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RUSH: I think you need to know something, folks. You’re all wired and ready for the debt ceiling fight, right? Don’t be. The ruling class on the Republican side has decided the debt ceiling is not the next battle. The Ryan budget is. Go to conservative media blogs, yesterday afternoon and last night, you would have said that the message here, the real fight is not the debt ceiling. It’s the Ryan budget. What the conservative ruling class, ruling class intelligentsia media is attempting to do here is to accomplish the same thing they did with the budget: Don’t fight it. Don’t go for the government shutdown. Don’t plant the flag here on the debt ceiling. Don’t do it. We can’t win. Don’t do it. We’re gonna lose.

It’s a rerun, folks. The people who gave you the tepid fight over this budget vis-a-vis the government shutdown are now the same people attempting to plant the flag in the area where, “Ah, forget the budget debt limit. That’s not the next fight. We gotta gird up. We gotta get ready for the Ryan budget. That’s what we have to focus on.” If you haven’t heard it yet just keep a sharp eye, you will, it’s coming. Because it’s already been said. The groundwork has been laid. Just warning you.

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John Fund was on one morning show today. I forget which one. But he was saying, “Look, the real fight’s not the debt ceiling. The real fight’s gonna be the Ryan budget,” and a lot of others are starting to say the same thing, that the debt ceiling is not the next fight. Folks, you can get mad at me all you want for just pointing out what’s happening. You can go right ahead.

But all weekend long one of the reasons we were told, ‘That $38 billion, that’s a lot of money. We finally turned the boat around: a $38 billion budget deal, real cuts. Thirty-eight, that’s good because the real battle is gonna be the debt ceiling, there we’re gonna be talking about trillions, not billions,” and now I’m telling you the table is being set that we’re gonna forget the debt ceiling next and instead the real focus is gonna be on the Ryan budget. Mitch McConnell at that confab the Republicans just had, the Senate leader for the Republicans just spoke. He talked about the importance of “maintaining confidence in the United States around the world.”

He said you can’t threaten to go into default by refusing to raise the debt limit and keep the confidence of world markets. So we are getting… I don’t know if I like the term. You know, I really don’t want to make you guys mad at me by using the term “precave,” but the debt limit now. “We’re gonna focus on the debt limit. Don’t worry about what didn’t happen with the budget deal. That’s chump change, and we knew it was chump change. The debt limit, that’s where we’re gonna fight.” Apparently not. (sigh) Now there’s too much at risk in a debt limit. Then we gotta move on to the Ryan budget.

A giant See, I Told You So. Larry Kudlow over at CNBC said the same thing yesterday. “Ah, the debt limit, it’s too risky. No, we’re gonna fight it,” and before long, before long, I’m just gonna predict to you that the message is going to evolve to be, “You know, really, this is not the time to fight for the Ryan budget because we don’t have the White House. We’ve gotta focus on the presidential election. The Ryan budget? We need to wait on that awhile.” I guarantee you. Well, I’m not gonna guarantee you on that. But I’m just suggesting that you not be surprised, ’cause the pattern is starting to establish itself out there. You know it and I know it.

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RUSH: It’s an instant See, I Told You So. While I was warning you what was coming, while I was warning you that they’re gonna punt the debt ceiling and move on to the Ryan budget, here is the Speaker, John Boehner, literally when I was telling you that 15 minutes ago….

BOEHNER: I fully support Paul Ryan’s budget, including his efforts, uh, on Medicare. But I think all of us understand, uh, that, uh, not meeting our obligations — our debt obligations — uhhh, is a very bad idea, and nobody wants to take that risk.

RUSH: All right, so they’re gonna kick the debt ceiling down the road. They’re going to kick it down the road. This is chutzpah because it was — again, I remind you — over the weekend, used as an excuse for only $38 billion on the budget fight. “That’s billions. We’re gonna get trillions! We’re going for trillions on the debt sealing fight.” Now, that’s kicked down the road. When we get to the Ryan budget (this a prediction), the same people are gonna say, “Why fight this battle now? The Ryan budget’s about ten years, nobody cares about that, no current Congress can tie the hands of future Congress.

