RUSH: Okay, folks, the pressure is on to make you feel the sequester. Whether you feel it or not, the pressure is on. Janet Napolitano is saying the wait lines at the TSA, whatever it is there, the wait lines are getting longer even though they’re not. The delays are getting longer, even though they’re not. They’re doing their best. They can’t afford for this to be seen as a non-event out there, so they’ll have the Drive-Bys in their back pocket, and I want you to be ready for an onslaught of stories about how people are suffering because of the sequester, even though you’re not.

Reminds me of back in the 2005, 2006 era and back in the Bush 1 years of ’88 through ’92. They would report that the economy is heading south. You were doing fine. Everything was cool, but you hear these news reports, you hear that your neighbor isn’t doing well, you feel guilty, and so somebody comes along and asks you how you feel about the economy, you think, “Well, it’s not doing too well. I’ve heard my neighbors are in trouble even though I’m not.” This is kind of a repeat of that. You’re fine, you’re unaffected, but you’re gonna be reading about other people who are impacted, and so you’re going to think that the sequester is having a dramatic impact on people, and it isn’t.

The Democrats are already searching for new ways to raise taxes. They’re very upset they didn’t get a tax increase as part of the sequester.

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RUSH: Let me give you one example of the world is ending because of the sequester. It’s in the Washington Post and it is this: “At Kansas Airport, Fliers Back Sequester Cuts,” until they learn that their control tower is being closed. They went out to this small airport in Kansas, and they talked to people, “Hey, how about the sequester?” “Yeah, man, I’m all for it. We need to cut down the federal government.” “Well, do you realize your airport’s closing?” “No, no.” And so the message is, okay, you stupid hicks in Kansas, you support the sequester, your control tower is closed now. So suffer.

But, if you burrow down into the story, you learn that the control tower in question — I don’t know what little town in Kansas. It doesn’t say. But, if you burrow down into the story, you learn that the tower handles two flights a day. The rest of the time the tower is closed and pilots somehow managed to land and take off by coordinating between themselves and neighboring air traffic control.

You know, I fly into a lot of places. Like Cape Girardeau. We go into Cape Girardeau, CGI, the identifier. There’s no control tower there. “Well, how do you land?” Well, you line up on the runway and you eyeball it, and when you get near the runway, you just kind of throttle forward and flaps down and you land. It’s a self-service airport. They do have fuel. They did have a control tower. Cape Girardeau lost its control tower many, many moons ago. It’s not actually a control tower. It’s like the third floor of the administration building. But, seriously, you still have to coordinate, so you coordinate outta Memphis or St. Louis to get in and out of there with radar and IFR. You can do it. All of this is really smoke and mirrors. It’s not gonna affect this Kansas town at all. But it’s not designed for the Kansas people. It’s the Washington Post. To the people reading this, the point of the story is that these hayseeds in Kansas were all for the sequester until they learned that their control tower was shut down, and now they’re not so sure.

So you find stories like that all over the place. Garden City, Kansas, Garden City regional airport. Garden City, Kansas. And I guarantee you, it’s not gonna have any impact at all. Pilots are gonna be getting in and out of there, VFR, IFR, if they want. There’s only two flights a day. Remember, the federal government bought and paid for an airport in Pennsylvania. What was that congressman’s name? Jack Murtha. They built an airport that’s never used. One or two flights a week. Big airport. His name is on it.

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RUSH: This was at the White House, the press briefing this afternoon. A reporter said, “Sequester cuts have begun taking effect now, Jay. I’m wondering what we should be expecting from the White House. Are officials gonna be trying to point out negative impacts of the sequester? Is there any effort that’s gonna be underway to try to build some type of public reaction to pressure, Washington, to avert these cuts?” What he’s basically saying is, “Are you gonna bring a bunch of people up here for us who are suffering so that we can report on it?” That’s what he’s asking. He wants the White House to do his job. I want to report all the suffering in the sequester, Jay. Are you gonna be directing us to those people?

CARNEY: I’m sure you will be hearing about these impacts from Americans themselves who will wonder why, you know, Republicans made this choice. Why they wouldn’t go along with what they did two months ago. Why they wouldn’t go along with balanced deficit reduction. Why they chose protecting tax loopholes —

RUSH: Stop this. Stop it. See, the reporters are waiting for the White House to bring sob stories. Gene Sperling admitted on TV yesterday the sequester was Obama’s idea and even now, a day later, they still blame the Republicans for it.

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Here’s Alicia in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you for taking my call, Rush. I’ll get right to it. I am a little confused — no, I’m very confused. I have a question about the sequester for you. As I understand it, this, whatever, 2.1% cut was really not a cut. It was just a cut in the rate of growth.

RUSH: That’s very true.

CALLER: The government is still going to have more money this year than they had last year. They’re still gonna get increases for all their programs. So, if that’s the case, why are they furloughing people? Why are they letting illegals out of jail? Why are they doing all of this when they got more money this year than they had last year?

