By Brooke Obie
In the wake of the House of Representatives passing historic health care reform last night, Rush regurgitated his old fearmongering talking points today, as he scrambled to convince his audience that reform (or, as Rush likes to call it, the “utter disaster,”) spelled the downfall of the country as we know it:
LIMBAUGH: We really are facing the prospect that our country will never be the same, if this stands. It will never be the same. And a majority of the American people understand it and know it and are outraged by this.
The Limboracle then prophesized that banning insurance companies from dropping Americans with pre-existing conditions will “bring down the health care system” because it “mandates the destruction of the private health care industry.” He added that the bill is “simply the insurance companies being taken over by the government for the express purpose of putting them out of business,” just in time to implement the public option that is waiting in the wings.
Limbaugh also couldn't resist repeating the tired falsehood that there is “federal funding for abortions in this bill.” The only person who can properly sum our sentiments on this falsehood, is Limbaugh himself: “The lies that we have been told about what is in this bill and what's not in this bill, it is an utter disaster.”
And like others in the right-wing media, Limbaugh also took shots at Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) for voting for the bill after Obama promised to issue an executive order banning federal funding of abortion. Stupak, Rush said, “has humiliated and disgraced himself ... he has as big a role in destroying this country as it was founded as Barack Obama does.”
Death panels: the lie that just won't die
Limbaugh concluded the first hour with more ominous warnings that “rationing of care is coming” because “when all of this is said and done, pre-existing conditions will not be covered,” because it is too expensive. Instead, “the only way” to cover everyone “is if care is rationed,” and when that happens, “you will not get care like you do today”:
LIMBAUGH: It's not going to be your doctor who decides [whether you get cancer treatment and what kind], it's going to be some government panel, using actuarial tables looking at you as a budget number, pure and simple, not as a human being.
But, fear not, Americans! El Rushbo has the prescription for what ails us: "[T]he answer is to elect conservatives." He added that there are no moderate Democrats, no pro-life Democrats, no “blue dogs.” According to Rush, “They are all liberal Democrats. There is not one that is in the center. Pelosi will get them to vote however she wants.”
Amnesty is coming!
In the second hour, Limbaugh did not calm down a bit, but instead insisted that “Obamacare” was just the beginning, and that the “next big push” was going to be “amnesty” for illegal immigrants. That “amnesty,” by the way, is “coming sooner than you think.” It must be done quickly, Rush concluded, because “Obama can't wait for this. He's going to need these people [undocumented immigrants] as voters in 2012.”
He added that Obama has every intention of keeping the middle class dependent on the government because “it is the middle class that holds the key to their power. The middle class cannot be given real tax cuts to move up the ladder. [The Democrats] want to control, they do not wish to govern. The reason that there will never be significant middle-class tax cuts is that the left will not allow the middle class to move up the ladder. They must receive government handouts. The change was ensuring as many people end up in the welfare state.”
So obviously, this is why the Democrats “must not win. It is the only way we can save the country.”
Rush spent the remainder of the hour pleading with his audience to put everything into calling for a repeal of the health care reform bill. After noting that Obama would veto any successful repeal made in the next few years, Rush concluded that they must keep repealing until they wear down Obama or get him out of office.
“Democrats don't deserve to win another election ever”
Rush was still on a tear by the third hour, as he attempted to explain the legal implications of the bill. He concluded that it would be very difficult to get the bill to the Supreme Court because legal action would have to first go through the D.C. Circuit Court, which is filled with “liberal” judges. He noted that when Republican senators take up the reconciliation bill today, they will seek an amendment asking for immediate judicial review for the bill, which he believes the Democrats will all oppose because they “know” the bill is unconstitutional.
After noting that Idaho and Virginia plan to sue over the issue, Limbaugh declared that the individual mandate to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional -- despite the contrary opinion of numerous legal experts.
Limbaugh ended the show by saying that Obama is punishing the country with his policies because Obama believes “this country has a lesson to learn.”
LIMBAUGH: We've got to learn what living in pain is really like. The same kind of pain Obama believes this country has caused in the world. The more pain the better.
He then stressed that Democrats should be run out of office and that they “don't deserve to win another election ever.”
Highlights
Outrageous comments
LIMBAUGH: He has succeeded. The happiness that this people -- that these people are feeling should sickening everyone of us because the happiness they're feeling is the happiness derived from the destruction of America as founded.
There are people in responsible positions of power in our government today who have a deep resentment for this country. Who have been raised, who have been educated to believe that this country is immoral and unjust. That we have stolen the resources of the rest of world and used them for our own greed. That our prosperity has resulted from the real people who make things work being stolen from. We have imperialistically sent our military around the world and murdered innocent people. They don't view this country as having liberated millions of people to freedom. They look at this country as one big criminal act. One big human rights, civil rights violation.
Don't doubt me. That is how Obama has been raised to look at this country and he believes it. And he's put a lot of people in unaccountable positions in his administration who have the same belief, and you know who some of them are -- Van Jones, admitted communists. These are no longer baseless allegations or charges designed to get people's attention. This is the truth that we face.
The Democrat Party has be co opted and is now led by a far leftist faction who admire and envy people like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. Have you ever wondered why so many Democrats and so many stupid idiotic celebrities have an affinity and love for Castro? Despite what's happened to his country. Despite what he's done to it -- they envy his power. They think they now have that power.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: We have the most pro-abortion president in the history of the country. This is a guy who believes in infanticide. This is a guy who doesn't believe that babies who survive abortions should be saved.