RUSH: We’re going to start in Cincinnati. This is Jerry, it’s great to have you here, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, sir. How are you? I was watching Hannity Sunday night, and they had two guys on there that were talking about how bad things are and the economy and spending money and all this and that and how there is a tipping point to where we will not be able to recover from. And I’ll be honest with you. I’ve never felt this bad about the situation that we’re in since I was in the third grade in school and —
RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened in the third grade in school?
CALLER: Well, they had us crawling under desks because of the bombs.
RUSH: Oh, yeah.
CALLER: (laughing) I have not felt this helpless since then.
RUSH: You know something, I had to do those drills, too.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: We had to go with my parents to look at bomb shelters.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: I was never as concerned about that then as I am about this now.
CALLER: I know. And I have the same stupid feeling, like, what is going to happen? You know. Is it too late, or what’s going on?
RUSH: No, it’s not too late.
CALLER: I didn’t think it was.
RUSH: I’d be in New Zealand if it was too late. I’ll tell you when it’s too late. I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic. I’ll tell you when we reach the tipping point. We’re nowhere near it. We’re still the United States of America. A majority of American people have clearly expressed they don’t want a shred of what’s happening here, and we will stop it.
CALLER: Well, thank God.
RUSH: The American people still, in the end, get what they want. This is not what they thought they were getting. They have been scammed totally. They thought they were getting something postpartisan, postbickering, postracial. They thought they were getting smooth talking and everybody was going to love us. They’ve gotten nothing, nothing, zilch. Nobody, nobody — I mean you got some statistically 20, 30% — nobody is happy. The left thought they were getting somebody who was gonna stop the war in Iraq and close Gitmo the first day in office and put Bush and Cheney in jail and so forth. They’re unhappy. You have people in the middle who thought, oh, wow, okay, we’re going to get rid of the extremes on all sides, we’re going to be reasonable here, we’re going to get along and put people back to work. Whatever people’s expectations were that voted for the guy have not anywhere near been met.
CALLER: Well, thanks for your efforts because you’re one of the few lights out there still shining.
RUSH: Well, it’s a real dilemma for me here, a challenge, because those of you who have listened to this program since its interception — that would be its beginning for those of you in Port St. Lucie and Rio Linda — know that one of the defining characteristics of this program has been optimism, can-do, best country on earth, best people on earth, most opportunity on earth, everything’s going to be okay kind of program, encouragement, good cheer, all this kind of stuff. But at the same time we have not delved into false optimism. I have not told you things that I think are better than they are just for the sake of saying it. We’re at a time now where it’s a delicate balance because to define honestly the circumstances we face and be optimistic about it is a tough challenge. ‘Cause I’m not optimistic about where we are, I don’t like where we are. The optimism is that we can stop it because we have. But it’s never going to stop coming at us.
Liberalism has been on the march for centuries. It’s just never gotten this close to power in this country before. But I am encouraged. Now, after the election last year, if you woulda pinned me down and said, ‘Are you depressed?’ I would have said, ‘Yeah,’ because I knew, and a number of us knew, that Obama was a 100% fraud, and it was frightening that so many people got taken in by the guy, ’cause that makes us think, oh, we’ve lost the country. If you lose the people, if the people decide they want to go Europe socialism, they decide they want to be wards of the state, then we’re finished. And I was wondering, has that happened? ‘Cause I knew exactly who Obama was, what he was going to do, and it was easy for anybody to spot, just look at who he’s hung around with, just look at who raised him, who’s educated him. He was apologizing for the country while he was campaigning. He was apologizing for the country all over the world, in Berlin, wherever he went he was apologizing for America and his buddies were doing the same thing. So he was not a mystery to me, but the fact that so many people got fooled by the guy really depressed me.
So then in January even before the guy is immaculated, the Wall Street Journal says, ‘Can we have 400 words from you on your hopes for the Obama administration.’ ‘I got four for you: I hope he fails.’ And the tide began to turn. And even people on my side, ‘Rush, you can’t do that!’ Somebody had to say it. I said it ’cause I meant it from the moment he won the election. His brand of politics, his view of the world, his view of the country has got to fail. So, as usual, my friends, I was out in front, this time by about six months. Then the tea parties sprung up and nobody led them, I mean those tea party people effervesced right out of the grassroots. A lot of them were people who had never, ever been to a town hall, had never been to a town meeting, were really casually invested in politics. But they knew, they said, ‘This is not our country, this is not what we voted for,’ or what have you. This kind of debt that’s being run up, this spending, it’s gonna trap us all, it’s going to roll back our lifestyles and opportunities for kids and grandkids, people instinctively knew this.
