Blue State Governors Want to Ruin the Economy
May 12, 2020
RUSH: I’ll tell you something else that’s starting to send red flags up. You probably have already noticed this. All these blue state governors that want to keep their states locked down, it’s purely political. But what are they depending on? They’re depending on the red states — the red states that are opening up! The red states are gonna get the economy kickstarted.
The red states are gonna create capital and money to transfer to pay these people their stupid welfare costs (and whatever else they’re using to bleed this country dry), while their population sits home, doesn’t work, waits for the federal check to show up — and they sit around and they trash the supposedly reckless red states. I cannot tell you how this irritates me.
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The red state governors — like Kemp in Georgia and any number of these people — are doing the right thing. They’re trying to get their people back to work, for all the right common-sensical human and humane reasons — to protect lives — to protect livelihoods, the United States economy, the state economy. And then you go to a blue state, and it’s the exact opposite.
They shut down and lock down, and they want to remain locked down until July or August or whatever — and nothing’s gonna open and nothing is gonna happen. And they fully expect the red states to sit there and essentially pay for it. Folks, I’m gonna tell you, these next four months are gonna be a veritable war like we have not seen.
The American left and the Democrat Party is going to do its best to keep this economy shut down, to extend and expand that shutdown — and blow up their own country’s jobs — just to ensure that Trump loses. But here’s the thing about that. Let’s do a little hypothetical. Let’s say this continues as it is, and let’s say that more and more red states open up and the economy in these states starts to return and revive
The blue states stay locked down. These are populous places — New York, Massachusetts, California. So they stay locked down all for the express purpose of canceling out the increase created by the red states. The economic activity that will happen from the red states going back to work, the blue state governors are gonna try to cancel it out by keeping their people at home.
They’re gonna wreck the economy. Their objective is to wreck the economy and get rid of Trump. So let’s say that… Well, hard as it is to imagine, let’s say they succeed. Let’s imagine they do this. They keep the economy in such bad shape that Trump is sent packing. What do they expect when that’s all over? Do they expect us just to forget it?
They expect all these red state people to say, “Oh, well, nice fair fight, you guys! Great to see you. We’ll see you the next election,” put all of it aside, and try to all just get along again? What do they expect is gonna happen with this effort of theirs to ruin the U.S. economy? Do they think people are just gonna sit by and let it happen?
And I’m telling you that they do. These are the same people that pass tax increases on the rich, and then end up shocked that the rich find a way around it. So here they’re gonna be engaged, these blue state governors and entire Democrat Party — and, by the way, we predicted this here. We predicted that it wouldn’t be long before the Democrats would start blaming Trump for the rotten economy because of the way he’s handled the virus.
And right on schedule, they’re now calling Trump Herbert Hoover. Have you noticed that, Mr. Snerdley? They’re all… Ed Markey, they’re all over the place. Trump is Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover was the Republican president at the time of the Depression. There’s no comparison. Unfortunately, because of the lack education of this country, nobody knows who Herbert Hoover is, particularly on the left.
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But what do they expect to happen? They expect us to just watch them try to literally destroy this country’s economy and do nothing about it? They just expect us to just watch it and when the election’s over, wave at ’em and say, “Hey, guys, nice try!” What do they expect to happen here? They think they can ruin the economy.
They think they can go out and even try to ruin the economy — and at the end of it, we’re all just gonna be brothers and sisters and say, “Okay. Let’s now work together to heal.” I can’t believe that that’ll work, but time will tell.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: To make a point that I earlier illustrated, I said these blue state governors are keeping their states shut down, and they’re demanding that the red states that are going back to work pay for them, red state governors like Kemp in Georgia and elsewhere who are opening up — Florida, DeSantis — trying to get businesses back up and running, restaurants, you name it.
These blue state guys are sitting around keeping themselves locked down crying, “It’s so unfortunate, we’re in such bad shape.” And they’re demanding that the federal government, which means tax revenue from you, be used to prop them up and support them.
You know what I would do? If I lived in California, if I lived in the state of Washington, if I lived in New York, if I lived in Massachusetts, you know what I would tell these stupid, idiotic governors? I would say no property tax if I can’t work. No tax of any kind if I can’t work. If you’re gonna prevent me from working, I’m not gonna pay you a dime in taxes. How can I?
