×

Rush Limbaugh

For a better experience,
download and use our app!

The Rush Limbaugh Show Main Menu

RUSH: I was just watching a little bit of Obama at his town meeting down in Fort Myers. This was quite telling. A guy stands up during the Q&A, President Obama, thanks for coming. ‘I have a question which represents question held by a lot of my friends and family down here.’ Yeah, what is your question? ‘Well, we want to know about government benefits. I just lost my job. I lost my job a long time ago actually I’ve been unemployed., I haven’t been able to pay all the bills. I was making,’ what did he say? ‘$3,600 a month. I got laid off. I got fired. My unemployment benefits are $1,100 a month. When is the government going to make up the difference? How come when I lose my job, the government doesn’t pay me what I was making when I got fired or laid off?’

Now, I’m watching this. (sigh) Now, I have had fears that there is a growing segment of the population that thinks that way. I just saw it! And there was robust applause when this guy asked the question, not robust, but there was some support. ‘Yeah! Amen! How come I don’t get all my salary when I got fired? How come unemployment benefits aren’t my whole salary?’ and Obama is kind of taken aback. ‘Well, I’ll be the first to admit that unemployment is not perfect. Unemployment. But I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you, it’s never gonna — never gonna be $3,600. It’s never going to be that. We might be able to increase unemployment by another hundred dollars a month, but we’re not going to be able to 3,600,’ and the kid kind of had a look on his face of surprise.

Which takes me, ladies and gentlemen, to a New York Times story by Robert Pear, January 28th. ‘Relief Seen for Jobless and States in Health Care Plan — The stimulus bill working its way through Congress is not just a package of spending increases and tax cuts,’ there aren’t any tax cuts, by the way, ‘intended to jolt the nation out of recession. For Democrats, it is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the unemployed, in ways they have long yearned to do. With little notice and no public hearings, House Democrats would create a temporary new entitlement allowing workers getting unemployment checks to qualify for Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. Spouses and children could also receive benefits, no matter how much money the family had.’

‘Spouses and children could also receive benefits, no matter how much money the family had’!

‘In addition, the stimulus package would offer a hefty subsidy to help laid-off workers retain the same health plans they had from their former employers. Altogether, the economic recovery bill would speed $127 billion over the next two and a half years to individuals and states for health care alone, a fact that has Republicans fuming that the stimulus package is a back door to universal health coverage. ‘It’s raining money,’ said Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas.’ I’m not going to read the whole story to you. It’s a long story, but it makes it plain that all this is being done in coordination with Obama. There is this myth going on out there that Pelosi did this on her own, that Obama farmed it out. That’s not true. Nothing that is said about these people is ever the total truth.

Obama is working hand-in-hand… The New York Times reports this January 28th. Obama is coordinating this effort, but the first paragraph here, ‘The stimulus bill working its way through Congress is not just a package of spending increases and tax cut intended to jolt the nation out of recession. For Democrats, it is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the unemployed, in ways they have long yearned to do.’ So you see it’s not just a war on the achievers. It’s an effort to buy votes to cement the power of the Democrat Party for generations, as I said when I was interviewed by Sean Hannity and when I wrote my response to Obama criticizing me. This is about fixing the ‘problem’ that occurred in the early nineties when the Democrats lost power in the House of Representatives.

The idea that this is about getting you a job, the idea that this is about reinvigorating the US economy, it is not true. This is about the Democrats being able to do what they’ve wanted to do for years, decades, and have been frustrated. Now they’ve got the White House. Now they’ve got the House and the Senate. They’ve got some compliant RINOs in the Senate, and they are all about implementing these new — well, it’s not new. They’re just going to expand the entire notion that life’s losers deserve the rewards — and when I say ‘life’s losers,’ I’m talking about people that are not even incentivized to work. I don’t mean losers in the sense of their personality.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Remember all this talk about Obama’s a centrist? Remember all of the conservative media intelligentsia — I don’t need to mention the names, you know who they are — ‘Hey, he’s a centrist, look at these guys he’s appointing to his cabinet, centrists all.’ And I was shocked and stunned. Why, this guy is the most liberal president we’ve ever elected, and he’s racing to the left as fast as he can. I remember being admonished by people, ‘Rush, you’re really overreacting here. Obama’s a centrist. He’s going to haul the line here, he’s a great moderate.’ I can understand people on the left being bamboozled, but people on our side… you know, this is the thing. I mentioned the two Americas, and I’ve got some sound bites coming up after the break, some of the questions Obama got today.

