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Kucinich Flips on Health Care Bill

by Rush Limbaugh - Mar 17,2010

RUSH: Ah, folks, don’t get so wigged out here over this Kucinich business. There’s an easy explanation for this Kucinich business. They either threatened him with a UFO trip, or they offered to make sure that in his case his preexisting condition of mental illness will not be a barrier to any kind of coverage that he gets down the road.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, everybody’s asking me, ‘What caused Dennis Kucinich to flip? I mean Kucinich, his principles may be wrong and screwy and kooky, but still he flipped and why did this happen?’ Well, let’s listen to Kucinich. He calls a press conference, takes ten minutes to get to the news that everybody knew, that he was going to flip and vote for the Obama bill, the Senate bill. He gave us this life history story of his own health care? I mean this guy clearly — they played to his ego. Here’s probably how it went. They’re on Air Force One and they’ve taken off from Washington on their way to Ohio to, coincidentally, Kucinich’s little district. So Obama brings him up in the presidential cabin, says, ‘Look, you F-ing R-word, you hate the insurance industry, you don’t hate ’em any more than I do, I hate ’em. Are you really so stupid as to not understand that my bill is going to destroy the insurance industry?’ ‘How is that, Mr. President?’

‘For crying out loud, Dennis, nobody’s going to have to have insurance ’til they get sick, nobody is going to be denied. The insurance companies can’t stay in business with this kind of proposal. They’ll shut down. They’re going to force everybody to the government. The brilliant thing about this, Dennis, is we’re going to get the single payer public option without anybody saying it. You want to screw this by demanding a public option, you’re going to get it but you’re out there screwing around by demanding it. We’re going to get it, Dennis, without ever saying a word about it. Now, get on board here. I mean who’s going to be dumb enough, Dennis, to pay for insurance when they can wait until they have the car crash or wait ’til they get the terminal disease, all they gotta do is pay a little fine. Hey, Dennis, that fine is nothing more than a tax, and we’re pricing the tax, the fine much lower than the policy. No idiot in his right mind would ever buy insurance.’

‘But, Mr. President, the bill says, and the insurance industry is supporting it at one time, that they have to buy a policy, that you’re mandating it, and that made me mad because I hate the insurance companies, and you’re just giving them additional business.’ ‘Look, you F-ing R-word, Dennis, the fine does two things. It’s cheaper than the policy, more tax dollars coming into the government coffers, which you like, and the insurance industry is put outta business, leaving the government as the only place that people can go for their insurance. Dennis, it’s exactly what you want. We’re giving it to you without saying so. Only the bright people like Limbaugh and some of the people on the right have figured it out. But you F-ing R-word, I mean what more do I have to do? I’m destroying the very industry you hate, Dennis. You ought to be kissing my feet. You ought to be bowing down and begging forgiveness that you’ve been so stupid as to run an obstacle course in front of me to stop this from happening. These people, the American people are going to see the light, they’re going to leave these evil insurance companies high and dry, except when they need one of those unnecessary tonsillectomies or amputations that the doctors pull off.’

‘Now, Mr. President, I saw the survey that says that doctors are going to leave the profession. There’s an amazing survey that was released yesterday that over 60% say they would leave the profession of medicine.’ ‘Dennis, don’t you understand, that’s what we want, too. How do you think we’re going to lower costs, Dennis? We’re going to have less health care for people. We’re going to have no insurance companies, less health care, the people we don’t want to be around are not going to be around, the people who know the truth about us are going to die off, the elderly and so forth. Dennis, this is made to order. We wrote this bill with people like you in mind. I don’t have to give you anything, Dennis. I’ve given you nirvana in this health care bill. It’s exactly what you want. But you’re out there holding out ’cause you want it to say ‘public option.’ Well, if we say public option it doesn’t have a chance, Dennis, that’s why we got it passed in the Senate. So we had to put in a mechanism to destroy private insurance, and we’ve done it, and it’s going to not take very many years, Dennis, and, meanwhile, your mental illness, preexisting condition, will still be honored. We’ll make sure that somebody insures you for your mental illness preexisting condition.’ And folks, that’s all it took. At the end of this conversation Kucinich probably looked out the window and said, ‘Oh, my God, is that the Statue of Liberty? I’ve never seen it up close like this.’ That’s all it took, folks. Here, listen to Kucinich himself explain this.

