RUSH: Well, this one had to be a tough one for CNN to report. They\u2019ve got some polling data on what people think of the economy out there. Just saw it up there. Sixty-one percent of Americans report feeling very good about the economy. Thirty-seven percent, no. And by the way, I think we\u2019re back. You know, when Obama was president and he was providing stewardship over a flagging economy it was the first time in my life that the state of the economy had no impact on presidential approval numbers.<\/p>\n
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Now, I think it did on the election. The static state of the economy was definitely one of the factors that hurt Hillary. But all during Obama\u2019s eight years whatever the economic circumstances were, it didn\u2019t show up in polling data — and, again, it\u2019s the racial component and nobody will ever be able to convince me differently. But I now think we\u2019re back to normal in this thing and I think once…<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got Trump in the Oval Office now and how the economy is perceived is gonna be very, very important to him in terms of giving him insurance on the rest of his agenda and getting approval numbers overall on job performance and this kind of thing. So I think we\u2019re back to a state of normal there. … Now, the Inside Politics, Trump approval rating at 38%, does that jibe with what people think about the economy? Inside Politics: “Trump approval rating, 38%<\/a>.” They\u2019re just reveling in that.<\/p>\n Anyway, my friends, I\u2019m leading off with something that just hit right before the program began on Politico. It\u2019s a story about John Boehner, and the headline is, “Boehner: Republicans Won\u2019t Repeal and Replace Obamacare.<\/a> — Former House Speaker John Boehner predicted [today] that a full repeal and replace of Obamacare is ‘not going to happen.'” He was “at an Orlando health care conference that the idea that a repeal-and-replace plan would blitz through Congress is just ‘happy talk.\u2019 Instead, he said changes to former President Barack Obama\u2019s signature legislative achievement would likely be relatively modest.<\/p>\n “‘(Congressional Republicans are) going to fix Obamacare — I shouldn\u2019t call it repeal-and-replace, because it\u2019s not going to happen,\u2019 he said. Boehner\u2019s comments come as Republican lawmakers across the country are facing angry constituents at town halls worried that Obamacare will be yanked away without a suitable replacement.” Is that what Republicans are protesting? Look, I don\u2019t deny that there are Republicans showing up at these town halls.<\/p>\n By the way, don\u2019t anybody misunderstand me here, and I don\u2019t deny that some of them are angry, but they\u2019re not angry that the Republicans might repeal Obamacare. If they\u2019re angry at anything, it\u2019s that they haven\u2019t yet. But look at the way this is written here at The Politico: “Boehner\u2019s comments come as Republican lawmakers across the country are facing angry constituents at town halls worried that Obamacare will be yanked away without a suitable replacement.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump has said in recent days that he will release a plan by early to mid-March on how the administration plans to move forward on a repeal-and-replace plan. [Today], Boehner said the talk in November about lightning-fast passage of a new health care framework was wildly optimistic. ‘I started laughing,\u2019 he said. ‘Republicans never ever agree on health care.\u2019 ‘Most of the framework of the Affordable Care Act … that\u2019s going to be there,\u2019 Boehner concluded.” It\u2019s going to remain.<\/p>\n Even though he resigned and even though he ended his term in degree of controversy, he\u2019s still the former speaker. And as the former speaker, he automatically possesses a certain amount of gravitas or weight about the position. So if Boehner\u2019s out there at the health care conference assuring people by virtue of what he admitted is a prediction that it isn\u2019t gonna change, within doesn\u2019t that give some Republicans in the house cover for not doing anything? “Well, Boehner says we\u2019re not gonna replace it, so…” (interruption) I\u2019m not… (sigh)<\/p>\n Let me rephrase this again. I\u2019m not saying legitimately give them cover. I\u2019m saying does it give them an excuse? ‘Cause you know some of them don\u2019t want to mess with it. Some of them don\u2019t want to get anywhere near it, because in their view, it\u2019s an entitlement, and we never take those away. I\u2019ll tell you what I want to do here, folks, because the protesters that are showing up at these town halls are, again, being mischaracterized and they are being mis-defined. It turns out that in fact much of what\u2019s going on here is actually brought to us by an Obama organization, Organizing for Action.<\/p>\n And they even have a training manual that gives suggestions and ideas to protesters on how to behave, where to sit in a town hall. Don\u2019t bunch together. In other words, spread out so that cameras make it look like most of the audience is protesters. Pick your spots. They\u2019ve even got a name for this. Indivisible or invisible, I forget which. I\u2019ll get to it here in just a second. Oh, one other thing before I do that. Speaking of Obamacare, there\u2019s another thing — tax cuts — that a lot of people are starting to scratch their heads on, as in, “Where is it?”