that are in there from the democrats point of view if this is in the hands of the republicans come january. you ve got 8 million students who will be able to go to college because of some of the details that are in this tax compromise. so everybody s been arguing, lynn, just about the tax cuts for the wealthy, which are i agree. they re outrageous. but they re ignoring everything else that is in this package. and that s wrong. house democrats need focus on what else is in the package. a.b., i want to check in with you because if this tax cut compromise helps the economy, as we hear austan goolsbee says it will, how are democrats going to present an argument to raise taxes on the rich come two years from now? the argument is always going to be fought in the framework of deficit reduction and the fact that both parties have agreed 2011 is the year to get serious about trying to attack the debt. so when president obama says i m going to go along with this for now because it will
sunday. i m lynn berry in for alex witt this morning. and new this morning from washington, the white house says it s not about politics, it s about the economy. that word this morning from one of the president s top economic advisers. austan goofstan goolsbee told d gregory. take a listen. i think all forecasters agree that when they saw this package announced you saw them step forward and say that it would significantly raise the growth rate of the united states in the coming year if we were to pass it and get the unemployment rate down and jobs created more than they thought before that. and if you let these tax cuts expire, which they will in 20 days if we do nothing, i think that would be a serious blow to the economy. jonathan alter is an msnbc political analyst and newsweek columnist. and a.b. stoddard is the associate editor and columnist for the hill. good morning to you, a.y. and
jonathan. i ll start with you. you just heard congressman grijalva. he s not sold. said he s not going to be buy it. but there you have austan goolsbee saying this is something that s going to work. so why aren t the democrats there in the house getting on board? they feel like they got played in the past. they didn t get what they wanted on health care, on some other issues. and so this time they re determined to stand firm for liberal ideas. the problem, lynn, is that there are a couple of other really important things right behind this that also need to get done before the end of the year. so not only are they perhaps jeopardizing job creation because people have less money in their pocket to go to the malls next year if they have a big tax increase, but they also might not get a repaefl don t ask, don t tell and they might not get the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, which is in the senate. the longer the tax debate goes on, the slower everything gets as the president points out, they also