Are senior citizens listening to this?! Limbaugh: "Get The Government Out Of Medicare"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200908200035 Rush "meant to say" his Barney Frank "Uranus" joke By Greg Lewis Getting things started, Rush let us know how he sees the path for health reform being passed: LIMBAUGH: Obama's health care plan will be one written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it -- that'd be John Conyers. His health care plan will be too passed by a Congress that has not read it; number three, signed by a president who smokes; four, funded by a Treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes; five, overseen by a surgeon general who's obese; and six, financed by a country that's nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong with this? Then Rush dug into his Stack of Stuff, reading first from a Reuters article reporting that new jobless claims "unexpectedly" rose. Rush said it was becoming a joke how every economic report used the word "unexpected." Who would expect the economic numbers to get better? asked Rush. Then Rush referred back to the Politico story from yesterday about Rep. Henry Waxman's Energy and Commerce Committee sending out letters to health insurance companies demanding certain documents relating to the committee's investigation. Rush said this was like the East German police or the KGB. After purporting to explain why big businesses aren't necessarily pro-Republican, Rush read about a new report on life expectancy rates. Life expectancy has reached a new high in the United States, but Rush wondered how this could be with our "horrible" health care system. Then Rush commented on another report that "ranks of uninsured, poor likely to rise." Rush said that the word "likely" means this might not actually happen, and referenced comments made in the article by Rebecca Blank, the "Commerce Department's undersex-retary Economic Affairs." Next up was a new song parody by Paul Shanklin, "American Lie," sung to the tune of "American Pie," featuring Shanklin's Obama singing about passing health care reform. Rush finished off the segment on talking about the Uighurs, the "Chinese Muslim terrorist group." Rush claimed that Bermuda agreed to take the Uighurs from Guantánamo because Obama promised to lay off attacking insurance companies. After the break, Rush referred back to his Barney Frank jokes he made on yesterday's show. Rush noted that some, like Huffington Post, didn't like what he said. Rush said he did yesterday's show "on fumes" after pulling an all-nighter -- "that's what Hillary always says when she makes a gaffe" -- but claimed he wasn't making excuses because he meant to say it. Rush proposes constitutional amendment to separate God and Obama Then Rush wondered if we needed to amend the Constitution to separate God and President Obama, going on to discuss some of Obama's comments during a conference call with religious leaders. Rush took issue with Obama referencing the line, "I am my brother's keeper" and invoked Obama's stepbrother: LIMBAUGH: My God, his brother still lives in a hut! His half-brother, George Hussein Onyongo Obongo Obama -- whatever -- lives in a 6-by-9 foot square hut, dirt floor. And here's Obama now talking about "I am my brother's keeper. We all are our brothers' and sisters' keeper." Then Rush discussed Obama saying "we are God's partners in matters of life and death" during the conference calling. Rush took this to mean that Obama is admitting government will impose itself on every aspect of your life, on the basis that God is Obama's partner. Obama's Messianic complex, said Rush, may not be a joke. Rush said the quote validates many people's fears about Obama. Returning from another break, Rush noted that some people have "misconscrewed" his Barney Frank joke. Then he spent some time on Cash for Clunkers, looking at a Politico report about Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood promising that car dealers would be paid the money owed to them under the program. Then he read an LA Times article reporting that Cash for Clunkers "won't be running much longer." Rush asked his audience to imagine the story about universal health care, replacing the word "dealers" with "cancer." Rush corrects Obama's "lies" about health care ... poorly The first caller of the day said that the Obama administration would like nothing more than to see American people imploding on each other at town hall meetings. Rush agreed that Obama loves the chaos. Then Rush talked about Obama's health care lies. The first lie was Obama saying during the aforementioned conference call that the notion of death panels is an extraordinary lie. Rush admitted that the House bill doesn't actually say "death panels," but claimed the Independent Medicare Advisory Panel created by the bill would be a de facto death panel. Rush once again argued that Obama's statements at the ABC health care special in June showed that Obama wants to get involved in personal medical decisions. Rush said the "death panels" would be making these decisions, since they're "sure as hell not life panels." But as he has done so many times before, Rush aired only part of the sound bite of Obama talking about the audience member's pacemaker story, leaving off the part where Obama says that these kinds of decisions are made "between doctors and patients." After another break, Rush moved on to more of Obama's lies on health reform, that reform would not cover illegal immigrants. Rush argued that some states already cover "illegals," and noted that the oft-cited 47 million uninsured statistic includes 12 to 14 million illegal immigrants (that number actually includes both legal and illegal immigrants). The