{"id":27806,"date":"2007-12-12T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:30:34","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T04:30:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T04:30:34","slug":"dingy_harry_losing_budget_battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/12\/12\/dingy_harry_losing_budget_battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Dingy Harry Losing Budget Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: I have a couple stories here basically illustrating the incompetence on the Democrat side. Actually, it\u2019s pretty good news for our side as well. <\/p>\n

First, in the New York Times: ‘Muscle Flexing in Senate: G.O.P. Defends Strategy\u2019 — Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, operates with near-robotic efficiency when it comes to negotiating budget figures in public, consistently refusing to answer questions that would ever commit him to a specific number at the bargaining table. So it was more than a little telling when Mr. McConnell laid down his mark in the current budget fight on Tuesday, informing the Capitol Hill press corps that he was ready to offer Democrats a deal, $70 billion in war financing with no strings attached and a total budget identical to President Bush\u2019s proposal. In other words, the Republicans should get virtually everything they want. And he was not kidding.\u2019<\/p>\n

The New York Times is outraged by this, and so is Tom Brokaw, by the way, because Tom Brokaw is out there saying, ‘I don\u2019t care whether the idea is liberal or conservative, we just gotta get a solution.\u2019 Well, we all care whether the idea is solved with liberalism or conservatism. And so McConnell, why is he doing this? Because Harry Reid is lifeless, Harry Reid is pathetic. Harry Reid can\u2019t get anything done in the Senate. They have lost their AMT battle. They\u2019ve lost every Iraq resolution. They haven\u2019t been able to accomplish anything of any significance. So Mitch is just, ‘Take it on our terms or don\u2019t take it.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who leads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, insists that the more Republicans block Democrats in Congress, the more seats Democrats will win next year. Republicans have to defend 23 Senate seats next year, nearly twice as many as Democrats, who have 12 to defend. The Republicans, however, say their strategy will win. ‘I think we are being consistent here against higher taxes, consistently against greater regulation, consistently against creating new causes of action in bill after bill after bill,\u2019 Mr. McConnell said. ‘It\u2019s a positive message of our vision of America. We have a pretty good sense that the public has figured out they are not too happy with this new Congress,” and he is exactly right. What he\u2019s basically doing, he\u2019s telling Reid that Republicans should get everything they want, and he\u2019s not kidding. <\/p>\n

In essence, Mitch McConnell is insisting on a conservative outcome in this budget battle, and he is focusing on the right things. Congress\u2019 approval rating is at 22%. Bush is up to 37%. Congress is still at 22%, sometimes down to 20%, sometimes up to 24%. If Schumer thinks that these guys on the Democrat side are forging a path to massive victories in November, he\u2019s kidding himself. So the Democrats then suggested cutting some home-state projects, the earmarks. McConnell said it was up to the Democrats to work things out whether on spending or any other measure in a way that Republicans would accept. And here\u2019s why. He knows Reid needs 60 votes and he\u2019s not going to get \u2019em. He needs 60 votes on any piece of legislation, and he\u2019s not going to get \u2019em. Let\u2019s remember, folks, it was a Republican Congress that kept Clinton\u2019s spending in check and helped create that paper surplus. This has all been lost to history during Bush\u2019s two terms. But now it\u2019s back. I mean the spending restraints were lost, but now they\u2019re back. <\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s go to the San Francisco Chronicle: ‘GOP Not Budging and Democrats Face Need to Cut Spending.\u2019 (crying) This is a crybaby piece. ‘Democratic leaders say their only option is to slash $11 billion from their $522 billion omnibus spending bill — which could mean cuts to cancer research, homeland security grants, community policing and education programs — as well as lawmakers\u2019 pet projects. ‘If we\u2019re going to lose, we might as well lose with clarity so that people understand who is responsible for those inadequate investments,\u2019 House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey.\u2019 I\u2019m telling you, these Democrats do not get it. Spending, taxes, taxes, taxes, immigration. ‘Congressional scholar Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution said Democrats had little leverage from the start,\u2019 now it\u2019s time to make excuses for them, see, ‘– little leverage from the start because of the party\u2019s narrow majority in Congress and because House Republicans agreed to stay united behind Bush\u2019s veto threats. The White House has encouraged the battle with Democrats over spending, Mann said. ‘The amounts of money are irrelevant to the president. For him, this is a purely symbolic battle designed to shore up a badly damaged reputation for ‘responsible\u2019 spending,\u2019 he said. Democrats also made a tactical error–‘ Really, Democrats made a mistake? Why, I didn\u2019t think they were capable of making a mistake. I thought Democrats were omnipotent and never wrong. <\/p>\n

