{"id":31535,"date":"2009-01-27T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:50:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:50:14","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:50:14","slug":"a_teachable_moment_bailouts_authoritarians_and_corporate_jets2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/01\/27\/a_teachable_moment_bailouts_authoritarians_and_corporate_jets2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teachable Moment: Bailouts, Authoritarians and Corporate Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RUSH: I want to warn you. My first item today is gonna infuriate you, and I don\u2019t expect very many people to understand my point of view on this. But that has never stopped me from telling you my point of view, and it\u2019s never stopped you from eventually realizing that I am right. Don\u2019t doubt me. Telephone number, 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. The e-mail address today, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. <\/p>\n

This first item is deeply troubling to me, and I dare say that I am probably in the range of maybe 2% of the American people troubled by this for the reason I\u2019m troubled. Of the American people who know about this, I will guarantee you a hundred percent of them are angry. Well, let\u2019s say 99%, just to be safe. Nothing is ever fully complete or totally one hundred percent one way or the other, except that basketball score down in Texas, which is a hundred to zip. However, in this case, I fully believe that I\u2019m going to be on the opposite side of 99% of the people. I am the one who resists the tug of popular sentiment. Now, I want to take you back to December, ladies and gentlemen. This is a teachable moment. I don\u2019t want to build it up to be too big a deal, but I want to take you back to last December. Starbucks, the coffee bunch, had just announced layoffs of, oh, I don\u2019t know, thousands of people, and they\u2019re closing some stores. At the same time they were taking the delivery of a new G550 that month, $45 or $50 million corporate jet, and every corporate jet is described as plush, and I can assure you they are not all plush. <\/p>\n

Some of them are built to be chartered and the decorator inside has basically made the whole thing look like a case of wine\u2019s already been spilled on everything because of the people chartering it not owning it, not caring what they do to it in terms of damage. So they\u2019re not all plush. But it is a cool way to get around. They had ordered this jet three or four years earlier, and they had decided to go ahead and accept delivery because they said the costs of selling it or refusing it made no sense. This caused an outcry. There was an outrage. There were protests all over the great Northwest. Why, how dare they? They\u2019re closing stores and they\u2019re laying people off, how dare they accept the corporate jet? That was the sentiment of about I\u2019d say 99% of the people who heard the story. In fact, how can you blame \u2019em, with ignorance being the most expensive commodity we have. The demonization of the private sector continues unabated. It has been going on for as long as I have been alive, and it\u2019s been the Democrat Party and the American left which has been demonizing the private sector, and after 50 years it\u2019s just tough for people generation after generation to resist it. <\/p>\n

So I asked a question. What is the correct conservative response to Starbucks accepting delivery of their new plush corporate jet? Oh, by the way, to add insult to injury, the CEO flew it to Hawaii for a week over Christmas, between Christmas and New Year\u2019s while having closed stores and laid off employees. And I said, what is the correct conservative response? And then what is the expected public response? Well, the correct conservative response is it\u2019s none of our business. It\u2019s none of anybody\u2019s business. If they want to run that company that way and if it results in the company going to hell and if it results in the morale of the employees that are left going to hell, that\u2019s their business. It certainly isn\u2019t Obama\u2019s business what they do. It certainly isn\u2019t Carl Levin\u2019s business. It certainly isn\u2019t Barney Frank\u2019s, and it certainly isn\u2019t Chris Dodd\u2019s, but all four of those people are attempting to make similar decisions made in the private sector their business, and their foot in the door is bailout money. <\/p>\n

Okay. First we had John Thain, who has now thrown himself on the mercy of the masses. He spent a million-two, not of TARP money, he spent a million-two of Merrill Lynch money to redecorate his office, $1.2 million, had to hire a contractor, had to hire a decorator, had to buy the furnishings, private sector stimulus, it all happened, but it has been skewered, it was insensitive, it was at a time when Merrill was losing money, and Thain\u2019s out there, he\u2019s throwing himself on mercy for everybody, ‘I shoulda used my own money, I\u2019m sorry, but that\u2019s horrible. What do you want me to do? Do you want me to go up on the cross? What do you want me to do? That\u2019s just terrible.\u2019 So he\u2019s apologized, he\u2019s gone, he\u2019s history. We now learn that Citibank is accepting or had made the decision to accept the delivery of a new Dassault Falcon Jet, which is assembled in France. The components are made all over the world. It\u2019s assembled in France. It\u2019s a French jet, and it\u2019s around $50 million, it\u2019s a Falcon C7 or X7 or some such thing. Seats 12 people, flies 559 miles per hour, and of course very plush. <\/p>\n

