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July 5, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:41
July 5, 2012, Thursday, Hour #3
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That's absolutely right, uh Johnny Donovan uh Walter Williams filling in for Rush and Rush will be back um on Monday.
Who's who's in for tomorrow?
Okay, Mark Belling is in uh tomorrow.
And you can be on with us today by calling 800-282-2882.
Uh now, you know, there's a lot of controversy about uh uh whether Mitt Romney is calling the Obamacare uh mandate uh a penalty or a tax.
I don't think it's any different any mix any difference, what whatever they call it, it's a massive unprecedented government expansion on uh on our liberties or or it's saying that well the government has no limits.
I mean, for example, as I was telling you a little early on why I'm in such great shape is because I'm uh a member of uh of a uh fitness club, and I go there I lift weights uh four or five times, six times a week.
And um what if the what if Congress said, look, lifting weights like Williams and exercising like Williams cuts down health care costs.
So we want we mandate that everybody get a gym membership.
And if you don't, we're gonna tax you.
What do you think what do you think about that?
You think that'd be good?
I mean, even liberals, I mean, or progressives, as as uh Thomas Sowell and I were talking about a while ago.
Do you think they would go for that?
Um well, I I don't know.
I don't know.
Uh but anyway, getting back to Mitt Romney.
What do you think if Romney's uh had some good ideas for his campaign?
And um and suppose he said, you know, he hasn't revealed all of his campaign strategy yet, but what do you think if he launched a campaign and said whites for Mitt Romney in a movement to, you know, to get out the white vote.
Well what what would you think about that?
Uh I bet there'd be a media-led outcry.
But what do you think about this?
This month we're announcing the 2012 launch of African Americans for Obama.
I don't think there's a better time than African American History Month to consider the tremendous progress we've made through the sacrifices of so many.
Now that was uh I I I that was Obama.
And he's launching his campaign.
He did it in in in February.
He's launched it, but he's m launching his political campaign.
Africo Afro African Americans for Obama.
Uh I he could do it both ways.
He could have whites for Obama and uh and and African Americans for Obama.
But but here's the here's the question though.
That I think that that is divisive and despicable.
Now, how come you I I bet I bet most of the people in this audience haven't heard that.
But play it again.
Um get it.
This month we're announcing the 2012 launch of African Americans for Obama.
I don't think there's a better time than African American History Month to consider the tremendous progress we've made through the sacrifices of so many.
Now the very fact, the very fact that there's no uproar, no media up led uproar against Obama for this kind of racial divisiveness, what is suggesting is that there are two standards for civilized conduct.
That is, there's one standard we that uh we hold whites up to And another standard that we hold blacks up to, which is lower.
In the name in other words, what I as a matter of fact, I wrote a column about this.
It's on my it's I wrote it on June 20th this year.
In other words, in the name of justice and fair play, uh people are saying blacks should not be held accountable for the same standards that whites are, and they should not be criticized for conduct that we would deem disgusting and racist if done by whites.
I mean, if Obama's I mean if Mitt Romney started launched a campaign saying whites for Obama, no mean whites for for Romney, everybody would say, boy, that is really bad.
That's racist.
But why would they not say the same about Obama?
Now liberals, they don't actually come out and say that criticism of Obama is in it in and of itself racist, but they come pretty close.
I mean, that is when pe if people were to criticize Obama, well, they they they they're suggesting that they're racist.
For example, you know, former Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter uh said that criticism of Obama shows that there's an inherent feeling in America that a black man should not be president.
That is stupid of uh of uh Jimmy Carter to say that because who in the world elected Obama to the presidency?
It was mostly whites.
Now, how can he possibly say that there's an inherent feeling in America that a black man should not be president?
Uh Chris Matthews, a loudmouth Chris Matthews of uh um SNBC's uh hardball, he said that critics of Obama are crackers.
Morgan Friedman, Morgan Freeman said that the campaign to see that Obama serves just one term is a racist thing.
That is all you people who are trying to make sure that Obama has just one term, according to uh Freeman, it's a racist thing.
Then there was uh uh Obama czar, Van Jones, said that the Romney's campaign sign that said Obama isn't working implies that Obama is lazy, incompetent, affirmative action baby.
