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RUSH: I’m sitting here, my mouth is agape. Everybody is all bent out of shape over this report that Obamacare’s gonna add $340 billion to the deficit, as though that’s somehow big news. Has everybody forgotten, it was just a couple of months ago that it was documented by the Congressional Budget Office that the whole thing’s gonna cost twice as much as it was projected. The original cost of Obamacare was under a trillion dollars. The magic number was a trillion because that was the cost of the Iraq war. And Obama had to say that he hated the Iraq war; it was a waste of a trillion dollars; we want to put that money to better use with health care. They had to score that stupid health care bill so it came in under a trillion dollars.


The way they did that over a ten-year period was to start the tax increases immediately, but they delayed any of the so-called spending or health care benefits, the bulk of them, ’til 2014. So we had ten years of tax increases, only six years of so-called health care benefits, and that’s how they kept the number under a trillion dollars. The CBO looked at it and said, “By the way, when this thing gets fully implemented and we’re gonna count both the tax increases and the spending over ten years, guess what? The cost goes up to nearly two trillion.”

And today there’s a story, a Republican report, Medicaid actuary, Medicare, whatever, that it’s gonna add $340 billion in debt. That’s like adding a quarter — $340 billion dollars is a sizeable amount of money, but it’s gonna be so much more than that. Anyway, the White House is acting like stuck pigs over this news. They’re trying to deny it. They’re saying it was partisan, a Republican report, 52 pages, put this out. But it’s chump change compared to what this thing is actually gonna cost. And don’t forget the news recently that 4,000 IRS agents are being hired and $500 million is being diverted to hire them and to put them into gear. You need to be asking yourself, in a health care bill where it’s all about you getting treated for the mumps or whatever, why in the world is the IRS involved?

Every citizen needs to ask themselves that question. What is the point of the IRS? They are a tax collection agency. What do they have to do with health care? Three-hundred and forty billion added to the deficit over ten years. That’s gonna happen every year. If we go back and look at every entitlement program that the Democrat Party’s put forward from, you name it, the Great Society, AFDC, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, every damn one of those programs has come in so far over what the original cost projection was that it’s laughable. And $340 billion, I mean, good work by this Republican guy, Charles Blahous.


“Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court. The leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released Tuesday that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.” I am stunned that anybody thinks that’s news. Honestly, intellectually stunned. I am also stunned that anybody thinks that any of Obama’s new policies will fix any of Obama’s failed policies.

I’m the only one who made a big deal out of the trillion-dollar CBO scoring? I’m the only one who made a big deal over the fact it was gonna cost two trillion in ten years? I’m the only one? Well, that means at least 20 million Americans know because they listen and we didn’t just lightly touch that. We didn’t just barely gloss over it. We made a big deal out of it.

Folks, you are so far ahead of the game listening to this program. You are so far ahead of the learning curve. But it’s laughable, and everybody’s all excited. I mean, even people on our side are acting shocked and stunned and like they stumbled across some big, new news story that they can really use to effectively kill Obamacare. Here’s why. Grab audio sound bite number one. This is Obama on September 9th, 2009, Joint session of Congress about health care reform and this is what the president said.

OBAMA: Finally, let me discuss an issue that is of great concern to me, to members of this chamber, and to the public, and that’s how we pay for this plan. And here’s what you need to know. First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future. Second, we’ve estimated that most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system.

RUSH: All right. So again you have to say, why did anybody believe him? This is a liberal Democrat talking about a new entitlement, not one of which has ever saved money. Not one entitlement in the history of this country has ever come in below cost projections. It’s always ballooned way beyond ’em. Look, don’t misunderstand. I’m happy for the news that it’s finally out there. I must have had 15 people send me this today as though, “Hey, look at this, why, this the most important, the biggest news.” You and I have either known or suspected this since before Barack Obama even was elected. We know what happens with liberals and the implementation of new entitlements. In fact, I want to take you back to September 10th of 2009, the day after Obama made that joint session speech. I want you to hear my reaction to it. If you were listening then, you’ll remember this.

RUSH ARCHIVE: The office of the president of the United States was demeaned last night. President Barack Obama gave a grossly inappropriate and, to me, embarrassing speech, a campaign speech disguised as a big speech to a joint session of Congress. It was grossly inappropriate in content. There were lies, falsehoods, distortions. It was embarrassing in tone. He called his critics liars when his own positions have been proven to be untrue. That speech last night was a fraud. It was dishonest. It demeaned the office of the presidency.


RUSH: And there hasn’t been anything that’s changed since then. Now, this CBO report that projected that health care would cost twice as much. After it said that the cost of Obamacare will double. They said that it wouldn’t significantly add to the deficit. Now, I don’t know who they thought was gonna read that and believe it. I don’t know how you can double the cost of an entitlement and then say the deficit is not affected. Surreal, all of this is. Anyway, folks, you and I, we are so far ahead of the curve here. We knew years ago that this thing was gonna bust the deficit and the national debt wide open, and there are people who think they’re smarter than you are who are just learning this today who think it’s the biggest news to come down the pike since Obama was inaugurated.