Now, hang on. Snerdley is already whispering in my ear, ‘You\u2019re not going to defend that.\u2019 Would you just let me take this to where it\u2019s going? I told you I\u2019m going to be 1% of the opinion in this. Okay, so, Citibank has been bailed out. So arguably Citibank is accepting the delivery of this thing with money from the bailout. However, I guarantee you that during the building process of this jet they had to make progress payments long before they were bailed out. It takes three or four years to get one of these things, two years minimum. The New York Post announced yesterday that Citibank was taking delivery of this thing and the execs wanted it, $50 million Falcon private jet, this caused outrage on Capitol Hill and at the White House, and I want to read to you something that Carl Levin said. Now, Carl Levin is a Senator from Michigan with bad hair. <\/p>\n

‘To permit Citigroup to purchase a plush plane — foreign-built no less — while domestic auto companies are being required to sell off their jets is a ridiculous double standard.\u2019 Levin said he urged Timothy Geithner, tax cheat, Treasury of the secretary, to ‘do what he can to stop this absurdity from occurring, and I am assured that he will look into the matter promptly,\u2019 and I am sure also that 99% of the American people are cheering, and I\u2019m sure most of you are cheering this. ‘Make \u2019em get rid of the jet. Why, how many salaries could they have paid people with that $50 million? They wouldn\u2019t have had to lay people off, and that jet\u2019s just for the execs to fly around and go on their vacations. Come on, Rush, get with it. Don\u2019t tell me you\u2019re going to defend this.\u2019 I\u2019m not defending it. I want to give you something more chilling to consider. I realize that the federal government now has the power to tell any of these peons, these idiots that went along with this bailout how to run their businesses. These idiots, these titans, these so-called Masters of the Universe who ran around with their hands out, they\u2019ve lived on everybody else\u2019s money for so long that they thought nothing of living on ours, and so they willingly take these bailouts. <\/p>\n

Once they do that, Carl Levin can tell them what they can do any time of the day. He can tell \u2019em what kind of bathroom they\u2019re going to have; he can tell them where they\u2019re going to go, and this scares the hell out of me. When I read this quote from Carl Levin, ‘to permit Citigroup to buy their jet, when the auto companies are being required,\u2019 who\u2019s doing the permitting here? Who\u2019s doing the forcing or the requiring here? Why, Carl Levin and the Treasury secretary, which is the federal government. If you are going to sit around and applaud this on some silly populist notion that these Masters of the Universe deserve to have somebody slap \u2019em upside the head and tell \u2019em what\u2019s right, then just stand by and wait for them to tell you how to run your business someday. Hell, folks, the public school system is already being dictated curricula by federal governments and state governments because of the money. The school lunch program is the ticket that allows the federal government to tell some schools what their curricula is going to be. Well, you want your kids to eat? You want us to pay for it rather than your parents? Ha-ha, wink wink, your parents are paying for it anyway, we\u2019re just taking the money first. Ah, ah, ah, ah. <\/p>\n

Another thing about this stimulus. Like my brilliant proposal yesterday, why do we have to have this money washed by the money launderers in Washington? Why don\u2019t we let the people who are producing it keep it and stimulate the economy themselves? Why does it have to go to Washington for these bigwigs to sit around and ponder who\u2019s going to get it? Do you know in the Obama stimulus package $4.19 billion is going to ACORN, Obama\u2019s community organizing group? Would somebody tell me what the stimulus is in that? Oh, it\u2019s not called ACORN, it\u2019s called neighborhood stabilization programs. Now, would somebody explain to me what in the name of Sam Hill — and there was a Sam Hill; I looked it up — would somebody explain to me what in the name of Sam Hill $4.19 billion to a voter fraud organization has to do with stimulus? I\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s going on here, ladies and gentlemen, we are funding Obama and the Democrat Party\u2019s army on the street. We are funding the forces of the Democrat Party\u2019s reelection. (interruption) Oh, on Fox there\u2019s a picture of the plush jet that will now no longer be accepted by Citi and flown. And by the way, they got $45 billion in the bailout. The plane\u2019s $50 million. Taking the plane away from them, how many people in their flight department are now out of work? <\/p>\n