So for the sake of time here, my depression evaporated very soon once I learned, once it became apparent that a clear and sizeable majority wants no part of Barack Obama’s agenda. So America is still America. America is the people. The people are who make this country work, and the people are hurting. Many millions are out of work and are forced to depend on government to get by, and a lot of them are embarrassed by it and don’t like it. But it’s their only hope, it’s their only chance. They see that nothing is being done from their government to facilitate a change in their lives for the better. They see it continually deteriorating. As such, more and more people are joining the clear majority who want no part of this. So are we at a tipping point? Well, you have to define the tipping point. But if the tipping point is an aroused populace who’s simply not going to take it anymore, yeah, we’re there, and you’ll see the result in November and even before.
It’s going to be an ongoing daily struggle because these people are on the march, and they have only one intention, and that’s to manage America’s decline and see to it that it happens, because they think we deserve to be a nation in decline. If I could wave a magic wand one time and make everybody believe something for just two minutes, it would be this bunch of people in the White House and throughout Washington who are with Obama, been appointed by him or whatever, do not like this country as founded, they resent it, they think it’s unfair, immoral, unjust, from our military to our capitalist system, and they are out to change it because we deserve a comeuppance. We’ve been too rich, we have stolen all the goods and services from around the world, we’ve kept the rest of the world poor while enriching ourselves, and even the people that really made this country, they’ve gotten the shaft, too, the blue-collar world, these people are going to fix it. They’re going to give this country a bitch slap.
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RUSH: David in San Antonio, Texas. I’m glad you waited, sir. You’re up next.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, how are you?
RUSH: Fine, sir. Thank you very, very, very, very much. How are you?
CALLER: I’m doing well. First-time caller, longtime listener, and I wanted to tug your ear on this issue about China. We’ve talked a lot about how in debt we are to China.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I wanted to know, how much are we in debt to China? And then I have a follow-up question. Depending on how much that is, why can’t we use this unspent stimulus money to pay off that debt?
RUSH: Well, it doesn’t work that way.
CALLER: It doesn’t? Okay.
RUSH: The debt to China is that they have purchased — now it’s Japan because they started selling some of the T-bills, but Japan is the largest holder of our debt, meaning they are buying Treasury bills at a interest rate, and that’s where the debt is. We’re essentially financing our deficit with money that we don’t have by selling futures, by selling Treasury bills that they buy that they can hopefully at some point down the road when they redeem ’em they’ll show a gain on them. And they’re very worried here because we keep adding to the debt and adding to the debt, which makes their percentage of it worth less at the time, and they can’t call it because they need us for their own economic growth so they’re in a little bit of a catch-22, but they are showing signs of selling it off. They did sell off about — I forget the exact number, $75 billion worth of T-bills, which makes the Japanese the number one holders. I don’t really know the exact number of Treasury bills that they hold. I think it’s in the seven or $800 billion range, but that’s a wild guess. I’m gonna have to look that up.
CALLER: So we would not really be able to pay off our debt to China, really?
RUSH: With unused stimulus money?
CALLER: Yeah, or any kind of money, actually.
RUSH: No. If we pay China off we’re just paying somebody else to assume their debt, we’re not solving anything.
CALLER: Oh, okay. Then why is it such a big deal?
RUSH: Why is what such a big deal?
CALLER: Well, why is it such a big deal that — I mean I think in the political arena, you know, we’ve talked about, you know, China is owning us and with this huge foreign debt to China it is such a big deal, it’s always talked about, and it’s like we can never get out from under it, it seems.
RUSH: It’s a big deal because they have a hammer over us.
CALLER: Right. Right. There’s not a way to get out of it, though, right?
RUSH: They have assumed the responsibility of keeping us afloat.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: And if they decide to turn it against us and use it as a hammer there’s not a whole lot we can do other than nuke ’em.
CALLER: (laughing) Okay.
RUSH: Well, that’s a bit extreme, but —
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: The bottom line here — look, David, the bottom line is the reason we’re in this problem is that we’ve gone in debt to get further in debt. This stimulus money, we don’t have it. The stimulus money was printed or borrowed. We’re not paying anybody back. We’re paying interest, but we’re not retiring our principal. This is like a credit card you pay the minimum for the rest of your life and the principal keeps going up. That’s what we’re doing. We don’t have this money. The stimulus is a great example. In fact, the whole concept of government stimulating the economy is absurd. The only way that would work, David, is if somewhere in Washington there is some actual money that has full value that’s stashed somewhere that is not borrowed and not printed. And we take that money and we inject it in the private sector, that would put more money, more capital into the private sector, and then you would have stimulus. But that’s not what we did.
To get that $787 billion of stimulus we had to take it out of the private sector. It comes in the form of taxes or we borrow it. But there’s no new money, there’s no additional capital in the private sector. In fact, capital has been taken out, it hasn’t been put back in. Less than 30% of the stimulus has been spent. It’s in Washington. It’s used to grow government. Federal workers now earn more than private sector workers on average. The federal workforce is growing. The unemployment rate there is only 3%. In the private sector it’s 10%. The government’s growing. They’re stimulating nothing but themselves, the Democrat Party and their belief in expansionist government. They’re not stimulating anything in the economy. And they know it. When I hear people say, ‘Well, you know, Obama just doesn’t get it.’ Yes, he does! And if he doesn’t know what he’s doing the people advising him to do this know what they’re doing. There’s not one sane individual who would do what they are doing if they honestly wanted the private sector to grow. Not one person.
