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RUSH: Robert, New Orleans, I’m glad you waited. I really appreciate your patience. Welcome to the program. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Multi-mega-ton dittos, Maha Rushie.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: You are lighting the way for all Americans every day, and we thank you for that, sir.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate it, sir.

CALLER: You know, this argument about whether it’s a penalty or a tax is nothing, nothing but a diversion. Obama and the Democrats and the media are talking about if it’s this or if it’s that. It’s not. It’s both. I have read some of the bill. I haven’t read it all, but I’ve read some of it, and so far I have counted almost 20 new taxes. Not even considering that, Congress has already taken away half of the Medicare taxes that we pay in from on our payroll taxes every payday, have taken half of that, $500 million dollars worth of tax money to implement this monstrosity. So there is no argument whether it’s a penalty or whether it’s a tax. It’s both. And then the penalty kicks in later. And beyond that, there’s another thing that people are assuming and I’m hearing it creep in to the media’s commentary on this, and it’s not true. They are saying that the Supreme Court ratified a tax. They didn’t. The question of whether the tax itself was constitutional has never been raised before the Supreme Court because it can’t because of the Injunction Act, no court has jurisdiction over it. Until the tax or the penalty or whatever Obama’s calling it this week, they’re not going to be able to discuss that issue before a court.

RUSH: That’s true. What he’s talking about, the Anti-Injunction Act, which is the first thing they talked about in oral arguments in this case, the Anti-Injunction Act states that a court can’t rule on a tax until it’s been levied, ’til it’s been collected and paid. And these taxes that we’re talking about here don’t implement ’til 2014. But it is a tax in the sense that the chief justice called what the government can do to penalize you a tax in order for it to be constitutional. But it isn’t constitutional. That’s what’s so abhorrent about all of this. It’s an abject disaster. And you’re right. I’m glad you agree with me. It’s a sideshow to talk about whether this is a penalty or a tax. It’s a diversion, and it’s a technique for people to avoid dealing with the substance of this, which is an out-of-control court, an out-of-control Congress, and a federal government that is operating outside the bounds of the Constitution.

That’s what’s going on here. I just think the fastest way to clue people in and get ’em refocused is to tell them what the details of their health care are going to be as according to this law. Tell them exactly what’s in store for them in terms of liberty and freedom down the road, and of course their back pocket, and there’s another way to attach to this, too, and that is the economic impact of it. Everything Barack Obama has done has done great damage to our economy. Every single policy, from the stimulus on. Everything Obama has done has resulted in a slowdown and then a further slowdown, then another slowdown of the United States economy and a shrinkage of the private sector. And we ain’t seen nothing yet ’til this thing gets implemented.

The economic impact of this, the impact on the private sector economy of Obamacare, will dwarf the impact of the stimulus and all of the other Obama programs combined. I say that, it’s hard for people understand it, ’cause people don’t want to believe that elected officials would have this kind of design on their own country. ‘Cause people don’t want to believe that we have people here that want to rule, not govern, that want to succumb to their authoritarian instincts and their dictatorial instincts. It’s exactly what we have. It’s been staring us in the face for years. That’s what liberalism is.

Liberalism believes that no one’s incompetent, no one’s capable of making their own choices. It’s not enough if a liberal wants to be a vegetarian, not enough. You have to be one, too, otherwise you’re a threat. If a liberal believes that oil is causing global warming, we have to get rid of it, and you have to agree, too, and if you don’t, then you have to somehow be punished, penalized, or done away with. It’s not enough for them to think what they think. They demand compliance with it all.

Laura in Chicago. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m sorry. I’m really nervous.

RUSH: I’ve been where you are. I understand being nervous, but you’re gonna want to repeat this experience again and again and again. Don’t be nervous.


CALLER: Okay. I feel, you know what, I’m a Tea Party member, and I’m like Yosemite Sam, I’m stomping mad right now. I feel like John Roberts sold us out and that makes me mad, but I’m watching the TV and there are two people that are really, really irritating me right now. The first one is Mitch McConnell. I saw him in an interview yesterday about repealing this and trying to fight back and he was, I don’t know if somebody just woke him or what, he looked like he was half asleep. And he was just like, “Yeah, well we’re not gonna win this one,” and I’m thinking, are you kidding me? I almost jumped through the TV and grabbed him.

RUSH: Now, wait, he didn’t say that, but it’s interesting that’s your reaction.

CALLER: I know he wants to fight, but he doesn’t sound like a person who’s willing to get in there and do it for us. He seemed tired and old and we need somebody that’s got some, I don’t know — a different — I don’t know.

RUSH: Well, the active train of thought on this goes something like this. “Rush, this thing is so damn complicated to implement that getting rid of it, so damn much more complicated, I don’t think that we could really expect to get rid of all of it, it is so complicated.” And that is so much BS. “Well, but, Rush, some of this stuff’s already been implemented, you know, and some people like it.” Yeah, but what are we talking about? We’re talking about defending, protecting, saving the Constitution, the republic, individual liberty and freedom. Repealing this thing, they want you to believe how hard it would be, a monumental task. It’s got so many tentacles that are already out there worming their way through the culture in ways that we haven’t even seen yet but if we take them away people will realize it and they won’t want it, it will be harmful and so forth.

