that the treasury secretary went to the hill with the white house with the president's proposal and that republicans actually laughed because they didn't say it was believable, it sounds like we are nowhere. >> i think the real impasse. the clock is ticking. this is december. and we know what happens on december 31. but i believe the president is going to have to meet us at least halfway. if we could do this, we could do a lot of things. i think that speaker boehner, senator mcconnell want to do something. if the president is determined to have more taxes. more spending. and cuts later, that is not going to work with the republicans. if so, i hope we won't blink at the end of the day. >> shannon: i want to play a sound bite from a colleague, senator lindsey graham from south carolina. here is where he said about where we stand right now. >> i think we are going over the cliff. it's clear to me they made a political calculation. this offer doesn't remotely deal with entitlement reform in a way to save medicare and