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April 1, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:32
April 1, 2014, Tuesday, Hour #2
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Time Text
Just a couple of more sound bites here.
Ted Cruz weighing in on all of this, the one guy who's had this nailed from the get-go.
And then we will move on to other propaganda.
Because there is no news anymore.
No news in the media.
It's just propaganda.
It's the Democrat Party and the regime talking points disguised as the news.
Rushlinbauback still's fighting the ravages of the common cold virus, day 10, and it still hasn't peaked.
It's gotta be well, I got fever for the first time today, but uh yeah, it's a cold.
I've had enough of these things over my life to know that it's a cold.
What else would it be?
It's a cold.
It's what it is.
It's just been the slowest developing cold.
You know how you get the chest congestion and it gets knotty and you feel it's gonna break up and the coughs then become productive.
It took a week.
Took seven days for the congestion to start to break up, maybe even longer than that.
You know, ever since they, FDA, those, those, those, hell, I'll never forgive these people that claimed Zycam destroyed their sense of smell.
That stuff was miraculous.
And it's it's it's they took it off the market, the swabs that had the uh magic potion on them.
Uh, anyway, sorry.
Um Ted Cruz, ladies and gentlemen, has been just firing both barrels on this since he's been talking about it at all.
And this morning on Fox and Friends, he was asked by Steve Ducey, okay, Senator Cruz, the White House claiming victory out there.
They they hit their seven million number.
What do you think?
The bulk of the people who are signing up had insurance to begin with, and you know what?
They probably had their insurance canceled because of Obamacare, because we know that over six million people had their health insurance canceled because of Obamacare.
It is abundantly clear this thing isn't working.
It has caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, to be forced into part-time work, to lose their health insurance, or to see their premiums skyrocket.
It is the essence of pragmatism to recognize this thing isn't working, let's start over, let's repeal every word of it.
Every word of it, I love this guy, he is not backing down, and he's he's exactly right with just some historical context here.
Okay, they've got seven million, but how many of them?
One thing he didn't mention, how many of them are signing up out of fear?
How many of them think, my God, if they don't sign up, they've got to pay a penalty, or they might go to jail.
Remember Pelosi said that it was totally understandable to send somebody for ja to jail for not for not signing up back in the day.
It's the law.
You have to have it.
By if if if this thing were universally popular, everybody would have it.
It's the law.
If we had a law-abiding society, everybody would have health insurance right now.
This was the deadline, except the individual mandate has been delayed.
Uh see, here's the thing.
What is this deadline mean anyway?
It's meaningless because the mandate's gone.
They've delayed the mandate, the individual mandate requiring you to have it, they've delayed that till after the election.
But they've they promised Sibelius and the others promised seven million, so they have to make it look like the country loves this boondoggle.
So even though the individual mandates have been delayed and you don't have to sign up, you can claim a hardship for any reason, including the website itself.
You can claim that that is a hardship as an excuse for not signing up.
So you don't have to be signed up today when you get right down to it.
Other that just a few people do who and it's not even that signed up, they've got to start paying the penalty for not having it if they don't.
People that that file quarterly estimated taxes.
However, Cruz is exactly right here.
The mandate is gone.
Look at how many people have lost hours, been converted to part-time so their companies could comply.
How many people have lost their jobs because of Obamacare?
How many people are signing Up because they're doing it out of abject fear of the authorities, tracking them down if they don't.
How many signing up did not have health insurance?
How many signing up did have it, but it was canceled?
So the regime making a big deal out of this is all smoke and mirrors.
It's another giant scam, especially when you throw in that the individual mandate that makes this a hard and fast date is gone.
The real way to look at this, I think, is if this law is now miraculously popular, if for some reason, after this four months of intense advertising, and all the other things like that that who who was that that actress that went on with Biden and started crying about this?
What was what was her name?
Rosario Dawson?
Was it Rosaria Dawson?
Some don't don't bother looking it up, it doesn't matter.
Some actress went on TV with Biden, started crying over spilt milk.
Obamacare is so important.
Rachel Ray, Rachel, that's who it was.
Rachel Ray.
