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Oct. 30, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:45
October 30, 2013, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 247 podcast.
Okay, so let me ask you a quick question.
You've been watching the Sibelius hearings today.
Good.
I want you tell me what you think.
Off top of your head, what is your reaction to what you're watching?
Just tell me.
Oh, okay.
All right, okay.
So Snerdly says it's a circus of Democrats don't even care how their own people are being affected.
That's exactly right.
But I'm I'm getting emails, boy, does Sibelius, oh, is she looking bad.
Oh my God, it's embarrassing.
Oh, geez, how stupid.
And my friends, I'm sorry, but I have a I have a I have a different take.
I mean, she does look all that, but it it uh are there any Republicans there?
You there are?
Really?
I haven't seen any evidence of it.
There's some Republicans at that hearing.
Really?
They've got a purpose, they've got a strategy.
Is that right?
Really?
Well, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna get into this because it dovetails what we're talking about.
Everybody's now caught up in whether Obama knows the details of this or not.
And I'm just gonna tell you he doesn't care.
He doesn't care.
Mao Tse Tung didn't know the details all of them.
Neither did Fidel.
No, I'm not.
I'm just saying.
These guys have a different agenda.
The details don't matter.
The chaos is what's crucial here, and they're close with every new day of chaos.
They're closer to what they really want, which is single payer.
And if the Republicans don't understand that, they can nail Sabilus all day long and they're not going to accomplish anything.
That's all I'm saying.
And I will get into it in greater detail as the program unfolds.
It's great to be with you folks already.
Here we are in the middle of the week, hump day at the EIB network.
The telephone number is 800-282-2882.
And the uh email address, L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
A couple things about the book.
I have uh even Catherine, you know, we do, we test the systems.
We pre-order all over the place just because we don't control the distribution.
We want to find out.
And even we, we we it is our book.
And we got a note from Barnes and Noble today saying that the release date's been delayed.
Well, it hasn't been.
So I just want to say if you've gotten a note, uh, an email from uh any seller, I don't care if it's Amazon or Barnes and Lobe, I'm not picking anybody, um, or or iBooks, and and you know, it says that the the release date was pushed back and then again that that hasn't happened.
I think what's happening here is they're just swamped.
I I think and these are pre-orders that they're sending out these notices on that that the release date's been mushed back.
It hasn't been because some of our orders have been shipped and we've received them.
Yeah, I buy my own book.
What do you of course I buy my own?
We have all kinds of systems set up to see how this is all working or not.
And I'm just telling you, I think it's demand, folks.
I think uh and we're looking into this, but I I think they're just overwhelmed at their fulfillment houses getting these things out.
Even with the pre-orders.
I mean, I don't want to shoot any numbers at you here that'd be premature, although I know them.
Um, but it's just hanging there.
We're we're we're looking into it.
I've had some emails from other people.
Uh the subscriber email line here who, hey Rush, I got a note that's uh delayed, and I heard you say the book was released yesterday.
You're exactly right.
We do.
We test system end to end.
Hey, look at this doesn't happen with two up IT.
You know, somebody orders tea, we have a new flavor that we announce, and new flavors gonna be available on X date, and then people order it, and we don't send them emails, oh sorry, the the release date's been pushed back.
We send out the order.
Yeah, I know, I know.
Anyway, intelligence guided by experience.
Also, I got a fascinating note from a friend, Dear Rush.
They got got a bunch of kids aged seven to thirteen.
And the note said that the book is just a little above the reading level of their seven-year-old.
But what they did, They popped in the audio version in the car, and the seven-year-old loved it and was laughing and really getting into it.
And I I do want to remind you about about the audio version of this book.
I'm really, really proud of it.
We did it over, I think three or four nights and then a couple days of pickups as we got closer to the uh the final edits and the golden master, and uh for got ready for packaging and everything.
And it it it it is it's if you're an audio bookophile, uh this is uh I just want you to know.
That's something I'm very, very proud of.
Now, ninety percent folks of the show prep stack today is Obamacare.
Uh ninety percent of it is all kinds of things related to Obamacare.
I other than a war.
I can't recall something being this dominant after I have scoured everything and uh and prepped the show.