The last question of the day to Obama in Fort Myers from Julio, Julio stands up and says, (paraphrasing) ‘I’ve been working at McDonald’s for four years, and I can’t get any other job. What are you going to do? What are you going to do to get me a job outside of McDonald’s?’ There’s another bite coming up here, a crying woman named Henrietta asks Obama for a car, for a new kitchen and a bathroom. I am not kidding! We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help. And Obama says, ‘Well, what is your name?’ And she says, ‘It’s Henrietta Hughes.’ And Obama tells her to talk to his staff after the town hall. She asks for a car, a kitchen, and a bathroom. These are the people, I’m telling you, we saw what we saw last night. These people saw, if they watched this press conference, they saw a guy who, in their eyes, only cares about getting them a job, don’t care about anything else, or getting them a kitchen, or a car. His own brother, he’s not even bought his brother a pot.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: And we’re working on the McDonald’s dude, so we’ve got one, two, three sound bites here from the Obama press — well, the town hall meeting in Fort Myers, Florida, today. Now, I want you to stop and think of something, folks. And, by the way, those of you on the phone, please stay there. I’m gonna get to you el quicko, it’s gonna happen soon, but I gotta get these in. As you listen to these, I want you to imagine yourself at the town meeting. The president of the United States arrives. You are in the same room as the president of the United States. You are chosen to ask the president of the United States a question. You listen to the questions that are asked of the president of the United States by people who will have one shot in their lives to talk to him. It’s disgraceful. I’m just telling you here in advance, it is an absolute disgrace.

However, let’s not be too hard on our fellow citizens who showed up in Fort Myers today with their one opportunity to talk to the president of the United States, and they begged for a car and a kitchen. Let’s not be too hard on them. Something had to give them the idea that that’s what his presidency was going to be about. Something had to make them think that’s what was on tap for them. I remember seeing video on YouTube during the campaign of people in various parts of the country saying Obama was gonna make sure their gas tank was always full. There are people who thought, for some reason — I wonder why — that that’s what his presidency would mean to them. So first is Obama explaining the health care provisions in the stimulus bill, and now that we know what questions were asked, we know how this probably was received. This was probably boring, they were just impatient. I imagine all of this just went over the heads of the people at the town meeting.

OBAMA: Our health care system is so inefficient, you go into the hospital and what’s the first thing you’ve gotta do? You’ve gotta fill out so many forms, and there’s paperwork. Then you go and you get your examination, and they’ve got a clipboard with all this paper on it, we’ve got all this bureaucracy. One of the simplest, most effective things that we could do is to convert from a paper system to an electronic data system. So in this plan, one of the things that we do is we say, we are going to computerize our health care system, institute health IT. That creates jobs right now for people to convert —

RUSH: Okay, so this crowd, all they want is a kitchen. All they want is a car and he’s talking about their medical records being computerized and hiring — can you imagine most of the people in this crowd, ‘What’s IT? What does he mean IT?’ If you’re just now leaving the town meeting and you’re listening, IT is information technology, he’s going to go out and hire a bunch of keypunchers to enter the data into the national computerized health care database, your health records. All right, here’s the woman, it’s really sad. As an American this is embarrassing, and it’s sad, but there’s a reason why, there’s a reason why this woman takes her one chance to talk to the president of the United States and ask and beg for a car and a kitchen.

WOMAN: I respect you and I’m so grateful for you.

OBAMA: Thank you.

WOMAN: Been praying for you. But —

OBAMA: I believe in prayer, so I appreciate that.

