I Never Said “Don’t Donate” to Haiti

RUSH: You know, ladies and gentlemen, it gets very frustrating here sometimes. As many of you know, I really am uncomfortable talking about myself. But I am forced into it by a constant drumbeat of erroneous reporting that never ends by the State-Controlled Media of what I say. So I’m forced today to deal with it, but I’m not going to start with that. I’m not going to be derailed. I’m not going to be taken off track. Greetings, great to have you here. We’re back for a full week of broadcast excellence here at the EIB Network. I am Rush Limbaugh, America’s truth detector and the Doctor of Democracy. The telephone number if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882, the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

Is Wyclef Jean a rap star or is he just reggae kind of music? Do you know? Well, Wyclef Jean is running a relief mission in Haiti. I think he’s Haitian, but I’m not sure. Okay, he’s Haitian. Well, he’s being ripped apart by people for suggesting that people donate to his charity. Some in the media are suggesting that the administrative costs of charity going through Wyclef Jean’s company or outfit may be a little bit high and the net sum that will end up getting to the recipients is not what it should be, and I’m stunned at this. What about the administrative costs of donating through WhiteHouse.gov, for crying out loud? Do you know that one of the reasons the welfare budget is as high as it is — and these numbers are I guess ten years old, but in 1999, maybe earlier than that, for every dollar that was budgeted for welfare or food stamps, AFDC, whatever it is, 28 cents of it was spent on administering it, so 72 cents out of every dollar got there. I mean the high administrative costs are actually when you donate through the government. I don’t know of a president ever who has asked people to donate to a relief effort through a White House website. It’s never happened before.

By definition, everything the president of the United States does is political. They even put out from the White House over the weekend, Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun-Times, I printed it out, it’s three-and-a-half pages: ‘Obama on the Haiti Earthquake Crisis: Behind-the-Scenes — The Obama White House is taking the unusual step of pro-actively providing a heavy amount of on-the-record details of how President Obama is handling the aftermath of the horrific earthquake in Haiti. On Friday, the White House released a minute-by-minute account of events.’ From Tuesday, January 12th, all the way through Friday, January 15th, it takes two-and-a-half pages and the tiniest font size I’ve ever seen to go through it.

‘Tuesday, January 12th, 5:52 p.m.: The President is informed of the earthquake at 5:52 p.m. The President asks his staff to make sure that embassy personnel are safe, and to begin preparations in the event that humanitarian assistance is needed. The Department of State, USAID and the United States Southern Command begin working to coordinate an assessment and any such assistance. 8:30 p.m.: The President receives another update on the situation…’ It goes on and on like this for four days. The whole point of this is to show exactly how on the money here and paying attention Obama is, as contrasted to President Bush in Katrina. Now, this disaster in Haiti is worse than anything that ever happened in New Orleans. It’s just an absolute disaster. The aid finally starting to trickle in now after about six days, but it’s still very, very slow. The situation on the ground is unimaginable. I don’t even want to describe to you the things that I have read with the vermin, the rats, I don’t even want to go there. This is just unbelievable. It’s unimaginable and for anybody to report that I said don’t donate is absurd, and these people know it. The people who are making a big deal out of this, are themselves politicizing this for the express purpose of discrediting me, somebody they feel is a top-line conservative spokesman.

They are constantly trying to discredit people like me, rather than debate us on issues. Nobody here ever said don’t donate. We just pointed out you already contribute to the government with your income taxes. If you want to donate above and beyond that, go through a charity that’s constantly on the ground in Haiti, or the Red Cross, if you want to go that route or whatever. Nobody said do not donate, which is what is being reported. I’ve had so many e-mails over the weekend: ‘Rush, the press is castigating you unfairly. You know what you ought to do Rush? You ought to donate a million-dollars, make it public or you ought to ask all the liberal media to ask what they individually have donated and then promise to double it. It would probably cost you 20 bucks.’ That was the funniest one I’ve seen.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, here we go, folks. Week Two: Obama’s Haiti Crisis. (interruption) What? (interruption) Yeah, I mean to say that. Of course I mean to say that. What do you mean why would I call it Obama’s Haiti Crisis? Well, the media is! Look at all the nine pages here: Minute-by-minute meetings! Obama on Haiti. Obama here, Obama there, Obama doing this. It’s Obama’s Haiti. He’s better than Bush. We’re on the case. Week Two: Obama’s Haiti Crisis. (interruption) I understand. Look, this just crossed the French News Agency: ‘About 30 Americans were hurt Monday during a massive relief operation in the Haitian capital in what was described as a ‘mass casualty event,’ US officials said,’ and that’s all there is on this. This is starting Week Two here: ‘About 30 Americans were hurt Monday during a massive relief operation in the Haitian capital in what was described as a ‘mass casualty event’ …’