Rush: Sarah Palin is “dead right” about death panels

By Greg Lewis

Rush got things started today with global warming. He mentioned yesterday's news that the U.N. Secretary General said we have “four months to secure the future of our planet.” Rush said what he really meant is that if they don't get “sweeping socialism” done in four months, people will realize it's all a hoax. Rush then mentioned a report from a U.N. senior official from 1989 that if global warming wasn't reversed by 2000, entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth. Rush said this meant that nine years ago, we were supposed to be underwater, and called global warming “such a hoax.”

Then it was on to health care. He knows why Obama is not specifying a plan or talking about the House plan: because Obama doesn't care about anybody but himself, and he's out of touch and detached from reality -- Obama just wants control of health care and doesn't care about the details. Rush added that he was “proud” of the people going to the town halls, calling it civic activism at its best, not malcontents or leftist rent-a-mobs. Without a hint of irony, Rush accused the media of using “every play in the playbook,” including “smear tactics like accusing us of links to Nazism and the Klan and racism.” He also accused the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of using “scare tactics” in warning of right wing militias.

Then Rush asked: “how do we solve this?” How to get health care at lower costs with universal access? Rush said he had a plan, “and I don't need 1,000 pages of rationing, I don't need death panels.” That remark reminded Rush to add, “Oh, and Sarah Palin has rocked 'em with that one because she's dead right, they are death panels.” Rush then revealed his plan for solving America's health care crisis:

LIMBAUGH: I can deliver what Obama is promising with one sentence. Very simple. You're sick? Here's a train ticket to Canada. If you love the -- if you like socialized medicine, we can send you to Canada to get treated, and we can do it for much less than converting our system to Canada's. All we gotta do is put you on a train, put you on an airplane. The transportation costs -- let the Canadians handle the care, if you like that kind of system. Or if you wanna go to the UK, we'll put you on a plane and send you there.

So Rush's plan is to send the sick to other countries that have universal health care. Then Rush went back to the subject of “death panels,” citing an unfortunate incident in Oregon, as described in Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny. The story was of Barbara Wagner, who was denied treatment for her cancer by the state and offered euthanasia instead, which is legal in Oregon. She was later offered drugs for free by a pharmaceutical company and, as Rush omitted in his retelling of the story, passed away a few months later. Rush said this story “illustrates” that there would be death panels under health care reform.

Then Rush continued to praise the “intellectual heft” Palin has displayed in warning of death panels:

LIMBAUGH: These death panels that -- and Sarah Palin has doubled down on it, according to the Politico. She's now defended her claim that the Democrat health care proposal would create death panels in a statement Wednesday night, slamming Obama. And if you go to her Facebook page and you look at the notes and you look at the things she wrote about death panels, it would seem to me that all of the inside-the-Beltway elites, from Peggy Noonan to Mort Kondracke, to Charles Krauthammer, to whoever the hell else said she needs to educate herself on the issues. She needs to become more sophisticated. She needs to do some homework. Seems to me if you go to her Facebook, she's done some homework on this health care bill. She has become an expert on section 1233. [...] But I would suggest that anybody who doubts her intellectual heft or her ability to learn and study, go to her Facebook page and look at the notes she's taken, and it's right there, the study that she has done and engaged in in order to learn about section 1233.

Then Rush added that when you boil all of this down, Obama wants to put your medical records on Google “so everyone can see them,” wants to take power from Congress in setting Medicare costs, and make decisions about who lives and dies.

After the break, Rush read about retail sales dipping and new jobless claims rising “unexpectedly” in July. Rush wondered why the state-run media always uses the terminology “unexpectedly,” and asked why anybody would hire anybody in this environment. Then Rush argued that cash for clunkers probably contributed to retail sales dipping because it shifted cash away from other sectors to the auto sector. Rush also mentioned that the new cars people are purchasing under the cash for clunkers program are “pieces of garbage crap.”

Rush talks about the “wackos” at the SPLC

Then Rush elaborated on his attack on the SPLC:

LIMBAUGH: Everybody's shorts are in a twist now because these wackos at the Southern Poverty law Center out there saying right-wing racist -- racist militias are arming up and ramping up and conducting training exercises. Everybody's going “ooh!” So here we have a bunch of guys running around the woods in camouflage suits and face paint, and everybody's “Oh, no, no, oh my gosh, this is the breakdown of civility.”

