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Feb. 8, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:28
February 8, 2013, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
I must warn those of you in Bear Lake, California.
There's a nut on the loose.
He's on the prowl he shooting people.
This former cop, this Dorner guy, is running around and he's uh he loves left wingers and so forth.
I think the safest thing for those of you to do in the area where he is thought to be is turn in your guns now.
They tell us that will stop him.
Live from the Southern Command in Sunny, South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
That's right, because nothing strikes fear into killers like people that don't have any guns.
That's what Obama tells us, and that's what the experts are trying to make us all safer say.
So you've got a madman on the Lewis.
He happens to love left wingers.
That, by the way, being ignored.
That's kind of funny in itself.
You, this guy looks like Casey Hampton.
The nose tackle of the Steelers.
I saw this.
Well, I'm doing the program yesterday.
I see the pictures of this guy.
I don't know what the story is yet, because all I see is the picture.
So what's Casey Hampton in the news for?
It turns out it's not Casey Hampton.
It's this uh former Los Angeles police department officer Christopher Dorner, who has allegedly shot and killed three innocent people in cold blood.
If they had just maybe turned in their guns, they'd be alive today.
It makes people safer.
You need to learn that.
Uh Christopher Dorner, the subject of a massive manhunt.
He posted an 11,000-word manifesto on Facebook.
Thank goodness we have Facebook.
He'd have to wait for permission from the New York Times.
Remember the uh the unibomber, Ted Kacinski, the last mass murderer who was a devout devotee of left wingers, had Al Gore's book and so forth.
The the the the unibombers blowing people up.
Pipe bombs and stuff, one of them in Sacramento when I lived there.
Not not far from the uh KFPK studios at the time.
Anyway, this guy publishes an 11,000-word manifesto on Facebook that details his plans, uh, which include targeting cops.
And I must tell you, you know, Michelle Morkin has this site called Twitchy.
What she does is is aggregate a bunch of different tweets out there so that tweeterers don't have to go to all the different tweet people.
She aggregates them, and there's apparently there are thousands of people urging this guy on, praising him as a real life Django.
I kid you not.
They're praising this guy, tweet after tweet after tweet, praising this guy as a real life Django who is gonna kick they ass, quote unquote.
I'm I'm not kidding.
If you haven't seen the movie, then you don't know what this is, but if you've seen it or know about it, believe it, this guy's got a cult following.
And they're urging him on.
Now this guy, you know, folks, after every such incident, what's the first thing that happens?
The drive-bys do everything they can to find out if the lunatic listens to me or watches Fox or listens to talk radio, and even if there's no evidence, they go ahead and report that it's likely that the lunatic does.
Well, there's a trial going on.
Remember this this clown that um uh got hired as a security guard and blew up people at the uh office building in Maryland.
It turns out that he got his information from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
This is this wacko left wing site that exists ostensibly to alert people to the racism and the bigotry and the hatred on the right.
So this guy goes to the Southern Poverty Law Center website where they've got a hate map.
What is this clown's name?
This guy looks like he ought to be working at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
This Plotkin.
Is it Mark Plotkin?
Is that his name?
Don't bother looking it up, snurdly.
I need to know this before three o'clock.
Uh Anyway, they've got this hate map on this site.
This guy from the Southern Poverty Laws is all over television.
Every time there's one of these things happen, they can blame on right wingers.
He's got this hate map with locations of where conservatives live and work, and we're conservative organizations.
That's where this guy got the information to go shoot people.
Mark Potok.
I always get that screwed up.
Mark Potok is this.
Looks like the walking dead.
This guy looks like he could star on that show.
He looks like he'd be one of the walkers.
And I'm I'm no, I'm not trying to be insulting.
I'm just sharing with you my impressions of the man when I look at him.
Painting a picture.
That's what we do on radio as theater of the mind.
So if I tell you the guy looks like he could be a walker on the walking dead, you're pretty good idea.
Well, he looks like.
So now this Horner guy in this 11 or Dorner in this 11,000 page manifesto praises Ellen DeGeneres and Charlie Sheen, about whom he says you are effing awesome, dude.
Jennifer Beadles, Serena Williams, Tamron Hall, who's an infobabe at MSNBC, Natalie Portman, Queen Latifa, Kelly Clarkson, Nora Jones, Margaret Cho, and Rutina Wellesley.
