RUSH: So during the break Snerdley asks, “Are you gonna talk about the fiscal cliff?” Yeah. I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. I used to think we were gonna go over the fiscal cliff. I don’t think so now. I know that Boehner and Obama are speaking privately. I think there’s going to be a deal, and it’ll only be a deal that Obama wants. If there’s a deal, it’ll be one that he wants. If there isn’t a deal, it’s because it’s not sufficient for him.

Boehner’s already put $800 billion in “new revenue” on the table by “closing loopholes,” which means getting rid of deductions. It’s being reported that Boehner — who, by the way, is also… A lot of people outraged today. Boehner is apparently purging a number of Tea Party-type conservative members of the House from the Appropriations Committee and a number of other places. Some people say that it’s because of the fiscal cliff, that it’s marginalizing conservatives.

A lot of this is payback. I’m just telling you. Don’t infer that I am agreeing with this. I’m not. But I think a lot of this, in a couple cases, is payback for things that these Republicans did during the debt limit talks last year that Boehner was not appreciative of. This is what leadership does. I mean, leadership gets rid of challenges. It gets rid of people it doesn’t want providing any problems.

The take-away here is that the people Boehner’s getting rid of in leadership — or committee chairmanships, memberships — happen to be Tea Party-type conservatives. The fiscal cliff is one thing, but whether we have the fiscal cliff or not… Well, part of the cliff — and we’re gonna hit it one way or the other.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Paul Ryan was on the radio in Wisconsin today, and he said we are nowhere close — in fact, Paul Ryan said we are farther away today on a deal with Obama than we were when this whole thing started. A lot of people are now realizing what you and I have known for four years. Obama’s economic policies are not about the economy. In this case, the case of the fiscal cliff, I could make the case all day that Obama and the Democrats want to go over it. Now, they wouldn’t go over it if they get a deal. If somebody came along and offered Obama $1.6 trillion in new taxes with no spending cuts, he’d take it. But maybe even then he wouldn’t, because then he could say, “If I could get 1.6, maybe I could get two trillion, if these guys are willing to deal.” So who knows.

But going over the fiscal cliff is exactly what Obama wants, and it’s all made possible by the fact that the media is Obama. We go over the fiscal cliff. That means that every deal reached is part of the debt limit increase. Defense cuts, it’s serious. It’s big. And new taxes. The Bush tax rates expire, additional taxes on top and, by the way, middle class taxes will go up. And I guarantee you that everybody in the middle class that’s paying attention halfway thinks that their taxes aren’t going up, no matter what happens, because they’ve heard politicians in both parties swear off of that, no way.

So they’re out there believing that their taxes aren’t going up. If we go over the cliff, everybody’s taxes are going up, including the middle class. The first paycheck everybody gets in January will feature massive income tax increases. The take-home pay is going to be smaller, and people are gonna be shocked, and then a made-to-order circumstance for Obama. He gets to blame Republicans for it because they refused to make a deal with him. He was doing everything he could to keep middle class taxes down. But the Republicans — and here’s the story — the Republicans just wouldn’t agree to raising taxes on the rich. The 1% — now it’s the 2%, by the way — just wouldn’t agree to raising taxes. Those Republicans only care about the rich, and they held out.

So you people in the middle class, your taxes are going up because the Republicans want to protect the rich. The Republicans are gonna be running around going uhbuh uhbuh uhbuh uhbuh uhbuh uhbuh uhbuh. It won’t matter. And as the Republicans are running around saying bah bah bah bah, well, no, badah badah badah, Obama’s gonna say, “They don’t care about you. All they care about is the rich and Wall Street tycoons. They did everything they could to keep those people, but I, President Obama, I come along,” and he’s then gonna propose a middle-class tax cut to protect people from the Republicans.

This is made to order for him going over the cliff. Because what he gets to do is what he really wants to do. This guy wants to wipe out the Republican Party. Barack Obama dislikes everything about the Republican Party and everything about conservatism. He thinks people like you and me are the reason this country is the way it is, and he doesn’t like it the way it is, and he never has. So, in addition to getting all of the economic policies he wants that will totally transform this country and turn it into a redistributionist, socialist, Marxist country, he gets to destroy the Republican Party, he thinks, in the process. That’s his objective.

