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April 19, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:29
April 19, 2016, Tuesday, Hour #2
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Greetings and welcome back, America's real Anchorman.
And America's truth detector and the doctor of democracy.
Rush Limbaugh having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have it.
Phone number if you want to be on the program 800 282-2882 and the email address L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
Let me finish up the audio soundbites from the segment on Fox this morning, because it's fascinating as the discussion actually took place on television about the possibility of Republican establishment types crossing over and voting Hillary rather than Cruz or Trump.
And there can only be one reason for it.
Now i i the reason why I'm making a deal of this, because frankly, folks being honest, in most cases, this sound bite of mine would be ridiculed, laughed at, mocked, and they would bring guests on to describe how over the top I am, how out of control, how crazy this is, how wacko this is.
And they'd bring a couple of guests in, oh yeah, an English Limbor's losing it.
This is such an absurd thing to believe.
That didn't happen here.
They play the soundbite.
It is supported, not mocked, and the guests are asked to actually uh address it substantively, which which is why I've categorized, I think it's uh a brave thing to do.
I mean, normally sound bites of me, even some of them on Fox are used uh to to fire up opposition and to mock uh the things that I believe in.
In this case, it was the exact opposite, which is why I'm spending so much time on it.
So uh the next bite, and it's the last one, just to close the loop on this.
Martha McCallum says that's what Rush is saying.
He's saying that it has nothing to do with who the candidates are.
It has to do with the establishment and what they stand for.
They want the Washington establishment to be broken up, meaning the the candidates, Cruz and Trump.
They want the career politicians who count on going back there time and time again and living a nice life.
Uh they want them to have to fight.
They want them to have to defend what they have, and that's why they would vote for Hillary and not for these other two individuals.
And here's what Lowry said closing it out.
I actually think it's Cruz rather than Trump that represents the biggest threat to the Washington establishment.
Because Trump actually isn't talking about cutting government or reforming government.
He's talking about running it better and cutting better deals.
And deal making is what the Washington establishment is all about.
It's Ted Cruz, who all along has been a messel directed at what he calls the Washington cartel.
I'm biased, I'm Cruz supporter, but Ted Cruz is potentially the most unifying figure in the Republican Party at the moment, because regular Republicans could get on board with Ted Cruz, and Cruz is the best suited of anyone to reach out to Trump voters and try to keep them in the top.
Now that leads to, have you heard the scuttle but going around that uh Cruz and Trump could unite?
And that if they did, that it would be unbeatable.
If Cruz and Trump united, of course, this talk comes with uh the assumption that that that Trump be a top ticket.
But if it happened, it would be unstoppable.
The establishment couldn't stop them, that the American uh the Republican voter population, uh voting public would unite behind it and so forth.
I don't know about that.
I I stranger things have happened, and by the way, politics, conventions.
The rule of thumb is that there is unity when the thing is all said and done.
Right now, when everybody's still fighting to win it, of course there isn't any unity, but once the winner has been established, unequivocally, then traditionally, both parties tend to unify and focus on the opposition under the pretext that they want to beat the opposition.
That's what's different here.
With either Cruz or Trump, you have Republican establishment types making it clear that either one of these guys threatens their existence.
Now Lowry's point is that Trump threatens them less because he's a deal maker.
He doesn't talk about reducing Washington in in size, government and size or anything, but that that Cruz really is a guided missile aimed right at what they have, what they stand for, what they believe.
I think they think the same of Trump, precisely because he speaks of them in such with such disdain disdain, calls them stupid.
But Trump does want to come in and run everything, and he wants to be in charge of who's in the club and who's not and what connections there are and who benefits from them.
So I think either one of these guys threaten the establishment as is.
Lowry may have a point that it might be mostly Cruz uh who does that, but it still doesn't uh negate the point.
I mean, look, folks, has there been any opposition to Obama in the last seven years?
Seven and a half there hasn't been, not for the Republican side.
Most of the Republican establishment has tended to want to appear to be agreeing with Obama, in fact.
At least on the big issue, Obamacare.
They don't really I mean they give lip service to opposing it, but it just keeps rolling on while it's dis disintegrating, in fact, in front of our eyes.
It's falling apart.
