Well, she said she was listening to Huntsman yesterday, heard Huntsman say that the country is screwed. She said, (paraphrasing) “That\u2019s not presidential. That\u2019s not the way we want to talk, to say the country\u2019s screwed. It\u2019s live TV, you can screw up, and you can say the wrong thing, but it really is not the kind of discourse,” blah, blah, blah, blah. And then she said, “I was watching TV today and I saw a Jon Huntsman ad and he says right in the ad that the country\u2019s screwed with Obama. That\u2019s just not the way we want to talk.” Folks, we ARE screwed! <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rush2Images585.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
This recess appointment stuff, it\u2019s extra-constitutional. It is lawless. The Senate is not in recess. Who\u2019s gonna stop the guy? That\u2019s the question. If we\u2019re gonna sit around and say, “You can\u2019t say ‘screwed,'” you got McCain out there, McCain ripping Newt for saying that Romney\u2019s a liar. John McCain slammed Newt Gingrich today. I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s already Thursday. “John McCain slammed Newt Gingrich Thursday for calling Mitt Romney ‘a liar,\u2019 accusing him of crossing the line of ‘something that we don\u00c2\u2019t do in politics. I don\u00c2\u2019t think it\u00c2\u2019s appropriate to call your opponent a liar. That\u00c2\u2019s just something we don\u00c2\u2019t do in politics unless you certainly have some overwhelming proof,\u2019 said McCain on CBS\u00c2\u2019s The Early Show.” Really? Now they tell us. Who knew that\u2019s something we don\u2019t do in politics is call our opponents liars, unless we have overwhelming proof, which we do, if we\u2019re talking about Obama. <\/p>\n
Anyway, McCain, here\u2019s the guy who says, (imitating McCain) “We\u2019re not gonna pronounce Obama\u2019s middle name. That\u2019s just not how we do things in politics, it\u2019s not gonna happen. If you say it, you\u2019re outta here, you understand?” As I say, I like Dana Perino, but folks, you haven\u2019t heard anything. I have been waiting to see if this gets reported. It has not been reported. It\u2019s not gone beyond where I first saw it. Well, I take it back. It has appeared in one other place. Our old buddy James Pethokoukis, who writes at Reuters and some other places, has discovered that one of the objectives Obama has with all these recess appointments is to — brace yourself here — essentially, when you strip it all away, if this happens, what Obama is planning on doing is essentially forgiving all mortgages. <\/p>\n
There are some requirements. You have to be paying on your mortgage, you have to be three months current, but Obama is going to just wave a magic wand and allow people to refinance their mortgages, essentially cutting hundreds of dollars off of the monthly payment. This will cost $1.2 trillion and, as always, it is those of you who don\u2019t have a mortgage or who will not qualify for this plan who will be paying for it. This is buying an election in one fell swoop. (interruption) What? What quote from yesterday? Oh. Well, everybody\u2019s saying, even Rove is out there saying it\u2019s not a smart move to spend 20 minutes on stage with McCain if you are Romney having McCain endorse you. It\u2019s really not a smart move. That 20 minutes on Hannity last night. I don\u2019t know who they think are, I just don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know how they think they\u2019re helping themselves. But don\u2019t get sidetracked here. <\/p>\n
Folks, it may not matter who the nominee is. It may not matter about the primaries. It may not matter about any polling data. We have a president who\u2019s cutting the defense budget now. His priorities are winning the future, paying off his wacko donors and weakening national security in the process, proudly saying that it\u2019s about time we pared down to the point where we can only fight one ground war at a time. The idea that we should be able to fight two ground wars at a time is excessive and unnecessary, so we\u2019re cutting the defense budget. All of this is predictable, by the way. There is a plan afoot by virtue of these recess appointments, it\u2019s a little bit more complicated, but the bottom line is, in terms of perception, the perception is going to be on the part of people that Obama is forgiving their mortgages. <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/Obama-tax-the-rich.jpg\"\/)
Now, it\u2019s not guaranteed that it\u2019s going to happen. If it does, the monthly mortgage payment of people affected would fall by an average of $355 a month for Obama\u2019s constituents. That is not insignificant. For a lot of people, that\u2019s close to the payment we\u2019re talking about here. For a lot of people it\u2019s half the payment. It\u2019s not insignificant. You reduce people\u2019s monthly payment by 400 bucks, just by waving the magic wand, and there\u2019s one guy who did it. Obama. I want to take you back to some of the early town halls after the guy was elected over in Tampa, there\u2019s this woman saying, “Where\u2019s my new kitchen? Where\u2019s my new car?” Well, here it comes. Election year 2012. But instead of a new kitchen and a new car, hey, guess what? Here\u2019s your mortgage, refinanced, totally affordable as it should have been in the first place. The banks were ripping you off. The banks were overcharging you, but I am making your mortgage affordable and the value of your home is now worth something. <\/p>\n
