RUSH: Cookie, I hope you’re rolling on this Obama video. He just emerged from a meeting with his economic advisors and he’s explaining it. They’re going to have to spend a lot of money to jump-start the economy. It’s so wrong, it is so wrong. It’s not how you revive and jump-start an economy. You don’t do it that way. This is what I mean by the hard left. But I hope she’s rolling on it because you cannot hear him. There are so many photographers in there snapping their shudders and the auto rewinds or auto winds, it is a din. There are probably more photographers in there taking pictures of Obama sitting in a chair not moving than you have in your average red carpet Hollywood movie premiere. Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, and you cannot hear what he’s saying half the time. You could put one person in there, take ten pictures and that will be it, he’s not moving, sitting down.
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RUSH: Audio sound bites, I mentioned last hour I was watching the Bamster do a little press deal after he’d come out of a meeting with his economic advisors, and I turned the sound on on this, and I was a little stunned at all of the shutterbugs, there must have been a gazillion photographers in there because the sound of the shutters and the auto winds was drowning out the Bamster, and he wasn’t moving. They could have had two or three pool photographers in there take two or three pictures each, and that was it, I asked Cookie, I said I hoped she was rolling on it. We have some sound bites from it. Here is Obama on the budget and his recovery plan as he tries to speak over the din of the camera flash shutters.
OBAMA: We’re going to have to stop talking budget reform. We’re going to have to fully embrace it. It’s an absolute necessity. And it has to begin with the economic recovery and reinvestment plan that Congress will soon be considering. We’re going to be investing an extraordinary amount of money to jump-start our economy, save or create three million new jobs, mostly in the private sector, and lay a solid foundation for future growth.
RUSH: Now he’s back to saving. He eliminated that the other day. Now he’s back to saving. The other day he was going to create three million new jobs on Monday. Now he’s back to create or saving. And this, folks, I’m telling you, don’t discount the possibility, this 20% of the new jobs in the public sector, government jobs, 600,000, the fastest way to get to that figure is the draft. And we’ve got some audio sound bites coming up from Rahm Emanuel on that very subject, but here’s the second Obama bite. Now this is laughable. This is pure, 100% laughable.
OBAMA: My recovery and reinvestment plan will set a new, higher standard of accountability, transparency, and oversight. We are going to ban all earmarks —
RUSH: Stop the tape. The whole thing is earmarks. The whole stimulus plan is pork. If this bill were written in good economic times, it would be called a giant pork bill. This whole thing is, in effect, earmarks. Here’s the rest of the sound bite.
OBAMA: Which individual members insert pet projects without review? We will create an economic recovery oversight board made up of key administration officials and independent advisors to identify problems early and make sure we’re doing all that we can to solve them.
RUSH: Yeah. And now politics, all of a sudden, politics stops at the water’s edge. Now he will not discuss foreign policy, ’til he is inaugurated.
OBAMA: When it comes to the foreign policy I think the need to adhere to one president at a time is particularly important. In domestic policy, Democrats, Republicans, we can have arguments back and forth about what tax policies are going to be. When it comes to international affairs, other countries are looking to see who speaks for America. Right now, President George Bush as president of the United States speaks on behalf of the US government and the American people when it comes to international affairs.
RUSH: Aw.
OBAMA: After January 20th I’m going to have plenty to say —
RUSH: Aw. Aw.
OBAMA: — about the issue —
RUSH: Aw.
OBAMA: — and I am not backing —
RUSH: Aw.
OBAMA: — away at all from what I said during the campaign.
RUSH: Didn’t stop you from trying to secure defeat for our troops when you were a candidate. All of a sudden now George Bush gets to speak for the country. Politics stops at the water’s edge. Way to go, Bamster, way to be tough out there. He said, ‘I’m not backing away at all from what I said during the campaign.’ Well, that would be hard to do because he didn’t say anything during the campaign. He said nothing better than anybody else I’ve ever heard say nothing. How do you back away from nothing? He’s got a clean slate. He can say whatever he wants and say he said it before ’cause he never said anything.
