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Nov. 19, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:18
November 19, 2013, Tuesday, Hour #2
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Time Text
Yes, Sarib.
Bob, what is that?
Is that Snerdley's holding up there?
You look into the glass, and I'm going to say, yes, Sarib Bobtley's holding something with three candles in it, and it's a Thanksgiving floral arrangement from 1-800 flowers.
He says it smells great.
Well, that's cool.
We love getting flowers here at the EIB network.
Great to have you here, folks.
Rush Limbaugh behind the golden EIB microphone.
Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
The email address, El Rushbo at EIBNet.com.
Darn it, there was something I was going to talk about, and Snerdley showed me that floral display, and it distracted me from, well, it'll come to me.
This kind of stuff happens.
And it'll be well trying to get to your phone calls, El Quicko, in this hour.
I mentioned the last hour, a new Gallup poll out.
Majority now say universal health care is not the federal government's responsibility.
You know what?
This would be a good time to go do soundbites one, two, and three.
This is a stunning reversal.
And by the way, hop scotch, this ABC poll that the Washington Post reports today, Obama's approval is at 42% as well.
It's not just that if the election were today, Romney would win.
Obama's at 42%.
I mean, they are in panic in the media, in the drive-bys, in the White House.
And now this Gallup poll that you just don't see, you just don't see massive changes in a trend line like this.
Role of the federal government in ensuring Americans have coverage.
No is at 56%.
Yes, is it 42%?
That is a 14-point swing.
And in 2011, it was no, just last year, it was 54-44 that the, I take it back.
I'm trying to find, I hate charts.
I just despise charts.
It's like, I just despise them.
Hang on.
Pardon Ms. Nipples.
Okay, you got to go back to 2011 to find a majority of people thinking that universal health care is the government's responsibility.
In 2011, that's after Obamacare has been signed into law.
It was 50 to 46.
Role of the federal government ensuring the Americans have health care.
50% thought the federal government should, and 46% said it shouldn't.
So in two years, it has gone from 50-46, yes, government should run health care to 56-42, no.
Now, what's happened?
Well, in these two years, Obamacare has begun to be implemented.
And the American people don't want any part of it.
I mean, this is a massive trend.
If you go back to 2006, it was 69 to 28% that the government should run health care.
Universal health care government responsibility, yes, 69%.
No, 28%.
That's 2006.
And then it narrowed, and it was in 2009 that it basically became tied at 47.
50 to 47, no.
And then it just, the last two years, it just boomeranged the other way.
You know, this is stunning.
In seven years, we have gone from 69% who think that health care is the federal government's responsibility to 42% who think it is.
But the real dramatic change in the trend line is the last two years.
And that coincides with the rollout of Obamacare.
Now, this argues in part that there are people who are saying that this kind of experience could inflict irreparable harm to liberalism and the whole notion of big government and socialism.
And there are many people out there saying, you know, just back out of the way and let this happen and it's going to implode and so forth.
And this would argue that there is some merit to that.
And yesterday, they had a story about a bunch of Democrats abandoning Obamacare.
Democrats up for re-election, abandoning Obamacare, and the White House threatening them.
The great Martha McCallum on Fox today played that soundbite to me and then brought in Bob Beckle to react to it.
And it started, this is the segment from yesterday's program that she played for Beckle to reply to.
Democrats who are vulnerable in 2014 who are running away from it.
And I think the regime's scared of this.
I really do.
The message has gone out, you better not run away from us because it isn't just Obama.
It isn't just Obamacare.
It's your way of life.
It's liberalism.
It's big government.
It's going to go by the wayside if you people abandon us and let this thing go down the tubes.
And the regime is saying that, and the media is saying that, and all these Obama donors.
And, you know, even we've got a soundbite.
Harvey Weinstein.
Before I get to Beckle, let me find Weinstein.
Hang on just a second.
Where is it?
Way toward the end here.
Sit tight.
Sit down.
I'm getting there.
Looks like it's number.
