RUSH: Let’s start to the phones in Wellington, Florida. Jim, you’re first. It’s great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Oh, it’s an honor to be speaking with you, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: Mega dittos. I’ve been listening for many years. First time I was able to get through. I was wondering if you happened to have caught Chris Matthews this morning on PSNBC — PMSNBC.

RUSH: I haven’t seen Chris Matthews on TV in probably six months.

CALLER: Well, I think he is… I think he is coming apart at the seams. This morning, before Mr. — before The Anointed One took the podium in his press conference, Chris made the statement that businesses are holding onto trillions of dollars and will not reinvest in this economy because they don’t want to make Obama look good. That was the statement that he made on the air, and I almost fell off my chair.

RUSH: Do you know that he believes it? Do you know, specifically, what he’s talking about?

CALLER: I do. It’s the fact that businesses are hanging onto money, and the reason that they are hanging onto their money is because they don’t know what’s around the corner.

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: The overregulation. The Obamacare.

RUSH: There are two things. Two things. A lot of international businesses with headquarters in the US make a lot of money in other countries, and they’re leaving it there. There are trillions of dollars. The word is “repatriated.” Everybody would love for the corporations to bring that money back home. The reason they’re not is that the tax rate on it is 35%. It makes no business sense. Their shareholders would be fit to be tied.

Now, you don’t give money away. And bringing it back at the 35% tax rate, that’s the primary reason that trillions of dollars are remaining offshore. Now, there’s also… And I don’t know which of these two he’s referring to. He might have been referring to both of them. There are small businesses and corporations who are holding onto piles of cash for exactly the reason you say. They don’t know what the future holds, but they’re pretty sure it’s not good.

They hear Obama saying taxes are going up; they know what’s coming with Obamacare. But to say that these people are doing this to thwart Obama? Let’s say they were. Let’s say they were. So? Everybody’s entitled to campaign and to secure outcomes in any way they wish. They are not sabotaging the economy. Obama is sabotaging the economy. They are trying to protect themselves. They are trying to stay viable.

CALLER: It’s true.

RUSH: Now, Matthews… And he really has gone way, way over the deep end. To him, a giant conspiracy of all these businesspeople exists. “That’s right! They want the economy to fail.” In fact, Romney had it right, Jim. It’s Obama who basically started ignoring the economy to get health care done. It’s Obama who hasn’t paid enough attention. The attention he has paid has been destructive. It’s Obama who’s doing damage to the US private sector. It’s Obama and his policies doing all this.

Everybody that Matthews is talking about that you heard him refer to, they’re simply in a defensive, protective posture right now. They are under assault. We all are. Anybody with money, regardless how they have it, is under assault from the Democrat Party and Obama. It’s only smart to hold onto it ’til you know what’s gonna happen, or have some reasonable expectation that the business climate is gonna improve.