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April 6, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:45
April 6, 2012, Friday, Hour #2
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It's Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
That's right, folks, trying to save as much time as possible.
Open Line Friday.
You choose the topics when we go to the phones.
And we will go to the phones in this half-hour.
I make that pledge to you.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
The email address, lrushbow at EIBNet.com.
Do not get diverted.
Do not be placed on defensive.
Paul Ryan had nothing to explain.
Obama goes out, attacks Ryan's budget, the Republicans, dirty water, dirty air, contaminated food, no jobs, no defense, no nothing.
And Ryan says, gee, I don't know how to deal with it.
What do I don't?
There's no, you don't have anything to defend, Congressman Ryan.
The thing, turn it back and make him explain what he's actually done.
You've got a budget that's filled with projections.
It's an idea.
It's a starting point.
Not one thing of what you want has happened, but three and a half years of what this guy's done is causing havoc.
Make the Obama administration defend what they've done.
Make them answer for what they've done.
Now, these numbers on women.
And when you hear these numbers, ask yourself, who is it waging a war on women?
It isn't the Republicans.
Women are not threatened with birth control pills, and they don't care about who gets into Augusta National.
And it's none of Obama's business who gets in there anyway.
And it's none of Martha Burke's business who gets in.
It's none of the NAG's business.
None of the feminists' business.
It's nobody's business who gets in there except the guys that run the place.
Pure and simple.
Augusta National and not harming anybody.
In fact, you could say that the net impact of Augusta National on this country and everything it touches is a net positive.
Believe me, whatever problems this country faces, you're not going to find them at Augusta National.
But you'll find them in the White House.
You'll find the problems etched out, spelled out, happening each and every day in the Oval Office in the West Wing.
Now, these numbers on women with the new unemployment numbers are both Census and Bureau of Labor statistics.
And they are by Joe Pounder, who is a researcher for the RNC.
Since Obama took office, the unemployment rate for women has increased from 7% to 8.1%.
By the way, these numbers ought to actually be higher, just like today, the 8.2% unemployment number.
If the same number of jobs existed today as in 2009 when Obama took office, the unemployment rate today would be 10.9% if the labor force participation rate were the same.
The only way that unemployment rate's down to 8.2% is that the administration has simply waved a magic wand and eliminated over 2 million jobs from the universe of jobs to be found in this country.
And it's, I know it may sound, well, how can they do that?
They did it.
They run the department.
They are in charge of the numbers.
If they say that there are 2 plus million fewer jobs today than there were in 2009, then that's operative.
But because they say it, the unemployment rate, instead of being 10.9%, is 8.3.
So the unemployment rate for women has increased from 7 to 8.1%, probably more like 8 to 9.5%.
But we'll use these numbers.
I just want to make that point.
Since Obama took office, the number of female workers has declined.
Labor force participation rate, the number of women working who have jobs has declined by 683,000.
Since Obama took office, the number of women unemployed has increased 858,000.
The poverty rate among women since Obama took office is up to 14.5% was last year.
That's up from 13.9% in 2009.
This is the highest poverty rate among women in 17 years.
The debt, the slowness of our recovery, highest and worst ever in our history.
And the regime needs to be forced to answer to this with the Republican Party and its presidential candidates staying on offense and not joining these silly pandering moments of getting on the train and saying, yeah, I think Augusta ought to be made to admit women.
It doesn't mean anything.
So, you know, the perennial question, Mr. Snerdley, what do women want?
This is the question that men, since Adam, cavemen, you know, it's right.
Only women know.
What do women want?
But I can get pretty close when talking about this stuff.
I don't think women are losing sleep over who gets into Augusta National.
I don't think women are losing sleep over where their next birth control pill is going to come from.
And I actually don't think women who want abortions are losing sleep whether or not they're going to be able to get one.
I don't think they feel threatened that way.
And I don't think most women are comforted by the fact that Obama is having a woman's forum today in the White House.
