By Greg Lewis

Rush began his program today with this message: If you allow yourself to be “made” by the press, they can tear you down whenever you want -- and Rush said that Obama had been “made” by the press, so they can break him. Rush bragged that he always tells concerned audience members that he cannot be broken by the press because they didn't make him; his audience did.

Anyway, Rush cited the latest Associated Press-GFK poll showing Obama's disapproval on health care was up to 52 percent. Rush used this statistic to claim that Obama would be trying to convince Congress in his speech tonight to vote against the “will of the American people.”

Rush went on to further explain his power of the press theory, and said that the media started propping Obama up “out of nowhere” when everyone thought Hillary Clinton would be “coronated queen.” Therefore, the media could also break Obama. Rush added that the cult like personality appeal of Obama is gone, and he was never about substance, just about vague platitudes.

Then Rush referred to an AP article about taxpayers facing losses from auto industry bailouts. Rush said the only reason for the bailouts was to rescue unions and their health care plans, not the car companies. Rush said the other intention of the bailouts was for Obama to get control of GM to get rid of SUVs and build “bubble cars.”

Next, Rush boiled down health care to explain its “essence.” You have two choices: Let the government run health care and deal with the consequences, or let the private sector to continue as it has been, and deal with those consequences. Rush said people have been choosing the private sector. Rush referred to an American Thinker piece criticizing Obama's message on health care. Rush said the piece explained how Obama is trying to create a crisis when people are largely satisfied with the coverage they have.

Rush then read extensively from a Politico article about Obama's media skills facing a “pivotal test” with tonight's speech. Rush criticized state-run media like Politico for building up Obama in the first place. Rush also had a laugh over the story of a Los Angeles school that tried tuning into Obama's speech yesterday, but were only able to get Rush's show.

After the break, Rush discussed Jake Tapper's reporting that Obama's speech tonight would consist only of things we've heard before. Rush said Obama is still relying on his personality and communication skills, and accused the president of not meeting with Republican leaders about health care since April.

Rush stands up for insurance companies: Covering pre-existing conditions is “silly”

After another commercial break, Rush couldn't help but crack a Barney Frank joke over the latest write-up of the Massachusetts representative. Rush then returned to the aforementioned American Thinker piece about Obama's health care message. This led Rush to detour and discuss his thoughts on preexisting condition coverage. He said it was “silly” because "[y]ou're gonna pay out the wazoo for preexisting coverage." Rush went on to construct this analogy to fire insurance:

LIMBAUGH: Let's say you do not have fire insurance in your home, and all of a sudden your house starts burning. And instead of calling the fire department, you call an insurance company, say, “Hey, I need to buy a policy, hold onto a policy that protects against fire.” “Well, OK, we'll get you --” “No, no, no, I need it right now, my house is burning down.” You think the insurance company would sell you an insurance policy in the middle of a fire destroying your house? It's the same thing as when you have a pre-existing medical condition and you wanna be insured for it.

Rush went on to call health care reform a growth and expansion of the government and a usurpation of liberty. Rush continued to read from the Thinker piece and chimed in about Obama overusing his bully pulpit on health care.

Coming back from another break, Rush decried an ABC report that pinned last week's conservative outrage on the likes of Rush and Glenn Beck. Rush pointed out that he was on vacation last week, and he didn't have an opportunity to talk about it until yesterday's program, while the ABC report implied his comments came from last week. Rush was correct to say he wasn't around last week to express baseless outrage over “indoctrination,” but his fill-ins sure did.

Next, Rush criticized Howard Fineman for saying that Rush said Obama's school speech was unpatriotic. Rush denied calling it unpatriotic, and argued that what he actually said was that Obama's speech was insincere because he delivered in a conservative message that he doesn't believe in. Rush closed out the hour with a caller who was upset with the coverage by the local media of the tea party rally he attended. Rush went on about the media being scared because everyone knows they're carrying Obama's water. Rush also repeated his charge from yesterday that the media hates people like the caller, and the media is mad because they no longer have power to shape public opinion.

