elected, joe, with 52% of the vote, you ve got to go with me. i said that s great, mr. president, i got 80%. he probably did do that because he tried to make social security reform the centerpiece. right, and it didn t work. republicans didn t support it. it didn t work. david? joe, isn t one of the big questions here what boehner ultimately does is a legislative strategy, not just trying to deal with folks who won in their districts and who are opposed to taxes, but does he put a bill on the floor that he knows he has to rely on heavily on democrats to pass? is he willing to take that step, and what happens to me? by the way, david, i want to underline the fact, i can t say this enough, i think republicans need to make a deal. i think they have to agree to new revenue. i agree to that. i m only responding this way off of this first offer where a lot of people watching think, well, the president won, so he should get his way. here we go again. here we go again. but davi
and say, well, the president didn t get all he wanted in that ridiculous first offer. and we got something back out of the deal. but still move. at least there s room for that. and my view is that that s kind of what boehner will ultimately want to do. he ll want to make a deal because i don t think time is on the republicans side. in this negotiation. i think, actually, time s not on america s side. and i mean that. it s not just republicans who are going to have their 401(k)s shredded. it s not just americans who are going to see a double-dip recession. i mean republicans. it s going to be everybody. jim, i don t get it. jim garrity, i don t get it because i will say this. back in the 90s, i saw bill clinton always being very mindful that newt gingrich had to deal with right-wing nuts like me.
with the president and make a deal is worse for the process. now, look. mitch mcconnell, he has a very easy laugh. he s a guy who likes to laugh. so not surprising that he would laugh at the offer. but you ve got charles krauthammer writing today basically saying hey, let s go over the cliff. and the president will take responsibility. the biggest danger is now you ve got people on both sides saying hey, maybe going over the cliff isn t so bad. for the democrats because they think it gives them leverage and then having a different kind of tax vote than they d have to have now because everybody s taxes would go up, and then you could vote to lower them on some. and for the republicans, krauthammer as kind of a canary in the coal mine saying yeah, if we go over the cliff, republicans will get some blame, but the president will own it because the economy will get worse. that dynamic is so dangerous right now. and i think the president and boehner should talk today, and i bet they do. or
offer, this provocative offer? i am surprised because, again, it infringes upon the personal part of this, which is really important. and as we talked about earlier, pushes boehner away. i ll tell you what i ll predict. the emergence of one of our favorite characters in this drama is joe biden. i think joe biden i thought you were going to say donald trump, but go ahead. no, he s at costco. now that he s got his costco trip out of the way, he s got good relations with boehner and mcconnell. i think biden s going to have to bring these people back to the table and say look, that s just our opening offer, and get down to the deal. some people are talking now in washington about a smaller deal, not a grand bargain, but enough to get past the fiscal cliff for six months or maybe even a year to try to get the bigger package. so if halperin thinks biden s going to be the definer here, i m a little concerned because anyone who goes to costco does not care about spending money. i
and negotiations that have to take place. i m hopeful that the two of you are right. we could be somewhat optimistic two years ago the president said he would not extend the bush tax cuts. he got a deal and extended them all along with don t ask, don t tell, a new treaty between us and the russians, unemployment benefits, payroll tax cut. two, you have the business community which is very, very concerned. and that s where i begin to raise the alarm bells. this is not just a conversation amongst a bunch of washington insiders and washington pundits and press people. and three, you have pedestrians, americans, watching who are going to wonder aloud, is this place still governable, washington? can they govern this country? the offer made this morning, the challenge i have with it, this is no different than the offer that was made six months ago or a years ago from my friends in washington from the president. so as much as but understand, you had republicans also in washington who wanted