Now, for all you people, for all you people out there who voted for Obama, and I know many of you in this audience voted for Obama, you thought that this would be ushering in an era of I don't know, getting rid of the ideas or getting rid of the divisiveness of race in our country.
But you were sadly mistaken.
And I might also point to something else, that these racial double standards also apply to how crime is reported in our country.
For example, I'm betting, I'm betting that if mobs of white youths were going about severely beating and robbing blacks at random and preying on black businesses, it would be a major news story.
Matter of fact, news anchors, you can just hear Peter Jennings or one of those guys.
Tonight we report on the most recent wave of racist whites organizing unprovoked attacks on innocent black people and their businesses.
And and indeed, if if if there were white flu thugs actually doing that, politicians would be demanding answers.
But these random attacks by uh black thugs, um uh, you know, they it doesn't bring much media attention uh at all.
As a matter of fact, it's kind of interesting.
On uh St. Patrick's Day, a nineteen year old white guy was viciously as viciously attacked by a mob, and they uh beat him up, took all of his belongings, and and Baltimore County delegate,
Pat McDonough, demanded that the governor of Maryland send in Maryland State Police to control what he called roving mobs of black youth at Baltimore's inner harbor.
He that's what he said.
Then Maryland Gov Merr Maryland uh Governor Martin O'Malley and other activists demanded that Madonna apologize for talking about black youth, roving mobs of black youth.
And I mean racial double standards is not they're not uh restricted to uh political arena, crime reporting.
We see it on college campuses, we see it in the workplace.
And I think I think before I get to you calls, get to break first, uh, some make some money.
I think that that black people ought to be offended by the idea that we are held to held accountable to lower standards of conduct and achievement.
And and white people ought to be ashamed for permitting and fostering racial double standards that have effects that are in some ways worse than the cruel racism of yesteryear.
We'll be back with calls after this.
Walter Williams sitting in for vacationing rush and Mark Belling would be on tomorrow, and Rush will be back on Monday.
And there seems to be a lot of uh a lot of interest in this uh Social Security issue, and um let's talk to uh shall we go to Mary Jane?
Welcome to the show, Mary Jane.
Yes, sir, thank you.
My problem with your uh comments on Social Security, Social Security was set up to be self-supporting, and it was self-supporting until Congress saw it as a cash cow and started taking the money out of it and filling the trust fund full of IOQs.
But what is it now?
Sir.
What is it now?
The well it's it's not it's not it's not uh self-supporting, is it?
That's because they rated it.
I know more money was being taken in than what was being taken out, and also it wasn't drawing the interest that it should have been drawing because they took it all out.
So Congress should be required to repay all the IOUs and all the interest that would have been accruing for it in Social Security would be solved.
Where could have been running?
Mary Ann was set up to Congress raiding it.
Mary Ann, but where is Congress going to get the money from?
I don't know.
Oh, you mean you uh you Well, they after they raided Social Security and there was no more money there, then they started borrowing from China.
I know, but where are they going to get the money to do what you say they ought to do?
I mean they have to know where they're gonna go.
Well, no, wait, no, I'm telling you where they're gonna go.
They're gonna get it from they're gonna force somebody who is twenty-five or thirty or forty years old to fork up the money.
And I'm asking them, are they is is some young person in the labor force, are they responsible for what the Congress did?
Well, my husband No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, I'm not gonna let you go.
Mary I'm not let you I asked you a question.
Are is a twenty-five-year-old responsible for what Congress did?
And if he's not responsible, why then should he have to pay?
Well, all the years that we were paying to support the older people was money that we were putting in that was supporting older people because Congress had taken the money around.
So we've paid, we paid in to finance the older people, and it's young people now pay in like we did when we're gonna be able to do it.
Well, it's it's ours, we didn't.
Wait, wait a minute, Mary Ann, It's musical chairs.
Look, the the money will not be there in 2030.
That is the unfunded liability of Social Security and Medicare comes with 106 trillion dollars.
And unfunded liability means, Mary Ann, all you people out there, means these are the obligations that Congress has.
Now, in order for Congress to meet these unfunded liabilities, they would have to put six trillion dollars in the bank today, earning about 5% rate of interest.
Do you think Congress is going to do that?
Well, they need to cut out all their freeloaders like Solindrin and all that that Obama.
