{"id":4560,"date":"2016-01-04T17:29:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T17:29:39","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-06-12T10:33:56","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T14:33:56","slug":"what_i_pondered_while_i_was_away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/01\/04\/what_i_pondered_while_i_was_away\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Pondered While I Was Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: I try to avoid getting too deep or heavy on this program, but I had a lot of free time over the last 10 days or so, just to sit around and think as things came to my mind and ponder various things that just jumped in and jumped out of my mind. I didn\u2019t purposely focus on anything. I just reacted to whatever thoughts that I had that might have been stimulated by things I was reading.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t watch much television while I was gone.<\/p>\n


\nYou look at this countdown clock and Algore <\/a>and the environmental left and their predictions of apocalyptic doom for the planet and humanity, and see nothing\u2019s happened. And then you look at how they choose to deal with it such as that worthless conference in Paris where they put on this giant show. Nothing binding comes out of it, and yet big to-dos were made about it. And then I\u2019m watching various other things happen with reactions in the adult world to various things, some of them cultural, some of them political. And it really has struck me that…<\/p>\n

And this is nothing new, by the way, and nothing I haven\u2019t spoken about before. But there just don\u2019t seem to be too many adults around anymore. It seems like everybody, adults… Where you would expect people to reside with maturity and common sense in positions of some power that could defend and protect attacks on institutions — such as university presidents, just to give you an example — it doesn\u2019t seem to be that there are very many of those people actually left, in Western nations. Not just ours, but in the UK. Any number of Western Civilization-oriented countries.<\/p>\n

And it just strikes me that there\u2019s no “there” there anymore. There\u2019s no basis, there\u2019s no foundation, there\u2019s no bottom line. It seems like we\u2019re in a free-for-all when it comes to any kind of values you want to talk about: Cultural, political, pop culture, you name it. And all of it, when you examine it, explains why the Trump phenomenon is happening. He\u2019s the one guy speaking out against all of this in a consistent way, this decline. Look, when I say Trump, there are others, too. I don\u2019t mean to single him out.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s leading in the presidential polls right now, and I\u2019m just trying to offer an explanation, a substantive reason why. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s related to celebrity. It\u2019s a factor, but I think that there\u2019s a sizable percentage of people in this country that are frightened, scared at the lack of values, the lack of anything solid to depend on. When a downward spiral happens, there\u2019s nothing to put the brakes on it. There\u2019s nothing to stop it. Everything just keeps descending with very little end in sight. And nobody in the political culture is talking about it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re just running along like it\u2019s an average, ordinary day each and every day. I\u2019ll give you a little example. I was thinking of something else. I don\u2019t remember what it was that jogged this thought. But it occurred to me what a pointless exercise it is to collect taxes. Now, don\u2019t misunderstand. I\u2019m not advocating anything here. But we\u2019re $20 trillion in debt. Our budget deficits are just out of control. And the entire political class… Democrats are the worst offenders, but looking at this latest budget deal you can\u2019t exempt the Republicans.<\/p>\n


\nWe\u2019re spending money that we don\u2019t have at a faster clip than ever, and we\u2019re spending it on things that only accomplish one thing, and that\u2019s the further entrenchment of the political class in power. We\u2019re not even spending money on decent things that improve people\u2019s lives. We\u2019re spending money on things that are actually causing harm to people\u2019s lives, such as whatever entitlement spending we are engaging in to pay for all of these undocumented people that are showing up, continuing to show up in droves.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have the money for any of this. This last budget deal shows that when it comes to budgeting in this country, there is no thought given to how much money is collected and whether or not that ought to be a factor in how much money is spent. The only thing that determines how much money is spent is how much people think they can get away with. In the normal world, you have your income. That determines your spending, your ability to fund whatever it is you want to pay for, the ability to service debt for things that you can\u2019t afford outright.<\/p>\n

None of those things matter in the budgeting process.<\/p>\n

I know baseline budgeting is not a new thing here. We\u2019ve explained it countless times over the years. But there doesn\u2019t seem to be even any relationship to how much money is collected in taxes and whatever other sources of income the government has compared to what is spent. We announce half a million over here, two trillion over there, a half million over here, with no thought to being able to pay for it. I was thinking, “What\u2019s the point of collecting taxes? It doesn\u2019t seem to matter.”<\/p>\n

Tax collection seems to exist only as a way to keep people in line, but it certainly has nothing to do with the budgeting process in this country. If it did, we wouldn\u2019t have annual deficits like we do. We wouldn\u2019t have a $20 trillion national debt, if it mattered, if the amount of money we spent was predicated and based on how much money we\u2019ve got. And the government doesn\u2019t have a dime until they take it from somebody else via fees, taxes, you name it. So over here we have taxes, all forms. We have collections, all forms.<\/p>\n


\nThat produces X-amount of money, and that money is not related to how much we spend in any way, shape, manner, or form except as to calculate the deficit every year. But big whoop. We calculate it, it\u2019s out of sight, it\u2019s astronomical, the national debt continues to expand, and in the political class, nobody seems to care one whit about it. Now, to me, that can only happen with a total loss of values that have, as their primary objective, responsibility. So the people who are elected to have positions of power in this country are exhibiting no responsibility whatsoever.<\/p>\n

