RUSH: Barack OBAMA Has DESTROYED the ECONOMY in Two-and-a-Half Years

www.rushlimbaugh.com ^ | July 14, 2011 | Rush Limbaugh

[Yosemitest]

Barack Obama Has Destroyed the Economy in Two-and-a-Half Years
July 14, 2011

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT



RUSH: "Boehner: Dealing With the White House 'Has Been Like Dealing With Jell-O'

-- In a meeting with a small group of reporters in his Capitol Hill office this morning [he] criticized President Obama and White House officials for their lack of resolve in negotiations.
'Dealing with them the last couple months has been like dealing with Jell-o,' Boehner said.
'Some days it's firmer than others. Sometimes it's like they've left it out over night.'
Boehner explained that talks broke down over the weekend because, he said,
the president backed off entitlement reforms so much from Friday to Saturday,
'It was Jell-o; it was damn near liquid.'"
We can't count on what the guy says.
What he says doesn't have any lifespan to it.
He'll say something and then the next time we talk it's like he never said.

You know, once when I was in negotiations --
early on in my career, when I never done it
-- it was my first time negotiating a contract rather than just being hired.
It was at a radio station and I had, for the first time in my life, some leverage.
I didn't realize how much, but I had a lot.
So I didn't have an agent. I don't have an agent now.
I did it all on my own, figured, why...?
Eh, I don't want to get into why no agent. I just didn't have an agent.
I decided to do it myself, I do everything myself.
So a session is scheduled (after we've had three or four meetings) in the boss's office for 7:30 in the morning.
The program started at nine.

So I walk back for the meeting, he says, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm here for our negotiations."

"We don't have a meeting. What are you talking about?
Are you losing your mind or something?
We've got nothing to talk about today."

So I walked out of there (laughing) and called some people.
They said,
"Ah, it's a standard tactic.
It's just a standard tactic. You're just learning."

So that's what Boehner's saying it's like with Obama.
They'll agree to have some measure of entitlement reform
or at least some of it will be on the table
and the next time they meet, it's like they never talked about it.
It's like Jell-O. he says,
"'The only thing they've been firm on is these damn tax increases,' the Speaker said.
The Speaker also made it clear that he believes the President waited too long to get personally involved.
When he phoned the president Saturday to give him the bad news about talks breaking down, President Obama seemed surprised but not shocked, the speaker said.
The phone call lasted 35-40 minutes.

"Boehner said that the tax increases the White House has been pushing for as part of what the president calls 'a balanced package' cannot make it through Congress.
'What the president is asking us to do just won't pass,' he said.
[He] said that he believes the public supports the GOP line in the sand.
'The American people want us to hang tough,' he said."
They do.
There's a Rasmussen poll out today:
55% of the American people agree with the Republican position on this,
and yet the Republicans remain very nervous that they ultimately are going to end up being blamed
because that's just the way things always have worked out.
Jobless claims announced today to be 405,000.
That was seen as good news in that the experts expected 415,000 jobless claims,
but don't get too excited about 405,000 jobless claims.
It's still a weak number.

This is like 30 weeks in a row they've been over 400,000.
But the real news in the labor report the published today --
we predicted this last week
-- is last week's claims number was revised upward by 9,000.
Last week on this very day the reported number for jobless claims was 418,000.
We said,
"But that number doesn't really mean anything because it's going to be revised upwards.
They all are."
Well, today it was to 427,000, so they actually missed on the low side by 9,000 last week.
It makes a four-week moving average of 423,800 jobless claims.
The economy has not turned any corners.
There is no recovery.
It's Obama's economy, and Obama needs the Republicans to save him from himself.
Obama needs the Republicans to get reelected.
Obama needs the Republicans to cave. (interruption)

What color is Jell-O?
Red. What other color could he be talking about with Obama?
Snerdley wanted to know what color Jell-O was talking about that Obama was.
Red Jell-O.
It's 806 days, ladies and gentlemen, since Senate Democrats -- and they run the place -- have passed a budget.
There are 365 days in a year.
So it's well over two years since the Democrats, who run the place, have passed a budget.
The law requires them to pass a budget every year.
Eight hundred six days and counting -- and this, by the way, is the strategy.
There's no question. They devised two years ago a strategy:
We're not gonna present a budget:
We're not gonna tie ourselves down.
This was part of the 2010 reelection strategy:
Do [not] put a budget out there
because we don't want voters to have any specifics about what we intend.

