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July 29, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
30:18
July 29, 2011, Friday, Hour #3
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You know, do you know the debt ceiling has already been raised three times under Obama?
You can be excused for not knowing that.
Since the news media has never reported it.
One time was on December 28th of 2009.
Christmas, anybody?
Christmas, they said yesterday, oh my God, we're gonna be forced to raising a debt ceiling at Christmas.
The Republicans are gonna steal Christmas.
Well, Obama raised the debt ceiling.
The Democrats did December 28, 2009.
It's Friday, folks.
Let's uh go.
Live from the Southern Command in Sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
Email address L Rushbow EIB net.com.
Whatever.
You want to talk about for the most part is fair game.
Okay, let's look at some of the other news.
That's uh out there, uh, ladies and gentlemen.
Reuters, the economy grew less than expected in the second quarter as consumers spending barely rose amid higher gas prices.
Growth breaked sharply in the prior quarter.
Government report showed Friday.
Let me tell you something.
This this uh GDP rates 1.3%.
The first quarter revised down to 0.4%.
This is lower than the recent predictions, which were just lower.
This is worse than they thought it was gonna be.
Now, I remember yesterday I advanced the possibility that the numbers today were gonna be better than they thought, but I was wrong.
It was not a trick.
It's worse than they thought it was gonna be.
And they're not only revising, let me tell you something, folks.
It's it's it's worse than you think.
Not only did the second quarter growth rate come in at 1.3%, the first quarter revised down to 0.4%, but Reuters says in this story, they they're going back and they're revising down economic growth all the way back to 2007.
In this story.
The revisions go back four years, which means we have been lied to for four and a half years.
It means that even economic data can be racist.
Well, I mean, when you Yeah, you lie about Obama's economic racism.
If you disagree with Obama, it's racism.
So the economic growth is racist.
Thank you.
Exactly as I predicted would happen.
Obama's out there now saying that the recession was far worse than they had realized.
Now they're the point of going back to 2007 is to cement the whole notion that Bush did it.
Submit the whole notion that this is Bush's problem.
But doesn't all of this mean that the economists have been incredibly wrong for four years in a row now.
No, it's not Bush.
We have been lied to about the GDP since 2007.
That's when the Democrats took control of Congress, and that's the key, not Bush.
Pelosi and the Democrats took control of the House in 2007 after the 2006 elections.
That's when the lying about economic growth began.
And I mean by lying, I mean official government reports.
Official government statistics.
Everything we heard from 2007 until today was a lie.
It's been revised down today.
It was much worse.
And it coincides with the Democrats taking office.
There's a story here, ladies and gentlemen, that, Oh, before I get to it.
Fortney Pete Stark.
Do I have this on the sound bites?
Let me see here.
I'm sorry, I've got everything's all across the board here.
I gotta find number 19.
I don't even want to set this up.
This is Fortney Pete Stark.
It was last Saturday he was home in his district in Fremont, California.
Fortney Pete Stark held a town hall meeting, and here's a portion of what he said.
You've heard a lot about the debt limit.
And I guess that's I don't know how many of you are worried about it or concerned about it.
The fact is I think it's a political charade.
I'm afraid that uh Democrats have done that in the past, threatened to shut down the government.
I don't think there's a chance that it will happen.
To extend the debt limit is nothing more as people have described it, making sure that the government's credit card doesn't run out of resources.
And we all know we have more debt than we should be carrying, and there's a fight going on.
Should we raise your taxes?
Fortney Pete Stark told his own constituents that the debt limit is a political charade.
It's a political charade.
Forty P. Stark Democrat.
Same thing that we have been telling you on this program.
It's all part of the daily Armageddon now.
Every day, every week, a new Armageddon, a new crisis.
From a terribly concerned Reuters, Obama losing sleep as debt deal goes down to wire.
President Barack Obama deeply involved in trying to win a debt deal.
In fact, he's going to work through the weekend on this.
The news was just released.
Yes, our president is going to roll up the sleeves and work through the weekend to get this done.
Doing nothing, precisely what he has been doing, nothing.
He's deeply involved in trying to win the dead deal.
