RUSH: Last Friday, unemployment in our country hit 10.2%, coming in higher than the experts expected. This, of course, after the Democrats in Congress spent almost a trillion dollars in so-called stimulus, including the pork, and after Obama said unemployment would not top 8%. And the stimulus bill, if you’ll recall, was supposed to contain a lot of ‘shovel-ready’ projects. Well, we learned that 65,000 construction jobs were lost — (laughing) I’m sorry to laugh about it — in the unemployment numbers that were reported on Friday. Now, this unemployment news followed the Obama White House touting an internal report full of misleading hype over jobs that they’ve ‘created or saved’ 650,000. It’s a mere drop in the bucket.
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RUSH: Last Thursday, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, blasted the Obama administration and Congressman Barney Frank telling a banking audience that the Democrats’ actions to restructure the entire economy are insane. ”I hope the New Jersey, Virginia governors race will put some realism into this administration,’ Welch told a big crowd at the Bank Administration Institute convention. ‘I hope it will cause them to just pause and not just jump into anything they encounter.” Jack, ‘insane’ is not the word! It is lunatics. It’s being done on purpose. And someday everybody is going to say, ‘Rush, we shoulda listened to you,’ again.
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RUSH: ‘Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric,’ last Thursday in Boston, ‘blasted the Obama administration and Congressman Barney Frank… telling a banking audience that Democrats’ actions to restructure the entire economy are ‘insane.’ … ‘I desperately want more thought so we don’t throw out some of the great things we have in this country,’ Welch said to more than 1,000 bankers who watched the 73-year-old via video hookup. ‘Right now, Barney Frank has the floor. He can send us down paths that might be bad for us. That’s frightening. I hope the elections in those two states will slow the speed at which we are attacking climate change, financial regulations and health care. We can’t just pile up deficits and restructure the entire economy in 12-18 months. It’s not doable. It’s insane.’ But they’re doing it! They are doing it! And they’re going to continue doing it.
There’s a stealth second stimulus coming: $250 payments to Social Security recipients, another 20 weeks of unemployment compensation benefits. ‘But, Rush! But, Rush! These people desperately need it!’ I know, but what they need is work! What they need is jobs. And the more you pay people not to work, the less effort they’re going to put into finding a job, and work is what they need and what this country needs. It’s just that simple.
The efforts that are being undertaken here to ostensibly create jobs, and we have 10.2% unemployment, folks! It’s higher than it has been since 1983. And interestingly enough, the State-Controlled Associated Press has a pretty devastating take on this. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been getting stories from various State-Controlled Media outlets that, ‘Hey, you know what? Outta work, that’s kind of good. People are discovering how to share what we have with people and we’re getting in touch with ourselves again, having more time to spend with the families, and we’re not traveling as much, and we’re not polluting as much. Actually, all these wonderful things have happened to people who have lost their jobs!’ We’ve even had stories that people at Boeing who got fired were better off than the people who didn’t get fired, because Boeing was such a rotten place to work! But now all of a sudden, the Associated Press: ‘It hurts more to be unemployed now than the last time the jobless rate hit 10 percent.’
Now, ask yourself: ‘Why would that be?’ Seems like we’ve got all kinds of unemployment compensation assistance. We’ve got everybody out there on food stamps. We got Obama in the White House who’s lifted everybody’s spirits — ahem. Why would it be tougher than it was in ’83? ‘Americans have more than triple the debt they had in 1982, and less than half the savings. They spend 10 weeks longer off the job. And a bigger share of them have no health insurance, leaving them one medical emergency away from financial ruin. For these reasons, the unemployed are more vulnerable today to foreclosure and bankruptcy than they were a generation ago.
‘Donald Schenk knows. He’s been without work both times. It’s worse now, he says. Back in the early 1980s, when Schenk lost his job at a phone company, he was able to find several temporary jobs — including one testing pinball machines — to make ends meet until he landed full-time work nearly two years later. But now Schenk, 55, of the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Ill., has been seeking work for a year and a half after losing his information technology job. Potential employers aren’t interested ‘if you are not a perfect fit,’ he says. The unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent in October. All told, 15.7 million Americans are out of work. Add in workers forced to settle for part-time work or those who have simply given up looking, and the rate is 17.5 percent.’
