{"id":37040,"date":"2011-05-19T00:15:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:15:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T00:15:23","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T00:15:23","slug":"baseline_budgeting_and_the_cost_of_these_non_existent_tax_cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/05\/19\/baseline_budgeting_and_the_cost_of_these_non_existent_tax_cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseline Budgeting and the “Cost” of These Non-Existent “Tax Cuts”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Vickie in Brooksville, Kentucky. You\u2019re first today on the EIB Network and the phones. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. This is truly an honor. Thank you very much, Mr. Limbaugh.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You bet.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I have a question because I live in Literalville. I live there since I had my first child — he\u2019s 37 now — and I have a question about how on earth can money that isn\u2019t going — because the tax rates have been the same for ten years, that is not going — to the government and is gonna continue to not go to the government, ‘add to the debt\u2019? And how can an estate tax that is now zero, that is going to go up to 35%, ‘add to the deficit\u2019? I swear to God, this is driving me crazy.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Where are you hearing these two facts?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m hearing them from the politicians that are yakking their heads off and —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, what\u2019s the first one they\u2019re saying? <\/p>\n

CALLER: That if we pass the continuation —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Of these tax rates?<\/p>\n

CALLER: — of the present rates, that it\u2019s going to add to the deficit and the debt. How can that be? They\u2019re not getting money. They\u2019re going to continue to not get money. So how on earth can that ‘add to the debt\u2019?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Again, it\u2019s baseline budgeting. It\u2019s how you set the table. Remember these people, for the whole year, have been expecting tax rates to go up. They have already been spending that money. So now that the tax rates are going to be the same, they\u2019re looking at this as a ‘cut,\u2019 therefore ‘costing\u2019 the government money.<\/p>\n

CALLER: This is insane! If I\u2019m working and I think I might get a raise on January 1st, I don\u2019t start spending the money in July.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me ask you a question.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, sir.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And I\u2019m not gonna be able to ask it in the remaining ten seconds I have.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Ohhhh.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So can you hold on during the break?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I certainly will.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right.<\/p>\n

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

RUSH: ‘Cause I just have a question for you. Don\u2019t go away. We\u2019ll be back, we\u2019ll continue right after this.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: So you think it\u2019s insane what they are saying, Vickie, about no changes in the tax revenue whatsoever.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Correct.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So how can that add to the debt, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Exactly.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, let me ask —<\/p>\n

CALLER: I don\u2019t understand. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Well —<\/p>\n

CALLER: This is nuts.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well… (sigh) Do you understand when I tell you that it\u2019s the way they\u2019ve set the table? They were counting on a tax increase.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Ahem. Well, I understand your point.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And now they\u2019re not getting a tax increase, so in their mind there\u2019s less revenue coming in. That\u2019s going to hurt the deficit.<\/p>\n

CALLER: How…? (gagging)<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s my question.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Am I crazy or are they crazy? That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to figure out.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, they\u2019re crazy, but —<\/p>\n

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

RUSH: All right. Now, but let me ask you a question.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: First off, do you do the grocery shopping in your family.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, my God, yes!<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. Have you ever looked at a newspaper or seen an ad for a product on television that you don\u2019t need, but because it\u2019s on sale you go buy a bunch of it anyway?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Depending on what it is, yes. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. It\u2019s the same thing at work here, and you\u2019ve told yourself that you ‘saved\u2019 a lot of money, even though you never woulda in her spent the money in the first place unless there was a sale.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Mmmmmm…<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s what they\u2019re telling themselves. <\/p>\n

CALLER: (grumbling)<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, no, I\u2019m not putting you down now. I want you to try to get your arms around this.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me give you a product. You\u2019re sitting there minding your own business and here comes an ad for potatoes, and you see potatoes which are normally — I\u2019m just pick a price here — a buck-fifty a pound are now a dollar a pound. You don\u2019t need any, but you can\u2019t pass up that price so you go buy a couple pounds.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s true, because it\u2019s going to go back up, and I know that for a fact.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay.<\/p>\n

