72% of americans love the buffet rule but the republicans killed it today. tonight, a eulogy for fairness. scott walker is so desperate that he's kael calling in the big guns. the fight for wisconsin is hotter than ever. good to have you with us tonight. the romney campaign is busted. they spent the better part of last week creating a public spect cal about of comments made by a democratic strategist. at a florida fund-raiser ann romney said she didn't fu the comments as offensive but as an opportunity. it was my early birthday frent for one to be critical of me as a mom. as a mother. that was really a defining moment. i loved it. i guess you could say in a moment of candor, ann romney revealed the romney campaign cynicism. hilary rosen's comments were exactly what the romney campaign wanted and needed to sure up the gender gap. today on her 63rd birthday she was asked to clarify her comments. >> that wasn't how it meant it. it was a birthday gift to me because i have love the fact that we're talking about this. i love the fact that women are talk about deficit spending and the economy. i love that. >> well, i got news for the romney campaign, women were talking about the economy long before last week. the controversy gave the romney campaign a perfect distraction. it took the focus off of romney's proposed policies. still, mitt romney is confident he can defeat president obama in the fall. he has a message for the president. >> start packing. that's what i'd like to say. obviously, we have a very different view. the president, i'm sure wants another four years. the first years didn't go so well. >> american people aren't buying it. the latest polling taken two days after hilary rosen made her remarks shows president obama ahead over nine points. the middle class americans in america believe mitt romney doesn't understand their problems. romney takes issue with that. >> we don't divide america based upon success and wealth and other dimensions of that nation. we're one nation under god. >> we don't separate. really? how about when it comes to taxization, mr. mitt romney is desperately trying to portray himself he's man of the people. he's right in there with you. sensitive comments made about his wife have only helped him. >> i happen to believe that all moms are working moms. >> really. all moms are working moms exsemts when they are poor. here is what he had to say about those kinds of moms earlier this year. >> i also like the idea that people receiving welfare assistance have a responsibility of working. in my state we make good progress in that regard following the days of the welfare reform act. while i was governor, 85% of the people had no work requirement. i wanted to increase the work requirement. i said, even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. people said well that's heartless. i said i'm willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. it will cost the state more providing the day care, but i want the individuals to have the dignity of work. >> dignity. it's a big word. according to mitt romney, the all moms are working moms argument doesn't apply to moms on welfare. moms who receive government assistance and stay home with their children aren't work. in his mind it's simple. moms struggling to make ends meet should work outside the home. moms like ann romney should be given a choice. the romney confirmed with national journal that these are mitt romney's believes. moving welfare recipients into work was one of the basic principles of the bipartisan welfare reform legislation that president clinton signed into law. romney's own book no apology goes even further. romney wrote, welfare without work erodes the spirit and the sense of self-worth of the recipient. it conditions the children of nonworking parents to unproductive lives. well, ann romney is right. last week's made up controversy was a gift. it allowed mitt romney to shake the old etch a sketch and tell women in this country he understands their problems. it allowed the romney campaign another opportunity to run from the truth. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. will mitt romney's war on women stunt backfire? text a for yes. text b for no. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you results later on in the show. i'm joined by ed walsh and e.j. dion. great to have both you have with us tonight. joan, i want to ask you first. dazed and confused comes into mind when i start thinking about the romney campaign and where they stand on working moms in america. did they create a bigger problem for themselves? >> i think they did. i always thought ann romney was hit rally his better half and a better campaigner, a mor natural campaigner. she shows herself to be so entitled, a birthday present. i mean we ginned up this faux outrage. i want to say a kind tword hilary rosen. she didn't mean it the way it came out. we all knew it. had he added three little word, worked outside the home. we understood that's what she meant but we all had to have a big fit and a big horrible conversation and they declared that president obama had declared war on moms they ginned up this phony outrage and that woman call ls it a birthday present. i think it's wonderful that you ran the clip saying that it's time for president obama to start packing. between the two things, you see the cluelessness and the absolute entitlement of these two people who expect us to just show them the white house and show that guy out. he can start packing. it's hilarious. >> e.j., is