joining me now is "the washington post's" ezra klein. also an msnbc analyst.'s the strangest legislative situation i have ever seen. here is the solution to the declared problem, sitting in front of all of them, the action necessary to make it happen is their favorite thing, doing nothing. and no one talks about it. >> it would let congress do what it is very best at. and it's instructive to compare that situation to this one. in that situation, if congress does nothing, if they can't come to an agreement they are happy with, the deficit improves by $4 trillion, which brings us into the path we need to be on. if we don't agree on anything in the next couple of days, we go into another recession or even worse than that, a financial crisis. so if you cared about that reduction, it's clear what path you would choose. if all you care about is using leverage to impose an ideological agenda, you get where we are now. >> and especially where we are in the economy with this fragile recovery. all of this loose talk i will use the phrase of just cut spending, cut spendi

joining me is washington post columnist ezra klein who is also an msnbc contributor, and ezra, thank you for your time, and let's look at the big picture here, because this big number here, you can use the words disappointing and abysmal, and unsettling, and that is not good news for the obama administration, and what do you say? >> i use stronger words than that terrible. it is larger than the obama administration, because we see that the economy is not recovering. since march, we have added 540,000 people, and that is not a slow recovery, but the opposite of recovery, backsliding. meanwhile, washington is caught in the same narrow arguments, and john boehner says debt and spending. no, we need to focus now on jobs and we need to make that priority number one and not endlessly arguing over the debt ceiling for no reason in the short term anyway. >> and we heard the president say that the uncertainty for the debt limit here in the u.s. to be raised has had an impact, and is that factual? >> no, i don't believe it is. i think that the speaker and the president are using the numbers to

. >> joining me now, "the washington post" columnist and contributor, ezra klein. ank you for joining me tonight, ezra. >> good evening. >> this report gives lie to this crazy republican notion that has been going around, michele bachmann and the others saying they would be fine, they just wouldn't pay the stuff we don't need, they could pay the social security, the military, be able to pay for the interest on the debt, the bonds, all that stuff, be able to pay for everything that matters. this is a completely untenable position with this study. >> the danger of the debt ceiling is not theory. it's arithmetic. you mentioned it earlier. it's $134 billion. that is 10% of the august gdp for that month. if you do that for any period of time, you cut out 10% of america's gdp for that month. if you do that over any period of time, if it's an instant recession, you shave off 10% of the nation's economy. that doesn't even get into the uncertainty, the fact that every other or almost every other debt instrument, credit cards, mortgages, corporate debt, would jump up because

ezra klein is an msnbc policy analyst and columnist for the "washington post" and clever man., do the math. any similarities between the two proposals? >> huge. they are actually and always except in way they actually lift the debt ceiling, very, very similar. so reid cuts 2.7 trillion, he says, and boehner cuts 1.2 trillion or so, but what separates them is not what you think, but it is that reid announces more savings that boehner keeps hidden and keeps them hidden for a reason, and reid will draw down the wars to save him $1 trillion, and reid announced the savings on interest, and boehner will do it all but he keeps it hidden and keeps it hidden, because he wants to say he is only cutting $1 trillion and do a trillion increase in the debt ceiling, and if we can only do a $1 trillion in the debt ceiling then we have to come back and boehner can extract more concessions then, but on the actual specific cuts that the two are recommending is that they are very, very close and you could see them merged into a compromise down the road. >> i wanted to know, that ezra, could the t

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columnist for "the washington post" and news week contributor ezra klein. sorry you are next to him. keep your hands to yourself. john heilman, good to have you back. so, we are talking act -- did you see the twitter town hall? how did it go? >> it was tweety. >> did they have 140 people in the room? >> that's what i heard. visually, it was hilarious. obama would be in a chair and two people looking at their phones. >> i think it's a good idea. >> i saw one interesting thing. there was an analysis of the tweets. compared to the questions asked, they are much less process focused. they want to know about education and the economy. not what do you think about what they said to cantor when there was an ad. >> how were the tweets chosen? at random? >> no, there were screeners looking, there were eight of them. >> hello, willie. i know there was one from speaker boehner. >> he sent like nine. all the same one, nine in a row. >> in a few hours president obama is expected to meet with house and senate leaders at the white house to hash out o deal to raise the debt

and he should have said that. >> howard fineman and ezra klein, thank you very much for your time tonightight. that's why we want you here. >> okay, lawrence. thank you. >> thank you both, very

