RUSH IN A HURRY -- Democrats Will Do Anything to Pass Obamacare

Monday Quotes: Last Man Standing!
March 1, 2010

"Mullah Nancy bin Pelosi is convincing Democrats to blow themselves up for health care.
The only thing she can't do is promise them 72 virgins."

"Pelosi just said that the bill can be bipartisan even though the votes might not be bipartisan.
Are we live? Are we actually on the air, or am I dreaming?"

"Algore had a piece in the New York Times yesterday which I might dissect, but I don't know…
It really is painful to expose one's self to such psychological frailty."

"Did you guys hear what Obama said after the Chile earthquake?
He said we can't control Mother Nature. 'Ah, things happen. We can't control Mother Nature.
Except when it comes to my global warming policies.'"

"The American people do not want to eat dog food! This is not North Korea!"

"I cannot, no matter how persuasive or talented, properly convey to you how badly the Democrats want this socialized health care bill.
I mean, they are willing to lose their majorities in order to get this, and if looked at in that light, you have to take this very seriously."

"Nancy Pelosi said that Rangel's corruption didn't jeopardize the country, so it's okay.
Do these people not get how screwed they are going to be come November?"

"These college kids have been so brainwashed that you just have to ridicule them and shame them.
Well, that's what I do with the liberals that call in here."

"It's important to love what you do. I've heard pole dancers say that as well. It's true of every profession."

"You heard him say that, Snerdley? So Juan Williams, who is an Obamacare advocate,
has just described the whole thing as 'dog food'?
Isn't that a tantamount admission that this is all, well, a bunch of crap?"

"If you're not in the woods when a bear takes a leak, do you even notice that?"

"So how many hundreds of thousands of people did they relocate in Japan for this tsunami warning?
They only cared to get 200,000 out of the way in Japan?
Must have been all the people that work for Toyota."

"See, I myself, ladies and gentlemen, have a built-in distrust of the competence of government people because I see it every day."

"Nancy Pelosi's definition of courage is to vote for this Obamacare bill knowing nobody wants it.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. The real courage is in opposing this.
The real courage is in opposing Democrat leaders from the president on down."

"Let's just be honest on this one.
The American people do not need, nor do they want, you to do this, Madam Speaker --
which is why you have to advise your members to plan on being unemployed to get this bill passed."

"You know, I'm 59 years old, and way back when it snowed, it snowed,
and we didn't have reporters out in the middle of it crashing their cars telling us it's snowing!"

"Two thousand federal workers are going to be furloughed?
And there might be a delay in some unemployment benefits being paid?
Oh, my God! This is the worst thing that's ever happened!"

"What we are talking about here is not politics; we're talking about understanding the root of our freedom.
And if we lose that, we lose the country."

"Over half the kids in this survey did not know when the War of 1812 was fought, much less who was in it.
Folks, this is not minor stuff. This is evidence of the dumbing-down of the country so that liberalism,
socialism, and the Democrat Party can wreak havoc."

"Maybe what we ought to do here is have simple majority votes on abortion and amnesty for illegals.
Yeah, let's see how the Democrats like simple majority votes then."

"On one side you have rules, and on the other side you have Democrats -- which means you don't have any rules."

"Andrew McCarthy, a good friend of mine, was so inspired by my point that he posted this on Saturday morning at National Review Online…
What, Snerdley? Well, yes, I know he was inspired. He's a friend of mine, so I can say that."

"For Republicans it's not going to be enough to fight this thing and then deride it if it passes.
The question is, what are they going to do to roll it back?"

"People think the Democrats think it's more important to win the upcoming elections, but it's not.
To them, it's more important to execute the permanent transformation of American society."

"Health care should be free, huh, Ashley? Yeah, it sounds wonderful.
You know, it's only been tried about a gazillion times in human history and just led to poverty."

Continually repeat ...

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

Past editions of "Rush In a Hurry"

Rush Hudson Limbaugh. Mmm, Mmm, Mmm!

World Falls Prey to Panic Over the Killer Wave That Never Came
A teachable moment found in Saturday's tsunami scare.
March 1, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Hey, hey, hey. Has the tsunami hit yet? Are people still out there looking at three-foot waves, foot-and-a half waves and asking, "Oh, is that it, daddy? Is that the big tsunami?" Yeah, I'm watching TV Saturday afternoon, and they have this graphic: "Massive Tsunami Striking Hawaii at This Moment." I'm looking at the pictures and saying, "That's no tsunami. Those are wind waves." I said, "You know what? Roger Ailes is at home. He's going to call in any minute and say, 'Would you get those pictures of a boring ocean off of our network? There's no tsunami.'"

Did Juan Williams really say this yesterday? Cookie, I need you to try to find this for me, if you were rolling on Fox News Sunday yesterday. Juan Williams apparently said this about the Democrat party Obama care. He said that Rahm Emanuel just "couldn't get Americans to eat the dog food." He said that? (interruption) You heard him say that, Snerdley? So Juan Williams, who is a health care Obama advocate, has just described the whole thing as dog food? They could not get the American people to eat it? Is that a tantamount admission that it's a bunch of crap? What did he mean by it? (interruption) Dogs eating dog food is one thing, Snerdley. But when you say you can't get Americans to eat the dog food? (laughing) Send that guy a can opener. I mean, what was the problem? Health care with no can opener?

Anyway, folks, great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh, America's Real Anchorman riding above the liberal media destruction of the country and of itself, by the way, given what's happening to ABC. Great to have you here. The telephone number if you want to join us, 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

Okay, so we had the earthquake in Chile, and then the scientific community puts out this tsunami warning all the way to Japan, and then for the next four hours we get experts telling us just what a tsunami is, and then when it's supposed to be hitting Hawaii and wreaking all this destruction. Everybody's been evacuated on Kona, Hilo, over there in Honolulu and Oahu. Everybody's been evacuated to higher ground. These people are standing there on these observation points, just looking down at the ocean.

"Where is it, Mabel? Oh, wait! There's some whitecaps waaaaay out there."

Then the scientists come on and say, "Well, you won't actually see a tsunami."

I said, "What? We're not going to see it, and yet that's all the cameras are showing is just the ocean?"

"That's right, Mr. Viewer. You won't actually see it. What happens with a tsunami is it comes from the ocean floor, and basically what you're going to hear is a giant sucking sound. You'll see the water recede and the discoloration, and then it will be just like a fast version of high tide."

"Oh, okay, and how big is it going to be?"

"Well, it could be five feet, could be eight feet."

"Wow! That's big time destruction."

So how many hundreds of thousands did they relocate in Japan? (interruption) Two hundred thousand? Is that all they cared about? They only cared to get 200,000 out of the way in Japan? They must have been people that worked for Toyota. (laughing) Oh, by the way, there's poll data out on that. Let's see. Where is it? Hang on. Yeah. This is not good. After the Toyota execs came to town and did basically hari-kari, it didn't help. (sigh) It's sad. "The warning was ominous, its predictions dire: Oceanographers," not to be confused with climate scientists, "issued a bulletin telling Hawaii and other Pacific islands that a killer wave was heading their way with terrifying force and that 'urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.'" Now, Kathryn's parents live out there, and it's like nine o'clock Saturday morning here and four o'clock out there, and Kathryn said, "Do you think I should call my parents and wake 'em up and warn 'em about this?"

