{"id":37000,"date":"2010-12-03T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:15:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T00:15:31","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:15:31","slug":"the_new_normal_obamaville_2010_where_we_pay_people_not_to_work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2010\/12\/03\/the_new_normal_obamaville_2010_where_we_pay_people_not_to_work\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Normal: Obamaville 2010, Where We Pay People Not to Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: The unemployment number, 9.8%. Now, this is very timely. See, I can\u2019t help but look at this stuff as a cynic. Nine-point-eight percent is going to facilitate the discussion of extending unemployment benefits. It is also gonna give Obama and whoever else needs it cover to go along with the idea of temporarily extending the Bush tax rates, that 9.8%. Who would have ever thought the number woulda gone up after the election, I ask cynically. He-he-he-he-he-he-he. It went up, by the way, we added 39,000 jobs. Now, I want you to stop and think of that. We\u2019ve had people try to tell us this week the economy is starting to boom, starting to recover. In the United States of America we added 39,000 jobs. That is such a small number that it is impossible to represent statistically. That\u2019s less than one-tenth of one millionth of 1%. Thirty-nine thousand jobs in the United States. That\u2019s so small I don\u2019t even know how you calculate. That\u2019s a rounding error. My point is that\u2019s horribly, horribly poor, 39,000 jobs? That\u2019s not worth talking about. I mean, that\u2019s an accident. This is bad news. And guess what? <\/p>\n

As the economy picks up, if it picks up, this is going to cause more people to start looking for work again, and you know what\u2019s gonna happen? The unemployment rate is going to go up because more people will be counted. Right now it\u2019s 9.8% or under 10% because so many people have dropped out of the market for a job. They\u2019re not even looking for one. And that\u2019s how come that percentage is 9.8. The U6 number is probably closer now to 18%. As the economy picks up, if it does, when it does — it\u2019s gonna happen at some point — more people, upon hearing the economy\u2019s coming back, will start looking for work. That will expand the pool of people looking for jobs. But the number of jobs created will lag behind the number of people who want them, obviously, so the unemployment rate could be 10% by January, could be 10% by February. (interruption) The official program observer has a question. Hm-hm. I have been asked by the official program observer, Japan\u2019s recession lasted for decades. Could this go on that long? <\/p>\n

It could. It very easily could go on that long. In fact, I got a sound bite with Austan Goolsbee being asked if this is the new norm, and while saying I hate discussions of the new norm, yes, it\u2019s the new norm. Austan Goolsbee, I mean he\u2019s now marginally less sissy looking than Julian Assange, and he was out there in front of the White House today talking about — we got a great sound bite roster here today, we really do. So we\u2019ll take a break here, we\u2019ll come back and get started. We are doing exactly what Japan did economically. If we don\u2019t alter what we\u2019re doing we could see years and years and years of this stuff. Let me put this in perspective for you another way. We all know that there are fixes for this. We all know we\u2019ve done two years of Obama and the liberal way of trying to so-called fix the economy, grow the economy, create jobs. We all know that it hasn\u2019t worked. All this government spending, all this debt, it hasn\u2019t worked. We\u2019re now at 9.8% unemployment.<\/p>\n

