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Jan. 21, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:41
January 21, 2013, Monday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24 7 Podcast.
Yes, America's Anchor Man is away, and this is your undocumented anchor man sitting in, Mark Stein, living in the shadows and loving it.
Breaking news, breaking news.
At this hour, the reimacculation of Barack Obama is underway in Washington, DC.
Just moments ago.
The President took the oath of office and solemnly swore to preserve, protect, and defend the executive orders he signed in the car on the way over.
He has now begun his inaugural address to his grateful subjects.
Minutes ago, just minutes ago, the president declared, quote, today we continue a never ending journey.
And that's just this speech.
Mike can we hear some of the President's speech?
He's still speaking.
Oh, that's okay.
That's enough.
That's enough.
We cannot walk alone.
You heard it first here, folks.
The President said we cannot walk alone.
We will bring you all the highlights of his speech.
As soon as we find one.
Let's see, uh let's have a bit more, Mike.
See if he's got another highlight coming up.
Our generation's task.
Oh, yes, it's now our generation's task.
Let's see if we can hit a cliche every time.
We'll never walk alone, and it's now our generation's task.
Wow, okay, but as I promised, we'll bring you all the highlights just as as soon as we can find.
We're combing the speech to find a highlight, and as soon as we find one, we will bring you it.
The Excellence in Broadcasting Network has spared no expense to bring you a ringside seat for all the coronation action.
So I'm coming to you live from Ice Station EIB in northern New Hampshire, just south of the Canadian border, where you get a terrific view of everything that's happening in Washington.
If you're fleeing the country, do drop in.
Uh we're always glad to see you.
You can't miss us.
There's a big sign on the interstate uh last rush guest host before the border.
Uh from New Hampshire, it goes to Mike and HR at uh EIB in New York, and then over to California and up to the satellites and out to the world.
Although I get the vague feeling that that some stations might have cut away to carry the first four hours of the inaugural address live.
But they'll be back with us and begging for mercy after much more of this stuff.
Uh if you can't find us at your normal spot on the dial, we are, I believe, on tape delay at uh WZZZ AM in Dead Moose Junction at two in the morning, so you can catch the show there.
But at any rate, you join us in mid-jubilation, and I know some of you may have a distressingly partisan view of the festivities in Washington, and you may not be on board with all the jubilation.
So look at it this way.
Today marks the midpoint of the Obama presidency.
In other words, this is Hump Day.
It's all downhill from here.
The midpoint of the Obama Presidency, at least until they repealed the twenty second amendment, in which case uh we may be only a third of the way through the Obama Presidency, or a quarter or maybe a fifth.
But at the moment this is officially Hump Day, and I love all the pomp and pageantry of this occasion.
We're just moments away from Beyonce singing the national anthem.
Uh and I've got a bet about whether she's going to be doing it straight, you know.
Oh, say can you see?
Or whether she'll be giving it the full Super Bowl half time melismatic overload.
Oh, say, can you see?
So I've got a bet on that.
Uh for the maximum number of vowel sounds that Beyonce can put in a one-syllable word from the national anthem.
So we're minutes away from finding out whether I've won that bat.
Chuck Schumer is the master of ceremonies.
He sounds like he's uh he sounds like he's auditioning for uh Darcy with the Stars, actually, the way he's been doing it.
Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the Chief Justice of the United States.
Uh and it may work.
I'd be glad.
I'd be glad if Chuck Thuba got the uh job at uh Dad said uh Dadswood with the Stars.
But he did manage to slip in a couple of tax increases uh during his introduction of uh the Associate Justice, Sonia Sotomayor.
So there is that.
Um the president uh looks uh very stylish this morning.
He's uh he's wearing coronation robes entirely made from food stamp debit cards, uh stitched together by longtime American ally Hosni Mubarak in his prison cell, and beautiful beautifully trimmed with with uh Joe Biden's hair plugs.
And uh and he's carrying his Royal Scepter with which he personally stabbed out Osama bin Laden's eye after kicking down the door of his compound in uh Abidabad.
And and he's tossing.
Oh, this is oh, this is so moving.
This is this is moving.
