RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites. The Drive-By Media is outraged. They’re actually not outraged; they’re jealous as they can be. They are envious as they can be and they’re masking that as outrage. They are outraged that Trump responded to criticism from me on the budget deal.
DAVID ASMAN: Rush Limbaugh, he said essentially, “If this is what we get with a Republican President and a Republican Congress, why vote Republican?”
ELI STOKOLS: A rant from someone in conservative media like Rush Limbaugh, that he felt compelled to react to.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The president takes the bait from Rush Limbaugh earlier in the day, I guess.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, my gosh.
AMANDA CARPENTER: Talk radio hosts, like Rush Limbaugh, saying why would we even vote Republican right now?
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: The Trump-Pence spinning method didn’t work, at least, with the Rush Limbaugh sample of the Trump base.
DAVID CORN: Rush Limbaugh is upset because they didn’t get rid of the EPA.
GREG GUTFELD: The only people who got rolled are the people who believed that President Trump was a small government conservative. For Rush Limbaugh to be upset about this seems a little rich, because anybody saw this coming.
CLARENCE PAGE: This is not the Rush Limbaugh party, though. They’re not going to get a Rush Limbaugh budget. We’ve got to keep the radio commentators over where they belong.
RUSH: Right, keep the radio commentators over where they belong. The radio commentators, like Fox News, they’re too big, they’re too important, we gotta keep ’em over there where they belong. One thing here, and I want to address this, Greg Gutfeld is the voice you heard say, “The only people who got rolled are the people who believed that President Trump was a small government conservative. For Limbaugh to be upset about this seems a little rich, ’cause anybody saw this coming.”
How many times during the campaign did I warn everybody Trump is not a conservative? Multiple times a day. How many times a day did I tell people that Donald Trump is not even ideological? Multiple times a day. How many times have I told you, do not expect Trump to be a conservative; he isn’t one. Why did I change the name of my think tank from the Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies to the Institute for Advanced Anti-Leftist Studies?
To say that Trump was promising doctrinaire conservatism in this? Mr. Gutfeld, come on, you’re smarter than this. This is not at all what this was about. This is the Democrats getting everything they wanted in this thing except $21 billion increase in defense spending as I pointed out with Vice President Pence yesterday.
If I’m the Democrats, $21 billion for defense is a small price to pay for keeping funding for sanctuary cities, keeping funding for Planned Parenthood and all of the other sops, keeping funding for the EPA, all of those things. This was not about conservatism. This was about expectations of Trump voters, many of who are not conservative, either. But they are opposed to Democrats and they are opposed to liberalism.
More importantly, they heard exactly what Trump said. But even more importantly than that, Mr. Gutfeld, who won the election? Trump and the Republicans won the election. But you would never know it by looking at the outcome of events in this budget deal. You would simply never know it, which is why I asked the vice president yesterday if this is what we get when you vote Republican, why should we keep voting Republican?
I never once talked about conservatism ’cause that isn’t what this is about, and I told you back in the campaign that it was not about conservatism. Because that’s not who Trump is.
Here’s the next bite. This is Steve Kornacki — this is The Today Show today — Matt Lauer, “If you’re a Republican member of Congress, Steve, you’re one of the majority in the House and the Senate, how do you feel about the president’s tweet when he says quote, ‘Our country needs a good shutdown in September to fix the mess.'”
KORNACKI: This Donald Trump responding not just to Democrats taunting him, but he’s got talk radio, he’s got Rush Limbaugh on conservative radio saying, hey, Trump got rolled on this budget deal. And Donald Trump doesn’t like to hear that so the next time this funding comes around we’re gonna do it differently. We’re gonna do a shutdown. But, meanwhile, if you’re a Republican on Capitol Hill, what do you want to do between now and September? You want to get tax reform done. That’s where you want your focus. That’s where you want your emphasis. Now he’s sidetracking with talk of a shutdown.
RUSH: Once again, I specifically made the point that nobody got “rolled” here and that’s what’s wrong with this. You know, it would be marginally more acceptable if we got rolled, because that would imply at least there were well-intentioned efforts here. Nobody got rolled! Paul Ryan didn’t get rolled and Mitch McConnell didn’t get rolled. They weren’t fooled. Nobody played a trick on them. This is a very important point, folks, and it’s very key. To say they got rolled is the way we’ve always described Republicans in previous battles with Democrats on things like the budget.
But they’re not rolled. They’re not dumb people. They’re not uneducated; they’re not uninformed. They are very informed, very opinionated, very powerful people. They didn’t get rolled; they got what they wanted. That’s the thing that has everybody that voted for Trump outraged. Washington got what it wanted in this budget deal, but a man was sent there to stop this. Not a conservative, not a doctrinaire ideologue. But someone — based on what he had said during the campaign — was sent there to stop this, and the first chance to stop it, they passed and kicked the can down the road.
