Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
And hi, folks.
Greetings to you, music lovers and thrill seekers and conversationalists on across the fruited plane.
While I might sound as though I am filled with boundless energy, I'm dogging it today.
I am zapped.
It hit me about an hour ago.
I don't know why.
I got my usual three and a half hours sleep last night.
I got bounded out of bed today, got up there, fed pumpkin three times.
That cat's getting finicky and says she won't.
I have to put food in the bowl after every two bites.
The food gets old after two bites.
I have to constantly sit there and say, I did that.
And I went and did the Shav Shar routine business, got in here, been engaged in Shopping.
But an hour ago, a wave of fatigue just swept over me.
And sometimes, folks, when that happens, it could be lights out fun.
Never know.
Telephone number 800-282-2882, the email address, LRushbo at EIBnet.com.
Have you heard our good buddy Mahmoud Ahmedini Zad, the president of Iran, has told the editor-in-chief of an Egyptian newspaper that Iran is now a nuclear state?
For those of you in Rio Linda, that means they, well, at least they have nuclear power and they might have a bomb.
And I think Ahmedini Zad means they've got a bomb.
What difference does it make now?
You note that Ahmedine Zad waited until Hillary left before he announced this.
I mean, he's heard about her lockbox, a testicle lockbox.
So he waits for Hillary to split to make this announcement.
We have nothing to worry about, folks.
We do have Hillary gone, but we still have Obama and Biden and John Kerry and Chuck Hagel on the job.
Can't help but feel safe with those guys standing watch over you.
And besides, as Kerry, who's the Secretary of State, Chuck Hagel, you know, I read today that he's a shoe-in for confirmation despite that pathetic, dismal performance at his confirmation hearings.
I've heard that he's a shoe-in for Secretary of Defense.
They've both said, hey, who are we to judge?
Who are we to say some state can't have a nuclear weapon?
What if somebody in the world told us we can't have one?
What will we do to them?
Well, we'd probably apologize and give it away.
But no, that's what they've said.
Who are we to judge?
It's Iran's right to pursue nuclear power.
In fact, the general tenor of the whole Obama regime has been better them than us.
Look, if Obama wants to take our nuclear warheads down to zero, why shouldn't Iran ramp up?
It'll only make things even for all of the unfair advantages that we have had all of these years since our founding.
Folks, they're getting, oh, did you hear about this?
A couple of kids, a couple of teenagers were playing tug of war and they lost their fingers.
Have you ever heard of anything like this?
A simple length of rope tore off the fingers of two teenagers during a schoolyard tug of war, which was staged to boost spirit on the campus.
The boy and the girl had stable vital signs.
After undergoing hours of surgery, no information was disclosed on whether doctors reattached their fingers.
Sheriff's Sergeant Jorge Marquena told the AP the girl lost three fingers on one hand and two fingers on another.
The boy lost four fingers from one hand.
And they're trying to figure, honestly, they're trying to figure out how that happened.
Why didn't they each lose the same number of fingers?
I kid you not, it says here the discrepancy could not be immediately resolved.
I'm not kidding you.
They're looking for fairness and equal distribution in the loss of fingers as they examine what happened.
I'm not making this up.
Sheriff's Sergeant Jorge Marikena told the AP the girl lost three fingers on one hand, two fingers on another, while the boy only lost four fingers from one hand, but no fingers on the other hand.
What happened?
How come the girl lost fingers on both hands and the guy didn't?
They're trying to get to the bottom of it.
The medical center spokesman said they're awake and they are alert and parents are at their bedsides.
The girl's a senior in varsity soccer.
See?
Soccer player, dangers of soccer, soccer player, and the boy is a football, see, football player, soccer player, football player, innocent game of tug of war, fingers missing.
I wonder if Obama would let his imaginary son play tug of war now.
Have you ever heard of anything like this?
By the way, I mentioned the other day that Governor Christie, New Jersey, went on David Letterman's show, and I just accidentally happened to see it.
I turned on the TV and it was still set to the CBS network for having had the Super Bowl on.
And I haven't seen Letterman in 10 years.
And he was wrapping up his interview with Joe Flacco, the winning quarterback of the Super Bowl.
And he promoted Christie coming.
I said, well, I'll stick around.
