Posted on 12/11/2018 4:45:33 PM PST by Kaslin
RUSH: Its happening right now in the Oval Office. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer meeting with President Trump over the funding of the border wall. And I think I understand whats going on here, and Im gonna try to explain it to you.
Greetings, my friends. Great to have you with us, as always. Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882, and send an email to ElRushbo@eibnet.us.
Okay. So this really revolves around what does Trump have, as in leverage over Schumer and Pelosi? They dont want a wall. Theyve offered a paltry $1.3 billion. Trump wants $5 billion. He wants $5 billion to build a wall. Schumer, Pelosi dont want a wall, but they have offered $1.3 billion as a starting point.
They think they hold all the cards. I mean, if they deny Trump any of the federal budget to build a wall as the incoming king and queen of the well, shes gonna be the queen of the House. Schumer is, course, gonna be the minority over in the Senate, but hes still the Democrat leader there, so thats why theyre both up there.
So Trump wants $5 billion. Heres whats happened. The original budget request for the Department of Defense, Trump did not give the secretary of defense, Mad Dog Mattis, every dime that he asked for. Trump actually has submitted a budget, or will, that does not contain this is before today the precise amount of money that Mattis wants. Pelosi and Schumer offering 1.3. Trump say he wants $5 billion. All of a sudden Trump has changed his mind on the defense budget, and he has told Mattis to submit a defense budget for the Pentagon of $750 billion.
This will be the proposal for fiscal year 2020. This is different from a previous promise that Trump had made to cut the defense budget. It wasnt much, but it was still a cut rather than what usually are automatic expenses. The $750 billion number came out of a meeting last week when Trump got the lay of the land and figured out that Pelosi and Schumer are probably not going to come close to the $5 billion or agreeing to it in the budget, because this is all gonna happen next year. And theyre trying to get some of this done before the budget expires at the end of this year, government shutdown on December 21st if they dont come to any sort of an agreement on spending for the remainder of the year.
Now, the original defense budget was $733 billion. Thats what Trump had previously said that he would support. Now hes asked Mattis to go back and resubmit 750. The upshot is that if Pelosi and Schumer do not join him and authorize and agree to $5 billion for the wall, Trump is gonna take it out of the military budget. Thats why the increase from $733 billion to $750 billion. Theres $34 billion additional in the defense budget authorization or request than what the original number was.
And Trump is said to be thinking of getting the $5 billion, if Pelosi and Schumer dont play ball and theres no reason for them to. They dont want a wall. They want no part of Trump having any kind of success on his key issue. Theyre up there talking to him. I think its exploratory to figure out what his mood is, to figure out where his head is.
But as far as the Democrats are concerned, they now run the town again. And since they have the House of Representatives and run the Ways and Means Committee in the House, which is where all spending bills must, by law, originate, unless presidents try to play games with executive actions and executive orders. But all legislative funding bills must begin in the House in the Ways and Means Committee.
So it looks like Trump, in requesting an additional $34 billion for defense, could simply say Im gonna build a wall out of defense money, and Im gonna call it a national security project. This is one of the theories that is being bandied about. And this in effect would be an end run around Pelosi and Schumer and anybody else in Congress, either party, neither of whom want a wall, if we get down to brass tacks.
But its key for Trump, as you know. Its the seminal primary campaign issue that got him elected. Getting a handle on border security, illegal immigration, and building a wall. And I think Trump knows that hes got to get something done on that score, especially now with the phony attempts to claim that private financial transactions between him and a couple of women who were trying to extort him are somehow crimes which would qualify as impeachable or indictable crimes. Its just absurd.
Mark Penn has written a piece on this today which covers much of the ground we covered on that whole premise yesterday. And theres some others weighing in on it as well who I think understand exactly whats going on. When you compare, by the way, what one of the lines in Mark Penns column is that we are on the verge of going back to the horrible days of 1998, which is a period of time Mark Penn says we should not ever want to return to.
What happened in 1998? Well, thats when Bill Clinton was impeached, and everybody thought he was impeached over sex. He actually wasnt impeached over sex. He was impeached because he lied under oath during grand jury testimony and attempted to get other people to lie under oath, which was a direct assault on, of course, the rule of law and the Constitution.
But everybody thought that the Republicans were going after Clinton for sex, having an illicit affair with a 19-year-old, helpless intern who had groupie eyes and groupie heart and was take advantage of. And Penn says, were going back now to sex, were gonna go back, were gonna get rid of another president because of sex? And this isnt even about sex. The SDNY and Mueller will say, It isnt about sex. This is about illegal campaign finance violations. Its not that at all! And, if necessary, well revisit this to again make the point.