United Health is the latest example.
Details on that coming up, and then there's emigration, where you can't tell the difference in the in the two parties.
And I guarantee you the establishment types, they look at Trump and what he's talking about.
They have to assume he means it.
And there isn't any common ground there.
Not just the wall and not just southern border immigration, but you know, putting limits on the Muslims that come into the country and this sort of thing.
Which leads to the first call I want to take.
This is a good question, if I'm interpreting it right.
Sherman Levin in Edison, New Jersey.
Hey, Levin, great to have you up first today.
Welcome to the program.
Thank you very much, Rush.
Uh, just before I get to my point, um, if there's you just mentioned uh Trump Cruise uh ticket, and you said yesterday about the impeachment.
I could tell you if there's a Trump Cruise ticket, they're definitely not going to impeach Trump.
Um but just to get to my question, uh You mean because that would lead to Cruz being the president.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Uh but just wait a minute, since you bring that up, stop and think of that now.
The you've already got people talking about impeaching Trump, and he's not even a nominee yet.
So what do you think that's all about?
It's another point for me in the point that I make.
Anyway, back to you now, Levin.
Why did you call?
Yes, uh, my question is Rush, you've been analyzing the Trump phenomenon for months, um, you know, giving it real full thought, and just to close the circle, I have a question here.
Um becomes the nominee and he wins the general election, and things don't go so well on trade or uh all the other things he promised.
Are his supporters gonna keep on cheering him on or they're gonna say or they're gonna start ditching him and saying, you know, he's he's he's not doing what he said he did, what he's gonna do.
And the reason why I asked this question is Trump is supposed to be the great closer, and he hasn't closed the deal in Wyoming or with the delegates or the ground game.
And instead of his supporters saying, hey, this guy's supposed to be the closer, they're just cheering him up.
Let me ask you about that.
I'm gonna double back and answer your question.
But about that, let me ask you your opinion on something.
When it comes to the rules in Colorado, or Wyoming or wherever Cruz happens to be shellacking Trump in these state convention delegate bites.
Are you of the opinion that Trump has never known what the rules are, that he never took the time to learn them, that nobody on his staff knew how Colorado runs, and so when he found out last week he had a natural explosion, or do you think he knew the rules all along and is just strategically treating this as rigged and cheating, and he's being victimized because it benefits him uh in a in a perception way.
Which of those two do you think is true?
Rush, I think he took uh a play, you know, a script right out of Ram Emanuel, don't let a crisis go to waste, and he knew he was gonna lose anyway.
He figured, why show up?
Just don't show up and then claim that the system's rights.
But well, wait, that's not the question.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
You're letting your prejudice answer the question there's no trick here.
I just want to know I I can tell you a cruiser.
I think I think he knew the rules.
You think he knew the rules?
Absolutely.
And just decided, I don't care what they are, because I'm not gonna need them.
I'm gonna win this thing early, I'm gonna win and slam.
No, no, I think he at this point he does realize he needs them.
He knew in such a contest he was going to lose, and he figured better than the.
No, No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait why assume that?
The rules were published in all these states in August.
At some point between August and say last week, Trump had to learn what the rules are.
I'm asked, you think he learned the rules last year?
I think he learned the rules uh do you think that he a few months do you think that he a few months ago decided or figured out that he was going to lose Colorado and thus came up with his current strategy?
I don't know exactly when he came up with the strategy.
I don't know if it was four months ago or when he realized um that these caucus the grassroots he's not doing as well as Cruz.
I don't know exactly when he decided it's a good one.
All right, well, the reason I'm asking a calculated decision.
Well, the okay.
Well, the reason I'm asking is because I am of the opinion that all the candidates knew the rules.
That somebody on the staff knew the rules.
And I'm being lamb basted.
I'm being raked over the coals for saying that, because everybody else wants to think that Trump is an idiot, an arrogant idiot who didn't bother to learn the rules because he didn't think it was gonna matter.
And and I just you know, my analogy, this guy knows every zoning law, uh everything he's gotta do to get a building built, and has a system established to where he learns that stuff before he even starts developing a project.
I just can't imagine Trump going into this willfully blind about it.
Oh, of course, but some people think that he did.
