RUSH: Barack Obama on the ground in South Bend, Indiana, his timing is impeccable. He started a little town meeting to push this socialist stimulus package of his right when this program begins, ladies and gentlemen, and our affiliates down the line, my first day back after being gone for a week, we are not going to join in progress the Obama stimulus package. No, we’re not going to join it. Do you think I’m turning this program over to the president my first day back, Snerdley? No way, I’m not going to do that. We’ll be rolling on Obama’s town meeting remarks. He’s losing it. I think he’s losing it. He has these private meetings with Republicans and Democrats, and he’s losing his cool in there. He can’t stand being in the White House for two weeks, has to go read books to the kids.
When’s the last time we heard about that? George Bush was reading books to the kids on 9/11 and the media still makes fun of him for it. Obama gets out of the White House, goes to some school, starts reading books to the kids and has to hightail it out of there up to Camp David. When I read this, if I were ever elected president, I would be so honored and proud, I would immerse myself in the place. I’d go room to room with somebody who could tell me everything that’s happened in that room at the White House, such a historical place. To look at it as someplace where you’re cooped up and to have to get out of is just… I don’t know. It’s just a difference between me and President Obama, ladies and gentlemen. I did see the president’s plane land at Greater South Bend International Airport. Now, folks, I have to be honest, whatever plane he’s on is called Air Force One, but it’s the 747, and it looks smaller to me. It did, it looked smaller. It looked less regal to me. For some reason, it did not make the impression on me that it’s always made with other presidents aboard.
Maybe it was the camera shot. The camera shot had it basically cut in half, all we saw was the nose because the Drive-By photographers are so focused on The Messiah walking out of the thing, they did a close-up on the door, but the plane just looked smaller to me, it looked less significant to me as I was watching it taxi in for a stop at Greater South Bend International.
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RUSH: This Obama business, I purposely didn’t start with Obama so that the media wouldn’t think I’m obsessed with Obama. I started with me so they’d think I’m obsessed with me. But I’m watching Obama up here — (laughing) — he actually said, ‘If we don’t do this Porkulus bill we are never going to recover, our economy is never going to recover.’ That was an out-and-out lie. Fear and panic are setting in. This is the great unifier. This is the guy that was going to make love and happiness and contentment flow to each and every one, and they’re just using fear and crisis to keep people on edge. This is not presidential what this guy is doing, the way he’s acting, the things that he is saying, it is not presidential the way he’s approaching the American people.
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RUSH: By the way, Obama’s town hall meeting is not in South Bend. That’s where he landed on a seemingly smaller Air Force One 747. He’s actually in Elkhart, Indiana. This is a place with the highest unemployment in America. You know why? Why do you think Elkhart, Indiana, is the highest unemployed area in the country? (interruption) What? Say it slower. (interruption) Well, not just that. Elkhart is ‘the RV capital of the world,’ and who killed the RV? Which party killed the RV? Which party said the RV is a gas guzzler, it’s a polluter, it causes global warming? Obama’s party! USA Today: ‘Layoffs are happening across the USA — but nowhere as fast as in this once-thriving area that used to be known as the ‘RV Capital of the World.’
‘One year ago, unemployment in Elkhart County was at 4.7%. Today, it’s the highest in the nation at 15.3%, fueled largely by the rapid decline in the recreational vehicle business,’ and who do you think wiped it out? There’s only one political party that’s going after cars, folks. (laughs) There’s only one political party going after vehicles of any kind, and it is the Democrat Party.
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RUSH: You know, I was gone all last week. I’m sure many of you are painfully aware of that, and as always happens — I was in Beverly Hills; I was on the golf course; I was in Hawaii — there’s real anger. I mean, there is genuine almost frothing-at-the-mouth anger at Washington, at Obama, at the things he’s proposing, the things that he is saying. I had people come up to me, say, ‘How come you’re not mad about it? You’re just laughing with it!’ I said, ‘No, I’m mad about it, but I’m resigned to something, you guys. It’s going to happen. This stimulus bill of his is going to happen. He’s got Olympia Snowe. He has Susan Collins, and he might have Specter.’ He’s not even going to get a filibuster in the Senate. The chance to really shape this thing and make it less onerous will be in the conference when the House and the Senate try to make their bills somewhat similar when they try to compromise in the conference.
