DOWNLOADS: (99)

PLAYS: (440)

Embed

Here at C&L, I and a few others been bashing MSNBC and demanding that Ed Rendell be kicked off for impersonating a Democrat. He shouldn't be allowed to go on the air since he joined up with a gang of rich, arrogant scumbags, fronting for a group called Fix The Debt. They are demanding that working class Americans and seniors pay for the federal deficit that the wealthy elites on Wall Street created by having their social safety nets gutted. So when Susie says Rendell is no liberal, she's absolutely right!

Apparently, MSNBC hasn't heeded our message and put this vacuous fool back on the teevee. Listen to his moronic rant on what the President should be doing about the federal debt so conservatives can screw most of the people in America because they refuse to deal in reality.

RENDELL: And he has to also deliver a message to Democrats that we're going to have to compromise. Now give the President credit, he said he would consider chained CPI, he said back in 2011 that he would raise the age limit on Medicare with carve-outs. Those are things he's going to have to deliver if we're going to get Republicans to go along with more increased revenue and doing something finally on the debt. But only one person can take this on his shoulders and cross the finish line and that's the President of the United States. He has to lead.

Which does Rendell sound more like? A) Liberal; B) Democrat or C) Fox News Republican from the House of Representatives? C is the correct answer.

Rendell: No ifs ands or buts about it. He has to lead. And boy, I’d love the whole Congress, this new Congress and the President, they should all go see a screening of Lincoln together, because Abraham Lincoln led on the 13th Amendment when everybody on both sides told him he was crazy.

My God, he even used a slavery fight analogy from the movie Lincoln to justify his wickedness.
MSNBC's Steve Kornacki was so shocked by what he heard by this supposed lefty that he forced him to clarify his remarks.

Kornacki: Well, Governor is I heard you right there, are you saying you would be okay with raising the Medicare eligibility age?

Rendell: With proper carve-outs for people who are, you know, have health challenges, absolutely.

He mumbles this response because he knows he's shillin' for the billionaires and sounds like a Larry Kudlow wannabe to people of the left. WTF does he mean by carve-outs and health challenges? Geez, I couldn't transcribe any more from this Benedict Arnold traitor in a suit.

Wendell Potter explained why the "raise the age" solution really isn't with this great piece. Dean Baker describes the chained CPI for you as well.

Dylan Matthews writes this about the con game being played on Social Security with chained CPI.

All told, chained CPI raises average taxes by about 0.19 percent of income. So, taken all together, it’s basically a big (5 percent over 12 years; more, if you take a longer view) across-the-board cut in Social Security benefits paired with a 0.19 percent income surtax. You don’t hear a lot of politicians calling for the drastic slashing of Social Security benefits and an across-the-board tax increase that disproportionately hits low earners. But that’s what they’re sneakily doing when they talk about chained CPI.

That’s why watchdog groups like the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities argue that the only fair way to do chained CPI would be to pair it with an increase in Social Security benefits, and to exempt Supplemental Security Income, which provides support for impoverished elderly, disabled and blind people. Otherwise, it’s just a typical “raise taxes, cut benefits” plan, and an arguably regressive one at that.

Most of us fought for President Obama to get his second term, but none of us fought for cuts to the social safety net programs as part of the bargain. Ed Rendell gets paid to shill against all of us of the working class who fought for Obama to get reelected.

DOWNLOADS: (95)

PLAYS: (554)

Embed

I met Ed Rendell during the DNC in Denver back in 2008. He was very likeable and you knew after spending a few moments with him that he knows how to politic. So it's very sad to see him on MSNBC pathetically hawking the phony rich man's front group calling themselves Fix The Debt.

Rendell was on teevee yesterday pimping his take. It's very sad to think that most of the year he says he speaks for Democrats, but when our entire elderly population's well-being is at risk, he's siding with the robber baron CEOs.

In addition to his current duties as professional-liberal-even-Joe-Sixpack-can-love on MSNBC, Ballard Spahr court jester, and corporate consigliere atGreenhill & Co investment bank, Rendell is currently co-chairing the steering committee of something called The CEO Campaign to Fix the Debt—a blue-chip cabal of 130-plus plutocrats who have anted up a $43 million kitty to fund a multimedia stealth campaign/public relations offensive to convince the turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving.

