RUSH: Let’s sum it up, Jack Welch, we got now Andy Grove, we got Barton Biggs, we got Jim Cramer, we’ve got Warren Buffett. They say that they don’t want Obama to fail, but they know he is.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Andy Grove, former Intel CEO, says in the Washington Post today, ‘We have gone through months of chaos experimenting with ways to introduce stability in our financial system. The goals were to allow the financial institutions to do their jobs … I believe by now, the people are eager for the administration to rein in chaos. But this is not happening,’ and, ‘Until the administration does this, we should not embark on attempting to fix another major part of the economy.’ Health care system, energy, environmental policies, are fine and dandy. But we’re not ready for this yet. This has caused the president to ask for time on this program to respond.
(playing of Barack Obama spoof)
RUSH: A message to the nation from President Obama responding to Democrat voters: big business tycoons who voted for him and now admit publicly to having reservations about his policies, not so much their vote for him.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Naperville, Illinois. This is Bill. It’s great to have you here, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: All this discussion about, you know, you wanting the Obama policies to fail brought to mind a lecture that I heard many years ago. I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Milton Friedman —
RUSH: Ooh!
CALLER: — either 1974 or 1975. He came to speak at Wabash College, and I always have remembered this lecture, and I thought it was kind of appropriate, and the theme of the lecture was:’All current government programs were bad, and all future ones are good.’
RUSH: (chuckling)
CALLER: And I thought, ‘Well, isn’t that ironic?’ because all we’re hearing from the Obama administration is, ‘Everything out there is bad, but we’re going to make it good,’ and you look at all the programs and policies that they’re putting forth have been tried before either domestically or in Europe, and people like Jim Cramer and Warren Buffett and Jack Welch all know this. And I just find it incredibly ironic that they’ve now come out. You know, they’ve known this for some time. In fact, Cramer, I just sent you an e-mail that I got a few months ago. He started on November the 7th about Geithner (scoffs), and for him to somehow have this revelation —
RUSH: Wait, wait. You mean was all for Geithner on November 7?
CALLER: Oh, no, no, no! He started complaining about Geithner November the 7th —
RUSH: Who?
CALLER: — of last year.
RUSH: Mad Jim Cramer did?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Ooh, wow.
CALLER: I think it’s in your in box. I sent it to you. I know you got a gazillion e-mails, but it will say ‘Jim Cramer’ on the top line.
RUSH: No, yours is flagged, it stands out.
CALLER: What’s that?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And for these people to come along now and sit there and say, ‘You know, if I know these programs failed 50 years or 30 years ago,’ you know, what makes him think that Barack Obama is somehow going to make them right?
RUSH: This is a fascinating question, but I think your question is actually two-pronged, because the first question I would have is, if every — and Freidman is right — if every current government program doesn’t work, well, whose are they?
CALLER: Sure.
RUSH: Whose are they? Now, we could say, well, they’re the United States Congress. But the vast majority of the programs we’re talking about that have failed are programs that were written by Democrats. The war on poverty, the Great Society, all of these things — welfare — are abject failures. But see, we’re not allowed to look at them that way, just as back during the falling days of the Soviet Union, the American left said, ‘No, you can’t look at it as a failure. We just haven’t given it a chance. It hasn’t had its full shot; it hasn’t had its full chance.’ Just like war on poverty. ‘You can’t say it’s a failure! Besides, our good intentions are what matter here, not the results.’ That’s why the question about, ‘Why new programs?’ You ask about Buffett. I don’t think they’re that smart. They are skilled and talented in making money, but they don’t evidence common sense — or else their motivations are something other than what you and I understand.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Steve in Long Island, great to have you here on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Heeeey. Hey, Rush. Second-time caller. I love your show.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: How you doing? I just wanted to talk to you about the business travel industry.
RUSH: Steve, can I ask you a question?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: I just thought of this. It will not take away from that which you wanted to speak about.
CALLER: Oh.
RUSH: You said this is the second time you called the program.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: You like the program?
CALLER: I love it!
RUSH: Steve, why do you not hate me after the past week and a half?
CALLER: Heh-heh. Because I believe you to be always correct — most of the time, 99%.
RUSH: You mean the smear campaign has had no impact on you?
CALLER: Absolutely none.
RUSH: Thank you. I would think everybody would hate me by now like they did Bush. All right, go ahead. Thank you.
CALLER: Okay. (chuckles) Like I said, I wanted to talk to you about the business travel industry, and there’s a letter the executives of ten major hotel chains sent to members of Congress.
RUSH: I saw that letter.
CALLER: Yeah. I actually have it right in front of me, but the letter is basically scolding Congress for putting negative connotations on business travel and portraying it as ‘excess,’ and they’re basically asking the government to tone down the rhetoric in the letter, and I think it’s kind of sad that it’s taken a letter like this to inform these people that they’re kind of destroying the travel industry, intentionally or not.
RUSH: It’s sad that it’s taken a letter like this to… Do you think members of Congress are unaware that they’re destroying the travel industry?
CALLER: Well, um, I mean, they might be aware of it. Some of them might be, some of them might not.
