Limbaugh's Right On This One

I’ll be the first person to tell you Rush Limbaugh has evolved into a self-absorbed bore and a half in recent years. When he first began broadcasting at WABC radio in New York in 1988 and prior to national syndication, Rush was a very talented and opinionated talk show host with a decidedly conservative bent. At the time I was producing the Morton Downey Jr. Show, which was the hottest talk show on television. We were actually beating The Tonight Show and Nightline on a regular basis. Getting on the Downey show was considered a huge opportunity for anyone looking to make a name for himself.
I had listened to Limbaugh many times and when he called expressing an interest in appearing on our show, I was more than interested. That was until I mentioned it to Mort who launched into a profane tirade about what a no talent bum Limbaugh was. Downey told me never to book Rush on the program and that was that. I later found out Rush had successfully replaced Mort on a Sacramento radio station years before and Mort somehow hated him for that. The fact that Downey had been fired for using a racist slur didn’t seem to factor into Mort’s evaluation of Rush. So I had the misfortune of having to tell Mr. Limbaugh we didn’t want him on the show. He was extremely gracious about it and I always liked him more after that.
But those days are way over. Like Mort before him, he has fallen in love with himself and can’t seem to get through a call or segment without congratulating himself. So I’ve tuned him out over the years but something he said recently got my attention. Limbaugh told his national audience he intends to sell his New York residence and become a full time resident of Palm Beach, Florida. This was in response to Gov. David Paterson’s doomsday budget which will impose yet another massive financial burden on the so-called top two-percent. This appears to be the final straw for Limbaugh. His reasoning is simple. Why should he be responsible for subsidizing the least productive New Yorkers? He’s right.
He can declare residency in Florida and pay zero state income tax, nada! The Governor of New York has joined democrats in general in making the wealthy the piggy bank for the poor. The wealthy already pay an absurd percentage of the tax revenues collected. The two percenters account for more than 50% of all taxes collected. Shouldn’t that be enough? But it isn’t.
Democrats have demonized the most productive in our society. They have somehow persuaded a significant number of people that there must be something wrong if someone makes a lot of money. They conveniently forget that in a capitalist society money is one of the ways we keep score. It shouldn’t be the only one but it should be part of the analysis. The great unwashed lap it up because they’d rather believe that than acknowledge their own shortcomings. Have you ever heard a successful person say their pay didn’t reflect their contribution? No, because it usually does. It’s called class warfare and it’s tearing this country apart. We’re all divided into have and have-nots with a heavy dose of cultural warfare tossed in.
But the bigger issue here is the Rush Limbaugh’s of New York will, in fact, take their act somewhere else if the state insists on taxing them completely out of proportion. Just because someone makes a lot of money or has a lot of money doesn’t obligate them to pay the bills for the rest of us. That’s called socialism or communism. The individual has a legitimate and important place in the capitalist hierarchy.
Here’s what’s going to happen if Paterson insists on this insane bit of populist government. The wealthy will indeed go elsewhere much as the rich Brits did in the 1970’s in England. The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and the Beatles didn’t move to the United States for the hot dogs. They moved here to avoid the onerous taxes imposed upon the rich in the UK in the ‘70’s. What will happen here is wealthy New Yorkers will go state shopping. They and their lawyers will ascertain what states are taxpayer friendly and set up shop. They’ll all visit New York or keep a second home here but they won’t pay taxes. If you run the two-percenters out of town, the other 98% are going to be in a world of hurt. This time you’re right, Rush.