Working flat out, his aides say, pushing back against any impression.
Congress is sidelined the administration.
He's getting absolutely no sleep.
He's working tirelessly.
He's meeting with his economic team.
He's doing a lot of outreach.
He's tweeting.
He's exploring all kinds of possibilities for compromise, said Valerie Jarrett.
Don't make me throw up.
They insult our intelligence with this kind of story.
He's tweeting.
Yeah, he's tweeting.
Doing a lot of outreach, exploring all kinds of possibilities for compromise.
No, he's not.
Meeting with his economic team.
Okay, the architects of disaster.
Does this mean, folks, that they're going to increase the amount of flour they put in his hair to make it look gray to make it look like he's not sleeping.
Well, you know that's what Democrat presidents do.
Make their hair look grayer to make it look like they're working hard, not getting any sleep, getting older, more mature.
Well, still the crisis is of it's gone too far if the if the uh if the one is uh losing sleep over them.
We can't have that.
We can't have our esteemed dear leader losing sleep.
Folk.
Uh what would Michelle say about him losing sleep?
Well, you know, I don't want to comment, Snurtley.
I that's a simple, I wouldn't feel comfortable.
Uh she may not.
Well, she may not know that he's losing not uh losing sleep.
She probably not having any trouble sleeping.
She may not know.
It might have been news to her.
I don't know.
I have here a story.
Folks, this story is from Reuters.
This story should be running at Krauthammer Review Online.
This is the kind of story that the Crystal Standard ought to be publishing.
This is the kind of story the Wall Street Journal ought to be publishing.
And we get it from Reuters.
Reuters, listen to this.
The headline analysis.
Obama's leadership image on the line in debt saga.
This is the only story that has the truth in it.
And it's from Reuters.
And I don't know how it happened.
It's by Karen Bohan, spelled with a C, C A Air, C-A-R-E-N.
President Obama's credibility as a leader hangs in the balance along with America's gold plated credit rating as he strives to break a debt impasse with Republicans and avoid a ruinous default.
Even if a deal to raise a debt limit emerges ahead of an August 2 deadline, Obama faces a risk of being perceived as weak if he appears too willing to make concessions.
The political fallout for Obama could be far greater if there is no agreement.
A default and government debt downgrade could send the U.S. economy into another recession, potentially dooming his prospects for re-election in 2012.
Damn straight.
This is exactly what I meant in the first hour.
Obama's flat on his back.
He's the one that's in trouble.
Obama's image is the one that's up for grabs here.
Obama has destroyed the U.S. economy.
Obama and the Democrats have inflicted this damage.
It's his reputation on the line.
It's his competence we ought to be talking about.
This is the kind of story that our buds in the conservative media ought to be publishing.
Instead of telling us to cave and give away everything that we won in November, that this is the best we can get to avoid being blamed instead of writing from a position of fear.
This makes the crisis especially difficult for Obama to navigate and gives Republican lawmakers a fair amount of leverage as they push for steep spending cuts in exchange for raising a legal limit on the country's borrowing.
Stephen Wayne, professor of government, Georgetown University, quote, when you're running for re-election, you want to have a strong leadership image.
The longer there is no resolution, the weaker the president looks.
Exactly.
That's why so many of us have been telling Boehner, walk away.
Don't stop going up there.
Don't give him this.
He's the one that needs it, not you.
You.
You.
Thank you.
Stephen Wayne, the professor of government at Georgetown.
Obama's got to do something to get an agreement or state his position so clearly that he can blame the opposition party for not adhering to it, but he's not doing that.
He doesn't have a plan.
Obama could reap political gains if Republicans are perceived as overplaying their hand.
Polls so far show a mixed impact of the crisis on Obama.
A Reuters Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed a clear majority of Americans, 56% back, reducing the deficit through both spending cuts and tax increases in line with Obama's approach.
The poll found that 31% of respondents held Republican lawmakers responsible.
21% blamed Obama, 9% blamed the Democrats.
The standoff has contributed to a steady erosion in Obama's approval ratings in America from above 50% after he ordered the raid that killed bin Laden in May to current levels near 45%.
