RUSH: And from the ABC The Note website: ‘A top Obama ally predicted Wednesday in an interview with ABC News that Democrats will lose their congressional majority in next year’s midterm elections if they fail to put a health-care reform bill on President Obama’s desk. ‘I think we’re talking losing control of Congress,’ said Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union. ‘[The failure of health-care reform] would totally empower Republicans to kill all change. It’s 
hard to imagine the Democrats convincing the public that Republicans are to blame for health-care reform going down when the Democrats have such large majorities,’ he added. ‘After last year’s promise of change, voters will start feeling buyer’s remorse.” Now, this is interesting. This is a union thug, it is his goons showing up at these town hall meetings beating up people with cancer and young black conservatives and sending them to the emergency room, saying that the Democrat majority is history?
In truth, if this fails, every incumbent is better off, except the people that voted for it. The people that vote for it are the ones that are going to be in deep doo-doo regardless of their party. But what the union guy is saying here, if this thing doesn’t pass, if you guys don’t deliver what we want Obama to have, we, the union thugs, are not going to give you as much money as we’ve given in the past. That’s what he means. Because the way this is playing out, anybody who votes against this, as it is right now, is going to be appreciated by voters. Look at the polling data on this. It is clear Obama did not have a plan B if his health care plan failed to pass before the summer recess. There was no plan B. This was not in the cards. This was the last thing they thought was going to happen, and now these multiple town hall implosions that are happening, they were never supposed to happen, either. By now Obama was supposed to be on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard congratulating the House for passing a bill that nobody read, and he was going to be kneecapping senators to do the same thing.
Now he’s out there attacking the insurance companies. That was never supposed to happen. His bizarre accusation of doctors amputating limbs. I mean basically saying doctors are butchers for money. He would have never said that if the House had just passed the bill before the summer recess. They had a plan A. Fortunately for America, fortunately for us, unfortunately for the Bamster, there was no plan B. So this past weekend, Big Insurance got Alinskyed, which is a default solution for this president but it wouldn’t have happened if Obamacare had passed the House. So he’s out there, he slandered me, he has slandered doctors, he has slandered the insurance companies, he slanders and attacks anybody who doesn’t agree with him. That’s all he knows. It’s Alinsky rule number eight, keep the pressure on, never let up, keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit ’em from the flank with something new. Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover, and restrategerize. And interestingly, that is what’s happened to Obama.
They’re the ones that are off balance, they’re the ones that are trying to regroup, recover, and restrategize. And they’re having all kinds of problems doing it. The whole thing here has backfired on them. This was never supposed to have played out on the public stage. Do you realize all of this was supposed to have gone on behind closed doors in the Senate and in the House with nobody knowing what the hell was in it? So we have to go off script, on stage, and that is where Obama has blown it. We’ve got people, ‘Where’s the Obama we knew during the campaign?’ He goes off teleprompter and he’s detached from reality. We now have the public government option exposed, the secret is out. He’s out there, he’s flying blind without a bill. See, he doesn’t have his own plan, he keeps talking about the plan but he doesn’t have one, he’s never shown us one.
When people ask him questions at the town halls about these various things he can’t hold up his bill and say, ‘No, you’re wrong. Look here, page 38 clearly says you get to keep your insurance.’ He can’t do that because it doesn’t exist. So flying blind without a piece of legislation here, his desperation has led to televised vicious slanders of doctors butchering people for extra money — too many lies to count here. All I can say is that this was not the plan. So the American people, by standing up for their doctors, and for the private sector, have forced Obama to call an audible. People got past the summer recess, forced Obama to assemble his plan B and it’s playing out in public, which was never, ever supposed to happen. Liberalism cannot happen out in the open. Liberalism has to happen in secret, behind closed doors, and only when you wake up and discover that what happens is not a nightmare but reality, and then it’s too late.
