Recession? Refuse to Participate!

RUSH: We will start in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, with Bethany. I’m glad you called. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s a pleasure to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I’m calling. I need you to enlighten me a little bit here. My husband and I are in the process of buying a home, and it’s becoming more and more obvious as we go through this process, that despite what’s happened in this country with the housing crisis and the credit, that our government is still in the habit of rewarding inefficiency and, you know, underachievers. And I need you to just answer: ‘When, in the history of this country, has that ever been an effective policy?’

RUSH: Depends on effective for who.

CALLER: (laughs)

RUSH: It was very effective for FDR. It has been very effective for the Democrat Party in creating a voting army of underachievers. This is one of the points that I made in my CPAC speech. It breaks my heart to see all the lives destroyed by Democrat Party policies. I see all the potential that so many Americans have that they’ll never know because they are told they can’t get anywhere without government help. What you have to understand that’s happening with Obama here, Bethany, it really is no more complicated than that. See, I think Obama’s mentoring relationships matter. I think it matters that Jeremiah Wright was very important in his life and Bill Ayers and all the people associated with the Communist Party when he was growing up as a kid in Hawaii. I think all that matters. I think it matters who taught him at Harvard and other Ivy League schools, and I really do believe Obama believes the old canard that the rich or the achievers in this country got their money illegally or unethically, that they stole it from the middle class or the underclass. And I think his operative philosophy here is that he is going to return the nation’s wealth to its, quote, ‘rightful owners.’ I don’t know how anybody can conclude otherwise. So when you say, ‘How has rewarding inefficiency ever worked,’ it’s working for Obama. His poll numbers continue to climb.

CALLER: It’s astonishing. It’s astonishing. It’s not working for me. It’s not working my family. (laughs)

RUSH: That’s because you are to be gotten even with! You’re part of the class. You’re part of the achiever class that has unfairly acquired what you have. You and everybody else have effectively stolen it or in some other unethical way taken a greater share of American wealth than you deserved, and you left too many people poor and you left too many people impoverished and too many people in the lower middle class, and it’s time that you return some of that wealth — ill-gotten gains — back to the people who are the rightful owners.

CALLER: I’ll tell you, it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to go anywhere in western Pennsylvania. We’re hardworking people. We never look to the government for handouts, you know? And we’re going through this home buying process, and they —

RUSH: By the way, I need to ask you about that. People probably stunned that you’re buying a house in this market. Could you explain the details of this?

CALLER: Sure. Absolutely. First of all, we’re in western Pennsylvania, so there was never a huge bubble. The home prices pretty much stayed the staple whereas in the rest of the country right now they’re down, what, 25%?

RUSH: So there no major foreclosures en masse in western Pennsylvania?

CALLER: Well, the prices have stayed relatively even. You know, we’re down two or three percent.

RUSH: Yeah, but aside from that, why do you want to buy a house in this market? That’s what people are wondering, because you’re not going to get relief on your mortgage.

CALLER: Well, right now we’re paying a high amount in rent. We have a great credit score. We’re in the 800s. We have no other debt. We don’t, you know…?

RUSH: I love this.

CALLER: Our cars are paid for. The only thing we’re paying is our student loans which, you know, I would never regret. So why not buy a home? Get settled, you know, raise our kids.

RUSH: See, folks, what you’re listening to? Bethany, thank you.

CALLER: You’re welcome. (giggling)

RUSH: Thank you very much. What you just heard is somebody, whether she knows it or not, is looking at the recession and saying, ‘I’m not participating.’