All Episodes
Previous Next
June 13, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:41
June 13, 2013, Thursday, Hour #1
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Okay, folks, it's time to warn you here at the top of the program.
I just gotta be honest about it.
I just told Snerdley, one of those days, everything is ticking me off.
Doesn't matter what it is.
Somebody taps me on the back and says, lunch is get out of here.
Greetings, folks.
How are you?
Rush Limbaugh.
I'm telling you, EIB network of the Limboy Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies still seeking that pathway to the shadows.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882, the email address L Rushborn EIBNet.com.
So let's see.
What do we have going on?
We have um we have.
We've been played on this immigration business.
We've been played from the beginning.
We've got affordable care, everything but.
We have, ladies and gentlemen.
This is truly outrageous.
There's a headline in the political today.
Obamacare, we were just leaving.
And when I saw the headline, I thought it was going to be an article about how Democrats are afraid of losing their seats because of all the skyrocketing costs of health premiums and all the other negatives associated with Obamacare.
But that's not what this story is about.
What this story is about is Congressmen worried about themselves.
In a nutshell, a number of congressmen and staffers, according to the politico, are threatening to quit or retire because they can't afford their premiums under Obamacare.
So the same people who gave us this monstrosity, the same people who didn't have the guts to vote against this monstrosity are now bellyaching that they can't afford it.
And so they're either asking for waivers or they're running for the exits to avoid having to accept it for themselves and face any consequences.
And a lot of these Congress people are Democrats, and they're they're either some of them even demanding waivers.
And failing that, they want to have their premiums subsidized by taxpayers.
I am not kidding.
We go to immigration.
In a remarkable turn of events, all eight.
Gang of eight members voted to table the Grassley Amendment to have control of the border for six months before the amnesty kicks in.
By the way, don't call it amnesty.
It isn't amnesty.
That's the latest claim from the powers that be.
The Grassley Amendment to the Gang of Eight bill simply said we would gain control of the border for six months before any other aspect of the bill, which is exactly what we were told, was supported from the get-go.
That's exactly what we were told.
The condition was border security first or nothing.
Now, of course, that's out the window.
So is the Grassley Amendment out the window with control of the border for six months.
And again, this despite the sponsors having.
I don't know.
I thought I was promised.
I thought we were all promised that enforcement would be the key here.
I also thought there would be an open amendment process.
There's polling data that shows the American people want enforcement first by a four-to-one margin, but none of this makes any sense.
Try as I try as I have, I can't understand how it makes any sense.
I don't understand how the Republicans do not understand what they're doing to themselves with it.
I do not understand how it is they do not see what's happening.
I don't understand how they don't get what the Democrats are doing, how the Democrats are playing them.
I don't get it.
The Hispanic, we've talked about this.
The Hispanic vote was not even 8% of the electorate.
There was a poll out mentioned this to you some weeks ago.
If Romney had got 70% of the Hispanic vote, and no Republican ever has, he still would not have won.
The Republicans got 37% of the Hispanic vote back in 1984.
Then in 1986, they did amnesty.
Then they got 30%.
They lost 7% of the Hispanic vote after Amnesty in the 1988 election when George H. W. Bush ran.
The polling data is clear.
70% of the Hispanic voters going to vote Democrat no matter what.
You bring eleven to twelve million new people out of the shadows, and they're I don't know what I'm what I'm missing.
On the surface, what it appears is this is why and I can't believe this.
It appears that the Republicans really do fear.
What the Democrats tell them that the Hispanics hate you.
Hispanics don't like you.
The Hispanics are never going to vote for you unless you change your opinion on immigration.
I try to put myself in the position of being a Republican in the House or the Senate.
I I can't, for the life of me, understand it.
I don't understand how they don't see what this is going to do to their party.
For the life of me, I don't understand it.
I can't.
Nobody has been able to make me understand what I'm missing.
What is the secret that we don't get?
What's the secret that we're missing that they know that we don't know?
Because on the surface, this doesn't appear to make any sense.
