RUSH: Folks, 22 million people are not working, and it’s not because of the quirks and fates of America’s economy. It’s because we have shut it down and we have shut it down on the back of bad data. We’ve shut it down on the back of poor projections.

You know, there’s any number of ways of looking at this. One of the ways of looking at it is it has taken whatever length of time that we’ve been shut down, what is it, six weeks or seven weeks, it’s taken less than two months to wipe out the roaring economic gains of three years and taken our economy back to the Obama administration economy high mark.

Now, we’ve gone deeper than that. We didn’t have 22 million people not working in the Obama administration, but we did have the lowest labor force participation rate. We had a lot of people not working in the Obama administration. The unemployment rate didn’t reflect it, but we had a lot of people capable of working who weren’t.

This was done on purpose. I don’t want to re-prosecute those days, but it was purposeful. The Obama administration was convincing people America’s best days were behind us. They were globalists. They wanted to push the United States into this new global arrangement where we would not be in charge of our sovereignty. A bunch of Europeans would basically be in charge of a world government, a globalist government.

For that to happen, the United States economy had to be cut down a little, had to be cut down in size. The United States as a superpower had to be cut down in size. And the Obama people, Madeleine Albright, John Kerry, they all went along with it, and so they were famous for running around saying that there was a new era now, the era of decline, that America’s best days are behind us. You need to lower your expectations.

And they further stated that some of the glory days of America’s past were not legitimate, that our economic strength and power from those days was maybe ill-gotten, that we had stolen some of it, stolen resources from other nations, that we had built our nation on the backs of people who were not properly compensated.

Now, folks, I remember being livid because the Obama administration and the media, the Democrat Party in that era was making its bones running down the United States of America and creating this impression that the new normal was the state of decline and that they were telling us their expertise was in managing this decline so that there would be as little widespread pain as possible. That’s what their expertise was. They were gonna be able to prevent economic pain.

There was no talk of economic growth. There was no talk of massive American superpower type economic growth. If you’ve forgotten this, don’t doubt me. We could go back and find various segments that I did on this and repost them at RushLimbaugh.com from the archives if we wanted to. I mean, they’re plentiful. The point is Trump is elected and in three years we accomplish everything the Obama administration, including Joe Biden said was not possible anymore. And we experienced an economy unlike any the world had seen and in many cases, unlike any Americans had seen.

It was so great that the American population featured a lot of people who had never seen economic growth like this. And it’s gone. It took three years, and now it’s gone in a matter of less than two months, it’s gone. And my heart’s broken over it. Because when we talk about this, we’re talking about the American people, we’re talking about people, citizens. I mean, it’s people that made that happen.

Donald Trump didn’t wave a magic wand and make it happen. Donald Trump’s not responsible for it except in the terms of believing it could happen and formulating policies that permitted economic growth and drastically reducing a bunch of burdensome and punitive regulations, massive numbers of them. But the American people, you, made all of that happen by virtue of your ambition and your desire and your belief that it could happen, your belief in yourself, your desire to make it happen. The fact that you’re an American meant that you had a can-do attitude.

One great thing about America, among many, is that dreams come true here. They always have. People have their dreams. And many of those dreams are now boarded up. Many of those dreams are now shut down. We did it to ourselves. We did it in an unprecedented manner. We’ve never done anything like this to ourselves before. And then add to that there are people happy about it. Why? Add to that there are people who want to continue this. Why?

There are people who wish to maintain the status quo so that next month another six million will be out of work and the number of people filing for unemployment will be 27 to 28 million. There are people advocating for that under the guise of saving lives. We are destroying lives, folks. We are destroying businesses. I know business is a bad, dirty word to a lot of — we are destroying livelihoods. We’re destroying dreams. We are destroying careers.

We are canceling out whole lot of hard work that happened. And it is really scary to me how many people are advocating for this to continue when it can’t. There is no alternative. This economy has to get going again. I cannot believe that we are even in the midst of an argument about this. The fact that we are illustrates just how dangerous and ominous the forces arrayed against us are.

The fact that there is an argument, and the argument is coming down to, as I also predicted, “You don’t care about killing people! You Republicans are perfectly fine with people dying. That’s what you’ve always been! You don’t care about people,” when it’s the exact opposite. It is the exact opposite. The Democrat Party does not have an exclusive on compassion, and it’s the most frustrating thing in the world to me that they do.

The Democrat Party needs a permanent underclass. They need people in constant poverty. They need people in a status of need. It’s for their power. Take a look at any Democrat constituency group outside of Wall Street billionaires and ask yourself: How has the support to the Democrat Party elevated them? Take a look at the African-American population. Go back.

I’ve been alive long enough to know what they’ve been complaining about for 50 years, and I’m telling you, they’re still complaining about the same things. They’re complaining about lousy economic opportunity. They’re complaining about living in lousy neighborhoods. They’re complaining about racism, bigotry, and all that stuff — and the Democrat Party has been promising them for 50 years that they’re gonna fix it.

The Democrat Party has been promising them for 50 years that they’re gonna get even with all these mean-spirited Republicans that are dishing out all this harm. And yet African-Americans are still complaining to the Democrats about the same things. There aren’t any solutions. There are no elevated lives, other than those who have somehow turned to Donald Trump.

