Unofficial Summary of the Rush Limbaugh Show for Tuesday, March 12, 1996 by John Switzer This unofficial summary is copyright (c) 1996 by John Switzer (jswitzer@limbaugh.com). All Rights Reserved. These summaries are distributed on CompuServe and the Internet, and archived on CompuServe (DL9 of the ISSUES forum) and Internet (cathouse.org and grind.isca.uiowa.edu). The /pub/users/jswitzer directory at ftp.aimnet.com contains the summaries for the past 60 days. Distribution to other electronic forums and bulletin boards is highly encouraged. Spelling and other corrections gratefully received. Please read the standard disclaimer which was included with the first summary for this month. In particular, please note that this summary is not approved or sanctioned by Rush Limbaugh or the EIB network, nor do I have any connection with them other than as a daily listener. ************************************************************* March 12, 1996 BRIEF SUMMARY OF TOPICS: Time magazine reported in 1993 that "Hillary functions in the White House rather like the queen on a chessboard. Her power comes from her unrestricted movement"; Ross Perot claims one of the two major political parties asked him for $1 million to finance a dirty tricks campaign; NY Knicks coach Don Nelson is fired, which means both of the coaches that Rush had over for dinner last year have now been fired; Colin Powell is not receptive to Senator Alfonse D'Amato's suggestion that he be Bob Dole's running mate, thanks to what D'Amato wrote about Powell in his book; Newt Gingrich and others ask Forbes and Buchanan to withdraw from the Presidential race; pollster Frank Lunz finds survey data that indicates Buchanan supporters would vote for Dole if he would strongly come out for welfare reform; People magazine does cover story exposing the hypocrisy of the Hollywood left when it comes to racism and bigotry; The Los Angeles Times tells Rush that the Bottle Rockets don't like how he uses one of their tunes as a music bump; caller says Bob Dole would bring a First Lady of character and integrity to the White House, which has been missing in the past three years; Time magazine does demonic cover photo of Hillary Clinton for its story on "Blood Sport" by James Stewart; Alan Dershowitz claims that Marsha Clark tells opposing lawyers about to begin their summations that she's not wearing any underwear; juror shows up at the Whitewater trial in Little Rock, AR wearing a Star Trek uniform; Whitewater hearings will probably resume soon; People for the Eating of Tasty Animals has a web site at www.peta.org, and PETA doesn't like it; fake White House web site at www.whitehouse.net has the administration concerned that net surfers will confuse it with the real site at www.whitehouse.gov; caller fears that Ross Perot will pull voters from Bob Dole but Rush thinks not, as Perot voters are less willing to see Clinton re-elected this year than in 1992; caller thinks Republicans can use foreign policy as a weapon against Clinton in this year's campaign; caller thinks Buchananites are more worried about Dole's choice for running mate than his welfare reform policies; Buchanan supporter is angry at being called an extremists but will still vote for Dole in November; Rush refuses to take any callers who want to electioneer since it's a bit late to do that; CEO T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor points out that immigrants are not stealing jobs in his hi-tech industry but rather that jobs are going begging for the lack of qualified workers; T.J. Rodgers confirms what George Gilder said about how immigrants are a source of genius for America; America has always been worried about immigration, with it being a hot debate topic in Rush Limbaugh Sr.'s high school debate class in 1908; legal immigrants are needed to fill certain jobs; caller is tired of people whining about the changes in the economy; Buchanan supporter would vote for Dole, given that she doesn't demand "perfect" candidates who are 100% right on every issue; caller thinks the political process is no longer producing great leaders and that America is abrogating its leadership role in the world; Congress has also abandoned a leadership role, using blue-ribbon panels to make the tough decisions so members of Congress can get off the hook; ABC News reports that Americans owe $22 billion in overdue student loans; the next great leader in America will have to suffer incredible attacks and anger for making the changes that need to be done; caller thinks Governor John Engler (R-MI) is the true leader America is looking for; Buchanan supporter doesn't think Dole can do anything to get him back in the Republican fold; Georgia state supreme court upholds its anti- sodomy law; Social Security agrees to pay survivor benefits to a four-year-old girl who was conceived after her father's death; strike at a General Motors brake plant shuts down half of GM's other plants, and the unions complain that their workers are working too much overtime; Working Woman magazine complains about an attorney who uses sexy ads to get business; caller is tired of Republicans who have a "I'm taking my ball and going home" attitude if their candidate doesn't win; caller says Buchanan and his supporters are making him just as angry as they seem to be at Dole; caller thinks Buchanan has a legitimate view on trade because something has to be done to control imports from countries with a low wage base; caller defends student loans, saying they are the only way she could get an education, but Rush says he's only upset at the deadbeats who don't pay them back; Republicans are not cutting the student loan program; caller says he and his business responded to cheap imports by developing a new line of products. LIMBAUGH WATCH March 12, 1996 - It's now 1217 days after Bill Clinton's election, but Rush is still on the air with 660 radio affiliates (with more than 20 million listeners weekly world-wide), 210 TV affiliates (with a national rating of 3.7), and a newsletter with more than 500,000 subscribers. His first book was on the NY Times hardback non-fiction best- seller list for 54 consecutive weeks, with 2.6 million copies sold, but fell off the list after Simon and Schuster stopped printing it. The paperback version of "The Way Things Ought To Be" was on the NY Times paperback non-fiction best-seller list for 28 weeks. Rush's second book, "See, I Told You So," was on the NY Times hardback best-seller list for 16 weeks and has sold over 2.45 million copies; the paperback version was on the best- seller list for 11 weeks. WHITEWATER WATCH o Pending and Possible Indictments: White House lawyer and Presidential adviser Bruce Lindsey (according to the May 5, 1995 USA Today, received target letter from Whitewater prosecutors). o Indictments: Herby Branscum, Jr. and Robert Hill (conspiracy, misapplication of bank funds, and failing to file correct statements with federal regulators and examiners); James McDougal for fraud and conspiracy concerning Madison Guaranty S&L and Capital Management Services; Governor Jim Guy Tucker (D-AR) for fraud, conspiracy, taking out $300,000 in SBA loans under false pretenses, and defrauding the IRS; Susan McDougal (for allegedly embezzling $150,000 from conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife). o Convictions: David Hale (felony fraud-March, 1994); Robert Palmer (convicted of falsifying appraisal documents related to Madison Guaranty S&L-December, 1994); Webster Hubbell (convicted of mail fraud, tax evasion, and overbilling clients of at least $394,000-December, 1994); Charles Matthews and Eugene Fitzhugh (bribery-January 1995, defrauding the SBA-April 1995); real estate broker Christopher V. Wade (pleaded guilty to lying to a bankruptcy court and filing false loan applications to buy Whitewater property-March, 1995); Little Rock banker Neil Ainley (pleaded guilty to reduced charges of willfully delivering false documents to the government-May 1995); Arkansas college professor Stephen Smith (pleaded guilty to misusing federal funds to help pay off a loan he took out along with James McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker); Larry Kuca (pleaded guilty to defrauding the SBA of a $150,000 loan together with David Hale-July 1995). LEST WE FORGET The following are from the Rush Limbaugh show on Tuesday, March 15, 1994: o Time magazine's May 10, 1993 cover story asked "A Scent of a Woman - Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most powerful First Lady in history - does anybody have a problem with that?" Time noted the following: "The conventional wisdom in Washington is that Hillary Clinton and her staff, and their mostly female allies, constitute one camp in the White House, while the `white boys' around the President lead another camp. . . . Never before has the White House contained two such powerful figures, with rival staffs and interlocking loyalties, and a wall of protection surrounding the whole enterprise. Hillary functions in the White House rather like the queen on a chessboard. Her power comes from her unrestricted movement." o The Periscope section in Newsweek reported that President Clinton "turns to the Reagan handbook" so as to learn how to look Presidential. According to Newsweek the White House requested videotapes from the Reagan Presidential library of Reagan's speeches at Normandy for the 40th anniversary of D-Day. o President Clinton addressed the G-7 nations' ministers in Detroit and told the Japanese that they had to stimulate their economy by cutting their taxes. He also told the Germans they had to lower their interest rates. o At a $1,000 a plate fund-raiser, Clinton gave a speech attacking the Republicans for opposing his policies, demonstrating Presidential whining at its best: "Why then are we confronted in this administration with an opposition