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RUSH: Folks, let me tell you something. Don’t be surprised if the regime reverses this. I’ve heard that they’re rethinking it, that Obama might be rethinking this ban that he’s put in effect on the Catholic Church and the schools and so forth. And it could be true. It could be true. I mean even Muslim clerics have come out against this decision.


If Muslim clerics have come out against this decision, then Obama will hear that, much more than he’ll hear Catholics being upset about it. Upsetting Catholics was the point. But the point is there are a lot of Catholics that vote Democrat, 70 million some odd and this is obviously a bone that he’s thrown to the base, it’s part of Obamacare, and it goes back. It didn’t get much attention at all when Sebelius, back in February 2009, when this was first discussed, it didn’t get a whole lot of attention back then. And what’s happened since is that the churches now have until August of 2013 to get right with Obama’s law. So that’s safely after the elections.

Back on January 20th Kathleen Sebelius announced that the Department of Health and Human Services had ruled in August that all government-funded service providers provide free contraceptive services, including morning after pills and surgical sterilizations. When this thing first hit as part of Obamacare it barely caused a ripple outside the Catholic Church. Now, in the same announcement back on January 20th she said she was gonna give the churches until August of 2013 to get right with the law, which is after the election. So what’s happened here is that an uproar has taken place in a clear bid to please the base, and it’s actually more than just pleasing the base. This whole decision by Obama as part of health care is who he is. The government telling everybody, including churches and church education institutions, schools, what they can and can’t do. It is hideous, but it’s right there in front of everybody’s face for them to now see. Every day it seems, every week, there are more and more examples of the totalitarian nature of this administration and what its true desires are.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Way back in February of 2009, at the height of the health care reform bill, Obama leaked the idea of rolling back the so-called conscience clause that the Bush administration had put in place. That was a regulation “allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections…” In other words, a health care worker could not be forced to perform an abortion. A health care worker, with the conscience clause, could not be forced to pass out the morning-after abortion pill, the RU-486. “The Provider Refusal Rule was proposed by the Bush White House in August and enacted on January 20, the day President Barack Obama took office.”

But Obama backed down on that so as to get Obamacare through. Now he’s going after it again. “A couple of weeks ago Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced that all health care providers that get money from the federal government must,” would have to, “provide conception and other birth control treatments, such as the morning-after pill, free.” It wasn’t just that they had to provide it. They had to pay for it as well! It didn’t matter what their moral objections. It didn’t matter the conscience clause. It didn’t matter what they wanted to do or not based on a religious belief. None of that mattered; the state was supreme. The state would triumph here.


It didn’t get a whole lot of attention back in 2009 at the time. But now because the Catholic Church is fighting it, it’s back in the news. One quarter, 25% of the hospitals in this country, are Catholic hospitals. So this is a major policy change, and the Church says that it will not back down. Now, let’s see. Did I just see something from CNN? I did, but I can’t have it, so I don’t know where it is about this. I don’t want to speculate. There’s some news about this that I’m told is just breaking. Here’s the Sebelius story, February 27, 2009: “White House Set to Reverse Health Care Conscience Clause — The Obama administration plans to reverse a regulation from late in the Bush administration allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections, an official said Friday.”

Remember, now, this is February 27th of 2009, about three years ago. Now, this document is what I was just talking about. And this has been Obama’s plan since he took office. He just had to wait ’til Obamacare got rammed through and then he thought he could do it on the QT. But this Sebelius mandate is the beginning of the rollback here. Everything is now blowing up where this is concerned, because… It’s like the old saying back in Nazi Germany: “When they came for X, I didn’t do anything. When they came for Y, I didn’t do anything. When they came for me, there was nobody left to stop ’em or to care about it.” It’s the same thing happening here. All of these little things that happened, if they don’t affect people, they say, “Ah, no big deal. I don’t care about it.”

But when finally an Obamacare edict hits something as big as the Catholic Church, and it fights back, then of course everybody finds out what’s going on and has an opinion about it.

And, in this sense, it’s a good thing.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites. Bill Donohue from the Catholic League. This is last night on Channel 2 news, Channel 2 Eyeball News in New York City.

DONOHUE: Never before… It’s unprecedented American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church. This is gonna be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions — and, dare I say, maybe even in the streets.

