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Dec. 12, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:52
December 12, 2013, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 247 Podcast.
Well, folks, it's happened again out there.
And this time it's not in Florida.
This time it happened in Arizona.
A couple in Mesa, Arizona, been charged with assault and disorderly conduct.
After arguing with McDonald's employees and throwing food at them, they went in there and they ordered hash browns.
They didn't have any.
So they called 911 and then started beating up the McDonald's people.
Why in the world would you call 911 when there aren't any hash browns?
What do they think this is?
Port St. Lucy.
Folks, how are you?
Great to have you, Rush Limboy here, the EIB Network, the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Great to have you.
The telephone number, if you want to be on the program 800 282-288 to the email address, L Rushmore at EIB net.com.
Well, this budget deal.
I was just telling Mr. Snerdley, folks, I have to be honest with you.
I'm I'm I'm having trouble getting engaged in it because I think everybody's expectations are a bit high here when measured against reality.
But I feel duty bound to discuss this.
I said yesterday uh got an email from people thinking that I had shirked my duties as uh premier talk show host by not talking about this or whatever.
Well, this is Thursday, so it must have been Monday or Tuesday.
And you know, it was it was clear.
I I talked to a bunch of uh people about this.
The Republicans are shell-shocked.
Everybody's trying to understand why the Republicans are doing what they're doing.
They're shell-shocked.
I don't care what you have the conservative side, the the the Boehner side, they're all just shell-shocked.
They have it's like they have no awareness of the problems that Obama is in.
They just never seen anything like it.
So anyway, we'll delve to get into it, endeavor to get into it as the uh as the program unfolds before your very eyes, the sports media trying to run Mike Shanahan out of Washington.
This is the most amazing thing.
It has really been a study in the media culture to watch this unfold.
And I've been watching it from day one.
And how about, you know, I'm sorry.
I uh I can't, I can't look at videotape of this fake sign language guy at the Mandela Memorial without busting out laughing.
Do you realize this guy crashed the Nelson Mandela Memorial?
He's up there faking sign language for every one of these speakers, and nobody has any idea what he's doing.
And it turns out that he has been hired prior to this by the South African president, Mr. Zuma.
No matter where you look, it seems, no matter where you go in the world, everything's upside down and doesn't make any sense.
In addition to the security risk that this guy presented, if you if you take that out of it and you look at the videotape, it's unbelievably hilarious.
This guy crashes an event, he's up there faking sign language.
I'm looking at it now.
He's standing two feet away from every speaker.
Now it turns out the guy said he saw angels or or or aliens or whatever.
He's a schizophrenic, he's an absolute lunatic.
And he ends up they hired him.
They went out and find and he's been hired before.
Uh I think the interpreter said that he was he was only gonna get $85 for for doing this.
Now, all kidding aside, according to the AP, at a long interview with the guy, he says he's a schizophrenic, that he has been recently hospitalized for More than a year for his schizophrenia, and that he has been violent a lot of times in the past.
And this guy was allowed to stand within three feet of the president of the United States with a bunch of guns all around him.
Did the Secret Service not vet this guy?
You know, you stop and think, so Mr. Mandela passes away, and they're obviously I would have thought there would have been a bunch of work for months behind the scenes in preparing for the crush of dignitaries from all over the world to come in.
The logistics, finding places for all of these people who think they should all get the presidential suite at the hotel.
Every damn one of them thinks they should get it, but only one person's going to.
So they have to iron that out.
They have to iron out all the security.
They have to iron out all the transportation to and from.
The president of the United States has more people with him and more equipment with him than any other world leader.
They have to handle this seemingly overnight, and apparently this guy does not get vetted.
The South African government is trusted with putting this guy up there on the podium.
And while this guy is faking the sign language, Obama's taking selfies with the blonde bimbo.
A babe from Denmark and the British prime minister.
Does it does it seem like everything is falling apart?
There is nothing anybody is taking seriously here in ways that really meant.
