Hour 2: Limbaugh Continues To Promote McCaughey's Health Care Misinformation

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the killing of old people to save money on Social Security conspiracy theory
By Greg Lewis

The second hour began with Rush bringing up a prescient story -- Rolling Stone magazine reporting that Michael Jackson's prosthetic nose is missing.

Let's try this again. "Substantively" (it's all relative on The Rush Limbaugh Show) the hour began with Rush reading a Fox News article about Obama saying that "victory" is not necessarily a goal in Afghanistan. Rush wondered what kind of perspective Obama must have if he's worried about using the word "victory." Then Rush presented us with his "Limbaugh Doctrine": You don't get peace until there is victory.

After briefly mentioning the latest Rasmussen tracking poll again, Rush read from a Chicago Sun-Times article describing the president's congratulatory phone call to Mark Buerhle of the Chicago White Sox, who pitched a perfect game on Thursday, which led to more inane discussion about Obama's "girly toss" at the All-Star Game.

But it was back to more health care discussion after that, with Rush again claiming that Obama doesn't know the "specifics" of the bill. Rush then talked about Rahm Emanuel and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) trying to get a vote through the House before the August recess and members of Congress getting "hell" from their constituents during the recess. Rush added that the media have given up all their integrity to be stenographers for the Obama White House.

After the break, Rush mentioned that Texas Gov. Rick Perry might invoke the 10th Amendment to resist health care reform. Rush all but cheered this on.

"Open Line Friday!" rolled on with a caller who said Obama had the "audacity" to say Gates was acting stupidly for "responding" to the situation. The caller added that he was embarrassed for the rest of the world over this. Rush said the root problem is that Gates was upset because he is highly distinguished and yet the cop didn't know who he was; he then commented on Gates' out of control ego. After some discussion of mug shots, Rush said that "before Obama's through," "we're all gonna have a mug shot one way or the other."

The next caller was a 12-year-old who wanted to know why Obama doesn't lower taxes instead of raising them. Rush invoked the Declaration of Independence:

LIMBAUGH: The Declaration of Independence has this phrase in it: "We are all endowed by our Creator" -- God -- "with certain unalienable rights," among them life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. Now, those rights, granted by God and assumed to exist in all human beings by our Founders, present a problem and a threat to liberal Democrats like President Obama. The biggest problem President Obama has is the liberty and freedom of the people of this country.

As the call continued through a commercial break, it could best be described as the same rant about taxes and fairness we've heard so many times before, except he took a much slower pace, presumably so the youngster he was lecturing could better understand.

The next caller was concerned that government health care would result in people telling her what kind of care she could and could not receive, and that it would just result in them counseling her on how to die. After Rush brought up Betsy McCaughey's ace opinionating on the health care bill, the call took a rather strange turn toward conspiracy theories:

CALLER: Also, Rush, you know what I really believe? I believe they're trying to get rid of the old people so they can insure the illegal aliens for their voting base.

LIMBAUGH: Well, it -- you know, we can guess what they're doing. I mean, there are a number of theories. Let's just take your -- let's take your proposition and discuss it hypothetically. They want to get rid of the old people. I think it's fairly clear from looking at details in their plan that they are not going to provide life-saving health care for people with certain diseases at a certain age because of cost.

Rush further delved into his conspiracy theory:

LIMBAUGH: Now, from that can we project that they want old people to die? Now let's hypothetically say, "Yeah, they want old people to die." Then, OK -- why? Well, I can think of two reasons: a) it would free up a whole lot of money to spend buying votes elsewhere. Secondly, it would save a whole lot on Social Security.

People don't want to believe this, said Rush, but the caller and Rush both believed it -- it's in the bills, said Rush.

Then Rush blathered some more about his interview with Greta van Susteren, teasing Part 2 of the interview tonight. Then Rush got to a point that he regretted not bringing up during his interview: the history of the world is dictatorship and totalitarianism. Right in front of your eyes, you're losing your freedom -- that's what they're trying to do with health care reform.

After another break, Rush commented on the Cambridge police press conference, saying that they were demanding an apology from "Barack Nifong."

Brian Frederick, Zachary Pleat, and Ariana Probinsky contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Now he's running around complaining that he's got a mug shot, and that the mug shot's gonna be all over the -- well, join the club, pal. Join the -- I mean, you know, our local paper here -- do you ever go to the Palm Beach Post website? Well, you ought to one day. At the top of the website, before there's any news, before there is any pictures, just up there, you know, with the top headline band with the weather forecast and current conditions, two mug shots: the latest arrests at the Palm Beach County jail. And you can click on it -- see mug shots.

It's everybody, I mean -- before Obama's through, folks, we're all gonna have a mug shot one way or the other.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The Declaration of Independence has this phrase in it: "We are all endowed by our Creator" -- God -- "with certain unalienable rights," among them life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. Now, those rights, granted by God and assumed to exist in all human beings by our Founders, present a problem and a threat to liberal Democrats like President Obama. The biggest problem President Obama has is the liberty and freedom of the people of this country.

[...]

CALLER: Also, Rush, you know what I really believe? I believe they're trying to get rid of the old people so they can insure the illegal aliens for their voting base.

LIMBAUGH: Well, it -- you know, we can guess what they're doing. I mean, there are a number of theories. Let's just take your -- let's take your proposition and discuss it hypothetically. They want to get rid of the old people. I think it's fairly clear from looking at details in their plan that they are not going to provide life-saving health care for people with certain diseases at a certain age because of cost.

Now, from that can we project that they want old people to die? Now let's hypothetically say, "Yeah, they want old people to die." Then, OK -- why? Well, I can think of two reasons: a) it would free up a whole lot of money to spend buying votes elsewhere. Secondly, it would save a whole lot on Social Security.