RUSH: Trump continues… Last week… I mentioned this on Friday. And, you know, I didn’t spend enough time on it. I mentioned it in the last half hour of the program. Trump’s week last week was precisely why he was elected, and his week last week, not just in blowing up all of the Obama legacy — and the Drive-Bys are caterwauling about this. Obamacare, the subsidies to the insurance companies. The left is predictably outraged, claiming, “President Trump is going to kill people! People are going to die,” even though all that’s happened here is that Trump has inserted the rule of law in this.
They were waived, they were given waivers from the stifling circumstances imposed by Obamacare, and the second thing, these subsidies that the insurance companies were offered, which… Both of these things Obama did were unconstitutional, but that is not the point. Well, it is the point. But the primary point is that the law as written could not sustain itself. The law as written doomed Obamacare financially, politically. It did not have legs. There was no solid foundation. So here came the waivers and here came the executive order authorizing subsidies to insurance companies.
What Trump has done has taken Obamacare now back within the confines of the rule of law, whereby and wherein it will implode. My buddy Andy McCarthy had a great piece at National Review Saturday pointing out, essentially, that this is how you kill Obamacare. You keep it within the confines of the law. A lawful enforcement and interpretation of Obamacare dooms it. It can’t survive without Obama’s executive actions and orders which set the law and the Constitution aside. So what Trump has actually done here… Now Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are running around screaming bloody murder that this is gonna be cold-hearted and mean-spirited to the poor and everything.
(laughing) Over the insurance company bailouts. But, anyway, simply by making it legal — we don’t need the Republicans to pass legislation; we don’t need the Senate to pass legislation, House or Senate — the law itself will implode and crater simply because it’s exemptions from the law have been eliminated. Isn’t that fascinating? That’s all it ever took. But Trump decided that he would try to work with the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats — Chuck and Nancy and Mitch and Paul — to see if they can come up with a compromise legislatively that would do all this. But they couldn’t.
Now, people are also caterwauling, “Trump can’t do this! He can’t do this! It’s Obama’s.” Yes, he can. He can dismantle everything Obama did by virtue of executive order. Obama… You know, people talk about how much popularity he had, how loved he was. Obama couldn’t get, probably, 75% of his agenda, if it requires legislation. That’s why so much was done with executive orders and executive action. But it wasn’t just Obamacare. Trump has totally blown up the Obama legacy on climate change and environmentalism. He’s blown up the Obama legacy on the Iran deal. In one week, folks!
It was profound. It was exactly why Trump was elected, and we’ve been bombarded all weekend with all the pundits complaining about it — Trump undoing Obama’s legacy — because in their mind whatever Obama did, legal or not, was good and was supportive and should have never been challenged. And whatever Trump is doing is absolutely wrong and incorrect. By the way, I finally heard — and I can’t remember who it is. But I felt so validated because I saw somebody… I really wish I could remember who it was. It might have been this morning; it might have been sometime last night.
But somebody pointed out… It was Michael Goodwin (that’s who it was) at the New York Post. He was on Fox & Friends today and was talking to Steve Doocy. He pointed out something that I have been saying for months now that we don’t get news anymore, that what the media is is nothing other than the advancement of the Obama agenda, the protection of the Obama agenda, or the destruction of Trump. A combination of those things. But there isn’t any news anymore. Goodwin made the point… Now, he was talking about it within the context of the only thing news media is doing is criticizing Trump.
It seems like it was only yesterday that Susan Rice in the Obama Regime was hailing Bergdahl as a hero and attacking anybody who would dare question his record or complain about the lives lost trying to recover him or even complain about giving back to the Taliban 5 of their top leaders for a deserter. Obama had seen parents to the White House, and they were singing the praises — the Obama administration was singing the praises — of a military deserter. And Trump, while this was happening, was blasting Bergdahl, blasting Obama’s comments about Bergdahl, who, once again, Trump is turning out to have been right from the start.
