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RUSH: Hey, folks, I have a question. How long is it gonna be before the Democrats demand a special counsel to investigate whether or not Trump colluded with five major corporations to issue bonuses for their employees if the tax bill passed? I mean, this couldn’t have happened on its own. This could not be something that happened organically. There has to be collusion for this to have happened, because everybody knows that corporations and everybody else hates Donald Trump.

Now, why would these corporations do anything to make Trump look good. And so how long will it be before the Democrats demand a special counsel, and what will the crime be? The crime, the scheme will be to give trickle-down a good name and to deprive the Democrats of a campaign theme.

Greetings, my friends. It’s great to have you. Rush Limbaugh behind the Golden EIB Microphone.

I cannot tell you what a seminal and phenomenal achievement this is. Setting aside for the moment the substance of this, which we will get to in due course, the very fact that this has happened is astounding and earth-shattering, and believe me when I tell you, the Democrat Party and its accomplices in the media are in the midst of shell shock right now. Of all the things they dreamed of happening this year, this was not on the list. Nothing like this was on the list. Trump was not to have a single achievement, especially legislatively. It wasn’t going to happen.

The media and the Democrats combined forces arrayed against Donald Trump would be on the verge of forcing him out of office by now. There was simply no way a substantive legislative achievement could happen. People in the media and in the Democrat Party invested every ounce of energy they have into preventing something like this from happening, and yet it did.

And not just happened. It has happened with a unified Republican Party, another aspect of this that nobody dreamed would ever happen. Because Donald Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing, and Donald Trump is a pig, and Donald Trump is it unsuited and unfit for office.

They have arisen every day, gotten out of bed with these beliefs driving them, propelling them, energizing them, it is these beliefs which is responsible for getting their adrenaline going. And it’s been shattered. It has blown up in front of their faces. None of this is supposed to happen. Every ounce of energy they’ve had has been expended toward preventing something like this.

Now, just a little bit of a prediction on the tax bill itself, and I mentioned this yesterday. I think this is going to usher in a period of economic growth and American national optimism that many people thought we would never see again, particularly in the midst of the eight years of Barack Obama when pessimism and defeatism and fatalism was taking over much of our country.

This achievement and the substance of it, these are significant tax rate reductions which are going to result in a significant amount of money remaining in the U.S. economy. It’s going to result in a significant amount of money being brought back from overseas, repatriated into the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy is going to grow like gangbusters. I saw somebody made a prediction it might be as high — it was Art Laffer, I think he said it could go as high as 8%. That may be a bit optimistic. But I’m here to tell you that there are hidden benefits in this that nobody is seeing yet because they’re not being discussed.

Now, on the political side of this — and this is even better. The Democrat Party, in its obstinance, in its stubbornness, the Democrat Party is now preparing — I kid you not — to make this tax cut, this legislation, along with hatred for Trump the centerpiece of their campaign to win back the House and Senate in 2018. Now, if you think that doesn’t make any sense, you’re right. It doesn’t make any sense at all, but they don’t make any sense, they haven’t been making any sense for most of our lifetimes. But they are gearing up.

Here’s the problem they’ve given themselves. They have artificially suppressed the polling on this tax cut. By that I mean they have spent the last number of months running it down, ripping it, criticizing it, claiming that it’s things that it isn’t: a tax cut for the rich, a tax cut for corporations, trickle-down doesn’t work. I just saw what’s his name, Hollen, ranking Democrat in the leadership of the House. Yeah, Chris Van Hollen. Yeah, he’s up there saying these bonuses don’t mean anything. These bonuses are just PR.

In fact, I saw some leftists last night are advocating a boycott of AT&T for joining Trump in this and bonusing 200,000 employees. Leftists on Twitter are trying to gin up a boycott of AT&T. Go right ahead. We will get out of the way and let you try to work that up. Chris Van Hollen today (paraphrasing), “This is a PR scheme. This isn’t what they promised. They didn’t promise thousand-dollar bonuses. They promised $4,000-a-year raises, and we know this isn’t gonna happen because corporations don’t give their money away to their employees.” Every Democrat talking point for the last 30 years just came rolling off his tongue like he wasn’t even having to think about it. And he wasn’t. Just programmed robotics.