Nothing about conservatism here. Nothing about ideology here. This is flat, straight, up-and-down, issue-oriented politics that has people who elected the current president and gave the Republicans the Senate wondering: Why? What difference does it seem to make? So I… This is not hard to understand, but are people putting words in my mouth and putting assumptions in their own heads about what I should have seen coming? It’s not just me. It’s what everybody… It’s the expectation that were created — and are continually created at presidential rallies, by the way.
I think what’s really upsetting some of these people is right here in this bite: “Trump responding to talk radio! Trump responding to Rush Limbaugh.” Remember who we’re talking about here: The Drive-By Media. Trump calls ’em fake news, the failing New York Times, and he doesn’t respond to them. When they criticize Trump, Trump doesn’t change anything; he doubles down. They think when I criticize Trump, that Trump heeds my criticism.
And that’s why they’re jealous and that is why they’re envious and that’s why they’re mad. Because in Trump’s world they are fake news. They are the people that Trump ought to be reacting to. They are the people that Trump ought to be responding to. They are the people who ought to have Trump quaking in his boots. I’m happy to have the opportunity to set this all straight but we’re not even finished. Mick Mulvaney was on Fox & Friends today with Steve Doocy and Bryant Kilmeade, and this little exchange they had…
DOOCY: There’s not much swamp draining so far, and that disappoints and frustrates them.
MULVANEY: One of them’s Rush Limbaugh. In terms of the funding the president’s priorities, that’s my job — that’s what the budget director does — and I can tell you that the entire OMB and the West Wing including the entire Oval Office are very excited about the money we did get for the president’s priorities yesterday. Keep in mind $21 billion for the military, additional money for border security, more money for school choice. I did an interview with y’all in New York a couple of months ago when the budget came out. And what were our priorities at that time? More money for the defense, more money for the border, more money for school choice.
RUSH: Right. Now, I understand wholeheartedly the effort by the administration to sell this as an accomplishment and an achievement. In some ways it is. I’m not denying that. But you go ask your average Trump voter; these were not the top tier signature issues that Trump used to rally support. Those were the wall and immigration — tightening down on it and everything — the EPA, Planned Parenthood, federal funding, reducing the size of government, tax cuts, and getting rid of Obamacare.
Those are the things that were the big deal. Now, I think I know what happened here. I’m gonna take a stab in the dark. And, by the way, I know I just kissed off any invitation I was gonna get maybe to a state dinner. But so what? I think what happened here is that when they say that he has this set a record, that this is the first time a newly inaugurated president has been able to change an existing budget that he inherited — ergo that is a big deal and another unprecedented achievement of President Trump — I think there’s no…
Well, they are pitching that. And I think they probably, from the get-go, never looted this CR as an opportunity to do anything else. In their defense, folks — in their defense — Trump submitted a budget, wherever it was, February, and it is his budget blueprint for the next budget, which they will start talking about in September and October. The government fiscal year begins October 1st, and that’s where they were going to do all of the magic. That’s where they’re gonna start the implementation of the Trump agenda.
And the CR was gonna happen. I mean, the government was gonna run out of money at a certain time. The continuing resolution had a stop date. It was this week or last. I mean, they knew that coming in. But I don’t think they looked at this particular budget fight as any kind of a battlefield. That’s all to come in September, and I’m not saying this because Trump starts talking about a shutdown in September. I just… I think it’s a missed opportunity that they didn’t see or plan on, because they’re looking further down the road.
And I think they’re a little blindsided by the criticism. I genuinely do. (interruption) You’re frowning at me like you’re asking, “How can they be blindsided?” (interruption) Well, they’re… (interruption) Snerdley says, “There are veteran political players in there who should have seen this coming and should have seen the opportunity.” I agree with you a hundred percent about that, but they didn’t. If they did see it as a political opportunity, they passed. They passed on it. But Trump voters? Hey, it’s been going wrong for too many years.
The earliest chance — first chance — you get to fix it, you fix it, and you get a double whammy ’cause you ram it down the Democrats’ throats. They lost! This doesn’t compute. They lost the election. Here’s Congressman Jeff Duncan. He is from South Carolina. He was on Fox Business Network’s After the Bell with David Asman. “I was listening to Rush Limbaugh,” Asman says, “earlier today. He said essentially, ‘If this agreement is what we get with a Republican president and a Republican Congress, why vote Republican?’ What do you say to that?”
