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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: I just got a call from the EIB PR Department. Let me give you this story. The EIB PR Department, the Media Relations Department just got a call from WNBC-TV in New York. That’s Channel 4. Channel 4 has requested a response from me regarding a statement made by the (chuckles) Governor of New York, David Paterson, in a press conference this morning. We do not have audio of this. I have not seen any audio of this, but some reporter from WNBC asked the governor of the state of New York what he thought about my saying I’m going to leave New York because of his tax increases. And the Governor of New York, David Paterson, responded that if he had known Rush Limbaugh would leave the state of New York, he would have raised taxes sooner.


Governor Paterson, if this is the case — if you don’t care about the revenue that you confiscate from me — then call off your audit dogs, because I’ve been audited for 12 straight years by New York State and New York City! I’ve been audited 12 straight years. So call off your audit dogs, if you don’t care about the money that you were confiscating from me for your wards of the state! So a governor — a governor of a state! — has actually told reporters that he’s so happy I’m leaving, he would have raised taxes even sooner if he knew that would have forced me out of New York State. I’m wondering: Has a governor of any state ever said anything like that about a private citizen? Are you just as happy with all the other New Yorkers who are going to leave, Governor Paterson? Because there will be others.

Governor Paterson, do you know that you have an exodus on your hands from Long Island, and for a long time you’ve had an exodus on your hands from Long Island moving to southern states like North Carolina and Florida because they’re sick and tired of the property taxes, the state taxes, the city taxes, and all the other taxes? So are you going to be happy that other taxpayers decide to leave New York, or just me? Just me? What an honor! What an honor. Folks, is there any other private citizen, any other — who is not a criminal; you know, who is an upstanding citizen, a man for the ages. Is there any other governor who has ever excitedly said, ‘If I would have known he was leaving the state, I would have raised taxes sooner,’ or what have you? Hubba hubba. You know, I haven’t even cracked any David Paterson jokes, unlike others in the media have.

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RUSH: Well, it has happened again, folks. I’ve always said if you place a bag of manure in front of a Democrat they will certainly step in it, and New York Governor David Paterson certainly has. He’s now joking about raising taxes an astronomical amount in New York State. I need to clarify something about this because, as is the usual case, the real crux of my comments here about leaving New York have been missed, on purpose. I am technically not leaving New York because I’m not there now. I moved out of New York in 1997. Every year I sent them letters saying, ‘Sorry. I miss you, but I’ve moved. I now live in Florida, and it’s why I’m not filing a tax return.’ In 2002, I got a letter and an audit from 1997 through 2001 — and it took two years to prove to them where I was every day of the year 14 different ways, and I have been audited every year since.

The way the first audit ended up is that when I do work in New York, I pay a per diem tax like athletes do, when they go in and play. They pay their taxes in New York State and the City, when they go to play the Mets or the Yankees. It’s a mess, but that’s what it is. We negotiated that; it’s all done. Now I get audited every year on the number of days I’m there and I have to prove it, and it’s just not worth it. And now he’s raising taxes to boot on all of this, and finally I’ve reached the tipping point. So I am going to cease doing business in New York. I do not live there! That’s what makes all of this ridiculous. I do not live there, and I’ve been audited by that state and the city for 12 years. So, with the tax increase and the fact that I’m rarely there and have to go through all this hassle, it’s sayonara.

I’m not leaving. I already did. I’m just not going to be doing business in New York anymore. And if the governor is happy about that, then he can go tell the wards of the state that I’m supporting that they’re going to have to find somebody else to provide the tax revenue. All right. Just to clarify that, because everybody reporting on this — of course — is getting it from everywhere but me. Like I told the college student yesterday who called in the last half hour of the program, ‘I’ve got a website. Everything I say is transcribed. No journalist ever calls me. Very few ever call me to find out, ‘Did you really say what they say you said here?” That never happens. They just run with what the left-wing media ‘watchdogs’ say I say. So this whole story of leaving New York has been distorted and misreported, which is the standard, so I spend some time here to correct it.

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RUSH: North Wales, Pennsylvania, Adam, we go to you first on the phones today, sir. Great to have you with us. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you. It’s great to talk to you.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: I just wanted to, I guess, say I feel for you a little bit with this taxes in-New-York situation. Not too long ago I live in Philadelphia, and I move out of there, I was just getting nothing for my taxes. They have a 4.3% city waste tax, I don’t even work in Philadelphia, and the things they’re talking about now, they’re not going to lower it, they were planning on lowering it, they might raise it, they’re going to raise the sales tax, stop plowing roads. I live on a back road, so they would have stopped plowing that. They’re going to start cutting back on trash removal or charging for trash removal, and I’ll tell you, I got the biggest raise in my life when I moved out of Philadelphia. I very proudly — and you know yesterday you were talking about cars. I drive a Mustang V8. I proudly get about 16 miles a gallon and I was going through three-and-a-half gallons a day paying 4.3% of my paycheck to Philadelphia, paying much more in rent than I needed to, I moved to North Wales, I’m much closer to work, I couldn’t be happier. People at work notice I’m in a better mood ever since I moved and stopped having to pay taxes.

RUSH: Moved out of Philadelphia, yeah. Well, you know, I want to make something plain here. This, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t live in New York. I moved out of there in 1997. I’m going to stop doing business there. These coming tax increases are punitive. They’re not going to work. They’re punishing the achievers. Taxes on the wealthy need to actually be cut, but what everybody’s missing here is I’ve been audited every year by these people. I’m not even a resident. I’ve been audited for 12 years and his is the tipping point. I’ll tell you, the governor telling people, had he known his tax increases could drive me out any sooner he would have raised them sooner? Governor Paterson, I saw what was coming in ’97. That is why I left there for a no-income tax state. The difference — you would not believe the net difference. I’m not going to of course get into specifics of numbers, but it’s absurd the level of taxation there.

See, I think property taxes and taxes in general, for example, Manhattan, the streets ought to be paved with gold. You look and most everybody lives in a high-rise building or some kind of building. There are multiple residents per address. The property taxes and taxes they are paying, the streets ought to be paved with gold with the revenue that they are collecting and the revenue that people are paying there. And, of course, it’s just the opposite. So, Governor Paterson, if you’re so ecstatic I’m leaving, if you don’t care about the tax revenue my doing business there creates, then call off the audit dogs. It’s meaningless, right? Doesn’t matter.

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RUSH: New York governor David Paterson, the unelected governor who will never be an elected governor, his polls are in the tank. And I guess, you know, by liberal standards, in liberal terms, being an unelected governor, he’s an illegitimate governor. Remember they said Bush was an illegitimate president because he wasn’t duly elected, so maybe Paterson, in the eyes of your own comrades, you are illegitimate as a governor.

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