{"id":32551,"date":"2009-06-01T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:20:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:20:30","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:20:30","slug":"obama_claims_he_won_t_run_gm_then_explains_how_he_will_run_gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/06\/01\/obama_claims_he_won_t_run_gm_then_explains_how_he_will_run_gm\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Claims He Won\u2019t Run GM, Then Explains How He Will Run GM"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RUSH: I don\u2019t believe what I just heard except that I believe it. I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m hearing it spoken by a leader in the United States of America, but of course I have to believe it because I heard it. But I still don\u2019t believe it. I cannot believe it! The news was depressing enough today before Obama gets up to announce how he doesn\u2019t want to run General Motors as he lays out how he\u2019s going to run General Motors. Good grief, my friends — oh, ho-ho. Welcome to broadcast excellence hosted by me, Rush Limbaugh. Here we are on the EIB Network. Great to have you with us. The telephone number, 800-282-2882. Cookie, get me — and if nothing else, get me the last five minutes of what Obama said just now in his little announcement of the government taking over General Motors. I\u2019m going to paraphrase it, but I want you to hear it yourself. Man, oh, man, oh, man. Folks, he just told the adult generation today that your life is not going to improve before you die. He just said things are not going to improve before you die, that what we\u2019re doing today is your sacrifice for your children and your grandchildren, that there are going to be further plant closings, there are going to be further job losses, there are going to be further dealership closings. <\/p>\n

There is going to be a mess. We don\u2019t want to run General Motors, he says, while he spells out how it\u2019s going to be run. He was spelling out how now we\u2019re gonna move forward on building these little putt-putt cars. That\u2019s what General Motors and Chrysler are going to do and we in the federal government are going to boost our purchases to provide the impetus for these fuel economy cars. We\u2019re going to boost our fleet purchases here of these kinds of cars. Now, there\u2019s an interesting little aspect of this. General Motors makes these kinds of cars around the world. General Motors builds these cars in Europe. General Motors builds these cars in China and other places. This deal, from what I have been given to understand, will prevent General Motors from importing any of those cars that are made already overseas. They are going to have to be made here. Your choice in the kind of car you buy will soon be over. I can\u2019t wait for you to hear this quote when he details how much worse it\u2019s going to get and how we are all making a sacrifice for our kids and grandkids. Plants will close; jobs will be lost; dealerships will close. <\/p>\n

You know what this guy is doing? He is implementing his campaign agenda without regard for current economic circumstances. ABC\u2019s The Note today has an interesting little line as they were previewing this General Motors announcement today. It\u2019s written by Rick Klein: ‘Maybe an all-consuming Supreme Court fight wouldn\u2019t be that bad after all,\u2019 they say, for Obama. Remember, now, we\u2019re talking with I think all but official state-controlled media. Call it state-controlled, call it state-run, the media here is no different than the media Hugo Chavez has. So forget Drive-By Media. Forget mainstream media. It is now-state controlled media by their choice. The media is choosing to be controlled by the state, regardless how it happened it\u2019s state-run media. And so ABC\u2019s The Note here: ‘Maybe an all-consuming Supreme Court fight wouldn\u2019t be that bad after all,\u2019 to take attention away from this rotgut. <\/p>\n

‘What\u2019s filled the vacuum, as Judge Sonia Sotomayor hits the Hill this week, looks a lot like what President Obama doesn\u2019t want to be talking about. He never signed up to be in the auto business. His election was about ending the culture wars. The old divisions were supposed to fade away.\u2019 None of that\u2019s true. He never signed up to be in the auto business? If he didn\u2019t want to be in the auto business, he wouldn\u2019t have furthered more bailout money that\u2019s been thrown down the drain, he would have let them file for Chapter 11 way back when, before all this money was dumped and wasted. His election was about ending the culture wars? Just the exact opposite. His election was about creating and expanding wars between groups of Americans. The old divisions were supposed to fade away? The old divisions have never faded away. He is not a messiah, he is not a magician, he is a partisan liberal hack, which means that the old divisions are going to get sharper and have gotten sharper. They are not going to fade away. ‘The economic mess? He inherited it.\u2019 Maybe so. You gotta admit that he inherited some of this. But he\u2019s built on what he inherited. He has built on the mess. He is amplifying the mess, and he\u2019s doing it on purpose. <\/p>\n