Now we find out, by the way, uh, ladies and gentlemen, one of the reasons that Obama shook the hand of Raul Castro is that there have been six months of secret talks going on between us and Cuba.
Did you know that?
Well, I got it right here.
UK Daily Mail, the handshake scene round the water cooler was no fluke, it turns out, when Obama approached the podium at the Mandela Memorial and made a beeline for a row of foreign leaders stopping first to shake hands with Raul Castro.
It came after representatives from the two historically antagonistic nations had already been in talks for six months.
Behind the scenes, U.S. and Cuban officials have, and this is the UK media reporters, not in the American media.
It's the UK Daily.
No, no, I'm sorry, it is a Daily Beast.
I was getting confused with the Daily Mail.
It is the American media.
Behind the scenes, two reporters for the Daily Beast said that U.S. and Cuban officials have had mid-level discussions in Havana and Washington on a range of issues, including direct postal service, migration issues, disaster response, search and rescue at sea, and cigars.
During the president's trip back from South Africa, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters and Air Force One Spent quite some time since the presidents of the United States and Cuba were even in the same place.
So they they've been having talks here for six months, and nobody knew about it.
What else is going on that we don't know about?
Obviously quite a bit.
On the economic front, the number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose 68,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 3006,000.
That's the largest increase in more than a year.
Now, folks, wasn't it just last week or two weeks ago that the unemployment rate came down to 7.0%?
And we had all of these reports of a burgeoning job market.
All kinds of great jobs being created, the labor force participation rate, that was increasing.
All the news on the employment front was just peachy.
And then we recalled the story in the New York Post not long ago that the Census Bureau faked the job numbers a year ago leading up to the election in November 2012.
So we began to doubt the jobs numbers ever since they've been reported because we know this regime is totally capable of faking it and making them up for their own benefit.
Now all of a sudden, on the heels of magnificent news on the employment front.
Now we've got this unexpected massive increase in applications for unemployment.
The associated press is gobsmacked.
They don't understand it.
The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose 68,000 last week.
The largest increase in more than a year, the surge in first-time applications could be a troubling sign, they say if it lasts.
But it likely reflects the difficulty adjusting for delays after the Thanksgiving holiday.
That's not what this is all about.
You know what this is about?
The Democrats are upset that the budget deal does not contain any extension for unemployment benefits.
That's all this is.
I'll lay you a dollar to a donut.
They put this number out to further the idea getting because this budget deal hasn't been voted on yet.
That's not going to happen until later this afternoon in the House.
You know, this is this budget deal, folks.
It just amazing.
You got Mitch McConnell publicly saying that he's against this.
And Texas Senator John Corden saying he is against it.
But you got people at the Senate Conservative Fund claiming that McConnell really wants this thing to pass.
He just doesn't want to say so publicly.
You have Democrats threatening this budget deal over unemployment.
Congressman Levin is saying his vote is at risk.
Nancy Pelosi is not happy because the budget deal does not contain extension for unemployment benefits.
And lo and behold, here comes this massive new gain in unemployment benefits right on schedule.
Right on schedule to have an increase in unemployment benefits added to this budget deal.
Don't be surprised if that gets thrown in.
I would believe anything at uh at this point.
It's just a mess.
And it's all, you know, elections have consequences.
And the Republican Party is scared of its own shadow right now.
The Republican Party is in shell shock.
They're afraid to oppose anything Obama's doing.
They're afraid to stand against anything the Democrat Party is doing, no matter the plummeting poll numbers, Obama and health care and so forth doesn't matter.
Some people think this would be the time to pounce.
Others say, no, no, no, no.
The opponents committing suicide, stand aside and let it happen.
The American people and the bond of trust they have with Obama has been broken, and that's true.
But we've got a president who doesn't care about the bond of trust in the end of the day.
We've got a president who's been governing against the will of the people anyway.
You know, so how to how to take this broken bond of trust between people that voted for Obama and the president and turn that around and use it to your advantage ought to be something the Republicans should be calculating.