I'll watch this.
And the first, it was a two-parter.
I think I watched the second part.
The first part was all fat stuff.
Christie comes out, starts eating a donut while Letterman's asking him if he ever thinks about going on a diet.
And Christie says, yeah, every day.
And Letterman won't let up.
Everything's fat this, fat this.
What do you do?
You're thinking about food all the time, whatever.
Anyway, this has spawned a tremendous amount of concern for Governor Christie and his health.
Last night on Anderson Cooper 360, he played part of an interview that Jim Acosta did with a former White House doctor, Dr. Connie Mariano.
And during the interview, a former White House doctor had this to say about Governor Christie.
I worry that he may have a heart attack.
He may have a stroke.
It's almost like a time bomb waiting to happen unless he addresses those issues before he runs for office.
He said, he said that his blood sugar was normal.
He said he's the healthiest fat guy that Letterman had ever run into and ever will run into.
But a former White House doctor, it's a ticking time bomb out there.
You heard it.
Well, yesterday in Union Beach, New Jersey, Governor Christie held a press conference about Hurricane Sandy.
And he said this about his weight and his ability to govern.
So far, up to 50 years old, I've been remarkably healthy.
And, you know, my doctor continues to warn me that my luck is going to run out relatively soon.
So believe me, it's something that I'm very conscious of.
But in terms of people in the state being concerned about whether or not it prevents me from being able to do my job effectively, I think they've seen the results of that.
Back to CNN this morning.
Starting point, Soledad O'Brien, soon to be moved out of there.
You haven't heard that?
Well, she's going to be reassigned.
It taken her out of the morning show.
You didn't, oh, yeah, you must not have heard this.
They got ratings information, Snerdley, and it says that, of course, every CNN audience is tiny.
It's microscopic.
But they dug deep and they found out the vast majority.
Well, somebody at CNN has denied this, by the way, but it was originally reported that they said her audience, in addition to being microscopic, is too ethnic.
It's like 10 black people watching and a couple of Hispanics.
I don't know.
Somebody went out there and they later denied this because their audience is too ethnic.
So, anyway, what they're thinking, they're going to move, they want to move Aaron Burnett, and I forget the guy they want.
They want a TV husband, a wife in there.
I forget who the guy is they want to put in there, but they want to move Aaron Burnett.
She's contractually committed to her seven o'clock show.
I don't think she wants to move.
So she could hold him anyway.
Soledad's holding down the fort with their two ethnic audience.
And she spoke with their senior medical correspondent, a woman named Elizabeth Cohen, about Governor Christie's weight.
Soledad O'Brien said, obviously, size is an issue.
Well, I guess we have the definitive once and for all answer to that perennial question.
Size is an issue, but he also ticked off the ways in which he's healthy.
His cholesterol is not high.
Blood sugar levels are not high.
On those two fronts, he's healthier than I am, Dr. Cohen.
That's true.
However, you're healthier than him because you are thin.
Just being heavy, even if your blood pressure is normal, even if your cholesterol is low, does still put you at a higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
Even though his blood pressure, et cetera, might be fine now, they might not be fine in the future.
We do have some data that looks at the morbidly obese and what their life expectancy is.
People who are morbidly obese, it cuts eight to ten years off of their life expectancy.
So for a man, it's about 76.
So it would cut it down to, let's say, about 66.
There's people at both ends of the spectrum comparable to the effects of smoking.
These people have all got Chris Christie dead and buried.
He's already gone.
It's just a matter of time.
As though he's the only person in America who's ever going to die.
But they've got him in the grave.
It's over.
Fait accompli.
Done.
Nothing you can do about it.
Well, I think there is a lot of concern because Governor Christie has shown signs of promise as far as the drive-bys are concerned.
He's not nearly the strident conservative that people thought he was.
And he never really was by the conservative, but because he took on the unions and took on some spending, he conveyed that he was very conservative.
But he's come out.
He loves Obama.
He's thanked Obama.
He's walked the beach with Obama.
They fixed Hurricane Sandy's aftermath together, all that stuff.
There's a lot of affection there for Governor Christie.
He's got a great future as a moderate.
I think they're genuinely concerned about it.
They don't want him to die.
And they're very, very, very, very much concerned about this.
