with that kind of fuzzy logic, it s no wonder the americans are running away from the party. 27% of americans can identify as republicans. that s the lowest since the beginning of 2010. and only 33% have a favorable view of the gop. but senator cruz thinks republicans are winning the argument? yikes. maybe the effort to reboot the party is just a lost cause. joining me now, ryan grim and jamal simmons. ryan, do tea party republicans really think they are winning the argument here or are they just avoiding reality as long as possible? well, a lot of tea party republicans don t think that the other side has an even remotely legitimate argument to bring to the table. so they think they are practically winning it by default. you know, a lot of them almost
whole fuzzy logic that starts to apply, where you lose track of what it means to be in the ?h@&% middle class and how serious the economic situation is. and i think as the president continues to make that case about basic economic fairness, one that nearly two-thirds of voters in this election felt that some form of raising revenues on the highest rates made sense in order to get our fiscal house in order and make investments, and the republicans are trying to dig in on the wrong side of that. so it is a tough debate. but ultimately, this shouldn t really be about who s in leadership and boehner versus kantor. this really should be about families out across the country. and you and i know, those families are still struggling and would like to see a little bit of common sense. well, they ve made a lot of improvement. no question about that. our economy is a lot better. we can still go a long way. i just don t believe that there is the makeup of a great deal, because you can t trust an
take this piece away and be forced to show what they re really standing for. but if you look at the fish bowl the republicans are swimming in right now, there are a lot of sharks. you ve got mitch mcconnell, who s running for re-election. you ve got eric cantor, looking over speaker boehner s shoulder. he d love to have that job. i mean, how can you get an honest broker out of the republican camp, when all of this stuff is swimming around? you ve got the hard right-wing tea partyers out there. you ve got mcconnell looking at possibly being in a real tough re-election. and as i said, you know, boehner, is he protecting his backside or the american people? i mean, this doesn t have the framework or the dichotomy of a good deal from their standpoint, does it? well, i think one of the reasons that they re on defense is the fact that the president is willing to take this fight outside the beltway. inside the beltway, there s a whole fuzzy logic that starts to apply, where you lose track
the middle class hostage, or take this piece away and be forced to show what they re really standing for. but if you look at the fish bowl the republicans are swimming in right now, there are a lot of sharks. you ve got mitch mcconnell, who s running for re-election. you ve got eric cantor, looking over speaker boehner s shoulder. he d love to have that job. i mean, how can you get an honest broker out of the republican camp, when all of this stuff is swimming around? you ve got the hard right-wing tea partyers out there. you ve got mcconnell looking at possibly being in a real tough re-election. and as i said, you know, boehner, is he protecting his backside or the american people? i mean, this doesn t have the framework or the dichotomy of a good deal from their standpoint, does it? well, i think one of the reasons that they re on defense is the fact that the president is willing to take this fight outside the beltway. inside the beltway, there s a whole fuzzy logic that starts t
liar that there are cuts here, they really are not cuts. there is more spending each year through the year 2021 but adjusted for inflation that is less spending. that is not saying we are spending less they are spending more and the debt problem has not been tackled. guest: and fuzzy logic in some of the supposed cuts, that are proposed. the reid bill is much larger than boehner and it would cut more but it assumes winding down the wars in iraq and afghanistan and that can accrue to the nation as cuts. so, there is problems in the numbers and boehner s number from the white house standpoint the problem is, it is too small and requires another debate next year, it does not push this through until after. shepard: why would the