RUSH: Joe in Monroe, New York. Hello, sir, great to have you on the program.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. It’s a real honor to talk to you.
RUSH: I appreciate that. Thank you very, very much.
CALLER: I just want to tell you what I think. I don’t think that Boehner is scared of a shutdown. Boehner’s in to cut the deficit (unintelligible). So a shut down isn’t a solution. A shutdown is not gonna solve the problem, so they pushed Obama to the corner to get more and more cuts. So when it’s come to the point of a shutdown why should we let a shutdown, why this is not a solution? You won’t cut the deficit with a shutdown.
RUSH: Because this is the first step, and in the first step we demonstrated our limit. We demonstrated how we can be hornswoggled at each point in the negotiation.
CALLER: Or at least let a shutdown by the trillion-dollar deficit side, not about by the billion-dollar deficit side?
RUSH: What makes you think we’ll shut down over a trillion dollars, if he wouldn’t shut down over $38 billion?
CALLER: No, because on billions he will forgive them, but on trillions he won’t forgive them.
RUSH: Who will forgive —
CALLER: (Unintelligible) shut down the government and then not cut from the trillions.
RUSH: Who’s going to forgive who? I’ve lost track here now.
CALLER: I think Boehner.
RUSH: Boehner will be forgiven by whom?
CALLER: No, Boehner will negotiate with the Democrats on billions but not on trillions, and when he wants to cut trillions and they won’t, he will make a shutdown.
RUSH: We’ll find out. We got the debt limit come up here sometime at the end of May.
CALLER: Anyway, but, Rush, my point is just that I don’t think Boehner is scared of a shutdown. Boehner wants to see cuts, and he can’t get pushed. I think he pushed Obama very well in the corner he gets over I half of what — what he wants.
RUSH: What did he mean when he said that there wouldn’t be a shutdown, that there’s no political win in it? What did he mean when he said that?
CALLER: Mmm-hmm. That’s a point.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: A hundred percent. I agree with Mike Pence.
RUSH: Lucky for me the segment is over. Usually happens that way. Thank you.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let me explain the shutdown. I do sometimes make the mistake of believing that people understand things as I do, particularly those of you in this audience and I’m well advised to learn that sometimes these things need to be explained in a strategic sense. Now, Boehner has not said that he will shut down the government for anything — and if he says that he is prepared to do so, that’s because he’s being pressed hard on this. But a shutdown’s not the end goal here. The previous caller is arguing that he wanted to know why I was so in favor of a shutdown. Shutdown is not the end goal; that was not the objective.
The shutdown is the only tool we had (might say “have”). The shutdown is the only tool that we have to force better outcomes. What else is there? What matters most to these guys? What matters most to the Democrats? Government. Now, here’s what the GOP should have said. They should have said, “Look, we don’t want a shutdown, but if Obama continues to spend recklessly and wildly — pushing this nation toward poverty for everybody and bankruptcy, and destroying the future for our kids — we can’t accept that and we won’t!”
It’s what I always say: Turn the tables, go on offense, don’t accept their premise. Their premise is that we want a shutdown. Their premise is, we hate government. Their premise is we want people in pain and suffering. It’s utter BS. They are the ones that have caused pain and suffering at every level of our society — and they’ve been doing it for years, decades, by virtue of their policies. It is not our goal to shut down the government. Now, we have a real plan. Ryan has put forth a real plan and we have presented it to the president, but he’s vacationing and traveling we can’t seem to get his attention ’cause his priorities are not the same as ours.
Look, the stakes very high here. This is not the farm bill we’re been debating every two years, not when you’re talking about the future of the country. (Nothing against farm bills here.) Now, a government shutdown means that essential parts of the government do not, in fact, shut down. Social Security checks go out. Medicare happens. The Post Office stays open. Law enforcement, military, it all continues — with Obama, they just don’t get paid. With Obama the military doesn’t get paid. Oh! Speaking of Obama lying to you, now Obama and Moochelle are out there claiming to be the best friends of the military today.
It’s part of setup for the big lie happening tomorrow night. Now, whether you want to admit it or not… Some people don’t like the fight. Some people wish we could all just get along. There are several columnists out there today say, “Can we just agree? Why do we have to always be in confrontation? Can’t we just get along?” Well, no; because there are more battles ahead, big ones, which are gonna determine the future of the country; whether we’re gonna be poor throughout every layer of society, or whether we’re going to be a vibrant, healthy, prosperous society. That’s the debate! That’s what we face.
It involves the debt and the 2012 budget. I would hope that we want to make clear to the Democrats and the president we consider all these issues as one, that we’re not going to back off. The Republican Party should be identified as that party that is understood — and if it’s not understood, it should say it — we stand with you. We stand with your children. We stand with your parents and grandparents. The Democrats and the president stand with big government, bureaucracies, deficits. They believe you work for the government; we believe the government should work for you.
We’ve tried it their way for 50-plus years. Unemployment is up; deficits are up; gasoline prices are up, approaching $5 a gallon. We want to reverse course. Shutting down the government is a tool toward achieving our endgame. It is not the endgame.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Chris in Metamora, Ohio. We go back to the phones and welcome to the program, sir. It’s great to have you with us.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. It’s a great honor to speak with you. I’ll just get to my point. My question for ya basically, is the public gonna look at this the same way that they did when Bush, Sr., put out the “no new taxes” and what happened with that?
RUSH: Right. He raised taxes.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Okay, so what’s the analogy to that here?
CALLER: Well, that the Republicans were so gung-ho and pushing so strongly to reduce the deficit, and they would basically take whatever steps necessary to do it, and they backed down.
RUSH: Oh! Oh, oh! The hundred billion became 38. Okay, okay. Yeah. Well, they did raise people’s expectations. I guess it remains a possibility. The Tea Party is growing larger. (interruption) Oh, he’s asking me if it will be perceived as just as bad? Let me think about that. With that “no new tax” pledge, that was a biggie. Remember, George H.W. Bush came out of the Gulf War with a 90% approval number, and the Democrats threw their third string at him in terms of presidential nominees, because the big guns said, “There’s no way we can win here. We just have to sacrifice this year,” but Bill Clinton didn’t get the memo.
He said (impression), “Hey, you know what? There’s this gal I gotta meet out there named Lewinsky and the only way it’s gonna happen is if I’m in the White House. I’m in.” So he was in and he kept running and chugging and chugging and chugging and dunkin’ and dunkin’ and dunkin’ and got in there, and that 90% plummeted because in part because, “Read my lips: No new taxes,” became, “Oops, we gotta raise taxes.” Now, this we promised a $100 billion in cuts. This is not as drastic. I think for the analogy to be full-fledged, Obama would have had to have gotten spending increases here. We got cuts. Even if it’s $2 billion, there are cuts. I don’t care if they’re dwarfed by interest on the debt every three days (chuckles), we still got cuts.
How many campaign promises has Obama broken? Has anybody bothered to read his lips? (interruption) Well, I know: Where else did the left have to go? They’re clearly not gonna vote for anybody we could throw up there. That’s — that’s absolutely true.
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