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Nov. 13, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:11
November 13, 2013, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Here we go, folks.
Yes, we are the fastest three hours in media and probably the most fun and without question a most worthwhile.
Three hours in media.
Rush Limbaugh from the Limbo Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Fair for who?
The liberals that either listen or call.
800 282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
Eric Erickson, who um had honcho at redstate.com.
Used to be a commentator at CNN and wised up and went to Fox.
Just posted the following.
He's also on our blowtorch affiliate in Atlanta, WSB.
The Republicans are walking into a trap, and they don't even realize it.
They are about to consider in the House of Representatives legislation by Congressman Fred Upton that would allow people to keep their insurance plans.
This is what happens.
I'm editorializing here.
Get back to Eric in a minute.
First place, Fred Upton is the Republican who was all for getting rid of the incandescent light bulb and moving to the compact fluorescent because of environmental climate change issues.
Fred Upton.
He's uh he's uh is in tight with the House leadership.
And of course, this is so typical is everybody is now getting their plans canceled.
Yeah, yeah, what my plan can't.
I like my plan.
And the Republicans, oh, well, hey, you know what?
We think you should keep it.
This is the way the Republicans think.
They'll come up with a piece of legislation with the proper message that they think will convince people that they're not mean and that they hear them and so forth.
So Upton's got this plan.
An actual piece of legislation that would allow people to keep their insurance plans.
But there's a problem.
It is widely acknowledged that Congressman Upton's legislation is more PR or messaging than substance.
He's just trying to relate to people.
Just trying to send the message from the Republicans to the people in the country.
We hear you.
We also think you've been treated rotten.
We're good people too.
But he doesn't really mean for this to have any substance to it, according to Eric.
His legislation doesn't have anything in it that can force insurance companies to keep current plans.
It's just a piece of legislation that supports the notion of you keeping your plan.
The problem is, and the trap is that there is a plan that does this over in the Senate.
Senator Mary Baby Fat Landrew has written legislation in the Senate that the Democrats love.
And her legislation is substantive and it mandates that insurance companies have to keep people on their present insurance.
Now I must pause here because the insurance companies are in a no-win on this.
They can't.
But if the mandate passes, they have to, and they have to lose money doing it.
Snerdley's right, because the key of this is dingy hairy.
Okay, so here's Mary Landrew.
Let me stay on point.
Mary Landrew has legislation in the Senate that the Democrats love.
It mandates that these evil, mean, rotten insurance companies continue to offer you your plan.
And it creates this impression that it's the insurance companies that did this, not Obamacare.
Because she's trying to inoculate the Democrats from any negative fallout here.
And the Republicans are going to fall right into this, and here's how.
Now the Republicans supposedly oppose mandates, right?
We don't like government mandates.
We like freedom.
We Republicans are against the government forcing private businesses and individuals into contracts they don't want.
That's why we opposed Obamacare.
We don't like the idea that you can be told that you have to buy something.
Fred Upton has proposed this thing with no teeth in it.
But if it passes, here's what's going to happen.
The House, because a lot of Democrats will support Fred Upton's meaningless provision.
Democrats will see to it that this bill passes.
And it'll go to the Senate.
And there won't be a conference committee.
Harry Reid will simply throw out Upton's plan and substitute Landrew's plan for it and send it back to the House.
Where you're saying, well, Russia Republicans have voted down.
No, they well, yeah, the the what new one coming back.
Right.
No, here's the way it works is Upton, Upton's legislation has no teeth in it.
It's just a PR message, but the Democrats will see to it that it passes and it gets sent to the Senate.
Where it's real.
Dingy Harry says this bill doesn't any teeth in it, throws it out, and substitutes the Landra plan.
The Landry plan with mandates in it that supposedly Republicans hate will be sent back to Republicans.
And then it's the same.
This is the trap, and this is the trick.
The House Republicans will be forced to either vote for it or be characterized as siding with the insurance companies against the people.
That is the trick.
Fred Upton trying to send a message of solidarity to the people, being screwed by Obamacare, is going to have his meaningless, toothless bill thrown out by Harry Reid.
Landry's bill, which mandates it, will then be sent back to the House, and the Republicans will be forced with either voting for it or opposing it.
And if they oppose it, here comes the media, and here come the Democrats talking about how the Republicans continue to side with big insurance over the people.
And the Republicans won't want that said about them, and so they will pass it.
