On Friday’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow hashed out one of the strongest key moments that defined Vice President Biden’s hard-hitting performance over Congressman Paul Ryan. She spoke to MSNBC colleague Chris Hayes about why Biden nailing Ryan’s flagrant hypocrisy on the stimulus was so much more than just a “zinger” or a “gotcha” moment.
Hayes said he believes that what made all the difference was Biden going beyond Ryan’s flip-flopping and actually defending the stimulus:
“People should read Michael Grunwald’s 'New New Deal,' which I’ve talked about before on air, because he lays out in some ways, what Joe Biden did in overseeing that stimulus spending, it wasn’t some petty, trivial undertaking. It was actually really remarkable. And in fact, they lived up to, despite all the Solyndra demagoguery that has come from Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, they lived up to an incredibly high standard, in terms of the efficiency and prudence, of spending that much money in that period of time. It was, in some ways, a great testament to effective bureaucratic deployment, to government doing what it should do. And that story has remained woefully untold.”
Hayes went on to explain that Ryan’s hypocrisy on the stimulus is part of a much larger misleading Republican trend. In 2002, Ryan made an impassioned plea before the House in favor of George W. Bush’s $700 billion in stimulus package, telling the Journal Times “you have to spend a little to grow a little.” Bush’s plan included an extension of unemployment benefits and millions of checks being mailed directly to people’s homes. Ten years later, Ryan called Obama’s stimulus a "wasteful spending spree."
With that evidence in mind, Hayes cautioned against buying into the idea that Republicans will shrink government.
“What they want to do now, in opposition, is create this ideological vision of smaller government, going after malformed bureaucracy," he said. "When they are in power, they do not do that. And no one should be suckered into thinking that they will.”
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The Keynesian Economic Solution for Unemployment is a temporary measured amount of Deficit Spending. Obama's Deficit Spending as a percentage of GDP is ten times higher than Kennedy's and over the entire length of his time in office. Apparently more Keynesian Aggregated Demand Management is not the solution for Growing the American Economy. According to the Constitution all Spending and Taxing legislation has to originate in the House of Representatives. The Continuing Resolutions did not even come close to the mix of Spending, Taxing, and Deficit reforms necessary for the Economic Growth to Employ all the people who wanted to work. Work is the sine qua non of how Capitalism rationally distributes purchasing power to households according to how much each contribute to the value of the economic output produced. That is why Congress passed the Employment Act of 1947. Therefore Obama had a Constitutional Duty to allow the House of Representatives to initiate the Legislation, to lead the Democrats in the Senate to pass the bills and then to sign them into Law and Faithfully Enforce Them. He could have also insisted on pro Economic Growth Public Policies with respect to Immigration, Energy, Environmental Regulation, and Financial Market Reform. Blaming Republicans for not passing Obama's America Jobs Act for 23 million people looking for work just makes him look like a sorry sad sack of an excuse for a President of the United States of America. In addition to the 23 million people not working, in four years Obama paid somebodies Six Trillion Dollars they did not deserve, diverted productive resources from valuable employment to worthless employment and left our children and grandchildren to pay with interest well over Six Trillion for which they will get nothing of value in return. The very definition of Economic Justice is having and doing one's own. In practice this means receiving money in value the equivalent of what you produce and paying money in value the full equivalent of what you buy. This moral principle of voluntary exchange of equivalent value is the only way a community of free men can cooperate. This Debt overhang is the major impediment to Growth because it corrupts the moral principle underlying the monetary incentives for work, the voluntary exchange of equivalent value and the inviolable ownership of private property. These just happen to be what makes capitalism work better than any other economic system and is also a textbook case of what Obama's Progressive Economic Policies can do to wreck the economy.
Just over look the Republicans economic disasters since 1981, rather amusing spin but that is all you have done, republican failures spun to blame democrats. How many times has the republicans managed to balance the budget there is your answer without having to use Reagans fuzzy math. Funny how you ignore how republicans voted against the stimulus but once it was passed they went running to Washington with their hands out.
Although you utilize big words in your wordy post. I trust Chris Hayes and I agree with him. Sometimes I find simplicity in thought to be easier to understand and therefore better.
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"The very definition of Economic Justice... paying money in value the full equivalent of what you buy."
There you go again.
Adam Smith, 1776: "The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities;that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state." We all profit from our infrastructure, our system, but investors and businesses get more use from, gain more from that system. The investors and businesses with a sense of community have no problem with acknowledging their debt (the 'Buffet Rule').
The (current) Republican party is bankrolled by short-sighted people who are congenitally incapable of understanding the warning implicit in the tale of the goose that laid the golden eggs. Self-serving, devoid of empathy, they get people who will do or say anything for money to front for them, spouting any nonsense that will obfuscate. When you pull back the curtain, you see the wizard for the con man that he his.
