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I'm not sure what the producers of MSNBC's UP with Steve Kornacki felt that Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform's Mattie Duppler was going to add to the debate on this Sunday's show, but after watching her on there, apparently it was to keep the rest of the guests busy debunking the endless string of lies she told during her time on the panel.

During a discussion ranging from what percentage of GDP is needs to be taxed, to the size and scope of government, to whether Americans even know what the federal government spends money on, or how many people realize that President Obama has lowered their taxes, the conversation got a bit contentious when Duppler trotted out the old "because of Obama, government spending is out of control" canard.

After the Center for American Progress' Neera Tanden made the point that the central thesis of Republicans' economic strategy has been tax cuts, and that it has been proven that tax cuts don't produce economic growth, here's Duppler's response.

DUPPLER: That's not the central thesis of the Republican party. It is one of the tenets of the Republican party. (crosstalk) But you also have explosive government growth. You've got government spending that's out of control and that...

JOHNSTON: It's not out of control. […] The government is rapidly shrinking under Obama.

DUPPLER: After he exploded it. After he increased spending by eighty-four percent. I mean, seriously, this is laughable that you're telling me that are just (crosstalk).

JOHNSTON: This would put us into a depression. You want to put us into a depression. (crosstalk).

NADLER: This is the central lie...

DUPPLER: I'm challenging your assertion that the deficit and the size of government is shrinking after Obama and congressional Democrats took spending and the size of government to all time highs.

NADLER: This is the central lie... this is the central lie of our political debate right now... what you just said.

JOHNSTON: Absolutely.

NADLER: The fact is, what happened to our deficit is, after it was cut... after it went up because of the Bush tax cuts and the wars and everything, since Obama took office, remember, the CBO before Obama took office said the 2009 deficit was going to be $1.4 trillion and it was. Why? And it was hugely increased. Why? Because when you get a recession, you get a depression such as we were in, two things happen.

One, revenues plummet, taxes plummet. People aren't working. They don't pay taxes, number one. And so taxes plummeted. And number two, automatic spending on unemployment insurance and on food stamps goes up because more people don't have money to eat with...

JOHNSTON: And Jerry, if you don't have part two, that you did, that's when you get the great depression.

After Duppler continued to insist that from a "small government perspective" government spending is still too high, David Cay Johnston reminded her of just what that philosophy is going to cost us.

JOHNSTON: We are going to be poorer in the future because we are cutting spending on basic research. The cell phones that we all have have grown from government spending in the past. The jet airplanes we fly come from government spending, the computers we use, the math in them, all come from government spending. [...] We need to be spending money on government research, development and education and Republicans want to cut all that.

After Duppler said she wanted to know how we were supposed to fund these things, Tanden pointed out the obvious... paying taxes. Duppler pretended that cutting taxes was not "the central tenet" of the Republican party, but thanks to her group, that's exactly what it's been.

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Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Paul Begala participated in a debate with The Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson at the Conservative Political Action Conference this Thursday. He actually got in some good shots at Carlson when he called out the Republicans' hypocrisy with their carping about our debt and deficit.

BEGALA: Let me quote a conservative hero, Dick Cheney, who said Ronald Reagan taught us that deficits don't matter. As he was about everything, Dick Cheney was wrong. He was wrong then and he's wrong now. Of course deficits matter, but any one of you who supported the Bush tax cuts, the Bush war in Iraq, or the Bush prescription entitlement plan, has no business talking about debt. Now sit down, shut up and let the grown ups handle it.

You're welcome. I helped Bill Clinton balance the budget and build a surplus -- why? Because we had good economic times. In good economic times you pay down the deficit, as Clinton did, but Reagan did not and Bush did not. In bad times, you do have to stimulate in the near term, as thank God President Obama is doing.

But any of you who caused this deficit, this debt and deficit... no, no. You forgot the rule. You have to hush up if you supported creating the deficit. It's like listening to lectures on hygiene from Typhoid Mary.

For the most part, this debate of theirs was a good reminder of why Crossfire is no longer on the air and left me pining for Jon Stewart to intervene.