Some recent polls have shown him lagging a few points behind an unspecified Republican challenger.
Throughout the saga, Obama has sought to portray himself as the adult in the room by emphasizing his willingness to compromise.
As he and his aides have issued grave warnings about the need to strike a deal.
He hopes to draw a contrast with Republican lawmakers.
Story goes on to reiterate that it is Obama's leadership image on the line.
This is what William Buckley used to write.
This is how Republicans used to campaign.
This is our Republicans used to say well, maybe they didn't take it back.
In the 80s, Barack Obama is the one on the ropes.
Yes.
Barack Obama's the architect of the 1.3% growth rate.
9.2% unemployment.
You realize Obama in his administration told us that by this time, if we passed the porculus bill, that unemployment would be down to six and a half percent.
Now they're relying on the revised economic growth rates going back to 2007 is uh it was worse than we knew exactly it was predictable.
I predicted this is what they would do.
They're doing it.
And I I don't understand being afraid of somebody who would lose in a landslide if the election were held today.
I just coming off these November elections when nothing has changed.
We still have the independence.
And here's Reuters.
Reuters, I don't know how this got passed.
Whoever it has to get passed to end up on the wire.
President Obama's credibility as a leader hangs in the balance along with America's credit rating.
Even if a deal is struck, Obama faces a risk of being perceived as weak.
The crisis is made especially difficult for Obama to navigate.
When you're running for re-election, you want to have a strong leadership image.
He's got to do something to get an agreement, or to state his position so clearly that he can blame the Republicans for not adhering to it.
He's the one that has to have it.
All we are is the lifeline to his reelection and the refurbishing of his image.
Why would we want to do that?
A new Gallup poll.
New Gallup poll is out as the economy sags, unemployment climbs, and the debt talks dawdle.
President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to a new low and a new Gallup poll just released fines.
Obama's approval has dropped to 40% recent days.
One point below his previous low from April and a full ten points below the job approval they enjoyed as recently as June 7th after he pulled a trigger and killed bin Laden.
Well, I added that, but that's what he wants everybody to believe.
Gallup notes his job approval has hovered in the mid-40s for most of the last two months.
However, it has stumbled in the past few days, coinciding with intensification of the debt ceiling budget battle in Washington.
So here you go.
Here you go.
We're supposed to be afraid of that.
We're supposed to be afraid of that.
We're supposed to bail that out.
He's at 40.
Oh no, we can't we go.
We gotta send him a lifeline.
Send him the Bahner bill.
Yeah.
Okay, Huntington, New York.
Peter, thank you so much for waiting.
I appreciate your patience.
Great to have you here on the EIB network.
Hi.
Thank you, Rush.
Thanks for taking my call, and I want to thank you for what you do for our country and the true conservative cause.
Um here's my question.
Isn't the big issue that Obama has shoved into the uh the post-2008 budget is $800 billion in stimulus and leaving that in the budget gives us an $8 trillion over 10-year uh budget shortfall.
Where is the discussion of that?
And if you're no, you're we have discussed that's that's the baseline.
When would it when when that that gets added to the budget baseline and $800 and some odd billion gets gets automatically added every year?
That's what was spent this past year.
So the that is why this is you're exactly right.
That is why we were able to say yesterday and the day before that even if the Bahner bill was a straight budget freeze, even if we didn't spend a dime more next year than we're going to spend this year, it would be scored as a nine and a half trillion dollar cut.
Because the stimulus and a bunch of other stuff has been added to the baseline.
So you're exactly right.
It's just another way of illustrating it.
Great point, great way to do it.
You couldn't be more correct.
Brevity is a solo wit.
Edgewater, Florida.
Linda, welcome to the EIB Network at Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Megadiddos, Rush.
Thank you.
Well, I have a slightly different take on this debt crisis.
Yeah.
Uh, These are not budget talks.
It's a democratic fundraiser.
And I hope the Republicans in Washington are listening to your show, because I'm going to say it again.
It's a Democratic fundraiser.
That's why Obama and Reed are rejecting everything the Republicans are coming up with.