And then the Democrats and Obama via Mary Landrew and Harry Reid and Fred Upton will get their bill mandating that you get to keep your policy, and as far as you are concerned, Obama and the Democrats are heroes.
Because they have seen to it that those evil Republicans and insurance companies have once again been shafted as they tried to shaft you.
And so in one fell swoop, the Democrats will have the Republicans on record saving Landrew's re-election to Louisiana by casting her as the one who saved Americans' health care plans.
And also getting on record as really being in favor of fixing Obamacare with the use of mandates.
All because the Republicans are defensive and have no confidence.
They ought to be nowhere near trying to fix this.
This is why I said the other day, I'm sorry to say it again.
That this thing is starting to implode now.
These very Republicans were the ones who said, don't oppose it, Mr. Cruz.
Don't defund it, Mr. Cruz.
Don't delay it, Mr. Cruz.
Let it implode and let it collapse and let it be the end of liberalism.
And here come the Republicans wanting well, not wanting, being tricked into saving it.
They ought to be doing nothing that helps the Democrats here.
But Mether Limbaugh, then they're going to be cut the good of uh enjoying people's pain.
The Democrats are causing people's pain.
Obama is causing people's pain, not the Republicans, but the Republicans are gonna unwittingly maneuver themselves into a position where they are acknowledging that they're the cause of the pain and they want to be the solution by agreeing with the notion that the insurance companies are the problem, not Obama, and the insurance company should be mandated to reinstating your policy that you're losing.
And then what if Obama on top of that decides to give people some money and call it a subsidy for their pain and suffering during all this?
Uh so this is this is I knew I was gonna kill you with this.
I knew I was gonna kill you.
This is we snatch defeat from the jaws of victory every time.
And it's all because of a lack of confidence and a defensive posture.
We sit up there, we think we're hated, or think we're despised, and we'll take any opportunity we have to tell people no, you're wrong about us.
We do agree.
We think it's a horrible thing that you're losing your policy, and we're gonna go on record saying so.
And in doing that, they're gonna end up stepping into a trap.
So that's uh again, a post at redstate.com by Eric Erickson.
And I have to, folks, I mean, I wish it weren't the case.
Yes, yes, there's polling data out there.
It's in the stack here.
The the the Obama's approval numbers now everywhere in the 30s.
Everywhere.
There ought to be the Republicans ought to be nowhere near trying to help Obama save his bacon.
But they don't think that's what they're doing.
I'm convinced if they do this, they really think.
You know, they you put talking about trauma and the need for therapy.
I I really think that the Republicans have been genuinely psychologically traumatized by decades of media criticism that they're racist, sexist, they care only about the rich, they hate women, and I think they're just obsessed with taking every opportunity comes their way to try to prove to people they're not what the Democrats say.
Now, there may even be, in addition to that, which I wholeheartedly believe, by the way, but there may also be some establishment.
Look, folks, I hate to say this, but when Ted Cruz and the boys were doing everything they can to oppose this and stop it and prevent this, there's all kinds of Republicans that campaigned on their promise to repeal it and never lifted a finger to actually do it.
There's a lot of establishment Republicans who they're envisioning being in power someday with this bill in place and in charge of the money.
I I that that maybe I mean I don't know, but it may well be that they're not falling into a trap.
This may be a strategy to save Obama.
Who the hell knows?
But this is this is uh this is the ruling class inside the beltway establishment, both parties.
But the I I in this case, I'd I'd I'd have to come down on the fact that the uh Republicans are unwittingly preparing to save Obamacare.
I don't I can't, I really can't bring myself to believe that they actually want to.
But reality is reality.
You know, it is what it is, and what is is that the Republicans appear to want to salvage this somehow if they can make people like them in the process.
So sorry to hit you with this, but it's brewing out there.
So what's the solution?
Well, if somebody get to fret up than the leadership, we just stand up, don't propose.
Just don't, don't, you don't need to.
Table a damn bill and don't send anything to the Senate and leave Landrew and Harry Reed hanging by themselves.
Do not send them anything that they can toss out and substitute their own bill.
But just you don't, you know, call a press conference, Congressman Upton and go tell people what you think.
But don't propose some kind of meaningless legislation that can be tossed out.
I know.
I know that 18 Democrat Senate seats on the hook.
Obama's on the hook.
And they say it can't be elected, but it really, but it doesn't matter.
Uh uh these 12 to 14 Democrats, who it is said are prepared if the if something's not done by Friday to join Republican fixes for this.