Okay, so we've got those two.
Those are just two of the stories.
We've got the NSA, we have the IRS, we have Benghazi, we get Syria, we get all kinds of stuff.
And let me tell you what's really important in the mainstream news.
Audio soundbite number one.
This is it.
We have a montage of CBS, entertainment tonight, access Hollywood, all kinds of talk shows all day yesterday.
This is the big news in America, yesterday and last night.
Are Kim and Kanye in crisis?
Kirby model claims Kim's baby daddy, Kanye West cheated on Kim.
Kanye caught cheating on Kim.
Did Kanye cheat on pregnant?
Did Kanye cheat on pregnant Kim?
Did Kanye cheat on Kim?
Did Kanye cheat on Kim?
A 24-year-old model is claiming she had an affair with Kanye West while Kim Kardashian was pregnant.
Her name is Layla.
She's swirly and good, though, right?
Okay, so Leila is claiming that she had sex with Kanye.
While Kim was pregnant.
Allegedly, they had sex on two different occasions.
And Kanye even tried to meet up with her as recent as last week.
Yeah, that's it, folks.
The Kanye cheating on Kimmy while Kimmy is carrying Kanye's sperm.
That was the big news all over American television yesterday and last night.
That was what mattered to low information.
America.
But it wasn't just those cheesy shows.
Let's go to ABC's World News tonight.
You want to hear the lead story on ABC's World News Tonight last night?
Good evening.
We begin with a severe storm rolling across the nation right now.
Weather experts putting out a kind of all points bulletin.
One in five Americans in the path of what could become a weather phenomenon called a Derecho, a 240-mile stretch of wicked wind.
That was what led the ABC World News Tonight last night.
And then, after reporting on a line of thunderstorms, the ABC reporter then demonstrates to Diane Sawyer how to duck and cover in your car if you are caught in a thunderstorm.
Jindra, I know you've said that people should stay indoors, but what's your defense if you're caught and you're caught outside?
Right.
Well, we want everyone to be in shelter always.
But if you're outside, if you're in your car, say you want to be inside the car, put yourself there and seatbelt, of course, put that on.
We want to put the head down, the flashers on, and cover your head from debris.
So that's the best.
But again, if you can get to shelter, please do.
We're talking here, folks, the lead story on ABC's World News Tonight.
What in the name of Sam Hill to do if you're in your car and it starts raining.
Not even a blizzard.
Now it's a thunderstorm that creates the lead news item on ABC's World News Tonight, and lo and behold, the danger you face.
If you're in your car when it starts raining, make sure you turn on those flashers, make sure you cover your head.
The roof might not provide enough protection.
And the windshield might not provide enough protection.
Make sure you cover your head from the debris.
And make sure before you do this, you pull off to the side of the road so you don't drive where you can't see where you're going.
The lead item on ABC's World News Tonight.
So as far as who knows how many millions of Americans are concerned.
Kanye West cheating on Kimmy.
Kimmy's father, Bruce Jenner is upset that Kanye isn't around much.
Now we know why.
He's out riding dirty.
In the words of Reverend Wright.
And now it's raining.
Over 240 square miles of America, and it's the lead story on ABC's World News Tonight.
Let's go to NBC.
The NBC Nightly News, a portion of Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Andream Mitchell, NBC News in Washington, reporting about Senator McKulski, who responded to a Twitter post during a Senate appropriations committee hearing.
In the social media first for any Senate hearing, Committee Chair Barbara McCulski denied she was cutting off questioning in response to a tweet from BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray sitting across the room.
I'm going to respond to a tweet about me from Rosie Gray.
There is no attempt here to muscle stifle any senator.
So Rosie, it's an open hearing.
Hi.
Look forward to keeping in touch.
That's at Senator Bob.
They had a hearing on the NSA, listening to your phone calls and reading your emails.
That is what made the NBC Nightly News.
McCulski pausing the hearing to deal with a tweet that she got from somebody named Rosie Gray at BuzzFeed.
