Boehner Should Tell Obama: "Call When You're Ready to Talk Cutting Spending, Not Raising the Ceiling"
July 11, 2011
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: What Boehner should do is go play golf with Obama at Obama's favorite course. Folks, I'm serious when I said the Republicans don't have to do anything here. This is all on the Democrats. It's all on them. I know the pressure is just the opposite. The pressure is on, Obama's gonna compromise and put his Medicare stuff and entitlements on the table, he's gonna make Pelosi mad. I don't think they care about Pelosi anymore, frankly. I think she been marginalized. I really don't think they care. I think she in fact embarrasses them. In fact, she did embarrass them. There was a meeting last Thursday up there at the White House, and Pelosi had been running around on junkets and she hasn't been in all the meetings, and she shows up at this meeting and she said, (paraphrasing) "Look, why don't we just decouple the deficit and the national debt from the debt limit and just do these things separately," and the room was shocked and stunned.
The report said that Obama looked at her and politely told her that that train had left the station months ago. So there was a scramble from Pelosi's office to put out a release, (paraphrasing) "Leader Pelosi of course is fully up to speed on all going on in the talks," blah, blah, blah, blah. And Steny Hoyer put a press release out praising Leader Pelosi and so forth. But I really think she's not really much of a factor in all this. It is all on the Democrats. Public pressure of course is compromise, gotta do this or Republicans gotta give, Obama's gotta give. That's the way it's always been done, and look where it's gotten us. So go play golf at Obama's favorite course and say to him, "Mr. President, when you're ready to cut spending, you let me know." Otherwise Ramadan hits August 1st, and the debt limit goes up August 2nd. Well, that's why the August 2nd deadline, folks, we don't want to offend anybody. We don't want our debt limit to offend 'em during Ramadan.
When you boil it all down, it's the point: big cutting. It will occur automatically. The debt automatically gets serviced, unless Obama doesn't want it to, and then the rest of the government gets cut accordingly. If we don't do anything, that's what would happen. Forget your own life for a second, 'cause there's so many ways that you can get help for your problem, you get government to forget your mortgage, but let's say you're playing Monopoly, and you're rolling the dice and you're going around the board and you've accumulated a couple monopolies. You got St. James Place in the orange monopoly, you've got Marvin Gardens in the yellow monopoly, you put a couple houses on all these things, and something happens.
Your opponent has boardwalk and Park Place and you land on 'em, he's got a couple houses, you get cleaned out, you don't have any cash. You've got to sell a couple of houses from your mortgaged properties or you quit the game. In order to stay in the game you start mortgaging the stuff in order to pay rent, in order to pay your bills. You don't go to Community Chest or Chance and draw a card that says government bails you out of your mortgage. It's not in the stack. So pretend you're playing monopoly and you're in that situation. This is what's gonna happen to the government. We will start cutting things in order to pay our bills. It's that simple. These discussions -- and here's my point about this -- these discussions, these negotiations, if you will, between Boehner and Cantor, the Republicans and Obama and whoever else is in them are supposed to be about how to manage the cuts in spending. These talks are not about new revenues. These talks are not about new taxes and all the rest.
This is supposed to be about cutting spending to stay under the ceiling. As Republicans and conservatives if you show up to a raise the debt ceiling meeting, you're lost. You have already lost if you show up to a raise the debt ceiling meeting. We're showing up at a meeting where the debt ceiling is about to be exceeded. We're talking about seeing to it that that doesn't happen. We are talking, or should be, about cutting spending to stay under the ceiling. That's what voters in 2010 voted, am I right? That's what we're going to be voting on in 2012. That is what we are saying now. Cut spending to stay under the debt ceiling, and it will get cut automatically unless they do something else, and that is why we're in the driver's seat. This is why we can make Obama cave, if every day in these meetings is like Saturday night was, or Sunday night was. Actually, it occurred before Sunday. 'Cause Boehner puts out his release on Saturday saying I called the White House and said to hell with this big deal, we're not doing it. And even Boehner wanted a big deal at one time.
So just keep doing what you're doing, Mr. Speaker. Make every day like Sunday night was in the meetings. We are here to talk about cutting spending. We are here to make sure we come in under the debt limit. We are in the driver's seat. This is also why, in my humble talk show host opinion, that they need to get out in front of this and explain that Obama wants more taxes, more government, more spending, and he will destroy what's left in the economy. That needs to be said. The economy was X when Obama took office. A portion of it has been destroyed, or gravely damaged. However you want to put it. And more of the same will happen if something doesn't change. And they need to pound this a hundred times a day.