This guy came into office with an agenda, a pure socialist agenda, and he\u2019s implementing it without regard for current economic circumstances. You don\u2019t raise taxes in a recession. You don\u2019t do anything he\u2019s doing in a recession. He\u2019s doing it because that\u2019s what he planned to do from the first days he read Saul Alinsky, from the first days at ACORN, from his first days as an activist, this is what he and his wife have been dreaming of doing, and they\u2019re going to do it regardless. The Heritage Foundation has a great post today. We\u2019re big believers in AskHeritage.org. It\u2019s well worth your becoming a member. You can do it for as little as 25 bucks. They\u2019re a think tank, lots of brilliant scholars writing on subject after subject. Here\u2019s a post today: ‘Government Motors is Not the Answer.\u2019 And here is a striking observation: ‘Despite claiming that the administration will not –‘ oh, he said this today. We\u2019re not going to be involved in any aspect of running this company except in major decisions. We\u2019re not going to be involved in running this company. You\u2019ve got to hear this whole thing. <\/p>\n

‘Despite claiming that the administration ‘will not interfere with or exert control over day-to-day company operations\u2019 it is instructive that this announcement is being made by the President, from the White House, and not by the company\u2019s CEO from either the company\u2019s Detroit headquarters or the New York bankruptcy court.\u2019 And they are exactly right in that observation. They\u2019re appointing a new board of directors. It\u2019s going to have United Auto Workers on it. ‘At midday today, President Barack Obama will announce details of his administration\u2019s $30.1 billion plan to restructure General Motors. Despite claiming that the administration ‘will not interfere with or exert control over day-to-day company operations\u2019 it is instructive that this announcement is being made by the President, from the White House, and not by the company\u2019s CEO from either the company\u2019s Detroit headquarters or the New York bankruptcy court. Since March of this year when the White House rejected GM\u2019s restructuring plan, their interventionist actions have spoken much louder than their hands-off rhetoric.\u2019 Amen. Heritage has it exactly right. <\/p>\n

He goes up and says we don\u2019t want to run it day to day and then spelled out how he\u2019s gonna run it. He told us the kind of cars they\u2019re going to make. He told us the kind of cars the government\u2019s going to buy to boost their fleet purchases to provide an impetus for everybody else buying little cars that nobody wants. ‘Just days after the White House informed GM that they were unhappy with the company\u2019s first restructuring plan, President Obama fired GM CEO Richard Wagoner.\u2019 A guy who has no desire to run the company, fires the CEO. ‘The payoff from Obama\u2019s handpicked replacement, current CEO Fritz Henderson, quickly became apparent when Henderson stood next to Obama in the Rose Garden and announced his support for the Obama administration\u2019s new fuel efficiency standards: ‘GM is fully committed to this new approach.” It\u2019s no accident that Obama rejected GM\u2019s restructuring plan. I want you to listen to a sound bite. It\u2019s gonna make you cry. Well, it may not make you cry, but it makes me cry — how right I was. How right I was. September 17th, 2008, I said this about government takeovers and how high the stakes were in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: We have automobile and aviation companies on the verge of bankruptcy or government ownership due to legislation and regulation in oil prices that could be half of what they are if Congress got out of the way. We are playing for keeps, folks. This is not just another election. Events have brought us to where the government has become so invested in the affairs of the private sector that the next president will determine if the private sector or the public sector is going to be calling the shots. Barack Obama is one of the people who could be making those decisions. Their enemies list is the private sector of this country where you work. Their enemy, all of their enemies, are your employers. You have it, you can see, side by side, A-B comparison, government runs mortgages, what happens? Government gets in charge and runs health care, what happens? Government gets in charge, fixes poverty, Great Society, what happens? Affirmative action, feminism, you talk about creating a meaner America? It\u2019s liberal policies that pit groups of Americans against one another, on purpose. There needs to be a cleansing of this process at some point, folks. Either we take control of events and address them now or events will take control with disastrous consequences, if not for us, surely the next generation or two. And all those people making these decisions today, the members of Congress and all that will be long gone, but your kids and grandkids will not.<\/p>\n