Rosario Dawson, Rachel Ray.
I don't know who Rachel Ray is.
All I'm telling you is I did I read the story and I meant to remember the name.
But if this thing were so popular, wouldn't more than seven million people have signed up?
If Obamacare were so wonderful, it was so the answer.
If Obamacare was actually the solution to all of the health care problems that everybody has, wouldn't more than seven million people have signed up by now.
Yeah, when you when you when you add in the reality, the fact that people that can't afford it are going to get subsidies, they're going to they're going to get help in paying for it.
Don't you think there would have been a mad dash?
Don't you think there would be lines of excited people signing up?
Yet they're out there characterizing as seven million as some big, great over-the-top number.
It's embarrassingly low, and they probably haven't even hit that.
And so Cruz is right here.
The it's the essence of pragmatism, reasonable thoughtfulness to recognize this isn't working and to step back from it.
Well, at that, uh Steve Deucey said, Well, look, you're kind of in a minority out there when it comes to this, Senator Cruz.
I know the Democrats are saying mend it, don't necessarily defend it, but you look at the polling senator, and a lot of Americans like parts of it.
They'd like to see parts of it continue.
So to blow the whole thing up, I don't know people are behind that.
The support for Obamacare is in the 30s.
This is the most profoundly unpopular law we have seen in modern times.
And the reason is it's personal.
A lot of folks are not necessarily optimistic that it can be repealed because the president tells them every day, Harry Reid tells them every day, and a lot of the news media tell them every day it can't be repealed.
But I'll tell you, you can't force this on the American people.
I think it's going to be repealed because I think the American people are demanding that.
Well, now you hear support for Obamacare is in the 30s, he may not have heard about the ABC News Washington Post poll, which again shows support for Obamacare for the first time in a plurality.
49, 48 percent.
Now, he's talking probably of the AP poll of four days ago.
Just remind you, four days ago, the Associated Press and their polling partner, GFK, not to be confused with Zach Galifianakis, 26 percent support for Obamacare.
So he found a poll with 30%.
Covered California.
This is from Channel 13, eyeball news, Sacramento.
On the deadline to sign up for health coverage through Covered California, the California Exchange, some hearing impaired people, were sent to a chat line offering hot ladies instead of an insurance navigator.
With the deadline looming, an Auburn, California man scrambled to sign up through Covered, California.
A page on the site where users can calculate the cost of coverage lists an incorrect phone number.
And I've got the number, I'm not going to give it out.
The number which was correct on the contact us page is similar, but just one digit off.
So what does the incorrect number go to?
Well, when you call that number, it's answered this way.
Welcome to America's hottest talk line.
Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys free press one now.
Guys, hot ladies are waiting to talk to you.
Press two to connect free now, the recording says.
So Covered California was sending them to um.
Well, what do you call these?
There's a lot sex talk.
What do you call these?
What do you call it when you what do you call it when you call us tell her you have sex on the phone?
What is what?
Well, it's got a specific name, it's escaping me.
But uh Jeff Brown, the Auburn, California guy admits he dialed the number thinking he was signing up for health insurance.
Just kind of uh well, they were sending, it was deaf callers, people that are hearing and paid impaired that got this number.
So either somebody was playing a prank on them, or it was a typical bureaucratic error and had an incorrect phone number up on the uh on the website.
National Football League teams have begun to partner with an app developer that will allow fans to get an in-seat visit from cheerleaders.
When I saw this, I thought, well, this is an April Fool's story.
But it's not.
Sports Business Journal reports the National Football League has teamed up with experience.
That's the name of the company, the app, in an effort to help improve the in-game experience for fans.
On top of having cheerleaders visit fans in their seats, the app would allow fans the opportunity to upgrade their seats and also allow them to be on the field before the game.
Three teams, the Atlanta Falcons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, used this app last year.
And the NFL senior vice president for club business development believes the number will increase substantially.
He told the Sports Business Journal they believe up to half the league will be deployed for the 2014 season.
The Atlanta Falcons said they sold about 800 experiences per game among their 3,000 season ticket holders.
