{"id":12361,"date":"2013-05-21T16:23:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T16:23:35","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-05-21T16:23:35","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T16:23:35","slug":"high_tech_lynching_senate_attempts_to_crucify_apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/05\/21\/high_tech_lynching_senate_attempts_to_crucify_apple\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Tech Lynching: Senate Attempts to Crucify Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: As we speak, ladies and gentlemen, the Senate — some stupid, idiotic committee — is attempting to blame Apple Inc. for the deficit, for the national debt, unemployment, and tax fraud. (Ah, I should be careful!) The interesting thing is that nobody — and, by the way, the Senate committee chairman here of whatever this committee is, is Carl Levin. He\u2019s a liberal Democrat from Michigan, but he has an echo. He has a Republican echoing everything he says.<\/p>\n

That would be Senator McCain.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Senator John McCain is joining in this senatorial effort to crucify Apple Inc. over taxes. You want the truth? And, by the way, I could probably spend a half hour telling you everything Apple is doing tax-wise. I have spent a lot of time last night learning how Apple is using tax law. They\u2019re not breaking it. Nobody, nobody — not Carl Levin, nor any of his witnesses, nobody — is accusing Apple of violating tax law. Yet they\u2019re being persecuted today.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got Harvard economists.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got Princeton tax specialists.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got all these expert witnesses.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve got the committee.<\/p>\n

The only person on the committee defending Apple, and defending the concept of low taxes and limited government, is Senator Rand Paul. Apple Inc. pays more taxes than any US corporation. GE ought to be up there explaining<\/a> how they don\u2019t pay any tax on their multiple billion dollars of earnings. Instead, it\u2019s Apple. Apple paid $6 billion last year to the US Treasury. To put that in perspective, that\u2019s $16 million a day Apple paid in taxes. Apple pays 2.5% of all income tax collected by the US Treasury.<\/p>\n

One company pays 2.5%. That\u2019s $6 billion this year, and it will be more next year. (New Castrati impression) “There you go, Mr. Limbaugh. You just love Apple. That\u2019s all you want. You just want to talk on your iPhone and use your iPad!” No, no. I\u2019m defending the premise here, defending a concept, defending the founding of this country. It\u2019s what I do, folks. I get up and I look at the people or the things or the institutions that I think are great and ought to model everybody else\u2019s behavior under assault, I come here, and defend \u2019em.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care who they are.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: So we are putting together some audio sound bites from the Senate grilling of Apple. Three Apple executives are up there today: The CEO, Tim Cook; the chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer; and one of their tax specialists. I think the guy\u2019s name is Bullock. Before we get to this tornado business, I just have to share this with you. Because this little interchange here — this exchange between John McCain and Tim Cook — is an illustration that these guys in the Senate have not the slightest idea what they\u2019re investigating today.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

During a lighthearted moment, Senator McCain said to the Apple CEO, Tim Cook, “Sir, there\u2019s only one thing I really wanted to ask you today. Why do I keep on having to update all the apps on my iPhone? Can\u2019t you guys fix that already?” That\u2019s a verbatim quote from Senator McCain, who has served in the Commerce Committee forever. A powerful, longtime senator ought not be this ignorant, but he is profoundly ignorant.<\/p>\n

Apps being updated on an iPhone means they\u2019re being improved.<\/p>\n

It means they\u2019re being upgraded.<\/p>\n

It means that they\u2019re being made better.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re being made to do more and to work more efficiently. Sometimes they\u2019re redesigned. Senator McCain apparently thinks that app updates mean his phone is broken, and this guy is sitting in judgment of whether or not Apple is a good corporate citizen. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is the McCain back-and-forth, and he intended this. Look, in good cheer, he was trying to be convivial, I understand, but it\u2019s indicative. He was not on the attack here, is the point. Apple\u2019s been under assault this whole day and starting since yesterday with the — well, actually New York Times, last year, and this has been building to this event now, but I just want you to hear this exchange. This John McCain with Tim Cook, who is the Apple CEO.<\/p>\n

MCCAIN: What I really wanted to ask is why the hell I have to keep updating the apps on my iPhone all the time, and why you don\u2019t fix that. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.<\/p>\n

COOK: Sir, we\u2019re trying to make \u2019em better all the time.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You know, updating apps means that the developers are improving them and there\u2019s a new version and it\u2019s gonna do more, and it\u2019s gonna maybe be faster, and it\u2019s gonna use less of your battery, it\u2019s gonna have more features to it. App updates, I can\u2019t wait to get app updates. I love getting app updates. I don\u2019t get enough of \u2019em. I wish Apple was updating the iPhone far more often than they are, but McCain is just one of these just buy it… never mind. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Apple is to the United States government what Clarence Thomas was to the civil rights coalition. How dare you get this big sidestepping us. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, before I get to that, I got an e-mail note from a friend. “Rush, is any part of you enjoying the inquisition the Apple execs are going through today? You mentioned all of these welfare check-cashing bloggers who are out there blindly supporting Obama on everything he\u2019s doing, and then he doesn\u2019t live up to his promises and they can\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