RUSH: Maybe in the streets. So now something has blown up in their faces. They probably expected it to. They relish this, I think. I think the people at the regime love this. I think they love it when Bill Donohue gets livid. I think they love it when the Catholics get mad. I think they love taunting their opponents. They think they love every aspect of this. Now, whether or not this finally awakens people above and beyond the Catholic Church? You know, even Muslim clerics have come out in opposition to this. And if this regime is gonna hear anything, it’ll be them. Here is Bishop James McFadden. This is January 24th in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on an ABC News affiliate during an interview.

MCFADDEN: In a totalitarian government, they would love our system. This is what Hitler and Mussolini and all of them tried to establish: A monolith, so all the children will be educated in one set of beliefs and one way of doing things.

RUSH: Now, the Drive-Bys very concerned. The libs in the media are terribly upset about this. On Morning Joe today on MSNBC, TIME Magazine political analyst Mark Halperin had a discussion about this and they’re worried. (paraphrased) “How’s Obama gonna convince these idiot Catholics to understand what’s good for ’em? Contraception is good for them! Abortion is good for them!” Listen to this discussion.

HALPERIN: When you do something this complicated — when you have a policy that implicates religion and people’s deepest feelings — you cannot leave it to the bureaucrats to just announce it. This is when a president, as politically dangerously as it is, must step forward and explain it himself.

SCARBOROUGH: I think they were surprised, Mika, by this.

BRZEZINSKI: M’yeah.

HALPERIN: Yeah. I think they had a blind spot here that they didn’t realize how this would upset Catholics.

BRZEZINSKI: Well and — and I don’t think the way they have it laid out is the way it’s being characterized by, mostly, those on the right.

HALPERIN: It is being mischaracterized in some ways!

BRZEZINSKI: It’s being —


HALPERIN: But, again, there’s a vacuum. The president got elected to be the leader. He needs to explain why he put his finger on the scale on the side that he has. Why is that the right policy for the country?

RUSH: He can’t say it that way. It’s not the right policy for the country. It’s an affront! It’s the president of the United States telling Catholics he doesn’t believe what they believe. And he doesn’t respect their right to believe it. And that they are wrong. And that the state will have dominion over the Catholic Church. The state is going to have dominion over the rights and freedoms of the Democrat voter base. This is all about politics. It’s all about keeping the Democrat voter base happy: The feminazis and the far left, who hate the Catholic Church. Obama is doing exactly what his base wants! AIDS activists have thrown condoms at Cardinal O’Connor in the Church.

The political leftist activists, whatever the issue, despise any authority. Any source authority. They despise anything that seeks in their mind to make a moral judgment. They can’t stand it. They didn’t get caught. What is this surprise? Halperin, you’re better than this. To say the regime got caught? They were surprised? They wanted to do this since 2009! That’s why they started off the Kathleen Sebelius story from February 2009 where they spell out what they want to do inside of Obamacare. This is something — a desire — they’ve harbored for a long, long time. And now they’re in the process of executing it. Now, it is being said that the regime is hinting that they may be having second thoughts on their conception mandate. Here’s David Axelrod. He’s on MSNBC this morning as well. And the co-host Mika Brzezinski asks, “Has the White House failed in its messaging on this?”

AXELROD: Secretary Sebelius included an exemption for churches and church employees. The question is now about these extended, affiliated, uh, institutions like hospitals and universities and there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of women who work in these hospitals and universities who are not Catholic — or they may be Catholic — but they use birth control. And the question is whether they’re gonna have the same package that every other woman in the country has, the same right and access to basic preventive care.

RUSH: They don’t care about the Constitution. They’re gonna change this country whether the people want it or not. And, as always, they’re gonna focus on, “What about the people that don’t like the Catholic Church?” The Catholic Church has separation of church and state, if it’s an institution. (New Castrati impression) “Well, Mr. Limbaugh, they take federal money!” You know how hard it is not to take federal money in education anymore? This is all flat-out absurd. These excuses: “They take federal money.” We all know what’s going on here. It’s right in front of our faces. We just have to admit it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ferris, Fairfield, Connecticut. Great to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Undeniable Truth of Life Number 24 dittos from the nut ball state.

RUSH: Well, thank you, sir, very much. I’m happy that you remembered it.

CALLER: Well, I’d like to repeat it because it ties into the Catholic Church situation which is one of the topics of the day. That feminism was formed so as to provide unattractive women free access to the mainstream of society.

RUSH: Well, not free, but easier access. Yes, Undeniable Truth of Life Number 24 authored by me, 1986. This one’s the one that established me as a great thinker.


CALLER: I stand corrected.

RUSH: Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream. Yes. Exactly right, it’s borne out every day, it’s just whether or not you got the courage to admit it. Most people find it a very uncomfortable truth of life, which is what makes it a truthful truth.

