Democrats Continue to Accuse Republicans of Economic SabotageJuly 1, 2011
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RUSH: Here's Chuck Schumer. Chuck-U Schumer is on offense again, and Dick Turban, too. This is about the Republicans sabotaging the United States economy.
SCHUMER: (condescendingly) We need to start asking yourselves an uncomfortable question: Are Republicans slowing down the recovery on purpose (pause) for political gain in 2012? And now it's becoming clear that insisting on a slash-and-burn approach may be part of this plan. It has a double benefit for Republicans: It's ideologically tidy, and it undermines economic recovery which they think only helps them in 2012. If the public comes to believe that Republicans are deliberately sabotaging the economy, it will backfire politically.
RUSH: This is really so audacious it's unbelievable. They are sabotaging the economy, Barack Obama is. Let me ask: If Republicans are sabotaging the economy, why is the Texas economy so strong? Republican governor. Why is North Dakota's economy booming? Republican governor. Why is New Jersey's economy on the rebound? Republican governor. Is Governor Christie sabotaging that economy or is he rescuing it? How about Wisconsin? How about Indiana? How about Ohio? We got Scott Walker, we got Mitch Daniels, we got John Kasich. Those states are on the rebound economically. Republican governors. Are they sabotaging their state economies? The facts say they are rescuing their states. Did Reagan or Carter policies sabotage the US economy? I ask you.
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RUSH: I'll tell you what's shaping up here, folks, in the Fourth of July: It's the Democrat Party versus America. That Harvard study yesterday pretty much enables me to say it. It's Obama versus America. It's the left versus America. That's where we are.
Now, as for Chuck-U Schumer: Pressed by a reporter on whether he really believes the Republicans want to destroy the economy on purpose, he went further than ever before and took it out of the realm of a hypothetical. He said, "It's a thought that you don't want to believe but every day they keep giving us more and more evidence that there's no choice but than to answer yes." So where's the evidence, Mr. Schumer? Show us this evidence of Republican sabotage of the economy. Where have the Republicans had the votes or the power to do anything?
No Republican idea on the economy has been accepted since 2007. Everything that's happened in the economy has come from Pelosi or Harry Reid and Barack Obama. The Republicans haven't had the votes. They only have the votes in the House of Representatives now, but nothing they've tried has passed. They prevailed to an extent back in December during the lame-duck session. So where's the evidence they have sabotaged the economy? And here's Dick Durbin. He was on Hardball last night with Chris Matthews, and after Matthews played the Schumer bite that we just played, Matthews said, "Senator Durbin, what's your view on that charge? Is it true?"
DURBIN: Mitch McConnell started this session with a very clear pronouncement: His highest legislative priority was to make sure that Barack Obama was a one-term president. We bring up garden-variety bills that used to pass by a voice vote like the extension of the Economic Development Administration which creates jobs across America; they inundate them with hundreds of amendments on every topic under the sun and then won't allow us to go forward with the final passage of the bill. You have to say to yourself: If they're trying to help create jobs in America, why are they killing the bills on the floor of the Senate that will create jobs?
RUSH: Because there aren't any bills on the floor of the Senate that will create jobs, because jobs are not created in the Senate, Senator Durbin. This is the guy, Durbin, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, who before an audience of illegal aliens and immigrants, looking out at them (maybe a couple days ago) said, "I could be looking at a future president of the United States here," and in the audience were illegal immigrants. Pandering. Speaking of sabotage, both Schumer and Durbin are pushing for yet another stimulus, which is another failure. Why isn't that called sabotage? We know stimulus doesn't work. All the stimulus did was drive up the debt. The fact of the matter is it's policies enacted by Obama, Schumer, Durbin, and so forth that are sabotaging the US economy!
Obama said so, Obama said as much -- he wants to transform the US economy -- and now they're trying to turn this around. This is classic. Again I ask: Am I trying to sabotage the economy with Two If By Tea? Am I trying to sabotage the economy? How about, again, Tennessee's economy? It's the fifth best in the United States; it's run by a Republican. If Republicans are sabotaging the economy, why is the Texas economy so strong, and why is its governor, Rick Perry, all of a sudden now considered a viable presidential candidate? Because he's sabotaging the economy? North Dakota's economy is booming.
Republicans in Washington want what has worked in Texas and Tennessee and North Dakota. They want low taxes; a business-friendly, limited government. That's not sabotage. That's rescue!