[...]

This is every play in the playbook is being brought back to life out of desperation because what you're doing, this genuine civic unrest, has them discombobulated, 'cause when they get involved in civic unrest, it's all trumped up, it's all phony, it's manufactured, and that's why they think you're manufactured.

Leading into another commercial break, Rush told his audience, don't back down, do not be intimidated: “You've got them on the run.”

Rush on people who fear death panels: “Your instincts are exactly right”

After another break, Rush took a caller who asked Rush why the insurance companies aren't screaming and yelling about health care reform. Rush said the answer is that these companies are currently trying to shape the bill so that it is least damaging to them. But the insurance companies have a Plan B, which is only their backup plan because they are “scared to death” of Obama:

LIMBAUGH: As always, there is a Plan B. And that is if they begin to see it falling apart, and if they begin to see these protests and this civic unrest as really leading to serious trouble with the bill's passage, then they will join. They will join the effort with TV ads to try to kill it at that point. Right now, they don't want to make enemies with the White House. You gotta understand, everybody's scared to death of this guy. They see what he's doing with health care. They see he wants to take over life-and-death decisions.

Rush then cited a Politico article, referencing a Republican lobbyist saying that insurance industry lobbying will go into full force when the final bill comes out, to have the most leverage. Rush guaranteed us that insurance companies are “fuming” because so much of what they do is already dictated by the government. Rush also explained that there's nothing in the bill that he wants to compromise on, and doctors are “seething” about Obama denigrating them.

Then Rush explained how to drive down health care costs: by expanding competition, direct purchasing of policies, and health savings accounts. Health care, as Rush described, is not for the healthy:

LIMBAUGH: So, all of you who fear death panels or denial of service -- hello? Your instincts are exactly right, but when you get sick, not when you're healthy. When you get sick, that's where all the money is spent in our health care system, particularly at -- beyond a certain age, end of life. Where the hell do you think the savings are gonna come from? This notion that there's no rationing? Obama's lying through his teeth about this. Every Democrat saying that all these rumors and myths are not true -- lying through their teeth. There's only way -- one way to save money in our current health care system, and that's stop spending as much money on the sick. Because we don't spend any money on the healthy.

Then Rush invoked President Obama's daughters, wondering how Obama would act if they got sick:

LIMBAUGH: Now, if Obama's daughters became ill, he would look for the best doctors at the best hospitals. He would demand the best treatment and medicines. He would not tell the provider to cut costs. He would not tell the provider to cut tests. He would not tell the providers to cut procedures. No loving parent would. Yet, Obama is demanding that the rest of us do so.

Rush concluded: “Obama ultimately wants to play God. This Messianic complex of his is genuine. Pelosi wants to play God. Harry Reid wants to play God. Barney Frank wants to play God-ette.” Rush said conservatives wouldn't dare assume they know what's best for your health.

Rush came back from another break by declaring that Obama is a “serial liar.” All Obama wants, according to Rush, is for the government to “steal” the health care industry. After again saying that Obama won't get specific about health care, Rush invoked Obama's family again, mentioning Obama's half-brother George Obama -- or, as Rush said it, “George Obongo Obango Odingo Obama, or whatever his name is” -- “living in a hut in Kenya,” and his aunt facing deportation. Rush then criticized the president for neglecting his family in need.

Rush continues to argue: “I'm not saying Obama is Hitler”

Hour two began with some discussion of Eunice Kennedy, as Rush said he had been watching coverage of her wake over the break. Snerdly had asked him what people would talk about when the Kennedys were gone. Rush said that they can't go back to the Clintons, because they don't have a compound like the Kennedys do. “Clinton has a Clinton concubine wherever he happens to be, but there's no Clinton home,” quipped Rush.

Then Rush talked about Hillary Clinton's trip to Africa, and read a post by Tina Brown at the Daily Beast, who, as Rush described, was sympathetic towards Hillary. Then he read from a New York Post piece that argued the Chevy Volt would be bad for the environment.

