So-Called COVID Relief Bill Marks End of the Trump Experiment
So-Called COVID Relief Bill Marks End of the Trump Experiment
December 22, 2020
RUSH: The media is full of BS fake news today. You probably heard there’s a COVID relief bill. Have you heard that Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) COVID relief bill. (interruption) Did you know about that, Brian? It’s a $900 billion COVID relief bill. But that’s not what this is. This is things don’t change. Congress did not pass a massive COVID relief bill.
They passed a massive giveaway to questionable socialist nations and sketchy Democrat Party constituencies. Georgia, part of the old Soviet Union, got millions of dollars for something that’s not even specified. Vietnam got $169 million. Egypt got $1.3 billion. Pakistan (or, as Obama says, Pok-ee-stahn) got millions of dollars for something to do with gender. I don’t know.
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont...rikes-Back.jpg
Are they in favor or opposed to it? Whatever, they got millions of dollars for it. Sri Lanka got $15 million to fix a boat. Not kidding: $15 million to repair a boat. Ukraine. Our old friends in Ukraine: $453 million. I guess that is so they can keep paying Hunter Biden and his dad. Why? $453 million to Ukraine. What this is, is classic income redistribution or money laundering.
Ukraine. It could well be. But guess what, folks? Restaurants and bars? Places where people meet and congregate, the hardest hit of our small businesses? I mean, this division of our economy is being wiped out — almost purposefully in blue states. Restaurants got nothing in the $900 billion COVID relief bill. But you know what? Chuck Schumer got relief, he got money for comedy clubs.
Do you know why? Jerry Seinfeld lobbied him. (interruption) You hadn’t heard that? Well, what are you reading? Jerry Seinfeld basically lobbied Chuck You Schumer. “Hey, the comedy clubs are being really hit hard here.” So Schumer threw in some money. I don’t know how much it is, but it’s a little bit of a tap. But the point is that the hardest hit of all of our small businesses in a COVID relief bill got zilch, zero, nada.
That’s restaurants and bars. The Kennedy Center for the arts and whatever else, $40 million. Meanwhile, Americans, $600 each. Now, if the COVID relief bill consisted only of giving each American $600 and they left it at that, then the cost of the COVID relief bill would have been $198 billion. But the COVID relief bill — which is 5,000 pages and which members of Congress didn’t read, which they never do read (nothing’s changed) — is $900 billion.
So $600 for every American would equal a $198 billion bill, yet this bill is more than $900 billion. Do the math. We’ve given away $700 billion to corrupt cronies, corrupt countries that are allies of the Democrat Party. It needs to be vetoed. Trump needs to veto it. I don’t know if he will. I don’t believe he will. But it needs to be vetoed. Now, the bill is being touted — and I can’t wait to get into this.
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont.../183060916.jpgThe bill is being touted as a major, major achievement in attacking climate change. I kid you not. They are bragging about how this bill is going to do so much for climate change. It’ll take me a little while to explain all this. I’ve got all the time in the world; I think you do too. Here’s this gender programs in Pakistan. “$15 million for democracy programs, $10 million for gender programs in Pakistan.”
Sri Lanka: “up to $15 million for the refurbishing of a high-endurance cutter.” It’s a patrol boat: $15 million to fix a boat, Mr. Snerdley — there it is — in Sri Lanka. “$505 million to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama to address key factors that contribute to the migration of unaccompanied, undocumented minors to the U.S.”
$505 million to these Central American countries to, quote, “address key factors that contribute to the migration.” So we’re gonna spend $505 million to study to find out why unaccompanied, undocumented minors come to the United States. We can tell ’em that today. I’ll do that for a hundred mill. I’ll cut ’em a break. I will tell ’em why undocumented, unaccompanied minors migrate to the United States for $100 million, not 505.
Let’s see here. What else. Yeah, there’s $453 million for assistance for Ukraine. There’s a tax break for racehorse owners. I wonder how that ended up in the bill? Meanwhile, you and I, we get 600 bucks. Oh, and they extended unemployment benefits for a few weeks and so forth. But see? Nothing changes when the establishment asserts control.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: One other thing in this bill. “Family members…” I kid you not on this. “Family members of illegal aliens are now able to get stimulus checks under this new bill. It’s retroactive, so they can also get the previous $1,200 given out” way back when. This is a tweet from Ryan Fournierat 10 a.m. this morning. “Family members of illegal aliens are now able to get stimulus checks…”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont...nier-Tweet.jpgYou know, let me reread that with proper emphasis on proper words. “Family members of illegal aliens,” it says here. “”Family members of illegal aliens are now able to get stimulus checks under this new bill. It’s retroactive, so they can also get the previous $1,200 given out.” So they’re gonna get $1800, the families of illegal aliens.
