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Jan. 30, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:39
January 30, 2013, Wednesday, Hour #2
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All right, hold on, folks.
Hold everything.
I am not criticizing Amazon.
I'm not ripping Amazon to shreds.
Don't call Jeff Bezos.
Well, call Jeff Bezos.
I don't care what you're doing.
I use Amazon like everybody else does.
I'm telling you, it's an object lesson.
Their profits are down 45% today, where they announced their quarterly earnings.
The stock price is up $14.
They're being praised in the media for losing money.
They're being praised in the media basically being a charity.
And they're being held out.
This is an object lesson.
It's an economics object lesson.
Given where we are in the country today, this is, you know, the Amazon story, you got to understand, tailor-made for low-information voters.
This story is tailor-made for what the left is trying to do in education when it comes to the economy.
You know as well as I do that profit is evil.
Capitalism is evil.
Barack Obama and the Democrats have sought to blame capitalism as the reason you don't have a job.
Capitalism is the reason your house is worthless.
Capitalism is the reason that you don't get a raise.
Capitalism is the reason that only 1% of the people have everything.
Then they were able to steal it from you because of capitalism.
Capitalism allows people to die.
It was capitalism that made Romney not care that some guy's wife died from cancer.
It was capitalism that had Romney putting his dog on the roof of his car during vacation.
It was capitalism that is the source of all evil.
Capitalism is the reason the country was unjust and immoral from the days of the founding.
They're teaching this.
It's not good.
It isn't healthy, and it's not true.
So when Amazon comes along and reports near-record losses and is held out as a great company and as a sterling example, and the stock price skyrockets, sorry, it gets my attention.
And then I see a story in slate.com where I say, you know, this is really good.
This is basically a charitable organization disguised as a company.
And they're making it possible for their customers to get things at very low prices.
And they don't need profit to stay in business.
This is really cool.
And it facilitates this desire of the left to discredit the greatest economic system ever devised.
It may not be perfect, obviously, but it's certainly better than socialism or communism or Marxism or what have you.
Certainly better than what Obama's attempting to assemble.
That's my only point.
I don't care if the media is what they are and if they're going to gather, if they're going to circle the wagons and try to use Amazon as an object lesson in classrooms and wherever else as a means of discrediting capitalism.
That's all I'm telling you.
As far as Amazon's concerned, I'm not ripping them.
A lot of companies would like to be in their shoes, lose money and the stock prices goes up, lose money and people invest, lose money, get praised in the media, lose money and said, this is the correct business model.
They're probably the envy of a lot of people.
Anyway, great to have you, El Rushbo back behind the golden EIB microphone here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
The telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
The email address, LRushbow at EIBNet.com.
This really happened today on Scarborough Show on MSNBC.
Christy Hefner, the former CEO of Playboy.
Christy Hefner, an associate of the Center for American Progress.
It's a big Democrat think tank.
Christy Hefner, former Playboy, daughter of Hugh, on Morning Joe Today and said this, quote, last year we hit a record number of murders from guns, and this year we're already outpacing last year's record number.
Now, there are contributing factors that are not under anybody's control.
It may seem odd, but it's factually true.
One of them is the weather.
There's a dramatic increase in gun violence when it's warmer, and we are having this climate change effect that's driving that.
Now, Chicago has had at least 40 murders so far this month.
Has it been really warm in Chicago?
Have we had unseasonably warm global warming weather in Chicago, or have we had a cold snap?
Regardless, you actually have a former CEO of Playboy claiming the murder rate is tied to global warming.
It's see, there's a reason why I always read the articles when I bought Playboy.
I never bought it for the pictures.
I bought it for the articles because I wanted to read great intellectual content like that.
Speaking of global warming, theblaze.com, Glenn Begg's website, the preliminary draft of a report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was leaked to the public earlier this month.
And now climate change skeptics are arguing that it shows evidence of 20 years of global warming overestimation.
This is the UN's own report.
This is not somebody's interpretation of it.
This is not some climate denier skeptic.
This is the UN's own Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has put together a report suggesting that 20 years of global warming has been overestimated.
