Posted on 07/13/2011 4:07:41 PM PDT by Candor7
RUSH: Well, we knew it was gonna get to this point. The Republicans are nervous, some of them are very nervous, and a few of them are outright paranoid.
Hi, folks, great to have you back, Rush Limbaugh, already the middle of the week here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. Our telephone number is 800-282-2882. You want to send an e-mail, the address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
About this time yesterday we quoted Senator Mitch McConnell as saying nothing substantive will ever get done in this country until Barack Obama is removed from the Oval Office. As long as Obama's in the Oval Office nothing is gonna get done. All right, fine. And I said I don't know how you walk that back. But he did. I sat here and I mean we were ladling praise out. We're just not used to hearing Republicans talk that way. Now, Trump, you know, say what you want about Trump, Trump showed the way here. Trump showed how you rattle Obama. Trump showed how you get under the thin skin of Obama and how you get him off his game. Trump showed that. You just go right after him. You just get rid of all your fear. You get rid of whoever you're gonna offend or what the press is gonna say about you and you just tell people the truth. And Obama can't deal with that. He's never had to deal with that his whole life. He's led a very sheltered, protected, you know, whenever he got a C, always somebody around to make it an A, maybe an A-.
But you go out and make that really powerful statement, which has the added benefit of being true. We're not gonna get anything seriously accomplished as long as he's in the Oval Office, as long as he's president. Gotta be defeated. And then a few hours later after not telling anybody, you submit a plan without running it by your colleagues, and everybody is asking of me what I think of this. The number one problem I have with it has nothing to do with its substance. There's some problems I had, but it shows weakness. My gosh, we've got Obama and the Democrats predictably following every page in their playbook, knowing exactly what they're gonna do before they do it, scaring senior citizens, and the minute they come out with that, here's this proposal that basically shows panic. To me it reeked of a lack of resolve. I think Obama needed to think that these Republicans were serious about taking this to the end and now he knows that they're not. Now he knows the Republicans are not united on that concept. Now he knows that there are Republicans who'd like to do anything to avoid being blamed for this.
Look, the plan's got its positive aspects. If you want we can go through it. It's got its positive aspects. But I just don't see the need for it right now. I was shocked when this thing hit. It's got a lot of procedural rigmarole in it, but it seems to be calculated in a way -- and this is my main problem with it -- to escape responsibility. It seems like the objective here was to come up with a way that would allow the Republicans to blame Obama for once, which is a waste of time. As long as the Democrats control the media like they do, Obama is never going to be portrayed as the problem in a back-and-forth with the Republicans, I don't care what happens. The people that the Republicans care about, apparently, the media and the ruling class in Washington is never, ever going to end up blaming Obama for this, particularly the media as long as they control the press like they do. They're always gonna portray the Republicans as obstructionist and extremists no matter what they do or don't do.
You know, this is pedal to the metal time. It's time we swallowed the pill and take our medicine. Why come up with a plan that allows Obama to raise the debt ceiling three more times before he leaves office? I know it puts the onus on him and so forth, "Oh, yeah, Obama raised the debt ceiling." Why cede that kind of power just to try to illustrate to everybody that he's the big spender. Look at the public polling data. Everybody knows that Obama's the problem on this. He doesn't have majority support on anything he's doing right now and everybody knows that the media's gonna try to blame the Republicans, everybody knows this was coming down the pike. Everybody knew that the same old same old was gonna happen, meaning Republicans hate senior citizens and want them to die, and the military, Republicans really don't care, all they care about is their corporate jet guys. Come on. You know it's gonna happen, and to react this way to it out of nowhere, I don't know, depressed me.
Now, I don't want to sit around and be depressed about this stuff. But it did. Here's what it is. I mean if you want me to summarize the McConnell plan, it's kind of a backdoor way of giving Obama just about everything he wants without the Republicans having to take the blame for it. Obama in this deal gets two and a half trillion dollars more borrowed money in exchange for future spending cuts that will be chosen by the Democrat Senate. When I saw that Harry Reid consulted on this and liked it, and when I saw that Chuck Schumer liked it, when I saw that Durbin liked it, when I saw that Pelosi liked it, I said, whoa. Now, the plan does allow the Republicans to go on record as voting for their own cuts. It does do that. And it allows the Republicans to escape blame if those cuts never happen. It does throw all the onus on Obama. But who's gonna care, who's gonna remember in the future anyway? The same circumstances are gonna happen, the first of these three debt limit increases, you'd think the media and the Democrats are gonna all say, "You know what, McConnell snookered us back there in 2011. I guess we're really pounded now. Everything we do is gonna be blamed on us." The blame game and trying to escape it is not the point. Stopping spending is the point. Stopping Obama from doing any more damage is the point, not constructing things so the party doesn't get blamed.
