{"id":31757,"date":"2009-02-23T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:45:05","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:45:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:45:05","slug":"america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/","title":{"rendered":"America \u201909: Laid Off and Loving It"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Obama announced, by the way, this big deal coming up tomorrow night, is going to announce his tax increases, and folks, the wrong way to talk about this is Obama is going to raise taxes on the wealthy. That is the wrong way to talk about this, because what\u2019s going to happen is that the Bush tax cuts are going to be allowed to ‘perspire\u2019 in 2011, and that will move the current top marginal rate from 35 up to 39.6, effectively 40%, and this is on incomes over $250,000 a year. This is a massive, in the midst of a recession, tax increase on small business. It is not a tax on the wealthy. I mean it is, but it\u2019s gonna hit far many more small business people than it\u2019s going to hit the wealthy. And, by the way, these are the people that are going to do the hiring once the recession ends and we start coming back. But will the unemployed want to go back to work? Because I go back to the Boston Globe: ‘For Now, Laid Off and Loving It.\u2019 <\/p>\n

You want to hear some details from this story? ‘A few days after David Adler\u2019s wife decided to leave her law firm in December, he was laid off from his job designing software at Brightcove. It was shocking. And scary. Until it wasn\u2019t. Adler has quickly learned to appreciate some aspects of his unexpected unemployment.\u2019 Would you have ever seen this story just one year ago? Well, we didn\u2019t see this story during the Bush years. ‘The 42-year-old spends his days doting on his 6-month-old daughter, visiting museums with his family, and preparing for a possible exhibit of his photos at a local coffee shop in Dedham. Living off savings, unemployment, and severance packages, Adler knows he has to get a job eventually,\u2019 aw, it\u2019s too bad, isn\u2019t it, ‘and has started the search. But for now, he\u2019s cherishing every moment. ‘It\u2019s our first child and I love watching her grow,\u2019 Adler said. ‘And it\u2019s nice to have time off and get in touch with my old hobbies.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘As the ranks of the nation\u2019s unemployed grows, more Americans are facing the reality of life without work. Despite the grim task of making ends meet (firing the nanny, bailing on Whole Foods, applying for unemployment), there is a newly forming society of people who are making the best of being laid off. They are rediscovering hobbies. They are greeting kids at the school bus. They are remembering what daylight actually looks like.\u2019 (laughing) Yes. These are the people to whom we\u2019re extending benefits. Who do you think is going to pay for all these people to sit around and get in touch with their hobbies, go post their photographs at some coffee shop where you can\u2019t see the photographs because of the acrid smell of the doobies. And the massive layoffs by companies nationwide — nearly 600,000 jobs were lost last month — has helped remove the stigma and shame of being unemployed, according to John A. Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. ‘There\u2019s less of a ‘why aren\u2019t you working attitude\u2019 that is giving people some extra space.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘John Stephen Dwyer so far isn\u2019t missing his job or former office overlooking Chinatown. The 41-year-old Boston native was laid off in November from his $40,000-a-year job as education coordinator for the Clinical Research Graduate Program of Tufts University Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences.\u2019 Can I go through that again? The guy makes, or made, $40,000 a year as education coordinator. What is an education coordinator? Now, I know what a vision control coordinator is. A vision control coordinator is a window washer. I don\u2019t know what an education coordinator is. But anyway, he had that job for the clinical research graduate program of Tufts University\u2019s Sackler School of Biomedical Scientists, and ‘he hasn\u2019t seriously started looking for new work yet.\u2019 Douglas T. Hall, a professor at the Boston University School of Management, ‘It\u2019s the success syndrome. You work hard, you do well. It\u2019s very satisfying and that gets you more involved to start working even harder. It\u2019s a success spiral that people get into. And sometimes it takes some extreme experience to get out of that spiral.\u2019<\/p>\n

When did my success spiral begin? My success spiral began I\u2019d have to say in 1984 when I moved to Sacramento, and I have been in that success spiral, and the last thing I want to do is get out of it. (interruption) Hm-hm? Well, no, you go to the success spiral, but then when there\u2019s interruption in the success spiral, like when you get canned, then that\u2019s when you start posting your pictures at the local coffee shop, go out there take pictures, travel around, visit museums, read National Geographic, look at pictures of places you\u2019ll never visit either in person or in real life. Take the model train, put it in the basement, play around with the six-year-old, clean up the puke and the pabulum, all these things that you don\u2019t get to do, experience what daylight looks like, the sun, because you don\u2019t get to do that. Yes, laid off and loving it. <\/p>\n

