democrats don t want to deal with this even though the adership behind the scenes is saying they will. jon: so this deal the president pounded out with senate leaders, that involves a payroll tax reduction and then, of course, this so-called death tax reduction that you were talking about. can we expect that the tax reductions are going to pass the senate? reporter: yes. we now know that there, it is expected that the vast majority of republicans, perhaps with only three exceptions, will ultimately pass this particular piece of legislation. we also know that the democrats have as many as 18 to 20 or so who might vote for this. there are a number who have expressed some opposition, perhaps as many as 25-30, but the votes are there. it s an $868 billion package, $801 billion is related to tax cuts both from the obama stimulus and the bush era. there is a 57 billion price tag to the extension of unemployment benefits, that s how you get the number, and the senate will pass it sometime b
bad in terms of it looking like bill clinton was back as president? i think on the whole, it was a very smart move. first of all, despite some of the philosophical disagreement that you have among progressives, there s still a lot of affection for bill clinton. second as you saw today, i think there s nobody better even barack obama is not as good as bill clinton is at sort of breaking down economic details and maging an economic argument and making it comprehensible. i think you heard probably the best argument for the benefit that this package will have particularly the aspects, the tax credits, the payroll tax reduction. freeing up credit, which is something we haven t heard that much about, but i think most important was the political argument he was making that this is really the best deal that the republicans can get the democrats can get right now because republicans are about to come in and take over the house.
surprise. last year harry reid and nancy pelosi did not pass a budget resolution. you are right, they are operating blind. once we get through this lame duck and we finish this discussion as well as some of the other things that democrats want to get didn t before they turnover the reins in the house to the republicans, you might see more settling down and discussion of these issues. i hope, i think that s true. maybe i m naive we ll see in january. greta: i don t know what are smoking. even the fact they put this two year on the tax extension for people making more than $250,000 so-called business people who create jobs no businessperson is going to make a decision knowing he only has two of certainty that. was a political calculation. if you believe in extension is good for business. right the payroll tax reduction was from 6.2 to 4.2%
that s not true. the republicans did not get the permanent talk into it that s pretty big. you re forgetting about the other parts of this package. a reduction in the payroll tax is a big deal. that s another $120 billion that we re going to have to pay for kicking the can down the road. ed, you know this, the biggest tax that working americans pay is the payroll tax. if you put more money in working americans pockets, which this compromise does, and look, it s a bitter pill, let s not guild the lily here. to mix a metaphor. you will put more money in people s pockets, working people, with this compromise. and that s a good thing. don t lose sight of it. there are lots of republicans, by the way, who favor that payroll tax reduction. we should have done that a long time ago, too. quickly, both of you, you first, jonathan, will this be smooth sailing through the congress. i think it will be fairly smooth. obviously there are going it be people like keith ellison who
what it was designed today, stop the cascade of bank fallers. that it did but its now used for other purposes. but republicans backed away from him. i can t speak for them. i didn t hear their arguments. i heard senator collins say this was not raised in a timely basis. i don t know whether it was timely or not but the substance of the matter was stop spending money. take the money we ve already spent and use it for effectively. senator scott brown you helped make a rock star. he wants to take unused stimulus money and fund a 6-month payroll tax break for those i think up to $200,000 a year, couples up $200,000 a year. what do you think of that? reducing taxes is a better way to stimulate job growth than long term government projects. payroll tax reduction is one way