They have spent so many weeks now beating this tax cut up. You’ve seen the polling data on it. We discussed it yesterday. Twenty-six percent of the American people — and let’s accept the polling data for what it is for the moment. Let’s not get into the weeds about whether it’s accurate or not. I don’t think it is, but it doesn’t matter. We’re gonna deal with it as it is.

Twenty-six percent of the American people think the tax cut’s a bad idea for every reason the Democrats and the media told them. That they’re not gonna get a tax cut. In fact, they’re gonna get a tax increase, the rich are gonna get the tax cut, corporations are gonna get the tax cut, and corporations are not gonna give anybody any of the money. You’re getting screwed. Trump did it for his buddies. Trump cut taxes for him and his whole family. Trump did this, Trump did that.

So they got their polling number, 26%, and other polls show the same thing. I have to tell you, the polling on this can only go one way now, and it can only go up. This bill can only get more popular, and I’m talking about statistically. They’ve had to work pretty hard to gin this thing down in polling numbers to 26. They’ve had to work pretty hard to get disapproval so high. But the problem is that real life is gonna kick in.

Five different corporations have done things like promise bonuses to hundreds of thousands of employees and raise their own minimum wages to 15 bucks an hour. And these are just five, just the first five. The people that work at these outfits are going to see the benefit. Everybody else is gonna see the benefit because there’s one thing undeniable here, and every independent analyst looking at this has concluded that 80% of the American people are gonna get a tax cut, and it’s gonna be significant.

And then in 2019 when the Obamacare mandate is repealed, we’ve got one more year to go for it, Katie, bar the door here, folks. The real life, the reality of this is that people’s economic circumstances are going to improve. And juxtapose that against all of the fear and the scare tactics the Democrats put forth today, start polling tax cuts, they start polling this legislation into next year, it can only go up, meaning it can only appear to be getting more popular.

I think politically they have shot themselves in the foot by artificially suppressing the polling data on this. In their effort to kill it, in their effort to make sure this didn’t pass, they have given themselves a circumstance where the polling data can only go up and make it look more popular, which of course is not gonna help the Democrats as they run a campaign based on the illegitimacy of this. They’re gonna keep hammering Trump as though they hate him. Well, because they do. And they’re gonna keep trying to parlay Trump hatred and class warfare into victory in 2018 without any other agenda.

The Democrats are going to be seen before too long as the people who will take your bonus away from you. The Democrats are gonna be seen as the people who want to take your tax cut away from you. Let them go right ahead. If they think they can win the House back using that and hatred for Trump, have at it. They are living in a fantasy world. They’re living in a world where they believe everybody hates Trump as irrationally and delusionally as they do.

That was quite a sight at the White House yesterday with all of these Republicans and this effusive praise for Donald Trump. And let me tell you something, folks, it was legitimate and genuine. It was real. These people, members of the House and the Senate, genuinely meant what they were saying. This could not have happened without Donald Trump. Donald Trump has learned over the course of the year, early on, maybe not familiar, maybe not totally up to speed with the way legislation happens and becomes law, it’s not like running a business.

So the Obamacare repeal and replace, they never unified on it, they never got really past second base on it. But this is an entirely different story. The Republican Party is now unified, and the Republican Party psychologically has now defeated the swamp. Donald Trump has led them to the defeat of the swamp. Donald Trump inspired them to fearlessly plow ahead without concern to what the media was gonna say about ’em. Do you realize how seminal that is?

For the last 25 years we have had watched our Republicans cower in fear in the corner, afraid of what the media was gonna say about them if they dared stand up for what they claim to believe in. Donald Trump has been taking the arrows for these people all year long. Pioneers take the arrows. They decided to unify. They decided to come together on this, and it’s fun to win. It’s exciting to win. It’s energizing to win. It inspires confidence to win. And they know what they overcame here.