next "lie" was that reform wouldn't fund abortions. This is not true, argued Rush, citing Obama's remarks about "reproductive care" at a 2007 Planned Parenthood event. Rush said that reproductive care is "code lingo" for abortions. Rush is apparently an expert in solar physics Beginning hour 2, Rush quickly reference another failed Obama program, and then read from a McClatchy article on cooling global temperatures. Rush stated global warming believers are "equivalent" to birthers -- wasn't Rush himself a birther at one point? -- adding: "The global warming believers are just as wackos as the birthers, if you want to look at them as wacko. I mean if there is a leftist equivalent of the birthers out there, it is the global warmers." Rush went on to flex his expertise on global warming, arguing that "[t]he reason that we're in a cooling period is sunspot activity -- everyone knows this." Apparently Rush is fluent in solar physics: LIMBAUGH: The sun's cooled a little bit and only a fool would be surprised that Earth's temperatures have fallen as a result. For crying out loud folks, the sun is in a solar minimum phase right now, and we've studied these, and we know that when they're in minimum phases -- and they're in one now -- and it's, just makes common sense if you're in a solar minimum phase that the temperature is going to be lower here on Earth. Are you as amazed at I am that the global warmers just discount the sun? Rush approached the next story, about Sen. Ted Kennedy's letter to Massachusetts Gove. Deval Patrick requesting a "speedy" replacement process, with caution. Rush began by stating he sincerely felt for Kennedy, since he is suffering from a similar ailment as Robert Novak. Rush went on to discuss Kennedy's request, noting the Senator's role in changing the state's law five years ago to prevent then-Gov. Mitt Romney from appointing a Republican to replace John "Lurch" Kerry, had he won the 2004 election. Rush criticized Democrats for using this moment as an opportunity for political maneuvering. Rush also recalled the "grief" he took for suggestinghealth reform might be named the "Ted Kennedy memorial health care bill." After the break, Rush broke out some Limbaugh-clan news, and read from a Sweetness & Lightpost about carbon traders in Europe "busted for tax fraud." On the other side of another commercial break, Rush took a caller who said that Democrats' arguments for the public option -- that it would create competition -- is "antithetical" to their belief that competition is evil. Rush said the caller identified a good point. Then Rush moved on to Obama's claim that if you like your insurance, you could keep it. Rush said this is not true, since it's in the bill that you would lose your private insurance. The next caller on the program asked about the new effort by Democrats to possibly split the health care bill. Rush proceeded to read from the Wall Street Journal article the caller was referring to. Rush said this was poltics, and stated that Republicans still shouldn't get involved. Then Rush read from a CQ Politics article on John McCain, "a maverick no more?" Rush said we owe McCain finally voting with Republicans to Obama. Rush goes after "union thugs" Andy Stern, James Hoffa, and Richard Trumka Rush came back from another break with a report that SEIU president Andy Stern said Democrats would lose their majority in Congress if they failed to pass health care reform. Rush went on to call Stern a "union thug" whose "goons" are going to town halls and beating up "people with cancer" and "young black conservatives." Then Rush spent the next few minutes discussing how Democrats are having trouble re-strategizing on health care, since their original plans to craft reform behind closed doors failed. Liberalism, declared Rush, is supposed to happen behind closed doors. Rush got the ball rolling on Hour 3 by reading a Washington Times article about indoor pollution created by indoor candlelit dinners. Rush read extensively from the article, and warned lamented that this was "secondhand smoke all over again." Then Rush was back to calling Stern a "union thug," and criticized Obama for now saying that health care is a moral issue. Rush ranted for a few minutes about how Obama will sign any health reform that gets to his desk, because it's really all about Obama building a monument to himself. "Speaking of union thugs," Rush segued to James Hoffa appearing on Bill Press' radio show, and played an audio clip of Hoffa saying that Blue Dog Democrats are making a mistake in not supporting the pesident. Rush said Blue Dogs have to decide if they want to respond to Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel, or their own constituents. Then Rush aired sound bites of labor leader Richard Trumka on CNBC's Squawk Box, who argued in favor of the public option. Rush said these union leaders are taking their gloves off and resorting to threats and intimidation. After the break, Rush read from a Telegraph article that suggested "racial tensions simmer" on Obama's vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Rush quipped about his own experiences going to this "liberal enclave": "Remember, I go to Martha's Vineyard sometimes to play golf. And I put, I put chaff dispensers on the airplane in case I get attacked, to distract the missiles." Next, Rush played an audio clip of David Gergen on Anderson Cooper 360, explaining that he was surprised by Obama's failure to persuade people on health care, but that there were also substantive problems with the plan. Rush thought Gergen was contradicting himself, asking, "which is it?" The message isn't getting through or it is? Then Rush graced us with another rendition of his new song