RUSH: Have you seen the headlines on the tax deal, folks? The payroll tax extension deal? The deal that puts $40 a month, a whopping $40 a month, in people’s pockets? Headline, here it is in TheHill.com: “Republicans Retreat on Tax Cut.” Other headlines: “Republicans Cave on Tax Cut.” Another headline: “House Republican Leaders Agree to Payroll Tax Holiday Extension Without Offsets.” The news is that Obama has rolled the Republicans once again. That’s the headline. And the Republicans, God bless ’em, no matter how hard they try to gain the approval of the Drive-By Media, it’s just never gonna happen, and I don’t understand how they do not learn this.
Hi, folks. How the heck are you? We’re here behind the Golden EIB Microphone. Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
So the Republicans reach across the aisle, and what happens? What does Obama do? He tells the country they might be lying. He trusts the Muslim Brotherhood more than the Republicans. Have you heard about the Muslim Brotherhood? The Muslim Brotherhood’s out there, and by the way, folks, they’re not who you think they are if you think they’re some peace-loving group from the Middle East. Get this.
“Essam el-Erian, a top Muslim Brotherhood official, has warned that any cuts in US aid to Egypt would violate the US-brokered 1979 peace agreement with Israel and could affect Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel.” So this guy, the top Muslim Brotherhood clown, is warning that America should understand that what was acceptable before the revolution is no longer acceptable. And this is all music to Obama’s big ears. Egypt was Obama’s first big address after taking office. So the Obama Brotherhood is laying down the law in Egypt. He’s got a greater affection for these guys than he does the Republicans.
I don’t know where to begin on this. I really don’t know where to begin. I do not understand why somebody doesn’t characterize this payroll tax cut for what it is, gutting Social Security. Because it is not being, quote, unquote, paid for. “House Republican leaders said Monday that they will support extending the federal payroll tax holiday through the end of the year without demanding spending cuts to pay for it, a concession aimed at averting another poÂlitically damaging showdown in Washington. The House leadership could offer a pared-down measure to extend the tax cuts later this week. But the top three GOP leaders backed off previous demands that the tax breakÂ’s extension be accompanied by spending reductions to shore up the finances of the Social Security program.”
So the payroll tax cut is a whopping $40 a month, and the Republicans were holding fast, but you gotta find a way to replace what you’re gutting. The Republicans, for as long as I’ve been alive, have been accused of gutting Social Security. Here’s Obama doing it, Obama and the Democrats are actually doing it, the payroll tax is the only funding mechanism for Social Security, and this continuing tax cut is — look, if they want to do it, fine and dandy. I’m just telling you, from a political standpoint, it’s a gold mine here, and they’re not using it. The Republicans instead decide to reach across the aisle, they want to show that they can compromise, they want to show that they can get along, and Obama and his media minions just slap them down.
I looked at all the headlines today, and they’re all about how the Republicans have retreated on the payroll tax extension, how they have caved and they just can’t win. If they stand firm and demand that this tax cut be paid for, then they’re called stubborn, they’re accused of standing in the way of progress. And, if they compromise, they’re accused of retreating, of caving. I guess it’s one explanation for why they’re so gun-shy. I guarantee you they’re shocked. Everything they did was to get positive media spin, and they’re not getting it. There’s no other reason to do this, compromising, getting along, what have you, other than to get positive media spin. But aside from all that, the ignorance about the payroll tax cut extension is just appalling. The White House has provided a perfect example on Twitter.
Now, the White House tweeted about an hour ago. They tweeted this: “I’m asking the American people to keep their stories coming. Tell us what $40 means to you. Use the hash tag #$40, President Obama.” So Obama sent a tweet out there — and he did this little appearance: “It only happened because of you. You need to keep telling Washington what $40 means to you. It means a tank of gas,” and, by the way, we got the sound bite coming up. Gasoline prices are going up faster than ever. Normally they go up around May for the summertime, but gasoline prices are going up and may reach $5 a gallon. Obama is saying: Yep, good news! It’s a sign the economy’s coming back. It’s a sign the economy’s growing: $5 gasoline.
He’s gonna try to turn that into a positive. I’ve been watching the Obama campaign with great interest. Including this outrageous budget, which is simple irresponsibility. It’s not even really a budget. This is Obama in a so-called budget (really a campaign document) laying out what his dream is. Now, I have noted and I have mentioned over the past two decades: When liberal Democrats run for office, they sound like conservatives. They do their best to hide who they really are. You know it and I know it. That’s not happening now, or just happening on a couple things. Like on this tax cut thing Obama’s trying to sound conservative, supporting a tax cut, trying to hide his socialism and so forth. But for the first time do you understand we’re facing something that, in my mind, on balance is true. And it’s relatively new.