RUSH: September 17th last year. I warned you, and I\u2019m sure all of you in this audience or the vast majority of you in this audience listened. Here we go, GM permanently closing nine more plants, three more to be put on standby. It\u2019s the wrong Chyron, Fox and MSNBC. It is Obama permanently closing. Can we get this right for once? GM doesn\u2019t exist anymore. GM\u2019s in bankruptcy. This is Government Motors, this is Obama. He just told us more plants are going to close; more jobs are going to be lost; more dealerships shut down. Well, right now Fritz Henderson gets the dirty deed, he\u2019s the CEO, he gets to announce the closings. Obama got to announce all the wonderful things, the government\u2019s going to say this and say that, but here\u2019s the GM CEO Fritz Henderson now talking about all the new plant closings and all of the dealership shutdowns and all the jobs to be lost, he\u2019s detailing it. Obama forecast it, but he didn\u2019t give the bad news per se. He\u2019s leaving that to the GM guy. But this is all Obama\u2019s doing. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Obama, my friends, as I interpret him. I inherited this, I inherited that, everything going wrong is somebody else\u2019s fault, I inherited it. The majority of the good parts that I inherited I\u2019m going to give to the unions, and what you inherit from me, you won\u2019t be able to pay off for centuries, because I\u2019m leaving you with nothing, I\u2019m leaving you in debt. What you are inheriting from me is — and he believes this BS he is spewing — he believes it, folks, he\u2019s a true believer. That\u2019s what\u2019s so scary. He believes this stuff. All right. We have brief time-out. Well, one more. Audio sound bite two. It\u2019s very short, eight seconds. This is March 30th, two months ago, Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Let me be clear. The United States government has no interest in running GM. We have no intention of running GM.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That statement expired today because today Obama announced how he\u2019s running it. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, here are the Obama sound bites that I heard just prior to the program beginning. Here\u2019s the first of two.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: I will not pretend the hard times are over. Difficult days lie ahead. More jobs will be lost. More plants will close. More dealerships will shut their doors, and so will many parts suppliers. But I want you to know that what you\u2019re doing is making a sacrifice for the next generation, a sacrifice you may not have chose to make, but a sacrifice you are nevertheless called to make so that your children and all the — of our children can grow up in America that still makes things, that still builds cars, that still strives for a better future.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Strives for a better future? Strives for a better future while you tell people they have none? He just told us we have no future, particularly if you are at present in the automobile industry. You have no future. You have to sacrifice. You are being called on to sacrifice. Sorry. Sacrifice is being mandated upon you, and you must do it for your children and grandchildren so that they can ‘grow up in an America that still makes things, that still builds cars, that still strives for a better future.\u2019 My friends, Barack Obama now owns General Motors and Chrysler. Whatever happens to these companies down the road, Barack Obama owns it. He can no longer say he inherited the problems, because he\u2019s now telling these two companies how they\u2019re going to be run. Now, he\u2019s saying he\u2019s not doing that, but he is. He\u2019s dictating to them the kind of cars they\u2019re going to make. He\u2019s going to provide an impetus for everybody else to buy those cars by having the government fleet upgraded. They\u2019re going to buy these cars. Little tinfoil cars is what we\u2019re talking about here. So there you have it. Your future is bleak. You are now engaged in sacrificing for the future of your kids and your grandkids. Here\u2019s the second sound bite.