RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is this morning on Good Morning America, Robin Roberts interviewing Sarah Palin. During a discussion about the tax rate compromise, Robin Roberts said, ‘How do you reach compromise if you don’t flip-flop?’
PALIN: It is a flip-flop in his position on taxes because he was so adamant about not allowing the tax cut extension to take place for job creators, and then all of a sudden one day he was fine with it. So again, I appreciate that he — you can term it compromise. I term it flip-flop. I’m thankful that he did, but it’s still not good enough. It still allows the uncertainty there in the free market that our businesses, that I certainly as a businesswoman, that I fear. What we need is to make sure that we know what tax rates are gonna be so that we know if we can afford to hire people. It’s a lousy deal, and we can do better for the American public.
RUSH: Sarah Palin weighing in on the tax deal, it’s a lousy deal, could have been better, and she’s right, it could have been better if we’d have waited, but certainly the way the Democrats are talking about it, they sound Bushian, they sound Reagan, where taxes are concerned. Now, here’s Pelosi last night on the House floor during a debate on the tax rate compromise.
PELOSI: We recognize success and the job that wealth does to create jobs, etc. but we also want to reward work. We want to reward work. So in order to reward work in this legislation, we had to have a big payoff to the top one quarter percent of America’s wealthiest families. Members have to make up their mind about this. They have to make their own decisions as to whether it is necessary to be held hostage to pay a king’s ransom in order to help the middle class.
RUSH: All right, now, what she’s claiming happened didn’t happen. Nothing was done for the rich. It all depends on the baseline. It all depends on how the table was set. If you’ve lived all year thinking the rich are gonna get a tax increase because Obama wanted to raise taxes on the rich, he wanted to let these tax rates expire, if you’re a liberal Democrat and you want to soak these people by raising their taxes, and you believe your party is gonna do that by letting these tax rates expire at the end of the year and then all of a sudden your own party comes along and says, ‘Nope, you know, we gotta keep these tax rates the same so as to not to hurt the economy.’ I mean here comes Pelosi and she characterizes this as a giveaway to the rich. There’s no giveaway to the rich. There’s no giveaway, period. The only giveaway is welfare. The only giveaway is our social program. The rich are not given anything by government. Well, other than these CEOs who have a back scratch deal with Obama. But in the terms you and I are talking about, the rich are not made rich because government gives them money.
So she wants to reward work. Really? Ms. Pelosi, can you name me a policy of yours that does that? Name me one liberal Democrat policy that rewards work. Name me, instead, a policy that does not punish success from you people. Every liberal economic policy is set out to punish work, is set out to punish productivity. And yet, this brilliant speaker of the House sits here and says she wants to reward work; and then, in a matter of blinding brilliance, says, ‘in order to reward work in this legislation –‘ Legislation rewards work? Government legislation rewards work? ‘In order to reward work in this legislation, we had to have a big payoff to the top one quarter percent of America’s wealthiest families?’ Now, her definition of rewarding work is also keeping middle-class tax rates the same. Nobody’s tax rates are going down. There is not a tax cut, other than that payroll deal. There’s no income tax rate cut. So this is stupid, plain, simple stupid. It also has as its purpose to mislead, so it is lying. It is misrepresentation. It’s prevarication. She’s a flat-out liar. Now, is she lying or is she dumb and really believes this? I submit both. Here’s more Pelosi from her floor speech last night in Washington.
PELOSI: President Obama was a job creator from day one with the Recovery Act.
RUSH: Stop the tape. Stop the tape and recue it. President Obama, a job creator from day one with the Recovery Act. We’ve lost how many millions of jobs since Obama was inaugurated? We haven’t created any jobs. I don’t care how you slice it, gross, net, we have a loss of jobs that is near criminal because it is the result of Obama and Democrat Party policy, and yet Obama was a job creator from day one with the Recovery Act, pulled us back from that recession. What pullback? We are still in the recession. Okay, here’s the rest of this.
PELOSI: President Obama was a job creator from day one with the Recovery Act and pulled us back from that recession.
RUSH: This is laughable.
PELOSI: The financial crisis that they created, President Obama pulled us back from that. And, oh, by the way, remember the financial crisis? Remember the banks that all that money went to and they didn’t extend credit? Now those same people are giving out over $100 billion in Christmas bonuses, and these Republicans in this House of Representatives are saying, ‘We don’t want you to be taxed to the proper extent on that $100 billion.’ I applaud President Obama for his side of the ledger. I’m sorry that the price that has to be paid for it is so high.
