RUSH: As the private sector continues to shrink — this is the mathematics of it. The old saw about hard work and perseverance, preparation, education — all of the effort that you put in, the devotion that you have. There has to be a pie for you to get your piece of. And the pie has to be growing, it has to be expanding to account for population increase, people retiring and leaving the pie, younger people getting out of college or entering the workforce and wanting their piece of the pie.<\/p>\n
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The thing about America is that pie has always gotten bigger. It has always expanded. There has always been an opportunity for anybody to get as big a piece of that pie as they reasonably expect or want. That\u2019s what\u2019s changing. The pie is shrinking, and as a result of the pie shrinking there\u2019s less to be had because the government\u2019s usurping more and more of it. And in the midst of all that the president says (impression), “Yep, well, hard work. You work hard, pay off.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s always been the deal, that\u2019s been the promise of America.” It\u2019s not a promise of America. It\u2019s a capitalistic truth. But more than that it\u2019s a human truth. All this guy\u2019s doing is making it harder and harder and harder for everybody in the middle class to be upwardly mobile. That\u2019s what was always distinctive about America, is the pie grew even for the middle class. That\u2019s what\u2019s stopped happening because of him.<\/p>\n
TODD: Now, take Rush\u2019s words about college graduates and apply it to Washington, D.C., which is one of the top three cities for college graduates, okay? D.C. It used to be that D.C. was a tradeoff. You went to work for the federal government, you got a lower wage, but you had a guaranteed job. You had lesser retirement benefits; now you have more.<\/p>\n
You have retirement benefits not available in the real world. You have salaries not available in the real world. D.C. produces nothing, it markets nothing; it takes — and yet people in D.C. are earning three to four times what the average person is in the country. Eight out of the 10 richest counties in the country are around the Beltway, or at least were.<\/p>\n
So take Rush\u2019s example of the pie and how government shrinks it and let\u2019s move it into a doctor\u2019s office. Because tomorrow we\u2019re going to hear Joe Biden read from his teleprompter that this has proven that we need to have Medicaid for well all, Medicare for All. “This has proven that only the government can safest.” Because another Rush lesson is: To leftists, it doesn\u2019t count unless government does it.<\/p>\n
So this is one of my favorite examples about government health care and how it has increased the costs. You know that favorite time, if you\u2019re male — and by that, I mean adult human male. if you are in the doctor\u2019s office and it\u2019s coughing time, you know exactly what I mean. Cold fingers in the glove, cough. That\u2019s an awful moment. It\u2019s uncomfortable for everybody.<\/p>\n
Women have their analog to that. Just imagine that as your doctor is, you know, touching you in that way. Just imagine that around you there\u2019s 16 bureaucrats with clipboards. Now, just put yourself in that position. “Turn your head the other way,” and you look over there, and there\u2019s some smirking bureaucrat with a clipboard.<\/p>\n
One has an iPad, one looks like they\u2019re not paying attention and they might be playing a video game — and maybe that gives you a sense of relief \u2019cause they\u2019re not staring at you. There\u2019s 16 of them packed into a room with you. That is the… I\u2019ve read this analysis of doctors now.<\/p>\n
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People, health care providers are outnumbered 16 to one by people whose job it is to make sure you\u2019re following government rules, to make sure you\u2019re filling out the forms the right way — and there\u2019s an enormous amount of money to be taken, to do that. See, it disrupts the value chain. When medicine was entrepreneurial, you\u2019d have a doctor, a nurse, maybe a bookkeeper.<\/p>\n
Maybe a couple doctors, maybe a couple nurses, because they were people who were providing the service. Consequently, the rates were lower. Now if a doctor\u2019s office takes insurance, they have to have all these other paper pushers and box checkers who are free riders on this system. They don\u2019t help bake the cake. They don\u2019t even carry the cake to the table!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just when the cake arrives, they eat a bunch of it, and that\u2019s how the cake is shrinking, and it\u2019s so profound in health care. And since tomorrow Biden will likely pitch (from his teleprompter) government medicine, and they\u2019ll celebrate the great heroic Tony Fauci — who\u2019s been on all sides of every issue but all of it bringing power to him. That\u2019s the one consistent measure with Fauci.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re gonna push for government health care. Understand this: That those free riders are there now. Their cost structure is there now. And dig this. I go to a doctor who is concierge medicine. She doesn\u2019t take insurance. In fact, I got a couple doctors like that. One\u2019s a specialist. It\u2019s back to the old days.<\/p>\n
