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Daniel Hannan Becomes Cult Hero

by Rush Limbaugh - Mar 27,2009

RUSH: Daniel Hannan, the hero of the moment, the member of the British European parliament who really took it to the prime minister, Gordon Brown. Earlier in the week, we played the sound bites for you. He’s been all over American media out there. He’s become a cult hero, and a lot of people in this country are asking, ‘Why don’t we have a Republican to stand up and say these kinds of things about Obama?’ Why does it take this guy from the UK?’ and I’m almost of the mind, folks, that it’s okay, as long as we get this guy out there. Because Americans — and I hate to say this, but Americans — respond to the accent. When some Brit stands up and says something, a lot of Americans think they’re listening to the epitome of sophistication, erudition, intelligence, and knowledge. Do they not? They do.

Look at all the British films, the foreign British films, the accents winning Academy Awards. There’s just something about the accent at this particular point in time in our history. Now, most Brits, when they stand up and speak, you know, they’re socialists. They’re members of the Labor Party. But this guy happens to not be, and we don’t have a Republican who has it in him to say what Daniel Hannan has been saying about Gordon Brown. We don’t have a Republican here that’s got it in him or her to say these kind of things. So this guy will fit the bill. I kid you not. The British accent today has credibility with certain Americans. Last night, Mr. Hannan was on with Hannity. The question is, ‘You point out you can’t spend your way out of recession, you can’t borrow your way out of debt. Do you think the world’s making a mistake and we’re really all collectively going to suffer the consequences?’

HANNAN: We’re all collectively going to suffer the consequences. It’s not our mistake. The mistake is being made by a small number of political leaders and a small number of their advisors. It’s common sense that when you’re in debt, you spend less. You know, anybody except a politician can see that.

HANNITY: (chuckling)

HANNAN: Anyone could see that in our private life. I’ve run up too big a debt, you’ve run up too big a mortgage, you try and sort it out. Of course if you are either a banker or a politician, you have a different take on these things. Of course it isn’t your money. That great phrase of Milton Friedman that there’s only two kinds of money in this world: there’s your money and there’s my money.

RUSH: Hannity also asked this guy, Daniel Hannan, about health care, ’cause we’re headed down that road. Pelosi is saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have government health care as an option. We’re going to have that option in there.’ Let me find this, because what she said is so typical, I was going to skip over this, and I moved it to the bottom of the stack. Be patient, folks. It’s coming up. Oh, this is good, too. Obama’s solar panels will take 110 years to pay for themselves. It’s a highly technical story, but that’s good. Here it is. What is this? This from Bloomberg. ‘House Health Plan to Include Government-Run Option,’ and Pelosi said, ‘This is not only about the health of individuals in our country, which will be justification enough. It’s about the competitiveness of our businesses to make them globally competitive because they are competing with companies and countries where their governments pay for health care. They don’t have to bear those health care costs.’

Nancy, honey? Taxpayers are paying for health care. I don’t care if it’s coming from their company, their insurance. Government health care is taxpayer-paid health care! The government can’t pay for anything without taking money from people who produce it, unless they print it — which is, sadly, what is happening now. The third person in line for the presidency in this country is a complete airhead. (interruption) Yes? A question from the official program observer. Yes? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. The question from the official program observer: ‘How can you be so stupid and at the same time rise to high and go so far in politics?’ You left out a phrase in your question that would provide the answer.

‘How can you be so stupid and yet rise so far and so high in [Democrat Party] politics?’ The question is rendered moot when you put the qualifier ‘Democrat Party’ in there. It just is. That’s what explains it. Yeah, well, we gotta get government-run health care because so many of our businesses compete globally and so many countries around the world do their own health care, and it’s an unfair competitive advantage for those companies, and the governments pay their health care. It’s just… I still have the question: ‘Does she really know that this is that stupid, or is she just being populist in selling the plan?’ What I was going to say is, Hannity asked Hannan about national health care, the National Health Service as they have it in the UK, and his answer was superb.

It was an indictment of it. It was just slam-dunked. He said, ‘Don’t do it,’ to the American people. ‘Do not do this.’ He went through the length of time people have to wait for standard procedures, talked about how certain breast cancer patients now are told, ‘Sorry. Just stay home. There’s nothing we can do.’ Lines. They’re unable to treat. Look, folks, it stands to reason, find for me a government bureaucracy that does anything you would hire them to do in your own business in your own backyard! You talk about stupid? You want to talk about the stupidity of Pelosi? How about the stupidity of people who elect her, Snerdley! I mean, she’s entitled to be there, she’s been elected; but how about the people doing it? How about the people that actually elect people like Pelosi? That’s about whom we need to be asking such questions.