Obama, he talks Alinsky very well. (imitating Obama) ‘Private sector? That’s where all jobs are, we need to grow the private sector.’ Well, then do it, get out of the way, get out of their way. They’re telling you you are in their way. Your expansionist government plans, cap and tax, health care, amnesty for illegals, they don’t know what they’re dealing with here. They’re not going to invest in growth until all this shakes out. And if it shakes out with Obama getting everything he wants, they’re going to close shop. This is purposeful, managing the decline. Think of it that way. If it’s a little easier for you to get your arms around and have it not be so disturbing: ‘They’re managing the nation’s decline.’ If, ‘They’re destroying the country on purpose,’ is just too coarse and too harsh, you don’t want to believe that, then ‘managing America’s decline.’ Because you have to agree we’re in decline, don’t you? Would you all agree with me that we’re in decline? Well, we certainly aren’t ascending.
The one thing that’s ascending right now is conservatism. But you have a job, your prospects look good, gonna flood the market with three million more college graduates, and this bunch, they think the minute they have the diploma in their hands, that a $250,000-a-year job and a $500,000 house is waiting for them the next Monday. The Baby Boomers, they don’t want to quit. They don’t want to retire. They like working. And even if they wanted to quit, they can’t. If they wanted to retire, they can’t. So they’re not going to leave their jobs, unless they get canned and get laid off or what you. And in addition to that, these Baby Boomers are going to start putting all kinds of new pressure on entitlements: Social Security and Medicare and all the rest. I hope that helps, David. Debt is a bad thing, personally, for a family, for a country. The only difference is, a government can print more money and go into greater debt on its own. A state can’t do it, you can’t do it, personally or in your family.
Here is Kevin in Slayton, Minnesota. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Dittos.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Is that still acceptable?
RUSH: Always.
CALLER: Very good. My question, Rush, is I became aware that a neighboring state, South Dakota, a state attorney made a news announcement concerning joining 17 other states and looking into possible legal ramifications with the federal government over this health care program.
RUSH: There are a lot of states that are trying to opt out of it. There are a lot of states that are trying to constitutionally insulate themselves from it. I think the number 17 is right. It may be a little higher now. It’s on a constitutional basis and John Boehner, by the way, is being very vocal about the fact that all this is unconstitutional. The federal government cannot mandate you buy anything. This whole health care bill, if it were to be challenged constitutionally could be wiped out, but somebody has to bring the challenge. Somebody has to bring it, and you have to wait ’til it actually happens before the challenge is brought. Sort of like you can’t go to the police and say, ‘Hey, my house is going to get robbed Saturday, I heard people talking.’ ‘Well, we can’t do anything about it ’til it actually happens.’ Same thing here. I’m confident there are people you and I have never heard of that are working on ways to defeat this that you and I probably haven’t considered.
You know, folks, I was thinking about something in the last break, because I’m getting not a lot, but a decent number of e-mails today: ‘Thanks for the help, Rush; thanks for the encouragement; really, Rush, why, you’ve convinced me there’s no hope,’ this kind of stuff. Let me tell you the truth of things out there, ladies and gentlemen. Even if — I want you to hear this, Snerdley — even if I said to you today, ‘Folks, it’s over, we can’t stop it, we’ve gotten beyond the point of no return,’ that would not affect what’s gonna happen. People in this country are going to continue because it’s their life. People are not mind-numbed robots here. The people who oppose Obama do not oppose Obama because they’ve been told to, because they have been hypnotized or any of that, they oppose him because in their hearts, in their good old American hearts they know this is not their country.
We are not a nation of people that’s going to roll over and say, ‘Okay, have at us, have your way,’ no matter what I say. The people inside the Beltway, even our smartest political minds there, do not understand that aspect of the American mind-set today. There’s a bubble when you’re in DC and you don’t really see the things going on outside the place. But trust me, it is a severe and serious outrage that is bubbling up out there. People are not going to accept this. They’ll do whatever they have to to stop it.
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RUSH: RUSH: Hey, folks, I was wrong. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. No! I was not wrong. I didn’t know something. The ChiComs are still the largest holders of US debt, and they’re proud of it. (laughing) They’re upset that the Japanese have the title. So I have here the ChiCom Post: ‘The government now says that [the ChiComs] did not lose its place in December as the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt. The Treasury Department said that under annual benchmark revisions released Friday,’ this is a February 28 story ‘China’s holdings of U.S. Treasury securities stood at $894.8 billion at the end of December, keeping it in first place ahead of Japan.’ (laughing) I frankly am stunned! The ChiComs are bragging. They don’t want to lose the title as the number one holder of American debt. (laughing) Folks, that’s like you wanting to have the largest balance MasterCard has ever seen and they believe along and announce that your neighbor has the largest balance. ‘Oh, no, no, no! I still have the largest balance.’