Meanwhile, in addition to members of Congress wanting out, threatening to quit because of the high price of Obamacare, try this some AP.
President Obama's health care law is called the Affordable Care Act.
That's the lead sentence in a big story.
Did you know that President Obama's health care laws called the Affordable Care Act?
Next sentence.
But a glitch could make it unaffordable for many low wage workers, including employees at big chain restaurants, retail stores, and hotels.
Nice to know now, isn't it?
Here's the problem.
The Affordable Care Act requires medium-sized and large employers to offer what it calls affordable coverage or face fines.
But policy experts and corporate consultants say the definition of affordable can mean premiums up to nine and a half percent of an employee's income.
So under Obamacare, ten percent of what you earn going to health care costs is considered affordable.
And that could be unaffordable for many people who make around 20,000, 30,000 a year.
Some supporters of the law are disappointed.
They say a fix will be needed.
The White House says the worries are overblown.
Officials in the Obama regime say they expect most companies will do the right thing.
Well, this is really wonderful at that tell us this now.
How great is this to learn after the election That coverage may be unaffordable for low wage work.
The dirty little secret was this is designed this way.
It's designed to be unaffordable for an increasing number of people so that they panic when they can't get it.
And they start screaming bloody murder after they get upset at Kanye West for cheating on Kimmy.
Then when they figure out they can't afford health care, they start belliaching about that.
And the reim says, don't worry about it.
We'll cover you.
We'll just have single payer.
You know what?
We'll make it for you and we'll make it free.
This is the design.
This is how it's all supposed to roll out.
There's nothing affordable about the Affordable Care Act.
It's going to cost $20,000 for your average family of four.
And for people making $30,000 a year, affordable is now 10% of what they earn.
So you make 30 grand a year.
It's entirely understandable that you should spend $3,000 after taxes.
Wait, you don't pay any taxes, at least income taxes, on your health care.
My gosh, that's more than a big screen.
That's more than an iPhone and two years of service on a contract.
What are they expecting of you?
Man, it just isn't fair, is it?
It's so bad members of Congress are quitting because they can't afford it on what they earn, which is six figures.
And we haven't even gotten to immigrate.
Well, we've touched on it.
Ha.
Rush Limbaugh, welcome back.
By the way, if you want to say something funny, go to RushLimbaugh.com and look at the way we treated my desire yesterday to find a pathway to the shadows.
Our graphic artist, Michelle came up with an absolute, it's just hilarious picture of me seeking my way to the shadows.
Now, as you recall, this whole thing is about the fact that the NSA, via their phone sweep program, all the metadata, every phone call, they collect information on every phone call that's made.
And of course, whatever happens in the PRISM program, whatever emails and phones, anyway, they can find you and me anytime, any day.
They can know who we're calling, and in many cases, even with the metadata, they can figure out what we're talking about.
But for some reason, eleven million illegals cannot be found.
And the only way we can find them is to offer them a pathway to citizenship because then they will come out of the shadows.
They are lurking in the shadows, afraid to come out of the shadows for fear that I don't know, they'll be deported or whatever the BS conventional wisdom is.
Well, I want to be where they are.
I want to be in the shadows.
I want the NSA not to be able to find me.
I want the government not to be able to find me.
I want PRISM not to be able to find me.
I want the NSA program not to be able to find me.
Just like these 10 to 11 or 12 million, whatever the number is, can't be found.
So anyway, we're created, Michelle created just a hilarious graphic of me in disguise seeking my pathway to the shadows.
From the politico, here are the details.
Dozens of lawmakers and their aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year because of Obamacare, that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.
When I saw the headline, Obamacare, we were just leaving, I thought it was going to be an article about how Democrats are afraid of losing their seats because of the costs of health premiums and the other negatives of Obamacare, but it turns out they're just worried about themselves.
Back to the political story.
The fear government subsidized premiums will disappear at the end of the year under a provision in the health care law that nudges aides and lawmakers onto the government health care exchanges, which could make their benefits exorbitantly expensive.
