RUSH: Folks, let me tell you something. Everybody else may be distracted by Elena Kagan, and we’re going to get to her again today, but we’re going to keep our focus on money. It is really getting dangerous out there. Obamanomics essentially has now spread to Europe. What we had yesterday, the bailout of Greece is essentially the European version of TARP. Obama gets on the phone to Angela Merkel and says, ‘You’re going to melt down at the end of the day if you don’t support this.’ I’m telling you, it looks to me like an exact rerun of what happened in this country in 2008 with the TARP bailout and everything else.
Greetings, folks, great to have you here, as always, El Rushbo at 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. E-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
One trillion. I told you yesterday, folks, I don’t mean to be an ‘I told you so,’ but if I don’t tell you that I told you, you might not remember that I said it in the first place — and nobody else is going to tell you that I told you. So I have to be the one to tell you that I told you. And I want to tell you I told you again because it’s important that you know it. I said we’re going to have a one-day rally in the stock market, we had it yesterday. Last I checked we’re up plus two, now it’s 31, there’s nerves here across the continent to all these European capitals. Obama got on the phone to Angela Merkel yesterday, pushed her to bail out Greece. Germany and France have put their finances on the line. They may have harmed themselves in doing so. Germany and France may compromise their AAA ratings because of what they’ve done here. That’s the headline.
George Will has a great column on the precarious financial situation Los Angeles is in. Wait ’til you hear this. And once again, it’s a financial story, but the root of this is politics. I want to remind you again, I told you yesterday, if I don’t tell you I told you nobody else is going to say I told you. All the would-be powers, look at Greece, you’re going to have to privatize your health care, you’re going to have to privatize your energy sector, and you’re going to have privatize transportation, and you’re going to have to make it easier to lay off government workers. This is where we’re headed. They are where we are going, four to five years from now. If we’re lucky it will be four to five years. And then somebody’s going to have to come in here and clean up this mess and try to roll back some of this stuff and it’s going to be crucial that that happen.
Now, to show how perverse Obama is, I had a story here, the Democrats are launching another two to three hundred billion dollars in spending before the election because they know what’s going to happen to them in November, they’re going to try to get cap and trade, controls over the economy — he wants to strip power from members of Congress. He wants to be able essentially to line out budget items that he doesn’t want to pay for. Think of it as line-item veto without it being called that. He’s asking for Congress to give him more power. Members of the Democrat Party are not happy because he’s trashing them because they are Washington, and Obama now is in campaign mode trying to set himself up as an outsider, saying Washington is out of control when he is the architect of this downward spiral. Now, Obama is totally delusional. But that’s not the half of it. Leftist ideologues are always delusional. That’s how they are able to ignore all the facts and knowledge around them.
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We asked this yesterday on this program, we ask it constantly: ‘How can they not see what they are causing?’ They are delusional. Their delusions allow them to ignore the facts and knowledge all around them. That’s how they’re able to deny any responsibility for it. Everything is the fault of everybody else. What they are doing, as they destroy things in their delusional mind, is fixing it. They keep trying the same failed policies over and over again because they are delusional. Now, I wish that all it was was that Obama is delusional. To be a leftist, you have to be delusional. To be power hungry, you have to be delusional. But Barack Obama appreciates nothing that has come before. In fact, he resents it. He resents what has come before and dismisses it. Well, it’s a precarious situation that we find ourselves in. The euro again is falling against the dollar. It was all afternoon yesterday. It’s trickling down today. This bailout of Greece yesterday is the European Union version of the TARP plan.
