{"id":24085,"date":"2007-01-04T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T06:15:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T06:15:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T06:15:03","slug":"lobbyists_are_here_to_stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/01\/04\/lobbyists_are_here_to_stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Lobbyists Are Here To Stay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Rich in Wildwood, New Jersey. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.<\/line>CALLER: Hey, Rush.<\/line>RUSH: Hey.<\/line>CALLER: Happy New Year.<\/line>RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/line>CALLER: I got a couple of things. I just want to get them out — and the one thing about “the children,” a little side thing, it reminds me of a George Carlin<\/a> bit, but I can\u2019t say it right now, on the air.<\/line><\/a>RUSH: Well, that\u2019s really cool! Tease everybody with something you can?t say. Now everybody wants to hear it.<\/line>CALLER: It\u2019s got bad words in it, very bad words. But the thing I\u2019m talking about is lobbyists and the “bridge to nowhere<\/a>,” so it\u2019s two points. Like lobbyists, to me, there are assumptions I make and I want you to tell me if I\u2019m crazy. Lobbyists, to me, are the voice of the people. It started out small, so it\u2019s the voice of the people, and it evolved over the decades to be bigger and more organized. So obviously when something gets too big, a lot of people start to hate it. A lot of people probably liked Wal-Mart in the beginning, and now they don\u2019t like them. That\u2019s about the lobbyists.<\/line>RUSH: Well —<\/line>CALLER: Now, another point is that the Alaska bridge. When I heard it on the news, what I assumed —<\/line>RUSH: The bridge to nowhere? You\u2019re talking about the bridge to nowhere?<\/line>CALLER: Exactly.<\/line>RUSH: Yeah.<\/line>CALLER: What I assumed was all right, they\u2019re building a bridge to an area that\u2019s undeveloped, so they want to develop it. Tourism, residential, whatever. So I just don\u2019t understand where these spins get a grip that they are real. I don\u2019t understand how the people can actually believe this.<\/line>RUSH: Believe that what is real?<\/line>CALLER: That it\u2019s a bridge to nowhere <\/emphasize>or that lobbyists are bad.<\/line>RUSH: Well, lobbyists are like anything else. There\u2019s no single group of people that are all clean and pure as the wind-driven snow.<\/line>CALLER: Of course. A percentage of the population is bad.<\/line>RUSH: Right.<\/line>CALLER: But, as in the military, one bad military action and “the whole military\u2019s bad.” But they\u2019re not. There\u2019s a percentage of humanity that is bad.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: But, look, here\u2019s the thing. Practically everything in politics today is imagery. Practically everything is spin. So lobbyists, what they really are and what they really represent and who <\/emphasize>they really represent is never discussed. “Lobbyist” has simply become a code word for powerful forces that close out the voice of the real people — and I\u2019ve heard the negative connotation, the invective associated with lobbyists all my life. It\u2019s nothing new. It really has at its roots class envy. Lobbyists are perceived to be in touch and wealthy and able to manipulate the system for their own good, for their own personal interests at the expense of what\u2019s good for the people; and the people — because they\u2019re dirt poor, and no influence whatsoever — get the shaft routinely, because the lobbyists are the only ones who have access. So much in politics is presented this way. <\/line> We\u2019ve become such a nation of pacifists: living in fear, wanting to feel good about things, and we\u2019ll take any language and any terminology, any lexicon that makes us feel good — such as “tax increases on the rich.” It doesn\u2019t improve anybody\u2019s life, but they feel better because they feel the lucky and the winners of life\u2019s lottery are getting even with, and finally getting a taste of their own medicine — which, of course, is balderdash. Lobbyists are the same sort of thing. When the Democrats come on along, ?We\u2019re going to have lobbying reform, and no more are we going to allow any corrupt activities to take place here with lobbyists because we are going to listen to the voice of the people!? Of course the dumkoffs out there who believe this!<\/line>?Yay, I\u2019m going to have power again! I — a single humility-laden American — am going to have power. The lobbyists are getting screwed.? <\/line>Meanwhile, the lobbyists are moving in in droves this week, opening up shop on Lobby Avenue, which is K Street. The Republican lobbyists are moving out; Democrat lobbyists moving in. Nothing is going to change. Nothing ever does, but the Democrats say <\/emphasize>it is. Of course, some people say, and the ones that will believe it: ?Oh, good! We\u2019re going to clean this up,? and so much of politics has become this: image and spin; appeals to emotion. The minimum wage is another classic example. The attempt by those who are in favor of amnesty for these 12 to 14 million illegal aliens say, “They\u2019re human beings<\/emphasize>, Mr. Limbaugh! They are coming to our country to improve their way of life, and they\u2019re doing jobs Americans won\u2019t do, Mr. Limbaugh! They\u2019re human beings like the rest of us. How could you deny them an opportunity that we all have in this country to improve their lives, huh?”