Obama needs a debt limit increase to give hundreds of billions again to his union mod boss buddy who sent the money in the last election to his uh liberal base.
And uh I think Booner needs to have some cojones and stick to a balanced budget and decrease, you know, Washington's reckless spending.
You say Boner needs to have some cojones.
Well, yeah.
He keeps changing his bills or whatever that he wants to send to the Senate.
And, you know, he needs to include the balanced budget and continue on.
I mean, we did send Tea Party to Washington to hold up.
Well, I think actually losing government making way for jobs.
Well, I think folks, I think Linda's right in part.
I I think I think this is a fundraising effort.
All this denial is supposed to this supposed to uh enthuse uh and invigorate Democrat donors, and it's also to generate another slush fund so Bomba can send to the unions that will then just send the money back to him as far as campaign.
I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Who's next?
Donna, Millvale, Pennsylvania.
Great to have you on the program.
Hi.
Hello.
It's actually Millville, but that's okay.
It's so nice to talk to you, Rush.
What what what is it?
Millville.
What did I say?
Mill Vale.
Millvale.
Yeah, that is a Millville, Pennsylvania channel.
Usually, yeah, I know.
That's why uh okay.
It's uh usually Snerdley's mistake, but this one was mine.
I'm sorry.
You're rarely mistaken.
I know, that's why it's such a big deal.
Well, I must thank you first of all for doing what you do every day.
Um it helps keep my blood pressure down knowing that I'm not alone.
But I wanted to bring up the fact that um well, first of all, my husband was a small business owner, but now unfortunately he has has to be on disability.
And I would like to draw up eyeball to eyeball to the president and say, if you don't want to send a social security check, don't.
That's okay.
I'm not afraid.
Because this is worth it, this fight.
Oh, God bless you.
I I don't think Washington understands how many people like you there are out there.
I don't think they understand.
I know they think that people are are are angry.
I don't think they get it.
I don't think they know that none of them are safe.
No, they don't understand.
They that when they uh the president implied that we didn't understand what debt ceiling meant.
We live with that in our household every day.
Of course.
Exactly right.
Exactly right.
Look, our founders put their lives in sacred honor on the line.
We can't put a few checks on the line.
No, some of them won't.
I I was in Boston last weekend, and I remembered that call when I was there.
We're driving along the Moss Turnpike.
And I remember that call we got from that woman, that mother, grandmother, who was opposed to any tax cut because she didn't want any cuts in her social security.
And I said, Well, what about your kids?
Raise their taxes too.
Raise their taxes.
I'm not doing without my social security.
I wish I could remember her name.
She's no longer with it.
Carolyn and Grafton.
That's exactly right.
It's exactly who it was.
Carolyn and Grafton just off the Moss Turnpike.
Exactly right.
Way to go.
But if we can't put a few checks at risk to do this, when our founders put their lives and their sacred honor on the line.
Well.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Easy for me to say.
Even if they take it all away, I'm still going to have it's not some left snerdily enough.
I'm going to have enough left.
See, I really none of this affects me.
I'm not really hitting these guys hard enough.
Right.
Thank you very much, Donna.
Here's John in Fairfax, Virginia.
Great to have you on the program.
Hello.
Rush, it's nice to speak with you.
You bet.
Thank you.
Hey, I think what Boehner and the Republicans need to understand is the only way to get the Democrats to agree to reduce spending is to force their hand.
And I think the way you do that is for the House to send a bill to the Senate that orders the Treasury Department that on August 2nd, regardless of whether the debt debt limit is raised, that they have to pay the military and send the seasoned citizen payments out.
Things like that, and that's it.
They could have done that.
I know.
They could have did it.
They didn't did it.
Don't know why.
But they could have.
Well, then what I was thinking was if the Democrats block it, they take the blame.
And then eventually when the Treasury runs out of money, the President will have no choice but to furlough the bureaucrats at the EPA and the Education Department everywhere.
He won't have any choice.
They don't want that to happen.
They're all Washington creatures.
It's either or they're afraid of the blowback that uh that would happen.
