RUSH: You know, I’ve been watching the Sonia Sotomayor hearings and the Republicans, they’ve blown a couple things, but it’s been pretty good. She’s been exposed for what she is and we’ve got sound bites here proving something that I made mention of yesterday that the far left, legal community’s very upset that she’s lying about who she is, that she doesn’t have the guts to be a wise Latina in public, that she doesn’t have the guts to be smarter than everybody else, that she doesn’t have the guts to show that she’s a full-fledged liberal radical. They’re upset about this. We have two sound bites coming up. We also have some sound bites this woman butchers the English language more than George Bush could ever try to if he ever got drunk again. We have samples, examples coming up.
I’ve been watching these hearings, ladies and gentlemen, and these hearings have given everybody a chance to reveal themselves. Transparency has not helped Sotomayor. It hadn’t helped Obama, it hadn’t helped the Democrats. And as the hearings have progressed, as I mentioned, a lot of liberals have turned on her and I got to thinking in the old days when C-SPAN televised what went on in the House we actually saw for the most part legislation being crafted. We don’t anymore. It all takes place behind closed doors and then they come out on the House floor and debate things they’ve already decided. Major legislation no longer allowed, extensive hearings and debate. There was no hearing or debate that anybody saw on the amnesty bill, they’re not going to be hearing a debate on the tax-and-cap bill or on the health care bill and as such people will not know what this is really all about unless they are familiar with certain media sources. It’s all taking place behind closed doors because it is so ugly.
The New York Post has a graphic today explaining how the health care bill of Obama will affect New Yorkers single and married in various income groups, various income levels. It’s going to kill the city. Fifty-seven percent top rate for the highest earners when they add up federal, state, city, Medicare, and Social Security. In fact, let me find that chart even now, here it is. Let me zoom in on this. You’re not going to be able to read the chart. I just want to show you on the Dittocam what I’m reading from there. Sorry it won’t focus any better than that, but that’s what I’m going to be reading from in mere moments. If every newspaper around the country would publish a chart, ladies and gentlemen, it would go a long way toward helping stop this thing.
Here what Obama’s health care plan means to New Yorkers, four examples of the big new tax burden New Yorkers would face under the bill that passed the House. Single Wall Street worker earning $285 grand a year, his federal income tax will be $79,000. The New York state tax will be close to $20,000. His New York City tax will be just over $10,000. The new health care tax, $2,850. Medicare, almost $3,000. His total tax bill on a gross of $285,000 will be $115,254. The percentage of his income going to taxes will be 40.44%. A small business owner, $500,000 payroll, ten employees and no health care plan. A new 8% no health care tax penalty will be assessed on this guy at $40,000. If you do not provide health insurance you get penalized 40 grand, which means this guy would have to lay off one employee making $50,000 to make up for the new tax.
Eighty thousand dollars a year worker with no health insurance, eighty thousand a year. Remember, now, this is a group Obama has said will pay no increase in taxes. Federal income tax, $16,000. New York state tax, $5,000, New York City tax, 2,000, almost three. So you’re looking at $16,000 federal, $8,000 New York state and city, Medicare $2,300, and the new two-and-a-half percent no health care tax penalty on individuals if you don’t have health care, $2,000 for a person making 80. Her total tax bill on an income of $80,000 a year in New York City, $28,391. Her income going to taxes, 35.48%. I guarantee you that’s a huge tax increase for this person. Married couple combined income, one-and-a-half million dollars. Federal income tax, $455,000. New York state tax, $125,000. New York City tax, $55,000. So you’re looking at $180,000 taxes in New York state and city, $455 federal, the new health care tax on them of 5.4%, $81,000. That’s a tax they’re not now paying.
These taxes do not include the cap-and-trade taxes. These taxes do not include the tax increases that are going to happen when Bush’s tax cuts expire. The Medicare tax on these people twenty-nine fifty-eight. Their total tax bill on an income of one-and-a-half million will be $718,775. If they are New York City resident, their rate will be 58.68%. If they’re New York state residents, the rate will be 56.92%. If they don’t work in the city, and I’m talking about the couple with one-and-a-half million dollars, 56.92% in the state, 58% total rate if you live in the city. So anything over a million dollars you’re getting close to a 60% tax rate in New York City. Well, that’s what we were talking yesterday. There reaches a tipping point where people say, ‘What’s the point of working? I keep 40% of what I earn, how do I live in this city on 40% of what I earn?’
So you’re paying for other people who won’t work. I’m telling you folks, if you have never believed me, believe me now. This is the greatest illustration of the whole purpose of the Obama administration: return the nation’s wealth to its so-called rightful owners, the people that haven’t earned it, the people who haven’t tried to earn it, they are the minorities, the victims, the poor, and this is to chop the head off of the people who make this country work. That’s the purpose of this. Nobody with a brain, nobody with a sane moment in their lives would propose something like this thinking it is going to help anybody. It’s not going to help everybody get health care. It’s not going to improve anybody’s health care. It’s not going to improve anybody’s insurance situation. It’s just going to destroy their prosperity, which is the objective. And if Congress, if they were doing hearings and if we had people and experts testifying to this stuff in open committee hearings rather than behind closed doors, where people would be able to hear it and see it if it were broadcast on certain news networks, it would go a long way to being able to stop this kind of stuff.
If every newspaper in America would simply run the numbers like the New York Post did for how it’s going to affect residents in their city and state, if they did this in LA, if they did it in San Francisco — well, it wouldn’t matter there. If they did it in Detroit — ah, wouldn’t matter there. If they did it in New Orleans, might matter there. It would go a long way to putting the brakes on something. This is why Obama’s doing his best to hurry this along before people en masse discover that this is what’s happening. Quick time-out. We’ll be back. We’ll continue — (interruption) what? What? Hm-hm. Now, we’re going to get into this, Snerdley. I can’t do everything in the opening monologue. Yes, I realize that an ex-wife can only get half of what you have. Obama and the states are now going to come in and take over half of what you have after you pay the ex-wife. If that’s what your concern is. There’s a tipping point at which people say, ‘What’s the point?’ And they’re doing this by design. They know what these numbers are. They’re doing this by design, and this is just a health care tax increase. This is why I said yesterday that any economic forecast, gross domestic product, unemployment, whatever, you’re gonna forecast the future of the country, you can’t possibly predict it with any certainty at all unless you know how much of this kind of stuff is going to be enacted. And I can tell you, if this gets enacted, there’s no growth, there will not be any economic growth. I’m telling you that’s the design.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right. Now, we know the tax rates. We know the utter destruction of the United States private sector as a result of President Obama’s health care plan. We now know the numbers. The New York Post has added numbers to the tax increases that are going to take place. We can extrapolate this all over the country. This is it for the Republican Party. This is it. You know, if the Republican Party cannot stand up unified and oppose this on the simple basis of the economic-killing aspects of these high taxes, then they may as well find another reason to exist. This is it. This should not be a no-brainer. Sadly, ladies and gentlemen, there are some in the Republican Party who think — like Colin Powell — we should be paying higher taxes and people are calling for it. They want bigger government and so forth. But this is a golden opportunity here. It’s a golden, golden, golden opportunity. It’s just been handed to them on a silver platter.