Do you know what it takes to fly and maintain an airplane? You know how many mechanics? Do you know what the maintenance on these things is? They just don\u2019t sit in the hangar like your car and when you decide to get in there put the key in, head down the Quick &amp; Stop or the blockbuster or wherever the hell else you go, these things are so federally regulated with maintenance, inspections, and — (interruption) I am not trying to garner sympathy. I\u2019m trying to educate. Now my staff\u2019s even getting smart ass with me. I\u2019m not trying to garner sympathy. Oh, jeez. If you people don\u2019t even get it in there why should I even continue exhaling another breath on this? I\u2019m sorry, folks. Some of this is personal but not the way you think. I met with my financial guy yesterday. I do this every month. By the way, I hired my financial guy, he\u2019s salaried. He doesn\u2019t get a percentage of wherever he puts the money. I want him totally objective. I hate the fees. I despise the fees. I hate the fees whether I win or lose, they get paid. Screw that. <\/p>\n

So he\u2019s going through last year\u2019s performance, down 7%, so forth. One of my accounts was down 41%. Everybody\u2019s down because of the market. And he said, ‘Well, we\u2019ve got future this and future that,\u2019 and I said, ‘Let me tell you where my head is right now. My head is you\u2019re showing me I\u2019ve got X in my portfolio. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve got anything. I\u2019m pretending I got nothing because I got Barack Obama in the White House and I got Democrats who are going to try to figure out how to take every bit of it from me or how they\u2019re going to get it from me in taxes or what have you. I want to know where I can put it that they can\u2019t get it, and I\u2019m not talking about offshore. I\u2019m talking about preservation of principal.\u2019 What bothers me here, folks, the jet at Citibank and the executive suite at Merrill are just, my God, folks, they are such visible lessons shouting at us to understand what is happening to the engine of American greatness. It\u2019s being usurped, it\u2019s being absorbed by people like Carl Levin and Timothy Geithner and Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and all of them, and the more this goes on and the more we sit by thinking they and only they can create jobs, they\u2019re going to have their hands in as many industries, large and small, in this society as possible, and when that happens, by virtue of bailouts or what have you, then they\u2019re going to be able to direct the way you run your business, the way you work at your business, or what have you. <\/p>\n

If they don\u2019t like it and if they think they can get votes by telling you you can\u2019t accept the delivery of your jet — and that\u2019s all this is — don\u2019t think that Carl Levin is genuinely offended that these guys are gonna accept delivery of a jet they ordered three years ago, because it\u2019s going to upset the future of Citibank. I mean this company\u2019s got far more problems than a $50 million jet. These CEOs, they\u2019ve got worldwide businesses. They have these things in large measure — look, I\u2019m not even going to try to defend it. I know it\u2019s a waste of time. It\u2019s a total waste of time. People don\u2019t want to understand it, Snerdley. People do not want to, they look at a corporate jet, they\u2019ve watched Dynasty, they don\u2019t care about Oprah having her jets, they don\u2019t care that Oprah has ten homes, but somehow these guys — and here\u2019s the reason why. The reason why is when government is passing out the goodies, all the people in the country think they\u2019re benefiting from it. But when private industry CEOs or executives get goodies, they think it\u2019s the rich getting richer. <\/p>\n

