RUSH: I got Fox on now and I’m seeing Geraldo Rivera, so I’m thinking somebody died ’cause that’s when they trot him out from the formaldehyde, is when somebody’s died. He’s the Grim Reaper. But it’s not. Geraldo’s talking about some top Senate Democrat. I don’t know the name, doesn’t matter. There’s 12 of ’em, now joining the push to let Americans keep their health plans. Folks, you can’t.

I’m gonna get blue in the face here. They can’t reinstitute that. We had yesterday, there was a story in The Politico, and one of the architects, a man named Jonathan Gruber, made the point. It was a huge El Rushbo See, I Told You So. You can’t roll back and give people the plans that they had ’cause those plans are gone. The insurance companies had to get rid of them because they didn’t comply with Obamacare.

Just one example is all this contraception, like in the ad we’re talking about. Every policy now provides for that kind of thing, that most people aren’t gonna use or don’t care to have insurance cover because they’ll buy it themselves. Obama, in order to get the young Millennial female vote, mandates that every policy cover contraception for everybody — birth control pills, you name it. That constitutes change in the policy, and this guy Gruber said it.

You cannot have Obamacare and your old policy at the same time. If you keep your old policy, there’s no Obamacare. They’d have to roll back Obamacare. They’d have to cancel Obamacare to give you your old plan, if we’re gonna follow the law here. I guess with this bunch, that’s not a given. But if the law counts for anything, you cannot have Obamacare and your insurance policy used to have at the same time because the Obamacare law doesn’t permit it.

Obamacare requires a bunch of things in every policy now.

They’re trying to blame the insurance companies for changing everybody’s policies, and the insurance companies are simply complying with the new law. The insurance companies have to cover contraception, and that means that everybody has it in their policy. You’ve got to pay for it for the people that are using it so that they don’t have to pay for it in their minds. All these Democrats are running around saying, “We just find a way to let people keep their plans.”

Don’t fall for it, folks.

It’s another typical Democrat trick.

You can’t get your old plan back. It’s gone. You got a cancellation notice. They would have to delay, defund, or repeal Obamacare — and then the insurance companies would have to agree to go back and re-create the policies that you had that you liked. They don’t exist. One more time: The architect of Obamacare, Mr. Gruber, made the point that you cannot have both. If everybody gets their old policies back that they liked, you don’t have Obamacare.

By the way, the reason is that the insurance companies will not make money on your old plan with Obamacare in effect. He said it, not me. But as a matter of law, you can’t have both plans at the same time. By the way, you know, the White House website right now? At the White House website right now, there’s a question: “Will my coverage at work change?” Answer: “No. If you like the health plan you have at work you’ll be able to keep it.” They’re still lying about it. You won’t keep it once January 1st comes.

It goes away like everybody else’s now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Erick Erickson, head honcho at RedState.com, used to be a commentator at CNN, then wised up and went to Fox, just posted the following. He’s also on our blowtorch affiliate in Atlanta, WSB. “Republicans are walking into a trap and they donÂ’t even realize it. They are about to consider, in the House of Representatives, legislation by Congressman Upton that would allow people to keep their insurance plans.”

This is what happens. I’m editorializing here. I’ll get back to Erick in a minute. First of all, Fred Upton is the Republican who was all for getting rid of the incandescent lightbulb and moving to the compact fluorescent because of environmental, climate change issues. Fred Upton. He’s in tight with the House leadership. And, of course, this is so typical, because everybody now is getting their plans canceled. (Crying) “I don’t want my plan canceled! I like my plan.” And the Republicans, “Well, hey, you know what, we think you should keep your plan.” This is the way the Republicans think. They’ll come up with a piece of legislation with the proper message that they think will convince people that they’re not mean and that they hear them and so forth.

So Upton’s got this plan, an actual piece of legislation that would allow people to keep their insurance plans.

“ThereÂ’s a problem though. It is widely acknowledged that Congressman UptonÂ’s legislation is more messaging than substance.” He’s just trying to relate to people. He’s just trying to send the message from the Republicans to the people in the country, “We hear you. We also think you’ve been treated wrong. We’re good people, too. Please like us.” But he doesn’t really mean for this to have any substance to it, according to Erick. “His legislation does not have anything in it that can force insurance companies, in the topsy-turvy world of Obamacare, to keep insurance plans going.”

