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From C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Thomas Frank explains why the supposedly "fiscally conservative" Republicans actually love deficits so much. They love them so they can assure that government can't work and heaven forbid Democrats might be able to enact any of their evil "liberal" ideas because the bank is busted already. Pretty much exactly like what we have going on now but as Frank explains, this is nothing new.

What he said here I'm sure is nothing new as well to anyone who has read his book The Wrecking Crew. While I have not read the book, I've read enough reviews on it to know that he's giving a very basic synopsis of what he lays out in the book here. That one is on my “remember to buy the next time I get to the book store” list.

As I noted in my other post from this same interview you can watch the entire segment on C-SPAN's web site.

For more on the book you can check out Frank's site:

Casting his eyes from the Bush administration’s final months of plunder to the earliest days of the Republican revolution, Thomas Frank uncovers the deep logic behind the graft and incompetence of conservatives in power. He shows how leaders dedicated to a doctrine of government by entrepreneurship proceeded to sell off the state, channeling the profits to cronies and loyalists. He surveys the federal agencies doomed to failure by the inept and even hostile staff appointed to run them. He charts the practice of wholesale deregulation and the devastating results now clear for all to see. From political scandal to mortgage meltdown, Frank documents the consequences of enshrining the free market as the logic of the state.

As conservatives retreat to lick their wounds and a new administration prepares to undo the years of misgovernment, The Wrecking Crew makes clear the challenges before the nation. A brilliant and audacious stocktaking—now thoroughly revised and updated—this is Frank’s most revelatory work yet.

You can check out some other interviews with Thomas Frank talking about the book along with an audio sample in the link above as well.

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The Wall Street Journal's Thomas Frank on C-SPAN's Washington Journal talks about the Tea Party movement and how, as he wrote in his article The Tea Parties Are No 'Great Awakening', the leaders of this movement are just the same characters from the Jack Abramoff story:

How glorious is the tea-party movement? Some talk of its purity of heart, its patriotic spontaneity, and its abundance of republican virtue. To hear others tell it, the movement is but a few steps away from sacred.

After attending the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, the prominent blogger Glenn Reynolds wrote last week in the Washington Examiner that the movement amounted to "America's Third Great Awakening," a massive popular rising against "politicians and parties" that have "grown corrupt, venal and out-of-touch."

How strange, then, that this flowering of populist integrity should have been tended and pruned and succored by a group of Beltway operators known primarily for their venality and insider power. Read on...

Frank, whose books include What's the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America and The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, as usual gave a really wonderful interview on this edition of Washington Journal. You can watch the entire interview on C-SPAN's web site here.

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From C-SPAN's Washington Journal, torture monger Marc Thiessen claims that waterboarding is not torture and that it worked because Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times in one month, thanked his interrogator after the fact and said "you must do this for all the brothers" and that a "moral burden" was lifted from his shoulders to resist talking during his interrogation.

Since it's not likely anyone is going to go find that interrogator who supposedly told him this, there's no way to fact check what he's saying, but given that one, it's hard to imagine anyone thanking an interrogator after they were tortured for a month straight, and two, given the litany of known lies Thiessen told during this forty minute long interview on C-SPAN, there is absolutely no reason to believe this either. Marcy Wheeler has a great post up with the details that are known on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that contradicts what Theissen says here about whether we gained any useful information from torture and how many times these men were waterboarded. The HuffPo has more on this torture lover as well -- Former Bush Speechwriter Wants More Torture.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders responds to a caller on Washington Journal who feels, as I'm sure a lot of often do, like throwing his hands up in the air and giving up when looking at the terrible direction this country has been headed for so long now.

Sanders: Mike you know, dispair is really not an option. If you're saying to me that our friends on Wall Street who's greed and wrecklessness and illegal behavior plunged this country into the recession that we're in right now, and that want to go back to the way they used to be and give themselves huge bonuses and so forth and so on, and you're telling me that the heads of the insurance companies and the drug companies have enormous power are fighting for their own interests and their own profits at the expense of everybody else, you're absolutely right. That is the reality.

