PALM BEACH, FL — From the upscale Palm Beach corporate headquarters of his Excellence in Broadcasting Network, right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh unloaded on America’s men and women in uniform, insinuating their motives as less than pure.
The comments came during Limbaugh’s second hour on Monday. A caller had voiced support for President Obama’s signature Affordable Health Care Act, the crowning achievement of Obama’s administration thus far and a piece of legislation that conferred health care coverage on 40 million of the nation’s poor and middle class. When the caller identified himself as a retired Army Master Sergeant, and compared the AFA to the military’s free medical care for all servicemembers and their families, Limbaugh cut him off and began the controversial response.
“You see, Master Sergeant,” began Limbaugh, rubbing his hands together, “you have exposed yourself. I thank you for the call — and I thank you for your service, I really do — but you’ve exposed yourself. Of course you like the idea of the government putting a band-aid on every little boo-boo you get, wiping your nose for you, giving you free prescription Advil when you could buy it at the drug store like the taxpayer, so on and so forth. You like that idea because you’ve lived with that your whole life. You said you joined the Army at 18. My guess is that before that, before you enlisted, you were on welfare. When you joined, you were essentially on welfare, because whether or not you ever go to war, you get free medicine, free food, free place to sleep, even free clothes to wear to work every day. The taxpayer even gives you years-long paid vacations to exotic foreign lands. I’m not saying you’re not appreciative, but when you’re used to people giving you free ice cream for forty years, if you suddenly have to pay for your own ice cream, you’ll understandably be upset.