party that just stands up and says no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! When I was a Democratic governor and they had the White House, I constantly sought them out, engaged them in debate, offered to work with them on issues ranging from education to welfare reform to crime to you name it. I never did them the way they are doing us in Washington, DC today. It is wrong and it is not good for the United States of America!" o Hillary Clinton meanwhile said that Whitewater was about nothing more than the fact that she and her husband "made a bad investment and lost a bunch of money." o The April issue of Money magazine reported that an audit of the Clinton's tax returns from 1980 to 1992 found they had underpaid their taxes by $16,358. Interest and penalties brought the total bill to $45,411. The magazine also made a good point about the Clintons' trumpeting of their supposed $69,000 loss in Whitewater: "But the complex Whitewater loans made the Clintons' subsequent tax write-offs anything but routine. Also, the Clintons' argument that they couldn't have done anything wrong because they didn't make any money on the disappointing deal and didn't even claim a capital loss in the end, is as irrelevant as it is self-serving. "A taxpayer can lose everything and still file incorrectly, thereby incurring back taxes, interest, and penalties. Our audit indicates that the Clintons face precisely those consequences in the following instances: the first and largest of the Whitewater deductions on the returns Money examined is a $9,000 interest payment to James McDougal in 1980. The $9,000 entry is audit bait for two reasons: 1) a business partner is rarely listed as a mortgage entry and 2) mortgage interest is almost never a round number." There was also a $4,350 interest deduction for interest paid to Citizens Bank, which in 1978 provided a $182,611 mortgage. Yet in 1979, the Clintons and McDougals contributed the mortgage site to their newly-formed company of Whitewater. This would normally have caused an auditor to ask the Clintons for proof that they were the correct parties to take this write-off. o The February, 1994 issue of American Spectator had a story by James Ring Adams that contained some damning allegations against the Clintons. Adams, who had written several books about the S&L scandals and industry, went down to Little Rock and dug deep to discover a long track record of James McDougal kiting and forging checks, and running a series of big overdrafts at Madison Guaranty. These overdrafts occurred pretty consistently during political campaigns every two years. Also, the $300,000 loan made by David Hale to Susan McDougal might have been designed primarily to clean up McDougal's overdrafts, so as to fool the federal examiners who were coming in to look at Madison's solvency. It was interesting that the day the FBI served its warrant for the files concerning this loan was not only the same day that the Rose law firm called Vincent Foster's office, but also the day that Foster allegedly committed suicide. o USA Today reported that the AMA wanted its doctors to consider every woman who walked into their offices to be a possible victim of domestic violence. Robert McAfee, president- elect of the AMA, made this recommendation during a speech to 440 health and legal professionals, and he also suggested that doctors and their staffs could reduce domestic violence by recognizing signs of such abuse; one such sign, he stated, was a man calling to cancel his wife's doctor's appointment. o Ross Perot resurfaced to speak out against the Clinton health care plan. Perot's new plan was "Put Patients First" and he unveiled it at a American College of Cardiologists convention. Perot offered the following "deal" to the nation's doctors: if every doctor sent Perot $1,000, he'll come up with a health plan that's more to their liking than Clinton's. Perot showed his "sincerity" by offering to kick in $1 million of his own money, saying that all this money would be used for advertising. o Columbus could no longer be blamed for bringing tuberculosis to the New World because scientists found a 1,000- year-old mummy that proved TB was around in the Americas long before Columbus arrived. A report in the Journal of the National Academy of the Sciences said a genetic technique discovered traces of TB in the mummy and that the same technique could be used to find other diseases. ******** MORNING UPDATE "Hey, hey, it's a great time to be a Morning Updater!" Rush exclaims, as the music to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" from the movie "Dr. Strangelove" plays in the background. Ross Perot is back with a new conspiracy, this time a political plot that defies the imagination. In an interview that Perot did for the Friday Washington Post, he said that he was asked by one of the two major political parties - he did not name which one - to donate $1 million to finance a dirty tricks campaign during the 1994 elections. Perot, though, rejected this offer. Perot, though, refused to tell who the guilty party was because he didn't want to drag anyone's name through the mud, which is a humorous reason, given that soliciting money to conduct dirty tricks during a campaign is illegal. Perot's revelation, though, came after he slammed the "outsiders" in the Presidential race, creaming Pat Buchanan for his immigration and trade policies and attacking Steve Forbes for inheriting his business. Thus, the question is who Perot likes - with both political parties smeared as tricksters and the so- called outsiders not up to snuff, is there anyone who is worthy of carrying the Perot mantle? No, never was, never will be, at least in Perot's little mind - it has to be him. FIRST HOUR Items o Rush starts off the show by making a remarkable offer: if anyone wants to get an NBA coach fired, they should call him because he can make this happen easily - all he has to do is invite the guy to dinner. Rush is certain this is true, given that last November, he and Marta hosted both Paul Westphal of the Phoenix Suns and Don Nelson of the NY Knicks when the Suns came to town to play; Westphal and Rush have been friends for a few years now, and his assistant coach was Don Nelson's son, so it was natural to invite the Knicks coach, Don Nelson Sr., along as well. However, that might not have been a good idea for the coaches. Paul Westphal, of course, was fired a couple of months ago, and now Nelson, who was fired last year by the Warriors, has been fired by the Knicks, so Rush is going 2 and 0 when it comes to firings following dinner invitations. Westphal called Rush last night to point this out, and he gave Rush a list of NBA cities he'd like to work in, just in case Rush wanted to invite any of those coaches to dinner and get them fired, too. That way Rush could create some openings in the field for his friend. Rush is more than willing to help so he'll be glad to extend an invitation to these other coaches the next time they show up in town; however, some of them have already come to New York for their one visit a year, so Westphal might have to hang tough for a year before Rush can work his magic and help him find a new gig. o The situation in the Republican party keeps getting more interesting - Newt Gingrich is now firing both barrels at both Forbes and Buchanan, while Kemp is sulking away from Forbes, whom he endorsed just last week. Friends of Colin Powell are also telling Senator Alfonse D'Amato to shut up with his suggestions about what Powell should do, given what D'Amato wrote about Powell in his book "Power, Pasta, and Politics." In the book D'Amato attacked Powell for his reluctance to move beyond economic sanctions in the Gulf War and his timidity over gays in the military, saying "I wonder whether Colin Powell has either the courage or the convictions needed to lead the country." D'Amato wrote that he was troubled by Powell's support for the ban on gays in the military because Powell was an African-American who had directly benefited from the integration of the armed forces; according to D'Amato, it was not proper that he was stopping gay Americans from serving their country. However, just recently D'Amato praised Powell as a running mate for Bob Dole, saying he would make a great Vice President and was a "true American hero," with an ability to bring people together. D'Amato also thought that Powell would reinvigorate the Republican party and make this year's GOP ticket a winning one. He backed off from the criticism he made of Powell in his book, saying that he was probably expressing his disappointment in "too dramatic terms." Powell's people, though, said the worst thing Dole could do, if he wanted Powell as his running mate, would be to get D'Amato involved. One Powell organizer cited the "intemperate language" D'Amato had used in the past, while another organizer said he didn't think D'Amato would have any influence on Powell whatsoever. Meanwhile, Governor Christi Todd Whitman (R-NJ) has asked Steve Forbes to withdraw from the Presidential race, but he refused. Newt Gingrich is also trying to get both Forbes and Buchanan to leave the race, telling them that they will have more influence in the party if they get out now and "join the team." Buchanan, though, doesn't seem to want to be part of the team; his latest words have been that he'll work harder than ever to deny Dole the nomination, which doesn't sound like he wants to work with Dole at all. Gingrich, though, said if Forbes and Buchanan were serious about beating Clinton now is the time to get unified. Gingrich said he would not call either Forbes nor Buchanan because he thought Senators and Governors should be doing talking to them to get them to resign. Rush, though, thinks Dole should be the one making this request of them. o Dr. Frank Lunz, a pollster who's worked for