RUSH: Amidst all of this delusional, self-delusional happiness that the left is immersed in today — ’cause it is delusion. They’ve really got themselves convinced now (because of the ABC/Washington Post poll and the 7.1 million sign-ups) that you just now love Obamacare, and they’ve turned the corner.
“My gosh, oh gosh! This is just wonderful!” And they’re deluding themselves just like they did it in 2010. But there’s something else that’s happened today that’s gonna bring ’em down to earth, and it won’t be long before they’re all on TV having conniption fits. “Supreme Court Strikes Down Overall Limits on Political Contributions.” This is just unacceptable.
“The Supreme Court has struck down limits in federal law on the overall campaign contributions the biggest individual donors may make to candidates, political parties and political action committees. The justices said in a 5-4 vote Wednesday that Americans have a right to give the legal maximum to candidates for Congress and president, as well as to parties and PACs, without worrying that they will violate the law when they bump up against a limit on all contributions, set at $123,200 for 2013 and 2014.
“That includes a separate $48,600 cap on contributions to candidates. The case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, did not call into question the maximum amount an individual can donate to a single candidate or political party in a two-year election cycle — those limits are $2,600 to a candidate, $32,400 to a national political party and $5,000 to a political committee.”
Those are unchanged. The case did not call those maximum amounts into question. It’s the overall limit that all of your donations add up to that the justices struck down. “Chief Justice John Roberts announced the decision, which split the court’s liberal and conservative justices. Roberts said the aggregate limits do not act to prevent corruption, the rationale the court has upheld as justifying contribution limits.”
The thinking always has been that the more money you have, the more corruption. And of course the correct view is that money is speech. It takes money to buy ads, takes money to express your opinion. No matter who’s spending it, it takes money for that to happen, and money equals speech. That is the enlightened view, but the left hates that.
It’s just like if you say, “Corporations are people.”
“Oh, no, they’re not!”
It’s like showing Dracula the cross to say, “Corporations are people.”
Well, the court in Citizens United said corporations are people, and the liberals got ticked. Now the court has further underlined and exclamation pointed the notion that speech equals money. When they figure this out today, when they come off their high from celebrating Obama’s phony victory lap, they’re going to be fit to be tied.
Now, “Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome of the case, but wrote separately to say that he would have gone further and wiped away all contribution limits.” He would get rid of this $2600 limit to candidates, for example. He’d just blow it all up. He said, “This case represents yet another missed opportunity to right the course of our campaign finance jurisprudence by restoring a standard that is faithful to the First Amendment.
“Until we undertake that reexamination, we remain in a ‘halfway house’ of our own design.” He’s right. He’s right on the money. “Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the [minority] dissenters, took the unusual step of reading a summary of his opinion from the bench.” That lets you know how ticked off the four lib justices are over this. You know as well as I do, Citizens United has sent them over the edge, ’cause that meant the Koch brothers or any other corporation could give as much as they want.
And the corporations are people.
They just can’t stand it when you tell ’em that. They just flip. It’s amazing. It’s funny to watch a liberal when you say that. Next time you’re with a liberal anywhere, just out of the blue, blurt: “Corporations are people!” Blurt it out. Don’t lead up to it. Don’t lead into it. Just blurt it out. “Hey, Fred.” “Yeah?” “Corporations are people!” Watch what happens. Cover your face, or other body parts you fear being damaged, and hang around and watch.
Now, we do have one little sound bite to give an indication the way this is gonna go. Carol Costello on CNN today spoke with the senior legal analyst at CNN, Jeffrey Toobin. Was he speaking from the cockpit simulator of the Malaysian airliner? (interruption) He wasn’t? (interruption) Well, they put everybody else in there. She spoke to Jeffrey Toobin about this, and this is a brief summary of what they said…
COSTELLO: These rulings continue to surprise me only because so many Americans are concerned about the money factor, who gets elected to public office. They think it’s a real problem, and these kinds of rulings seem to only exacerbate the problems.
TOOBIN: The four dissenting justices led by Justice Stephen Breyer said, in effect, that’s all a bunch of nonsense, that speech is not money, that money is not speech, that this should be regulated. But they only had four votes, not five.
COSTELLO: So now we know corporations are people and money is people, too!
RUSH: Oh, no! See? They just can’t stand it. “So now we know corporations are people and money is people, too.” I don’t know, folks. It’s a contradiction every day. I’m entertained by these people but at the same time, they’re actually doing destructive things. (interruption) They’re not into freedom of speech is why it’s so hard. (interruption) What do you mean?
Snerdley says, “What is so hard for them to understand about freedom of speech?” They’re not into freedom of speech. These are people that created political correctness, which is censorship. They’re not into freedom of speech. Not for you. The only freedom of speech that exists is if you say something or anything they want to hear or agree with. If you don’t, you don’t have freedom of speech.
They’re not interested in a level playing field.
They want to rig every game.
They can’t win on a level playing field.
This is what they all know.