But, you see, heres the thing. Back to the budget business with Pelosi and Schumer. Congress does not usually earmark every dollar in the federal budget and how it must be spent. They designate areas and how much money an area or an item or a department is going to get. Is done, but very rarely does Congress actually specify dollar for dollar where money must be spent.
So in the defense budget, if theres $34 billion extra and Congress does not say that the money must be spent here, and if they do not earmark every dollar of the defense budget for certain projects, that means Trumps theory is that, hey, thats the money thats not earmarked, its not specified, I can take it and do with it what I want since Im commander-in-chief.
If the Democrats figure this out, figure out this is whats going on, then they might try to earmark everything, or they might try to put something in legislation specifying that not a single penny of the defense budget or any other budget can be used to build a wall or, as they might say, Nothing over $1.3 billion. Now, you might be saying, Well, if theyre totally opposed to it, why allow $1.3 billion?
Well, its to allow them to say they care about border security. Its to allow them to say that theyve authorized $1.3 billion. Its also not nearly enough to get the job done. Its not nearly enough to build a serious wall in all of the places that a serious wall needs to be built. But it will allow them cover. It will allow them to be able to say (and for the media to say about them) that, Hey, we care about border security. We worked with the president.
But his demands were just over the top and unreal and unusual. We offered $1.3 billion, and he refused it and is now making an end run. The bottom line for Trump is: Get it done. If he has to expand the defense budget by $34 billion and go take an additional $3.5 or the total $5 billion out of it to get the wall built, hes got to do it. That is, for lack of a better term, the security blanket that Trump has.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So right now the cable news networks are showing delayed video of Trump and Pence and Pelosi and Schumer in the Oval Orifice. No details on the talks yet, but I can tell you, Im pretty confident how this might manifest itself, cause I really cant see Pelosi and Schumer agreeing to this $5 billion. They dont want a wall! They certainly They dont want Trump to have any kind, at this stage any kind of success on an issue, especially one that was his primary campaign issue and one they know is the reason he got elected.
They want him to crash and burn on this. So its gonna be up to Trump to creatively find money that they dont authorize, and theyre gonna have to find ways to make sure that Trump cant spend money that they havent authorized, because they havent earmarked it. Now, everybody in the rooms all smiles and everything. But were gonna find out here. You know, what does Trump have? What leverage does he have? We dont know.
Trump clashes with Pelosi, Schumer in Oval Office
We know that hes sitting on documents, classified documents about the Russia investigation that apparently are dynamite and will blow the lid off a whole lot of people and careers, and weve been told that hes waiting to release all of this for his reelection effort in 2020. He doesnt want to release it too soon. He doesnt want it to not work when he releases it. I dont know if any of the classified data hes holding involves Schumer or Pelosi or would frighten them enough about the impact it would have on the Democrat Party.
So if he doesnt have any leverage other than something like that or something we dont know about, then itll be down to his negotiating skills and The Art of the Deal and this kind of thing and how he can make these people understand the severity and the seriousness of this. But, see, they dont want a border wall, and they really dont want a very massive reduction in illegal immigration anyway. They need their permanent underclass.
They need a constant stream of people that cannot provide for themselves and cant speak the language. They need that group of people. The theory is that the vast majority of them are gonna vote Democrat. Theres also a story in the Stack here: 750 million people want to migrate. I dont know how they reached them, but theyve got a poll here that said 750 million people want to migrate, and the U.S. is the most popular destination.
This is a Gallup world poll that revealed yesterday more than 750 million adults or 15% of the worlds population between 2015 and 2017 said that they would like to move to another country if they could. Thats up from 14% three years ago. The U.S. has consistently ranked as the No. 1 destination for potential migrants. Really? Thats a shock. We are the No. 1. sought out destination now; 750 million people want to migrate to the U.S.
I ask you, based on anything that we have seen, everything that weve seen in the past two years: Who in Washington wants to put a stop to it? Im being serious. Neither political party shows much interest at all in seriously dealing with this. The Democrat Party specifically seems to be just the opposite: Encouraging it, promoting it, and seeking to take advantage of it. Its 750 million people and, by the way, I think the number is small. I think it would be many, many, many millions more than that if Gallups World Survey could actually find.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, we were rolling on it. Of course were gonna have it. Apparently, this meeting in the Oval Office and Trump left the cameras in again, and you know what he does that, its always great. Apparently, he just took Pelosi and Schumer to school on the importance of securing the border and asking, Doesnt everybody want border security? forcing them to say, Yeah. I mean, they couldnt very well sit there and say no.
