RUSH: I was just listening to a little bit of Obama at his press conference, folks. We have an angry man lying
his butt off about Republican positions. Basically that’s what we got going on. He just said that he had to do this ’cause come January the middle class is gonna get tax relief. Now, they’re not gonna get income tax relief, and that’s what he’s trying to say. He’s trying to position this as a tax cut for the middle class on the Reagan tax rates. The only people getting a tax cut here will be the one year, two-year cut on payroll taxes. It’s one year. But everything else is either staying the same or going up. There aren’t any tax cuts in this. He also said the reason that he can’t get anything done here is because you can’t get anything through the Senate right now, and that happens to be true, because a lot of the Senate sees what happened in the election in November.
Many of them are up, a lot of them are up for reelection in 2012. The news media, the White House press ‘corpse’ not happy with Obama. AP reporter Ben Feller — now, I’m gonna paraphrase this. Ben Feller asked Obama a question. He said, ‘You lied to us about raising taxes on the rich. Why should we ever believe you again?’ Now, those are not the words he used, but that’s what the question meant. He said, ‘You said you’d never do this!’ Obama said, ‘Well, it’s best we can get at the time. I can’t get what I want through the Senate. The public agrees with me but I can’t get what I want through the Senate. The public wants the rich to have their taxes raised, but I can’t get that through the Senate,’ which means ‘My own party is sabotaging me.’ But he’s blaming the Republicans, and they are in the vast minority here. This is what we’re gonna be hearing for the next two years, blame the Republicans, blame the Republicans. Remember now I said he’s not gonna be all that unhappy president Republicans take the House. He can blame everything that he wants to on them as opposed to his own party. Here’s Scott, Tulsa, Oklahoma, as we go back to the phones. Thank you for waiting, sir. You’re up next. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, good talking to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, I’m kind of mixed on the deal, so I see it as potentially good and I see this potentially bad. And here’s the good things I see in it is I think it supposes the press once again, which is great. As you said so well over the last few days: Where are these middle class cuts from Bush that they’re talking about? For a decade they’ve been telling us it’s just been tax cuts for the rich.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: So it of exposes them once again as being liars to the American public for decades. The other thing like is there is a 2% payroll tax for a year. Is that great? No. Is it beneficial for the American people? Yes, even for a year it’s beneficial. There’s some there that’s beneficial. The estate tax he had to give a little coming back. I don’t like that he put ’em out there, but he did cut ’em back I think, what, 6% cutbacks on the estate tax. On the other side I think, as we’ve all said, having the tax rates stay stable is a good thing for the American people overall that way. I mean, although there are no new more tax cuts to it.
RUSH: Well, he said — this is kind of laughable, too. And he can sneer even with 12 stitches in his lip. He said he’s gonna come back. He’s gonna fight these tax extensions for the rich two years from now. He’s gonna come back! He’s gonna be make sure this doesn’t happen again.
CALLER: Yeah, and Rush, on a personal note — this has nothing to do with the American people; this is what I really like — his speech yesterday looked like a bully who’s been beating people up and the wimpy kid just turned around and hit him in the nose and he’s bleeding all over the place.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And he’s sitting here trying to still act like he’s a strong guy as everybody’s looking at him going, ‘Oh, you’re just a little wimp,’ and that’s what I enjoy seeing the most is he just looked like a guy that just got sucker punched in the face and is still trying to talk the big talk ’cause ‘I’m the guy in control’ thing.
RUSH: Well, the reality of losing the election has hit him on this. Remember, it is significant that this is the first attempt to do more harm to the country he’s failed at. This is the first time he’s been stopped, and of course — of course — we’ll take that. Our microphones are there. Let’s listen to a little bit of this. He’s got some female giving him some business here right now. JIP it.
OBAMA: — going down because the economy is growing. It’s, uhhh — and even though it’s growing more slowly than I’d like.
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: It’s still growing.
RUSH: No, it’s not.
