ozzmdj
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We're going to get to health care in detail in just a second, but the thing that you have to understand, the Senate can say that they want to take the death panels away and it doesn't matter and Sebelius can say, "Well, we're thinking about getting of the public option," and Obama say, "Well, I don't know that we're thinking of getting rid of the public option, we may go to health care exchanges," and Kent Conrad can say, "Well, there's going to be a public --" folks, look, whether you call them death panels or not, just to reiterate this, the only people on whom we spend health care dollars are the sick. We do not spend money on the healthy. Therefore, we've gotta cut spending, we gotta cut costs, that's one of the objectives, and, in addition to that, we've gotta insure 47 million more people, ostensibly. There's no way to do this without spending more money and we don't have the money. If you're going to cut medical costs the only way to do it is to cut it on people on whom you spend it, and that's the sick.
I guarantee you whether there's a death panel counseling you on your death at the end of your life, whether it's a government panel or whether it's a doctor doing it or whoever -- and there is going to be a public option -- there is no reason to have this kind of liberal reform without a public option. All this talk about a public option, dropping it or maybe putting it back in, whatever they're going to call it, there's no reason to do this kind of reform from this standpoint, from Obama, from the liberals in Congress, without the government running it. If that's not on the table there's no reason for them to reform it. Do you think, for example, if we're going to think about reforming health care that Obama will say, "Hey, let's look at some private sector reforms." That's not going to be on the table. So if we're going to have health care reform, it's going to be what Obama wants. This is all these people have wanted for 50 years is the government to run it. Whether they call them health care exchanges or whether they call them the public option or whatever, there's not going to be a health care plan that doesn't get us there at some point.
Now, they may head fake us and try to get everybody to kind of back down on their opposition to this, but I guarantee you, these are liberals, these are socialists, these are people that believe the government has all the answers, these are people that believe the government, as big as it can be, equals utopia and they're not going to do anything in health care that doesn't get them there, so don't fall for the rhetoric, don't fall for the head fakes, don't fall for the supposed disagreements of the administration and Congress, it's all a game. Everything is designed to react to the opposition that's out there and to get you to cool down. This is not time to cool down, and it's not time to get giddy. This is something that for the rest of your life you're going to be fighting these people. As long as they are in charge, as long as they have majorities in the House and Senate, along with the White House, this is going to be a never-ending thing even if they have to come back and try to get it piecemeal at some point.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let's review the audio sound bites. First off, Sunday, CNN's State of the Union, John King interviewing the Health and Human Services secretary -- the hapless Kathleen Sebelius -- and King said, "You don't have the votes right now in the Senate for the public option. Is the message from the president that the votes aren't there; it's time to come up with plan B?"
SEBELIUS: What we don't know is exactly what the Senate Finance committee is likely to come up with. They've been more focused on a co-op, a not-for-profit co-op as a comm-petitor as opposed to a -- a straight government-run program. What's important is choice and competition and I'm convinced at the end of the day the plan will have both of those but that is not the essential element.
RUSH: I'm sorry. She doesn't believe that. She's a liberal. Choice and competition is not what they want. If they want choice and competition, then the government should get out of this altogether and let the private sector do the reform. Let the market take care of it. They don't want competition and choice. And these co-ops like we're too stupid to know what that's all about. Co-op? Why don't they just call them communes? Look, I know liberal lingo when I hear it. A co-op? Yeah, let's go to the farmers market. Let's go to the community garden! What, do they think we're idiots? They said they want to cover the uninsured. We can do that without doing this. They said they want competition, they said. Okay, great, we can do that, too. But they want single payer and they're not going to give up and there's no competition in single payer.
They tried the back door of the phony public option, and it didn't work because people figured out what the public option is. People are not that stupid, especially when you tell 'em, "Okay, you got private insurance agencies here in the private sector, and then you've got the public option," and you've got businesses who are already panicked at their health care costs who would love to off-load their health care costs to the government, the public option. And the public option run by the government, it does not have to turn a profit so if you do -- if you have to make a profit in the private sector -- there's no way you can compete and stay in business with an outfit that doesn't have to make a profit. Now, co-ops. Co-ops. As long as they're going to create some government entity and as long as they're going to make private insurance unsustainable with limits and regulations and taxation, their objective is the same. Co-ops! Man, you people at the administration, if you're going to try to fool us by thinking you're dumping the public option well then come up with some name that doesn't reek of liberalism. Here's Kent Conrad. He was on Fox News Sunday. He's a Senator from North Dakota, Democrat. Chris Wallace: "Would the president be better off just taking the public option off the table right now?"
CONRAD: Look, the -- the fact of the matter is, there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit I think, uh, is just a wasted effort.
RUSH: The public option is dead in the Senate. Maybe so. This is what they say. You know, I did a little test today. I love going to the Democrat Underground, because the Democrat Underground is the greatest collection -- it's a close competition with the Daily Kos. But the Democrat Underground, that website, is the most concentrated collection of sheer lunatics that the Democrat Party has to offer that you have ever seen, and they are just livid. Once this public option news hit, that it's going to be taken off the table, I mean every other word is the F-bomb in practically every post and they're mad as hell. "Why do we have to do it? We run the House, we run the Senate, we run the White House! Why can't we just pass what we want?" F-bomb, F-bomb, F-bomb, F-bomb, Jesus Christ, F-bomb, F-bomb. I mean, it's just hilarious. (laughing) It's kind of fun to see these lunatics get upset when their elected lunatics don't deliver. Howard Dean. See, Howard Dean is not happen happy about it. He was on the CBS Early Show today with the host Maggie Rodriguez. Let me check the clock. Do we have time? And she said to him, "What if the public doesn't want this, Mr. Dean? Obama's approval rating down to 53. Forty-two percent of voters believe he's mishandled the health care. How do you explain he's losing public support?"
