{"id":37693,"date":"2011-03-09T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T23:57:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-18T23:57:53","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T23:57:53","slug":"obama_s_america_a_welfare_state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/03\/09\/obama_s_america_a_welfare_state\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s America: A Welfare State"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RUSH: A story from CNBC. This really bothers me. It bothers me. It tugs at my heart. It bothers me I can\u2019t tell you how much. ‘Handouts…\u2019 This headline alone: ‘Government Handouts,\u2019 welfare, whatever you want to call it, ‘Make Up One-Third of US Wages.\u2019 One-third! Of course we\u2019re really not talking ‘wages,\u2019 but I understand the use of the word in this story and in the headline. One-third of us don\u2019t earn anything. One-third of us live totally on handouts. One-third of our great country lives on handouts — and even this story, at the end, says it really isn\u2019t that bad. It could be worse. It could be like Europe. <\/p>\n

This is rotten. This stinks.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: ‘Government payouts — including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance — make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn\u2019t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.\u2019 Now, we had that chart, we put it up on the website last week, and we showed the three biggest entitlements in this country. We all know Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, but unemployment compensation? The payment of unemployment benefits is almost as high as Social Security in this country. Folks, we are not going to survive as a nation, not the way we\u2019ve been founded, with this kind of sloth and laziness and feeding at the public trough. <\/p>\n

It just cannot happen. And to even call this ‘wages\u2019 — I\u2019m actually kinda glad they did because it points out how ludicrous this is and how dangerous it is. ‘Handouts,\u2019 handouts, the redistribution of wealth ‘makes up one-third of U.S. wages.\u2019 Social welfare spending has increased three and a half times since 1960. We declared war on poverty, and it\u2019s given us this. We declared war on poverty, and what do we have? Thirty-five percent of our people living on the dole! Thirty-five percent of American citizens living on ‘handouts,\u2019 and where are the handouts coming from? Their fellow citizens. That\u2019s what\u2019s never talked about here. It\u2019s all, ‘Oh, it comes from the government, Mr. Limbaugh.\u2019<\/p>\n

It comes from their neighbors! It comes from fellow citizens! This is intolerable. How did we ever survive before? How did this nation get along? How did the people in this country get by before the great War on Poverty declared by Lyndon Johnson? How did it happen? How come we\u2019re always told we can\u2019t afford any war — we can\u2019t afford Vietnam, we can\u2019t afford Iraq, we can\u2019t afford Afghanistan — but we always have plenty of money for the War on Poverty? And look what it has done to us! ‘Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data.\u2019<\/p>\n