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From ThePolitico.com: ”Democrats Eye New Reform Strategy’ — Passing a Democratic-only overhaul plan is getting a serious look from a beleaguered White House — but for President Barack Obama, corralling his own fractious party to pass health legislation will be a lot harder than it sounds.’ And it says here: ‘He would face a minefield of obstacles under the reconciliation process because opponents could strike anything from the bill that the Senate parliamentarian deems not directly related the budget. This could jeopardize some of the most popular reforms, including the insurance exchange and reforms such as prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition.’ This is true, it’s a good point, by the way, if they do go the reconciliation route Republicans could move to strike parts that are not related to the budget. Of course the Obama people say it’s all related to the budget. And then after that, policy measures in the bill would require 60 votes if they split it up to avoid difficulties. So they’re in a serious period here of confusion, things are falling apart on them, they had no plan on being where they are now and they’re really grasping at straws. And it’s clear now.
It’s clear to me, should be to everybody else. Even though it never was about health care, you and I know this was never about health care, it’s about expanding government, it’s about regulating as much of individual life, liberty as they can. But now it ought to be clear to anybody, you got Andy Stern, the union thug out there saying if this doesn’t pass, Democrats may lose their majority. That’s threats and intimidation. Obama is now calling his plan a moral obligation. If people reject the details, appeal to their morality. So it’s clear that what this is really all about, which has always been the case, too, it’s always about Obama. This is simply about Obama. This is making sure he gets a bill. He will sign anything that says health care reform on it that comes across his desk. They really are worried about the impact on Obama if it doesn’t pass and what it will say about his ability to get things done with a Democrat majority because everybody knows if this guy, if this socialist out in Chicago cannot expand government then they know they have nobody else that can do it. So it’s all about him, it’s all about having this monument built to him so that he can show that he got something done. It’s now clear to everybody that the details are the problem that they somehow swept under the rug.
Speaking of union thugs, yesterday on the Bill Press show, we had let’s see, James Hoffa and he was asked about the Blue Dog Democrats, what about these Blue Dogs? They wouldn’t be there without organized labor.
HOFFA: I agree. A lot of these people we supported and I think they’re making a big mistake by not supporting the president. The president needs every Democratic vote in the House or the Senate. And the fact that they’re basically chopping up his bill, I know that he must be very upset about that.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Blue Dogs in the House is really where all this is going to come down to the nitty-gritty. And the Blue Dogs are going to have to ask themselves a very serious question: Who do they want to respond to, Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel or their own constituents? See, the Blue Dogs fashion themselves as Democrats, but they’re fiscal conservatives, kind of like the Reagan Democrats were. They care about budgets and deficits and they don’t want government to grow to this unwieldy size that it already has. If they turn around and vote for this, that’s off the board. They can’t say that they’re anything other than radical leftists. You can’t say you’re fiscally conservative, fiscally responsible if you vote for this. But they’re going to be under a lot of pressure. Here’s the teamsters, you know, James Hoffa, and you’ve got Stern from the SEIU out there threatening these guys, and then Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO, he was on Squawk Box on CNBC today, and the question, ‘The AFL-CIO is drawing a line in the sand for lawmakers who aren’t fully behind the public plan. What are you going to do to them?’
TRUMKA: The only way to break that stranglehold on the health care industry is to have a public option. We said the American people are demanding that you do something. The Democrats have sort of been negotiating with themselves. We finally said, look, this is the minimum. If you’re going to do something that works, if you’re going to have health insurance reform you must have a public option and if you don’t, don’t expect us to support you.
RUSH: The union thugs are coming out now and they’re taking the gloves off and the threats and the intimidation of the Democrats are obvious, and you can see they hate private insurance, hate private anything, gotta have a public option if you’re going to have anything that works in health insurance reform. So the next question that Trumka got, ‘Do you believe the outcries we’ve heard at town halls? You’ve said a lot of these protesters, volunteers have been fake. Or is that just democracy at work? Is that not a constituent having a voice, to face the person you elected to public office?’
TRUMKA: This has been an orchestrated effort. They’ve tried this. I applaud those people that go out and really want to listen, that really want to talk about it and really ask sincere questions.
