RUSH: Washington airports have been spared sequester impacts. Washington airports. “The chief of the FAA told Congress today that Washington-area airports will largely escape the effects of the air traffic controller furloughs — a blessing for lawmakers who fly out of the nationÂ’s capitol. Michael Huerta, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, told a congressional panel that the Washington regionÂ’s airports are spaced out enough and have enough spare capacity that furloughs to air traffic controllers wonÂ’t hurt as much here.”
You know, if we had a Republican administration in the White House doing this kind of stuff, there would be hell raised. The people of this country are being punished for the advancement of a political agenda. And how about The Politico today? Lawmakers and their aides may get exempted from Obamacare. After all is said and done, remember when Obamacare was being debated and when all the tricks were underway to get that bill passed, everybody swore that they in Washington would be subjected to its rules just like the rest of us.
“Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack ObamaÂ’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said. The talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides.”
One member of Congress actually said (paraphrasing), “This is too expensive for our legislative aides to be able to afford. It’s not reasonable. We should not expect them to have to join these exchanges. Our legislative aides can’t afford this.”
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RUSH: I went a little long in the opening monologue, so this is gonna be a short segment. I really apologize for that. That’s not good, but nevertheless, what’s with The Politico? This is twice now. They had a story earlier this week, it might have been last Wednesday. Time is flying by. Anyway, The Politico did a story that the Gang of Eight, immigration bill, if signed into law, will be a political bonanza for the Democrat Party, and what we’ve been saying here, it will register nine million new Democrats. It will be the end of the Republican Party for a generation, 25 or 30 years. Politico published that story.
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RUSH: You know, folks, I almost hope, I almost hope that Congress does carve out an exemption for themselves and their aides from Obamacare, just to see if anybody cares. Folks, that kind of thing, gotta be very careful here in the choice of words. This kind of thing, the crafting of punitive legislation like Obamacare mandating that every citizen abide by it, but the elites exempting themselves from it, has caused trouble throughout world history — throughout human history. Acts like that have resulted in overthrows, have resulted in attempted overthrows. I’m almost tempted to see just what kind of reaction there would be if Congress exempts itself and all of its legislative aides, essentially its employees, its secretaries, its PR people, because it’s too expensive, because it’s too oppressive.
Listen to this quote from The Politico story. “Lawmakers — especially those with long careers in public service and smaller bank accounts — are also concerned about the hit to their own wallets. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is worried about the provision.” Now, Steny Hoyer makes $225,000 a year or so. Now, this was fine to force on the rest of the country. Obamacare, absolutely fine, all the tax increases, all of the small business adjustments converting people from full time to part time, to escape the costs of covering them, to escape the penalty, to escape the fine, all that was cool, all that’s fine. But a member of Congress or his aide making 150, 180, $225,000 a year, it’s too big.
Steny Hoyer is worried about the effect of the provision on his wallet. Steny Hoyer makes at least $200,000 as a House minority whip. But yet this was fine to force on the rest of the country, where the average income is still around 40, $50,000 a year. Yet they want to exempt themselves. This whole bill, Obamacare, the whole thing, folks, is a lie. It isn’t affordable. It’s called the Affordable Care Act. It isn’t. It has nothing to do with care. What it is about is nationalizing one-sixth of the US economy, putting it under government control. It spells the end of sovereignty of the individual. Radically changes the relationship of the citizen to the state.
Obamacare won’t just bankrupt the country. It may bankrupt small businesses. It may bankrupt individuals. And they know it, because they want to exempt themselves. The shock here is that the Politico actually ran the story. What would be the reason? There’s always a reason. Now, earlier when they ran the story about immigration and how the Gang of Eight immigration bill will be a political bonanza for the Democrats — by the way, exactly what I have said on this program. That Gang of Eight immigration bill automatically creates nine million new Democrats, snap of your fingers. Three million Republicans. It changes the balance of power for a generation. The Politico runs a story saying so. Why?
Why would The Politico run a story that could possibly gin up a lot of opposition to the Gang of Eight bill? And therein may lie the answer. Let’s go back to the gun control bill. The gun control bill failed miserably in the Senate and that ticked off Obama, as you recall. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The Senate was supposed to okay that gun control bill. Then it was to be sent to the House where the Republicans, theoretically, would unite and vote against it and thereby the president and the Democrats have a campaign issue going into 2014 because they want to win the House and have one party control over everything. And if the Democrats pass it in the Senate, send it to the Republicans in the House, the Republicans in the House vote it down, Obama’s got his campaign issue.
And you can hear it. Republicans don’t care about kids getting shot in schools. Republicans don’t care about our kids, period. Republicans want the NRA to run the country. Republicans want everybody to have a gun, all that, you can imagine it. Now let’s come to this Obamacare story in The Politico. Ted Cruz said yesterday that the immigration bill is designed to fail. Exactly what I said. It’s designed to fail just like the gun control bill was designed to fail. Immigration is supposed to sail through, Gang of Eight immigration, supposed to sail through the Senate for the Democrats. It’s got things in it that are so reprehensible to Republicans, the theory is that they’ll vote it down and Obama’s got another campaign issue going into 2014, and that is, Republicans hate Hispanics, Republicans don’t like Hispanics, Republicans don’t want Hispanics to have equal rights, blah, blah. You can hear all the commercials and ads now.
