that has a little bit of momentum to it at this point. well, what does it say to you that the republicans dissolved essentially tonight and went home? i mean, eric cantor put out a statement saying we are going home, good-bye, maybe we ll see you after the holiday. they re essentially giving you. i mean, what we saw they were planning to do tonight is they were planning to spin their wheels. when they tried to spin their wheels, the engine wouldn t start. so they just left the thing sit k in mud and went home. are you unnerved by this? did you expect this? no, i am completely unnerved by this because i figured that if they had the theatrical vote on this plan b, which i thought was already a really terrible idea, but at least they wouldn t have the vote unless they had the votes to win it. so this is political dysfunction on steroids here. i mean, the idea that we would even shift to this plan b earlier in the week you actually saw leader boehner working with
it s what we have to do. jon: you ve expressed that the negotiating strategy could be foolish and dangerous. what do you mean by that? i ve been worried when people have talked about going off the fiscal cliff, right? it just doesn t make sense that we would be willing to do something that we know would put the country back into recession. and i know political negotiations are what they are, and everything s overly partisan in this town even when something so important as not only avoiding the cliff, but putting in place a big debt deal, but i also have seen incredible interest and openness to putting in place a deal both from president obama and leader boehner and a number of members of congress who are saying we can t put our head in the sand. we know that this has to be dealt with, and now is the moment to get started on it. so i m worried when i hear people saying, well, if i don t get my way, i ll go off the cliff. and you hear that on both sides, frankly. but i m also encourage
the road as secretary panetta warns with a short-term deal or will they reach a true grand bargain given how far they were to reform programs like social security and medicare. we shall see. joining me now wyoming senator john barrasso. he joins me now. senator, let me ask you this straight-up question. who is in charge of negotiations on behalf of the republican party with the white house? is it john boehner? i think the president is the only with one that can sign the agreement. john boehner needs to have an agreement that the house of representatives will pass, and i think whatever the two of them agree on will pass the senate. but expect it will be john boehner working along with the president. i m sure mitch mcconnell will be very closely involved in the discussions with leader boehner. you don t believe a deal should come out of the senate and then be introduced in the house? well, i think the elections are over. we need to find solutions to help our country move forward in
americans are going to have to pay higher taxes. leader boehner essentially says no, that s a nonstarter. is all this just posturing and both have an idea where compromise is going to lie? i think they re trying to posture. but i think right now, president obama has the upper hand. i mean he s just won re-election. he s basically telling people, look, the american people elected me, because they want a stronger middle class. they want me to push what i have been pushing, which is for a stronger middle class. so i think he has the upper hand. and republicans kind of know this right now. ed, you know, last year s grand bargain between boehner and the president, that fell through. reportedly because of the tea party types in the gop. so why should we believe that has changed when the tea party wagged the gop majority dog, so to speak? you know, i spent a lot of time in the last few weeks talking to members of congress, and the people that were running against them, and in the discus
economists doesn t really have much thoughts about the economy. he calls paul ryan s budget marvelous and that appears to be what s directing had imin terms of economic policy. i don t believe that mitt romney s going to be giving marching orders to leader boehner. i think that what they re doing here is coordinating. and i think what they re coordinating around are the kinds of things that we ll be seeing in coming weeks and months that are actually of great import to the economy and things the electorate ought to learn a lot about. for example, health care reform, the supreme court is going to be telling us where that s going. the jobs agenda as karen was just talking about, tax policy. the idea, and the president s been strong on this point. the house republicans are really the ones who are standing between the people of america and a better economic recovery. they re sitting on the transportation bill, for example, bipartisan support in the senate. they won t pass it in the house