CALLER: It will go back up.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. So you\u2019ve just told yourself you saved a lot of money, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Correct.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But you didn\u2019t. You spent money you would have otherwise never spent because you don\u2019t need the potatoes. You only bought \u2019em \u2019cause they\u2019re on sale. So you\u2019re actually out the money, and you\u2019re telling yourself you saved a bunch. This is how our government baseline budgeting works. They have a budget that automatically triggers every item going up eight to 10% every year, and if it only goes up five, they claim that their budget\u2019s been cut, even though they had a 5% increase. You have just spent money that you weren\u2019t going to spend, but because there was a sale, you\u2019ve told yourself you saved money. These guys are telling themselves this. They\u2019ve been planning on a tax increase, therefore more money, but there never was a tax increase. It never became law. But now there definitely isn\u2019t gonna be one, they claim the deficit\u2019s gonna be hurt because they\u2019re not gonna get what they never were gonna get.<\/p>\n

CALLER: A-ha. So even if for the past ten years it\u2019s been the same and it\u2019s going to continue being the same, in their wee-small minds, they believe that that actually is going to be a debt?<\/p>\n

RUSH: They do. For two reasons. A, it\u2019s in their DNA.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Ahhhh!<\/p>\n

RUSH: They believe that every tax cut costs the government money.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I see.<\/p>\n

RUSH: They are demonstrably wrong about it. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, my God, yes! (laughing)<\/p>\n

RUSH: So anything that looks to them like a tax cut — which is tax rate\u2019s staying the same after they thought they were going up — that constitutes to them a cut. Therefore think they\u2019re getting screwed with less money.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That also includes the estate tax, which is zero that\u2019s going to go up to 35% —<\/p>\n

RUSH: They\u2019re happy about that.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — on money that\u2019s already been taxed. They consider that, because it\u2019s not going up to whatever they want, therefore —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, because it used to be —<\/p>\n

CALLER: — it\u2019s going to be added to the deficit.<\/p>\n

RUSH: See, it used to be 55%.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Huh-uh. Correct.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now it\u2019s going from zero to 35%. They don\u2019t look at that as an increase; they look at that as a cut.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, my God! These people are NUTS!<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, this is how —<\/p>\n

CALLER: How do they live day-to-day? <\/p>\n

RUSH: This is how the federal budget gets put together every year. Have you —<\/p>\n

CALLER: No wonder we\u2019re in such a freaking mess!<\/p>\n

RUSH: Exactly right. Now, I\u2019m sure you can remember every year a budget is presented by let\u2019s say George W. Bush, and they said, ‘It\u2019s DOA. Look at all the budget cuts in here.\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right. Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And you looked at it and said, ‘There aren\u2019t any cuts \u2019cause the budget\u2019s bigger than it was this year. There aren\u2019t any cuts.\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: Exactly.<\/p>\n

RUSH: They think there are because let\u2019s say the Department of Education was scheduled to get a 10% increase and Bush\u2019s new budget says, ‘No, we\u2019re only gonna spend 7% more.\u2019 They think they\u2019ve got a cut of 3%. So they run around saying, ‘He cut our budget!\u2019<\/p>\n

CALLER: So they present this to the public —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — in a propagandist style —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, and the media —<\/p>\n

CALLER: So they can persuade the public to believe this crap?<\/p>\n

RUSH: And the media helps it along because they\u2019ll do it with things like the school lunch program for kids.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s why when they started this whole entire conversation, even Fox News — which I only watch Fox News — kept saying that this was going to cost $900 billion, and I\u2019m thinking, ‘This isn\u2019t gonna cost anything because nothing\u2019s changing!\u2019 I don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s right. It\u2019s gonna cost —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Why do they do this!<\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s gonna cost $900 billion for two reasons. They say it politically and also because they\u2019re not gonna get the money. Here\u2019s what I would say about costing money. I think we need to get away from this whole theory, all of this language, that tax cuts cost the government money. Who the hell are they? What right…?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Exactly.<\/p>\n

