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Oct. 2, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
30:43
October 2, 2013, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Hi, folks.
Welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh, the nation's most listened to radio talk show.
And that would also mean talk show host.
Great to have you here, folks.
As always, I am America's real anchorman, America's truth detector, meeting and surpassing all audience expectations on a daily basis.
Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
Dingy Harry has written a letter to Boehner in which he says that he will support the Senate meeting for a budget conference today someday if the House will pass a clean continuing resolution.
Dingy Harry, in fact, he just had a press conference.
He did two things.
He went up there and he talked about how just it just is not right that these cancer kids shouldn't be allowed to get treatment.
And it's not right that these cancer trials, tests of various drugs, trials shouldn't begin because the Republicans shut down the government.
Somebody said to him, well, wait a minute, the Republicans offered to fund that.
And then he went into a long, detailed hieroglyphics explanation of why he's not going to do things piecemeal.
I'm not going to get caught into that trap, he said.
Oh, wait a minute.
They're cancer kids not being treated.
It's part of the shutdown that you engineered and the Republicans have offered a bill to pay for that and make sure they get treated, visit the hospital.
I'm not being sucked into this piecemeal stuff, Dingy Harry said.
Here's how he announced his letter to Boehner.
I just finished a telephonic conversation with Speaker Boehner.
My message to him was very simple.
We have to stop playing these foolish games that keep coming to us from the other side of the Capitol.
This is not about him or me, about scoring points for one side or the other, name-calling, like the villain of villains.
It's about doing the right thing for the American people.
They expect us to act like adults.
Yeah, right.
It is exactly about the villain of villains.
It is exactly about scoring points, and it's exactly about name-calling.
That is why, Senator Reed, you wanted a government shutdown.
But let's remember, folks, here he is now demanding from Boehner a clean continuing resolution.
Come on, John.
Can't you just be big enough and put all this aside and just send me a bill that funds the government for the next couple of months without any of this BS in it, John?
Come on.
Be a man, John.
Let's remember, it is a constitutional requirement of Congress to come up with a budget every year.
The Democrats have purposely failed to come up with a budget for more than four years now.
And Harry Reid now say he might support doing their constitutionally required duty if the House will give him what he wants in the continuing resolution.
He describes this as a sensible, reasonable compromise.
I promise to support to do our duty in the Constitution and have a budget someday if you cave right now.
I know, I just saw it.
CNN had a banner up there.
Kids with cancer suffer shutdown pain.
And Dingy Harry says, it's not about name-calling.
It's not about villains and so forth.
And there's Harry Reid's network up there talking about how kids with cancer suffer shutdown pain.
It's not about scoring points, Dingy Harry said.
If John Boeing will just grow up and act like a man and send me a clean, continuing resolution without a you know, out of this shutdown stuff in it, then we'll go ahead and we'll do our duty and do a budget sometime.
So I don't know, folks.
It's just the it's more of the same.
There's nothing new here.
It's just again, I just have to remind you that even despite this tremendous imbalance of power, you have prevailed on numerous occasions.
Media does not get everything they want all the time.
The Democrats certainly don't.
They don't win every election and they don't win every battle.
Well, I know it's tough because you look at the media and you think they do each and every day.
But again, it's all part of this appeal to the low common denominator.
Not only appealing to them, but construct a country for them and make everybody else pay for them.
And you do it by convincing them they're owed this because they're victims of Republicans' mean-spiritedness and all that other rotgut.
Jonathan Strong, writing at National Review, said the shutdown could last weeks.
Senior House Republicans, though, I just saw, I have not had a chance to dig into this.
I just saw a brief Chiron graphic on Fox.
And I'm sure I'll get the details here during the break.
12 House Republicans want to cave right now.
12 House Republicans just want to end this shutdown stuff right now.
I don't know who they are.
Wait a minute.
Did I see that story earlier?
Or something similar to it?
12 names.
Maybe I saw a story of 12 names Republicans who are teetering or don't support this.
I forget which.
Anyway, I'll get to the bottom of this.
12 Republicans in the House want to cave.
Did you happen to see that graphic on Fox Nerdley, or were you screening calls for the one phantom open line?
You saw it.
And we'll dig into it.
Anyway, Jonathan Strong, National Review, senior House Republicans increasingly persuaded a government shutdown could last weeks and will only be resolved in a major bipartisan accord involving a funding bill and debt ceiling increase.
