{"id":10192,"date":"2014-02-11T18:27:22","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T18:27:22","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-02-11T18:27:22","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T18:27:22","slug":"on_the_cutting_edge_a_banana_republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/02\/11\/on_the_cutting_edge_a_banana_republic\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Cutting Edge: A Banana Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: You know, I don\u2019t care how Obama tries to spin this. He\u2019s up there now with the French president, Hollande. I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re asking the French president about his wife and his mistress and his girlfriend. I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re asking him that. But somebody just asked Obama about the three-year delay of the employer mandate, and there\u2019s no answer that can get him off the hook on this. <\/p>\n

But this one, he said, “Well, we just learned that this will give the employers more time to be in compliance with the law.” I don\u2019t care how he spins this. The fact of the matter is, this was sold to everybody as a panacea. I mean, it was sold to the true believers as the big fix, and it was so good and so wonderful and so helpful. It was gonna insure the uninsured! It was gonna keep the insured insured. It was gonna lower premiums.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was going to widen the availability of health care itself!<\/p>\n

Of course, none of that has happened; just the exact opposite. For political reasons only, in order to avoid being destroyed at every election since 2010, they have delayed or waived the implementation of the very punitive aspects of this law. And it\u2019s purely political — and the entire Washington, DC, political spectrum understands now. They\u2019re not delaying the implementation because it isn\u2019t ready. They\u2019re not delaying it to help anybody except themselves.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not delaying the implementation because they\u2019re having trouble getting it right because they\u2019re never gonna get it right. It\u2019s never going to do what it was advertised to do. It is a punitive piece of legislation. It puts people who have no idea what they\u2019re doing in charge of health care. We\u2019re seeing the result. It was sold as great. It was sold as helpful. It was sold as a solution.<\/p>\n

Yet the only way to keep from doing even more damage to the country, to the health care system, to the small business sector? The only way to avoid damaging all that is to not implement this thing! In the process, Obama\u2019s trying to insure himself and his party from being damaged politically. So yesterday, they announce another delay in the requirement on businesses to provide health coverage, giving some employers a reprieve next year while phasing in the mandate for others. The Regime… Get this, now.<\/p>\n

This is not even constitutional what he\u2019s doing. He does not have the constitutional authority, by virtue of the law itself. I\u2019ll get to that in a minute. “The administration will let employers with 50 to 99 employees off the hook in 2015.” I mean, that right there: The Regime “will let”? In their magnificent munificence, they “will let employers … off the hook.” To be in compliance with this law is damaging and harmful, and so we\u2019re going to let them off the hook? <\/p>\n

“They\u2019ll be required to report on how many workers are covered, but they will have until 2016 after the next two elections before they face a penalty for failing to cover employees. Employers with 100 or more workers will be required to provide health insurance to full-time staff, but the new rules will only require them to cover 70% of workers next year, and 95% the following year.” It\u2019s an unmitigated disaster.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no other way to describe it. It\u2019s harmful, it\u2019s punitive, it\u2019s never going to work. If it were as Obama and the Regime and the Democrats advertised — if it were the panacea they promised, if it were the fix that they promised, if it was the solution they all promised — Obamacare would already have been fully implemented by now and the American people would demand access to it. The American people would be wanting it. <\/p>\n

Instead, they\u2019re running away from it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re hiding from it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re trying to avoid it. <\/p>\n

They don\u2019t want to be found by the health care system. The Regime knows full well that if they don\u2019t delay the implementation to this thing, the Democrat Party is dead. Terry Jeffrey writing at Cybercast News<\/a>. I think it\u2019s Terry Jeffrey. If this piece isn\u2019t by him, I know he wrote one. “Obama\u2019s new delay of employer mandate violates the plain language of the law,” and this is being sort of just glanced over by people. <\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t even have the power to do this. What he\u2019s doing is not legal. He doesn\u2019t have the authority — and while people gloss over that, they\u2019re focusing on, “What does it mean for Obama?” Believe me, they\u2019re all coming to the conclusion that this is purely political, and he\u2019s losing support on this from his side of the aisle. Ron Fournier, National Journal. It\u2019s fascinating. His first opinion of this was (paraphrased), “Hey, hey, stop complaining, you right-wingers!<\/p>\n

