{"id":9947,"date":"2014-03-07T19:37:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T19:37:16","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-03-07T19:37:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T19:37:16","slug":"the_new_american_normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/03\/07\/the_new_american_normal\/","title":{"rendered":"The New American Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: Marybeth in Gravette, Arkansas. Welcome. Great to have you here. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. Thanks for taking my call.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah. You bet. Thank you for waiting.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, I\u2019ve been waiting for eight years.<\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing) Well, we\u2019ll make it worth it.<\/p>\n

<\/a>CALLER: (laughing) Thank you. I am calling to talk to you about how out of touch Washington seems to be with the people. The people are trying to have enough money to put gas in their car or pay their utility bills or buy food, and nobody\u2019s listening to the news about Obamacare because they have bigger fish to fry.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I\u2019m not so sure, because Obamacare\u2019s affecting people. You know, I think they\u2019re listening to it. Every day there\u2019s another story about a drastic loss of coverage for treatment by a seriously ill citizen.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I understand that, but what I\u2019m saying is there\u2019s other things besides just Obamacare, and there\u2019s just more things going on and Washington is so out of touch with what gas prices are, food prices are —<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t disagree with that at all. If you look, Washington, DC, now, I think it\u2019s in the top three wealthiest areas of the country. The unemployment rate in Washington is around 3.5%. The per capita income is rising. There is no recession, not even close, none whatsoever. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And I guarantee you, people that live there and work there and don\u2019t get out just assume it\u2019s fine. You know, economic numbers are stats. The unemployed are statistics. They\u2019re not really people. They\u2019re not lives that have been ruined.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But I\u2019m just not talking about the unemployed, Rush. I\u2019m talking about people that are just trying to survive. You know, do the congressmen, do the senators fill their car up with gas? Do they know what it costs to put a kid through college? Do they know how much a gallon of milk is?<\/p>\n

RUSH: I think they do. I think they just assume that everybody\u2019s able come up with it. If they\u2019re not, there\u2019s some government program to help you.<\/line><\/p>\n

CALLER: But if you have a college education, if you\u2019re married, if you have a brain, it\u2019s real hard to get on some of those programs. They just put you off and put you off, and if it wasn\u2019t for people\u2019s family stepping in — parents, grandparents helping people today — it\u2019d be so much worse than what it is.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, but we\u2019re nearing the point, Marybeth, where the grandparents of tomorrow aren\u2019t gonna have the money to help the grandkids and the parents.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I don\u2019t have it now.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. So here\u2019s the thing about this, and this is just the way it is. Of the two political parties, one political party is very happy with this. The more people in dire straits who depend on them and government, the better. That\u2019s a winner for them. People in need — needing a government program here, government assistance there, food stamps over here — that\u2019s a guaranteed lock on power. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why liberalism and the Democrat Party offend me and anger me because they\u2019re literally, consciously destroying people\u2019s lives and their future. They\u2019re busting up families. The other party, the Republican Party, used to loudly stand for economic freedom, economic growth, rugged individualism, self-reliance, hard work. Look at that Cadillac commercial<\/a> that\u2019s caused so much controversy. Are you aware of that? Were you listening yesterday?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n