Speaker 1: February four, little over a year ago, when the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives voted to increase the legal limit on the
Speaker 1: national debt by another one point nine trillion dollars that
Speaker 1: lifted the limit from twelve point three trillion to fourteen
Speaker 1: point two trillion. Not one Republican voted for the increase.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how this tracks. Like I just said, if
Speaker 1: you go back to two thousand six, not one Democrat
Speaker 1: voted to raise the debt limit. In two thousand six,
Speaker 1: Republicans ran the show. Then one year ago, not one
Speaker 1: Republican voted to raise the debt ceiling when they didn't
Speaker 1: run the show. Of course, just a year ago, one year,
Speaker 1: the debt ceiling has gone up by two trillion dollars now.
Speaker 1: The Majority whip at the time was Eric Canter of Virginia.
Speaker 1: He stood up on the House floor that day and
Speaker 1: said that it was beyond comprehension and that it was
Speaker 1: a travesty to talk about raising a legal debt limit
Speaker 1: to fourteen point two trivion dollars. Last week, the Republican
Speaker 1: House leadership agreed to a deal with President Obama and
Speaker 1: Den Harry to spend three point seven five five five
Speaker 1: trillion dollars in this fiscal year, even though at the
Speaker 1: close of business owned Friday, as the deal was being struck,
Speaker 1: the Treasury reported that it could borrow only an additional
Speaker 1: eighty billion before hitting to twelve point to nine four
Speaker 1: trivion debt limit Congress that last year. So the debt
Speaker 1: sailing increase of last year, we were bumped up again.
Speaker 1: It now against it. It's we need to do it
Speaker 1: again in this In the first six months of this
Speaker 1: fiscal year, which would be October through March, according to
Speaker 1: the Treasury Department, the debt increased seven hundred eight billion.
Speaker 1: Even if you subtracted the thirty eight and a half
Speaker 1: billion of this deal from that number, the federal government
Speaker 1: would still be on a pace to increase the debt
Speaker 1: by about another six dred and seventy billion dollars in
Speaker 1: the remaining six months of this fiscal year. Just to
Speaker 1: put that thirty eight and a half billion dollars into
Speaker 1: further perspective, simply put by the way these numbers, these
Speaker 1: have Terence Jeffrey and a piece he has at the
Speaker 1: cyber Cast News service to put this in perspective. To
Speaker 1: consummate the spending deal, the Republican House leaders cut with
Speaker 1: Obama and read on Friday, where is page too stupid predator?
Speaker 1: To concentrate the deal, our commensate can consummate the deal,
Speaker 1: Republicans would need to lift the debt ceiling by hundreds
Speaker 1: of billions of dollars just so let the government borrow
Speaker 1: the money the Republicans have already agreed to let the
Speaker 1: government spend between now and see. Back in February, when
Speaker 1: the then Democrat controlled House of Representatives voted to lift
Speaker 1: the debt ceiling up to the fourteen point to nine
Speaker 1: four trillion is when Cantor delivered a scathing speech against it.
Speaker 1: He said, it would be recklessly naive to go about
Speaker 1: our business in Washington pretending there won't be severe consequences
Speaker 1: for the mountains of debt that we're piling up. Yet
Speaker 1: today it is evident that this kind of wilful ignorance
Speaker 1: is sweeping across Washington. We are set to lift our
Speaker 1: nation's debt burden to fourteen trillion dollars. I would ask
Speaker 1: my colleagues in this chamber if they know how many
Speaker 1: zeros fourteen trillion has I would ask the American people
Speaker 1: if they know how many zeros are in fourteen trillion.
Speaker 1: It's fourteen trillion. It's beyond comprehension to be talking about
Speaker 1: numbers this big. More precisely, the limit is and then
Speaker 1: he read it out one nine zero zero zero zero
Speaker 1: zero zero zero zero. It's a travesty, he said. The
Speaker 1: writing is on the wall, said Cantor, Congress needs to
Speaker 1: wake up and realize the future of American prosperity is
Speaker 1: in dire straits moral danger. And he was right then.
