me there's no -- >> they are questioning everything about him, yes. >> no difference between questioning a guy's tax returns and no american. there's no difference. >> there's a difference between the rhetoric of michele bachmann which is horsele and the rhetoric of -- >> let's go on here. >> john sinunu apologized for the comments and he should apologize. >> what did john sinunu say? you are saying it is so much different than what michele bachmann said, you are saying it is un-american. where does that come from? why did he say it? >> i don't know why he said it. >> why does the candidate of the republican party say the president is foreign? >> i think he's talking about the president trying to import european-style democracy or socialism and that's a policy disagreement. >> it's a policy disagreement to say -- okay, all right. i think it all fits together. we are talking about michele bachmann. he ran her campaign for president most of us remember. here he is in an op-ed yesterday. he toured with the congresswoman who works for hillary clinton. here's what he wrote. having worked for congresswoman bachmann's campaign for president, i am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts. but this is downright vicious. and reaches the late senator joe mccarthy level. as a member of congress with a seat on the house intelligence committee, mrs. bachmann, you know better. shame on you, michele! you should stand on the floor of the house and apologize to huma amedin and muslim americans for your wild and unsubstantiated charges. other republicans call for bachmann's charges to be recalled. they called out lindsay graham. today john boehner was asked about it. here's what the speaker said. >> i don't know huma, but from everything that i do know of her, she has a sterling character. and i think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous. >> well, you might get the idea, joan, if you're somebody like michele bachmann with her intellect, you may get the idea this is okay because you have the other guys throwing this stuff around. you go further but in kind. i think it is unkind with what we are getting from the other guys. your thoughts? >> let me start by saying michele bachmann is joe mccarthy in lipstick and she's a dangerous welcome. i want to welcome joe to decency where senator john mccain took us and ed rollins is taking us. chris, the rhetoric in this country is dangerous that it is important to acknowledge they have now staked out a lunatic fringe. they have now said certain kinds of comments are beyond the pail. that's a good thing. we should applaud that today. and you know that a however is coming. however -- >> here's something, by the way, i like fury a lot and know what he has to do sometimes. but in this case, he's saying the right thing. michele bachmann is off the rails. by the way, here she is finding someone who agreed with her. she was on today with glenn beck. >> oh, yes. >> beck defended the congresswoman and attacked john mccain who he said is marching to the orders of the muslim brotherhood. that's john mccain being accused of it this time. you have to keep up with your crowd. they are frisky out there. keep up with them. let's listen to glenn and michelle. >> john mccain and all the elephant media are falling right in line with the muslim brotherhood. >> michele bachmann continued her dangerous and total unsubstantiated claims against the aid. listen to her. >> she's the chief aid for the secretary of state. and we quoted from a document, and this has been well reported all across arab media, that her late father who is now deceased was a part of the muslim brotherhood. her brother was a part of the muslim brotherhood and her mother was part of the muslim sisterhood. >> it is a parallel hood, but it is part of the far right that's out there. how do you separate this kind of stuff from the mainstream republican conservativism? >> well, i was talking to several members of congress about this today and members of congress look at michele bachmann and think -- >> there are four other guys in this besides her. >> but we are just talking about michele bachmann. she's the attention of the story. there are good guys in part of the letter, but they are wrong. you have to be really careful on these types of attack. the language she's using is eerie probing to what joe mccarthy said. you have to know your history. you cannot make these accusations without some real hard proof. and to demonize someone like huma is a huge mistake. >> the romney campaign -- getting back to the candidate here to make the president sound anti-business. take a look at this ad. i think it is misleading. everybody watch and then we'll watch the real thing it was taken from. >> if you have been successful, you didn't get that on your own. you didn't get there on your own. i'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because i was just so smart. there are a lot of smart people out there. it must be because i worked harder than everybody else. let me tell you something, if you got business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> let's take a look at the actual president's statement here. let's take a look at this, the president's statement. >> if you are successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. there was a great teacher somewhere in your life. somebody helped to create this unbelievable american system that we have that allowed you to thrive. somebody invested in roads and bridges, if you got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> john fury, he's talking about the bridges and roads, you didn't build that. he didn't say you didn't build your own business, he said that. and then he said somebody else made that happen, not your business. the reference is clear and that commercial makes it look like he's saying, you didn't build your business, somebody else