https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/03/15/the-new-washington-narrative-republicans-tricking-trump-on-obamacare/The New Narrative: Republicans Tricking Trump on Obamacare
Mar 15, 2017
RUSH: There’s another (what shall we say?) narrative that has developed in Washington, D.C., and it’s about repealing and replacing Obamacare. Do you know what that narrative is? The narrative is that Donald Trump is being tricked by these rascally Republicans in the House led by Paul Ryan, that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing, that Trump’s an outsider. “He’s gotten to Washington; he finds himself overwhelmed. He’s got all these aides who’ve never worked in Washington and they’re flying blind and they don’t know how it works.
“And Paul Ryan is taking him down the sinkhole with this Obamacare legislation, and it’s the Republicans that are outsmarting Trump. It’s the Republicans that are getting everything they want and they’re turning health care into a Waterloo for Trump.” And do you realize how many times we’ve had that narrative since the campaign? How stupid, how uninformed, how inexperienced, how too much of outsider status he has? “Trump really doesn’t understand how these things work, he really doesn’t understand how these things happen.” And now we’re witnessing it again.
Despite a painfully (for some people) obvious fact: In practically every one of these instances that you can remember where Trump was just making huge mistakes, he ends up winning everything. Does anybody really believe…? I just need to ask you. And, by the way, as part of this narrative in analyzing Obamacare — the House bill Ryan version 1, Ryan version 2, whether or not we’re gonna go reconciliation, whether we’re gonna try to get 60 votes, how can we ace out the Senate parliamentarian, all of this gobbledygook — have you noticed that as part of this narrative, the entire Republican effort at repealing and replacing Obamacare fails?
By that, I mean, every bit of analysis is oriented toward how this isn’t gonna work, how it’s gonna blow up in Trump’s face. And now the meme, the narrative has shifted since everybody, quote/unquote, “knows” that it’s going to fail, how now can we blame it on the Democrats? And this is so typically Washington. “It can’t work, it won’t work, it’s impossible, it’s too big, it’s too small, it’s too complicated, we don’t have the votes, we don’t have the money,” whatever, “and so now we have to somehow find a way that when it all blows up, the Democrats get the blame.”
Even my old, former buddy Byron York has a piece today about how it looks like… I don’t have the headline in front of me. I’m paraphrasing this from my memory. But it’s about how the House Republicans are leading Trump around like he’s on a leash (and he doesn’t know where he’s going) and really, totally running the show and flummoxing Trump and confusing Trump all because they know the deep, dark crannies of the avenues and highways of legislation and Trump doesn’t. He’s just this bull in the china shop. He goes in there, does what he does, and leaves and claims victory, and they say, “That won’t work in Washington.
“He can’t just claim victory. You’ve gotta actually have victory.” I’m watching this… And there are all kinds of Trump supporters, too, who are writing op-eds warning Trump how the Republicans are tricking him. As though Trump can’t figure it out, as though Bannon can’t figure out what’s happening, as though Kellyanne Conway is… All these people say, “Donald! President Trump! Be careful! They’re tricking you! Ryan’s screwing you! Ryan’s… (stammering) President Trump, wake up,” as though Trump doesn’t know what’s going on.
I know. I’m amused, entertained, surprised to a certain extent.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Just to restate this, I’m seeing all kinds of media from Trump supporters, by the way. And folks, I don’t want anybody to misunderstand. I’m not being critical. I’m just sharing with you what I observe here, and I’m reacting to it.
Trump supporters, both in broadcast and print media, are all of a sudden afraid that Donald Trump’s being tricked. That the Republicans in Congress, led by Paul Ryan, are really snookering Trump every day, and Trump doesn’t know it, and Trump’s gotta wake up and Trump’s gotta realize this is happening. Look, I understand the fear of the guy you supported and the guy you really believed, the one person around today that you really believe can make necessary, significant changes.
It’s like your team in the Super Bowl losing. Before the game starts you’re scared to death it’s gonna happen, you’re gonna really be disappointed, you’re gonna really be let down and you can’t do anything about it for a full year. And it’s the same thing here with a politician like Trump. “Oh, my God, I hope he doesn’t get tricked!” And to believe that you have to believe that all of a sudden Trump has gone stupid, and yet people are willing to accept that that’s possible.
But there are all kinds of warnings out there. “President Trump, you’re being tricked. President Trump, you’re being snookered. President Trump, don’t tie yourself to the Republicans. President Trump, they’re taking advantage of the fact that you don’t know how Washington works and they’re trying to tell you that theirs is the only way to get –”
My only point is my confidence in Trump is not shaken. My view is that Trump is triumphing time after time after time, like last night on this tax return business. How many of you people, let me just ask you, whenever you heard, if you did last night, if you heard about or saw Rachel Maddow’s tweet, “We’ve got Trump’s tax return,” how many of you people had your heart sink?
How many of you went, “Aw, excrement”? How many of you went “Aw, John F-ing Kerry”? How many of you went immediately fatalistic? It’s the way it happens. It’s perfectly understandable. And yet look at how it ended up. Trump has the trophy again. Trump gets the hardware. These people, it blew up in their face.
And in the process, many of the allegations that they have been putting out there during the campaign transition up to now, Trump’s lying, he’s not wealthy, he’s a fake millionaire, fake billionaire, Trump’s lying, he’s in bed with the Russians. Everything they said has been disproven. Trump does make a lot of money. He pays more taxes than anybody else does, percentage-wise. It all blew up. And that’s the Trump track record. Not that he’s having rings run around him. So I would just be a little patient and confident.
