RUSH IN A HURRY -- Howard Dean Makes Case Against Obamacare

Wednesday Quotes: Calling Out Obama
December 16, 2009

"Liberalism is something that cannot exist in the sunlight.
It's like Dracula.
It's gotta hang around in a coffin all day and comes out only at night when nobody can see what's going on."

"I am a huge believer in American private sector businesses.
They have made the country what it is."

"I am not in the tank for any private sector corporation.
I'm in the tank for capitalism.
I understand that there are going to be people that break the law and engage in unfair business practices.
It's human nature.
It's the way it is.
But that does not, to me, indict the system, it indicts those individuals."

"The Democrats are the ones who have used every contemptible trick and procedure to impose on this nation something this nation does not want."

"If you've been unemployed for a while and you're looking for work and can't get any, whatever you do, do not consider yourself a failure.
You are not what's failing here.
What's failing is the Obama administration's attempt to revive the private sector where your job and dream is or used to be.
They're making it tougher."

"Don't fall for the claim that the glory days are over.
Don't go Bruce Springsteen on us here.
This country is going to need every one of you striving to be the best you can be in overcoming
all these obstacles that Obama and everybody is putting in the way, and it still can be done."

"There is a greater political divide in the country today than ever before.
I, of course, predicted it."

"Copenhagen is falling apart.
It has become an absolute laughingstock.
These people can't even run a convention, and these are the people that tell us they want to run the world in order to save it."

"The passage of time has reinvigorated the left's anger at Obama for selling
them out on the public option, cheaper drugs, and the Medicare expansion."

"What the left is learning is it doesn't matter in the slightest what's in the bill as far as Obama is concerned.
Just getting one is paramount.
I warned them!"

"Rasmussen is considered by most to be an objective, right-down-the-middle polling organization,
and getting lost in their polling data on Crist and Rubio is this notion that a third-party 'Tea Party'
candidate will simply guarantee a Democrat Party victory."

"The left never changes.
It's who they are.
You are never, ever going to totally beat 'em back.
That's why you can't give up any day."

"You notice how whenever things go against the media and Democrat Party agenda, we hear about the 'tactics' and the 'public relations battle'?
It can't just be that people are turning against this health care bill because they're becoming more informed and don't want this dog.
Oh, no! It has to be that the PR battle is being lost."

"The fact of the matter is they have tried for 21 years to wipe us out, to destroy us --
to attack our credibility, reputations, and so forth --
and yet here we are: Larger and more powerful than ever."

"Global warming, the whole concept, is been exposed as a hoax -- and that thing is falling apart over there.
Protesters are being arrested.
They're upset because not enough is being done."

"Jeffrey Immelt, NBC-GE, has gone green totally.
You know why?
'Cause they have decided the best way to get a lot of research money to supposedly
research and develop this new technology is going to come from the Obama administration.
It's all about money."

"If I were the Washington Post or the New York Times, I'd be really worried.
They used to have a monopoly on informing people.
If they wanted something to happen, it happened.
If they wanted a person elected, it got elected.
If they wanted an issue ignored, it got ignored.
If they wanted an issue buried -- a story, whatever -- it got buried."

"If all this walking-around money from the slush funds -- $800 billion for the payoffs, unlimited positive propaganda-like coverage from all these networks and newspapers -- can't get you to 60 votes in the Senate, then you are in deep trouble because you are dealing with a piece-of-excrement bill."

"I keep preaching the fact that if you really want to get informed, if you really want to understand where all this is headed and what it means, you have to get ideological."

"All Palin has to do is type a couple sentences on Facebook and the worldwide left goes batty."

"As far as I'm concerned, ladies and gentlemen, there's not one item on the leftist agenda worth joining or compromising over.
Not one."

"Has there ever been a time where the federal government interceded in the private sector and succeeded in lowering prices?"

"The one thing the federal government can do to lower prices in health care or anything else is get the hell out of the private sector.
The reason prices are so high in health care is 'cause the federal government is involved.
It's not a free market anymore and it hasn't been in a long time."

"Liberalism is what it is.
Leftism is what it is.
Marxism, communism, all those, fascism, it is what it is and no nice set of words is going to change it,
no PR spin is going to change who those people are and what that is.
It is very simple."

"In my perfect world which is based on common sense, here you have Big Pharma,
and they know full well that they've got an administration that's going to try to bankrupt them.
Instead of getting in bed with them and buying protection, stand up to them! I do.
I'm still alive.
I'm still here.
My business is still thriving.
I don't understand the cowardice."

"Obama claimed he was going to have the most transparent administration ever, and the Democrats are still hiding their dirty work so nobody can see it."

"Coburn and those who follow him in reading amendments are patriots.
It is Obama and the Democrats who have defied every public opinion poll and the people,
who have conducted themselves in secret, who have lied repeatedly."

"Hey, Weiner? After 44 years, Medicare is going broke!
It is trillions of dollars in debt, and you want to turn Medicare into government-run national health care.
You are truly a fool!"

"You have to conclude that there's only one word for the poor slobs who are still paying their mortgages at their full rate, and that is 'suckers.'"

"Social Security was supposed to provide a little bit of retirement for people.
The original price tag was $35 million.
Now we're up until the trillions that it costs."

"Where the liberal Democrats all want to go is:
Have the government be in charge of who gets what, who gets paid for what, and where one goes to get it.
Pure and simple."

"The Republicans now, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint, are having the Senate clerk read all 767 pages of the Bernie Sanders amendment.
That delays debate on the health care bill, which is a good thing."

"We know Pelosi's willing to lose 30 or 40 seats in the House.
She's willing to thin the herd.
She doesn't like these so-called moderate Blue Dogs being there.
And how is she going to lose 'em?
By having them vote for this health care bill."

"The Democrats did not lose Congress in '94 because they failed to get health care.
They lost, in part, because they tried for it."

"How many Obama voters do you think really believe that what they're going to end up getting here is the government paying every
health care expense they have; it's not going to cost them anything; a couple of rich people are gonna pay higher taxes to pay for it?"

Continually repeat ...

It's not about me.
I'm the President.

Past editions of "RUSH IN A HURRY"

Rush Hudson Limbaugh. Mmm, Mmm, Mmm!

Hoax & Chains: Obama Wants You to Live on Less, Feel Like a Failure
Barack Obama's America: "The Great Humbling."
December 16, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have to start with this. This is from US Snooze & World Report. It hit yesterday afternoon just after the program. It's a story about how to live happily on 75% less, setting the stage here for, "Hey, folks, your life is never going to be as prosperous as it once was and you're going to have to learn to live happy on 75% less." This is, of course, cover for Obama. "Nine months after getting laid off, Catherine Goerz once again became part of the rush-hour commute -- in a way she'd never anticipated. To pick up extra cash, Goerz took a temporary job handing out fliers touting the benefits of public transportation in the San Francisco subway system. Occasionally she'd bump into people she knew from her former job as a creative producer for a Bay Area communications company. 'They're in their corporate clothes,' she recalls, 'and I'm in this silly T-shirt and hat. "Cathy, is that you?" they'd ask. "What are you doing here?" Ugh.'"

"The Great Recession -- which is technically over, economists insist -- may be morphing into a broader epoch: the Great Humbling. Millions of Americans who felt prosperous just a few years ago are now coping with long-term unemployment, sharp cutbacks in living standards, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and a deep sense of failure. That could persist for years. 'This is not like earlier recessions, where things fell, then they bounced back to where they used to be,' says Dennis Jacobe, chief economist for the Gallup polling organization." Wait a minute, now. Why does a polling organization need a chief economist? I guess so they could be surprised. These are the guys, the experts that are always stunned no matter what the news is.

"'This is not like earlier recessions. ... We haven't seen this before. It's the only time this has happened since the Great Depression.' For many disenfranchised workers, the 'new normal' is demoralizing. But some have found fresh career paths, clarified their priorities, and discovered that they're more resourceful than they once thought. After absorbing the initial shock of being laid off, 37-year-old Goerz decided it was the chance to pursue a long-time goal: Filming a documentary." Now, we've done many shows on this about the opportunity that being fired, laid off or whatever presents you if you have the metal capacity to look at it that way. And that's all fine and dandy, people pursuing passions they didn't have time for because they were glued or wedded to a job they didn't particularly like but now they've been laid off and they have no choice. The thing that's wrong with this is that the conclusion is no matter what you choose to do, no matter how eagerly you follow your dream because you've been fired and laid off, don't worry, you're never going to be as successful as you once thought you were because our country is forever changed. And I just refuse to accept that.