And who\u2019s gonna stop it? Who? Nobody! (interruption) Of course, they\u2019re gonna have to. What do you mean, “The banks are gonna grab the ankles on this”? The banks have been grabbing the ankles ever since the Community Redevelopment Act! The military is grabbing the ankles on cutting themselves. McCain\u2019s grabbing the ankles. (impression) “We don\u2019t call anybody ‘liars\u2019 in politics! It\u2019s not how we do it, unless you have incontrovertible proof,” and we don\u2019t really want to say the country\u2019s “screwed.” That\u2019s just not presidential. So while we\u2019re sitting here worried about semantics and “sounding presidential,” we\u2019ve got a guy who is living and behaving outside the Constitution! We have a lawless regime, here.<\/p>\n
We have a banana republic taking place! We have a dictatorship unfolding here. This mortgage thing — and I\u2019ll give you the details here as the program unfolds. But remember, folks, it\u2019s not the details here that are going to matter. It\u2019s the perception and how this is reported; and when it\u2019s all over the beneficiaries of this program are going to be told that Obama is basically forgiving their mortgage, forgiving the loan. Obama is basically giving them a house, giving them their house; and that they deserve that because the rich banks have screwed them all these years by overcharging them and so forth; and Obama finally cut these people a break. This is how it\u2019s gonna be reported.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/Obama-Obamageddon.jpg\"\/)
The Home Assistance Refinancing Program, HARP (HARP 1.0) failed! It didn\u2019t work. They\u2019re going back and they\u2019re gonna do it again. They\u2019re calling it HARP 2.0. So we have a president who has gone rogue. Even yesterday in Ohio to set this up, Obama at his town hall meeting repeated his lie that the banks tricked people into getting bad mortgages. The banks tricked people, lured them in, and that\u2019s not at all what happened. The government is responsible for the subprime mortgage crisis as you well know because you\u2019re a devoted and regular listener to the program. But this is all set up yesterday with Obama in Ohio.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Why don\u2019t the Republicans do something? I don\u2019t know. You\u2019ve been asking me this for 23 years. Why don\u2019t the Republicans do something here about, you know, we got a guy, recess appointments when there\u2019s no recess. The Senate is not in recess. We\u2019ve actually got Republicans saying, “It\u2019s not that big a deal. We don\u2019t want to make a big deal. It\u2019s not really that big a deal.” Oh, it isn\u2019t, behaving outside the Constitution is not that big a deal? When\u2019s it gonna become a big enough deal to do something about? When\u2019s it gonna become a big enough deal to try to stop? That\u2019s the question that we all have. <\/p>\n
January surprise, here it is, folks. James Pethokoukis at a blog, TheAmerican.com. “This could be just the beginning. If President Barack Obama\u00c2\u2019s legally dodgy appointment of Richard Cordray to head the consumer finance agency should stick, it may open the door to more such actions. Here\u2019s Jaret Seiberg of the Washington Research Group:” a think tank bunch “To us, the most important takeaway from a recess appointment of Cordray is that the President could use this same maneuver to put a housing advocate in charge of FHFA.” Federal Housing Finance Agency. <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/Obama-pork-2.jpg\"\/)
Mr. Pethokoukis writes, “Indeed, my sources tell me the Obama administration has been eager to implement just such a plan, but needs to have its own man heading the FHFA to make it happen. The plan would be modeled after one originally devised by Columbia University economists Glenn Hubbard (a campaign adviser to Mitt Romney.)” Yes, let me read this to you again. The plan that Obama wants to implement “would be modeled after one originally devised by Columbia University economists Glenn Hubbard (a campaign adviser to Mitt Romney and AEI visiting scholar) and Christopher Mayer.” These are the two guys that have come up with this refinancing program. You think they don\u2019t want to run against Romney? <\/p>\n
So you\u2019ve got Romney advisers that were hijacked to help put together Obamacare, and now you\u2019ve got Obama who\u2019s about to institute a mortgage refinance plan that is the idea of a Romney advisor. And yet we\u2019re being told they\u2019re scared of running against Romney. They really don\u2019t want to run against Romney. I don\u2019t see it that way. “In recent congressional testimony, Mayer described how the mass refinancing plan would work: Under our plan, every homeowner with a GSE mortgage can refinance his or her mortgage with a new mortgage at a current fixed of 4.20 percent or less. \u00c2\u2026 To qualify, the homeowner must be current on his or her mortgage or become so for at least three months. \u00c2\u2026 Other than being current, we would impose no other qualification or application, except for the intention to accept the new rate (that is, no appraisal, no income verification, no tax returns, etc.).” No nothing.<\/p>\n