Look at Big Oil. Six months ago Big Oil was hated, despised, thought of as a giant conspiracy \u2019cause gasoline prices were at four bucks a gallon and rising. And now, gasoline prices a buck-and-a-half some places. Nobody hates Big Oil. Is anybody thinking what\u2019s happening to them here? No. As long as Big Oil suffers, that\u2019s fine. I\u2019m just worried. If these guys are going to go in and make grabs for all this money at Citibank and wherever else, folks, it\u2019s not long \u2019til they\u2019re going to come for ours.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Jason in Bremerton, Washington. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Dittos. Straight to the point. This should be a wake-up for the American public. What we are seeing with senators and congressmen and women telling these CEOs what they can and can\u2019t do related to toilets, planes, et cetera, this should be an eye-opener of what they can expect when it comes to such things as universal health care. What makes people think the government\u2019s not going to tell them what they can and can\u2019t do as far as eating food, drinking adult beverages, et cetera.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know, especially since they\u2019re already doing it. The governor of New York made it official with his 15%, whatever it is, tax. He wants to raise $400 million on Coca-Cola, and regularly sweetened 7-Up, and Pepsi and all the others. They\u2019re already telling us what we can and can\u2019t do. It doesn\u2019t seem to bother anybody.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But it\u2019s isolated to New York. Wait \u2019til it goes across the country.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, no. Would you tell me how Democrats keep getting elected in California? California is leading the pack in some of this insanity. Californians vote, ‘No health care, no for welfare for illegal aliens.\u2019 A judge says, ‘No, that\u2019s unconstitutional. You gotta keep paying it.\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: People are leaving California. Schwarzenegger has just proposed taxing golf rounds, rounds of golf at country clubs in public golf courses.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Because we have incompetent Republicans running in California, and they are not getting the message out.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, yes. That certainly is a factor. But I think we have some cultural problems. I read a great piece in the Wall Street Journal op-ed page last night, and it was written by a lawyer, and he said the biggest — I\u2019m going to summarize this. This is not really doing this the full justice it deserves. But he said one of the greatest obstacles to the kind of unbridled freedom that built this country, the willingness to take a chance, is tort law. Everybody calculates whether to do anything, including let the kids run around at recess. They calculate what it might cost \u2019em if something goes wrong, and they always say, ‘Well, I can\u2019t pay what the damages would be, so we\u2019re not going to do the activity,\u2019 and so a lot of freedom, a lot of activity that is oriented in freedom and exploration, pioneer spirit, is not happening. Because the people who make the country work are getting more and more frightened each and every day of what might happen to them if some slacker decides to sue \u2019em with a tort lawyer.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Joe in Aspen, Colorado. It\u2019s nice to have you on the program, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, Rush, the reason I\u2019m calling… Can you hear me?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay, good. The reason I\u2019m calling, you know, you sparked some interest in me when you were talking about a correlation between Starbucks\u2019 jet versus Citicorp. The fact of the matter is, Rush, is that we actually have public funds, tax dollars that are going to be bailing out Citicorp and have; and I think we do, as American people, have a say. If anything, I want to go further. I\u2019d like to have some stock in Citigroup and maybe in some of these other banks that we\u2019ve given out money to, versus just —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, no. You know, see, this is the thing. I made the distinction. I said that Starbucks hasn\u2019t taken any money and Citibank has. And you may have missed this, but I\u2019m angry they took it. I am angry these Masters of the Universe ran around with their hands out and said, ‘Please, give me money,\u2019 because, you know, I\u2019ve said it constantly. Folks, when you take freebies, it\u2019s not free. When somebody gives you something, comps you something, they\u2019re always going to want something back. I hate these guys for doing it. Well, not ‘hate,\u2019 but I just wish these guys had not taken this bailout. I wish the ones that were going to fail just failed, because all of this has just allowed the federal government to get in there. Joe, we cannot run this country with people like you thinking you should get stock for your taxpayer dollars and that you ought to have something to say about whether or not they get a corporate jet. It ain\u2019t gonna work. It\u2019s not gonna work. It\u2019s none of your business. It ought not be any of your business. <\/p>\n

The fact that you think it is, is another thing that troubles me greatly. I can understand how you think it is. You think, you think that your taxes are going to it. I guarantee you it\u2019s nobody\u2019s taxes now. They\u2019re printing the money, my friend. They are printing the money — and I\u2019m going to tell you something, folks, it is amazing that inflation has not reared its ugly head. At some point, it\u2019s going to have to. It just is the law of economics. When you start printing money and there\u2019s nothing to back it — old supply and demand, too many dollars for too few goods — guess what happens? (sigh) So you\u2019re going to have the currency inflate here. Inflation, when it hits, like it probably is on this deal, is going to be the greatest tax that you pay, and it will be hidden and you\u2019ll not even know it because it\u2019s going to happen gradually. It\u2019s theoretical that in the next number of years — and I can\u2019t peg the number, but let\u2019s say if you have a retirement fund (just to pick a number) of a hundred bucks, it\u2019s going to be worth 75 in a few years.<\/p>\n