And then he has a bunch of left-wing journalists that he idolizes and encourages and claims to draw inspiration from.
They are Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Pat Harvey, Brian Williams, Soledad O'Brien, Wolf Blitzer, Meredith Vieira, Tavis Smiley, and Anderson Cooper to whom he sent something.
He sent Anderson a gift package.
Anderson opened it.
I think he revealed the contents.
I haven't heard that.
He of these journalists he says, look, keep up the great work and follow Cronkite's lead.
I hold many of you in the same regard as Tom Brokaw and the late Peter Jennings.
Now this.
Remember, uh, ladies and gentlemen, Gabby Gifford's.
They named Sarah Palin and her website, every crosshair is on a congressional district as being responsible for Gabby Gifford's, and they blame me.
And there was some sheriff out there.
What was his name?
The Tucson his name was Dupnik.
What was this guy, Foo?
Uh uh Clarence Duke knows his first name.
Uh yeah, Clarence Duppnik.
The guy that was investigating the Tucson shooting that left Gabriel Gifford's critically wounded.
The kind of rhetoric that flows from people like Rush Limbaugh in my judgment is irresponsible.
Uses partial information, sometimes wrong information.
This is the the Pima County Sheriff.
Limbaugh texts people, he angers them against government, he angers them against elected officials, and that kind of behavior, in my opinion, is not without consequence.
Meanwhile, the guy that did the shooting never heard of me.
He was a lunatic.
He'd never heard of Sarah Palin.
Every one of these incidents always go out of their way to blame me or blame Perry Palin or whoever they think is at the peak at the moment of conservative influence.
Now you've got this guy, this Dorner guy, and they're ignoring it.
100% totally ignoring it.
Dorner has also praised Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.
He praised Obama, and he said Colin Powell inspired his life.
And he's a madman lunatic on the loose, shooting people.
Aiming at cops, claiming he's the victim of discrimination and racism and all that.
The other case that I was talking about involved a guy named Floyd Lee Corkins.
Floyd Lee Corkins pleaded guilty to attempting to murder members of the family research council in Washington last summer.
He said that he wanted to quote kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-fil-A sandwiches that he had bought in victims' faces and kill the guard.
And how did he choose the the uh family research council from a hate map published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is run by that character that looks like he could star in the walking dead, Mark Potok.
Which, of course, is a guy who is a guy exists to try to blame conservatives for all of this.
So the two most recent examples of out-of-control murder are left-wing lunatics.
Most of them are.
Then the others are terrorists.
Even Mayor Doomberg tried to blame me and those of you who didn't like Obama's health care for the Times Square bomber.
Now that now that we have one of these people on the loose who is praising all these Democrat journalists, Democrat politicians, and Hollywood stars for inspiring him.
I mean, there's no supposition here, folks.
That where there's no presumption, assumption, there's no imagination, it's right out there in front of everybody's nose.
The guy is admitting it.
Floyd Carkins guilty plea the other day didn't get any press coverage at all.
Zip zero not uh.
So anyway, I just again, you know, we're we're we're we're in the public service and and helping people here, and I think Bear Lake, and by the way, you'll say this snowstorm in the Northeast, there's one at Bear Lake as well.
Big time snowstorm out there.
People are wondering, could the guy could could uh could Christopher Dorner survive in the elements overnight?
They brought Mark Furman on Fox.
They hell yes, you could.
I've done it myself.
It backpacks all you need out there.
Anyway, they've locked down Bear Lake.
It's a big resort and they've locked it down.
Everybody's scared death.
I'm just telling you people out there, turn in your guns.
That will stop him.
Well, I want to we're gonna I want to talk about the Northeast and the and the blizzard.
Uh we need to issue some guidelines for people what to do when it starts snowing.
It's will they survive?
Some will survive.
Some will survive.
I think we're fairly safe in saying some will survive.
Um, some are saying it's the worst snowstorm ever.
Well, now I I want to remind you there was a snowstorm once in the 1800s.
It also was in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in Northern California near uh Lake Tahoe.
And there's a place that's uh been named for this, uh Donner Pass.
And it was named for the Donner Party.
Uh the Donner Party, there was a real snowstorm, there, a real bad snowstorm, and uh was so bad that they had to resort to cannibalism that winter to survive.
And therefore they uh they had to eat each other uh to survive.
They ate their dead, is what happened.
Um but yet they're telling us that this thing in the Northeast is the worst ever, uh, inspired by global warming.