He's tossing from the Royal Coach at his loyal subjects trillion dollar platinum sovereigns minted at the U.S. Mint's new state of the art facility in Shanghai.
Oh, that's that's very me.
The coach itself, by the way, is being pulled by a team of eight geldings from the White House Press Corps with their with their beautifully be ribboned tails in the air.
They're very, very cute.
It's very, very moving.
Um if you're wondering why they're geldings, that's because the uh president announced over the weekend that because of the continuing economic difficulties faced by Americans, he thought it uh was appropriate to reduce the number of balls at the inauguration this time.
Uh one eight hundred two eight two two eight eight two is the number to call to tell us how you feel about today's stirring events.
We want to stay positive and upbeat and bipartisan today.
So call us about your hopes and dreams for the next four years.
Hopes, dreams, uh fluffy marshmallows, ponies unicorns, that's what we're all about today.
1800 28282.
Uh Lamar Alexander, who, as you remember, is one of one of many failed Republican presidential candidates in the crowd today.
Lamar Alexander, as he pointed out just uh just a few minutes ago in his introduction.
Uh in other countries they don't have this kind of thing.
Uh do you know how unusual it is around the world for a new presidential term uh to begin uh as an act of peaceful democratic renewal?
In in Liberia, for example, uh President Charles Taylor began his term of office when his uh his his uh predecessor, Samuel Doe's political opponents caught up with uh President Doe, tied him to a chair, sliced off his ears, and fed them to President Doe live on camera.
But the lads kept the best bits for themselves because they removed his excellency's genitals and then fought over them in the belief that the powers and manhood of the person whose private parts you're eating are transferred to the uh to the eater, to the new leader.
I mean, imagine if it was like that in Washington, and uh, you know, Barack Obama was up there triumphantly eating Mitt Romney's wedding tackle.
I mean, it just wouldn't be the same.
Um, although I do believe uh Harry Reed is having uh John Boehner's private parts as an hors d'oeuvre at the uh at the inauguration lunch.
Anyway, Chuck Schumer is speaking again.
Now can we hear a bit of uh Chuck Schumer old old Chucky?
Well, this is Kelly Clarkson.
Oh, by the United States Marine Band.
Okay.
Here's K here comes Kelly Clark.
Is she gonna do my grown-up Christmas list?
I hope so.
What's what's she gonna do?
My growth Christmas list, let's hear it for Kelly Clark.
Give it up, as Chuck Schumer says, for Kelly Clarkson.
That's my grown-up Christmas list.
Beat the intro.
What's what song is this?
Uh let me see.
not, I know my country tisily, my country tisily.
a bit mid-term elections by the time we get to the vocal on this Sweetland.
Okay, that's enough of that.
That's enough of that.
I didn't have they changed the lyric.
I I could swear, wasn't it originally, God save our gracious Queen?
What's happened?
They changed the lyric or something on that?
Anyway, that's Kelly Clarkson.
We're moments away from Beyonce, singing the national anthem and the ceremonial consumption of uh John Boehner's Private Parts by Harry Reid.
A lot of lot of things to look forward to.
But there are real important political developments going on today.
It's not just meaningless ceremonial.
There is important breaking news.
Uh the president over the weekend uh said I love Michelle Obama.
And to address the most significant event of this weekend, I love her bangs.
She looks good.
Uh Michelle Obama has had new bangs uh made for the inauguration.
Joe Biden, by the way, has also had new bangs for the inauguration, but in keeping with his gun control proposals, his maximum capacity is ten bangs at a time.
That's the maximum you're allowed.
But Michelle Obama's uh new bangs are having spectacular impact.
They're they're the big takeaway uh for the inauguration.
It's uh it's her birthday on Thursday.
And she's and she's got these fabulous new bangs, and that is going to be on the cover of every magazine.
That is going to be what's uh what's leading the news.
So we will talk about all the critical issues.
Don't let don't let downers and losers and embittered bitter clingers tell you that the uh important issues are uh the second amendment or drowning in multi-trillion dollar debt, uh, or the golfer Phil Mickelson uh deciding that he's going to give up golf because he knows it's want to pay a sixty-two percent uh tax rate, which is what he'd have to pay in in California.
