7/31/13, "If the Majority of the American People are Against Obamacare, Why are the Republicans So Afraid to Oppose It?" Rush Limbaugh transcript
"RUSH: In one hour, we're gonna have Utah Senator Mike Lee on the program to explain in detail and in an understandable way what he's trying to do. As you know, Mike Lee is leading the effort to defund Obamacare in the United States Senate. The entire Republican establishment has aligned against him. Consultants, establishment bigwigs, party bigwigs, even some donors have aligned against him because they are convinced that attempting to defund Obamacare at the next negotiation, the end of September, on a continuing resolution will lead to a government shutdown, and that will destroy the Republican Party.
Now, a couple of things. I'm not gonna get into this too much now. I'll wait for Senator Lee to get here, but at some point, don't we have to start paying attention to the Constitution and have an actual budget? This continuing-resolution technique of funding the government is a Democrat wet dream. It is made to order for limitless spending increases. But more than that, it turns the Constitution upside down. This is not how the federal budget and this country is to be funded. It's not how this budget process is supposed to work. We haven't had a budget in four years, I don't know how many continuing resolutions we've had.
The second thing is, this government shutdown will destroy the Republican Party. I have to opine that the Republican Party is doing that already. They're already imperiled because of the strategery they have adopted of capitulation with the Democrats and calling that victory, capitulation on amnesty, and now there's a desire on the part of some to capitulate on Obamacare.
And I've heard the objections to it. Some have said, "Show me where you're gonna get 51 votes in the Senate for this. Even if you could make a move on this to defund it, show me where you're gonna get 51 votes to win this in the Senate. Where you gonna pick up five or six Democrats to make it happen, and how you gonna get all the Republicans?" That's interesting to hear that, because what that really means is that people don't even want to try.
What that means so that people do not want to even stand up and declare their opposition to Obamacare. Let's take as a hypothetical -- it's not actually a hypothetical. I mean, it may be reality. Obamacare, no way to stop it, let's say that Lee's wrong, can't stop it, can't be done. There's still an opportunity for the Republican Party to identify itself, to distinguish itself, to draw contrast with itself between themselves and the Democrat Party, which is leading the transformation and, in the view of many, the destruction of this country certainly as founded.
At some point what's the harm in standing up and saying, "no"? What's the harm in standing up and saying, "I don't support this"? No matter what poll you look at there isn't a single poll that shows a majority of the American people in favor of Obamacare. Every poll you look at, a majority -- and it's sizeable -- oppose Obamacare. The Republican Party wants votes from people, I assume, they want to grow. There is a majority of the American people waiting to be connected to.
You know, in politics, media, in your personal life you have to make connections with people....And they're not even trying to do that. When the Tea Party -- I made all this pretty clear last night in my one hour interview....
Two instances here that really befuddle me. The Tea Party eruption in 2010, which led to a mammoth Republican victory. I mean, it was so large that it is seldom discussed. But it was a slapdown. I mean, it was a shellacking. The Democrats lost seats all over this country. I think the total number is somewhere between six and 700 seats, state legislatures, even down to town council. But nobody expected the Republicans to win the House in 2010, and they did, sizably. And it was because of first time political participants that were called the Tea Party, people -- you know who they are. You are them.
Many of the Tea Party people had never done anything in politics, besides vote....These people were scared. The rising debt, what it meant for the future and their kids and grandkids, then Obamacare, and that was the last straw, and the 2010 midterms were the people of this country rising up and saying "no" to it. The Republican Party did not seek to reach out, make a connection with them, and bring them into the party. Just the opposite. The Democrats, of course, started making fun of the Tea Party and mischaracterizing it as a bunch of extremist, radical, racists, sexists, and this kind of thing. And there were some Republicans who acted like they thought the Tea Party was the same way.
So the Tea Party remained this isolated group of Americans, concerned in their hearts about their country, and nobody in Washington wanted them. Certainly not the Democrats. The Republicans made no effort to connect with 'em and reach out to them. And now here we are in the same circumstance all over again with Obamacare. The vast majority of the American people don't want it. It is the law of the land. It is being implemented. Supreme Court ruled that it's constitutional in ways that it really isn't. But you have to live with it. And so there's a senator who's got an idea. Let's give it one last shot and defund it. You would think that a Republican Party that wants to be a majority party would see this majority of people that oppose it and at least make a stand on their behalf, even if it is a lost cause.
There's a patron saint of lost causes, St. Jude. Make the stand. Take the opportunity to connect with these people. Let 'em know that you're on their side. Let 'em know that they have a home in your party. Reach out to them. Make a stand. Tell the country that you as well -- I'm speaking of elected Republicans -- oppose Obamacare, too, instead of appearing to capitulate and acquiesce to it and then hope that it's so bad that people end up hating Democrats. For 25 years I've heard that strategy articulated about Bill Clinton, about any number of Democrats. It never works, because most of the American people are never educated about who Democrats really are.
By the way, there's another full hour of me on Greta Friday with very little repetition of what aired last night....You know, I've always had this objective to make everybody understand what Democrats are, what liberalism is. People do not like liberalism.