OBAMA: Now, uhhh… How fast… is gonna go down? (sic) How quickly the economy is gonna grow, when are, uh, private sector businesses gonna start making the investments in plant and equipment and actually start hiring people again?
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: You know, there are a lot of economists out there who —
RUSH: Mmm-hmm.
OBAMA: — have been struggling with that question.
RUSH: Yeah, what about you?
OBAMA: Uhhh, so I’m not gonna make a prediction.
RUSH: Ah.
OBAMA: What I can say with confidence is that —
RUSH: Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute —
OBAMA: — this package will help —
RUSH: Turn it down for a second. He’s been telling us for a year we’ve already turned a corner. We’re back from the brink. Now he doesn’t know. He doesn’t have a clue. All right, bring him back up.
F. CHUCK TODD: Mr. President, what do you say to Democrats who say you’re rewarding Republican obstruction here? You yourself used in your opening statement they were unwilling to budge on this.
OBAMA: Mmm-hmm.
F. CHUCK TODD: A lot of progressive Democrats are saying they’re unwilling to budge —
OBAMA: Right.
F. CHUCK TODD: — and you’re asking them to get off the fence and budge. Why should they be rewarding the Republicans?
RUSH: That’s F. Chuck Todd here.
OBAMA: Well, l-l-l-l-let — let me — let me use, uh, a couple of analogies. Um… I — I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high end tax cuts.
RUSH: There aren’t any!
OBAMA: Uh, I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers — uh, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then, uh, people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people —
RUSH: He thinks he’s a hostage! That’s what Frank Rich said. Frank Rich called him a hostage, said he’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
OBAMA: — and I was not willing to see them get harmed. Again, this is not an abstract political fight.
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: This is not isolated here in Washington.
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: There are people right now who, when their unemployment insurance runs out, will not be able to pay the bills. There are — there are — there are folks right now —
RUSH: Really?
OBAMA: — who are just barely makin’ it on the paycheck that they’ve got —
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: — and when that paycheck gets smaller —
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: — on January 1st —
RUSH: Mmm-hmm.
OBAMA: — they’re gonna have to scramble to figure out, ‘How am I gonna pay all my bills? How am I gonna keep on making payments for my child’s college tuition? What am I going to do exactly?’ Now —
RUSH: All right, now, we’ve won this. Take him down. He’s admitting that tax increases are not helpful. All right, well, that’s that. That’s Obama, just to give you a flavor how it’s going. F. Chuck says, ‘Republicans didn’t budge! You said you weren’t gonna budge! Why did you budge? How come the Republicans didn’t budge?’ and he’s got some answer here. He’s calling the GOP terrorists; he’s calling himself a hostage. (laughing) It is an interesting mental vision, folks, pleasing, as it were. Here’s Jack in Reno. Jack, welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program. It’s great to have you with us.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Yeah. I think the temporary payroll tax cut, which is Social Security taxes, is probably the poison pill in this whole thing.
RUSH: The poison pill!
CALLER: Absolutely. Because it’s gonna expire in one year —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — at which time either the Republicans are gonna stand up and say, ‘Extend it,’ or the Democrats are gonna say that the Republicans are raising taxes on the working people. Also since they’re establishing the fact that the employer and the employee can pay different rates of tax, I would see a year from now the Democrats suggesting that the employer’s pay an additional 2% so that they can make the 4% permanent for the working people.
RUSH: Well, now, that’s interesting. It raises a good point. If this 2% is actually a 1% cut on business and 1% cut on the emplo’ee or if it’s just a 2% cut on the emplo’ee and the employer does not pay anything less. That will be interesting’k!
CALLER: Well, it’s also the fact that Democrats are looking to take the cap off of Social Security so that the flat rate Social Security tax would apply to incomes at any level. And that would be another excuse to say that since they can’t raise the rate on the working people below $106,000, that the Democrats are going to suggest, ‘Well, we’ll just tax everybody all the way up and that will pay for it.’