I don't think most women give a hoot because I don't think most women think it's going to matter to them.
What I think most women care about is their children and their future, as well as their present.
What kind of a mess is their school?
What is the country going to be like when their kids grow up and get out of school?
What are their kids going to know when they get out of school?
Are they going to be properly educated?
This is what I think women care about.
I think some women are worried that they're going to lose the ability to worship as they want.
Women, mothers, are very much involved with the education system.
As such, they are well aware of the problems.
And they are terribly worried that their kids aren't learning anything that matters and it's important.
I think a lot of women are highly offended that another woman is trying to tell them what their kids can eat.
I think a lot of women are offended by the fact that their kids go to schools where there are federal agents taking lunches away from them made by these women, their mothers at home, and substituted with what Michelle Obama thinks they should eat.
I think they're scared to death of the jobs picture, the debt, the tax rates that they are going to be paying and their children and grandchildren before they even get their first jobs.
They are worried about whether or not their kids are even going to be able to afford to go to college.
And then they're worried about what they're going to learn once they get there.
They're worried about being able to stay in their homes right now.
And they are terribly worried that their kids may not have a chance to own a home if things don't change.
I think a lot of women are fed up with being molested at the airport by TSA people.
I think they're fed up, not having the freedom to be able to pick their own doctor soon down the road.
I think there are a lot of everyday real-life things that a lot of women and men view as falling apart in this culture.
And if anything has been bothered, it's that.
Women who have sons and daughters in the U.S. military are also worried just how much their commander-in-chief is committed to the mission that their sons and daughters are assigned to.
They are worried whether or not it's all worth it.
They're worried if they're going to come home.
They are not worried about Augusta National or birth control pills, and they're not sitting out there thinking that Republicans want to deny them all this stuff.
And it's silly to even consider the possibility that a lot of women are thinking.
You might have some leftist women, young college student women, of course, but we're talking about a majority of people here.
The Heritage Foundation, in its Morning Bell blog this past week, had an interesting post called Beware the Tax Mageddon.
In a mere 271 days, you and your fellow Americans will be hit with a tax increase the likes of which this country has never seen.
The Washington Post aptly called the unprecedented $494 billion tax increase tax mageddon.
The Washington Post called it that.
The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke described it as a massive fiscal cliff.
Whatever your preferred imagery, it's a really big deal.
Despite all the warnings, President Obama has kept his silence while Congress has made no apparent effort to prevent this impending calamity to families and the economy.
The prevailing wisdom is that something will get done in a lame duck session of Congress after the election.
But why wait?
And why after the election?
Here's why you should be worried.
For starters, remember that this is the same president who in 2009 promised if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime.
That's a vow that he has broken.
And in 2013, things are going to get even worse if this year Obama doesn't lead and Congress doesn't act.
Katie, bar the door.
There's big trouble in store.
The tax man will not draw his billions from the American taxpayer with just one big needle.
The massive tax increase will be the product of tax policies expiring in seven different categories on top of five new Obamacare tax increases taking effect.
Grand total, 12 new tax increases coming.
And here are some of the details.
Almost 34% of the tax increase from tax mageddon comes from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.
These cuts are best known for reducing marginal income tax rates, but they also reduced the marriage penalty.
The Bush tax cuts increased the child tax credit.
The Bush tax cuts increased the adoption credit.
The Bush tax cuts increased tax breaks for education costs and dependent care costs.
That's all gone when they expire.
Another 25% of tax mageddon comes from the expiration of the once temporary payroll tax cut.
Now, the expiration of the patch on the alternative minimum tax, which would raise the income threshold over which families qualify for the AMT to prevent middle-income families from paying this tax, supposed to only impact the rich, accounts for 24% of the total potential 2013 tax increase.
An alternative minimum tax that's supposed to only affect those who aren't paying any taxes will affect so many Americans that 24% of the largest tax increase in history will come from the AMT hitting more people than ever before.