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RUSH: By the way, speaking of late-night comedians, grab… What is this? Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel, number 12. Grab know grab number 11 and 12. I want to go back… Jimmy Kimmel has lost 30% of his audience ever since he started becoming the mouthpiece for Chuck You Schumer on health care, and that’s exactly what’s happened. Jimmy Kimmel, left to his own devices, doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to public policy on anything. Be it Obamacare, be it tax reform, be it climate change, Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t know anything.
He’s a jokester. He had to get help, and he got it from Chuck Schumer’s office. So when he goes on his program to start talking about the unfairness and the inequality of the American health care system, he got his numbers, he got his stats, he got his talking points from the office of Chuck Schumer. Pure and simple. Now he’s become noted and he’s being heralded in the Drive-By Media as the sensible voice against Trump and whatever he’s doing to Obamacare. In the process, Jimmy Kimmel has become a smaller version of the NFL.
He has lost 30% of his audience. Jimmy Kimmel says, “I don’t care. I’m not in this for numbers,” which is a crock. It’s a total crock. Don’t believe anybody in media who tells you that the ratings don’t matter, either to them or to their network or to their bosses or to their advertising sales team. To say that is sophistry and it’s a poor excuse. Jimmy Kimmel has lost 30% of his audience. It is assumed that the 30% he’s lost is Republicans. Jimmy Kimmel says (paraphrased), “That’s fine with me. I don’t care. I would never have a conversation with those people anyway.”
Now, if I’m an old schooler when it comes to broadcasting, and one of the things that I grew up knowing instinctively and learning is that you’re never proud losing audience. And your bosses are never gonna pat you on the back for it. Now, publicly, as partisan as our politics have become, that might be a public pose. But believe me: Where the bean counters live, this is not cool. If you’re gonna have an audience where some of the people don’t like you or dislike you, you’ve gotta find a way to keep them watching or keep them listening.
RUSH ARCHIVE: Those audiences are tuning in for what those hosts are providing. The people that watch Real Time or that tune into these late-night shows have a certain expectation that they’re gonna have their anger validated. Because I submit to you that left-wing comedy today is not funny. It’s rooted in anger and rage — and, if I dare say, hatred. And they’ve built their audiences on that basis. So you thinking, “Well, I’m not gonna watch,” they’re happy. It not gonna bother them at all. They wish you would watch so that they could offend you but the fact that they think they’re hurting you by not watching? No.
RUSH: Now, that them. But their bosses? That’s an entirely different thing. Don’t think for a moment that when the overnights come in, they’re not comparing Kimmel to the CBS show and to the NBC show at the same time. They’re comparing Kimmel to everything that’s on, and they don’t want to be in fourth place! No matter what they tell you, they don’t want to be in fourth place. Now, in the news business, it’s a little bit different.
CNN’s happy to be in the cellar if it means they got there being loyal to the cause. The cocktail invitations will continue and they’ll get all kinds of awards, but they still won’t have any audience. Now, given what you just were reminded what I said last week, here is Tracy Smith on CBS Sunday Morning interviewing Kimmel about his recent rants about Republican politicians and health care reform. The question: “It’s a bit of a risk that you’re talking about that stuff, Jimmy. You might lose the audience, don’t you think?”
KIMMEL: Three years ago, I was like equally liked by Republicans and Democrats, and then (snickering) the Republican numbers went way down like 30% or whatever — and, you know, as a talk show host, that’s not ideal, but I — I would do it again in a heartbeat.
SMITH: So you don’t mind if Republicans turn off your show? They’re not watching anymore?
KIMMEL: If they’re so turned off about my opinion on health care and gun violence, then, I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t want to have a conversation with ’em anyway.
SMITH: Good riddance?
KIMMEL: Well, not good riddance, but riddance.
RUSH: Well, well, well. I thought we were talking about a comedy show here. But see, they’re not comedy shows anymore, folks. The left has politicized everything, and you can’t escape it.