Hmm.
You're a hundred percent right.
Of course he knew the rules.
Now let's back to your question.
Back to the Trump gets elected, Trump gets elected, and everything he stands for, many of the things, bomb.
Nothing happens on trade, no changes.
What will his supporters do then?
Let's take anybody start blaming the ChaiCons, that's why we voted him in.
That's why these people voted him in to seal the deal.
I mean, this is what he's this is what he is Well, no, they can't.
Wait a minute, now you're kind of jumping the gun.
If the trade deals don't happen, his i if his people blame the ChICOMs, they'll eventually be saying that the Chicoms outsmarted Trump, and Trump was gonna be the one to outsmart them.
But I don't want to go with...
Did Ted Cruz outsmart Trump?
Yes, fine.
That's but I s I want to go with this in a different way.
Okay.
I'm gonna take your question dead on.
I'm a literalist.
Let's take something Trump has said that is going to happen that he's gonna do, and let's assume it doesn't happen, and you want to know what his is his crowd's gonna.
Let's take the iPhone.
Trump has said on at least two different occasions that I've heard that he's gonna, quote, make Apple make their phones in America.
I'm gonna make Apple make their phones and their computers in America.
Audiences cheered wildly.
Now I can tell you here, Levin, it's impossible.
The iPhone cannot be made in America.
Not as it is currently assembled.
The you you would not believe, people would not believe what all is involved in manufacturing, assembling, designing the iPhone.
Just the final assembly are fac take place in factories where three to five hundred thousand people work.
But the the the the supply chain, the parts that go into an iPhone or any other smartphone, is impossible to even know.
It is so extensive, it's so detailed, it's so deep.
All the different parts in that phone come from everywhere on this planet, and a system has been developed uh of transportation and distribution where all those parts happen to be available in China or Japan, just a day away, should something be needed, to move all of that, not just the assembly, but all of that to the United States is not possible.
And sp specifically if you want to keep the iPhone priced as it is.
Okay, so let's just take that as an example.
He has said he's gonna make Apple bring the iPhone home.
Apple will not do that.
Question what do Trump supporters think when it doesn't happen?
Oh, he was just saying that as a negotiating thing to bring pressure on Trump.
Well, no, your qu your question is specifically what are Trump supporters going to do?
Let's let's oh, that may be too complicated.
But I'm just telling you, the iPhone is not going to be made in America.
No matter what.
It it it can't be, unless you want to pay a couple thousand dollars for one.
And wait.
We don't we just don't have the infrastructure here to do it.
It's not a cut on the country.
It's not a criticism of the country.
It's just let's take uh what's a bit the wall.
Let's say the wall doesn't get built, Levin.
That's a good example.
What if the wall doesn't get built?
What happens?
I mean, that's that's a signature deal, right?
If that wall doesn't get built, and the Mexicans obviously don't pay for it, then what will Trump fans?
That's what your question is, right?
What are they gonna do?
Exactly.
Well, the correct answer is at that point it doesn't matter what they do because Trump's already elected.
Well, he wants to get elected again.
We would assume so.
But it's still my Trump the winner to be to be a one-term president.
I mean, that's almost worse than not winning the presidency at all.
Uh no, it's not.
No, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no.
You're d you're getting off the rails.
I'm trying to keep you on the rails here.
You're that's not that's not true.
Being president for four years, Jimmy Carter wouldn't trade it.
He was the worst ever, and he wouldn't trade it, he'd do it again.
If everything was exactly the same, he'd do it again.
Even having to go to the Nixon funeral and listen to people praise Nixon.
That was the worst day of Jimmy Carter's presidency.
Don't doubt me out there at the Nixon library, here all these people come out, I guarantee you.
Welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh, half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Grab audio sunbite number six.
This was uh Fox News Channel E. O'Reilly factor last night.
O'Reilly speaking with Juan Williams about a recent poll on confidence in the media.
And it's bad for the media.
I had this story yesterday and get to it because it really isn't news.
It's it's about how most people don't trust the media, it's worse than ever.
What was it like 70, 80 percent don't trust the media?
Something like that.
Up from 65 percent don't trust the media.
Anyway, talking about it last night.