I said, "No, don't do that. They're going to start sending out sirens at six o'clock. Kathryn, I wouldn't even evacuate. This is bogus." I could tell it was bogus from the moment I started hearing about it. Trust me, my instincts, because, folks, this is a teachable moment. We live in a crisis and panic culture, where virtually getting up every day is deadly. Going to bed is deadly! Being awake, during the day, is deadly. Everything is deadly! There is a panic-crisis culture that has overtaken it. It has been led and is being perpetuated by the "scientific community." I got so many different explanations of what a tsunami was that I'm more confused than ever now.

When they really confused me was when they said, "Well, you can't see it."

"Well then what the hell are all these TV cameras up there showing us the ocean for? What are all these poor people who have been evacuated sitting up there sweating themselves silly looking at it if you can't see it?"

"Well, you can't see it Mr. Viewer but it will be destructive. I mean, it's a massive wave!"

"Really? Could somebody not train a satellite over the Pacific Ocean and show us this thing? Were there no cruise ships out there with cell phones or satellite phones that could call and say, 'Yeah, we're riding a wave! It's a huge!' Were there not airplanes flying back and forth that coulda given us eyewitness views?"

"No, Mr. Viewer. You can't see the tsunami. The tsunami is below the surface. In fact, the safest place to be in a tsunami is out on your boat in the ocean."

That's what they were saying, and sure as hell a bunch of boats were out on the ocean in Hawaii and they showed us that. The theory being that it will just rise like tide. It's not some giant wave like has been depicted in these destruction movies. So... (interruption) Wait a minute. (interruption) Did we see the wave that hit tsunami? Did we see the wave? Did we actually see pictures of the wave coming in? (interruption) By, gosh, Snerdley, you're right! That was the massive tsunami that only the US was able to help with. Indonesia, right? Sumatra, that's exactly right. We did see the tsunami. So these guys on Saturday afternoon were simply covering their rear ends.

"Well, you can't see a tsunami. You really can't see it. It starts on the ocean floor, builds and builds and builds."

We got "eyewitness accounts" from people in Atlanta, on a cable network, telling us what was going to happen in a bay in Hilo, Hawaii. "Oh, you never know. You think that south side of the island is where you're going to get hit? No, no, no. It could be the other side. You can never predict these things." Do you realize we had a shot of Long Beach? "Uh-oh! It's about to hit here 'cause there's a big bunch of discoloration and the water's been sucked out of the port and it's too shallow to even dock in there now. Oh, my God." In Malibu, everybody was expecting three-to-five foot tsunami -- and it was more like a bear taking a leak in the woods. That's about how noticeable the whole thing was. And, of course, if you're not in the woods when a bear takes a leak, do you even notice that? (interruption)

Why am I going on and on? Because this is a teachable moment of how manipulative the scientific community is. "But, Rush! But, Rush! There was no harm done, because what if it were bad? This could have saved lives." Yeah, I know, but at some point you have to realize it's not happening. I mean, if nobody can prove to you it's out there. The larger point, though, is look at how easily we all fall prey to everything that's a crisis. "It's going to kill us! It's going to be disaster and panic." Everybody just lock, stock, and barrel starts acting like lemmings. See, I myself, ladies and gentlemen, have a built-in distrust of the competence of government people, because I see it every day and have for most of the days of my 59 years. (interruption) Do I know what? Well, that hasn't happened yet.

I was just asked if anybody has called for a tax increase in order to prepare for the next tsunami so we're not caught off guard like we were on this one.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know what was hilarious? On Saturday afternoon during the tsunami craze, Rick Sanchez was on CNN. They had a map up there of the Pacific stretching from Chile all the way out there to Japan. And he's pointing at the Galapagos Islands during a tsunami segment and is asking the meteorologist. "That's Hawaii, right?" (laughing) Now, folks, if you were watching Saturday afternoon, you heard them say, just as I did, "Well, you can't see a tsunami. What happens is all the water gets sucked out of there and then it's just like a high tide." Well, for those of you watching on the Dittocam, here you are. We are going to zoom in here and show you people running away from that tsunami in Indonesia. You see that? Ah, I think that's a pretty damn big wave -- and whoever took the picture could see it; and whoever's running away from it, obviously, could see it. That's the tsunami that hit Sumatra, Indonesia, whatever it was. I'm zooming back out now to our normal view for Dittocammers.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, we have an official tsunami warning system, and it says that there should be big waves that you can see. "Even though they can travel up to 500 miles an hour, these waves are generally not noticeable in deep waters. The wave itself only becomes dangerous once it reaches land," and you can see it sometimes get 30 yards high. Big, big, big. So you can see it. Of course these people out there say you can't. I still can't get over it. I still can't get over what a bunch of lemmings people can be, and of course, there's the scientific community There are The Four Corners of Deceit. Right in there is science, right along with the media, and in this case government was part of the science as well.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Lee in Jacksonville, Florida. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi. Mega dittos from Jacksonville, Florida, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Hey, I got a comment about the so-called tsunami that hit. I was watching the news the other day and they had a NOAA expert on there trying to explain this tsunami. Well, you had a sound bite last week that said NOAA was the gold standard of climate in the world, but they couldn't predict what happens on the same day or a day in the future?

RUSH: That was some Obama administration department head, cabinet member. I forget what it was, but that's right. "Oh, yeah, we don't listen to UN and we don't listen to that East Anglia stuff. Our gold standard is NOAA." You're exactly right. These were the guys that were predicting this massive tsunami on Saturday.

CALLER: And I was talking to my uncle last night. He's old. I grew up in West Virginia and we were talking about "climate change" and he is he's 77 years old, and he goes, "Well, I still remember it snows in the winter, it's hot in the summer, the flowers bloom in the spring, and the leaves fall off in the fall. It hasn't changed in my 77 years."

RUSH: Exactly. Algore is going to come out very soon. He had a piece in the New York Times yesterday which I might dissect. It really is painful to expose one's self to such psychological frailty. Algore is barely hanging on here now, and to read this thing is somewhat painful -- and to dissect it, even worse. But he will say before long, "This summer, it's going to be hotter than it's been all year." That's where Algore is these days.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• ABC: Some Scientists Defend Tsunami Warnings • New York Times: In Hawaii, Calm Prevailed Despite Tsunami Warning • Sweetness & Light: Al Gore?s Latest Call For Climate Jihad • New York Times: We Can?t Wish Away Climate Change - Al Gore • ClimateDepot: Reaction to Gore: 'Stop Gore Before He Lies Again..and Again...and Again!' • Newsbusters: Rick Sanchez Asks Scientist 'Nine Meters In English Is?'

Pelosi Wants to Thin the Herd, Urges Dems to Make Suicide Vote
Democrats don't care if they lose. They want health care.
March 1, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Do they have the votes for health care in the House? James Carville on Good Morning America today was asked that very question.

CARVILLE: No. (laughing) I'm glad to hear that [Pelosi]'s confident and you never know, I -- I -- guess she knows more about where her votes are than everybody else but the math is pretty daunting. I think -- I don't think it's impossible but it's going to be difficult. If the bill loses it will prove Senator DeMint right. It will, I think, by and large be a lot of the president's Waterloo.

