united states of america is determined to lead and compete in our global economy. we ll stand up for american companies. and american workers. who are among the most productive and innovative in the world. we ll compete aggressively for the jobs and markets of the 21st century. reaching this agreement was not easy. i want to give thanks to my partner, south korean president for his commitment to successful outcome. i want to thank ron and mike for their outstanding work and their entire team for the tireless efforts. they were up late a lot of nights over the last several months. we will continue to work with the partners to ensure full access for u.s. beef to the korean market. i look forward to working with congress can and leaders in both parties to improve this pac. one thing that democrats and republicans should agree on,
voted this week to extend the current tax rates for families liking $250,000 or less. and it makes no sense to hold tax cuts before the middle class hostage and permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of americans and especially when the high end tax cuts would cost 700 billion dollars that we don t have. republicans say no one should get a tax hike january 1st especially in these difficult times. and republican senator says that congress should not be quote, raising taxes in order to fuel higher spending. unfortunately, too many in washington want to continue the reckless tax and spend policies of the past and ignore the warning signs of more debt, taxes and inflation. they embrace wasteful government spending and pork barrel ear marks and they think a new massive tax hike
make sure that their taxes don t go up on january 1. i have spoke within the democratic leadership in congress. and i look forward to speaking with the republican leadership as well. the message to them will be the same. we need to redouble our efforts to resolve this impasse. in the next few days to give american people peace of mind their taxes will not go up on january 1. it will require compromise. but i m confident that we can get it done. and the american people should expect no less. as we work our way through the issue, we must not forget that last week some 2 million americans who lost their jobs saw the unemployment insurance expire in the middle of the holiday season. that s not how we should do business in america. i believe it s simply wrong to even consider giving permanent tax breaks to the wealthiest americans while denying relief
do. we re professionals, adults, quality people and recognize the facts first. the question is what are we going to do about it? i think there are things we can absolutely do as a country, as an american there are things we can do. why can t our congress pass tax breaks to companies to help create more jobs. kelly: i don t know, and that s a good question. it s a question we ve been asking members of congress as well and seen what they did on capitol hill today and the american people are sitting at home, not twiddling their thumbs, but trying to figure out what s the deal here. while we re talking about congress, lets he not forget the private sector, either. what is the private sector doing to get more people gainfully employed? it s interesting, you understand something that companies, employers themselves right now, this is why you see the stock market going up right now. they re running the companies well, they re not, they re not hiring people, they re using overtime. what t
what kirsten is proposing may happen or something else. only the house can say they reject the house cuts for middle class tax cuts and we re in day eight of the christmas holiday shopping season and we re going to have headlines on tomorrow s paper and sunday papers saying the middle class tax cut failed and this is abdication of leadership and can control both houses of congress and if they don t get the issue resolved when they showed up earlier this fall, americans at a time when retailers are looking for a strong shopping season and we have unemployment going up yesterday, to 9.8%, this tax cut issue debated is not good for the economy and not good for job creation. and a handful of democrats disagreed with their party today on this vote. and they have it right? no, in my opinion they don t have it right and i think they re afraid of ramifications from voters and