Rush on Cronkite memorial service: Rush doesn't “like to speak ill of the dead, but Cronkite was just a raging lib through and through”

The second hour of Limbaugh began with Rush mocking Obama's speech at the Walter Cronkite memorial. While airing a sound bite of Obama talking about Cronkite's legacy, Rush made fake crying sounds and said Obama was whining about having the most compliant soft media anybody has ever had. Rush also criticized Obama for saying the problems with the media were all the fault of profit. Rush was none too kind about Cronkite's legacy on the day of his memorial service:

LIMBAUGH: The golden days of journalism are over. The golden days of journalism, where people in it determined and shaped public opinion without any competition whatsoever, is over. And Cronkite -- you know, you don't like to speak ill of the dead, but Cronkite was just a raging lib through and through. The reason Walter Cronkite doesn't like the news today because he couldn't do what he did even if he went back on the air after he retired.

Rush thinks up series of triggers to expel “authoritarian” Obama

From there, Rush ranted about “authoritarian” Obama's plea to a joint session of Congress to ignore the people who put them into office. He continued:

LIMBAUGH: Not only that, the president will also convince lawmakers to add trillions of dollars of debt to trillions of dollars of debt, with the next step being trillions of dollars of tax increases heaped on the very people who didn't want socialized medicine to begin with. And if everything goes to plan tonight, Congress will make it the law of the land to deny health care to their fellow man. Death panels, the people who put them in office.

Rush then called for Congress to raise the ceiling on charitable contributions to let the private sector take care of getting insurance for people. He also called it a lie that Obama was “open” to ideas and is willing to listen -- he said that about the stimulus plan, but he didn't take Rush's idea.

Then Rush moved on to all the talk about “triggers” in health care reform. He decided to come up with his own triggers for the Obama administration, some of which stipulated Obama's resignation:

LIMBAUGH: So let's talk about some triggers, shall we? How about these triggers? If unemployment exceeds 10 percent, that triggers the resignation of the president who promised unemployment would not exceed 8 percent if the stimulus was passed. If any taxes are raised on people making less than $250,000, that triggers Obama's resignation from office.

Rush came up with some “triggers” for climate change and health care legislation:

LIMBAUGH: If the average temperatures in the United States have not increased at the end of this year as compared to average temperatures over the past three years, that triggers the end of any and all cap-and-trade legislation. If any health care bill proposed by the president or Congress lessens the profitably or availability of private sector insurance in any way, increases taxes, adds to the deficit, does not include Republican reforms for private-sector health insurance companies, that will trigger an automatic withdrawal of the bill from consideration. Further, if a bill results in any policyholder losing his policy or his doctor, that triggers Obama's resignation from office.

Lastly, Rush came up with these “triggers” for car companies:

LIMBAUGH: And finally, if Ford Motor Company ends the year more profitable than General Motors or Chrysler, Obama car companies, the government and the United Auto Workers will be forced to sell their ownership. If Ford -- they want to talk triggers? I can come up with triggers all day long.

Rush hopes central theme of tonight's Republican response is “freedom”

After the break, Rush took a caller who asked about the Republican response to Obama's speech tonight. Rush wasn't sure who was giving the response, but hoped the central theme of it was “freedom.” Rush went on to explain how health care is screwed up because of state mandates and the inability to buy insurance from state to state. Rush claimed that if you opened it up, costs would plummet because it would ramp up competition.

Then Rush criticized a high school student's question to Obama yesterday, calling it a plant. The student asked the President why other countries have universal health care and the US doesn't. The student brought up the fact that the U.S. also pays for health care in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rush blamed the student's question on some teacher's “leftist drivel” being pumped into his head.

