{"id":36830,"date":"2010-11-12T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:20:28","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T00:20:28","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:20:28","slug":"the_daunting_task_of_seriously_cutting_the_size_of_government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2010\/11\/12\/the_daunting_task_of_seriously_cutting_the_size_of_government\/","title":{"rendered":"The Daunting Task of Seriously Cutting the Size of Government"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RUSH: I have said in the past that presidents don\u2019t go to summits unless they had deals already in place. How could this happen? Well, we\u2019re dealing with an entirely different animal. We\u2019re dealing here with a narcissist type ego who still thinks that just by showing up he\u2019s gonna get what he wants. I mean honest to Pete here, folks. Look, I have been doing some serious thinking about where we are in this moment after the election, especially since this deficit commission panel report has come out. It has focused my view on where we are, and if we\u2019re serious about returning this nation to its rightful owners, i.e., those who believe in liberty and freedom, we have a mountainous project ahead of us. And it really became clear as I went through all of the mishmash, the details of the deficit commission panel, as I said yesterday, the whole thing should be ignored. All it does is cement everything that\u2019s wrong in place, and that is the premise. <\/p>\n

For example, if we\u2019re really serious, and we must be, about reducing the size of government, we can\u2019t accept the notion that whatever was passed in the past is permanent and can\u2019t be removed, and that we can only tinker around the margins. ‘Well, Rush, you can\u2019t do anything about Social Security. I mean it\u2019s there, people expecting.\u2019 If that attitude is prevalent then we\u2019re never gonna really get to the meat of the problem. ‘Rush, you can\u2019t really cut the National Education Association. The teachers unions will go crazy.\u2019 Okay, if we can\u2019t, then we\u2019re forever gonna be piddling around the margins on this and never really get to the crux of what is wrong. And we\u2019re up against people who use government to create loyalty via pressure groups, constituencies, and this is gonna have to be addressed, too. It\u2019s not just an important fiscal matter. It\u2019s a matter of reestablishing the republic. <\/p>\n

The country was never set up and it was never envisioned to have one political party use the public trough as significantly as the Democrat Party has to cement itself in permanent power. The country was not set up for the Democrat Party to use federal tax revenues to buy off unions, to pay union pensions and all this, to buy car companies. That\u2019s not what this country was founded to do. We cannot keep funding public sector union campaign war chests. We are allowing tax revenues, income tax revenues to pay for the campaign war chests of unions and other groups. And on the other hand we\u2019re trying to slash government. But in the process we are funding, we are paying our opponents. We\u2019re paying unions. We are funding their operations and all these other left-wing special interest groups. Now, being serious about reducing the size of government is going to be a mammoth task that nobody\u2019s really even talking about now. I\u2019m not trying to be negative. I\u2019m trying to be, in fact, exactly the opposite. <\/p>\n

Now, Paul Ryan, I\u2019m happy as I can be that Paul Ryan and people like him are working on the numbers, and that is crucial. But there are broader issues than just the numbers. Strategies that have to be conceived relating to reasserting the Constitution, and chief among them we have to end the whole notion of tax dollars being redistributed to left-wing public interest groups: unions, ACORN, this kind of thing. If we don\u2019t do that, we\u2019re never gonna really get to the heart of the matter. These people are 20% of our population in any poll you look at, self-identified. But they are made to look more prominent because of where they are. They are in the media, they are in education, they\u2019re in academia, and they are propagandizing the youths of this country. From high school and junior high, grade school on, we\u2019ve all heard horror stories. Kids come home from school and we hear what their teachers are teaching them. And people are afraid to go to school and do anything about it \u2019cause it might affect the grade. They don\u2019t want to cause any trouble, don\u2019t want to make any waves and so forth. Meanwhile, kids aren\u2019t being taught. They\u2019re being propagandized. They\u2019re being indoctrinated and that\u2019s being done with your own tax dollars. <\/p>\n