WOMAN: I have an urgent need, unemployment and homelessness, a very small vehicle for my family and place to live in, we it need urgent, and housing authority have two years waiting on this thing and we need something more than a vehicle and parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom. Please help.

OBAMA: Well, I — listen, I — what’s your name? What’s your name?

WOMAN: It’s Henrietta Hughes.

OBAMA: Okay, Ms. Hughes, we’re going to do everything we can to help you, but there are a lot of people like you. We’re going to do everything we can, all right? But the, uh, I’ll have my staff talk to you after this, uh, after the — the town hall, all right?

RUSH: Do you think that the people who chose these people to ask questions on the Obama staff might have jobs right now? Did they purposely select these people for these questions? Do you think so? If they didn’t, some heads are going to roll. If they did purposely scour that crowd for these kinds of questions, and there was more than just this one, so you have to assume this is what they wanted. They want people looking at Obama this way. (doing Obama impression) ‘Well, okay, going to do everything we can to help you, a lot of people in your position, we can help you, have to talk to staff after the town hall.’ Do you hear the applause when the woman says needed a car, new vehicle, new house, ‘Yeah!’ And when Obama said, ‘A lot of people like you.’ ‘Yeah!’ So we can sit there all day long and we can wax eloquent about how this guy comes off and how he’s just wandering aimlessly, incoherent, but these people watching him last night and listening today, they think he’s going to get ’em a job. Here’s the guy I told you about, unidentified guy who wants his full salary to be made up in unemployment compensation.

MAN: Usually what happens is when you apply for governmental assistance, they say, well, you make too much money. How — if you go from making $3,000 a year, a month, to $1,100 a month, how are you able to take care of your families, why can’t we have that be automatic, that goes along with your unemployment tenure that you can get government assistance, that’s an automatic for you.

OBAMA: Well, look, unemployment insurance is not ideal. People want a job. They don’t want unemployment insurance.

RUSH: Wrong.

OBAMA: But when the jobs aren’t out here, it’s tough. But I want to be honest with you. We are bumping up unemployment insurance. As I said, tens of thousands of people will be getting an extra hundred dollars a month, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but that means an extra bill that you can pay. I’ll be honest with you, though, we’re not going to be able to take it from $1,100 up to $3,000. So our priority has to be on job creation.

RUSH: I think he realizes here that he’s talking to the night of the living dead in daytime. The night of the living dead showed up. Here’s Obama, the smartest guy in the room talking about all these magical, wonderful things in the stimulus that he’s going to do and is gonna make these people’s lives instantly better, and it’s not enough. All they want is a car, they want a kitchen, and they want a new house. This guy wants his full unemployment paid by the government. If that was the case, nobody would ever go back to work, if the government paid you your full unemployment. So Obama is sitting there, and I know how he feels, there have been times in my career — and this is Snerdley’s fault — there have been times in my career where I have done the most brilliant monologue. I think, ‘My gosh, this is going to finally cement me as one of the world’s greatest thinkers,’ and the first call I get is from somebody who didn’t get it all. I’m saying, ‘My God, why am I wasting my time here working so hard to be so smart when people don’t even understand it.’

I’m thinking, Obama, he probably likes this. I think liberals appreciate this dumbed-down attitude. I think that these poor people are exactly what Democrats want. I think these people who are looking to the government for a house, for a car, for a job from McDonald’s or something, I think that’s exactly the mind-set they want, that’s why they want illegal immigrants, to be legal. That’s why they want amnesty because they want people who are not that educated, who are looking to the government for the answer to every problem they have. Democrats love to say we have the answer, we are your solution. They never provide it. But they make everybody think they’re the only ones that do care about them because the Republicans are so cold-hearted and mean-spirited and extreme. This is a disgrace! It embarrasses me that this is my country. These people have been made to think this is what government’s purpose is. Now, here’s Julio. This is the guy who’s stuck at McDonald’s, wants Obama to do something about it.