RUSH: You know damn well they are!
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: How else do you explain this?
CALLER: Yeah, well —
RUSH: How else do you explain John Kerry standing up there and ridiculing any corporation which does traditional travel and entertainment to reward, thank, and build a customer base? How do you…? How do you say Barney Frank is ignorant and does not know what he’s doing? When Barack Obama stands up there says, ‘The days of taking a corporate jet to Las Vegas, thoooooooose are ov’a.’ How do you…? Where is the benefit of the doubt on this? They know exactly what they’re doing! This is class envy. This is showing the little guy — who’s going to get nothing — that the people they have been told to hate at the top of the ladder are gonna get creamed. So the little guys who are going to get nothing but 13 bucks a week are supposed to be satisfied that Joe Rich CEO can’t fly his jet to Vegas anymore.
CALLER: Yeah, well…
RUSH: They damn well know. You know what’s sad about this letter?
CALLER: Yeah? What’s that?
RUSH: What’s sad about — and I saw this letter. These hotel execs… Bill Marriott is on there. Somebody from Hyatt is on there — which is amazing, because Hyatt is Penny Pritzker, you know, you can’t tell when she’s there and when Obama’s not because they’re joined at the hip. But Starwood, all these hotel chains. What’s sad is these guys write a letter and publish it in a paper begging —
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: — the people who work for them to stop harming their business! ‘Uh, dear Congress, we think you’re really hurting what we’re doing here. We’d really like you to roll back your policies ’cause…’ What we need is the Cessna guy all over the place, the guy runs Cessna who ran full-page ads to the business community saying, ‘Man up! Don’t let these people talk you out of your way of life.’
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: All these letters of cowardice. This is what bugs me. We’ve got so many people — big business people, supposed titans of industry — scared of people like Barney Frank! That tells me Barney Frank’s got way too much power and John Kerry’s got way too much power, that these people are wielding their power to intimidate citizens. This is not how the Constitution was set up; this is not how the Framers envisioned this country. Citizens were not supposed to write letters, sheepish letters begging — begging! — relief from the paymasters in Washington. This is not how we’re supposed to exist here.
CALLER: I mean, it’s sort of upside-down land. But I just… I mean I basically want to know when is Congress or Obama going to experience their own collective, you know, Dukakis-and-the-tank moment?
RUSH: Uhhhh. (sigh)
CALLER: It’s going to happen. When? How?
RUSH: Now, see I’m a literalist. When I hear you say when is Congress or Obama going to experience their Dukakis-in-the-tank moment, understand Dukakis had no clue he looked like an idiot.
CALLER: (laughs)
RUSH: He did and the Republican Party is the one that made him look like an idiot by putting a picture out. So these guys are getting exactly what they want, and until somebody is willing to make them look like Dukakis in the tank, the American people are not going to see ’em that way ’cause they don’t. You know, we can’t sit here… This is… Pardon me for getting worked up on this, but, ‘When is Congress going to realize it’s doing X? When is Congress…?’ They know! What is this about? Who are liberals? This is what they do! This is why I don’t want them to succeed.
When are they going to figure out their mistakes? They’re going to get away with as much as they can until they are defeated and in the minority. But, their objective is to see to it they’re never defeated again. Why do you think ACORN is getting all this money? Why do you think Obama’s reelection machine is getting all this money starting in 2010? Federal money is going to campaign coffers for Democrats in the guise of a stimulus bill. ‘When is the Congress going to realize? When’s Obama going to realize?’ That’s the mockery! That’s the joke of Warren Buffett and Andy Grove and Jack Welch: ‘Gee, I hope the president backs off.
‘Gee, I hope the president understands. Gee, I…’ You hope the president understands? We hope you will wake up and understand who it is you elected! ‘We hope the president will change?’ (sigh) Yeah, I wonder how many Venezuelans are hoping Hugo Chavez changes. Well, you know it’s not that many. His approval numbers are around 60 or 70%. You know why? He controls the media. It’s approaching Saddam levels. There are food shortages, energy shortages. It’s a typical socialist country. More and more people are living in poverty. He’s taking from the producers and distributing it, keeping a lot for himself. But he controls the media.
Every day the media message is how great Chavez is! How compassionate and how wonderful, how he wants the best for everybody. ‘He’s the protector. He’s the guardian.’ People’s lives are ruined; his approvals are in the seventies. He owns the media, and we ask, ‘When’s Obama going to realize the policies are hurting the travel business? When’s Obama going to realize that he’s hurting the investor class? When’s Obama going to realize that he’s choking off an economic recovery by raising taxes? When’s Obama going to realize…?’ Ah… ah… People need to come to grips with the fact that long before Barack Obama announced his run for the presidency he had formulated plans to do exactly what the hell he is doing right now.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I, as you know, have dabbled in the stock market in my life, not nearly to the degree today that I have in the past. One of the things that I was told when I first got into the market was, ‘Don’t play emotions,’ like don’t choose a football team ’cause you like the uniform. Don’t choose a stock ’cause you like the logo. Try to be as dispassionate about investing as you can, any investment. The more emotional you get the bigger problem you’re going to have getting out of it when it tanks. You start personalizing a stock or a company then you’re going to be in trouble.’ It’s good advice, ’cause when the thing that you have this emotional investment in goes on a downward trend, you have to be able to have no feelings to easily let it go and do the right thing. Well, these business people, the Buffetts and the Andy Groves and the Jack Welches, I don’t know what their political persuasions are. I’m assuming that they’ve been lifelong Democrats.