RUSH: How come tax increases never cost us? <\/p>\n

CALLER: Exactly.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s our money. If they get less of it, it is just like we are: It\u2019s up to them to deal with it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And I have the biggest beef in the world with the Republicans. They are constantly just going along with this. Why can\u2019t they change this conversation back to reality.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because — <\/p>\n

CALLER: (sneezes)<\/p>\n

RUSH: Because they\u2019re on defense. They don\u2019t like it being said that they\u2019re starving kids.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, my God, this is crazy! You know, we\u2019re gonna lose if they continue to have this conversation on their terms instead of dealing with reality. Reality is a whole lot different than what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That\u2019s right. And that\u2019s why this program is here. And that is why I have been really probably over-dwelling on this today, but it\u2019s crucial. When I hear Obama start talking about, ‘If we don\u2019t do this, we\u2019re gonna have a double-dip recession\u2019? Well, if we don\u2019t do what? We\u2019re not changing anything! There\u2019s no change. There are no tax cuts. It\u2019s this minuscule, 2% cut. I\u2019m not opposed to it, don\u2019t misunderstand, but it\u2019s just one year. It\u2019s a 2% reduction, not an elimination of the payroll tax. So it\u2019s gonna amount to some, but nothing anybody can plan on. It\u2019s just one year. It\u2019s just in there so that the regime can say they cut taxes, but until they start cutting marginal income tax rates there\u2019s nothing in here that\u2019s going to stimulate economic growth. <\/p>\n

And this Obama knows. <\/p>\n

Remember, now, folks, the last thing he wants is for this to work. Here you are, a Marxist socialist, you\u2019re sitting there in the White House, and at the end of two years you have to say, ‘You know what? I was wrong. The supply-side theory actually does work\u2019? Well, it isn\u2019t gonna work. Keeping the same tax rates, if they haven\u2019t stimulated an economy… See, they\u2019ve already done the stimulation. When Bush cut these taxes in 2001 and 2003, the stimulation, the stimulus, took place within three years. To stimulate again you\u2019d have to have more cuts now. The stimulus has already occurred. So it\u2019s now embedded. It\u2019s part of the daily economic structure. There won\u2019t be any stimulus here. This Obama knows. <\/p>\n

So in two years he can say, ‘I tried it. You know, in the interest of bipartisanship to get along with the other guys after they won the election, blah, blah, blah. I\u2019m a good guy. I tried it their way and it just didn\u2019t work,\u2019 and in two years Obama would love to be able to call a press conference where he officially buries the notion of supply-side, \u2019cause he tried it for two years and it didn\u2019t work, when he didn\u2019t try it. That\u2019s the risk here. I hear our guys running around saying, ‘The Democrat Party is dead.\u2019 Ah, ah, ah, ah! I\u2019ve got guys writing the e-mails saying, ‘Rush, he\u2019s not that smart.\u2019 Now, wait a second. <\/p>\n

All you people continually writing about how we\u2019re always one step behind the Democrats and they\u2019re always strategically one step ahead of us, I give you an example of that and you say, ‘He\u2019s not that smart.\u2019 Okay, maybe he isn\u2019t. I don\u2019t know. But somebody\u2019s got this idea because I\u2019m telling you: On Tuesday he says there\u2019s no way there\u2019s gonna be double-dip recession with current policy. The next day he says we run the risk of a double-dip recession if we don\u2019t do this tax rate extension. So something\u2019s going on here. These guys… Somebody\u2019s pulling him along if it\u2019s not him. Frankly, I don\u2019t care who is not. I just know what\u2019s happening. I listen to them say so. It\u2019s not that hard to figure out. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Robert ‘Fibbs,\u2019 the White House press secretary, says the White House is estimating the cost of the tax cut dealing somewhere in the range of $700 billion to $800 billion a year and we have a caller coming up from Bozeman. I don\u2019t want to take him yet. (interruption) He didn\u2019t drop? Bozeman is still there? (interruption) Oh, the guy on Line One did drop. We had a guy who said, ‘Most economists keep saying the Bush tax cuts will add 790 to 800 billion dollars to the deficit over time. Why are you telling this woman, Vickie, that it won\u2019t add to the deficit?\u2019 He said, ‘I\u2019m confused.\u2019 I wish he were still there. This is a great question. If you don\u2019t understand that, it\u2019s a great question, and I\u2019m gonna do my best to explain it anyway even without the caller. <\/p>\n