I’m glad now to see, and I wish this kind of talk would have been heard during the campaign. Dr. Krauthammer and others, even David “Rodham” Gergen, CNN, has pointed out, what Obama wants to do is destroy the Republican Party. Well, we’ve known this for four years. And, by the way, that isn’t anything new. The Democrat Party has wanted to destroy the Republican Party, not just beat us. They’ve wanted to destroy us for a long time. We don’t have that view about them. We’re comfortable beating them, but nobody’s running around trying to conceive of ways to annihilate them, to wipe ’em out. But they are with us. I don’t care what you think of it. I don’t care if you think that’s not what politics is. It most certainly is.

If Obama could turn this into a one party country, you don’t think he would? FDR tried. I think FDR is one of his role models. So going over the cliff is entirely amenable to him. “But, Rush, but, Rush, what about all the economic pain to people?” Where’s the evidence he cares about any of that now? Folks, people’s home values have been plummeting, unemployment’s been skyrocketing, income has been falling, for four years, where is the evidence he cares about any of that? In a traditional political way, he doesn’t. Why all of a sudden is he gonna start caring now? It’s gonna only get worse. And the math is the math.

You keep going like this and there’s no amount of economic growth that can overcome what he’s planning, because the math is the math. The more money he takes out of the private sector, the less there is of it for people in the private sector to earn. And the less money that there is in the private sector, there’s a corresponding decline in the chance to create wealth, because it’s all being transferred to the government for ostensible redistribution.

By the way, anybody who thinks that Obama has a debt reduction policy has another thing coming. By the time he leaves office in four more years, we’re gonna have a national debt in excess of $20 trillion. There will not be any deficit reduction. There will not be any smaller budgets. There won’t be any dents made in the national debt. There aren’t even any plans for it. Just a bunch words.

Now, the sequestration, which is part of the debt limit bill, this is what the fiscal cliff is all about, would lop $500 billion out of defense over the next ten years, $50 billion in 2013. Over ten years, according to the Washington Times, it is a trillion dollars because there was a $490 billion cut in 2011. So over ten years you’re looking at a trillion dollars cut out of defense. Even those cuts in the defense are not gonna result in a smaller federal budget. That money is gonna be used for other stuff. Santa Claus. Making wholesome unfunded pensions for union people, things like that. Obama’s preferred citizens. And in the process he gets to, in his mind, decimate the Republican Party.

You know, people talk about leveling the playing field. Obama doesn’t want anybody in the opposition to even be on the field, whether it’s a level field or not. His modus operandi is to eliminate opposition, not just defeat it. Once you eliminate it, you don’t have to worry about defeating it. It’s not there in the first place.

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RUSH: Here’s Albert in San Francisco. Glad you waited, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I was wondering. I had a question. In today’s Washington Examiner Byron York writes an article about how the Republicans are gonna cave; it’s just a matter of when. So my question to you is, “Why are these Republicans playing the song and dance when I think, from Byron York’s article, that they are gonna cave?” So why are they just…? Why don’t they just cave now? That’s my question.

RUSH: Well, that would hurt fundraising. Why do you think? Why do you think? If they’re gonna cave — if you believe what Byron wrote — why do you think they’re going through the motions?

CALLER: Exactly what you just said: For fundraising and not to look weak. But, you know, they’re eventually gonna cave, though, so…

RUSH: Well, wait a minute, now. Who won the election?

CALLER: Obama won the election.

RUSH: Yeah. And Morsi. Obama and Morsi won the election.

CALLER: (laughing) Right. And that’s the other thing, Rush, is that every time I see a Republican on TV, they say the same thing: “Obama won.” So they’ve already lost already. They’ve already lost. Every time I see McCain on TV, “Obama won,” or a Republican on TV, “Obama won.” It’s like, “Don’t you guys have any fight in you?”

RUSH: Yeah, but the Republicans won the House.

CALLER: Right. But from what they’re saying it’s like they’ve already given up. I guess I don’t understand why they’re just caving.

RUSH: “They’ve already given up.” Is that your interpretation after reading Byron’s piece?

CALLER: It is, yeah. After reading Byron’s piece in today’s Washington Examiner, that’s my interpretation of it. If you read the article —

RUSH: I don’t know. It’s tough to say they’ve given up. I do think they’re still shellshocked and they’re feeling pretty powerless. They’ve held the cards before and didn’t ever use ’em.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: A quick question. If we go over the fiscal cliff, does that equal the Republicans caving? You could make an argument that it does not mean the Republicans have caved. Going over the fiscal cliff means the Republicans have not given Obama what he wants. You could say they are hanging tough. You could also say they better be ready to fight for their life, because that’s what’s gonna be on the other side of it, because they’re gonna be blamed for it, and they better be ready for it.

