About your Search

trillion in new debt. trillion dollars deficits as far as the eye can see and all he wants to fight for is higher taxes that will fund a mere 8 and a half days of government. frankly nothing but a pathetic disgrace. you the american people deserve a government that lives within its means. you deserve a government that is not obsessed with using your money to accumulate their power. it is time for americans to understand the simple truth of what is going on here. a truth by the way that an abusively biased news media just ignores. joining us now with reaction as america is on the brink republican senators pat toomey and ron johnson. senators, welcome back. >> hi, sean. >> hi, sean. >> sean: let's start with the meeting today. senator toomey, i'm told that the president wassed adamant n the meeting and didn't come off, are the original request was to keep tax rates at the same for the middle class but everybody above $250,000 going up. is that what you heard? >> i haven't heard about specific elements of the conversation, sean, i wasn't in the room. what i do understand from people w
taxes. if the goal is to reduce the deficit, their goal of cutting taxes is not relevant to that goal so there's no overlap of potential agreement here. that's why there's no deal. >> let's take a listen to a very conservative retiring senator said, soon to be former senator joe lieberman, who is respected and seen as a deal maker. what we need right now is a deal. let's take a listen to something he just said. >> if we allow that to happen, it will be the most colossal, consequential act of congressional irresponsibility in a long time, maybe ever in american history. >> joy, i think what he's saying there and going over the cliff is not that this would be the worst thing congress has done on an objective scale, but the notion of doing something so bad for no reason is pretty frustrating, isn't it? >> i disagree with his characterization it would be the most irresponsible thing. i think messing around with not raising the debt ceiling and risking the default on the american debt was probably the most irresponsible thing we've seen this congress do, but the thing we need to remember, thi
years of the obama administration, on the budget, on deficit, on tax cuts years ago. they came together before christmas. it's hard to see how this works out at this point, to tell you the truth. there is a conference call at 2:30 among house republicans trying to decide what to do. we expect the leadership to let the rank and file know what their plans are. the speaker is not in washington. we understand he is in ohio of his home state. the president has landed here back at the white house in washington. it's unclear exactly where they go from here. essentially what john boehner is saying, you go first, harry reid. harry reid is trying to jam mitch mcconnell into allowing this vote to go forward without the 60-vote threshold, something that's necessary for virtually every vote here in the senate and mitch mcconnell says it's time for president obama to lead. the threshold question is, can something pass the house of representatives? can john boehner put something on the floor that needs the majority of democrat support that will not get republican support and none to speak of that woul
, grow the economy, strengthen the middle-class, reduce the deficit, and to do so in a responsible way. we can and we must get the job done now. i am pleased to yield to the distinguished democratic legislator, steny hoyer. >> i thank the leader for her comments, and certainly agree with her. last night's vote showed us the resolving the challenge of the fiscal cliff cannot and will not be done with a partisan vote. it showed us that we must work together in a bipartisan way, he and that we must preclude going over the fiscal cliff, by a balanced agreement that democrats and republicans him support, the president can sign, and that can pass the senate. we should not seek taxes go up on working-class americans. we should not see doctors put a risk in terms of their delivery of services to seniors. we should not see the alternative minimum tax and put at risk. we need to lend confidence to our country. some years ago, he confronted partisan gridlock. newt gingrich and bill clinton got together to reach an agreement it was very controversial. newt gingrich said -- this is october 20, 1998
just passed reduces the deficit $23 billion. the last farm bill that we passed that was completely paid for at my insistence as budget committee chairman. if everyone else were functioning the way the agricultural sector has would not have the budget problem. we faced up to reality. we had more pay fors than expenses. in this bill even far more in the way of deficit reduction. it demonstrates this is possible to do. but you got to have leadership and you got to have people who are willing to make some tough decisions to get it done. >> we have about five minutes and i want to talk more personal. you have decided to leave your papers of your quarter century plus to george washington university. why is that? >> i went to george washington university. they have tremendous resources there to take advantage of this collection which is loaded with history. >> what kind of things will researchers and historians find? >> i will find a single-minded focus on fiscal responsibility for 26 years. my staff says the remarkable thing i am looking at this collection is how consistent i have been about.
