Cenk all right, if you want to watch the whole Sherrod Brown interview i had with the progressive senator from ohio, go to youtube. Com text yt interviews. Viewpoint is next. Stay right here. John rand paul completes his efic 13 hour drone attack filibuster and promises to go back to being the socially backwards ayn rand acolyte liberals love to hate. The department has promised to look into drones that drop ayn rand novels from the sky. Arkansas republicans have struck a blow against abortion, the most restrictive law in all of america. If they can just get rid of reading, theyll have the perfect state at least women still have the right to leave arkansas. Barack obama takes a group of republican senators out for a fancy dinner. Sean hannity demands to know why this president so obviously hates lunch. Today is the birthday of Bryan Cranston comedian wanda sykes and the late great singersongwriter townes van zandt. On this date, u. S. A. For africas we are the world was released to the world bringing people of all nations all races and creeds together say in unison, why the hell is dan aykroyd on this record . This is viewpoint. John good evening, im John Fuglesang. This is viewpoint. President obama hasnt given up hopes yet for a grand bargain with republicans that would both raise taxes and slash the deficit. Even if that means cutting social Insurance Programs which it would. But with a sequester now law despite mr. Obama campaigning against it, hes now trying a new kind of outreach to the g. O. P. Call it dining diplomacy. This afternoon, the president broke bread with house budget chairman paul ryan and his democratic counterpart Ranking MemberChris Van Hollen. Last night, mr. Obama threw a twohour dinner for 12 republican senators at washingtons jefferson hotel. According to nbc news, they focused on the ongoing battles over the debt ceiling the budget and the sequester apparently without throwing any cutlery. Two wellfed republicans senators john mccain and mike johanns seemed pleased. All i can say is we had a nice evening. His goal is ours. We want to stop careening from crisis to crisis. John the senators may have even learned something. Because according to nbc news, again, when the dinner was over and i quote. John to think just like bill oreilly, all they had to do to find his cuts was just look at the white house web site on the fancy internet because some republicans might like what they see. Progressives should really take a look at that, too, because the president s proposals dont necessarily show the balance he insists is necessary to deal. The president is offering republicans 930 billion in program cuts plus another 100 billion locked from Social Security benefits in return for 580 billion in revenue. Not exactly progressives should take heart boehner says any additional revenue is still a deal breaker. Im hopeful something will come out of it. But if the president continues to insist on tax hikes, i dont think were going to get very far. The president doesnt believe that we have a spending problem i dont know if were going to get very far. John for more, lets go to john nichols washington correspondent for the nation magazine. His latest piece in the magazine is time for a right to vote constitutional amendment. He wrote this week about the battle over medicare. Thanks for joining us. Good to be with you john. John great to have you. You wrote earlier this week that paul ryan was still floating the idea to reform medicare by raising the eligibility age as high as 59. After some republicans objected to this, apparently that is said to be off the table. So is congressman ryans assault on medicare over for now . Not at all. This is a guy who keeps coming back looking for medicare any time he wants money. That makes sense. I mean medicare is a big budget. Youre talking in line items of hundreds of millions and billions so it is logical that he goes after it. But the bottom line is that he has made a commitment to his caucus to balance the federal budget in ten years. That is something a couple of years ago he said couldnt be done. He didnt even try to do that. Now, hes trying to fit into that narrow zone. And i think on monday, when he went to his caucus, he was honest. He said to him look, the only way you can figure this out if youre not going to raise taxes on wealthy people, if youre not going to negotiate with the Drug Companies due to things you should do is going to be to start implementing deep cuts in medicare at a higher age than had previously been suggested. Thats where you got they promised 55. Now theyre moving it up to 56, 57. John i have no doubt that congressman ryan is serious about balancing a budget. Im not sure if hes been told that no republican president has been able to do that since nixon. He insisted hes about saving medicare for future generations. Is that how you read it, john . Saving medicare . No, i mean if you were saving medicare, why would you tell people under the age of 55 that theyre going to get Something Different . Now, i dont know exactly you know, how he defined things. I dont know how you define the word it or there but it strikes me in this case, the word save means to retain, to keep it. And thats not what paul ryan has been proposing. What hes been proposing is a radical change, such a radical change that members of his own caucus get terrified when he talks about tinkering with the age at which he implement it. John we learned during the Campaign Last year with governor romney, theyre fond of saying things like no seniors will have their medicare taken away from them. Of course, anybody under age 55 would have been hurt by the voucher plan. His budget is scheduled for release next wednesday. He said we shouldnt expect any surprises. So john, could that mean he is going to try again to turn medicare into a Voucher Program like he floated with governor romney last Campaign Season . I think that theres very little question that he