Now, this tax cut business, I mentioned this earlier, the tax cut, $350 billion, a portion of the stimulus plan, Wall Street Journal analyzes this: ‘A key provision would allow companies to write off huge losses incurred last year.’By the way, the Republican Party loves this and Obama is pretty smart politically, he’s talking tax cuts, he wants to get their support on this, but it’s a mistake. I’m just telling you up front, these are not tax cuts. This is welfare. The vast majority of the tax cuts are not going to people who either pay taxes or earn a profit in business. The vast majority of the tax cuts are going to go to people that don’t pay taxes. It’s Joe the Plumber right in front of our face. It’s the redistribution of wealth is what’s happening with Obama’s tax cut plan. ‘A key provision would allow companies to write off huge losses incurred last year as well as any losses from this year to retroactively reduce tax bills dating back five years. In effect, it would entitle companies to receive cash from the government that they otherwise could not have claimed.’ Now, that sounds really good, doesn’t it? Except what if your company made money? You’re not included.
Picking winners and losers. Plus, this is looking back. ‘It helps struggling companies with a check in the mail but for planning purposes it’s a one-shot deal.’ I mean that’s fine, but permanent tax cuts going forward would help companies plan and budget years ahead. ‘A second provision would entice firms to plow that money back into new investment. The investment write-offs would be retroactive to expenditures made as of January 1st–‘ you following me on this? Let me start again. This is the tax cut portion of the plan. A second provision would entice firms to plow that money that they’re being given by Obama back into new investment. The investment write-offs would be retroactive to expenditures made as of January 1st this year to ensure that companies don’t sit on their money, like the banks are doing, until after Congress passes the measure. What is this? This is a tax cut? This is micromanagement. Why all this complexity? Don’t put a toe in the water, just jump in there. It’s very simple. Cut corporate rates to 20%, eliminate capital gains for two years, then cap ’em at 10%. Just get out of the way! Just get out of the way of the US economy. Don’t start redistributing wealth. This is not a tax cut, and our guys are falling for it hook, line, and sinker, because they know that all you’re gonna hear is ‘tax cuts,’ and they’re afraid they can’t oppose tax cuts.
Since Obama has opened the door to tax cuts, what is needed here is a bold counterproposal by the Republicans so that they can define themselves on this issue and not lose it. Oh, President-elect Obama, we are so happy you want $350 billion of tax cut in your stimulus plan. Well, let’s compromise here in some way. Let’s actually cut taxes. Let’s cut the corporate rate from 35 to 20. Let’s get rid of the cap gains rate for a couple years, period, and bring it back later at 10%. Let’s give the American people a tax holiday for a couple months. You want money in the private sector to rebuild the economy, fine, put it there by letting people keep what they earn and let employment come back with these tax — the Republicans, another golden opportunity. I don’t know whether they’ll seize it, if you want to get depressed over this, feel free. I’m not. It is what it is. It’s a golden opportunity. Folks, all of this is typical liberal drivel designed to confuse everybody thinking a tax cut is nothing like what it really is. This is welfare. This is the redistribution of wealth. Just cut taxes across the board, get out of the way, get to work on reducing government spending, instead of planning on trillion-dollar deficits year after year after year.
By the way, have you noticed the stock market has not jumped on this? Have you noticed the stock market is not roaring and coming back and going, ‘Oh, boy, do we love this!’ Stock market was up 20 the last time I saw it. Stock market’s not all that excited about this. Plus, on the individual side, the people that are going to be getting tax cuts, they’re not paying taxes, a couple will get a grand, a single person will get $500, whether they’re paying income taxes or not. Now, the people that are not paying income taxes are gonna get a welfare check. They’re gonna become tax consumers. One thing I’ve read, it says that every American’s going to get $500 bucks, every married couple will get a thousand. Every. Every. So I may get $500 bucks. (interruption) You want it? You can have it. I may get $500 bucks. The bottom line here is, folks, when you get down to the end of the day, over half the American people right now are not paying taxes, and the bottom 50% that are paying taxes are paying something like 3% of the burden.
