RUSH: This is Bill in Warner Robins, Georgia. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, quantitative easing and the threat of stopping it or tapering off, I think, is the reason why Republicans are afraid to have a government shutdown. I think either explicitly or tacitly, the Republicans have been told that the Fed would stop quantitative easing, ’cause it’s the quickest and most direct way to go ahead and illustrate the impact of the federal government on the citizenry if you have the stock market takes a major hit. That’s the only reason why I can think of this.
RUSH: Okay, let’s start at the beginning, ’cause you did a good job. I mean, you got right in there, and I didn’t have a chance to check in detail the subject here. So you think if the Fed were to stop quantitative easing, that that would lead… If there’s a government shutdown, that the Fed would then stop their quantitative easing, and what would happen?
CALLER: Yes. I think the stock market would take a hit. Two years ago, Ben Bernanke went ahead and used the term “tapering,” and the stock market immediately up took like a 5% hit, and I think to go ahead and… Unless you’re watching CNN or watching the news, most people don’t know there’s a government shutdown. But if the Fed stops quantitative easing or even tapers it off, it’s gonna have an immediate effect on the stock market which impacts interest rates and other things. And I think that’s either a threat or it’s been implied that that’ll happen if there’s a government shutdown.
RUSH: If you are right about that, then there’s never gonna be an end to the government printing money ’cause that’s all quantitative easing is. If you’re right, if it’s the threat of quantitative easing being terminated if there’s a government shutdown — and that that’s why the Republicans don’t do it because the effect on the stock market — the resulting perception of difficulty in the economy at large? I mean, that’s one giant blackmail. (sigh)
I think you may have a point, but I don’t think you even need to get that far down the road in explaining why the Republicans are afraid of a government shutdown. I mean, you may be right, but they’re afraid of it long before you get there. They’re afraid of a government shutdown because they’re afraid they’re gonna get blamed for it. And they think if they get blamed for it, nobody is gonna ever elect ’em president and they’re not gonna keep their Senate chairmanships.
It’s so silly. The whole… Rather than educate people… Look, I’m tired of talking about it. I’m tired of analyzing why the Republicans do what they do. We already know why they do what they do. They’re just afraid. And for whatever reasons, they’re afraid of Obama’s race, they’re afraid of the media, or else they’re not Republicans anymore. You know, their sympathies actually do lie more on the left than they do on the right. I don’t know.
But there’s no rational way to explain Republican acquiescence with the policies of the Republican Party. There’s the no rational way. Well, unless you want to say that they’re all of the same club and they’ve all got the same donors and the donors are demanding the results, and it doesn’t matter. Both parties had better produced or none of them are gonna get the money or whatever. I mean, there’s rational ways, but what I mean is within the context of two-party system.
One party opposes the other and vice-versa. That’s what’s missing here. And the irrationality of the fear of opposing Democrats is what I’m talking about. It’s irrational, this fear of being an opposition party. Ben Bernanke, by the way — and I should have printed this out. Not a big deal, ’cause that’s why I didn’t print out. But Ben Bernanke is quoted as saying — and I don’t know if it’s recent or within two or three years or what have you.
But Bernanke is quoted as saying the Republican Party’s just got too wacko for him. He’s leaving it. I never knew he was in it. Well, he’s the former chairman of the Fed. I never knew he was a Republican. But he’s out there saying that he can’t in good conscience be a Republican now because Republicans today are too screwball, which is a constant refrain you get from people inside the Beltway. I mean, back to your example. That’s the Federal Reserve blackmailing the US Congress.
“Yeah, you guys shut down the government, we’re gonna stop quantitative easing.” They don’t even have to stop it, as the caller pointed out. All the Fed chairman has to do is allude to the fact that they’re thinking of stopping it, and the stock market will panic. Look, folks, if you live on… I’m just gonna make up a wild number. If you live on $10 million a year and all of it is given to you, and the person who gives it to you threatens to end it — unless — what are you gonna do? You’re gonna do whatever you have to do. If that’s the only way you get your money, somebody is giving it to you, you’re gonna keep doing what it takes. And that’s where the stock market is.
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