Because this is a perfect disinformation campaign. They want you to think that any tax cut — and there isn\u2019t one. He even said here ‘keeping the Bush tax cuts.\u2019 The Bush tax ‘cuts\u2019 happened seven years ago; they\u2019re now existing tax ‘rates.\u2019 They\u2019re tax rates that have been in place for ten years. This notion that they cost the government money, stop and think about it. Folks, remember, to liberals, government\u2019s god, and god should never starve, and god should never be thirsty, and anything that takes money away from god is immoral. And these people are looking at this as $900 billion to $800 billion in less revenue, but it isn\u2019t. They are not losing a dime! There is no less money going to Washington because the tax rates are staying the same. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way, mathematically, economically, you can say that everybody paying the same tax rates is gonna ‘cost\u2019 the government money. The only way that happens is if unemployment keeps rising and there are fewer people paying taxes and we extend unemployment benefits. That\u2019s what causes deficits: Spending. Am I yelling? I got a note today saying I\u2019m yelling too much and I don\u2019t have to yell. Am I yelling here? (interruption) Well, I\u2019m just passionate. This woman says, ‘You can get passionate without yelling.\u2019 I don\u2019t want drive people off here but some of this, you lose your patience with it. You know, I live in Literalville, Realville, Logicville, wherever. We have current tax rates. They are X, whatever they are. <\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been there for ten years. And now all of a sudden, this year, those same tax rates are going to cost the government $800 billion? They didn\u2019t say that last year; they didn\u2019t say it the year before. They\u2019re only saying it now. Again, it\u2019s how you set the table. The context is, ‘We were going to let them expire, and the top rate was gonna go up from 36 to 39.6%. The 10% was gonna go to 15% and so on.\u2019 So under that scenario, if we let them expire and the tax rates go up, the liberals are counting on that, they\u2019re hoping for that, and they are thinking that those increased rates are going to result in more money. Now all of a sudden Obama comes along and says, ‘Guess what? We\u2019re gonna keep those rates the same. We\u2019re not gonna sunset them. We\u2019re not gonna let \u2019em sunset, and doing this will cost us $800 billion.\u2019 <\/p>\n

The only way it costs \u2019em $800 billion is if they\u2019ve already spent it based on what they thought it was gonna go up, \u2019cause it\u2019s not gonna result in any less money coming in. Again, the only way that these tax rates… Listen to me on this, \u2019cause I can lose patience being patient. Look at me now. The only way keeping these tax rates the same can ‘cost money,\u2019 quote, unquote — I don\u2019t even like that. The only way these tax rates staying the same will result in less money going to Washington is if fewer people have jobs, thus fewer people are paying taxes. Add to that those people who lose jobs will get unemployment benefits, and we will be spending more money than we were because we have to spend unemployment benefits, and we\u2019re gonna be getting less money because they don\u2019t have jobs and are not paying taxes. <\/p>\n

Ergo it would, quote, unquote, ‘cost the government,\u2019 but only if people lose their jobs. If unemployment comes back, keep the tax rates the same, and revenue will go up. More people are paying taxes. I know one Democrat\u2019s out there saying that we have to borrow money from China to pay for the rich to have a tax cut. We don\u2019t. We have to borrow from China for every bit of spending Obama\u2019s doing. We\u2019re not spending anything on these tax rates! How hard is it for you on the left to get this through your heads? Keeping the tax rates the same, we\u2019re not spending any money to do that. <\/p>\n

