RUSH: Here we go to the budget deal.  Now, folks, since we last spoke, the actual deal has been published.  So the whole thing has been published, and I’ve had a chance — as have a lot of people — to actually dig into this.  And yesterday when we were together speaking about this, the talking point was that the amount of money was $1.375 billion, and it was for certain stretches of wall (primarily only the Rio Grande area) and it specified what kind of fencing.

And the debate was, “Well, should we take this or not?”  Trump originally wanted $5.7 billion and then the deal in December was for zero and now they’re coming back and now it’s $1.375 billion so you could say that Trump is heading in the right direction.  Well, I’m here to tell you, having looked at this — and there’s a summary of it.  I haven’t read whole thing.  It’s 1,500 pages, and I don’t want to mislead you on this.  But, folks, it is horrible.  This deal is horrible from the standpoint that it totally, totally blows to smithereens the entire concept of border security.

This bill is exactly what you get when you have two parties that both essentially want open borders.  It’s basically what this is.  There aren’t a whole lot of members of Congress that wear “Make America Great Again” hats.  There aren’t a whole lot of members of Congress who are part of the Trump coalition.  It’s predominantly a Democrat bill, but it’s got plenty of Republican support — and it is very, very explicit on what cannot be done regarding building the wall or funding the wall or continuing construction for the wall.

The $1.375 billion number is accurate.  It even goes so far as to describe what kind of fencing it can and cannot be, what kind of wall it can and cannot be, where it can and cannot be. I mean it really is a piece of legislation that looks at the president and goes (raspberry) you. But it’s not gonna change, given the makeup of Congress, the fact Democrats won the House. It isn’t gonna change. And I really don’t think shutting down the government would force a change in this.

I’m more convinced than ever that one of the strategeries I laid out yesterday and one of the ways the White House is probably thinking about it is more than ever now the way to go. From now until 2020 there is never gonna be any legislative support for what Donald Trump wants to do in practically any area of his agenda. Not with the Democrats running the House. There isn’t gonna be any compromise possible. There isn’t gonna be any cooperation. There isn’t gonna be any working together.

If the president is gonna get this wall built, he’s going to have to do it outside the confines of relationships and legislation and deals with Congress. So I don’t think it matters whether he signs it or not. Not signing it is not gonna improve his leverage. Shutting down the government is not gonna make all of these people in Congress change their minds. This is a classic illustration of how they are going to have to be defeated, not cooperated with.

This bill makes it perfectly clear that this Congress has no desire to cooperate with Donald Trump on his signature issue. That is as much politics as it is what they really think. You know as well as I do that the Democrat Party is open borders forever and isn’t gonna change on that. They need their permanent underclass voters. They need more and more victims. They need people of dependent status that are always gonna vote for Big Government.

The Republicans that support this boondoggle have their own reasons for not wanting to shut down the border. The cheap labor and who knows what all the other reasons. It’s all donor pressure. This is so striking that I’m telling you there’s no way that going through another shutdown is gonna change anything in this legislation.

It’s more obvious than ever that Trump is going to have to engage and rely on incremental steps between now and 2020 to complete or continue his project of building the wall. And he’s gonna have to do it, for the most part, alone. He’s not gonna get legislative support. There will not appear to be unified government on this because there isn’t. And before Trump came along there wasn’t.

The Democrats have been for open borders and anti-wall, except when it was politically cool for them to say so. But when it came time to put money to the deal, they would always vote for it but then something happened and the deal never got made or the legislation never got passed. And so the money never got fully appropriated. So they have been playing both sides against the middle on this, depending on which way political winds have been blowing.

Now, the American people were never supposed to see this, it’s too intricate, complicated, the summary is one thing. But believe me, this bill is a message from Nancy Pelosi and Chuck You Schumer to Donald Trump, and it’s (raspberry) you.

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RUSH: Just a brief outline of what this bill contains. The $1.375 billion for the 55 miles of physical barrier, however it can only be on the southern border, only the Rio Grande valley of Texas, that we knew. There’s language in this bill that allows only designs that were in use two years ago. In other words, no Trump innovation, no new wall construction or design is permitted. There is no money for any new border agents above current levels.

The legislation does not pay for the administration’s request for joint detention facilities. And there is no additional money — this is a budget deal, we’re talking about funding a $4 trillion government — there’s no additional money in this for additional enforcement above current levels. It is a (raspberry) you is exactly what this is.