The balance of the tax increases come from new taxes under Obamacare, the expiration of tax cuts in the 2009 Porculus bill, the expiration of a group of policies known as tax extenders, goes on and on and on.
But it's huge.
And if you add rising gasoline prices to it and everything else that's seeing the price increase because of inflation, it is an all-at-once explosion of tax increases that's going to destroy disposable income.
And it's all planned.
And it's all planned to hit after the election.
Just like Obamacare doesn't get fully implemented until 2014 when theoretically Obama's no longer accountable because he will not be facing an election again.
You got to take a break.
We'll get to your phone calls when we come back.
Okay, so before we go back to the phones, let's look at where we are.
In terms of the redefinition of progress, 8.2% unemployment is the new 5.2%.
The new norm.
8.2%, 8.3%.
Nothing to be alarmed about.
No emergency here.
$5 a gallon gasoline.
That's the new $3.
Not four.
Remember when $4 was hit, everybody connipted like crazy.
No, no.
Now $5 a gasoline?
Hey, it's the new norm.
It's not as much they're paid in Europe.
You should be lucky.
Trickle-down economics made fun of while trickle-down poverty is their policy.
Trickle-down poverty is what is occurring in this country.
Trickle-down poverty brought to us by Obama.
He's trying to score points as a defender of women.
His comments about Augusta National.
But again, I ask, because I've just told you, look at the number of women unemployed today as a result of Obama's policies.
It's easy to talk about something you have absolutely no control over, like Augusta National.
And it affects what maybe be 20 people.
I mean, what are we talking about with this Augusta business anyway?
He can't control it.
It's easy to sit there and point fingers of blame and mouth off while you ignore what you've done.
But when it comes to Obama's job as president, who has done more harm to women and men for that matter in their actual lives than Barack Obama and his administration?
No one.
Okay, I promised it's deliver time.
To the phones we go.
Starting in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Hello, Mike.
I'm glad you called.
Great to have you.
Hi, Rush.
How are you doing today?
Very good, sir.
Thank you.
I saw, I was with these New Orleans Saints defensive players, and the NFL Players Association told them to lawyer up before their hearings.
And I have a theory that I think the NFL actually might put criminal charges against them.
What purpose would be served by the league filing criminal charges against players?
in the bounty program.
Well, with all these concussion lawsuits that are going on now, Roger Goodell, if he presses criminal charges against them, when these civil suits come out and they say you did nothing, he says, whoa, excuse me, I sure did.
And think of the money the NFL could save.
Here's the problem.
The only problem with that is, and I frankly haven't considered this, so I just, I would be remiss if I just rejected this as my instinct is.
My instinct is saying this would never happen.
League's never going to file criminal charges.
Other players might file criminal charges.
For example, the players named in this suit or in the players named by Greg Williams in this tape, might they file criminal charges against the Saints players if there's evidence that they actually went out and tried to take out an ACL?
Might they do it?
Absolutely.
But then there's one element here that we have to consider, and that's the players' union.
They are not going to be uninvolved in this.
And the league wants to have a cooperative effort with them.
Well, they almost are to a point rush because Goodell held back his decisions on the suspension of the players to talk with the NFL Players Association, and now it's out they have no recommendation.
So I think we're in uncharted territories here.
Now, wait a second.
I had not heard that.
I'm not saying you're wrong.
I have not heard that the NFL Players Association has said that they have no recommendation.
Yes, that has definitely been on the ticker tape of ESPN.
No recommendation on what?
On the suspension of the players.
See, Goodell suspended the manager, you know, the coaches and all that.
And he said he would wait to suspend the players until talking to the NFL PA.
And guess what?
They said we have no recommendation.
Well, look, my job is the world's foremost authority.
I understand that.
I'm going to have to dig this one out myself.
Please take no offense here.
Oh, I don't.
I'm going to find this out.
Also, I just, I don't know about criminal charges against the players.
I don't know how you would prove the intent unless a series of hits look dramatically different than any other series of hits in a game.