The alternative, conservatism, constitutional conservatism, smaller government, tax cuts, get out of the way of small business creating jobs, that would work. Obama and the Democrats won\u2019t dare allow it to work because if they did they would end up being discredited. The biggest obstacle to this country getting back on track is the Democrat Party, and until they are out of the way as a majority, we\u2019re not gonna fully recover. The last thing in the world Obama needs is for something he has been arguing against to work, and conservatism works every time it\u2019s tried. Lower marginal tax rates work every time they\u2019re tried. Capital gains, marginal rates, whatever, they work when you lower them, the marginal side, they work every time it\u2019s tried. And if they were tried now, it would also work. It would discredit Obama and the Democrats and that\u2019s why it won\u2019t happen. So this nation\u2019s recovery, economic recovery, the well-being of this nation\u2019s citizens is second fiddle, is placed on the back burner, subordinated, if you will, subordinated to the notion that Obama\u2019s way must not be shown to be a failure. So Obama and the Democrats — in order to preserve their whole identity — must, by definition, oversee the nation plunging into a further economic abyss.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re gonna hear in just a moment on the audio sound bite roster Austan Goolsbee even topping Pelosi with his claim that unemployment benefits grow the economy — and they grow the economy even faster, even better if they aren\u2019t paid for, if they just add to the deficit. So it\u2019s Keynesian. So unemployment benefits, just more spending with nothing to back it up, that\u2019s better for the economy than anything. Meanwhile, the cold and hungry in Atlanta, in Georgia, are huddling, trying to find assistance for the cold in Obamaville. This reminds us of what happened in Detroit a year ago. Just amazing. All this suffering, all this pain was supposed to be eradicated, was supposed to be wiped out, and it\u2019s only getting worse — and now we\u2019re being told it\u2019s a new normal. <\/p>\n

Quick question: How many liberals…? This is about the tax rates, the Bush tax rates. How many liberals the past ten years have paid their income taxes based on the Clinton tax rates? Because that\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about returning to. If the Bush tax rates are not extended, we\u2019ll go back to the Clinton tax rates, 39.6% for the upper bracket. Now, how many liberals are paying that? Did Bill Gates pay that rate? Warren Buffett? What about Pelosi and her husband or Harry Reid or Obama? Did they pay that rate? ‘Are they willingly paying that rate?\u2019 is my point. Are they showing leadership by paying the rate that they want to take us back to? How many liberals, the past ten years, have paid their income taxes based on the Clinton tax rates? I dare say none of them. I dare say that all liberals have been paying their taxes based on the Bush tax cuts, and now they say the rich have gotta go back. <\/p>\n

Did Charlie Rangel pay that rate? <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/line><\/a>RUSH: I want to go back to this program. I predicted this whole notion: 9.8% and 10% unemployment would be the new normal, and there was a lot in this prediction. August 16th of this year, this is me on my own program.<\/line><\/p>\n

START ARCHIVE CLIP<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: I\u2019ll tell you what the new normal is. No, the new normal is simply a construction designed to save Obama and the Democrats from any association with this economic collapse. Calling this a new normal is simply saying, ‘Hey, this is not the result of any Democrat policy. This is not the result of Obamanomics, no. This is just America. And by golly by gosh, Obama\u2019s doing the best he can with it, but he\u2019s only got so much to work with. The new normal, it is what it is. This is not the result of bad economic policy. This is not the fault of Obama.\u2019 The new normal is defining the Obama depression down. This is ridiculous. <\/p>\n

And you as a citizen ought not settle for the idea that this is America going forward, that this is the new normal, \u2019cause I\u2019m telling you right now, it\u2019s not. All this, quote, unquote, new normal is an excuse. It\u2019s giving Obama and the regime a pass. We\u2019ve gone from optimism to opticism. And opticism, the optics, how it looks, ah, it\u2019s just the new normal. Anybody who is optimistic at Obama\u2019s stimulus program, those are the people that need to be cast away. Those are the people that need to be ignored. These Keynesians, oh, yeah, this is the way, they said. This is what we have to do. This will create jobs, shovel-ready, all that rotgut. <\/p>\n

We now know 20 months, it\u2019s all a bust, all the bailouts, all the stimuli have failed, and so now what we have is a new normal, yeah. This is it, folks, get used to it, this is the new America, in decline. And it\u2019s just coincidental that it happened when the Obama regime took office. To give you an idea of how poorly Keynesian economics worked, the stock market never reached its 1929 peak until 1954. Now, let me put this in perspective for you. <\/p>\n

We tried Keynesian stimulus policy, FDR, the New Deal. That\u2019s gonna bring us out of the 1929 depression. Guess what? We didn\u2019t reach stock market peaks that were existed in \u201929 until 1954. It only took 25 years to get back to where we were in 1929 with Keynesian stimuli. So the new normal means if you\u2019re not happy, tough toenails. If you\u2019re not happy, lower your expectations, \u2019cause this is it, baby. The new normal is designed to get you to give up. The new normal is a creation to get you to go ahead and accept mediocrity in your country.<\/p>\n