that a bit of arrogance being shown by romney saying get packing. it's not even respecting the competition. it seems to me that the romney campaign has taken on the personality to continuely denigrate the president of the united states. p i think that now that they are making comment, i really didn't mean that. hilary rosen didn't mean that. we have a bunch of people that are running around didn't mean what they are saying. >> yeah. the republican party has been doing it since the day he took office. that's not surprising. what the definition of a gaffe is when somebody tells the truth. it was a birthday gift for the romney campaign. i gree with joan that ann romney is one of best assets they have. the more we're talking about ann, the better off it is for them. i hope something good can come out of this. what we have to be asking is if we care about motherhood or parent hood so much, why do we have the weakest family leave laws in the industrial world. if we care about motherhood or parenthood so much, what are we to say to the mom that has to work at a burger king to make ends meet when her kid gets sick and she has no options. >> you're making a great point. it's the policies of where romney stands on these issues. >> right. >> it's not just so much about how his wife felt about her career of raising five kids at home versus what poor mothers have got to do. there's another issue here. mitt romney still can't say whether he would sign the lily ledbetter fair pay act. i find this interesting. he said i'm not going to go back and look at all the prior laws and say had i been there which ones i would have supported and signed. i certainly support equal pay for women and have no intention of changing that law. don't think there's a reason to. wait a minute. what about health care. he's been running around the country tellingen everybody he will repeal obama care is what he calls it. he's not going to do anything to lilly ledbetter but he doesn't think he would have signed it. now i'm dazed and confused on exactly where mitt romney stands on women's rights in this country. his campaign couldn't give a straight answer last week when they were asked about the lilly ledbetter law. they said we'll get back to you. joan, we're seeing more of the same, aren't we? >> why is it so hard? why can't you say i would have signed it? his extremely relevant because his hero scott walker just signed a bill in wisconsin repealing some of their equal pay enforcement protection. you can mouth platitudes about every mom is a, working mom and i like equal pais but it comes down to what you do in terms of policy. that's where mitt romney can't be trusted. chris hays dug up that old clip. it's not that old. it's from earlier this year. we know welfare doesn't need the dignity of work but his wife doesn't. she has dignity already. when he opens his mouth about anything class related, he sticks his foot in it. >> he's also continuing to push this 92% lie about women losing jobs. e.j., is this going to work. it's just a buzz phrase, 92% of the jobs lost in the recession were lost by women? >> i don't think it's working. my sense is every fact checker has made the point that men lost jobs in the bush years. they are just drawing a line on january 20th. this recession was not caused by president obama. job growth started again under president obama. what they were looking for and they were clever about it was something to distract attention from all the other issues related to women that were really hammering them until they brought this up. then they just kind of scrambled things. the other issue that's dear to your heart, ed, that we ought to talk about on this whole family question is declining wages for middle class and working class people. people who want one parent at home, can't afford to do it anymore. that ought to be what we're talking about too. >> i had call on the radio show. a lady said i work two jobs. i'm a single mom. i got two kids. i can go a long way with $100. i don't think mitt romney knows those people. i don't think he will ever know those people. that's the majority of americans who live paycheck to paycheck. the fact is small businesses in this country, they can't go two or three payrolls without going under unless people pay them. that's how tight it can be at times. i don't think mitt romney is swimming in that fish bowl with the majority of americans. >> i hope we can use this parenthood issue to turn it right back around to the question of how can parents have the kinds of lives they want with their kids. that should be at the center of the election. >> absolutely. >> it just seems to me that the romney camp wants to change the lifestyle of middle class americans the wrong way. joan walsh, e.j.dionne great to have you with us. share your thoughts. mitt romney is telling supporters he's going to gut washington. going to cut a bunch of programs. he's still not telling anyone what plans, what he plans to cut. later, wisconsin governor scott walker is becoming the poster child for extremism. just listen to him. this weekend he called on the nra to help out his campaign efforts. we're right back. stay with us. what makes the sleep number store different? 