So I just want to warn you that's what's good.
There are other things out there.
I love this.
I'm I'm sorry to have to Vladimir Putin, did you hear what he did?
This is you know, no one ever leaves the KGB.
At the G twenty summit, Putin gave everybody bags of swag.
You know, like the uh presenters and uh and and all that at the Academy Awards or any of these award shows, they always give them bags of you know, something from Chopard, something from Tiffany, something this is reservations for some spa.
Well, what Putin did, he gave out bags of swag at the G twenty summit that were bugged.
Items inside the bag were bugged.
He has been, you know, while we're worried here about whether or not we're listening in on Angela Merkel's phone calls, Putin put bugs in all of the G twenty swag bags.
So, well, I don't know that they expect that from him because it's big news.
This is that that now that's an interesting point, too.
Everybody expects that from Putin.
In the old days, yeah.
Now I I don't think that's the case.
I I I are really living in an era, folks, of dominant ignorance and stupidity.
We we really are.
It is it is more pervasive, and it surrounds us even more than I ever thought possible.
So you say, well, they expect Putin to bug them.
Why would it be such news?
I just it's a New York Post story.
I don't know, it just amuses me.
Also, listen to this.
Grab audio soundbite number 18.
This is uh this is a Ryan Seacrest's radio show yesterday.
It's Kanye West.
There's no way that Kim Kardashian shouldn't be on the cover of Oak.
She's like the most intriguing woman right now.
Barbara Walters is calling every day.
Of course, we're the most interesting.
Nobody's looking at what Obama is wearing.
Nobody's uh Michelle Obama can't Instagram a pick like what my girl Instagram is.
Now, we've all been sitting around waiting for the turning point here.
And a lot of people think that uh that Obama's in the middle of a of an Obamacare meltdown.
But look at this now from through the through the perspective of the low information voter, Kanye West has just dumped on Michelle my Bell Obama.
He j I mean big time.
There's no he's mad that his girl Kim Kardashian hidden on the cover of Vogue, and she can Instagram a much better picture than Michelle can, who we fooling here, he's saying.
And of course, the picture he's talking about was Kim's post-birth butt.
Did you see that picture?
It was on it was on TMZ, and it was it was above the story on me coming out of the LA restaurant being asked about somebody I'd never heard of.
And uh it's a minor little thing here, but at the low information crowd, they love Kanye and they love Kimmy.
And if Kanye is out now dishing Obama as a style dullard and Michelle Obama as a style nothing.
Can you imagine if the low information crowd now has to choose sides between the Kardashians and the Obamas?
Uh What will happen?
Ted Cruz says that Obama is abusing his power.
Grab audio soundbite number 17.
This is Monday night on Fusion Television's premier episode of America with Jorge Ramos.
He interviewed Ted Cruz, and Ramos says, You think you think Obama has been abusing his power?
I think he has absolutely been abusing his power.
And when you have a president who says, regardless of whether Congress acts, I'm going to force my agenda on the American people, that's wrong.
That's not consistent with our constitutional protections.
And sadly, he's right.
He's exactly right, and he's the only one in our party that's uh saying it.
The only one.
Now, let me just give you, before we go to the audio soundbites, let me give you a um quick overview, just a quick review of the hearings today, folks, with uh Kathleen Sibelius.
I didn't hear it all.
It's been on here.
I didn't turn the audio on through all of it, because it's a distraction.
But what I saw alarmed me a little bit.
I I I it didn't seem to me that the Republicans were organized or prepared, and the Democrats are.
They're constantly, they're always moving their agenda forward.
They're always moving their ideology forward.
They always have a plan.
They're always on the attack.
And we've we've got a gold mine here, and and we're not we're not using it.
I didn't hear a question, then there could have been one asked.
I didn't hear a question about any no-bid contracts.
Um I I didn't hear any Republicans say, look, if you guys can't even watch the website, if you guys can't even get a website up and running, how in the world are you going to run one-sixth of the U.S. economy?
I didn't hear any question like that.
Did you, Snerdly?
I didn't hear any ideological questions whatsoever.
I didn't hear anything.
All in fact, one Republican I heard, don't remember his name.
My constituents want to be able to buy insurance, and you're making it.