END ARCHIVE CLIP<\/p>\n

RUSH: While Obama presides over the decline. So today on MSNBC more proof. This morning on Jansing and Company, the host Chris Jansing and White House Council of Economic Advisors chairman Austan Goolsbee have this exchange.<\/p>\n

JANSING: The longer this recovery takes, the slower it goes, does it increase the chance that a high unemployment number will be the new normal?<\/p>\n

GOOLSBEE: I don\u2019t buy into the new normal, but I do think you\u2019re highlighting a critically important issue that — that of long-term unemployment. Whether it\u2019s simply extending the tax cuts and the unemployment benefits to maintain the demand in the short run, uh, before Christmas, I think we\u2019ve gotta keep an eye on the long-term unemployment problem, and it\u2019s one of the critical issues we face.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What did he say? What did he just say! He said zilch, zero, nada. ‘I don\u2019t buy into the new normal, but I do think you\u2019re highlighting\u2019 something here. ‘Whether it\u2019s simply extending the tax cuts and the unemployment benefits to maintain the demand\u2019? This is gobbledygook, and this is a chief. This is the head honcho. Jansing then said, ‘The worst numbers in seven months: More than 15 people who would like to get work cannot find a job. Now that we\u2019re 17 months into this recovery what do you think is going on here?\u2019<\/p>\n

GOOLSBEE: It\u2019s certainly below what was expected. Collectively we\u2019ve seen some progress in the economy but it\u2019s got to be way more. It\u2019s got to be well faster, and we\u2019ve got to grow out of this. It is absolutely imperative that we extend the middle-class tax cuts — not just the Bush tax cuts but also the Obama cuts — and that in an environment like this people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and who are searching for new work, you cannot go yank the rug out from under them and end the unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n

JANSING: Well, let me ask you about that.<\/p>\n

GOOSLBEE: I think both of those are really important.<\/p>\n

JANSING: Let me ask you about that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Again, we\u2019re getting gobbledygook here: ‘[T]he Obama cuts, and that in an environment like this people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and who are searching for new work, you cannot go yank the rug out from under them and end the unemployment benefits.\u2019 You can\u2019t yank the rug out from under them and end the unemployment benefits? What is he saying? This guy is wandering in vain for a cogent thought. So Chris Jansing — who I\u2019m sure understands every word; I\u2019m sure this is making total sense to her — said, ‘Well, let me ask you about the proposition specifically because they\u2019re huddling, maybe even as we speak, representatives from the White House and the Republicans trying to figure out in a move forward on the economy. The deal seems to be shaping up is this: Democrats would okay an extension of tax cuts for the wealthy if they get those things that you just talked about, including the extension of unemployment benefits. If that is what it ends up being is that a net gain or a net loss for the economy?\u2019<\/p>\n

GOOLSBEE: What is critically important right now is that for the 98% of people that are looking at having their taxes go up, that we extend those tax cuts, that borrowing $700 billion to extend tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, there\u2019s not a big rampant unemployment problem up among the billionaires.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This guy is clueless. He cannot even make the case for his side! You can\u2019t even do the propaganda right. I mean, this is hilariously funny because this guy is totally incompetent. ‘[B]orrowing $700 billion to extend tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires\u2019? That\u2019s his version of, ‘To extend those tax cuts, the Bush tax rates, the millionaires and billionaires is gonna cost the economy $700 billion,\u2019 and here comes a shlub worrying borrowing money? (snorts) $700 billion when we got a deficit of $1.6 trillion? So clearly class envy politics is all this is. It\u2019s not about growing the economy. It\u2019s not about getting jobs going and creating jobs for people. This is just glaring incompetence right in front of our very eyes. Let\u2019s go to the phones. People are patiently waiting. It\u2019s Open Line Friday. We always try to get to the phones in the first hour of the program, and we start in Sparks, Nevada, with Dave. Thank you, sir, for calling. You\u2019re up first.<\/p>\n

