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Nov. 16, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:10
November 16, 2012, Friday, Hour #3
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Hey, cookie, cookie.
Never mind.
I'll send you an email.
Nobody needs to know what I'm doing tomorrow.
Anyway, greetings.
What am I thinking?
I'm just gonna have to make a reservation.
Welcome back.
Open line Friday.
It is El Rush Ball.
Make it happen.
Live from the Southern Command in Sunny, South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Damn right they had ding dongs in Missouri and Twinkies all in.
Absolutely.
When I worked at the Kansas City Royals hostess was a sponsor.
I had Twinkies all over my office.
I mean, I had stacks of Twinkies.
And ding dogs.
And we put plenty of ho-hos in the locker room for the players.
Welcome back, folks.
800-282-2882.
If you want to be on the program, the email address L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
Okay, I want to go back to the phones.
I want to go to Richard in in El Segundo, California.
Richard, you're still there, right?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
I'm not I'm not trying to diminish the hell that you're going through living in California.
I'm from the perspective of people that don't live there.
Even for some of the people that do, Richard, for all of the problems that you can describe, and Prop 30 is clearly a problem, and they're gonna get by the way, they're gonna erase Prop 13 next.
I mean they're gonna take they're gonna get rid of the adjustments made long ago by Howard Jarvis on property tax.
You're just getting started with tax increases on it, because this is not going to close any budgets.
This is the you talk about the unfunded pension liability.
You can talk about all the money from the lottery supposed to pay for education.
But I love that state.
Uh I if it weren't for the I I could live there.
But but Richard.
I my contention to you is that the vast majority of people live there don't think anything's wrong.
They keep voting the same way.
I know that there is a there's a group that I remember prop prop uh uh oh what was it 180?
It was the the the no welfare for illegal every seven.
187.
I'm I know all of this.
I know everything you're gonna tell me about the the income tax, property taxes and so forth, but you've got two states there.
You've got the elite on the coast, all up and down, even even up in in uh Eureka County, even the the elite up there, they've the global warming elite, but they're still and then you've got the interior, which is the the agricultural part of the state, and you've got anarchy prey.
You've got crime running rampant, you've got no police forces and so forth, but uh the w what I see is everybody who is essentially responsible for the mess keeps getting re-elected and in greater numbers.
You just described the entire country.
That's true.
So you look you meant let's go through what you mentioned specifically.
You said 25 years ago the lottery was gonna pay for education.
Forever.
Forever.
And of course, that nothing's paid for in California.
There is a l the largest budget deficit, some larger than many countries.
Sixteen, eighteen billion dollars.
It obviously doesn't matter to anybody.
Or it doesn't matter to anywhere near a majority of people.
It it the number of people don't care about that dwarf the number who do, and as far as they're concerned, the lottery is paying for education.
The schools are still open, and unfunded pension liability, well, maybe I don't I'll contend you most people don't even know what that means when they hear unfunded pension liability, including the pensioners.
All they know is they're still getting them.
Well, you you must remember as well, and I'm sure you do, that uh this is a parasite paradise uh in California.
We have twelve percent of the population.
We eat up thirty-three percent of the nation's welfare money.
The illegals cost us thirteen billion dollars a year.
That's over one-tenth of the entire country.
Right, and I don't see that anybody cares.
Well, we do have our share of those who are to be charitable, uh challenged as far as native intelligence is concerned.
I it's more education than anything, but still I know what you mean.
Well, for example, this the city of Los Angeles is now on the heels of proposition thirty, pushing for another half cent sales tax within the city.
I know.
I I've got the I've got the LA Times headline right here.
Tax hikes, improving economy bode well for California but nothing bodes well for the California budget.
I agree with you.
Uh the the uh the socialists in in Sacramento now are flush with the uh smugness that they have a supermajority, yeah, and are discussing tripling, I emphasize tripling the license fees on vehicles.
Yep.
And this is what within a week and a half after that uh proposition passed.
Right, and who elects them?
They pull the wool over the eyes of the majority of the Californians, once again, right?
They're a target of opportunity.
Yeah, well, who elects them?
They keep getting elected, and by the people who are going to pay triple increases in auto registration.
It's totally misunderstood.
Sixty to seventy percent of the the uh it's as a matter of fact, on I haven't seen a school ballot uh for uh excuse me, a bond issue not pass in this state as far back as I can remember.
I just scanned the uh election results on Tuesday night, the local ballots were uh on screen, and every one of the school bonds passed by a margin of sixty to seventy percent.
