RUSH: (Speaking Spanish) It’s almost a verbatim translation for, “Greetings to you, music lovers all across the fruited plain. Welcome to the EIB Network.” Good lord, folks, if you don’t have to watch these debates, don’t. It’s punishing. I mean, it is tough slogging. It is tough sledding. If you can look at these, if you can watch these and somehow be entertained by it, then fine. But to take this stuff seriously could drive you nuts.

And I’m gonna tell you something else. I’m actually glad that I have the benefit of having done this. I don’t mean to keep harping on this. It’s just that it matters. But I now have over 30 years of doing this under my belt and 68 years of life and about 58 years of those years paying attention to this stuff. It is easier to put all of this in some kind of context and understand the sheer futility of the Democrat Party or what ought to be the futility of the Democrat Party.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Man, oh, man, folks, the debate last night. Now, let me try to explain. I rehearsed this in a way, I tried to run this by Mr. Snerdley earlier today. I’ve tried to do this a couple, three times, and I know I have not nailed it. And the first thing that I want to say, I listened to these guys last night, these people on the debate stage, and when I say that I’ve heard it all before, I literally mean I’ve heard it all before.

I have been hearing it my entire life. I’ve been listening to the portrayal of America as a death camp, as a swamp, as a land of sheer destitution and disappointment and hopelessness. I have had to listen to how everybody in America is a victim of America to one degree or another. I mean, for 60 years, folks. And let’s cut that in half, just the last 30 years doing this on this program.

Now, if you happen to be in your twenties, if you’re in your late teens, twenties, early thirties watching this, this may be all new to you and it may even appeal to you, and you may be going, “Yeah, yeah, man. I hate those corporations. Yeah, man. I hate the rich. Yeah, man. Tax everybody. Yeah, man, the planet’s being destroyed.”

But if you’re as old as I am, I mean, it’s really a benefit to having all of these years of life and experience because you are able to see that the Democrat Party is stuck. The Democrat Party has not innovated, modernized, or changed. The Democrat Party still cannot look out across America and see things to smile about or to be happy about. And it’s been this way my entire life.

And, as such, when you watch this stuff, to me last night was a boredom fest like I can’t begin to describe to you. But I can’t afford for it to be boring because I can’t come in here and make that the central theme of my analysis. I must maintain my enthusiasm for defeating this stuff. Being bored by it is not going to beat it.

But I’m telling you, it’s actually kind of pathetic. My whole life I have been listening to the Democrat Party give their hate-filled riffs on corporations. I mean, for those of you that don’t know, let’s go back to 1992. Bill Clinton’s first year, well, ’93, first year in office. You know what one of the first things Clinton does?

He puts a cap on the tax deductibility of CEO salaries over a million dollars. So a company that pays a CEO anything over a million dollars loses the tax deduction on the business expense of that amount over a million dollars. Why am I telling you? Because the hatred for corporations. And it’s not really hatred. It’s a bunch of pandering.

There are still corporations. They’re still as big as ever. Democrats run them. They still employ a lot of real people. Corporations still manufacture a lot of things. Corporations still provide a lot of services. Despite all of this hatred for corporations, despite all of the negativism, despite all of the promises to bring them to heel, despite all the promises to cut ’em down to size, they’re still there.

And they’re still donating to Democrats, and the Democrats are still taking the money, and the Democrats still run the lion’s share of them. And the people that work at them are your neighbors and your family, members of your community, people just like you. They’re not evil. They’re not the devil. They’re not satanic.

And yet the Democrats continue to riff on corporations and how rotten they are and how they’re getting away with everything and they’re getting unfair tax breaks and it’s about time to get even with ’em, for 60 years, and yet nothing really ever happens. It’s just a rife that is designed to make unwitting people, A, hate corporations, and then, B, go along and vote for people they think are gonna try to punish them.

And there are efforts to punish them, don’t misunderstand. But they never stick, and they never do really punish. They might put obstacles in their way, but it’s all just a bunch of jive. It’s all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, and it’s all surrounded, enmeshed, bathed in hatred and negativism and pessimism. And that’s the thing.

You would not have been uplifted by one thing watching this debate last night. If you are a radical leftist, you would not have been uplifted. You would have had your hatred verified and validated and your anger verified and validated. And so if you showed up last night angry, you’d leave angrier. That’s the objective. If you showed up last night disappointed, you would leave disappointed.

There wasn’t one candidate on that stage that lit it up. The closest that anybody came — by the way, did you see, you know, Drudge runs polls on these things. You know who, according to the Drudge poll, was the big winner last night? Tulsi Gabbard. As far as Drive-Bys are concerned, as they analyze it, it was little Julian Castro. And Julian Castro did probably have and exhibit more presence, and he had that “it” factor of looking good and confident on TV.

The biggest loser in all of this was the presumed frontrunner of this group, and that would be Fauxcahontas, who, by the way, didn’t get one question about that. She didn’t get one question about this scam she tried to run, or did run, to get into Harvard as a professor by claiming to be 1/8000 Cherokee. But it’s the overall pessimism, negativism that emanates from any gathering of Democrats and how you’ve heard it, if you’ve lived long enough, you’ve heard it your whole life.

