Via the County Fair, this:
Apparently the GOP (or at least Rush), wants Rush Limbaugh to be the voice of the GOP, as he is proposing “his” stimulus package on the pages of the WSJ:
Yes, elections have consequences. But where’s the bipartisanship, Mr. Obama? This does not have to be a divisive issue. My proposal is a genuine compromise.
Fifty-three percent of American voters voted for Barack Obama; 46% voted for John McCain, and 1% voted for wackos. Give that 1% to President Obama. Let’s say the vote was 54% to 46%. As a way to bring the country together and at the same time determine the most effective way to deal with recessions, under the Obama-Limbaugh Stimulus Plan of 2009: 54% of the $900 billion — $486 billion — will be spent on infrastructure and pork as defined by Mr. Obama and the Democrats; 46% — $414 billion — will be directed toward tax cuts, as determined by me.
To put this into perspective, imagine the reaction if Rhandi Rhodes was penning editorials in the NY Times dictating the course of policy for the Democrats, and the Democrats were embracing her pearls of wisdom. I can’t believe the Republicans are going to gamble their future like this, but then again, nothing they do surprises me. And, in fairness, considering I voted for Bush twice, I am not really in any position to say the country won’t be stupid enough to fall for this. I am living breathing proof that yes, we are that dumb.
BTW- the best part of the Limbaugh stimulus is that he supports a 900 billion dollar stimulus, so I expect that means he will shut up about the size and cost of the bill, as it is clear that he doesn’t care that it costs that much, but what bothers him is that his share isn’t big enough.
Laura W
(as he he)
Thanks for making me feel useful.
El Cid
Yes, absolutely, because the entire period 2001-2006 just never fucking happened, it was a time in which Republicans humbly reached out to include Democratic perspectives, and even from the beginning of 2003 to the end of 2006 when Republicans had an absolute majority of all branches of government they never once acted like arrogant dismissive dickheads pursuing crazy shitty Republican right wing freak policies because we have no god-damn memory and whatever they want us to think has happened is what happened.
dmsilev
I would argue that given the existence of Sarah Palin, we really should assign half the GOP share to "voted for wackos", and give that share to Obama as well. Thus, we have 77% for Obama and 23% for Rush’s tax cuts.
Perhaps by coincidence, that bears a close resemblance to the actual proportions of the bill.
-dms
zzyzx
We should do this in the same way that we got 51% of the judges to be liberals between 2000 and 2004.
The Moar You Know
You’d better go ahead and delete that "Peak Wingnut" post now, John. This…surprised me. I thought I was incapable of being shocked by these guys, but once again they have topped anything I thought they were capable of.
Looks like it’s gonna be Limbaugh/Palin 2012.
Gus
Hmmm. In 2004, a 50.74% to 48.27% victory was an unquestionable mandate allowing President Bush to do whatever the fuck he wanted. Interesting how things change.
cleek
the Daily Show will make nice use of this, i’m sure.
DIAF, you odious bloated douchebag.
Napoleon
Heilemann makes exactly the point I was attempting to make in the earlier thread this morn. The Dems for years should have been trying to tie the Republicans to the extremist elements of their supporters, chief among them Rush.
Herb
Surely this is a joke. Rush Limbaugh urging us to "set politics aside" and "stop the acrimony?"
This is the same Rush who dreamt of riots in Denver, right?
Michael D.
I really have to agree with Tim’s post yesterday.
Fuck ’em.
With respect to this bill, it’s time the Democrats TOTALLY shut out the Republicans and DWTFTW.
dmsilev
OT: Erick The RedState rallies the troops (via an Action Email):
Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech, it is not.
-dms
Zifnab
I call bullshit. If Rush Limbaugh actually penned this, I will eat my shirt.
blogenfreude
No doubt he wants tax breaks for his expenditures on Viagra, hillbilly heroin, and teenage hookers.