I want to tell you this little story.
It was uh 1992, I believe, around there, 1992, 93.
You know, I'd started this program in 1998, did the radio program every day, and I had written a book, was in the process of writing a second book and was doing a television show, and I hadn't taken any vacation time, and all of my broadcast partners were very alarmed that I was going to burn out because I didn't take time off vacation time, I was just working, working, working.
So they insisted, in fact, it was a February, they insisted that I take a three-day weekend in Ferrari, go to Florida, and they one of the guys involved owned a condominium on the 24th floor, Singer Island, which as the crow flies is now a mile north of where we are now.
And I remember flying out on a Friday afternoon where there was already 12 inches of snow at Peterborough.
And we flew out on a little jet star, and and the the flight crew said, Well, we're gonna give this a go, but I want to tell you, if we have to have an emergency stop, it's gonna be a little tough.
Airport was open.
We flew out of there, got down to Florida.
It was about uh 85 that weekend.
They got 25 inches of snow in New York that weekend, and that was the first of two such February snowstorms that I remember living through in New York.
So this is, I mean, I my point is this has happened before.
And it will happen again.
That two 25-inch snowstorms in New York City, I live through both of them.
I'm here to tell the tale.
And you can too.
If you follow some very simple government issued instructions, you can survive this.
And we are here to help you.
I've done it.
I've done it.
You can you can I've I've I've done this, and one of them I did leave, there's no question, but I stayed through the other one.
I have cred.
I know how to tell you to survive and stay alive during this snowstorm.
We'll do that.
We've got open line Friday.
That means callers get to talk about whatever they want to talk about.
Uh very little reporting on the Benghazi hearings yesterday.
Uh Panetta, as we had in the audio sound bites, Leon Panetta, the what was he, defense or CIA?
No, was he defense then or CIA?
Whatever he okay, he said, you know, Obama told them at 515, while the attacks in Benghazi were just underway, but Obama, they said, you know, Obama says, Do whatever you're gonna do.
The save American life, you do it.
And that's the last they heard of him.
He was unreachable.
Where did he go?
It came out in the hearings that Obama never called back the check on Benghazi after 515 when he told Hillary, no.
It was, I think it was just Panetta.
He told Panetta, do whatever you have to do, and then he splits.
He never called the check to see how it was going, and nobody could reach him.
And that's I remember at the time it was the question last fall.
We have where was he?
And all kinds of possibilities.
One of the most popular suggestions, and it's just a wild guess, is he's not playing basketball.
Didn't want to be interrupted.
Other people have other ideas.
But he was not engaged.
Yes, to answer a question, it is open line Friday, and you can talk about the weather.
If you are scared, if you're worried that you might die, if you're worried that neighbors and and family members might not survive this and you and you need some tip, feel free.
You can call here and ask about it.
Don't.
Normally wouldn't the weather, that in crises and emergencies like this, we broom all those regulations.
And if if you are suffering from great fear and anxiety, we'll help.
We'll allow the weather to be discussed.
New York, Boston, a whole corridor there.
So don't go away here.
One of the things that I would urge all of you in the uh in the path of this snowstorm, this uh blizzard, snow mageddon, they're calling it.
Those of you in New York City, uh in Connecticut, Long Island, uh I know it's raining there now, but tonight, when the temperature is cool, it's gonna turn to snow again.
Those of you in Boston uh and uh and other places, several things that you can do to survive uh this snowstorm.
If you haven't already, you need to go to the to the nearest convenience store, grocery store, or whatever, and buy up every bottle of water you see, and buy up as many batteries as you can.
Uh you you need uh get a bunch of macaroni and cheese, uh stuff that you can heat by you know, a candle.
You never know, you might lose your electricity here.
Uh you need to go to the ATMs and withdraw all your cash because you never know you might not the bank's not might be open for uh six or seven years uh after this snowstorm.
So you're gonna need to make uh preparations here.
Once the snow actually starts, This is when it gets really dangerous and very treacherous, and these are things that you need to know.
A, don't go outside.
But if you must go outside, put on several layers of clothing.
The purpose of this is to keep you warm.
Because in a snowstorm, it's usually very cold.
Temperatures are below freezing, which is 32.
And the more layers that you have on, the warmer you will stay, plus the drier you will be, because snow is nothing more than frozen rain or frozen precipitation.
