so now we get to go to cuts. now we re going to figure out, because the president s never told us where he s going to cut over five years. now we re going to figure out how we re going to actually get some real cuts. and ed rendell, he s talking about tax increases again. tax increases. that s all he s got. paul simon had a song called one trick pony. that s all he s got. republicans have been one trick ponies for a quarter century. tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. this guy right now sounds out of touch, talking about tax increases. or he s trying to restore some balance. there are two things at play. number one, the sad part is there s been a plan for a while that would get us out of this as a country in a fair and balanced way, and that s simpson-bowles. and alan and erskine came out with a scaled-down plan, 4.6, $4.7 trillion. you support that, right? yes. and our chair supports it very
plan. gimmick number one is count as money already spent new spending op medicare doctors, pel grant and emergencies. gimmick number two is to count as the budget savings the cost of not having operations in iraq and afghanistan. there is a number, two sides seem to come close to agreeing to. con sense is we need $4 trillion to stabilize debt and deficit. if the goal is to make sure we are being responsible about the debt and the deficit, if that is the conversation we are having, i m happy to have the conversation. i would agree with the president. we need $4.7 trillion to put america in safety again. he raised $600 billion in taxes so there is $4 trillion left to do. but i disagree that we have made any real progress toward that. not any entitlement reforms in interest if discretionary spending cuts that are in the sequester so where are the spending cuts?
you govern by doing difficult thing. you don t govern by doggiesy things. it is going to be tough. but what we have sketched out in the campaign to fix the debt, another $1.7 trillion in spending cuts if you count the interest, and $600 billion more in revenue, that would put us overall at where? $4.7 trillion in deficit reduction. that s enough to stabilize the debt and get it on the downward path. that s got to be the goal. we get to debt below 7% below gdp and decline in the future. we have to do stuff that s real. no sense talking about, you know, just working it to edges. we have to make real cuts. one of things that s in that proposal, it is about $600 billion worth of cuts in health care programs. if we don t slow the rate of growth of health care, it is going to eat up the entire budget and virtually bankrupt the country. as you know, i m an economic
pathetic fiscal leader, he s produced three budgets and can t get one vote for any of this is budgets. i would vote for revenues including tax-rate hikes even though i don t like them to save the country from becoming greece, but i m not going to set aside the 1.2 trillion in cuts. reporter: the white house when you talk to officials there they say the president has put those kind of spending cuts on the table. he s been trying to workout a deal with republicans back on capitol hill. it s still illusive as you noted, he s now looking at a shorter term deal, maybe just extend tax cuts for the middle class, and also extend unemployment benefits for 2 million people who will be losing them a week after christmas. but the bottom line is spending cuts would then be kicked until next year that s why lindsey graham and others are upset. kelly: that pares it down from $800 billion as opposed to $4.7 trillion.
lead to decreasing premiums. why should it? it takes so many years see a benefit of that, that by the time that actually happens, if i tell you to exercise, it s great, but it s not going to decrease the amount i have to spend on a very sick diabetic who has to go to the hospital. we are in big trouble because we have an obesity epidemic in this country. we are spending more and more and more money for it. we are estimating $4.7 trillion on healthcare by 2020. bill: extraordinary. another line here employers continue to make adjustments to the benefit plans to comply with additional provisions of the health reform law. that tells me they are still trying to figure it out. because they are scrambling. they are trying to figure it out. they are scrambling because they can t afford the premiums. we have a very tough economy right now. there is a large unemployment rate, that is going to go up. if we you re in a situation as an employer that you either cut the health insurance or you g