Ed Schultz can be pretty fiery on any issue, and on this one I think he NAILED it. He said exactly what I was thinking about the situation. For Republicans, and Sen. Nelson, to refuse to extend jobless benefits and block this bill in the face of what failure to pass this bill will bring is unconscionable.
>>> this is the story that has me fired up tonight. i've tried to cool down on this story but i can't. republicans in the senate, if you love america, quit voting like you hate americans. it's class warfare at its best. it's alive and well. by blocking the jobs bill in the senate last night, the republican party has assaulted the middle class one more time. every single republican, plus one turn coat democrat, senator ben nelson of nebraska, turned their backs on the american worker, by extending unemployment benefits. they are taking it pretty hard.
>> they will not let us get unemployment benefits to people who are out of work and that is unconscienceable. in my 35 years, i've never seen anything like this. never.
>> 35 years is a long time in the senate. he says he's never seen anything like this. never? the white house puts it this way. the package would save extend tax cuts for american families who have suffered through the worst economic downfall since the great depression. the republicans are pretending that they are showing leadership with fiscal discipline. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell did not enter the national debt. republicans and democrats simply disagree on the democrats but they simply disagree on the democrats' insis steps on adding tens of billions more to an already. trillions of dollars for tax breaks and corporate tax breaks, the republican party will draw a line in the sand on americans who are desperate, desperate is the word and i think i remember famously that the deficits don't matter. and now the republicans are like a national debt, the most important thing that is out there. and you know what, they really don't give a dam about your personal debt. they don't care if you lose your house or can't put food on the table or give your kids a chance at a normal life. that's what they are. what the republican party is doing, in my opinion, is shameful and unamerican. and to think that they are really the party of political terrorists right now, on a mission that can destroy the very fabric of this great country. the numbers are, just today, 1.2 million people who have been out of work longer than six months have been abandoned by the political party just absolutely bent on breaking president obama. unemployed americans are just, i guess you could say, collateral damage along the way to the waterloo that they have dreamed about for the last 18 months. this is exactly why i title by book killer politics. the politics that we're witnessing over the last 24 hours has a chance to really ruin a lot of lives in this country. and i don't think the republicans get that. i don't think that they understand the severity. this is about survival. for a lot of americans out there, it is a drop in the bucket and, of course, on the other side of things, they are not helping president obama or the majority party do anything at all when it comes to creating jobs. i think they are trying to railroad the economy so they can get political gain and say, see, the democrats couldn't do it. it's not about what was that slogan that senator mccain had?
>> country first. remember that? remember how they were saying country first? it's the republican party first and of the most selfish generation that we've led over the last eight years, change is tough. i will tell you what, progressives don't give up. there are no 57 people in the senate with a heart in the soul who voted correctly last night. and there is no doubt about it f. we keep up the pressure and get three, five, more seats, we can go back and get the jobs bill and that's how we have defeat and get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think about this. text a for yes and b for no to 622639 governor, good to have you with us tonight.
>> my pleasure, ed. interesting listening to you.
>> well, what do you think? am i wrong?
>> no, you're dead right. this is about politics and hypocrisy. it's about politics because, you're right, they want to make a point about the deficit but every economist says fix the economy first, get people back to work, then have a long-term deficit reduction plan. every economist tells them that. and it's also about hypocrisy because they are the ones that had a chance to talk about the pay as you go bill and they all voted no. and now they are all saying that pay as you go is so important. well, this bill, the bill that extended the medicaid relief for the state, that bill has passed the senate on two separate occasions. now all of a sudden everyone is getting religion. they talk about small business, we're the party to help create small business jobs. well, we extend small business loan programs. we extend the research and development tax credit program. forest raunt and retail establishments, we give tax breaks. they are taking all of that away. for the middle class, they are not going to be able -- unless this bill passes, there is no more reduction for property taxes or sales taxes or tuition. those are the things at the heart of helping the middle class.
>> governor, the pennsylvania -- your state, the department of labor is saying that this is going to affect another 104,000 workers in your state. what are you going to do? how are you going to handle this?
>> well, it's going to be enormously difficult. and what is going to happen is those workers not getting this aid, they are going to go into other facets of our social safety network programs which are going to increase our costs even further. so, you're right, it's absolutely inhumane and by losing the money for the medicaid dollars that we have been promised by both the president, the house, and the senates passed separate bills. by losing that, we're going to have to lay off 20,000 government workers. they just said that they are government workers and they have too much any way. well, they are policemen, firemen, teachers, social workers, caseworkers, people who are so important to the structure, all we do. pennsylvania has done very well the last three months. second only to texas. how is that going to help when i have to lay off 20,000 people come the beginning of july?
