{"id":11270,"date":"2013-09-30T16:21:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T16:21:54","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-09-30T16:21:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T16:21:54","slug":"shutdown_kicks_off_14_democrat_campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/09\/30\/shutdown_kicks_off_14_democrat_campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutdown Kicks Off \u201914 Democrat Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: Greetings, my friends, and welcome to what the Democrat Party is considering its opening move in the 2014 campaign: a government shutdown that looms in front of all of us. It\u2019s the latest, and it is the next Democrat Party campaign move. It is felt and it\u2019s being covered by the media totally in historical ways. It is not being adapted to anything really happening. <\/p>\n

If I were to tell you that I don\u2019t even know what really is happening here, I probably would be more honest than not. You know, I\u2019ve been doing this for 25 years. We\u2019ve been through government shutdowns countless times, and this one is just like all the other ones. It is being covered, it is being reported, it is being discussed totally within the paradigm of a horse race, totally within the framework of how this is going to destroy the Republican Party, the merits absent. The reasons for this maybe happening, absent. The human impact, the impact on real people of this disastrous piece of legislation, absent. Nobody is talking about it. I mean, in the media. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Frankly, I\u2019m bored with it, folks. I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m sick and tired of everywhere you turn in the media, having as the top-level analysis how this is gonna destroy the Republicans, how it\u2019s gonna be a great boon to Obama and the Democrats, and that\u2019s all that matters, in fact, to the media. The substance of this — you know, the exchanges open for business tomorrow. It\u2019s gonna be an absolute disaster. Nobody cares. Not a matter of concern. I mean, even in some so-called conservative journals of opinion, Obama\u2019s no more than a CEO. He\u2019s just a CEO, and when it doesn\u2019t go right at implementation he\u2019ll take whatever steps necessary to get it right. There\u2019s no practical application in reporting of this story of what any of it really means and what any of it is really all about. <\/p>\n

So the thing that you can do with this is to just discuss it within the same framework that the media presents it each and every day. CNN\u2019s got their countdown clock, what is it 11 hours and 51 minutes and 25 seconds to the government shutdown, as though disaster awaits, as though the end of the world is on the cusp. And who will compromise, and who will blink, and who won\u2019t? And who are we going to blame? The fact is that everybody involved on the left wants the government shutdown because this is the opening salvo of the Democrat campaign for 2014. <\/p>\n

The Republicans, now, what happened over the weekend in terms of the substance here, what happened is that the House Republicans approved a measure — well, the whole House, \u2019cause it passed, they approved a measure early yesterday morning that will fund government through December 15th. It will delay the implementation of Obamacare for one year. It includes an amendment to repeal the medical device tax, a separate provision to pay military members in the event of a shutdown. It passed easily, putting the continuing resolution to keep the government running past Monday back in the Senate\u2019s court. <\/p>\n

Now, this contains in it one of the debates that\u2019s been going within the Republican Party, should there be a delay, or should we move full fledge to defund. And the House did not vote or take the route to defund. They went the route to delay for one year, including the individual mandate. Because the employer mandate has been delayed by Obama, and it is felt that if these mandates can be delayed and stopped, that the guts of Obamacare will have been ripped out of it. And indeed, the individual mandate that requires everybody to have insurance starting with the exchanges opening tomorrow, if that were to be delayed, there are a lot of people not happy with that. If you\u2019re gonna do that, go for the whole ball of wax. Go for defunding this whole thing. <\/p>\n

Now, Ted Cruz was on Meet the Depressed yesterday with David Gregory. And once again, I thought he made mincemeat of Gregory just as I thought he made mincemeat of Senator Turban on the Senate floor during his filibuster. <\/p>\n

