the messaging of the gop is quite frankly, sucked on this issue. there s no doubt about that. but it still doesn t change the underlying facts that democrats, including the newly elected re-elected president are on the hook for this just as much as the republicans are. neither side have effectively dealt with this. we ve left simpson/bowles sitting on the sidelines. we ve now had simpson/bowles two, no one is talking about that. sequester is something that both democrats and republicans put on the table. and now everyone is acting like, oh, my god, we re going to do this? come on. so the republicans are losing the fight over public opinion, governor. it s usually important in politics, public opinion. it s not important until it s time for an election. and a the republicans are losing the fight and democrats are winning it, and the question is who is playing fair here? i don t think boehner is at fault. i think boehner s problem, and i use the phrase feeding time at the zoo ver
that the defense industry hates, that advocates for the poor hate, that economists hate because you re going to cut wildly, some say, defense, cut wildly these programs for the poor, and slow down the economy when we re already in negative growth. so how do they not i just i can t get it through my head. how do they not get together and fix this? it seems like that s the only option. you re asking the right question. part of the answer is last week harry reid and speaker boehner met, i understand, and harry reid, the democratic leader in the senate, majority leader, said, look, let s postpone this for a year and literally said to john boehner, you can t let this moment go by. i don t think boehner wants to let it go by, but he took a real
that s something that republicans tell me they will grab on to and try to work on, making some structuredal changes that would reduce the deficit. kelly o donnell, thank you. thank you, kelly, so much. reporter: good to see you. good to see you, too. john costa, you don t think boehner is going to pay it all with his base in the house for bringing a bill to the floor where he knew he wasn t going to get a majority of the majority vote and basically turning the house floor over to mitch mcconnell, harry reid and joe biden? joe, i was really struck by your comments this morning. because you really sounded like a lot of the house republicans who walked off the floor last night, just livid, fed up that speaker boehner was allowing this to come to the floor for a clean vote. i mean, your comments sound exactly like all these house conservatives, the rank and file. and they re going to make this debt ceiling a real showdown. if you think this was brinksmanship, just wait till late
welcome back to hardball. when john boehner failed to bring his so-called plan b to a vote last week because he didn t have enough republican support to pass it, the speaker abdicated his role in the fiscal cliff talks. he said it was up to the u.s. senate and the white house to do something. the sad reality is that boehner is leading a dysfunctional caucus with a vocal minority of tea partiers who can hold up the chances for any deal. today harry reid accused boehner of caring more about his re-election as speaker than getting something done. take a listen. the american people i don t think understand the house of representatives is operating without the house of representatives. it s being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker. john boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on firm financial footing. what is boehner s game plan? does he even have one?
staring contest, can you see anybody blinking? everybody thought i guess they thought first of all that boehner would blink and he d take on his tea party and say i only want 50 or 75 votes. i don t need you crazy people. i just need a few normal people, and we ll get 150 democrats, and we ll pass something. he didn t blink and do that. is there any chance he will before monday? i think there s a chance if harry reid and mitch mcconnell can blink together, they can come to agreement to bring something to the floor and move forward, then and only then will they blink, but both have to hold hands and jump into the pool at the same time. but mitch mcconnell is worried about, what, ashley judd running against him? what is he really worried about? i m just kidding because he s not worried about the general election. he s worried about a primary election like a rand paul. and the other by the way, he is from rand paul s state. it s possible. he is. the other thing to keep in mi