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: As our autoworkers and auto communities pass through these difficult times, we as a nation must do our part. That\u2019s why in March I appointed Ed Montgomery, director of recovery for auto communities and workers. That\u2019s why two weeks ago Ed announced a green jobs training program for autoworkers in hard hit communities. And that\u2019s why last week Ed and Karen Mills, my Small Business Administration chief, traveled to Indiana to announce a new plan to provide loans to auto, RV, ask boat dealers to help finance floor plans. That\u2019s why we are accelerating the purchase of a federal fleet of cars to jump-start demand and give the industry a boost at a time when it needs one. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m calling on Congress to pass fleet modernization legislation that can provide a credit to consumers who turn in old cars and purchase cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars. These are important steps on the long road to overcoming a problem that didn\u2019t happen overnight and will not be solved overnight. I recognize that today\u2019s news carries a particular importance because it\u2019s not just any company we\u2019re talking\u2019 about. It\u2019s GM. It\u2019s a company that\u2019s not only been a source of income but a source of pride for generations of autoworkers and generations of Americans. While the GM of the future will be different from the GM of the past, I am absolutely confident that if well managed, a new GM will emerge that can provide a new generation of Americans with the chance to live out their dreams, that can outcompete automakers around the world and that can once again be an integral part of America\u2019s economic future.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Barack Obama — who has never run anything! Barack Obama has never been in charge of one single enterprise that had as its objective the making and earning of a profit. He has never, as a bureaucratic, as an activist, he has never had to care about profit. In fact, Barack Obama sneers at the whole concept of profit. Profit, to him, is stealing. A company profits only by raping consumers and suppliers. They should not profit! They should simply sell everything as a zero-sum game, at cost, and stay in business as service to mankind, which of course would mean that no business would survive. So the Barack Obama — of zero, zilch, nada private sector experience — has the audacity to say, ‘While the GM of the future will be different from the GM of the past, I\u2019m absolutely confident that if well managed, a new GM will emerge.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Hey, bud, you\u2019re managing it. You\u2019re in charge. Mr. President, if you didn\u2019t want people to think you\u2019re in charge, you shoulda not said a word today. The announcement shoulda come from Fritz Henderson, wherever he is, either at the bankruptcy law firm in New York, in court, or in Detroit. But he didn\u2019t make the announcement; you did. You spelled out the future of General Motors, now Henderson\u2019s been sent out there with all the details of the horror that is to come. You gave us the generalities, Mr. President. So a man who\u2019s never run a private sector business, who\u2019s never been challenged to show a profit, a man who sneers at the concept of profit, now lectures us on how well GM can do if it is run well and managed well. Meanwhile, all of you in the automobile business today suck it up, because your days of profitability and success are over. You now are sacrificing for your kids and your grandkids.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Three more audio sound bites from Obama and his General Motors press conference today. Here\u2019s the first of the three.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: These companies were facing a crisis decades in the making and having relied on loans from the previous administration, were asking for more. From the beginning, I made it clear that I would not put any more tax dollars on the line if it meant perpetuating the bad business decisions that had led these companies to seek help in the first place. I refused to let these companies become permanent wards of the state kept afloat on an endless supply of taxpayer money.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is like saying I don\u2019t want to litigate the last eight years and then continuing to litigate the last eight years. I don\u2019t want General Motors living as wards of the states. He wants us all living as wards of the state bottom line. Next bite. <\/p>\n