Oh, come on, they've got more than 3,000 season ticket holders.
That's gotta be a mistake.
They've got more than 3,000 season tickets at that.
Well, doesn't matter.
Anything from pregame on field to a birthday message to cheerleader visits?
What in the world are the cheerleaders gonna do when they visit you at your seat?
Is the cheerleader gonna sit on your lap?
Well, what what is the cheerleader gonna do?
I want you if you wanted a cheerleader to come to your seat during a game, what what what would be the reason?
Okay, so you would want a picture taken with the cheerleader.
You would want personal in-depth conversation with the cheerleader.
You would want a dance.
You wouldn't want to hear the cheerleader's take on game strategy.
You wouldn't care what you want to learn about the cheerleader's day and what her job is.
You don't want the cheerleader to talk.
So if you wanted a cheerleader visit to your seat during the game, you don't want her to talk.
You just want her to dance.
You want a picture taken with her.
You know, when you come down to it, this is something that you really can't do watching at home.
you can't have one of the real cheerleaders show up on your sofa.
Now you can dress somebody up as one, but you wouldn't have a real cheerleader.
Did you know this was going on?
You're a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan.
Did you know this is going on?
I didn't either.
First I've heard of it.
Quick time out, your telephone calls are coming next.
Your guiding light, L. Rushball, executing his signed host duties flawlessly.
Zero mistakes.
Do you know that in all of this, all of these sightings in the search for Malaysian Airlines flight 370, they have not spotted one piece of debris.
Not one.
Now I don't know why I'm surprised at that.
I get I get well, actually I do, because in the past week, you know, I've just been watching this with glances.
I have not sat down and actually watched this for any length of time.
So here, doing the program, I'll look up and I'll see for five seconds a graphic of what looks like fifty pieces of debris that have been spotted in the ocean.
And then they'll have arrows and grids and little squares marked off that show the new search area.
I'm thinking, well, maybe they found something out there.
Maybe they're funny.
And I just saw a graphic, Zilch.
Zero nada.
They haven't found one thing.
I'm beginning I don't think they have the slightest idea where this thing is.
And the Malaysian Prime Minister, who knows?
But I did just and then late yesterday the news was time was running out.
And now there's five days of battery time left in the in the orange boxes.
Flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.
Here's uh here's Joyce and Dayton as we head to the phones.
I really appreciate your patience.
Thanks for waiting, and welcome to the program.
Hi, Rush.
Um, it's honored to speak with you.
I appreciate that.
And I've been screaming at the radio and the TV and everything else.
I don't understand um why people aren't mentioning whether it's one million, seven million, ten million, fifty million people.
They're all marching like going into the gulag with a gun to their head, like I've had so many people approach me.
Are you getting fine for this?
It can cause you anxiety that you need insurance to go to the doctor.
Because you're under fear.
You're under duress.
You know that you're going to get a penalty.
You know that you're going to go to jail, as you said earlier.
Um if you're a law-abiding try to do the right thing person, uh that's what you would do.
You would follow directions and do the best you can.
And I'm infuriated, and every client I've talked to today is infuriated that the government in a an America, uh a free country, is forcing you to do something that you don't want to do.
Buy something you don't want to buy, telling you what is best for you.
I am just I know it's a I am so angry.
And so is everybody that I talk to.
You said clients.
What do you do?
I'm a group instructor and a personal fitness trainer.
Oh, so you're in shape.
I am in shape.
And you so you probably don't need uh health insurance policy.
Well, I need it.
I think everybody needs it, but I truly.
But anyway, you know, it's a good point.
Um the people of this country, you know, uh aside from the obvious uh few exceptions are law abiding.
And this is the law of the land.
And most people are most sadly, I think this is exactly right, I think you've hit on something.
People scared to death of government today.
Absolutely.
I think they're scared to death of what'll happen to them if if if they don't comply.
Uh, with all this talk about the government spying on people and all these phone records and the metadata being correct, people think that uh the government's watching them and they know if they're complying or not.
So they're they're trying to sign up.
When you look at it that way, doesn't it seem to me or seem to you there'd be more than seven million signing up?