DEAN: Bill Clinton is still the smartest political mind in America and he said at a nutroots convention in Pittsburgh, "As soon as President Obama signs the bill his ratings will go up again," and I think that's true. This is a politics process. The Senate's not even back in session for another three weeks. My guess is the Republicans aren't going to vote for this bill no matter what. So there's no point in making a lot of concessions for people that aren't going to vote for the bill under any circumstances anyway.
RUSH: This is interesting because he's right. The Republicans, we don't have to tailor it to the Republicans. This is all Democrats, and there are some of them up for reelection, and they're hearing about it. These town hall eruptions that you are engaging in are working. Now, I got a bunch of sound bites. Cookie gave me a bunch of sound bites today from the media that are really over the top, that this is all racist, that my opposition to Obama is racist, that your opposition to Obama is racist, that I'm inspiring racism. I mean, it's gotten to the point they've played this card for 21 years. It doesn't work anymore. You don't have the number one, most listened to radio show in America -- the most respected, the most feared, the most loved, the most whatever -- if it's filled with hate and racism and bigotry and all this.
It's just not the case. They just keep going back to that same play in the playbook, and it's not working. But they are desperate. And there's even some members of Congress not even going home to their districts during the recess for fear that they will be found. So Howard Dean says, "To hell with the Republicans. We'll do the public option. The Senate doesn't get back for three weeks." There will be a public option. This is the thing that you have to realize, or have to remember. When liberals are in charge of this -- and this is the number one thing on their wish list, when they say they're taking the public option off the table or going to do co-ops -- trust me on this, folks, there's going to be a government entity, and it's eventually going to be single payer. That is what they want, and they'll get it however much they have to lie about it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, back to the audio sound bites, still sticking here with the public option. Eddie Bernice Johnson, she's a Democrat congresswoman from Texas. She's also on CNN yesterday. John King says, "The White House now says too much attention on the public option, clearly signaling it's ready to sign a health care bill without one." I can't believe... There's a reason nobody's watching the Drive-By Media anymore. How is it that these people who are the closest to Obama are the least curious? They have absolutely no curiosity. There's not even any attempt to question the authority and power. How in the world...? If you know who Obama is, and you've studied his career (all five minutes of it) how can you believe him? He hasn't told the truth about any number of things. How can you just automatically believe him when he says he's ready to sign a health care bill without a public option? Anyway, that's the question to Eddie Bernice Johnson, who was asked, "Could you support health care bill without a public option? Could other House Democrats support a health care reform measure that does not have a robust public option?"
JOHNSON: It would be very, very difficult because without the public option we'll have the same number of people uninsured. If the in-surance companies wanted to in-sure these people now, they'd be in-sured. The only way that we can be sure that very low-income people and persons that work for companies who don't offer insurance can have access to it is through an option that would give the private insurance companies a little competition. The private insurance companies been in charge of so long that I think they feel that nobody else ought to be able to do it.
RUSH: Now, that's just rich. This is just loaded. How about this? "If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people now they'd be insured." Yeah, I guess if General Motors wanted everybody to have a car, everybody would have a car. If people that build houses on the beach wanted everybody to have a house on the beach they would give 'em a house on the beach. If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people they'd be insured? This woman doesn't even understand how the private sector works. This is just all part of the demonization of the insurance companies. "The only way that we can be sure that very low-income peoiple...? Oh, speaking of which, I've got this in the stack here, guess what? The stimulus money, the American dream is over, the Obama administration...
I don't know what jogged this in my memory. The Obama administration has decided that home ownership is not the American dream. Something like $5.4 billion in stimulus money is going to go to help people rent all of a sudden. (interruption) That's right! It's in the Boston Globe. Barney Frank, this is going to upset him greatly because affordable housing is all about putting people in houses whether they can afford 'em or not. So the administration basically comes out and says, "You know what? We're not going to define the American dream anymore as owning a house." That can only mean that down the road bye-bye mortgage deduction because it won't be fair for the people who can buy a house and get a mortgage and take the deduction versus the people that can only afford to rent. I guarantee you they're going to have to do all kinds of radical things like that in order generate revenue. So Eddie Bernice Johnson says if the insurance companies wanted you to be insured, you'd be insured, whether you can afford it or not. Now, listen to this from James Carville also Sunday, CNN. He was on with his wife, Mary Matalin and she said, "The generic ballot for the second consecutive month is tending to Republicans. On eight out of ten issues people are favoring Republicans now, our recruiting, our if you went gubernatorial seats in New Jersey, Virginia -- the blue the old blue -- are tending Republicans."
CARVILLE: I -- I think it helps congressional Democrats. Put a bill out there make 'em filibuster it. Make 'em be what they are, d'Party of No. Look we spend... The truth of the matter is we spend about $8,000 per person in the United States on health care. Let 'em kill it. Let 'em kill it with the interest group money, then run against them.