Now, the next subhead is, ‘Better in some ways — Only twice since World War II has unemployment topped 10 percent — now and from September 1982 to June 1983. In a few respects, life is better today for the unemployed than it was then.’ See, here comes the obligatory: It’s really worse! It’s worse than ever! Worse than ever! But, actually, it’s better today! — in the same story! ‘Unemployment benefits are more generous, adjusted for inflation, and the Internet allows jobseekers to network, scan for openings, [look at porn] and apply without leaving home. And thanks in part to higher home values, Americans are worth more…’
What? ‘Higher home values’? Where has the AP been? ‘Higher home values’? What is the term, underwater? People’s homes are worth less than what they’re paying for them? Higher home values? Well… ‘Measured in 2009 dollars, net worth comes to about $173,000 per person, compared with $94,000 in 1982, according to Lynn Reaser, president of the National Association for Business Economics. Even if the average American has a larger cushion to fall back on, times are tough.’ Okay, now we’re going to switch gears: ‘It’s worse than ever, worse than it was, but it’s not so bad! In fact, it’s better in some ways!’ But now we’re back to ‘times are tough.’
‘A much larger share of jobs these days… are in the service sector, such as tax preparers, hair stylists and retail clerks. Those jobs generally pay less and offer fewer benefits than blue-collar manufacturing work. Manufacturing, which typically offers more generous benefits, accounts for less than 9 percent of payrolls today — down from 19 percent in 1982. Back then, the United Auto Workers persuaded the Big Three auto companies to pay up to 95 percent of the gap between a laid-off worker’s unemployment benefits and what he or she made on the job. But since the decline of the size and influence of unions’ (laughing) It’s surreal! ”that would be inconceivable today,’ said University of Illinois professor Michael LeRoy, who studies unions.’ Yeah, just give another year or so, and they’ll have that fixed. I’ll tell you what we need is a Misery Index, just like we had in the Carter years. We are long past the time where we need a Misery Index. That’s how we have to measure it.
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RUSH: To Newnan, Georgia, this is Herb. I’m glad you called, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. It’s a pleasure to speak with you. Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: I’m just standing here pacing back and forth because I don’t see how you can keep your sanity half the time. I mean, from the word ‘get go’ when are these people going to wake up? There’s so many thoughts running through my head it’s hard to get them all out, but I know one thing. I’m tired. I’m 56 years old. I spent ten-and-a-half years in the military. I did it all. I’ve suffered. I’ve cared for my family. I’ve worked two and three jobs sometimes. Things got tough. You know, it just seems like Obama — and believe me, I have no prejudice about being black, white, it don’t matter. But it seems like all he is is a cliche or somebody’s wrote some fancy slangs. You know, like, ‘It’s time for change.’ What change have we seen? Nothing too good. ‘It’s time to pull yourself up by the bootstraps.’ I have no problem pulling myself up by the bootstraps.
RUSH: Hold on just a second. Obama is not saying that. Obama wants to pull you up by your bootstraps and then put you where he wants you to be.
CALLER: Well, my daddy taught us that when things got tough you tighten up your belt and you went to work and you done without.
RUSH: That’s insensitive today. ‘That’s easy for you to say but what about these poor people that don’t have jobs? It’s easy for you to say.’
CALLER: Rush, I scrimped and saved. I know you’re going to think this is funny. I was married 27 years and lost my wife to breast cancer. Five years later I met a woman, remarried. I was still in the same bed. When we got married she really didn’t like sleeping in another woman’s bed but we started saving. And we heard you talk about Sleep Number Bed. We saved for two years. When the economy went down, we reset our priorities. We had to pay things that we had to pay. And it’s just not that. It’s just one thing after the other. People talk about national health care. I’ve experienced overseas where I was stationed. I had a son born in Scotland. I had to experience their national health care. They let my son be born two months premature just so it wouldn’t cut into the doctor’s holiday. Okay. He came out with small birth defects, which he still suffers with. But it’s okay. We’re strong, we’re going to make it. You know, it’s just when are people going to wake up and see what’s going on and go to the tea party meetings and rally around somebody? I just get so disgusted. I mean, I drive a truck full time and sometimes I just go down the road with tears coming down my face because I see the changes and I just don’t know what to do no more. I just don’t know what to do.
RUSH: I know, because all the things that you have cited — thrift, hard work, taking care of yourself, being responsible for your family and so forth, serving your country; all these things you’ve mentioned — people sneer at them. ‘Oh, that’s just old-fashioned stuff. What do you mean, go get a job? That’s easy for you to say,’ but there’s a fundamental change in American culture that’s taking place.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Look, I totally understand your frustration. There are millions of you out there and I know when your voice will next be heard (aside from the tea parties). It will next be heard next November, a year from now. Mark my words. They’re talking unemployment may now hit 11% and it’s not going to go down anywhere any time soon, even in the next year. If that’s the case, Katie, bar the doors. And if they’ve put health care on top of this, whew! That’s where voices will next be heard.