What it means is the very people Who voted for this somehow got tricked into having to live under its circumstances as we are.
No longer are they going to have an exemption from this law that we all have to live under.
And they have discovered that they won't be able I'm not making this up.
I can't believe this story actually runs today.
It is a story about how members of Congress having to face the same consequences of the law that you and I have to face can't afford it.
Because their premiums and benefits are no longer going to be subsidized.
Therefore, it's going to be exorbitantly expensive.
And if it isn't resolved, massive numbers of lawmakers and aides bolt, many on Capitol Hill fear it could lead to a brain drain.
Oh my God.
I don't know if it's true or not.
That's just the point.
I don't know when we're being played.
I don't know when our intelligence is being insulted or when we're being set up.
I know that the news isn't the news anymore, that everything's part of an agenda.
So I pass all this stuff along to you under those provisos.
Well, I want to finish this, at least the thrust of this political story.
Members of Congress leaving because no longer will their health care be subsidized, their premiums.
In other words, they're going to be subject to the law like anybody else, and they're scared to death.
They've never had to pay this amount of money for health care before, and they can't afford it on what they make.
Over a hundred thousand dollars.
They can't afford it.
They wrote and signed and agreed to a law that if left to themselves, they couldn't afford.
And yet that law has become the law of the land.
Now that they are in effect not exempt, they want to quit.
They want to retire.
How is that going to help them?
Are they going to leverage these gigs into private sector gigs where they earn more money?
How is it going to help them to walk out on $160,000 a year jobs?
That's just one question I've got about this.
But the politico says as though they're wringing their hands that this is going to be very, very bad if the issue isn't resolved.
And massive numbers of lawmakers indeed quit.
And massive numbers of their staffers indeed quit.
Many people on Capitol Hill fear it could lead to a brain drain, just as Congress tackles a slew of important issues like fights over the tax code and immigration reform.
Are you kidding me?
A brain drain?
The combined IQ of these people might equal a pencil eraser.
What kind of loss are we talking about here?
I I this just I don't know, it irritates me.
Sorry, it just irritates me.
The problem is far more acute in the House, it says here, where lawmakers and their staff are generally younger and less wealthy.
Sources said that several aides have already given lawmakers notice that they'll be leaving over concerns about Obamacare.
Republican and Democrat lawmakers said the chatter about retiring now to remain in the current health care plan is constant.
Oh they stay on the current plan if they quit.
Now why didn't I think of that?
See, in my world, when you quit something, you quit.
Like if I quit this job, nobody's gonna pay me anymore.
I don't get a pension.
I don't have anybody paying.
If I quit, that's it.
I don't live in the world where you quit something and you continue to get paid.
I never have lived in that world.
So but now I understand.
Somehow, if they stay, they are subject to the law.
If they quit or retire, somehow they are not subject to the law.
At least that's my interpretation.
Republican and Democrat lawmakers said the chatter about retiring now to remain on the current health plan is constant.
So the way I'm reading that, if they retire, they somehow stay on the pre-Obamacare health care plan they have.
I don't pretend to understand how that works.
But if they don't quit, then they don't get to stay on their current health care plan.
They're subject to the one they passed for all of us, and the poor babies can't afford it.
And now we're concerned because they're so smart that if they leave, it's going to be a real problem for the country because some of the smartest and brightest people are leaving on the cusp of these important, weighty issues like immigration and tax reform.
Pete Sessions, Republican Texas, it's a reality.
This is the law.
It's going to hinder our ability with retention of members.
It's going to hinder our ability for members to take care of their families.
He said that his fellow lawmakers are having quiet conversations about the threat.
There has to be something I'm missing here.
As I have read this to you, does this any of this make any sense to you?
There has to be.
I'm going to get a phone call from some member of Congress.
HR is going to, his phone's probably ringing now.
Because none of this makes any sense.
Alabama Representative Joe Bonner said the threat is already real, especially for veteran lawmakers and staff.
If they leave this year, they think they can continue to be covered under the current health care plan.