In other words, social welfare spending has increased 3-1\/2 times since 1960. Unsustainable. How did we ever get by before all this? How did anybody ever survive? ”The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,\u2019 said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients.\u2019 Government economy? Thirty-five percent of the American public ‘has become alarmingly dependent on\u2019 its neighbors! ”Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits.” No kidding! But not according to Nancy Pelosi and Austan Goolsbee. <\/line> <\/line> Pelosi and Goolsbee say that this unemployment compensation generates a buck and a half return for every dollar-of-benefits. It\u2019s an out-and-out lie. (interruption) No! This makes me so mad because we\u2019re destroying people\u2019s lives. Snerdley, that\u2019s why it makes me mad! One-third of the people of this country are being denied their full opportunity to reach their own potential — and this is on purpose. This is a direct result of liberalism, the Democrat Party: Create as much dependence as possible. And it\u2019s increasing. Cloward-Piven, I don\u2019t care what you want to call it: Put so much stress on the system, the system eventually implodes because it\u2019s not capable. Thirty-five percent. <\/line> <\/line> What happens if the payments stop? (interruption) Riots happen. Exactly right. Riots happen if the payments stop. Riots and who knows whatever the hell else happens (with the full support, by the way, of the Democrat Party and the American left who are responsible for this boondoggle). So, ‘The economist\u2019 here, Madeline Schnapp, ‘gives the country two stark choices. In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, ‘either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion,\u2019 she said. … <\/line> <\/line><\/a>‘Social welfare benefits have increased by $514 billion over the last two years, according to TrimTabs figures, in part because of measures implemented to fight the financial crisis,\u2019 and measures implemented to buy votes, frankly. But then there\u2019s this, and this is the kicker — and this is from, again, Madeleine Schnapp: ‘At the very least, we can take solace in the fact that we\u2019re not quite at the state welfare levels of Europe. In the U.K., social welfare benefits make up 44 percent of wages and salaries, according to TrimTabs\u2019 Schnapp,\u2019 and that\u2019s right where we\u2019re headed, by design, and the big secret is that Europe\u2019s going the other way. <\/line> <\/line> They\u2019ve reached the point of tipping. They cannot sustain it. They are cutting back benefits. They\u2019re cutting back tuitions. They\u2019re getting the riots! We\u2019re getting mini-versions of riots in Wisconsin. They\u2019re coming to Ohio. They\u2019re coming to Indiana. Europe is going the opposite direction. They have realized they can\u2019t sustain it anymore. Europe is trying to get rid of its version of Obamacare, but we have Obamacare yet to fully implement. All the other goodies that Obama is handing out from his ‘stash,\u2019 that number is gonna hit 44% before you can say ‘social justice!\u2019 (interruption) Yes, it infuriates me. It infuriates me for these people. (interruption) <\/line> <\/line> No, I\u2019m not so much mad at them. I mean, that\u2019s a waste of time getting mad at them. Sure, some of the 35% are general born freeloaders (every society is gonna have some of those), but a lot of these people have been manufactured. They\u2019ve been created. A lot of people think this is what they are due as Americans, that this is their entitlement. They haven\u2019t been taught the founding. They haven\u2019t been taught industriousness. They haven\u2019t been taught self-reliance. All that stuff\u2019s sneered at. They haven\u2019t been taught the beauty of work and achievement, accomplishment, and self-esteem that way. Folks, this is a crime. There\u2019s not very much could make me cry but this could. This to me is totally unacceptable. <\/line> <\/line> I saw this yesterday and I said, ‘I just…\u2019 I mean it\u2019s something that you instinctively know. We all know there\u2019s a lot of welfare. We all know that Democrat Party is promoting it. We all know that, but to see one-third — one-third! — of what we would all consider salaries, ‘wages,\u2019 is welfare checks? I don\u2019t care what you call it, ‘unemployment compensation,\u2019 I don\u2019t care. It\u2019s welfare checks! It\u2019s the redistribution of wealth, pure and simple. The idea that this is desired and being done on purpose by an entire political party in this country?<\/line> <\/line> Then you realize the Democrats want more people dependent on government, dependent on them so they can keep their phony baloney jobs. Now the… the… (interruption) Yeah, the preferred politically correct term is ‘income transfers.\u2019 BS! It\u2019s welfare. My friends, I\u2019m just gonna tell you here: When you have, in the budget pie on the expenditure side, ‘unemployment compensation\u2019 as an entitlement? It\u2019s there. It\u2019s listed as an entitlement, and it costs as much as Social Security. (snorts) Whoa! At least with Social Security there is the ruse, there is the illusion that people have contributed to some of it. You gonna pay people 99 weeks not to work or longer, guess what? They\u2019re not gonna work. Pure and simple. <\/line> <\/line> I gotta take a break. We\u2019ll do that, we\u2019ll get back in a jiffy before you know it.<\/line><\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, yeah, I know it\u2019s depressing, folks. I mean some people are so lazy that they will only be unemployed if they\u2019re paid to be unemployed. I mean that\u2019s where we\u2019re headed. They\u2019re only gonna be unemployed if they\u2019re paid to be, and they\u2019re gonna expect some kind of entitlement. Yeah, the worse you tell \u2019em the economy is the more evidence they think they have for not even trying to find a job, but they still have to eat and live and it\u2019s somebody\u2019s responsibility, it\u2019s not theirs. It\u2019s the Wall Street guys, it\u2019s the rich, it\u2019s Big Oil. I mean this is the result of what the Democrat rhetoric has been all these years. You know, if unemployment checks would stop, some people, not all, would be so incensed at being expected to sit around the house for nothing they\u2019d probably do something about it, either protest like in Greece or Wisconsin or maybe they\u2019d even go get a job. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s Bob in Glenwood, Illinois. Bob, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello, Mr. Limbaugh. How are you, sir?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Fine, sir. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Long-time listener. And I just want to say it\u2019s an honor to speak with you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Appreciate that, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I have a question for you. You know, I\u2019m kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. I\u2019ve been a conservative all my life.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Hm-hm.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I don\u2019t agree with the welfare state —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — of our country.<\/p>\n

