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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: Okay, Obama and his big announcement today with his economic team. He did not announce any kind of real economic program. He said that you are in a lot of pain, and he knows it. That’s supposed to make you feel good, and as best I can tell, he repeated essentially his campaign agenda for the economy. The unions, the environmentalists, and the government will own the auto industry. They are going to run it. That’s my guess here. Let me say something controversial. I was talking to Snerdley here at the top-of-the-hour break. You know, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not nearly as — I don’t want to say it’s not as bad as we thought it was going to be, but in a way let me try to explain it. Suppose Obama really were something brand-new that we’ve never seen before. We have no way of dealing with it. I suppose it brings a paradigm and an operational manual to the Oval Office that nobody’s ever seen before, like his campaign suggested would be the case. This is the same old garbage leftist bunk that we’ve been dealing with for 60 years. We’ve seen it all before. It’s going to be tough to battle it ’cause they own everything. They own the House; they own the Senate; and they own the White House, obviously.

To illustrate just how unremarkable all this is, would somebody look up for me very quickly to see if there is a town in Arkansas called ‘Change,’ because we know there is a town in Arkansas called Hope. The hope is the Clintons. Every major cabinet position has a tie to the previous Clinton administration, and I’m trying to understand why. I do not have the slightest understanding of this. It’s almost like Obama — and if you look at his appearance today announcing his economic team, there were no specifics. No specifics whatsoever, no kind of real economic program, just assuredness and confidence that he feels the pain you’re in and he’s going to deal with it. He was asked about tax cuts because his aides are all over television over the weekend saying, ‘Well, you know, we’re in this recession here. We’ll probably not going to do anything on tax increases on the wealthy until the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010,’ which will be an automatic tax increase. But he was asked about that today because his advisors are all over television on the weekend and he wouldn’t even get specific about that.

So it’s almost like he’s going to be a figurehead, and that doesn’t compute with me. It doesn’t compute with the way he ran the campaign. I thought he was going to be this hands-on revolutionary, new kind of change and stuff, and it’s just the Clinton crowd recycled — with a Clinton, by the way, in the cabinet; it appears over at the Department of State. You know, and some of the Drive-Bys even are starting to speculate, ‘What’s the change here?’ There’s no change. That’s the whole opponent. We have been playing this game with these guys for 60 years. It’s just more of the same of what we have already said. In that sense, let me say something controversial. People say I’m controversial. Let me say something controversial. There are no bold new ideas. There are bold old ideas that rely on more and more government spending and lending. Call it collectivism, socialism, whatever you want to call it. It is a bad idea. Everything the Obama team is talking about doing has been tried in country after country after country, and it has failed. You can have new policies based on sound principles — I don’t disagree with that — but policies based on bad old ideas are bad policies and that’s exactly what we’re getting. There’s nothing new that’s bold here. These are bold old ideas, proven to be wrong. They’re going to be employed and they’re not gonna work because they don’t work. They never have worked, not over the long haul.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I think it’s safe to say things are out of control. I think we gotta just look you dead in the eye and tell you, folks, we’re outta control. We’re looking at a federal deficit this fiscal year of $1.3, $1.4 trillion. That’s a deficit over half the size of the budget. And, by the way, with all these unemployed people, are tax receipts going to plunge? Are we going to have as much revenue generated to the Treasury during this? No, we never do. In a recession you don’t. We’ve not seen anything like this since 1945 right after the war effort and coming out all the things we had to do there to fight World War II, the Marshall Plan and everything. We haven’t seen this in our lifetimes. I can’t help but remember here, it’s Thanksgiving, and I start getting nostalgic. I do through Christmas, too, and I can’t help but remembering my mom and dad, my grandparents warning me to save everything I could ’cause the Great Depression. I pooh-poohed it. ‘Dad, I can’t even relate to that. I can’t relate to it. I can try to understand it, but…’ ‘Son,’ they kept trying to pound into us, ‘you don’t want to have to live through one without being prepared.’ I’m not saying Great Depression here, but folks, things are outta control.

We are trying bold, old ideas, as something new. They are old ideas. They have not worked anywhere they’ve been tried, and we’re about to reinstitute a bunch of them all over again. I think the reason that we’re outta control is, I think this crisis is loved. I think this crisis is adored by politicians who do not want to let go of their power. I mean the contrary, they see this as enhancing their power. I look at Schumer. I look at these guys on the Sunday shows yesterday. They look giddy. All these Obama people, they look giddy. Rahm Emanuel, they can barely constrain their excitement over the chance to deal with this crisis that is too important to waste. By the way, Thomas Donlan is the editorial page editor of Barron’s, which is one of these Wall Street Journal magazines, and they asked him, ‘Why aren’t the banks lending bailout money? Why aren’t they lending money, the bailout money they’ve been getting? Why aren’t they lending it?’

He said, ‘The banks’ best customers don’t want to take on more debt right now. They’re trying to pay off some of their existing debt; they’re trying to get rid of it. Their worst customers would love more credit, especially if they don’t have to pay it back. But who wants customers like that?’ So his theory is it’s not just that the banks are hoarding it. It’s that the best customers don’t want the money right now, and the people that do want it are poor risks, and they want to go through that game again, until and unless they’re forced to.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So look at the irony here. Obama and the Democrats have demanded specifics from the Big Three automakers on December 2nd: You better get specific, and you better tell us what you’re going to do to get that bailout money. Then today, Obama delivers not one specific about any element of his plan. The auto manufacturers ought to ask for the same deal. Of course it’s a pipe dream, not going to happen. Everybody’s running scared from the government now, which is exactly what the government wants.

This is Gary in Southington, Connecticut. Hey, Gary, thanks for waiting. You’re on the EIB Network.

CALLER: Rush, huge fan. I’m so honored to be on with you right now.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. I appreciate that.

CALLER: I just want to make a quick comment on something you said earlier about jobs to be created by Obama to fix the roads and bridges. I have a friend that works for the New York City DOT, and for those of you in Rio Linda that’s the Department of Transportation.

RUSH: No, no, no. Rio Linda has been excused here. From now on, it’s, ‘For those of you who voted for Obama.’

CALLER: There you go.

RUSH: Because they are the most uninformed people in the country among the voting population, according to exit poll data.

CALLER: Thank you for the correction.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: Well, my friend works for the DOT and he basically drives a truck to fix potholes for New York City. He drives a truck, a six man work crew, and basically after he’s done with all of his — and he tells me this very easily. Once they’re done with all of their setup and breakdown between all their breaks, they fix about six potholes per day, a six man work crew.

RUSH: Does he tell you this with great pride?

CALLER: He sure does. He’s proud, and he’s a total lib. But he’s a good friend and I love him, but it’s funny how he speaks about his job.

RUSH: So he’s happy that the workload is no heavier than six potholes a day with six guys on the crew?

CALLER: Well, sometimes he wished he would work more for a living, but he’s pretty happy the way it is.

RUSH: Obviously he’s a member of a union?

CALLER: Yes, he clearly is.

RUSH: So the union probably negotiated this rule: No more than six potholes a day, so our crew won’t get exhausted.

CALLER: That’s correct.

RUSH: So basically one pothole per crew member.

CALLER: Basically, yes.

RUSH: Nice work if you can get it.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate the call, Gary. Thanks much.

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