Note how devastating americas debt problem is. Our National Debt in liabilities threatened to crush our feature. Our economy struggles under the weight of government and fails to create the essential growth and employment that we need. Now, during mondays debate, he noted the immediate danger of debt, too. Admiral mullen said that our debt is the Biggest NationalSecurity Threat we face. But what would president mitt romney do to slash the debt . Well, given everything we know now, his plan doesnt add up. We know three big things about romneys plan. One. He wants to cut tax rates and pay for it by closing loopholes. Two. He wants to increase defense spending by about 2 trillion over ten years. And three, he says hell balance the budget at the end of his second term. Lets start with the tax cuts. I want to bring down rates. Want to bring the rates down, at the same time, lower deductions and credits so we keep getting the revenue we need. Romneys across the board tax cut of 20 is 5 trillion worth. Now, romney plans to close loophole to pay for it. We just dont know which wups, so we had to take some liberties on the map here. The joint committee on taxation did one test study and i have it right here. Keep in mind, this was done based on current law, which assumes the bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year. They concluded that revenue neutral tax reform would permit a 4 decrease in all ordinary income tax rates. Now, thats not close to 20 . Now, lets get to the second thing. Adding more than 2 trillion to defense spending. According to analysis conducted money, romney will add 2. 1 trillion in defense spending over a decade. Now, as the Washington Post recently noted, they think romneys plan is better for the Nations Defense needs, but he still hasnt said how hell pay for it. Lets give everyone here the map. We have 5 trillion in tax cuts, plus 2 trillion. Now, if romney can make that 5 trillion tax cut revenue neutral, hes still spending at least 2 trillion. Again, our debt, which is growing every minute, is about 16 trillion right now. So, romney has to find some massive cuts to pay for his promises before he can tackle our nations greatest Security Threat. Now, to be fair, he has some ideas for cuts. On his campaign website, he lists repeal obama care savings. 95 billion. Reduce subsidies for the National Endowments for the arts and humanities, thats big bird and the Legal Services corporations, savings, 600 billion. And empower states to innovate savings. About 100 billion. Now, the list goes on, but it doesnt add up because again, romney doesnt even say he will balance the budget the bottom line is this. The two men running for the president of the United States dont seem to have plan to deal with the National Security threat. We did the math yesterday showing a former republican senator from missouri and senator, really appreciate you taking the the time. We dont have the full details, we did for president obama. But given that the deficit is the top issue for so many in this country, how are they supposed to feel about the fact this candidate says hees not going to balance the budget until the end of the second term. Our tax reform plan has been validated by harvey rosen out of princeton. Even the president s current head of the Council Economic adviser said in 1986 a lot of additional jobs, so if you you add up the growth, we think 7 million worth of jobs, plus what we can save by reforming the tax code, its fully possible. Now, you mentioned defense spending. Were going to ramp it up, but do it at the same time the spending on overseas operations is going down. He wants to capture what he spent on afghanistan to help the military rest and reconstitute after ten years of welfare. It seems unfair when you all do it, too, those wars are already slated to end and they were paid for with borrowed money. When that isnt being spent, its not saved for you too to do Something Else with. Spending on defense, okay, the top line, if youre including those top line overseas expend were going to be spending less and ramp up to that as we get economic growth. But youre spending more things on ships and all of that, right . Youre just not spending on the wars. Sure, exactly. After ten years of fighting, the military has to be what they call reset. Theyve used up a lot of this equipment. What about though, you would take health care that you say youre going to repeal obama care. By july this year, the house had voted 32 times to repeal obama care, but the senate was democratic. Its most lickly to be democratic no matter who the president is next time around. Some of these savings may not happen. Well, we have to get some bipartisan cooperation and i think should the democrats control the senate or if they dont, what governor romney will do is what he did in massachusetts. Say whats your plan, which is reasonable, and say put your plan on the table. Pass a budget for the first time in three years and then well sit down and you know, well negotiate. I wanted to ask you about something today in the Washington Post. The nations top bond investor. He said America Needs to cut 1. 