On a special Saturday edition of Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews twice claimed that Republican Rep. Paul Ryan's budget "screws" needy people. During a segment with Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen, as he asked what it was like to work with Rep. Ryan as his colleague, the MSNBC host asserted that the plan "really screws the people who desperately need Medicare and programs like that."
Speaking to Rep. Van Hollen, Matthews posed:
You sit next to this guy with a totally different philosophy. What does he say when you whisper to him, when he comes out with his budget that basically gives a great break to the richest people in the country, and really screws the people who desperately need Medicare and programs like that?
What do you ask him? How can you do this? How can you reward rich people who already have all these breaks in this country? And hurt the people that have no breaks? What does he say? What's his answer?
A bit later, after the Washington Post's Ezra Klein argued that Ryan's budget would affect programs for the poor more immediately than programs for the elderly, Matthews again saw the Republican Congressman "screwing" people:
He's screwing the people he doesn't expect to vote for him. The people he doesn't expect to vote for him, he's screwing.
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center