{"id":5936,"date":"2015-07-09T16:28:53","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T16:28:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-07-09T16:28:53","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T16:28:53","slug":"jeb_angers_low_information_america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2015\/07\/09\/jeb_angers_low_information_america\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeb Angers Low-Information America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Folks, I\u2019ve got some lighthearted stuff I have here that I want to get out of the way before we get on to the more serious stuff. Rather than lead with Donald Trump<\/a> today, we\u2019re going to lead with Jeb Bush. We\u2019re going to be fair. We\u2019re going to spread it around. Jeb\u2019s in the news. There\u2019s no reason to ignore what Jeb is saying, things that are happening with Jeb out there. Trump\u2019s in the news, too. <\/p>\n

We do have the sound bites from yesterday\u2019s appearance by Trump on MSNBC<\/a> where he systematically rips everybody he\u2019s asked about, from Jonah Goldberg to Charles Krauthammer to… Well, you name it. But before we get into all of that, I\u2019ll just give you a little heads-up about Jeb. Jeb is having to walk back a comment that he made about people needing to work longer hours. That\u2019s not what the low-information crowd wants to hear, and it\u2019s not what the Millennials want to hear because they don\u2019t understand what it means. <\/line><\/p>\n

They don\u2019t want to be told they have to work harder. That\u2019s not what America is all about to them, and when they hear Jeb say, “People need to work longer hours,” they think Jeb is criticizing them for not working hard enough. That\u2019s not what Jeb says he meant. Jeb said that he was actually promoting full-time work rather than part-time work. So he\u2019s trying to walk that back.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s start here with Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush… Let\u2019s just do this with the audio sound bites. Rather than me just report the story, let\u2019s go straight to the audio sound bites. Last night Fox News Channel Bret Baier, interviewing Bush, said, “You had lunch with the Romneys recently. Did you get any advice from them?”<\/p>\n

JEB: I got a lot of good advice from the last candidate who I wished was president right now, the last Republican candidate, and he validated a belief I have, which is that at some point we have to start campaigning in a way that\u2019s beyond the base. I think you have to be respectful of conservatives, and you have to campaign hard, convince them that you\u2019re the right guy to unite the party. But there also always ought to be an eye on the ball of the next group of people that actually decide who the president\u2019s going to be.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That is so… Folks, do you realize the brilliance of that? Oh my God! That is so smart, the Republicans have tried that the last three elections. That\u2019s how smart it is. Oh, wait. It hasn\u2019t worked. But it gets the approval. It gets the approval of the inside-the-Beltway Republican and media establishment. Well, let\u2019s take a look at this. What did he actually say here? “I got a lot of good advice from the last candidate who I wished was president right now … and he validated a belief I have,” which means this isn\u2019t his idea. I\u2019ve always thought this.<\/p>\n

“[A]t some point we have to start campaigning in a way that\u2019s beyond the base.” Well, okay. I mean I\u2019ve had Rand Paul tell me the same way in different words. Rand Paul says we cannot win elections with Republican votes alone. That\u2019s what he said to me. Jeb here is saying, “We need to find a way to start campaigning that\u2019s beyond the base,” and then he said, “I think we have to be respectful of conservatives.” That\u2019s cool. They\u2019re going to throw us a bone, Snerdley! <\/p>\n

I feel better already. They\u2019re going to throw us a bone. They\u2019re going to acknowledge they respect us, as then they move out and try to get votes of people they really want. Okay. “You have to be respectful of conservatives,” he says. “I think you have to be respectful,” damn it. No, no, I shouldn\u2019t say that. I shouldn\u2019t. “You have to be respectful of conservatives.” When is the last Democrat that you heard say, “You know, we\u2019ve got to be respectful of the George Soros crowd. (chuckles)<\/p>\n

“But we can\u2019t win with just them. For crying out loud! We\u2019ve got to be respectful of people on moveon.org, but we can\u2019t win with just them. We\u2019ve got to move beyond. We\u2019re going to have to go out and get some Republicans and get some conservatives.” How long do you think that Democrat candidate would survive? Okay. Now, this next one, Jeb has been in Twitter back and forth all day with a number of people over this one. Manchester, New Hampshire yesterday.<\/p>\n

New Hampshire Union Leader, that\u2019s the newspaper there, had an editorial board meeting. It\u2019s perfunctory. Every Republican has to meet the editorial board. It used to be you had to go meet Nackey Loeb. But now it\u2019s the editorial board. They had a Q&A, and a member of the board, the editorial board at the newspaper, said, “You mentioned lowering taxes. Did you have anything flat tax, anything specific about taxes?” <\/p>\n