CALLER: How are you doing, Rush? This is a grand pleasure for me, and I\u2019ve been listening to you on KOH radio ever since you first started in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you very much. Whoa. I appreciate that. Well, then you remember when we had to ban calls from Reno for a while.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, yeah. I remember that, too. (chuckles)<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was back in the early days of the program. Yeah, it was a sordid circumstance back then. We had to ban calls, but it ended up helping the situation. It worked.<\/p>\n

CALLER: What I wanted to tell you, Rush, is, you know, I\u2019ve been a veteran and I\u2019ve been a truck driver. I\u2019m retired now, but I\u2019m so sick and tired of 10% of the public paying for all the taxes. I got tax cuts quite a few years ago. I never made over $30,000 in my life, and I just am sick and tired of not being able to pay taxes \u2019cause I was proud to pay taxes — and I still think everybody should pay 20%, and that\u2019s the way it should be.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, you\u2019re talking… This is the ‘skin in the game\u2019 argument that you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. If everybody pays taxes, everybody feels responsible for government, and they\u2019re not spending somebody else\u2019s dime.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that used to be how it was. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Yup.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Not so much anymore. Well, he\u2019s talking about the latest Tax Foundation numbers. Essentially 10% of income taxes are being paid by 68 or 70% of the people. But everybody\u2019s paying taxes. There are payroll taxes, Medicare taxes and so forth. Income tax, yeah, about half the country or close to it is not paying income tax — and, interestingly, those are the people who are the targets of what Obama and Goolsbee are talking about, ‘We have to make sure we keep the middle class tax cuts.\u2019 The middle class, when it comes to income taxes, aren\u2019t paying that much. Anyway, I appreciate the call, Dave. Thanks much. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: The latest figures are 10%. The top 10% pay 70% of all income tax. The top 10% of wage earners, I don\u2019t care who they are, pay 70% of all income tax, and those are the kind of taxes we\u2019re talking about here. The Bush tax rates deal with income. Well, not just that. There\u2019s capital gains. The capital gains rate is on the table as well. In fact, there\u2019s an interesting story here about all the other taxes that are on the table and all the chaos waiting to happen. It\u2019s from the Washington Whispers section of US News &amp; World Report. Mort Zuckerman owns this magazine, right? ‘Failure by Congress to extend the Bush tax –‘ by the way, have you noticed just this week they\u2019re starting to talk about the Obama tax cuts as well. That tells me they\u2019re gonna extend these things. It\u2019s a done deal, folks, done deal. The Bush tax rates are gonna be extended for everybody because they\u2019re throwing Obama\u2019s name in there now. Goolsbee just talked about it, somebody else this week. Obama himself, ‘Our tax cuts.\u2019 This is a recognition of the political popularity of tax cuts and extending them now, and Obama wants to get in on the action. <\/p>\n

His base, the kook fringe leftists are fit to be tied that Obama is caving on this. They\u2019re fit to be tied that we still got Gitmo open. They\u2019re fit to be tied that Obama upped troop levels in Afghanistan and is over there to visit the troops. They can\u2019t believe any of this. They can\u2019t believe anything that\u2019s happened here, other than health care, and they\u2019re not happy about that because it didn\u2019t happen soon enough. <\/p>\n