Speaker 1: But if you go back to two thousand six when
Speaker 1: the Democrats, sorry, when the Republicans had control, When you
Speaker 1: go back in two thousand and six, it was the
Speaker 1: Democrats saying almost identical word for word what Cantor is
Speaker 1: saying here. So what we've learned here is is that
Speaker 1: the party out of power is always opposed they're raising
Speaker 1: the debt limit. And they used the same arguments that
Speaker 1: the that the previous time of another party was out
Speaker 1: of power used. It's it's it's uh, mind boggling. Here.
Speaker 1: It's all about who's running the show. And if you're
Speaker 1: not in charge, if you're not in control, you're not
Speaker 1: the majority, you're gonna oppose raising the debt ceiling. Except
Speaker 1: we're kicking it. We're gonna kick the can down the road.
Speaker 1: This is why Terrence Jeffrey has written the piece. If
Speaker 1: you're just joining us, the Republicans are sending a signal
Speaker 1: out that they're not going to fight the debt ceiling increase,
Speaker 1: that the Ryan budget deal that really should be our
Speaker 1: area focus. That's what they're saying. From the political today,
Speaker 1: Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about the impact a bruising
Speaker 1: fight over raising the nation's uh uh fourteen trillion dollar
Speaker 1: debt sailing could have on US financial markets. Speaker Bayner
Speaker 1: has had conversations with top Wall Street executives asking how
Speaker 1: close Congress could push to the debt limit deadline without
Speaker 1: sending interest rates staring and causing stock prices to go lower,
Speaker 1: people familiar with the matter, said Bayner. Spokesman Michael Steele
Speaker 1: said last night he was not aware of any such conversations,
Speaker 1: But the media is reporting that Wall Street execs are
Speaker 1: warning Bayner, you guy, you better, you better, you better
Speaker 1: not fight this fight. So that's where we are. You know, folks,
Speaker 1: we're getting the same kind of hysterian about the need
Speaker 1: to raise the death sailing we got about the government shutdown.
Speaker 1: We're getting the hysteria is the same as we got
Speaker 1: for TARP. We better do this. If we don't do this,
Speaker 1: we could be a whole collapse. If we don't do this,
Speaker 1: the financial system of the world could come clumba with everything.
Speaker 1: Remember that it's still unspent TARP money. And then the
Speaker 1: same thing with with the stimulus bill. I mean, we
Speaker 1: had to do that right there. We couldn't. We had
Speaker 1: to bail out General Motors. All that stuff in the
Speaker 1: fall of two thousand and eight had to be done
Speaker 1: right now, And we're getting the same kind of hysterium
Speaker 1: about the need to raise the debt ceiling. Washington knows
Speaker 1: how to do this. Why shouldn't they got what they wanted,
Speaker 1: every bit of it in two thousand eight playing us
Speaker 1: this way. So the Democrats and their copy boys in
Speaker 1: the media are saying that it would be an apocalypse
Speaker 1: if the debt ceiling is not raised. Michelle Bachman was
Speaker 1: on Fox and Friends this morning. She pointed out that
Speaker 1: it would probably take six to seven months before the
Speaker 1: debt ceiling would force the government to shutdown, if ever,
Speaker 1: and that's the bottom line, A genuine shutdown of the
Speaker 1: United states government isn't going to happen. It's simply will
Speaker 1: not happen. Revenue would still be coming in. People are
Speaker 1: still working and paying taxes. Revenue is still coming in.
Speaker 1: The worst that would come out of it is that
Speaker 1: we would have to prioritize our spending. In fact, it would,
Speaker 1: she pointed out, to be almost like a de facto
Speaker 1: balanced budget amendment, which would be a good thing. But
Speaker 1: we're getting we'll get the same kind of hysteria. Oh
Speaker 1: we can't well, no no, just like we can't have shutdown,
Speaker 1: can't have shut Oh no, no, we can't, can't. We
Speaker 1: gotta raise the death It's the same damn way focus,
Speaker 1: the same damn procedure, it's the same strategicy, it's the
Speaker 1: same promise of calamity apocalypse, and it's not true. There
Speaker 1: is not imminent disaster on the other side of failing
Speaker 1: to raise the dead limit. You see, what's guiding all
Speaker 1: this is that which I believe is our biggest, single
Speaker 1: problem too well, and that's hard to really categorize. But
Speaker 1: if it's not the single biggest problems very close, and
Speaker 1: that is the notion that not one meaningful thing in
Speaker 1: this country can happen unless the government is involved in it.