OBAMA: GM\u2019s management team, including its new CEO, Fritz Henderson, its interim chairman, Kent Kresa, and all of their colleagues has — have worked — has worked tirelessly to produce a plan that meets the strict standards I laid out at the beginning to streamline GM\u2019s brands —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a second.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — clean up GM\u2019s balance sheet — <\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a minute.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — and make it possible for GM to — <\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a minute.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — compete and succeed.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait a minute. He doesn\u2019t want run it, yet he talks about his handpicked CEO and his task force that did exactly as he told them to do. But he doesn\u2019t want to run it. He doesn\u2019t want them being wards of the state. The strict standards he laid out to streamline the brands and clean up the balance sheet — and he\u2019s never done this himself at any financial enterprise. He doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s talking about. Here\u2019s the last one.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: What we are not doing, what I have no interest in doing —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Remember what you just heard.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — is running GM. GM will be run by a private board of directors and management team with a track record in American manufacturing —<\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re dictating to them.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — commitment to innovation and quality.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re dictating to them.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: They, and not the government, will call the shots and make the decisions about how to turn this company around.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You just called the shots in the previous sound bite.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: The federal government will refrain from exercising its rights as a shareholder in all but the most fundamental corporate decisions. When a difficult decision has to be made on matters like where to open a new plant or what type of new car to make, the new GM, not the United States government, will make that decision.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s simply not true. He just contradicted that in the previous two sound bites. He\u2019s dictating the kind of cars they\u2019re going to make and the government\u2019s gonna buy the first fleet of them.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Fifty-four percent of the General Motors bondholders approved of this. That means that 46% did not, pretty close to the election returns. This is a huge number of people and institutions and investors that did not approve of this to whom it has been rammed down their throats, this forced bankruptcy by the government. And think of all the bailout money that was spent prior to this when everybody said at the get go just let \u2019em file Chapter 11, oh, no, can\u2019t do that, the warranties won\u2019t be honored, who would buy a car? Well, they\u2019re going to close 12 plants, they\u2019re going to close a bunch of factories, dealerships, but Obama\u2019s going to honor the warranties. Everything that coulda been done months ago is being done today except with the government in charge of it, not General Motors. Where are the news stories on all the little old ladies who got their clocks cleaned from this deal, all the people whose pension and retirements are invested, who got their clocks cleaned in this? Of course, the state-run media is not interested in any of that. The state-run media has no interest in any negative aspect of anything having to do with Obama, and if you remember nothing else, I want you to remember Obama saying this at the White House just prior to the show starting, it was a little bit after 12 noon Eastern time.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: I will not pretend the hard times are over. Difficult days lie ahead. More jobs will be lost. More plants will close. More dealerships will shut their doors, and so will many parts suppliers. But I want you to know that what you\u2019re doing is making a sacrifice for the next generation, a sacrifice you may not have chose to make, but a sacrifice you were nevertheless called to make so that your children and all of our children can grow up in an America that still makes things, that still builds cars, that still strives for a better future.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He\u2019s not just talking to automobile people here. He wants you to think that. He wants you to think he\u2019s just talking to people in the automotive industry, but he\u2019s talking to every one of us. I will not pretend the hard times are over. Difficult days lie ahead. More jobs will be lost. More plants will close. More dealerships will shut their doors. And so will many parts suppliers. But I want you to know that what you\u2019re doing is making a sacrifice for the next generation. Your future is zilch. Your future is not worth talking about because you don\u2019t really have one. And what you\u2019re doing by biting the bullet here and living in the poorhouse is making sure your children and grandchildren have a wonderful future. You want to try to tell me how that figures out? How does that result take place? So Obama used taxpayer money to buy General Motors, and essentially give it to the United Auto Workers. See, this is the dirty little secret. Obama is returning the nation\u2019s wealth to its rightful owners. We\u2019ve got an economy in collapse, and he\u2019s implementing his campaign agenda regardless. UAW is a political contributor and this is socialism. Barack Obama now owns the means of production and cronyism as well. <\/p>\n