It’s just a piece of legislation that supports the notion of you keeping your plan. The problem is and the trap is that there is a plan that does this over in the Senate. “Senator Mary Landrieu has written legislation in the United States Senate that the Democrats love. It mandates insurance companies have to keep people on their present insurance.”
Now, I must pause here because the insurance companies are in a no-win on this. If the mandate passes they have to lose money doing it. Snerdley’s right, ’cause the key of this is Dingy Harry.

Okay, so here’s Mary Landrieu. Let me stay on point. Mary Landrieu has legislation in the Senate that the Democrats love. It mandates that these evil, man, rotten insurance companies continue to offer you your plan. And it creates this impression that it’s the insurance companies that did this, not Obamacare, because she’s trying to inoculate the Democrats from any negative fallout here. And the Republicans are gonna fall right into this, and here’s how. Now, the Republicans supposedly oppose mandates, right? We don’t like government mandates. We like freedom.

We Republicans are against the government forcing private businesses and individuals into contracts they don’t want. That’s why we opposed Obamacare. We don’t like the idea that you can be told that you have to buy something. Fred Upton has proposed this thing with no teeth in it, but if it passes here’s what’s gonna happen. The House, because a lot of Democrats will support Fred Upton’s meaningless provision, Democrats will see to it that this bill passes, and it’ll go to the Senate. And there won’t be a conference committee. Harry Reid will simply throw out Upton’s plan and substitute Landrieu’s plan for it and send it back to the House where you’re saying, “Well, Rush, the Republicans will vote it down.” No, they — (interruption) Well, yeah, but what new one coming back?

No, here’s the way it works. Upton’s legislation has no teeth in it, it’s just a PR message but the Democrats will see to it that it passes and it gets to the Senate, where it’s real. Dingy Harry says this bill doesn’t have any teeth in it, throws it out and substitutes the Landrieu plan. The Landrieu plan, with mandates in it that supposedly Republicans hate will be sent back to Republicans, and this is the trap, this is the trick. The House Republicans will be forced to either vote for it or be characterized as siding with the insurance companies against the people. That is the trick, Fred Upton trying to send a message of solidarity to the people being screwed by Obamacare is gonna have his meaningless, toothless bill thrown out by Harry Reid.

Landrieu’s bill, which mandates it, will then be sent back to the House, and the Republicans will be forced with either voting for it or opposing it, and if they oppose it, here comes the media, and here come the Democrats talking about how the Republicans continue to side with Big Insurance over the people. And the Republicans won’t want that said about them, and so they will pass it. Then the Democrats and Obama, via Mary Landrieu and Harry Reid and Fred Upton, will get their bill mandating that you get to keep your policy, and as far as you are concerned, Obama and the Democrats are heroes, because they have seen to it that those evil Republicans and insurance companies have once again been shafted, as they tried to shaft you.

So in one fell swoop, the Democrats will have the Republicans on record saving Landrieu’s reelection in Louisiana by casting her as the one who saved Americans’ health care plans, and also getting on record as really being in favor of fixing Obamacare with the use of mandates. That’s what the trap is, all because the Republicans are defensive and have no confidence. They ought to be nowhere near trying to fix this. This is why I said the other day — I’m sorry to say it again — that this thing is starting to implode now. These very Republicans were the ones who said, “Don’t oppose it, Mr. Cruz. Don’t defund it, Mr. Cruz. Don’t delay it, Mr. Cruz. Let it implode and let it collapse, and let it be the end of liberalism.” And here come the Republicans being tricked into saving it. They ought to be doing nothing that helps the Democrats here.

“But Mr. Limbaugh, then they’re going to be castigated as enjoying people’s pain.” The Democrats are causing people’s pain! Obama is causing people’s pain, not the Republicans. But the Republicans are gonna unwittingly maneuver themselves into a position where they are acknowledging that they’re the cause of the pain, and they want to be the solution by agreeing with the notion that the insurance companies are the problem, not Obama, and the insurance companies should be mandated to reinstating your policy that you’re losing. And then what if Obama, on top of that, decides to give people some money and call it a subsidy, for their pain and suffering during all this?

