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April 27, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:54
April 27, 2011, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Greetings, welcome back, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence and Broadcasting Network, the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up.
Great to have you here.
Telephone number 800-282-2882, the email address lrushbaugh at eibnet.com.
People heard me say that John Boehner is not wedded to the Paul Ryan budget and Medicare plan.
Where'd you see that? said the emailers.
Where'd you see that?
I haven't seen that.
Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire.
Representative Paul Ryan acknowledged he was handing Democrats a political weapon when he unveiled his budget proposal, including the controversial overhaul of Medicare.
Congressional leaders in both parties now seem to agree with him.
House Speaker John Boehner said he is not wedded to Mr. Ryan's plan to redo Medicare.
Paul Ryan has an idea, certainly worth consideration, Boehner said in an interview with ABC News.
I'm for it.
It's our idea.
It's Paul Ryan's idea.
Now other people have other ideas.
I'm not wedded to one single idea.
That's where I saw it.
I just wanted to have the proof of it.
That's where it was.
Now, I don't know that it's under the bus.
No, I don't know that it's under the bus moment.
I don't think Boehner is throwing anybody under the bus.
By the way, since we're, I think there's something else going on.
It's not that.
It's just called trying to be all things to all people.
Last night on PMS NBC, The Last Word, Huffing and Puffington Post senior political editor Howard Feynman.
And they were having a discussion.
This is number 21, Ed, discussion of the debt limit vote negotiations.
And here is Howard Feynman.
I can tell you the Tea Party types, having seen John Boehner in his reasonable mode out there in that interview with ABC, are going to be increasingly suspicious about him, which may in fact make Boehner more difficult to deal with on the debt ceiling vote than might have been the case a week or two ago when, as I understand it, Speaker Boehner pretty much assured White House top White House officials that he wasn't going to go to the brink on the debt ceiling.
I think that promise that Boehner supposedly made to the White House might not be in good standing now.
So if I understand this, a couple weeks ago, Boehner supposedly told the White House, hey, don't worry, I'm not going to go to the brink on the debt ceiling, which we knew.
We knew they're going to kick the can down the road on that, just like the continuing resolution.
But Howard Feynman is saying Tea Party types, having seen Boehner in his reasonable mode out there, are going to be increasingly suspicious about him, which may make Boehner more.
Meaning, I guess what Feynman's theory is the Tea Party is going to lean on Boehner and Boehner is going to cave to the Tea Party, which means that the Tea Party, once again, is the reason.
Those radicals in the Tea Party, damn them, they are the reason that Boehner is not going to be able to act reasonable like we all want him to act.
And Boehner is going to not go along with the debt ceiling raise.
It's just blaming the Tea Party is the purpose of this quote.
See, Boehner is so much more enjoyable when he's reasonable.
So Boehner says he's not wedded to Paul Ryan's Medicare part and the budget.
He's reasonable.
New York Times blog, the caucus, why Republicans may be skipping the 2012 presidential run.
The question is why Haley Barber's decision to forego a run for the presidency puts him in the company of a half dozen top Republicans who have considered and rejected a challenge to Obama.
Why?
Barber indicated he doesn't have absolute fire in the belly to mount a campaign that would consume the next 10 years of his life if he wins.
Others have shared different reasons.
John Theune said he considered himself best positioned to fight for America's future in the Senate.
Mike Pence of Indiana hinted he might run for governor instead.
He and his family choose Indiana.
Among those who've turned down the chance to run in 2012, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, Christie said that he could win, but quote, I have to believe I'm ready to be president, and I don't, close quote.
But the publicly stated reasons often mask other considerations.
As politicians consider whether to run for president, here are five reasons why some of the Republican Party's brightest stars might be opting for the sidelines.
Are you ready?
Now remember, this is the New York Times theorizing this.
One is Biden.
If Obama wins, there's almost zero chance that Biden would run for the presidency in 2016, which opens it up.
Much easier to win in 2016 when there's not an incumbent vice president running.
No, I know it's not true.
This is the New York Times.
Here's the second reason they speculate why no serious Republican is taking up the challenge.
The economy.
I swear, folks, I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.
The economy.
Yeah, Obama's so formidable on the economy, there's no way to beat him on it.
Mr. Obama's approval ratings have dipped below 50%, but he remains personally popular.
And by many calculations, the economy appears to be approving even slowly.
Even Mitt Romney said last September Obama would be difficult to beat if the economy continued improving, which he predicted that it would.
All right, so New York Times thinks that a bunch of Republicans have looked down the road and seen an improving economy, meaning it's impossible to beat Obama.