The real interesting aspect of this is that part of this deal bans General Motors from importing small foreign cars to sell that they make overseas. You know what this is? You gotta ask yourself, Obama wants us all in these new little tinfoil cars. New green jobs to produce them, save the economy, save the country, save the planet, stop our carbon emissions, he wants us all in these worthless little Podunk cars, right? Well, these companies already make \u2019em. They make \u2019em overseas where people over there don\u2019t mind driving around in a bag of manure. But we can\u2019t import those cars. GM could sell \u2019em, but we can\u2019t import \u2019em. You know why? Because we have to protect manufacturing jobs as best we can. So this is protectionism, in addition to everything else. I don\u2019t care who you are, protectionism has never built and grown an economy. It never has. So we have, in one little ten-minute announcement today, we have protectionism, socialism, and cronyism. The trifecta for Barack Obama, political payoffs, protectionism makes sense to socialists; it\u2019s what they do. The White House kneecapped secured creditors on behalf of the UAW. <\/p>\n

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed months ago would have produced a General Motors that looks far, far different from the one you see today. Taxpayer money was used to occupy the private sector and pay off a political contributor. The reason that Obama went through with the automobile bailout is \u2019cause it put UAW in an ownership position and on the board. Wall Street Journal here: ‘The Administration\u2019s concessions to the UAW also restrict the company\u2019s ability to import smaller, more fuel-efficient cars that it already makes overseas. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger boasted on PBS\u2019s NewsHour last week that ‘we, quite frankly, put pressure on the White House, the [auto] task force, the corporation\u2019 to bar small-car imports from overseas. GM is also selling its Opel operation in Europe as part of this restructuring, and the Washington Post reports that one of Treasury\u2019s sale conditions is that Opel\u2019s new owners must stay out of the US, and even out of China, where GM\u2019s business is strong.\u2019 This is pure protectionism to protect people that voted for Obama and shaft everybody else. And it\u2019s not gonna work.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s that answer from Fritz Henderson, the acting CEO at General Motors. Obama is the CEO. This is in New York City at a news conference. An unidentified reporter asks Fritz Henderson: ‘President Obama has been very firm, really, talking about more fuel-efficient vehicles. Will there be pressure on you to come out with a new greener vehicle for the United States sooner?\u2019<\/p>\n

HENDERSON: We\u2019re planning our business assuming that economies, as they improve, well higher oil prices than we have today. I think it\u2019s a fair assumption. Uhhh, you have to make assumptions about your business but I think our view is that oil prices will trend higher. We learned one thing in 2008, and that is economic growth can drive sharp increases in oil prices. The consumer themselves have actually changed, but for example the mid-sized car segment here fuel economy, consumers are behaving as if fuel prices are higher than they actually are today. So I do think fuel economy will remain a key driver of the purchase decisions for consumers. So I think it\u2019s very important. I think the market will drive it, first of all. So I think our objectives, both as a firm, as well as to the market, are in alignment with what not only President Obama but I think most governments around the world would view the importance of having more fuel-efficient vehicles. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s unique simply to the United States.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t know about you, but I don\u2019t think he answered the question. He was asked if because of what Obama\u2019s doing they\u2019re going to have to make \u2019em sooner, and he gave market-related answers and the market doesn\u2019t matter anymore. That\u2019s the problem here. The market is not dictating the future of General Motors, despite how Fritz Henderson spoke here. Barack Obama is. But he didn\u2019t want to say anything negative about Obama. The question was a softball. ‘Are you going to have to start making these putt-putt cars sooner than you thought you would because Obama is making you?\u2019 YES, is the answer. You know what he also said in there? What he also said in there, in that answer, is the primary reason they are in trouble today is gasoline hitting four bucks. <\/p>\n

Everybody has forgotten that. But when the price of oil went to 120, 130 a barrel, and that sent gasoline up to four bucks, that was the tipping point, and that\u2019s when the bottom fell out. Not that they were healthy and rosy and everything else prior, and now he says people are still buying or not buying cars on the basis that gasoline is gonna again be four bucks. ‘And a growing economy…\u2019 Now, he also said this. ‘We know that a growing economy rises or raises oil prices.\u2019 Well, now, wait a second. It was just last year, wasn\u2019t it, a year ago that the oil price was trending upward to eventually maybe 150 a barrel on one day, but averaging around 120 to 130 and during that time we kept hearing what about the economy? That it was tanking. We kept hearing the economy was tanking a year ago. <\/p>\n

