RUSH: I promised we have three Boehner sound bites, and this is gonna close the loop on this. We spent the first hour talking about this and where it’s all headed in terms of the House actually following through on their effort to defund Obama’s executive orders on amnesty. And I think they will. I think the House is gonna pass a bill. I don’t know what the Senate’s gonna do, but I know Obama’s gonna veto it, and I know that that will then be the moment of truth.
That’s when we’re gonna find out what the House Republican leadership is all about, after Obama vetoes it. In other words, is all of this just for show for us? It won’t be long before we find out. By “us” I mean conservatives who keep electing Republicans, keep demanding that they finally get in gear and stop this stuff. Are they just playing games with us or do they really now understand what we want and are prepared to act on it? There’s a lot of doubt about that, but to close the loop on this, here’s Boehner, we have three sound bites, a debate today on immigration reform, and Boehner gave a stem-winder. Here’s the first of three bites.
RUSH: Right. He’s talking about Bush. And Boehner’s right about that. But, folks, as I said before the break at the top of the hour, gonna sit around and imagine, okay, what would the Republicans be mad at? You know, I would get rid of this anger at my own base. There’s no future in lashing out at your own. But what I’d be mad at, separation of powers is one of the primary safeguards built into the Constitution to protect it. I’m gonna have to develop this further. This call I mentioned that I had a couple of months ago who asked me, “Rush, what’s kept the Constitution alive so far? Just the honor system?”
And what the caller meant was, has it just been the willingness of people in power to observe it, to not defy it? Not entirely. There’s been all kinds of liberal Democrats who would have loved to broom the whole thing. But in terms of presidents, Obama is a first in terms of the degree and consistency and extent of his flaunting the Constitution. The separation of powers is the number one safeguard. The arguments within all three branches, the quest — the Founders knew human nature. They knew that Congress would want to get as much power away from the president as they could, vice-versa, that the president would want to get as much power away from Congress.
The Founders thought that each branch would religiously and jealously guard its own power. They would not sit by and let a president tinkle on the Constitution. They would not sit by. The Founders had a very profound confidence that members of the Congress would not just sit around and let a president take away their power. And the fight over that power would be one of the things preserving the Constitution, because it would be a fundamental aspect of it being fought over, i.e., separation of powers.
By the same token, the Founders believed that presidents wouldn’t sit by and let Congress thwart their power, that they would be in fighting for their power, defending their power, and seeking more. And this ongoing battle, which was rooted in each branch protecting its own power, is what would preserve the Constitution, separation of the powers is the heart of it.
Well, what’s happened here in the last six years is Congress has basically vanished. They have let Obama do all this. And after Obama has engaged in all of these extraconstitutional duties, all these executive orders — you know what the biggest threat to Constitution going right now is? It’s not Obama. Not in a direct way. The biggest threat to the Constitution is this bureaucracy in Washington, all of these regulatory agencies that have just sprung up, having been created by Obama, or various presidents, sometimes acts of Congress, and they are free to write up regulations and laws on people without going through Congress.
You talk about bastardizing the Constitution and you talk about ripping the whole concept much separation of powers to shreds. This is one of the greatest threats going. You have the EPA, and you name it, just automatically decreeing what farmers can and can’t do on their own property, as just one small example. The Constitution is being violated every time one of those agencies has done something like that. And it’s happening thousands of times. And it’s being done by design.
It’s one of the fastest ways around the Constitution. And you couch it in regulatory review and making it safer for the people and protecting the people, and so they’ll look the other way. Hell, half of ’em don’t even know that these regulatory agencies are violating the Constitution just on the basis they exist. And it’s all by design.
I had a guy say to me, he said, “Rush, do you ever spend any time in Washington? I mean, actually really spend any time there?”
And I said, “Yeah.”
He said, “Well, the next time you go, you know, Washington is a multifaceted city. But,” he said, “it’s amazing to me, the places where legitimate constitutional power exist. The Capitol building, the White House, Pentagon, State Department, you name it, many of these buildings are beautiful, they’re well crafted, they have a purpose, they’re not overly large, other than the Pentagon. They have a character to them, and they are representative of a respected government. You look at where these regulatory agencies are, and they’re in the ugliest buildings with no character. They’re basically hiding in plain sight. They’re supposed to be so unnoticeable that you don’t care what’s going on inside there.”
I had never had it portrayed to me that way. And he said it’s even visible to that extent what’s happened to Washington. And I understood what he was talking about. Anyway, here’s the second Boehner bite. I keep distracting myself. Not distracting, diverting, but always getting back to the main thrust.
BOEHNER: On October 25th, 2010, the president said, and I quote, “I am president. I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. I can’t just make up the laws by myself.” On March 28th, 2011, the president said, and I quote, “America’s a nation of laws, which means that I, as president, am obligated to enforce the law.” On April 20th, 2011, the president said, and I quote, “I can’t solve this problem by myself. I just can’t do it by myself.”
RUSH: Boehner went through 22 of these things. It took five minutes to go through all of these examples that he gave. Now, it’s nothing you don’t know. What sets this apart is we’ve never heard Boehner talk this way. We’ve never heard, not in public, not on the floor of the House, we’ve never heard the House or Senate Republican leadership go after Obama this way. Maybe a little 25-second sound bite in a news story about something else, but this kind of — I don’t want to call it an attack, but, ah, why not. This kind of focused attack we haven’t seen.
Now, here’s the thing about this. You can cite all of this stuff all day long, but unless you’re willing to put some kind of action behind it. They have the ability to stop this, is the point. The Constitution, it is built in, these three branches have the ability to stop the usurpation of their power by other branches. And the House has, in so many ways, telegraphed that they’re not going to employ any of them. They took impeachment off the table. You notice Boehner’s not saying any of this stuff during the campaign. Now it’s coming up as the beginnings of his implementation of executive amnesty come into view. Here’s the final Boehner sound bite from his floor speech today.
BOEHNER: To think that the president of the United States actually studied constitutional law is one thing. He hasn’t just learned constitutional law, he taught it as well. But now his actions suggest that he’s forgotten what these words even mean.
RUSH: He’s not forgotten anything.
BOEHNER: Enough is enough. By their votes last November the people made clear that they wanted more accountability from this president.
RUSH: There we go.
BOEHNER: And by our votes here today —
RUSH: There we go.
BOEHNER: — we will heed their will.
RUSH: There we go.
BOEHNER: And we will keep our oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
RUSH: There it is, folks. There it is. That is what many people think is simply throwing you a bone. They’ve never talked this way before. I have to just repeat myself for the sake of it. Many people saw this, heard this, and got all excited. “Maybe they’re finally starting to listen.” And then, as I shared — I don’t have to repeat myself — there are people looking into this and claiming this is all just for show for us, that this is not really descriptive of their attitude; they’re just saying this. That they know Obama is gonna veto their bill, and then after that, supposedly Conservative Review already says — they’ve got a story — and they feel betrayed.
They gave Obama a bunch of praise a couple days ago, the same day AP came out and noted what they noted. But they are saying they have knowledge now that Obama — why do I keep interchanging these guys? There’s gotta be something subliminal here. Boehner. Boehner has his guys already working on bills that will fund Obama’s executive amnesty, after Obama vetoes the bill that was being debated on the floor of the House today. Time will tell. We’ll not have to wait long, it’ll be in February.
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