That burden of proof on that.
I don't know.
You've given me things to think about here.
I know.
It's Target, Rich, and it's, but not yet.
Welcome back, Open Line Friday, four days ago.
Here's the story.
NFL Players Association, the union, told players involved in the New Orleans Saints bounty case that there is a chance they could face criminal charges, and that the union hired outside lawyers to represent them if needed.
While Commissioner Roger Goodell weighs how to punish the two dozen or so players the league says might be connected to the bounties, unions suggested that players have a lawyer and union representative present when they are interviewed by NFL investigators.
The union plans to head to New York this week to meet with league security staff and review additional evidence.
It's all I could find real quickly during the break.
I couldn't find anything about them saying no recommendation on criminal.
But here they are suggesting that the players go get lawyers and that they will help them out.
John in Miami, welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello, sir.
Mega Gainer Dittos, Rush.
Thank you, sir.
I have a report from the ground that I want to preface a little bit, and it involves the Trayvon Martin case.
I want to say not that it's not serious.
It's a very serious case, and maybe there was wrongdoing, and maybe the law needs to be revitted.
And maybe there's great tension in Sanford, Florida.
However, and the point I wanted to get to was that, by and large, throughout the community down here, the tension and the anger that is played up in the media does not exist.
Well, you mean in Miami?
In throughout South Florida, which is a pretty broad area, which you would expect to be equal or more so than throughout the country.
Okay, interesting question.
You're speaking of South Florida, but have the race industry guys been able to really work up the whole nation about this?
Well, it's interesting.
There was a march last weekend that drew, I think, about a tenth of what they expected.
Well, I don't know.
It was less the next day.
I don't know if it was that small, but it was certainly beneath expectations.
You're right.
Right.
And I think the whole campaign is falling short.
And it'd be interesting to see what happens next.
I think Obama.
You know why it's falling short?
Excuse me?
You know why it's falling short?
Because it's manufactured.
It's manufactured, plus it's a media controversy.
It's not a real-life controversy.
They're trying to manufacture it into a real-life controversy.
They're trying to portray that this is life in America.
This is the template, the template that these media people have.
This is what they're taught in journalism school.
It's what they're taught as liberals from the moment they're born, that this is a racist country, that there is still slavery for all intents and purposes, that there is still massive discrimination, and the way to assuage it is to just ladle as much guilt on white people as you can.
Shelby Steele has written about this eloquently many times, even in book form, much less columns.
But I'll tell you, it's fascinating.
Here they are, the best and brightest, the smartest, the most educated, the most curious.
I'm talking about the media, and they are the most closeted, closed-minded, sealed off from reality people you will ever meet.
It is breathtakingly true.
I give you an example of what I'm talking about.
Just one off the top of my head.
The National Football League has had blackhead coaches for a long time.
The National Football League has had black quarterbacks.
It's an integrated league.
The only thing it doesn't have yet is black ownership.
Yet, a black defensive coordinator, a black assistant coach will get a head coaching job, and the media will treat this as though the guy just got released from the plantation.
They really do.
It is as though this particular coach just got out off the plantation.
No longer is he picking cotton.
It's such a great day in America.
It doesn't matter if the coach is qualified or not.
All that matters is his race.
And the reason it's such a big deal to them is because their view, and it's widespread in the media.
I'm not giving you an example of a couple of extremists.
Widespread view that there is still massive discrimination, massive oppression in the league, in the country, in every business.
And it's never treated as a human being got a job.
A human being got an opportunity.
A human being has just moved up the ladder.
It's always somebody has overcome the obstacles that are continually put in his way by the country.
And it, well, it offends me and it irritates me.
And it makes me sad at the same time.
The idea that with this group of people, we're never going to get past race.
This whole Sanford, Florida thing is, you would think after what happened with the Duke La Crosse case, that there would be a little embarrassment and a little humiliation, and then a little warning.