did. he's talking about the roads and infrastructure without which you can't make a business work. that's all he's saying. your thoughts. >> well, my thoughts are that the president made a lot of those comments, all those comments quoted in the ad, but the big thing is it is not about the ads, chris. >> was it accurate? >> accurate enough. >> accurate enough? >> far more accurate than most of the obama ads. >> come on. this is pathetic. this is flakry. john, this is flakory. >> can i make this one point? >> no, not if you're going to make that point again. this ad is distortion. >> let me make this point. the point is this, chris, the ads don't matter. the economy matters and the president has done nothing for the economy. you know that! >> joan says it is not about the dishonesty of the romney campaign. >> it's about the economy, which the stimulus did bring back from the bring. you cannot say the president has done nothing for the economy, john. that's not true. and there is a fundamental point in the ad and the president's speech we need to debate going up to november. and that is the democratic vision that we had help getting into the middle class. my family did. chris' family did, your family did, john. we built roads, we educated people, we had a commitment to public universities. >> thank you, joan. john, i know when you know you're wrong, your voice gets real high. have a nice weekend. coming up, obama from the train. president obama says that's just what mitt romney plays with medicare. the president took the medicare issue to where it matters most politically, the state of florida. also, running against romney. we'll talk to the whom with ran against him for governor of massachuset massachusetts. shannon o'brien. and the great new series "the newsroom" he'll join us live in our newsroom, the real thing this time. and the speaker and snooki were face to face the other night. we have to see that in action. here it is. >> snooki, newt, newt, snooki. >> i know, what up? >> more of that in the "side show." this is "hardball" the place for politics. stbucks refreshers™ -- a breakthrough in natural energy. made with real fruit, starbucks refreshers™ are delicious low calorie drinks you can feel good about. ♪ rethink how you re-energize. ♪ get a boost of natural energy with a new starbucks refreshers™, in three ways. natural energy from green coffee extract, only from starbucks. have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then find out how to get lunesta for as low as $15 at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. [ feedback ] attention, well, everyone. you can now try snapshot from progressive free for 30 days. just plug this into your car, and your good driving can save you up to 30%. you could even try it without switching your insurance. why not give it a shot? carry on. now you can test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. what are you doing to my momma? >> making a wish. whoa, throwing momma from the train. that's the famous scene from "throw momma from a train." the ryan budget plan which romney supports would decimate medicare. a point driven home with some exaggeration by this famous ad. let's listen to this ad. ♪ >> strong images there, wouldn't you say? today in florida president obama opened a new front in his fight against romney making sure voters know romney would end medicare as we know it. basically he'd throw momma from the train. let's listen, this is serious business, this is not just comedy here. romney's plan in the ryan plan. the ryan plan gets rid of medicare and replaces it with some kind of a voucher program. that can put you in a precarious position if you have health needs. let's listen. >> he plans to roll back health care reform forcing 2,000 floridians to pay more for their prescription drugs. he plans to turn medicare into a voucher program. so if that voucher isn't worth enough to buy the health insurance that's on the market, you're out of luck. you're on your own. one independent nonpartisan study found that seniors would have to pay nearly $6400 more for medicare than they do today. >> dee dee myers is a contributor to msnbc and writes for "vanity fair." eugene is an msnbc political analyst. if i got a pulitzer prize, i'd never stop saying it. gene, let's get to the analysis here. it seems like it's fair, it's tough the advertising over the top you might argue but it's fair in this sense. romney has bought into the ryan plan. ryan getting lots of kudos for guts. but his plan does do what the president says it would do, right? >> well, yeah, it does. it would turn medicare into a voucher program. it is fair to say in my view that it would end medicare as we know it. it would create something else that would be called medicare. it wouldn't be the program we know. so this is pretty much a fundamental question. whether you make medicare into a voucher program or you keep it as an entitlement. and i believe the polls show that most people want to keep it the way it is. they don't want it to be -- it's perfectly fair game. >> we know people on medicare. some of our older brothers. they love it. for the first time in their life they get something for all the work they did. dee dee, let me ask you about this. everybody says cut the budget. cut spending. and it's a good idea. we have a big deficit. how about just cutting the deficit through different taxation policies. but the minute you get to the reality of these cuts, and here we are. you like the ryan cuts, you like him cutting things? here's what he's cutting. medicare. explain it. defend it. i think that's the problem romney's going to have between now and november. >> right. and the broader question you just raised, we have a deficit, we have a debt. these have become problematic and everyone agrees with that. then you get into the details of whose option are you going to go for and whose