RUSH: So there was a lot going on this morning before the program. We had the president and his press conference, and then we had The Messiah and his latest flailing attempt here to get it right on Iraq with his dummkopf, kook fringe Neanderthal base, and at the same time all this was going on, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, was up being grilled before a Senate committee. So I watch a little bit of this. Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania, who I charitably will say is an order of fries short of a Happy Meal, is sitting there reading a letter from a constituent to Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and anybody else watching on television in the room, and he summed it up here in one sentence. The letter was from Tammy May, not Fannie Mae, not Freddie Mac, Tammy May, a single mother of two living in Pennsylvania. This is what he read of her letter to him: ‘We have to reprioritize. House comes first, then day care, then gasoline, then food.’ This constituent of Bob Casey’s put food last on her list of new priorities. Bob Casey reads this, and obviously what he’s trying to do here is milk what’s going on out there as a national disaster.
What does he fail to mention? She has a job. This is not an unemployed woman. This is a woman who has a job, but she can’t figure out how to live her life on her own so she needs Senator Casey and the Democrats to figure it out for her. Well, she’s figured it out, but she wants them to make her do it, which is even sadder, when you get right down to it. When you prioritize things, just think about this. If you were going to write Senator Bob Casey a letter and tell him that we need to reprioritize things in life, where would you put food? And, by the way, is there a food problem? Is there a food problem? There’s not a shortage of food. I know food has gone up in price, like everything has, because of energy costs, and of course other unrelated factors. So houses come first. I guess you need shelter before you eat, right? And then after house, then day care. Day care comes next, and then gasoline, (laughing) and then food. Let me be charitable and maybe Tammy May, who wrote Bob Casey a letter, is on a diet, and maybe food right now is her fourth priority. Well, you notice two things are not on this list. Iraq is not on this list, and health care is not on this list. Her list of priorities, house, day care, gasoline, food. I don’t know if Casey realizes she’s got a job. She is working. So in our list of priorities, should food be more than gasoline? So he’s using this as a crisis, her crisis. Tammy May’s crisis, which is nothing more than an understandable adjustment to the real world, and this is being used to play on our heartstrings. And, of course, the way we look at economic polling data, we find that if you ask people how they are doing personally, most of them will say fine and dandy, got some challenges, but okay, I feel pretty good about my future. But I’m worried about my neighbor’s. Why?
Most people don’t even know their neighbors. They’re worried about them anyway ’cause they see on the Drive-By news every night that the economy is going to hell in a handbasket, people losing their houses, they’re losing their jobs, government is taking their kids away, their bank is foreclosing on them, it’s total disaster. That’s what they see on the news, yet their lives, ah, okay, got a few worries. So here comes Bob Casey with old Tammy May’s story that’s designed to create the same, ‘Wow, I didn’t know it was that bad out there. Why, it’s so bad, she’s having to make food the last priority. That’s really bad, Mr. Limbaugh. See, that’s a good indication, sir, of just how bad the country is, you don’t see it.’ By the way, this woman may be smarter than any of us because putting food fourth on her list, she has gotta know there are food stamps. Well, why should food be the number-one priority if you look to government for everything because the food stamp people advertise. They’re looking for more customers to keep the budget levels up.
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RUSH: Charlottesville, Virginia is next and it’s Natalie. Hey, Natalie! Hey, welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’ve been listening to you since I was 16 years old. I’m a lifelong Republican, and I have to call and disagree with you about your comments about the Bob Casey letter.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: I thought they were rather insensitive and, um, unsupportive of this woman. She is just trying to put a home over her children’s head. She doesn’t want to relinquish her responsibilities on the mortgage. She wants to pay that, and she needs to get the kids to day care, and she needs a job to get to day care, you know, kids to day care and herself to work, so food is just going to naturally fall fourth on her priority list.
RUSH (sigh)
CALLER: And, you know, I have to say that you’re just falling into the liberal camp. You’re sounding like a liberal — I mean, a limousine conservative. You’re just giving them like more fodder to run with, to say, ‘Oh, those Republicans. They’re so heartless and uncaring.’
RUSH: Now, now, now. Natalie, I can’t believe in your heart you actually mean all that you just said because it isn’t true.
CALLER: How is it not true?
RUSH: Well, in the first place, this woman was trying to tell a United States Senator that he ought to take charge and reprioritize everybody’s life this way.
