RUSH: Last night on CNN’s Larry King Alive, fill-in host Wolf Blitzer during a discussion on Obama’s health care plan.
BLITZER: So much of the medical costs would go away if people just listened, if they exercised, they ate properly, they didn’t smoke, the things that everyone knows they have to do but people still do it. Ahhh, what can the country do to force people to just straighten out their lives because billions and billions of dollars would be saved.
RUSH: Do these statists understand? Do they even hear themselves? Do they know what they saying, or are they so drunk on Obamaism that they don’t realize this country is supposed to be about liberty! A television anchor asking, ‘What can we do? What can the country do to force people straighten out their lives?’ It’s asked by a CNN anchor. What can we do? Exercise, eat properly, don’t smoke. Hey, Wolf! I want you to listen to something. We have cut the number of people who smoke in this country by over half. Not nearly as many people that used to smoke, smoke today. And they told us, Wolf, that if we could just get rid of smoking — make a major dent in the number of people that smoke and therefore reduce the number of people exposed to secondhand smoke — that we would save so much in health care costs.
And, Wolf, there isn’t any secondhand smoke in any public place anymore, and there are very few people smoking, period, much less in public places. And hey, Wolf, have you seen health care costs drop any? Have health care costs declined any, Wolf? And, Wolf, there’s a hell of a lot of people out there exercising and many of them are having tree limbs drop on them and kill ’em. Some people are having heart attacks while they’re out there while they’re exercising. We read about it everyday! CNN may not get those stories. I read about it all the time. Trees are starting to revolt out there because of all the global warming. They are lopping off people that go jogging underneath them, Wolf!
I’ve seen it! And if they weren’t exercising and a tree limb fell nobody would have been hurt. Get with it, Wolf. You gotta get out of this narrow-minded template stuff that Obama can tell everybody how to live better than they already know how to live themselves. But the second thing is, Wolf, it’s none of your damn business how people eat or whether they exercise or not. It’s not your business; it’s not CNN’s business. It is not Barack Obama’s business. It’s theirs. It’s the ‘land of the free, home of the Brave.’ ‘Liberty. Life. Pursuit of happiness,’ even if it is in a container of McNuggets! Are you guys really drunk on Obamaism? What is it here? I’ve seen so many of these news people that used to be somewhat sensible and they’ve just gone now. What can we do to make people live properly? What can we do to make people eat right? What can we do to make people exercise? What can we do to save billions and billions and billions in health care?’ Very simply, Wolf. Tort reform. Health savings accounts. Competition in the health care industry, where the patient actually pays for it, Wolf! It’s real simple. I feel like a Howard Dean scream is in order here, but I will not debase myself.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, one more thing here for all of you who think that there’s magic to be found in ‘preventive care,’ exercising and eating. It has been established that there is no cost-benefit to preventive care. You know why it doesn’t save medical costs? In many ways it doesn’t save medical costs. But one way it doesn’t is that people end up living longer. They end up costing more at the end of their lives, and the longer they live that’s more Social Security they use. Wolf, just leave people alone. Let ’em do what they want to do! If they want to eat and die by 30, it’s none of your business. It’s none of your business, Wolf. If they want to eat McNuggets and find there aren’t any and call 911 at Port St. Lucie, it’s their business. Can you imagine what if…?
Wolf, I’d like to give you an idea. You’re hosting Larry King tonight, maybe on your own show, talk about poverty the way you talk about health care. Would you blame poor people for not taking more control of their lives? ‘What can we do to get these people to work? What can we do to get these people to stop depending on welfare? What can we do to get these people to educate themselves? What…?’ ”What can we do to get people to eat right? What can we do to get people to exercise? What can we do to get people to understand?’ Ask that about people in poverty: ‘What can we do to get them to take responsibility for themselves?’ Ask that, Wolf, see how long you last after the meeting with Jon Klein on that one. Isn’t how much money one earns more under your control than your health? Because, you know, your genetic makeup is a large factor in your health. It really is. So why the difference? Why all the coddling, why all the compassion, why all the understanding for people in poverty and why the hate for people who are a little overweight?