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Rush Limbaugh Goes Psycho and Blames Obama for Killing Twinkies
Rush Limbaugh is blaming President Obama for the fact that Hostess could not come to an agreement with its striking employees and decided lay off 18,500 employees by closing the plant. In Limbaugh’s mind, Obama has Twinkie blood on his hands.
Transcript from Rush Limbaugh:
Rush Limbaugh: Look, here I’m already being asked, “Are you gonna talk about Hostess?” Yeah, I’m gonna talk about Hostess. You know what, 18,500 people gone, Hostess Twinkies, Ding Dongs, shut down. Some people might think it’s a buy opportunity if you want to get in the Ding Dong business. But folks, if you need an indication that the Democrats will never compromise on anything, look at this. Hostess is going out of business because of unions. Now, that’s 18,500 jobs. You would think in this economy that somebody might want to show the ability to compromise if only to fool people. They won’t even compromise on this.
Unions are the Democrat Party. Trumka is at the White House again today. Won’t even compromise to save 18,500 jobs. Are you kidding me? Obama couldn’t step in here even for the optics of it? I mean, yesterday he saved New York. Today he could save Ding Dongs. He could save Twinkies, except at the White House Michelle’s probably celebrating, ’cause this is just rotten, no good food to her. But, see, I think they wanted this, folks. I think they wanted Hostess bye-bye. And you know why? They wanted this to happen because this is just going to create more dependents on unions and the government. It’s just gonna create more dependents. So this is all fine with Barry.
I know nobody understands me. I’m doing this program with a whole different mind-set now. Snerdley’s in there panicking. I’m saying mind-set. As I do this program I’m imagining how I’m being heard by all these uneducated, ill-educated, maleducated young people, and it’s fun, and I’m sure that they’re throwing daggers at their radio because they just heard me criticize Obama on this Hostess thing. Anyway it’s a funny thing. It’s actually a build-out on some of the things that we were discussing yesterday about the battles that we face really being cultural as well as, if not more than, politics. Anyway, the Hostess thing is what it is. It’s gone. We knew it was coming. It just illustrates there’s no desire to compromise.
Limbaugh’s blaming of Obama and unions leaves out a couple of important facts.
Via KCUR,
At the Hostess plant in Lenexa, where 200 people work, there was a rotating picket line. While some Lenexa workers crossed the line to keep their jobs, their striking colleagues said they could not accept further concessions. The striking workers described what they said were dramatic compromises after Hostess first declared bankruptcy in 2004. They’d taken a pay cut, paid $10 to the company each month out of their paychecks, and seen decreases in their pensions . The striking workers said they couldn’t afford any more concessions. The company never gained profitability, and in January of this year it declared bankruptcy a second time. After contract negotiations with the BCTGM union, management presented a contract with an 8 percent pay cut, and a decrease of about 30 percent in the benefits package. That led workers in Lenexa to walk off the job last week. Thousands of Hostess laborers around the country followed suit.”
What Limbaugh is suggesting is that President Obama should have interfered with the free market in order to save a twice bankrupted company that wasn’t profitable. Rush is saying that Obama is guilty of killing Twinkies and Ding Dongs because he would not force workers to accept more crippling concessions to benefit management.
Hostess is dead due to Bain style management that has decided to maximize their profits by liquidating the company. In short, the “job creators” decided to make more money for themselves by killing 18,500 jobs.
If President Obama would have intervened, Limbaugh would have called him a socialist who hates the free market. Since Obama didn’t intervene, he is a socialist who is trying to create more dependents on the federal government. Either way, Rush Limbaugh’s psycho interpretation of The Day The Twinkies Died is complete and utter nonsense.
Unions didn’t kill Hostess, people who believe in the Mitt Romney school of management killed Hostess. America’s so-called job creators will pocket additional millions while 18,500 workers will be out of a job. Those are facts that Rush Limbaugh and right wing media bubble cronies don’t want to discuss.
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Greg Boone
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Old fat boy will miss his main meal…
Danny B
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 5:46 pm
I created the Twinkie petition….I voted third party…so if I work for Obama, I’d like a check please
Chester Lett
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 9:45 am
The “Twinkie Defense”..! He’s just suffering from his sugar addiction!! Just another drug for which he now has to go through withdrawal. Obamacare offers rehab!!
