RUSH: Bernie Sanders is filibustering the tax deal. As we speak he’s sitting there, he launched his filibuster, he’s actually filibustering. He’s been talking since 10:30 this morning, 10:25, something like that. And I don’t know how long he’s gonna go but imagine Obama has actually done some unity here, Me and Bernie Sanders. Different reasons, but we both oppose the bill.
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RUSH: Bernie Sanders here is on the floor of the Senate, he’s conducting a filibuster. He started at 10:25, and we have just a couple of sound bites from his filibuster.
SANDERS: It is not a conservative approach to substantially increase the national debt by giving tax breaks to billionaires. How many times have you been here on the floor hearing our Republican colleagues give long speeches about the danger and the unsustainability of a $13.7 trillion national debt and a $1.4 trillion deficit? You heard it. That’s their mantra.
RUSH: We have heard it. They’ve been on the floor, and they have been talking about your irresponsible spending. Bernie Sanders, racist. I mean, he’s launching all this at Obama, too, ’cause Obama wants tax breaks for billionaires. That’s not what this is, either. This is the funny thing. Nobody’s getting any kind of a tax break here. Here’s more from Bernie Sanders.
SANDERS: Well, if they believe that, why are they voting for a proposal that substantially increases the national debt for the very unproductive reason of giving tax breaks to the richest people in this country who don’t need it? I do not want to see my kids and grandchildren pay more in taxes ’cause we borrow money from China to increase the national debt in order to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires who have done extraordinarily well in recent years.
RUSH: This guy’s reading from Krauthammer’s piece today. Krauthammer mentions calling China for a billion dollars to give tax breaks to the rich. I said they won’t give us the money if that’s how it’s phrased. I mean, if Obama calls Hu Jintao and says, ‘Hu, I need about $300 billion.’
‘Oh, yeah, what for now?’
‘Well, three years of unemployment insurance.’
‘You want $300 billion from us to pay people not to work?’
‘That’s right, Hu.’
‘Really? You’re up to three years now to pay people not to work, and you want us to pay for it?’
‘Well, we want to borrow it from you.’
So Hu hangs up the phone and says to his buddies in the politburo, ‘Man, this is happening faster than we thought. They’re actually paying people to destroy their country now.’ So Bernie Sanders is up there, he’s complaining about the debt. Now follow the logic here. Continuing tax breaks to small businesses will not stimulate the economy and grow jobs, but extending unemployment benefits for three years will stimulate the economy and grow jobs. That’s what these guys are saying. Giving small little tax breaks to businesspeople, that won’t help a thing. But paying people not to work for three years will stimulate economy. That’s where we are with these schlubs. Anyway, rank hatred for the rich, unabated, undiluted rank hatred for the rich.
Now, these attacks on Obama by the left are racist. They’ve never said F’ him or F’ it to a white Democrat president, have they? Clinton lost the House with his health care deal, and I don’t remember any white members of Congress saying F’ Clinton. Where’s the Congressional Black Caucus on this? I mean you got these white guys saying F’ you to Obama, and they never said that to a white Democrat president. They never said F’ Clinton and Clinton was F-ing around. He was breaking the law while he was F-ing around, and they defended him. They circled the wagons around Clinton while he was F-ing around. And here these guys are now saying, F’ you, Obama. F’ off, Obama. It is racist. They don’t talk that way to a white president. Even Bush, they didn’t tell Bush to F’ off. When Cheney said that to Leahy it was a white guy to a white guy, nothing racist there. I mean they did whatever Clinton told ’em to do, even while he was breaking the law they defended him, while he lying in his deposition. They did whatever Clinton told them to do. So this has to be liberal racism against the first black president who is also historic.
I’m serious about this. Stop and think about it. A bunch of white leftist Democrats with the F-bomb all over to Obama, I don’t care to whom, that is a major sign of disrespect. Clinton lost the House as well. They never said F’ anything to him for doing that whatsoever. Somebody asked me, ‘How do I know Bernie Sanders is filibustering, he never shuts up anyway.’ That’s a good point. He never shuts up.