Now, Obama’s out there making fun of this Republican’s math. The White House position on this is that the claim is false. “This new math fits the old pattern of mischaracterizations about the Affordable Care Act when official estimates show the health care law reduces the deficit.” So the regime is sticking with this lie that their health care plan reduces the deficit. Now, this is the bunch, folks, that can make the unemployment rate go down without reducing unemployment. This is the bunch that can make the unemployment rate go down while we continue to lose jobs. More jobs are lost, more jobs are stricken from existence, and the unemployment rate goes down with this bunch.

So why can’t they double the cost of an entitlement and say it isn’t gonna add to the deficit? Because they will say whatever they want; they will make it up; they will lie; they know that their sycophants in the media are gonna report it. And that’s why something like $340 billion is added to the deficit because Obamacare is reacted to with breathless excitement. Of course the regime, again, is denying this. CBO estimates. Medicare, Medicaid, both, have ended up costing more than ten times what the CBO projected in 1965. Medicare and Medicaid have cost ten times what citizens of this country were told in 1965. Paul Ryan has been saying this about Obamacare for months. He has been trying to warn people. Every time he submitted a budget, when he’s gone out and talked about his budget, he has said there’s a huge deficit involved here with Obamacare. He’s been laughed at and mocked and made fun of because of it all along, but this study from this Republican actuary just says what we have known all along and what we’ve been saying all along.

Even the AP, in their story on this, admits that all of the supposed savings in Obamacare come from double counting Medicare cuts. They double count Medicare, $500 billion dollar times two. They double count it. The first thing they do is they cut it, and then they put it back in, and they count it both times when they do this. “Under federal accounting rules, the Medicare cuts are also credited as savings to that programÂ’s trust fund. But the CBO and MedicareÂ’s own economic estimators already said the government canÂ’t spend the same money twice.”

You can’t cut it and then spend it, and that’s what the plan does, and that’s how the CBO scored it in order to keep it under a trillion dollars. I could go back to the archives of this program and I could look it up, all the times that I have said Obamacare would increase the deficit. I’ll betcha I’ve said it… I’ve mentioned it a hundred times in this program since they first trotted out this claim that it was gonna reduce premiums $2,500 on average and that it was gonna reduce the deficit. Just one example taken from random, January 5th, 2010: “Democrats Push Health Care Deficit Lie.” We talked about it on this program. It’s in the archives at RushLimbaugh.com. “Democrats Push Health Care Deficit Lie.”

This is part and parcel of the way they operate. They have to lie about every aspect of every entitlement they create. They lie about the benefits; they lie about the sweeping success; they lie about the cost; they lie about all of it. They have to. They couldn’t get elected if they told you the truth. The thing you need to remember — because you have common sense and you know full well that this thing is gonna cost $2 trillion. You know full well it’s got death panels. You know full well that if a court decides the wrong way that we’re gonna be required to buy this coverage or pay a fine. Then you know that the IRS is gonna be examining everybody’s tax return to determine who is complying.

So you need to continually ask yourself, and you need to continually ask your friends to explain to you — you know, act like you don’t know — what does the IRS have to do with the health care? Why is the Obama administration hiring 4,000 new agents for the implementation of their health care bill?

What in the world does the IRS, a tax collection agency, have to do with curing diabetes?

What does the IRS have to do with treating cancer?

What does the IRS have to do with making sure that, if you’re in an automobile accident, you get the best coverage in the emergency room?

Now, here’s the bottom line in terms of legality, budget rules, congressional rules: If Obamacare does not reduce the deficit and instead adds to the deficit, then it should never have been passed via budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation requires that the deficit not be increased when you use that procedure to pass legislation.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I got another I told you so from this program. Back in August of 2010, August 20th. Another I told you so. This is me. This is what I said. I’m gonna read from the transcript. “To get Obamacare through the reconciliation — you remember all of this? To get Obamacare through the reconciliation process without a sunset provision…” See, “reconciliation,” this is the Bush tax cuts. They have to sunset in ten years. Whatever passes through budget reconciliation ends in ten years. And budget reconciliation is a special provision in the Senate that allows legislation to be passed with a vote of 51 majority, not 60. And budget reconciliation is the only exception to the 60 vote rule, unless they create a new rule to exempt something else from it. Right now it’s budget reconciliation.

So: To get Obamacare through the reconciliation process without a sunset provision, the CBO claimed it would reduce the deficit by $118 billion. Remember, they were massaging and manipulating this to say it was never going to cost more than a trillion because that’s what the Iraq war had cost and the regime was out there saying, ‘Oh, health care is going to cost less than the Iraq war.’ It was all lies, and Joe Wilson shouted that [“You lie!”], and look what happened to him. So now we have… It’s unconscionable. This entire regime has been a lie. It is an ongoing lie. That’s what I said back on August 20th, nearly two years ago in 2010 about the CBO and the Democrats and Obama claiming that Obamacare was gonna reduce the deficit by $118 billion.

It never had a prayer of reducing the deficit, and common sense is all you need to know that.

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