channelling is energy into politics. how do you understand that dip after the obama machine had built this incredible, incredible get out the vote operation, that totally changed the electoral map. absolutely. in 2008, a lot of it was the narrative was hope, change, you know, young people turned out, women turned out, latinos turned out in a big way in 2008, as they did in 2012. but you saw a dip, because a lot of these things weren t necessarily you know, we had a student debt crisis. we have a climate change crisis. and we did get health care, we got the affordable care act, but what you see is a lot of times in off year elections, in state and local elections, fewer people turn out. the same year as off year elections, midterm elections is when we happen to elect governors and that s when people need to go out and vote as well. we are living with the legacy of that 2010 wave election for ten years. because those statehouses that did the redistricting that gave republicans thes
absolutely. you know, i know at least 107 of us signed a letter months ago to the president that said, don t cut social security or medicare as we figure out these budget issues we need to. you know, i sit on the budget committee. paul ryan s budget is the same recycled stuff he s put out there, that s not realistic. we can t even pass appropriation bills, based on their ideas, they re so unrealistic. it s like sasquatch economics. it s something you want to believe in, but it s just not real. and that s why they can t even pass bills assigned to those numbers. i think we need to stand strong. i want to sort of hang a lantern on that for a second. this is really important. the transportation bill. i mean, there s routine work that congress did, passing an appropriations bill. they tried to come up the republicans tried to get a transportation bill that came in under the caps that were put in there by the ryan budget, and the cuts were so deep, the republican leadership had to pul
i don t even know if that fact checks. the program is not about to go broke, so take it easy on social security. that sounds pretty strong to me. is that in line with your thinking? absolutely. you know, i know at least 107 of us signed a letter months ago to the president that said, don t cut social security or medicare as we figure out these budget issues we need to. you know, i sit on the budget committee. paul ryan s budget is the same recycled stuff he s put out there, that s not realistic. we can t even pass appropriation bills, based on their ideas, they re so unrealistic. it s like sasquatch economics. it s something you want to believe in, but it s just not real. and that s why they can t even pass bills assigned to those numbers. i think we need to stand strong. i want to sort of hang a lantern on that for a second. this is really important. the transportation bill. i mean, there s routine work that congress did, passing an appropriations bill. they tried to come up t
kentucky, that just happen happens to be the home state of the senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, who finds himself in a tough re-election battle. the center of conservative fund rushed to call it the kentucky kickback. but how did over $1 billion for ohio river construction project actually get into the bill? and the mitch mcconnell really the culprit? here s the story. way back in 1988, congress authorized $775 million for the ohmstead locks and dams project to deal with a choke point in the ohio river. the locks and dams is supposed to reduce ship delays through this busy stretch of river. its completion date was once slated for 2006. it is now 2013, seven years later, and the project remains unfinished and the price tag has soared. the projected costs are now $3 billion. the urs corps is the contractor on this army corps of engineers project. so the project is now, if you re keeping track of this, costing
there s no amount of empirical argument that could dissuade people that that s the problem. chris, if you look at this, everybody wants to lower the united states debt, but we also want our members of congress to actually govern the country. they ve done nothing to deal with the debt through governance. we had the gang of six. they couldn t get anything done. we ve had the president talk over and over and over again about how the government should be smart, that we need smart government. no one disagrees with that. but congress can t pass a bill. we have a sequester, because no one wants to make the hard decisions that need to be made on entitlement and everything else that we need to do, to be fiscally sound. so what do they do? they take the easy way out and they shut government down. that s not dealing with the debt and that s not fiscally responsible and it has nothing to do with dealing with the nation s debt. that is governance by cowardice. well, we are now going to enter a