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

CALLER: I ran into a little bit of an issue a few years ago when I got some severe cancer and battled it for a couple years. I\u2019m cancer free right now, but unfortunately I cannot work and I had to go on disability.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And I was just wondering, you know, like I say I\u2019m kinda in conflict with myself because —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, you\u2019re not. You\u2019re in conflict with me and what I just said. Let me ask you a question.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, no, sir, I\u2019ve always been told that, you know, tax money and this and that goes to, in case anything like this comes up —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, you have a disability, right?<\/p>\n

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

RUSH: You can\u2019t work, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, sir.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Do you think I actually think you ought to be denied stuff?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, sir.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. I don\u2019t think that. I\u2019m not talking about people like you, but there are people who fudge this disability business. I had a story not long ago about a bunch of drunks —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Sir, that\u2019s what I mean, that\u2019s what I mean. I agree.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — in jail getting disability payments because they were alcoholics.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, sir, I agree with that, sir. But, you know, I want our country to survive, and, you know, I just don\u2019t know where we can get —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, we are a compassionate country. There is not a person in this country that does not want somebody who cannot provide for themselves to go empty. There\u2019s not a person in the world who wants that. You don\u2019t fall under the headline definition freeloader or what have you. And if you\u2019re bothered by it, it\u2019s life. A lot of things affect a lot of people. But we\u2019re not talking about you. And you are not the majority of that 35% on the dole anyway. You\u2019re a small percentage of it. You\u2019re not the problem we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: The share of US population receiving Social Security disability insurance benefits is rising, and it is rising rapidly, but it\u2019s got a long way to go to get to 35%. Details are coming up plus the other two hours. Who knows what they hold.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here you go from the National Bureau of Economic Research, and this is a bunch of leftists who decide when it is recessions begin and when they end. Keep in mind that these are the clowns that told us the recession actually started back during the Bush years when it didn\u2019t. Anyway, according to this bunch of leftists, the share of the US population receiving Social Security disability insurance — SSDI — has risen rapidly over the past 20 years from 2.2% of adults, 25-64, that was in 1985, 4.1% of adults, 25-64, in 2005. Disabled workers make up more than 15% of those receiving Social Security. That\u2019s the bottom-line figure. The most important factor is the liberalization of the disability screening process, and this occurred due to a 1984 law. This law directed the Social Security Administration to place more weight on applicants\u2019 reported pain and discomfort, relax their screening of mental illness, consider applicants with multiple non-severe ailments and give more credence to medical evidence provided by the applicant\u2019s doctor. <\/p>\n

