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May 28, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:25
May 28, 2014, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every day.
It's the Rush Lindbaugh program and the EIB network.
Great to have you here, folks, as always.
Another big exciting broadcast hour remains.
800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program.
AP just posted a breaking news story.
Another watchdog group has found that veterans at the Phoenix VA Hospital, which was one of the original whistleblower locations, waited an average of 115 days for their first appointment.
From the Washington Times, 1,700 vets not on official wait list at Phoenix, the Phoenix, Arizona VA facility, preliminary report finds.
From the article, we identified an additional 1,700 veterans who were waiting for a primary care appointment, but they were not on the electronic wait list.
The report from the VA Inspector General said, most importantly, these veterans were and continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost in Phoenix and the convoluted scheduling process.
As a result, these veterans may never obtain a requested or required clinical appointment.
Now, I need to stress, none of this, none of these horror stories is due to any lack of funding.
The amount of money that has been allocated for the VA has skyrocketed in the last few years.
The budget is more than double what it was in 2005.
It's $152.7 billion today compared to $70.9 billion back in 2005.
Now, how does the left deal with this?
Like everything else, they blame George W. Bush.
Pelosi is out there saying, well, you know, we fought two wars that were unnecessary.
We'd have to fight these two wars.
And we sent these brave soldiers out, and they've become maimed and injured and disfigured and wounded and harmed.
And if it weren't for Bush, we wouldn't have these pressures and so forth and so on.
So it's all Bush's fault.
Unnecessary wars.
It can't possibly be the incompetence of the bureaucracy trying to handle this.
Look, I may as well.
Let's see.
Let's see.
Yeah, grab soundbites one and two.
Because I talked about the VA scandal last night with Greta Van Susteren on her program.
Maybe even.
Yeah, we'll go up through number three here.
And here is the first bite.
She said, let me ask you about this scandal in Washington.
Actually, it's around the nation of VA healthcare system.
How does this happen?
Well, I think there have been problems with the VA that you could probably chronicle since the beginning of the VA.
And the overriding problem is that this is something government just can't do, despite the best intentions, despite the best efforts.
It's something that the bureaucracy just can't handle.
And I think the ultimate solution to this is going to be farming out part of it or maybe all of it to the private sector.
And the VA, I think that the depth of this scandal or the lesson of this scandal is just that.
If you want to know where we're headed as a country with healthcare, take a look at the VA because this is the course that's been charted if we don't change it.
And that really ticks them off on the Democrat Party.
Oh, man, that ticks them off on the left when you say that this is a microcosm of Obamacare because they, well, wait a minute.
No, Obamacare is not going to own any hospitals.
Obamacare is not going to own any doctors.
No, they're two separate things.
You can't even come.
Yes, you can.
So much commonality here.
And what's common is the incompetence.
It's really more than incompetence, as I address in the next two soundbites.
So, Greta said, well, what disturbs me in particular about this is that apparently people have known about this for so long and they've looked the other way.
And I know that President Obama ran on fixing the VA in 2008, but I didn't realize the extent of it and that everyone just looked the other way and let these people suffer.
That's what I don't understand.
Well, do you remember back in the early days when the president was selling Obamacare?
One of the things that he accused the doctors of doing was unnecessary surgeries to line their pockets.
He talked about doctors doing unnecessary amputations, unnecessary tonsillectomies, because they could earn a lot of money.
He really, really insulted them and really blasphemed them as an industry and said, we've got to get a hold of that, get a handle on it.
Look at what's happened here.
That's the exact thing that happened.
We had bureaucrats working at the VA who massaged waiting lists and ran people through waiting lists who had not been treated also that they could receive a bonus.
And so exactly what Obama accused doctors, surgeons of doing back in the early days when he was trying to sell Obamacare actually happened here.
I had a caller about this today who asked the very same question.
Why now?
And I think the sad reality is that what you said is pretty much true.
The VA has always been problematic.
But in so being, we established a baseline of acceptance.
The VA is X.
It's just what it is.
Why now?
Because it's gotten all of a sudden so much worse.
It's gone so far below the baseline that it is outraging people.
And these kind of things, they can be ultimately useful if they're learned from and if the right lesson is taken from it.
And again, I think the lesson here is that this is just something better left to the private sector, despite all the good intentions in the world among maybe the president bureaucracies or what have you.
They're just not equipped to do this kind of thing well.