Don't think about taxes, don't think about drowning in multi-trillion dollar debt.
Uh don't think about uh what happens to you if you're rescued by Algerian special forces.
Don't think about any of that downer stuff.
The real important critical takeaway of this glorious day is that Michelle Obama has the most spectacular new bangs, and that's what we're celebrating.
That's what we're celebrating uh today.
Uh Michelle Obama's spectacular new uh new banks.
Can we hear any more?
Uh can we hear any more?
Any what's what's going on at the Oh, that's great.
We we unfortunately we miss Kelly Clarkson's song.
How did that happen?
Honestly, anyone would think we'd timed it that way deliberately.
That's a round, but let's have some more from Chuck Schuma.
He's my favorite so far.
Let's see.
Uh let's I think is he gonna is he gonna pull the old Simon Cowell?
No, he's our next distinguished guest is the poet Richard Blanco.
Oh no, no, okay, that's enough, Mike.
That's enough, Mike.
I've got his I've got the text of his poem, by the way.
Uh it's I believe that children know our future.
Teach them well and let them lead the way.
Show them all the beauty they possess inside.
It's profound and moving stuff.
But we can't, unfortunately, we got a cut away for the ceremonial poem.
Uh Mark Stein Inforush, Rush.
I don't know f for what reason, but Rush decided to take this day off.
He'll be back here live tomorrow, but in this in the meantime, doing the jobs that Americans won't do, like filling in for rush on inauguration day.
It's your undocumented anchorman, Mark Stein, back with more of the Excellence in Broadcasting Network right after this.
Mark Stein in for us on Coronation Day in Washington.
Hey, hey, Mike, let's let's hear some more.
That poet guy is going long.
His poem's still on time.
Stitching another wound or uniform.
The first brush stroke on a portrait, or the last floor on the Freedom Tower, jutting into the sky that yields to our resilience.
One sky toward which we sometimes lift our eyes, tired from work.
Yeah, some days.
One sky toward which we live.
The poet, the poet guy is going long.
The thing's overrunning now.
Obama was uh a model of concision compared to the poem guy, who was supposed to, as Mike was saying, he was just there was a young man from Nantucket, and it'd be uh out of there in five lines.
And the guy's now just the whole thing's the whole the lunch will be late and everything.
The whole thing's running long now.
Chuck Schumer's gonna give him the hook uh if he if he if he's not off there.
But he's still he's still carrying on the poem guy.
We're covering live the inauguration.
They spared no expense.
Uh I'm up here in Northern New Hampshire where uh with the telescope, I have a great view of what's going on in Washington.
People are being let's hear some more of this poem by people are having one moon.
Yes.
Okay, we're with you that.
We're uh we agree.
I tell in the bipartisan spirit, I agree.
One moon.
That's right.
Okay, there's one moon.
What else has he got to say, Mark?
Let's hear some more.
Hope.
A new constellation.
Oh no.
Waiting for us.
He's out, he's lost it.
He's out in space.
Okay.
He's floating around Uranus somewhere.
I don't know.
I don't know what he's uh I don't know.
Uh he's still he's still speaking.
Okay.
Oh no.
Oh no, the poem the the poem got the hook.
We didn't get to hear the last six verses of the official presidential poem.
And now here we go.
Here is Chuck Schumer, Master of Ceremonies again.
Let's hear it for Chuck.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my privilege to introduce Reverend Dr. Luis León to deliver the benediction.
Thank you.
Okay, we'll come back to we'll come back to this uh a bit uh a bit later because I I thought we were going to go to Beyoncé singing the national anthem, because I've got a uh I've got a a bet on that as as to whether she's uh gonna do it straight or she's gonna do the big melismatic overload.
Now we've already had some analysis of the presidential inaugural address.
Uh and it says this that it was at an eighth grade reading level.
Uh it was specifically um a uh it it was the fourth lowest uh level of any State of the Union uh uh since nineteen thirty-four.
I beg your pardon, this is the uh this is yeah, this is Oh no, this was last year's State of the Union.