both the Perot and Buchanan campaigns in the past, has written a piece for today's NY Times about the Buchanan voters that is titled "They'd Rather Fight Than Switch." Lunz thinks the polling data he's gotten from interviews of Buchanan supporters shows that Dole could win those voters over by coming out hard for welfare reform: "Welfare reform is the one issue that can deliver the Buchanan voter, without sacrificing moderate Republicans and Perot voters. Senator Dole must demonstrate an emotional commitment to eradicating the current Federal welfare system, and that means hanging tough against Senate efforts to weaken reform legislation. "In their own words, Mr. Buchanan's voters work `darn hard' for their money and they're not going to support any Republican who `caves' on welfare. Reforming welfare can prove that Bob Dole does fight for them." Rush, though, would think that more than welfare reform will be needed to get the Buchanan supporters to switch to Dole, but Lunz's polling data evidently indicates otherwise. o Today's Wall Street Journal has a fascinating piece by T.J. Rodgers, president and CEO of Cypress Semiconductors. This column is adapted from a letter Rogers sent to Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) last month, and it concerns jobs, downsizing, immigration, and everything else Rush has been talking about for the past few weeks. Rush will read from this piece a bit later today. o People magazine has a cover story showing how hypocritical the Hollywood liberals and elite are. These ever- so-sensitive and compassionate liberals tell the rest of the country how they should behave, yet a new survey shows that Hollywood doesn't hire enough blacks either in front of or behind the camera, particularly in management roles. Hollywood, though, is the West Coast mecca of liberalism and it thinks it knows the best way everyone else should live, while mocking the traditional values and morality of the rest of the nation. All of this, though, is just words and symbolism over substance. *BREAK* Rush is amazed at how Bo is currently lecturing a caller, but Bo insists he's only telling the caller how to be a good caller (getting to the point, etc.). Rush accepts that, despite how vigorously Bo was making those points, and then asks if he's ever heard of a group called "The Bottle Rockets." EIB Broadcast Engineer Mike Maimone says he knows of them and in fact even uses some of their music as a "bump" on Rush's show. Rush has him play that bump and explains he mentioned the band because the Los Angeles Times this morning called EIB to inform Rush that The Bottle Rockets don't like Rush and don't like the fact he is playing their music on their show. Rush asked why the LA Times, of all people, is calling to complain about this; why doesn't the band bother complaining themselves if they don't like the fact Rush plays their music? EIB, though, pays its license fees to BMI, which means it can play the songs that Rush thinks will sound good on his show, without regard to the political affiliations of those involved. To underscore this point, Rush has Maimone play their tune again with the volume turned up, and he bets that some tabloid will call next to complain that Madonna doesn't want Rush to play her tunes. In any case, this might be a moot point since Rush, as he listens to The Bottle Rockets music, concludes "I think it kind of sucks anyway." He tells Maimone to take the music off, which Maimone does, scratching the needle along the record, which is a pretty good trick since this was on a CD. "That's what ought to happen to all Bottle Rockets music!" Rush exclaims. Phone Ben from Niles, MI Ben gives megadittos from a black conservative and says that Bob Dole will be bringing a positive asset to the White House that is sorely missing in the Clinton administration: a wife of the character and integrity of Elizabeth Dole. Rush agrees and says there is no comparison between her and Hillary. Speaking of Hillary, Rush has been going through Time magazine's excerpts of "Blood Sport," and has been struck by how Hillary is portrayed. In fact, Time's cover photo of Hillary makes her look like the meanest she-devil ever born; even the "M" of "Time" is in red and looks like two horns coming out of her head. The cover proclaims "exclusive new excerpt - the truth about Whitewater by Jim Stewart." Among other things, Time reports that the book "Blood Sport" quotes Hillary Clinton as saying "you cannot be a woman if you do not have children - it's the central mission of women, it's too great, it's too important not to experience it." Thus, Janet Reno and Donna Shalala are not "real women," according to Hillary Clinton, and Rush doubts this will please the feminists very much. Speaking of the feminists, Rush read a story about the Alan Dershowitz interview in the current Penthouse. Dershowitz claims that Marsha Clark has a tactic she uses to distract opposing lawyers when they make their arguments: she goes up to them and says "I just want you to remember one thing - I'm not wearing any underwear." Dershowitz claims that he asked Clark about this and she admitted it, and he does not approve at all of this tactic. Feminists are supposed to feel the same way as Dershowitz, but Rush bets that feminists such as Camille Paglia would applaud Clark for using every tool she has to win in court. Mike Maimone notes that this worked for Sharon Stone, and Rush agrees. Bo Snerdley, however, is confused, and Rush bets that this is because he's too busy downloading files from the GOP homepage to bother going to see movies such as "Basic Instinct." Phone Robin from Flagstaff, AZ Robin gives dittos and promises not to whine, despite how the cessation of the Whitewater hearings is harming her business financially - she sells buttons on this topic, such as one saying "Whitewater Condensed Cream of Clinton Soup." She sent some samples to Rush and hopes he saw them, but Rush says he hasn't seen them yet - they're probably still buried in the EIB mailroom. Robin says that aside from the financial impact, she's very disturbed at the Democratic filibuster that's stopping the Whitewater hearings in the Senate. And then last Thursday NBC News showed a juror showing up at the James McDougal/Governor Jim Guy Tucker (D-AR) Whitewater trial dressed in a Star Trek uniform. Rush says he saw that, too, and the amazing thing is that this woman has not been kicked off the jury. He asks Robin to hang on through the break. *BREAK* Phone Robin from Flagstaff, AZ (continued) Rush says Robin should not give up on her button business because the Whitewater hearings will soon be back, but she wonders what is going on with Whitewater, especially the McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker trial. Rush notes that the space cadet, Barbara Adams, who wore a Star Trek uniform <> to the courthouse is an alternate juror, and she's probably just trying to prove that Los Angeles weirdness has nothing on Arkansas. Robin says the federal government intervened with the Rodney King beating trial, but she doubts this will happen in this case, should Tucker and McDougal get off, which looks to be a real good bet right now. Robin can only think that the defendants in this trial are very happy that at least one of the jurors who got through the selection process was a certifiable nut. Rush says he doesn't want to insult Trekkies by calling one of their number a nut, but he bets Adams was just trying to get noticed and line up a movie deal. Robin adds that she doesn't have children, so what does that make her in Hillary's eyes. Rush says he doesn't know, but according to Hillary Clinton, Robin is not a woman. Robin wishes someone had told her that before, and Rush agrees this is sad - Robin was obviously born too late; if she were only 12 in this day and ages, she could even be practicing to meet Hillary's qualifications of being a woman. Robin adds that if she were 12 and were named Hillary, she could pull a Clinton by claiming her parents named her after the First Lady. Robin, though, says she's 44 and adds that she voted for the first time at the same time Rush did and probably for the same guy. Rush is glad to hear it and thanks her for calling. The EIB staff ask if the Star Trek juror in the Whitewater trial is wearing underwear, and Rush doesn't know any way to find out, unless some Trekkie can find out whether the original Star Trek guys wore underwear. Who knows, underwear might not be necessary in the 24th century. Rush notes that Bo Snerdley has eating a banana while all this banter has been going on, and he's laughing so hard that he can't keep his mouth shut, which makes for a truly obscene sight. Speaking of weird and obscene things, there is some funny stuff happening on the internet. Someone sent Rush an email address for PETA's web site, but it was not the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Rather it was for the People for the Eating of Tasty Animals, a counter-group to the first PETA. Rush doesn't have the web site address <> but it's a great web site. Not surprisingly, the PETA animal rights wackos are ticked off at this usurpation of their acronym. Also, there's a web site that has a 5MB file that's much like Rush's TV show - it's got a bunch of video of Clinton saying things that shows how hypocritical he has been. This file has great graphics and Rush promises to find the address and announce it tomorrow. There's also a fake "White House address" that is very close to the official www.whitehouse.gov web site <>. If you hit this site, you'll get a page with links for Gennifer Flowers, McDonalds, and other things of interest to the President and his administration. The McDonalds link, for example, takes you to an authentic McDonalds page from Finland, which is not very useful unless you speak Finnish. The White House is