RUSH: So Obama delays this sorry excuse for a press conference in order to overlap the start of the big show today as much as possible, just as he always does, but we will not be deterred. This guy is hellbent on raising taxes. You do not want to miss the first hour of this program. Well, you don’t want to miss any hour of this program, but you don’t want to miss the first hour of this program particularly because I am gonna lay out for you exactly what’s going on. Not only are they trying to 
carry through with this notion that the Republicans are trying to sabotage the economy for their own electoral purposes when in fact it’s just the exact opposite. It’s not even sabotage. We’re talking about actual destruction of the economy by Obama and the Democrats. This guy starts out, opening statement in the presser boiled down to one thing: raise taxes. He is worse than a broken record. He’s a broken teleprompter. The teleprompter’s stuck. It’s broken: raise taxes, raise taxes. He keeps talking about folks and default, trying to talk like the hicks out there, trying to make them think that he’s one of them. He’s closer than he realizes.
Now, just last week there was a story in USA Today on how private jet travel is making a rebound. Corporate travel is rebounding. The private jet market was on the uptick, which is a good thing for the economy. It’s a good thing for everybody involved. It’s a good thing for people that make the airplanes. It’s a good thing for the line people that service the airplanes, the maintenance staff. It’s a good thing for the fuel providers. It’s a good thing for the FBOs, the gas stations at the airport. FBOs are basically gas stations for private jets. They all have people who work there, and it was Obama himself who killed the market early on in his regime saying we’re not gonna take the private jet to Vegas anymore, those days are over, he said. So now that the private jet market last week is reported to have rebounded, private jets are starting to take off again, Obama is ripping private jets today. They were touting them just last week as a sign of the recovery, private jet travel as a sign of economic recovery last week, and here comes Obama talking about tax breaks for corporate jets and so forth and how it isn’t gonna be the case anymore. They had stopped flying ’cause the regime attacked ’em, and so they started risking it again, and here he is.
Folks, it’s dangerous what’s happening here. And it’s very important for the Republicans to understand what’s going on here and to be prepared for it. Obama’s trying to show up late here and pretend to lead on the debt ceiling and on the debt and on the deficit, but he brought so many straw men to this news conference today that it’s a fire hazard in there. A little humor, Mr. Snerdley. Snerdley is so serious, he’s so ticked off that nothing’s funny to him today. But we’re looking at the one responsible man in the room, Barack Obama, responsible for the mess. We’re looking at the one responsible person. He’s going to try and has tried to present himself as the one reasonable man in the room. He is single-handedly, along with his party, responsible for this. (imitating Obama) “Republicans are gonna be trying to drive us into the ditch.” Obama will stand tall, declare each side must give a little, and Obama is the one reasonable man in the room because he’s the smartest.
I think the Republicans ought to issue a statement before this press conference is over, and it’s not over yet, it’s still going on. Hold the president’s feet to the fire in terms of facts and in terms of context. This country has a spending problem. It has a big spending problem. And we have a growth problem. We do not have a tax problem in the sense of not enough taxes. We do not have a revenue problem. He keeps calling it revenue. We have a spending problem, pure and simple.
TheHill.com has an interesting story today, it sort of sets the stage for what’s to happen. Headline: “Report: Treasury Must Cut Spending 44 Percent in Default — New analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), which has been shared extensively with members of Congress, estimates that the Treasury Department would not be able to pay all its bills and would need to implement an immediate 44 percent cut in federal spending in the event the debt ceiling is exceeded.” I’ll tell you what this is. You know, when your local community, state, town, starts telling you about cuts, what do they do? They tell you they’re gonna have to cut teachers, and then they tell you they’re going to have to cut firemen, and then they tell you they’re going to have cut cops. And what did you do? “Oh, no! No! No! I don’t want my kids not safe. No! Don’t cut the teachers! Don’t cut the cops!” Okay, you don’t want the cuts, then don’t cut anything. Same thing is being set up here. Same exact thing. Treasury Department not able to pay all its bills and would need to implement an immediate 44 percent cut in federal spending in the event the debt ceiling is exceeded. Fine. Do it.
