RUSH: Well, we may as well stick with this silly budget stuff, ’cause there are a couple of points to be made about it. But it, too, is just part of the daily script of the daily media narrative that’s coming out of Washington. This government’s gonna run whether they get a budget done or not; everybody knows it. Government isn’t gonna shut down. There isn’t any mood to shut down the government. If it does shut down, there’s not any mood to reform it, not right now, for a whole host of reasons.
I was watching CNN during the break. That’s how desperate things are for me today. You want to know how bad things are? Try this. We just got a delivery from — I’m not gonna name the company ’cause it’s not a criticism of the company. We were expecting eight items, and all eight were on the truck. The driver said, “I can’t find one of them. I know it’s here, I put it on. I can’t get it. I’ll come back later and finish the delivery.”
“But it’s on the truck. Why don’t you just –“
“Well, I’ll come back later after I made a bunch of other deliveries and then that box will finally show up.”
The last time I was told that, the box had been delivered to the wrong address, and it took three days to get it. Well, it came to the right door, there’s no question it came to the right door. (imitating driver) “Yeah, I know they’re all here. I just can’t get to that eighth one, too much trouble to get to the eighth one. Here’s seven of ’em. I’ll come back later.”
“Okay, fine, I hope we’re here.”
So I’m watching Boehner, and we had a call, Lee from Queens, who said, “How do you know they’re shell-shocked? Why can’t it be the Republicans just don’t disagree with anything that’s going on?” And there is an element of that. For example, let me pose to you a hypothetical. But as part of the hypothetical, I want you to see if you can recall anything in reality that would help you answer the hypothetical. Okay? If the Republicans had the House as they do, and if the Republicans controlled the Senate, and if the Republicans had a president in the White House, would they repeal Obamacare?
You think so? Okay. You tell me, who?
This is what I don’t see, Mr. Snerdley. I don’t see any unity even on that in the Republican Party. I don’t see anybody in the Republican even talking about it. Ted Cruz, if he were president, maybe. But look what happens when he talks about repealing Obamacare, look what his own party does to him. Forget the Democrats. Look what the consultants did to him, and look what the Republican donors did to him, and then when amnesty comes up, look what Republicans did to him on amnesty.
We’re sitting here, we’ve got a socialist in the White House. We got his party running the Senate, they’ve taken over the judiciary, and we’re making all these demands on the Republicans in the House to do something about it. And my question is, if the Republicans owned everything, would they do anything about it, as they are currently constituted? Conservatives would, but would Republicans? Name for me, since you think they’d repeal it, tell me who would lead. It would have to be a top-down thing from the White House.
So it would depend. So if we had elected Romney would we repeal? You think so? Okay. If Chris Christie somehow doesn’t get the Democrat nomination and gets the Republican nomination, will we repeal Obamacare? Okay, we won’t, right? You don’t think Chris Christie would lead an effort to repeal and get rid of Obamacare? Well, but Chris Christie is going to have all the consultants behind him. He’s gonna have all the big-time mainstream so-called Republican donors behind him. I can’t even think of any Republican right now. I’m drawing a blank. I’m sure they’re out there. I’m sure that Cruz might, Mike Pence maybe. Governors, Scott Walker might. Palin might give it a go again, I don’t know.
But if you think of it in those terms, there’s no consensus to repeal Obamacare. And yet we’re sitting here demanding these guys do something on the budget? It ain’t gonna happen. I was just watching Boehner at a press conference, and he got a question, I think it was a CNN infobabe, and the question, I’m paraphrasing the question. “Are you finally going to urge your members to be more cooperative, or are they gonna keep trying to advance the ideas of their supporters?” Meaning the voters. Are your members actually gonna be more cooperative? With who? Obama, the Democrats? So are you finally gonna cooperate, Mr. Speaker, or your members gonna continue to follow their supporters, i.e., voters and oppose this?
That’s when Boehner lashed out at all these conservative groups who don’t know what they’re talking about and haven’t seen the budget deal, and he said (paraphrasing), “My objective when I came here was to roll back the government, the size of this government, make it smaller and leaner and meaner and more efficient. Now, does this get us there? No. But is it a step in the right direction? Yes. Can we get everything we want? No.” But the question is, what are they really fighting for? Then you get down to, okay, are they shell shocked, are they frightened, are they worried about the media?
I think there is an element of that because, look, I know human nature. And just like we had a call from the woman that was out there in the hinterlands — this is probably two weeks ago now — who said that Obama’s falling poll numbers, they’re really not new. People have felt this way for a long time. They’ve just been afraid to say so because nobody wants to be thought of as a racist. Meaning the average citizen out there, not somebody in politics. “People don’t like controversy, Rush, they just don’t.” So they just go ahead, they say whatever is the path of least resistance.
They will not say they disapprove of Obama to a pollster, but now they feel comfortable doing it because they think everybody else is on the same page. So now they’re happy to join in with expressing their disapproval of Obama. But they’ve always felt it. They’ve just been afraid to say so. Well, I contend that there’s an element of that within the Republican Party. I say shell shocked. Post-traumatic stress disorder. I do believe that there is an element of paralysis based on fear of the media. Frankly, I don’t think there is any question about it.