RUSH: Well, it's going to be somebody's Waterloo. If it doesn't pass, maybe it's somebody's Waterloo. If it does pass, it's going to be Waterloo for a whole bunch of Democrats -- and Nancy Pelosi is urging them to lose. Folks, I predicted this. I have been warning the Blue Dogs of this for I don't know how many months. I have been saying Pelosi wants to thin her herd in the House. I told you last week: "Imagine you want something so bad, like Sauron in the Lord of the Rings. You want it so bad, it just consumes you. You will do anything, including lose everything you've worked for in order to get it," and Pelosi in effect came out and made me right again, because she's urging Democrats to show "courage." Her definition of "courage" is to vote for this thing knowing nobody wants it, and lose big time. She said, "It took courage to vote for Social Security and Medicare." Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. The real courage is in opposing this. The real courage is in opposing Democrat leaders from the president on down. The real courage -- and imagine this -- is standing with the American people in our representative republic and not force dog food down their throats when they don't even want the can opener.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Back to James Carville now and Pelosi's health care bill. Stephanopoulos said, "James, the other Catch-22 here is that a lot of Democrats who are going to have to take this tough vote may be doomed anyway this year because the political winds are so heavy for them."

CARVILLE: If it goes down, it's going to be a simple statement: The Democrats can't govern. They came in with a majority promising health care and they came away with nothing. How can you trust them to do anything else? And I have to tell you: As a Democrat, that message frightens me -- and to some extent it will probably be true, and we're going to have to acknowledge that. We're going to see how effective our leaders are. We're going to see how effective the White House can be in pushing this through. But, I mean, it's crunch time out there.

RUSH: Yeah, it's crunch time. We gotta find some way to get the American people to want to eat the dog food on this. Now, is Carville not off-script here? I thought all this was the Republicans' fault and Bush's. I thought nothing getting done on health care was all Republicans' fault? I mean, that's what Obama's been saying and Pelosi's been saying. The media's been saying it. And I'm still struck here that "if we didn't get this done our leaders are going to be looked at and it'll be said they can't get anything done." (sigh) What is it? They are willingly committing suicide here. Here's Pelosi. This is Sunday morning on State of the Union on CNN. Candy Crowley is the host. "Why didn't you, at the very beginning, say, 'Come on in here, Congressman Boehner. Come on in here, Congressman Pence. Let's sit down. Where do we start on the health bill?' Not to kind of present a package and then say, 'Well, amend it if you want.' Why didn't you invite the Republicans?"

PELOSI: They had had plenty of opportunity, uh, to make their voices heard, and if they wanted to truly have it... Bipartisanship is a two-way street. But let me say this. The bill can be bipartisan even though the votes might not be bipartisan, because they have made their imprint on this.

RUSH: Okay. So you got Juan Williams saying that Rahm Emanuel has failed to get the American people to eat the dog food. They don't want to eat the dog food. Carville is saying that if health care goes down the tubes it's going to be a total disaster for the Democrat Party. Then you have Pelosi saying that "the bill can be bipartisan even though the votes might not be bipartisan." Are we actually on the air or am I dreaming? We're here. This is live. The tsunami stuff actually happened? Okay. Well, there's Pelosi: "The bill can be bipartisan even though the votes might not be bipartisan. They've had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard," which they have not. Everything they want to do has been rejected. Then this is the biggie, ladies and gentlemen. This is Elizabeth Vargas on This Week. She was a fill-in host yesterday. "What do you say to your members when it does come to the House to vote on this, who are in real fear of losing their seats in November if they support you now?"

PELOSI: The American people need it. Why are we here? We're not here just on self-perpetuate our service in Congress. We're here to do the job for the American people, to get them results that gives them not only health security but economic security because the health issue is an economic issue for -- for America's families.

RUSH: They don't want it, and Pelosi says, "They'll like it once they've seen the details." They've seen the details! We've seen the details, and nobody wants it. So she's basically telling her troops: "Walk off the cliff! Fall on your swords! The American people need it! We're here to do the job for the American people." Let's just be honest on this one. The American people do not need nor do they want you to do this, Madam Speaker, which is why you have to advise your members to plan on being unemployed to get this passed. I mean, we're dealing with... Well, this is not idiocy, it's not stupidity, it's something far, far worse. She's asking every one of these people in the House that vote for this, or the vast majority of them, to basically say good-bye to their careers, just make it their Waterloo, put to music.

(playing of Waterloo spoof song)

RUSH: That is "white comedian" Paul Shanklin, the vocal portrayal there, Barack Obama and Waterloo.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Sweetness & Light: Pelosi To Dems: Sacrifice Job For O-care • The Hill: Pelosi: GOP Has Had Its Day; Confident Dems Can Pull Together on Health Bill • Politico: Pelosi: Bipartisan Bill, Sans GOP

Liberals Dismiss Rangel Scandal
The most ethical Congress in history?
Not so much.
March 1, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Nancy Pelosi was asked (we got the audio coming up), "Charlie Rangel. I mean, you understand here why people think Congress is so corrupt?" "Well, yeah. But his corruption didn't jeopardize the country, so I don't see any need to do anything about it." Rangel's corruption didn't jeopardize the country. So there's no need to do anything. Do these people not get how screwed they are going to be come November? Do they not get it? They don't care. That's the answer.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Yeah, there she is again. There's Pelosi. You know what? I'm going to tell you what. Here's the way we have to start looking at Nancy Pelosi: Mullah Nancy bin Pelosi. She's no different than these mullahs and these imams who convince all these people to put bombs on their kids and send 'em out there to blow up. That's exactly what she's doing to the Democrat Party. The only thing she can't do is promise them 72 virgins or whatever it is. But that's essence what she's doing here, and I have a great explanation as for why. Andy McCarthy wrote an expansion on a theory of mine that I've been promulgating here for many weeks. But first, Sunday morning, This Week, the fill-in host Elizabeth Vargas talking to Nancy Pelosi. "You understand, I mean, with Charlie Rangel. You promised the most ethical Congress in history, and -- and, I mean, you gotta understand now why so many Americans think Congress is corrupt. It just doesn't look good. This Rangel thing just doesn't pass the smell test."

PELOSI: Look, I -- I served for seven years on the ethics committee. The last thing I would have wanted would be for the speaker of the House to interfere in a political way in what was going on there. That just should never happen. Uh, but the fact is -- is that, uh, w-w-what Mr. Rangel has been admonished for is not good. It was, uh, uh, a violation of the rule of the House. Uh, it was not something that, uhhh, jeopardized our country in any way.

RUSH: Oh, no! Of course not. No, no, no. Folks, how could the fact that one of the most powerful men in Congress is corrupt have any effect on America? I mean, after all, all he does is write the tax law. He's chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He doesn't have any effect on America. No way. Don't even tell me he's in the same league as Tom DeLay, who they had to force out of there. Here's Pelosi back from November 7th, 2006, election night.

PELOSI: To-day the American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, DC. And the Democrats in-tend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history.

RUSH: Yeah. Yeah. Big dream there. Typical of everything the Democrats say: It's a lie and is not true. Here's Paul Krugman from the New York Times. He was on This Week as well during the roundtable, and Elizabeth Vargas says, "Speaker Pelosi, Steny Hoyer were all calling for Tom DeLay to relinquish his post when he was also admonished by the ethics committee."

KRUGMAN: It is worth pointing out that none of these things actually seemed to affect national policy. Yeah, I'm unhappy with this. I wish Rangel would go away. But it -- it really has no national significance.

RUSH: Oh, no national significance at all! Oh, he's only chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He's cheating on his taxes. He's not reporting income. He makes Tom DeLay look like a piker. "Oh, but we have to keep him there. He's in so important a position, the Democrats so important to America. I don't like this. No, no. I'm unhappy with it." Who cares whether you're happy or not with it? Who are you? Paul Krugman? Who cares? Now we go this morning on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough says to Senator Durbin, "You served with Charlie. I served with Charlie. Are you disappointed?"

