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go over the so-called fiscal live, and even after president obama and speaker boehner met for the first time in over a month we still appear to be no closer to a deal. but over the weekend, for the first time both sides did seem to be softening the edges of their ideological swords. today in detroit the president continued his campaign-style push for congress to pass tax breaks for those below $250,000 and allow tax breaks for the wealthy to expire. >> a lot of people are putting forth a theory, and i actually think it has merit where you go and give the president the 2% increase that he's talking about, the rate increase on the top 2%. so there is a growing body. i actually am beginning to believe that is the best route for to us to take. >> in my view we all agree that we're not going to raise taxes on people who make less than $250,000. we should just take them out of the discussion right now. >> i think if it got to the floor it would carry. >> eliot: as the republicans begin to come around on the tax rates democrats have become open to limited entitlement reform. ther
corporate tax rates and that is something that speaker boehner and president obama are fairly symbiotic gone. the point being they're really trying to set the stage to get ready to move right away and just trying to push forward tax reform which does not happen very often. it would be a once in a generation thing to actually open up the tax code and really revise it. host: last time they did that was 1986. is this the opening act for the main performance over taxes? guest: a lot of people. but like that and you already see the conversation that are already happening by the chairman of the committee that would be running battery right. host: fred from gramercy, louisiana. good morning. go ahead. caller: i have had a job since i was roughly 14 or 15 years old. i paid social security and i paid in to medicare. i don't understand why they don't leave these programs alone. when a person passes away, if the family qualifies, they get death benefits of $255. if they want to keep what their parents or grandparents had come and they have to pay inheritance tax. i don't understand why they don't leave
if there is an agreement between speaker boehner and president obama, it is not clear it will be acceptable. host: david is on the phone from york, pennsylvania, republican line, good morning. caller: i'm calling from arkansas, actually. i am an attorney and i've tried to watch the actions of this president. i take into consideration the books he read and he uses the philosophers who taught him as he grew up. i really believe that based on the way he is trying -- that based on the way he has been trained, i think the president wants to go over the cliff because that will achieve the things he was buried he wants to break up the republican party. he wants to break its back and then he also wants to go over the cliff because he wants to have a financial crisis because if you look at the study, that is the only way he can really achieve the type of social and fiscal non-responsibility he wants to achieve. that is break the back of the economy and then we have a crisis. and then he will come in and fix it. it is a very socialist way that will be unacceptable to most americans accept the slivers of the ameri
've got some serious differences. >> woodruff: that downbeat assessment from house speaker john boehner came after he and president obama traded fresh offers this week. >> we spoke honestly and openly about the differences we face. but, the president's calling for $1.4 trillion worth of revenue. that cannot pass the house or the senate. >> woodruff: the president originally sought $1.6 trillion in revenue over 10 years, before lowering his target to $1.4 trillion. the money would come from raising rates on the top two percent of wage earners and curbing loopholes. boehner's counter was little changed-- $800 billion in revenues from closing loopholes and capping deductions, but no rate hikes. republicans have also demanded entitlement reform, and in a tuesday interview, the president would not rule out raising the medicare eligibility age by two years to 67. today, his white house spokesman, jay carney, summed up. >> he is willing to make tough choices and he has made clear and specified the spending cuts he is willing to make and he is willing to go further as part of a broader deficit
speaker boehner and president obama in 2011. and we know the shape of a likely deal. it would be exactly that. about a 37% tax rate hike for top earners in this country. we know that secretary geithner and president obama have spoken of being open to that idea. and john boehner did himself yesterday, although after he did so in a question and answer period with reporters he then put out a statement saying he wasn't really meaning to open that door. but we know the parameters of a deal. it likely will include some kind of tax rate hike, although not to clinton levels for top earners, and some savings in medicare and medicaid. i think that is the likely shape of the likely deal. >> meredith, louisiana's gop governor bobby jindal wrote an op ed this week. "at present any reading of the headlines over the past week indicates republicans are fighting to protect the rich and cut benefits for seniors. it may be possible to have worse political positioning than that but i'm not sure how" the does this mean gop members are getting it? do you think it matters? governor jindal doesn't have a vote i
or not speaker boehner can deliver votes. the thing that a lot of people worry about in private is him and obama will cut a deal in late december negotiations. but boehner has been making tough calls. when it comes down to it he's going to agree to something with the president and it is not going to be able to pass his own conference. do you have any sense of what you think he's able to do and not do at this point? >> we come back again to the entitlement question. it's going to be easier for the caucus to swallow some tax rate increase if they have something to show for it. and the irony here, on a whole variety of issue, the democrats should be in favor of certain kinds of entitlement reforms. it's not actually that big of a give. on social security, as an example, democrats have won for the time being on privatization being completely off the table. there's a strong argument for trying to lock that in now as oppose eed to waiting and having that potentially come back. in addition, one of the big concerns here is doing too much fiscal austerity too soon. the more you did in the form of social
the orange man will still be speaker. representative marsha blackburn said he will be speaker. eric cantor must have a bigger bitch face than usual this morning. >> oh, come on. really? >> stephanie: all right. the president. >> obama: that is something i won't compromise on because i'm not going to have a situation where any wealthiest among us including folks like me get to keep all of our tax breaks, and then we're asking students to pay higher student loans. >> stephanie: robin in arizona. welcome. >> caller: hi. i'm happy for the opportunity to talk to you and the two bears. [ laughter ] >> stephanie: okay. go ahead. >> caller: and when t-bone took my call, i said i wanted to speak about the right to work state recently in michigan. i moved from washington state to arizona. clearly i did not do my homework, and my husband has lived here for quite sometime, and at the time -- this would be nine and a half years ago, there were eighteen right to starve states as we calls them. >> stephanie: yeah. >> and now there are twenty four, and i'm really shocked -- i shouldn't b
and the white house need to agree on a plan for taxes and spending." john boehner and president obama spoke on the phone yesterday, a day after the president offered to reduce his initial demand in higher tax revenue over a decade to $1.4 trillion. speaker boehner countered with another offer. and lawmakers were expressing pessimism that a deal was close leading kevin mccarthy to say, i think it is getting worse and not better. stock futures are higher as investors wait for news on whether the federal reserve will announce a new stimulus plan today. regulators have launched three rounds of quantitative easing since the crisis hit. ben bernanke will be held in news conference and you could hear live right here on c-span radio. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. [video clip] >> the white house was very controversial. l'enfant designed washington city. there was a competition and he submitted the design for a palace. americans were not having a palace. it was not particularly awe- inspiring. in fact, in 1821, a european diplomat told the congress that it was neither large