April 5, 2013
On the latest economic news…
Folks, I don't know how else to categorize this. We are living in a dying country. I don't know how else to categorize what's happening -- 88,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate, because of a terrible statistic, is down to 7.6%. The number of people in this country who are not working is shameful. Ninety million Americans are no longer in the workforce. Ninety million. People not in the labor force grew by 663,000, and now 90 million. That's the labor force participation rate. This is 1979 levels. The only difference is that we don't have an election around the corner to fix it like we did in 1979. We had that election last November, and we blew it. In addition to payrolls only adding 88,000 jobs, an additional 81,800 went on disability in March. We're now up to 8.8 million Americans on disability. We had nearly as many people go on disability in March as people who found jobs. I think it's official. We have a dying country. There is literally no way that our entitlement programs and our safety net and our absorption of immigrants, legal or otherwise, can be supported this way. This simply cannot be sustained. I don't know how else to describe this.
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April 3, 2013
On the impracticality of Obamacare…
Folks, Obamacare, I don't think it can work. I don't think it can be successfully implemented. Now, that can be disastrous, by the way. The people in charge of it may not ever realize that and may try to make a go out of an absolute disaster. But I don't think so. All of these rules and regulations… I know health care is important to people, but administering this is gonna be impossible, even with 16,000 new IRS agents. People are gonna have to fill out a 61-page form just to qualify for a subsidy at one of these exchanges. Not every state signed up for the exchange, so some states are not even messing with Obamacare. Some states are basically punting Obamacare, as much as they can. And those states, I think, is where the savior in all this is gonna end up being found.
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March 4, 2013
On low-information voters and the public perception of Obama and Republicans…
They're not dumb. Some of them are, but they're low-information, they just don't know. And what they think they know isn't right. And that's the real danger. These are people who think they understand it all. These are people, some are college students, college grads, they think they understand it, and it's what they know that's wrong. That is the problem. They have bought hook, line, and sinker that Obama is a great healer, compromiser, wants to be bipartisan. But man, it's just those Republicans, mean, extreme Republicans, that just don't want to give him any credit for anything, and won't agree with him on anything, and they won't move or compromise at all. When, in fact, the Republicans have caved more than the sinkhole up in Tampa. They never get any credit for it. But they've caved left and right.
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March 1, 2013
On Obama’s uncanny ability to avoid the political consequences of his policies…
The genius of Barack Obama is the truth never attaches itself to him. It's not that he's not held accountable, that's not the genius. It's not that the media doesn't tie him to it. His genius is his direct relationship with the people that vote for him and how he is able to convince them. I don't even think he needs the media, frankly. Now, it would be a lot harder if the media were challenging him, but that is a hypothetical that's never gonna happen because the media never is gonna be in opposition to Obama, so that's a pipe dream.
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February 27, 2013
On the coming release of up to 30,000 illegal alien criminals from U.S. jails by the Department of Homeland Security, supposedly because of budget pressures under the sequester…
Let's not forget, thanks to Obama's various executive orders, ICE, the immigration people, no longer detain any illegal aliens unless they've been convicted of a serious crime. That's who we're talking about here. You have to commit a serious crime before we detain you, if you're illegal. So this isn't just a bunch of discriminated-against freedom fighters that have been wrongly jailed finally seeing freedom at all. These really are convicted criminals that are being released. And somehow it's being blamed on the Republicans. This whole idea is Obama's. He's the one that gives the order to Janet Napolitano to release these people. Republicans couldn't order this if they wanted to and yet they're going to end up getting the blame for it.
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February 25, 2013
On the truth about Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s claims that the sequester will force the layoff of 800,000 Pentagon employees…
It's like a school furlough when they run out of money in a school district. They shut school down every Friday for a semester, if they run out of money. That's what the civilians will do, the 800,000. You know, my instinct told me, "We're not gonna lay off 800,000 civilian Pentagon employees over $45 billion. We're just not gonna do it!" Well I was right. They work a five-day week and what's gonna happen is they'll work a four-day week if sequester happens. Many of them will probably celebrate.
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February 22, 2013
On ABC’s doomsday list of government service cuts that supposedly flow from the Sequester…
If only spending $15 more this year than last year is gonna cause the government to stop doing practically everything it does, and that's what that list -- I mean, that pretty much covers it. If we cut $40 billion, it's gonna keep the government from doing everything it does. What are they gonna do with the rest of the $3.7 trillion that they are gonna spend? What are they gonna do with the $3,700 billion they're going to spend? If all that stuff's gonna stop, all these 57 things and others are gonna stop because of a cutback of $40 billion, then what are they gonna do with the rest of the $3.7 trillion?