There are also Republicans who are perfectly content with the government as is and growing. There are also some Republicans who relish the power that is available by being part of such a large, massive institution as the government. There was a fascinating thing in the Washington Post recently. It was on their website only because you couldn’t do what this site did in a newspaper story. But it was a story about super ZIP codes in America and where they are. And for the purposes of this story in the Washington Post, the super ZIP code is defined as a combination of per capita wealth and education.
For example, you can find some ZIP codes around the country that are wealthy as hell, but the education is not as high as in other places. It found something like over half of the super ZIP codes are in Washington, meaning the wealthiest, average wealthiest, based on ZIP codes, the people that live there and how much they make and their education level, the vast majority of the super ZIP codes in this country are in Washington, DC. If you stop and think about it, it makes total sense. That’s where all the money goes. That’s where it is. And when you are in Washington is when you have a chance to dip your fist into the pile and take out what you can, not by working for it, necessarily, although there is that, don’t misunderstand.
Trillions of dollars every year are concentrated in that tiny geographic area. It makes perfect sense that human beings would gravitate there trying to get their share. And make no mistake, everybody in life is pursuing money: left, right, charity, nonprofits, everybody’s pursuing money. Everybody wants a raise. Everybody wants to improve their standard of living. Everybody wants to be rich, and especially those that go to Washington. Everybody wants to be rich and they want to be powerful. They want to be rich. Collection of money is there, this Washington Post story proved it.
Now, what does Washington produce? Nothing. So what are the people who are amassing money doing for it? Not producing anything, except bigger government. Not producing a product. “Mr. Limbaugh, there are many brilliant services that come out of Washington, like Medicaid.” That’s my point. They’re not producing anything. They’re transferring money and taking their share in the process. The vast majority of wealthy ZIP codes are in DC and the suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. Everybody’s there to get their share of the money. They are not true believers trying to downsize the place. Everybody that moves there loves its size, loves all the money that’s there, so they can get their share of it.
You ought to see this illustrated on one of these interactive maps with these ZIP codes all lit up. Have you seen a nighttime picture of the United States? You can see where the population is. East Coast, West Coast, all the coasts, all the way up and down the East Coast. Start in New York, Boston, come down all the way to Miami, nothing but solid lights if you look at a nighttime picture the United States. In flyover country, okay, a little speck there in Kansas City, little speck in St. Louis, little speck in Chicago. You can hardly see Nashville or Memphis or any of that, maybe a little bit of Denver. Then you get to the Left Coast and from Seattle all the way down to San Diego it’s solid lights. The brightest is now Washington, DC, on that picture, when the lights are represented by wealthy ZIP codes. That’s what this website showed.
The brightest light, the wealthiest place in this country is Washington, DC. And what is produced there? What is made there? Zip, zero, nada. And so, in the midst of all this we’re expecting massive numbers of people that go there to shrink the place? Human nature is — I mean, folks, this is the gold rush. This is the discovery of gold in California. Everybody’s moving there, and they’re trying to get their share of it. Lobbying, influencing, consulting, running campaigns, working in the government for free health care, whatever it is. And no, I’m not just talking about government employees. I mean, they top out at what the president, 400 grand every year, everybody else, figure a government average of 110 grand. It’s not those people, although that’s not bad, but we’re talking the ancillary end, the millions, the multimillions that make up these super ZIP codes. It’s where the money is.
“Willie Sutton, why do you rob banks?”
“That’s where the money is.”
“Why do you want to go into politics?”
“That’s where the money is.”
And then the people that go there who want to talk about reducing the size of the place, is it any wonder the long knives are out for ’em? Is it any wonder that the people that are there try to take ’em out?
“What do you mean, come here and try to limit the size of this place? What do you mean come here and get the money out of here? What do you mean come here and make sure the money never gets here by letting people keep what they earn? Screw you, buddy.”
And then they take ’em out. It’s money. We sit here and the budget gets passed, and, lo and behold, a Republican budget cements the spending for Obamacare. A Republican budget locks it in. Proof is in reality. It’s the money. Nobody there wants the pile to shrink. Nobody there wants the influence and the power that can be accrued to shrink. It would be the same if somebody moved to Las Vegas and said, “You know what? We need to reduce the number of casinos here by 30%.” Bugsy Siegel would come back from the grave and personally grab a Thompson submachine gun and wipe them out.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ll give you an illustration. I probably shouldn’t do this, but I will. By the way, I just sent the link for this DC super ZIP illustration I was talking about up to Koko at RushLimbaugh.com. Koko will get that, and he’ll post that link, and you’ll be able to see it for yourself. Now, if you just take wealthiest ZIP codes and forget the education level… Remember, it’s those two things combined that equal a super ZIP code for the Washington Post calculation.
