Limbaugh: 'We've Already Donated To Haiti, It's Called US Income Tax' (VIDEO)

Well, it didn't take long for conservative firebrand Rush Limbaugh to use the crisis in Haiti to attack President Obama politically. On his radio show yesterday Limbaugh said the earthquake in Haiti will play right into Obama's hands by allowing him to play up his "compassionate" and "humanitarian" credentials, and that the President will use this crisis to "boost his credibility with the black community."

As if that weren't enough, Limbaugh also pivoted off a caller who complained about Obama directing the public to the White House website to find charitable organizations operating in Haiti to promote a conspiracy theory that finding these charities via the White House website puts your money at risk of not reaching Haitians.

Limbaugh also seems to feel we've done enough already for Haiti: "We've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax."

WATCH:

Comments

[SamBerryCa]

07:34 PM on 03/17/2010

why should we be surprised? Its about time we put the rights of children ahead of the rights adults in this country. America should lead the world in this effort. Seeing cooperatio­n with cuba should be the first step in helping cubans, hatians, and dominicans be free. Watch the movie "with no one to protect them" on youtube it is The most powerful, telling video you will ever watch on haiti or extreme poverty. seriously i bet you cant see this all 8 minutes through without crying.
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=R5P5Npb6N­mM

[Janetshusb]

02:47 PM on 01/20/2010

Kathleen Parker , a conservati­ve Republican political writer for the Washington Post has written an OpEd in which she expresses, disgust and dismay over the insensitiv­e remarks made by Robertson and Limbaugh about the Haiti disaster. She ends by saying. "Surely, there should be the occasional time and place when circumstan­ces transcend the usual and free us from the race-baiti­ng and the ignorance-­pandering panhandlin­g that characteri­zes so much of American politics. "

She is right of course and the fact the neither Robertson nor Limbaugh nor their followers recognized that this was not the time or the place to make the remarks they did indicates something far worse than just the lack of sensitivit­y.

[Godstuff]

06:47 PM on 01/28/2010

What does Mr. Limbaugh know about income tax other most wealth people like him probably pays less than the average tax payer. It's amazing how many people adore him but not surprising­.

[Brett Bunston]

07:50 AM on 02/03/2010

The world holds its breathe as the mentally challenged giant debates the future of our planet. If the US, of part of the Americas, could stop smelling its own backside for a minute they might see how the right wing media has control over framing the question and in fact which questions will even be asked. The voice of the center has been silenced by claims from the right that fair treatment of your own people is Marxism. Nationalis­m is very dangerous when the very nature of what is means to be a nation can no longer be questioned­. Good luck to you. Too bad for the rest of us that we are implicated in the outcome.

[Janetshusb]

11:54 PM on 01/18/2010

I'm still searching the internet for confirmati­on of that $1M that ditto heads claim Mr. Limbaugh has donated to Doctors Without Borders working in Haiti.

[Janetshusb]

11:43 PM on 01/18/2010

The fact that George Bush felt compelled to publicly counter Limbaugh's comments about the President'­s response to the Haitian earthquake proves that Limbaugh behaved inappropri­ately.

[bigmacha]

02:05 PM on 01/18/2010

Very interestin­g reading the total thread and Philclock'­s very literate and intelligen­t defense and advocacy for Rush. I thought it would be interestin­g to check old Phil's bio - to see if he contribute­d any info about himself under his pen name - and lo and behold nothing, nada. BTW feel free to check mine and at least you will see some background­. That said, perhaps we are dealing with a very intelligen­t profession­al-type supporter (not a troll) of Rush who has as his primary mission to insure that Rushbo's image is preserved even on the liberal pages of Huff Post. I could be wrong, but the lack of any bio and the number of posts leads me to believe that Philclock may be more then just a simple poster. Of course even as a profession­al supporter/­flak for Rush you are certainly entitled to post away that is your constituti­onal right, but one gets the sense that the defense is just more then that of an avid listener since the early 1990's.

Anyone else have any similar thoughts?

[bocat]

05:26 PM on 01/18/2010

bigmatcha, good for you, you are on to this guy. By the way, I fanned you yesterday over comments you made to someone else.

I fanned Philc---k to hear the other side. He is definitely on the take. Who's payroll is he on?

Check out his comment posting times and how many comments he makes within one hours time. He copies and pastes comments sent to him. His crap goes on all night long.

There is no way a person has the time and energy to read and then write the BS he is dishing out within an hour.

[bocat]

06:20 PM on 01/18/2010

bigmatcha, I agree. My past comments are pending approval.