But dispair is not an excuse. You can't say you give up. We can't give up. I've got four kids and six grandchildren -- beautiful kids all of them. I can't give up. You can't give up. What we have to do -- this is tough stuff -- is figure out how did we get to where we are right now.

Was it a wonderful idea as Alan Greenspan told us, as President Bush told us and some Democrats told us that we want to deregulate everything, let Wall Street do whatever they want... is that a good idea? Is it a great idea that the Supreme Court recently said corporations are people and they can contribute as much money as they want to the political process? Is that a good idea? It's a horrendous idea, but reality is clear. We don't talk about it terribly much in Congress or on T.V.

A small number of people who have incredible wealth and power control a lot of what goes on in America. That's the simple reality. But throwing your hands up and saying it's too much; I can't deal with it, or you can say, this is tough stuff. This is tough stuff and how do we once again bring ordinary people into the political process. How do you create a government that works for the middle class rather than the wealthy. It ain't easy. But giving up is not an option.

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From C-SPAN's Washington Journal Jan. 28, 2010. Rep. Jeb Hensarling does his best bit of fear mongering over heaven forbid bringing back a higher tax rate for the rich in America. First he decides to play born again deficit hawk:

Hensarling: If you look at his budget it is trillion dollar deficit as far as the eye can see. You cannot use enough Draconian or apocalyptic language to describe what’s in America’s future if we don’t come to grips with this.

Yeah, like you or anyone in your party was concerned with deficits under Bush. Now they’re suddenly concerned with our spending… with the exception of course for paying for more ill informed invasions… or as he calls them, wars.

The host reads a question from Twitter for the Congressman: “We’re 12 trillion in debt, when do we start raising taxes to pay for it?” Hensarling decides to pretend that if taxes were raised, it would be on everyone equally and not just upper income earners who can afford it.

I don’t expect any honesty out of these people. Sadly C-SPAN with its hands off approach to allowing these guys on there with no questioning by the hosts when they spout bullshit is no better than the mainstream media for bringing some honesty to political debates in the United States.

Hensarling fear mongering that all Americans would have their taxes raised by 60% to fix the deficit below the fold. Apparently Hensarling is completely oblivious to any concept of progressive taxation.

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I thought conservatives hated the 'War on Christmas'. From C-SPAN's Washington Journal Dec. 24, 2009.

TPM has more--Not Knowing What Else To Do, Health Reform Foe Takes Down Christmas Tree:

No, this is not an Onion story. On C-SPAN's call in show this morning, a woman named Bunny from Parsons, Kansas, said she was so disappointed by the Senate's health care vote that she took down her Christmas tree. And it seems like her call was not a prank.

It wasn't just Bunny's tree that went. "I have taken my Christmas wreath off my house. I have taken all the lights down," she said. "This is supposed to be a nation under God, and it isn't. They absolutely have ruined Christmas."

[...]

"So you took down your Christmas tree because of the Senate health care bill?" he asks, with a hint of incredulity.

"I certainly did. And I would like to see every light in the nation go out, especially in the White House," Bunny replies.

She also explains that members of Congress are sullying "God's holiday for the birth of his son" and that she opposes the bill so fiercely because its death panel provisions will unleash a "genocide"on seniors.

I think someone was mixing a little too much Fox News with their eggnog.

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TPM caught this clip from back in April with a prank call to David Brooks on Washington Journal and think it's the same man who called Sen. John Barrasso this week and claimed he was a teabagger who was afraid his prayers for Sen. Robert Byrd to die before the health care bill vote had backfired and something happened to Sen. James Inhofe instead. The above clip is from Washington Journal Dec. 22, 2009. Here's the clip from TPM with the call to David Brooks.