When they hear that somebody is liberal, they don't like it. The Republicans seldom describe the Democrats that way anymore. Identified conservatives outnumber liberals by two to one in polls that seek that information. It makes you wonder: How do we continue to lose elections? We outnumber 'em two to one. Now, it's like 40 to 20%....
So it's a question that has people pulling their hair out: "Why are we continuing to lose?" And the answer to that is not that hard. You've got 40% of the American people admitting they're conservative, and they don't have a party. You get right down to it, they don't have a party. The Republican Party is not a conservative Republican Party.
It is acquiescing and capitulating to what the Democrats want. Look, these Republicans are not dumb. ...There's a reason they're doing this. It escapes me. I just chalk it up to fear, lack of confidence, no desire to fight, being beat down by the media, afraid of what's gonna be said about them if they stand up and fight, buying this silly notion that you can't attack Obama without being hated, and so forth.
The Democrats have really cowed them. But regardless, there's a third opportunity now for the Republican Party to reach out to a majority of Americans and connect with them -- and if nothing else, stand up and represent them -- and let these people who are voters, potential voters, let know that there's a political party on their side. The Republicans don't even want to do that. The third opportunity is amnesty.
Because a majority of the American people does not want amnesty to be granted without border security as part of the mix. Everybody knows that we're not gonna deport whatever number of people are here, and nobody's talking about that, but securing the border and shutting down this illegal inflow is crucial. A majority of the American people want that to happen.
So you've got health care twice and amnesty here. Since 2010, three opportunities for the Republican Party to make a connection with by virtue of polling data a majority of the American people by making a stand, and they don't even want to make the stand. They don't want to even express their opposition to Obamacare. Not powerfully, anyway. So Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, they're on islands, and they are isolated, as it were....
But we're in an upside-down world. We've got economic growth of 1.7%, which portrayed today as just fabulous. Folks, it's unreal. It's upside down. We have a paltry, an embarrassing... For all intents and purposes, this isn't growth at all. It's 1.7% GDP, the growth rate of the economy.
It is being hailed as great news, as evidence of a roaring-back economy!...
So there are a lot of subsidies in Obamacare. There's a lot of Santa Claus. And I am trying to understand the Republican Party. I'm going beyond what they say, McCain, whoever else, McConnell. Why are they afraid to even express opposition to Obamacare, I mean, in a believable, powerful way that would reach out and connect with what is a majority of the American people. It could well be that they have now resigned themselves to the inevitability of full-fledged Obamacare.
And that means subsidies. That means it's an entitlement, folks. That means there are giveaways from Obama's stash. There are subsidies that a lot of Americans can qualify for at the exchanges, and maybe -- I'm just speculating -- maybe the Republicans are just scared to death that people are gonna like this once they see it, and they're just scared to death of being on the record opposing it.
They don't want to give the Democrats any potential TV ad material. 'Cause they're afraid the American people might end up liking it, like they like Social Security. They might end up liking it like they like Medicare. So you could draw an analogy. The Republicans know the Democrats are always gonna be Santa Claus. The Democrats are Santa Claus, and the Republicans are never gonna be Santa Claus. But maybe, just maybe, if they ask nicely, the Democrats will let the Republicans be the elves at the North Pole. You know, seen as working hard to help Santa Claus deliver the toys, the subsidies.
Even if they don't get the top billing. Maybe they can be Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. Maybe they can be the elves while the Democrats are Santa Claus. And they are seen by people as -- I'm using an analogy here that may explain what the Republicans are attempting to do here. Because it's obvious they're in a defensive posture....They're reluctant to really, really come out at this stage against it. So maybe they look at the polls and they see a majority of the American people oppose it now but they don't think they will once it gets fully implemented. Not all, but, you know, a lot of Americans, low-information, typical Democrat voters.
The Republicans are enamored. I mean, they really do wish they could get the people who vote Democrat to vote for them. And that might explain the same phenomenon when it comes to amnesty and border security. Maybe the Republicans feel like they are a genuine and true minority party in terms of the thinking of a majority of people in the country and have no desire to try to persuade anybody. They just want to pick up whatever they can in that position. The consultants will get rich no matter what, running campaigns, and occasionally Republicans will win elections, and occasionally they'll have their precious and beloved committee chairmanships. And there will be a year here or a term there that they'll be in charge of the money, and who knows, that may be enough for them. Just guessing....
It just seems to me that this is counter to what you would really do if you wanted to be a majority party someday. I mean, the old saw "nothing comes to people who wait" for things to happen; you have to go out and make it happen.
Every product or service has to sell itself. You can't survive being the alternative. Well, you might be able to survive, but you'll never lead, and you're certainly not gonna be a dominant winner by being an alternative. I mean, an idle alternative. You're gonna have to go out and make yourself a preferred alternative. It's just tough. I mean, three different occasions here where a majority of the American people have made it plain how they think, and the Republicans have made no --... When the Democrats find themselves in the minority, that's when they get aggressive and wreak punishment on the people who aren't with 'em. Two completely different approaches to politics."...
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