And I'll be it, I'll be darned, it just seems like the Republican Party is absorbed, is consumed with eliminating any conservative influence inside the party whatsoever.
In the meantime, on the Pope front, discussed this at NPR yesterday.
Audio soundbite number one, Mr. Broadcast Engineer.
Yesterday, NPR tell me more.
Michelle Martin, the hostette, formerly at ABC, I think it was ABC News, yeah.
She's not NPR.
She spoke with National Catholic reporter writer Michael Sean Winters about the Pope's recent exhortation, the joy of the gospel, and his criticism of trickle-down economics.
Michelle Martin said, how do you read both what the Pope said and reactions to it based on the fact that you blogged?
You've got a very active kind of social media presence, and you're in the kind of stream of these conversations, Sean.
What do you think here?
Yeah, I mean, I'm actually grateful to Rush Limba for voicing what I think a lot of Catholic conservatives are saying quietly and over the tables.
And I unfortunately I include some bishops in that.
I think some bishops have been quite outspoken or at least very grudging in their respect for the for this Pope.
Well, that's an interesting new take on this.
People privately happen that I'm the pioneer on this, carrying the uh the water and accepting, you know, hit with the arrows.
Privately.
A lot of people actually grateful to Rush Limbaugh for voicing this.
Anyway, that is not the prevailing opinion with other guests on this program.
And uh also, anybody ever heard it?
There's a late night comedy show called uh what is it uh that's it.
Chelsea lately, it's on the e-entertainment.
There's a comedian on there last night who hoped that I die.
And said he hopes the Pope keeps speaking out.
Uh grab it.
Audio soundbite number four.
Why paraphrase it?
The comedian's name is Moshi Casher.
And he's on Chelsea lately last night, and are discussing the Pope being the person of the year.
I think he's cool, actually.
I think any Pope that makes Rush Limbaugh like one blown artery closer to going to that great hometown buffet in the sky.
That's not gonna pose.
See, they love, I'm telling you, they love that all these people have been telling me that they chose the Pope because it's a thumb in your eye.
There may be some people that support that contention.
Uh just the Pope, let's face it, disagrees with 95% of what all of these people hold dear, and yet they're siding with the Pope.
Fascinating stuff.
Brief time out, we'll be back.
We'll continue with much more after this on the EIB network.
Don't go away.
A random act of journalism from CNBC, ladies and gentlemen.
According to the CBO's analysis of the 2010 Census Bureau, the top 40% of wage earners, this is new.
The top 40% of wage earners in America are paying 106% of all income taxes.
The bottom 40% paid a negative 9%.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, for those of you in Rio Linda, what that means is that the bottom, I guess the bottom 60% got back more than they paid in from the government.
The EITC and refunds and other things, they ended up a net gain.
They got back 9% of what they were supposed to pay, essentially.
The report shows the lowest-paid Americans earned an average $8,100 in 2010, but received nearly $25,000 in government aid.
The CBO says that about a quarter of the lowest-earning group actually paid negative 15% of all individual income taxes, Now you combine that with the combined share of the wealthiest two groups, and it details more than their totals, more than 100%.
So where does Mitt Romney go to get his reputation back?
You know, this 2010 report must have been available to news media for some time.
Why is it taking three years for this minor detail to come out?
Buried inside a CBO report this week was this nugget.
When it comes to individual income taxes, the top 40% of wage earners pay 106% of the taxes.
The bottom 40% pay negative 9.
You heard right.
One group is paying more than 100% of individual income taxes.
The other is paying less than zero, which means they're net beneficiaries in the tax code.
Which means they're being paid.
While not paying taxes.
Right there in Table 3, page 13 of the CBO report.
The numbers are based on 2010, IRS and Census Bureau numbers.
In addition, $55,000, an average annual $5,000 in government aid.
And yet we continue to hear about how this nation is cold hearted to the poor.
I mean, if you want to, if you want to focus on whatever the Pope said, forget what he said about capitalism.
