broken, we ll have to accept our place in history. no, we can come to a compromise. like i said, truly, there is a feeling in my caucus, and in me specifically, i can say, that i feel we are willing to compromise by coming to the table and saying we understand we ll have to raise the debt limit specifically, but we have to get ourselves on a fiscal trajectory, because look, we ve spent too much money. we have the same tax rates, two wars, the same prescription drug benefit in 2007, but the deficit then was $161 billion. this year it s $1.5 trillion. this is the question, senator hagel, is this extreme principle or is this a form of taking an issue and using that issue to say, you know, absolutely no give, no matter whether there s a crisis looming financially or not? well, first, democracies can only work through consensus. there is no way it can work in any other form or fashion. doris talked about it. second, there is another dynamic to this, too, david, we haven t touched on yet
we refuse to fail. i absolutely refuse to say that this is something we can t do, that we re accepting second best. right. america is the greatest country in the world. but my question, congressman, is compromise failing? because that s what seems to be the underlying trend here, is that any give well, let s put it this way. compromise is not celebrated in the way that doris said it was in the past. i don t think compromise is failing. i think when we say washington is broken, it s never going to get better and i m not saying that s what we re saying here but that s failing. by saying, well, it s just broken, we ll have to accept our place in history. no, we can come to a compromise. as i said, truly there is a feeling in my caucus and in me specifically, i can say, that i feel we are willing to compromise by coming to the table and saying we understand we ll have to raise the debt limit specifically, but we ll have to get ourselves on a fiscal trajectory, because, look,
the underlying trend here, is that any give well, let s put it this way. compromise is not celebrated in the way that doris said it was in the past. i don t think compromise is failing. i think when we say washington is broken, it s never going to get better and i m not saying that s what we re saying here but that s failing. by saying, well, it s just broken, we ll have to accept our place in history. no, we can come to a compromise. as i said, truly there is a feeling in my caucus and in me specifically, i can say, that i feel we are willing to compromise by coming to the table and saying we understand we ll have to raise the debt limit specifically, but we ll have to get ourselves on a fiscal trajectory, because, look, we ve spent too much money. we have the same tax rates, two wars, the same prescription drug benefit in 2007, but the deficit then was $161 billion. this year it s $1.5 trillion. this is the question, senator hagel, is this extreme principle or is this a for
bargained as hard as he can to pull a majority together to pass the darned thing and that is probably what will ham. chris: some tea party members of the house are saying, 33 billion, the number the democrats are offering, and $161 billion, they say it isn t enough and, on the other hand, you got the sense from both paul ryan and marco rubio, we are talking about billions here in the debt limit and the 2012 budget, ryan budget, talking about trillions. maybe we should declare victory and move on. the fact paul ryan is coming out on tuesday with the budget that really addresses the deficit is a bigger potato and the cr is tiny potatoes, will help put the cr in perspective and make boehner make his argue gu argument to the freshmen, he picked a number originally close to the $33 billion and the tea party freshmen moved him to the right and he went through the
bargained as hard as he can to pull a majority together to pass the darned thing and that is probably what will ham. chris: some tea party members of the house are saying, 33 billion, the number the democrats are offering, and $161 billion, they say it isn t enough and, on the other hand, you got the sense from both paul ryan and marco rubio, we are talking about billions here in the debt limit and the 2012 budget, ryan budget, talking about trillions. maybe we should declare victory and move on. the fact paul ryan is coming out on tuesday with the budget that really addresses the deficit is a bigger potato and the cr is tiny potatoes, will help put the cr in perspective and make boehner make his argue gu argument to the freshmen, he picked a number originally close to the $33 billion and the tea party freshmen moved him to the right and he went through the