DURBIN: I want to tell you one thing about Charlie Rangel. When he joined the Army after World War II as an African-American, he was put in a segregated unit. He served in combat in Korea. This man has served his country. I am not going to presume, uhhh, guilt when it comes to Charlie Rangel.

RUSH: Charlie Rangel is a veteran, so who cares if he's corrupt? What's that got to do with the dog food? Democrats are just not going to eat the dog food on this and send Charlie packing. He served in North Korea. Who cares? He's corrupt. Don't forget (Lantos impression), Admiral Boorda committed suiciiiiide for far less." Remember that? Tom Lantos. So the conversation continued over ethics and Rangel this morning on MSNBC.

SCARBOROUGH: Have you ever forgotten to report $500,000 on a congressional --

BRZEZINSKI: Should we worry about that?

SCARBOROUGH: Have you ever done that? Have you ever forgotten --

SERWER: I think the answer is no.

SCARBOROUGH: He just said "no" with a smile on his face.

RUSH: Durbin would not say if he ever went on a trip and didn't know who paid for it. Rangel took a bunch of trips, not just one. Ah, my staff did that, I didn't know anything about it. He's also blamed his wife for this kind of stuff.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Joe in St. Louis, and welcome to the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: You know, Rush, I bet if you asked some college students they could tell you how evil Christopher Columbus was.

RUSH: Oh, yeah. There's no question.

CALLER: The reason I called is: Why don't you dig that sound bite of Nancy Pelosi way back in the beginning when she said, "We won the election, we write the bills. Period, end of story."

RUSH: Well, we could try to find that. (laughing) It would fit right in with the fact she's Mullah Nancy bin Pelosi. "We won the election, we write..." That's like Obama (impression), "Well, I know you guys want to cut taxes, but I won. Ha-ha. Screw you," and they did win. This is what happens. Elections do have consequences.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• The Hill: Pelosi's 'Campaign Mode' Pledge Could Play Major Role in Rep. Rangel's Future • Newsbusters: Krugman: Rangel's Ethics Scandal Has No National Significance • FoxNews: Will Rangel Lose His Gavel After Ethics Violation? • Daily Beast: Rangel Scandal Could Doom Democrats - Peter Beinart

Democrats Debate Reconciliation
If they pass health care, the GOP must vow to roll it back.
March 1, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Talking Points Memo website is all excited. They're breathless out there. Thirty Democrats have now said that they will vote for the public option via reconciliation in the Senate bill. Have you noticed, by the way, that they're not using "reconciliation" anymore? They're talking about "simple majority vote," as though some basic rule of fairness is being violated here. The Senate itself has a rule: 60 votes except for budgetary items, 60 votes, and the guys who wrote the bill are now saying that they're victims of something unfair and we just need to get back to "simple majority vote." They don't like the word "reconciliation" because people don't understand that. "Simple majority? Why, that sounds infinitely fair. Who could be against a simple majority vote?"

It's like "lockbox" and "risky scheme." They come up with all of these phrases. "Republicans want to starve kids with the school lunch cuts" (laughing) and that sort of stuff. You know, maybe what we ought to do here is have "simple majority votes" on abortion and amnesty for illegals. Let's just have "simple majority votes" on these things. Let's see how they like "simple majority votes" then. Let's take their little pet peeve issues and let's just have "simple majority" votes. In fact, let's just say you need to get 40% and you win. (laughing) Why make it so hard to win? Now, this is fascinating because Obama is all for reconciliation -- I'm sorry, "simple majority vote" -- and all these Democrats are out there saying, "Yep, simple majority vote! Damn right. I'll be in there on the public option," but then Kent Conrad (D-ND) appeared on Slay the Nation yesterday with the host Bob Schieffer, and Schieffer said, "If the leaders in the Senate do decide to try this by reconciliation, what's going to happen?"

CONRAD: On the question of reconciliation, I've said all year as chairman of the Budget Committee, reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care reform. It won't work. It won't work because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation. It was designed for deficit reduction. So let's be clear.

RUSH: What he's saying is right. The only things that reconciliation can be used for are budget items because the Constitution demands the Congress have a budget every year, that the country have a budget. It was Sheets Byrd who wrote the whole rule way back when. Sheets Byrd wrote the rule back in '74 exempting budgetary items from the 60 votes. So here's Congress: "It's not possible, can't be used," and in fact, over the weekend (Saturday or Sunday, I forget) the New York Times had a story and they were really down in the dumps about the prospects of reconciliation, that it wouldn't work, that it couldn't be used. When I heard Conrad yesterday on Slay the Nation say what you just heard him say, I thought, "Oh, no wonder the New York Times is down." So I'm thinking, "Where we gonna go from here? What's really going on here?" Well, let me try to explain to you, folks. See, here you've got Conrad saying, "It can't be used. I mean, it won't work. It was never designed for that kind of significant legislation. It won't work."

Okay, so what do we have here? What's the equation? We have rules and we have Democrats. What could possibly go wrong? If you have rules and then you have Democrats, what it means is that the rules may as well not exist. So Conrad, I don't know what he's doing. He may have forgotten what party he's a member of. (laughing) But if Obama wants this to happen, and happen that way, they'll find a way around the rules. That's what this is all about in the first place, is finding a way around the rules. In fact, "Obama To Announce Way Forward On Health Care Next Week... 'probably closer to Wednesday.'" His press spokesman, Baghdad Robert Gibbs, said, "The President will take into account what he heard yesterday," at the health care summit, "and make an announcement next week about the way forward. .. [T]he widespread assumption on Capitol Hill is that Obama will address specific changes that he wants made to the Senate's version of the legislation ... and that he will encourage Congress to pass those changes using reconciliation," which you just heard Kent Conrad say cannot be done.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is not the first time that the Democrats have tried budget reconciliation to ram health care through. When was the last time they tried this, Snerdley? Remember when the last time they tried this was? Hillary Care. They did. They tried it with Hillary Care, and back then it was in 2001, Byrd made a statement about it. (Byrd impression) "In 1993, my owwwwwwwn Democratic leadership..." Sorry. It will take me 'til Tuesday to read this statement that way. He said, "In 1993 my own Democrat leadership..." Now, listen to this. "In 1993, my own Democratic leadership pleaded with me. How many of my friends on the Republican side today would stand as firm as the Rock of Gibraltar as I did on that occasion? The Democratic leadership pleaded with me at length to agree to support the idea that the Clinton health care bill should be included in that year's reconciliation package. They came to my office on the floor below.

"Not only did Majority Leader George Mitchell and others of my colleagues attempt to persuade me to go along and not raise a point of order under the Byrd rule, which would require 60 votes to waive, President Clinton got on the phone and called me also and pressed me to allow his massive health care bill to be insulated by reconciliation's protection. He called me on the telephone. Here is the President of the United States calling this lowly former coal town boy and asking me..." Is this guy a blowhard or what? (laughing) "Here is the President of the United States calling this lowly former coal town boy and asking me to let his huge health bill come before the Senate on that fast track. I could not, in good conscience, however, look the other way and not make that point of order and allow what would clearly have been an abuse of congressional intent to occur.

"How many others would do that today on that side of the aisle, stand against their President[?]" Byrd asked. I don't even know if Byrd is going to stand against it this time. (interruption) Well, yeah. I think he remembers. I think he remembers. It's the Byrd rule. I think he remembers that he did this in opposing Clinton. The point is they tried it before. Now, everybody is saying it's kamikaze. Everybody is saying they are shooting themselves. Pelosi is forcing her people in the House to lose their jobs, and that's true. Now, in previous broadcasts I've explained this, because they look at things differently than we do. I cannot, no matter how persuasive or talented, properly convey to you how badly they want this. They are willing to lose their majorities in order to get this -- and looked at in that light, you have to take this very seriously. They're running around saying gonna use reconciliation and Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) says, "Well, reconciliation won't work."

