This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by nationalized pet health care
By Simon Maloy

If you, like us, sacrificed both mental and spiritual health to make it through last week's horrific quintet of Rush Limbaugh radio broadcasts, you probably took away from it the same message that we did -- Barack Obama is purposefully destroying the American economy (as evidenced by rising unemployment numbers), and he's doing so in order to assert more "statist" control over the country. Well, this morning we read Paul Krugman's New York Times column, and he made an interesting point: "And Republicans, providing a bit of comic relief, are saying that the stimulus has failed, because the enabling legislation was passed four months ago -- wow, four whole months! -- yet unemployment is still rising. This suggests an interesting comparison with the economic record of Ronald Reagan, whose 1981 tax cut was followed by no less than 16 months of rising unemployment." Well, comparisons with Reagan's economic record are what Limbaugh is all about, since he believes that Reagan's tax cuts were the best thing that ever happened to this country. And, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Krugman is right -- the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was signed into law in August of that year, and unemployment rose every month after that until January of 1983. So using Rush's own standards for success, we can only come to two conclusions -- Obama is an economic genius in the mold of Reagan, or Reagan was an authoritarian statist in the mold of Obama.

Rush got the week going by saying the he "called it" on the Iranian election. Rush said that the media are comparing Iran to Florida in 2000, but everyone who knows anything about Iran knows that the mullahs pick who they want to win. Rush also said that the liberals will want you to believe that Obama is responsible for the unrest in Iran as a consequence of the disputed electoral out come, and Obama's going to try and take credit for it, even though it's been simmering in there for some time.

Then Rush moved on to a couple of Drudge specials, the first being a long-time favorite of his -- Obama's half-brother George living in his "hut" in Kenya. Rush noted that George is writing a book and has received an advance from Simon & Schuster, though he's "still in the hut" and has "turned to community organizing." Unmentioned by Rush was the fact, reported by the AP, that George Obama chooses to live in poverty as part of his "strong identification" with the poor. But we're sure that won't get in the way of Rush bashing Obama as an unfeeling hypocrite for not helping his half-brother. The second Drudge special was the new Gallup poll finding that "conservatives" are the largest ideological group in the country, which Rush described as "very cool." This, said Rush, is why the left are trying to destroy Sarah Palin.

Then it was on to health care. Rush wanted us to know that back in 1993 when the Clintons tried to reform health care, it represented one-seventh of the economy; today it's one-fifth. There's no way, said Rush, that you can sign up more people and cut costs. It's impossible. Then Rush heaped praise on George Will for his appearance on ABC's This Week yesterday attacking national health care. Rush said Will got to the "common thing" that he tries to remind his audience of at every opportunity - liberals look at everyone else with contempt. Then Rush said he received a note from a friend the other day wondering if the American Medical Association will cave in their opposition to the "public option" (a topic on which the AMA has already been all over the map). Rush said Obama already has a heave hand on them -- he's already in charge of what they make, by way of Medicare reimbursements. Rush said there's "a large bit of fear of this guy" in every plan he comes up with, and the people cave because everyone's afraid of the government, and that's not a good sign for the country.

After noting that Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) had objected to President Obama's appointment of "czars," Rush said that Cabinet secretaries have been relegated to secondary and tertiary roles -- this is statist, authoritarian behavior. Obama, according to Rush, is saying he's going to rule the country, not govern it.

Then Rush explained that he had an eye-opener on health care the other day after a friend of his got a puppy. The friend, Rush said, was looking for places where she could kennel her new dog, and there are a whole bunch of private-sector options at varying prices. This is just like health care, said Rush, because the private sector offers a variety of options ranging from high-end to low-end. All these private-sector options for the health and well-being of dogs, said Rush, are doing just fine without a public option. We shouldn't have to, but we'll explain why this is so stupid in a little bit. Just be patient.