reportedly worried that those who log onto this site will be confused since it has been modeled on the real site, with some of the same pages and links. Phone Jeff from Carey, NC Jeff saw Rush's TV show last night, and it mentioned that Ross Perot might enter the Presidential race. Rush said that Perot's candidacy might not mean that Clinton would win re-election, and while Jeff agrees, he is curious about the poll that shows Perot voters said that they would vote against Clinton by a 51 to 29% margin. He bets many of Perot's 1992 voters were also against Clinton, yet they still got him elected. Rush says the point is that if Perot does run, he won't get as many of these voters as he did in 1992. These Perot votes thus won't automatically go to Clinton, but to another candidate (i.e. Dole). Jeff says he fears that these Perot voters are more aligned with the Republicans than with the Democrats because this would mean a vote for Perot would take more votes from the Republicans, as happened in 1992. Rush doubts it because in large part the Perot voters in 1992 didn't like George Bush; the 1992 Perot vote was as much an anti-Bush vote as it was a pro-Perot vote. Now after four years of Clinton, though, these voters have less of a desire to see Clinton remain in the White House, so they'll be more willing to vote for someone who can do that. Jeff agrees with that, given that Clinton represents the establishment. Rush says the Perot voters are also principled people, and they've had four years to make their assessment of Clinton. Jeff hopes that Perot doesn't get in the race to mix things up, but Rush says Perot is already laying the groundwork for this, with his talk about dirty tricks and how nobody is talking about the issues. He's trying to set things up so he can come into the race as an outsider who can fix things once and for all. Jeff adds that the exit polls are showing a goodly portion of voters in the primaries wish there was someone else to vote for. Rush admits this is correct - anywhere from 41 to 49% of Republicans voting in the primaries have been saying they would like to vote for someone else, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'd vote for Perot. He thanks Jeff for calling. *BREAK* Phone Gretchen from Nashville, TN Gretchen read the Wall Street Journal article by T.J. Rodgers, but there was another one right about it that said the China/Taiwan situation could help unify the Republican party on foreign policy, pulling in the Buchanan, Forbes, and Dole supporters. She agrees with what this article had to say about how foolish it was for the U.S. to allow its companies to sell hi-tech equipment to China, only to end up sending aircraft carriers to keep China in line. This is scary enough, but Bosnia is about to blow up in Clinton's face, so foreign policy could be a unifying point for the Republican party. Gretchen hasn't decided on any candidate yet, but Dole is the front-runner and she's going to vote Republican in November no matter what. She does think, though, the Republicans could score points with all factions of their party by playing up the Clinton administration foreign policy blunders. Rush says this might end up being the case, given that Clinton in 1992 mocked George Bush about foreign policy, portraying Bush as a President who cared more about foreign policy than domestic issues. Rush's predicted then that the great irony of the Clinton administration would be that it would be shaped by foreign policy, and this prediction looks like it's coming true, given Haiti, Somalia, Cuba, Bosnia, and now Taiwan and China. Rush also has to ask himself whether Communist China would be doing what it's doing now with Taiwan if a tough guy like Dole were President. Also, if someone with true foreign policy credentials were President, would the President of Haiti have shown his thanks for America's gift of $2.5 billion worth of help in installing "democracy" there by recognizing Fidel Castro? This was a clear slap in the United States' face by a nation that America has just helped immensely. Whether foreign policy can unify Republicans, though, is unknown, but there won't be any loss in using it as an issue, given that it won't divide anyone, except perhaps those who want to ignore the world so as to focus on domestic issues such as jobs. Rush thus thinks Republicans can use the foreign policy issue to good advantage in this campaign. *BREAK* Phone Eric from Washington, NJ Eric says he's a Buchanan supporter and thinks Frank Lunz's theory that Dole can attract the Buchanan vote by playing up welfare is only partially true. The Buchananites do think welfare reform is important, but many of them will be more concerned about whom Dole chooses as his Vice President. If Dole chooses are more liberal candidate such as Governor Christi Todd Whitman (R-NJ) or an unknown such as Colin Powell, it will turn off a lot of Buchanan supporters, regardless of what Dole says about welfare or any other issues. Rush says the impression he has been getting from Buchanan supporters is that they despise Dole and would never vote for him; these guys seem to have a deep, personal anger toward Dole over how he represents politics as usual and the same old same old. These people don't trust Dole and don't believe anything he says, so Rush has a hard time believing the Buchanan supporters would support Dole. He would thus be stunned if Lunz is right and the Buchanan supporters could be brought home by Dole saying the right things about the one issue of welfare reform. Rush admits, though, he might not be hearing from the average Buchanan supporter; talk shows always draw out the more passionate voter, so Rush could be hearing only from the "lock and load, pitchforks held high" crowd. Eric would agree with that, given that the Buchanan supporters are a diverse group. Eric did get angry at Dole, though, when he accused Buchanan of being an extremist since that implies Eric and other Buchanan supporters are all extremists, too. However, Eric won't hold such a deep grudge that he would want Clinton to get back in the White House. Rush is encouraged by that, but the firebrand Buchanan supporters who have been calling him have said they would even vote for Clinton before voting for Dole; however, Eric sounds more like the people that Lunz has been talking to. Rush thanks Eric for calling. *BREAK* SECOND HOUR Since it's Super Tuesday, Rush is not going to take any callers who want to make "campaign speeches" today. During the break Bo told Rush he has been getting a lot of these sort of electioneering calls, and Rush has no intention of letting people make speeches on his show; he's interested in conversations, plus if someone going to the polls hasn't made up their mind by now about whom to support, they aren't listening anyway. Bo has also been getting a number of would-be callers he thinks are official staff members of the various campaigns and he's been rejecting their electioneering as well. Rush is glad about this because this is his show, which means if anyone is to make a speech or electioneer, it's the host. Rush doesn't mind talking about whom people prefers, but basically his show has gone beyond that; if people still don't like the rules of the Republican primaries, they should call some other show. Talking about the "unfairness of the rules" now is like talking about how the rules for SuperBowl XXX were unfair to the Steelers. Rush's show is about present and future events, which is why Rush told Bo to reject these sort of electioneering callers. Rush notes that he could easily take a day off by letting on one caller after another make their speeches, but his show has been there and done that, and it's time to move on. Rush is also tired of hearing that Dole is a compromiser, so Bo - who's been warned in no uncertain terms that he'll be held responsible if Rush gets upset today - has been dutifully following Rush's orders to ignore those calls. Rush has nothing personal against these callers, but he does want his show to be one that his audience likes to listen to, as opposed to getting upset about. ******** Rush goes to the article in today's Wall Street Journal has by T.J. Rodgers, who wrote a letter to Senator Spencer Abraham (R- MI) about trade, the economy, protectionism, and immigration. Rush thinks this column should be must reading to everyone who's called him in the past few weeks to disagree with him about these issues. Rush has tried to explain his point of view in many ways about why protectionist policies are a bad idea, but Rodgers makes some great points of his own: "For the past decade or more, jobs have been migrating to smaller, more nimble, entrepreneurial companies from the Fortune 500 as those companies streamline and lose employment. This trend strengthens our economy, but it has created a short-term fear for their jobs among Americans. "These job losses are highly publicized: Richard Allen, the CEO of AT&T, was labeled a `Job Killer' in a recent Newsweek article because of layoffs, many of which came from AT&T's decision to leave the personal computer business, where it was not competitive. What is not publicized is that my company has already hired some of those AT&T people. "And our rival, Cirrus Logic, beat us to the punch in starting up a design center in South Carolina to take advantage of hiring those ex-AT&T engineers. The bad news from big companies gets front-page coverage, but the near-immediate absorption of their skilled workers is rarely discussed. "Cypress Semiconductor has 230 open requisitions for employment, 12% of our population of 1,940 employees. Our hiring list grows every year, and we can't find all the skilled people we need to build our company, which manufactures all of its chips in the U.S. and exports 35% of its output. "The 11 semiconductor companies constituting the