Page 5 - Entitlement Side News Today

I say this without any criticism, it was an eat your spinach speech, saying weve got to do some tough things on the entitlement side, spending side, tax cuts, tax side. you were one of the few republican leaders saying all of the above. do you think -- i mean, cuff an influence on mitt romney being more realistic about taxes and what kind of taxes that he, himself, might have to give um? >> maybe. again, i think we have, generally, the same view about these things. maybe a slightly different way...

if they fail -- and thats expected -- what happens? >> reporter: it seems that despite the very -- we call it the super committee and they had super powers. this committee written in law had the power to bypass many of the procedural hurdles that slow down and hold up legislation up here on capitol hill. despite having the power these 12 committee members were not able to bridge the gap on a philosophical difference on what they believe. a big issue thats held up negotiations to this p...

were talking about on wealthy americans. some of the taxes we have talked about before, limiting those itemized deductions that the wealthy take. closing loopholes on hedge fund managers, oil and gas companies, corporate jet owners and also letting the bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest americans expire when they are set to. also a little more than $1 trillion in war savings. of course, we do know that the wars in afghanistan and iraq are already going to be winding down. and thats s...

increases are a job killer, particularly when you have over 9% unemployment. >> norm orn steen, that is disingenuous to say the least, that he realized they were a job killer, why he extended the bush era tax cuts. theres one reason only the president extended those bush era tax cuts and thats because he needed a deal to extend unemployment. this is the kind of misinformation campaign that is continuing on capitol hill. i sent out a tweet a couple of hours ago, i said, could anybody, a...

Very -- you know, theyre not ready to take heat on taxes, but the democrats arent ready to take heat on any kind of broad-based taxes or on spending cuts for real. >> actually, thats not true, mike. you know that. a broad-based tax is exactly what the president and democrats proposed. we said lets go back to the same things in place for the clinton administration from the very top -- >> thats not -- [ everyone talking at once ] >> no, no. everybody making over $100,000 -- [ everyone talking at o...

Want their voodoo to be done to them. you can argue, i think correctly, that republicans are very -- you know, theyre not ready to take heat on taxes, but the democrats arent ready to take heat on any kind of broad-based taxes or on spending cuts for real. >> actually, thats not true, mike. you know that. a broad-based tax is exactly what the president and democrats proposed. we said lets go back to the same things in place for the clinton administration from the very top -- >> thats not -- [ ev...

[ everyone talking at once ] >> thats over $700 billion. thats a big chunk of the money. now look, the bipartisan groups have said you need balance. if you want to come to the table, we have a forum. the vice presidents leading some talks. the republicans have said that theyre not going to deal with revenue as part of that. democrats have said were prepared to deal with the cuts, were prepared to make cuts. >> on the entitlement side. >> its a two-way street and -- >> let me ask, congressman -- ...

Same period or four times what the president is proposing. and it did it by very aggressive action. not only on the discretionary side, where they suggested more significant savings than what the president has proposed, but also on the entitlement side which is where most of the spending occurs. 60% of federal spending is entitlement spending, only 50% is nondiscretionary. if youre going to fix the deficit problems, youve got to go where the money is, and thats in the entitlement accounts. >> wh...

Come forward, why not you guys come to the table with a plan on entitlements now as well. if you say the president is not leading, then lead. >> republicans are leading. kelly did a report talking about this years spending this is not whats going to happen in 10 years. lets have reductions right now. >> this is not entitlements? lets be real about this. a huge part of the budget -- >> its leadership. on the entitlement programs, i believe that. the fiscal commission that the president used as a ...

Calendar. we hear the politicians pushing their talking points each day on this matter. what you are hearing inside washington, d.c., theres the sense of how close the president and the speaker are to reaching this agreement. as eleanor points out, they are wanting both sides to feel the others pain. >> thomas, its funny you mention december 21st. that would be an ideal scenario. its not that surprising if we are here talking about this on december 31st. they have to get through so much stuff. e...