RUSH: Because it’s not as much money as they thought they were going to have, which they’ve already spent. It would be like you in August of a calendar year telling yourself that you’re gonna get the money in December to go buy a new $100,000 car. Okay? And then the money you get is only enough to buy an $80,000 car, but you go buy the $100,000 car anyway ’cause you’re mad.

CALLER: Yeah, I’d be stupid.

RUSH: The federal government is going to actually spend $15 billion more this year than last year, with the sequester. There are no cuts. You’re right, there are simply reductions in the rate of growth. You don’t know why they’re doing this? You don’t know why they’re letting the prisoners go? You don’t know why they’re furloughing these people or are you being facetious?

CALLER: Well, I’m sort of being facetious.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: It’s just a big lie, basically. They’re trying to scare everybody so they’ll get more money.

RUSH: They want the American people to believe that even a dime cut from the federal budget will lead to economic chaos and misery for every citizen. It is simply a technique that they’re employing to see to it that the country, the people of the country never, ever, support government ever getting smaller. That’s the primary objective here.

CALLER: Well, then we’re gonna implode on ourselves.

RUSH: We’re going to collapse at some point. Even though we can borrow money and print it, at some point it is gonna happen. At some point people today, 25 years old, are gonna face aggregate tax rates of 78 or 80%, and then the question becomes will they bother working when they only get to keep 20 cents of every dollar they earn? Will they even bother working?

Before we go to the break, grab sound bite number 30. Back to Jay Carney. Now, remember, you just heard the press in our previous bite ask Jay Carney, “Jay, are you gonna have examples of people suffering for us?” Those are not the words he used, but this lazy reporter basically wanted to know are officials going to point out negative impacts of the sequester, meaning, the translation for that, “Jay, is President Obama gonna bring a bunch of people who are suffering because of the sequester up to the White House for us to interview as he announces a new program?”

The Democrats have this endless parade of the suffering every time they want to spend more money. So the reporter was asking. And Jay Carney said, “I’m sure you’ll be hearing about the impacts from Americans themselves.” Meaning they’re already arranging this. They’re already arranging a parade of people to be on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, New York Times, Washington Post, you name it, of actual sufferers from the sequester, complete with detailed stories. That is upcoming. So then the next question, it’s from Ed Henry at Fox, “I understand Republicans ended up voting for the sequester. They bear some responsibility here. But does anybody here at the White House regret the fact that people inside this White House came up with this idea in the first place?”

CARNEY: The fact that it’s called that was because that’s what it was called back in the 1980s under the deficit reduction package known as Gramm-Rudman-Hollings that President Reagan signed when they had a trigger, a spending-cuts-only trigger that was evenly divided between defense spending and nondefense spending. And it’s true that that was put on the table as part of the demand for a spending-cuts-only trigger that let’s do it the way they did it back under President Reagan —

RUSH: So guess what now, folks? Not just this year’s Republicans are to blame, Reagan did this. Reagan’s the father of this crap. Reagan is the father of this spending-only trigger. Reagan’s the father of this suffering. Reagan did it. And so the media has now been given its marching orders, find people, we’ll provide ’em for you, actual sequester sufferers, and then they are to find ways to tag this to Reagan.

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RUSH: We go to my adopted hometown, Sacramento, California, and Sean. It’s great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello. I’m really honored to speak with you. I’m almost completing 30 years at the Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

RUSH: That’s true for him because Sacramento, 1984, is the beginning airdate for this program. You’re right. I appreciate that, sir.

CALLER: My blood pressure dropped a good 20 points the day after you started.

RUSH: (laughing) That’s great. I appreciate that.

CALLER: But what I wanted to say, I’m really alarmed at your explanation for the sequester and how it’s working because almost all the women I know believe — (unintelligible) about the sequester that that’s the way the world works. I can’t tell you how many women will get a coupon from the department store and then, you know, it’s a $10 coupon and it’s gonna expire in seven days, and so they have to go out and spend that $10 coupon. They don’t spend just $10, they’ll spend $60 and then come home and tell me, “Look how much money I saved.”

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: That’s what the Democrats are doing.

RUSH: Yeah, but let’s be very careful here. You think this is exclusive to women, in this kind of thinking? I know plenty of guys that buy cars this way.

CALLER: Oh, okay.

RUSH: And that’s how they tell their wives they save money. “Honey, I was gonna buy that hundred thousand dollars Mercedes, but I got that SUV for 75, saved 25 grand here. I mean, you ought to be giving me some credit, Mabel.” I mean, this works both ways.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: You know what I think? I think the word “sequester” just bamboozles people. When you hear the word “sequester,” what does it mean to you? Seriously, now. What does it mean? In a way they sequester you away from the group. Yeah, they sequester the jury away from the media and from other people in the case. A sequester is sort of like a prison. They segregate you. I don’t know that just in the sense, given our low-information voter population, just the term “sequester” is not helping, even though that’s what it is. It’s sequestration, and it can be explained perfectly. People hear that word, they panic.