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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: I’m gradually weaving my way into my opinion, yeah, but before I get to the final pronouncement, I’m telling you and giving my thought process on all this. Gotta know what it is.

I’m just not gonna say, ‘I like it, and now back to the phones.’ I’m not gonna say, ‘I don’t like it, and now back to the phones.’ I’m gonna tell you how I’ve arrived at it, and I still haven’t told you the final like it or don’t like it. But I will tell you that a lot of this is not to his benefit. Getting this extension of unemployment… I hate… I hate the fact that it’s not paid for. This election was about spending. I hate the fact that it’s 13 months. We coulda hung in there for six. We don’t need… Look, folks, for those of you who hate this, there are some realities. One reality is there are three weeks left in the Christmas news cycle, okay? And not once in those three weeks can they do a story on the Republicans being Scrooge.

Now these, sadly, are factors our guys take into account. But this 13-month business takes us back to this time next year where it’s Christmastime again and — guess what? — they’re gonna be extended again. I guaran-damn-tee you they’re gonna be extended again, and that really rubs me raw. Really. You coulda done this for six months, coulda done this for four months and you coulda had a moral component and said, ‘Look, this is a disincentive to work.’ You coulda said, ‘Okay, we’re gonna extend it, but you’re gonna be cleaning up the highway.’ Look at welfare reform. That worked! Welfare reform required you to go to work — to be looking for work, looking to find work — to get welfare benefits. Clinton came along and signed that, and now these guys immediately do away with it, ’cause they’re trying to create a permanent underclass.

Thirteen weeks of this stuff, the fact it’s not paid for, that’s bad enough. The fact that it’s harming the people getting it — and believe me, it is. In the long run, it is. It’s a disincentive to work, and the longer these people are unemployed, the less skilled and experienced they become. Therefore the less qualified they become as time goes on. It’s not good for ’em in the long haul. They’re not rich. It’s not even a middle class income that they’re getting. It’s lower middle class, and there’s no dignity attached to this. This just stinks. But it’s Christmastime, and they don’t want any covers of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell on TIME Magazine as the Guys of the Year, as Ebenezer Scrooge, or the Grinch (as they did with Newt) or what have you.

I understand all of this stuff. I also understand we won the election and we have more power than we’re willing to use here. We have more power than we were willing to use, but they don’t think so. I don’t think they do, ’cause they live in Washington. They live and breathe there, and their perspective is different from ours. The people, the voters, we are all ahead of them in Washington. We have better handle on what the people of this country are thinking than they do even after the election results. I have told you of the ranking Republican that called me before the election and asked me to tell you to lower your expectations ’cause they’re not gonna have any power, ’cause they’re not gonna have any control.

They’re not gonna be able to do anything. They asked me to tell you that. We are ahead of the game with that. We know more about how we think than they do, and we have a better handle on how teetering and tottering Obama is on this stuff than they do. They’re still concerned about Obama’s skin color. There’s a whole bunch of stuff here that’s got them handcuffed, and they’re the ones putting the handcuffs on themselves. Nobody else. Now also, personally, being purely personal, I love the fact my taxes aren’t gonna go up with the extension of the deal here. I love it. I’m gonna be totally honest with you. The way our money is being spent? No way. We all pay enough! Nobody, nobody in this society is undertaxed. Nobody. But I also think: Why are we clapping our hands on an extension? Where is the cut?

The table has been set to where the outcome of ‘no change’ is considered a victory. A real victory would have been tax cuts: Corporate tax rate reduction, capital gains reduction. That’s scheduled to go up, by the way. I haven’t heard what is gonna happen on capital gains. Do something that would have done something for job creation. Now, I know there’s next year when we have the majority in the House, and maybe they’re waiting on that. ‘Just get through Christmas. Let’s get through Christmas without them calling us the Grinch,’ ’cause they’re just dying to do that. That’s why this whole extension thing has been set up on this timetable, but it’s gonna happen again next Christmas. Hell, I know prosecutors who don’t want to go to trial ’cause juries turn all mushy at the holidays. They don’t even want to send Charles Manson away during the holidays. Understandably.

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