“What about high-information voters like these Apple execs, from a liberal-thinking company? They\u2019re probably all a bunch of libs, and here they are under attack from the president they supported.” And, by the way, folks, don\u2019t think that this Senate stuff isn\u2019t happening without Obama\u2019s knowledge. Again, Apple is to be made an example of here. They\u2019re too big, they\u2019re too successful, and they didn\u2019t use government to get there. He ran against business and rich people.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He ran against these kinds of guys not paying their fair share. He ran against these guys. Now, I know he went out there and he had dinner with Steve Jobs and Zuckerberg and all that. But Jobs told him, “You\u2019re not gonna get reelected if you don\u2019t change the way you\u2019re doing things. The education system in this country\u2019s a mess.” Jobs told Obama what-for. Now, Jobs was wrong about Obama getting reelected. Most of Apple… I don\u2019t really know. I\u2019m just assuming because of efforts that we\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just assuming that most of the people out at Apple are politically liberal, and so the question I\u2019m getting is, “Rush, how do you feel? These guys are in their inquisition, and the president they supported and the Democrats they vote for are giving \u2019em hell today and attacking them and trying to destroy their company, destroy their image. Don\u2019t you just have a little schadenfreude, Rush? Aren\u2019t you just a little pleased to see this?”<\/p>\n

I said, “No. I am totally frustrated.” This kind of thing totally frustrates me, that otherwise intelligent people can be this kind of wrong, and I\u2019m wondering how these Apple execs feel. There\u2019s one guy in that Senate committee that\u2019s defending them — and to the left, this guy is a racist, extremist, Looney Toon, wacko, Tea Party kook by the name of Rand Paul. He\u2019s the only senator in this committee defending Apple, the only senator on this committee defending low taxes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you an example. Rand Paul was talking to one of these Harvard or Princeton professors that the Senate brought in to agree with them that Apple\u2019s a bunch of cheats. Nobody\u2019s accusing Apple of breaking the law, by the way. What they\u2019re accusing Apple of is bad citizenship. They\u2019re saying Apple should be paying more. Apple\u2019s saying, “We\u2019re taking exactly what we owe!” “Well, you\u2019ve got shell companies. You\u2019ve got holding companies in Ireland. What do you mean?”<\/p>\n

Rand Paul asked this guy, this Harvard guy (paraphrased exchange), “Let me ask you a question on your taxes.”<\/p>\n

“Yes, sir? Yes, Senator?”<\/p>\n

“Do you minimize your tax burden as much as you can?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, Senator, I do.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, you mean you are not trying to pay as much as you can?”<\/p>\n

“No, Senator. I\u2019m not.”<\/p>\n

“Do you try to find every legal tax deduction you can and take it, sir?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, Senator, I do.”<\/p>\n

“So it\u2019s safe to say that you are trying to minimize your tax burden; is that right?”<\/p>\n

“Yes, Senator.”<\/p>\n

“Well, then what the hell is your beef here? That\u2019s all Apple\u2019s doing!”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Taxes are a cost. They\u2019re doing everything they can to keep their costs down. What Apple\u2019s being accused of here is bad citizenship. What the Democrats on this Senate committee (aided and abetted by Senator McCain, by the way) are trying to say is that Apple can pay more because they have more. Apple doesn\u2019t need all this money that they\u2019re making. Apple doesn\u2019t need all this money that they\u2019re hoarding. Apple doesn\u2019t need all this money that they\u2019re saving.<\/p>\n

The government needs this money, and Apple has it, and they\u2019re capable of paying it, and the definition of good citizenship is paying more taxes than you have to. These guys are trying to publicly humiliate Apple, and put pressure on their stock price. Many of us go through this kind of thing, folks, when the left gets in gear trying to do economic damage. That\u2019s what they\u2019re trying to do to Apple, and Apple\u2019s defending themselves. “We haven\u2019t done anything wrong. We haven\u2019t broken any law.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve paid every dime of tax that we owe and we will continue to,” and nobody\u2019s accused \u2019em of breaking the law. They\u2019re just accusing them of bad citizenship. But the people accusing them of bad citizenship are the people they support, the people they vote for (and the guy they think that they wouldn\u2019t dare go to a cocktail party with) is the one guy defending them. It\u2019s frustrating to me. There\u2019s no schadenfreude. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s Carl Levin this morning during the Senate hearing on Apple and their bad citizenship and their irresponsibility. Apple has not done anything illegal when it comes to their taxes and nobody has accused them of that. “Then why are they up there, Mr. Limbaugh? You keep saying that they haven\u2019t broken the laws, then why are they up there?” Mr. New Castrati is asking. ‘Cause the company\u2019s huge, it\u2019s big, it\u2019s popular, and it got there without government, and therefore they\u2019re the enemy. They gotta be brought down a couple pegs. They ought to be paying more. Obama campaigned against companies like this making all this money and not paying their fair share. They got more money than they need, but they\u2019re not breaking the law. So they\u2019re dragged up there and accused of bad citizenship and more. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat, the leader of the committee on the Democrat side, Democrat from Michigan.<\/p>\n

LEVIN: The lost tax revenue feeds a budget deficit that has reached troubling proportions. It has helped lead to round after round of budget slashing and the ill-advised sequestration that now threatens our economic recovery. Because of those cuts, children across the country are not gonna get early education from Head Start, needy seniors are gonna go without meals, fighter jets sit idle on tarmacs because our military lacks the funding to keep pilots trained.<\/p>\n