Back from a quick break, Rush said that Obama was lying on Friday when he outlined measures to trim Medicare spending. There's no way Medicare is going to be cut, said Rush, when your national plan is an expansion of Medicare. Rush doesn't care what Obama says, the numbers don't work. Rush added: "The economy is falling apart. They're going to bulldoze 40 percent of Flint, Michigan. The era of Obama has settled in. 40 percent of Flint, Michigan is boarded up homes. They're now using gravel to make roads in Michigan rather than concrete and asphalt. They don't have any money. Forty percent -- they're going to have to bulldoze 40 percent of Flint, Michigan to reduce the size because it no longer works the way it is. This is unthinkable in the United States of America, unthinkable. The era of Obama. It's just -- I'm seeing things happen in this country that I thought I would never, ever see. These are the kinds of things that happen in totalitarian regimes."

Then it was back to the Gallup poll on self-identified conservatives as Rush said this was the key to victory for Republicans. Be true conservatives, said Rush, and you have 40 percent of the vote. Then have to attract just half of the moderates. This, said Rush, is why he closed the program of Friday saying that he still has faith in the American people, and this is why the left is so scared to death of Sarah Palin -- she excites the conservatives in this country. Everyone in the media and the blue-blood Republicans make fun of her, said Rush, but of all the potential GOP candidates for 2012, which one sends the Democrats, the media, and the comedians into an insane tizzy? Palin. Because they're scared of her. They're scared that she can win, that she can beat Barack Obama.

After the break, Rush told everyone to go visit the Drudge Report to look at the picture of the Uighurs -- "essentially Chinese Al Qaeda" -- swimming in the ocean off the Bermuda coast. The only thing missing, said Rush, are the piña coladas. Then Rush returned to the Gallup poll once again, linking it to William Voegeli's essay, "The wilderness years begin," the penultimate paragraph of which was reproduced on Powerline.com. Rush read this paragraph --interspersing it with his own observations concerning the evils of liberalism -- and concluded that conservatism doesn't need to be reinvented, it's timeless, founded on freedom. Rush said that Republicans are saying we have to let go of Reagan, but Reagan was an application of conservatism and look what he got -- 58 percent of the vote.

Then it was back to health care as Rush expanded on his argument that health care in this country is no different from kenneling your dog -- there are all kinds of options at various price points, and you are free to choose the one you want that you can afford. In animal care, said Rush, you can have any option you want at any level of care you want. There's no government option and it's all affordable. There are a few problems with Rush's analogy. Yes, there are several private-sector options available for dog kenneling, but there's another option Rush didn't consider -- having your neighbor dogsit. That's not really something you can do with medical problems. There's a big difference between saying "Hey, man, can you watch Bentley for the weekend?" and "Hey, man, can you cure my glaucoma?" Secondly, health care for humans and health care for dogs - as if this needs explaining - are very different things with very different consequences. For example, when your dog gets sick, you're usually not in danger of losing income from not being able to work. But Rush would have you believe otherwise: "It's health care, and it's care that's just as important to pet owners as their own health care is, probably more so because most people think they can handle most illnesses that they have themselves. If a dog, cat gets sick, what do you do? You have to take it to the vet, and you can find whatever level of service that you want."

Anyway, after the break, Rush took a call from a gentleman saying that insurance should go back to being insurance -- pooling money in the event of unexpected calamities, such as a heart attack, and not cover things like prescription drugs. Rush said the man was absolutely right. It's just like groceries, said Rush -- you can't live without food, it's a necessity, and people now think that health care is too. Rush closed out the hour with some good old-fashioned mockery of the poor: "You know, this is the only country where poverty leads to obesity. Stop and think of that. Now why is that? Because with the food stamps you go in there and buy the Twinkies, the Milk Duds, a six-pack of Bud, bag of potato chips. Head home to one of your two color TVs as you live in poverty to watch the NFL on satellite TV and that's if you turn off your cell phone so that you don't get interrupted. That's poverty in the United States today compared to elsewhere around the world."

