RUSH: I have an idea. Nobody likes the term ‘death panels.’ Well, I happen to like the term ‘death panels.’ How about cash for caskets? Hey, Koko, get Michaele at the website working on a graphic of that: Cash for Caskets. You know, get a bunch of old people, and put ’em in a casket with dollar signs and bills floating around.
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RUSH: I like that: Cash for Caskets. Cash for Caskets to replace the whole notion of death panels. And you know, you could use a Darth Vader-like figure assigning caskets to some seasoned citizen in a wheelchair or what have you; and the family of the seasoned citizen smiling, being given a check or some cash. Maybe put Geraldo in there! You know, he’s the Grim Reaper. He shows up on Fox when people die. That’s how I knew Michael Jackson was actually dead was when Fox put Geraldo on there.
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RUSH: Andy McCarthy, my buddy, has another great piece at National Review Online, NationalReview.com. ‘Killing Obamacare — ‘Death panels’ cuts to the chase, which is the only way Democrats can be stopped,’ and his point here is: Keep shouting. Tell everybody exactly what the plan is, and remind everybody that this can happen tomorrow if the Democrats unify. They can get this done the first day they come back if they want to, and for that reason we have to assume that at some point they are going to get it done. And it’s up to us to keep the pressure on to stop it. Koko, I want you link to Andy’s piece right now. It’s at National Review Online. I want to put it on the website so it will link to it from our site as well. It’s called, ‘Killing Obamacare,’ and it’s just another tremendous piece.
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RUSH: Matt, Lake Charles, Louisiana. Hello, sir, and welcome to Open Line Friday.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. I’ve been listening to you since I was 14 years old, and they told me back then when I was in school that it would lead to no good, but, hey, you know, I made it, so —
RUSH: Well, you’re a Rush Baby that survived the experience.
CALLER: I know, imagine. Now if we can only survive Obama. Listen, I’m a car dealer, and you were talking earlier about the effects, you know, how Medicare will have lower prices. I don’t think anyone has to look any further than Cash for Clunkers to see what’s going to happen to prices. We have seen since Cash for Clunkers was announced, not started, but announced that some of our competitors slowly started raising their base prices in anticipation for what was going to happen with Cash for Clunkers. And since the program has been in effect, a lot of our competitors, and including us to some degree, had to raise our prices because we knew what we were going to be dealing with.
RUSH: I need to ask you a question.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: Do you work for an Obama-owned company?
CALLER: (laughing) Possibly, yes.
RUSH: No, is it General Motors or Chrysler? You work for General Motors or Chrysler?
CALLER: Yes, I do.
RUSH: Okay. So you work for an Obama-owned company. So what you’re telling me is that Obama running his car companies decided to end up raising prices because the competitors did?
CALLER: Exactly. We had no choice.
RUSH: Right. You can do that because the hapless customer walks in thinking he’s getting a $4,500 rebate or at least assistance in buying the car, so you can jack it up, the price. If your competitors do, you can do it, too.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: But why wouldn’t you lower the price if your competitors are raising it?
CALLER: Well, you would think so but unfortunately with the government assistance, or intervention as we like to call it now, our cost has gone up just to deal with the problems, you know, first of all submitting all the paperwork —
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: — I mean, our guys that are out selling the cars, we have to institute all of these new policies, how to get the paperwork right because we are out several hundred thousand dollars right now.
RUSH: Oh, this is wonderful. They’re taking automobile salesmen and turning them into bureaucrats.
CALLER: Basically, yes.
RUSH: Essentially.
CALLER: And our costs have gone up, so —
RUSH: You know there are all kinds of stories out there about how Chrysler and General Motors are not the cars that people are buying with the Cash for Clunkers program. And what nobody is factoring in here is that people do not want to buy a car from Obama or an Obama-bailed-out company.
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RUSH: In Chicago, this is Phil. Great to have you with us on Open Line Friday, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Actually I’m calling from Minnesota. I’m originally from Chicago. And I just wanted to tell you that I have fond memories of my dad walking in our backyard, he had a cigar in his mouth and he’d have his radio headphones on listening to Rush and from time to time he’d shout out, ‘hear, hear.’
RUSH: Tremendous. That’s great.
CALLER: My point is having grown up in Chicago and having lived there and lived under the tyranny that is Chicago politics I just want to comment on what I’ve heard this week with people saying, ‘Okay, it’s over the top what we are doing when we’re going to town hall meetings, we’re making too much noise.’ No we have to be relentless because they are ruthless. We have to continue to organize, continue to make noise, and continue to be heard.
RUSH: Exactly, and because behaving in this polite, civil manner is how we get the stimulus package.
CALLER: Exactly. And that’s the way they do it in Chicago, they just ram it down people’s throats, and eventually people lie down, and we cannot lie down. We have to continue to fight.
RUSH: I know. The aggressor sets the rules. But the evidence is in: It works. This kind of behavior at the town hall meetings works. It’s based on substance, it’s not based on phony anger, it’s not ginned up, it is what it is. People see it, that’s why they’re trying to caution us to dial it back. They don’t want to anger the precious independents. The dirty little secret is it’s the independents that are abandoning Obama in record numbers.