How far the WSJ opinion page has fallen (and it was pretty low to begin with).
gex
@Herb: And roots for this presidency to fail.
vishnu schizt
What a great idea, I say we go for it. Except to earn your tax cuts you have to agree to be waterboarded, then will be isssued a rifle and a parachute then be shoved out of a plane over Baghdad. You can have your tax cut and a lifetime supply of hillbilly heroin when you "win" the war on terra. Gotta stick to your principles you know. Good luck to you…..
Rommie
And I thought Rush wanted ObamaFail – so doesn’t that make any "advice" automatically poisonous?
I got to watch every game of 0-16 – and if Matt Moron Millen started to offer advice on "The Detroit Lions’ way to winning football" Sunday Keith-O would lead 5 minutes of non-stop laughter. Any ideas offered by Rush should get the same treatment, not reverence. Feh.
Scott
I’m moderately impressed that Limbaugh insists that he’ll be the one to determine where the tax cuts go. I guess he really is in charge now…
KCinDC
Hell, in 2000, a 47.87% to 48.38% loss was an unquestionable mandate — 48.88% to 51.11% if we give the Nader voters to Gore and Buchanan and the other wackos to Bush.
Kathy
In somewhat sad but related news, Culture 11 has closed shop. While I disagreed with much they said, I appreciated that it was said in a civil way. I used to be a Repub. If that party wants college educated people to listen, they should stop insulting them. Culture 11 got that, sadly the Repub party lead by El Rushbo never will.
Onkel Fritze
I fondly remember how Bush gave the EPA to Gore, since, after all, it was 50-50.
Reverend Dennis
The Republicans are only being consistent here. Their love of outsourcing has led them to outsource their thinking to Rush Limbaugh.
Bob
I sooo wish I was a Balloon Juice reader back when you had the transformation. I need to read some back posts to witness the epiphany.
Michael D.
My fellow Americans:
A few days ago, I went to Capitol Hill to meet with the Republican leadership to get their input on the massive economic stimulus package we’re about to approve. We worked very hard, we compromised, and I added a few of their suggestions.
As you have seen, even though we made compromises in this massive bill to garner support from our Republican members of Congress, every one of them voted against it – mostly because there is money for prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and because there is no tax cut for their wealthy friends.
Therefore, I intend to veto this bill, remove every one of these “compromises” and just go with what I originally wanted.
The time of a president is very valuable. There are a lot of things going on in the world and in America that demand my attention. Three hours is a long time when you’re president. I spent three hours on Capitol Hill with Republicans – adding and subtracting things to this bill in the hope that they would support it. We worked hard for this compromise. Not one House Republican supported this bill. It turns out, they had no intention of EVER supporting the bill. Their goal was simply this – the failure of this bill. So, I ask you: What was the point?
As such, I am not going to waste one more minute of my time on these people.
America, I know I promised you that I would be bi-partisan and be President for ALL of America. But that only works when the other side is a willing partner. Yesterday, every Republican in the House showed that they were not willing to do that. Not only that, but they wasted the country’s time pretending to work in a spirit of bi-partisanship while, all along, knowing that they never would vote for a bill that included many of the things they asked for.
Going forward, I will no longer waste your time and my time by meeting with Republicans unless there is a very important reason to do so. If they are willing to work on bills in a bi-partisan way, I will now require, before any meeting, a list of what they want added or deleted, along with signatures of support for the bill should those compromises be taken into consideration. That way, when the bill passes or fails, America will know who promised to support a bill and did not. It will show America who is willing to work to better this country and who is not. I realize this sounds very “grade school” but it’s the way things will work going forward. Again, you didn’t elect me to engage in futile efforts. You elected me to get work done. Spending hours on Capitol Hill with people who have no intention of accomplishing anything during that meeting is futile, and I will no longer do it.
We’ve worked too hard on this massive bill, and I have put a lot of time into addressing Republican concerns to get their support – even adding things to the bill that I disagreed with – all to no avail.
It’s time to stop wasting our time as a nation. It’s time to get to work. Democrats are willing to make the tough choices. It is obvious from the past few days that Republicans have no intention to work together with Democrats. Now that we know this, we won’t waste our time trying.
