that to voters on the campaign trail. i want to hear more about what he said on abc s this week. listen: i think it s an untenable position to say we ll allow your taxes to go up, on january 1, unless the president agrees to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. julie: congressman engel, we are not talking about billionaires here, when we talk of a family making over $250,000 a year. why do democrats insist on making that assessment. i think it should be more than $250,000, because if you live in an area like congressman king and i live, the high cost of living area like new york city that is not fair but i think the real question here is, should tax cuts for the middle class be held hostage because republicans refuse to support it, unless we also give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires and i think we should vote for tax cuts, for the middle class, and then i think we should
a one-two punch of spending cuts and tax hikes may be more than the nation s economy can handle. monetary policy is not a panacea that it can help offset cyclical fluctuations and financial crises like we have, but the long-term health of the economy depends mostly on decisions taken by congress and the administration. i think you also have to protect the recovery in the near-term under current law, on january 1, 2013 there will be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. the tax increase he s talking about, the bush tax cuts not being extended. chairman bernanke also raised the warning about soaring gas prices and the unemployment rate which is likely to remain around 8.3% for the rest of the year. not all doom and gloom, though. ron paul was in the room, pulled out a silver coin, waved it around and accused the fed chairman of destroying america s wealth. as much as i would like to do