address all three legs of the stool, entitlements, cuts, and revenues, in a way that makes sense, and does make the very wealthy go back to a tax rate, by the way, in the 90s when we were raining jobs. had a lot of prosperity. that little bit in tax rate difference, i haven t talked to people in the business community that think that s a nonstarter. back in the 90s, you talk about president clinton s deal. there was a lot of reality there that was tough. first of all, the president believes that democrats ended up losing the house because of that deal. there were no republican votes in the house for that deal. and there were significant cuts to defense spending as part of that 1993 deal that everybody only remembers as raising taxes. i know. but this deal is important enough that everybody ought to think it s important enough to go only over. that s what we re waiting on now, the game of chicken to put the painful stuff out there. the president has put $600 billion in cuts out th
the u.s. government would only pull in an extra $834 billion. so what are the outlines of a deal with that in mind? when we come back, we ll talk to two senators who are pushing for a compromise. senators claire mccaskill and bob corker, coming up next. ts. ts. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp s also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we re working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger.
ways. one of the ways is the way i proposed, which is closing loopholes. that s a pro growth way of getting more revenues from wealthy americans. and i think, david, before this is all over with, there s lots of mathinations. there s capital gains, dividends. and i think cooler heads will prevail. and i think we will resolve this. and that s the very best thing we can do to get our economy going. you heard secretary geithner. you ve heard the president. you can t get enough money in revenue unless you raise marginal rates. well, and here s the deal. here s the reality. let s assume they won t go for any raising in the rates. then all the bush tax cuts are going to expire, and then we would come back in january, first thing, and pass a tax cut for everybody under 250. are the republicans going to vote no on that? of course not. so they are going to get stuck with a raising of the rates of the top 2% either in a very painful way or in a way that we can all suffer a little bit,
potential for the american economy to grow faster going forward. and if you don t, the stakes, the consequences, are severe? oh, yeah. to go over this fiscal cliff, because republicans won t raise taxes, tax rates on the wealthiest 2% of americans, would subject the average american to big tax increase and enormous damage from the other cuts that would happen. and there s just no reason why the country has to go through that. and we have a chance to do something much better. not just for the long-term health of the american economy, but for the immediate challenge which is getting stronger growth and more job creation. but you heard the president say today if there s no deal, are you going to blame the republicans for ruining christmas? the only thing that stands in the way of a deal right now is if a group of republican members decide they re going to block a deal because they want to extend tax cuts. we can t afford for the wealthiest 2% of americans. the president said on
joining us from chicago. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. thank you very much for having me. well, let s get the status of what if any negotiations there are. there had been talk about democrats talking to so-called moderate republicans in pursuit of a deal. what s the status of that? i mean, that s continued over the last two weeks. obviously walker when he introduced this budget measure he said there are no negotiations. this is it. it s either my way or the highway. obviously senate democrats took their pick and since then we ve been talking to our fellow republicans. the conversations have changed since last thursday when the walker tape came out where he gave away his true plan which had nothing to do with the budget. now, we ve introduced an alternative measure that doesn t go after the workers and we could balance this shortfall and we would be happy to be there by this afternoon for the budget address and work forward the next two years. that s been rejected