You heard right. You heard right. All you have to do to qualify is have a GSE mortgage and be current for three months on your payment. GSE mortgage is a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac mortgage; a government sponsored enterprise. You gotta show up, you gotta be three months current, you have to have a mortgage that\u2019s approved by this thing governed by Fannie Mae\/Freddie Mac. The GSE is a government-sponsored enterprise. That\u2019s Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac — and other than being current, the two guys that came up with the plan (one of whom\u2019s a Romney adviser) said, “We would impose no other qualification or application except the intention to accept the new rate of 4.2%.”<\/p>\n
There would be no appraisal of your house. There would be no verification of your income. There would be no tax returns looked at. They\u2019d simply say, “If you\u2019re current for three months…” Basically, GSE means everybody, because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pretty much have purview over practically every mortgage that\u2019s out there. If yours isn\u2019t yet under Fannie Mae\/Freddie Mac, it will eventually be packaged and sold to them so it eventually will be a GSE or if you have an FHA loan. “Mayer estimates that some $3.7 trillion of mortgages would be refinanced. That\u00c2\u2019s right, this would be the Mother of All Mortgage Refinancing Plans. It would help roughly 30 million borrowers save $75 billion to $80 billion a year.<\/p>\n
“As Mayer puts it: ‘This plan would function like a long-lasting tax cut for these 25 or 30 million American families,'” which is essentially Obama cutting your taxes by 400 bucks a month on your mortgage. (interruption) Snerdley keeps yelling at me, “The banks are just gonna roll over for this?” The banks have nothing to do with it! (interruption) No! It\u2019s Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. These are GSE mortgages. They\u2019re already in debt. These are taxpayers paying this, not the banks! It\u2019s the taxpayers. The banks are not in on this. This is everybody else. Renters are paying for this! People that don\u2019t have mortgages are paying for this. People that own their properties outright will be paying for this, not the banks.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/ObamaTree_large.jpg\"\/)
As I told you earlier: Those people that went to the town hall meeting shortly after Obama was elected, inaugurated, saying, “Where\u2019s my car? Where\u2019s my new kitchen?” Obama is gonna say, “Here is your house! I have made it possible for you to stay in and afford your house.” So it won\u2019t matter who the Republican nominee is. It won\u2019t matter whether our nominee says the government is screwed or not or we\u2019re screwed. None of that stuff will matter. The polling data won\u2019t matter. This will be the single largest election purchase in our lifetimes, and it coincidences with defense department cuts and so forth. So the bottom line is: It\u2019s a political and economic gaining changer in a presidential election year. Obama could offer a trillion-dollar stimulus as measured over a decade that would directly and immediately impact millions of Americans suffering from the housing depression and just wipe it out.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Now, let me sum it up for you in real language, not journalism language. The plan that I just described (formulated by an adviser to Mitt Romney, in part) would turn the conventional banking standards that we have upside down. The government would force banks to give lower rates to risky borrowers with bad mortgages. This is after, folks, the plan. Once you institute the program, you have to carry it forward with new lenders as well, otherwise the whole thing goes out the window. So, at that point, it does impact the banks. So the government would force the banks to give lower rates to risky borrowers with bad mortgages. Now, how do the banks make that up? They go to people like Snerdley who are responsible borrowers, who pay their mortgages, and you will have a higher rate because these people will be “the poor.”<\/p>\n
The people who are having their mortgages refinanced are “the poor,” the disadvantaged, the victims of the predators who charged them more than they could ever afford. So responsible mortgage holders will have to pay higher rates in order to make up the difference for this reduction that the poor are getting. This is a massive redistribution scheme. It may be the single largest income redistribution scheme we\u2019ve seen, if it happens — and I hate to tell you this: This is the second mortgage-adjustment program that\u2019s being talked about. The first one is HARP 1. HARP 1 didn\u2019t work! A whole lot of people didn\u2019t apply for it because there is a lot of red tape.<\/p>\n