And O'Reilly said to Juan Williams, a recent survey by the media inside project funded by the AP and other public affairs groups, asks the question, as far as the people running the press are concerned, would you say you have a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at all?
Six percent had a great deal of confidence in the media barons, fifty-two percent some and forty-one percent hardly any confidence whatsoever.
And O'Reilly said to Juan Williams, what's driving the negativity toward the press barons, Juan?
I gotta tell you, people I think are strongly conservative Republicans who have the greatest distrust of American media.
And they're not talking about the Wall Street Journal, they're not talking about Fox News, they're not talking about Rush Limbaugh on the talk radio.
They're talking about ABC, NBC, CBS.
That's right.
Well of course they are.
That's it.
That's who the drive-by's are.
That's who that that's who the mainstream media is.
ABC, NBC, C C BS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, LA Times, Washington Times, Washington Post, not Washington Times, Washington Post, uh, Boston Globe, Boston, it's the same thing, and of course there's no trust.
And he thinks it's strongly conservative Republicans who have a great.
Why would that be?
Maybe because they're mocked all the time, maybe because they're laughed at all the time, maybe because they're made fun of and impugned all the time, maybe because the drive-by media is ever been as part of the establishment as the Democrat Party is?
Maybe because these people know that the media is actually the Democrat Party.
Just an extension of it.
I mean, when somebody can leave the Hillary Clinton campaign and go anchor at ABC?
What the hell is that?
George Stephanopoulos leaves the Clinton war room and his buddy Stephanop uh uh James Carble, and ends up hosting Good Morning America and this week with George or take your pick of any other media person who leaves a campaign position, speech writer or liaison goes over to become a White House correspondent, or vice versa.
Leave the media to join a campaign like Jay Carney left Time Magazine to go become Biden spokesman.
There wasn't enough to say there.
Biden speaks for himself, doesn't shut up, so Carney goes over to the White House from Time Magazine.
Why shouldn't conservative Republicans have immense distrust in the media?
Because it isn't media.
It's just an extension of the radical left, the Democrat Party.
That's all it is.
United Health is going to cut back even more Obamacare exchanges and end up being in just a handful of states.
United Health happens to be the nation.
And by the way, right on schedule.
All of this, you can say mission accomplished, when the private sector insurance industry is unable to stay in business, that is Obamacare mission accomplished.
Now, it's not being reported that way by the AP, it's being reported, oh no, oh no.
This is oh no, Obamacare not working.
No, no, it's working exactly as designed.
Here are the details.
United Health, the nation's biggest health insurer, will remain in public health insurance exchanges in only a handful of states next year after expanding to 34 this year.
They are cutting way back.
The United Health CEO Stephen Hemsley told analysts just this morning that the company cannot continue to broadly serve the market created by Obamacare, due in part to the higher risk that comes with its customers.
What is that?
Higher risk that comes with its customers.
The American people, higher risk.
What is this?
Why Obamacare was going to lower everybody's premiums, 2500.
Obamacare was going to be free for many people, so they thought we were going to insure the uninsured.
What was some of the other magic that was going to happen?
Oh, if you liked your plan and your doctor, slam dunk city, you get to keep both.
Except you didn't.
You couldn't.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the big one, your kids can stay on your policy until they're 26.
How many of you look at your 26-year-old freeloader in the basement and think of them as your kids?
But this actually is one of the most attractive aspects of Obamacare.
As it turns out I shouldn't sit here and mock it, because I'm sure many parents in this audience very much appreciate that because their kids otherwise wouldn't have health care.
Insurance wouldn't have insurance.
I have a question, but this is this is just an example of a thought process that I have.
It seems like for the last 15 years, every so often, certainly every year, and maybe many times here, we get stories on how things are so tight economically that more and more children, young adults are living with their parents.
Okay, no comment on that, but my question is, at what point will that become impossible because the kids are not going to have homes of their own for their kids to come back to?
In other words, if you're still 35 and living at home, and you get married and have kids, oh wait, and you have kids, they have to get married for that anymore.
And you get and you have kids.
What happens?
We're reaching the point of no return here, where the phenomenon of children moving home and mom and dad won't be possible because mom and dad are not going to have homes.
