{"id":248782,"date":"2017-09-28T13:50:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T17:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=248782"},"modified":"2017-09-29T16:05:22","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T20:05:22","slug":"republicans-are-squandering-a-golden-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/09\/28\/republicans-are-squandering-a-golden-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Are Squandering a Golden Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Here\u2019s Ryan in Ironton, Pennsylvania. Welcome, sir. Glad you waited.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. Mega dittos from Allentown, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Allentown. Sorry.<\/p>\n

\"\"CALLER: No, no. No biggie. Hopefully my battery holds. It drains energy like excuses from the mouth of Hillary. Listen, I don\u2019t believe for a moment that the Republicans are gonna get this done. These are the same people who told us we can\u2019t do taxes until we do health care, and then they bumbled around like stumbling boobs and they weren\u2019t able to get health care done and now we\u2019re back to taxes. So I predict December they\u2019re gonna come, they\u2019re gonna vote, it\u2019s gonna fail, and then they\u2019re gonna say, “Well, we\u2019ve already penned in for January to restart health care. Let\u2019s do health care and then we can get to taxes.”<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, you know, I can\u2019t blame you for your snark. I can\u2019t blame you for your suspicion. I can\u2019t blame you for your doubt. I can\u2019t blame you for your lack of trust. You\u2019re only using intelligence guided by experience. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen with this. Your guess is as good as mine. The thing that confuses me — well, it doesn\u2019t confuse me because I understand this, but it still does confuse me in a way. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

We have a circumstance in Washington that I\u2019m telling you nobody on Election Day ever thought would happen. Nobody thought Donald Trump was gonna win. On election night nobody thought Donald Trump was going to win. Everybody in the establishment, because they believe their polls and they believe their experts in the media and they believe their own instinct, do not doubt me, they were convinced that Trump was gonna lose and lose in a landslide.<\/p>\n

\"\"That means that the Republicans in the House were preparing to govern on the defensive. There wasn\u2019t a one of them that thought they were gonna win and therefore there wasn\u2019t a one of them that was thinking joyously with their hands rubbing, “Oh, man, look what we\u2019re gonna be able to do after Trump wins.” Nobody was thinking that. They were all thinking they were gonna have to play defense, that their job was gonna be stopping things or trying to stop Democrat things. And I frankly think that\u2019s a position that they really rather have.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not convinced they like the power of governing or the pressure of it, but I do know they weren\u2019t prepared for it. I thought Trump was gonna win. Many of you out there thought Trump was gonna win. They thought we were nuts. They think and thought Trump is nuts. They didn\u2019t think Trump was gonna win. Then Trump wins, and you know what I didn\u2019t see? Joy. I didn\u2019t see joy on the Republican side. There was some, but a lot of it was perfunctory.<\/p>\n

A lot of it on election night and Election Day and in days after featured Republicans running to the microphones, clearly shocked and stunned that they had won and just being effusive in their praise for Donald Trump, crediting him with everything. They were shell-shocked. They didn\u2019t expect to win. They knew that they won because Trump won. That they didn\u2019t like, folks. They don\u2019t like Trump, they didn\u2019t like Trump. I don\u2019t know about now, but they didn\u2019t like Trump. They couldn\u2019t imagine Trump. He\u2019s an outsider, they\u2019re inside, they couldn\u2019t imagine any of this. And they weren\u2019t happy by it.<\/p>\n

But they couldn\u2019t act that way. They couldn\u2019t go to the microphones and tell you what I just told you. They couldn\u2019t, “Man, we didn\u2019t expect this. We\u2019re not prepared, oh, my God, this pig won? Oh, jeez, now what?” They couldn\u2019t tell you that. They had to say great things about Trump, and they had to talk about “Now we got no excuses, we got no excuses.” Reince Priebus came on this program the Friday after the election, and before I got a question out he said, “I know. I know. We have no excuses.” I said, “That\u2019s right.”<\/p>\n

\"\"But there wasn\u2019t any joy. I didn\u2019t see a lot of Republicans happy and excited. And the reason all of this matters to me and the reason I\u2019m spending time dissecting this is because I think that the day needs to be saved. I told Hannity today in this interview something that I\u2019ve been saying the last couple of days.<\/p>\n

But, folks, there\u2019s always something cool about seeing it said on TV. You don\u2019t want to miss it. I said, “We are never gonna have this opportunity again in our lifetimes. We are never going to have the White House and the House and the Senate. We are never, in our lifetimes, gonna have this happen again — and I can\u2019t believe how little is being done with it, even from a party standpoint. Forget conservatism. I don\u2019t even see the Republican Party trying to take advantage of this, and we know why.<\/p>\n

This is not what the donors wanted. This is not what K Street wanted. This is not what the establishment wanted, and just like the NFL owners are having to choose, “Oh, my gosh, who do we side with, our players — who are disrespecting the game, disrespecting the flag — or do we side with our customers?” They\u2019re siding with the players, on balance. Well, the Republicans are not siding with their customers, the voters. They are siding with the people they are more afraid of.<\/p>\n

And that would be donors and influential, powerful policy makers. Kingmakers. We don\u2019t know who these are. These are invisible people. The real power in the establishment is not an elected person. We don\u2019t know who it is. We might know who it is. But my point is, they\u2019re not seeking fame, they\u2019re not leading, but they have a lot of power over who does and says what. The establishment is a very, very old and tradition, and it\u2019s steeped in all kinds of legacy and tradition.<\/p>\n

It believes that it and it alone runs that town — and, therefore, this country. And they weren\u2019t prepared for Trump, and they don\u2019t want Trump. And since Trump was elected, they have been trying to destroy Trump. And they still are, with the Mueller investigation, with the deep state intel leaks to the Drive-By Media. All of this is the establishment essentially saying, “We don\u2019t like what the voters did, and we\u2019re gonna try to overturn it.<\/p>\n

\"\"“We don\u2019t think the voters know what they\u2019re doing. We don\u2019t think the voters have the brains to do what needs to be done, and this election proves it.” So they are in the middle of a process to try to get rid of Trump or render him ineffective. What could be… The Republican Party could see the benefit to the party from all this, if the Republicans would simply… If they would have in the past six months — or in the next six months, future, three months! Just work for three months at moving Trump\u2019s agenda. That\u2019s what the people want.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what American people — the majority of the American people, the voting public. That\u2019s what they voted for. Move on tax cuts and make it real. Move on repealing Obamacare and make it real. If they wanted to do it, they could do it. I mean, to fall back on the excuse, “Well, we only have 52 votes in the Senate…” Even now with this tax cut, do you hear what they\u2019re saying? “We\u2019re gonna do it via reconciliation so they can\u2019t filibuster it.” They\u2019re not even… It doesn\u2019t seem like they even want to take the fight to Democrats on ideas in the arena of ideas, and the Democrats are smokable right now!<\/p>\n

This circumstance, this alignment is not gonna happen again in my lifetime — and it\u2019s being squandered like I can\u2019t believe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I'm not convinced they like the power of governing or the pressure of it, but I do know they weren't prepared for it. I thought Trump was gonna win. Many of you out there thought Trump was gonna win. They thought we were nuts. They think and thought Trump is nuts. They didn't think Trump was gonna win. Then Trump wins, and you know what I didn't see? Joy. I didn't see joy on the Republican side. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":248820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRepublicans Are Squandering a Golden Opportunity - 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\/2017\/09\/28\/republicans-are-squandering-a-golden-opportunity\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Republicans Are Squandering a Golden Opportunity - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I'm not convinced they like the power of governing or the pressure of it, but I do know they weren't prepared for it. 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