RUSH: David Plouffe, the Obama campaign whiz, was on This Week with Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning. Stephanopoulos said, “The president said he doesn’t want to negotiate over the debt limit. But Congress if passes this proposed three-month extension of the debt limit without spending cuts, there’s some breathing space. So will Obama then start negotiating on the big budget issues after they pass this?”
PLOUFFE: The barrier to progress here isn’t our position of the president. We’ve moved more than halfway, which is a fair definition of compromise, and we are gonna require some more revenues.
RUSH: All right, so you see this? I don’t know, folks. I get blue in the face. Every time one of these budget snafus comes up, the Republicans cave in and they say, “We’ll get ’em next time. We’re gonna take Obama to the cleaners when we get to the debt limit.” We get to the debt limit and they say, “You know what? Let’s let Obama get a three-year debt limit and then maybe he’ll negotiate with us on spending cuts.” So they go ask Obama, “Okay, the Republicans have now said no debt limit problem for three more months. Will you negotiate?” Plouffe said, “What do you mean negotiate? To hell with you! We’re gonna come back for more taxes yet.”
My memory is that we “put the tax issue behind us” back in the fiscal cliff deal. I remember Senator McConnell said that. I remember a lot of Republicans saying, “Okay, we put the tax issue behind us.” I remember people like Bill Kristol and others in the media saying, “We gotta let Obama have this. You know, going to the mat on the fiscal cliff is a mistake. We need to keep our powder dry for the debt limit deal. It’s only a tax increase on the rich. Go ahead; get it off the table.” It’s off the table. They’re coming back for more.
Chuck-U Schumer. This is yesterday. Chuck-U Schumer said that the US Senate will only fulfill its legal obligation to pass a budget if the budget, which hasn’t been passed since 2009, includes new tax increases. Chuck-U said, “We need a budget.” It was on Meet the Press yesterday. “We need a budget. It’s a great opportunity to get some more revenues.” Oh, hold it a minute. The Republicans told me that we put the tax issue behind us. I don’t know, folks. We don’t ever put issues behind us. We just concede and then go to the next one thinking somehow we’re gonna really take it to ’em then. And we concede then, and kick the can down the road, “We’re gonna really take it to them.”
We’ve doing this for I don’t know how many years. They’re coming back for more taxes, and we think we put the tax issue behind us. I don’t know. If the opposition doesn’t even know what’s happening to it, you know, what hope is there? If the Republicans don’t even know what’s happening to ’em, there’s no hope that they’re gonna end up doing anything right here.