The solution to it, many people say, ‘Okay, I want to get my kid out of the public education system. I want to go to private schools.\u2019 And guess who objects to that? The very people who run the public schools: the government, the unions. We tend to forget, but there was a voucher program of sorts in Washington right when Obama was immaculated, and it was aimed at low income, poor minority students being allowed to attend private schools, the likes of which Obama\u2019s kids go to and Algore\u2019s kids went to and Chelsea Clinton went to, and it was working. The test scores, the results of these urban kids were going through the roof and the education was being paid for via philanthropy. Obama\u2019s immaculated and cancels the program. It wasn\u2019t about education. It was about protecting his union buddies, and we all know this. I\u2019m not telling you anything you don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n

But if we\u2019re gonna be serious about slashing government and reducing its size and getting it out of people\u2019s lives, this is what we\u2019re going to have to attack. Not the deficit commission panel and their ideas. I mean that\u2019s just more of the same. As I said yesterday, this draft report, I don\u2019t care if the commissioners went out and did it without the knowledge of the other participants on the committee. I don\u2019t care if they did it to float a trial balloon. The point is it\u2019s nothing different than what\u2019s already in place now, just with different numbers. It accepts every premise that has been established, that has built government into the leviathan that it is. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me get into some of this in detail to give you an idea what I\u2019m talking about. Since the New Deal we have operated from the premise that whatever is in place stays, but we\u2019ll work around the edges. We\u2019ll try to streamline it, make it more efficient on the margins. If we are serious about reducing the size of government and returning the whole concept of freedom and liberty as founded, we need to go after the foundations of the left. We need to explain to the American people why they are destructive, why they are dangerous, why they spread poverty, why they spread illiteracy, how they destroy the American family. I do it all the time. We talk about a welfare program — I don\u2019t care what it is. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve railed a couple of times this week about the very thought of all of these supposed programs of compassion just bug me to no end because they destroy. They destroy humanity, they destroy people\u2019s dreams, they take away their initiative, creating this dependency all for the sake of one party\u2019s political power under the guise of helping people, when in fact it\u2019s destructive. They spread poverty. They spread illiteracy. They dumb people down on purpose. This is the kinds of thing that\u2019s going to have to be attacked. This is not a time… Since we\u2019ve won the election, this is not a time to pull back on engaging the public. Who is in charge? Is anybody? Who is in charge of breaking up the NEA? Who\u2019s in charge of breaking up the federal unions? <\/p>\n

Who is in charge of digging into the bureaucracy and slashing it? Who\u2019s in charge of developing a strategy for stopping the confirmation of liberal activists to the court? Who is in charge of eliminating the Internal Revenue Code and making the case for a flat tax or FairTax? Is there anybody on our side doing any of this? You, the American people, are way ahead of the politicians on this. This is what you are expecting. I will bet a dollar to a doughnut that many of you were expecting this kind of plan to be in place and implemented shortly after the election. I can quote you some of my own friends send me e-mails, ‘All right, Rush, tell me this is what they\u2019re gonna do,\u2019 and they had a laundry list.<\/p>\n

I wrote back and I said, ‘I\u2019m not aware that any of this is going to be undertaken.\u2019 So you are expecting this kind of thing, whether you\u2019re Tea Party or not. The victory on Tuesday, November 2nd, this is what it means to you, not just sit there and say, ‘Okay, we won, you lost, and we\u2019ll tinker around the margins here. We\u2019ll talk about the retirement age of Social Security.\u2019 That\u2019s not what you\u2019re talking about. That\u2019s not what you are expecting. If we allow the mission to be defined too narrowly and then get bogged down in the weeds — and I\u2019ll give you an example of that is earmarks. Earmarks is getting far more attention than it deserves. Earmarks were one of McCain\u2019s mantras. <\/p>\n