Get in front of it. Explain, don't just make excuses and be on defense and say we're not raising taxes in a recession, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's fine to do that, but explain by getting out in front of it what Obama wants. Tell us what's going on in the meetings. Not exact words, don't give up any confidences, but you can simply say what Obama policy is. He wants more taxes, he wants more government, despite what he said today, he wants more spending, and he will destroy what's left of the economy. That's what he wants and the Republicans know that that's what he wants. The simple little strategery, and it's called going on offense. They just have to say "no." And, you know, that's hard. I mean I will admit, saying "no," 'cause then you gotta deal with what people's reaction is. You know it and I know it.
A lot of people want to say no to a lot of stuff and they never do because they would prefer to take the path of lease resistance. So a lot of people get themselves in circumstances that utterly make them miserable because they don't say "no." Very hard to do, to say "no." But they did it, over the weekend somehow Boehner did it before the meeting on Sunday and when he got to the meeting on Sunday he stood firm on the "no." Tell the American people what's going on in there, tell the American people what Obama wants. That's how you explain your own position, by the way. That's what we do right here on this program. We explain liberalism more honestly than they do.
I explain to you, the members of this audience, what liberalism is and who liberals are and what their objectives are, what they want to do, better than they do, 'cause I'll do it honestly. They won't because they can't. They can't be honest about what they want. Like Obama today can't be honest. (imitating Obama) "I'm not doing this just to grow the government." Yes, he is. "I'm not doing this just because I like more spending." Yes, he is. It's not my opinion. We got two and a half years of a track record. There's no doubt. It's inarguable to assert Obama wants bigger government and more spending. You can't argue with them on it. I mean you could try but you are in quicksand. So a hundred times a day, make sure that they say Obama wants more taxes, more government, more spending, more of the same, fewer jobs, a constantly hurting economy.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Obama wants to isolate Boehner, isolate him from the Republican base and conservatives generally and then he hopes he can wear him down. So Boehner just needs to stand strong and not buckle. I just saw that Boehner's doing a presser at 1:30. He's gonna answer Obama. That's a good sign. I would love to hear some things in the presser. We're not gonna JIP it, but we'll be rolling on the tape, and we will have any highlights after he finishes.
This is what it boils down to. If Boehner holds firm, it'll be Obama and his reelection team that gets choked up and starts crying, not Boehner, if he holds firm. Right now John Boehner is more than just the speaker of the House and a negotiator in the debt ceiling deal. Right now, as far as Obama is concerned, John Boehner is the lifeline to Obama's political future. Oh, yeah. If Obama can get Boehner to cave, if you look at it that way, and Obama's out there saying if they don't budge, there's no deal. Fine! If there's no deal, then we start cutting. The law of the land right now is the current debt ceiling. That's the law of the land. If we don't do anything and write a new law, guess who's gonna be in violation of it if they don't abide by it? Obama and the Democrats, not us.
Right now Obama looks at Boehner and sees his route to reelection by getting Boehner to cave. That's a lot of pressure to be under for Boehner. But that's the way Obama has set this up.
Now, if the Republicans are to save the country -- this is axiomatic -- if the Republicans are to save the country, they cannot allow the Democrats to rebuild their party on the backs of snookered Republican leaders. 'Cause we're playing for keeps here, short term, long term, you name it. The Democrats had their chance in Obama's first two and a half years in office, and their actions told us who they are and what they believe. Their actions told us where they want to take the country. We got the evidence now, folks. And what Obama's doing is pretending here that a raise in the debt ceiling is sort of a truce, a grand spirit of compromise, party's coming together to do what's best for the country, yada yada yada. But it's no such thing.
What it is, raising the debt ceiling and the snooker, making sure that there are all these new spending increases, but no tax cuts, just like 1990, just like 1982, it's an opportunity for Obama to reload for his 2012 reelection effort. That's what's wrapped up in this. Make no mistake about it. That's, as far as Obama's concerned, that's what this negotiation is all about. He doesn't care about the debt ceiling or any of that, in a passionate policy sense. It's a marker along the way. He wants more government; he wants more spending. And of course he needs the debt ceiling raised in order to do that. But the only way he gets there is by forcing a giant Republican cave, and if he can make that happen, that's his ticket, that's his lifeline to 2012.
I'm sorry, somebody tell me I'm wrong, but that's how I see it. That's why the pressure on Boehner is enormous. But not from us. The pressure to compromise is not from us. It's not from his base. It's not from his voters. Obama's essentially saying, "John, I need you to be reelected." That's what Obama is saying. That's the negotiations boiled down to one sentence. That is the whole ball of wax boiled down to one sentence: "John, I need you to get reelected in 2012." (interruption) What, you disagree with me on that, Snerdley? It's exactly what it means. "I need you, bud. Let's go play golf. I need you to get reelected in 2012."