So the Democrats have two issues to run on: gun control, immigration, Republicans hate both, Republicans hate this, Republicans don’t care if kids get killed, all that. I hate to tell you, but the Republicans might screw everything up here by going ahead and passing the Gang of Eight bill. The Republicans are so cowed over all of this, the Republicans are so scared that they might go ahead and vote for it, eliminating any need for Obama to make a campaign issue out of it. That’s just a wild guess, but as I listen to the rhetoric coming out of Washington and Republican leadership and Republican power base offices, there’s a theme that is developing.
And the theme is sort of along the lines of, well, you know, we have to do this. The American people want it. We need to solidify our relationship with Hispanics. It’s going to happen anyway, so rather than reduce the impact of this, we fall back on the idea, well, let’s spread the misery around and make it fair. Just like the Democrats, let’s spread the misery around, make it equal. Let’s stop being the party of resistance. That’s not helping us. Let’s stop being the party that is the obstacle. It’s not helping us to be looked at as the obstacle to everything. So let’s just get out of the way and let this stuff sail through. I’m hearing that from some Republican circles. Now we come to Obamacare. The Politico is running this story saying that legislative aides and members of Congress are gonna get a carve-out?
What in the world is the purpose of that? Why run that story? Why not keep that a secret? There has to be a reason for this. And maybe this is also related to the effort the Democrats are putting in to winning the House in 2014. So look at today alone. Lawmakers and their aides may get an exemption from Obamacare. Steny Hoyer, well, he didn’t cite the amount of money he made. I don’t want to misquote him. I’m just telling you what he makes. And Steny Hoyer is suggesting that that’s a big hit to people’s wallets, and there are quotes from members of Congress talking about their aides.
Richard Burr, Republican, North Carolina, said if OPM decides that the federal government doesnÂ’t pick up “the 75 percent that they have been, then put yourself in the position of a lot of entry-level staff people who make $25,000 a year, and all of a sudden, they have a $7,000 a year health care tab? That would be devastating.” Yes it would be. He’s talking about somebody that makes 25 grand working for him or somebody else in Congress. Well, why not exempt everybody who makes 40 or 50 grand a year because it’s too big a hit? Why not exempt everybody who makes 50 grand because the hit to them personally, their pocketbook, is too devastating?
Why carve out just members of Congress and their assistants? This is almost unreal that this would be made public. This is the kind of stuff people joke about that Congress does except these guys may actually be considering it. And now we learn that Washington-area airports will not be affected by the sequester. They will not be affected by whatever happens to the air traffic controllers, or anybody else that gets furloughed because of the sequester. So Washington’s taking care of itself. Steny Hoyer’s salary, we just checked, Steny Hoyer’s salary this year is $193,400 a year. And the hit that he would take would be devastating, if he had to subject himself to Obamacare. So they’re gonna exempt themselves. And the airports in Washington will be spared any of the impacts of the sequester.
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RUSH: Here’s Lois in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Hi. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m supposed to get straight to the point, but I wanted to first thank you for always bringing us the truth. My reason for calling was the last election Obama ran on making the top 1% pay their fair share.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And I consider politicians part of that 1%, yet they passed a new tax called Obamacare on us, and now they’re trying to exempt themselves from it.
RUSH: Isn’t that interesting. Isn’t that typical. Isn’t that amazing.
CALLER: I mean, why isn’t anybody talking about this? The Democrats are all about the top 1% paying their fair share.
RUSH: I don’t know. To be quite honest with you, The Politico runs this story today, and you know what’s on the news is the Bush Library, the terrorist mother, the fact that they were gonna go in and bomb New York, a couple of updates on victims in Boston, the fact that Biden called ’em knock-off jihadis. It’s all Boston today, all evidence on the Tsarnaevs and their mother. By the way, folks, this mother, Zubeidat, whatever name is, running around blaming America, she’s saying (imitating mother), “I sent my kids to America to be safe, and America killed my kids, America destroyed my kids.” Zubeidat, one of your sons killed your other son. Your beloved Dzhokhar ran over Tamerlan. Am I not correct about that? Mrs. Tsarnaev, one of your sons used the other one as a speed bump.
Now, the theory is he did it on purpose to save his brother from being captured ’cause he was in the throes of being captured and so forth, that it was a good Samaritan kind of thing. But at any rate, that’s the news. I’ll tell you, if this ends up, Congress and their aides exempting themselves from Obamacare, if that ends up staying under the radar, that’s all we’re gonna need to know. If that does not light people up. That’s why I said at the beginning of the program, I almost hope they do it just to see what kind of reaction it gets.
That tells us right away what we dealing with. That would tell us right away if the American people think the Democrats are so special that they should be exempted, that government officials are so special they should be exempted, every Obama voter, every Republican voter, if they think there’s no problem with that, then that will tell us where we are. That will tell us that people think government is special, that it is essentially royalty, and they ought to be able to exempt themselves, because, after all, they’re doing all this for us. But this story has not cracked the news. Now, I haven’t read any blogs today. I haven’t seen anything on the Internet. Just looking at cable news, this story doesn’t exist today.