Other people say that we’ve already lost the debate because we’re now talking about how much to increase taxes instead of how much to decrease spending. And that’s true, too. The argument that everybody’s waging is how much new revenue. And somewhere over there they’re discussing spending cuts, and, of course, they’re not gonna be part of a deal even if there is one. They’ll be part of it ten years down the road, which means they’ll never happen, as is the usual case. But some people think, as long as you’re gonna fight it, fight it. And if you’re gonna fight it, take your stand on spending cuts.

The Republican leadership has decided that in order to get any spending cuts, they’re gonna have to go along with some sort of revenue increase. They’ve made the calculation they can’t go anywhere without conceding some of that. That’s why $800 billion of new revenue is on the table. Obama this afternoon was on Bloomberg TV’s Lunch Money show with the correspondent Julianna Goldman. She said, “This just sounds like the same old Washington gridlock. Speaker Boehner was here at the White House last night for a Christmas party, the two of you didnÂ’t even speak. WhatÂ’s it going to take to get the two of you in a room to hash this out?”

OBAMA: It’s not me being stubborn. It’s not me being partisan. It’s just a matter of math. You know, there’s been a lot of talk, that somehow we can raise $800 billion or a trillion dollars worth of revenue just by closing loopholes and deductions. But a lot of your viewers understand that the only way to do that would be if you completely eliminated, for example, charitable deductions. Well, if you eliminate charitable deductions that means every hospital and university and non-for-profit agency across the country, would suddenly find themselves on the verge of collapse. So that’s not a realistic option.

RUSH: Yeah, right on. That’s BS. You’re not gonna let ’em collapse. You’ll become the sole benefactor. That’s the plan. By the way, “It’s not me being stubborn. It’s not me being partisan.” It is entirely being partisan. That’s all this is, pure and simple. You know, I don’t know, folks. It’s hard for me to not be cynical about this. They sign the debt limit increase, and they tell us that they put in these terms that nobody can live with if they don’t come to an agreement later, which is what we’re trying to do now, and that’s where sequestration is part of it and the defense cuts and all these other cuts to Medicare. The Medicare cuts are there to motivate the Democrats. The defense cuts are there to motivate the Republicans. But, look, there’s a likelihood we’re gonna go over the cliff. In fact, the Democrats want that.

But it is Obama being partisan. And it is Obama being stubborn. And it is Obama saying, “I won.” And it is Obama saying, “I don’t respect you little dirt bags for as far as I can throw you.” I mean, he has Boehner there at some White House Christmas party, didn’t seek him out. Not that he’s obligated to, but there’s no collegiality here. We’re all being played again. It’s the same old song and dance and we know how this is gonna end up: Higher taxes and more spending. We know how it’s gonna end up. And if there are spending cuts, it’s gonna be $50 billion, something that we spend every five minutes. It’s gonna be insignificant. Just something that they can say they cut the budget. If we go over the cliff, then you have to say the Republicans are not caving, and they better be prepared for what’s on the other side.

Julianna Goldman said, “Do you think that you can get the revenues you’re…” See, here’s the thing. To me, all of this is smoke and mirrors. I mean, who sets the narrative, the template, that we need more revenue? Obviously, folks, we don’t have a revenue problem. This fiscal mess we’re in not because people aren’t taxed enough. It’s not because businesses aren’t taxed enough. It’s because there’s just way, way, way too much spending. We simply cannot afford everything that we’re attempting to pay for. We just don’t have the money. And it isn’t there raising taxes. We don’t even make a dent in confiscating all the money the rich have. We don’t even make a dent if we take all of it, which you could only do once. But yet here are all these dummkopfs in the media, “Do you think you can get the revenues you need? Do you think you can get the revenues you need, the new taxes?”

It’s just a collection of robots calling themselves journalists, singing the same tune written by the regime every year. “Need new revenue. Need new revenue. Must fire Bill Sessions. Must fire Bill Sessions. Must fire Bill Sessions. Must fire Janet Reno.” All this stuff pops up, becomes part of the public domain, and it’s not even the news. It’s all part of an agenda and what this agenda happens to be is shrinking the amount of money that’s available to people in the private sector, which then forces them to turn to government to live. That’s all this is, and there doesn’t seem to be much opposition to it among our elected people, the Republicans in Washington. It’s just an argument over who can manage this behemoth better.

