
She needed a new vehicle.
She wanted her own new kitchen and her own bathroom.
The president of the United States shows up for a town hall meeting and a citizen shows up.
And that's what she thinks the purpose of it is.
And even if she didn't think it's the purpose, she thought she could run the scam.
Anyway, that's the kind of person and they run throughout our culture and society.
And the number of people who become dependent, it's not accidental.
This is why, folks, this is why I maintain and have forever that the entire welfare system in this country, the social safety net, whatever you want to call it, is destroying people.
It's robbing them of their dignity.
It's robbing them of their humanity.
It's robbing them of their potential.
There's nothing compassionate about this.
There is nothing compassionate about 20% of this country's population being entirely subsidized by the federal government because the lives that they're living, yeah, it's $32,000 and it's tax-free and that's not bad, but that's as good as they're ever going to do.
They're not being trained, educated, motivated, or inspired to do any better than that.
And what's worse, they end up in their dependent state voting.
The only thing they care about is who the hell is going to keep this gravy train going.
They don't care about anything else.
Foreign policy, domestic policy, the circumstances happening to the country because of their dependence.
They don't care about any of that.
When you've got one source, basically to stay alive, that's all you're going to care about.
And if that source isn't you, your life's destroyed.
You're over.
You are in prison.
You are forever shackled, in this case, to a state that doesn't care about you individually, couldn't care less about you except one day every four years.
And that's it.
They go out of their way to make you think that they have you in their minds each and every day, but this is just the idea that this is compassion and that liberals love people and care for people better than anybody else.
And we conservatives who look at this and find it abhorrent, we are the mean-spirited extremists, the cold-hearted bigots.
This is absurd.
An entire segment of our population is being rendered irrelevant.
Their lives are being destroyed.
Their humanity is being taken away.
Their dignity done away with.
All for the sake.
Continuation and expansion of power of the Democrat Party in the state.
And it just makes me sick and it infuriates me at the same time.
And we're back.
800-282-2882.
If you want to be on the program, email address, LRushbow at EIBnet.com.
Time Magazine.
Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts.
The program is overseen by the FCC.
It is intended to help low-income Americans.
It is popular for obvious reasons, Time magazine says.
Participation rising steeply since 2008.
When the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills.
I'll give you the numbers again here.
2008, federal government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills since 2008.
Since Obama, $772 million has become $1.6 billion.
$772 million has become $1.6 more than doubled.
Observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight in which phones go to people who don't qualify.
Hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.
Last summer, Pittsburgh Tribune review story sheds some light on a government program that relatively few Americans knew even existed.
The Lifeline program provides low-income Americans with free cell phones.
They're not smartphones at least, but that's probably coming.
It covers up to 250 free minutes every month.
As many as 5.5 million residents in Pennsylvania alone could qualify for the program, which is funded primarily by the Universal Service Fund fee added to the bills of landline and wireless customers.
So all of us are paying $1.6 billion in our phone bills to cover free phones and accounts for 12.5 million people.
Well, I guess you can probably apply to get you a government phone with your government mortgage payoff.
Yeah.
I think you should go for it.
If you're underwater, you don't even have to be underwater.
You can apply.
Some of these people have more than two phones, more than two accounts.
That's the thing.
Obama stash.
What else is in there?
What else is going to be made available to people before November of this year?
What other goodies are people going to be able to have just for asking or just for being an American or just for being one of the 99% or just for being screwed by the rest of the country?
Just for being screwed by this unfair Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
This is how we're going to make it up to you for all of the rotten treatment you've had since this country was founded.
$1.6 billion, free cell phones and the monthly bills, 1.5 million wireless accounts.
That's up from $772 million.
20% of Republicans are leaning to voting for Obama, it says here.
This is a story.
Looks like it's from World Net Daily, and the pollster is a guy named Fritz Wenzel, Wenzel Strategies.
Now, by the way, this guy is the official pollster for Ron Paul.
I don't know if that means anything.
I'm just giving you information.
For critics of Barack Obama, 2012 has been portrayed as a do-or-die year for the country.
But the 2012 election, it says here, looking more like a replay of 2008, in every case, listen to this now, to show you how it does matter that this pollster works for Ron Paul.
In every case, except the matchup against Ron Paul, more than 20% of Republican voters said they're more likely to support Obama.
You believe this?
They're putting this out.
They expect to have credibility attached to this.
Now, we're being told in this story, 20% of Republicans lean to Obama if the nominee is somebody other than Ron Paul.
That's the only time when 20% of Republicans will not vote for Obama is if the nominee is Ron Paul.
Now, I'm just going to say anybody leaning toward voting Obama is not a Republican, period.
Be real helpful to see these polling questions and how often Ron Paul's name is mentioned in the midst of them.
Rick Warren.
I wonder how Rick Warren.
Well, we know how Rick Warren's feeling.
Rick Warren did what?
Was it the invocation at Obama's immaculation?
Rick Warren, what's, I forget the name of his church.
What is the name of the church of what's happening now?
What is the name of his church?
Our Lady of the Miraculous Interstate?
I don't remember the name.
I'm not, no, I just don't remember the name of Rick.
What?
Saddleback, right?
Saddleback.
Like broke back.
Yeah, okay.
Saddleback Church.
Yeah, I was confusing it with Our Lady of the Miraculous Interstate.
Anyway, Rick Warren gave the benediction at Obama's immaculation.
Rick Warren says, I'm not a Catholic, but I stand in 100% solidarity with brothers and sisters to practice their belief against government pressure.
I would go to jail rather than cave into a government mandate that violates what God commands us to do.
This blowback against a regime for this mandate in Obamacare that religious institutions, primary Catholic Church at its schools, provide contraception, morning after pills, the blowback, I don't know.
I think maybe the regime didn't figure it'd be this way.
And maybe the regime is saying, you know what?
We've already written off white working class voters.
Don't forget that.
New York Times a couple months ago.
White working class voters not even going to campaign for them.
Give them up.
Maybe now Obama's saying, you know what?
I don't even care about the votes of Catholics.
But Rick Warren says he's going to go to jail.
I wonder how he felt when he heard this.
He did the benediction, but Obama with a great unifier.
How late some people come to the truth.
The free cell phone program is called Safe Link.
I have, I'm going to show you the ditto cam.
We come back after the break here at the top of the hour.
The way they are advertising this to Americans to sign up for a free cell phone and free 250 minutes a month.