The vast majority of this has not implemented. There have been waivers galore, and, by definition, the benefits, the, quote, unquote, benefits don’t kick in until 2014 and 2015 anyway. And you know why? So they could keep the ten-year cost under this mythical trillion dollars. The tax increases are what have implemented. The tax increases are the beginning. They happen for two years before any of the so-called benefits kick in. So there isn’t really a whole lot of benefit to take away. I think it is the preexisting condition. I’m gonna get the terminology wrong here. But there is a mechanism whereby people can register or enroll for it, and the number of people who have is minuscule. This was six months ago, maybe less than that, maybe three months ago, but it was recent past. And everybody was shocked at how few people had availed themselves of the opportunity to enroll in this preexisting condition pool. It’s not a whole lot of people, yet.

It wouldn’t be that difficult to repeal this. Basically a piece of paper says Obamacare is now repealed. These things are not nearly as complicated as people want you to believe, telling you you don’t understand, and it’s very complicated, and much more involved here — (interruption) Yeah, the high-risk pools. There was a pool that was set up for people who are very, very high risk, that they could immediately sign up for and enroll in. And it was shocking to people how few people had taken advantage of it. It’s not that many people here who have become ensnared by the tentacles of the bill.

Now, the McConnell quote, he says it’s a lot harder to undo something than it is to stop it in the first place. I’m confident they’re gonna give us the votes to repeal it. He’ll do whatever he can to repeal the law, but he told a Rotary Club type group, 50 people, I think it was back in Kentucky, might have been in Washington somewhere, small group of people. He made it known how difficult it’s gonna be to repeal this, and he told ’em he’s not sure it can be. And people have heard that, and they have assumed that his heart’s not in it, which I don’t think is the case.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. That’s our next stop on the phones here on Open Line Friday on Tuesday, and is it Verina, great to have you here. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, sir. How are you?

RUSH: Very well. Thanks.

CALLER: I’ve been listening to you since I was a very young teenager. Not to date you. I remember one of my favorite songs was Secret Asian Man.

RUSH: Ho-ho-ho. Yeah, going way, way back.

CALLER: Yeah. Well, I’m 32 years old now, and I have four children, and I wanted to comment on your question about are those people under 40 or under 30 paying attention. On Thursday when the decision came out I was furious and absolutely disgusted. And I view Roberts, Obama, and everyone under him as traitors. Traitors to our country, what the principles of our country are, they’re trying to destroy. I think it comes down to a basic philosophy of how you view government. Who has the right to make your decisions? Do you have the right to make your own decisions or does the government have the right to make your own decisions?

RUSH: That’s the argument.

CALLER: Who is most qualified?

RUSH: That’s the argument that we’re all having.

CALLER: Well, I don’t understand why the answer isn’t clear. I mean we have countless examples of mess-ups that the federal government has done. I mean look at our public school system.

RUSH: Well, the answer is really simple, but it’s hard to believe. Most of this stuff is very easy. It’s just hard to believe. The reason why we’re debating this is because there are people who want to make your decisions for you. Liberals are a very specific bunch. You and I are conservatives. We believe in individual liberty and self-reliance and making your own way, dealing with the consequences of life. And if we find people that disagree with us, okay, they disagree with us. We sometimes try gentle persuasion, get them to join us and so forth. We would never, ever, you and I would never, ever think of using the force of government to squash them —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — simply because they disagree with us. Because we don’t consider them threats just because they disagree with us. They are the most intolerant bunch around, and they’re essentially so insecure that if they are near people who disagree with what they believe, those people have to be silenced, and those people want the government to take care of you, meaning deal with you. They want the government making decisions for everybody because that’s how they think there’s going to be fairness and equality and other related things. They live their lives destined to get control of government so that they can make everybody do what they want them to do. You and I don’t think that way.

CALLER: Right. ‘Cause we’re secure in what we know.

RUSH: Well, we believe in freedom.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: We believe in liberty.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: We believe in liberty and freedom to do stupid things, to do dumb things, to be wrong. We believe in the freedom to do that. We also believe in the freedom of the consequences of your actions and so forth. What’s hard to understand, hard for some people to accept, is that there are people — I think it’s becoming easier now for people to accept it, by the way — but there are people who essentially want to squish and eliminate people that don’t see things the way they do.

I use this example too much, and I don’t mean to focus on vegetarians, but they do irritate me. They irritate me all to hell. I don’t want them telling me how to eat. I don’t want them telling me if I eat that I’m gonna die or I’m destroying the planet, ’cause I know I’m not. I’m not stupid. I don’t suffer fools well. I don’t deal with people that are this way very well. If they want to be vegetarians for whatever convoluted, stupid reason, they are more than free to be. But do not make me live the way you do, and do not think that’s the purpose of government. And that’s who we’re up against. And I’m talking about sniveling little people in their pajamas who do nothing but write blogs all day that are leftists. That’s how they think, too. It’s not just the people in Washington who run the Democrat Party or all the think tanks. All of their minions believe the same thing.

That’s what the argument’s about. And all these things that are associated with that, they’re tolerant, they’re understanding, compassionate, none of it is applicable to them. I know you were talking about my comments about people under 40. That was a comment on how people have been educated, not on people’s intelligence. People under 40, in a CNN poll, are evenly divided on health care. And that’s only because they haven’t been taught what the Constitution is. Young people particularly think it is the role of government to level the playing field and to manage outcomes so that everybody ends up the same way because that’s fair and they think that’s what the Constitution is, and that’s what they think government is. Because that’s what they’ve been taught. And that’s the problem of the education system. Verina, thanks much.

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