RUSH: Now, this is rich because the Republicans can't kill anything. The Republicans can't filibuster anything. If the Democrats in the Senate want to go the reconciliation route they can do that and just use 51 votes. It would be controversial they can do it rather than getting 60. But propose a public option and let the Republicans kill it? Mr. Carville, what's happened is that the public option has been proposed, and the American people are killing it! The American people want no part of the government running health care. They like it. They have no desire. In fact, we have some polling data on this. I gotta be a lot closer to this microphone here than I do in Florida. Right on top of it. (softer) Can you hear me? Let me find the polling data. Well, it's an amazing number. I've got it buried. I've got four different stacks here, but it's an amazing number about the number of people that do not want a public option and who think that their health care now and the insurance company, the way they're running it, is fine. Well, it will come to me later. I gotta keep going with the sound bites because the next series is excellent. This is from Grand Junction, Colorado, on Saturday; Obama and a town hall meeting. Zack Lane, a student from the University of Colorado.
LANE: I'd love to have a debate, just all-out, anytime. Oxford-style if you'd like. I understand how --
AUDIENCE: (laughter)
LANE: I'm willing to do that. But my question is this: We all know the best way to reduce prices in this economy is to increase competition. How in the world can a private corporation providing insurance compete with an entity that does not have to worry about making a profit, does not have to pay local property taxes? They do not have to pay -- they're not subject to -- local regulations.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
LANE: How can a company compete with that? And I'm not looking for anything... I don't want generalities. I don't want philosophical arguments. I'm just asking a good question.
RUSH: This kid is amazing, and there's no question in my mind this kid listens to this program. In fact... Well, really. There's a New York Times column today by Ross Douthat (I'm not sure how he pronounces his last name: Do-u-t-h-a-t) and he just point-blank says that these town hall meetings are just filled with Rush Limbaugh listeners. He didn't even put my first name in there. Town hall meetings are filled with "Limbaugh listeners." Well, how does a private entity compete with a company doesn't have to make a profit, the government? Stop talking generalities and philosophical arguments. So this kid, this student challenges the president to a debate then with one simple question that Obama can't answer, nukes the entire foundation of Obamacare, and listen to this answer.
OBAMA: It is true that there are certain costs associated with a private business that a government would not have to worry about. You mentioned a couple of them. It's conceivable that a private entity that's having to pay a certain interest rate for their money would be really undermined if the government is able to get money much cheaper implicitly because Uncle Sam backs this operation. I think there are ways that we can address those competitive issues. And you're absolutely right: if they're not entirely addressed, then that raises a set of legitimate problems.
RUSH: Well, here you have a rambling answer -- and Obama just agreed with the student and explained why the centerpiece of his plan, the public option, won't work! It's because he can print money. He didn't say that, but when he says, "Well, uh, uh Uncle Sam, you know, can get money much cheaper implicitly because Uncle Sam..." prints it! (laughing) Our tax people just go out and take it from people. Private insurance companies can't do that. So this student gets Obama to admit that his whole plan won't work as he himself said. But "we can address those competitive issues." How? He does it again in this next sound bite. He keeps making this comparison.
OBAMA: The notion that somehow just by having a public option you have the entire private marketplace destroyed is just not borne out by the facts. And in fact, right now, you got a lot of private companies who do very well competing against the government. UPS and FedEx are doing a lot better than the Post Office.
AUDIENCE: (silence)
OBAMA: No, they are.
RUSH: I can't believe they're letting him still say this. This is something that after the first time he uttered this there should have been an emergency meeting in Axelrod's office or Rahm Emanuel's office and they shoulda bent Obama over their knee and spanked him. "You idiot! You have just gone out and said that the government doesn't do nearly as well as the private sector doing something! And you're trying to convince people the government can do it better than the private sector," and he's now keeping up with it. What are we supposed to say? "Oh, yeah, private insurance won't go away." Well, look, if you come out, Mr. President, and say the federal government is going to take over overnight package delivery -- that there is going to be a cheaper (ostensibly) public option where people... "But, Rush! But, Rush! It already exists. The Post Office does offer overnight delivery." Yeah, and you know who delivers it? FedEx.
You know the Post Office contracts with FedEx and UPS? They do. The Post Office contracts with FedEx for their overnight whatever they call it. What's the Post Office...? I don't even know what they call their overnight stuff. Priority Delivery or whatever it is. On Saturday I was running errands getting ready for the trip and I'm driving down the road and I saw a sight that I haven't seen in a long time. It was a white Post Office delivery truck on a Saturday. And I figured it had to be an express package this they were delivering 'cause... But FedEx is who they contract with. I can't believe that he's making this statement over and over again. The bottom line, nobody wants health insurance that works like the Post Office does -- and he's continuing to give everybody that vision and that picture. Finally here at the end of his answer, Obama signals that he is ready to give up on the public option.
OBAMA: The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it -- and by the way it's both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else.
