RUSH: Here’s the audio sound bite from last night about Obama and the American flag lapel pin. The question came from Pennsylvania voter Nash McCabe, and it was on videotape. The question, ‘Senator Obama, I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I’m not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen, and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don’t.’ Now, this is what I mean. The very fact this question has to be asked of somebody running for the presidency, not trying to be the NBC Nightly News anchor, but trying to run for the presidency, to me tells me the guy’s not fit, and listen to this inept answer.
OBAMA: Well, look, uh, I revere the American flag, uh, and I would not be running for presidency if I did not revere this country. And I am absolutely confident that during the general election, that, uh, when I’m in a debate with John McCain, people are not going to be questioning my patriotism, they are going to be questioning, how can you make people’s lives a little bit better. And let me just make one last point on this issue of the flag pin. As you noted, I wore one yesterday when a veteran handed it to me, uh, who himself was disabled and works on behalf of disabled veterans. I have never said that I don’t wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins.
RUSH: Maybe you’ve never said it, but you don’t wear one. You had to have one thrust at you by an American disabled veteran who asked you to put it on, and you put it on for a day. And then you took it off. Why, Senator Obama, did you take it off? Hmm? What’s so hard about saying, I love this country? ‘I wouldn’t be running for president if I didn’t revere this country?’ What the hell is that? We’ve got plenty of people that have run for the presidency of this country that don’t like it. Just because you’re running for the presidency is not an automatic conclusion that people revere the country and what it stands for. Let’s go audio sound bite number one. This is a tax question. This is just a godsend. Charlie Gibson actually asks him about taxes, the capital gains rate, and points out that when the rate’s cut, the revenue goes up, and poor little Barack here is lost.
GIBSON: You said on CNBC, and I quote, ‘I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton, which was 28%.’ It’s now 15%. That’s almost a doubling, if you went to 28%. But actually Bill Clinton in 1997 signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20%. And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28%, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that a hundred million people in this country own stock and would be affected?
RUSH: Now, when I heard that, I said, this is not something a Drive-By journalist knows, a hundred million people own stock. That’s not something a Drive-By Media journalist knows. A Drive-By Media journalist has to be told that. That fact, that figure, would not come up in the daily activities of a Drive-By journalist. So he talked to somebody. Somebody got to these guys. I know Hannity got to ’em on Bill Ayers, and he might have read the transcript of CNBC. That’s what Maria Bartiromo said. Anyway, I was impressed. Now, here’s the lame answer.
OBAMA: I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness. We saw an article today which showed that the top, uh, 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year, $29 billion for 50 individuals. And part of what has happened, uh, is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That’s not fair.
GIBSON: But history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up.
OBAMA: Well, uh, uh, uh, that might happen, or it might not. It depends on what’s happening on Wall Street and how business is going.
RUSH: Gee, I tell you, folks, this is embarrassing. (laughing) The hedge fund guys, they’re not even paying cap gains. This is Warren Buffett’s answer. Warren Buffett’s out there saying, ‘I pay a lower tax rate than my secretary pays.’ He’s got guilt over his $43 billion or whatever he has. He runs around trying to curry social favor with people by talking about raising taxes. Obama hasn’t the slightest clue. (doing Obama impression) ‘It’s about fairness. I’m not worried about revenue, Charlie, it’s about fairness. Why, look at these hedge fund guys making all this money. We need to take some away from them.’ Note that Obama’s solution doesn’t have anything in it that would actually improve the lives of average people. He’s just out there trying to sandbag average people into thinking they’re going to be made to feel better because he’s going to soak the hedge fund people. The capital gains tax rate has been crucial to generating revenue for Washington and for stimulating economic growth. And for Obama to say, ‘Well, that might happen, it might not, depends on what’s happening on Wall Street and how business is going,’ I’ll tell you how it’s going to be going. It’s going to be in the tank.
Folks, I have been saying, and people are getting mad at me, all the grief, all the horror that’s taken place since the Democrats took over the Congress. Here it is. You remember the election in 2006? A little over one year ago, year-and-a-half now, consumer confidence was a two-and-a-half year high. Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon. The unemployment rate was four-and-a-half percent. Since voting in a Democrat-controlled Congress in 2006 we have seen consumer confidence plummet, the cost of regular gasoline soar to near $3.50 a gallon, unemployment’s up to 5%, 10% increase. American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate because of stock and mutual fund losses, and Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion. One percent of American homes are in foreclosure. America wanted change in 2006, and they got it. Every time I mention this, I get calls from liberals and Democrats, ‘You can’t say that!’ Hey, none of this was the case until the Democrats got elected.
You Democrats, you libs, you want to try to blame all this economic malaise on George W. Bush, but none of this stuff happens until you guys got control of Congress. Coincidence? Jury is still out. But I guarantee you, if Obama is somehow is elected president and he happens to be working with a Democrat Congress who sees the world and the country the way he sees it, and we know that Charlie Rangel wants to raise taxes as fast as he can, he’s chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, we know that every Democrat claims to want to go out and raise taxes on people, if they do that, they’re going to start choking revenue that flows into the Treasury. They’re going to wreck things, and Obama hasn’t the slightest clue. McCain admits that he doesn’t know much about economics, which is okay, ’cause he might be a little malleable on those subjects. Obama knows nothing about it, but won’t admit it. And Hillary doesn’t either. These people, it’s a disaster, folks. Doomsday Option is the only option the superdelegates have.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I asked mere moments ago, why Senator Obama, did you take the flag pin off? You wore it for one day when the disabled vet thrust it at you, but you took it off. Why did you take it off in the first place? We actually know. Prior to the Iraq invasion, right after 9/11, here’s his quote: ‘You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.’ So he took it off to curry favor with the anti-war fringe in this country and the Democrat Party shortly before the Iraq invasion so that he could show real patriotism, speaking out on issues that are of importance. This is another thing that this dumb party has done. They have sought to redefine patriotism as being universally, constantly critical of this country. That’s the new patriotism. Sounds to me like he wanted to be asked about this, he wanted to be asked why he wasn’t wearing a flag so he could go out and say, ‘Well, I want my patriotism to show in a different manner. I want it to show through my ideas.’