RUSH: Now, if you just landed from Mars, now we're talking about sending people to Mars, but if you just landed from Mars, and you turned on any American Drive-By Media, you would hear the biggest issue facing a lame-duck Congress is: Will Democrats cut taxes for most Americans, or will Republicans cut taxes for the rich? That is how they are framing the issue of extending the Bush tax cuts. And, you know, I got frustrated people in this audience, and they're gonna continue to be frustrated. "Are we ever gonna control the message, Rush? Are we ever gonna control it? Are we ever gonna seize the day where we define the message for the media?" The answer is, "No." Get over it. The media is not us. They are not on our side. We're never going to control the message in the media, no matter what; we would have the smartest guys in the world. Reagan did not control the message in the media; Reagan controlled the message with the American people. He won the argument. We're not gonna control the message in the media! Stop bothering me about this!
It's very, very simple. Here we have three mistakes in one single news brief, but the American people are not being fooled by any of this. Will Democrats cut taxes for most Americans, or will the Republicans cut taxes for the rich? First off, there are no tax cuts being proposed by anybody for anybody. The debate is: Are taxes going to go up, or not? That's all that's on the table here. But expecting the media to frame it that way is a waste of time, and it's only gonna frustrate you. For years we have heard that the Bush tax cuts were for the rich, but now we hear the Democrats are fighting to keep those tax cuts for the middle class, as we pointed out Friday and repeatedly, over and over and over. Yet the Democrats in the media say the tax cuts were only for the rich.
Now, the next obvious retort is this: How can you cut taxes for 95 to 98% of Americans, which the Democrats say Obama wants to do, when less than 50% of the population actually pay any income taxes? So if you had any doubt that the media is a bunch of propagandists and people indoctrinating their customers, rather than reporters -- it's that simple. There are no tax cuts being proposed. All that's being proposed are: Will the current tax rates be extended, or will they not? And if they're not, whose taxes will go up?
While I agree that expecting the media to frame it that way is a waste, the Republicans should not just accept the premise. That is how we get into pigeonholed and misunderstood. Every Republican member of Congress should be out on the airwaves on the shows telling the American people this is not a tax cut but a vote against a tax hike. That is the reality here. Rush goes on:
Now, what the Democrats want is for the wealthy to have their taxes go up. One of the things Obama is asking (and this gets to Pelosi and her $250 checks to the seasoned citizens), Obama repeatedly says that extending the current tax rates -- forget even the talk of tax cuts -- extending the current tax rate for people over 250 grand a year will cost the government $700 billion. And he says, "Where are we gonna get that money?" Well, where are we going to get the money for Pelosi to give every seasoned citizen $250? Where did we get the money for her to do that in 2008? Where are you getting the money, Nancy? We don't have the money, and we're not losing -- the government has got to figure out a way to balance its budget based on the status quo. The status quo is 36% tax rate for the upper bracket. On the table is dropping that and raising it to 39.6 as a means of saving $700 billion. It's all convoluted. There's not one tax cut being proposed. The only thing being proposed is: Should we raise taxes on the people who own small businesses and hire many of the people who work in this country? That's the question.
Nice to know that Rush and his people listen to the TIB All Stars, because this is exactly what we talked about Saturday.