Without structural change all the bailouts in the world are not going to matter. Same thing here and the problem is liberalism. It’s not a phony financial system, it’s not irresponsible this or irresponsible that. We got a lot of parties that are culpable here. You have a leech society in Greece. You have a political class that wants to service the leeches so they continue to be reelected. What is that? It’s liberalism. Socialism, statism, whatever it is you wish to call it. Whatever it is, it’s not complicated. We are witnessing the legitimate implosion of socialism everywhere. From New York, to Los Angeles, to California, to Detroit, Michigan, we saw it in New Orleans. We’re seeing it in Greece. On deck, Spain and Portugal, Germany and France, perpetual unemployment rates, ten to 14%, considered normal. It sounds too simple to be the explanation, but it is what it is. Liberalism is the problem. Political ideology led to the precarious financial circumstances in which these nations, and now we, find ourselves. The liberals fighting themselves, but they can’t stop this with their own policies. And they can’t stop this with never-ending spending. And they can’t stop this with bailouts because the structural problems that have caused all of this are not addressed.
Government greed — not private sector greed, government greed, I don’t care if it’s in France, Germany, Greece, United States, Washington, government greed — is doing this. A New York Times story today: It was Obama who urged Merkel to push this trillion-dollar bailout. This guy is going to destroy everything he encounters. You add that to the fact that he’s obviously delusional and his resentment for everything that’s come before him. We’re on a precarious slope here. New York Times even: ‘A Trillion for Europe, With Doubts Attached.’ Try this now: ‘White House task force seeks controls on food marketing to kids.’ Michelle Obama has to have something to do so there’s a big push now, big study on the effect of taxes on unhealthy food. So we’re now going to take over marketing of food. The White House is gonna try to take over marketing of food products. They want control over it, ostensibly to help your child, keep your child from becoming a fat slob. They’re going to serve your kid dinner at school now because the SEIU wants to hire more kitchen workers.
They’re not stopping, I don’t care what day you wake up, it is another assault on liberty, freedom, capitalism, what have you, this ongoing march to control as much of American life as possible. Yeah, this report warns of a national health crisis, calls for controls on marketing. And this summer as we head into the last gasp the Democrats have to get something done before November, is going to ratchet it up by five times what we see now. Money. I’m not distracted by Elena Kagan. She is what she is. (interruption) Well, depends on what side of the dollar you’re on if you want a strong dollar or weak dollar, depends on whether you want big exports or big imports. Depends on whether you’re shorting the dollar, if you’re betting the dollar to lose ground, you don’t want a strong dollar. But the bottom line, Snerdley, whatever side of the dollar you’re on, you want it to be worth something, and right now the euro — that never had a chance.
They tried to duplicate the United States with a single currency but there still is the British pound, there still is the French franc. We are the United States. They are the European Union. They are a bunch of nations trying to unify around a single currency and the nations don’t trust each other. This never had a chance, but it was all done because a bunch of liberals and a bunch of socialists wanted more and more control and more power, and the United Nations has added more scare tactics about global warming, our last chance to save the planet is coming up. More power is needed to do this.
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RUSH: Actually, folks, what happened in Europe yesterday is worse than TARP. TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, was us borrowing for us. The EU version of TARP is us borrowing for them. And it’s important to point out here that this trillion dollars has not been approved yet. It needs to be voted on by every country. That is why the Fed opened its borrow window yesterday so that the United States Federal Reserve can bail ’em out now. We’re doing it. It’s just an absolute mess. You know, the libs will always tell us where they’re going if we will just listen. On April 14th of 2009, a year ago, Obama gave a speech entitled, ‘The New Foundation Economics Speech,’ April 14th, one day before tax day. It was a long-winded bag of promises, hope, and verbal swagger. We can reflect on what this…
Oh, there’s a picture of Kagan up there. Get this: Socialism is collapsing right before our very eyes, and we are on the verge of confirming somebody to the court who has written mostly on the dangers of the collapse of socialism and how we need to revive it. That’s exactly what I just said: We are witnessing the collapse of socialism just as we’re about to confirm a justice to the United States Supreme Court who wrote a senior thesis at Princeton bemoaning the decline of socialism. That’s the most writing she’s ever done. Some of the oral arguments Ed Morrissey’s done a good job at digging out at Hot Air. He’s dug out some of the oral arguments of Elena Kagan as solicitor general, and Scalia and Anthony Kennedy do not have the slightest idea what she’s talking about about this Citizens United case and the campaign spending by corporations.