She said if the conference bill isn’t to her liking she might not vote for it. Well, big whoop! I mean, it ought not be to her liking now. Why have to wait for the conference? Susan Collins ought to be able to look at this thing and see it’s a stinker. It’s not anything it pretends to be. It is not a stimulus bill of any kind. It’s not going to put money in people’s pockets. It’s a scheme. It’s nothing more than a scheme to expand government and put government more and more in people’s lives. So I have people asking me, ‘Why are you laughing about this?’ Sometimes I can’t help it. Just during the break here I’m watching Obama, and I’m sorry. Yeah, folks, this makes me mad, but he’s doing this town meeting, and he looks small up there. Have you been watching this?
It’s like Air Force One pulled in at South Bend and it looked small to me. He does. He doesn’t even look like he has the stature during a campaign. He’s doing this town hall meeting, and there’s not the effervescence and excitement among the audience, and he’s trying to sell this plan, and he’s basically talking about what his opponents are saying about it, saying, ‘It’s not true,’ but I heard the most amazing thing. Those of you watching on the Dittocam, you probably watched me go nuts and you’re probably trying to figure out, ‘What just happened that caused Rush to go nuts in there?’ Well, I’ll tell you what it was. Obama’s sitting there explaining. He says, ‘The important thing in the stimulus bill is to make sure that the money is spent wisely. We’ve gotta make sure the money’s being spent wisely.’
Well, that’s an oxymoron. That never happens when the government spends it. The original number they tell us, they say 850 billion. It’s going to be over a trillion. You know what these program costs are. They’re always underestimated on purpose. But then Obama said, look, we’re going to put up there a website. ‘We’re going to put up a website and you are going to be our eyes and ears, and if you know that X numbers of millions of dollars have been earmarked for school construction here in Elkhart, and if you’re driving around — he actually said this — and if you’re driving around, and you don’t see any school construction going on, you let us know on the website, and that’s how we’re going to know the money’s being spent right. There was tepid applause because these are people — his supporters are the people — waiting around for things to happen. He just made them brownshirts!
They’re supposed to go around patrolling the neighborhood, making sure the money that goes there is spent right, and then let him know. Now, the average American citizen says, ‘It’s up to us to tell you whether your money is being spent right?’ You can’t possibly know! ‘You’re allocating $2 million to Elkhart for schools to pick a figure and if no school construction happens how come you won’t know about that unless we tell you on your website?’ Of course the correct answer to this is it’s all smoke and mirrors. He’s just trying to make them feel like they have some input when they don’t. But this makes me laugh, because this guy is not carrying himself in a manner that is presidential. You know, I told you I’m conflicted about this guy. The conflict is still there, but there’s a part of me that says that he’s just over his head in all of this and is coming to that realization. I’m sure that this job is not in any way, shape, manner, or form like he thought it was going to be and I’ll betcha it’s not nearly as easy as he thought it was going to be.
I’m going to go back to this Gallup poll business. Because the bottom line on trying to understand my relationship to the country’s thoughts and feelings about politics can be stated this way. ‘More people agree with me and not Obama about tax cuts. More people agree with me and not Obama about the Porkulus scam.’ Thirty-seven percent now support it, according to Rasmussen — and of course everybody that pays attention to this stuff knows the huge danger we’re getting into with all these large deficits, the inflation that’s bound to come with things like this. And then there’s a poll here from Rasmussen. Let’s see. ‘The popularity of newly elected President Barack Obama, combined with the willingness of most voters to give him the benefit of the doubt, is a powerful political force working in favor of the economic rescue plan now being debated on Capitol Hill.