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RUSH: Now, the beginning of today’s cabinet meeting Trump articulated some things. Let me see here if this bite… (muttering) I don’t know. I’m speed reading this. I think he made the earth move because he also promised that the next thing his regime’s gonna take on is welfare reform. Now, you have to realize that the left is reeling here, folks. I don’t care if your opinion of that is at variance with mine because of the media coverage. The left is reeling! Obamaism is being dismantled. I’m gonna run through all the details of that soon. But you know what Trump is doing?
Trump is doing what the left does: He’s not giving them a moment to react and fight be back. His continuing to mount his agenda. How many times have I said to you, “It gets to be a drag to have to show up here every day and do nothing but defend the latest attack or the latest assault on somebody or something that I found valuable or worthwhile”? Trump just every day is announcing a new salvo at these people and their sacred cows. They’re not through reacting with the ones from Friday when they have to deal with this new one today.
And welfare reform? Welfare reform done the way Trump wants to do it will take away half of the reason people vote for Democrats! You know damn well they’re gonna be scared to death over this. I don’t have any details of it yet. Don’t misunderstand. I’m just telling you that Trump just saying that they’re gonna tackle welfare reform… (interruption) A question from the program observer. What is it? (interruption) Right. (interruption) The Official Program .. By the way, many people have applied for this job since I’ve announced that it exists.
I’ve had people ask, “What do you mean ‘program observer’?” I said, “It’s kind of like an archivist. It’s kind of like having our own archivist to document and authenticate everything that happens, a living witness to the profundities and the brilliance and the hilarity that happens here. Somebody has to observe it and note it and record it, and that’s what the Official Program Observer does. Sometimes the observer gets brave and wants something explained, such as now. The question from the Official Program Observer is:
I have often told you that conservatism, in its base form, is simple common sense and that it is the way most people actually live their lives. Now, they may not always vote that way because of the way conservatism has been debauched and stigmatized and ruined and assaulted, PR-wise. But you look at the way most people try to raise their kids, for example. Look at the way most people go about improving their standard of living. If you go out looking at people who appreciate the traditions and institutions…
Patriots! If you go out and you look at the way most people are reacting to this NFL thing, that’s not conservative-liberal for a lot of people. This is just pro-America, anti-America, and they don’t associate ideology with it at all. In Trump’s case, I think his instincts tend toward common sense, and to the extent that conservatism at its base level is just common sense. Now, I’ve often said — which you might find a bit contradictory — that conservatism is also an intellectual pursuit. The reason I say that is because of the O’Sullivan First Law:
“Anything that is not expressly conservative, day in and day out, will become liberal.” Because so much of the opinion-making apparatus in America is liberal, and it’s emotion based, that fighting it — quite naturally — occurs from the intellectual side. Conservatism, when you get right down to it, should not require a lot of intellect at all because it is just common sense. It’s good manners. It’s respect for others. It’s colorblind in terms of people’s skin color.
Bias and prejudice? These are things we’ve been tagged with that we are not. They are. They’re the ones that look at people and make judgments on skin color. They’re the ones that look at people and make judgments on gender or sexual orientation or sexual proclivity on a particular day. “Which bathroom do you want to use?” We prescribe to simple traditional values that consist of those that founded the country, and because of the onslaught of liberalism and its massive emotional push, I’ve often said that conservatism is an intellectual pursuit in the process of trying to persuade people to it.
But most people… How many times have you met somebody or you’ve talked to somebody describing their family as, “They’re conservative in everything they do except the way they vote, and they don’t vote Republican because, oh, those are racists! Those are Republicans. They’re jerks! I mean, they’re mean-spirited and they hate people.” Yet they live their lives in ways in which you can’t understand why they’re voting, and you’ll find that guilt is present in a lot of voting. (stammering) “Well, I — I — I — I — I — want to be seen as — as — as caring for people.”
And the way you do that is vote Democrat, simply because of the marketing or the PR that’s been going on for 50 years that has shaped the definitions of Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals. In Trump’s case, I can tell you… If you today, after listening to him say this next aspect of his agenda, “Man, Mr. President, this conservatism you’re doing,” he would look at you like you’re from Mars. To him, this is just nothing more than common sense. Now, he’s also learned — without a doubt — what it is about his enemies that make them his enemies.