And nobody\u2019s even talking about that. This is just absurd, and none of it… If you look at the details of what\u2019s in this porkulus plan, very little of it is stimulating. It\u2019s just pork. It\u2019s the Democrats paying back unions and the people that got \u2019em elected. There\u2019s $4.19 billion for ‘neighborhood stabilization.\u2019 That means voter fraud. That\u2019s ACORN. We are funding Obama\u2019s army with a so-called stimulus plan, and it wounds me to the heart. Joe, I know you\u2019re a great guy. But it wounds me to the heart to hear you call here and say you think you should be given stock in Citibank and that you ought to have a right to make a decision on whether or not they accept delivery of their corporate jet when you don\u2019t know the first thing about what they do. You couldn\u2019t run the place if you had to. <\/p>\n

You probably wouldn\u2019t know what to do with the share of stock that you got, but you\u2019ve been made to believe that you own the outfit because your elected officials have bailed them out. My anger is not at guys like Joe. That just makes me sad. It makes me sad as an American that there are a lot of Joes out there. What makes me angry is allllll of these freeloaders with their hands out taking this bailout money. ‘But, Rush! But, Rush! They needed it. Their businesses were going under.\u2019 If they were irresponsible, then sayonara. ‘But, Rush! But, Rush! The government made \u2019em do some of these things.\u2019 Yeah, let Barney Frank and Chris Dodd go with them. We can\u2019t bail out everybody and everything, and I guarantee you, when the need comes for you to get a bailout, you\u2019re gonna raise your hand and they\u2019re going to laugh at you. (sigh) Okay, Lois in Chicago. Lois, you\u2019re next here on the EIB Network. Hello.<\/line> <\/line> CALLER: Hi, Rush.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you so much for keeping me sane —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I\u2019m doing —<\/p>\n

CALLER: — in an insane world.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I may be failing at that in my own case here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, Rush, listen, I\u2019m on the page with you every day. I sit and I watch these people and I say to myself and my television, ‘They don\u2019t get it. They just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s the thing, Lois. Lois, here\u2019s the thing that sadly has been lost. We need a little reminder. It pains me to say this. This is like trying to tell people that 1 + 1 = 2.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I know.<\/p>\n

RUSH: We need to remember that ‘we the people\u2019 are the ones that are supposed to tell our supposed representatives how to behave.<\/p>\n

CALLER: They are the employed, we are the employees.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Not the other way around. These politicians have created the situation in which these foolish corporate executives are now begging for help. This is a destructive cycle. If you want stock in Citibank, Joe in Aspen, then go out and buy it!<\/p>\n

CALLER: Exactly.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because you haven\u2019t yet, just because Carl Levin or somebody is gonna bail out. These guys in Washington set these corporate execs up. They created a circumstance. (interruption) Snerdley says, ‘You\u2019re barking up the wrong tree, Rush. They\u2019re never going to believe you,\u2019 and he\u2019s right. See, Lois, he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, you know, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He\u2019s right, because they\u2019re going to hear me defending the corporate execs. I can tell you the truth all day long that it\u2019s people like Levin and Barney Frank that set these guys up and determine the conditions under which they operated which led to these worthless loans, toxic assets. They want a bailout because they think the government screwed \u2019em. ‘Okay, make us whole again.\u2019 ‘Okay, we\u2019ll make you whole. Now we\u2019re going to own your business.\u2019 I tell you, it\u2019s just — and we\u2019ve got a president here now who is facilitating this and making it happen. This is the most glaring and largest grab of the private sector by government ever. This dwarfs what FDR ever dreamed of.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I know, Rush. I wanted to tell you, I love your stimulus plan. It\u2019s the best.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that, Lois. I do.<\/p>\n

CALLER: (crosstalk) It\u2019s the only fair plan, and I\u2019m here. I\u2019m in Illinois, and I wanted to tell you that you and I are on the same page. I\u2019m rooting for Rod Blagojevich every day. I sit and I listen to these people say, ‘Oh, my taxes are so awful in Illinois.\u2019 (crosstalk)<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me tell you something about —<\/p>\n

CALLER: But they vote these same dogs in every year. And I want to say who is without sin up there to —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Testing.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — the first stone —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Testing, one, two, three. Lois, do you hear me?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Let me tell you something about Blagojevich.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes?<\/p>\n