All of this is cover for Obama, and we're getting to a point here, all these people, the Great Humbling, millions of Americans who felt prosperous just a few years ago are now coping with long-term unemployment, sharp cutbacks in living standards, and a deep sense of failure. Let me tell you something. If you are one of those people, you've been unemployed for a while and you're looking for work and you can't get any, whatever you do, do not consider yourself a failure. You are not what's failing here. What's failing is the Obama administration's attempt to revive the private sector where your job and dream is or used to be. They're making it tougher. All the stories we're seeing about how much more per annum federal employees make, all the stories about all of the greater benefits packages they have, on average, than people working in the private sector. I have a theory about that. I actually think that the Obama administration and his collection of leftist radicals actually want people to turn away from the private sector, to turn to government, 'cause there's an all-out assault on the private sector and it's being done purposefully, as I have so eloquently and arguably presented to you in the past.

But don't fall for this, folks. Don't fall for the claim that the glory days are over. Don't go Bruce Springsteen on us here. This country is going to need every one of you striving to be the best you can be in overcoming all these obstacles that Obama and everybody is putting in the way, and it still can be done, but if everybody is lulled into a false belief that America that once was is no longer America, then Obama and his boys are gonna win, and we must not allow this to happen. So do not consider yourself the failure. I know it's hard not to, you keep applying for jobs, you keep being turned down or whatever, the longer it goes, the harder it is to find a job at the salary level that you were making when you lost your job, but the failure is the Obama administration and its policies, which are just making it all that much more difficult for people who are unemployed to realize their dreams.

Now, there's one area, of course, Obama has targeted this area with extreme hatred, with extreme animus. And that is Wall Street. And Wall Street, the so-called fat cats are passing out bonuses in record numbers at, say, Goldman Sachs, and to avoid any criticism, they're not actually handing out cash bonuses. What they're doing is giving employees stock that doesn't vest for two or three years or whatever, I forget the exact number of years. The question is, do the people on Wall Street which Obama has supposedly targeted, are they feeling like failures? Are they in any way, shape, manner, or form learning to do with 75% less, even though Obama has targeted them for destruction? I mean he points fingers of blame at them all the time.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• USNews: How to Live Happily on 75 Percent Less

Obama Enrages Left with Sellout to Big Pharma on Drug Importation
Obama flip-flops on a key promise he made to his base.
December 16, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, the left, I mentioned, they are just livid, folks, about the drug re-importation amendment of "Helmet Head" Dorgan being defeated, final vote 51-48, 60 votes were needed to pass the thing. You go to various websites and you will find a list of all the Democrats who voted to kill this, and these fringe kook-leftist websites are targeting them. "The amendment..." This is the Washington Post. "The amendment, sponsored by Senator Dorgan, would allow pharmacies and wholesalers to import US-approved medication from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, where drug costs are far lower because of price controls. The measure has attracted bipartisan support from lawmakers, including Olympia Snowe and John McCain. But the pharmaceutical industry, which has been a key supporter of health care reform after reaching an agreement with Obama has responded with a fierce lobbying campaign aimed at killing the proposal, focusing on Democrat senators from states with large drug and research sectors." They are livid out there, and here's why. We go back to Obama, audio sound bite number one, October 4th, 2008, Newport News, Virginia.

OBAMA: Then we'll tell the pharmaceutical companies, "Thanks but no thanks for overpriced drugs." Drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada and Mexico. We'll let Medicare negotiate for lower prices. We'll stop drug companies from blocking generic drugs that are just as effective and far less expensive. We'll allow the safe re-importation of low cost drugs from countries like Canada. Number two: We're gonna focus on prevention, on promoting wellness rather than just managing sickness.

RUSH (godlike reverb): As I said, ladies and gentlemen, the left is livid with Obama because he sold 'em out on this promise by cutting a deal with Big Pharma. And, from the Chicago Defender, August 11, 2004: "Democrat Senate candidate Barack Obama and Republican rival Allen Keyes managed to agree on at least one thing Tuesday: Both support legalizing pharmaceutical drug imports to spare Americans the higher US prices." So Obama is well known to be on record for this. Another thing, too: Should Americans be allowed to purchase their prescription drugs from other countries? And they quote Obama here, June 4, 2008: "A truly meaningful prescription drug program should provide a benefit that seniors can understand and count on to reduce the cost of these drugs. To help lower the cost of these drugs, Senator Obama has supported efforts to allow American seniors to purchase prescription drugs in Canada and bring 'em back to the US." So they are just flipped out there over this as much as they are anything else. (end godlike reverb) From March 7: " Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act." The AARP wanted the legalization of the re-importation of drugs from other countries in order to make drugs cheaper, and it's gone. Obama just casually threw it out; and what the left is learning is it doesn't matter in the slightest what's in the bill, as far as Obama is concerned. Just getting one is paramount. I warned them! I warned them Monday, August 24th, of this year.

RUSH ARCHIVE: The CIA stuff, this new interrogation, all it is... I'm telling you: Trust me. Don't doubt me. All this is is an attempt to get these people back in gear because they hate the whole idea of an imperial US military more than they want the public option. They want Al-Qaeda to be portrayed as the good guys. They want the Taliban to be portrayed as the good guys. They want the US to be portrayed as the bad guys. ... They're changing the subject from the debacle that health care has become; they're changing the subject from the fact the public option is in big trouble, and they're trying to rally the base now with a golden oldie, something from the Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites. ... [T]his is an act of desperation, it is an attempt to change the subject, it's an attempt to get his base back on his side again because they know -- and I think this is true, it's frightening, but it is true. The Democrat base, the far left radical lunatic fringe base, cares more about this country being humiliated militarily, foreign policy-wise, than they care about the public option.

RUSH: Well, that was my opinion back on August 24th, but if I was right (and I think I was right then) the passage of time since then has reinvigorated the left's anger at Obama for selling them out on the public option, cheaper drugs, and the Medicare expansion.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: To the phones we go, to Jim in Orlando. Great to have you on the phones, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. How you doing? Dittos, and great show on Shatner last week.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER: Listen, I know this is anecdotal, but I got a little story about prescriptions that just underscores the crap that's going on in DC. I suffer from both gout and psoriasis. I'm over 60. I need medications for this. The last time I got my psoriasis medication was four years ago. I got a prescription last week because I have a flare-up, and I went to fill it yesterday, and four years ago it cost me $90 for a little two-ounce tube of salve. That prescription today was $185 and I had to pass it up because I couldn't afford it. I don't have medical insurance, and I've been unemployed for 18 months now. So I had to pass that up. My gout prescription, which I can't pass up, costs me $5 dollars a pill, and there are no substitutes for either one of these. No generics. So I don't have a choice in the matter, and that's $300 a month for my gout medication. It just galls the heck out of me -- pardon my French -- that these characters in DC don't know what the meaning of the concept of "for the good of the group" is. They give a lot of lip service to it, but they are so far up the rear ends of vested interests and moneymakers and lobbyists that they haven't got a clue what they were hired to do in the first place. People like you and me and every other citizen in this country put them in a position to where they're supposed to make decisions and vote on policies that are in the best interests of the group, meaning us.

RUSH: Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You are missing something crucial. They do know the meaning of the concept "for the good of the group." The group happens to be them.

CALLER: Well, that's not the group that they were voted to serve.

RUSH: Well, you don't need to... Look, you don't need to go to the concept that the insurance companies are in bed with the Democrats to get mad at this bill. You look at any other aspect of this bill and you would have to conclude the last people, the last group that Democrats are trying to please or satisfy or even do something good for is their own voters.

CALLER: And why don't those people wake up and smell the roses or the coffee or whatever --

RUSH: Because, because --

CALLER: -- axiom you want to use?

RUSH: Because -- don't doubt me -- those people hate conservatives and Republicans more than they will ever get mad at Democrats. The Democrats play on that constantly.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: To South Windsor, Connecticut. Hey, George, I'm glad you waited. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Yeah, Rush. You know, I've been listening to you for some time, and I'm thinking I got you wrong, but I've been listening to you talk about Big Pharma, and it seems as though you're kind of coming down very negative. As you know it's a private industry and you're pro-private industry to get things done, and the industry has gone through an enormous amount of layoffs, whether it's Pfizer or Bristol-Myers or Merck. I mean, over the last several years there's been, you know, huge, huge layoffs. But you don't hear anything about it, and there's no sympathy in the mainstream media about it. And so now this whole reimportation, and if you want I can try to help you better understand it in a simplistic way if you want to, but I hope that, you know, you're not --

RUSH: No, no. You have misunderstood. You are not trusting what you know.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: You know, you just said it. I'm a big, big believer in private sector. I am a huge believer in American private sector businesses. They have made the country what it is. Now, you know that. You've listened to me long enough, you said so. So you hear me today discussing how the Democrats are all ticked off because the reimportation of drugs amendment by Byron Dorgan failed and you might have heard some glee in my voice. I'm happy the Democrats are flummoxed here. I'm one of the biggest defenders of Big Pharma, of Big Retail, of Big Oil, of the American private sector, capitalism, that you'll ever find. I got nothing against you guys. You guys have helped make this the greatest health care system in the planet. Now, I'm not institutionally supportive. If somebody engages in unfair practices, I'm going to call 'em on that, but I'm not institutionally opposed to it, which is what all the Democrats are.

