RUSH: This story didn’t make any sense the first time I heard it! And I was stunned that nobody had the reaction to it that I did! This story that Trump wanted a payroll tax to stave off the recession? What recession? We’re not in a recession! It’s fake news. It’s F-ing fake news. Freaking fake news.

The Washington Post started this. So, the White House finally had to say, “No, we’re not considering a payroll tax cut.” What Trump wants, if anything is being pondered, it is to sustain the ongoing economy and to ratchet it up. But there isn’t any official fear of recession in the White House. The only people talking about a recession are in the Drive-By Media.

Man, this infuriates me. And I can’t tell you the number of places I saw this today doing show prep. “White House considering payroll tax. Trump considering payroll tax cut to stave off recession.” What recession? I didn’t even hear anybody on Fox News ask, “What recession?” They just accepted it. Not a criticism of Fox News. Don’t misunderstand. They got enough critics as it is. I’m not trying to join that crowd.

But, I mean, this made no sense — a payroll tax? It’d be great; don’t misunderstand. The payroll tax is where your FICA, Social Security, Medicare, all that stuff is taken out. And it’s up to — I don’t know what it is now. There used to be a ceiling on it after which you earn more than that money, the tax ended. It may now be on every dollar everybody earns. I’m not sure because I haven’t benefited from that cutoff in so long that I have not even paid attention to it.

The idea, the very idea, here the White House, the administration has been denying that there is a recession. We have been refuting this whole media narrative. The Drive-By Media is trying to create a recession. They are trying to create self-fulfilling behavior via mind-set by reporting this recession garbage. We’re not in a recession. We had the story yesterday, remember the headline, “34%” — this made the headline, “34% of Financial Experts Predict Recession in 2021.” Why isn’t it 66% say no recession in 2021?

So there isn’t a recession. The White House is not considering tax cuts to stave off the recession. If the White House is doing anything, if Trump is doing anything, if he’s pondering anything, it is to keep the economy on jet speed.

Okay. Greetings. Got that out of my system. Welcome, folks. Well, can you blame me for being upset about this? I mean, this is just blatant lying. You know, stop and think about this. I have made this point many times before. Newspaper companies are dying. And if it weren’t for the opportunity to sell Web subscriptions, many of them would have folded already. They’re already being underwritten by loss leader operations elsewhere in the conglomerate organizations that own newspapers. Like Bezos can afford to have the Washington Post lose money for the rest of his life, and ditto with the New York Times people.

But a lot of newspapers around this country are in heap big financial trouble. They are dying. And all they have left — you know, this is stunning to me, folks, as a matter of business. All they have left, they’re all identical. They are all doing the same thing. They’re devoted to these wild, insane conspiracy theories that are oriented toward creating a narrative that would result in you throwing Donald Trump out of office in 2020. That is what they’re all targeting. And then they come up with various forms of click bait in order to push this narrative. And once they got the click bait, then here comes the slander and the libel.

They are dying due to conspiracy theories, the desire for click bait. They’re not trying to attract and grow business by virtue of doing good work. They’re all agenda oriented, and they’re all on the same agenda. There’s nothing different about any of them. Oh, you might have a different lifestyle piece here, different lifestyle piece over there, but, in terms of the news coverage in the Drive-By Media, it is more standardized and identical than it has been in many, many moons.

Look at what the New York Times — look at what any newspaper could have done with the Steele dossier, just in terms of journalism here. Do you realize the story that’s still out there waiting to be reported? And that is the collusion and the corruption of the Obama administration’s DOJ with the FBI and the intelligence agencies who literally overturn the election results of — do you realize the story that has yet to be written, and it is a blockbuster, and it would distinguish any news organization from the pack if any one of them decided to actually do that story.

The same thing can be said for the Washington Post, New York Times, they’ve all decided to go for partisan political kills. Every day is a partisan political kill shot aimed at Donald Trump. The problem for them is they keep firing at the king and they keep missing. And instead of reassessing their mistakes, they reload and they fire the same ammo. And they miss the target every time, and they’ve been missing the target for two and a half years, and they’re all shooting at the same thing.

This is like going to a carnival where you have 10 little play shotguns lined up and you all shoot for one thing and try to win the teddy bear to take home, and you got 10 people lined up shooting at something 10 feet away and every one of them is missing it. And not one of them takes a different tack. This is stunning to behold.

And the story is what they’re leaving on the table — now, don’t misunderstand. I know why. I’m just pointing out to you that if I were in that business and if I were competing with these people — in some sense I am, but I’m not in the newspaper business and I’m not in the, quote, journalism business, although there’s more journalism on this program than you’ll find today in the New York Times or Washington Post, I submit.

But, man, I would be going where they aren’t. What is it Wayne Gretzky said: I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it is. There’s nobody in journalism, particularly big three journalism, that is even focusing on a Pulitzer Prize of all Pulitzer Prizes out there. And you know why? They can’t because they were complicit in it. They would have to expose themselves. They would have to include themselves in any expose of this gigantic collusion hoax because they were active participants in it.

The New York Times’ new slogan: “All the news fit to print that hates America.” Or, “Hate America first again.” Whatever. I mean, it’s stunning. I’ve talked about this a couple times before, the gold mine that people are sitting on out there and ignoring.

Here’s this in PJ Media. This is just one example. “White House Considering Payroll Tax Cut to Stave Off Recession.” PJ Media is a sympathetic Trump website. Portrayed as a certain way to keep the economy firing, which is why the Democrats supposedly oppose this.

I think the Democrats put this story out precisely to carry on their narrative that we are in a recession. And the White House knows now, yes, the White House is well aware, ladies and gentlemen. The White House is trying to hide it you from you, they don’t want to admit it, but look at what they’re doing here, payroll tax cut to avoid recession. There’s no recession. And finally the White House came out and pooh-poohed this.