Speaker 1: That's destroying us. The notion that kids can't eat, that
Speaker 1: people can't learn, that products can't be manufactured, that services
Speaker 1: can't be performed, nothing, nothing can happen unless government is
Speaker 1: open and actively involved in it. And folks that that
Speaker 1: whole premise is fallacious, and yet it is destroying us.
Speaker 1: What would happen if we don't raise the net sailing? Well,
Speaker 1: we couldn't borrow any more money. It's a good thing, right.
Speaker 1: If the United States government were a person or a family,
Speaker 1: would anybody loan them any money? Nope, just the sharks,
Speaker 1: just the predatory lenders out there. Wouldn't that force the
Speaker 1: government to find and make some real cuts, set some
Speaker 1: priorities if it couldn't borrow any money. Yeah, we keep
Speaker 1: hearing that government like family. Family sits around a kitchen table,
Speaker 1: although I don't think families do that much anymore. Family
Speaker 1: sit around a kitchen table, they pour over the monthly bills. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can just see that, mom, dad, the two point
Speaker 1: eight kids, and family dogs poring over the family. You
Speaker 1: do that with your daughter's down. You sit down and
Speaker 1: go over the bills with your daughters. I didn't think so. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: the college bills, but I mean the whole No, you
Speaker 1: don't at any rate. What would be so bad for
Speaker 1: the federal government couldn't borrow any money? Uh see, this
Speaker 1: is my whole point. We are falling for this. It
Speaker 1: would destroy the confidence and that there isn't you know,
Speaker 1: the fastest way to destroy confidence in the United States
Speaker 1: is to have Obama succeed and everything he wants to do,
Speaker 1: we're gonna become a laughing stock. Well, Obama wants to
Speaker 1: take this country is precisely to where it has no
Speaker 1: respect around the country and around the world because it
Speaker 1: isn't any special. But we've been there, said that, done that.
Speaker 1: This whole notion here that any time the ruling class
Speaker 1: in Washington desperately wants something, the same tactic is employed.
Speaker 1: If they don't get it, it is the apocalypse. It
Speaker 1: is an utter, unthinkable disaster. And in none of these
Speaker 1: cases has that been true. As it turns out, as
Speaker 1: I say, they're still tarp money that hadn't been spent.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, there's still stimulus money that hasn't been spent. Hell, folks, Heck,
Speaker 1: for those of you offended by hell, some of the
Speaker 1: thirty eight and a half billion dollars in the budget
Speaker 1: cuts is simply money that hasn't been spent yet from
Speaker 1: previous budgets. It's not new cuts, it's all kinds of
Speaker 1: money that hasn't been spent. Let's look at this realistic.
Speaker 1: You mean to tell me that this government cannot get
Speaker 1: along on a measly fourteen point three trillion dollars We
Speaker 1: got a budget of three point seven three point nine trillant.
Speaker 1: We can't get by on that. This is absurd. We've
Speaker 1: lost all perspective, We've we've lost all connection to rehable here.
Speaker 1: A real debt limit seems to me to be exactly
Speaker 1: what we need here. And you know what, I think
Speaker 1: the rest of the world would actually be happy that
Speaker 1: we are beginning to act like adults for once where
Speaker 1: our debt is concerned. Look at the I m F.
Speaker 1: Not particularly fond of the I m F, but let's
Speaker 1: look at them anyway. They and everybody else telling us
Speaker 1: that we need to get our house in order, Well,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be a real cap on our borrowing be
Speaker 1: a big important first step to getting our house in order? Right? Folks?
Speaker 1: Might we've got to resist this. We have to resist
Speaker 1: that there's a disaster in the next twenty four hours,
Speaker 1: there's a disaster in the next month. The disaster is
Speaker 1: in the Oval office. The disaster is going to be
Speaker 1: making a speech here in about seven and a half minutes.
