El Rushbo: Lawyer Employee?

RUSH: This is Scott in Ontario, California, great to have you on the EIB Network, sir, hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush, how are you?

RUSH: Very well, sir. Thanks very much.

CALLER: Well, I just wanted to talk to you about how you always seem to vilify or blame some kind of union for some kind of economic problem. But if we that work for a union are considered union workers, then maybe you would be considered a lawyer employee because you have a lawyer represent you in a contract.

RUSH: Uh, what?

CALLER: You know how you always say unions are this and unions are that, you were just talking about unions, the working class, what he’s really saying is union member. But if you have a lawyer represent you to negotiate a contract for you, wouldn’t that make you a lawyer employee?

RUSH: A lawyer what?

CALLER: A lawyer employee?

RUSH: A lawyer employee versus a union employee.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: See, the difference is —

CALLER: You don’t put blind faith into the company that you work for, who employee you, that they’re gonna treat you properly and pay you correctly. So you —

RUSH: My employees do.

CALLER: — have a union.

RUSH: No, no, there’s a difference. My employees do and I do have a lawyer, my brother who — I do the deal, he actually does the legals, but after it’s signed I actually work.

CALLER: Right, but you have a lawyer represent you in your benefits and your pay.

RUSH: I pay for my own benefits.

CALLER: Right, but you still have a lawyer to ensure that they’re there.

RUSH: No.

CALLER: However you’re treated —

RUSH: No, no, no, I don’t have a lawyer to take care of my benefits. I handle my benefits myself.

CALLER: So the lawyer just negotiates the pay?

RUSH: No. No, the lawyer negotiates the percentages that we all share off the top and off the net and so forth, but there are no dollar amounts. It depends on how much I produce.

CALLER: Right, but there’s something in writing to represent you and to protect your interests.

RUSH: Look, the point here is — yeah, and there’s something to protect them, too, in case I go nuts and become a liberal Democrat.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Now, when I criticize unions, I’m not criticizing rank-and-file. Rank-and-file don’t have any power. I’m criticizing the leadership. I’m talking about the guys who siphon union dues and give it to Democrats exclusively. I’m talking about members of the Communist Party USA. I’m talking about people get in bed with people like ACORN. I’m talking about liberal Democrat socialists. Wherever you find a major problem in the American economy today, you’re going to find a union somewhere involved.

CALLER: I don’t know if that’s the facts, but I’m just saying even other people in society other than yourself that get some kind of pay or benefit —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — if it’s not a union they go right to a lawyer, and the lawyer negotiates all their pay and benefits.

RUSH: Not everybody that gets paid has a lawyer arrange their payment or their contract. Not everybody that works has a contract.

CALLER: Right not everybody, but the majority.

RUSH: But the point is my lawyer is not out negotiating the pay of every other talk show host in the country. He’s representing me. I’m an individual. I’m an independent contractor. My work is merit based. I don’t get paid because some representatives told the boss that that’s what I’m going to get paid. I get paid based on how much I produce. I get paid based on how much I work. I get paid based on my industriousness, my achievement, my accomplishments. And if I don’t do any of that I don’t get paid, unlike union guys.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This last caller was really amazing. How many of you people have a lawyer negotiate your job? If unions cared so much about their rank-and-file, why are they all for amnesty? The SEIU is one of the biggest supporters of amnesty, illegal immigrants, legalizing 12 to 20 million people. What’s that going to do to jobs in this country? How is that having any fealty, loyalty to the rank-and-file? My lawyer is not using me to acquire big power for himself, and when I am not happy I don’t shut down talk radio. I know I could but I don’t, that’s the point, I don’t shut down talk radio. I would never think to do it. My lawyer does not represent all other talk show hosts, he represents me, has some other clients. Not big, but he’s got a few. I don’t have to have a lawyer as a condition of my work. I own the enterprise, I don’t have to have a lawyer. I’m not even an employee. I am a business partner. I pay — (interruption) what? Well, no, did he say that? Oh, he said that I don’t trust my company, that’s why I have a lawyer, to make sure I get paid fairly because I don’t trust — well, wrong, I trust myself. I am very generous with myself. I don’t think I have ever cheated myself, when I stop to think about it. I’d have to think back over all 22 years, but I don’t think that I’ve ever short-changed myself. I really don’t.

My benefits package is paid for as I need it. I probably save a lot of money because I don’t have a lot of benefits insurance. As I need it, I pay for it. I pay my lawyer for the work that is done. I don’t pay him any dues every year. And he’s not free to take my dues that I don’t pay and support political causes I disagree with. My lawyer does not negotiate health care benefits and pensions that are so impossible to meet that my partner is gonna go out of business. I mean my partners will never, ever have to be taken over by Obama because my pension and health care plan will never break and bankrupt my partners. My lawyer is not getting out my vote. My lawyer doesn’t send a little yellow bus to my house every Election Day and take me to the polling place. What did this guy have all the resentment for?

Folks, if you’re new to this program and you have all these thoughts based on the template, the narrative out there of me as mean-spirited, braggadocios, look, it’s very easy to understand me. I oppose liberalism, wherever it is, I don’t care, if liberalism could be found in the nurse’s union I’m going to oppose it. Liberalism tries to hide in some of the most touchy-feely places, like the animal rights movements and women’s rights and so forth. Wherever there is liberalism, you’re going to find me leading the move against it. It’s poison. The only socialism I support is the NFL and that’s kind of teetering.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Jacksonville, Florida, this is Nathan. Nathan, you’re next. Great to have you here with us.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Longtime 22-year September of ’88 listener.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: It’s nice to talk to you. Hey, I was calling about that California guy. You know, I’ve never had a lawyer negotiate my salary or anything, but he may be on to something to help the administration stimulus. I just don’t want to tell everybody about it because, you know, 150 million of us out here get private attorneys to go negotiate with our employers, the recession would be over. Right?

RUSH: Theoretically.

CALLER: (laughing) We could even export ’em to China!

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: Just don’t tell anybody, Rush.

RUSH: A lot of people are reacting to that caller who tried to equate me to being a member of a union and say it was all good. You know, you get phone calls like that and you realize — let me say I — that the education system in this country really does need some work. It has successfully dumbed down a lot of people, and intelligence has been replaced by loyalty to a political agenda in way too many people.