From now on, we’ll write bills and put them before the House and Senate for up or down votes.
If any reasonable Republican wants to work with us, we’d love that, and we will listen to him or her and make changes that are reasonable, well thought out, and agreeable to both sides. Not only that, but we will openly acknowledge the work that our Republican friends put into bettering America by working together so that you will know who cares about getting things done. However, if we do not find those Republican allies, then we will move forward, doing the work that the American people elected us to do.
Thank you
President Barack Obama
Laura W
@dmsilev:
Wow. I so wish he’d used "pissing into the wind", but that’s just me.
The other day R-Jud and I were waxing orgasmic about how seductive the proper use of words and language can be for "some of us".
As I read your choice selections of his banal prose, the corners of my mouth started turning up in revulsion, all by themselves.
He is my idea of an anti-aphrodisiac.
Napoleon
By the way, speaking of splitting things, I forget where I saw this this morning so don’t have a link, but remember that story from the last couple of weeks where the Republicans in Tenn. won a majority of the state house but when it came time to organize the Dems managed to vote in a moderate Rep as speaker. What I read this morning was that it was tradition that in Tenn chairs of committees were splip between the parties based on the membership of the chamber. So all these years the Dems were cutting the Rep in for part of the leadership. The hard core right wing bozo that the Reps were ready to make speaker said he was going to end that and that all of the chairs were now going to be Republicans, and that is what set off the moderate Republican to go along with the Dems plans.
JGabriel
Rush Limbaugh’s Compromise:
O-kaaayyy.
54% voted for Obama, so he gets to spend 54%. And 46% voted for McCain, so Rush Limbaugh gets to spend…
Who the fuck voted for Rush Limbaugh?
Here’s a better compromise: Rush gets to decide spending priority for the exact percentage as the percentage of people who voted for him.
.
Redhand
My only point of order with your post is that you didn’t include it in the "Assholes" category.
Media Browski
@Bob: anyone know when John’s conversion began?
I find this whole Obama v. Rush drama to be the height of political strategery gone weird: Obama dared the GOP to go hard right, to run against the will of the people, and by god they are. And the fat drug addict shall lead them!
tinat
Why can’t I get over the feeling that tax cuts are just giving you a fish, not teaching you to fish?
(It’s been years since catholic school, but you get the gist;)
How do tax cuts help the un, or underemployed Americans?
John Cole
@Bob: Abu Gharaib and Terri Schiavo.
Fulcanelli
Eisenhower-era top tax rates were, what, over 90%? That financed the interstate highway system, the race to the moon, the Vietnam war on the other side of the world and a level of prosperity for the middle class we’ve not seen since. And the wealthy still lived pretty high on the hog as they should have, no?
Am I the only one who is tired of the bait-and-switch corporate tax rate double-speak? Look at the effective tax rate.
Eliminate the 10,000 different forms of corporate welfare and the offshore tax havens, and cut the corporate and capital gains tax rate in half and save billions on legal and accounting costs in both the business world and in the IRS.
1) I’d bet my left one you’d balance the budget within a year or two.
2) Businesses would prosper, the middle class would grow and prosper and they’d finally shut up.
3) You’d have something vaguely resembling a free market, as compared to what we have now.
I think Obama may have a form of political jiu-jitsu not seen before.
Mike from DC
However, do y’all think it wise for Obama to elevate Rush like he did (referencing him in the meeting with the Republicans)? I initially thought it a misstep because the best way to defang Rush would be to ridicule him (statements like "Is he still on the air? Who’s naive enough to listen to him?" It’s not like his listeners would vote for Obama, so it’s not like he’s insulting a possible constituency.) But, on later reflection, it does appear that his comment got the Republicans to circle the wagons around him, and in doing so, the republicans are now more identified with him and they’re even more right wing, making their views even more extreme and unpopular.
ksmiami
Tax cuts do not create a single job. Now if they want to seriously reform the tax code and the FUBARd banking industry that is something worthwhile, but tax cuts and borrowing don’t build anything. Also, is it just me or is the state of US infrastructure in the shitter or what? Rush is a big fat idiot and the house Repubs are bigger idiots for folowing the trogoldytes that listen to Rush
Laura W
@Michael D.: Do you mind if I use this is its entirety on my cats’ blog? (linked above) With any attribution you’d like. I have the perfect photoshopped accompaniment. While the blog has been "relatively" politics-free, it’s starting to drift. Even my cats are community organizing.
jackie
Am I the only one getting a weird flashback to the fall campaign?
