lot of votes. in the electoral system, particularly, how is this guy going to win? we calculated in 2008 he wouldn t win a single state and he s probably made the same calculation. not that he wouldn t be a great candidate. he s been a great mayor in my view, but the math doesn t work. you ve got to have a somewhat different system. and if you re going to change the system, start with four years out, not 14 months. it s an ecochamber thing. you can affect the election. if bloomberg wins, obama loses, if tea party wins, republican loses. howard dean says never. what do you say? i think there s no doubt it s very much stacked against it. at some point i think either this election or in 2016, somebody is going to test that proposition and do sort of what howard dean is the godfather of, which is using technology as a great equalizer. being able to organize people much more quickly than you could in the past. and the question is, does anyone come in? particularly if they had money beca
[ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what s your story? citi can help you write it. so how do you pay for government? with tax revenue. and when you stop paying, what happens? as president bush once said, the math doesn t work. that s just ahead. woman: day care can be expensive.
the kind fareed is talking about? can you find some middle ground? there s such a wide gulf on taxes and medicare, anderson, i don t see that being resolved before the 2012 election. do you agree with that? i wonder. i agree with what david is saying in principle, except for this. on taxes, in the republican party continues to take an absolutely theological position that you simply cannot have any tax increases, and if we mean no elimination of loopholes and deductions, the math doesn t work. we re taking in 18% of gdp at taxation and spending 23%. you ve got to close that gap. do we ing it all through budgets is impossible. dana? there is a small group, fareed, small, of republicans who aren t saying absolutely no tax increases. they are taying maybe getting rid of some of those loopholes
absolutely theological position that you simply cannot have any tax increases, and if we mean no elimination of loopholes and no elimination of deductions, then we re in i mean, the math doesn t work. we re taking in 18% of gdp at taxation and spending 23%. you ve got to close that gap. doing it all through budget cuts is impossible. you would be talking about shredding many of these departments. dana? there is a small group, fareed, small, of republicans who aren t saying absolutely no tax increases. they are saying maybe getting rid of some of those loopholes are possible. those are the republicans working quietly, and have been for months, with other democratic senators trying to come up with a middle ground. unclear if they re going to make process to come up with a bipartisan plan, but that so-called gang of six is what we re watching closely. dana, david, fareed, thank you very much. let us know what you think on facebook and twitter.
medicare for people over 55. and we are looking at a plan to save medicare and medicaid that if left alone would go bankrupt in not a very short or not a very long amount of time. we are running out of time we re trying to save these things, not destroy them. congressman the math doesn t work. congressman, if you are the decisive vote on the debt ceiling increase in the house of representatives, will you vote for that increase? we re not there yet. we don t know what the terms and conditions are. as republicans, i think so it is conceivable to you that if you are the decisive vote, and this could come down to one vote, if you are that vote, you would be prepared if your conditions are not met to vote against a debt ceiling increase and have this government default on its debt for the first time in history? i don t think it s going to come to that. i think we re going to find a way. right now, the government pays all the bills at the same time. i think we can work ar