Yes, number 17.
Wait a minute.
Is this?
Yep, this is it.
This is Friday night, way back on Piers Morgan Live on CNN.
This is why nobody knew about this until today, because it happened on CNN on Friday night.
He's talking to Harvey Weinstein, big time movie producer.
I mean, this guy and Clinton are inseparable buddies.
For example, when Bush unveiled the portraits of Bill and Hillary at the ceremony in the White House, Weinstein was there in the front row.
I mean, he's big fundraiser, donor, cavorter, co-lingerer.
He's just everywhere with these guys.
And now that Clinton's out, he's moved in, and he's been sideling up to Obama.
The guy's just a huge, huge lib Democrat, fundraiser, and all that.
So here he is on Piers Morgan on Friday night talking about Obamacare and Obama's lie about if you like your insurance, you can keep it.
Piers Morgan said, you know, Harvey, it's that repeated footage of him, not just once, but dozens of times, telling the American people, you can keep the plan, you keep your doctor, when it looks like now he knew all along that wasn't possible.
It was just an outright falsehood, Harvey.
And I can't remember him doing that so blatantly.
And I certainly couldn't imagine Nelson Mandela ever doing it.
What the hell does Mandela have to do with this?
And it appears Morgan actually said to Harvey Weinstein, I can't imagine Nelson Mandela ever doing this.
Well, we're not going to get into what Mandela did.
I'm not going to go for the distraction.
Here's what Weinstein said.
This is the only country in the world where we don't have health care.
Countries embarrass us around the world.
And this is the only country in the world where you don't have a gun law.
I watched you talk about that.
Quite frankly, it's embarrassing.
Obama's not embarrassing.
The country's embarrassing.
Harvey Weinstein, ex-Miramax honcho.
It's not Obama who's embarrassing.
It's the country that's embarrassing.
We're the only country in the world to have health care, which is bogus.
We've got the best health care in the world.
The only country that has gun laws.
It's embarrassing.
This guy typifies uber elitist leftists, embarrassed of their own country, traveling around the world thinking that they are not properly respected because they're Americans and so forth.
Okay, so that's Weinstein, and that's his version of it.
But after playing this soundbite of me reminding everybody that Obama is in the media and everybody is warning these Democrats that if you abandon us on this, it's going to be the end of liberalism.
So Martha McCallum played that clip and then said to Beckel, is there that kind of fear among liberals that this huge initiative by the president may be in real trouble?
You can't go through the day by day and listen to the news reports and listen to the reality of what's happening here and not be concerned about it.
The issue is when Russ says you're supposed to circle the wagons, well, of course you're going to circle the wagons because what's your choice?
The idea that somehow you can distance yourself from a president in the midterm of a second term election, which in and of itself historically has been a rough election for the party in power.
If you voted for this thing and you're on record on it, then you're going to have to pay some consequences for it.
But I continue to repeat when I hear things like this is the death of liberalism.
You know, I've heard this historically over the years where the death of conservatism was as late as 2008, and yet conservatism came back.
So Beckel basically says that Democrats will pay the price for Obamacare, but it's not the end of liberalism.
Just like it's never the end of conservatism, not the end of liberalism.
Look, and he's probably right.
I mean, if it, you know, Reagan, if there was ever going to be an end to liberalism, it would have been Reagan.
But this may be a little bit more powerful.
The power of Reagan was people living prosperous lives in a robust economy and feeling patriotic.
This is different because this is pain.
This is deceit.
This is out-and-out lies.
This is a lie about something that the Democrat Party itself has made the most personal important thing to most people in their lives, and that's their health care.
I mean, the Democrats made this bed, folks.
They're the ones that went out and told people that they're just a paycheck away from bankruptcy, paycheck away from homelessness, paycheck away from this, paycheck away of getting fired away from losing their health care and being bankrupt if they get sick.
And they've made people think that the only important thing in life is health insurance.
And people have structured their lives around it.