I think I found another clip with the same man. I knew that voice sounded familiar. Although this call was from Florida, I think it's the same person. I think I've heard him on there a few other times but haven't found any of the other clips. This is from March 29, 2009--Bill Kristol Doesn't Think He Owes Anyone An Apology For Hyping WMD Lies on Iraq.

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Listen to all three and let me know if you think it's the same man.

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Think Progress posted part of this interview yesterday, but IMO they cut the clip a little bit short and left off the best part. Here's the post from Think Progress--Grassley: ‘I’ve lived off the public tit’ as a congressman.:

On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was asked if he thought the health care reform bill before the Senate amounted to socialism. “No,” Grassley said, but he then attacked the public option aspect of the bill, calling it “socialism.” Later in the program, a caller argued that as a public official, Grassley has been, in some ways, living off the government. After Grassley noted that he was a farmer for 50 years, the caller asked if he had ever received government subsidies. “Yes I participate in the farm program,” Grassley replied. The Iowa senator continually interrupted the caller but eventually acknowledged that he has been receiving substantial government assistance.

What followed was fairly comical and the caller left Grassley speechless and looking to be saved by C-SPAN's Steve Scully.

GRASSLEY: For the first 16 years I made $3,000 every other year as a state legislator. Now do you expect me to live on $3,000 every other year? No I was a factory worker for 10 years and I was a farmer for that period of time and I farm with my son now. So if you’re trying to make a case that I’ve lived off the public tit all these years, I think you’re saying correctly in the years I’ve been in the Congress but not the years before I came to Congress.

CALLER: Well my dad earned a lot less than $3,000 during those years, but don’t you know that the Lewin Group is also owned by United Health Care? You keep injecting The Lewin Group.

GRASSLEY: Yeah, I quote The Lewin Group because Democrats quote The Lewin Group and I think it’s, if it’s a bipartisan respect and is quoted by both parties then it’s legitimate for a Republican to quote from them.

CALLER: I’ve never heard a Democrat say The Lewin Group.

GRASSLEY: Well, Sen. Baucus used…er…Sen. Wyden used ‘em to cost out his bill that he put in a year ago. Sen. Wyden’s a Democrat from Oregon.

CALLER: They’re owned by an HMO.

Followed by Grassley with a severely pinched look on his face and looking from side to side for someone to save him, which C-SPAN's little winger Scully was happy to oblige and move the conversation along for him. Good for that caller and shame on Steve Scully for not asking him to respond.

Citing one Democrat who has used The Lewin Group in a cost study hardly excuses the fact that Republicans like Grassley constantly cite research from a company that has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo for private insurance companies to keep their profits up to make arguments against reforming our health care system.

I for one agree with the caller. I follow a lot of media and I have never once heard a Democrat cite The Lewin Group as a credible source for their arguments on health care reform, including Ron Wyden. I have never heard Wyden quote The Lewin Group in any interview I've seen him do on television. I have heard Republicans like Grassley and his buddy Orrin Hatch among others, quote them on a regular basis.

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From C-SPAN's Washington Journal, the Carlson twins (not really) Margaret and Tucker showed up to give us some of their Villager insight on the news of the day. When asked about how people feel about quitter Sarah-Barracuda, Tucker pulled out the tired old McCain campaign rhetoric about how President Obama is "less experienced" than Palin even though he thinks there should be "more respect for the office" than to want to elect either one of them. Tucker added that he believes Palin is smarter than Al Gore, and just thinks its "weird" that anyone would be terrified of her and afraid that she might actually have a chance of being elected President.

Margaret played nice and just followed up by saying that Sarah didn't strike her as much of a reader. She reads alright Margaret--Newsmax and The John Birch Society.

Tucker gave me an excuse to to post this exchange where Jon Stewart treated Carlson with the disdain he deserves for his hackery. No more bow tie these days, but no less idiotic.

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Washington Journal host Peter Slen asks Marsha Blackburn about an editorial in The New York Times The Republican Health Plan and reads this passage:

It has some good provisions, such as prohibiting insurers from imposing annual or lifetime caps on what they will pay and automatic enrollment of workers in employer-sponsored group coverage. But it would not prevent insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums based on pre-existing conditions.

