entity that was giving minorities things at the expense redistributing yours to give to the other the redefinition of government as sort of prodding the welfare state, for minorities, for poor people who were mainly black and brown, i think that was part of the context that reagan sort of subtly introduced into the conversation. that said, and perry has written great pieces about this, i was last week at the urban league s urban ideas forum, that they do every year, talking about health care. and what is happening on the ground with health care, is that it is grassroots organizations like the urban league and others that are implementing health care reform and not the federal government. people are going to these local community neighborhood centers to get this health care. and what the obama administration doesn t want to discuss is that health care reform is largely helping poorer people. and i think that that is sort of the tension here, a lot of people are afraid what healt
contributor perry bacon jr., the politics editor at the thegrio.com. edward mcmorris-santoro with buzzfeed.com and elahe izadi for national journal. so i guess wasn t to start with this, the idea of court packing. because we re hearing it over and over again from republicans, you have chuck grassley actually introduced legislation that would permanently shrink the size of the d.c. circuit, do away with these three open seats. it is just amazing to me hearing that rhetoric and knowing the story of fdr, knowing the origins of the term court packing. i m baffled at face value when i hear that, how anybody could look at trying to fill three vacancies and say this is court packing. is there an argument here that i m missing? you re not. to put it bluntly, you are not. to be fair this rhetoric has been used in the past. i looked it up the other day. harry reid accused in 2003 said ronald reagan and george bush
you can use up to four times less. i believe it, but i still gotta squeeze it. [ female announcer ] used by more plumbers, charmin is now clog-free or it s free. [ female announcer ] used by more plumbers, [ mthat if you wear a partial,w you re almost twice as likely to lose your supporting teeth? try poligrip for partials. poligrip helps minimize stress which may damage supporting teeth by stabilizing your partial. care for your partial. help protect your natural teeth. the filibuster, the nuclear option threat. perry, you wanted to say something. the more shocking thing was mill watt was filibustered obstruction, right? congress usually respects their own members more than anything else. john kerry sailed through as secretary of state. hillary clinton before that. chuck hagel got through eventually too. that was more surprising to me in some way and shows me how democrats fought over executive nominees earlier in the year but
one of the justices now has been on the short list, but if there is a democratic president, they re going to find a democratic nominee to the court, steve, as a republican president will. it is a big country. they happen to go to the appellate court is almost besides the point. i so agree with perry. the point is we have inconsistencies, all the appellate courts throughout the country are set by the senate, not messing around with the other circuits, they are focusing on this one. with what seems to be a pretext of case load, which we know fluctuates all the time. let s play this is john cornyn who is on the senate floor, this was last thursday, he was making the court packing charge, laying out the republican cases, giving you a taste of it. this is john cornyn this week. if our friends across the aisle continue to move ahead with the court packing gam but, it will make this chamber even more polarized than it already is. i only hope they choose a different court. if this is w
be any different with this? this is also a huge opportunity for democrats. because conservatives who spent years now attaching every single anti-government talking point they know to obama care. in their own way, they have also made this a test. they spent decades insisting the federal government can t do anything right, and should never be entrusted with overseeing something so sensitive, something so important as the health care system. but what happens if democrats do make the affordable care act work? just like social security and medicare and the department of defense, becomes another major federal undertaking that voters decide works well, that voters decide they like. if democrats can show that big government really can and really does work, will americans start to change their minds? the words that reagan spoke 32 years ago finally start to lose their punch? here to discuss this, let s welcome back evan mcmorris-santoro of buzzfeed, joy reid of the grio.com, perry bacon jr. als