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CALLER: Right. If you don\u2019t get it done now, it\u2019s not gonna happen. It\u2019s just gonna be another promise that isn\u2019t met.<\/p>\nRUSH: Katie, Florissant, Missouri, outside St. Louis. I\u2019m glad you called. I really appreciate your waiting. What\u2019s up?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hi, Mr. Limbaugh. I wanted to take a minute to let you know that, as usual, you\u2019re right. The media can\u2019t do anything to hurt Trump. Only Mr. Trump can hurt himself, and when he bashes the Freedom Caucus, he bashes me. And it makes me consider where we\u2019re going next. I feel like the Freedom Caucus was quite honest and in the right lane when they were saying that this repeal thing that Ryan had isn\u2019t any good, and I find that it\u2019s unreasonable —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Let me tell you something, Katie. They all knew the bill was bad. They knew it was bad. They wanted it passed anyway. That\u2019s why they kept talking phase 2 and phase 3 to fix it. They wanted the win. Everybody involved wanted to be able to say they got it done. And what it was called, repeal and replace, the American Health Care Act, they wanted the win. Phase 2, phase 3, that\u2019s where they were gonna go fix it. The problem was there wasn\u2019t gonna be a phase 2 or phase 3.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Right. If you don\u2019t get it done now, it\u2019s not gonna happen. It\u2019s just gonna be another promise that isn\u2019t met.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, it would have been worse: It would have sustained Obamacare.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: If that thing had been implemented and then not amended any further, it would have sustained Obamacare, too many aspects of Obamacare. What they were counting on was to pass the bill and let the Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price, go in there, start ripping out all of the regulations that Obama\u2019s Health and Human Service secretaries had put in, and they could neuter it some in that way.<\/p>\n
But the Freedom Caucus guys said this bill is not good. It does not do what we\u2019re telling the American people it does. We don\u2019t want to put our names to it. But I have to repeat what she\u2019s — \u2019cause I did say, the media can salivate all day long about destroying Trump, but they can\u2019t, because they didn\u2019t make him. Only Trump can destroy Trump. And that\u2019s what she was referring to. So then you need to ask, okay, how many of Trump\u2019s voters were, are, in fact ardent conservatives and would be bothered by that tweet?<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Hey, Jim, I\u2019m glad you called. Great to have you here. How you doing?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hey, Rush, it\u2019s a pleasure talking to you. I\u2019ve been listening to you for a long time, but I have to comment on your mentioning of Trump attacking the Freedom Caucus. I just have this to say, that a lot of his voters voted for him because there wasn\u2019t any choice. It was the rum dumb Republicans or Hillary, so what was left? Donald Trump. So we all jumped on the bandwagon. We think, here\u2019s our conservative guy. He\u2019s gonna lead us out of the woods. Maybe America can get great again, and what does he do the first time he gets a big bill?<\/p>\n
They do a crappy job on it, it turns out nobody likes it, it\u2019s bad for America, not great for America. It\u2019s kind of like fake health care under Trump. He should thank the conservative caucus for saving his rear end, and he should work with them, not try to take \u2019em out instead. It\u2019s just a backwards step, and he\u2019s gonna find out it\u2019s a step he\u2019ll take at his own peril. It\u2019s a step one of his return to the — let\u2019s call it the right-left previous activity of his political action.<\/p>\n
He never did know if he was a righty or a lefty, and now it looks like the left version is coming out, if he can\u2019t even understand the Freedom Caucus is his ticket to ride to success. We want good government. We don\u2019t want fake government, and he\u2019s got our backing only if he knows how to make America great again.<\/p>\n
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RUSH: I lost myself, either my battery\u2019s dead or the connection\u2019s loose. Yeah, Jim, let me step in here \u2019cause I know what you\u2019re reacting to. I made a statement in the first segment of the program today when talking about how the president says he\u2019s gonna reach out to the Democrats. He tweeted out that the Freedom Caucus, they better get in gear or he\u2019s gonna campaign against \u2019em in 2018. Next time they better get in gear or it\u2019s over for them.<\/p>\n
And I opined at the time that there are some Trump voters who are gonna stick with him on this, that they\u2019re not particularly conservative themselves, and I said not everybody is gonna stick with him. And I know that Jim here is calling to say that he\u2019s one of these people that if Trump abandons conservatism and starts blaming everything on the Freedom Caucus, I\u2019m outta here. That\u2019s what you\u2019re saying, essentially, Jim, you\u2019ll abandon Trump if that\u2019s the direction he goes, right?<\/p>\n
CALLER: We\u2019re mad as hell and we\u2019re not gonna take this anymore, either. He\u2019s our hope to get the country out of the muddle it\u2019s been in after the Obama disaster, and he better not go wobbly, or otherwise I am outta here. There\u2019s no point of hanging around for —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, he\u2019s not gonna look at it as going wobbly. The way he\u2019s trying to present it is, he wants to make America great again, and these stupid conservatives are hanging around in his way. That\u2019s what his tweet was today. His tweet was that the conservative caucus is the reason that health care failed and if they keep this up, he\u2019s gonna abandon them. And then the stories are all over that he\u2019s thinking about reaching out to the Democrats if he can\u2019t trust the Republicans, the conservatives in the House, if he has to reach out to Democrats to get things done, he will.<\/p>\n