CALLER: I’m curious. I heard you talking to the previous caller about that. I’m curious. How exactly do you come to that conclusion?
RUSH: Because she wrote the letter! She’s free to reprioritize her life however she wishes. What does Bob Casey have to do with it? How do we know that Bob Casey’s got his life prioritized correctly?
CALLER: Well, I’m quite sure he doesn’t, but… (giggles) Would you rather see her not pay her mortgage and not be a responsible citizen and honor her debts?
RUSH: What has that got to do with this? She doesn’t say she can’t pay her mortgage. I gather she says she can’t buy food because she has to pay the mortgage. I don’t know. But you misunderstood my point. I do think… How many kids do you have? Do you have any kids?
CALLER: I have three under five.
RUSH: You have three under five?
CALLER: Yes. (giggles) I have three kids under five.
RUSH: All right. Now, I’m going to create a hypothetical for you.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: You have infants and you’ve obviously got one very young.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And you know when the infant wants to eat, it wants to eat, and that’s all it knows. That’s all it cares about.
CALLER: That’s true.
RUSH: All right. And are you going to put that fourth on your priority list or are you going to go out there and go talk to the savings and loan about your house?
CALLER: Well, Rush, not to be too explicit, but I just pop it on the boob. (giggles) So it doesn’t count.
RUSH: Alllllllll right.
CALLER: But I have two others.
RUSH: All right, all right.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Okay, then let’s move up to the four-year-old.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: The four-year-old you don’t pop on the boob anymore.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: So the four-year-old gets hungry and he tell you he’s hungry — she, whatever — wants the milk, wants whatever, and you say, ‘No, I have to make sure that the roof isn’t leaking’?
CALLER: You know, I have to say that we — you know, my husband is unemployed right now, that we — have had to make some serious changes to how we handle our budget, and I have had to be a lot stricter about when they can eat and what they can eat and I’ve had to cut back on maybe giving them certain snacks and certain foods that we would have gotten before. They’re not starving or anything. You know, I’m not going to the food pantry yet. But I’m like a lot of other people. Right now, we’re having to watch, but if the dollar keeps falling and gas costs keep going up, you know, something else is going to have to give (sigh) and it could be my food budget. (giggles)
RUSH: Okay, all right. See, in that scenario, as I listen to you describe your current circumstances.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm?
RUSH: In that scenario, I would say that the number-one priority for you — because it’s affecting everything else, outside of your husband’s unemployment — is gasoline. The price of gasoline is affecting everything else that you’re doing. It is affecting how much food you buy because food’s more expensive. You have less income now, so you have to be choosey about what kind of food you buy. But the prices of food, the availability and the ability to go get it are all related to the gasoline price. Are you in danger of losing your home?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: No, we’re not.
RUSH: All right, so you do have concerns other than your house. But let me ask you this, getting back to Tammy May here in Pennsylvania. You have these concerns. Are you going to write a letter to Senator Webb and tell him of your circumstance and ask him to do something about it and ask him to read the letter to the chairman of the Federal Reserve? Now, Tammy May didn’t do that, but when she writes this letter, she obviously wants Senator Casey to come to fix her life.
CALLER: (sigh) I don’t want Jim Webb or any other senator to fix my life or my husband or our family circumstances, but I would like to see some real action on the energy front, and I would like to see some real action on addressing the dollar value issues —
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: — because that affects also what my food costs.
RUSH: Okay. Let’s talk about what kind of action that would be. Now, please don’t misunderstand my tone. I’m not trying to grill you. I’m trying to walk through this with you.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Because I want to understand what you think and what you believe.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: So you want somebody to do something about energy prices.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Okay. What is it that you think the government or an individual in the government can do about it right now?
CALLER: I think they need to open up drilling.
RUSH: All right. Good answer.
CALLER: Thank you. (giggles)
RUSH: That a way. You’re not asking somebody to wave a magic wand.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: You’re not asking to go after and really tarnish the speculators or bury the oil companies.
CALLER: No. (giggles)
RUSH: Right. Okay. Cool. Well, then you have a pretty good idea that then one of the problems that we have in the rising price of crude oil is that representatives in our government are standing in the way of what you know needs to be done.
CALLER: Yes, they are, and I think we all need to rise up and start complaining to them every moment we get.
