rates, you will have more revenue for the federal government and the democratic argument would be that would lead to growth. if you look at what happened over the president s spending over the last three years, with unemployment stagnant, stays at around 8 p%, i don t more reven would lead to growth. michael, quick reaction. we have empirical evidence. look at the bush years recession. you cut all those taxes, cut those taxes, then create a lot of growth. clinton actually raised taxes and you had growth for the clinton years. i m not saying this is cause and effect, but there is no imperical evidence that if you cut taxes on the rich that jobs are created. it s not an article of policy. of faith.
like all the green, the green energy companies. so, there s a lot of loopholes out there. i think everyone s all for creating a play, level playing field and let s make it level all throughout though. well, i mean, also, gary, i mean, if the the quote unquote loophole, this gets me the oil and gas companies are taking the same depletions and appreciation expense of every other company. not we have investments and completion on resources and we re not in the oil business, we have other industries and don t throw this out that somehow the oil industry got special treatment. that s not true. everybody gets the same treatment. jonas, is the issue it s so complicated or the issue is that it s too hot? i think the issue is becoming that it s getting easier and easier to avoid it to the point where it s hurting the government s reven revenue. it s not that it is so hot when you compare to other countries. and most employees today.
the military. if we re-elect president obama, they will have a nuclear weapon. if you elect me, they will not have a nuclear weapon. is this going to be a big 2012 campaign issue? i think so. you ve seen estimates that iran is months, not years away from having the highly enriched uranium to 90% that they need to produce a sophisticated weapon and you ve seen statements recently out of the chairman. joint chiefs of staff, for example, instead of saying absolute, the united states will defend the straits of hermuth and preven the iranians from shutting it down. he said it s important for the iranians to think we ll do that. it s hard to tell exactly what s going on but i worry very much the kind of weak rhetoric we re seeing will in fact encourage the iranians to do something that s very mistaken, that it could make us, in fact, more vulnerable and lead to more dangerous situations. that s the new member to the fox family.
and while often republicans don t like to admit it, they came very close to an agreement. and that agreement is still available. now, if we are not able to achieve that in the next several days, we still need we have no other alternative, we have to take action to ensure that we do not default. and we have to take action to reduce our deficit. and there are cuts that we can agree on. the measure that senator reid has put forward includes within it a mechanism by which a joint committee would go to work right away, examining ways that we can reduce our deficit further through tax reform, including reven revenue, and through entitlement reform. the very issues that are the toughest ones that were the focus of the negotiations between the speaker of the house and the president of the united states. we would want to push forward on that. whatever agreement we get that removes this cloud from our economy for the foreseeable future will not be enough, will not be the only thing we will do
came very close to an agreement. and that agreement is still available. now, if we are not able to achieve that in the next several days, we still need we have no other alternative, we have to take action to ensure that we do not default. and we have to take action to reduce our deficit. and there are cuts that we can agree on. the measure that senator reid has put forward includes within it a mechanism by which a joint committee would go to work right away, examining ways that we can reduce our deficit further through tax reform, including reven revenue, and through entitlement reform. the very issues that are the toughest ones that were the focus of the negotiations between the speaker of the house and the president of the united states. we would want to push forward on that. whatever agreement we get that removes this cloud from our economy for the foreseeable future will not be enough, will not be the only thing we will do to address the need to reduce our deficits in a responsib