I knew I was gonna kill you with this. I knew I was gonna kill you. We snatch defeat from the jaws of victory every time, and it’s all because of a lack of confidence and a defensive posture. We sit up there, we think we’re hated, we’re think we’re despised and we’ll take any opportunity we have to tell people, “No, you’re wrong about us. We do agree. We think it’s a horrible thing that you’re losing your policy, and we’re gonna go on record saying so.” In doing that they’re gonna end up stepping into a trap. So that’s, again, a post at RedState.com by Erick Erickson. I mean, folks, I wish it weren’t the case.

Yes. There’s polling data out there. It’s in the Stack here. Obama’s approval numbers now everywhere in the thirties, everywhere. The Republicans ought to be nowhere near trying to help Obama save his bacon. But they don’t think that’s what they’re doing, I’m convinced. If they do this, I mean, you talk about trauma and the need for therapy, I really think that the Republicans have been genuinely psychologically traumatized by decades of media criticism that they’re racist, sexist, they care only about the rich, they hate women, and I think they’re just obsessed with taking every opportunity that comes their way to try to prove to people they’re not what the Democrats say.

Now, there may even be, in addition to that, which I wholeheartedly believe, by the way, but there may also be some establishment — look, folks, I hate to say this, but when Ted Cruz and the boys were doing everything they can to oppose this and stop it and prevent this, there’s all kinds of Republicans that campaigned on their promise to repeal it and never lifted a finger to actually do it. There’s a lot of establishment Republicans who, they’re envisioning being in power someday with this bill in place and in charge of the money. I don’t know, it may well be that they’re not falling into a trap. This may be a strategy to save Obamacare, who the hell knows. But this is the ruling class inside-the-Beltway establishment, both parties. In this case, I’d have to come down on the fact that the Republicans are unwittingly preparing to save Obamacare.

I really can’t bring myself to believe that they actually want to. But reality is reality. You know, it is what it is. And what is is that the Republicans appear to want to salvage this somehow, if they can make people like them in the process. Sorry to hit you with this, but it’s brewing out there. So what’s the solution? Well, if somebody could get to Fred Upton in the leadership: “Just stand up. Don’t propose this. You don’t need to. Table the damn bill and don’t send anything to the Senate and leave Landrieu and Harry Reid hanging by themselves. Do not send them anything that they can toss out and substitute their own bill. You know, call a press conference, Congressman Upton, and go tell people what you think, but don’t propose some kind of meaningless legislation that could be tossed out.”

I know. I know. There are 18 Democrat Senate seats on the hook. Obama’s on the hook. But it doesn’t matter. These 12 to 14 Democrats, who, it is said, are prepared if something’s not done by Friday, to join Republican fixes for this. Why would you throw that out? I can’t answer the question. You’re asking me again, for 25 years, you’ve been asking me, “Why do the Republicans do X?” I do not know. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t know.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Republicans need to adopt Harry Reid’s attitude of two or three weeks ago. Remember when Harry Reid said, “Why would I want to do that?” when asked about making sure that places that treat kids with cancer stay open. “Why would I want to do that?” The Republicans need to say, “Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to preserve Obamacare?” I don’t know why the Republicans want to make Obamacare work. I don’t know. Unless they so hate the Tea Party, unless they just despise the Tea Party, that they do something like this out of spite. I do not have an explanation.

Here’s Arnie, Sterling Heights, Michigan. Hi, Arnie, I’m glad you waited.

CALLER: Yeah, thank you, Rush. A pleasure to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I’m a physician, and first quick comment is it’s a shame that they’re playing politics with our health care. Going forward, the point that I was calling you about is, okay, let’s say they suspend the individual mandate, okay? How do they reconcile the preexisting clause, okay? For example, you had a health care policy that went away, but while that policy was enforced, let’s say you developed diabetes, hypertension, whatever the case may be, okay —

RUSH: Right, everything I’m supposed to have.

CALLER: — your policy goes away. The policy, according to their simplistic thinking, okay, we’ll just reinstate. Well, now you have a preexisting condition that they have to compensate for in terms of premiums, costs, so on and so forth. That would necessarily have to void out a major keystone of the Obamacare construct.

