RUSH: Mark in Chula Vista, California. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello. CALLER: Hello, Rush, and Merry Christmas to you, sir.RUSH: Same to you.CALLER: Hey, I just want to get back to this TIME Magazine piece about the Man of the Year. One of them that you failed to mention -- and of course you can't mention everything -- was, they were talking that they were gonna maybe consider the economy. Now, how sick is that? They want to bless the bad economy to get their messiah elected?...

RUSH: Great to have you here, as always, Rush Limbaugh, meeting and surpassing almost all of the audience expectations. There's still some malcontents out there. I just got an e-mail. It's from a 24/7 subscriber by the name of Lynn, and I think that she works in Treasury Secretary Paulson's office. She said, "Today you are being very annoying. You've now spent two hours on New York and their proposed tax increases." I have not spent two hours on that, but regardless. "We get it. Would you...

RUSH: John in Argyle, Texas, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.CALLER: Hello, Rush. I need to take you to task on two things you've said within the last couple weeks which have really just sent me over the edge, a few other things you've said in the past.RUSH: All right.CALLER: One has got to do with last week you mentioned that you would never have to pay for someone that wasn't producing something or that wasn't working. And I have to question whether or not you have now lumped...

RUSH: Debbie in Lancaster, New York, great to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hello.CALLER: Hello, Rush. Merry Christmas.RUSH: Same to you.CALLER: Well, you were talking about Governor Paterson. I'm telling you, I am so steamed. Not only is he taxing -- he's taken away our STAR program. He's taxing everything and anything. He's increasing welfare benefits by 30%, which I know a lot of legitimate needs are out there, but he's restricting --RUSH: Can I give you the truth on this, Debbie?CALLER:...

RUSH: The Lord Barack Obama, The Messiah, Most Merciful, held his press conference today to announce Salazar as the interior secretary and Vilsack as the agricultural secretary. When it was over, when the speechifying was over, Obama turned it over to the press. And, man, it's just so tough out there for the press. We had a question here from CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers, and the question basically is: "Is it hard for you not to tell us about Blago? Is it really hard? Are you frustrated...

RUSH: I mentioned in the last hour -- and I think this is crucial -- all of this debt that people are piling up has resulted in the inflation of the real value of things and their real price. For example, if you had to have the money in toto to buy something -- and I'm not suggesting this, this is just an illustration -- it's really nothing more than common sense -- if you had to have the money, prices would have to come down because the people that make products, provide services, want to sell...

RUSH: Democrat Governor David Paterson, boy, wait 'til you hear about what this guy's budget and tax increases have planned for people that live here. It is a recipe for disaster. He's gonna tax music downloads to your iPod. They're going to tax radio. We can't figure out how. It doesn't specify in the story, but it's gotta be taxing the sales of radios, such as in cars. Because how do you tax what people listen to on the radio? They're going to tax cable television reception. They're going...

RUSH: There are two Senate seats up for grabs, and, of course, we know there's controversy surrounding the Senate seat in Illinois being vacated by Obama, who, by the way, made two more cabinet appointments today. Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, is now going to be the secretary of agriculture, and Ken Salazar from Colorado, with whom we have had several run-ins this past year, I don't even remember what about. Oh, yeah. He tried to block drilling oil in the great West. (interruption)...

RUSH: Now, last night, ladies and gentlemen, I had the honor of once again being invited, and thus I attended, the White House Christmas party. President and Mrs. Bush do this three times a week for a couple or three weeks and every night is a different group of people, and last night was the media, the media's turn to go in. I tell you, it's so gorgeous, the way they decorate the White House. We arrived and it was a cold drizzle, flirting with a hard rain. We had the umbrellas and walked in....

Rush's Morning Update: Surprised? December 18, 2008Watch It! Download Morning Update Video in QuickTimeListen to It! Windows Media Player|RealPlayer A financial research and consulting firm out of Boston-- Celent-- has investigated claims by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and FedChairman Ben Bernanke...the claims justifying the massive federal bailouts of the financial industry. The title of their report, "Flawed Assumptions about the Credit Crisis," gives you a little hint of what they...

You're Missing Out on Thousands of Rush Quotes! Join Rush 24/7 NOW!"My motto ought to be: 'He says things that are true, yet unspeakable.'" "For crying out loud, virtually everybody in Washington politics is trying to destroy me! Now, there has to be a reason for that, and so I ought to just declare myself Man of the Year. I should have won the Nobel Peace Prize, too.""I am very appreciative of the invitation I had to the White House last night, because who knows when, if ever, someone like I...

Story #1: SEC Official Married Bernie Madoff's NieceRUSH: Look at this. "A top Securities and Exchange Commission compliance official who worked for the SEC when it found no problems at Bernie Madoff's firm in 2005, later began to date and married Madoff's niece." What's her name? Shana. Shana Madoff. So this guy Eric Swanson says I had nothing to do, when we looked into Madoff's. I had nothing to do. I was a compliance officer, yeah, but I had nothing to do with looking into this. "A spokesman...