Actors get paid too much, too

Rush was on fire today - talking about the real speculators - the green energy speculators, most of whom are going bankrupt and taking our dimes with them!

RUSH: So Obama's out in the Rose Garden today for a campaign appearance, and he starts trashing Big Oil, starts trashing the oil speculators. Let me ask a question: "Aren't these green energy people all speculating and are they not speculating with our money, taxpayer dollars?" They're all getting loans and whatever from the federal government, from Obama, from his stash. You have Solyndra. You have all these solar firms that either have filed for bankruptcy or are on the way to it. You've got wind energy companies that are biting the dust. The Chevrolet Volt is having trouble.

All of this green energy stuff is literally imploding. It is collapsing. Isn't Obama, in fact, a green energy speculator? Aren't all of these people "speculating"? Aren't they all rolling the dice? In fact, the oil speculators aren't breaking any laws. The Democrats have been looking for crimes in Big Oil and its related areas for 30 years! The Democrats have been looking for crimes in conservatism. They've attempted to criminalize political disagreements, and now Obama wants to jump all over the oil speculators. Just like last year he promised he's gonna really crack down on these people. And today, he promised he's gonna really crack down on 'em again.

And Jackie Calmes at the New York Times is all atwitter. She's all excited about this. But if you ask me, all these green energy people are nothing but speculators. Obama is nothing but a green energy speculator. Obama has spent, folks, over $100 billion -- taxpayer dollars, not his! These firms are not investing their own money. These are taxpayer dollars, and by the way they're donors. Every one of these people are donors to Obama, and so some of this money that Obama is, quote, unquote, "loaning" them to help start their businesses up is all coming back to him in the form of campaign contributions.

And the total, as best we can come up with now, is $100 billion. Obama has spent over a $100 billion taxpayer speculating in green energy. And what do we got for it? What penalties should Solyndra have to pay? What penalties should the other solar firms have to pay? What penalties should all of the wind energy firms that are going bunk have to pay? What penalties should Obama have to pay? The other scandal of the day: The news is that 11 of those Secret Service agents that were allegedly involved with Colombian hookers have been stripped of their security clearances, which makes me wonder.

Does Bill Clinton have a security clearance? You would think that he does, being a former president. I know Clinton cannot practice law before the Supreme Court, but I wonder if he's lost his security clearance like these Secret Service agents have. Let's go back to Obama in the Rose Garden, a campaign appearance. We got three more sound bites here. These Big Oil cougars, these Big Oil speculators, they're cheating you just like Enron! Audio sound bite number 23.

OBAMA: We can't afford a situation where some speculators can reap millions while millions of American families get the short end of the stick. That's not the way the market should work, and for anyone who thinks this cannot happen, just think back to how Enron traders manipulated the price of electricity to reap huge profits at everybody else's expense.

RUSH: Yeah, well, how about you, sir? How about all the speculation you're doing in this defunct, nothing-there business called green energy? So once again, it's the regime attacking another private sector firm. By the way, for those of you new to the program and if you're young, one of the ways that Obama goes after Big Oil is to talk about how much their executives get paid. What did I see the other day? Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil's total pay package was between $30 million and $50 million. No, no! It was not 50. It was $30 million or so, counting salary, the bonus, the stock options or what have you. And what does Rex Tillerson do?

Well, Rex Tillerson runs a company that goes around the world and invests more money than you and I could ever think of into finding oil and then drilling for it, bringing it up to the ground, then transporting it to refineries so that it ultimately ends up available to consumers. That's what Rex Tillerson does, and that's what all the CEOs of Big Oil do. They actually work. They are engaged in finding and producing a product that everybody needs and prospers from. And so Rex Tillerson makes $30 million a year. Now, for those of you who are young and say, "That's just outrageous," I need to ask you to go check the salaries of your favorite movie stars and see what they get per movie.

Tom Cruise I saw the other day gets $25 million a movie. Now, that's fine and dandy. But what is Tom Cruise actually doing for you? I saw somebody on this list of actors gets $40 million, or made $40 million last year. I don't remember the name. But what is that actor doing for you? My point is that every time this salary disparity comes up the usual comparison is between Big Oil and teachers, or Big Oil and athletes and so forth. All these athletes and actors, what are they doing for you? They're entertaining you, giving you an escape -- the same thing with the actors -- but what are they really doing? If you want to start trying to justify the "fairness"...