democrats will say that s the paul ryan precedent, that in his medicare plan, the vast majority of all changes take place a decade from now. so republicans are going to have to swallow a tax increase today for medicare cuts on a faraway tomorrow. and as far as what those tax cuts look like, there s going to be a tax rate increase, certainly in the short term. and if you just look at the there s an article you can link to our piece today, just look at the top 20 loopholes in deductions. and it shows that it s virtually impossible to close or change any of the most expensive ones. so you re probably going to end up with some kind of total cap on deductions or some sort of alternative minimum tax rate for rich people. so you can jack up the amount of revenue that you re getting for people making over $250,000 or $500,000, whatever the end number is. but again, if you listen to the rhetoric on camera, it sounds like well, there s no way there will be a deal. if you talk to people who hav
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and that all depends, you know, what they describe, that s a reality that gets somehow got 150 house democrats and convinced john boehner to go to the floor with only 80 house republicans. chuck, what s the number you re talking about in the politico report that you say is a little low? reporter: the overall cuts, the medicare number of $400 billion. it would be a surprise because $400 billion is already what dick durbin s talking about. that s the number that s out there. that number felt a little bit low from what i ve heard. look, that s the that s what s going on right now, right? is that each side is preparing its base to eat its vegetables. so the democrats are trying to get the base to be prepared for a haircut on medicare that s 4, 5, maybe $600 billion. and boehner who, by the way, the best thing to happen to john boehner yesterday was tom cole because for the first time boehner gets to be the middle ground in the house republican
take some time, boehner has to get republicans more comfortable with raising taxes including raising rates. i don t think there s a scenario where the rates don t go up on people making over $250,000. and democrats have to get more comfortable with entitlement changes. but at the end of the day, obama can deliver democrats. and i think boehner s stronger today than he was three months ago, and he could deliver more republicans than he could of them. on that question of taxing the wealthy, you alluded to it in a comprehensive piece that you and mike allen wrote, everybody ought to read it at politico today. you say taxes are going up one way or another on people making over $250,000, and not just closing loopholes but on raising that marginal rate. what do republicans get in return for compromising one of their philosophical beliefs that taxes should not be raised? the thing that they ll demand, two things. domestic spending cuts and some cuts to medicare. and they re going to hav
there. this is steve rattner, jim. i ve been with some of those people who have been in the room, and i don t come away quite as optimistic as you do. the framework you ve outlined i think is the sensible one, is the logical set of compromises that everybody s talking about. but then you get past some of those headline numbers, and you say how do you get that 1.2 trillion of revenue, what happens on rates, on deductions? and i don t sense that they ve made any real progress toward narrowing that gap. the republicans are still saying we re not going to increase rates even though i think most of us think in the end they ll go up by something. the president s saying he s not compromising even though we assume he ll compromise by something. and then you get into these other cuts, and i think while there s an acceptance of the need to deal with medicare, you ve still got to do another $1.5 trillion of discretionary cuts out of defense, out of other domestic programs, out of things democra