Now, TheHill.com: “As Government Shutdown Looms, Cruz Calls Dems ‘Absolutist\u2019.”<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s their story. “The Republican leading the fight to defund President Obama\u2019s healthcare law called Democrats ‘absolutist\u2019 Sunday for refusing to budge as a government shutdown looms.” Now, I have to tell you, the Democrats want this. The Democrats want it because they are confident that the Republicans are gonna get blamed. You might have forgotten this, but I haven\u2019t. Bill Clinton, he\u2019s out there saying Republicans are desperate for America to fail. They\u2019ve been obsessed with that ever since January the 16th of 2009 <\/a>when some guy on the radio said he hoped Obama failed. Anyway, we\u2019ll get to that, too. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But Clinton is telling Obama not to negotiate with the Republicans, do not do it. Now, Obama\u2019s negotiating with the Syrians, or wants to. He\u2019s negotiating with the Iranians or wants to. He\u2019s negotiating with the Taliban, and they say that\u2019s perfectly normal. Obama says I got nothing to fear from those guys, but I am not talking to Boehner. People on our side want a big deal made about that. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna change one person\u2019s mind in the low-information crowd. I don\u2019t think any history of government shutdowns — there\u2019s been 17 of \u2019em — not gonna matter. The here and now is where the impact of this is gonna be made.<\/p>\n

I could have a room full of low-information voters in here. I could have \u2019em totally captivated. I could own \u2019em. I could have me be the only thing they listen to and I could give \u2019em the history of government shutdowns, how nothing bad happens, how sometimes something good happens, it wouldn\u2019t change their mind. The history of this is a weak vehicle for persuasion, given where we are, given where the news media is and given where the low-information crowd goes to trust whatever it hears. The history of this stuff, just like American history\u2019s being rewritten, so is recent history. <\/p>\n

Clinton. He\u2019s out there telling Obama not to negotiate with the Republicans. He\u2019s telling Obama go ahead and force a government shutdown. In Clinton\u2019s case, you know what happened to him during his government shutdown? That\u2019s where he met Lewinsky. She delivered pizza in a thong during government the shutdown. Clinton loves government shutdowns. So he gets his dream again and live vicariously. <\/p>\n

Not that somebody\u2019s gonna show up that way with Obama. But, I mean, without a government shutdown, Clinton, “the big creep,” woulda never met Monica Lewinsky. She did deliver a pizza, I\u2019m telling you, during that government shutdown in 1995. She\u2019s an intern, brought it in there. If it hadn\u2019t been for the government shutdown in 1995, Clinton wouldn\u2019t have had those budget surpluses and welfare reform forced on him which he now loves to brag about. <\/line><\/p>\n

You know, I could give you the history of government shutdowns and I could tell you as we\u2019ve been trying to do for a long time about the 1995 shutdown and how it did not hurt the Republican Party. The thing that\u2019s on the table now is, “Will the Republicans hold to this position or will they cave?” The Senate is not gonna be back until two o\u2019clock this afternoon. Dingy Harry said, “I\u2019m not talking to these guys. I don\u2019t care.” <\/p>\n

Democrats want this. <\/p>\n

The Democrats want the shutdown. <\/p>\n

Everybody\u2019s eyes are on the Republicans, Boehner, “Will they cave or will they hang tough and will there be a shutdown?” Because the conventional wisdom in Washington is the Republicans are scared to death. “Oh, my gosh, it\u2019s the end of the party! It\u2019s the end of their careers. Oh, God, they\u2019re gonna be hated again and despised because the Santa Claus crowd is gonna hate them \u2019cause they think a government shutdown means that the North Pole\u2019s been closed!<\/p>\n

“Oh, Rudolph and Dancer and Donner and Prancer can\u2019t fly. Nobody can get anything! Oh, my God, it\u2019s horrible!” None of that\u2019s true. None of it is true. The welfare state does not shut down in a government shutdown. Anyway, Cruz\u2019s point was it\u2019s the Democrats who are being absolutist. He said this yesterday on Meet the Press. He said (summarized), “It\u2019s the Democrats who\u2019ve taken an absolutist position. I\u2019d like to repeal every word of the law, but that wasn\u2019t even my position, even in this fight. <\/p>\n

“My position in the fight has been we should defund it, but even now, what the House has done is a step removed from defunding. It\u2019s delaying it. That\u2019s the essence of compromise,” Cruz says. The original move out there was to defund it and totally block it. Now, the Democrats are faced with the Republicans saying, “Okay, we\u2019ll just delay it,” and Cruz says that\u2019s compromise. The Republicans are showing they can compromise. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Democrats are absolutists and won\u2019t. Let\u2019s go to the audio sound bites of Cruz talking to David Gregory yesterday. Question: “There aren\u2019t protests in the streets arguing to do away with this the way that you would like. Again, 56% in one poll this weekend, New York Times, said let\u2019s uphold the law. So I\u2019m focusing on your goal and results. Where have you moved anything, Senator?”<\/p>\n