. >> joining me now, ezra klein. thank you for joining me tonight. >> good evening. >> i want to thank you for pointing out to us that study that is speaker boehner's website, or was on his website at the beginning of this program and perhaps soon will be scrubbed from his website, indicating a study by conservative economists indicating that a very successful formula for deficit reduction is 85% spending cuts, and 15% tax revenue increases. that study i believe was done on foreign examples. it's not a model surveying all of the recent versions of deficit reduction that we've done here in the united states, is it? >> right. it is not at all. so i got pointed to that study by my consult at the roosevelt institute. it was considered by most people to be an extreme study. it misinterpreted a lot of the examples usedment. a lot of folks had done so by doing it in the late 1990s when you could export a lot, there were other ways to recover. but even so, that was considered a fairly extreme result they got. and yet that ex

joining us now is ezra klein, columnist for "the washington post" and bloomberg and also an msnbc policy analyst. hi, ezra, it's nice to see you. >> good evening, good to be here. >> thanks, listen, so i've been watching you, you know, writing recently about boehner one, boehner two, we could talk about, you know, obama circa june, obama circa july. it's really a three-ring circus in washington that we're all looking at, but tell me, is there something that we should be focusing on about the effect of this default on the average american? has that been overlooked? >> it has been, look, if only this were merely a three-ring circus. turns out to have many more rings than that. the problem with the default argument, what you hear from the republicans, this is the central factor driving the debate, there are a lot of republicans in the house of representatives okay going past august 2, 8, 10, or wherever they need to go to get a balanced budget amendment. if you go there, though, we don't just get a downgrade, downgrade would be bad enough, we'd get one if we passed the boehner plan. if we w

ezra klein is also an msnbc analyst. >> you know, it's interesting, i was talking about the old days. i've never seen either political party play terrorist, the debt ceiling has always been sacrosaint. party leaders, people who recognize leadership and responsibility get the job done. here he is the, the debt ceiling was raised seven times during the bush years starting in june 2002. raised every year except for 2005. in 2008 it was increased twice. ezra, the republican party today is not the republican party of even a couple years ago. it seems it's overrun by people who are abolitionists, willing to abolish government and willing to bring it down if they have to, and they don't give a darn, or damn about the consequences. >> it's definitely a different republican party. the thing that keeps coming to my mind is they really haven't thought it through. the federal government pays 80 million checks in a month. we go through the debt ceiling, and according to the bipartisan policy center, 45% of our obligations will not be able to be paid. who is it exactly who will make the decisions o

. >>> and coming up is ezra klein stepping in for martin bashir. chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ? new, too. umm... he's new... er... than you. even kids know it's wrong to treat new friends better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do. a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. >>> good afternoon, i'm ezra klein in for martin bashir on this thursday, july 7th, and here is what is happening. going big, did a round of golf between the president and john boehner really deal to a secret debt deal to cut social security and raise taxes? >>> and for the republicans, it is all about the benjamins. and the gop field is struggling to raise tax, and if you hear

we'll get the latest in tonight's fast-moving developments with msnbc's ezra klein and "time's" jay newton-small. and, the very first banning of a member of congress from this program. you might want to stick around for that. so i took my heartburn pill and some antacids. we're having mexican tonight, so another pill then? unless we eat later, then pill later? if i get a snack now, pill now? skip the snack, pill later... late dinner, pill now? aghh i've got heartburn in my head. [ male announcer ] stop the madness of treating frequent heartburn. it's simple with prilosec otc. one pill a day. twenty-four hours. zero heartburn. no heartburn in the first place. great. ♪ i like your messy hair ♪ i like the clothes you wear ♪ i like the way you sing ♪ and when you dance with me ♪ you always make me smile [ male announcer ] we believe you're at your best when you can relax and be yourself. and at thousands of newly refreshed holiday inn express hotels, you always can. holiday inn express. stay you. and now stay rewarded with vacation pay. stay two weekend nights and get a $75 prepaid card. >>> earlier