Blackburn's response:

Blackburn: Well, one of the ways to address that is going another route and getting to that universal access component that so many people want to see but doing it through high risk pools and through re-insurance and this is a model that many of our businesses are accustomed to dealing with. You know, they have different high risk for things—worker’s comp and other issues—and there is a way to do that and to address that and bring people into that, into those high risk pools. Addressing pre-existing and chronic conditions absolutely and being certain that there is a pool for that, that is set up, and there again, people can go to gop.gov and look at that, look at the bill and see how that is specifically addressed.

So the GOP's plan according to Rep. Blackburn is if you have a pre-existing condition, you're going to be put into a high risk pool. I don't believe she explained how that would prevent people from paying higher premiums for pre-existing conditions or from being denied care—quite the opposite.

Under conservative plans for health care reform, many more Americans with pre-existing conditions would find it even more difficult to obtain reasonably priced care. This is because conservative plans often seek to substitute insurance coverage purchased in the individual market for group coverage, such as the insurance that many Americans have through their employers. These proposals also call for expanding existing high-risk pools, such as the Maryland program, to provide coverage for people with chronic illnesses and costly health histories. Today’s state-based high-risk pools provide an important coverage option for some individuals, but the coverage is expensive, and it’s only available to a small portion of those eligible.

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From the great mind that brought us both Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle, Bill Kristol first does his best to build up what electoral successes in Virginia and New Jersey might mean for the Republicans in 2010, even though he claims that’s not what he’s doing. Republicans managing to pick up a Governor’s seat in Virginia or having an unpopular Governor in New Jersey who is a former Goldman Sachs CEO in the middle of this scandal with Wall Street managing to hold onto his seat or barely losing are not exactly bellwether races for what might happen in 2010.

Kristol then tries to downplay the havoc that his girlfriend Sarah Palin is reaping upon the Republican Party with her endorsement of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the NY-23 Congressional race.

Kristol: Tim Kaine has said, and this is the favorite mantra now of the Democrats and of the liberal media I would say as you quoted “the divide between moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans” that’s kind of their hope. When was the last time that there was really a big divide between moderate and conservative Republicans? I would say in ’76 when Ronald Reagan ran a primary challenge to go then against an incumbent moderate Republican president Gerald Ford, barely lost, bitterness, divisiveness at the convention, he didn’t even really…give his full fledged, full support to Gerald Ford. In 1978 I remember a friend of mine, a young activist Jeff Bell challenged and beat the liberal incumbent Cliff Case, the Republican primary in Jersey, lost to Bill Bradley, in the general Al D’Amato challenged Jacob Javis in New York, actually won the general election. There was a huge amount of turmoil.

What came out of all of that—Reagan’s victory and a Republican takeover of the Senate in 1980. Turmoil in a party isn’t bad. Obviously it’s problematic. If you’re running a campaign you don’t, you know, it’s easier not to have a primary, it’s easier not to have people grumbling and complaining, but it’s—I think it’s a sign of health, it’s a sign of grass roots activity. It’s a sign of citizens getting involved. I don’t think people are going to go off the deep end. I think you’re going to have…the fact that there were challenges in the 23rd district of New York doesn’t mean that conservatives aren’t going to accept more moderate candidates which they will in Delaware where Mike Castle’s going to be the nominee, where Illinois where Mark Kirk’s going to be the Republican nominee.

The left keeps hoping that conservatives will be suicidal. They’re not going to be I think. But I think you do need the conservative populace’s energy and independence from Washington—and ideas. I think conservatives need that, that Republicans need that. You can’t just be top down, sort of rehashed ideas from inside the beltway, so I’m actually ah…Tim Kaine can console himself with tomorrow’s defeat—it’s going to be a pretty bad defeat and Republicans are going to win all the state wide races and I think pick up six to ten state legislative seats—Tim Kaine can console himself that hoping that the Republican Party will self destruct, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Bill, Hoffman wasn’t a primary challenge in case you didn’t notice. He’s a third party candidate propped up by a bunch of outsiders that are not from the state. And if you think this is going to stop with this NY-23 race and that “people aren’t going to go off the deep end”…you might want to go read this--Uncivil War: Conservatives to challenge a dozen GOP candidates.