RUSH: I'm going to agree with him about something here. The whole plan is rotten to the core. Whether there's a public option in this or not, there are still provisions in that House bill of over a thousand pages of the government running this and making that decision, your health care records being digitized and being made public. It's a disaster. The whole thing is a disaster and it would be a totally unfamiliar way to contract and get a service -- pay for it, the American people are used to. It is just a total abomination. Now, the public option is what makes it primary, but he's now getting very sensitive about this whole thing. He's learning... I think they've always known. I think the reason for the speed at the outset here is they know people don't want this. See, that doesn't matter. They're still going to force it down your throats no matter what, folks, even if they have to tell you that they're taking the public option out.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: There's one simple reason why FedEx and UPS are outdoing the post office, and that is the federal government doesn't set the rates and they don't define the terms of business, and they don't tell FedEx and UPS how to do what they're doing. I guarantee you if the post office could regulate UPS and FedEx, they wouldn't survive, either. Very simple. I found that poll I was looking for. This is a Rasmussen Reports poll: "Fifty-four percent say passing no health care reform is better than passing the congressional plan." So Obama, 54% of the American people say doing nothing is better than your idea, or whatever your idea is because you didn't really have a plan. The only plan that we really know out there is the congressional plan. Obama loves to run out there and say, "Well, can't do nothing." Fifty-four percent now have seen what's in store for them and they don't want you to do anything. They want you to just stop. They want you to stop doing town meetings, they want you to stop trying to argue with people, just stop it, don't do it. The sentiment is spreading.
And, get this, USA Today/Gallup poll: "Fifty-seven percent of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse." And even more than that, "60% doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it's done anything to help improve their personal situation." Ladies and gentlemen, very simple here, Obama is losing traction. He's losing the trust of the American people. His ideas are not working. It's not time to get giddy. I'll tell you when it's time to get giddy. By the way, James Carville said spend $8,000 on health care. I thought it was six. You know, just a couple months ago it was $6,000 per person on health care. How much do we spend on education? I know in New Jersey in the neighborhoods that Bob Dylan walks we're spending sometimes up to $18,000 a student, or $14,000, and what's that getting us?
Does anybody want to tackle the notion that maybe we're spending too much on welfare, maybe we're spending too much on food stamps? Why all of a sudden are we just spending too much on health care? So when you hear them talk about this, we're spending too much on health care, cutting back, reducing spending, that's what they're talking about, and the only place we spend in health care is on the sick. So if we're going to reduce costs, while insuring this mythical 47 million people who aren't insured, how in the hell are we going to reduce costs without reducing costs on the people who are sick?
Okay, [email protected] is officially dead. This was the snitch website. A third-party was sending out all those Axelrod e-mails. Now, that's possible, right? It's possible a third party could have been spamming them, it's possible but it's not likely with the security techniques that they have up there. So they're passing this off on probably some spammer over in the Greek isles on his yacht. I'll tell you who it is. The guy that did the Joker posters of Obama out here in Los Angeles probably is who is behind the spamming. But, anyway, [email protected] is no longer in service. You get a failure message when you try to snitch on somebody. The e-mail address you just sent a message to no longer in service, we are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform at WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck. So they haven't really gotten rid of the snitch website. They're just moving it to different place. Hang on a minute. I gotta check. Oh. I got a note. I had an instant message window covering up the e-mail. All I could see in the subject line was "you sound." I thought, oh, no, people are going to complain about the tech setup. I removed the IM window, "You sound great, isn't technology wonderful?"
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Jason in Philadelphia, I'm glad you called, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush, 20-year-listener. Thank you very much for being such a patriot. I appreciate it.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: My point is seven months ago Barack Obama and the Democrats said they had a mandate based on 52% in the election. But now seven months later, 54% against it, and we're all racists. I don't know how they can quantify that 52% was a mandate but now 54% against them means that we're all racists again.
RUSH: They'd say they had a mandate if they had 10% supporting. They don't care about mandates. The only reason Obama cares about public support is all presidents care about approval numbers. In terms of needing public support to get this done, that's incidental to them. If they had a way to ram this down our throats regardless what we want, they'll do it. They are going to do it. They are going to try. They'll play word games, they'll say they're getting rid of the public option and going to co-ops, they say they're going to get rid of the death panels. They can't get rid of either. Not possible with this plan. If they don't have a public option there's no reason for them to do this. The public option's all they want. Public option simply means government control; government makes decisions; government in charge. They're not going to give that up. They're liberals. This is who they are. It's who Obama is.
Now, don't misunderstand. In the White House they're concerned 54% want nothing to do with the health care bill now, 54% say doing nothing would be better than what Obama wants to do, 57% say the stimulus is bad and didn't help, may be making things worse. They look at that and they love to turn the numbers around but they're going to do it with policy, they're going to do it with rhetoric, they're going to try to do it with the old stand-by, Obama and his "gift," as he said to Harry Reid. "Harry, I have a gift." So he's out there again today, he's out there talking about Iraq and Afghanistan now, but he's out there every day. They still think that Obama has that kind of magic. But he wants to build monuments to himself. The guy has got an ego out the wazoo. So whether they have a mandate or not, they have the power. He's in the White House. The Democrats run the show in the House of Representatives and, for the most part, they run the show in the Senate. So that's a fact. That's really what these town hall protests are all about. The American people don't want it, they know they live in a representative republic, and when their representatives are totally unresponsive they're going to hear about it, as should be the case.
END TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We're going to get to health care in detail in just a second, but the thing that you have to understand, the Senate can say that they want to take the death panels away and it doesn't matter and Sebelius can say, "Well, we're thinking about getting of the public option," and Obama say, "Well, I don't know that we're thinking of getting rid of the public option, we may go to health care exchanges," and Kent Conrad can say, "Well, there's going to be a public --" folks, look, whether you call them death panels or not, just to reiterate this, the only people on whom we spend health care dollars are the sick. We do not spend money on the healthy. Therefore, we've gotta cut spending, we gotta cut costs, that's one of the objectives, and, in addition to that, we've gotta insure 47 million more people, ostensibly. There's no way to do this without spending more money and we don't have the money. If you're going to cut medical costs the only way to do it is to cut it on people on whom you spend it, and that's the sick.
I guarantee you whether there's a death panel counseling you on your death at the end of your life, whether it's a government panel or whether it's a doctor doing it or whoever -- and there is going to be a public option -- there is no reason to have this kind of liberal reform without a public option. All this talk about a public option, dropping it or maybe putting it back in, whatever they're going to call it, there's no reason to do this kind of reform from this standpoint, from Obama, from the liberals in Congress, without the government running it. If that's not on the table there's no reason for them to reform it. Do you think, for example, if we're going to think about reforming health care that Obama will say, "Hey, let's look at some private sector reforms." That's not going to be on the table. So if we're going to have health care reform, it's going to be what Obama wants. This is all these people have wanted for 50 years is the government to run it. Whether they call them health care exchanges or whether they call them the public option or whatever, there's not going to be a health care plan that doesn't get us there at some point.
Now, they may head fake us and try to get everybody to kind of back down on their opposition to this, but I guarantee you, these are liberals, these are socialists, these are people that believe the government has all the answers, these are people that believe the government, as big as it can be, equals utopia and they're not going to do anything in health care that doesn't get them there, so don't fall for the rhetoric, don't fall for the head fakes, don't fall for the supposed disagreements of the administration and Congress, it's all a game. Everything is designed to react to the opposition that's out there and to get you to cool down. This is not time to cool down, and it's not time to get giddy. This is something that for the rest of your life you're going to be fighting these people. As long as they are in charge, as long as they have majorities in the House and Senate, along with the White House, this is going to be a never-ending thing even if they have to come back and try to get it piecemeal at some point.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let's review the audio sound bites. First off, Sunday, CNN's State of the Union, John King interviewing the Health and Human Services secretary -- the hapless Kathleen Sebelius -- and King said, "You don't have the votes right now in the Senate for the public option. Is the message from the president that the votes aren't there; it's time to come up with plan B?"
SEBELIUS: What we don't know is exactly what the Senate Finance committee is likely to come up with. They've been more focused on a co-op, a not-for-profit co-op as a comm-petitor as opposed to a -- a straight government-run program. What's important is choice and competition and I'm convinced at the end of the day the plan will have both of those but that is not the essential element.
RUSH: I'm sorry. She doesn't believe that. She's a liberal. Choice and competition is not what they want. If they want choice and competition, then the government should get out of this altogether and let the private sector do the reform. Let the market take care of it. They don't want competition and choice. And these co-ops like we're too stupid to know what that's all about. Co-op? Why don't they just call them communes? Look, I know liberal lingo when I hear it. A co-op? Yeah, let's go to the farmers market. Let's go to the community garden! What, do they think we're idiots? They said they want to cover the uninsured. We can do that without doing this. They said they want competition, they said. Okay, great, we can do that, too. But they want single payer and they're not going to give up and there's no competition in single payer.
They tried the back door of the phony public option, and it didn't work because people figured out what the public option is. People are not that stupid, especially when you tell 'em, "Okay, you got private insurance agencies here in the private sector, and then you've got the public option," and you've got businesses who are already panicked at their health care costs who would love to off-load their health care costs to the government, the public option. And the public option run by the government, it does not have to turn a profit so if you do -- if you have to make a profit in the private sector -- there's no way you can compete and stay in business with an outfit that doesn't have to make a profit. Now, co-ops. Co-ops. As long as they're going to create some government entity and as long as they're going to make private insurance unsustainable with limits and regulations and taxation, their objective is the same. Co-ops! Man, you people at the administration, if you're going to try to fool us by thinking you're dumping the public option well then come up with some name that doesn't reek of liberalism. Here's Kent Conrad. He was on Fox News Sunday. He's a Senator from North Dakota, Democrat. Chris Wallace: "Would the president be better off just taking the public option off the table right now?"
CONRAD: Look, the -- the fact of the matter is, there are not the votes in the United States Senate for the public option. There never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit I think, uh, is just a wasted effort.
RUSH: The public option is dead in the Senate. Maybe so. This is what they say. You know, I did a little test today. I love going to the Democrat Underground, because the Democrat Underground is the greatest collection -- it's a close competition with the Daily Kos. But the Democrat Underground, that website, is the most concentrated collection of sheer lunatics that the Democrat Party has to offer that you have ever seen, and they are just livid. Once this public option news hit, that it's going to be taken off the table, I mean every other word is the F-bomb in practically every post and they're mad as hell. "Why do we have to do it? We run the House, we run the Senate, we run the White House! Why can't we just pass what we want?" F-bomb, F-bomb, F-bomb, F-bomb, Jesus Christ, F-bomb, F-bomb. I mean, it's just hilarious. (laughing) It's kind of fun to see these lunatics get upset when their elected lunatics don't deliver. Howard Dean. See, Howard Dean is not happen happy about it. He was on the CBS Early Show today with the host Maggie Rodriguez. Let me check the clock. Do we have time? And she said to him, "What if the public doesn't want this, Mr. Dean? Obama's approval rating down to 53. Forty-two percent of voters believe he's mishandled the health care. How do you explain he's losing public support?"
