RUSH: I have a question. I want to play an audio sound bite here of President Obama. And, by the way, what is this? Obama sends a request out, summons members of Congress to the White House tomorrow for a hearing or conference on the debt limit. Didn’t Mitch McConnell six days ago invite the president? What Mitch McConnell ought to say is, “Thank you, Mr. President, for accepting our invitation. We’re happy to meet you at the White House.” I’m gonna tell you Republicans something right now and right here, and if you know anybody who’s an elected Republican, I want you to pass this on to ’em because this is key. At this meeting tomorrow Obama is going to do everything he can to get these guys to raise taxes. Now, in the Senate he might not have much of a problem. In the Senate there might be some Republicans that go along, I don’t think the majority of them, but the House Republicans are not going to sign anything that raises taxes. They just aren’t. And so Republicans, you have got to go into that meeting tomorrow fully aware that the president is the one who’s gonna have to cave.
The president is the one who can be made to cave if you hold firm on not raising taxes, ’cause that’s all he cares about, and that’s all the Democrats care about. I don’t care whether they try for a temporary debt limit increase, a permanent deal, whatever they call it, it’s all going to be about you Republicans agreeing to a tax increase, and don’t do it or you are in big trouble when it comes time to get your own self reelected. Now, Clinton’s out there prodding Obama not to blink. Clinton’s out there saying the House will cave. Clinton’s out there, (imitating Clinton) “Hey, hey, hey, Barack, buddy, I’ve dealt with these people before, you know what I mean, I smoked them in that budget deal, 1995. Oh, yeah, I can tell you they’re gonna cave. These guys, they so desperately want everybody to think that they can get along with you. All you gotta do, just hang tough out there, buddy.” It’s the other way around, and you Republicans, don’t doubt me. You can make Obama cave. You must, in fact, make Obama cave.
We don’t raise taxes at 9.1% unemployment. Forget about revenue and all that, it’s what we believe. It’s what we know in terms of reviving this economy. You do not raise taxes in an economy like this. I don’t care what kind of taxes they are, and I don’t care if it’s only said that they are just 1%. You don’t do anything that, at the end of that meeting tomorrow they can say Republicans agree to a tax increase. You do that and you’re in deep doo-doo. And what Obama wants, I’ll tell you right now, one of the reasons that Obama does not want a temporary deal and why we’re having this completely artificial August the 2nd deadline, he does not want you Republicans going home for your August recess to get an earful from your constituents. He is afraid that they will remember why you were sent to Washington in the first place. And it wasn’t to raise taxes, no matter what they’re calling them, meaning taxes, this week. But Obama knows that the August recess is coming and he doesn’t want a temporary deal. What he doesn’t want is for you going home and being reminded and getting hell from your constituents. That’s what he’s trying to avoid.
He’s trying to avoid a repeat of Tea Party meetings. He’s trying to avoid a repeat of Tea Party town halls. The Democrats took it in the shorts when that happened last time, and he doesn’t want a repeat of it. So that’s one of the objectives that is taking place. Now, first time around, Obama basically told Mitch McConnell to go play with himself. That’s what he said to me. It was Zev Chafets, the author of the book about me, An Army of One, he went and talked to Axelrod, talked about me and maybe Obama getting together playing a game of golf, a round of golf, and then the message came back from the White House, “Go tell Rush to go play with himself.” That’s what Mitch McConnell was told. Last week Mr. Claire Shipman, the White House spokesman, went out there and basically said, “We’re not gonna talk to somebody that’s got the wrong deal and the wrong idea so we’re not gonna talk to them.”
Let the Republicans put off this deal until they go home for their August recess so they can hear from their constituents. This is a key element here. You remember what happened when the Republicans went home and heard about Obamacare during the August recess? It’s not what Obama wants a repeat of. Do not raise taxes. I don’t care what they are called. I don’t care how seemingly little it is, because it is Obama who will cave. And I know that Obama will cave because you got Clinton out there trying to tell Obama that it’s the Republicans who will cave. They know full well, and they’re relying on the power of the presidency, the power of being in the White House. They’re gonna try to instill fear in the Republicans that the American people want us to work together, blah, blah, blah. The American people don’t want any more of Obamaism, and certainly Republican voters don’t. Time to make him cave, and he’s ripe for it. Now, I have a question also, based on a sound bite that I have from Obama late yesterday afternoon at the White House. It was during the press briefing and Obama spoke about these debt negotiations. This is a portion of what he said.