Well, this is going to wipe that out. This is going to wipe that out, and those people are going to become net tax consumers, and once you put over 50% of the country not paying taxes, you have lost the tax cut argument. This is a brilliant maneuver by Obama, disguised as a tax cut. This is the time for Republicans to reassert ownership of the tax cut issue by loudly proposing a tax cut. I just hope their fear of being critical of Obama and that leading to the charge of racism doesn’t stop it. Investor’s Business Daily has a piece on this: ‘Outcome Tax Cuts.’ The last line sums it up perfectly. ‘But cash from Washington for people who don’t pay income taxes, and for businesses that don’t work, is not tax-cutting. Instead, it’s exactly what Obama the candidate promised Joe the Plumber: wealth redistribution.’ You might think it’s very good to give businesses who are losing money tax cuts. A business losing money is a business not working! You don’t pick winners and losers in Washington, but that’s what we’re doing now.
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RUSH: Sean in Hermosa Beach, California, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, action dittos.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I’m sure everyone’s aware of the stimulus, the massive stimulus package that Obama’s going to be offering.
RUSH: Don’t count on it.
CALLER: Really?
RUSH: Just kidding.
CALLER: (laughing) Well, the reason I’m calling is there’s going to be an equally massive propaganda campaign that he’s going to be having, in David Axelrod’s words, ‘fanning out everyone’ to sell this thing. It’s going to be all over newspapers, TV. He’s got a messaging database he can use to do this, and perception is important, just like on global warming. It’s important how people think about these things.
RUSH: Precisely.
CALLER: I just started my public school education on the Depression and adopted an EIB education on it. I actually lived through Jimmy Carter years, and this is a disaster in the making. And people don’t realize it, and I think what we need is a grassroots campaign.
RUSH: That’s right, and they won’t realize it ’til the disaster happens. Like I said, of course this is all perception. That was the purpose of my big monologue earlier in the program about all these stories about how, ‘Oh, woe is poor Bamster! Everybody’s standing in his way, Democrat factions and all.’ He’s going to get 95% of what he wants early on. And they’re going to treat it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Folks, I’m going to make a prediction to you, because I’m already right about this. I predicted it last year. There’s already been a story last week about how the experts are saying the recession isn’t going to last nearly as long as people thought. Within a week of Obama’s inauguration, I predict you are going to start seeing stories in the Drive-By Media about how people are starting to feel better about the economy now and you’re going to see stories of people getting new jobs. It’s not going to be a lot, it’s not going to be an onslaught but it’s going to be the beginning, trickle. It will be the beginning of what would become a tidal wave of how damned wonderful everything is. Mark my words. It’s going to be a balance, as I said, because the Obama people want the economy to stay a little bit in crisis to enable them to keep going with their leftist agenda, as far as they can. So it’s going to be a delicate balancing act. I appreciate the call out there, Sean.
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RUSH: Ty in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Yes, I’m here.
RUSH: Good. What’s up? I have about a minute here, I don’t mean to hurry you up, but —
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: — I must.
CALLER: That’s good. I can’t screw it up, then, if I only have a minute to do it.
RUSH: That’s a good way to look at it.
CALLER: I own a business that doesn’t lose money, but just barely makes enough money to keep me getting by, and any money that I can get from anywhere, at any time, is a good thing for me. I know you’re right about long-term effects of rebate, me getting a check in the mail to help me out for a little bit isn’t the answer, but, boy, oh, boy, if I get it, I need it.
RUSH: Doesn’t matter. It’s not the answer, doesn’t matter, you’ll take it. The problem is that, you know, you don’t qualify. If you’re showing a profit, you’re left out. This is my point. The businesses that work aren’t gonna get anything, Ty. The businesses that have lost a lot of money are going to have their losses written off, and the people that don’t pay taxes. It’s called welfare. That’s called a tax cut in Obama’s world.