And I know what you\u2019re saying. You\u2019re not one of those voters that\u2019s gonna hang with Trump no matter what he does. I get that. And I didn\u2019t say that every Trump voter would hang with Trump in this circumstance. But some of them will, folks. I\u2019m just telling you that some people voted for the first time in a long time ago for Trump and they\u2019ve had plenty of chances to vote for conservatives in the past and they didn\u2019t. They\u2019ve not voted in a while. And they believe in Trump. It\u2019s why they voted.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know what the percentage is. I don\u2019t know how many of Trump\u2019s voters are ardent conservatives who are going to be offended by this. But it\u2019s a sizable number. It\u2019s not a number he can afford to lose. Let me put it that way. So, no, I understand, Jim, where you\u2019re coming from. Okay. Let\u2019s see. We\u2019ve got some good stuff. A university, where is this university? Loyola in Chicago is getting ready it offer safe spaces where white students can gather to talk about how racist they are. Yeah. Hang on.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
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RUSH: Here is Ken in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hi.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Rush, my goodness gracious, I was telling Mr. Snerdley that I\u2019ve been trying to reach you since you turned me from a Democrat into a Republican under Ronald Reagan. I voted for Jimmy Carter — are you there?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah, I\u2019m here.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Okay. I voted for Jimmy Carter in the first election, couldn\u2019t stand it after about a year, and I was in charge of baseball up in New England on Cape Cod, and a friend of mine up there told me about you. I didn\u2019t even know anything about your radio station —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, what is being in charge of baseball —<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, I was a general manager in Cape Cod league baseball.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Oh. Oh. Oh.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah. And we were the number one recruiting league for the professionals in the entire country up there.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I got you. I got you. I got you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: In fact, I\u2019m in a book now called Baseball by the Beach. (laughing) At least my name is. But, anyway, brother, I gotta tell you something, I\u2019m so pleased with you, and I\u2019m so proud of you. I\u2019m happy. I\u2019m happy that finally all these years, my fingers were getting numb. I went through two phones trying to reach you. Everybody\u2019s treating this situation with the president like they\u2019ve lost their child. When the Democrats told their own people, Rush, that they would put people up against them in the midterm election if they voted anything for Trump, that they would put horrendous amounts of money against their own people. And no one reported it, no one cared.<\/p>\n
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Now that Trump said something in the same direction as that, they\u2019re treating it like, my God, can you believe anyone would ever say anything like that, and especially Republicans going after the president. I mean, I believe these are all Democrats acting like they\u2019re Republicans when they call you on the phone and beat up on Donald Trump. I\u2019m for the president. I\u2019m backing him a hundred percent on this. He\u2019s right to the conservative group, which I am a conservative, but —<\/p>\n
RUSH: You think the Freedom Caucus is to blame for the health care going down and you support Trump in this quest to bring \u2019em back on board?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, sir. I do in fact. Because the president has got a tough row to hoe here. I mean, he puts a bill forward, and he gets his own people, meaning the Republicans, to work on it while they can\u2019t even get together, so the president is out there on a limb by himself. The Democrats refuse to even cooperate in any way form or fashion with him, and the American people are turning against him —<\/p>\n
RUSH: This is what I meant, folks, in the first hour. This is the exact type of voter I\u2019m talking about when I mentioned this.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Ken, congratulations. I\u2019m glad you got through, and I appreciate that backstory. I really do.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Oh, yeah, there\u2019s more to it, but I know I don\u2019t have time. But, Rush, I thank you very much. My wife and I both became Republicans because of you, and I mean that sincerely. And I also even was a campaign manager for Ronald Reagan in all of southeastern Massachusetts in the second election.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, you\u2019ve done a lot. You\u2019ve been in charge of Cape Cod baseball, you were a Reagan —<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah.<\/p>\n
RUSH: — campaign manager. And a former Democrat. I mean, you\u2019ve done it all.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, you know, I retired out of the Marine Corps, I served in the Air Force, the Army, and the Marines, and retired out of the Marine Corps, so I touched pretty much everything, so I —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Did you see combat as a Marine?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, at Quang Tri Province, Vietnam.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Vietnam. That\u2019s what I was gonna guess. Ken, there you go. This is exactly — he thinks the guy that just called is a Democrat setup. Or was it a woman that just called? I thought it was Katie, right? We had a woman who called (paraphrasing), “Look, if Trump keeps bashing the Freedom Caucus, the conservatives, I\u2019m out.” Then a guy called and said the same thing, “If Trump keeps bashing them, look, Trump was not my first choice, he was the last choice, he was the only choice we had. We weren\u2019t gonna vote for Hillary. If he abandons the conservatives, I\u2019m out of there.”<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/TrumpCongress.jpg\")