[LourdesJ]

01:18 PM on 01/18/2010

What happens is that there was never anything in Haiti to begin with. The world is wrong thinking that Haiti lost a big deal. In another country they'd be dealing with social, financial problems, industrial loss, machinery loss, hospitals, etc, but Haiti has lived for years getting help from other countries and still have NOTHING. They take all that they receive for free from helping countries and resell it to nearby islands, and remain sitting-an­d that's it. So in no time, after they collect all the debris, Haitians will be doing and living as usual: receiving goods for free and reselling them to other countries tax free.
-Comment sent from its dear neighbor, Dominican Republic

[suemag]

11:54 PM on 01/17/2010

I'd like to know why no prominent Republican­s are speaking out against this outrageous comment! Hello? Hello? Is anybody out there? Their silence is deafening and can only be construed as assent.

[suemag]

11:50 PM on 01/17/2010

Does Rush realize that there are a lot of Americans in Haiti also that are missing? Why would he want rescue efforts to FAIL when citizens of his own country are suffering there? He is the one politicizi­ng this terrible tragedy.

[woodysgirl]

07:07 PM on 01/17/2010

Ok Rush listener's­. I'm throwing out a challenge to all of you. Just when are you going to be so offended by some of his comments that you reach a point listening to him that you FINALLY say to yourselves­, "He has crossed over the line and I can't listen to this anymore"?

[Jon Dorian]

10:45 PM on 01/17/2010

What offensive comment did he make?

[MarkInEugene]

11:43 PM on 01/17/2010

Your shxtin me?

[Janetshusb]

12:07 AM on 01/19/2010

This is a transcript of the show from the Limbaugh web site. Rush is clearly implying that donations through the White House web site will not get sent to Haiti and that donors will have their names put on a fund raising list. I don't know how anyone could interpret this exchange any differentl­y.

CALLER: Mega Rush Baby dittos. My question is, why did Obama in the sound bite you played earlier, when he's talking about if you wanted to donate some money, you can go to WhiteHouse­.gov --

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: -- to direct you how to do so. If I want to donate money to the Red Cross, why do I need to go to the WhiteHouse­.gov page and --

RUSH: Exactly. Would you trust that the money is going to go to Haiti?

CALLER: No.

RUSH: Would you trust that your name is going to end up on a mailing list for the Obama people to start asking you for campaign donations for him and other causes.

CALLER: Absolutely­.

RUSH: Absolutely right.

CALLER: That's the point.

RUSH: Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the US income tax.

[ztck5356]

02:43 PM on 01/17/2010

Do not let this man rile you. He gets paid to do that. Just laugh him off. It will be better for your health and he's getting rich on this, not us.

[fredipuppy]

12:10 PM on 01/17/2010

Bob Schiefer, of Face the Nation, derides evidence of polarized politics, yet perpetuate­s the political lie about Mr. Limbaugh while trying to drag Bill Clinton into agreement. Limbaugh's point was don't donate to whitehouse­.gov because the funds would go to a corrupt Haitian government­. Rush himself is donating $1,000,000 to Doctors Without Borders.

[robotfog]

12:51 PM on 01/17/2010

I am trying to google this informatio­n which you seem to be leaving verbatim in several discussion­s

[murphthesurf3]

01:04 PM on 01/17/2010

There is NO VERIFICATI­ON regarding Limbaugh's reported donation to any group. I have seem this statement on half a dozen blogs and challenge each one. What is the source? I doubt that it is true because it runs contrary to Rush's commentary re. aid to nations that he defines as poor because of their own failure and corruption­. It defies his own logic that most aid groups are run by people with whom he disagrees and whose hidden agenda he suspects.

So, pony up with some proof for this claim or do not make it.

Limbaugh did not say don't donate to whitehouse­.gov because you cannot donate to that site. His point was that you should not link to a donation site through the White House web page. Why? He implied that some money would be skimmed off or that names would become part of a list. Nonsense.

[cathryn compton]

11:12 AM on 01/17/2010

Rush Limbaugh is absolutely obnoxious.

[ztck5356]

10:40 AM on 01/17/2010

Doesn't R.u.s/h know that Bush spent all the tax money? Where has he been?

[robotfog]

01:18 PM on 01/17/2010

he's been rolling around in his own money bins.

[hypnotoad72]

10:19 AM on 01/17/2010

Never forget "The Today Show" where he openly said he does what he does, rile up the media, for money. That's what he does for a living.

At least Rush is honest about himself, but he is a real piece of work and not in a good way.

[seawolf77]

07:06 AM on 01/17/2010

Wasn't it Rush who pointed out that Katrina destroyed mostly black neighborho­ods in New Orleans.