It is the fastest three hours in media, and we are smack dam almost in the middle of it.
Greetings, folks.
Rush Limbaugh, the EIB network, and it is Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882, the email address El Rushbo at EIBnet.com.
Yet to come on today's program, the famed from the grooveyard of forgotten favorites turning back the hands of programming format time.
The environmentalist wacko pick of the Super Bowl.
And for those of you new to the program, say, what is the environmentalist wacko pick?
I will explain it to you before I do it.
So you will not have any questions.
Open Line Friday means whatever you want to talk about.
It's one of the greatest career risks taken in modern major media, and that is turning over the content of the program to, well, amateurs, lovable amateurs.
I, of course, a highly trained and experienced, vastly experienced broadcast specialist executing assigned host duties flawlessly.
Zero mistakes.
And whatever you want to talk about, it's fine.
That's what differs from Monday through Thursday.
It does not have to be something I care about.
So have at it.
Now, let me close the loop on the immigration.
We say here doesn't make any sense.
It's the end of the Republican Party.
The polling data all shows it.
The people that would be granted amnesty are not going to vote Republican because of this or anything else.
I mean, not without a lot of work.
And the Republican Party being so publicly for amnesty is not going to change how these people vote.
Now, I don't know if the Republicans think that's going to happen.
I do know that the prevailing thought or theory is really baked in total defensiveness.
Don't criticize the president.
Delicately, even hesitantly, suggest a different approach to the same objective, whatever the objective is.
If it's Obamacare, we have an alternative.
If it's amnesty, we have an alternative.
Whatever Obama proposes, we're not going to oppose it because it will not be helpful.
That's what the Tea Party does.
And the Tea Party's hated, and we hate them, and we don't want to be the Tea Party.
And we want to show the American people that we can be bipartisan across the island, work with the Democrats.
Look, it defies logic that there are still Republicans and consultants who believe this, but they do.
But there's another possibility.
And I'm really uncomfortable in addressing it.
Mentioning it.
I did yesterday, but I'm really because I don't know.
I'm like everybody else.
I'm trying to make sense of this.
And it doesn't make sense.
Politically, this is not going to grow the Republican Party.
It's not going to change the direction Obama's taking the country.
Why do it?
Well, many in Congress make no more than what their salaries are.
Chamber of Commerce, very much pro-amnesty, very much pro-immigration.
They're really, really pushing it.
I mean, it's almost to me like the Chamber of Commerce has been infiltrated and taken over by a bunch of leftists.
I mean, that doesn't make sense to me either, folks.
And it's been a rather quick evolution here.
The chamber used to not be oriented this way.
I've been trending toward it, but it seems like it's overnight.
Now, if you are a member of Congress and you want to leave, and you probably know you're going to get beat after you make amnesty happen, well, what if somebody's promised you a job with health care and a couple million bucks?
What would you do?
And if that's the only way you think you're ever going to make any money, let's say you're in Congress and you want to leave Congress and you don't know what you can do out there that will pay you as much as what you're getting now.
Let's say it's $175,000.
I mean, I hate even thinking this, but remember, this is the place that had the House Bank and the House Post Office.
And this is the place where a lot of people have shown up to Congress with nothing and they end up becoming millionaires while they're.
Not just in Congress, but the whole citywide.
I hate thinking this, but I'm telling you, I'm at wit's end trying to understand it.
Look at the political aspects.
Okay, they hate the Republican base.
Fine.
And they want to get rid of their Republican base.
Fine.
They don't like the Tea Party.
They don't like pro-lifers.
They don't like social issue conservatives.
Fine.
I want to get rid of them.
Fastest way to get rid of them is to pass legislation they universally oppose.
Fine.
And then they want to rebuild the party with a whole new base made up of moderate independent types.
And even if that takes them 10 years, that's fine.
Getting rid of the independents, getting rid of the conservatives, the Tea Party, getting rid of our current base, that's what we want to do.
That may be the case, too.
And they may be willing to wallow in the wilderness ineffectively for 10 years while they try to reassemble a new base and a new coalition where they can win elections.
But that doesn't make sense either.
I mean, on one hand, it does, but it really doesn't.
