Page 174 - Ed Schultz News Today

0 >> a merry, merry, merry, merry christmas to you. you guys have had a hell of a year. >> thanks, rachel. you have a merry christmas. >> thank you. and thanks to you at home for joining us tonight. ahead of this holiday weekend, on a day when the world of news didnt slow down for the holiday weekend, it rather decided to spin on its axis at about three times its normal rate. god grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to...

0 ahead of this holiday weekend, on a day when the world of news didnt slow down for the holiday weekend, it rather decided to spin on its axis at about three times its normal rate. god grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference. that of course is the serenity prayer, or one well-known version of it, at least, and that prayer is what republican house speaker john boehner reportedly recited to the repub...

0 like. and some parts they skipped because they were reading it out of a loose leaf binder and the pages stuck together. right then we should have known that was a bad sign. john boehner did not even succeed in getting all of his members sworn in when he took over as speaker. two new republican members of congress went to a reception and missed the swearing in. they apparently saw it happening on a tv screen that was playing at the reception, and they sort of tried to swear themselves in by rai...

Where are we at this hour? >> ed, what i think today shows very, very clearly, that in fact president obama has been willing to compromise, willing to make a balanced deal possible from his perspective. and i think john boehner wanted to get there. but what john boehner has shown tonight is that his caucus does not want to make a balanced agreement, to make sure that working americans dont get a tax increase, to make sure that we deal with the doctors reimbursement for medicare, make sure the se...

Whats good for america. >> and congressman cummings, is it an intriguing question to know just how hard eric cantor may have worked for votes tonight? >> oh, yeah. it is. im not sure how hard he worked. but the fact is the tea party, ed. the sad story that comes out of this is the tea party can go back and say they controlled the process. and ive got to tell you, ed, it is very, very painful when i think about all the people who will suffer as a result of the republican party being in disarray a...

And i should say, ed, his proposal would still give people earning over a million dollars a year a $50,000 tax break compared to the senate democratic tax bill. in other words, they get a $50,000 break at least compared to what happened if they went over the cliff or if we got the senate bill. and at the same time they were actually proposing to increase taxes on 25 million american families by taking away some of the tax deductions for middle-income americans to send their kids to college and t...

Now. >> thats about it. youre about right. i agree with you. >> can he go back and get you enough republican votes, mix them in with support of the president over on the democratic side, and come away with something thats going to save a lot of hurt for a lot of people in this country and i think the tea party tonight showed that they do not want this president to succeed in any way, shape, or form. they want the economy to go down. and if we go off the cliff there might be a pretty good chance ...

That can in fact be adopted by the house of representatives, passed by the united states senate, and signed by the president of the united states. that will require what we havent seen in this republican majority, the willingness to compromise and be reasonable and make sure the math works. >> but congressman, how much farther can the democrats go? arent the democrats bound by the success of the obama team in the election and the number of seats that were picked up by the house and the number of...

Weve got to get this done. we cannot let america hang out because of the chaos in the republican caucus. its just really a tragedy if we dont get this together. were more than willing to compromise. the presidents gone way, way down the road toward compromise. obviously, the republicans are unable to even get their act together let alone reach a compromise. >> how are you going to reach a compromise with these people? with their position. on what was on the table. congressman cummings -- >> its ...

>> its running without republicans. but the problem is that we need republicans to help us avoid going over the fiscal cliff, which would be a huge increase on middle-income americans, which would definitely hurt the economy. >> have you ever seen anything like this? >> so what theyre doing, theyre holding the entire country hostage as we speak. weve got 11 days to go before we go over the cliff. and as one of your earlier guests said, theyre just putting their foot on the accelerator. the cut b...