JEB: My aspiration for the country — and I believe we can achieve it — is 4% growth as far as the eye can see, which means we have to be a lot more productive. Workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that, um, people need to work longer hours, and — and through their productivity gain more income for their families. That\u2019s the only way we\u2019re going to get out of this rut that we\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. So he was very clear what he was talking about, but his choice of words created an opportunity for his enemies. He cited everything that he meant trying to put this comment in context: Labor force participation rate. By the way, 4% economic growth, that\u2019s correct. But what do you need for 4% economic growth? What do you need? Quick! It\u2019s a simple answer. (interruption) Yes, that\u2019s right. You need people working! If you\u2019re going to have…<\/p>\n

We\u2019re growing barely, folks. Our economy, the country, barely growing at just under 2%, and that\u2019s on a good reporting period. The first quarter of this year we had negative growth. Now, one of the reasons economic growth is dwindling is because the labor force is shrinking. We are now approaching 100 million Americans not working, and that\u2019s been climbing ever since Obama became president. It started out, I think, at 91 million, 92 million Americans not working. It\u2019s just barely now just under 94 million and rising. <\/line><\/p>\n

Investor\u2019s Business Daily<\/a> today, in a piece, actually used the number 100 million Americans not working. Whatever the number is, it\u2019s way too high. As I always point out, “They\u2019re all eating.” And all I mean by that is there isn\u2019t immediate pressure to get a job in America when you lose one. Now, for our economy to grow twice as fast as it is, we\u2019re going to have to start creating jobs, and that\u2019s what Bush was talking about when he said, “We need people to work longer hours,” and he was talking about part-time versus full-time. <\/p>\n

We all know that full-time jobs, many in this country have been converted to part time so that businesses can escape having to provide Obamacare benefits. The cutoff is 30 hours a week. So the 40-hour work week has pretty much waved bye-bye in many places so that companies can escape Obamacare. This is all by design anyway. It\u2019s not the stupidity of the Democrats creating this. This is what they want to happen. The long-term goal is single payer with government being the single payer. <\/p>\n

They want, in the long term, to get rid of insurance companies and the middle men. All Jeb was trying to say here was, “We need people working full-time jobs.” But he didn\u2019t say that. He said, “We need people working longer hours.” Well this has just caused a conniption fit out with people out there including Bernie Sanders, who says, “Americans already work longer hours than employees in most other countries and they shouldn\u2019t be forced to work even longer hours than they currently do.” <\/p>\n

Sanders was jumping on these comments that Jeb Bush made, that Americans need to work longer hours. Sanders said, “The sad truth is that because the middle class has declined over the last 40 years, while almost all new income and wealth have gone to the people on top, Americans already work the longest hours of any people in the western industrialized world. In fact, 80% of working men work longer than 40 hours a week. What we need now is an economy that provides decent wages and income for the middle class, not demands that people work even longer hours than they currently do.”<\/p>\n

What Sanders is getting at is, there\u2019s nothing wrong with the American work ethic. The problem is “income inequality.” But the fact of the matter is we do have people working fewer hours. We have people working fewer hours just like they tried it in Greece, and just like they\u2019ve tried it in France. We are trying the European model. The 40-hour work week is taboo now, for a whole host of reasons. Do you think the American people are working as hard as they ever have? <\/p>\n

I mean, just off the top of your head. Forget your own story, whatever it may be. When you think of the country, the economy, do you think people are working harder than ever or do you think they\u2019re not? Do you think they\u2019re working more hours than they ever have like Bernie Sanders says, or are they working fewer hours? I don\u2019t care what you end up thinking. The bottom line is people will have to work more. There\u2019s going to need to be more people working and more work done if we\u2019re going to get back to what everybody expects this country to do, and that\u2019s grow at 4%.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a chicken-or-egg thing. What happens first, the growth or the jobs? The two go hand in hand. But you can\u2019t have economic growth with this degree of labor force participation. You cannot have economic growth with 95 million Americans not working. You simply can\u2019t do it. You can\u2019t have any kind of legitimate growth. So you\u2019re going to have to have means of putting people back to work, and that means you\u2019re going to have to have jobs that feature actual productivity that can be measured.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how wages increase and that\u2019s how economic growth happens, and that\u2019s all Jeb was trying to say. He got all that stuff in there, but the choice of words when he said, “people need to work longer hours…” Even the Washington Post jumped on this: “Jeb Bush raised eyebrows on Wednesday by suggesting that ‘people need to work longer hours\u2019 in order to grow the economy. But he later clarified the comment, moving quickly to quell a fresh assault by Democrats eager to characterize [Bush] as out of touch.” <\/p>\n

What a coincidence. <\/p>\n

NBC just happens to run a story promoting the 32-hour work week on the Today Show today<\/a>.<\/p>\n