Becca
Nov. 18th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
I find it very funny that President Obama is getting blamed for every thing going on bad in our country. And most of all the twinkies deal. Oh Geezzzzzzzzzzzz. The unions do nothing any more for anyone it seems. Yes these twinkies will be back and I hope they come back to the way they used to be and are not cutting corners to make more money. I feel for all of the people who have lost their jobs but in todays times if you strike it will not mean a thing at all and people are lucky to have a job at all. So work all you can and be thankful you have a job.
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 18th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
The unions do nothing? Guess what. under No unions corporations and companys will not have: no work laws no raises on regualr schedule, no healthcare, no shop rules, employees will have no say in vacations, paid time off etc etc.
With no unions no company has anyone to compete against. And you will be the first toi whine ebcuase you listened to Fox News Glenn beck stupidity
Christopher Hagenmeier
Nov. 20th, 2012 at 11:30 am
Poor old Nut head, might actually lose some weight and be able to look down and see his manhood again.
buckeyewill
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
He can always eat energy bars.
Or, better yet, carrots.
Churchlady
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
If you cannot run a business without screwing workers into the ground, you are not fit to run business at ALL. Hostess has another alternative – a union cooperative buy out. Then wages and profits go to only one source – the people who create the value.
Of course part of this is a decline in the demand for crap food. If Rush wants Twinkies, he needs to eat more. Please.
Amanda
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Hostess is going under because of their choice to remove real ingredients and replace them with chemicals and artificial ingredients. The American people are finally opening their eyes and saying NO to frankenfood. The workers have nothing to do with this… They were just trying to do their jobs.
I wish Limbaugh would just keel over already. He is such a waste of space, with his constant spewing of hatred.
Colleen
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
I feel that the union is partly to blame. Would they rather have 18,000 people unemployed or compromise? Now these people are all out of work. This is not just a layoff but a business closing its doors. Of course blaming the President is stupid. Why hasn’t this jerk kept his promise and left the country?
Sally
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
You know, how much concession are worker supposed to take? I just took a parapro job in a school that now pays $1 per hour ($7.50) LESS than it did when I worked a similar job in the same school system 20 years ago. And the pay for substitutes, who are college grads and necessary to keep things going, is the very same $10/hour it was 20 years ago. Meanwhile, the system plans to spend a million and a half to start a deal with NewTech, which is not interested in kids, but in education as a business venture. And we’ve closed six elementaries and wil close one middle school this spring. Teachers have taken a pension and health care hit from Gov. Snyder already. What next? There is money..it is not being used to benefit the staff, which is geting more and more discouraged. Teachers here are telling kids NOT to enter teaching. You get a degree, often a Master’s, and can’t even make a living wage.
Jeff
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
When all else fails blame the working man for the disaster, not the mamangers who bled the company dry.
Lori
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
thinkprogress.org/economy...
But while headlines have been quick to blame unions for the downfall of the company there’s actually more to the story: While the company was filing for bankruptcy, for the second time, earlier this year, it actually tripled its CEO’s pay, and increased other executives’ compensation by as much as 80 percent.
BCTGM members are well aware that as the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy earlier this year, the then CEO of Hostess was awarded a 300 percent raise (from approximately $750,000 to $2,550,000) and at least nine other top executives of the company received massive pay raises. One such executive received a pay increase from $500,000 to $900,000 and another received one taking his salary from $375,000 to $656,256.
Diane Burdorf
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 12:24 am
www.addictinginfo.org/201...
This will give you a better understanding of what took place.
Reagan got rid of the Sherman Anti Trust Act which enables these mergers and acquisitions(which BTW used to be illegal).
Imagine this…you take out a loan for 1M, buy a company. You don’t have to pay it back, the company you bought does. nice deal, right? Thank Reagan.
