Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said he's never voting for Republicans again and encouraged all his listeners to follow suit in protest of Congress' deal to end the government shutdown.
Limbaugh slammed the Republican Party, which he recently described as "irrelevant," for backtracking on its efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act and for agreeing to a bipartisan deal with the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling in order to avert a default on the United States' debts.
"I can tell you right now that I'm never voting Republican again," he said on his radio show today. "I am embarrassed to be a Republican. We had an opportunity to get everything we wanted, (President) Obama was about to cave to all of our demands ... and the Republicans blew it.
"I'm so upset about this, just this morning I took my voter registration card and burned it in my fireplace."
Limbaugh went further by encouraging his listeners to skip next year's elections in protest.
"I know what I will be doing on next year's election day: playing golf, smoking cigars and having a martini," he said. "You won't find me going near any ballot box or pulling any levers for Republicans, or even inviting any Republicans onto my show.
"I strongly encourage all of you, my listeners, to send a message by sitting at home on election day and not voting. Do not vote Republican. Don't even vote for Tea Party candidates. These so-called conservatives are now on their own."
Limbaugh also declared that he would longer going to pay his credit card and utility bills as a way to prove that the possible consequences of a debt default were overblown.
"So what if I don't pay my bills?" he said. "What's the worst that could happen? Nothing. Absolutely nothing will happen. If MasterCard, Visa and Comcast want my money, they can come pry it from my cold, dead fingers."
