RUSH: This belief in polls as the primary thing that shape politics, look, you and I know this, but even knowing it, there’s a part of me that wants to believe that people are able to compartmentalize these things and not grant them so damn much power, but apparently the poll is everything. Election results don’t count nearly as much as polling results to some of these people. I’m not talking about Chris Wallace. I’m talking about the establishment, the Republican consultants, all of it. Apparently polling data is all that matters.

But I still believe that they’re hiding behind this. I believe that they’re hiding behind this poll that shows they would get blamed in a government shutdown. They’re using that as an excuse not to act because they don’t want to act, for whatever reason. They don’t want to fight. They don’t disagree with Obama, whatever. This budget business that’s going on now is associated with it. We are being funded by a continuing resolution that — when does it expire, sometime this month? Or is it early January that it expires? Don’t look it up.

If we don’t do something this month, then, quote, unquote, the government will run out of money and, quote, unquote, the government will have to shut down. You’ve heard it, been there, done that. And so the Republicans have two options. The Republicans can, in this lame-duck session, do a continuing resolution for another couple of months to get them into February so that the next one that comes up they would be in full control of because the Republicans will gain control of the Senate in January when the new electees are sworn in.

The other thing, and the one that looks likely, is that the Republicans will work with the Democrats in the Senate, ’cause the Democrats run the show in the Senate still. And they’re gonna come up with a continuing resolution, miracle upon miracle, that will fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, which is now through September 30th. We haven’t had a continuing resolution that has been that length of time in I don’t know how many years.

Okay, the current continuing resolution that we’re working on now expires December 11th, which is Thursday. And here’s what’s gonna happen. The Republicans, again using this poll that claims the American people will blame them if the government is shut down, are gonna go ahead and agree to an omnibus continuing resolution, essentially a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, which will be all the way from now through September 30th. Meaning the Democrats, even though they lost, are going to run the budget show for yet another year, and we’re all sitting out here and asking ourselves “why” and scratching our heads.

Why wouldn’t you just force the Democrats to agree to a two-month CR taking you into February and then the Republicans, when they run the show, start acting like winners and then do an actual budget — and, by the way, in February Obama will present his 2016 budget that gets debated for all of next year.

See, this is what their thinking is. They’re thinking, “Well, look, we gotta start debating the 2016 budget in February. Why, we don’t need two of these things going at the same time.” And they’re relying on this poll that shows they’re gonna get tarred and feathered and blamed and maybe never, ever win another election, Mr. Limbaugh, if they do something that causes the government to shut down. If the CR expires on Thursday with no extension then, quote, unquote, the government will shut down. This just has everybody scared to death ’cause of the poll.

Now, living in the real world, this same thing happened last year. Almost a year ago exactly, the same thing happened, continuing resolution expired, there was a threat that the government would shut down, and it did because Ted Cruz and the boys are running around flexing their muscles. So there was a 15 to 17% portion of the government that ceased operating, but nobody depending on services was denied them. Everybody got what they needed and whatever wasn’t available was made available retroactively, including the few government workers who were furloughed for a short period of time.

There’s never any lasting damage from a government shut down, including political, because the Republicans, after being blamed for shutting down the government last December came back 10 months later and won a huge landslide in the House and the Senate and in governorships. I mean, it was another total shellacking, and yet that doesn’t mean anything. The Republicans are hiding behind this poll. It’s a Washington Post poll and it shows that 53% of the American people would blame the Republicans if the government shuts down. It’s, I don’t know, gutless. It’s silly. It’s tough to come up with unique ways to explain what the Republicans are doing.

And again, there’s a logical conclusion. The conclusion is the Republicans just don’t want to fight on matters of spending and they just don’t want to fight on matters of immigration reform. They just don’t want to. Whatever the fear they have about doing so is they don’t want to do it. The problem for them is, the American people have voted twice in droves for this to stop. That’s the only way to read the November election results. There wasn’t anything in these election results which could be interpreted as voters want Republicans to help Obama get his agenda passed. If voters wanted that, they wouldn’t have elected Republicans. They would have elected Democrats slam dunk across the board. Didn’t happen.

