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<\/p>\nRUSH: This is David in Reno. You\u2019re up first today, sir. Great to have you. Hello.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hello, Rush. How are you?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Good, sir.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I want to give you a few dittos. Let me preface here real quick, um, just to get (unintelligible). I was told to hurry up. But anyways, I\u2019m a 61-year-old white male that did not vote for Trump, but I am a conservative. To be honest, I did not vote for anybody. You\u2019re the only one that\u2019s ever gotten me to vote about 20 years ago. The first time I voted was for President Bush. When he lied about the taxes, I took my name off the list and never voted since then.<\/p>\n
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As a born-again Christian, I hear you all the time advertising about the rich. And, to be honest, Rush, I\u2019m sick and tired of hearing about the rich. The way I understand it, I can look at all the top 3% or 4% of the people. The rich ones did not pay any taxes, unless you can correct me on that. From Bezos, all those guys did not pay any taxes. They\u2019re trillion-dollar companies — and, I\u2019ll tell you what.<\/p>\n
As far as a Christian\u2019s concerned… I\u2019m a contractor. I could turn my company into a multimillion-dollar business if I hustled and worked real hard. But, to be honest, I don\u2019t because I don\u2019t need a lot of money. I need enough money to get by. I know what the Bible says about scripture, about the rich man that came over to God and asked how to get in the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What is the real beef here? What? I want to be able to respond to you. What is the real complaint you\u2019ve got here with me?<\/p>\n
CALLER: (garbled)<\/p>\n
RUSH: It says you\u2019re tired of me defending the rich?<\/p>\n
CALLER: The rich don\u2019t pay. The top ones don\u2019t pay. If you want to do a flat tax across the board to make equal across everybody to pay… Look, if you\u2019re worth $50 billion and you pay $1 billion in taxes, big deal. My main point is, Rush, is how many houses, how many cars do you guys need? You can\u2019t take the rich —<\/p>\n
RUSH: As many as somebody wants if they\u2019ve earned the money to buy them! It\u2019s none of your business or mine how many homes they want or need, just like it\u2019s none of their business what we think of it. They\u2019re not gonna give a rat\u2019s rear end what we think of them, either. The idea that the rich don\u2019t pay any taxes? Try living in a capitalist society without them and see how far anybody gets.<\/p>\n
I have no problem defending the rich whatsoever, but not as a character reference. I\u2019m not defending rich people on the basis of their character. I actually think most of them — well, I can\u2019t say “most.” I can point to two or three (and I have) how in many ways literally ignorant and stupid they are. Bloomberg is at the top of the list, and he\u2019s proved it. The one thing about the rich is they fall into this business behind the money that they don\u2019t have to be interesting.<\/p>\n
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They don\u2019t have to be charismatic. They don\u2019t have to be… They\u2019re just rich. But in terms of their value to the economy, it\u2019s so much more than whatever they pay in taxes. I\u2019m gonna tell you, the rich and everybody is gonna do much more brilliant and wise things with their own money than the government is gonna do after they take it from somebody. Ah, damn it, now… I\u2019m gonna roll here and I have to stop because I\u2019m out of time. But you have lit a fire here, sir.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Here we go to Walla Walla, Washington. Craig, glad you waited, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, thank you for taking my call, Rush. Every day I hear you on here it makes me feel good that you\u2019re still on the air. One thing I want to bring up, is you were talking about the wages that people get, you know, take a million dollars. What people don\u2019t realize, if you got a million dollars, if everybody got a million dollars, who\u2019s gonna go to work at McDonald\u2019s for 15 dollars an hour? They\u2019re gonna have to start paying them a lot more and that million dollars is not gonna be worth nothing.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah. Those are very valid points you\u2019re making — and, by the way, I appreciate your opening comment. I feel better when I\u2019m here too. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Everything\u2019s just normal when I\u2019m here. And so I\u2019m very appreciative of you saying that. But your point is that there are incentives that are built into our system that help people learn and grow and expand and achieve and succeed and this kind of thing.<\/p>\n
And if you gave you everybody a million dollars, who would do any work? Who would get anything done? And if you gave everybody a million dollars, how many of the people that you give a million dollars to would be broke in six weeks? Take a look your average lottery winner and see what happens to \u2019em. You could write a book or a movie about the disaster that happens to a lot of those people.<\/p>\n
Having a lot of money, it requires, in order to spend it, invest it, to have it, to use it wisely requires some experience, some understanding, some knowledge. It\u2019s not all just about self-indulgence. I mean, the first thing any responsible person, I mean, if you give somebody a million bucks, the way that you would, I think, first judge whether or not you\u2019ve given it to somebody responsible is, “Okay, what are you gonna do with it?” And if they start telling you the things they\u2019re gonna buy, you\u2019ve made a mistake.<\/p>\n