RUSH: Well, these things are certainly possible. I have to grant you that. But it’s gonna be a whole different Congress. He’s not gonna be able to get this stuff done just because he wants to get it done, and the Democrats can say whatever they want, but they’re gonna be at a huge disadvantage numbers-wise in the House. And the Senate is not gonna be totally aligned with him because of many of them being up for reelection. SO I don’t know if he’s gonna succeed. I know full well that when the payroll tax expires and the call for it to be extended or sunsetted, whatever, ‘Yeah, Republicans are raising taxes on working people!’ I know that’s going to happen, too. But those are things that are gonna happen anyway. The media is gonna say the Republicans are starving kids, the media is gonna say Republicans doing this. Obama’s gonna say it.
This is where you can’t be concerned about what they’re gonna say. We’re gonna have the votes to do it, and this is why we gotta keep teaching as we go along. We can counter some of this stuff that they say. But I agree with you: The poison pill aspects that you mention are a distinct possibility. It is an interesting point on this payroll tax. I want to see if it genuinely is 2% for the workers or 1% employee, 1% employer. (interruption) It’s 2% worker. All right, so the business quote, unquote, ‘contribution’ will be the same. Folks, the dirty little secret (and I know many of you think I overuse that, and I might, but it’s my phrase so screw it) the fact of the matter is that the employee pays it all. The employee pays every dime of Social Security.
(New Castrati impression) ‘That’s not right, Mis’ther Limbaugh! What happen’ths is that the company pay’ths exactly what the employee pay’ths. The employer matches the employee contribution.’
RUSH: No. No, you idiot. You get hired and somebody pays you whatever it costs to hire you. Of that, you only see what your take-home pay it. The rest of it they factor what your health care benefit package is, whatever else benefits you get, and the Social Security. The total cost of what it takes to hire you, you don’t see it all. The employer is not sitting out there ‘matching.’ The number is what it is. They pay it and then you deduct. They pay some of it, you deduct, but it all comes outta you. They wouldn’t pay it unless you got hired. It’s a simple way to look at it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Gonna have to play you some of this press conference tomorrow. This guy is bitter; he is angry; he is petty. (imitating Obama) ‘The Republicans got to sit around the last two years and just watch me deal with the problems they left me, $1.3 trillion deficit, but now they’re gonna have a role in it, they can’t just sit around and criticize.’ The guy is just as bitter as he can be. He is angry. It is amazing to watch this. Here’s Frank Rich. Obama’s out there saying the Republicans took him hostage, and they don’t have the votes to take anybody hostage. Frank Rich yesterday morning on Imus was asked about his thoughts on Obama. Here’s what Frank Rich said.
RICH: I’m fairly distressed by the fact that he doesn’t seem to have a clear point of view about most anything. It’s not even a matter of whether he’s too left or too right. It’s just everything is negotiated away, and he seems to be sort of held captive, my point — my Stockholm Syndrome point was he seems to be held captive by his own political adversaries.
RUSH: Yeah. The media in this press conference keeps asking him, they want to be reassured, ‘What are your core values? What will be different in 2012?’ (imitating Obama) ‘Well, now the Republicans, they just can’t point fingers of blame at me, they gotta get in there, ha-ha.’ He’s coming off as the bitterest clinger I have ever seen in the White House, in the Oval Office. We’ll get our sound bites. Cookie will get on this and I’ll give you some examples, ’cause I know it’s tempting, ‘What are you talking about?’ I don’t have time to play ’em for you now but we’ll do ’em between now and tomorrow’s show and I’ll show you. I’ll play ’em for you and you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about here.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ll tell you, Obama, the media wants to strangulate this guy. ‘Where are you gonna draw the line in the sand?’ This is amazing. Obama said to the media, ‘Hey, it’s surprising to you, but I know not everybody agrees with us.’ He said the New York Times editorial page does not permeate the whole country. He’s yelling at them practically, says neither does the Wall Street Journal, to cover himself. Ho. Wait ’til you hear this tomorrow, especially with my analysis.