Why would you throw that out?
I can't answer the question.
You're asking me again for 25 years, you've been asking me.
Why do the Republicans do X?
I do not know.
The Republicans need to adopt Harry Reid's attitude of two or three weeks ago.
Remember when Harry Reid said, why would I want to do that when asked about making sure that places that treat kids with cancer stay open?
Why would I why would I want to do that?
The Republicans need to say, why would I want to do that?
Why why why why would I want to preserve Obamacare?
I don't why I don't know why the Republicans want to make Obamacare work.
I don't know.
Unless they so hate the Tea Party, unless they just despise the Tea Party that they do something like this out of spite.
I'd I do not have explanation for you.
Here's uh here's Arnie in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Hi, Arnie, I'm glad you waited.
Yeah, thank you, Russia, and a pleasure to talk to you.
Thank you, sir.
Um I'm a physician, and uh a first quick comment is it's a shame that they're playing politics with our health care.
Uh going forward, the point that I c was calling you about is okay, let's say they suspend the individual mandate, okay.
How do they reconcile the preexisting clause?
Okay.
For example, you had a health care policy that went away.
But while that policy was enforced, well, let's say develop diabetes, hypertension, whatever the case may be.
Okay, you're everything I'm supposed to have.
Your policy goes away.
The policy uh according to their uh simplistic thinking, okay, we'll just rein uh reinstate.
Well now you have a pre existing condition that they have to uh compensate for in terms of premiums costs, so on and so forth.
That would necessarily have to void out a major keystone of uh the Obamacare uh construct.
I'm not sure that I'm following year, but so what's confusing me is the pre existing condition clause that you're talking about.
Right now because that hasn't that been funneled off into a separate high-risk pool.
Naturally, but previously, okay, let's say you applied for health insurance and you had a history of hypertension, you would be rated or you might have a condition for example that your pre-existing condition may not be covered for a period of six to twelve months.
Right.
Okay.
Okay.
And now, because of all the uh uh formulaic permutations that this stupid plan has, you would now have to cover this and your premium your new premium would have to naturally absorb the cost.
Okay?
Well, why didn't it why why what where I'm losing you is in an existing policy that's been canceled, why isn't the pre existing coverage just automatically reinstated?
Speaking theoretically here, why isn't the pre existing coverage automatically reinstated if that was part of your policy that was canceled?
The problem is it wasn't pre existing when you originally had the policy.
This is a problem that developed.
Oh got older, you develop a condition that uh when you buy your policy.
Now they gotta go through the waiting period all over again, right?
Exactly.
Okay.
And that cost necessarily has to be passed through.
So it's not like we can just blink our eyes and we can reinstitute what we had before.
Well, the Democrats are trying to make people think that's all we got to do.
And by the way, Fred Upton, I just read has said he likes the Mary Landrew plan, by the way.
That yeah, but uh uh last I checked, insurance companies aren't in the business of losing money or going out of business.
Well, they are now, whether they know it or not.
Well, they know it, and they're obviously making their adjustments accordingly.
That's why you're getting these 40, 50 percent increases in uh in your uh coverage uh policies, you know, zero deductible going to ten thousand dollar deductible, and so on and so forth.
So uh uh yeah suffice it to say, you know, uh as uh uh the simplistic thinkers only want to look at the first layer of the onion.
The meat is actually in the depth of the onion.
So the point the point that you're making, Arnie, if I understand is that they can't automatically reinstate a pre-existing coverage aspect of your policy if even if you had it when it was canceled.
I don't I can't see how they would do that, or I can't see why they would want it.
Well, what if they just mandate what if Obama just tells the insurance companies that's what you've got to do?
It's the financials.
It gets down to the Who cares about the one thing this regime doesn't care about the financials of anything.
Well, as long as they keep printing money, uh yeah, it's everything's wonderful, so there is they don't even care about the law in um in many respects.
It's a Washington examiner story that says Upton is uh is open to the idea of supporting the Landrew plan.
It's unbelievable.
Literally unbelievable.
Yes, sir, Bob, we're back.
It's a DC examiner has a story.
Fred Upton is uh open to supporting the Landrew plan.
Now the Landrew plan, I don't know this, and I'm getting this is this ticks me off like I I cannot tell you.
The Landrew plan is command and control.
It's central planning for the government.
It it it mandates how insurance companies do business, tells them what they can and can't do.
