RUSH: Greetings, conversationalists across the fruited plain! Welcome to The Rush Limbaugh Show on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network—talent on loan from God, sitting behind the Golden EIB Microphone on Saturday, 2026-10-24, with half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair. Folks, look at the calendar today: 2026-10-24. Let's go back twenty-one years to this exact day—Monday, 2005-10-24. Twenty-one years ago on October 24, 2005, Alan Greenspan stepped down after eighteen years and Ben Bernanke was tapped to run the Federal Reserve. Back then I warned you what would happen if Washington discovered it could print its way out of every spending binge—and look at Main Street America today on October 24, 2026! Think about that! In October of 2005, when Ben Bernanke was nominated to succeed Alan Greenspan at the Federal Reserve, the Washington establishment promised us that central bankers had conquered the business cycle forever. And what did we say right here on this program on 2005-10-24? We said that the moment the Federal Reserve becomes an enabler for runaway congressional spending instead of the guardian of sound money, working Americans are going to pay the tab through hidden inflation! Walk down any street in America today on 2026-10-24—walk into a grocery store, price out home insurance, look at what a young couple pays for a thirty-year mortgage or a pickup truck—and you are living the exact consequence of twenty-one years of easy-money Washington hubris. The principles of economics never change, my friends. You cannot print wealth; you have to produce it!

RUSH: Let me grab the next stack right here in Hour One. On 2005-10-24—twenty-one years ago today—Hurricane Wilma slammed into Southwest Florida at Cape Romano and tore across the state to Palm Beach, right after Katrina and Rita had knocked out Gulf Coast refining. And what did Senate Democrats do that very afternoon in 2005? They went to the microphones demanding "price gouging" investigations and windfall-profits taxes on American oil and gas companies! Now fast-forward twenty-one years to 2026-10-24. Today it isn't just hurricane season; it's an entire regulatory apparatus trying to strangle baseload power plants, refineries, pipelines, and LNG terminals while families look at their monthly electric and heating bills in disbelief. In 2005 I told you that high prices are the market's signal to produce more supply, and that whenever politicians punish domestic energy producers, you get less energy and higher prices on every item moved by a diesel truck. Every trucker, every farmer, every family driving to work on 2026-10-24 knows that affordable, abundant American oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power is the lifeblood of the working class.

RUSH: Let's go to the phones at 1-800-282-2882. Bo Snerdley has Rebecca from Scottsdale, Arizona on Line 1—High school history and civics teacher of 22 years. Welcome to the EIB Network, you're on with Rush! CALLER (REBECCA FROM SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA): Rush, mega dittos from the road! I remember listening to you in my cab back in October of 2005 when diesel jumped after Katrina and Wilma, and you explained how the Fed and energy regulations hit the supply chain before they hit the headlines. Out here on the highway today in October 2026, it's the exact same playbook—every time Washington adds another mandate or prints another trillion, freight rates, parts, insurance, and diesel squeeze the independent driver first. RUSH: You are living proof of it, my friend! Independent truckers are the canary in the coal mine of the American economy. Before the economists at the Fed even revise last quarter's numbers, you see what's moving on the loading docks and what it costs to fill two hundred-gallon saddle tanks. Keep rolling safely out there—we appreciate you!

RUSH: Closing out Hour One, think back to where we were on 2005-10-24 with the United States Supreme Court. Harriet Miers' nomination was unravelling by the hour—she withdrew three days later on October 27, 2005—because grassroots conservatives refused to accept "trust us" on the highest court in the land. That principled stand gave the country Justice Samuel Alito. Now look at today, 2026-10-24, twenty-one years later. Imagine where this country would be right now if conservatives had backed down in October 2005! Every landmark constitutional victory over the past two decades—restoring the Second Amendment, reining in the administrative state, ending racial quotas in college admissions, and defending religious liberty—traces directly back to that October 2005 refusal to compromise on judicial originalism. And today, as activist lower-court judges try to govern the entire country through single-district injunctions, the lesson of October 24, 2005 rings louder than ever: personnel is policy, and constitutional backbone is everything.

RUSH: Welcome back to Hour Two of The Rush Limbaugh Show! On 2005-10-24, Washington was on breathless "Indictment Watch" as Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald prepared to wrap up his grand jury in the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation. Remember that? Everybody already knew early on who had talked to Robert Novak, there was no underlying crime, and yet the Drive-By Media—led by the New York Times and Judith Miller—turned a Washington process trap into a two-year soap opera designed to criminalize political differences. Look at the landscape twenty-one years later on 2026-10-24. What was a prototype under Patrick Fitzgerald in October 2005 became the permanent operating model of the Washington establishment: when you can't beat your political opponents at the ballot box, appoint a prosecutor, leak to the same four newspapers, and run process-crime headlines twenty-four hours a day. The difference between 2005 and 2026 is that the American people have seen the movie too many times—the media monopoly is broken, and nobody outside the Beltway buys the script anymore!