Who would want to purposely take action that's going to cause you to be a permanent minority unless you're not going to be there when the permanent minority is the permanent minority?
I mean, it really doesn't make any sense.
You can come up with logical explanations that are outside of politics, but it really doesn't make any sense.
And it's been, folks, they have been hell-bent on getting this done since the early 2000s.
Well, maybe even longer than that, but it intensified, as you know, in the early 2000s.
And back then, just to refresh your memory, we were told in the early 2000s that this was the only way to grow the party, the only way.
In fact, I'll tell you, I remember, because I've had the lecture.
They came down here and tried to get my mind right.
And they sat me down and said, what you're missing is this, if we can pull off immigration and convert the Hispanic population to voting for us the way the black population votes for the Democrats, we will be the permanent majority party.
And that was the original impetus behind this from the upper levels of the Republican Party in the early 2000s.
That was the thinking.
As it was explained to me, it was about wiping out the Democrats, which made sense as an objective.
I'm all for that.
Wiping them out, turning them into a permanent minority.
I'm all in.
But this isn't the way.
But as far back, 14 years ago, this is what was thought to be the magic bullet.
This would do it.
This is how we would persuade Hispanics that we are worthy of their vote, that we are on their side, that we will be looking out for them, that we have their best interests in mind, and that voting for us is the best thing that can happen to them and their families economically, culturally, societally, you name it.
And it was really based on taking them away from the Democrat Party.
And it may well be that you still have upper echelon Republicans who think that that is what is going to happen.
And you do have a number of them who say that.
I don't know whether they still believe it, but they do say it.
You've heard them one way or another.
You've heard them say, look, the demographics of the country are changing, Rush.
And we've got this influx of Hispanics.
Forget immigration.
They're being born.
We're going to have to convert these people to Republicans.
And one of the ways to do it is be for amnesty because we all know that every Hispanic wants every other Hispanic to be able to come to this country legally whenever they want to.
And that's how we'll show them we love them.
That's how we show them that we're on their side.
That's how we show them they can vote for us because so we're going to get into identity politics.
Not something we've never done.
We've stood for everybody.
Conservatism doesn't see people in groups.
It doesn't see victims.
It doesn't, well, other than people that vote Democrat.
But we don't want to capitalize on it.
We want to remove them from victims' status.
We want to teach them self-reliance, rugged individualism.
We want them to be able to provide for themselves.
We want them to maximize their lives.
We want them to get the most out of life possible.
We want them not depending on a political party, no matter which one.
But that doesn't seem to be the objective now.
It seems like our party is looking at things in this identity politics way.
Okay, we'll have a position to get the Hispanics.
Then next, we're going to have to do something as, you know, this war on women.
They're going to say, that's killing us.
We're going to have to do something to convince the women that we don't hate them like the Democrats.
What's that going to be?
I shudder to think what that's going to be down the line.
But that's not who we are.
We don't see people as members of groups or sexes or orientations.
We see Americans.
We see a country.
We see a distinct American culture that's the envy of the world that provides more opportunity for people to want to work for it than has ever existed anywhere in the world.
And we don't understand why.
Well, we do understand why they would, but we don't understand why people wouldn't want have beliefs like that be the primary definitions of our society and country.
And we know, I know they've convinced a number of 91 people, not a million people, 92 million people not working.
And they're still eating.
So what's the problem?
I understand what we're up against.
But what the Republicans are doing in this simply doesn't make any sense.
Now, one thing before we go to the break.
No, I'll tell you what.
I'm going to go to the break and I'm going to come back with phone calls.
Let me tell you what else is coming after the week.
I've got to get started on phone calls.
It's Open Line Friday.
I promise people I'm going to get to it.
I mentioned earlier that there's a Wall Street Journal story today, Peyton Manning, Mr. Annoying.
This is a story about Peyton Manning's pursuit of excellence and how it annoys people.
And I think that's quite instructive, too.
I mean, it is a pretty good profile that every waking moment of his life when he's at work, it's all about being the best.
And he wants everybody to be as focused on it as he is.
And if they're not, he calls them out, even before coaches do.
And the story is about how that annoys some of the players.
If they were losing, it'd be a real problem.
Now, they're winning, so it's not everybody, and it's not a, it's not, Peyton doesn't have any enemies on the team.