CALLER: Right. Your caller that called before from Orlando with gout, I mean if he doesn't have a pharmaceutical plan for his insurance, whatever insurance he has or if he doesn't, there are plenty of resources within the industry to help him with some of these medicines that may be of a certain cost that he's having difficulty paying for.

RUSH: Yes, I was remiss in not mentioning those programs. But he may not know how to access them, he may not even know they exist, and I was remiss in not mentioning that. The best way to say this is that I am not in the tank for any private sector corporation. I'm in the tank for capitalism. I understand that there are going to be people that break the law and engage in unfair business practices. It's human nature. It's the way it is. But that does not, to me, indict the system, it indicts those individuals. The Democrat Party wants to put you out of business. They want to put the private sector insurance business out of business. They have spent 50 years, or more, getting average Americans to despise you and other private sector businesses. And I resent the hell out of it.

CALLER: It's working. They're doing a good job because there have been a number of layoffs of which affects a lot of things, from research and development for better and newer drugs.

RUSH: Let me tell you something, though. One of the reasons they succeed in this PR message and one of the things I tell you I am a little bit upset about, why in the world would you guys get in bed with Obama in the first place? Why would you go ahead and give him $150 billion to run ads to support the program? Where's your guts? Where's the industry guts to stand and up say, "This sucks, this is bad for America." All they're doing is spending protection money. They're giving Obama $150 billion in exchange for Obama not targeting them. What good did it get 'em? You get in bed with snakes you're in bed with snakes.

CALLER: Right, you're right, you cover both sides of the coin, and, again, you're the all-knowing, all-caring Maha Rushie 99 close to eight percent accuracy right now.

RUSH: It's 99.5 but who's counting?

CALLER: (laughing) Thank you.

RUSH: You bet. Look, there's a lot of things I get ticked off about here. In my perfect world which is based on common sense, here you have Big Pharma, and they know full well that they've got an administration that's going to try to bankrupt them. Instead of getting in bed with them and buying protection, stand up to them! I do. I'm still alive. I'm still here. My business is still thriving. I don't understand the cowardice. And don't tell me, "Well, a lot of money is at stake." Yes, a lot of money is at stake and if you get in bed with the people that institutionally hate you you're going to end up losing your money anyway no matter what deal you make with them.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Washington Post: Drugmakers Fight Plan to Allow Imports

Senate GOP Employs Brilliant Delay Tactic on Obamacare Bill
Libs fit to be tied as GOP engages in some obstruction.
December 16, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, this is hilarious. You're going to love this, folks. Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. MSNBC is fit to be tied right now. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, is interviewing the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, and she's mad, and the graphic on the screen says: "GOP shuts down debate on Senate health care bill. GOP delays debate." It's the Republicans' fault. Here's what it's about. Senator Tom Coburn has demanded a reading of an amendment, a 767 page amendment to the health care bill, it was written by Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders the lone admitted socialist in the US Senate from Vermont. And his amendment would make health care single payer, right off the bat.

It's a single payer amendment for health care and Coburn said, "I admire Senator Sanders for his willingness to fight for publicly what many advocate only privately, a single-payer system funded and controlled by bureaucrats and politicians in Washington. Every American should listen to the reading of this amendment, pay careful attention to its vote tally." The clerk in the Senate is reading Bernie Sanders' 767-page amendment right now. So that's the delay and they're all ticked off about it. "GOP uses Senate procedure to slow down health bill." Andrea Mitchell, they are fit to be tied, "Steele, what are you guys doing? How can you stand in the way of our young new president here and his effort to reform health care for every American?" Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just great.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Senator Jim DeMint has joined Tom Coburn's effort to read the expire 767-page Bernie Sanders amendment to the health bill. Furthermore, DeMint has vowed to have the entire health care bill read on the floor whenever it comes out. Do you realize the whole bill has not been put together yet? They're still waiting on CBO scoring and all these changes in there for Lieberman and Ben Nelson. Now, this helps, DeMint joining Coburn. They have to keep somebody on the floor while the clerk is reading it, otherwise the Democrats can shut it down. So they need to be some other Senators in there along with DeMint and Coburn to make sure that this thing gets read in its entirety. They're thinking of doing the same thing -- vowing to do the same thing -- when the entire bill comes out and because delay is a key element here in screwing up the strategy. The strategy on the Democrat side is to have the final on Christmas Day or the day after, and that's cutting it real close. You're required to have 30 hours of debate before the cloture vote, and if they can delay this by a 30 hour cycle or something... It might take 34 hours to read the whole bill. It's 2,000 pages. So they could really gum up the works of Obama being able to say the Senate passed his bill prior to Christmas.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Here's a little observation I have for you. The Republicans now, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint are reading the Bernie Sanders amendment, all 767 pages of it (well, they're having it read by the Senate clerk) which delays debate on the health care bill, which is a good thing. And this is the first time the Republicans have done something that obstructs any of this -- which is something we've been urging them to do, hoping they would do it. Now, the Bernie Sanders amendment, if you look at it, it's up-front and honest about what they want: Single payer. The government's going to pay for everybody's health insurance. My guess is that the people who support the Obama plan think that the Sanders amendment is what they're actually going to get, and they're not going to get that. That's why Bernie has offered the amendment, and it's now being read.

Now, remember, in the recent weeks Democrat strategerists from the White House on down had been warning Democrats in the House and Senate: "The reason you lost the House in 1994 is because you didn't pass health care. If you had passed health care, Hillary Care in in 1994, you would not have lost the House -- and the Republicans, and the Republicans would not have won it. So it looks to me like you could almost analyze this as say if the Democrats are right about that (which of course they're not) the Republicans must be willing to commit political suicide over this, since they're now obviously being obstructionist. Either they are suicidal or they don't believe that health care reform is as popular as the media claims it to be. Remember, the media kept telling us that the Democrats lost in '94 'cause they didn't ram through Hillary Care. But, of course, the Republicans bragged about it! The Republicans bragged about killing health care, and they won a landslide.

So again, the effort here to get this passed and to get Republicans to shut up, worked for a while. This absurdity that the only reason the Democrats lost the House is because they failed to ram through health care? The fact that they tried is got so close is one of the many reasons they lost in a landslide in 1994. So the Republicans finally standing up and doing some obstruction here in the form of reading Bernie Sanders' amendment -- and DeMint's vow to read the whole health care bill, all 2,000-plus pages of it -- is a fascinating concept. Maybe the Republicans are figuring out now that they've been sold a bill of goods, that everybody's being sold a bill of goods about the Democrats must pass this in order to avoid being defeated. In fact, look at it this way: We know Pelosi's willing to lose 30 or 40 seats in the House. She's willing to thin the herd.

She doesn't like these so-called moderate Blue Dogs being there. And how is she going to lose 'em? By having them vote for this. So she's tantamount admitting that voting for this is political suicide for Democrats. So once again, another lie. The Democrats did not lose Congress in '94 because they failed to get health care. They lost, in part, because they tried for it. It stands to reason. And Dingy Harry, too. There are some Senators they wouldn't mind losing over there. And the way to get these people defeated is to have them vote for this. History may be repeating itself here, 2010 to 1994.

By the way, that last call was from Orlando, which happens to be where Tiger Woods lives. And get this. This story ran today in the Orlando Sentinel: "Gordon Morgan tried on a Tiger Woods shirt at Edwin Watts Golf but ended up putting it back on the shelf. 'We're banned from buying any,' he said -- adding, by way of explanation, 'the wives.'" Their wives will not let 'em buy Tiger Woods shirts made by Nike. Now, this is one little anecdote in a newspaper story, but it does point up something. That's the greatest source of Tiger's income is these endorsement deals and Phil Knight of Nike said (paraphrased), "Ah, this is nothing! It's going to be a blip when this is all over. It's going to be a blip of a memory. Nobody's going to remember this." That stands to be seen.