But your body temperature and your clothes are warmer than the snow, and so when the snow hits you in the face or your hands or your exposed skin, the epidermis, the upper layer, outer layer of your skin, or your clothes, it will immediately turn wet.
And then it will become heavy.
Your clothes get wet, become heavier, it'll be harder to walk, which at this point you run the risk of having a heart attack, which could kill you.
Because all of those layers weigh a lot.
And then if they get wet, you're running a real health risk.
Make sure that you cover the top of your head.
Most of the loss of body temperature heat comes from the top of your head.
Primarily you may not know it, but there are many holes in your head, particularly near the top.
For those of you who have really open minds, it's it's especially dangerous.
So wear a cap of some kind to keep that heat in your head.
And if you have to s if they shovel the snow, that don't do that.
You really shouldn't shovel the snow.
But if you do, make sure you take a couple of aspirin every five minutes, so that if you have a heart attack, you might survive to make the phone call.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have Rush Limbaugh on open line Friday.
By the way, about Christopher Dorner, and I just want to tell you, I want to predict where this is gonna go.
He played football.
Therefore he suffered concussions.
You know, this is this this is already being used as an excuse for questionable aberrant behavior.
Because the game of football is far more dangerous than anybody knew, and this guy played football some level in his in his uh in his life.
You watch.
Now back to our survival tips segment.
This is very important.
We are here at the Excellence in Broadcasting Network devoted to saving lives.
And I want to pick up where I left off in in terms of tips, survival tips for the snowstorm, the blizzard, the uh it's never happened before in New York and Boston.
As I said, wear lots of layers and and change them off because you go out, you shouldn't go out.
Don't go out, stay indoors.
But some of you are not going to listen.
You're gonna go outside anyway.
For those of you to go outside, wear lots of layers, even if they don't fit.
It might feel uncomfortable.
Start putting on all those layers, your belt may not be big enough.
That's okay.
Deal with it.
Lots of layers, lots of different socks, gloves, and then change them off.
If you go outside, go back in every ten minutes and change, because they're gonna get wet because the snow is going to turn to water when it hits you and melts.
Make sure your head's covered, you stay warm.
Don't shovel snow.
Do not shovel snow.
It doesn't matter if people can't get to your house because of sidewalk clogged, because if you shovel the snow, you probably have a heart attack.
If you have a heart attack, somebody's gonna have to call 911, and that means the first responders are gonna have to risk their lives trying to get to you in that mess, and they're probably not gonna be able to get there because we've never seen a snowstorm like this.
There might not be any cars that can travel.
So you don't want to have a heart attack.
So make sure you take lots of aspirin, get all the bottles of water you can, all the batteries you can carry enough of its stuff with you, so that you're able to deal with any emergency, take a radio with you, a portable television, an iPad or what have you, make sure everything's fully charged, and if you're still confused, turn on the television to any local station, because what they do, they'll have their reporters actually doing everything They've told you not to do.
Their reporters will be outside.
Their reporters will be driving.
Their reporters will be standing there getting wet and snowy and cold and freezing.
They have people that do this for you.
Local TV stations will have people outside in the snow so that you will know what it's like without having to go outside yourself.
And they will also have some very important tips for you.
So if you if you if you you're going to look out your window and you're going to see everything's going to be white.
Because that's what happens when it snows a lot, and you're going to get intrigued.
You want to you want to want to go out and see what it's like.
Don't.
The government has even issued guidelines.
Don't go out.
Just turn on local TV and find out what it's like without having to go out, because they'll have reporters out there doing everything you shouldn't do.
In order to bring the news to you.
I mean, they'll tell you which roads that you shouldn't.
In fact, if I know some of you are not going to listen to me, you're going to get in your car and kind of drive.
And if you do that, you're going to have to remember a lot of things.
Pump your brakes when you approach stop sign and stop light.
Pump the brakes.
If you just if you just lay on the brakes, you're going to skid.
And if you skid, turn into it.
Don't turn out of it, turn into it.
You should have learned this in driver's ed.
If you didn't, it's too late now.
But you shouldn't go out.
The airplanes are not going to be flying.
You can go to the airport if you want, but they're not going to be anything happening there, but you can at least stay warm while you're there.
Well, children should not be allowed outside to play in snow.
That's that's something that we used to do in this country a long time ago.
Had people, kids had sleds, but they ran them into trees, they ran them into the street with oncoming traffic.
It's too dangerous, too risky.
