Emancipation proclamation. But followed by other historians on the controversy and debate. Part of four days of American History tv at 9 30 on cspan3. The president of the United States [applause] thank you. Happy new year to you. Hello, everybody. Thank you. Everybody have a seat. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the white house. I realize that the last thing you want to hear on new years eve is another speech from me. But i do need to talk about the progress being made in congress today. For the last few days, leaders of both parties are working toward an agreement that will prevent a middleclass tax hike from hitting 98 of all americans starting tomorrow. Preventing that tax hike has been my top priority. The last thing that folks like the folks appear on this stage can afford right now is to pay an extra 2,000 in taxes next year. Middleclass families cannot afford it, businesses cannot afford it, our economy cannot afford it. Today, it appears an agreement to prevent this new years tax hike is within sight. But it is not done. There are still issues left to resolve but we are hopeful that congress can get it done. It is not done. Part of the reason i wanted to speak to all of you today is to make sure that we emphasize to congress and members of both parties understand across america that this is a pressing concern on peoples minds. Now, the potential agreement that is being talked about would not only make sure the taxes dont go up on middle class families, it also would extend tax credits for families with children, it would extend our tuition tax credit that has helped millions of families pay for college, it would extend tax credits for Clean Energy Companies that are creating jobs, it would extend Unemployment Insurance to 2 million americans who are actively looking for jobs out there. I have to say that ever since i took office, throughout the campaign, and over the last couple of months, my preference would have been to solve all these problems in the context of a larger agreement, a bigger deal, a grand bargain or whatever you want to call it, that solves the deficit problems in a balanced and responsible way that does not just deal with taxes but also spending so that we can put all this behind us and focus on growing our economy. With this congress, that was obviously too much to hope for at this time. [laughter] maybe we can do it in stages. We will solve this problem instead in several steps. In 2011, we started reducing the deficit through 1 trillion in spending cuts which have taken place. The agreement being worked on right now would further reduce the deficit by asking the wealthiest 2 of americans to pay higher taxes for the first time in two decades so that would add additional hundreds of billions of dollars to deficit reduction. That is progress but we will need to do more. Keep in mind that just last month, republicans in congress of they would not agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest americans and the agreement being discussed would raise those rates permanently. [applause] keep in mind, we will still have more work to do. We still have deficits that have to be dealt with, we will still have to think about how we put our economy long term project for growth, how we continue to make investments in education and infrastructure that help our economy grow. Keep in mind that the threat of tax heights going up is only one part of this socalled fiscal cliff. What we also have facing us starting tomorrow or automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to go into effect. Keep in mind that some of these spending cuts that congress has said will automatically go into effect have an impact on our Defense Department but that also have an impact on things like head start. There are some programs that are scheduled to be cut. We are using an ax instead of a scalpel. It may not always be the smartest cuts. That is a piece of business that still has to be taken care of. I want to make clear that any agreement we have to deal with these automatic spending cuts, those also have to be balanced. My principle has always been to do things in a balanced, responsible way and that means revenues as to be part of the equation in turning off the sequester as well as spending cuts. The same is true for any future deficit agreement. We will have to do more to reduce our debt and deficit. I am willing to do more but it will have to be balanced. We will have to do it in a responsible way. I am willing to reduce our governments medicare bills by finding new ways to reduce the costs of health care in this country. That is something which all agree on. We want to make sure that medicare is there for future generations but the current trajectory of Health Care Costs is going up so high that we have to find ways to make sure that it is sustainable. That kind of reform has to go hand in hand with doing some more work to reform our tax code so that wealthy individuals, the biggest corporations, cannot take advantage of loopholes and deductions that are not available to most of the folks standing up here for most americans. There is still more work to be done in the tax code to make it fair even as we are also looking at how we can strengthen Something Like medicare. If republicans think i will finish the job of the deficit reduction through spending cuts alone, you hear that sometimes, after today that we will try to shove a always spending cuts [applause] shoved spending cuts that will hurt seniors or heard students or hurt middleclass families without asking also equivalence sacrifice from millionaires or companies with a lot of lobbyists. If they think that will be the formula for how we solve this thing, theyve got another think coming. That is not how it will work. Weve got to do this in a balanced, responsible way and if were going to be serious, then it will have to be a matter of shared sacrifice as long as im president. And i will be president for the next four years. [applause] any way for now, our most immediate priority is to stop taxes going up for middleclass families starting tomorrow. I think that is a modest goal that we can accomplish. Democrat and republicans in congress have to get this done but theyre not there yet. They are close but they are not there yet. One thing we can count on with respect to this congress is that if there is even one second left before you have to do what you are supposed to do, they will use that last second. as of this point, it looks like i will spend new years here in d. C. You all will be hanging out in d. C. , too. I can come to your house . [laughter] i dont want to spoil the party. The people who are with me here today, people watching at home, they need our leaders in congress to all stay focused on them, not on politics, not on special interests they need to be focused on families, students, grandmas, folks who are out there working really, really hard and are just looking for a fair shot and some reward for that hard work. They expect our leaders to succeed on their behalf and satellite. Keep the pressure on over the next and lets see if we can get this thing done and i thank you all and if i dont show up at your house, i want to wish everybody a happy new year. Thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2012] now we will get reaction to president obamas remarks from senate republicans. We will hear from senators john mccain, lindsey gramm, and Senate Minority leader mitch mcconnell, who has been negotiating with vicepresident biden over tax increases. From the senate floor, this is about 30 minutes. I thank the senator from maryland as always for courtesy. I think she had a very important message, and i appreciate not only the words themselves, but her eloquence and passion. South carolina be included in a colloquy during my remarks. