RUSH: To Folsom, Louisiana. This is Dennis. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Right-thinking, earned-my-own-way, Louisiana musician dittos.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Hey! I am a musician, and I work (in a sense) in the school and in the public sector, but we’re given grants to work in these sectors. And those people who give money from private grants and have had their —
RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait, I don’t understand this. You’re a musician. You work ‘in a sense in the school’?
CALLER: As a private contractor doing programs for kids and stuff like that, and also library and things. And those people who give money for private grants that fund this kind of stuff have had their finances so badly assailed that they’re not giving money now to these grants, and those people who do the kind of work that I do aren’t working like we used to. I’m working. I have always worked a day job. By the way, thank you, Ms. Pelosi. I don’t need your help. But (cell garbled).
RUSH: I don’t understand what this is. (interruption) Private money’s drying up, the private grants to keep people doing what he’s doing, but he’s got a day job. (interruption) Okay. Okay. So…what? (interruption) Private money’s drying up. (interruption) Oh, oh, oh! So he’s tying this back to Pelosi. Oh, okay. He’s tying it back to Pelosi. ‘Go ahead and quit your job because we’ll give you healthcare.’ But then, okay, what else are these people going to live on? You can’t eat your healthcare and you can’t drink it.
Anyway, Nick in Pittsburgh, welcome to the EIB Network. Sir, it’s great to have you here.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush, how are you?
RUSH: Great.
CALLER: You actually were a mentor of mine in Pittsburgh back in the ’70s. You helped me, actually, get into radio.
RUSH: Really?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Was this in McKeesport?
CALLER: Well, you were at KQV.
RUSH: KQV?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: So this was after McKeesport.
CALLER: (chuckling)
RUSH: Where did I meet you, Nick? Did we meet in person?
CALLER: Yes. We actually had a meeting. I won the WQED auction and you and I actually had a portrait made down at at a professional photography studio.
RUSH: Oh, yeah.
CALLER: I don’t know if you remember that or not.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
CALLER: (static)
RUSH: We’ve got a phone problem.
CALLER: (static)
RUSH: What is that?
CALLER: How about now?
RUSH: Nick, sounds like —
CALLER: (static)
RUSH: — you’re throwing up out there.
CALLER: (laughing) I’m on my cell.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: (static) The reason for the call is not only just to say hello and thank you for the mentoring that you gave me back in the ’70s to get into radio. Actually, I was in radio for about five years. I was a broadcast major in college. But as you know the Pittsburgh market’s pretty tough to get a job in radio.
RUSH: Yeah, but your big mistake —
CALLER: (static)
RUSH: (laughing) Gee, whiz. —
CALLER: (static) What’s that?
RUSH: It sounds like you’re being eaten out there.
CALLER: (static)
RUSH: (laughing) It sounds like you’re in a jungle or something.
CALLER: No, I’m in Monroeville, but the reason —
RUSH: You’re in Monroeville.
CALLER: (static) Yes.
RUSH: So you’re up on Route 30.
CALLER: (static) But the reason for the call, too, not only to say hello, is currently I’m a small business owner here in Pittsburgh. I actually run a private-licensed technical school where we put people in the auto detailing business. What we’ve done is (static) we’ve lowered our tuition this year to help increase our tuition, because there’s many people that are obviously unemployed, and we’ve seen an increase in students. But the problem is once they graduate from our course, they can’t get any money to start their business, and these are people with good credit. They’ve been laid off. They’ve had great jobs. College students that are coming out of college. The problem is there’s no money out there. The banks aren’t loaning any money. Sally Mae funding dried up. I wanted to make that comment to see whether you had any insight on what we could do to possibly help our students once they’ve graduated to open up their own business.
RUSH: Uhhh.
CALLER: (static)
RUSH: Geez. It sounds to me like the best option is to call Pelosi.
CALLER: (laughing) I’m embarrassed (static).
RUSH: Now, I know the banks are tight with money right now. But I also know existing small businesses are saying, ‘It’s not that we can’t get loans. We don’t want them. We’re not growing. We’re not hiring anybody. We have no desire to. We don’t know what the terms of the deal are going to be going forward, based on Obama’s legislative agenda.’ Now, if these people… When you say they’ve got a good credit rating, how old are these people you’re talking about?
CALLER: Well, you know, it varies. We have students that are just out of college (static) and we have people that are in their 40s and 50s that have gotten laid off from their jobs —
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: — and they’re looking to do something else.
RUSH: And how much money are they trying to borrow?
CALLER: Anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000.
RUSH: They can’t get a $5,000 to $10,000 loan?
CALLER: The banks are not doing it. The local banks are not doing it.
RUSH: Do these people have any collateral to put up?
CALLER: Some of them do. Most of them don’t.
RUSH: Well, now, that’s the reality. If you’ve got nothing to secure it, that’s going to be problematic no matter what economy you’re in. You are in Obama’s America. We are all living in Obama’s America, and I guess you could tell these people to wait for Obama to come into town for a town hall, because that’s how he’s dealing with jobs.
CALLER: Yeah, he’s not doing a great job overall, as obviously we’re in agreement. But for the small business owner or for the entrepreneur, there is no support anymore. There truly isn’t, and it’s the small business owner that made this country strong.
RUSH: Well, I know. Look, there’s no economic growth going on out there and if the (sigh). It’s just too bad. It’s too bad that your graduates aren’t trying to get a house, because that would be easy. It’s… I don’t know. The economy is in such a mess, and I think to the extent these banks are not loaning any money it’s because they don’t have confidence that these people are going to have any chance at getting their business started given the current economic climate. But I’m just wild guessing here, Nick, because I don’t know the specific circumstances of each of your graduates, of each of your students. So without knowing that, it’s tough to give anything beyond anything just general here. But there are banks lending money to people. The problem is a lot of people don’t want to borrow it. People don’t want to go into debt. I’ll tell you something, Nick. (interruption)
That’s a good point. Snerdley has reminded me of something. All of that TARP money and a lot of the stimulus money was to go to stuff just like this. It was to be able to bankroll people like you, and it’s not going there. It’s going to state governments and Obama’s union buddies. It’s not going to shovel-ready projects. It’s not going to schools. Look at Detroit! Boy, if there was ever a place that could use stimulus money, it’s them. What are they going to do? They’re going to be bulldozing things. Now, I remember Nick when we met at the WQED auction. That’s the PBS affiliate. Back then they always had these auctions that ran a week or two, fundraising drives. Fred Rogers was there. He did a show out of Pittsburgh. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was done out of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh PBS affiliate. I got thrown off of every PBS auction I ever did, in Pittsburgh and in Kansas City. (laughing) I’m surprised I lasted long enough there to have a portrait made there with Nick. But I got thrown off, because I was too controversial. I’m way long on this segment. I have to take a break. (interruption) Oh, yeah, I got thrown off. I think I got thrown off of three of them. I mean, within an hour, within an hour of going on the air. (laughing)