RUSH: Here’s Obama yesterday in Reno. He had a town hall. Now, you talk about a guy with a chip on his shoulder? It’s the same chip on his shoulder that our caller had.
OBAMA: Part of what we have to do with our tax code is also end some of the tax cuts that were instituted for the wealthiest Americans. I say that not because I want to punish success. I’m… I — I — I’m rooting for everybody to get rich. But I believe that we can’t ask everybody t’sacrifice and then tell the wealthiest among us, “Well, you can just relax and go count your money and don’t worry about it. We’re — we’re not gonna ask anything of you.”
RUSH: “We’re not gonna ask anything of you. Just go sit and count your money,” as though they were sitting idly one day, minding their own business, and then got rich. Yeah, they haven’t paid any taxes. They just sat around and life’s lottery happened to shine on them! They didn’t work hundred hours or anything. No, they just happened to become rich and we can’t let them get away with that. But that he isn’t the most hideous thing here. The most hideous thing here is when he lies and tells people he’s rooting for everybody to get rich.
His policies are designed to prevent that from happening. Obama’s economic policies are meant to destroy the ability to create wealth. Hell, Obama’s policies are destroying the creation of wealth, and for him to sit there and say that his objective is for everybody to get rich is an out-and-out lie. He doesn’t want that to happen. He does want to punish success because he’s doing it. In that sound bite he’s doing it. He’s punishing success by mischaracterizing these people. When he starts talking about these millionaires and billionaires, don’t forget who he’s talking about: He’s talking about those of you who earn $250,000 a year.
You are now millionaires and billionaires. If you have small business — you’re subchapter S and you file your tax return on a personal 1040 form — you’re rich. You’re a target. You’re a millionaire; you’re a billionaire. “We aren’t gonna ask anything of you” except for you to pay 40% of your wealth in taxes. That’s all we’re gonna ask of you. We can’t have everybody else to sacrifice and then… That’s the other thing: What are all these other people “sacrificing”? When the bottom 50% of income earners pays 2% of the tax bite, where’s the sacrifice here? What he means by “sacrifice,” when he says, “We can’t ask everybody to sacrifice,” is he’s talking about the unfortunate and the unlucky who didn’t get rich.
See, getting rich in Obama’s world is not because of hard work. It’s because of luck, or you cheated somebody, or you defrauded somebody. It’s not because of hard work. We had a great caller in our last hour yesterday who said, “I’m sick and tired of hearing these people vilified. They have invented things for us. They have created products and services that have made our lives better. Why are we vilifying them?” I told this story before. Reagan was governor of California. I believe it was the free speech movement, although don’t quote me on that, but the students at UC Berkeley were raising hell about something, and they demanded to meet with Reagan.
The Governor granted the meeting to some of the student leaders — and at the meeting, the student leaders said to Reagan (summarized), “You don’t know what we’re going through! You don’t know what our lives are like. You’re just an old man. You’re outta touch. You have no idea what we want in our future. I mean, you didn’t have phones growing up. You didn’t have airplanes growing up. You had nothing! You can’t relate to us in any way.” Reagan just sat there and listened to ’em complain, and when the student leaders finished telling Reagan how out of touch he was because of how old he was — and how he had nothing in common with them — he looked at the student leaders and he said, “You know, you’re right. We didn’t have those things. We had to invent them for you.”
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Why is Obama ratcheting up all of his attacks on rich people? I know it satisfies his base, but he doesn’t care about the base. They have nowhere to go. But I mean he’s out there, while raising money from the rich he is ripping them to shreds. He’s pummeling ’em. He’s out in California talking to the Hollywood left, anybody that’s got any kind of money at all, and they’re freely giving it to him. The Spielbergs and the Katzenbergs and everybody else out there, the Clooneys of the world, they can’t line up fast enough to give this guy big bucks. But I’ll tell you what, ripping into the rich, it sure does separate them from their money. If they think Draconian taxes are coming, and they’ve given money to Obama, maybe they can get a waiver. Ha. But he’s scaring the fat cats, (imitating Obama) “You guys better get on board with me. You’re in for a tough ride, unless you’re my friend.” I don’t think there’s any doubt about this. Go to the audio sound bites. Here’s Obama announcing that he’s gonna have Eric Holder form this commission to find out what’s going on with gas prices.
OBAMA: I asked my attorney general to look into any cases of price gouging so he can make sure nobody’s being taken advantage of at the pump. Today I’m gonna go a step further. The attorney general’s putting together a team whose job it is to root out any cases of fraud or manipulation in the oil markets that might affect gas prices, and that includes the role of traders and speculators. We’re gonna make sure that nobody’s taking advantage of American consumers for their own short-term gain.
