Here's your so-called "liberal media" at work folks. Rep. Karen Bass found out the hard way what happens if you try to get a word in edgewise between host Dancin' David Gregory, and grifter Ralph Reed (who ought to be in prison instead of appearing on Meet the Press) while Reed is trying to pretend that Republicans actually care about the working class in America.
RALPH REED: --this, David, you see this at C.P.A.C., you're going to see it as this field begins to shake out as we move through 2014 and '15. A lot of this is about connecting with voters and constituencies that haven't always felt welcome in our ranks.
You know, my good friend, the late Jack Kemp, used to say that people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And the Republican Party has got to do what Francis is doing what the Catholic Church. Francis is putting the poor and care for the poor and amelioration of the poverty where it belongs, which is at the center of the Gospel.
If people who are lower middle class, who are struggling, who are poor, who are wanting to climb that ladder of opportunity but they're having a hard time grabbing that first rung, if they don't think conservatives and Republicans have a vision for the future that includes them--
DAVID GREGORY: Then the--
RALPH REED: --their message will be badly damaged.
REP. KAREN BASS: But I do think, if we look at Republican policies, if we look at the budgets over the last couple of years, there really isn't anything there that says "We're going to reach out to the middle class." I mean, in fact--
RALPH REED:That's not true.
REP. KAREN BASS: --we didn't even extend unemployment insurance. If you look at the diversity at C.P.A.C., there were 163 speakers; 35 were women--
DAVID GREGORY: Well, they don't government--
REP. KAREN BASS: Look at the room.
DAVID GREGORY: --to be leading the way. I mean, this is really about the size and reach of government, that's what the debate is about.
REP. KAREN BASS: Right, it is. It is. But, you know, you have to look at the room that they had, if we're talking about diversity. In that room, it was virtually empty. There were hundreds of seats. There was--
RALPH REED: Well, can I--
(OVERTALK)
RALPH REED: --just point out one thing. In fact, the most successful anti-poverty program since the Great Society is the $1,000 child tax credit. That was part of the Contract with America. We advocated it when I was at the Christian Coalition. In 2011, the last year for which we have data available, there were 9 million people lifted out of poverty. That's a fully refundable tax credit, by the way.
REP. KAREN BASS: You know, and it will be interesting to see--
RALPH REED: That was our policy--
REP. KAREN BASS: --whether that gets--
RALPH REED: --Bill Clinton vetoed it three times--
REP. KAREN BASS: --continued, based on what the Republicans are planning.
RALPH REED: Well, but it was vetoed three times. And when Mike Lee just announced his tax reform package, I guess yesterday or the day before, what did he propose? Taking that child tax credit to $2,500, making it fully refundable. So what you do, David, is you get rid of the bureaucracy, you get rid of all this panoply of government programs which are inefficient, and you give the funds directly to the--
And that's right when David Gregory changes the subject. Republicans have decided that if they just say they care about those living in poverty and the working class, that people are going to ignore what their actual policies are. Don't dare try to point that out with Gregory moderating the discussion or you'll be shut down as Bass was here.
(Transcript altered to fix the typos in MSNBC's version.)