JULIO: Mr. President, I’m currently a student at Edison State College in my second semester. And, okay, I’ve been at the same job, which is McDonald’s, for four-and-a-half years because of the fact that I can’t find another job. Now, with the fact that I’ve been there for as long as I’ve been there, do you have any plan or any idea of making one that has been there for a long time receive any better benefits than what they’ve already received?

RUSH: All right, now that’s a totally incoherent question. I don’t know how the guy got in college. I do know how he got in college. Hell, high school graduates who can’t read get in college, particularly if they can play football or baseball. But this guy, what does he want here? Here, play it again. You heard right. I don’t know what his question is, he just wants more benefits, just wants more benefits, he’s been working at McDonald’s for four years, wants more benefits. Benefits, benefits, benefits, benefits, benefits, benefits, he wants more benefits, and he’s a little bit frustrated, when’s Obama going to come through.

JULIO: Mr. President, I’m currently a student at Edison State College in my second semester. And, okay, I’ve been at the same job, which is McDonald’s, for four-and-a-half years because of the fact that I can’t find another job. Now, with the fact that I’ve been there for as long as I’ve been there, do you have any plan or any idea of making one that has been there for a long time receive any better benefits than what they’ve already received?

RUSH: With the fact that I’ve been there for as long as I’ve been there, do you have any plan or any idea of making one that has been there for a long time, receive any better benefits than what they’ve already received? So what he’s saying is, ‘I’ve been there four-and-a-half years and I’m still getting screwed by this outfit, McDonald’s. Do you have a plan to get me any better compensation and better benefits?’ I’ll tell you, I don’t know what he’s going to do with Henrietta Hughes, the woman who wants the house, the car, the kitchen. I don’t know what their staff is going to do about that. My guess is we won’t hear any more about Henrietta Hughes. You don’t think so? You think we’ll hear more about Henrietta Hughes? I’m not so sure, Dawn. This is a PR opportunity for these people. We’ll wait and see.

As for poor old Julio here, I tell you what, I think everybody out there, if you want a new house, if you want a new kitchen, a new car, even a new job, you need to contact the White House. You need to call the office of the president. You need to call Barack Obama. If the line’s busy, call Nancy Pelosi. If that line is busy, call Harry Reid. They’ll try and help you get your new house, your new car, and your new kitchen, even a new job, that’s who to call. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, or Harry Reid. Here, by the way, is Obama’s answer to Julio, who wants more benefits and wants to know what Obama’s going to do about upping the benefits that this guy is getting shafted on from McDonald’s.

OBAMA: The fact that you are working as hard as you’re working at a job that I know doesn’t always pay as well as some other jobs, I think that’s a source of pride for you. That shows that you’re doing the right thing. Now, the second thing is is that you will actually benefit from the tax breaks that we’re talking about, so you’ll be able to keep a little bit of extra money, ’cause we’re going to offset your payroll tax. That’s gonna help.

RUSH: And this kid, ‘I’m not talking about that. That means I have to keep working.’

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right, folks. If I were president of the United States, and I had a town hall meeting — I don’t care where it was — and I was asked to give somebody a car, kitchen, and a house; and then the next guy said, ‘Look, I work at McDonald’s. I’m getting shafted. What can you do about getting me benefits?’ and the next guy said, ‘Look, I make $3,600 a month, but I got laid off, now I’m going to make $1,100 a month with unemployment. When’s the government going to make up the difference?’ I’d quit. I would consider myself an abject failure. I’d turn it over to my vice president, and I would leave and go someplace. The difference is, Obama eats this up. Everybody is saying… I asked a staff a moment ago a little quick question. Henrietta Hughes. She’s the woman in Fort Myers that wants the house, the car, and the kitchen. Everybody thinks, ‘Well, it’s the last we’ll hear of Henrietta Hughes.’

