Rush Limbaugh claimed on Fox News Sunday that the American people were “begging” the GOP to stop Obama by shutting down the government and denied the harmful effects of the 2013 shutdown, which cost an estimated $24 billion.

On the December 7 edition of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Limbaugh to defend his recent demands for congressional Republicans to force a government shutdown. Limbaugh stated that the results of the 2010 and 2014 elections showed the American people were “begging” the GOP to stop President Obama and that Republicans don't need to worry about the political risk of another shutdown. He then claimed that the “only thing that happened in that shutdown was Barack Obama closed [...] the World War II Memorial to World War II vets” and “shut down some White House tours.”

But the shutdown was a significant blow to the U.S. economy. Standard & Poor's found the shutdown cost $24 billion in economic activity. Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi similarly estimated that it “stunted fourth quarter GDP growth by 0.5 points, resulting in a $20 billion hit,” by disrupting “federal spending, global trade and investments in housing and businesses.” Following the 2013 shutdown, Fox repeatedly downplayed its economic impact.