Howard Fineman Discusses The Budget Fight And Possible Government Shutdown On MSNBC's 'Hardball With Chris Matthews' (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post's Senior Political Editor Howard Fineman appeared Wednesday night on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" along with Politico's Jonathan Allen to discuss the current budget fight and the possibility of a government shutdown.

Fineman explained, "the Republicans are now trying to look like they're the reasonable ones here" by offering a short budget extension with spending cuts and daring the President to veto it.

Fineman also said he thinks Democrats may be pressured to vote for this Republican budget extension.

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Comments

[relentless63]

01:35 PM on 02/24/2011

Chris Matthews is the repubs best friend. They present ways and means to erase workers' rights and Chris commends them as being smart. The workers accept budget cuts and Chris explains how thery're going to lose the respect of the American people. While Americans sit on a ferry hopefully, waiting to be rescued from the unstable conditions provided by a complete maniac, Chris suggests that Obama up the juice, stir the beast. And if Obama was stupid enough to take his advice and innocent Americans were slaughtered in the name of madness, Chris would then pontificate about how politics played into the situaiton. What's wrong with the man?

[ggs83]

11:22 AM on 02/24/2011

Now, I saw this last evening and listened again now and still, it seems wrong. Todays paper says that the Dems are agreeing to 46m cut for 30 days and this keeps saying the Dems are not willing to cut one penny or one dollar and therefore, they will lose American support by being opposed to the concept of cutting. Geez, some one needs to get this right and fast--accuracy does matter.

[ggs83]

01:37 PM on 02/24/2011

I am responding to myself because I think I made a mistake; apparently, the Senate Dems do not want to go beyond the Presidents 46b cut. so I was wrong but still think it is not totally honest to say Dems against all cuts.

[Ant]

10:34 AM on 02/24/2011

The Democrats should push a bill that raises taxes on the rich that would have the same affect on the deficits as spending cuts.

[spottery2k]

11:40 AM on 02/24/2011

You're absolutely right, but here's basically that won't happen: Republicans (conservatives, choose your label) tend to think that dems are merely concerned about "wealth inequality", which is a straw man. Most dems realize that wealth inequality is a fact of life. The problem is that unlike the republicans, dems understand something about asymptotic curves. The point is best made in a well-known parable about the invention of chess. Presented with this new game the Emperor of China was so taken that he offered the inventor anything in his kingdom. The inventor humbly requested only as much rice as could be organized on a chess board by placing one grain on the first square, two on the second square, four on the third square, etc...The Emperor was impressed with the man's humility until after realizing that while the first 50 of the 64 squares only amounted to a wheel barrel of rice, the numbers quickly grew exponentially until there was not enough rice in the world to meet the request. That is the kind of wealth inequality that occurs in our society as the top 1% of the wealthiest people far exceed the wealth of the top 2% and everyone else combined. If more people understood this then we would see why it is important to tax the wealthiest at higher proportions to maintain stable distributions in wealth.

[Bobotheclown]

11:55 AM on 02/24/2011

That would require them to have a brain, to be proactive in a political sense and act as if they were in a competition and wanted to win. The reason they have not is that they are a disorganized pool of accidental candidates who have no allegiance to either their party, their President, or a shared ideology. And there are no leaders in the Democratic party who have the will to enforce the party discipline that is necessary for them to behave as a political party. The Democrats are simply an unfocused dumping ground for everyone who does not want to be a Republican. No one "is" a Democrat, they just wear a "D" because that is what it takes to get into a political race. The Democrats could have been hitting the tax dodges of the rich for the last ten years but they haven't. This is the most explosive and powerful issue in America today, but to take a stand on it means that one has to fight organized Republican doublespeak on taxes. One would have to know what they are doing and take a risk. Instead, Democrats are happy being number two. They want to pretend they have more moral substance than the Republicans while still taking corporate money under the table. Pretenders do not a successful political party make. The Obama election represented a perfect storm of Bush revulsion that would have elected anyone with a "D" in front of their name. That time has passed.

[relentless63]

01:55 PM on 02/24/2011

The truth finally!

[CenterMod]

09:38 AM on 02/24/2011

Fineman has a point. I don't think a shutdown will be a conclusive win for either party, and not a slam-dunk victory for Dems. (OMG, we're talking like this is a football game!) Since we are down to an all-or-nothing game here, how about two (maybe risky) scenarios for Dems:

1. Go along with gradual cuts until the public starts feeling the pain and wakes up. Not good, will endanger our future a bit, but it at least it keeps Repubs from positioning Dems as complete spendthrifts.

2. Propose equal package of cuts to defense and more taxes for the rich, play out the debate. Let the public decide on who should endure the pain of "fiscal responsibility". More risky, but at least presents a clear philosophical choice.