“On an annualized basis, the cut in spending alone is a 10 percent cut in GDP. … The report released Tuesday concludes that Treasury would not be able to pay all its bills between Aug. 2 and ‘probably’ not later than Aug. 9 if the debt ceiling is not increased. ‘Handling all payments for important and popular programs’ including entitlements and military pay will ‘quickly become impossible,’ it says.” See how this is being set up? If we don’t raise the debt ceiling military people don’t get paid. (gasping) Can’t have that. Handling all payments for important and popular programs, including entitlements, military pay, quickly become impossible. No Social Security, no Medicaid. I mean, if we don’t exceed the debt limit, guess what? It’s all the Republicans’ fault. The Republicans are sabotaging. They want all this to happen so as to somehow help them at the ballot box in November. The truth is we would only default if we don’t service our debt. The cost of servicing the debt is 6% of the budget and we have revenue coming in to do that.
We do not need to raise the debt ceiling. There is no crisis. There is no Armageddon. This is stimulus all over again. This is TARP all over again. This is the same lie repeated over and over again, the same attempt to make you think your country is coming to a screeching halt and is ending unless the debt ceiling is raised. The thing is, our nation is on the brink and we need to save it, but it’s not by raising the debt ceiling; it’s by getting rid of Obama. It’s by getting rid of the Democrat Party everywhere, anywhere it can be done. That’s the solution to the problem, not the debt ceiling. We can service the debt. We can make our debt payments. Obama and his government are preparing to unload a list of horribles. And this is just the first example, this Hill.com story I just shared with you. They are preparing to unload a list of horribles as often as possible which the media will not only report but then they’ll go out and find faces to put to the horribles, to pressure the increase of the debt ceiling with minimal concessions. Gonna start soon. Shortly after this press conference the media’s gonna go out there and find some person whose life will effectively be over if the debt ceiling isn’t raised in an example used by the president during this press conference. The endless parade of victims that the Democrats are famous for, it’s already in the works, I guarantee you, get used to it, it’s coming. This huge list of horribles.
Now, there of course will be no reporting about what happens when the whole system goes to hell from the reckless spending. There won’t be any context. It will be a campaign by the ruling class to bulldoze through this. And this example in TheHill.com, military doesn’t get paid, 44% cut unless the debt ceiling is raised, this is all laying the groundwork. Like I said, like the local city council demanding tax increases or they have to cut the cops and fire department. It’s the same thing except now Obama and the Feds are adopting the same strategery. Now, folks, we keep hearing from the ruling class that we can’t do this, we can’t do that. And what they may mean is that they won’t do this and they will not cut spending. That’s what they mean when they say, “Well, we can’t do that.” It simply means they will not reduce the size of government. They will not relinquish control of the federal bureaucracy. The idea that they cannot is nonsense. If they can’t, why are they there? If they can’t, they need to go, because it needs to happen. The point is, they will not change their policies, no matter what. Obama’s not gonna change. The Democrats are not going to change. There’s no point in negotiating with them. They aren’t going to change.
It is Obama and the Democrats who refuse to take the steps necessary to revive this nation. It’s Obama and the Democrats who refuse to take the steps necessary to revive this nation’s economy, to create an atmosphere and circumstance for job creation. It is up to them, and they will not take the steps. The same president who spent money so recklessly, who intentionally spent more money than we have, who knew he was busting the debt ceiling. In the Senate he refused to vote to increase the debt ceiling, by the way. When he was in the Senate he refused to do what he’s demanding be done now. Demanding that he continue to get his way, that we continue to grow the federal government even if it means the collapse of the dollar, more massive debt, and more job losses, because all that matters to him and the Democrat Party is the government getting bigger.
Obama promised us that he was going to change the way Washington works. Well, what’s he waiting for? Because he hasn’t changed a damn thing. Whatever happened to “yes, we can”? All Obama does is set up preposterous choices. It’s a choice between food safety or corporate jets. This list of horribles, food safety or corporate jets; kids going to college or oil companies getting tax breaks. These preposterous, unreal, don’t-exist choices. Food safety or corporate jets; kids going to college or oil companies getting tax breaks, this is what demagogues do. This is the way Hugo Chavez talks when he’s not being treated by Cuban doctors. What the hell is with that, by the way? Hugo Chavez is in Cuba formedical treatment! They say it’s a pelvic abscess. You know what that sounds like. It sounds like one of his girlfriends got a little overexcited. Well, what the hell else is a pelvic abscess? Dawn knows what I mean because she’s laughing in there. Hugo Chavez in Cuba for medical treatment?