I thought we were getting I thought we were gonna get a a comprehension guide for the I thought they'd already done it, but no, this is the University of Minnesota's smart politics blog uh that has graded every speech.
Uh for example, his uh his 2011 address was an 8.1.
He went up to an 8.8 for his 2010 State of the Union address, and he went down to an 8.4 for his 2012 State of the Union, which was the fourth lowest of any State of the Union uh since 1934.
They break these things down by our uh the number of words they average per sentence.
Um his inaugural address in 2009 uh was also at an eighth grade compared to uh Abraham Lincoln's, which was at the just shy of eleventh grade, which was also the same with uh FDR's for freedom speech.
Uh so what we're what we're interested in here is finding whether we can actually identify he may be the first president to go below an eighth grade reading uh comprehension on his uh on his speeches.
Because this one is certainly uh keeping it in the vague and general sense.
So we're gonna we're gonna try and see if we can get a definitive reading on the uh on the speech.
But he actually finished the he wrapped up the speech early.
It's it's uh a first time he kept it.
I think he started early because Chuck Schumer's been running a tight ship on this, and he wrapped it up early.
And so the uh the the takeaway from the coronation festivities so far is that we are continuing a never-ending journey, and certainly the poem we just heard selected highlights from uh uh accorded with that.
And I believe that as soon as we have heard the national anthem now from Beyonce, uh that the whole thing wraps up and they all go to lunch uh and that and that is out uh it is it over and out.
But we are in the beginning of the we are on hump day in the Obama presidency, halfway house, it is all downhill uh from here.
And uh and uh I would be interested, by the way, in hearing your thoughts on what the United States is likely to be like in 2016.
Uh New York Post yesterday, John Pod Horitz was writing about how if Obama ends his presidency in twenty sixteen, successful and popular, he will be the most consequential president uh since FDR.
And he will have shifted permanently the direction of this nation.
It will the the old stuff about how this is a basically a right of center nation and everything will no longer apply.
Uh it will be a left of center nation.
It will be indistinguishable in its view of government from most European nations, and uh he will have he will simply by that fact he will have completed uh the great project of liberalism through the twentieth century, from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to LBJ, and now to Obama.
And uh that is not a small thing.
So in other words, if you think if uh w what will count in the next four years is the point at which uh ordinary people, the low information voters as Rush likes to call them, turn against uh the president.
If he ends his presidency discredited and unpopular, as George W. Bush did, uh then uh then that will be very different from if he ends it as a successful, uh popular president, and basically one who has shifted this country permanently and irreversibly.
Let's go back to Chuck Schumer.
Here's Chuck Schumer uh winding up the thing.
Accompanied by the U.S. Marine Band.
Here's Beyonce Blowing the National Anthem.
Please remain at your place while the presidential party exits the platform.
Okay, here's Beyoncé.
to sing the national anthem of the united states of america Let's see if we can get to the first word before we go to break.
Oh, say can you see By the dawn turn Oh, that wasn't too bad.
Lots more on the Rush Limbaugh Show still to come.
Rush Limbaugh Show Oh.
Beyonce, Beyonce, uh doing the Star Spangled Banner.
And uh and bringing to an end the coronation fair for the moment, the coronation festivities of President Obama.
She didn't I was disappointed.
I was hoping we were going to have like the full uh Christina Aguillera at the Super Bowl, where you get, you know, uh the bre uh uh Ave is like a thirteen syllable word.
So I felt I I was disappointed.
Uh Kelly Clarkson goes through to the next round of inaugural idol, and uh that will be the same time next Monday.
So look for that on this fine station.
Uh President Obama has uh taken the oath of office, pledging uh solemnly swearing uh to uphold the executive orders that he signs.
And he has now gone for lunch.
There will be, of course, many inaugural balls tonight, although fewer inaugural balls.
He decided that uh as uh because of the economic situation it would be appropriate for America to have less balls, fewer balls this time around.
So uh America you may find that there aren't uh as many balls as there were.
But if you're if you still haven't picked out yet which ball to go to.
American inaugural ball prices have been slashed by 50%.
Everything must go.
Uh the the inaugural ball ticket prices have been uh cut by up to 50%.
So you could get a great bargain.