I mean, fine. If you can get rid of them, get rid of them. But it\u2019s not gonna do a damn thing to cut the size of government, to cut entitlements, to comply with the Constitution. Getting rid of earmarks distracts our attention. Why do you think Obama is so much in favor of the debate on earmarks and banning earmarks? They\u2019re just one part of what we have to deal with here. I don\u2019t think we should gear up all of our political capital to fight earmarks, which amounts to, what, a total of $15 billion? Instead of the focusing most of our efforts and resources on an education campaign at the vast array of issues and programs that really are dragging down the nation. <\/p>\n

I said the other day that one of the bad things about earmarks is that they are used as bribes, that in a sense they are anti-democratic and that we would not have had Obamacare without them — the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase and all that. But looked at another way (which I was forced to do) ask yourself this question. Why is it legitimate for a federal agency — and you pick it: EPA, Fish and Game, Fish and Wildlife, whatever, you picking it from the federal bureaucracy. Why is it legitimate for a federal agency to issue regulations that deny me the use of my property rights? <\/p>\n

Why is it legitimate for one of these federal agencies to impose costs, or even create programs outside of Congress, but when an elected congressman or Senator uses the legislative process to do the same thing, that\u2019s illegitimate? My point is that the result of earmarks are happening all the time from bureaucracies, EPA, these mandates that come down from Fish and Wildlife Service, how you can and can\u2019t use this area of a National Park, where you can and can\u2019t go in a National Park, or what kind of lightbulb you\u2019re gonna use. Some people raise a little hell about it, but not much. But when an elected official does the same thing via the legislative process, all hell breaks loose. Now, don\u2019t misunderstand me. I\u2019m just saying earmarks are a symbol, but reforming and getting rid of earmarks is not going to substantively reduce the size of government at all. <\/p>\n

The federal bureaucracy… I don\u2019t know how many people understand this. The federal bureaucracy is issuing grants for tens of billions of dollars to do all kinds of things. Look at what comes out of the National Endowment for the Arts. They\u2019re issuing grant money to left-wing liberal wackos to do whatever in the name of ‘art,\u2019 and all it is is moral corruption, perversion. So why should a Senator or congressman who can be thrown out by the voters not be able to do so and let his record stand or fall at the ballot box? You\u2019ve gotta be consistent about all of this. It doesn\u2019t mean I would do it. Don\u2019t misunderstand. I\u2019m not saying if it\u2019s okay for a bureaucracy to do it, it\u2019s okay for a congressman to do it. I don\u2019t agree with this. I\u2019m just illustrating a point. <\/p>\n

The issue is who decides, and how? Because whether it\u2019s earmarks or whether it\u2019s the legislative process or whether it comes from a bureaucracy, the fact of the matter is it still happens. The whole argument on earmarks has now become mythical. Maybe I\u2019m wasting my time with the counterpoint here. I just don\u2019t think we should be distracted by it. It\u2019s symbolic. There\u2019s a lot more to go after than earmarks. Now, I just think the left would love it if we spend all of our time on it. I think the left would go nuts. Obama is crazy for and would love for a debate on earmarks, and while we\u2019re debating earmarks they\u2019ll go out and continue to steal the country. Look at these czars, all these unelected people. We don\u2019t know what they\u2019re paid. Look at fiats. Look at the drilling ban in the Gulf, and look at the fraud and the hoax that that was. <\/p>\n