OBAMA: To get there, I believe we need a balanced approach. We need to take on spending in domestic programs, in defense programs, in entitlement programs, and we need to take on spending in the tax code, spending on certain tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest of Americans. This will require both parties to get out of our comfort zones and both parties to agree on real compromise.
RUSH: Now, I’m gonna get to this concept of spending in the tax code in a second. We’ve heard that actually before. He believes that the tax code is just another arm of government spending. For example, the mortgage interest deduction is government spending to him. But that’s not what I want to focus on right here. Why does Obama even get a chance at claiming fiscal responsibility? Why is it after Obama and the Democrats spend all this money, after they run up all this debt, after they have put us in generational debt, why does he get to pretend to have anything to do with fiscal responsibility? He is the culprit. We are the chickens and he is Colonel Sanders, and he has wiped a bunch of us out for his restaurants and he’s inviting some more chickens up there and he gets to talk about our lives? This is the guy and his party who have imperiled this nation with all of this irresponsible, on-purpose debt and spending, and now he gets to talk about the balanced approach, and we need to take on spending and domestic programs and defense?
Yeah, after he’s wrecked everything, after he’s gotten all this spending that he wants, he now wants the mantle of fiscal responsibility? He can pretend all he wants. He can warn about the risk of defaults with what seems like genuine concern. He can smile. He can scowl. He can lecture. He can chide. He can talk about the full faith and credit of the United States and the dollar, but on the reality side of life, he’s saying all this stuff after he spent all the money and committed the money for years to come. The debt ceiling debate is not about money the left wants to spend; it’s about money that’s already been spent. It’s already been spent; we’re trying to get a handle here on responsibility. They just want to spend more, and he comes to us and claims he has the mantle of fiscal responsibility when he’s been the wrecking ball! How does he get to do this?
When Obama spent over $800 billion on his stimulus, frittered away $800 billion on a money laundering scheme, did you ever hear the word fiscal responsibility, debt limit, full faith and credit? When all that was going on, all this spending, TARP, stimulus, Porkulus, all the other spending, did we ever hear about fiscal responsibility, full faith and credit of the US, did it ever come up? No, not a word. When Obama rammed Obamacare down everybody’s throat and said it will cost only a trillion and lower premiums $2,500 a person, we all know it’s gonna cost more and lower nothing. Did we ever hear anything about fiscal responsibility, the debt limit and what was happening? No, not a word. Now after it’s all spent, we have to talk about responsibility, with him taking the lead? Sorry, folks, I don’t buy it.
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RUSH: So here’s the Reuters version of what’s gonna happen tomorrow. It’s by Steve Holland: “Obama to Meet Congress Leaders Thursday on Debt — President Barack Obama rejected proposals on Tuesday for a short-term deal to raise the U.S. debt limit and pressured congressional leaders to reach a broad agreement within two weeks to avoid a government default by August 2,” which we will not default by August 2nd. There are sufficient revenues flooding Washington each day that are sufficient to service our debt.
“Obama invited Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Congress to the White House on Thursday to take stock of the stalled negotiations to reach a deal on budget cuts that would give Congress political cover to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling that caps U.S. borrowing.” Now, other media outlets like the New York Times are reporting that Obama has summoned Republican leaders to the White House, but it was Mitch McConnell that sent the original invitation out. Regardless, the great man has finally condescended to meet with these lowly beings from Congress. Reuters here is claiming that a rough agreement’s already been reached, but they say it only includes billions in spending cuts. The New York Time David Brooks has claimed that the Democrats have offered three to four trillion dollars in cuts. Meanwhile, we haven’t heard any details about any of these supposed cuts.
But here’s the important thing here, and this is what’s been missed by most everybody. Obama, the Democrats, want to ram this thing through. Again, I cannot emphasize this enough. Obama and the Democrats want to ram this thing through before Republicans go back home for their August vacation, get an earful from their constituents. That’s probably why Obama’s rejecting the mini-deal because he knows that this is his best chance to get his way. What I mean is, this is when the Republicans are at their weakest, potentially, the way he would look at things. I’m not saying that the Republicans’ spines have weakened and become linguini. I’m thinking the way Obama looks at it, get it done now because after they go home and have their town meetings, when they get back they’re gonna be men of steel. They’re gonna be loaded for bear and they’re gonna have heard another mouthful from their constituents, their voters at town hall meetings. Obama wants whatever he can get done here before that happens, because this, in his view is when he thinks the Republicans are at their weakest. This is his best chance to get his way.