I had a flexible flyer snow growing up.
Um sled growing up.
If I'd have known.
No, I didn't get a concussion, uh, but had I known the great risk that my parents are putting me through, I might have sued them later on.
But I had a flexible flyer, but nobody told me of these dangers.
We've made so much progress, folks.
For example, when you do go outside, even though you shouldn't walk slowly and be very careful.
Because in addition to the snow melting, it doesn't melt when it hits the sidewalk.
It turns to ice.
And that's very slippery.
They can cause you to fall.
If you fall wrong, you can break your tailbone.
You can break your wrist trying to break your fall.
And that would again necessitate the first responders, and they might not be able to get to you because the snow is such that the roads are impassable.
And so you don't, you just shouldn't go out.
Avoid over exertion when shoveling in the snow.
I wouldn't even shovel.
It can bring on a heart attack, major cause of death in the wintertime.
And but if you're gonna if you're gonna shovel, if you're not gonna listen, make sure you stretch.
By all means, stretch before go outside.
Then keep dry.
Even outside, stay dry.
Change your clothing frequently.
Any number of things you can do to survive this, any number of things you can do to stay alive, which is what we want for everybody during this unique, it's never happened before, snowstorm in the Northeast.
So I mean there are many more tips that we can provide, but I think you get the uh the the gist of it here.
Uh you might want to start a fire if you have a fireplace.
Because it's really cool with a fireplace, you look outside, it's all white and snowy and stuff, and maybe put on some Christmas music and pretend or put on some uh Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra, some hot chocolate.
That's it.
Get all the hot chocolate you can find when you go to the store to get all the batteries and all the water you can find.
I mean, I mean mac and cheese wrap, you know, just just be prepared.
Be prepared.
Make sure your telephones are working, make sure your cell phones are working.
If you've got an Obama phone, make sure that it's working and not shut down.
Uh any number of things that you can do, keep yourself alive, and of course your children who don't know any of this.
And as I say, any questions turn on local TV news.
They will have people outside telling you what it's like out there without you having to go.
And they'll be doing everything you shouldn't do.
Those TV reporters will be doing everything they're telling you not to do.
Because they are committed to you staying alive.
They're willing to put themselves at risk standing outside.
They are willing to put themselves at risk driving to wherever it is they're gonna end up standing.
They're willing to put themselves at risk standing out there hour after hour after hour in the blizzard so that they can show you what it's like without you having to go out in it.
That's commitment.
Local TV news reporters never ever get enough credit for the great contributions they make during all storms.
Hurricanes, uh rain, wind, they're there.
Where they always show up and they're they put their lives on the line so that you don't have to.
Is there anything I've forgotten?
Oh, make sure your EBT card is fully l well by all means.
Your food stamp card, I forgot this.
You still have time in certain parts where he starts to make sure your EBT card is fully charged.
Oh, that would be a disaster.
If that uh if that isn't the case.
And if you have an Obama phone, make sure it's still working.
That's crucial.
Very is there anything I've left out?
Mr. Snerdley, is there anything what?
What have I left out?
What have I failed to mention?
I thought I'd pretty much.
Uh okay, Carol in Zeeland, Michigan.
Apparently I forgot something.
Uh yes, actually, a very important uh thing.
You never ever eat yellow snow.
Gosh, you're right.
How come I forgot that?
Oh my God, you are you are godsend.
Uh that that very thoughtful.
I I I I, of course, would never would, so that's why I didn't think of it, but you are exactly, exactly right.
Well, some people might, so I think you need to get that message out.
Well, I think it's a very important point.
Uh let me tell you what she means.
You you mean yellow snow.
What's yellow?
Let me explain this to you.
Snow is white.
That is until cars drive on it, and of course they just turn it black and dirty like they do to the environment anyway.
But sometimes and you're in the snow where cars haven't been, and it's just lovely, beautiful and white, and you're walking in it, which again you shouldn't do.
Don't go outside.
But if you do, and if you've stretched and if you're not exerting yourself, you're walking and you might see a patch of yellow snow and say, whoa, what is that?
And it might look like a natural snow cone to you.
Don't eat it.
Do not scoop it up and eat it.
Yellow snow is not good for you.
It it is sterile.
I mean, you can you can rest assured that it is sterile.
But you should not.
You know the problem with this, though.
It's like when I say don't think pink.
What are you doing?
You're thinking pink.