So there is, we must say, there is a working system. There\u2019s a system for people to get on disability insurance, Social Security. There\u2019s a pathway. It\u2019s been spelled out, sort of like the Americans with Disability Act itself which has allowed a lot of people to jump on the dole. Sorry to say it, folks, but that\u2019s the case. And it just irritates me, and again, the reason why this irritates me is above and beyond the fact that it\u2019s not sustainable. Remember when I defined conservatism during my CPAC speech? I said we conservatives love everybody. We want everybody to be great. We want everybody to be happy and content. We want everybody to have a shot. We want everybody to have unfettered opportunity at their version of the American dream. We don\u2019t define the American dream as welfare. We want people to be productive; to experience all that life can offer. <\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll tell you, it just grates on me that we are in a war with a political party that does not share that view of people, and furthermore, that that party somehow has been able to claim the mantle of compassion. They\u2019re the ones that everybody thinks care about everybody. And it\u2019s the exact opposite. They\u2019re dooming people to lives of abject misery, all for their own benefit, the politicians\u2019 benefit. It just really grates on me. This is not in any way a foundation for a great country. This is building a foundation for tearing down a great country, tearing it apart, pure and simple. This waste of humanity, this utter waste of human potential in the freest country ever to exist, it just makes me sick. It just does. We sit here and talk about nothing\u2019s real. One-third, 35%, one-third — (interruption) what is being done to them is a waste. I didn\u2019t call \u2019em waste. Their lives are being wasted. It\u2019s a damn shame. <\/p>\n

We all only get one life. We get one life. We conservatives want people to maximize it. It\u2019s just one. There\u2019s only one and you don\u2019t get yesterday back. Whatever happened yesterday happened. You don\u2019t get do-overs. And they all add up. One day your life is over. And look what we have consigned one-third of our people to, basically a life of servitude, indentured or otherwise. Now, this is not how it\u2019s supposed to be. We have more opportunity for human achievement, accomplishment, greatness in this country than anywhere the world has ever known. And we have a political system which has relegated 35% of our population to circumstances where they will likely never know what awaits them, what they\u2019ve been cheated out of or what they\u2019re going to miss or what have you. So it\u2019s just a shame. I\u2019m sorry. I take it personally. This stuff does grate on me. <\/p>\n

If I were a presidential candidate, this would be issue number one. National security, of course, but if you really care about people, if you really want the best for \u2019em, you cannot look at this statistic and be tolerable of it. And to know that there are people who are not only tolerant of it but are encouraging it and are attempting to feed off of it, benefit from it themselves, it makes me even angrier. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Mark in Marshall, Texas, as we go back to the phones. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Glad to talk to you.<\/p>\n

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

CALLER: I guess I had one point I wanted clarification on and then I had a quick question. You were talking earlier — and I don\u2019t care, I don\u2019t know what you call Social Security. You were kind of lumping people that were drawing Social Security that had worked all their life paying into Social Security into the same group of people who were drawing unemployment and other, uh, free handouts, and I just kind of took offense to that a little bit —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, that\u2019s not what I said.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — because I worked all my life since I was 13 years old.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, that\u2019s not what I said. What I said the unemployment compensation, the cost of paying it —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah?<\/p>\n

RUSH: — is almost as much as Social Security.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, Social —<\/p>\n

CALLER: You know, I\u2019ve worked all my life, and I worked for a government — in fact, a local government; and, knock on wood, we\u2019ve had a balanced budget for 21 years that I\u2019ve been there. I wish the Feds could say that.<\/p>\n

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

CALLER: But I guess my question was — and this is total different than what we were just talking about; I guess I just misunderstood what you were saying earlier about Social Security, because I feel like it is an ‘entitlement\u2019 in a sense because I feel like I am ‘entitled\u2019 to it. <\/p>\n

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

CALLER: I paid into it all these years. Unfortunately —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that\u2019s not what the definition of an entitlement is —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — from the budget-writers\u2019 standpoint.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But you\u2019re saying it\u2019s yours. You paid into it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, I understand that.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And don\u2019t… I hate the way the government… I mean, I\u2019m as conservative as they come. I feel like, ‘You don\u2019t work, you don\u2019t eat,\u2019 you know? Or you eat dirt or whatever, you know? But if you can\u2019t — you know, like the guy earlier that was disabled — I feel like it\u2019s our obligation, almost, to take care of people like that. But my question, I guess, was on the unemployment issue. Whenever they figure the unemployment, do they actually get the number of people who have exceeded it, even though it\u2019s now 99 weeks? I mean, I know there\u2019s people out there that have drawn unemployment for 99 weeks (I can\u2019t believe that, but they do) and they go past that point, are they still counted in those numbers, in the unemployment rate?<\/p>\n

