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“Well, you know, we really can\u2019t do anything here without 60 votes in the Senate, plus we don\u2019t have the White House.”<\/p>\nRUSH: So the football team from the Air Force Academy is at the White House. There\u2019s a Rose Garden ceremony going on right now. How many players didn\u2019t show up? I haven\u2019t seen any news reports on players not showing up. I guess the Air Force Academy, I guess they\u2019re all there. Probably a safe bet.<\/p>\n
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, great to have you here, Rush Limbaugh, behind the Golden EIB Microphone, heading down the way, three hours of broadcast excellence at 800-282-2882, and the email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.<\/p>\n
President Trump, a couple of tweets today. Let me read them to you. Dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut. Tweet number one: “The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate, which are not there.”<\/p>\n
He\u2019s talking about the budget deal. Well, how about going the route of reconciliation? Which was designed for budget deals. Reconciliation means you only need 51. Well, why not veto it? The 60-vote rule — are we serious about this? Let\u2019s see. Sometime during Obama\u2019s term we were told, “Well, you know, we can\u2019t really do anything here without the Senate.”<\/p>\n
Okay, here\u2019s the Senate.<\/p>\n
“Well, you know, we really can\u2019t do anything here without 60 votes in the Senate, plus we don\u2019t have the White House.”<\/p>\n
Okay, here\u2019s the White House.<\/p>\n
Now we\u2019re back to “We can\u2019t do anything \u2019cause we don\u2019t have 60 votes.” But we can. We can veto it or we can blow up the filibuster here and say we\u2019re gonna go budget reconciliation just like they got Obamacare passed. I mean, if we really wanted to do this. I heard Dr. Krauthammer — I didn\u2019t hear Dr. Krauthammer say it. I read that Dr. Krauthammer said last night<\/a> on the Fox News All Stars — oh, by the way, if anybody wants to know what\u2019s going on at Fox, all you gotta do is ask me.<\/a> We\u2019ll get to that later. Bottom line is, Dr. Krauthammer said (paraphrasing), “Well, man, they just got rolled. Trump, Ryan, McConnell, they just got rolled.”<\/p>\n With no intended disrespect for Dr. Krauthammer, they didn\u2019t get rolled. They\u2019re not dumb people. Are we really supposed to think here that Ryan and McConnell were outsmarted? That\u2019s not what happened here. And I\u2019m not sure that this so-called fear of the government shutdown is the only thing that explains this.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something much greater, much deeper behind all this, as I expressed yesterday. They didn\u2019t get rolled by anybody. Chuck Schumer didn\u2019t outsmart Mitch McConnell, and Nancy Pelosi sure as hell did not outsmart Paul Ryan. I don\u2019t care what you think of Ryan, he\u2019s not an idiot, folks. These people are not dumb. They\u2019re not sitting up there thinking, “All we gotta do is be nice to the Democrats and the media.”<\/p>\n They don\u2019t think that. They know full well what they\u2019re doing here. And they have their reasons. The second Trump tweet — dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut — “We either elect more Republican senators in 2018 or we change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good shutdown in September to fix this mess.” If a shutdown is gonna be good in September, why isn\u2019t it better now? Well, let me just explain to you, 2018 is next year. That means midterm elections.<\/p>\n Now, we know that a government shutdown is gonna blamed on the Republicans no matter who, what, when, where, why. You want to give the media ammo going into 2018, how the Republicans hate government, the Republicans hate you, the Republicans want you dead, the Republicans want your kids dead, the Republicans want you breathing dirty air, poisoned water, and all this stuff, a shutdown in September, it would actually be in October, because that\u2019s — I don\u2019t mean to pick hairs here, but a shutdown would be in October if it happens.<\/p>\n Now, they\u2019re saying today, “No, no, no, no, no, no, there\u2019s some secret stuff in this that we smoked the Democrats on,” and what they\u2019re saying is, my friends, that we got double a — well, we didn\u2019t double. We got a significant increase in defense spending without having to also increase social spending.<\/p>\n So Trump said in the Rose Garden earlier today before the Air Force Academy ceremony there that they got rid of the parity rule. Which, for all intents and purposes, says that if we\u2019re gonna spend, say, $15 billion more on defense (which this budget does) then you also have to spend $15 billion on social programs, welfare programs, whatever. Apparently, that didn\u2019t happen. The Democrats bit the dust on $15 billion of social spending they didn\u2019t get. But we did get $15 billion additional defense spending. Have you seen the latest headline on CNN? Well, let me find it. Let me get it exactly. I typed it out here.<\/p>\n “Trump Invites Admitted Killer to White House.” What, did they let John Wayne Gacy out? Who did he vote? It\u2019s Duterte, the maniac that runs the Philippines. (laughing) Did you think it was Kim Jong-un? How about that headline: “Trump Invites Admitted Killer to White House”? My only point here is, folks, if we need 60 votes, we\u2019re not gonna have 60 votes the next go-round here. Another thing that they\u2019re saying is, “Hey, look, Rush, this is actually a big deal. This is the first time…” Ready for this?