×

Rush Limbaugh

For a better experience,
download and use our app!

The Rush Limbaugh Show Main Menu

Listen to it Button

RUSH: Did you know, folks, that if you work hard, you can get ahead? Did you know that? I vaguely remember hearing some nutcases say that, but I didn’t believe it. But, yeah, I was just watching the president. There’s a thing going on at the White House called the college costs summit. And President Obama’s there, along with the first lady, Moochelle.

By the way, Saturday night at the White House, big gala, 50th birthday party for Moochelle. I’ve never heard of this at this kind of thing. Guests are being told to eat dinner before arriving, because this is a party not paid for by the taxpayers. The Obamas are springing for this, and they’re not serving any food. They’re not spending their own money.

If it’s a state dinner or if it’s something official, they can go hog wild and spend everybody else’s money and throw a big bash. But there’s no way — this is in the New York Daily News — there is no way that they can fudge this. It’s her birthday party, nothing state official about it. And, as such, they have to pay for it personally, and they’ve sent out invitations that made no bones about it: Eat before you show up.

Well, alcohol, they’ll probably have some e-cigarettes rolling around. Who knows what they’re gonna have. But whoever heard of this, eat before you arrive? It’s a 50th birthday party, first lady, don’t expect any food when you show up here because we’re tightwads. Since we have to pay for this ourselves, you don’t get squat, is essentially what that means. Anyway, that’s just a brief diversion. (interruption) Well, I’m not gonna comment on — (interruption) Michelle did speak earlier, and in fact we’ve got a sound bite. Do you want to hear what she said? She’s at the summit, the college costs summit. Now, before I play the sound bite, do you know where Michelle Obama is from?

She’s from Chicago. Her parents, upper middle class. Her father was in the transit authority, some such thing. I mean, they were not hurting in the Michelle Robinson household. They were far from hurting. Michelle’s brother is a big-time college basketball coach. She ended up with a $350,000 a year no-show job at a hospital. But listen to her. Again, this is a summit. This is a college costs summit. And Obama did say, I heard him say it. He said, “If you work hard, you can get ahead in this country.” That that’s been the promise from the first days of this country. If you work hard, you can get ahead.


I’ve heard him say that a lot, actually. He said that, I don’t know, multiple times every year of his administration, whether he’s been talking about the economy or now college costs. He also said that we do not strive for equal outcomes. We strive for equal opportunity. He said that the only way to become anything, the real only way is to get a degree. Now, the purpose of the summit is that college costs, tuition costs are out of control. And so, as usual, there’s a summit between Obama and Michelle and some college presidents and probably Thomas “Loopy” Friedman of the New York Times, and they’re having a summit.

The way it works with these people, they will have their summit today, they will gather around and talk about the problem, and they will praise each other for the sensitivity and the compassion and the understanding they have, and then the summit will end, and they will consider the problem dealt with. Since they spoke about it, it will have been addressed. And that pretty much sums up how Obama has tackled everything that is spiraling out of control, such as the economy. How many jobs summits have there been? How many economic summits have there been? How many economic plans? How many programs, pieces of legislation, like the stimulus? We’re into the sixth year, and the president is talking about this as though he’s not even in office yet.

We have an economy spiraling downward into near invisibility, and the president is telling people that if you work hard, you can get ahead. The fact is, that’s not the case as much as it used to be. That’s one of the reasons why 92 million Americans are not working. They haven’t found work and, B, the work they have found has not been a route to anything because the quality of work is declining, because the economy is in the tank.

And because of Obamacare, hours are being reduced so that new jobs, the vast majority, are part-time, which is not how you build a career, which is not how you get ahead. If you’re only gonna be paid to work 29 hours a week, where is the working hard in that?

But here’s what Michelle said. She’s from Chicago. She has come from an affluent family. Her father worked for the Chicago Water Department. Her father had a patronage job, Mayor Daley. Her father was a precinct captain for Mayor Daley. They were not hurting. There was no economic strife in the Michelle Robinson house, and here she is talking about how out of place that she felt. She was talking about the struggle and the frustration of being a minority.

“A first-generation college student,” she talked about herself.

What is that, by the way? What is a first-generation…? (interruption) Is that just a…? (interruption) Okay, that’s what that is? The first kid in your family to go to college? That’s what first-generation…? (interruption) Right. The first generation. You’re maybe not necessarily the first person, but the first generation of the family, like her brother and her. She was the first generation, so her brother was the first of their family’s generations to go to college? (interruption) Right, because she was a “first-generation college student,” struggling and frustrated at Princeton.

Here’s what she said about it…

MICHELLE: I was a little overwhelmed and a little isolated. But then I had an opportunity to participate in a three-week, on-campus orientation program that helped me get a feel for the rhythm of college life — and once school started, I discovered the Campus Cultural Center, the Third World Center, where I found students and staff who came from families and communities that were similar to my own.

RUSH: Third World Center? That’s where she found comfort from the struggle and the frustration? The Third World Center? Her father worked for the Chicago Water Department. They’re from Chicago, not Ken…

Be back after this, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, folks, didn’t the New York Times…? Yes, they did, ’cause I shared it with you. On January 4th, the New York Times had a piece about how working hard and climbing the success ladder can make you sick. Remember that? We heralded that story. We talked about it quite a bit here, with the usual degree of incredulity. I mean, it was obviously a story written to accommodate the horrible economy that we’ve got in this country.

