{"id":18537,"date":"2011-03-15T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T00:22:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-07-20T00:22:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T00:22:18","slug":"david_limbaugh_on_republican_fear_of_a_government_shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/03\/15\/david_limbaugh_on_republican_fear_of_a_government_shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"David Limbaugh on Republican Fear of a Government Shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: My brother David, column: “GOP Fear That History Will Repeat Helps Ensure It Will.” He starts out with a good question: “Why is it that despite the Republicans\u2019 resounding electoral victory in 2010 based on their promises for real change, many of us have a queasy feeling they\u2019re not quite measuring up to the task, even in the climate of Democratic infighting and President Obama\u2019s weaknesses? The Hill reports that there is developing dissension between Obama and Senate Democrats, whose respective ‘political fortunes … are moving in opposite directions, complicating their efforts to win a titanic battle against Republicans over federal spending.'” That\u2019s a quote from The Hill. <\/p>\n

“Obama is trying to stay above the fray and letting Democratic legislators twist in the wind of conflict with GOP congressmen over a possible government shutdown. [Obama\u2019s] plan is” and this is right on the money, by the way, “to ride in just in time to take credit for the ultimate resolution and be seen as ‘a bipartisan problem solver,'” but he\u2019s not gonna be involved in it. Whatever happens, happens, and he\u2019s gonna take the credit for it as having been the guiding influence and force. While he, seriously, is out videotaping his NCAA basketball picks. You know, we have really terrific golf weather headed toward the nation\u2019s capital. It\u2019s going to be sixties and seventies Wednesday through Saturday. I looked. <\/p>\n

Now, the president has the rest of the week planned out. Why not go play golf every day? There\u2019s nothing to be done in Libya. The president\u2019s already said what\u2019s happening there is “unacceptable,” and that\u2019s that. What this president does is say stuff. When he says stuff, that\u2019s it. He\u2019s already said, “We need to live within our means.” Okay, that problem solved. He\u2019s already said he feels terrible about events in Japan. That\u2019s about as much as any human being could do. He\u2019s already said schools and bullies don\u2019t mix. He sent his wife out there to pound home that message. That\u2019s done. He called for gender equality in the home and in the workplace. <\/p>\n

Okay, that problem\u2019s been solved. And he said that oil production in the Gulf is booming because of him. His moratorium has led to increased production. He got that done. What else is there to do but go play golf? Well, he has said he “won\u2019t rest until there be jobs for all Americans who seek work,” but apparently every American who wants a job has one, otherwise Obama would be “focusing like a laser.” So that problem\u2019s been solved. So after this arduous task of picking the brackets for the NCAA tournament and then videotaping the presentation for ESPN, what is there left to do? The guy\u2019s overworked as it is. He hasn\u2019t had a vacation in couple months!<\/p>\n

Why not just go play golf every day? He\u2019s commented on everything; he has press conferences here and there. The only problem is that when he talks, nobody listens. Beyond that, leaders don\u2019t comment, they take action. But he\u2019s not taking any action. He\u2019s sitting around, biding his time. In his case “taking action” means “playing golf.” So that\u2019s… (interruption) Well, you know what? All right, all right, all right. You have a point. I stand corrected. He has been out fundraising. You\u2019re right. That\u2019s hard work, too. I\u2019ll stand chagrined. Thanks for correcting me on that. <\/p>\n

So my brother\u2019s right here: He\u2019s trying to stay above the fray. He\u2019s let the Democrats and the Congress twist in the wind over this possible government shutdown — and whatever happens, he\u2019s going to run in there and take credit. Oh, I forgot! The president is going to Rio de Janeiro for the weekend. He is. Mardi Gras was last week. He\u2019s going to Rio this week. He\u2019s going there this weekend. I don\u2019t know. He might have seen that picture of Gisele Bundchen looking dreamily at Tom Brady and figured, “Man, if that\u2019s the talent down there, look at all I could eat!” Who knows? He\u2019s going to Rio. “Meanwhile, many Senate Democrats believed to be vulnerable in 2012 defected from their party\u2019s proposal to cut spending.<\/p>\n

“But hardly any Democrats, including the defectors, can be regarded as serious in their approach to the debt crisis now plaguing this country. Yet…” and here\u2019s the point that my brother makes: “Yet are congressional Republicans capitalizing on this Democratic disunity and incompetence?” Are they capitalizing on the president having checked out? “To be sure, there are positive signs, such as the diligent efforts of Rep. Paul Ryan to help craft a comprehensive plan to severely reduce discretionary spending and substantively tackle entitlement reform. And Ryan isn\u2019t alone. Other conservative representatives and senators are standing strong. <\/p>\n

“But when we shift our gaze to the Republican leadership in the Senate and House and even to some of the House freshmen for whom we\u2019ve had high expectations, we see cause for concern. The first real confrontation with Obama, whose party had been trounced the month before, came in December and resulted in a compromise” that I think casual observers think the Democrats won, even though the tax cuts were extended Democrats lost their shirts and they still set the premise for the lake duck session. “Next came the House GOP\u2019s disappointing failure to make much headway in defunding Obamacare, which it blamed on insurmountable legislative rules.” <\/p>\n