Who have turned to Republicans. Who have decided to invest in mainstream market capitalism and sought their fortune or their way of life within that rather than relying on Democrat socialism to take care of them. The African-Americans and any other minority that has decided to throw in with free-market capitalism and to do their best, have been remarkably surprised, and have been so happy and pleased with the success that they have found.

And, meanwhile, the people who are continuing to rely on either the state government where they live or the federal government to make it right, to get even with all these oppressors? Whatever they’re thinking is gonna happen, they’re still in poverty, they’re still living where they don’t want to live, and they’re still complaining about the same thing.

So how is it they get away, the Democrats, with ownership of compassion? And how is it that we supposedly don’t care, when everything we believe in — when everything we support — can result in wonderful economic opportunity being realized and additional levels of freedom? But still, it’s down-right scary that there are people advocating for the continuation of this economy to remain stagnant, who want more people showing up on unemployment rolls.

It’s so senseless that you have to question the motivation behind it. Well, I know what it is. It’s how they think they’re gonna get rid of Donald Trump. “No, Rush. It’s much more complex. That’s too simplistic.” No, no, folks. I’m telling you: The simplest answer to a question is always the right answer.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, this ticks me off. I just took a look at the Drudge page during the break, and one of the top stories on the Drudge page is a Politico story, and the headline of the story: “Trump’s Call with Wall Street Didn’t Go as Planned.” He talked to Wall Street fat cats, whatever you want to call ’em, yesterday on a conference call. And, you know what?

They told Trump to keep the country locked down. These guys are left-wing Democrats. Everybody thinks that Wall Street fat cats are a bunch of Republicans. They aren’t. These are the people that bankroll the Democrat Party, folks. They have for a long time. I know them. I know a bunch of ’em. They’re not conservative Republicans, free marketeers.

Many of them are billionaire hedge fund types who, by the way, are not losing any money. Have you noticed? You probably haven’t. You don’t know how to look it up. A lot of these billionaires are earning money during this. (interruption) Well, the value of their assets is going up, like the value of their sports team is going up, even though there aren’t games.

There’s only 32 teams in the NFL, for example. At any rate, let me finish this ’cause time is dwindling away here. The reason for the market being down today is because these Wall Street people told Trump not to reopen, keep the country locked down. They said Trump should not reopen until people are not worried about getting coronavirus. That’s never gonna happen!

People are not not worried about getting the flu. They still take flu shots. There isn’t a day in the near future, in the foreseeable future where people aren’t gonna be worried about getting coronavirus. There may never be a vaccine for it. All this talk about a vaccine in 12 to 18 months? There may never be one. We don’t have vaccines for most viruses.

So if there’s never a vaccine and if there’s never a shot, how in the world are people going to stop worrying about getting it? Trump should not reopen until people aren’t worried about getting it? I hope he can see through this. I’m sure that he can. Here’s how Politico writes it, and you can hear the happiness in the opening paragraphs:

“The White House held a call…” This is from yesterday. “The White House held a call this morning with top Wall Street titans and other senior bankers and financiers to talk about how to reopen the economy, part of a barrage of phone [calls] between President Donald Trump and executives from industries including hospitality, health care, technology, construction, sports and many more.

“There was a small problem with the Wall Street call. Actually several problems.” Oh, the Politico is so excited, they can’t keep their pants up! “Many of the bankers said they knew nothing about the call until late Tuesday night. Several had quarterly earnings calls,” but they all ultimately said (paraphrased), “Mr. President, don’t open the economy ’til people are no longer afraid of getting coronavirus.”

Don’t open the economy until people are no longer afraid of getting it? (sigh)

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Valerie in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Welcome back. It’s great to have you here with us. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. It’s an honor to speak to you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I’m calling also about the shutdown of the economy. That political report was very disappointing to hear today. But as you said, Cuomo extended it for two more weeks. Now the —

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What political report was very disappointing to hear today?

CALLER: The one that you said that the businessmen that Trump had a call with —

RUSH: Oh, the Wall Street guys, yeah, Trump called the Wall Street guys. Well, that’s not real. They said shut down until people aren’t afraid of getting it anymore. That’s not going to happen.

CALLER: Right. That’s never going to happen. So now the Connecticut governor also extended the lockdown until May 20th. And I’m sure the governor of my wonderful state will be the next one to extend it. I live in the great state of Illinois. And I’m just wondering how long will people put up with this? Pelosi, before she left on her furlough, threatened Trump, “Do not open the economy.” And as we know now, he doesn’t have the full authority to do so. So I’m just wondering, before people rise up as they did in Michigan, is this going to —

RUSH: Well, they’re starting to.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: I’ve got a story here out of Kentucky. “Republican lawmakers in Kentucky have swept aside the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill to require people to show a government-issued photo ID in order to vote.” There’s all kinds of things where people are revolting against Democrat governors.

Montana. “Montana County Demands People Wear Government-Issued Arm Bands To Do Business.” And this has been shot down.

Get this. “In what might be one of the most over-the-top and draconian responses to coronavirus yet seen in Montana, Valley County is mandating that people wear government-issued pink arm bands in under to purchase products inside of stores. The measure, enforced by the Valley County Health Department, insists that store-owners keep customers out unless they have the pink arm-bands, which denote the customer has been in the area more than 14 days and submitted to quarantine protocol.”

It’s been lifted. People said, “To hell with this.” So it’s gone.