Then Rush went over some coverage of Rep. Steve Rothman's (D-NJ) town hall, in which one of the participants stated that he was appalled that Rush would use inflammatory language by comparing Democrats to Nazis. Rush broke into his now-tired defense of his comparisons:

LIMBAUGH: Now let's remember, for whatever it's worth -- how many days is this? Nancy Pelosi said those of us showing up at town hall meetings were showing up with swastikas, as she said, meaning we're Nazis. We were called Nazis. At that point, I said all right, let's do a comparison between the national socialism of Germany, which is what Nazism is, the national socialism of Germany and the Obama health care plan and find out if there are any similarities. And by golly, by gosh, there are gazillions of similarities between national socialism in Germany and Obama's health care plan.

So Mr. Rubinsky, I have also said I'm not saying Obama is Hitler. I went on a big diatribe yesterday. You think of Nazism, we think of genocide. And once you think of that, we can't talk about any other aspect of Nazism, which was national socialism. Nobody's saying that this government is genocidal. Nobody is saying -- nobody is saying that Obama is Hitler. What we're saying is that this health care plan mirrors Nazi Germany's, and the Nazi Germany health care plan was the foundation from which they built the rest of their socialist paradise, if you want to call it that.

After the break, Rush said that Democrats cannot talk about health care, so they have to demonize somebody, and now that somebody is Rush. He aired an audio clip of Paul Begala on Larry King Live calling Rush the “unchallenged” GOP leader, and criticized Rush for comparing the President to Nazis. Rush said that Begala and Democrats are coming unhinged, and again played his “Old People” song parody, featuring a mock Obama singing that “old people got no reason to live.”

Then Rush took a caller who named the Republicans who might compromise on the Senate Finance Committee, and Rush suggested that his audience members should go to their town halls, if they're having any. Anyway, Rush was skeptical of the Senate's influence on the bill, since it was up to the Blue Dog Democrats in the House to decide whether the bill lives or dies, and added that the White House might orchestrate primary challenges against those Blue Dogs who don't cooperate. Rush added that the White House has warned Blue Dogs, “you better never betray us or it's Fort Marcy Park, figuratively speaking.”

Rush says Democrats have “yet to apologize for [...] [r]acists, segregationists, slavery supporters, Hitler supporters, members of the Klan” in their own party

Rush came back from another break still talking about various town hall events, and referenced the latest Rasmussen poll, finding more voters now trust Republicans than Democrats on health care. Then Rush talked about Rep. David Scott's (D-GA) appearance on CNN with Rick Sanchez. After claiming that “some Democrat lackey went out and painted a swastika” on Scott's office sign, Rush aired a clip which he claimed showed Sanchez saying that protestors who say “I want my America back” are “racist.” Rush went on to call Scott an “idiot” and referred to Sanchez as “Ms. Sanchez.” Then he played an audio montage of Howard Dean during the 2004 primary saying he wanted to “take our country back” from people like Rush Limbaugh.

Then Rush took a caller who described the astroturfing from Organizing for America at a recent town hall for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Rush said that everything is staged and faked, since OFA is Obama's organization. The next caller asked how health care reform would effect his small business, and Rush affirmed the caller's suggestion that he would have to start paying 100% of his employees' insurance, or pay a fine of a minimum of 8% of his payroll. Rush said this was a “great illustration” of how private insurance is going to be lost.

After another break, Rush continued to rant about Paul Begala's remarks on Larry King Live:

LIMBAUGH: Let me tell you something. It is your party, Paul, the Democrat Party, that supported slavery and segregation. Bull Connor was a Democrat. Lester Maddox was a Democrat. All those southern governors -- George Wallace -- they were Democrats, Paul. The segregationists.

[...]

Those are your friends, Begala, your allies, your party, and you've yet to apologize for any of it. Racists, segregationists, slavery supporters, Hitler supporters, members of the Klan, for crying out loud, in your own party. Those were your governors that stood in the schoolhouse doors, Begala. Those were your sheriffs who unleashed the dogs against the protesters and the fire hoses.