DUNCAN: Well, I agree with him. We asked America to give you the majority in the House, majority in the Senate and give us the White House, which they did. America’s frustrated when they see this sort of budget deal come forward and the priorities that we talked about. The promises and pledges that we’ve made to the American people were abandoned in this deal. So I think Rush Limbaugh’s right on this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know what? I’m gonna say something. I’ll tell you something else about this whole budget fiasco. It is precisely because Trump does not have an ideological foundation that this happened. I think it’s one of the fundamental characteristics here that everybody has to understand about Trump. He’s not conservative. Nobody ever said he was. I didn’t. He’s not ideological in any way. Well, I say “not in any way.” My point is that he doesn’t see the funding of Planned Parenthood as a left-right thing. He doesn’t.
He doesn’t see the Democrats’ opposition of the wall as a left-right thing. He believes whatever reasons they give for it. But when you don’t… This is my whole point about wishing that more people were ideologically attuned. If one had a familiarity — and therefore a reasoned opposition — to liberalism, socialism, big government, it would be immediately available noticeable what this budget was and the danger that it portended if he didn’t do anything about it!
But it’s precisely because President Trump is not an ideological person, he didn’t see… And I don’t know about his advisers. Who…? I mean his advisers are that predominate. They are depending on what you hear other people say, but nobody really knows. But if anybody there had had been an ideologically tuned, fine-tuned person, then every pitfall in this budget would have been seen for the pitfall that it is. Absent that, is how you can look at it.
“I don’t have to deal with it right now. These people winning…” You don’t see anybody winning on something you don’t get involved in. So if we’re not gonna tackle Planned Parenthood, there’s no winner. “I haven’t gotten involved yet.” If there’s no money for the wall, “I don’t care. I’m gonna do that later. Screw them.” Meanwhile, the Democrats are out clapping and yelling and claiming victory and the media is doing the same thing and they’re wonder what the hell happened here.
Here’s Blabbermouth just to illustrate the point. This is last night on CNN, Erin Burnett OutFront. The question: “‘This is what Democrats don’t want you to know: We’re building this wall right now.'” That’s what she’s quoting Trump as saying. “Democrats don’t want you to know, we’re building the wall right now. What does that mean, Blabbermouth?”
SCHULTZ: The president’s right. This is what winning looks like — for Democrats, for people who actually want to make sure that we can continue to invest in health care research, for people who opposed his ridiculous, unnecessary border wall wiretap. There’s no money in this budget to build the wall, and there is also no money for the, uhh, additional did he mention officers. They absolutely didn’t want this budget to look like it does.
RUSH: I don’t think they cared. That’s the point. They’re not revved for it yet. Here’s Karl Rove last night, on Fox News Specialists. I guess that’s a new five o’clock show, ’cause they moved The Five, which is a roundtable show. They moved that to nine o’clock following Tucker at eight, and then Eric Bolling hosts a new five o’clock show called the Fox News Specialists, and Bolling was talking with Karl Rove. Question: “Trump got a deal; the government’s continuing through September. Karl, you know, these things have gone down to the last minute almost all the time.”
ROVE: They’re underplaying what a success this is for the Republicans. You’re listening to the Democrats go out there and say, “We won! We won! We won.” He didn’t win. He is the second president in history to have the ability to affect the budget of the government in his first quarter in office. This never happened. He’s got a unique ability to influence this. Think about this. The increase in Homeland Security is nine times the rate of increase in social spending… The defense spending is seven times the increase.
RUSH: Listen to how we’re defining success there. (summarized) “We got nine times more money than the Democrats got for their deal. We’re winning! We’re really growing the government, and we’re growing the government on our terms. We’re really smoking them.” Hey, folks, that’s how government success is defined. The more it grows — the bigger it gets, the more it’s doing to help people — the more success you are having. This is why… Folks, I never heard a word and I never misled anybody.
Trump never talked about making the government smaller. This campaign was not about that, sadly. What this campaign was about was saving this country from the onward march of the left, socialists, Democrats, communists, anarchists, whatever. Everything in its time. And that’s what this election was about. And this budget didn’t stop it, and that’s why people are mad, because this election was about stopping the Democrats in their tracks, and the voters did everything they could to make that happen.
And yet Democrats were not stopped in the budget.
This illustrates the divide and the difference in the way people in Washington look at what Washington does and the way the country is and the people that don’t live in Washington see it. How many times have I told you? The people in Washington, both parties, wherever they are, “There’s no crisis! The country’s fine. What are you talking about? Don’t be silly! We’re not losing the country. That’s crazy talk.” You go outside of Washington and there is a palpable, real fear that we are losing the country in every which way possible: economically, culturally, politically.
