RUSH: My friends, we cannot secure ownership by Obama of the last four years. We can’t make him own the last four years. We cannot convince people that he’s been president the last four years. We can’t convince people that what he’s done in the last four years relates to current economic circumstances that people are facing. They don’t believe that.
So if we can’t make Obama own the last four years, why does anybody think we can make him own the fiscal cliff? Why does anybody think we can make him own Benghazi? I mean, if this guy can Houdini out of four years of being president, surely he can get out of a day gone wrong at Benghazi. Speaking of that, wait ’til you hear this. This is from his press conference where he tried to upstage… Sorry.
This is from his press availability earlier today where the president spoke to the country in a heartfelt and heartwarming way about taking away their guns… I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. I’m trying to be less threatening and all that but I can’t. I can’t avoid somehow telling the truth. Anyway, he had his little presser today where he upstaged me or tried to (they all start at noon) and he’s announced that Biden is going to lead the effort to end gun violence.
The AP correspondent, Ben Feller, said, “Can you give us a candid update? Are we likely to go over the cliff?” Now, don’t you love it? Here’s the AP. (summarized) “Sir, please, help us. Reassure us. We’re all really nervous here in the press corps. Please, please, tell us candidly. Are we likely to go over the cliff? Are the Republicans going to take us over the cliff? Is it over, sir, or can you stop them? Can you save this country, sir?”
That’s the question.
Here’s Obama’s answer…
OBAMA: Remember what I said during the campaign. I said I thought that it was important for us to reduce our deficit in a balanced and responsible way.
RUSH: Nurse, nurse!
OBAMA: I said it was important for us to make sure that millionaires and billionaires paid their fair share.
RUSH: Doctor!
OBAMA: I have gone at least halfway —
RUSH: Where’s my medicine?
OBAMA: — in meeting some of the Republicans’ concerns, recognizing that even though we campaigned on these issues, even though the majority of Americans agree with me that we should be raising taxes, uh, on the wealthiest few, uh, as a means of reducing the deficit, I have also said that I’m willing to identify some spending cuts that make sense.
RUSH: Um… Okay. Yeah, right. He said in the campaign it’s important to reduce the deficit in a balanced way; make sure that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. Anyway, I don’t want to repeat it, you heard it. Then he pointed out that he’s already, essentially, obtained Boehner’s confession that the Republicans are to blame for this.
OBAMA: If you look at what the speaker has proposed, he’s conceded —
RUSH: There it is! There’s the word!
OBAMA: — that tax rates should go up.
RUSH: There it is!
OBAMA: Except right now he only wants —
RUSH: Stop the tape!
That’s what this has all been about!
He has wanted the Republicans to “concede” that tax cuts for the rich caused all these problems. That’s what this has all been about: A confession from the Republicans that what they believe is the reason we’re in a recession, is the reason unemployment’s so high, is the reason home value are so low, is the reason for everything that’s gone wrong. Benghazi, hell, throw that in there, too!
Tax cuts for the rich, from Reagan forward all the way to Bush, that’s the problem. He has wanted the Republicans to admit and concede that. Cue that back up to the top. Right here he says, “[T]he speaker has … conceded that tax rates should go up.” This exactly what he wants! He’s got Boehner’s confession. That’s what this is about. That’s why he shows up at noon today. He’s out there strutting, popping buttons, suspenders and all that.
This guy, he’s having a Merry Christmas.
He is getting everything he wants, and he isn’t getting any of the blame for anything that goes wrong, when 90% of it is his fault.
OBAMA: If you look at what the speaker has proposed, he’s conceded that income tax rates should go up, except right now he only wants to have them go up for millionaires. If you’re making $900,000, somehow he thinks that you can’t afford to pay a little more in taxes. Uh, but the principle that rates are gonna need to go up, he’s conceded.
RUSH: Yeah, he has, and Obama couldn’t be happier. But notice the disdain for people making $900,000? Notice the contempt Obama has for them? “If you’re making $900,000, somehow … you can’t afford to pay a little more in taxes.” But now, ladies and gentlemen, the piece de resistance, the “why” we need to do this. The “why” Republicans have to cave now. The “why” we have to get this deal done now.
OBAMA: Just think about what we’ve gone through over the last couple’a months. A devastating hurricane, and now one of the worst tragedies in our memory. The country deserves folks to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good and not tangle themselves up, uh, in a whole bunch of ideological positions that don’t make much sense.