Hes telling them how legislation works. Hes telling em, Ill be happy to shut this thing down like we did last time and, Chuck, you got the blame for it. It was called the Schumer Shutdown, and Ill be happy to do it again. Ill be more than happy to do it again. Were gonna have border security. Who doesnt want border security? You know, and this is what happens. These two people show up Pelosi and Schumer show up and they believe that theyre having a meeting with an absolute idiot.
They believe theyre having meeting with a bumpkin, somebody who doesnt know what theyre doing, and certainly somebody Donald Trump who doesnt know how Washington works. They, on the other hand, show up arrogantly and condescendingly filled with uber-confidence thinking that theyre gonna take this guy to school. He just lost the midterm elections! Hes on the verge of being impeached. Were gonna have this guy in the palm of our hand. What happens, as is classic in those kinds of situations, is they were embarrassed.
Cause Trump schooled them on how legislation happens and its gonna happen and that he knows how it happens, and that hes more than willing to shut down the government! How many times have we actually articulated here that Republicans ought to be courageous about this rather than bowing to media pressure and bowing to Democrat pressure? Shut it down! The government gets shut down many times a year anyway. Nobody even notices. Shut it down. The media gonna say what they gonna say about us regardless what happens.
So do the right thing! You got something you really want and the only leverage and pressure you have is to take away something precious to them? Shut it down. Trump said, Ill be happy to. Ill be glad to more than happy to shut it down and Ill take the credit for it, because everybody wants border security, right? Whos against border security? Nancy, you understand we need to secure the border, right?
(sputtering) Uh, uh And Trump made mention of the fact that shes on thin ice with the Democrats in terms of the speaker election. I mean, he was in total command of the meeting, which I guarantee you is exactly the opposite of what Pelosi and Chuck Schumer thought the atmospherics would be when they walked into that room. Schumer was yelling at Trump at some point because he was just pounding on Pelosi.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Chuck and Nancy are doing a little press conference here outside the White House. Our microphones are there. Weve missed much of this, but lets JIP it here just to catch the tail end and Ill fill you in.
:Pelosi and Schumer speak after meeting with Trump
SCHUMER: One final point.
REPORTERS: (shouting questions)
SCHUMER: No, no, no!
REPORTER: (shouting questions)
SCHUMER: Stop!
REPORTER: (fall silent)
SCHUMER: Okay. One final point. The $1.3 billion that we gave him last year for border security no wall, but border security less than 6% of it has been spent. They havent even spent last years money, and now theyre demanding much, much more this year.
REPORTER: (shouting questions)
SCHUMER: Go ahead. Now, were just gonna take questions on this subject only.
REPORTER: Given what we saw in there, the bickering, back-and-forth, what does it say about your ability to work with this president over the next two years?
PELOSI: Well, Ive told the president, as Ive said over and over again: This new Congress will be something different from the Congress we have now. It will be a Congress of transparency so that the American people can see, not passing a tax bill with $7 trillion impact on the economy in the dark of night, speed of light, so nobody can see what it is without hearings or any expert opinions on it. So it will be about transparency. It will be about reaching out
RUSH: All right. All right. Thats sufficient. What happened is that Schumer came out and started calling this the Trump Shutdown, started saying how eager Trump is to shut down the government. (paraphrased) But that we we, Pelosi and me, we offered Trump two different ways out of this, and both of them involve a continuing resolution. None of them involve actually doing a budget. Schumer made a point, This is how weve been funding government for a long time now.
We offered him two ways to do this, but he wants to shut down the government. He had a little temper tantrum in there, Schumer said, and these are getting little tiresome, but thats the way the president is. Weve given him two ways out of this. Schumer made the point, What happened to Mexico paying for the wall? I thought Trump said that Mexico was gonna pay for the wall, but apparently thats off the table now.
So, anyway, in this meeting, I guess Trump really got to em, really irritated em. Theyre now out talking to the press and trying to reestablish a narrative for what actually happened in there, and as soon as I get the audio from the meeting in the Oval Office, we will have that for you.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is obviously a contentious meeting in the White House, a stare down between Trump and Pelosi and Schumer, and they felt it necessary to go back out to the microphones outside the White House and try to reestablish themselves as in control of the narrative and to try to paint Trump as immature and childish and had a little bit of a temper tantrum. But I wasnt able to hear it either.
It was happening during the opening segment of the program, but reports I got on it were that Trump humiliated these people. He was just schooling them and telling them the way things have to be, the way things are gonna be, and reminding them that any shutdown is gonna be on them. Hell happily take the credit for it, reminding Pelosi shes not a lock for Speaker of the House election for the Democrats.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. So what happened is that Trump maneuvered Pelosi and Schumer into beginning the negotiations when they didnt expect them to begin. Normally what happens is these meetings occur, cabinet meetings that weve seen or, in this case, Schumer, Pelosi, and the medias allowed in. And there are handshakes and smiles all around, and everybody says how wonderful everybody is.
