sensible place. to turn backurn b to the business to help the t economy get stronger. there is a long way to go, no it doubt about it. but we are in a better place not than we were six months ago, mo 18 months ago. do you think it is a stronger position on the the economy today? e let me finish. is it a stronger position than thre you were three or fouer months ago when you were growing hundreds of thousands of jobs? absolutely. p with time more americans are getting back to work. w the economy is growing ander american investors are growingin and exports are stronger. the growth slowed because the oil prices went up. they are tightening their goven belts. ti japan had a catastrophicatastrop crisis and those things caused growth to slow. and this specter of defaultaultt that republicans have put overcn the country is hurting the the confidence of averagerins. americans. and that s why it is important o they take it off the table not just for august 2nd, but for the next 18 month
are born to families eligibleor for medicaid.dea the idea that you can ask thehe american people to balance this budget on the backs ofks the elderly and the most vulerab vulnerable with no murder through tax reform on the mostoe fortunate americans is fundamentally unacceptable. they knot going to happen. it is not going to become law. and we have made so much m progress over the last fourour m months with the republicans and trying to bill consensusensu for a more balanced approach.ane i give the speaker a lot of credit for that. let s turn in the time we we have left to the economy. last august you wrote an op edy ad and the headline was,eres w welcome to the recovery. that was not our headline. it was the new york times stoe headline. let s put it up on the you d screen, if we can.on what you did say is we are on a path back to growth. and those were your words. do you stand by that? cis: absolutely. is at that point when i wrote. that op-ed it grew 3%. m
the country is hurting the the confidence of averagerins. americans. and that s why it is important o they take it off the table not just for august 2nd, but for the next 18 months as long as n8 they can. one last question, you talk about growth.st i i want to put up the growth number ofertz last few months ls and over the last fewng months.. gdp growth was 1.9% and est goldman sachs has sailed backua in the second quarter from 2% to 1. 5%, in other words less t than the third quarter and inrtr the third quarter from three fro and a quarter percent to 2.5%. that s your idea of an economy that is growing stronger? that the economy is still a tough economy and growth slowed in the first half forgrow the reasons we said. half and if congress makes some sensible decisions right now s and lifts this cloud of dysfunction of default off the american economy, then it cann turn back the business of doing things to make the economy stronger. but this economy is healing. it is recovering. w
over this with secretary geithner.s cfere you say you agree to $800 billion in new revenue last weekend in a meeting withinith secretary geithner, and that the president moved the goalpost.yoeard you heard his response, wellwel we didn t really have a deal. did you have a deal with d secretary geithner?thner? last sunday i thought there was an agreement. it was $800 billion of new revenue coming from a flatter, fairer tax system that would agaiour economy moving again and employ more americans and bring more revenue to the federal government.ve and i believe we could get there.onsday on tuesday the president saidded they needed more revenue. mr. cantor and i told the ayesident no.wesd wedn tesday they said theymo needed more revenue. s we said no.or thursday, need more revenue, we said no.rida friday afternoon when the president called me and demanded $400 billion in more rn
brought it up, brought it up and insisted it on it. makes me believe if the administration backs down from the final 400 and says stick with the 800 that boehner might come back to the table. this question of whether or not a short-term patch, even if it s six long months, really still keeps default alive and that against to show up in the market, is really a problem for republicans. they read the polling that came out last week that americans are increasingly afraid of default and those are rising 70% against raising the debt ceiling and now a plurality for raising the debt ceiling. and the republicans also don t want to get this past the election? i think republicans also want to get is past the election and freshman said i don t want to take one of these votes, don t want to take three of them. chris: and bill, back to the grand bargain, as i pointed out to boehner, a lot of republicans say no tax increases, that has to do with baselines and all kinds of stuff and here you h