This is not what the GOP does.
You remember I'll give you an example.
Remember when Reagan was gonna go to the cemetery in Germany where some SS soldiers were buried, and Ellie Wissel made an appeal to Reagan, he said, Mr. President, this is not your place.
Reagan ended up going for other reasons.
This is not your place.
This is not what the GOP should be doing.
Not endorsing command and central plan and control over the private sector.
But I guess I guess I guess the tug and the pull to be seen on the side of the little guy by the Republicans is so strong.
Uh folks, there's just no explaining it.
It's I'm telling you, it's post-traumatic stress disorder.
It's it's some kind of psychosis that's causing these guys to think the way they do.
Or worse, they hate the Tea Party and it'll do anything to cause the Tea Party to abandon them.
They'll do anything and tick off their base.
Could well be that too.
Upton, I'm sure doesn't like the base anyway, because they gave him all kind of trouble over the light bulb business.
And it was Boehner that saved his bacon, because there were massive calls to remove Upton or not give up to a chairmanship he was in line for because of that light bulb fiasco.
Anyway, Mike in Washington, Indiana.
Hi, glad you called, sir.
Great to have you here.
Thank you, Rush.
Long time a listener, first time caller.
I own an insurance agency in Indiana, and uh I thought I had some input that might uh assist.
Uh one of the problems with Obamacare that no one has looked at it yet, is that this is an HMO product, a health maintenance organization, where they're going to assign me a doctor in a hospital, maybe in my community, perhaps not.
The uh the issue with that is that as I'm approaching sixty years of age, My concern is that um, you know, as I'm paying into Social Security and into Medicare, I understand the government's uh insurable interest in keeping me alive, that at a point where I'm no longer able to function, um, they lose an insurable interest, and I'm concerned about uh my health care being rationed.
Oh, well, you're entirely correct in assuming and worried and concerned that your health care is going to be rationed because it is, and the rationing is going to start very soon.
The other uh thought I have to help those listeners that you have is what I'm going to do.
I've lost my health insurance, the fact of January one.
My doctor's retiring January one.
So the only solution that I can come to after 35 years in the insurance business is that I want to purchase a short-term health policy that will grant me coverage for six months' time.
Now, it will not cover pre-existing conditions, but it will uh insure me for conditions I don't currently have or an auto accident for the young listeners.
You have to renew it every six months, is that what you would do?
Well, you you can pay it monthly or or every six months, you can renew it one time.
Your listeners can simply go to uh various insurance carriers and shop for their own plan.
But you're going to self-insure.
Exactly.
I'm going to self-insure.
My premium is going to drop from twenty-one thousand a year to approximately five thousand, and I'll use my premium savings to pay those other out-of-pocket expenses.
Now, wait, why is why is your premium going to drop from twenty-one to five?
Well, I'm under the currently under the Indiana Comprehensive Health Plan, that is the pool in Indiana that is being discontinued, effective one due to Obamacare.
Okay, but but you've got to go buy something that's replacing that, and you say you're gonna you're gonna buy a short-term six-month policy.
It is, and if they short-term policy for my wife and I is approximately four hundred dollars a month.
It won't cover pre-acts that I can't go to the Obama site because it's not secure, and I can't risk having my identity stolen, even if it is an HMO product.
The your young listeners don't need to go to the Obamacare website.
They just simply need to go buy a temporary health plan.
Yes, isn't that that tried to talk about this yesterday, but it's such a foreign concept.
Of course, people can buy their own insurance.
You can buy a replacement policy.
It depends on what price you can find for it.
But most people are not conditioned – It's sad.
Mo.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
You have to shop and then you have to write the check.
And that's what people when health care you have to pay for the policy.
Now, most people are used to paying co-pays and dealing with deductibles, but they think somebody else is paying the freight in the policy.
Yes, I do understand.
I Snerdley is saying, I don't understand because uh he says that the average American, particularly the low information American, won't know where to go to shop for the pot.
Where is the insurance company?
Where do you go to do this?
Okay, fine.
Maybe if that's true.
Even if they know that, my point is it's not something they think they should have to do.
Everybody's been conditioned that health care is given to you, provided for you.
You you pay a little, you pay your copay, you've got a deductible, but you do not write a check for your policy.
The boss does.
I'm talking now, the this the the people have individual policies do this, but they are the minority.
So his solution is self-insured.