<\/line> It\u2019s the same kind of appeal. <\/line>Of course, people, when they\u2019re accused of being “cold-hearted, cruel, mean-spirited SOBs,” don\u2019t want to be thought of that way.<\/line>“No, no, no, no, that\u2019s not me!” <\/line> “Yes, it is. You know that you\u2019re being unkind.” <\/line>“Oh, okay. I\u2019ll shut up. I don\u2019t want people to think that of me.” <\/line>So lobbying — as you stated at the beginning of your phone call, all these lobbying groups (the NRA<\/a> is a lobbying group), and — I\u2019ll tell you what: they are representing a bunch and bunch and bunch, millions and millions and millions of Americans. The AARP? They\u2019re a lobbying group. They represent gobs and millions of seasoned citizens! They\u2019re liberals, and they\u2019re using their lobbying organization to try to advance their agenda. Hey, it\u2019s called politics, and where do they get their money? They get it from their seasoned citizen members who pay it to them. <\/line>I\u2019ll tell you a little story. I think the AARP is something that needs to be fought constantly. They\u2019re a bunch of libs, like the National Education Association. My mother used to think that until she started getting literature from the AARP, and she thought, “This is pretty nice what these people are trying to do for me.”<\/line>I said, ?Mom, I\u2019m doing far more for you than that bunch of?? <\/line>?But they care<\/emphasize>, son,? and it worked on my mother. <\/line>My mother was not an ideologue. She was a Republican. She was not ideological to the extent that, of course, her husband (my father) and myself and my brother are. So she started giving them money. She made little donations. She thought she was buying things, buying insurance, and that sort of thing that they offer. <\/line>So all these lobbying groups, ladies and gentlemen, get their money from you. That\u2019s how you end up being represented. You may not be able to call Senator Foghorn and get into his office, although you might if you actually go to Washington. You never know. Call him up. You might get a tour of his office, and would be lucky if he\u2019s not there when you go. They could get you a private tour of the White House. They can do all kinds of things. But in terms of trying to influence policy, you can call Senator Foghorn; you can e-mail him and he\u2019s going to do what he wants to do. He may make you think that your input matters at a “town hall” or whatever. But the lobbyists, they have more direct access, because there are things that are a little uncouth about it. I mean, when these guys are going to dinner…<\/line>Rostenkowski was the king of this. Rostenkowski, a Democrat, when he was Ways and Means Committee chairman, I mean, my gosh! You look at the travel and entertainment budget of these lobbying groups, and they spread money around all over the place taking these guys to dinner, on these little vacations and junkets and so forth. If anybody thinks that\u2019s going to change? In fact, the story on lobbying<\/a> I have in the stack says that\u2019s not going to change, but being “honest about it” is. So you\u2019re going to have to have longer forms and reports to fill out after you take the trip. It doesn\u2019t stop people. Look at Pelosi! After this DeLay thing came up about all the trips it was discovered<\/a> she hadn\u2019t filed accurate reports or any reports for how many years. <\/line>She was allowed to go in, redo it and back-date it<\/a>. ?It was just an oversight.? <\/line>For DeLay, they had to throw him out of office over far less, actually, than what Pelosi and some other Democrats had done. But, look it, I\u2019m not trying to sound pessimistic here about this. I\u2019m just saying when you hear there\u2019s going to be “lobby reform,” don\u2019t buy it. Lobbying is as much a part of the political fabric as money is, and you\u2019re never going to get the money out of it. The only thing that they might succeed in getting out of politics, if they keep up, is free speech on the part of us with McCain-Feingold and that kind of thing. <\/line><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Rich in Wildwood, New Jersey. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.CALLER: Hey, Rush.RUSH: Hey.CALLER: Happy New Year.RUSH: Thank you, sir.CALLER: I got a couple of things. I just want to get them out — and the one thing about “the children,” a little side thing, it reminds me of a George Carlin bit, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLobbyists Are Here To Stay - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/01\/04\/lobbyists_are_here_to_stay\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Lobbyists Are Here To Stay - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Rich in Wildwood, New Jersey. Welcome to the EIB Network. 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