Below are some quotes from Rush Limbaugh shows in July and August 2011, assuring teabaggers that default was impossible and if the Republicans/teabaggers didn't raise the debt ceiling Obama would finally be forced to make cuts.
As top man in the Republican Party and economic guru for the teabaggers, his cheerleading and threats do make a difference. Were the other top 100 right wing talkers saying the same things and how much screaming into phones (or not) resulted?
How much 'credit' should he/they get for the credit downgrade and sequestration? If his cheerleading toward default was publicized at the time and matched to the behavior of Republicans, would we be here in this same boat?
Would Obama have had more leverage if RUSH was tattooed on the GOP politician's and teabaggers' foreheads for all to see every time they got in front of the camera?
He's on 600 radio stations and the talk radio monopoly gives him a dominant political bully pulpit in most parts of the country. There are more than 1000 radio stations reinforcing similar messaging. At least 28% (170) of the stations he's on piggyback the community standing of 70 US universities (Universities for Rush Limbaugh).
This is just one issue that has been distorted merely because the GOP and the right wing think tanks have a very loud radio advantage. As long as they have it it will be practically impossible to have a rational discussion of any issue on a national scale.
Democrats and progressives need a comprehensive and organized effort to monitor and respond to the main national and local right wing radio talkers in real time.
Anything that challenges the talk radio advantage is worth it's weight in democracy gold, like the boycott efforts of stoprush.
Below are a few quotes from selected days in July leading up to the August 2 debt ceiling deadline in 2011, taken from various separate segments on the dates indicated.
Here's a favorite from 7/21/2011:
"If the regime will lie to us about something as important as going into default, what else are they lying about?"
7/7/2011
“we will not default by August 2nd. There are sufficient revenues flooding Washington each day that are sufficient to service our debt.”
“I've been making the point for how long, folks? I mean those of you who have been listening regularly will know, it has to be weeks, that there is no possibility of default. The United States cannot possibly default. There is revenue that comes in every day, tax revenue, it comes in every day."
"There is no default that's going to happen. All of this is trumped up. Please don't doubt me on this. There's no bluster here. It is the fact."
"Republicans need to stop talking about revenue and loopholes and all this. The focus must be on this out-of-control spending.”
“No possibility of default."
"What would happen is that debt service would be paid. Whatever's left, the net would be used to fund ongoing federal activities, which means Obama would prioritize what does or does not get funded, but we would not default.”
“We cannot default, and there's no reason to default. It's a scare tactic.”
“Ain't possible. Isn't going to happen.”
“To avoid default all we have to do is to keep making interest and maturity payments on the bonds as they come due. The rest ought to be Obama's political problem, not ours.”
“There is no default.”
“There's no possible default. We purely have a spending problem.”
7/8/2011
“It's all calculated to put pressure on them (Republicans), all because they won't go along with a tax increase, all because they won't give in to Obama, all because they're willing to have the government default, which will not happen!"
"Social Security checks will continue to go out."
"we're being lied to by the Ruling Class left and right about the debt ceiling and what happens if it's not raised.”
“We are not in danger of default. Anybody, either party who says we are is engaging in demagoguery”
"The Republicans own this opportunity. All they've gotta do is stop talking about tax increases and revenue."
"Pat Buchanan says, "They're bluffing. The GOP should stand its ground -- and fix bayonets." Lock and load, in other words.”
“ And we don't care what Richard Cohen says and we don't care what David Brooks says, and we don't care what the establishment says about this. It's gonna come down to who the congressional Republicans are gonna listen to. It's gonna come down to whoever they think they have the most to fear from.”
July 11, 2011
“Obama's Only Hope of Reelection is Forcing John Boehner to Cave”
“If Boehner caves, it's bye-bye GOP and nothing to do with the policy changes that might happen. If Boehner caves and takes a tax increase, folks, to the House and it loses, Obama still wins because the Republican base is so ticked off at that. Hello Tea Party, you know the drill.”
“That's all Obama is trying to do is to wear Boehner down between now and Ramadan so that Boehner eventually caves, Ramadan being August 1st, and they say we go into default on August 2nd.”
"When you boil it all down, here's the point: big cutting. It will occur automatically."
"The only way the country goes into default is if Obama does not prioritize the debt, and that would only happen if he let it happen, which would mean that he wants the country to go into default, 'cause it's very easily avoided."
"The number one thing, if you want to eliminate a majority of the debt that's accumulated and that's going to accumulate, get rid of Obamacare."
July 12, 2011
“If there is a collapse or a default, it's something that he wants and has planned.”
“And if -- if -- the Republicans go along at some point, they're contributing to the destruction of our economy.”
“There isn't gonna be a shutdown. You're gonna have plenty of gumbo. There isn't going to be a shutdown. A "default" is not a "shutdown," and there's not gonna be a default.”
7/13/2011
“They don't want to do anything that reeks of a government shutdown, and a default can be characterized by the Democrats and Obama as a government shutdown, and they think they (Republicans) lose in a government shutdown, so they don't want any part of it.”
7/14/2011
"Moody's Investors Service said late [yesterday] it had placed the US government's triple-A bond rating on review for possible downgrade due to rising risk of default.”
“Folks, we gave you the numbers on this yesterday. It's not possible to miss a payment unless somebody doesn't make it, which that falls to Obama.”
“We elect Barack Hussein Obama president, and in two-and-a-half years, we're on the verge of an unprecedented US default with worldwide -- first time ever -- humiliation, embarrassment, and whatever else would accompany default.”
“The current US debt is larger than the entire economy of China, in two-and-a-half years of Barack Hussein Obama”
7/21/2011
"If the regime will lie to us about something as important as going into default, what else are they lying about?"
"I cringe when I keep hearing Boehner and the Republicans talk about the moral obligation we have not to default. We're not going to."
7/27/2011
"It's July 27th. We're not gonna default."
"We won the election in November -- and as such, we don't compromise. Winners don't compromise. Losers compromise."
"There isn't gonna be any default and there probably won't be a downgrade. All of this is hocus-pocus."
7/29/2011
Segment headline:
You Can Be Proud, Conservatives: Tea Party Puts Country Over Party
“the country is not going to go into default. There have been secret contingency meetings, and we've got the story. I don't even need the story, though, to know the country's not going into default! We're also tired of being lied to. The country is not going into default.”
8/1/2011
"The Democrats are operating on the basis of fear, and the real fear that they're operating under is the default resulting in a downgrade of the full faith and credit of the US."