{"id":36972,"date":"2010-11-30T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:15:38","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T00:15:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:15:38","slug":"ap_there_will_be_no_christmas_without_unemployment_extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2010\/11\/30\/ap_there_will_be_no_christmas_without_unemployment_extension\/","title":{"rendered":"AP: There Will Be No Christmas Without Unemployment Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: FYI, if we don\u2019t extend unemployment benefits, this country will be over. It\u2019s a worse circumstance than 2008; we needed to do the TARP bailout or else the world financial system was over. I\u2019m not kidding you, it\u2019s in the AP today — we don\u2019t extend unemployment benefits, there won\u2019t be Christmas. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Do you ever…? Folks, do you ever look around and see people getting older and you don\u2019t think it\u2019s happening to you, but you see it in everybody else? It\u2019s something that happens. It\u2019s just weird, and sometimes you see people acting older even when they don\u2019t look older. I don\u2019t feel a day older than when I started this program 23 years ago. Well, it\u2019s just weird. Anyway, here\u2019s this AP story: ‘If Congress lets unemployment benefits expire this week for the long-term unemployed, they won\u2019t be the only ones to feel the pain. The overall economy would suffer, too. Unemployment benefits help drive the economy…\u2019 You know what this is? This is a fax. This is a fax. It\u2019s either from Pelosi and the White House and AP just ran it. <\/p>\n

I think this is a fax from some Democrat and they\u2019re just repeating it. I have heard all of this. I have heard this from Pelosi. Listen to this: ‘Unemployment benefits help drive the economy because the jobless tend to spend every dollar they get, pumping cash into businesses. A cut-off of aid for millions of people unemployed for more than six months could squeeze a fragile economy, analysts say. Among the consequences they envision over the next year\u2019 if the benefits aren\u2019t extended. ‘Annual economic growth could fall by one half to nearly 1 percentage point. Up to 1 million more people could lose their jobs. Hundreds of thousands would fall into poverty. ”Look for homelessness to rise and food lines to get longer as we approach Christmas if the situation can\u2019t be resolved,\u2019 says Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. … <\/p>\n

‘That money ripples through the economy, into supermarkets, gasoline stations, utilities, convenience stores. That allows those businesses to hire more people, who, in turn, spend more money.\u2019 No. There\u2019s no history to prove that this works. If it did, we would not have an economic problem. The answer to this would be: Everybody just quit their job and go on unemployment. If unemployment compensation benefits were the way to stimulate economic growth, then why would anybody work? Look, I know. This is easily nuked. This is not the point. The point is the AP printed a fax. This is a fax. I\u2019m telling you, folks, this is talking points from some Democrat, either in the White House or Nancy Pelosi\u2019s office or whatever. <\/p>\n

She said this in almost these exact words: These unemployment extension benefits have gotta continue because it propels the economy. She said something like for every dollar of unemployment benefits there\u2019s $1.39 benefit in spending in the economy. ”If you\u2019ve been unemployed for six months, you\u2019ve gone through your savings,\u2019 says Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute. ‘You have no choice but to spend (benefits) immediately.\u2019 By contrast, money given to higher-income families — say, through tax cuts…\u2019 (sighs) I tell you, my gaskets are not going to hold today. They are not gonna hold. Nobody is ‘given\u2019 money with a tax cut. Money does not start in Washington! It\u2019s not there and then Washington gives it to people!<\/p>\n

This is… Well, it\u2019s lame, it\u2019s stupid, and it\u2019s insult. Let me read this whole thing. ‘By contrast, money given to higher-income families — say, through tax cuts…\u2019 Really? People go out and work, right? Let\u2019s say somebody earns a hundred grand a year, and their taxes take away $30,000, so they net $70,000 — and then we get a tax cut. So the government, according to this idiocy, says, ‘Okay, we\u2019re gonna give you a tax cut, so we\u2019re gonna send you 5,000 additional dollars at the end of the year. We\u2019re gonna give you $5,000.\u2019 That\u2019s not what happens! (shouting) What happens is that less money is taken from them at the time they earn it! Sorry for yelling. I can\u2019t help it here. ‘By contrast, money given to higher-income families — say, through tax cuts — tends to deliver less economic benefit because those taxpayers typically save a big chunk of their windfall.\u2019 <\/p>\n

No, they don\u2019t because the next story is all about how the savings rate stinks! (groans) I mean, the absolute, abject ignorance in this story. Is there one more excerpt that I want to read? Oh, yes. ‘For most recipients, the average $300 weekly unemployment check doesn\u2019t go very far: It covers just half of basic household expenses, according to the National Employment Law Project.\u2019 The theory is they\u2019re gonna spend it all. Okay, but where do they get it? This is so rudimentary. My dog would understand this after one lesson. I wouldn\u2019t have to re-teach this. My dog would understand this in one lesson! Here it is very simply: The American people who are working pay taxes, that money goes to Washington, and people who lose their jobs get unemployment benefits. <\/p>\n