What are you saying, bud?
Your constituents do not want this.
He was from Texas.
I saw that.
My constituents want to be able to buy health insurance, and I want to be able to go to your website.
No, they don't want to go to this website.
What is this guy talking about?
It's very frustrating for me.
Um clearly being hung out to dry here.
She is clearly the fall girl.
She's gonna survive.
Obama's not gonna get rid of her, but she's clearly the punching bag.
She was sent out there today to absorb every bit of damage.
She's the sponge, she's supposed to soak it up and smile and take it.
And even at that, she might have damaged herself, but I don't know that the Republicans did much damage.
It's like they're afraid to.
It's like there's still a fear of going after Obama or going after Sabi, just from the consultant level of the party or the whoever's running the Republican Party, there seems to be some instruction that's going out from on high.
Back off, don't even get close to making it look like it's personal.
Don't be mean.
I just I'm I'm at a loss.
No, I'm not at a loss to understand, and I know exactly what's going on.
There isn't, there is no Republican ideology.
Is what there is no Republican strategy.
There is no ideology, and it may well be that if there is a strategy, it could well be that whoever came up with this idea that, well, this thing's in the middle of imploding, just back out and let it.
Maybe that's the instruction that's gone out.
You know, don't don't be mean, don't be critical just because this thing's imploding on itself and it'll go.
And that's such a big mistake because as every day of chaos, every new day of chaos, Obama and the Democrats are getting closer to what they want, which is single payer.
A few of them gave her hell on the basis of incompetence and the website and this kind of thing.
Okay.
People losing their policies.
Okay, all right, fine.
Um well, as I say, I didn't hear it all.
I didn't, I didn't hear it all.
And well, okay, let me ask you this.
Snerdley's here defending some of them.
Well, they went after her.
Uh I guess the question then, okay, people watching this want to scrub it now.
Well, then, if if people watching this do not want to get rid of Obamacare, then this is not a factor.
That's all I'm saying.
Republicans had a chance here to try to convince people we don't want this.
We got to find a way to get rid of it.
It's hurting too many people, whatever.
And if the people watching do not have as a takeaway, we've got to get rid of this, then no damage done, right?
That's my that is my take on it.
Uh I you might say the Republicans don't want to win.
I've talked to uh professional athletes about the concept of knowing how to win.
First one that ever explained it to me in a way that made sense was Danny Ainge of the Phoenix Sons.
And it's not enough you have great talent.
It's not enough that everybody on a team's great.
You got to know how to win.
It's an attitude combined with a desire.
And then after you win, you have to, you have to want to be in the position of having won without any guilt, without any regrets.
Um it's the old saw about some people afraid of success because they simply don't have enough confidence in themselves.
So when they do experience success, what they end up telling themselves is it's not deserved.
It's not warned, and therefore it's not gonna last.
This ain't gonna last.
This isn't real, I'm not really going to.
And they talk themselves out of it.
And I think there is a pervasive attitude in the Republican Party right now that they can't win.
They don't think they can win because of the media.
They don't think they can win because of whatever.
They don't think, and if they don't think they can win, and I'm gonna try to.
And knowing how to win is something really, and the Democrats don't have any problems like that.
They don't care.
They'll lie, they're a winskyites.
They will lie, they'll make things up, they'll even hurt their own people in the process as long as they win what they want.
And it is their people, along with everybody else being hurt by this fiasco.
But guess what has been learned.
There is in fact a pretty big union carve out in Obamacare, where they are not subject to all of the things that are happening.
They've got their subsidies.
So a big Obama constituency, along with members of Congress and their staff, are exempt.
But there are a lot of Democrats being hurt.
We've had the stories in the news yesterday, individuals told their stories, lost their insurance.
And some of these people are Democrats.
A lot of them are, a lot of them voted for Obama, and a lot of them have said they wouldn't do it again.
Democrats don't care their own people being hurt here because their objective is to get single payer.
That's all they care about.
That's their objective.
They can see it in front of them.
And every day that there is new excuse me, new chaos, then they're that much closer to it.
I think this ought to be like shooting ducks at a carnival.
This here good.
