RUSH: People have been waiting patiently as they always do on this program, so we will reward them by returning to the phones. We go to Miami. Jack, you’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hey. How you doing?
RUSH: Just fine, sir.
CALLER: Great. Longtime listener, first-time caller.
RUSH: Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Great. I wanted to ask you a question.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: I’ve been listening all week, and then you mentioned that we would have to drag McCain to the finish line. The way the polls are going, and I’m looking at the electoral map, everything is pointing out to a landslide for the Democratic Party.
RUSH: What? Everything is not pointing to a landslide. What do you define as a landslide?
CALLER: I’m looking at the polls and I’m looking at the electoral map, and it seems like McCain is not making any gains. He’s losing ground on certain states that he should be winning.
RUSH: No, this actually is not true. Karl Rove has a piece today in the Wall Street Journal… I know this is not your primary point, but in the latest Gallup poll that came out Obama lost two points and twice as many undecideds exist today as last presidential year. There are more undecideds in the Gallup poll this year.
CALLER: But —
RUSH: Yeah, go ahead.
CALLER: But, Rush, let me ask you this. With all honesty, do you think that McCain does have a chance, especially from what you just read here regarding the scholar about the economy, do you think that he has a chance?
RUSH: Yeah, I do. It’s not over. There are 20 days left. And anything can happen in those 20 days. And, you know, I’m of a frame of mind here that you don’t give up even after you lose.
CALLER: (laughing) Yeah, I was about to ask you that also, because, if we were to lose, he would have the Congress, the president, and he would also have the media supporting him.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Don’t you think it would be harder for us at that point to really come back?
RUSH: Yeah, but, see, here’s my optimism, Jack. This is what I think is going to happen. If your scenario happens, if the Democrats pick up enough seats to have a filibuster-proof Senate and they’re going to have a lot of seats — a majority — in the House and they’re going to have to Obama. If we have basically a one-party apparatus here, government with no way to stop it, the Democrats are going to overreach. They’re going to take this country into directions that people voting for them have no idea. They are going to reject it. I reject the notion that the people of this country want socialism. I think the people of this country who are voting for Obama have no idea who he is.
CALLER: Yeah, but they’re going to have a big support. The media is going to try to portray it as just a moderate direction.
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RUSH: And we’re back to Jack in Miami. Okay, Jack, it’s your turn. Now react to what I said.
CALLER: I agree with you, but at the same time I have to question it, because, remember, I remember during the 2006 congressional election, you were that optimistic, but then it went south, and then you told us — well, you were under the impression that we probably would be able to recover by the end of 2008. But that thing has never happened —
RUSH: Well, see, the difference there is — and this is the challenge McCain has, by the way. You asked, ‘Is it over?’ You just heard me read this business, the Irrational Electorate from the scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. What that piece basically says is, people vote the economy. When they think times are bad, they throw the people in charge out. Right now that’s not the Democrats in their minds, it’s Bush. Bush has been the president for eight years. So it’s incumbent, McCain has to do this, the McCain campaign must, in the remaining 20 days tie this economic mess, this mortgage crisis and all the things that spring from it to the Democrats because it can be done because they are responsible. It’s not saying it’s going to be easy because McCain doesn’t like it and Democrats, but it’s got to be done. This is one thing that could happen. But I don’t want to confuse you here. My optimism is eternal, but I’m not unrealistic at the same time. I’ll tell you something, Jack, if your scenario eventuates and they get these super majorities in the House and the Senate, and Obama in the White House, we’re going to be 25 years cleaning up the mess because here’s something else that’s going to happen.
CALLER: Yeah?
RUSH: Within six months of Obama being inaugurated, two liberal Supreme Court judges will quit, and he will appoint them, and he will appoint more liberal judges than are even there now. He’s probably going to have, if he goes four years, he’ll have even more than two that he might have a chance to reappoint. In addition to the Supreme Court judges, one thing that’s not very well known is that federal judges, both the circuit courts and the district courts, you can retire on a pull pension, full salary pension the rest of your life. You might have a whole bunch of judges just quit, giving Obama the chance to appoint them, and the Republicans are not going to be able to stop the most liberal judicial appointees to the Supreme Court, circuit courts, and the district courts, in a long, long time, and these people are there for life, and it’s going to be a long time cleaning this mess up. And those people cannot be thrown out of office.
CALLER: I hope that McCain knows that he has a big task in front of him.
RUSH: Well, this is the thing. I was talking to some friends of mine who are equally frustrated with Senator McCain’s view of the campaign, the presidency. And my way of expressing my point of view to them was I don’t know how conscious he is about the things you have asked me. I think to him, this is a standard, ordinary, everyday, every-four-years presidential campaign, and that the other side is honorable and that somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. But I don’t think he sees the result of his defeat in terms of what the nation will become as you and I do.