So this guy Ken comes along and says, “It doesn\u2019t matter to me, the Republicans need to get on board with Trump. The last thing we need is the Democrats joining with Republicans or vice-versa.” So that\u2019s why I took those two calls back-to-back to illustrate the point.<\/p>\n
What we have next? Rob in Dallas. You\u2019re next here on the EIB Network. Hello.<\/p>\n
CALLER: First time talking with you, Rush. It\u2019s a pleasure, and thank you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You bet. Great to have you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Firstly, I want to state that candidate Trump was the only Republican that could have won the general election. The Freedom Caucus are attempting to save his presidency and the future 2020 run. I know that Trump is fiscally social on health care.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I want to make sure I\u2019m hearing this right. The Freedom Caucus are attempting to save his presidency by stopping that health care bill?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Absolutely.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Paul Ryan will hang this bill around Republicans like an albatross. This alliance that Trump is attempting to make with the globalist neocon ventriloquist war hawk faction of the Republican Party will destroy his presidency, and it is in complete contradiction to draining the swamp and deconstructing the administrative state.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah. Well, this is why I have always cautioned people to understand that Trump is not ideological. I don\u2019t think he sees it that way, but he might. But I don\u2019t think he does. Even though you wish he did.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I hope that what he\u2019s doing is politicking to have the House —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, what he\u2019s done — (crosstalk)<\/p>\n
CALLER: — Paul Ryan.<\/p>\n
RUSH: — he\u2019s joined Ryan, what he\u2019s done, he\u2019s exempting Ryan from any blame or responsibility for the health bill going down and he\u2019s zeroing in on the Freedom Caucus.<\/p>\n
CALLER: That\u2019s the public perception.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Oh.<\/p>\n
CALLER: But could he be setting up Congress to do its own job to take Paul Ryan out? Now, that\u2019s a hope, that\u2019s a dream, because I think he is destroying his future presidency.<\/p>\n
RUSH: How in the world — I\u2019m just trying to fit this into the mold here that you\u2019ve made. How does blaming the Freedom Caucus, even you\u2019re just doing it publicly, you don\u2019t mean it, how does the perception of Trump blaming the conservatives for his legislative failure and sidling up with Ryan and unifying with Ryan, how does that get rid of Ryan?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Okay, the only reason I say that Rush, and the outward outlook is certainly nothing to that extent, but what has been reported throughout this entire process that has been accurate?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Tell me.<\/p>\n
CALLER: That truly gets to the undertones of what he\u2019s doing. Now, I don\u2019t see it that way. That\u2019s a hope. That\u2019s a dream. Because I think he\u2019s destroying the relationships that got him into office, and that\u2019s conservatives.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay. All right.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Did I make my point?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did fine. A lot of conservatives are gonna see it that way. Look, there\u2019s gonna be myriad factions of conservatives. You\u2019re gonna have the See, I Told You So Never Trump conservatives who are salivating over this. “I told you. I told you you couldn\u2019t trust the guy. I told you he wasn\u2019t conservative. I told you the first chance he got he\u2019s gonna sidle up to those New York lib buddies of his.”<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/650-032717-Trump-Ryan-Shu.jpg\")
We\u2019re gonna hear that. And then we\u2019re gonna hear conservatives, “Yeah, it\u2019s just unfortunate, I know his instincts are the right way. I want to stick with Trump, but I wish these Freedom Caucus guys would back off a little.” You\u2019re gonna hear I don\u2019t know how many different versions of conservative upset or outright anger at this.<\/p>\n
But, look, let me find the tweet here again. “In a morning tweet, Trump warned that the Freedom Caucus would ‘hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don\u2019t get on the team, & fast.\u2019 He grouped its members, all of them Republican, with Democrats in calling for their political defeat — an extraordinary incitement of intraparty combat from a sitting president.”<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the Washington Post. And that\u2019s the Washington Post\u2019s analysis. I am just reading to you focusing on the tweet. And the way I read it is they\u2019ve got one more chance if they don\u2019t get on the team and fast. That means whatever the next legislative movement is, be it reviving Obamacare, the repeal, or infrastructure or tax reform, if the Freedom Caucus pulls this same stunt, then Trump\u2019s finished with \u2019em and is gonna go join the Democrats, reach out to the Democrats. And I think I predicted that last week. I know I did.<\/p>\n
