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RUSH: You know, all we’ve heard from the Drive-By Media and the rest of the Beltway establishment is how the GOP needs to reach out. Right? GOP needs to reach out to other people, needs to broaden its base. Well, Cruz has been reaching out like nobody’s business.

Ted Cruz has made a greater effort and expended more energy reaching out than anybody recently I can recall in the Republican Party. His grassroots efforts, his petition to sign the petition to defund Obamacare, and now his filibuster. Of course this is not the kind of outreach the establishment is talking about. They mean the kind of outreach that reaches out to Democrat voters, by embracing those positions. That’s what the Washington establishment right now wants.

Cruz is having none of it.

I’ll give you a couple quotes. There’s an interesting phenomena that’s occurring here that’s quite interesting to point out. John Cornyn, the other Republican senator from Texas, made a statement not all that long ago, some years ago. I’ll read it to you verbatim. “If Obamacare is allowed to stand,” said Senator John Cornyn, “and Congress is allowed to make the purchase of government-endorsed health insurance compulsory — there will be no meaningful limit on WashingtonÂ’s reach into the lives of the American people. That is certainly not what the Founders intended.”

So why wasn’t Senator Cornyn up there with Senator Cruz? Because Senator Cruz was simply acting on what Senator Cornyn had previously said — and I can probably cite every other Republican Senator in this same way. Chris Wallace was once interviewing Mitch McConnell. “Do you don’t think the 30 million people who are uninsured is an issue?” McConnell said, “Let me tell you what we’re not going to do. We’re not gonna turn the American health care system into a Western European system.”

That’s the Washington Post. Well, what happened, then? How is it that Senators Cornyn and McConnell sounded like Senator Cruz a few years ago but now, no? Did they not mean it? Were they just saying it because that’s what they thought you, their voters, wanted to hear? Was it necessary to say that to get reelected? This embodies exactly what’s happening.

Tell the Republican base what you think it wants to hear, but then forget it — and especially if the going gets tough. If the going gets tough, then you always can retreat and find solace and comfort in the establishment, where you’ll be protected as a preferred member. I’m sure Ted Cruz heard these guys say this. One of the reasons, I think, he wanted to go to the Senate was he thought it was made up of other Republicans like him.

Do you think Ted Cruz thought that when he got elected to the Senate he was gonna be one of three or four who meant it when they said they were opposed to Obamacare? I think one of the reasons… I’ll ask him. One of the reasons he was excited to go there is he thought he was really gonna be joining a bunch of people who weren’t gonna take this, who meant it when they said,

“If Obamacare is allowed to stand — and Congress is allowed to make the purchase of government-endorsed health insurance compulsory — there will be no meaningful limit on WashingtonÂ’s reach into the lives of the American people.” By the way, Senator Cornyn, who said that, was not in favor of this. So Senator Cruz gets to Washington and finds out that he’s one of three or four people in that body, Republicans, who mean it..

He coulda said, “Well, I’ll take the path of least resistance and throw in with them.”

But he didn’t. So now, ladies and gentlemen, there is this premise out there that doing what Ted Cruz did with his filibuster, his 21-hour speech — note, they don’t want to call it a filibuster for some reason. At any rate, the premise is that because Cruz did what he did, and because Cruz has been doing what he’s been doing, and because Cruz did the petition, and because Cruz continues to run against Obama — ’cause Cruz is doing what he’s doing. The premise is we lose because of what Cruz is doing.

I don’t think that’s true. I think that when they do, Republicans lose elections because they have continually dispirited their own base, because they have either intentionally or otherwise de-energized their own base — and because people on our side, whether they be in the Republican Party or in the so-called conservative media, refuse to call out Barack Obama to the extent that he should be called out. There isn’t any criticism of Barack Obama. There isn’t any explanation of who Barack Obama is.

There isn’t any teaching.

There isn’t any effort to make the American people understand what it is the Democrat Party seeks for them. There’s no push-back. That’s why they lose elections when they do. It’s not because of this. Now Ted Cruz, it is said, has infuriated his fellow Republicans. They’re very much worried that he’s made them all look like fools. Well, now, how? I don’t understand that. How does that happen? Cruz did what he did by himself. Well, he had some support. He had Rubio, Mike Lee.

There were some others in there, but how does anybody else look silly? This is the problem. Everybody’s so concerned with what they look like. Everybody’s so concerned with what people think of ’em. Obviously Ted Cruz doesn’t worry about that. Ted Cruz is fighting for the country as founded. It’s no more complicated than that. He points out that the crux, the central part of Obamacare is falling apart.

As a matter of business, as a matter of congressional legislation it’s a mistake to fully implement this thing because it’s a disaster. Medicare cuts that are there to help pay for this have been delayed. The employer mandate has been delayed until 2015. The employer mandate was fundamental to making this work, in theory. The mandate that employees are provided coverage by their employer is delayed. So now the employers can back out forever.

Look at all the conversion of people that, at one time, used to have careers. Now they’re part-time workers. This is a disaster. It’s totally worth opposing this. But I’ll tell you something else, folks. There has to be a time when you draw the line. This is it. You have a got to draw the line. You’ve got to set down that marker. You have got to let the American people know where you stand and what you will not support. You have got to let the American voter, the American people — who are on your side in this!

The vast majority of the American people oppose this. You’ve got to let them know where your line is, and that’s what Ted Cruz has done here. The strategy is not about raising money. The strategy is not about winning elections in the short term. What this is about is the debate. This is taking this issue out of Washington, out of the halls of Congress and taking it to the arena of ideas. This is about taking the crux of the matter, what is going to happen to the American people because of this law, to them and help them understand what is about to happen if this thing is fully implemented. It has to happen. This line has to be drawn.

At some point, where everything you’re fighting for is on the line, you’ve got to make a stand for it. And this idea, “Well, we can’t do that now because we might lose in 2014 or we might lose in 2016,” what are we doing now? We’re losing. We’re losing against the most radical leftist administration in our lifetimes and maybe ever. And there’s no excuse for it because the American people are not with this administration. The American people are opposed to it. They may not know that they’re opposed to Obama, but they don’t like what’s happening.

The big danger that is happening in this country is that people are losing faith in the country. They’re losing faith in the idea that there is opportunity here. They’re losing faith in the old adage that hard work pays off. They’re losing faith in all of the traditions and institutions that they have relied on in the past. They don’t see this as losing faith in Obama, the Limbaugh Theorem, don’t want to repeat it. They think, in a misguided but understandable reason, they think Obama’s fighting for them right along with everybody else. They don’t understand that their loss of faith in the country is precisely because of the policies, including this one, health care of Obama.

Ted Cruz is attempting to wake people up. He should be joined by members of his party, which he’s also trying to save as an opposition party and as a party that is known for its devotion to limited government. There was this talk not long ago about Obama and the fact that he did or didn’t, depending on the day, draw a red line for Bashar Assad. Remember that? We need a red line on Obama and his administration. Ted Cruz just drew it. Ted Cruz just drew the red line.

If the Republican Party cannot follow through on its promise to voters to oppose Obamacare — and they all did; Senator Cornyn, Senator McConnell, I can quote any number of these people and what they’ve said about Obama over the years — if they can’t follow through now and oppose this, then what is the point of winning? Seriously. What’s the point of winning if you’re not even gonna try to stop the most egregious, outrageous assault on the very traditions and institutions of this country that we’ve seen? Why do you even want to win? And the answer is, they want to be in control of the money, ’cause it’s apparently about that, not about ideas.

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