RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, somebody brought to my attention today a three-minute segment of my old television show back circa 1995. The budget battle of 1995. Actually the prelude to that is what this three-minute sound bite was about. It’s funny. It’s entertaining. It’s also eye-opening to listen to this, 1995… Yeah, it’s a long time ago. The Democrat strategy is no different, the tactics are identical. I want you to hear it in context. Grab Sequester is Here Now, white comedian Paul Shanklin. We’ll do that and we’ll go right into the audio sound bite of my television show circa 1995.
(playing of song)
RUSH: The Sequester is Here Now, white comedian Paul Shanklin. Yeah, we’re getting unemployment news, too, yes. It’s all coming up. Be patient. Jeez, it’s a sin. I can’t do it all in the first ten minutes the show.
From the TV show, the name of the sound bite is “The Clinton Hustle,” and it’s a YouTube link. We got it for you at RushLimbaugh.com if you want to see it.
BEGIN TV SHOW CLIP
RUSH: We talked a number of times last week about The Clinton Hustle and how this administration sets us up to accept every crisis coming down the pike. Every problem’s a crisis. “We’ve got to act now or we’re gonna die! It’s over!” We have put together a video piece here to illustrate this. The beauty of television is that I don’t just have to say it; I can then show you. I can show you clips of video left and right — Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! — and that’s what we’ve done. Here is just a brief synopsis of some of this administration’s finest effort to instill fear in the American people. Watch.
BILL CLINTON: Millions of Americans are just a pink slip away from losing their health insurance, and one serious illness away from losing all their savings.
ALGORE: (gesturing) Fear is uuuup! Hope is doooown!
RUSH AUDIENCE: (laughter)
ROBERT B. REICH: Today is Labor Day. Uhhh, and, uhhh, the big question on everybody’s minds is: Will I have a job tomorrow?
DONNA SHALALA: We could spend our energy on reforming the health care system, the welfare system, on immunin’izing (sic) every two-year-old and — and, um, still not have any Americans left unless we’re prepared to seriously confront the issue of AIDS.
ALGORE: Bankruptcies are uuuup!
RUSH AUDIENCE: (laughter)
ALGORE: Real wages are doooown!
LLOYD BENTSEN: If this doesn’t pass, I think you’ll see an up-spike in interest rates, and a quick one. And what usually follows that is a — a drop in the stock market.
RUSH: Stop the tape a minute.
LLOYD BENTSEN: What I don’t want to see is us —
RUSH: Stop the tape a minute! Stop the tape! Stop it right there! This business of there’s gonna be an uptick in interest rates? Of all these things, if anything, folks, we’re in a deflationary cycle, and interest rates are going south, and that effort to try to make you think that interest rates and wild inflation — and economic growth is right around the corner — if we don’t do this budget deal was just an out-and-out lie and full-fledged 100% deceit, as is all this. Now, pick it up. There’s still a little bit more of this to go.
LLOYD BENTSEN: — drop back into that recession.
BILL CLINTON: This is a global crisis!
ALGORE: We have an environmental crisis. … We have a child care crisis. … A health insurance crisis.
BEN CHAVIS: Whether or not we’re gonna have a cool summer or a long, hot summer is directly related, in our estimation, to the passage of this stimulus plan.
BILL CLINTON: And just remember this, folks: A lot of folks on Medicare are out there every day making the choice between food and medicine.
ALGORE: Unemployment is uuuup!
TV SHOW AUDIENCE: (laughter)
ALGORE: Personal income is doooown!
JAY ROCKEFELLER: We will spend close to a trillion dollars this year on health care. By the year 2000, we’ll be spending $2 trillion. We can’t wait, David!
BILL CLINTON: Takes your breath away, doesn’t it?
ALGORE: Everything that should be doooown is uuuup!
TV SHOW AUDIENCE: (laughter and applause)
ALGORE: Everything that should be uuuuup is doooown.