They're all offering heartfelt advice.
I mean, it continued on ABC Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos, with the fill-in co-host, Amy Roebuck.
I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.
And some other correspondent.
And they talking about the conventional wisdom that Governor Christie will be more relatable to the American people should he lose weight in order to run for president.
That did work for Mike Huckabee when he was running for president, but he will.
And he knows it too.
If he wants to run, he's going to have to lose some real weight.
Yeah, he's going to have to lay off the donuts.
Yeah, yeah, you're going to have to lose some weight.
You have to lay off the donuts.
I'm fair to come.
Please, he can't run if he only got elected governor as he is.
And he's only got a 70% approval rating as he is.
But he can't.
Well, we have had fat presidents before, but not in the modern era.
The one thing Christie's got, the one thing that we'll never have is a bald president.
You're never going to have a successful bald TV anchor, and you're never going to have a bald president.
In the TV era, if you don't have a 14-inch part in your hair, you don't have a future in television or presidential politics.
That's why Bite Me doesn't have a prayer when you get down to brass tacks.
You don't have a prayer.
Not only does he not have a 14-inch part, he's got plugs.
He doesn't have a part in his hair.
And for TV info, guys, I mean, you might locally and tertiary weekend anchors.
I'm talking about the big guns.
Unless you got Ken Dahl kind of hair.
It's over.
Before you even start, don't even try.
Okay, so I'm being inundated with email from people.
Hey, wait a minute, Rush.
I mean, if they're going to say that Christie's life expectancy, his lifespan is going to be shortened 10 years, just the same as it is for smokers.
People say, why don't you talk about Obama?
He smokes.
I wouldn't mention.
I thought Obama quit.
Isn't that the news they put out that Obama quit smoking?
If he hasn't, if he's still smoking on the sly, then you'd have to say the same thing would apply to Obama as it would the weight thing applies to Governor Christie.
My question is: if you have a White House doctor, if a White House doctor calls you a time bomb waiting to happen, can Obama kill you with a drone?
You never know the way things are happening.
You know, Obama could only hear half of what's said.
Somebody said Christie's a time bomb waiting to happen.
I mean, that could be red flag for launch a drone.
You just never know.
President Obama's health care law.
We've got more health care news.
And every day we learn more about what an utter disaster this is.
What an utter disaster awaits us.
This is from the Washington Times, Stephen Dinan.
President Obama's health care law will push 7 million people out of their job-based insurance coverage, nearly twice the previous estimate.
And this, according to the latest estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, which they released a couple days ago, is this Wednesday or Thursday?
It's Wednesday.
This is yesterday.
Folks, you know all this.
I don't know whether you remember it or not, but all during the debate and the run-up to Obamacare, I mentioned to you what the ultimate objective of it is, and that's single-payer, government-run health care.
And they know they can't get there overnight by promoting that or putting that up for a vote.
And Obama admitted this.
We played the tape to his buddies at the Service Employees International Union.
And what he told his union buddies back in 2007, and we've aired this before, we aired it during the campaign.
Hello, information voters didn't care.
I don't know that too many people did either.
I don't think anybody really yet knows what is headed their way when this stuff hits.
But the president said to the union buddies of his, look, we can't do this overnight.
It's going to take 5, 10, maybe 15 years to ease everybody into this.
And one of the ways they're going to do it is simply make private health insurance, A, too expensive, and then B, unavailable.
And the only option people are going to have will be government-run options.
Now, the CBO did say during the debate on health care that a lot of employers would be likely to drop coverage because of rising costs.
They did say that, but they low-balled the number.
And when they put the number out, I forget what it was, but I mentioned to you over and over again that they're undershooting this because their objective is much higher than what they're admitting to here.
So now, now that it's implemented, now that the Supreme Court has given its stamp of approval, now that it can't be unraveled, now we get information that's closer to the truth.
Now, 7 million people are going to lose health insurance on the job simply because it's going to become so expensive that employers aren't going to be able to afford it.
And we've had a number of small business owners call here and say this very thing.
They're already laying people off.
People are already changing.
Business is already changing their structure so that they've got fewer than 50 full-timers.
People were cutting back hours so that more people are on part-time rather than full-time.
They're already making adjustments to avoid the coming high costs.