“All he\u2019s doing is manipulating taxes, and that\u2019s perfectly legal. The president can delay or speed up the implementation of the tax aspect of this law any time he wants,” and then somebody said to him, “No, no, no, no. It has nothing to do with that, Ron. He is manipulating this law to avoid political pain,” and Fournier said, “Oh, is that what he\u2019s doing? Well, then I totally agree. He can\u2019t do that.” <\/p>\n

Honest to God, that\u2019s the way it came out. <\/p>\n

The argument is, “Okay, if you\u2019ve got an albatross piece of legislation…” This is conventional Washington thinking, by the way. This is inside-the-Beltway thinking, both parties, both sides. If your president has a piece of legislation that\u2019s an albatross around your neck, and you got an election coming up, what you do is you change policies. You propose new laws or whatever to change people\u2019s attitudes and opinions of you.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s totally permissible. But you do not go in, violate the Constitution, and simply decide, “I\u2019m not gonna implement that, not gonna implement that, not gonna implement that.” If you\u2019re doing that to improve your political positions, then that is said to be unfair — and as sophomoric as that sounds, everybody in the Beltway agrees with that.<\/p>\n

“President Barack Obama\u2019s Treasury Department issued a new regulation today that for the second time directly violates the plain and unambiguous text of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by allowing some businesses to avoid the law\u2019s Dec. 31, 2013 deadline to provide health insurance coverage to their employees.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s actually when the mandate was supposed to kick in. It was by the 31st last year. So we\u2019re already way behind. Initially, on July 2, 2013, the [Regime] unilaterally delayed the deadline for the employer mandate until 2015. Now, the [Regime] is unilaterally delaying it for some businesses until 2016. … The text of the law itself describes an ‘applicable large employer\u2019 as follows:<\/p>\n

“‘The term “applicable large employer” means, with respect to a calendar year, an employer who employed an average of at least 50 full-time employees on business days during the preceding calendar year.\u2019 … In its official summary of PPACA, the Congressional Research Service said: ‘(Sec. 1513, as modified by section 10106) Imposes fines on large employers (employers with more than 50 full-time employees) who fail to offer their full-time employees the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage or who have a waiting period for enrollment of more than 60 days.'”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the text of the law. It goes on, and it\u2019s perfectly clear. He is violating the text of the law. The law says he cannot do what he\u2019s doing, and he\u2019s doing it anyway. Now, let\u2019s go to the audio sound bites. Up first, Dr. Krauthammer on Fox Special Report with Bret Baier, the All-Star Panel, and they\u2019re discussing Obama\u2019s latest delay of the mandate.<\/line><\/p>\n

KRAUTHAMMER: This is stuff that you do in a banana republic. It\u2019s as if the law is simply a blackboard on which Obama writes any number he wants, any delay he wants, and any provision. It\u2019s now reached a point where it is so endemic that nobody even notices or complains. I think if the complaints had started with the first arbitrary changes — and these are not adjustments or transitions. These are political decisions to minimize the impact leading up to an election, and it\u2019s changing the law in a way that you are not allowed to do.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, that is the conventional, inside-the-Beltway wisdom that, “Hey, you can\u2019t change a law in a way you\u2019re not allowed to if it\u2019s going to minimize negative impact of you leading up to an election.” Somehow, everybody inside the Beltway says that. That sounds so sophomoric to me, but everybody agrees with that. But the part of this sound bite that\u2019s interesting to me is, “It\u2019s now reached a point where it is so endemic that nobody even notices or complains.<\/line><\/p>\n