Back to the audio sound bites. Here's Andrea Mitchell grilling the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele -- and she is fit to be tied over the "delaying tactics" of reading the Bernie Sanders amendment on the floor of the Senate.

MITCHELL: Mr. Chairman --

STEELE: Mmm-hmm?

MITCHELL: -- let's face the fact that Bernie Sanders' amendment, the single-payer amendment isn't even a talking point anymore for Democrats. It's an amendment that's going to be voted down just as likely as Republican amendments are voted down. So why take the time to read more than 700 pages of an amendment that's not even germane to where this bill is going?

RUSH: Now, aside from her question -- Why are you doing this? Where are you delaying debate on something our brand-new and lovable president wants? Why are you doing it? Why are you doing it? -- The thing that sticks out at me here with this is she's admitting that single payer, which is what Bernie Sanders' amendment is -- and it's crystal clear -- is the most honest thing the Democrats have put forth in this whole health care bill, from the bill to all the amendments. Bernie Sanders is it, and it's unabashedly honest. "We want single payer! We want the government in charge of every aspect of health care," and Andrea Mitchell says that's not germane. Everybody knows this is going nowhere; this is not going to happen. Well, you people on the left who probably think the Sanders amendment is what the entire health care bill is, how many Obama voters do you think -- it has to be those that still support the plan. How many Obama voters do you think really believe that what they're going to end up getting here is the government paying every health care expense they have; it's not going to cost them anything; a couple of rich people gonna pay higher taxes to pay for it? And Andrea Mitchell has just sent the signal to the kook-fringe leftists: This isn't about single payer; it can't get passed; the government running every aspect, we still can't get it. I don't know if she's aware that she sent that signal because I'm convinced that a number of Democrats still support this believe that The Sanders amendment is exactly what the entire health care bill is. Here's Michael Steele's answer.

STEELE: It is germane. It's germane to the debate. You know, it's as germane as tort reform which is not a part of this as bill. It's as germane as HSAs, which have been gutted in this bill. It's as germane as the tax provisions on small business in these bills. But none of that has been discussed in any great length. Largely the members don't know what's in this bill. Harry Reid has kept this thing in his coat closet from the very beginning. We still don't know what it's going to cost. And so yeah. Let's slow this thing down and try to get in front of it instead of being steamrolled over by it and the leadership's approach to try to get something done.

RUSH: That's exactly right: Slow it down. You know, that's a good point to make that Reid has kept it secret. Dick Durbin said the other day he hasn't even seen the bill, and he's on Dingy Harry's leadership team! Next sound bite. This runs five minutes. We're not going to play the whole thing, but this is a portion of the clerk reading Bernie Sanders' amendment on the floor of the Senate.

CLERK: "(a) In General -- For purposes of this Act, a comprehensive health service organization (in this section referred to as a 'CHSO') is a public or private organization which, in return for a capitated payment amount, undertakes to furnish, arrange for the provision of, or provide payment with respect to -- (1) a full range of health services (as identified by the Board), including at least hospital services and physicians services; and..."

RUSH: Stop the tape. Stop the tape. If you're just joining us, what you're listening to is an amendment written by Bernie Sanders -- avowed socialist from Vermont, US Senate -- 767 pages, to the entire health care bill. This amendment is an amount which would make sure that the government becomes the single payer and provider of all health care in America. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said, "We're going to read the whole thing. I want people to hear it. I want people to hear this as the clerk reads it." So that's what you're listening to. You're listening to a piece of legislation, an amendment to the health care bill offered here by Bernie Sanders.

CLERK: (2) out-of-area coverage in the case of urgently needed services; to an identified population which is living in or near a specified service area and which enrolls voluntarily in the organization. (b) Enrollment -- (1) IN GENERAL -- All eligible persons living in or near the specified service area of a CHSO are eligible to enroll in the organization; except that the number of enrollees may be limited to avoid overtaxing the resources of the organization. (2) MINIMUM ENROLLMENT PERIOD -- Subject to paragraph (3), the minimum period of enrollment with a CHSO shall be twelve months, unless the enrolled individual becomes ineligible to enroll with the organization. (3) WITHDRAWAL FOR CAUSE -- Each CHSO shall permit an enrolled individual to disenroll from the organization for cause at any time. (c) Requirements for CHSOs -- (1) ACCESSIBLE SERVICES -- Each CHSO, to the maximum extent feasible, shall make all services readily and promptly accessible to enrollees who live in the specified service area.

RUSH: Stop the tape. She needs reverb. If there was reverb added to this, then it might be a little bit more compelling. Let's keep listening. I'm still waiting for one word of substance about what the hell this amendment's about.

CLERK: "(2) CONTINUITY OF CARE -- Each CHSO shall furnish services in such manner as to provide continuity of care and (when services are furnished by (3) BOARD OF DIRECTORS -- In the case of a CHSO that is a private organization -- (A) CONSUMER REPRESENTATION- At least one-third of the members of the CHSO's board of directors must be consumer members with no direct or indirect, personal or family financial relationship to the organization. (B) PROVIDER REPRESENTATION -- The CHSO's board of directors --"

RUSH: Again, ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to the clerk of the Senate read parts of a 767-page amendment to the health care bill offered by Bernie Sanders, urging a single-payer health system in America.

CLERK: "-- of the satisfaction of members with services provided by or through the organization. Five. (5) MEDICAL STANDARDS --"

RUSH: We need a translator!

CLERK: "Each CHSO must provide that a committee provide that a economy or --"

RUSH: I feel like I'm listening to Kim Jong-il.

CLERK: "-- committees of health care practitioners associated with the organization will promulgate medical standards, oversee the professional aspects of the delivery of care, perform the functions of a pharmacy and drug therapeutics committee, and monitor and review the quality of all health services (including drugs, education, and preventive services). (6) PREMIUMS -- Premiums or other charges by a CHSO for any services not paid for under this Act must be reasonable. (7) UTILIZATION AND BONUS INFORMATION- Each CHSO must-- (A) comply with the requirements of section 1876(i)(8) of the Social Security Act (relating to prohibiting physician incentive plans that provide specific inducements to reduce or limit medically necessary services); and (B) make available to its membership utilization information and data regarding financial performance, including bonus or incentive payment arrangements to practitioners. (8) PROVISION OF SERVICES TO ENROLLEES AT INSTITUTIONS OPERATING UNDER GLOBAL BUDGETS -- The organization shall..."

RUSH: All right. All right. All right. I think you get the idea. It's a brilliant stroke to read this thing -- not to be obstructionist, but to illustrate what the hell this is and what it's not, and how nobody is going to be able to understand this without hiring a law firm.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, ladies and gentlemen, Andrea Mitchell is just fit to be tied over this Republican obstructionist tactic, to have the clerk read from the Senate floor the entire 767 page Bernie Sanders amendment requiring single payer. (imitating Mitchell) "It will never pass, it will never pass. Why are they doing this, it will never pass, it has no chance of passing, why are they doing this?"

Greetings, folks, Rush Limbaugh, great to have you with us on the EIB Network, the fastest week in media.

Is Andrea Mitchell upset about Obama's lies about transparency? Are you upset about that, Andrea? Nobody has seen Harry Reid's bill. The reason nobody has seen Harry Reid's bill is on purpose. He doesn't want people to see it 'til the last minute to be voted on. Yet Obama claimed he was going to have the most transparent administration ever, and the Democrats are still hiding their dirty work so nobody can see it. So the Republicans have finally pulled a little rabbit out of their hat and said, "Look, if you won't tell people what's in the bill, read this one, read the amendment," and DeMint has vowed that the whole Reid bill when it's finally presented will also be read.

Is Andrea Mitchell upset that these senators have not have not read what they're asked to vote on? I think this is an important moment in the GOP reestablishing its credentials and in standing for the people against the leftists and the radicals in this government. They are demonstrating that they, the Republicans, are finally showing that they are the only thing that stands between individual liberty and freedom and government run amuck. Now, let me tell you what the media is gonna do. Andrea Mitchell is already doing it. The media will report Tom Coburn's parliamentary action is a terrible act of defiance as something unseemly, as something undemocratic. "Why would they do this? It's an amendment that has no chance of passing. These are the just-say-no Republicans all over again." Well, let me tell you something, Coburn and those who follow him in reading amendments are patriots. It is Obama and the Democrats who have defied every public opinion poll and the people, who have conducted themselves in secret, who have lied repeatedly.