That can you imagine if we had hotel insurance and people never had to pay for their hotel rooms.
They had to pay for the incidentals, but their insurance paid for the hotel room.
But if they rated the mini bar, they'd have to pay for that.
Maybe a deductible.
And imagine for 30 years, people never had to buy a hotel room and all of a sudden that gets canceled, and they've now got to buy the room.
Can you imagine the culture shock?
Well, that's where we are with this.
But this has been since World War II that people have not been buying health care.
It's been given to them.
Even if it this guy's case, even if it goes From 21 grand to five.
That's still five.
They're not used in their in their minds paying.
They are paying it, they just don't think so.
It would be the same thing.
If they canceled deduction and withholding on federal taxes, and every three months people had to write the check, you you'd have a revolt.
Because then people would find out what it actually costs.
What money they're losing, then they never see because of deduction.
And the Democrats, I think this has been very crafty.
Create this whole notion of health care is a benefit.
What's a benefit?
You even hear Obama talking about urging people, wherever you go get a new job, make sure you got your benefits defined.
Benefit?
What the hell is a benefit?
It's a freebie, people think.
Now, this guy's in the insurance business, so he knows where to go.
He's still paying his 5,000.
I didn't I didn't ask him six months or for a year, but you always will pay less if you don't use an insurance code.
You'll always go to the hospital.
Try this sometime.
No, don't try it, because I don't want you to get sick.
But offer to pay the bill with your credit card instead of your insurance and look at the price difference.
You'd be amazed how much less it costs.
It might still be expensive.
Not saying it's not but not expensive, but you'll be amazed how much less it costs if you pay for it yourself.
Because the hospitals then don't have to worry about the paperwork and the minutia and the bureaucracy and all that crap.
It takes up everybody's day.
You pay for it, it's over with.
You leave the hospital, and you come back when you gotta get the mistake that the doctor made fixed.
Um just kidding, couldn't help myself.
I'm I'm worn out, folks.
No excuse.
Uh just kidding about the mistake the doctors make.
But you you walk out, if you paid for it, it's over with.
You're not gonna have somebody come repossess your house.
You're not gonna have an insurance company breathing down your back, raise your premium or you just pay for it and leave.
And they're through with it, too.
So you get sick the next time.
And when you're paying for it yourself, it's amazing how much healthier you remain.
Guaranteed.
Get this.
This is this is even worse than Port St. Lucy and chicken McNuggets.
Smoking gun.
A Wisconsin man called 911 early Sunday morning and asked for assistance because his sex partner was snoring like a train in his bed.
A woman.
The woman was snoring like a train, and he called 911.
Benjamin Duddles, D U D D L E S 41, dialed the cops at 4.20 a.m. to say he wanted a female removed from his bed, adding he wasn't sure how she got into his apartment.
He then reported that he had let the woman into his home and she just went to sleep in his bed.
The woman was now snoring like a train and he wanted her out.
And the officer showed up at his walk asha residence.
He revealed they drank together, they had relations, and she fell asleep.
And after repairing to his living room, Doubles returned to his bedroom and couldn't roust her, so he called 911.
I just hope that uh Duddles or his lady friend had free birth control from Obamacare, or it could this could get even worse.
Can you imagine?
Uh, Ray in Providence, Rhode Island.
I've got 30 seconds, and you had a good point, and I wanted to get to you before we had to go.
Hi.
: You're talking about those with courage to speak out against Obamacare, like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.
There's one person, the granddaddy, actually grandma of all public and outspoken Obamacare critics, the first one going way back to the beginning.
Sarah Palin.
In 2009, when no prominent Republican was publicly criticizing Obama.
And look how she got hammered.
But boy, if anybody deserves an apology and praise for being present, it's Sarah Palin.
Well, it's a good point.
She was the first to identify the death panels.
And you are absolutely right.
And that is why I, whenever these people are, I don't care if it's Cruz, if it's Mike Lee, if it's some conservative media.
I always try to defend these people because the assault is not on just them.
It's on everything they believe and everybody who agrees with them.
But you are right.
She was the first to identify the death panels.
Mike Lee and Cruz were actually specifically trying to alert people we should stop Obamacare because of this particular thing.
Losing your policy.
We gotta go.
Rush, rush, why why is Fred Upton doing what he's doing?
Folks, try this.
Try but maybe the Republican leadership, at the end of the day, doesn't really oppose Obamacare.
Maybe they just don't oppose it.
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