Rush's brilliant monologue on the "accommodation" of religious liberty

Transcript from rushlimbaugh.com:

So everywhere I'm reading that Obama is caving on the mandate in Obamacare that Catholic churches -- well, not churches, but the schools and hospitals are mandated to provide contraceptives and abortion-related services that they religiously disagree with.  What's happened here is that Obama's caved! He has seen, he has heard, and now he's gonna shift that burden to the insurance companies...  Let me start with the AP version of the Obama story.  "Retreating in the face of a political uproar, President Barack Obama on Friday will announce that religious..."

President Obama "on Friday will announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees after all, The Associated Press has learned. The administration instead will demand that insurance companies will be the ones directly responsible for providing free contraception." And we're supposed to applaud this?  We're supposed to think that we have emerged with a big victory here?  Obama can mandate that we buy insurance, and now Obama can mandate what insurance companies must offer -- and after mandating what insurance companies must offer, then Obama can mandate what insurance companies can charge for it?

Freedom doesn't mean anything to this guy!  Freedom doesn't mean anything to this regime or this administration.  To me, this is breathtaking.  This is an incredible sight to behold here.  So Obama is said to "offer a compromise proposal that is respectful of religious concerns," and everybody's applauding today.  Now, look at this.  The right to religious liberty in this context is unequivocal in our country and in the Constitution.  It's right there in the Bill of Rights.  Since when does a president have the power to threaten to issue a rule gutting religious liberty?  That's the first thing.  And, by the way, I don't think any of this a mistake.

I don't think this religious kerfuffle is something that they overreached on.  I think roiling this country and distracting people, setting up these extreme things like this and then walking them back to create the illusion, "Okay, you know what?  We're not gonna take your freedom," it's all BS, folks.  And this is being spun in such a way to make it look like the winners are winning and the losers are losing, and they're not.  The First Amendment -- the Bill of Rights of the Constitution -- explicitly says that government shall have nothing to do with religion.  You hear, do you not, the left constantly caterwauling, whining and moaning about "separation of church and state"?

When do they do that?  Whenever a religious Republican or conservative seeks political office! They start worry about "the imposition of religious moral values on people," and say, "This is untolerable! This is intolerable. It's not permitted! It's a violation of the Constitution."  So the left hates the Constitution when it's an impediment to what they want to do.  When it supports what they want to do, they're the biggest constitutionalists in the world.  So they're all concerned about separation of church and state? No, they're not!  They are opposed to opposition.  They will do anything to defeat opposition, and if the Constitution is in opposition to them, they'll do whatever they have to do there.

So here we have again from the top: Obama's gonna offer a compromise proposal said to be respectful of religious concerns.  He started this.  He started it by demanding that Catholic organizations provide birth control and other abortion-related services. That's unconstitutional. He cannot do it.  There is an appropriate uproar.  The regime says, "Okay, we'll walk it back and then we'll make the insurance companies do it."  He's still getting everything he wants! He's getting mandated federal funding of abortion services -- and in the process, trampling all over the Constitution.  The right to religious liberty in this context is unequivocal in our country.  It's in the Constitution!

I'm gonna ask this again: Since when does a president have the power to threaten to issue a rule gutting religious liberty and then claims the power to make compromises on that issue?  This is how, folks, we lose our liberty.  This is how we lose the Constitution.  The suggestion that Obama has the power to alter that which he doesn't have the power to do in the first place, is simply unacceptable.  The first thing he does he doesn't have the power to do.  He doesn't have, constitutionally, the power to mandate that religious organizations provide -- free of charge or otherwise -- any abortion-related service with which they disagree.  He doesn't have the authority.  Then to supposedly correct it, he then engages in more authority that he doesn't have!

"Okay, tell you what: I'll tell the churches they don't have to do it."  It's none of his business what the churches do!  He doesn't have the authority to do any of this.  The very idea that Barack Obama has the power to alter that which he doesn't have the power to do in the first place? This is two exercises of power he doesn't have.  The first exercise is telling the churches what they have to do.  The second exercise of power is then changing what he told the churches they have to do.  There's no compromise, no negotiation.  There's no phony balance here.  Obama is simply not empowered to interfere with religious liberty.  No president is!

It's not no different than recess appointments when not in recess.  There's no "compromise" in his "compromise" here.  It's all BS.  And the media is perfectly willing to support the notion of Obama having dictatorial powers now because they support them.  But this is how, folks, the public is dumbed down.  This is how he just hacks away at the First Amendment. Then, after there's an uproar, said to be compromising his position when in fact the First Amendment's being destroyed with both moves, with both efforts here!.  So his effort to make people think he's compromising and caving is working.  The press is reporting that.  I even had friends of mine say, "Hey, we beat this back!" We didn't beat anything back.  In fact, it's far more complicated than what is actually being reported.