That’s her sole qualification is that she is Obama. They go way back. They go back to Chicago. It’s a long time they’ve been buds. So drag these hearings out. This woman is worried about her senior thesis bemoaning the decline of socialism? Let’s hear it. Let’s get the Republicans on the case. Tell us — since we gotta find out what’s in her mind, that’s the purpose here — what was wrong with the decline of socialism? Explain your thesis while we’re looking at Greece, while we’re looking at California. Did you hear Schwarzenegger told a joke? He’s afraid to go to Arizona, he’ll be deported. He’ll be picked up by the cops and asked for his papers. All that coming up. Anyway, this speech of Obama’s April 14th, you go back and look at this.
Time has proven his reasoning to be fraud and delusional, his projections wrong, his Keynesian philosophy a failure, and still he pushes it on panic-stricken leaders around the world. Here, give you some excerpts: ”We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand,’ he said, invoking a Biblical reference to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. ‘We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest, where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.” Consume less at home? Why consume less at home? That’s prosperity? And what is this new foundation? The new foundation is government prosperity.
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RUSH: Again, the left will always tell us where they’re going if we will just listen. More from Obama’s New Foundation economic speech April 14th, 2009. ‘And most of all,’ he said ‘I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America’s future — a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes; a future where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, reckless speculation, and fleeing profit, but is instead built by skilled, productive workers; by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in the technologies, innovations, and discoveries that will shape the 21st century.
Then he said this: ‘Now, some have argued that this recovery plan is a case of irresponsible government spending; that it is somehow to blame for our long-term deficit projections, and that the federal government should be cutting instead of increasing spending right now. So let me tackle this argument head on. To begin with, economists on both the left and right agree that the last thing a government should do in the middle of a recession is to cut back on spending.’ There’s this straw man again. (doing Obama impression) Everybody agrees with me! Economists on the left and the right all agree with me: Keep spending! He says, ‘You see, when this recession began, many families sat around their kitchen table and tried to figure out where they could cut back.’ How many families do you think sit around their kitchen table anymore and do anything together?
It doesn’t happen, and they certainly don’t sit around the kitchen table and figure out how they can cut back. That’s an old, worn-out axiom from the fifties and the sixties. Don’t get me wrong, people try to figure out how to economize, but they don’t grab wife and husband and 2.8 kids and family dog and sit around the table with all their bills, ‘We’re going to cut back here, we’re gonna cut back there. I’m going to cut back your cell phone use.’ It doesn’t happen. But, anyway, that’s a minor point. He says all these families sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out where they could cut back. You know, families don’t even eat at the kitchen table together anymore. I keep distracting myself, but worry not: I’m not losing my place. ‘So do many businesses’ do the same thing, Obama said. They sit around the kitchen table and figure out where to cut back.
‘That is a completely responsible and understandable reaction. But if every family in America cuts back, then no one is spending any money, which means there are more layoffs, and the economy gets even worse. That’s why the government has to step in and temporarily boost spending in order to stimulate demand. And that’s exactly what we’re doing right now.’ Demand for what? We’re not stimulating any growth whatsoever. Nobody’s spending any money, Obama, because they don’t have any! Combined with taxes, no jobs, no economic growth, other than in the government sector — and we see how stimulative all this spending has been. We really see it, don’t we? I mean, if they’re going to claim that the recent job increases are the result of Porkulus, these are the most expensive jobs we’ve ever created in the history of the country.