The Pope implied that nobody's doing enough for the poor.
This country does more for the poor than all the rest of the countries in the world combined.
Which is one of the things that offends me about all of this.
There's more charitable giving, there's more income redistribution for the poor in this country than there may have been since the beginning of time.
In the rest of the world.
And we're back.
El Rushmore, the cutting edge of societal evolution.
Great to have you here, folks.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
All right.
Congressional staffers were warned yesterday.
Well, actually, last no, it was yesterday.
Congressional staffers warned yesterday not to rely on information provided by the Obamacare Exchange website in an email alert informing them they might not be enrolled for coverage even if they technically signed up.
Congressional staffers told not to rely on information for what about the rest of us then.
This very important message sent to Capitol Hill officials on Wednesday is the latest sign the government has concerns about the reliability of the system.
No kidding.
But they only get concerned when members of Congress can't sign up or when they can't rely on information provided by the exchange website.
Despite improvements in the basic operation of the exchange websites and increased enrollment, there are lingering concerns about whether those signing up will actually be covered on January 1st.
Wasn't it last week or something that we were told that if you had signed up at the exchange, you had better call your insurance company to find out?
To not accept whatever the website told you that you'd better call and confirm it.
And now members of Congress being told the same thing, and they thought they were covered.
They thought they were being taken care of.
They thought their subsidies were going to be handled, they had nothing to worry about.
Please do not assume you are covered unless you have seen the confirmation letter from the disbursing office, the email to congressional staffers said.
The email urged staffers who've signed up via the DC Health Link.
That's the health care exchange for the District of Columbia to double check with the office that they are enrolled.
And they're told here, do not rely on your account page or other correspondence from the DC Health Link.
You know, I don't care where you go.
I don't care what you look at.
Whatever the news is, nothing, nothing is working.
Nothing can be relied on.
Nothing that the government has anything to do with can be relied on.
Unemployment news, uh health care is now been totally bollocks.
This is an absolute disaster.
The budget is totally out of control.
We're spending money that we don't have.
We don't have apparently not one person in Washington willing, no matter what party, no matter what think tank, no matter, well, I gotta exclude the think tanks, not one elected official willing to stand up and say, wait a minute, stop the presses.
We don't have Any money.
We still have all this gobbledygook being discussed and all this budget talk and minutia.
We don't have any money.
We don't have the money for anything that we're doing.
And the money that we are supposedly spending is being sent down a rat hole.
Healthcare is being destroyed.
The budget's being destroyed.
Every government program can't be relied on.
Medicare being destroyed.
Social Security.
Who knows what's going to become of that?
This is just unbelievable.
After all of this time, three years to set these exchanges up.
Three years after this thing signed into law.
And members of Congress don't trust the information that you're given.
The message reminded them they have not enrolled and will not have health insurance next year unless they get a confirmation letter.
There's nobody competent.
Nobody can tell anybody whether they've got health insurance or not.
Whether they got a confirmation letter or not, there's nobody knows.
What an outright utter disaster.
Everything seems to be.
They've got the president of the United States openly flirting with another foreign leader who is accepting the flirts and flirting back at a memorial service for who we are told is one of the most important human beings to ever walk the earth.
But the people over there honoring the man don't take it seriously enough to give it the solemnity and respect that it deserves.
And then we're told when we have problems that we're the racists, that we're the biggest, that we're the homophobes, and to not take everything so seriously.
Every institution and tradition seems to be under assault in this country.
And the people now trying to wreak havoc, wreak havoc, and do the damage don't care.
A damage that they're creating.
There doesn't seem to be anybody competent involved in any aspect of what's happening in government.
Congress, Senate, nothing can be relied on.
Not one person can stand up and say, whoa, we don't have the money for this.
What do you mean?
We're not going to balance the budget for 40 years.
There's not one person willing to take this seriously?
Not one out of 535 people.
There may be people in there, but they're not involved in the negotiations this deal.