They take jobs for less pay based on the health benefit.
People have ordered their lives around this because they believe this panic.
They believe this fear-mongering that getting sick could ruin their lives financially.
So by end of, then Obama comes along and lies to them about his reform for this to make it even better.
And he lies big time, and they can't keep what they like, and they can't keep their doctor, and their doctors are pulling out, and the insurance companies are canceling him.
And then they find out that Obama knew all along and lied to him.
That's powerful.
Because Obama is who?
He's a Democrat.
They may not know liberal from conservative to Trotskyite to Bolshevik, but they know Democrat.
And they know that the Democrat Party lied to him.
And it's massive pain.
And this is why there is fear on the left that this could be a near fatal.
I don't think it ever be fatal.
own too many institutions.
What do you mean by liberals?
Are some of these liberals questioning?
You mean voters?
That's the fear.
The fear that the liberal elite is having is that the low-information people are going to conclude the government can't do everything.
That's their fear.
I mean, they've created almost half the country depending on the government.
And now here, right in front of their noses, is government can't do it.
So there's a genuine fear that it could provide irreparable harm to one extent or another to the whole notion of big government.
Forget liberalism, big government compassion, what have you.
And Beckle, well, the Democrats are going to pay a price for this because this is big stuff, but it's not the end of liberalism.
And he continued, he wasn't quite through.
He wanted to make another point, which was that he would advise candidates to take Obama's money but run away from it.
And by the time the election comes around, the people who have lost insurance will have made arrangements, and so they won't be as agitated.
That's what he's hoping.
One of the problems we've got in America, in the American political analysis world, is we take the events of today and sort of transport them 12 months down the road to an election and assume that what's going on today is going to be going on then.
By then, I assume that most people who've had their policies canceled will have made arrangements.
You can't go through this day by day, drumming on the Affordable Care Act and not assume that it's going to take political damage.
And it has.
Now, for Democrats, they're running scared.
If I were still a political consultant, I would say to my candidate, I would not campaign with Obama out in the field.
I would take his money.
Certainly, that's always been helpful.
That's the cards that have been dealt to them, and that's the ones that get up to play.
He doesn't give them money, Bob, and he doesn't raise much money for them when you get down to brass tax.
He raises it all for himself.
Harvey doesn't even raise money.
Harvey raises money for Obama.
But Beckles' theory is, eh, you lose your health insurance today, get mad at Obama today.
But a year from now, you're going to have made arrangements.
Really?
What are they going to be?
What are these arrangements to make sure you don't go bankrupt for getting a cough, which is what the Democrats have told people?
Look at, I don't think this can be overemphasized.
They have made their bet on this.
They have got a whole country convinced that having to go to the hospital for a couple of days could ruin them if they don't have insurance.
They've got people scared to death of this.
It's an amazing thing as a casual observer to watch this.
Sorry, not casual observer.
But I'm looking at this as a sociologist would.
And I'm stunned here how successfully they have pulled this off.
Meaning, people really don't think they can get through the day if they don't have a health insurance policy.
I mean, it is almost more important than food.
And now, what arrangements are they going to make?
Medicaid?
That may be all that's available to them if this thing folds out the way Obama wants to.
All right.
Let's see.
Yeah, this is a phone call so we get back.
Sit tight, my friends, much more straight ahead right after this.
No, no, don't, don't misunderstand, folks.
I'm not saying the Democrats are lying to you.
They have also created the reality that if you have to go to hospital, you're going to be bankrupted.
Why do you think it costs so much?
We've been through this.
I can't tell how many times.
But if you, there's a middleman, two middlemen.
There's the government and the insurance companies in the middle of you and your health care.
And two of those entities, at the end of the day, don't care what it costs.
You do, but you don't have any power in this.
This is what has to change in all this.
I'm just saying they've made their bid.
They got a lay in it now.
And it's just, look at, there's, I can't tell you, everywhere I look in the drive-bys, and I'm not convinced it's happening yet, very guarded, but there are story after story after story about the unraveling of the regime, the unraveling of the Obama administration.