Don't eat the yellow snow.
People are gonna go, oh, well, look at some yellow snow.
Limbaugh said don't eat it.
I wonder why.
Just don't consider it.
And we're back, Rush Limboy.
It is open line Friday, and we are serving humanity.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
I'm being overrun with emails from people about what Obama did after the uh briefing to Panetta on Benghazi, everybody saying he went to Las Vegas.
If I'm not mistaken, he did that the next day.
I don't think he flew to Las Vegas that night.
That that's what we would have known where he was.
I mean, there's a there's a gap of seven or eight hours, maybe longer, where we don't know where Obama was.
He was totally disengaged after 515 of the day the Benghazi attacks were taking place.
This is when Leon Panetta said that the president said, Do what you have to do.
There were no specifics in the orders.
There were no particular Commands.
They were just do what you got to do.
And then he left.
And he didn't check in to see how things were going.
The situation room was not.
Well, if it was activated, Obama wasn't there.
They don't know where he was.
I don't know that anybody made an effort to find him and couldn't, but he was not available.
And he didn't call to check.
It was the next day he went to Vegas for the fundraiser.
And we know that because we saw him get on the airplane and we saw it land and we saw him do the fundraiser.
But there was a period of time during the Benghazi attacks that he can't be accounted for.
Nobody knows where POTUS was.
And that's always been the question.
Why wasn't he engaged?
Why wasn't he involved?
Why did it come down to Hillary and Panetta?
They cannot give specific military orders.
And neither can the chairman of the chief joints of staff give specific military orders.
If the president says, well, do whatever you need to do, that doesn't cut it.
Let's say it's hypothetical that the president says, look, do what you need to do to save lives.
And somebody sends a fleet of C 130s with a bunch of laser guided bombs and drops them on the target when all hell would break loose because that order wasn't given.
That command was not issued.
And the people Obama instructed to do whatever's necessary don't have, I'm pretty sure.
This is what Axelrod is claiming that Obama was focused on Benghazi all this time.
He was in constant contact with his top national security people back on November 4th.
Axel Rob was on Fox News Sunday.
And he told Chris Wallace, when word of the attack came, the president was meeting with his top national security folks.
He was talking to them well into the night.
He was in touch with them during the day, during the day is the next day as well.
We now know that's not true.
On November 4th, Axelrod was wrong.
Axelrod told Chris Wallace something that was not right.
He was not in constant contact.
He was not talking to them well into the night, not according to Panetta.
Panetta testified under oath yesterday that Obama never checked back in with him after telling him what to do.
There is a story in the New York Times.
Well, it's every the New York Times News Service.
It ran the New York Times with Boston Globe.
And it's a really curious story.
It's a random act of journalism in the New York Times.
Headline, many feeling the bite of higher payroll tax, including business.
This is a story about chain store sales are weakening, consumer confidence is eroding.
At street level, the pain is plain to see.
New York Times with this story begins this way.
Jack Andrews and his wife no longer enjoy date night.
They're once a month outing to the movies and a steak dinner at Logan's Roadhouse in Augusta, Georgia, in Harlem.
Eddie Phillips life insurance payments can have to wait a few more weeks.
Jessica Price is buying cheaper food near her home in Orlando, though she worries it may not be as healthy.
Like millions of other Americans, they are feeling the bite from the sharp increase in payroll taxes that took effect at the beginning of January.
There are growing signs the broader economy is suffering too.
Chain store sales have weakened.
These data points are preliminary, but more detailed statistics on retail sales won't be available till later this month.
Street level, the pain from the expiration of a two percentage point break in Social Security taxes in 2011 and 2012 is plain to see.
Richard Thaler, Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, University of Chicago, said I wouldn't expect it to have much of an effect on BMW consumption.
The people who will notice it the most are the ones making the least.
And those people were promised that their taxes wouldn't go up.
Now, I've read this story, and I don't see Republicans being blamed for this in this story.
I don't actually see Obama being blamed either.
But just to get this story from the New York Times about the genuine pain and suffering.
Let's be honest.
This genuine pain and suffering has been going on a long time.
It's not the result of the payroll tax cut ending.
It's been going on a long time.
That's just the hook that the Times is using to write the story.
But I have to confess I'm a little shocked that the Times is even running a story like this with a Democrat present, particularly Obama, in the White House.
It is making them depressed and disoriented, unhappy and discombobulated.
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