This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the public's informed view of the deficit
By Simon Maloy

We've spent a good deal of time over the past week mocking Rush for comparing health care in America to things like dog kenneling and car maintenance, but there are serious reasons why the idea behind Rush's health care rhetoric -- essentially, let the free market decide -- is highly flawed. Most prominent among those reasons is that health care differs quite drastically from other commodities because of the moral and social aspects of medicine. Not being able to afford to have your oil changed or to put your dog up for the weekend will usually result in inconvenience, but that's it. And, as we've already noted, the options of changing your own oil or having your neighbor look after the dog are available at little to no cost. That is not at all the case with health care -- you can't test your own blood for HIV, and your neighbor can't treat cancer. And failure to obtain proper treatment from a professional doesn't just result in temporary inconvenience -- you risk losing wages, losing employment, permanent impairment, or death. As Matt Yglesias wrote last month, these social and moral costs of health care are exactly why "medicine has never really been understood as a commercial enterprise. A doctor is, in our social understanding, not a 'medical treatments salesman' any more than a soldier is a mercenary."

Rush got the show rolling today by announcing that "Open Line Friday!" has arrived a day early, as Rush will be out of the studio tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. Whoopee.

Then it was on to a Drudge special -- a story about Brooksville, Florida, requiring city employees to wear deodorant and underwear when on the job. Rush said he understands the deodorant statue, but how are they going to check to see if employees are wearing underwear. Then Rush switched gears to a Los Angeles Times story, which reported that Los Angeles officials voted to approve "a novel proposal: Put unemployed parents to work caring for their own children." Rush described this as an example of how far our society has declined and said that if there are any parents in the audience who would have to be paid to care for their own kids, they should change stations immediately. Rush then thought better of that, asking those members of the audience to call and explain why you should be paid to care for your own kids.

Rush then announced that he'd figured out a way for Obama to speak out against the regime in Iran: Rename Iran "the Fox News Channel." Obama would then be denouncing them several times a day. From there, Rush moved on to the ABC health care special from the White House, saying that ABC and NBC are going to "sink" because they're sacrificing some of the greatest legacies the news business has ever built. Rush noted that Tom Brokaw has been chosen to sit on the White House Fellowship Commission and described this as "a crossing of the line." How, asked Rush, can Brokaw appear anywhere on NBC now and analyze this administration with any credibility? Rush said that when you find yourself wondering what NBC is doing, think General Electric, think green technology and energy, and think government grants for companies supporting Obama's "stupid" cap-and-trade policies.

Moving on, Rush said that he'd received a note from the official climatologist of the EIB Network, Dr. Roy Spencer, asking if he could pull off an entire show without mentioning Obama or his policies. Rush said that would be difficult to do, but he could do it, even though Obama's "tentacles" are everywhere.

After the break, Rush announced that he's going to do it -- he's going to do an entire show next week where he's not going to mention Obama or his policies. Rush said it will be a "show-prep challenge." We hope that he -- and Matt Drudge -- are up to that challenge.

Rush then read extensively from the Washington Times' write-up of former President Bush's speech in Erie. Rush said he had to point something out -- there is not one thing the government runs that earns a penny of profit. It can't deliver the mail, run the trains, or run states for a profit. The whole government should be profitable, said Rush, earning money on our money. Obama's announcing all these regulations, he said, but who's regulating Obama? Rush then noted that the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that 46 percent of Americans blamed Bush for the deficits, while only 6 percent blamed Obama. Rush rejoined: "But let me tell you where 100 percent of the deficit belongs, the blame: Obama and Congress. And if you wanted to get really constitutionally technical, it would be Congress. Not one penny in this country can be spent without the House of Representatives first authorizing it and the Senate agreeing and then the President signing. So, the blame for the deficit is literally Congress and, of course, right now, it's Democrat, and Obama's running that. So, it's the Democrats in Congress and Obama because the Republicans can't stop anything. They don't have the votes in either house to do it. They are responsible for it." As we've pointed out before and we'll point out again, the public is right -- George W. Bush takes the lion's share of blame for transforming the surpluses of the Clinton years into the massive deficits we're seeing today.

After another break, Rush read some more from the Washington Times article on Bush's speech in Erie, saying that he likes the fact that Bush is "fighting back," but he wished the Bush administration had done more of this while Bush was actually in office.