RUSH: Your guy led the move on this legislation! (laughing) Your guy leaded move on not taxing these so-called recipients of all this bonus money, Ms. Pelosi, your guy. Six weeks ago your guy was all for raising taxes on these people. Your guy led the way on this. But here’s another myth. Financial crisis, the banks, all that money went to and they didn’t extend credit. That’s not what the bailout of the banks was for, another myth that these people created to extend credit. It was about buying up toxic assets caused by the subprime mortgage crisis created by the Democrats, pure and simple. Now, is she stupid and doesn’t know that? Or is she stupid and does know it and is simply trying to miscast it? I say both. Does she even sound smart to you? Does she look smart? To me she never has. But she’s in the special anointed crowd of Washington. She’s a Democrat speaker of the House. Now, let’s continue on with this analysis of who’s smart and who isn’t, from the woman who, while watching the Mars Rover at NASA headquarters asked if it would ever get over to the flag where the astronauts planted it on the moon, Sheila Jackson Lee on the House floor during debate on the tax rate compromise.
LEE: I’d like to make sure that we classify this not as a class warfare, if you will, but a good samaritan waving the flag. Working people need help, and so the unemployment insurance that is part of this bill is a valid part of it. The child tax credit, the payroll holiday, all of those speak to the vision of this nation, that we have the willingness to share. To give $25 to 28 billion dollars unnecessarily that would go and take away from education and Social Security and Medicare, domestic spending that is necessary, is a crime. This is not about fighting against someone who has a few more dollars than the next person. It is to do what we’re sent here to do, to make sure that the capitalistic system works for everybody, including those who are now unemployed. Let’s get our senses together.
RUSH: I’m not even gonna waste time with this one. Well, it’s not where you start; it’s when you start, where do you end? (laughing) ‘Working people need help so the unemployment insurance is part of the bill.’ By definition unemployment insurance does not go to working people. It’s hopeless.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Frank, Covington, Louisiana, great to have you on Open Line Friday. Hi.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Hi. It’s a pleasure to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir, appreciate it.
CALLER: You know the whole United States is in trouble. I think we’re in an emergency situation, and the EPA has devastated about 80% of the businesses. We could open all the oil and gas and coal territories and land in the United States, and just think of the service industries, catering, construction, transportation. We need at least 200 refineries to be built by — I believe we used to have something like 1100, and we’re down to something like 80 in this country —
RUSH: We’re not gonna build 200 refineries, it would take 14 years to build one. But this is another thing. This is no accident, this war on oil on the part of this regime. This regime is part of this radical left wing bunch that buys into this notion that oil is the poison. It ticks me off to even think about it. You’re dead on right. It ticks me off. There’s no need for any of this. The oil business alone could be an economic revival, alone, by itself if the EPA would just get out of the way. But look, all these other politicians, all these local politicians, ‘You can’t drill off the coast of my state. You can’t drill there,’ and it’s all these people falling prey to yet another fraud and a myth and that is somehow that oil is gonna destroy their states, gonna destroy their tourism, gonna destroy their beaches and all this. The left wing has totally hijacked an industry and is in the process of shutting it down domestically. The rest of the world is drilling like crazy, in our backyard.
CALLER: Exactly. And if we could get America to really push for this, just think, 4% off the top of oil, gas, and coal, we could pay off our national debt with that. No politician can touch the first 4%.
RUSH: Well, now, wait, now, national debt’s here, we’re talking $14, 18 trillion. I know the point that you’re making. There’s a lot of revenue that we’re leaving in the ground. There are a lot of jobs, therefore, that are not being created. Twenty-five percent of the rigs in the Gulf are idle. They still got the moratorium because they’re still not granting leases. So this administration shut down the domestic oil business, and they did it, they took the occasion of that spill, the BP well out there, and, a-ha, here’s an opportunity. So they tried to create a crisis to coalesce even more power, shut down another element of the industry, all the while talking about energy independence. This is a dangerous bunch people. That’s why job creation with their stimulus bill? And we hear about all these efforts Obama’s making to revive the economy, meeting with a bunch of CEOs that voted for him anyway. From what I’m told, by the way, the CEOs said, ‘You’re gonna have to do something about our taxes and lighten the regulatory load. There’s no reason for us to hire.’ Obama said, (imitating Obama) ‘Great meeting, we’ll see you next year.’ Nothing’s gonna be done, photo-op of a meeting, (imitating Obama) ‘I’m summoning the CEOs.’ He wouldn’t know what a CEO has to do unless Saul Alinsky wrote a book on it. All he knows to do is resent them, think they’re the enemy.