Rachel Maddow Does a Great Job on Budget Arguments

Rachel Maddow had a really great segment on Friday



She started by talking about how Republicans are now having problems in town hall meetings. Here's a report from ThinkProgress on it. Town Hall Citizens Confront Rep. Sean Duffy For Voting To Privatize Medicare And Defend Tax Breaks For Rich. The embedded video is a little longer than the transcript they provide and it's all good stuff. I really liked the comparison of small US companies to Canadian ones stating that Canadian ones have an advantage because they don't have to pay for employees healthcare.

Maddow gave a few other examples of these town hall meetings involving Lou Barletta (R-PA), Robert Dold (R-IL) and Charlie Bass (R-NH).

She then pointed out that the beltway press is not covering this but sites like ThinkProgress (VIDEO: Paul Ryan Booed At Town Hall For Defending Tax Breaks For The Wealthy), DailyKos (Town halls turn hostile for Republicans over tax cuts for rich, Medicare) and Jason Linkins at the Huffington Post (GOP Reps Host Town Halls On Budget, Get Yelled At) are.

She goes on to point out the most responsible budget proposal in Washington. "The one that actually does the most about the deficit, that balances the budget 20 years earlier than Paul Ryan even tries to. That budget would let the Bush tax cuts expire, it would raise taxes on the very richest people in the country. It would cut defense spending which after all has doubled in the past decade and was already the biggest thing in the discretionary budget. It would end those subsidies for the little orphan oil companies and on health care costs which is still the budget eating dragon in America, what we would get is a public option. How does that sound compared to the cutting taxes for the rich and dismantling Medicare thing?"

This is the budget from the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Here's a 12 page pdf (with big graphs) on it.

She then interviews Matt Miller about the budget and it's coverage. All good stuff. I wish she hadn't buried it in the second half hour on a Friday show.