In fact, the US state-run media has been saying the economy\u2019s been tanking for six years. So was it a rising economy that brought about $4-a-gallon gasoline? If it was a rising economy, then people would have been able to afford it a little easier than they were able to. So Fritz Henderson says here, ‘Well, you know, people are still behaving as though gasoline is four bucks.\u2019 They\u2019re smart. It happened once; it could happen again. Most people can\u2019t understand an economic reason for it happening, and they start talking speculators and this sort of stuff and they think manipulation. They don\u2019t think market; they think manipulation. So the consumer thinks you can manipulate and get it to four bucks you can manipulate it again to get it to five. And look out, folks, because as desperate as Obama is to get you in pieces of junk that you would never otherwise buy, if you don\u2019t make the decision on your own to do it, steps will be taken where you have no choice, like higher gasoline prices.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Shazam. Shazam! The numbers just keep getting bigger. Now it\u2019s 14 plants that are going to close by 2011. Fourteen General Motors plants and three parts centers. So the bottom line here is, ‘The closures will reduce GM\u2019s US facilities to 33 from 47 by 2011, and between 18,000 and 20,000 workers will be affected.\u2019 Not only are these jobs ‘lost,\u2019 these are not jobs ‘saved,\u2019 Mr. President. And I don\u2019t want you to forget this, because Obama lied through his teeth today saying on numerous points at numerous times during his press conference that he had — his announcement; there was no press conference — that he had no interest in running General Motors, that the government wasn\u2019t going to run it. He didn\u2019t get in the car business, none of that, yada yada yada yada. But he said this.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: What we are not doing, what I have no interest in doing, is running GM.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Remember that.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: GM will be run by a private board of directors and management team with a track record in American manufacturing —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Appointed by you.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: — that reflects a commitment to innovation and quality.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: This, and not the government —<\/p>\n

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

RUSH: — will call the shots and make the decisions about how to turn this company around.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You heard that.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: The federal government will refrain from exercising its rights as a shareholder in all but the most fundamental corporate decisions.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Whaaa?<\/p>\n

OBAMA: When a difficult decision has to be made on matters — like where to open a new plant or what type of new car to make — the new GM, not the United States government, will make that decision.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He also said, ‘The government will refrain from exercising its rights as a shareholder in all but the most fundamental…\u2019 The most fundamental is all. In all but the most fundamental? He wants you to think we\u2019re barely going to be involved. What it really means is, ‘When it matters most, the federal government\u2019s going to be involved in running General Motors.\u2019 In all but the most fundamental decisions? The fundamentals are the most important decisions. The ‘fundamentals\u2019 are the most important of anything. So what he\u2019s saying is the exact opposite of the way it sounds. What he\u2019s saying is, ‘We\u2019re not going to get involved in minutia. I don\u2019t want to get involved in daily progress reports, but the fundamental decisions like what kind of cars we\u2019re going to make and where we\u2019re going to open dealerships. For example I\u2019m not going to let as many who didn\u2019t donate to me own a dealership, I\u2019m not going to let some Republican own a GM dealership who didn\u2019t contribute to my campaign!\u2019 That\u2019s what this means. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I don\u2019t believe what I just heard except that I believe it. I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m hearing it spoken by a leader in the United States of America, but of course I have to believe it because I heard it. But I still don\u2019t believe it. I cannot believe it! The news was depressing […]<\/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-32551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nObama Claims He Won't Run GM, Then Explains How He Will Run GM - 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:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/daily\/2009\/06\/01\/obama_claims_he_won_t_run_gm_then_explains_how_he_will_run_gm\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Obama Claims He Won't Run GM, Then Explains How He Will Run GM - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I don\u2019t believe what I just heard except that I believe it. 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