Behind Closed Doors, We Hear What Barack Obama Really Thinks
April 15, 2011
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, it's interesting about Obama. We really learn... Now, those of you who need to learn. Let me preface this by saying I don't need Obama being fooled into thinking nobody's listening to him when he speaks to find out what he really believes. I know Obama like every square inch of my glorious naked body, because I understand Democrats. I understand liberals. And I'm not afraid to tell people that. "In what [Obama] thought was a private chat with campaign donors Thursday evening, President Obama offered the most revealing behind-the-scenes account to date of his budget negotiations with GOP leaders last week," and it's always amazing. When he thinks nobody's listening is when he opens up.
That's when we got the bitter clinger comment during the campaign of 2008 when he was out in San Francisco. "CBS Radio News White House correspondent Mark Knoller listened in to an audio feed of Mr. Obama's conversation with donors after other reporters traveling with the president had left the room." They thought the event was over. Sometimes reporters are ushered out during a fundraiser but somehow the mike was left open, and the phone lines back to the White House were still operative. The only time we get to hear anything even approximating what Obama really thinks is when he thinks nobody will find out. "In the candid remarks, Mr. Obama complains of Republican attempts to attach measures to the budget bill which would have effectively killed parts of his hard-won health care reform program." Here's what he said. Last night in Chicago, closed-door campaign fundraiser, this a portion of what he said when he didn't think anybody would hear it.
OBAMA: I said, "You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?" We're happy to have the debate. We'll have the debate on the floor of the Senate or the floor of the House. Put it in a separate bill. We'll call it up -- and if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don't try to sneak this through.
RUSH: Now, does he sound confident to you? You know, the question has been posited vis-a-vis the budget battle with Boehner and the Republicans this past week: Was Obama beaten or does he sound pretty confident there, go ahead, you want to have a debate I'll have be glad to have a debate with you but don't try to sneak anything in on me. Nobody was trying to sneak anything. The only thing I can think of he might be talking about was, was an effort to defund the $105 billion in the health care bill that implements it. I don't know what we were sneaking around trying to stop. Everybody knows we're trying to defund it. Ah, ah, ah! Everybody knows we said we were trying to defund it. But he says he wants the debate just don't try to sneak it. He then went on and said don't you dare try to put your agenda in that budget, you're not gonna fool me that way. Don't put your agenda in the budget? What is his agenda? His whole agenda is in every piece of legislation somebody else writes that he ends up suspecting the. Here's a little more of what he said.
OBAMA: Let me tell you, that -- I -- I -- I -- I'm -- I'm grayer and, you know, I'm a little dinged up. I know there are times where some of you have felt frustrated because we've had t'compromise with the Republicans on some issues. There have been times people are frustrated 'cause we didn't get everything done in the first two years. There have been times where I felt the same way.
RUSH: So the way we look at it is he practically had a free ride here. There's nobody except us really going after him, and he still worries about that heat. Imagine if the Republicans weren't afraid of him. Can you imagine if this guy got the same degree of criticism or the same degree of vetting or the same degree of suspicion that reporters grant everybody else with this kind of power? He mighta cracked. He simply can't deal with it. He doesn't expect that he should get it. He thinks he's above it.
He's frustrated we've had to compromise with the Republicans on some issues. There have been times frustrated we didn't get everything done in the first two years. (The audience is murmuring and so forth.) There comes this vaunted notion of compromise once again. There's Obama basically telling you that he doesn't like it, either, yet everybody on the left is telling us compromise is how we're gonna define greatness going forward. Compromise is hour we are going to make sure that we save our nation. Everybody working together. It sounds like he doesn't like it, either, and he hasn't been compromising much.
He didn't have to start compromising until after the November elections, folks, and then he wasn't so much compromising as trying to fool people. But look at what he did compromise on, that's the Bush tax cuts. Well, that was what, for four months? Now he's back on the warpath to get rid of those and start raising everybody's taxes now. Imagine if Obama had deponent just a smidgen, anywhere near the negative press that Sarah Palin has gotten. He'd be in a rubber room! He would be in a padded cell. And whatever compromise he made, which is the Bush tax cuts, he's now reneging on those. But he doesn't sound dinged up to me. He doesn't sound like he's just been to the mat with the Republicans and barely came out alive. It doesn't sound that way at all. This morning on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos talked to Obama and said, "Why should Americans reelect you?"
OBAMA: We have gone through two-and-a-half of the most challenging years that we've seen since the Great Depression. Not only have we been able to stabilize the financial system and get the economy to grow again, not only have we now produced, uhhh, over, uhhh, 1.8 million jobs, uh, just, uh, in the last year, but what we've also been able to do is t'make this society a lot fairer, more competitive. We still have enormous challenges. I think I'm equipped, uhh, to help us, uhh, finish the job.
RUSH: The country's falling apart! He hasn't created 1.8 million jobs! You know, there's a story today: Gasoline prices are continuing to rise, and I swear the story says, "as expected" somewhere in it involving the price increase, the increasing price of gasoline at the pump. It's expected! Oh, okay. It's expected now. It's no big deal. Gasoline price going up? Fine. Everybody knew it was coming. It's not a problem, nothing to look at here, no reason to be mad. When it was inching toward $4 a gallon, all civilization was gonna fall apart. That dastardly, evil Bush was in bed in the oil guys and Bush was getting rich personally and Bush didn't care how much it cost you!
There was story after story after story about the economic consequences of a rising energy price, a gasoline price like that. It'd shut down economic activity, shut down the travel business, shut down the leisure industry. "Oh, my gosh, what's ahead for us! It's horrible," and it was all Bush sucks. Now, as we tick up toward $5 a gallon, "Hey, that's cool. It's expected." His reelect numbers are down -- I don't care what poll you look at -- and any people talking about Obama in a reelection context are having to act. The numbers are not good. Trump's leading the pack. Trump beats him in a number of polls in addition to beating some of these Republican nominees. There's a reason. People ask me all the time, "Why do people like Trump so much? Trump's not new. People know Donald Trump."
Donald Trump is taking it to Obama and the Democrats the way people wish elected Republicans would take it to the Democrats. This is serious. This is not beanbag. We're not talking about lackadaisical, haphazard policy things that might trouble us for a while. We're talking about things that if they are not reversed are gonna totally alter the structure of this country in a way that will limit the chances for prosperity and the opportunity for economic liberty for people's children and grandchildren. It's very serious. This is something about which people should be really mad! The engine of creativity, the engine of prosperity is under assault. People should be mad about that. Trump sounds mad about it. People respond to that. People want it taken to the people they think are responsible for this economic downturn. They don't want to compromise with 'em. It's that simple.
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RUSH: Yeah, Obama said, "What do they think we're stupid?" He's asking of the Republicans, "Do they think we're stupid?" Meaning, "They think that we're gonna fall for them trying to sneak something by us?" and then Obama goes on to say he created 1.8 million jobs? Yeah, stupid may not be the word but it certainly could be asked of you: "Do you think we're stupid, Mr. President?" I don't think there's any question.
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