I swear, folks, if this is.
Again, it's the New York Times, and it's their educated guess.
Number three, money.
Obama's expected to raise a billion dollars.
There's just simply no way to compete with that.
Number four, the Tea Party.
Now, get this one.
The emergence of the Tea Party movement as a force inside the Republican Party requires potential presidential candidates to pick sides in an intra-party philosophical struggle.
The risks are clear for some Republicans who may have to alter or modify earlier positions to get through a contentious primary.
In other words, the Tea Party will make these responsible, reasonable Republicans have to go too radical, and they just don't want to do it.
They just don't want to have to deal with the Tea Party.
They don't want to have to respond to them.
They don't want to have to campaign for them.
They don't want to be liked by them because these Republicans don't want to have to go that radical.
Number five, the media glare.
Candidates for president have always had to contend with scrutiny from the media, the anal exam.
But they just don't want to put up with it in this climate.
Just have no desire for it.
So those are the five reasons the New York Times blogger suggests that Republicans are opting out.
I swear, it's alternative universe time.
What, what?
He didn't get any scrutiny, but that's the point.
The Republicans are going to get all kinds of scrutiny, and Obama won't, and they don't want to undo it, undergo it.
They just have no desire to undergo the media anal exam.
This is from the Boston Globe.
House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.
The 111 to 42 vote. followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states.
Unlike those efforts, the push in, this is a Massachusetts House, by the way, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers' rights.
Robert Haynes, the president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, said, this is pretty stunning.
These are the same Democrats that all these labor unions elected.
Democrats are leading this move in Wisconsin to strip police officers, teachers, and other muni employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care.
Now, why?
They don't have the money.
I mean, it really is no more complicated than that.
Well, if they've raised taxes in Massachusetts, I don't know if they've got the room to really do it.
I mean, I'm sure they have the desire to, but New Hampshire's right next door, and the door is wide open.
Come in here or we won't trample on you.
Treasury quietly plans for failure to raise debt ceiling.
This is the Washington Post.
The White House is warning that catastrophe will strike if Congress fails to raise a debt limit.
With too little cash to pay creditors, the U.S. government would default.
Interest rates would skyrocket.
The economic recovery would collapse.
That is a paragraph with one lie after another.
But behind the scenes, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has already begun juggling the books to conserve cash.
You don't have to do that.
Draining a special account of the Federal Reserve and with the debt forecast to hit the legal limit of $14.3 trillion in just a few weeks.
He has a range of tools at his disposal, including borrowing money from a pension fund for federal workers.
Did you hear that?
The feds could borrow money from your pension fund.
Geithner also has authority to pay investors first for interest they're owed on the debt, according to a decades-old legal opinion.
So they're juggling things to pay interest to investors, which is something conservatives have argued.
I mean, we have said, don't raise the debt limit.
You have incoming revenue from taxes to pay the debt, the interest on the debt.
You've got unspent TARP money.
You have a bunch of duplicated federal programs that are not fully funded.
Instead of advertising for more food stamp applicants, there's no reason to raise the debt ceiling.
At some point, We've got to get serious about it.
If we've got to stop this Leviathan's growth, if we've got to reduce it at some point, you have to get serious about it.
Treasury quietly plans for failure to raise debt ceiling.
A town hall meeting with freshman Representative Dan Webster, Republican Florida, spiraled into chaos yesterday when the crowd of roughly 300 started screaming at each other over his vote for the Paul Ryan budget.
According to an account on the Orlando Uridal from the Uridal, Webster tried to go over a series of charts showing growing levels of federal spending and debt and the reason he supports the federal budget plan put forward by Ryan, but he was interrupted at every turn by shouts from his critics, including members of progressive groups like moveon.org and organize now.
Liberal groups are trying to play up the town hall rage.
Here's the difference.
By the way, there's also a story out there.
Some out-of-work liberal talk show host.
What the heck was her name?
I can't.
I had never heard of her.
And I read this, and I think we've got the audio sound, but there's no way I'm going to find it because I've got my thing so out of order.
But this babe showed up at an Allen West town hall and just totally disrupted.
He had to be arrested, I think.
Yeah, what happened was, I think I mentioned this a couple days ago, the memo went out to the moveon.orgs and other Democrat activist groups to show up and disrupt the town halls like the Tea Party people did in 2010.
Copycats.
The difference is there were no memos urging the Tea Party to get out there.
That just happened.
That was a grassroots effervescence.
The Democrats are having to manufacture this.
