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<\/p>\nRUSH: Who\u2019s next? Don in Chicago. Don, I\u2019m glad you held on. You\u2019re on Open Line Friday next. Hello, sir.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Last night I was sitting down with my wife \u2019til almost 1:30 in the morning. I\u2019m self-employed, I\u2019m a painting contractor. We were doing payroll and we were doing the quarterly taxes, and I was looking at the numbers and it\u2019s just not going. I\u2019ve been in business 20 years, and I think I gotta just close shop and call it a day and go get a job. Because I\u2019m borrowing money. I\u2019m not paying myself. I\u2019m paying my guys. My guys aren\u2019t working full weeks anymore. It\u2019s been going downhill for the last three, four years.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Isn\u2019t sitting down and doing the quarterly a pain? Isn\u2019t that depressing?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Ugh. I hate it.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I gotta tell you, I know, man. I know exactly where you\u2019re coming from. I despise it. If most people had to pay their taxes that way —<\/p>\n
CALLER: Oh!<\/p>\n
RUSH: — it would be the biggest tax reform we ever had.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: Absolutely. I\u2019ve been listening to you for 20 years. I\u2019m inspired by you. It\u2019s what keeps me going. I\u2019m sitting here in my family room. I\u2019m looking at a picture of my son who is a sergeant in the Marine Corps, and I know if I was talking to him right now, he would say, “Dad, don\u2019t do it. Don\u2019t quit. Don\u2019t do it.” But reality being what it is, Rush, I don\u2019t see anything getting better.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Wait a second. Who\u2019s quitting? If you shut down your business \u2019cause it\u2019s not viable and you go get a job someplace, or you try to, you\u2019re not quitting anything.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I know but I —<\/p>\n
RUSH: You\u2019re just changing your strategy.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I understand, but I feel like I\u2019m failing. You know, I feel like I\u2019ve been beat.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Don, I\u2019ll tell you what: You\u2019re in Chicago. If I were you I\u2019d be thanking the Lord every day I\u2019m still alive.<\/p>\n
CALLER: (laughing) I\u2019m outside of Chicago, but, yeah.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You gotta learn to look at the positives here.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Your mayor is looking out for you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah. Well, he isn\u2019t my mayor, I live out in the suburbs, but I understand. I understand. It\u2019s just, you know, I feel like I\u2019ve been beat up. I\u2019m trying to stay in the ring and I just keep on getting knocked out, keep on getting back up.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You said you\u2019re a painting contractor.<\/p>\n
CALLER: That\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You own your business.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, sir.<\/p>\n
RUSH: What kind of painting? Residential, construction, business, what kind? Anything you can get?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, that lately, but we kind of specialize in retirement communities so it\u2019s kind of residential commercial work. And with the economy being the way it is, these people aren\u2019t moving into retirement communities \u2019cause they can\u2019t sell their properties.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Right. They can\u2019t afford to retire. I got a story right here. It\u2019s in Forbes: “Why You Should Plan on Working to Age 70.” It\u2019s \u2019cause if you don\u2019t, you\u2019re either gonna get wiped out by a death panel or you\u2019re gonna starve because there isn\u2019t gonna be a retirement for you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I understand. I understand.<\/p>\n
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RUSH: So the seasoned citizens are not moving into retirement homes at a rapid enough rate for you to go in there and paint the walls.<\/p>\n
CALLER: That\u2019s correct. And these are high-end communities. One of them\u2019s up in Lake Forest, and these people have million-dollar homes that are now worth, you know, five and six hundred thousand-dollars. You know, properties that they can\u2019t sell because they\u2019re not gonna let \u2019em go and they can\u2019t afford to move in and have a double mortgage payment. So they\u2019re just sitting.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, go on welfare.<\/p>\n
CALLER: (chuckles) Never.<\/p>\n
RUSH: They just reformed that.<\/a> You don\u2019t even have to work anymore. Go on welfare.<\/p>\n CALLER: Never, Rush. I\u2019m not gonna be a burden anywhere. I\u2019m not gonna file bankruptcy. I\u2019m gonna close up and slowly pay down the money I owe and I\u2019ll just find a job. It\u2019s the right thing to do, but it\u2019s not… I just don\u2019t want to do it. I just don\u2019t want to do it.<\/p>\n RUSH: I know. How many employees do you have?<\/p>\n CALLE: Well, I\u2019ve had as many as 15, but now we\u2019re down to like three guys. I\u2019m not even counting myself. And lately we haven\u2019t been putting in 40-hour weeks \u2019cause the work is so sporadic.<\/p>\n RUSH: But you still have to pay \u2019em?<\/p>\n CALLER: Absolutely! I\u2019m cutting their checks right now and I\u2019m not getting one. (laughing)<\/p>\n RUSH: Well, the employees always eat first.<\/p>\n CALLER: Absolutely. Absolutely.