RUSH: Right on. Right on, right on, right on, right on, same old rhetoric. It’s gotta be somebody in the evil private sector doing it and it can’t have anything to do with his drilling moratorium, oh, no, no, no. It can’t have anything to do with his overall economic policy which is depressing and suppressing investment, economic growth. He also suggested on Thursday that his lagging poll numbers are due to high gas prices. That’s all it is. If it weren’t for those speculators, if it weren’t for those gas prices, he’d be up to 60% he thinks, that’s what he’s telling people. He’d be at 60% approval if it weren’t for the gas prices. Now, let’s revisit what was said the last time gasoline was four dollars a gallon. We have three stories here. The theme is the same. It’s the fault of the president of the United States. It was a crisis. Americans were suffering. Bush was to blame. Bush caused a weak dollar. He wouldn’t release oil from the strategic reserve. His energy policy was terrible.
First story is Politico, Martin Frost, June 10th of 2008. “High oil prices? Weak dollar? Blame Bush — Few issues focus the public’s attention on politics like the price of gasoline. It keeps going up, the public wants relief, and politicians are held accountable for not fixing the situation. Yet to solve the problem, you first need to know the cause of the illness. Why do gasoline prices keep going up? Is it because Congress and President Bush have not fashioned energy policies to reduce our dependence on foreign oil? Clearly that’s part of the answer. Our government can do more to reduce demand and increase supply through conservation, auto fuel efficiency standards, tax breaks and subsidies for development of alternative energy sources, and incentives to drill more in the US But that’s not the entire story. The immediate cause of rising oil prices is the weak dollar.” This is Martin Frost in 2008. Oil producing countries are requiring more dollars to purchase the same barrel of oil because the dollar’s worth less today than it was a few years ago. The same story could be written today, but it isn’t being written.
The next story comes from Fox News, July 8th of 2008: “Pelosi Asks Bush to Draw from Petroleum Reserve to Combat Surge in Oil Prices.” Now, remember, we’re talking about four-dollar-a-gallon here, four years ago. “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Bush on Tuesday to draw down a portion of the country’s strategic petroleum reserves as a way to reduce crude prices and help motorists who are suffering from the rising cost of gasoline.” And then from Politics USA, April 26, 2008: “Democrats Blame Bush and Republicans for High Gas and Oil Prices — This week Senator Frank Lautenberg delivered the Democrat radio address. Lautenberg placed the blame for high prices of gasoline and oil firmly at the feet of George W. Bush and the Republican Party.” And the media is reporting all of this with applause and happiness and an echo. We are not seeing a repeat of any of this. No, Obama cares. Obama cares. Don’t forget Bush caused Katrina, too, and that drove up gas prices. Bush steered that hurricane right in there because he didn’t like black people. That’s what Spike Lee said. (interruption) Yeah, Kanye West said Bush didn’t like black people. It was Spike Lee who said he steered the hurricane in there. You’re right. Thanks for the correction. I want to make sure I get that kind of stuff right. The appropriate quotes applied to the accurate source. Now gas prices are high. Obama is not to blame. He’s doing everything he can to bring prices down, so here he is yesterday, Reno, Nevada, at a town hall.
OBAMA: I remember before I was president the last time gas prices went up this high, it’s tough. And if you’re somebody who’s gotta drive 20 miles, 30 miles to a job and maybe you don’t have the money to buy a new car that gets better gas mileage, so you have that old beater, it’s eight miles a gallon, you know. I’ve been there. It hurts.
RUSH: (imitating Obama) “I’ve been there.” When did you ever have a job? When did he ever have a job? That’s just a sideline question. So gas prices are high. You can’t afford a new car. Happily presiding over America’s decline. What are you to do? Obama has the answer.
OBAMA: I’ve been in one of these Chevy Volts. That is a nice car. It drives really well. So for all of you out there who are still driving those eight mile a gallon big SUVs, you know, some — some of you, you know, that’s the car you got to drive right now, you can’t afford a new car, but when you do decide to buy a new car, think about the fact that we’re putting a whole bunch of money into the pockets of some folks in some cases who don’t like us at all, we’re just giving away our wealth. That makes no sense.
RUSH: I tell you, folks, I get notes from people, “How do you put up with the stupidity of some of the people that call you?” That’s not the question. Those are educational opportunities. The real question for me is how do I politely put up with the stupidity that is Obama?
END TRANSCRIPT
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.