This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the use of Ted Kennedy's name to get “sympathy votes”
By Karl Frisch and Greg Lewis

Rush began the hour noting that Steny Hoyer's office had issued a clarification about the formulation of torture memos. Hoyer claims the media misinterpreted his remarks, which Rush had discussed in the previous hour, and that they weren't in reference to Pelosi, a claim which Rush is highly skeptical of. Apparently Rush's supposed “drive-bys in the media” travel only on one-way streets.

Moving on, Rush was inspired by yesterday's proposed sugar tax in the Senate and the story that the Food and Drug Administration criticized General Mills' claim that eating Cheerios can help lower one's cholesterol. That, Rush said, is “the least of our problems” because Obama made a lot of promises he isn't keeping, adding, “we know one thing for sure: Obama lives up to none of his promises.” From there, Rush proposed a slew of silly taxes on various foods and activities that also promote unhealthy behavior, such as driving and ordering pizza delivery after 9 p.m., concluding as he went into the break: “A brief time out, my friends, as you ponder all the new ways this administration, under the guise of keeping you healthy, can raise your taxes.” Imagine just for a moment -- you could ponder this one for hours -- the length of a disclaimer needed to note Limbaugh's falsehoods. He'd end up with a 10-minute show, which would certainly make our jobs here at the Wire a bit easier.

Back from the break, El Rushbo took a caller who argued that what Obama said during a campaign debate was that he wanted everyone to have the opportunity to have the same kind of healthcare he had as a senator. Rush debates the semantics with the caller, and ultimately concludes that Obama wasn't really promising access to this level of healthcare, only the opportunity. How crafty. Rush then continued his comparison of Obama's healthcare plan to Medicare: “We're going to have a national health care plan modeled on something going broke. It's -- I'm telling you again, you know, everybody -- they're going to hook everybody in, but they're going to use Ted Kennedy's name on this. They're going to get sympathy votes with Ted Kennedy's name on the bill, some way, somehow, and they're going to talk about the right everybody has to health insurance and we're going to insure everybody and the 50 million that aren't, we gotta come up with $90 billion to do it with -- ”It's just immoral people don't have health care." It's not going to be about that. It's not going to be about providing health coverage, because if it were, they wouldn't do this. It's not -- health coverage is gonna become less, and health treatment is gonna get worse. What this is about is being able to raise taxes at every turn in your life, at every step of your life. That's what this is about." Don't forget, Rush was roundly criticized in March for saying that "before it's all over, it'll be called the Ted Kennedy memorial health care bill."

Another break, another caller who wanted to talk about health care. This dittohead wondered if taking away the tax deduction from businesses that provide health care to employees would create more unemployment, therefore increasing the $90 billion cost that the New York Times article in the first hour referenced. Rush's answer: the government will just print the money. This further frustrated Limbaugh, leading him into a quick rant, in which he complained that “the more people that farm out taking care of themselves to the government because they're Americans and they're entitled or whatever, it's just going to break down. It's breaking down everywhere it's been tried. The Great Society. The War on Poverty. It doesn't and hasn't worked. Arguably, it has made the cultural decline worse, and it has sped it up.” It must be tough for Rush seeing his Republican colleagues in Congress in the minority -- remember, back in 1994 he was named an honorary member of their caucus.

Rush then read another New York Times article, unsurprisingly being flagged by Drudge, which reported that since the economic stimulus package was passed, only 6 percent has been spent. Rush was highly critical of this, as well as the fact that most of the money spent so far has been spent on social services like Medicare, food stamps, and welfare. While it's unsurprising Rush would criticize this fact, many economists, including Sen. John McCain' former campaign economic adviser, have argued that such spending is some of the most effective form of stimulus spending. Rush also criticized Democrats, again: “All you have is a political party in total control, which is what this bunch of people wants. And in this case, you've got a mix of incompetence and radicalism that is posing a huge threat to the future of the country. There's no question about it whatsoever.”

In the last segment of the hour, Limbaugh elaborated on the previous caller's attempt to paint candidate Obama as a promise-breaker. He played an Obama campaign ad which criticized McCain's healthcare plan because it would have taxed individuals for their employer-provided health care. Rush says under Obama's plan, your employer-provided healthcare will either be taxed as income to you, or they'll eliminate the tax deductibility, or a combination of both because they want national healthcare. They, as he explained, are intent on destroying “people who have made it” and destroying people's access to opportunity, which really breaks Rush's heart.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous remarks:

LIMBAUGH: It's a gateway drug here, folks. It's a gateway drug to other addictive behaviors including lying. This is the stuff they're focused on. It's a load of BS. For all anybody knows, Cheerios may do what it claims; it may not. But we know one thing for sure: Obama lives up to none of his promises.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now, what Obama is planning on doing is modeling national health care after Medicare. And what is incredible about that is that Medicare is out of money in, what, seven or eight years. Medicare is broke. We're going to have a national health care plan modeled on something going broke. It's -- I'm telling you again, you know, everybody -- they're going to hook everybody in, but they're going to use Ted Kennedy's name on this. They're going to get sympathy votes with Ted Kennedy's name on the bill, some way, somehow, and they're going to talk about the right everybody has to health insurance and we're going to insure everybody and the 50 million that aren't, we gotta come up with $90 billion to do it with -- “It's just immoral people don't have health care.” It's not going to be about that. It's not going to be about providing health coverage, because if it were, they wouldn't do this. It's not -- health coverage is gonna become less, and health treatment is gonna get worse. What this is about is being able to raise taxes at every turn in your life, at every step of your life. That's what this is about.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: But the more people that farm out taking care of themselves to the government because they're Americans and they're entitled or whatever, it's just going to break down. It's breaking down everywhere it's been tried. The Great Society. The War on Poverty. It doesn't and hasn't worked. Arguably, it has made the cultural decline worse, and it has sped it up.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: All you have is a political party in total control, which is what this bunch of people wants. And in this case, you've got a mix of incompetence and radicalism that is posing a huge threat to the future of the country. There's no question about it whatsoever.