DEAN: Bill Clinton is still the smartest political mind in America and he said at a nutroots convention in Pittsburgh, "As soon as President Obama signs the bill his ratings will go up again," and I think that's true. This is a politics process. The Senate's not even back in session for another three weeks. My guess is the Republicans aren't going to vote for this bill no matter what. So there's no point in making a lot of concessions for people that aren't going to vote for the bill under any circumstances anyway.
RUSH: This is interesting because he's right. The Republicans, we don't have to tailor it to the Republicans. This is all Democrats, and there are some of them up for reelection, and they're hearing about it. These town hall eruptions that you are engaging in are working. Now, I got a bunch of sound bites. Cookie gave me a bunch of sound bites today from the media that are really over the top, that this is all racist, that my opposition to Obama is racist, that your opposition to Obama is racist, that I'm inspiring racism. I mean, it's gotten to the point they've played this card for 21 years. It doesn't work anymore. You don't have the number one, most listened to radio show in America -- the most respected, the most feared, the most loved, the most whatever -- if it's filled with hate and racism and bigotry and all this.
It's just not the case. They just keep going back to that same play in the playbook, and it's not working. But they are desperate. And there's even some members of Congress not even going home to their districts during the recess for fear that they will be found. So Howard Dean says, "To hell with the Republicans. We'll do the public option. The Senate doesn't get back for three weeks." There will be a public option. This is the thing that you have to realize, or have to remember. When liberals are in charge of this -- and this is the number one thing on their wish list, when they say they're taking the public option off the table or going to do co-ops -- trust me on this, folks, there's going to be a government entity, and it's eventually going to be single payer. That is what they want, and they'll get it however much they have to lie about it.
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RUSH: All right, back to the audio sound bites, still sticking here with the public option. Eddie Bernice Johnson, she's a Democrat congresswoman from Texas. She's also on CNN yesterday. John King says, "The White House now says too much attention on the public option, clearly signaling it's ready to sign a health care bill without one." I can't believe... There's a reason nobody's watching the Drive-By Media anymore. How is it that these people who are the closest to Obama are the least curious? They have absolutely no curiosity. There's not even any attempt to question the authority and power. How in the world...? If you know who Obama is, and you've studied his career (all five minutes of it) how can you believe him? He hasn't told the truth about any number of things. How can you just automatically believe him when he says he's ready to sign a health care bill without a public option? Anyway, that's the question to Eddie Bernice Johnson, who was asked, "Could you support health care bill without a public option? Could other House Democrats support a health care reform measure that does not have a robust public option?"
JOHNSON: It would be very, very difficult because without the public option we'll have the same number of people uninsured. If the in-surance companies wanted to in-sure these people now, they'd be in-sured. The only way that we can be sure that very low-income people and persons that work for companies who don't offer insurance can have access to it is through an option that would give the private insurance companies a little competition. The private insurance companies been in charge of so long that I think they feel that nobody else ought to be able to do it.
RUSH: Now, that's just rich. This is just loaded. How about this? "If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people now they'd be insured." Yeah, I guess if General Motors wanted everybody to have a car, everybody would have a car. If people that build houses on the beach wanted everybody to have a house on the beach they would give 'em a house on the beach. If the insurance companies wanted to insure these people they'd be insured? This woman doesn't even understand how the private sector works. This is just all part of the demonization of the insurance companies. "The only way that we can be sure that very low-income peoiple...? Oh, speaking of which, I've got this in the stack here, guess what? The stimulus money, the American dream is over, the Obama administration...
I don't know what jogged this in my memory. The Obama administration has decided that home ownership is not the American dream. Something like $5.4 billion in stimulus money is going to go to help people rent all of a sudden. (interruption) That's right! It's in the Boston Globe. Barney Frank, this is going to upset him greatly because affordable housing is all about putting people in houses whether they can afford 'em or not. So the administration basically comes out and says, "You know what? We're not going to define the American dream anymore as owning a house." That can only mean that down the road bye-bye mortgage deduction because it won't be fair for the people who can buy a house and get a mortgage and take the deduction versus the people that can only afford to rent. I guarantee you they're going to have to do all kinds of radical things like that in order generate revenue. So Eddie Bernice Johnson says if the insurance companies wanted you to be insured, you'd be insured, whether you can afford it or not. Now, listen to this from James Carville also Sunday, CNN. He was on with his wife, Mary Matalin and she said, "The generic ballot for the second consecutive month is tending to Republicans. On eight out of ten issues people are favoring Republicans now, our recruiting, our if you went gubernatorial seats in New Jersey, Virginia -- the blue the old blue -- are tending Republicans."
