By Tom Allison

Rush on CBO's analysis of job creation: “So it's garbage in, garbage out.”

As promised, Rush held his “real jobs summit” today, promising to take calls only from the unemployed or business owners who are being forced to lay off workers.

After taking a dig at Tiger Woods, claiming he could fill up an entire show with women who had had affairs with the professional golfer, Limbaugh read from an article on a University of Montreal study that found that all men watch pornography. Rush did admit that “it has nothing to do with the jobs summit.”

Kicking off the tirade du jour, Limbaugh read from an American Spectator post on CBO's analysis of the stimulus' effects on employment. Naturally, Limbaugh only mentioned the lower range of the amount of jobs created or retained, ignoring that the legislation could have created or saved as many as 1.6 million jobs:

LIMBAUGH: Here is a report, yesterday's CBO report: “Recipients report that about 640,000 jobs were created or retained with stimulus funding through September 2009. Such reports, however, do not provide a comprehensive estimate of the law's impact on employment in the U.S. That impact may be higher or lower than the reported number for several reasons, in addition to any issues of the quality of the data in the reports. First --” and this is the key thing -- “it is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package.” So it's garbage in, garbage out.

Rush went on to compare recently stolen CRU emails, which don't undermine man's role in climate change, to employment estimates:

LIMBAUGH: It's interesting that the job numbers -- even the monthly unemployment numbers -- are just as phony as temperature readings when liberals are in charge. It's the universe of lies.

Rush on those polled who support public option: “stupid, uninformed people”

Limbaugh mocked the idea that the “state controlled AP” would report that jobless claims decreased last week when unemployment offices were generally closed for two days for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Next, Limbaugh brought up what he said were “two conflicting polls on the whole concept of universal health care today” -- a Rasmussen poll that found that “62% are opposed to a single-payer” health care system, and a Reuters poll that found that “60 percent of Americans believe a public option should be included in final healthcare legislation.” Note that the polls asked different questions -- one asked whether respondents support or oppose a single-payer health care system (which is not part of any health care reform bill in Congress currently) while the other asked whether a public option should be included in final healthcare legislation. Rather than noting the very different questions asked by the polls, Limbaugh had a less intuitive way of explaining what he described as a “disparity” between them; the Reuters-Thompson, he opined, “purposely found stupid, uninformed people and asked them.”

Rush's first caller blamed Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank for the housing bubble, to which Limbaugh responded: “This is the information Americans need to hear.”

The “real” jobs summit finds a job for Rush Limbaugh

The second caller of this “jobs summit” revealed not only the idiocy of today's show, but also it's unashamed insincerity. The caller proposed an “educational ringtone” featuring Limbaugh's voice, (99 percent of the revenue would go to El Rushbo!) to which Limbaugh responded: “See, now this is the kind of stuff we love! This is the kind of ingenuity.”

Rush also promoted this Heritage Foundation blog post that claimed business owners won't hire more workers until health care and climate legislation go away. Wrapping up the first hour, Rush mentioned a Washington Post article reporting that Secret Service agents faced “a range of disciplinary actions, including possibly losing their jobs,” over reportedly uninvited guests at a recent White House dinner. Once again Limbaugh suggested that the Secret Service was getting thrown under the bus.

Rush suggests Obama resign to help economy

Rush continued to mock the Obama administration's attempts to recover from the recession, claiming that today's job summit is just a “show” and that people who think Obama is working hard don't realize that his policies are destroying the free market.

Again suggesting the Secret Service is getting blamed for the administration's mistakes in last week's security breach, Rush said he was waiting for “another Gary Aldrich,” the FBI agent turned bestselling author of an account inside the Clinton administration. Incidentally, CNN said Aldrich's book, Unlimited Access, was filled with “second-hand, unsubstantiated sexual rumors about and bitter attacks against President and Mrs. Clinton.”

Rush moved on to some economic history revisionism, simultaneously claiming that President Carter was responsible for the recession in the first years of Reagan's first term and that Obama is responsible for the recession that began at the end of Bush's second term, adding that House Republicans and not the Clinton administration were responsible for the economic boom of the 90's.

Rush then claimed that “we all have the blueprint for coming out of a recession: 1982.”

Which leads us to ask: Is Rush proposing that the Federal Reserve offer a negative interest rate, as the current rate is essentially zero?

Before the break, Limbaugh promised to provide audio of Obama blaming small business owners for the high unemployment rate. As to be expected, Limbaugh didn't exactly deliver the goods. Here's what Obama said:

OBAMA: But despite the progress we've made, many businesses are still skittish about hiring. Some are still digging themselves out of the losses they incurred over the past year. Many have figured out how to squeeze more productivity out of fewer workers -- and that cost cutting has become embedded in their operations and in their culture. That may result in good profits, but it's not translating into hiring. And so that's the question that we have to ask ourselves today: How do we get businesses to start hiring again? How do we get ourselves to the point where more people are working and more people are spending, and you start seeing a virtuous cycle, and the recovery starts to feed on itself?

