A needed Rush

When Rush Limbaugh took the stage at Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference, his blood pressure wasn’t the only thing rising as the crowd emitted energetic cheers.

Democrats everywhere, no doubt, were shaking their heads in disgust during the speech that lasted almost 90 minutes. Those of them that cared enough to watch, anyway.

And if they did watch, I hope they learned a thing or two. Since Obama has already made statements to the tune of “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,” referencing the partisan divide plaguing the country, it was about time to hear Limbaugh’s rebuttal. Well, we heard it loud and clear.

After all, who could top his straight-to-the-point speech that told listeners the ills of the Obama administration? Yes, he was the man for the job.

During the last eight years, we were involved in two wars resulting from the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The deficit – shockingly high for a Republican president – grew to unprecedented numbers after nearly being balanced when the almighty Clinton left office. Sure, Bush had much inefficiency within his administration, but he doesn’t look so bad on the deficit issue now that it has more than tripled since the month and a half Obama has been in office.

Limbaugh was able to share with us the outrageousness of these figures. He discussed how, during other economic recessions, we didn’t propose trillions of dollars of spending: “We got out of the 1980s recession with tax cuts. Do you know that President Obama, in six weeks of his administration, has proposed more spending than from the founding of the country to his inauguration?”

If we know tax cuts have led us out of economic recession before, why try something as risky as spending trillions of dollars, especially when we don’t have it to spend in the first place? Spurring small business and giving money back into the hands of those who earned it is what normalized the economy in recessions past.

So why is Obama taking excessive amounts of taxpayer and borrowed money when we’ve seen how to fix this problem?

If I remember correctly, it was Obama who said he would use bipartisan efforts to fix the problems of our country.

This brings up another important issue Limbaugh discusses. Bipartisanship in America doesn’t mean socialism. It means Republicans and Democrats working together. But if we can’t have that, then we need to drop this far-leftist approach of big government solving the problems of our market economy.

Like I said, we already know how to do that. Limbaugh’s take on it: “The Democrats and liberals today claim that they are pained by the inequities and the inequalities in our society. And they believe that these inequities and inequalities descend from the selfishness and the greed of the achievers. And so they tell the people who are on different income quintiles, whatever lists, they say it’s not that you’re not working hard enough, you could have what they have, perhaps, if you applied it. They’re stealing it from you.”

And yes, some people would call it stealing. The Obama administration and the policies they are initiating are punishing people who have worked hard and have found some success. Not to mention that they are the people who have the ability to ignite the economy, because they have the largest expendable incomes.

Under Obama’s administration, “Mommy, I want to grow up and make $249,000 per year” should be the mantra of hardworking and dedicated students everywhere.

According to the new tax plan, families making more than $250,000 annually would see their income tax rate jump to 39.6 percent. Additionally, Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post noted that “their investment income would be taxed at 20 percent rather than 15 percent and their deductions for mortgage interest, state and local taxes and charitable contributions would be reduced.”

In what country is it acceptable to take 40 percent of what a hardworking, albeit successful family makes a year?

Oh yeah, a socialist one.

While Limbaugh did not divulge the specifics of the new tax plan, he pointed out the problems quite boisterously. While the Republicans have a long way to go before they can gain back some political clout, we at least got a little rabble-roused by Limbaugh, if only for a while.

Hopefully he roused some Democrats, as well. They need to get their heads out of the clouds and question Obama’s actions a little more closely.