Somebody involved with the IPCC review process reportedly leaked the draft, made it available for download online.
And the report shows that each of the four temperature models that the UN body has published since 1990 has overestimated the rise in temperature on Earth.
The report was not supposed to be released until next year, which gives them plenty of time to scrub it.
But somebody, this just like the emails at the University of East Anglia, somebody leaked those emails, which proved that this whole man-made global warming idea is a hoax, that data was falsified.
Certain data were ignored when it didn't fit the agenda.
The bottom line is there hasn't been any significant warming.
And even if there had been, it's not man-made.
The whole thing is nothing more than a hoax, and it has a specific purpose.
You know, I talk about how we're being whipsawed every day.
One year we wake up and going for our guns.
The next day we wake up and, oh, my God, we got to do immigration.
We've got to do it today.
We have to grant amnesty today.
Then the next day we wake up, the planet's being destroyed.
Oh, my God.
We've got to go out and buy Chevy Bolts today.
We've got to go buy hybrids today.
We've got to move into smaller houses today.
We have got to lower our thermostats today.
We have to pass this tax increase today.
And the next day we wake up and something else in the whipsaw cycle.
Every day, it's a new crisis, some sort of destruction, some new discovery of it.
Some everyday substance is a killer.
It never ends.
The country is being kept constantly on edge.
And global warming is just one, man-made global warming is just one of those many elements, the purpose of which is to make you feel guilty.
What was it?
Who was it on this football?
I forget the question.
Just Monday when I read this, I remember who said it, but all these head injuries.
Oh, it was Obama.
Obama, he wouldn't let his son Trayvon play the game.
Was Obama said, yeah, there's obviously we're going to have to make some changes in this game.
They're going to have to make it somewhat less exciting for the fans, but we're going to have to make it safer for the players, and we're going to have to do something to take away the guilty conscience of the fans who watch this game hoping for terrible injuries and terrible things.
Are they guilty conscious of enjoying a game where people could be severely injured?
We've got to change that.
It's the same thing here.
Why?
Okay, we have to grow government.
Government panel here.
We did a government commission here.
We've got to do something to study this or study that because people can't run their own lives.
They're not going to do the right thing.
Be it climate change, be it play football, be it own guns, be it handle the border, immigration issues, or whatever.
Every one of these things is oriented toward the expansion of government.
Every one of these issues is oriented toward getting you to feel guilty.
Climate change, your fault.
You destroyed the planet.
You drove that big car.
You drove that SUV.
You kept the thermostat low in the summertime.
You did.
But we have salvation for you.
Agree to tax increases and lowering your lifestyle to save the planet.
We will love you.
It's all a hoax.
A lot of these things are just manufactured, made-up hoaxes.
Try this.
From a website called Your Black World, NAACP leader says blacks are doing far worse under Obama.
NAACP leader Ben Jeus actually admitted that blacks are doing far worse under Obama.
Rare moment of honesty.
He made the comments on Meet the Press this past Sunday.
Now, 93% of the black population voted for Obama.
In a recent interview on Meet the Press, Ben Jealous, well, wait a minute now.
Wait a second.
Wait just a second, folks.
Just a second.
It says the MSNBC show Meet the Press, and there is no such show on MSNBC unless they replay it.
I better double-check this.
Because, you know, the thing about this, if Ben Jealous was on Meet the Press this Sunday said this, it seems to me, it's Wednesday.
It seems to me this would have made news.
And yet we're only hearing about it from some outfit called Your Black World, which I've never heard of.
So I'm going to double check this.
Because MSNBC does not have a show called Meet the Press.
That's on NBC.
And if Ben Jealous told the host black Americans doing far worse than when Obama took office, that would have made news.
Maybe somebody would have noticed it.
I mean, even if NBC didn't publicize it.
Anyway, we'll check that and get to your phone calls.
We take a brief timeout.
Don't go away.
Okay, story's true.
Found it in the Washington Times.
They do mistakenly say that David Gregory is the host of MSNBC's Meet the Press, but Ben Jealous did say it.
The country back to pretty much where it was when this president started.
White people are doing a bit better.
Black people are doing far worse.