She and a couple of nurses. The left wants to make that impossible. They want… People who have practices like that, even though they don\u2019t take insurance, they have to use the Medicaid codes and insurance codes because they can\u2019t have that entrepreneurism.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
TODD: James, in Spokane, Washington. James, good morning. You\u2019re on the Rush Limbaugh program. I am Todd Herman, your guide. Hi, James.<\/p>\n
CALLER: How you doing, Todd?<\/p>\n
TODD: Doing fantastic, man. Love it. I\u2019m in KQNT studios just up the street from where you are in Spokane. I guess. I don\u2019t know where you\u2019re at, but you\u2019re in Spokane. What\u2019s on your mind?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hillyard area. Hillyard area. But that\u2019s beside the point. I\u2019ve been listening to Rush off and on for 30 years. Back in \u201914, I got in politics and ran for public office. Rush didn\u2019t give me, bequeath to me, loan me or say, “Here is your analytics” when looking at a situation in politics.” He helped foster that and when he would say, and I quote, “Do not doubt me.”<\/p>\n
TODD: (chuckling)<\/p>\n
CALLER: I never doubted the man. Ever. Not a single time. Of course, nowadays with coronavirus, when I would say to people, “This coronavirus is bogus. It\u2019s not as bad or it\u2019s not anywhere near what they say it is,” of course they would tell me, “Well, you\u2019re a denier. You don\u2019t believe in the coronavirus.” I said, “No, I do believe it. People are getting sick. That is a fact. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as bad as they\u2019re telling everybody it is.<\/p>\n
“This is a political snow job, and if you don\u2019t see it, there\u2019s something wrong. You are too blinded by partisan politics.” Rush had that ability, from my point of view, to remove himself from the swamp, from the Beltway and go, “Hmm. I see where you\u2019re going with this. I see what circles are being drawn, and I see what\u2019s actually happening here, and it\u2019s bogus.<\/p>\n
TODD: And what is, you know, so incredible to me about what Rush did, is this is a man who golfed with presidents; this is a man that anyone in political position or government position who is anywhere center-right would want to seek the favor of or get the ear of. There were celebrities who sought Rush you out, and he was able to maintain that grounding and never get sucked into the vortex of charm or the vortex of access.<\/p>\n
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I think Rush talked about being in the White House or being in the bedrooms in the White House. He somehow succeeded in being able to criticize people even after they brought him that access. Right? That is such a difficult thing to do in politics, and I think it speaks to Rush\u2019s upbringing but also was one of the reasons we trusted him.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n
TODD: We could hear him talk about George W. Bush is a good man and then get on the next segment and say and he\u2019s got this wrong and this is where he\u2019s wrong and this is where he\u2019s weak. Like with you, it wasn\u2019t just the analytics. It was the consistency, that it didn\u2019t matter who was in my office. You know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah. Oh, absolutely.<\/p>\n
TODD: And that\u2019s I think —<\/p>\n
CALLER: When I ran for politics in \u201916 and in \u201914, in \u201914, I ran against a Republican, \u201916 I ran against Democrats, and I could see what each one of them were doing and what they were doing in office is cronyism, pure and simple.<\/p>\n
TODD: Yeah. Right.<\/p>\n
CALLER: To take a step back and not be that partisan person and not be that person who says, “Okay. I like you as a person. You\u2019re a good person. But how you play your politics is dirty, it\u2019s corrupt, it\u2019s cronyism, and you shouldn\u2019t be in office because what you\u2019re doing is lining your own pockets and not representing and doing your job for the people.”<\/p>\n
TODD: Exactly. Exactly. I\u2019m probably a weaker person because I go a different route in politics. Though I do a political show, I have two friends I count in office. I don\u2019t dinner with people. I don\u2019t lunch with people. I need to keep an emotional distance, because I need to be able to tear into people when that is what\u2019s required to tell the truth.<\/p>\n
I appreciate the phone call, James. Thanks for calling Rush\u2019s program. It\u2019s an honor to be your guide today. James ran for political office. I want you to hear Rush talk about features and benefits, ok? So he\u2019s gonna take his expertise and knowledge of marketing and makes a brilliant point about Republicans selling ideas versus Democrats giving people instant gratification with stuff.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, I\u2019m sorry, folks, there\u2019s no common ground because the Republicans do not want to raise taxes. They want to cut spending. The Democrats don\u2019t want to cut spending. The Democrats don\u2019t want any changes. The Democrats want more spending to sustain the entitlements because that enables the gravy train to keep rolling.<\/p>\n
As long as the programs that provide for Obama\u2019s-low-information, high-benefits voters, as long as those things continue to provide their benefits, what do they care about the deficit? Seriously! The low-information voter, the Obama voter, what do they care about “unfunded liabilities”? They don\u2019t even know what that is. What do they care about credit ratings?<\/p>\n