Then Rush reminded everyone of the caller from yesterday, the young man who was pressured into voting for Obama and was upset with the president because he saw Obama helping the private sector instead of the little guy. Rush explained how he had to correct the caller and explain how Obama is actually destroying the private sector, and then said that this has become something of a phenomenon. Rush said that every time Obama takes over another company, his supporters view him as some kind of super capitalist instead of a socialist. The Wall Street Journal had a story along those lines in which the paper quoted a woman saying of the president: "He's bailing out the private sector. He's putting all kinds of money into the private sector. ... The money should be going to social programs, not to bailing out banks and GM. It should go to people who are unemployed." Rush said he has to recalibrate the way he comments on this -- people that voted for Obama are starting to get unhappy, but not for the reasons they should be.

Rush's first caller of "Open Line Friday -- on Thursday!" wanted to know what Obama is going to do to us if we don't wear underwear. Rush corrected her, saying that this isn't an Obama thing, it's Brooksville, Florida only.

One more break and Rush came back armed with a sound bite of something he said back in February 2008 about how Obama's election would only exacerbate racial divisions in the country, and any criticism of Obama is going to be met with charges of racism from the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Rush said he was proved right in this prediction by Ben Jealous of the NAACP, who said on CNN last night: "And the reality is that there does seem to be sort of a war for the base of the party. You have Rush Limbaugh out there very aggressively with this kind of retrograde tone, trying to resurrect a day that will no longer -- it just isn't possible for sort of a white- male-dominated society." Rush said Jealous was accusing him of opposing Obama because he's black. This is a pure racist allegation, said Rush. It's bilge and drivel. Six months in, said Rush, and Obama isn't making a bit of difference on racial issues, just as Rush predicted. The election of a black president hasn't done anything for the NAACP, said Rush, which is irrelevant anyway except for inside the Beltway. Rush said all they're doing is whining, and this is what Rush was talking about yesterday -- they whine and whine and whine, and Democrats say they'll fix it, and nothing gets fixed and it's all blamed on Republicans.

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

Highlights from Hour 1

America's Truth Rejector

Falsely claimed Obama and the Democrats are 100 percent responsible for the deficit:

LIMBAUGH: But let me tell you where 100 percent of the deficit belongs, the blame: Obama and Congress. And if you wanted to get really constitutionally technical, it would be Congress. Not one penny in this country can be spent without the House of Representatives first authorizing it and the Senate agreeing and then the president signing. So, the blame for the deficit is literally Congress and of course, right now, it's Democrat, and Obama's running that. So, it's the Democrats in Congress and Obama because the Republicans can't stop anything. They don't have the votes in either house to do it. They are responsible for it.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the new conspiracy -- no health care for Republicans
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the second hour rolling by noting The New York Times' headline indecision regarding the write-up of its latest poll. We'll note here that the Times, in that write-up, cherry-picked data from its own poll, focusing solely on the negative data regarding Obama and the economy. Rush read from the article, which reported that a "distinct gulf exists between Mr. Obama's overall standing and how some of his key initiatives are viewed, with fewer than half of Americans saying they approve of how he has handled health care and the effort to save General Motors and Chrysler." Rush said this isn't news; he's been saying it for weeks. This White House, more than any other White House, said Rush, runs on polls, and that approval number is everything to them. When it goes south of 60, said Rush, that means the power of "the Bamster's" personality is not overshadowing his "failures." This is a White House in panic, said Rush, because they've taken on too much too soon and they're not doing it well. Rush added: "These poll numbers -- those of you out there in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, whatever -- these poll numbers are why Obama's not giving you people what you want. These poll numbers are why he can't yet go ahead and rip up the Defense of Marriage Act."

Rush then noted that the GOP's approval rating in the New York Times/CBS poll had fallen to 28 percent -- its lowest ever in that survey. This "doesn't matter," though, said Rush, because the GOP is out of power and such a number is to be "expected." The bad numbers in this poll, Rush said, are the ones on Obama.

Then Rush moved on to the Politico's write-up of the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, which noted that "58 percent say the government should focus more on controlling the budget deficit than on boosting the economy." Rush asked if we realize the impact of this poll number -- more Americans are worried about the deficit than they are the economy. To translate this, said Rush, even though the liberals tell us this is the worse economy since the Great Depression, Americans understand it's the deficit that's the problem. The second revealing response here, said Rush, is who America thinks is responsible for the deficit -- 46 percent say George Bush. According to Rush, "we're not talking facts; we're talking public perception." Actually, in this instance, we're talking both, as we noted in the last hour.