‘At the same time, even in the troubled economic times we face today, 48% of the nation’s voters say more government spending is generally bad for the economy, even though they’re trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.’ See, this, this is what really grates on the people trying to give me a little grief here over my willingness to say, ‘I hope his policies fail. I hopes he fails.’ I’m not giving him the benefit of the doubt, because I have no doubt. I have no doubt about what his plan is. I have no doubt about what his intentions are. I am not, like some American citizens are, just blind-eyed and they’re just little puppy dogs and they think change means automatic improvement. They don’t think that change can mean something much worse and so we’re supposed to sit by and say, ‘It’s a new president. Give him the honeymoon.’
Sorry, I have crashed the honeymoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve hijacked it, in fact, and more and more people instinctively know this stuff isn’t gonna work. But for some reason they don’t have the guts to stand up and say so just now. They’ll wait for a hundred days. They’ll wait for six months or what have you, when it’s going to be too late. ‘The popularity of the newly elected Obama combined with the willingness of most voters to give him the benefit of the doubt…’ Attention Drive-Bys: I am not giving him the benefit of the doubt. I have no doubt that his plan won’t work. There’s no doubt at all. I am ontologically certain that the plan won’t work. There’s no benefit of the doubt being extended here.
‘But Rush! But Rush! He’s the new president, and you gotta give him a chance.’ Not to screw up the country. Why should I sit by and let people, anybody, openly give a chance to screw up the country? That’s something that needs to be opposed from the get go. ‘Forty-eight percent of the nation’s voters say more government spending is generally bad for the economy. The tension between these competing forces is highlighted by the views of unaffiliated voters. A majority of unaffiliateds approve of the way Obama’s doing his job. At the same time, a majority of unaffiliateds believe that more government spending is generally bad to the economy. This puts elected politicians from competitive states and districts in the spot they hate the most: having to make the decision when there is no clearly safe political answer,’ and that little statement from Scott Rasmussen illustrates the precise problem we have. We’ve got people sitting around waiting for the safe political position to adopt rather than following their hearts, their minds, and their principles. It is so much easier to do that.
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RUSH: I’m sorry. I’m a little late getting back here because I am listening to the commander-in-chief. Folks, I support the president. I just don’t support his policies. This is embarrassing watching this town meeting today. Well, it is. He’s not even up to campaign standards here. It just ain’t happening up there in Elkhart, Indiana. He just got a question — I tuned in halfway through the question — some poor guy asking about green energy and technology and Obama is trying to remember what all is in this bill and so forth to please this guy, (doing Obama impression) ‘We’re gonna double, we’re gonna double our production of green energy in this bill.’ And there’s tepid applause. I mean, it’s not working up there. At least the little segments that I tune in and listen to. Look, this bill, this reckless bill is supposed to be about the economy and jobs. This bill is not a litmus test for people to find out who’s willing to blindly follow the president off the economic cliff, which is where we are headed with this. We are not lemmings here at the EIB Network, nor the 62% of the Republicans that support me. We are — (laughing) — according to Gallup, we are not lemmings.
The bottom line is this. When you throw politics out the window and focus on the problem and the solution, you are representing a majority of voting Americans in their rejection of Obama’s partisan, nonstimulus bill. This became clear last week even when I wasn’t here. I, ladies and gentlemen, have been perfectly consistent. The Drive-Bys can report any day of the year what I say and it will not change. Whatever the topic is, whatever I say about it from core belief and principles, is not gonna change from report to report to report. But Obama has been perfectly dishonest in his advocacy of this bill, and he’s now out there scaring people half to death saying that if this bill doesn’t pass, that this catastrophe will never end, that the recovery will never happen. Let me tell you just two things that survive in this bill: $4.1 billion to ACORN survives in this bill. This is a bill to create jobs, $4.1 billion for ACORN stays in. There was an amendment to throw it out, but it failed. There is also this, and you may not have heard about this yet. A little press release I’ll just read to you quickly on page two of two pages stuck together.