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After watching Ali Velshi fill in on some of CNN's coverage over the holidays on this "fiscal cliff" debacle, I would definitely be happy to see him take Erin Burnett's place on CNN in the evening. He corrected wingnut Rep. Tim Huelskamp on the air this Tuesday and the following evening after the House finally voted to pass the Senate's bill, he didn't let Rep. Tom Cole get away with trying to blame S&P's downgrade of our credit rating on the budget deficit.

After Cole again explained that he was happy with the Republicans passing this deal because they got a lot of what they liked and that they planned on leveraging the debt ceiling to get some of the spending cuts they want, Cole said this:

COLE: We didn't have a downgrade because of the debt ceiling debate. We had it because we weren't dealing with our deficit. This is...

VELSHI: That's not entirely true. (CROSSTALK) No, no, It's not entirely true.

COLE: It actually is. (CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Congressman, I really enjoy talking to you. I think you're one of the best around. It's just not entirely true.

COLE: Look, you can't have trillion dollar deficits for four consecutive years and have it going forward...

VELSHI: Give me five minutes and I'll pull out S&P's report. I mean, I'm not the guy to have this fight with. I don't know as much about Congress as you do, but I do know about this.

Velshi went on to give him a hard time about the Republicans not being able to get their act together in the House and he's exactly right, that report did not blame the deficit. It blamed the politicians not being able to work together.

When Cole attempted to put most of the blame for the Simpson-Bowles commission going nowhere onto President Obama, Velshi reminded him that their vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan voted against the plan as well. Velshi didn't give Democrats a pass for their part in any of this brinksmanship we've seen going on, but he made sure to let the viewers know we're dealing with a really dysfunctional House right now.

It was nice to at least see the Representative not be allowed to get away with just completely revising history. I'd have been happier after watching this if he wasn't allowed to pretend that it's going to be acceptable behavior for them to continue their hostage taking during this upcoming debt ceiling debate. I've still got my issues with Velshi, mainly due to the fact that's he's on board for austerity measures and cuts to our social safety nets and like so many of them, seems obsessed with the deficit instead of getting Americans back to work. But compared to Burnett, who he's been filling in for, he's a breath of fresh air. It would really be nice to see more of these anchors do what he did here again, which is call out a politician on the spot when they lie on the air.

For a little reminder, here's what that S&P report said about the downgrade:

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In case anyone did not already know, Rush Limbaugh is not the only blowhard, lying wingnut in his family. His brother, David Limbaugh was a guest on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this Saturday morning. Apparently he is not getting quite enough help from World Net Daily and Fox News to promote his book “The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama’s War on the Republic,” and C-SPAN thought they'd give him a hand as well.

Limbaugh was asked by a caller how Republicans claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility when all of the Republican presidents in his lifetime ran up the deficit and the fact that they only seem to care about tax cuts while calling for cuts to “entitlements.”

Limbaugh's response was to blame the Democrats for what happened under St. Ronnie, start talking about Bill Clinton and give Gingrich credit for his budget and then say no one should care what they've done in the past, but look to the future instead. And hey, let's adopt Paul Ryan's budget plan, which he pretends would do something to fix the problems with the deficit instead of what it really does, which is to give more tax cuts to the rich, take it out of the hides of the working class, privatize our social safety nets and increase the deficit, not lower it.

A little later in the show, another called rightfully called him out for what he is, which is the lunatic fringe of the Republican party and that we've been living with the results of thirty years of Reaganomics and the fact that Republicans' solutions for everything is tax cuts for the rich. The caller also talked about the bank bailouts at the expense of the working class and the fact that businesses are sitting on trillions of dollars instead of investing while they hope to see another Republican make their way into the White House.

Limbaugh's response was to claim that the tax cuts are not responsible for our deficits, blame it on “entitlements,” by which I'm sure he's lumping Social Security in with our other social safety nets, and claim that there's no way anyone should be asking anyone to pay higher rates for investment income and that those rates should be lower than those paid for their actual labor.

This guy's a piece of work. C-SPAN should be forced to fact-check these guys when they come on this show and lie like a rug, preferably in real time with rebuttals running in the chryon just below their face on the screen.

He was recently on Fox getting a Hannity-job while promoting this book as well, which you can read more about from our friends at News Hounds here: Fox Promotes Obama As "Great Destroyer" Meme In Concert With Limbaugh.