order are you going to protect in order to do something about that? are you going to go after the most vulnerable as the ryan budget does? not only cutting medicare but things like education and other important spending that helps the most vulnerable. or are you going to provide tax cuts for the rich or are you going to preserve some of those programs in order to move toward a society where everybody has an equal shot and chance. they're going to say that the president's trying to scare people, but this isn't just an important issue. it's central to the philoshical differences, the philosophical divide that separates barack obama and mitt romney. you're going to hear a lot about it. on top of that, of course, the research shows it's effective with seniors. >> let me ask you about the reality here. gene, it's good to talk the fact you're going to be a different kind of president than obama. then you have to explain what that means. you're not just a relief pitcher coming in a difficult part of the game. it seems if he's going to cut taxes further for corporations, he's going to keep the cuts for the wealthy and make them permanent. he has to come up with some cuts on the other side or he's going to increase the deficits. these look like the cuts. this is what's going to pay for the extension of the bush tax cuts and the corporate tax cuts. >> absolutely. mitt romney has not spelled out precisely what he would cut when he talks about reforming the tax code he hasn't spelled out what loopholes he would close. you want to start taxing health benefits. do you want to end the mortgage interest deduction, those are the big things that you could do with the tax code that would bring in more money. you've got to be specific. i agree that you can't run all the way to the white house by saying, i'm going to do it right without spelling out how you're going to do it. >> go ahead, dee dee. >> it's important to note that the ryan budget doesn't help the deficit in the foreseeable future. in fact, it adds hundreds of billions of dollars of additional debt. >> thank you. in this corner, the former speak of the house, newt gingrich, and in this corner, snooki. that can only mean one thing, the side show. this is "hardball," the place for politics. he praised mitt romney. bush made some news yesterday in his interview when he praised mitt romney. and i was shocked by how quickly they made his romney endorsement into a campaign ad. this was fast. take a look. >> you know, i'm interested in politics. you know, i'm a supporter of mitt romney. i hope he does well. >> i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> former president bush's first romney endorsement came back in may as a set of elevator doors were closing on him, the former president. he said to a reporter i'm for mitt romney. that's how grand that was. moving on with the sideshow, newt, meet snooki. no joke. that's what happened in last night's "tonight show." the former speak of the house wound up on the couch next to the star of "jersey shore." what could they have bantered about? between books, parties, strippers, and alcohol, a lot of ground was covered. >> i never thought i would say this, newt, snooki. snooki, newt. >> what up? >> congratulations on two new york times best sellers. >> thank you. i'm trying to be like you. >> how about jionni will he have a big bachelor party? will you allow strippers and things like that? >> yes. i feel the guys should have strippers. you're going to be married to the same girl your whole life, so enjoy it. did you have strippers? >> no. >> do you drink, newt, by the way? >> sometimes. >> good for you. >> when was the last time you just got wasted? >> thinking about coming on this show. >> newt tweeted before the interview he hoped snooki liked zoos and animals. we know that story. they didn't quite get to that one, however. they got to it here. he loves that stuff. we've heard this question more than a few times about some of mitt romney's potential running mates. are they just too dull? well, tim pawlenty went to a new level to show some flash in a fox interview just yesterday. >> you're considered at least by the romneys we are told -- this could be wrong -- safe, reliable, steady as she goes, nothing too flashy. dare i say dull. >> if you goad me into it, i'll show you my tats. i'm not as flashy as some, but compared to some others i think i'm right in there. >> he's going to show us his tats. is it this bad you have to talk like this? anyway, i think it's going to be pawlenty, by the way. that's my pick. he's going to be the running mate. coming up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg. small business reality check. as congress fights, what exactly is the impact of the affordable health care act and taxes on main street entrepreneurs. an an interior designer faces disaster putting big clients over smaller ones. it's time to make money coming up next on "your business." >> small businesses are revitalizing the economy. d american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc. >> hi there, afternoon. i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business" where we give you tips on how to make your business grow. a couple weeks ago the supreme court upheld the affordable health care act but that has not ended the debate surrounding the law and whether it is good or bad for small business. those in favor of it say health care costs will go down and more small businesses will have the ability to provide health insurance for their employees. those on the other side, those against the law, say actually costs are going to go up and this is going to be a big burden on small businesses already struggling with so many other issues. at the same time, the debate over extending the bush tax cuts rages on. the obama administration proposes extending the cuts only for those making under $250,000 a year.