ezra, my friend, you are still there.today, when we were talking about cleaning house, it is kind of hard to clean hout st. house. there's a whole extended ç multihundred-day process that can potentially be kicked into gear. >> not even potentially. you can fire the top guy, which is what obama did. you problem is when you get down to the civil service, you kick in very strong civil service protections, actually there's even a because of legacy. it doesn't mean you can't do it, and doesn't mean you shouldn't start, but the way that matters here is agent managers at the irs more reticent to put people out in the last couple years. that's left people in the agent that probably shouldn't be there. what's frustrated me watching some of this, on the one hand, you have this republican narrative, which disoperately want this scandal. other you kind of have a narrative emerging as well, if there wasn't an actual effort to political target, there's really no issue. you had agents here, one way or the other, who made terrible inco

ezra klein, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >>> fall of a viking.od evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. michele bachmann is quitting the congress. what is it with these people? is it congress? is it the right wing? what gives? sarah palin was the vice presidential nominee of the republican party in 2008. remember? game change? she was the game change. then she quit. left the governor's office halfway through her term. her only term. then jim demint, the guy ruling the whole right wing of the republican senate, wing to the right of mitch mcconnell, that's half the party. he quit to go run a think tank. it's not a bad think tank. it'so

ezra klein, thank you for >>> good evening from new york. you for joining us tonight. all right. let the weed wars begin, as colorado becomes the first state in the world to legalize recreational marijuana use. plus, facebook executive sheryl sandberg is encouraging working women to lean in, but new data out today shows how much more leaning in we all, all of us, men and women, have to do. and as a service to hyperbolic republicans, we offer a reminder that there is one, and blessedly only one, richard

. >> in washington, column nust for "the washington post" and msnbc policy analyst, ezra klein. >> ezra would probably like you to claim him too. >> i would too. >> if the cash comes with it, we are with that. >> unfortunately, women aren't paid as much as men. >> 40% of them off. >>> it would have been michele bachmann that she dismissed claims that of qis into her presidential campaign. jim graves few short by fewer than 5,000 votes last year. bachmann said she considered not running for the seat again after a presidential bid because she didn't want to risk republicans losing her seat. joining us from politico lawyers, mike allen. this store broke yesterday. what do you make of this? >> to takeaways from this. one, when they say it's not about the money, it's about the money! and when she says this is not about the competition that she faced or these investigations, you know that was a big factor. and here is the give-away. just on thursday, less than a weeking, she start airing advertisements for her re-election and she bought two weeks of ads in the twin cities area, 14 months, 16

joining me is ezra klein and steven clemens from "the atlantic."tart with you, why is this so hot and permeating on different websites today. >> the oregon health care experiment is an amazing moment in health care research. what happened in oregon, they had to cut their medicare program dramatically. it turns out they cut it too far, they had money for 10,000 more people than they thought. 90,000 people applied and were qualified. we did a lottery to see who got 910,000 slots, it gave us a perfect comparison, a random comparison between the people who got into the medicaid program and those who got left out that gave us the ability to isolate what medicare does, the results from the first two years, we saw that medicare had a huge effect on cutting depression, it eliminated catastrophic health care costs, it got people access to a lot more preventive care. on a limited number of health indicators, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugars, we didn't see any actual observal impact. how much of obama care is leading to better health. >> when we l

why do you think you and ezra were such a good fit? only jews in his town and i was one of the only iranians in georgetown where we grew up. we had this little bit of a fire that you get, i think from being an outsider. that does kind of inspire us. >> reporter: do you think that's why so many people seem to sort of misunderstand the whole preppy aspect in the very beginning. >> certainly that's related to it. people would call us w.a.s.p.s which is really interesting. >> reporter: people named ezra... >> yes. reporter: growing up in new jersey, the son of a psycho therapist and a movie set dresser was always into music. >> the first time i was in a band i was probably 13. >> i thought about being like a contemporary classical composer. that was something i really seriously thought about. >> reporter: but the other band member was raised in washington d.c. where his parents moved after fleeing the islamic revolution in iran. his father mohammed is a book publisher. his mother is the author of persian cook books. >> we're going to use t

one role is to not let groups sneak in, taxpayer subsidized and completely anonymous. >> ezra klein, thank you for bringing sense to this thing. >>> coming up, president obama's response to washington's other big scandal. and justice ruth bader ginsberg wishes she could rewrite roe versus wade. >>> and in the spotlight, the most prominent official in washington who has never done a prime time cable news interview. senator al franken will join me. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. i gotta go deposit a check, transfer some money. so it's your uncle's turn. what? wait, wait, wait... no, no, no, wait, wait. (baby crying) so you can deposit a check... with the touch of a finger. so you can arrange a transfer in the blink of an eye. so you can help make a bond... i got it. that lasts a lifetime. the chase mobile app. so you can. living on cloud nine with that u-verse wireless receiver. you see in my day, when my mom was repainting th