Rush calls health care reform “unadulterated fascism”

Returning from another break, Rush took a caller who said it was the dream of liberals to get control of the health care system. Rush said it would also lead to regulation of every citizen's life “to the max.” Rush was also hesitant to declare health care reform “dead,” since Obama still had over three years left in office, and warned his audience to keep a “sharp eye” on Sen. Baucus and his “Gang of Six.” Rush said Baucus was working on language to make people think insurance would be cheaper, but Rush claimed it would actually make premiums skyrocket, and we'd end up with “more uninsured” than ever before.

Rush explained that people don't want this kind of “unadulterated fascism”:

LIMBAUGH: Once they experience unadulterated fascism, once health care is passed, there's a government option, private insurance is history and gone, people aren't gonna put up with it. Not in this country. And unless they do something about the Second Amendment, get guns out of everybody's hands, there's going to be hell to pay.

So I think they lose either way, but we lose if they win. We lose for years if they win. Their rationale goes away if they lose, but you're right, this is -- I mean, this is the building block, the building block for a fascist America, building block for a ever-expanding growing government. And that's why that speech to these kids yesterday infuriated me. He doesn't believe any of that.

Rush then moved on to Obama's interview on today's edition of Good Morning America. Rush played a sound bite of Obama saying his strategy of leaving reform up to Congress left “too much ambiguity,” and allowed for opponents of reform to fill the airwaves with a lot of nonsense about death panels and such. Rush called this “unbelievable” and maintained his position that death panels were in the House bill, even if the language didn't specifically create them. Just as he did yesterday, Rush used the analogy that the War on Poverty legislation didn't say it would “destroy the black family,” but it did.

Rush also said it was “pure common sense” that reform would amount to a government takeover of health care because if government is going to write a health care bill that empowers the government, then it must be government run. Rush went on to read from Michael Gerson's Washington Post column questioning Obama's credibility on health care.

After another break, Rush read an April 2008 Reuters article detailing the poor state of health care in Afghanistan in an effort to further belittle the high school questioner at yesterday's Obama event. Rush again criticized the media for putting these ideas into our students' heads, and called it a planted question. Then Rush read an email from a listener who likened Obama's back-to-school speech to a Hitler speech. Rush said what happened in August -- vocal public outcry over Obama's policies -- must continue for four years.

Rush reads months-old Senate Finance report on health policy “revenue options,” declares it the “Baucus bill,” which “is the Obama bill”

Staying ever-topical, Rush got the third hour going by talking about a Senate Finance Committee report on health care policy options that was put out back in May (not the recently released reform framework of the Baucus plan). Rush went on to repeatedly refer to this report at the “Baucus bill.” After playing a quick sound bite of Andrea Mitchell acting concerned over Obama's teleprompter tonight, and reading from a Dana Perino column about how the media might spin Obama's speech, Rush got back to the “Baucus bill” that wasn't.

Rush read straight from the not-“Baucus bill,” specifically “Section V,” which was about how revenue could be raised to pay for health care. Rush bemoaned the various revenue-raising options described in the report, and said they would destroy private sector competition and incentives. Rush then said the not-“Baucus bill is the Obama bill.”

It isn't. We couldn't make ourselves any clearer on this. What Rush was reading was a report put out by Baucus' committee back in May about “proposed health system savings and revenue options.” This should not be confused with the framework of Baucus' plan, which was put out this week. There is nothing called “Section V” in that framework. Some of the policy ideas in the earlier report may overlap with the framework, but it wasn't what Rush was reading.

After the break, Rush made some remarks about the government wanting to change how much money they withhold from contractors. Rush described this as a limitation of freedom. Then he went back to the not-“Baucus bill,” and said it was where all the tax changes are going to take place, under the guise of making health care cheaper. Rush also said the not-“Baucus bill” would result in more people being uninsured, basing the claim on ... absolutely nothing.

Rush returned from another break with a suggestion for what sign his audience should put on their televisions during Obama's speech tonight (a long-time Limbaugh tradition dating back to the Clinton era). Rush advised that the sign should read: “Words...Just Words.”