Don't fall for this. The Republicans are finally doing something to delay this because it's obvious. The Democrats don't care what's in it. They just want it passed by Christmas. It's all about Obama. He doesn't care what's in it at this point. The Democrats are the ones who have used every contemptible trick and procedure to impose on this nation something this nation does not want. It is the Democrats who cannot be honest. It's the Democrats who are plotting the destruction of the private sector of this country and they're doing it in private and their willing allies in the media are helping them cover up what this is really all about, Andrea Mitchell an example of it today. It's Obama and the Democrats who are obstructing true reform through market competition. It is Obama and the Democrats who are attacking the institutions and traditions that have defined this nation's greatness.

Folks, it is not complicated here. What's going on here is a battle between liberty and the loss of liberty, freedom and an attack on freedom. And Tom Coburn from Oklahoma and the Republicans are standing up for liberty. They're standing up for freedom for each of us, for the Constitution, against a rising tide of tyranny from this administration and the Congress. And the media are in on this monstrosity. The media are in on it. They are the propagandists. So the Republicans finally wake up, they don't roll over, and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, her whole show today, or practically her whole show, (imitating Mitchell) "Why would they do this, why would they do this, this doesn't have a chance, it's never going to pass." And stop and think about that. The Bernie Sanders amendment is simply a single payer government-run health care system amendment, is simply saying, "Forget the 2,000 pages, what we're going to do here is establish a single payer government-run health insurance program in this country." And Andrea Mitchell is admitting that doesn't have a prayer. She's admitting it doesn't have a prayer.

It ought to tell everybody on the Democrat side if you think that what you're going to get is unlimited health care with somebody else paying for it, i.e., the government, it ain't going to happen. The Democrats' own propagandists are saying so.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: MSNBC can't get over this. They cannot get over the clerk reading the Bernie Sanders amendment. This is funny. This is the helpless, the hapless Contessa Brewer responding to all of this today.

BREWER: At this hour, Republicans [are] resorting to stall tactics intentionally to slow down the health care bill in the Senate. They're forcing the clerk to read the entire text of the 767-page Sanders amendment which would establish a single-payer, government-run health care system. The reading could take medical midnight! Now, that just doesn't seem fair to the clerk.

RUSH: "[T]hat just doesn't seem fair to the clerk." It's the clerk's job! Doesn't seem fair to the clerk? Do you think they'll get a couple other clerks in there to rotate reading this thing? I would think so.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oh, man, this is great. They are livid, the Democrats are livid. Bernie Sanders and his 767 page amendment, which would convert the US health care system into a single payer government-run health care program, is livid. Now, his amendment is the most honest thing the Democrats have put forth in this entire health care debate. Bernie Sanders' amendment spells out what the endgame is. Bernie Sanders just went to the floor of the Senate and tried to pull his amendment so that the clerk could no longer read it. They realize what's going on here, and this is going to happen when the whole bill is done and presented.

DeMint has vowed that the whole bill is going to be read again. Dick Durbin went down there. Dick Durbin is all ticked off about it, too. He said, (paraphrasing) "The Republicans are doing this, reading this bill, making the clerk work hard, and this is gonna result in our continuing resolution to fund the troops in Afghanistan not being passed, and if that happens, these Republicans, and it's not just the Republicans, there's some independents involved in this too." That was a swipe at Sanders for even introducing this thing.

So they're in panic mode up there 'cause they know exactly what this is. They're now trying to get the media to report that the Republicans will result in military troops not being funded in Afghanistan via continuing resolution because all the time for debate is going to be taken up reading the amendment. Bernie Sanders went down there and tried to pull the amendment so the clerk would have nothing to read. Exclamation point made, ladies and gentlemen, here. This is great because the most honest thing they have put forth they're now recalling and retracting.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• FOXNews: Public Reading of 767-Page Amendment Ends After Senator Withdraws Measure • The Sanders Amendment. Read it to a Friend, Folks! • American Thinker: How the Dems Hide the Cost of the Health Care Bill • CNN: GOP Senator Freezes Health Care Debate

The Obama PR Machine Has Failed
New Media triumphs against overwhelming opposition.
December 16, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

You remember, ladies and gentlemen, when Clinton won the presidency in 1992, in that election, he said something like, "The era of greed and selfishness is over." He was talking about the eight years of prosperity. Actually, 12 years. Well, second term Reagan and first term Bush. Only term Bush. Eight years of prosperity. "The era of greed and selfishness is over." Now, after eight years of prosperity under Bush 43, we are again seeing the seething hate for profits. The left never changes. It's who they are. You are never, ever going to totally beat 'em back. That's why you can't give up any day. Yes, power ebbs and flows. But there are things to learn about the left. I keep preaching the fact that if you really want to get informed, if you really want to understand where all this is headed and what it means, you have to get ideological. You cannot be frightened about becoming a "partisan." You cannot become frightened about being ideological.

If you're conservative, you're conservative. If you want to say, "Well, I'm conservative on some things and I'm liberal on other things. I guess I'm moderate independent," it won't work. Because as far as I'm concerned, ladies and gentlemen, there's not one item on the leftist agenda worth joining or compromising over. Not one. To understand them, you have to know who they are. They despise capitalism. They despise profit. It is evil. They are now just fit to be tied over the fact that they were sure that they were going to get lower drug prices in a health care bill. Now they're not. And now they're starting to associate Obama and Lieberman and any other Senator that voted to kill the Dorgan amendment as being in bed with Big Pharma, meaning profits. It's an ebb and flow, but they never change who they are. And to understand them, you must clearly understand what liberalism is. You need not be afraid of it.

It is not simple-minded. It is not simplistic to say, "I oppose that, it's liberal. I oppose that candidate," or, "I oppose that president, because it's liberal." In fact, it is highly wise. It's very smart to cite liberalism as the primary reason you oppose any liberal or any Democrat. It's the smartest thing you can do is to stop liberalism at every chance you've got. Not work with it, not compromise with them, not try to prove to them that you're a nice guy. Just beat 'em. Just stop 'em. Especially now. We have never faced a more radically left leadership in this country than now, and there's no compromising with them. The days of the usual day at the office, where, "Okay, the Republicans lost the election so the Democrats are in power. We gotta work with them and we'll get the power back someday" is over. No, that's not the way to look at it. There's nothing about this agenda, nothing that's been advanced that's worth compromising with or helping them get passed.

There's nothing worth trying to reshape so it's not as bad. It just needs to be stopped. It's the wise choice. Now, here's a story from the Washington Post. Everybody knows, everybody knows that Harry Reid is nowhere near his 60 votes. If he had his 60 votes, they would have done this in September. If he had his 60 votes they would have voted on this in August. If he had his 60 votes they'd do it now. They'd start the process now. He doesn't have 60 votes, and here's the Washington Post's take on the Democrats and their problem: "Polling Shows Democrats Losing Health Care PR Fight -- Democrats are losing the public relations fight over the health care overhaul currently being debated in Congress, according to data in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Majorities believe the costs of their own health care as well as the nation's overall health care will rise if the bill becomes a law."

Now, Washington Post is saying people think this not because it's true. They think this because the Democrats are losing the PR battle. "Just 37 percent believe the quality of care they receive will be better under the new plan as compared to 53 percent who said the care would be superior if the status quo was maintained. One bright spot in the numbers for the Obama administration: a slim majority -- 51 percent -- said that government intervention is 'necessary to control costs and expand coverage.'..." So that's 51% of the people in this poll who are absolutely mentally disturbed. It is plain common sense to understand that government does not control costs. Government will not expand coverage. People are going to die prematurely with the government in charge of all this, and now back to the Post's PR analysis.

The problem in trying to sell the American public on the overhaul of a major social program is that raising doubts is far easier than calming nerves. The bill is, by nature, sweeping in scope and confusing to the average American... In the face of complexity, the easier answer -- "no" -- almost always wins out. That simple fact is why passing some sort of health care bill is only half the battle. The other half will be in going out across the country in 2010 and selling it. That work will fall, primarily, to members of Congress..." So what we have here is the Washington Post telling politicians they have to sell this harder just like after Obama's Afghanistan speech, people fanned out from the administration all across the country to sell that. Meaning, he can't sell anything on his own. This can't be sold because it's rotten goods. Nobody wants it.

But the Washington Post... You notice how whenever things go against the media's agenda, when things go against the Democrat Party agenda, we hear about the "tactics." We hear about the "public relations battle." It can't just be that people are turning against it because they're becoming more informed and don't want this dog! Oh, no! It has to be that the PR battle is being lost. Call George Lakoff (rhymes with)! Do something to win the PR battle. I gotta tell you something, Washington Post. You need to think about something very seriously. If you really believe this, you really believe they're losing the PR battle, you are one of the PR agencies. You and the New York Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald -- you name it, USA Today -- you guys are the PR firm! You guys are the PR firm.