But if they start telling you how they\u2019re going to learn how to preserve it and grow it, why, then you\u2019ve maybe made a good decision. But, you know, we had this guy call an hour ago, said he was tired of me defending the rich. How many houses does somebody need? How many cars does somebody need? These people are not paying their fair share of taxes and all that. But he was tired of me defending the rich.<\/p>\n
Now, I will admit that over the course of the many years of this program I have defended the rich. I defend anybody who I think is unfairly assaulted and attacked and targeted. And the rich do not defend themselves because it\u2019s so unseemly. The rich sit out there and they just take it. In fact, the rich, many of them actually say things they don\u2019t believe in order to keep the hordes with the pitchforks away from \u2019em.<\/p>\n
Oh, yeah. You have these rich guys claiming, “Yeah, I\u2019m not paying enough taxes. I need to be paying more. I\u2019m for tax increases on the rich.” They don\u2019t mean it \u2019cause they\u2019re not paying more. I mean, they could write a check any time they wanted to. That\u2019s just designed to keep the hordes away from \u2019em. It\u2019s the way the Kennedys did it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the way Bill Gates and Buffett do it. Constantly talk about how unfair it is that they\u2019re not paying enough taxes. Their secretaries are paying a higher tax rate than they are. It\u2019s all bogus, it\u2019s all a crock. But they do that because it\u2019s good PR. Keeps people from trying to swim across the moats that they have at their castles.<\/p>\n
But the rich, you know, whether they pay their fair share of taxes or not, why is that a determining — if you look at the good that the rich do for the country, for a culture, for the society, I think you could make a case that the way they spend their money themselves is far more productive for the country than whatever they pay in taxes.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: There are a couple of philosophies that I have developed and evolved over the course of my life. One of them is that (it\u2019s not really a philosophy; it\u2019s a realization) success is nothing like I thought it would be. I have a framed saying that Kathryn put at a place in the house where I can\u2019t miss it. I see it every day, and it says, “Remember, you used to dream about being exactly where you are today,” and that is a…<\/p>\n
That\u2019s very grounding. That\u2019s something to constantly keep in mind, because everybody complains. I mean, some do it loudly. Some do it constantly. I don\u2019t complain much because I don\u2019t think anybody would listen. And, frankly, I don\u2019t know how to respond when other people complain. So I don\u2019t complain about anything. If I\u2019ve got a headache, I don\u2019t tell anybody.<\/p>\n
If I\u2019ve got a stomachache, if I have nausea, I don\u2019t tell anybody. Whatever it is, I just deal with it. Whatever\u2019s gonna happen, whatever is happening, I\u2019ll get over it. It gets better. Sickness, whatever, you get over it — and I know people that complain all the time about everything, and I don\u2019t know how to deal with \u2019em. I literally don\u2019t know what they\u2019re asking me to do.<\/p>\n
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I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re just venting or if they\u2019re looking to me to fix it or if they\u2019re looking for something comforting or what. I don\u2019t know how to deal with it, and because I don\u2019t know how to deal with it, I don\u2019t want to put people in that position, so I don\u2019t want to complain. But like everybody, I could. But then could I? Do I really have anything to complain about? Relatively, no.<\/p>\n
But, yeah, \u2019cause everybody\u2019s got things that are going wrong or could go better no matter what else they have going on in their lives. But that little phrase, “Remember, you used to dream about being exactly where you are today.” That\u2019s very grounding. The other thing that goes right along with it is that success is nothing like I thought it would be, and the reason I mentioned that \u2019cause is because we talked about, “Okay, let\u2019s start giving away a million dollars.<\/p>\n
“What would you do with it if you got it?” It\u2019s fun to start thinking about it, but you\u2019d be amazed at the number of people who you give them a million dollars and pfft! Say they win the lottery, whatever. If it\u2019s something they\u2019re given or receive, it\u2019s gonna be gone in a really short period of time. If there\u2019s no work involved in producing it, if there\u2019s no pride of ownership involved in the earning of it, then it\u2019s just…<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not gonna have the same value. But my thing on the rich and wealth is, folks, the worst thing in the world that you can do is resent and envy people who have more than you do or have things you wish you had and don\u2019t, \u2019cause it\u2019s not gonna help you get it. Envy and resentment are not, unless you can find a way to turn those two things into motivation. But they\u2019re not real good motivation.<\/p>\n