Tim
Nov. 19th, 2012 at 9:23 am
The bottom line is, the union should not be to blame for the failure of management at Hostess to maintain decent wages for the workers. They already had their pay lowered thrice and still this did not save their jobs. Meanwhile, management maintained bonuses annually. This is not a Democrat vs Republican issue. This is an issue of greedy company owners/investors/management sticking it to the little guy, blaming the union, and walking away much richer than ever. Regardless of whether a workforce is skilled labor or not, the one resource that seems to get hurt often in this market is the human resource.
luciboo
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Why doesn’ t Rush use his millions to save twinkies.
He could do commercials for the products because he is the biggest “Ding Dong” ever.
Somehow the Dems and unions need to compromise
But the Tea Party never should compromise on anything. Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth. Shove a twinkle in and shut up Rush!
BJ Krupp
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
To the economic stupids all companies have a product life cycle -introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Hostess was in decline as they didn’t move into the health food market. Who eats the stuff? They were in the decline stage and the turn around never came but these union LIFERS like Trumka thought it should go on losing money. Do you put your money down the sewer? No, I hope but then economics for dummies is alive and well. Hostess was no cash cow and was not PROFITABLE! Get it?
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
You forgot one phase. The one where the management was robbing the company blind
Grandmarge
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 7:28 am
No, I don’t “get it”. You said yourself Hostess wasn’t profitable because they didn’t go into the health food market. That’s the point; they might have tried a lot of different things to stay profitable, none of which would have involved massive pay increases to executives and massive cuts to employees. Your product “life cycle” is nonsense. Coca Cola is not a health food and look how long it has been around. There are numerous other examples. Quit trying to defend the indefensible.
Ray
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Rush, I have a name that I want you to remember, it is one of several that have led to the downfall of hostess. LITTLE DEBBIE CAKES Plain and simple Hostess has been on a downslide for years and the product line has continued to loss market shares. It is called competition and is the heart and soul of our economic system.
This is not a vital or government industry. On what grounds would the President have stepped in? I have a suggestion Rush why don’t you spend some of that hugh salary you make and buy the receipt then you can set up a plant in your new home of Costa Rica.
Reynardine
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Rush is having a seizure because:
1. There goes his Twinkie defense.
2. PNAC will have lost its excuse to say its proposed targets are buying yellow cake any more.
FEDUP
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
There’s one ding dong they forgot to through out Rush. See if you’re smart enough to guess who it is, here’s a hint you. Did you understand it Limby. I can’t imagine how you have a following. The theme of your show should be get dumner with Rush or what the hell I’m I talking about?
regina bishop
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:37 pm
I do not know any young people that actually listen to this idiot (sober anyway). What a joke!
Sally
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Rush is already IN the DingDong business, isn’t he?
patsy soto
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Rush, why don’t you shove a couple of hundred twinkies, ding dongs, and little debbies where the sun don’t shine? Oh, put some in your mouth, too… the sun don’t shine there, either…….
K from Bellingham
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Sooo… Obama should’ve interfered with free enterprise….what, like a stimulus ?
Everyone KNOWS that’s Socialism, right ?
Kevin Scrimshaw
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Does the editor of this article know the difference between dependents and dependance? I don’t mean to be prissy but the American penchant for mangling and distorting the English language and the meaning of words can make it hard for non-American speakers of English to understand what you mean.Americans seem to talk in code where words become the opposite of their meaning in the rest of the English speaking world. P.S. Congratulations for voting for Sanity instead of Republicans.
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Alls they teached us down here in school is, slavery neber happened no matter what whispers you here
K from Bellingham
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Is you home skooled ?
Reynardine
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Shoor. He kin even spel F-U-K and B-I-C-H.
ken
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Fat Man is pissed off that he can’t get fat food anymore. Going to have to find it elsewhere. But that shouldn’t be any problem as he promised to move from the United States if Obama got elected. They wouldn’t keep in the warm weather anyhow.
Ernie Ferguson
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
A couple of things… One, the company’s products just don’t fit the times. Who buys that stuff anymore? Rush probably… But this company’s market share has been declining for years.
The real reason this firm is being liquidated is that it is owned by a private equity group that has loaded it up with debt that it can’t possibly service.
Unfortunately, in this case the parts are worth more than the whole.
