David Rove Gregory Taking Ayn Rand Ryan Seriously

Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) said today that if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were president, the nation's fiscal crisis would have been averted. “Look, if we had a Hillary Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles as chief of staff of the White House or president of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now," Ryan said to NBC's David Gregory on "Meet the Republicans. These guys are hilarious! A couple days ago they're blaming her for Benghazi, now they think she's a magician.

He went on to say, “We have to expand our appeal to more people and show how we'll take the country's founding principles and apply them to the problem of the day, solutions to fix our problems. We have to show our ideas are better at fighting poverty, better at solving health care, how our ideas are better at solving problems that people experience in their daily lives. And that's a challenge we have to rise to, and I think we're up for it."

Who is he kidding? The American people saw what he and the Republicans had to offer in November and soundly rejected it, except for those who actually believe Fox is real news. They want to appeal to more people? Really? By jamming a transvaginal ultrasound probe up a woman’s privates when she seeks a legal procedure. By trying to prevent minorities from voting? By passing laws where discriminating against gay people is ok. Republicans want to fight poverty? How, by putting more people in poverty so they can lower the threshold of what's called poverty? By crushing unions with right-to-work for less, thereby lower everyone’s standard of living. They want to solve healthcare? By repealing the Affordable Care Act, voucherizing Medicare, privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age so you’ll be dead before you get to use any of those programs. He claims they’re better at problem solving. Considering he and 16 other Republicans met on the night of President Obama’s first inauguration night, to plan on how they would destroy his presidency, his words run shallow.

Here's the deal, if Hillary runs in 2016, I'm with her. However, if the Teathugs still have power in the House or Senate, we're still screwed. The right wing wants to destroy the New Deal, the Great Society and the ACA, widely known as Obamacare. They will not be satisfied until we have given every last dime that we’ve worked for to the billionaires who are pulling the strings in Washington. I do not see Hillary adopting Paul Ayn Rand Ryan's plan which will ensure America’s seniors are in poverty, die young, eat cat food and end up homeless.

Maddow Again Goes Where Others Won't

As I lamented yesterday on how the media will not cover the arrests of right wing American terrorists, I should've made a footnote on the always reliable Rachel Maddow. Last night, she took a break from the unfolding Japan disaster to give us an update on both stories that I had mentioned. If not for her, I wouldn't have even known about the bomb that had been planted along the MLK Parade route in Spokane, Washington in February. While she views the world through a liberal lens, and that upsets conservatives, she is what a person reporting news should be, intelligent, diligent, and a fact-checker covering stories from all angles. David Gregory, the current host of Meet the Press should be taking notes and watching how it's done instead of turning his Sunday morning show into Meet the Republicans.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The GOP Says Deficits Don't Matter if Helping the Wealthy

Senate Republican Jon Kyl (R-AZ) says that Congress should extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans regardless of their impact on the deficit. Meanwhile, he and other Republicans are blocking unemployment insurance extensions over deficit concerns! We've been at this rodeo before. The unpaid for tax cuts for the rich at the expense of working people is the same backwards policy Republicans used to put the nation in this hole, and it's the same policy they promise to return to if put in a position of power again. As exasperating as the Democrats can be, we can not let Republicans back into power.

In an election year, you'd think the framing of this argument couldn't be more advantageous for Democrats.  However are Democrats going to act like Democrats always have and cut a deal in which getting unemployment benefits extended will come at the cost of extending the Bush tax cuts as well or will they finally show some backbone and say not this time?!

Rachel Maddow made several great points yesterday on Meet the Press while debating both former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillespie and former Democratic Congressman Harold Ford Jr. (who seemed shocked she took on the other "Dem" at the table) when they sang the praises of tax cuts.

"When Republicans have had the reins, this is what they've done: two wars not paid for, prescription drug benefit not paid for, two tax cuts that mostly benefited the rich not paid for." They put all that stuff on the deficit, $1.3 trillion sitting there as--in a deficit when Obama took over, after the previous Democratic president had handed him a surplus. If you talk about--if Republicans want to run as this fiscally responsible party, it's neat, but it's novel. It's not how they've actually governed."

Several moments of back and forth with Gillespie and New York Times columnist David Brooks beating their chests on how conservative policies are awesome and drooling over new New Jersey, Governor Christie (R) and how he is taking on the government employee unions there. Funny how they didn't mention how Christie handed out $1 billion in tax cuts to families who earn more than $400,000, the richest two percent and cut that same amount from education spending ($800+M) and other social programs which help the middle class and the poor.  I wish Rachel had brought it up because David "Bushy" Gregory sure wouldn't.  Then she continued...

"I think that most Americans also, though, understand the basic arithmetic that when you're talking about pushing tax cuts that do mostly benefit the wealthy and you're simultaneously talking about getting tough on the deficit, you're talking about a world in which math doesn't work the way most people think it works. If you're going to talk about tax cuts--I mean, Harold, you, as a Democrat, proposed some very significant tax cuts when you were thinking about running for Senate in, in New York, a huge corporate tax cut, a big payroll tax holiday, and then said simultaneously, And we got to get serious about the deficit."

"Tax cuts hurt the deficit."

Maddow Smacks Down Republican Hypocrisy on Meet The Press

I really can't say anything more interesting than suggest you watch Rachel Maddow's appearance today on Meet The Press. She was magnificent. The world's worst moderator, David Gregory still kept her in check at times, but she was more than prepared for his antics today. The panel discussed the Obama Administrations treatment of terror suspects compared to Bush's with the all the political hypocrisy. Also discussed was Republican hypocrisy over the stimulus package and the jobs bill. Maddow challenged Aaron Schock (R-IL) as to why reading an enemy combatant his Miranda Rights is a bad thing. He went into a lie and she bagged him. That woman always shows up with facts and stats. How can they not know this about her at this point? Then they went into domestic policies with Rachel accusing Schock of hypocrisy for railing against a spending bill in public while touting its benefits in his home district. She crushed him again. I do wish Gregory had let her respond when Schlock managed to whimper a question of whether she would give back her Bush tax cuts. She was our local DJ when the Bush cuts for the wealthy were issued and the rest of us got a $600 check. Although I'm sure her point would've been that she wasn't in congress or the senate voting against bills while reaping the benefits, my point is that she wasn't a huge beneficiary either. I don't see that as a point for little Aaron. He looked like he wanted to cry.

Panel examines politics of terror

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Roundtable on the Obama agenda, health care

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy