RUSH: ‘The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package.’ That was a verbal ruling. The office was responding to questions posed by Republican leadership, and the answers were provided verbally. ‘Information Republicans say they have received from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office eliminates the Slaughter option,’ which is to — (interruption) what is it? We used to pass bills we haven’t read, and now we’re passing bills we haven’t voted on. We’re going to deem it passed. But apparently that can’t happen now. The Slaughter Rule, we can’t deem it passed. They have to pass the Senate bill in the House before they can make changes to it. But I looked at Pelosi today in her press conference, they’re still proceeding on this basis that the Slaughter Solution is an option.
Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This is Pelosi during a news conference this morning. We have a couple of sound bites from her. They can’t ignore the Parliamentarian, but Biden can overrule the Parliamentarian. Joe Biden can overrule the Parliamentarian. You want to talk about a real nuclear option. If the Parliamentarian issues this as a formal ruling in writing, and Biden overrules him, we’re talking Nagasaki nuclear. This is going to make the nuclear option in the Senate with all these judges and so forth look like Romper Room. They are so desperate. They will do anything. If they’re willing to do the Slaughter Rule. If they’re willing to deem a bill passed without voting on it, I mean, there aren’t any rules after that. Zilch. Here’s Pelosi.
PELOSI: In order to have the Senate bill be the basis and build upon it with the reconciliation, you have to pass the Senate bill, or else you’re talking about starting from scratch. So we will pass the Senate bill. Once we pass it, whether the president signs it or doesn’t, people would rather he waited until the Senate acted but the Senate Parliamentarian, as you have said, said in order for them to do a reconciliation based on the Senate bill it must be signed by the president. So it isn’t going to make any difference except maybe the mood that people are in. But the fact is once we pass it in the House, it’s going to be the law of the land.
RUSH: Right. Right. Now if anybody, if anybody thinks that after this thing gets signed by Obama it’s going anywhere else, you have another thing coming. If you think Obama’s going to let this thing out of his hands. I talked to Paul Ryan yesterday after the program for the upcoming newsletter interview. I was talking to him about this Parliamentarian ruling, and he said, ‘Let me tell you something, there’s no way after Obama signs this thing it’s going anywhere, except in F-22.’ If Obama happens to be in Indonesia vacationing with the kids, they’re going to put an F-22 in the air with the bill in it, and they’re going to have tankers to refuel it, and it’s going to get over there at the speed of sound, or twice the speed of sound so he can sign the damn thing. They’ll put it aboard an F-22 military fighter, the fastest plane we’ve got to get it wherever he is to sign it if this happens while he’s gone.
He’s going to delay his departure three days for his laser-like focus on health care, health care, health care. He’s going to leave on the 18th, but now move it back a couple, three days. So it’s obviously not much of an official trip. I think it’s a vacation trip. I think it’s to show the kids where he grew up and all this kind of stuff. They’re just desperate and Pelosi has now got to tell her House members, ‘Oh, yeah, after Obama signs it it’s going to go back. Oh, yeah, it will go back to the Senate, that’s where it’s going to get marked up.’ Here’s what she’s saying.
PELOSI: Senator Reid has had the votes. He just hasn’t had the time to address each one of these issues. So the concern that they have was about what has happened in the past based on the 60-vote rule. Under the reconciliation, the simple majority, the constitutional majority, I think members are much more comfortable about the fact that this reconciliation will happen. And the hesitation anybody might have about do you trust the Senate is offset by the great vision that they have for health care for all Americans and that we will be able to do it in a reasonable length of time. It will take a little faith. But what we do always does.
RUSH: The woman is as incoherent sometimes as David Brooks is when he writes. She had a question there. There are assurances in the Senate. Reid can give ironclad reassurances because of the rules of the Senate. But what assurance have you gotten that they’ll probably take up this reconciliation bill to your member’s pleasure? She’s telling her members, trust Harry Reid. Trust Harry Reid. Why? Well, because of the great vision that he has in health care for all Americans. Trust Harry Reid. So she’s asking her membership to trust Harry Reid out there. Folks, you know it and I know it, everybody knows it. If the Senate bill is passed in the House — and they don’t have the votes for this yet, they do not, and they have abandoned the Stupak crowd. ‘We’re not going to even try to mess with you, Stupak. You’re just a pro-life idiot.’ They’re now going to work on the moderate Blue Dogs and try to turn them. I read somewhere there’s still under 200 votes in the House. So now she’s gotta go tell these people to trust Harry Reid.
By the way, Nancy, you better tell them to trust Obama because I don’t think you’re going to get the bill back. You House Democrats, listen to me on this, you know the polling. You know you’re going down in flames, regardless of what you do, but you’re really going to go down in flames if you pass this. Even Lawrence O’Donnell, a vowed socialist, on MSNBC today said, (paraphrasing) ‘It’s going to be a disaster. The worst thing in the world for Democrats is for this to pass. The worst thing for Obama is for this thing to pass.’ Pat Caddell and somebody else, he’s a pollster, had a story in the Washington Post, same thing. If this thing passes it is Waterloo. It’s over for Obama and the Democrats. So given that, given the polling data that we have, if I might address you Democrats and the House again, you can trust me more than you can trust Reid with what I’m going to tell you here. If you believe with the polling that has you and Obama and the Democrat Party on health care, if you think after Obama signs it he’s going to even permit another word to be said about it, you need to have your head examined.