Last night on the Fox News Channel, Sean Hannity, Great American Panel, speaking to Pat Caddell about Obama. Hannity said, ‘This president goes to G20 meetings with foreign leaders, no deal made ahead of time. He sends Clinton to the World Cup to secure it, we lose out to Qatar, nothing happens. He flies to Copenhagen, Obama does, and gets embarrassed.’
CADDELL: He seems to be lost — let’s face one thing. He is the least prepared person to have been president in modern times, and it’s beginning to show.
RUSH: Least prepared person to have been president in modern times. Least prepared. Pat Caddell, Democrat pollster saying this about The Messiah, the smartest, most articulate president we’ve ever had. Look at the plunge. In two years his own party, the white guys in his own party are saying F’ you, F’ off, whatever. Not comfortable for us to sit here and repeat this ’cause everybody knows what the F means, but I don’t know how else to do it. Do you? If I said G’ off without giving you the translation what would you… I mean, this is unseemly to have to sit here and do this. The Congressional Black Caucus is supposed to announce their disapproval of the tax deal sometime today. They must be racists, too, ’cause they’re opposing Obama on this. They’re gonna oppose the deal, hatred of the rich, class welfare, fundamental principle of Marxism. The mask is finally coming off all these people. Yesterday Obama at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, this was a meeting of the president’s Export Council, the president said…
OBAMA: Every economist that I’ve talked to or that I’ve read over the last couple of days acknowledges that this agreement would boost economic growth in the coming years and has the potential to create millions of jobs.
RUSH: That’s gotta tick ’em off ’cause they think cutting taxes for the rich now, their own president saying it’s gonna create jobs. Of course, again, nobody’s taxes are being cut, but that’s how they interpret this. So yesterday, the deal has the potential to create a million jobs. This morning on NPR’s Morning Edition he was asked, ‘What do you do intend to do about the House Democrats who said they’re not gonna bring your plan to a vote in its current form?’
OBAMA: Nobody, Democrat or Republican, wants to see people’s paychecks smaller on January 1st because Congress didn’t act.
RUSH: Yes, they do.
OBAMA: People are also gonna understand that the single most important thing we can do for all of our constituencies is make sure that the recovery that is taking place right now gets stronger.
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: Over the last 48 hours a range of independent economists, both left and right, have concluded that this package would in fact increase potential economic growth by as much as 1% and could end up meaning an additional million and a half jobs. And that, I think, has got to be the highest priority —
RUSH: Wait a second.
OBAMA: — for everybody.
RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Go back and play number 12 here again, right now.
OBAMA: Every economist that I’ve talked to or that I’ve read over the last couple of days acknowledges that this agreement would boost economic growth in the coming years and has the potential to create millions of jobs.
RUSH: Millions of jobs. And then this morning he said a million and a half. He keeps growing this number. Then the NPR guy said, ‘Can you accept some changes to this plan, or is it the kind of deal you can’t or will not change?’
OBAMA: There are going to be discussions between both House and Senate leadership about all the final elements of the package. Keep in mind we didn’t actually write a bill.
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: We put forward a framework.
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: I’m confident that the framework is going to look like the one that we put forward. I’m confident we’re gonna be able to get this resolved by the end of the month.
RUSH: Okay. Didn’t answer the question. Next question: ‘Let me ask you about something that we’ve heard from one of our listeners: ‘Please ask him how keeping a tax rate for the richest, the same as it’s been for a decade, creates one single job.” What? Somebody actually got that question past the editors at NPR? I don’t believe it. A listener to NPR actually asked this question? It’s a good question. ‘Let me ask you about something that we’ve heard from one of our listeners: ‘Please ask him how keeping a tax rate for the richest, the same as it’s been for a decade, creates one single job.”
OBAMA: It doesn’t, which is why I was opposed to it. And I’m still opposed to it. I’ve said repeatedly that I think they’re not a smart thing to do particularly because we’ve gotta borrow money essentially to pay for them. The problem is that this is the single issue that the Republicans are willing to scotch the entire deal for. Either I allow the recovery that we’re on to be endangered or we make a compromise now, understanding that for the next two years this is going to be a central battle as part of the larger discussion about how do we reform or tax code so that it’s fair and how do we make sure that we actually are dealing with the deficit and debt in an intelligent way?
