Kudos to Rachel Maddow

++Should we really congratulate Rachel Maddow for becoming an NBC anchor? Will this be the death spiral of talent?

++But Rachel showed up last night with her talent for explaining certain positive changes in America under the Obama Administration. This segment was followed by her analysis of how it is likely that the government will be shut down by the GOP before the lame duck session of Congress closes.

++Steve Benen, formerly of the Washington Monthly and the leading debunker of Mitt Romney,posted on the Maddow blog some basics about the economy under Obama. Weigant at Friday Talking Points hit on some of the same areas for Democrats to use in the following days.

++The Takeaways:
1. The economy is in full recovery mode and clocking in with jobs numbers of 20 years ago.
2. The Dow has gained 10,010 pts since President Obama was inaugurated.
3. Medical costs are only rising at the level they were fifty years ago.
4. Gas is under $2 per gallon in many states and under $3 in the rest.
5. People without health insurance has plummeted by 30% in a year.
6. The United States is out performing the economies of all developed countries combined.
7. President Obama deal with China over climate change looks like it may produce a larger international agreement.
8. National Polls for the first time since the Great Recession show that a majority of Americans believe the economy is going very well.
9.50% believe President Obama's actions on immigration were just about right and 22% said they didn't go far enough.

++Now turn hard right to Washington and you would think none of this was happening. Oh yes,the national deficit will tumble again this year. This weekend,the last white Southern Democrat, Mary Landrieu, looks like she will be defeated. 

++The GOP want to oust the head of the CBO and let "politicians who have the authority evaluate the implications of their laws." What could possibly go wrong? 

++We enter next year with the Supreme Court threatening to undo Obamacare and then those nice numbers will fall. A GOP Congress passing the Ryan budget which would doom a generation to crushing debt. And the Congress hasn't even decided whether we are at war against ISIS. All of those points by Rachel Maddow,Steve Benen and Charles Weigant are at risk by actions of the new Congress. 

++While the economy should zoom until then,there are a series of issues like the Export-Import bank which have to be dealt with by June. We will be very lucky if we can a recession in the next two years with this Congress.