They're sending out memos to tell people where to go and what to do and to specifically disrupt.
And it's not going to work because it isn't real.
And it's obvious it's not real for anybody who attends one of these things.
Okay, sit tight, my friends.
We'll be back.
Lots still to do.
And we'll get to it shortly.
Nicole Sandler was her name.
I still never heard of her.
Nicole Sandler, the former Air America hostette, was arrested at the Allen West event.
Typical.
Let's see.
Where do we go?
Phones.
Tom in Georgetown, Delaware.
Welcome, sir, to the EIB Network.
Great to have you with us.
All right.
Hey, Rush, glad to talk to you.
Greetings from the conservative capital of Delaware.
Thank you, sir.
And we appreciate everything you do.
This has to do with the administration releasing that birth certificate, and I contend that they hope to stop Mr. Trump from continuing to ask about the grades.
Well, it didn't work.
Right, but I think that what they'll do is they'll delay this.
They'll say, well, we released the birth certificate and we'll think about the grades because I think they're really concerned about the persona that he is this super smart, intelligent.
They're not going to release any grades.
This is the end of this.
This is the total end of it.
They're not going to release any grades.
They never were going to release any grades.
And, you know, Trump can demand them all day long now, but they're not going to release.
Trump got, this is the one shot he was going to get.
They're not going to respond to Trump again.
Look at they have to know.
Trump is not going to be the nominee.
I don't think he's going to run.
And this is something they know in the White House.
This is just, no, no, I'm saying he's not going to run.
I don't think he's going to run.
Don't ask.
It's a hunch.
I just, that's why I look at this the way I do.
You know, Perot was always going to run.
Perot always was going to run, even though there was a period of time early on when I thought that Trump...
No, no, no.
Trump was always going to run, but he didn't want to win.
That was always what it was with Trump.
Perot.
He's not going to run.
So this is the one thing that the White House, okay, fine birth certificate, here you go.
The polling data, clearly, the only reason they did this is they were losing ground on it in the polls.
They clearly were.
There's no other reason to do this to come out here today, but the grades are not going to be forthcoming.
Do you think that you think he's going to force them to release the grades from Columbia?
That's not going to happen.
Edmonds, Washington.
Hi, Tony.
You're next on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Say, I'm kind of reluctant to bring up this point because it might tip the administration off, but these YA who's are so ideologically driven that they wouldn't do anything about it.
Oil prices peaked right at the point that Bush announced that he would repeal or remove the executive order restricting the ability to drill offshore.
And I mean, that was, what, September 08?
And it was like a week before, you know, everything collapsed financially, and nobody seemed to talk about the oil issue after that because oil started dropping.
But it peaked like right at that day or the day before he announced it.
Okay, so your theory is that Obama might repeal his moratorium in time to cause the oil price to drop, the gasoline price to drop to show, hey, see what I did?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, you said you didn't think they could do it because they're too ideologically corrupt.
Let me tell you about that.
I can see that, and I can understand how people think that, but I also know this.
I also know that Obama doesn't want the price of gasoline to come down too much.
Obama hates oil.
Look, folks, let me find it here in the story.
Get this.
If this doesn't say it, I don't know what does.
Reuters story.
President Obama yesterday urged world oil producers to lift crude output as he sought to deflect public anger over high gasoline prices that has hurt his popularity.
Now, the original headline for this story was, Obama presses oil-producing nations to boost output.
But the editors realized that presses was a little too bellicose for our courageous president, so urges became the word.
But here he is.
Reuters, if you read the whole story, Reuters is trying to make it out like the Republicans are using high gasoline prices to hurt Obama.
Never mind, they hurt everybody.
But what about the hypocrisy here?
How come If all these foreign countries increase their output of oil, in other words, if foreign countries do their own drill-baby drill, how come that will lower the price of gasoline?
But it won't lower the price of gasoline if we produce more domestically.
Obama urges oil producers to increase output to lower the price.
Would you ever Obama urges domestic producers to increase?
No, he is hamstringing domestic production.
And he also knows that these foreign producers are not going to do it just because he says so.
Look at his entire economic plan.
Green energy and all that depends on rising energy prices.
No need to think about it.
Ciao, we do that for you here at the EIB Network.
So we can't drill our way out of the problem, but they can.
They can drill our way out of the problem.
All these foreign producers, yeah, if they just drill more, if they just up their output, yeah, baby.
Yeah, that helps us.
Obama says there's not a silver bullet to lower gas prices, but there is.
It's called boosting production.