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: The economy is falling apart. They're going to bulldoze 40 percent of Flint, Michigan. The era of Obama has settled in. 40 percent of Flint, Michigan is boarded-up homes. They're now using gravel to make roads in Michigan rather than concrete and asphalt. They don't have any money. Forty percent -- they're going to have to bulldoze 40 percent of Flint, Michigan, to reduce the size because it no longer works the way it is. This is unthinkable in the United States of America, unthinkable. The era of Obama. It's just -- I'm seeing things happen in this country that I thought I would never, ever see. These are the kind of things that happen in totalitarian regimes.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You have health care for pets from a private practitioner, not a government program. Whenever you hear -- whenever you hear a liberal promise government help that'll give you universal care, better care at lower cost, whenever you hear that, just sit back, and you know what your response ought to be? Arf, arf, arf -- bark like your dog does, because your dog has it without the government being involved. And this is not a -- this is not a conclusion that is out of bounds or a stretch. It's health care, and it's care that's just as important to pet owners as their own health care is, probably more so because most people think they can handle most illnesses that they have themselves. If a dog, cat gets sick, what do you do? You have to take it to the vet, and you can find whatever level of service that you want.

Vox populi

LIMBAUGH: You know, we can't live without food. We've got to have -- that's a necessity. Health care has become that in people's minds. So imagine the same kind of food care provided by the government. In fact, we've got it: food stamps. This is the only country where poverty leads to obesity. Stop and think of that. Now, why is that? Because with the food stamps, you go in there and buy the Twinkies, the Milk Duds, a six-pack of Bud, bag of potato chips. Head home to one of your two color TVs as you live in poverty to watch the NFL on satellite TV, and that's if you turn off your cell phone so that you don't get interrupted. That's poverty in the United States today compared to elsewhere around the world.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Rush's "grand slam"
By Simon Maloy

Kicking off the second hour, Rush complained about the length of Obama's speech, saying that it was pushing 55 minutes and wondering who can sit through a 55-minute speech and be inspired. This speech, said Rush, is dry, political garbage. Obama, said Rush, just grates on him (as if you hadn't figured that out anyway). He's a "know-it-all," is "arrogant" without any reason to be, and has "all the answers" even though he's never run anything except his own mouth.

Then Rush moved on to a New York Times article on the Iranian election, saying that it demonstrated the Iranian journalists are just like journalists in the American state-run media. The money quote, according to Rush, was: "As voting began on Friday morning, journalists gathered to watch Ayatollah Khamenei cast his vote in a mosque near his home in southern Tehran. Just after 8 a.m., a set of brown curtains opened and the leader emerged, a gaunt 69-year-old with glasses and a long white beard, with a black turban on his head and a black clerical gown draped around him. The journalists, mostly Iranians, gasped and then chanted a religious blessing."

Still not done with American journalists, Rush aired an audio montage of a variety of news personalities comparing the results of the Iranian election to the Florida recount in 2000. Rush said that these people don't understand that there is no freedom in Iran -- all of the candidates were selected by the mullahs, and they want Ahmadinejad. Rush wondered if the media are "really this idiotic," saying that Ahmadinejad was going to win regardless. They're "naïve" and "stupid," said Rush, adding that Sarah Palin knows more of the ways of the world than the people covering her.

Then Rush aired for us one more time Obama's comment from Friday in which he praised the robust debate in Iran. Rush said that Obama's remarks look even more foolish today than they did on Friday.

After the break, Rush said he had some people watching Obama's speech to the AMA, and apparently one of the primary arguments that Obama made during this speech is that without reform, the system will be more expensive than it already is. This is how the left tries to sell everything, said Rush, but we can not pay for what the government is running now, and Obama wants to expand health care and somehow this will make it cheaper? It's the same thing with Social Security, said Rush, which is also bankrupt. This is another typical, false Obama argument. Rush also said he read today "somewhere" that Obama was open to tort reform, and then aired a clip of Obama saying that he understands that malpractice suits are causing problems for doctors, but he's not advocating caps on malpractice rulings and wants to work with the AMA on scaling back defensive medicine. Rush said that this is just mean and dishonest -- he tells them that he understands that malpractice awards are causing them problems, but the very next sentence is "screw what I just said." This is like Lucy Van Pelt pulling away the football from Charlie Brown, said Rush.