This is not what bureaucracies should be tackling, be it for a select group like veterans or the nation at large.
So next up, this, I think, is Snerdley's favorite sound bite.
Brett Van Cesterin said, well, somebody knew that somebody else was cooking the books, so somebody at that level knew and didn't say anything.
It's General Shinseki's obligation to know what's going on and then to report to the president so the president can make some decisions.
I don't even get the sense that anyone was even talking about this horrible calamity that's going on so that we can even fix it.
Why do you think that is?
Why wasn't Shinseki reporting to the president?
Why weren't other people maybe reporting to Shinseki?
What is your theory?
Because they're not doing their jobs and I think they should be fired.
Okay, but why weren't they doing their jobs?
You know what?
I would do my job.
For the life of me, because I know General Shinseki, I know General Shinseki cares about the military and he was a great military officer.
But I don't see him doing a good job as Secretary of the VA.
What qualifies him?
Okay, so he's chief of staff of the Army.
The reason he's in the job is because John Kerry loved to cite Shinseki, who was the first uniformed Army personnel to stand up and criticize George W. Bush after all these Democrats had voted to go into Iraq and authorize the use of force.
Shinseki stood up and said it's going to take hundreds of thousands and we don't have a chance.
And the Democrats loved that.
So they put him in this job, maybe as thanks, maybe as payback.
But where were the qualifications?
Maybe, you know, at some point, you have to ask, where is the real concern?
You yourself said this has been going on for a long, long time and people knew it and didn't say anything about it.
Is it that they don't care?
Is it that they put their survival first?
Who knows what it is?
But the bottom line is, you can ask why all day.
If you have the courage to come up with the truth when you ask why, the answer is they're not qualified.
They're not qualified to run Obamacare.
They're not qualified to run energy.
They're not qualified to run the economy.
They don't have anybody that knows what they're doing in anything, Greta.
Everything here is smoke and mirrors.
That pretty much sums it up.
What is Obama really qualified to do?
And he won the election, so yeah, he's got the office.
What is he qualified for?
What is he really qualified to do?
We've never even seen his college transcripts.
He's who is a lawyer.
We know that when he went to the private sector, he hated it.
He considered himself a spy in enemy territory.
By his own hand, he wrote that.
Shinseki.
Okay, so he's chief of staff of the army.
And you heard Greta said, I know he cares.
I know he cares about the military.
Well, a lot of people care about a lot of things that they can't do.
But see, I made mention, they edited some of this.
And one of the points that I made here is that, see, Greta, we're not supposed to analyze the results.
That's the mistake you're making.
We're supposed to stop at saying they care.
Period.
They're good people.
They care.
Well, what good is that if they're not qualified to do what they're doing?
And by any measure, there's nobody in charge here of the VA that has the slightest idea how to work this right.
And again, it isn't a funding problem.
Their budget has doubled from what it was back in 2005.
Okay, so that's that.
Satisfied the requirement, satisfied the demand of the staff to play some sound bites of me on Greta.
I also talked about, she asked me about winning the Author of the Year children's choice book awards.
And I talked about that and, you know, how meaningful that was.
And you heard me describe the event the day after and talk about these books.
You know, they're just so much fun.
Interactive time travel adventures.
Got a talking horse that can travel anywhere in American history.
Takes the reader right to the seminal events in American history as they are happening.
These are not lectures, recitations of facts and figures.
These are exciting time travel stories written for the 10 to 13 age group.
But as I am learning, all ages are enjoying the Adventures of Rush Revere series.
So we've got two books in the top five now on the children's New York Times list.
Rush Revere and the First Patriots is at number three.
And Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims is at number five.
And that's been on the list for approaching eight months now.
Two books in the top five of that list.
That's gratifying.
So I talked a little bit about that as well and promised her that I would come back.
Now, brief time out.
We get back.
It's on to West Point and Obama's commencement address there, preceded by some analysis, some pre-analysis of Obama's speech by Farid Zakaria GPS from inside the new Google driverless car that gets by with GPS.
Have you heard about this Google car?
Unveiled it yesterday.
It's the funniest, stupidest looking, funniest looking, it's looks like a miniature smart car, if that's possible.
And there are no brakes.
There's no steering wheel.
There's no accelerator.
There's a start button and a map and a GPS and you tell it where you're going and you sit back and you search Google while the Google driverless car takes you where you're going.
Unveiled.
Top speeds 25 miles an hour.
