{"id":241100,"date":"2017-07-18T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=241100"},"modified":"2017-07-19T16:13:19","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T20:13:19","slug":"trump-let-obamacare-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/07\/18\/trump-let-obamacare-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump: Let Obamacare Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I want to expand on something here that I just saw President Trump say right before the end of the previous hour. He said that his plan now is to just let Obamacare fail. He\u2019s not gonna own it. He\u2019s just gonna let it fail. Which he\u2019s been saying for months. He said, you know, the smart thing politically for him to do is to let it fail and let the Democrats absorb all the blame. Let Obama and the Democrats take the blame. Just let it fail. But Trump said — as a show of good faith — he was gonna work with people to try to replace it, to repeal and replace it rather than just to let it implode, let it fail.<\/p>\n

\"\"Now, we know that the Trumpster engages in The Art of the Deal at all times, and so this statement of his, which was stated in… It looked like he was in the Cabinet Room. Pence was sitting next to him. A lot of people were there. All the media camera shutters were clicking and flicking there, so this got a wide audience. “I\u2019m just gonna let it fail. I\u2019m not gonna own it. I am not gonna sit here and own this. If this is the way it\u2019s gonna go, I\u2019m just gonna let it fail.” He could be negotiating; he could be serious.<\/p>\n

He could mean it that he\u2019s just going to sit by and let the thing fail, and that means old Mitch and the boys can go in there and fail to repeal it and that means Obamacare remains the law of the land. This is where it gets interesting. Obamacare is imploding. It is in the process of consuming itself. If Trump follows through and just says, “I\u2019m gonna let it fail,” and we just sit by and watch premiums go up 45, 50% every year… As we watch insurance companies pull out of the exchanges, as we watch the subsidies end, as we watch the exchanges close, as nobody\u2019s able to buy insurance…<\/p>\n

You have the Trump opposition in the, quote, unquote, “elite club” known as the establishment.<\/p>\n

What are they gonna do now? See, the objective in the original design of Obamacare was to fail. But it was supposed to fail with Hillary Clinton or another Democrat in the White House. And, at the moment of failure, it was then to be suggested almost as a brilliant spur-of-the-moment idea, “Hey, why don\u2019t we just go single payer.” Or, “Hey, why don\u2019t we just put everybody on Medicare? Hey, problem solved!” Because, at that time, that point in time, premiums would be out of reach, deductibles out of reach, insurance companies closing down and closing up shop, exchanges closing up shop. So it\u2019d be eagerly demanded, even maybe by the public.<\/p>\n

But now we\u2019ve got Trump who doesn\u2019t want to go single payer, and this the Democrats and the establishment know. So there are two options here, and it\u2019s interesting to note that if you listen to the media and you listen to the Democrats, repealing Obamacare is the worst thing that could be done, but it isn\u2019t. Staying with Obamacare and letting it implode is the absolute worst outcome here. Repealing it means you repeal it. You get rid of every Obamacare law, and that means you start over. But it also raises a question: At what point do you…? Where do you resume?<\/p>\n

What do we fall back to?<\/p>\n

\"\"If Obamacare is repealed and those laws are gone — there are no exchanges, there are no subsidies — then at what point in the past do we go back to? Well, it\u2019s the Wild West, folks. It\u2019s the Wild West. If we repeal it, it\u2019s the Wild West, and then you\u2019re gonna see the traditional manner and behavior of Washington kick into gear and start trying to craft something. This is the theory of the optimists at the vote failure yesterday and last night, that this exact scenario would result, and that the lack of any formal federal health care law (other than what might still be on the books that we\u2019d revert to) will cause, will create the need for immediate legislative action.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, it will be said that the insurance companies will once again be in charge of health care because they\u2019re the ones that sell policies. And you can\u2019t get coverage if you don\u2019t have a policy, \u2019cause it\u2019s so expensive, you can\u2019t pay for it yourself. So that\u2019s Trump\u2019s ultimate… I don\u2019t know if you call it “threat,” but that\u2019s his negotiating position. “Okay. If we can\u2019t vote to repeal this thing, I\u2019m standing by and I\u2019m letting it die. I\u2019m letting it implode. I\u2019m gonna let it fail, and it\u2019s on the Democrats, and I\u2019ll make sure everybody knows it\u2019s on the Democrats.<\/p>\n

\"\"“I am not gonna own this sucker. It isn\u2019t mine. I had nothing to do with it. I\u2019ve engaged in good-faith efforts to fix this and people aren\u2019t interested. So, fine. If you\u2019re not interested, establishment, you live with the results.” I\u2019m here to tell you: The results of Obamacare imploding are far worse than Obamacare being repealed. Do you agree with me on that, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) I don\u2019t even think it\u2019s arguable. Everybody agrees. Democrats agree. Well, Nancy Pelosi doesn\u2019t yet see it. She still thinks President Bush is in office running around.<\/p>\n