You run up to a typical Obama voter, “Hey, you know what? We\u2019re gonna lose our AAA credit…” “What? What\u2019s credit? The country has a credit rating? I don\u2019t understand. Explain it to me.” And then you start explaining and you lose them because they don\u2019t care. What do they care about inflation? What\u2019s any of that to them? It\u2019s just gibberish.<\/p>\n
A great piece over the weekend, actually a couple great pieces on many of the problems conservatives have. Democrats sell benefits; we sell features. Stop and think about this — and I\u2019ll give you some examples as the program unfolds. The Democrats sell benefits. What does this mean to you?<\/p>\n
We talk about features. We talk about how low taxes are gonna spur economic growth and create upward mobility, but there\u2019s no direct benefit to it. It\u2019s a theory that is true, but there\u2019s no immediate payoff to it. There\u2019s no immediate benefit. We\u2019ve got all the great features, but they offer all the benefits.<\/p>\n
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I saw another analogy that what the Republicans are in the process of doing is making the mistake that Coca-Cola made. Back in 1985, Roberto Goizueta, who was the CEO of Coke, said, “You know what, we\u2019ve had this same formula for all these years. We need to modernize.”<\/p>\n
So they came out with New Coke, and an uproar took place, and within, what was it, three weeks they had to reintroduce the old Coke as Coke Classic and the New Coke was gone. Well, the theory that I read, I think at Red State, actually, is the Republican Party has been doing New Coke, but gradually.<\/p>\n
We have been caving on the things that identify us. We\u2019ve been giving away our recipe. We changed our recipe on our own, and the latest example of changing the recipe is, “You know what? We\u2019re all for amnesty now. We\u2019ve gotta go demographics. We\u2019ve gotta open the borders and we\u2019ve gotta get those voters.<\/p>\n
“Yep! We\u2019re being rejected because of our policy on immigration and Hispanics.” So the Republican Party, nobody knows what it is anymore. Whatever it used to be, it\u2019s changing the formula. Whereas Coke did it overnight — this is just a theory, and it\u2019s interesting.<\/p>\n
TODD: So Rush speaks of features and benefits or sizzle and steak. So it is a difficult thing to sell freedom to people who think they\u2019re free, and young people — you know, less-educated voters and last-minute decision-makers in elections — they think they\u2019re free. And what they\u2019re doing is building a cage for themselves, a cage of debt, a cage of overly empowered bureaucrats.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s just one example of how to go at this. One of the things that the Republicans could do is simply take a video game metaphor. These young people think they\u2019ve got all sorts of extra lives saved up in this game. Because the Democrats are constantly telling \u2019em, free college and college debt forgiveness and free everything else.<\/p>\n
So one of the things I think the Republicans need to do is say, “We\u2019re selling you the benefit of not crashing into a wall.” What they\u2019re doing is they\u2019re draining these extra life reserves you have in the background in terms of draining the budget and the debt and making it visual for them.<\/p>\n
What Republicans are saying is, “We are building for you a sustainable life where it is not going to crash into a wall, because socialism always crashes into a wall,” or take it to a specific benefit. “You want free college? Okay. Here\u2019s what we can do. Any class, any university is auditable for free, if it\u2019s a state university.<\/p>\n
Republicans can say, “Yeah, you know what? We don\u2019t get to be on campus. You don\u2019t get the benefit of the teachers. But you can audit any class from afar, through streaming. And then you can take a test at a discounted rate. And if you pass that test, you get an alternate degree.”<\/p>\n
Or they could say for any job, there has to be a path for apprenticeship. We can sell that as a benefit today. ‘Cause most jobs can be learned through apprenticeships. This should be part and parcel of a Republican message. College is too expensive.<\/p>\n
You can earn money while you learn, and install this around the country. In other words, freedom adds the product, the feature, and the benefit. The feature is the freedom. The benefit is: Earn while you learn. But this takes creativity (laughing) and that is something that I have found D.C. Republicans sort of lack.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
TODD: Tomorrow, Joe Biden will brag about there $1.9 trillion spending orgy and pretend it was all about covid bailout. Listen to the timelessness of how well Rush Limbaugh knew Democrats. Compare these comments we\u2019re gonna play to this $1.9 trillion, as WaPo called it, showering Americans with … something.<\/p>\n
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The private sector is getting smaller. The apple, the pie is all getting smaller, and that\u2019s why there\u2019s less of it to be had for people. You want to talk about why the gap between rich and poor is expanding? It\u2019s because the pie\u2019s getting smaller, and the pie can only get smaller as government grows. That\u2019s the argument against government expansion in its simplest form. The argument against government expansion is that it shrinks opportunity for everybody who doesn\u2019t work or have anything to do with government.<\/p>\n