RUSH: Now, let me tell you what Donald Trump’s on the verge of doing. Donald Trump’s on the verge of repealing the Obamacare individual mandate via the passage of tax reform. This is going to be huge, not just in terms of achieving something legislatively in his first year in office, but the substance of the tax cut is going to be huge.
The American economy is roaring. The Federal Reserve in New York City has raised their forecast for fourth quarter GDP growth to near 4%. Barack Obama never exceeded 1.5% economic growth.
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RUSH: Trump’s on the verge of tax reform. The House is gonna vote on it tomorrow, the Senate later. What’s the target date, Thursday or Friday to get this done? Now, the economy is roaring. That’s the House, but when is the Senate gonna vote on it? I think the House vote is tomorrow, but we’re not expected to get to a vote, from what I’ve heard, until later in the week.
If the House and Senate are voting on it the same day, news to me. It would be cool if it was the case. You know, McCain’s fled. McCain went to Arizona, and Trump is saying he’ll come back if we need his vote. With Corker saying he’s gonna vote for it and Susan Collins saying she’s gonna vote for it, they’re not necessarily concerned right now they’re gonna need McCain’s vote because they’ve got Mike Pence there to break any tie that might happen.
But this is a massive tax. The stock market was up 168 in futures today before it even opened, and this is largely anticipating the tax cut being passed and signed into law. It’s roaring, the last I checked before the program began, the Dow Jones was up 175 and is continuing to rise, and the expectations are that it will, all on the expectations of tax reform passing.
Trump is on the verge of opening up ANWR for gas and oil exploration. And Trump is on the verge of exposing a domestic spying scandal that could and should put Obama and Clinton operatives and holdovers in legal jeopardy. And I’m talking about the Mueller investigation.
Now, those are the things Trump’s on the verge of. What Trump has done is kept the Supreme Court out of the hands of radical leftists. He has seen to it that outstanding conservative appellate judges have been approved and nominated, of course. Regulations have been slashed incredibly, making markets more efficient and competitive. And he is presiding over a sustainable, growing economy and job base that nobody thought was possible.
Remember during the last couple years of Obama, just like Jerry Brown told the people of California (imitating Brown), “Hey, forest fires like this, they’re the new norm. You better get used to it. This is climate change. You better get used to it.”
What an uplifting message that is. That there’s nothing the state of California to do to protect your property because of climate change. They’re throwing their hands up, Governor Moonbeam.
And they were doing the same thing with Obama and his economy. “Hey, you know what? We have to manage the decline. America’s best days are behind us.” They didn’t use those exact words. What they said was that America’s great, roiling, rollicking economic past was artificial. It wasn’t real. It was built on a bunch of phoniness. It was built on stealing and theft of resources of other nations. It was not legitimate. The U.S. is not legitimate from the days of our founding. And this new economy of 1% growth with America’s health care system being managed by the government, that was the new norm, you were to adjust to it.
Donald Trump was elected president because he refused to buy such nonsense, and now we’re on the verge of 4% economic growth. When Trump and his budget projected 6% economic growth, media economists and media analysts and deep state analysts wanted to impeach Trump over that. He was terribly misleading the people. Such things were not possible anymore. To promise or suggest 6% GDP was the height of irresponsibility and it would lead to false expectations. It ended up just letting people down. Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Except we’ve had 6% economic growth as a routine matter on many occasions in this country.
The Obama administration never even approached 3% economic growth in eight years. Now we’re on the verge of 4% in less than one year, and that one year matters. This is a stark difference in two administrations and it’s so obvious the Obama team’s running around trying to claim credit for this. They’re running around trying to claim credit for this economy, when they themselves told everybody this should not be expected anymore. Those days are behind us.
But, folks, the economics statistics here, these next few years we could be on the verge of a breakout American economy that would replicate previous eras of growth in this country that we haven’t seen since the 1980s. We’re on the precipice here of a rare opportunity.
We have innovation, growth. We have the opportunity… Look, Trump has defeated ISIS! This is another thing. The media’s not talking about that. Obama said, “ISIS? JV team!” He never even made a serious effort to stop ISIS. He claimed it couldn’t happen, couldn’t do it without angering the Russians, right? Couldn’t stop ISIS without angering Syria and Bashar al-Assad. He came up with excuses for every reason not to do what’s right, be it in the economy, be it foreign policy.
ISIS has been defeated.
We’re on the verge of creating wealthy for a vast majority of Americans the likes of which they haven’t seen in many years. Ditto security. And if it happens here, if what we’re on the verge of seeing… Now, you may think I’m going insane here. “What do you mean, Rush, on the verge of…?” Yeah, folks, this is really happening out there. I should tell you that consumer confidence is at an all-time high, or near it, because the economy is real! People are living it! And that’s why it is expanding and growing! And that’s why there’s this positive attitude about it.
People are not being told it’s happening and told that it’s good. They’re living it. Much to the chagrin and much to the anger of the American left. But you’re not hearing any of this reported. That’s why you think somebody speaking like I am might be a little insane here. But if this begins to happen in the United States, it will ripple throughout the world. Because everybody’s gonna want their piece. Everybody’s gonna want more of the same.
The American leftists and the worldwide leftists are gonna continue their criticism of America. As the economy grows and as wealth increases and expands and as overall economic circumstances improve, the left is going to continue to bash them and to claim they’re not real, that they’re artificial, and it’s nothing “sustainable,” that magic word will be used. Worldwide socialists and leftists will say much the same thing, but others are gonna want in on it.
And Trump is, I firmly believe, on the verge here of setting up a fairly and friendly set of market forces that are going to spur innovation, entrepreneurism, and competition throughout the world with his trade deals! Despite what you and everybody else in the world is hearing from propaganda media, we are trending in all of the right directions, not just economically. In terms of the judiciary, Trump is doing the right things in the appointing of judges. Remember, the judiciary is the left’s insurance policy for losing elections.
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RUSH: Let me just run some other things by you real quickly. None of this — none of this — is reported in the media, but this is real on-the-ground news, despite what you are hearing from propaganda media. We have a stronger and more focused military, stronger, more efficient, better trained, more focused, better funded military. We are gaining on terrorism. ISIS has been defeated. Putin is pulling troops out of Syria. ISIS has been defeated! You’re not hearing a word about it because it makes Obama look very bad and Trump very good.
We are producing massive and abundant energy. We’re producing enough for the world, folks! Fracking has meant such a huge difference. We’ve got natural gas more than we know what to do with. The same thing for fossil fuels and oil. We have no threats facing us on the energy front. In fact, prices are lower — consumer prices are lower — than they’ve been in a long time, supplies are plentiful, and we keep finding more. We have become a seller nation when it comes to energy rather than dependents dependent on foreign sources, an importer.
We are leading the world in showing how to do immigration correctly.
Western Europe is still drowning in it, still having major problems with it. We still have the problem, but we are trending in the right direction — and at least proper policy implementation has been displayed and implemented. We are strengthening our economy; we’re making it leaner and less regulated. And Trump has done all of this with the world aligned against him, and with the media aligned against him. The opportunities here are real, folks. They’re substantive and real. And the fact that you’re not hearing it talked about and the fact that you’re not hearing any negative economic news is all the evidence you should need.