Uh if it yeah, half half balls, half off.
Same number of balls, but just at half price.
Balls half off.
As that sounds like for some reason that sounds like Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor to me.
I don't know why.
Don't want to thinking of.
Uh the balls that are uh taking place in Washington tonight.
If you still haven't decided which ball to go to, the National Association of Minority Government Contractors, inaugural gala, they're having one.
Um the National Bar Association is having an inaugural ball.
They the men will all be decked out in their most expensive suits.
So you'll in you'll enjoy that one.
Uh the Dream Moving Forward, inaugural gala.
Patty LaBelle is oh now Patty LaBelle, if Paddy Labelle had done the Star Spangled Banner, you'd have had the full melismatic overload on Os uh can you see?
So we got uh Patty Labelle, the Black McDonald's Operators Association inaugural ball.
That's at the City Club of Washington.
The Baltimore Washington Black McDonald's owner operator association inaugural ball.
Uh tickets are two hundred and fifty dollars.
I don't know whether are they half priced now?
Well, that's a that's a lot of big Macs.
Uh uh, yeah, that's they get you get you you get breakfast with that, two fifty dollars.
That includes the uh sausage at Egg McMuff.
That's a happy meal.
There's like a Barack Obama toy in there, I think.
Uh and then the Muslim inaugural gala, that's at uh Eastern Markets North Hall, the Muslim inaugural girl.
I I believe that's bring your own bottle, though, that one.
Uh the Muslim inaugural gala.
So there's lots of the out for equality inaugural ball at the uh at the Mayflower.
Uh with uh Cindy Lauper.
So there's all kinds there's all kinds, and then and tickets are half price off, because for some reason nobody's uh nobody's picking up the it's not exactly uh sell out capacity this.
So if you haven't yet, if you're if you're thinking I don't know whether I'm gonna go to an inaugural ball, give it another couple of hours and prices will be seventy-five percent off.
So by the time these guys are out of lunch, you'll be able to get eighty percent off of the tickets uh and uh and they'll be uh they'll be papering the room, as they as they say on Broadway.
Uh so we will bring you we will bring you expert analysis of the important developments uh from today's inaugural festivities.
The big story, of course, is that the President loves the first lady's new bangs.
Uh the the uh the the first lady has had some new bangs to celebrate her forty-ninth birthday, and President Obama has given the the new first ladies the the first lady's new coiffe his mark of presidential approval.
So i this is why you need to listen to the Rush Limbaugh Show, because this is the most important break in news story of the day.
This is what they're going to be leading with on the ABC News, CBS, NBC, CNN.
The President loves Michelle Obama's new banks.
Um John Kerry has uh Senator's issued, who's the incoming uh Secretary of State, has said that uh he's already well familiar with scary bangs because he served in Vietnam.
So that's the official John Kerry response to the First Lady's new haircut.
Uh the President gave a speech uh and he said uh we the people declare today that the most evident of truths that all of us are created equal is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall.
So uh a little bit the uh the speechy writer guys are working a little bit over time on the old alliteration there, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall.
Uh Decisions are upon us, he said, and we cannot afford today today.
We cannot afford delay.
We cannot afford to day, day, today, today.
For for now, decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay.
We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name calling as reason debate.
We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.
We must act, knowing that today's victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years and forty years and four hundred years.
Okay, we get the idea.
Anyway, he said he's gonna get to the policy stuff in the in the State of the Union.
Uh but and in credit and in fairness to the president, this is one of his shorter speeches.
Uh because the thing actually, if the poet, if the poet guy, the guy who was talking about the sun and the moon and the new constellations, if the poet guy hadn't overrun, this thing would have wrapped up, actually wrapped up early, which is not something you can say often about a Barack Obama event.
Uh so we'll be we'll be uh delving into all the uh analysis of the uh of the uh uh of the the presidential inauguration.
But news goes on.
News does not stop simply because the president has taken the oath of office.
So we're also covering the other top stories.
Uh Michelle Obama, for example, uh it's it's not yet known uh the fashion designer who has designed her ball for the inaugural, the official inaugural ball.
I'm not talking about the uh whatever that were one is, minority government contractors association inaugural ball.