<\/p>\n RUSH: Then after a while none of \u2019em appreciate it anyway.<\/p>\n CALLER: Well, my wife had to take a job four years ago just to kind of pick up the slack so we could drop the health care that I was paying for. So now she\u2019s picking up the health care. Our kids are grown up and married, so that\u2019s not a burden on us.<\/p>\n RUSH: Well, health care is free now. That Supreme Court took care of that.<\/p>\n CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n RUSH: You got it better off out there than you actually know.<\/p>\n CALLER: I\u2019m glad I called, Rush. (laughing)<\/p>\n RUSH: (laughing) I\u2019m glad you did, too.<\/p>\n CALLER: You\u2019re really making me feel great. (laughing)<\/p>\n RUSH: I\u2019m sorry. Look, I am so ticked off today, I can\u2019t describe it. I don\u2019t mean to be shoveling that all on you. I really understand your frustration. I feel for you. What\u2019s happening to you and people like you has me burning under the collar. What\u2019s happening to this country, it just frosts me. I can\u2019t tell you how mad it makes me.<\/p>\n CALLER: You know, Rush, for years…<\/p>\n RUSH: It frustrates me that I can\u2019t do anything about this. I know what to do about this. So many other people know what to do. We are hamstrung. We are prisoners to a bunch of people who are happy that you are in the circumstance that you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n CALLER: Ugh.<\/p>\n RUSH: That\u2019s what ticks me off. It ticks me off! This is the greatest country on earth. I get e-mails from people in your circumstance, phone calls from people like you, and it\u2019s so damned unnecessary. And it\u2019s happening because there are people that want it to happen. I can\u2019t tell you how it ticks me off. It ticks me off that more people don\u2019t realize it for what it is.<\/p>\n CALLER: For years I\u2019ve heard you say — and it\u2019s one of the favorite things I\u2019ve ever heard you say — there could be a recession, there could be a depression, but I\u2019m not participating. And that\u2019s the attitude I\u2019ve always taken, that somehow I\u2019m gonna work through this. I can make things happen. And if I could just get a lead, I can make things happen. I\u2019m a salesman; I can do it. But lately I\u2019ve just been feeling like I\u2019m fighting the world.<\/p>\n RUSH: The deck is stacked against you as it\u2019s never been stacked against you. You have your government working against you now. You have institutions working against you. You have people who are drawing up plans for this to happen as it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n CALLER: (groans) Oh, it\u2019s bad.<\/p>\n RUSH: That\u2019s what you\u2019re up against. That\u2019s what makes this different. You know, and I have said it. I\u2019ve often said, “You\u2019re gonna have a recession? Fine. I\u2019m not participating.” (sigh) It\u2019s still possible to do that, but we\u2019ve not been in a circumstance like this. We have not been in an economic downturn caused by the White House and prolonged by the White House, with policy after policy after policy that is oriented toward creating the circumstance that you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n RUSH: So you\u2019ve got all kinds of double whammies. Then you, on the other hand, are an entrepreneur. You\u2019re a business owner. Most people think you\u2019re rolling in dough. You own your own business.<\/p>\n CALLER: Ha! No. That\u2019s not the way it is. I\u2019m trying to make ends meet like everyone else.<\/p>\n RUSH: Have you thought about painting housing projects? Maybe figure out where all these people Obama\u2019s taking care of are and go paint where they are.<\/p>\n CALLER: (laughing) I guess I gotta start thinking outside the box a little more.<\/p>\n RUSH: Well, you do. For real!<\/p>\n CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n RUSH: You do. You\u2019re up against odds that you\u2019ve not been up against, and you\u2019re up against things that you never thought you\u2019d be up against.<\/p>\n CALLER: No, this is a whole different season. I\u2019ve been in business for 20 years, I\u2019ve been in the trades for 32, and I\u2019ve never seen anything that even was close to this. Never.<\/p>\n RUSH: And no end in sight.<\/p>\n CALLER: No. And that\u2019s why, you know, when you\u2019re sitting downstairs in the basement in your office and you\u2019re looking at your wife and she\u2019s looking at you like, “This is bad. We need to change strategy. We gotta look at this as a reality and I think you gotta go get a job.”<\/p>\n RUSH: Well…<\/p>\n CALLER: And I couldn\u2019t even sleep last night, Rush. I couldn\u2019t even sleep.<\/p>\n RUSH: I really feel for you. It frustrates me. I wish there were things that we all could do. See, there are! That\u2019s what\u2019s frustrating. There are things to do. There are things that could fix this, or at least get started on a parts of having this fixed right now. They could be done, and we\u2019re sitting here debating when the hell Romney left Bain.<\/a><\/p>\n It just frosts me.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/ObamaSupremeCourt2.jpg\"\/)
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<\/a>RUSH: Our last caller was Don outside Chicago. Don, seriously, something you might look into. All these foreclosed homes have to be kept up. The banks have to keep \u2019em up, and I guarantee you, there\u2019s a bunch of \u2019em in the Chicagoland area. As part of your investigation, Don, about maybe packing up and becoming an employee, before you do that, call on some lending institutions and find out if there\u2019s any work to be done in maintaining foreclosed properties, \u2019cause there\u2019s a hell of a lot of them out there. <\/p>\n