There Will Be No Spending Cuts! Even with Sequestration, Spending Will Go Up 16%

Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | November 21, 2011 | Rush Limbaugh

[Kaslin]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oh, come on, man, it's not because the super committee didn't do anything. It's not why the stock market's down about 300 points. Everybody knew the super committee wasn't gonna do anything. And, by the way, there are no spending cuts. Even with sequestration, there are no spending cuts. It's just reductions in the rate of growth. It's the same old thing. Spending is still gonna go up. It's just like everything else with the US budget, it's said to be a cut because it's not going up as much. But defense spending with sequestration will still go up 16%. There's no spending cuts here, zilch, zero, nada.

But anyway, folks, the market's not down because the super committee is gonna admit failure. Everybody knew this was gonna happen. Nobody expected the super committee to come up with -- (interruption) are you still confused? It will not be hollowed out. There will be no spending cuts. There are no spending cuts in sequestration or anything else. You know how the current services baseline budget works. The current services baseline budget projects an increase of let's say 23%, just to pick a number, okay? (interruption) Well, it is, it's the same thing every year. When's the last time the budget went down in anything? It doesn't happen. Ask yourself, of course everybody bought it. It's simple, when you're beat over the head with it for two weeks about all these drastic, Draconian cuts.

So if something's supposed to go up, spending go up 23%, and it's only gonna go up 16%, they wail and moan about a 7% cut. But defense spending is going up even with sequestration. The reason the market's down is because Obama's back in the country. It has nothing to do with the super committee because nobody thought the super committee thing was ever gonna amount to a hill of beans, and especially the last two weeks. These people on the market are not stupid. They know that Obama's campaign is based on a do-nothing Congress. That's who Obama's running against. I never heard of the guy -- "Do-Nothing Congress" -- but he must be pretty powerful because that's who Obama is running against. So the Congress cannot be allowed to do anything, otherwise an investment of a billion dollars, that's what Obama's gonna spend on his campaign, would be out the window.

Anyway, how are you, folks? Hope you had a great weekend. We're back, El Rushbo in the air chair, the distinguished and prestigious Attila the Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

Snerdley was totally snookered. You see how easy it is? You are in the know. You understand the current services baseline budgeting, and even you are shocked to realize now that there is no real cut from a baseline of zero in defense spending. And there will not be a cut in Medicaid or Medicare spending. There will be a reduction in how much it was supposed to be increased. And that reduction from how much it was supposed to be increased to what the actual spending will be is what's called the cut, but there is no below zero, below the bottom line cut in spending on anything.

Now, Newt Gingrich this past summer, there was a Fox News debate this past summer about the time the idea of the super committee was being discussed, and Newt summarized it, he explained it, and he dissected it. And he did so spontaneously. He called it a truly dumb idea. I have the transcript here. Bret Baier said, "Mr. Speaker, why are you shaking your head about the super committee? I mean this is an important question." Gingrich said, "Look, I think the super committee's about as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime," and there was applause. Remember, now, this was last summer. And Newt, by the way, is not alone here in understanding that this thing was a joke to begin with. Look, you've got 535 members of Congress, this is your typical blue ribbon committee just like they assign a bunch of people to do base closures to take the heat off of themselves.

You got 535 men and women in the United States Congress, the House and the Senate, and they pick, what, 12? They're gonna sit here and do some dirty work? And we expect those 12 are gonna come up with an idea that the others are gonna vote for? It was never meant to be. Newt says this past summer in August, (paraphrasing) "I think that this super committee is about as dumb an idea as Washington has come up with in my lifetime. I mean if you look for a second -- you know, I used to run the House of Representatives. I have some general notion of these things, and the idea that 523 senators and congressmen are going to sit around for four months while 12 brilliant people, mostly picked for political reasons, are going to sit in some room and brilliantly come up with a trillion dollars or force us to choose between gutting the military and accepting a tax increase is irrational. They're gonna walk in just before Thanksgiving --" Newt said this in August "-- they're gonna walk in just before Thanksgiving and say, 'All right, we can shoot you in the head or we can cut off your right leg. Which do you prefer?' That will be our choice."

What they ought to do is scrap the committee right now, recognize it's a dumb idea, go back to regular legislative business, assign every subcommittee the task of finding savings, do it out in the open, the regular legislative order, and get rid of this secret, phony business. Everything being done in Washington where the budget is concerned for the past year or two has been in secret, be it Boehner and Obama talking about the debt ceiling or the super committee. Do you know when the last full meeting of the super committee was, meaning when every member of it attended a meeting? November 1st to November 3rd. I don't have the date right in front of me, but that was the last time they all got together, November 1st to November 3rd.

It's smoke and mirrors, folks. You put 12 partisan Democrats on this committee who have as their number one objective reelecting Barack Obama and I will guarantee you that there is no way that this problem's gonna be solved. That's not the Obama strategy is to solve the problem. The Obama strategy is to exacerbate the problem and then get together with the media and blame the Republicans for it. Now, how can they do that if they move toward a solution? They can't. It's just that simple. Sometimes it's hard for people to understand it, recognize it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Rand Paul. This is from State of the Union on CNN yesterday morning. The host Candy Crowley said to Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), "So, you are willing to have cuts in the Pentagon budget that the Defense Secretary has said will be devastating?"

PAUL: The interesting thing is there will be no cuts in military spending. This may surprise some people, but there will be no cuts in military spending because we're only cutting proposed increases. If we do nothing, military spending goes up 23% over ten years. If we sequester the money, it will still go up 16%. So spending is still rising under any of these plans.