“I think if the complaints had started with the first arbitrary changes…” They did. There were all kinds of people who\u2019ve been complaining about this since before there were arbitrary changes. There were people trying to call attention to the outrageousness and the impossibilities of this law while it was being debated. There were people trying to call people\u2019s attention to what Obama\u2019s true long-term intentions were with this law, before it was even voted on. <\/p>\n

With the first series of waivers, there were all kinds of catcalls from people in the Tea Party, Tea Party Republicans in Congress, certain talk radio people. There was a bunch of people raising hell about what Obama was doing. There just didn\u2019t seem to be any interest in that inside the Beltway. There was a guy named Ted Cruz who was trying to get everybody to listen to him about this, and you know what they did to Ted Cruz insides the Beltway and even within the Republican Party. <\/p>\n

<\/a>Ted Cruz and Mike Lee said<\/a>, “Can we stop this? Can we bring this to a halt? Can we stop the implementation? Can we delay this? Can we defund this?” and you know what was said about them by people inside the Beltway. They were called extremists, and worse. They were portrayed as problems for the Republican Party. Kathleen Sebelius, back in November of 2012 said, “There will not be any delays, and to talk about delays is silly. It\u2019s unnecessary. We\u2019ll not do it.”<\/p>\n

There have been people — and there have been a lot of them, and they have been loud — who have been dead right on from the get-go about this. To lament that nobody said anything? So now when Obama does it, it just seems like no big deal. There are a lot of us who are hoarse, a lot of you who are hoarse! I mean how does it get to the point that it is so endemic that nobody even notices or complains? It gets to that point because when the first people noticing and complaining about it speak up, they\u2019re impugned!<\/p>\n

They\u2019re criticized, they\u2019re marginalized, they\u2019re told to shut up — and then it keeps on going and they keep speaking up, and they are continually told shut up. (interruption) We can\u2019t do anything about it. That\u2019s my whole point. There hasn\u2019t been any push-back ever from the Republican Party on this, and there isn\u2019t any now. It isn\u2019t gonna happen. (interruption) They\u2019re not even asked the question. It\u2019s just a little thought process exercise. (interruption) What if somebody actually did begin impeachment proceedings?<\/p>\n

Do you think that would slow Obama down in this extra-constitutional behavior, or not? Probably not. (interruption) Yeah. Maybe if the polls showed it. True. But it isn\u2019t gonna happen anyway. But the idea that nobody\u2019s spoken up and nobody said anything about this until now, and it\u2019s too late once everybody finally starts noticing? Bob Beckel on Fox today was asked to comment on what Dr. Krauthammer said, and he was not happy.<\/p>\n

BECKEL: I think Charles has stepped way over the line by calling this a banana republic. The fact is that this is an enormously complex law. It is requiring… You literally have to rewrite it as you move along because the situation has never been like this. Do I think this was moved because of political reasons? Yes, I do. And I\u2019m glad it is.<\/p>\n

RUSH: See? Everybody knows. He\u2019s not moving this law to help anybody but him. He\u2019s not doing any of this to provide anybody any assistance — patients, doctors, hospitals, or businesses. He\u2019s only trying to help himself and his party. Beckel says that\u2019s fine. “Charles stepped way over the line there calling this a banana republic.” Hey, Bob? Grab sound bite number three. I want to take you back to me on this program July 3rd, 2009.<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: We have 232 years of evidence — and as Lanny Davis would say, of “poof” — that independence works far better than dependence does. It\u2019s better for the individual — and as our founders foresaw, better for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But now with the unemployment numbers at nine-and-a-half percent (and no end in sight) to the plunge in the number of people working and our economic growth in negative numbers, it is safe to say that the United States is or is on the verge of becoming a banana republic.<\/p>\n

RUSH: There you have it, folks. We\u2019re on the cutting edge of societal evolution yet again, characterizing the Regime as a banana republic barely six months into it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: You know, I don\u2019t care how Obama tries to spin this. He\u2019s up there now with the French president, Hollande. I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re asking the French president about his wife and his mistress and his girlfriend. I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re asking him that. 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