RUSH: Let's talk about what is happening on Main Street right now on 2026-10-24 compared to Autumn 2005. Back in the fall of 2005, Americans across forty states were rising up against the Supreme Court's Kelo eminent-domain decision and fighting to make the 2003 tax cuts permanent so small businesses could expand. Today in 2026, talk to any restaurant owner, contractor, farmer, or machine-shop operator on your street: their biggest predator isn't their local competitor—it's property tax assessments that have doubled, commercial insurance premiums through the roof, and compliance paperwork written by bureaucrats who have never met a payroll in their lives. When you cut the red tape and let American small businesses keep what they earn, Main Street booms overnight.

RUSH: Back to the phones we go! Hank from Tulsa, Oklahoma is on Line 4—Independent oilfield drilling supervisor and grandfather. Welcome to the program, you're on the EIB Network. CALLER (HANK FROM TULSA, OKLAHOMA): Rush, mega dittos! You nailed it comparing October 2005 to today. Back in 2005 my dad was running our shop, and we used to listen to you over the shop radio every afternoon at lunch. He always said your breakdowns of the Fed, tax policy, and media spin taught him more about business than any college class. Today I'm running the same shop with twenty-eight employees, and we're fighting the exact same battle against high interest rates, power bills, and Washington regulations. RUSH: God bless you and your dad, Hank! That right there is the heart and soul of this country—multi-generation family businesses keeping skilled trades alive in America. Keep that shop humming!

RUSH: Wrapping up Hour Two: in the fall of 2005, citizen volunteers in Arizona and Texas had formed the Minuteman Project because Washington insisted the southern border was "too big to secure," while the Senate was cooking up the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill. On this program in October 2005, we warned that if you reward lawbreaking and refuse to enforce the border, municipal hospitals, schools, and local law enforcement in every state—not just border states—would eventually be overwhelmed. Twenty-one years later on 2026-10-24, every mayor, county commissioner, and sheriff from Arizona to Ohio knows we were 100% right. Border security is not radical; it is the first constitutional duty of a sovereign republic.

RUSH: Welcome to Hour Three of The Rush Limbaugh Show on Saturday, 2026-10-24! Twenty-one years ago on the evening of October 24, 2005, Rosa Parks passed away in Detroit at the age of ninety-two. When she refused to give up her seat on that Montgomery bus in 1955, she wasn't demanding a government quota or a divisive ideological bureaucracy—she was demanding to be treated as an individual American citizen with equal dignity under the Constitution. Look at the cultural turnaround happening on American streets today on 2026-10-24. Parents, workers, students, and businesses across this country are rejecting the division artists and returning to the classical American promise: equality of opportunity, merit, character, and one standard of justice for every citizen.

RUSH: Cookie and the broadcast team pulled the media montage from 2005-10-24 alongside this morning's network clips on 2026-10-24. Listen to the words they used in October 2005 whenever conservatives pushed for originalist judges, lower taxes, and domestic energy: "crisis," "constitutional showdown," "unprecedented." Now listen to the exact same networks today in October 2026! They haven't written a new playbook in twenty-one years. The only thing that changed is that back in 2005 they still controlled the gate—and today on 2026-10-24, everyday Americans have the facts in their hands before the evening anchors even sit down at the desk.

RUSH: Let's squeeze in one more call here in Hour Three—Mike from Dayton, Ohio on Line 1, Independent owner-operator flatbed trucker running I-70 and I-75. Welcome to the program! CALLER (MIKE FROM DAYTON, OHIO): Rush, mega dittos! Hearing you lay out October 24, 2005 right next to October 24, 2026—from Bernanke at the Fed and Hurricane Wilma gas prices to the Harriet Miers/Alito Supreme Court fight and Rosa Parks—shows why history matters. In our local school board meetings, parents are finally standing up and demanding our kids learn real American history and civics again. RUSH: And never stop showing up at those meetings, Mike! Self-government starts at the kitchen table and the local school board, not in Washington, D.C. Thank you for the call!

RUSH: That wraps up three full hours of broadcast excellence for Saturday, 2026-10-24, mirrored side-by-side against Monday, 2005-10-24—twenty-one years ago today. Whether it was 2005 or 2026, the formula for American greatness has never been a mystery: individual liberty, limited constitutional government, sound money, secure borders, abundant American energy, and faith in God and the American people. Never let the pessimists convince you this country is finished. Americans are builders, pioneers, and truth-tellers. Be of good cheer, my friends—we will be right back here tomorrow, same time, same station, behind the Golden EIB Microphone!