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RYAN: The international average for the corporate tax is 25 percent.
Ours is 35 percent. Hey, come on, everybody, let me, all right.
(PEOPLE SCREAMING)
If you‘re yelling, I just want to ask you to leave. If you‘re just going to scream out like that, it‘s not just polite to everybody. I mean, look, we got media here. Let‘s prove to this people that Wisconsinites can be cordial with one another, come on.
UYGUR: Look, I love that every time. Because they were so excited when the Democrats were getting shut shot it down on their town hall events. They‘re like, ha ha, you got shot it down—come on, come on. Please stop it. Now, look, Congressman Paul Ryan is planning his republican fly all the way to right with his plan to privatize Medicare. And his constituents are obviously not happy about it. That could be just hurdles from Ryan town hall meeting this afternoon, and that unrest continued.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Being under 54 on Medicare, I already knew I‘m screwed.
RYAN: If you‘re already on Medicare, your grandfather is on the current system, that‘s the proposal. Even if your under 65.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Well, I don‘t, I already knew that I‘m screwed but my concern is.
RYAN: Definitely everything you read.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Or everything I heard.
RYAN: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Thank you.
RYAN: Not today though, believe that, yes.
(INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
UYGUR: I like that he‘s challenged on it. By the way, he‘s saying, no, no, no, if you‘re over 55, you‘re fine. If you‘re under 55 and not on Medicare yet, then you‘re screwed. Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. The Republicans of course have shifted the conversations so far to the right now.
Ezra Klein of the Washington Post argues that President Obama‘s now considered a liberal. Even though, he has many of the same uses a moderate republican from the 1990s. But has the GOP shifted the spectrum so far to the right that they form right wing clip? Look, that‘s what it looks like in their town halls across the country now? Whether its Ryan‘s district in Wisconsin or you just saw or in Orlando, Florida where Congressman Daniel Webster face outrage from his own constituents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(INAUDIBLE)
You‘re a liar. You‘re a good damn liar.
(INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
UYGUR: A lot of fun. For more, let me bring in Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein. Also joining us is Simon Rosenberg, the founder and executive director of the New Democratic Network.
All right. Guys, I want to talk to you about both things. If the Republicans have gone too far right, and if that has shift to the spectrum for Democrats. Ezra, I mention your article. I thought it was really interesting. I know because I was a moderate republican in the 1990s. And the president is way to the right of me now. And I have hardly changed any position. So, it tells why you think that that‘s true.
EZRA KLEIN, “THE WASHINGTON POST”: So, I have three examples and I‘m talking here about domestic and economic policy. The first Cap and Trade plan was George H. W. Bush, he says, it was a clean era of 1990 and it was about acid rain. As a late of 2007, Newt Gingrich voted for that plan. By the way, he was saying, Cap and Trade for carbon would be a great idea. He would quote, strongly support that idea. An individual mandate health care bill. That was the republican alternative to Clinton character, the employer mandate and the single payer. It was created by a guy named Mark Poly (ph) who is the conservative of the communist that—he told me. I did it because I was worried about single payer. As late as 2005, Mitt Romney was doing an individual mandate plan as late as 2009. Chuck Grassley was saying, individual mandates had bipartisan support. And of course, that‘s what Barack Obama‘s plan.
And then the final example is a budget deal to cut the deficit with both spending cuts and tax hikes which again George H. W. Bush in 1990, that was his plan. He said it was necessary and he did it, and it work. And so, I make two points in the—one is, we sort of shifted the policy debates such that always different things and moderate Republicans wants fought for, and now considered sort of wild life liberal ideas. And the second is, it‘s odd to see Republicans having abandoned so many of them because they actually work. The Cap and Trade did and the acid rain problem. The individual mandate did work in Massachusetts and George H. W. Bush did set the stage for balance budget in the ‘90s. So, they‘ve not only given up on their old policies, they‘ve given up on their successful policies too.