Now, I know what some of you might be saying, “So what, Rush? They’re still fighting for it. They’re still trying to get it done. They haven’t succeeded lately, but this is what they believe.” Yeah, I imagine that we could critique Republicans in the same way if they got into cliches, but that’s the thing.

Donald Trump doesn’t do what we saw last night. Do you realize we have been spared, on our side, this kind of political chat, this kind of politicized cliche conversation for two and a half years. We got somebody that’s actually real, who goes to the microphones and just speaks, as opposed to being programmed and planned and structured and throw out this bromide here or this cliche over there.

The utter futility of the American left and the Democrat Party is one thing. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying they don’t pose a threat. Far from that. It’s just that if there were nobody paying attention, if there were nobody voting under 50, they wouldn’t have a prayer, because anybody that old who’s been listening to this stuff for most of their lives, it’s gonna be old hat. Republicans are gonna take away Social Security. Republicans are gonna take away your house. Republicans are gonna make sure you can’t have an abortion. It just never changes. And it hasn’t changed in all of these years.

The areas where they are innovating were not talked about last night. The fact that they now want to abort babies after they’re born, that didn’t come up. No. You know what came up? Abortion rights for transgenders. Oh, yeah. Dawn, you didn’t see this last night? Oh, you’re so lucky. I’m sitting there for these two hours watching this thing saying, “I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this.”

Yeah. Julian Castro, who also, by the way, tried to portray himself as a poor child of a single mother who valiantly crossed a border seeking a better — come on. His mother is one of the most radical political activists in the history of the Democrat Party. Her name is Rosie Castro. She worked for Lyndon Johnson. She practically runs everything radical in San Antonio.

There’s nothing poor or across the border with little Julian and his twin brother in her backpack about her existence. But there he is, and they’ve all got these personal stories that have some tie to the hard knocks of being part of the forgotten population, the discriminated-against population.

But overall, folks, it is the never-ending portrayal of this country as a land of destitution, hopelessness, discrimination, racism, hatred, bigotry, that I, frankly, have had my fill of. But I can’t act like that to you. I can be honest and tell you, but we have to keep fighting back against it and don’t sweat it, this will be the leading place where it’s fought back against.

I guess what I’m saying in a way is how in the hell does this stuff still sell? How in the name of Sam Hill does this stuff still sell? Look at the corporation riff. These people made it clear, every damn one of them last night, they hate corporations. They want you to think they hate corporations. They’ll take their money every day, every night.

Well, what have they led their votes reporters to believe? Is that somehow they’re gonna get even with corporations, they’re gonna tax ’em, they’re gonna punish ’em somehow. Nothing ever happens to ‘em, they’re still there. The number of corporations is growing. The number of small businesses growing. That’s how people get jobs. That’s how prosperity is made.

The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.1% growth rate in the first quarter. We’re still at a growth rate that Obama said we would never see again. But they come along, they target all these enemies, they make all these villains. They need villains to advance their agenda. Corporations have been one of their big villains. We are another, conservative Republicans.

And they get applause every time they rip into how mean and evil corporations are, and yet the corporations are still there. You know how the CEOs got around Bill Clinton? And everybody knew what the game was here. Clinton was just pandering.

(imitating Clinton) “I think this is not right that all of these companies be able to pay these people these exorbitant sums that they haven’t earned while their workers are making like a thousand percent less, so they come up and they pay them all this. Well, I tell you what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna eliminate the tax deductibility on CEO salaries over a million.” Yay!

So you know what corporations did? They started paying people with bonuses. Stock options. Which people hate even more than big salaries, ’cause they don’t get stock options on the assembly line. But all these white-collar execs started getting bonuses and stock options, and that was, of course, exempt from Bill Clinton’s penalty on high salaried CEOs.

So the CEOs didn’t lose any money, the corporations were not affected in any way, shape, manner, or form, but how they paid their top-line people. But Bill Clinton not got the credit. He made the Democrats think that he was zeroing in on corporations. All the while, Bill and Hillary Clinton can’t wait to chum up and be big buds with every CEO they could find, so they could party with ’em, so they can get donations from ’em, so they can hang with ’em in the Hamptons.

But in public they act like they hate ’em. And of course the CEOs of these corporations are in the on the game. The whole thing is so phony. Like Frank Luntz. We gotta a sound bite. It’s coming up from Frank Luntz. “If I’m a corporate CEO after last night I’m very afraid.” I’ll find it during the break. “We’ve been testing this,” Luntz says.” This is my exact point. They’re not gonna be afraid of anything. They’re all Democrats, the vast majority of ’em. They’re all in on this ruse. “If I were a CEO I would be very, very worried after –” Just what have Democrats done, what have they really done?

I mean, a little ancillary policy here or something here that they can tout publicly as some gigantic problem that they have created for corporations, some giant punishment, but when you look at the end of the day, they’re still there, they’re still growing, they’re still big, they’re still donating to Democrats. Wall Street’s still there, hedge funds are still there, people that run ’em, billionaires, more billionaires than ever, after the Democrats say they’re gonna target them because they’re not paying their fair share.

