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Yesterday, joe, which is that they're going to sit back and pick apart the president's budget because it's politically advantageous to do. they don't want to get out there and offer anything concrete of their own because then they'll be attacked for it as well. you know, again, the president's boxed in on this one because politically he's being attacked from both sides of the aisle. and he's trying to get deficits under control while still stimulating job growth which is sort of a counterintuitive task. >> it is counterintuitive. and it is going to be very difficult for him. and i wonder, meli...

>> it is america's town square. i saw the four mug shots and i started laughing. and then i read -- i got to the second page of it, and i got about three paragraphs down and was, like, these are a bunch of college kids! i don't care how they know each other. just throw them in jail and be done with it if you want to. but you're right. they tried to turn this into some mccarthy-type vast right-wing conspiracy. oh, my gosh. >> with us now, political reporter for "the huffington post," sam stein. good to have you on board for the must-read opinion pages. >> we've got to get sam in on this. were y...

Sam? >> listen, again, these are two guys that were part of a republican congress that ran up record deficits and record debts over the past eight years. i don't like the president's budget. but if i go out there's a senator, sam stein, and i'm going to say no, no, no, sea of red ink and all of that, then i want to see the plan. what's the republican plan? i don't like $3.8 trillion. let's get a republican budget that's $3.2 trillion. >> yeah. well, okay, two points on this. first is on msnbc yesterday, the top economic adviser to john mccain's presidential campaign, acknowledged that even if ...

George w. bush stood shoulder to shoulder on for a year. you could already tell, when i was writing this in january and february, you started to have the concerns. we have "newsweek" having a cover that says we're all socialists now. "newsweek." not "american spectator" but "newsweek." we talk about how we're creeping towards euro socialism. i keep saying it. people have been offended all year. but i've seen this movie before. it was the perot people that i saw, mike barnicle, getting angrier and angrier. and i just knew this was going to happen. but also, though, i made the point in february ...

>> exactly, sam. >> let's give him that. i think a lot of people are actually surprised at how much the deficit has emerged as the key policy issue on the president's agenda. including a lot of progressive economists who wish it wasn't the key policy issue on the president's agenda. you know, obama's really boxed in here because on the one hand, you have a terrible job market. you have gdp growth but no job growth. and a lot of what's going to get us out of this deficit problem is getting more tax revenues. and a lot of stimulating job growth is dependent on government spending. if you look at...