I mean, there might be a few here or there in the Senate or House that do take it seriously.
We're not hearing from them, and they're not empowered to do anything about it.
The people who are just keep kicking the can down the road, adding to and expanding on and building the problem, no matter what it is.
We had the finest health care system in the world.
And it turns out the vast majority of American people were satisfied and happy with it.
And now people are being denied life saving insurance coverage and treatment they were getting.
And they're out there saying, What is our government doing to us?
Why is our government doing this to us?
And even when you tell them, when you give them the answer, it's not one they want to hear.
Your government's doing this to exact total control over you.
Your government is doing this to you to limit your freedom.
The government's doing this to you because they don't think you can handle life yourself.
The government's doing this to you because they want the power to have control over every aspect of your life.
No, that can't be.
No, no, that's exactly who these people are.
And they're incompetent boobs at the same time in the process.
Kathleen Sibelius, what did she say yesterday?
Kathleen Sabilus.
She said something really strange yesterday.
She said, Well, just because you've been canceled doesn't mean that you don't have insurance.
Something silly like that.
That doesn't mean just because you got uh just because uh just because uh you've been cancellation notice doesn't mean that you don't have coverage or something, some silly, stupid, idiotic, senseless Statement.
Yeah, this I got to hear some of the things that she said to the House Committee yesterday.
And among other things, she said, and I quote, people who have received cancellation notices are thrilled with the choices that are now available to them.
Folks, that is just downright dumb and stupid.
Nobody is happy.
Nobody is thrilled with the choices that are available to them because they don't have any choices.
It's choices that are being taken away from people in health care.
There used to be an abundance of choice.
It's being whittled away.
Pretty soon there isn't going to be any.
It's going to be all controlled by the government, nationalized, socialized, what they call single payer.
But single payer sounds good.
It isn't good.
Single payer sounds simple.
It isn't.
Single payer sounds sensible.
It isn't.
It's the total surrendering of all of your choice in health care, is what single payer means.
And for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to insult everybody's intelligence, oh, yeah, people are being canceled, they're just thrilled with the choices that they have now.
So I guess what are we having a five million Americans who are now thrilled?
And next year we're gonna have more than a hundred million thrilled Americans because they're gonna get canceled.
Next up are people who get health insurance at work, and they're gonna start receiving their cancellation notices, and then according to Kathleen Sabilius, they're going to be thrilled at all the choices they've got.
The choices at double the premium, triple the deductible, and no cap on out of pocket.
Thrilled with the choices they've got.
I don't even know how to process that.
That is just so insulting.
So silly.
Stupid.
What have you?
Gotta take a break.
Just saw the clock.
El Rushbow.
Back after this, folks.
Don't go away.
Sit tight.
This woman, this Kathleen Sibelius is dangerous in her incompetence.
She has a lot of power vested in her with this silly law.
You know what else she said?
She said that if she knew that what she knows about the website now, that she would have delayed the rollout.
Well, now, excuse me, isn't that what Ted Cruz and Mike Lee were calling for?
Weren't they calling for a delay?
This thing isn't ready to go.
And what were they called?
Terrorists, hostage takers, ransom demanders, and whatever the hell else they were called.
What do you mean if she knew then what she knew?
They have known from the get-go this wasn't ready to roll out.
And that didn't matter to them.
This was going to roll out whether it worked or not, because it's the Obama agenda, nationalizing health care, and they're going to do it no matter how it rolls out, and they're going to keep at it no matter how bad it is until they get it done the way they want it done, no matter the pain, no matter the suffering.
It's who they are.
If these people cared about the will of the people, they would have all resigned.
Two years ago, in the midst of screwing up this country, if they really cared about the people, all it would have taken was for one cancer patient to be canceled, to have no hope, to be given a death sentence, and anybody responsible would have done something about it.
Do Obama and Sebelius doing it?
No, they said, well, the system will fail.
We've got people who are on life-saving treatments being canceled and denied.
People have been given death sentences because of Obamacare.
