Republican Economics: "Robin Hood in Reverse"
Alan Grayson was back on MSNBC on Monday night, telling it like it is. The subject was Senator Rubio's attack on President Obama. Rubio said that we "have not seen such a divisive figure in modern American history," and Rubio criticized the President for graduating from Harvard Law School. Rubio hit President Obama, and Alan hit back. Here is what Alan said:
SHARPTON: Congressman, let`s start with you. Senator Rubio thinks the President is divisive. What do you make of that?
GRAYSON: Well, remember how President Obama first came to the public`s attention seven-and-a-half years ago. He gave a beautiful speech in which he called for one America. Not a blue America or red America, but one America. And that speech enabled him to win the Democratic nomination – because that was an idea that appealed to Americans across the board – and then to win the presidency. But what he has been faced with from the Republicans is implacable division. Division just for the sake of division. Disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. Look what happened with the healthcare bill: more than 150 Republican amendments included in that bill, and no Republicans voted for it.
SHARPTON: Yes.
GRAYSON: Look at the "grand bargain" on the deficit that the President proposed, to end the deficit. The Republicans wouldn't even show up and negotiate for it. But they`re not just guilty of division, they`re also guilty of subtraction. The Republicans have subtracted jobs. They`ve subtracted health care. They`ve subtracted from public education. And they want to subtract Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, student loans and unemployment insurance.
SHARPTON: Now, it`s interesting you say that, Congressman, because the fact of the matter is when you deal with this question of divisiveness and partisan politics, the President has been criticized by members of his own party, some of us that are progressive, for leaning over too much. And now to call him divisive; it almost is laughable, in some circles.
GRAYSON: Right. I think that soon they'll wheel out Roger Clemens and he`ll say that the President is guilty of using steroids. That makes as much sense as what Marco Rubio said. . . .
SHARPTON: Now, Congressman, let me go back to you. It`s a lot of ugliness and di-viss-iveness, or de-vice-iveness, as Joe said, whichever [way] you want to pronounce it. Governor Chris Christie attacked the President this weekend while he was addressing Kentucky Republicans. [Christie] said, and I`m quoting him, "President Obama has cared more about posing and preening than progress." And then Congressman Joe Walsh's town hall this weekend, a constituent at Walsh`s town hall attacked the President, and Congressman Walsh listened and said nothing. Let me show it to you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He should have said it before he was elected and said, "I`m a socialist, I believe in socialism, communism, nazi," whatever, and say "this is where I want to lead the country," not do it underhandedly.
REP. JOE WALSH (R), ILLINOIS: However you want to label and define it, don`t you think now after three-and-a-half years as a country, now we have a really good idea where the President wants to go.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Well, absolutely because he feels he has everyone by the cojones, now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHARPTON: I mean, real ugly kind of crazy, shrill language, but it`s being entertained, and in some cases being recycled, by some of the leaders in the Republican Party in some cases.
GRAYSON: You`re going to see nothing but personal attacks against President Obama for the next six months, because we`ve seen nothing but personal attacks against him for the past four years. You know, [like] this whole question of his birth certificate. When has a white president ever been asked to produce a birth certificate? It`s all nothing but personal attacks, because they have no answers for anything. All they can do is make ad hominem [personal] arguments. There`s a Harvard phrase for you: ad hominem arguments. They`ve got no health policy worth discussing. Their health policy is basically, "Don`t get sick." They`ve got no educational policy worth discussing. And their economic policy is "reverse Robin Hood." They`re stealing from the poor, and giving to the rich.
SHARPTON: Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, I have to go. Joe Madison, always good to have you on. Thank you both for your time.
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