Then Rush aired an audio clip of Rep. Barney Frank saying that health care reform will not be paid for with a soda tax. Rush said Frank was wrong because a soda tax was in the not-“Baucus bill.” (Yes, the soda tax is discussed as a revenue option in the committee report. No, it's not mentioned in the Baucus framework.)

The next caller on the program complained about the Postal Service and said something about not receiving her paychecks in the mail. Rush went on about how the federal government was out of money, and how Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling in order to borrow another trillion dollars. Rush added that this is happening when Obama is going to announce a health care program that is going to cost another trillion dollars.

We're going to have to chime in again here to note Rush's mind-numbing hypocrisy. He just spent the past 30 minutes discussing the supposed policy mechanisms being thought up to pay for health care reform. Now he's ignoring all that to decry the idea of Obama “spending” another trillion while discussing the growing national debt.

Rush still blabbering about Obama's fascism

Another caller suggested to Rush that health care reform was really just to create another stream of money into the government for politicians to rob. Rush agreed, but said it was about more than just the money. Rush explained how unemployment was playing into Obama's hands:

LIMBAUGH: You see, all of this plays into Obama's hands. Tax revenues are way down because of all the unemployment. He doesn't care. He doesn't care -- this crisis fits in exactly what he wants. This is about power. With that power, comes the money. This is about control. This is about fascists as opposed to socialists. Socialism is when the government owns everything. Fascism is where private sector owns things but they have no freedom to run 'em. People like Obama tell 'em what to do, and they become partners. And the people in the private sector, corporations that the government wants to control, you know, just bend over forwards, grab the ankles. They got no choice.

The caller had another question for Rush: [W]hen insurance is nationalized, where do all the people go who work for insurance companies?"

Ignoring the blatantly untrue premise of the question -- that the purpose of reform is to “nationalize” insurance companies, resulting in every employee of insurance companies losing their job -- Rush went right along with the caller's theory:

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. That's more crisis for Obama -- it's more uninsured will have to go on the government option plan. It's insidious. It's -- you think he cares about unemployment now? I'm tell -- he doesn't care -- anybody running this country in this current economic situation would be devastated, personally devastated over what?

One more break, and Rush closed out the program with a military caller who confirmed the lack of universal health care in Afghanistan. Rush went on to repeat his claim that the question at Obama's event yesterday was a plant, and said it was all part of the “America sucks routine” being run by Obama.

Zachary Aronow and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: This pre-existing condition -- can I give you an analogy here of why pre-existing condition coverage in health insurance is -- that's not -- that, that -- it's silly! You're gonna pay out the wazoo for pre-existing coverage.

Let's say you do not have fire insurance in your home, and all of a sudden your house starts burning. And instead of calling the fire department, you call an insurance company, say, “Hey, I need to buy a policy, hold onto a policy that protects against fire.” “Well, OK, we'll get you --” “No, no, no, I need it right now, my house is burning down.” You think the insurance company would sell you an insurance policy in the middle of a fire destroying your house? It's the same thing as when you have a pre-existing medical condition and you wanna be insured for it.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The golden days of journalism are over. The golden days of journalism, where people in it determined and shaped public opinion without any competition whatsoever, is over. And Cronkite -- you know, you don't like to speak ill of the dead, but Cronkite was just a raging lib through and through. The reason Walter Cronkite doesn't like the news today because he couldn't do what he did even if he went back on the air after he retired.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So tonight the president calls the people's elected representatives together to call on them to ignore those that elected them. That's what's on tap tonight. How's that for an authoritarian? He calls for a joint session of the U.S. Congress, those who represent the people of the 57 states, and he is essentially going to make a plea to them to ignore the people who put 'em in office. If Obama is successful, he'll give a speech that's so persuasive the elected representatives of the people will ignore the specific instructions of the electorate. Not only that, the president will also convince lawmakers to add trillions of dollars of debt to trillions of dollars of debt, with the next step being trillions of dollars of tax increases heaped on the very people who didn't want socialized medicine to begin with. And if everything goes to plan tonight, Congress will make it the law of the land to deny health care to their fellow man. Death panels, the people who put them in office.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So let's talk about some triggers, shall we? How about these triggers? If unemployment exceeds 10 percent, that triggers the resignation of the president who promised unemployment would not exceed 8 percent if the stimulus was passed. If any taxes are raised on people making less than $250,000, that triggers Obama's resignation from office. All the czars will be fully vetted, and if just one fails an FBI background check -- and most of them will fail a FBI background check -- that triggers a requirement for all the czars to resign, and the czar program to be discontinued.