one role is to not let groups sneak in, taxpayer subsidized and completely anonymous. >> ezra klein, thank you for bringing sense to this thing. >>> coming up, president obama's response to washington's other big scandal. and justice ruth bader ginsberg wishes she could rewrite roe versus wade. >>> and in the spotlight, the most prominent official in washington who has never done a prime time cable news interview. senator al franken will join me. i'm so glad you called. thank you. we're not in london, are we? no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know. don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] when people talk, great things happen. [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ♪ [ agent smith ] ge softwa

ezra klein editor of one blog. thank you, man. >>> you're not going to believe this. you really aren't going to believe this but we have news tonight of yet another army officer heading up a sexual assault response program, arrested by the police, this time for stalking his ex-wife and violating an order of protection. details and implications next. you hurt my feelings, todd. i did? when visa signature asked everybody what upgraded experiences really mattered... you suggested luxury car service instead of "strength training with patrick willis." come on todd! flap them chicken wings. [ grunts ] well, i travel a lot and umm... [ male announcer ] at visa signature, every upgraded experience comes from listening to our cardholders. visa signature. your idea of what a card should be. and those people are what i like to call...wrong. metamucil has psyllium, which helps lower cholesterol, promotes digestive health, and helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels. metamucil. 3 amazing benefits, they have no idea what it was like before u-verse high speed internet. yeah, you c

. >> joining me tonight, columnist at the washington post and an msnbc policy analyst, ezra, it is great to have you here. this combination of the one-two punch of the obama care repeal vote a few days after this cbo report that landed with an absolute thud is so illuminating about washington. but genuinely i am curious why no one sees that report on either side and ran around all day calling attention to it and taking credit for it? >> sometimes i really wonder if you believe. we ran around with it. i think two things are going on. one is that the politics of this on the right are not really all that deficit focused. the republicans believe in deficit reduction to the extent that it corresponds and offers a cloak device for other significant republican goals. like cutting spending, for instance, on the part of the budget that they have been cutting spending on. >> you can't even just say cutting spending. you have to say cutting spending potentially on medicare potentially in the long term and really cutting spending on programs for the poor but they don't want to cut spending on defens

ezra klein, and maria theresa kumar will be here, and "now" with alex wagner comes here next.left the building and taken it to d.c. >> the bird has flown, hello, thomas, we are live in washington, d.c. today. where president obama is weathering storms from the sky and on capitol hill. we'll discuss the white house's rebuttal to the irs controversy and the gop's creative interpretation of the facts. with robert gibbs, ryan grimm, nia malika henderson and ary shapiro. and while the beltway fixates on the "s" word, lawmakers move forward on comprehensive legislation reform. and virginia becomes the latest ground zero for the culture wars, we'll look at the gop's incendiary new nominee for lieutenant governor, and the tea party's deepening hold on the state. all of that is coming up next. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more

. >> and ezra klein has written a piece about how hard it is to punish people slash fire them. civil servants -- it's a multihyundai process. and that's not fast enough for most republicans. i will say, i know stephen colbert funded a super pac. i think you should fund a 501(c)( 501(c)(4). >> exclusively. >> exclusively versus primarily. 501(c)(4). >> yes, america needs it. >> primarily do politics. >> i mean, look, my solution is very simple. enforce the law as written. >> mccain letters. >> that's right. enforce the law as written. and you know, i doubt the media is ever going -- you have hopes the immediate where a is going to get to that stage of this. >> no, i just have hopes that just from a sheer like -- i have to produce a television show every day level, is this interesting, i just -- like, it's not -- i don't think it's that interesting. i mean, i think the actual details of it end up not sustaining the drama that is there. you know, what was the headline was really dramatic. what is -- what are the bullet -- the third through 15th paragraphs are not dramatic. >> page

ezra klein, thank you for >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes and thank you for joining us tonight. all right. let the weed wars begin, as colorado becomes the first state in the world to legalize recreational marijuana use. plus, facebook executive sheryl sandberg is encouraging working women to lean in, but new data out today shows how much more leaning in we all, all of us, men and women, have to do. and as a service to hyperbolic republicans, we offer a reminder that there is one, and blessedly only one, richard millhouse nixon. but we begin tonight another one with whom there is only one, the one and only michele bachmann. five years ago, if i said that name to you on this program, you would have had no idea who the heck i was talking about. michele bachmann happened at that point to be a freshman member of congress from minnesota, and there are, even still, lots of members of congress whose names you probably don't know. there are a good number whose names i don't know. and i know the stuff for a living. let's face it. ther