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Looks like someone put some piss and vinegar in Joe Scarborough's coffee this morning because he was literally up in arms at President Obama for not mentioning making changes to Social Security during his State of the Union Address. And he had lots of help fear mongering over the deficit from his fellow Villagers Pat Buchanan, Mark McKinnon, Tom Brokaw, Mark Halperin and his co-host Mika Brzezinski. I love how they are all calling for "shared sacrifice" when the only ones being asked to sacrifice anything are the working class.

Even though Paul Ryan has been calling for cuts to Social Security in his Roadmap for America, Republicans really don't want to own this. Scarborough and his panel all know it and Mark Halperin admits as much. They want the President to be the one to take the political hit and not the Republicans.

As I posted this past Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders said if the Republicans don't bring this up for a vote in the Senate, he will. I'll be curious to see if he's able to force their hand on this.

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Face the Nation's guest host Harry Smith hosted I guess what you could call a lively debate with Democrats Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Anthony Weiner and Republicans Michele Bachmann and Representative-elect Mike Kelly. Some of the more contentious portions being when they got into it over whether the Congress should vote to raise the debt ceiling and on the Republicans' plan to pass a lot of votes in the House that they know aren't going to go anywhere to repeal the health care law.

I've just got one suggestion for Wasserman Schultz and Weiner. The next time they get a chance to debate Michele Bachmann and she starts talking about real world experience with running a business, ask her about those farm subsidies she and her family are receiving.

Transcript which I attempted to clean up a bit via CBS News.

SMITH: So here’s a question for everybody. Government is funded basically till about March or so. There will be a vote eventually on raising the debt ceiling. Will you vote to raise the debt ceiling?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well-- I-- I’m going to wait and see where-- the direction that the Republicans want to take-- take ours-- our policies.

SMITH: Mm-Hm. Congressman Weiner.

WEINER: I-- I voted against this tax cut bill because I thought it blew a hole in-- in the budget. And I think the Republicans have come in saying that they’re going to not raise the debt ceiling and they are going to allow the full faith and credit of the American people, go down the tubes. It’s their ship to run now. That’s the responsibility. This is-- this is their-- the-- you know, this is an adult game now.

SMITH: Yeah. All right.

WEINER: And-- and-- and the risk--

SMITH: All right.

WEINER: --of--

SMITH: Let me go to Mike Kelly. Mike Kelly, this is one-- it’s going to be
one of the big votes--

KELLY: Sure.

SMITH: --and you-- you risk having the government come to a standstill.

KELLY: Well, you know, speaking as an adult who has always paid his own way I do understand what happens and raising the debt ceiling to me is absolutely irresponsible. We’ve been spending money for so long that we don’t have and keep saying, “Well, it’s okay, we’ll just raise taxes and we will find it somewhere.”

SMITH: All right.

KELLY: Tax revenue comes from people who are working, people who are profitable does not come from raising--

SMITH: All right.

KELLY: --tax rates.

SMITH: Michele Bachman.

BACHMANN: I-- I-- at this point, I am not in favor of raising the debt ceiling. As a matter of fact, I have a petition that I’m urging people to sign at michelepac.com to urge their member of Congress not to raise the debt ceiling, because the Congress has had a big party the last two years. They couldn’t spend enough money. And now they’re standing back folding their arms saying, “Oh,” taunting us to, “if you’re how are you going to go ahead and solve this big spending crisis?” Well--

SMITH: So-- so, you’re willing to risk seeing the government shut down?

BACHMANN: --it was fine when they had the credit card and they were spending the money.

SMITH: So, you’re willing that-- it’s worth the risk?

BACHMANN: Well, it’s- it’s not good for anyone to shut the government down. It’s not good for anyone. That’s why I think it’s important for the Democrats who are so willing to spend money to now be a part of trying to figure out how we can be responsible.

WEINER: So you want-- you want to be in charge until you’re actually in charge. Now you’re not so much of feeling responsibility.

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Lawrence O'Donnell interview Rep. Ron Paul, and he was none too happy with Lawrence for asking him questions about his son's positions on term limits and Medicare. Paul’s son Rand, as we all know, is running for the Senate in Kentucky. During his debate with Jack Conway, Rand Paul said this.