That's not that's a drama fundance so that his big buddies could get take the money and run with it and outsource those jobs and you know what Mary Ann, you know, and and I and I mean this all due respect to you and anybody else out there,
but Congress loves people like you who believe that Congress should be using its power to take what people uh what belongs to other people and give it to other people.
This is this is what Congress thrives on.
They thrive thrive on people think that they have something coming to them and Congress ought to do whatever's necessary.
See, see that one of the tragedies is, see, and and one of the tragedies is that thieves now I'm not calling Marianne, I'm not calling you a thief, but I'm saying I'm just giving you an example.
Thieves, all they care about is enjoying something.
They don't care who has to pay.
Forget who has the pay.
But do we want to be a nation like that?
Do we want to be a nation of thieves where we say, what no, I'm saying, no, no, I'm saying that no, she's not a crook.
I mean, I'm saying that people need to tell Congress, look, we've been doing the wrong thing for too long, start getting out of it.
And I've suggested a little bit earlier that what we need to do is to say to young people or to anybody on social security, begin to shut the system down so that there's some hope at some time that we'll be out from underneath this elephant.
Right now, that we're gonna be out from underneath Social Security, but we're gonna be out through a means of economic disorder and economic collapse, because the system cannot sustain itself.
Uh Snerdley says, so you want to take away social security from all no.
No, what what we did, look, it's like it's like dope addicts.
I mean, like if you get if somebody's addicted, you don't go cold turkey on it.
You try to find some way to ease them out of it.
You try to find some way that to compassionately ease people out of these, out of this program.
That's a disaster for young people.
But see, the problem is is that is that many people who are around who are recipients of Social Security, they would they won't like for me to say this.
But look, when the collapse comes, when the chaos comes in 2030, 2040, somebody receiving Social Security, uh, do they have to worry about that?
They're gonna be dead.
I mean, some Congressmen, I mean, it what's he had to do?
What why should he worry about 2040?
He's gonna be, he's gonna be dead.
So, but however, that Congressman better worry about 2012.
He better worry about 2014.
Because these people who are receiving all these government stuff, they're alive and they're gonna run them out of town on the rail.
But he don't have the why why worry about 2040?
There's nothing in it for him.
You know.
Bo Snerdly's trying to mess up the program.
He's trying to say, he's trying to say that I'm saying that people who are in Social Security are drug addicts and thieves.
No, I'm saying, I'm saying that that the conduct, that the conduct that that people unwittingly are engaging in, you know, is very much like that of a thief.
Very much like that of a thief.
So look, ladies and gentlemen, what I'm trying to say, what we need to realize Is to try to find some compassionate way out of it, or those people who don't want to do anything about Social Security, are they willing to stand on record and say, we don't give a damn about our great grandchildren.
We don't care about what happens in 2040 and 2050 to this great nation of ours.
Because even the Social Security Administration says that in order to maintain the same benefits, the Social Security tax will have to be 30 or 35% to maintain the same level of benefits.
And I don't think that's going to fly in 2030 or 2040.
And I'd like for somebody to call the show and think, say, Oh, Williams, oh, this people around 2030, they'll be willing.
They won't.
Okay, it's uh Walter Williams sitting in for a rush.
By the way, we've been talking about um, you know, politics uh today.
Um that's what the show would talk about a lot.
Um anyway.
And um, there's an excellent yeah, in terms of what kind of present president do we want.
Um there's an excellent article.
It's in the it's in the July, July-August 2012 issue of the The Freeman, the uh published by the Foundation for Economic Education, based in New York.
Anyway, there's an excellent article uh written by Lawrence Reed, and it's called Cleveland Passed the Test of Character and Statesmanship.
And uh Art and a caller earlier mentioned uh Grover Cleveland as being uh one of our great presidents, and he of course, as the caller pointed out, uh he vetoed uh an appropriation to help uh drought stricken uh drought drought stricken farmers in Texas.
And so and he said, quote, as I I believe the caller said this, uh, though the people support the government, it is not the duty of the government to support the people.
Can you imagine a politician saying that today?
He'd be run out of town on real.
Now, and also uh during Cleveland's day, uh there were budget surpluses.
Now, while some thought that the uh surpluses should be spent, what did Grover Cleveland uh think?
He says when he he thought that a surplus, a budget surplus was evidence that taxes were too high.