Andrew McCarthy, a good friend of mine, took my point, and was so inspired by it that he amplified it. He posted this Saturday morning early at The Corner at National Review Online. "I hear Republicans getting..." (interruption) Well, yes, he was inspired Snerdley. He mentions me in the first paragraph. I know he was inspired, yes. He's a friend of mine. I can say that. I'm not going to read the part where he credits me for this. I'm just going to tell you. I'm going to get to the meat of what he wrote. "I hear Republicans getting giddy over the fact that 'reconciliation,' if it comes to that, is a huge political loser. That's the wrong way to look at it. The Democratic leadership has already internalized the inevitablility [sic] of taking its political lumps. That makes reconciliation truly scary.

"Since the Dems know they will have to ram this monstrosity through, they figure it might as well be as monstrous as they can get wavering Democrats to go along with. Clipping the leadership's statist ambitions in order to peel off a few Republicans is not going to work. I'm glad Republicans have held firm, but let's not be under any illusions about what that means. In the Democrat leadership, we are not dealing with conventional politicians for whom the goal of being reelected is paramount and will rein in their radicalism. They want socialized medicine and all it entails about government control even more than they want to win elections. After all, if the party of government transforms the relationship between the citizen and the state, its power over our lives will be vast even in those cycles when it is not in the majority.

"This is about power, and there is more to power than winning elections, especially if you've calculated that your opposition does not have the gumption to dismantle your ballooning welfare state. Consequently, the next six weeks, like the next ten months, are going to be worse than we think. We're wired to think that everyone plays by the ususal [sic] rules of politics -- i.e., if the tide starts to change, the side against whom it has turned modifies its positions in order to stay viable in the next election. But what will happen here will be the opposite. You have a party with the numbers to do anything it puts its mind to, led by movement Leftitsts [sic] who see their window of opportunity is closing. We seem to expect them to moderate because that's what everybody in their position does. But they won't.

"They will put their heads down and go for as much transformation as they can get, figuring that once they get it, it will never be rolled back. The only question is whether there are enough Democrats who are conventional politicians and who care about being reelected, such that they will deny the leadership the numbers it needs. But I don't think we should take much heart in this possibility. Those Democrats may well come to think they are going to lose anyway -- that's why so many of them are abandoning ship now. If that's the case, their incentive will be to vote with the leadership. At the end of the summit debacle, President Obama put the best face on a bad day by indicating that he intended to push ahead with socialized medicine and face the electoral consequences ('that's what elections are for,' he concluded). He's right about that.

"For Republicans, it won't be enough to fight this thing, then deride it if Democrats pull it off, and finally coast to a very likely electoral victory in November. The question is: What are you going to do to roll this back? What is your plan to undo this" once they get it done? "I think our side is analyzing this all wrong: Today's Democrats are controlled by the radical Left, and it is more important to them to execute the permanent transformation of American society than it is to win the upcoming election cycles. They have already factored in losing in November -- even losing big. For them, winning big now outweighs that." So getting giddy over this now and how they're committing suicide, is the wrong way to look at this. Because if it does lead to these mass defeats and the Republicans do claim power again, the focus has to be on rolling this back and stopping it, depending on how they get it done.

Irwin Stelzer at the Weekly Standard had a post recently: "Americans overwhelmingly say that their main concern is jobs, and that they are satisfied with their current health care arrangements. In response, an allegedly chastened President Obama pivoted, and says his primary concern from now on will be job creation, which will take priority over his controversial plan to radically change the nation's health care system. Yet, last week he backed a $15 billion job-creation bill, which passed the Senate, and a $1 trillion health care bill. Since the federal balance sheet is already under huge pressure, this set of priorities tells us that the Obama administration intends to concentrate available resources on transforming the economy -- a long-term, permanent restructuring of the health care and energy sectors that was planned long before the failure of Lehman Brothers triggered the financial mess Obama inherited." Indeed they have wanted this since FDR. They have dreamed of this, and they have never been closer, and that's why they will do anything to get it done. Remember, ladies and gentlemen: On one side you have rules, on the other side you have Democrats, which means you don't have any rules.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Lisa -- or Lissa, I guess it is -- in St. Louis. Thank you for holding, and welcome.

CALLER: Well, thank you. Listen, even if Obama and Pelosi get some filet mignon and grind it up and then try to cut it into the dog food, people still aren't going to choak it down. This country isn't going to be... You can't lead it from the position where they are standing, from the spot on the line where they're standing.

RUSH: Wait. Wait, now. You're right, but they're not trying to lead.

CALLER: Right. They're trying to push, ram.

RUSH: They are trying to control. This is not about leadership.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: This is about power and control.

CALLER: Right. Right. The other reason I was calling is to say, you know, you're talking about Congress and how, you know, they can't win. These people are screwed no matter how they try. They are going to lose. I really believe no matter what happens with health care, the Democrats are going to lose -- and, Rush, I'm worried about them. Where are they going to find another job?

RUSH: Oh, that's no problem. That's easy.

CALLER: (garbled) pizza is hiring.

RUSH: How many of them have already been promised judgeships? How many of them have been promised ambassadorships?

CALLER: I see.

RUSH: Hell, how many of them have been promised ships?

CALLER: So they're going to be government employees.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: They're going to work for the federal government.

RUSH: Well, they could become lobbyists and get rich.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: They could good work for the --

CALLER: They can't be civics instructors because they don't even know the Constitution, according to that one study you talked about earlier.

RUSH: That doesn't matter.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: All that makes 'em imminently more hirable and more qualified.

CALLER: All right. Then you're not worried about them finding work.

RUSH: No. Except to the extent that you like serving in Congress because of the element in power you feel or you have doing that, I don't think that. In some cases, depending on who they are, they'll be taken care of. Some of them may have already been told how.

CALLER: Right. You're right.

RUSH: We're just not sure. Anyway, Lissa, thanks for the call. I appreciate it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I explained this to you once before, and it is an expansion on Andy McCarthy's expansion of something I said originally. He said, "It's not time to get giddy here over the problems that they face. They are willing to lose and lose big to get this done because they are confident the Republicans won't have the guts to roll it back."

Look at what happened when Bush tried to reform Social Security. Social Security, as you know, has become "the third rail." Here's why it is important. If they get it done, the objective and the campaign theme has to be: "Roll it back." Roll it back. Do you remember all the people on Social Security, getting Social Security benefits of one kind or another, in all those years where the Democrats said, "The Republicans want to take away your Social Security. The Republicans want to kick you out of your house." It worked for a whole lot of election cycles. It was only in the early to mid-nineties when it started bombing out because after so many years of these predictions, it never happened. Nobody ever took their house away. Nobody ever tried to cut Social Security. It was all a lie -- and when the New Media was born (led, of course, by me) this option and reality was presented to people.