That's not the point of the story.
It's the focus here is that the pursuit of excellence is annoying.
To me, that's a problem.
Okay, so I just want to address that.
The other thing, all this week and much of last week, spent a lot of time detailing how Obamacare's inequality, economic income inequality, big focus of his in the state of the coup speech and in his current agenda.
And we've pointed out, be wary of this because the way the Democrats seek to equalize is not elevating people, but rather chopping them off.
Obama seeks to equalize by punishing people at the top.
I have a couple examples just to illustrate it.
So I've got that, and there's a little bit more.
We've got some audio sound bites.
Goodell's press conference today, state of the NFL press conference.
One of the players, active player, Vernon Davis, number 85.
I think he's a tight end receiver for the Fortiners, asked the commissioner of the NFL why the league cannot provide them health care for life.
And the commissioner was asked about the Washington Redskins.
He was asked if he would refer to an American Indian as a Redskin to his face.
So we've got that coming up, plus your phone calls.
So do not go anywhere.
I know you won't, but I just wanted to remind you.
Open line Friday, and we start Grand Prairie, Texas.
Jeffrey, great to have you.
You're up first today, sir.
Hello.
Sir, this is a tremendous, and I do need a tremendous honor.
I'm a longtime African-American listener and first-time caller.
Well, great to have you here.
Yes, sir.
It's great to be here.
I want to make two quick comments real quick.
You know, every little child that watches Dora the Explorer knows that in order to find something, you simply use the map.
The pathway to citizenship for adults is Google Map.
Simply use Google Map, find the nearest immigration service office, and get there.
That, to me, is the pathway to immigration.
The other thing I want to comment on is this.
The politicians continue to just clamor about immigration.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
That's a little funny.
We just can't let that go by.
You say the fastest, the pathway to immigration is a map to the nearest immigration office.
Absolutely.
Well, that's hilarious, actually.
That's very clever to boot.
It's child's play.
I mean, every child knows it's the map.
I'm the map.
I'm the map.
I mean, every child who watches Dora knows that.
Right.
The pathway to citizenship is not taking a test.
It's the immigration office.
It's the immigration office.
Followed by the county courthouse and the welfare office in there.
Established rules, procedures, regulation.
It's all there.
Exactly right.
It's all there.
There's nothing that needs to be done.
It's all there.
The other point I wanted to make is.
And then after that, you find your way over to unemployment office.
I think you've got it down pat here.
Well, and also backpack, backpack, backpack.
In order to go where you're trying to go, you need what you need.
They have everything they need.
They have credit cards and debit cards.
They have bank accounts.
They have cars, insurance.
I mean, this immigration thing is complete madness.
Wait a minute.
Where are they getting all of that?
I thought these people were arriving dirt poor.
Now, seriously, Jeff.
In the shadows.
I mean, it's completely insane.
And the Democrats, I mean, the Republicans.
Oh, you're talking about the ones in the shadows.
Yes, sir.
Already here.
I thought you were talking about the ones actually walking across the border or crammed into a van.
No, no, the ones in the shadows standing in the bank caroline.
I got it.
Those guys in the shadows.
They've already been to the unemployment office, right?
Okay, gotcha.
Exactly.
The other thing that I want to comment on real quick, and again, this is a tremendous honor, the politicians continue to clamor for immigration reform, reform reform.
But what I'm hearing from them is different than what I'm seeing with my eyes, and that is I don't see lines of people at the various immigration offices wrapped around the building three times, clamoring like Black Monday to get in.
I don't see that.
I hear what the politicians are saying, but I don't see this massive surge of people who are just anxious, determined, dead set on becoming U.S. citizens.
I don't see that.
Wait a minute.
Let me translate this for people listening to you.
Your theory is you hear politicians of both parties talk about the plight of these people in the shadows.
And all they want is to become citizens.
They've come here.
They love America.
They've come here to escape misery in their home countries.
And they just want to be citizens.
And what you're saying, you don't see the evidence of the desire to be citizens.
You see them in the shadows, but you don't see them doing what's necessary to become citizens.
Is that what you're saying?
That's exactly what I'm saying.