Speaker 1: The disaster is going to be making a campaign speech
Speaker 1: on winning the future with tax increases. Let me grab
Speaker 1: a quick phone call here with Hendersonville, North Carolina High Kurt.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you called. Welcome to the program, Rush. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking my call, and my question is regarding
Speaker 1: the death celling. But before I asked that, I just
Speaker 1: want to compliment and thank you for um you educating
Speaker 1: us and for keeping us informed. It's very difficult for
Speaker 1: the average barn animal to to weed through the maze
Speaker 1: of misinformation, and I appreciate it. Appreciate very much farm
Speaker 1: animals due to well, the question I have for you is,
Speaker 1: just before I actually clicked on your pro rahm on
Speaker 1: the news, I saw that that there are some congressmen
Speaker 1: senators that were saying, in essence, we are not going
Speaker 1: to up the debt limit until we vote or until
Speaker 1: we get a handle, until we and there is a
Speaker 1: bipartisan consensus that we must um agree to spending um
Speaker 1: that will be responsible and and so and so forth. Well,
Speaker 1: if that happens, then why why do we need to
Speaker 1: increase the debt limit? If if those things have been accomplished.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not a rhetorical question. I'm matching. I'm
Speaker 1: really serious. I don't understand if they've already pre agreed that,
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna you know, we've come. We realize
Speaker 1: that we we can't spend more than we're taking in Dadada,
Speaker 1: but we still need to increase the debt limit. What
Speaker 1: am I missing? What you're missing is yeah, what you're
Speaker 1: missing is it. I don't know what you think you heard,
Speaker 1: But nobody has agreed to stop spending, and nobody has
Speaker 1: agreed to spend anything less than what we're spending now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you think you heard. If you
Speaker 1: did hear, that they're lying to you. Let's return to
Speaker 1: the audio. Sunbite this this morning, this morning in Washington,
Speaker 1: Airic Cantor, the majority leader for the Republicans in the House.
Speaker 1: Sis speech is coming a full two months after the
Speaker 1: president's original budget proposal and speech to the nation of
Speaker 1: the State of the Union. You know this is vintage Obama.
Speaker 1: He's been standing on the sidelines expecting the rest of
Speaker 1: us to make the tough decisions to lead this country. Yep,
Speaker 1: that's what he does. Sits around that other people do, it,
Speaker 1: comes in a thing into the day, and takes credit
Speaker 1: for it if he thinks there is credit to be taken. Now,
Speaker 1: there was a a p story and we quoted from
Speaker 1: it widely yesterday, but there was this little nugget buried
Speaker 1: in their Treasury Department reported Tuesday that the deficit already
Speaker 1: totals eight hundred and twenty nine point four billion dollars
Speaker 1: through the first six months of the budget year, a
Speaker 1: figure that until two thousand nine would have been the
Speaker 1: biggest ever for an entire year. For March alone, the
Speaker 1: government ran a deficit of a hundred and eighty eight
Speaker 1: billion dollars. The George W. Bush annual deficit in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. I think two thousand five was a
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty some odd billion. Oh. I know, they
Speaker 1: were howling like a bunch of werewolves in a long
Speaker 1: Chaeney movie. They were just how are they trying to
Speaker 1: create the notion of a of an economic collapse? Uh? Unemployment.
Speaker 1: Unemployment was around five percent to so in one month,
Speaker 1: Obama has given us a budget deficit larger than Bush's
Speaker 1: annual budget deficit. That is an astonishing fact. That staggering.
Speaker 1: The amount of depth that's been piled up just since
Speaker 1: Obama was immaculated, doubly so at the a P would
Speaker 1: print it there for one at all to see. That
Speaker 1: was kind of buried. As I say, it took highly
Speaker 1: trained broadcast specialist talents and I as the spot it.
Speaker 1: And if there was a Republican in the White House,
Speaker 1: it would have been the top news story of the week.
Speaker 1: Paul Ryan was on with George Stephanopolos Good Morning America Today.
