That year, now what is starting to become the more salient thing about that losing run, about that losing attempt at winning the republican president ial nomination, what seems more salient now is who john mccains national cochair was for that run. It was republican senator chuck hagel. There he is. You can see him in the little circle on the left there. With john mccains entourage as john mccain was getting ready to launch his president ial bid back in 2000. This is the same chuck hagel who is president obamas nominee for defense secretary now and who john mccain spent the day today vilifying and attacking as manifestly unqualified for that job. Back in the day john mccain not only was kind of best buddies with chuck hagel, but he specifically said that he thought chuck hagel would make an awesome defense secretary someday. As far as secretary of defense is concerned, theres a lot of people that could do that. One of them i think is senator chuck hagel. John mccain and chuck hagel wer
Secretary of defense for the state of israel . I will take your answer off the air. Host that was part of the discussion yesterday. Guest absolutely. There was a lot of time spent on israel yesterday. It is a huge foreignpolicy issue for the. They happen to be in the middle of an environment that is unsettled and without clear paths forward. It is a core interest of the United States. Again, it is a scenario where politicians feel strongly and American Voters feel extremely strongly. There were some differences of opinion but got explored yesterday. Again, that is part of the point of the hearing process of a confirmation progress process, getting into areas where people have concerns. Host one of the exchanges about israel, democrat from rhode island. Interviews and speeches, i have always said i am a supporter of israel. In some cases, i have said a i am a strong supporter. I think it is in my book that we have a special relationship with israel. We always have. So i have never voted
Raised, at least temporarily, but there are still Big Decisions to be made. You specifically said in the last few days that your priority is to make a big down payment on the debt. A debt crisis that you see in this country. Thats right. What do you specifically require . Whats the priority . What has the president got to do in your point of view . Ill just explain what the speaker said when we passed that bill. Our goal is to get cuts and reforms that put us on a path to balancing the budget in a decade. We think the senate ought to offer a budget. They havent passed a budget in four years, even though we have a law that says we need a budget every year. We havent seen any Solutions Offered by the president on how to get the budget balanced, pay down the debt, and no budget in four years. We need to figure out how to grow the economy, how to get opportunity. And if we have a debt crisis like they had in europe, everybody gets hurt. Thats what we want to avoid. Last week, senator schum
Additional revenue. Are you opposed to any additional revenue that could come from tax reform . We offered that back in the fiscal cliff negotiations. The president got his additional revenues. Thats behind us. Those higher revenues occurred, and now we need to focus on getting spending down. Here is the leverage question. Senator schumer said we didnt just get our revenues. We got some. There has to be more that are part of it. The president will say that. So as you are are we for more revenue . No, we are not. Even if its from tax reform . If you keep raising revenues, youre not going to get different tax reform. I know you didnt want a chart, but im kind of a chart guy. This dream line shows you the historic taxes. The red line is tax increases. The red line, where spending is going. Spending is the problem. Revenues arent the problem. If you keep chasing higher spending with higher revenues as theyre calling for, youre going to hurt economic growth. Youll never catch up. Youll shut
Lets talk about this top priority of the budget battle. It will really mark the beginning of the president s second term. The debt ceiling has been raised, at least temporarily, but there are still Big Decisions to be made. You specifically said in the last few days that your priority is to make a big down payment on the debt. A debt crisis that you see in this country. Thats right. What do you specifically require . Whats the priority . What has the president got to do in your point of view . Ill just explain what the speaker said when we passed that bill. Our goal is to get cuts and reforms that put us on a path to balancing the budget in a decade. We think the senate ought to offer a budget. They havent passed a budget in four years, even though we have a law that says we need a budget every year. We havent seen any Solutions Offered by the president on how to get the budget balanced, pay down the debt, and no budget in four years. We need to figure out how to grow the economy, how