RADICAL RIGHT — LIMBAUGH MOCKS RECESSION DURING SPEECH TO WEALTHY RIGHT-WING DONORS: On Monday night, Rush Limbaugh came to Washington, D.C. to address the President’s Club Dinner, a meeting of wealthy donors and supporters of the conservative Heritage Foundation. The audience included Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), as well as various millionaireHeritage Foundation trustees, like Thomas Saunders. After more or less reprising his radio show routine, Limbaugh went on to brag about his $400 million contract with Clear Channel Communications. As he continued to gloat about his program’s success, Limbaugh mocked the idea that Americans are suffering. “I’ve never had financially a down year. There’s supposedly a recession, but we’ve got — what is this May? Back in February we already had 102 percent of 2008 overbooked for 2009. So I always believed that if we’re going to have a recession, just don’t participate,” Limbaugh said. Limbaugh is no stranger to belittling the poor and dismissing the economic troubles of others. In March, Limbaugh scoffed at a question on homeless children, asking, “Would somebody tell me the last time you saw a kid sleeping under a bridge?” As Media Matters reported, even Limbaugh’s employer Clear Channel is struggling under the weight of the recession. Already this year, Clear Channel has “shed nearly 3,000 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce.” While Limbaugh jets around the country in his $54 million Gulfstream G550, laughing off the recession, does he realize that his own bloated contract is contributing to the rising unemployment rate?

www.thinkprogress.org