Page 2 - Representative Boehner News Today

Sign that youre going to be serious about making the cuts in spending that includes entitlement reform, that includes most importantly, tax reform. you know, "the washington post" this morning, lead story, mortgage interest deductions on the table. no, its not. youre not going to have a serious discussion about taking off the mortgage interest rate deduction for anyone. i dont care how much money they make. without putting that as part of a larger tax reform measure. and thats not what theyre ta...

>> thats why i think were going over the cliff. i dont think the republican votes are there. >> i agree. >> boehner is in the trickiest position in washington in the moment. >> absolutely. >> he is the man with the toughest job in washington because in the end pelosis going to get the democrats. theyll do it for her. >> so michael steele, let me put you in the hot seat now. we talked about howard for a second ago. lets talk about tax increases. and lets talk about where the republican party goes...

>> so michael steele, i think thats inevitable over time even for medicare. >> yep. >> in an age where were growing -- you know, living much, much longer. but howard dean obviously has problems with that. you and i would guess have real problems with raising tax rates to 39%. i think thats stupid. that said, how does barack obama get the nancy pelosis of his party? how does john boehner get the joe scarboroughs of his party to move from these positions that they have held for 20 years? to make a...

Republicans. john boehner said again yesterday, were open to raising revenue, but we just wont go with a higher tax rate even on the wealthiest americans. that means closing loopholes, but that doesnt get us there. where do you see republicans, and then on the other side, the white house willing, at least, to move a little bit? >> well, i dont see them necessarily being willing right now. i think to the professors point, theyre sort of jockeying to see exactly where they can find that kind of gi...

And that all depends, you know, what they describe, thats a reality that gets somehow got 150 house democrats and convinced john boehner to go to the floor with only 80 house republicans. >> chuck, whats the number youre talking about in the "politico" report that you say is a little low? >> reporter: the overall cuts, the medicare number of $400 billion. it would be a surprise because $400 billion is already what dick durbins talking about. thats the number thats out there. that number felt a l...

>> thank you very much. >> i want you to put on your leadership cap because when youre up in vermont, you worked with republicans and democrats alike. you were always a deficit hawk up there. how do you convince me and the republican caucus to raise taxes which i find offensive, but i will do it because we need to all come together and make this deal. how do you convince me to raise taxes today for spending cuts that you claim are going to be coming 20 years from now? if youre john boehner, what...

To that. look, the white house is well aware that they cant -- you know, the one reason why theres not meetings here? thats bad for boehner. boehner cant be seen here on, quote, enemy territory cutting the deal. right? it has -- i mean, look. the semantics matter. you hate to admit that it does, but it does. and the settings matter. thats why youre not seeing a lot of meetings here. >> it does and there are a lot of republicans -- remember newt gingrich going over to the white house through the ...

End of the year. i will let them all go away if thats what it takes to get the rate on top earners to go up. boehner knows that. he has a huge incentive to get something out of this deal. and the president has a huge incentive to get a deal because the last thing he wants is an economic funk to start his second term. that would be a bummer for him and a bummer for his policies. >> and if i was advising republicans, i would say you want to get re-elected? you want to be here on your party? look a...

To be quite honest. ill tell you what the nub of the problem is, and it goes to what we talked about a little bit earlier. you have the president saying, i want tax rates to go up now on the promise that a future congress is going to cut the spending that you want done 20 years from now. and thats just a bargain thats hard for a lot of fiscal conservatives to swallow because that has been, as you know, joe, going back to certainly your time in congress, the deal thats always been bargained thats...

Pessimistic. theres no doubt that washington has a recent track record of usually botching opportunities to get things done. but if you take aside all the rhetoric, all the huffing and puffing, the people that have been involved in the negotiations over the last six months on this say that you can actually now see what the contours of a deal look like. its certainly going to take a lot of hand wringing to get there, but it includes a tax hike somewhere north of $1 trillion which is basically the...