The Affordable Care Act, which is anything but, just like what did Obama call his stimulus?
What was the name of the stimulus bill?
Well, it was the exact opposite of whatever it actually did.
There's nothing affordable about Obamacare, and there was nothing that was stimulating about the stimulus, whatever its official name was.
The Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, contained a provision...
Ah, here we go.
The Affordable Care Act contained a provision known as the Grassley Amendment, which said that the government can only offer members of Congress and their staff plans that are created in the bill or offered through an exchange unless the bill is amended.
Currently, aids and lawmakers get their health care under the generous federal employee health benefits program.
The government subsidizes 75% of the premiums for the health insurance plans.
In other words, they're demanding an exemption from Obamacare because they're going to quit.
That's right, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
What an absolute joke that name was.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
And now we have the Affordable Care Act, and it's so affordable that members of Congress can't stay in office.
And if they can't, and they're earning six figures, what about the rest of you?
So in other words, they're demanding an exemption here from Obamacare, and failing that, they want to have their insurance subsidized by the taxpayers.
In 2014, most Capitol Hill aides and lawmakers are expected to be put on the exchanges.
Like all of you.
And there has been no guidance whether the government will subsidize those premiums.
So they're not certain whether the government's going to subsidize their health care going forward.
And this is expected to cause a steep spike in health insurance costs.
Isn't it amazing how that works?
Isn't this classic?
Can the reason I'm having trouble with this is again, can they be this I don't know, obtuse?
I mean, complaining about this in public?
Having this story I the there must be some sense of entitlement to holding public office.
I mean, you uh look, we all know that there is, but I I I am continually surprised at what apparently is just an utter lack of common sense.
Are we supposed to feel is the purpose of this political story?
Are we supposed to feel sorry?
I don't uh the current the current salary for 2013 rank and foul members in the House Senate, $174,000 a year.
Now stop and think about what we're being told in this political story.
174,000 a year, and people earning that can not afford the new health care costs.
Let me make a subtle change.
It's not that they can't afford it.
They don't want to.
They don't want to have to pay that much more for health care than they already are paying.
That's really what this because they can afford $174,000 a year, they can afford it.
You make adjustments elsewhere in your lifestyle.
So they don't want to.
But we're supposed to feel sorry?
And we're supposed to worry about the brain drain.
We're supposed to worry about all the brilliance that might vanish from high atop Capitol Hill.
So then what are we supposed to do?
Is there supposed to be a mass movement among all of us to exempt members of Congress from Obamacare so that we don't lose their brain power?
I don't think it's gonna fly if that's the objective.
There have been many options for fixing the problem discussed throughout the year, including administrative fixes and legislative tweaks.
One scenario seen as likely on Capitol Hill would have OPM simply decide that the government can still subsidize insurance on the exchanges.
House Democrat leadership says the issue must be resolved.
The leadership, Democrat side, has assured members that fixing this issue is a top priority, one Democrat leadership aide said, and the issue must be fixed by administrative action in order that the flawed grassly amendment spirit is honored and all staff and members are treated the same.
I this is chutzpah like I have not seen.
That's why I think I'm missing something.
They can't be this I guess they can be.
Obamacare for thee, but not for me.
I take a break.
I gotta soak this in.
Okay, welcome back.
Great to have you, Rush Limbaugh, cutting edge societal evolution.
Yeah, let I want to put something in perspective here for you on the what happened here, this this political story, because it it revolves around the the uh the Grassley amendment.
And basically the the the Grassley, Senator from Iowa, devised this amendment as a gotcha during the debate over Obamacare.
His amendment was intended to demonstrate that congressional staff would want to avoid the exchanges.
And instead, the Democrats surprised him by agreeing to it.
So the Grassley amendment became part of Obamacare.
Now that it's being implemented, now the Democrats are trying to roll it back.
They they didn't want to, they didn't want him to get away with his gotcha because they didn't what what Grassley was trying to expose the hypocrisy.
And in in and instead of allowing Grassley to get away with that, they agreed to it.