In fact, worse. They lied in letters and publications about what experts said about the drilling moratorium. That was a purely political mover that cost tens of thousands of jobs. The federal government owns 25% of the landmass of the United States, and it continues to grab more and more of it. Why? Where\u2019s the guy with the strategy to sell off a lot of that? Sell off government buildings, close \u2019em down, cut the federal bureaucracy by 20%, sunset every single independent agency, require Congress to reinstitute them, and on and on. You make sure that all of this is done in the light of day so people see how government is growing. But right now institutionalized liberalism is in the government. It\u2019s going to take a serious strategy to weed this stuff out. Just nibbling around the margins like the retirement age on Social Security or cutting defense here and there is playing their game. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, what I\u2019m saying is that we need to be the ones who move the debate. We need to be the ones who set the terms. It\u2019s totally out of hand. Obama ought not be able to dictate one dime\u2019s worth of spending. That has to come from Congress. The bureaucracy should not be able to dictate behavior. This is what the elected officials of this country are all about. In fact, you could even make the case that we don\u2019t even mess around with debate. Just do it. Just suggest a 10% budget cut. Make them defend all of this rotten stuff. Make them defend the health care bill. Send a veto bill up there every week. Cut federal taxes 10% across the board. Just do it. Issue a bill to eliminate the IRS, go to a flat tax, a FairTax. Just do it and make them defend it. <\/p>\n

Make them defend the status quo. Make them defend what it is that\u2019s gotten us into this debt. Make the left defend all of it. We don\u2019t debate \u2019em. It\u2019s pedal to the metal time here. This is what we talked about all leading up to the election. This is why it mattered. This is what the Tea Party was all about. We, the people, are way ahead of the politicians on this. All this talk about compromise, fine and dandy, compromise from our positions. We run the House of Representatives. That\u2019s the people\u2019s house. We propose — how about a 10% across the board income tax cut? Just every rate, every bracket right now, cut it by 10%. Make them defend this debt. Make them defend all of this corruption. Make the left defend all of the programs that have gotten us to near bankruptcy. Make them defend, make them come out and say, ‘Yes, we believe we ought to be able to take federal tax dollars and give it to the SEIU union thugs. We think federal revenues should be used to fund our community organizing groups, ACORN.\u2019 Make them say this. ‘But, Rush, but, Rush, it\u2019s so controversial, what are they going to say about us?\u2019 What haven\u2019t they said about us? <\/p>\n

We\u2019re either serious about it or we\u2019re not. But we set the terms of the debate. Suddenly the Bush tax levels have to be defended by the left. It\u2019s happened there. They\u2019re the ones out there doing the debate on this. We\u2019re the ones that want those tax cuts to continue and now it\u2019s Obama and Axelrod that can\u2019t get on the same page. Put them on defense and do it on every issue. We\u2019re showing how it can be done on the tax cut issue. It can be done on everything.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I think it\u2019s all fine and dandy that we\u2019re defending the Bush tax cuts, 2001, 2003. Let\u2019s go for more tax cuts. Let\u2019s cut tax further. We all know that\u2019s what\u2019s gotta be done to revive this economy. We can move the ball forward. Make them defend this stagnation, is all I\u2019m saying. The public voted for massive change. They did. It\u2019s time to do it.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Does anybody believe — seriously now — does anybody believe that we would end our existence, does anybody believe that we would cause massive pain, hunger, starvation with a 10% across the board budget cut, including defense? Does anybody believe we could not do that? How many of you have had to cut your budgets how many times over the course of your lives far more than 10%? And I think you\u2019re still alive, and I think you\u2019re still eating and I think you were able to then come back and replace it at some point because financial circumstances are always in flux and fluid. The simplest way to do this is the best way. You start nibbling around, ‘We\u2019re gonna cut 10% here, we\u2019re gonna eliminate there.\u2019 No, just cut everything 10%, including defense, cut everything across the board 10%. <\/p>\n

I know what\u2019s gonna happen. The teachers, the firemen, the policemen, all of these people are gonna raise holy hell. All the public employees gonna raise holy hell because they\u2019re not gonna see any cuts in the private sector. Well, there will be cuts in the private sector because how many people in the private sector are living off the public sector? Not just the public sector employees, but there are a lot of sponges that are living off of it. It is ridiculous to believe that we cannot cut 10% in every budget item, and once you do that and then people see that the earth doesn\u2019t end, the sky doesn\u2019t fall, then you can get even more serious about it. The private sector, by the way, has already been cut far more than 10% by the public sector. What do you think 17% unemployment is? What do you think left-wing economic policies have caused? Left-wing economic policies are causing great harm to the private sector of this country. Left-wing social policy is destroying the lives of everybody those policies touch. Left-wing Democrat Party, liberal, whatever you want to call it social policy is robbing every beneficiary of the opportunity to be all that he or she can be. And it\u2019s being done on purpose, to create dependence, to create incompetence, to create need. And the truly offensive part is the people doing this claim to be doing it out of compassion, when they are nothing more than destroyers. <\/p>\n