On the first day of the shutdown, Obama and Dingy Harry only hardened their unwillingness to negotiate with the Republicans.
For example, Obama threatened to veto rifle shot funding bills backed by dozens of Democrats on the House floor.
I just went through some of these.
Rifle shot means here's a bill to keep the parks open.
Obama said, nope, vetoing that.
Here's a bill that provides funding for local art in D.C. Nope, going to veto that.
Here's a bill to honor our promise to Americans' veterans.
Nope, I'm going to veto that.
Here's a bill for research, for life-saving cures.
I'm going to veto that.
Here's a bill to pay the National Guard and the Reserve.
Obama says, no, I'm going to veto that.
A lot of Democrats support these.
But this is Obama and Harry Reid hardening their position.
This is Dingy Harry.
He says, I'm not going to get roped into doing piecemeal stuff here.
I'm not falling for that trick.
In the meantime, despite a small block of moderates indicating they would happily vote for a clean CR to fund the government without any preconditions, the House Republican Conference is remaining steadfast.
Now, this story is from last night at 10.30, so it could be off the board by now.
At a closed-door conference meeting earlier yesterday, Boehner gave a pep rally-style speech signaling he's not about to fold his hand.
He said, We're in this fight.
This is the moment.
We all talk about doing something for our kids and our grandkids.
Well, if you want to do something for them, now's the time.
We have to work together, win this fight, Boehner told members, according to a Republican in the room.
Is that still operative?
Have we heard anything to contradict that?
I haven't either, other than these 12 Republicans who want to cave now.
I don't know if that's relevant or not.
Worsening the already poisonous relationship between Republican and Democrat congressional leaders was a story that appeared in Politico featuring leaked emails from Boehner's chief of staff, Mike Summers.
The story detailed Boehner's work to address confusion over how Obamacare would apply to law.
Basically, what Reed's office did, they released emails from Boehner's chief of staff attempting to imply that Boehner was all for Congress being subsidized on Obamacare back in the summer.
They're trying to embarrass Boehner.
Well, you were all for the congressional subsidy back in the summer.
Boehner has since abandoned that position.
So what they're trying to show with the leaked email, which, by the way, that is a huge violation of protocol.
You know, the House and the Senate Congress has their gentlemanly rules.
And one of the great understandings is that emails and phone calls, they don't talk about.
And Reed's staff has leaked a bunch of emails back and forth between him and Boehner's chief of staff.
But it's not about scoring points, Harry Reid said.
It's not about being the villain of villains.
It's not about any of that.
It's about doing what's right for the American people.
Charlie Wrangel was on Fox business last night with Neil Cavuto, who said, hey, Charlie, if the Republicans still push trying to attach a health care proviso, delay, whatever you call it, even a key feature of medical device tax, what have you, you're saying it'll always go nowhere with Democrats, which leads me to believe that unless they just drop it and make a clean, continuing resolution,
this government's going to be shut down a long time.
Not really, because the Republicans take it a big gamble.
If for some reason this didn't work, then Republicans will say, see, I told you it's right.
What we're depending on is just common sense.
If you don't have health insurance and you have an opportunity to get it, your voices are going to be heard, not those people that already got insurance.
So the truth of the matter is that I wish that we wouldn't have the Republican Party being so reckless and committing political suicide.
What a crock.
If they're committing political suicide, you love it.
You'd give them the gun, Charlie.
You know it.
Yeah, I've got this story.
I mentioned it earlier here that AMC will hand out free popcorn to federal employees in Mega Movie Circuit.
AMC announced it's going to offer federal employees a free small popcorn because of the government shutdown, which has left more than 800,000 workers furloughed.
And they don't even have to buy a movie ticket either.
The offer is good until common sense is restored in Washington or, more likely, until the shutdown ends or we run out of free popcorn.
Is AMC going to give free popcorn to people who can't get a job, maybe, or have their hours cut because of AMC?
You know, a lot of people have lost their health care and have been converted from part-time to full-time, full-time to part-time because of Obamacare.
You're going to give them free popcorn.
It's all because of Obamacare.
And just let it be noted, everybody gets free shipping when they buy 2F by T.
Well, they do.
Not just non-essential government workers, everybody.
