RUSH: The White House is putting out a tweet from Steve Scalise. This is interesting. Steve Scalise, member of the House of Representatives, Republican who was shot by the deranged leftist during baseball practice and is now fully recovered. The Steve Scalise tweet that the White House is putting out reads like this: “Steve Scalise confirms the House Republicans will add $5 billion in funding for border security and money for disaster relief to the current continuing resolution.
“When he was told that there is likely not enough votes for that to pass the House, Scalise said, ‘That’s a negative attitude.'” Duh. Yes, it is. So here again, the point of this is… You know, the White House putting pressure here on people who are already trying to say they not gonna be able to find enough money. Not enough votes for $5 billion for border security in a Republican controlled chamber. I need you to stop and think about what we’re hearing here. We had the president of the United States, we had the Republican leadership come up to the White House today two hours ago, and he told them now.
We know he told them that they are not… He is not gonna sign this bill unless it has border security in it, unless it’s got actual money, got word to me on this program that this bill will have to have money allocated for border security or he will veto it. So a bunch of people react to this, including Steve Scalise. And, again, the White House put this tweet out. It comes from their — the press office there, communication shop, that Steve Scalise confirms the GOP will add $5 billion in funding for border security to the current continuing resolution. He was told there’s likely not enough votes for that to pass. He said, “That’s a negative attitude.”
Not enough votes in a Republican-controlled chamber for $5 billion additional for border security? I don’t know who told him this. It is not mentioned in the tweet that he put out. Just that somebody said to him that that’s a negative… And it might be not just one person. It could be a number of people that said that he was told. It says that there’s likely not enough votes for that to pass. How can there not be enough votes?
The president of the United States, who is a Republican, his compatriots in the Republican controlled House will not put it in? There aren’t enough votes there for $5 billion? All they need is 218! Okay. Just thought of something: How many Republicans have left town? That may be something to consider. We were told that even for the first vote on this a number of Republicans weren’t there, they left because they had no place to live, having lost their seats in the midterm elections. So this is where we are.
The president has made it clear any number of ways to any number of people that he will veto this spending bill if it comes back to him without funding for the wall. Now we’re being led to believe that there’s not enough votes in the House for the $5 billion to pass. If it doesn’t, then it’s dead. There’s nothing to send over to the Senate. It has to pass the how is that with five billion, then it goes to the Senate, then it has to pass there. Now, one of the reasons why… You know, you can do this with budget reconciliation and not need 60 votes for it, if you wanted to try that maneuver, which is how they got Obamacare passed.
So we’ll just continue to follow this and see what’s up. The important thing is the president has made it clear to a number of people including me that he will veto it if there’s no money in it. And that may well happen. And it’s going to happen soon ’cause everybody in that town wants to get out of town, and nobody in that town wants a shutdown. See, that to me is going to be the primary motivation. Nobody, nobody… No Republican in that town wants a shutdown, sadly. I wish that fear didn’t exist, but it’s real.
If all it’s gonna take is $5 billion measly dollars in comparison to the trillions that we spend every year, it’s a rounding error if that. If that’s all it would take to avoid a shutdown, then it will probably happen. The thinking in the Senate may be a little different on it. That’s a different ball of wax altogether.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’re back. Sound bite No. 27. This is exactly what I was alluding to moments ago. The White House put out a Steve Scalise tweet in which Scalise said that the House is gonna add a $5 billion expenditure, an amendment — $5 billion — for border security (i.e., build the wall). They’re gonna send it over to the Senate. Hopefully, Trump will sign it. Well, he would if it has that in it, and Scalise’s tweet says he was told that there aren’t enough votes to pass it. He said, “That’s a negative attitude.” Here’s Mike Allen from the… Let’s see. This is… He’s Axios cofounder. He was at Politico. He’s gone a long way. Mike Allen in Washington with Dana Perino on Fox this afternoon, and she says, “How do you see this playing out, Mike?”
ALLEN: This is not theater. They take the president completely seriously when he says that he’s not gonna sign it. The House will vote on a package that includes disaster relief and includes a wall. But listen to this twist! House Republican leaders not sure they have enough votes. There are a lot of people that are out of town. Members who lost have lost their offices, have lost their staff, are some of them just not here! So members may not be there.
RUSH: So this is picking up speed here. “Well, there may not be enough Republicans there to pass it. You know, the cowards, they left town!” That’s not my word. This the implication. “Yeah, these guys, these losers, they left town! They lost their staff. They lost their offices.” Not yet they haven’t. By the way, how many Democrats are still in town. Don’t tell me they’re all still there. I mean, it’s not only the Republicans that might have split. You could have some Democrats that split too. And what would be so hard about getting some of these guys back?
“Well, Rush, if they’re not inclined to vote for it anyway, why would they come back?” Well, we’ll see.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here is Martha in Huntsville, Alabama. Martha, great to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush, for taking my call. If we get this $5 billion, I’m gonna give you credit for it because I am so angry at the do-nothing, coward Republicans in both the Senate and the House. But I am so proud of our president for having the courage to stand up and say that if he doesn’t get his money, he will veto this. Because that is the best Christmas present that he could give us Americans. I believe he’s an American patriot, and I support everything that he has done and will do for America in the future.
If anyone is going to save our country — the country that our Founding Fathers fought for, died for, lost their property for, lost their lives for. It needs to be saved for our children and our grandchildren. And I appreciate this president web I appreciate you in trying to educate us American people to this. And thank you so much, Rush. And I make it 94% of the American women or American Republican women that support Donald Trump. Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: There you go. Well thank you, Martha. Thank you very much. I appreciate. I really do. By the way, I have to tell you, I’m getting emails. I’m checking the emails a little bit more frequently here and there’s a whole bunch of just have cheers, applause. You know, however they verbally, literarily represent that. They’re cheering and applauding and so forth when they heard the news that the president said he will veto this if there is not an appropriation of $5 billion for the wall for border security and so forth. It’s the right call.
It certainly was the right call. There was no doubt in my mind that the Trump base — who elected him and to this day stand by him — would stand up and cheer when hearing this. No doubt in my mind. It’s important to keep in mind that he is still the only one in Washington, outside of the Freedom Caucus in the House… I don’t mean to slight anybody when I say that. I’m trying to make the point that 99% of that town is opposed to this. Ninety-nine percent of Washington thinks, “This is just a joke.
“It’s unnecessary, it’s silly, it’s a distraction. There’s never gonna be a wall! A wall is not who we are. It doesn’t work. We don’t even have a crisis here! This is all…” They just think it’s a laughing matter and so forth, and that’s why they’re not taking it seriously. And the reason for that largely is that there’s so many donors that they all have, both parties, that don’t want there to be any interruption whatsoever in the flow of the kind of people: Uneducated, unskilled, cheap labor, dependent on others for getting by. Those are ideal citizens to people that believe in an all-powerful and omnipresent government.