So they didn't.
Now the strategy remains implemented so that they don't have to tie themselves to any of their own numbers specifically,
so while they have no numbers, they have no budget -- and Obama hasn't presented one, either -- the Republicans do.
The Republicans are acting like the adults.
The Republicans are presenting plans.
Say what you want about some of them, but Republicans have ideas with numbers designed to seriously address the problem and fix it.
Start down the road of fixing it.
The Democrats, as a strategy, do not.
For the sole purpose of doing nothing
but assaulting the Republicans for the numbers that they present.
In so doing, the Democrats have a free road in claiming
that Republicans want senior citizens to die and the sick people to die and all this,
'cause the Democrats don't have any numbers.

They have no specifics. They have no budget.
Nor does Obama, other than this monstrosity from last February with a $3.7 trillion budget that not even one Democrat voted for.
Other than that, they don't have one -- on purpose --
so that the only numbers out there are Republican numbers that they can demagogue.
That's the strategy.
So if Senate Democrats don't have to project spending and revenues --
if they can just choose not to in violation of the law
-- then why should I have to pay quarterly taxes?
Why do I have to go to the trouble to project and pay taxes to the government based on my estimated taxable income,
which I have to do every three months --
and the second quarter is actually a beast 'cause you gotta do it in two months.

You gotta do it April 15th and then back in June.
Now, in a sense quarterly taxes, like budgets, are an estimate.
They are a projection of taxable income.
How about I just publish it once a year? Maybe every two years!
How about I don't estimate my income for two years?
How about I don't project anything and therefore I don't pay anything?
For just two years, maybe. Three!
Sure, the law says I'm supposed to make that estimate in payment every quarter, but so what?
The Senate Democrats aren't following the law; why should anybody else?
Yeah, I know.
They'll put me in the cell next to Madoff or Wesley Snipes or somebody, if I know don't.
Exactly.

Maybe we need to ask:
Why are the Senate Democrats above the law
and why doesn't the media care?
I'll tell you why the media doesn't care.
It's because they marvel at the strategy.
They just love the strategy.
"Look at how smart these Democrats are!
They don't present a budget and make the onus on the Republicans.
The only numbers out there are Republican numbers."
Of course you can rip them to shreds all you want.
The last thing you're gonna do is agree with any of them.
"Moody's Investors Service said late [yesterday] it had placed the US government's triple-A bond rating on review for possible downgrade due to rising risk of default.
'The review of the US government's bond rating is prompted by the possibility
that the debt limit will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes,' Moody's said."

Folks, we gave you the numbers on this yesterday.
It's not possible to miss a payment unless somebody doesn't make it, which that falls to Obama.
We have the money there.
Moody's -- or as Stewart Varney as Fox says, "Moodis."
Stewart Varney, I was listening to him this morning on Fox. He's very worried about this.
You know, Stewart's a good guy but he's very, very worried about this.
(paraphrased)
"If we miss one payment, then we're in a world of total humiliation, embarrassment.
If we miss one payment!"
You know, the American people need to ask themselves a question.
We elect Barack Hussein Obama, and two-and-a-half years later we find ourselves on the verge of budgetary default.
We elect Barack Hussein Obama president, and in two-and-a-half years, we're on the verge of an unprecedented US default
with worldwide -- first time ever -- humiliation, embarrassment, and whatever else would accompany default.