Because Trump above all else wants not only to be able to say that he got things done, he wants to get things done.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Here\u2019s Nan in Huntsville, Alabama. I\u2019m glad that you waited. It\u2019s your turn. Hello.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Fine and dandy, Nan. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hey, I\u2019m super-duper nervous to talk to you. Um, waiting on hold is a whole different experience than just listening to your show. (chuckling)<\/p>\n
RUSH: (laughing) Thank you very much.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: I just wanted to say that I appreciate what you\u2019ve been saying about the Freedom Caucus. Mo Brooks is my representative, and I appreciate what he\u2019s doing by standing firm. You have really said exactly what he\u2019s been saying. He\u2019s been on some local radio shows here and just talking about how much more the new bill would have cost. It\u2019s really just a Republican welfare thing, and his deal is, you know, “Why don\u2019t we just repeal it?” Well, I guess I just wanted to kind of make a… I guess his point was he just wants the American people to know if this is what we want, we need to get behind it.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah. You know, he also submitted… Well, he\u2019s got a proposed piece of legislation that\u2019s one sentence that he needs a discharge petition to actually get it out and onto the floor, which probably won\u2019t happen. But he\u2019s got a one-sentence thing that essentially says this is to signify the repealing of Obamacare and all related regulations as a mistake. Bam! Done! Over with. It is… This whole episode is highly instructive.<\/p>\n
I mean, there\u2019s so many elements here: The attempt to marginalize, the dislike of conservatives throughout Washington by very many. Not just on the Democrat side, but on the Republican side too. But more importantly, the idea that the replace bill wasn\u2019t going to do that. Now, the proponents… To be fair here, the proponents said, “Yeah, we know, but this is as much as we can get because of Senate rules,” and the old fallback, “Well, uh, we can\u2019t get 60 votes over there. So we have to use budget reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes. That\u2019s a much easier threshold.<\/p>\n
“But we don\u2019t repeal all of it with that. So the things that are gonna be left over, then we\u2019re gonna have secretary Price pull out of there.” Because the actual law, Obamacare, it\u2019s amazing how many times this reference appears in that law: “as the secretary shall determine.” The power over American heck is invested in the secretary of Health and Human Services, largely, in the actual Obamacare bill, and so the Republican effort had phase two.<\/p>\n
Which was Price yanking out all those regulations that Obama had implemented that have not been put in there by way of legislation, and then phase 3 was to sell insurance across state lines. And the Freedom Caucus said, “We don\u2019t like this business that Price is just gonna pull those things out of there. If we want that, why don\u2019t we put it in the bill? The point was that if we lose the election in 2020, then whoever the next Democrat president is could put \u2019em right back in. We need to pass legislation to keep those things out statutorily.<\/p>\n
And the proponents of the bill on the Republican side said, “We can\u2019t get that passed. That will never fly. That will never go through the Senate. We can\u2019t do it that way. You\u2019re gonna have to trust us. We\u2019ll get to all of this in phase 3.” Freedom Caucus and others were highly suspicious of one thing: that after this bill was passed — and if it passed the Senate and if Trump signed it — that that would be it, that everybody would say, “Health care? We did it, man! We repealed and replaced Obamacare.” They\u2019d forget it and move on.<\/p>\n
There wouldn\u2019t be a phase 2 or phase 3.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Freedom-Caucus-SMALL.jpg\")
I think the conservative Freedom Caucus was probably right about that, because the way this all played out it was obvious that the objective was the achievement, not the substance. I think all these meetings that they had with Trump and with Ryan and whatever to sell it? I don\u2019t know this, but my best guess would be that the efforts to sell it were not based on the substance of the bill. In other words, you have a meeting with the Freedom Caucus, you bring Mark Meadows and these guys in there, and I doubt they were told, “Look at how good this is.<\/p>\n
“Look at this proposal. Look at that proposal. We gotta get this done. Mark, get your guys behind it.” I don\u2019t think that happened. I think what they were told, “We can\u2019t afford to lose this. Look, this the first legislative effort this administration; we Republicans have to show unity; you\u2019ve got to back this.” I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s what happened, and now we\u2019re treading old ground, but the Freedom Caucus people said, “What? (chuckles) But this doesn\u2019t do anything! This is making it worse!”<\/p>\n
“But we need the bill,” they were told, “and we need to get started. Give us this. This is better than nothing.” They would say, “Half a loaf is better than no loaf. We\u2019ve got to get it done,” and the Freedom Caucus balked. And, I\u2019m telling you, they were highly pressured. Their arms were twisted; there might have been some promises made. But they hung tough on this because of two things. They believed that everybody meant it when they promised all these years to repeal and replace Obamacare, so when the time came, that\u2019s what their efforts were aimed at. The second thing they did was to hold firm on it because that\u2019s why they got elected.<\/p>\n
And that obviously was not the objective of some others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: The media can salivate all day long about destroying Trump, but they can't, because they didn't make him. Only Trump can destroy Trump. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n