RUSH: It's the dirty little secret once again. This is instructive, too. When I mentioned this at the top of the hour, even Snerdley -- who is as big a student of this stuff as anybody -- nothing, nothing, nothing gets past Snerdley. He's been with me 23 years. But yet, if it got past Snerdley -- if Snerdley spent the weekend thinking that with sequestration after the failure of the super committee, defense was gonna get really whacked -- I can imagine people who are not nearly as informed as Snerdley, what they thought. Same thing. But, folks, budgets don't get whacked in Washington. We actually need for some budgets to get whacked. That's what doesn't happen! There really never are genuine spending cuts. There are only reductions in the rate of growth or spending amounts that are less than projected, which then equals a cut from what was expected to be spent. But cut from zero, a zero baseline? There is no such thing. The current services baseline prevents real cuts.

No Medicare cuts, no defense budget cuts, whatever happens with the super committee.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, John McCain was quoted the Wall Street Journal (it might have been an op-ed, I forget which) commenting about those of us back this past summer who thought the super committee idea was a lamebrain idea. Remember McCain called all of us "hobbits"? If you recall, he (impression), "Ah, you people are just hobbits. You're hobbits! You gotta do it through the super committee! It will work, you'll see! You'll see." See?

END TRANSCRIPT

[Huskrrrr]

[goldstategop]

They think we’re stupid that we’ll fall for their political games. Ah - “sequestration” - such a frightening word. At the end of the day, its business as usual in Washington. They’ll never cut government spending as long as I’m alive!

[apillar]

But...But...But...Leon Pannetta says warplanes will start falling out of the sky, ships will rust in port and soldiers will be forced to use spears and wear burlap if these cuts go into effect. He couldn't possibly be political grandstanding, could he???

[BitWielder1]

Any committee that John Kerry is on is certain to fail.
They wanted it this way.
They don't really want to cut a damn thing, the threat to cut defense and other vital programs is only for show, to blackmail the population into accepting higher taxes after all.

[GeronL]

Here we are trying to take over the White House when we can’t even take over the Republican Party.

[Bigun]

Rush is right and I have been saying the exact same thing here for months now!

The inside the beltway Washington crowd does not speak the same English language that the rest of us do. When we say we are going to have to cut our budget next year we mean that we are going to have to spend less money next year than we did this year.

That is NOT what they mean when they use that exact same verbiage! They mean that they will have to spend less than they projected they would spend next year even though that amount of spending will still be considerably more than they spent this year.

It’s a total outrage that WE continue to allow them to get away with this BS!

[fortheDeclaration]

Yes, they are arguing over rate of GROWTH, not CUTS.

[fortheDeclaration]

Yes, to them Pizza is a vegetable.

[AmusedBystander]

Yes, to them Pizza is a vegetable.

Crazy, ain't it? Everyone knows that pizza is a pie.

[EGPWS]

If spending is decreased how are we supposed to learn how to eat right the Michelle 0bama way?

How are we supposed to save the planet from us?

How are we supposed to have shovel ready work?

How are we supposed to be saved from oppression from those who actually work and profit from it?

How can we be saved from WALMART LAYAWAY PLANS????

[chuckee]

What irks me is that Obama will have ended up getting the debt ceiling lifted after this kabuki dance without one dollar in cuts. Congress will never let the sequestration take place.

[gogogodzilla]

I guess the real question then is whether this 16% growth to the military budget over ten years will be above or below the rate of inflation.

For if it’s below the rate of inflation, then the military will end up with a larger budget... that will not be able to buy all the stuff that the current budget can procure.

Which means we’ll end up with a smaller, less capable military.

[ez]

The stupid party falls for leftist promises again.

[fortheDeclaration]

LOL! Good one!

[Kaslin]

What do you mean the stupid party falls for leftist promises again? Our side did not agree to the tax increases the left wanted. Perhaps you think they should have agreed on it.

But like Newt Gingrich said the debt panel was a stupid idea

[Sola Veritas]

Folks, I will have to disagree with Rush on this.

After 10 years of fighting our army is a hollow shell. We have used up all of our tanks and equipment (worn them out) and nothing is being built to replace them. We can only fight light these days. Works for third world wars like Iraq and Afghanistan. But, won’t cut it against a major agressor.

With the cuts triggered by this (I believe planned failure by democrats) DoD will be in the worst shape since Jimmy Carter. The Army won’t have the equipment to fight a major conflict against a growing Russian, Chinese, etc (China is doing the same thing in the Pacific that Japan did leading up to WWII)(Putin is trying to reestablish the Soviet Union). agression. Our Navy is the smallest it has been since before WWI. The Air Force is hurting, and I doubt they can maintain air superiority in a big conflict. These cuts, and they are CUTS, will devestate our ability to protect the country from agressors. We will no longer be able to be a superpower.

Panetta (it pains me to say) is NOT grandstanding.

I just hope the GOP majority will grow in congress so that cuts to DoD can be adverted. However, with Obama as POTUS, they are going to happen because he doesn’t care about our security from foreign agressors....he wants to weaken the U.S.

[ez]

I mean the republicans give up their position of strength on the debt ceiling debate in return for an idiotic supercomittee that promises to find 1.2 trillion in savings, but now has not...just like Bush I agreed to tax increases in return for spending cuts that never happened. When will we learn that leftist promises are never kept?