After another break, Rush read from a Chicago Sun-Times article reporting: "As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc." After noting that a Durbin spokesman denied any impropriety on Durbin's part, Rush counseled his listeners not to buy it, saying that Martha Stewart went to jail for much less.

Then Rush said this weekend was a "grand slam" for him, based on what the country learned about Obama. The stimulus plan, Rush said, is a disaster, and Vice President Joe Biden "has now admitted it." That admission, according to Rush, was on Meet the Press yesterday morning when Biden said that unemployment projections were made at a time when "no one realized how bad the economy was," and that: "Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed." Rush said that Rush didn't guess wrong and neither did the Republicans in Congress. Then Rush said we learned from Thomas Friedman's New York Times op-ed this weekend that the Iraq War was a success, which meant that Obama, in addition to being wrong on the economy, was also wrong on Iraq. We didn't take this to be quite the earth-shattering revelation that Rush did, seeing as Friedman has been declaring the Iraq war a success since March 2003. Anyway, these two bits of info combined with some silliness about the "global cooling" trend were the evidence of Rush's "grand slam," and Rush said that now we know why Barack Obama didn't want Republicans listening to Rush -- he got it right.

Then Rush aired audio of Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) on CNN yesterday saying that he hopes Obama will support the challengers in Iran. Rush said Obama hasn't said a word, instead he's been out there lying to the doctors. Rush said there's been a "quasi-administration reaction" from Biden, who said on Meet the Press that the administration is waiting to see how the situation in Iran will shake out. Rush responded: "Cannot bring himself to say he stands with the people of Iran who want freedom. They can't -- this is just a dangerous bunch of people that are running this whole show, domestically, internationally."

Leading into the break, Rush took a call from a woman who said she was happy to have the choice not to have health insurance, and she doesn't want to lose that. Rush said her liberty is at risk with Obama in the White House. There are a lot of people who don't want health insurance, said Rush, and they'll lose that choice if Obama gets what he wants.

After the break, Rush explained that he had hoped to avoid more Obama sound bytes, but this next byte, Rush said, is an outrage that Obama knows is not true. Rush then aired audio of Obama, in his speech today, saying the people who claim that Obama's public option is a Trojan horse for single-payer aren't telling the truth. They are telling the truth, Rush retorted. This is precisely government-run health care -- it's government-run everything with this guy.

Rush's next caller wanted to know what was really behind the 10-year cost estimates on health care. Rush said George Will touched on this -- every budget is a lie, and now we're supposed to believe they're telling the truth with a 10-year projection? They can't afford any of this to begin with. Obama's trying to nationalize the U.S. healthcare system, said Rush. He wants to take that money out of the private sector and put his administration in charge of it.

One more caller, this one saying that Medicare is already controlling doctors like his father and what they get paid, and that's affecting private-sector insurers. Rush said that Obama is saying we need more options, but we already have 1,300 options, and adding the government option will mean a serious decline in those private options that are already out there.

Rounding out the hour, Rush said that the best reporting on this country is from the UK, and the Telegraph is reporting that the "government [is] looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature." This is the era of Obama, said Rush -- shrink to survive, bulldoze portions of 50 cities. This is Michigan and this is Flint, said Rush, and it's been Democrats running this state and this town all these years. This is the kind of stuff you see in horror films that happens in other countries, but not here.

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Meet the Press yesterday, Joe Biden was asked by David Gregory, "Dr. Romer from the White House -- the assertion that you could keep unemployment at 8 percent, go down after that. In fact, it's now 9.4 percent. Was it oversold?"

