Are always important, but never more so important than the time that were living in. We heard former president bill clinton use the words total class. And we heard former president barack obama, a democrat, say a gentleman. And i think civility, his graciousness, the way he handled himself is a role model we all will miss. Jamie, dana, thank you. This is cnn breaking news. Im don lemon. It is the top of the hour. Here is our breaking news. The 41st president of the United States, george h. W. Bush has died at the age of 94. The flag at the white house flying at halfstaff right now as flowers pile up outside the bush home in houston, texas. Tributes are pouring in from President Trump and former president S Barack Obama and bill clinton. As well as former Vice President al gore and condoleezza rice, james baker, and so many more. The nation mourning the man who devoted his life to service to his country and to his family. Cnns john king now with the story of george h. W. Bush, the polit
absolutely have to. but this is part two of the point. and boy does it matter and boy does some of it scare republicans who have an entire political message and apparently potentially debt-crashing government strategy around people not understanding this basic math. and again, i ll go out of my way to say, you can have an honest debate about whether to raise taxes or lower federal spending in certain ways that are workable. but you cannot claim that this is somehow biden s debt or democratic debt. and i say that just as the person giving you the news. so take a look at this. donald trump added more to the national debt than obama and bush. and he is the rebel s guy over there on the house floor. and that was after bush increased government spending more than any of the six presidents proceeding him, which included, of course, democrats and the great society democrat, who did, at the time, increase government spending, lbj, great society, all that stuff.
there seems to be a real disconnect here. reading from folks who do the math. if you take off the table cuts to the popular program, medicare, social security, veterans and defense spending, and bush didn t get anywhere trying to cut those entitlements. and if you re not going to raise taxes which is something democrats say you could also do, then you would have to actually slash 85% of the budget to make it balance, and that is what we call from the numbers people, a nonpartisan group for the budget. this is lunacy. and presumably there are people in conference who understand those numbers and who know that this is a fantasy that they re preaching. that you could slash and burn. you can t cut medicare and social security. there would be people with torches and pitch forks coming after them. and so, you can t cut all
lower case letter are, and that s the kinds of things that president obama and mrs. we re talking about you try to fill your oath and you pass it on. and that has been broken in recent years. this is a 40 year, i think, about a 45-year tradition that we saw today. i think i am right that president carter was the first person to ask his predecessor, president ford, to come back in the tumultuous 1970s. very difficult, 1976 was a close race. reagan and bush didn t, did it. they were the same party obviously. and had served together. but the clintons and the senior bushes did it. as you mentioned, the obama, george w. bush moment where george w. sand, now i am so glad, because barack can now look at my portrait and say,
bases. carter and bush didn t have a real base. biden has that in common with them. it s also why bush got 91% approval at one point. health and wellness. exactly. that 91% approval rating, that s what that is about. he went after it strongly. in a weird way, biden might want to emulate that. you want that 91% to last. didn t work out for george h.w. bush. didn t help with the midterms actually. no. appreciate you guys coming in. happy first day in d.c. that we can do this. yeah. really niles. thank you very much. breaking news here surrounding the stage for tonight s state of the union. the ukrainian ambassador to the united states will join first lady jill biden tonight. it will be a very public show of support for the ukrainian people on a very large stage. that won t be the only visual show of support.