But Rush was not swayed, saying that this number shows that Obama is a far more dangerous president that Bush or Clinton or Carter, because there's no check on Obama from the media or Congress. According to Rush: "Next year, the deficit will be four times as, well -- this year, four times as large as last year. Obama has quadrupled Bush's deficit and Bush is still being blamed. While it's charged to Bush, it's being created by Obama." Then Rush "simplified" it for us in a way that was no less false: "Obama took Bush's credit card and ran up massive debt on it. Bush -- Obama stole it. Let's look at it that way. Obama stole Bush's credit card, has run up debt like crazy. They've shut down the credit card, and yet Bush is getting blamed. So there it is for all to see."

The challenge, said Rush, is to educate voters, but can Republicans do it? Rush said he's been the loudest and most consistent critic of Obama, and it's working. They're causing opinions of his policies to go majority negative. The GOP, however, isn't doing this.

After the break, Rush said that if you're one of the majority of Americans upset with the deficits, but blame it on Bush, remember that Congress spends the money and Obama voted for all these budget-busting measures going back to 2004. Wait, wait, wait -- budget-busting measures going back to 2004? During the Bush administration? We thought that Obama and the Democrats were "100 percent" to blame...

Rush's next caller thought that people are missing the point on health care reform -- Obama doesn't care about the cost of health care; it's all about blackmailing Republican voters. Rush didn't understand what the caller was talking about (neither did we), so the caller explained that the Democrats are going to deny Republicans health care unless they vote Democratic. Rush responded: "Well, you could have a point there. They are doing that in other things. That's -- you know, some people tried to establish that that's how they were closing dealerships but I don't think anybody closed the loop for sure on this." But Rush said the caller is right. It's not about health care, it's about control, because "day-to-day, there's no health care crisis in this country." After another break, Rush clarified that he didn't want to "minimize" this caller's "point" about the fear that Democrats are going to deny health care to Republicans because the Obama administration is using this kind of fear to get everything it wants.

Then Rush moved on to a sound bite of Julian Epstein saying on MSNBC today that Bush's comments about "therapy" for Guantánamo detainees are absurd because Gitmo is a country club compared to what the Democrats want to do to these terrorists, putting them in supermax prisons. Rush said that's just absurd. You'd imagine that what Rush meant is that it's absurd to compare "Club Gitmo" to a country club when it's really more of a "tropical paradise." But what Epstein was admitting, said Rush, is that Democrats are soft on crime and weak on national defense, so he's saying that they're going to put these terrorists in really tough places, like the beach in Bermuda. We'll just point out again that the former detainees on the beach in Bermuda -- the Uighurs -- were cleared of "enemy combatant" status by the Bush administration.

Rush's next caller read from an Independent article on Obama's new financial regulations to fix the credit crisis and claimed that the government is going to have more personal information than it should. Rush said that's not all; it's also going to have control over us. Rush said that Obama and the Democrats are complaining and whining about unfair lending practices, but what they're really doing is making it so the federal government will be in charge of the lending industry. They're going to do the same thing with the digitization of medical records, said Rush -- they'll get dirt on you so they can blackmail you. The left is trying to solidify as much control as possible, said Rush, and Americans are starting to catch on. This goes back to the call yesterday and the WSJ story today -- Obama voters getting upset, but for the wrong reasons. They think he cares too much about big business, but they don't see that he's destroying big business. But they're upset, said Rush, and that's a baseline that can be built upon.

Another break and Rush returned, once again, to the earlier caller's claim that the Democrats are going to deny health care to Republicans based on party identification. Rush asked us what we think is going to happen when the government runs the banks and the credit card companies. This is insidious, said Rush, and it's designed to cement more power in Washington, and create more fear of Washington so that they're unopposed.

Rush rounded out the hour with a couple of callers. The first, from El Salvador, said that the national health care system there doesn't work, that it bullies doctors, and the same thing is going to happen here. Rush said some strain of that will happen here -- when the government controls everything, there's nowhere else you can go. Rush then explained that if you think health care is a crisis now, "[t]hink about some bureaucrat that you will never meet having to approve whatever treatment you want or need -- approve -- and then think about the likelihood of being approved if the bureaucrat happens to know that you oppose Obama or Biden." Rush added: "All they need is the fear in you. All they need is you thinking that you'll be discriminated against if you're not a Democrat, whether they discriminate or not. All they need is the fear to get you to get your mind right, to get in line with the right people. All they have to do is create that fear." But see, here's the thing, they're not creating that fear. The only person creating that fear is Rush, who is gleefully echoing and expanding upon a caller's conspiracy theory.