And despite all this talk, Warren Buffett’s still paying less in taxes than his secretary, despite all the complaints about it, despite all the promises to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore, it’s all still happening. We can’t even get honesty from these people.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right. Here’s Frank Luntz. He was on CNBC Squawk Box today. The host said, “If you were to poll corporate America, what would they say today?”

LUNTZ: “Oh, my God. Uh, you gotta get your bonus right now. If you want a pay increase, you better do it right now.” We’ve been testing this. Two-thirds of Americans would put a limit on how much CEOs can make.

RUSH: Been there; done that.

LUNTZ: They cannot make more than 20 times what least funded employee would make —

RUSH: Been there; done that!

LUNTZ: — the Democrats are playing into that. Uh, support for tax increases. Just go back to 1984 when candidates would not admit that they were supporting tax increases. They all stood up and said, “Let’s hit ’em! Let’s soak the rich!” And if I’m a CEO, I’m scared today. The idea of income inequality, wealth inequality is a bigger issue among Democrats than it has ever been.

RUSH: This is exactly my point. We’ve been there; done that. For how many years of your life have you heard this exact riff? (impression) “Well, these CEOs, the income gap, they’re making so much more than their line employees. We can’t tolerate this! If I’m a CEO I’m very, very scared.” I remember after Clinton’s massive loss of deductibility, they had Andy Grove who ran Intel on. He was on This Week with Brinkley. They asked, “What do you think of this move to limit the tax deductibility of salaries of people like you?”

(impression) “Well, George, I don’t… I don’t want to talk these social things. Uh, that’s not for me to discuss tax policy.” Of course they don’t want to talk about it ’cause they don’t think it’s gonna happen. We’ve been there; done that. We’ve punished CEOs how many times? We’ve punished corporations how many times? This is something that just is on repeat. It’s a cycle that just repeats, with no change and no difference.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, what I’m saying, folks… “Don’t fall for it,” is my point. I’m not lamenting that they’re old-fashioned and don’t innovate and saying, “Please come up with something new.” They can’t. This is who they are. I’m just really warning you that there’s nothing new here and don’t get caught up in it. Even the media…You know, watching this stuff on the debate last night, all these media moderators are acting like this is exciting new policy.

And they want to go deeper, and they want to explore. “Just how are you gonna kill a corporation? Just how are you gonna raise…?” None of it’s new. Not a word of it last night was new. There wasn’t… Even when they talked about climate change, there was nothing whatsoever that had been updated or that was new, and yet it gets passed off as exciting new policy proposals and we need to consider them. And yet it’s all tired and worn out. The reason why so little of it’s ever been implemented is that it doesn’t work.

Now, that doesn’t mean they’re not trying, and they’re having all kinds of success in perverting the culture and storming the gates and trying to water down the forces of opposition. So you might say, “Well, Rush, they’re being consistent. They just keep hammering away until everybody does believe it.” I guess you could say that about it. I’m just… For me personally, it’s just been there; done that. I heard it all before. And the reaction to it as though it’s new and exciting and, “Listen to these great policy proposals as these Democrats try to break out, stand out from one another,” is just tiresome.

I mean, the one thing that was new is more of ’em are speaking Spanish than I’ve ever heard them speak. But aside from that… Well, I take it back. There was something new. Julian Castro proposed reproductive justice for trannies. Now, he said, “We don’t need to reproductive rights. We need reproductive justice!” Now, I don’t know how this works, but a guy who wants to trans…what? — transgender to a woman, does not have a women’s reproductive organs as part of the transition. Doesn’t happen.

Male Guy 1 who wants to become Female Woman Number 2 does not get a womb transplant as part of the transgender operation or transition or whatever. So what “reproductive justice” for transgenders are we talking about here? And then there was Amy Klobuchar… It struck me, too, you know, how short some of those people are. Sorry. On television, you notice things. I didn’t know Julian Castro was that tiny. He could barely see over the podium. Do they let him drive? Can he see over the steering wheel?

Amy Klobuchar. Did you hear her big line? I’m sure she rehearsed this. I’m sure she stood in front of the mirror, and I’m sure she rehearsed it three or four different ways, and she was just waiting for her chance to use it — and the time came, and she used it. “If the millionaires can pay off their yachts, then students should be able to pay off their debt.” What? If millionaires…? Do we have forgiveness of yacht debt that we’ve not heard about? How’s…? What’s the correlation?

“If millionaires can pay off their yachts, then students should be able to pay off their debt.” Even the invocation of yachts is old. They’ve been there and done that! They raised taxes on luxury yachts and all that happened was the people that make them lost their jobs because people stopped buying them in America. They started buying yachts in Europe, Italy. There are some sharp-looking yachts you can get from Italy. So the builders of yachts lost their jobs. It always happens. Everything the Democrats do is gonna end up backfiring and hurting the very people that they claim that they are attempting to help.

I just think this all should have been greeted last night with a gigantic, big yawn by everybody. Sadly, that’s not the case, and Trump… A lot of people thought he was gonna live tweet, and he ended up tweeting some things at the end. But even the Drive-By Media claims that the big winner last night was Donald Trump.