sensible place. to turn backurn b to the business to help the t economy get stronger. there is a long way to go, no it doubt about it. but we are in a better place not than we were six months ago, mo 18 months ago. do you think it is a stronger position on the the economy today? e let me finish. is it a stronger position than thre you were three or fouer months ago when you were growing hundreds of thousands of jobs? absolutely. p with time more americans are getting back to work. w the economy is growing ander american investors are growingin and exports are stronger. the growth slowed because the oil prices went up. they are tightening their goven belts. ti japan had a catastrophicatastrop crisis and those things caused growth to slow. and this specter of defaultaultt that republicans have put overcn the country is hurting the the confidence of averagerins. americans. and that s why it is important o they take it off the table not just for august 2nd, but for the next 18 month
the country is hurting the the confidence of averagerins. americans. and that s why it is important o they take it off the table not just for august 2nd, but for the next 18 months as long as n8 they can. one last question, you talk about growth.st i i want to put up the growth number ofertz last few months ls and over the last fewng months.. gdp growth was 1.9% and est goldman sachs has sailed backua in the second quarter from 2% to 1. 5%, in other words less t than the third quarter and inrtr the third quarter from three fro and a quarter percent to 2.5%. that s your idea of an economy that is growing stronger? that the economy is still a tough economy and growth slowed in the first half forgrow the reasons we said. half and if congress makes some sensible decisions right now s and lifts this cloud of dysfunction of default off the american economy, then it cann turn back the business of doing things to make the economy stronger. but this economy is healing. it is recovering. w
boehner, when i offered it to him said my deal is dealed prior to the president demanding 400 million dollars more is still on the table. do you take it seriously? i do, i think it s a practical matter. they re both willing, but i think the obstacles is too great and time is too short for them to get there. it s just too much. first of all, the components are so numerous and legislation that needs to be done to get it in place is just so extensive i don t think it s feasible to pass it in time. we re going to need to do something ahead of that if you can ever get that done. other thing striking about this is we ve got the ratings agencies out there issuing dire warnings and all this. remember now what we re talking about here is to enact, you know, something that would keep the government going for a while, and then we re going to plenty of more bites at this apple. the senate never the senate never passed anything. there s no budget and, you
brought it up, brought it up and insisted it on it. makes me believe if the administration backs down from the final 400 and says stick with the 800 that boehner might come back to the table. this question of whether or not a short-term patch, even if it s six long months, really still keeps default alive and that against to show up in the market, is really a problem for republicans. they read the polling that came out last week that americans are increasingly afraid of default and those are rising 70% against raising the debt ceiling and now a plurality for raising the debt ceiling. and the republicans also don t want to get this past the election? i think republicans also want to get is past the election and freshman said i don t want to take one of these votes, don t want to take three of them. chris: and bill, back to the grand bargain, as i pointed out to boehner, a lot of republicans say no tax increases, that has to do with baselines and all kinds of stuff and here you h
that would cut over a trilliont dollars in spending and raiset the debt ceiling into next year. and then there would be a mechanism for more cuts that if approved the debt ceiling would be raised past the 2012 21 election. will the president sign that into law? me pr chris, let me tell you what we are trying to do. rs first and most important we need to lift this shred of default from the economy for the next 18 months. we have to take that threatctio. off the table through the election?t t try through the election. mak but we want to make sure we can come together 1k3 lock in s some long-term savings to getous our fiscal house in order. we need to do both those things so congress can get t the back and make the economytronged stronger and get moreamericans b americans back to work. so for lack of a better o word we will call it the boehner plan, would theett. president veto that? let me step back.k there are two types of planseco. on the table now.