. >> and we'll talk more about the debt deal with congressman adam schiff and ezra klein coming up in a few minutes. >>> now we move to britain's prime minister david cameron. he has called for an emergency session of parliament to brief lawmakers into the expanding investigation into the news corporation's phone hacking scandal. overnight rebekah brooks was released from jail after being arrested. london's top cop has stepped down as well, feeling the heat over scotland yard's handling of the investigation. his assistant also resigned. stephanie gosk is following the latest developments from london for us. >> reporter: richard, in the last 24 hours, there have been two high-level resignations from scotland yard and colluding the police chief himself, sir paul stevenson, he has resigned because he hired in 2009 a former editor of "news of the world." his deputy, john yates, has resigned after he was informed that he would be suspended while an investigation into scotland yard's investigation of the scandal was being conducted. john yates is being criticized for in 2009 not continuing

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. >>> joining me now, "washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor ezra klein. ezra, thank you for joining me. i have the pledge here. and just to clarify for people, it says that, you know, i pledge to the taxpayers, blah, blah, blah, that i would oppose any efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates. if congress sits there and does absolutely nothing, as we've described here before, in current law, the rates will automatically go up. and what norquist is saying certainly if some bill were to come to the floor to prevent those rates from going up, he would expect you to vote for it. but technically, if you do absolutely nothing, you're still living within the pledge. >> i find this whole story to be absolutely hilarious, actually. the pledge isn't a spell that if you can trick it or some sort of fantasy character guarding a gateway that if you can trick it dissolves and no republicans are bound by it. the pledge is a manifestation of the fact that republicans oppose tax increases. if you find a way to increase taxes such as that the pledge does not techni

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ezra klein, good to see you. >>> the man behind the deadly attacks in norway can be called a terrorist is he a christian terrorist? why some take issue with that label. t meows ] ♪ [ whistles ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ ting! ] [ male announcer ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage or visit travelers.com. somewhere in america, there's a doctor who can peer into the future. there's a nurse who can access in an instant every patient's past. and because the whole hospital's working together, there's a family who can breathe easy, right now. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest healthcare questions. and the over 60,000 people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. >>> welcome back. u.s. counterterrorism officials believe al qaeda is on the ropes. the cia and other agencies say the terror organization is on the brink of collapse. officials caution al qaeda could reboun

anyway, thank you, ezra klein, for joining us and trying to get to the heart of this crisis coming. >>> coming up, religion are in search of a candidate. we're moving through july the year before. they're not thrill with romney, and he keeping flip flopping, by the way, on the key issues of the 1k34i. they're waiting for someone like rick perry there on the right. he looks good to some of them. can he be the guy who unites on the far right? does anybody republican have the right stuff in they're still looking. you're watching "hardball." >>> former president bill clinton has been blasting the republican effort to push new rirms. he compares it to jim crow. republicans are trying to restrict voter registration, making it harder for young people, african-americans and latinos to simply vote. clinton specifically called out florida governor rick scott -- not my favorite guy out there -- who moved to overturn state policy that allowed ex-felons to vote once finishing probation. he doesn't want them to ever vote. clinton says he changed the policy is those are groups who tend to vote for d

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you can find more of my writing at washingtonpost.com/ezra klein. dylan ratigan picks things up. om coburn on today? >> in fact we do. the show begins now, ezra. thank you ry

ezra klein in the blog rortybomb wrote about it today. spend less, owe less, grow the economy.t's a republican thing. it included a pie chart with the republican prescription for solving the deficit. they said according to their republican math, their preferred republican magic potion for the economy would be 85% spending cuts and 15% new tax revenue. 85 to 15, ok? republican formula, republican proposal. here is what the democrats offered in return. their own elixir of 83% spending cuts and 17% new tax revenue, including from very rich oil companies and corporate tycoons flying around in corporate jets. 83-17. so it was basically a rounding error from what the republican said they wanted in the first place. the republicans are two points away from getting exactly what they demanded, from what they themselves set out as their goal. if you're that close, you can have a deal, right? wrong. republicans have now decided they do not like the republican idea now that democrats said ok to it. now they want a new deal, the one you see here, in this chart. never mind their old perfect r

co-host of "squawk box," the great writer andrew ross sorkin, who wrote "too big to fail," and ezra kleinwhose column was brilliant today. take a look. do you want to lead me through this, andrew, about the breakout? "morning joe's" analyst steve ratner, helped put together the following charts which show just how much less as a percentage of income the richest americans are paying now as compared to, say, 15 years ago. according to the irs, the 400 wealthiest americans were paying taxes at a rate of about 18% under president bush in 2008. back in 1993 under clinton, those individuals were paying rates at about 29.4%. that's a drop of ten percent points in 15 years. well what do we make of this now, how they're better off? look at that, seems to me 18% is now about what poor people pay at a much lower percent than middle class people. andrew? >> here's what's happened? the rate has clearly gone down. in large part, it's actually a function of investment accounts. think of the top 400 individuals in the country and where they're making their money, a lot of it is investment. not paying the