No ID required, nothing.
You don't have to go to the movie or you just buy the tea.
The shipping is free.
Always has been.
And we don't discriminate against anybody.
Okay, Tim in Jefferson, wherever, South Dakota, I guess.
Welcome to the program.
Great to have you.
Well, thank you for taking my call, Rush.
I really appreciate it.
You bet.
On this healthcare plan, I've got a question.
I make around $52,000 a year, and I will end up paying $455 a month for health care on the Obama plan.
Have you run that out for 12 months, what that's going to cost you a year?
Over $5,000 a year.
Yeah, and you make $52,000, $5,000 a year for health insurance under Obamacare, right?
Okay, first of all, that's not my cell phone plan.
It's like they said it'd be less on my cell phone plan.
You know?
It's not.
They said that your premium would be falling $2,500.
Yep.
And how come someone making three times I am making gets 75% of their subsidize?
Because they complained.
And Obama needed their votes.
Well, I'll guarantee you didn't get mine.
Or my wife's.
Or any of our friends, for that matter.
It's a great point.
Folks, it's a great point.
Here's a guy in Jefferson, South Dakota who makes $52,000, and his health care premiums are $5,000 a year, basically.
And he doesn't get any of it subsidized.
Members of Congress and their staff who earn up to $174,000 a year are going to get up to 75% of their premium subsidized by him and other taxpayers.
Because they complained.
They said, what?
We can't afford this.
Not on what we make.
And Obama personally said that the Office of Personnel Management will subsidize them.
Not through the exchanges.
Well, it will be through the exchange, but not the subsidy is not going to be the normal exchange patterns.
It's going to be paid for by the Office of Personnel Management.
But Tim, Tim, are you still there by the chance, or did you hang up?
No, I'm still here.
Okay, because I want to make sure that maybe you might be confused because we were told that the average premium was going to be $100 a month.
I didn't figure out my own premium, Rush.
I had someone that knew what they were doing figure it out for me.
Who?
A local tax professional.
Oh, local tax professional.
Well, Kaplan Sebudius told us the average premium is going to be $100 a month.
I'm above average.
Yeah, but your income's right at average.
I'm just being, I mean, I'm not being facetious.
I'm just trying to ram home how you're getting screwed.
Along with everybody else.
Tim, before you go, quickly, before all this started, did you think that your health insurance premiums were going to reduce?
Did you think they were going to get smaller?
Well, I don't have health care rush.
I pay my own medical bills.
I have a job that does not offer health insurance.
It doesn't have enough employees.
So I've been paying my own.
Oh, so you've been cash for service, cash for service, are you?
You're faced for the first time.
So you didn't have anything to compare it against.
Okay.
Well, guys like you were the targets.
We're not going to have people who can pay this.
People who can pay for their own medical care without insurance, we're not going to have that.
That totally skews the system.
That's another example of how we're defining the country down and building a country for the lowest common denominator among us.
Tom, in Huron, Ohio, you're next.
Glad you waited.
Great to have you on the program.
Hi.
Hi.
Glad to be on the program.
I listen to you very often.
Thank you.
Appreciate that.
I was reading an article, and I don't know if it was in Breitbart or on Fox News or something about how they laid off 15,000 EPA workers and they only kept 1,000 that were essential.
Well, the first thing that occurred to me is if you only need 1,000 essential to keep it running, what are the other 15,000 doing for their time?
You know, I worked in a factory.
They are paying dues to the Democrat Party.
Yeah, I understand that.
But then I read the comments, okay, underneath the article, which I love to read because it gives me a sense of how people are thinking about this.
And I don't think the mainstream media is actually conveying it because they were saying for the 800,000 that got furloughed, they ought to permanently furlough them and see how long we can last.
You know, that's what private industry would do.
They'd cut down to the bone to see how long they could last without having, you know, people doing stuff that they didn't need to have done.
You know, non-effective or non-conservatory type work.
And I think I, you know, I think everybody has the understanding that that's really what's going on.
And if you read all the comments through all the blogs, and for instance, like in Jay Leno last night, he said, you know, in his 10-minute pre, he said, how many people in the audience were affected by Obamacare, I mean, the shutdown?
No, no response, dead silence.
He said, how many people want to get the government up and running?
And still no response.
A third one was, how many are glad the government is down?
