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RUSH: Tina in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Great to have you on Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Well, Happy New Year, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you. Thanks very much.

CALLER: Okay. Well, as I recall, in the beginning of the show you were talking the numbers figure, too, and I remember the “Recovery Summer” where it was going to take 230 to 360 a month in order to gain the jobs back that were lost.

RUSH: Wasn’t it 400,000 that was going to be needed?

CALLER: I know it was a lot, and it had been every month.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And where are these…? Don’t we even have one honest economist out there that can speak to this —

RUSH: No.

CALLER: — and say, “You know, one month of 200? Whoop-de-doo when you’re not counting millions”?

RUSH: No, because they’ve told us, “It’s not the numbers that count. It’s the trend line,” and the trend line is anything that’s beginning to look like things are moving in Obama’s favor and that’s what’s gonna be reported.


CALLER: Well, we can’t count on the media. We know that.

RUSH: No.

CALLER: But —

RUSH: Well, these economists are not economists. They’re media experts. They get their name in the media ’cause the media seeks them out. You think they’re gonna say things the media doesn’t want to hear?

CALLER: Well, you know how quickly that was forgotten — and that summer never panned out anyway; we all know it.

RUSH: I agree. I think we’re being overwhelmed. Forget about that. We have a chief executive who has just dumped the biggest, most odorous pile of excrement on the Constitution in our lifetimes.

CALLER: I agree.

RUSH: With this recess appointment crap!

CALLER: I know.

RUSH: We’ve got somebody who’s lawless. We have somebody who is behaving outside the bounds of Constitution. Where is the outrage?

CALLER: I couldn’t agree with you more and that brings me to my last little comment: Is it still safe to buy green bananas?

RUSH: It is.

CALLER: (giggling) Just checking.

RUSH: Safe to buy green bananas. I don’t… Why would it not be?

CALLER: Well, you know, it goes back to the comment, “Is it time to panic yet?”

RUSH: Oh. Oh. No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s not time to panic, but you might want to be looking at real estate prices in New Zealand. Just to get a feel for it. But it’s not time to panic. This is Michael in Goffstown, New Hampshire, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hi. How’s it going, Rush?

RUSH: Good.

CALLER: I’m a first-time caller. I’ve been listening to you since I was a little kid and I used to go to work for my old man, and he always had you on.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: I just need to understand something. You know, I never really was listening to all the politics, paying attention to it. I kind of listened to my old man about it and he led me conservative Republican. I live here in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Right now I’m unemployed. I have interviews lined up and stuff but it’s always been I’m not getting what I should be getting for the job that I’m in. I have to stay home with my son because I can’t afford daycare — and, you know, working around, trying to get interview on that kind of schedule.

RUSH: Are you divorced?

CALLER: No, no. My wife works.

RUSH: Oh.


CALLER: She’s a school teacher.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: That’s another thing: She has to be careful what she says to people that she works with because, you know, God forbid you’re a conservative school teacher.

RUSH: You gotta be kidding?

CALLER: Yeah. There’s it’s just so much politics that goes on in schools.

RUSH: Yeah. Yeah.

CALLER: Most of them are liberals and Democrats.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: But what I want to know is: You know, I can’t find anything that is telling me what they’re actually gonna do for working class families that, you know, I’m not looking for handouts or anything. I’m trying to get a job.

RUSH: Well, this is interesting. What do you want or expect from these candidates that you hope to hear something from? What do you want to hear from them?

CALLER: It’s just, you know, the spending that’s going on. I just want to know how it’s gonna affect people like me who, you know, my property taxes are high. I had to do a short sale on a house. I just moved across country.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I had to do a short sale on a house because I couldn’t sell my house, so I had a take a hit on that.

RUSH: Okay, I know what you mean. I know what you want to hear. I’ll tell you when we come back.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right, our last caller, Michael from New Hampshire wants to know what candidates are going to do for the working and middle class. I’m gonna take a flier on this. He’s an avowed, admitted conservative. So I am going to, quite naturally, conclude (’cause he also said this) that he’s not expecting a handout. He’s not expecting some politician come along and hand him a job. But he’s finding a tough job market. What he wants is an end to all of the nefarious obstacles that are in the way to employers hiring people, and, therefore, get the obstacles that prevent economic expansion and growth out of the way. What he’s really asking is: “When are we gonna be left alone?”

He’s not looking for a handout, he’s not looking for a specific policy that gives him a job, per se. That’s not the end result. That’s not realistic. It’s what liberals look at but it’s not realistic. He looking for a climate. He’s looking for an atmosphere. He’s looking for a community attitude — one that’s filled with optimism, people uplifted and inspired, feeling like their government’s not working against them. Feeling like their government is not punishing them! That’s what he really thinks; that’s what he feels. The government is punishing him in any number of ways. He just wants ’em out of the way. It’s quite understandable, too.

