Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

On Hardball, Chris Matthews was speaking with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, so you just know something ridiculous was said.

Transcript from Story Balloon:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: How come in the `30s, when we suffered a far worse economic decline, the rich were embarrassed? They were embarrassed by what they had done. People were jumping out of buildings. People were — it was horrendous. There was a real sense of shame, shame by the very rich.

This time around, the response by the really better-off people is, give us more. We blew it, we screwed it up, we destroyed our markets, we killed Wall Street, we have said we`re too big to fail, now give us more.

We’ve gone from “yes we can” to “jump” in just two and a half years. Come on, Chris — if all these rich Wall Streeters jump, there won’t be anybody left who can afford to go to the birthday party of the president who puts a charge in your slacks (by the way, Obama’s birthday party/fundraiser — not necessarily in that order — is scheduled for August 3rd, the day after the world is supposed to end if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, so Team Obama remains optimistic).

Video here.

Also, here’s some patented Matthews brilliance on raising the debt ceiling:

No matter what the protesters say, by the way, this is the right truth and it is the truth: failure to act on the debt ceiling will create a horror for our country, a horror we’ve never seen before.

Suddenly one day we’ll find ourselves like Greece or Ireland or Portugal, one of those countries at the periphery of the strong economies — Germany, China, India. Suddenly we’ll be one of those countries that the strong world looks at with disdain, looks down on really. We’ll become objects of pity, pity not for what was done to us like on 9/11, but for the pathetic sight of what we’ve done to ourselves.

If the US doesn’t go into deeper debt, it will become one of those countries that have turned into economic catastrophes because of their out-of-control debts? That sounds about right.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe