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On this Monday's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough spent a better part of the morning ranting and raving about how Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital isn't going to hurt him in the general election should he win the Republican primary race. He really was at his most obnoxious during the latter part of this segment when guests Suze Orman and Jeffrey Sachs dared to suggest that Elizabeth Warren's arguments about how the financial sector has led to the destruction of our economy and the amount of debt most households are carrying now.

As Sachs pointed out, what has most people upset is the level of fraud we've seen from the big banks and the subsequent bailouts after making incredible amounts of money and it's the fraud that has most Americans very angry right now. That led Scarborough to go into this rant, which Mediate took note of this morning as well -- Joe Scarborough To Suze Orman: Debt Growth ‘Not Just About Big Business; It’s About Big Government’:

You know, I keep hearing about all of the problems being big businesses and big banks. And yes, there has been fraud. But we’re sitting here ignoring what is going on all around us. We have historical trends that are exploding in our faces. You look this past weekend, look what happened on Friday. France downgraded because of massive debt. Eight other countries in Europe, downgraded because of debt. Our federal government keeps getting bigger by the year, and we keep sitting here scratching our heads going, “well, what are we doing? Why are more and more people going into poverty? It must be big business’s fault.”

The federal government keeps growing by the year. The debt keeps growing. When Democrats are in power, the federal government gets bigger, and debt gets bigger. When Republicans are in, when Democrats are in, it gets bigger. And I hear Dr. Sachs saying all morning about Mitt Romney’s “right-wing radical plan.” That’s a bunch of bunk! It is bunk. Mitt Romney doesn’t have a conservative plan. If he did, I would already be on board with him. But he’s going to be a big-government Republican who is going to follow a big-government Democrat who followed a big-government Republican in George W. Bush. I mean, come on, we have to break this trend. And it’s been going on for 30, 40 years. The government just keeps getting bigger. And our debt keeps getting bigger. Crowding out takes place, and we just sit here trying to blame big business. That’s not going to sell with middle Americans moving forward.

What they failed to note over there was Sach's response, or the fact that Scarborough's rant is completely hypocritical given just which party is responsible for the debt we're seeing right now.

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Matt Taibbi has a new article on Rolling Stone on the recent hearings in the U.S. Senate and whether or not Goldman Sachs executives should be facing criminal trials or not in the wake of ongoing investigations into their part in the financial meltdown we went through a few years ago. CNN decided to bring in the Atlantic Monthly's Wall Street apologist Megan McArdle to debate Taibbi on Your Money.

I'm no financial expert and a lot of this stuff is over my head, but McArdle's arguments to me here seemed to be that all of these laws are just too terribly difficult to understand, therefore it's too difficult to figure out if they did anything wrong and to prosecute them, but the people they were selling these toxic assets to should have known better and understood what they were buying. Looks like a classic case of blame the victim to me.

FDL's TBogg weighed in on the segment here -- McBambi vs. Taibbzilla (Updated).

Mark Ames at AlterNet took her apart in this article -- Anti-Government Ideologue Megan McArdle's Amnesia About Her Privileged, Govt.-Funded Upbringing.

AlterNet's Chris Lehmann was critical of her glib dismissal of Taibbi's earlier reporting on Goldman Sachs here -- Matt Taibbi's Great Squid Hunt.

And Eric Salzman went into some specifics on why he disagreed with that same article of McArdle's -- Matt Taibbi Gets His Sarah Palin On in his post here -- Taking Megan McArdle Apart - Part II.

So for any of you wonks on the financial industry out there, if you take issue with any of the articles I posted here, I welcome the input, because I'm not an expert on the financial industry and don't claim to be. That said, from a layman's perspective, what she did during this interview sure looked like a whole lot of apologizing for Goldman Sachs' behavior to me and exactly what CNN expected to get from her by bringing her on to counter Taibbi.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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For Richer and For Poorer

For Richer and Poorer - Teachers and Wall Street

When will America's teachers follow the lead of Wall Street and start making some sacrifices for the children?

Jon Stewart & Company go to town on the blatant hypocrisy and utter foolishness of Wisconsin's class war on teachers.

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Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi discusses Wall Street's recent whining about how terribly the Obama administration is supposedly treating them that John wrote about here -- Wall Street Masters still Whining about Obama's words even after the bail out. It's all GOP for them now.

Since the story is as mutually beneficial to the administration as it is to the thieves on Wall Street, Taibbi thinks it easily could have been either of them that decided to plant the story with the hacks at Politico.

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Well his cohort Rep. Kevin McCarthy couldn't name a single program the Republicans would cut from the federal budget the other day after the Republicans released their new "Pledge to America". Today on Meet the Press Rep. Mike Pence couldn't give Meet the Press' David Gregory one actual example of anything in the pledge that's a new idea and not just the same old recycled talking points we've been hearing for years.

After listening to a tape of Jon Stewart slamming them on the Daily Show last week, Pence more or less admits there isn't anything new in the pledge and says the pledge is not "the end-all, be-all" but instead is meant to "be a good start." Sorry Mikey but I think we've had about 30 years or more to see what that "good start" looks like when your party is running the show, and it ain't pretty.

GREGORY: You know, as you go back to 1994, Congressman Pence, there was the Contract with America, and one of the big issues, if you go back even to interviews I've done with Republican leaders till after the election of President Obama, was that this wanted to be the party of new ideas.

PENCE: Right.

GREGORY: And, in fact, this, this pledge has been criticized for being anything but new. Where satire is most effective, Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" this week raised this issue by comparing some of what was said in 1998 by Speaker--rather, who wants to be speaker, Boehner, John Boehner, to what he said in unveiling the pledge. And this is what it looked like.

(Videotape, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Thursday)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER: (From September 23) A smaller...

(From March 3, 1998) A smaller...

(From September 23) ...less costly...

(From March 3, 1998) ...less costly...

(From September 23) ...and more accountable...

(From March 3, 1998) ...and more accountable...

(From September 23, 2010 and March 3, 1998; in unison) ...government in our nation's capital.

MR. JON STEWART: Wow. That's--I don't even know what to say. This thing's not even a sequel. It's like a shot-by-shot remake of your--I thought the pledge was you were humbled and going to come back with fresh new ideas. Wasn't that the pledge?

(End videotape)

GREGORY: So what's new here?

PENCE: Well, ending bailouts and cutting spending in Washington, D.C., is a new idea, David. And the truth is, look, Republicans didn't just lose our majority in 2006, we lost our way. We walked away from the principles of fiscal discipline and reform that minted our governing majority back in 1980 and again in 1994, and the American people walked away from us. What, what we have in this proposal is not, not necessarily new. The idea of fiscal responsibility, pro-growth policies, openness and transparency in government are solid, American ideas. What Republicans are committing to in this Pledge to America is taking important first steps in this Congress to steer our national government back to those basic practices and principles.

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The House came back into emergency session and passed the state aid bill, but not without a ton of carping by Republicans about how this is just another "bailout" for the states, all the while still demanding that the Bush tax cuts for the rich stay in place, which are not paid for and will add to that deficit they keep wailing about.

House Passes State Aid Bill, Saving An Estimated 300,000 Jobs:

This afternoon, the House, reconvened for a special emergency vote, passed a $26.1 billion bill providing aid to cash-strapped state governments. The bill provides $16.1 billion in Medicaid funding and $10 billion to help states keep teachers on the payroll.

The Senate passed the deficit-neutral bill last week, 61 to 39. The vote came down on party lines, save for Maine Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. After the Senate passed the package, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Speaker of the House, called members back from their home districts for a special vote on the bill. More than 400 House members returned, and Democrats passed a rule on the measure, 229 to 173. The bill passed 247 to 161, mostly on party lines. Republican Reps. Anh “Joseph” Cao (La.) and Mike Castle (Del.) voted for the bill; Democratic Reps. Gene Taylor (Miss.), Bobby Bright (Ala.) and Jim Cooper (Tenn.) voted no. Read on...

Rachel did a really great segment yesterday on why this money is so badly needed.

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You can always count on Greta Van Susteren to allow Republicans like Mike Pence to give an interview full of lies and Republican talking points like he did here and not challenge any of them. Where to begin? How about Greece's financial collapse which Pence blames on the country adopting a Value Added Tax or VAT. I wonder why Mike Pence didn't bother to mention Wall Street and Goldman Sach's part in their demise?

Here's an article from The New York Times explaining what happened there. Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis:

Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts. As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

Even as the crisis was nearing the flashpoint, banks were searching for ways to help Greece forestall the day of reckoning. In early November — three months before Athens became the epicenter of global financial anxiety — a team from Goldman Sachs arrived in the ancient city with a very modern proposition for a government struggling to pay its bills, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting. Read on...

No, the guy who was meeting with Wall Street hedge fund managers last month was instead blaming their problems on the taxes being too high. Despite the fact that Paul Volker has ruled out his idea of a VAT being on the table "now or for the indefinite future", the Republicans have decided this is a good campaign issue for them.

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From Sen. Bernie Sanders -- Sanders vs. Gregg:

Sharply contrasting views of the role of Wall Street in American society were staked out in a Senate floor debate over a major overhaul of financial regulations. In an exchange that extended over two days, Senators Bernie Sanders and Judd Gregg clashed over their competing visions of big banks and federal regulation of the financial industry. The progressive independent and a conservative Republican from neighboring states that share a border shaped by the Connecticut River debated how best to avoid the kind of financial fallout that plunged the economy into a severe recession in the fall of 2008.