Sematch chip consortium have 14,000 open requisitions they are unable to fill. Competition for workers is so intense in Silicon Valley that our average San Jose employee, including line workers and receptionists, earns $93,000 a year including benefits - we also give every employee profit sharing totalling $5,000 a year and stock options. "We are so in need of skilled engineers that we have started remote design centers anywhere we can find a few engineers who want to set up shop and plug into Cypress electronically. We have already set up 10, including one in the U.K. and one in India. "But if I could hire here, even at our current high wage rate, I never would consider taking any engineering jobs off-shore. Unfortunately, the Simpson immigration bill would actually force American companies to export more jobs, since it would become harder to offer stateside jobs to immigrants. "One major misconception inherent in the Simpson immigration bill is that any immigrant who takes a job in the States takes that job from an American. That assertion does not stand up. "Our $600 million company is run by 10 officers. Four are immigrants. John Torode, vice president of our Computer Clock Division in Seattle, came to America as a dependent immigrant with his father, a British sailor, after World War II. "Lothar Maier is the vice president of wafer manufacturing with responsibility for running our four chip plants in California, Minnesota, and Texas. Lothar came to America from Germany as a child. "Emmanuel Hernandez is our chief financial officer and deals with our investors and the New York Stock Exchange. Manny was relocated to the U.S. from the Philippines by his former employer, National Semiconductor. Tony Alvarez, our vice president of research and development, was a child in 1961 when he fled Cuba with his parents. "Our four vice presidents did not take jobs from native-born Americans. We are currently searching for two more semiconductor executives, who are even harder to find than semiconductor engineers. "Furthermore, Cypress's four immigrant vice presidents have 1,500 people working for them - these immigrants created jobs and made our company and the U.S. industry stronger, not weaker. That's common here in Silicon Valley: just ask Andy Grove, the Hungarian refugee, Intel founder, and CEO of the world's largest semiconductor company. "Only one of the five men I've just discussed relocated here specifically to take a job. If we believe that letting the best and brightest into America will make all of us better off, then we should not tell them, `you can come to America but you must leave your family behind,' as does the Simpson bill. "Pat Buchanan has taken up `Jose' as a euphemism for immigrants. I would like him to meet Jose Arreola, a Mexican immigrant with a doctorate in transistor physics. "Jose is our top scientist, responsible for managing a group of 30 people - 80% with postgraduate degrees - to produce our most advanced semiconductor technology for the future. Jose's top young star is Jeff Watt, a Stanford-educated Ph.D. who immigrated from Canada. We would lose jobs without our immigrant technologists." Rush says this is all specific to the semiconductor industry, which is the point - this is an industry in which the U.S. leads the world. The immigrants working at this company are not kicking out Americans from those jobs; the employment market is not a zero-sum game, anymore than the rest of the economy is. In the interview Rush did with George Gilder two months ago, Gilder made the point that immigrants are a source of genius in America. If it were not for immigration, America wouldn't have the technology it has, given how it's dumbing down it's own society, forcing kids who show any aptitude and who learn quickly to slow down so as not to embarrass their schoolmates. Also, complaints about immigration are nothing new. Rush's grandfather is 104 and six years ago Rush remembers talking with him about current events and how there was a big anti-immigration movement forming. Rush Sr. remarked that in 1908 his high school debate class had as their topic whether immigration by southern Europeans was ruining America. Thus, over 90 years nothing really has changed - America still has an anti-immigrant faction running through it. There are some things that need to be fixed, such as how too many immigrants are coming to America to get its welfare. Plus, illegal immigration has to be stopped, along with federal mandates that force states such as California to pay all sorts of public benefits to illegal immigrants. California has lost its court suits about this so far, but Governor Pete Wilson (R-CA) has filed another one, willing to take this case to the Supreme Court if need be. Rush agrees completely because the welfare state is drawing certain people to certain states. It's dangerous, though, to go from being against illegal immigration to oppose all immigration. It's amazing that the average salary plus benefits for these Silicon Valley workers is around $90,000 a year, especially since there are still thousands of jobs open and waiting for qualified workers. This reminds Rush of the story last month about how the Big Three automakers will need another 240,000 replacement workers over the next seven years, but they're concerned that they won't be able to find enough qualified and trained workers. These are the problems to be concerned about, and this lack of qualified workers is one reason why immigration is needed. Plus, any time someone has fled real oppression to come to America and take advantage of its freedom and opportunities, they work their butts off to succeed. These people serve as reminders about what too many Americans take for granted, even shaming some Americans into putting their lives in proper perspective. America is still attracting millions of immigrants from across the world because of its freedom and opportunity, and not just the welfare, and these legal, legitimate immigrants are helping, not harming, the nation, as Rodgers' letter proves. *BREAK* Phone Noreen from Hobart, IN Noreen says she's gotten ridiculous at the whining of America that's been going on lately, given that history shows that no economy stays the same but evolves over time. In the 1800s people used horses and carts, but those days are no long gone. Rush says this doesn't matter to the whiners on the fringe who think they aren't getting their fair share and are being screwed by the big corporations. They want government to protect their jobs no matter what, and these people are driven by pure emotion. Noreen says this is her point; she's been told for the third time that she'll be losing her job because her company has been bought and that her job is no longer needed due to downsizing. Rush says for this to have happened to Noreen three times must mean she's gotten back on her feet and found other jobs, as opposed to waiting for some politician to save her job. He congratulates her on her attitude. Noreen says she's still positive and hopeful, knowing that she has a lot of skills and abilities, and she's excited to see where she's going next. Rush thanks her for calling with that optimism and positive attitude. *BREAK* <> Phone Cathy from Texas Cathy says she supports Buchanan but would gladly vote for Bob Dole since she believes in the wisdom of incrementalism, getting what you want bit by bit. She supports Buchanan in almost all ways except for his economic views, but she doesn't demand "perfect" candidates who agree with her 100% because she knows sometimes you have to take small steps to get where you want. She does think Buchanan's social policies, though, are what are attracting many people to him, which means if Dole wants to get some of those people, he'd best get a running mate who is solid on the social issues. Rush asks what will happen if Dole chooses someone like Colin Powell, and Cathy says she'd still vote for Dole, given that she's not a single-issue voter. However, she does believe there are some single-issue people, though, who would refuse to support Dole if he chose someone as Powell. Rush agrees, but he doesn't know how numerous those people really are; an earlier caller pointed out that the Buchanan group is very diverse, and this is shown by how Cathy is the second Buchanan supporter who said they'd vote for Dole if he's the nominee. Cathy also gives megadittos to her nephew who's being homeschooled and undoubtedly listening even now. Rush thanks her for calling. Phone Jim from Ft. Wayne, IN Jim says he's alarmed at the political process and how it's no longer producing great leaders. He wonders if this is a sign that America is slipping from the greatness it once had when the Constitution was written. Rush asks if Jim likes anyone who's out there now but who hasn't risen as a leader. Jim says there are some good guys at the local level, but these people are often discouraged from running for national office because of the morass that they would have to trudge through as part of a congressional or Presidential campaign. Jim points out that although Rush's life has been pretty much an open book, if he were to run for political office, everyone would still go after him like a bat out of hell, bringing up anything they could against him; there are few people in the rest of the country who are willing to go through this. Rush agrees - there are few qualified people who want to endure the media anal exam, the total upheaval of their personal lives, and the examination of everything they've done, said, and written for the sake of public office. America treats candidates as suspects today, with people having such a distaste for politics that they are immediately suspicious of anyone who wants to be in politics. Thus, would-be politicians are immediately investigated as having something to hide, and this does have