I have here a copy, it’s eight pages, of the president’s Labor Day speech yesterday. And paragraph 23: “We have a responsibility that when somebody hurts, government has got to move. And that’s why we’ve signed extensions to the unemployment insurance, so people can get their feet back on the ground. Elaine’s department, the Department of Labor, passes out emergency grants for people who are hurting to cover health care costs and child care costs and other critical needs, and that’s a useful role for the government.”
That’s just where we are. That’s just what it is. I don’t want to say too much now because I’m still in the process of digesting all this myself. And I want to see a couple of other things. But on the surface here, just at first glance, it’s not encouraging. And you might be saying, “Why, Rush? What is the big difference? What’s the big problem?” The big problem is individuals. As long as the government is going to continue to take over more and more of the providing of people’s needs and desires, the less and less qualified those people are going to be to do it themselves and the more dependent on the provider, government, they’re going to be. And the more dependent people are, then the greater chance we’re going to slip as a great nation. Some of this stuff is obviously supplemental assistance, like unemployment extension. The problem is we already have the extensions added up to over a year of unemployment compensation, and that does not motivate and inspire people to go out and find work, and that’s what needs to happen. Anyway, we’ve covered all this ground on previous occasions, and I’m sure we’re going to be coming back to it, so let me drop it now.
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