Now, they can say what they want inside the Beltway. This election was about stopping the destruction, the transformation — however you want to characterize it — of the United States. Big doings on health care. I’ll bring you up to speed on that, also on Mrs. Clinton, ’cause there… Look, folks, there’s funny stuff in that. You may be tired of hearing about Hillary, but she continues to put herself out there. If she’s gonna make herself a pinata (chuckling), we’re gonna take the swings. But I’m gonna hit the phones here. We got a guy from Williamstown, Kentucky. Roger, thank you for waiting, and welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. I appreciate the opportunity. And I just want to thank you for your criticisms and standing up for this country. Again, we’re starting to see the establishment — regardless of what party — come after your credibility, sir. And the fact of the matter is, your reaction should have been attraction of the president of the United States. That’s what we were all hoping for. And there’s no way that they can take your crowd that supports you. You fought for this country for years. In fact, your audience is probably become more fervent and growing. I just want you to know that we love you and we appreciate what you’re doing to save this country, sir.
RUSH: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I really too. Everybody’s got their role, and we’re all in this together. But, folks, this is the exact kind of call… When people ask me how I remain optimistic or whatever? It’s calls like this. This guy knows. He’s fully up to speed on what’s happening in this country. He knows who the forces of darkness are. He knows where the light is. It’s… Look, the guy said it. It’s Roger from Williamstown. What did he say?
“We were hoping your reaction is what we would get from the president.” There’s no better way to explain why the disappointment out there. It’s not about me. His specific point was, “We were hoping that your take on this is what the president’s would be.” And I know the way that manifests itself. What Roger old means is, he was hoping when Trump saw what the Democrats want in the budget, he would immediately rise up and say, “No, no, no, no! You lost. This is the exact kind of stuff we’re not gonna do anymore.”
When that didn’t happen, you can understand the disappointment. But the other side. We’re not even six months in, and it’s by no means over, and I really do believe… It may sound flimsy, and I’m trying to excuse anything, just explain it. I just… I don’t think… For all this talk about, “Whoa, we have done something unprecedented! We’ve involved a president in a budget in his first year for the first time.” Big whoop! I just don’t… I don’t think that in their planning to roll out the agenda, implement it, strategy and all that? This CR was not on their radar for that. And that’s what Roger is saying we wish it would have been.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to grab a call from somebody on hold that wants to talk about the Trump budget that we were discussing in hour one. This is Matt in Beaverton, Oregon, I’m glad you waited and welcome to the program, sir.
CALLER: Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I wanted to play devil’s advocate here and get your opinion on whether you thought I was right or not. I think that President Trump is a longterm player in all things. And when it comes to the budget, I think that he may have decided that the continuing resolution is not the battleground for this, but the best place to do it is the budget in September and to pressure the Republicans who are going against him by threat of a shutdown and making them look bad. Do you think that that might be possible?
RUSH: Yeah. I think it’s possible. I even advanced a version of that theorem myself when I said that they’re actually looking at September and the next full-year budget in terms of their planning and just decided to skip past the CR thinking, hey, it’s temporary, take care of it to get us through September when things really begin. It’s possible. Many people see it as a missed opportunity, what with the Democrats gloating about victory. So many major Trump — not promises — major Trump objectives, agenda items were not even attempted to be stopped. I mean, this is what’s got people bamboozled, and they can’t figure out.
Also this shutdown business. You know, I’ve heard people claim now, we’ve had a bunch of people claim that Trump is really claiming victory here because he showed that we can be bipartisan, that we avoided a shutdown, we worked with the Democrats. That really has me scratching my head. I don’t remember Trump talking about that from the campaign. I don’t remember that being a Trump objective. I know he said he had the ability to bring people together and negotiate, but not the way they’re describing this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: McMulvaney, the budget director, OMB, Trump administration, told the White House press corps that a government shutdown would be good if it fixes Washington. “Mulvaney said the reason there is a discussion about a shutdown every few months ‘is because the appropriations process is broken.’ He said the ‘the way it’s supposed to work, and it used to work’ is when the House passes an appropriations bill on a topic, the Senate then passes a bill on the same issue, before it goes to the conference committee, before that bill is placed on the president’s desk.”
And then those two bills goes to the conference committee and the two sides hash them out, you end up with a final product that goes to the president. Well, goes back to both houses for agreement, then up to the president. “Mulvaney said that, since he has worked in the government, this process has ‘never worked’ the way it’s supposed to. He added: ‘I don’t think it has functioned for the last decade. I’ve been here since 2011 and it has never worked. We want to get back to that process. But the reason we can’t get back to that process is because the Senate is requiring 60 votes on every single appropriations bill and that is forcing this discussion on continuing resolutions — which is a bad way to run the government — and forcing a discussion on shutdowns which is simply not productive.”
So there’s a lot here, but he’s basically saying that the 60 vote requirement, even for budgets, is preventing the process from working and that if they are gonna do a shutdown, it’s only gonna be done to fix this. They got fix this one time, shutdown as long as it takes to fix this. He’s trying to explain this is what Trump was talking about when he was advocating yesterday for a shutdown in September.