Rent-a-Treasury Secretary -- Your source for top-notch Cabinetry
By Simon Maloy

Rush got the second hour rolling by announcing that his own economic team -- using the Jared Bernstein formula for calculating job creation -- had reviewed the eight years of the Bush administration and found that Bush's tax cuts had created or saved 32 million jobs.

Then he turned his attention to Kevin Hassett's commentary in Bloomberg, “Obama Tells American Businesses to Drop Dead.” Hassett wrote: “I've finally figured out the Obama economic strategy. President Barack Obama and his team have been having so much fun wielding dictatorial power while rescuing 'failed' firms, that they have developed a scheme to gain the same power over every business. The plan is to enact policies that are so anticompetitive that every firm needs a bailout.” Rush, as you might imagine, was all about this, because he's been saying this 438 times, every day, for the past few months. They're creating crises, said Rush, and that's exactly what they want because it presents them with opportunities.

Rush read the rest of the column on the air, relishing every moment. Then he derided Tim Geithner as a “rent-a-Treasury Secretary,” and Romer and Bernstein as “rent-a-economists,” explaining that they've sold their souls to do Obama's bidding. They must know, said Rush, that what Obama is doing is hurting the economy, so the question becomes: Why are they going along with it? Because they want to be near power, said Rush, which is why Obama is able to find so many people willing to implement policies intended to destroy the private sector economy. It's the chaos and panic that these policies create that present the opportunity for Obama to assert more “statist control.”

Then it was on to some more non-original content as Rush turned to a Washington Times editorial from this morning that made him “sick.” Rush read extensively from the editorial, titled, “Kneecapping FedEx,” which amounted to little more than an anti-union screed. Rush said it documents just one more example of a great U.S. company -- FedEx -- about to be ruined by the Democratic Party and unions. All of this is happening and nobody's stopping it, said Rush, and Obama is leading the destruction of the private economy.

After the break, Rush noted that Obama, in a press conference today, said, “Congress should force itself to pay for new spending as it goes rather than sink the nation deeper into a debt” -- in other words, paygo. Rush pronounced this “rich” -- Obama bankrupted the country and destroyed the American dream for generations, and suddenly he's “found religion.” This is just a “ruse,” said Rush. It's a set-up for more tax increases on the wealthy, and people are starting to figure out that Obama's implementing these policies regardless of economic circumstances. So, Limbaugh -- who rails against Democratic government spending -- now is opposed to measures to rein in spending and the deficit, it appears.

Then it was time for the first caller of the day, this one a gentleman who attended the Republican fundraiser last night with Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Jon Voight. The caller said that Voight's speech was the highlight of the evening, but Palin got the most applause. Rush guaranteed that half the people in that room cringed when Palin drew that applause. Rush wanted to hear more from the caller after the break, and he did return to him following the commercials, but not before declaring that the White House is in “full panic mode.” Rush's evidence for this was that the Sotomayor hearings were scheduled for July 13 -- this means that they want to “ram her through” because they know that there's “trouble” with her nomination. They're panicking, said Rush, not because of what's happening on the ground economically -- that's what they intended -- but because people are seeing what's happening and they don't like it.

Anyway, back to the caller, who noted that Newt omitted Rush from his speech, even as he was expressing his pride to be in the same party as Colin Powell and Dick Cheney. Rush said the bottom line was that half the people at that fundraiser -- the Republican “bluebloods” -- wish Rush was not on the radio, and Newt Gingrich is one of them.

Then it was time for another caller, who said he has the greatest respect and regard for Rush, and that he has a little Paul Revere and a little Thomas Paine in him. The caller said that he printed out a transcript of yesterday's first hour and sent it to everyone he knew. Then he went and compared Obama quite directly to Hitler, which drew an objection from Rush. Rush said he doesn't “associate Obama with Hitler” -- he just calls him a fascist every 15 minutes or so -- and that this is not Nazi Germany. There are better ways to say what we're up against, said Rush.

After one more break, Rush closed out the hour with a couple of calls. The first was from a woman who felt that it's not the federal government's job to create or save anyone's job. Rush agreed, and said he could make the case that the job of the president is to make sure no one loses their jobs by helping the private sector. This “saved jobs” construction, said Rush, is a “fallacy,” and it's brilliant in that it can't be calculated. But Rush said he agreed with the caller's constitutional point -- we're at a point where too many people believe government's role is to take care of them, so there's a lot of work to be done.

Rush's final caller said it's time for America to start producing again and to lower taxes, which means the Republicans have to take the House of Representatives. Rush agreed with the caller, but said that the GOP doesn't think that tax cuts are the way to go. They think tax cuts are “old hat.” The party, said Rush, doesn't buy the conservative argument. Instead, they talk up Colin Powell as the leader of the party.

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