RUSH: He admits it doesn’t create a single job and that’s why he’s opposed to it yet he’s trying to get it passed. He’s opposed to it. It doesn’t create a single job. So he’s trying to get this passed because Republicans are willing to scotch the whole deal for this. ‘Either I allow the recovery that we’re on to be endangered or we make a compromise now, understanding for the next two years this is going to be a central battle –‘ He wants this battle, see. This is my point. He wants this. He opposes it. He doesn’t think it’s gonna create a single job. Folks, he’s telegraphing this. He’s screwed up here. He knows it won’t create a single job. And he wants to be able to say that after two years. It didn’t create a single job. We’re not gonna do this anymore. No more tax cuts for the rich ever. I have proven that supply-side doesn’t work. That’s the endgame here, no question about it.
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RUSH: So Bernie Sanders, I’m going back to some of his filibuster, I’ve got a couple more bites here. So Bernie Sanders, we borrow, what, a billion dollars to pay for the tax cuts, right? So I learned from Bernie Sanders we borrow money from the ChiComs for millionaires and billionaires. But when we spend on Porkulus and unemployment and TARP, everything else, what do we do? We borrow that from Japan? I mean they are number two. So what are we to believe here, the ChiComs are paying for the so-called tax cuts for the rich? Here, Bernie still on his roll. We have two more bites. Here’s the first one.
SANDERS: Mr. President, when we look at the context in which this agreement was reached, we have got to see that it takes place at a time when the rich are already doing phenomenally well. While we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world, the top 400 wealthiest people in this country earn $345 million a year, and they pay an effective tax rate of 16.6%. They do not need an extension of tax breaks. And, by the way, for the United States of America, this effective tax rate of 16.6% on average is the lowest tax rate for the very rich in America that has ever been, ever been.
RUSH: Okay. Unfortunately I feel the need to respond to this. ‘When we look at the context in which the agreement was reached we have got to see that it takes place at a time when the rich are already doing phenomenally well. While we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world, the top 400 wealthiest people in this country earn $345 million a year and they pay an effective tax rate of 16.6%.’ Now, the top 400 wealthiest people in the world are not who we’re really talking about here with these tax breaks. The top 400 wealthiest, I mean every damn one of them is gonna be a billionaire or damn close. We’re talking about small businesspeople, $250,000, 500,000, 750,000, these are the people that employ other people and they are not paying a tax rate of 16.6%. To pay an effective tax rate of 16.6% you’re paying tax on dividends, not income. There is no way people at 36% — trust me on this — there is no way people paying 36% are paying an effective rate of 16. By the way, the effective rate definition is a little misleading itself. And Bernie Sanders knows this.
But also he says the 400 wealthiest people in this country earn. They earn. Are they stealing it from the poor? Let me ask the question this way: Who is more evil, who is more greedy here, those millionaires and the billionaires or the federal government? The government steals much more than the private sector. The government is much more corrupt than the private sector. The government is more in debt than they private sector. The government is more irresponsible with money than they private sector. The private sector is not trying to pick our pockets at every turn, even when we die. It isn’t trying to take control of our lives. The private sector is doing none of the evil the government is doing. The real greed in this country is in Washington and at every one of the 50 state capitals. Fifty-seven if you live in Obama world. The government takes people’s earnings multiple times. You choose who in the private sector is going to get a portion of what you earn. The private sector can’t take one dime from you. You have to voluntarily spend it with them. Now, Mr. Sanders railing here about, oh, it’s horrible these rich people earning $345 million, they don’t need a tax break. He doesn’t have the slightest idea what these people do with their $345 million that they’ve earned. He has no clue what they do with it. Obviously he doesn’t or he wouldn’t characterize them the way he does. Here’s the next bite. This one is even worse.
SANDERS: The top 25 hedge fund managers last year made a combined $25 billion in income, a combined $1 billion per person, okay? So if you are a hedge fund manager, you’re doing pretty, pretty good. And I mentioned a moment ago, we tried just the other day to get checks of $250 out for disabled vets and senior citizens on Social Security who haven’t had a COLA in two years, couldn’t get them that check, but the top 25 hedge fund managers last year made a combined $25 billion in income, a billion dollars per person, and our Republican friends said, ‘Oh, my word, we have got to lower their taxes.’
