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Jan. 7, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:47
January 7, 2014, Tuesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24 7 Podcast.
All right, so the Washington Soap Opera is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen.
The president's been speaking for the last 20 minutes, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever, on the morality and the economics of extending emergency unemployment benefits, anything to get Obamacare off the front page to get Obamacare off the radar.
Now we've got to extend unemployment benefits.
It's nothing more than the news agenda being recycled.
It just is flat out amazing.
And some of the things, you know, if if if what he just said is true, we ought to just stop anybody working and put everybody on unemployment, and that's how to get a recovery.
Hey, folks, I Rush Limbaugh, great to great to be here.
It's only Tuesday, already rocking rocking and rolling here.
Telephone number.
You want to be on the program is 800 282-2882, the email address, L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
This guy is an absolute economic idiot.
He's sitting here, he's he's touting the benefits of unemployment insurance for the last 20 minutes.
And the first thing that comes to my mind is wait a minute, I thought we had this great economic recovery going because of him.
And because of his astute, brilliant policies.
I thought the president had given us an economic recovery and we're starting to come back here.
They're reporting fourth quarter growth at 4%.
Did you hear that?
By the way, they're using new metrics to measure is nowhere near growing at 4%, but that's what they're saying.
And in the midst of all of this economic growth and all of this economic rebound, the most important thing is avoiding another government shutdown and extending unemployment benefits.
The president just said that unemployment benefits actually create new jobs.
Now stop and think about that for a second.
Unemployment benefits create new jobs.
What is unemployment insurance?
It is paying people not to work.
And that, let's change the term.
Let's get rid of unemployment insurance and let's call it paying people not to work.
The president of the United States just said to resounding applause.
Well, I'm not sure that got applause.
The only thing that's really gotten any applause in the White House, he's got all kinds of people there standing behind him is when he said we can't dare have another government shutdown.
That got a standing ovation.
So it tells you the kind of people in the room.
Anyway, paying people not to work can grow the economy.
Paying people not to work can create jobs.
And he explained how, by the way.
You want to hear that?
Well, here's what he said.
There's somebody in the room named Kathy.
I guess she's the she's the chosen one today.
Somehow she's being totally mistreated by this unfair, immoral, unjust country.
She's being mistreated by this unfair, immoral, unjust economy.
That's all his.
She's being mistreated.
She's being forgotten.
She's been left out by this uncaring, unfeeling country, which he has been running now for five years.
He keeps pointing to Kathy.
He said, now, if we extend Kathy's unemployment benefits, we are going to actually create jobs.
And here's how.
The additional money that Kathy will have will enable her to turn the thermostat up.
And turning the thermostat up when it's an ice ball out there will allow the utility company to maybe hire more workers.
Because they are deriving more income.
Because Kathy's turning up her thermostat.
Did you know it works that way?
So everybody out there, turn your thermostat up.
Because that will create jobs at your local utility.
That's how it works.
Then, after Kathy turns up her thermostat with the money she has left over from her unemployment check, she can then go to the grocery store and buy maybe an additional dozen eggs.
Or maybe another loaf of bread.
And when she does that, the grocery store might hire a new worker.
And in fact, might even hire Kathy.
This is the kind of drivel that we are getting from the President of the United States, and this is the kind of drivel that low information voters apparently are just scarfing up.
Nancy Pelosi got all this started for every dollar of unemployment benefits we create two dollars of economic activity, some such thing as that.
But the real overriding question is if we are in the midst of this massive growing economy and this just once in a lifetime thrilling recovery, then what's the emergency?
Thirty minutes on this.
Thirty minutes, and it's all part of the soap opera, folks.
It's nothing more than a distraction.
It is the playing of the race card, it's the playing of class envy.
It's got every liberal Democrat slash socialist agenda item wrapped up in it.
Republicans are mean and evil and don't care about people.
Washington has not been working hard enough.
The president said we can do this if we just work together.
And the place erupted in applause at that, I forgot.
If we can just work together.
There's obviously applause signs in the East Room of the White House where this is taking place.