There was nothing about the election returns that say the American people want the Republicans and Democrats to compromise and work together and gridlock. The opposition to Obama, without doing a damn thing, was elected in a landslide. Nationally, the national portion of the Republican campaign did not have an issue. They were mute. They didn’t say anything. Individual candidates running for the Senate and so forth ran almost exclusively against Obama and Obamacare, and they won big. And now there’s not a single Southerner in the Senate. The South has been totally shut out from the Democrat Party. They are in a shambles.

The Democrat Party, in a political sense, in terms of public favor, they are falling apart. Now, that’s not to say that their agenda’s failing. Two different things. They still have the White House, and they have a president who’s willing to advance his agenda outside the Constitution. Don’t misunderstand me. That’s why the American people want all of this stopped. The only way they can do it, they think, is to have Republicans elections, but the Republicans will not do it.

So we’re faced with two things: comprehensive immigration reform, otherwise Republicans get blamed for shutting down the government. And the Democrats and Harry Reid get to write the budget for the next year, or the remainder of this fiscal year, which is just gonna mean all kinds of spending. You know, Obama’s already gotten the national debt up to $18 trillion. He’s added $10 trillion, I think, himself. Seventy percent of the national debt occurred in the last six years, and they still claim they’re out of money. They still claim they’re not getting enough money. It just difficult to comprehend all of this.

So we’re left to conclude that when it comes to spending and immigration, the Republicans really don’t differ with Obama, but they have to come up with something to mollify their voters, something to explain to their voters why they can’t stop Obama. “Well, because we might destroy everything we won. We might destroy all the goodwill,” which is just silly. The American people didn’t elect the Republicans to stand aside. They didn’t elect Republicans to sign on. Is there anybody in their right mind who thinks this, that the meaning of a Democrat landslide defeat is that voters want Republicans to assist Obama in advancing his agenda?

Let me put it a different way. Are we really going to interpret the November elections as a mandate from the American people for the Republican Party to stand aside and let Obama do what he’s gonna do? Is that what that election meant? Because that’s what they’re telling us. When they say they’ve got a poll that shows they’ll be blamed again for shutting down the government, what they’re trying to make us believe is that the American people will hate them so much that all the goodwill that resulted in their winning the election will be destroyed and they’ll be hated and their majorities will be worthless. No, their majorities are gonna be worthless if they don’t use it, and it appears that’s what’s happening.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Ted in Las Vegas. Hey, Ted, great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I’ve been wanting to call you for a year. I tried a couple times, but wasn’t able to get through ’til today.

RUSH: Well, here you are.

CALLER: Yes. I was one of the people who responded on the polls as to who we held accountable or who was responsible for the government shutdown last year, or last time. And I said that I thought Ted Cruz and the GOP were. But what they didn’t ask, and this is what the danger in polls is, is that I was happy that they did that. This is one of the reasons why I’m considering backing Ted Cruz for president, because he had the guts to say, “No, we’re not going any further. As a matter of fact, we need to step back.” The polls don’t cover that.

RUSH: This is an excellent point. They never do tell us how many people that say the Republicans are responsible for government shutdown are in favor of it.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: They just make the assumption that nobody would be in favor of a government shutdown. Why, who in the world in their right mind would ever want our precious government to stop working for a day or two? That is an excellent, excellent point. You remind me of something, by the way. Boy, I’m gonna be in real trouble saying this. I ran into a guy recently who was a big Romney guy in 2012. To start a conversation, I said, “So, look, give me the inside, is Romney running again?”

He said, “I don’t know, I don’t know, but I’ll tell you who I like now.”

I said, “It’s not Romney?”

“Well, I love Romney, but he’s not the guy.” He told me Rick Perry. This is fascinating to me. And you know what he said? “We need fighters. We don’t have any fighters.” Cruz is a fighter. This is what reminded me of the little story. Anyway, Ted, I appreciate the call. I wish I had more time to underline even more, but I don’t.