Rush Limbaugh on market collapse: Obama is engineering the decline of America

Top-rated talk radio host Rush Limbaugh finds a “silver lining” in the downgrading of America’s credit rating: There no longer is any doubt that President Barack Obama can be roundly defeated in 2012.

“Obamageddon — that's what we have witnessed since Friday,” Rush told his listeners on Monday.

“Obamageddon. Barackalypse Now. The only silver lining I can find is that as far as 2012 goes, Obama's a Debt Man Walking. Anybody want to tell me he's not landslidable now?

“Let me repeat this as the Media Tweak of the Day: ‘What we have witnessed since Friday is Obamageddon, Barackalypse Now. And the only silver lining out there is that as far as 2012 goes, Obama's now Debt Man Walking."

In his blistering attack on Obama and the Democrats, Limbaugh asserted that “we have a president that’s overseeing — engineering — the decline of the American republic.”

He also charged that Democrats are trying to play the blame game against Republicans over the financial crisis.

“Obama is always running around complaining and whining and moaning about all that he inherited from George W. Bush,” Rush said.

“Well, he inherited a AAA credit rating, an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent.

Limbaugh's comments came the Monday after Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA-plus , and the Dow tanked 634 points. Obama blamed the downgrade on political gridlock in Washington and said he would offer some recommendations on how to reduce federal deficits.

Obama stopped short of sharp criticism of Standard & Poor's for its downgrade of U.S. debt to AA-plus from AAA on Friday. Senior administration officials have accused S&P of going ahead with the downgrade despite a $2 trillion mathematical error.

"Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a triple-A country," Obama said.

As Obama spoke, stock markets were registering another steep decline, dropping more than 450 points in afternoon trading.

A joint bipartisan congressional committee, to be formed under the legislation passed last week that averted a government default, is to report its recommendations in late November on how to cut $1.5 trillion in spending over a decade.

Obama said he would offer his own recommendations for fixing the problem and cited again the need to raise taxes on wealthier Americans and make modest adjustments to popular but expensive entitlement programs.

Limbaugh took the president's comments about the S&P, and threw them right back.

“What are the Democrats doing? Blaming the referees! Blaming Standard & Poor's! That always changes the outcome, doesn't it? Blame the refs.

“So go ahead and blame Standard & Poor's all you want, Democrats. Now they're blaming the military! Barney Frank and the Democrats are trying to say it's the military's fault that we've been downgraded.

“This is the fault of the Democrat Party," Limbaugh said, exasperated.

Limbaugh went on to say: “So now we know what Obama got for his birthday: A downgrade of our credit rating, probably exactly what he wanted in his heart of hearts . . .

“World War II, we had a AAA credit rating, and we lose it now, and for what? For what great purpose did we lose it? Except an ideological hatred of American capitalism and a love of class warfare, what did we lose our AAA rating for?

“Think about it: Obama's finally managed another major accomplishment on that list he told us he had, that list that he said he'd only done about 70 percent so far. At long last, Obama and his fellow Democrats have finally been able to convince the world that we are just another country, after all. There's nothing exceptional about us or our economy.

“For crying out loud, France has a higher credit rating than we do. France! They produce cheese and perfume, for crying out loud!”

But one person who does not buy into the theory that Obama is deliberately undermining the economy is Donald Trump. The billionaire developer said on Monday that the president is incompetent not malicious.

“There is a theory that he is doing it on purpose but I absolutely do not believe that. He’s just ill-equipped to be president,” Trump told New York’s WOR radio. “Tremendous wrong moves are being made.”

Host Steve Malzberg asked him if he thinks that Obama takes a sip of champagne every time a trillion dollars goes out of the economy.
“No, I really don’t,” replied Trump. “You just have a president who is not doing a good job."