Tuesday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh said President Donald Trump’s agenda was being roadblocked by Republicans and pointed remarks from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arguing the difficulties of passing legislation as the reason.
Transcript as follows:
I don’t understand how people don’t get that it’s not just the Democrats in Washington that are roadblocking Trump. I mentioned it earlier.
Mitch McConnell says he can’t see a way to getting 50 votes for the House Obamacare repeal bill? Now, stop and think here, folks. Back when the only element that we had was the House of Representatives and Republican voters were constantly saying, “Why aren’t you doing more to stop Obama? Why aren’t you trying to do something to stop Obamacare?” The answer was always, “Well, all we’ve got is the House. W-w-we can’t get anything through the Senate because the Democrats own the Senate. Obama’s in the White House! He’ll veto anything if it did make it there.”
So voters gave Republicans the Senate, and Mitch McConnell said, “Well, the first thing you have to know is it takes 60 votes to do anything in the Senate, and we don’t have 60 votes. We only have 52.” And then he would add, “Plus, as long as Obama’s still in the White House, all this is academic anyway. He’s gonna veto whatever we pass.” So we gave the Republicans the White House and elected Trump. Now the latest story… There’s a Wall Street Journal story. You know, I had this sort of cram last night after getting back from being away two days.
I saw a Wall Street Journal story about how the Republicans in the House, they just can’t! It’s just impossible. They’re pulling their hair out. They don’t know what to do. They just can’t find a way to cut any taxes. Because every time they cut a tax over here, they have to find a way to make the money up over there, and they just can’t. They’re looking at all these various tax cuts proposals and they said, “I — I — I don’t know how we’re gonna pay for all this.”
So the Republican Party, which is ostensibly the party of the president — and they owe their majority to him, particularly the Senate — are roadblocking Donald Trump more than the Democrats are, because the Democrats cannot. The Democrats don’t have the votes in the House to stop Trump. The Democrats don’t have the votes in the Senate to stop Trump, although there is the 60-vote cloture requirement. It’s not the Democrats standing up and saying, “We are not gonna help. We’re gonna stand in the way of any foolish tax cut you propose.”
It’s the Republicans standing up and saying, “I just don’t see how we’re — there’s no room here. I don’t know how we’re gonna lower rates when you have this exemption over here and you have this exemption there.” And I just read this stuff and I shake my head. They don’t want to cut taxes. Either they don’t want to cut taxes institutionally, they don’t want to cut taxes economically, or they just don’t want to do the heavy lifting. I don’t know what it is. My guess is they don’t want to help Trump.
Now, you would think Trump figures this out, but he doesn’t give any evidence of it. Like he tweeted something: “U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes immediately and get health care and tax cuts approved fast and easy. Democrats would do it no doubt.” He’s talking about getting rid of the 60-vote requirement to shut off debate and just go to simple majority on every bill. Does he know that it’s the Republicans that are the roadblock here? He has to know, and certainly if he’s got people around him who know.
Now, I could understand if he doesn’t want to go public and start an internecine battle between the White House and the Republicans on Capitol Hill, you know, keep that for back channels and behind the scenes. The Wall Street Journal had a picture of the chairman of Ways and Means Committee and Paul Ryan standing there and all these guys and the headline: “Republicans Find Yet Another Way to Cut Taxes on the Rich.”
They just don’t see how they can do it. It’s incredible. It really is incredible. Because, of course, there’s a way. They just don’t want to do it. I think it’s all establishment, all the time anti-Trump, throw the media in there as well. But even in the middle of this I can tell you almost assuredly that Trump is not off his game. He’s not despondent. He’s not sitting there worried about why all these people hate him. He’s not worried about all that. He’s just head down and moving ahead full speed as he can, not reacting or responding to all this stuff in the media, except when he tweets.
That’s another thing. Everybody’s telling him to stop tweeting, and haven’t you seen stories over the weekend of people succeeding. He had a monsoon of tweets yesterday and today. It doesn’t look like he stopped tweeting to me.
(h/t Daily Rushbo)
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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