TV SHOW AUDIENCE: (applause)
ALGORE: They’ve got it upside down, and we’re gonna turn it right-side up, with your help.
TV SHOW AUDIENCE: (laughter and applause)
RUSH: (shown upside down)
TV SHOW AUDIENCE: (laughter and applause)
RUSH: I’m so scared! I don’t know if I can finish the show.
TV SHOW AUDIENCE: (laughter)
RUSH: Well, that’s just a sample. Now, imagine two years of that. That’s what’s been going on, and there’s no end in sight. And you get pummeled by that kind of stuff every day in the evening news — bam, bam, bam — and I guarantee you it’s gonna sink in.
END TV SHOW CLIP
RUSH: That’s 1995. It’s a good opportunity, a good way to show you how they never change. We’ve got people tuning into this program every day for the first time. It’s an opportunity. I’ve got a real challenge here. For those of you who have been longtime listeners, I must ask you to indulge here certain things. We know now. It is established fact now via radio survey data that there are people tuning into this program (out of curiosity and for a number of reasons) for the first time every day.
So some of these things that you’ve heard, some of these things you’ve heard me say — some of my theories, points, all that — I’ll reiterate for people who are just joining, and that’s one of the reasons for playing this sound bite that went three minutes, 15 seconds from the TV show. That’s 1995. It’s the same as it is today. It’s the same fearmongering, the same crisis-mongering. This is how despots frighten people into giving up freedom. This is how they do it — and they focus on the elderly.
You heard Clinton in this bite (impression), “The elderly people on Medicare, they’re now faced with the choice of whether to buy food or buy medicine!” That’s during his administration, by the way. This is the budget battle of 1995. We didn’t even touch on the fear tactics they were using on starving kids, but there was one bite in here where we had Jay Rockefeller talking about health care back in 1995.
He said, “We will spend close to a trillion dollars this year on health care. By the year 2000, we’ll be spending $2 trillion. We can’t wait…” What he was saying was, “We can’t wait to expand the budget. We can’t wait to do health care. We are already,” in 1995, “spending $1 trillion a year. In 2000, we’re gonna be spending $2 trillion.” What are we spending now on health care? Is it getting any more affordable? Is it getting any more plentiful? Is it becoming any more available for anybody?
No.
It hasn’t improved at all. It has gotten more cumbersome. It has become more of an obstacle course. It’s become more expensive, and the only thing that’s changed in US health care is the Democrats have had their hand in it all these year. The only thing that’s changed is that the government has gotten more and more involved in it. This is a profound education right here. We’re spending $1 trillion a year on health care back in 1995, and they had the red flag warning signals up back then.
They were worried. Rockefeller said: If we don’t do this budget deal here and start spending more on health care now, it’s gonna be out of control in 2000. That’s 13 years ago. Thirteen years ago. Actually, this is an 18-year-old sound bite! In the year 2000 he was worried about when it was gonna be $2 trillion in spending. Look at all the money, folks, we’re spending on health care, and look at how much worse it’s getting. And I don’t care where you go in the federal government.
It’s gotten bigger, it has become more cumbersome, and is it any better? Has anything the government is running improved with all of this money?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Fresh in your mind, the three-minute audio sound bite of a clip from my television show back in 1995 in which every Democrat featured was using the same tactics that you are familiar with today — fearmongering, scaremongering, warning of utter demise and disaster, people running out of food, no health care, no jobs, all that — if we didn’t expand the federal budget, if we didn’t spend more. No health care, no Medicare, no jobs, if we didn’t expand the federal budget.
And the only way to expand the federal budget, the only real way to do it is to tax people more and more. You can borrow some, you can print some, but the Democrats’ favorite way of expanding the federal budget is to take money away from the citizens, which is what taxes are. So they have been promising and begging and pleading and hoping and praying for bigger government year in and year out, and they’ve got it. They’ve had some help from Republicans along the way. I’m not denying that.
