RUSH: Ted Cruz, the new senator from Texas, folks, this guy’s terrific. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, we’ve got a bright future on the conservative side of the Republican Party with these two guys, and I’ve got four sound bites from Ted Cruz that I want you to hear. He knocks it out of the park. He was on Fox News Sunday, and he just knocks it out of the park here on anything that’s asked of him. He is fearless. He doesn’t make excuses. He’s not defensive in any way at all. It’s a pleasure to hear. And when you her Ted Cruz, you wonder, why aren’t there more? It’s not that he’s not good enough, he is. It just makes you realize what was at one time, what could be. Here’s the first question from John Roberts, who was filling in yesterday for Chris Wallace. “How are you gonna vote on Chuck Hagel?”
CRUZ: If Hagel is nominated, it is very difficult to imagine a circumstance in which I could support his confirmation. It’s interesting, the president seems bound and determined to proceed down this path despite the fact that Hagel’s record is very, very troubling on the nation of Israel. He has not been a friend to Israel, and in my view, the United States should stand unshakably but I with the nation of Israel.
RUSH: Yeah, well, I gotta tell you, Obama picks people like him. I always had to laugh in the first term. You got these weirdo members of the administration, like Van Jones, some out and out communist, and people said, “How did this guy get past… how did Obama end up with him?” Obama knows him. Obama wanted him. Obama is an authoritarian figure. There’s nobody, either in the cabinet or a czar, who is not personally acceptable and really loved and adored by Obama. The idea that extreme leftists somehow get past Obama, I’ve always been amused by that. The next question: “Senator, are you willing to risk default on our debt by taking the debt ceiling battle right to the limit?”
CRUZ: No, and let me be very clear about this. I do not support default on the debt. We should never default on the debt. And the only players in Washington who are threatening default on the debt, are President Barack Obama and Harry Reid. Whatever happens with the debt ceiling, we will always pay our debt. We will never default on the debt, and the reason the president isn’t doing that is he’s trying to scare people. He is trying to raise this specter of a financial apocalypse.
RUSH: Exactly. Keep people on edge, always on the edge or the verge of chaos. Always in the midst of an emergency, crisis emergency, have to do something this minute. We don’t have time to think about it. And what we have to do is exactly what Obama wants done. Next question. “Is there any new gun control that you would accept?”
CRUZ: The reason we’re discussing this is because of the tragedy in Newtown. And every parent — my wife and I, we’ve got two little girls, age four and age two — every parent was horrified at what happened there. To see 20 children, six adults senselessly murdered, it takes your breath away. But within minutes we saw politicians run out and try to exploit this tragedy, try to push their political agenda of gun control. I do not support their gun control agenda for two reasons. Number one, it’s unconstitutional —
ROBERTS: But is there any that you would accept?
CRUZ: I don’t think the proposals being discussed now make sense. Senator Diane Feinstein’s bill would create a national gun registry. I don’t think the federal government has any business having a list of law-abiding citizens who choose to exercise their right to keep and bear arms.
RUSH: Let me tell you something. Obama wants more than that. If Obama could wave his magic wand, you would all lose your guns. There’s 270 million guns or more, he’d make sure you gave them up, if he could. And don’t doubt me on this. Barring that, if he can’t get everybody to turn in their gun or forcibly take it from them, he wants to register everybody that has a gun, as though they’re no different from a sex offender or what have you. Law-abiding, peaceful people, Barack Obama wants them branded as gun owners because he wants them thought of as potential sources of chaos, disaster, and danger.
But you notice, one of the reasons I like Cruz, John Roberts, I don’t know him, is Fox. But you notice that what Ted Cruz said in the answer to his question is not even relevant. Is there anything you would do? Is there anything you would accept? Anything? Is there nothing you won’t accept? I mean, come on, Senator, is there nothing that could make you give up your guns? And whatever answer Ted Cruz gives, no matter how brilliant, no matter how sensible, doesn’t matter.
So the template is, we gotta get rid of our guns. We’ve gotta register all of our guns. Guns are dangerous. Guns are the problem. More people die because of hammers, I read this the other day, than guns. We’re at a point in our culture where rational, factual, sensible explanations are not relevant. And I don’t know about you, but that’s one of the most frustrating things to me about where we are in our culture. He’s right. Everybody’s having a cow here because of Newtown. Newtown’s terrible, no question. Like take people aside, okay, Newtown happened, but do you realize that the number of mass murders taking place with guns is declining in this country? “I don’t care, I don’t care. Doesn’t matter, gotta get rid of guns.”
No. Listen to me. It’s not the big problem you think that it is, and the federal government can’t stop this from happening anyway.
“I don’t care, we gotta get rid of guns, Newtown, I saw it on TV, kids, we gotta get rid of guns.”
No, no. Listen to me. The number of instances of mass murders take place with guns is really declining. It’s happening less. It happened far more in the past.
“I don’t care, I don’t care, get rid of guns, Newtown, I saw it on TV, kids are dying, we gotta get rid of guns.”
No, no, listen to me. I’m trying to tell you, it’s not the big problem that you think it is. It’s not happening every day. It’s not happening every month. It’s not happening every year.
“We gotta get rid of guns, Newtown, I saw it on TV, kids are dying.”
We’re up against brick walls here. Factual, rational explanations of things that are, by the way, focused on people maintaining their freedom and liberty, don’t get through. You’re up against a brick wall. People’s emotions get revved up here, and rational, factual explanations of things that are oriented toward preserving their freedom, don’t register. And that’s what, you know, Roberts question, “Is there nothing you would support, is there nothing? Is there one thing you would support in getting rid of guns?”
“I don’t think that’s the problem.”
“Come on, not one thing?”
And Cruz doesn’t back down from it. He’s not trying to please the journalist. He’s not trying to curry favor with the journalist. He is articulating a truth, rationally and factually. At some point that has to carry the day. One more. Again, John Roberts, “You wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post the other day that, no, you need to retrench conservative values and develop opportunity conservatism to try to help people live the American Dream. Is that really the right way to go when you look at changing demographics in the country?” Senator, do you really think that that’s what to do, talk about opportunity conservatism and helping people live the American dream, do you really think that makes sense? Here’s what Cruz said.
CRUZ: It’s exactly the right way to go. The reason I am a conservative is because conservative policies work, and they improve opportunity. They are the avenue for climbing the economic dream, and what I’ve been talking about for many years is opportunity conservatism, that every policy should focus like a laser on easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder; that they should be championing “the 47%,” to take that now infamous comment. Look, the great thing about Americans is Americans don’t want to be dependent on government. Dependency saps the spirit. It doesn’t work. Americans want to stand on their own two feet and the best way to do that is have policies that allow entrepreneurs and small businesses to thrive and to create jobs and advance the American dream.
RUSH: You know how many people think he sounds like a dinosaur?
“What is this? Thrive? Stand on their own two feet? Policies that allow entrepreneurs and small businesses to create jobs and advance the American dream? Do you realize how out of touch he sounds, Mabel? Do you realize it? The guy is a dinosaur!” That’s how it sounds to a lot of people. When he says, “The American people the American people don’t want to be dependent on government,” how many of you think, “I don’t know if he’s right anymore?”
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, you talk about guns and gun control and registering guns and all kinds of things? It seems to me that that’s beating around the bush. We’re not really getting to the heart of the problem. I have a better idea. Why don’t we just ban mass murder? Nobody’s tried that. It seems to me it would work. We just ban mass murder. Now we can leave guns alone and nobody would use ’em for that.