BRETT: Fox talked about the jobs report missing estimates with 559,000 jobs added. The unemployment rate now is at 5.8%. “U.S. employers are adding fewer jobs than expected.” They did so last month “as extended unemployment benefits encouraged workers to stay home.” We’re paying people to stay home! Remember, when Obama and the Democrats extended unemployment, during a so-called Summer of Recovery back in 2010? I do.
RUSH: Unemployment insurance extended now to 2-1/2 years — 2-1/2 years! The media story line is the Democrats want it, the Republicans don’t. That’s not the story. The story is how the hell are we going to pay for this? And the substory is, at what point does unemployment compensation become welfare? The longer you pay people not to work, the longer they’re not gonna try to work. At what point does unemployment compensation become welfare?
And I’m here to tell you that we may be on the cusp of it. Unemployment compensation is just another welfare program. (interruption) “What do you mean, how dare me?” Somewhere there needs to be truth, and there’s journalism going on in this program. It’s not emergency spending. We don’t have the money for this. This is another expanded welfare program. It’s not called that.
It used to be you got this for a month or two, 13 weeks. Then it expanded and expanded and expanded and expanded. Let me tell you something. The big question the Republican Party has to answer itself is not anything other than, “How the hell are we gonna contrast ourselves with these people? How are we going to contrast ourselves with these people?” That’s all the Republican Party has to answer.
Who are we? What do we believe in or what are we going to tell people we’re for? That’s all they have to do. I happen to be doing it and part of doing that is explaining who the hell they are. If you don’t have the guts to explain who they are like they lie about who we are then they’re going to continue to lose. They mock us. We mock them. They lie about us. We tell the truth about them. We don’t have the courage to do that.
This isn’t unemployment compensation insurance. This is a welfare program. And it’s needed because the Democrat Party has destroyed the job sector. That’s all you have to say. We wouldn’t even need this if there were jobs being created out there. There’s one reason the jobs aren’t being created.
His name is Barack Obama and his party, the Democrat Party. They’re killing jobs. They are killing the private sector, and it is not an accident. Is it just me, or does it seem a tad off key to publicly demand extending unemployment benefits during the Summer of Recovery? That sounds like an admission of failure. Call me crazy. You and I both know we’re not.
To those of us in the country class, recovery means healing; means coming back; means onward Christian soldiers; means we’re on the march, in this case, a healing or recovering economy. But extending jobless benefits feels more like unabated bleeding. Democrats are subsidizing more unemployment. You subsidize something you get more of it. So if you pay people not to work, they might decide not to work.
BRETT: So go back to what I was saying at the beginning of the program. I was pointing out the fact that this is a great time to be a conservative because the argument is being made for conservatives by the Democrats. Now, it’s at a great expense to the American people, trillions of dollars in wasteful spending, as evidenced by what I shared with you.
You have a state like North Carolina passing a bill that would give $1,500 bonuses for people to give up their $300-per-week money so that they would go to work. Now, half of the United States has ended the unemployment payments early, under the presumption that there are jobs that are out there. But Roy Cooper, who is a Democrat who runs the state of North Carolina, would veto any bill that’s going to cut the free money.
“Where does the money come from?” you’re asking. I know you’re asking. You say, “Well, where does this money come from that we would pay somebody $1,500 to go back to work?” So you’re getting paid 300 bucks a week not to go to work. We’re gonna pay you $1,500 bonuses to get you go back to work. The money is coming from the same place: The Federal Covid Relief Allotment.
That sent $300 a week to people who are out of work. That jobs-killing program will end in September. So we’re looking to say, “Okay. We’ll give you 1500 bucks. Can you go back to work please? Could you please — pretty please — decide to go back to work?” Have you been watching the commercials that are on television right now about people getting back to work? They are infantile.
They show people not being able to find their shoes and having to suddenly put on a shirt and to not walk around in flip-flops and a cowboy hat all day (laughing) or whatever you’re doing at the house. (impression) “You need to get rid of the sweats and put on work-appropriate clothing.” Millions and millions and millions of people went to work, throughout the pandemic, primarily our frontline first responders.
Also, of course, the retail folks, kept businesses going so people can get their toilet paper or whatever it was they were making a run on in a given week. But now they’re talking to the American people like, “We know you don’t know how to go back to work. So we’re going to be patient with you. Here’s where your shoes are, and this is how you make a cup of coffee.”
That’s the dream of Pelosi and Schumer, to try to get children that are dependent on our great Uncle Sam for $300 a week so that we can be made whole again. The American people want to go to work. They are being conditioned and have been conditioned that this is the new normal, the Great Reset, all that sort of stuff that we’re seeing play out here. I’ll give you another very quick example, a personal example of mine.
Last week, I attended the NASCAR race here in Charlotte. You couldn’t move in the stands. Jam-packed. Packed. No masks. People living their lives. I mean, some people had masks on because they felt safe wearing the mask. People were living their lives. It was remarkable. Phenomenal. You look at that race that was run yesterday, in Sonoma, California?
There were 37 people in the stands. These are the different approaches in the states. Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, South Dakota — states that embrace the reopening and states that fear it because they’re going to be put out of the government business. Poppycock! It’s really… It’s really an incredible thing.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
BRETT: Rush took a call back during the 2010 economic downturn/recovery period, and the caller wanted to talk to him about gaming the system. Here’s how that sounded.
RUSH: Jack on the New York State Throughway, great to have with you be the EIB Network, hello, sir.
CALLER: You’re absolutely right about unemployment becoming welfare, the new welfare. I have customers who have been trying to hire people, and the question they ask: “Will you pay me off the books so I can keep my unemployment? It’s not worth it. You’re not going to pay me enough. You’re paying me more than I’m getting now, but it’s not enough to come back to work.”
RUSH: By design, in many cases.
CALLER: By design in many cases. It is truly amazing.
RUSH: I want you to say that again. You have people, you have customers who have been trying to hire people, and the question they’re asked is, “Will you pay me off the books?”
CALLER: “Will you pay me off the books?” Right.
RUSH: Meaning, “Will you pay me cash so I can continue to collect unemployment benefits?”
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Right. Gaming the system.
CALLER: Yes. This is in New Jersey where the unemployment benefits are very high.
RUSH: Well, of course.
CALLER: They’re getting over $500 a week.
RUSH: Look, New Jersey is full of entrepreneurs.
CALLER: And they’d probably only be making seven, $800 a week.
RUSH: Entrepreneurs come in all shapes, sizes, and forms, and there are people who recognize how to game the system out there, and they’re doing it. It’s maybe not something you and I would do, but they see an opportunity, and they say, “You know what? It’s gonna be easier. This guy can pay me off the books. He doesn’t have pay me any taxes. He doesn’t have to report that I work for him.
“I can still get unemployment benefits. He benefits; I benefit. I get rich. I get paid more by not working and working than if I went and took a real job and had health benefits.” There are certain people who size up what’s going on and here’s their way of dealing with it. I’m not condoning it. This is the kind of behavior that is…. Ah, I don’t know if you want to say “spawned,” but certain creative people are always out there gaming the system.
BRETT: And in some states, you’re going to have people who say, “Okay. I’m going to take the money from the fed. I’m going to take the money from the state, as a bonus to go get a job, and I’ll get a job.” Absurd! Insane!