the health care reform they heard from republicans isn t the health care bill that passed. once people know what s this is more disturbing. a new u.s.a. today /gallup poll has the president with 50% of the people saying he should not be re-elected. that s the highest it s been, i believe, todd. i don t think the president has much to worry about right now because he s not on the ballot this year. his name s not on, but he is. correct. his policy is going to be a referendum. here he is up in maine today. it s going to be all of those vulnerable democrats who are going to be paying the price for the mistakes that the white house has made. here s my question, steve. i don t understand this, the president is out there campaigning like he s running for president again. he looks good in this. he s got the shirt on, the style, he s gung-ho. he s alone. the democratic party has a lot of members, you ve got governors all over the place, where are the surrogates, where s the oba
over se mant it ticks. $800 billion is $800 billion. tom coburn he prefers for the rates to go up and a giant bolt of lightning did not strike him down when he said that. he s known for these. one of the members of the bowles-simpson commission who voted in favor of the plan which raised more revenue than anything on the table right now. i think he s more alert to the problems that republicans in the house are going to face and for all that john boehner talks about the rich and rich and trying to blunt that charge, it doesn t get him out of the fundamental trap of rates are going to go up on the rich. there s nothing he can bargain, there s no price he s looking to exact in reference to what luke said in exchange for that rate going up on the rich. so the problem is, it s going to go up on january 1st unless they essentially fold. the problem for republicans isn t sort of the size of the revenue or what they get in exchange, but just the fact that they as republicans don t believe
why are we doing all this when the most powerful person in these negotiations, our president has failed to lead this debate or offer a serious proposal for spending and cuts that he would be willing to fight for? well that s west virginia senator joe manchin. he s up for re-election in 2012. is he going rogue. with $50 billion still separating the democrats and republicans both parties are working to rein in other possible defectors within their parties and calling on the white house to get more directly involved. joining us now, ken strickland, nbc news senate producer and major garrett. welcome, gentlemen. we see joe manchin. diane feinstein said the president has to play a much greater role. olympia snowe said the president
should convene leaders from both sides of the aisle. is this something you re hearing a lot on this. do people feel the president has not shown enough leadership here? i think what s going to happen today with these votes is pretty much a side show for a couple of reasons. both of them will fail. you talk to people what needs to be done, neither one of these spending reduction packages gets nowhere near actually bringing down deficit numbers. there may be some defections. republicans feel they might be able to hold all their folks in line. there s a lot of chatter about who will defect, why is mcconnell delaying the vote. there s a sense on the republican side while a lot of republicans, especially moderates are not crazy about the house bill they want to send a signal to the democrats that they are serious about cutting spending. so when this goes down i expect lot of press releases to come out from republicans saying i voted for the house bill, i don t like it but we have to send s
yesterday. and it didn t. so now the theater debuts today. reporter: well the show must go on. so if it s political theater, they are going to make their marks today. they are going to give their speeches. and the democrats and republicans will argue the case for and against these two different packages for budget cuts. we ve been talking a lot about the house package, roughly $61 billion to be slashed from the current spending year. democrats have a slightly leaner approach saying only about $6 billion in cuts. lots of debates how those numbers shake out. there has been a lot of concern among both sides really of how to come together. so this vote while it is no surprise, no suspense it sets up the next phase. is there a way to draw in the president, does it give house speaker john borne more cover with the tea party conservatives to move a little bit more towards what democrats want.