6 trillion a year. Four times the socalled grand bargain. I spoke to him about it today. I said bill, is ha really what you meant . He said romneys plan is a plan to reduce the deficit from some undisclosed plan of tax reform. I believe under both candidates, we will see trillion dollar deficits. Either by the sale of treasuries from reserve country nations and or a decline in the dollar, which could lead to further Rating Service downgrades as well as higher interest rates. That is a pretty frightening and damming indictment of both plans. I remember in the 1990s and now the deficit was not as big then. Thats true. But it was big and i remember people saying, asking me, i was in the house at the time. Well, can you balance the budget without or while youre cutting taxes . Our tax rates. I said i dont think we can balance the budget without cutting tax rates because thats how you get the economy moving. Youve got to have growth. I think its doable. We are going to need cooperation, but im hopeful that after the election, maybe theyll sit down and we can talk. Mitt romneys saying hes going to balance the budget by the end of the second term. That means running deficits for the next eight years. Only thing ive seen on his website is 500 billion in cuts in the year 2016. Thats not dealing with the debt for another four years. If we can move faster and further, we certainly will, but governor romney wanted to propose something he thought we could do. Hes going to close loopholes to do it. You and i are both familiar are w the studies that say thats not possible or tough to do. Lets just say in order to get there, he cant cut by to 20 . He has to cut by 10. Maybe 4. Would he adjust that promise . Well, hes certainly willing to talk. When you do tax reform, what you do is you establish the basic parameters, which hes done in this proposal. You get everybody together and you knock heads. If its not what everybody wants, is he going to say absolutely no . Hes not going to raise taxes, but if he cant get exactly the tax cut hemts, is he going to say no. There are some things hes going to insist on, but be open to talking as well. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us tonight. Thank you. Next, a brand new poll from the state that could decide this election. Is president obama losing his lead in oh or not . Plus, the politics of demographics and race. And were tracking a super storm that could wallop the northeast. The forecast for this thing really is frankenstorm. It could influence voting in a few key states. Chad myers with the latest. The wheels of progress havent been very active lately. But because of Business People like you, things are beginning to get rolling. And regions is here to help. Making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. From Business Loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. So switch to regions. And lets get going. Together. One is for a clean, wedomestic Energy Future that puts us in control. Our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. Though all Energy Development comes with some risk, were committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. Its not a dream. Americas natural gas. Putting us in control of our Energy Future, now. Obamas ohio fire wall. Cnn is out with a new poll in the state tonight with the the president leading mitt romney 5046 and thats unchange frd the last cnn poll in ohio taken just avenue the first debate. John king has been looking at the latest numbers. What else does it tell you . Its important to look at this poll. Thest a small lead. Thats yet another poll the president s kept that narrow lead in ohio. You mentioned the horse race. Heres one of the biggest factors. In a battleground state like this, the president s getting the democrats, romneys getting a republicans, the candidate who wins among independents is likely to win. That is critical the watch in the last week to election day. Theres also an age divide. Its important as well. You see a huge leap for the president. 5638, among voters under 50. Thats an important part of his constituency. Republicans need the older voters by 2i46. Governor romney would like that to be bigger. Theres also a racial and gender gap, if you will. I want to put it this way. The president is, if he is above 40 in the white vote, he tends to win a state because of the demographics like ohio. You see them here, 41 of white men, 46 of white women. If the president can hold those numbers, its most likely he would hang on to ohio. From all the math ive seen out there, its incredibly difficult for mitt romney to get to the white house without ohio. What is his game plan if he doesnt win the Buckeye State . You know the history. No republican has ever won the the white house without winning the state of ohio. If we start here, the president at 237, if the president were to take ohio, well turn that blue, that puts him on the doorstep. The president could get over the top by winning wisconsin. Lets focus on governor romney. Could he make history . He would have to win florida. Virginia. He would have to win colorado. That would, just let me move that into the red column. Then it gets hard from there. They say that hes in strong play in nevada, Obama Campaign disputes that. If he could win those two out west, that would put him in position. Even if he won New Hampshire, thats only four. Somehow, even though he was losing the most republican of the midwestern states, ohio, he would have to also win one of wisconsin and or iowa. So its not impossible, but if he loses the big one, hes got to almost run the board with the rest of it. Wow. Wisconsin and iowa. How are those just poll wise leaning . Is that reasonable for romney or no . Wisconsin again has had a steady, democratic lead. Its within reach. Its not out of play yet, but lets sign that one over to the president. Iowa, its interesting. You could have a small state, only six electoral votes. Most polling shows the president with a slight lead. If it stays this close, the little ones like iowa and New Hampshire could decide things on election night. Thanks so much to john king. Thank you. If obama does win ohio and the election, he may owe it to a move he made at the very beginning of his presidency. The auto bailout. One in eight jobs in ohio can belinged to the auto industry, so voters may be inclined to pay him back with a second term. Perfect pairing here tonight. Im thrilled to have you both. John, dead heat nationally for the race. The president has maintained his lead in ohio as john king just characterized. How much of that is due to the auto bailout . I think a lot. That piece that he wrote let detroit go bankrupt back in 2008. I think its dogged him all along. He won ohio