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After defending the profits of the health care industry when a previous caller asked him if he thought health care should be a human right, Rep. Issa is then asked who his biggest individual campaign contributor is.

Issa: Ah, boy that's a good question. Ah...I guess I am. I put several million dollars of my own money over the years into my campaigns for the Senate, the House and recalling the Governor, so I'm probably at $11 or $12 million of my own money. After that there's probably somebody that's given me $20,000 or $30,000 over ten elections.

Here are some of Darrell Issa's recent top campaign contributors from from OpenSecrets.org.

2009-2010

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From Washington Journal Oct. 25, 2009. As much as I hate to say I agree with Newt Gingrich about anything, I'd say he's right here. Gingrich is asked what he thinks about E.J. Dionnne's article Is there room in the GOP for moderates?. Gingrich says there is and disagrees with Dick Armey who has injected himself into the NY-23 special election and endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over Republican Dede Scozzafava.

It appears not everyone agrees with Joe Scarborough and Dan Senor that this Republican food fight is good for the party.

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From Washington Journal Oct. 25, 2009. When asked what his assessment of President Obama's first ten months in office was, Rep. Dennis Kucinich stressed the need for job creation and said the "when the private sector doesn't provide the jobs; the government has a moral responsibility to provide jobs. FDR recognized that back in the 30's, and I hope the Obama administration will recognize that in the 21st century".

If you would like to watch the entire interview my cohort CSPANJunkie has it posted at You Tube.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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From Think Progress: Rep. Weiner Identifies 55 Republicans On Medicare Who ‘Steadfastly Oppose’ The Public Option

Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) office today released an internal study showing that 151 members of Congress “currently receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care — Medicare.” Of those 151 members, 55 are Republicans who also happen to be “steadfastly opposed [to] other Americans getting the public option, like the one they have chosen.” Included on Weiner’s list are anti-public option crusaders Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Rep. Peter King (R-NY).

Rep. Weiner talked explained why his office released that study on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

WEINER: Well it’s more kind of another way of looking at this debate, this discussion about the public option, to put it in focus. We went, just out of curiosity, looked at how many members of Congress get the public option. And I know a lot of people have said, “Well under the new bill, how many of you members of Congress would choose the public option?”

Well there already is one; it’s called Medicare. And we found that 55 Republicans and 151 members of Congress are on Medicare right now. So they’re already getting the same type of public option that we’d like people who are without insurance to be able to get. And I guess the purpose of this list was to kind of point out some of the hypocrisy of this debate.

You have members of Congress thumping their chest how they’re against government health care, against government control of health care, socialized medicine and yet when it’s time for them to accept Medicare, they’re like, ‘Sign me up!’

And part of what I’ve argued in arguing for a single-payer system is that when we have Medicare for those that are 65, why not 64? Why not 24, like, you’re about 24 right?

C-SPAN HOST: Sure.

Weiner: And why not have that type of a system that has lower overhead, lower costs and you don’t have to deal with the 30% of profits and overhead that insurance companies take. So we compiled this list largely to point a bright light on some of the hypocrisy of this debate, but also I hope it gets people thinking—if Medicare is good enough for 151 members of Congress, why shouldn’t a program like it be created for those who want to go out and buy insurance?

I actually did get to hear this live on C-SPAN radio the other day and didn't get a chance to get back to it sooner. I was glad to see Think Progress picked it up. I would have liked for Rep. Weiner to have taken this a bit further and ask if those members of Congress would care to give up their Medicare—since they think that having government administered health insurance is such a terrible thing. I would guess the answer is "No".