And so the CBO now says that Obama's health care law will push $7 million out of their job-based insurance coverage.
And it's going to be much higher than that when it's all said and done.
It's going to be everybody when it's all said and done.
For all practical purposes, employer-based health insurance as a benefit, 10 years from now, not going to exist if everything happens the way Obama has it designed, Obama and the Democrats.
That is the purpose.
So there's that.
Now, those 7 million don't know who they are yet.
So when you hear the news, you hear 7 million are going to lose their health insurance.
Hey, probably not going to be me.
I'll forget about it.
Isn't any big deal.
Nobody's going to be concerned until it happens to them.
And then you're going to hear them call here, and they're going to start to go, what is this?
I just lost my health insurance.
My employer just cancels it.
Yeah, told you that five years ago.
The CBO has also put out an additional set of numbers.
The CBO estimated Tuesday that Obama's signature health care law will now cost $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years.
Now, when this thing first was proposed, it was under a trillion, if you recall.
And they kept it under a trillion.
That was the magic number for everybody in the public to think it wasn't going to cost any additional money.
The Iraq war, that cost a trillion dollars, they said.
Well, we're going to end the Iraq war.
Loan, but we got a trillion dollars to spend.
Look at that, Mabel.
We're going to save a trillion dollars.
So transfer that spending to health care.
Deficit doesn't go up.
No new spending.
It's magic.
It never was true.
Congressional Budget Office estimates now that Obamacare will cost $1.3 trillion.
By the way, another way they kept this number low.
Remember, it's a 10-year plan, and the taxes start immediately, but the benefits don't kick in for three or four years, the spending.
So that's another way they kept the number artificially low.
Healthcare benefits don't kick in 2014, but the taxes started immediately.
They're already being collected now.
All kinds of games are played.
But now, now that nothing can be done about it, now the truth is slowly trickling out.
We'll be back.
We've got much more.
Don't go away.
No, no, no.
I haven't seen it.
I didn't bother looking it up.
I've just been told.
Now, I was just telling the highly overrated staff here that already, I mean, we're just six days into February, and I have already been named in the top 10 worst people in America by the Huffing and Puffington Post.
And this, while I'm attempting to adopt a lower profile to become less noticed, and it's not for last year, it's already this year.
It's actually 13 people, I'm told, that the worst people in America, I'm number 10.
That means, for the way I look at this, there is growth potential.
I have a chance to become the worst by the end of the year.
Not that I'm going to try.
I haven't tried to be number 10.
I don't try to get noticed.
But no, I haven't bothered to look it up.
Now, on this healthcare, actually, the original number was $900 billion.
And the Iraq war cost was a trillion.
We actually were going to save $100 billion by doing Obamacare.
Now they're saying that the overall 10-year cost is $1.3 trillion.
And that is going to escalate even more.
Now, this is a piece in theHill.com, and I'm not going to read a bunch of excerpts, but I'll just tell you this.
If you read to the middle of this piece, you'll find all you need to know about this supposed nonpartisan CBO.
Here's what it says: The CBO has concluded that Obamacare, in spite of its price tag, will ultimately reduce the deficit because of revenue raisers within the bill.
Whereas a House Republican bill to repeal the law would raise the deficit by $109 billion over 10 years.
You see, the cost of Obamacare, $1.3 trillion, will lower the deficit, but doing away with it would raise the deficit.
I kid you not, and that's what passes for nonpartisanship from the Congressional Budget Office, and it's what passes for news.
So we're going to spend $1.3 trillion that we don't have, and somehow we're going to lower the deficit.
If we had repealed it, i.e., not spent the $1.3 trillion, we would have raised the deficit.
I kid you not, don't doubt me.
That is what it says.
Now, it was just a couple of months ago that CBO came out and estimated Obamacare to cost $1.1 trillion.
Now they've found an additional $200 billion in costs that they had overlooked.
And I'm telling you, the number is going to continue.
We're not through with CBO numbers.
According to projections in this same CBO report that gives us the total cost of 1.3, the same CBO report that points out 7 million people are going to lose employer-based health insurance, comes this.
Entitlements and Obamacare spending will comprise 53% of all federal spending over the coming decade, totaling $24.9 trillion.
53%.
Is there an end to this?