All of these false choices, he’s really harping on this corporate jet tax break today while he flies around on the biggest corporate jet ever, while his wife flies around on the biggest corporate jet ever. All of this is positioned so we could get a deal and avoid a financial disaster if we don’t increase the debt limit, if the Republicans would only agree to more taxes or increased revenues, if only the Republicans. The only people who are trying to stop this collapse, Republicans. If they would set aside reality and participate in this Washington sham, then all would be well. We’d have a deal. Obama, his regime, could continue their destruction. It’s all the Republicans’ fault, you see, standing in the way of Obama’s giant expansion of government.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It’s still going. The press conference is still going on. I’m not listening to it cause Iknow exactly what the guy’s saying, and so do you. Yeah, we have to raise taxes so that children can have safe food and go to college. Why go to college? There aren’t any jobs! Do you know in North Korea (and I’m not suggesting that we emulate these guys) they’re shutting down universities and putting people to work instead? North Korea is saying, no more. They’re just shutting down the universities and sending their kids to labor camps or what have you. At any rate, Obama keeps talking about the need to “expand” the economy. But then, out of the other side of his mouth he’s talking about increasing taxes on oil companies!
Can he really not see how that would hurt the economy? Can anybody be that blind? Raising taxes on anybody at this stage? Of course, he knows it. All these peoplewith thejets and all these people at the oil company, they can afford it. They can afford it. Let me tell you who’s gonna end up paying all these taxes. It’s not those people; it’s the people that work for ’em! The middle class is always gonna get soaked with these tax increases. All of this is positioned in such a way that we could get a deal, we could avoid a financial disaster if don’t increase the debt limits. Folks, I got an idea: Why not just eliminate the debt limit? Why do we even have one? It’s sort of like my argument on the minimum wage. They say the minimum wage (pick a number) of eight bucks an hour is too low.
“Okay, let’s raise it to ten.”
“Ah, that’s good. That’s fair.”
“Okay, why not 15?”
“Hey, yeah! Even better.”
“Well, if 15’s good, let’s make the minimum wage higher. How about $25?”
“Well, no, you can’t go that high.”
“Why not?”
By the same token, we have a debt limit of whatever it is here. There’s a reason it is a limit, and every time we reach the limit, these people in Washington say, “We gotta raise the limit!” Why even have one. What’s the point of a debt limit? The point of having a debt limit is to give the Democrats a political tool. That’s the only reason to have one. The debt limit is irrelevant. Every time we get to it we have to expand it, do we not? The debt limit never limits anything. So any time we get to the debt limit we have to expand it and some responsible people say, “Nope, we gotta hold to it,” and, “Ah, look who wants people to suffer! Look who it is that want kids to have no education! Look who it is that wants the people flying the corporate jets to keep flying the corporate jets on the cheap.” Why even have a debt limit? Republicans ought to just propose eliminating the debt limit, or maybe make the debt limit a gazillion dollars just to make a point.
All of this is so patently absurd, it’s infuriating.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here is Obama with the corporate jet owners in the crosshairs again — and remember, now, it was just last week that USA Today ran a story about how the corporate jets were target to fly again: Corporate jet owners were utilizing the aircraft. It was a sign! USA Today was so happy! It was a sign of economic recovery. Today in his press conference, Obama once again cranking up the class warfare.
OBAMA: If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires — if we choose to keep a corporate tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil companies that are makin’ hundreds of billions of dollars — then that means we’ve gotta to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship. That means we’ve gotta stop … funding … certain grants for medical research. I think it’s only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet owner that has done so well to give up that tax break that no other business enjoys.