Absolutely.
Well, I I don't I mean I heard somebody on the radio yesterday say, well, you know, we're just a country of procrastinators.
No, we are not.
If uh if I wanted it, I would have gotten it the first day.
And so would have uh any of my friends and my family members or anything else.
If that's what I wanted to do, I would by golly go do it.
That's how we Americans run our lives.
Well, but people have otherwise and they found out there's nothing to get.
There's no back end.
They don't know if they're if they're actually signed up when they finish the process.
Well, that's true.
But again, they can tout and sing to the you know, highest praises of all this, that they've got seven million signed up.
I don't care how many it is, a certain percentage is under duress.
It's because they've lost their insurance because they think they have no choice.
And that's a shame in America.
I think that's exactly no choice.
I I think your under duress point is one worth pounding.
The fear, the under duress uh the the the fear of of noncompliance and what might happen to you.
And yeah, and and it's just un-American to force people into something like this.
This is not a good idea.
It is by principle alone, I wouldn't want to do that.
Whether I need it or not, I would not want to do that.
Were you unhappy, were you unhappy with your health insurance before?
No, and right now I don't have any health insurance because when I switched jobs, I don't have the hours right now to uh get it.
That's exactly what the kind of circus of Ted Cruz is uh talking about.
Well, Joyce, great points.
I'm glad you called.
Rush Limbaugh meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every busy broadcast day.
Here's Frank in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Hey Frank, great to have you on the program.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
Uh it's Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but close.
Uh anyway, um uh I'm uh I thought this would be a quicker way to talk to the president by calling you on my cell phone.
Um I believe that uh Ted Cruz is exactly right in the sense that uh Obama has not addressed the the issue of health care, which I think uh he has um he's laid out in trying to scare Americans into um participating in uh Obamacare by saying that um you
if you had a medical issue, you could financially be decimated um by um by a medical issue, which is true of the one sickness away from bankruptcy, Obama said.
But uh I would say that our our main problem with health care, which is a great system, but this is my opinion, uh the insurance companies have driven the cost of health care out of sight.
And so in fact, he is really protecting the insurance companies and what they're charging, and is given the bill to working Americans.
Well, uh there is some truth to that.
Why do you think that is?
Well, it was it's easy.
It certainly is was easy for him.
Well, no, let's take your premise.
If if if he's protecting the insurance companies and making sure that premiums go up and stay up, and the American people getting socked for it, why would Obama do that, do you think?
When he was trying to make everybody think it's gonna be cheaper, 2500 premium cheaper.
Uh, keep your doctor, keep your plan.
I mean, he's lying left and right over this thing while the insurance companies are at the moment enjoying these new higher premiums.
Well, and then in fact, isn't that by their own definition?
Doesn't that make him a Republican because he's defending their business?
No.
Well, I'm j I'm just I'm obviously just making a joke.
But I mean let me let me look l let me let me take over here.
Um because you've got a good point.
I don't know if you know it or not, but you you've got a good point.
And the first thing that I would say the fur the the first premise that you stated I would object to, though.
I disagree with you, that the insurance companies have driven up premiums in our health care system.
I don't think that's true.
I mean, they've they've clearly played a role, but it's the government being involved.
It is the magic of the third party payer that has made many Americans think it's free.
So they have to be worried about what things really cost.
It's not true for everybody, but a lot of Americans have not worried what things cost as they would if they were paying for it out of pocket, because the insurance is paying for it.
Now they the part that they had to pay of each illness or trip to the doctor or whatever was probably ridiculously expensive, but it was only a small percentage of the total bill.
So they were able to rationalize it.
And thank God for insurance, or I wouldn't be able to afford any of this.
So the insurance companies benefited that way.
But it's the government being involved that has driven prices up.
Uh in any other insurance field like auto or life or what have you.
You don't have anywhere near commensurate prices.
But health insurance is through the roof obscene.
Now is the government involved in auto insurance?
No.
Government involved in life insurance?
Nope.
Is the government involved in any other kind of insurance for the most part, other than health care?
No.
