RUSH: To Garner Valley, California, this is Big Walt.
CALLER: Rush are you there?
RUSH: I’m right here.
CALLER: I just wanted to say if they’re going to hand people money they need to make ’em work, you know, I got a few people —
RUSH: Where? Wait a second. Where? I proposed —
CALLER: Anything! Sweep the streets, pick up trash, rebuild the buildings in Chicago. Give them jobs. Make them proud of themselves.
RUSH: Well, that’s what the stimulus was for, but it’s not happening!
CALLER: They’re not going to do it. They’re just given it to them.
RUSH: Right. There is a job… What was it, Houston? Where is it that last week that some city is paying some people four bucks to go around and pick up…? It’s in England. To pick up pet poop, pet poop, and I’m sure that’s a problem in every city.
CALLER: Well, the plastic bags are against the law, you know. It’s not politically correct. You know. But I wanted to tell you that the first time I called you, I hung up because I was so scared. (chuckles)
RUSH: Well —
CALLER: I think you’re a great American. And I just gotta say some things real quick. I’ve never seen so much racial hatred in this country since Mr. Obama’s been president. I didn’t vote for him because he was black. I just didn’t like his politics. If I liked his politics I would have voted for him. Another thing, too, I’d like to ask you something. You know, a lot of people ask you for a bed or a box of meat and that. I’m just wondering if you could do me a favor someday. I put on a Support Our Troops rally in this little town in California, and called the politicians and none will show up. Every year there’s less and less people.
RUSH: I got ten seconds. Get to the question, please.
CALLER: Yes. Could you come out and give a speech in our little town, if I put one on next year?
RUSH: Have you’ve got 150 grand? That’s my fee.
CALLER: We’re just poor folks.
RUSH: I’m just kidding. Lighten up, folks. Come on.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Well, I’m getting flashed from a lot of people here that I’m really underselling myself with my $150,000 speaking fee, that Larry the Cable Guy charges $500,000, and that Colin Powell charges $150,000 and I should at least charge more than Colin Powell. The dirty little secret is, I don’t charge anything for speeches. I charge zero for speeches, and I pay my own expenses. Yes, Snerdley, you heard me right. I don’t do that many, either, but I don’t charge for them. (interruption) Why don’t I…? It’s not capitalism. It’s not where I make my money, and I don’t want to commit to padding my income by flying around and making a bunch of speeches because I don’t like it, as you well know. I do not like making speeches. I don’t like television, either. (interruption) ‘All the more reason to charge big bucks,’ yes. I know I’m going to get a lot of requests since I’m announcing I don’t have a speech fee.
I don’t have a speech agent. I don’t have an agent, period. (interruption) No, you can’t be my agent. No. You cannot be my agent. I don’t need to pay some schlub 15% of what I can get myself. I can get three if you think you can get me two, but I don’t… Let the requests come in. I’ll just give the same answer. I’ve got a guy on staff, folks, has one job, the answer whenever he gets the call is ‘no.’ And then he sends me a note and says, ‘I just declined. If you want me to change it, I can.’ I never reply. One job! He has health coverage. He is fully covered in the EIB insurance plan and he’s got one job, and that’s to say ‘no.’ (interruption) No, I’m not a hard… I do speeches. I unusually do the speeches, the appearances, those related to my affiliate radio stations. It’s the same guy handles my interview requests. The answer is ‘no.’ He’s paid to say one thing when his phone rings about appearances. (interruption)
Sometimes ‘hell, no’ if they don’t get the message. And sometimes, ‘Hell, no, what do you not understand about the word ‘no’?’ But that’s as far as it goes. (sigh) Anyway, I was telling you Friday… I said it for a reason. I think all these people running around charging for speeches — capitalism is what it is, but I think it’s cheap to run around charging. All you gotta do is watch these people on television every Sunday. You don’t need to hear ’em speak. I’m talking about the Speakers Bureau guys and so forth. Look, that’s just me personally. I don’t want to enter that world. Remember when I was telling you last Friday, and I think I even mentioned this to the Today Show. I can’t remember what I mentioned. That was an hour interview. But I’ve got myself in a very, very enviable place in life. This is a blessing, and it’s not too many people who can ever say this — and I’m not bragging about it. I think it’s a blessing. I have to do very little that I don’t want to do.
Do you realize what freedom that is? And I’ll say why I don’t like doing speeches. It’s ’cause I don’t prepare them because I don’t know how. I ad-lib ’em. It’s all improve. And the night I’ve gotta do a speech, I’m a wreck all day. ‘What if I don’t come through? What if my mind isn’t working? What if it isn’t firing on all cylinders? What if the people who are showing up are disappointed?’ (interruption) Snerdley is saying it’s never happened. We don’t know that it’s never happened. We don’t know that it’s never happened. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. I go out there with no notes. (interruption) Oh, yes, I got all kinds of stuff in my hands! Not a script, but I’ve got the stories I’m going to talk about, I don’t take a stack of paper out there and start fumbling through it to do a speech. (interruption) Would you stop it? (laughing) I’d need two podiums! Have you seen the Stack of Stuff in here during an average radio show? I don’t even know what I’m doing next.