Look at the federal budget, the idea we can\u2019t cut 10%, the idea we can\u2019t go back to 2008 budget levels or the country would end? The country\u2019s on the way to ending the way we\u2019re going. We don\u2019t have the money we\u2019re spending anyway. All I\u2019m saying is if we\u2019re serious about this we\u2019re serious about it, and we gotta make this debate on our terms, the compromise have to be on our terms. You know something? Look at that deficit commission panel. In their introduction, the preamble, whatever you want to call it, it sounds like Reagan. They talk about simplifying the tax code, go down to three rates, three brackets, broaden the base and so forth. Exactly. Do it. Eliminate the IRS. Instead, why do we need 16,000 new IRS agents for Obamacare? Is that what we need? Do we want that? Do we want 16,000 new IRS agents or do we want to eliminate the IRS and institute a much simpler fair or flat tax. You can argue about what kind it is. There are people that believe FairTax is better than the flat tax or what have you, but simplification is the way to go. Make them defend this, is all I\u2019m saying. I don\u2019t see how we can lose if they are forced to defend this. <\/p>\n

Now, there are many people on our side, part of the ruling class, that are gonna end up having to defend it. When I say on our side, they are Republicans. But there is a left-wing shadow government that is running our lives in this country, and it\u2019s gotta be defunded and these people have to start fending for themselves. Everybody else fends for themselves. Why do these people not have to? How come so many people in this country get to feed off of us? Where is it written that because of their so-called good works, their philanthropic nature, why is it they get to feed off of us? Where is that written? It isn\u2019t. Make them feed themselves. Make them become self-feeders. Or better yet, we\u2019ll feed off of them for a while. Let \u2019em see how it feels. I\u2019m just saying, folks, if we\u2019re dead serious about this, this is what we\u2019re looking at. And it really isn\u2019t that hard. The UK is doing 10% across the board cuts now, France and Germany are soon gonna follow. Yeah, we might have riots and protests, but you see who\u2019s rioting and protesting. That\u2019s gonna happen anyway at the bare mention of cuts, even before they happen. But I have a whole different attitude about them. These protesters are protesting, in essence, for more freebies. I\u2019m happy for them to suffer pain. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m getting sick and tired of these people thinking they\u2019re entitled to feed off of everybody else, that they\u2019re entitled to a life of no charges and no costs simply because of — well, now, you may think that\u2019s cruel, but the people in this country who are not depending on everybody else to eat are experiencing pain of their own. They\u2019re losing their jobs; they\u2019re losing their freedom; they\u2019re losing their liberty because of people like these sponges and others. It\u2019s a sad thing, the sponges are being created by the Democrat Party and the American left. People are being born sponges. <\/p>\n

