RUSH: Doug Schoen last night on Hannity on the Fox News Channel, he’s a Democrat pollster, and they’re talking about deem-and-pass, the Slaughter rule. And Hannity said, ‘Is Obama really going to try to sell that?’
SCHOEN: If you combine reconciliation with deem-and-pass and basically play a con game with the American people for unpopular legislation, the reaction will be cataclysmic and unambiguous in the fall.
RUSH: Blue Dogs, we’ve been trying to warn you guys for the past year about your fate if you go along with this. Here’s a Democrat pollster. This guy was in Bill Clinton’s camp and he’s saying if you Democrats do this it will be a cataclysmic event for the party. Unambiguous, no two ways about it, you are cooked, a landslide of historic proportions sweeping Democrats out of town. More Democrats than Obama will be able to have decent jobs for. Gloria Borger last night on CNN, The Situation Room — remember, now, the Cartoon Network has more audience than CNN, which is why we’re playing this for you. Wolf Blitzer said to Gloria, ‘Why would Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues even take that chance, the Slaughter solution, deem-and-pass, what would be the gain for them?’
BORGER: Clearly they don’t have the votes yet and they want to win, and there is some thought that they don’t care if they win on a technicality or if they win by casting one vote for essentially two bills. It makes the Democrats look, shall we say, a tad desperate or a tad arrogant, and I think this is a larger problem for them because people have been paying attention to the process of health care, and the American public knows Democrats are trolling for votes, and they’re going to look at this and say, gee, isn’t this a little underhanded?
RUSH: They don’t have the votes. They look desperate. They lost two more ‘yes’ votes today, Stephen Lynch in Massachusetts and Mr. Arcuri from New York. They were gonna vote ‘yes’; they voted ‘no.’ They changed their votes. Now we’re hearing all this great news about the CBO number, oh, yip yip yip yip yip yip yahoo. The fact of the matter is now everybody is dumping on them on their side on the Slaughter solution and they’ve lost a couple of more supporters today, and last night on PBS Charlie Rose, he spoke with Lawrence O’Donnell, a Democrat political analyst about health care reform. And Rose said, ‘So you’re eagerly waiting here for an announcement from the CBO, is that right?’
O’DONNELL: They are telling you you’re waiting for CBO because what you’re really waiting for is a large bloc of undecided voters in the House who aren’t there yet, and you can’t get your CBO estimate until you have all your votes lined up ’cause you’re going to make deals to get those votes. My opinion is they don’t have the votes; that’s why they don’t have CBO.
RUSH: He may be right, they still don’t have CBO. They have an estimate. They have an estimate because they don’t know what it’s going to cost to pay these guys off or to bribe them and they don’t even have the reconciliation bill. The news is out that they’re going to vote on Sunday, but would Obama cancel his trip if they’re actually going to vote on Sunday? I mean Air Force One doesn’t leave ’til he gets on it. It doesn’t seem to me that they have the votes. Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16th. This is huge. This is huge. This is Obamacare before it’s passed, a snapshot of what’s going to be going on all over the country. We don’t have the money for this. More Lawrence O’Donnell last night on the Charlie Rose Show. After he said, ‘I don’t think they have the votes,’ he added this.
O’DONNELL: It’s the same thing as Clinton and health care. The loss happened at a worse time on the calendar. It happened in September before November elections. They had no time to recover from it. Here, if you had a loss in April of this thing, there’s a lot that can happen in our world between now and then, including things that can happen in Afghanistan and Iraq and on airplanes that change everything about our dialogue.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, is he saying if Democrats lose it won’t be as bad as ’94 because we might have a terrorist attack? Is that what he said? Why does he think a terrorist attack will help Democrats? Oh. Because we’ll rally behind the guy who isn’t doing anything to stop terrorist attacks. Yeah. So we’ll rally behind Obama because he wants to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial in a New York courtroom, or we’ll rally behind Obama because of the Fort Hood shooting, or we’ll rally behind Obama — really? Now, do you think they’re not desperate? A terrorist attack could save Obama when they vote for this? My friends, do not think for a moment that what’s happening in America this week around health care reform and the Democrats’ willingness to ignore constitutional rights of Americans is not being discussed at Hillsdale College. I love this place, a school in Michigan that I have referenced, the place that turns out thousands of excellent undergrads, all suited to take on the world with a variety of degrees, but they all have one additional thing in common. They can argue the merits of the Constitution better than most.
