because people are really hurting and job creation needs to be number one on the agenda. jenna: you mentioned tax reform in your answer there. that has been something very serious as a point of discussion when it comes to the super-committee. again so many different reports coming out of what is actually happening behind closed doors. we do understand there is some concern about tax revenue-raising, whatever you would like to call it. do you support revenue-raising as part of an agreement in the super-committee? will you support that? only if is part of economic growth. i think our government does need more revenue in order to pay down its debt. the difference of opinion is where you get the revenue from? i don t think you get revenue from higher tax rates. i think you get revenue from growing your economy. what i said over and over again what we need are new taxpayers, not new taxes. if we simplify the tax code, lower the rates in the tax code and mate them permanent all the 2 trill
leadership, you mentioned revenue being on the table. at least from the outside looking in, tough to know what is happening within the super-committee was a line that wasn t going to be crossed by republicans. no new taxes, no revenue-raising of any sort. seems like a there is little bit of a different tune. i m curious what specifically you would support when it comes to revenue being part of a debt deal of any type? jenna, that is one of the issues that actually scared off some of the republicans from signing the letter that believe this is the right thing to do. in fact i think an overwhelming number of members of congress know this is the right thing to do. there is no credible plan out there, i sacredable plan to addressing this, that gets us to the 4 trillion dollar mark without including revenue. some people think that means increasing tax rates. i don t think that is necessary. i think that you can actually get additional revenue by decreasing tax rates and eliminating exempt
economy at one moment when you think about the distribution of taxes, because it goes out of the window on this topic. and one thing that goes more forward-looking in the conversation that i keep wondering if we will see much in the way of ambitious actual tax reform from the republicans in the field. and tax reform is big in congress right now and people are talking about it a lot, but i get a sense that it is chilled because the republicans belief if there is tax reform, it is revenue-raising, and do you feel that is accurate to see more bold moves on that this the primary? well, nobody in the presidential field on the republican side had, has a specific plausible plan. herman cain has the national sales tax which isn t plausible or desirable. governor pawlenty had a pie in the sky tax plan and he is not in the race anymore, but there is pressure on them tom can co with their own tax reform plans, and are they going to do more of the five or six or seven percent
deal of 2-1 in terms of spending cuts versus revenue raising, but what we see on the street is the hollowness of that policy and the wickedness of that policy. these are people who have no understanding that human self-worth and dignity comes with getting up in the morning, dressing, going off and doing a day s work and providing for your loved ones. that is a lost world to these people. neil: i m just wondering if you re president obama or any of the ruling parties in washington and looking at these demonstrations and saying, look, we ve got to make some tough cuts, tough decisions or at least curb the growth of some of the programs that people have come to expect even though the money isn t there, for them to expect. that they might hold back for fear that it gets just like that here? yeah, absolutely. i ve got a chapter in my book that deals with just that scenario and i quote the gerald ford line, a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take awa
we have to take up the drivers of our debt and those are some of the entitlement that is do need to be reform. bill: even on monday nancy pelosi said her caucus would protect medicare and medicaid and social security, alan. good, and they should. look, you have to fight for what you believe in. that s why i m not particularly hopeful that this committee is going to come to some kind of agreement, because you are going to have democrats that clearly want to protect certain of the things that we want to protect, the social contact with compact with america and republicans who aren t going to want to do any revenue raising. i m not sure the committee is going to be able to do anything better than boehner and the president did in negotiating. bill: if they don t, there are going to be cuts across the board. mark warner, democrat from virginia, said a week ago i want to be on this committee but they won t select me because i m talking about it publicly. john kerry talked about a tea par