RUSH: Let's review the important things of this week. The first two days of the week we had the polling data from the New York Times and the Washington Post, polls which were devastating to the regime, devastating to Obama. The New York Times poll has his approval at 41%, an all-time low in that poll. These polls were so bad that pollsters and Democrats and media people are now insulting the respondents by calling them "stupid" and questioning themselves as to whether or not their own polls are broken. But these polls had a devastating impact on the White House, because last week was supposed to produce Obama in the upper fifties.

This mythical, nonexistent Republican "war on women" was supposed to work. There's a reason it didn't. There are many reasons, actually. But I think the primary reason why this so-called Republican war on women doesn't work, isn't working and won't work is: For three years there has been an unmitigated, nonstop Democrat war on Sarah Palin alone. And then you throw in Michele Bachmann or any other prominent conservative woman, and there's a war on all of them by the Democrat Party with their comedians, with their elected officials. I don't care who it is, there were no boundaries on this one. There has been an unmitigated war on Sarah Palin.

We also had the gas price going up with Obama making speech after speech about it. We had the confusion yesterday over whether or not there was going to be a release of oil from the US Strategic Reserves. Other big news this week was we learned that Obamacare is going to cost twice as much as we were promised just two years ago. Two years ago, they told us Obamacare was going to cost $940 billion over ten years. The CBO this week revised the number to $1.4 trillion over nine years. And when they factor a full ten years of spending in Obamacare, then the total cost will be over $2 trillion. So that's a brief review of what's happened this week.

Now, here's the latest within this timeline: "President Obama's 2013 budget would add $3.5 trillion to annual deficits through 2022, according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It also would raise the deficit next year by $365 billion, according to the" CBO, which is said here to be nonpartisan. "The CBO estimate is in sharp contrast to White House claims last month that the Obama budget would reduce deficits by $3.2 trillion over the next decade." Sharp contrast? Sharp contrast? The CBO says Obama's budget will add $3.5 trillion and the Obama White House said that it would reduce deficits by $3.2 trillion? That's a swing of $6.7 trillion, and they call that "sharp contrast"?

This is a lie!

I mean, if they're lying to us dramatically about the cost of health care, and if they are lying to us dramatically about budget deficits coming down, isn't it likely that they are lying to us about their unemployment numbers every week? If those numbers are as phony as the original CBO Obamacare reports on cost and coverage -- if the unemployment numbers are as phony as the promises of what the stimulus bill would do for jobs, if the unemployment numbers are as phony as recent poll numbers showing Obama with a 50% approval number, if the unemployment numbers are as phony as Obama's budget deficit numbers are -- then the unemployment numbers have to be a lot worse.

And I might add, ladies and gentlemen, the CBO -- the sacred, nonpartisan CBO. (Oh, what magic words those are!) The nonpartisan CBO just reported yesterday that up to 20 million Americans may lose coverage under Obamacare.

RUSH: We have a budget deficit that's $3.5 trillion higher than anybody thought. We have health care twice as expensive. And now, "As many as 20 million Americans could lose their employer-provided coverage because of Obama's health care reform law." You're not going to be able to keep your doctor, despite Obama saying you could. You're not going to be able to keep your plan, despite Obama saying you could. And now 20 million Americans are going to lose their employer-provided coverage. If I may say so, folks, this is not news to me. If I wanted, I'd have Koko (who is our webmaster) go back to the archives of this program starting three years ago, where over and over I said that the first casualty of health care in America is going to be your employer-provided health plan.

The Obama regime -- the entire Democrat Party, the American left -- dream of national health care, single-payer health care, which by definition shifts it all to government. The specifics in the Obamacare law are going to make it impossible for the private sector health insurance companies to stay viable. By design. We've got Obama on tape from 2007, maybe earlier than that, admitting that the health care of this country being transferred to the government can't happen overnight. It's going to take five, ten years for the people to accept it. And the way it's going to happen is they're going to make it impossible for your employer to afford it as a benefit. They're going to make it impossible for private health insurance companies to stay in business.

The last option will be the government. That's where you're going to have to go.

So 20 million are going to lose their employer-provided coverage?

Try 50 million!

That's what it's gonna be.

 March 5th of 2010: "Once Obama signs the bill, Obamacare is law. There are several things which happen immediately that will force businesses large and small to off-load their employee benefit health care plans. If, for example, a small, medium, large business -- any business -- has health care costs as 14%, 10%, whatever, it's the cost of doing business. If it's around that or higher, in this bill, in the Senate bill is an option for employers: You can keep paying your own employee benefits for a while, or you can drop your employee benefits, just pay the government 8%.