No other president has ever brought us anywhere near anything like this,
and yet (laughing) blame it on the Republicans!
Just blame it on the Republicans.
Democrats in Congress are ignoring another law, a law Obama demanded and they all wanted, and that's Paygo.
They just laugh when anybody brings it up, like Jim Bunning did.
Paygo. You pay-as-you-go. You don't pay for anything you don't have.
The current US debt is larger than the entire economy of China, in two-and-a-half years of Barack Hussein Obama --

and, by the way, in two-and-a-half years, this country's approval ratings in the Arab world are near an all-time low.
Now, how can that be?
Remember just by virtue of the fact of our president's middle name,
we were supposed to be loved and adored and appreciated.

It was gonna be a new Worrell out there; the Arab world was going to love us.
They're gonna stop terrorizing us.
They we're gonna stop throwing the suicide bombers at us.
They were gonna love us after all this,
and President Obama goes and makes the Cairo speech.
How can any of this be in two-and-a-half years this utter, total, near destruction of our country,
in two-and-a-half years?
Really, it's scary to realize that's all it's taken is two-and-a-half years.
By the way, lest we forget on this "Moodis" business,
Congress tightened its regulation of credit ratings companies last year with the so-called
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Consumer Protection Act.
Yes, that Wall Street, that financial regulatory reform bill included in it regulation of credit rating companies like Moodis.
So these companies like Moodis know which side of the bread their butter is on.

They realize that they now have to toe the line and advance the interests of the Democrat Party.
Bill Hemmer today on Fox asked Stewart Varney,
"Look, Stewart, are these guys totally objective?"
Stewart Varney said,
"They say they are. They say they are, and we have to take them at their word."
It was clear to me that, to Stewart Varney, Moodis is the gold standard.
They're god, they're the absolute truth.
They don't lie, don't make it up,
but all I know is that they are now regulated under the Financial Regulatory Reform Act,
and that tells me they know what they have to do to stay safe,
and that's advance the interests of the Democrat Party.
But still, again, just think about it:
Obama is elected president a mere two and a half years later,
Moodis is talking about the possibility of the United States defaulting on our debt.
Aside from the fact that it's really a coincidence, does anybody really...?

I mean, how in the world does anybody even talk about this guy seriously getting reelected?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One more thing about Obama and this Arab business.
In truth, Obama's not Arab. His father was Kenyan.
See, this idea that there's gonna be some special bond with the Arab world was always a farce.
It was just more of the farce that was Obama and the media and the image makers.
So Moody's, if they're aligned with the Democrats, what are they saying?
They're saying that we should continue to spend and print and borrow.
Is that the credit advice Moody's is giving?
Is that how Moody's wants to be known?
They want to take themselves seriously as a credit rating agency,
so for us to stay solvent, continue to do more and more that's brought us to the brink of disaster,
is that what Moody's is saying?

How do we know that Moody's is not concerned about Obama and the Democrats?
Why do we always assume that Moody's is worried about the Republicans?
The Republicans are actually trying to get the fiscal house in order.
Even these idiots at Moody's can see that,
maybe Moody's is actually aiming their comments at Obama.
It would make economic sense.



BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, I'm holding here in my in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a story from McClatchy.
Kevin G. Hall wrote the thing April 12th of 2010, "How Moody's Sold Its Ratings and Sold Out Investors." April 12, 2010.

"As the housing market collapsed in late 2007, Moody's Investors Service, whose investment ratings were widely trusted,
responded by purging [i.e. firing] analysts and executives who warned of trouble
and promoting those who helped Wall Street plunge the country into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
A McClatchy investigation has found that Moody's punished executives who questioned
why the company was risking its reputation
by putting its profits ahead of providing trustworthy ratings for investment offerings.

"Instead, Moody's promoted executives who headed its 'structured finance' division,
which assisted Wall Street in packaging loans into securities for sale to investors.
These are the pools of mortgages, the mortgage-backed securities which were worthless.
"It also stacked its compliance department with the people who awarded the highest ratings to pools of mortgages that soon were downgraded to junk.
Such products have another name now: 'toxic assets.'"
The McClatchy investigation found that Moody's purposely avoided rating the worthless stuff,
thereby continuing the notion investors could feel free to invest in it.
They got rid of executives who sounded the warning bell about this,
and they promoted executives who did the opposite.

