March 23, 2014

I don't know why I bother. It's gonna be all about the Malaysian airline and the crisis in Ukraine. But you know what came out this month? The Congressional Progressive Caucus' suggested budget, smartly entitled "Budget for All".

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) released its budget last week. As usual, it was almost completely ignored by the major media outlets. As a result, we know very little about the actual ideas in the budget, but we know a lot about the media.

Let’s start with those ideas: most importantly, the progressive caucus budget is designed to get us back to full employment. It calls for a major program to modernize and improve our infrastructure. It would also provide funding to state and local governments to reverse many of the cutbacks in education, healthcare and other areas over the last few years. In past recoveries, state and local hiring has helped to boost the recovery. In this recovery, cutbacks slowed growth.

This kind of spending would lead to larger deficits in the first two years of the budget window, but make no mistake: it also would lead to more growth and more jobs. The simple fact that just about everyone in the budget debate concedes is that, in the near-term, if we want more jobs, we will need larger budget deficits. And we know we have no problem borrowing the money because interest rates are extremely low.

Truthfully, it has no chance of passing. But neither does Paul Ryan's budget, which the Sunday shows have fallen over themselves to tout. Not to minimize the tragedy of the Malaysian airliner or what's happening in Crimea, but here's something that directly affects America's working and middle class and we ain't gonna hear a peep about it.

ABC's "This Week" — Nate Silver. Roundtable: Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., ABC News’ Cokie Roberts, and Foreign Policy Initiative co-founder Dan Senor. Actor and Water.org co-founder Matt Damon.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Jimmy Carter; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, NCAA President Mark Emmert and former personal assistant to President Obama and Duke football and basketball player Reggie Love. Former Homeland Security Chairman Michael Chertoff. Roundtable: NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, New York Times columnist David Brooks, National Review Editor Rich Lowry and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Mitt Romney; Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger; oceanographer Dave Gallo;

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" -- Eric Schneiderman, New York Attorney General; John Cox, CEO, Safety Operating Systems; Rev. Dr. William Barber, President of the 125 chapter NC State Conference of the NAACP; Bart Jensen, USA Today; Dave Funk, former Northwestern airlines pilot; Rev. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock, Senior Pastor, Ebenezer Baptist Church; Teresa Ghilarducci, The New School for Social Research.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- (Jonathan Capehart guest hosts) Tara Dowdell, Democratic Strategist; Ron Christie, Columnist at the Daily Beast; Misty Copeland, ballerina; Irin Carmon, National Reporter at msnbc.com; Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, Co-Founder and Personal Finance Expert at askthemoneycoach.com; John Rowley, Democratic Strategist; Timothy Franzen, Lead Organizer of Moral Monday Georgia; Michael Goldfarb, Former FAA Chief of Staff; Karen Friedman, Executive Vice President and Policy Director at the Pension Rights Center; Connie Razza, Director of Strategic Research at the Center for Popular Democracy; Arun Gupta, Contributor to The Guardian, In These Times and The Progressive /Founder of The Occupied Wall Street Journal; Robert Francis, former NTSB Vice Chairman.

MSNBC's "Disrupt with Karen Finney" -- Paul McCarthy, former airline pilot; Zerlina Maxwell, TheGrio.com; John Cox, MSNBC/NBC News aviation analyst; Steven Clemons, The Atlantic; Shaunna Thomas, co-founder, UltraViolet; Irin Carmon, msnbc.com.

CNN's "State of the Union" — Tony Blinken, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser; Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Underwater search and rescue expert Curt Newport. Reverend Earl Johnson, former National Disaster Spiritual Care Manager for the Red Cross. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Panel: Newt

"Fox News Sunday" — Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio. Panel: Laura Ingraham, Bob Woodward, Paul Wolfowitz, Juan Williams.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

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