RUSH: People want to know my interpretation of the spat now between the House and the Senate, House Republicans and Ted Cruz on the defund Obamacare thing. It’s an important point to make here, but Elias in Cleveland. Let me get to you first. How are you, sir?

CALLER: How you doing? Honor to speak with you. Local channels over here in Cleveland are talking about the Cleveland Clinic, which is one of the best hospitals in the world, they’re cutting back $330 million in their budget because of Obamacare. That’s what they were saying over here on the local news.

RUSH: It’s very true. I have that same story here in my Stack of Stuff. Three hundred and thirty people laid off at the Cleveland Clinic chalked up to Obamacare. Wait a minute. No. The Cleveland Clinic has told workers they’re gonna be laying off an unspecified number, could be as many as 3,000 jobs. The layoffs are part of a multi-year plan to cut $330 million from the clinic’s budget. In answer to the question why, a spokesman attributed most of the budget reductions to looming changes accompanying the start of Obamacare. Said the clinic had not made overall layoffs in the past 11 years. The Cleveland Clinic has 42,000 employees. That’s huge. And they may have to lay off 3,000 people. The Cleveland Clinic.

Obamacare’s a job killer. Obamacare is a budget buster. Obamacare is gonna drive doctors into early retirement. The unions don’t like it. It’s gonna lead to socialized medicine. It needs to be repealed. Let’s get started on this. Grab audio sound bite number one. We’ll just go in order here and explain what is happening. Up first is a bunch of Democrats saying, “Why would the Republicans want to defund this? It’s the law of the land. You can’t change that. Why, it’s the law of the land.” Listen.

DICK DURBIN: The bill that passed over three years ago and is the law of the land, found constitutional by the Supreme Court?

TONY HARRIS: Obamacare is the law of the land.

MIKE VIQUEIRA: The law of the land and upheld by the Supreme Court.

PATTY MURRAY: Obamacare is the law of the land.

MARK MURRAY: The law of the land.

SAM STEIN: The health care law continues to be the law of the land.

BOB BECKEL: This is the law of the land.

HARRY REID: The law of the land: Obamacare.

RUSH: Now, this is the party that all they seem to talk about when the Supreme Court gets into gear is precedent. It’s the law of the land, right? Well, let’s see. What else at one time was the law of the land? Slavery. And even one time the Supreme Court upheld it. You ever heard of the Dred Scott decision and the justice, Roger Taney? Yeah, slavery used to be the law of the land. Let’s see, what else used to be law of the land. Marriage between a man and a woman used to be the law of the land. And the Democrats came along, that’s discriminatory. It’s not fair. It’s not right. It doesn’t matter. It’s a bad law. They said we gotta change it.

It’s the law of the land. Is that the only way they can defend this? Is that the best they’ve got, it’s the law of the land? The speed limit used to be 55. It was the law of the land. Now it’s 70. And before that it was 70. Then they made it 55. That was the law of the land. Defense of Marriage Act was the law of the land. Immigration law, law of the land. Guns, Second Amendment, law of the land. Why don’t any of these laws count? The Democrats are trying to attack everything they don’t like that’s the law of the land. Laws against marijuana. Law of the land. It’s an endless list here. Defense of Marriage Act, law of the land. Obama said, “You know what? We don’t even like it. We’re not even gonna defend it anymore. Screw it.” Immigration, law of the land. State of Arizona tried to maintain and defend the law of the land and the regime sued the state of Arizona. So this apparently is the best the Democrats have got. Up next, Chuck-U Schumer, this is yesterday in Washington on Capitol Hill.

SCHUMER: This small group of people who even Republicans know are off the deep end on this issue have the Republican leadership in the house so shaken and scared that that leadership’s going along with this insane plan.