It's worked every time it's tried.
And the caller was right.
In 2008, when Bush announced the end of the Gulf drilling moratorium, this is after Katrina, folks, the barrel price of oil literally fell off of a cliff.
I have the chart.
I can show you on the ditto cam.
The price just fell.
So the caller could be right.
This could be a giant scam Obama's setting up to end his drilling moratorium in the Gulf a year from now, causing all price to plummet and gas prices to do likewise.
Wouldn't be the first time something like that happened in politics.
Trump's totally capable of it.
I'm just tweaking.
Libby in Miami, great to have you.
I'm glad you waited.
Hey, Rush, a pleasure speaking to you.
Thank you for taking my call.
Yes, sir.
Rush, I just have a quick comment getting back to Trump.
And I remember when Obama during the, you know, before he was elected, when he was anointed as the up-and-coming star of the Democrats, I remember I was overjoyed.
I was so happy.
I kept thinking, wow, if he's the best, that they have to offer a guy that has no qualifications, a guy that had no experience, a guy that even back then, there were all sorts of rumors swirling about him.
I mean, this guy, I thought it was completely, completely unelectable.
I really did.
And yet, look what happens.
And so I get a little upset when I hear the Republicans, especially the talking heads, calling Trump a joke candidate and all that stuff.
I would like to remind them that the joke candidate has already been elected.
Okay, someone that should never have even been.
I'm going to tell you something.
You and I are on the same page, pal.
I don't know why more people don't look at Obama.
Here's a blank slate that people were able to paint on it whatever they wanted, make him out to be whatever he wanted, what he was nothing.
That's right.
That's right.
And I'm telling you, I mean, I don't know if Trump's going to run or not, but one thing I do know for sure is that he's infinitely more qualified than Obama ever will be.
At least we know that he has some brains.
He's created businesses.
He's successful.
So at least we know that there are some brains back there, unlike Obama.
And another thing, in certain respects, he may be Obama's worst nightmare.
Because this guy is, he's a lieutenant.
He's not politically correct.
And really, he's got no ties to anything.
He's not part of the establishment.
And he doesn't respect Obama.
Yeah, but let me ask you a question.
Is Trump conservative?
Do you think he's a conservative?
I think he is.
I really do.
And I think more important than that, I think he's a patriot.
I think he does care for this country.
And I think he does worry about the path that we're taking.
He does see this nation slipping away and going into the inter-second rate being qualified as a second-rate nation.
He sees that.
So I do think that he is a patriot.
He's conservative.
And I think he's infinitely more qualified than Obama.
So I would much rather have Trump.
I mean, hands down.
I mean, I think this guy is highly intelligent, too.
And, you know, it does peeve me a little bit when I hear this guy is calling him a joke, when in reality, if someone like Obama can get elected, why not Trump?
And you know what?
And even if he doesn't run Rush, I think I hope Republicans will learn from him.
I really do.
Because this guy has taken out Obama directly.
This guy has taken off his gloves.
He says whatever he has to say to Obama.
Obama's not used to that.
The Democrats are not used to that kind of stuff.
I think Trump is the worst nightmare.
The Democrats are used to the Boehners and the other establishment people that before they say anything with Obama, before they say anything negative to Obama, they always preface it with some sort of a compliment.
How intelligent he is and how whatever he's doing.
I know, I know.
I'm not saying that.
I don't think he's a nightmare.
It's like McCain during the campaign.
I will not hill anybody saying his middle name.
You say who Shane, and you can't.
Saber?
I know.
I know.
Look, in a classic sense, Trump's not a conservative, folks.
You don't promise to raise tariffs on the Chikoms 25%.
That's not conservative.
You don't.
Well, no, you don't.
It's just like you don't.
People understand this thoroughly.
You remember when George W. Bush threatened to raise tariffs on imported steel?
There was an outcry.
No, you don't raise taxes, period.
And we'll raise taxes on imports.
It's just going to raise taxes.
That's not the way to deal with it.
That's protectionism.
Protectionism is a smooth hawley.
It's a death wish.
You don't.
I know.
This is why I'm always worried about populism.
Populism is not concerned.
Okay, maybe people do hate the ChiComs right now.
They fall into this notion that the ChiComs are making everything that we used to make.
That's not even true.
The ChiComs are assembling things, but not everything that comes from there is made there.
I'll give you an example.
We've got problems here, but it's not solely due to the ChiComs.
If you want to make things in America, then go pay people 98 cents an hour.
That's what the ChiComs do.
Now, the iPhone, I wish I could remember the exact numbers.