RUSH: So because of the hurricane, because of the shooting in Newtown, we deserve the Republicans caving and compromising on behalf of the common good. The American people need something good to hold onto! The Republicans need to see the Republicans give up and cave in. They’ve been through too much already.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, folks, a little statistic here before the next sound bite and then we get back to your phone calls. Obama’s latest offer to raise taxes on everyone making over $400,000 would raise $70 billion a year, and that $70 billion would go to government. Now, to put that in perspective: The aid package — the federal aid package — for Hurricane Sandy, just by itself, is $60 billion.
So raising taxes on people who make over $400,000 will raise just $10 billion more than the government’s gonna spend on Hurricane Sandy aid packages. Now, knowing that, I want you to listen to this next bite. This is the one I referred to at the top of the program. This is where Obama talks about (summarized), “Hey, look, you know, my taxes are going up too and I wish they weren’t. I don’t want to be paying that much.” Listen. Keep in mind it raises $70 billion. In terms of the overall federal budget, that’s a rounding error.
Here’s what he says…
OBAMA: Keep in mind I’m in that income category. I’d — I’d love to, y’know, not pay as much, uh, in taxes. But I also think it’s the right thing to do for us to make sure that people who have less — people who are workin’, people who are striving, people who… who, you know, are hopin’ for their kids — that they have opportunity. That’s what we campaigned about. It’s what we talked about. And this is not a situation where I’m unwilling to compromise.
RUSH: I have a simple question that is rooted in pure logic. Would somebody — and I’m serious, ’cause obviously I don’t get it. Would somebody explain to me how $70 billion going to government affects people who are striving and hoping for their kids to have opportunity? Would somebody explain how that works? Because I don’t understand it. I don’t know how taking $70 billion from people and transferring it to Washington equals relief for people who are striving to succeed so that their kids have opportunity.
What…? Where is the opportunity in taking money away from people who’ve earned it? I don’t understand. I literally don’t understand the logic. Does Obama, for example, believe that the US economy is a zero-sum game; that the size of the economy is what it is — it never grows, it never shrinks — and that if we take $70 billion away from some people, that somehow automatically that money is gonna go back into the pool or into the pie, and people who are striving are going to have a chance to earn it?
I don’t think so.
He’s not even talking about work.
Folks, it doesn’t make any sense, and I’m sure it doesn’t make any sense to you either. Fact is, it doesn’t matter to people. The fact that it makes no sense is of no relevance to people. The people Obama’s… Remember, TIME Magazine named Obama Person of the Year. The editor announced it today on Today show. They named him Person of the Year specifically because he has found a way to get the votes of people that don’t know anything. People that don’t follow politics, Obama got their votes.
It’s magical and it’s why he’s Person of the Year. So TIME magazine admits: We’re gonna make this guy Person of the Year because he’s the first president to come along and get elected by absolute ignoramuses. And somehow this is good for the country. When you take $70 billion or take $100 billion away from people who’ve earned it, how does that equal opportunity for the kids of parents who are striving and hoping? The two don’t have anything to do with one another.
And yet that sells.
That makes sense to the vast majority of people who vote. To them, that’s fair. To them, that makes perfect sense. “Yeah! Yeah! In fact, $70 billion? Make it $170 billion, Obama, and I’ll really love you.” The fact that a year after all this is done these people are still gonna be striving, they’re still not gonna have any opportunity, and they’re still not gonna have any jobs? That won’t matter. What will be said is, “At least Obama cares and at least he tried! All you did was sit on the radio and whine about it. At least he tried!”
I, frankly, don’t know how to communicate with morons.
That is one of my big problems. I do not know how to communicate with them. (interruption) Pardon? Yes, I’m sure I do threaten the low-information voter. I don’t know how to talk to ’em. Not really talk to ’em. I mean, I can listen to what they say and I can try to hide my laughter and incredulity. But I don’t know how to talk to ’em. If somebody said, “Okay, you are in charge of reaching out to the low-information voter,” I’d pass.
I’d say, “You need to find somebody stupider than I am to pull that off.”
(New Castrati impression) “See, Mr. Limbaugh? You just can’t help it! You just have to be so scary. You have to intimidate people! You have to… You have to make people so nervous talking that way.”
Ah, I know. I just can’t help it. I don’t know who I am.