In the process, as a “New Yawkah,” he might be, at age 70, seeing liberalism for what it is up close and personal for the first time. Well, that’d be a stretch. Not the first time. He’s been around them. But in ways that literally affect him. They’re not just esoteric talking points. You look at the judiciary, the judicial nominees. This is something that’s not getting a lot of comment because the media is ignoring it because it is scaring the hell out of them. Donald Trump’s judicial appointees are every bit and in some cases even better than those that we would have gotten from, say, Ronald Reagan.
And this is right-on-the-money true. Judicial nominees…
Not just the Supreme Court, but all the federal district courts and the appellate court nominees. This is the way the left has always had election insurance. Okay, so they lose a presidential election, or they lose control of the Senate. But they’ve got their judges that will thwart every attempt by the newly empowered Republicans to implement theirs. We’ve seen it with Trump and his travel ban, for example. But these judicial nominations that he’s making are adding up, and they’re going to become even greater in number to the point that he will himself have Trump agenda insurance on the courts long after he’s gone.
Now, you say, “Rush, you still say he’s not conservative. How’s he making the right judicial appointees?” Well, I don’t want to tell you that because I don’t want to make a target of the people helping out here. But let me just assure you: He is relying and trusting the perfect people in selecting judges and judicial nominees. Now, is that conservative? Is it liberal? I will not change any assessment that Trump is not ideological. Let me modify it by saying that’s not in the top three reasons why he decides to do something.
“Is it conservative? Fine! Let’s do it. If it’s not conservative, screw it. I’m not gonna do it.” That’s not how he thinks. I’m just telling you, it’s not how he thinks. But his instincts are like the vast majority of the American people’s instincts — and I mean the majority. They may not all vote that way. But they certainly live their lives on balance much more conservatively than liberally. No question about it. So here’s the second Trump bite. I don’t… As I was scanning it quickly, I don’t see if there’s welfare reform mentioned in this particular bite. But he did mention it, and I will guarantee you it’s creating a palpable fear on the left.
Here is the comment beforehand.
THE PRESIDENT: There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore. We’re working on some kind of a short-term fix prior to the Republicans getting together, maybe with some Democrats. We’ll have a short-term fix with Republicans and Democrats getting together, and after that we’re going to have a successful vote. Sadly, the Democrats can’t join us on that, which will be the long-term fix. But I do believe we’ll have a short-term fix because I think the Democrats will be blamed for the mess. This is an Obamacare mess. We’ll have a short-term fix and then we’ll have a long-term fix and that will take place probably in March or April. We will have a very solid vote.
RUSH: I he translate this. What Trump has said, “The short-term fix sending the subsidies for the insurance companies.” The insurance companies were essentially being paid to offer below-market rates and premiums on health insurance policies for the poor and the hungry and the thirsty. Now, the point about that is: It’s unconstitutional! Obama did it with an executive order, and he can’t. The president cannot authorize the spending of money. That must come… If the money comes from the federal Treasury, it must come from and originate in the House of Representatives, and it didn’t.
These subsidies are thus unconstitutional. That means illegal, and all Trump did was put Obamacare back under the rule of law, where it will implode. That’s the short-term fix. The short-term fix is Obamacare imploding. Trump has been consistent on this from the beginning. It’s gonna implode. He’s often said, “The politics are let it implode. The Democrats are gonna get the blame.” Now, the Republicans have said, “No, they won’t! Not if we start tinkering with it and trying to fix it. You know what Colin Powell said: ‘You break it; you own it.'”
Trump is confident that when this all implodes because the insurance companies… By the way, he did two things, don’t forget. He ended the subsidies. But then he opened up all kinds of new opportunities for the insurance companies to create new plans that people actually want to buy that are not laid down with all kinds of stuff people don’t want to buy. So they’ll become more affordable. People can form new groups on their own, new associations, and get group rates this way.
