strike a deal. we have to look at how we get growth with jobs. that s where the revenue comes from. you don t get it by cutting education, cutting back on investments in science and national institutes of health, food safety, you name it. so it isn t as much a spending problem as much as it is priorities. that s what a budget is, setting priorities. one law maker who does think we have a spending problem is republican senator and tea party favorite rand paul. he made a bold statement in an interview this morning. the president s now caterw caterwauling about the sequester. so many are saying the sequester is a pittance. $1 trillion, and we re going to increase spending $9 trillion. even with the sequester, spending goes up $9 trillion, we re not even close to scratching the surface. joining me now, political columnist for the washington
foreign policy about setting priorities. what is america s greatest strategic priority right now? nuclear weapons in iran. continuing free flow of oil in persian gulf. afghanistan doesn t have a lot to do with that. we should declare victory in afghanistan and start bringing boys home. alisyn: we should report some members of the taliban are threatening to behead u.s. soldiers in retaliation for that brutal attack. what do we do about that. why are we having this conversation with them? we have done good deeds there. why are they talking to us about beheading people? again admit we re not going to ever succeed in having an afghanistan that looks like switzerland. stop nation-building. start bringing troops home. what i find particularly offensive if this president decided we re getting out of afghanistan if he decided do it now. don t wait until after the election because you don t want to have a loss on your balance sheet after war that you said was a war of necessity. i don t want
hello everyone, it is 1:00 on the east coast. let s get straight to the news. your paycheck and benefits may be cut and your taxes may go up all because congress can t agree on another very important issue, that is payroll tax cuts. congress is in a political standoff right now. the senate passed a two-month extension a moment ago. house republicans rejected that in a procedural vote and are pushing a one year extension. keep in mind payroll tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits expire in less than two weeks. our members do not want to just punt and do a two-month short term fix where we have to come back and do this again. we re here, we re willing to work. it s just a radical tea party republicans who are holding up this tax cut for the american people and jeopardizing our economic growth. but what s the real problem? we ll talk to republican strategist ron christy to get answers. if you re heading west, check the forecast. people in a number of states are d
tom davis. i m candy crowley. and this is state of the union. the president said he wanted a deal by friday so lawmakers met with him at the white house day after day after day. they took a break friday, and the president pushed again. if washington operates as usual and can t get anything done, let s at least avert armageddon. joining me now, white house budget director jacob liu. thanks for being here this morning. good to be with you, candy. we are told by hill sources that since the last white house meeting on thursday and this morning there has been no progress. do you concur? i think quite a bit has been going on since the meeting at the white house on thursday night. there s been activity. has there been progress? there s been activity and progress i think on two fronts. first, there are substantial discussions going on in the senate between the two leaders to make sure that at a minimum congress has a way to take action and avoid default on the u.s. de
i m mitt romney. i believe in america. and i m running for president. romney made his big announcement on a sunny farm but his speech was heavy on the gloom and doom, a long series of attacks on president obama whom romney repeatedly accused of thinking like a european. we re joined now by long time new hampshire conservative activist lafontaine and romney media adviser russ reefer. i m going to start with you. you are one of his top campaign strategists. i was interested in the tone of his message. let s listen and we can talk about it. when barack obama came to office we wished him well and hoped for the best. now in the third year of his four-year term we have more than slogans and promises to judge him by. barack obama has failed america. he went on to rip the president s foreign and domestic policies, fairly negative. can you explain why your candidate is launching his campaign with an attack on the president rather than focusing on a positive vision of what he wou