You know, it\u2019s like we all have been mistreated in life. We\u2019ve all been thought of as failures at various jobs. We\u2019ve all been told, “You\u2019re not gonna make it. You don\u2019t have what it takes. You\u2019re not…” We\u2019ve all been told this, and there are some people who it really bugged, it really bothered \u2019em, and becomes a motivation. They want to succeed just to show those people. Well, that\u2019s not good, either.<\/p>\n
Because when you do succeed, those people are not even gonna be around you. You\u2019re gonna have left them in the dust; they\u2019re gonna be somewhere in an entirely different part of the country, most likely, and you\u2019re not gonna be able to see them react to your success. If you did, they would not give you the satisfaction. They would say, “So sorry I was wrong. I never thought you could make it, and I still think you\u2019re a creep.”<\/p>\n
You\u2019re never gonna get the satisfaction of people owning up and admitting that they were wrong about you. You just have to have confidence and take it as an article of faith. You know, “Success is the best revenge.” That\u2019s another popular philosophical phrase, and it is. But the numbers of people that are ever gonna actually tell you they were wrong, actually gonna ask for your forgiveness or apologize? It\u2019s not gonna happen.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re just gonna have to take it as an article of faith that you have skunked \u2019em. But if that\u2019s your only motivation, you\u2019re not gonna be happy until those people somehow signal to you that they were wrong, and they\u2019re never gonna do that. So you\u2019re never gonna be happy if that\u2019s your primary motivation. It can be a part of your motivation. Everybody needs different things to motivate them and to spur them forward.<\/p>\n
But if that\u2019s the sole reason why you\u2019re trying to do something — to show other people or to show other people up — you\u2019re never gonna be satisfied because they\u2019re never gonna give you that satisfaction. You may never even meet them again. I mean, half the people… Ninety percent of the people that told me I would never succeed in this business, I\u2019ve never seen since they told me that.<\/p>\n
I have no idea what they think. I don\u2019t care what they think. It doesn\u2019t matter what they think, and it\u2019s the same thing when you start envying anybody who has more than you, be it they have a dollar more than you do, if they have 50,000 more or millions more. If you start envying that, you\u2019re setting yourself up for all kinds of disappointment.<\/p>\n
Because even if you do have the secret resentment of, you know, guy down the street\u2019s got a lot more than you do and you think he\u2019s a schlub, absolute dreg of a human being, you\u2019re gonna show him. Someday you end up with a bigger house and nicer car, and that guy? He may not ever know it or care, and you\u2019re left with, “Gee, is this all there is?”<\/p>\n
So the motivation for wanting to succeed has gotta be far more substantive, has gotta be rooted in actual accomplishment. That\u2019s where the real self-satisfaction comes in, or the opportunity for it. But you know what you\u2019ll find in that case? The more you see… You\u2019ve heard people say, “How much money do you need? How many more houses does somebody need?”<\/p>\n
(chuckles) You\u2019ll find that no matter how much you\u2019ve got, it may never be enough because all kinds of new fears come up, like who\u2019s gonna come try to take it away from you? Or what politician\u2019s gonna come up with a wealth tax to try to take it away from you? So as your circumstances change, things that you never even thought of change along with them. Like when you\u2019re sitting there making…<\/p>\n
I\u2019m gonna make up some numbers here. You\u2019re $100,000 and imagining having $10 million. I guarantee you that you cannot possibly conceive of the things you would think about when you have $10 million when you\u2019re only sitting there with $100,000. You just can\u2019t. You can dream all you want about what you would do with $10 million, but there\u2019s a period of time it\u2019s gonna take you to get there.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re not gonna go from $100,000 to $10 million overnight unless you win the lottery, and then you\u2019ve got a whole different set of problems. But if it\u2019s the result of work, hard work — and you\u2019ve earned it and it\u2019s legitimate — you\u2019re never gonna feel guilty about it. You\u2019re never gonna feel like you have to make excuses for it, and you\u2019re never gonna feel like it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n
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You\u2019re never gonna feel like you have too much. You\u2019re never gonna feel like you have more than your share if it\u2019s genuinely the result of hard work in something that\u2019s uber-competitive. It\u2019s just the way it is. Now let\u2019s talk about the rich and taxes versus the… Let\u2019s use Bezos just as an example here, \u2019cause he\u2019s recent. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/650-060717-Amazon-Bezos.jpg\")
How you gonna do that? “We\u2019re gonna raise their taxes. We\u2019re gonna raise Bezos\u2019 taxes, that\u2019s what we\u2019re gonna do.” Really? That\u2019s gonna improve your life how? You\u2019re sitting out there making a hundred thousand. Bezos has just bought $165 million-dollar house, his taxes are gonna go up. You think Bezos is gonna say, “Oh, my gosh. I wish I hadn\u2019t bought that house \u2019cause the guy across the street is only making a hundred thousand. He\u2019s mad at me.” You think he cares? It doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/p>\n