I don't begrudge anyone for wanting to leave Mexico given the conditions that exist there.
It is a war zone.
Well, it depends on where you are.
I mean, you can be Cabo San Lucas, I don't know.
Puerto Vallarta, I don't know.
Exactly.
I don't begrudge anyone for that.
But there are established rules, procedures, a volume of law, probably second only to what?
I mean, to, you know, tax law, you know, when it comes to immigration.
I mean, it's all there.
I mean, armies of entire law firms devoted to the practice of immigration law.
There's no, I mean, with all due respect, I say this to the Democrat, I mean, the Republican leadership.
If they think that cowtowing to the Democrats is a way to somehow curry favor within the Hispanic and Latino community, they're deadly wrong about that.
I know.
I've got people.
Jeffrey, I've got people.
I know people who really think, not Cooks, don't wear tinfoil hats, who really think that there is a concerted movement to just destroy the country, tear it apart as it was founded, and that there are various establishment types in on it, and they know that that's what this is part of.
Ladies and gentlemen, I need to make a not so much a clarification, but I need to draw a distinction.
I have been using the Republican Party generically, and I should not have.
I should have been specified, specifying it's the Republican leadership that is hell-bent on ramrodding through this amnesty plan.
Now, the Republicans are at their retreat by the frozen shores of Chesapeake.
The retreat, yeah, they're at a retreat on the frozen shores of the Chesapeake Bay.
And from what I understand, there was what's called an open microphone at these meetings when these issues come up.
And members of the House are allowed a minute or two to speak, and the leadership gets all the time they want.
And there was an embargo placed on anything coming out of there, an embargo on the leadership position.
It turns out the leadership distributed their own position on amnesty to the media.
The upshot of it is, is that it seems like two-thirds of the House rank and file is opposed to what the leadership in the House is trying to push.
It might be three-fifths.
But the point is, it's probably be more accurate to say it's not the entire Republican house.
And obviously, you have some Tea Party people in there, and you've got some great straight-down-the-middle conservatives in there.
But it's the leadership that is tied to the chamber and is getting their view out as though it is the view of the chamber when it's just the view of the leadership.
I wanted to draw that distinction.
I meant leadership every time I said Republican Party.
Leadership is who's making things happen anyway.
In case I fail to draw a distinction in the future, when I talk about the Republicans they're in, I'm talking about House leadership, maybe Senate leadership, and certainly the Republican consultant class, the people that run campaigns and devise strategies for members to win elections.
They are tied to the leadership, most of them in many ways.
At least a lot of them are.
Here's Carrie in Santa Maria, California.
Santa Maria.
Santa Maria, California was one of the first places I went on the Rush to Excellence tour when this show started 25 years ago.
I'll never forget.
How are you doing, Carrie?
I'm great.
Well, thank you for calling.
I delivered some books today to my daughter's classroom.
We received a class set from you of the Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, and I delivered that class set to my daughter's class today, and I wanted to thank you for sending those together.
Well, I'm glad you, you know what we did, folks?
We opened up at the 2fbit.com website is the Rush Revere portal, the adventures of Rush Revere.
And I mentioned on here a couple times, but we were going to donate a bunch of copies of the book with some American classics as well.
And we asked people to send in short little essays explaining why their school deserved.
And we were overwhelmed.
It was impossible to pick a few.
So we just tried to answer them all.
So we ended up donating a tremendous number of books, and you happened to get some.
So that's great.
I'm glad that you got through.
I'm happy to hear that.
How were they received by the school?
Very well.
My daughter's teacher is conservative, and her husband is a big fan of yours, too.
And so when we took the books in, it's great because she's in fifth grade, and they study American history, and that's right where they are in that unit.
So it's pretty exciting that the books will tie in with the curriculum that they're working on right now.
That's awesome.
That is just, that's superb.
How old is your daughter?
She's 10.
She's 10.
Okay.
Now, when we finish here, I want you to hold on because I want Mr. Snerdley to get an address.
I want to send you.
We've got this cute little thing, but we call it Ted T. Bear.
It's a white little teddy bear.
But since it's part of Twitch T, we've got Ted T. Bear.
And it's outfitted the way Rush Revere is.