Rush's last caller said she has not heard anyone mention that the uprising in Iran could be happening because Iraq is free, and no one wants to give Bush any credit for that. Rush said she might have a point that consideration must be given to Iraq, but the Iranian population has long been simmering with opposition to mullahs. And they're erupting because they realized they've been duped with these elections.

Rush closed the hour with this observation: "It has been the 'bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz' of the Obama world the past couple of days, his opposition to - well, his refusal to tear apart the Defense of Marriage Act. The gay voters, the gay community, very upset at Obama. Everybody's trying to understand, why is Obama doing this? Let me throw in another one out at you, folks. If Obama appeared to be gay friendly, would it harm him in the eyes of the Muslim world, which is not gay friendly? Cairo speech? Hello?" That's funny, because, earlier in the hour, Obama's supposed reason for supporting DOMA was his poll numbers. If you're going to smear the guy, at least be consistent.

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

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: A job approval rating of 63 percent. Obama has the backing of Democrats and independents alike, a standing that many presidents would envy and try to use to build support for their policies. His rating has fallen to 23 percent among Republicans from 44 percent in February, a sign that bridging the partisan divide may remain, and -- bridging the partisan divide. There was never any attempt to bridge the partisan divide! These poll numbers -- those of you out there in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, whatever -- these poll numbers are why Obama's not giving you people what you want. These poll numbers are why he can't yet go ahead and rip up the Defense of Marriage Act.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Oh, I missed it. You're saying that a Democrat government run by Obama deciding who to approve and not to approve in terms of care and what kind of care --

CALLER: Exactly

LIMBAUGH: -- will look at party affiliation and say, "Eh, you go to the back of the line. We've got to take care of our own."

CALLER: This is what it's all about, Rush, believe me. He doesn't care one bit about health care.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you could have a point there. They are doing that in other things. That's -- you know, some people tried to establish that that's how they were closing dealerships but I don't think anybody closed the loop for sure on this.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: It's breathtaking to watch every day. Every day this little man-child reaches out and grabs something else. He says, "That's mine, that's mine, that's mine." But of course I don't make him sound like a child because he's far more dangerous than a child.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Think about some bureaucrat that you will never meet having to approve whatever treatment you want or need -- approve -- and then think about the likelihood of being approved if the bureaucrat happens to know that you oppose Obama or Biden. Whether it happens -- see the point here is not, ladies and gentlemen, look at me, I want you to understand this -- the point is not whether that would be the determining factor in how they decide. All they need is the fear in you. All they need is you thinking that you'll be discriminated against if you're not a Democrat, whether they discriminate or not. All they need is the fear to get you to get your mind right, to get in line with the right people. All they have to do is create that fear.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: It has been the "bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz" of the Obama world the past couple of days, his opposition to -- well, his refusal to tear apart the Defense of Marriage Act. The gay voters, the gay community, very upset at Obama. Everybody's trying to understand, why is Obama doing this? Let me throw in another one out at you, folks. If Obama appeared to be gay friendly, would it harm him in the eyes of the Muslim world, which is not gay friendly? Cairo speech? Hello?

America's Truth Rejector

LIMBAUGH: Next year, the deficit will be four times as, well -- this year, four times as large as last year. Obama has quadrupled Bush's deficit and Bush is still being blamed. While it's charged to Bush, it's being created by Obama -- by Obama's porkulus, by Obama bailoutulus, by Obama GMulus, by Obama where's the stimulus?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Let me simplify this. Obama took Bush's credit card and ran up massive debt on it. Bush -- Obama stole it. Let's look at it that way. Obama stole Bush's credit card, has run up debt like crazy. They've shut down the credit card, and yet Bush is getting blamed. So there it is for all to see.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Barack Obama's mustache
By Greg Lewis

The final hour of today's show began with Rush still harping on the White House's removal of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. He started reading Byron York's most recent column on the story, then explained for his audience what has happened with the story so far. It was similar to his previous orations of the story, and he continued his trend of leaving out key details. Rush also mentioned Sen. Claire McCaskill's (D-MO) June 16 criticism of the White House's handling of the issue, but not her subsequent statement on June 17 that she supported Walpin's removal once the administration more fully explained why he had to go.

Rush also made the point that Walpin has been speaking out, which is putting the White House in a state of disarray. There were two lessons to take from this, Rush explained. The first was: look what happens when you "fight back." They attempted to impugn the character of a "fine man," but he "does not take it." The other lesson was that thugs from Chicago are running the country. Rush went on to bloviate about how fear can paralyze people, and the way to get rid of fear is to confront it.