US News &amp; World Report: ‘Delaying Tax Vote Could Crash Stock Market — Failure by Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts, especially locking in the 15 percent capital gains tax rate, will spark a stock market sell off starting December 15 as investors move to lock in gains at a lower rate than the 20 percent it would jump to next year, warn analysts. While it is unclear how bad the sell off could be, it could wipe out the year\u2019s gains, they warn. ‘Capital gains tax rate will increase from 15 to 20 percent if the tax cuts are not extended. The last time the capital gains tax rate increased–on Jan. 1, 1987 from 20 to 28 percent–investors realized their gains at the lower tax rate,\u2019 said Daniel Clifton at a Washington partner at Strategas Research Partners. ‘We would expect a similar effect this time around as investors see the tax rate going up and choose to realize their gains and incur the 15 percent tax.” What he means is that people sell their stocks before December 31st at the 15% rate rather than the 20% rate. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you something else that\u2019s gonna happen. The people in a position to, are gonna shift as much income from next year into this year to take advantage of the current tax rates so they don\u2019t have to pay income next year on the new tax rates. You\u2019ll have people like Michael Eisner back in 1993. Michael Eisner dumped like $195 million in Disney shares — he was the chairman — to take advantage of the current tax rates to beat the Clinton tax increases up to 39.6%. Now, when that happens that\u2019s gonna have a deleterious effect on economic activity next year as well because money and economic activity that normally would take place in January-February is gonna take place in December of this year. So the year-end report, ‘Wow, the economy really grew, look at all that activity going on out there in December,\u2019 and January and February fall off the map because all that activity took place in December. <\/p>\n

I, ladies and gentlemen, because I\u2019m a powerful, influential member of the media, I know lots of people who have already made the arrangement to move as much January income as they can into December, any time before December 31st. And they\u2019re waiting. If the tax rates don\u2019t change they\u2019re not gonna move the money forward. If the tax rates do change, if they\u2019re not extended, they\u2019ll take the money. Now, most people can\u2019t do this, but those who can are going to do so. That\u2019s a double whammy, not just the capital gains shift but also standard income shift. All of this activity just proves the value of tax rates and how they stimulate growth and activity. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: They\u2019re having the coldest winter in 100 years in Europe. It\u2019s not even winter yet! And from the sounds of things, it\u2019s not pleasant here in the United States. Let\u2019s go Atlanta. We have some audio sound bites, WGCL-TV Marietta, Georgia, at a federal aid center. Here is a citizen: Niko Northington.<\/p>\n

NORTHINGTON: It\u2019s kind of cold, it\u2019s right around Christmas, and, you know, I was in need of help of the — my energy assistance.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, ‘I was in need of help of my energy assistance.\u2019 ‘Despite the freezing temperatures, hundreds fought for a place in line in Marietta to apply for federal aid to help pay their heat and power bills this winter. Only 30 people were being let in at a time at the assistance center in Marietta. ‘It was freezing,\u2019 [said one] applicant … ‘I was in line for three hours and 15 minutes, but I needed the help.” I wonder if she\u2019d-a stood in line three hours 15 minutes for a job. I\u2019m just asking! I mean, I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m just asking out there. Three hours and 15 minutes waiting in line for, uh, uh, uh, help. <\/p>\n

‘Some needed even more help just to deal with the cold. Ambulances were called in and took at least two people to the hospital because of the freezing temperatures,\u2019 in Atlanta! When\u2019s the last time you heard of this? We don\u2019t even hear of ambulances being called in for the homeless who spend the night outside in cardboard boxes, and here a couple of people are standing in line in Atlanta for heat assistance, energy assistance, are taken to the hospital. Since Obama has shut down our economy with tax increases and moratoriums on drilling for oil in the Gulf, you would think that these frozen people of Georgia would be taken care of by the regime\u2019s green utopian promises. <\/p>\n

Where are all these green jobs? (sigh) this is a chilling article here, folks. That\u2019s local radio. Here\u2019s from the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation. ‘Hundreds Line up in the Cold for Help Heating Homes — As metro Atlanta\u2019s temperatures grow colder, the demand for heat is, well, heating up. A day after hundreds of people queued up outside a Marietta community center to apply for assistance with heat and power bills, hopeful applicants began lining up again around midnight, waiting in the sub-freezing temperatures for the doors to open Thursday morning. This time, however, officials let those in line come into the Mansour Center on Roswell Street an hour early at 7:30 and get relief from temperatures that dropped to 27 degrees.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Standing in line for assistance. I just wonder if they would stand in line for a job. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m just asking. So we heard from Niko Northington. Here is Michelle Buttler, again WGCL-TV in Marietta at a federal aid center.<\/p>\n