They know the forces that were arrayed against Trump and arrayed against them, and they overcame it. You do it once, you can do it again. You do it a second time, you think you can do it more often. And the more often you do it, the more confident you become that you can keep doing it. So I believe there’s much wrapped up in this that is not observable on the top. But if you dig deep, you find more positives in this than you can possibly imagine. You have to look for them, but they are there.

And on the other side of the ledger, there are the Democrats swimming against the tide, seeming to be happily opposed to people keeping more of their money, happily opposed to corporations providing holiday bonuses to their employees, happily opposed to Donald Trump and the Republican Party who are singularly responsible for this, because there isn’t a single Democrat whose fingerprints are on this anywhere. There’s not a single Democrat who can take credit. I want to go back to September 7th on this program, right back after Labor Day. This is one of many times I made this request or observation, but here it is again.

RUSH ARCHIVE: If just at any time in the past six months or any time in the next six, if for just three months Ryan and McConnell would work with Trump to advance his agenda, they would own everything for who knows how long. If they would have repealed and replaced Obamacare, if they would have then moved on to tax cuts and done real tax reform, and if they had built the wall, I don’t care what Chuck and Nancy do, and I don’t care what the Republicans do after that. If those three things had serious action with an appearance of unity within the Republican Party on those issues, the Democrats wouldn’t stand a prayer for 25 years.

RUSH: Step one has just been accomplished. Phase one. Nikki Haley, the United Nations, people are applauding the United States’ position against our allies, so-called allies and enemies there, finally calling them out and demanding their allegiance or else we cut them off. This stuff is being cheered all over this country, but the Democrats and the media don’t know it because they aren’t cheering it and none of the people they know are cheering it. We put together a montage of the Republicans heaping praise on Trump at the White House yesterday afternoon. Look, it’s great. It’s great. But I can’t help but wonder what all could have been accomplished if this had started this way in January.

MITCH MCCONNELL: Mr. President, you made the case for the tax bill. Thank you, Mr. President, (applause starts) for all you’re doing.

PAUL RYAN: Something this big, something this generational, something this profound, could not have been done without exquisite presidential leadership. Mr. President, thank you for getting us (applause starts) over the finish line.

LISA MURKOWSKI: This is a bright day for (applause/cheers start) America. We thank you for that.

KEVIN BRADY: But for your leadership, we would not be here today.

KEVIN MCCARTHY: We would not be standing here today if it wasn’t for you.

ORRIN HATCH: Mr. President, I have to say that you’re living up to everything I thought you would. You’re one heck of a leader and we’re all benefiting from it. And we’re going to make this the greatest presidency that we’ve seen not only in generations, but maybe ever.

RUSH: The media is beside itself. They’re wondering how much these people were paid to praise Trump. They’re calling them sycophants. They’re calling them rear-end kissers, butt kissers. They’re saying it isn’t real, that Trump has some sort of hold on these people and he made them come up there and say all these things.

There may be a lot of chicanery in Washington, but I’m here to tell you, this didn’t happen because Trump demanded it. This didn’t happen because the sentiment isn’t real. These people have needed leadership for the longest time, and it wasn’t provided during the eight years of Obama. There wasn’t any real Republican leadership, charismatic, energetic leadership. The Republicans in Washington were led, if anybody, by voters, but there was no leader, there was nobody unifying them, nobody bringing them together.

The long knives are out. There were mutinies and other forms of internecine battles going on within the Republican Party. Trump is the difference. They know it. Lisa Murkowski, look at all — they did this ceremony again where they just sign the bill, the House and Senate, look at all of the Republican women that are for this, Lisa Murkowski because of drilling in ANWR. Susan Collins is in on this.

Bob Corker admitted on Fox & Friends today that he now understands what Trump has been going through for a year because of the way he was treated by Wolf Blitzer and CNN a couple days ago. He didn’t he apologize, but he acknowledged to the president that he had been unaware of what the president — the dissembling of the media.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Make no mistake, the shell shock on the left here is real. Again, I can’t tell you. Just none of this was supposed to happen. Trump’s not supposed to still be there by now, folks. But am I right when I’m right? When they get together, when they move Trump the trust agenda — and the Trump agenda is theirs. The Trump agenda, I don’t care what you Never Trumpers think, is a conservative agenda.