They sold its ratings; they sold out investors, according to McClatchy.
April of 2010 is the date of the story.



END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...



• ABC News: Boehner: Dealing With the White House 'Has Been Like Dealing With Jell-o'

• Bloomberg: Moody's Places U.S. on Review for Downgrade As Debt Talks Stall

• McClatchy: How Moody's Sold Its Ratings and Sold Out Investors

• American Spectator: Now He Tells Us - Joseph Lawler

• Wall Street Journal: The Disappearing Recovery - Daniel Henninger


*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.

[Yosemitest]

Thank you, Rush, for this great analysis.
May our Heavenly Father keep you safe and keep you wise.

[Talisker]

Hey Rush, why don’t you have a show on the Federal Reserve. You don’t have to get complicated. Just explain that it is a bunch of people who own a printing press and pay for paper and ink, and then they print numbers on the paper, and charge the government the amount of the numbers on the paper, plus interest.

And that’s our national debt - we borrow our own money from a private company who prints it up, with no backing, and “loans” it to us for the amount of the numbers.

And then we work ourselves to death to pay the interest, while the elite simply write themselves checks of borrowed money and laugh so hard they throw up.

Go ahead, Rush. Do it.

[AndyJackson]

It is a great analysis, but it is wrong. The US economy is where it is because of a few decades of poor monetary policy, poor regulatory policy, and the resulting malinvestment on a massive nationwide scale. I don’t like Obama, but most of our public debt and almost all of our private debt were from things that happened long before O got into office.

[dr_lew]

Amen! ( As long as I’m still awake. )

[GeronL]

bump

[GeronL]

That is true but the last 2 years the deficit numbers have been staggering.

[NoLibZone]

Bump

[Yosemitest]

An update from the previous show...

Terry Jeffrey, Cybercast News Service:
"President Barack Obama told CBS News [yesterday]
that there may not be enough money in the U.S. Treasury to cover Social Security checks after Aug. 3...
However, according to the Daily Treasury Statements published by the U.S. Treasury Department,
the ongoing flow of federal tax revenue since the Treasury declared that
it had hit the debt limit on May 16
has been more than sufficient to cover the combined costs of federal spending
on interest payments, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Veterans Affairs department
and federal workers wages and insurance benefits (including wages and insurance benefits for military personnel)."

You know, this is an interesting point, and I'm glad he made it.
It totally slipped my mind. We are at a debt limit!
We are at a debt limit, and the world is still turning.
We are at a debt limit, and every payment is being made.
The world did not come to an end and country didn't, either.
"Specifically, according to the Daily Treasury Statements, as of the close of business on May 16,
the federal government had taken in $1.333454 trillion in tax revenues since the beginning of fiscal 2011,"
which is October 1.
"By the close of business on July 7, tax revenues for fiscal 2011 had grown to $1.629630 trillion.

"Therefore, between May 16,"
when we hit the debt limit,
"and July 7 the federal government took in a total of $296.176 billion in new tax revenue,"
some of it mine.
"In that same time period, total interest payments on the national debt equaled $14.632 billion."
So the income was $296 billion;
the interest payment on the national debt was $14.6 billion.
You make the payment with ease with just income and outflow, just tax revenue coming in, which comes in every week.
"Also during that same period, the federal government's combined expenditures for interest payments on the national debt,
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Veterans Affairs department and federal workers wages and insurance benefits
equaled $270.151 billion.

"Thus, since hitting the legal limit on the federal debt on May 16,
the federal government could have spent its $296.176 billion in new tax revenues
to pay for its combined $270.151 billion in expenses for interest, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Affairs and federal workers wages and insurance benefits
and still had $26.025 billion in additional tax revenue to spend on other government activities.
For another $2.198 billion, for example, the government could have covered all Justice Department programs between May 16 and July 7...