This rule meaning: Well, there\u2019s a continuing resolution; you can\u2019t do any legislation in there; you can only attack discretionary spending. That $105 billion is not discretionary spending. So we can\u2019t attack that, so we need to be doing a budget to do that and Reid doesn\u2019t want to do a budget so we\u2019re kind of handcuffed. So they\u2019re hiding behind the fact that: Well, we got the rules, can\u2019t break the rules. Then Republicans scrambled like scared rabbits to avert a government shutdown and acceded to a continuing resolution until March 4 — and then through March 18 — which contained cuts but also allowed Democrats to kick the ball down the road another month or so. <\/p>\n

“Vice President [Bite Me], who was to be instrumental in negotiating with Republicans, used the extension as an opportunity to take off on an international trip, apparently without even a superficial nod toward resolving the issues. Through all of this, we get the idea that it is Democrats, not Republicans, who have the upper hand in these negotiations,” and they lost! They lost, and it\u2019s got everybody puzzled here. What was November about? Where are the Scott Walkers of Washington? Where are they? “House Republicans did pass a bill containing $61 billion in spending cuts, but most conservatives and tea party activists believe it wasn\u2019t enough. <\/p>\n

“The Virginia tea partyers are particularly displeased with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor,” I had a story about this yesterday, “who opposed an amendment for even deeper cuts (5.5 percent across the board for non-security discretionary spending). Now we\u2019re coming up on another deadline, and congressional Republicans are presenting yet another continuing resolution, which contains $6 billion in spending cuts but doesn\u2019t… include so-called ‘policy riders\u2019 that would address important issues, such as defunding Obamacare and Planned Parenthood,” and that\u2019s why Marco Rubio is speaking out. <\/p>\n

What am I here for? I didn\u2019t care here to be part of piecemeal stuff, $6 billion here and $6 billion there. That\u2019s not why we\u2019re here. We\u2019re looking at $14 trillion national debt, and we\u2019re $6 billion in a continuing resolution. The irony here is that it\u2019s this fear of a government shutdown, apparently, that\u2019s got the Republican leadership paralyzed, and they might ” be ensuring that history repeats itself precisely because they are behaving as if they fear that history will repeat itself.” They think a government shutdown will cream \u2019em like it did in 1995, but it didn\u2019t cream \u2019em! They won reelection in 1996. They got welfare reform. <\/p>\n

But they lost “the headline battle.” They lost the news media battle. The budget shutdown of 1995 was portrayed as a huge PR triumph for Clinton over Newt Gingrich, pinning the government shutdown on congressional Republicans who “don\u2019t care about people,” and they don\u2019t want that said about \u2019em again. And they\u2019re afraid anything they do that cause a government shutdown to be the same old same old: They don\u2019t care about people. They\u2019re content to let the little people starve or not get their turkeys at Thanksgiving or whatever it is, and I think this is a total miscalculation of the public mood. <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the nineties. <\/p>\n

We have a nation-threatening debt crisis. <\/p>\n

And the Republican opponent is a weak president who\u2019s doing more to exacerbate our problems than he is to solve \u2019em. What my brother is saying here is that we\u2019ve never had a greater opportunity to contrast what we are and what we believe. I\u2019ve got a story here, folks, a Politico story: “GOP Sounds Alarm Over America in Decline.” ABC\/Washington Post has a poll 32% think the country is doing right. The mood of this country is, “What the hell\u2019s going on?” More and more people think that we have an administration that\u2019s actively, happily presiding over the decline of this country — a decline a majority of the people in this country don\u2019t want — and there doesn\u2019t seem to be any noticeable effort to stop this way of thinking or believing in Washington. <\/p>\n

So one unfortunate constant seems to be the Republicans\u2019 incapacity to handle their electoral prosperity. You know, Obama — in that first joint legislative meeting he had after he won — had the Republicans up there. Boehner and some of these guys suggested the tax cuts and Obama said, “Hey, nice idea, but I won.” Well, so did the Republicans in November. They won, but there\u2019s this (man, it\u2019s big, too) fear of a government shutdown, and it\u2019s causing them to negotiate as though they don\u2019t have the upper hand. It\u2019s patently obvious. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, has shown the way. <\/p>\n

He has shown that it can be done, even in Wisconsin — and if the Republicans aren\u2019t careful, they\u2019re gonna let their fear of bad PR kill the Tea Party revolution. And if they\u2019re not careful, what\u2019s gonna happen here is a third party is gonna happen, because the Tea Party crowd, the grassroots who made the Republican leadership possible? Make no mistake: It\u2019s the Tea Party turned out and voted that made the Republican leaders win, enabled their victory, made their leadership possible. If they\u2019re not satisfied with the direction they see, it\u2019s third-party time, and nobody\u2019s gonna be able to talk \u2019em out of it, and then we fracture our movement. (interruption) I don\u2019t know, Snerdley, if they would even listen to me on not forming a third-party. This is serious stuff. It really is. <\/p>\n

END TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: My brother David, column: “GOP Fear That History Will Repeat Helps Ensure It Will.” He starts out with a good question: “Why is it that despite the Republicans\u2019 resounding electoral victory in 2010 based on their promises for real change, many of us have a queasy feeling they\u2019re not quite measuring up to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDavid Limbaugh on Republican Fear of a Government Shutdown - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/03\/15\/david_limbaugh_on_republican_fear_of_a_government_shutdown\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"David Limbaugh on Republican Fear of a Government Shutdown - 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