I think she really does, actually. (interruption) Well, I don\u2019t think they care if Pelosi starts imploding. That doesn\u2019t matter. They\u2019re out of party, doesn\u2019t matter. They can shove her off to the side where nobody\u2019s looking and run the show. If the Democrats were in charge, if she was the speaker and were imploding, that\u2019d be problem. But now they can cover it. They can send her off to the home and nobody would know. Just run old Nancy Pelosi videotapes ripping into Bush and Trump and it\u2019d work. But that\u2019s off the topic. Obamacare in place where people can\u2019t afford insurance and they can\u2019t afford the deductible, they can\u2019t afford to use their policy?<\/p>\n

The law still says you have to buy it. Remember, the mandates are still there. The fines are still there. Everything\u2019s still there if it isn\u2019t repealed in its present downward spiral, which everybody agrees is happening. Just like everybody agrees the Russians affected the election (laughing), everybody agrees that Obamacare is spiraling out of control. I\u2019m telling you, repealing it would be a much better outcome for people than just sitting with it while it evaporates, and that\u2019s what Trump is threatening to do. Could be a negotiating position.<\/p>\n

Could be the case. In any event, our last caller had a great attitude: What if Trump actually decides at some point when it comes to time to reconstitute American health care and they do it legislatively, to bring in some of these outside private sector people and just have \u2019em do it. Have \u2019em write legislation. It\u2019s no different now than having it written on K Street. It\u2019s not written in Congress. Most legislation isn\u2019t. But an outright repeal is a political… I wouldn\u2019t say must, but it\u2019s certainly the Republicans have promised this so many times that they have to…<\/p>\n

\"\"(sigh) It still comes down to this fascinating question to me, and the caller said it\u2019s not the answer to the question they\u2019re afraid of. Here\u2019s the question. Ted Cruz… Let me set this up by reminding you what Ted Cruz has told me I don\u2019t know how many times. He told me in the last interview he just did last week for upcoming issue Limbaugh Letter<\/a>, that the thing that shocked him more than anything his first few days in the Senate was how 90% of what senators do is get reelected. Ninety percent of their time is spent raising money, organizing fundraisers, dealing with the consultants and all who raise the money, planning the events.<\/p>\n

The other 10%\u2019s being a senator. It shocked him. It was that blatant, that obvious. Why? Because getting reelected is the most important job every senator thinks he has. Probably to a degree this is true in the House, but he was speaking specifically of the Senate. And yet, if getting reelected is the most important thing, then a question occurs to me.<\/p>\n

All of these promises and all of these votes to repeal Obamacare since 2010, now when they have the power to actually do it, they don\u2019t do it, they can\u2019t do it. After all these promises, after all these times being elected on the basis of that promise, and yet they obviously don\u2019t fear the voters in their states nearly as much as they fear something else.<\/p>\n

They are clearly willing to incur your wrath at reelection time. They would much rather do that than deal with whatever is gonna happen to them if they vote to repeal it. They\u2019re afraid of somebody. They are concerned about somebody or something, but it isn\u2019t you. Despite the most important thing in their lives, being reelected, that\u2019s what you do. So who is it that they\u2019re more afraid of than you? Who is it that they are the least interested in angering?<\/p>\n

\"\"Well, yeah, money people, but I want get more specific than that. Of course it\u2019s the money people, the donors and all that, but who are they, and what threat do they have? What threat do they have that can make elected officials more fearful of them than of you? ‘Cause if you don\u2019t show up, whatever else happens is academic. It has to be the fact that whoever it is they\u2019re afraid of can supply them with, in their minds, enough money to win reelection no matter what your opinion of them is.<\/p>\n

But it all circles around money, understandably. And there\u2019s nothing new about that. I\u2019m not claiming to have discovered anything earth-shattering here. But I just find it interesting. So on the table, Donald Trump: I\u2019m gonna let it fail. I am going to let it fail. I am not gonna own this. This is an utter failure, utter disaster. I\u2019ve tried. I worked with people. Obviously we don\u2019t have enough Republicans who want to vote this way. We need more Republicans in 2018, but I\u2019m gonna let it fail \u2019cause I am not owning this baby.<\/p>\n

So failure, which is Obamacare, stays in place with all of its problems, expenses, failures versus repealing it. I\u2019m telling you, the most painful choice here is leaving Obamacare in place.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s Patty in is it New Berlin or New Berlin, Illinois?<\/p>\n

CALLER: New Berlin.<\/p>\n

RUSH: New Berlin. How you doing?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m doing great. I get to talk to you. I had a comment, and then I would like to ask a question about what you just spoke on.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You made the comment that half of the people in America have awakened and that\u2019s why Donald Trump is in office. And I told Mr. Snerdley, I think you could wake up the rest by Skyping in a White House news conference and have them let you explain to America what you just told us about why Congress is doing what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n