So here we have Kathy, unemployed, because this country's unfair, unjust, and immoral.
Despite the fact he's been president for five years, we're in the midst of this rebounding recovery, this growing economy, he got fourth quarter growth at 4%, and yet the most pressing item in America is extending unemployment benefits, which, if we do it, will create even more jobs and create even more economic growth.
Because again, just to review, when Kathy gets her unemployment check, she will turn up her thermostat and make her home warmer.
By the way, coming up, ladies and gentlemen, lessons from Diane Sawyer on how to stay warm in the cold.
I got it right here.
Diane Sawyer on ABC News, and it involves wearing a scarf.
Make sure you wear a scarf.
Also coming up on the program today, audio sound bites from uh what's his name?
Anderson Cooper on how water freezes when it gets cold.
A demonstration, in fact.
He got a glass of water, he throws the water in the glass up in the air and it turns to snow.
And a demonstration of how water freezes in cold weather.
Yeah, it's a big day out there.
I mean, the news is rocking and rolling.
Anyway, Kathy, what?
What's the question?
Mm-hmm.
That means that we've had emergency unemployment benefits of 2008.
This is simply an extent.
We do it every year.
That's what I mean about this being recycled.
This is nothing new.
This is a Democrat Party policy agenda.
This is not based on reality.
This is all based on advancing their agenda.
It has nothing to do with the reality of life in the country.
If if we have been paying people not to work in record number, we've got 91 million people not working in this country, and they're all eating.
This has been my point.
We're paying people not to work.
We ought to have full employment by now.
If what the president said is true.
We ought to have, we ought to have economic growth the world's never seen before.
If what the because we've been doing it now since 2008.
Here's the AP story on this shutdown or showdown.
Sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn't need to say shutdown.
That scares people.
Oh, geez.
I didn't mean it, folks.
It was just a faux pas.
Showdown said on unemployment bill in Senate.
They've had a test vote today and it passed, and it's just the next step and the first step.
Um it's old buddy David Espot AP.
The new year looks a lot like the old one in the Senate.
This year Looks like last year looks like the year before that, and the year before that, nothing's changing.
Everything is getting worse.
Yeah, I'm mad.
I really am.
I I tell you what what makes me mad about this is that it really worries me is if this works, it's a testament to the degree of ignorance that exists in this country.
It's got to be laughed out of the White House with this today.
This is the fifth consecutive year that he's trotted out there in January after getting back from Hawaii and started tugging at heartstrings, how whoa, how horrible this country is, how woefully horrible the economy is.
And it's because how bad Bush was, he's been in charge five years, but he hasn't got any responsibility for anything that's happened.
He's still working hard to fix this.
Now we learn, now we learn that an unemployment check to Kathy will make her turn up her thermostat, which is going to increase hiring at her local utility.
But then when the environmentalist Blackos find out about this, they're going to storm Kathy's house and they're going to break her thermostat so that she can't turn it up because that's going to lead to global warming.
Then Kathy is going to take whatever she hasn't spent on raising thermostat and go to the grocery store, she's going to buy high cholesterol food, eggs and milk, and she's going to get sick, maybe get clogged arteries.
That's going to put additional pressure, price pressure on the health care system.
So the food Nazis will be after her for that.
Center for Science in the Public Institute.
What you bought an additional dozen eggs?
What are you crazy?
I mean you buy some arugula.
Now, so after she spends what she hasn't spent on the thermostats, she's going to go to grocery stores, going to buy the high cholesterol, additional loaf of bread, additional eggs, and the grocery store, probably what, Whole Foods, is going to go out and hire somebody.
Maybe even Kathy.
You know what how that works is they see Kathy walk in.
She's going to spend some additional money she didn't have because she got her unemployment check.
She's going to buy uh maybe a little bit more than she would have.
And they're going to say, you know what?
You'd make a great employee.
You're hired.
That's what the president said.
That's how it all works.
That's how paying people not to work creates jobs and grows the economy.
Well, by that by that measure, nobody ought to be working.
