A clearly astonished Rush Limbaugh warned his listeners Thursday that America is headed for another Great Depression if the economy contracts any further due to shutdowns in response to the coronavirus crisis.

“All we need is a 30 to 40% contraction in this economy,” the conservative radio host asserted. “We’ll hit Great Recession territory first and then depression, if this doesn’t stop — and the idea that there are people advocating for this!”

Limbaugh stressed Americans need to know this path to depression could begin a reversal immediately, but that “there are forces arrayed against doing that”:

We know who they are. We know exactly. We know they’re all Democrats. We know they are some in the health and medical community. … The Drive-By Media, the media, and the Democrats are fully on board with the Democrat agenda here … They are hoping that coronavirus accomplishes what Robert Mueller and impeachment, Adam Schiff failed to do.

Limbaugh, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump during the State of the Union address in February, told his audience Americans are “doing this to ourselves – and it’s amazing how quickly!”

He said:

Three years to revive an economy, create roaring circumstances. It took less than two months to wipe it all out. Twenty-two million people filing for unemployment compensation — 22 million — and the idea that there is not an angry outcry from all over the world that this must stop? That outcry had better happen, because this… We’re beyond now saying this is unsustainable. This is untenable! This is cataclysmic! We’re in the midst of a self-created disaster that we could fix (snap, snap, snap) at the snap of our fingers.

“How in the world can anybody sane want to keep this economy shut down?” the radio host asked, repeatedly pointing out how the entire concept of what has occurred in America over the past two months is nothing less than astonishing:

How can anybody sane be anything less than scared and outraged and mortified that 22 million people have been thrown out of work over something that may end up killing fewer than 50,000 people? It is unprecedented! And yet there are people who want to maintain the circumstances we are in. And it boggles the mind.

“It is so counterintuitive to Americanism,” Limbaugh continued. “We cannot go on! … I can’t believe it has gone on this long! I can’t believe… In one way, I can’t believe the American people haven’t arisen in outrage over this yet.”