RUSH: It depends. After a certain passage of time people are simply ‘dropped ‘from the category of unemployed, and there\u2019s a category ‘unemployed but not looking for work anymore,\u2019 and that number is the U-6 figure. The monthly unemployment number that we get from the federal categorization is called the U-3 (U dash 3) number. Right now that number is 8.9%; and that number does not include the numbers of people who have simply given up trying to find a job after who knows how long. We assume it\u2019s 99 weeks, but we don\u2019t know. We can\u2019t find out. We do not know how they know who has stopped looking for work. <\/p>\n

They don\u2019t tell us this. They just assume that after unemployment benefits have run out, people stop looking for work, I guess. So we really don\u2019t know. But the U-6 unemployment number that includes people who are out of work and no longer looking is about 17 or 18%, not 8.9%. Now, I want to go back to this ‘entitlement\u2019 versus unemployed, Social Security, and so forth and so on. I know there\u2019s a lot of sensitivity about this. I know that the way I talk about this, no politician ever could (which I think is emblematic of one of the things wrong with politics). From a budget-writer standpoint, an entitlement is something they can\u2019t touch. Social Security is an entitlement. That means it\u2019s written into law: There cannot be any cuts to it. You can\u2019t pare it down. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s just there. It\u2019s like it\u2019s etched in stone like the Ten Commandments. (That\u2019s what they mean by an ‘entitlement.\u2019) To other people an entitlement is something a bunch of lazy people think is theirs simply because they were born in America, and that, as Americans, they are entitled to their country giving them enough for these to live on. There are two distinct definitions here. What I\u2019m talking about is the overall number. I don\u2019t care what the subdivisions are: 35% of the American people are living on something produced by somebody else, not themselves. Now, contrary to the knee-jerk reaction that people have when I say this, I am not first condemning those people. <\/p>\n

I could, and I would eventually get to it in my priority list, but that\u2019s not my concern. <\/p>\n

My concern is for the country at large. Thirty-five percent of people who have money coming in are not earning it! I don\u2019t want to hear the sob stories. You know, we got Social Security disability and I understand that there are people that can\u2019t work, and nobody is saying, ‘Don\u2019t take care of them.\u2019 Nobody with common sense. I don\u2019t even want to have to waste time defending that. I\u2019m talking about the United States of America as a structured system whereby a population manages its affairs, whereby a nation maintains itself as a superpower, whereas a nation maintains a manufacturing base, whereas a nation maintains itself as an economic power. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m simply saying that 35% (and growing, by the way) of the American people receiving money that they are not earning is not a way to sustain anything that anybody thinks is great about this country. Not possible. And in this story we\u2019re told: Well, it could be worse. I mean Europe, 44%! Yeah, and look at Europe. Are they a world power, a leader in anything? They have lost their countries. They\u2019ve lost their borders. They\u2019re losing their cultures. They have all these cradle-to-grave programs. They\u2019ve got 14% unemployment. They\u2019ve got rampant poverty. They\u2019ve got people that cannot get treated for months in line for simple medical procedures. So to the point: They are reversing direction. They\u2019re trying to cut back on some of these programs they can no longer afford. <\/p>\n

We, on the other hand, are headed in the direction they are now trying to reverse. If we were 35% and falling, let\u2019s throw a party. We\u2019re 35% and growing, and we\u2019re growing fast. And I am terribly sorry if the knee-jerk reaction to this is somebody taking it so personally they\u2019re thinking I\u2019m insulting them. I am not. But I could if you want. When I get to my list of things on the priority list that bother me about this, at some point there\u2019s a group of people out there could very well be working and are not, and we all know it — and I don\u2019t think that it somehow violates some contract to mention it. Even Snerdley is looking at me, ‘I can\u2019t believe you\u2019re saying this!\u2019 Why? You don\u2019t think that there are people out there capable of working who aren\u2019t, scamming the system? <\/p>\n

