what the possibility is of moving this health care through with 51 votes. karl? in a lot of ways democrats are right where they were when they began this process almost a year ago. they don t have the votes and they don t know how to get there. they are looking at the possibility of bringing reconciliation out of moth balls. this does away with the 60 vote threshold in order to shut down a debate and put it down to 51. they recognize if they go that way, there will be huge partisan fallout. republicans are going to be angry. centrist democrats are going to be angry. guys like the budget committee chairman kent conrad on the record this would be a bad idea not very long ago. so they are still desperate for votes. still desperate for a way to get out of the wilderness. they have got to keep talking about these things though they don t see the exit strategy. bret: rick, they are talking about it. a few of them are saying let s keep pressing. let s do it. they would love to get rid o
what the possibility is of moving this health care through with 51 votes. karl? in a lot of ways democrats are right where they were when they began this process almost a year ago. they don t have the votes and they don t know how to get there. they are looking at the possibility of bringing reconciliation out of moth balls. this does away with the 60 vote threshold in order to shut down a debate and put it down to 51. they recognize if they go that way, there will be huge partisan fallout. republicans are going to be angry. centrist democrats are going to be angry. guys like the budget committee chairman kent conrad on the record this would be a bad idea not very long ago. so they are still desperate for votes. still desperate for a way to get out of the wilderness. they have got to keep talking about these things though they don t see the exit strategy. bret: rick, they are talking about it. a few of them are saying let s keep pressing. let s do it. they would love to get rid o
the result of a massive just so we don t lose our friendly viewers, loose monetary policy. printing money, low interest rate, the easy so, stephen, what are they doing now? they re holding interest rates way too low. i m really worried about a kind of stagflationary cycle but do you know how to pull the stimulus out? this is a big issue. how do you pull the stimulus out without causing a disaster? that is a huge issue? that would mean interest rates going up, right? the stimulus hasn t created any jobs. it s been no, no. stephen, let s put stimulus on hold for a second, we ve all admitted it s a relatively small no, no. talk about interest rates. that s exactly the point. and steve made the point that he thinks we have to raise interest rates. that is a consensus that when people talk about exit strategy from the general pumping of into the economy, it s not so much
without causing a disaster? a huge issue. mean interest rates going up? houses no. put stimulus on hold a second. we ve admitted it s a relatively small number. no. but that s exactly the point. and stephen made the point he thinks we have to raise interest rates. that is a consensus that when people talk about exit strategy from the general pumping of money into the economy, it s not so much the $30 billion to small business. it s the incredibly cheap credit, which banks have access and said that nicely. that is the big challenge. i don t think anyone has the magic answer to that. all right. we ll have you all come back to get the magic answer. boy, on a super bowl weekend, expecting this big snowstorm, what a fascinating conversation to have about where we re going in the economy. monetary policy, it s great on the weekend. go colts. you guys are the only ones to make it as much fun as it is. i absolutely agree.
right wings of the party with no obvious exit strategy. politico s andy bard joins us now. what happened at that key meeting between al franken and david axelrod? reporter: the president had this question/answer session with democrats, talking with senator democrats, al franken stood up and very kind of loudly voiced disappointment in the administration, that they had not clearly mapped out their strategy on health care, his criticism directed directly at axelrod, saying that the white house hadn t mapped things out and left senators hanging in the wind on this issue. in fact, when gibbs was asked about that today, he said that there is no specific white house approach yet on health care, right? so, is it going to come from the liberal side or conservative side? how are they going to satisfy everybody and when are they going to move forward? that s the question.