get a very different story. take a look at this. the gap between president bush and congress at the same point in his presidency, 14%. bush was 14% above. the gap between president clinton and congress was 17%. and where is obama? is he at bush levels, as we have heard, in comparisons to katrina, is he he at clinton levels, a popular second-termer? take a look at this. president obama, 30% higher than this congress. and is so doesn t that tell a part of the story, which is we are in a period of american history where people are unusually upset with washington and yet the president outpolls his republican allies and opponents by 30 points? you know, i think that is certainly good news for this president. the bad news about those numbers is those people who disapprove of congress, disapprove of republicans, disapprove of the democrats, all the same. those people are more likely to vote republican, even if they, you know, look at washington and
morning. four weeks from today is new year s eve when the fiscal cliff comes. lawmakers now have less than a month to compromise and to avoid a year-end deadline that would trigger massive spending cuts and tax hikes for just about everybody. behind-the-scenes negotiations at a stalemate. both sides went public yesterday on the sunday morning shows to make their cases. treasury secretary tim geithner predicted republicans would eventually come around to accept a tax increase on the highest earners. you think we ll get a deal by the end of the year? i do. i do. the only thing standing in the way of that would be a refusal by republicans to accept that rates are going to have to go up on the wealthiest americans. and i don t really see them doing that. if the republicans say sorry, no way are we going to raise rates on the wealthy, you guys are willing to go off the fiscal cliff? if republicans are not willing to let rates go back up, and we think they should go back to the clint
behind the scenes negotiations, absolutely at a stalemate. so both sides, what do they do? they go public on the sunday morning talk shows to state their cases. treasury secretary tim geithner on your left predicting republicans would eventually come around to accept a tax increase on the highest earners. you think we ll get a deal by the end of the year? i do. i do. the only thing standing in the way of that would be a refusal by republicans to accept that rates are going to have to go up on the wealthiest americans. and i don t really see them doing that. if the republicans say sorry, no way, are we going to raise rates on the wealthy, you guys are willing to go off the fiscal cliff? if republicans are not willing to let rates go back up, and we think they should go back to the clinton levels, a time when the economy was doing exceptionally well, then there will not be an agreement. let s go to the other side. republican house speaker john boehner also digging in, admitting
with less than a month to go, the white house dispatched treasury secretary tim geithner to five sunday talk shows to declare tax rates on the wealthy are going up one way or another. if the republicans say, sorry, no way are we going to raise rates on the wealthy. you guys are willing to go off the fiscal cliff? it republicans are not willing to let rates go back up, and we think they should go back to the clinton levels, a the a time when the american economy was doing exceptionally well, then there will not be an agreement. while geithner was drawing a line in the sand, house speaker john boehner was busy trying to lift his jaw off the flar after geithner presented the president s debt reduction plans to him last week. i was just flabbergasted. i looked at him and said you can t be serious. i have just never seen anything like it. yes, indeed, it seems that republicans are not quite sure what to make of the president taking a harder line across the
taxes. more people are getting services for the government 37 we have to be careful we don t go in the direction that ireland and england went into where they slashed budgets during their session and axccelerated the downward spiral. which side are you on? if you think it s smart to cut air traffic controllers, when you probably want to vote republican in the next congress. look, the tax rates, if it went back to the clinton levels, the rich would get about 3% or 4% of money over $250,000. or we could cut the other. pras like food safety. who wants to cut food safety? it s crazy. let me focus on the jobs, though. the center for american progress numbers just now, about a million jobs lost if the spending cuts go into effect. i know they re a progressive think tank. do you think those numbers are accurate? if they are, you guys should be screaming that from the roof tops, shouldn t you? yeah, i think they are accurate. and let me explain to your viewers why it is. when you cut the s