Page 3 - Entitlement Changes News Today

Three or four days, medicare reform, entitlement changes, big battle looming. >> that suggests that the democrats are steering the ship. thank you. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel standing by on capitol hill with the latest from that end of pennsylvania avenue. mike? >> good evening. coming out o a big white house meeting everybody agrees that the next step should be the senate taking the bipartisan action. so the pressure shifts to senate majority leader harry reid. and what he m...

Spending cuts to tax increases. youre looking at best a 2-1, pure politics. so theyve lost that part of the argument. you flip it over and i think these numbers that were seeing this morning that weve all commented on -- and i happen to agree with steve and davids analysis that at the end of the day, well just extend the cuts for middle-class earners and raise it on the top earners. but the countrys going to blame all of these guys for this. and im still hopeful over this next several days we al...

Heard about was how obama wanted to cut medicare. so which is it? i it he cut too much or he doesnt cut anything? and where is there offer? if they say they are the party of cutting spending stop talking about the democrats, make an offer. >> mitch mcconnell is out there every single day saying these are the entitlement changes that i think make sense and would get us to a deal. raising the retirement age, dealing with change the inflation formula so the programs arent spending so much out over ...

Entitlement reform, theyre the ones who will have to propose it. how much of this is about getting the gop to do some of the dirty work on a sticky issue for democrats? >> i think that is a very big part of it. look, nobody -- we just went through a campaign in which medicare, the ryan budget, and changes to medicare and cuts out of medicare were such a huge issue, both sides claiming that they wanted to protect seniors. but, look, i think the democrats believe that they have an opportunity, the...

Take some time, boehner has to get republicans more comfortable with raising taxes including raising rates. i dont think theres a scenario where the rates dont go up on people making over $250,000. and democrats have to get more comfortable with entitlement changes. but at the end of the day, obama can deliver democrats. and i think boehners stronger today than he was three months ago, and he could deliver more republicans than he could of them. >> on that question of taxing the wealthy, you all...

Cliff, you need to address the drivers of our debt. >> we know that the only way we can solve our long-term debt and deficit problem is to fix the unsustainable growth rates of our very popular entitlement programs. the president has from time to time indicated an openness to that. now is the time to actually do it. >> 42 business groups sent a letter to leaders of congress asking them to do tax reform to lower tax rates and also address entitlement reforms. >> shepard: democrats say they want m...

He get to 60 votes. if he has a balanced package he is. hes going to get republicans and democrats. the harrer part is in the house. can he convince john boehner to say ill take the majority of the house -- >> and behind the crazy people. >> once bitten, twice shy. a remembrance on the part of the left what happened during the last grand bargain and the president put it on the table and it fell apart. >> the president had managed, going through nancy pelosi and reid, to keep the democrats more o...

Debt? >> its a complicated one to answer. i think there are some folks -- i think the president himself believes hes going to have to cut a deal. despite what democrats say, they know theyre going to put entitlement changes on the table. were going to raise the retirement age of medicare, might fold parts of medicare into one, so you can get efficiencies. that will be on the table. theres going to be cuts. and i dont think its a mystery about how big the tax increase is going to be. john boehner...

We have a clear program that we are going to be serious about deficit reduction, and we have to do it in a balanced way. the only question is are we going to pull the middle-class hostage in order to go ahead and let that happen? or can we all step back and say, here is something we agree on. we dont want the middle-class taxes to go up. lets go ahead and lock them in. that will be good for the economy. it will be good for consumers. it will be good for businesses. it takes the edge off the fisc...

bowles. they did figure it out. the recommendations, however, were never implemented. can they be revived? later in the show, the presidential race. how much will same-sex marriage, private equity, and contraception have to do who is elected in november, or is it all about the economy? ive got a great panel. the "wall street journals" peggy noonan, ross of the "new york times", and more. also, moving a capital to increase your political capital. should russia build a new kremlin 4,...