KUCINICH: After careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, my wife Elizabeth, and close friends, I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation. As a nation, we’re losing sight of the expanded vision.

RUSH: See? See?

KUCINICH: The electrifying potential we caught when we caught a glimpse of the potential of the election of President Obama.

RUSH: Yeah.

KUCINICH: The transformational potential of his presidency.

RUSH: Yeah.

KUCINICH: And of ourselves can still be courageously summoned in ways that will reconnect America to our hopes for expanded opportunities for jobs, housing, education, peace, and, yes, health care.

RUSH: Dennis, have you checked what’s happening out there in the job market? There’s no expansion out there, Dennis, except in the government sector. Have you checked to see what’s happening in housing, Dennis, after one year of this messiah of yours? Have you checked to say what’s going on in education? They’re closing 45 schools in Detroit, Dennis, probably a prelude to shutting down the school system there. Obviously it’s a failure. Peace? Peace? Dennis, have you seen what he’s doing to Israel?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Kucinich, October 29th, 2009, was a true believer before they got to him. Here’s what he really thinks about the health care bill.

KUCINICH: Forcing people to buy private insurance, guaranteeing at least $50 billion in new business for the insurance companies, is this the best we can do? Government negotiates rates which will drive up insurance costs but the government won’t negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies, which will drive up pharmaceutical costs. Is this the best we can do? Eliminating the state single payer option, while forcing most people to buy private insurance. If this is the best we can do, then our best isn’t good enough, and we have to ask some hard questions about our political system, such as: Health care or insurance care? Government of the people or government by the corporations?

RUSH: That’s Kucinich just last October. That’s what he really thinks. He’s bought off. He was told, ‘Dennis, everything you want is going to happen here, just under the cover of darkness.’ By the way, I said yesterday that Kucinich’s wife would have a role in this, and Scarlett Johansson, the actress, and activist Elizabeth Kucinich will soon be working in tandem with Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity efforts, taking up the benefits of plant-based meals. So Mrs. Kucinich wants to be someone, she’s sitting right next to Michelle turning everybody into vegetarians now.

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RUSH: We go to Eric in Waterloo, Iowa, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I just wanted to let you know it kind of frustrates me that you keep calling Dennis Kucinich mentally ill. I have bipolar disorder, but I don’t believe in UFOs and do not support a bill banning mind control, which he introduced in 2001. Mental illnesses are treatable, but, frankly, this guy is beyond help.

RUSH: Well, I don’t mean to frustrate you, I was telling a joke. I was just trying to be funny, what kind of deal did he get to change his vote, his preexisting mental disorder to continue to be covered by it, just a flippant line.

CALLER: Yeah, he’s beyond help, there’s no chance for him.

RUSH: No. No. And I’m not saying anybody else believes in UFOs. I’m saying that if Obama thought that he did, he’d promise him a UFO trip or something. I was trying to explain to people how such a, quote, unquote, principled guy as Kucinich could be flipped in less than an hour aboard Air Force One.

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RUSH: I was just sent a note about a post from the leftist web log, FireDogLake.com, and it’s run by a woman named Jane Hamsher, big, big, big leftist, big Kucinich supporter, and she apparently is raising holy hell with Kucinich after his speech today, and he’s going to refund campaign contributions that he received from people on the basis he was opposing the bill until it had a public option in it. So he’s giving back money because he has betrayed the people that he has given a commitment to. He’s giving the money back. He can afford it because his wife is a gazillionaire, plus she’s now part of Michelle Obama’s eat plants initiative. (interruption) Of course Obama helped him out, Obama’s stash.