I don't know whether she's going to that one, but the official inaugural ball, um she it is not yet known who will be designing Michelle Obama's dress for that.
So we will try wait, we've got our investigative reporters working on that, and we will try to find out just as soon as we can.
I mentioned Phil Mickelson, the golfer, who's hinted that at moving away from California, perhaps the United States and me maybe even away from golf as he seeks to escape punitive tax rates.
You remember uh a lot of fellas doing this around the world, Gerard Depadeur, the the great Gallic actress Actor, not actress.
The great Gallic actor who uh romanced uh what was it, Meg Ryan in Greencard all those years ago, uh, when the French introduced the 75% tax rate, he moved to Belgium.
Phil Mickelson resides in California, and he does not want to pay sixty-two percent on his taxes, which is what he'll be saying if he he'll be paying if he continues to be a successful golfer living in California.
Sixty-two percent tax rate.
That's with the changes at the federal level and California's changes in tax rates.
And by the way, this is a question that uh that people need to ask more often of people like Chuck Schumer.
Chuck Schumer's just said uh that he thinks passing a Senate budget would be an excellent opportunity to slip in a couple of extra tax increases.
And the the question for Chuck Schumer is what is the appropriate marginal rate of tax?
Now, Phil Mickelson doesn't want to pay sixty-two percent.
Gerard Depatier doesn't want to pay seventy-five percent.
What is the appropriate level of taxation that the rich should pay?
Is it sixty-two percent?
Is it seventy-five percent?
Is it eighty percent?
Is it eighty-three percent?
What tax rate is a fair level of taxation uh for the most successful members in uh our society.
What is it that they should be paying?
Uh we'll talk about that, and we'll talk about all the other developments from today's exciting coronation festivities when the Rush Limbaugh Show continues on this station in just a moment.
Hey, Mark Stein for Rush on Coronation Day.
Let's go to uh Diane in uh Aiken, South Carolina.
Diane, you're live on the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Hello, Mr. Stein.
It's very nice to talk to you.
Um I was listening to you earlier, and you wanted to know what all of us were going to do for the inauguration.
And I did not intend, never intended to watch it, but I did find out that it is National Squirrel Appreciation Day.
National squirrel appreciation.
So this is nationwide, it's not just South Carolina scrub.
No, it is national.
I looked it up.
I didn't believe it, but I looked it up and I thought, oh, what a wonderful way to uh celebrate this day watching squirrels bury nuts.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, I believe that that squirrel in South Carolina I think that squirrel uh that squirrel in your yard in South Carolina, he has got uh almost as many nuts as uh MSNBC's prime time lineup.
So that's the one.
Oh no, we're we're saying down here.
Okay, so you're watching you're watching well uh and I in some ways I don't know why, but it's somehow appropriate that when uh when uh President Obama says there's fewer bulls in Washington, it's good to know there's a squirrel hoarding nuts in South Carolina.
It all evens out.
It's one of those reverse chaos uh theory types things.
But I did not know, Diane, that it was National Squirrel uh appreciation uh day.
I did wonder why uh why uh why Joe Biden was wearing that uh dead pelt on his head.
And uh and now I know that it's of course it's a gray squirrel yeah he shot with a fewer than ten bang capacity uh weapon in Aiken, South Carolina.
Thank you.
Thank you for your call.
National squirrel appreci Well, uh I don't know what all the others are going, but we are gonna we are certainly gonna go big on the National Squirrel Appreciation uh appreciation day here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
Thank you for your call, Diad.
Let us go to Tim in Astoria, Oregon.
Tim in our yeah, in Oregon.
Yeah, I thought it was Astoria, Oregon.
What's the town in Oregon?
I'm I'm Yeah, you're right.
Oh, I'm right, Tim.
Hey, great to have you with us.
I'm I'm dealing with the technologically primitive system.
These the uh delirious coverage of the inaugural festivities has overloaded our call screen and uh and left us working in primitive fashion.
I appreciate the levity this morning.
Um helping us get through it.
But the what I was wondering is is there uh I'll be looking for an end to the um never-ending journey.
