Posted on 07/13/2011 2:46:39 PM PDT by Evil Slayer
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
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.
END TRANSCRIPT
I heard Rush today and he did a fantastic job.
If the GOP House lets Obama raise the debt ceiling w/o some very serious curtailing of federal spending in FY12 and FY13 then you can be sure that the GOP have caved in bigtime. We’ll soon see how much FY12 and FY13 are in comparison to FY08 and FY09. And there will be nowhere to hide for the GOP in the November 2012 elections if they caved in. They have their opportunity now with the Debt Limit debate to make sure that real cuts happen.
The easiest way to lay this at the feet of Obama is to hold the debt ceiling where it is. He will be forced to make decisions that define his priorities. If he fails to service the debt, Republicans can fairly ask why he would hurt his own country while promising billions to bail out Greece and Pakistan. If he hurts old people with social security cuts, Republicans can ask why he thinks that funding the NEA and UN is more important than senior citizens. They can also ask why we continue to support illegal immigration benefits while cutting social security. Demagoguery goes both ways. The beauty of holding the line on our debt is that it exposes Obama’s skewed priorities.
I had to get in my car at lunch just to hear Rush...these are sort of scary times.
Good for Rush!
But he genuinely admires the man?!?
So, you think that McConnell’s strategy isn’t all that bad? I’d sure like to hear more...and I’d like to agree.
Elaborate.
Keep in mind that just 42 months ago the government was forecasting a surplus for FY12.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy08/browse.html
“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. “
Exactly. It is like when the House “deems a bill passed”. It a trick by which Congress makes a decision but pretends they didn’t.
The McConnell bill is surrender to the Democrats, plain and simple. We won’t even get anything politically about it because Obama will just submit phony smoke & mirrors cuts. Obama won’t be seen as responsible for raising the debt ceiling because he’s just going along with what Congress gave him.
There are no “postive aspects to this”. Rush’s praise of McConnell is an example of why the RINOs keep surrendering like this: we let them get away with it.
The only time Republicans start acting like conservatives are those rare occasions when something like the Tea Party lights a fire under them. Congress will move as far left as we let it.
“The easiest way to lay this at the feet of Obama is to hold the debt ceiling where it is.”
The problem with this - and with all the ‘dont raise it’ claims - is that it creates the very crisis that plays into Obama’s hands.
It’s like the McConnell plan, only more double-edged.
OBAMA WANTS A CRISIS.
WE NEED TO SHOW THE COUNTRY THAT (A) THE GOP CAN LEAD AND (B) THE GOP PLAN IS THE RIGHT ONE.
- McConnell doesnt do it
- Voting ‘no’ doesnt do it
What does it? Simple:
- Pass in the House a debt ceiling increase with spending-cuts-only. pass it and send it to the Senate and White House. Declare “we passed our position now you pass yours in the Senate and we will negotiate on the basis of that”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/mcconnells-plan-confuses-the-chattering-class/2011/03/29/gIQAxEAGBI_blog.html
Amen. Rush also mentioned Bernanke is making noises about a THIRD STIMULUS. Our guys aren't even TRYING to stop any of this.
I heard that part of the show today and I thought Rush was soft on McConnell. He didn’t “give him hell” in my opinion. I think he was easy on him. I don’t think he even brought up the point that the plan is unconstitutional. The power is not McConnell’s to just hand off to Obama. The Congress is to control the purse strings of the U.S.
McConnell is trying to give Congress’ constitutional control over to the arrogant, power hungry Obama. If they hand that over to Obama and the executive branch, what in the world do we need Congress for?! McConnell is either an idiot, or he knows exactly what he’s doing and he is evil.
“Weakness” = one of the great understatements of all time.
The only way that Congress can give that power to the President is through the passing of a Constitutional Amendment. In his 1996 majority opinion, Stevens concurred:
Clinton V. New York City on Line item Veto
Obama says that checks for veterans and social security won't go out? I dare him. Impeachment papers will be drawn so quickly his head will spin.
Punk!
McConnell is afraid of Obama’s “Scare the Geezers” threat/political gambit. However, the facts simply don’t match Obama’s rhetoric, and every Republican should be shouting this from the rooftops:
“The failure to increase the debt ceiling will NOT stop Social Security payments from going out in August or any time soon. President Obama is either ignorant or a liar.”
Want something to back it up? Here you go: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=189943 Fact: the SSA is still running a surplus (though it is small), and even if it was running a deficit, it has literally trillions in Treasury IOUs against which the Treasury can sell bonds on a 1:1 basis without raising the overall debt ceiling. These are intergovernmental loans - selling bonds to liquidate them doesn’t add one thin dime to the debt. But the average person doesn’t know this, and is easily snookered by a smooth talking pol like Obama.
Republicans need to tell the truth and tell it often, otherwise the Dems will never cut spending by enough to save our economy from sailing over a cliff in the fairly near future. We can’t just slow down, we have to stop and reverse course or our financial system will collapse. Since 1990 we have increased spending by roughly 7.5% per year, compounded, while the GDP has grown by only 4% per year, compounded. No person, company, country or planet can keep doing that forever, it is a simple mathematical impossibility - politics has nothing to do with that...yet the Dems in general, and Obama in particular, are so deluded that they can’t see it and only want to play political games with it. Here are the details of the irrefutable math: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=188993
This is a great example of Congress. They have no problem with naming a post office, but when tough decisions have to be made they would much rather be on the golf course with “The Won”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.