This is the Democrats running the House basically writing legislation, and you’ve got both parties that basically do not want anything of the Trump agenda here when it comes to immigration to pass, they’ve gotten together and written a bill that basically — I don’t know how else to say it — (raspberry) you, is what this is.

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RUSH: Let me grab a quick call before going back to the sound bites.

RUSH: It’s Washington, D.C., and Sid.  Great to have you, Sid.  How are you doing?

CALLER: (garbled) Good afternoon.  First-time caller.  A quick question.  When the legislature sends the president poison legislation, he should use the same tools that G. W. used and that Barack Obama used: A signing statement. Disqualify the parts that are not attractive, reserve it as political capital, and move on.

RUSH:  Well, I agree, except that’s all they are is statements.  They’re not actions.

CALLER: I see.

RUSH: I mean, the legislation is the legislation.  I mean, he can pledge not to implement this or not to implement that but basically what signing statements are is the president putting down a political marker and explaining what he doesn’t like, what he doesn’t support about the legislation that he signed.  It’s largely political.  Much of this legislation that George W. Bush signed was stuff he didn’t want to sign but had no choice.

So he issues a signing statement expressing his disagreements with it and why, and those signing statements then serve a political purpose later on during the campaign or what have you. Plus, they’re for the record.  I mean, they’re for the official record of the United States.  “The president issued a signing statement, disagrees with this or that.”  Trump could do that, but it isn’t gonna change anything. He cannot issue a signing statement rejecting $1.375 billion and turn it into $5.7 billion — and by the same token, he can’t just cherry-pick.

We don’t have line-item vetoes, line-item legislation.  He can’t take lines out that he doesn’t like and say that he’s not gonna implement them. Unless you’re Obama.  Obama said, “You know what?  I’m just gonna stop prosecuting DACA people. I’m gonna stop prosecuting DREAMers” or whatever it was.  “My DOJ is gonna stop enforcing it,” and it was some immigration law.  It might have been a gay marriage law or something.  But that only works if the president has his team behind him in the executive branch. In this case, Obama did.

If he says, “Look, we’re not gonna prosecute this stuff,” then Eric Holder says, “Right on, dude!  We’re right with you and we won’t prosecute it.”  But in this case, you know, a signing statement is pretty much just that: A statement.

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RUSH: Some days it all just works out. Some days I come out, I make a point, I tell you why things are happening, what’s gonna happen, why it’s pointless to fight this and go at it a different way, and then evidence falls right into my lap. Today it comes in form of an audio sound bite from the Moler Avenue Church of the Brethren. Senior Pastor Eddie Edmonds from Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Senator Chuck Grassley on the Senate floor praying that President Trump signs the border agreement bill. Are you ready to hear the prayer? It’s only 11 seconds here, folks, so listen fast. Here we go. Three, two, one.

EDMONDS: We pray in the most holy name of Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.

GRASSLEY: Let’s all pray that the president will have wisdom to sign the bill so government doesn’t shut down.

RUSH: They are praying on the floor of the United States — Republicans, Grassley was pretty good in the Kavanaugh hearings when he ran the Judiciary Committee. Lindsey Grahamnesty now runs the Judiciary Committee, but they’re praying that Trump has the wisdom to sign the bill. What did I just tell you? That both parties here, for whatever their independent reasons are, unified behind the idea of let’s not do anything on the border. We all have our reasons for wanting illegal aliens to be able to get in here.

Next thing I know, they’re praying for it on the floor of the United States Senate. Once again the first voice you hear is guest chaplain, Moler Avenue Church of the Brethren. Senior Pastor Eddie Edmonds from Martinsburg, West Virginia, followed by Senator Grassley.

EDMONDS: We pray in the most holy name of Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.

GRASSLEY: Let’s all pray that the president will have wisdom to sign the bill so government doesn’t shut down.

RUSH: There you have it, my friends, right on.

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RUSH: Here’s Maggie in Orient, Ohio.  You’re next.  Glad you waited.  Hi.

CALLER:  I’m glad I waited too.  Hi, Rush.

RUSH:  Hi.

CALLER:  It’s an honor to speak to you today.  I want to go back, if I could, to something that happened last week with the Assembly in New York and Governor Cuomo, and you spoke about the standing ovation and the reaction that these people had when they did this horrible abortion bill.  And you had your listeners call in and comment as to why they thought that they reacted this way.  And then you waited and then you made your comment very last, and you commented also.  What you said was you thought that these people reacted this way because they don’t like us and —

RUSH:  They hate us.

CALLER: Yeah!

RUSH: They literally… I am convinced that that standing ovation was in part the celebration of rubbing it in our nose.