Now, Harry Reid, the always despicable Harry Reid intends to hold a meaningless vote on a Sense of the Senate, a resolution calling for millionaires to make a more meaningful contribution to the deficit. What a miserable demagogue Dingy Harry is. He’s got this Sense of the Senate resolution thing that he’s out there calling on millionaires to — (interruption) no, Snerdley, I don’t think — they’re saying that the White House is trying to get the deal done by July 22nd to soothe market fears and give Congress time to — do you think Obama cares about the market? He cares about anything as far as it relates to his reelection. He’s trying to get the Republicans at what he thinks is at their weakest. And, again, folks, don’t misunderstand here. There’s no evidence that Republicans are weak right now. I’m not suggesting that. Some of the Republican presidential candidates are saying some odd stuff, but we’re talking about the Republicans in the House right now.
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RUSH: To put this in further perspective for you, why is Obama engaged in debt ceiling negotiations anyway? You see, I thought Obama already solved all these issues. He had his deficit commission. He had Irksome Bowles out there, and he had Alan Simpson Babe, and they went out there, and they had their year-long meetings, and they met in December and they presented their findings, and Obama said (raspberry).
Let me do that better. He said (raspberry), to all their ideas, he just threw them out. You know, Irksome Bowles said, what the hell did I do here? And Alan Simpson Babe said, well, hell, let’s just belly up to the bar and we’ll talk about it there. A full year. They put their heart and souls into it as far as they are concerned, Obama’s just rejects ’em. Now he’s got all the answers, deficit reduction, all these things. I thought he already had a plan to deal with the deficit, with spending and growth. He put all this on a bipartisan commission, their charge was to solve all these problems Obama created in his first year in office. So why does Obama have these endless meetings and commissions and summits? This is what leading from behind looks like. And again, after he spends all the money.
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RUSH: My point, I don’t want to get too distracted, my point is this meeting tomorrow is, while substantive, trying to get the Republicans to cave here, it’s still political theater. The president is looking for the most opportunistic way to advance his campaign for reelection. He’s put off making any tough decisions because he doesn’t have any answers. He’s just looking for short term bragging rights. He’s looking for the headline. He needs a football to spike. He’s looking for “Obama Saves the Day” headline. “Obama Brings the Two Sides Together.” “Warring Factions Unable to Progress on Their Own After Meeting at White House, Obama,” blah, blah, blah. That’s what he’s looking for.
If Republicans come out of that meeting, “We had a really great meeting with the president, and we really worked together hard on this, and the president gets it.” If I hear that, I’m gonna feel poorly about it. The president also says, “Let’s leave ultimatums at the door,” meaning the only ultimatums will be his because he’s already in the door so he’s telling Republicans leave ultimatums at the door. They can’t bring theirs in; his will be the only ones on the table. But I wonder if that means that he’s open to not raising the debt ceiling. Is there going to actually be an exchange of ideas here, or is Obama gonna go in there, “Look guys, this is the way it’s gonna be, I won, this is what it’s gonna be.”
Now, if you really are serious about no one at tomorrow’s meeting have any ultimatums, let’s demonstrate that by holding the debt ceiling meeting in John Boehner’s office. After all, if a debt ceiling agreement can’t be reached, the president is gonna blame it on House Republicans. If Republicans truly have that much power, if everything rests on their shoulders, if you can’t take responsibility for the debt you demanded that we incur, I’m talking about Obama, this is a key point, folks. After all the spending he sets himself up as the adult who’s gonna get all these children who can’t control themselves to behave. He is the problem. His policies have led us where we are. Republicans have not contributed to them. Yet he’s a spectator all this time? Now he’s gonna bring these little kids up and he’s gonna teach ’em how to get along with one another and how to finally act responsible after two years of letting them run amuck, finally the adult is gonna assert himself, is that the image that he’s trying to pitch here?