Where does that money come from? <\/p>\n

That money comes from people who are still working, and from the businesses that hire them and fired them. So the unemployment check that they get takes AWAY from people already working. There\u2019s not a net addition of dollars added to the economy because people are out of work. It\u2019s just the exact opposite. All we\u2019re talking about here is a transfer of money from people who work, so they end up with less, to people who aren\u2019t working so they have some. It\u2019s a wash. There\u2019s no new money in the economy. There\u2019s no economic growth taking place. A different group of people are doing the spending — and all the while, everybody is getting poorer! It\u2019s simple. That\u2019s it. <\/p>\n

But, no, not to listen to this stupid story from the embarrassing AP. I mean, it\u2019s so stupid, I don\u2019t know how to explain it to you. Let me try here on the fly, as AP views the world. The government is in Washington with a giant stash of money. Benevolent Democrats decide who will earn what, and at the end of every month benevolent Democrats send some people a hundred thousand dollars, $10,000, $5,000, $20,000 — and the government sends some people $2 million a year because you realize that no matter what you earn the government is giving it to you. That\u2019s how you get it! It\u2019s coming from the government. And then you can get even more if you can convince the government to give you a tax cut. <\/p>\n

At that point, somebody like Tim Geithner is gonna get your name on a list and say, ‘This person just got a tax cut,\u2019 and Geithner is gonna say, ‘Okay, I\u2019m gonna write them an additional $5,000 check next month and I\u2019m gonna send it to \u2019em.\u2019 But then we get to the people who are unemployed and, for some reason, they don\u2019t have any money \u2019cause the government somehow forgot about \u2019em. People aren\u2019t working, they lost their jobs, and so they have nothing. Somebody\u2019s gotta send Geithner a note, ‘Hey, guess what? Enos Slobodnik here just got fired at Walmart and now he\u2019s got nothing.\u2019 Geithner says, ‘Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll send him some money.\u2019<\/p>\n

‘And the money we send Enos Slobodnik is gonna be far more valuable to him \u2019cause he doesn\u2019t have any, and he\u2019s gonna spend it all,\u2019 and, voila! We\u2019ve got massive economic activity. Well, while we\u2019re doing this we can\u2019t send any more money to other people out there because it isn\u2019t fair, because there are other people that don\u2019t have any. Therefore, the people that we\u2019re giving X we\u2019re not gonna give any more to but the unemployed we\u2019re gonna give them some. So we\u2019re gonna take from our stash over here and we\u2019re gonna give to these people, and therefore we\u2019re gonna pump an additional $300 a week per person into the economy from our stash here at the Treasury — and therefore we\u2019re gonna have economic activity. <\/p>\n

The AP doesn\u2019t think to ask, ‘Mr. Geithner, where does that stash from?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Well, that\u2019s the government\u2019s stash. Everybody knows that.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Yeah, but Mr. Geithner, where do you get it? I mean, you have that pile of money here and you\u2019re giving Bill Gates — for some reason, I don\u2019t know — $48 million a year, and you\u2019re giving somebody else $150,000. Okay, I don\u2019t know why you\u2019re doing this but you\u2019re giving all these different amounts of money. Where\u2019s that money coming from, Mr. Geithner?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Well, we print that money.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Oh, is that where it\u2019s coming from? That\u2019s the money? Okay, so Bill Gates has his money \u2019cause he\u2019s getting it from you? Warren Buffett? Everything Warren Buffett has is because somebody in government decided to give it to him all these years?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Well, yeah. That\u2019s how it works.\u2019 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m saying even my dog would understand that\u2019s not how it works because that stash of money, none of it exists until somebody earns it — and that happens by virtue of somebody willing to pay it to somebody for the work that they\u2019re doing. Well, anyway, there you have it. If we don\u2019t extend these benefits there won\u2019t be a Christmas, and there might not be a country. (chuckles) This is one of those days I just wish I had not even awakened. Honest to God, I wish I hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I have not had one class in economics since high school in the 1960s — not one — and I understand more about this through my own self-education than these wizards at the AP. And I\u2019m still convinced they just repeated it. They just printed a fax from Pelosi\u2019s office or whatever. You know, if I didn\u2019t have a stronger constitution I would look at a story like this and say, ‘You know what? It isn\u2019t worth the time. I\u2019ve made my score; I\u2019m outta here. I\u2019m an utter failure.\u2019 After 23 years and we still get trash like this in our major, #1 wire service. I guarantee you whoever wrote this story is an absolute, abject ignoramus. I don\u2019t know about you, folks, but I don\u2019t like being surrounded by stupidity. <\/p>\n

I just don\u2019t. I used to suffer fools pretty well, but I don\u2019t anymore. I just… (interruption) Well, I don\u2019t know. It is entertaining. (chuckles) I just got a note from somebody watching on the Dittocam: ‘This is hilarious, Rush! Why, I\u2019m rolling on the floor laughing myself silly here watching you explain where libs think money comes from.\u2019 (laughing) It may be funny to listen to but, folks, this is worse than depressing. We\u2019re talking about the country here. You put this in the same show with these sound bites of Boehner and Cantor today after meeting with The One? ‘He loved us. He really loved us!\u2019 <\/p>\n

God, save us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: FYI, if we don\u2019t extend unemployment benefits, this country will be over. It\u2019s a worse circumstance than 2008; we needed to do the TARP bailout or else the world financial system was over. I\u2019m not kidding you, it\u2019s in the AP today — we don\u2019t extend unemployment benefits, there won\u2019t be Christmas. 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