it, what does a republican have to do to both barack obama. focus on the economy, unemployment, deficit situation, on 7 million people that haven t got jobs back since the economic collapse. those are the vulnerabilities that the incumbent president has and those are the opportunities that the challenger party has to focus on. we have a graphic that says 57% of people disapprove of obama s handling of the economy, so mark, what does he do conversely because i think most people would agree that s his biggest vulnerability. if you look at whose on the opposite side of the field, his job is not to win it, but not to lose it. he can t have any major foreign policy or domestic blun ders. the economy will improve, we will see steady job creation, and as long as he does, there is no way that they can beat him. it is impossible. tony, let me ask you about
where we are today. the president doesn t have a plan that will get 60 votes in the house. the house doesn t have a plan that will get 60 votes. and what senator conrad and myself and other colleagues are trying to do is, where s the compromise that will save our country? here s the question. this isn t about politics as normal. it s about making the decisions now that are urgent. when s&p decides that the trend is negative, and in fact, sends a warning shot across our bow, i think there s not anything more significant we can do than come to an agreement. senator conrad, let me ask you about taxes. because if i m going to press conservatives on the idea of any tax increases, the press for democrats is to say, hey, wait a minute, if you really want to tackle the deficit situation, how do you not raise taxes on the middle class, those making less than $250,000? can t just do it on the rich. alan greenspan was on this program last week. he said the bush-era tax cuts should expire for ev
60 votes in the senate, a majority vote in the house, and something that the president will sign. and that s our problem with where we are today. the president doesn t have a plan that will get 60 votes in the house. the house doesn t have a plan that will get 60 votes. and what senator conrad and myself and other colleagues are trying to do is, where s the compromise that will save our country? here s the question. this isn t about politics as normal. it s about making the decisions now that are urgent. when s&p decides that the trend is negative, and in fact, sends a warning shot across our bow, i think there s not anything more significant we can do than come to an agreement. senator conrad, let me ask you about taxes. because if i m going to press conservatives on the idea of any tax increases, the press for democrats is to say, hey, wait a minute, if you really want to tackle the deficit situation, how do you not raise taxes on the middle class, those making less than $250,000?
democrats is to say, hey, wait a minute, if you really want to tackle the deficit situation, how do you not raise taxes on the middle class, those making less than $250,000? can t just do it on the rich. alan greenspan was on this program last week. he said the bush-era tax cuts should expire for everybody. is that not fair? you know, let me just say this, revenue has to be part of this because revenue s a share of our national income, is the lowest it has been in 60 years. spending is a share of our national income, is the highest it has been in 60 years. so, you ve got to work both sides of the equation. but we did not raise tax rates in this proposal. what we did is have tax reform. let me give you an example. in the cayman islands, there s a little building, five-story building called ugly house. it claims to be the home of 18,000 companies. they all say they re doing business in that little building.
christie has not well, he s sought some accommodation with his legislature, and it s a democratic legislature, so he has divided government. but his approach is kind of basically to bully the other side into submission. and he does it with a smile. and again, it s been effective. i think president obama is in a different situation. there s been a lot of fun made of the president, that he hasn t been leaderly enough and he s been timid in his budget. but i think on the national scale, you have to everybody has to step on the third rail at the same time. and when you re talking about benefits on a national scale, when you re talking about the kind of cuts we re seeing coming out of congress, you know, this is an area where one party really does have to join hands with the other if you re going to make the meaningful cuts to entitlement programs and not just nip around npr and planned parenthood. yeah. do you think the public really understands the serious nature of the deficit situ