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nbc reported on romney's conversations with high level donors at fund-raiser in florida. romney said i'm going to take a lot of departments in washington and agencies and combine them. some eliminate, but i'm probably not going to lay out just exactly which ones are going to go. apparently, nothing is safe, not even the department his father used to run. things like housing and urban development which my dad was head of, that might not be around later. but i'm not going to actually go through these one by one. the elimination of hud would be a new policy position for mitt romney. his campaign says there's nothing to see here. well, former senator jim talent told reporters romney was just throwing some ideas around. >> he was discussing ideas that came up at the meeting which happens a lot, as you know, when you're on the stump or doing interviews with the press. that's what he was doing. >> here is another idea romney was tossing around. the department of education, i will either consolidate with another agency or make it a heck of a lot smaller. i'm not going to get rid of it entirely. this isn't the first time romney has refused to give specifics. when a conservative weekly standard asked romney if he could cut government agencies. he said the answer is yes, but i'm not going to give you a list right now. he admits his entire economic plan is a mystery. >> i think it's kind of interesting for the groups that try to score it because it can't be scored because those kinds of details will have the be worked out with congress and we have a wide array of options. >> wait a minute. he wants to give huge taxes to the rich. that can be scored. he wants to increase military spending. he can score that. he's fully on board with paul ryan's budget. how about scoring that puppy? the money to pay for these things has to come from somewhere. rom refuses to tell us what he plans to cut. ask yourself tonight, is that leadership? guy runs around the country wants to be president of the united states, throws out a bunch of policy but can't finish the deal with you. how do you get confidence in a guy like that? let's turn to howard fineman and richard wolffe with us tonight. howard, congratulations to the huffington post on winning a pulitzer prize today. >> thank you. not only for us and the wounded veterans with we wrote about but the future of journalism. >> you have a lot to be proud of. it's a great honor. let's touch on mitt romney for a moment. howard, why is romney not willing to admit which programs and agencies that he plans to cut but he can sure go right to the wealthy and go right to the military and give them anything they want? >> because the wealthy want to know how it pencils. the wealthy want to know what the bottom line is. they are used to looking at balance sheets and he had to give them something for them to try to believe them. he gave them massive cuts in housing and education. hud isn't just a bureau. it's place that oversees the distribution of housing for people who need it in subsidized housing for people that need it. the department of education is a place that handles pell grants for college students who need it and lots of other aid that's made the rise of the middle class possible in this country. the rich donors that he was talking to wanted to know specifics of how he was going to cut if they were going to believe in him as a conservative. don't forget, his whole challenge this whole time to get support and money from conservatives has been to prove he's conservative. that's what he was trying to do. >> richard, isn't there a trust, a level of trust here that has to play out. if romney can't be specific with big donors, who can he be specific with? >> he was obviously being more specific than he intended to and these comments were not supposed to get out in public. you would think a candidate who isn't releasing his tax returns right now would be a little more careful about this. it's one thing to try to have a jell-o strategy. you can't get your arms around me because i'm shaking so much, but in the end, you don't admit it. you don't tell people this is the point, i'm doing this on purpose. even as he's telling the donors, here is the secret plan. he keeps saying, i shouldn't be saying this. i don't want to get into much into the specifics. he still feels he has to prove himself as a conservative. he is still doing this ron paul, rick perry contest. i'm going to close eight departments. i'm going to close three. that speaks to a lack of confidence in who he is. >> david axelrod raises comments. it goes to that question of who is this guy. what does he stand for? what does he believe? what do we know about him? i mean, howard, this is the strategy that the republicans had when barack obama was running in 2008, isn't it? >> yeah it is. i think it's very deliberate and very cynical. what they are saying is we're not going to tell you anything about mitt romney if we can get away with it. we want the focus on president barack obama. we want you to look at what he's done or not done. we're not going to tell you anything about what's behind the curtain. that also happens to fit with mitt romney's life and personality. i first interviewed him back in '94 when he was running for the senate. cards very close to the vest. very guarded. he's like that personally. also, his faith is like that. it's one where a lot of the elements of the faith are private and he keeps them to himself. when he was at bane capital, if you're a takeover artist, if you're in the investment business the way he was, you don't broadcast your plans. you keep them to yourselves pm also, he made a lot of money at bane and a big thing for wealthy people is to keep the strategies that use to protect their wealth private. he's a quadruple private