by Rush Limbaugh in the Limbaugh Letter, September 2017
"Believe me, if we have to close down our government, we're building that wall." -- President Trump, Phoenix rally, 8/22/17
"Ryan Warns Trump Not To Shut Down Government Over Border Security Funding." -- CNN, 8/23/17
"There is zero chance -- no chance -- we won't raise the debt ceiling. No chance." -- Mitch McConnell, CNBC, 8/21/17
The swamp is circling the wagons. Republicans are trying to paralyze President Trump into inaction. Republicans are using every available tactic to prevent the Republican President from advancing his agenda.
It is indisputable: too many elected Republicans are loyal to the Washington establishment -- instead of to Republicans principles, or to you. They're clearly not afraid of voters. What voices are they heeding, instead of those from their own states and districts?
Here's a little item from Fox News Research. In 1986, $61 million was spent lobbying Congress, averaging $113,700 per lawmaker. In 2016, a whopping $3.1 billion was spent lobbying Congress, averaging $5.8 million per lawmaker. I'll just leave that there.
Throughout my career I've pooh-poohed callers who insisted, "Rush, there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two Parties." I always told them there's a huge distinction, at least ideologically and structurally. And there is -- if the Republicans practice fealty to their agenda, to their beliefs, to their principles.
But if the interests of the Washington establishment take precedence over the interests of the voters, it won't matter what the Party's principles are. That's what we're facing. The Republicans are, sadly, stalling the Trump agenda -- by slow-walking legislation and confirmations. The last thing establishment types want is an outsider like Trump to succeed. The large Never-Trumper contingent amongst the elected Republicans is contributing to the biggest blown opportunity in politics in my lifetime.
Exhibit A: the absurd inability to do anything about Obamacare. Exhibit B: Fox Business News headline: "Tax Reform Timeline in Doubt." Health care timeline in doubt, border wall timeline in doubt, infrastructure timeline in doubt. Whatever the agenda item, the news is always the same: The Republican Party just can't find a way to get it through. Name the issue, and the timeline just isn't working out for some reason. Listen to this gobbledygook from the GOP leadership:
"Everybody's saying, 'You've been there and haven't done anything,' which I find extremely irritating, and I'm gonna tell you why. A Congress goes on for two years, and part of the reason I think that the storyline is that we haven't done much is because in part the President and others have set these early timelines about things to be done by a certain point. Now our new President has, of course, not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process." -- Mitch McConnell, to Florence, KY Rotary Club, ABC News, 8/8/17
I don't think anyone's interested in having a shutdown. I don't think it's in our interests to do so while we work on doing what we actually said we would do, what we've done already in the House and we need to do ... The fact is though, given the time of year it is and the rest of the appropriations we have to do, we're going to need more time to complete our appropriations process..." -- Paul Ryan, at Politico, 8/23/17
Did you get all of that? Nothing can get done due to the hallowed, esteemed, complex "process".
Nope. They aren't getting it done because they don't want to do it. Period.
This really is an attempt at voter nullification. The powers that be in Washington are simply saying, "(Raspberry) you. We don't like who you voted for. Screw the Constitution -- we're going to do everything we can to get rid of him. And if we can't get rid of him, we'll paralyze him, thwarting what you wanted him to do."
And everyone knows what that is. There hasn't been a President since Reagan with a greater mandate than Donald Trump.
During the campaign, he spelled it out multiple times a day. He won precisely because of the agenda items he kept pounding: build the wall, get rid of illegal immigration, keep terrorists out, stop the outflow of U.S. companies, repeal and replace Obamacare, enact tax reform, rebuild America's infrastructure, fix trade deals, bring back manufacturing, rebuild the military, bomb the sh** out of ISIS. Make America great again, in every way.
These are specific reasons why President Trump was elected, not all of them exclusively conservative. Which is why Trump's coalition has been tagged as "populist" or "nationalist". But here's the thing: the glue that keeps the Trump coalition together is really anti-liberalism. People in this country are absolutely fed up with the Democrat Party, with the left, on fiscal, cultural, and social issues. They're fed up with the media, academia, Hollywood. They are fed up with every outward sign of liberalism. It's glorious!
The Democrat Party is seen by more and more people as a bullying Big-Government brute. Democrat policies aren't working for people -- they fail, every time they're tried. That's what the Republicans are missing! They're blowing the greatest chance imaginable to deal liberalism a lethal blow electorally, to reduce Democrats to a weak, hollowed-out shadow of their former status for a generation.
But whether Republicans abdicate or not, this battle against the left must be joined anyway. President Trump will have to move the agenda himself. He has a golden opportunity to smoke these people! Because they continue to underestimate him, Trump could own his opposition -- in both Parties.
Here's how, Mr. President. You become the President of the economy. President of tax cuts. President of jobs. President of the border. You laser focus on getting the GDP up three, four, even five percent. You do that, Mr. President, and your opponents can nip at your heels like a bunch of Chihuahuas all day long and it won't matter.
Get the American people behind you, and remind everyone who's standing in the way. If that means you have to get up to speed on every line in every piece of legislation to sell it to the American people in appearance after appearance, then that's what it takes. If it requires you to do the heavy lifting, so be it. Because there's nobody better at being Trump than Trump.
That's the elixir. Once the agenda moves and accomplishments line up, all this senseless sabotage will be seen for what it is: corrupt political maneuvering. Then you'll see panic on the left like you've never seen before. It would be another nail in the Democrat Party coffin, and a big shovelful of dirt on the grave.
Ram that agenda through, Mr. President -- and there's nothing they can do. That's The Art of the Deal we're waiting to see.