we have huge deficit problems, what do you say to that? the best way to solve the deficit is create jobs now that means massive investments in our infrastructure. that will pay for itself in the long term, but more importantly we need to define this better. it is simply just not true that all attempts to deal with the deficit are created equal. we ve heard a lot from president obama recently in the context of egypt about how self-determination in a democracy is important, the will of the people must govern. guess what? overwhelmingly, rep, and democratic people say no cuts to social security, no cuts to medicare, no cuts to medicaid, but do you know what that bipar san consensus does support? cutting bush tax cuts for the wealthy, cutting wasteful military, taxing wall street more? we have bipartisan consensus in the country, we just have to stop retaining the idea that these ideas are bad. we need president obama to finally face up. so, look, it drives me crazy,
but at the same time still, you can t cut back on the funding for your children so they can go to school. so i think it s important that we have that investment and have the cuts at the same time. susan, will it work? no. it s a lot of smoke and mirrors. everyone knows we have serious deficit problems. the country is broke. we have to have serious solutions. and that includes talking about social security, medicaid and medicare. we talk a little bit about defense spending. but right now president obama has shown he can talk the talk, but he won t walk the walk because he wants to get re-elected. you have to act as if re-election doesn t matter. if you want to take this country in the right direction as president of the united states, it s up to him to lead us in that direction. and right now he is showing he does not have the political courage to do it. you don t agree? susan, you didn t mention tax increases. you can t cut this budget you re right. even president obama iro
programs, programs that people can identify and put a human face to. so cutting these things are not political winners, even though they broadly agree, both sides agree, on the importance of bringing down the deficit over the long term. their cuts are not political winners, and they are not enough for the tea partiers who campaigned on the notion that they are going to be able to cut much, much, much more than that in the first year. where does this leave republican establishment versus the tea party? this is all going to be fought. they already said they re going to extend the debt ceiling. obviously they ve got this continuing resolution to come up as well. and that s why i don t actually think anyone in the white house thinks that the 32 billion or whatever the number is now is going to hold. it is going to get higher and higher, it s going to have to be scaled back. but in the end, the numbers are minimal compared to the kind of deficit problems that everyone says we have to de
tokyo gains 0.75%. new economic data shows japans exports rose more than expected but after the close, standa standard & poor s announced it s downgrading its sovereign credit rating to aa minus because of its fiscal deficit problems. on the other hand shanghai got a lift from resource-related stocks. it gained nearly 1.5% but property stocks fell after beijing said it will increase minimum down payments for second home purchases to 60% from 50%. this is to rein in the housing bubble going on there. the hang seng in hong kong fell about 0.25% and sydney finished relatively flat on its first day back from holiday from australia day. in the meantime, australia s prime minister just introduced a one-time income tax to help cover costs from the recent flooding disaster. half a percent will be leveed on
it wasn t it wasn t a serious effort to come to grips is what is a towering problem. he s holding back. i don t know why. i thought it was very cautious. he made some suggestions, implied things, but you can t feel very good about the fact we re going to solve these deficit problems after tonight. both republican responses were deficits were front and center. it has found its voice and we re being crushed by a deficit and debt. and if you add up paul ryan s speech and michele bachmann s speech, you know why republican won 63 seats in the last election. paul begala in washington, you had been talking about the importance of the president talking about jobs. i want to play another segment from the speech. so tonight, i am proposing