This this when this day of hearings is over, the American people ought to be rising up demanding this thing be scrubbed.
That's the opportunity we had here.
And apparently Republicans don't look at it that way.
I just – I don't see it.
I just don't – See it.
I gotta take a break, folks.
You sit tight.
We'll take that break, we'll come back, we'll continue right after this.
Don't go away.
Wonderful to have you with us, my friends, Rush Lindbaugh executing a scientist duties flawlessly.
Uh Betsy McCoy has discovered that the uh the the union carve out is that all of their plans are grandfathered in.
Do you know what that means?
What that means is that all of the union health care plans don't have to meet the new Obamacare mandates.
So they're going to continue to be cheaper.
They will get to keep their doctor.
Union insurance holders will get to keep their plan.
You can't, because your plan wasn't grandfathered.
But the unions have been.
Section 1251, the Affordable Care Act says no one can be required to give up a plan in effect on March 23, 2010, when the law was passed.
Those plans are grandfathered.
But following that guarantee is a list of costly requirements that made it difficult for insurers to keep offering you your plan.
It was not possible for them under the terms of Obamacare.
So you were not grandfathered.
The unions are.
They get to keep their plan.
They get to keep their doctor if their doctor stays working.
Now it is true the unions are whining about Obamacare.
So I must admit I'm a little confused.
Betsy McCoy in her piece says that the union health care plans are grandfathered, and they're going to be able to keep their doctor, for example, are going to be able to keep their plan, for example, because they were grandfathered.
Here again, the law, and this is from her piece in the Daily Caller, uh Daily Caller today.
Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act says that no one can be required to give up a plan, in effect on March 23rd, 2010.
But basically, this applied to everybody.
You remember, we mentioned this to you the other day that the only reason you can't keep your plans because Obama's playing dictator.
Obama arbitrarily, he was out lying through his teeth, knowing fully.
He doesn't care, folks.
Everybody wondered, does he know?
Does he he doesn't care?
This is all minutiae.
Whatever it takes to get where you're going, doesn't matter how you get there, doesn't matter whether you lie.
Remember, these people in their minds are pursuing a higher moral cause.
Therefore, anything's permitted.
Lying, cheating, stealing, whatever.
Because they're trying to defeat us, and that is a moral imperative to them.
So there's no such thing as lying.
That's just whatever it takes is permissible.
So again, according to the law, Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act says no one can be required to give up a plan in effect on March 23rd, 2010, when the law was passed.
Those plans are grandfathered.
But following that guarantee is a this is not the law, this is Betsy McCoy writing, but following that guarantee is a list of costly requirements that made it difficult for insurers to keep offering your plan.
And it gets worse, she says.
Union plans were grandfathered with none of the fine print tricks and exceptions that Obama then imposed on the insurance companies.
So Obamacare itself, you can look at this as a violated contract if you want.
I mean, it's a statutory law, but in the law it says you can't.
If you like your policy, the day this thing signed into law, it can't be taken away from you.
You're grandfathered.
But Obamacare mandates on the insurance companies made it impossible for them to continue to provide your plan as you like it.
And this is why Valerie Jarrett and the people are out there saying, we didn't change your plan, the insurance companies did it.
It's just more disingenuousness, more lying, because it is their law that made the insurance companies have They had to comply with the law, and those compliances are what blew up your plan.
Being in compliance, whether it was grandfathered or not.
So her point is that the unions have a carve out, and she quotes a section of the law from part of the law of section 1251.
I'm not going to read it to you because it's legal ease.
But it goes on to say that no subsequent mandates can make the unions change their plans, unlike the rest of us.
So just to clarify, the regime claims that most plans will be grandfathered in, but it isn't true because the insurance companies tweak their plans all the time.
And remember this is so frustrating.
I'm sorry, folks.
I mean, I remember so many things, and my mind is exploding here.
Do you remember when I was we we were talking about this three years ago?
And we're talking about the tweaks, and all the insurance company would have to do would be to raise your premium a penny, and it constituted a change that would that would destroy your grandfather's status.
Your plan had to stay what it was after Obamacare was signed in order for you to keep your plan.
And all the insurance companies had to do was cancel somebody in your plan.
It didn't take much to change it, and that destroyed the grandfather status.
