If “right to work” laws made states more economically competitive, Mississippi would be a paradise. The long-time “right to work” states, mostly in the South, have lower wages, higher rates of poverty, higher rates of unemployment, worse schools, worse opportunities for most folks. These are facts. All “right to work” does is give the plutocrats freedom to exploit their employees.

And the poor sap baggers today are chirping about “right to work” equaling freedom. I can hear Orwell smirking — toldja.

This snip from last night’s Hardball is worth watching —

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Tweety was hard on both the union guy and the Americans for Prosperity guy. But it was fun to watch the Tweetster repeatedly ask the AFP guy who pays your salary, and the AFP guy repeatedly saying Americans for Prosperity, not the Koch brothers.

From Sourcewatch:

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a group fronting special interests started by oil billionaire David Koch and Richard Fink (a member of the board of directors of Koch Industries). AFP has been accused of funding astroturf operations but also has been fueling the “Tea Party” efforts. AFP’s messages are in sync with those of other groups funded by the Koch Family Foundations and the Koch’s other special interest groups that work against progressive or Democratic initiatives and protections for workers and the environment. Accordingly, AFP opposes labor unions, health care reform, stimulus spending, and cap-and-trade legislation, which is aimed at making industries pay for the air pollution that they create.

So, yeah, the Koch brother’s are paying the tool’s salary.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is really, really worried that the baggers will primary him out of the Senate in 2014.

“In February or March you have to raise the debt ceiling. And I can tell you this, there is a hardening on the Republican side. We’re not going to raise the debt ceiling. We’re not going to let Obama borrow any more money or any American Congress borrow any more money until we fix this country from becoming Greece. And that requires significant entitlement reform to save Social Security and Medicare from bankruptcy. Social Security is going bankrupt in about 20, 25 years. Medicare is going bankrupt in 15 or 20 years. […]

“Yes, we will play that game, Mr. President, because it’s not a game. The game you’re playing is small ball. You’re talking about raising rates on the top 2% that would run the government for 11 days. You just got re-elected. How about doing something big that’s not liberal? How about doing something big that really is bipartisan? Every big idea he has is a liberal idea that drowns us in debt. How about manning up here, Mr. President and use your mandate to bring this country together to stop us from becoming Greece.”

Even Glenn Kessler gave that little blip three pinnochios, albeit framed with the usual “both sides do it” disclaimers. Of course, the whole speech is nonsense from start to finish.

Still, it’s always awesome to see how fast the Right can completely retool talking points. Not long ago they seized on a statement from the Congressional Budget Office that the Affordable Care Act will save $716 in Medicare costs, and screamed that the President was gutting Medicare. Now they’re screaming for him to “man up” and cut costs from Medicare.

I know they live in an alternative reality, but it would be nice if they’d stick to one alternative reality and not hopscotch from one fantasy realm to another as their mood dictates.

And if anybody needs to “man up,” it’s Graham. How about manning up and adopting some principles, Senator? How about putting the country ahead of your career? How about telling the baggers to go bag themselves? I know that’s an alien concept, but do work on it.

Some fireworks on the teevee pundit shows this week. Mary Matilin and George Will butted heads with Paul Krugman on This Week.

And Lawrence O’Donnell called out Newt on Meet the Press —

At least Krugman is getting on the teevee.

Ezra thinks the “fiscal cliff” compromise will have the tax rates for the wealthy going up some, but not all the way to the pre-Bush 39.6 percent. He also thinks the Dems will allow the Medicare eligibility age to go up to 57 67, as a sop to the Republicans.

Krugman —

I’m going to cross my fingers and hope that this is just a case of creeping Broderism, that it’s a VSP fantasy about how we’re going to resolve this in a bipartisan way. Because if Obama really does make this deal, there will be hell to pay.

Yeah, these bad ideas are bad ideas. As far as the tax rates are concerned, seems to me the Dems have the Grey Old Peckers by their boy parts, and we’ve still got more than three weeks to the cliff.

And Ezra himself explains why raising Medicare tax rates is a bad idea:

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(During the recent election campaign, Republicans tried to scare the old folks into voting for Romney by shrieking that Obama was cutting Medicare. And of course, Republicans wanted to win that election so they could cut Medicare.)

Why compromise on Medicare? The thinking seems to be that while it’s a bad idea, and would create real hardship for some folks, the pain would be narrowly spread and the deal would have little effect on the economy. But if they do this, the Dems had better get something really fat and juicy in return. And nothing fat and juicy enough is coming to mind.

I’m still breathing. I’m calling my new home the “ant farm” because right now it’s a maze of packing boxes. I’ve been too busy to do much in the way of unpacking.

Stuff to read —

Republicans Not Coping Well With Election Results

Karl Rove and Dick Morris are persona non grata at Fox, for now.

Dick Armey and FreedomWorks split.

I’m going to miss living next door to a Dunkin’ Donuts, although I was far from a regular customer. It was certainly handy this morning, since my coffeepot is packed.

Here’s a very righteous rant that you might like — Lucky to Have a Job.

You don’t know how much stuff you have until you haul it out of the closets and cupboards and try to pack it into boxes. Where the bleep did all this stuff come from?