Rush Limbaugh Chats With William Shatner

Over the summer, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh did an interview with William Shatner for Biography Channel's new program "Shatner's Raw Nerve."

It aired Sunday evening as the premiere episode.

Much of the discussion was indeed biographical talking about Limbaugh's childhood, his parents, his hearing problem, and things largely unrelated to politics.

In the middle of the interview, Shatner asked his guest what it meant to be a conservative, which led to a discussion about the current healthcare debate (video embedded below the fold courtesy Story Balloon and Right Scoop, partial transcript):

WILLIAM SHATNER, HOST: Here's my premise, and you agree with it or not. That if you have money, you're going to get healthcare. If you don't have money, it's more difficult.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: If you have money, you're going to get a house on a beach. If you don't have money, you're going to live in a bungalow somewhere.

SHATNER: Right. But we're talking about health care.

LIMBAUGH: What's the difference?

SHATNER: The difference is we're talking about health care.

LIMBAUGH: No.

SHATNER: Not a house and a bungalow.

LIMBAUGH: No. You're assuming that there's some morally superior aspect to health care than there is to a house --

SHATNER: No, I'm not moral at all. I want to keep the subject, for the moment, on the health care thing.

LIMBAUGH: All right.

SHATNER: All right. So now it's the health care.

LIMBAUGH: I'm talking about health care.

SHATNER: Okay. So talk about health care. So isn't the premise, isn't this valid, that the health care system today is breaking the country?

LIMBAUGH: No.

SHATNER: It's not?

LIMBAUGH: I don't believe it is. And if it is --

SHATNER: But we're told that it is.

LIMBAUGH: Of course we're told that (cross talk) because that's the way to get us to act like sheep and go long with --

SHATNER: But how do you know that? You know, the sum total of what I want to ask you politically is how do you know?

LIMBAUGH: It's my job; it's my life; it's my career; it's my passion. I've studied this stuff. I want the best country we can have, and this is not the way to get it. We're going backwards.

Those interested can watch all three parts here.