i m ashleigh banfield. good to have ali here all week. in the battle over the bush-era tax cuts, playing politics with your takehome pay and nothing hort of the presidency is on the line here. if the two parties can t agree on extending those tax cuts by the end of the year, a typical american family making $70,000 a year could get hit with a tax increase of $3,000. that is a lot of pain. right now house republicans are busy crafting a plan to extend those tax cuts for everyone across the board rich, poor and everything in between. this is a plan that cannot get through the democratic-controlled senate. the president making a big push to let those tax cuts expire for the wealthiest of us americans. here s what s at stake. we ve got the bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year. and i feel very strongly that the middle class tax cuts, which would affect 98% of americans, should be extended further. now is not the time for a tax increase on the middle clas
reduces medicare benefits in order to fund the protection of corporate tax loopholes. and we continue to say that. notwithstanding what may have happened in the past, we continue to say we have a responsibility for a balanced package. and many democrats will vote. in fact, all democrats will vote for a balanced package. but every time we talk about a balanced package, the republicans say no, not willing to negotiate that. let me ask you about this mitch mcconnell hail mary punt, whatever you want to call it, this idea to sort of reverse the way congress would work on this for the next two years, which is instead of a vote of approval on debt ceiling the congress would have to vote to disapprove of it. but in order to change the rules you ve got to get a normal vote of approval on that. can you support something like that as a last-ditch effort to avoid default? i m thankful senator mcconnell has come to the recognition that we cannot afford to default and we ve got to extend the de
recovery. it s 80s flashback week. in 1985 for first time in american history a president of united states had to temporarily hand over power to the vice president under the 25th amendment. george h.w. bush served as acting president for eight hours. he was a one term and eight-hour president. also, speaker john boehner declined to shoot down his counterpart s fallback plan. he made it clear yesterday it is a last resort. i think everybody believes there needs to be a backup plan. that idea and there are other ideas out there in terms of backup plans. the president says you know i would like senator mcconnell s plan and you can t get it through the house, isn t that isolating house republican snz. again, this is a backup plan. senator mcconnell s plan in your estimation could never pass the house. i don t know that. again, senator mcconnell said it s a last-ditch backup plan.
they are thinking, stupid idea. we re going to talk to him on the daily rundown tomorrow. the bottom line was at the white house meeting yesterday, nobody dismissed this idea. and what one scenario painted to me said, a part of the mcconnell plan will end up getting used and in order to get it through the house maybe there will be some of the spending cuts, not a lot, but some. and then it hands it all over to the president. we ll see how this plays. at 4:00 today congressional leaders head back to the white house yet again. yesterday s nearly two-hour meeting was closed to camera but the awkward pauses when the leaders went on camera say something about the distrust built on both sides. i do trust that when john tells me something he means it. i think that his challenge right now is inside his caucus. do you believe he s being an honest broker? i think the president is trying trying to get there
limit and congress would authorize 2.5 trillion in three increments. time to remind the public it s only democrats responsible for this. the plan is hardly getting enthusiastic reception from conservatives because it s the ultimate kick the plan down the road and the president could veto, it s avote of disapproval that has to happen, not an approval and back doorway to have no responsibility. conservatives not happy. republicans weren t elected last november to make it easier to spend and borrow and add to our debt. the way it s written, i think is basically a surrender by the republicans. senator mcconnell s plan in your estimation could never pass the house? i don t know that. again senator mcconnell said it s a last ditch backup plan. tea party backed utah congressman jason chaf fets, don t know what in the world