Is there ever a tipping point on Obama spending?
Is there ever a point reached where it just can't be sustained?
That has to happen.
At some point, it has to happen.
Even the printing of money or the borrowing of money will not offset this.
The numbers don't lie.
The mathematics is what it is.
In an updated budget and economic outlook report released yesterday, the CBO projects that Social Security will account for $11.1 trillion in spending, while federal health care entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, will spend $13.8 trillion.
Then you add up all the other entitlements and you get to 53% of federal spending, which by definition can't be touched.
It can be, but by definition, an entitlement means it can't.
You'd have to write a new law, say, doing away with Social Security.
Of course, politically, you couldn't do that.
Over the next decade, the federal government will collect only $2.6 trillion in dedicated revenue for its, I want you to sit down for this.
Well, no, don't say that.
This is just a stunning number.
And this is why this is unsustainable.
And this is why this, at some point, we're going to collapse.
Over the next decade, we are going to spend $31.6 trillion in the entitlements and Obamacare.
Over the same 10 years, the government will collect only $2.5 trillion in dedicated revenue for that spending.
We're going to spend $31.6 trillion and collect $2.6 trillion to pay for it.
That right there is a $29 trillion deficit just over the next 10 years.
And of course, we're not through spending.
This administration, nowhere near wrapping it up on spending.
The inability of women in rural Egypt to clean their breasts is causing a diarrhea epidemic, according to the country's prime minister.
The prime minister was speaking about the spate of recent epidemics in Egypt's rural communities, and during his speech, he said he had witnessed children suffering from diarrhea immediately after they had been breastfed because their mothers were unable to clean themselves properly.
Is this the fruit of the Arab Spring?
Women's unclean breasts cause diarrhea.
This, according to the Egyptian government, the prime minister.
He added that many women in rural Egypt don't even bother to clean their breasts at all before breastfeeding their children.
Prime Minister made his remarks during a speech at a cabinet meeting.
Women members present were noticeably uncomfortable as he made the comment.
You know, these women just don't get it.
They ought to be quiet when men speak.
That's the way it is over there.
Obama has endorsed and embraced Egyptian President Morsi.
He knows what he's doing.
So I guess a PSA?
Who should cut the PSA to do this?
Obama should cut a PSA?
Oh, no answer.
Anyway, I just, I've never heard of this before.
In fact, you know who I'd put in charge of dealing with this?
Bob Menendez.
Finally, now we have a foreign relations issue that matches up with Bob Menendez's skill set.
You know, this prime minister of Egypt, he's the second in command over there, running around saying at cabinet members that women are causing diarrhea because they don't properly clean their vests.
Can you imagine the embarrassment having a second in command of your country who runs around saying stupid stuff like that?
Can you imagine, isn't it a good thing we don't have anybody like that here?
Oh, wait, we do.
Biden.
Well, Biden's a walking gaff, and this guy is a walking.
Look, I've got a quasi-related story, and I must admit, I am a little nervous mentioning this to you, but it's happening.
It's in Carson, California.
Story from last Friday.
You may have already heard it by now.
They've had to close a preschool.
Four and five-year-olds.
They've had to close a preschool because of student sexual activity.
Four and five-year-olds.
Shocking allegations of sexual activity among four and five-year-olds have come out of a local preschrule in Carson.
And the school is now shutting down.
Richard McCarthy.
Folks, look, I'm going to count down from five.
And if you don't want to hear any of this, then turn the radio off for about a minute because I'm not here to shock you.
And if you don't turn the radio down and this offends you, you can't complain because you've been warned.
Five, four, three, two, one.
If you're still here, you're on your own.
Richard McCarthy says that his four-year-old son often received oral sex at school from a five-year-old girl.
He told me about all the bad things that girl had been doing to him, said Richard McCarthy.
It went down in the classroom.
It went down in the bathroom.
It went down on the playground.
At least one other boy at the first Lutheran church of Carson School says that he also received oral sex from the same five-year-old girl.
The California Department of Social Services cited the school for at least one sexual incident between the kids, overall lack of supervision, and an improper teacher-child ratio.
Hell, you know, give them, let them play Army.
Give them, let them do something here.
Oh, no, we can't do that.
We can't have guys play with toy guns.