Look at this. This is Alan Fram, Associated Press. I predicted this. ‘People back Republican tax cut plans but not the GOP campaign to repeal President Barack Obama\u2019s health care overhaul, according to a poll suggesting that the Republicans\u2019 big Election Day win was not a mandate for the party\u2019s legislative wish list.\u2019 Did I not tell you you were gonna see this? That the election didn\u2019t mean what it means. The election doesn\u2019t mean what it meant. The American people do not want health care repealed. The American people do not want the budget downsized. The American people do want their tax cuts, and AP has come out with a poll and that\u2019s the headline: ‘Public Backs GOP on Taxes, Not Health.\u2019<\/line> <\/line>And then we go to TheHill.com: ‘Grassley: Health Repeal Will Die in Senate,\u2019 trying to depress us. ‘GOP Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa) admitted Wednesday that a full repeal of President Obama\u2019s healthcare law will die in the Senate.\u2019 Well, everybody knows that. That isn\u2019t news. That\u2019s not the point. We know it\u2019s gonna die in the Senate this year. But who\u2019s to say that it\u2019s gonna continue to die as we get closer to the 2012 elections? There is an ongoing effort by the interests on the left to make sure that the election results and returns are not about what they were about. There is an effort out there to convince as many people as possible that overturning and repealing health care was not what this election was about, when it most definitely was. ‘No, Mr. Limbaugh, no, Mr. Limbaugh,\u2019 says the New Castrati, ‘It\u2019s clear, Mr. Limbaugh, that the American people simply do not like the size of government, the deficit spending and they want to reduce –‘ and you can\u2019t fix any of that without getting rid of health care, Mr. New Castrati. They are inexorably linked. <\/line><\/p>\n

‘Speaking to Iowa radio station KCIM, [Grassley] conceded that Senate Republicans do not have the 60 votes necessary to force through a full repeal.\u2019 This is a nonstory, but here it is a headline, The Hill trying to make everybody depressed, think the Senate is selling you out, Senate Republicans selling you out trying to make Grassley look like a RINO, giving up already. ‘Grassley: Health Repeal Will Die in Senate.\u2019 It\u2019s a nonstory. We know it\u2019s gonna die in the Senate. We didn\u2019t win the Senate. That\u2019s not the point. The point is to make them defend it. Welfare reform died three times on Clinton\u2019s desk until the fourth time when it didn\u2019t, and we got it. These things can happen. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Starting in northern Virginia with Will. Great to have you, sir, and I appreciate your patience.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush, I\u2019d like to ask your opinion later on something separate from what I\u2019m calling about, if that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But to my point. You\u2019ve been talking about cutting government.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I worked for the federal government for ten years. I\u2019m a mid-level worker bee type.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You sound just like Harry Reid.<\/p>\n

CALLER: (snickers)<\/p>\n

RUSH: To me.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, as soon as —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Do me a favor, say, ‘This war is lost.\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: This war is lost.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You sound like Harry Reid to me. <\/p>\n

CALLER: (chuckles)<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know you\u2019re not. You just do. I didn\u2019t mean to interrupt you. Go ahead and make your point.<\/p>\n

CALLER: As soon as Obama took office —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah?<\/p>\n

CALLER: — there was announcement after announcement after announcement for about a good year for high-paying, high-level jobs. This is just at my agency here. We\u2019re talking about analyst types, IT types, program manager types. Our mission, our responsibility, our workload, nothing changed. We were getting along fine without these people.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait. Now, I want to make sure I understand. They were soliciting more employees, hiring more people?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, when I say announcement, that\u2019s the first step in the hiring process, and these people have now been hired.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But why were they announcing it to you who already had a job?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, they announce it like on USA Jobs. Any time a new job comes out they have to announce it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, okay. So what you\u2019re saying is as soon as he got into office he went on a federal hiring spree?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Big time. And like I said, they\u2019re always high-level type jobs. And these jobs you can\u2019t really account for what they do or what their productivity is. Unlike a guy like me, who you can. You know, there\u2019s a mechanism in place to track what we do and what our workload is. So basically what I\u2019m getting at is, some of the people in my type of positions — not so much me, but the newer people with less seniority — they\u2019re kinda worried because people are talking about, ‘Hey, let\u2019s cut government employees,\u2019 et cetera, and like I said there was just a flurry of hiring all these high level, high paying types.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But were they really doing any work, or is it just patronage-type stuff?<\/p>\n