There's some genuine fear.
The polling data, all of this, second-term hexes, all that sort of stuff, people are writing about.
But they're worried in the drive-bys about this because this is not something they can save him from.
Here's Jack, Leonardtown, Maryland.
Hi, Jack.
I'm glad you waited.
Great to have you on the program.
Hello.
Hey, Rush, it's actually Zach, but that's fine.
I have done research and I've read a thesis about elections, presidential elections, and unemployment.
Yeah.
And what I found was that it's not so much the static level of unemployment at the time of the election, it's the trend leading into the election.
And the effect is if unemployment is falling, there's a boost to the incumbent.
And what I found also is that the effect is much greater in areas that vote red or in swing counties.
So for example, if we saw a 0.5% percentage point decrease in the unemployment rate, Barack Obama could have expected to see almost a 2.5% boost in his polling in swing counties in swing states, the most important counties in the United States for elections.
So seeing this trend data, it absolutely compounds what I was looking for is how did Barack Obama win with such high unemployment?
It wasn't that the unemployment was high or low.
It was that the trend was coming down.
The reported trend.
It was all made up.
Exactly.
Because people, the national level unemployment, you don't feel it at a local level.
I also looked at state and county unemployment, and there is some effect with county unemployment, but I believe that it's a different type of information.
So when people in your county are unemployed, you feel it because you're your neighbors.
You know, it's like what Ronald Reagan has said.
What is it, the quote?
You know, when it's, I'm sorry.
I know what the quote is.
I'm going to go back to what you said.
Zach, the media was even saying the media last year, AP and others were saying that the important thing is the trend.
Because the number was high, no matter how they sliced it.
So they kept telling people who read this.
It's a trend that's important, and it's going down.
There is improvement monthly in the unemployment numbers.
And so the low information crowd think, all right, stimulus work and things are working out here.
And it was all lies.
Here you go.
This is it.
The Washington Post story.
Obama's ratings tumble after healthcare flaws.
It's by Dan Balls and Peyton M. Craighill.
The flawed rollout of the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, has pushed President Obama to the lowest point of his presidency with dwindling faith in his competence and in many of the personal attributes that have buoyed him in the past, according to a new Washington Post-ABC news poll.
Opposition to the new health care law also hit a record high in the survey.
57% saying they oppose Obamacare.
46% said they are strongly against it.
57% oppose it in the Gallup poll.
56% say that government should not have anything to do with health care.
Now, never mind, folks, just one month ago, just 30 days ago, these same Washington Post ABC polls were telling us what idiots Ted Cruz and Mike Lee were for trying to stop Obamacare.
Just a month ago, moderate Republicans, and if I might add, conservative Republicans who are scared to be known as conservative Republicans and try to portray themselves as moderate.
In fact, let me get even more precise.
Conservative media people, scared to death to be identified as such, who portray themselves as moderate Republicans, were also telling us that Ted Cruz and Mike Lee were absolute idiots for trying to stop Obamacare, that there was no way it could happen.
The same conservative media types, afraid to be conservative, and so they cast themselves as moderate centrists or what have you, were also telling us that there was no way some lunatic like Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin or somebody like that would ever, ever break out and have a chance at getting the Republican nomination.
Just a month ago, remember?
We were hearing all of that about Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.
They idiots.
And once again, they were the prescient ones.
They were the ones who were correct.
This reminds me of a soundbite I've got here.
And I don't even remember which one it is, but I'll see it if I don't.
Hang on, folks.
Let me find this.
Oh, it's about Christie.
Do I have it here?
It's Chris Christie.
Chris Christie, Chris Christie, Richard Christie, Richard, Rep, Christian, yeah, grab 19 and 20.
Well, talking about moderate conservative Republicans reminded me that Governor Christie basically last night in Washington, a Wall Street Journal CEO Council forum said that he feels sorry for Obama.