Anyway, her question: “Do you think you could get the revenues youÂ’re looking for from raising rates to somewhere between what they are now and the 39.6%, like thirty-seven or thirty-eight percent along with eliminating the deductions that youÂ’ve called for? Is that doable?”

OBAMA: Let me sort of describe the process here for you Julianna.

RUSH: Yeah, please do, please describe the BS.

OBAMA: So, let’s let those go up and then let’s set up a process with a time certain at the end of 2013 or the Fall of 2013 where we work on tax reform. We look at what loopholes and deductions both Democrats and Republicans are willing to close. And it’s possible that we may be able to lower rates by broadening the base at that point. And I’m happy to work with them.

RUSH: Ohhh. Folks, this is exactly what I, your host, El Rushbo, predicted. Obama wants all the rates to go up, and then he’ll come back later in the year and pretend to cut some. He wants the rates to go up on the middle class particularly. That he can’t wait for. ‘Cause he knows that every low-information voter in this country knows that he doesn’t want any tax increases on the middle class. Throughout the campaign, every debate, the one thing that the Democrats have nailed, particularly for the low-information voter, is no way are middle class taxes going up. If they know anything, they know that. I don’t care how little else they know, that’s what they think they know, that Obama and the Democrats will fall on a sword to keep their taxes going up.

Then the taxes go up.

Outrage and panic ensue, and then Obama, within minutes, national address to the nation blaming the Republicans for it, failing to compromise. He won. They lost. Their ideas were rejected. (imitating Obama) “The American people wanted my plan, and now, because the Republicans wouldn’t agree with me and deal with me, your taxes have gone up. So I am coming today to propose a massive middle-class tax cut to take you in the middle class back to where you were before the Republicans raised your taxes trying to protect the rich.”

The Republicans had better have an answer for that. So far they don’t have an answer for that. But they’d better, because that is what’s coming.

But this is absolutely a crock, that he will lower rates by broadening the base. That is the right thing to do, and it’s the right thing to do now, and what I think he’s telegraphing with that comment is that Simpson-Bowles is something he would sign down the road. Once he gets what he wants politically, he wants middle class tax rates to go up so that he is seen as the great savior cutting them. And then somewhere down there he might — it’s a long shot. I mean, it’s not guaranteed, but he might — ’cause Simpson-Bowles, that’s their language. He doesn’t believe this. He knows it works, but he doesn’t believe it. That’s Reaganomics, broadening the base, lowering tax rates, creating more jobs, more taxpayers. He could have done that in any of the last four years. Don’t want to do that.

Barack Obama is not gonna be president of a country where the private sector is seen as reviving itself. It ain’t gonna happen. Barack Obama is gonna be president of a country where it is seen that he did whatever it is that people think is good, that he is seen as saving things, not people themselves, not the private sector. Obama looks at money in the private sector the same way he views domestic oil production. He wants to put more and more private capital off-limits, more and more oil off-limits. Now, the Simpson-Bowles plan calls for a top tax rate of 23%. That’s lower than the 35% rate now, let alone the 39% top rate that Obama wants. We’re never gonna see 23% with Obama. That’s what Simpson-Bowles is suggesting.

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RUSH: Jack in Chicago. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: How you doing, Rush?

RUSH: Fine and dandy.

CALLER: I think we need to have Speaker Boehner go to the American people, have a State of the Union speech, and just tell ’em — tell the American people — it’s time to give in. Let’s give Obama everything he wants. Instead of a fiscal cliff, let’s just go over the end and go into a depression. No more money, no more entitlements. The Mexicans, illegals, will go back home and we’ll start over. We’ve been playing this game for years.

RUSH: Wait.

CALLER: Why do we keep struggling and getting taxed every year a little bit more, a little bit more? Just give ’em everything.

RUSH: You want Boehner to call a national address to the nation and say, “Okay, whatever Obama wants, he’s gonna get it”?

CALLER: Just give it to him. Not just give it to him. If he wants to raise the taxes 3%, give him ten. Let’s end it.

RUSH: It’s gonna happen.

CALLER: We’ve been dancing for years.

RUSH: It’s going to happen.

CALLER: Well, it’s gonna, yeah. But let’s just do it. Why keep going and playing this game with them?

RUSH: Yeah, it’s gonna happen.

CALLER: Just give him everything he wants. You know, tell the rich people it’s over.

RUSH: I mean Boehner’s not gonna make the speech, but it’s gonna happen.

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RUSH: Boehner could give the speech that the guy wants and pass out condoms and Vaseline to everybody afterwards. Just make it as smooth as possible, as painless as possible.