Rounding out the hour, Rush took a caller who said union and government jobs are at the “highest risk” for being forced into the public option if reform passes. Rush said if the public option became available, he guaranteed local communities will offload costs to the public option.

The third hour began with more discussion of Rep. Rothman's town hall events. Rush said they're lucky to have enough Democrats in New Jersey who are not in jail to hold these meetings. According to Rush, Democrats in New Jersey are “insane,” and there is no rational explanation for the way they vote or think.

Rush describes Hillary Clinton “fondling herself [...] like she's got malaria or something”

Then it was back to more discussion of Hillary Clinton's trip to Africa. Rush aired an audio clip from MSNBC's Morning Meeting, with co-anchor Chris Jansing noting that Hillary Clinton's approval ratings were never higher than they were during the Lewinsky affair. Rush took issue with Jansing referring to the Lewinsky scandal as an “unfortunate situation,” asking Jansen if her husband had been “getting BJs in the oval office,” would she be referring to it as an “unfortunate situation?” Rush aired the remainder of the sound bite, in which co-anchor Dylan Ratigan, while discussing public perceptions, said that when Hillary Clinton is vulnerable, she's sympathetic, but when she's powerful, she's a “bitch.” Rush sounded exuberant that the MSNBC host called Hillary a “B-I-itch.”

Then Rush added to the conversation about the Secretary of State:

LIMBAUGH: I finally did see the video that everybody's telling me about, she's -- I'm telling ya, she's fondling herself there while she -- Dawn? There's no other way to describe this. Of the waist -- don't misunderstand folks, she's grabbing herself while she's speaking as sort of like she's got malaria or something. Itching.

Moving on, Rush read from a Wall Street Journal article about the Detroit school system's financial woes. Rush suggested that it might just be better to shut the whole school system down, and let the children get their education on the street. The Rush mused about how the Detroit media might cover his remarks.

Then Rush refuted comments made by Lisa Murkowski at her town hall, in which she said there is no reason to gin up fear about things that aren't in the health care bill. Rush said the end of life provisions are in the bill, and it's “simply a matter of logic.” Since we don't treat the healthy, according to Rush, the only money we can cut from the system is from treating the sick, so the government will be in the business of who gets treatment and who doesn't.

Then Rush played an audio bite of Wolf Blitzer filling in for Larry King last night, in which Blitzer said that medical costs would go away if people exercised, ate properly and didn't smoke, and asked guest Sanjay Gupta how the country can “force” people to straighten out their lives. Rush sounded appalled, and asked if these “statists” understand that this country is supposed to be about liberty, and that people like Blitzer are “really drunk on Obamaism.” Health reform is really simple, according to Rush: tort reform, HSAs, and competition in the health care industry where the patient actually pays.

After the break, Rush was still focused on Blitzer's remarks, and wondered why there was so much compassion from these people for people in poverty, but so much hate for people who are overweight. The next caller said that Obama was setting a good example by having his mother-in-law live in the White House, since that sort of action would cut down on end of life care costs. Rush said Obama's mother-in-law is probably staying in the White House because Michelle “demanded it” and again invoked Obama's half brother “who lives in a hut” and his aunt who is facing deportation. After another set of commercials, added that Obama's mother-in-law is there to babysit the kids so Michelle can “flit around” or tell her husband what to do when there is no teleprompter.

Rush tells caller he shouldn't feel “guilty” about partaking in cash for clunkers after learning the caller's son-in-law is fighting in Iraq

The next caller on the program asked Rush how she should respond to someone citing the World Health Organization's ranking of France having the best health care system, with the U.S. being ranked far behind. Rush said to be skeptical of any organization with the word “world” in its name, and told the caller to offer the person she was arguing with a plane ticket to France. Rush wondered what kind of mindset you have if you believe the statistic that America is ranked so low.

Then Rush took a call from someone who had partaken in cash for clunkers, but expressed his “guilt” for doing so. Rush sarcastically remarked that he shouldn't feel guilty for too long because all he was doing was using somebody else's money to buy a car. After the caller mentioned that the car he purchased was for his daughter, whose husband was fighting in Iraq, Rush quickly added that the caller actually had nothing to feel guilty about.

