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<\/p>\nRUSH: Here\u2019s Liz in Madison, Wisconsin, just beginning to thaw out. How are you doing?<\/p>\n
CALLER: (giggling) I\u2019m doing fine. We\u2019ve got a heat wave. It\u2019s 14 degrees.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah, that\u2019s a thaw out, right? (laughing)<\/p>\n
CALLER: (giggling) Thanks for taking my call, Rush.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
RUSH: You bet.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I had a question. Actually I came off from working out and I turned you on the radio and you were talking about how the government shutdown was being so dramatized. And I agree. And I told your buddy there that I truly admire you and I listen to you and you say pretty much what we are all thinking but maybe don\u2019t get the outlet to say. But something that I had a hard time is when you\u2019re saying that okay, you know, two paychecks and it really didn\u2019t affect anybody. I\u2019m one of those people it didn\u2019t affect, I\u2019ll admit. But at one time in my life it would have affected me.<\/p>\n
I think sometimes maybe there\u2019s a way of relating to the people who are your avid listeners and are Trump supporters who are living paycheck to paycheck. I remember one time when I was, and it was like, “Well, do I pay my car payment or do I put gas in the car on do I pay my insurance?” And I thought, “Well, I guess if I don\u2019t pay my insurance, I could drive the car,” and there was a time when two paychecks would have sunk me. And sometimes… And I know the upper echelon and some of this… None of us have a hitch in our giddy-up right now. A lot of us don\u2019t. But there are a lot that do, and that just kind of hit me a little funny because it felt a little bit out of touch with a lot of those people who listen to you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Ah, there we go. This has come up over the years. I\u2019m really glad you called and I\u2019m glad you hung on until I was able to get to you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n
RUSH: Over the course of the entirety of this program there have been periods of time where I have been accused of being out of touch, been accused of not understanding how difficult life is for people and sounding above it and uncaring about it. It goes in spurts. You misunderstood something. I was talking about… I was lampooning the people who claimed that 400,000 or 800,000 government workers being out of work for two paychecks would bring our economy to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I was mocking, not the people that missed the paychecks. But the idea that 800,000 people in government or anywhere would bring our economy to a screeching halt. It was wrong! They didn\u2019t know what they were talking about. Not only did it not matter, we created a record number of new jobs. My comment was about the media and how they\u2019re constantly getting things wrong, their economic experts are wrong in their forecasts, and all it was was an effort to rip into Trump, blame Trump for the shutdown.<\/p>\n
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They wanted the economy to come to a screeching halt. They want people to be hurt. They want people in pain so they can go do these hard-luck stories and point it out and blame it on Trump! Well, I sit here in steadfast earnestness to deny them that right. They\u2019re not gonna get away with lying about the guy, at least during these three hours of the day. People… I have been exactly in the situation that you described. For five years, I was in that situation at what many people think as the prime of life. Let\u2019s see, it was 1979. So I was 28 years old.<\/p>\n
From 28 to 33, I made $12,000 to $17,000 in five years. I could not afford my house payment and the Mastercard payment in the same two-week period. Mastercard wouldn\u2019t move the due date. The mortgage people wouldn\u2019t move the due date. I was late on one of them every month, no choice. Grocery stores didn\u2019t take credit cards back then, but Qwik Stop convenience stores did. So that\u2019s how I managed to get by. I didn\u2019t have an expense account. I didn\u2019t have any other way of generating income.<\/p>\n
I was stuck there.<\/p>\n
I have been fired seven times in my life, or maybe more now. I\u2019ve been through all of these economic challenges. One time I was fired and out of work for six months. So I\u2019m not a stranger to any of this. But what I\u2019m not gonna sit here and permit is for the media to lie about this. And the idea was that virtually every one of these federal workers… After missing one paycheck is when we got the sob stories! After missing one paycheck. And these people were going to get that money back. They were gonna get their back pay.<\/p>\n
The president assured them and promised them that. So in the end they weren\u2019t going to be out anything. They were being used as pawns by the media to attack Trump, which I am not gonna… If they\u2019re attacking Trump and lying about it, they\u2019re not gonna get away with it here, as far as I\u2019m concerned. Look, I try to keep in mind what you\u2019ve mentioned all the time. I understand what life is like, and I understand financial pressures, and I understand the decisions that have to be made.<\/p>\n
I try to constantly keep that in mind as I talk about things here. But what this was, was the media trying to say that these federal workers being… It was a multifaceted lie. It was trying to elevate the importance of federal workers. I don\u2019t know about you, but how many of you got a little…? How many times has the media come and cared about the hardships you face in life, yet here come some government workers who are not doing badly! Government pay is not… Have you seen the wealthiest per capita area is Washington, D.C., now! It used to be Maryland!<\/p>\n
There is more money per capita in Washington, D.C., than anywhere in this country. The people that work there are not hurting as related to some of the other people around the country. Missing a paycheck? The media comes along, exploits that, acting like it\u2019s the greatest injustice. (sobbing) “Oh, it\u2019s a disservice! How can we do this to people devoting their lives to helping us in the federal government?” It\u2019s a crock. It\u2019s media BS. That\u2019s what I was calling out. I was not in any way attempting to gloss over whatever hardship and suffering might have been experienced by missing a paycheck or two.<\/p>\n
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And if you think I sounded arrogant about that? Well, I\u2019m glad I got the chance to correct you on that. Thanks for the call.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: You know, this business of me being out of touch, it comes up, as I said, now and then. The last time it came up, the gasoline price was skyrocketing. And it was a mystery to why. We were going through the usual belief that some wizard behind the curtain somewhere was in charge of the levers that were causing gasoline — I mean, you had people working at Fox News that were saying that this is what\u2019s going on, it was the oil companies that were jacking up the prices because they can and blah, blah, blah.<\/p>\n
And I was speaking very distrustingly of that. I didn\u2019t buy that for a second. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anybody with that kind of power that could affect the price of gasoline and the variables nationwide. Market forces are the only thing big enough to cause that. So a guy called here and claimed I was out of touch. That I should have been among those, because of the people in my audience, I should have known, the price of gas going up, \u201cIt\u2019s hurting people and you don\u2019t sound like you understand that.”<\/p>\n
And I said, “Sir, you really need to think about this.” I asked him, \u201cDo you know what the price of jet fuel is?”<\/p>\n
“Uh, no.”<\/p>\n
“Well, yeah. Well, I do. I have to buy it for EIB One. What do you think the price of jet fuel is?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019ll tell you what. It\u2019s four times what you\u2019re paying for gasoline. So you know what I\u2019ve had to do? I\u2019ve had to order my pilots to slow down to 475 miles an hour just to be able to fly the thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, wow. I had no idea.” So these things affect everybody. (laughing) I did. I told him that. And he understood then that the pain and suffering was everywhere, not just with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: I was not in any way attempting to gloss over whatever hardship and suffering might have been experienced by missing a paycheck or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":298495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n