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Dont put it in with everything else, and you know, all the wise people in washington and the pundits saying, well, weve got to fix these entitlements, because they always mean social security and medicare. >> fascinating stuff. if the debate happens in those terms, i dont know that were going to end up in a different place, but it would be a much more sensible debate. >> we will end up in a different place, because the public overwhelmingly says -- if you poll, should we fix entitlements or shou...

Generational warfare. but how are we going to do this? lets have the debate about social security itself. dont put it in with everything else, and you know, all the wise people in washington and the pundits saying, well, weve got to fix these entitlements, because they always mean social security and medicare. >> fascinating stuff. if the debate happens in those terms, i dont know that were going to end up in a different place, but it would be a much more sensible debate. >> we will end up in a ...

But how are we going to do this? lets have the debate about social security itself. dont put it in with everything else, and you know, all the wise people in washington and the pundits saying, well, weve got to fix these entitlements, because they always mean social security and medicare. >> fascinating stuff. if the debate happens in those terms, i dont know that were going to end up in a different place, but it would be a much more sensible debate. >> we will end up in a different place, becau...

Wanted to shift medicare in to something that looks more like a voucher program. the starkly disagreeing with him on that point and i assume one thing to discuss and certainly tell you that medicare was a topic of conversation last night when president obama met with some of those republican lawmakers and in fact at least one lawmaker who attended that dinner said that he hadnt been completely aware of the presidents position in terms of reforming medicare and openness to put things on the table...

Paul ryan budget? >> thats right, they have not tried to translate any of the changes, the very controversial changes that paul ryan put forward to shift medicare from what it has been, fee for services benefit structure to a premium support or voucher like program, moving medicaid from a partnership from the state and local states from a block branch. he said the senate didnt passed theirs and we never had reconciliation and 50 vote simple majority protection in the senate, why go forward? that...

As i mentioned with ezra klein earlier in the show, until last night there was a gang of six working on ideas to reduce the deficit in washington. now it is a gang not of six, but a gang of five because senator tom coburn of oklahoma quit. as "the washington post" put it, the group had appeared to be tantalizingly close to an agreement but then senator coburn started bringing up new issues at every meeting or demanding old ones be reconsidered. coburn began pressing for sharper cuts to social se...

Back for the sake of the deficit? >> to my knowledge, there is not one elected republican in the house or the senate who is saying that we should not extend the bush tax cuts, all of them, permanently or even that we should just not extend the bush tax cuts for upper income earners. its worth going back through the numbers. if you look at every peace of policy weve enacted since 2001, since when we were looking at surpluses, when george w. bush was elected, the single piece of policy that has do...

>> to my knowledge, there is not one elected republican in the house or the senate who is saying that we should not extend the bush tax cuts, all of them, permanently or even that we should just not extend the bush tax cuts for upper income earners. its worth going back through the numbers. if you look at every peace of policy weve enacted since 2001, since when we were looking at surpluses, when george w. bush was elected, the single piece of policy that has done the most to turn us from surplu...

But that step, according to them is not even on the table. so im not saying republicans have to lead with tax cuts. thats not the argument. thats not what there a want or what they think is best and thats fair enough. but if you believe the deficit to be an overriding priority you have to be willing to put the single policy that did the most to bring us down to deficits, repealing it on to the table or letting it expire on to the table. and if not, and you are joking around with selling off ft. ...

As i mentioned with ezra klein earlier in the show, until last night there was a gang of six working on ideas to reduce the deficit in washington. now it is a gang not of six, but a gang of five because senator tom coburn of oklahoma quit. as "the washington post" put it, the group had appeared to be tantalizingly close to an agreement but then senator coburn started bringing up new issues at every meeting or demanding old ones be reconsidered. coburn began pressing for sharper cuts to social se...