CALLER: You know, from my level, we just kept looking at each other, like, ‘Why are they hiring all these new people for these high level jobs?\u2019 ‘Cause like I said we were getting along fine without \u2019em before Obama came in, and our mission didn\u2019t change, our workload didn\u2019t change, nothing. So our guys were thinking, you know, we need to look into any new position, especially the high level ones that were filled, not so much filling a vacancy when someone retired or left, but these were all just new — poof! — they just popped up out of nowhere, and there really isn\u2019t a need for \u2019em, in our perspective. We\u2019re trying to figure out why.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Of course not, from your perspective, but from Obama\u2019s. I\u2019m just reminded of the story, it backs up what you\u2019re saying, May 11th of this year, headline: ‘Obama Wants Federal Agencies to Hit the Gas on Hiring.\u2019 This is — this is even after the period of time where you saw it happening. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: This is exactly the kind of thing I\u2019ve been talking about in the first hour and a half of the program, how these people build up the size of government. Whether these new hires are doing anything or not, they are being paid and so their vested interest is to protect the government. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s patronage jobs. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s payoffs for campaign works and who knows who else. But it\u2019s probably… Did these people show up for work, did you ever see them?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I work in kind of a satellite office separate from headquarters where all these people are supposedly working. I went down there and actually for a conference, and there was a room full of them, and they were just kind of, you know, during this conference discussing things, but not really doing anything.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s anecdotal. I\u2019m sure some of them were no-show jobs, but this is how you build the size of government, pure and simple. There was no reason to hire these people. There couldn\u2019t possibly have been.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: James somewhere in Arizona, great to have you on Open Line Friday. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, how you doing, Rush?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Very well, thank you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You\u2019re the second person of all the people that I\u2019ve been wanting to talk to. You know who you come second to?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Who\u2019s that?<\/p>\n

CALLER: President Reagan.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, thank you very much.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes. Yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I appreciate that.<\/p>\n

CALLER: He made a fantastic impression on me in the eighties when I was a young Air Force trooper, and I gotta tell you, he made me proud to be American, and so do you. Anyway, getting to the idea of cutting back on the federal government, you know, I am an employee of such, and it\u2019s very frustrating to witness the waste that seems to be an inundation within this entity that we serve.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah. So you\u2019re saying you think it can be cut?<\/p>\n

