Must Reads

Ezra Klein: This is why Obama can’t make a deal with Republicans

Justin Rosario: How To Prove Obama LOWERED The Deficit In 4 Easy, Indisputable Steps!

Igor Volsky: Top Republicans Demand Obama Provide Coverage To People With Pre-Existing Conditions

Imani Gandy: Louie Gohmert Introduces Bill to Force Obama to Stop Golfing So Goddamn Much

Michael Calderone: Politico Investigated Menendez Claims Before Daily Caller Report

Bob Cesca: Republicans Take Credit for VAWA Even Though They Voted Against It

Must Reads

Ezra Klein: Calm down, liberals. The White House won.

Justin Rosario: Fox News: Fiscal Cliff Vote Like Lead Up To Revolutionary War

Bob Cesca: In Spite of Reality, Liberals Claim Obama “Caved” on the Fiscal Cliff

Shauna Theel: 10 Dumbest Things Fox Said About Climate Change In 2012

Eric Boehlert: How Fox News Screwed the GOP

Andy Borowitz: Republicans Apologize To Top 1.5 Per Cent

Bloomberg News Editorial: Budget Deal Offers Silver-Lining Playbook for Next Round

Michael Tomasky: Dear Liberals: Stop Complaining

Tim Murphy: Republicans Have a Habit of Blocking Disaster Relief for Americans

Dana  Milbank: Defined by a Sandy sidestep

New York Times Editorial: Al Jazeera In America

The Rude Pundit: Fiscal Cliff-Leaping: The Hopeful Politics of Capitulation

Charles Pierce: The Passion of The Boehner

Must Reads

Imani Gandy: Orange County Judge Denies That Rape is Even Possible; Blames Rape Victim for Not Fighting Her Rapist

Jim Wright: Welcome To the Party, Bob Dole

Ezra Klein: Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States

J.M. Ashby: Fiscal Responsibility

N.C. Aizenman: GOP state leaders fumble by ceding control of health exchanges to federal officials, critics say

Michael McAuliff: Republicans Say There's No Budget, And Use That To Stall Senate

Steve Benen: 'They have only moved backwards'

Dave Brockington: There’s a Reason We No Longer Live in the Fucking Medieval Age.

Tim Wise: Of Heroes and Hype: Mass Murder and the Absurdity of the ‘More Guns’ Crowd

Charles Pierce: The Bell Tolls For All Of Us

Nicholas Kristof: Do We Have the Courage to Stop This?

Must Reads

Bill Maher: God Hates Flags

Ezra Klein: Obama to GOP: I’m done negotiating with myself

Robert Reich: Organizing McDonalds and Walmart, and Why Austerity Economics Hurts Low-Wage Workers the Most

Charles Pierce: Foreign Policy's Bad List of Big Thinkers

The Rude Pundit: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Smoke Charas While Downing a Six-Pack of Crown

Asawin Suebsaeng: The Latest Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory: Obama's Third Term

Jim Wright: On The Beating Of Dead Horses

Must Reads

Ezra Klein: What Romney doesn’t understand about personal responsibility

Davis Corn: Romney's Video-Debunking Claim Is…Debunked

Alec MacGillis: How Paul Ryan Convinced Washington of His Genius

John D. McKinnon: Romney's Tax Plan Fails to Gain a Foothold

Zewlina Maxwell: Now a campaign issue: Sonia Sotomayor

Michael Lewis: Obama's Way

Must Reads

Marcus Cederstrom: What if Tim Tebow were Muslim?

Digby: Straight Up Racism, No Dogwhistle Necessary

Ezra Klein: Who will get the ‘Recovery Presidency’?

Andrew Sullivan: How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics

Robert Reich: The Romney Tax Loophole

Ruth Marcus: Mitt Romney’s miserly concern for the poor

E.J Dionne: Republicans keep moving Obama to Europe

Our blast from the past comes courtesy of loyal reader Chris U. who wants to remind us all of Newt Gingrich's political past, sans revisionist history.