CARVILLE: I -- I think it helps congressional Democrats. Put a bill out there make 'em filibuster it. Make 'em be what they are, d'Party of No. Look we spend... The truth of the matter is we spend about $8,000 per person in the United States on health care. Let 'em kill it. Let 'em kill it with the interest group money, then run against them.
RUSH: Now, this is rich because the Republicans can't kill anything. The Republicans can't filibuster anything. If the Democrats in the Senate want to go the reconciliation route they can do that and just use 51 votes. It would be controversial they can do it rather than getting 60. But propose a public option and let the Republicans kill it? Mr. Carville, what's happened is that the public option has been proposed, and the American people are killing it! The American people want no part of the government running health care. They like it. They have no desire. In fact, we have some polling data on this. I gotta be a lot closer to this microphone here than I do in Florida. Right on top of it. (softer) Can you hear me? Let me find the polling data. Well, it's an amazing number. I've got it buried. I've got four different stacks here, but it's an amazing number about the number of people that do not want a public option and who think that their health care now and the insurance company, the way they're running it, is fine. Well, it will come to me later. I gotta keep going with the sound bites because the next series is excellent. This is from Grand Junction, Colorado, on Saturday; Obama and a town hall meeting. Zack Lane, a student from the University of Colorado.
LANE: I'd love to have a debate, just all-out, anytime. Oxford-style if you'd like. I understand how --
AUDIENCE: (laughter)
LANE: I'm willing to do that. But my question is this: We all know the best way to reduce prices in this economy is to increase competition. How in the world can a private corporation providing insurance compete with an entity that does not have to worry about making a profit, does not have to pay local property taxes? They do not have to pay -- they're not subject to -- local regulations.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
LANE: How can a company compete with that? And I'm not looking for anything... I don't want generalities. I don't want philosophical arguments. I'm just asking a good question.
RUSH: This kid is amazing, and there's no question in my mind this kid listens to this program. In fact... Well, really. There's a New York Times column today by Ross Douthat (I'm not sure how he pronounces his last name: Do-u-t-h-a-t) and he just point-blank says that these town hall meetings are just filled with Rush Limbaugh listeners. He didn't even put my first name in there. Town hall meetings are filled with "Limbaugh listeners." Well, how does a private entity compete with a company doesn't have to make a profit, the government? Stop talking generalities and philosophical arguments. So this kid, this student challenges the president to a debate then with one simple question that Obama can't answer, nukes the entire foundation of Obamacare, and listen to this answer.
OBAMA: It is true that there are certain costs associated with a private business that a government would not have to worry about. You mentioned a couple of them. It's conceivable that a private entity that's having to pay a certain interest rate for their money would be really undermined if the government is able to get money much cheaper implicitly because Uncle Sam backs this operation. I think there are ways that we can address those competitive issues. And you're absolutely right: if they're not entirely addressed, then that raises a set of legitimate problems.
RUSH: Well, here you have a rambling answer -- and Obama just agreed with the student and explained why the centerpiece of his plan, the public option, won't work! It's because he can print money. He didn't say that, but when he says, "Well, uh, uh Uncle Sam, you know, can get money much cheaper implicitly because Uncle Sam..." prints it! (laughing) Our tax people just go out and take it from people. Private insurance companies can't do that. So this student gets Obama to admit that his whole plan won't work as he himself said. But "we can address those competitive issues." How? He does it again in this next sound bite. He keeps making this comparison.
OBAMA: The notion that somehow just by having a public option you have the entire private marketplace destroyed is just not borne out by the facts. And in fact, right now, you got a lot of private companies who do very well competing against the government. UPS and FedEx are doing a lot better than the Post Office.
AUDIENCE: (silence)
OBAMA: No, they are.
RUSH: I can't believe they're letting him still say this. This is something that after the first time he uttered this there should have been an emergency meeting in Axelrod's office or Rahm Emanuel's office and they shoulda bent Obama over their knee and spanked him. "You idiot! You have just gone out and said that the government doesn't do nearly as well as the private sector doing something! And you're trying to convince people the government can do it better than the private sector," and he's now keeping up with it. What are we supposed to say? "Oh, yeah, private insurance won't go away." Well, look, if you come out, Mr. President, and say the federal government is going to take over overnight package delivery -- that there is going to be a cheaper (ostensibly) public option where people... "But, Rush! But, Rush! It already exists. The Post Office does offer overnight delivery." Yeah, and you know who delivers it? FedEx.
You know the Post Office contracts with FedEx and UPS? They do. The Post Office contracts with FedEx for their overnight whatever they call it. What's the Post Office...? I don't even know what they call their overnight stuff. Priority Delivery or whatever it is. On Saturday I was running errands getting ready for the trip and I'm driving down the road and I saw a sight that I haven't seen in a long time. It was a white Post Office delivery truck on a Saturday. And I figured it had to be an express package this they were delivering 'cause... But FedEx is who they contract with. I can't believe that he's making this statement over and over again. The bottom line, nobody wants health insurance that works like the Post Office does -- and he's continuing to give everybody that vision and that picture. Finally here at the end of his answer, Obama signals that he is ready to give up on the public option.
OBAMA: The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it -- and by the way it's both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else.