If the tax rates went down, we wouldn\u2019t be spending any money. Do you know what would happen if the tax rates went down? There would be more jobs. Businesses would start hiring people. There would be the money to do it. Lowering tax rates would actually increase revenue to Washington, if that\u2019s what you\u2019re concerned about. This guy on Line One who didn\u2019t hang around said, ‘How can you tell this woman it isn\u2019t going to cost when all these economists are saying it will!\u2019 Well, yeah, we got a Democrat saying we\u2019re gonna have to borrow money from China to do this. Do you really believe that? Yeah, Obama\u2019s gonna get on the phone to Hu Jintao.<\/p>\n

‘Hey, Hu? Yeah, you! Hu! I need $900 billion because we\u2019re gonna keep our tax rates the same here.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Hu Jintao would say, ‘What?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘You heard me. I need $900 billion because we\u2019re gonna keep our tax rates the same.\u2019<\/p>\n

Hu Jintao would say, ‘Who you been talking to, because that\u2019s nonsensical!\u2019<\/p>\n

‘I don\u2019t care who I\u2019ve been talking to, Hu. I\u2019m talking to you now, and I need $900 billion because we\u2019re not changing our tax rates.\u2019<\/p>\n

Somebody please tell me you\u2019re getting this. This is 1 + 1 = 2. This is a kindergarten-type lesson, yet the way I\u2019m explaining it is easy. What I do here is take the complex and make it understandable. This also shows the Democrats don\u2019t give a damn about revenue. They care about power. They don\u2019t care about revenue. They cared about revenue there\u2019s one way to do it: Lower these marginal tax rates and create more taxpayers by creating more jobs. Tax revenue will go up because you have more taxpayers. If the gasoline price stays the same and you drive no differently next month, is it gonna cost you any money? No, no! The per-pump price where you buy gas is going to stay the same next month. Your salary stays the same next month. You are going to drive the same amount next month as you drive this month. <\/p>\n

Are you going to lose money with the gasoline pump price staying the same? No. Well, then doesn\u2019t it follow that if the tax rates stay as they have been for ten years and we have the same number of people working — probably fewer — how in the world is it gonna cost the government anything? The government has already adjusted to the revenue produced by these income tax rates. They adjusted to it six, seven years ago. I am more befuddled by how… The guy admitted he was confused, but I am more befuddled by the question than I am by the answer. I, ladies and gentlemen, have been known to lose patience being patient. Some of you people are a challenge in this regard. Twenty-three years I have been explaining this in one way or forum or another.<\/p>\n

Baseline budgeting. This. Tax rates going up, less revenue to Washington; tax rates going down, more revenue to Washington. That leads to more taxpayers. This guy says, ‘Most economists say keeping the Bush tax cuts will add $790 billion to the deficit.\u2019 They\u2019re lying. They are politically oriented. I have a story in the stack here that makes total sense. You know, just like at university the conservative professor is a rarity you know what else is? Republican conservative scientists are a rarity, because most of the grants go to liberal scientists. So they become liberals. They write stuff that\u2019s liberal. They promote stuff that\u2019s liberal. That\u2019s how they live. They get grants. You won\u2019t find very many conservative scientists. <\/p>\n