Well, I mean, that's because when you hit a pedestrian, you won't kill him.
Okay, we've got a call here waiting on Obama's speech to the cadets, but I want to get to the audio soundbites first.
We're going to start here with Fareed Zakaria GPS.
That is the name of his show, by the way, on CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Global Positioning Satellite, which I guess helps Fareed know where he is when he's doing the show.
And he clearly lives in a fantasy world, in the tank totally for Obama.
He was on newsroom this morning with Carol Costello on CNN.
Did you hear what she, when you want to talk about a faux pas?
Yesterday, I believe it was, Carol Costello, who used to be the reporter assigned to stalk this program at CNN, and they gave her the anchorette job.
She was talking about Muchell Obama's school lunch nutrition anti-obesity Washington's Going to Force Kids to Eat Right program.
And she said that Michelle Obama signed this into law.
And Michelle Obama can't sign anything into law.
Well, no, you know what?
Come on, she just misspoke.
She knows that Michelle Obama doesn't sign anything into law.
She knows that only Obama can sign things into law.
And you're being generous.
Yeah, because, you know, sometimes I misspeak.
And everybody knows what I meant to say.
They still can't wait to correct me because I'm not wrong very much.
So when they think I've made a mistake, I mean, you would not believe.
You're wrong.
You said, and it's this.
And I knew it, and they know I knew it.
I don't really ever get anything wrong.
I just misspeak.
And so, and in her case, I'll tell you, here's what I'll, I'm going to be generous.
She knows that, but I'll tell you what makes her make that mistake.
She wouldn't be bothered if Michelle Obama could sign something into law, is the point.
Doesn't matter.
Michelle, Barack, the Obamas are in charge.
And that's what's great.
She wouldn't be bothered if she found out that Michelle all of a sudden could sign laws or sign legislation into law.
Anyway, she spoke with Fareed Zakaria GPS in the Google driverless car.
No brakes.
No steering wheel sounds just like the Obama administration.
And she said, Fareed, I'm going to put you on the spot right away.
This is before Obama's commencement speech to the cadets.
She said, Fareed, is America weak?
No, gosh, America is stronger than perhaps at most points in its history.
If you think about, you know, when we faced the Soviet Union, when we faced a communist China that was funding revolutionary movements all over the world against us, even when we faced a pretty powerful jihadi terrorist movement only 10 years ago, the United States is basically very strong, very secure.
This debate is not really about American strength or weakness.
It's about American engagement.
How should America engage with the world?
Right.
Okay, so, of course, America is stronger than perhaps at most points in history.
Think about the facing Soviet Union, Communist China, basically very strong, very secure.
The debate is not really about American strength or weakness, about American engagement.
How should America engage with the world?
We are perceived as weak.
And they say in politics, perception is reality.
And I guarantee you, with Obama drawing red lines all over the world and then daring people across them, and they do, and nothing happens.
And you look at Putin in Ukraine and Putin in Crimea, Crimea, and you look at the CHICOMs basically having their way with whatever they want.
I mean, we're perceived as weak.
I don't think, being flat out honest with you, all of the enemies that we face know full well what we're capable of.
The United States military, do not doubt something.
The United States military is the most feared military in the world.
The power that the United States is capable of projecting is formidable, and everybody around the world knows it.
Particularly our enemies.
And they often talk about amongst themselves what would happen if the sleeping giant is ever awakened.
The truth of the matter is now that our enemies are not afraid.
They are fully aware.
But they perceive the United States to be weak because it's clear.
I mean, they've met the president, they've dealt with him.
They know full well that this is a president who's not comfortable projecting the power the United States military has.
They know full well that his threats are just words.
They're just empty.
I mean, the other day, we, State Department with an emergency flash urging every American to get out of Libya.
We're running away from places.
So the perception is that right now is the time to move on us.
Let's say we're back.
Great to have you.
Rush Limbaugh and the EIB network.
Fareed Zakaria.
Yeah, we see we faced a communist China funding revolutionary movements all over the world against us, even when we faced a pretty powerful jihadi terrorist movement only 10 years ago.
So I guess we're not, we don't face Islamic terrorism anymore, according to Vareed Zakaria, GPS.
Tell that to the Americans in Libya who were just told to flee the country by the State Department.
Americans in Libya told to depart immediately amid new calls for attacks against U.S. citizens.
What difference does it make anymore why we have to leave?
