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Does Hard Work Still Pay Off in America?

by Rush Limbaugh - Sep 16,2013

RUSH: This is Helena in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Great to have you on the EIB Network, and you’re up first. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I just wanted to start out by saying that you are my absolute favorite. I love listening to you. I’ve been listening to you for years.

RUSH: Well, thank you. I’m flattered and I appreciate that.

CALLER: Yeah, no problem. I called you because I’m really concerned with where this country’s going. The last job that I had, I worked for a company here in Wyoming, and I was actually told that my hours were being cut so that they wouldn’t have to give me health insurance. They wouldn’t have to provide it for me, and, you know, it really disturbed me, you know? In the process of what America has been going through for the past 10 years, it’s going in a spiral downhill. You know, when the United States went through the Great Depression, it wasn’t the government that got us out of it; it was the mind-set of the people. It was the will of the people. The mind-set now is just scary. It’s really scary.

RUSH: You’re telling me. I can imagine what it’s like for you at 19. You’re looking here, and your life is all ahead of you. You’ve got great ambition, lots of designs on things, and you’re looking out and you’re seeing a country where you think opportunity may be limited, and you don’t see that many people concerned about it.

CALLER: I know. Another thing that really worries me is, you know, when I was growing up my father was a big believer in you work for what you want, and he worked his entire life. A lot of elbow grease was put into it, and he made his money. He earned what he had. Now, people are just feeding off the government. The government dependency in this country is getting out of control, and it’s really scary to me. It really is, Rush.

RUSH: I agree with you. I know. I have a sense about some of these old tried-and-true beliefs, philosophies. The old saw, for example, “Work hard to get where you want; there will be a payoff for hard work.” So many people think that’s corny now.

CALLER: Yeah. No.

RUSH: So many people think that old philosophies — I mean, tried and true — donÂ’t work. It’s not anything to do with just expressly American, but just human philosophies are greeted with skepticism and disbelief. So many of them are. It’s disheartening. It’s amazing.

CALLER: I completely agree with that. I worked my butt off at this company, you know? I worked my butt off for them for about a year, and then I came into work one day and they told me that I wasn’t gonna be getting more than 30 hours anymore. I can’t live off that. I can’t make a living doing that at this point.

RUSH: Yeah. Let me ask. You’re 19, right?

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: You know, you have five years to go, and then when you hit 24 you’re gonna all of a sudden be afraid of me. I just want you to enjoy these next five years while you can.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Well, I mean that’s the claim.

CALLER: Gosh, no. You know, I really am doing the best I can, but the way this country’s going and the people that are ruling this country are telling us what to do and where to go, it makes me feel like I’m not even gonna have a chance.


RUSH: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Helena, here’s the way you need to look at this. You can’t effect it. You can’t, by yourself, do anything other than be in charge of your own direction and place in life. You need to look at it this way. You need to take advantage of the fact that so many other people are not gonna be competing with you. You need to take that view. You can’t let this stuff dispirit you.

It gets you down as an American, it gets you down because you love the country, but do not let it dissuade you from your own what you know to be truthful philosophy about hard work equaling success. Continue to go for it. It’ll pay off. It always has, it always will — and in the process, help show other people. Do not cave to this. You need not do that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Kim in Buffalo next. Let’s go back. We had a bad cell connection last time. Let’s check it now. Hi, Kim.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Great, great, great. Much better. Thank you for letting us try you later.

CALLER: Well, thanks for giving me this opportunity, and I appreciate the way you’ve served our nation over the years and you’ve really kept me going, and I just want to thank you for that.

RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

CALLER: I wanted to chat with the young woman that called earlier in the show who was a little discouraged, a little nervous and jerky about her future.

RUSH: Helena.

CALLER: Helena.

RUSH: She’s 19 years old, yeah.

CALLER: If I could, I would sit her down at my kitchen table right now and I’d pour her a cup of tea and I’d look in her eyes and I’d say, “Let’s just scrap all this garbage on the table and let’s look at reality, because what we’re hearing and what we’re being fed has nothing to do with what our country was founded on. It has nothing to do with reality.” Fifty-six men, a couple hundred years ago, sat down and they said that “we, the people” are gonna separate from England because we can do things a little different, a little smarter, a little better.

They staked and they pledged their lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor for something bigger than themselves — and that spirit, Rush, still exists today. Every time we see a serviceman in the grocery store, in the parking lot, we go up, we shake their hands, and we say, “Thank you, sir, for serving our nation.” We’re not giving up. We’re fighting for her — and you know what?

We’ve got good bones. My husband rehabs property, and he loves disasters. He loves a house that nobody wants that’s been neglected, torn down, hasn’t been cared for a while, ’cause he sees the potential. He goes in, and as long as it has good bones, a solid foundation, and there’s not a lot of dry rot —

RUSH: Well, you know, that’s the thing. I’m really glad you’re saying this, ’cause I told her: “Don’t let what you think’s happening to everybody else affect you. I mean, you go carve your niche just as if you thought things were normal. If you want to look at it as though you’ve got less competition here to make your mark, go ahead and do it. The opportunity still exists,” and you’re exactly right. There are millions of people striving to hold onto that very thing.

That’s what this fight is all about, and it’s a fight that’s always being waged.

It’s never totally won, and it’s never, ever totally defeated. Because there are always people that don’t like it — the founding, the things it stands for — and they happen to be running the country right now. But it can be overcome. It can be, particularly young people. That’s why they must get the truth of the nation, the truth the founding. That’s why I wrote my book, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.