Maybe let's not go so far this time.
Remember what happened to Duke?
We were all wrong.
And the reason there isn't any humiliation, the reason why there isn't any hesitation is because the lesson from Duke is not that they got it wrong.
The lesson is they failed to pull it off.
The objective in the Duke LaCrosse case was to make sure those players were found guilty.
That didn't happen.
This time it's a chance to win it.
Tawana Brawley, full-fledged hoax.
Everything after Tawana Brawley should be doubted and viewed with suspicion, but it's not.
But the Duke La Crosse case is recent and everybody knows about it.
And it fits so well because there wasn't one aspect of it that was true.
And every bad actor in this thing behaved according to stereotype from the faculty on down.
The learned faculty, the moment the allegation was made by the victim, not the cops, the cops got in line soon enough.
The moment the victim made the allegation, case closed, because, okay, we've got it.
This is what America is.
America is a racist, sexist, bigoted country where young black women are made to strip and dance for a bunch of rich white guys.
It's the only chance they got.
Our country sucks because of it.
And here.
And so the opportunity to establish that as America presented itself.
And the fact that none of it was true did not shame anybody in the media.
It did not help them learn in dealing with the next instance.
They just chalked it up.
Well, we gave it our best.
So here comes Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, Sanford, Florida, and now, okay, a brand new chance for us to show what this country is really all about.
Oh, I remember Ny Fong, the DA, he fell right for it, too.
He was right involved in the stereotype, right?
He was right there.
He was running for re-election or doing something.
I mean, he's looking for public opinion polls or whatever.
The nature of the evidence doesn't matter.
The seriousness of the charge.
It's always the case with the left.
Well, yeah, that's what the whole faculty wanted the kids strung up.
84 members of the Duke faculty, I think, was signed some official statement condemning these four kids and their families and the lacrosse coach and then it'll cross them and nobody was guilty of anything.
And you would think that the next time something like this comes up, there'd be a little, you and I, if we had made such an egregious error, we'd be told to learn from it.
We would be told to be very careful.
If we survived it, you and I would be fired for doing what the media en masse did.
You and I would have no more credibility to say anything about anything and be believed.
But that's not true of the civil rights coalition, the race hustlers, the race business leaders.
They're just on to the next one.
And by the way, they're on to the next one with glee, a little happiness, another opportunity to try to tell people what this country is really like.
So the Duke LaCrosse case, for many in the media, was not a learning thing.
It was not something about which there's to be any shame.
It was a lost opportunity.
If they could have convicted those kids, they would have.
So now it's on to George Zimmerman.
And look what's done.
NBC doctors a 9-11 tape.
ABC doctors a police video.
CNN misreports the 9-11 tape.
These are not workplace accidents.
These are not things that occur in the haste and the hustle-bustle to get the story out.
These happened because the people in charge and the people on the line whose jobs they were had a preconceived notion of what they want to happen, of what they want the truth to be, of what they want the outcome to be.
And so whatever it takes to make that happen, we'll do.
If we've got to doctor a 9-11 tape to make this guy out to be a racist, then we will.
Because we know he is.
We know because of what happened here.
We know that a black guy was shot by a guy who's not black.
Therefore, it's a racial incident.
The non-black guy is filled with rage and hatred.
That's what this country is all about.
And we're out to prove it.
And if we can't prove it, we'll try to make it look like it happened anyway.
And that's what's going on here.
And that's why when the Washington Post takes time out to write a column about Mary Jane Blige or Mary Jane Blige in a Burger King commercial for fried chicken.
It's just frustrating.
You don't want to get past it.
There are so many things far more important.
This stuff is holding everybody back.
And the agenda behind all of this is aimed at establishing in as many minds and hearts as possible, this country sucks.
That's what's going on.
And it doesn't.
And that's what's offensive about this.
And you and I couldn't get away with one-tenth of what happens.
You and I would be fired, canned.
We would lose all credibility.