RUSH: This is just… Dangerous is what this is. This is full-fledged demagoguery and we’re listening to this from the chief architect of the destruction of this economy. He’s once again pitting groups of Americans against each other. His aim is for one group of Americans to hate and despise another group. He’s banking on that most Americans will agree with him because this is fair, and to a certain extent there’s some Americans who will agree with it. Remember I. –(sigh) it was last week or the week before –I cited that column my brother wrote; we’re gonna learn here pretty soon just what kind of country we are. Do we have a country where we’re approaching a majority of people who think the purpose of government is to equalize outcomes in life rather than equalize opportunity? He’s banking on that. Obama’s banking on the fact that that’s what people want him to do, is to equalize outcomes — and that means take and then redistribute. He wasn’t through. You can still fly your jets, folks. He doesn’t want you to ground your jet, no, no.
OBAMA: The revenue we’re talking about isn’t coming out of the pockets of middle-class families that are struggling; it’s coming out of folks who are doing extraordinarily well and are enjoying the lowest tax rates since before I was born. They’re lower than they’ve been since the 1950s, and you can afford it. You’ll still be able to ride on your corporate jet; you’re just gonna have to pay a little more. If we do not have those revenues then the kinds of cuts that would be required might compromise the National Weather Service. It means that we would not be funding critical medical research. It means that food inspection might be compromised.
RUSH: Did I not tell you? Did I not open this show with what was gonna happen here? This list of horribles! This list of horrible things that are gonna happen unless we raise taxes, unless we punish the achievers. So here you go! If we don’t raise these corporate jet taxes, some poor kid is not gonna get a scholarship and the National Weather Service might get cut, and we might not fund critical medical research. He’s playing the card here, folks. It’s Class Envy 101, Class Warfare 101. Now, this next bite, I thought we did this with the Porkulus. He got a question here from Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg: “Are you concerned the current debate over debt and deficits is preventing you from taking the kind of decisive and more balanced action needed to create jobs, which is the number one concern for Americans? And also one of the impediments to job growth the business community cites is the regulatory environment. So do you think the NLRB complaint against Boeing is an example of the kind of regulations that chill job growth and also that you yourself would call just plain dumb?”
OBAMA: I think it’s important to understand that deficit reduction, debt reduction, should be part of an overall package for job growth over the long term. It’s not the only part of it, but it’s an important part of it. So, as I mentioned at the top: I think it’s important for us to look at rebuilding our transportation infrastructure in this country. That could put people back to work right now, construction workers back to work right now, and it would get done work that America needs to get done. We used to have the best roads, the best bridges, the best airports. We don’t anymore, and that’s not good for our long term competitiveness. So we —
RUSH: All right, stop it. I don’t want to hear any more. That’s what the Porkulus was for: shovel-ready jobs! Which of course he laughs about now: Shovel-ready jobs. We were supposed to have already done all this construction work. We should have already rebuilt our transportation infrastructure — the best bridges, the best airports, fixed all these roads and schools — that’s what the Porkulus was for! But we know now that it wasn’t. That was just a slush fund, pure and simple. Stimulus money was simply a money-laundering route to make sure a percentage of that money ended up in campaign war chests of various Democrats. You know, you won’t hear any talk about the EPA budget: 125% increase in the last two years.
The Environmental Protection Agency budget increased 125% the last two years. You’ll notice there’s not one syllable’s worth of discussion of cutting anything in government. There won’t be any talk about the $1 trillion wasted in that phony stimulus bill. No. In fact, we have to now do — like we never even talked about it before — the things that stimulus money was for: Infrastructure, shovel-ready jobs. There won’t be any talk about all the new departments, all the new commissions and expenses involved in Obamacare. Oh, no! We’re not gonna hear anything about reducing and rolling back Obamacare.
Did you hear the story about people spying on doctors? The federal government was gonna hire people to go into doctor’s offices to spy on them, to gather information on how the doctors were operating and report back to a federal agency? That’s been discovered, and now the government says, “Okay, we’re not gonna do that…now.” No, we’re not gonna hear about the bloat about the federal government. We’re not gonna hear about the bloat in Obamacare. Nope, we’re gonna hear about little old ladies. We’re going to hear about some poor longhaired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking kid who can’t get a scholarship. We’re gonna hear about a poor private in the military.
We’re gonna hear about a Down syndrome child or a cancer patient going without what they need to survive, all because we won’t raise the debt limit. Why do we even have a debt limit? It doesn’t exist. Every time we approach it, we have to expand it. The unnerving thing here is that the very people who are destroying the jobs and businesses and even the federal programs they claim to support are positioning themselves as the saviors. Here comes Barack Obama, leader of the destroyers. “Barack Hussein Obama! Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!” who has destroyed the American private sector, who has destroyed the job creation engine of this country, now comes along today as a savior!
