RUSH: Rich in Philadelphia, it’s great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, hi how are you?
RUSH: Fine, sir, thank you.
CALLER: Good this is an honor to speak to you as an up-and-coming broadcaster I’d just like to say that, so… Two things about the health care. Okay? One: I do not think — as a 20-year-old I do not think — that we need it. I think that it is un-American because the need for the majority outweigh the needs of the minority, and the Democrats who run campaigns as ‘the party of the people,’ are looking at the needs of the minority and just pushing the majority aside, and I don’t think that’s right.
RUSH: Well, that’s an interesting way you’re looking at it, but that’s not what the Democrats are about. The first thing you’ve gotta understand, or the first thing to try to understand, is that nothing they do is oriented toward care or compassion for people. It’s about getting their votes, it’s about… I mean, how compassionate can it be to take people and make ’em dependent on government for anything? Where is the compassion on that? You know, we conservatives, we measure compassion by counting the number of people who no longer need that kind of assistance. The second thing is that they’re doing, Rich, is right now a majority do not want this. John Boehner just sent a press release. Five polls in 24 hours show a majority of people wanting nothing to do with Obamacare. It’s not stopping him. He’s going to do it anyway. They don’t care what people want. They are going to force on people what they want people to have, whether they’re in the majority or not.
CALLER: Well, I understand that. My second comment would be — and what scares me about this health care. It was on Fox News yesterday, this senator — I forget his name, so I won’t quote. Somebody from the House, I believe, and they said, ‘What do you think about the health care? Are you for it?’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ and then they said, ‘Well, did you read the bill?’ and the House member said, ‘Well, who can read a thousand page bill in two days?’ So, I mean, if you’re not going to read the bill that sent up red flags. There’s a thousand page bill. You’re for it. You don’t read it. You don’t know what’s in it, but if you are for it and why — and then why are we electing these people?
Jerry in Atlantic City, great to have you with us, sir, on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. Mega dittos, Rush. How you doing?
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir. Very well.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to make a comment. You played the sound bite before — and by the way, I’m a big supporter of the voice change. You played the comment before from Obama how it burns him up that people are trying to scare old people, and how many times have you heard a liberal rip George Bush and Republicans for the same thing.
RUSH: You know, that’s an excellent point. I mean, since the seventies, a campaign tactic of the Democrats has been to say to senior citizens that Republicans are going to take away their Social Security. You are exactly right. The people scaring old people are the Democrats. The left, radical Democrats, they’ve doing it for many, many years. Obama is scaring them. They’re showing up to town halls asking, ‘Am I going to have to go to this end-of-life counseling?’ Obama’s plan is scaring them.
CALLER: Obama’s plan should be scaring every American.
RUSH: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, the way it’s going to — or at least a significant majority of them.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Man, you don’t need to do any thinking at all, by the way. We do that for you here. The Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Oh, and speaking of advanced conservative studies, this conversation about health care insurance is going to occupy Washington the whole month of August. (interruption) What is so funny? Snerdley’s having fun on the phone. All right. ‘Cause I knew I hadn’t said anything funny yet. (interruption) Oh, he’s upset at my car? Step up? I did. That’s why I have a car that gets eight miles to the gallon. We’ll get to that in a minute.
This health care business, seriously, is going to occupy Washington and the country throughout the month of August. Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel want a vote before the August recess ’cause they know how tough it’s going to be for these House and Senate members on their vacations. Everybody at home has an option and as more and more people find out the truth it’s going to be tougher. Now, the Heritage Foundation has the latest digestible data from the whole 1,200-page health care insurance bill being contemplated, like the notion that as many as 88 million Americans may have to change insurance providers involuntarily.
Now, when you’re a member of the Heritage Foundation like I am, you have access to this information at your fingertips. They have analyzed all 1,200 pages, and it’s there at the website, and you can access it at your leisure. Get this. Some 465,000 conservatives in America are members of the Heritage Foundation. Among other privileges they get access to all kinds of information online at AskHeritage.org. You could become one of the 465,000 plus. Join the Heritage Foundation; join the legion of conservative voices in the country actively engaged in the battle of ideas in the arena of ideas. They’re putting out the best stuff inside the Beltway.
This next story you just have to love. This is from state-controlled media, TheHill.com. I’m not making this up. ‘Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday blamed Capitol Hill media for setting an August deadline for health reform and Republicans for blocking the bill’s progress. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Conference Secretary Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also acknowledged that critics will ‘pour it on’ during the coming August recess and they plan to respond in kind. Reid said reporters created a fictitious deadline of a successful vote by the August recess, and downplayed the fact that the chamber won’t meet that mark. ‘That is a deadline that you created,’ Reid told a group of about 75 reporters.’
Now, if I’m a Drive-By, state-controlled media reporter, and I’m one of the 75 listening to Dingy Harry, I’m saying, ‘Do you not listen to your own president? The president set the deadline!’ And the president has been answering questions why throughout these town hall meetings. He got it at the press conference last Wednesday night; he got it in Raleigh; he got it wherever else he’s going, ‘Why does it have to be done so fast?’ He said it’s because I’m getting all these letters, to which the retort is, big deal. The thing doesn’t get implemented ’til 2013, four years from now. What’s the damn hurry? But Harry Reid is blaming Beltway state-controlled reporters for setting an August deadline. I’m surprised they didn’t blame me.
Now, this is curious. I have another story here that is from AP/Huffington Post. Are they one and the same? Oh, I know what this is about. I remember what this is about. The Huffing and Puffington Post was stealing content and putting it on their website as though somebody there had written it. The state-controlled wire services complained about this, so now the Huffing and Puffington Post is having to credit the people they used to be stealing stuff from. Anyway, here’s the story. Now progressives are outraged. ‘Progressive House Democrats Balk At Health Care Compromise.’ That is from today, 8:30 this morning. ‘Congressional Democrats are determined to show progress on health care overhaul by pushing President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority through two critically important committees before they head home for their August break. … As word of the agreement spread, liberals fired back. ‘We do not support this,’ said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Progressive Caucus. ‘I think they have no idea how many people are against this. They can’t possibly be taking us seriously if they’re going to bring this forward,” meaning the deal with the Blue Dogs, not the whole health care bill. They’re upset at the compromise with the Blue Dogs. So the radicals in the House are all bent out of shape at Rahm Emanuel bending over, apparently, and making a deal with the Blue Dogs. That’s why Maxine Waters is still out there chomping at the bit over this, because the bill’s not liberal enough for them, and, believe me, this is a bill that would make Karl Marx smile, and if he were alive it would add ten years to his life.