And the crowd roared.
Just to give you an idea.
Well, yeah, but you keep in mind, Leno's being fired.
Yeah, I know.
But he got the opinion of the people, you know, in an audience that, you know, just happenstance to be there.
You know, so the mainstream media is not reflecting how we out in flyover states feel about this.
Of course not.
They never will.
Yes, I know.
And I think that this total misrepresent representation is going to come back to bite them right in the rear end.
But that was my only comment.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
You're more than welcome.
Yeah, this notion of justice that all this is going to come back and bite them in the rear end.
I know how you feel out there, Tom.
I've been waiting for that to happen for 25 years.
Well, I have.
They keep getting away with it.
Okay, there are some Republicans who are going on record saying they think the Republican Party ought to end this.
They're Republican members of Congress.
And I'm kind of torn about identifying them, mentioning their names, because they're all afraid of me.
And if I mention their names, they're going to have nasty phone calls and stuff.
It really hurts their feelings and stuff.
So I don't know that I ought to mention their names because they're all afraid.
Well, afraid something.
No, of course I'm being facetious.
These people are going ahead and announcing that they want to cave on this thing.
They're not.
Who they're afraid of is the media.
They're not afraid of me.
This has always been this bogus claim.
They're afraid of the media.
It's exactly what the media wants.
Alex in Topeka, Kansas.
Hi, great to have you on the program.
How are you?
Thank you.
I'm well.
I just wanted to tell you about an experience I had on Monday when I went to see a doctor who I've been seeing for probably 15 years.
I got there 20 minutes early.
And wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Needed a little bit of information.
Did you have a medical need?
Is that why you went to the point?
Well, it was a follow-up appointment.
Follow-up, and you've been seeing this guy for 15 years.
Oh, yes.
Okay.
And they gave me a clipboard with a form to fill out.
And I said, well, I filled one out last time I was here.
And she said, well, we're going to a new system.
So we have to input everything from scratch.
So I filled out the form.
Then I had to stand in line for 10 minutes to get it back to her.
And wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
So you had to refill out the form.
Right.
You'd already spent time on a previous visit doing that.
You had to start all over.
It took you 10 minutes standing in line to turn it back in.
Yes, there was a lady with a cane, and she told, kind of hollered out at her, I have to sit down.
I can't stand in line any longer.
Because she was using a cane.
What in the world was there a line to turn it in for?
Because everybody that was coming in was having to fill out a new form.
But if you turn it in, you just hand it to them there at the counter and you go back and sit down and wait for a couple hours for the doctor.
There were two women working the desk, and there was no way to get around the people that were in line without getting screened at.
Okay.
All right.
Well, then I waited about 20 minutes to get called in to the examining room.
And it was not the doctor.
It was the nurse.
Well, then she started inputting information into her computer and was asking me all kinds of questions.
She asked me if I had children.
I said, yes, I have a daughter.
Did she ask you if you were a lesbian?
Well, that was about the only thing she couldn't ask.
But she did ask you about your sex life.
Well, no, not quite.
Well, you're lucky because some regulations now, some doctors are required to, I guess, depending on kind of doctor, but it's in the Obamacare regs.
Some of the questions that people are going to be asked will be if they've ever had sex with the same-sex partner or whatever.
Details are quite invasive.
She asked me about my daughter, and did she have any health issues?
And before I could think, I said yes.
Well, she said, is she healthy?
And I said, no, she's not.
And then I realized I shouldn't have answered that.
And she said, well, what are her health issues?
And I said, you know what?
If you want to know about my daughter's health, you'll need to talk to her.
And she looked at me like she was offended.
Well, then she started asking me about my siblings, how many I had, and how was their help.
And I said, you know what?
I do not make it a point to give all my siblings health information so that I can bring it to you.
And I said, why do you need all of this?
She says, well, we're going into a new system tomorrow, and we need to have all this information.
And then she asked me.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
That's not satisfactory.
You said, why do you need the information?
Well, because we've got a new system going on.
Well, what's the big, okay, got a new system.
Why does the new system need to know all of this stuff about people that are not you?
I wish I had asked if this new system was due to Obamacare.
I'm sure it is, but I didn't ask.
They were having so much trouble.
The two women that were working the front desk, they had to call.
Did the doctor ever come see you?
No, I saw a physician's assistant.