NAACP President Ben Jealous, he's not only the president, he's a CEO.
And the story his day says maybe unwittingly said it.
Not sure that he meant to say it.
Well, not that he doesn't believe it, but that he perhaps didn't mean to say it.
It hasn't gotten any drive-by coverage because, of course, it's not helpful.
But it was, he did say it.
It was on Meet the Press, and it was on Sunday.
Okay, Joe in Atworth, Georgia.
Hello, sir.
Great to have you on the program.
Hi.
Surrounded Ditto's Rush.
Surrounded, Iophilia.
I know what you mean.
I think it's something that we got this number on the GDP a week after the inauguration.
Well, I know what you mean, but there's no way the fourth quarter what difference would it make if it came out before the inauguration?
It's nothing going to stop that.
Well, the numbers have been, I think they've been massaged all along.
I haven't seen an improvement since this all began.
Well, I am in Georgia, and Georgia is probably still reeling from real estate, but no action.
Do you actually think that federal agencies would manipulate and lie about numbers to cover up bad news to help elected officials?
Yes.
You really think that?
No question.
You have no doubt that that could happen.
How can you have a doubt?
They're from Chicago.
Yeah, I know.
They're from Chicago.
It is curious, isn't it?
I know what you mean.
Where's all this bad news before the election?
How come?
By the way, there is some news that has dramatically worsened since the election that could have been reported before the election.
I can't remember at the top of my head.
We've had a couple stories this week alone.
But the fourth quarter growth rate, there's no way they had that at 2.1%.
This is a hell of a revision, folks.
The projected fourth quarter growth rate was 2.2%, I think.
The Obama administration, in their economic documents that they've submitted, budgets and what have you, have forecast economic growth next four years to be anywhere between 3.5% and 4.5%.
And the fourth quarter last year projected to grow at 2.2, and maybe the preliminary number was that.
But here comes, here comes, it was 2.5, actually.
Now, here comes a contraction of one-tenth of a percent.
They're only off by 2.6% here.
That's a significantly lot.
That's a big percentage to miss, to be off.
Of course, the Democrats' spend today is that this is the best-looking contraction we've ever had because of the reason.
It's actually a good contraction, because this contraction is the result of spending that is helping people.
I kid you not.
You can look it up on Drudge.
It's on his front page.
To the top of his front page.
This is the greatest-looking contraction we've ever had because we've been spending money here.
It really helps people.
So what does it matter that the economy is not growing?
By the same, what does it matter that Amazon is losing money as long as customers are happy and as long as the investors are happy?
What does it matter that Amazon's losing?
So, what if the economy is shrinking?
We're taking care of people here.
That's what the Democrats' reaction to all of this is.
By the way, there are speaking of economic growth and the contraction, it's only going to get worse.
I mean, it's mathematics.
There are more tax increases coming.
And don't forget the Wizards of Smart at AP when they reported this contraction story today.
Let me find this for you.
This is too good.
This is too good.
Listen to this: the surprise contraction in the U.S. economy could raise fears about the economy's ability to handle tax increases that took effect in January and looming spending cuts.
So, here's the AP worry.
Oh, no, the economy is contracting.
Oh, my God, we might have trouble handling these tax increases.
Wait a minute.
I thought AP and other Democrats and liberals have told us that tax increases are good for the economy and that unemployment extension, benefit extension, good for the economy.
I thought that every dollar of unemployment compensation generated $1.73 in economic activity or growth.
And yet, with all these tax increases and all this unemployment compensation that we're paying, the economy contracted.
It shrunk.
And in the third quarter, July, September, the calendar third quarter, they reported the economic growth of the country at 3.1%.
So the calendar third quarter, we're down 3.2% just since September.
And so now AP, I love this.
The surprise contraction could raise fears, could, about the economy's ability to handle tax increase.
What they're really admitting here now is that they've known all along that tax increases retard economic.
Up, up, up.
Sorry, sorry.
Joe Flacco had to apologize for that word immediately.
I take it back.
I didn't mean to use retard.
Slow down economic growth.
I'm really sorry, but folks, I am terribly sorry.
I did not mean to use the word retard there.