reduces the deficit $23 billion. the last farm bill that we passed was completely paid for at my insistence, as budget committee chairman. if everybody else were functioning the way the agriculture section has, we would not have a problem. we in the agriculture committee face up to reality. we had more pay-for spend expenses. -- baena expenses. i think it demonstrates this is possible to do. by you've got to have leadership. and you've got to have people who are willing to make some tough decisions to get it done. >> we have about five minutes. you have decided to leave your papers to george washington university. why is that? >> i went to george washington university and got my master's in business there. they are tremendous resources there to take advantage of this collection, which is really loaded with history. >> what kind of things will researchers and historians find in your papers? >> they will find that kent conrad has had a single-minded focus on fiscal responsibility for 26 years. my staff says a remarkable thing in looking at this collection is how consistent i've bee
taxation by using a flat tax. that way you can calculate the amount of taxes we need for the deficit over 10 years. another point is to control the spending on entitlements by not giving millionaires social security benefits, thereby satisfying president obama's approach. instead of doing it through taxation, he can do it through the entitlements. guest: those are both ideas that have been raised, especially the social security and medicare benefits for the wealthy and potentially might not need them to live off of. one tricky part of that is wealthier americans have been paying these taxes for decades into social security and medicare if and a lot of folks have a problem with the idea of taking away their benefits they have paid for if just because they happen to be more well off. and issued the first caller raised and something to watch is this could really sort of set the tone for the president's second term. if this thing gets ugly and stays ugly, it's probably going to stay that way at least another year or two, and the next thing you know, he's a lame duck president. if we cut a dea
much deficit reduction too fast. so all of this takes place against a debate about how to reduce the budget deficit. that's why you get into this theater of the absurd. >> well, and look at the tape you showed at the opening of the program with keith boykin over and over again showing the dysfunction of congress. they made this so onerous with the belief it would make them do something less onerous and now they're right up against it. >> they really know how to make these crises happen. political correspondent and writer, john howard, thank you very much for joining me and former labor secretary robert reich, thank you for joining me tonight. >>> coming up, the nra has done much more damage than you think. and they've made gun ownership much harder to trace. >>> and the romneys keep trying new explanations for why mitt lost. but they aren't getting any closer to the truth. and as some of you on twitter already know, i am wearing a christmas gift or two on the show tonight. there is still time to tweet your guesses about what it is. the answer to what christmas gift or gifts am i
into the situation we are in right now, with the huge debate over the size of the deficit and the debt? >> go back to 2001 and thereafter. the cost of the wars was not included in the budget. they were always supplemental. they did not show as a deficit. while the budgets looked reasonable during that time, the actual spending was greater. people did not pay as much attention to the debt. it just kept mounting and growing. we borrowed to pay for the worse when we did not ask people to make sacrifices financially. there is a difference between borrowing in the future, pang forward and backwards, or having to pay right now. people might have felt differently if they had felt a pinch right at the time. they would have asked different questions than were asked. that is one of the reasons we got where we are. >> could you have been any more vocal about appropriations? >> i was vocal. when i got on the appropriations committee, i became chairman of the legislative branch. that is everything, all of the buildings. office buildings, 1700 capitol police forces, and all of their help, support staff. i held
. that plan would have dealt with tax reform and deficit reduction and this will be a much more scaled back version that will deal with the issue of taxes and that is still the big sticking point, taxes. of course, democrats and president obama have called for tax rates to increase on those making $250,000 or less. republicans have said that's way too low. so they're thinking about potentially compromising on a rate that would be $400,000 or $500,000, but some republicans are saying they don't think that the tax rate should go up on anyone. so taxes still the major sticking point. right now the negotiations are going on the hill and there's a lot of optimism that came from the talks yesterday. of course, president obama hosted congressional leaders at the white house and they left that meeting and many said that it was constructive and they were optimistic that a deal could get done and i've been talking to my sources today and that same optimism isn't really present right now. there's more skepticism about a deal getting done and it is still very early in this process and this is a fluid s