We all know why. The spending of money is how power is purchased, the spending of money is how power is maintained, the spending of money is how power is entrenched. I get all that. And I\u2019m not… Don\u2019t misunderstand. I\u2019m not making a claim here that we should cancel income tax. None of that. I\u2019m just pointing out it doesn\u2019t matter. There\u2019s no responsibility. There is no relationship whatsoever to how much money is collected in determining how much money we spend. It\u2019s just out of control. And therefore everything\u2019s rigged.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re $20 trillion in debt, I mean, the idea of being able to repay that is out the window. We\u2019re getting close to the point where servicing that kind of debt is gonna become difficult to do, but that doesn\u2019t stop anybody. There\u2019s nothing — there\u2019s no level of irresponsibility — that puts the brakes on any of it. And none of it affects the people that live in Washington. They\u2019re doing just fine. They\u2019re living off of what they\u2019re spending.<\/p>\n

Washington is where the Treasury is. Washington\u2019s where all the money ends up before it then gets redistributed. Everybody there has got their hands in that pile one way or the other. And growing that pile, which is created by spending, not by collections, which goes to show you how rigged and artificial it is. Anyway, it\u2019s just one of the things that I was pondering, and then it goes deeper than that. Which I will, of course, explain further as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Back to the phones we go and to my hometown, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which remains dry because of a wall keeping the flooding Mississippi River waters out of downtown. This is Steve. It\u2019s great to have you on the program. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you so much.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You bet.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I was wondering if the FBI investigation of Hillary\u2019s e-mails was ongoing, \u2019cause I haven\u2019t heard much. Do you think there\u2019s any possibility of her campaign being derailed by an indictment?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No. Even if there\u2019s grounds for one, it isn\u2019t gonna happen, \u2019cause there\u2019s no Democrat to fall back on. It\u2019s a Democrat administration. The only way that\u2019d happen is if Obama wants the Republicans to win for some reason. The only reason I could think that Obama\u2019d want the Republicans to win is if he knows the things he\u2019s done are gonna cause so much hell and damnation that he doesn\u2019t want a Democrat in office while it happens. In other words, have a Republican there when everything falls apart. I can\u2019t think of a reason…<\/p>\n


\nMaybe one other thing: A personal reason, that he\u2019s got some animus for Hillary and, you know, wants to lead her on and make her think he\u2019s not gonna indict her then all of a sudden pulls the rug out from under her because some personal thing they got going on. I guess anything\u2019s possible. What is…? The FBI and the Justice Department apparently are at odds. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m up to speed on this with who the players are, because there\u2019s an investigative agency that thinks they got the goods and other agency is saying, “Screw it! Don\u2019t use it. Let it go. We\u2019re not interested.”<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t doubt that Hillary Clinton is vulnerable in a sane world. This is what I was talking about in the first hour. I don\u2019t quite know how to say this, because I don\u2019t believe that any point in the past was perfect. I don\u2019t believe that there weren\u2019t mistakes and there has never been corruption before, none of that. We\u2019ve always had weak points. We\u2019ve always had ne\u2019er-do-wells and creeps. We\u2019ve always had corruption. I understand all that. But there seemed always to be, in the past, some guardrails, a bottom at which however low it was, once you hit it, somebody stood up and said, “That\u2019s enough.”<\/p>\n

And there doesn\u2019t seem to be any bottom anymore on this stuff. My point is that back when law enforcement had not been corrupted with politicization, which it clearly has been, what Hillary Clinton has done alone with that e-mail server would disqualify her. She would have already been indicted. She would have already have been named in an investigation. A grand jury or whatever would have been impaneled, or the US attorney would be engaging in whatever investigation. She has violated US national security. She violated all kinds of laws by having her own e-mail server.<\/p>\n

It turns out now she\u2019s not the only one. But the point now is that no matter… If you\u2019re in the Democrat Party and if you are in power at the federal level, at a state level, you get away with anything. They\u2019re not gonna call each other out. They are not gonna put the brakes on each other. They are not going to do anything that would endanger any one of them because of the effect it would have on the party. So, I mean, Mrs. Clinton should long ago have been disqualified from even being secretary of state, much less now running for president.<\/p>\n


\nI guess anybody can run, if you meet the constitutional requirements. But my point is, I mean, they now found over a thousand e-mails that have now been found to violate the law on classified information, and not a thing is going to be done to her, it appears. Unless, as I say, somebody decides to pull the rug out from under her way down the line this year. But that wouldn\u2019t be protecting the party. We\u2019ll just have to wait and see.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, the bottom line is that Hillary Clinton is of the belief that there\u2019s nothing in this e-mail scandal that\u2019s gonna come back and bite her. Obama has said that she didn\u2019t do anything wrong. The FBI\u2019s not gonna go after her after Obama says that. I mean, they may be going after her, but they\u2019re not gonna do anything. They\u2019ve already got 1200 e-mails that are classified. Doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I try to avoid getting too deep or heavy on this program, but I had a lot of free time over the last 10 days or so, just to sit around and think as things came to my mind and ponder various things that just jumped in and jumped out of my mind. 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