RUSH: I’m not sure that I’m following here. What’s confusing me is the preexisting condition clause that you’re talking about. Because hasn’t that been funneled off into a separate high-risk pool?

CALLER: Naturally, but previously — okay, let’s say you applied for health insurance, and you had a history of hypertension. You would be rated or you might have a condition, for example, that your preexisting condition may not be covered for a period of six to 12 months.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Okay?

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: And now, because of all the formulaic permutations that this stupid plan has, you would now have to cover this, your new premium would have to naturally absorb the cost. Okay?

RUSH: Where I’m losing you is in an existing policy that’s been canceled, why isn’t the preexisting coverage just automatically reinstated, speaking theoretically here, why isn’t the preexisting coverage automatically reinstated if that was part of your policy that was canceled?

CALLER: The problem is, it wasn’t preexisting when you originally had the policy. This was a problem that developed.

RUSH: Oh.

CALLER: You got older, you developed a condition that —

RUSH: Oh, yeah —

CALLER: — when you originally signed your policy you did not have.

RUSH: And they gotta go through the waiting period all over again, right?

CALLER: Exactly. Okay. And that cost necessarily has to be passed through. So it’s not like we can just blink our eyes and we can reinstitute what we had before.

RUSH: Well, the Democrats are trying to make people think that’s all we gotta do. And, by the way, Fred Upton, I just read, has said he likes the Mary Landrieu plan, by the way.

CALLER: Yeah, but last I checked, insurance companies aren’t in the business of losing money or going out of business.

RUSH: Well, they are now, whether they know it or not.

CALLER: Well, they know it, and they’re obviously making their adjustments accordingly. That’s why you’re getting these 40, 50% increases in your coverage policies, you know, zero deductible going to $10,000 deductible and so on and so forth. So suffice it to say, you know, as the simplistic thinkers only want to look at the first layer of the onion, the meat is actually in the depth of the onion.

RUSH: So the point that you’re making, Arnie, if I understand is, that they can’t automatically reinstate a preexisting coverage aspect of your policy even if you had it when it was canceled?

CALLER: I can’t see how they would do that, or I can’t see why they would want it —

RUSH: What if they just mandate? What if Obama just tells the insurance companies that’s what you’ve gotta do?

CALLER: It’s the financials.

RUSH: Who cares about the financials? One thing this Regime doesn’t care about is the financials of anything.

CALLER: Well, as long as they keep earning money, yeah, everything’s wonderful so —

RUSH: They don’t even care about the law, in many respects. It’s a Washington Examiner story that says Upton is open to the idea of supporting the Landrieu plan. It’s unbelievable. Literally unbelievable.

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RUSH: Yes siree, Bob. We’re be back. It’s the DC Examiner that has the story, Fred Upton is open to supporting the Landrieu plan. Now, the Landrieu plan… I’m getting… This ticks me off like I cannot tell you. The Landrieu plan is command-and-control. It’s Central Planning for the government. It mandates how insurance companies do business. It tells them what they can and can’t do. This is not what the GOP does!

I’ll give you an example. Remember when Reagan was gonna go to the cemetery in Germany where some SS soldiers were buried, and Elie Wiesel made an appeal to Reagan. He said, “Mr. President, this is not your place.” Reagan ended up going, for other reasons. He said, “This is not your place.” This is not what the GOP should be doing, not endorsing command and Central Planning control over the private sector.

But I guess the tug and the pull to be seen as on the side of the little guy by the Republicans is so strong. Folks, there’s just no explaining it. I’m telling you, it’s Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. It’s some kind of psychosis that’s causing these guys to think the way they do — or worse, they hate the Tea Party, and they’ll do anything to cause the Tea Party to abandon ’em.

They’ll do anything to tick off their base. It could well be that, too. Upton, I’m sure, doesn’t like the base anyway ’cause they gave him all kind of trouble over the lightbulb business. It was Boehner that saved his bacon, ’cause there were massive calls to remove Upton or not give Upton a chairmanship he was in line for because of that lightbulb fiasco.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Why is Fred Upton doing what he’s doing? Folks, try this. Maybe the Republican leadership, at the end of the day, doesn’t really oppose Obamacare. Maybe they just don’t oppose it. Who knows?