CALLER: As are most of the truths today uncomfortable. But here’s how it ties into the discussion of what is happening in the Catholic Church, and I very highly respectfully disagree with your analysis that it will cost them votes. It will not cost them votes. You used the phrase a few minutes ago “idiot Catholics.” And Rush, nothing could be closer to the truth. And I’m coming from a standpoint of a lifelong baptized Catholic as a child, lived with it, loved it, I learned it, and devoured it right up until recently when I became an Amish man. So I understand what’s going on in the Catholic Church, and I was taught —

RUSH: Yeah, but, you know, it’s not just Catholics that are gonna be impacted by this. Muslims are gonna be impacted by this. Mormons are gonna be impacted. Catholics are not the only ones who have such proscriptions on contraception and abortion.

CALLER: Well, I speak for the Catholics only, Rush, because I’ve never been a Muslim, nor a Jew.

RUSH: Look, I know what you’re saying. Kind of like Hollywood liberals and liberal Jews, they’ll sell Israel out in order to maintain primacy of liberalism. So you think there are a lot of dumb Catholics who will vote against their own interests simply because they’re liberals first, right?

CALLER: Certainly. But it goes deeper than that. It goes to what you said recently about — you recently revealed the truth about teachers in the classrooms and that the truth is there are not any teachers anymore, with some notable exceptions. There are indoctrinators, and there are people in front of the classroom whose job it is to dumb down the students and indoctrinate them. And the Catholics who were affected by this ruling are in that group, and they have infiltrated the Catholic Church. And again I speak from my own personal experience at activities during the 2008 election campaign at St. Bernard’s Church in Vernon, Connecticut. And in that reception, as I talked about the evils of Obama to that assembled group, I heard the infiltrators, let’s call them people who are covered by Undeniable Truth of Life Number 24, the feminists, the militant feminists who had haircuts that looked a certain way, who stated that they were four square behind Obama regardless of the fact —

RUSH: Right. It’s the same as, there are there people, and I don’t know if you are one of them, but there are people who believe that the priesthood has been infiltrated, compromised. Not taken over, but infiltrated by people who actually intend to do it harm. There are people that believe the Catholic Church as a target has been taken over or certainly infiltrated by people who are not Catholic, who are false Catholics with the express purpose of weakening the Church or ripping it apart. I know there are a lot of people that believe this. The practicing Catholics vote majority Republican. Among Catholics who attend mass every week, which is required, McCain won 55-43, for example.

Now, Catholics in name only will vote for Obama, but practicing Catholics, at least according to recent data, don’t. Well, they do, but they’re a minority. As I say for McCain, 55 to 43. It’s a touchy area. I know exactly what you’re thinking. It’s not new, and there have been people who have been called weak or sellout, not just Catholics, but every other institution that has a moral code or a strict political code still has people who don’t abide by it, don’t want to abide by it, but want the title. They want to be able to say, “Yes, I’m Catholic,” but they don’t follow it, really. This is gonna be true of any institution that there is. (interruption) Did who not anticipate this? Did they not anticipate the flare-up here? No, I think they clearly anticipated it. I think they like it.

My point is I think the regime loves irritating people like this. I think they love upsetting the applecart, and I think they love this show and others having this kind of thing happen on it. I think they relish it. They love taunting. They love taking on the traditions and the institutions. That’s why I think it’s funny when Mark Halperin says, “Well, weren’t prepared for this, wow, they really got caught here.” They didn’t get caught doing anything. They’re not surprised by this. They’ve intended to do this since 2009. But even so, even if they are surprised, it’s not gonna stop ’em. By definition, these people are authoritarians. They don’t care about opposition. If they did, they wouldn’t be doing 90% of what they’re doing. They don’t care about the opposition. I actually think they turn around, they enjoy it.

I’m not even talking a political sense here. Sure there is an element of this that is being done to placate, satisfy, energize the base, there’s no question about it. I’m talking about simply in terms of who they are. Yeah, there’s no question he’s unifying the base. He’s in trouble. If they back down, they’re gonna do it after Election Day, after Obama’s reelected, but this time around they’re not because he’s not gonna be reelected again, theoretically. There will be no accountability, no reason to back down. I mean do the NAGs back down? Does the ACLU ever back down? Planned Parenthood ever back down? They don’t back down and look at all the opposition they get. They enjoy it. They love seeing conservatives get upset about this. They just chuckle about it. They get behind closed doors and they laugh about it. Planned Parenthood’s already running ads in support of a mandate out there. They love it.