guy and that fits into the strategy which is to say nothing and keep the focus on barack obama. >> richard, is this going to go throughout the campaign or we going get specific? >> i don't know that he can control his mouth here. these things are getting out there. this is a man who is out there saying i understand the budget. i understand the deficits. the little snippets we heard eliminating deductions for second homes and closing down a couple of departments. even if you put those together it goes nowhere near to plug the whole in the deficit he's going to blow wide open with the tax cuts he's proposing. fst there a debate that's worthy of the name in the fall, if the media and political news reporters do their job, we're going to be chasing him down with this stuff. how are you going to pay for the tax cut you're proposing with these tiny cuts. >> he's going to make everybody pay income tax and go after the big three like we've never seen before. great to have you with us. the buffet rule is a political gimmick by the president but the american people disagree in overwhelming numbers. senator bernie sanders will join me. dick cheney is back. he's still throwing out attacks on president obama. welcome back to "the ed show." today, every member had a chance to take a stand on fairness. the verdict is in. paying fair share act was blocked by republicans. senator susan collins of maine was the only republican to vote for it. president obama said senate republicans voted to block the buffet rule choosing once again to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest few americans at the expense of the plid l class. mitch mcconnell said the proposal was nothing more than a political gimmick by president obama. >> we're in a crisis here and sadly it's all politics all the time. for him, it's not about jobs or the economy. it's about his idea of fairness about imposing it on others. if we lose more jobs in the process, oh, well, so be it. >> this is who they are. he says we're in a crisis, but the republicans want to give the wealthiest americans even more money. it's not just about president's idea of fairness. the buffet rule is about ending a loophole. it means people making a million dollars or more per year would pay 30% in taxes. in a new poll, 70% of americans favor the buffet rule. even 53% of republicans are for it. it's illustrated by yes or favorite chart, the vulture chart. this is what happens when fairness has left the building. democrats aren't changing the lifestyle of the wealthiest americans of the buffet rule were to pass. you mean to tell me that people making over a million dollars a year couldn't shell out 30% of their income for the good of the country if as mitch mcconnell says we're in a crisis but republicans are changing the lifestyle of the middle class. middle class americans for the worse. that's why obama's super pac is hitting mitt romney with this ad in ohio and other swing states. >> mitt romney made millions off companies that went bankrupt while workers lost promised health and retirement benefits. his own tax return reveals he made $21 million and paid a lower tax than most americans. >> joining now is bernie sanders. i want to talk you to my vulture chart right away here. the chart that we show a lot the two top 2%, their income over the last 30 years has gone through the roof. the middle class is the blue line. that's how much the middle class has moved forward over the last 30 years. when people on the radio ask any what's fair. there's your definition of fairness right there. your thoughts, senator. >> i think the average american understands that the middle class in our country today is collapsing. they see poverty increasing, but they also know that the wealthiest people are doing well. a study just came out and if you can believe it, this is really unbelievable. between 2009 and 2010, 93% of all new income went to the top 1%. 99% of the people shared 7%. you have the 400 wealthiest people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of america, 150 million americans. then on top of that, the effective tax rate for the very rich is the lowest its been in decades where as you have just shown us, you have billionaires paying a lower effective tax rates than teach terse and firefighters. >> i kind of viewed the buffet rule as a start. really as a start. >> exactly. >> you think we should have gone further. >> absolutely. here is what worries me very much. if we don't turn this around, we are going to lose the democratic foundations that have made this country the nation that it is and we are going to move very rapidly, which is where we're going right now into an ol gar kick society where a handful of people control not only the economics of the nation, they control the politics as well. >> i think when you're looking at 72% of the american people want something and the congress doesn't deliver, what does that tell you? >> that tells you that our republican friends are in the pocket of big money interests and they understand, by the way, this should also concern us that with citizens united supreme court decision, these billionaires are pumping huge amounts of money into the political process so they can become even wealthier. >> republicans love to talk about the percentage of americans who pay no federal income taxes. what they want to do is take blood out of a rock the what they want to do. they want the working poor to ante up. what's your response to these folks that say everybody's got to pay? >> the resmons