RUSH: No. You know what we do, Bernie, we say take the account that you can’t afford to pay to veterans and give it to the hedge fund managers and let it really grow. Bernie, what’s obvious here with your own statistic is the government cannot meet its responsibilities. The government can’t meet its promises. Not every hedge fund manager makes a billion dollars a year. There are far more than 25 of them. There are top earners in every profession, and there are people at the bottom of earnings in every profession. So these top 25 guys earn a billion dollars per person. So? It’s legit. It’s how they do business. They do business with people who sign up to do business with them that way. You can’t afford your COLA to Social Security or the disabled vets because you haven’t managed the government’s money. The government doesn’t have any. The government is in debt and it’s not because of the hedge fund guys. I would tell you the taxes they are paying dwarf whatever it’s gonna cost you to give your $250 away.
And why is there no COLA, Bernie? Inflation’s going up. You want to know why there’s no cost of living adjustment? Because Obama doesn’t want there to appear to be any inflation. So the way you snakes are going around this is to say, ‘Well, there’s no inflation. It’s unfair. Cost of living adjustment increase are not going out to Social Security people and veterans. So we want to cut ’em a check for $250 and –‘ oh, no, no, no, the deal is if there’s no inflation they don’t get an increase, that’s the deal, Bernie. That’s the law. All of a sudden now even though there’s inflation, you guys say there isn’t any because you’re trying to put forth this notion, this myth of an economic recovery for the sacred of your president, peace be upon him. And all of a sudden you now want to come up with the money anyway so you gotta write checks going against the deal. The deal is they don’t get anything, there’s no inflation. You say there’s no inflation. And we all know there is, and you do, too, so that’s why you’re trying to come up with the additional 250 bucks.
What is evident by virtue of his own reasoning here is that his outfit’s not responsible. His outfit can’t meet its pledges; can’t make their commitments; can’t make their promises; can’t fulfill anything that they promised people. Bernie, you’re bankrupt. The institution you represent, the beloved institution that you champion, is bankrupt. You’re having to borrow money from the ChiComs to survive. The hedge fund guys are earning theirs. There may be some ChiComs investing, but the ChiComs aren’t loaning it to ’em, and they’re not giving it to ’em. Classic example of free market doing great. The lesson here is why don’t you try to emulate all these people doing so well? Why don’t you take the way they’re earning money and try to incorporate some of their theories into the way the government operates with its money? Well, you can’t, Bernie, because that’s not your intent, and you don’t have the knowledge to do it anyway.
The richest entity, by far in this country is your government, Bernie. You ought to hate your government. You ought to despise your government. Why, look at all the unfair tax breaks your government gets. You tax people seven times. You tax people every time they exchange a dollar. Look at all of the ill-gotten wealth that your government has, and you are still broke. You ought to hate your government. Look at how rich you guys are. Look at the health care bill that you guys just passed. On one hand you should be happy that you were able to pull that off. No, you’re miserable. It’s all because you’re just jealous. You wish you had a billion dollars a year. But you haven’t the foggiest notion how to make more than what you’re already making, $175,000 or whatever your Senate salary is, which is, I can tell you, you’re not even worth that, as far your employees are concerned, us.
All around you people, all around you are the lessons to learn how to be solvent, how to be profitable. What do you do? You take the biggest pile of money that exists in this world every year and you mismanage it. And you have taken this country into bankruptcy, and you dare go on the floor of the House and complain and blame it on working people earning what they have, regardless the amount, you blame them. You take the taxes they pay away from what you have and you see what you’re left with, because you’re headed that way anyway. You’re getting to the point, Bernie, where all your taxation is gonna force these people out of the country, or gonna force ’em to retire and live off what they’ve got, say, ‘To hell with it, it’s not gonna be worth dealing with you, Bernie.’ It’s getting to the point where the citizens of this country don’t consider their own government their friend. The people of this country are starting to consider their own government the enemy. Going to get on an airplane, starting to feel like trying to cross the Berlin Wall, the United States of America. The only difference is none of the women crossing the Berlin Wall were worth frisking.