Sanders Op-Ed: Real Wall Street Reform:

In my view, the real and transformational financial reform we need must include the following elements:

Break Up Huge Banks The four major U.S. banks – Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Well-Fargo – issue two-thirds of the credit cards in this country, write half the mortgages and collectively hold $7.4 trillion in assets, about 52 percent of the nation’s estimated total output last year. Incredibly, despite all of them being bailed out during the Wall Street meltdown because they were “too big to fail,” three of them (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo) are now bigger than before the bailout. But this is an issue which goes beyond the danger of “too big to fail” and future taxpayer liability. We must break up these behemoths because of the incredible economic power they exert on the economy through their concentration of ownership and enormous competitive advantages.

Financial Institutions Must be Integrated Into the Real Economy At a time when we are in the midst of a major recession, it is insane that our largest financial institutions continue to trade trillions in esoteric financial instruments which makes Wall Street the largest gambling casino in the world. We need to create a financial system which invests in the real economy, and helps create millions of new jobs by providing small and medium businesses with the credit they desperately need. We also need investments to rebuild our manufacturing sector, transform our energy system and create modern transportation and infrastructure systems. We don’t need banks pushing home mortgages on people who can’t afford them. We don’t need huge amounts being “bet” on whether housing securities go up or down or what the price of oil will be six months from now.

National Usury Legislation Major financial institutions have, in many ways, become nothing less than loan-sharking operations. Today, millions of Americans who pay their bills on time are now forced to pay 25 or 30 percent interest rates. That is not only obscene but, according to every major religion, immoral. Banks cannot be allowed to engage in usury and charge outrageous interest rates. We must cap interest rates for private banks at the same level as we do for credit unions – 15 percent except under exceptional circumstances.

Transparency at the Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve cannot continue to operate in almost total secrecy. During the bailout, large financial institutions received trillions of dollars in zero or near-zero interest loans. Who received those loans and under what terms? The Fed isn’t telling. Did some of them turn around and, in a mammoth welfare scam, invest that Fed money in government treasury bonds at 3 percent or 4 percent interest rates? The Fed refuses to say. It’s time we had transparency at the Fed so that the American people know what our central bank is doing.

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Well, this is about as close as you're ever going to see anyone on Fox "News" actually challenge a Republican. Chris Wallace actually calls out McConnell's Frank Luntz talking point that resolution authority is a bailout fund intended to liquidate them rather than to prop them up. Of course par for the course with Fox, he allows all of McConnell to blather on and doesn't challenge his response. Mission accomplished.

And if this isn't further proof that the Republicans are not going to act in good faith when negotiating with the Democrats, I don't know what is. They are always going to find some other reason to play Lucy with the football and pull the ball away when pretending there might be some common ground to be found. They have no interest in governing. All they care about is getting back into political power.

Of course Wallace like most in the media are never going to ask McConnell about the his donations from the financial industry or him courting Wall Street for donations to kill this bill on their behalf if they help elect more Republicans.

Transcript below the fold via Lexis Nexis.

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Joan Walsh added a bit of sanity to the Sunday morning bobblehead lineup when she called out Mitch McConnell for his Frank Luntz talking point that was so bad that even the mainstream media finally had to acknowledge it. As Paul Krugman said, it was "Possibly the Most Dishonest Argument' 'In the History of Politics'".

Joan has more on the interview at Salon: Another Sunday, another Republican lie:

The Republican Party seems to have a new strategy for the Sunday shows: Use them to float the week's big political lie. Last Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell used his slot on CNN's "State of the Union" to claim the Democratic bank reform bill would commit the federal government to future "bailouts" of toxic banks, when in fact the bill outlines a new process to place such banks in bankruptcy, not bail them out. The proposed $50 billion fund to restructure such banks was called "a bailout fund," when in fact it is funded by fees on big banks, not the government. On CNN's "Reliable Sources" this week, there was broad agreement that this false storyline didn't work with the media.

This Sunday, GOP leaders tried again. Today's message: Democrats are playing politics by proposing comprehensive immigration reform in the wake of Arizona's likely unconstitutional racial profiling law. Sen. Lindsay Graham got the storyline rolling with a histrionic letter to John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, pulling out of a press conference where they were set to announce bipartisan climate change legislation, because Sen. Harry Reid announced the Senate will take up immigration reform as well. “Moving forward on immigration — in this hurried, panicked manner — is nothing more than a cynical political ploy,” Graham wrote. Read on...

Transcript via CNN.

KURTZ: Joan Walsh, the liberal view, coming back to this question about the bank bailouts in the Democratic legislation, is that the Republicans are lying about this. But journalists are reluctant to accuse politicians of lying, aren't they?

JOAN WALSH: They are, but the truth is they are lying, Howie, because there is a bill. It has language.

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