If they really cared, they'd do something about it.
Thank you.
I, for one, am not moved by all their protestations, and if they had known then what they knew now, they would have delayed the rollout.
I'm not moved by all this supposed compassion and love that liberal Democrats have for People.
I just don't see the evidence of it.
I see quite the contrary.
You know what else she said?
She said, in addition to people who being canceled, thrilled at all the choices they've got.
She also said before this congressional committee on Wednesday that the cancellation of a private plan should not be equated with losing coverage.
No.
I mean, just because you've been canceled doesn't mean that you have lost coverage.
Here's the quote.
I know people have been told their health plan doesn't necessarily match the Affordable Care Act requirements, but losing coverage and being notified the plan they have doesn't exist anymore.
Well, those are two different things.
How are they different?
You are notified that the plan you have doesn't exist, but you haven't lost coverage.
How is that possible?
It's not possible.
This is called CYA.
This is just go up and tell a bunch of compliant members of Congress whatever it is they want to hear and get the hell out of Dodge.
You've got a federal program that is inflicting real harm on people.
And if they really cared, they would do something about it.
But they're not doing anything about it.
They're making you buy birth control coverage when you have no need for it or desire for it.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Let me go to the phones.
I'll start in Queens.
This is Lee.
I'm glad you called, sir.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hello, Rush.
Thank you for taking the call.
You bet, sir.
Uh I keep hearing you say that Republicans are shell-shocked and that they are living in fear of opposing Obama.
And personally, I believe they are compliant, and any opposition is strictly theater.
I mean, the effect is the same either way, whether they're backed into a corner or they're doing it willingly.
The effect I mean the outcome is the same.
But I was kind of curious as to how you came to your conclusion that it was being shell-shocked.
Well, you let it your point is that they're not shell-shocked, that they actually agree with all of this, that they are themselves part of the establishment and their status, and they're perfectly fine with government growing.
They're perfectly fine with health care inflicting this pain on people, and uh they're just gonna act like they oppose it, but they're not gonna do anything to really stop it.
Exactly.
That's what you think.
Yeah.
Well, if that's I know there's a there's an element of that uh in the in the Republican Party, but I don't think that describes the conservatives who are there.
No, it's it's an establishment thing.
It's it's definitely establishment thing.
Um but I mean you you see it.
I mean, they they can have a hundred votes on on uh canceling Obamacare, but at the end of the day, when it matters, they fund it.
Right.
Just like this budget funds Obamacare.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I do think uh now they could be lying to me.
I've spoken to a number of them, and they've not they've not said to me, oh my God, Rush, we're scared to death.
Well, actually they have uh in in different ways over the years by complaining that they'll never be covered if they the media will not cover them fairly and honestly.
I do think uh human nature being what it is, there is an element of that they don't like being called racists.
They don't like being called bigots or homophobes, and they don't they don't think there's any future in that.
They don't want to have commercials run against them by their opponents, where they're called racists or sexists or bigots or homophobes, and the way that you do that would be to criticize Obama.
So I think that there's probably an element of both things going on.
I think this government shutdown.
I I don't think I I I honestly believe that there is a real palpable fear that they would get blamed again and again and again for the government shutdown.
I think this is after 2010, even I think they are convinced.
They are convinced that the vast majority of people in this country love government and want more of it, and they're not gonna say they no matter what the polls say, they that they think they've lost the argument.
And so I I think there is palpable fear of being blamed for a shutdown.
And therefore, they're not going to do anything that will lead to another one.
I think the Democrats are leading them around by the nose.
I don't think of any question, though.
I actually believe the GOP is not just, I think they're afraid of being blamed for the shutdown and the sequester.
And I guess one of the reasons they couldn't wait to cave on this deal.
They really think they've dodged a bullet.
They really think they've won here, folks, with this budget deal, because they think they're not going to be criticized now because there isn't going to be a shutdown.
The details of the budget and what it's doing to the budget are irrelevant.
They aren't going to be criticized now.
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