No, then you're missing my point.
You're snurdly says, well, they wait for mom and dad to kick off, and then they get that.
There's not a house.
The 35-year-olds living at home don't ever buy houses.
They don't have a home.
They rent apartments or whatever.
You realize for all of these kids that still move home or move back home, live with their parents, something has to happen.
The parents have to have a house.
The parents have to have a means of paying for the house, or they own it outright.
They have to have a means of making the mortgage payment.
But at some point, all these kids that move in, their parents with their parents, they aren't going to have homes because they're.
Oh, you think they'll inherit the house?
Oh, so you're saying they are waiting for mom and pop to pass on, and they inherit the house.
And now they have a house.
Now they have a house, right?
Well, what if the house isn't paid for?
Yeah, I know, but what if the house isn't paid for?
My question still stands.
I mean, what were the the progressive geometrical, the geometrical progression of this?
At some point there aren't going to be any homes to move back to.
And then what are the 35-year-olds going to do?
Cardboard box it?
Shopping cart city.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The what market?
The rental market s oh, it is Scott.
In fact, I saw a story the other day that the wealthiest of the wealthy in the United Kingdom are now renting instead of buying.
I didn't have enough time to read why, but I just saw the phenomenon.
Anyway, back to this Obamacare story.
Stephen Hemsley, CEO of United Health, told analysts just this morning that the company cannot continue to broadly serve the market created by Obamacare because of the higher risk that comes with its customers.
The state-based exchanges are a key element behind Obamacare's push to expand insurance coverage, but insurers have struggled with higher than expected claims from that business.
United Health Group has uh estimated it could cost or could lose as much as $175 million on its public exchanges.
Now stop and think, folks, wait a minute now.
Before you applaud an American corporation losing money, stop and wait a minute.
This is an industry which supposedly benefits from a law requiring mandating.
Every American buy its product.
So what's going on here?
If every American is required to buy health insurance, how in the name of Sam Hill can United Health or any other insurance company lose money?
And what they're telling us is that the customers are making these outlandish claims, many claims much higher than expected.
Why would that be?
Well, they can't afford it for one thing.
But many of them think that it's free that other people are paying, so they're going to the hospital or they're going to the doctor uh record numbers of times.
But here's the bottom line.
This is mission accomplished.
This is exactly what was planned.
This is exactly what was intended.
Precisely.
And it's right on schedule.
What are we now in Obamacare was passed in 2010?
And here we are, 2016.
So we're in the seventh year.
And between year seven and 10, this was to fully implement.
And part of the full implementation was to include the elimination of the private sector insurance market.
Now, I realize that many of you are new listeners and may not have been around in 2010, 11, and 12 during the intense discussions of Obamacare, and you might be thinking, what's this guy talking about?
This guy claims that this is supposed to happen.
Obama is supposed to wipe it.
Yes, exactly right.
But no, no, Obama wanted to bring health insurance to everyone.
No, that's not what Obama cares about.
Obama cares not about health care.
It's not about insurance.
All it is is a mechanism to vastly expand the government and give the government more control over your life, over what you eat, over how you live, over the decisions you make about everything, because they're going to be able to relate everything to health in terms of cost.
So if you eat things they don't think you should eat, they can say, sorry, we're not going to provide treatment for this particular disease because you have made no effort to take care of yourself according to our guidelines.
So this is, and they don't have an endless pile of money, bottomless pit of money to pay for every health malady in the country.
So the but the whole point here was for the private sector insurance industry to be wiped out, and for there to be an accompanying crisis.
Because when United Health leaves the business, when they close exchanges in a whole lot of states, and they're the biggest one, and when it gets tougher and tougher and tougher to obey the law, which is that you have to have health insurance.
It gets tougher and tougher and tougher to buy a health insurance policy, particularly because it's unaffordable or unavailable or there's nobody selling one.
You're then, according to the plan, supposed to start panicking.
Okay.
Because remember, health care is a right, and if you get sick, you'll die.
That's what they've told you.
You'll get sick automatically means you're going to die.
The objective is not to get sick, not die.
Obama's in charge, and so you're supposed to panic when you can't get insurance because you can't afford to get sick.
And you demand the government do something, even though the government is who screwed it up.
