and do that for the american people. chris: we ll get to the republican plan and i agree there is a plan and we will get to that in a moment. but you you say that there are parts of the obama plan that you can support. like what? well, i mean this week was indicative of how we can come together. we passed three big trade bills that have been over five years in the making. we have a 3% withholding bill that we are going to bring up in another week to help small business in the way they conduct their businesses with any government. we also have bills coming forward, the president says he supports, to help small businesses access financing and capital so they can begin to grow and create jobs. the president talks a lot about the need for unemployment insurance reform. we had 245 in our plan, chris, since two years ago. when we were in the minority, leader boehner and i went to the president and presented him with a no cost jobs plan. we said we can could these things, let s work toget
first of all, i think he need to work on his harry truman. and he s got to convey that sort of populist sense of the little guy against the powers that be, that harry truman was able to do. can a guy who was head of the harvard law review have a failed haberdasher from kansas city? that s one problem. the other problem, what the republicans are going to say, because they were saying it to me this afternoon when i called them, they said, look, we passed his original stimulus bill, we passed his health care bill. yes, we re going to vote down the jobs bill, but as soon as we do that, we re going to take up the trade bills he wanted and we re going to pass those to show him that we re not a do-nothing congress. we re doing something you don t like congress. no, we re going to do stuff you asked for. you asked for the trade bill, we re just not going to give you your jobs bill, but trade, patents, health, highways. what happens if mitch mcconnell, who is just as tough as obama,
of populist sense of the little guy against the powers that be, that harry truman was able to be. can a guy who was head of the harvard law review have a failed haberdasher from kansas city? that s one problem. the other problem, what the republicans are going to say, because they were saying it to me this afternoon when i called them, they said, look, we passed his original stimulus bill, we passed his health care bill. yes, we re going to vote down the jobs bill, but as soon as we do that, we re going to take up the trade bills he wanted and we re going to pass those to show him that we re not a do-nothing congress. we re doing something you don t like congress. no, we re going to do stuff you asked for. you asked for the trade bill, we re just not going to give you your jobs bill, but trade, patents, health, highways. what happens if mitch mcconnell, who is just as tough as obama, and boy, he is a hardball player, mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, i m hearing right n
can a guy who was head of the harvard law review have a failed haberdasher from kansas city? that s one problem. the other problem, what the republicans are going to say, because they were saying it to me this afternoon when i called them, they said, look, we passed his original stimulus bill, we passed his health care bill. yes, we re going to vote down the jobs bill, but as soon as we do that, we re going to take up the trade bills he wanted and we re going to pass those to show him that we re not a do-nothing congress. we re doing something you don t like congress. no, we re going to do stuff you asked for. you asked for the trade bill, we re just not going to give you your jobs bill, but trade, patents, health, highways. what happens if mitch mcconnell, who is just as tough as obama, and boy, he is a hardball player, mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, i m hearing right now that he s trying to bring up the entire obama jobs bill, the american jobs bill tonight, maybe,
think will help the economy. this week, we extended the federal aviation administration and we passed a highway bill. if the president would send up these trade bills that have been sitting on his desk for 2 1/2 years, ever since the day he was sworn in, we ll pass those. there are things we can do together, david and we re ready to do it. let s talk about the hard stuff. because my question is about taxes. if the president is willing to deal on medicare cuts, cuts to that program, are you willing to consider tax increases as part of a larger effort to reduce the deficit? well, we re certainly interested in tax reform. i don t have a single member of my conference who doesn t think it s time to take a whole look at the tax code, all over again. it s been 25 years. since president reagan led us through this effort on a bipartisan basis back in the mid 80s. he got the top rate from 70 down to 28%. was a big step in the right direction and it helped produce an economic boom for a fai