the left, substantively, so you re probably not reading any interesting mainstream beltway journalism about the fight loechon the left, but it is a fascinating fight. and if the left does decide to take a harder line with president obama, it will be really interesting to see if liberals are capable of dragging the democrats to a harder negotiating position. if that happens, it will be a surprise to everybody in washington, because nobody in the beltway media pays any attention to the left. the more media question, though, for the white house is whether or not they re going to give up on the big argument. whether or not they re going to give up on making the case that the republican ideas about the budget are bad ideas. the republicans have proposed rolling tax rates for the richest people in this country back to where they were in 1931. 1931. we ve already got this giant deficit, right? when americans desperately want to tax the rich in order to close the deficit. you going to leave th
pretty rollicking fight among themselves on whether or not the president should just let the metaphorical dog whine. where the republicans looked so bad on friday when they were willing to shut down the government in order to de-fund planned parenthood that president obama should have just let them do it, show their colors to the world. should the president have just let unemployment benefits die in order to kill the bush tax cuts for the richest americans. should he have vetoed any health reform bill that didn t have the public option in it? the beltway media is not very interested in what happens on the left, substantively, so you re probably not reading any interesting mainstream beltway journalism about the fighton the left, but it is a fascinating fight. and if the left does decide to take a harder line with president obama, it will be really interesting to see if liberals are capable of dragging the democrats to a harder negotiating position. if that happens, it will be a surpris
the left, but it is a fascinating fight. and if the left does decide to take a harder line with president obama, it will be really interesting to see if liberals are capable of dragging the democrats to a harder negotiating position. if that happens, it will be a surprise to everybody in washington, because nobody in the beltway media pays any attention to the left. the more media question, though, for the white house is whether or not they re going to give up on the big argument. whether or not they re going to give up on making the case that the republican ideas about the budget are bad ideas. the republicans have proposed rolling tax rates for the richest people in this country back to where they were in 1931. 1931. we ve already got this giant deficit, right? when americans desperately want to tax the rich in order to close the deficit. you going to leave that one hanging right there over the plate and not it? are you going to try to win the argument when you have the chance on som
government work by definition because it s government is never important. in fact, it ought to be dismantled. hacked off. the white house says that president obama s re-election effort starts today. republicans picked today to announce their intentions to kill medicare. this is a long slow curveball over the plate. if the president and democrats are willing to try to win this next election by winning the big argument. democrats in the states, hello, madison, democrats in the states have started on this one. they want the big argument. will d.c. follow? joining us now is chris hayes, washington editor of nation magazine. president s re-election campaign starts today. does this end up being a big question, big argument election or will the white house try to make it not one of those? well, i think probably the latter to be honest. i mean, i think one of the things that we ve seen is the white house which has always had a discomfort with ideology at
in fact, it ought to be dismantled. hacked off. the white house says that president obama s re-election effort starts today. republicans picked today to announce their intentions to kill medicare. this is a long slow curveball over the plate. if the president and democrats are willing to try to win this next election by winning the big argument. democrats in the states, hello, madison, democrats in the states have started on this one. they want the big argument. will d.c. follow? joining us now is chris hayes, msnbc contributor, washington editor of nation magazine. good to see you. great to be here too. president s re-election campaign starts today. does this end up being a big question, big argument election or will the white house try to make it not one of those? well, i think probably the