Dolly Parton -- Here You Come Again
Here they come again, those doom-saying, pearl-clutching, reality-denying Republicans. Hard to tell that the Democratic candidate won the White House and picked up seats in the House (albeit not enough to regain the majority), innit? We have a lot of work to do to get the country working for most Americans again and we're not gonna get even a little bit of help from the Republicans...nor from their enablers in the traditional media (I'm looking right at you, David Gregory). I still feel fairly optimistic though. We have the moral advantage and the numbers and we've gotten a taste of how much power we can wield when it's targeted.
I feel strongly that there has never been a more crucial time for us to start focusing in on the fiscal crossroads in front of us (it's not a cliff, not really even a curb; it's a choice about the kind of country we want to be). There are some easy solution that we should be pushing for to eliminate the ridiculousness of the debt/deficit arguments. Social Security is not insolvent. Period, full stop. But if Congress continues to raid the funds for their own fiscal recklessness, simply eliminate the cap and...wait for it...LOWER the age requirement to 55 or 60. Instant solvency AND the number of retirees will allow for younger workers to fill their jobs and lower the unemployment rate. Smart, progressive solutions. Want to save money in Defense without those "job-killing" cuts to programs? Speed up our withdrawal from Afghanistan. There's $6.7 billion per month saved. See how easy this is? We can do this. And we have good, sensible solutions.
Now it's just a matter of getting people to start listening to us and stop listening to John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Newt friggin' Gingrich.
ABC's "This Week" -- Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Roundtable: House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and ABC News' George Will, Donna Brazile and Jonathan Karl.
NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Lindsey Graham R-S.C.; Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Roundtable: Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID); NY Times columnist Tom Friedman; fmr. White House Chief of Staff for President Clinton, John Podesta; GOP strategist Mike Murphy; and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Sam Donaldson, ABC Reporter; Jodi Kantor, New York Times; Katty Kay, BBC's Washington Correspondent; Dan Rather, HDNet Global Correspondent
CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Roundtable: Tom Ricks, author of "The Generals," David Ignatius of the Washington Post, and CBS News' Margaret Brennan and Bob Orr.
MSNBC's "UP with Chris Hayes" -- Tom Ricks, Author of “The Generals;” David Frum, CNN Contributor; Spencer Ackerman, Wired Senior Writer; Heather McGhee, Demos VP; Tara McElvey, Newsweek/Daily Beast Correspondent; Julian Sanchez, Cato Institute Research Fellow; Yousef Munayyer, Jerusalem Fund Executive Director; Noura Erakat, The Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights; Raymond Castillo, Warehouse Workers United; Greg Fletcher, Wal-Mart Retail Worker.
MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Chris Hayes, host of “UP” on MSNBC; Allison Kilkenny, Co-host of Citizen Radio; Rula Jebreal, MSNBC Contributor and Foreign Policy Analyst at Newsweek; Mark Quarterman, Research Director at the Enough Project; Judge Mark Bennett, US District Court Judge in Northern District of Iowa; Valarie Kaur, Sikh American Filmmaker, Political Commentator and Director of Groundswell; Glenn Martin, Vice President of Public Affairs at the Fortune Society; Sean Pica, Executive Director of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison
CNN's "State of the Union" -- Durbin; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Reps. Tom Price, R-Ga., and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md.; former Commerce Secretary and Chairman of Mitt Romney’s Hispanic Steering Committee Carlos Gutierrez. Panel: Jackie Calmes, The New York Times; Gerald Seib,The Wall Street Journal and CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- former US Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Paul O’Neill; Bill Gates.
CNN's Reliable Sources -- Tara McKelvey, a fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University, and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post; Amy Holmes, Anchor for The Blaze, Terry Smith, former PBS media correspondent and Margaret Carlson, a columnist for Bloomberg; Marty Baron, incoming Washington Post Executive Editor.
"Fox News Sunday" _ Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Scott Walker, R-Wi. Panel: Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard/Fox News Contributor; Bob Woodward, Associate Editor of The Washington Post; Kimberley Strassel, The Wall Street Journal; Charles Lane, Editorial Writer for The Washington Post.
So what's catching your eye this morning?