There are still gonna be a lot of bureaucracy and hoops that people are gonna have to jump through. It\u2019s not guaranteed to work, but, even if it doesn\u2019t, you may never know. It\u2019s an election year and all that\u2019s going to be reported is the intention. The compassionate intention of Obama to help people who have been screwed by predatory lenders to make their mortgages affordable. Whether it ever happens or not will be irrelevant in terms of the impact on the campaign. The way it will be reported is, “Obama cares!” His intentions. His big-heartedness. “He wants to help.” And, if it doesn\u2019t happen, you go to the old reliable: You blame the Republicans for standing in the way of it.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: I\u2019m just watching McCain here. Hang on a minute. Oh, McCain\u2019s very concerned about the recess appointment. Well, that and a quarter will get you a latte. <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/MccainYosemiteRomney.jpg\"\/)
Folks, this mortgage refinance business, if Obama will do this in an election year, what will he be capable of in a second term when there\u2019s no accountability, when he\u2019s basically a lame duck throughout the second term. Why not just write off half the student loan debt? In fact, why wait \u2019til the second term to do that? Why not do that on the heels of wiping out half of people\u2019s mortgage debt? That\u2019s what the Occupy Wall Street crowd wants. No student loans, just wipe it out. As I say, where\u2019s this gonna stop? <\/p>\n
Now, there are people who think this won\u2019t work. In all honesty, there are people who say that the mortgage refinance plan, which is a giant redistribution of wealth plan, it\u2019s also a takeover of private property plan, by the way, when you get right down to it. But some people think it won\u2019t work. The difference here in HARP 1, HARP 1 you had to qualify. Obama\u2019s first mortgage assistance program, you had to go qualify. This you don\u2019t. There\u2019s no qualifying. All you have to do is be three months current on your mortgage. That\u2019s it. And you qualify. So if Obama\u2019s running roughshod over the Constitution less than a year out from the election, imagine what a second term will look like. <\/p>\n
But remember, my friends, as Republicans we\u2019re not supposed to complain about Obama, we\u2019re not supposed to make it anything personal. No. We\u2019re not supposed to attack Obama. We\u2019re not supposed to attack him personally. We\u2019re not supposed to criticize Obama. That will send the independents running wherever they\u2019re gonna go. It would be in bad taste. It would be in terribly poor taste. So if Obama wants all these recess appointments, yes, we should lodge our objections and then shut up. And if he wants to refinance everybody\u2019s mortgage, we should lodge our objections and then shut up. Because to go any further would be unseemly, in bad taste, and would risk angering the independents, who will not tolerate the first black president being criticized. That\u2019s what our political consultants are telling our candidates. <\/p>\n
So keep it respectful, let Obama do to Republicans what Romney did to Newt. That\u2019s what we should do here. Don\u2019t respond in kind. That might ruffle some feathers of the independents. In other words, let the bully bully you. Let the bully bully us. Because if we react to the bully, the kids in the school yard are gonna go right to the bully and love him. The bully is supposed to get away with being a bully when he\u2019s a Democrat president. There is no other way around it. <\/p>\n
Reuters is cheering Obama\u2019s takeover of the bureaucracy here, the National Labor Relations Board. “Stymied by Congress, Obama to Boldly Seat Nominees — A defiant President Barack Obama on Wednesday took his boldest action yet to show voters he will confront Republicans –” Obama is not confronting the Republicans. He\u2019s confronting the Constitution. The Republicans are not Obama\u2019s obstacle. The Constitution is Obama\u2019s obstacle. The Senate is controlled by Democrats. The Republicans don\u2019t control the Senate. The Republicans don\u2019t control whether these people are confirmed or not. The Democrats do. The Republicans are not standing in Obama\u2019s way. The Republicans are getting out of his way. They\u2019re afraid to be in his way. <\/p>\n
Obama is bucking his own party on this. Obama is appointing people when there is no recess. Obama is acting outside the Constitution, and it is not the Republicans making him do it. As though he\u2019s justified anyway. But that\u2019s the tone of the reporting from Reuters. The Republicans are so bad, they\u2019re so obstinate, poor old Obama, he\u2019s got no choice but than to take a pee on the Constitution. Got no choice. Republicans are making him do it. That\u2019s what the message is. I know Dana Perino won\u2019t appreciate that language, but that\u2019s the message in the reporting. Right, here it is. “A defiant President Barack Obama on Wednesday took his boldest action yet to show voters he will confront Republicans.” He\u2019s not confronting Republicans. He is confronting the Constitution. He\u2019s defying the Constitution with this power grab, not Republicans. <\/p>\n