The government, the Obama administration are the architects of the entire breakup of the greatest health care system in the world.
When that happens, and we're beginning to see it now, you're supposed to panic and demand the government do something.
That will be music to Obama's ears.
At that point, somebody will pop up and say, you know what?
There's only one way to fix this.
The government's just going to have to take over everything.
The government will provide insurance.
The government will provide and dictate the kind of health care you get.
And uh we'll call it single payer.
Maybe we'll just expand Medicare to include everybody.
And people will go, yay, yay, because a crisis will have been averted.
And once again, the government will be seen as having ridden to the rescue to save people from dying by saving people from getting sick, by enabling people to get treated when they get sick.
And the American population, the low information crowd will be applauding the very people who have destroyed the health care system.
And they will be applauding the government taking advantage of it and exerting even more control over daily life in the country under the guise of protecting people and saving people and rescuing people, and so forth and so forth.
And this is how the left does it.
They target industries they say are capitalist frauds.
They target industries and make put them on the enemy's list and claim they're the reason that all the problems in the country exist.
Big oil, big pharma, big retail, you name it.
Government targets them, gets people hating on them, gets people despising them, gets people thinking that big corporations actually want to kill their customers.
Then the government comes in, devises new plans to keep these big corporations to heal, keep them in tow so they don't hurt people.
The government mandates end up destroying elements of the businesses.
Government swoops in to take over.
Under the guise of saving people and caring about the average guy.
In the meantime, what actually is happening is the wanton destruction of great industries, great traditions, great institutions, which have made the country great.
And it's now beginning to happen right on schedule with Obamacare.
So united health, encountering great financial difficulty, being unable to operate in more and more states, having to pull out of more and more exchanges, is mission accomplished.
The reason the super rich are renting in the UK is because they're trying to avoid what is called the stamp duty on expensive purchases.
It's a luxury tax, it's a surcharge.
And here's the way to think of it.
It went up 3% on April 1st.
So the tax, the levy on a 15 million pound home, figure $18 million home, went up $2 million.
The luxury tax to go out and buy an $18 million home cost an additional two million in tax.
So they're saying, screw it, we're gonna rent.
No, no, no.
They do not stop to think of the dynamics.
They score this stuff statically, and they think the rich just have the money, they'll pay it.
They won't.
They'll find ways around it.
So they're giving up the equity.
And instead renting to avoid paying a confiscatory senseless tax.
But they budget for that new tax being collected, so guess who is going to pay for it?
The UK's little guy.
As always.
Here's Tom in Columbus, Ohio.
Tom, great to have you on the program.
Hello.
Hi, Roger.
Thanks for taking my call.
You bet, sir.
Um Obama was first elected, Mitch McConnell held a press conference, and he just suggested and said that the goal, his goal was going to be to make sure Obama was a one-term president.
Yeah.
And got lamb-based for it.
Everything bad that happened in the country, it was because Mitch McConnell made this promise, and the liberals and left used that as their chant for six years.
And now everyone is promising to impeach Trump before he's even the nominee.
It's really hypocritical and unfair, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
And I'm I'm curious as if Pelosi and her fellow Democrats will support whatever president comes from Republican to Democrats.
The Democrats, the Democrats never ever get called on hypocritical behavior or statements.
They're never held accountable.
Hypocrisy only damages and harms Republicans.
It's really impossible for Democrats to be hypocritical because there's an unspoken, unwritten assumption about everything that Democrats do and say, and that is good intentions.
Everything the Democrats do, they're trying to help people.
They're trying to stop prejudice and racism and bigotry and homophobia.
And they're trying to income equality and so forth.
So if a Democrat now and then goes out, starts talking about impeaching Trump before, it's only...
He's got good intentions, he's just trying to protect the little guy.
You want to talk about a rigged game?
You want to talk about a rigged...
Circumstance, that is the relationship to the drive-by media of the Democrat Party.
But you know what?
I don't I didn't remember that McConnell said that until you reminded me.
Obviously didn't mean it, but I'd forgotten that he even said it.
The Midster, Mitt Romney, has uh has said that unless Kasich or Cruz drop out, Donald Trump will win on the first ballot.
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