<\/p>\n I mean, there are no excuses. Republicans have the White House, they have the House, they have the Senate. The Democrats cannot stop the Republicans with votes. They cannot stop. In the Senate there\u2019s the 60 votes thing, but they can\u2019t stop this. “During an interview with the FOX Business Network\u2019s Maria Bartiromo Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration is ‘focused on an aggressive timeline<\/a>‘ to produce a tax reform plan by August.” Now, wait a minute. There\u2019s nothing “aggressive” about a tax reform plan being produced by August.<\/p>\n So there\u2019s a congressional recess in August, and then they come back and we all know they don\u2019t do much in the fall because… Well, there\u2019s no election, but there will be, you know, going on the Labor Day break and then there\u2019s the opening day of the NFL break and then there\u2019s the first Thursday night of the NFL break, and then there\u2019s the Halloween break, and the Thanksgiving break and the Christmas break, and then in December gotta-get-a-budget-done-on-the-fly break and this kind of thing. So when are they gonna do this? If the plan…? Is this what he means, if it\u2019s only the plan that shows up in August? I mean, that\u2019s how I\u2019m reading it: “Mnuchin said the administration is ‘focused on an aggressive timeline\u2019 to produce a tax reform plan by August.”<\/p>\n Also from the Los Angeles Times: “Among Republicans, Trump Is More Popular Than Congressional Leaders<\/a> — Amid strain between the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, the White House holds the high ground, a new survey indicates. Among Republicans, President Trump has greater popularity than the party\u2019s congressional leaders. Asked specifically who they would trust if the two sides disagreed, most Republicans chose Trump over their party\u2019s leadership.”<\/p>\n Now, this is from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The Pew Research Center. “As for Democrats, they\u2019re strongly in an oppositional mood. Asked if they were more worried that Democrats in Congress would go too far in opposing Trump or not go far enough, more than 70% of Democrats said they feared their party would not go far enough” in opposing Trump. “Only 20% said they worried the party would go too far.”<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think the Democrats have anything to fear here. (laughing) I don\u2019t think there are any restraints on these people at all. I mean, they\u2019re already calling for impeachment! They\u2019re already officially calling for impeachment. One of the guys running for the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, Keith Ellison, is already making the case for impeachment<\/a>. I don\u2019t think the Drive-Bys are ever gonna say that the Democrats have overreached. That simply wouldn\u2019t be possible. So, I mean… (sigh)<\/p>\n It\u2019s early, and these are the things that are still shaking out and falling out. “The American Conservative Union: Donald Trump\u2019s cabinet is the most Conservative in Modern History — President Donald Trump picked the most conservative Cabinet in modern history — surpassing the team handpicked by former President Ronald Reagan, this according to the American Conservative Union.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Boehnerkissyface-289x300.jpg\")
That\u2019s John Boehner, predicting — and he knows. You would have to say, wouldn\u2019t you, Mr. Snerdley, that Boehner knows the Republican House? (interruption) (laughing) Well, there\u2019s a little derisive reaction from the Official Program Observer. So is what\u2019s Boehner doing here? Is he giving them cover? Is he giving…? ‘Cause we know the donors don\u2019t want it repealed and we know the donors don\u2019t want a whole lot of things that Trump wants. Republican… (interruption) Now, wait a second. I don\u2019t doubt that he\u2019s projecting his own however you want to characterize it. But what I\u2019m saying is, I mean, he is…<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/MNUCHIN.jpg\")
I\u2019d like to remind you that Ronaldus Magnus signed the first phase of his massive tax cuts in August of 1981. Eight and a half, nine months after being sworn in, Reagan signed his first wave of tax reform. The Treasury secretary said with Maria Bartiromo that they\u2019re “‘focused on an aggressive timeline\u2019 to produce a tax reform plan by August.” Well, okay, you produce a plan by August. That\u2019s during the congressional recess, is it not? Okay.<\/p>\n
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These are the people that are putting on the CPAC conference, which starts together and goes through Saturday. “ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp tells the ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/650-022317-Opening-Mono.jpg\")
And we did that so that all of the immigrants prior to 1921 could assimilate and become Americans. It takes time. And the Democrats began to get worried, constituencies and all, and they moved to reopen immigration in 1965, and we got a bill, and those are the laws… They\u2019ve been updated, obviously, since 1965, but it\u2019s essentially that piece of legislation that\u2019s simply being reinforced now, that the Democrats are having kittens about.<\/p>\n