Jon Stewart: “On what planet is a four percent spending increase a huge cut?!?”

The Obamas will host the first White House Seder tonight. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Michael Steele, in a new RNC fundraising letter: ACORN is gonna team up with Obama and rig the census to keep the GOP on the outs for an entire decade!

Late Update: The GOP is so eager to keep ACORN around as a left-wing boogeyman that Steele hasn’t returned courtesy phone calls from the head of ACORN.

Republican state rep in Texas: Can’t you Asians just adopt new names “that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

This is purely anecdotal, but I suspect it mirrors what’s happening around the country. Today Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is holding a grant-writing workshop here in Missouri to give small businesses, local governments and not for profits tips on applying for federal funds. With the stimulus package getting ready to pump tons of government cash into the economy I knew this was a hot topic. But I had no idea just how hot. My wife, who works in the nonprofit realm, tried to go, but ended up bailing on it because it was too crowded. I’m told nearly 500 people showed up for this thing. For a grant-writing workshop, no less.

Late Update: Not just Missouri. TPM Reader JH drops us a line from Vermont:

Up here in Vermont, the Governor and Patrick Leahy did the same thing about three weeks ago. 700 showed up. In Vermont! Had to schedule another one, the first was over booked. In Vermont!

Rep. Tom Price (R-Lockheed Martin): “It seems the only place the President is willing to cut spending is on the armed forces.”

All you need to know — and more — about the latest results from the NY-20 and what they might mean for the final outcome.

Some reader reaction to the RNC fundraising letter claiming Obama and ACORN want to rig the 2010 census.

TPM Reader HL:

Michael Steele is playing a dangerous game with that fund-raising letter, and people are going to die because of it.

Nine years ago, my wife worked for the Census, knocking on people’s doors and gathering information. There’s no way she’ll do it again next year. Steele is making it too dangerous.

Census takers put themselves in vulnerable positions. They don’t know who or what is on the other side of the door. The door might be opened by a sexual predator, or someone who’s not in control of a vicious dog. Or the door could be opened by someone with a gun in one hand and Steele’s letter in the other, seething with hatred for liberals and ACORN.

Remember that gunman who attacked a Unitarian church last year, and left behind a letter urging people to kill liberals? I’m convinced that there are plenty of unbalanced people who won’t leave their houses to seek liberals to kill, but will kill a “radical leftist” (Steele’s words) who knocks on their door in a mission to “falsify the U.S. Census and manipulate elections in their favor” (again, Steele’s words).

There’s been an astonishing number of gun rampages in this country in the last month, and at least one (in Pittsburgh) was politically motivated, by a man who had been convinced that the liberals wanted to take away his guns. For Steele to choose this time to use inflammatory language to politicize the Census … well, this is a very frightening development. The comments accompanying TPM’s article make it seem like most readers are bemused by Steele’s letter. But it’s not a laughing matter.

Let’s describe Steele’s actions for what they are: The chairman of the Republican Party is raising money by politicizing the decennial Census and inciting violence against Census takers. I’m sure Steele would deny that he’s trying to incite people, but this letter is being mailed during a time of rampant violence, some of it targeting liberals. It must be viewed in this context.

TPM Reader JG:

I was a census taker in the year 2000 in Atlanta, which meant I followed up on forms that hadn’t been turned in.

I remember having a hard time getting any information at all from hard core right wing radio listeners — in this case, fans of Neal Boortz, Mr. Fair Tax, who is based in Atlanta. I had to beg and plead with them, citing the constitution’s call for a census, before they would even tell me how many people lived in the house. Never would give me their names.

Don’t be surprised if tax protesters turn into census protesters, which will screw things up. Who knows? Maybe the right wing will disappear completely after the 2010 census.