This is from February 5th: ‘Today US Senator Jim DeMint, Republican, South Carolina made the following statement after Democrats voted 43-54 against his amendment to strike language from the economic stimulus bill that discriminates against students of faith. In essence, this stimulus bill bans universities and colleges from using funds to renovate buildings where students engage in religious worship.’ The stimulus bill bans universities and colleges from using funds, using money to renovate buildings on campus where students engage in religious worship. It could be the student center; it could be a dormitory; it could be a fraternity house; it could be wherever students gather for religious worship. No federal money can be used to renovate that building. That’s from Nancy Pelosi’s office, blindly supported by Obama. That’s the kind of stuff that’s in this legislation. Who pays for everything that’s going to be in this bill? Who pays for everything that’s going to be in this new school that he’s talking about in Elkhart, Indiana? The teachers; the equipment; all the fixed costs for the next several years? The homeowners through their property taxes are going to buy this and build this building. There are costs associated with this down the road and people aren’t even aware of this. They just think the government’s going to come in and spend the money and it isn’t going to affect them.
But, at any rate, we’re rolling tape on the Obama town hall here, and we’ll have some audio sound bites for you, and look, I could be wrong. I’m catching segments here during commercial breaks, but what I’m seeing is not the Obama I knew during the campaign. I don’t see this jazzed up effervescent crowd out there. I see a guy who doesn’t know what’s in the bill, because he doesn’t, he didn’t write it, he let Pelosi write the bill and he’s blindly supporting it because he doesn’t care what’s in it as long as it spends a trillion dollars mostly on government.
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RUSH: Here’s that sound bite that I heard during the break of Obama during his speech. It’s exactly as I predicted: campaign mode is back. It’s just like he’s on the campaign. He’s not even really talking about the stimulus bill here. He’s talking about appropriations. He’s talking about why we need to spend money and so forth. He’s just now wrapping it up. But this is the sound bite where he tells people how they are going to be his eyes and ears to see if the money is spent correctly. The bite opens with an unidentified woman wanting to know when the money is gonna get to Elkhart.
WOMAN: My question to you is, ‘Sir, when you allocate the money for Elkhart, Indiana, will it come directly into Elkhart, or — is it going to have to go around somewhere else?’
OBAMA: That’s a good question. We’ve gotta get the bill passed, but we also have to make sure that the money is well spent, which means we’re doing some things that are unprecedented to make sure that the money gets out quickly, but it gets out wisely. We’re actually going to set up something called Recovery.gov. This is going to be a special website that we set up that gives you a report on where the money is going in your community, how it’s being spent, how many jobs it’s (sic) being created, so that all of you can be the eyes and ears; and if you see that a project is not working the way it’s supposed to, you’ll be able to get on that website and say, ‘You know, I — I — I thought this was supposed to be going to school construction, but, uhhhh, all — I haven’t noticed any changes being made.’
RUSH: Now, there was no reaction to that. People are sitting around sort of scratching their heads. ‘You mean we’re going to have to work for this? You mean we’re going to have to run around and make sure the money is being spent right? I don’t have any time to run around check if they’re doing something in the school.’ (sigh) But you know this website that he’s set up for jobs created? They can lie all they want on this website. They can just make it up. They can just flap it up against the wall. ‘This amount of money is going to this area, or this many jobs have been created so far, but make sure if you’re not one of those jobs, make sure you send us a note here at Recovery.gov. You can be our eyes and ears.’ This inspires a song, ladies and gentlemen. Remember the old Prince tune, ‘We’re gonna party like it’s 1999.’ Wrong, folks. We’re heading down the road. We’re going to party, 1929.
(playing of spoof song)
RUSH: Paul Shanklin, well-known white comedian, doing the voices there of Obama, Algore, Bill Clinton, and Barney Frank, and the song: ‘1929.’