Now, the Heritage Foundation with their blog, Morning Bell, the title today: “Obamacare Awakens a Sleeping Giant.” This is how it begins. “It is a rare moment indeed when faith denominations of all stripes unite together in common cause, and it is rarer still when that cause is a political one, with a sole piece of legislation as its principal target. But when that law eviscerates the very foundation of religious liberty in America as protected under the First Amendment, it should not be surprising that Catholics and Jews, evangelical Christians, and mainline Lutherans alike find common cause in defense of their liberties. Such is the case with the firestorm of opposition to Obamacare and the Obama AdministrationÂ’s attack on religious liberty.” Here it is again for those of you just now getting up to speed on this.

“Under a new Obamacare mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the White House is mandating that virtually all religious employers, with the exception of churches, provide health care coverage for contraception — including abortion-inducing drugs — thereby trampling upon their constitutionally guaranteed free exercise of religion. And it is this mandate that has caused a vehement response in churches and synagogues across the country.” We played the sound bite of Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League. He “warned that the nation’s 70 million Catholics are ready to go to war with the [regime]’s dictates, saying, “‘maybe even in the streets.'” But Heritage points out here:

“The Catholic Church is not alone in its opposition to ObamacareÂ’s onslaught against religious freedom. David Addington, The Heritage FoundationÂ’s vice president of Domestic and Economic Policy, details the growing ranks of the faithful who say the [regime] has crossed a very dangerous line. The National Association of Evangelicals commented that ‘The HHS rules trample on our most cherished freedoms and set a dangerous precedent’ and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America stated, ‘In declining to expand the religious exemption within the healthcare reform law, the [regime]has disappointingly failed to respect the needs of religious organizations such as hospitals, social welfare organizations and more.'”


Who cares what they’re saying here, but the point is: They’re united in this. That’s why some people are hoping, thinking maybe a turning point has occurred here. Heritage does allude to the fact that the regime “is beginning to feel the pressure. On Sunday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius authored an op-ed in USA Today defending the [regime]Â’s actions, claiming that a very narrow exemption to the mandate is evidence that the White House is ‘working to strike the right balance between respecting religious beliefs and increasing women’s access to critical preventive health services.'” Well, you see right there that the regime, Sebelius-Obama, think that the Church and religious institutions are resulting in women being denied access to “critical preventive health services.”

Which is an out-and-out lie. Being a Catholic is a choice. You don’t have to be one. And if you are one, you can punt. The Catholic Church doesn’t have anywhere near the power Obama does. The Catholic Church doesn’t have near the power Obama wants! The Catholic Church can’t deny anybody anything. It’s something that the flock have to support and agree with. It’s part of the rules. This is why I’ve always marveled at the left’s attempt to challenge religious orthodoxy. “The Church must conform! The Church must modernize. The Church must realize it’s the 21st Century!” No! The Church is what it is. If people don’t want to follow along, that’s their business.

It’s not the government’s business to make any church or any religion “modernize,” quote, unquote, or get with the program or what have you. There is no permissible way the government can do this, according to our Constitution. But the Constitution doesn’t matter here, which is really what this is all about. The Constitution doesn’t matter to the regime. The regime is simply saying, “To hell with the Constitution. We’re gonna implement this regardless what the Constitution says!” But if you don’t like the Catholic Church view on abortion, if you don’t like their view on contraception, don’t be Catholic. If you don’t like what the Methodist Church says or if you don’t like what you hear in synagogue, don’t go. It’s as simple as that.

But Obama wants you to believe that the Church has all these prisoners. Everybody who shows up for Mass is a prisoner. They’re all wishing the Church would modernize and change. But the Church, being obstinate, won’t. What they don’t tell is people can get up and leave Mass. They can walk out of there if they don’t like it. They don’t have to sign up for the articles of faith. It’s theology. This is no place for the government to be. They are taking what are moral and religious beliefs and turning them into totally nothing but political elements multiply. And when it becomes political, then the regime says they can force people to agree with or not agree with or what have you. This is an abomination. The Catholic Church is just the latest springboard. The target here is the Constitution of the United States, pure and simple.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Who’s next on the phone? Dick in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. You are truly the evangelist for the American way. I appreciate you taking my call. In your assessment of this imposition of a federal religion, you’re exactly right. I’m involved in it personally right now with one of the cabinet members — cabinet-level members — arguing this. But the other thing that has fallen aside in these two pieces of recent history with the court decision is an age-old support by the courts for communities to establish their own mores and standards. It’s why communities were allowed not to have bars or strip clubs near churches and schools. It’s why we don’t have public sex. It’s why we don’t have nudity on billboards. California, taken as a community… And that used to be the ruling. If all the people in that community were affected and they spoke loudly, which is what a ballot does —

RUSH: In fact, I can give you the phrase that the court handed down: “Contemporary community standards.”

