RUSH: To Manhattan, as we go back to the phones. It’s Marjorie. Marjorie, thank you for waiting and hello.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. How are you?
RUSH: Just fine. Thanks very much.
CALLER: It’s an honor to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Since I retired I’ve been listening to your radio program very often.
RUSH: I thank you very much for that.
CALLER: I want to speak to you about something you spoke about yesterday, a proposed tax on wealth.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: Okay, I worked for my whole life. I just retired two and a half years ago after working for 55 years, and I lived very simply in order to save up for a good retirement. And now is Obama going to take away that good retirement by taxing what wealth I built up?
RUSH: If he gets his way. This is not done deal, it’s not etched in stone, but one of the ideas that might be forthcoming from his deficit reduction commission — it technically will not be coming from him, therefore — this is the Irksome Bowles and Alan Simpson Babe panel. The VAT tax, value-added tax, new income tax increases, and they’re considering for the first time a wealth tax. The Europeans have one. The French wealth tax is 1.8% on net assets every year. The French raise about $5.6 billion a year with their wealth tax. I don’t think this administration, Marjorie, I don’t think any potential tax increase is off the table. I think they’ll look at every one they can.
CALLER: He’s making life very difficult for seniors.
RUSH: He’s making life very difficult for every American.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: He really is. But I know, look, you’re retired. I don’t know what your investments are in.
CALLER: Municipal bonds, basically.
RUSH: Well, you know, they’re looking at taxing those, too. I have a muni bond portfolio, and I’m sitting here —
CALLER: Very hard to get now because there’s much less of them than there used to be.
RUSH: Yeah, plus you wonder about the health of the things.
CALLER: Yeah, I know. In New York.
RUSH: Municipalities being given the bankruptcy possibilities that they face.
CALLER: I buy AAA ones. I try to keep them at AAA.
RUSH: Well, that’s good. They’re thinking of eliminating the tax-free status of muni bonds and taxing them, too, as part of the new investment income strategy that goes into effect January 1, 2011. So senior citizen, retired, young, we have a story today about the youth, college graduates don’t even look for work; there aren’t any jobs. And here’s Obama in Tempe, Arizona, Arizona State University, and it’s the sound bite that I just read. It’s him actually saying, ‘Do you study business? Why not help a struggling not-for-profit. There are more effective ways to help people in need. You study nursing? Understaffed clinics and hospitals are all over the place.’ He urges people not to go into money-making jobs in this sound bite. So it’s that simple. Now, Marjorie, you are retired, and that means you’re wealthy in Obama’s world. You’ve got a portfolio and according to Obama’s guy, the poor will not get health care unless your wealth is taken and redistributed. The new administrator of Medicare and Medicaid, that’s how we’re going to pay for the poor’s health care, is take your money away from you, and mine, everybody else’s.