And then the media is ushered out and the meeting begins. Trump began the meeting with the media in there, with the cameras in there. And it took a while, Pelosi and Schumer finally figured out what was going on. Theyve seen this drill.
Trump ran this same kind of a drill during a cabinet meeting and embarrassed Dianne Feinstein on a couple of issues. And he does it occasionally. He did it today and Pelosi finally figured out what was going and was not happy. She wanted this open discussion shut down so that nobody, like you and me, could hear it.
PELOSI: Were here to have a conversation in a careful way, so I dont think we should have a debate in front of the press on this. But the fact is the House Republicans could bring up this bill if they had the votes immediately and set the tone for what you want.
THE PRESIDENT: If we thought we were gonna get it passed in the Senate, Nancy, we would do it immediately. Wed get it passed very easily in the House. We would get it (interruption) Nancy, Id have it passed in two seconds. It doesnt matter, though, because we cant get it passed in the Senate because we need 10 Democrat votes.
PELOSI: Well, let us have our conversation, and then well meet with the press again.
RUSH: See, she doesnt want to hear any of this. She doesnt want you hearing any of this. She and Schumer did not want you or anybody hearing Trump give the lay of the land on this. (paraphrasing) We thought we were gonna get it passed in the Senate. We could get it passed easily in the House, Nancy, right now. Youre not running the place yet. I can get it passed in the House right now. We cant get it passed in the Senate. We need 10 Democrats.
Pelosi says, oh, no, oh, no cause its border security. Trumps got em set up here in such a way that they are advocating no border security. Hes positioned this so that theyre kind of in a no-win. They have to agree with the concept of border security in this meeting even though they dont mean it in truth. They dont mean it in terms of building a wall. They dont mean it in terms of it of actually doing anything, but they have to say it. Common sense says any nation would secure its border. They cannot be seen opposing that.
But at the same time, Trump maneuvering her into agreeing with the concept. She doesnt want that, either. So shes getting very, very nervous. And Trump says (paraphrasing), We cant get it passed in the Senate. We need 10 Democrats who are not interested in border security. And Pelosi says, Well, well, lets have our conversation and we can meet with the press later. Heres Trump again.
THE PRESIDENT: Chuck, did you want to say something?
SCHUMER: Yeah. Heres what I want to say. We have a lot of disagreements here. The Washington Post today gave you a whole lot of Pinocchios because they say you constantly misstate how much of the wall is built and how much is there. But thats not the point here.
THE PRESIDENT: The Washington Post?
SCHUMER: We have a disagreement about the wall, whether its effective or not on border security, but on the wall. We do not want to shut down the government. You were called 20 times to shut down the government. You say, I want to shut down the government. We dont. We want to come to an agreement. If we cant come to an agreement, we have solutions that will pass the House and Senate right now and will not shut down the government, and thats what were urging you to do. Not threaten to shut down the government cause you just did it, cause you cant get your way.
THE PRESIDENT: The last time you shut it down
SCHUMER: Yeah. Let me tell you something Mr. President. You just say, my way or well shut down the government. We have a proposal that Democrats and Republicans will support to do a CR that will not shut down the government. We urge you to take it.
THE PRESIDENT: And if its not good border security, I wont take it.
SCHUMER: It is very
RUSH: And its not good border security cause it doesnt feature the wall. The wall is it. They dont want the wall. Trump does. Trump needs the wall. The nation needs the wall. These people dont want there to be a wall. It would be a huge defeat for the Democrats, who apparently have just retaken government back in the November midterms. If they agree to a wall, then why win? Their base would be livid with them, even though a wall is a good thing, the base would be livid with them for losing!
So Schumer and Pelosi have to provide a stiff upper lip here and they have to be insulting of the president and they have to offer a bunch of stuff thats meaningless. But weve got two different ways we can go with great border security. Trump knows theres no border security in these two ideas. Theyre nothing more than continuing resolutions which dont do anything to fix the budgeting process, they dont solve any real problems, it just allows everybody to get out of town for the Christmas holidays and say theyve done their job to keep the government up and running.
And Trump, lets face it, Trumps got nothing to lose here. I mean, in the big scheme of things hes got nothing to lose by shutting down the government, hes got nothing to lose by insisting on this wall, hes got nothing to lose playing hardball with these people on this. Thats the real thing. The only thing Trumps got right now is his continuing level of support from his base voters. Hes got to hold on to that. If he does anything to start that wavering, then there could be problems. Next bite, Pelosi.