He is the man who’s finally going to save it, as though he’s not worked a day since 2008. This is his first day on the job, and he’s discovered that the Republicans are sabotaging the economy and they’re making it worse for their own reelection efforts in 2012; and he’s gonna come in here and save the day by raising taxes on the oil companies and corporate jet owners; all the while claiming that they are trying to protect the middle class. They will claim, “In order to protect the middle class we need to take more property from the rich.” They will claim that there really is not this horrible problem in future years, that we need to spend more and tax more.
The Republicans and people on the radio, they’re just trying to scare you, that the future of the country is not at all what people say it is, we just need to spend more. We just need to tax more. There really isn’t that big a problem. The only problem is the people that deserve all the assistance and all the benefits aren’t getting them. It’s amazing, isn’t it? As the government grows and creates all this damage, the answer is always to grow it more! We’ve just gone through a 29-month experiment with socialism, big government. It is a disaster. We are living it. Yet we are told to ignore all that we know, ignore all that we are experiencing, and we are supposed to support more of the same. It’s always amazed me.
The government creates problem, the government creates a program that ends up being a problem and goes haywire. Somehow only the government can fix it, and to fix it we need more of it. So government creates a problem, the problem exacerbates and the governments comes along and says, “Well, we need to fix it with more of what has made it go wrong.” This is a 29-month experiment with socialism. We’re living it. Big government. It’s a disaster, and everybody paying attention knows it. Has anybody seen a list of Obama’s proposed spending cuts? Has anybody seen Obama’s Medicare reform plan? No, because he hasn’t proposed any spending cuts, and he doesn’t have a Medicare reform plan.
Have you ever seen a more detached, irresponsible president who issues his demands, expects everybody else to clean up his mess, and then at the 11th hour like now comes in like some kinda conquering king? You notice how the ruling class never puts the onus on him to deliver. We are where we are today because of Barack Obama. Obama even knows it. He has no intention of running for reelection on his record. Ain’t no way, Jose! There is no way Obama runs for reelection on his record. His record is so God awful, there is no way anyone who’s rational could conclude otherwise. It’s so bad, we’re being told we must do more of the same. It is so bad, we’re told that we can’t change horses in the middle of the stream.
It is so bad, that to turn it over to anybody else would just be the biggest mistake in the world. It is so bad that we have to stick with this plan because it was worse than we thought when we took over. (interruption) Is that right? He just… (interruption) I am told here by official program observer, Obama just said, “We have the faces and stories of the people who will get hurt, and then we will solve the debt crisis. If we have the faces and stories of the people who will get hurt, then we will solve the debt crisis.” Well, you know they’ve got the face and the stories. This is what I said, folks at the beginning of this show. On cutting edge.
I told you: They’re gonna come forward with a list of horribles, and they’re gonna put faces to this list of horribles. It’s gonna start this afternoon. “If we have the faces and stories of the people who will get hurt, then we will solve the debt crisis.” So that’s what they’re gonna hit the Republicans with, and eventually the Republicans probably will cave. Well, I hope not. I hope they don’t cave, but it’s tough. You know, bring some longhaired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking FM guy who can’t get his scholarship. Then you bring up some horribly sick, disfigured old person and say, “This person’s this way because Republicans are not willing to spend the money to help her!” It’s time-tested; it has been used over and over again. We’ll see. I hope they hang tough on this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Don’t tell anybody, folks, the Democrats passed and Obama signed a tax break for corporate jets as part of the stimulus. I got the story, Fox News, February 2009. I’ll click on it, the headline: “Stimulus Includes Tax Break to Promote Private Jet Sales.” The stimulus bill from Barack Obama, that he signed, included a tax break to promote the sale of private jets. He had to do something to recover from that loose lipped command. He was out wandering syllabically one day not knowing what he was talking about, (imitating Obama) “The days of taking the corporate jet to Las Vegas are over.” Well, that got him in some trouble with some people so later on as part of the stimulus, and they didn’t trumpet this, but I’ve got it here, there was a tax break to promote private jet sales in the Porkulus bill. “The incentive — first used to help airplane makers recover from the 2001 terror attacks — sharply reduces the up-front tax bill for companies who buy assets like business planes.” So here he is, though, all that doesn’t matter, everything he says has an expiration date to it.
