TODD: It is always an honor to sit in this seat on the EIB Network, and I give Mark Steyn the credit for announcing that he feels, when he fills in for Rush, that he’s still filling in for Rush. And so do I. On today, the day that God has made, is a gift for us and the time in which He’s decided we’ll live. This is a weird way to say it. I am having more fun than a guest host-human, should be allowed to have, and it’s somewhat bittersweet.

It was a week ago when we learned of Rush’s passing and Kathryn, his beloved wife, came to these airwaves to announce that. It was then… Tomorrow will be a week anniversary from when I had the unbelievable honor to bid Rush farewell with all of you and this team of Rush’s that mutual love is so profound. It is just profound, you guys.

So there is a bittersweetness to this that it’s a week since Rush’s passing. I can’t tell you how enjoyable this is to take today’s news topics. A $1.9 trillion COVID package looks like it’s gonna pass. The Democrats are willing to do a budget reconciliation move, meaning they can pass this with no Republican votes. Basically, they just shove it through, and it includes things like $135 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Apparently, I guess, they’re creating lick-on mRNA injections so you don’t have to get stuck. Just lick a National Endowment for the Arts painting. Right? So it is fun also to realize that in the news of today we still have Rush Limbaugh. Rush spoke about the fact that Democrats survive on good intentions. Democrat regimes survive that way. Okay.

So there’s bloat and $10 billion stolen from the COVID relief package. But come on. They meant well. Rush spoke about the fact that when it’s against Republicans, it’s not the evidence that matters. Remember this? It’s the what? The seriousness of the charge. We do remember. For Democrats all that matters is good intentions, and that is how leftist regimes survive.

RUSH: All right. Let me answer my own question. I’m best at that anyway. Because, A, it’s a good question, B, the answer’s even better, and C, this is the kind of thing that the network’s gonna play for their guests to react to on future shows. My question to the good doctor we just had on the phone. If every government agency is over budget — and it is, by default. I mean, we’re spending a trillion dollars a year that we don’t have. We’re nowhere near balanced, so it doesn’t matter. Every agency is over budget.

So my question to him was, it really doesn’t matter, does it, what the budget is? They’re gonna spend it. So when they spend it, why don’t they spend it on staffing the VA with doctors? And if the answer comes back, “Well, there’s a limit. You know, there’s a budget and we can only spend…” No. That doesn’t wash, folks. The budget doesn’t matter.

This government is spending on whatever it wants to spend. Look at Obama’s budgets that are submitted every year. I don’t care if they’re DOA. I don’t care if they never get voted on. Look at the desire. There is no spending limit. There is no real limitation on spending. That’s why the Tea Party exists. You know it and I know it.

Left to their own devices, these people would spend money without any regard for the consequences, in a fiscal sense. So why do they not actually spend it on doctors? And here comes the controversial answer: That’s not the purpose of government. The purpose of government from the left’s standpoint is not results. If it were, LBJ’s Great Society wouldn’t be a dismal failure.

Remember, we’re not supposed to look at the results of liberal programs, are we? There aren’t any that are successful. Every social program to come down the pike that the Dems-liberals have authored, has busted up minority families, destroyed the border system in this country. I mean (sigh), it’s a disaster.

The social fabric, the cultural rot taking place in this country is, again, the result of policy put in place by Democrats. But with what? Good intentions! Yes, we are only supposed to judge the good intentions. Social Security, Medicare, War on Poverty, you name it. All of ’em are disasters, and because of that, we’re only supposed to look at the intentions.

The VA’s got a lot of good people in it, but it’s always the case, the mind-set of the people that run it, when you have a Democrat like Obama particularly, in office, results are not what matters. It’s a real simple question: If you are gonna go over budget, if money really doesn’t matter — and isn’t that, when you get down to it, the thing? Money doesn’t matter. They’ll always say, “Well, budget, we can’t hire more doctors. (sigh) Budget limitations.” But they never use that excuse to say they can’t grow the size of the agency.

So if you’re going to spend money you don’t have anyway, why not spend it on getting more brain surgeons, spinal surgeons. If that’s what the VA needs, get ’em in there. Why not get a bigger bang for the buck on actual medical care in the VA? Why not do that? I don’t know, but it’s a choice. If they’re going to spend more money than they have anyway…

This is my point. The analogy I could best give you would be the House Bank. If members of Congress could go write personal checks for any amount of money regardless what was in their account, then it really didn’t matter what their salaries are.

If a member of Congress earned $150,000 and has $5,000 in the bank, but can go write a personal check for cash for 25 grand — on credit with the assumption it will be paid back — then he doesn’t need the money to cover the check. Okay, well, it’s the same thing with every cabinet-level department. The money doesn’t matter.

If we’re over budget anyway and if there’s no concern for being over budget — and there isn’t. When’s the last time anybody submitted a budget with less money than the year before? There really isn’t any concern about this. Hello, that’s why the Tea Party exists. So my only point is, if the money really isn’t an obstacle, it’s just something you pretend is for the consumption of the public…

You have to make the public think you care about the budget. You have to make them think you care about federal spending, but when the rubber meets the road, you don’t care. You’re spending on whatever. It’s not yours, and that’s the fun of being in government: Unlimited amounts of money and just go spend it.

But if there is never an effort to balance the budget, then what does it matter if you go over budget by a dollar or $10 trillion? Well, the only limiting factor is what you think you can get away with, and there may be a little bit of conscience, but more likely a political calculation. So if there’s no real concern for the budget, if there’s no real concern for going over budget…

If you’re going to spend money that you don’t have anyway at the VA, and if you’re gonna spend that money on something other than doctors and patient care, then what are you doing? Well, you’re obviously not concerned with results, medical results. You’re doing something else with the money. You’re growing the administration. You’re providing more jobs for fellow-traveling liberals.

You’re providing more administrative jobs to get more career liberals in the bureaucracy — career — that are never gonna be fired once they’re hired. They can’t be, not political-appointee jobs. You’re growing it. Put more liberals to work that come out of college with this degree or that degree, or maybe don’t have any degree. Just hire ’em.

This is how you grow government. This is how you expand your influence of your department. It’s the same thing with the IRS or whatever agency it is. This is why it matters to me who wins elections. This is why conservatism versus liberalism matters when it comes to spending and responsible spending and responsible budgeting and so forth.

This is just we’re out of control here. But even with all the money that we’re spending — and it’s incomprehensible the amount of money we’re spending, it’s incomprehensible — look at the lack of results we’re getting for it. For crying out loud, with all the money we’re spending on “creating jobs,” why aren’t they ready?

With all the money we’re spending growing the economy, why isn’t it growing?

With all the money we’re spending on you name it, why isn’t it happening? Well, there are many reasons. A, government can’t do all those things. But, B, they’re not spending the money on those things. They didn’t spend it on shovel-ready jobs, rebuilding roads and bridges, and the precious schools.

Liberals spend the money on growing the actual infrastructure of government. They create new jobs for nameless, faceless, loyal liberal troops to populate the expanding government. True believers. They’re ideologues to the hilt. If they really cared and they’re gonna go over budget anyway, why not pay some doctors at the VA?

TODD: Just absolutely as if it’s today. The Barack Obiden regime wants to give $135 million to the National Institute for Arts and call it COVID relief. How did Rush do it? Principles. Show me your budget. I’ll show you your priorities. Show me your results. I’ll show you your budget. Utterly brilliant.

It’s Todd Herman in on the EIB Network.