RUSH: Steve in Columbus, Ohio. I’m glad you called, sir. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hello?
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: Hi. Nice to talk to you, Rush.
RUSH: Hey!
CALLER: How you doing today?
RUSH: I’m just kicking back and doing great. How are you?
CALLER: Oh, I’m good. I have a question. I just want to know why do you think…? I want your opinion on why conservatives seem to be so threatened by labor unions? I’m a member of a labor union, and I… You know, it’s a multigenerational thing. My family’s been involved with the labor union since I can remember, but I just want to know why it’s so threatening to some people to go after better working conditions.
RUSH: Uh, it’s not.
CALLER: It’s not?
RUSH: It’s not threatening. It’s not threatening to go after better work conditions.
CALLER: To some people.
RUSH: No, no, no.
CALLER: To some people.
RUSH: No, it’s not “threatening” to people. That’s not it. Unions don’t threaten anybody. Well, now, some people are threatened by Obama’s union thugs like the SEIU people who beat up black people in wheelchairs at campaign events in St. Louis.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: But you have to specify what kind of union you mean. Are you a private sector union member?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Okay. Most of the attention on labor unions in the past 12 months has been focused on government union, particularly state union workers.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: They and their federal cohorts earn, on average, twice what similar workers in the private sector earn. Now, you may say, “Well, that’s cool. We all want people to make more money.” No, the problem is that they are being paid by their private sector cohorts.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Public sector workers are being paid by their neighbors.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: But the problem is that it’s a political thing. It’s not working conditions. The public sector worker unions, state and local, almost all vote Democrat. Their dues are siphoned and end up in the Democrat Party campaign coffers.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: It’s a money laundering scheme. Public sector unions are basically a Democrat Party money laundering scheme, but you tell me why somebody on your street should pay you twice what he earns and then promise you health care and salary for the rest of your life after you quit working?
CALLER: Oh, I — I think that it should be a give-and-take, Rush. I really do. I think that the person that’s… I think that providing that stuff to — to an individual is okay, but I think the individual should also be putting into that as well. I don’t think it should be expected that the —
RUSH: Well, welcome to the club. But the fight in Wisconsin was totally about the fact that the state union workers didn’t think they should have to pay a dime toward their own health care or retirement. They eventually agreed to. They lost the fight and then they lost their collective bargaining rights, but that’s because they were bargaining against the citizens of the state. Public sector unions are not bargaining against some fat cat, corporate jet-flying, cigar-chomping guy staying in hotel suites drinking booze all day long — you know, the caricature of the big corporate boss.
There are two separate types of unions that were being discussed here, but the whole idea of being “threatened” by people who want better working conditions is not at all what this is about. It’s about fiscal responsibility. It can’t be sustained! Situations where the people paying salaries are paying twice what they earn are then being told, “You gotta pay that for as long as that employee lives”? It can’t be sustained. It’s not fair. It doesn’t make any economic sense. That’s what the battle was about. The Democrats want all of that money because it just ends up back in their campaign efforts, pure and simple.