We just elected him, and now we're shoving him out the door.
But he is a failure nevertheless.
Here's how it went.
We have two soundbites.
Here's number one.
We're three years away from the presidential election.
You know, I mean, in this sense, I feel badly for President Obama.
They just won a year ago, and everybody's like, so who's next?
You know, I mean, there is work to be done in this country, and as we shove him out the door, we minimize his ability to be an effective executive.
We shouldn't do that.
That's right.
We need bipartisanship.
And Governor Christie, and I kid you not.
He just said it.
All right, play it again.
Play it again, because there's a point to be made here.
We're three years away.
from the presidential election.
You know, I mean, in this sense, I feel badly for President Obama.
They just won a year ago, and everybody's like, so who's next?
You know, I mean, there is work to be done in this country.
And as we shove him out the door, we minimize his ability to be an effective executive.
We shouldn't do that.
This, you know, this is why I asked, is there not a Republican that wants to beat Democrats?
And Governor Christie today, I got a note, a friend of mine, we passed notes back and forth like high school.
This guy says to me, Christie's out there on the warpath again today telling everybody what we need is bipartisanship.
And I wrote him back.
I said, you know, I don't understand something.
Do these people in the Republican Party in the Northeast who keep talking about being able to cross the aisle, work with Democrats, bipartisan, do they not understand they're losing doing this?
Do they not understand the tactic isn't working?
I'm being serious with the question.
Since 2000, well, even prior, but 2008, McCain.
Well, hell, even 2000, McCain, I can cross the aisle.
I can work with the others.
We're obsessed.
These Republican establishment types are obsessed.
They still live in this dream world where they think the people who are the deciding factors in presidential elections believe in this bipartisan working together.
And every time we nominate a candidate who lays claim to being able to do it, they get skunked.
Isn't the evidence clear that tactic doesn't work?
So why keep going for it when the tactic doesn't work?
You look at this Washington Post story that says if the election were held today, that Romney would win by the same margin Obama wanted.
Romney would win the election today with everybody knowing what they know now.
And there's not one word about bipartisanship or Hispanics or anything the Republicans think they've got to do to win.
It's all because, and it's not because Romney has all of a sudden become loved and adored.
It's because people have finally seen the truth about Obama.
Well, that could have been hastened and helped if we had a party that would have told people the truth about Obama, but they didn't.
I want us to work together.
Now, here's Governor Christie lamenting the fact that we shouldn't minimize Obama's ability to be an executive.
Well, I'm like you, stupefied.
Sometimes, you know what I think?
I'm going to catch heck for this.
I'm going to kid.
Maybe I ought to reserve this till later.
Sometimes I think some people just get caught up in being celebrities and whatever that takes and the celebrity for life.
Sometimes I wonder.
No, I'm not talking about anybody in particular.
This cross-the-aisle, bipartisan work-together tactic doesn't work.
The Republicans are not winning presidential elections with that.
And yet, we keep hyping it.
Here's the next sound by Governor Christie.
In the next breath, He says Obamacare is and always was a failure and won't succeed.
Somebody said that way back in 2009.
I forget who.
Obamacare is a failure.
It's always been a failure and it will not succeed.
Just won't.
Obamacare is wrong.
It's a failure.
It's the most extraordinary overreach of government power in the history of our country.
And it's being run by people who've never run anything.
So why are we surprised it's failing?
But it's Obama is the one who's failing.
It's Obamacare.
Always was going to be a failure.
Somebody said that back in 2009.
In January, January 16th, I remember who only one person said it.
That's right.
But how do you go from, see, this, you know what this, and we're shoving him out the door, we minimize his ability to be achieving it.
We shouldn't do that.
That is a play for this mythical group of people who believe in bipartisanship and working together and all that.
See, get that out of the way, and then you come lower the hammer.
Because the second thing Christie said, he would be an idiot to then go back and work with Obama after having described Obama and Obamacare that way.
It's a failure, always was going to be a failure, can't work, run by people who've never run anything.