PELOSI: We came in here in good faith, and were entering into a of this kind of discussion in the public view.
THE PRESIDENT: But its not bad, Nancy. Its called transparency.
PELOSI: I know. Its not transparency when were not stipulating to a set of facts and when we want to have a debate with you about saying we confront some of those facts.
THE PRESIDENT: You know what? We need border security. Thats what were going to be talking about. Border security. If we dont have border security, well shut down the government.
RUSH: If we dont have border security, well shut down the government. Its only been two years, and its time to do this, and I really dont think Trump has much to lose by insisting on this. They do. You know, they claim to not want a government shutdown. BS! They love government shutdowns cause their buddies in the media start blaming Trump or any nearby Republican for it. They love shutting down the government. Trump ought to call them on it. Final bite. This is Schumer, Trump telling Schumer hes gonna shut the government down to get his wall and hes gonna be proud to do it.
SCHUMER: Twenty times you have called for I will shut down the government if I dont get my wall. None of us have said
THE PRESIDENT: You want to know something?
SCHUMER: Youve said it. You.
THE PRESIDENT: Ill take it.
SCHUMER: Okay. Good.
THE PRESIDENT: You know what Ill say? Yes, if we dont get what we want one way or the other, whether its through you, through our military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government.
SCHUMER: Okay, fair enough. We disagree. We disagree.
THE PRESIDENT: I am proud. And Ill tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck, because the people of this country dont want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into our country. So I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. Im not gonna blame you for it. The last time you shut it down, it didnt work. I will take the mantle of shutting down and Im gonna shut it down for border security.
SCHUMER: We believe you.
RUSH: And this is not what they expected to happen. They didnt expect any of this to be public. They did not expect to encounter a Trump eager and apparently willing to shut down the government. They thought they would run into a compliant, maybe even acquiescent Trump.
See, in their world, Trump lost the election so he ought to be humble. In their world, Trump lost the election so he ought to be trying to get along with them. They run the show now. I mean, the establishment won the House back so now they run that town again and Trump should know that.
And Trumps not playing ball the bay they envisioned it and he certainly shocked them by having the meeting televised publicly, which is why they had to make a mad dash to the microphones and cameras outside the White House to try to reestablish the narrative. But Im glad you were able to hear that because its a firm implantation of Trump and his position on the wall, which is desperately needed.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So Pelosi tells Trump at the beginning of their meeting in the Oval Office that shes got a new Congress coming and its gonna be one of transparency, unlike the current Congress, she says, Its gonna be transparent, Mr. President. And then Trump, Okay, fine, lets do some transparency here in the meeting, and Pelosi wanted no part of it, wanted it stopped. Didnt like the set of facts Trump was using.
I love when liberals get hit with fearless opposition. Spineless RINOs take note, this is how its done.
It would have been funny if Trump would have invited Ryan and McConnell to the White House sometime and did this in front of the cameras. Trump deserves credit for fighting the Democrats.
The spineless cretins would be a no show.
I loved it!
Rope-a-dope X 2.
Trump hammered Nancy “We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in the bill” Piglosi.
“It’s called transparency Nancy!”
It is all on tape.
Dear Rush,
The difference between 750 and 733 is SEVENTEEN, NOT THIRTY-FOUR.
It’s really hard to take anyone seriously when they double a simple difference and repeat it ad infinitum!
God love ya, Rush, but PLEASE get it right!
Yeah, but who’s going to run the uncut tape? C-SPAN I guess.
The MSM is doing their usual 60 Minutes cut and splice.
Just in time for Christmas here comes the MSM with whiny stories about how trump betrayed the auto workers in Lordstown Oh, and GM has idled the 55 year old plant.
He said we will retool or tear down the old factory’s and build new ones.
Then BLAMMO!! China capitulates on auto tariffs..
GM accountants will be up all holiday, dollar signs dancing in tier eyes.
Trump was brilliant.
I laugh every time I read the transcript or watch the video.
I especially like the part where Belagosi says the new congress
is going to be more transparent than the current congress.
Then Trump says let’s have transparentcy in our meeting now.
Belagosi wanted no part of that.
Hehehe.. Then Schmucky jumped in, Trump dotted his eye and Chuckie said “come on, lets go Nancy” LOL
Next time he should replace their chairs with pillows and make them sit on the floor.
He is fighting back!
They know if Trump gets the wall, he has won. And will be reelected in a landslide.
So, watch while Trump gets a wall. Shutdown? What the hell does he have to lose?
Make them glue their noses to the wall and forbid them to look at the party.
Don’t look over here! Look at the wall!
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