cash and you re going to pay up front. who knows if he s going to do that with the europeans. strongest economy in europe and china, one of the strongest economies in the world, you can basically have pretty strong putin protected his flank. if there is push back, you have now got a huge push back. these are clean energy supplies so the chinese, the chinese are willing to pay up for it. they actually got a great deal in this case from the russians. we will take a short break. more on this with john and ed. the unofficial kick off to the summer season or the year s half way mark and yet still we re bumping along the bottom. what is it going to take to jump start the economy? we will look as that as we look ahead on sunday morning futures. know the feeling? copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
and we are back with our panel. what is the one big thing to watch for the week ahead or weeks ahead? steven rattner, john hilsenrath, ed rollins. what are you watching? the ukraine election today is very important. and obviously it will make a difference whether the russians feel they can get someone they can deal with or whether they continue the tactics they ve had. the more important thing domestically, though, is the va crisis. if this continues for another week or two, which i think it can, this is going to put this presidency in trouble. john. unemployment rate 6.3% in april. we re getting new numbers after memorial day. if that keeps coming down it could wake up the bond market and the stock market. and that means higher if it keeps coming down we could see interest rates going up. that s a negative for the stock market. what do you think, steven? i think the key issue is the u.s. economy. i m watching every bit of economic data that comes out trying to figure o
republicans, good politi. ouldnly in washington could someone propose a tax hike as an antidote to a recession. and this is no small tax hike.th the tax hike the administration is proposing would apply to half of all small business income in thiscountry. that s the senate republican leader. justyesterday, john and ed,us te house republican leader said he would prefer it the way mr. mcconnell wants it, extend all the bush taxcuts, but if the only option i have is to vote for some of those tax reductions, i ll vote forthem. but i ve been making the point now for months that we need to extend all the currental rates r all americans if we want to ge our economy going again, and we want to get jobs in america. ed, there s a certain, you know, we hold these truths to be self-evident to that, that in the end, if that s the proposal on the floor, almostll e republicans are going to vote for middle class tax cuts and