And then I made this point yesterday in showing you just how rotten this bill is. If all this walking-around money from the slush funds, $800 billion for the payoffs, unlimited positive propaganda-like coverage from all these networks and newspapers, if that can't get you to 60 votes then you are in deep trouble because you are dealing with a piece-of-excrement bill. So if the Democrats are losing the PR battle, the PR agencies (the media) are right in line for some of the blame. And here's the latest from Rasmussen on health care reform: Forty percent support it. Fifty-six percent oppose it. However, the big news in this poll is that 63% of the seasoned citizens oppose the Democrats on health care. Sixty-three percent. And this was before, ladies and gentlemen, the cheaper drug amendment was defeated. And this was before the public option came out, before Lieberman was satisfied on the Medicare expansion.

Forty-six percent now strongly oppose the plan. There are only 19% in Rasmussen's survey who strongly favor it. This thing is a turkey. Nobody wants it. The PR firms for the Obama administration -- New York Times, Washington Post, et al -- cannot sell it. And they can't sell it because it's a rotten product. People are being informed. If I were the Washington Post, New York Times, I'd be really worried. They used to have a monopoly on this stuff. They used to control all this. If they wanted something to happen, it happened. If they wanted a person elected, it got elected. If they wanted an issue ignored, it got ignored. If they wanted an issue buried -- a story, whatever -- it got buried. Now, how is it...? I asked this yesterday: How is it, ladies and gentlemen, that with all of that media support and all of that money how is it that the American people in virtually every poll you look at know enough about this bill to oppose it?

Well, the Washington Post knows. The New York Times knows. ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, they know. And at the top of the list of reasons why is a guy named Rush Limbaugh, and then the alternative media which this program has spawned. I say this with no ego. It's fact. You can look it up. The fact of the matter is they have tried for 21 years to wipe us out, to destroy us -- to attack our credibility, reputations, and so forth -- and yet here we are: Larger and more powerful than ever. And we have, in terms of the American people being informed on a subject, us in the little old New Media have overcome the efforts of the Obama PR machine, the State-Controlled Media, to position this bill as something that it isn't. That's why they're scared and that's why they're worried and that's why they're mad. And they have every reason to be mad. It's like this global warming business.

There's a way take a look at this, too. I would say the same thing about health care here. If you realize that at the end of all this -- be it health care or be it climate change, cap and trade; at the end of all this -- is large amounts of money for lots of people. So if you are over in Copenhagen and you're attending this farce of a convention and you realize that your whole scheme has blown up as a hoax and you realize that people in ever-larger numbers are finding out what a hoax it is, that there is no manmade global warming; you then realize that you're going to get shut out of the dollar gravy train. You are going to be so mad at whoever it was that got in your way of all of those dollars. Mr. Snerdley told me the other day, "You know, Rush, you better be thinking about something here. You're not just in danger because of what you think and what you're saying about this.

"If you beat 'em on this, if we all beat 'em on this, you are costing them gazillions of dollars that they're probably already figuratively spending, and that is not going to make them happy." It's one thing to lose something ideologically, but it's another thing to lose gazillions of dollars that you thought you had in the bank already. Whole industries are set up around this. Whole industries exist to do nothing but get money in the form of grants from governments and agencies. Whole industries have been created. The whole nonprofit industry! Well, not the entire nonprofit, but many nonprofits exist precisely so the people that work there will never have to go to work. They just siphon off some of the donations they get from the suckers that send them money and the government grants they get. (interruption)

Are you upset, Dawn, that I am tarring and feathering a lot of nonprofits? Are you involved in a nonprofit? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. I did correct myself. I was painting too generally, with too broad a brush out there. The Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit, for example. There are good ones but you know what I'm talking about. A scientific nonprofit? Look at the whole hoax that is green energy. The green energy sector, the green technology, all of it. Jeffrey Immelt, NBC-GE, has gone green totally. You know why? 'Cause they have decided the best way to get a lot of research money to supposedly research and develop this new technology is going to come from the Obama administration. It's all about money. You can't take the ideology out of it, either. I mean, the ideology is extremely relevant.

But in terms of beating these people, when you stand in the way of them scoring big -- the biggest financial score of their lives -- then you have really, really have ticked them off, and that's where we are in all of these things. So health care reform? I mean, look at this: 46% now strongly oppose it, 19% strongly favor it. It's in free fall. Howard Dean is coming up to illustrate this. Global warming, the whole concept, is been exposed as a hoax -- and that thing is falling apart over there. Protesters are being arrested. They're upset because not enough is being done. I mean, it's just like the kook-left fringe here is upset with Obama. The kook left fringe around the world, the anti-capitalist crowd and so forth, they're upset with everybody inside the Copenhagen room where this is happening because they're bumbling it. And lots of money is on the table. And it looks like it might be in jeopardy, and that's really got 'em ticked off.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right, the Washington Post says that the Democrats and Obama are losing the PR battle in the fight over health care, which means that the Washington Post should take its share of the blame because it's the PR agency. Here's another Washington Post story, and the headline -- it's about another poll -- "Public Cool to Health Reforms While Obama Gains Support on Afghanistan War." Cool? His numbers have tanked across the board and we are cool to it? We steadfastly and energetically oppose it. The Republicans have been doing no PR on this. We have. The conservative movement in ascendancy is what's stopping all this.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Washington Post: Polling Shows Democrats Losing Health Care PR Fight
• Rasmussen: 40% Support Health Care Plan, 56% Oppose It
• Washington Post: Public Cooling to Health-Care Reform as Debate Drags On, Poll Finds

Dr. Howard Dean Makes Our Case for Blowing Up the Health Care Bill
Dr. Dean twists the knife into Obama and Emanuel.
December 16, 2009

NBC: Public Sours on Health Care Bill

Rasmussen: 56% Oppose Obamacare

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, imagine that, folks, Howard Dean is actually making our case for just blowing up the health care bill. That's coming up in mere moments, and also Susan Collins, who I focused on yesterday and asked, "What's a nice way to call somebody ignorant?" Susan Collins now says the health bill is too deeply flawed for her to support it. Byron York has it, and it's interesting. The health care bill will be a primary focus of the program today as it requires it be. Rush Limbaugh here at 800-282-2882. And the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

One of the things that really has the left upset about the health care bill, there are two things in it, well, three, but nobody is focusing much on the third. The first is the public option coming up. The left doesn't like that. The Medicare buy-in or Medicare expansion, that's come out, supposedly. The left doesn't like that. And they really don't like that because they think Obama has crawled into bed with Big Insurance. Remember, now, the left hates companies, they hate corporations, and they really hate the fact that Lieberman is seeming to be the guy who's getting everything he wants here.

But there is a third reason, ladies and gentlemen, that the left is fit to be tied. And that is the Dorgan amendment. The Dorgan amendment would have allowed the reimportation of drugs from Canada at a much cheaper price. That amendment went down in flames. And so the whole concept of drug reimportation, which Obama -- and we have it on tape -- which Obama supported, a number of other Democrats supported, now it's gone. And you take this over to the House, and there's no way the House can reconcile any of this. But you have the public option supposedly gone, you have the Medicare expansion supposedly gone, and now you've got the continuing of expensive drugs -- that's how the left is looking at it -- with American corporations who are hated by the left benefiting, and they think they've been sold out. They think they have been sold out

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Howard Dean on public radio in Vermont. He's on fire yesterday afternoon with these comments.

DEAN: This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate, and honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill and go back to the House and start the reconciliation process. You only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.

RUSH: Now, he went further. After that appearance on Vermont Public Radio, he was on MSNBC last night with probably a smaller audience than on Vermont Public Radio. He got this question: What would be your advice to a Senator, Democrat Senator on the floor of the Senate on passage of this bill, the choice is to vote yes or no?

DEAN: No. Absolutely not. You can't vote for a bill like this in good conscience. It isn't health care reform. It's not even insurance reform. If it were me, I'd kill the bill entirely and have the House start reconciliation, which is what they should have done in the first place. To be held up by four senators, a minority of 40 who were totally uncooperative, which is the Republicans, and then four Senators that are beholden to the insurance industry I think is wrong. But that's what's happened.

RUSH: This is the former chairman of the Democrat National Committee. He continued with this.