But if left to their own devices and if Republicans are not afraid of everything and pandering to everybody, this is not what they are naturally inclined to do, which is why so many of us are so mad at ’em all the time. Conservative Republicans do not want to raise the federal budget. They do not want to increase it. But if they think that’s what they have to do to get votes, then they’ll cave and do it. That’s what angers us. But the Democrats are another story. It’s all they want to do.
They promise a panacea.
They promise utopia.
They promise an end to crisis.
They promise contentment and happiness!
They promise an end to all the problems, and yet — and yet — every day they come at you and warn again and fearmonger again and scare you again. They never let up. It is the time-tested way to get you to give up a little of your freedom here and a little of it there, and some more tomorrow. Because they make you think you’re buying security. You’re gonna get your health care. Nobody’s gonna take it away from you.
Your Social Security’s gonna be there when you need it. Your Medicare is gonna be there. Your kids are gonna have lunch, breakfast, whatever at school. After they get what they want, they come back for more and they use and recycle the same approach: Scaremongering, fearmongering. All the while, the federal government gets bigger and bigger. What you need to ask yourself is: Is anything that they’re in charge of improving?
Is health care more expensive or less? Is health care more affordable or less? Is health care insurance more affordable or less? Is health treatment? Is it more available or not? Is it better? Are you able to get treated when you’re sick? Are you able to pay for it? Does your insurance cover it? Has anything gotten better with all of this government growth? No, it hasn’t. In fact, in many people’s minds it’s worsened, which is another Democrat trick.
You create a problem, and then you magically come up with “the solution,” and you get “the solution,” which means you get bigger government. When that doesn’t work, you say, “Another program’s needed to fix this problem” — that you created! You blame it on the Republicans, but you created the problem, and the solution always is government getting bigger, with no accountability. Now we got 25 programs that deal with preschool education, not counting Head Start.
I don’t know how many programs we have that feed kids before and during school. We’ve got redundant programs on top of programs designed to take care of the elderly and make sure they don’t suffer. But no matter what we spend and no matter how big the government gets, nothing improves. The proof is the Democrats! You listen to them and we’re almost ready to succumb. Every day there’s a new crisis. Every day there’s a new fear. That’s after they get what they want!
Every time, they get everything they want, and it’s still never enough, and it’s still a crisis the next day, and nothing gets better. At some point, I would think, people would begin to assess whether or not all of these efforts (forget the money for a second; the money’s incomprehensible to people), all of this compassion and concern, all these efforts to fix things are actually working. And, as I say, the Democrat Party is our own best evidence that it isn’t working.
Because they’re the ones that come to us every day and tell us we have a crisis here and a crisis there, and they’re warning us if we don’t get even more government, that’s gonna happen. It’s always you that’s gonna suffer. Your fire department’s gonna be shut down. Your police department’s gonna be shut down. Your school is gonna have to close. Your bridge in your town might crumble. Your building might collapse! You’ll be drinking poisoned water or breathing poisoned air.
After they get what they want! After they claim they’ve got what they need to fix everything! For those of you new to the program, I’m into my 25th year of hosting this program, and nothing’s changed in those 25 years. There’s another element to this. In all of these 25 years, the Republican Party has yet to come up with a way to stop it. In 25 years, the Republican Party has yet to come up with a strategy that beats it. Ah! Let me correct myself. There is a strategy that beats this. It’s called conservatism.
You saw a little bit of how it works with Rand Paul’s filibuster.
We saw a major illustration of how it works with the eight years of Ronaldus Magnus. Conservatism is the best antidote to liberalism that there is. It’s just the Republican Party’s afraid to use it. But it works. Other than that, the Republicans don’t have a strategy. Democrats have been using this fearmongering stuff — scaremongering, world’s gonna end tomorrow — for more than 25 years. For the 25 years I’ve been doing this program, that’s what they’ve been doing, and the Republicans can’t figure out a way to beat it.
Obama’s nothing new, folks.
He’s just the most radical of these guys.
He’s no different than Clinton and Gore.
