RUSH: Bob in Colorado Springs. It’s great to have you on the program. Glad you waited. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Yeah, Rush, how you doing?
RUSH: Good.
CALLER: Good. Hey, I agree with Ann Coulter that give the Republicans a chance to blow an election, after Rove and everybody else is going after Christine O’Donnell. I got a question for you, Rush. Government jobs —
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: — the Republicans haven’t been able to distinguish, at least most people that I know, why are government jobs so inferior to the private sector? And you’re a numbers guy, right?
RUSH: I’m a literal guy, numbers guy, exactly right.
CALLER: Yeah, you’re a literal numbers guy. Okay. Say, for instance, a government job, somebody was making $60,000 a year. Let’s just hypothetically say that. Okay, and they’re in the 20% bracket. That means the government is still on the hook for $48,000. Wouldn’t that be correct?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Okay, well, the private sector job, if they made that same — or the job is worth $60,000, the government makes, we’re just talking about the federal income tax here —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — the government clears $12,000. Now, nobody in the media or Republicans or any of the sort have come out and said that.
RUSH: Well, I don’t know that the Republicans, but a lot of people are talking about it, Bob. There are a lot of people talking about the fact that government doesn’t create wealth, it only consumes it. This is what you’re saying. What Bob’s example is saying is, a government worker 60 grand, hypothetical number, the government pays somebody 60, meaning we pay 60, the government takes 20 of it back, whatever the tax rate is, but the government is still out, using the example 40, meaning us, meaning it costs all kinds of money to hire government workers, much more than the private sector doing it because the tax revenue they collect from government workers is blown away by how much they pay government workers. That’s what Bob’s saying, and Bob is exactly right here. But it’s worse than what you said, Bob, because the average government worker makes twice what the private sector worker makes and aside from the Chevrolet Volt, doesn’t make anything.
Look, this is not a slight to government workers, don’t take this personally but there’s nothing produced. Government does not create wealth. It confiscates it. That’s all it does. Doesn’t produce wealth, doesn’t create wealth, and people who voted for Obama are starting to figure this out. That’s what Velma Hart was essentially saying to Obama. ‘I’m exhausted defending you. When’s all this magic supposed to happen? Is this my lot in life? Is this my new reality?’ You know, where’s the new car, where’s the new kitchen? You know, where’s the vacation to Port-au-Prince? Where’s my cruise ship food that I can throw away? Where is it? Not out there. No, but Bob, the Republicans, your expectations here — nobody’s gonna run for office bashing government jobs. Those are voters and there are more and more of them, there are millions of them out there, Bob. And, you know, the more government workers there are the less work each of them has to do.
Anyway, Castro has figured out what the caller is saying. That’s why he’s firing 500,000 of them. Castro’s finally figured out after all these years that his government’s gone broke paying all these people. He tried to buy ’em off with rice cookers. Do you know I finally saw my first rice cooker? I didn’t even know what a rice cooker was, until they have a rally on Washington about rice cookers I guess I wouldn’t know what one is. But Team Vodka, golf team tournament out in Hawaii, Hartley’s place, he hired a woman to come in and cook breakfast every morning and she had a rice cooker there, and fried rice was part of breakfast every morning. I had never seen one. It’s sitting there on the counter, I said, ‘What is that?’ ‘That’s a right cooker.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s what Castro gave –‘ (interruption) Snerdley is rolling his eyes, you can’t believe I’m admitting this. Mr. Snerdley, see, I’m perfectly comfortable admitting this. I live in Literalville. We don’t have a rice cooker at my house. Well, yeah, the rice is cooked the old-fashioned way. We either get simple rice in the bag, put it in there and heat it up and let it evaporate. The way I make rice, get a kettle of water and chicken broth, brown rice, bring it to a boil, let the rice soak that up, it’s delicious. Yeah, I love rice. I know how to make rice, fried rice. Yes, I know how to cook it, but I do not have a rice cooker. I’ve never seen one. What’s the dig deal I’ve never even seen a rice cooker? You know, I’ve never seen a bamboo steamer except on TV.