Well, the Obamacare law itself mandated that insurance companies change their plans, whether they wanted to or not, and that destroyed the grandfather's status for you.
But that is not the case, according to Betsy McCoy for the union plans.
They can be changed and will not lose their grandfather status.
And here's how she explains it.
The law also left open the possibility that the president could impose additional requirements on grandfathered plans except union plans.
Two months after Obamacare was passed, the IRS, the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, all reporting to the president, churned out hundreds of additional rules to make it harder for grandfathered plans to survive.
Now, the real point of this, Obama never intended for you to keep your plan.
If you could keep your plan, there would be no reason for Obamacare, and there would be no further progress towards single payer.
It was just something to lie to you about to get your vote in the 2012 election and to get your support.
It was an out and out lie, folks.
There's no other way.
And you could look at it as a broken contract or however you want to look at it, but if there's no pushback from anybody, if not if nobody's going to do anything about it, he can get away with it.
Like he does everything.
The law left open the possibility the president could impose additional requirements on grandfathered plans, except union plans.
And two months after this law was passed in 2010, the IRS, Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, all reporting to the president dutifully churned out additional rules and regulations that made it harder for the grandfathered plans to survive.
I cannot emphasize enough to you that this was the design.
Despite the fact the president told you we had everybody's playing these sound bites, the president saying all these different times you like your plan, you get to keep it.
He never intended that, folks.
If everybody in the country liked their plan and got to keep it, then there was no need for Obamacare, right?
There was no need for any of this.
It was satisfaction.
You keeping your plan, not good.
No way that Obama, the Democrats can advance their agenda if you get to keep your plan.
So while the law said you would be grandfathered, the insurance companies were forced to make changes, which destroyed your grandfather's status.
So in other words, insurance plans have all kinds of things dumped on them by the government apart from the Obamacare mandates, and these make them have to adjust their plans, like raise their rates.
So eventually all the plans will lose their grandfather status.
Every damn one of them.
There isn't anybody that's going to be able to keep their plan, apparently except unions.
Their plans can be tweaked without losing their grandfather status.
According to Betsy McCoy, Obamacare can't compete with these supposedly bad old plans.
It can't.
Obamacare cannot offer something better as you're learning.
What is Obamacare proving to you?
Your rates go up, your deductible goes up.
Obamacare cannot match what you had.
And therefore you were not going to be allowed to keep it from the get-go.
You were just lied to.
So he had to make sure those old plans wouldn't survive for long.
And now his regime is out dumping on the insurance companies, and that's what Sibelius has been doing all day, dumping on the insurance companies.
And what can they do about it?
They got hoodwinked, I'll never understand it, into supporting this cockamami BS from the get-go under the premise they bought the notion they're going to get all these brand new customers.
I'm telling folks, I don't know how to describe this other than we are just surrounded by rank stupidity that is encouraged by the lure of massive amounts of money.
So that still doesn't eliminate the fact that the unions are still whining about it.
And I don't know why.
It is curious.
I'm assuming that Betsy McCoy is right here in what she has written.
But even if she is, doesn't deny, does it eliminate the fact the unions are still complaining and whining about something?
And maybe they don't know yet, or maybe they didn't know when they were whining that they were grandfathered, never going to keep their grandfather status.
Now, here's my question.
Oops.
I hit the golden EIB microphone there and uh changed its aim.
Hang on, therefore, here we go.
Here's my question.
If Obama is gonna go out now and play dictator, let's realize he could play dictator in any direction he wants to go.
If he has the power to deny you your grandfathered plan, the one you liked and the one you were told you can keep.
And if Obama didn't know all of this was going on, and he didn't know all of these problems with the website, and if Obama really cares about being truthful and honest with you, then maybe Obama can play dictator and re-grandfather your plan.
If he can play dictator and take it away from you, then he can play dictator and fix it, I assume.
If he's gonna play dictator, if he's gonna pretend the law is subject to his whims, then let's all realize that he'd have the power to restore millions of health insurance policies by waiving these new Obamacare regulations, which are forcing insurance companies to cancel policies.
I mean, let's let's be real here.