parody, "American Lie." Rush exclaims: "[G]et the government out of Medicare!" Coming back from the break, Rush read from a Washington Post editorial calling for the Obama administration to back off the public option. Then Rush played a clip of Robert Gibbs refuting the myth that health care reform will cover illegal immigrants. Rush again falsely claimed that coverage for this demographic was in the House bill. The next caller on the program claimed that the House bill prevented "judicial review" against the government (a claim PolitiFact calls "barely true"). Rush went on to reference the appeal process set up by the bill, and claimed that you're going to die before your appeal is heard. Then Rush took a caller who argued that the government was responsible for making health care so expensive. Rush said if health reform passes, we will all become budget items, and the relationship with your doctor will become highly impersonal. After the final commercial break of the day, Rush came back and read from a few more articles in his Stack of Stuff: Chrysler changing their warranty plan; Blackwater hired by the CIA to assassinate al Qaeda operatives in 2004; Women drunk driving on the rise; and a Utah rail station no longer being built on the site of an ancient Indian village. Finally, Rush took a caller who asked if it would bring costs down if people paid for health care themselves. Rush affirmed this thinking, and said that you need to get players, like the government, out of the game: LIMBAUGH: Get the government out of it. Get the government, their stupid regulations, get the government out of Medicare. Look it -- the only way that cost-price ratios make sense is based on the consumer's ability to pay. The caller also mentioned that he recently broke his wrist, and he couldn't afford the costs to treat it. Rush joked that the caller shouldn't have broken his wrist if he couldn't afford it. Zachary Aronow and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire. Highlights Outrageous comments LIMBAUGH: Here's how I see this. I see things very straight. I think it's very clear. Obama's health care plan will be one written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it -- that'd be John Conyers. His health care plan will be too passed by a Congress that has not read it; number three, signed by a president who smokes; four, funded by a Treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes; five, overseen by a surgeon general who's obese; and six, financed by a country that's nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong with this? [...] LIMBAUGH: My God, his brother still lives in a hut! His half-brother, George Hussein Onyongo Obongo Obama -- whatever -- lives in a 6-by-9 foot square hut, dirt floor. And here's Obama now talking about "I am my brother's keeper. We all are our brothers' and sisters' keeper." [...] LIMBAUGH: I love it when the global warmers -- and I think they're -- you know, you people run around and you talk about the birthers and how irresponsible and off their rockers they are. The global warming believers are just as wacko as the birthers if you want to look at them as wacko. I mean, if there is a leftist equivalent of the birthers out there, it is the global warmers. And this story, they're blaming the ocean for falling global temperatures. The sun warms the oceans, so any fluxuation comes from the sun! There is no other heat source for the ocean. At any rate, who in their right minds trusts Gore or Obama on this? The reason that we're in a cooling period is sunspot activity -- anybody knows this. The sun's cooled a little bit and only a fool would be surprised that Earth's temperatures have fallen as a result. I mean, for crying out loud, folks, the sun is in a solar minimum phase right now. And we've studied these, and we know when they're in minimum phases, and they're in one now. And it's -- it just makes common sense if you're in a solar minimum phase that the temperatures are going to be lower here on Earth. I -- have you ever just been as amazed as I am that the global warmers just discount the sun? It's not a factor, as far as they're concerned. And it's the only factor! Without it, we wouldn't be. [...] LIMBAUGH: Remember, I go to Martha's Vineyard sometimes to play golf. And I put -- I put chaff dispensers on the airplane in case I get attacked to distract the missiles. [...] CALLER: If we paid for our health care ourselves, would it bring costs down? LIMBAUGH: Yeah, it would, if -- with other -- yeah, if you get some other players out of the game, yeah -- of course. CALLER: What do you mean, other players? I'm sorry. LIMBAUGH: Government. Get the government out of it. Get the government, the stupid regulations; get the government out of Medicare. Look it, the only way that cost-price ratios make sense is based on the consumer's ability to pay. There has to be a direct relationship between the customer and the business at the surface. Ladies' man LIMBAUGH: More than 38.8 million people believed to be in poverty. Rebecca Blank, Commerce Department's undersex-retary Economic Affairs, spoke to the AP-controlled media in advance of next month's release of the closely watched census data. [...] LIMBAUGH: Look, you gotta understand here, folks. Even though -- even -- I mean, I did yesterday's show on fumes. I -- basically, I pulled an all-nighter the night before yesterday's show. I was tired. I had jetlag. I flew out here from the right coast to get here to the left coast. And, I mean, that's what Hillary always says when she makes a gaffe. "Oh, well, I'm just very tired and I feel fat," she said. "And I'm" -- well, Tina Brown said she feels fat.

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