RUSH: To a lot of people, this is their first government shutdown. Well, 1995, that’s 17 years ago. Is that right? Yeah, 17, 18 years ago. It’s just amazing when I stop and think about it. Yeah, 18 years ago. So you realize this is a lot of people’s first government shutdown, you youths in the audience. Most people’s historical perspective begins with the day they were born. It’s just human nature. Most people believe that things happening when they are alive are worse than they’ve ever been. They can’t imagine it. And, of course, that’s folly. But it’s part of human nature that people think this, and every generation has its percentage of people that think this is it, whatever you want to call it, last days, final days. It’s all gonna end or the government’s gonna implode, or whatever.

We just can’t keep going this way. It’s gotta come to a head. I’ve often found that fascinating about people’s perceptions of history. It dovetails with education and how inept it is, history education, which is why I have written the book, by the way, which I haven’t talked about in a long time, Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, still on pre-order at Amazon.com and iTunes and Barnes & Noble and comes out on October 29th. It’s our effort to re-teach the truth of this country’s history. The presale prices, it’s 10 or 11 dollars and some change, and the retail price is $19. It’s a book written for the 10 to 13 age-group, but it’s for everybody. It’s for parents and grandparents to give their children and maybe read with them and answer questions about it.

Rush Revere is the lovable icon of Two If By Tea. And Rush Revere has a talking horse, Liberty. They can go anywhere they want to go in American history. And they can take their smartphone, and they can video what they see in history and come back and play it for students in the classroom and actually show them. It’s a great, great vehicle. It was so much fun. We announced it about a month ago, and it was number one at Amazon presale, including all books, for 14 days or something like that. There’s an audio version, which I, of course, voice all of the characters. There’s an e-book version as well. At any rate, comes out on October 29th. History and what kids are taught, as I get older, it’s something that has become more and more important to me.

So you have the government shutdown here, and for a lot of people this is their first one and they don’t think it’s ever happened before. They listen to the news and they think, “Oh, my God, the country’s gonna come to a screeching halt!” Then they hear the debt limit piled on top of it and they think, “Oh, my God, there might not be a country at the end of this month!” These scare tactics are used.

My first big government shutdown, I was alive during the Reagan years, I was working for the Kansas City Royals from ’79 to ’83 and then I got back into radio. I didn’t even know that there were seven government shutdowns during Reagan when I was living through them. They were a common, ordinary tactic used during negotiations. But people going into their first one think this is uncommon, it’s unreal, and it’s all the Republicans’ fault. And actually I don’t think that is what is manifesting itself out there.

The ’95 budget deal, for people to whom that was their first, the media made that look like Republicans lost, but they didn’t. They won the House after that, they picked up a couple seats in the Senate, and we got welfare reform. So in substance the Republicans didn’t lose, but in the media they did. And to a lot of people that’s more important than substance. Another thing that really frustrates me. It just does.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Danny in Oklahoma City. Hi, Danny. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, nice to be talking with you. I’ve been listening to you for 22 years, but I want to get right to the point. I’m in the insurance industry, and you were talking about history a while ago. Remember the HMO that came out that everybody just ran to in droves, and then once they found out Big Brother was gonna make a decision for them on their health care —

RUSH: Yeah, the HMO was invented by Ted Kennedy.

CALLER: Yeah, so everybody hates it. There’s only about 3% of the policies out there in the market today, everything else is a PPO. So, I mean, I think that’s what we’re gonna see here with Obamacare, is everybody is going to, you know, those that want to are gonna run to this thing, and then they’re gonna realize what they’ve gotten themselves into, and nothing is for free. I mean, everything comes with a price. And I appreciate you getting that voice out there and letting people know.

RUSH: Well, what are people gonna do? Obamacare is not an HMO. If it gets fully implemented and entrenched and you say people are eventually gonna figure it out, well, what are they gonna do?

CALLER: Well, they’re gonna be stuck. I mean, that’s the problem. And they’re giving up a private health care industry, I mean, ’cause this is affecting the private health care industry. I have clients that are major companies in the Oklahoma City area that have hundreds of employees that, when the exchanges open, when it comes mandate for them to bring on the system, they’re gonna drop their great health care plan, put all these employees in the exchanges. And, I mean, they’re cutting back employees. So, I mean, we’re already feeling the effects of it —

RUSH: Yeah, but this is not an HMO. You said the HMOs went away and people came up with some other alternative. They’re not gonna have the option to do away with this. I mean, 16,000 IRS agents following people around requiring compliance or else.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Danny made a great point. HMOs were sold as a great way to lower costs, and they drove costs through the roof, and there was no benefit. Obamacare is already, I think, a failure because the Drive-Bys are already talking about single payer as the solution.