BUTTLER: People that are just so much in need and it\u2019s in the holiday season. I mean, we have to all think about each other. … To tell your children one week, ‘Hey, mom got a new job. Our Christmas is gonna be good this year,\u2019 and now you have to turn and say, ‘Mom doesn\u2019t have a job.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: Obamaville. Christmastime in Obamaville. This is not what was promised to these people, is it. This is not at all what these people had in mind when Obama was elected and when Obama gave his immaculation speech. This is not what they had in mind in Grant Park on election night when Obama went out to address the hordes and the masses. This is not what they had in mind. This is the United States of America we\u2019re talking about here, a major American metropolitan area, Atlanta. Let\u2019s go back. DeCarlo Flythe. I don\u2019t think this is what he had in mind either. It\u2019s March 22nd of this year in Raleigh, North Carolina, on WRAL-TV News. This is uninsured health care patient DeCarlo Flythe saying this about the passage of health care reform.<\/line><\/line>FLYTHE: It\u2019s just going to be like Christmas. I mean, it\u2019s going to be great. No worries, you know, the bills, we can go ahead and pay our copay and be a\u2019right.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. Now, it just doesn\u2019t seem to be working out that way. Now, here\u2019s the Media Tweak of the Day. Snerdley, pay attention. Media Tweak of the Day. We always announce these, and it always works. This story raises a very un-politically correct question. If people cannot even feed and clothe themselves, should they be allowed to vote? Should they be voting? If people who are receiving government assistance, that is, taxpayer assistance, weren\u2019t allowed to vote, can you imagine the difference in the political makeup of this country? Can you imagine that? It\u2019s just a think piece. I\u2019m just putting it out there for you to ponder. Let\u2019s move on. Let\u2019s go back October 2009 in Detroit, our man in Detroit, WJR news Ken Rogulski interviewing two people in line for stimulus money. We\u2019ll never forget this.<\/p>\n

ROGULSKI: Why are you here?<\/line> <\/line>WOMAN #1: To get some money.<\/line> <\/line>ROGULSKI: What kind of money?<\/line> <\/line>WOMAN #1: Obama money.<\/line> <\/line>ROGULSKI: Where\u2019s it coming from?<\/line> <\/line>WOMAN #1: Obama.<\/line> <\/line>ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it?<\/line> <\/line>WOMAN #1: I don\u2019t know, his stash. I don\u2019t know. (laughter) I don\u2019t know where he got it from, but he givin\u2019 it to us, to help us.<\/line> <\/line>WOMAN #2: And we love him.<\/line> <\/line>WOMAN #1: We love him. That\u2019s why we voted for him!<\/line> <\/line>WOMEN: (chanting) Obama! Obama! Obama! (laughing)<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: ‘That\u2019s why we voted for him! Obama, Obama, Obama. Obama\u2019s stash!\u2019 Well, the people in Marietta, lined up for Obama\u2019s stash. Now, imagine if people like this weren\u2019t allowed to vote? We\u2019re just pondering this. We\u2019re not suggesting it. Don\u2019t anybody go off crazy here. Seriously. What\u2019s the old saw: Once people figured out they could vote themselves money from the Treasury, that\u2019s the end of it? (chuckles) Who was it? I can never remember who said this. Here\u2019s Pelosi yesterday afternoon. Listen. Try to follow this math. This woman is out of her mind. This is during the debate about extending the Bush tax rates for people making less than $250,000 a year.<\/p>\n

PELOSI: Unemployment insurance, the economists tell us, returned $2 for every dollar that is put out there for unemployment insurance. People need the money. They spend it immediately for ness-ces-sit-ties. It injects demand into the economy. It creates jobs to help reduce the deficit.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is just —<\/p>\n