RUSH: (laughing) All right, what is he talking about? The Republican Party leadership is so shaken and scared, they’re going along with this insane plan. The insane plan is Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and the defund Obamacare movement. And the House is hearing the voices of the American people on this. Many Republicans in the House have heard the voices of the American people, which have been loud and constant and have put pressure on the leadership to join this effort. Then something interesting happened. Senator Cruz this week announced that they don’t have enough votes in the Senate to do this. And that caused the Republicans in the House to feel betrayed.

The Republicans in the House said, “Well, well, well, wait a second. You’re out there raising hell, beating the drums. You’re all over the media, defund Obamacare, call Washington, do this, do that. You’re sicking everybody in the country on us. You have this petition website. You’re having everybody sign it and you don’t have the votes in the Senate?” And the House Republicans are acting outraged. Now, if you go back, Ted Cruz has never misspoken on this. From the outset of this, on this program he said it, he has said it everywhere else, his objective has been to rally the American people. Ted Cruz didn’t think he was gonna get anywhere with Republican leadership in the Senate. He didn’t really have anything to say with the leadership in the House; he’s not a member.

So he and others in his movement, Mike Lee, prominent name, their effort has always been to create an uprising by the American people, which would then influence positions taken by Republican senators. He’s never said the Senate had the votes. And he’s never implied that the Senate would have the votes. All Cruz has ever said — and if you’ve paid attention, you know this. You don’t even need me to remind you. Ted Cruz has been on a mission, and Mike Lee, too. I mean, that whole group, they’ve been on a mission to get as many of you calling and e-mailing and faxing Washington as they can get, hoping that that would pressure Republican Senators on this, because it has worked in the past.

You, the American people, stopped amnesty in 2007. You, the American people, have stopped a lot of things with your activism, your phone calls to Washington. The founding of the Tea Party. So Ted Cruz didn’t misrepresent anything here. And so now what Chuck-U Schumer is talking about, these poor Republicans in the House, my God, they’re about to go off the deep end on this issue because this poor guy Cruz, this nutcase, he’s got people doing things and he doesn’t even have backup in the Senate. Now we go to a montage, CBS panel, Senate Republicans think that what the House has done is crazy and dumb. Number three. We’re staying in order here.

NORAH ODONNELL: There feels like thereÂ’s something new about this fight this time. The Senate Republicans are saying to their colleagues in the House, “You’ve gone crazy on this.” Right? That’s what youÂ’re hearing.

CHARLIE ROSE: Describing it…

JOHN DICKERSON: WeÂ’ve heard…

ROSE: …as a dumb idea.

NORAH ODONNELL: Yeah.

JOHN DICKERSON: Well that’s right. I’ve been in conversations with a lot of Republican Senators. Ron Johnson is one I talked to. He doesn’t like this. He said this is tactically a bad idea. Because this is going to die in the Senate and what will happen is Republicans will be blamed for a government shutdown.

RUSH: All I can do is sigh. It’s just history repeating itself: Government shutdown, can’t have that, we’ll get blamed. Here are Mike Lee and Ted Cruz. This is last night on Hannity. They are praising the House for their decision to defund, and they are vowing to fight on.

LEE: It is unsustainable. It’s going to kill jobs. It’s gonna result in a lot of people either losing their jobs, not being able to get jobs, or their hours reduced. Doctors hate it because it will interfere with their ability to practice medicine. Families hate it because most families recognize that this will make their family’s health care situation worse not better. The American people are coming together and they’re standing together, and they’re saying, “Please, defund this law.” I want to applaud House Speaker John Boehner who did the courageous thing today and stood with the American people. We now need to stand with him and with the people and defund this law.

RUSH: The Democrats are worried about Boehner. Oh, my God, Boehner’s being driven over the cliff by these insaniacs. Oh, my God, he doesn’t have any support in the Senate for this. Oh, my God, they’re leading Boehner right down the path to shut down the government again. Oh, my God, poor Boehner, he has no idea what’s happening to him. Oh, no. What’s happening to the Republicans? Oh, gee, we’re so worried. These lunatics, Cruz and Lee, they’re forcing these Republicans into killing themselves over something that’s never gonna happen. Oh, my God.

