RUSH: I see a president who won’t veto this earmarks bill — by the way, this omnibus, this is Earmarkulus. The Earmarkulus bill was signed after he said he wouldn’t sign it and after he delivers his little press conference in the White House, he ducks out, does not take any questions and doesn’t sign it in public because he knows he’s a blatant hypocrite on this. Here, let’s listen to a couple of sound bites from President Obama this morning speaking about the Earmarkulus bill.
OBAMA: The awarding of earmarks to private companies is the single most corrupting element of this practice as witnessed by some of the indictments and convictions that we’ve already seen.
RUSH: What?
OBAMA: Private companies differ from the public entities that Americans rely on every day.
RUSH: What?
OBAMA: When you give it to public companies, public entities like fire departments and if they are seeking taxpayer dollars, then I think all of us can feel some comfort that the state or municipality that’s benefiting is doing so because it’s going to trickle down and help the people in that community. When they’re private entities, then I believe they have to be evaluated with a higher level of scrutiny.
RUSH: Let me translate this for you. Government earmarks are cool. An earmark to your local fire department or police department or your local dogcatcher, an earmark to any government entity, that’s cool, that’s fine, that’s efficient, but earmarks for private industry, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, we’re going to have much more scrutiny on that. Money trickles down from government, not from the private sector. Timothy Geithner said, ‘What we’ve tried to do at the same time is make sure people understand that when recovery is firmly established, we’re going to get back to living within our means as a country. Capitalism will be different.’ Capitalism will be different. This is the warning call I have been shouting to everyone. There won’t be any capitalism. Capitalism is capitalism. When capitalism is different, it isn’t capitalism. This is what they’re aiming for. This is their objective. It must be defeated. It must be stopped. Here’s the second sound bite specifically on earmarks.
OBAMA: Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and demand. If we’re going to solve our economic crisis, if we’re going to put Americans back to work, if we’re going to make the investments required to build a foundation for our future growth, then we must restore the American people’s faith that their government is working for them and that it’s on their side. That’s the government I promise, that’s the government I intend to lead.
RUSH: He promises no earmarks. He promises to lead a government of responsible spending. The debt that’s being run up — Judd Gregg said this — the debt that is being run up by this administration in five years will trump the entire debt run up by the nation since its founding. (imitating Obama) ‘So after today, really, after today, you’re going to get what I promised, after today, only a few earmarks that I approve. After today, only earmarks that go to government agencies.’ So get this. It is trickle-down; it is fabulous; it is wonderful when government money trickles down to local and state governments. That’s great, that’s wonderful, that’s efficient, and that’s responsible. But when government money trickles down to you in the form of tax cuts — and that’s not the correct way to put it, but for this analogy it works — when government money trickles down to you in the form of tax cuts, that’s bad. That’s horrible. We can’t have that. That’s what he just said. We can’t have that.
Now, granted, tax cuts are not trickle down because all money originates with the producers in this country other than what these clowns are printing, but all money originates with the people that produce it, and that’s not government. So it’s not technically correct to call a tax cut a trickle down, but when the government, in their munificence allows us to keep more of our money, that’s horrible. But when the government takes your money and redistributes it to other government agents, oh, well, that’s orgasmic, that’s cool, that’s neat, that’s exactly what Barack Obama just said.