He's got a colonial blue jacket with a tricorn hat, and my signature's on the bottom of one paw, and the two of IT logo's on the bottom of the other.
And they're just the cutest little things.
They're for sale.
But I send one out to people that called.
And I'm going to send the audio version of the book, too.
Do you have one of those?
I do have the audio version.
Well, then, okay, we'll save that for someone who doesn't.
My daughter actually listened to it, and she wrote you a letter just before Thanksgiving, and you read her letter on the air.
Oh, wow.
Cool.
Yeah, she was really excited about that.
Well, you guys are making my day.
I have to tell you, the fact that people like your daughter like the book, and that you do too, actually.
Yeah, I can't tell you what an upper that is.
That is just so cool.
So, look, Carrie, thanks very much.
And hang on, because Mr. Snurd will pick up the phone here and find out where to send Ted T Bear.
You ought to go look at this, folks.
We've got it at the Rush Revere portal, 2ifbyte.com.
You'll find it if you go there.
And it's the cutest little bear, colonial outfit, just like Rush Revere, high quality, soft and fluffy.
I've got my signature on one paw, the American flag's on the other paw.
And it's just the cutest little thing, and it would make an idea.
Thanksgiving is long past and Christmas, but Valentine's Day's up.
And this would be something unique.
Or in addition to flowers.
And we have a special deal running on.
I just take the occasion of her call to pass this on.
I think what is $18.99 for Ted T. Bear, if you order it before 11:59 p.m. Pacific time tonight, while supplies last.
It's a real steal, and you can see it.
Ted T. Bear at 2IFBT.com.
Here's Sonia in East Tennessee.
Great to have you.
Or Eves.
I'm sorry.
How are you, Sonia?
Good, thank you.
How about you?
Good.
Thanks for the call.
I am so excited to be talking to you for this call.
You have absolutely changed my life.
And real quick, before I get to the real thing, is that I was at one point a bleeding heart liberal.
I am female.
I am gay.
And I'm in my 50s.
Not your normal fan.
But I will tell you, I absolutely, absolutely love you.
You've changed my political beliefs.
I am now a very, very conservative Republican.
Wow.
And so, anyway, okay.
Well, let me just tell you something since you have described yourself that way.
I just want to take the occasion of your call to tell you how happy I am that you're in the audience.
And I am, I'm, I'm, in fact, even if you had not undergone a conversion, if you were just a conservative, gay woman, 50 years, everything else you said demographically, I'd still be thrilled that you're in the audience.
I think it's great, and I really appreciate you telling me.
Well, and I and I do encourage a lot of my friends that maybe have listened to your views on being gay.
I encourage them to listen to you and be educated to realize that, hey, wait a minute, he's not a gay basher.
You know, he does have some opinions that maybe you don't agree with, but at least give it a chance.
Anyway, but I want to get to the real reason I called.
Okay.
I have worked very, very, very hard my whole entire life.
I lived in California, South Lake Tahoe, California, very near to your Sacramento adopted state or your anyway, where you started.
Ended up moving to Tennessee at the end of June to take care of my ailing grandmother who exists on Social Security.
Okay.
I was hired to go to work.
I'm a chef by trade, hired to go to work at a very prestigious private school here in Memphis, Tennessee.
Didn't realize at the time the reason I was hired was so that everybody else's hours would be lowered to 29 and a half hours so that nobody would get insurance.
Wait a minute.
Why was hiring you going to make that happen?
Because by bringing on that extra person, everybody was cut one day a week.
Oh, so they can, by bringing in an additional person, so bring in one more human being of labor, they can get the same output, same production from all of you by cutting your hours and escaping Obamacare.
Correct.
Okay.
So we're now all below 30 hours.
We work 29 and a half hours, which for the very first time in my whole entire working life, I find myself with no insurance.
So a couple of weeks ago, I go online because I feel like I need insurance.
I want to be insured to sign up for Obamacare.
And all you can do.
I need to ask you a question here.
You admit that you've been listening and you like what you hear here.
So you've obviously heard things about Obamacare and the website that should have dissuaded you from thinking it was going to work.
Well, it should have, but the bottom line is at my age.
You had no alternative.
There literally no alternative.
And that's the design, folks.
