{"id":14232,"date":"2012-10-18T16:16:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T16:16:45","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-10-18T16:16:45","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T16:16:45","slug":"obama_s_second_term_agenda_more_food_stamps_more_welfare_more_dependence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/10\/18\/obama_s_second_term_agenda_more_food_stamps_more_welfare_more_dependence\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s Second-Term Agenda: More Food Stamps, More Welfare, More Dependence"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Have you seen the new jobless numbers? They\u2019re not good, because what happened is the state of California reported this week, and they didn\u2019t report last week. The number of jobless claims jumps up to a total 388,000, plus 46,000. Unexpectedly high, plus 46,000 over the previous week. And Jay Carney is on Air Force One, the White House — mobile White House — in action, Obama campaigning and Jay Carney just said, (paraphrasing) “Oh, yeah, the unemployment news today just shows the steady progress and that the economy is healing.” I kid you not, 388,000 new claims for unemployment last week because California reported. They didn\u2019t get their data in in time last week. They did this time and so we\u2019ve got an accurate number. It\u2019s just amazing how this stuff works. Going into the debate on the economy last week, California just couldn\u2019t get their number in on time and that led to an unemployment rate of 7.8%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some really depressing, striking, and, at the same time, enraging numbers have been released today by the Congressional Research Service. The government spent — I want you to listen to me here. Look at me. “The government spent approximately $1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone.” This means that federal welfare is the government\u2019s largest expenditure. It is up 32% in the four years of Barack Obama. <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget that it was Obama who, in recent weeks, ripped the work requirement out of welfare reform, which, in several analyses, had been working to reduce welfare rolls. It required people to either try to get a job or be looking for a job actively, provably, or even be working part-time before they could receive welfare benefits. Obama stripped that out by virtue of executive order. The White House and the Democrats are trying to deny that he did that, but he did it. <\/p>\n

But this is striking. And, folks, to put this at even greater perspective, the data, this $1.03 trillion, that\u2019s roughly the size of annual budget deficit every year. This $1.03 trillion does not even include Social Security and Medicare and veterans\u2019 benefits. The data excludes entitlements. This is just pure welfare. Eighty-three welfare programs means tested. Means tested means that you have to meet certain requirements before you qualify. It\u2019s not even blanket welfare. It\u2019s outrageous. The Congressional Research Service is bipartisan or nonpartisan, although the Republican side are the ones who released this. <\/p>\n

“Spending on the 10 largest federal welfare programs has doubled as a share of the federal budget in the last 30 years: In inflation-adjusted dollars, according to Republican staff on the Senate Budget Committee, the amount spent on these programs has increased 378 percent in that 30-year time frame,” and Obama\u2019s not satisfied. He wants to expand this even more. They\u2019re reporting “that food assistance programs — the third largest welfare category behind health and cash assistance — experienced the greatest increase in spending, with 71 percent more spending in 2011 than in 2008.” Food assistance, food stamps. That\u2019s why the number of people on food stamps has rocketed all the way up to 47 million. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen the ads that the Agriculture Department runs soliciting people to join the food stamp program. <\/p>\n

This is part of a government program designed to expand the role of government, the size of government, to create dependence. And it puts the lie to this whole thing that Obama said in his closing comments at the debate the other night when he went on and on and on about, “I believe in self-reliance and individualism and good careers, high-paying jobs.” He doesn\u2019t believe in that at all. It\u2019s the exact opposite. Have you wondered why, folks, Obama has not proposed any detail of a second-term agenda? He still hasn\u2019t. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial about it. He hasn\u2019t proposed a second-term agenda at all. Do you know what he\u2019s doing? They\u2019re out there now trying to make a big deal out of binders filled with women<\/a>. They really are. <\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s the next Big Bird. It is laughable. Biden\u2019s out there talking, and they\u2019re mad about it. They are acting as though they are outraged and angry, and this is part of the Republican War on Women, that women are no better than just being put in a bunch of binders, and they think they can sell this. Now, the reason that there\u2019s no second-term agenda is twofold, maybe even three reasons. One reason is that he would never get elected if he were honest about what his second term is gonna be. But if you think these four years have been bad economically and in the sense of economic destruction and the transformation of the country from a superpower to an also-ran, if you think it\u2019s been bad in these four years, you have no idea what the next four, and he doesn\u2019t dare tell you. <\/p>\n

The second reason for not telling you what the agenda is — and this one might be a little tough to understand. But by not announcing a second-term agenda, Obama and the Democrats and the way they think are establishing a mandate for whatever they do. “What do you mean, Rush? How in the world can you have a mandate for something you haven\u2019t even announced? It doesn\u2019t make any sense.” It doesn\u2019t make any sense in the world of logic you and I inhabit. But the way Obama and the Democrats look at it, whatever they do in the second term, nobody will be able to claim they lied, \u2019cause they didn\u2019t say anything. <\/p>\n

So if Obama goes on another government expansionist tear, if he starts raising taxes on the rich and he does everything he can to destroy achievers, destroy success, attack it and level everybody off, mired in mediocrity, (imitating Obama) “Well, I never lied about this. I never said I wasn\u2019t gonna do this.” That\u2019s how you get a mandate for doing something. “I never lied about it. I never said this wasn\u2019t gonna happen.” <\/p>\n

“Yeah, but you never said it was gonna happen.” <\/p>\n

“Well, I got elected. It must mean the people want more of what I was doing.” <\/p>\n

It\u2019s made to order. And that\u2019s the reason why there\u2019s no detail of a second-term agenda. The second-term agenda would be devastating to this country. And, believe me, they are salivating at the opportunity to do it. There are people talking, it\u2019s not many, but there are people saying, “You know, Rush, Obama doesn\u2019t look like he really wants to win this thing. It doesn\u2019t look like his heart\u2019s in it.” That may be the outward appearance, but I wouldn\u2019t count on that at all, folks. <\/p>\n

If he really didn\u2019t want to lose this, there are better ways to do it than what he\u2019s doing. (chuckles) Maybe not many, but there are ways he can, like… I don\u2019t want to detail them. You could fill in the blanks. Not show up at campaign appearances, not spend a bunch of money on ads. There\u2019s any number of things. By the way, all the negative ads are gone. The negative ads have been pulled off TV.<\/p>\n