RUSH: This rising gas prices business. I had a memory jog during the break, so I went back and searched our own broadcast archives. Do you remember all those stories that the rising gas price didn’t matter to you anymore? Remember all of those stories? Like this from Reuters, Wednesday, August 22nd: “Rising Gas Prices Aren’t a Big Concern for Voters,” by John Whitesides. CNNMoney.com: “Rising Gas Prices Aren’t as Bad as You Think,” March 21st, 2012. There were a bunch of more, and we marveled at them.
Just as there were stories in the mid-nineties when Clinton was president that lying is actually good for us now. A little white lie is actually really good. They spare people’s feelings and nobody gets hurt. Actually it’s a cool thing to lie, because Bill Clinton was. And gas price, too. And remember when unemployment started skyrocketing under Obama? We had stories about, “You know, this is actually good! Families are finding each other again.
“Families are finding one another!”
And we actually had a new word coined by the media, “funemployment,” to describe all of the discovery people were experiencing as they didn’t have jobs. They were able to work on their hobbies. They didn’t have to worry about being paid. None of the pressures of showing up every day at the same place and same time. There were stories galore about the expanded opportunities for you if you lost your job and how people were reveling in this new way of life in America.
And by the same token, we had these stories on gasoline prices going up and how it wasn’t a big concern for you. That’s Reuters in August. CNN in August: “Rising Gas Prices Aren’t as Bad as You Think.” This is for those of you who tell us there isn’t any media bias. April 21st, 2006, New York Times: “Democrats Eager to Exploit Anger Over Gas Prices.” That’s Michael Janofsky.
So we can go back and we can find all the stories of rising gas prices during Bush and how you were angry, how you were enraged. And we can find stories of gas prices going up in the last three years, and it wasn’t a big deal to you. Rising gas prices aren’t as bad as you think. “Rising Gas Prices Aren’t a Big Concern for Voters.” Losing your job? That’s more family time! That’s more time for you to explore your hobby!
I’m sure you remember all this now that I jog your memory.
By the way, Cookie found the bite. It’s audio sound bite number 31. This is June 10th of 2008 on CNBC’s Your Money, Your Vote. Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood is interviewing Obama. Harwood’s question: “Could the high prices actually help us?” Now, Harwood is speaking here to Obama as an equal, as though they’re both on the same team (which, of course, they are). Now, Harwood, if he were here, would say, “No, no, no! I meant ‘us’ being America.” Yeah, right, John. We watch you every day. We know how you vote.
“Senator Obama, could the high gasoline prices help us?”
OBAMA 2008: I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment. The fact that, eh, this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing. Uh, but if we take some steps right now to, uh, help people make the adjustment, f-first of all, by putting more money into their pockets, but also by encouraging the market to adapt to these new circumstances more quickly, particularly US automakers.
RUSH: Right there, Obama was saying that high gas prices are cool. That’s 2008, in June, and he’d not been elected yet. It’s during the campaign. High gas prices? Fine! Fine! Because that would make people adapt to alternative energy sooner. And that’s what Harwood was eliciting. An eager beaver journalist collaborator. “Mr. Obama! Mr. Obama! Could the gas prices help us? Could the high prices help us? Huh? Huh?”
And then the professorial, brilliant Obama (summarized): “Well, yeah. A gradual adjustment would be better. I’d prefer it go up a little slower, but the fact that it’s going up is fine. And if gets high enough, then people — carmakers, too — uh, will be more be more inclined, uh, uh, uh, to use alternative fuel.” (interruption) Well, I’m not “inferring” anything. I’m talking to Chester. Our president doesn’t care about rising gas prices.
Chester calls here and he says it’s costing him $6200 a year additional, and I told him that’s the plan. You’re supposed to suffer! It’s supposed to get you on mass transit. It’s supposed to have you be more accepting of alternative energy. See, alternative energy right now doesn’t make any economic sense. There isn’t any to speak of. But Obama still loves it because (in his alternative universe, utopian freaking world) windmills and solar are the answer to everything — including hunger, strife, death, taxes, whatever.
Well, there isn’t any.
It doesn’t exist, for all intents and purposes.
But he still wants you in it. So if gasoline gets up to ten bucks a gallon, eight bucks a gallon and that’s more in line with what alternative energy is, then alternative energy becomes more acceptable. He doesn’t care what it costs you. “Obama phooooooone!” What about Romney? “He suck! Obama phooooooone!” That’s how you handle it. Call Obama and say you’re on disability, on food stamps. He applauds and sends you a phone where he can then call you and tell you when to vote and how many times, or whatever.
I’m just telling you the bottom line: Rising gas prices, that’s the plan. Economic suffering is the plan. Old Chester’s got too many cars: Two. He doesn’t deserve them. He’s not entitled to that many cars. It doesn’t matter if he works hard and got the money to pay for them himself. It’s not fair. He shouldn’t have that many cars. Nobody “needs” that many cars. Particularly when there are people that only have one. Or, in some cases, don’t have any. It’s just not right.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Colorado Springs. This is Jeff. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, thank you, Rush. I just want to say I hope I don’t bore you, first of all, but thank you for converting my wife.
RUSH: Wow. That’s major. That’s major.
CALLER: Yes. She’s a registered Democrat. She voted for Obama in ’08 and, despite all my warnings by listening to you of what’s gonna happen, she’s seen everything that you’ve predicted come true the last four years. I listen to your show and I take back everything you say to her, and she has said, “I am voting for Romney, and how do I change my party affiliation?”
RUSH: Oh, so she does mean it? She’s not just saying that to get you off her back?
CALLER: No, no, not at all. Nope, she means it. She’s actually seriously, seriously contemplated changing her party and wants to deregister as Democrat and become Republican.
RUSH: That’s why we’re here, bring people to the light.
CALLER: Yep. And you do a great job every day. Thank you so much.
RUSH: You bet. I really appreciate that. I really do. Thanks so much. I’m sitting here, folks, remember when Obama said, (paraphrasing) “We can’t drive our SUVs as much as we want, eat all we want and set the thermostat to 72 degrees. The rest of the world won’t like that,” or, “that’s not leadership.” Remember that quote? So here we are, we’re getting closer to the election, all we’re getting now is a rerun of 2008 and that campaign and the elements of it, as though Obama has never served, as though he’s not been president, has never been in the White House, which might be the case in terms of I know he’s president, but he’s not there much.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Obama. I mentioned this. Cookie found the exact quote. It is 2008, May 18th, sound bite 32. Roseburg, Oregon, during a campaign rally, here is Senator Obama.
OBAMA: We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times whether we’re living in the desert or we’re living in the tundra, and then just expect that every other country is going to say, “Okay, you guys go ahead and keep on using 25% of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3% of the population, and we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us.” That’s not leadership.
RUSH: That’s the Obama campaign in 2008. I find it fascinating in listening to him today, we’re going back and finding sound bites in 2008 that he has said to explain and justify what’s happened, rising gas prices. He was in favor of it, and for those of you worried about it, Obama is fine. We can’t keep driving our SUV. We can’t eat as much as we want. We can’t keep our homes at 72 degrees, no matter where we live, and just expect other countries to say okay. So I’m just telling you, what is happening now is what was intended to happen. We’re going back and playing tapes, highlights from the 2008 campaign. It’s also interesting that stuff from the 2008 campaign is relevant today. By the way, I thought the rich weren’t even paying taxes. How can the rich even pay $5 in taxes? I thought they were getting away with all kinds of chicanery.