is you're quite right. median family income has gone down in the last ten years. we've lost millions of good paying jobs. you have the top 1% now earning more income than the bottom 50%. you have millions and millions of people today, ed, who are struggling to pay their mortgage or rent to buy food, to put gas in the car. you know what, they are paying federal taxes but you're quite right. you can't get blood out of a stone when the middle class is shrinking. >> how are these guys going go home or these people that veet against what the american people want, go home and tell their constituents, we have to do more for the wealthy? for the life of me i don't know how they're going to get reelected. that's another subject. great to have you with us. there's a lot more coming. stay with us. >> we're fighting first and foremost to protect in our state our personal security, our safety. >> scott walker accepted the nra's defernds of freedom award. knew he's accepting donations. >> that's why we need your help. join us at scott walker.org. >> the nation's john nickels is here. dick chaney makes his first public experience since his heart transplant. we'll show you what he said. another republican gets caught celebrating bad news for the economy. tonight, his democratic challenger will respond. >> only in politics do people root for bad news. you pay more. they're licking their chops. hi, i'm sarah james. and i blog at hairthursday.com. lightweight nourishment is the best of both worlds. 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[ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. for a free brochure, call the number on your screen. my feet and exactly where i needed more support. i had tired, achy feet. until i got my number. my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotics number. now i'm a believer. you'll be a believer, too. learn where to find your number at drscholls.com. scott walker is the poster child for right wing extremism. his credentials were on full display at the national rifle convention a few days ago. he got a huge ovation when he accepted the nra's defender of freedom ae ward. he used some gun friendly language to hit the point home. >> our opponents believe that the success in government is determined by how many people, how many people are dependent on government programs. it's just the other way around. success in government is depen dent on how many people are free of dependency on government programs. that's why i become a target. that's why i'm asking for your help. the advocates for big government view me as a threat. they want to take me out. they want to take me out before anybody else across america dare take them on when it comes to big government. join us. our opponents are targeting me because i stand in the way of getting their hands on their money and their power. >> public education is big government. you know that? scott walker knows his audience. he is telling them big government is targeting him. they want to take him out. walker has been making this pitch all over the country especially in washington, d.c. i guess you could say it's all hands on deck to save his seat in the governor's office. his sale job is working. the money is coming in. the latest polls show walker has pulled five points ahead of the leading democratic candidate milwaukee mayor tom barrett. i'm joined by john. this is the play book. he's going all over the country begging for money, spending money in wisconsin. it's not coming from within the state, and it seems to be working on the polls. what do you make of it? >> i think it's working up to a point. one thing i'll remind you is we have had polls that show him up five points, up two, down two. what we're dealing with is a very intense race. at this point, scott walker has had the tremendous advantage of being on air now since november. both with his own campaign and super pacs and independent expenditures backing him. it's not surprising that he's at around 50%. what is striking to me is he can't get above that. he's had no luck getting beyond that. right now we've had a democratic race. it's relatively intense. i think it's going to continue to be for a couple of weeks. where you should really start to look at the polls is after may 8th when the democrats have a clear contender and when it's real one-on-one fight. the other thing i'd remind folks is that in wisconsin as in most of the rest of the country there's still not a lot of awareness of the intensity of the john doe probe. >> he acts like that doesn't exist. he doesn't say a word about it and his friendly media doesn't ask him anything about it. these out of state appearances, obviously, are the only way he's going to be able to save his job. he wouldn't be able to come anywhere near close to this race in this kind of money in the state of wisconsin. wisconsin is one of the states that passed alec sponsored shoot first law which has led the boycott of alec major company, sponsors and walker's lieutenant governor addressed it today. >> there's a lot of people that believe this is group that by their mailings and phone calls and by their discussions with lawmakers are are the great influencers in the minds of leaders that have been elected by the taxpayers in their state. that's a sad shame that folks don't believe that these elected leaders can think independently, think for themselves and for their constituents. i think this type of boycott is a real sad shame. >> she's making the case that alec doesn't think for these