PELOSI: Giving $700 billion to the wealthiest people in America does add $700 billion to the deficit, and the record and history shows it does not create jobs. It does not create jobs.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t know how to deal with this without literally screaming. This is just so senseless and outrageous. ‘People need the money. They spend it immediately for ness-ces-sit-ties. It injects demand into the economy. It creates jobs to help reduce the deficit.\u2019 Unemployment benefits, which are unpaid for, which add to the deficit, she says create jobs! Would somebody explain that? Just that alone. Unemployment benefits, i.e., paying people not to work, creates jobs. Somebody wanna try explaining that? One of you libs out there, one of you members of the New Castrati, give me a call here and translate this for me, because I know you believe it. I know you believe that paying people not to work ‘creates jobs and helps reduce the deficit.\u2019 I need to have this explained to me. I\u2019m not smart enough to figure this out. I don\u2019t understand how paying people to sit on their butts and not do anything ‘creates jobs.\u2019 Nor do I understand how this reduces the deficit, but I\u2019m sure some of you New Castrati can explain it to me.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I got an idea. Why don\u2019t we pay farmers not to grow food so that we will have more food? I think I\u2019m on to something here. Yeah. That\u2019s the ticket. We pay farmers not to grow food and we\u2019ll have more food. That\u2019s how it works. That\u2019s how Pelosi and the Democrats think. Yeah. We\u2019ll eliminate starvation. In fact, let\u2019s stop drilling for oil and we\u2019ll have more energy. Yeah. We already started that, so we have more energy. We wouldn\u2019t need to be giving people energy assistance if we would just stop producing energy \u2019cause there\u2019d be more of it and it wouldn\u2019t cost as much if we would just stop making it. I think I got this down pat now. I think I could become a Democrat, maybe, for a couple minutes and pull it off. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Baghdad Jim McDermott last night was on Chris Matthews\u2019 Hardball. Matthews said to Baghdad Jim, ‘You\u2019re not afraid of the Republicans\u2019 worst threat against you which is to force taxes up for everyone on January 1st. You\u2019re willing to make that stand. In other words, say, ‘Okay, guys, play it tough. Over Christmas, everybody get to think about the fact that you guys wouldn\u2019t let us have a vote.\u2019 You\u2019re willing to go that far. The president, obviously, isn\u2019t.\u2019<\/p>\n

MCDERMOTT: I care about the unemployed. They are the — they should be the number one question. This is Christmastime! We talk about good Samaritans! We talk about the poor, the little Baby Jesus in the cradle, and all this stuff, and then we say to the unemployed, ‘We won\u2019t give you a check to feed your family.\u2019 You have to force the Republicans out in the open and take all their clothes off and let \u2019em stand there naked and say, ‘We will not take care of the poor.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, we won\u2019t take care of them. We\u2019re only talking about extending unemployment benefits for 99 weeks — and, by the way, it\u2019s just as I thought. This unemployment number of 9.8%, that\u2019s greasing the skids for extending unemployment benefits. It\u2019s been beyond 99 weeks actually for a lot of people. But here\u2019s this lie yet again — Republicans don\u2019t care about the poor — and comparing the unemployed to the Baby Jesus in the cradle which these guys constantly do. How come it\u2019s ‘Christmas\u2019 when the Democrats talking about unemployment but it\u2019s the ‘holidays\u2019 with every other issue? When they\u2019re talking about unemployment, the Democrats will gladly use the word ‘Christmas,\u2019 but in any other subject, you can\u2019t say Christmas. That\u2019s offensive to people that don\u2019t believe in Jesus. You gotta say ‘the holidays\u2019 or what have you. <\/p>\n

Where\u2019s the separation of church and state, Baghdad Jim? <\/p>\n

What are you doing talking about Christmas as a Democrat?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The unemployment number, 9.8%. Now, this is very timely. See, I can\u2019t help but look at this stuff as a cynic. Nine-point-eight percent is going to facilitate the discussion of extending unemployment benefits. It is also gonna give Obama and whoever else needs it cover to go along with the idea of temporarily extending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe New Normal: Obamaville 2010, Where We Pay People Not to Work - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2010\/12\/03\/the_new_normal_obamaville_2010_where_we_pay_people_not_to_work\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The New Normal: Obamaville 2010, Where We Pay People Not to Work - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: The unemployment number, 9.8%. Now, this is very timely. See, I can\u2019t help but look at this stuff as a cynic. Nine-point-eight percent is going to facilitate the discussion of extending unemployment benefits. 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