And I submit to you that this is how we end up losing [freedom], slowly but surely and in ways that people don't even recognize, in ways that people don't even see it.  And during all of this, we have to listen to the media and we have to listen to the president and the Democrats tell us that we're the party of "no" and that they are the party that liberates people. And we're the ones, the old-fashioned conservatives, we want to deny people a good time, we want to deny people fun, we want to deny people all these things in life.  So we have yet another example of life in America under the thumb of an ever-expanding state with central planning, otherwise known as "well-intentioned liberalism."

From violating religious rights where there is no power permitted to do so, to mandating the purchase of products, to now mandating insurance companies sell certain products at a price that's also mandated -- from czars to denying the right to travel -- it's all here.  We're living in a country that's becoming unrecognizable!  Who is the party of "no"?  Want to throw a football in a public beach?  It's the Democrats that say "no!"  Can you believe it? You can't throw a football or a Frisbee on a beach in Los Angeles County, only a volleyball!  Why?  Did somebody get hit?  Why can't you throw a football on a beach?  Or a Frisbee, for crying out loud?

Who's the party of "no"?  You want to exercise your religious rights, provide health insurance to employees that respect those rights?  Democrats say, "No, you can't do that!"  You want to buy a health insurance policy when you want buy it?  No! Democrats say, "You can't do that."  You want your government to operate on a budget.  The Democrats laugh at you and say, "We don't need no stinkin' budget.  Wait 'til Republicans are in charge of and then we'll need a budget."  You want to flatten the tax code, get rid of the crony capitalism, Democrats say, "No, we're not gonna give people more access to their hard-earned money!"

You want to reform entitlements that are eating away your kids' and grandkids' future?  Democrats say, "No, we can't touch any of that!"  You want to become energy independent using America's natural resources and the resources of an ally that borders our country with a pipeline, bringing much-needed oil right to our Gulf of Mexico? Nope, can't do it! Democrats say, "No."  And we're "the party of 'no'"?  We're the party trampling on people's liberties?  Want to travel freely about the country?  Democrats say, "No."  You want the border tightened and shut down so that people cannot get in here illegally? No! The Democrats say, "No."  You're the governor of a state that tries to enforce federal immigration laws?  Democrats say, "No," and the President sues that state and the governor of that state!

Now, the Republicans want to privatize the Transportation Security Authority, the TSA, and Democrats say, "No! You can't do that. We gotta keep this in the hands of our union buddies."  So each and every day, little by little, Barack Obama tramples on the Constitution, usurps authority that he doesn't have, in the midst of an uproar. He might surrender a little bit of it where everybody thinks that they're winning and they beat back the ugly collectivist, when in fact the collectivist and the central planner has solidified his claim to power that he doesn't have over the Constitution.  He's out there saying (paraphrased), "Yeah, I never saw this as a political issue. This mandate, health insurance mandate on Catholic Churches and abortion, I never saw it as a political issue.  No, no, no way!"

So the insurance company is now gonna have to give out free contraception. The insurance company is gonna have give out free abortion pills.  And, by the way, it isn't gonna be free. So no religious organizations will have to pay for the coverage now. But somebody's gonna have to.  It's being mandated.  And somebody's gonna have to make it available.  It's being mandated.  And somebody's gonna have to pay for it. Whether they see it's free to the end user or not, it's never free to the end user.  He's not taking any questions about this.

I was basically responding to the president. I didn't need to hear what he's saying.  I know what he's doing.  He is usurping constitutional authority he does not have.  There's no "compromise" here.  The president didn't cave.  He's not giving anything back.  The evidence is on MSNBC, they immediately went to a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood -- who's delighted!

The Planned Parenthood babe, person was delighted, and why shouldn't she be?  Because, guess what now's been codified?  Insurance companies have to pay for birth control and abortions! This is a huge achievement for Obama.  This is a major accomplishment.  Doesn't matter to him if, okay, the churches don't have to but now the insurance companies do. Birth control and abortion pills have just become a right! This entire health care plan is unconstitutional based on that mandate that requires everybody to buy insurance or pay a fine if they don't. That renders this whole thing unconstitutional, I don't care what the Supreme Court says.  But now look what's happened. While everybody's celebrating here Obama "caving," he has just succeeded in mandating, in telling... He does not have the right to tell insurance companies what to sell.  He doesn't have the constitutional authority to tell 'em what to charge for it.  He just did, and people are out there applauding, like Planned Parenthood.