In the end, Rush suggested that if Obama wanted to help the free market, then he should resign.

Declaring that “our jobs summit had been purely substantive” and that “there has not been one showbiz aspect to it,” Rush declared that the “genuine solution” to the nation's unemployment problem is to “get the government out of the freaking way” and for “President Obama and Vice President 'Plugs” Biden' to resign."

Finally, Limbaugh held up what appeared to be this Free Republic post on Al Gore canceling a speech on global warming in Denmark. Rush mused: “No reason given. Hmm, could it be me?”

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

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: Here is a report, yesterday's CBO report: “Recipients report that about 640,000 jobs were created or retained with stimulus funding through September 2009. Such reports, however, do not provide a comprehensive estimate of the law's impact on employment in the U.S. That impact may be higher or lower than the reported number for several reasons, in addition to any issues of the quality of the data in the reports. First --” and this is the key thing -- “it is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package.” So it's garbage in, garbage out. It's the universe of lies, whether it's climate science, whether it's job numbers, whether it's employment growth numbers or economic growth numbers, it's all not trustworthy. It's all political. It's all spun to benefit those in power.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: It's interesting that the job numbers -- even the monthly unemployment numbers -- are just as phony as temperature readings when liberals are in charge. It's the universe of lies.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Oh, and there are two conflicting polls on the whole concept of universal health care today. Let's see -- yes [unintelligible] I've got four stacks. Here we go, first is Rasmussen: 62 percent oppose single-payer health care system -- that's the public option. 62 percent -- let's look at it another way. Only 27 percent of voters nationwide favor a public option, and that is down five points from August. Now, 62 percent in the polls kept Bill Clinton from being impeached -- well, convicted and impeached, kept him in office. You would think it would get this damn bill canned.

But no, because we go to Reuters-Thompson. “Most Americans support the public option in health care reform legislation but are skeptical health care will improve in 2010.” It's a press release from Thompson-Reuters: “A majority of Americans support a public option in health care reform legislation.” No wait a minute, this Rasmussen just said 62 percent don't, only 27 percent do. And here's Reuters out with a majority of Americans say they want it? I have a way of explaining this disparity, ladies and gentlemen, and I can prove it. It is that the Reuters-Thompson poll purposely found stupid, uninformed people and asked them.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: And this jobs summit today is not going to clear up anything, because it's not about clearing anything up. It's a show designed to make people who look to government as their salvation and solution - - it's designed to make people look at Obama as working hard for them, trying to get them a job. When it is Obama and his policies and the entire legislative agenda of the Democrat Party which is destroying the private sector and bringing to a standstill any effort at growth.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I said we all have the blueprint for coming out of a recession: 1982. In fact, we could go back to Kennedy. John Kennedy, who preceded Reagan in making the case -- the supply-side case -- for income tax cuts to create economic growth in the private sector. And then I recounted the same situation occurring in the '90s after Bill Clinton failed with health care, the Republicans won the Congress.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So, we have reached our conclusion today. Our jobs summit had been purely substantive, there has not been one showbiz aspect to it. It has not been about advancing my approval ratings or anything of the kind. It is about coming up with genuine solution -- which we've all known. The point was to instruct and inform others. And the solution to unemployment is get the government out of the freaking way! For the Obama administration agenda to be halted, the ultimate would be for President Obama and Vice President “Plugs” Biden to resign.

Ego on loan from Narcissus

LIMBAUGH: Educational ring tone.

CALLER: It covers a very wide field, but I'll give you one example to keep it pithy. You know the word-a-day calendars? Those are cute, everyone loves them, but the thing is, you never learn anything from them.

LIMBAUGH: Oh yeah, right. Right.

CALLER: You look at the ones today and from yesterday and you only care about [unintelligible]. What if your phone, when it rang, rang, what - here, here you go -- what if when your phone rang, you heard Rush Limbaugh's voice defining the word “ingenuity” or “success”?

LIMBAUGH: Well the first thing Rush Limbaugh would say is, “Where's my royalty?”

CALLER: I would say about 99 percent. Well, think about it, you're making the ring sound, you're marketing on your site for your customer base. I only want a little bit intellectual property rights.

LIMBAUGH: [laughing] See, now this is the kind of stuff we love! This is the kind of ingenuity, this is the kind -- not sitting there and taking it.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: By the way, Al Gore has canceled a lecture on global warming for 3,000 people in Denmark on December 16. And I got a foreign press story on it, and they are livid about this. Al Gore has had to cancel. No reason given. Hmm, could it be me? Could it be the university of lies at East Anglia?