‘Democrats also made a tactical error in waiting until the end of the year to provoke the budget showdown with the White House. Bush has vetoed only one spending bill passed by Congress — the Labor-HHS bill last month – and signed only one, funding the Defense Department. ‘This would have been totally different if (the Democrats) had got some of their bills passed and vetoed,\u2019 said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. ‘You get a handful of bills, five or six bills, vetoed and you cast the president as an obstructionist. Now they are going to have to do what the president says. Their choice is to cave in or to do a (continuing resolution).” And they are going to cave, like they have been caving since they took power. <\/p>\n

Then The Politico today: ”Harry Reid Finds Real Power Elusive\u2019 — Harry Reid\u2019s title is impressive. But his power is a mirage,\u2019 writes Jim VandeHei and John Harris, The Politico. ‘The majority leader doesn\u2019t really run the Senate. With a one-member cushion, he can at best see the possibilities of real power and at worst realize how illusory it really is. … The problem for Reid is this: He has not always been the most artful climber. He has stumbled a few times on the Senate floor, and on one prominent occasion he landed with his foot in his mouth.\u2019 His power is a mirage. They write that Dingy Harry ‘can be impulsive, including in public settings. He is quick to pop off, including declaring earlier this year that the Iraq war was effectively lost. ‘I wish I hadn\u2019t used the word ‘lost,” Reid told Politico.\u2019 I\u2019ll bet he wishes he hadn\u2019t used the word ‘lost,\u2019 but that\u2019s only because it\u2019s working, not because he didn\u2019t mean it. He meant it, and he wanted it to end up that way. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Matt, I\u2019m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Matt in Nashville, longtime listener, first-time caller.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I always wanted to say that. I\u2019m nervous to be talking to the leader of the free world.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well (laughing) you don\u2019t sound it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I was calling because I found it interesting when you were talking about the Harry Reid article, that the media\u2019s slant is always about how Harry Reid\u2019s hands are tied and he doesn\u2019t have the authority to do the things, and that\u2019s kind of why America is unhappy with Congress. But before the election in \u201906, it was, you know, the Republicans working within the same constraint, needing 60 votes to get anything done, but you didn\u2019t get the same slant. You got —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Of course not! You know this. The narrative or template of the Drive-By Media when it comes to Democrats is that power is their birthright, and that when they have power, they should be able to — by fiat, just executive fiat — do whatever they want to do. And when they\u2019re interrupted, it\u2019s never their fault; it\u2019s never their incompetence. It\u2019s just a shame. It\u2019s so sad for the country. It\u2019s so sad for Harry Reid. He\u2019s doing his best, but he has such slim majorities, and the Republicans are so unforgiving, and they\u2019re so intractable, that Reid just can\u2019t get anything done. It\u2019s the same thing with Hillary and Bill Clinton. If you look at the stories every day in the Drive-By Media campaign news, it\u2019s all oriented on what this Democrat has to do to win or that Democrat has to do to win. The Republican stories are on how goofy and stupid and dangerous they all are.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, well, I wanted to take note of it before you did so I could take credit for it. <\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing)<\/p>\n

CALLER: I wanted to say hi to my mom and dad down in Fort Myers, Florida. You\u2019re doing a great job. Thanks, Rush.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that, Matt. Thank you for calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I have a couple stories here basically illustrating the incompetence on the Democrat side. Actually, it\u2019s pretty good news for our side as well. First, in the New York Times: ‘Muscle Flexing in Senate: G.O.P. Defends Strategy\u2019 — Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, operates with near-robotic efficiency when it comes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"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":"\nDingy Harry Losing Budget Battle - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/12\/12\/dingy_harry_losing_budget_battle\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Dingy Harry Losing Budget Battle - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I have a couple stories here basically illustrating the incompetence on the Democrat side. 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