Yeah.
And all they have to do is throw in the moniker of its quote for the children.
Yeah.
Close quote, and they pass.
So the state is cutting its own throat here.
It's like taking candy from a baby.
Well, see, this is where I don't know that you're hearing me.
Because as to me, the states they're they're we're talking two different things.
Yes, in real terms, somewhere down the road, the state is cutting its own throat.
But it isn't none of this uh pain, none of the damage, none of the uh the the penalties, taxes inflicted, not changing the way people are voting.
It's not it's not changing the way a lot of people are living.
And you know as well as I do, then it when they reach the tipping point, uh if a Democrat is in the White House, they're gonna bail off state out.
Well, of course, we're both preaching to the choir here.
Well, now I'm trying to make a larger point.
I uh and I'm uh I'm in the middle of formulating strategically how to do it, so I'm actually using you as a guinea pig, and I haven't I haven't con I haven't figured out how to do this, but what I'm trying to say is we can cite real world facts.
We can paint a real world picture of the future, but it hasn't happened yet.
Even though it's in the process of happening.
But in terms of it hasn't happened, it hasn't affected people's lives yet.
And apparently, Richard, tax increases don't bother the people of California because they're not new.
Property taxes have been high for a long time, state income taxes have been high for a long time.
I know the largest share is borne by the rich, but they don't care either.
And when I say they don't care, I know they're people like you, but you're so outnumbered that it is accurate to say the Republican Party has lost that state forever.
And I can tell you when it began, 1988, when all kinds of immigration standards were relaxed, Simpson Mazzoli, uh 86 actually, when opened the floodgates with amnesty, that's that's that's that's when the beginning and it's this not an anti-Hispanic comment.
It's uh it's a uh a comment politically on Republicans losing the state and influx of Democrat voters came in.
And we're facing the same thing happening now nationwide by design and and on purpose.
We just have four years of an economic Uber disaster in this country, and the party not responsible for it got blamed totally.
Well, there's a level of ignorance uh in California as well as nationwide, and I'm not giving you any news.
Uh I've I've spoken to people here before that say, for example, they don't care about property tax increases because they're renters.
I've also spoken to people who say they don't care about bonds, they don't like taxes, but they don't care about bonds because, and this is a direct quote, the government pays for those.
So when you're fighting that level of misinformation with people who cannot connect the dots, we've got a real problem.
And it's it's uh migrated throughout the entire country.
But shouldn't real life connect the dots, even if they don't understand how bonds are paid for, and even if they don't understand how they cannot escape higher costs of living because they rent.
At some point, shouldn't the reality of the disaster of the way they're voting affect the way they live and thus change the way they're voting.
When they actually write the check, they understand.
Until then, and it's dollar for dollar, they don't connect the dots.
I've spoken to dozens and dozens of people on these subjects over the years, and it's consistent.
Here's the bottom line.
California current taxes right now, highest state sales tax, second highest gasoline taxes in the nation, personal income tax, second highest, corporate income tax highest in the West.
California has the third worst state business tax climate in the nation, according to a report in the Tax Foundation.
And I know, by the way, that lots of people are leaving California.
There are a lot of what is it, what is it is it a thousand people a week that are moving to a place like Idaho and so I know there are people leaving.
Well, there's a huge there's a huge uh exodus, and over five thousand businesses of various sizes have left here within the last two years.
Right, and and the state's still functioning, and Southern California is still beautiful, and so is and so is uh uh Pebble Beach, and so is Carmel.
Everything's still beautiful, so is San Diego, so is Coronado.
It's all so is Palm Springs, so is Indian Wells.
It's all still beautiful.
It's all still a great vacation to San Francisco's still beautiful.
All of this is happening, and to listen to us talk, this place ought to be a ghost town falling apart at the seams, and it isn't.
So when we preach dismal despair, this can't continue.
The people that live there say, well, what do you mean it can't continue?
It is continuing.
Our education schools are still open.
Uh they don't know that they're underfunded.
And in fact, every little thing they want that now they've they've got aadictomies paid for.
They got same-sex changes, everything paid for?
I mean, what could be better for the people who live in these places?
Exactly what they want is happening.
Look at the impending municipal bankruptcies.
We've had four or five, and there are many on the ropes right now.
I know that from first hand information.
It doesn't matter.
It's my point, it doesn't matter who's winning every election out there in ever increasing or by ever increasing margins.