I just meant slow down.
Okay.
They're admitting here that tax increases slow down the economy.
Now, all during the run-up to the election, they didn't say that.
The last four years, they never said that.
Oh, take it.
In fact, remember in 2010 when the Bush tax cuts were almost ready to expire, and Obama said, we can't let those tax cuts expire.
We would slow down the economy.
So every now and then, every now and then, the Democrats and the media will admit the truth about tax increases, that they slow down the economy.
Most of the time, they tell us how good they are, how fair, how necessary, because they're only on the rich, don't you see?
Yes, only on the rich.
And yet, every American is down minimum $100 a month because of the payroll tax increase that happened on January 1st.
Anyway, now they're worried.
There's a whole bunch of tax increases coming because of Obamacare, folks, and others, a whole bunch.
And the AP, oh, no, they're worried.
Can the economy withstand those taxes?
No, it can't.
Let me help them out.
It can't.
The mathematics is what it is.
I have a question, ladies and gentlemen.
The economic growth rate, reported anyway, by our government at the end of September was 3.1%.
At the end of the calendar, third quarter.
So after September, of course, comes October, November, December.
That's the calendar fourth quarter.
So from September to the end of the year, the economy went from growing at 3.1% to contracting by 0.1%.
So the economy fell 3.2%.
Now, what happened between October, November, and December that might have had something to do with this?
Let me think.
October, November, even December, you get Christmas and the holiday season.
That's supposed to be big for the economy.
They told us, ladies and gentlemen, we were told that after Obama won re-election, the economy is going to take off because uncertainty would be removed.
In fact, they said that one of the reasons the economy was sort of chugging, not really speeding along, was all the uncertainty over who was going to win the election and what policies would then flow.
But that after Obama won, that's the end of uncertainty.
Everybody'd know what's ahead and the economy would take off.
Now, obviously, Obama won election and the economy tanked.
Hmm.
Wonder why.
I mean, I looked over at TMZ, Entertainment Weekly.
I didn't see anything about the GDP contracting, by the way.
I've looked at the e-entertainment website, a number of low information.
Nothing there yet about the economy contracting.
Well, the only thing that's the big news over there right now is that Lindsay Lohan panicked on a first-class flight to Los Angeles.
Lindsay Lohan and her mom took the last flight out of JFK last night off to Los Angeles after being warned that she'd be a wanted woman if she was a no-show in court this morning.
Lindsay, who's not just broke but deeply in debt, waited in her car at the airport till the last minute and flew first class on American, landed around 12.30.
TMZ broke this story.
This is huge.
He said, Lindsay had no intention of showing up in her lying to the cops case, and she got a doctor's note, which was filled out.
And then Chris Humphreys is crying fraud regarding his so-called marriage to Kim Kardashian, and he's refused a $10 million payoff.
This is the news over at TMZ and the E-Entertainment.
Nothing about the economy yet over on those websites.
But the really big low information news right now is that Lindsay Lohan is in court even as we speak.
It has them all captivated out there.
So I don't know what happened between November, October and December to cause the economy to tank, but it did.
And by the way, I don't know if you've seen this story yet.
This is from the New York Times.
As workers open their W-2 forms this month, many are going to see a new box with information on the total cost of employer-sponsored health care coverage, health insurance coverage.
To some, says the New York Times, it's going to be a surprise, maybe even a shock.
Workers often have a little idea how much they and their employers are paying for these benefits.
In many cases, economists say workers give up cash compensation to get and to keep health benefits.
You know, I suspect one of the reasons for this is they're actually, your W-2 is now going to list.
It's going to have on it the cost of your health insurance that your employer is providing.
I think one of the reasons for this is to help convince employees that their employer-provided health insurance is not such a good deal after all.
That would be my guess.
There's a reason why the regime is doing this.
There's a reason the regime wants you to see right in front of you on your W-2 what your health insurance is costing.
And there's another reason for this.
That is not counted as income yet.
That's totally tax-free.
That's earnings to you.
That's income.
Just doesn't come as salary.
It comes in a benefit, but it isn't taxed.
I think this is a prelude for that.
Here's how that's going to work.