Okay. Well, they are. But the aggregate of this, the aggregate… Maybe I\u2019m personalizing this too much. I will acknowledge that. I don\u2019t know how I can avoid doing it, though, but I think we all personalize things like this. I\u2019ll just tell you, and I mentioned this before: I can\u2019t stand gifts. I don\u2019t like the obligation of having somebody give me something. Birthday, Christmas is a different thing, but you know what I\u2019m talking about. I don\u2019t like it. I just don\u2019t like the obligation. (sigh) That\u2019s why I can never run for office. You gotta ask people for money, and they\u2019re gonna want to be paid back somehow. (interruption) Well… (interruption) Oh, now Snerdley says that I\u2019m different because I always have to be on the lookout for people trying to bribe or scam or use me or what have you. <\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s true, but I\u2019ve had this attitude long before that aspect of my life became paramount. I know I\u2019m weird. (interruption) Well, not only… (interruption) Well, whatever it is, I know it\u2019s strange — and I also realize how really fortunate I\u2019ve been. I realize not everybody can live their way the way I\u2019ve sought to and have succeeded in doing. I\u2019m not suggesting that I\u2019m any kind of a model to live by. I\u2019m saying from the standpoint of a country — and also making it personal, I do look at my own life. I\u2019ve been broke couple times, and I\u2019ve been stretched thin. I\u2019ve had my house payment and my MasterCard bill due in the same two-week period of the month and I could not pay \u2019em both no matter what I did. <\/p>\n

So I\u2019m not speaking from a silver spoon standpoint such as the Kennedys might or some such thing. I just genuinely do, because of the great fortune that I have had happen to me because I am an American — because I live here — I would love nothing more than for as many millions of people as possible to experience it themselves. And in the process of that happening, the greatness of this country would be undoubted, it would be unquestioned, and it would be prospering. We would be continuing to grow. The opportunity for prosperity, the greatest amount of freedom any human beings have ever had since the beginning of time, is the United States of America.<\/p>\n

And to see it squandered by a political party promoting it because this is how they get votes and maintain not just power, but control over people? I guess that\u2019s it: I don\u2019t desire to have any control over anybody. I don\u2019t. I have no desire to have power over a single human being. I really am, ‘I\u2019ll take care of myself and you take care of yourself, and whatever happens, happens.\u2019 I\u2019m not in any way, shape, manner, or form into manipulation, domination, or any of that. But I know I\u2019m also odd in that regard, too. I can\u2019t tell you number of people that are into that kind of thing: Power, manipulation, domination, or what have you. I have no interest in that whatsoever. I\u2019m speaking purely and simply as a small little speck of a citizen here who has fortunately experienced all the great opportunities this country has to offer. <\/p>\n

When I see 35% and growing! I\u2019ve said for 23 years, we talk about, what? We talk about the things that are posing threats to this country\u2019s existence, be it Obama, be it liberalism, be it what have you. Here we\u2019re dealt with a slap upside the head: 35% and growing the American people are living off of somebody else. Okay, we want to be Greece? Go for it! But we don\u2019t, do we? Do we want to be France, do we want to be the UK, do we want to be the EU? Sadly, some of our leaders want to do head in that direction. ‘What\u2019s wrong with those countries, Mr. Limbaugh?\u2019 Nothing\u2019s wrong with those countries, but the free people of the world can\u2019t depend on \u2019em and the free people of those countries can\u2019t depend on their own governments. <\/p>\n