She had no, that was the only place you got canceled and you didn't qualify then when you got the new job.
That was the only place you could go.
Right.
And I'm worried about getting a catastrophic illness.
Right.
Well, how has it worked out for you?
Well, let me tell you, they say that it's affordable, and I'm used to making at least $80,000 a year.
Yeah.
Because I was forced to move here to take care of my grandmother.
I make $800 a month.
That's quite a come down.
Plus, because you're only working 29 and a half hours for whatever.
Right, right.
So I take the very minimum, which is called their bronze level.
Oh, yes, the Obamacare Bronze Plan.
Yes, we're very familiar with that plan.
Right.
$289 a month is my portion.
And that I get a $6,000 deductible.
Did you say $289 a month?
A month out of my $800 a month take home.
Just figure $300, $1,200 a year.
Right.
Okay.
Okay, but the saddest part about it is...
You thought it was going to be cheaper.
Well, not only cheaper, but $6,000 deductible.
Oh, yeah.
And wait until you see the out-of-pocket copays.
Well, and then after you meet your deductible, it's only 50% of the bills.
It's crazy.
Look into a subsidized plan.
You know what?
It didn't say, and I don't know if I went and got some professional help to walk me through it, but I didn't qualify.
Yeah, you probably earned too much to qualify.
For any of the subsidies, which was even crazier than that.
I know.
What you have to do is reduce your income even more.
It all depends on what's important to you.
Exactly.
So, those out there that are thinking that this Obamacare, because I got to tell you, a lot of my family members are bleeding heart liberals that Obama is going to save us.
Guess what?
No, it's not.
You know, it's a very, I'll tell you, it really burns me.
I mean, I'm frosted.
Democrats get all of this credit for the compassion and big-heartedness.
Look at what's happening.
She's one example.
Millions are running into this.
And the Democrats, I hope you understand me when I say that.
The Democrats have really, I think, made people look at their health insurance and health care as one of the most important things in life.
The Democrats are constantly scaring people.
You're just one illness away from bankruptcy.
They've made this having a health insurance policy and treatment.
It's as important, if not more so, than food to people.
And therefore, when something goes wrong in it, when they can't afford it, when they get canceled, they can't have it, it is a major upheaval.
And people are discovering from all walks of life and all political persuasions are discovering this.
And the people on the left, some of them are vowing it's not Obama's fault, it's still the Republicans' fault.
They still are able to be talked into that.
Other people, if you look at the polling data, Obama's losing every bit of goodwill he had built up, or the vast majority of it because of this.
But that's of secondary point.
What this policy, what this plan, what this whole thing is doing to the best healthcare system in the world, but what it is doing to peoplehood.
He lied to.
Keep your doctor if you like it.
Keep your plan if you like it.
What he's doing to people.
This to me is unconscionable, folks.
And it's all done.
The real beneficiaries here are the Democrat Party way down the middle.
It's Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, yet to come environmentalist wacko pick for the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday.
And yeah, I want to point something out.
Our last caller, Sonia, you heard her.
She's gay.
She's 50 plus.
She, in her own estimation, is the furthest thing from what somebody would think of the profile, somebody listening to this program.
And yet, she's here.
She's a convert.
She self-described bleeding heart liberal.
But now she's here.
And I said at the, I think, it's either earlier in this hour or in the previous, they were discussing immigration, immigration.
And the thing that frustrates us conservatives, we do not want anybody to be victims.
And we certainly don't want to victimize anybody.
We don't even look at people and put them in groups and then decide what their political value is.
Some conservatives do as a defensive measure trying to get them, but it's not a natural orientation to see human beings.
We see human beings, we see Americans.
We see all sizes and all shapes and all religions and all sexes, races, you name it.
We want them all.
We want every American to benefit from being an American.
We want everybody to love this country.
We want everybody to be taught and to understand the glorious golden opportunity they have by virtue of being born American.
We want them to have an active appreciation for it.
We don't care.
I'll speak for myself.
I don't care what somebody's sexual orientation is.
I don't care what their race is.
And I do not group people that way, nor do I want to take advantage of people by making them groups or victims.
I want everybody to be as self-reliant as they can be, to be as educated as they can be, because that's how we're going to have a great country.