I’ll tell you what, Mr. President, if everything rests on the Republicans’ shoulders, if you’re bringing ’em up and you’re gonna make them assume responsibility for all this, if you can’t take responsibility for the debt that you demanded that we incur, that you authored, then let John Boehner run the meeting and let’s put it on C-SPAN. Oh, yeah. Let Boehner run the meeting, let’s put it on C-SPAN. That way we will know that the president isn’t using these last-minute debt ceiling meetings that Obama had to be badgered to attend, by the way, as political theater. It’s laughable here, for Obama to pretend to be the only adult in the room arguing this issue is a joke with no punch line. So, Mr. President, and I also say this to you, President Clinton, no more make believe. Let’s stop the make believe. Let’s televise these meetings.
This is such a historic moment. Where taxpayer dollars are at such great risk, where you say the Republicans are nothing more than a bunch of lazy, misguided adolescents, let’s put you on TV so we can see all the experience in your characterizations for ourselves. It’s a knee-jerk ultimatum, no, leave your ultimatums at the door. Now, I want to warn you people, whatever happens tomorrow, we know who we’re dealing with in terms of the media covering this. Obama’s gonna be portrayed as the winner; it’s a given, no matter what. Want some sample headlines? “Obama Solves Debt Ceiling Riddle.” “Obama Leads Grand Compromise.” “Obama Saves Economy… Again.” “President Obama Eclipses Clinton’s Historic Welfare Reform Legislation.” “Obama Now Shoo-in For Reelection.” “First Osama Bin Laden, Now This?” “Obama Pulls Economy From Brink. Hello, Mount Rushmore.”
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RUSH: To the phones we go. We’re gonna start in Weehawken, New Jersey. This is Ryan. You’re first today. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, thanks for having me on. I just had a quick kind of rhetorical question point. If Obama in saying he’s cutting spending in the tax code, if that’s cutting the tax breaks, loopholes, and deductions, doesn’t that kind of assume that all the income is the government’s —
RUSH: Yep.
CALLER: — to begin with?
RUSH: Yep. Yep. I’m glad you reminded me of that. I said I was gonna get to that later. You’re exactly right, and what it illustrates is the view in Washington that all money is theirs, that it all starts with them and that they decide who ends up with what. They are in charge of determining the outcomes in life. It’s exactly the kind of people Obama and these current crop of Democrats are, you’re right.
CALLER: And when are people gonna realize that even if you tax them, big corporations either pass those taxes on to the consumers or they take their ball and go home.
RUSH: How old are you?
CALLER: Thirty-six.
RUSH: Thirty-six. I’m 60. I used to be 36. I learned what you know at 36 when I was 36, maybe a little earlier than that. I’ve been asking myself that for 24 years, when are people gonna figure it out? Right now we have 48% of Americans who do not pay income taxes, therefore who don’t care. They don’t have skin in the game. We have an ever increasing percentage of our population that believes the purpose of the government is to equalize outcomes, the purpose of the government is to make sure that people that don’t have enough, whatever enough is, get enough, whatever enough is.
Now, I actually think that more and more people than you think realize where we are. The November elections of 2010 showed that as will the presidential race in 2012 show that. You don’t see it reflected ’cause of the media of course. I think more people are very much aware now of what liberalism does and what socialism does and they don’t want any part of it. You saw the mass exodus of independents and Democrats in the November elections of 2010. I think the more Obama tries this kind of stuff, he’s gonna be trying it on the rich and he’s doing the class envy game and there are still enough people that fall for that.
CALLER: But even as you pointed out before, if they take all the rich’s money, it’s still not gonna make a dent in the national debt.
RUSH: No. You could confiscate every dollar the rich have and run the government at current spending levels for a month or two, and then you’d be done. And you could only do it once ’cause you’ve taken their money. After you have a taken their money there’s no way they’re gonna earn the same amount every year. You’re right. Again here, it’s not even about the revenue. It’s about the demagoguery. It is about making people think —
CALLER: And the control.
RUSH: Exactly. Exactly right. We are listening to how a statist speaks. We’re listening to how an authoritarian views the people of a country and their income. It’s his, it’s government’s. When you start talking about the spending that’s in the tax code and you use the mortgage interest deduction as an example — well, yeah, that’s the government short-changing itself. That’s money the government could have but it’s returning to people because they’re subsidizing home purchases, mortgage interest deduction. So they’re gonna count that on the spending side. Obama is just trying to capitalize, the magic word right now is spending. Nobody wants more of it. So he’s trying to increase taxes by calling them spending cuts. That’s what he’s hoping the media will help him convey is happening.
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