Everybody ought to be on unemployment insurance.
We ought to be paying everybody not to work.
And we're working on it.
We got 91 million Americans not working and climbing.
While the unemployment rate miraculously is plunging.
That's just it just, I'm telling you, folks, it just ticks me off.
Well, 25 years of this.
25 years of putting up with this drivel from these people.
Twenty-five, now we're at 26 years of this.
And but and every many years before that.
That's just the years of this program.
Anyway, back to this AP story.
The new year looks a lot like the old one in the Senate, with Democrats scratching for votes to pass an agenda they share with President Obama, and Republicans decidedly unenthusiastic about supporting legislation without changes.
So the president's filled with big-hearted compassion.
And the Republicans, with steely, cold eyes, saying to the people of the country, no, suffer.
Here's the point.
The only concession that the Republicans, I want you to remember this.
You may not remember this, but I'm going to remind you of it.
The only concession the Republicans got for giving Obama an unlimited debt ceiling.
Remember the last debt ceiling that they gave him, an unlimited debt ceiling with a condition.
and And the condition, the concession that they got from Obama, was that the Democrats would not push to extend federal unemployment benefits.
Well, here we are.
The one concession the Republicans got has now been blown to smithereens.
And you see what a good deal that was for the Republicans.
As always, the AP here studiously fails to note that these federal benefits, emergency unemployment insurance, was implemented back in 2008.
This is simply a renewal.
The president, though, is relying on the fact that you've forgotten that, and this is the first time we're doing it, and it's just this'll put us over the hump.
We're almost there, folks.
This economy is really roaring back.
This this recovery is going forward, but there's still some people hurting, and we need to extend unemployment benefits.
And they want you to think that this is the first time and the only time we're gonna we've done it every year since 2008.
Emergency.
How do you think?
Now we got up to 99 weeks of unemployment compensation.
How do you think we got to 99 weeks of paying people not to work?
It's taken us five years to do it.
2008 started as an emergency.
It was a one-time boost at the height of the recession.
It's all part of the stimulus argument.
2008 then in Obama's inaugurated in 2009.
And meanwhile, these one-time benefits, as they were promised us back in 2008, these one-time benefits have been extended every year since in a in a in a flim phlam ceremony exactly like this every year for five years.
Never mind the recession officially ended in July of 2009, which is four and a half years ago now.
So no, we still need to give people 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.
And now what this vote today in the Senate is about is making it permanent.
That's what is being voted on in the Senate is making paying people for 99 weeks not to work permanent.
And the AP story even says the Democrats want to do this to demonstrate sympathy.
Translation by votes.
Never mind that it has been Obama and the Democrats who have prolonged this recession and had given us the worst economic recovery in the history of this country, and it is.
The Pope could have done better.
I just threw that in.
I mean, just for the heck of it, because I got to go to commercial.
It is so cold out there, folks.
The Democrats today have their hands in their own pockets.
You know, this is just it is it actually is frustrating.
It's maddening if a one trillion dollar stimulus program, one trillion dollar stimulus program did not create any jobs.
Would somebody explain to me how in the heck a six billion dollar extension of unemployment insurance is going to do it.
And if we've done it every year for the past five years, if it didn't create jobs in the past five years, how is it going to do it now?
But see, none of that matters.
All that matters is the president gets to show that he cares, that he has compassion, that his party has compassion, and the Republicans don't.
The people of this country, I trust the vast majority of them still want jobs.
They want to work.
They want prosperity.
There isn't any prosperity with unemployment benefits.
There's no hope of prosperity with unemployment benefits.
There's no future.
Unemployment benefits, can you imagine, son?
Someday I'm gonna die.
And I'm gonna leave you everything I've got.
I'm gonna set you up.
I'm gonna leave you my unemployment benefits.
I have saved every penny of every unemployment check, and I'm gonna bequeath it to you.
Big whoop, Ted.
A one trillion dollar stimulus when Obama took office.
No jobs.
Every year we have spent six billion dollars extending unemployment benefits.