The President of the United States has his health care plan, and it's supposed to be the best thing under the sun, and your your premium is going to go down $2,500, and you're gonna keep your plan, everybody's gonna be insured, everybody's gonna get treatment, it's gonna be cheaper, it's a panacea, it's utopia, but it's not turning out that way.
Well, he loves you, he has compassion for you, cares about the little guy.
Why doesn't he get mad at all these people being canceled and go in there and fix it?
If he can play dictator and take things away, why can't he play dictator and give them back?
Why doesn't he fix it?
He knows people are being canceled in the hundreds of thousands.
Why doesn't he fix it?
If he really cares about you.
He told us if Congress didn't give him everything he wanted, he would simply take, he'd do it himself.
He was, I think, who was he talking to?
Jorge, who know that was Ted Cruz pointing out the Jorge Ramos.
Obama has said again, folks, and we've played the soundbite.
Well, if Congress won't do it, I'll just go and I'll take care of it myself.
Well, so he's willing to play dictator.
Now he's he's he's destroying the health care industry, he's destroying the health insurance industry, but he didn't know that that was happening.
Now that he's learned that was happening, why would he want to do that?
He'd go in and fix it now.
And the coal industry.
He didn't know what was happening in the coal industry because of his regulation, but now that he's learned how bad it is for the coal industry, he could go in and play dictator the other way and fix that, couldn't he?
I mean, if he can waive regulations negatively affecting health insurance policies.
I mean, he can do that as easily as he waived other parts of Obamacare.
Why can't he go in there and fix it when it's so broken?
If he can do one, he can do the other.
Why does he choose not to fix it?
Why does he choose not to make it better for you?
Why does he choose to leave you uninsured?
Why does he choose?
Why is he apparently not bothered by hundreds of thousands of people being canceled?
Why is he not bothered by all of these increases in premiums and deductibles?
Why is he not bothered by it?
Well, he didn't know.
Well, he knows now, and why doesn't he do something about it?
Because he loves you.
He cares about the little guy.
So now all day long, they're after blaming the insurance companies for all these canceled policies and contracts when Obama created the regulations that triggered the cancellations.
Surely he didn't mean for this to happen, right?
Surely he didn't mean for hundreds of thousands of people to lose their insurance.
And when he learned that that was happening, oh my God, he's so hurt and embarrassed and had to be mad at somebody.
Heads should be rolling and he should reinstate your canceled policy.
But he doesn't, does he?
I wonder why.
Okay, here's the part of the law that says union plans cannot lose their grandfather's status if they tweak them.
Quote, any coverage amendment made pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement relating to the coverage, which amends the coverage solely to conform to any requirement added by the sub by Obamacare shall not be treated as a termination of such collective bargaining.
So if your plan is the result of collective bargaining, no subsequent changes by anybody, insurance companies, Obamacare can force your grandfathered policy to change.
It was a carve out.
Collective bargaining is unions.
So in other words, union insurers can amend their coverage.
Your insurance company can't.
Well, your insurance company can, but you lose your grandfather's status when they do.
Unions don't because they're covered under an amendment made pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.
Now, is anybody hearing?
Anyone from unions belly aching about their plans being canceled.
The unions were upset, and they were whining, and then they went to the White House not long ago, and we haven't heard a peep out of them.
And all of these stories of insurance policy cancellations, I don't think any of them are union plans.
I don't think any union people are complaining about it.
Now about these cancellations.
It really is preposterous to blame the insurance companies for the cancellations.
That's what Sibelius did all day today.
It's what Valerie Jarrett is doing, it's what Obama's doing.
But that's it's preposterous.
How does the insurance company benefit from canceling policies?
They want to have as many people sign up with them as possible.
But the Democrats have succeeded over the many decades in convincing low information voters that corporations and an insurance company or an agency or industry is a corporation loves to harm their customers.
Big oil does.
Big pharma likes to kill their customers.
Big tobacco likes to kill their customers.
And big insurance loves hurting their customers.
So most people think it make perfect sense the insurance company would cancel it because that's what they're there to do anyway, is inflict pain.
That's what the Democrats have told them all these years.
Okay, first hour in the can on the way over to Limbaugh Broadcast Museum, and we'll be back.
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