RUSH: Jim in Port Huron, Michigan, great to have you on Open Line Friday. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush! Happy New Year and happy birthday.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Listen, Rush, the reason I called is to make a couple comments. You know, I’ve been following the health care debate and the new vote, and what’s interesting is that every time you see a Democrat talking about that health care program, they’ve got three or maybe four points that they can point to that make the health care program worthwhile; yet they pushed through 2700 pages of BS on the American people that they said we had to have — which is absolutely ridiculous — and you find out that that the three or four points are something Republicans were along with them on when they wanted to go bipartisan to begin with. So it’s absolutely sickening to listen to them talk about it now. The other item is the cost of that health care bill. Paul Ryan was on Greta Van Susteren last night, and he probably gave the best and most articulate reasons for the costs of the health care bill versus what the Democrats are putting’ forth. He made it very plain where the cost and the CBO estimates that the Democrats are giving us were way out of line, the fact that they wanted to cut Medicare by $500 billion and they wanted to cut Medicaid. It’s absolutely ridiculous, their stance on this, and I just hope the Republicans stand up and put pressure on the Senate to get rid of this crazy bill.
RUSH: Oh, they will. The first time around it isn’t gonna happen; that’s why they gotta keep plugging at this. It’s not gonna pass the Senate first time around. There are some Democrats that are gonna vote to repeal it in the House. They announced today. I forget who these were. Two of them I saw, maybe more. Some Democrats in the House are gonna vote to repeal it, and it’s not gonna pass the Senate the first time. But the more you do this, the more pressure you bring and the more the polling data shows that people want this repealed. The more the Democrats have to defend this, the better. That’s why: Send a repeal bill up there every month if you have to.
CALLER: (garbled) MVP, with the IR people he’s had all year, and he’s carrying his team to the playoffs? He’s gonna win the Super Bowl. Peyton Manning for MVP.
RUSH: Wait. I didn’t hear the first part of what you said ’cause you’re breaking up. Are you picking the Colts?
CALLER: Yes, I am. I think Peyton Manning should be the MVP of the league. No other quarterback has had to play with the amount of injured reserve players that they’ve had on the Colts this year. They’re still making it to the playoffs and I pick ’em to win the Super Bowl.
RUSH: All right. Peyton Manning for MVP, winning the Super Bowl. So you think they’re gonna through the New York ‘Jits’?
CALLER: They’re gonna kill the Jets!
RUSH: They’re going to kill…?
CALLER: Peyton Manning is the man.
RUSH: All right. There you have it. That’s Jim in Port Huron, Michigan, who’s obviously given up on the Lions, and I guess the Colts are the nearest (geographically) good team, and there you go.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Grab audio sound bite number 13, Mike. We don’t have Paul Ryan from Greta last night. We do have him yesterday afternoon, Wall Street Journal, Conversations With, he talked to Paul Gigot. And this is a small sound bite, but Ryan, pay attention to him, brilliant guy. Budget matters, brilliant guy. Gigot said, ‘Some Democrats criticize you for backtracking on the promise, campaign promise, hundred billion-dollar deficit reduction, can you respond to that charge you’re already backtracking, is that true?’
RYAN: If people think we’re afraid of cutting a hundred billion dollars they got another thing coming. This is just the beginning. Wait ’til we do our budget resolution; wait ’til we do our fiscal year 2012 spending bills, we’re gonna keep going.
RUSH: That’s the Paul Ryan that I know. I met Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan was an intern at Empower America when Jack Kemp and Bill Bennett ran that shop in Washington. I flew up there one weekend to meet Bennett for a weekend of revelry and they took me by the office, and Paul Ryan was in there as an intern. He remembered meeting me, he told me that was the first place that we met, and so there he was, interned for Kemp and Bennett, Empower America, Forbes and all that, bammo. And here he is now running the budget for the US Republicans in the Congress, saying, ‘A hundred billion? Hell. That’s just the beginning.’