That's too dangerous.
McCarthy and other parents are now joining attorney Greg Owens' lawsuit against a scruple and against the church.
The scruel set to close Friday.
Parents say the girl accused of the oral sex is no longer at the school.
I know Snerdley's in there in a state of utter disbelief at the possibility of this, right?
We're talking five-year-old girl, four-year-old boy, and Snerdley's going, because he's an expert.
Snerdley's an expert in this.
He's going, wait a minute.
And he said, how is this?
How is this possible?
It's better than letting them play Army, folks.
It's better than letting them look at pictures of guns.
We know that.
That's the worst thing could happen at a school.
How can you, what do you mean?
How can you be this depraved at five years old?
How does a five-year-old girl know what this is?
Snerdley, come on.
Are you that naive that you don't know how a five-year-old girl would know what this is?
A five-year-old girl, if she knows how to get on the internet, can find anything.
Hell, watch cable.
And you can learn a lot.
That would not be my question.
Well, it's one of physiology.
We're talking a four-year-old boy.
Anyway, let me go to the phones.
I wanted to set up our first caller as a follow-up to that.
We'll start with Vinny in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Hey, Vinny, welcome to the EIB Network.
Great to have you here, sir.
Hey, thank you very much, Rush.
This is like the highlight of my life.
You bet.
And Snerdley's a peach, I tell you.
Look, my point is about income-based subsidies.
When you were talking yesterday about our neighbors subsidizing the people that are, say, 200% below poverty level, those neighbors, I'm concerned that they will be trying to modify my behavior or our behavior through Obamacare for any of us that do anything that's risky that would cause our premiums to be artificially higher.
For instance, smoking under Obamacare causes you to pay a higher premium.
So my neighbors that would be contributing, whether directly or indirectly, in the system, would be complaining that, why should I subsidize this guy?
He's a smoker.
You know, he's overweight.
Look, I don't think you have anything to worry about.
And I'm serious.
I don't think the people you're talking about are going to think they are subsidizing it.
They're going to think that the rich are paying for it all.
Wow.
They're not going to know.
They're not going to know what hit them.
Now, I've got to set the table what you're talking about because you're bringing up something from yesterday and people might not know what you're referring to.
Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, there was a story about the minimum cost.
We did this.
We've done it twice now.
The IRS has stated that the lowest available health care plan, the bronze health care plan in Obamacare will cost about $4,000 a person.
So that's $20,000 or $16,000 for a family of four.
That's the cheapest.
That's the IRS that put this out.
That's the cheapest cost for the cheapest health care plan once Obamacare is fully implemented.
Now, there are subsidies for people.
I mean, if you're making 40 grand, you don't have that kind of money.
So if you earn less than 200% of the poverty level, then you qualify for a subsidy in that case.
In which case, I said your neighbors are going to be paying in part for your health care.
So right now, 200% of the poverty rate is about $78,000, $75,000 a year.
Let's go with $75,000.
So if you make less than $75,000 a year, you will qualify for subsidies for Obamacare health insurance premiums.
I don't know how much.
I don't know how much of the $4,000 per person will be subsidized, but some of it will.
And I just made the statement that your neighbors are going to be paying for it.
And what I mean by that is all of us, the taxpayers, where does money come from in this country?
If something is subsidized, Obama doesn't have a stash until he takes it from somebody or prints it or borrows it.
The government does not produce wealth.
All the government does actually is destroy it or rearrange it, but they don't produce any.
So a family making less than $75,000 will be subsidized.
Somebody else will help them pay the $16,000 a year.
Well, the somebody else is their neighbors.
And so Vinny here is thinking of neighbor as the guy living across the street.
And a guy across the street will find out he's paying for you.
And if you smoke, he's going to be ticked off at you.
So he's going to come along and make you change the way you live.
My point to Vinny is the guy across the street is not going to put two and two together and get four.
He's not going to think that he's paying for it.
He's going to be told that the rich are paying for this.
People like Phil Mickelson.
No, folks, to answer your question, I don't know how large these subsidies are going to be.
I don't know how much of that $20,000 the rest of us are going to be paying.
Nobody can find out.
I've been looking for months trying to get my arms around the subsidies for people who are not going to pay all of their premiums, and I can't find it.