We haven't created any jobs.
President today says, oh yeah, Kathy's going to take an unemployment check and turn her thermostat up.
By the way, the president said back on May 17th of 2008, you'll remember this.
We can't drive our SUVs.
You know, we can't eat as much as we want.
We can't keep our homes at 72 degrees at all times, whether we're living in the desert or we're living in a tundra, and just expect every other country to say, okay, you know, you guys go ahead.
You keep on using 25% of the world's energy.
He said we can't keep thermostats high.
We can't keep our whole homes cool or warm, whatever we want.
The rest of the world won't accept it.
But today with unemployment compensation, you turn up your thermos debt and the utility people hire jobs.
By the way, folks, technically, these the Senate is not voting to make these jobless benefits permanent.
I was being extrapolative there.
This extension is only supposed to be for another three months.
But if if they uh if if if if they can't stop this now, they may as well make this permanent.
It may as well make this an annual thing.
It has been since 2008.
The six billion dollars that we're gonna spend extending unemployment benefits is for three months.
This is not an exercise in substance whatsoever.
What galls me again is that the president goes into the White House today and just lies.
He's just lying to people about everything he's saying here.
This is not a way to grow the economy, it's not a way to create jobs.
It's not gonna let somebody turn their thermostat up.
It isn't gonna let them buy additional food that leads to the supermarket hiring somebody.
It doesn't work that way.
There is no economic recovery, it's a disaster.
It's the worst economic recovery in our history.
There is no growing economy.
Obamacare is an absolute disaster, and this whole thing is a distraction designed to take people's focus away from that.
And these people get away with this, is what bugs me.
They get away with simply lying.
We're dumbing down this country, this party, these people, these Democrats, are creating a nation.
They're doing everything they can to create a nation of abject ignoramuses for the purposes of profiting from it, from benefiting from it.
That's what distresses me.
I happen to love people.
I happen to want the best for people, and these people are not it.
The Democrat Party is not the best thing for people.
It's the worst thing that can happen to people is for Democrat Party policies to be implemented to thrive and survive.
They destroy people.
They destroy jobs, they destroy the economy.
There is no recovery.
They're totally wrecking the American health care system.
And all the while they're doing this, they get credited with having the big hearts.
And all the compassion of Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi has claimed extending unemployment benefits will create 600,000 jobs.
I kid you not.
It's just an abject lie.
I don't care whether they do it or not.
I don't care whether they believe it or not.
Doesn't matter, they're lying through their teeth or their ignoramuses, either one.
It's still bad.
Again, Obama gets into office, we have the stimulus.
For all intents and purposes, it's a trillion dollars.
2009 didn't create any jobs.
91 million Americans are not working.
91 million.
Human beings are not working.
Every year we've extended unemployment benefits.
This time they're asking for a three-month extension.
Big whoop.
That's nothing more than a campaign trick.
Six billion dollars.
So if a trillion dollar stimulus doesn't create jobs, and by the way, we've extended emergency unemployment insurance every year since 2008.
And if that hasn't created jobs, why is this going to create jobs?
It won't.
And then to have our intelligence insulted by telling us that this is how you create jobs, paying people not to work creates jobs.
The President said it.
Let's go to the audio sound bites.
We've got a couple of these from this ceremony.
Grab somebody at 25.
Here is the president, his own words explaining how paying people not to work helps the economy.
Independent economists have shown that extending emergency unemployment insurance actually helps the economy.
Actually creates new jobs.
When folks like Catherine have a little more to spend to turn up the heat in her house or buy a few extra groceries, that means more spending with businesses in her local community, which in turn may inspire that business to hire one more person.
There, you heard it.
You heard it straight in the horse's mouth.
I told you he said it, but you just heard him say it.
Independent economists.
What the hell is an independent economist?
Independent economists have shown that extending emergency unemployment insurance, these people are doofuses too, because we've been doing it for five, six years in a row now, and it doesn't do any of this.
Extending emergency unemployment benefits helps the economy.
No evidence.
Actually creates new jobs.
