You're currently reading an archived version of Jim Hightower's work.
The latest (and greatest?) observations from Jim Hightower are only now available at our Substack website. Join us there!
Keep talking, Rush – we love ya man!
Rush Limbaugh, that is, the radio rattlebrain who led the right-wing’s air attack on Barack Obama’s health care reform. Spewing venom, spittle, and ignorance, Limbaugh used his microphone like a cattle prod, delivering jolt after jolt of electric falderal to the 24 percent of Republicans who now tell pollsters that they believe Obama “may be the Antichrist.”
Enjoying Hightower's work? Join us over at our new home on Substack:
For Rush, the health care fight was personal. In January, suffering with chest pains, the yackety-yacker was rushed to a hospital in Hawaii. After his recovery, he used the experience to embellish his rhetorical assault on reformers: “Based on what happed here to me,” he bellowed, “I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American health care system. It is working just fine, just dandy.”
Well gosh, Rush – that’s because Hawaii has had a form of Obamacare since 1974, including a statewide mandate that employers provide health coverage for full-time workers. Why shouldn’t all American’s get what you got?
Still, Limbaugh kept playing his loopy card. Asked what he would do if Obama’s bill passes, he harrumphed: “I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.”
Well gosh again, Rush, – of course you would, because Costa Rica has universal, low-cost public health care and has the longest life expectancy in the Americas! So, why not bring such coverage to everyone in the USA?
Meanwhile, of course, Obama’s reform did pass, yet Limbaugh has not kept his pledge to deport from our shores. However, Joan LaPore wants to help him escape the horror of having to live here with those of us who do support reform. Owner of a Virginia travel agency, LaPore is offering a free ticket “to send Rush Limbaugh ONE WAY to Costa Rica.”
But wherever you go, Rush, keep talking – we love ya man!
“Rush Limbaugh, Inadvertent Socialized Medicine Fan,” www.alternet.org, March 9, 2010.
“Travel Agency Gives Rush Limbaugh One Way Ticket to Costa Rica,” www.alternet.org, March 23, 2010.
“Scary New GOP Poll,” www.thedailybeast.com, March 22, 2010.