The iPhone loaded iPhone is ballparking this 300 bucks.
It would be $1,200 if it were made with every component made and all assembled in the United States.
Well, they, I mean, all it takes is for one other company to have their phone made in China, and there's no iPhone.
You know, markets are markets.
So the answer to this is not raising taxes on the iPhone 25%.
That's not going to help Americans.
It's just going to raise the price of the iPhone.
It's going to hurt Apple.
That's not how you deal with it.
You deal with it on the other end.
We're causing this problem by devaluing our dollar.
All of this is Obama's problem.
It's not the ChiCom's problem.
We're devaluing the dollar.
So, you know, Trump has got a lot of populist tendencies.
I'm bothered by them.
Okay, so people have a visceral anger at the ChiComs.
Okay, I'm going to feed that and I'm going to, I'm going to, that's not, it's populism and it might get you some votes, but it's not conservative.
It's also not conservative to not take the time to understand what Paul Ryan's Medicare proposal is.
Trump's out there ripping it to shreds and I'm convinced he doesn't know what it is.
Paul Ryan's Medicare proposals and his budget plan don't touch current retirees.
They're totally left alone.
Ryan understands full well you don't change the rules in the middle of the game on current recipients.
But at some point, people who are a long way off from getting those benefits are going to be told it's going to be different when you get to the age.
Sorry, things have changed.
This is the way it is.
So there are a number of things like this that you can say, okay, they're populists.
There's no reason as a conservative to run down Ryan's budget, but other Republicans are.
I just shared with you the Washington Whispers piece, Wall Street Journal.
Boehner has said he's not wedded to it, that he said that in the ABC interview.
But that's more, I think, along the lines of trying to please everybody than just being a populist.
Nevertheless, it doesn't take away from the fact that there's an easy explanation for why Trump is attracting a lot of attention.
And the real visceral attitude in this country among anybody but Democrats is we don't want any more of Obama.
And the fastest way to get rid of Donald Trump is for some Republican to stand up with some gonads and act like a conservative and not be afraid.
Like I said yesterday at the end of the program, what's my ideal candidate?
Fearless.
Core beliefs are such that you don't need to read a memo before you go out and make a speech.
You don't need a teleprompter.
You believe it.
You believe it to the point that every media opportunity is an education opportunity.
You welcome people who disagree with you because it's a chance to teach them.
We must do that if we're going to expand and grow as a movement.
Right now, such a person on the conservative side has not surfaced.
So here's Trump, and he's taking it to Obama.
And admit it.
That's what you've wanted for two and a half years.
Admit another thing.
To us, there's nothing superhuman about Barack Obama.
All he is to us is a threat to our nation as we've always known it.
All he is to us is somebody who is so wrong as to portend a genuine danger for the future of our kids and grandkids, whom we love, just as we love our country.
And we want this disaster stopped, and 2012 is the first chance we're going to have.
But frankly, I don't know.
I don't know a single Republican in the field who's able to stand up and say what I just said.
Have you heard it?
Have you heard anybody who would say it?
Is there anybody in our field who would refer to Obama as a disaster?
No.
They're petrified.
What they will do is say, I think the president's policies are taking the country in the wrong direction.
Yeah, that and a wet noodle will get you some fried rice.
It's far more desperate than the president's policies are taking us in the wrong direction.
His policies are illegitimate when contrasted with the United States of America as founded.
One thing, this re-election of Obama, you know, it's one thing to govern against the will of the people.
Now he's got a campaign against the will of the people, folks.
Do not underestimate what he's up against.
He's got a campaign against the will of the people.
Ben Bernanke, first ever press conference, said he thought that QE2 was effective, which makes you wonder what it was supposed to accomplish.
Stock market's still up, but nothing else is, least of all the housing market.
Supposedly, QE2 is over, and we'll see what effect that has on the stock market.
Ladies and gentlemen, because of the stress and the strain of the past three days, I have talked it over with officials here at the EIB network, and I have decided to take a couple of days away to figure out exactly where we are and where I am amidst all of it.
So Mark Stein has agreed to come in tomorrow and Friday, and I will return on Monday, eagerly awaiting your arrival at the same time.
Have a wonderful next couple of days with Mr. Stein.
They always are great days, and we'll see you back on Monday.
Well, the chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke, says that the dollar is firm.
Yeah, it keeps dropping.
He says inflation is no problem.
Gold keeps rising.
And this is the kind of stuff I need to go examine deeply.
People are lying to us, folks, and I got to get to the bottom of it.
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