Nobody can find meaningful work. There aren’t any careers to be had except for the… I realize there are gonna be entrepreneurs. There’s always gonna be a percentage of population that’s gonna triumph no matter what, and that’s always been the case. But having an economic life, an economy that allows for upward mobility for the vast majority of members of the middle class has always been part of the capitalist orientation of this country, and that’s what’s being destroyed.

Entrepreneurs and people that overcome, the uniquely talented, they’re always gonna be there, and they’re always gonna triumph no matter what obstacles. They’re not the problem — and even Obama’s policies, while they are damaged by them, these are people that creatively find ways around them. But the upward mobility of the middle class has always been one of the things that has set this country apart. That’s what’s gone.

I mean, Obama on Tuesday, said that he would start using executive orders if he had to, to make things equal. There’s still too much inequality in this country; he’s not gonna wait for Congress anymore. So he said he has “a phone,” and that means he can call his community organizer buddies at ACORN and the like and start raising hell, and he’s got “a pen,” meaning he can sign executive orders.

To hell with Congress and the Constitution! He said then (impression), “If you work hard, you get ahead. That’s the American promise, the American dream.” You work hard? He just mouths that off; that’s part of the illusion of Barack Obama trying to make people think that he is a traditional American, and he’s not. He’s a transformational American. He doesn’t like American tradition. He doesn’t believe, “If you can work hard…” That’s his problem.


Barack Obama and the left are a group of people that think that the game is rigged because of capitalism. The rich have all the money and they’re never gonna share it, and no matter how hard you work, you don’t get anywhere except the shaft. That’s what he really believes. But he knows that most Americans do not want a country led by somebody who thinks like that. Most Americans instinctively think their president holds the same values they do.

That is what’s so difficult about educating people about Obama and other leftists like him, is most people assume that presidents have the same value structure that they do, and this one doesn’t. This one doesn’t believe that working hard will get you there because he thinks the game’s rigged. He think it’s unfair, it’s immoral, it’s unjust, and the rich are in charge of everything, and he wants to be one of the rich someday — and in socialism, that’s how the rich get rich, by getting powerful first.

Don’t work hard; just get powerful.

Don’t work hard, don’t study a lot, don’t spend a lot of time on things. Just get power, and that allows you to take money — and that’s how socialists get rich, off of power, not hard work. Obama does not believe that, I’m telling you. That’s why he mouths it all the time. He thinks that’s what you want to hear, and as long as you think your president believes in that standard American value — hard work is the ticket, hard work is how you get where you want to go.

As long as you think that’s what he believes, you’re cool with whatever he does. If you knew that he’s just mouthing that, he’s just uttering the syllables — and he does utter the syllables. When he talks about this, it’s exactly the same word-for-word every time he talks about it. If you search your memory banks on this, you’ll know I’m right. You’ve heard him talk about this.

So one of his ways here of transformation is getting rid of this illusion. Hard work isn’t how you get anywhere! That’s a big myth that the white, European, rich, power structure has made people believe. But it isn’t true. Most people get the shaft! Most people get screwed. So we are here specifically to equalize outcomes. That’s exactly what he wants to do, and that’s what the purpose of the redistribution of wealth is all about. So, anyway, in this circumstance, we’ve got a declining economy, and look at this.

Gallup: “More Americans Are Worse Off Financially Than a Year Ago,” and that has been true every year in this poll. Every year, and the number is increasing. “More Americans Are Worse Off Financially Than a Year Ago.” This year the number’s 42%. That’s stunning, but it’s been the result every year. The numbers change, but more Americans every year, more and more Americans are worse off financially.

So the New York Times on January 4th, in a bid to help Obama, runs a story, runs a column. (paraphrased) “You know what? Hard work, this intense success track can make you sick! It can lead to all kinds of stress and injury and illness, psychosomatic disorders. It’s really not all it’s cracked up to be.” A piece like that is meant to cushion the blow of the reality that our economy stinks. Well, it’s designed to get people saying, “You know what?

“Okay, so I’m not succeeding, but that may be good! You know what? That may be good ’cause I read the other day that success equals getting sick. I don’t want to get sick.” That’s the purpose of a story like that. It’s like A-Rod. Have you heard A-Rod’s latest? A-Rod opened a gym in Mexico City, a physical fitness gym, and he spoke for about a minute, and he said, “You know what?”

He didn’t use the word “suspension,” but he implied that not playing next year is actually gonna be a good thing. (paraphrased) “Yeah. You know what? I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I haven’t had a summer off. I haven’t had a break. This is really going to be timed well. This is exactly what the doctor ordered.” Really? Is that why you’ve spent more money than you have on lawyers trying to defeat this suspension?

So it’s a frustrating thing to me. To hear this man, Obama, utter these syllables: “You work hard, you get…” He doesn’t believe it. In fact, not believing that forms one of the pillars of his foundation. The fact that that isn’t possible, in his view — that it’s one of the biggest lies capitalism has ever put forth, it’s one of the biggest lies people in power have used to subdue the population, this myth that if you work hard, you can get ahead — in Obama’s world, that is nothing more than exploitation.

You go out and tell people, “Work hard, really just bust your butt, and you’ll get ahead,” and that’s nothing more than a trick employed by the rich to get cheap labor. This is how they look at it, folks. Please do not doubt me. In Obama’s world, everybody in capitalism is a victim. In Obama’s world, everybody’s stupid. Everybody’s getting played every day by the rich, by the successful, by the powerful.

Now here’s Michelle Obama from Chicago, “first-generation college student” who goes to Princeton. They got a great affirmative action program there, and she felt so out of place. She didn’t get into the rhythm of college until she found the Third World Center. Her thesis, by the way, was Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community and how Princeton made it miserable for black people.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This