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RUSH: “House Democrats tried Wednesday to force a vote on the Senate\u00c2\u2019s two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, but Republicans gaveled the House closed to prevent them from having a chance, as top GOP leaders huddled down the hall to try to figure a way out of the mess. The House was set to hold a pro forma session, but two top Democrats, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, demanded to be recognized to try to force a vote on the two-month extension. House Republicans have blocked that deal, which is strongly backed by President Obama, and are holding out for an extension that covers all of 2012.”<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m telling you, with all due respect, the people at the Journal who wrote the editorial, the House Democrats, the Senate Democrats, the Republicans, are all dead wrong on this, every policy and political level that I can think of. If the Republicans want this tax cut extended, then they ought to fight to actually extend it for a year. Two months doesn\u2019t do anything. There\u2019s some conventional wisdom in the establishment circles, “Oh, yeah, two months, Rush, that would be good, because then we come back and get to debate Obama on it all over again.” Well, how\u2019s the debate gonna change? You still say Obama is gonna be leading the charge for more tax cuts, what are we gonna do, then agree with him? This is the time to plant the flag. <\/p>\n
Now, if they want to stop it, Wall Street Journal, Republicans, if they want to stop this, explain what\u2019s really going on here. Explain that this isn\u2019t a tax cut. Since when did Social Security taxes, when were they actually called tax increases? These are contributions. These are actual deductions from your pay that end coming back to you — this is how it\u2019s always been sold — in your retirement years, in your golden years. Theoretically, it\u2019s your money. All we\u2019re doing is defunding the only mechanism that funds Social Security. If they want to stop this, then just explain that this is draining money from Social Security without any of the necessary reforms. Throw it right back on Obama and what he\u2019s doing here. The worst possible position is the one supported by the Senate, Obama, and the Wall Street Journal. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s really going on here, folks — and don\u2019t doubt me — including on behalf of the Wall Street Journal, just angry at conservatives. They\u2019re angry at the Tea Party conservatives, the Tea Party freshmen. They\u2019re angry at conservative freshmen and conservative members of the House. And they\u2019re simply trying to reject it. Now, if you believe — and I mentioned this in the opening hour — if you believe that our beloved country is collapsing due to government, why continue with these games? Why continue with such things as two-month expansions of the debt limit? Continuing resolution after continuing resolution instead of a budget? A two-month extension of a so-called payroll tax cut. These are games. This is style over substance. <\/p>\n
If we are to stop this, if we are to reverse this, if we are to get anywhere, we need to start now, make our case, we need to begin to reverse course. We can\u2019t be so timid and scared and gutless that we jump every time Obama says jump. Now, here\u2019s the problem. These people on the establishment side of the Republican Party are gonna have to resolve for themselves their position that the nation is in dire straits with their policies of timidity and fear. Now, I\u2019m guessing they don\u2019t think the nation\u2019s in dire straits. If they agreed with us that the nation\u2019s in dire straits then they wouldn\u2019t be playing these political games unless they do agree with us but they think they have to play the political game in order to win the election and beat Obama. You can do both. <\/p>\n
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The Iranians are cutting to cut off access to Middle East oil, the Strait of Hormuz. And that wouldn\u2019t take much. Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense, says that Iran getting nukes is a red line for us, meaning possible war. He\u2019s saying that. I know Obama\u2019s not saying it but his secretary of defense is. And yet Obama and the Democrats are blocking a source of oil from an ally and are blocking the exploration and the use of natural gas and on and on. Obama and his party are doing everything they can to keep this nation imprisoned in the dependence on foreign oil, while claiming that they want to do just the opposite. <\/p>\n
The prime minister of Canada is telling us, if you won\u2019t buy our oil, fine, we are going to sell it to the ChiComs, and we\u2019ll sell it to the ChiComs happily. I have a story somewhere in the Stack, that a senior American official or two confided to Stephen Harper, the Canadian head honcho, “Don\u2019t worry, don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re going to buy your oil.” They\u2019re not named, and the conditions under which we would buy the oil are not specified. But clearly the message, if the reporting is true, the message is that we\u2019re whispering, “Psst, psst,” winking, “Hey, Mr. Harper, look, we gotta play our political game here but, when it\u2019s all said and done, we\u2019re gonna be buying your oil. We just can\u2019t do that now. Obama needs to hold out here. He\u2019s gotta placate his environmental base. But we\u2019re gonna buy your oil. Just stick with us.” That\u2019s the message that we are under the table giving. <\/p>\n
But once again, we are subordinating what\u2019s best for this nation to Obama\u2019s political whims, desires, and needs, and we\u2019ve got a Republican Party that\u2019s apparently willing to help him. This payroll tax cut, it\u2019s chump change compared to the things that we face. All of these people claim that they\u2019re conservatives when they run out and push their subscriptions and ask for donations and promote all of their social activities and so forth. But they don\u2019t act like it much. <\/p>\n
The key line in the Wall Street Journal editorial is this. “We wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.” That\u2019s the key line in the Wall Street Journal editorial. And a lot of blogs are picking that up and they\u2019re agreeing with the Wall Street Journal, “Oh, no if these Republicans keep this up, oh, my God, we\u2019re gonna go ahead, we\u2019re gonna, for all intents and purposes, we\u2019re gonna elect Obama before we even get to November.” That\u2019s the key line in their editorial: “We wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest,” because of not giving him his two-month extension on the payroll tax cut. <\/p>\n
So what we have here, the Republican establishment is scared to death of Obama\u2019s class warfare campaign. Is that right? Has the Republican establishment now lost faith in the free enterprise system? Is that it? That we can\u2019t win that argument with Obama over the next year, in the middle of what he has done to this economy? We are willing to say that we will cede the election to Obama if we don\u2019t give him his two-month tax cut extension. So am I wrong here, the Wall Street Journal believes<\/a> that 11 months from now the election\u2019s gonna turn on Obama draining tens of billions of dollars from Social Security? ‘Cause that\u2019s what\u2019s happening. <\/p>\n
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<\/a>I can\u2019t emphasize enough my whole life as a Republican, and you, too, you\u2019ve been hearing about all these horrible things we want to do to old people. We want to cut their Social Security. I heard Alan Cranston say in 1987 that we wanted to kick old people out of their houses by cutting Social Security. I\u2019ve heard other Democrats say that we want old people eating dog food and not having enough medicine. Republicans are going to end Medicare when it\u2019s the Democrats who are doing all of this, and Obama right before our very eyes is underfunding, cutting funding for Social Security up to half a billion dollars. Five hundred billion, put it that way, that\u2019s the correct way to express it. <\/p>\n