RUSH: To Melbourne, Florida. This is Bruce, and welcome, sir.

CALLER: Thank you very much, Mr. Limbaugh. It’s a pleasure to talk with you. I have an opinion as Marco Rubio is my senator. I think this Gang of Eight are just giving us fluff and a sham of a proposal. If you look at the 11 to 15 million illegal aliens in this country, they’re under the radar. And the way I see it is the vast majority will still want to stay under there. They’re gonna lose a lot of their benefits, especially health care, they’re going to have pay income tax —

RUSH: Well, they have to do that now. (crosstalk)

CALLER: — get minimum wage, that means for the employers they’re gonna cut back on their manpower. So for a lot of these illegals, they’re gonna want to stay under the radar.

RUSH: Well, I haven’t heard that one before. I think if they’re here and working, other than part of the cash economy, they’ve gotta be paying taxes. Their Social Security is being withheld, if they’re gainfully employed. So that wouldn’t change. So you think they’re not even gonna want to be found? You don’t think they’re gonna want to become citizens at all, no benefit for that?

CALLER: Well, I would say, why would they want to pay federal income tax — I know you mentioned Social Security, but a factual scenario is, a lot of the money that they’re making here in the United States does go back to where their nation of origin is. And, if you look, the number two sustaining of the Mexican economy is money that is sent back by illegals into their homeland. That’s a fact. Tourism is still number one. Their industrial complex is rising. So the money that they would now have to spend on income tax would be something that they would not be sending back to the homeland.

Second off, most of them can go to the emergency room right now under the radar — I am a physician who’s retired — and they can get all the health care needs that they want, walk out of the hospital. If they have to register and now find themselves that they’re gonna be paying out of pocket, even their share under Obamacare, which according to Rubio and the Gang of Eight, they’re not gonna be entitled to, again, there’s not an incentive for them to really go ahead and do this. And I just can’t see the machinations being available to really enforce this —

RUSH: See, the problem is, the vast majority of them aren’t gonna be paying any income taxes at all. They’re gonna benefit from the earned income tax credit. They’ll get money back. The bottom 50% of this country aren’t paying any income tax anyway, and they would certainly qualify, that category. Well, folks, look, whether they take the opportunity become citizens right off the bat or want to stay hidden, to me I think misses the point of this. Once there is amnesty, amnesty is a forgivance. And once there is that, once there is amnesty, the rest of the liberal agenda is guaranteed.

Whether these people seek citizenship or not, they’re gonna qualify for free health care or Obamacare anyway whether they take the path or not, Bruce. The pathway to citizenship will be open to them and, as Senator Sessions says, after having looked at the bill, once the pathway to citizenship is open, even to people who have been deported, they thus qualify for Obamacare and a number of other things. Getting amnesty is the key here, looking at this politically, in terms of the Democrats sewing it up. I appreciate the call.

Chris in Charleston, South Carolina, you’re next. Welcome to the program, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Mega 24/7 dittos.

RUSH: Appreciate that.

CALLER: I have some points that I’d like to make, and listening to Marco Rubio, it felt to me like a punch to my gut what I was hearing. If my American citizenship is to feel like something that is valuable, then I don’t feel that it can be something that can just be purchased by paying a fine or something that is really being stolen and just given away because laws are hard to enforce. My whole life I’ve felt like we lived in a nation of laws, and when someone steals something that’s valuable, and we find them, we don’t let them keep it just because they like it or because they’ve gotten used to it, and we already have laws. I don’t have any faith that this new set isn’t just a same walk down the same road, and it’s the same sham that the Democrats always promise.

RUSH: So you don’t think there’s gonna be any enforcement of the law, is basically what you’re saying?

CALLER: Why? Why would I? There isn’t now. Mr. Rubio already admits that it’s a broken system.

RUSH: He claims that if the bill isn’t enforced, that it falls apart, he claims he’s got that agreement.

CALLER: Why are immigration laws already not being enforced? Why, before the sequester happened, why were a bunch of inmates who were to be deported just released?

RUSH: Well, the reason the law isn’t being enforced now is sociological and political. It would just be mean. It would be cold-hearted to enforce the law. The way the thinking goes is, these people, they’re risking everything to come to America. They want to come and they want to be Americans. They want to be part of the greatest country ever, and who are we to turn ’em away, and who are we to deny them? Why should we, as Americans, not want people to come here and be Americans?

So enforcing the law is a cruel thing, the way the left looks at it. Enforcing the law is very, very cruel, mean-spirited. I’ve talked to a bunch of celebrity liberals: “If they want to come here, if they’re willing to risk everything to come here, I don’t think they should be turned away.” I would love to give you the names. I don’t have permission. You wouldn’t believe it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Yvonne in El Paso. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. You know, I know a lot of callers like me call and tell you that we love you and it sounds like we’re kissing your ass, but if it wasn’t for you I would feel like the lone crazy person in the wilderness watching TV and reading papers online. It’s just daunting.

RUSH: I know what you mean. I know exactly. Am I the only one who thinks what I think? Am I the oddball? I know what you mean.

CALLER: I know. That’s what it feels like. But my point was, you know, Senator Rubio wasn’t hearing you, Rush. He was saying that if he had his druthers he would be talking about the economy and the deficit and jobs. But here he spent your whole show talking about immigration and gun control because the Republicans allow the Democrats to forward their agenda.

RUSH: I pointedly asked him about that, and I said, why is it that they set the agenda and we respond, “Okay, well, we’ll do that, but we’ll do it better. We’ll do it smarter. We’ll do it with some reforms and so forth.” Why can’t we just say no when they say they want something?

CALLER: I know. Because he’s a good man and it is a problem, immigration is a problem, and he has good ideas, and as a good man, he wants to forward those. But what he doesn’t understand is that he’s being played by the Democrats. They don’t want to hear his better ideas. The media doesn’t want to hear his better ideas, and they control things right now. And so his better ideas just go down the tubes.

RUSH: Let me tell you something —

CALLER: That part of the bill will not be enforced. I’m sorry, they’ll change it along the way.

RUSH: Let me tell you something about that. You’ve raised an interesting point. You are essentially saying that Senator Rubio, because of his relative youth and the fact that he’s a freshman, has a little naivete, and maybe so. But at the same time, and it may be hard for you to understand, I welcome this kind of fresh, on the scene enthusiasm. The idea that he thinks that because he’s involved, because he has these pervasive powers, he thinks he can be the one that can finally bring these people to heel and change them and force them to do what they promised to do.

Look, I admire that. I was that way. My first five years of this program, I thought it was gonna change America. I thought it was gonna change the world. I thought, because there was no other conservative media, I thought finally we’re gonna beat this back. Well, we did. We did blow up their monopoly. But we just woke them up. They’re angrier and they’re meaner than they’ve ever been, and they’re more politically focused than they’ve ever been as a result of losing a monopoly and having to compete for it each and every day. I’m not saying I’ve become jaundiced and don’t think it’s possible to beat ’em back. If I thought that I wouldn’t show up here anymore.

I still have that attitude about this program and all of you, all of us together, can end up being a force that wakes everybody up in this country. And he thinks — and I know him — he thinks that he can do that in the Senate. He may have higher office ambition, and I don’t want to do anything that would curb the enthusiasm, the vigor, and even the idealism he has. Because one thing about Senator Rubio, do not doubt, he is a genuine, legitimate conservative. I wish we talked about tax reform, this, that and the other thing, that was my point. The Democrats are leading this agenda. They should be shut down.