So I I I think the root of the problem here has been government for 50 years being involved in this.
And it's just ballooned and steamrolled and snowballed, to the point that Americans either their boss was paying for it was a benefit, uh, or the insurance company was paying for it.
But whatever, at some point in our past, health treatment and paying for it ceased to have any linkage to the market.
Now, in any other walk of life, be it buying a car or renting a hotel room, or buying anything, there are tiers of prices based on what people can afford.
There are cheap hotels, there are five-star hotels.
If you want a hotel room somewhere, there's going to be one you can afford.
It's priced that way.
The market works.
And the vast majority of hotel rooms anywhere are going to be middle range, lower range price.
That's what people can afford.
That's what people have indicated they're willing to pay.
Imagine if there was government hotel insurance.
And let's say that some Democrats someday decided that everybody was entitled to a five-star hotel room, whatever they stayed in a hotel.
And that if you couldn't afford it, you've got to go to hotel insurance and somebody's going to pay for it for you.
As soon, wouldn't take long before the price of a five-star hotel room would not be based on what people could pay for it.
Well, at some point in our past, health care ceased to have anything to do with affordability.
Too many people were making too much money.
didn't matter.
The person actually getting the treatment wasn't the end payer.
And so there didn't have to be any market force or market relationship.
And the f the quickest fix for health care is to return to market force-based cost.
And that's based on what people can afford.
Nobody gets paid if people can't afford the price.
Nobody's going to sell X if people, the market they're being aimed at can't afford it.
Well, that ceased mattering In health care 30, 40 years ago.
And as that ceased, the assumption was that the cost didn't matter because you had health insurance, somebody was paying for it.
Other people's money was paying for somebody you may not have even known who's paying for, but somebody was paying for it.
And then you became to think, came to think you were entitled to it because you kept hearing, well, my God, if our Constitution provides you a lawyer when you can't afford one, and by God no, to provide you a doctor when you can't, and everyone, yeah, right on, Zeke.
And so everybody started to think it was an entitlement.
But when you got sick, the United States of America owed you a doctor.
When you needed an operation, the United States of America owed you the operation because you're an American.
When you needed a tooth pulled, the United States of America owed you.
And then when you needed to go get medicine for whatever had happened, the United States of America owed me that medicine.
And that became the mindset of millions and millions of America, exactly as designed by the American left and the Democrat Party.
Soon, didn't take long, health care expenses ballooned to the point that very few people could afford it on their own.
Well, that wasn't the way health care was for the vast majority of hundreds of years of this country.
For the vast majority of time in this country, health care was affordable.
The things that weren't, of course, were emergencies, catastrophic events, uh long-term, and that's what you had insurance for was the stuff you couldn't afford.
But it didn't take long.
People had insurance for what they could afford, which makes no sense whatsoever.
Health care ought to be like everything else.
You want it, you pay for it.
Like I'm sick right now, I'll just use myself.
I've got a cold.
I'm not going to waste anybody's money nor mine going to the doctor.
I know what's going on.
But the way it is now, on the first day of something like this, everybody trucks off to the doctor, demands a test, demands an examination and some medicines, and they think somebody should pay for it.
And I it's just it you can't blame people.
It's human nature.
When people think that they're entitled to something because they've been told and they have voted for people who've promised them that they're entitled and they're gonna have access to all this.
But the fact that most of health care is priced beyond the average American's ability to pay is the single problem that needs to be fixed.
And if it were, then you wouldn't need the government making things fair or right or any of that, just like you don't need the government selling auto insurance, and you don't need the government being the government wasn't involved in any business.
They couldn't be involved.
The Fourth Amendment, they were not allowed to require people to buy things.
Things or services.
Now, the second question that you had, uh, or that I asked you.
Why would Obama be insuring high prices for the insurance companies?
Why in the world in all of this wouldn't Obama be trying to guarantee low prices for his voters?
That's what he promised them, but instead, the insurance companies are benefiting.
But if you talk to them, some of them are, some of them are not.
But it's premium skyrocket, and health insurance companies decide to get out of various segments of the business.