It seems that in every piece of legislation that comes down the pike that involves government grants to individuals, it seems like illegal aliens end up being at the top of the priority list, which should not surprise people who have been paying attention to me and people like me for the recent years. Now, back to the climate change aspect of the bill.
I like John Barrasso, folks. He’s the Republican senator from Wyoming. But this… He said, “Republicans and Democrats are working together to protect the environment through innovation.” That’s his comment on the COVID relief bill. “This historic agreement includes three separate pieces of legislation that will significantly reduce greenhouse gases.”
Meaning we’re gonna capture and store carbon dioxide produced by power and manufacturing plants. Why, this is the way Democrats talk! “We’re gonna authorize a 15-year reduction of hydrofluorocarbons that are used in everything from cars to air-conditioners that are considered a major driver of global warming and are being targeted worldwide,” and we have a Republican senator touting this in a COVID relief bill.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We got David in St. Louis. Welcome, sir. Great to have you. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. How are you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Just fine. Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Good. That’s good.
RUSH: How are you doing, David? How is it going with you?
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont...gressMOney.jpgCALLER: I’m just a little upset with… There’s not one politician, not one on either side of the aisle that’s willing to say what you did today. You know, the president should have a news conference where he goes up there and tells everybody about the ridiculous amount of money being spent everywhere besides our country.
RUSH: Hey, wait a minute. Wait a minute, now. I hear you on this. But we are now, because of COVID and all the spending… (Snort!) We’re $30 trillion or on the way there, $30 trillion in debt. It doesn’t matter anymore to these people. It literally doesn’t. There are no limits. It’s like debt is irrelevant. It isn’t a problem. We haven’t seen the economy crash from debt in our lifetimes, so why would it crash now?
So there are no guardrails. There’s no red light on spending. Whatever they need. So $900 billion? Now, they know that you’re sensitive to it. But the reason that they won’t tell you this is they may not know. (chuckles) They haven’t read it. It’s 5,000 pages, 5,000 pages to give every American 600 bucks. That’s not what the bill does — and look, folks, I’m not one of these budget hawks anymore because of what I just told you.
The idea that there is some kind of limit on federal spending for the sake of the economy, for choking off the private sector’s access to capital, these people — and you have to admit that it started this year. The Trump administration. There was literally no limit on the spending. COVID-19 came along, and we weren’t going to be hassled.
We’re not gonna have our hands tied by any budget limits. We had to do what we had to do to deal with this, and we got Operation Warp Speed, and we now have two vaccines out there. We also have bailed out the American people throughout the year. Not sufficiently, but we’ve done it. We’ve bailed out certain businesses, certain business sectors and so forth.
But the point is, we’re 30 trillion in debt. I remember when the Tea Party formed in 2010 because they were upset at the amount of spending in Obamacare, which was less (at least on paper) than a trillion. Look, I’m not trying to be a harbinger or a messenger of negativism. This is just the way it is. Let me read you a tweet from somebody. I’m not gonna tell you who the tweet is but I want to ask you if you agree with the sentiment here.
Are you ready? Here comes the tweet. “This is why Congress needs time to actually read this package before voting on it. Members of Congress have not read this bill. It’s over 5000 pages, arrived at 2pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours. This isn’t governance. It’s hostage-taking.” Who wrote it? (interruption) That’s exactly right.
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont...-aoc-tweet.jpgMr. Snerdley correctly identified the author of this tweet as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Do you agree with the sentiment? (interruption) You do. So you agree with AOC 100%? (interruption) It’s hard not to, I’ll admit. Hard not to. So that’s the answer, David. This is exactly it. Welcome to the end of the Trump experiment. That’s what this means.
This is the establishment going back to doing things they love, the way they love. This is exactly why Trump was elected. I think this is exactly why Trump was reelected. But he’s had it taken from him, stolen. I will always believe that, no matter how difficult it becomes to prove. They’re celebrating this. The establishment is celebrating this.
The Republican establishment is celebrating this accomplishment as somehow a great attack on climate change. It’s a COVID-19 relief bill! It should cost no more than $198 billion if the objective is to give every American $600, which, frankly, if we’re gonna start giving money away to deal with COVID, is this enough? Now, we might start saying, “Well, the budget, Mr. Limbaugh.