Because Kathy's going to have a little bit more to spend to turn up her thermostat.
And may buy a few extra groceries.
And that may lead to people being hired.
One person may inspire that business to hire one more person.
So we're going to measure an economic recovery by if an individual schlub over here gets hired, another schlub over there gets hired because somebody got an unemployment check.
Oh no, no, no, no.
Folks.
Snerdly is what are you against unemployment?
No, no, no.
That's not my point here.
I'm not.
See, this is the risk that you run in pointing out how these people are lying.
They set up this massive magical fantasy world.
And when you point out that it doesn't work this way, they get credit.
Well, at least they're trying.
They care about people.
I mean, they want, they want her to have an extra loaf of bread.
And when you oppose it, it allows them to say, see, these people that oppose Obama, they don't care about people.
In fact, we do.
This is not how you help people.
This is punishing people.
This is setting people back.
This is not compassion.
This is insulting everybody's intelligence.
This isn't helping people.
This is buying their votes.
This is dumbing people down.
Here's one more.
One more soundbite from the President from his big show today.
I've heard the argument that says extending unemployment insurance will somehow hurt the unemployed because it saps their motivation to get a new job.
I I I really want to I I want to go at this for a second.
That really sells the American people short.
I meet a lot of people as President of the United States.
And as a candidate for President of the United States.
And as a U.S. Senator and as a State Senator, I I've meet a lot of people.
And I can't I can't name a time where I met an American who would rather have an unemployment check than the pride of having a job.
Well then.
If that's the case, Mr. President, then why is the most important thing to you today an unemployment check?
If that's not what people want, why is that all you're giving them?
If they don't want an unemployment check, if that's not what they're really looking for, then why do you want all the credit for giving them one?
If they don't want an unemployment check, why is that all you have to offer?
And it is all he has to offer, because his economic policies kill jobs.
His economic policies kill health care.
His economic policies destroy growing economies.
And by the way, it's simple math.
His economic policies grow government.
Government can only grow if it takes money from other people in the private sector.
The president is shrinking the pie.
The president is taking money out of the place where people go and get jobs and get raises and have careers.
He's taking the money and growing government with it.
It isn't possible that the president's economic policies can create substantive real economic growth.
Anyway, this is what we're dealing with here.
This is this is the kind of neophyte, just abject dishonesty that we are living with.
Even if this babe, even if this babe did get a job, even if this mystical cat, no, she's actually a real person, she's in the room.
Even if she got a job at the grocery store, it'd be for 29 hours.
Because if they hired her for 30, they'd have to give her health care.
And they're not going to do that because of his policies.
So even if she got a job, it would be 29 hours a week, and she would still need an unemployment check.
Okay.
Now, folks, since I've done this, I can I can now the show is effectively over.
I have I have discussed the big issue of the day.
I've I'm on record as having discussed it.
At the end of the day, everybody can say, yep, yep, Limbaugh talked about it, gave us his unique take, and that's it.
I can go home now.
Bring in a guest host, do the rest of the program, go home, because I have dutifully responded to the soap opera script, and I have talked about health care, and you, the audience, have not been let down.
You had expectations and you heard.
I mean, unemployment, that's what the big news was.
And I talked about it.
And so we're done.
And so we're done.
Oh, Diane Sawyer had to stay warm.
Not only that, folks, you know what the real big news is today?
I'm gonna say what the real big news is, while all of this, this dog and pony show is going on, wait till you find out what is being planned for immigration and amnesty.
That's the real story today, one of the real stories.
There's more than just one.
But what you're not hearing about, what's going on behind closed doors in Congress, not in the White House, regarding immigration, that's what you really need to know about.
So I'll I'll tell you about that before I go home.
No, no, what I meant was the big issue of the day, as uh according to the news media, the soap opera plot line writers is uh extending unemployment benefits, and I've talked about it.
And so now the audience is satisfied.
If I go home right now, the end of the day, every yeah, yeah, Rush talked about that.
I have satisfied the expectations of the audience, everybody else.