On your W-2, you're going to, if you look at it, you're going to look at it, you're going to find this box, and it's going to have the amount of your health care coverage.
Your employer is required to put that on there.
You're going to see it.
One of two things is going to happen.
You're either going to say, my God, this guy's not paying anything on me.
Or you're going to say, my gosh, I didn't know how expensive this was.
The next thing that's going to happen is that you are being set up for being told down the line when they get to this that that's too much income not to be taxed.
We're going to have to start taxing these benefits.
We're going to have to tax it as ordinary income.
And this is a setup.
This is the prelude, the slow walk to that objective.
If they just come out and say, oh, by the way, you know what?
Your benefits package, we're going to add it into your salary, you're going to pay taxes.
That wouldn't fly because Obama's promised people that isn't going to happen.
So you've got to walk this slowly.
You've got to get people accustomed to this.
And the first step to that is showing them how much it is, or in some cases, how little it is.
But what's going to happen here, ultimately, in addition to all that is that employees are going to see, hopefully, I mean, I think the regime's desire is that you looking at your W-2 will convince you that your boss is not really providing you all that much, that your health coverage isn't all that great, not as great as you thought it was.
Not such a good deal, after all.
That you might be better off just getting that as ordinary income and getting your own health coverage, say at a government exchange.
It could be a precursor, just surmising here.
Don't know, just guessing.
But it's there for a reason.
And it could well be that one of the desires is to eventually inspire you to go get your health insurance at the government because of some dissatisfaction for some reason with how much is being provided for you by your employer.
That is the ultimate goal of Obama and the Democrats.
We know that.
to beat or to cajole or to influence as many people as possible into a government-run single-payer system.
Now, these disclosures, this is part of Obamacare.
And it's another new benefit that people didn't know about.
It's one of these hidden factors in the 2,700 pages.
Employers now have to list how much they spend on an employee's health plan on the W-2.
Now, we were never told how much this is going to cost businesses to do.
Instead, the New York Times spends most of the time in this story shaking their heads over how much money insurance costs, as though they don't know.
Anyway, just get ready for it.
It's just another, and there are going to be hundreds of these, little surprises that pop up in the next year or two that are directly related to Obamacare that you haven't been told about.
That the law of the land, not much you're really going to be able to do about it.
And again, this W-2 requirement now, this listing was put in there by Obamacare.
It is part of Obamacare.
Brief timeout, my friends.
Back to you on the phones when we return.
Look at this headline on Fox right here.
They're discussing this.
Top frozen pizza makers accused of poisoning customers in class action suit.
And they're debating that right now, Fox.
No, no, no, I'm not suggesting you go the debate.
Why in the world would frozen pizza makers poison their customers?
Are they hoping to lose money and be considered a charity so that their stock price goes through the roof?
You average, your average low-information voter channel surfing happens to go by Fox.
Top frozen pizza makers accused of poisoning customers.
Yeah, that's right.
Exactly.
I know they do it.
That's exactly poisonous.
Makes all the sense in the world, doesn't it?
That a pizza company would poison its customers.
Damn right, it makes every bit of sense.
Let's just kill off all the customers.
Then who's going to buy our pizzas?
Mr. Limbaugh, it's just a lawsuit.
It's not really, it's just not government.
It's just a lawsuit.
It's just some customers.
Even so.
I mean, I know it's just a lawsuit, Mr. New Castrati, but that even adds to it.
Pizza makers purposely poisoning their customers.
Why would a food company do that?
Somebody tell me, I need to know what is the benefit in poisoning your customers and ending up in a lawsuit like this.
This says accused of poison, not accidentally.
It doesn't say that they're accused of poisoning customers.
That is an active occurrence, if you will.
It dovetails really well with the Democrats accusing Bush back then of poisoning the water.
Here's Albert in San Francisco.
Hey, Albert, maybe you can inject some sanity on this program today.
Hello, sir.
Hi, Rush.
How are you doing?
I'm doing well.
Thank you, Rush.
I had a question with regard to your interview yesterday with Marco Rubio.
The very first question you asked was a great question: why are you doing it?
And he went on to say, well, it's because of the media and the Democrats.