"For another $11.233 billion, the government could have covered all its Housing and Urban Development programs between May 16 and July 7 --
thus bringing its surplus revenue for the post-debt-limit period down to $12.594 billion.
For another $6.988 billion, the government could have covered all its Federal Highway Administration ... between May 16 and July 7..."
All these calculations
"are based on numbers reported in the U.S. Treasury Department's Daily Treasury Statements,"
government figures. The revenue is there.
There's no reason not to pay Social Security or Medicare or the interest on the debt or anything else.
We can pay our debts even beyond the debt limit.

---

"... but most of our public debt and almost all of our private debt
were from things that happened long before O got into office."

WRONG!!!!

The ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN CHIEF has wracked up more debt in two and a half years than all our presidents COMBINED from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.

Also, the word "TRILLION" wasn't even IN the political dialog BEFORE this INFERIOR Fascist Muslim.

So what lie do you want to try next, in defending " 'da Kenyan Turd" ?

[cva66snipe]

Well Rush lets never forget he did have help including Barney Frank and a considerable number of SPINELESS Republicants. RINO’s who caved to Barney and Obama on almost every issue including bailouts.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

The ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN CHIEF has wracked up more debt in two and a half years than all our presidents COMBINED from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.

While Obama has done his fair share of spending you are wrong on the math...

When Obama was sworn in the national debt was $10.626 trillion... right now its at roughly $14.500 trillion. Now that's a lot in less than three years for sure. But come on, I wish folks would stop regurgitating that some old completely wrong chain email....

If Obama had racked up more debt than all past presidents combined as you assert the debt would be somewhere between $18 and $20 trillion...

[antceecee]

Yes. Thank you Rush.

But no thanks to the GOP-idiots that thought it was A-OK to let the Kenyan have his "turn".

So obvious... both sides were "in" on the last election. I don't care their so called strategy... they deserve blame right alongside the Rats for the situation this country is in. To them it was "just another election (pissing match)"

For the PEOPLE of this GREAT NATION... well, they deserve better than this.

So no kudos to either side... and GOP better realize that this is b@lls to the wall time...or they will be drinking the tea.

[Pollster1]

I don’t like Obama, but most of our public debt and almost all of our private debt were from things that happened long before O got into office.

"Most" may be true, but it's not terribly informative. The rate of growth of our debt is NOT reassuring, and the problem is the Obama regime. I don't like Obama either, but it's not personal. It's because Obama is the source of the destruction.

[equaviator]

That’s like blaming the Korean and Vietnam wars on the Japs and the Nazis. Sure, they’re connected but at some point, you have to start dealing with these things “in the now”.

[screaminsunshine]

Rush! We need a 2nd Party.

[ctdonath2]

“all our presidents COMBINED from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.”

That’s not all presidents.

[tutstar]

He has been spot on!

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“If Obama had racked up more debt than all past presidents combined as you assert the debt would be somewhere between $18 and $20 trillion...”

Whereas I agree that decades of bad fiscal policy have contributed to where we are now, I think the statement comparing Obama’s contribution to the deficit to the contribution of past presidents is based more on the absolute increases in spending, rather than the cumulative effects of things like interest on the debt etc.

The interest alone on the national debt in 2008 was something like $450 billion, and is similar each of the past several years. Seems like accumulated interest contributes significantly to national debt increases, which is why it's so important to at the very least stop running annual budget deficits.

[RayChuang88]

I'll say this though: the fact that the economy has NOT recovered is going to doom Obama's chances in 2012--especially since we're essentially seeing a worse version of the last two years of the Carter Administration.

The next President may have to sign a huge stack of new laws just to undo the mess Obama created.

[fightinJAG]

Rush,

This is why I’m beginning to hear this period in history referred to as the Great Oppression.

It is more than a Recession or Depression. It is economic collapse that is designed to completely delimit the federal government, institute Socialism, and hence strip us of our freedom and, in effect, our Constitution.

I hope you’ll start using that term on-air. It says it all. Obama’s Great Oppression.

[Deo volente]

You’re right. There’s a method to Obama’s madness.

Saul Alinksy, George Soros, Karl Marx.

These are the guys pulling the presidential strings.