DEAN: Don't run our children into debt and come back and do this two years later. I disagree with the administration when they say a president won't take this on for another 20 years. We're in crisis here. This bill I think is more likely to make the crisis worse than it is better because it's so expensive. So we could come back with a new Congress, which unfortunately, as a result of all this, will have fewer Democrats, but it will still have Democratic majorities. We could come back with a new Congress and we could pass a bill, which we had on the Senate floor last week, that would insure people faster, even though it's delayed by a year-and-a-half, than the bill that's going to be passed in the Senate.

RUSH: Howard Dean making the case for opposing this health care bill. It doesn't accomplish anything, it's way too expensive, it piles debt on kids. That's as far as making our case goes. We don't want the public option back in, which he does, we don't want the Medicare expansion back in, which he does. So this is a direct hit at the Obama administration and calling them out. You guys say we can't do this for another 20 years, you're wrong, do it right in the first place, scrap this. That's a Democrat talking.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, we have another Dean sound bite coming up in the next segment, but in that sound bite, Howard Dean says that the failure to pass the reimportation of drugs amendment, the Dorgan amendment, amounts to a bigger bailout to the insurance companies than AIG. Now, that's code words to the leftist base to stand up and stop this and hate it, because they hate AIG.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Howard Dean was on Vermont Public Radio, he was on MSNBC last night, he's on ABC's Good Morning America today. See, I happen to think that what's going on here is a little payback. You may have forgotten, but of course it is my job never to forget and after Obama won election one of the first things he did was to get Howard Dean and everybody that was part of Howard Dean's staff out of the DNC. He didn't want Dean anywhere nearby, and these two guys are not friends, and Dean particularly has a huge animus for Rahm Emanuel. So here's Dean all of a sudden, when the public option's tossed out and Medicare expansion is tossed out, here comes Howard Dean all over the media sounding like the Republicans ought to be sounding, saying the things Republicans ought to be saying to kill this bill. And this next comment, this bite is designed to enrage the left-wing kook fringe base at Obama. It's a question from Stephanopoulos: "You call this a collapse of health care reform. The president's poll numbers at new lows. A lot of leading Democrats believe if this bill goes down it will cripple the Obama presidency. Are you prepared to do that?"

DEAN: We've gotten to the stage, George, you know this better than most, in Washington where passing any bill is a victory. And that's the problem. Decisions are being made about the long-term future of this country for short-term political reasons, and that's never a good sign. There are some good things in this bill. The problem is we are now committed to a solution using the private insurance companies, and you will be forced to buy insurance. If you don't, you'll pay a fine and 27% of the money that you put in will not go to your health care; it will go to CEOs who make $20 million a year. This is a bigger bailout for the insurance industry than AIG. And not one person -- excuse me -- a very small number of people are going to get any insurance at all until 2014, if the bill works.

RUSH: This is the kind of stuff -- throw the AIG stuff out -- this is the kind of stuff the Republicans ought to be saying. I'll play it one more time, but I want to analyze it first. "We've gotten to this stage, George, you know this better than most, in Washington where passing any bill is a victory, and that's the problem." That is a stab not in the back but in the front of President Obama. That is "et tu, Brute." That is right in the heart and twisting it. He is saying, "Obama, you're irresponsible. You just want something because you want to be able to say you got it done. Well, that's typical Washington. Obama ran as untypical Washington." Howard Dean has just called him your average run-of-the-mill political hack who doesn't care about anything other than his own narcissistic self and getting a monument for what he supposedly accomplished. That's how you read the first sentence.

"Decisions are being made about the long-term future of the country for short-term political reasons." What that means is Barack Obama wants something out of the Senate so he can go to the State of the Union speech in January and huff and puff and put his chest out, and say, "Look what I did. No president since FDR's been able to do this, but I did it." And Dean is calling him on it here, says, "That's never a good sign." He said, "There's some good things in the bill. The problem is we're committed to a solution using the private insurance companies now, and you'll be forced to buy insurance. If you don't, you pay a fine, 27% of the money you put in will not go to your health care." This is exactly right. He is exactly right. What bugs him about this, he wouldn't care if everybody was forced to buy insurance from a government insurance company, he would love that, but now that the public option's gone, and what does the public option gone mean? It means all of this talk that we have to come up with a government option to provide competition against those evil private insurance companies because they're ripping people off and they're causing people to die.

So now the competition, the whole nuts and bolts of so many Obama speeches, selling the public option, competition against the evil insurance companies, what's it become? Howard Dean is telling his charges, this bill is so bad, you're still going to be forced to buy insurance but you're going to be lining the pockets of greedy insurance company CEOs who make $20 million. Folks, this sound bite, I'll guarantee you, Rahm Emanuel is up there throwing knives at his television while he watches this. He may even chop off another finger. This may disorient him so much that he will put back on that ballerina costume he has in the closet from his days as a young child. And then to say, to top it off by saying this is a bigger bailout than what AIG got, bigger bailout for the insurance companies than what AIG got, this is a call to arms to every fringe kook lunatic wacko lurking on the left-wing fringe websites out there to stop this and see to it that it doesn't pass. Now, here it is again in Howard Dean's own words.

RUSH: And what he's saying there is, "Look, folks, you're going to be paying higher taxes and fines and so forth but you're not going to get any health care benefits until 2014 because they don't start until then." And that's to protect Obama's reelection.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, ladies and gentlemen, Howard Dean out there just with a broad swipe right across the bow of the Obama steamship. He says this is a lousy bill, it's horrible. He said things in opposing it saying it should just be killed and start over, said things that Republican say and think about the bill. And they're ticked off out there about this. Last night on MSNBC, Howard Fineman from Newsweek was there to discuss this, and the guest host said to Howard Fineman, "What affect will the Dean defection on health care have on the Senate vote?"

FINEMAN: Well, I think it could have a big effect, Lawrence. The interview that you just conducted with former Governor Dean was remarkable for a couple reasons. First of all he's a doctor, he's got credibility on this. Second, he's been a reformer for years and knows it as well, if not better, than anybody as an issue. Third, he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee -- hello! That interview that you did with him could be cut in its entirety and placed in a Republican ad attacking the process right now. And I don't know how much weight Howard Dean has nationally anymore, but in terms of a weapon the Republicans can use, I think he's very useful.

RUSH: It depends on what kind of influence Howard Dean still has with the kook fringe that makes up the Democrat base. My guess is he has a lot. So this morning, a little montage, again on PMSNBC, Mika Brzezinski and Norah O'Donnell talking about Howard Dean.

BRZEZINSKI: The White House Christmas party last night and there was a skunk in the room when we thought it was Joe Lieberman, but it was Howard Dean.

O'DONNELL: They want to tie him up and let people come and beat him. They are so angry with him, that the skunk at the party and the issue is he said, "Kill the bill."

RUSH: The propagandists in the media are livid at Dean. The skunk in the middle of the room at the White House Christmas party. This morning on, again, MSNBC, White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie said this about Howard Dean.

GUTHRIE: Dean is having what one official called a tantrum, but at the end of the day the president's been able to hold them in line and they think progressives will be with them.

RUSH: Progressives -- read radicals. Progressives: Radical leftists, pure, unadulterated liberals. We move on so sound bite number ten, Dylan Ratigan had Anthony Weiner, Democrat, New York, on. And he's a member of the House, and he's upset at what's happening in the Senate. And so Ratigan says, "You have no leverage, because you can't vote no."

WEINER: Well, you know, we're kind of like a group holding ourselves hostage with a gun to our own head. This is: "You make one more move, we're gonna on shoot." Forty-four years ago when we passed Medicare, a lot of people said, "Don't worry, we're going to start with those 65 and over and then come back in a couple years and expand that." We're 44 years later, and that incremental expansion hasn't happened.

RATIGAN: Would you vote no?

WEINER: If the answer to that question is it does more harm than good, I would vote "no." And there are a lot of people around here in that same place.

RUSH: So what he's saying is that when the bill gets over to the House and if it doesn't have the Medicare expansion in it, he'll vote "no," and if it doesn't have the public option, he'll vote "no." That's what he's saying. Now, this is before Pelosi, again, gathers her charges in her dungeon and starts whipping them into shape.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Weiner in that sound bite we played was all upset here that the Medicare expansion is not in the Senate bill. Yeah, 44 years ago we passed Medicare and they said that they would expand it to beyond age 65, and they haven't done it. It hasn't happened. Hey, Weiner? After 44 years, the program is going broke! It is trillions of dollars in debt, and you want to turn Medicare into government-run national health care. You are truly a fool! It hasn't been expanded for a reason. It's out of money. Hell, the whole country is out of money.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Heritage Foundation: Howard Dean Is Right, This Is Not Health Care Reform • ABC: Howard Dean: Health Care Bill 'Bigger Bailout for the Insurance Industry Than AIG'

Understanding Liberalism 101
Once you know how they operate, everything is clear.
December 16, 2009

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now back to the health care bill. Nobody is talking much about what's going on in the Senate, how it will affect people in the House. Let's say that this bill in the Senate does pass with no public option, with no Medicare expansion, and no reimportation of drugs at cheaper prices. You go over to the Senate -- I know Pelosi has said she'll sign anything -- but there still has to be a conference. And the people in the House, they don't want anything that has no public option in it. They want full-fledged public option. They want single payer el quicko.