Are we surprised it's failing?
But let's work with them anyway.
Maybe I just listened too closely.
I'm just not supposed to hear everything that's said.
So, here, back to the Washington Post, Dan Balls and Peyton M. Craig Hill.
Opposition to the new health care law hit a record high, 57% in the latest ABC Washington Post polls.
Just a month ago, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee were idiots.
Then they say disapproval of Obama's handling of the health care law rollout, 63%.
A majority saying they strongly disapprove of the way Obama's handling this.
Last month, it was 53%.
So his disapproval in this poll shot up 10 points in just one month, and we were told that we were going to love Obamacare once we got to know it.
we were told the people who wanted to stop it were idiots.
That's an important point to remember, folks.
Just a month ago, all the media, left and right, conservative and liberal, both parties were telling us what an idiot Ted Cruz was, how stupid Sarah Palin is, how short-sighted Mike Lee was being for trying to stop Obamacare.
Here's a, I'll tell you that disturbing numbers for the Democrat National Committee.
And the Washington Post tries to obscure these numbers by burying them late in the story.
But try this.
Almost four in 10 Americans say they are more likely to oppose a politician who backs Obamacare over a fifth say they would be more likely to support such a politician.
So 40% would oppose an Obamacare candidate and 20% say they would support one.
That's a huge gap.
That is the biggest gap in that measure recorded in the post-ABC poll during the entire debate over the law.
So in plain English, what it means is that 40% will vote against anybody who voted for Obamacare, while only 20% will vote for somebody because they support it.
It's like 2010, exactly, 2010 midterms.
And this is why the Democrats are panicking.
But my favorite result in the Washington Post ABC News poll and story is buried at the bottom.
The survey asked people to rate the ideological leanings of the two parties and of the Tea Party movement.
43% say the Republican Party is too conservative.
36% who say its views are just right.
For Democrats, 46% say the party is too liberal.
41% say it's about right.
And yet it's the Republicans who are opposed to change their brand.
They're supposed to change their brand.
There's as much disapproval of the Democrat Party in this poll as there is the Republican Party.
But it's only the Republicans who have to change their brand.
It's only the Republicans who have to go out and get the Hispanics.
It's only the Republicans got to stop the war on women.
Same percentage thinks the Democrat Party's too wacko on the left.
Here is Brian, Orlando, Florida.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
How you doing, sir?
Oh, somebody waited for me to answer.
Doing great.
Thank you.
Yeah, I've been a listener for a long time.
Been listening since you hooked me with the Clinton video where he was at the funeral, walk along laughing, saw the camera, started crying.
I laughed so hard I couldn't believe it.
But yeah, I just bought my grandsons.
I've got a 12-year-old and a 7-year-old, The Rush booked Rush Revere.
And they want to know if they can get Rush and Liberty action figures.
They want to have their own adventures.
And Rush and Liberty action figures like Batman, Superman.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's just another hero.
He's an American, all-American hero.
Yeah.
You know, you're putting me on the spot here with the – I mean, there's an answer to your question.
I mean, there is a full-fledged answer to your question.
It's just not the time.
But there is an answer to your question.
Do you know what?
I mean, it's as close as I can get.
We're just beginning here.
We're just beginning, but I'm flattered.
Next would be the cartoon.
You know, you're really rendering me speechless, and nobody can do that outside of Catherine.
So you want action figures and a cartoon.
Anything to help the kids learn how to grow up in America and be an American?
Yeah, well, I would, you know what?
I can't thank you enough.
Now, Brian, I want to stay.
I want you to stay on hold because I want to send you and your kids audio copy of the book read by me as a gift.
And just sit out there, be cool, be patient.
Be patient.
You're amazing, sir.
Somebody just asked me if I've been nominated for a Grammy for my reading of Rush Revere, The Brave Pilgrims.
Obama got two Grammys, one for each of his autobiographies.
I told a guy I wouldn't wait for that.
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