It is clear that what's happening here, Obama needed the insurance companies and the hospitals from the very first days of trying to sell this.
He needed them on board for his massive health care reform.
He needed them to be partners in the advertising.
He needed them to be partners in the message.
And the way he did it, well, look at if you're an insurance company, and here you've got Barack Obama, and he's promising that every American by law is going to have to have insurance.
You Are an insurance company.
That to you is my God.
You don't have to do anything.
The president is giving you 35, 43, whatever the number is, million brand new customers.
And you don't have to do one penny's worth of advertising.
All you got to do is support the president.
So even if you are a conservative, ideological guy, you run an insurance company.
On the one hand, you've got the dilemma, oh my God, the government's getting big and intrusive and it's getting involved in my business.
On the other hand, they're going to deliver me 35 to 40 million new customers not to do jack whatever for it.
What do you think that guy's going to say?
What did they decide to do?
They partnered with Obama.
And he's paying them off before he wipes them out.
That is where this is eventually headed.
In a number of years, maybe a decade, a little longer, if nothing changes here, there isn't going to be a private sector health insurance market, except for the very few who are very wealthy.
They will always be able to buy what they want.
But you won't.
There won't even be health insurance, really.
The government will act as the payee, the single payer.
And you will have your Medicare card.
And whenever you get sick, here's what's going to change.
For the first time in your life, you're not going to be treated.
Depending on various factors.
Your age, your overall health, how you voted, who knows how to do it.
Right now, the assumption is, because the Democrats care is that everybody gets health care.
Once the government totally controls it, is when the death panels come into forefront existence.
And that is where your mother at age 95 will be turned down for a pacemaker because it's cost prohibitive to spend that kind of money on somebody that's only going to live a year or two.
Statistically.
So here, uh, you know, give her a pain pill and tell her to chill out.
Obama's already said that's what they're going to end up doing.
He said that on primetime TV on ABC back in 2010.
So when the government has full control over this is when an increasing number of sick people are not going to be treated.
That's where this is all headed.
Right now, Obama needs the insurance companies working with these exchanges.
So he's keeping prices up to make it worth their while.
And each developing stage of this is going to make insurance companies less and less necessary.
I don't know whether they know it or not.
The insurance companies have to assume they're not idiots and they know it and they're just trying to make their big score while they can, because they know what's coming their way.
But they sold their souls back in 2010 for this.
Some did, not all, but some did.
Brief timeout.
We'll be back after this, don't.
You know, the brother of Ram Emanuel named Ezekiel Emmanuel is a doctor.
He's uh intimately involved in Obamacare.
And he wrote a piece in a new republic.
Liberal Journal of Opinion.
That was published on March 2nd of this year.
Insurance companies as we know them are about to die, and here's what's going to replace them.
That's the headline, and the last line, the final line of Zeke Emmanuel's piece in the New Republic is, quote.
So be prepared to kiss your insurance company goodbye forever.
From earlier in the article, in January 2012, Jeffrey Liebman and I predicted in the New York Times the end of health insurance companies by 2020.
We might have been a bit optimistic or provocative, but it is certain that they will end.
Insurance companies will largely cease to be the middleman, taking premiums, paying providers, saying no to consumers, and making a profit that we blame.
We're going to Get rid of them.
We don't need the middleman.
We don't need somebody else profiting.
We're just going to eliminate them.
It's going to be you and your government.
There won't be any insurance companies.
So Obama basically needed the insurance companies to willingly go along with their own suicide.
And as many of them as he could convince that they were not committing suicide, of course he did.
Some of them knew what was in store for them and said, okay, we're just gonna we're gonna score while we can.
But none of them that I know of are actually fighting to hold on.
Who can oppose the government?
Government wants to wipe you out, uh, and you've got an activist government like this regime, the odds are they're gonna succeed in wiping you out.
So the insurance companies are going along with their own suicide, but it's gonna take some some years, and in the process, Obama's promised them big money.
And they are availing themselves themselves of that chance.
In the midst of broadcast excellence, Rush Limbaugh having more fun, and a human being should be allowed to have.
It may take a global vegetarian movement to combat climate change.
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