Now, this is media cover for what\u2019s happening. There are so many people unemployed there\u2019s no stigma attached to it. So, anyway, the small business people who hire the newly happy unemployed are going to be soaked with a 40% tax — most small businesses file on their personal income tax return. Most of them are Subchapter S corporations, and they file on their personal return, their new rate will be in a couple years, 2011 or so will be 40%, smack-dab in the middle of a recession. This is disastrous, but don\u2019t call it a tax increase on the rich. It\u2019s not that. Small businesses of $250 grand and larger are not rich people. They\u2019re going to pay the brunt. And once again, what this all adds up to is you\u2019ve got a worldview of a bunch of people in this administration with a chip on their shoulder who look at the people who they think are rich, they think those people are rich because they have been unfair, they have stolen or they\u2019ve taken more of their share from the economic pie, that\u2019s why there are poor people and so the chip on the shoulder is going to lead us now to level the playing field by spreading as much misery equally as possible. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: To the phones. This is Pam in Boston. Thank you for waiting. You\u2019re up first.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you for taking my call.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes, madam.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I was glad to hear you bring national attention to that Boston Globe article.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Isn\u2019t that an amazing story?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Listen, I turned to my husband. I said, ‘If this was Bush, and these two professionals lost their jobs, we would be denying… You would see the kid in diapers. We would be denying them the chance to send their child to an exclusive private school. It would just be terrible.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, the sob stories would have been worse than that.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. Unreal.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But you\u2019re absolutely right. Oh, it would have been horrible.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What if the kid gets sick?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Exactly.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, instead we get these… Folks, if you missed it, the Boston Globe has a story on Boston-area professionals. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Front page.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s on the front page, the benefits of being unemployed.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes. And they\u2019re going to the museum and enjoying their family, and my husband turned to me and said, ‘Back in the day, when you asked for unemployment, you could not draw unless you proved to them that you were actively looking for another job. This guy\u2019s telling the world, he\u2019s going to museum, and loving his current utopia of not having to go to work.\u2019 It\u2019s just mind-blowing.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What it is is two things. It\u2019s the media trying to give cover —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Mmm-hmm. Oh, yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — for Obama, and, you know, Obama\u2019s got this big thing tomorrow night, and I guarantee you somehow, some way he\u2019s going to lay all this off on George W. Bush tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Not even a question.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yep. And so the media is giving him cover here on the unemployment story. There\u2019s also an attempt here to motivate and inspire the other unemployed reading this to do this same stuff and be happy.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Exactly. And he\u2019s even extended the benefits. So he\u2019s just writing his ticket for 2012 because all you have to do is sit home. We\u2019re going to take care of your mortgage. You can not have a job. We\u2019ll send you a check. Who isn\u2019t going to sign up to vote for this guy?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, at some point, Pam, there\u2019s going to be — and it\u2019s started, you know, the pulse.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Can we have that revolution? (laughs)<\/p>\n

RUSH: The pulse of revolution started last week. It did, with Rick Santelli, the Chicago Tea Party — <\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, that was great.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — and this mortgage business. The more stories like this get out, and when these tax increases hit —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I mean, the very people that these poor people at the Boston Globe story are going to have to go find a job from are be facing a massive 4% increase, up to 40% on their tax rate starting in 2011. And note that\u2019s right after the 2010 elections. That\u2019s why they\u2019re going to let the Bush tax cuts expire.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, it\u2019s a plan. There\u2019s no question. He has a plan. And it just gets harder and harder to walk out the door, to do the right thing, to pay your mortgage, because what is the point? We can all be like Henrietta and go to the meetings and cry out, ‘Please help me!\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, worry all targets. The achievers are the targets.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yep. If you\u2019re responsible, you\u2019re a sucker.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, no. It\u2019s worse than that. I really think that Obama and his community organizer people think this way.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I think they look at let\u2019s say an economic pie as a zero-sum game. That pie never gets bigger. That pie sometimes gets smaller, but it never, ever gets bigger, in their view. So if you have a small, relatively small number of people who are doing really well with pieces from that pie, and the others\u2019 pieces are very much smaller, the Obama people look at the people with the big pieces of pie as doing it unfairly. It\u2019s not right. There should be equitable equality in this, and so we\u2019re targets. It\u2019s not just that you\u2019re losers; you\u2019re targets now.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: People are gonna be told that they have to give back. It\u2019s redistribution. Redistribution. It\u2019s exactly what he told Joe the Plumber, except I firmly believe — and I\u2019m not even going to coat this in something sweet sounding. I think that there is an anger and a rage on the part of Obama and his wife and their legion —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, I agree.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — of friends —<\/p>\n

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

RUSH: — and I think there is a desire to punish the people they think have made life so tough for those who they think are suffering and have not won life\u2019s lottery. Some of the stuff that\u2019s being done here, everybody in the world knows from just historical example will do the opposite of what they\u2019re promising. I think it has to be on purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Obama announced, by the way, this big deal coming up tomorrow night, is going to announce his tax increases, and folks, the wrong way to talk about this is Obama is going to raise taxes on the wealthy. That is the wrong way to talk about this, because what\u2019s going to happen is that […]<\/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":"\nAmerica '09: Laid Off and Loving It - 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:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"America '09: Laid Off and Loving It - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Obama announced, by the way, this big deal coming up tomorrow night, is going to announce his tax increases, and folks, the wrong way to talk about this is Obama is going to raise taxes on the wealthy. That is the wrong way to talk about this, because what\u2019s going to happen is that […]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/01125107.Par.89380.ImageFile.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"description\":\"Excellence In Broadcasting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/01125107.Par.89380.ImageFile.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/01125107.Par.89380.ImageFile.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/\",\"name\":\"America '09: Laid Off and Loving It - The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-19T02:45:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-19T02:45:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"America \\u201909: Laid Off and Loving It\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"America '09: Laid Off and Loving It - The Rush Limbaugh Show","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_title":"America '09: Laid Off and Loving It - The Rush Limbaugh Show","twitter_description":"RUSH: Obama announced, by the way, this big deal coming up tomorrow night, is going to announce his tax increases, and folks, the wrong way to talk about this is Obama is going to raise taxes on the wealthy. That is the wrong way to talk about this, because what\u2019s going to happen is that […]","twitter_image":"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/01125107.Par.89380.ImageFile.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/","name":"The Rush Limbaugh Show","description":"Excellence In Broadcasting","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/01125107.Par.89380.ImageFile.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/01125107.Par.89380.ImageFile.jpg"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/","name":"America '09: Laid Off and Loving It - The Rush Limbaugh Show","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2011-05-19T02:45:05+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-19T02:45:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/23\/america_09_laid_off_and_loving_it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"America \u201909: Laid Off and Loving It"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/911066e449df26406b107ca78cbbde0b","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18195e0073013fa0e16b040686c2924?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}