Folks, let me tell you something, this man’s record is so God awful there is no way anyone who is rational could conclude otherwise. He cannot run for reelection on this record. He cannot do it. There is no problem we can’t solve in this country if we remove Obama from office the next election, remove his party; there’s nothing we can’t do. We can fix this; we can solve every problem once we get rid of Obama, get him out of office, and get rid of the Democrat Party from positions of power and replace them not with Republicans; conservative Republicans. Is there any doubt in your mind whatsoever that a conservative president would know what to do and with a conservative Congress could get it done? Is there any doubt that they would cut spending across the board, cut the job-killing and growth-killing regulations, and unleash the private sector, including our energy companies? There’s no doubt conservative Republicans could do all of this and erase this mess, at least get started erasing it overnight.
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RUSH: One hour ago I started this program by telling you that what Obama would do would be to present a list of horribles, people and circumstances in such bad shape that only more government and only more Obama and only more spending… And I want to confess to you that I wrote those notes to myself at 10:45 this morning. I did not come up with this after his press conference started and then start the program cheating on you. I made my notes about what he was going to do at 10:30, 10:45 this morning, ’cause I know these people like every square inch of my glorious naked body.
I have a great piece, I wish I knew how to pronounce this guy’s name, Pethokoukis. For now I’ll call him Aristotle ’cause he makes a lot of sense. He’s got a piece here at Reuters, James Pethokoukis. He says: “The last thing the economy needs is a tax hike. If the economy was too weak to absorb a tax hike last December –” and Obama admitted that, it was Obama himself, “We can’t do away with the Bush tax cuts right away.” So damn frustrating. He knows damn well what has to be done here. He’s purposely doing this mess on this country. He knew last December to extend the Bush tax cuts meant to help this economic recovery, whatever it was, continue.
And so Mr. Aristotle here says, “The last thing the economy needs is a tax hike. If the economy was too weak to absorb a tax hike last December — when the White House and Congress agreed to extend all the Bush tax cuts for two more years — its health is even worse today. The economy grew at just a 1.9 percent pace in the first quarter, and many economists now think it might grow just 2.0 percent in the second quarter — or even less. This should be a red flag to Washington. New research from the Federal Reserve finds that that since 1947, when two-quarter annualized real GDP growth falls below 2 percent, recession follows within a year 48 percent of the time.”
Number two in his piece here, “Tax revenue isn’t the problem. Spending is.” We all know this. We know what the problems are. The problems are socialism, liberalism, Barack Obama, the Democrat Party. Now, look at Obama, he rides his corporate jet for free while he’s dumping on everybody else who pays for theirs. They pay for theirs. Somebody is paying for it. He is not paying — we are — for him to ride around. How about the Democrat National Committee pay for all of its uses? Since Obama’s obsessed over jets, how about Michelle Obama pay for her junkets with the kids? This latest trip that she took just cost 800 big ones. You know, there’s no reason that millionaires and billionaires — and you are a millionaire, Mr. President — ought to be freeloading. How about you and your party pay your way, set an example. Why should the taxpayers pick up your travel?
The Weather Service, might have to cut the National Weather Service? So we have a near $4 trillion budget, folks. Our budget is near $4 trillion, and he proposes cutting, or threatens in order to scare you, cutting the Weather Service? Why? ‘Cause you might not get advance warning of a tornado, and we can’t have that, so no, we can’t cut the Weather Service. Well, how about cutting the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency? How about cutting some of the bloated salaries of the czars, the bloated federal workforce? How about cutting all the subsidies to the left wing groups, the Planned Parenthoods, PBS, ACORN, and all the rest of them? There’s plenty of bloat we could get rid of. Starve left-wing activists who have no business getting federal taxpayer dollars in the first place. How about getting rid of Obamacare? You want to talk about something that’s gonna destroy the country, start there, just end that.
