I have to say, I completely agree with Chris Matthews here after watching Sen. Marco Rubio's rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union speech tonight. During MSNBC's coverage immediately following his speech, with Rachel Maddow giving a brief overview of some of what was said and her calling it a “claws out, kind of aggressive speech,” her colleague Chris Matthews was not so kind.
MATTHEWS: I thought it was tinker toys. I thought it was primitive, that it was something you'd hear on a high school debating team. First of all, he went after government as some kind of evil, then he admitted that he had gone to school on student loans. Well, I went to school on student loans, my dad went to school on the G.I. Bill. Most of us have benefited from good government. Government's worked for us. I got in the Peace Corps, changed my life. You know, I am very pro-government and he admitted he was, too.
He says "I love Medicare because of how it takes care of my mother. I took care of my father with dignity. He said I went the student loan route, I benefited from it. I got my education." Where was the consistency here? I didn't get it. He was saying he was a product of solid government and positive programs, and then he just trashed the whole thing. And then he played this victim game that everybody seems to play today.
What's the Republicans' victims. They're paying one in six dollars now, we've got six percent of GDP going to revenues. We're spending twenty five percent. Who's being over-taxed? I mean, what are they talking about?
It was almost like a YAFer speech, Young Americans for Freedom speech in the 1950's. There was no originality to it. It was basic. Again, it was tinker toys. It was a kid's presentation of a philosophy reduced to maybe the ninth grade level. I'm sorry, but that's what it was.
My thoughts were that it sounded like more Ayn Rand worship type of claptrap which is, "I've got mine and the hell with everyone else. I got my help with student loans, but the hell with the rest of you. My parents are benefiting from Medicare and we're not going to harm them, but if you're in your forties, look out because you're going to have to suck it up and have your benefits cut." As Matthews rightfully noted, there was just a ton of inconsistency and hypocrisy laced through the entire speech.
We can have a bit of fun with the water bottle moment, but ultimately I think the criticism as we saw here and the hypocrisy we've seen constantly from the Republicans with their policies and how this speech was just another example of that is what is going to matter more in the long run.
