RUSH: Daytona Beach, Florida, 17-year-old Jordan. Jordan, thank you for calling. It’s nice to have you with us on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. It’s an honor to speak with you today, sir.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: My question — or my comment — for you is: Why is it the American people are so gullible as to believe the lies proclamated by the Democrat Party concerning Social Security when it’s them who wants to not only raise the age to 70, but reduce the payout by 40%?
RUSH: I love this. You’re 17, and I’m… (chuckling) You know, the answer to you is, “Welcome to the conservative club.”
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: I’m 60, and I have been asking that question since I was 17.
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: Honestly! I’ve been asking: Why do the gullible American people fall for any of the Democrat agenda? I ask myself that every day. You’re 17, so the ’80s, they’re history to you.
CALLER: Right
RUSH: But in the 1980s, this country had a recession much like this one, and we came out of it with specific policies that were just the exact opposite of what we’re doing today and it brought prosperity for 20 years.
CALLER: Mmm?
RUSH: Fifteen, 20 years. And so I asked myself, “The people lived through that, what is it that made them forget it and what makes them susceptible to lies?” Well, what happened, Jordan, from the very beginning in the ’80s when Ronald Reagan introduced the policies that caused the economic growth that resulted, the Democrats and their friends in the media started lying about it all. They continued to lie throughout Reagan’s presidency and after he left office, revising history, making lies about how Reagan’s policies created homelessness and AIDS and poverty; that Reagan was basically stealing food from the poor, taking it back to the White House, and eating it himself.
They were trying to create this picture of Reagan for people, and back then there was no media like there is today. Whatever was said about Reagan stuck. There was no countervailing media. Reagan’s only opportunity and the reason he was able to win in two landslides was he had to be able to speak directly to the American people. Every time he was on television, he overcame the filter that was the media. Now, in specific answer to your question about Social Security: I think in the last ten years, in fact, it isn’t working. I live in Florida. The Democrats have been threatening voters that Republicans are going to take away their Social Security.
It’s like the threats that they’re making today on Medicare. It’s Obama that’s cut $500 billion from Medicare in his health care plan, and yet the image persists that Republicans want to take your health care away from you. The charges are not as automatic today. They’re more and more elderly here in Florida (it’s “God’s waiting room”) and they’re electing Republicans. Simply after all of these years of empty threats people are starting to say, “Uh, wait a minute. All these years I’ve heard Republicans want to take my Social Security away and it isn’t happening.” They saw Bill Clinton raise taxes on Social Security recipients in 1993. They’ve seen all this. Another thing, too — and this is very important for you at 17 years old to understand.
The senior citizens that you are referring to who buy into this are people whose presidents were people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman and JFK and LBJ. People like you, when you begin to hit your thirties and forties or whatever age you start thinking your retirement, your memory is not gonna be of these architects of this stuff. Your memory is gonna be of people like Obama, and I think your generation is gonna be (and may be one generation ahead of you) the generation that finally brings a halt to all of this left-wing demagoguery working, because you’re growing up, realizing already at age 17 the lie.
CALLER: Rush, could I ask you one more thing?
RUSH: Oh, of course.
CALLER: They go on to say — they insidiously ask the American people — if we would rather have the fat cats on Wall Street manage our retirement money. But the funny thing is, Rush, if anybody in the private sector, these fat cats that they refer to, tried reducing the payout by 40% — or saying that, no, you’re not gonna get your return until ten years later. If anybody in the private sector tried that, they would be put in jail immediately, and a perfect example of that, you mentioned them yesterday, was Bernie Madoff.
RUSH: Right. Exactly right.
CALLER: So…
RUSH: Here’s another question for you. Are any of these fat cats on Wall Street taking their investment portfolios to Social Security and saying, “Here, invest this for me?”
CALLER: (chuckling)
RUSH: No! They’re investing it where? Exactly where the Democrats are telling people they will lose their money! So you have learned early. You obviously have great parents. You obviously have a chance to listen to this show sometime because you have learned a basic truth. You understand it. Liberalism is so easy to understand. All you have to admit to yourself… It’s a tough thing to do. All you have to admit is the whole thing is a lie and all you have to admit that all the liberals who talk about it, they’re lying. That’s hard for people to accept, but once you do, it’s the easiest thing in the world to understand — and you’re there. You are there. This is why people ask me all the time how come I stay optimistic. A phone call from somebody like you who’s 17. Where did you figure all this out? How did you do it at your age?
CALLER: I listen to you every day and I actually just recently bought a subscription, a year’s subscription to Rush 24/7. So I’m doing homework at night, and I have your entire three hours playing in the background.
RUSH: Wow. That’s just awesome.
CALLER: (chuckles)
RUSH: That really is cool. Do you have an iPad?
CALLER: What was that?
RUSH: Do you have an iPad?
CALLER: No, sir.
RUSH: Don’t tell me you use Windows?
CALLER: I do use Windows.
RUSH: Okay. (gagging)
CALLER: Sorry. (chuckles)
RUSH: That’s all right. That just means there’s room for growth. I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. You hold on here and I’m going to have Snerdley find out where to do it. There are not very many of them left now. There were 25. We still have some back there, right, Brian? We haveRush EIB signature iPads, engraved, and we got them both black and white. Ask him what color he wants. We got ’em both black and white. Make sure you get an overnight address, not a P.O. box. (interruption) What? Some tea? Yeah, yeah, that’s a good idea. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that’s an excellent idea. Get his tea flavor preference! That’s a superb idea. See, this is how, folks — this is why — I’m able to remain optimistic.
And I’m sure it’s not just this program he’s been listening to. But 17 years old. (interruption) Well, why? Yeah, he’s pretty smart. But in addition to pretty smart, he’s pretty learned. Being smart by itself doesn’t mean anything. How many people we consider brilliantly smart do the stupidest things, like raise money for Democrats and so forth? At any rate, that’s Jordan, and he is from Daytona Beach, Florida. Did you get his flavor? What tea flavor does he want? (interruption) Tell him we’ll send him some of both, just make sure to find out whether he wants regular or diet, and we’ll send him some regular and raspberry. (interruption) He likes regular. Okay, cool. That’s the best tea we have, anyway. Two If By Tea.