Obama says the Republicans want to kill the Weather Service. Well, if he said it, it must be true, right? So we’re tens of trillions of dollars in the hole, Obama and his brain trust think this is gonna scare you, that you’re gonna flood the phones on Capitol Hill now. They think you’re gonna call Capitol Hill and say, “Don’t cut the Weather Service! Don’t cut the Weather Service! I need my hurricane warnings. I need my daily forecast.” Do you know that the National Weather Service is 80% of the Commerce Department? Damn straight it is. The Commerce Department, 80% of it is the National Weather Service. So, other than slashing defense, where did Obama specifically say he was prepared to cut anything?
Does anybody actually believe the guy who did more to destroy this economy and grow the government is bringing a balanced approach to governing? It’s like asking the burglar to give interior design tips on the house he just burgled. We don’t need, nor do we want, interior design tips from Obama. We want him to stop stealing from us. We want Obama to stop stealing from our children, and he refuses, as you would expect, he’s a burglar. All liberals are burglars. All liberals are thieves. That’s what they do. It is who they are.
Corporate jet owners. What about the yachts? What about people’s large homes? What about the exotic cars? What about five-star hotels? What about five-star restaurants? What about diamonds and pearls and gold and leather shoes, what about silk ties, what about top-of-the-line wine? What about first-class travel? How about 65-inch wide-screen TVs? What about all the other things, and there are so many more. They should be taxed, too, and regulated and destroyed out of existence so that we can pay for more government. Of course. Why just focus on the jets? Why not go after everybody’s wide screens, particularly 3D now? Let’s really hit the iPads, you know, that’s a luxury. The iPad 3’s coming out, the iPhone 5, let’s hit them up in advance, let’s hit up everything that’s a sign of progress in this country and tax the hell out of it so that it ceases to exist.
Let’s just tax ourselves back to the seventh century so the Muslims will be happy and Al-Qaeda. You leave it up to Obama, we won’t need to be defeated by Al-Qaeda; we’ll end up in the seventh century on our own. Jobs are gonna be affected. Not those who mine the resources, work in the factories, work at the retail shops, no, just the rich are gonna be punished, right? In the meantime, Michelle Obama will wear her designer dress, Barack will fly Air Force One, and all will be well, and he’ll end up flying around, getting away from her any time he can to eat greasy cheeseburgers and French fries while telling everybody else to go out and eat watercress vinaigrette.
There’s a great piece by Bob McDonnell, governor of Virginia, about Republican governors and their records and how they are solving problems. It’s in the Wall Street Journal. Here’s a pull quote. “There’s a reason that no Republican governor seeking re-election has lost a general election since 2007, while three Democrat governors have fallen in that same period. Voters expect their state executives to make tough decisions with future generations, not weekly polls, in mind. That’s exactly what Republican governors have done and what President Obama has failed to do.” In states all over, when conservative fiscal policies are implemented, the results are nothing short of miraculous when compared to what’s happening at the federal level.
The blueprint for Obama is in the states. It’s already working on reducing deficit, adding jobs, and lowering taxes. That’s where it’s happening. Even finding oil via fracking, new natural gas discoveries are taking place in the states in spite of Barack Obama. And yet he wants to learn from none of it. He wants to extrapolate none of it. So I have to conclude that Obama wants us to fail. AndTheHill.com: “For Obama: Silver Linings in Dark Clouds.” This story ties into what I have been talking about. It’s a hopeful Drive-By story: “President Obama is having a horrible start to his summer. The commander-in-chief is under siege from Congress on his Libya military intervention, he took flak from both sides over Afghanistan … is a silver lining in the dark clouds that have haunted the White House so far this summer. No matter how it seems this summer, with possible GOP candidates for president emerging each week, the presidential election is not until next November. Obama still has a year to turn things around. The debt-ceiling talks represent an opportunity for the president to lead.”
This is the strategery. They are banking it all on Obama coming in and being the dealmaker on this debt ceiling and this presser today was step one. It’s their only real card to play because they got no record to run on. Hence, the sob stories that we are going to soon see if the Republicans don’t raise the debt limit, Obama the big hero.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Tallahassee, Florida, this is John. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, hello. Thanks for taking my call, Rush. Thanks for what you’re doing.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I heard the president complaining this morning in his press conference that tax rates were the lowest in lifetime. First off, any president who was actually concerned about prosperity and the well-being of a nation would actually celebrate that if it were true. Obama is complaining about it. Secondly, he might also want to know that when those tax rates were put into effect back in the mid-2000s — ’05 and such — we had the highest tax revenues to the government in history for about four years.
