to run. and i think you ve found as others have that have talked to him that he has a certain enthusiasm for delivering a message about the fiscal peril that he sees the country in but he has some other decisions he has to make before he knows whether he ll run. some of those having to do with family. some of those of what you go through with the process. some whether he has the driving ambition or the fire in the belly. those are questions that only he can answer. michele norris, it s been interesting at the white house. they are shocked. david axelrod the one whose are running for the president s re-election are shocked that these bigger candidates who are thinking about running haven t gotten in yet. they say if they haven t gotten in early they wouldn t have gotten the nominee. they need the work. they are surprised. are these republicans making a mistake by waiting too long? well time will tell. we frankly don t know if they are losing an opportunity to bet their ground game t
because obviously you were there when, when the debt also went up, when the deficit went up and it was because among other things, those two things were not paid for then. well, we ll never know, if you had done that and you hurt the economy, you would have had less revenue than you expected, maybe less than you had, anyway. you know, by 2007, the debt set was tiny, it was well under 2% of gdp. so we would love, wouldn t we, to be back to that level now. but you re an executive now. you believe in paying pore things, if you re going to offer something, you should pay for it. yeah. don t offer what you can t pay for. that would be a good principle to return to. for the prescription drug benefit probably shouldn t have been offered without paying for? well it s cost a whole lot less than anybody thought. but it s part, there s no question, it s part of the biggest problem we face, which isn t even these massive annual deficits we re running. it s the unaffordable promises we ha
balz. dan balz, what did you hear from mitch daniels? is that a candidate for president of the united states? governor daniels is very interesting. this is a potential. candidate who knows what he wants to say if he runs. he s just not sure if he wants to run. and i think you ve found as others have that have talked to him that he has a certain enthusiasm for delivering a message about the fiscal peril that he sees the country in but he has some other decisions he has to make before he knows whether he ll run. some of those having to do with family. some of those of what you go through with the process. some whether he has the driving ambition or the fire in the belly. those are questions that only he can answer. michele norris, it s been interesting at the white house. they are shocked. david axelrod the one whose are running for the president s re-election are shocked that these bigger candidates who are thinking about running haven t gotten in yet. they say if they haven t gotte
president bush, make a mistake about not trying to pay for the wars in some form or another, asking for some temporary tax hikes, if necessary to pay for the wars. or to pay for the prescription drug benefit? because obviously you were there when, when the debt also went up, when the deficit went up and it was because among other things, those two things were not paid for then. well, we ll never know, if you had done that and you hurt the economy, you would have had less revenue than you expected, maybe less than you had, anyway. you know, by 2007, the debt set was tiny, it was well under 2% of gdp. so we would love, wouldn t we, to be back to that level now. but you re an executive now. you believe in paying pore things, if you re going to offer something, you should pay for it. yeah. don t offer what you can t pay for. that would be a good principle to return to. for the prescription drug benefit probably shouldn t have been offered without paying for? well it s cost a whol
ones who are running for the president s re-election are shocked that these bigger candidates who are thinking about running haven t gotten in yet. they say if they haven t gotten in early, they never would have been the nominee. that they needed the work, frankly. they don t know who to position themselves against. not only that, but they are surprised. are these republicans making a mistake by waiting too long? well, time will tell. we frankly don t know if they are losing an opportunity to bet their ground game together, to develop their message, to allow voters to get to know a candidate and really vet them because part of what obama went through wasn t just the ground game they put together, voters had a good long time to vet a candidate who was unusual and historic and somebody they weren t used to seeing in lots of ways. so, you know, when you talk to republican operatives, there are a lot of people sitting on the sidelines right now trying to figure out who they ll work f