These guys are running as the socialists they are! They’re running as the big-spending, big-debt-busting liberals that they are. They are running on this. They are running on their plans to totally transform, change, and destroy the country’s economy as it exists. They’re running on that! They’re not even trying to hide it now. There are just a few exceptions to it, the payroll tax holiday being one. Any time Democrats run on a tax cut, you understand that there’s something really other than what appears to be on the surface going on. But for the most part they’re not even trying to cover it. Obama’s not trying to camouflage what’s going on: Big government everywhere, telling you what you have to buy, what you can’t pay for it, what you will pay for it.
All this unconstitutional stuff, it’s in your face. It is in your face, and it’s fascinating to me. If they’re doing it this way, if this is how they’re gonna run for office and run for reelection, what must it say about what they think the country is or where the country is? This is going to bear watching. Anyway, the ignorance about the payroll tax extension is appalling. The White House, Obama, puts out this tweet, “I’m asking the American people to keep their stories coming. Tell us what $40 means to you. President Obama,” and this was the first response. It was from some guy named “ScareBaby.” That’s how he identified himself! The first response to Obama’s tweet: “$40 a month means I can pay my Internet bill and keep my tiny small business alive.”
That was the first response and the White House retweeted it. Now, of course, it’s BS. Nobody actually sent that. That’s a White House-generated response. And do you know how I know? You may not know how I know. But this is the level of ignorance that we have that is associated with this. Mr. ScareBaby cannot possibly have a small business and get this payroll tax cut. The self-employed don’t get it. If you are self-employed, you know it. This doesn’t even apply to you. There is no payroll tax cut for the self-employed. So Mr. ScareBaby here says, “$40 a month means I can pay my Internet bill and keep my tiny small business alive.” The White House retweets it. If he has a small business, he’s self-employed, and this 2% payroll tax cut only applies to employees. Not him.
In fact, maybe I ought to report this disinformation to Obama’s new “truth team.” He’s got new truth teams out there. You heard about this? In every state, he has truth teams. They’re out there to counter the lies and misinformation about the regime that pop up, and this is not new. What was the first thing like this they had? (interruption) Yeah, what was the name of the website? I can’t remember the name of the website. But, anyway, it’s just an extension or an expansion of that. So Mr. ScareBaby, this is obviously not a real person. This is somebody in the White House getting this Tweet ball rolling. Minor, minor point.
We got audio sound bites on this. I want to tell a little bit more about the Republicans and what they’re doing. You know, this is not by any means the end of the line for what the Republicans are doing. This highway bill (snorts) may as well be an Obama stimulus bill. This highway bill is a Washington-spending stimulus bill, and it’s being misnamed the highway bill, and it’s the Republicans that are behind it. It’s mind-boggling. It literally is mind-boggling to watch this. (interruption) Yeah, “Fight the Smears” was the name of that first website. So we got $5-a-gallon gasoline on the way. Obama says that’s great news! That’s a sign of economic growth. I just wonder. You go to the grocery store. I know you do.
You go to the grocery store; you buy the same things. Let’s just say pretty much the same thing every week or how often you go. You know it’s costing more. You know the cost of living is going up. You know economy is not growing. You know that your wages, your income, is not keeping up with the cost of living. Five-dollar-a-gallon gasoline, this stuff means something — and to sit here and herald a $40-a-month tax cut, and to talk about how meaningful it is? The sad thing is, it IS meaningful to a lot of people! Forty dollars, in this economy with what Obama has done, is meaningful. That’s how bad things are.
It just breaks my heart to see what’s happening to this country, to watch it happen right in front of our eyes and expect there to be certain degree of outrage from people on the same side you’re on. I’m reading people describe Obama’s budget, and they’re all describing it as outrageous, but that’s it. It dies after that. It dies after the description. There’s no action that is associated with the criticism of this, as though it’s just politics-as-usual. No different than any other time in our American history. If everything happened that Obama wants in this budget, folks, it’s over. It may be over anyway if Obamacare’s fully implemented.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, I’m told something. Remember this Obama tweet on the White House twitter page for people to respond about what $40 a month means to ’em with the payroll tax cut extension, and the first one that responded was somebody named Mr. ScareBaby?
And ScareBaby said: I have a very small business and $40 will help me with my Internet bill or whatever. And I said, “ScareBaby, you’re an idiot. You’re self-employed! You don’t qualify for the payroll tax cut.” No self-employed person gets the payroll tax cut. You gotta be an employee. If you’re a small business owner — a “very” small business owner, a “tiny” small business owner — you’re not an employee. Well, guess what? ScareBaby posted on the Democrat Underground that she’s upset because I’m “sliming” her. It turns out Mr. ScareBaby is a woman and says, “I got slimed by Rush today on his show. Need your help.” So somebody from the White House is feeling that I’m sliming them. ScareBaby.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hey, ScareBaby? I understand you’re trying to find tape of me saying what I said about you. I’ll say some more about you. You are the Democrat mascot: ScareBaby! The Democrat Party’s entire political agenda depends on fear of pregnancy. Stop and think about that. Not to mention literally terrorizing babies in the womb. Fear of pregnancy. Stop and think what the Democrats are putting out there.