I understand these are party people and they gotta go get elected. I just think I've got a pretty good recipe for pulling that off. I just do not believe that showing signs of weakness like this advances the ball. Now, I could be dead wrong about this, and I know Senator McConnell, he's an honorable person, and I know he's doing what he thinks best. I think he's really trying to see to it, he's dead serious about what he said yesterday, Obama being an obstacle to anything positive getting accomplished in this country. He's dead serious when he says that the objective has to be to defeat Obama at the ballot box in 2012. I think he's dead serious on trying to protect the Republican Party here and make sure that they don't get the blame for this, even as Obama gets what he wants. But I don't know why present this yesterday. I don't understand how it's not possible to look at this circumstance and see that Obama -- I guess it's easy for me to say forget the media. These guys can't, I guess, and I guess maybe they have their own polling that they listen to.
I don't care about any of that. It's very hard for me to say all of this 'cause I really admire Senator McConnell. There are good things in the plan. It doesn't contain any mention of new taxes. But it doesn't stop Obama and the Democrats from trying to raise them, either. And McConnell's plan would mean that Obama finally has to put some spending cuts down on paper. They leaked yesterday, the White House leaked Eric Cantor's Medicare cuts that he's proposing, that they're talking about in these meetings. And, of course, Obama can safely do that because there's nothing of his to leak, because he hasn't put anything down on paper. Obama's not mentioning anything specific. The White House press secretary is running around saying, "Obama doesn't even have a vote."
We know who we're up against. We know exactly who we're up against. We know exactly the kind of people they are, and we know that the last thing they have on their side is the truth. We know that we have the truth on our side. As I say, one of the positive things is Obama would have to put some spending cuts down on paper. No matter how phony they are, he would have to get specific. Look, another thing, it has no chance of passing the House, so I don't understand why bring it up. Yes, I do. I do understand why bring it up. This is the heat, giving such that it's time to save the Republicans here and the blame game. And that's, I think, one of the objectives here.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Paul in Carlsbad, California. What a beautiful place. I have been there. Hello, sir.
CALLER: It's gorgeous. But my point... I don't know if I'm gonna bail you out because I think the elected Republicans don't want to cut government. I don't see any signs of it. Listen, if you increase the debt, you're expanding government. The only way to cut it is to not increase the debt.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And quite honestly... You know, Milton Friedman told us, "The true tax on the American people is the amount of money the government spends."
RUSH: I hear you. I know exact what you mean. That's why I've been pounding: Why is there a debt limit in the first place if every 12 or 13, 15 months we're just gonna go through this rigmarole to get past it? What does it matter? Why even have one? The reason we have one is so the Democrats get to play this game every year and a half. The reason we have a debt limit -- I'll tell you, the real reason that it's there now -- is precisely so that this scenario can play out every year and a half. "Republicans hate old people! Republicans will defund the military! Republicans will let old people starve! Republicans will take their houses away from 'em! Republicans will take their health care away!"
Just so we can go through this every year and a half, is why the debt limit exists. Because Paul here is right: It is time to swallow the bill, the bitter pill, to take our medicine, to have "peas in our time," whatever. This is the time to start talking about reducing spending, to stay underneath the debt limit. (big sigh) But I do gather there's not a whole lot of support for that, even on the Republican side. The Republican freshmen, yeah -- and the Republican Conservative Caucus, about a hundred of them in the House, yeah -- they're all for it. But for the most part what they're focusing here on are "serious" spending cuts as we raise the debt limit. They think we gotta raise the debt limit so we're not embarrassed around the world, credit agency-wise and all that rigmarole.
This also assures that Sarah Palin will run. Goodbye GOP.
Even I am amazed they are this bad. And I am no fan. I could not see them doing any worse. It is embarrassing.
No it doesn't. Whatever McDonnell says or does has absolutely nothing to do with what Palin does. So far there is no evidence she will run for President. There are some 3rd party turds around who hope she runs as an independent but it won't happen.
There is nothing positive about the plan at all.
You are really out to lunch. Sarah has been running for two years.
LOL. PDS.Take a pill.
Even I am amazed they are this bad. And I am no fan. I could not see them doing any worse. It is embarrassing.
One of the few times we disagree my friend. The GOP does not surprise me one whit. The Democrats and Republicans are mere reiterations of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, respectively. We are continually betrayed by the GOP on issue after issue, year after year, cycle after cycle and by now generation after generation because - as an institution - it never was on our side to begin with.
There needs to be a second party.
Hey now your talkin. After this I am going to take a pass on them. I think this may hurt Rush’s record of 99.6% right. He thinks the GOP can be reformed. Maybe Palin will start a real Tea Party.
McConnell is either taking a broken wing approach or he is telling America, “Broken arrow.”
well - there is no evidence Palin is running. I wish it were different but that's reality. There are some holdouts like you in denial. However the rest of us understand we have to deal with the cards we've been dealt and have moved on. If she changes her mind and decides to run I for one would be delighted.
Anything Obama agrees to still has to pass the Senate, which has not even passed its own budget resolution yet.