I didn't talk about football, I didn't talk about golf, I didn't talk about blah, blah, I talked about the big deal.
And now I'm finished, I go home.
And I'll come back tomorrow, whatever the big story is, and then I'll first hour on it and go home.
And nobody can say I'm phoning it in.
How this stuff work?
Now I have a no, I know nobody says I'm phoned it.
Question, though.
If this little rhetorical question here, if we're gonna give uh Kathy in the White House three months of additional unemployment benefits, and that's going to create jobs and and grow the economy, doesn't it stand to reason That taking money away from people would hurt the economy and maybe lose jobs, like raising their taxes.
I mean, that takes money away from people.
Wouldn't it stand a reason if if if this Doomkoff is going to sit up there and try to tell us that paying people not to work creates jobs because they can turn up their thermostat and buy an additional dozen eggs?
Doesn't it then stand to reason that taking money away from people might result like if you get hit with a tax increase and you can't turn your thermostat up because of it, or you can't buy an additional dozen eggs, then somebody might get fired at the utility company and the grocery store might say, you know what?
We've got to fire somebody.
Doesn't it stand a reason?
We're using the president's own logic.
Using his own persuasive device.
If giving people a hundred and twenty-five dollars a week grows the economy and creates jobs, wouldn't taking money away from them do the exact opposite.
This is so absurd.
And get this.
You know, if you want to cringe, let's go to Gloria Borger.
She was on CNN after Obama finished, and she thought it was the greatest thing she'd ever seen.
It was just fabulous.
It was so good, in fact, that she knows that the Republicans are trying to figure out a way to get in on it so that they can benefit from the compassion.
Look, it was a winning issue for them in the 2012 campaign.
It worked against Mitt Romney very well.
I think what we're seeing, though, is sort of questioning that's going on in the Republican Party, which is what can they do to combat this?
This has started a whole conversation about what Republicans can do to talk about equality of opportunity.
Because just saying you're against government intervention isn't enough if you want to win a national election.
Right now, the advantage is clearly with the Democrats on this, and I think they know it.
See how this works.
Gloria Borger says the Republicans now have to try to figure out a way to accept the premise of extending unemployment benefits and get in on it so that they can benefit from it.
Otherwise, they're going to lose elections.
The substance of it is irrelevant.
It's strictly horse race politics as far as Gloria Borger and the rest of the media are concerned.
I have an alternative.gov intervention.
We can do that.
Nobody is talking about creating jobs, and that's the solution to this.
I'm sorry to yell, folks.
I just get I get really passionate, wired up by this because it's just plain old simple logic.
Dana Milbank had a piece in the Washington Post wringing his hands.
Why aren't the Democrats crucifying the Republicans for throwing nearly four million people out of work by denying this extension of unemployment benefits?
It's a golden opportunity for the Democrats to just go in there and really paint the Republicans as cold-hearted, mean-spirited extremists.
Not one person, no matter where you look on this, is actually talking about creating jobs.
In the United States of America, there's not one person who can offer as an alternative, maybe economic policies that would spur economic growth and create jobs.
Ms. Borger, if the Republican Party weren't afraid of itself, that's what they would be talking about.
And to be talking about how this administration, with your assistance, has been killing jobs, and how this is going to continue to kill jobs.
That's what they would be doing.
Trying to get in on it.
What can the Republicans do to combat this?
Yeah, because see, all we care about is how Democrats look.
They're giving people something.
And the Republicans don't want to.
Until the Republicans figure out how to do this, how to deal with this, and actually talk the language of the American people and their own voters, this same scenario is going to be used against them every time the Democrats start using government to buy votes.
Let's see.
I don't have time to squeeze it.
She had another 15 second soundbite here, but frankly, I don't even want to hear it myself.
So, in a nutshell, what do we have here?
The president showing up in the East Room of the White House, surrounded by victims of his own economy, who are instead portrayed as beneficiaries.
Everybody out of work in this country today is a victim of Obama economic policies.
And he was surrounded by them in the White House today, disguised as they were as beneficiaries.
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