Republicans Stuck on the Same Old 60 Votes Excuse

Thursday - March 09, 2017

RUSH: Back to the phones. Tinton Falls, New Jersey. This is Tom. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, thanks for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet, sir. What’s happening? What’s shaking?

CALLER: You were talking about the Republicans needing 60 in the Senate?

RUSH: That’s what they say, yeah.

CALLER: Did the Democrats have 60 when they passed all this? I mean, what the hell?

RUSH: No, the Democrats did not. That’s why they used what’s known as budget reconciliation for many aspects of Obamacare, which was trickery. They didn’t have 60 votes. The Republicans, however, did not have the votes to stop anything at the time.

CALLER: Are we too good to do that?

RUSH: Well, we’re using budget reconciliation to unwind some of this. The stuff that was done with reconciliation is being unwound with it. But there are some things that budget reconciliation, as a matter of law, cannot touch.

CALLER: I remember coming across this one bill, they took over the student loan bill, Harry Reid put forward a manager’s amendment and it was passed as one thing under reconciliation. Why can’t we do the same thing to undo it?

RUSH: Well, for parts of it they can. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, and they are, for the parts that were done with reconciliation, the ones they want to unwind or unravel, that’s what they’re using, but the story is they can’t repeal all of it with reconciliation as a matter of law, that for some of the provisions that would be required to repeal and then replace, they need 60 votes.Now, I’m just telling you what they say. This is so damn complicated. I can watch people explain this and I’m not yet ready to tell you, and I’ve spent a lot of time still on this, I’m not yet ready to tell you that I understand fully what this is and what it means, ’cause it’s too much to digest. And there are too many people saying things that, you know, you have to track down, is this true? Is this accurate? Is it true that they can’t unwind it all with budget reconciliation? Is it true that they need 60 votes for some of this stuff? You have to track that down. I’m just telling you what they say. You’re reacting to it ’cause it’s been a constant excuse they have offered for not doing anything, right?

CALLER: “We just need a little more, a little more, elect us, give us the majority here, give us the majority there, give us the presidency.” I mean, what more can we give them?

RUSH: 60 votes.

CALLER: Go find something else.

RUSH: See, that’s the thing. I know. They’ve got 52 votes. But then what would happen if they got 60, then Senators Graham and McCain would defect on everything. Then they’d say, “We’re really only going in with 58. We’re gonna have to give McCain and Graham something to keep ’em on board.” I think you understand how this is working. Ever since Mitch McConnell became the leader, minority or majority, when he calls people to tell ’em how the Senate — you need 60 votes, that’s all you need to know for anything, we need 60 votes.