PAUL: I think my greatest attribute is that I’ve never held office. I think we have too many people that go and stay for a career.

When O’Donnell asked Ron Paul what he had to teach Rand about the value of his twenty years and his seniority in the Congress, Paul hedged and said that O’Donnell’s staff had told him he would not be asked questions about other candidates and I assume, namely his son.

O’Donnell explained to him that if such an agreement was made, he was not made aware of it and Paul agreed to go ahead and discuss the topic. He countered O’Donnell by saying that even if the “Tea Party” supports term limits, he’s never discussed the issue with any of his supporters from that movement.

When O’Donnell asked him if that meant he did not support term limits, he said he did and had introduced and voted for legislation that would limit politicians' terms in office earlier in his career. He then tried turning that argument around to say that where candidates stand on issues is more important than how many terms they serve in office.

O’Donnell asked him why if he thought term limits were good he didn’t “self impose term limits on himself” and Paul basically admitted he’s switched his position on them and that the voters should be the ones that impose term limits.

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Bill Maher joined Bill O'Reilly's show and discussed who's to blame for the deficit, whether his political views have shifted over the last twenty years and whether there is racism in the "Tea Party" or as I'd prefer to call them, the Republican base. Bill used his line from one of his New Rules segment where he described what's happened with the two major political parties and the fact that there are no more moderates left in the GOP.

At some point in the last 20 years, the left moved to the center, and the right moved into a mental institution.

And Fox is helping to send them there. O'Reilly said he's going to have the entire "unedited" version of the interview available on Fox's web site after they air part two on Thursday. I wonder how much of it will still be cut out as they did with his recent interview with Jon Stewart?

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After Dick Cheney famously told us that "deficits don't matter" and the Bush administration broke the bank with their tax cuts for the rich and military occupations, Marco Rubio in this week's Republican Weekly Address tells us that the "American dream" is threatened by deficit spending and for heaven's sake, don't get rid of those Bush tax cuts that helped break the bank in the first place.

I'd like for Marco Rubio to explain why Bush had the worst job creation record of any president if those tax cuts helped to create jobs?

But in the mean time... USA!... USA!... we're the greatest country on the face of the earth. And more tax cuts for the rich. Good grief. Their idea of the "American" dream is for all of us to be living in squalor.

Hi, I’m Marco Rubio.

It’s an honor to talk to you today about the direction of our country.

About the decisions being made in Washington that will determine what kind of nation we leave to our children.

America is the greatest country in the history of the world. But that didn’t happen by accident and it won’t continue automatically.

Today the American Dream is threatened by out of control politicians in Washington, who think that more government deficit spending is what it takes to grow our economy. That has never worked anywhere it’s been tried and it won’t work now.

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Chris Wallace asks Mike Huckabee if it's enough for Republicans just to remind voters that they're not in charge of the White House and the Senate and whether they've learned their lessons from 2006 and 2008 if they're hoping to make any electoral gains come this November mid-term election.

Huckabee: Well I think Republicans need to walk the Sawdust Trail. They need to repent for the spending that they were responsible for. They need to apologize and repent for the TARP bill which I still believe was a big huge mistake and only set up the further bailouts that happened when Barack Obama and the Democrats did take full power. The Republicans can’t rely on we’re not the other guys as a reason to get elected.

They do have to say that they will focus on getting rid of these runaway deficits, that they will begin to trim down the debt and not put so much of a burden on future generations and grandchildren. We can’t be the generation that does the polar opposite of our parents’ generation that we call the greatest generation. And we call them that because they sacrificed themselves so their kids would have a better life. We’re the generation that looks like now, are sacrificing our kids so that we can have the best life and not have to pay for our own sins. That’s just recklessly irresponsible and it’s certainly un-American from the standpoint of our history as a nation.

On his HuckPAC site, Huckabee blames Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for not adding transparency to the process, rather than the lack of regulation of the banks that made bailing them out necessary in the first place. So I guess the lesson learned from that debacle is how to blame it on the Democrats in Huck's book. And of course you know when he's talking about these evil runaway deficits, he's not talking about getting rid of tax cuts for the rich or ending our military engagements. I'm sure Huckabee like the rest of the Republicans will be wanting to "save" the next generation by slashing every social safety net we've got left.