Mary Matalin is a prime example of what makes these shows [Sunday talk shows] a waste of bandwidth, and her husband isn't much better. On the political roundtable segment of This Week, they moved right to spending, code for the secret budget deal we're not hearing about, and Matalin just couldn't resist a dog whistle, saying that "real Americans understand we cannot continue spending at the rates we are."
Last time I looked, my birth certificate said I am a "real American." I've considered myself one for my entire life. What I understand is that we can spend on everyone but people if you're a Republican. Every conservative likes to yowl about spending, but none of them will give up their addiction to spending on the military-industrial complex, or farm subsidies to wealthy agribusiness, or oil subsidies to oil companies making more and more money at taxpayers' expense. They have no objection to spending in the form of tax preferences to hedge fund managers and howl at the prospect of levying a small trading tax on Wall Street.