Let me tell you what's just happened here.  The regime, Barack Hussein Obama... I don't know how many of you people think Obama caved.  I'm simply reacting. I got a bunch of e-mails, "Hey, Rush, we won, man! We won! Obama caved." He didn't cave on anything.  That's what I'm reacting to here.  All that's happened here... The Obama regime, they didn't see they don't have the power to force the Catholic Church to give up its religious views.  They just said, "You know what? We changed our mind. We're not gonna make the Catholic Church do it. We're gonna make the insurance companies do it."

Big win.  Biiiig win.  Right.  "We're not gonna make the Catholic Church, right now, 'cause you people don't quite understand.  So, okay, we're not gonna make the Catholic Church give out abortion stuff but we'll make the insurance companies do it."  So now people who oppose abortion pills are going to be paying for them.  Do you think the insurance companies gonna reach into their personal back pockets and pick up the charges for this?  Insurance premiums are gonna go up to cover the increased cost associated with Barack Obama, the president of the United States, telling them: What they have to sell, what they have to include, what they have to cover.  The president of the United States has just told the insurance companies, "You know what? I changed my mind.

"I'm not gonna make the church do this, I'm gonna make you do it."  They say, "Okay, fine." The insurance companies, they don't have a beef about anything, so they'll just raise their premiums.  So Obama now mandating that private companies charge other citizens for the cost of abortion pill.  This unprecedented as far as I know.  It's completely unprecedented.  And don't for a minute think that the administration has given up trying to tell the Catholic Church what it will and won't do.  That'll come later.  They'll come back for a further bite of the apple.  They'll do something.

I want to spend a little time, not much, on what Obama just did here.  And I first saw this being alluded to in a flash report by our old buddy Jacob Tapper at ABC News.  And Jacob's story was headlined:  "White House to Announce Accommodation for Religious Organizations on Contraception Rule -- With the White House under fire for its new rule requiring employers including religious organizations to offer health insurance that fully covers birth control coverage, ABC News has learned," because the White House called them, "President Obama will announce an attempt to accommodate these religious groups. The move, based on state models..." That's where the rub of this is.

"The move, based on state models will almost certainly not satisfy bishops and other religious leaders since it will preserve the goal of women employees having their birth control fully covered by health insurance," in a mandate that Obama doesn't have the power to issue.  Jacob didn't say that; he never would.  I'm throwing that in.  "Sources say..." This is Jacob writing here. "Sources say it will be respectful of religious beliefs but will not back off from that goal" of mandating abortion services being provided for in Obamacare.  Now, so we go to the AP story on this: "Retreating in the face of a political uproar, President Barack Obama on Friday will announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees after all...

"The administration instead will demand that insurance companies will be the ones directly responsible for providing free contraception." Right.  Okay.  They get it right here.  But to say that Obama is retreating? It's not a retreat whatsoever.  Obama simply took a sidestep.  And then later in the AP story: "By keeping free contraception for employers at religious workplaces -- but providing a different way to do it -- the White House will assert it gave no ground on the basic principle of full preventative care that matters most to Obama." Right.  What if I said, "You know, we need to mandate helmets for bicycle riders!" What is it about contraception? What is it about abortion that makes it sacred?  Birth control pills, RU-486, what is it that makes this sacred?

It's because that stuff is the sacrament to the religion of liberalism.  And then later on in the AP story, it says, "The White House consulted leaders on both sides of the debate to forge a decision. And officials..." These are unnamed officials, by the way. "And officials said Obama has the legal authority to order insurance companies to provide free contraception coverage directly to workers. He will demand it in a new rule." He does not have legal authority!  Do you realize, folks, if Barack Obama has the legal authority to order insurance companies to provide free contraception coverage directly to workers, he's got legal authority to demand anything.  He's got legal authority to make you go guy a Chevy Volt. He's got legal authority to make you stop voting Republican.

If he's got the legal authority to demand this, he's not bound by any restrictions whatsoever.  And the simple fact of the matter is he does not have this authority.  He does not have this power.  It's the First Amendment, the Bill of Rights.  This whole separation of church and state issue? You notice how it's vanished now? Separation of church and state doesn't matter anymore?  I think this is outrageous what is happening.  I don't think this is traditional politics at all.  I don't think traditional politics has anything to do with why Obama's doing this.  This is about fundamentally transforming this country from a representative republic to a pure, straight democracy with the president assuming he's the majority and therefore can do whatever he wants to do.  We're not dealing with the average, "Okay, the Democrats won the White House. They're gonna have it for four or eight years. We gotta try to stop 'em however we can and we'll get power back."
There's something unprecedented going on here.

Woodrow Wilson dreamed of this.
FDR dreamed of this.
Obama is doing this.