spending i would cut domestic spending, the exact same amount. that separates some conservatives in this race. there are conservatives several who are running or may run who say, oh increase defense at all costs. i will increase defense spending but only if you pay for it by cutting other stuff. if you cut a penny across the board, does that mean you cut medicare social security? in other words, in real 2015 dollars, next year, it s going to be a penny less across the board with any exception? i think what you have to do is throw that out and say, we either do it 1% across the board or maybe some programs cut 100% of. i consider most of the commerce department to be corporate welfare. i would cut every bit of it. cut 100% of the department of commerce. maybe so i don t have to cut the social security if somebody who lives on social security. there are ways of doing it not across the board but if you can t decide on it like the
board with any exception? i think what you have to do is throw that out and say, we either do it 1% across the board or maybe some programs cut 100% of. i consider most of the commerce department to be corporate welfare. i would cut every bit of it. cut 100% of the department of commerce. maybe so i don t have to cut the social security if somebody who lives on social security. there are ways of doing it not across the board but if you can t decide on it like the sequester, you don t put a budget forward you get the sequester. you talk a lot about the constitution and returning to first principles. so two powers that the congress has consent and power of the purse. symbolic votes about repealing obamacare. when it came to actually standing, shutting down the government or being accused of shutting down the government, republicans would back off in those moments. how do you characterize that? i think the problem is we all sort of quietly admit defeat
social security wouldn t have a deaf sit or cause a problem for the budget. because we know the government spent all the money, and that s what happens if we lift the cap, the revenue does not come in, goes out the door, and spends special interest projects. it won t go towards our priorities, won t go to basic research or infrastructure, what you think are important, but special interest drives money in washington which is why spending caps are so important. john: skeptical of the think tank and some of your ideas about this because i look at what you guys have said in the past, the sequester was something that really that s the reason the deficit went down in addition to the fact it was passed by a big blowout stimulus. think progress on that. suffering ensues if they allow cuts to go into effect. they went into effect. i didn t see chi yous and suffering, and 6,000 children and pregnant women could lose access to food and health care.
spouse magazine says, quote, this is essentially the secretary of defense s own version of the sequester. let s just cut it off at the knees and screw whoever it hurts. that s not a very wholistic approach. joining me now is colonel jack jacobs, medal of honor recipient and msnbc analysis and debra blabbert with blue star families. blue star families is also speaking out against the cuts. thank you both for joining us. debra, let me first start with you, because i think you talked to many families on a daily basis. what was the initial reaction to this that prompted blue star to come out with a statement before the day ended yesterday? well, tamron, one of the things we do each year at blue star families is an annual survey of military families and last year, even before the sequester took place, we found about 65% of our families out of
people who are in, time to sell? dana, i think it is not too late. what the stock market is trying to tell us is that we ve all been way too gloomy. we had good reason to be gloomy. as we sat here last year at this time remember we were debating whether congress would get us over the fiscal cliff, that was new year s holiday. eight weeks later, the sequester. then the government shutdown in the fall. there were a lot of reasons to look at the economy and look at the government and think it is going to be terrible. instead we had great stock market gain. i think the problem is we have all gotten used to bad economic news that we can t recognize the good news when we see it. this should be a year of continued good economic news because the economy is growing, seen it pick up in third quarter and in the fourth. that s what the stock market was telling you. the fed pulled its punches, said we will cut back a little bit, but not really taking money out of the economy, they re still puttin