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While trying to defend Arizona’s new immigration law, Rush Limbaugh claimed that the Arizona bill is not as big a usurpation of power as Barack Obama’s plans to take away salt. Of course, Obama isn’t really trying to take away anyone’s salt, but this didn’t stop Limbaugh from comparing a policy of discrimination to FDA warnings about the amount of salt in processed food.

Media Matters:



Limbaugh said, “But notice here all this outrage over Arizona’s abuse of power, right, now, notice how the Democrats, the regime, the media, the Left are calling Arizona’s new immigration bill an outrageous usurpation of power. Meanwhile, that same regime is moving to take away our salt, our light bulbs, reaching down into every nook and cranny of our lives and they don’t bat an eye, and yet they have the audacity to accuse Arizona’s immigration bill of being an outrageous usurpation of power.”

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Much like every single one of Limbaugh’s crazy claims, the salt story doesn’t hold up. Obama is not trying to take away salt. What the FDA is considering is issuing a warning about the high amounts of sodium in processed and restaurant food. According to the FDA, 77% of the sodium intake for all Americans comes from restaurant and processed food. However, in the hands of the serial propagandists known as the right wing media, an FDA warning became, Obama is going to take away your salt.

Rush’s minimal grasp on sanity allowed him to connect an immigration policy which discriminates against legal residents of a state to a right wing conspiracy talking point that has no truth to it. Limbaugh does not seem to understand that an FDA warning about too much salt is not in the same ball park as legalized discrimination. His evidence that Obama is running a totalitarian regime is limited to warnings about salt, and the promotion of energy efficient light bulbs.

This is in comparison to the Bush administration, which secretly spied on American citizens, bribed members of the free press to push their propaganda, ran secret prisons, tortured, and destroyed the Department of Justice. Add to all of this a racist Republican pushed Arizona immigration policy, and it is easy to see who the real totalitarians are here. The people who don’t respect the Constitution aren’t Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. They are Rush Limbaugh and those like him for whom the Constitution is meaningless.