The architects of all this.
Well, you're you're simply indicting the American public, and I couldn't agree with you more.
Um I mean, let's let's call a spade a spade here.
I'm not people don't understand basic economics, uh, how do you explain that?
It's not that I'm indicting the American people, per se.
I'm trying to acknowledge what California's become.
It's a it's it's a socialist welfare democracy that the people who live there want.
And everything as far as they're concerned is fine.
The vast majority of them.
And it's not so much what they know, it's what they've been taught.
California's a microcosm for where we're headed as the country because of the education the the long-term fix for California is the same thing it is for the country.
We have got to get control back of the public education system.
The the reason you sit there and talk about the naivete or the ignorance of the people they don't know.
They've been taught governments wonderful governments, the answer governments this, governments that to them the worst people alive are Republicans and therefore everything Republicans say is either a lie or dastardly wrong or mean spirited or what have you.
This is maybe pie in the sky, but I would expect that some native intelligence would come into play here and that people would begin to understand what there is a mass exodus of wealth, Richard it's gonna come back to roost.
Maybe so, but it ain't happening fast enough to f I'm just you you're looking for this vast reservoir of native intelligence, and I'm asking, where is it?
It keeps electing more they just voted to raise taxes on themselves.
Exactly.
And they put Brown back in the governor's mansion once again.
You may not may not know that his uh his prior city of Oakland.
No, no, they don't care.
They're getting what they want.
This is our challenge.
They are not being fooled.
We think they're being fooled.
They are getting what they want.
That's our challenge.
They're not having the wool pulled over their eyes.
These people are not voting for tax increases because they're stupid or because they're being lied to about it.
They want it.
They believe in it.
Only if we accept that, I think are we gonna be able to deal with this down the road.
It's a contest of ideas.
But I I don't think most clearly there's some people who don't know what to think and they don't know what they know, and they're uh because you've got that in every group of people.
My point to you is that overall a majority of people who vote in that state are not fooled.
They know what they're doing and they like what they're getting.
And the evidence is undeniable.
They keep voting that way in greater numbers every election.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Here's Michael in Tulsa, Oklahoma, open line Friday rolling on.
How are you, sir?
Oh, doing great.
It's a great honor to talk to you, Russ.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate that.
You know, uh, I don't want you to misunderstand me.
I'm not beating up on Romney.
Um I just think you nailed it on the last call.
You said it's a contest of ideas.
And you know, I never did get all the answers I wanted from Romney.
I think it we're we're shooting ourselves in the foot as the Republican Party because the the Democrats are running full-fledged true blue Democrats, and we're running these people who I think are political wimps and they're afraid to take a risk or say what they really believe.
Well, you know what?
We're also afraid of negative ads.
Uh because we're afraid the independents don't like 'em.
So we haven't learned that you can run a truthful negative ad that is not an attack on a person.
Um they run everything.
But I know what you mean.
It's we're in the arena of ideas.
There are a bunch of times, and even during debates, when Romney's going through um the economic stats as they exist today and how he's going to change them.
And I was longing for him to explain how.
Teach.
That that's that's the only thing that was missing.
How are you gonna create 12 million jobs?
Tell us how it works.
He had asked p several times, you know, what do you you know, how are you gonna pay for the tax cut?
You know, and he said, Well, we're gonna eliminate some deductions.
Well, which ones?
And he never would answer.
And I'm like, just tell us.
Well, because he no, no, i I'm gonna defend him.
He thought it'd be minutiae and confusing because in the limited time they have it in the debate.
I understand that, but I agree with you in overall.
Hey, Twinkie fans, twinkie fans, all is not lost.
All is not lost.
Are you ready for this?
I have some news here from the politico.
A new petition wants President Obama to nationalize the Twinkie industry and save it from extinction.
It's a website called We the People.
We the Undersigned hereby request Barack Obama to immediately nationalize the Twinkie industry and prevent our nation from losing her sweet, creamy center.
The website is We the People.
Do you know who runs it?
White House.
So the White House, put this out to explain it.
The White House has a petition up that many people may not know is a White House petition.
As far as people are concerned, it's some interested citizens who are begging President Obama to bail out the hostess company, thereby paving the way for Obama to go in and do it, responding to public demand, when in fact it's a White House plan from the get-go.
So let's say it happens.
The headline, and politico is ready to write the headline, Obama saves Twinkies.
Get ready for it.
This this, in fact, this was predictable.