RUSH: I'm going to agree with him about something here. The whole plan is rotten to the core. Whether there's a public option in this or not, there are still provisions in that House bill of over a thousand pages of the government running this and making that decision, your health care records being digitized and being made public. It's a disaster. The whole thing is a disaster and it would be a totally unfamiliar way to contract and get a service -- pay for it, the American people are used to. It is just a total abomination. Now, the public option is what makes it primary, but he's now getting very sensitive about this whole thing. He's learning... I think they've always known. I think the reason for the speed at the outset here is they know people don't want this. See, that doesn't matter. They're still going to force it down your throats no matter what, folks, even if they have to tell you that they're taking the public option out.
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RUSH: There's one simple reason why FedEx and UPS are outdoing the post office, and that is the federal government doesn't set the rates and they don't define the terms of business, and they don't tell FedEx and UPS how to do what they're doing. I guarantee you if the post office could regulate UPS and FedEx, they wouldn't survive, either. Very simple. I found that poll I was looking for. This is a Rasmussen Reports poll: "Fifty-four percent say passing no health care reform is better than passing the congressional plan." So Obama, 54% of the American people say doing nothing is better than your idea, or whatever your idea is because you didn't really have a plan. The only plan that we really know out there is the congressional plan. Obama loves to run out there and say, "Well, can't do nothing." Fifty-four percent now have seen what's in store for them and they don't want you to do anything. They want you to just stop. They want you to stop doing town meetings, they want you to stop trying to argue with people, just stop it, don't do it. The sentiment is spreading.
And, get this, USA Today/Gallup poll: "Fifty-seven percent of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse." And even more than that, "60% doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it's done anything to help improve their personal situation." Ladies and gentlemen, very simple here, Obama is losing traction. He's losing the trust of the American people. His ideas are not working. It's not time to get giddy. I'll tell you when it's time to get giddy. By the way, James Carville said spend $8,000 on health care. I thought it was six. You know, just a couple months ago it was $6,000 per person on health care. How much do we spend on education? I know in New Jersey in the neighborhoods that Bob Dylan walks we're spending sometimes up to $18,000 a student, or $14,000, and what's that getting us?
Does anybody want to tackle the notion that maybe we're spending too much on welfare, maybe we're spending too much on food stamps? Why all of a sudden are we just spending too much on health care? So when you hear them talk about this, we're spending too much on health care, cutting back, reducing spending, that's what they're talking about, and the only place we spend in health care is on the sick. So if we're going to reduce costs, while insuring this mythical 47 million people who aren't insured, how in the hell are we going to reduce costs without reducing costs on the people who are sick?
Okay, [email protected] is officially dead. This was the snitch website. A third-party was sending out all those Axelrod e-mails. Now, that's possible, right? It's possible a third party could have been spamming them, it's possible but it's not likely with the security techniques that they have up there. So they're passing this off on probably some spammer over in the Greek isles on his yacht. I'll tell you who it is. The guy that did the Joker posters of Obama out here in Los Angeles probably is who is behind the spamming. But, anyway, [email protected] is no longer in service. You get a failure message when you try to snitch on somebody. The e-mail address you just sent a message to no longer in service, we are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform at WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck. So they haven't really gotten rid of the snitch website. They're just moving it to different place. Hang on a minute. I gotta check. Oh. I got a note. I had an instant message window covering up the e-mail. All I could see in the subject line was "you sound." I thought, oh, no, people are going to complain about the tech setup. I removed the IM window, "You sound great, isn't technology wonderful?"
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RUSH: Jason in Philadelphia, I'm glad you called, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Rush, 20-year-listener. Thank you very much for being such a patriot. I appreciate it.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: My point is seven months ago Barack Obama and the Democrats said they had a mandate based on 52% in the election. But now seven months later, 54% against it, and we're all racists. I don't know how they can quantify that 52% was a mandate but now 54% against them means that we're all racists again.
RUSH: They'd say they had a mandate if they had 10% supporting. They don't care about mandates. The only reason Obama cares about public support is all presidents care about approval numbers. In terms of needing public support to get this done, that's incidental to them. If they had a way to ram this down our throats regardless what we want, they'll do it. They are going to do it. They are going to try. They'll play word games, they'll say they're getting rid of the public option and going to co-ops, they say they're going to get rid of the death panels. They can't get rid of either. Not possible with this plan. If they don't have a public option there's no reason for them to do this. The public option's all they want. Public option simply means government control; government makes decisions; government in charge. They're not going to give that up. They're liberals. This is who they are. It's who Obama is.
Now, don't misunderstand. In the White House they're concerned 54% want nothing to do with the health care bill now, 54% say doing nothing would be better than what Obama wants to do, 57% say the stimulus is bad and didn't help, may be making things worse. They look at that and they love to turn the numbers around but they're going to do it with policy, they're going to do it with rhetoric, they're going to try to do it with the old stand-by, Obama and his "gift," as he said to Harry Reid. "Harry, I have a gift." So he's out there again today, he's out there talking about Iraq and Afghanistan now, but he's out there every day. They still think that Obama has that kind of magic. But he wants to build monuments to himself. The guy has got an ego out the wazoo. So whether they have a mandate or not, they have the power. He's in the White House. The Democrats run the show in the House of Representatives and, for the most part, they run the show in the Senate. So that's a fact. That's really what these town hall protests are all about. The American people don't want it, they know they live in a representative republic, and when their representatives are totally unresponsive they're going to hear about it, as should be the case.
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