We wouldn't be listened to if we were that demonstrably wrong, purposely wrong.
What happens to you at your job, if you do the equivalent of doctoring a 9-11 tape like this producer at NBC?
What happens to you at your job?
Exactly right.
You're not only fired, you are held up as the worst example.
You are humiliated.
You become an object lesson in how not to do the job.
At NBC, you get shielded and protected, and they attempt to explain it all away.
Why would they think to do it in the first place?
Oh, well, that's the point I was making yesterday.
You and I wouldn't even think of doctoring something that isn't true to make it look like it's true because we live in Rielville.
Who wants to be right by virtue of a lie?
You're not right.
You can't be right.
You and I don't even think this way.
Anyway, I got to take a break.
More of your phone calls are coming up right after this on the EIB network.
Open Line Friday Rush Limbaugh meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every day.
Lynchburg, Virginia's Peter.
Peter, thanks for the call.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
How are you today?
Good.
Thank you.
I had a little chuckle about where I was calling from my hometown of Lynchburg and my subject matter.
What is your subject matter?
Well, we were talking about Mary J. Blige and the so-called outrage.
No, it's not so-called.
Well, evidently, the advertisers as well as the media seem to like to stir this up right about now.
Have you caught an Aunt Jemima pancake commercial lately?
No, I honestly haven't.
I don't, I really haven't.
It comes up as an animation now, and the animation appears and sounds to be Caucasian.
But when it reverts back to the bottle, it goes back to being a black woman.
I don't know if you've noticed that.
No, because I haven't seen the commercial.
Well, no one really, I'm sure, has paid much of attention to it, but advertisers do direct their products toward a certain clientele, so to speak.
And depending on who they are, their targeted audience.
You can learn a lot about advertising.
I've always said television advertising, particularly, is a great window to the culture.
It'll tell you what experts, I mean, their job at advertising agencies, the creative side, is to come up with a spot that's going to separate you from your money.
They're very subtle.
And they will tell you, those commercials will tell you where the culture is if they're done right.
And that's the way I look at TV advertising as an analyst.
I'm immune to TV advertising because I'm in the business.
But I know I'm immune to TV advertising.
Well, startly said, there's nothing on TV that'll make you say, gosh, I want that product.
I can't think of the last one.
But there may be.
I mean, it's happened.
I don't want to say that, but I can't think of the last one.
And I'm not.
All I'm trying to say is I study the stuff, and as such, I'm less affected by it.
But I haven't seen the ant.
What is your point with the anti-you can taste it more in the air now, though?
Taste what?
The palpability of the racial tension.
I think it's being stirred up more by the media, perhaps more by advertisers, or being perhaps paid attention to more than normal.
Why would an advertiser want to stir up racial tension?
Why would anybody want to stir up racial tensions?
That's, I guess, well, no.
We know why Sharpton and Jackson want it.
That's their income.
It's their standard.
It's their livelihood.
I mean, I can answer that question for a lot of people.
But an advertiser, most advertisers don't want to go.
Look at celebrity endorsers like Michael Jordan.
Michael Jordan, I happen to know, is one of the biggest Democrats on earth.
He won't say a word about politics because he knows Republican kids by Nikes.
Tiger Woods, I know what his politics are, but he's never, ever going to go there as long as he's endorsing products.
So when you say advertisers want to stir this up, that's not my experience.
I'm not sure if they do it on purpose.
I'm just saying that when you got outraged like this about a chicken commercial, It wasn't Kentucky Fried Chicken.
It was Burger King.
Right, which is known for whoppers.
I know.
That's my reaction.
What are you doing?
Advertise your fried chicken.
Then I stop to realize Michelle Obama's out there hitting everybody up to be healthy, and everybody's scared to death of the government is why they're running the ad.
Okay, folks, we got another big, exciting hour to go here on Open Line Friday.
And we'll have plenty more of your telephone calls and some other sound bites, other stuff in the stack of stuff as well to do.
So we still have lots to do.
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