RUSH: Here’s Rubio. Rubio was on CBS This Morning today, and he’s toying with the idea of running for president, too. They’re having a discussion about the budget deal. The cohost infobabe Norah O’Donnell said, “Senator Rubio, I want to ask you about a criticism where you may be more beholden to these conservative groups than your own party, the legislating party.”
Now, think of that formulation of a question. (translated) “You may be more beholden to the base, you may be more beholden to your voters than to your party,” as though Rubio is committing some kind of political crime here. So Norah O’Donnell is accusing Rubio of being beholden, “more beholden” to his voters than his own legislating parties. She says, “If you looked at the votes in the House yesterday it had nearly equal Democrat and Republican votes.
You had Congressman Ryan and [Senator] Patty Murray working out a compromise. Shouldn’t you be encouraging a rare outbreak of bipartisanship?”
RUBIO: Compromise just for the sake of compromise so we can feel good about each other I donÂ’t think is progress for the country. I recognize how difficult it is…
OÂ’DONNELL: Really? Really? That’s what you think?
RUBIO: Yeah. For the sake of the compromise, that doesn’t solve problems, just for the sake of it? Yeah, that’s not a good thing for the country. ThatÂ’s why we have to have solutions.
ROSE: But Senator, they’re not saying —
RUBIO: No, no. We have a very serious problem in the country.
ROSE: But Senator, they’re not saying theyÂ’re compromising —
RUBIO: IÂ’m surprised youÂ’re surprised by my answer because…
ROSE: — for the sake of compromise.
RUBIO: No, no, no. But listen.
ROSE: They’re saying their compromising so —
RUBIO: No.
ROSE: — that they can move forward.
RUBIO: ThatÂ’s what you —
ROSE: Not for the sake of compromise.
RUBIO: — had described the question as. No, thatÂ’s how youÂ’ve described the question.
RUSH: Let me tell you, Rubio is so right on the money here. But do you notice, do you note, these are not media. You gotta think of these people as Democrats. Forget that they’re on television and asking questions. They’re not journalists. You’ve got to look at these people as who they are. They are Democrats. They are Democrat hacks, and they’re working as journalists.
So Rubio says something that, to you and me, is just the most solid common sense in the world. Compromise for the sake of compromise so we can feel good? That doesn’t do anything. And they can’t believe what they heard. She can’t believe what she just heard. (imitating O’Donnell) “You mean, Really? Really? That’s what you think? That compromise, just to feel good, doesn’t mean anything?” And Rubio, “Yes. Compromise doesn’t solve problems just for the sake of it. It’s not a good thing for the country. That’s why we have to have solutions.” And Charlie Rose, “But, Senator, Senator, my God, have you taken leave of your senses? They’re not saying –“
“No, no, we have a very serious problem in the country,” Rubio says.
“But Senator, they’re not saying they’re compromising.”
Rubio: “I’m surprised that you’re surprised by my answer.”
“But they’re not compromising for the sake of compromising.”
Yes, they are, Charlie. The Republicans are, because that’s what you people tell ’em they ought to do. You Democrats in the media tell the Republicans, “You people need to compromise, bipartisanship, people want people to get along.” Okay, so they got along. They went bipartisan. They compromised. They got a budget deal that doesn’t solve one problem. It doesn’t fix anything. And yet everybody on the bipartisan side is just feeling happy as they can be. And Rubio says it’s meaningless. And they can’t believe it. Huge divide.
Folks, this is why I say, there’s no hope of genuine, real compromise. There’s no hope of getting along here. This is politics. These people need to be defeated, not gotten along with, not reasoned with, because we can’t. You just heard it. Reasoning with them, logic, does not reach them. You and I know, compromise for the sake of compromise accomplishes nothing just to make yourself feel good. They think that’s all that’s involved here. ‘Cause what they know the end of the day is that Republicans compromising is Republicans losing, and that’s why they’re really for it, and they can’t believe that Rubio doesn’t see that the only way that Republicans can win is for them to lose.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I need to play one more sound bite of Marco Rubio. This is following the discussion he had with Norah O’Donnell and Charlie Rose, where Rubio said, “Well, wait a minute, now. Compromise for the sake of compromise doesn’t accomplish anything. We haven’t done anything. Maybe people feel better.” And they just couldn’t believe it. I mean, genuine disconnect. “What do you mean, compromise? You really, really believe that?” she asked him. He said, “Yeah, what’s been accomplished here? Nothing.” What Rubio also knows is when there has been compromise is when Republicans cave. So this is the follow-up. He went on to explain why this compromise that happened on the budget deal, in his view, isn’t good for the country.
RUBIO: Compromise is a good thing, especially if it arrives at a solution. Our ultimate goal here is to solve problems and to make progress on issues that confront our country. We have a government that continues to spend more money than it takes in at an alarming pace. That is going to trigger a debt crisis. It is holding American ingenuity back. When is there going to be urgency around here about addressing that? So far it has not.
RUSH: And that’s the dividing line, and I want to stress again, there are some people, and apparently a majority in Washington, to whom it’s not a crisis at all. There is no debt crisis to them, and there is no spending crisis. “The government will never run out of money. What are you talking about? The people are always gonna be working and paying taxes, and we can borrow what we need and we can print what we need. We’re never gonna run out of money. We’re the United States, what do you mean, debt crisis? There isn’t a debt crisis.”
And then you say, “Well, but for every dollar you borrow, that’s a dollar that the private sector doesn’t have available to borrow. So there’s less development. There’s less building. There is less entrepreneurism. There’s less hiring. There are fewer jobs.”
Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. There’s no debt crisis. It’s a genuine dividing line. The national debt today, to them, is no different than it was 30 years ago. As long as the percentage of GDP doesn’t change, there’s no problem. Now, you look at the private sector and you see that there isn’t really any new job creation, and people are losing hours. There are no real careers.
Look at Obama’s losing support in practically every demographic, but primarily among Millennials. And these are the people blindly voting for him in 2008 and 2012. They’re coming out of college with high degrees, expensive degrees that they’re in debt for, and debt does matter to them. They do have to pay it back. The people in Washington, “We don’t really have to pay our debt. The national debt never really has to be paid. I mean, we owe that to ourselves.” This is what the establishment says. “So it’s not like this money’s owed to somebody.”
“Well, wait a minute. The ChiComs are underwriting a lot of it, other people are.”
“Well, yeah, they’re gonna buy Treasury bonds, and they’ll redeem ’em, and they’ll be paid. There’s no crisis, Limbaugh. This is where you Tea Party people are really off the path. There’s no danger here.”
“Are you telling me you’re not gonna raise taxes down the road to help retire some of this debt and that people’s taxes that get raised are not gonna end up with less disposable income and have less of a standard of living?”
“Well, that may happen, but that’s just temporary. We’ll retire some of the debt, then we’ll lower taxes again. You know how this works, Limbaugh. There’s no crisis.”
And that’s the great divide between the Republican Party and its base. That’s why the Republican Party establishment is not really, when they look at Obama economic policy, they don’t see disaster. They just see another Democrat, maybe a little one more extreme and liberal than your average Democrat, but he’s gonna be gone soon, and we’ll win one of these days. We’ll have Christie in there and we’ll be smooth sailing. That’s how they look at it.
Nothing to really worry about here, folks. And you who want to create crisis and demand they take action, you’re the troublemakers. You’re the extremists. There isn’t anything wrong. Washington’s fine. Just let us handle it. You don’t know what you are talking about.