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February 20, 2013
On Republican support for the sequester…
Why would Republicans support -- I mean, the Republicans support the sequester. They're on record as supporting it. Even though it's Obama's idea, they support it. It's the only way we're gonna get some budget cuts, and they're infinitesimal anyway. But the question is, why would Republicans support something that does what Boehner says it's gonna do? Threatens US national security, thousands of jobs could be lost. Boehner's calling the cuts deep, when they're not. I do not have an explanation. I don't think that there is a reasonable explanation for that. I don't understand it. Don't have an answer for you. It's too simple to chalk this up to incompetence. It may be that, but that's too simple. I don't have an answer. I can't explain it to you. All I know is that it doesn't make any sense.
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February 18, 2013
On the bankruptcy of Obamacare’s high-risk health insurance pool for pre-existing conditions…
This law [Obamacare] is going to collapse on itself, if it doesn't get full-fledged resources of the states, and it's not going to have those. This law mandates things that the federal government has no idea yet are mandated, because not everybody has studied this thing. It's gonna require expenditures that nobody's aware of yet. We don't have the money for any of this! This thing is a time bomb waiting to blow up out there, and it's gonna blow up. I'll tell you when it's gonna blow. I just know what's going to happen. It's gonna blow up when there are very few, if any, options left in the private insurance market. And by then, it's gonna be too late.
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February 15, 2013
On the Carnival Cruise Lines fiasco and what it portends for the country…
If you want your city to become that cruise ship, it's not "don't hire the CEO as the mayor." It's "don't let the environmentalist wackos get anywhere near your power plant." Because it was the lack of electricity that caused that cruise ship to totally decompose the way it did. That's the sole thing. They lost their power plant, something went wrong, and that's when everything blew apart, as it will in your house or your city before long after you lose electricity. It's that simple. It's no more complicated than that. Then keep in mind, the environmentalist wackos, the Democrat Party, that's the direction they want to go. Electricity from fossil fuels is one of the modern evils of the world. And so you could safely say that if those people get their way, most people's lives could end up looking very much like what happened on that cruise ship, as opposed to what life looks like today.
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February 13, 2013
On the permanent campaign of President Obama…
The State of the Union speech last night, and for the rest of this week, he's on the campaign trail. What's he doing? He's running against the powerful forces trying to stop him from fixing these problems. He's not governing. And that's how he is able to create and maintain the illusion that he has no relationship whatsoever to what actually happens. Unemployment -- nothing to do with him, even after five years. National debt, deficit -- nothing to do with him. Budget cuts that might be harmful, there are no such things, by the way, nothing to do with him.
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February 11, 2013
On the media’s reaction to cop-killer Christopher Dorner’s left-wing politics…
After every mass killing in this country, the media turns over every rock trying to find any evidence whatsoever that the killer was inspired by conservatives. Yet Christopher Dorner is admitting that he idolizes left-wingers in politics and in the media, and it's not news. It's no big deal.
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February 8, 2013
On the at-large ex-LAPD cop accused of killing three people in California…
I must warn those of you in Big Bear Lake, California, there's a nut on the loose. He's on the prowl. He's shooting people. This former cop, this Dorner guy, he's running around, and he loves left-wingers and so forth. I think the safest thing for those of you to do in the area where he is thought to be is turn in your guns now. They tell us that will stop him. That's right – because nothing strikes fear into killers like people that don't have any guns. That's what Obama tells us, and that's what the experts who are trying to make us all safer say. So you got a madman on the loose. He happens to love left-wingers. That, by the way, is being ignored.
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February 6, 2013
On Obamacare…
President Obama's health care law. We have more health care news, and every day we learn more about what an utter disaster this is, what an utter disaster awaits us. This is from the Washington Times, Stephen Dinan. "President Obama's health care law will push seven million people out of their job-based insurance coverage -- nearly twice the previous estimate, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released [yesterday]." Folks, you know all this. I don't know whether you remember it or not, but all during the debate and the run-up to Obamacare, I mentioned to you what the ultimate objective of it is. That's single-payer, government-run health care. They know they can't get there overnight by promoting that or putting that up for a vote, and Obama admitted this (we played the tape) to his buddies at the Service Employees International Union. What he told his union buddies back in 2007 -- and we've aired this before. We aired it during the campaign. The low-information voters didn't care. I don't know that too many people did, either. I don't think anybody really yet knows what is headed their way when this stuff hits.
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February 4, 2013
On efforts by Karl Rove and other establishment Republicans to seek a greater say in the nomination of Republican candidates in future elections…
Either by accident or by design, this announcement and this newspaper article about Karl Rove's intentions is only serving to unite the Tea Party in ways even now it hasn't been. It is energizing the Tea Party in ways that it hasn't been. After the election, everybody on our side faced a bit of demoralization, and this has ratcheted it back up. The conservative base of the Republican Party has now been targeted by the Republican establishment. That's how they interpreted Rove's comments. So what the Tea Party people now realize is that they got two political forces gunning for 'em. Obama and the Democrats and the Republican establishment.