I don't when I listen to him today, it just uh it's stomach churning to listen to because he's talking about he said that our founders, you know, made a great declaration, but then we found out, you know, poor people needed help, and we found out that uh you know, we gotta have roads and stuff like that, and you know, we gotta have health care and things like that.
So we remade ourselves.
I mean, that's paraphrasing that's that's really how we started out a speech.
And what I'm wondering is we know that.
We know that we are centralized government, more spending, more debt is liberal agenda.
We know that.
But what I'm looking for this next four years is an alternative, because we didn't have an alternative this last time.
I mean, they're uh they're basically saying yes to all of those things, just that we'll do less of it.
Yeah, I mean, there's basically two two theories here that you can go over the cliff full throttle, which is the Democrat model, or you can go over the cliff in third gear.
Uh and it doesn't actually make any difference on your never ending journey, as uh the president put it.
You still you still come to to rest at the bottom of the abyss.
So it doesn't really make any any difference.
And you're right that the Republicans, uh the Republican nominee specifically, chose to play small ball.
Uh that he he he simply chose to offer a very narrow vision focused on uh p the the the temporary state of the economy as opposed to the bigger fundamental issues.
And his clever advisers, his handsomely remunerated consultants, all told him that was the thing to do in order not to scare m uh a select sliver of uh approved swing voters in southern Ohio and Florida and New Hampshire and a couple of other states, and it didn't work.
And so the lesson if you want to change the direction of this never ending journey, Tim.
I think the Milton Friedman lesson is always the most important.
You change the minds of the people.
Uh you you you you make it difficult.
You may you you don't wait to elect the right people to office.
Uh you create conditions whereby the wrong people are forced to do the right thing.
That's what happened in in Canada during the nineties when it had a solid liberal government.
The Conservative Party was destroyed.
They were reduced to two seats in Parliament, wiped out.
But nevertheless, the Liberal uh the Liberal Party wound up actually paying down the national debt uh because uh the the mood in the country was such uh that that uh that that in essence they couldn't afford to let anybody get to their right and do that.
And you have to uh and at some point that's I mean I I know that's setting the bar pretty low.
If only we could get uh American Republicans to show the same uh rectitude as Canadian liberals, that's setting the bar about as low as you can go.
But it it it demonstrates the most important point that in the end the people are the break on this.
And Obama has made a bet that the people will go along with government health care.
The people once you get people used to this spending, then the next step w which we'll follow, which is getting them used to the taxation to support it, will follow will follow naturally.
And the way to end uh to go back to your point, Tim, the way to stop this never-ending journey, the way to pull off uh on one of the exit ramps and go over the bridge and come back and heading back uh on the journey in the direction of sanity is to change the disposition of the people.
We gotta get better at this.
One thing that's actually quite cunning in that inaugural address, which was bland unmemorable PAP, but he did that thing uh that that liberals do very well, which is they yoke the founders of this nation, the founders of a republic of limited government and self-reliant citizens, and somehow make it sound as if all those if if if all these guys were around today, uh they'd be in favor of uh Medicare and Obamacare and big government as far as the eye can see.
And the idea that Madison and Washington and Jefferson under any circumstances would be sitting around in Washington uh today thinking about how to expand the food stamp program is completely ridiculous.
But they uh he du he did that same job that Democrats do very well of uh yoking the founders of this nation uh to the argument for big government.
And we gotta have an argument that actually that actually skewers that uh and drives a dagger through it uh and and points it out for the absurdity it is.
Because that's we're not gonna have a major we're not gonna have a president, we're not gonna have a Republican Senate in uh i we're not gonna have we've got a Republican House, although whether we'll even have that in 2014, who knows.
So the thing to do is to is to start with three hundred million people uh and and create the conditions where they cannot pull this stuff.
Gotta go, Tim.
Thank you for your call.
More in a moment.
More in a moment.
National Squirrel Appreciation Day in the United States.
It's also hump day for the Obama presidency.
It's all downhill from here.
We will keep you up to date with everything that's happening.
Katy Perry is going to be performing at the uh the official inaugural ball uh later today.
I believe I believe she'll be singing uh I kissed a republican and I liked it.
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