records for a vote a rama, what we call these extensive 13-hour-long debates, more than 100 amendments that were considered. but it s working the will of the senate, frankly. and it also, one of the things that s key we focus on is some of the amendments that did or didn t pass because they are going to be used in some of these elections in 2014 in terms of the keystone pipeline, for example. that amendment did pass. bill, anna brings up a significant point, a lot of folks who have been talking about this idea that the lion s share of what we saw unfold last night over on c-span, a lot of that was designed for campaign ads a lot was just for campaign commercials what does that say about the budget process? it is actually moving forward because the democrats have finally said they do support raising tax, only on the wealthy americans but esensely, what s changed, they didn t pass a budget for four years, any budget threat they passed would have included a tax increase and felt vul
david, sequestration was designed as a budget threat, not as a budget strategy. and i think all of us understand if it goes forward in less than three weeks it s going to have a dramatic negative impact on many agencies equally important on the economy. so we need to come together. what the president is proposing for the rest of this year at least is that we deal with the sequester the same we have the first two months, evenly split between revenue and cuts. i think that s a sensible approach. it s consistent with simpson-bowles, which many republicans say should be our standard, and it doesn t really impose a tax burden on middle income families. the president a year ago in his state of the union laid out kind of a battle line in terms of how he would deal with republicans. here s what he said. as long as i m president, i will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. but i intend to fight obstruction with action, and i will oppose any effort to return to the v
get anything done, or whether he tries to break the did i am thatttha did i / dynamic. and you can t break that dynamic without talking about entitlement reform. realistic tax reform that s actually pro growth tax reform. that would be a huge concession for the president. he ll have to do that to make the system work. we ll hear from more of our roundtable in just a minute. but now i want to bring in the democrat from illinois, senator dick durbin. senator, welcome back. good to be with you. you just heard leader cantor a couple of minutes ago. and i want to get your take on how this standoff, this new standoff on fiscal matters, ends over these automatic spending cuts. you heard the leader say we re not going to deal with any more tax hikes, but that s what the president wants. he wants a different way of going about the spending cuts and some way to find some additional revenue. how is it going to end? david, sequestration was designed as a budget threat, not as a budget s
reform, realistic ways about tax reform that s not just progressivity but actually pro-growth tax reform, and that would be a huge concession for the president. he s going to have to do that in order to make the system work. all right, we ll hear more from around the table in just a couple minutes. i want to bring in the assistant majority leader of the senate, the democrat from illinois, senator dick durbin. senator, welcome back welcome back. good to be with you. you just heard leader cantor a couple of minutes ago, and i want to get your take on how this standoff, this new standoff on fiscal matters, ends over these automatic spending cuts. to hear the leader say we re not going to deal with any more tax hikes, but that s what the president wants. he wants a different way of going about the spending cuts and some way to find some additional revenue. how is it going to end? david, sequestration was designed as a budget threat, not as a budget strategy, and i think all of us u
congressman wiener says, quote, we spent a lot of time waiting for godot when it comes to the obama white house and we have to some degree internalize that s probably not the way to go. we have to start initiating some of this. if you watch this show on a regular basis, god bless your heart. we appreciate it. seco secondly, you know i couldn t agree more with that statement. today the house voted to defund npr and, of course, partisan vote of 228 to 192. congressman weiner pointed out the budget threat on the house floor today. this is click and clack. they talk about master cylinders. it s kinky. i m glad my republican friends are finally getting to the bought the ohm of this and then with all the giggling and snorting they do every weekend on their show, it has to be a code. they re clearly talking to the