Why is New Jersey's economy on the rebound? Governor Christie, is he sabotaging the economy, or is he rescuing it? Again, Scott Walker, Mitch Daniels, John Kasich -- Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio -- the facts say that they are rescuing their states. Ronaldus Magnus, Jimmy Carter. Which policies sabotaged the US economy? The facts say Carter. The Democrats, of course, say Reagan. Big government undermines the private sector. The private sector is the economy. Liberals weaken or sabotage economies; conservatives stimulate and rescue them. Regulation, spending, taxes, all of that sabotages growth. They undermine the private sector, they destroy economies (see Greece and California for more details) and yet they won't give up on this. Here's Bob Shrum, perennial presidential consultant loser. Last night on MSNBC Live he was on with the anchor Cenk Uygur. Question: "Are Republicans that cynical? My answer is an overwhelming, 'yes,' but I'm curious as to your answer."
SHRUM: I think there is a conscious strategy. I call it "ruin in order to rule." I think their calculation are sending into a second recession or reverse the recovery. I think their calculation is they benefit politically. It's a reckless gamble if the Republicans do it. It's irresponsible, but I think it is a conscious strategy.
RUSH: Who was it, ladies and gentlemen, that said back in the early 2000s -- shortly after 911 I believe it was. Who was it that said, gleefully, happily, (clapping), with a smile on his face: "For every 100 point drop in the stock market, we pick up a seat in the House"? "Little Dick" Gephardt is exactly right. Dick Gephardt, who was then the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives, was celebrating a plummeting stock market. He was celebrating a plummeting stock market and calculating how much it would help his party pick up seats in the House of Representatives. Really, it's hilarious. These people are pathetic!
Just look at how the Democrats and the news media did everything in their power to talk the economy into a recession. We were at 5% unemployment and we had 3.3% growth back in 2007, and they were out there talking recession! They were trying to convince everybody in the country that we were in a recession for seven years during the Bush presidency. The problem is this isn't a joke. These people are playing a political game here, but what they're doing is real. Their sabotage is real! Karl Rove had a piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. It's one of these (summarized), "Yeah, man, you can attack Obama's policies and you can attack his incompetence and all but don't attack his motivations. It won't fly. Don't attack his motivations, and don't go after his character. Just go ahead and say..."
So I need... I'm not trying to be smart aleck here. Given that, can I say Obama's policies are ruining the country or is that going over the line? Is that unproductive? I don't know how you separate this, is the point. I don't know how you separate the policies from the guy, and I don't know how you separate the policies from the motivation. When somebody's doing something that is destroying something, and they don't stop in the middle of the destruction, what are you to think? "Well, they're just stubborn. Well, they're just obstinate." Okay, stubborn, obstinate, stupid, whatever. The bottom line is we're gonna find out what kind of country we are, and I think we got a pretty good answer in November's elections in 2010. The next chance, of course, is November 2012.
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Elliott, Wilmette, Illinois. I'm glad you waited, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call. It's a great pleasure, one I'm afraid you will never know -- and I'm gonna tell you why: You're never gonna know this pleasure because William F. Buckley never had a call-in show.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: But in any event --
RUSH: That's right, he didn't.
CALLER: But before I get to my comment, do me a favor and ask them in Joplin how many other countries came to help. But my comment was from earlier this week. When Obama was talking about raising taxes or this or that on a billionaire or anybody else, what he's missing -- and most other Democrats are missing -- is that taxes are essentially voluntary. It doesn't sound like it because you're required to pay something. But how much you end up paying is voluntary based on how you want to live your life, and let me know if I'm missing something. I could be wrong on this, but if you don't like the taxes you're paying, you organize your life differently. That's why the yacht builders went out of business years ago when they said, "Well, people building yachts don't pay enough taxes and so we're going to soak 'em."
RUSH: No, I know exactly what you're saying. What Elliott is saying here, he is adequately describing the dynamics that accompany a policy. Policymakers in Washington sit there and they look at the economy and they see a number, whatever it is, and they say, "Okay, we need that number to be bigger, so we're gonna go out and we're gonna raise taxes on people." They just assume that people are going to say, "Oh, my taxes are going up? Fine. I'll pay," and then, "In order to get the money we're gonna raise taxes on yachts, that's what we're gonna do!"
Well, two things happened: The people who buy yachts go buy them where there aren't any new tax increases on them, which is in another country (which is easy to do), and then what happens? Not only is there not any new tax revenue, the people who are making yachts in America which are no longer being bought get fired, get laid off. So this grand plan to raise taxes on yachts to increase revenue to Washington ends up with less revenue and more unemployment, and yet the people that bought yachts still bought 'em, still got 'em. They just didn't pay any new taxes on them. That's the dynamic reaction to policy.