CALLER: It is so frustrating. I am glad you’re able to keep your sanity and your sense of humor because we need to hear you out there. And I’m so glad when you came around and opened up the AM waves, before you… Well, you know, AM radio wasn’t that big. And when you come along and got affiliated, it was just a godsend. And I say that freely now. Who knows when I’ll be able to say that again?
RUSH: (laughing) It’s not that bad yet, Herb. I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic.
CALLER: I know you will, Rush.
RUSH: We’re close. These are desperately serious times.
CALLER: I mean, I’m sitting here and talking to you and getting a little bit off my chest. It just makes me tremble, because we could see what’s coming. We could see what’s going on down the road. I mean, what would they say if Bush would have spent 9,000 gallons of fuel just to plant a tree on Earth Day? You know, and that’s just one instance. I mean, there are just too many double standards. People gotta get out there and work, do whatever it takes! Don’t take the easy way, and just don’t get on the company dole and let somebody else worry about you.
RUSH: Well, you’re describing an old American work ethic and tradition that, as I say, is sneered at by a lot of people.
CALLER: Oh, I know. I know. I know. But there’s still a lot of us out here, and a lot of us are still working.
RUSH: I know, and there’s more than you think. But you ask me how I avoid going insane. Understand that there are some people who think I am insane. None that know me, don’t misunderstand, but there are people who think I am. But you just said you thank me for the opportunity to call here and vent. See, I get to vent every day. That is wonderfully therapeutic. I get to vent to these 20, 22 million people every day and most of you in the audience are sitting there and you’re wondering if anybody is hearing you. Are you alone? Does anybody agree with you other than the guy on the radio? Because you don’t see any action, other than the tea parties, the protests in Washington on Saturday, but even at those you see those people being sneered at.
CALLER: That’s exactly right.
RUSH: But we hear you. We hear you, Herb. We hear you.
CALLER: You look a lot better now. You lost some weight. Excellent job.
RUSH: (laughing) Yeah.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Thank you. Well, we hear you, Herb.
CALLER: Well, thank you, Rush. And just keep preaching the gospel because sooner or later people is gonna understand.
RUSH: Look, we’re 10% unemployment. People are understanding. They’re just shell-shocked. This is the United States of America and this type of stuff doesn’t happen here. Now, the old-timers still around remember FDR trying this stuff but he was building things for the first time then, like Social Security and all these other things. All these things are built now and they’re not working. They are leading to debt. And now people see we’re going to add on to that, and we’re doing it with an assault on the engine that made this country the greatest economy for the good of all humanity in the history of humanity. We see an assault on the United States economy. We see a pilfering of the US private sector. We see the government. We see 238 millionaires in the House of Representatives. Two hundred thirty-eight millionaires, that’s not quite 50%. Over in the Senate there are tons of millionaires as well. We are now led by a governing elite that looks upon us with contempt, especially the Democrat Party.
They’re sitting up there and they know full well that nobody wants this health care plan. The Rasmussen numbers out today. Even after it’s passed, still 52% oppose it. It’s going to be even higher than that. Do you remember Reagan came up with this plan for catastrophic health insurance for seniors, and the wealthiest among them would be charged $560 bucks a year? They had a fit when they found out! That’s when they stormed Rostenkowski’s car in Chicago and that’s when he lost the election, and they had to withdraw that. Well wait ’til they find out that the average family is going to have to cough up $7,000 a year to buy health insurance, mandated by the federal government. Wait ’til they find that out. Wait ’til upper income people $15 to 25,000 they don’t know this stuff yet. When they do, you wait.
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RUSH: Well, I need to apologize here. I did not hear Herb correctly. I thought Herb from Newnan, Georgia described his situation as his wife died, he married a new woman, and had to sleep in the same bed until he saved up enough money to get a Sleep Number Bed. I thought he got the bed and then had to cut back. I’m being told here that he had to cut back before buying the bed. Now, had I heard that properly… It’s my fault. I coulda looked at the steno over here, but I thought I heard it correctly, so I didn’t. So, Herb, call us back here, if you can. And don’t any of you people out there who are not Herb call here and tell us you are, ’cause Snerdley is an expert in voice recognition. So Herb, the lines are jammed. They always are. But Herb, I know you’re out there. Keep trying to. I need to get back in touch with you. We did not get his phone number, and so we have no way of reaching Herb.