Then Rush referred to a Politico article on President Obama's diet, noting that nobody ever asked about the Bush diet, and Bush never rammed what we should eat down our throats like the Obamas have been doing.

Rush took a quick break and returned with a recent update by Byron York about the Walpin story. Rush then took a caller who wanted to know why conservatives aren't standing up for what they believe in. Rush explained to the caller how the Republican Party is divided into two groups: blue-blood moderate Republicans, and conservatives. According to Rush, the rift between the two groups can be explained "psychologically" in that Democrats run Washington and throw all the best parties, and Republicans want to be invited. It can be explained "politically," said Rush, in that moderate Republicans want to rid the party of "social issues" such as abortion. Rush said of the moderate Republicans: "[T]heir wives are constantly nagging them about this, and they wish their wives would shut up about abortions."

After another break, Rush declared that most people read 1984 and are scared, but when Obama read it, "he started taking notes." Then he moved on to an American Spectator blog post about Walpin, which attempted to link ACORN and AmeriCorps in some grand liberal conspiracy. Naturally, Rush read from this at length and declared that this is "incestuous" and a malignant "cancer." Remember, asked Rush, when Bush fired eight U.S. attorneys and the Democrats tried to make it political? And now Obama is breaking the law that he wrote and the media is all "ho-hum."

Next, Rush took a caller who explained how he originally started listening to the show back in the 1980s. Let's make a long story short: the caller was investigating Jim Jones and "confronting liberals" in the Bay Area before he was run out of town, and then a young black Democrat turned him on to Rush's show. Rush and the caller then exchanged some hearty attaboys.

One more commercial break, one more caller. This one explained his theory to Rush that Obama was being silent on Iran because he can't condemn the voter intimidation and fraud tactics that were used over there when it's consistent with his own hypocrisy. Rush told the caller that this was not the reason. Instead, Rush explained, it was because Obama doesn't want to offend the Muslim world, and -- as Rush argued yesterday -- Obama isn't following the precedent of other presidents to defend liberty. Rush added: '[Obama] made a big deal of his Muslim background, his background in Islam. He even had a mustache for one day. He had a mustache. He didn't have his wife there, either. You know, women in the Muslim world are -- they're not on stage with their husbands when the husbands are leaders. And that -- look at -- folks, I know this may sound a bit harsh. This guy is doing more than he can to destroy Israel and the settlements than he is trying to hold to account a bunch of tyrants rigging an election. He's not standing up for freedom and liberty. It's a shocking thing."

We've noticed that Rush, for all his exhortations that Obama do something regarding Iran, like "trying to hold to account a bunch of tyrants rigging an election," never explains what exactly Obama should do. This, apparently, is a favorite game of conservatives in the media -- shout, "Do something!" and then stamp their feet when "something" isn't done, while we're left wondering how the American head of state can hold the Iranians "to account" for "rigging an election." We guess he could go the McCain route and issue a "dangerously bellicose" statement on the election, and we're sure nothing would make Rush happier. But Nicholas Burns, who was the top negotiator for Iran under George W. Bush, said that "President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see a very aggressive series of statements by the United States that would try to put the U.S. in the center of this."

That's it for the Limbaugh Wire today. We'll be back tomorrow, even if Rush isn't. While you join us in eager anticipation for three days of Marks (Davis-Steyn-Davis), check out our comprehensive Limbaugh archives.

Simon Maloy, Lauryn Bruck, and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: So Obama went over there -- this big speech to the Muslim community. He made a big deal of his Muslim background, his background in Islam. He even had a mustache for one day. He had a mustache. He didn't have his wife there, either. You know, women in the Muslim world are -- they're not on stage with their husbands when the husbands are leaders. And that -- look at -- folks, I know this may sound a bit harsh.

This guy is doing more than he can to destroy Israel and the settlements than he is trying to hold to account a bunch of tyrants rigging an election. He's not standing up for freedom and liberty. It's a shocking thing.

Ladies' man

LIMBAUGH: The blue bloods will say, "We've got to get rid -- we've got to get rid of these people who care about the social issues. The social issues are killing our party," they think. Translation of that is they think that the pro-life voter, the evangelical Christian, is the death knell of the party, and they are embarrassed by them.

They don't like going to the Republican Convention and having so many of them there. But they -- and their wives are constantly nagging them about this, and they wish their wives would shut up about abortions. Just get rid of the Christians, just get rid of the social issues, is the code word there for getting abortion out of the Republican Party platform.