“Unemployment is up. Jobs are down. Everything that should be up is down!” It’s the same old thing. Obama’s a copycat. He’s just more radical than the Democrats that came before him. Here’s Obama, by the way. Fresh in your mind is that three-minute sound bite from my TV show. It’s on YouTube and we’ve put the link at RushLimbaugh.com if you want to see it. Because the video of all those sound bites, you can see it, and have it, and make your impression. You will recognize it as what is commonly called The Daily Show today. This is show prep for the rest of the media. We’re on the cutting edge of societal evolution. We’re the forerunner.
At any rate, I want you to listen to Obama back on February 19th, the Old Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
OBAMA: Emergency responders, like the ones who are here today, their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays in airports across the country. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. This is not an abstraction. People will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.
RUSH: That was just three weeks ago, two weeks, whatever it was. A never-ending litany. No different than what you heard Bill Clinton say in 1995. No different than what you heard in that clip from Jay Rockefeller or Ben Chavis. He’s the NAALCP director, he was in that sound bite. Lloyd Bentsen, Texas, was in that sound bite. Algore, Bill Clinton, no different. Clinton said (impression), “Right now, senior citizens are having to make the decision of whether they buy medicine or food.” The government had to get bigger so that didn’t happen. Here comes Obama. It never ends, folks. It’s the same thing recycled.
But again, the key to it, I think, the government has grown geometrically. Spending is at a record, the national debt’s higher than ever. We’ve added $6 trillion in new federal spending in four years of Obama. I mean, they’re getting all that they want. And yet not one problem ever gets solved, according to them. According to their complaints, according to their fearmongering, nothing ever gets fixed. All the money in the world they’ve gotten, it doesn’t fix anything. Everything just keeps getting worse. Isn’t that interesting? The government is bigger today than these people were dreaming of in 1995. They couldn’t envision a government this big. If they did, they would think they had achieved utopia.
Well, here we are, and where are we? We’re at that point where a majority of people in this country genuinely fear for the future of this country. We’re falling apart so rapidly. We’re going in the wrong direction so rapidly. The institutions and traditions that have made this country great are under assault, but the Democrats are telling us they’re protecting them, they’re saving. We’re getting more money every year. The government’s growing bigger and bigger. The government’s doing more and more. It’s becoming more intertwined and interlocked and involved in your life each and every day and what’s happening to your life. You’re getting more and more scared every day because nothing’s working. Which is the plan, by the way. Nothing ever gets fixed.
We always need more money to fix what they tell you is a brand-new problem, but there are no new problems. And there are no new solutions. It’s just recycling. Same playbook, same procedure, same strategy, same tactics.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: May I make one more observation, ladies and gentlemen, before we get to the phones? That audio sound bite, that three-minute clip of my television show, 1995-1996, if you listen carefully, you will hear the Democrats describe those years as panacea today. They say we need to go back to the Clinton years. The Clinton year taxation levels. They talked about what a boom economy we had back in the nineties, the Clinton years. All during the fiscal cliff fight, all during the sequester fight, they kept telling us, the nineties, we were doing great. We had Clinton-era taxation levels, and we had an economic boom, and everything was wonderful.
I remember I said, “Well, let’s go back to Clinton-era spending levels.”
“Oh, no, no, no, no, can’t do that.”
Well, why not? Everything was a panacea. I mean, you go back and you listen to these Democrats from 1995-1996, it doesn’t matter what year, but we have those years. If you go back and listen, there wasn’t any panacea, folks. We’re on the verge of disaster, the edge of disaster. We were nearly about to collapse at the time. There was no boom. There wasn’t anything great going on. There wasn’t any panacea. There was no utopia. We were a gnat’s eyelash from it all ending.
And yet today, they cite these years as a golden age, and they refer to these Clinton years as a golden age, an era that we need to return to. Okay, so you turn back the hands of time, you go back and you listen to them from that era, and there wasn’t anything golden about it. They’re just as miserable then as they are today, just as unhappy then as they are today, just as fearmongering then as they are today.
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