One side was angry, nonsensical and sounded a bit crazy, one side was reasonable and smart and sounded a bit too hopeful
I admit to PTSD from the last 8 years and a loss of faith in my fellow americans. 28 % are obviously a lost cause. But when push came to shove most of the "I’m too damn busy to really pay attention crowd" took in the gestalt and knew who they wanted to spend 4 years with. They may be a little bigoted but they aren’t crazy. As long as D=Obama and R =congress and Rush I think 70% is enough for getting on with.
For the first time in my adult life I trust a politician to be both right and able to sell it. Know Hope Indeed.
jake 4 that 1
Fxd.
Michael D.
@Laura W: Sure. Attribute it to your cat! :-)
Tom
This is my favorite part. So, we’ll give both a placebo and medicine to one patient, and when they get better we’ll know which one works!
And the GOP is beholden to this brilliant mind. Makes my day.
kay
@Mike from DC:
I think Obama was just stating a fact. The Republicans then helpfully appeared on television groveling, to convince any doubters.
I knew Limbaugh was influential. I didn’t know the extent of his clout. Now I do. Listening to that House member calling the show made me cringe. That level of boot-licking makes me uncomfortable.
Tom
Also, Rush’s plan is Obama’s plan, except his plan has 46% for tax cuts, and Obama’s has 30% (apparently Obama had pushed for 40%, but the Dems balked at that).
Laura W
@Michael D.: Thanks, Michael!
She may give a bit of credit to her ghostwriter.
RememberNovember
Yet more FAIL from the RNC…better they had created an animatronic Reagan than have a shock-jock ( who is only looking for more face time) advise them on economic policy. The party I once belonged to has become the party of kowtow neocon stupid. You can’t fix it you can only burn it down, let it lie fallow and move to another field.
cleek
oh yes, definitely.
there is so much about Rush that can be used to tar the GOP by association. we can:
1. review the reason Rush isn’t doing football commentary anymore!
2. listen to his "I want Obama to fail" comments a few more times.
3. listen to the "Obama The Magic Negro" song which he so loves.
4. review all the other overtly racist, sexist, assholeish comments he’s made over the years.
5. review all the times he said the economy was "going great"
6. do an in-depth study of his past history of bi-partisanship.
there’s just so much there that can be used to show sane Americans just how perverse the modern GOP must be to be hitching their fate to the bloated drug abusing "worthless shred of human debris".
Ash Can
Wait, Limbaugh’s blather was published in the WSJ, and not just spewed in his radio-waves echo chamber?
OK, I can see this going on for a while — Limbaugh continues to assert his "authority" as "leader" of the Republican Party, demanding a meeting with Obama, supported in his grandstanding by the actual elected Republican officials. Gradually, the electorate at large figures out just who this Limbaugh guy is that they’ve heard about, but never really listened to, and sees that he’s just plain raving batshit crazy. Now keep in mind that our caustic but gracious host and many otherwise-intelligent people like him weren’t voting for Bush because he was bugfuck insane, they were doing it because the Republican PR machine was making the bugfuck insanity sound believable. Limbaugh doesn’t even do that. Hell, he doesn’t even have a pretty face to distract from the bugfuck craziness, like Sarah Palin does. So picture this: The general perception of the GOP being led by this frothing lunatic keeps growing — fueled, of course, by Limbaugh’s continued demands that Obama meet with him. It grows to the point where it’s considered common knowledge — in other words, the great unwashed electorate is actually aware of it. At this point Obama says to him, "Fine. Let’s talk. Is prime time TV OK with you?" They’d be sweeping up fragments of Limbaugh’s career as far away as Singapore.