Speaker 1: Stephanopolis question, do you accept what Secretary Geitner says that
Speaker 1: it will be a financial catastrophe if the debt limit
Speaker 1: is not extended. Default is not our option or strategy.
Speaker 1: But we also want to make sure that as this
Speaker 1: debt limit increases, which is based on past spending, we
Speaker 1: get something in place to address with future spending, spending,
Speaker 1: cut spending. Possibly you will still vote to make sure
Speaker 1: the country doesn't go into defall. Now I think it
Speaker 1: is possible. I don't. I don't accept that premise of
Speaker 1: that question, which is, we need to have real spending cuts,
Speaker 1: real spending controls in combination with the debt limiting increase.
Speaker 1: And I don't accept a notion that that's not possible.
Speaker 1: I think it. Yeah, that's great, going Paul Ryan the question,
Speaker 1: so you'll you'll vote to make sure the country doesn't
Speaker 1: go to the fault, right, I'm not what is it
Speaker 1: priv going to default? We're not going to go into default,
Speaker 1: just like we weren't going to destroy the world's financial
Speaker 1: system last October two. Why wouldn't we go into default?
Speaker 1: Why should we go into default? You see how it's
Speaker 1: easy it is for these themes to attach themselves to
Speaker 1: everybody and just be accepted. Chuck Schumer yesterday in Washington
Speaker 1: on the Senate floor, the Ryan budget has all the
Speaker 1: wrong priorities. The House Republican budget puts the entire burden
Speaker 1: of reducing the deficit on senior citizens, students, and middle
Speaker 1: class families. At the same time, it protects corporate subsidies
Speaker 1: for oil companies let's waste it, the Pentagon go untouched,
Speaker 1: and would give even more tax breaks to the millionaires
Speaker 1: amongst us. In short, the Ryan budget puts the middle
Speaker 1: class last instead of first. As a result, it will
Speaker 1: never pass the Senate. And you have Senator Chuck you
Speaker 1: Schumer in New York knocking down the the Paul Ryan budget,
Speaker 1: which will be the focal point because the debt ceiling. Apparently,
Speaker 1: if you're just joining us, the Republicans have decided that
Speaker 1: they're not going to try to take the hill on
Speaker 1: the debt ceiling five now it's too iffy. Uh, We're
Speaker 1: going to be We're going to really focus on the
Speaker 1: Ryan budget. That's that's where we are at the at
Speaker 1: the latest. Mike and Columbia, South Carolina Hiser, welcome to
Speaker 1: the program. R Rush Dittos for all you do. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: If if the death ceiling increases so important to Obama
Speaker 1: and to the nation as he would put it, and
Speaker 1: if the Ryan plan is so important to the GOP
Speaker 1: as I think it is, why cannot why does not
Speaker 1: the GOP make the deal? You want the death ceiling increase? Fine,
Speaker 1: here's here's Ryan. Here, here's Ryan's budget. It's a Twofer
Speaker 1: deal in a sense. You need this so bad, that's great.
Speaker 1: We're going to ensure that the cap that we put
Speaker 1: in place in this new ceiling is adhere to three
Speaker 1: Ryan's budget. Okay, let me ask you a quick comment
Speaker 1: question in all candor, what makes you think? What have
Speaker 1: you seen lately? It makes you think the Democrats want
Speaker 1: to compromise with the Republicans. I don't think they do,
Speaker 1: but I think they have to the death ceiling. They're
Speaker 1: portraying and the media is portraying as having their backs
Speaker 1: against the wall. The nation is at risk. But the
Speaker 1: Republicans are already out there today saying, you know, we're
Speaker 1: not We're not gonna find him on the death ceiling.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna find it. We're gonna We're gonna focus
Speaker 1: on the Ryan budget. Now, there's too much at stake here.
Speaker 1: We can't afford the US default. The Republican leaders are
Speaker 1: are are using the same words that the Democrats are
Speaker 1: in talking about the danger here in in uh, you know,
Speaker 1: not raising the depstities. I think the Republicans have already
Speaker 1: caved on it. I don't think we've heard it from
Speaker 1: a more officially. So let's give him a chance. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see