Unemployed Electrical Engineer

RUSH: Here’s Paul in Covington, Louisiana. Is that right? Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Hello. Rush?

RUSH: Hi.

CALLER: Hi! It’s a pleasure and an honor, sir. I have been listening to you for the past couple-three years only, but I tell you what: I’m a very devoted fan of yours.

RUSH: Thank you very much. Two to three years threatening enough time to become a devotee.

CALLER: Absolutely. Listen, Rush, what I was calling about, I was listening to the story about the lady that had her unemployment check cut in half, and she didn’t know what to do with her family and so on.

RUSH: Yeah, she had her check cut in half and then it ended.

CALLER: Right. I’m unemployed. I’ve been unemployed for three months. I’m an electrical engineer. I cannot find a job as an electrical engineer. I’ve got 19 years of engineering behind me and I cannot find a job in Louisiana because of the regime’s policies. I get an unemployment check every week of $244. Out of that $244 there’s $22 that are in a separate line item and it says ‘stimulus,’ federal stimulus $22. It gets better than that.

RUSH: Wait a second.

CALLER: Yes?

RUSH: See, I’ve never seen one of these checks. You’re telling me that on your unemployment check they have it itemized?

CALLER: Not on the unemployment check. What I do is I get a statement, because it goes direct deposit to my bank, but on the statement — and I can pull it up online; as a matter of fact, I’m looking at it online right now — it says ‘week ending’ and a payment and it says ‘$222 direct deposit,’ then there’s a line item that says ‘$22 direct deposit and stimulus,’ and a third line that I didn’t tell the call taker about that says, ‘$28 deduction, federal withholding and stimulus.’ I’m at a loss to explain that to anybody, because I don’t understand what the heck they’re doing.

RUSH: Well, they’re giving you stimulus money and taxing you on it.

CALLER: Exactly. Exactly. They’re giving me $22 and they’re taking out $28, and I’m supposed to be excited that I’m getting the stimulus money?

RUSH: Damn right! You’re supposed to be more than excited. You’re supposed to be damn grateful.

CALLER: Right. I have been looking for work for three months. I haven’t stopped. And, as a matter of fact, as of Monday, I took a job selling cars at a local dealership, Rush, ’cause I cannot find an electrical engineering job. Not that there’s anything wrong with selling cars. I’m with a bunch of great people. But, you know, my skills, what I’ve learned, what I’ve gone through school for, what I’ve dedicated my life to, what I’ve spent a whole lot of money trying to accomplish, it’s all out the window. I don’t know.

RUSH: It’s all out the window for now.

CALLER: I hope so.

RUSH: You are doing what you have to do to bridge until we get back to the point where you can once again devote yourself to that expertise and that day will come but you’re just doing what’s necessary.

CALLER: I hope so.

RUSH: Trust me. Don’t doubt me.

CALLER: I don’t, Rush. I see it every day. Everything you say happens. And I listen to these elitists and I don’t know what to call ’em up there in Washington. They are so disconnected from the rest of the country. They’re just playing by their own rules, and they just don’t care about anybody in this country. Nobody. I’ve got two kids. One of them is in college, and one of them graduated from college, and the one that graduated from college is in the same position as me. She can’t find jobs anywhere, and she’s working at a file clerk for minimum wage right now. You know? It’s ridiculous.

RUSH: It’s Obama’s America.

CALLER: Yeah. They keep talking about stimulus. They keep talking about, ‘Oh, we creating jobs!’

RUSH: Well, yeah. I don’t know what you’re worried about. The president’s been saying for the last year that we’re on the rebound here and we’re back from the brink, that we’re moving forward. We got a whole new economic formula, whole new foundation down there. We’re not going to have any of these business cycles anymore. We’re going to have solid, steady economic mediocrity.

CALLER: Absolutely. I disgusting, Rush. I mean, what is a man like me supposed to do? I’m looking at changing my whole life — and, Rush, I’m 50 years old.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I gotta start fresh at 50?

RUSH: It’s hard, I know. Change is hard for anybody.

CALLER: Yep.

RUSH: Hope and change is almost impossible with this bunch but most people, they get into a pattern — predictability, comfort levels and so forth — and changing all that up is a tough thing. I’ve had to do it seven or eight times, even a couple of career changes. I’m fifty-plus. If I had to do it now it would be a challenge. I know exactly how you feel. But you sound to me like somebody who has the fortitude and the gumption to do it, and I have all the faith in the world in you. But you’re going to be back to your chosen field at some point. It’ll happen. This still is the United States of America, and we’re not gonna become a nation of mediocrity without putting up a fight to stop it.