just narrowly over rick santorum. Won his home state in the primaries, so hes been weak out there particularly in auto country from the beginning and i think its showing up now the general election as well. Lets get straight to that. It was titled let detroit go bankrupt. They argue about it in the debate. Let me play the back and forth first. Here it is. They need to go through bankruptcy to get rid of excess cost and the debt burden theyve built up. You can take a look gl governor romney you can take a look at the oped. I said that we would provide guarantees and that was what was able to allow these companies to go through bankruptcy, to come out of bankruptcy. Under no circumstances would i do anything other than help this industry get on its feet and the idea that has been suggested that i would liquidate the industry. Of course not. Thats the height of silliness. Governor all right, obviously, contentious moment. Mitt romney did not write that headline, but the next day, 4yearold oped was the most read article on the New York Times website. A lot of people did check the record. I think they came to realize that mitt romney was 100 accurate in describing his position. He called for a managed bankruptcy, then said government had a role to step in and make the difference after they cut through it. He did not say to ban abandon the automobile industry. He was looking if r a managed process and thats kind of what happened. Actually, they had a negotiation to change. They went from, there was an old gm and a new gm, so they went through kind of a managed bankruptcy after all the bailout work was done. Then ford did it all on their own. Wait, this is not true. That is not true. Ford had the timing on their side. They went and renegotiated their debt before the 2008 crisis hit. They happened to have an advantage of going to wall street to renegotiate their Borrowing Authority and it was the calendar. The ceo of ford said about mitt romneys prescription. He said if gm and chrysler had gone into a free fall bankruptcy, they would have taken the entire supply chain and auto agency with it. He said that in 2010. So thats really what speculation is not accurate. It is because there was no way that private capital were going to keep those Companies Alive into a chapter 11 reorganization. They would have gone into liquidation. We would have lost not only those two companies, but the supply chain. What he said, these are his words, the American Auto industry is vital to our National Interest as employer and hub for manufacturing, a managed bankruptcy may be the only path the industry needs. Ultimately, isnt that what happened . A managed bankruptcy by the u. S. Government. A lot of help by the u. S. Government and they would have never gotten there. The group working on this, went to his old company and said would you put some money in this in front of the bankruptcy. They said no. I think the u. S. Had to step in at that paint and the taxpayers are going to get all or most of their money back as a result. I dont know about gm. We still own a piece of gm. Very optimistic. All right. But i know thats a separate issue. Andy, what do you think about johns point . Mitt romney had had his way, it still would have failed for the industry and thats perhaps what voters are reacting to. The good news is that issue is as relevant today as because the economy isnt just under water because of what happened in the automobile industry. Its because of what hasnt happened in leadership from the white house. I think it could have been a lot worse if we didnt have a process that allowed for a managed change in the auto industry, but we have not turned this economy around and president romney will change it because he knows what to do and president obama didnt have the chance to do it. I want to stay on this issue of the auto bailout. The headline mitt romney proposed for that oped that you see below us, its been below us now for several minutes. He had suggested the way forward for the auto industry. Should he have tried to correct president obama and say i didnt ask . Would that have helped him if he was more aggressive in saying i never said that and heres the proof . I thought mitt romney did what he had to do in the debate. He looked president ial. Didnt sound petty. He wasnt interrupting in a rude way, so i thought he did well in the debate. He demonstrated that he had the the meddle to be president of the United States. And he also knows how to negotiate and to bring something to reality. President obama has not been a good negotiator. He has not been able to even get the democrats in congress on his side on a lot of these issues and a president romney knows how to work the political process so that government can actually work. I think governor granholm had it right when detroit was on its knees, mitt romney stabbed them in the back. I think people remember that and thats why hes underperforming in ohio and his own state of michigan, where his father was the governor. Thanks to both of you. I would love to talk to you about whether gm and how you laugh and enjoy the conversation. Our third story, demographics and the politics of race. In 2008, the president did very well with white voters and that support seems to have waned. Outfront tonight, john avalon, whos traveling the key battleground states. Its been a long week. Hes in winston salem, North Carolina. He won North Carolina four years ago by 14,000 votes. He wants to try to win again. Can it happen . Well, it can happen, but the trend has not been his friend in recent polls. President obama was the first democrat to win North Carolina since 1986 and it did make a big bet on it in this cycle and also betting big on demographic trends in the state. For example, the states grown 18 in urban areas. That would benefit democrats. And Young Professionals moving into the state, but the key question is whether their strategy might be more appropriate fo