So my question to you is: hopefully you can answer this, and I know you can, is why is the GOP capitulating to the media and the Democrats?
And why isn't the GOP coming out with their own message?
And the second part of that is, why aren't the GOP talking about things that actually are important, like the economy, especially from what you spoke about today and what's out in the news is the economy is so bad.
So why are they, the two questions are, why is the GOP letting the media and the Democrats set their agenda?
They always do.
This really isn't new.
And I know how frustrating it is for you.
That's why my first question for Rubio was, why are we doing this?
Whose idea is this?
What I was really getting at with that question is: I'll tell you why we're doing it.
It's because the election, we got our clocks cleaned, supposedly.
And guess what the Democrats said and the media said afterwards?
We lost because Hispanics don't like us.
We lost because of our position on immigration.
We lost because of our position on amnesty.
We lost because Hispanics don't like us.
And so you, Republicans, you're going to have to change your ways.
You're going to have to do outreach.
You're going to have to reach out.
You have to make Hispanics love you.
And the Republicans.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And within the Republican Party, don't forget now, Albert, you have a bunch of rhinos, Republicans to name only establishment, moderate, liberal Republicans who agree with Democrats on this stuff.
What really is going on, I believe, at the Democrat Party level clearly is a desire to eliminate all effective opposition.
Now, for them, that means conservatives, conservative Republicans.
The Republican establishment wants to do the same thing.
The Republican establishment looks at conservatives as a thorn in their side, and they think that conservatives are the reason Republicans are losing elections.
Because if it weren't for conservatives, Hispanics would like us.
And if it weren't for conservatives, women would like us.
And if it weren't for conservatives, we wouldn't have any social issue problems.
So they happen to agree with the Democrats on this, which is a fool's game and it's folly.
Because do you really think the Democrats are trying to help us when they tell us why we lost the election?
You think they're really trying to help us win the next election by telling us what we have to do regarding Hispanics?
They know full well that if they can get the Republican Party to fall in on full-fledged amnesty, the Republican Party's finished because its base will abandon it.
Now, the Republicans have been reactionary like this for a long time.
It's not just immigration.
It's whatever.
That's my point about how we're being whipsawed.
The Democrats, global warming.
Okay, Republicans have to get in on the game.
The budget doesn't matter.
Well, we can do it better.
We can do it smarter.
The abandonment of conservative principles in exchange for Washington speak and whatever the ruling class inside the Beltway wants to do is what's taking place.
It's one of the reasons I was a little thrilled with Rubio yesterday because he was knocking out conservative principles one after another.
He was articulating them passionately.
Obviously, he didn't need a cue card to do it.
It's in his heart.
He was on his game in that regard.
But the reason that we're doing this is because the Republicans have been convinced that they lost the election because Hispanics hate them.
And the reason Hispanics hate them is because Hispanics think the Republicans want to deport them all.
Well, none of that's true.
But that's what the media and the Democrats have convinced the Hispanic population of believing.
The Republicans are going about fighting that all the wrong way.
If the Democrats own an issue like pro-choice, the Republicans are not going to get any pro-choice voters by moderating their position on pro-life.
It just isn't going to happen, but they think they can.
It's a pure defensive reactionary posture.
It is one that lacks confidence.
It's one that lacks trust.
And I think the confidence thing is really the big one.
That explains all.
I don't think the Republicans are confident of what they believe.
I don't think they're confident of what they believe in.
And I don't know that they do have a core.
I'm talking about establishment Republicans, the rhinos, not conservatives.
I just, I really do think it comes down to confidence and trust.
That I know that if you're not confident in who you are, if you're not confident in what you're doing as an individual in anything, then you're beating yourself up.
You're defeatist.
You're negative.
You're pessimistic.
And you're willing to accept lies as explanations for your predicament and so forth.
I don't think it's really any more complicated than that, just in a human nature way.
Still to come on the EIB network audio soundbites reviewing yesterday's appearance by Marco Rubio on this program about immigration reform.
More of your phone calls and still some exciting, fun stuff and the stack of stuff.
So you sit tight, folks.
Be patient.
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