But if they get health care done, everybody's going to be on government health care under their plan at some point. If it's ten years down the road or five, whatever it is, that's the objective. Everybody's going to be on government health care. If we don't roll it back then we're stuck with it, and any attempt to roll it back after it gets settled in, any attempt to roll it back after more and more Americans are being insured by the government, will lead to charges of "Those Republicans fought giving you health care! They want to take your health care benefits away! They want to take your health care," and it will work. This cannot be allowed to stand even if they get it done. So it's not enough just to take comfort and even enjoyment in what will no doubt be a disastrous election for them. If they get this done before November, then a serious plot to undo it has got to become the focus, and they are banking on the fact that the Republicans don't have the guts to do that. We'll see. Nobody knows. Because we don't know if they're going to get it and we don't know what the results of that are definitely going to be, so you don't want to count your eggs before the chickens hatch, or whatever that is. I don't know.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Donna in Hanford, California. I'm glad you waited. Welcome to the program. I have about a minute, max.

CALLER: Okay. Thank you. This is my theory as to why Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Kerry, all these people supported Obama. It's not because what their mouths were saying, that he was this brilliant, brilliant statesman. It's because he's exactly the opposite. They knew he was incompetent. They knew, they think. The analogy I used is that he couldn't find his way out of a bathroom stall with the door open, and in his own words, he had to be told how to vote. So...

RUSH: Well, maybe. But I also think they supported him because he could win.

CALLER: Yeah. That, too.

RUSH: The reasons they thought he could win were purely "surface," shall I say. And on that note...

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• HotAir: Conrad: Reconciliation Won't Work for ObamaCare • National Reivew: Transformation - Andy McCarthy • Sweetness & Light: Byrd Opposed Hillary-Care Reconciliation • Weekly Standard: Fly Now, Pay Later - Irwin M. Stelzer • Politico: Conrad: Reconciliation Can't Be Used for Comprehensive Reform

Williams: Emanuel Couldn't Make People Eat Obamacare Dog Food
Juan Williams calls the president's plan "dog food."
March 1, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Juan Williams, by the way: American people could not be made to eat the dog food.

WILLIAMS: No, typically what happens is the word goes out that it may be time for the chief of staff to move on.

CHRIS WALLACE: Exactly.

WILLIAMS: The difference here is that Rahm Emanuel is a hardball political player, and his attitude towards the health care reform deal, towards cap and trade and these other things that have not come to pass is, "Don't worry about public opinion. We've got a Democratic majority on the Hill. We'll focus on the Democratic majority, we'll focus on the process, and we will get it done," and the big failure on health care, as we've just discussed in the previous panel is, the American people aren't eating the dog food.

RUSH: Well!

WILLIAMS: So if that's the case, you gotta go out there and sell and gotta do it effectively.

RUSH: All right, now, how in the hell are you going to make people eat dog food, Juan? Who the hell wants to eat dog food? The only people eating dog food are the senior citizens who have to choose between that and medicine, we are told. But who the hell wants to eat dog food? What a really strange analogy.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Jerry in Prescott, Arizona. Nice to have you with us, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Wonderful, snow-covered dittos from beautiful Prescott, Arizona, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: The dog food metaphor. The dog food metaphor is an old, old marketing term. It goes back to Madison Avenue and it's an extremely cynical and derogatory way of referring to your clients and customers. In the dog food market there's two kinds of people: Those that buy the very best, most expensive brand and those that buy whatever's on sale. And the marketing phrase is, "We have to get it out there but get the people to buy it but there's nothing we can do if the dogs won't eat the dog food." So the essence of the phrase is: We can trick people into getting stuff that's not for their intended purpose, but if the dogs won't eat the dog food, there's nothing we can do about it.

RUSH: That's all --

CALLER: It's just a cynical marketing phrase.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. Being an excellent marketer myself, I appreciate cynical marketing phrases.

CALLER: (chuckles)

RUSH: But I'll tell you this: He wasn't talking about dogs. He said, "Rahm Emanuel can't get the American people to eat the dog food." Now, it's cynical or what have you. Maybe he misspoke. But he said it, and in saying it he uttered, perhaps, one of the most profound truths about this whole scheme: The American people do not want to eat dog food! This is not North Korea!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, people are inundating me here with this dog food business and trying to say that I'm making a bigger deal out of this than it ought to be. So let me explain to you what this really is. The guy who called was right. It's a marketing term, and basically it's when a company uses the products that it makes to show that the products are great. Or it is a way to describe a product being rejected by the very market and people it was intended for. "Can't get 'em to eat the dog food" was thought to have originated -- now, this is open for debate here. It was thought to have originated from testimonial-type TV ads for Alpo dog food in which the actor Lorne Greene claimed that he fed Alpo to his own dogs. This is all well and good, but "Did he eat it?" is the point. Did Lorne Greene go out and do television commercials, then open a can of Alpo and start eating it and then feed it to his dogs? No! Juan Williams said they "can't get the American people to eat the dog food." Marketing term or not, he has stumbled across a big truth. And, by the way, we had a drive-by caller who made an excellent point here. We're not going to be able to eat the dog food 'til we get our dead sister's dentures, which was a big sob story told by Louise Slaughter last week at the health care summit.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Greg in Arkansas. It's nice to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. 1989 dittos.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Hey, on the tsunami thing. I totally understand your point on the media fascination with it, and you were right a while ago when you said that in the open ocean you can't see a tsunami. You know, it may just be a two- or three-foot wave but it's traveling very fast. And in Indonesia, the first thing that happened was the water did leave the beach before it came rushing back in.

RUSH: Yeah, and you could see that.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: That's when you do see the tsunami.

CALLER: Right. If you're on the beach and the water starts leaving, you better get going. And it just depends on what generates it. What happened this weekend was the earthquake that was supposed to generate occurred 20-something miles below the surface of the earth.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: And so it wasn't likely to generate, whereas the one in Indonesia was a displacement in the ocean floor, kind of like part of the ocean floor sunk below where it was, causing a huge displacement of water.

RUSH: It's interesting that a guy in Arkansas knows all this.

CALLER: Yeah. (laughing) I've been around. I lived in Hawaii for seven years.

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: You know, and in Hawaii, there's evidence of a tidal wave hitting the island at about 300 feet above sea level.

RUSH: I know. But, see, here's the point. After --

CALLER: Part of the island falls off into the ocean causing a huge displacement of water --

RUSH: Exactly.

CALLER: -- and that's what really generates the huge tidal wave.

RUSH: Exactly. Look, I shoulda added this. After this thing in Indonesia, we built (at, I'm sure, great expense) a massive tsunami warning system, and that was it on Saturday? That's what we got for it?

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• FoxNews: White House Calls for 'Up-or-Down' Health Vote • American Thinker: Healthcare Summit Democrat Demagoguery • The Hill: Pelosi: GOP Has Had Its Day; Confident Dems Can Pull Together on Health Bill • Sweetness & Light: Pelosi To Dems: Sacrifice Job For O-care

Woeful Civics Education Will Lead to the Loss of Our Liberty
Americans are increasingly ignorant of basic civics.
March 1, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is not going to surprise you, ladies and gentlemen. But it's still infuriating. "Report Finds College Students Fail Basic Civics Test -- 'Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it' is one of the most oft-quoted aphorisms of Edmund Burke, an 18th-century Irish-born member of the British Parliament and fearless friend of liberty. Judging from the results of a recent survey conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), most of the 14,000 college students who participated sadly will be repeating history. Considering that most of the 14,000 students who completed the exam (7,000 seniors and 7,000 freshmen) scored an F on the portion of the test covering basic American history and institutions, not only will they be repeating history, but with test scores like that, they'll be repeating history class, as well."

