Hey, did you know that Ed Schultz used to work as a TV meteorologist? They finally let him go after one too many references to racist cloud patterns.
Yes, I'm kidding, but it's not hard to envision this actually happening. When it comes to gratuitous references to race, Schultz is unrivaled -- except for all those other liberals inclined to do likewise. (audio clips after page break)
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) made a comment on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that is guaranteed to raise eyebrows on both sides of the aisle.
"If we had a Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles chief-of-staff at the White House, or President of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now. That's not the kind of presidency we're dealing with right now."
If you thought the Democrats would be satisfied with the fact that a solid phalanx of liberals have been chosen to moderate the presidential (and vice-presidential) debates, you would be wrong. Now they want to dictate what questions will be forbidden from being asked at the debates. I kid you not. The Politico reports on the question that the Democrats want to make taboo:
Some Democratic lawmakers want to make sure that one question does not get asked at the upcoming first presidential debate - about Simpson-Bowles.
Bill Maher is either a blithering idiot, a pathological liar, or both.
On HBO's Real Time Friday, the factually-challenged financier of Barack Obama actually had the gall to say the President didn't support the recommendations of his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (aka Simpson-Bowles) because - wait for it! - Republicans didn't support it (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Simpson-Bowles would have: raised taxes by $1.2 trillion--bumping to 21% the tax share of GDP from the typical 18%; relied largely on defense cuts to reduce spending; retained all $2.5 trillion in ObamaCare spending and done nothing to reform Medicare and Medicaid. No wonder Luke Russert loved it.
Appearing on Chuck Todd's Daily Rundown on MSNBC today, NBC congressional correspondent Russert bemoaned Simpson-Bowles's overwhelming defeat in the House yesterday. According to Russert, the measly 38 votes the plan garnered is emblematic of what's wrong with Washington. Todd joined in the hand-wringing. View the video after the jump.
Do you believe Rep. Paul Ryan when he says we only have a few years left to get our fiscal house in order, or we're going to face European-type austerity? How about the co-chairmen of the bipartisan deficit commission, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, who have essentially issued the same warning?
Have you taken a hard look at President Obama's 10-year budget with a view to whether it would marginally address the crisis? Are you aware of the gargantuan deficits it projects — averaging some $1 trillion per year — and that this is before considering the Congressional Budget Office's scoring that revealed that its projected cumulative deficits were understated by a staggering $2.3 trillion?
Former top Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos on Monday pestered his old White House colleague Erskine Bowles on the need to let the Bush tax cuts expire. The Good Morning America co-host also touted the critique of liberal columnist Paul Krugman in opposition to a panel calling for deficit reduction.
Stephanopoulos pushed Bowles, the co-chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform: "By extending [the Bush tax cuts, that's going to cost about $4 trillion...Couldn't some of this be avoided by keeping the tax rates where they are? I mean, by letting them go back to where they were in 1998 when you were White House chief of staff?"
Citing more liberal conventional wisdom, the ABC anchor critiqued, "[Paul Krugman] says taking away the deduction for the home mortgage deduction, the deduction for employer provided health care will end up creating a mixture of tax cuts and tax increases that is tax cuts for the wealthy and tax increases for the middle class."