“So the Ryan budget, we’re gonna hold that until we have the White House. Let’s focus on the presidential election. We’ve got important issues to face out there like regulating school lunches and making sure that people can’t take ’em from home.” Don’t doubt me. Now, if the trend continues — if the trend continues — Obama today will propose raising taxes on somebody (and actually it will be on everybody no matter what he says). Everybody will be faced with the prospect of paying higher taxes, and we will agree to a certain percentage of tax increases, and then elements of our conservative media will write praising editorials on the value of compromise.

(laughing) It’ll be how we took what could have been a disaster and a 10% Obama tax increase and we only made it 5% and called it a win, and say how our guys are hanging in there for us. (laughing) Snerdley is scratching his dwindling supply of hair in there. Okay. We’re less than an hour from President Obama’s budget speech, the second one this year. We will be JIPping it on this program. I got an e-mail. “Don’t carry that! We’d just soon listen to you. You will be. You think I’m gonna sit here and turn my microphone off when this is going on, folks? Where are we starting? Pompano Beach, Florida. Hi, Mike.

CALLER: Never turn your microphone off, and this is a lot better than talking to John Boehner’s secretary at his office when I called the other day. But I’m just absolutely furious. To any of the listeners that have sent those e-mails to you and anybody who is sitting on the sidelines: “When Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, Mark Levin, and Dick Morris all think this is a bad deal, it’s a bad deal.” You gotta remember who we’re dealing with here, okay? This guy has trampled all over the Constitution. These are the same people that fought in Wisconsin. We need to fight. We elected these people to be obstructionists. Nothing’s gonna get done on Ryan’s budget because it’s gotta go through the Senate and get signed by the president. You think he’s gonna sign anything worthwhile? A shutdown… Look, you’re limited as an obstructionist and the House has a ton of power to obstruct. That’s the role they need to play is obstruction, because any other role is just trumped by their one-third of the government —

RUSH: Well…

CALLER: — and it infuriates me.

RUSH: I know. This is what a lot of people voting in November expected. The voters were sophisticated. They know the lay of the land. They know that Obama can veto such things as a repeal of his health care bill. They know it, but they want to see the effort. Send it up there every week and make him veto it every week. Make them own these disastrous policies. Stand for something else. I’m gonna tell you what galls me: This notion that we’ve gotta put this fight off for another day, that we have to kick the can down the road. Now, I really hate to keep harping on this, but this is the best illustration that I can come up with.

Here we had Obama and Harry Reid locked into a position. They were willing to shut down the government and not pay our soldiers on the battlefield in order to keep the money spigot flowing for the abortionists at Planned Parenthood, and the Republicans didn’t think they could win that PR fight? Given the election results of November, where is it written that we can’t win a PR fight with a bunch of people who are unwilling to pay the troops but want to make sure abortionists continue to get paid? That’s what the fight was about last week.

Elmer Fudd could win that fight! Elmer Fudd could win it. For crying out loud! You know, this is the thing that is frustrating to me because — as I told the Heritage people Friday — never in my lifetime has there been a greater opportunity to contrast who we are and what we stand for with our opponents, and we don’t really have to even say anything. Just point to what they’re doing! People’s lives, millions of people’s lives are being seriously hurt — in some cases destroyed — by this administration, and by this administration’s policies.

As the elections in November proved, we don’t really have to say anything. Is that all we have to do is point out what we are for. If you’re afraid to criticize Obama because he’s black and you’re afraid of being called a racist or whatever, fine. Just tell us who you are and what you stand for and it will carry the day. Never has there been a greater opportunity! We have people who want to fundamentally transform this country and turn it into a welfare state where a majority of people are depending on government for their very existence.

Therefore they will forever vote for big government — and why wouldn’t they? They’re never going to be paying for it. That’s where we’re headed. Well, that’s a lousy future for us and your kids and grandkids.

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RUSH: Here’s Tom in Delmar, New York, as we head back to the phones. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, it’s a pleasure to speak with you.

RUSH: You bet, sir. Thank you.

CALLER: Not only did the Republicans give in on the debt ceiling or are going to be giving in on the debt ceiling and they gave up on the budget deal, but lately on judge Napolitano’s show and a couple others I’ve seen congressmen come on saying that they’re gonna abandon the balanced budget amendment because Paul Ryan’s proposed budget does not achieve it quick enough.

RUSH: They’re gonna abandon the balanced budget amendment, meaning they’re gonna shift their focus to the Ryan budget?

CALLER: Right. Originally they said that the only way they’re gonna vote to increase the debt ceiling is if they get a balanced budget amendment, but now they’re softening that saying that just some hard caps will do, but now the congressmen have been coming on, Mike Lee’s in the Senate, is the one who proposed this, but now House members are saying it’s gonna be abandoned because Paul Ryan’s budget doesn’t achieve a balanced budget quickly enough.

RUSH: Okay. I think what you’re saying is that these guys are saying if they’re gonna be loyal to the Ryan budget, they have to give it up.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: They’ve gotta give up the balanced budget amendment ’cause they gotta support Ryan’s budget. Ryan’s budget, balanced budget, doesn’t take, what, 15 or 20 years for it to happen. Well, could be. Now, in 2006, and this is just a reminder, and that’s just five years ago, in 2006 every Democrat in the Senate voted against raising the debt ceiling. In fact, some in the House did, too. Steny Hoyer is the latest Democrat to come out and agree with Obama. “You know what? That was a big mistake of mine. You know, I voted against raising the debt limit in 2006, that was a big, big, big mistake.” So Obama’s saying it; Steny Hoyer has said it. Every one of them in the Senate, every Democrat in the Senate in 2006 voted against raising the debt ceiling even though we were at risk of losing the war in Iraq.

Now, some people might say that they voted against the debt ceiling because we were at risk of losing the Iraq war, and that was their strategy. But isn’t it funny now how times change. They are probably gonna vote unanimously for raising the debt ceiling next month. They have such strong principles, don’t you know. And now the Republicans were hoping to plant the flag in the ground on the debt ceiling. “Rush, they know that we’re paying attention. They know that we’re watching. Why are they caving here in a matter of 24 hours on this?” It appears they are. That’s what all the words seem to mean. I don’t know. I can only speculate. I think one of the tactical reasons for it is that, okay, they claim they’re gonna plant the flag, yeah, a budget battle, that was billions, that’s chump change. Don’t worry, we’re gonna really hunker down here on the debt ceiling. That’s where we’re gonna demand trillions and so forth. Except they threw away the weapon, they have telegraphed they will not shut the government down. Andrew Malcolm has a piece in his blog, the LA Times today, “Why Obama Was Forced to Give Today’s Deficit Speech.” And it’s all about how Obama’s been kind of forced and maneuvered into this, and I read it, it’s a well-written piece, as all of Andrew Malcolm’s stuff is. I don’t think I agree with it. I don’t think Obama thinks he got snookered at all.

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RUSH: Let’s go to Sierra Vista, Arizona, we go back to the phones. Hello, Rich, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, dittos from the desert.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: Hey, I was listening to Boehner and McConnell today with all this stuff going on, and you may have already answered my question by saying Congress can’t tie the hands of future Congresses. You know, they are talking about there’s no way that they have the votes to raise the debt ceiling. So, okay, if they don’t have the votes to raise the debt ceiling unless there’s something substantive that we can’t do, I can’t think of anything more substantive than say, “Okay, we’ll raise your debt ceiling to cover our debts for this fiscal year but starting October 1st, tie it in,” and at the same time that they do the budget, that they’re supposed to start doing the budget: The first thing they have to do on October 1st is lower the debt ceiling by law —

RUSH: Wait a minute.

CALLER: — and every year —

RUSH: I’m a little confused. Where have you heard there aren’t the votes yet to raise the debt ceiling?

CALLER: Boehner and McConnell were on the television just a little a while ago talking about it after a meeting they had with Obama.

RUSH: I missed that.

CALLER: Yeah. It was on Fox News. They were actually doing a live thing, and they sat there and said, “We don’t have the votes to give it to you unless you give us something else that’s substantive.”