Okay, but did you get treated?
I pretty much, after going back and forth with her, I pretty much diagnosed myself and told her what I thought I needed, and she wrote a prescription for it.
Oh, my God.
Well, so you didn't even really need to go other than to get the script.
Well, exactly.
I don't think they would have given it to me over the phone, but bottom line is I usually get in and out of there within 15 minutes when I've gone in the past.
I was in there over an hour, and that's with me getting there 20 minutes early to, you know, just because I had the time.
Yeah, well, get used to it because it's only going to get worse.
That kind of thing is only going to get worse.
Well, we're going to be hearing these horror stories forever if we want to take the calls.
There's no question about it.
I can't wait to tell you all my horror stories.
Problem is, I got to go to the doctor for that.
I try not to.
See, that's it.
I try not to go to the doctor.
A lot of people go every week for the heck of it, I guess.
I just, I try not to go.
But my doctor stories are different than that.
I love my doctor stories.
They don't know what to do when you offer to pay for it.
They don't know what to do.
They don't have a system.
They do now.
Mine do, but they didn't know.
Not the doctor, the whoever in the chain, you know, when you check out and pay.
So can I give you a credit card?
I know it is changing now.
And I was in the forefront.
It is changing now because people are trying to, they know it's cheaper and it's more streamlined.
But I can't tell you when I first started offering to pay for it myself when I did not have an insurance card.
They were lost.
This is 20 years ago, obviously.
By the way, it was just a little report on, thanks for the call.
Alex, I appreciate it.
Dingy Harry just had a little exchange with Dana Bash at CNN at his press conference.
And he danced around question.
Dana Bash drilled down and Dingy Harry's response was quite revealing and a little chilling.
Dana Bash said, but if you could help one child with cancer, why wouldn't you do it?
She was asking because they finally at CNN, they figured out that the Republicans have offered to fund the NIH bill.
All day long they've been doing this story at CNN that 200 cancer kids are denied treatment because of the Republicans shut down the government.
And somebody finally told him at CNN, well, wait a minute, the Republicans offered a special bill to fund that.
And Dingy Harry said no.
He wouldn't vote for it.
wanted to know why.
And she said, if you can help one child with cancer, why wouldn't you do it?
And Harry Reed said, why would we want to do that?
I have 1,100 people at Dulles Air Force Base sitting home.
They have problems of their own.
Again, Dana Bash at CNN asks Harry Reid, look, if you can help one kid with cancer, why wouldn't you do it?
Why wouldn't you accept the funding?
And Harry Reid says, why would I do that?
I've got 1,100 people at Dulles Air Force Base sitting home.
They've got problems of their own.
I don't know where Dulles Air Force Base is.
I know there's Dulles International Airport.
But regardless, Dingy Harry said, oh, I've got 1,100 people deal with at this airbase.
What the hell?
Why would I worry about one kid?
Really said that.
You know, I got to take a break.
I just saw the clock.
Sorry.
Sit tight, folks.
Back with more after this.
Don't go away.
Here's Bill, Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
Great to have you, sir.
Hi.
Thank you, Rush, for taking my call.
I'll get directly to the point.
I'm a self-employed business owner that's currently insured through one of the major carriers, one of the largest in the country.
And Monday, I just got a letter in the mail stating that they're going to no longer going to be providing any insurance plan in the area that I live and work in after 2014.
And my plan is currently in place until September of 2014.
They can extend it to December 1st.
But they're headed.
I didn't offer any plans.
And I went online, and there isn't an insurance company in Wisconsin.
No.
No, you're headed for the exchanges, pal.
Yeah, with all the rest of us.
Yeah, there isn't a company that'll provide a private insurance that isn't part of the exchange in my area of Wisconsin.
Yeah, that's by design.
Yeah, it's, and I've seen other small business owners with employees that have the same company I am that got a letter in the mail about at the same time.
I was quite curious that the letter came in the mail the day before the exchanges opened.
Yeah, well, you knew this was coming, I'm sure, and it's coming for everybody.
But you can go the fine route if you want, first couple years, and then just, I don't know if they treat you or not if you pay the fine.
That's the one thing.
Harry Reid, but if you could help one child with cancer, Harry, wouldn't you do that?
said Dana Bash at CNN.
And Harry Reese, why would we want to do that?
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