Fix the Debt is pushing for radical alterations to the tax code to legalize a hundred-plus billion dollar corporate tax dodge and pass the buck onto the middle/working/underclass in the form of deep cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, all the while masquerading as a selfless crusade to save the nation from going over the [cue thunder and lightning] financial cliff. Bless their blackened hearts.

Ed is slapping the backs of all his liberal TV pals, hoping they'll come over to his side of reverse-engineered Robin Hoods.

So at this point you might be asking yourself: If the likes of GE and Honeywell are paying zero in taxes, where is Fix the Debt going to get the money to pay down the national debt? Simple. They take it from old people. On Monday, Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, a Fix the Debt signatory, told CBS News:

“[Social Security] wasn’t devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career … You’re going to have to do something, undoubtedly, to lower people’s expectations of what they’re going to get, the entitlements, and what people think they’re going to get, because you’re not going to get it.”

Last year, Blankfein earned $16 million. His net worth is $450 million. Seventy-one Fix the Debt CEO signatories have at least $9 million in retirement funds, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. A dozen have in excess of $20 million to retire on. Honeywell CEO David Cote is sitting on a $78 million nest egg, which is the equivalent of a $428,000 Social Security check every month after he turns 65.

It’s Robin Hood in reverse: rolling old ladies to give to the rich. And who’s steering this pirate ship? Edward G. Rendell, a man who, when you get right down to it, isn’t really a Democrat. He just plays one on television.

Rendell has been harping on the deficit for a long time, but now he's gone too far. I have a request for all of my lefty TV hosts. The next time he goes on your show, please ask him how it feels to be playing a Democrat, and if Hollywood has been calling.

Ah...the exquisite logic of S.E. Cupp

The news, it's not so good:

On June 25, MSNBC will launch a new show at 3 p.m. featuring a rotating group of hosts from the network's pool of contributors, sources at the network have confirmed.

Steve Kornacki, Salon's political writer, and S.E. Cupp, the conservative columnist, are among those who will co-host the new show, which will replace Martin Bashir's program when it moves to the 4 p.m slot.

S.E. Cupp??? C'mon MSNBC. It's kinda hard to buy the whole "lean forward" meme when one of the first people you bring on board works for that oh-so-delightful Tucker Carlson outlet (the one that celebrates lack of professionalism), appears on Glenn Beck TV and writes such painfully obvious attempts to be edgy and "controversial" as this:

If you don’t know me, I’m an author, a political columnist, and a conservative television commentator. I live in New York City, I love board games, and my favorite food is macaroni and cheese. I’m also a terrible person.

You should know this about me now, because it will lessen the blow later when I gradually reveal all of my grotesque short-comings over the course of our relationship here at The Daily Caller. I figure, if I’m upfront with you at the beginning, you will come to hate me only slightly less. It’s that modicum of tolerance that I hope I can eventually turn into a shred of acceptance, and then later maybe that will become a snippet of appreciation. But that may just be wishful thinking.

So let’s pretend we’re on our first date, and we’re getting to know each other. You are sitting across the table from me at some trendy, low-lit, beautiful-people lounge that you picked and I probably hate. You’re sipping from a glass of small-batch bourbon that you ordered to prove how “old-school” you are, and I’m sipping from a glass of small-batch bourbon because that’s what I drink. In the first five minutes you’ve been sure to let me know you’re a banker/lawyer/politico and I’m immediately regretting my pledge never to go out with a banker/lawyer/politico, and as you talk I’m imagining myself fishing the salmon run in Alaska (you’re not there).

And then, after your one-of-a-kind story about the time you and your college buddies ran with the bulls in Pamplona, you say, “So tell me about yourself.” And here’s where I get ready to lower the boom.

First of all, I say, I dislike you very much already. Not because you’ve already told me how much money you make, but because I’m a misanthrope.

Wow. So snappy. So empowered. So clearly disingenuous. Excuse me while I suppress my gag reflex.

I can't imagine why MSNBC thinks this is a good choice to replace Bashir, although to date, all other names thrown out (Steve Kornacki, Touré, Crystal Ball) are far less objectionable. But it's yet another slap in the face to the progressive brand that they've built and fostered in their campaigns using their prime time line up of Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and Ed Schultz. There are so many fantastic voices out there--Sam Seder, Mike Papatonio, Ezra Klein, etc.--that deserve a chance to reach a larger audience, but MSNBC opts for the quixotic programming of someone who lacks anything meaningful to contribute.

Lean forward? I think not. This is a big step backwards.

Want to give MSNBC some feedback on their programming? Here's the link.