>> what would you tell president obama to do, the republicans have made it very clear they want him to fail, they are watching their watch till we get to the midterms? what's the call for this summer, governor?
>> i would get out there and say, look, we're starting to see signs of recovery and need to do more. these guys are trying to stop us from reviving this economy because they want -- you're dead right, ed. they want this economy to be in the tank come november. i don't care about the november elections. i do care about the 120,000 pennsylvanians. that's what we should be concentrating on. anything else is a flat out disgrace.
>> governor ed rendell, thank you for joining us on "the ed show." i appreciate it so much.
>> my pleasure, ed. keep fighting.
>> you bet. and we are fighting. this is going all throughout the country. joining me now is the governor of -- virge, i know you're boiling over this, what is this going to do to your town and what is it doing to your region right now in michigan?
>> well, ed, as usual, you were right on. we weren't enjoying a recovery in michigan. we're being robbed and consider us a fly over country. we are not getting our recovery and this is much worse. this is obscene. it's every bit that you said. it's obscene that a few -- the americans need to realize what this is, it's the hijacking of our democratic system. both the form and substance here is outrageous. the fact that the filibuster is now business as usual in the u.s. senate is disgusting. the fact that they have an overwhelming majority of 57 senators and can't do the basic business of the country is despicable. and that's republican leadership. that's them standing in the way of progress. that's the kind of obstinant leadership that we have. it's outrageous, mainstream america will suffer. these republicans are so hypocritical. they didn't have any problems when it was billions or trillions to invade and rebuild iraq. what about main street? what about rebuilding main street america? that's my question. who do you think elected you.
>> absolutely. the unemployment rate for michigan is sitting at 13.7%. how much more pressure is this going to put on the services that need to be rendered in your community?
>> well t. certainly -- we've been fortunate because our two gm plants are up and running. those products are in demand. but this certainly could mean layoffs. as i say, we're not enjoying a recovery. most cities around the state are in a deficit. we just got a $12 million deficit in lansing. we're trying to get the business done and we will get the people's business done. but we get the midyear cuts from the state because of revenue sharing cuts and this has the potential. but the state, just as governor rendell said, this will mean more onerous cuts on the state and then we will be stuck with midyear cuts and we will have to make adjustments. we've got people suffering. people are losing their jobs, they are losing their homes, and they are losing their hope. and i don't want them to lose hope. we all know people want a job. they don't just want an unemployment check. but when you're about to lose your house and have trouble feeding your kids, this is fight ta vital. let's get this done so we might enjoy a recovery down the road.
>> i think the republicans have lost their moral compass. virg, thank you for being with us tonight.
I'm sure I'm not going to say anything that hasn't been said here repeatedly, but this reeks of politics. The Mayor of Lansing pointed out that at no time in history has the filibuster been used as often as it has in this current Congress. Democrats had 57 votes and that STILL wasn't enough to get the bill passed?
I am not persuaded by the deficit argument, as Ed and his guests eloquently point out in the video, when the Republicans were running up all of that debt that made things as bad as they are now they weren't even THINKING about the deficit. Now that Pres. Obama and most of the Democrats are trying to clean up the mess that the Republicans have left behind, NOW all of a sudden the deficit is the most important thing in the world? Really? I find that excuse to be unpersuasive and complete and utter bullshit.
As someone looking for work who wasn't eligible for the unemployment benefits I know how hard it is to deal with not having an income, even without having to worry about having a roof over my head or food in my mouth. I can only imagine how someone feels who only has those relatively small checks to keep them afloat.
So kudos to you Ed for just saying it like it is and calling them what they are. I guess in order to make Pres. Obama fail, they are willing to let the country fall to pieces as well. This anti-Obama vote is just the latest in a string of anti-Obama votes, it's amazing this Congress has managed to get anything done considering the Republicans are being total jackasses about everything. I don't even think they are acting in good faith anymore (I could have believed that of some of them in the beginning-- maybe I was naive), they are simply more concerned about their jobs and how much power they have than they are about how they can make everyone else's lives better. They should be ashamed of themselves, but at this point I don't believe they have any shame.
BTW, MSNBC's new video site is AWESOME! You can watch the vids and read the transcript, they are captioned, or you can have the transcript in a separate little window and have it scroll along with the video. So ~thumbsup~ to them.