That ought to be the title of Hillary's new book.
Everybody talking about a new book, you know, big whoop.
You know, the blue stain would be a good working title.
What difference does it make anyway?
Or what difference does it make now?
So, folks, we have as much power as we've had.
We're reducing our nuke arsenal publicly, which is a huge mistake if we're actually doing it.
I'm going to do it, but to describe it in detail is a huge, huge mistake.
But it is paramountly obvious that people that we know to be our enemies are not really worried that we are going to project our power.
And Obama shows up today at West Point and says, we're going to be out of there out of Afghanistan by this year.
Date certain stuff is never a sign of strength.
Anyway, do I want to play one more?
Oh, well, yeah, we may as well.
Carol Costello said to Fareed Zakaria GPS, some might argue it's easier to appear strong when you're fighting one known enemy like Japan during World War II or Osama in Afghanistan after 9-11.
But now the U.S. is dealing with Russia, Syria, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups all over the world, which, of course, the previous bite Fareed Zakaria GPS just said we're through fighting.
Should the president focus on just one or two of them, Fareed, or all of them?
What should his foreign policy be?
What an idiotic.
The world dictates.
This is a world governed by the aggressive use of force.
It always has been.
The world dictates what the president focuses on.
He doesn't choose.
You know, World War II, all we had to do was deal with Japan.
No, we didn't.
Have you ever heard of the European theater?
What in the world is she thinking?
You know, like in Japan, World War II, we're only fighting one enemy.
For cryominintly's sake, World War II, we're dealing with Don Lemon Jr. here.
First, we have CNN asking somebody about airplane vanish in a black hole.
And now World War II, we faced one enemy, Japan.
And maybe that's why we won, because we didn't have to divert our attention.
So maybe Fareed should Obama just pick one or two enemies and focus on them.
You might think of the Facebook term frenemy or some kind of in-between category where we have to be able to figure out a way to engage with the world, resist certain kinds of bad behavior, but at the same time not launch some kind of grand crusade.
I think the president's frustration comes from the fact that the critics seem to be saying, you're not doing enough.
You're weak.
You're giving in.
When I think his feeling is, well, I'm doing lots of things that are deeply engaged and take a lot of time, energy, and effort.
What I'm not doing is using the military.
And I'm going to be disciplined about that.
Right.
So he's not projecting any power.
He's not threatening to project power.
He's not projecting power.
So our foreign policy is sending lurch all over the world to lecture people about how you'd engage in the 21st century.
That's it.
That's the extent of our foreign policy.
Send John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, to go over and lecture all these bad guys on how they should behave in the 21st century, and that we're not going to put up with this 20th century or 19th century crap anymore.
This is a folly.
And it we've got, again, ladies and gentlemen, in the real world, we don't have people qualified for the positions they're in.
It's sad reality.
Frenemies?
Frenemies?
We're going to talk about frenemies like we have on Facebook.
That's tantamount to defining foreign policy by virtue of what was in the latest Tom Cruise movie.
Anyway, let's go to Obama and skip 25.
I want to get to this West Point.
It's number 26.
First half hour of this speech was the usual campaign speech, bassing his predecessor, bragging about bin Laden.
And then he gets to the point that is his real worldview.
American influence is always stronger when we lead by example.
We can't exempt ourselves from the rules that apply to everybody else.
You do everywhere else.
We can't call on others to make commitments to combat climate change if a whole lot of our political leaders deny that it's taken place.
Oh my God.
I don't believe problems in the South China Sea when we have refused to make sure that the Law of the Sea Convention is ratified by our United States Senate, despite the fact that our top military leaders say the treaty advances our national security.
That's not leadership.
That's retreat.
That's not strength.
That's weakness.
It's like he's not even the president.
It's like this stuff happens without any input from him.
Maybe the Senate hasn't signed a Law of the Sea Treaty because it does not help the United States.
Maybe it's an absolute debacle for the United States.
But even if it was good and they haven't signed it, it means you're having trouble persuading them.
It means there must be some leadership absent here.
But I mean, this is, we can't exempt ourselves from the rules that apply to everybody else.
You do every day.
You devise rules for all of us to live by that you exempt yourselves from.
Every liberal in power does that.
We can't call on others to make commitments to combat climate change if a whole lot of our political leaders deny that it's taking place.
So this is foreign policy.
This is foreign policy ripping into your political opponents at home because they don't agree with you on the hoax of climate change.