I applaud the union for standing their ground. They knew that the private equity group (which has been paying the management very well) would continue to not invest in the company, place tier 3 non-food business managers in power, and ask for more concessions.
There was no move to revamp, re-brand, or revive what is obviously a failing enterprise in a shrinking market segment.
Toni
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Rush you’re totally nuts!
neil
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Why does anyone pay attention to this bag of feces?Come back fool when you have something legitimate to say.
musicguru
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Good point. Alot (misspelled intentionally) of folks misuse words which really kills the integrity, to me, of their points, however valid. They’re is not their. You’re is not your. Etc ad infinitum
Susie
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
I heard that the management team had gotten a 300% salary increase just a couple of years ago. Is there any truth to that? Was the management also going to get pay cuts and benefit reductions?
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Here is somehting I just read
blog.workingamerica.org/2...
Lori
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 8:45 pm
thinkprogress.org/economy...
Katie
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Well, he is right about uneducated, maleducated and ill-educated people listening to him. I have to admit, I will miss a once every few years Twinkie or Ding Dong myself. Ah, childhood memories.
labman57
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
Rush is pissed because he fears losing access to one of his main food staples, along with pork rinds, Krispy Kremes, bourbon, cigars, and oxycontin.
Medmura
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 9:20 pm
Rush Limbaugh “Goes” Psycho?
I thought he was already…
Donna
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 10:40 pm
He wants Obama to intercede with Twinkie land to feed his addiction? Face it, you are a fat, nasty,old man with brain health issues, all of which are your own problems.
dennis
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Oddly enough; Lord Limbaugh’s head is filled with the same stuffing found in a twinkie.
Of course if Myth Romney had won, [God Forbid], he would have stepped in and mediated a settlement between the workers and the Management.
Mitt more than likely would send one of his boys on a “mission” to bring Twinkie eatting back to the starving masses.
Liberator
Nov. 16th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
You can hammer on Rush, but Chris Mathews is just as crazy. I say we put them both in a boxing ring and sell tickets we could pay off the debt with the money we could raise.
mjh
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 2:27 am
Has Chris Matthews sang “Barack The Magic Negro”, called the First Lady “the First Linebacker”, or complained about the loss of Twinkies?
False Equivalence: the wingnut’s last resort . . .
.
Andrew
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 9:03 am
You can blame it on “Bain style management” but the fact is that it is the owner’s company and he can do whatever the hell he wants with it. If the business isn’t going to turn a profits, there is nothing wrong with liquidating and selling. The employees could have saved their jobs by taking a small hit to their pay. All is well though. Obama will take care of the moochers at the expense of the people who choose to work instead of pretending they are worth more than they are.
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 9:34 am
Wrong. The company was not owned by an owner. It went through at least 3 different investment corps that were Bain style. The last just let it go and took their money out of it
You havent researched this at all. The management took up to 300% pay increases while asking the employees to take drastic pay cuts. Try as you might, you failed
Mainer
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 9:12 am
Who knew they were still making those chemical laden things? Rush is just a turd stirrer and should be treated as the irrelevant garbage he is. Stop giving him a platform like Trump.
John Casey
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Sure lets blame Obama as usual Republicans, rather than looking into the facts. Hostess has been going down hill for some time. Has anyone noticed the forceful push towards healthy foods in schools. Taking out all the junk foods in vending machines…geesh I wonder who’s foods were in these vending machines. Many younger grades are also being strongly persuaded to not bring junk food or packaged foods…geesh who does this sound like. This has been a relatively slow process. Any skilled workers probably saw the writing on the walls and bailed years earlier. The remainder are probably mostly lower skilled workers. Sorry someone had to say it.
Pcsteele
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Hostess has been circling the drain for a decade. They first filed for bankruptcy in 2004. I guess that was Obama’s fault also right? They were brought out of bankruptcy and saddled with debt from private equity backers. Sound familiar? Instead of working to make the company profitable by streamlining how they made their products, they decided to cash out and use the strike as a scapegoat. They are selling their product line within a week of announcing the shutdown, which shows they were never serious about negotiating to begin with. This was about people making money from a dying company, nothing else.