RUSH: Amen. So, closing the loop here, when I see Bob Casey read a letter from his constituent that spells out how she thinks everybody needs to have their priorities redone and wants him to do it, I think, ‘This is where we got into the problem in the first place. Every time government fails at something, people still go back to it and ask them to fix it!’
CALLER: I think, Rush, that she wrote that letter because it does feel like our senators and our representatives are completely out of touch, and they’re only self-serving. They only want their own piece of the pie. Bob Casey included.
RUSH: Amen.
CALLER: Jim Webb included.
RUSH: Amen.
CALLER: That’s why I think more that is where her letter is coming from, or at least where my letter would be coming from. Look, you guys are only after your own hineys here, and I would like to see some real action, not just serving their own silver platter.
RUSH: I totally understand. Now, you and I are discussing this Tammy May and her letter, and neither of us know the woman —
CALLER: That’s right.
RUSH: — and so we really don’t know why she wrote it.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: We only can guess. You have a guess, I have a guess.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: Your guess is based on you think you can relate to her emotionally.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: My guess is based on something that has nothing to do with emotion. ‘Why the hell write the letter? If you want to change the priorities, just do it!’ If she writes the letter — and, by the way, she says, ‘We have to reprioritize.’ Who is ‘we’? No, Tammy, you want to reprioritize, you go right ahead, but don’t get Senator Casey involved in reprioritizing me.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm. Oh, I agree with you there.
RUSH: So that’s it.
CALLER: Don’t include ‘we.’
RUSH: Pardon?
CALLER: ‘We’ is the key word there. She shouldn’t say ‘we.’
RUSH: Exactly right. Exactly right. Anyway, Natalie, I’m glad you called. You’re sweet to call; you’re sweet to stay on the phone. By the way, am I still insensitive?
CALLER: No, you aren’t. You are fine, Rush, and thank you for taking the time to answer my call. I appreciate it. I’ve waited a long time to talk to you.
RUSH: Well, my pleasure. Any time you want to call back, feel free.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: We’re here.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: You bet.
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RUSH: Jerry in Lansing, Michigan, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hello, sir. How are you?
RUSH: Fine, sir. Thanks very much.
CALLER: The reason I was calling was regarding this letter that was written to Senator Casey from Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Yes, Tammy May, the well-known-by-now constituent, Tammy May.
CALLER: Right, right, right. Oh, and, by the way, I don’t miss the Clintons at all.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: You’re welcome. Her problem is she has confusion with her needs as opposed to her wants. She wants a house, I’m sure. We all do. But all you really need is a roof over your head, and so maybe she should look into downsizing and get a different house.
RUSH: She might have a house, I don’t know. We simply do not have enough data here. You’re right, if she doesn’t have a house and is writing Senator Casey to get her one, we’re in trouble.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: But we’ve been in trouble for a long, long time now.
CALLER: Yeah, and to put food fourth on your list, obviously that must be going down into the wants category as opposed to the needs category, and if she has that confused she’s not going to be around very much longer to write very many more letters.
RUSH: Well, this is an excellent point, food is a necessity.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: It is a need, it’s not a want.
CALLER: And so for her, I would say you need to step up and accept the personal responsibility for your own welfare —
RUSH: Now, see, now you’re being harsh.
CALLER: No, I’m not.
RUSH: Now you’re being cold-hearted —
CALLER: No.
RUSH: — and you’re giving everybody the wrong idea about conservatives. When you tell her, this poor woman has got nothing left in life but to write her senator; you’re telling her to step up; you’re telling her to accept responsibility, you cold, cruel SOB. Don’t you understand you are feeding the fuel of fodder that the liberals always say about us. I can’t believe you.
CALLER: Oh, I know, but, you know, it’s like Sam Kinison said, half the people that are homeless in the country eat better out of the Dumpsters in this country than half of the world does, which is to a certain extent true.
RUSH: Yeah, but that was very harsh and insensitive, too.
CALLER: I’m sorry. But sometimes the truth hurts.
RUSH: You want another example of Sam Kinison? This is hilarious. He was lampooning Sally Struthers, Feed the Children, she goes over to Africa and surrounds herself with genuinely starving little kids with the flies buzzing all around, and she’s saying, ‘Won’t you help? Send some money,’ pleading, and Sam Kinison says, ‘We know you went over there with food. You’re not going to starve. Give those kids your sandwich instead of asking everybody else.’ He had his great moments, Sam Kinison did.