RUSH: And this is another thing. Ninety-nine percent of the rest of you, by the end of this show I think you\u2019re going to think I need to be committed. Blagojevich is a smart guy. It\u2019s a shame this clown went into politics. He did a stupid thing, but he\u2019s playing this. ‘I was gonna nominate Oprah, but I didn\u2019t know if she\u2019d take my call\u2019? Oprah is more influential than a hundred senators? This guy, he\u2019s running around going on The View and he\u2019s saying the things that those airheads want to hear. He\u2019s a typical schemer. We need schemers like this in the private sector. We need these schemers screwing other people on our behalf, not screwing us. He just went in the wrong business. Lois, thanks for the call.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: These things, like harping on the John Thain office at Merrill Lynch or the corporate jet at Citibank, or the corporate jet at Starbucks or the auto companies, what in truth these things really are, are simply diversionary tactics to get people to stop talking about the trillions of waste in the bailout bill. That\u2019s why I, ladies and gentlemen, I\u2019m immune to these kinds of tricks. I am your highly trained broadcast specialist host, and I\u2019m combining both of these into one presentation as a teachable moment. At least I\u2019m trying to. I\u2019m trying to say that this jet business and the office redecoration are irrelevant to what\u2019s going on, are irrelevant to the trillions of dollars that the government is taking out of our economy and absorbing itself. <\/p>\n

Now, a lighthearted moment here. As you know, I tried to make a point about private sector stimulus with the Merrill Lynch office redecoration. Let me redo the point, because I have come under criticism for this on CNBC. I told Snerdley, ‘By the end of this day I\u2019m going to be in the upper one-tenth of 1% of popular thought in this country. I\u2019m going to have 99.9% of you thinking I\u2019ve gone off the deep end.\u2019 Basically, I just look at all the parameters, all the circumstances here. It was a year ago, before any bailout money, John Thain redecorates the executive suite, $1.2 million. It\u2019s learned last week that this happened so it\u2019s put in the context it was TARP money or bailout money. It wasn\u2019t. But they were in a plunge, they were in a crisis, so it opens the door, ‘Well, that\u2019s stupid, that\u2019s outrageous, these guys are just so self-absorbed, it\u2019s all about them,\u2019 and so forth. I said okay, let\u2019s look at it in context: $1.2 million, have to hire the contractor, the decorator, and you buy the furnishings, private sector stimulus. Somebody got paid for this, somebody got paid for their services in the private sector now when that needs to happen. What\u2019s the difference if Merrill Lynch or a bank, you know, if they had decided to loan all of that money to a bunch of people that were going to go out and invest in businesses. It\u2019s still private sector stimulus either way it happens. <\/p>\n

But, see, since they got bailout money, which was not used, it allowed Obama and Carl Levin to say, ‘Well, see, see, see, we don\u2019t want the money used this way,\u2019 and of course the American people, ‘Yeah, screw them,\u2019 and these guys, look, these Wall Street people, I\u2019m as infuriated as you are, but not for the same reasons. I am mad at them for not standing up when Congress ruined their businesses. I\u2019m mad at \u2019em for not standing up and saying, ‘No, we\u2019re not taking your money.\u2019 They thought they had an unholy alliance, they thought they were in the same club with these elected officials. A lot of these guys that are going down the tubes on Wall Street are Democrats being taken down by Democrats. And the Democrats are showing, ‘We\u2019ll take you down if it means votes for us. I don\u2019t care how much money you\u2019ve given us,\u2019 most of these execs on Wall Street we\u2019re talking about are high level liberal Democrats. They\u2019re going down the tubes and they\u2019re having their images destroyed by people they thought were on their team. So, okay, now, given that, here\u2019s a little clip, CNBC this morning on a show called The Call. New York Times\u2019 Andrew Ross Sorkin says to Charles Gasparino of CNBC, ‘That Thain office, that\u2019s not defensible. There\u2019s nothing defensible about it.\u2019<\/p>\n