RUSH: Well, now, that’s actually encouraging. They have been talking earlier and were sounding quite different. In fact, I heard McConnell say that, in effect, raising the debt limit, this is not to go to war on. It’s too important. We have to raise the debt ceiling. Now you’re confusing me.

CALLER: Well, it’s not confusing. Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, and Kyl were all on the same video, and it was live, and they said, “No, we don’t have the votes to do it unless you give us something else,” and I think that they should tie it to every certain amount of time — and I don’t even know what the time would be. “This time we lower it, this time we lower it, this time we lower it.” Say, “You can’t raise it anymore legally, by law,” and I think that has a snowball effect on everything, because now you’re telling the rest of the world.

RUSH: Well, that is what we’re all after. What we are all after is reducing debt, is reducing the size of government. Now, one of the disadvantages here is all this stuff happening while I happen to be serving humanity. It’s very rare that somebody calls here and tells me something I don’t know. It’s doubly rare that somebody calls here and tells me something that’s quite the opposite of what I thought I heard. So now I’m gonna have to really dig into this, ’cause believe me: Some of the conservative media people from last night and this morning were saying, “You know what? We thought the debt limit would be the place to fight this but we’re not. We’re gonna focus on the Ryan budget.”

And there was a story in The Politico, and it’s The Politico, I grant you that, that’s why we hold it in reserve that Wall Street people are threatening Boehner on the debt ceiling and that Boehner and McConnell are both out there talking about: We can’t afford to play around with America in default, meaning not raise the debt ceiling. But we’ll get to the bottom of it, folks. You know, at the end of the day, we here at the EIB Network will get to the bottom of it. I just have not heard what this caller said. I have not heard it, and we’re gonna find out what the bottom line is.

By the way, charitable giving also included in no deductions for the upper 2% of wage earners. (interruption) Yeah, but it’s nothing new. Remember, now, ending the charitable deduction goes back to the first days of the regime. I think maybe even in the campaign. Remember, they want to be the source of all charity. They want the government to be the source of charity. They’d be perfectly fine if charitable giving dries up because there’s no longer a deduction. The deduction for it now is whatever your tax bracket is. So 35, 36% at the top. I don’t know what the top bracket is. Whatever it is, that’s what your deduction is but he’s gonna eliminate it.

All kinds of deductions, Snerdley, not just the home mortgage interest deduction. Charitable donations, no more tax deductibility. Look, he’s gonna strip them all. There is no more deductibility. It’s not fair that they can deduct and the middle class can’t. If he thought he lost the budget debate, he wouldn’t be making the speech much less saying this stuff. See, everybody’s got this wrong, everybody thinks he’s out there making this speech because he lost the budget debate. Everybody’s out there thinking he made this speech today because he took it on the chin, because all the spin of the media on the weekend was, “Wow, the Republicans really cleaned Obama’s clock!

“So he’s gotta go out there and he’s gotta put his hand in the deal now. He’s gotta make sure he keeps his hand in there.” You can tell from his attitude, the contents, the subject matter, he doesn’t think he lost the budget deal. In my humble opinion. Listening to Obama today, he thinks that he will be able to get whatever he wants. I don’t think that he’s acting chastened or beaten or defensive. In fact, he’s back to looking like God. He’s looking up above everybody. One of the tricks is they raise those teleprompter screens higher than his eye level so he has to look up so that he appears to be looking down on everybody.

His nose is in the air. They put the godlike reverb in there now and then. He’s back to that. The only missing there is fake, papier-mache Greek columns that they had in Denver. Now, the Washington Times is quoting Boehner and quoting McConnell as saying, “No debt ceiling increase without cutting the debt.” That is in the Washington Times. We’ll get more detail on this. I hope that’s true. I hope the interpretation I had earlier, what I heard, is not true, it was incorrect.

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RUSH: There are not enough votes in the House to raise the debt ceiling without language attached requiring more spending cuts. Republican leaders did say that today. We have checked. We’re working hard here. Show prep goes on while the show is being done. There are not enough votes in the House to raise the debt limit right now. And, there aren’t enough Republican votes to pass a $38 and a half billion budget deal right now. They might have to go get some Democrat votes to pass the budget deal negotiated with Obama on Friday.

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