We have a quote from Anthony Weiner, and we mentioned this yesterday, in the New York Times: "The problem that a lot of us face is that we feel like all the compromises have been going in one direction," and he cited three examples. "The tougher anti-abortion language added to the House bill; the Senate’s proposed tax on high-priced insurance policies, which the White House has endorsed; and the most recent decision to eliminate the public option. Mr. Weiner noted that dozens of House Democrats had signed letters taking the opposing position on those provisions and that the House approved its bill by a narrow vote of 220 to 215. 'You don’t have 30 votes to deal with here,' Mr. Weiner said. 'So there are a lot of people who have staked out pretty hard positions that they are going to have to go back on. Now, I have been careful not to draw lines in the sand. I think this is going to be a very difficult collection of compromises to get people to swallow.'"

And that is the big deal. Everybody is focusing on the Senate right now because if they can get something out of the Senate before Christmas, then both houses will have signed something, and then the PR machine can get into gear, "Obama got a bill! Obama did it! Obama pulled it off; the Democrats pulled it off; real, meaningful health care reform," blah, blah, blah, blah. But then they have to take this turkey over to the House where there are many more leftist radicals than there are in the Senate who are not going to sit still just to give Obama a victory. See, these people look at this as personal to them. These are hardcore leftist radicals. They want a bigger government. They want freedom taken away from people in the private sector. They want corporations punished. They want the government in charge of every aspect of people's lives. Health care is how you get there. But if there's no public option, and if there's no expansion of Medicare, and if whatever they do with Ben Nelson on abortion, you throw in the reimportation of drugs, can you imagine that conference committee? So it's not a bed of roses out there for these people.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Richard in Hillsborough, Texas, your turn. Hello.

CALLER: All right. You know, you hear all the talk about insurance for everybody. Just what is the insurance going to cover? If the insurance doesn't cover enough, what good is it for you?

RUSH: Well, it's a good question. You're going to be forced to buy it. If you don't, you're going to be fined. You could be put in jail. The fine, it's much less than the premium is going to cost. A lot of people are going to choose not to have insurance and simply pay the fine. The government will ration care. They'll have no choice. They're admitting it in any number of indirect ways. You know, people who are elderly, who come down with some disease that some bureaucrat says, "You know, it's not worth treating. It's not worth treating and prolonging your life because you're not going to live that much longer. It's a dread disease," this is how it's all going to work. So the question is good, folks, because it illustrates: The government doesn't do anything of this kind that it tackles right. Social Security was supposed to provide a little bit of retirement for people. The original price tag was $35 million. Now we're up until the trillions that it costs, and it still doesn't accomplish what its express purpose was. So it's a good question. I'm glad you called, I'm glad you get through.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Here's Paul in Chicago. Paul, I'm glad you waited. Welcome to the program, sir.

CALLER: Hey, Rush! Merry I-got-a-thrill-going-up-my-leg-to-talk-to-you dittos from cold Chicago.

RUSH: (laughs) Thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER: Well, there's a very, very small piece of the first tape you played about an hour ago of the clerk reading the bill that tips off what this amendment is. What it is, to me, is it sounds like the government's creating an HMO because if you listen closely she says it is a "capitated plan," meaning that enrollees would be capitated -- meaning that the physicians who see those patients are paid a certain amount of money each month or each year to have those people enrolled in the network if they see them or not. So not only would the government be directing payment, they would also be directing care, because they control the gatekeepers. They control the primary care physicians who then dole out specialty care and surgical care and wellness care. So it's more control is what it sounds like. Not just the single payer but a single controller of health care and that to me is a bit more scary.

RUSH: Well, that's where they're headed regardless of where they've taken single payer out or public option. Regardless whether they've taken on you mending expansion to get this passed. You're exactly right: That's where they all want to go. That's where the liberal Democrats all want to go is: Have the government be in charge of who gets what, who gets paid for what, and where one goes to get it. Pure and simple. Now, the news, ladies and gentlemen, is all over the place that... For example, there's a headline: Tom Coburn Forced the Clerk to Read the Sanders Amendment -- The terrible GOP, the mean-spirited GOP! Now, what this is designed to do is to get the Republicans to stop this. They know -- the Democrats and the media know -- this is effective and what they're gonna try to do is scare the Republicans into stopping, because they're going to say, "You guys are now running a risk of not winning reelection," and I think that's finally happened is the Republican leadership in the Senate understands that nothing is more important than stopping this.

If we are to preserve this country as we have always known it, it must be stopped -- and I certainly hope they've got the guts and the courage to ignore all these attempts by the media and the Democrats to portray them as obstructionist and mean-spirited. "Making the clerk read the bill, forcing the clerk to read the bill." Rosa DeLauro was on MSNBC saying that Joe Lieberman should be recalled. Michael Moore is threatening to boycott what? (interruption) Michael Moore is threatening to boycott going into the state of Connecticut because Lieberman got what he wanted here? Well if I lived in Connecticut I'd go (clapping), "All right! All right, mama! Michael Moore's not coming here? Cool." So they're out for Lieberman, they're out for Lieberman's wife, and now they're out for the Republicans for "forcing" the clerk to do the clerk's job. This is not something extra-parliamentary. This is in the procedures. Here's Mark in San Diego. Mark, welcome to the program. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush, and Merry Christmas.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I did want to say one thing: Bo is an excellent and a professor call screener. But I'm in a big hospital in San Diego that begins with an S (there's several of them) but our cancer committee -- it's an accredited cancer center -- looked back in the last four years from 2004 to 2008 to the number of cancer cases we had and those people under 50, we came up with 1,100 people that showed up having cancer (breast cancer or something similar) and above that, the total for all years from 20 to 99, they determined there was 3,990 total. So that makes about 28% of the people we screened came up being under age 50, and California has just said that they're not going to pay after 2010, 2010 for uninsured to have those screenings below 50.

RUSH: Well, then, what do we have here? We have a death panel, don't we?

CALLER: Yes. It's a tax and kill, not unlike we had in the early seventies when we didn't have enough dialysis units and had to choose when you ge' who couldn't get it.

RUSH: Tax and change; tax and kill. Exactly right.

CALLER: Rush, what's Canada going to do when we start taking all their medicine if that part of the bill passes? They're not going to be able to have their prices raised because of scarcity.

RUSH: Well, see, the dirty little secret about that is that the prices are going to seek their own market level anyway, even after they're re-imported.

CALLER: Yep. Price fixing, setting also leads to scarcity, as we know.

RUSH: Of course. Exactly right. Fixing prices you get less of the product that you're controlling.

CALLER: Well, I just wanted to let you know and have a great Christmas that 28% of our women here in the southland are under 50 and found to have cancers. Not all die but you miss one and it increases the death rate by 15% --

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: -- for missing it early.

RUSH: You're talking about mammogram screenings?

CALLER: Mammograms, yes.

RUSH: Mark is a doctor in San Diego, by the way. Thanks so much for the call.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: John in Phoenix, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, how are you? Mega dittos and Merry Christmas to everybody at the EIB Network.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: And I just wanted to say, you mentioned real quickly I was driving, I didn't hear it all, but something about one of the newscasters was saying yet again someone was throwing a tantrum, and it made me think of the fact that when Newt Gingrich and the boys won back in '94, that Peter Jennings referred to us Americans as throwing a tantrum. It seems like any time someone stands up for liberty and freedom the media refers to it as throwing a tantrum, and personally I guess it's wearing on me a little bit.

RUSH: Well, it shouldn't. You have to learn to accept certain things as they are, and the media not liking you and the media impugning you and the media doing everything they can to defeat the things that you believe in is something that is, it just is, and it's not going to change. You have to have boundaries, wear some imaginary armor and let the stuff bounce off of you and understand what they mean. They're the ones upset, they're the ones mad, they're the ones that know that our efforts have been effective, and they're simply trying to impugn the results by doing that. It's actually a sign of victory when they run around and start saying things like, "Ah, the voters had a temper tantrum, they're just a bunch of little kids."

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• New York Times: The House Prepares to Dig In

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