didn t mention me, but it was still very interesting. [laughter] you know, i had a carefully framed question for you, brit. let me ask a much simpler one. you heard what geithner said and heard what boehner said. what do you make of it? well, it is striking that the house has acted and passed a plan and the senate has basically refused to take it up and voted it down. what you see here is an interesting combination of events because the president really hasn t stated a position or set forth a scorable plan or any of that and these, the house republicans have basically done that. and what you re seeing here is a very peculiar kind of double standard because when the house acts, as everybody says, well, that can t, i can t pass
only $400 billion over 10 years. the senate rejected that 97-0. in april he offered another plan plan that was so fuzzy, thee head says we don t estimate speeches.tary, meanwhile the republicans offered several specific plans to deal with the national debt. plans that would devastate the economy and the country. in your opinion. but at least they had a plan. they had the cap cut and. balance, and you had no plan. in april the president of the united states put out a out framework that would do inefic reduction in the same period of time. but it is on fuzzy he couldn t square it. and he has been spending spe every day, every weekweekince negotiating negotiating on at cs workework that can pass and work. why have you had nois plan?a. that s not fair.i know i know the republican leadership says that, but it is not true.e. the nonpartisan head of the congressional office says weon can t score a speech. c t
i know the republican leadership says that, but it is not true.e. the nonpartisan head of the congressional office says weon can t score a speech. c t let s do it your way. the republican plan that oy? passed the house of pas representatives, and the rsent republicans were in the senatele would in the cbo require ben beneficiaries of medicare to pay $6500 a year more, $6,500 a year more for medicare thanoda they do today. and why are they doing that?ey d it is because they want to preserve i don t think the w speaker says this, but it is tax cuts for the top americans that we cannot afford. demonshey demonstrated in their plans, and itr give them credit for this, that if you try to balance our budget without revenues and without tax revenues, then you aren forced to put in place juceptionally harsh cuts not just for medicare b beneficiaries, but for
standard because when the house acts, as everybody says, well, that can t, i can t pass that, that won t pass, but you don t have the senate has done nothing. they haven t passed they haven t passed a budget. they ve rejected the president s budget 97-0. they haven t done anything, but so everyone time the house acts, it can t pass anywhere else. isn t it time for somebody to step up with an alternative plan and the thing that is striking about this, this is a very close parallel to what happened back in the clinton years, when we had the, you know, we had the partial government shutdown and that and the pattern is very similar and in that case, the republicans got all the blame and i have a sense here that there s a sense of confidence among the democrats and the white house and congress that if we end up with this sort of