national institute of health on some things. on biomedical research. isn t that a victory for your side that you have a democratic president three straight budgets calling for cuts in the epa? chuck, we are on a debt course that s going to bankrupt this country. everybody is telling us that. republicans and democrats and economists and the president s budget may cut a little here but it increasing otherwise. he s going to announce great new programs for college students to try to encourage their turnout in this election. the net result is he eliminates the trillion dollars in cuts that were part of the sequester. and he replaces it with tax increases but when the whole ten years is over, he s not made any real cuts. he may cut a little here and a little there but it s overmatched by the increase spending. let me ask you this. if we are to use your words go ahead.
increase. it s close to 2 trillion total. these tax increases are shown as reducing the deficit when all it really will do is to replace new spending and to pay for the sequestered that s eliminated. there seems to be it s an irresponsible budget on monumental proportions and does not change the debt course set last summer with the budget control act at all. this is where there seems to be a fundamental disagreement of the two parties. you brought up the tax hike. the president campaigned against the bush tax cuts. one of the reasons you are hitting him from the broken promise on having the deficit he had in 2009 but at that time he assumed he would somehow get rid of the bush tax cuts. are any sort of tax reform plans that increase revenue into the government still off the table for republicans? still off the table for you? what i would say to you is we
borrow and continue to spend. but in the long run this is so information, the president of the united states has a responsibility to help this nation understand, as admiral mullen said, this debt is the greatest threat to our national security. we are going to have to have a long plan to get off of it. it is going to include the big programs like medicare, medicaid, social security. they ll have to be put on a sound financial basis. they are not now, and you could put this country on a path that would lead us to prosperity, not decline. and i would just say this. if the republicans are given a majority the republicans are going to pass a budget, it will be a ten-year plan for growth and prosperity in this country. it will get us off the debt path that we are on, and it s a fundamental responsibility of this government, and for the chief executive to not layout a plan that has any credibility, does not reduce our debt course
we can go on to less important things. so, will our financial systems crash and burn over the next weeks senator, if we don t get the debt deal done? it certainly needs to be done. why take a chance with something as important as the national economy. i think most of us are willing to accept a good deal less than we would like to see as part of a beginning to alter the debt course in america. i s too much of a risk to suit me. are you as disappointed as john mccain with what s happening in the house among republican who is refuse to pass a debt deal? i believe they should try to. there would have to be more compromises an work. i have to admire members in congress. they were elected in record numbers. they want to actually alter this debt course we are on.
the reason we are having a problem with the debt course is the debt. it s the debt that is endangering america. the debt ceiling is like the thermometer that says 104 degrees. it tells you you have a problem. we have hit it too quickly and we have gone up too much, too fast and we have to bring it under control. senator, i certainly agree with you. we have been talking ability this for 15 years and we have been fighting for this for 15 years. but, when these house freshmen and some republicans in the senate had the opportunity to knock $4 trillion off the national debt in a grand bargain, they walked away from that deal. do you think that was a mistake? i haven t seen that in writing. i know the gang of six used that number. when we studied it out and the budget committee looked at the numbers we saw $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over ten years