We can't try to resolve problems in South China Sea when we've refused to make sure that the laws seek.
See, America sucks.
When you boil all this down, we can't lead anybody because we're not up to snuff ourselves.
We got no business telling people what the right thing to do is because we're not doing the right thing.
That's what that sound bite means.
And I don't recall in my lifetime a president who ever thought this way or dared speak it out loud.
Well, we can't lead because we're deficient ourselves.
We can't tell these people the right thing to do because we're not doing the right thing.
Who are we?
And that's exactly the way this bunch looks at this country.
Flawed, guilty, immoral and unjust.
And so we don't have any moral authority because we aren't any good ourselves.
Here's Obama.
This again, his view of, by the way, the applause of that was pathetic, as was the reception he got for most of the speech.
Listen to this.
This is the pathetic smattering of applause from the cadets here says it all in this next bite.
I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.
But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law.
It is our willingness to affirm them through our actions.
Do you hear that?
That is pathetic.
That was, folks, that is, that's embarrassing.
I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being, but what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law, but our, so we suck again.
There's nothing special about us.
We don't obey the law.
We don't abide by the law.
We flout international norms and the rule of law.
Only when we behave properly, that like when we don't behave like a superpower, when do we flout international law?
You know this Law of the Sea Treaty, you know what was open for signature?
1982 was 32 years ago, and they still can't get any signatures on it because it's so bad.
It's a huge penalty for the United States.
The Law of the Sea Treaty is an absolute disaster, and that's why in 32 years it still hasn't been ratified.
American exceptionalism.
I don't think he can define it.
Okay, one quick one.
Grab number 29.
Christian Amanpour.
She didn't like this.
She was let down.
She didn't think this is the kind of speech that the cadets at the U.S. Military Academy ought to hear.
This is not a speech that is in any way commensurate with our status as a superpower, and she didn't like it.
This was billed as a speech by his administration to face down the critics who have said that this American foreign policy has been too weak to get people like Assad or Putin or name any one of the leaders and adversaries around there to listen to America's leadership.
This, though, was not a muscular speech, a robust speech that would assuage those critics, nor was it a muscular speech commensurate with America's superpower throw weight.
Exactly right.
There was no indication that we are willing to project our power in our own self-interests or for freedom or for anything else that we used to stand for.
She pretty much saying it's a wuss speech.
And I clearly can tell you she was let down.
She was expecting.
These people have no idea who this guy is.
They still don't know who he really is.
Wuss speech at West Point.
It's embarrassing, folks.
It really, truly is.
To me, it's embarrassing.
Folks, I get to tell you, if you don't think that Obama has a problem with this country, you need to listen to that speech again.
It is.
And here he is, the president, POTUS, Commander-in-Chief, speaking at West Point.
And it's the Limbaugh theorem.
He's speaking as though he's not even the president.
That all these other people are up screwing around, and that's why things are all messed up.
Just amazing.
It's really stunning to me that we've actually elected somebody that has that many grievances.
I mean, I know we have people with grievances out there that we've elected one is what's stunning.
Ron in Manassas, Virginia, I wanted to get to you.
I know you've been waiting, and I appreciate that.
Hi.
Hey, thanks, Rush.
Really appreciate getting on.
And I was listening to the current Commander-in-Chief talk to the young new lieutenants there at the Academy.
And I'm a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel 26 years.
And it was sickening to see the Commander-in-Chief.
It really gives you a glimpse into his disdain and lack of understanding of the military.
He's sitting here telling these young guys that just finished four years of intense training that, oh, I'm going to take care of you.
You're the first class I'm not going to send to Afghanistan or Iraq.
And what do you think these guys are thinking?
That's what they're training for.
And here, this guy is standing up there saying, I'm going to take care of you.
I've got good intentions for you.
You know, you good Boy Scouts.
I'll just send you over here and let you stay at Fort Brad.
You know, that's a good point.
He did.
He did.
And he said that in a way he wanted accolades and appreciation.
He told them they're the first graduating class not going to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan as though that is some sort of great progress.
And I don't know how many of them actually want to go, but you're right, they've trained for it, and they want to put it to use and so forth.
It's just the whole mindset that this man has about this country that was inescapable in that speech today.
Sadly, my friends, out of busy broadcast time for the day, but sit tight.
21 hours.
Before you know it, we'll be back.
And we'll look forward to it.
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