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February 1, 2013
On glimmers of hope for conservatives and therefore the country…
I can't give you specifics. It's just a feeling -- and I assure you, it's not just blind hopefulness. It isn't wishful thinking. I just have a sense that Obama's not going to ultimately succeed in totally transforming this country into something other than how it was founded. Now, I'm not denying what he's done so far has been devastating, but there are signs out there. I keep talking about the states. In addition to fracking, do you know what else is booming? Fracking would be probably number one, and it's the most unreported characteristic that is responsible for economic growth. There literally is a boom in the oil industry in this country where fracking is taking place. The other thing that is growing this economy is the manufacture and sale of guns, and you know that.
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January 30, 2013
On the reason for the contraction of the U.S. economy …
I have a question, ladies and gentlemen. The economic growth rate – reported, anyway – by our government, at the end of September, was 3.1%, at the end of the calendar third quarter. So after September, of course, comes October, November, December. That's the calendar fourth quarter. So from September to the end of the year the economy went from growing at 3.1% to contracting by 0.1%. So the economy fell 3.2%. Now, what happened between October, November, and December that might have had something to do with this? Let me think. October, November, even December you got Christmas and holiday season, that's supposed to be big for the economy. They told us, ladies and gentlemen, we were told that after Obama won reelection, the economy was gonna take off because uncertainty would be removed. In fact, they said that one of the reasons the economy was sorta chugging, not really speeding along, was all the uncertainty over who was gonna win the election and what policies would then flow; but then after Obama won, that's the end of uncertainty. Everybody would know what's ahead and the economy would take off. Well, obviously Obama won the election, and the economy tanked. Hmm. I wonder why.
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January 28, 2013
On the Republican party’s supposed Hispanic crisis…
We're not compassionate enough when it comes to immigration. Too many Hispanics think Republicans don't like 'em and don't want 'em to be here and wanna deport 'em. The Democrats tell us this. The Democrats are saying, "You guys are gonna have to moderate your views on this. You're gonna have to become more like we are." Now, my problem with this is I just can't believe it. If the Democrats think that their position on immigration (let's use that for an example) is the right one, and if the Democrats' position is what's getting all of that support from Hispanic voters, what I don't understand is why would the Democrats want to give up some of those voters to the Republicans?
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January 25, 2013
On the ruling by a federal appeals court that President Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board…
This is not gonna sit well in the White House. So they'll take it up to the Supreme Court and we'll see what happens from that point on. I think what they'll say is, "What difference does it make? What difference does it make if the president wants to make appointments? What difference does it make whether it's constitutional or not? The Constitution's old-fashioned. Look at the Second Amendment. It was never supposed to be in there. The Constitution doesn't have anything in there, when it was written, about abortion. The Constitution permitted slavery. To hell with the Constitution. What does it matter?" That will be the reaction of many on the pro-Obama side. "What do you mean separation of powers? Why do we need separation of powers? We think Obama's power's absolute. Why do we need to separate Obama's power?" That would be the low-information voter reaction. "What difference does it make if the president has no limits in his power? The president's a good guy, cares about us, loves us, Santa Claus, why shouldn't he have all the power he wants?" This is what we're gonna be up against.
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January 23, 2013
On Obama and socialism…
All of this that's happening is going to implode, just like it imploded in the Soviet Union. Folks, socialism has never worked anywhere. It always implodes. It always fails. And Obama is nothing special. He's not a messiah. He doesn't have a magic wand that can turn a demonstrated failure of a system into a success. It is going to go the way of the dinosaur. The question is when, and how much damage is done in the process. It's a question of timing.
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January 21, 2013
Mark Steyn is guest-hosting for Rush today… On the occasion of the beginning of President Obama's second term…
I know some of you may have a distressingly partisan view of the festivities in Washington. You may not be on board with all the jubilation. So look at it this way: Today marks the midpoint of the Obama presidency. In other words, this is hump day. It's all downhill from here!
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January 18, 2013
On Lance Armstrong’s doping confession to Oprah Winfrey…
Wasn't Bill Clinton telling the truth? Weren't all these people being critical of Bill Clinton just a bunch of people trying to take down this greatest, most moral president we've ever had? Oprah, your heroes, Bill and Hillary Clinton, wrote the blueprint: Deny, deny, deny, and attack the accuser! They wrote the blueprint, and it's been used by Democrats ever since. The Democrats to this day use the Lance Armstrong tactic. In fact, every Obama campaign is oriented toward destroying the opposition however you have to. If you have to lie, if you have to run ads that are not truthful at all, you just do it. That's all Lance was doing. He was just practicing the theories that have been shown to work by Bill and Hillary. "Vast right-wing conspiracy." I can't believe Oprah doesn't know this. See the different standards?