UYGUR: Look, I think that point is inarguable, it‘s the point I always make. This spectrum has obviously shifted before our eyes. So, Simon, let me ask you about that. I mean, when you put in several liberties too, that‘s even worst. God, right now, we‘re authorizing, dropping bombs on top of the United States citizens without a trial from predator‘s strikes. I mean, if Reagan did that, people would have gone ballistic, it would have been crazy, would have been unthinkable, right? I mean, so the hold spectrum has shifted. Do you think it‘s a mistake for the Democrats to just keep moving further and further right along with the Republicans?
SIMON ROSENBERG, NEW DEMOCRAT NETWORK: Yes, of course it is. And I think that Ezra has great analysis here because I think the Republicans, what he‘s saying is that it‘s not just—to the right. But there have been things that work, and if you look at all the major challenges that we face today, clean energy. How are we going to get wages and income up again? How are we going to dealt with the health care crisis in the United States? The Republicans are not really coming to the table, with anything meaningful. And what we have is, a political party has become very reckless, very irresponsible, you know, proposing kind of cockamamie ideas at a time of great national challenges.
And I think the challenge that the Democrats is to not, you know, find equal distance between a bunch of bad ideas that are out of the mainstream. But to stand their ground and to make sure that they—and I think the president did, I want to get to the president more credit than I think that he‘s gotten on in some quarters, is that I think he‘s drawn a very bright line recently between an economic agenda that‘s focus on investment and people and the future and the republican agenda that is really more—austerity in denial of many of these great problems. I think the president has created a brighter line here.
UYGUR: Right.
ROSENBERG: And I think that that‘s where we‘ve got to go. That‘s where the Democrats need to go forward.
UYGUR: So, Ezra, now let‘s look at the other side of the corner, right? So, we think the Democrats have move too far to the right, I certainly believe that fervently, but you know where to match, and the republican have gone even further right, and to your point of rejecting the original proposals and going with more right wing proposals. But now, look at him, they look like they just ran against the breakwater right there. I mean, people hate their Medicare plan. And idea that what happened in Orlando was because people, he‘s like, oh, we‘ve got to give tax cuts to the rich, you know, and that‘s where we‘re to cut Medicare. People like oh, I got, no, no, don‘t do that. So, have the Republicans also made a terrible mistake here?
KLEIN: An argument—actually goes the other way that what happened is that Democrats moved and Republicans—because they needed way to oppose democratic ideas and moved as well. So, I don‘t know the date, I think it‘s gone in a very partisan direction as oppose to a sort of the thought to policy direction. Something interesting that happened when John Boehner was trying to defend the Ryan plan, as he said, you know, the Ryan plan is just like bringing the Obama health care plan to Medicare. And I thought, you know, John Boehner, I thought you hated the Obama health care plan. I—his head over and over and over and over again.
And so, more even than it‘s right or left, what‘s striking about what happened to the Republicans the last couple of years, is that, in their baited to oppose whatever Democrats have done. They‘re sort of given up on having solutions, or at least they‘ve given up having consistent solutions. In Ryan, they have a lot of the Obama-care principles, when it comes to Obama-care, they hate all the Obama-care principles, and that‘s going to make it I think very tough of them going forward because they‘ve left themselves, it‘s been easy to be an opposition party, being against everything. But when you win a house of Congress and then when you actually have to run in the presidential, he need to be force some things again. But they‘ve not let themselves a lot of good things they can before.
UYGUR: Right. Guys, unfortunately, we‘re out of time. I love this conversation. And, you know, the other thing I‘d love to know is when are we going to talk about the progressive budget? You know, Rachel Maddow has made that point, I made that point. I don‘t know why the president isn‘t bringing that up. But it‘s part of moving the spectrum. But look, Ezra Klein of “The Washington Post,” and Simon Rosenberg from the New Democratic Network. Guys, thank you for coming on. Great conversation.
ROSENBERG: Sure.
KLEIN: Thank you.
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