CALLER: I hope he sees that, because —
CALLER: I just hope that he realizes that before November the 4th, Rush, I hope so.
RUSH: A lot of people do, Jack. A lot of people do. We’re hanging in there, buddy, but there’s going to be a lot of dispirited people if Obama does win this, because if he wins it it’s going to mean bad things down the ballot as well. You talk about the media, the media’s done everything it can to depress you and every other voter out there to make you thinking this is already over and that Obama — look how you started out your call, you’re looking at the polls, and you see a landslide.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: It’s not there yet. It’s really not there yet.
CALLER: Like you said, it’s not time for us to panic. (laughing)
RUSH: I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic.
CALLER: All right, thank you.
RUSH: Okay, Jack. Thanks for the call.
David in Friendswood, Texas, it’s great to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Longtime listener, first-time caller.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I want to talk about the fact that Obama last night said that people making under $250,000 would not see a tax increase.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: I make under $250,000. I took out my tax return from 2007. I took out the tax rates from 2000. I applied the tax rates from 2000 to the tax brackets in 2007. I calculated what my taxes would have been. It would have been $4,000 higher. If Congress does nothing, if Barack does nothing, the Bush tax cuts expire, my taxes go up $4,000.
RUSH: Exactly right. And they’re going to do even more than that. They’re going to restore the Clinton-era tax brackets, and you’re in it, buddy. You’ll be up there near the 36 to 39% bracket.
CALLER: Yep.
RUSH: Interesting that you did that. People are not talking about the expiration of the Bush tax cuts because that’s just going to happen, the Democrats will not extend them, and so that’s an automatic tax increase there. Then, with what else Obama has planned — but what about this, what about Obama saying 95% of the American people are going to get a tax cut?
CALLER: I can’t comprehend how that could be true.
RUSH: I read somewhere that Axelrod was being asked by somebody to explain this 95%. What brackets are going to get cut? Axelrod couldn’t tell anybody, and he said, (paraphrasing) ‘I’ll have to get back to you on this, but I can just assure that 95% of Americans are going to get a tax cut.’ What kind of taxes are you talking about? Are you talking about income taxes? He had no answer. This is just a fluff number being thrown out there, just like $250,000 is the magic number, above which you get soaked, below which you supposedly don’t. But as you have just demonstrated, you’re below it, you’re going to get soaked. Four grand a year is not insignificant in an economy like this.
CALLER: And, Rush, one more point I’d like to make is they’re probably going to say I ignored the fact that tax brackets are indexed for inflation. I did not ignore that. I applied the tax rates from 2000 to the tax brackets for 2007. So if you were to just take your income and go back to 2000 tax table and calculate your taxes, that number would be invalid. That is not what I did.
RUSH: Good for you.
CALLER: All right.
RUSH: David, appreciate that. Thank you.
Ron in Columbus, Georgia. Nice to have you, sir, on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I’m sorry. I heard you say EIB Network. Dittos to you, Rush.
RUSH: Appreciate that.
CALLER: Well, I’ve been listening since about ’91, so we go way back together, and you’re doing a great job, thank you.
RUSH: Seventeen big years. That’s amazing.
CALLER: Yep. Listen, I wanted to contrast Obama with Jimmy Carter here a minute, if we can.
RUSH: There is no contrast. See, that’s the thing. You’re going to tell us the differences?
CALLER: Well, I’m sorry. I should say the similarities.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: That was wrong. You know, in ’76 I was in the Navy, and Mr. Carter came on the scene. I’m from Georgia, he’s our governor and so forth, so on, and if you look at what happened back then, we had some economy down, we had the case of Watergate still all over the place, people, I think, were just tired of the status quo in Washington, same old faces. And here comes Mr. Carter with his fresh face and fresh outlook and promising this and going to do that.
RUSH: And he’s very smart. They said he was very cool, calm — and they even talked about what a great religious man he was.
CALLER: Exactly. And he appealed to minorities being from the south, and he’s good and all that. He went through there and got himself elected, and stayed one term, and we all know what happened during that term, I hope. Your listeners will look back and see about the double-digit inflation, the crazy mortgage rates.
RUSH: They know about it. It was called a misery index. We had to create a misery index to tell us how miserable we were, ’cause it was rotten, 12% interest rates, inflation, or a maybe even higher, inflation was 18 — nah, maybe interest rates — whatever, unemployment was sky-high. It was a mess. It was absolutely horrible. And that, by the way, is one of the central factors that gave us Ronaldus Magnus. So you might say, ‘Well, okay, Obama is going to come in, if he wins, going to destroy everything and give us a new Republican in 2012.’ Can’t count on that. This guy has got to be defeated now. We can’t afford this guy in any number of ways, ladies and gentlemen.