“We gotta be very careful here about budgets. Can’t break the budget.” Oh, now it’s a little late for being concerned about that, not as we approach $30 trillion. There’s terminology in this bill like “promoting technologies and creating jobs.” The technologies involve “carbon capture, emission reduction, replacements for the hydrofluorocarbons used as coolants in air-conditioning and refrigeration systems.”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont...Air-122220.jpgAs Jazz Shaw as Hot Air writes in a postabout this, “You see, that’s how they like to describe such ‘initiatives’ to put a pleasant spin on them. A better translation of those passages would be to say that taxpayer money will be shoveled into ‘green energy’ and carbon reduction companies who will ostensibly be working to achieve those goals while (just coincidentally) making a ton of money for a small number of people.”
This big… This is the prelude to the Green New Deal, and it’s in the COVID relief package, and we’ve got Republicans out there singing its praises. There’s a great deal more than just climate change jammed into this thing too. Nobody in Congress or media had a chance to read it before it was passed, and that is an answer to guy in St. Louis.
His question: Why am I the only one telling you what’s in it? Because they didn’t read this before. They couldn’t have. They were given two hours. It’s 5,000 pages. Come on. Not even their clerks or their legislative assistants could have read it. I mean, there’s money for invasive species mitigation, water management on a Tibetan plateau, gender programs in Pakistan and piles of money for India, Tibet, and other nations.
Dig in if you want, but don’t doubt me. It is all in there. But it has turned into a climate change bill. That is the primary sales point and how they’re getting around, excusing it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know what? We actually do the news on this program. There is journalism taking place on this program. Now, I myself would have to say that I am a reporter in the sense that I report what I learn that’s going on out there that you may not know otherwise.
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont...220-Pelosi.jpgEvidence of that in our first busy broadcast hour today was some of the elements of the COVID relief bill. We have a $900 billion piece of legislation called the COVID relief bill in which every American is to be given $600. Now, if that’s all the bill contained, it would cost $198 billion. So let’s round that up to $200 billion. But it doesn’t cost $200 billion. It costs $900 billion.
So if the COVID relief bill has basically 10% of its money for the American citizen, what the heck else is in this bill? And that’s what we reported. That’s what we demonstrated. And it is for the usual, senseless, funny, oddball, weirdo things that end up in every piece of legislation that happens to be timed right before a possible government shutdown every December.
It’s loaded with pork. It’s loaded with giveaways to friendly socialist nations. There’s far more money in this bill for other countries. There’s $15 million in this bill to fix a boat, folks, a military boat in Sri Lanka. I’m not kidding. One boat, 15 mill to fix it, to repair it. So in that sense we report. There’s probably more actual journalism happening on this program than you’ll notice at the Drive-By Media.
Pick your network.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s a quote from Rand Paul or a sound bite from Rand Paul who was upset about the COVID bill. This was on the Senate floor yesterday.
PAUL: If money really grew on trees, why not give more free money? Why not give it out all the time? Why stop at $600 a person? Why not a thousand dollars? Why not $2,000? Maybe these new free-money Republicans should join the everybody-gets-a-guaranteed-income caucus. Why not 20,000 a year for everybody? Why not 30,000? To so-called conservatives who are quick to identify the socialism of the Democrats, if you vote for this spending monstrosity, you’re no better.
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/wp-cont...and-Paul-2.jpgRUSH: He’s exactly right, folks. I have used the same argument on the minimum wage. Minimum wage advocates come out there say, “We need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. We need to raise the minimum wage to $18 an hour,” and I have told you that you’ll finally hit a number, if you keep going… If you raise it to these advocates, if you suggest, “No, that’s not enough; we need to spend more,” you’ll eventually reach a point where they will say, “No, that’s too much.”
Well, you used to be able to do that. For example, you have your minimum wage increase advocate and you’re talking to him. “We need to raise the minimum wage to 20 bucks,” and you say, “That’s not enough. Twenty bucks? Why not $30 an hour?” “Okay, I’ll go for that! Thirty bucks an hour.” “Fine and dandy. Wait, let’s not stop there. How about $50 an hour?”
“Well, that may be a bit much.” “Why? Why is $50 too much and 30 bucks is fine?” You’ll eventually learn that they have no basis for making their claim or their demand for 30 or 20 or 18. It’s nothing more than a political football that they kick around, and they use it to point out how mean-spirited and unconcerned minimum wage opponents are. “They don’t care about people!”
Rand Paul is exactly right. If we’re gonna give every American $600, why not give every American 30,000? “Well, can’t do that. It’d be too much.” Why? We’ve got the guaranteed national income bunch out there that’s proposing something similar. Why is it too much? He’s exactly right about this. Why not 30,000? Why not 20,000? Instead you’re gonna get $600, which would cost $198 billion. But the bill spends $900 billion.
There’s $700 billion in this bill that you are not getting.
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