a chilling effect on the political process. Jim agrees because if there was ever a time when a great leader was required, it is now, given what is happening domestically and throughout the world. Rush asks if Jim needs a leader to motivate him, and Jim says no. However, Shakespeare's "King Lear" is all about a leader who stops leading and Jim fears that America is drifting into this role, being a world leader that is no longer leading. This just leaves the stage bare for others who are unfit to lead to usurp that role. Rush says another reason to be concerned about the lack of leadership is that America is currently structured as a bunch of single-issue groups, each of which cares about only a narrowly focused agenda. This is bad enough, but then Congress deals with tough issues by avoiding any leadership role at all. For example, when it comes time to close military bases, nobody in Congress wants to go on record as voting against a base in their own district, so they'd cut deals with each other to make sure their bases were kept. It got to the point that Congress had to give the power and authority to close the bases to a blue- ribbon panel; this panel decides what bases should be closed, and then all Congress can do is vote yea or nay on the entire package. This way members of Congress can vote for the base closings but go home to their constituents to say "yes, I voted to close the local base, but I had no choice - my hands were tied and I couldn't do anything to save it." This is not how the country was designed, though; Congress is supposed to draft the laws and the President is supposed to sign them. Yet when it comes to the truly controversial issues, such as base closings or spending cuts, Congress falls apart. However, spending cuts and the downsizing of government are necessary - America just doesn't have the money to pay for all these things anymore, and the tax burden on Americans has to be reduced. But whenever it comes to controversial matters like this, Congress abrogates its responsibility by passing the burden off to a blue-ribbon panel, typically made up of past members of Congress who no longer are accountable to the voters. This panel makes the hard choices, leaving current members of Congress off the hook. This is a true act of cowardice on the part of members of Congress, but it's a result of how so many Americans have become dependent on government. For example, ABC News last night did a story on the money owed by citizens to government, and the largest share of this money was in the form of overdue student loans. Students have defaulted on $22 billion of student loans, but the students are demanding even more; they don't want loans but freebies and grants. Bill Clinton is eager to continue this status quo because it gives him votes. Thus, a true leader will have to endure big hits as he does things that are necessary but massively unpopular with different groups of Americans. The next successful leader in America will be whoever ends up reducing the size of the federal government and returning power to the states, and in the process of this he or she will have to tell the freeloaders, including all of the middle class who think they are owed something, that the day of the free lunch is over. The press will hate this guy, the single-issue liberals will hate this guy, and the single-issue conservatives will hate this guy if he's not "right" on their one or two issues. This means such a leader will be possible only if he doesn't care about being unpopular but decides to roll up the sleeves and get the job done. Whoever does this will be the next great leader of America. It won't be someone who comes up with more government programs or just shuffles government programs around to make them look smaller. The next great leader of America will be the person who dismantles the welfare state, and its attendant entitlement mentality, doorjamb by doorjamb if need be. So who has the guts to do this? Who on the national scene could even state this sort of agenda, much less endure putting it into action? Such a leader will not be popular with a lot of people, but often leaders are those who take their troops where the troops don't want to go. This leader will have to explain this plan to America and what it will take, and in doing this, he will make what happened after the Republican revolution look like a party - everyone from the ACLU to the geezer lobby and from the press to the civil rights crowd will come after this guy. And if he is running in a Presidential primary, members of his own party will mark this guy for destruction. This leader will end up taking all sorts of hits, and Rush would love for someone to give him the name of one person who would do this. This is why Rush is not excited about the Presidential race - there's not one person out there who has the guts to do what needs to be done. Thus, Rush for the moment will work for whatever incremental victories he can get, so that when this leader shows up, he or she will at least have a chance at making his or her agenda work. Above all, you don't elect someone who takes you in the opposite direction. Rush doesn't know who this true leader will be but this is the kind of leader it will take to fix America. If this person never shows up, unwilling to deal with all the crap that will be thrown his way, the country is in trouble. The individuals who make the country work might want these things, but they don't have time to fix Washington while they go about making the country work - things in Washington have to be fixed by someone in Washington who goes there with this specific job in mind, and Rush doesn't see anyone like this on the national scene right now. *BREAK* Phone Tim from Midland, MI Tim thinks Governor John Engler (R-MI) that Rush is looking for; he's not running for President, but he's the man qualified to do this job. Rush doesn't think this idea helps much since Engler is not running for President, but he thanks Tim for calling. Phone Ken from Norristown, PA Ken gives 85% dittos, noting that they used to be about 92% dittos. He's a Buchanan voter who doesn't think Dole could do anything to get him back in the Republican fold. Rush asks what Ken would say if Dole and Buchanan were to get together and Buchanan ended up endorsing Dole and proclaiming party unity. Ken says this wouldn't matter to him because his commitment to Buchanan is not to the man but to the issues; Buchanan did this sort of thing before with Bush, and Ken, having lived through the Bush Presidency, was not impressed, nor does he think a Dole Presidency would be appreciably better than a Clinton Presidency. Rush asks what Ken will do now that it appears Dole is the nominee. Ken agrees that Dole seems to have all this wrapped up, but Dole has told Ken and all other Buchanan supporters that they are extremists and a threat to the heart and soul of the Republican standard. The Weekly Standard has told him he's an anti-Semite who's being manipulated by the populist rhetoric, so obviously the Republican party doesn't want him. Thus, if the Republican party doesn't want him and nobody else wants his vote, Ken just won't vote for President. The Republican party is taking the right-wing for granted, giving them only rhetoric while governing in the middle - this was what Bush and Nixon did, and to some extent what Reagan did, and Ken doesn't see things being any better with Dole. Given that the right wing won't be able to punish Dole if he betrays them again, their vote will be meaningless no matter what. Rush asks if this means Ken hopes a large number of Republicans who feel as he does sit out the election, so that Dole loses and thereby shows the Republican party that they'd best take this wing of the party more seriously. Ken thinks so, and Rush says he's heard others make this case. He doesn't know how large this crowd is, but it's a real strategy and it illustrates why the Republican establishment types who have been insulting Buchanan and his supporters have been shooting themselves in the foot. And it's all the more aggravating because these Republican elitists have been doing this only so they would continue to please their friends in the cocktail circuit. This behavior is the GOP version of political correctness, and it's not only unbecoming and elitist, but damaging to the party. Rush thanks Ken for calling. *BREAK* <> *BREAK* THIRD HOUR Items o The Georgia state supreme court has ruled that Georgia's sodomy ban is a legitimate use of state power to further the moral welfare of the public. The court thus upheld the misdemeanor conviction of Chris Christian, who sought oral sex from a sheriff's deputy. Christian argued the state's constitutional protection shields adults from consensual, non- commercial sodomy, but the court disagreed. Since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 ruled that Georgia's sodomy law did not violate privacy rights, Christian is unlikely to be able to appeal the decision. Georgia is one of 24 states that have laws prohibiting sodomy. o Rush is still amazed at the case of the four-year-old girl, Judith Hart, who was conceived after her father's death by artificial insemination of his frozen sperm. The Social Security Commissioner averted a court battle by ruling that Hart can collect survivor benefits of about $700 a month until she's 18, despite the fact she was not even born, or even conceived, when her father died. This is only the second time survivor benefits granted to someone who was conceived after the father's death. The mother, Nancy Hart, now plans to enter law school and pursue a career in reproductive law so as to "bring a human side" to the law. This case, though, illustrates what Rush was talking about when he said that the next great leader of this country will end up making a lot of people mad with how he cuts