Bill Bennett, who worked for Reagan, secretary of education for Reagan was on Fox last night. Bill Bennett said Trump is more conservative than Reagan and that his judicial nominees are more conservative than Reagan’s and the tax plan here is more conservative than Reagan’s.

Now, some people are gonna argue about that, but you can’t say that Trump is a problem for conservatism. Trump has done more to advance and now pass conservatism than anything that’s happened, my friends, the last 17 years! I’m talking about real conservatism. It’s all over the place. Not supposed to happen! Conservatism was supposed to have been defeated long ago.

The Republican Party was supposed to be neutered and rendered irrelevant by this time because of the election of Donald Trump. And look, they are so discombobulated. There was a photo that appeared today — I think it on Twitter, don’t care where it was — it was Trump sitting in the Oval Office and McConnell, Pence, and Paul Ryan surrounding him, they’ve all got big smiles on their face, and it’s related to the tax bill passing.

There’s a guy named Dan Pfeiffer. He is a former communications office director for Obama. He said that he hopes that photo celebrating the passage of the Republican tax bill appears on the front page of the New York Times when Trump is indicted. They still think Trump colluded with the Russians, which is why I won’t be surprised if there’s a demand for a special counsel to see if Trump colluded with these five corporations to offer bonuses and a raised minimum wage.

So Pfeiffer said he hopes that photo celebrating the passage of tax reform appears on the front page of the New York Times when Trump is indicted. It was followed by Ben Rhodes, the brother of the news director at CBS, he’s also a former Obamaite, Ben Rhodes agreed with Pfeiffer and added that the photo should accompany the obituaries of Pence, McConnell, and Ryan, the obits!

Steve Scalise, who was actually shot by a deranged leftists tweeted, “You know, you guys might want to reconsider your rhetoric.” And they climbed down a little bit. I’m telling you, they are shell-shocked and don’t quite know how to process this. This is such a dramatic failure for everybody on the left, they can’t stomach it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: And don’t forget what we learned yesterday, what I passed on to you. There’s a whole bunch of conservative intellectual Never Trumpers not happy with this, folks. They don’t think Trump’s the guy to be implementing tax cut legislation ’cause they don’t think Trump knows what he’s doing. So they oppose it because Trump supports it. I’m not making this stuff up.

We have some conservative intellectual Never Trumpers who are out there saying, “Well, I wouldn’t get all excited about this. I don’t think it’s gonna make that much of a difference in the economy ’cause Donald Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing.” From people who haven’t helped move us one step forward the whole time they’ve been sitting around intellectually thinking about things.

Even the Washington Post is echoing me today. There’s a couple of bloggers at the Washington Post scared to death that the tax bill is gonna get more popular. Damn right it is. It’s gonna get more popular ’cause it can’t get more unpopular. They polled it so unfairly. They drove down the approval numbers so low the only place this tax bill can go in terms of polling is up, and it is gonna go up once it’s implemented and people start seeing they’ll have more money.

And it’s gonna put the lie to everything the Democrats said. And the Democrats are gonna continue to lie about it. The Democrats are gonna continue to base their campaign in 2018 on hatred of Trump and running against this tax cut bill, calling it a heist of the federal government.

We had a caller yesterday. I hope you people heard this. She was curious why the Democrats are so opposed to people doing better. I said, because Democrats only want their voters to do better as a result of government entitlement programs or government assistance. They don’t want people doing better on their own. Self-reliance and individualism are both the enemy of the Democrat Party.

They need people incapable of helping themselves. They need people who are victims of something and therefore are dependent. The Democrats oppose this simply because it’s a threat. People keeping more of what they earn because they work is a threat to socialists. It’s a threat to the modern day Democrat Party. So they’re all-in now. And even a couple of their Drive-By specialists are worried that the only thing this bill can do now is get even more popular.

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