RUSH: Oh, I know. You’re absolutely right. That’s an excellent observation on your part out there, John, that he spoke of the tax rates being low with resentment. He was complaining about it. You are exactly right, as though that was something to be irritated and agitated about. Excellent, excellent point. Appreciate it. There are some more Obama sound bites on the tax business here and the third one I have here, this the biggie, to prove what I wrote that I thought was gonna happen in this press conference actually did. We have three of them. During the Q&A, the Wall Street Journal White House correspondent Laura Meckler: “In the debt talks would you like to see some sort of tax breaks aimed at stimulating the economy even though it would add to the deficit itself?”
OBAMA: What we did in December during the lame duck session when Democrats and Republicans came together and we said, “You know what? A payroll tax cut makes sense in order to boost the economy. Unemployment insurance makes sense in order to boost the economy.” All that stuff puts money in people’s pockets at a time when they’re still struggling to dig themselves out of this recession, and so the American people have an extra thousand dollars on average in their pockets because of the tax cuts that we initiated. It makes perfect sense for us to take a look at can we extend the tax cuts, for example, an additional year — and other tax breaks for business investment that could make a big difference in terms of creating more jobs right now.
RUSH: What is that? See he didn’t even answer the question? Out of one side of his mouth he claimed the tax cuts he championed in the lame duck have helped the economy, and then today comes out there and says these tax cuts are ruining the economy. But then she says, is it worth having a tax cut even if it would add to the deficit? A tax cut would not add to the deficit. This is the myth. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth. Jessica Yellin, CNN chief White House correspondent: “Is August 2nd a yellow light or a red light on the debt limit?”
OBAMA: August 2nd is a very important date. You know, Malia and Sasha generally finish their homework a day ahead of time. Malia is 13; Sasha is 10. Why wait until the night before? They’re not pulling all nighters.
REPORTERS: (laughing)
OBAMA: Congress can do the same thing. If you know you’ve gotta do something, just do it. They’re in one week, they’re out one week, and then they’re saying, “Obama’s gotta step in it.” You need to be here! I’ve been here.
REPORTERS: (laughing)
OBAMA: I’ve been doing Afghanistan and Bin Laden and the Greek crisis and … you stay here.
RUSH: Awww.
OBAMA: Let’s get it done.
RUSH: Man, oh, man! Did you hear that? (impression) “I’ve been here. I’ve been doing Afghanistan; I’ve been screwing that up. I killed Bin Laden. I killed Bin Laden and dealt with the Greek crisis.” Yeah, everything you’re doing is getting more mucked up each, every moment of the day. For a guy who plays golf every weekend and is always on vacation, that’s kind of pathetic. Here’s the end of the press conference. This is where he previews the parade of victims coming our way.
OBAMA: I get letters from folks all around the country who show incredible resilience, incredible determination. But they are having a very, very tough time. They’re losing their homes. Some have lost their businesses, some have lost work and have not been able to find jobs for months — maybe a year and a half — and they feel some desperation. These folks are counting on us. They desperately want to believe that their leadership is thinking about them and not playin’ games, and I think that if all the leadership here in Washington has the faces and the stories of those families in mind then we will solve in debt limit issue. We will put in place steps like a payroll tax cut and infrastructure development.
RUSH: Yeah, I tell you: It’s hard for me to contain myself in the face of such lying. I don’t do well with it. They’ve lost their homes, they’ve lost their businesses because of YOU, Mr. President! They’re angry at you, and they’re not looking at you for any solution. They’re asking you not to do any more damage, and they really don’t want to be paraded in front of people as examples. If anybody needs to be paraded as an example of failure, it’s Barack Obama. If you want to have a parade, if you want to have some sort of a public display to illustrate what’s gone wrong, have a one-man parade with Barack Obama in any Main Street in this country. I wonder if Obama ever gets letters from people who complain about paying too much in taxes. And he hasn’t been involved with the debt ceiling negotiations at all. He never gets involved in this stuff. All of this stuff is a crock.
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