well, chris, i was bornh with the glass half full. i am the op tau optimist. abo it is about trying to findn common ground.yes,nd yes, i understand the president feels that we need a bigger government and more spending in washington. was i believe allowing theow t american people to keep more of that money is the best way to create jobs and grow ourrow r economy. but having said the fact that we are it is almost like we l come from two planets.fere my job on behalf of the country is to find as much to common ground as we can to help move the country ahead.ryhd but democrats are saying, and you heard this implied by tim geithner just before you that you end up looking badyou with voters because you walked out of the talks twice and youot are willing to risk defaultt t because you want to cutre medicare and medicaid toct protect the tax cuts for the wealthy. well, i am not going to getet involved in all of that political sniping. i am interested in a solution to the problem tha
what we saw this week from the democrats, you talk about the white house. the democrats flew over to the white house to say, what are you talking about? you re willing to make significant cuts in terms of medicare, medicaid, social security, you are putting our political fortunes at risk? this is not what we want. you saw move on, you saw aarp. saw afl-cio. sdiu, all engaged their members to absolutely zoom in on congress with phone calls and lobbying to say stop the president from giving up everything to the republicans. one last point here. i m amazed, you heard the speaker of the house say, you know, we have moved the goal post in terms of a president who didn t want to make significant cuts who is now willing to make significant cuts. why don t republicans say, you know, we have won this fight. it s time to move on and not push the country over the edge? that s one view. we re going to take a break here and we re going to continue the conversation. one of the interesting things t
let s do it your way. the republican plan that oy? passed the house of pas representatives, and the rsent republicans were in the senatele would in the cbo require ben beneficiaries of medicare to pay $6500 a year more, $6,500 a year more for medicare thanoda they do today. and why are they doing that?ey d it is because they want to preserve i don t think the w speaker says this, but it is tax cuts for the top americans that we cannot afford. demonshey demonstrated in their plans, and itr give them credit for this, that if you try to balance our budget without revenues and without tax revenues, then you aren forced to put in place juceptionally harsh cuts not just for medicare b beneficiaries, but for medicaid. remember this country, this gret great nation with our great resources one in eight americans are eligible forht food stamps today. 40% of americans born todayto
step solution that both speaker boehner and tim geithner were talking about, treasury secretary talking about this morning, how you would enforce a commission with 12 members in place, we want you to make the social security and medicare and medicaid and what do you say, even on the edge of the precipice, these guys don t make a deal. why would they make a deal down the road? you re going to need some degree of trust and people holding hands. so far, both sides, the political extremes are blocking this deal because both sides say, no, no tax cuts on the one hand and other hand, no cuts to entitlement. chris: and the triggers they were talking about, the trigger for the republicans was going to be the decoupling of the bush tax cuts and for the they wanted the trigger for the democrats to be the obama individual mandate. i mean but that s the thing, what kind of mechanisms would you have? thank you, panel. see you all next week and we ll be right back.
making a deal on any circumstance because they don t want added revenue, they don t want the tax hike and what we saw this week from the democrats, you talk about the white house. the democrats flew over to the white house to say, what are you talking about? you re willing to make significant cuts in terms of medicare, medicaid, social security, you are putting our political fortunes at risk? this is not what we want. you saw move on, you saw aarp. saw afl-cio. sdiu, all engaged their members to absolutely zoom in on congress with phone calls and lobbying to say stop the president from giving up everything to the republicans. one last point here. i m amazed, you heard the speaker of the house say, you know, we have moved the goal post in terms of a president who didn t want to make significant cuts who is now willing to make significant cuts. why don t republicans say, you know, we have won this fight. it s time to move on and not push the country over the edge? that s one view.