GASPARINO: The two people who I love that defended that office, or one person I love is Rush Limbaugh, and he defended it on — purely like it was supply-side economics.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So Mr. Gasparino, big fan, apparently, CNBC, wait \u2019til he finds out what I said about the Citibank jet. (laughing) But I didn\u2019t defend that. Don\u2019t forget, the Citibank jet, that\u2019s a teachable moment. What I\u2019m saying is that I\u2019m livid at these guys for putting themselves in this position \u2019cause the jet doesn\u2019t mean diddly-squat compared to what\u2019s happening all around us. We\u2019re being distracted and diverted by this populist class envy stuff while our private sector is being eaten alive by federal government led now by Barack Obama and Democrats who want to absorb as much of the private sector as they can and they\u2019re doing it unabated, practically. Nobody is standing up and stopping them. You can get sidetracked, this jet business, and the bathroom business and the corporate exec business, but not here.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Rod Blagojevich would never have apologized for the jet. Rod Blagojevich would never have apologized like Thain did for redecorating his office for $1.2 million. Blagojevich would have said the jet and the office redecoration were stimulus for the economy. And the Democrats would have bought it. Blagojevich is telling these guys to stick it, even while they\u2019re playing tapes of him trying to sell a Senate seat. How can you not be amused by this?<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Play sound bite number 23. This is Charles Gasparino responding to a New York Times reporter on CNBC this morning about Merrill Lynch and their bathroom redecoration. <\/p>\n

(replaying of sound bite) <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not entirely true. Yeah, I gave a supply-side economics lesson there, but also, folks, the foundation for my philosophical reaction to the Merrill Lynch bathroom is freedom! Freedom! This was not bailout money that they used. Do you understand the degree to which freedom is under assault? When the federal government is usurping trillions of dollars from the private sector and absorbing it themselves, along with those trillions goes some freedom. I admire Charles Gasparino\u2019s work as well, but I hope he doesn\u2019t mean that he thinks that all corporations have to submit their proposed expenses to Obama and to Carl Levin and whoever else before they actually spend the money. But that\u2019s where we\u2019re headed and that\u2019s where we had a call from a citizen out in Aspen, ‘Yeah, I want to know where they\u2019re going to spend the money.\u2019 Look at what\u2019s happening here. The engine of freedom is being absorbed by the group of people who limit freedom, by definition, that\u2019s the government, Bill of Rights. <\/p>\n

You know, for the last few days in this country — and I\u2019ve tried to make these teachable moments — for the last few days we in this country have spent more time discussing the refurbishing of an office in Manhattan and the purchase of a private jet than we as a nation have discussed the responsibility of Barney Frank, who I just saw on television opposing tax cuts, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, Jamie Gorelick, and driving this nation into a housing and financial crisis. The people who have gotten us where we are are being ignored, they\u2019re being given a free ride, they\u2019re being made members of the new administration, including some who are tax cheats, have nanny problems and so forth, and nobody is focused on that. We\u2019re focused on a corporate jet; we\u2019re focused on bathroom redecorations and so forth. You ought to be more outraged by what\u2019s happening to your economy and your country than a corporate jet and a bathroom redecoration. <\/p>\n

And look at this, the Financial Times: ‘Thain Called to Testify on Merrill Bonuses.\u2019 They\u2019re going to bring him up here and they\u2019re going to flog this guy on paying bonuses. He might have done it with TARP money, I don\u2019t know. If he did, he deserves what he gets. This is what happens, folks, this is a teachable moment. When the federal government pays you to run your business, they run it, and if you do things to embarrass them, they\u2019re going to call you up and they\u2019re going to destroy you. This guy\u2019s name may as well be Robert Bork today. His name may as well be Clarence Thomas. This is what the Obama administration is about. This is what the left has been about in this country for as long as I\u2019ve been watching them, and that is destroying people who stand in their way of amassing federal power that is not theirs, and nobody cares. Nobody is standing up to oppose it. This is why Obama mentioned my name, to divert everybody from what he\u2019s doing. All these people saying, ‘Rush, Obama\u2019s scared of you.\u2019 He\u2019s not scared of me. He\u2019s the president of the United States. He\u2019s not scared of me at all. What he does know is I\u2019m probably a louder voice of opposition than he\u2019s got anywhere else, but to say he\u2019s scared, with one signature he could spell the end of this radio show and others as you\u2019ve come to know it, it may happen, who knows, down the line. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I want to warn you. My first item today is gonna infuriate you, and I don\u2019t expect very many people to understand my point of view on this. But that has never stopped me from telling you my point of view, and it\u2019s never stopped you from eventually realizing that I am right. Don\u2019t […]<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nA Teachable Moment: Bailouts, Authoritarians and Corporate Jets - 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\/2009\/01\/27\/a_teachable_moment_bailouts_authoritarians_and_corporate_jets2\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"A Teachable Moment: Bailouts, Authoritarians and Corporate Jets - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I want to warn you. 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