Now, remember, he said that we need to ‘consume less at home.’ Here he’s saying that’s bad. When American families don’t spend any money, the economy comes to a screeching halt. Yet earlier in the speech, he says we all gotta consume less — and then he puts his faith in more reckless spending to cure reckless spending. They’ll always tell us where they’re going. ‘Second of all,’ he said, ‘I absolutely agree that our long-term deficit is a major problem that we have to fix. But the fact is that this recovery plan represents only a tiny fraction of that long-term deficit. As I will discuss in a moment, the key to dealing with our deficit and debt is to get a handle on out-of-control health care costs — not to stand idly by as the economy goes into free fall.’ Okay. So he got health care. Nails in the coffin. It’s going to do the exact opposite. It’s going to cost all kinds of more money; it’s going to increase spending. They’ll tell us where they’re going every time.
Remember this story? This is January 12th, 2009, my birthday. ‘Bush Agrees to Ask for Financial Bailout Funds — President-elect Barack Obama asked President George W. Bush on Monday to seek another $350 billion to bail out the financial sector,’ this on the top of the $700 billion of TARP, ‘so that Obama can have the money at his disposal promptly after taking office. Bush agreed to notify Congress, the White House said. Congress has 15 days to reject the request, but efforts were afoot to have the money available for Obama much sooner. The request would give Obama, who takes office Jan. 20, not only the opportunity to get quick access to the money, but also to change the program’s goals and conditions.’ So it was all set up. It was a slush fund, as was the stimulus bill.
‘Democrats Poised to Move Measures with High Price Tags.’ This is today, from The Hill. ‘Congress faces a crush of votes on big-ticket items before the Memorial Day recess, setting up a debate on deficits less than six months before the November elections. Democratic leaders are looking in the next three weeks to send President Barack Obama a slew of measures that cost more than $200 billion, including a multi-year extension of unemployment benefits, an extension of expiring tax provisions and Medicare doctor payments [the ‘doc fix’] totaling $180 billion and a $33 billion Afghanistan war supplemental bill. Because most of those costs won’t be paid for…’ We don’t have the money, folks! ‘Because most of those costs won’t be paid for, Republicans plan to use those bills and the Democrats’ budget blueprint to highlight massive deficits ahead of the congressional midterm election.
‘Republicans have recently been pointing to Greece’s dismal fiscal situation as a warning, claiming that the US will be headed for a similar fate unless the deficits are curtailed,’ and then taking over the marketing of food items under the auspices here of preventing child obesity, serving dinner in schools because the Service Employees International Union has that as a goal on their website: The STOP Obesity Alliance. This is where the dinner at the schools idea comes from. From the New York Times: ‘Debt Aid Package for Europe Took Nudge From Washington’ Obama pushed the TARP and pushed Porkulus, and he pushed the Greek aid package. This is what his presidency is about: Giving trillions of dollars to socialists everywhere and setting even bigger debt bombs to explode down the line. His infusion of cash to public sector cronies has not produced any jobs here at home. Now we face these massive deficits — and, of course, higher taxes, which will put downward pressure on tax revenues, this is guaranteeing the continuation of the death spiral of taxes and debt, and it’s all because of liberalism. It is all because of socialism. It is all because of the delusional left who either think they’re doing what’s right and are deluding themselves, or who know they’re not doing what’s right, but they have such a dislike for certain aspects of this country that they want to take care of it and fix what they’ve always thought has been wrong and bad about the country.
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RUSH: And here we go from Reuters: ‘Germany’s cabinet approved the biggest national contribution to a $1 trillion emergency rescue package intended to stabilize the euro as global markets sobered up after Monday’s euphoria. Relief as the European Union’s bold move to restore investor confidence gave way on Tuesday to doubts about whether weaker euro zone economies can meet their part of the bargain and deliver drastic debt cuts, driving the euro and stocks lower.’ Well, silly question. Of course they can’t meet their part of the bargain because they’re going to remain liberal socialists. Somebody show me where our deficit’s come down since we passed health care. What about the austerity measure, you see how those are working out. The austerity measures, you see how it’s working. They’re burning the country down for all practical purposes, oh, yeah, austerity measures? Right. What austerity measures? Austerity? We sent ’em a trillion bucks, what do you mean, austerity? There is no austerity.