ezra klein, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >>> you can have the last word online at our blog or follow my tweets @lawrence. the show sh rachel madd "the rachel maddow show" is up next. melissa harris in for her tonight. >> a breaking news night, huh, lawrence? this will be fun. thanks to all of you at home for staying with us for this next hour, because this is in fact a breaking news hour. we are going to report on this high stakes, high drama battle over on capitol hill, a battle over whether or not this country should enter into its first-ever self imposed default. at this hour, the united states house of representatives stands in recess as it prepares to vote on house speaker john boehner's plan to raise the debt ceiling. now, this is a bill that called for about $1 trillion in spending cuts only. and it raises the debt ceiling for only six months, at which point we could have another breaking news night, because this could happen all over again. now, this was a vote that was supposed to happen about three hours ago, when we were working on a different

ezra klein is a columnist for "the washington post," and we've got the author of "renegade, the making of a president." ezra, i'll start with you, the new york "daily news" reflecting what people are thinking, it tells washington leaders to grow up. is speaker boehner reasserting his authority and what does the balanced budget amendment mean for the tense, terse negotiations going forward? >> quite the opposite. this is showing how little authority he actually has. to pass his own republicans in the house, boehner's having to rewrite the bill so it can never pass the senate or the president or anywhere else. the anallgy i would use, remember when that nancy pelosi in quite a striking act of leadership and show of authority among her members got the house to support a health care bill that did not include a public option, that included lower subsidies that included all things that the house did not want to vote for, but she was able to use her respect to pass it. what boehner was doing as if she had gone rewritten it to single payer and whatever the senate does is done. boehner is tryin

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ezra klein says so far republicans are winning this thing because the debt ceiling cannot be raised without their support, but he points out according to polls they don't have polar s popular support be their position. tea party members aren't budging on their promises of no new taxes. democrats meantime are playing degrees. they're hoping to make a deal that doesn't rock the political boat too much. but the clock is ticking, the world is watching and so far that doesn't look like it's going to happen either the question is this -- politically, who staptd stands to win or lose the most in the debt ceiling game of russian roulette? which is what this has devolved into. >> it's interesting that harry reid's plan includes no new tack, no tax increase, no tax revenue, no ending of the loopholes for billionaires or millionaires or corporate jet owners or anything like that. it's a major, major concessions to the republicans but they're still rejecting harry reid's plan. because they want to vote obviously next year -- >> well, john boehner said it also doesn't touch entitlements, which is a big

. >> on the issue of the president, to talk to a point ezra klein made about governors who have been successful. top ones, governors that have been successful over the past six months, i can think of three or four. it wasn't just the governors themselves, but the situation, the legislature they had, it was the exact kind of dynamic they were dealing with in their own state legislatures. couldn't we put a little of this or a lot of this on the republicans and the plans they put forward that have been far too extreme then digging in and not allowing room for negotiation? >> obama inherited one of the biggest messes in history. but, when he came in, he had both houses of congress, the american people behind him and he missed the opportunity. that's one of our tragedies right now. at the crucial moment when he had the chance to lead clearly, he didn't. now he's boxed in. i have no sympathy for the opposition in this. what they are saying is destructive. i agree with you, mika, it's destructive. neither side has been consequential for what's supposed to be a good sign. >> people get upset

here is ezra klein's piece this morning. he said back when this was first talked about it was endorsed by alan greenspan. we had a big sur plus and time to do something with it. brad delong, former clinton administration and economist at university of california didn't want to see the surplus spent on tax cuts but public investments. nevertheless he was quoted saying in 2001 it is hard to disagree with greenspan's position if our future economic growth is bright as it appears likely it will be time by the middle of this decade to do something to drastically cut the government surpluses. ten years later there is no surplus. turned out our future economic growth wasn't as bright seemed likely to be in 2001. that plus two trillion in tax cuts and a few trillion more in wars and asorted spending left us with large and growing deficits. indeed mr. greenspan now says we should let all the bush tax cuts expire. >> i think that, certainly the chairman has the right to his opinion. i think that there are those that believed in 2001 o