Lilly
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 11:31 am
What everyone is forgetting That regardless who made more money or not. There still 18,500 families affect by this! No one is right and no one is wrong. To those family sitting at home with no jobs. No present in December, might loose their homes and who knows what else will happen to them. At the of the day each one of those family lost! I would rather take a pay cut and still bring home money from whom ever offers a job! If I need to make money than its my responsability to educate myself and grow with in the company or go somewhere else! The people with out those jobs and their families are hurting regardless of the issues of the country!
Anne
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Since this obese toad has been psycho for a long time, his rantings show only a greater degree of psychosis instead of going from being sane to being insane. Reality and Rush Limbaugh do not belong in the same sentence except as being mutually contradictory.
Bob Loblaw
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Can we talk about the best part of this story, which is that Limbaugh says the petition to nationalize Hostess was secretly started by President Obama as part of Obama’s conspiracy to take over Hostess and make it look like he was just responding to public opinion, but in reality the petition was created on a whim, as a joke by the co-host of a morning radio show in Kansas City and there are thousands of witnesses to this fact, myself included, because the petition was started live on the air.
You can listen to the audio at the Buzz website www.965thebuzz.com/pages/...
Realist
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
I love how you decide that management of a company that went into bankruptcy twice, and couldn’t afford to continue, “decided to make money for themselves” much less that this is how Bain worked.
Reality means nothing to you, does it?
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 17th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
You obviously didnt read the article. The company was under an investment corporation. Just like Bain. Nor did you notice the making money for themselves included huge raises just for management
You are not much of a realist
Brandon
Nov. 18th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
I am a Republican and a union member, so I see both sides of this issue.
After reading that transcript, I can’t see where Mr. Limbaugh “went Psycho.” Hostess is bankrupt, and is unable to slash costs because of the labor unions standing in the way. So 18,500 people are out of a job now, and we have no more Twinkies.
I feel bad for the employees and their families. No single factor is to blame when a big corporation goes under.
The fact of the matter is, though, Trumka and his organization are on the defense. The argument can be made that the labor union killed Hostess.
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 18th, 2012 at 6:45 pm
And you can easily ignore that the investment company pulled its millions and ran, the management took HUGE raises then ran, but its all the unions fault?
Brandon
Nov. 18th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Investment companies invest their money in order to make a profit. Its their money. They have a right to keep it.
I feel bad for the employees who lost their jobs. But an unprofitable company can only keep its doors open so long.
I can’t comment on specific business decisions without knowing the financial data.
Honestly, though. Manufacturing jobs are always in peril now. If you have one, be sure to have a Plan B if somebody outsources your low-skill job to Mexico.
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 18th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Investment companies make investments to harvest the investment. They need to be outlawed. They suck resources out of companys until they have to go bankrupt. Thats precisely what Bain did.
Occupy Wallstreet
Nov. 19th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
There’s another factor that everyone is ignoring, less Americans want to eat that crap. If there is a viable baking company with capital goods in place, let them bake whole grain bread at a fair price and try flooding the market with that. We as Americans should not allow these factories to fall into the hands of foreign investors who will only cut more costs and crank out more addictive crap and sock the profits into an overseas bank. Maybe smaller, health oriented bakeries can expand to take over.
Gregg L. DesElms
Nov. 19th, 2012 at 9:22 pm
Regarding the headline, “Rush Limbaugh Goes Psycho..”
…you mean that ship hadn’t already sailed?
_______________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
John
Nov. 20th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
I find it amazing how most of you here are attacking Rush simply for being fat, not on his comments. Some are debating him with points, but most are just calling him names, or ending their points with name calling. That is one of the things that the right points out all the time, there is no debate, just name calling… Bigot, Racist Homophobe ect…. playing right into his hands…. You are not the side of the ‘open mind’
Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 20th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
How many times do his moronic rants have to be brought up?
Basically you will find that the right does exactly the same thing as the left. No debate just name calling. The right is not the side with the open mind.
It appears to me that you have played right into his hands. You yourself have nothing to say about his comments.
I find it hilarious that you try to base your comment side of the open mind on a few posters here compared to the rest of the country.
Why don’t you go to conservatives for Palin? You will see much worse.