always use. obama and biden want to raise taxes by $8 trillion. guess what? yes we do in one regard. we want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn t have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super wealthy. he asked if he and president obama want a trillion dollar tax hike and his response to himself was, yes we do. that s a direct quote, friends. well, virginia, no we don t. so is that a fair way to say it that, you know, the president is campaigning on raising, getting rid of the tax cut, raising taxes, a trillion dollars on the wealthy and the romney campaign no? is that a fair way to draw the line? we ve been clear. we have tough choices to make in this country. you know, we ve got investments
million unemployed or under employed and he wants to jump-start the economy to get it going again. and i think i hope that s the focus. let me ask you about his tax plans. se pledging to cut taxes or not? what is your understanding? he pledging that if he s elected president he is going to cut taxes, the amount of taxes that come into the federal government? number one, i think he is saying he is not going to increase taxes. i think that s where he and the president differ. the president wants to increase taxes. mitt romney wants tax reform that does not increase tax on anyone but yet gives incentives to people to hire, like making sure that the middle class does not get hit with the taxes and the regulatory burdens. he wants small business to hire people and that s why he doesn t want to talk about raising taxes on anyone. but do you understand how he gets there? he is not going to cut taxes.
2:00 p.m. today, just a few hours before the debate started. romney did his debate prep in denver. when you go to 5,000 feet exactly. and you only have a few hours to adjust that s interesting. i don t know. oh, boy. that was former vice president al gore with what you would call one of the more creative explanations for president obama s denver debate performance. let s bring back our panel. j jim, karen, and matt. what did you get out of that? i love this is not a time for politics. there s 30 days left before the election. everything is a time for politics. i get why he said it, absolutely, but, look, this is, i think, president obama needed something at the end of the week after what i think was not disastrous but certainly not a
good debate performance. you said he had the worst week in washington. he looked i would say that s a little i said he looked unhappy. we ve been talking for the last couple days about all of the lies that romney told on the stage. come on, he might have had a good performance both candidates i disagree, both candidates obfuscate and frame it in the way they want it framed. barack obama s performance in that debate in my opinion was well below the standard that we ve come to expect. jim, the romney campaign, they vigorously say this is not fair, tax policy center is making assumptions that are not there. tell me your assumptions then. and then there s silence. i say you haven t given me any. you re upset they have made a strawman. then build your own. the line you often here, well, i m not going to negotiate with myself. you say if i m going do this precise deduction you open yourself up to this issue. it does.
return, the trickle down economies that failed the middle class and failed the country. there is obviously an important debate next week between our vice president and paul ryan. we have another debate in 11 days. we look forward to continuing to make the case. you used the words i think dishonest or not making an honest argument. you just did it again. do you believe that mitt romney is intentionally lying about his record or lying about his plans? well, i think i he is. you know, chuck, this is the cornerstone of his entire campaign and his economic plan. it really was a remarkable thing. it would be like in 2008 if we got on the stage and said i don t want to end the iraq war and i m not for health care reform. you know, i don t want to have a green energy future. it is an amazing thing. and the reason he is trying to obfuscate here is because that tax cut plan is something the american people don t want to support. a huge tax cut for the wealthy paid for by the middle class o