people. it's play book legislation. here, go pass it. i also find it very interesting that a lieutenant governor would get a national interview. you don't see that too often. john, your take on it. >> well, the fact is that this recall election targets both governor walker and lieutenant governor clayfish. it's a unique situation. there's very little doubt that national conservative media has started to make her a bit of a celebrity. they want to raise her profile because like scott walker, she needs to raise money. she's very aggressive with putting herself out front. i thought this was a bizarre interview. early on in the interview she made a rant about out of state special interest and influences from outside wisconsin trying to affect wisconsin elections. then a minute later she was defending alec. >> no doubt. john, great to have you with us. we'll follow the story. dick cheney says the obama administration is a disster. does he remember the bush administration? i'll remind him, next. one colorado congressman hopes a slowed economy is the key to his re-election. state representative joins me t respond. well, three weeks after dick cheney received a heart transplant he's back out this public trashing president obama. over the weekend cheney spoke at the wyoming state convention. >> i can't think of the time when i felt it was more important for us to defeat an incumbent president than today with barack obama. i think he's been an unmitigated disaster for the country. >> unmitigated disaster. i'll show you what an unmitigated disaster. as soon as they took office, george w. bush and dick cheney went to work turning a budget surplus into a deficit. they gave their rich buddies huge tax cuts. they started two wars without paying pr them. by tend of their eight years in charge, they led the country into an economic free fall which dick cheney has the nerve to blame on president obama. meanwhile the bush administration had the worst job creation record since at least 1939. that's not all. after the 9/11 attacks happened on their watch, bush and cheney decided to go to afghanistan only to shift focus to pursue a second war in iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction. the war worked out great for haliburton. it did not work out well for the united states treasury not to mention the more than 4,000 soldiers whoo lost their lives. meanwhile bush and cheney decided it was okay for the united states of america to go ahead and torture. to top it all off while a great american city was drowning, president bush glanced down in air force one before heaping praise on an incompetent leader. >> you're doing a heck of a job. >> after the bush-cheney track record, dick cheney is the last person in the country to be saying president obama is an unmitigated disaster. a campaign manager let the cat out of the bag when it comes to gas prices. they feel good about the economic news. we'll talk to his democratic opponent about a republican strategy of rooting for bad news. stay with us. bored with your one trick lipstick? 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"the ed show" survey tonight, will mitt romney's war on women backfire? colorado congressman feel good about their relx chances because of bad economic news. don't forget to listen to me on radio, xm channel 127. follow me on twitter on ed show and like "the ed show" on facebook. finally found a republican who admits the gop is rooting for bad economic news. the campaign manager and scott tipton was talking about fund raising to a colorado paper. here is the quote. it was very successful quarter. voters in the third district are rejecting obama's policies that have led to gas prices doubling, the national debt doubled and unemployment has barely moved. we feel good about our chances. republicans have denied rooting for national failure. even president obama has called them out on it. >> last week the lead story in one newspaper said gasoline prices are on the rise and republicans are licking their chops. that's a quote. that was the lead. licking their chops. only in politics do people root for bad news. >> republican's strategy to keep president obama from re-election relies on bad economic news. remember it. it's what mitch mcconnell sed it was to make president obama a one-term president. i'm joined by colorado state representative sal pace who was running against scott tipton. great to have you with us. appreciate your time. do you think congress and tipton's campaign manager slipped or was he just being honest? it's appalling his campaign wants to use this pain and suffering for personal political gain and advantage. this isn't the way it's supposed to work. scott tipton and his campaign should apologize for making light of people's pain and suffering for their own advantage. we've had folks to sign our petition on our website to ask for congress to focus on creating jobs instead of celebrating people's pain. >> has this guy done anything as a representative to make life better for folks in colorado? has he accomplished anything in this last term? >> this seems like more of the washington way of doing things. as you know washington is gridlocked. they're not working on trying to create jobs. our own district in pueblo, colorado we risk losing the largest wind manufacturer tower in the world. it seems like washington is broken and stalling. we have a congressman or at least his campaign who thinks losing those jobs here in the district are to his advantage. in colorado we just passed a budget 64-1.