tax rate increases, maybe not at 250 but upper income americans. this is unlike the comments we ve seen in washington with all the blaming going on. how like is it that we ll even see a small deal and can the president still come out on top of this? i think what happened, the reason there was optimism last night and this morning was because the issue seemed to just be focused on where to set that threshold on extending the bush tax cuts. was it 250,000 or 400,000, 500,000 and then the battle over the estate tax, sort of where to set the exemption owns tastes. that just seemed to be a pure numbers game, and those things can always be worked out, especially between mcdonnel and biden. they are old hands at sort of working out numbers, but then this whole issue seems to have spun out of control on the issue of the sequester, cutting federal budgets and also then the republicans throwing cpi in there. those became real policy fights, and that has just totally
was going to do immigration, i think i will push that back six months. i know i got the iranian threat, the nuclear threat, i have to deal with that, that s front burner, but i have to jam this baby into my agenda. did you have a sense he s willing to go for gun control as part of his legacy as i think you suggested. first of all, yes, i do believe he believes this has got to become a priority. jay carney today, for what it s worth, was fighting back. he s not going to order what his priorities are, but, no, the bottom line is this is a window. you know you only have a finite window sometimes when there are policy fights that are sort of thrown at your doorstep whether you wanted it or not, and you have to deal with it. so i think he knows this is something he has to tackle early, first six months type of thing next year kind of early. so, no, i sense that. but the problem is what is it? and i go you know, the issue with guns, chris, and i hear what you re saying, but this you wa
you got a closer look at him. i think, chuck, you really do because you re with his people all day, you have great sources. have you been able to measure how deep that emotion that we see on the president s face, the tears he had to fight back last friday, is he willing to say i was going to do immigration, i think i will push that back six months. i know i got the iranian threat, the nuclear threat, i have to deal with that, that s front burner, but i have to jam this baby into my agenda. did you have a sense he s willing to go for gun control as part of his legacy as i think you suggested. first of all, yes, i do believe he believes this has got to become a priority. jay carney today, for what it s worth, was fighting back. he s not going to order what his priorities are, but, no, the bottom line is this is a window. you know you only have a finite window sometimes when there are policy fights that are sort of thrown at your doorstep whether you wanted it or not, and you have to de
friday, is he willing to say i was going to do immigration, i think i will push that back six months. i know i got the iranian threat, the nuclear threat, i have to deal with that, that s front burner but i have to jam this baby into my agenda. did you have a sense he s willing to go for gun control as part of his legacy as i think you suggested. fwraul, yes, i do believe he believes this has got to become a priority. jay carney food for what it s worth was fighting back. he s not going to order what his priorities are, but, no, the bottom line is this is at window. you know you only have a finite window sometimes when there are policy fights that are sort of thrown at your doorstep whether you wanted it or not, and you have to deal with it. so i think he knows this is something he has to tackle early, first six months type of thing next year kind of early. so, no, i sense that. but the problem is what is it? and i go you know, the issue with guns, chris, and i hear what you re say
the election and again now that are more people will blame republicans and the president if there is no deal. so i think republicans need to really tread carefully. look, i think it hurts everybody politically if we go over the fiscal cliff. republicans will pay a larger price. it s about making sure they don t drive themselves off a middle class cliff by digging their heels into lower rates. actual hadly have lower rates for the wealthy than the wealt tripp, you work for a group you re saying, hey, we stand for principle but you re not there to win elections. you re there to win policy fights. right. the fact is, if republicans could be some concern is republicans pulling away from the vote. hopefully good policy makes good politics. in this case, if we can see the tax issue, that s not going to fix the problem. the drivers of the debt is spending but also is is entitlement and boehner punting, capitulated to the white