RUSH: Let’s go to the audiotapes, Mrs. Clinton on CNBC yesterday afternoon with the Money Honey. That would be Maria Bartiromo, who said, ‘Where was Congress during all this?’ This is about the mortgage crisis. ‘Where was Congress during all this? We had a lot of nonbanks in on the scheme with crazy proposals, no documentation, no interest for several months. Did Congress understand what is going on here?’
HILLARY: No. And under the Republican Congress, they didn’t want to understand, you know, the ostrich head was in the sand. You didn’t have an administration who paid attention to the early warning signals, you didn’t have a Congress that cared about it. And the net result is, as I say, everybody shares the responsibility. If something is too good to be true, it is too good to be true.
RUSH: You were in the Congress! What were you, a bystander? She can’t do anything right. The dirty little secret is, Congress authorized — I don’t care which one — Congress authorized and demanded these loans be made to people that couldn’t afford them if the rates went up. You know, one question. There are four different kinds of mortgages out. The subprime is just one. How come only one group is being assisted here with this freeze in mortgage interest rates? How come people who could afford to pay the rates when they went up are not being helped? How come only the people who couldn’t afford to pay the rates are being helped? Well, we understand this. But Mrs. Clinton, I forgot, you’re right, Mr. Snerdley, she didn’t know about the subprime thing. Nobody told her. She was probably lied to about it, never saw any intelligence on the subprimes. Well, she saw the intelligence, but thought it was cooked and lied about and so forth. Next question really heats up here when the Money Honey goes after her on taxes and the cackle returns. The question’s on the tape so listen to the exchange.
BARTIROMO: You’re talking about letting the Bush tax cuts expire. How do you justify this situation, when you’ve got people under pressure, and just the thought that they’re going to be paying more taxes, they may pull in their —
HILLARY: Well, since my husband and I are in that bracket, I don’t feel pressured. We’re going to do stimulus for the vast majority of Americans, and part of the way we’re going to pay for it is by letting those tax cuts on the wealthiest of Americans expire. Now, we have to look at every set of conditions. I don’t know what is going to be happening in the economy in January 2009. Up until then we have a very different philosophy and attitude in this administration, and lots of people who come on your show who, you know, are gung-ho, protect the tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans, that will not work if the economy slows down. You need to get money in the pockets of tens of hundreds of millions of Americans, and that’s what I intend to do.
RUSH: You just don’t know. She’s going to get this wrong, too. Tens of hundreds, did she say, tens of hundreds of millions of Americans need to get the money in the pockets? She’s really thinking China because that’s where she gets money from. She’s really thinking China here because we don’t have tens of hundreds of millions of people in this country. But how about this: ‘How do you justify this situation when you got people under pressure –‘ ‘Well, since my husband and I are in that bracket, I don’t feel pressure.’ I mean, first place the cackle, and then, since my husband and I are in that bracket.’ They just can’t stop telling everybody how rich they are. She can’t do anything right. Bartiromo finally says, ‘You know what, Senator, it’s not just the rich who own stock. We have 100 million –‘
HILLARY: I’m not saying anything about stocks. I’m saying —
BARTIROMO: Capital gains tax goes away. How does that impact the economy?
HILLARY: Well, the capital gains tax, I’m talking about the upper income tax brackets. You know, capital gains I think we may have to nudge a little bit, but depending, again, on the conditions.
RUSH: Stop the tape a second. Did I just hear what I heard? Capital gains for the upper brackets? There’s one capital gains rate, and it applies to everybody. That’s right. Not with her. Maybe she’ll keep the capital gains rate at 15% for people who have no capital gains — (laughing) — and raise it to whatever on her dreaded rich, the income bracket that she and her husband — take that back to the top. I couldn’t let that go without interrupting. I know you people don’t like it when I stop the tape, but I couldn’t help it. Let me know when it’s ready to go there, Ed. The question from Maria Bartiromo, the Money Honey, ‘You know what, Senator, it’s not just the rich who own stock.’
HILLARY: I’m not saying anything about stocks. I’m saying —
BARTIROMO: Capital gains tax goes away. How does that impact the economy?
HILLARY: Well, the capital gains tax, I’m talking about the upper income tax brackets. You know, capital gains I think we may have to nudge a little bit, but depending, again, on the conditions. I am going to look at the economy as it is. But I think it is, as I probably evidenced to your viewers, amusing, that we would have had these tax cuts, which I have benefited from, and people in my income tax bracket have benefited from, and the rest of the economy is stalled. So we have to take a look at the economy as it really is, and I think that calls for considering stimulus on a broad-base level.
RUSH: And the effort to lie and convince people that we’re in a slowdown and near a recession continues to justify raising taxes. (interruption) That’s right, Mr. Snerdley, she’s saying the entire economy is stalled, not for the rich. The economy is stalled for people like her and her husband and their income bracket. What was it she said? Well, the capital gains tax (muttering) I have benefited from and people in my income tax bracket have benefited from, and the rest of the economy stalled. So she didn’t say rich. She said the people in her income tax bracket. It’s what she means. I know, capital gains cuts, save the economy, the nineties, responsible for the deficit shrinking more than anybody imagined now. But apparently the economy is not doing well for anybody but the rich. Hey, if that’s the case, would somebody explain Wal-Mart to me? Would somebody explain Kmart? Is there still a Kmart? Would somebody explain Target workers, somebody explain how these stores are doing so well. Don’t tell me the rich go in there.