A lot of people have been conditioned to believe that jobs are the result of policy. In fact, even now, with the unemployment number at 8.5%, “Oh, yeah, Obama did it!” That’s why we gonna tell people on the left who think this, “What did he do? What policies led to those 200,000 jobs last month?” which are really 150,000 and even that’s bogus, but regardless: What did he do? He didn’t do anything. If this is real, it’s happening in spite of Obama. Obama’s not doing anything to create jobs. There’s not one Obama policy, other than the extension of the Bush tax cuts, that in any way lead to the expansion of the private sector. Obama is shrinking the private sector, and by virtue of that he’s shrinking job opportunities in the private sector. Obama’s doing nothing to create them.

That caller wants to feel the government’s on his side. He wants to think the government’s on his team. When you come back from an international trip and you go through Customs, you hope the people welcome you home to America, not look at you as a suspect! It’s no more complicated than that. We don’t want government to be the enemy. You don’t want to be afraid of ’em. Look at what he said about his wife! His wife can’t be honest about what she thinks or she might lose her job. It’s clear to me what this guy wants. He wants freedom, pure and simple. It’s his freedom that’s being infringed upon! His wife’s a teacher but she has to shut up for fear of losing her job simply because of her political views. This is not Russia — or is it? In the old days of Soviet Union, people used to go to bathroom in their own homes to tell each other what they really thought. It’s where they felt safest. Maybe that room wasn’t bugged. (interruption) No, no, I’m not saying that now, but that’s the way it was then. Human nature is what it is.

Irving, Texas, is next, as Open Line Friday continues. This is Will. Great to have you, sir, on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Greetings, Rush, and tera dittos and happy Epiphany from Irving, Texas.

RUSH: Well, thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: Yeah, hey, I was thinking what Mike is about there, he wants to be left alone like you were just saying.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: You know, the Republicans blocked the Son of Stimulus and things had started looking up a little bit. I think that’s why Obama went wild and did these non-recess recess appointments ’cause he’s gotta look like he’s doing something, ’cause he’s in danger of actually having nothing happening.

RUSH: Now, that’s very shrewd of you, because part and parcel of that is that Obama is running against a do-nothing Congress.

CALLER: Right.


RUSH: So he needs the perception that they aren’t doing anything. So he goes out and says (impression), “Hey, if they’re not gonna do things for the American people — if they’re not gonna go out and create jobs, if they’re not gonna put the middle class first — then I’m not gonna wait! I’m gonna do it myself. I’m gonna say, ‘The hell with them,'” and that serves the purpose of running against a do-nothing Congress and taking matters in his own hands for the people and doing it and so forth. Who cares about the Constitution.

CALLER: Exactly. And doing nothing is working, and probably would have worked when the first stimulus was passed.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: You know, if we had allowed free market to operate —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — then there would have been no need for all this debt and all this appearance of Obama having accomplished something.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: So I’ve got the outrage for this. This extra-constitutional activity by Mr. Obama has just twisted my chain. I am just very upset about this.

RUSH: A lot of people are.

CALLER: I beg your pardon?

RUSH: Lot of people.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Livid! Livid about it — and here’s another thing. Talk about team? People like you who are livid about it, what do they hear the Republicans in Washington say? “Ah, it’s not that big an overreach. A consumer guy? That’s not that much. This is not the place to plant the flag and take the hill.” Really? A guy who just basically takes a leak in the Constitution, this is not the place to plant the flag? Well, when is?

CALLER: When is? That’s exactly right. Well, it’s part of don’t let a good crisis go to waste. Hey, if the crisis is starting to evaporate, create a new one!

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Go to war with the Congress —

RUSH: Exactly. He’s gotta make it look like Congress is obstructing him.

CALLER: Right. As if what he was doing was making things better —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — when in fact what he was doing is making things worse. Just like FDR. You know, FDR didn’t end Depression. He actually, through his policies, delayed the recovery from the Depression.

RUSH: This is true.

CALLER: The same is true of Obama.

RUSH: This is true. Well, you try to make a liberal believe that today.

CALLER: No. (laughing)

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: I tried to get them to believe it. I’ve taken classes in public speaking and that sort of thing and, you know, you have to do what you can to convince people of what’s right and good and true.

RUSH: That’s all you can do, too.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: And at some point it’s up to them. Well, Will…

CALLER: (crosstalk)

RUSH: I’m sorry, was there something else?

CALLER: Oh, no.

RUSH: We were talked at the same time. I might have spoken over you. I didn’t want to be rude.

CALLER: No my bad. You’re the host. (laughing)

RUSH: All right. Cool. (laughing)

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: Thank you. Thank you very much. (laughing) Thanks much.

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