RUSH: Back to the phones to Chicago. This is Ted. Welcome, sir, to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: Okay, just a question. Obama keeps talking about how all these people, they lost their job or they can’t afford their insurance or whatever. Somehow they’re in financial straits. But don’t we already have programs like Medicaid and public aid to cover people who don’t have any money?
RUSH: That’s why… Everybody gets coverage. Everybody gets health care in this country. I had a story yesterday about young people who either got fired, laid-off or part time work and they don’t have health care overage, and oh it was horrible. It was an AP story and it was designed to spur sympathy, and if you read the story, they all got treated nevertheless. It was just tragic they didn’t have any insurance. You’re exactly right. Medicaid is for the poor and Medicare is for the elderly, and the promise is, ‘It’s free for you. You’re poor; it’s free for you.’ Both programs are bankrupt! The Obama plan builds on both of those programs. See, your question, Ted, is exactly why the premise of
this whole question is not the right one. You know, I did a long interview on camera with Greta Van Susteren this morning right here at the Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. I was ‘unleashed.’ They’re promoing it that way on Fox.
I was on fire, and I said, ‘The whole premise here is all wrong. We don’t have anything structurally wrong with our health care. It’s the best in the world. We don’t need to tear it apart and rebuild it. Maybe tweak it around the edges.’
And of course Greta was somewhat aghast, ‘You don’t think there’s a crisis?’
‘No! Compared to the rest of the world we’ve got the best health care. Nobody leaves this country, Greta, to get treated. They come here,’ and I pointed out to her, and I could see her eyes kind of got wide here. I said, ‘Look, if we really care about the uninsured, we just spent close to a trillion dollars on the stimulus six months ago. I ran the numbers, Greta, and $29 billion would cover the genuinely 12 million poor people in this country that don’t have health insurance. For $29 billion! And then if $29 billion will cover 12 million then you can run the numbers. So we could for one year have covered these people with chump change from the stimulus.’ Now, if it’s so important to cover them with health insurance, why the hell didn’t we?
Why are we going all out? Ninety percent of the American people have health insurance. What are we talking about here? We’re talking about people’s fear, and that’s why there is insurance. You got a policy, you pay a premium based on the amount of risk that you want to take or that you can afford. Except the problem is, of course, as we know that for 50 years the concept that health care should be free and you have to pay for it has been growing and growing and growing — and don’t forget, folks, that every day we are bombarded with something new that’s going to kill us, from global warming to sharks to scorpions that end up being stowaways on airplanes to the latest food additive or food that could kill you.
Everybody’s obsessed with health. They’re out there joining health clubs. We got the most obese people in the world that are drinking this and eating that and so forth. We’ve got a population that is inundated. Chinese food’s going to kill you! Trans fats are going to kill you! Secondhand cigarette smoke is gonna kill you! Everybody is thinking they’re going to die;, everybody is thinking they’re going to get sick. They want health insurance. They want catastrophic health insurance. It’s just… All of this stuff is interlinked in order to create the demand for bigger government, which is somehow magically where the solution to everything lies — which, of course, is a lie. There are very few solutions to social problems in big government. Thanks for that question, Ted. We got ten minutes of an answer out of that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Joe in Key West, Florida. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Rush, let me tell you, it is a pleasure to be calling you from the Democrat Peoples Conch Republic.
RUSH: Yeah. (chuckles)
CALLER: And, you know, the more you go through this health care, Porkulus bill, the more it stinks! I’m looking at page 1,000, where they have the ‘National Medical Device Registry,’ and it’s just stunning to me that the government would want to know about every Class Two or Class Three medical device that’s life supporting or life sustaining that ‘is or has been used in a patient.’ ‘…is or has been used.’ Not what they’ve paid for, but what anybody has paid for or has ever had placed in them. I’m just waiting for the day that the ACORN representative comes by to tell me I have to register for insurance. And they get paid for that?
RUSH: Yeah, well, you have to register for it.
CALLER: And if you’re poor and if you’re in a situation where you don’t want to buy insurance and you don’t want to be on Medicaid, you have to go on Medicaid. But this is intrusive.
RUSH: No, you don’t.
CALLER: Pardon?
RUSH: Or you can pay a fine to the IRS.
CALLER: Well, yeah, up to the amount of what your premium would be or $2,500. But for the government to get this intrusive into my life is just stunning to me.
RUSH: Well, I’m glad you’re reading it. I’m glad you’re seeing these things. I am waving the red flag. I got the sirens going and the lights blinking. This isn’t about health care, and it’s not about these devices you’re talking about. These details illustrate what this is about: Regulating your behavior, the government keeping tabs on what you are doing and whether what you are doing is going to cause problems for you and them with health care expenses. The simplest way to understand this is that it’s not about health care, and that’s why Obama won’t get into any details here. That’s why he’s lying. ‘Oh, yeah! You’re going to get increased coverage and more efficient treatment. It isn’t going to cost you anything! A couple millionaires are gonna pay a higher tax rate and it’s going to be a panacea.’ If you’re a Medicare or Medicaid patient, if you like dealing with it, fine and dandy. You can have it. It’s going to get even worse (sigh) with all the forms. Oh, my.