The Whole Delivery

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy "I think we come back to the entitlement question. The Democrats should actually be in favor of certain kinds of progressive entitlement reform, it's not actually that big of a give..... One of the big concerns is doing too much fiscal austerity too soon in 2013. The more that you did in the form of, say, social security, one of the things with Social Security, which can be phrased in gradually over time, the lighter the load imposed in 2013." - Peter Orszag Personally, I like Erza Klein, especially after meeting him once in person. He's genuinely a nice guy overall for sure, and we know how intelligent he is from exploding onto the scene with consistent diligence on budgets at The American Prospect. Most people would probably say the same about Peter Orszag genuinely as a person. Nice guy who is definitely quite a personality for a lot of wonk people who aren't able to be pers...

Chart from Calculated Risk : MB , Atrios ( all the posts ), and even Ezra put in perspective, though the first two don't provide any window dressing. And hell, add DDay in there as well.

Ezra Klein said this perfectly yesterday , among many things, about the man of the week: So I take Paul at his word that he's not a racist. What he is, however, is an ideological extremist. He is so categorically opposed to public regulation of private enterprise that he cannot even bring himself to say that the Woolworth lunch counter should've been desegregated. Instead, he falls back on the remedies of the market: "I wouldn't attend, wouldn't support, wouldn't go to," a private institution that discriminates, he told Rachel Maddow. But he would let them discriminate. And in the segregated South, that would've been a perfectly viable business model for many, many very important institutions. And he still can't say it : Paul had a chance this morning on ABC News to clarify his views on the proper role of Federal power vis-a-vis discrimination by private entities and institutions. He conspicuously declined to do so. During that remarkable ...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy Are they being stupid and untrustworthy again? That is the perspective one could easily infer from after seeing and hearing what Ezra Klein has said to Keith Olbermann tonight on Countdown in regardless to the stunning revival of the public option. It is information that leads to something we are seeing publically with the petition (now at #19 Senators with Arlen Specter early this evening) maybe just a painful predictable facade for progressives to swallow. "I got to tell you Keith, reporting on this is weird today because everyone that's sign the letter that when you call them every office I call is telling me privately were terrified of this," said the Washington Post and former American Prospect Blogger. After Olbermann asked him if this is yet another leadership problem with the Democrats, Klein reply only needed one word. "Exactly." But he wasn't done. "I th...

With Obama back, it is getting serious in the important fight for health care reform in America. Via the "Abbreviated Pundit Roundup" at the Kos , DemFromCT highlights this fascinating column today from the Washington Post's astute E.J. Dionne . Fifty million new customers. Those may be the most important words to remember as the health-care reform effort hits its stride this week. I swear, Dionne could have stopped his column there, and it would have been a smash hit, though the rest of it is still great. But is that resonating with the law makers? Ted Kennedy's bill is out, and the Washington Post's Ceci Conolly says that it doesn't have estimates or specifics on how to pay for the expansion. We'll check that if what Conolly said is true, because that bill is 170 pages long. And sometimes, reporters nowadays don't go into full depth like they need to. The wonderful Erza Klein provides a great timeline of the Finance Commitee's health care reform....