spending, thanks to how dependent Americans have become on their government. Social Security was never intended to give death benefits to someone conceived after the father's death, but that's what it has now become, thanks to how people seem to think these benefits are an entitlement and their right. There's no end to where this ruling can go - the next thing the Social Security Administration will do is start government- sponsored sperm banks so that all men can guarantee that their as yet non-conceived children can go on the government dole. This, in effect, would be the first sperm banks that offer interest. The Social Security office, though, said this case was not setting a precedent as the case law would be reviewed. However, the commissioner made the decision because she thought it was considered "inappropriate" to continue denying payments to Hart. A Social Security administrative judge ruled in May, 1995 that these benefits should be paid, but an appeals panel overturned the decision six months later, at which point the mother went to court. The court, however, did not get a chance to rule on the case before the Social Security agreed to pay the benefits. Nancy Hart's case was based on the notion that Judith was denied benefits solely based on the circumstances of her birth, and that the Supreme Court has already ruled that benefits cannot be denied on that basis to illegitimate children. Rush would love for those who defend this decision to find any evidence that this sort of thing was originally intended in the program. This illustrates how government programs get expanded over time to include things that even the loftiest of liberal dreamers never dared imagine. o A strike at two General Motors Dayton, OH brake plants has forced the shutdown of more than half the automaker's assembly plants, but GM says it has more than enough cars to sell during the strike. However, GM could lose $250 million a week if all 29 plants end up being idled, according to one financial analyst. The union has "complained" that GM refuses to hire enough employees and that this is therefore causing the workers to work too much overtime and preventing workers from completing safety training. The workers are making an average of $69,000 a year in salary and overtime. Rush notes that this amazing figure does not include the luscious benefits that these workers' union has got them, yet these employees are complaining about too much work. He also points out that it is a voluntary strike that has shut down these plants and laid off these other workers; it wasn't NAFTA, GATT, or cheap labor from Mexico or Korea, but American unions that have idled these workers. Rush can't remember what he read about this strike in USA Today, but he thinks he remembers reading that the striking workers are also upset that General Motors is outsourcing much of the work, sending it to other companies. However, the work is not being sent overseas but to Chrysler and Ford. Rush will have to double-check this, though, but he's pretty sure the outsourcing is not to Mexico or any other foreign country. o The February issue of Working Woman magazine had an item in the "Biz Buzz" column that was titled "Rat Patrol" and that read: "One ad for Rosalie Osiasis' Great Neck, NY law practice features her sprawled across a desk, provocatively chewing a pencil, and showing a lot of cleavage. In another she wears tiny little shorts and straddles a motorcycle. `What's the problem?' shrugs Rosalie, who has scorned feminists for leading feminists straight into the glass ceiling. `If women want to get anywhere, they should exploit their sexuality, to create a business opportunity. That's all that I'm doing.' With friends like you, Rosalie, who needs Rush?" *BREAK* Phone Tom from Paso Robles, CA Tom says he's tired of the "I'm taking my ball and going home because my candidate isn't going to win" group that's been calling the show. Dole is not Tom's first choice for President, but he also knows that if Dole had been President last year, the nation would have a balanced budget and welfare reform today, along with smaller government. Dole might not be the greatest choice in the world but he's a step in the right direction. Tom thinks those who are whining about this are like the kids in the playground who don't want to play unless they get everything their way. There's a bigger picture than this, though. Rush asks about those who feel that they've been insulted by the Republican establishment, and Tom says politics is not a pretty thing, which is why you have to look at the big picture of what's best for the country. From that view, Dole is better for the country than Clinton. Rush agrees with that but he notes that there is a sizeable group of people who don't think the battle is about beating Clinton but about the triumph of their particular ideas. These people don't think they can vote for someone whose ideas don't reflect their own. Rush doesn't know how big this group is, but there are a lot of people who think the ideas matter more than the candidate. Tom says the ideas are there, in the House and in the Senate. Newt Gingrich is a great idea man, and what the country needs in the Presidency is someone who will sign the bills Gingrich sends him. Rush agrees - the country needs a signer, who will do what the Founding Fathers did, sign the documents. Tom thinks Dole will do this and it will make him a great President. Rush agrees and says the ideas are definitely there in Congress, although they are getting snuffed off by Bill Clinton. He likes the idea of Bob Dole campaigning on the slogan "I'm a direct link with the Founding Fathers - I, too, will sign the documents." He thanks Tom for calling. Phone Mike from Ferndale, CA Mike gives dittos to both Rush and Tom because he feels the same way. He doesn't think the Buchananites have cornered the market on feeling angry and betrayed, given that he voted for Buchanan in the 1992 primaries, only to have Buchanan and his supporters call him, Newt Gingrich, and Rush "neo-cons," saying they are not authentic conservatives. Mike thinks Buchanan is the true neo-con who should explain why he's turned his back on the conservative belief in free trade. Mike is pro-life and supports free trade, but he will vote for Buchanan if he's the nominee, and he won't be voting out of spite, as many Buchananites seem to be doing. When Buchanan got together with Ralph Nader on the Phil Donahue show, along with Bob Bechel, who couldn't argue his way out of a paper bag, he called Newt Gingrich "Newtie" and worse things. Buchanan said some amazing things, such as how Rush didn't oppose GATT because "he was too close to the establishment." Yet on his radio show Buchanan praised socialists like Nader, David Bonior, and others because they opposed GATT and NAFTA; at best, he praised Reagan but only with faint praise. However, if Buchanan is the nominee Mike will still vote for him. Rush says Mike won't have to do this, and Mike is glad, given how Buchanan has been badmouthing the Contract with America. Rush says something has gone haywire, and Mike thinks this is because Buchanan is full of sour grapes over how he wants to be the leading talk show host and leader of the revolution. Mike felt good after the 1994 elections, but Buchanan started putting everything and everyone, including Gingrich, down all the time. He's thus thankful Rush is still on the air, hitting the issues on the head, as he did last hour with his monologue on the type of leader the country needs. The Buchananites, though, should remember that America has a Republican Congress, something it hasn't had for some time. Rush says the Buchanan Brigades should remember that while they're mad at the establishment, they're also getting other Republicans irritated at them. Rush is a bit irritated because Republicans are closer than they've ever been, but they are determined to tear it down. These people feel more comfortable being on the outside, knocking on the door, demanding to be let in. Mike says this is biting off one's nose to spite the faces, and if you don't agree with these guys on their conspiracy theories, they dismiss you as part of it. Rush agrees but doesn't even want to get into that. He thanks Mike for calling. *BREAK* Phone Tim from Panama City, FL Tim gives declining dittos because he's been listening to Rush since 1988, and as a died-in-the-wool conservative he's agreed with Rush on nearly every issue over the years, including free trade. However, he's getting upset with Rush because Tim has begun changing his mind about free trade, and he's seeing that Rush is not as eloquently rational about this issue as he is about the others. He's not presenting the arguments for both sides. Tim thinks Rush has a pie in the sky attitude toward trade that ignores a lot of the complex issues that are involved. Tim used to agree with Rush, but as he's listened to the rhetoric on both sides he realized that Pat Buchanan is the only candidate raising the issues that show absolute free trade is not the solution. If a company in France, for example, makes basketballs and exports them to the United States, they could end up being subsidized by the French government or they could decide to slash prices below the market value. In either case, the company starts dumping the basketballs on the U.S. market. Ordinarily this would be a good thing since Americans pay lower prices for basketballs, but it will also result in American companies making basketballs going out of business. Not even free traders support dumping products like this. Rush agrees - nobody he knows, himself included, supports this practice, which is not what free trade is about. Tim, though, says the same thing could happen in a company in a country like Malaysia, where companies can afford to make, thanks to low labor prices, basketballs