‘Mr. Limbaugh, science is not politicized!\u2019 <\/p>\n

Right, Mr. Castrati. You know, you get stupider every time you open your mouth here. Science isn\u2019t politicized. So, there\u2019s no way. There is no way keeping these tax rates the same costs the government anything, certainly not $800 billion. The only way tax rates stay the same means less revenue is if unemployment keeps going up. Fewer taxpayers paying taxes makes government gets less money. Then we gotta spend more money paying \u2019em not to work when they go on unemployment. That\u2019s the vicious cycle we\u2019re in. Unemployment is costing us revenue two-ways: Fewer taxpayers and we gotta pay the unemployed. We gotta call Hu Jintao. The real call is, ‘Hey, Hu! I need $900 billion to pay unemployment benefits next year.\u2019<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Just imagine this. Obama gets on the phone in the Oval Office, he calls China, (imitating Obama) ‘Hey, Hu, uh, Barack Obama here.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Yeah, how are you?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Just fine. Hu, look, I need to borrow some more money.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘What for?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Well, we need to pay some people that are not working.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘What?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Yeah, we call it unemployment compensation.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘You really pay people not to work?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘Yeah, for three years.\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘You Americans pay people not to work for three years and you\u2019re calling me for a loan to pay people not to work?\u2019 <\/p>\n

‘That\u2019s right, Hu. That\u2019s who they told me to call, you.\u2019 <\/p>\n

The ChiComs are saying, ‘Man, this is gonna happen sooner than we thought. They\u2019re willingly paying people not to work. It really has happened! We thought we were dead with Reagan there, but, look, two years they\u2019re paying people, three years, not to work, man, oh, man, oh, man. Pretty soon they\u2019re gonna be like Europe and they\u2019re not gonna have an army, either.\u2019 Hu Jintao, I mean if he gets that phone call he\u2019s gonna hang up, may start believing in Christmas. That would be the result. <\/p>\n

Now, all of you people still scratching your heads here over my attempt to explain to you how the tax rate staying totally the same doesn\u2019t cost any money, what about all the new massive spending in this bill? Do you know they\u2019re calling this tax rate extension bill a stimulus? There is a whole bunch of new spending in this, and the media mostly ignored that. But what it shows is that regardless of tax rates, the Democrats spend, and the Democrats in Congress are completely rejecting what the voters said in November. What they\u2019re doing, the Democrats in the House are (raspberry) to the voters. That\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happening here. <\/p>\n

As to the estate tax, try this a different way. If you own a farm, let\u2019s say if you\u2019re one of the 84,000 black people who own the 17,000 farms? Did you hear that? You\u2019re one of the 84,000 black people who now, as of yesterday, own 17,000 farms. You\u2019re not 84,000 black people who own 84,000 farms. If you own a farm that has been handed down through three generations, and the land alone is assessed at $5 million, but you don\u2019t have anything close to that kind of money to pay a new estate tax, then you have to sell the family farm. And there are many farms and small businesses that get taken down under this. It\u2019s not just about millionaires. It\u2019s not just about billionaires. If the patriarch is lazy or doesn\u2019t want to face his own death and doesn\u2019t do proper estate planning, the heirs can end up having to sell most of what they get to pay what was a 55% death tax. The children of Joe Robbie had to sell the Miami Dolphins and the stadium to pay federal income tax, the death tax. <\/p>\n

Now, the people who are writing all of this legislation and making these arguments don\u2019t run small businesses. They don\u2019t run farms. They come out of law school or some highfalutin Ivy League business school or art school or journalism school, they spend their entire lives in politics or law, and they treat everything in a simplistic and very stark way. Now, we have $200 billion or so in new spending in this tax extension bill. Who\u2019s paying for that? There\u2019s no new spending in keeping tax rates the same, but there is new social spending here. Who\u2019s paying for it? And the spending goes on no matter what, right? Oh, yeah, can you imagine how foolish Irksome Bowles and Alan Simpson feel about now? Well, these guys for six months, they have the assignment of a lifetime: Come up with the magic that\u2019s going to fix our deficit problem. They finish, they take a vote, they can\u2019t even get their own commissioners to go along with them, and now everything they said may as well not have mattered, they may as well not have done it. Look how many cocktail hours they missed. That\u2019s a lot of drinking they have to make up. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Vickie in Brooksville, Kentucky. You\u2019re first today on the EIB Network and the phones. Hi. CALLER: Hi. This is truly an honor. Thank you very much, Mr. Limbaugh. RUSH: You bet. CALLER: I have a question because I live in Literalville. 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