But they’re gonna be out there demanding taxes, collecting taxes, property taxes, while preventing their own citizens from working. This screwball governor in Illinois, this J. B. Pritzker guy, classic illustration of what’s gone wrong with every aspect of the Democrat Party, the liberal education. This guy just announced a new edict. I don’t know how new it is. Only two people in a boat. If you have a 400-foot yacht, only two people can be on it. If you have a 12-foot dinghy, only two people can be on it. If you have a 40-foot Boston Whaler, only two people can be on it. On a boat! J. B. Pritzker, governor of Illinois.
Now, listen. Here’s Gavin Newsom. To me, this is a purposeful and willful destruction. I think these blue state governors have so many financial obligations they can’t cover, like the unfunded pension liabilities that they have, just to name one thing. California, New York, these states are in such bad fiscal condition even before the virus hits that you know what these governors are doing? These governors have seen the virus hit, and to them this is a once-in-a-100-year opportunity. They are gonna let their states crash and burn to where only a federal bailout can save them.
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Gavin Newsom — California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, and our legislative leaders, meaning in California, have joined together to ask the federal government for $1 trillion to protect our schools, our public health and public safety services. Without federal support, says Governor Newsom, states will be forced to make impossible decisions. These are blue states. They’ve been mismanaged. They have been run by a bunch of incompetents.
They can’t print money. They’re out of it, and they’re looking at this arrival of the virus as an opportunity. It’s no wonder they want to crash. They figure that’s the only way that they’re gonna ever be able to find any hope of being made whole, coming up with money to fund their pension obligations and all that is gigantic federal bailouts. And if he sends his people back to work, if Governor Newsom opens the state, lets people reopen businesses, well, that starts the California economy. And we can’t have that. We can’t have one of these states’ economies start up and get percolating because that would create revenue.
It would create something more than idle financial loss. They need financial destruction. I think these blue state governors are doing this largely on purpose. They are destroying the economy of their states in the belief or the hope that they’re gonna get federal money to bail ’em out. And now he’s called for $1 trillion for California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Colorado. I don’t know if he means a trillion each or a trillion total.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, I checked the email during the break, and some of you said, “Well, you didn’t tell us what you think of what these blue state governors are doing.” I didn’t? I thought it was abundantly clear what I thought. Well, let me add on a little bit, in case you’re just joining us. Governor Newsom of California has demanded — requested — essentially a trillion-dollar bailout.
He has said without federal support, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado will be forced to make impossible decisions. They can’t survive. We can’t survive, he’s saying, without a trillion dollars of federal money to protect our schools, our public health, and our public safety services. Now, what’s obviously going on here is these states…
As blue states with Democrats having run these states for who knows how many years, they’re in horrible fiscal and financial shape. They have unfunded pension liabilities that they’ll never be able to pay. They have spent money buying votes, buying welfare. They’ve just spent money that they never, ever were gonna see generated by economic activity and taxes.
They see the arrival of the virus as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have their states crash with the virus taking the blame for it happening, instead of them and their predecessors and their policies being the reason these states crash. So that’s why they want the economic slowdown to keep on. That’s why these blue state governors are gonna keep their economies locked down and shut down.
They know their states… This is gonna happen to them at some point. They want the virus getting blamed, so that they will get a federal bailout, or at least have an easier shot at it. So let me tell you what I think, since you’re right; I didn’t close the loop on this. If the — and look, I know this is easy for me to say, ’cause I don’t live in one of these states.
I don’t live in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, and many of you do. But if these people, these governors of the Democrat Party are allowed to crash their states’ economies in pursuit of a federal bailout and if they get that bailout, they are not going to change at all. They’re gonna keep coming back for bailouts.
They’re gonna keep running their states into ground. They’re not gonna learn a single thing about it. I think… Look, these governors, they hate Trump anyway. They all do. Trump cannot lose any ground with these people. They hate everything that Trump stands for. Cutting off their money supply and letting ’em go bankrupt may be what they deserve.
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It may be what’s called for. It may be what’s necessary. It’s patently obvious what’s happening. It’s time to rev up. It’s time to get this country back up and running, folks. We’ve been shut down long enough. Blue state governors want no part of it. People are scratching their heads. Why? This is the reason why.
They want their state economies wiped out with the virus taking the blame for doing it, so they’ll have a more valid claim to a federal bailout, ’cause they’re gonna need a federal bailout regardless. And they think if the virus can be blamed, there will be sympathy for them and there will be compassion and there will be concern.
And then Trump and the federal government come along and bail ’em out. It’d be a big, big mistake. But what are the odds? What are the odds that the federal government would ever let a state go bankrupt? But if they get bailed out, there won’t be a single lesson learned.