at the same price that the French company was making. The situation is different than in France, but the same thing happens - American consumers get low-priced goods but American companies making those goods go out of business. The Malaysian company isn't dumping its goods but it's still selling them below the price American companies can afford to make, simply because of its much lower wage base. Rush asks what Tim would want to do about this, and Tim says this is not a simple problem to solve - unilateral tariffs imposed by government tariffs won't do it because the government will always get things wrong, but absolute free trade is not the right idea either. Tim doesn't know what the answer to this would be but some sort of controls seem required and he doubts anyone has any real answers to this now. Rush says Buchanan says he has the answers, in this case tariffs going up to 40% in some cases. Tim says he doesn't agree with Buchanan on all issues, despite voting for him today, but tariffs are not supposed to be taxes on imported goods to protect jobs or punish a trading partner for unfair trading practices. Tariffs should be used to equalize the wage base between two countries, which means that the money that is collected in tariffs should be used to subsidize exports, so that the consumers in the other country can afford to buy American goods. This will be almost impossible to do, though, given how complex and fluid international trade is, but this approach to tariffs would solve a lot with trade. For example, if Mexico didn't want America to put tariffs on its goods, it could avoid this by paying its workers what American workers earn, thereby giving the money to Mexican workers, not to the U.S. in the form of tariffs. This would improve the situation all around. Rush says only 14% of the GDP comes from imports, and only 3% of the GDP is in the form of goods coming from emerging and Third World nations such as Malaysia. This means that the problems Tim has cited are not that serious; they are certainly not enough to cause the massive layoffs and wage stagnation that some people are claiming. The rhetoric over the past five years, though, has blown this issue out of proportion. The "buy America" concept is nothing new, and it's been revitalized in recent years to get people all worked up over problems that aren't as bad as they think. Tim says he can tell that America's trade policies are not working because America has had a trade deficit for the past 27 years; the fact that the trade deficit is constantly growing indicates something is wrong with American trade. Rush disagrees with this, but Tim says he did hear Rush says that America is buying more from Japan than it exports because America has a larger population. Rush says this is one reason for this - America has a larger population and will spend more than the Japanese, so if America tries to even out exports to get to a zero trade deficit, it means the Japanese would have to buy far more per capita than Americans. Right now, though, Japanese and American consumers spend about the same amount on imports per capita, about $420 a year. The larger population in America therefore means America as a nation will import more from Japan than vice versa. Rush's main point about the trade deficit is that it isn't as bad as people think - everyone runs massive "trade deficits" in their personal lives every day with places like their grocery story. People spend hundreds of dollars at their local markets but when do those markets even reciprocate by buying something from them? Tim says his household runs a trade surplus because it earns more than it spends, but Rush says this is not what he is talking about. Is Tim going to "punish" his grocery store by demanding they impose tariffs on their goods? Just because Tim spent $300 on groceries in the past month, without the grocery buying anything from Tim, should the store be slapped with tariffs? Tim, after all, is running a trade deficit with the store - money is flowing from his pocket to theirs, with none coming back the other way. Tim, though, says he deals with more than the grocery store, and he makes up the "trade deficit" to the store by selling his labor to his employer. Tim isn't complaining about the trade deficit with any particular country but with the aggregate trade deficit America has with the rest of the world. America has been spending more every year on total imports than its total exports, which means America is going into debt, spending more than it makes. Rush says this is not the case because the trade deficit is just a difference in payments - a trade deficit doesn't mean America is borrowing any money from these companies. Also, it's money that the consumer spends, not the government, which is why Rush compares this with the personal trade deficit that Americans have. Tim, though, says he has a personal trade surplus because he saves some of his money, but America is losing wealth. Rush says this is not the case - the GDP continues to grow and Americans are seeing increasing wages and benefits. Rush rejects the notion that wages are going down because Americans are doing better in many ways than previous generations. America is not losing ground, although some individuals are. Things are getting better all the time in America, and the evidence of this is that the rest of the world is still trying to get in America. *BREAK* Phone Carrie from West Virginia Carrie heard Rush say student loans should be cut, but she thinks the government should be supporting public education. If it weren't for student loans, Carrie wouldn't be going to school and wouldn't be educated at all. Rush feels sorry for Carrie because this is totally untrue; it's sad that Carrie would tell the largest audience in radio that she would be a dunce without her government. Carrie said that's not what she said, only that if she didn't have student loans, she wouldn't be getting an education now. Rush asks how other people manage to get through college without loans, and Carrie replies that she doesn't know about them. However, she works 25 to 30 hours a week, which doesn't cover her schooling. She went to a private Christian school throughout high school, with her parents paying both taxes and tuition, but now the government is paying for her education and she thus thinks they owe this to her. Rush says this is absolutely untrue on all counts - the government is not paying for Carrie's education, every other American is, or at least this will be the case if Carrie doesn't repay her loans. Carrie says she plans to repay the loans, and Rush congratulates her on that, but right now Americans owe $23 billion in defaulted student loans. Speaking of deficits, there are too many citizens who are running a huge deficit with the government (i.e. the people). Carrie says this doesn't mean that there shouldn't be student loans, but Rush points out he's never said these loans should be ended. All that he wants is for people to pay these loans back because they are "loans," not gifts or subsidies. Nobody is going to get very far if they go to a bank and say that America depends on their being educated, so they should get some free money. Carrie, though, says Rush made student loans sound bad, and Rush says that's because he's been criticizing the freeloaders and derelicts who don't pay their debts. Rush pays every debt he incurs on the spot because he's been in terrible debt before and doesn't want to be there again; he doesn't want to ever experience having his credit card torn up while he's trying to buy a bag of potato chips. However, the liberals who administer the student loan program don't care if this money gets paid back or not. The left buys their votes with this program by telling people like Carrie that they couldn't get an education without their help - but what did Abe Lincoln and Ben Franklin do to get an education, given that they didn't have student loans? Rush won't dispute that the a college education costs a lot, nor that the pointy-headed academics who run colleges are raping their students when it comes to the cost of a college education, especially when you factor in the low quality of the education these students are getting. Parents pay unbelievable and obscene amounts of money just to get their kids indoctrinated with gobbledegook, but Rush still opposes the idea that the role of government is to provide an education for its system - this is why education in America is in a decline. The student loan program is fine as far as it goes, and nobody is cutting it. The liberals are trying to claim that Republicans are cutting the program but this is a lie - there are no cuts in this program or any other education programs. However, if someone doesn't pay back their student loan, something should be done to them, such as taking back their diploma or otherwise making it worthless. It's the American people who are paying for these deadbeats and it's time to stop this abuse; the people started this program through their representatives as a loan program, not a giveaway, so the program should go back to what it was originally intended to be. *BREAK* Phone Dan from St. Cloud, MN Dan says he and his wife lost a portion of their business' product line to a Taiwanese company that made it cheaper, so they decided to expand their product line and make some new products. They hopefully can end up making up what they've lost and more, and they're doing this not by running to the government but by getting competitive. In fact, Dan and his wife have more than doubled the size of his building to fit what they hope will be their new business. Rush says this means Dan has taken a risk and Dan agrees but they'll make it. Rush thanks Dan for calling and giving a real education about American business and how to compete with foreign competition.