When when more of the people's sustenance is extracted through the form of taxation than is necessary, then it should be cut.
Let me look at one one endorsement.
This is an excellent article by uh uh Larry Reed in the uh once again it's the it's the Freemans put out by the Foundation for Economic Education, sometimes they call it fee.
Uh a biography, Brody put it, he know a biographer of um Cleveland uh said that Cleveland was the rarest of political animals who believed his ultimate allegiance was to the nation, not to the party.
And Cleveland was a Democrat, by the way.
And um a New York newspaper endorsed Cleveland for the presidency in 1884 by declaring three reasons for voting for him.
The first reason he is an honest man.
The second reason, he is an honest man.
And the third reason, he is an honest man.
And that's can you can you imagine anybody saying that about any president uh of recent times, except perhaps uh Ronald Reagan.
And something else that you people should consider when people say, well, what should be done about the economy?
Well, in 1837, see, we know one of the things about about the not understanding history by not being taught history in our schools, is that people just don't know.
They just don't know what kind of country we were.
Uh all they all they they're taught in school are the mistakes that we made.
You'll find every book you'll find stuff about slavery, about the Indian wars, but they won't talk about the very distinguished men that we had at the helm.
In 1837, when faced with uh a massive uh panic and recession, Martin Van Buren, he declared when people are saying do something, the government got to do something.
He declared that he had neither the constitutional authority nor was it sound economic policy for the government to ramp up spending.
This is a matter of fact, this is in a uh in um the future of uh Freedom Foundation in this article by uh William Anderson, and he says, this article says, in eighty years later, Warren Harding, Warren Harding, told conferees who met to discuss government action during the panic of 1921.
What do you think uh President Harding told them to do?
He says that the best thing government could do was do nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
And I think doing nothing has a very, very nice record.
Uh for example, between 1787 and 1930, there were panics, recessions, depressions, and nobody thought the government ought to do something.
And these depressions, they lasted three, four, and they're over.
In 1930, you had uh President Hoover and then later President Roosevelt, they said, well, you ought to do something.
And they did something, and they created the longest depression in our history.
The depression went on for twelve years.
And so, if you ask me, well, which has the better record doing nothing or doing something, I would say doing nothing.
And speaking of presidents, you know, this this one thing is really irritating me.
And I I meant to say this much earlier.
Uh, people are saying, people send me email, and they're saying, Williams, did you write this column about it's impossible for Obama to lose?
And I say, No, it's a fake column.
It's a fake column.
Somebody made that up, and you can check it on my website, Walt E. Williams.com, and the people who made who who printed it apologize.
And speaking again of something about the presidency, a lot of people are saying, well, particularly Republicans and conservatives, they're saying, well, it's gonna be hard for Obama to win with this high unemployment.
Well, that's just plain nonsense.
President Roosevelt, he won two elections when unemployment was in the double digits.
Matter of fact, in 1939 or 38, unemployment was around 20 percent.
And he is doing very, very well.
So don't do not rely on the state of the economy as uh as some kind of uh a guarantee that Obama will not be re-elected.
Let's go to phones.
Let's go to Bill in Dayton, Ohio.
Welcome to the show, Bill.
Yes, I don't walk it.
Okay.
Uh I guess I think I can solve two problems we have.
Uh number one, if you're making over a million dollars and collecting Social Security, that should stop.
Should you pay into it?
Sure.
Should a person have paid into it, Social Security.
Yes, even though it's paid into it.
Somebody has sacrificed someplace.
It's a millionaire.
Okay, big deal.
What's that thousand dollars mean to you?
Not okay, well, okay, okay, you got one.
Okay, now what's the other?
Yeah, okay.
The other thing is uh on this racial issue.
I spent 30 years in the army, and the only color I see is OD green.
That's the only color I see.
There ain't no black and white.
Well, you must have some kind of eyesight problems.
You know, everybody's the same.
Black white, it don't matter.
No, no, no, look.
I I I'm looking out into an into the engineer booth and I see one black person and two white people and one is a white woman.
I I don't see O D green.
So I get it, you know, I I know what you're trying to say, you know, but uh I think that's a bad way of saying I've had black guys pull me off the field and I've pulled black black guys off the field and they're all wearing the same uniform.
Yeah, right.
It wasn't no black and white.
Okay, okay.
