so-called fiscal cliff negotiations. the deal on the table is smal smaller. yet the president wednesday said the republicans should be pleased with the spending cuts they would be getting to sign off to. it s a deal. they will claim they worked with me in the last years to reduce the deficit more than any other deficit reduction package. we will have stabilize it for ten years. that is significant achievement for them. they should be proud of it. clearly they re not. we are going to the debt problem. not solve it kicking the can down the road and doing gimmicks done in the past. time to address our spending problem. will either party dorph that? here is the reason why many are skeptical.
closing up loopholes so those over a million pay more taxes. what are the chances that s actually going to happen? the way it will work is they re going to if they get this deal done, they agree on a revenue number, 1.2 trillion and agree on how it would happen if they can t find a better way, which is a mix of fax rates going up and cushing deductions on the wealthy and things like that. then they send the tax writing committees off to try to find a more fair way of doing that. i think the chances are probably 50/50 that over three, four, five months they have to do it they will in fact do meaningful tax reform. what people have to get in their heads is i do not believe we re looking at a fundamental restructuring of the tax code the way we did in 86. i think wishful things. if we get a meaning deficit reduction package through this congress and dmex congress, $4 trillion out of spends and out of an increased revenue i think will have done about all we can
only does the majority of the american people agree with me, about half of republican voters agree with me on this. so, you know, at some point there s got to be, i think, a recognition on the part of my republican friends that, you know, take the deal. they will be able to claim that they have worked with me over the last two years to reduce the deficit more than any other deficit reduction package. that we will have stabilized it for ten years. that s a significant achievement for them. they should be proud of it, but they keep on finding ways to say no as opposed to finding ways to say yes. and i don t know how much of that just has to do with, you know, it is very hard for them to say yes to me.
know, red lines when it comes to how we build a broader deficit reduction package. reporter: or is it spending cuts? it s clear the president is not serious about cutting spending, but spending is the problem. reporter: in ten minutes, boehner hammered home that point nearly two dozen times and signaled there may be room for flexibility. if the president will show us he s willing to make the spending cuts needed, i think we can do some real good in the days ahead. reporter: there may be no place more pessimistic than right here in washington. speaker boehner has warned his members that they may be ready to stay here through christmas and maybe new year s. rob and paula, back to you. just in time for the holidays, security guards at new york s kennedy airport are threatening to go on strike. about 100 guards say they will walk off their jobs next thursday. they re upset over equipment and training. the guards direct traffic and protect the tarmacs. another security union at
3rd, his election as speaker? i hope it s not that. i hope he understands that putting this off is not fair to america, particularly america s working families. it certainly isn t good for this recovering economy. it s going to hurt us as we wait. and there s just no excuse left. there is solid support among republicans across america as well as independents and can democrats to make sure we protect working families and move forward or with a responsible deficit reduction package. jenna: so that s senator durbin responding to also what congressman boehner, speaker boehner said last hour. we brought that to you live as well. there s a lot of back and forth about what s happening in congress right now, where are we with the fiscal cliff negotiations based on these two pressers, it s fair to say probably not close to a negotiation. watch it, by the way, streaming at foxnews.com live, so you can check out for that. now we have a rare opportunity for you. just coming in to us on the