regrettably, you can't say, "to aunt minnie and uncle ezra." i would say make eye contact and show some human response to everybody who goes through the line. i would say make sure you're well rested and enjoy the experience. i don't know most authors do not go out for five weeks. it's usually a much shorter tour and it's seldom as many as 25 cities. but it can be done and i had a good time on it. and i also went to two countries during that five week period. i went to england and i went to france. c-span: what about the media part of it, the interviews? >> guest: the interviews? i found those to be very interesting and the what i haven't done a lot of is radio, and on this tour i got a chance to do a lot of radio. and i found that to be very, very interesting and enjoyable, because you usually had enough time to develop a theme on radio, and it isn't quite as demanding as television. you didn't have to be as on point as i think you have to be on television. and so i got a lot of radio experience. but i found it most enjoyable. c-span: on the c

ezra klein talked about this, actually, on msnbc, and i thought it was an interesting idea. when we have a presidential election, especially involving barack obama, right? more young people come out, more people of color come out, and can they vote for the democrats. one of the reasons why a lot of the predictions for the election were off is that people assumed that those groups would not come out for the democrats in the same numbers that they did in 2008, and what happened is they came out even more, right? so they did better with women, they had the young people that they had four years ago, they had hispanics, they had black people, and then all of a sudden all of the predictions were off because everybody showed up the same way they did four years ago, and some of them showed up even more. now, the question is when we have an off-year election where barack obama is not on the ballot to, will those same people show up to vote? if they don't, then the people who in 2010 elected the house of representatives that we have now will be the people who are voting, and they'll b

you talked to ezra klein of "the washington post" about this. about the partisan divide and how the divisions are so deep now that, you know, for anything to resonate, even something more substantive than hillary rosen or obama's comments about the economy last year or anything that resonate this climate and break that divide seems the -- standards. >> that's why you see the poll results that you were just showing us where you see this huge divide between democrats and republicans in their evaluation of obama's job performance and what we saw in the election as well. and you can go back to president bush before obama and saw the same thing in reverse. so -- >> they have warned the president -- not the president, his party, not to overreach. for my part beating up obama increases sympathy for him and there -- have been krit oyks the left that talked about the fact that there hasn't been enough volk focus on jobs. this shows us why. you know, he can't focus on jobs. people keep pick, pick, picking at him. if the right wants to stay on this one i t

the scandal is real, but as ezra klein points out the far more damages scandal is how little the i.r.s >>> finally you should know the concentration of carbon dioxide has reached the highest level in human history, the latest data was report odd friday. while thinks a largely symbolic milestone, it's truly unprecedented the they are manmade, more storms, more wildfire, more druce, rising sea levels that threaten our coastal communities. despite all of this on thursday, they. by not showing up to vote. republicans said mccarthy hadn't been transparent enough, this coming from a group that chose to be invisible. you should know the fight against climate change is not over, no matter how many republicans stand in the way. let's start with aisha. >> well, you should know next week it's likely the senate will vote on amends to the immigration bill that would equalize the u.n. i have been process. a lot of people thing adding that amendment would derail the bill, but you should know, that, one, it shouldn't. beyond those couples, there are over 260,000 lgbt undocumented immigrants that need

about this a little bit on the show yesterday where you enter into this cycle in washington, i think ezrat this week. a candidate like obama comes along promising to change washington. people invest so much hope in the individual not realizing that congress doesn't belong in the same party. >> right. >> you're going to have that kind of gridlock. i want to play a back-to-back set of clips that speak to what you're saying. you might remember this. this is from 2008 when clinton was running against obama. she took a lot of heat for this at the time. i want to play it. >> none of the problems we face will be easily solved. now, i could stand up here and say, let's just get everybody together. let's get unified. the sky will open. the light will come down. celestial choirs will be singing. and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect! >> you seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there have no responsibilities and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. that's their job. they are elected, members of congress are elected in order to do what's r

. >> bill: i saw someone said yesterday or wrote that -- i think it was ezra kline, what's needed is a policy change to set down rules as to what's the 501 c 4 legitimate and what is not in the. >> exactly. what is a not-for-profit. there is not a question that anyone has a right to express anything. but there is a question about tax status which is something worth debating. the way you do it is not to single out groups with ideology and poke at them. >> you and i have talked about this before. there are also some institutions that are making record profits these days and not paying any taxes and the irs ought to be going after them, it seems to me other than these little tea party groups. >> exactly. the whole notion of what is or is not a not for profit. normal people say what are you talking about? the tax lawyers, this is an important issue. >> how about the associated press. is eric holder right in seizing the records of these reporters for the ap? >> i certainly don't think so. the only reason i have any hesitation at all and sort of leave myself a little opening is, again, we