RUSH: Tony, Mt. Vernon, New York. Great to have you, sir. How are you doing?

CALLER: Yeah, Rush, I have never called before, but after hearing Pence, I am red-hot angry because what I hear — what I heard — is just a politician. That’s all I heard. And, you know, it was all political blah, blah. And every question that you asked him, he just kept on going back to what we got, the $21 billion for the military. He did not answer one of your questions. It’s like, “Well, why don’t you shut down the government now? ‘Cause it’s gonna be shut down in September,” and he did not answer your question. Okay, so what that says to me is that nothing is gonna happen, Rush, okay? Because they just become… They become part of the system.

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: Okay, that’s it. There’s not gonna be any… Let me tell you, there’s not gonna be any health care, there’s not gonna be any wall, there’s not gonna be any tax bill. They just keep on coming up — the Republicans, and now Pence and Trump keep on coming up — with why we can’t do something instead of why we can do something. And it all comes back to the Senate rules, okay? And the Senate rules are being put above our freedom, okay? And it’s driving me absolutely nuts. I mean, we sent Trump to Washington, D.C., to give Washington, D.C., a heart transplant, okay?

And with all his executive orders, okay? Those are all Band-Aids. They’re all good and stuff like that. But they’re Band-Aids, and they haven’t gotten to the heart of the issue, and that’s why we sent him to Washington, D.C. And the people are still being put last, okay? And I’m just over-the-top angry, okay, when you had Pence on there, I’m telling you. And I just don’t think anybody’s gonna happen, because, you know what, Rush? The money is too big.

The money is too big, and the Republicans are getting too much money put in their pockets, okay, by the lobbyists, by K Street, and they don’t want to see any changes. Don’t tell me it’s so difficult to change all this stuff. I was a businessman for 25 years, I was a teacher, and you want to change things, you go in and you change ’em and fundamentally. And he said, “Well, we can’t do this because this what the rules say.” So, you know what? Change the rules! Okay? But you’re putting the freedom of the American people, okay —

RUSH: Do what the Democrats would do!

CALLER: — subject to the rules.

RUSH: Do what the Democrats do: Whatever it takes to win! If you gotta change the rules, change the rules. You gotta do nuke option, you do the nuke option. If you’ve gotta shut down the government, blame the other party. Do it!

CALLER: Why aren’t they doing it? Why aren’t they? And that’s what you asked Pence. He just kept going back, okay, how much of a winner it was, okay, with the $21 billion. It’s not a win, okay? It’s not a win. Okay? Because you’re just kowtowing, okay, to the Democrats. You just… You’re giving them the power!

RUSH: Okay, let me ask you a quick —

CALLER: And over and over and over again —

RUSH: Hold it a minute! Let me ask you a quick question. Trump ran on a specific, often-repeated list of things. The essence of this means that Trump ran on a campaign of serious, constantly articulated issues. That has deep meaning. This was not a personality campaign. Trump didn’t —

CALLER: I listened to every speech, Rush!

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Every speech!

RUSH: Trump did not win because he made Hillary out to be a buffoon. That’s what she tried to do to him. He won because of specific things. Do you think he has forgotten that or doesn’t remember, doesn’t know it? How do you…? How are you…?

CALLER: No, he knows it all. He’s not a stupid man.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Okay, what I see in this, okay, is that — you know, hate to say it, but — as far as I’m concerned, he’s a sellout. He doesn’t really want —

RUSH: Aw, come on, it’s too soon to say that. It’s too soon to say he’s a sellout. It’s not even six months yet. You can’t go there. Well, you can, but —

CALLER: He’s not doing the things that give us the big stuff. He’s giving us the little stuff. He’s giving us the executive orders, okay. We’re not getting the big like I said, you know, Washington needs a heart transplant.

RUSH: I addressed this yesterday. I’ll address it again today. You’re exactly right. The executive orders cannot change law — well, they cannot create law. Executive orders cannot. We don’t have a dictatorship or a kingship here. Executive orders cannot substitute for legislation, and there isn’t any legislation. Where does it come from? Who writes the legislation? Last year, the year before, where does it come from?

You think the Democrats wrote the health care law? The health care law’s been sitting in a drawer for 20 years, as they have been having dream after dream after dream, and they add to it, take things out. Where? Who’s drawer was it in? It wasn’t in Schumer’s; it wasn’t in Pelosi’s; it wasn’t in any member of the House or the Senate, because that’s not where legislation originates. That’s where it’s presented, that’s where it’s voted, but it’s where it’s actually created and written. Trump is going to have to have a department in the White House that does that, because the Republicans aren’t going to do it.

The legislating writing machine is special interest, lobbyists, whatever you want to call ’em, the establishment. And it is going to take legislation to unravel and unwind all of these things Trump said he was gonna do, build a wall, rebuild America’s businesses and grow jobs, repealing, getting rid of Obamacare, all of these things are gonna require legislation. And the first opportunity for real legislation was this budget reconciliation — or the continuing resolution.

And the reason you’re mad is because it was the first real opportunity, and you believe that Trump has been foaming at the mouth wanting to do this. He made it sound at every appearance like he couldn’t wait to get in there and do this, that it needed to be done, “Make America Great Again.” And the first opportunity, what are we hearing? It was a bipartisan effort. There were no winners here. The Democrats didn’t win. That’s same old, same old. That’s the same language. That’s the same procedure.

That’s why you’re ticked off. You think a missed opportunity here, whereas the Trump people will say, “Wait a minute. We wouldn’t have even had a chance to weigh in on this. No president’s ever done what Trump did here. You pay attention to what we do when it’s our budget coming up in September and October.” That’s what they’re saying. And you should give ’em that time. That’s gonna be a genuine test, better than this one. But it is a missed opportunity. They lost. The Democrats freaking lost! I hear you. That’s another thing that’s got you turned in pretzels. The losers continue to be able to strut around up there like a bunch of braggadocios oafs. I get the frustration. I totally do.