All right, let\u2019s go to the audio sound bites. I gotta calm down here. Here is the Dana Perino sound bite. Now, she was press secretary after Tony Snow in the White House. And I know where she\u2019s coming from. I know what the mind-set of the Bush team was, and you gotta admire \u2019em. They had a great reverence for the office. President Bush told me on numerous occasions why he did not respond to the political attacks on him, because he did not want to bring the office of the presidency down to that level. So the Bush people had and have a reverence for the office. I totally understand it. But I think it\u2019s being taken a bit far here to the point we are handcuffing ourselves in the process. <\/p>\n
I understand where Dana Perino\u2019s coming from, I really do. But this goes to what we\u2019ve always said. There\u2019s a group of people on our side who do not view the country to be as imperiled as you and I do, folks. The $15 trillion national debt, it\u2019s no different than when was it four trillion. It\u2019s just a number, Rush. The country\u2019s not imperiled. Obama can\u2019t destroy this country. Better people than Obama have tried, we\u2019re not gonna lose the country. It\u2019s not about that. You know, you win some elections and you lose some. What really is the objective of those who do not believe the country\u2019s imperiled, who do not think your kids\u2019 future is imperiled, who do not worry the debt is going to cause massive tax increases and loss of freedom. There\u2019s a sizable chunk of the Republican Party that does not think that. They just want to get back in charge of the money. <\/p>\n
They want to run the Senate. They think that that\u2019s gonna be the best way to stop Obama. Well, what would they do if they ran Senate now and he\u2019s doing these recess appointments, what would they do? What evidence do we have to cite that they would do anything to stop it, reverse it, what would they do? But we do know they want the committee chairmanships. That\u2019s why they didn\u2019t like Christine O\u2019Donnell and Sharron Angle. They thought, take Castle, he\u2019s a good moderate, he can win. We want our committee chairmen. Washington is all about who\u2019s in charge of the money, folks. You know, ideas are touted. They\u2019ll tell you they care about ideas. Ideas are secondary. The money in that town is the attraction, being in charge of it, what you can do with it is the great attraction. <\/p>\n
So, anyway, Dana Perino was on Fox shortly after noon, and she got a question, “Why haven\u00c2\u2019t we seen a big picture inspiring speech from these candidates? Do you think they really know what their plan is for the country?”<\/p>\n
PERINO: One of the things that happened in one of the debates, I thought it was just a slip-up, when Governor Huntsman said America is screwed. Okay, that is not presidential language, but on live TV you can sometimes say something you wish you didn\u2019t say, but today in New Hampshire releasing an ad that actually says that, and I think that just strikes the wrong note with people. If you want to be the leader of the United States of America, you should act like it.<\/p>\n
RUSH: This is Dana Perino commenting on Huntsman, has high hopes for Huntsman, a lot of people on the Republican side hope that Huntsman is the dark horse, and she was telling everybody here that she was shocked. It had to be a slip of the tongue yesterday when Huntsman said that America is screwed, but then when he put it in an ad that she saw today she realized he meant to say it yesterday and, in the ad, and that\u2019s not presidential. And that\u2019s disappointing. And that\u2019s sad. (interruption) Snerdley, do not ask me that question. I\u2019m not gonna repeat that question. I don\u2019t know — you know, folks, it\u2019s at least three times a week I see a complaint or even hear one in person, e-mail complaint about why these conversations I have with the staff are one way. <\/p>\n
“We don\u2019t even know if you\u2019re really talking to anybody. You could be making it all up. You could be faking these conversations. How do we know you\u2019re talking to somebody? Do you realize how frustrating it is to listen to a one-way conversation?” Trust me, there\u2019s a reason for this. There is a reason why these are one-way conversations and the question Snerdley wants me to ask in a rhetorical fashion… (laughing) it would be suitable for an FM morning show but not here. And Dana Perino ought to appreciate that of me. Standing up for high standards here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: Oh, jeez. I just heard something. You know, I really like Dana Perino. Maybe I ought to stop there. Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. It\u2019s Rush Limbaugh from high atop the EIB Building at the EIB Southern Command in a hidden location heavily fortified here in South Florida. The telephone number if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n