Rush: Trade Secrecy Shows ‘Donors Are Running the Game Here’

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh argued that the secrecy of various trade deals shows “donors are running the game here” on Tuesday.

Rush said that what the procedure around deals such as TPP “demonstrates is that the group of people that matters to members of Congress are their donors right now. On issue after issue after issue, the voters’ purpose is to show up on Election Day, and then never to be heard from for the next two years and then two years after that. It’s clear that donors are running the game here, and I mean, there’s so much in this trade deal that doesn’t make any sense. Democrats abandoning Obama, the Republicans bailing him out. Nobody can see what’s in this. Even members of Congress, have to go to a secret, private room in the basement, and they’re not allowed — they can take notes, but they can’t leave the room with the notes. … They can’t take any pictures, can’t tell anybody what they’ve seen. This — when you hear that, the word ‘American’ doesn’t even get close to crossing your mind when you hear about this process.”

He added, “Look, on the fast-track, there’s one thing about fast-track, generally — there’s two things, generally. Just as — for general purposes, there’s nothing wrong with free trade, and I know that some people fair trade about that. Generally, there’s nothing wrong with it, and fast-track is okay. If — in normal circumstances, because you have a treaty on I don’t care what it is, by the time 535 people want to get their fingerprints on it, you’ve got a mess. So fast-tracking it, in a general sense, I understand that, too. But when you add the ingredients that we also know about, A, Obama and who he is, what he is, and what his overall objectives might be, then the secrecy, and then the apparent selling of our of their voters of the Republicans, then, of course, you’ve got red flags all over the place where your general beliefs are now thrown into question, such as the general belief that fair trade’s good.”

Later Rush stated, “I mean, Jeff Sessions has been trying to warn everybody about this, but we’re forced to ask a question. The first question is, ‘How many people around the country actually know the procedure that’s taken place here? There hasn’t — there hasn’t been a lack of effort. I mean, you’ve had elected officials from Ted Cruz, to Sessions, to any number of people who have been — some of them, presidential candidates out there talking about this secretive process doesn’t seem to have irritated very many people.”

He concluded, “There’s so much of this stuff that…you wonder how much emotion people have left in their reservoir to even be angry about it. Because since Obama took office, every day, or seeming every week has seen a new outrage, and people have — I mean, the Tea Party came in to existence because of the out-of-control debt and spending and Obamacare. But that’s just one thing. … The debacle that is the Arab Spring. Obama’s mess in foreign policy. Every week there has been something new to get outraged over, and I think now into year seven, I wonder how much emotion people have left to be outraged over and how much resignation has just sunk in.”

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