Churchill, Tennessee. We'll start first with John, hi. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Mega east Tennessee dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: My grandson, a Rush Baby, by the way, and I, Jake, were watching the president, and he was listening to that and started crying, so I decided to give you a call. Two points. Number one, where does the president get off if he doesn't believe in continuing resolutions when that's all the Democratic Congress was running the government on for two years? And my second question is, he talks about budgets. Where's the Democrats' budget? The debt's been gone for so long it's been missing, we've had to send Carmen Sandiego to go look for it.
RUSH: (laughing) You just nailed their game. Their game is to do nothing. No, the Republicans will be responsible to do something, and have at 'em for it. It's a strategy. I mean you might want to say that it's irresponsible, that they're not meeting their constitutional requirements. Oh, yeah, that's true, but it's a strategy. Do nothing, force the Republicans to take it all on, and then come in and say, "Well, what is this? What kind of irresponsible, here we go, the usual tax cuts for the rich buddies," and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, corporate jet owners, that's the strategery. See if they can pull it off again. That's what they're aiming for.
Laura, Frazier, Michigan, hello, and welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hello. Thank you. It's a pleasure. My question is why isn't the Republicans pounding over and over again to let the free market take its course in government, get rid of all regulations, you know, all that baloney? Why don't they just keep sending that message like Obama keeps sending the same old boring message? Why don't they do that?
RUSH: Well, I don't know that they're not.
CALLER: I very rarely heard them say get out of the way, government get out of the way and let the free market --
RUSH: Okay, you're not hearing those exact words, but in the debt negotiations, you're hearing 'em say we don't raise taxes during recessions like this. You might have a point that they don't use the words "free market" and talk philosophically about it enough to satisfy you. I think that's just a function of constantly being reactive, or reactionary, whatever the proper use of the root word is there. I mean the president sets the agenda or tries to and everybody else reacts to it. That's common whether the president is Democrat or Republican. And of course the press has always got these guys on defensive. But I've been asked the question, why don't Republicans do this? I don't know.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I said we weren't gonna JIP Boehner, but he's there. Let's listen to a little bit of Boehner just to see what he's saying.
BOEHNER: -- is enacting more government policies that will destroy jobs.
RUSH: There we go.
BOEHNER: What the American people want is for us to work together to remove government barriers that are getting in the way of job creation and real economic growth. Two of the biggest obstacles to job growth that we face are out-of-control entitlement spending and the current tax code. And I think the fundamental questions are this: Can you control government spending without fundamentally reforming entitlements? I think the answer is no. Do you need to raise taxes in order to get control of spending? I think the answer is no. If you want to see an increase in government revenues, let's grow the economy and create jobs, broaden the tax base and lower rates. As Senator Rubio said last week, we don't need more taxes; what we need are more taxpayers. So our disagreement with the president is not about closing loopholes. None of us are fond of loopholes. Our disagreement is over the idea of raising taxes on the very people that we're asking to create jobs in our country.
RUSH: All right.
BOEHNER: I would agree with the president that the national debt limit must be raised, and I'm glad that he made the case for it today. But the American people will not accept and the House cannot pass a bill that raises taxes on job creators. The House can only pass a debt limit bill that includes spending cuts larger than the hike in the debt limit as well as real restraints on future spending. My colleagues and I believe we should enact a balanced budget amendment to keep the federal government from spending us into the same situation again. I think we also need real reductions in spending right now, and spending caps to ensure that any progress that we make is not undone in the future. Listen, I agree with the president we cannot allow our nation to default on our debt. But to prevent a default, a bill must pass the Congress, and a bill that doesn't meet these tests can't pass the House of Representatives. This is the message we will take again to the White House today and hope that we can work our way through this.
RUSH: All right. That's John Boehner, and he's basically laying it out. You want tax increases, and I can't give 'em to you. We don't have 'em. We don't have the votes. There aren't gonna be any. It will not pass the House of Representatives. You know, yeah, we'd all like to see the debt ceiling raised, it has to be raised, but a bill must pass Congress to prevent default, look, he's the speaker, and he would know much better than I do, but there's not gonna be a default anyway. He's apparently not willing to say that. As I say, it's easy for me to sit here behind the Golden EIB Microphone as the mayor of Realville and suggest that what they need to do is get out in front of this and say what Obama wants. After Boehner explains his position, he needs to tell everybody what Obama's doing, too. He wants more spending. He wants more taxes. He wants more government. He wants more of what has happened to destroy the economy. He wants more of it.
And then I would remind everybody like we did last December, Obama's out there praising tax cuts as a way to keep the economy going. Send him that sound bite, let him take it into the negotiation and say, "This is what you said in January." So we'll see. But it sounds like a good old-fashioned standoff now but it doesn't change the reality.
END TRANSCRIPT
________________________________________________________________
