Americans don’t want any of the cuts that are about to happen

>>> romney announced paul ryan as his running mate. in norfolk, virginia, what a visual, what a team. the pro military duo. now neither man actually served in the military. but the gop was desperate to cling to its reputation as the party of national security . just four days earlier, the uss abraham lincoln aircraft carrier arrived in that same port for a massive overhaul. including upgrades to its nuclear reactors. but now, those repairs have stalled. the pentagon has stopped the upgrade indefinitely. because of next week's catastrophic budget cuts, that republicans refuse to stop on tuesday, president obama will head to that navy yard , navy shipyard. after republicans have their hypocrisy. the gop for this disaster in the making, and cuts that will start next friday will hurt our recovery and cost up to 700 thousand jobs.

>> it has become clear that the cuts would have an adverse impact on families, on teachers, and parents who rely on head start programs. on our military readiness. on mental health services . on medical research . this is not smart way for us to reduce the deficit.

>> not smart?

>> the president was just being gracious. these cuts are crazy. not republicans are not letting them happen. especially to protect the rich. the american people don't want any of these cuts that are about to kick in next friday. 80% of spending cuts on education, just 10% want the cut. 83% oppose spending cuts for food and drug inspections. just 14% want them. and 81% oppose spending cuts for roads and infrastructure. just 17% want them. it's simple. americans like their teachers teaching, their roads paved and their food safe. and they are willing to raise taxes on the rich to protect these things. republicans better get on board with that or get out of the way.

>>> joining me now, melissa harris - perry and e.j. dionne . thank you both for coming on shot tonight.

>> good to be with you.

>> listen, the parents has the upperhand politically but the republicans haven't been moved. what is going to happen?

>> if you think about what we're looking at with this sequester versus what the president laid out in the state of the union , just two weeks ago, right, when he lays out a vision for building our infrastructure, building our roads, keeping the nation's safe and here you have republicanes who are willing, not just to make budget cuts, that's what they long said, but they are willing at this point to do it with a hatchet, with a chainsaw, right? no reasonable, like expectation of actually looking at what can go and what can stay and how much we need. but simply going in and lopping it off.

>> e.j., when you see the confusion, let me give you an example, senator hatch, he really showcases the gop confusion because on one hand he says to the tribune, i'm for sequestration, hatch said. we've got to face the music now or it will be much tougher later. but check out what he said in the very next paragraph. hatch said sequestration would lead to an economic disaster in utah. he said it would be devastating to our nation's readiness. now how can republicans be for something they think will be an economic disaster , e.j.?

>> you're asking me to explain that statement? if you shorten the quota, it would sound like i'm for disaster. this is a very weird situation where in the sequester cuts were made to be so bad and dumb that we would never go through with them. but apparently they weren't bad or dumb enough. and i think there's a real problem in the argument that republicans are making underneath this which is they are saying, well, we dealt with tax increases at the end of last year. that's it for tax increases. no. the fact is, we've had way more in cuts already that president obama agreed to, in the $2 trillion range or more. and we have only had $640 billion in revenue. obama says look, reneed at least another, you know, half a -- 500 billion of revenue, and that would still put us at way below what simpson and bowles said we need on revenue and he needs cuts and tax increases and if republicans just agreed to what obama put on the table, they could declare a big victory because the ratio for spending cuts would still be enormous.

>> isn't that part of the myth? they say, well, we raised taxes. we gave revenue, but they didn't give the revenue that president had requested. they came in like about 600 something million as e.j. said, and we needed a lot more revenue than that, even more than what he would have originally asked for.

>> i think that's the key. it is not even so much they didn't come in where the president wanted them to be or what president asked for, they didn't come in where the country needed them to be. and part of what -- and i know e.j. knows this and talked about it as well. they are already beginning to close the gap on the deficit. but you know, this narrative is, if the deficit is growing and exploding and out of control, we know two things. one, the main thing that will take care of the deficit is economic growth . as the pie grows, as there are more people working, as those people are paying into the system then the deficit will begin to close. but all of these choices in the sequester will shrink the economy rather than grow it. and the second thing is, policy particularly president's healthcare policy, are already on the road to closing our deficit. to narrowing it and making it smaller because it is going to affect healthcare cost.

>> no doubt about it. e.j., when you alluded to that in your column -- i want it read e.j. to e.j. republicans want it place as much distance between themselves and the 2012 election as they possibly can. from their perspective, the more months we put away on these dumb fake emergencies, the better. as obama 's clout slowly dimirnishes, so will his opportunities to pret his priorities. there is always a little personal interaction here, e.j.

>> i think is personal, and i also think it has to do with policy and ideas. because every moment we spend -- we're sitting here talking about this fake crises, and it is a fake crisis, when we aught to be talking about other things. like how do we get people back to work, raise equality, upward mobility . i think part of what is going on here is that if we go through with these cuts, we are going to pull money out of the economy at a moment when we shouldn't be doing that. we haven't -- the economy is on the right path but it is not growing fast enough. and the last thing we need to do right now, is to sort of suck some oxygen out of it. yeah, we can talk about long-term deficit reduction. but let's not do it in a way that going to keep us from growing and therefore, as melissa suggested, ultimately make the problem we have worse.

>> now, melissa , i raise the same question president obama , he was on my radio show yesterday, that e.j. addressed, personal, political. let me play for you what the president said he thinks is the reason they are not uniting and trying to protect the country. they are really trying to protect the rich.

>> they're basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations. and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down a recovery over closing tax loop holes, and that's the thing that binds their party together at this point.

>> now, they must have struck a nerve. because over at fox news, they went wow and they've been playing, interviewing, and let me show you the response. here is a tape from fox news on their response with what the president said on the radio show .

>> the president seems to go back to this. just demonize the opponent repeatedly. he does that often.

>> i think this is a classic example of this administration's way of selling this to the american people , is you good out there and fear monger. and every republican is evil, rich and white. and i'm fighting them so be on my team.

>> i missed the line where he called every republican rich and white.

>> or evil. . he also -- so the president is -- has proposed, for example, raising minimum wage to $9 an hour, right? something that would create a living wage in this country, and we need to have a national debate about that. congress right now need to talk about, how do we raise minimum wage to $9 an hour. how do we pass common sense gun legislation. how do we rebuild infrastructure in this country so we are not a crumbling empire. but instead of doing any of that, we are talking about whether we will continue to fund our government at the most basic level because of this fake crisis.

>> including national security .

>> exactly. what you see the president doing over and over again is something we call, keep it obama . he constantly rises above whatever petty or individual things are to try to talk about policies 5e7b this characterization of that sentence or those clear sort of observations as sort of saying that the republican party is evil, rich and white, that is a projection. the president did not say that.

>> maybe it's the way he walks. melissa harris - perry and e.j. dionne , thank you for being here. don't forget to catch melissa harris - perry on saturdays and sundays.

>>> how hillary had republicans running scared , even in the deep of the heart of texas.

>>> and we join hollywood. oscars sunday night with some politics and some serious issues hitting the red carpet .

>> what's your name.

>> django.

>> and the hot brigade is losing it. bashing the president wasn't good enough for rushing the game. now they're bashing america. a fun friday show tonight, stay with us. [