After the Senate blocked debate of President Obama's infrastructure proposal to stimulate the economy and create jobs, Ed Schultz went on a tear, letting Republicans have it for their obstructionist ways. SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us
November 4, 2011

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After the Senate blocked debate of President Obama's infrastructure proposal to stimulate the economy and create jobs, Ed Schultz went on a tear, letting Republicans have it for their obstructionist ways.

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us tonight. thanks for watching. Republicans' calculated campaign to sabotage President Obama, well, it hit a new low today. a few hours ago the Senate Democrats came up nine votes short of passing the Rebuild America jobs bill. The bill would have created thousands of construction jobs by investing $50 billion in rebuilding America's roads, bridges, and airports. Not a single Republican voted for the bill. Backstabber Joe Lieberman and sellout Ben Nelson joined with the Republicans to kill the bill. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell objected to the bill because it would put a new tax on America's richest 345,532 people.

MCCONNELL: I'm sure that it is the case that most Americans support raising taxes on high-income individuals. My guess is they might have a different view if they knew that 4 out of 5 of those individuals were actually business owners. Nevertheless, it's time it seems to me for us to quit making the campaign speeches and remember the election is in November of '12, not this month of '11.

I want to stop here and tell you what my dream ad is. It's one that could be made for lots of Republicans (and Lieberman and Nelson, too), and one that I think would be effective. It goes like this. Take a clip like the one of McConnell talking about business owners and pretending an itty-bitty extra tax on income over $1 million would break them. Or the one of Boehner talking about what a job creator he is. Loop it, over and over. Split the screen and scroll all of the non-jobs bills Republicans have voted on. All of them. The umpty-zillion "ban abortion" bills. The de-fund NPR bills. The idiotic "In God We Trust" vote. scroll them all, while looping the claim they've been busy, busy, busy creating jobs. End it with a simple question: Where are the jobs?

I am so tired of these lunatics going on television and claiming they're creating anything but mayhem and dissonance. Let them own all of those lies, right here and right now and all the way through until voting next November.

SCHULTZ: So right in that sound bite Mitch McConnell what the American people want and then he went on to tell the rest of his colleagues in the Senate that the American people are stupid, that they don't know how many businesspeople are involved in this. I mean, give me a break. The gentleman from Kentucky, if we have to call him that, is protecting job creators from a .7% tax on any income over a million dollars a year? i'll have more on this later at the board. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hammered his good friend for sabotaging the President.

REID: My friend, the Republican leader, comes before this body today and says we should do our campaign speeches next year. When the world knows that my friend has said his number one priority in this congress is to defeat President Obama.

SCHULTZ: Yes, the world does know it. Harry Reid is spot on. Washington Democrats are finally speaking out against the Republican mission to make President Obama a one-termer. it shouldn't have taken this long, though. Tea Party Senator Jim Demint, he laid out the playbook about 2 1/2 years ago.

DEMINT: If we are able to stop Obama on this, it will be his waterloo. It will break him.

SCHULTZ: Mitch McConnell made this incredible statement one year ago tomorrow.

MCCONNELL: Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.

SCHULTZ: So the president, as we all know, has never really played the victim. He's been on the offensive fighting for middle-class Americans. He knows Republicans are only hurting the American people.

OBAMA: and when 72% of the American people support the ideas in this bill, 72% of Americans agree with this, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, there's no excuse for 100% of Washington Republicans to say no.

And here comes Schultz with the zinger, totally unafraid to say what's on his mind. In this case, he's articulating what is on the minds of everyone out there. This political theater is garbage. The idea of pretending like they're doing something while they do nothing? In any other business they'd be booted out of the door before they finished their first week. But in Washington, they get away with it. Anyway, here's Ed:

SCHULTZ: It's pretty basic stuff, isn't it? And it is crystal clear Republicans hate President Obama more than they care about the 99.8% of American people. This chart is so telling. This is how many people would be affected by this increase. Of course, the first million dollars is untouched. And then it's .7% after that. You know, 99.8% of the American people aren't going to be affected.

The polls show the American people are with the President on this. but 100% of Republicans have said no again. You know, the word "sabotage" has been an undercurrent of conversation in America about the righties, well, they're just trying to sabotage President Obama so he won't get re-elected. Sabotage is a hell of a word. Let's see. Google's definition is "deliberately destroy, damage or obstruct something, especially for political or military advantage."

Now, when i hear the word "sabotage," man, I'm thinking about war. I'm thinking about major confrontation. but of course political. Now, do you think that the Republicans are helping the economy by saying no to everything? Do you think that they are damaging the middle class by saying no to everything? And do you think that they are obstructing?

Well, the record shows it is a record amount of obstruction to this Congress to the point where we can hardly function as a government. And the will of the people is not being answered by the people that have been elected. This next election can't come fast enough. It can't motivate people enough to get out and do what they have to do in Ohio and Wisconsin because it is all connected.

We are at an ideological cross-roads in this country. We have an income inequality in America that we have never seen before. I'm going to be throwing a chart up here every night for you to explain exactly who they are in very baasic terms and what they are doing to destroy our economy. destroy, sabotage, may I go so far as to suggest and flat out say that the Republican party in this country, they are playing the game of economic terrorism on the American economy and the American middle class.

Yeah, he went there, and not without provocation. I don't know what you would call it other than sabotage on the mild side, and the "t" word on the harsh one. There's absolutely no reason to vote down infrastructure from an economic standpoint. This is a classic case of Republicans simply wanting to destroy government (and the people governed) to prove their theory that government doesn't work.

I agree with Ed. 2012 can't come fast enough.

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