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January 16, 2013
On the attitudes of conservatives and liberals toward the American people…
When I look out across the country I make an assumption that we are populated by a country where the majority of the people are decent and good and trustworthy. We can count on them, they're reliable, and when they're needed, they'll show up. We look at the people of this country optimistically. We look at our future optimistically. We look and see a country of people who can take care of themselves and who want to, who are self-reliant, who want to be self-reliant, maybe in some cases even rugged individualists. We don't see anything wrong with that. The one thing we don't do is look out across this country and see a majority of people that we look at with contempt. We do not think the majority of people in this country are predisposed to evil or bad behavior or rotten behavior. We don't look at the majority of these people having to be controlled. We don't look out over the country and see a bunch of incompetence and ineptitude. We don't look and see a country filled with people who don't know what's best for them. We do not see a population that is incapable of doing the right thing. Quite the opposite.
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January 14, 2013
On the shared perceptions of conservatives held by Democrats and the Republican establishment…
I think both parties have this goal. I think the Republican establishment is of the same frame of mind as Obama is, that the opposition is conservatives. The opposition is conservatism. And that's why we've had some people ask me, "What was Colin Powell doing?" Colin Powell was on Meet the Press yesterday doing what Scarborough did on MSNBC this morning, which is what a lot of Republicans are doing, and that is criticizing conservatives. Every problem we've got, from the gridlock to intransigence to spending, it's all the fault of conservatives.
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January 11, 2013
On the everyday gun violence in Chicago…
Over 550 gun deaths in Chicago, a town run by Democrats for decades. It's currently run by Rahm Emanuel. What did Rahm Emanuel do in regard to the gun violence in Chicago? He held a press conference and he told the gang-bangers to keep killing people in the neighborhood, but to keep it away from schools and stop going out and targeting their kids. The mayor of Chicago said, "We're gonna be watching you. Leave our kids alone," meaning go kill your kids or go kill somebody else's kids, but leave ours alone! You keep it in your neighborhood. I reported this, and I'm literally dumbfounded. But nobody, the last I looked, was making a big push to get rid of handguns in Chicago. No, it's just automatic weapons now, because of what happened in Newtown, Connecticut. And the reason was Newtown was a big story, plenty of pictures, plenty of emotion, and a massive number of deaths on one day. In Chicago, it's two deaths one day, eight deaths the next. It barely gets reported. Therefore, it's not a media story. But it is. Over 500 people, largely children, are killed with handguns in Chicago, not Illinois, in Chicago every year. And you can't get the media interested in it because it will not advance the cause.
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January 9, 2013
On Democrats’ attempted demonization of profit in health care…
Everybody's hurting, the economy's stagnating, but we all want to be well. Why should people be making a profit while they administer health care? It's not fair! It's greedy! It's selfish! And it leads to some people not even being treated. If they can't pay, if they don't have insurance, that means no profit. That means they don't get treated. That means they die! See what capitalism does? It kills! We're on the cusp. We're on the edge of this becoming the new reality.
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January 7, 2013
On the ineffectual negotiating strategies used by Republicans against Obama…
These guys don't know what they're up against with Obama. They still don't know who he is. They still don't know what he's about, and they still make the mistake of assuming he's telling them the truth. Does anybody really believe that Obama really believes we don't have spending problem? He knows we got a spending problem. It's a problem he enjoys. It's a problem he wants. He wants to spend more! I don't believe Obama's sitting around in the cover of darkness telling himself that he's a big spender. Democrats spend big on the big welfare state. That's how they empower themselves.
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January 4, 2013
On Republican fecklessness in their dealings with Obama…
The Republicans keep giving away core beliefs. They just throw away their ownership of the concept of lower taxes equaling economic growth and increased prosperity and freedom and liberty for people. They just threw that away, gave it to Obama. Raising taxes on everybody normally would be horrible political news. It would be bad for the party that did it. But, no! According to the New York Times it's a marvelous achievement for the Democrats and Obama, because they've taken 'uncertainty' off the table. People can now relax. It's done and it's fixed.
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January 2, 2013
Doug Urbanski is guest-hosting for Rush today… On Obama raising government salaries…
Just let it sink in: Obama raises the salaries of these politicians in Congress -- people who, if they were in the private sector, would be fired -- and raises the pay of government workers. He does all this whilst at the same time fighting with stubborn intransigence to take money away from American citizens. These are the people who worry about Big Oil and Big Corporations? Talk about greed! What is more greedy and more worrisome than Big Government?
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December 31, 2012
Mark Steyn is guest-hosting for Rush today… On the futility of tax hikes on “the rich” as a means of solving our economic problems…
There are never going to be enough rich people, even if you raise taxes on all the 1%, to close the deficit. It's the spending. At some point, if you want big government and European-style spending, you're going to have to have European-style taxation. There's no discussion of this anywhere in the fiscal cliff negotiations.
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