Jesus @ Representative Tim Huelskamp on Morning Joe.
That was the most infuriating 10 minutes of television ever, and is the most perfect illustration of why it is the Republicans destroying America piece by piece.
On the fiscal cliff, every single member of the panel including Joe slowly walks Huelskamp through the process - revenues vs. cuts, or what balance there should be in the order. Slowly but surely they walk him through hypothetical scenarios to try to see where the line is, what he could compromise on.
Until finally he admitted the answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing. He will never vote for anything that has any tax increases for even a single person. Ever. In fact, he will not compromise or any issue whatsoever the Democrats want in the bill, and if they get something he won't vote for it.
When prompted that it is impossible to govern in a country like ours when you're completely unwilling to compromise on any aspect of the debate, he entered into some circular void where he kept dodging questions.
"Well, how do you get anything done when one party won't compromise on a single point?"
"Well back in 2010, Obama extended the Bush tax cuts. So it's possible!"
The implication from then on being that as long as the Democrats surrender to whatever the Republicans want, the country will run just peachy!
God and it just got more infuriating from there. When they got to the gun debate, his argument was just misdirection after misdirection.
"Will you consider any changes to gun laws?"
"No, that's politicizing the issue. But violent videogames and mental health need to be looked into."
"Wait, you dare say I'm politicizing the issue if I talk about sensible changes in gun control laws but you're not politicizing anything when you talk about how we need to address violent videogames and mental health?"
"I have FOUR CHILDREN, I care about their safety more than anyone! And yet I do not think the laws need to be changed. The laws are not the problem!"
"In what way are they not the problem when these high capacity magazines allow people the ability to literally mow down dozens of people at a time? When do you need these weapons or abilities? To hunt or to protect yourself? Come on!"
"I have FOUR CHILDREN, and I know the laws are not the problem. Didn't Connecticut have laws against this stuff anyway? See, fail! DO you have any children Joe?"
"I have four children too."
Then he goes on, without any irony, to imply that Joe was like using his children as a shield in the debate, meanwhile up until that point Huelskamp was basically the only one mentioning their children.