No, it’s not. I will bet you that inside of two weeks, Henrietta Hughes will be on Oprah, at which time she will get all of that stuff. Oprah’s company will buy it. Oprah and Obama will share the credit, and we will see how the new America works together to solve problems. And then we will be told, ‘All you have to do is ask. All you have to do is ask.’ Now if you’re poor old Julio, Julio’s probably saying, ‘What the hell did I take the day off for? This is all I get? I show up, I’m at McDonald’s for four-and-a-half years, and I’m getting screwed on benefits. I asked the president for more benefits and he tells me, the president of the United States tells me, ‘Hang on, pal. I’m going to cut your payroll tax so you’ll have a little bit more to spend.” Julio said, ‘That’s exactly what I need. I need enough money for another Happy Meal every month. Yippee yippee yippee yippee.’ Oh! If you don’t laugh at this stuff, folks, you get depressed. You get really depressed.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I’d like to go to one of these town halls and get a chance to ask the president a question, if this is the way it’s going to go. You may think I have everything I want, but you would be wrong.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Charles in Greenville, South Carolina, you’re next on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Dittos, Rush. Glad to talk with you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I was listening at your account of Obama’s press — town meeting. I think there’s a hidden message here in that Mrs. Hughes, who has no job, may get a new house and a car and a kitchen. Julio, who has a job, is gonna get peanuts in terms of cut in his payroll tax, so the more you do, the less you get, something like that. Is that his message in his economic plan?

RUSH: Well, you know, that’s an interesting take on it. Here’s poor old Julio, you know, after four-and-a-half years I would think you’d end up in the management program at McDonald’s, so I don’t know what he’s been doing, but four-and-a-half years, he still doesn’t make enough, he doesn’t have enough benefits so he asks Obama what Obama’s going to do, and Obama says, ‘Well, we’re going to give you a little tax relief on your payroll taxes,’ which at his salary level is not going to be very much. It will be enough for Julio to go get a Happy Meal. This other babe shows up, she’s got nothing. She needs a house, a car, a kitchen; Obama may get her one. So your point is the people that have nothing are going to be given things that people working, ‘Ah, deal with it.’

CALLER: Yeah, and that’s at the low end. The people who are really working are probably going to be paying for all of it.

RUSH: Well — (laughing) — exactly. Do you think Henrietta Hughes is going to get all this stuff and they’re going to do a big PR story about how she got it?

CALLER: That’s right.

RUSH: No, you think Henrietta Hughes, you think Obama is going to see to it she gets a house?

CALLER: Right. I like your Oprah possibility.

RUSH: Yeah, if I had to think of anything, it would be Oprah, that she’ll end up on Oprah, a big sympathy play, Oprah will make a big deal about how tough it was to find her but they finally found her, how she was so proud, so embarrassed, she didn’t even want to come on the show, but they talked her into it, and they got her on the show, it would be like Let’s Make A Deal. All you gotta do, Henrietta, pick what you want, door one, number two, number three. And no matter what door she picks, she’s going to have a house, a car, and a kitchen.

CALLER: That’s it. Good show.

RUSH: Thanks much.

Rudy in Racine, Wisconsin, great to have you here.

CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush, you are the man.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.

CALLER: I told Mr. Snerdley he was super. This is my first time ever getting through to you, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: And I gotta take a deep breath. Okay. I see absolutely no stimulus whatsoever in any of this package —

RUSH: That’s right.

CALLER: — and when you brought up the health care issues about what is in this package, I see a conditioning that’s going on. I told Mr. Snerdley, this is like Friday the 13th, the original version, and every version that comes after it is just going to get gorier and nobody even sees it. It’s incredible, Rush, that they’re going to take the health care system — and I know there’s a lot of young voters out there that voted for Mr. Obama. I work with a lot of them. They voted for Obama, they don’t think about their health care, what it’s going to look like in ten, 20, 30 years, they don’t have any idea. I’m 47 years old and I see a health industry that’s going to just be turned upside down. On top of that, there is no stimulus in job creation. I work in a floor covering business that generated millions of dollars over the last eight years, and we’re sitting here with builders who cannot finish houses and I’ve seen and talked to builders and their coworkers looking at people getting these houses on financing that absolutely don’t have nothing, don’t belong in a house. It’s incredible.

(playing of spoof song)

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This