They’re really worried about it. Here’s Ted Cruz claiming that what’s happening in the House is a victory and needs to continue so that it does happen in the Senate.

CRUZ: Today’s announcement is a big, big deal. You know, a few weeks ago, early in the Obamacare defund fight, every gray beard in Washington said there’s no chance of this going forward. And today is a victory for House conservatives that stuck their neck out, that endured a lot of criticism, and today is a victory for Speaker Boehner.

HANNITY: I agree.

CRUZ: Now the ball is in Harry Reid’s hands, and Harry Reid needs to listen to the American people just like John Boehner did. I can guarantee you one thing. Mike and I are gonna fight with every breath in our body. As Churchill said: We will fight on the beaches. We will fight on the streets. We will fight at every step.

RUSH: So Cruz says what’s happening here in the House is a victory. The American people’s voices are being heard. We need to keep on. This needs to happen in the Senate. Hannity then said, “Okay, you guys have even had to deal with Senator McCain calling you wacko birds. You’ve talked about a surrender caucus. There seems to be you two, Rand Paul, maybe Marco Rubio seem to be the new energized conservative base in the party in the Senate. Is that a fair characterization, Senator Cruz?”

CRUZ: Today is a remarkable day of unity. Today I think is a victory for the Speaker, and indeed I would make a plea today to the 46 Senate Republicans that today is a day for party unity, that every Senate Republican should stand with Republicans in the House, should stand with conservatives, and should stand with the American people. I believe every Senate Republican should stand with the House, and I believe ultimately even the Senate Democrats, if their constituents speak out in sufficient numbers, will have no choice but help the American people avert this train wreck.

RUSH: And a train wreck it is. We’re talking about Obamacare and all that’s happening here is what Cruz has always said. He never misled anybody in the House. Now, you’re gonna see stories of House Republicans feeling betrayed by Cruz because he made ’em go take this vote and make this statement on Obamacare with no backup in the Senate. All Cruz ever said was that he was trying to create a massive groundswell of action on behalf of the American people that would then influence elected officials.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Susan in Henderson, North Carolina, greetings. Great to have you here. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush. It’s such an honor to speak to you today.

RUSH: I appreciate that.

CALLER: I was listening to the radio a little while ago, and the local news break came on, and they were playing some Nancy Pelosi clips, and the one that really struck me was when she called the Republicans and told them that they would be committing legislative arson if they did the defunding of Obamacare as part of the debt ceiling fight.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Why can’t the Republicans use some of the same language and do some of the same types of things? If the Republicans said that about the Democrats, they would be pilloried.

RUSH: This is true. They would be pilloried. They would be excoriated. They would be savaged for using such partisan, mean-spirited language. They would be accused of inciting violence.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: All kinds of things. But, see, the way this works is, the Republicans already are arsonists. Pelosi is just confirming what everybody already knows. So there’s a double standard, and it’s always been around, and I don’t see it changing. They call me a bomb thrower, and I’ve never even seen a bomb. I’ve never seen a bomb. It is closest I’ve been to a bomb is a sign when I was in Sacramento, folks.

Honestly, for some reason, this just cracked me up every time I saw it. You’d go to the Sacramento airport to get departing flight, and so you’re at the security area. This is before the TSA. It was in the eighties. You’re headed down the wing where the departing flights are, and they have all these signs warning you of what you can’t do, but they’re just pictures, no words, because I guess the airport officials didn’t trust that enough passengers could read.

So they had pictures of things that you couldn’t take on the airplane, and they had a picture of a bomb with a line drawn through it. It was like a little cannonball with a firecracker sticking out the top with an explosion — a little explosion graphic with a line drawn through it — and so I guess no bombs were permitted. So I just laughed. Every time I’d go to the airport, I kept waiting for the one guy who would look at the sign and look at his bomb and turn away and go home. And I never saw it.