Rush on French health care: “People don't like it”

After a final break, Rush went back to the WHO health care rankings, and explained that the French system, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, is a public-private system like ours, and the French have recently instituted American ideas like co-pays. Rush added that “people don't like” the French system because the government controls 88 percent of it. The final caller of today's program said her husband was a member of the United Mineworkers, and she found out that if health care reform is passed, the union would go on the public option. Rush affirmed the caller's worries about the potential change, saying that a lot of people are scared because they know health care can't possibly be as good as it is now.

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

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: They've dragged out every page in their playbook. Every play in the playbook. Smear tactics like accusing us of links to Nazism and the Klan and racism.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I have a plan to give everyone health care and slash costs, and I don't need a thousand pages of rationing, I don't need death panels. Oh, Sarah Palin has rocked 'em with that one because she's dead right. They are death panels.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I can deliver what Obama is promising with one sentence. Very simple. You're sick? Here's a train ticket to Canada. If you love the -- if you like socialized medicine, we can send you to Canada to get treated, and we can do it for much less than converting our system to Canada's. All we gotta do is put you on a train, put you on an airplane. The transportation costs -- let the Canadians handle the care, if you like that kind of system. Or if you wanna go to the UK, we'll put you on a plane and send you there.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: These death panels that -- and Sarah Palin has doubled down on it, according to the Politico. She's now defended her claim that the Democrat health care proposal would create death panels in a statement Wednesday night, slamming Obama. And if you go to her Facebook page and you look at the notes and you look at the things she wrote about death panels, it would seem to me that all of the inside-the-Beltway elites, from Peggy Noonan to Mort Kondracke, to Charles Krauthammer, to whoever the hell else said she needs to educate herself on the issues. She needs to become more sophisticated. She needs to do some homework. Seems to me if you go to her Facebook, she's done some homework on this health care bill. She has become an expert on section 1233. She writes about -- Politico writes about she's doubling down. She's not backing down, she is doubling down, and this has got the White House in a defensive tizzy. But I would suggest that anybody who doubts her intellectual heft or her ability to learn and study, go to her Facebook page and look at the notes she's taken, and it's right there, the study that she has done and engaged in in order to learn about section 1233.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: As always, there is a Plan B. And that is if they begin to see it falling apart, and if they begin to see these protests and this civic unrest as really leading to serious trouble with the bill's passage, then they will join. They will join the effort with TV ads to try to kill it at that point. Right now, they don't want to make enemies with the White House. You gotta understand, everybody's scared to death of this guy. They see what he's doing with health care. They see he wants to take over life-and-death decisions.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So, all of you who fear death panels or denial of service -- hello? Your instincts are exactly right, but when you get sick, not when you're healthy. When you get sick, that's where all the money is spent in our health care system, particularly at -- beyond a certain age, end of life. Where the hell do you think the savings are gonna come from? This notion that there's no rationing? Obama's lying through his teeth about this. Every Democrat saying that all these rumors and myths are not true -- lying through their teeth. There's only way -- one way to save money in our current health care system, and that's stop spending as much money on the sick. Because we don't spend any money on the healthy.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now, if Obama's daughters became ill, he would look for the best doctors at the best hospitals. He would demand the best treatment and medicines. He would not tell the provider to cut costs. He would not tell the provider to cut tests. He would not tell the providers to cut procedures. No loving parent would. Yet, Obama is demanding that the rest of us do so.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Obama ultimately wants to play God. This Messianic complex of his is genuine. Pelosi wants to play God. Harry Reid wants to play God. Barney Frank wants to play God-ette.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now let's remember, for whatever it's worth -- how many days is this? Nancy Pelosi said those of us showing up at town hall meetings were showing up with swastikas, as she said, meaning we're Nazis. We were called Nazis. At that point, I said all right, let's do a comparison between the national socialism of Germany, which is what Nazism is, the national socialism of Germany and the Obama health care plan and find out if there are any similarities. And by golly, by gosh, there are gazillions of similarities between national socialism in Germany and Obama's health care plan.