I don't discount the irrelevance, the importance of fear.
Well, I understand.
Wait a minute.
Now I'm being told they did pass that.
I've I've just got to note that they have passed that.
Well, then what happened?
I mean, if if that's it, then they shouldn't do anything else.
Forget about the Boehner plan.
That's not going to do anything.
Let's go.
Well, that's right.
Take it.
The House passed it, the Senate, of course, didn't.
Well, of course.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Of course.
Well, then when the Treasury runs out of money, the President will have no choice.
No, because the Senate didn't pass it, so it's it's not, and Obama didn't say it was introduced by Bachman.
It was called the uh the Promise Act.
The House passed it, but it went nowhere in the Senate, so it's not law.
Okay, well, that's why we gotta keep winning elections, is what all of this illustrates.
They have to keep winning elections.
Need more Tea Party people up there.
All right.
Look, I appreciate the uh the call, John.
A brief, very brief time out.
Back soon, before you uh know it.
Not enough time to go to the bathroom here, folks.
Ellie in Akron, Ohio.
I'm glad you waited.
You're next on the program.
Great to have you here.
Okay, thank you so much, Rosh.
God bless you for all you do.
You bet, thank you.
I just have a great idea.
Uh Jim Jordan, he's from Ohio.
He's been uh he's well, God bless him.
He's standing up against Mr. Boehner, and I and and uh in order to help him out, I think what I'm going to do over the weekend, I am going to the bank, I'm gonna get a bunch of dollar bills, and I'm gonna put a dollar bill in an envelope and address it to j Mr. Jordan and all the Ohio Congress uh folks that have voted against the Boehner bill,
and I'm going to close put put that dollar bill in an envelope and then close a note with it saying, Mr. Jordan, this one dollar bill is my first contribution to your re-election campaign.
And I'm going to do that with all my Ohio Tea Party Congress people who are standing firm with Mr. Jordan.
Let me explain to the audience what you mean, because it's a good point.
I have I have not mentioned this today, and I I need to do this.
Jim Jordan, as she so aptly described, a Tea Party Republican who is resisting all pressure to cave.
And speaking publicly about it.
Well, as happens in politics, this is common, folks.
This is not something unique to Mr. Jordan.
The Republican leadership is telling him that if he doesn't get in line, they'll write his district out of existence.
They'll just not even find a somebody to run against her to primary, they'll just garrymander his district out of existence.
That's what they're telling him.
Now, here's what I think is different.
And you can tell by the nature here of Ellie's call.
What'll happen?
If the Republican leadership does this to Jim Jordan, the Tea Party will find somebody to run against some of these Republicans in their so-called safe districts, and they will be primaried.
This is what I mean when I say I don't think establishment Washington understands how serious people are out here.
Members of Congress in both parties who think they're in safe districts where their reelection is guaranteed, are possibly going to find out that they're not.
If they take action such as has been threatened against Jim Jordan.
And it's common.
Now Jim Jordan opposes Boehner 3.0.
He's not, he's not wavering.
He gets it.
He's standing firm on this too.
So he's become a bigger target of the Republican leadership than Harry Reid is.0
is still by the from what I'm hearing now.
People are switching their votes, and it looks like an easy pass.
That's the latest I've heard.
But Boehner 3.0 is not where this is going to end up.
Don't forget, there is secret plan C that Boehner 3.0 will likely become.
But we wouldn't even be at this point were it not for people like Jim Jordan and the rest of the Tea Party hobbits.
And we really do owe them a debt of gratitude.
They are showing how courageous people can still make a real difference.
And it's good to see that this is still possible in America.
And it's good to see that we can find people, send them to Washington, who are not going to act in fear.
Who are not going to succumb to the normal ways of Washington.
Who won't be bought off with a committee assignment.
I think it was funny he sounded like a sweet play today.
Gloria Borger and F. Chuck Todd.
Beside themselves, could not understand it.
Somebody, you can't buy them off F. You can't give them money.
You can't give them a committee assignment.
And somebody said, but that's actually refreshing.
Well, yeah, but I mean, God, it's uh compromise.
Compromise.
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