If you and the House pass the Senate bill, Obama is going to sign it and then he’s going to decree that not one word about health care be uttered between now and the election. He’s going to move on to immigration, cap and trade or whatever it is. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Because of polling data, if this passes they’re not going to have any more debate or discussion about health care between now and the election. And then the Republicans are going to win in November. And your chances of adding to or fixing this debacle you think happens in the Senate, is over. So the Senate bill, if you pass it, that’s what you live with, that’s what’s the law of the land, and it ain’t going to change unless it’s repealed.
One more Pelosi bite because she attacked the Republicans here. It was last night on television and she was asked about Stupak, ‘Have those supposed dozen members come and addressed those issues with you with their office? Have you dealt directly with Stupak on this?’
PELOSI: This bill is not about abortion. It’s about health care for all Americans. And those who want the bill to fail hijacked the good intentions of others who have concerns about federal funding of abortion, and to turn it into a conversation about that.
RUSH: It’s a tax bill, a redistribution of wealth bill. But isn’t it ironic that it is about abortion. That abortion is why they don’t have the votes, of all the things. Oh, do you know what else is going to be passed if they ever do get this reconciliation? The student loan program is going to be packaged in reconciliation as part of the health care bill. Pelosi even alluded to wanting to put cap and trade in the reconciliation. Every day it’s something else that they keep adding to this. They’re not finished.
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RUSH: The Obama trip next week is a vacation trip. It’s time for his daughter’s spring break. It’s to Indonesia. It’s billed as a homecoming of sorts, and the White House is under a lot of pressure. ‘You mean you’re going to leave right in the middle of the health care debate to go on vacation, spring break with the kids?’ So Obama delayed the trip about three days. It’s not an official trip of any kind. He may do a couple of appearances over there to justify it, but it’s a vacation trip.
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RUSH: Now, let’s go to audio sound bite number nine. I reference Lawrence O’Donnell earlier in the program. This was this morning on Scarborough’s show and O’Donnell was asked, ‘Are the Democrats going to get health care passed?’
O’DONNELL: I do not see how they can do this, and part of that is because it’s never been done before and they have moved into a legislative territory that has never previously existed. This is unprecedented using reconciliation this way. We’re going to abandon conferencing this bill and move over to another legislative vehicle called reconciliation to handle something that you’ve already been legislating in other ways. That’s never occurred before. I’m a very conservative political analyst, in that I will not predict positive outcomes for things that have never happened before. You know, if it’s never happened before, I will tend to bet against it.
RUSH: So O’Donnell thinks two things here. A, it will destroy them if they do it. But, he doesn’t think they can do it because it’s never been done before. Well, Lawrence has to know the desperation these people feel, the unlimited… I wish I could think of the word. The desire they have for this, there’s a really great word that defines a lust that is inexplicable. I can’t think of what the word is. The rules don’t matter; the fact that it hasn’t been done before doesn’t matter. The fact that Obama needs it is all that matters. But they’re all going to go down the tubes big time if it passes. This is what everybody now knows. I mean, there’s a story out that no Democrat wants to talk about health care reform. It’s in TheHill.com. So I’m saying, ‘Why don’t they want to talk about health care reform?’ because the White House is saying that the polling is trending upwards since the State of the Union speech.
It’s obviously not. If this passes, I’m telling you, we will never hear — from the Drive-Bys even — the words ‘health care reform’ for months, after Obama signs it. It will be like it never happened. We’re not going to hear about improving it. We’ll not hear Democrats or Obama talk about health care reform, changing it, or Stage 2. We’ll hear Republicans talking about it as a campaign issue, but we will not hear the Democrats and the media will ignore it. It will be as though it never happened, especially because the tax increases start immediately and they are not going to have a whole lot of discussion about, ‘Well, yeah, these new taxes are because of the health package just passed.’
‘Oh, yeah? Where is my reduced premium?’
‘That doesn’t happen for four years but it isn’t going to be reduced anyway,’ and Dick Durbin said so. We played the sound bite on the Senate floor (paraphrased) ‘Anybody who thinks that insurance premiums are going to go down after we pass this has another thing coming. We’re not going to lower any premiums. All we’ll hope to do is reduce or slow the rate of growth.’ We played that sound bite earlier in the week.
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RUSH: This is Ken. It’s great to have you on the program, sir. You’re first today.
CALLER: Yeah, Rush. I wanted to say that the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama, they’ve totally lost their grip on reality. If they pass this national health care bill — a bill that the overwhelming majority of American people have said they’re against, a bill that they’re using so much political chicanery in order to pass — I think you’re going to see the reaction of the American people, the outcry of American people is going to make what we’ve seen from the tea party movement be like a drop in the bucket compared to the tidal wave of anger that is going to appear on Election Day.
RUSH: Yeah, I was going to ask you how you expect this anger to manifest itself. You think it will show up on Election Day?
CALLER: Exactly. I think that politically you’re going to see a political massacre of any candidate running for office, whether he’s a Republican or a Democrat. Anybody who supports this national health care bill, the American people are going to be so outraged that, like I said, what we have seen from the tea party movement is going to be nothing.
RUSH: There aren’t any Republicans supporting this anywhere.
CALLER: That’s what I’m saying. It’s anybody.
RUSH: Something tells me, Ken — and I don’t know what I’m really talking about here, but something tells me — we’re not going to have to wait until election day to see this anger boil over. Something tells me. Yeah.