taxes when they didn t cut? there s never been entitlement reform. it s a one-way street all the time. nancy pelosi said this, that revenue needs to be on the table in relation to discussions to soften the sequester cuts. of course. so the democrats are trying to soften those automatic spending cuts, and at the same time raise taxes. they don t cut spending as much and raise taxes. it s crazy. the last time we had a serious consideration of entitlement reform was simpson-bowles. and president obama turned the other way. adam talked about a business analogy. a business doesn t say we re going to spend $2 million this year, and then we ll figure out what we ll take in. first you figure out how much you re going to take in, and then you figure out how much you re going to spend. we do it the opposite way. there is a limit to taxing. when people talk about 90%, that affected like two people. we re talking about people
because it got so close to the edge. and i think what i heard from them was that they have confidence in our economy, much as the business people i talked to have confidence in our economy. i think what we need to do here in washington is to go from the coming together on wednesday night where we saw a strong bipartisan majority do the right thing and make progress from there, show that we can work together. so one more economic question. a lot of republicans are calling about the fact that whatever drama was here that the sequester cuts have been locked in place, these automatic spending cuts that have kept spending down at a historic level. do you think that has hurt the economy, hurt economic growth, the fact we ve had this lower spending level? david, i think there is no question but that the deep spending cuts that are part of sequestration are holding back the economy. there are competing ranges, whether it s a half percent or more, up to a percentage of gdp.
because it got so close to the edge. and i think what i heard from them was that they have confidence in our economy, much as the business people i talked to have confidence in our economy. i think what we need to do here in washington is to go from the coming together on wednesday night where we saw a strong bipartisan majority do the right thing and make progress from there, show that we can work together. so one more economic question. a lot of republicans are calling about the fact that whatever drama was here that the sequester cuts have been locked in place, these automatic spending cuts that have kept spending down at a historic level. do you think that has hurt the economy, hurt economic growth, the fact we ve had this lower spending level? david, i think there is no question but that the deep spending cuts that are part of sequestration are holding back the economy. there are competing ranges, whether it s a half percent or more, up to a percentage of gdp.
we know that from the shutdown there was a loss of economic activity. i can t give you a number today of what it is. i know the direction. the direction is it took an economy that is fighting hard to get good economic growth going to create jobs for the american people, and it took it in the wrong direction. our job in washington is to move things in the right direction. this one was a little bit scary because it got so close to the edge. and i think what i heard from them was that they have confidence in our economy, much as the business people i talked to have confidence in our economy. i think what we need to do here in washington is to go from the coming together on wednesday night where we saw a strong bipartisan majority do the right thing and make progress from there, show that we can work together. so one more economic question. a lot of republicans are calling about the fact that whatever drama was here that the sequester cuts have been locked in place, these automatic spend
what they re facing. they don t want to deal with the debt ceiling crisis. and so what the democrats are looking for is some way to the say late now the lock in that second round of automatic spending cuts. maybe there s a way we can deal with that. the republicans are looking for a way to say we need to have some serious entitlement reform, budget negotiations. maybe there s a way to conflate the two of those things so they can say we re going to agree that we have to come up with some spending negotiations and get through the rest of this mess. also, there s a question of just how long this will go on for, do they extend the continuing resolution for six months, for six weeks. you know, that s the big question too. a lot of people have been wondering, we ve been asking this question for a week. the vice president, his role. john mccain weighed in yesterday. john mccain and joe biden go back many, many years in the