CALLER: That’s correct. And that was long upheld by the courts. And in this case it’s a first reversal, and the domino effect could be just atrocious across the country. It’s extraordinary. The court has always said that the people… I can’t vote to say that Detroit can’t do something, and the people in Sterling Heights can’t dictate to people below Eight Mile, but if the whole community speaks loudly the courts have always observed it. And this is the first time they haven’t.

RUSH: Well, that’s true, but, of course, it’s really not true any longer.

CALLER: Correct.

RUSH: Because now you’ve got people like the Ninth “Circus” Court of Appeals saying that’s unconstitutional.

CALLER: Well, this is… You know, Rush, not to be reactionary, but when from the federal government down starts it to impose what equates to a state religion, isn’t this an impeachable offense?

RUSH: Ummm… (sigh)

CALLER: If a certain murder, incest —

RUSH: Let me put it to you this way.


CALLER: — that general mores held by all churches stand one way and the court says, “No, you’re going to believe this…” This is the argument I’m having with one of the secretaries, a cabinet member right now. I work for the federal government and one of the things they’re imposing on us is this idea of celebrating these alternative lifestyles, and I have protested saying, “I won’t bother anybody and I’m not going to try evangelize them, but you can’t use the force of government to make me celebrate these things.”

RUSH: I understand. As it relates to your question: “Is it impeachable?” In the instance that you’ve sighted, even if it is, nobody’s gonna pursue it. I don’t know that what you’ve described rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor. It’s just unconstitutional. You can do unconstitutional things all day until somebody stops you. A court stops you. Congress stops you. You can do unconstitutional things. This is the whole point of a loyal opposition. Obama can violate the Constitution all day long, make recess appointments when there aren’t any recesses. If the people that run the Senate are not gonna stand up for themselves, there’s nothing to stop him. Harry Reid clearly is not gonna stop him. Same party.

So if the Republicans in the Senate do nothing but get on TV and issue their statements of high dudgeon, in which they “profoundly disrespect this callous regard for the Constitution” and they go back to the bar, nothing’s gonna happen to stop ’em. Somebody has to take action. Somebody has to implement the tools that are available to stop this. So a president can be as unconstitutional as he chooses to be until somebody tries to stop him. And I don’t see any of that. Because it’s an election year. And I’m telling you: What’s governing this Election Year on the Republican establishment side, is fear. Fear paralyzes people. When fear becomes terror, literal paralysis takes place for a while. You may ask, “Well, what’s the Republican Party afraid of?” They’re afraid of the independents! Or they’re afraid of what the consultants are telling them about the independents, and they’re afraid they’re gonna be called racists if they oppose Obama too much or too loudly.

And so fear has ’em paralyzed.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is Annette in Highland, Illinois. Welcome to the program. Hi.

CALLER: Thanks for taking my call. Snerdley said I have a minute so I have to get right to it. I know a lot of Catholics — I’m not Catholic, but I know a lot of Catholics — and they will vote for Obama no matter what.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Mostly because they’re union teachers, employees. And the ideology, I guess, and the liberalism comes way before the faith for these people.

RUSH: Exactly right. They’re Catholics fourth or fifth.

CALLER: And the other thing is, as far as it upsetting the Muslims I guess who are voting, I don’t see that happening, either. Because Islamic faith is very anti-homosexual, and Barack Obama has been so much to liberate and to cave in to the special interests of homosexuals, and that hasn’t seemed to bother ’em, either. So I think this points out, his election points out a very serious crisis of faith in this country.

RUSH: Well, it’s been the case for a long time, too. How old are you, if you don’t mind my asking. You don’t have to answer but if you don’t mind my asking…?

CALLER: I’m 44.

RUSH: Forty-four. Well, it’s been going on longer than you have been paying attention. People have been talking about it. Hollywood Jewish people, they’re Jewish third or fourth. The fact that their liberals is first. With leftists, that’s first, second, and third of their lives. Everything else comes next, as you’ve noted.

CALLER: Yeah. And these are serious, practicing Catholics. These aren’t people who just, you know, talk the talk. They actually pray.

RUSH: I’m sorry, I gotta run. I appreciate the call.

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