I should have predicted it when the program began today, because this is I it's it's too easy.
There's no way Obama's gonna compromise with the owners and save it, but he'll be glad to nationalize it, take it.
I mean, it's a chump change compared to an automobile company.
And then after a while, sell it to the Union or give it to the Union like he did General Motors, and then proclaim the Twinkie industry saved.
Don't laugh.
Snerdi's in there laughing.
Sir, that's exactly it has happened.
It happened with Chrysler.
It happened with General Motors.
General Motors is alive.
Yeah, they're Twinkies.
I know Michelle's out there campaigning against Twinkies, but that's a minor concern to be overridden.
I'm telling you, don't be surprised if it happened.
Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday on this program.
Darn it, darn it, darn it.
Cookie, do you happen I know you have it, I don't know how easy it would be to find.
Could you find the sound bite from Jake Tapper that I aired yesterday because we aired the soundbite and I analyzed it, and Jake went to Twitter and said that I was misrepresenting what he had said.
And uh I hope by everybody, I do not purposely misrepresent or lie.
I don't see any value in it.
I'm not a politician that wants to get somewhere by lying.
I don't I'm not gonna have any credibility if if everybody thinks all I'm doing is lying about stuff.
That was not my intention.
I don't want to be wrong.
And Jake says I was misinterpreting what he said.
So I want to I want to get the uh she's gonna get the soundbite.
I want to get the soundbite and play it, and I'll I'll revisit my interpretation.
But he sent my brother a couple of tweets because and he sent an email to H.R., uh the trusted loyal chief of staff, who and said it was a lot of people were were were being unfair and and calling him a an Obamaite or some such thing, but that it it uh my interpretation was wrong.
And he what was that?
Oh, he did.
Oh, he he allowed with H.R. he might have not been clear in his comments, but he was he felt bad because he was hearing from a lot of you accusing him of being an Obamaite because of what I said, and he doesn't want to be thought of as an Obamaite.
Okay, so here's the soundbite.
Here's the sound.
I don't have the transcript in front of me now, it doesn't matter, but here's that and this this was um set this up.
This was, I think it was on CNN, Piers Morgan, and I think the question was why didn't the mainstream media cover Benghazi?
I think that's pretty much what it was.
Let's listen.
Who is uh covering the Benghazi story uh in the months leading up to the election?
It was so politicized with uh the White House and the administration in a defensive crouch because they thought every word They said would be twisted and unfairly attacked, and they didn't obviously want to interfere with a positive narrative about Al Qaeda and Republicans uh putting out conspiracy theories, um, some of them not rooted in any facts or evidence, that it was tough to report on this.
Okay.
Now, the way I interpreted that was remember who Jake is.
He's uh he's a White House reporter for ABC, and he's explaining why the Benghazi story was not interesting, why there was no news there, or why it wasn't covered.
On the one hand, you had the administration, and they they didn't want their positive narrative about Al Qaeda being on the run, because that's what the narrative was.
Now, Jake doesn't say that.
So I'm assuming that the White House narrative on Al Qaeda was that Obama had him on the run.
That's been the thing since the convention, since uh since they got Osama bin Laden.
Al-Qaeda, in fact, the President was saying it on the campaign trail.
And Jake admits that the White House didn't want that narrative messed with, and they were very defensive about this.
On the other side was the Republicans believing in a bunch of conspiracy theories that you couldn't believe in that weren't based in fact.
And so my interpretation was that since the White House didn't want their narrative tampered with, and the Republicans didn't have one you could believe in, that there wasn't a story, because who knew or who knows or who knew what really happened.
Now, the my interpretation, my critical interpretation of this was based on the fact of my understanding of journalism.
My understanding of journalism is that it's not the role of any journalist to be concerned with carrying forward any politician's narrative, be it the White House or the Republicans.
My admittedly old-fashioned interpretation of journalists is that they don't trust anybody, that they especially are suspicious of people with a lot of power, that they will speak truth to power, that their objective here is to make sure that people with power don't run roughshod over everybody.
And what I heard him say here was he wanted to respect the White House narrative, which was a positive Al Qaeda narrative that they're on the run.
Okay, we are sitting out here realizing no, Al Qaeda is not on the run.
They did the attack.
That was not a conspiracy theory.
It was not a game.
It was not a made-up non-fact.
It has been admitted to, and it was admitted to before the election by the State Department, by any number of government agencies.
So the White House narrative was wrong.