It’s throwing the onus back in the insurance companies’ corner, where they now will have to compete whereas Obama was subsidizing them. But the point of this is that with the rule of law now back in order, Obamacare as written could not survive because there isn’t the proper mechanism. It’s not related to anybody’s ability to pay for it. So this is a good thing. It’s a good thing to illustrate that Obamacare was phony and built on a balsawood foundation from the beginning.
Now, the short-term fix is the two things that happened last week: The opening up of competition of the changing definition of what constitutes a group or association, and the elimination of the subsidies. Now, Trump’s calculation is the Democrats are gonna get blamed for it because it’s their mess. That remains to be seen. But I am telling you that with his base of voters, that will be the case. Obama is always gonna get the blame. The media is gonna try to blame Trump.
He knows this. The long-term fix is next March or April, as he said. That’s when they’re gonna try to get the House and the Senate back together to come up with legislation to actually repeal and get rid of it. Which is monumental! Just think back however many short months ago it was when the last vote failed and the media happily proclaimed, “Obamacare is officially the law of the land! Trump and Republican efforts failed!” Nobody told Trump. He’s still trying to get rid of it.
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THE PRESIDENT: One thing we’re going to be looking at very strongly is welfare reform. That’s becoming a very, very big subject and people are taking advantage of the system and then other people aren’t receiving what they really need to live. And we think it’s very unfair to them. But some people are really taking advantage of our system from that standpoint. And we are going to be looking very, very strongly, therefore, at welfare reform. It’s gonna be a very big topic under this administration.
RUSH: All right. Now, folks, how many times just in the last two to three days have you read, “My God, this Trump guy’s out of his mind. He’s wandering the halls of the White House. He’s talking to himself! He’s looking at the portraits of past presidents saying, ‘Oh, my God! What have I got myself into? Can you help me? Can you help me?'” They try to portray Trump as losing his mind, going insane. He’s forever abandoned. “He’s alone. He has no allies, no friends, no supporters. Everybody thinks he’s nuts!”
Yet every time you see him on TV or listen to him, he sounds fully composed, entirely coherent, properly motivated, and he’s moving his agenda forward at a breakneck pace that we don’t see normally from presidential administrations. I just… I think they’re flailing away now approaching a year, and nothing that they’ve tried has even made a dent in stopping Trump. And they’re losing their minds is what’s happening.
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RUSH: I’ve gotta get to the phones. People have been patiently waiting far too long here. We’re gonna start with Kenny in Fort Myers, Florida. I’m glad you called, Kenny. What’s happening?
CALLER: Rush, thanks so much for having me on. It’s a privilege.
RUSH: Thank you. I appreciate that.
CALLER: I wanted to remark about Jimmy Kimmel earlier. I haven’t heard it mentioned that this man got his start on a little show called The Man Show where they objectify women. They’re called Juggies. You got “girls bouncing on trampolines” and what not.
RUSH: Yeah, you know what? Wasn’t that with Adam Carolla?
RUSH: It was Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla — who’s a staunch conservative, from what I understand. Anyway, that’s right. I’d forgotten that Kimmel did that. Now, have you heard about the Kimmel joke that they’ve uncovered on videotape from some time ago from his current show? He had a cucumber with a rubber band on the end of it and asked a female guest to touch or kiss his pocket or some such thing.
CALLER: I heard that on your show. Yeah, I heard a little bit from it, but I don’t watch TV, thank God. Ha!
RUSH: Well, I haven’t… Look, I don’t mean anything with this. I just have never seen the Jimmy Kimmel show. But I have never seen it.
CALLER: The difference between comedy and political —
RUSH: Well, since Letterman left, I haven’t watched any of them, and I didn’t watch Letterman for years. So I heard that that had happened, and somebody dragged out that bite, that bit from Kimmel from some time ago. The point is with all this — and your point is too — the blatant hypocrisy that the left gets away with here. But Jimmy Kimmel has insurance now. He is articulating the Chuck Schumer office’s talking points on health care, and so he can be a hypocrite on Weinstein all he wants, and not a problem will occur to Jimmy Kimmel. Not from his employer, which is ABC. Kenny, thanks.
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