So Mr. Rubinsky, I have also said I'm not saying Obama is Hitler. I went on a big diatribe yesterday. You think of Nazism, we think of genocide. And once you think of that, we can't talk about any other aspect of Nazism, which was national socialism. Nobody's saying that this government is genocidal. Nobody is saying -- nobody is saying that Obama is Hitler. What we're saying is that this health care plan mirrors Nazi Germany's, and the Nazi Germany health care plan was the foundation from which they built the rest of their socialist paradise, if you want to call it that.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Let me tell you something. It is your party, Paul, the Democrat Party, that supported slavery and segregation. Bull Connor was a Democrat. Lester Maddox was a Democrat. All those southern governors -- George Wallace -- they were Democrats, Paul. The segregationists. It was -- who was Clinton's big -- I'm having a mental block, the guy Marcus saw that was Clinton's mentor and -- yeah, J. William Fulbright. Big-time segregationist. The Kennedy patriarch Joe Kennedy, who supported Hitler, not the Bush family. The dean of the Senate, Robert “Sheets” Byrd, was a Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan. Those are your friends, Begala, your allies, your party, and you've yet to apologize for any of it. Racists, segregationists, slavery supporters, Hitler supporters, members of the Klan, for crying out loud, in your own party. Those were your governors that stood in the schoolhouse doors, Begala. Those were your sheriffs who unleashed the dogs against the protesters and the fire hoses.

And by the way, Mr. Begala, it was your Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who represented the Klan for several years in Alabama, who was FDR's first appointment to the Supreme Court. You Democrats -- Begala, you guys need to come to grips with your own past, forehead. Because you've got the fingerprints of slavery, Nazism, segregation, all over the place. All over this country, Democrat fingerprints everywhere. Joe Kennedy -- FDR had to get him the hell out of Great Britain as the ambassador because he as a sympathizer of the Nazis. Not their policies, it was all money, but he was still a sympathizer. It was your secre -- Speaker of the House running all over calling half this country Nazis.

Enemies list

LIMBAUGH: And I mentioned the Southern Poverty Law Center. Everybody's shorts are in a twist now because these wackos at the Southern Poverty law Center out there saying right-wing racist -- racist militias are arming up and ramping up and conducting training exercises. Everybody's going “ooh!” So here we have a bunch of guys running around the woods in camouflage suits and face paint, and everybody's “Oh, no, no, oh my gosh, this is the breakdown of civility.”

In the meantime, our very own Justice Department, our very own Attorney General, cannot bother to prosecute actual New Back Panther party members engaging in actual voter intimidation in an actual election in an actual city, Philadelphia. I mean, we've all seen the videotape, or most of you have, of these clowns intimidating voters at a polling place in Philadelphia. And Eric Holder -- “Nah, we're not going to prosecute these men.”

So you got real voter intimidation, real violations of the law going on being ignored, and you got these guys running around in the woods in their camos and their guns, and everyone's “Oh, let's just focus on the militia movement.” This is every play in the playbook is being brought back to life out of desperation because what you're doing, this genuine civic unrest, has them discombobulated, 'cause when they get involved in civic unrest, it's all trumped up, it's all phony, it's manufactured, and that's why they think you're manufactured.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Now, let's go back to CNN and Georgia. The David Scott, this representative that trashed the doctor that stood up and asked him a question, and there was some Democrat lackey went out and painted a swastika, as Pelosi says, on his office sign. Rick Sanchez, the hapless actor -- uh, anchor. Well, what's the difference?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So this idiot congressman Scott from Georgia -- and no, Ms. Sanchez, it's not racist to call him an idiot; it's accurate. He's an idiot.

Ladies' man

LIMBAUGH: I said, “Snerdley, they'd probably go back to Clinton.” Then I caught myself -- they can't go back to Clinton. Clinton doesn't have a home. They can't go anywhere to talk about Clinton -- he's a renter. He doesn't have a home. There's no homestead, there's no Clinton compound, Clinton has a Clinton concubine wherever he happens to be, but there's no Clinton home.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I finally did see the video that everybody's telling me about, she's -- I'm telling ya, she's fondling herself there while she -- Dawn? There's no other way to describe this. Of the waist -- don't misunderstand folks, she's grabbing herself while she's speaking as sort of like she's got malaria or something. Itching.