I’m also assuming that in the cases of people I’m talking about, the really hyper-wealthy, that they are equivalent to the Kennedy family. You know the Kennedy family is never criticized as being greedy or wealthy or unfairly rich, because the Kennedy family spends all of its public time spouting liberalism, talking about compassion, and they spread a lot of compassion around with other people’s money. So the Kennedy family are exempt, they are excused from the normal characterizations of the rich. I would presume that that’s the motivation of people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and other hyper-rich. They’re already targets, so they cultivate a public image, ‘We’re Democrats, we support Democrats.’ Of course Buffett was out there with Schwarzenegger when Schwarzenegger was sounding good at the beginning of his campaign to fix California when he was running for governor. Regardless of their political persuasions, I think these business titans have made an emotional investment in Obama.
I think a lot of Obama’s voters have made an emotional investment, not an intellectually based investment, and they have no clue when to dump him. You make an emotional investment, and it’s tough to let go of it, because an emotional investment you are investing yourself, not just your expertise. You are giving whoever you are emotionally investing with part of yourself, and it’s hard to break up. Plus, the guy’s the president, it’s access to power. The guy’s destroying the economy, but has a great-looking family, oh, he’s a guy who looks so good and has an occasional cigarette, but still, oh, he sounds so smart. He’s wrecking the economy, but I can’t let go because I love the guy. So they have to tiptoe around it, write these little pieces, ‘Gee, I hope the president realizes that, ahem, I hope the president can realize that we need to end this chaos. Gee, I hope some of the president’s advisors…’ So whatever their charts are telling them, their personal wealth charts, their own portfolios, whatever their head’s telling them, their heart is saying, ‘I can’t let go of the guy. He’s the president. I supported him. I had high hopes. Gee, maybe he’ll change.’
They sound like disgruntled women in relationships. Why won’t the guy change? Can you imagine Wilma Flintstone saying, ‘Gee, I hope Fred learns someday to stop drinking too much.’ Wilma Flintstone is going to be hiding the booze or whatever. They’re so deeply emotionally invested in Obama, it’s going to take something big to shake them out of their love and devotion to that investment and to get them to start having what they know is happening to become the dominate thought guiding their behavior, and at some time, stimulus 2 — I have a story right here — and I haven’t had a chance to print this out. I just got it. I don’t even where it’s from. If somebody can tell me where KHQ TV is, I could tell you where this is from. You ever heard of it? Watch it be Port St. Lucie. I know, they don’t have a TV station up there. Anyway, the headline: ”A Backlash Against Obama’s Budget.’ — Business is marshaling its forces. The target is the aggressive domestic agenda laid out in President Barack Obama’s first budget.’
Private health insurance is mobilizing, real estate agents want to quash it, multinationals are up in arms, small business owners, and they are, small business owners are putting out some statistics, the trade group that represents them, putting out some — (interruption) Spokane, Washington. Thank you. The story is from Spokane, Washington. The small business guys, their trade group is putting out statistics today of just how much damage. Now, there are these undercurrents. There is this effervescence out there. In addition to these professional large and small businesses, independent of Jack Welch and Andy Grove and Warren Buffett, in addition to the mom-and-pop small business people that make the country work, you’ve got individuals who voted for the guy who, folks, we know this to be true, who literally expected their gasoline tanks to never be empty by now. Obama was going to make sure there are two pickles on the big bun, not one. They painted their own — and Obama encouraged this — they painted their own canvas, it was a blank slate.
So bubbles are starting to reach the surface now, and we can roll this back, we can stop some of this. I know, got the Porkulus bill and that’s big but some of it doesn’t go into effect for a couple years or longer. Got this omnibus budget, and I know that welfare reform is gone, that was part of the stimulus package, by the way. Welfare reform is gone. The states now get more money for welfare per case they sign up. I’m not saying what happened wasn’t devastating, but it doesn’t have to be permanent. I’ll tell you another reason I’m positive, folks. For all this attempt to demonize me that the Democrats are engaging in, with all these ads they’re running, they are spreading my message to new areas and pockets of America, and since I am happy with everything I say, and since I mean everything I say, and since I believe everything I say to be accurate and correct, I’m happy that it’s being heard by an increasingly large percentage of Americans. There’s opportunity there. So, yeah, I’m frustrated by, ‘When’s Obama going to change, when he’s going to realize?’ there’s a lot of emotional investment here, the historical nature of his presidency, candidacy, and all that. But at some point all this is going to fail. And before the failure there are going to be a lot of smart people who realize we’re failing and it’s going to be big unless something is done about it.