RUSH: I got a couple of snarky e-mails that I looked at during the break. ‘You know, Rush, you just can’t give Obama credit at all, can you? I mean, he’s actually proposed a budget with some cuts in there and you are so opposed to Obama, you can’t even acknowledge them.’ Okay. Whatever this is — my 22nd or 23rd year — and all of the previous years count for nothing. There are still people who doubt my interpretation. So let’s go through this and look at his ‘cuts.’ Let’s look at Obama’s cuts. ‘Community development block grants would be trimmed by $300 million.’ Forget the size here for a second. I mean, if I wanted to I could smirk over a $300 million budget cut, but I’m not gonna do that. ‘The community development block grants in the government’s program to help low-income people pay their heating bills.’
My friends, do you really think this is going to happen? Do you really believe that budget cuts to people ‘who can’t pay their heating bills’ are actually going to happen? Do you think even the Republicans are gonna vote for that? Okay, so there’s one budget cut that will never happen. In a real world, Obama would be tarred and feathered for having no compassion, and there would be cartoons and pictures of huddled masses outside their homes with no heat freezing to death, with frostbite all over their noses and faces and fingers. President Barack Obama has just suggested cutting aid to people who can’t afford to heat their homes. ‘Oh ho- hum, a $300 million budget cut.’ You let George W. Bush try to sneak something like this in one of his budgets?
Okay, so that’s one budget cut that won’t happen. Are we agreed on this? It ain’t gonna happen. Let’s see. What else is next here? Uh, let’s see. Pell Grants. Yes! We’re going to cut Pell Grants. You know what the Pell Grant is? It’s a college grant. It’s an educational grant to certain qualifiers for certain education aid. ‘One hundred billion dollars will be cut over a decade,’ that’s $10 billion a year, hee-hee-hee-hee, ‘from Pell Grants and other higher education programs through belt tightening, the savings used to keep the maximum college financial aid award at $5,550, this according to an administration official who spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the budget’s Monday release.’
Do we really believe that once we get down to voting and writing this budget, that education grants, Pell Grants are going to be cut? No. We don’t believe it just like we know for a fact that there will be no budget cuts, no… (laughing) We’re not gonna take heating oil money away from the poor. Just isn’t gonna happen. ‘Great Lakes Environmental Restoration Program cut by 25% to save $125 million.’ That might happen if nobody hears about it. ‘The budget will propose $1 billion in cuts in grants for large airports, almost $1 billion in reduced support to states for water treatment plants.’ Okay, so… (laughing) Obama has proposed cutting clean water, he’s cutting clean air, he’s cutting safe airports, he’s cutting home heating oil, he’s cutting education. Is any of this going to happen? By the time this whole thing gets down to brass tacks and we vote on it, are any of these budget cuts going to survive?
Even the Republicans won’t go along with it. They’ll see this as a trap. If they support it, look what the news will be. ‘Boehner and Tea Party Support Cutting off Heating Aid for the Poor!’ It will never be mentioned it was Obama’s idea. Let’s see here. ‘Other infrastructure programs and savings from consolidating public health programs run by the Centers for Disease Control and various…’ Oh! So we’re gonna cut public health programs, too. Right. Okay. So let’s add it up here. We’re gonna cut home heating aid. We’re gonna cut education aid. We’re gonna cut environmental aid in the Great Lakes. We’re gonna cut airport aid in the age of terrorism (potential security risks and all that) and we’re gonna cut public health programs under the CDC. Yeah. Home heating oil, clean water treatments, college grants, are just gonna sail through Congress. There you have it. Obama’s tough budget cuts. (laughing) (sigh) Even when I get the snarky e-mails, ‘You just can’t bring yourself to support Obama, can you?’ Well, you know as well as I do, folks, these budget cuts are not gonna happen.