You like these triggers? If the average temperatures in the United States have not increased at the end of this year as compared to average temperatures over the past three years, that triggers the end of any and all cap-and-trade legislation. If any health care bill proposed by the president or Congress lessens the profitably or availability of private sector insurance in any way, increases taxes, adds to the deficit, does not include Republican reforms for private-sector health insurance companies, that will trigger an automatic withdrawal of the bill from consideration. Further, if a bill results in any policyholder losing his policy or his doctor, that triggers Obama's resignation from office.

And finally, if Ford Motor Company ends the year more profitable than General Motors or Chrysler, Obama car companies, the government and the United Auto Workers will be forced to sell their ownership. If Ford -- they want to talk triggers? I can come up with triggers all day long.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: See, I actually think if they get this, ultimately they're dead. Nobody is gonna want to live in a country run by these people with their vision. If they get it, there's gonna be a revolt at some point down the line, and somebody -- people do not want this. Once they experience unadulterated fascism, once health care is passed, there's a government option, private insurance is history and gone, people aren't gonna put up with it. Not in this country. And unless they do something about the Second Amendment, get guns out of everybody's hands, there's going to be hell to pay.

So I think they lose either way, but we lose if they win. We lose for years if they win. Their rationale goes away if they lose, but you're right, this is -- I mean, this is the building block, the building block for a fascist America, building block for a ever-expanding growing government. And that's why that speech to these kids yesterday infuriated me. He doesn't believe any of that.

[...]

CALLER: I had another question. When the insurance companies -- when insurance is nationalized, where do all the people go who work for insurance companies?

LIMBAUGH: Uh, they are unemployed.

CALLER: Yeah, so that's really going to be good for the country.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. That's more crisis for Obama -- it's more uninsured will have to go on the government option plan. It's insidious. It's -- you think he cares about unemployment now? I'm tell -- he doesn't care -- anybody running this country in this current economic situation would be devastated, personally devastated over what? Circumstances the American people are in today, particularly the unemployed. And they would be doing something to reverse it. Zip, zero, nada. Stimulus isn't going to work anyway. Six percent is what's been spent, they're saving the rest of it for 2010, a re-election year.

“Fascism” watch

LIMBAUGH: See, I actually think if they get this, ultimately they're dead. Nobody is gonna want to live in a country run by these people with their vision. If they get it, there's gonna be a revolt at some point down the line, and somebody -- people do not want this. Once they experience unadulterated fascism, once health care is passed, there's a government option, private insurance is history and gone, people aren't gonna put up with it. Not in this country. And unless they do something about the Second Amendment, get guns out of everybody's hands, there's going to be hell to pay.

So I think they lose either way, but we lose if they win. We lose for years if they win. Their rationale goes away if they lose, but you're right, this is -- I mean, this is the building block, the building block for a fascist America, building block for a ever-expanding growing government. And that's why that speech to these kids yesterday infuriated me. He doesn't believe any of that.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You see, all of this plays into Obama's hands. Tax revenues are way down because of all the unemployment. He doesn't care. He doesn't care -- this crisis fits in exactly what he wants. This is about power. With that power, comes the money. This is about control. This is about fascists as opposed to socialists. Socialism is when the government owns everything. Fascism is where private sector owns things but they have no freedom to run 'em. People like Obama tell 'em what to do, and they become partners. And the people in the private sector, corporations that the government wants to control, you know, just bend over forwards, grab the ankles. They got no choice.