is going to propose a radical change in medicare for people under a certain age be it 55, 56. That radical change, sometimes referred to as premium support and other names is really a Voucher Program. And it is a program where you say to people were going to give you a chunk of money. You go out and find yourself some insurance. Well, call me crazy but i think the Insurance Companies are going to adjust accordingly and a lot of seniors under such a plan would end up not only paying into federal money whatever amount they got but quite a bit more. John can medicare costs be lowered in a way that wont cut benefits . Absolutely. This isnt even a debatable point. Start to negotiate on the Prescription Drug costs. Thats something that other agencies of the government do, it is something that should have been done initially when they put the program in. You save a lot of money there. You also can find a whole bunch of other you know, rational ways to make the program more efficient that do not make cuts. One of the bottom lines is this. Medicare is a single payer program. It is a program that works because it is well organized via the government. As you put in different cost controls and different approaches that seek to make that program work, if your goal is to make sure you have the highest quality benefits for people, not cutting them, yeah, theres ways to make cost savings, of course. John senator Bernie Sanders and pete defazio introduced a bill that would strengthen security. But the president s proposal does seem to weaken it. What do you think of Barack Obamas grand bargain proposal . Should progressives embrace this, despite the cuts to insurance he seems to be offering . The president was reelected on a promise to defend Social Security medicare and medicaid. It is something voters understood. It is one of the reasons why he did way better in the election than even his own people had expected. So americans want him to fight for these programs. I think that any kind of grand bargain that begins to undermine the programs is a very dangerous game. Not just as regards to the programs but also politically. Remember, george bush got in a lot of trouble when he said during a campaign, read my lips, no new taxes then he turned around and raised taxes. I think theres a lot of political danger if you say in a campaign youre going to protect Social Security, medicare and medicaid and then you start to assault them. John john nichols you made me feel a lot better about all of this. Great to you have on the program. I appreciate being with you. John and for more on the president s new diplomatic offensive and the prospects of a grand bargain were thrilled to be joined by the one and only mr. Bill press. Host of the bill press show. Welcome full court press. Good evening. How are you sir . Bill hey john, how are you . John great to have you. Bill great to be here. John a week ago sir president obama was on the road attacking our republican friends over the sequester. Lunch and dinner invitations werent mentioned a week ago. What happened in the past seven days bill . Bill i guess i would say welcome to washington, d. C. The city of broken promises. Look, john first of all let me say i think myself, that any meeting with any republican is a waste of time. I mean thats where i start. But i have to tell you in this town, this is the town where things get done best when you have members of two parties who fight like hell during the day and then respect each other enough to kick back and have a couple of drinks and talk things over in the evening. Thats what i think youre see,. Im not too worried about this. You know what i like about it . Mitch mcconnell wasnt at the dinner last night. You cannot deal with mitch mcconnell. Who was not at lunch today . Eric cantor, john boehner wasnt there. Mccarthy from california wasnt there. John obama was with the reasonable ones. Bill thats a strategy is to pick the people off that he needs he needs some republican votes to get anything done. Pick those people off and isolate the hardliners then maybe we can move forward. John it is a big relief because the last time this many republicans met for dinner in d. C. , it was to obstruct the president , not is to have him buy them sea bass. You had Chris Van Hollen on your program, still carried on current before his lunch date with the president. What did Chris Van Hollen expect from the meeting and what do you think he expects from the budget negotiations Going Forward . Bill first, i have to say when you have breakfast with bill press and lunch with barack obama, thats a pretty good day i think for Chris Van Hollen. What he told us is he did not expect to make any deal at lunch. He knew that. But he was hoping that they would just air their points of view, air their differences and let paul ryan hear the facts like the republican senators did last night that maybe they could even get paul ryan to understand that obama is first of all, not going to accept his budget, not going to accept gutting medicare but does want to move forward and maybe inch him away from boehner and cantor. John now that president obamas apparently trying to restart his grand bargain talks on the deficit should progressives and democrats let him know whether he ends these talks or not that Social Security cuts cant be on the table . A lot of people are worried any time the president sits down with paul ryan to talk strategy. Bill im worried about it. To answer your question, youre damn right. We progressives have to keep obamas feet to the fire. And when we do that, john, people like you and me, we get flak from our viewers right . But look thats our job. Hes got to know Social Security should not even be on the table. It does not contribute to the debt. It does not contribute to the deficit. It is easy to fix if you raise the cap on the payroll tax, for example. You can fix it for another 70 years easily. Social security, chain cpi forget