BIDEN [audio clip]: At the time, no one realized how bad the economy was. The projections, in fact, turned out to be worse. Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about what the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed.

LIMBAUGH: They did not guess wrong. I did not guess wrong, and the Republicans in Congress did not guess wrong. Stimulus plan is a disaster. Biden has now admitted it.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: There has been a quasi-administration reaction from Joe Biden on Meet the Press yesterday. Question: "You don't want to recognize Ahmadinejad as the president at this stage?"

BIDEN [audio clip]: Well, I'm not -- look, that's what they're announcing. We have to accept that for the time being, but there's an awful lot of question about how this election was run, and we'll see. I mean, we're just waiting to see. We don't have enough facts to know -- to make a firm judgment.

LIMBAUGH: Cannot bring himself to say he stands with the people of Iran who want freedom. They can't -- this is just a dangerous bunch of people that are running this whole show, domestically, internationally.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the "commie bastards" of the AMA
By Simon Maloy

Rush got this final hour a-rolling by declaring that he's going "out on a limb" and predicting that Obama will not get national health care. Rush said there are just too many forces aligned against him, what with moderate Democrats defecting and doctors being tired of being treated as villains in the health care debate. Also, Rush said, back in the '90s the Clintons took years to roll out their health care plan, but Obama's trying to get all this done in two months.

Then Rush returned to the UK Telegraph story on the "bulldozing" of American cities, which reported that Dan Kildee, the Michigan man who reportedly came up with the idea for doing so in Flint, Michigan, "has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country." Rush said Kildee is a liberal Democrat politician from a family of lifetime government workers, and that Obama loves his plan to bulldoze Flint so much that he wants Kildee to figure out how to do it in 50 other cities. Kildee, however, says that the Telegraph article is wrong, and that "the Obama administration did not ask him to spread the word about the shrinking cities concept."

Rush then moved on to Newsweek, noting that last week Evan Thomas said Obama was sort of like of God, but this week Newsweek has a column by Robert Samuelson, who wrote: "It's hard to know whether President Obama's health-care 'reform' is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three." Rush found it interesting that the magazine that called him "god" last week is now calling him hypocritical and dishonest. You know, he's right. That is strange. It's almost as if they have differing editorial voices within the publication.

After the break, Rush said he wanted to "clarify" his prediction from earlier that Obama won't get national health care -- he's not in any way telling people to back off because it's already dead. Rather, said Rush, he thinks it's going to fail because there's been sufficient energy brought to bear against it, and that level of energy has to be maintained.

Then Rush moved on to the San Francisco Chronicle, where a columnist reported last week that "jobs from the stimulus [are] hard to find." Rush said that they already aired that sound bite of Biden saying they were "wrong on the stimulus" (actually, Biden said they were wrong on the unemployment projections). Rush said "of course" the stimulus jobs aren't there, unemployment rose after the stimulus passed.

Rush then took a call from a man who claimed that Obama is setting up a straw man on pre-existing conditions -- people can't be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, but they can be denied treatment for a certain period of time. The caller then described how he was able to obtain insurance for his severely disabled son after their Medicare payments ceased. Rush said this is an excellent point, but Rush also said he's going to get a lot of calls from people who have preexisting conditions who are going to disagree with what the caller said. Rush also wanted to make another point -- this caller's son's disability is the kind of condition for which we need insurance. We don't need insurance for people going to the hospital for a sore throat.

Rush's next caller was a doctor from Texas who said she read Obama's speech to the AMA today, and said that Obama essentially said that coverage will be denied in order to keep costs down. Rush asked her if she, as a doctor, was inspired by Obama's speech. The caller said no, and that she's not a member of the AMA because they're too liberal. Rush said the AMA is just like the American Bar Association these days -- they're run by "commie bastards." That's an interesting claim, considering that members of the AMA contributed more money to Republicans than Democrats during every election cycle from 1998 to 2006.

