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Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Monday tied a scandal where the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups to President Barack Obama's health care reform law and last September's attacks in Benghazi.

In an interview on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough asked the former House Speaker what the president needed to do after The Associated Press revealed that the IRS has improperly scrutinized tea party organizations to determine if they had abused their tax-exempt status.

"This is a huge problem because Obamacare relies very heavily on the IRS," Gingrich opined. "I think the president has to say he's going to open up totally, he's going to demand everybody meet with Congress, go to the hearings, he's going to fire everybody he can legally fire who's been involved in this."

"And they've got to look at changes," he continued. "How can you put Obamacare under an Internal Revenue Service -- remember this is an administration which will not profile terrorists, but profile patriots, profile constitutional groups. I mean, this is almost madness."

But Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein said that Gingrich was making a mistake by tying the IRS scandal to Obamacare.

"There ought to be an investigation, there ought to be a criminal investigation if it's warranted," Bernstein explained. "And that's it. But to start making these global pronouncements about where it goes and it affects Obamacare seems to me is part of the problem."

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Tea party-backed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) says that former Republican President Ronald Reagan is responsible for the country's economic success under former Democratic President Bill Clinton and the American people "don't really understand" economic growth.

Johnson told CNN host Soledad O'Brien on Tuesday that it would not be necessary to raise tax rates on the top 2 percent of earners because the country could collect "$750 billion of added revenue through economic growth" without changing tax rates or closing loopholes if the economy continues to recover.

O'Brien noted that the Republican Party was in the tenuous position of opposing the will of the majority of Americans who would like to see tax rates go up on the wealthiest.

"I would imagine that 98 percent of the American population would be in favor of that because we haven't made the case for economic growth," Johnson explained. "The American people really doesn't understand that economic growth is ten times more effective."

Democratic analyst Bob Shrum pointed out that Johnson's assertion that higher tax rates on top earners hurt economic growth was faulty because "under Bill Clinton, we had taxes at 39.6 percent and we created 22 million new jobs. We cut [tax rates] under George Bush and we had almost no net job creation."

"Why do you guys keep making the argument that low taxes for the richest people in the country are the key to job creation when history refutes that?" Shrum wondered.

"We could go do a history lesson, but I would argue that Clinton's economic recovery really dates back to Ronald Reagan," Johnson declared. "He cut rates 28 percent. Listen, I started my business in the '80s, so did Apple, so did Microsoft. Those businesses came to fruition in the '90s. And President Clinton, together with the peace dividend -- also produced by Ronald Reagan -- that's what created that economic engine."

In fact, Apple, Microsoft and Johnson's company, Pacur LLC, were all founded in the 1970s during the administrations of former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

The Wisconsin Republican continued by insisting that he would have to see cuts to Obama's health care reform law, Medicare and Social Security before he would even consider raising tax rates on the rich.

"The other problem that is holding our economy back is the explosion of regulations," he added. "And I don't see that we're going to reform these agencies -- the way that you reform them is there you actually cut their budgets because that will force them to focus on the most important parts of the economy to have effective regulations. So, I'd go after the agencies, I would put structural reform to save -- and that's the important point -- to save Social Security and Medicare. And we've got to address this health care law because it is a disaster."

"This is Fantasy Land," Shrum shot back. "It's like saying Ronald Reagan invented the Apple iPad. It's crazy. Obamacare is not going to be on the table."

"Here's the bottom line: President Obama, show us your plan," Johnson concluded.

"He gave you a plan," Shrum quipped. "And his plan is not to repeal Obamacare. Not going to happen. You lost the election, buddy."

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Monday said that his state would refuse to implement President Barack Obama's health care reform law because it was "like adding 1,000 people to the Titanic."

In a statement released on Monday, Perry said that he would not set up state health care exchanges and he would reject federal funds to expand Medicaid.

"If anyone had any doubt, we wanted to put it to bed that Texas wasn't going to be a part of expanding socializing of our medicine," the governor told Fox News host Jenna Lee. "So, we're not going to participate in exchanges, we're not going to expand Medicaid."

Lee noted that the federal government would set up state exchanges if Texas refused, allowing the feds to have more impact on the state's health care.

"The bottom line here is that Medicaid is a failed program," Perry opined. "To expand this program is not unlike adding 1,000 people to the Titanic. You're going to further drive this country into debt. ... We don't trust this administration and we don't trust Washington, D.C. to be able to deliver health care in our state. If they trusted us, they would basically block grant it back to the states and we would do a substantially better job than what you're going to see with these exchanges and with the expansion of Medicaid."

"According to a new federal government report -- I know you've seen this -- Texas has ranked last when it comes to health services provided by the state," the Fox News host pointed out. "The facts are one out of four Texans is without health insurance, one out of four Texans is on Medicare or Medicaid."

"We got some of the finest health care in the world," Perry insisted. "The idea that this federal government, which doesn't like Texas to begin with, to pick and choose and come up with some data and say Texas has the worse health care system in the world is just fake and false on its face."

"The real issue here is about freedom," he continued. "Every Texan has health care in this state. From the standpoint of having access to health care, every Texan has that. How we pay for it and how we deliver it should be our decision."

Lee wondered what Perry would say to small businesses that had migrated to Texas and now wanted to utilize the insurance exchanges to provide health care coverage for their employees.

"Well, I say to them that they moved to the state of Texas for freedom," the former Republican presidential candidate explained. "We believe in freedom and we believe that those small business should be able to make the best decisions."

Perry is the sixth governor to refuse to implement parts of the Affordable Care Act.

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Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld President Barack Obama's health care reform law, will Fox News host Bill O'Reilly apologize? After all, he promised he would.

During a March 26 interview with American Constitution Society President Caroline Fredrickson, O'Reilly ended the interview by promising to "apologize for being an idiot" if the court upheld the law.

The American Constitution Society President had argued that the law was constitutional based on Commerce Clause and Congress' power to collect and spend revenue for the general welfare.

After O'Reilly threatened to end the interview if Fredrickson would not name one thing the federal government forces people to buy, she explained that the Affordable Care Act imposes a penalty, but does not "force" people to buy health insurance.

"It's a form of a tax," she told the Fox News host.

"It's a police power," O'Reilly interrupted. "This is becoming absurd. It's a police power if you punish someone for not doing anything!"

"Sir, you're going to have to let me talk if you invite me on your show," Fredrickson pointed out.

"No, I don't have to let you talk if you're not answering the question," O'Reilly shot back.

"Ms. Fredrickson, you're going to lose and your arguments are specious," he added. "It's absolutely police powers from the federal government and it's going to be 5 to 4. And if I'm wrong, I will come on and I will play your clip and I will apologize for being an idiot."

"I look forward to it," Fredrickson said.

In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Affordable Care Act on the basis that the law's individual mandate was a tax.