it. Social security, medicare, medicaid, sake resank. John mr. Press, i know you enjoyed watching bill oreilly scream at combs like he was a bad intern. It includes Social Security and medicare cuts. A lot dont know about it. Polls show those cuts are incredibly popular with both sides of the aisle. If the president offers them and republicans agree does barack obama own those cuts to those entitlements . Bill well, i think thats up to us. He did just win reelection promising, as john nichols pointed out again i agree with john nichols on almost every issue. The president promised not to touch Social Security, medicare and medicaid. I think it would be dangerous i dont expect the president to cave on those. I think it would be dangerous if he did. Yes, he would own them if he did john the house version of the house budge set due tuesday. Senate version will come out a few weeks later. Given where the parties are starting from, is any kind of reconciliation possible . If not, what is going to happen next with this big ugly mess . Bill i do think theyre going to work this out. The paul ryan budget, from what weve heard inside the beltway here, it is going to be this years budge set going to be worse than the last two and they were dead on arrival in the United States senate. Thats, i think, whats going to save us. The budget isnt going to get to president obama. It will never get out of the senate. The Senate Republican senators arent that crazy. John the bill press show airs monday through friday from ungodly oclock to holy god oclock. I know you have to get to bed to get up at 3 00 a. M. To do your excellent show. Bill great to be with you. John is rand paul still talking in a way . Yeah. [clucking]. Everyone wants to be the cadbury bunny. Cause only he brings delicious cadbury creme eggs, while others may keep trying. Nobunny knows easter better than cadbury very, very excited about that and very proud of that. Beltway politics from inside the loop. We tackle the big issues here in our nations capital, around the country and around the globe. Dc columnist and four time emmy winner bill press opens currents morning news block. Well do our best to carry the flag from 6 to 9 every morning. John its time for our thing of the da day. It is gun reform dropout. Im talking about senator tom coburn. The Oklahoma Republican had been working with three other senators on a bipartisan bill to expand background checks for gun sales. Thats something everybody wants. The majority of nra members favor that. But senator coburn, the man with an a rating from the nra could not accept one simple part of this very simple, very popular plan requiring gun sellers to keep sales records of the guns they sell. Car dealers keep records. Amazon. Com keeps records. Even some responsible drug dealers keep records but it is just too much to ask from somebody at a gun show. So new york senator Chuck Schumer who leads the group of senators is walking away from coburn and wants someone to replace him maybe republican who will actually dare cross the nra and risk a b plus rating. Yesterday, like a punch in the stomach, i was forced on this very show to agree wholeheartedly with senator rand paul of kentucky, the man who spent just under 13 hours filibustering the nomination of john brennan for c. I. A. Chief. Confirmed today. He wont be able to play sting in the next fantastic four movie. Because of questions he had about the u. S. Drone warfare policy specifically, how the policy might apply within the United States. It turns out not everyone in the world agreed with me and rand. Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up libertarian kids in their college dorms. John very clever line and he didnt write it. That zinger was actually courtesy of the wall street Journal Editorial Board which also ripped senator paul today. Senator pauls filibuster did however, catch the attention of attorney general eric holder who released a second letter stating. John thats the entire letter. Succinctly put to which senator paul responded. Hooray for 13 hours yesterday, we asked him that question and so there is a result in a victory. Under duress and under public humiliation, the white house will respond and do the right thing. John just like that, friends, it is okay to hate that smug rand paul all over again. Lets bring in Thom Hartmann who hosts the number one nationally and internationally syndicated progressive radio talk show. Thom, thank you so much for joining us. John, great to be back. John great to have you back in bizarro world. I was amazed watching the filibuster last night. Im thrilled to hear you talk about it. So many liberals criticizing rand paul for making a switch that most arent liberal enough to make. It was odd to find myself agreeing with senator paul. How did feel . I had mixed feelings about it john. His point that the president does not have the power in the constitution to be judge jury and executioner. The president has the power to be executioner. Thats given. But the judiciary the third branch of government is supposed to do the judge and jury thing. That point was really well taken. I think it is a discussion that we have been needing to have since the patriot act was pushed through in 2002 and we havent been having. So to the extent he may have furthered that discussion, im really pleased. On the other hand, this was rand paul kicking off his 2016 president ial bid. John . [ ding ding ] no need for him to go to the floor of the senate and filibuster. This was purely a publicity stunt. By speaking for his first hour without taking a sip of water he was shoving it in the face of marco rubio. John thats reading into it more than i dared thom. It was also about erasing the unpleasant memory of him getting into a slap fight with secretary clinton last month. Does attorney general holders second letter we just read mean that senator paul succeeded in his filibuster work . No, not at all. Rand paul is clai