Well thank well thanks a lot for your suggestions.
Let's go to uh let's go to uh Marcus in San Diego, California.
Welcome to the show, Marcus.
Hello, sir.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
I just had a question about uh social security.
I wanted to know uh why can't it be privatized?
Why is that not a good idea?
And if it can't, you know, who who would be the groups of people that would stop that, you know.
I uh I'm twenty-eight years old, I'm active duty Navy, and uh we do what we call a thrift savings plan, and you know, uh money is taken out of our paychecks automatically and put into a uh similar to a 401k uh retirement fund.
Um the money that we're paying into Social Security, why can't that go into a similar fund specifically for us?
So if you don't work uh you don't get that retirement.
Uh uh Marcus, I think that's very mean of you because you d if you were listening to the show, it's the people who are sixty-five years old and over, they need your money.
Now, if you put your money into a 401k, where are they gonna get their money?
Well, I'm assuming I mean don't don't you feel badly about that?
They can they can track taxes and whatnot.
They should be able to tell how much these people have made throughout their lifetime.
I know all them that amount of money.
Marcus, you're you're an honorable person, you're defending our country, but I mean, but if you don't send your money to Washington, how are these people gonna live?
See, it's your responsibility.
It's your responsibility to take care of these older people.
And if you're trying to shirk your responsibility, and uh and I'm very uh I'm I'm embarrassed and I'm ashamed of you, Marcus.
But I'm sorry that you feel that way, sir.
Don't feel don't feel badly.
Do uh thanks for the work you're doing for our country.
Let's uh let's take a break.
We'll be back after this.
Okay, uh we're back, Walt Williams filling in for Rush.
And trying to sell it's a pretty hard job.
Trying to sell my fellow Americans on the moral superiority of personal liberty and it's limited and its main ingredient, which is limited uh government.
That's uh that's a uh the fellow uh Bo Snerdly was saying that the fellow in the Navy took me seriously.
Look, look, uh let me tell the the fellow in the Navy I was pulling your leg.
And I was pulling your leg in the in the way to kind of illustrate to many of the people who are on who are receiving um Social Security, Medicare, and all kind what what and all kinds of government handouts.
And I was trying to say, well, is is m his name is Marcus, wasn't it?
It's okay.
I mean, what what obligation does he have to someone who is eighty years old or seventy years?
He has an obligation to his mother and his father who are retirees.
And matter of fact, that's the you and that's one of the problems in our country.
You know, the the the biblical admonition is to honor thy mother and father.
Well, people don't honor their mother and father much anymore.
You know why?
Because they can get me through the tax code to honor their mother and father.
That's the you know, they can get others through the tax code to honor their mother and father.
And you know, and this is an ongoing tragedy for most of our history.
Where did old people die?
They died in the homes of their children.
Many old people today, they die in little green rooms by themselves, sick or whatever.
And because the because of the you know the welfare state.
I think it has a whole lot to a whole lot to do with it.
Let's go to let's go to Doug.
Welcome to the show, Doug.
Dr. Williams.
Thank you for holding, Doug.
Yeah, I have a question for you that I need a perspective from an economist.
You know, Barack Obama is out on the campaign trail making the claim that he's raised spending less than any president in the last 30 to 40 years.
What I believe he's doing, I think he's telling the truth, but I think what he's done is taking the TARP payments, which was supposed to be a one time uh stimulus and rolled that into the baseline, increased that by eight percent each year.
Then he took his stimulus an almost another trillion dollars and rolled it into the baseline and increased it eight percent each year.
Yeah my far off the base that's off the track well is this how he's getting his percentage increase.
Well I I think he's lying about the percentage increases.
I think it's just plain untrue.
But however look one of the things that you said you my ears always perk up when someone says that the president is spending well in the Constitution only the United States Congress can appropriate money.
Only the United States Congress can can make expenditures so if the if the Congress does not appropriate something then the president cannot spend it.
And so this is one of the ways that we make a serious mistake in our country by by blaming the president for everything.
in the Senate it's the president and and the big spenders like that they love that that they love that when we're able to uh cast attention away from them and blame somebody else I th I think it's uh it's it's not the best strategy let's take a break and we'll be back for some more calls okay folks uh this the final uh segment and and yeah I'm and I'm looking at uh rush limbaugh.com and
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