No, they won't be. "ISI, a conservative non-profit educational organization, has recently published the results of this sweeping survey in a 32-page report entitled 'The Shaping of the American Mind: The Diverging Influences of the College Degree and Civic Learning on American Beliefs.' ... Here are a few frightening figures certain to keep you up at night: * 71% of Americans failed the civics knowledge test; * 51% of Americans could not name the three branches of government; * The average score for college seniors on the civics knowledge test was 54.2% (an 'F' by any standard); * The average student's test score improved only 3.8 points from freshman to senior year; * Freshmen at Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and Duke scored better than seniors on the civics knowledge test. * 79% of elected officials that took the civics knowledge quiz did not know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits the government from establishing a religion." Seventy-nine percent!

"30% of office holders did not know that 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence," and I wonder how many of them know what inalienable means. Snerdley, what does inalienable mean? (laughing) Brian, what does inalienable mean? "We are all endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights, among them are..." What does inalienable mean? (interruption) No. "Can't be taken away." Exactly right. H.R., with the answer. They can't be taken away. It's not the immigration bill. They can't be taken away. "27% of politicians could not name even one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment. * 43% did not know the purpose of the Electoral College. * 39% of lawmakers believe the power of declaring war belongs to the president," and it goes on and on and on -- and then here is a companion story.

You combine this college civics disaster story with Senator Lindsey Grahamnesty's plea for cap and tax based on the feeling... Listen to this. Graham explains, "I have been to enough college campuses to know if at that if you're 30 or younger, this climate issue is not a debate. It's a value. These young people grew up with recycling and a sensitivity to the environment and the world will be better off for it. They're not brainwashed." From a Republican. They are. It's a hoax, Senator! So you combine the basic ignorance of so many college students with the fact that they do believe that global warming isn't a hoax -- they have been brainwashed -- and you find out why it is that so many Democrats and others going to youth vote to try to get them on their side because they're easy. They don't know anything. They haven't been taught properly.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Jan in Bakersfield, California, hi and welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush.

RUSH: Hi.

CALLER: Hi. I have a comment about what you were saying about kids in college and what they don't know about the First Amendment, what they don't know about government, and what they don't know about politics. Now I'm 56 years old, Rush. When I was 25, 30 years old, say 20, I didn't go to college. But I can tell you that the First Amendment and what the First Amendment said wasn't at the top of my list of what I thought I needed to know. What I needed to know is how to work, how to survive, how to take care of a family. I have friends that went to college. I have friends who have Ph.D. That wasn't... I only think if you're taking political science or you're that involved in politics or under your family's influence --

RUSH: You -- you -- Wait a minute. (crosstalk) No, no. Wait a minute. Are you calling after being referred to us by the Obama seminar caller website?

CALLER: Oh, gosh, no, Rush. I'm a hundred percent behind you. I'm a hundred percent. I am a conservative. So what I'm saying is in the real world, look what it costs for kids to even go to college nowadays. They are more concerned -- and at the top of their list isn't even how much taxes they're paying --

RUSH: Um...

CALLER: -- or what this health care is going to cost them.

RUSH: Um...

CALLER: It's about the moment. We live in the moment. .

RUSH: Um...

CALLER: And I don't think until you get older do you even get that involved in what's going on. Now, I'm a big fan of yours, Rush. I've only been listening for three months. My husband's listened to you forever. And you know what I used to say? "Will you turn that off because that is so negative." But now, I see why you're there and what you're trying to tell us and how you educate us, Rush. No, that's my opponent. But in the reality of a child's world, that's where they're at.

RUSH: Well, if that's true, we are in greater jeopardy and peril than I even thought.

CALLER: We are, Rush. We are. We have a 40-year-old daughter and a 32-year-old daughter.

RUSH: Because what we're talking about here is not politics. We're talking about understanding the root of our freedom. If we lose that, we lose the country.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I really don't want to embarrass our previous caller, but to say, "Ah, it's not important to kids about the Bill of Rights and what the freedoms in the Bill of Rights are. That's not their world right now." Well, you know, my dog doesn't like eating the dog food, either, but I cram it down its throat. Your kids don't like milk but you make 'em drink it -- and for crying out loud, you're supposed to learn this stuff in junior high school! You're supposed to learn this stuff in elementary school, for crying out loud. All it is is understanding the foundation of our country and why it works and have you have the freedom to not be concerned with anything except being first in line at Blockbuster on Friday.

Over half the people in this survey, these kids, did not know when the War of 1812 was fought, much less who was in it! They didn't even ask them who was in it when they found out half of them didn't even know when the War of 1812 was fought. This is not minor stuff. It is evidence of the dumbing down of the country at the youngest ages so that liberalism, socialism, and the Democrat Party can wreak havoc in this country with impunity because half of the people are too stupid or ignorant to know the damage they are causing. And when the Democrat Party screws up it's not violating the Constitution. It's when they finally try to force things down people's throat that they instinctively don't want, which is what's happening now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ashley, 23 years old from Gainesville, Florida. Nice to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush! I was calling because I had a comment. You were talking about the civics classes and how so many college students couldn't answer the questions and didn't know anything about the Bill of Rights. For one of my classes, a comparative politics class, one of our assignments was to create a new Bill of Rights, and being an online class we get to look at the discussions, and most of the class put that health care would be included in the Bill of Rights, because health care is a right to all citizens as well as a good education. Most of them wanted a college education to be something everyone has and it's free.

RUSH: Well, this pretty much confirms the ignorance of the civics test.

CALLER: Yes. Pretty much. Just wanted to tell you.

RUSH: Health care should be free, huh?

CALLER: Yeah, health care and education. Everyone should have a college education.

RUSH: Yeah. Well, where do we stop there? Everybody should have a car, right?

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Yeah. And everybody should have two houses: One for the wintertime and one for the summer. It's only fair.

CALLER: A lot of people were quoting FDR's addition to the Bill of Rights where every should be entitled to a decent house and a good education --

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: -- health care and a job.

RUSH: Right. Yeah. Yeah, and it all ought to be free.

CALLER: Yes, everyone should be given it. It's a right. It's not just free, it's a right.

RUSH: It's a right, and everybody should earn minimum $150,000 a year.

CALLER: Yep.

RUSH: Yeah, it sounds wonderful. You know, it's only been tried about a gazillion times in human history and it just has led to poverty.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm!

RUSH: Stupidity, ignorance, and scientists who forecast tsunamis that don't exist.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: So how do you feel about this when you're in there taking this class?

CALLER: Oh, it's really frustrating to me. I read all these responses, and I just don't understand how people think that's a right. I don't think they understand what the Bill of Rights is or what --

RUSH: It's because they haven't been taught what the first Bill of Rights really means. They haven't been taught anything about capitalism.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: They're being brainwashed by a bunch of liberal professors and so forth.

CALLER: Oh, yeah. It's pretty frustrating when I'm on the other side of what all these people are wanting and having and I'm the only one in the class that has the opposite opinion. So...

RUSH: Do you discuss it with them?

CALLER: Well, it's an online class so we do forums so we get to read, but I always comment on them, and ask them what do they consider a decent home, when my decent home could be just a little random little house and theirs might be a mansion on the beach. Who's to decide what that is? But I never get any responses back. (chuckles)

RUSH: Yeah, well, you probably won't.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: But at some point they'll say government.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Or it should be whatever I want.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm. But how do you set the standard? I just don't think they realize the whole Constitution is to protect us from the government, and they want the government to do everything for us.

