they helped direct mubarak. but suddenly and in a way that if things turned out differently, they would have been okay. republicans are looking at the outcome and also recognize at a time like this it s good to support the president. we ll get back to this, but the president of course sends his 2012 budget to congress today, about two-thirds of the savings expected to be from a five-year spending freeze. other proposed cuts include pell grants, defense spending, energy assistance for the poor, water treatment plants and airport grants. joining us from the white house, jack lew. you say, sir, the president is going to have to make tough decisions. are these tough decisions? good morning. i think they are tough decisions. the president today is proposing a budget that is a very important budget. it cuts the deficit in half by the end of his first term. it puts us on a path from being able to live within our means and invest in the future.
prizing about bowles simpson, too tepid. i would tell anybody 49 or younger you re getting social security at 67. if you re in your 30s, you re getting it at 70. if that was too tepid, bowles came out yesterday and said the president s budget is way too tepid. let s look at the president s budget. president obama sends his 2012 budget to congress which administration officials say will saveover 1 trillion dollars. two-thirds from a five-year spending freeze. other cuts include pell grants, defense spending, water treatment plants, airport grants. a couple things. first of all, he s going to save a trillion dollars over the next decade which is great except for the fact that we get a trillion
exclusives this weekend. i caught up with him earlier to get the scoop on nucemakers on fox news sunday. tomorrow on valentine s day we get the president s budget and one of the key figures is republican congressman paul ryan. you talked to him today about how they plan to go through it and fire back if necessary. and they don t like it. he dowd wouldn t officially call it dead on arrival. i was hoping that he would but he didn t. here are the differences. the republicans are talking about in the house are they going to cut the budget a lot or are they going to cut it even more than that. the president is talking about a five year freeze and the word today the reports are well, it will cut the deficit by a trillion dollars over the next decade but most of that cutting is from revenue increases because they say eventually not now because they made the deal but two years from now the bush tax cuts will expire and then they will be able to hit the wealthy on that. that plus a spending
but. if the left and right cannot agree by march 4th there will be a government shut down which has not happened since 1995. can the american government sustain this level of spending, and there is no question that a shutdown is coming, the question is can we bring in the spending enough and compromise and be on the same page so the government can continue to meet its obligation. republicans are seeking to do away with the corporation for public broadcasting, and americorps and nancy pelosi says those cuts are irresponsible and the president said he is trying to cut back on spending and if you do not believe him look at the spending freeze in part of the budget. this will bring spending to the lowest level as a share of the economy since eisenhower was president. we have stripped down the budget by getting rid of waste. i mentioned a possible government shut down and if that
spending where it is now. but everybody points out we are at hugely elevated levels of spending. so that s not going to do it. do you foresee improvement for him between now and the time he runs for reelection? yes, he will have to. there is no way he can get reelected with the numbers the way they are. both sides are stake out their early bargaining positions there will have to be a deal cut on the budget. the president learned his lessons on the stimulus. they started in the center and the republicans didn t want to meet them, and they felt burned. megyn: liberals wanted the stimulus proposal to be twice as big it was. the president said no i ll have fox cuts to try and buy republican support. it didn t work. they are internalizing that lesson. their opening bid is a spending freeze and the republicans are saying we have to have spending