They have to depend on us. The whole freedom aspect as part of this recipe is crucial as well. So for all of you taking this personally and thinking that I, El Rushbo, sitting behind my Golden EIB Microphone am personally insulting you and calling you a freeloader: Well, if it fits, fine. Wear it. But that\u2019s not my point here. I\u2019m looking beyond individuals here. As far as my perspective is concerned, I\u2019m looking at this as an American. If I\u2019m failing to communicate what about this really bothers me then it\u2019s my problem and I\u2019ll continue to work at it to the point that nobody has any confusion about what I\u2019m saying. In the meantime, you freeloaders know who you are. If your loafers fit, wear \u2019em.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: One more time, to me 35% — and to have some of this called wages, folks, we\u2019re losing — 35% of American adults on the dole, to me, is the single reason why I have been doing this show since I started in Sacramento, hoping that number would never be more than 20, 25%. It\u2019s the single reason. That number, 35%, everything you want to know about what\u2019s wrong with American politics is in that number. Everything you want to know that\u2019s wrong with the Democrat Party and liberalism is in that number. Everything you want to know about what\u2019s wrong with the way this country is managing its affairs is to be found in that number. Everything you want to know about whether or not we have a military that can defend this country is found in this number. <\/p>\n

Everything you want to know about whether or not we\u2019re gonna continue to win medals, gold medals at the Olympics can be found in that number. Everything you want to know about what\u2019s wrong and the future of American education can be found in that number. Everything you want to know to explain why so many manufacturing jobs have left America can be found in that number. Everything you want to know to explain how in the world did we ever get to the point where our government was demanding that banks loan money to buy houses people would never be able to repay can be found in that number. It\u2019s Tocqueville. Once it has been established that that many people figure out that they can get whatever they get for nothing, then America as we\u2019ve known it is severely threatened and in peril. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Jim DeMint on the floor yesterday afternoon of the US Senate.<\/p>\n

DEMINT: Other countries even today are looking at us and wanting to be free, as violence erupts around the world to try to overthrow authoritarian regimes, so people can live in freedom. But at the same time other countries strive to be like America, America seems to be determined, at least at the political level, to push our way towards a Third World country that\u2019s so in debt and so dependent that we no longer can determine our own destiny. ‘Cause today America is literally on its knees to China and other countries for the credit we need to run our economy. We\u2019re also on our knees to the Middle East, which is very unstable right now, for the energy we need to run our country, to even take our food to market, the essentials here at home.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He went on and on and on. The whole theme of the thing here was America on its knees. I\u2019m telling you, go back, this number, 35% of our population living off of what others earn. The answer to so many problems can be found right in that number, the explanation. How many of you, when you first heard about the subprime mortgage crisis — I\u2019ll admit to being naive, ‘You mean to tell me we had a program where people who demonstrably could not pay the money back were ordered to be lent money? We had a government program requiring banks to loan money to those people? And we knew they would never be able to pay it back?\u2019 Well, when I first heard about that I ran it through my filter. Okay, liberalism on the march here, Barney Frank, affordable housing, this is how you equalize the unfairness of some people having houses and money and some people not having it. But it\u2019s a death knell. <\/p>\n

So if you look at that, 35% of the people living off somebody else, what\u2019s the difference in getting a loan you never have to pay back? It\u2019s all there. America on its knees to the ChiComs, to the Saudis, I don\u2019t know about you, folks, there might be some people you wouldn\u2019t mind being on your knees for, but I can\u2019t see it here, the ChiComs or the Saudis. But that\u2019s just me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: A story from CNBC. This really bothers me. It bothers me. It tugs at my heart. It bothers me I can\u2019t tell you how much. ‘Handouts…\u2019 This headline alone: ‘Government Handouts,\u2019 welfare, whatever you want to call it, ‘Make Up One-Third of US Wages.\u2019 One-third! Of course we\u2019re really not talking ‘wages,\u2019 but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nObama's America: A Welfare State - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/03\/09\/obama_s_america_a_welfare_state\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Obama's America: A Welfare State - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: A story from CNBC. This really bothers me. It bothers me. It tugs at my heart. 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This really bothers me. It bothers me. It tugs at my heart. It bothers me I can\u2019t tell you how much. ‘Handouts…\u2019 This headline alone: ‘Government Handouts,\u2019 welfare, whatever you want to call it, ‘Make Up One-Third of US Wages.\u2019 One-third! 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