RUSH: Right. That's what FDR's second Bill of Rights was all about.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: And Obama looks at it that way, too. There is a line of thinking that's been around a long time that views the Constitution as a "negative" set of liberties, which statists and big government people would only naturally see the Constitution in a negative light. Because the Constitution tells statists and big government people what they cannot do, by design. That's why and how we were founded. But they don't like that, because they want a new Bill of Rights, to basically say what they can do -- and they keep saying "for" us, but it's "to" us. They're just power zealots and so forth. Well, I appreciate you hanging in there on this because I can imagine how frustrating it is. You ought to try laughing at them in your replies, ridicule. You know, go Saul Alinsky on them. Just ridicule them. Just say that you're having the most fun reading some of these posts that you've had since you listened to me that day. That will really set 'em off. "You know, I haven't had this much fun since I was listening to, Rush, today. You people are my day. Do you honestly believe this?"

And just get out of the way for the next set of responses and whatever they are, just fire back with some more laughter. "Oh, you're kidding, right? You're just trying to pollute the message boards, right? You don't really believe this." Say stuff like that at them. Don't argue with them. They're not smart enough to be persuadable. These people have been brainwashed. Their minds are "right." You have to ridicule them and shame 'em and have them realize that they've been had and that they've been stupid. Since nobody wants to believe they're stupid -- you ever heard anybody admit it? "Yeah, yeah, I'm stupid." Nobody admits it, 'cause they don't want to feel it. So you have to make them feel stupid, and you can have fun doing it. That's what I do with the liberals that call here, and wherever I run into them. They last about 30 seconds and then they start personal insults and all that. So hang in there, Ashley, and have fun with that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Evelyn in Texarkana. Great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Oh, thank you! It's just an honor to talk to you. I can't believe it. (giggles)

RUSH: I'm glad you got through.

CALLER: Oh, I tried so many times over the years and this is the first time. But anyway I'm calling about this dumbing down of America thing that you've been talking about with different people. I teach remedial math at a local community college, and in the class I teach they're not allowed to use calculators, and you would be surprised (or probably you would be surprised) how many cannot add, subtract, multiply, and divide without a calculator. It's just been mind-boggling to me to realize the degree of ignorance. I mean, it's not just about the Constitution; it's about everything. I also work in the testing center, and when they come in there, they have to look up at an analog clock and write down the time, and you would be surprised how many cannot read an analog clock.

RUSH: You. Are. Kidding. Me.

CALLER: No. No, I'm not.

RUSH: You mean --

CALLER: I wish I was.

RUSH: -- you have to tell 'em when the big hand is on the six --

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: -- and the little hand is on the two, then it's 2:30?

CALLER: Yeah. They look up there and they don't have a clue, and we have finally put a little digital clock there about the sign-in thing because they can't read the analog clock.

RUSH: Un...

CALLER: That's how bad it is.

RUSH: Well, look, there's certain aspect of the digital age, calculators and so forth.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: I can understand that.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: But when you say you're teaching remedial math, what are you trying to remedy besides the calculator usage?

CALLER: Okay. Well, the math I'm teaching is call "prealgebra," and they have to come up to speed before they can take a college level course.

RUSH: I misread the clock. Hang on.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Evelyn, I'm really sorry about that. I was using a digital clock, and I screwed up. I have no problem with analogs, but digitals sometimes give me a problem. We have both here. I wanted you to give you a chance to conclude what you're saying.

CALLER: Oh, that's all. You know, the math that I teach is basic. These are high school graduates wanting to begin college, and the math I teach is middle school. It's basically middle school math.

RUSH: To high school graduates?

CALLER: Yeah. Right.

RUSH: Right. Okay.

CALLER: But, anyway, I just wanted you to know that it just amazed me.

RUSH: How the hell did they graduate?

CALLER: I don't know. That's what I want to know. Yeah, really.

RUSH: Well, it's a good thing they didn't or you would have a job.

CALLER: Yes, exactly. (laughing)

RUSH: So you bank on stupidity in order to work.

CALLER: I love what I do. It's just a shame that there's so many that need what I do, you know what I mean?

RUSH: I do. It's important to love what you do. I've heard every pole dancer say that as well. It's true of every profession. Thanks, Evelyn, very much.

I had a verbal faux pas a moment ago when discussing negative and positive rights versus the Bill of Rights. It is our side, the good guys, who believe the Constitution is a document of negative rights, that is, the government has limited authority, not that we do. Our rights don't come from the Constitution. They come from God. The Constitution limits government authority. It does not create rights like the right to health care. The left means positive rights because they mean that it creates material rights for people which the government is to provide, and that's what they want to do with the Second Bill of Rights. Okay, now... (sigh) I promised I'm going to get into this Global Warming Stack, and I'm going to get into it in a minute. I'm putting it off for as long as I can. But I'm going to do it. But first, back to St. Louis and Annette. I'm glad you called. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Rush, I am so honored to speak with you. I'm afraid I'm going to trip over my tongue. I am calling about the --

RUSH: I'd like to see that.

CALLER: (chuckles) What?

RUSH: I'd like to see that.

CALLER: Oh, yeah. Well, I'm nervous. I am so honored and you're a patriot. I listen to you all the time. I'm also a member. I'm calling about the education problem. Last week you had a caller, a teacher from Kansas, and she said that history would no longer be taught in the schools. I am your age. My parents moved around a lot when I was little and I had the Missouri Constitution and the United States Constitution four times in four different schools, both private and public. In none of those classes was it taught that this would be important to us in our future. It was all dry facts. So if that many years ago it was so deteriorated, what do you think is happening now? It's not being taught at all, I fear.

RUSH: It's not, and I'll tell you why it's not. It's not being taught now because the left does not want young people to learn of socialism's failures. They do not want young kids to learn of communism's failures. They do not want the young to learn anything about the positive nature of capitalism, the great success brought about by the Reagan years and so forth. They don't want to teach it. So they lie about what really happened in the eighties and so forth and so on. It's a hideous thing. It's not about leadership. It's purely and simply about control. But Snerdley had an interesting observation about the woman -- what was her name, I'm having a mental block -- Jan that called last hour. She said that it wasn't important. They're not interested in the Constitution right now. That will happen when they get older.

Snerdley said, "You were so immersed in that point that you missed a biggie that she made."

I said, "What was that?" 'Cause I very seldom miss anything.

He said, "You didn't hear her say that, up until three months ago, she made her husband turn the radio off when you were on because all you were was negative, negative, negative, and she didn't want to hear it. And then all of a sudden three months ago, when everything started to fall apart in the country, she started listening to you, and now you are teaching her and you are informing her?"

"Oh, yeah. I heard her say that."

"Well, it didn't make a big deal to you because that happens all the time but imagine a Democrat listening to that from their point of view. That is scary, because they think all kinds of people hate you and think you're a maniac and what not. Now people who used to think that are getting their information from you, and that's gotta be blowing their minds and probably is one of the reasons why Obama set up that spam website, WhiteHouse.gov."

So I said, "Well, are you getting a lot of calls like these?"

"Oh, yeah. They're flooding in here. I don't put nearly as many up as I could because that's all there would be." He said, "I limit calls praising you to no more than ten an hour. Any more than that and I think the people get tired of it."

I said, "Well, that's pretty good judgment on your part. Try to keep it at ten an hour. Anything beyond that probably would rub people the wrong way."

Anyway, I thought Snerdley had an excellent point. She said she was oblivious. She didn't like hearing about politics because it was all argument, it was all confrontation. She did not even like hearing about it. It was all negative. She made her husband turn the radio off. She was just oblivious to it, didn't matter. But now it's important -- and that's happening, I think, all over the country in many ways. In that regard, it's worse for the Democrats than they even know, electorally. But again they don't care when it comes to health. They do not care.

END TRANSCRIPT

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