Everybody at Hillsdale fully understands what is happening with the Slaughter solution, how unconstitutional it is, and they understand why, and every one of those students can tell you in a way that leaves no doubt. Hillsdale requires their students to attend classes to better understand the Constitution and our rights. ‘Require’ may be too strong a word because these kids want to be there, they want to take these classes, they want to learn from some of the brightest and most articulate professors. They want to be challenged. They want to prove that they know what they know. They want to prove that they’ve learned it. These kids, these students as Hillsdale do not fear criticism. They welcome it. They welcome critics because it’s an opportunity to teach what they’ve learned. Now, the debate in this country over the heart and soul of America is in full swing. Hillsdale is one place where the message of what’s right and what’s wrong is consistent ’cause when a student decides to attend this college they do so knowing that there’s not a dime of government assistance, no GI bill access, nothing from the government. Hillsdale teaches their students from day one not to be government dependent and they don’t want their curriculum to be guided or conditional on anything from the government.
There’s a way you can see what goes on there, a way you can get involved. They have a monthly digest called Imprimis that captures speeches from some brilliant thinkers. Some of the brightest people in the world go to Hillsdale and speak. I have done so, of course. Imprimis is free with no strings attached. It’s read by 1.7 million people every month, and you can get it rush4hillsdale.com, or if you’re in the car you can use the phone, 1-866-HILLSDALE. You gotta wonder just how much fun of professors are having as they dissect the constitutional antics of Obama and Pelosi this week. You know what kind of crap your kids are learning. You know what kind of garbage your students are being exposed to, your own kids. The kids at Hillsdale, these professors this week are just ecstatic over the opportunity that’s been presented them. They not only to teach how the Constitution works, but what happens when a bunch of leftists try to subordinate it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Charlie Cook yesterday on MSNBC. Andrea Mitchell says, ‘What strategy should the Democrats use to try to prevent the Republicans from taking over the Congress?’
COOK: Whatever you’re going to do on health care, get it out of the way as soon as possible, get back to a focus on economy and jobs. There’s a limit to probably what government can actually do to affect the trajectory of the economy, but they have to be seen as focused on the economy like a laser beam, in the words of Clinton in 2002.
RUSH: That’s why it’s not going back to the Senate. If they deem the Senate bill passed and vote on this reconciliation thing, and in their words, voting on two bills at once and who says they can’t do that, ahem, then the Senate bill’s passed, folks, in their world, and it goes to Obama, he signs it, and that’s the end of it, you’re not going to hear one more word about health care for the rest of the year. Focus on jobs. So Conrad can say, ‘Well, I don’t think this can work.’ Even better. Even better for Pelosi. She doesn’t have to mess with the Senate on it. So the Senate’s going to have to sit there and accept — if I’m reading this right, journalists can’t write anymore. I really don’t know what Conrad is saying here. Is he saying that this can’t happen? Try it one more time. ‘It is unlikely the Senate will be able to pass –‘ they’re never going to have a chance to ‘– a health care reconciliation bill unchanged from what the House passes,’ meaning they’re gonna want to amend it. And then it has to go back to the House, but they’re never going to see it, it’s never going to get sent there, is the point, never going to get sent there.
Anyway, so they are working on this big rally again on Saturday, had one in December prior to the Senate voting on their health care bill. They had one earlier this week, and they’re trying to round up another one with just tons and tons and boatloads and busloads of people showing up to in person express their opposition and displeasure to this.