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RUSH: Here's Joel in Phoenix. Joel, great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I don't think it's so crazy to think that Republicans are sabotaging this economy. I mean they ran on a platform of jobs being their number one priority, and they haven't done a single thing to, you know, even propose a jobs program. Now, down here in Arizona, we've got firefighters we could use. The feds could dump some firefighters in here, hire some. Up in Minot, North Dakota, I'm sure they could do some flood relief --
RUSH: Those are not jobs. You're talking about --
CALLER: Those aren't jobs?
RUSH: No, no, no, those are not jobs that build and grow an economy. You're talking about the federal government coming in with disaster relief, which is temporary. You say the Republicans haven't proposed a jobs program? Every tax cut proposed is a jobs program. Every program, every proposal that shrinks the size of government is a jobs program. Every proposal that reduces regulations and removes shackles from businesses and how they can conduct themselves, is a jobs program. Republicans haven't introduced a jobs program? I just got through talking about all of these states, Republican governor states where jobs are being created left and right, many of these states with no income taxes, by the way.
Republicans are all about creating jobs. Republicans are capitalists and it's capitalism that produces jobs and creates jobs. And capitalism, by the way, will take care of the temporary need for firefighters and whatever in Minot and in Arizona. Government doesn't create jobs. Government transfers wealth around. It doesn't create anything. It destroys it, pure and simple. At the federal level the Republicans haven't had the votes to pass anything that they've proposed since 2007. Since 2007 everything that's happened in this country to cause us to engage in all this economic misery has been because of Democrats: Pelosi, Reid, then Obama taking office in 2009. Republicans have not had the votes to stop anything, and they haven't had the votes to pass anything yet. But the November 10 elections are an indication of what's coming, because in the November 10 elections people en masse in this country, federal all the way down to state elections said they don't want any more of what the Democrats are doing.
Every cut of federal or state regulations is a jobs program. The Bush tax cut extension was a jobs program. Even Obama said so. Last December in the lame duck, Obama himself said, because of the state of the economy we cannot afford to sunset the Bush tax cuts for two more years. What Obama was saying was, because of my reelection, I can't afford to raise taxes right now. So what he's doing to coalesce his base, he is promising his fringe base that once he's reelected, he will raise taxes on the rich. He's not gonna do it now because it would further harm the economy, which would further harm his reelection chances, which are already in serious doubt as it is.
The Republicans are all about job creation. The Republicans are all about freedom. The Republicans are all about liberty, conservative Republicans particularly. Conservative Republicans are going to be the ones responsible for reversing this course. Conservative Republicans are going to save this country. Scott Walker in Wisconsin -- I talked about it yesterday -- just by requiring state workers to pay a little bit into their own pensions and health care, has turned a $400,000 deficit in one school district into a one-and-a-half-million-dollar surplus overnight by cutting state spending. Obama says you can't cut your way to prosperity. You must certainly can, and we must. We can't afford what we're spending now.
The truth is, Joel, I gotta tell you. We don't have the money. If you get down to brass tacks, we don't have the money to send any more firefighters to Arizona. We don't have the money to send any more sandbags to Minot in Dakota. We don't have the money. We're not gonna have the money to do anything if the people in charge stay in charge. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling is a jobs program, Joel. Everything that conservative Republicans are talking about and doing in New Jersey, in Ohio, in Wisconsin, in Texas, is a jobs program.
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RUSH: Dennis, Kansas City, Missouri, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I just wanted to remind you about Chuck Schumer. It was him that let leak the IndyMac situation and called a run on those banks, and I don't think he was doing that to protect the depositors.
RUSH: You know, that's an excellent point. It was Chuck-U Schumer who actually started that whole mess with the run on banks.
CALLER: (chuckling)
RUSH: You're right. What was it, IndyMac?
CALLER: Yeah, IndyMac.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I wanted to talk about "shared sacrifice," too. I didn't run this by Snerdley, but I just wanted to bring up the point: Barack Obama is always talking about shared sacrifice. What about the 37% of the people that pay zero income tax on their federal earnings? Why can't they pay at least 5%? Wouldn't that be shared?
RUSH: Yeah, exactly. Well, "shared sacrifice" to Obama is simply tax increases on the rich and redistribution of their wealth. That's all shared sacrifice is.
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