Next in the caller queue was a man who said that the first real chance we're going to have for change is the 2010 elections, and Republicans should look for potential candidates in the pool of car dealership owners who've been put out of business. Rush said he likes this caller's thinking, and that there are a lot of people who've had their businesses taken away from them by Barack Obama. Rush also wanted to remind us again of the Gallup poll and the 40 percent of Americans who self-identify as conservatives. All the GOP has to do is run a full-bore conservative campaign, said Rush, and if Republicans had nominated a conservative in 2008 they could have beaten Obama. That's why they want to destroy Sarah Palin. Rush said that if you're a Republican and you want to win anywhere in the country -- except for Maine and Massachusetts -- run as a conservative.

Last in line for the callers today was a man who said that Obama's courting of the AMA is a public relations ploy, and what the public doesn't understand is that the AMA does not represent America's physicians or their interests. Rush said he knew it -- Obama goes out there and talks to a left-wing group, and this is designed to make everyone think all the doctors support him. Almost makes you wonder what a doctors' group that has actually come out in support of a public health care plan thinks of Obama.

After one more break, Rush treated us to yet another of his hilarious parodies, this one of "the president's new policy on Miranda rights to terrorist detainees." What's sad, of course, is that the entire premise of this parody is undermined by the fact that this "new" policy of Obama's is actually a continuation of Bush's policy. A shame too, since Rush's (intentional) parodies are usually spot-on ...

Rush closed out the show by saying that people are being gunned down in Iran, and yet Ann Wright of the Huffington Post wrote this morning about Israeli police attacking "international protesters of Israel's invasion of Gaza, illegal settlements and the apartheid wall." Rush said they're gunning down people in Iran, and this is what the left-wing media is worried about. A quick glance at HuffPo's homepage should demonstrate exactly how off-base and dishonest this attack by Rush is. And in case you're reading this after they've changed the homepage, here's a screenshot taken at the time Rush made his comment.

Anyway, that's it for Rush and that's it for us on this lovely Monday. We'll be back tomorrow, and we do hope you'll join us. Until then, spend your time wisely by checking out Media Matters' Limbaugh archives.

Greg Lewis and Lauryn Bruck contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Are you a member of the AMA?

CALLER: No.

LIMBAUGH: All right. You know about them, I'm sure.

CALLER: I do, but they're a little too liberal for me.

LIMBAUGH: Well, it's like the American Bar Association. They're just a bunch of commie bastards anymore.

CALLER: In a way.

LIMBAUGH: They are. They are -- just a bunch of commie bastards anymore. The ABA leadership, American Bar Association -- tort lawyers run the whole thing. I just wonder if the AMA is, you know, a similar special interest group. All Obama has to do is promise the AMA some money.

America's Truth Rejector

Rush put together a parody of "the president's new policy on Miranda rights to terrorist detainees" -- a policy that was actually started under Bush:

LIMBAUGH: The White House has asked us to facilitate the president's new policy on Miranda rights to terrorist detainees in Afghanistan and anywhere else we happen to find them.

[begin audio clip]

ANNOUNCER: Attention all terrorist detainees. Now a reading of your new Miranda rights by our commander in chief, President Barack Obama.

OBAMA IMPERSONATOR: Dear terrorist detainees, since I am unable to reach out to each one of you personally, I have recorded this message to give you hope. Under our Constitution, you, as an American citizen, have certain rights. You have the right to remain silent about any knowledge you may have concerning future terrorist plans. Anything you say is unlikely to be used against you in a court of law since your actions are our fault. You have the right to an attorney from the ACLU who truly sympathizes with your case since they too hate America and you have the right to hate America, Israel, the West, indoor plumbing and return to jihad as soon as possible when you leave our care. Thank you for your commitment to giving back to a cause greater than yourself.

ANNOUNCER: This concludes a reading of your new rights as our guest here at Guantánamo Bay. Have a lovely day.

[end audio clip]

LIMBAUGH: Well, there you have it -- the official word from White House now on how the terrorist detainee Miranda rights are going to work.