CALLER: A lot of things can be eliminated. Not just cut, eliminated, which is why I didn\u2019t want to tell your screener who I am and have it announced nationally, but anyway, a lot of things can be cut. But I would recommend starting with a lot of the positions that have suddenly come about within the last year or two. I witnessed it, I see it, and it\u2019s just maddening. And quite frankly, I would go on record by saying I would be happy to have my pay frozen, but I would put this under a condition. If Congress enacts that, they need to freeze their own, too. They need to be the example of all of this stuff.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, more power to you. Ten percent across the board budget cut would include a 10% pay reduction, federal employees. These are the kind of things, if we\u2019re serious, that are going to have to happen. If we\u2019re not, then, you know, we just keep nibbling around the edges here in the margins and think we\u2019re going somewhere. It\u2019s gonna take a real concerted effort to do this, and there\u2019s going to be all kinds of caterwauling. There\u2019s going to be people screaming like stuck pigs over it, and that\u2019s when you have to have fortitude to stick to it, and a lot of people don\u2019t. The first signs of any pain (crying) people will cave and not want to be responsible for all that. People are just conditioned here in our country, there shouldn\u2019t be any suffering. That\u2019s understandable, but we\u2019re not talking about suffering here, we\u2019re talking about survival. Survival as we were founded what we\u2019re talking about. <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want to become a socialist country, and make no mistake about it, that\u2019s what Obama is. And they\u2019re going out of their way in this administration to do everything they can to cover that up. They don\u2019t want to be known as socialists. They try to impugn, laugh at and make fun of anybody who calls them that. And the reason they don\u2019t want to be called that is because it means something. A socialist is what a socialist is. It has a definite meaning, and it\u2019s not something they want to be thought of as. Obama didn\u2019t run as a socialist. He didn\u2019t run on a socialist agenda. He did let it slip out a couple of times. Joe the Plumber. ‘I think we need to spread the wealth around.\u2019 Look what happened. They had to go investigate Joe the Plumber and try to turn him into a kook because Obama misspoke. Well, that\u2019s exactly what we face and socialism is just a step down the road to something even worse. At some point we\u2019re gonna have to be serious about stopping and then going the other direction. It can be done. It\u2019s just a matter of are we gonna have to guts the stick with it once we start it.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s just one example — and there are countless examples like this — Planned Parenthood got $350 million in tax dollars in this fiscal year that ended June 30th, 2008, and the president of Planned Parenthood was paid $385,000 a year. That\u2019s all from your tax money. Why should Planned Parenthood be supported by you, and why should anybody earn 385 grand a year working there paid for by you?<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Susan in Jamaica, Virginia, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Oh, my goodness, I don\u2019t know what you had for breakfast this morning, but you are right on. And, as I recall, we had control of the federal government under Bush, and we all blew it. Not just Bush, with his book coming out, we got lazy, lackadaisical, and we have almost lost our country. I remember over the last couple of years you kept us going, kept our hopes up, kept us optimistic, and callers calling in almost in tears — well, some of them in tears — saying what can we do, Rush, what can we do other than vote? And it wasn\u2019t time to vote. And now we are almost back in the saddle and we have got their attention. And you are so right, we need to hammer them, hammer them with our words.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But we weren\u2019t able to reduce the size of government even under Reagan, so we\u2019re gonna have to try another approach. This is not to criticize Reagan. This is to illustrate how challenging it is. Look, in our own party, Susan, there are going to be Republicans who want us to think that they\u2019re serious when they\u2019re not about this. <\/p>\n

CALLER: I know. I know. But no matter how small we, or our idea or our comment or our support, we have just got to tell our representatives, and I don\u2019t mean just one, I mean we need to tell all of them. We need to set the agenda, like you said.<\/p>\n

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

CALLER: We need to set the debate.<\/p>\n

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

CALLER: We need to support their actions.<\/p>\n

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

CALLER: And we need to over-shout the media, the Drive-By Media with our voices. And, Rush, can I tell you something else since it\u2019s Open Line Friday?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, go ahead. Go ahead. (laughing)<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I wanted to tell you that over the last couple years, when I heard all those callers calling in that were speaking from my heart that were saying, ‘What can we do? What can we do?\u2019 Well, somewhere along the line you planted an idea in my head, and I started a website to help make a breeze out of writing to our representatives and you can write all our representatives one letter. I\u2019ve designed the whole thing. Can I tell you what it is?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Sure, by all means.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay. It\u2019s called the99centslobby.com. I wasn\u2019t gonna call you today, but, oh, my God, you just spoke to my heart.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Isn\u2019t it funny how that happens?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I wasn\u2019t gonna call you and tell you about it, I was gonna write you and not call you, but honestly, we have got to tell them. And I was at a fundraiser for my local congressman, and he spoke to the people, and he doesn\u2019t even know about the idea yet, but he said, ‘You have got to tell us what you want us to do. We have got to know that you\u2019re behind us.\u2019 And maybe that was just trying to drum up support —<\/p>\n

RUSH: I have a little problem with that. Wait a second. I have a little problem with that. After this election you\u2019ve got an elected official saying we need to tell him what to do? We need to let him know we\u2019ve got his back?<\/p>\n

CALLER: It was before the election.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh.<\/p>\n

CALLER: It was before the election. But I think we need to tell them what we want cut, we need to give them ideas. On our website you can write to just Republicans if you want to, you can write to one person or almost 600.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But we need to tell them whether we use that —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — or just regular e-mail or we sit down and write \u2019em a card, we need to tell them.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. I appreciate the call, Susan. Thank you el mucho. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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