"Pay the government 8% instead of whatever your health care expenses, just pay it to the government, and thereby all those -- it could be that within two years 50 to a hundred million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance because there is a big come-on in this bill. An employer can pay the government 8% per year off the top instead of whatever it's costing the employer to provide health care for all the employees, and where do the employees go to get insurance?" If you happen to be enrolled in a health care plan at your company when this bill gets implemented, your company is gonna have the option of off-loading all employee health care benefits.

And paying the government 8% off the top of their business rather than spending whatever it costs to provide you health care insurance. Now, what are they going to do? They're going to pay the 8%, eventually. It's the same as this. When health care is originally implemented... And it isn't yet, but when it is -- when it's fully implemented -- there is a fine for people who do not buy health insurance. Because, you see, health insurance is mandated in Obamacare. You must go have it. You must buy it. You must get it somehow. You either have to get it from your employer, or if you're self-employed you have to provide it to yourself and your employees or you have to find a pool to join.

You have to have it. It's the law. And this is what the constitutionality of the bill is all about before the Supreme Court: Can the government mandate that citizens buy anything? That's the argument. If the bill is found to be constitutional, then the government can force you to buy anything at any time it wants, including charge you a fine if you don't buy health insurance. Now, the first couple of years, guess what? The fine is 400 bucks. Well, you know that the cost of a health insurance policy is a lot more than 400 bucks. So if you're new to the workforce -- if you're 25, 35, whatever -- you're not worried about become deathly ill.

Your only concern is a catastrophic accident, but you don't have the same health concerns as somebody's 65 or 70. You have immortality. You're not gonna get sick. Why spend all that money when you're young, vibrant, healthy, and all that? You're looking for women at Georgetown law school, why would you go spend money on health care? Especially when all you have to do is pay a fine of 400 bucks. But what happens after a couple years is the fine becomes more expensive than the cost of a health insurance policy. This is all in the bill. So eventually you're going to have to have it, and you're going to be paying through the nose.

And if the Supreme Court doesn't do anything about this, then, "Katie, bar the door," it's all over. And this is the plan. So by the same token, if a business is faced with those two spending options -- the 14 to 45% that it costs them to provide health insurance for their employees or 8% as a penalty payment to the government for not provide -- what are they gonna do? They're gonna call you in and they're gonna say, "You know what? It's just gotten too expensive. We can't afford it. We know you don't want to pay for it yourself. So we're ending the program, and here are some options for you where you can go to get health insurance," and it's gonna be your state exchange or your federal exchange.

It's gonna be government provided somehow, somewhere. That's the plan. To it isn't 20 million, folks. It's 50 million, and eventually everybody -- if the Obama gets his way -- will lose employer-provided health insurance. Let's go back. This is March of 2007, Barack Obama speaking at a Service Employees International Union health care forum. He's a candidate for president, and here he explains how his health care plan will lead to the elimination of private insurance. He ought to be asked about this at every appearance, because here he is -- and we've aired this multiple times before. Here is President Obama explaining how he wants to end private health insurance.

OBAMA 2007: My commitment is to make sure that we've got universal health care for all Americans by the end of my first term as president. I would hope that we can set up a system that allows those who can go through their employer to access a federal system or a state pool of some sort. But I don't think we're gonna be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out.

RUSH: "I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately."

Is he not suggesting that that would be preferable? He wants to end employer coverage, but he knows he can't do it immediately. There's gonna be "a transition" of a decade or 15 years, because he knows that you wouldn't accept this if it happened overnight. But if it's parceled out -- if it happened so gradually that you're not even aware of it because it doesn't happen to you -- when it eventually does happen to you, most everybody else will have already been gone and there's nobody to help you. There will be nothing left but for you then to join the government's health insurance program. And once that happens, they get to determine whether or not you get covered and whether you get treated.

RUSH: By the way, a lot of people think that if they pay the fine for not having health insurance, that they get health care. No. You do not get health care if you pay the fine. Paying the fine is the penalty for not having health insurance, and you get covered if you go to the emergency room but you have to pay for it. You'll get a bill (somebody will) if you don't have insurance. By the way, these fines and the 8% option offered to government, notice that none of that is oriented toward expanding health care coverage. All that is is revenue generation for the government. The businesses that off-load their health insurance programs in exchange for paying the government 8% off the top. That's 8% off the business top. That's just money to the government for nothing, and ditto the fine. The fine goes to the government.

Nobody gets anything for it. You're not covered, you don't have insurance when you pay the fine.

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