Jupiter Island, Florida, which is one county north of here, is always in the top two or three wealthiest ZIP codes in the country. On this map, it’s number 93. You just to show you the difference. It’s 93 out of a hundred that they measure. When you see this, you will see what I’m talking about. Here are the top 15, and some of this is literally gonna blow your mind. The largest clusters of elite ZIP codes, super ZIPs and their nearest major city — and this is ranked by number of households and the average income and education.
Number one, by far and away, is Washington. Number two is the east side of Manhattan. Number three is San Jose, California. That would be Silicon Valley. Number four is Boston. Lot of universities. Number five is Oakland, California. Not San Francisco. Yes, Oakland. Number seven is Newark. Now, how many of you associate wealth and a high education combination with Newark? Number six is Bridgeport, Connecticut. That is where all of the New York CEOs live, that and Greenwich.
Well, that’s where their outside-New York residences are. Bridgeport is not actual Bridgeport. You know, this is the city nearest where all these super ZIP codes are. Chicago is number eight. North of Los Angeles is number nine, which would be Malibu, Beverly Hills. Long Island is number 10. The west side of Manhattan is number 11. Trenton, New Jersey, is number 12.
Philadelphia is number 13. San Diego’s 14. South of Los Angeles is 15. Those areas, those are the nearest major city to the largest clusters of elite ZIP codes. But really all you need to know for this is that Washington, DC, is number one, and nothing is made there. It’s where every year how many trillions of dollars are printed and how many trillions are collected — and you’ve got 535 people, basically, figuring out where it all goes.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I must caution you here. Do not get confused by what I’m saying. I’m not indicting anything. This is not an attack on the rich. I’m just telling you where they’re congregating and why. Now, in addition, there’s another aspect to this that we throw in. Okay, so here you have the overall largest collection of combined wealth and education in Washington, DC. Well, there’s a bunch of crooks and criminals that are gonna figure this out. They’re gonna go there and try to rip ’em off. Everything balances out. Nothing is a panacea. I’m expressing all this within the context of I think everybody in that town has a vested interest in that town growing, not shrinking.
Everybody is there, I mean you’ve got your true ideologies, you’ve got the liberal Democrats and they want the place to get bigger because they want to control everybody, but they also want to get rich. They’re not paupers. They like to make people think they don’t care about money. They like to make people think they only care about helping the poor, the disadvantaged. They’re ripping them off like everybody else is. Where’s the money come from for that town? Nothing is made there. Every dollar in that town is first somebody else’s. That’s what bugs me about it.
It’s not Silicon Valley. It’s not Detroit, where they’re manufacturing things. Every dollar in that town is either printed or taken from somebody before it gets there, but most everybody in that town has a self-vested interest in that town growing, not shrinking. And I think that includes a lot of people. So when somebody politically, ideologically shows up and wants to shrink the place, the long knives from everybody come out for ’em and they try to destroy ’em.
My only point here is do not think that ideological or political people are not interested in money. They care about it as much if not more than anybody else does. It’s their life. Their power comes from spending it, buying people, supporting people, making people dependent on them, and then taking as much of it for themselves as they can get. How in the world does it happen that a guy who’s never made more than 80 grand a year, after 10 years in Congress is a multimillionaire on a salary of 150? How does it happen? Now, not everybody it happens to, but there’s some that manage to pull that off and they never go to jail. And they haven’t joined a lobbying firm. They end up with sweetheart real estate deals from people back home, there’s any number of things that happen.
But it’s power. There’s so much power in all of that money. And there supposedly is a political party that has made its voters think that its primary interest is in shrinking the place, and it isn’t. And I think it’s true with the so-called conservative media. I mean, everybody in that town depends on that town thriving and growing in order for them to have something to do there, and in order for them to have expanded financial opportunity there. Media capitals are there, in addition to New York and the west coast.
It’s just a basic human element, need, desire as anything else is, money. And folks, there’s more there than anywhere else. The printing presses are there and the tax collection agency is there. The thing about it, as I say, every dollar there is somebody else’s first, before it gets there. That’s what offends me. I think it’s a bunch of thieves disguised as tax collectors. They are enriching themselves. Everybody is, you know, three, four, five levels removed. But everybody participating in the economy of the town is living off somebody else’s work and money, because it’s tax revenue that’s built the place and what’s printed.
Tell me, what product is sold other than think tank papers? Or the government printing office? I mean, what product is sold there? What products are manufactured, marketed, and sold there, other than the government itself and getting bigger? The product that’s marketed there is compassion. The product and service marketed there is Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and all the other things that the government is going to provide you.
The North Pole is there. It doesn’t matter if the ice is melting at the North Pole because it isn’t there anymore. It’s in Washington. Santa Claus and the elves are in DC, pure and simple. And the proof is that Republican budget has just locked in spending on Obamacare. But wait, but wait, didn’t they have a hundred votes or so where they wanted to repeal it? Yeah, but the votes didn’t mean anything. The vote that mattered, they locked in the spending for it, or they will this afternoon when they actually make it official.