in some places, it appears clear, the president looks like, hey, people making $250,000, going to go become to the clinton era tax rate which is makes sense, it isç progressiv position during the campaign, et cetera, et cetera. places like medicare and medicaid, look like he is going to propose cuts. does that gib with his earlier statements, does that make sense to you? if you are talking about providing savings at medicare that take you further along in reduce the cost of health care, that makes sense. that is what we did last year when we found $500 billion in savings by removing some of the duplication of services that was costing seniors and taxpayers great deal of money. but if you are talking about doing what the republicans do, essentially privatizing medicare, turning it into a voucher, what i call coupon care, because you essentially get a coupe ton go shop for your health care. and we know since 1965, the only reason seen jurors easy access to health care is because medi
and the medicare prescription drug benefit added more than $3.2 trillion to the debt. now, these compared to $600 billion worth of stimulus and tax cuts from president obama. and by the way that stimulus was made necessary by the gigantic economic crash brought to you by the republicans. and it s not just bush. the gop has been a disaster on this for a long time. the last democratic president to balance the budget, bill clinton. the last republican, dwight eisenhower. i never tire of saying that. they never balance the budget. never, ever, ever, ever. well, since eisenhower, at least. and remember, clinton left office with $127 billion surplus. eight years later, george w. bush was running a $1.3 trillion deficit. that s the deficit the republicans are now complaining about. oh, the democrats. except for the fact that the democrats balanced the budget and you guys don t. but rewriting history isn t the
side says, no, we actually have to go back to the clinton era? no one wants to see the game of chicken played the way with the republicans played it with this recent budget vote that we had where they nearly shut the government down unless they got their way. what we found out quickly, it wasn t their concerns were not about budgets and about fiscal issues and numbers, it was about a social agenda. if republicans try to do that whether with a debt ceiling vote the other 2012 budget, we are now starting to discuss and debate, i believe the president has every right to set down a clear marker and say enough is enough, i feel americans put back to work and get the fiscal house in order, you don t have to do that by cutting kids out of head start, cutting seniors out of the medicare benefits. will he? that is the question we will find out. congressman base air is rah, member of the congressional budget caucus, thank you for your time tonight. thanks very much. all right. now i wa
i believe this budget debate is about two very different futures for america, about whether we will continue to go forward under our motto, in pluribus unum, out of many one. whether we will continue to unite and grow or whether we will become a more divided winner-take-all society. bubba! all right. that was back in 1995. it was amid an historic showdown with new england where bill clinton threw down the gaunt let and stood up for progressive values, vowing to protect medicare. it was bold and it made a lot of sense, since he is a democratic president. now, it did partly trigger two government shut downs, obviously forced mainly by the republicans but ultimately it worked. the policy work and the politics also worked. clinton won re-election in 1996. now it is president obama s tomorrow, he will lay out his plan to reduce america s deficit. and in the process, obama will have a chance to explain exactly
taking things off the table they won t want to protect the fat cats, those sacred cows and the president, i hope will say everything should be on the table and those of us who are strong spores of strengthening social security, medicare should be prepared to say that we can put those program on the table and know that they will survive because the americanç public wants them to be stronger, not to be private advertise bud to the degree that republicans remove things from discussion that should be on the table, the republicans are truly revealing what they re doing and simply they are protecting the special interests that have been providing them with a great deal of support every two years, every four years that there s an election. congressman, last thing on this i know my strategy and not the one the president favors if they said to me it is unacceptable, all right, unacceptable right back at you and this is what i think of your criticism, right? but that s not how the president