Now that it's come time to implement this thing, now they're trying to roll it back to get an exemption, congressional staff.
And whining and moaning that they can't afford it, that they might have to quit, as though we're all supposed to be worried about No, no, please don't quit.
Oh, we need you so badly.
No.
That's not going to be the reaction.
The reaction's gonna be what you can't afford it on 174,000.
You can't afford it on 125,000, you can't afford it on a hundred thousand.
Sorry, we have no tears for you.
That's gonna be the reaction.
Okay, let's go to Michael in Westfield, New York.
This this is a college student, folks, who um understands this program.
He did a report about my success.
He called the program Ask Me Questions for his report.
And now Snerdley says that he's calling to tell us how it went.
The grade he got the reaction, it's Michael from Westfield, New York.
Welcome, sir.
We're eager to hear this.
How are you?
Hey, Rush.
It is uh it is a great thrill to talk to you again.
And uh the last time I spoke, you were kind enough to dedicate a lot of time in answering my questions, and you provided me with a bunch of great content, and I thank you again for that.
And the reason I'm calling is in regards to the project and how it ties into low information voter outreach.
And first of all, the content you provided me the last time we spoke helped me to receive a 100 on my nearly 18-page term paper.
But this this paper was one part of a two-part project.
The other part consisted of presenting the topic of my paper to the class.
And so my presentation to my classmates to my classmates was very much an example of low information voter outreach.
Therefore, I wanted to give you a report from the field.
You have at it.
Okay, the uh the format of the presentation, it was a PowerPoint slideshow format.
So when it was my turn to present, I walked to the front of the room and pulled up the first slot.
Of course, had a couple pictures of you accompanied by a text which read the Rush Limbaugh Show, Rhetorical Reasons for Success.
Well, as you can imagine, as soon as I pulled up that slide, many of my fellow students immediately assumed scowls and threw sort of vicious glares my way.
I mean, this was this was low information voter outreach in a state college rush, which is which is hostile territory.
Now you called originally back in April, and I just want to refresh people's memory.
You were doing this report on me, and you you pretty much understood.
I mean, I was amazed at at how much you got uh about the program, but you still had some questions for me about my philosophy of success here and radio success outside radio, the com combination of the two.
And I remember it uh like it was yesterday.
And so now I just wanted people to remember um what you're doing is presenting your findings to the class.
And you throw that first slide up there that has a picture of me, and they immediately scout as you expected they would.
Yes, yeah.
But it it that didn't really bother me, though.
I've always enjoyed uh prevailing in those sorts of hostile environments.
I think that's the most important place to try to sort of get the word out and to change people's minds potentially.
And so uh an interesting thing happened, Rosh.
Uh as I went through the the slides on my on the presentation, explaining the nature of your show and playing various clips from both your radio show and your TV show, the their face the the faces began to soften across the room as people were exposed to you in a way which they had never been before.
Just uh as a quick example, one of the clips I played from your TV show.
I played uh Bill Clinton Fake Crying Ron Brown's funeral, and that was uh that was just something to kind of show show the uh the my uh classmates about your sense of humor, which is something I don't think a lot of them had been exposed to.
And to make a long story short, I think I was I was able to change uh people's minds about you doing to the simple fact that many of my fellow students had never been exposed to you in a fair way, and therefore my main point is this when people, even the low information bunch are very are fairly exposed to you, they like you.
And I think this lends credence not only to your method of low information Voter outreach specifically, but also maybe even to those of us who feel it it may be time for another address to the nation, perhaps.
Uh-huh.
I knew that you were hitting somewhere where it was for me to do even more work.
So look, I gotta take a break.
Michael, hang on.
Don't go anywhere.
We have to take a brief time out here at the top of the hour.
We'll be back with Michael in Westfield, New York, and the New York Jets said goodbye to Tim Tebow.
The New England Patriots have picked him up.
And the owner of the Patriots, Robert Krabbt, says it's great to have him.
We're looking forward to his spirituality in our locker room.
▲
Export Selection