This is, of course, unless Sarah and a gang of her PACers get to Limbaugh alone in a dark alley first.
Conservatively Liberal
@cleek:
cleek, you forgot his admitting that he was the
waterbutt boy for Chimpy.Let Rush bloviate all he wants. As people watch the economy drive off the cliff I am sure they will figure out who they need their representatives to look to for help.
It won’t be Rush, that’s for damn sure.
Napoleon
AWESOME!!
Pence defends Rush on MSNBC.
Laura W
@Michael D.:
kyooooooooooot!
Jeff
@jake 4 that 1 — Thanks, I don’t understand why John is picking on Randi, other than she’s the most "left-wing" radio person he can think of. But Randi doesn’t lie, she’s not a hypocrite or a racist; she’s just a loudmouthed Jew from Long Island (not that there’s anything wrong with it)…
Hell, even Ward Churchill doesn’t lie as much as Rush…
Comrade Darkness
@Michael D., you are making me cry.
Shalimar
Would anyone be surprised if the entire $414 billion in tax cuts, as determined by Rush, went to Limbaugh and his rich friends and not a penny went to the vast majority of his listeners? And the idiots would continue to follow him anyway?
Yes, it was a great idea for Obama to call out Limbaugh and make this a dispute between the two of them. More of this please, pretty much anyone who doesn’t still listen to Limbaugh considers him to be a clown. Making it clear to everyone that Rush can move the entire Republican party in lockstep whenever he wants can only help the country in the long run.
Damned at Random
When you look at the Republican presidential primaries (what a bunch of third-raters) and their Congressional leadership, its no suprise that Rush can pass himself off as a party intellectual. I don’t remember the dems ever being this intellectually bankrupt. Even in power, they (the Repubs) spent all their energy demonizing the opposition. I don’t know where that party goes from here – seriously. When I listen to the second string right wing radio they are still worshiping at the altar of Ronald Reagan. Their last original idea was invading Iraq. How long can they exist as a viable political entity under these circumstances?
skippy
to me it’s like pelosi and reid calling up jon stewart to ask how they should vote.
only w/stewart, you get actual laughs.
The Populist
I’d take advice from Randi Rhodes ANY DAY over that of the bloated, selfish windbag Limpbaugh. I think she is an acquired taste. I never used to like her but the more I would listen, the more she made sense on many things. Compared to the likes of Mike Malloy and Rosanne, Randi ain’t that bad.
brantl
I think it’s pretty fair to say that the wackos voted for McCain, not the other way around. Since when have the Republicans been willing to split an election, so why should the Democrats? Obama’s margin was twice what Bush’s was over Kerry, wasn’t it?
Nylund
I’d agree to Rush’s plan if we could ban any McCain voters from ever using any of the public goods that will benefit from the infrastructure project. If a highway gets fixed up, they can’t drive on it. If the electricity grid is upgraded, they lose access to it. If a new bridge is built, they can’t cross it…
But this gets to the heart of Rush’s plan. All the infrastructure stimulus bits will benefit EVERYONE, including Republicans. You cannot separate who gets to use public goods.
What Rush is saying is, "give us everything you are getting, and more. And, you pay for it all." Basically, they want to be welfare queens.
lysias
"1% voted for wackos."
I voted for Bob Barr. Who are you calling a wacko, Mr. Limbaugh?
alamacTHC
WHY THE UNKIND CUT?? I’d sure rather RANDI RHODES be writing (and enforcing) Dem policies than "Weak" Reid or Nancy Pelosi–not to mention the Bush Dogs who still contaminate and weaken the Party.
Our problem isn’t that we are "too" left. It’s the opposite–there are too many corporatists amongst us in Dem clothing. We don’t need compromise. We need Torches, Pitchforks & Lampposts.