But see, uh I interpreted Jacob Tapper as not caring whether the White House narrative was wrong.
What he was concerned about was not displeasing them on there.
That's how I that's what I heard him say.
And so that's essentially what I said yesterday, which resulted in a number of you tweeting him being critical of his comment there as I was.
So he let us know that he didn't like it.
He was unhappy with the response that my interpretation of his comment was creating.
But I just I just want to specify again here that uh I can understand Jay Carney, the regime's flack protecting the narrative.
But I thought that Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Chuck Todd, Brian Williams, I thought these guys were too instinctively not trust it, particularly when there was news out there that Al Qaeda's not on the run, they're building up that they did the attack.
So anyway, Jacob also has a book.
Uh it's called The Outpost, an untold story of an American of American valor.
And it explores the uh lives of troop brave troops and their families who toiled at a very vulnerable remote outpost, uh 14 miles from the Pakistan border.
That's why he's doing media appearances, because he's written the book and it's apparently very supportive of these uh uh brave troops and their and their families.
So I uh that that's why he's doing the what I I now that's Snerdley is asking me, well, what is the right interpretation of let's play it again.
I I don't I'll take a stab at the correct interpretation.
I uh my interpret is what it is.
Again, my interpretation is rooted in what apparently is a misunderstanding of the role of journalism or journalists today.
And by the way, very helpful for me to learn this.
And as I watch now the White House press corps deal like this President's press conference, and like I we've got soundbites for example, uh who what else?
So who was it?
Uh I for it was Dana Bash and and some other b uh uh talking about McCain and and Graham demanding a committee select committee to look into Benghazi, and they reported that it was Chuck Todd.
Chuck Todd expressed sadness that they hijacked Obama's first press conference.
He's great mood, he was going to be cooperative with the president.
These guys come along and demand the select committee on Benghazi, and it made Obama get mad and it was unfortunate.
So I that's not I didn't I just didn't know that.
I didn't know that journalists chose sides.
But anyway, here's here's Jake's.
Well, they they remember it was Dana Bash or somebody who said, oh, some Democrats center said, I can't wait for this, two old white guys attacking a black woman, Susan.
Well, clearly that's not what's happening here.
The people trying to get to the bottom, what happened to Benghazi?
We didn't make her secretary of or the UN ambassador, Obama did.
It's not our fault or anybody else's fault that she's black, but she does she is she immune from criticism because she's African American?
And I guess the answer is yes.
But that's another thing.
Here's Jake's CNN comment, Piers Morgan from two nights ago again.
As somebody who was uh covering the Benghazi story uh in the months leading up to the election, it was so politicized with uh the White House and the administration in a defensive crouch because they thought every word they said would be twisted and unfairly attacked, and they didn't obviously want to interfere with a positive narrative about Al-Qaeda and Republicans uh putting out conspiracy theories, um, some of them not rooted in any facts or evidence that it was tough to report on this.
Okay, so I guess the interpretation he wants is here's here's an actual attack that killed four Americans, and it's been so politicized that it's impossible to cover.
And let's step back.
It's impossible to cover because it's been so politicized.
Is that now my again if if that's the correct interpretation, what isn't?
My God, the media has publicized every event in the campaign.
How will this look for Obama?
How will Benghazi will it hurt or help Obama's re-election?
Not are there four dead amounts.
I still don't know what conspiracy theories the Republicans were talking about are.
Do you no, seriously?
Seriously, is there is oh, oh, that's right.
There were two theories.
One was the ambassador intended to get kidnapped in exchange for the blind shake, and the other one he was running guns to see.
Okay, okay, those two there were th there were two wild theories, but that those were fringe.
Though those those were not the fundamental things the Republicans were saying.
No, they weren't.
They were not offered up by elected officials, offered up by kooks wherever, and and who knows.
But the the Republican position on this was it was not a video.
It was an al-Qaeda attack, and four Americans are dead.
That's not Kook Fringe.
Anyway, uh Jake's book is the outpost, an untold story of American valor.
I gotta take a break.
We'll be right back.
Don't go away.
Okay, folks, the current Democrat talking point is that Susan Rice was reading unclassified talking points approved by the Intel community on television.
Reading unclassified talking points.
But isn't that the problem?
Nobody's going after Rice per se.
Everybody wants to know who told her to lie.
Because she was telling things that weren't true.
This is not an attack on her.
It is an attack on who told her to tell these lies.
Anyway, hope you have a great weekend.
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