Furthermore, this just gives Obama another platform to look "presidential" going into the 2012 election. It also gives the MSM another issue to pound Republicans with until they cave in to pressure.
Republicans instead should have put the pressure on Harry Reid to get the Senate to go on record with a budget plan of their own, and continue to make Obama look like the bystander that he really is.
Boehner should be saying that the proper place for these discussions is the the House-Senate Budget Reconciliation process -- you know, the one they used to force ObamaCare on us.
McConnell should put his efforts into getting the Senate to pass a budget, and then take the negotiations to the House-Senate budget reconciliation process.
It was Republican stupidity to negotiate directly with Obama. This gives Obama a platform to look presidential, and ultimately makes the Republicans look weak when they cave. Besides, any "deal" agreed to here still has to pass the House, and then the Senate will finally have to pass a budget that contains the "deal."
Instead, this should have stayed in Congress, forcing the Senate Democrats to go on the record with a plan, and making Obama look like the bystander that he really is.
Republicans gave away all of their leverage during the lame duck session of the 111th Congress.
They were slow to get started in the 112th Congress.
And now they're getting played again by allowing the Senate to be marginalized, and making everything be between the House and Obama.
McConnell should stay out of it until the Senate goes on record with a budget, otherwise, all he's doing is mucking up the works by being a powerless voice who can do nothing but undermine his side's position.
The truth is that Obama is irrelevant right now.
He was unnecessarily inserted into a process where he was not needed. Anything that Obama agrees to has to be passed in both the House and the Senate, and then go to his desk.
This is just an opportunity to grandstand, that was handed to him by the Republicans, again.
If McConnell really thought that his plan was a clever trap for Obama, he ruined it with his "rogue" delivery of it.
If it really was so clever, he should have coordinated with the House leadership in deploying it, so that he didn't appear to be a free-agent offering up his "plan b" to the surprise of the other Republicans in the negotiations. We all know that the Democrats would have coordinate and had talking points ready to go.
All that McConnell accomplished was to give the MSM the story-line that the Republicans were caving, and allowed the MSM to ignore Obama's actions.
I say again, this negotiating with Obama should never have happened. Boehner and McConnell should have forced these negotiations into the Senate, where it properly belongs. Let Obama and Reid work out the Democrat plan in the Senate budget, and then use the budget reconciliation process to hammer out the details with the Republicans in the House.
Make Obama look like a bystander, not the controlling power-player.
-PJ
HEY RUSH CAN I HAVE YOUR EAR FOR A MOMENT, ER..YOUR EYES?
First off, there's no plan. Boehner is not going to turn this into legislation. Obama would not sign it. It's not a plan, it's a maneuver. McConnell is stalling to buy Boehner some breathing space. The Dems only pretend to like what Mitch is doing--they hate it. They want the GOP to raise taxes. They don't really care about the debt ceiling.
McConnell has just thrown the Democrats on the defensive. Now they have to stop what they're doing and figure out what their next move is--and the media is also perplexed. It feeds into the narrative of a divided GOP, which isn't as divided as the left would like.
I don't know why Rush doesn't see this. And that stupid caller who threatened to leave the GOP! He was an obvious plant!
This is a poker play, a bluff, a challenge. "See my bet, raise it?" moment. This is one thing that Mitch is very good at--using procedure to advance an agenda or stall one.
Yes, Sarah will declare. She has been running for 2 years,and will raise more money in 2 weeks than the rest of the GOP field combined would in 2 months.
And watch the nay sayers dissolve into spasms of their own obstreperousness.
If Obama has something to say, he always has access to the Bully Pulpit.
It used to be that the Bully Pulpit was the unique power that the President had.
Obama seems to want everyone's unique powers.
-PJ
I agree with you and Rush that McConnell panicked. Maybe because of the shape Kentucky politics is in or whatever -- but he broke ranks, and that has to be ambrosia and nectar for Obozo.
I agree that the Republicans lost the instant they accepted a meeting with Obozo. They should have told him politely but firmly that they will do all their talking to Crooked Harry Reid's stooges -- er, colleagues.
Besides, any "deal" agreed to here still has to pass the House, and then the Senate will finally have to pass a budget that contains the "deal."
Right, and it also gives Obama and Reid a chance to come back on any "deal" and play "sales manager" -- the games that get played every day in new-car showrooms -- and keep sending their eggs back and just tag-team the Republicans to death.
Instead they should just pass a budget and tell the Donks "we're done, do what you will, drop dead" and let the Democrats shut down the government and stop all the checks if they want to.
“Republicans instead should have put the pressure on Harry Reid to get the Senate to go on record with a budget plan of their own, and continue to make Obama look like the bystander that he really is.”
CORRECT!!!
What the GOP should do is look at the direction the Dems want to go and go in the exact opposite.
The Dems want WH talks. They need to shut them down, they are useless and dangerous. They need to go to one meeting and declare “Let’s see your proposal on the Senate floor voted up or down. Then we’ll talk.”
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