John E. Yang: House Reprimands, Penalizes Speaker

Better Government Management Through Lame Video Games

Or as it's otherwise known, Herman Cain's 999 Plan.

Long before Cain was running for president and getting attention for his 999 plan, the residents of SimCity 4 -- which was released in 2003 -- were living under a system where the default tax rate was 9 percent for commercial taxes, 9 percent for industrial taxes and 9 percent for residential taxes.

Now this may just be a really, really, really freaky coincidence, but if you can compare Cain's cockamamie tax reform plan to something in an eight year old video game, something is amiss. And this doesn't even touch on the subject of how ridiculous the plan actually is. And when Cain is asked specific questions on aspects of his plan, like how the 100% deduction would work for businesses that buy American designed products but are assembled out of the country and contain parts made elsewhere, he'll give answers like, "I have no idea." No idea? Herman Cain has no idea how his plan would work? He's shouting "9-9-9" from the mountaintops any chance he gets, but he doesn't even know how it works.

When you crunch the numbers, it's just another in a long line of Republican tax reform plans that increase taxes for middle class and working poor families while cutting taxes for the top income earners. And by "top" I don't mean breaking six figures. I mean millionaires.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Must Reads

David Frum: The GOP's Bernanke Letter

Ezra Klein: Nice central bank you got here. Shame if something should happen to it.

The Rude Pundit: Hypocritical, Cruel, and Buffoonish Responses from the GOP on Obama's Tax Plan

Bob Cesca: Rick Perry’s Epic Lying Could Make Him the Next President

Justin Rosario: Stop Pretending You’re Not A Conservative! You Wrecked The Country, Now Own Up To It!

Sarah Lai Stirland: Energy Department: House Republicans Distorted E-Mail Correspondence

Joel Atcheson: Reality? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Reality

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Ezra Klein: Why Libertarianism Fails in Health Care

The Rude Pundit: The US Day of Rage Takes a Trip Into Right-Wing Conspiracy Land

Bob Cesca: Cable News Debate Coverage Is Hurting Democracy

Kevin Drum: How to Talk About Solyndra

Paul Rosenberg: 10 Signs God Is Furious With the Right

Roger Ebert: Saul Alinsky Pours for the Tea Party

Nick Baumann: The GOP's Genius Plan to Beat Obama in 2012

Paul Begala: I [heart] Government

Paul Krugman: Free To Die

Must Reads

Timothy Egan: Rick Perry’s Unanswered Prayers

Bob Cesca: The Case for Republican Economic Sabotage

Jason Easley: Iowa Publicity Stunt Fail: Sarah Palin Gets Super Congress Wrong

Ezra Klein: Three Possible Futures for Health-Care Reform

John Nichols: Can We Have Health Reform Without an Individual Mandate? Yes, It's Called 'Medicare for All'

Horrible June Jobs Numbers

Unemployment ticked up another notch to 9.2% as the June jobs numbers came out today. Only a net of 18,000 jobs on the plus side after a private sector increase of 57,000 jobs. The numbers are being dragged down month after month with a hemorrhaging of public sector jobs. Federal, state and local jobs have decreased by 238,000 in the last eight months alone.

President Obama is making a statement in the Rose Garden today at about 10:35am.

I heard the breaking news on the jobs numbers on Morning Joe and believe it or not, a fascinating conversation took place immediately thereafter; a conversation that probably wouldn't have happened had Joe Scarborough actually been at the table. It took place mainly between Ezra Klein and CNBC's Simon Hobbs, who appeared visibly flustered and frustrated at the political gridlock in Congress. Hobbs was specifically asking, with an ideological opposition, "What can the President do?!"

Finally, someone was seeing the big picture and not just automatically blaming the Obama administration, as Mike Barnicle had initially done before backing off a bit when the adults in the room took over. Video to follow.

UPDATE: Of course, Morning Joe and MSNBC being what it is, have decided to leave the most substantive, straightforward, non-partisan discussion the Morning Joe pundits have ever had off their site. If anyone can find the video of the discussion between Ezra Klein and Simon Hobbs from the final hour of the July 8th broadcast, please leave a link in the comments section. Thanks.