CALLER:  Right.

RUSH:  I have no doubt about that.

CALLER:  Yeah.  I think they… I hate to say it, but I think they like hurting us, and that brings me to this week and what they’re doing with this bill with the wall and this budget bill.  The one thing that sticks out was Nancy Pelosi wanted to get rid of beds for criminals; instead of having them stay in the detention center, just let ’em loose into the country.

RUSH:  Yep!  Exactly right.  Limit the number of beds, limit the number of detainees, thereby having to catch-and-release a bunch of criminal illegal aliens.  Bingo!  You’re exactly right.

CALLER:  They should be in a detention center, and she even on this bill now has a decrease, a gradual decrease in it.  Rush, I can’t help but think these people… (sigh) I don’t want to go there, but I get the feeling that they want Americans hurt.  I don’t want to go there; I don’t want to think that.  But I’m kind of not, you know… I’m kind of not having a choice but to think that.

RUSH:  Well, it’s a fine line.  Here’s the truth of the matter.  Whether they want Americans to be hurt or not, Americans are being hurt.  The bottom line is, when you’re not gonna detain criminal aliens illegally coming into the country — and when you’re gonna pass legislation that reduces the number of beds in detention centers so that more and more cannot be held… You talk about the motivation for this all you want, but the practical end result is that a criminal element has been released — is being released — within the confines of the United States.

Now, if you want to get into why, okay. Why? (sigh) Well, there as many answers to that question as there are times you could ask it.  I think part of it is this overall just hatred for Donald Trump that manifests itself as, “There is no way this guy’s gonna get anything he wants out of us.  We are not playing. We’re not helping. We’re not! This guy is… (sputtering)” Trump is worse than the criminal aliens, Maggie.  In these people’s minds, in their world, in their life, Trump is worse.  Trump is worse than whatever is happening from illegal immigration.

Beyond that, they don’t want to stop it anyway.  They’re not really serious about limiting it.  But they really don’t want Trump succeeding at it with their help, with their assistance.  I think there’s also… In addition to the election reasons, the electoral-season reasons why they don’t want to give Trump a victory, there are additional reasons.  They just hate this guy so much, and they despise so much that he’s president, and that he has invaded their fiefdom, that he has invaded their territory — and he has the audacity to act like he belongs there!

There’s simply no way that they are going to participate in anything that helps him.  As far as they are concerned, whatever consequences result from that are not nearly as bad as Trump triumphing or winning or what have you.  I could go on with other theories to explain what it is, but I’ll tell you that at the root of it — and I hate being redundant. But people keep asking, so I’m gonna keep answering.  At the root of this is a desire on the part of radical leftists who have taken over the Democrat Party to transform America out of and away from the principles of our founding.

Socialism just doesn’t work with the way America was founded.  There’s no way to… America as founded — as a capitalist, free-market economy — is in direct opposition to socialism.  The two cannot coexist.  One has to go.  One has to give.  The radical leftists are full-fledged socialists.  Some of them are communists.  Some are proud communists! They will tell you that now, some of these new elected Democrats.  And they’re all… As I say, there are all kinds of reasons for this.

The standing ovation at the New York State Senate when being able to abort a baby after birth, what about that would warrant a standing ovation? What in the world would make you want to stand up and cheer that? Well, just the victory itself and over who. Just the ability to tell the religious right to go to on hell, just to be able to tell these pro-lifers, “Screw you. We don’t like you. We don’t want any part of you anywhere where we live and take this.” And it’s personal.

But you can trace it back further to what is really the ultimate endgame with all of this. And when you say that you think what they’re doing is actually harming America, it is. It’s harming America in the job market. It’s gonna harm America in all kinds of societal and culture ways. And they don’t care. They don’t care.

Pelosi’s never gonna have to deal with criminally illegal detainees. She’s got a wall at her office. She’s got a wall at the building where she works. She got walls at home. She got walls on her rental estate property. She’s not gonna be dealing with this. And none of the other people in Washington are actually going to confront this. They don’t live on the board. They’re not dealing with all this. Their kids are not getting one abortion after another.

They’re not touched by this stuff. And that’s why to them there is no national emergency here. This is just a bunch of conservatives whining and moaning about things because they keep losing. That’s how they see it. Anyway, Maggie, I appreciate the call.

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RUSH: I have been waiting on this. I’ve been dying, CNN has it. CNN’s reporting that Trump aides are telling them that Trump — they’re now less certain that Trump’s gonna sign this thing. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. I knew this. I knew it.