[Bobotheclown]

12:03 PM on 02/24/2011

Or they can be bold and propose a counter bill to any and every Republican spending cut, a counter bill that produces the SAME deficit reduction by taxing the rich. The Democrats would be able to point out each time that the problem can be solved by taxes that no one feels (but the rich). The Democratic solutions would balance the budget and KEEP all the programs that people care about. As these cuts start to hurt eventually people would start to pay attention to the solution that didn't hurt. A simple avoidance of pain would ultimately triumph and the Democrats would be in power again. But they won't do that since it "plays" into Republican hands. Anyone that cannot sell tax increases on the rich, to poor people who don't want to lose their jobs from service cuts, shouldn't be in politics to begin with.

[relentless63]

01:46 PM on 02/24/2011

A shutdown will be a conclusive loss for America, as the whole world watches in horror, wondering what happened to the American intelligence, their penchant for problem solving and progress that we used to admire. Think bigger. Niether party will be spared.

[Juli Bunting]

09:19 AM on 02/24/2011

The Democrats ought to push for freezing gas prices and tack on an amendment to eliminate tax breaks for oil companies. It would be seen as saving the fragile recovery, helping consumers avoid more economic hardship and bringing down the deficit. How could the Republicans say no to that? They cannot argue that the oil companies would suffer financial hardships. At least not in light of their huge profits and rising stock prices. Common Dems, show some backbone.

[xlntcat]

05:44 AM on 02/24/2011

Playing chicken with a fragile economy is beyond irresponsible but then against when have House republicans ever been responsible.  

[NeverUndecided]

03:01 AM on 02/24/2011

So, every time the Reps send the Bill, send it back with another $2billion LESS for banks. That'll end it.

[Kevin Atlanta]

02:52 AM on 02/24/2011

This is all Kabuki, more Holy Republican Cults of Jesus Inc in all their InsaniTEA's smoke and mirrors.
Let the government shut down and the Republicans will define their loosing agenda.

The destruction of America is the goal.

[Bobotheclown]

12:25 PM on 02/24/2011

No, just the part of America that they do not consider legitimate. The poor, the workers, the unions, anybody that works for a living and who thinks they should have a say. Republican America is made up of the rich who coast. The people who do no work save tell other people to go faster. Republicans are the managers, the chiefs, the potentates of the world and they are all the same. They are lazy and they are in control. They are in control because someone gave them money (or they stole it) and now they are living the standard lie of the rich. That lie is "I am better than you" because if I were not I would not be rich. That is why they measure everything in terms of money. That is what they have and that is what others need. They live by the motto "the guy with the gold makes the rules" and they are immediately thrown out of the flock when they lose their money. We have seen them before, the ex wealthy Republicans blubbering about finding Jesus so that they can crawl back into the only Republican fold that will take the poor, the evangelicals. But once they are out of jail its always back to the old game, join another Republican band and be part of the crusade to rob the poor. There are always crumbs to catch at a rich mans table.

[Enliberate]

02:41 AM on 02/24/2011

My advice, Dems. Play it out. No cuts, or maybe some of your choosing. Give the reason. Bank on a change in the public mood which has to happen. With the pace of news these days, the 2012 elections are still far away.

[david sarro]

05:54 AM on 02/24/2011

Advising the Democrats to stand their ground assumes they have the political resolve to do so. Sadly, they have proved time and again their willingness to allow Republicans frame issues and then negotiate within those Republican frames. Get ready to be disappointed.

[Enliberate]

04:17 PM on 02/24/2011

I guess, but they'd be wiser to ride a change that is coming, and, by that, I mean a real worsening of the quality of life in America.

[KingGeorgetheTurd]

08:15 AM on 02/24/2011

i can think of a ton of cuts, lets try corporate subsidies for starters, then a little defense spending (like 500 billion) instead of these ridiculous faux cuts the GoP are talking about. Which amount to a net deficit reduction of .01%

[JimR]

12:05 PM on 02/24/2011

And that's exactly what the Democrats should be coming back with. Their silence is very disheartening.

[Bobotheclown]

12:36 PM on 02/24/2011

How about the oil depletion allowance? How about the thousands of corporations like GE that pay no corporate income taxes at all? How about the rich who were taxed at 90% during the administration of Republican Eisenhower and who pay nothing now? If we close even a small percentage of the giveaways to the rich all of the deficit goes away. If we add to it reasonable cuts to the defense budget that most non-political experts advise we would have money to eliminate taxes on the middleclass, rebuild the entire highway system, and increase social security payments. The average person has no conception of how much money is out there in America and available to be used for the general welfare. This is the money that was captured in the 1950's and used to build America up to its one time position as number one in everything. People don't believe that this is possible again because job losses have so demoralized the voting public. But these potentials are there and they can be reached in the same way that they were reached before: control the rich and use corporate wealth to insure the general welfare of the country at large. The only thing stopping America from being number one again are the Republicans and the people who they have demoralized.

[Enliberate]

02:36 AM on 02/24/2011

Doesn't it seem intuitive that the Republicans would like to shut down the government? That is, in effect, their idea of governance: let business and finance take over.

[Eris23Skidoo]

05:09 AM on 02/24/2011

I think a permanent shutdown is their long term goal.

[KingGeorgetheTurd]

08:16 AM on 02/24/2011

thats been their plan since 1981