RUSH: Here’s George W. Bush at his conference. This is in New York City today on taxes and economic growth.
PRESIDENT BUSH: If you raise taxes on the so-called rich, you’re really raising taxes on the job creators. And if the goal is private sector growth, you gotta recognize that the best way to create that growth is to leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators. I wish they weren’t called the Bush tax cuts. If they’re called some other body’s tax cuts, they’re probably less likely to be raised. If you raise taxes, you’re taking money out of the pockets of consumers. We trust people when it comes to spending their money, and so should the government.
RUSH: George W. Bush, after three years, shows up to defend his economic policies and laments that it’s called the Bush tax cuts. If it were called anybody else’s tax cuts, nobody would wanna get rid of ’em. He’s right. He’s absolutely right. He knows how despised and hated by the media he is, the left and so forth. So, anyway, he’s out there, he’s defending his stuff now. Donald Trump was on CNBC today with Joe Kernen talking about the Paul Ryan budget. Trump thinks it’s catastrophic for the Republican Party. Joe Kernen says, “I disagreed with you initially when you said Ryan shouldn’t have put out his budget plan. You thought that people would take that budget and twist it around, use it maybe as not what it is, and that’s exactly what’s happened, Donald.”
TRUMP: I like Paul Ryan, and I’m not knocking anything about his plan. I’m just saying the timing of this plan is potentially catastrophic for the Republicans.
RUSH: The timing of the plan. I like Paul Ryan, I like the plan, just not now. So back to CNBC’s Squawk Box, Joe Kernen then got hold of Ryan. He played Ryan that clip of Trump. And Kernen then said, “So Donald is cynical. Maybe it’s a realistic viewpoint. Obama can lay in the weeds with a budget that got zero votes from either side. He doesn’t tell the American people any hard choices they’re gonna have to make. So you tell ’em the hard choices and grandma and grandpa think they’re gonna be out in the snow starving after they read your budget, and Obama doesn’t have a budget that anybody is paying any attention to, so he’s safe, and you’re gonna make people think they’re gonna be starving in the snow. Was this a wise move, Congressman?”
RYAN: I think it’s wise to be honest with the American people about the problems we have ahead of us. I think it’s the right thing to do is show leadership, put solutions on the table to avert a debt crisis. So, yeah, I think the analyses is correct. The president has chosen to punt, not to lead on this most pressing issue of our generation. Wait for Republicans to offer their plan, then attack. And that’s his method to political success to the election. I think people are gonna see through this. You know, where I come from, in a very swing area in America, in Wisconsin, people want to be talked to like adults. They want the facts, the truth. They want ideas and solutions. They don’t want to be pandered to like children.
RUSH: Well, even though we’re gonna have to start telling them about Obama’s record, because that’s the answer to this. The answer to this is not to defend the Ryan budget. That’s minutia. If we’re gonna get into this, if we’re gonna roll up the sleeves, the only target is Obama and his record. That’s all that matters. And that’s how you stay on offense. I mentioned this last week. I’m repeating it again. His record must be the battlefield, because he can’t defend it. There’s not one aspect of Obama’s record that he can point to and say, “You want more of this? Vote for me.” Nobody wants any more of it. People have to be reminded he’s running not as an incumbent. Obama is running for office as somebody who hasn’t been there yet. Obama is trying to re-create the 2008 campaign.
(imitating Obama) “There’s a mess here. This mess is 200-plus years old. It doesn’t work and it hasn’t worked, and I’m the guy to fix it.” That’s his campaign. “This is a country that has only cared about the people who can take care of themselves. And most people can’t take care of themselves because most people are victims of the people who can take care of themselves. The people who can take care of themselves have exploited all these other poor saps that can’t. Well, I’m here for these poor saps. I’m here to make sure you don’t get trod on anymore. I’m here to make sure you don’t get disrespected. I’m here to make sure that your money is not taken away from you. I’m here to make sure you have just as much chance to get rich as these guys who’ve taken your money,” And he’s gonna run as somebody who’s positioned to fix the 200-plus years of absolute disaster this country has been. And it isn’t gonna be his disaster.
None of what he’s done is gonna even come up, as far as he’s concerned. So it’s gonna be incumbent on the Republicans, on Romney, on Ryan, whoever. Obama’s record. And it’s simple. It’s easy. Because it’s all a failure. Everything going on wrong in this country, everything trending down is because of Barack Obama. The previous 200-plus years have been the most successful in the history of the human race, in terms of organizing a population into a nation. This country, the greatest ever because of its recognition and celebration of liberty and freedom and the nature of our creation and the yearning of our natural spirit. All of this led to the greatest nation in history that Barack Obama sees as essentially a crime, a nation where there was never any social justice, a nation where there was never any economic fairness.
But he hasn’t really done anything yet. He’s running not as the incumbent. You’ll be able to count on one hand the number of times Obama cites any of his so-called achievements. One of them will be health care, and he’ll have to lie about it. “Yeah, I gave health care to every American. I reduced their premiums and it came in saving money.” That’s what he’ll say. And it’s gonna be up to Republicans to roll up their sleeves and say, “Nope, it didn’t happen.” But that’s gonna require confrontation. That’s going to require competition. That’s going to require a lot of confidence.
Anyway, there’s one more Paul Ryan bite here. Joe Kernen on CNBC says, “Paul Krugman says that you have $4.6 trillion. You’re gonna close loopholes to make up for the lost revenue, and you haven’t identified any loopholes. So Congressman Ryan, you’re spending $4.6 trillion. How’s your budget any different than anybody else’s?”
RYAN: The problem, Joe, is spending. Spending is set to double, then triple over the course of this century. We have to deal with the spending. It is a spending-driven debt crisis, and we don’t want to try and tax our way out of the problem we have because, if we do, we will shut down the economy and we’ll actually never close the gap on the deficit. Let’s get spending under control, cut spending, reform entitlement programs, do it in a gradual way so that people can adjust accordingly, prevent people in and near retirement from having any disruption in their lives, and get pro-growth tax reform to get people back to work.
RUSH: That’s Paul Ryan responding to people who say it’s just bad timing, you don’t want this budget out there now because it’s such a huge target. We don’t need a target right now.