did they. they didn t expect that this president was going to come out with as strong of a proposal as he did. they thought first term obama was going to show up again, and clearly that wasn t true. you know, the plan that they presented today just isn t serious. it isn t serious if we say you re not going to raise the rates on the top wage earners. it s not serious if it says you re going to make significant cuts and try to tie entitlements to this so-called fiscal cliff which isn t a cliff at all. just like mitt romney wasn t a serious candidate, this is not a serious plan. karen, the president s plan includes talk not just of taxes, but also extended unemployment insurance. there doesn t seem to be any thought in the gop plan. did the gop just literally wake up today and think, right, i know, let s get erskine bowles recommendation to the super committee and throw it out there. i think it s worse than that. you think it s worse? i do. because just in the same way we learn
president this morning. let s be clear. an opening bid of $1.6 trillion in new taxes just isn t serious. it s a joke. a joke. house speaker john boehner has been far milder in this rhetoric. according to politico, some house republicans might consider a tax hike on millionaires. many republican lawmakers privately concede that the 2012 election left them far short of a mandate on taxes. and if urged by democrats to raise rates on the megawealthy, they will have a tough time resisting. for the record, president obama s position sounds much more in line with senator sanders way of thinking. there are some tough things that have to be done, but there s a way of doing this that does not hurt middle class families, that does not hurt our seniors, doesn t hurt families with disabled kids. let s bring in ruth conif,
aisle, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is sounding obs nant out of the gate. here s what he said about the president this morning. let s be clear. an opening bid of $1.6 trillion in new taxes just isn t serious. it s a joke. a joke. house speaker john boehner has been far milder in this rhetoric. according to politico, some house republicans might consider a tax hike on millionaires. many republican lawmakers privately concede that the 2012 election left them far short of a mandate on taxes. and if urged by democrats to raise rates on the megawealthy, they will have a tough time resisting. for the record, president obama s position sounds much more in line with senator sanders way of thinking. there are some tough things that have to be done, but there s a way of doing this that does not hurt middle class families, that does not hurt our seniors, doesn t hurt families
here s what he said about the president this morning. let s be clear. an opening bid of $1.6 trillion in new taxes just isn t serious. it s a joke. a joke. house speaker john boehner has been far milder in this rhetoric. according to politico, some house republicans might consider a tax hike on millionaires. many republican lawmakers privately concede that the 2012 election left them far short of a mandate on taxes. and if urged by democrats to raise rates on the megawealthy, they will have a tough time resisting. for the record, president obama s position sounds much more in line with senator sanders way of thinking. there are some tough things that have to be done, but there s a way of doing this that does not hurt middle class families, that does not hurt our seniors, doesn t hurt families with disabled kids. let s bring in ruth conif, political editor for the
uncommitted, do you think they moved the needle at all? i don t think they did, and what i would say is 67 million people were watching this debate. that s the highest number that have watched a presidential debate since 1992, since ross perot was running. these undecided swing voters are paying attention, and they re not hearing what they want to hear from either party. you know, saturday night live, bill maher, everybody is joking around, these voters aren t paying attention, but they are. that s just silly to say they aren t, but they didn t hear what they wanted to hear. one example, you talked about this big bird stuff, defunding pbs. the democrats are going crazy with this. listen, cutting all the funding to pbs would not fund the federal government for one hour. that s how small a percentage that is, federal funding for public broadcasting. so swing voters know this isn t