2008 no one was shopping retail sitting idle on sea shores, terrorist running wild especially Bin Liden, stocks at an all time low.... With Obama People are shopping again, stocks are up, Bin Liden is dead and everyone will have healthcare 2014... Obama is for the people....... Romney is for the investors and profit and gain he can get out of America he will leave America bankrupt just like bain and Massachusetts it's not about black or white it's about the rich and the middle class being washed away so there will only be the rich and the poor... I have been a nurse for 30 years now age 50 with horrible health insurance, and I work for the hospital... I hope and prayed for obamacare for better healthcare benefits and to help the hospitals stay open without insurance hospitals can not function and medicare as a voucher program will through all long term residents in the streets or at home with their children, because no nursing home will accept a voucher they want their money.... Obama has done everything he said he would do.... Romney constantly changes what he stands for to accomondate what he thinks will win him the seat... Just like a car salesman tells you what you want to hear... America wake up rock the vote Obama 2012...
All I know, and all I believe, and all I trust, and all I hope for...is that Rachael Maddow will be our next president..to run for the the intillegent people .
I am a conservative Democrat. But you know what? I am an African American woman who has worked most of my life for the U.S. Department of Justice/DEA and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. I suffer from heart and lung disease as well as Fibromyalgia and kidney disease. I had to resign my post in April 2009 due to several hospitalizations and recurring illnesses that caused me to miss work. I was a union girl and proud of it. I made a great hourly wage and was able to help my son, who has since graduated from UCLA with his degree in Political Science/Anthropology. He has since landed a job at a law firm in West Los Angeles and looks to take his LSAT in December and hopefully will be accepted to a good law school. I said all that to say this. I have always been proud to work. My first job when I was 15 at my grandpa's church in a summer jobs program which, unfortunately, the smaller government, has cut budgets so these wonderful programs don't exist anymore. I am fighting for the disability that I worked for for 23 years and I began to feel bad when Romney put down the 47%. I felt even more hurt when President Obama didn't fight for the truth during his first debate. Then I was encouraged when Biden open his mouth and began to fight for people like me, who are unable to work and we look to our government to give us the support that we worked for. I am not lazy. I miss the pride that comes with work and I thank Vice President Biden for the fighting for the middle class and the poor even though they hesitate to say poor. I feel as though sometimes I don't have a voice. Biden was my voice on Thursday and for that I say thank you. And thank you Krystal Ball, Melisa Harris-Perry, Chris Hayes, Steve Kornaki, Rachael Maddow, Chris Matthews, "Big Ed Schultz", Rev. Al Sharpton Toure'.
You are so right, Lisa. I salute you for your career accomplishments and in raising a fine young man. Biden took up the heavy yoke of socking it to Ryan the other night. Some people are criticizing Joe for his animation and aggressiveness. I say, "Go get him, Joe! They are treacherous people and you can't win any discussion at this point with these people but through outright offensiveness. Take care.
maybe Bidden can laugh our enemy's to death. how anyone can laugh at anything they debated on is beyond me. he acted demented. did you notice , obama distanced himself on what Bidden said , LOL
Bidden was laughing at Ryan and his whacky spins and empty promises as well as lame conspiracy attempts. Heres the first clue lying Ryan whined about lax embassy security yet he voted to cut 300 million from embassy security, then when pushed lying Ryan had no real answer as to why he voted to cut funding other then times are tough all over. I am sorry but the world is a dangerous place and and bad things happen especially when uneducated people who blindly follow religion or leaders decided the best way to get what they want is by killing others.
@brenda cooper You have told a lie. PRESIDENT Obama did not distance himself from Biden. He told reporters who were at the airport when he left AF1 that he was proud of Biden. Your sarcasm is not appreciated. You are a sore loser! You can't handle the truth.
omg check out the tape ryan lied he begged for money he has two faces don't truct either
I am very thankful for msnbc and all the great commentators that shed light on the real facts about the right wing. I am proud of my president and vice president and I pray for the saftey and good judgement of both as well as the voters, we all have a stake in this election for life, liberty,health, and peace of mind. At the end of the day we all can sleep knowing that we did the right thing to make our world a better place. Peace
@jans jazz..really? Aren't you thankful for all the liberal news stations? ABC, NBC, CBS? Just because they say it, doesn't make it so. I watch them all, and FOX . I know, FOX lies because they're a more conservative news program. And, of course we all know that none of the liberal stations "stretches the truth", right? Of course they don't, and we know it because they tell us. And the earth is flat.