Page 13 - Deficit Problem News Today

Billion out of americans this year. ive looked at estimates of economists across the board, nonpartisans who argue that put it all together, add the sequester on top of it, and youre talking about growth that is about a percent and a half slower this year than it would be otherwise. let me read you a quick quote from somebody today up on capitol hill. "moreover, besides having adverse effects on jobs and incomes, a slower recovery would lead to less actual deficit reduction in the short-run." no...

And perhaps sending us into a double dip recession is at stake and the lives of middle class people and -- >> how about 4,000 children in new jersey not being given mmr vaccines? >> vaccines for children, and does anybody really think there isnt one loophole that could be closed? not one penny that could be extracted from profitable corporations that arent paying their fair share in order to address the deficit problem? they will not spend one penny of increased tax revenue, and theyd rather tak...

The budget. if were going to get cuts, this is the only opportunity to get them with this president. what message do you have to them today? >> my message to them is i agree with you that weve got a spending problem, that weve got a debt and deficit problem that need to be addressed. and weve got to look at cutting spending where we can. we all agree that reforming entitlements is the way to do it. but i also say defense cuts the way theyre done are not good for our defense and we can replace th...

Worry about the long-term deficit problem after weve got the economy in shape. >> well, if you believe that power point presentation that boehner put together in the summer of 2011, this has all been part of the plan. lets bring in the conversation congressman cedric richmond of louisiana. congressman, good to have you with us. what is this going to do to your area, cedric? congressman, what is it going to do to your area? >> well, it kills our area, to tell you the truth. in fact, part of the a...

Bridges. the american society of civil engineers says we have a $2.2 trillion, $2.2 trillion backlog of just getting our roads and highways and bridges and water systems up to a safe, reasonable level. and this kind of cutback that were doing now, this sequester, besides being stupid because its across the board and nondiscriminating, and besides being unnecessary is absolutely harmful for all the reasons were speak about. but also it will take so much demand out of the economy that the estimate...

Concentrate on getting the economy back in shape. worry about the long-term deficit problem after weve got the economy in shape. >> well, if you believe that power point presentation that boehner put together in the summer of 2011, this has all been part of the plan. lets bring in the conversation congressman cedric richmond of louisiana. congressman, good to have you with us. what is this going to do to your area, cedric? congressman, what is it going to do to your area? >> well, it kills our a...

Deficit problem. its not as if republicans are saying we dont want to have to deal with any of this. so just leave it to someone else. the question is can they overcome their pride? can they overcome the very short-term political calculations that theyre making? and i think its very, very difficult. lets face it with this house republican caucus for their own leadership to figure out what the common ground is among house republicans. and if you cannot negotiate for yourself, how are you going to...

These back-breaking jobs we have a hardship provision in there so they can still get it earlier. >> that, of course, was erskine bowles with alan simpson as his wing man. is that something you could sell in your district, 40 years down the road, one year on the retirement age? >> well, look, lets set aside social security for a moment because i think theres pretty widespread agreement that social security is not the cause of our deficit problem. we do have a problem related with health care rela...

A guarantee. there are other things in the discussion that i think the american people made fully aware understand what it means in their are daily lives. >> chris: you keep talking about raising taxes and talk about making the wealthy -- let me ask the question first. let me ask the question. you keep talking about making the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. >> right. >> chris: the top 1% pay 37% of all federal income taxes. the top 5% pay 59 about percent of all federal taxes. if you too...

If you were to take every cents that everybody that makes more than a million dollars make, its $726 billion which isnt even enough to close the deficit. the argument i make to her is you cant tax your way out of this problem. you have to cut spending. she says you know, we can tax a lot more than we are now and that the spending that needs to be cut is in different areas, but she certainly supports, for instance, in entitlements. she said you can cut -- theres a lot of waste in the system. a lo...