it s too precious to the nation and world market. that said, house republicans under no circumstances should vote to raise the debt ceiling without getting a deficit reduction program that includes tax cuts and entitlement reform. additionally, we cannot talk about raising corporate and individual tax rates, okay? until we have gotten spending cuts and entitlement reform. jamie: speaker boehner has been very clear he will not even consider the issue of new taxes or higher taxes. unless there are additional spending cuts do you see the tax increase as inevitable? i think we have to raise revenue. i thought the bowles-simpson plan from december had it about right. three times as many spending cuts for tax increases. the way to do it without raising rates is get rid of the tax preferences that the individuals and the corporations enjoy and indeed in some circumstances you can actually reduce the overall rate if you get rid of some of the tax expenditures that are
the top currency in the world. the best way to do that to raise the debt ceiling. with that said we have to come up with a deficit reduction plan. part of the moody s warping is not just raise the debt ceiling but also we have to show a deficit reduction program in place, because the world is losing confidence in the u.s. we should lead the world. jamie: people are losing confidence, too they re not spending. doug, let me ask you this, the point is if we raise the debt ceiling how do we pay it back anyway? that is what a deficit reduction plan is about. there has to be spending cuts there has to be revenue increases. as i suggested before, the bowles-simpson plan would cut $4 trillion over ten years and do it quicker than paul ryan s plan. a plan with 11 out of 18 votes on the commission.
too much is to raise taxes on small businesses. we have to incentivize the private secretarier to grow, or we are going to see china pass us. but there s no reason we can t do that while we close this deficit and build a better future. well, you have started this group called no american debt. there are a whole lot of plans out there. there s a republican plan. there s a democratic plan. there s different versions of those plans. what do you think needs to be done, and how do you put pressure on congress to do it? you know, chris, there is no democratic plan out there. there are a couple of very sound plans. the president s own commission, the bowles-simpson commission, came up with $4 trillion in cuts. and instead of embracing it in all or part, the president just walked away from it. congressman ryan came up with a more than $6 trillion deficit reduction program. and instead of sitting down to negotiated, the president demonized it. so this is generational theft. it s really a cr
monumentally important concept changer, so that when we decide to go to libya, there s hardly a whimper that the united states is now going to get engaged in another war from on high to be sure, but i think that s the thing that s really concerning. people saying what s happened to the fundamentals of our country? paul, just on your point if i may. i totally agree with you, it is imperative we get on the right track fiscally. and if we do, we have great strengths. i think we can succeed. this is a question of political will. i don t think we can get there overnight. in 1993 when we put together a deficit reduction program which was really effective, and i think was central to what was the best the longest lasting economic expansion in the nation s history, we allowed many, many years to get from where we were to where we re aiming. you ve got the trend line right. and i think that s what we ve got to do here but the politics are going to be very, very difficult and act on all f
may. i totally agree with you, it is imperative we get on the right track fiscally. and if we do, we have great strengths. i think we can succeed. this is a question of political will. i don t think we can get there overnight. in 1993 when we put together a deficit reduction program which was really effective, and i think was central to what was the best the longest lasting economic expansion in the nation s history, we allowed many, many years to get from where we were to where we re aiming. you ve got the trend line right. and i think that s what we ve got to do here but the politics are going to be very, very difficult and act on all fronts, including increasing revenues. what we ve got to do is get the deficit to the point where it s low enough so that our debt, our debt as a percentage of our economy, begins to decline. then i think we need to take the next step, which is to do exactly what paul said, which is to focus on our health care