KELLY: But don’t you do the same thing with your memberships, trying to get-out-the-vote and get out support by telling them what you see happening and trying to get them to go out to some of these same events?
TRUMKA: We try to give them the facts.
KELLY: It’s the same thing, isn’t it?
TRUMKA: There’s a lot of difference. We give them the facts and urge them to go exercise their democratic right.
RUSH: Trumka also said — I’ve got the story in one of my stacks and I’m having trouble finding it — Trumka also came out against tax increases on the rich to pay for this, which is interesting. He made a point that is made by conservatives all over the place. If you tax only the people who can be taxed, the people that have enough money, eventually you’re going to take everything they’ve got, there’s nobody else to tax. So Trumka is a little bit concerned that all these tax increases on the rich are being used to pay for all this. But beside, that’s a minor point. These guys, you’ve got the teamsters, the AFL-CIO, and you’ve got the SEIU within 24 hours of each other warning Democrats from Blue Dogs to Democrats in the Senate that if you like walking, you listen to us.
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RUSH: Here’s the Trumka thing. He was asked about taxing health care packages. That’s what it was. He was asked, ‘What do you think about taxing, removing the deduction for employer provided health plans?’ ‘We’ll oppose that,’ Trumka said. ‘It’s actually a stupid concept. Because if you tax those that have to pay it and have to pay for those that don’t eventually those that have benefits won’t, and then who did you ultimately tax?’
Oh, and Obama supporters are huddling on health reform today at the DNC and at the White House to try to figure out yet a new strategery. David Gergen, Anderson Cooper 360 last night said…
GERGEN: I have been very surprised by their failures on persuading people. Their messages are obviously not getting through, but I think they also have substantive problems with this package. There are a lot of Americans who do not want the kinds of things Democrats are putting forward.
RUSH: Wait a minute! Mr. Gergen, which is it? Either the message isn’t getting through or it is. ‘I’ve been very surprised by their failures on persuading people. Their message is obviously not getting through. A lot of Americans do not want the kinds of things [they’re] putting forward?’ It sounds like the message is getting through is the bottom line. The message is getting through and they are stunned. Obama, with his magic, cannot persuade. Where is the Obama of the campaign? Here is where he is.
(playing of Obama parody song: American Lie)
RUSH: And that’s ‘white comedian’ Paul Shanklin as President Obama and a takeoff on Don McLean’s American Pie. I never really liked that song. I was a struggling young disc jockey and that song went to #1, and at the station I worked on, the theory was you play the #1 song every 54 minutes — and it was seven minutes long! Nothing against Don McLean. It was Buddy Holly and all that sort of stuff, and… (interruption) Well, it was good for bathroom. MacArthur Park. If you had to go to the bathroom, put MacArthur Park on. You got seven minutes. If you can’t do it in seven minutes, you have no business going to the bathroom in the first place.
Washington Post: Obama has to drop the public option.
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RUSH: The Washington Post, in an editorial today:
”No Longer an Option’ — To pass health reform, the Obama administration will have to ditch its goal of a public plan,’ and hurry! ‘Maybe the White House meant to signal that it was backing away from its commitment to a ‘public option’ as part of new health insurance exchanges. Or maybe the hedging words of administration officials were over-interpreted on an otherwise sleepy Sunday morning in August.’ There haven’t been any sleepy mornings since this guy showed up! It’s a problem. ‘It doesn’t much matter,’ the Post says, ‘because, either way, the reality is that, if the Obama administration wants to get health reform done, it’s going to have to back away from the public option sooner or later — and it’s getting awfully late. … [U]nder the proposed reforms, even without a public option, insurance companies would have to agree to cover people regardless of their health status. The government would extend Medicaid coverage to millions and provide subsidies so that millions more could purchase insurance. Mr. Obama was right when he described the public option as ‘just one sliver’ of the overall proposal.’ So they’re trying to pull Obama’s feet out of the fire here by saying: Let’s just drop it because you’re going to get what you want in a bunch of other ways.