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Ezra Klein: GOP Jobs Plan: Old Ideas, Fancy New Clip Art

Jonathan Chait: The Tax Freeloader Myth

Allan, ABL Chronicles: Clarence Thomas – The Original #Weinergate

Michael Zimmerman, Ph.D.: Michele Bachmann's Stance on Evolution Demolished by High School Student

Kate Sheppard: House GOP Tells DHS to Stop Worrying About Climate Change

Paul Krugman: Fatal Fatalism

John Nichols: One If By Misstatement, Two If By Ignorant: Palin Gets an "F" in American History

Michael Winship: Secret Cash: The Worst Political Scandal of All

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Anthea Butler: Palin Bus Tour Like Gideon’s Fleece

Quote of the Day

"If you're of the mind that the economy needs all the extra help it can get right now -- and you should be -- this is a lot more extra help than anyone expected Republicans and Democrats would agree to give it. And from a political perspective, if you believe that what matters for elections is the economy -- and you should -- then it's worth it for the White House to lose news cycles in 2010 if it means adding jobs by 2012."

~Ezra Klein, on the tax cut compromise

Quote of the Day

...we only have to fix Social Security once.

The size of that fix is significant, but not astonishing. Over the next 75 years, the shortfall will be equal to about 0.7 percent of gross domestic product. How much is 0.7 percent of GDP? To put that in perspective, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculates that it's about as much as George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich will cost over the same period. Saying we can afford those cuts -- which is the consensus Republican position -- but not Social Security's outlay is nonsensical. Coming up with 0.7 percent of GDP isn't a crisis. It's a question of priorities.

~Ezra Klein

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Gail Collins: Congress, Up In Arms

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Ezra Klein: When Bad Economic News Is Good News

Timothy Karr: Net Neutrality's Weird Week

Danny Schechter: Was The Market Pushed?

Charles M. Blow: Trying To Outrun Race

Mahablog: Why Are Righties So Obsessed With Labels?

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Gin and Tacos: An Open Letter to Tim Pawlenty

Joe Conason: Republicans revive a debate they lost, badly

Chez Pazienza: The Notorious "Big"

Glenn Greenwald: The lynch-mob mentality

Derrick Z. Jackson: The double standard at CBS

Ezra Klein: It's just you, Democrats

Gail Collins: No Holds Barred

Palin Wrote What?!

Escuse me while I wipe the tears from my eyes. I haven't been able to stop laughing at this statement: "Sarah Palin wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post." Seriously? C'mon. Her name may be on it, but anyone who's paid any attention to Sarah Palin over the last 9 months has to realize that this did not come from the pen of Palin. Especially on the heels of her rambling resignation "speech" less than two weeks ago which began, "Hi Alaska."

Ezra Klein expounds on her op-ed explaining her cap and trade opposition:

It's probably a bit kind to say that Sarah Palin "wrote" this. There are no words in all capital letters. There are no sports metaphors. There is nothing at all like "*((Gotta put First Things First))*." The stylistic and grammatical tics on display in last week's speech are totally absent. Sarah Palin signed her name to this. Or at least let someone else do so.

But that's not all that's missing. The term "global warming" is absent. So is "climate change." It's a bit like an op-ed that attacks firefighters for pointing pressurized water cannon at everything but never mentions fires, or a column that condemns surgeons for sticking sharp things into people but never mentions illness.

You could no more argue with this op-ed than you could drive a car made out of candy.

We've obviously not heard the last of Sarah Palin. She is now putting her name to op-eds in the same paper as Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson.

I do have one question: who wrote that op-ed for her?

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Ezra Klein: A Question of Priorities

Isabel Macdonald: Policing the Debate on Health Reform

Robert Parry: False Health-Scare Ad on CNN

Pierre Tristam: Obama the Collaborator letting naysayers neuter health-care fix

Paul Krugman: Not Enough Audacity