<\/p>\n “This is the first time a newly inaugurated president has had any impact on a current budget.” What that means is that normally when a president\u2019s inaugurated in January, the budget for the first calendar year of his term or the first nine months is already done. So from January 21st all the way \u2019til October when the new budget\u2019s done, the president has to deal with the previous Congress\u2019 budget and has nothing to say about it. What they\u2019re saying is that Trump has had a record-breaking, never-before-seen thing by having an impact on the budget in his first year.<\/p>\n The EPA was saved from any budget cuts. We bailed out Puerto Rico\u2019s Medicaid program, and spent $990 million increase for the Food for Peace program. I guess we cut Michelle Obama\u2019s garden. You hear about that? The Democrats are distressed. The Democrats are upset over repeal of Michelle Obama\u2019s school lunch rules, and also we\u2019re shutting down… No! No, no, no! We\u2019re not gonna shut down the garden. I take it back. Melania Trump\u2019s gonna keep the garden. It\u2019s the school lunch rules that got blown away.<\/p>\n So I guess those rules, now we\u2019re gonna move over to the Food for Peace program. I\u2019m just kidding. Food for Peace. It\u2019s an African aid program. Health and Human Services: $2.8 billion boost in spending. “Green energy programs at the Department of Energy that Trump\u2019s agenda would have eliminated, received a modest spending increase.” The refugee settlement includes “a total of $3 billion towards migration and refugee assistance, roughly the same that was spent in fiscal 2016, $50 million.” None of this is the Trump agenda. Look, I don\u2019t need to go details.<\/p>\n None of this is Trump agenda. The Democrats are out there celebrating. The headline in the Washington Post today: “Democrats Confident They Can Block Trump\u2019s Agenda After Spending Bill Win<\/a>.” They think now they can stop Trump\u2019s agenda for the next 3-1\/2 years. They\u2019ve shown how to do it. The agenda tied to the budget. The budget tied to government shutdowns. The Republicans cave at the first mention of a government shutdown; ergo, they\u2019ve shut down Trump. That\u2019s what they\u2019re thinking.<\/p>\n The losers of the 2016 election are celebrating. I mean, they\u2019re having a grand old time. They can\u2019t win elections, but (chuckles) what does it matter? What does it matter? Audio sound bite. Dave Brat, Republican from Virginia. He\u2019s a guy like Trump. He was elected in the Trump wave to show up there and to replace the establishment, to drain the swamp, to do certain things. He\u2019s not happy, either. He was on Fox Business Network\u2019s After the Bell last night with the cohost Melissa Francis, and she said, “Give me your take on the budget deal, Congressman Brat.”<\/p>\n BRAT: I\u2019ve got a mini-list here. “Congress deal funds sanctuary cities, Obamacare, EPA, Planned Parenthood; doesn\u2019t fund the wall.” Rush Limbaugh was teeing up that thing about two o\u2019clock. On the ride up here, I turned him or for a minute, and he\u2019s not a happy camper. He\u2019s like, where\u2019s the Trump agenda? He just won the presidency. The major Trump initiative we\u2019re not paying attention to, and no money for the wall. And so it\u2019s a head scratcher. The only good part is this only goes through September. I hate to say, “Next time, we\u2019ll do better,” because this is not good enough. President Trump won a major victory on a fairly clear agenda, and it\u2019s not embedded in the budget.<\/p>\n RUSH: Dave Brat, by the way, is the guy who took the seat of Eric Cantor. Remember that? Eric Cantor was number two in command in the House. He was behind Boehner. They had grand plans that Cantor was gonna be top dog at some point and he lost in the primary to this guy, Dave Brat. And the Republicans, I guess they got over it pretty quickly, because (chuckling) they haven\u2019t made many modifications.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Paul Ryan this morning, at a press conference to announce the victory in the budget deal. And after his press conference announcing the victory, a reporter said: “Speaker Ryan, do you agree that the country needs ‘a good shutdown in September\u2019 to fix this?” By the way, the graphic headlines all over cable news today, “Trump Advocates Government Shutdown in September<\/a>.” Anyway, here\u2019s how Ryan answered the question of, “Do you feel the country ‘needs a good shutdown\u2019 to fix this mess.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/GOPWhy-Vote-Republican-2.jpg\")
But if it\u2019s good then, why not now? We\u2019re not gonna have 60 votes in September. We\u2019re not gonna have 60 votes in October, and we might not have 60 votes a year from now, depending on how the midterms go. At one time it was theoretically possible the Senate could end up with 60 Republicans. That\u2019s the bad shape the Democrats actually are in electorally. And that hasn\u2019t changed. They are. But for crying out loud, as I said yesterday, if this is what happens when you vote Republican, then why vote Republican?<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/GOPWash-DC-won-t-listen-to-us-3.jpg\")
Well, that\u2019s because the government was out of money \u2019cause we haven\u2019t had budgets. We\u2019ve had continuing resolutions, and those things expire. So we either had to renew it or shut down the government. So we renewed the continuation resolution, which meant we continue to pay for refugee resettlement, we continue to pay for sanctuary cities, we continue to fund Planned Parenthood, we continue to increase spending for liberal priorities in nondefense-related issues.<\/p>\n