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mccain mr. President , i, like i believe all of us just finished watching the president s remarks at i guess it was the executive office building. And im not sure yet as i sort out my impressions of the president s remarks as to whether to be angry or to be saddened. Ive been around this town for a number of years, and as is well known, i had an interest in the presidency more than academic and ive watched a lot of president s, going back to president reagan from the standpoint of a member of congress. And ive watched these other crises as we go through them, whether it be the potential shutdown of the government when Newt Gingrich was speaker of the house, weve seen these other crises as the debt limit expired and a number of others. And its sometimes unfortunately a way the way we do business here. But i must say at a time of crisis, on new years eve when at midnight at least certain actions take place or have to be planned to take place, we have the president of the United States go over and have a cheerleading, ridiculing of republicans exercise in speaking to the people of the United States of america. As i watched other president s address crises, the way that they were able to address them and resolve them with president ial leadership and thats why we elect president s, to lead they did it by calling the leaders of both parties to the white house and sit around the table and do the negotiations and the discussions and they are sometimes concessions have to be made, compromises have to be made. So what did the president of the United States just do . Well, he kind of made fun, he made a couple of jokes, laughed about how people are going to be here for new years, sent a message of confrontation to the republicans, i believe he said if they think theyre going to do that, then theyve got another thought coming. I guess i have to wonder, and i think the American People have to wonder whether the president really wants this issue resolved or is it to his shortterm political benefit for us to go over the cliff . I can assure the president of the United States, i can assure him that historians judge president s by their achievements. We all read the polls. We all, republicans, know what is in the polls. And that is the majority of the American People, 50some percent approve the president of the United States. We also see the Approval Ratings of congress, 10 , 12 , 15 , and i havent seen one that high lately but historians judge president s by what happens on their watch. And for the president to go out and make comments which clearly, which clearly will antagonize members of the house, we are a bicameral government here, and will clearly antagonize them because once we get an agreement, and i appreciate the negotiations that have been going on here in the senate between the majority leader and the republican leader. The fact is that whatever is done and whatever is agreed to has to be ratified by the house of representatives. Men and women who were elected on the premise, promising their constituents that they wouldnt raise taxes. Now, whether they should have made that commitment or not, whether that was the right thing to do, the fact is that thats what they said. So the president basically in his talk to whoever it is that group of people he was talking to had who were laughing and cheering and applauding, as we are on the brink of this of this collapse of this incredible problem this creates for men and women all over all of our citizens, so what he was saying is to the republicans on both sides of the aisle but particularly in the house of representatives, take it or leave it. Thats not the way president s should lead. This these are draconian effects. Now, whether we should be at this cliff or not is another discussion for the scholars in years to come. But we are where we are. Frantic discussions are going on. Went on in the middle of the night last night. So whats the president of the United States doing . In the middle of this, hopefully theyre reaching, there was, as i understand it, a very one major issue remaining , he comes out and calls people together and has a Group Standing behind him, laughs and jokes and ridicules republicans. Why . Why would the president of the United States want to do that . And i want to say a word about sequestration. Sequestration is about to kick in. The pentagon and our Defense Department is like a giant oil tanker. You got to turn it around in a very difficult and slow manner, because they have to make plans and they have to have contingencies procurement of weapons, have to do all the things that are necessary to make sure our men and women who are serving in the military are the best trained, best equipped and most professional in the world, which they are. But were looking at sequestration here when the department of defense says it will decimate our adilt ability to defend this nation. Shouldnt the president of the United States be concerned about that . But what is his own secretary of defense is saying and what his own chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, his selection, is saying. Instead, we kind of joke around and tell people theyre going to be here fear new years eve. Thats not the way to lead this nation. So i come to the floor and say to my colleagues, we need to get this done. We all know that we need to get this done. We go over the cliff, were going to disappoint the people that we are elected to represent and we will disappoint them mightily as we already have. But i also say it is the time for president ial leadership. Its time to stop the cheerleading. Its time to stop the campaigning. The president won. We all know that. He won fair and square. But isnt it now time to govern, and isnt the best way to govern to sit down with people from the other party and from both houses and say this is an issue we must resolve for the good of the American People . So i hope that, again, the president will spend some time with the leaders on borat parties in the oval office and sitting down, and ironing this ironing this out before the people of this country pay a very heavy price. My friend from South Carolina was around when we almost went over the cliff the last time, as we were about to shut down the government and it was all kinds of consequences but we pulled back from the brink after going over it, and it was the most serious of all these that ive seen. And i guess i would ask him, isnt it true that in our experience that president s, whether they be republican or democrat, no matter what party or affiliation, going back to the famous Ronald Reagan and tip oneill relationship where they sat down together and they saved Social Security for about 25 years, and it was tough medicine but they did it together, the president of the United States basically dismissed Social Security and medicare from his list of priorities, and what, as my friend from tennessee pointed out, we have a 16 trillion debt. And for to us say that were not going to do anything about spending when we all know that spending is the biggest problem we have in this agreement, again, that is throwing kerosene on the fire thats on the other side of the capitol and thats my republican colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have committed and pledged to their constituents that we will end this hemaging that hemorrhaging that we call spending which has given us the greatest debt in the history of this country. So i guess i would ask my colleague from South Carolina, who is usually very modest and reticent in explaining his views particularly in various Media Outlets of his view on this situation. Mr. Graham thank you, senator. I guess my first view is its better not to go over the cliff than to go over the cliff, but its also important, as you just said, to understand what weve accomplished. Lets assume for a moment and lets hope that this is a good assumption that we reach an agreement by the end of the day, that raises taxes tax rates on people that make over 400,000. I dont think thats a good idea because i think it hurts job creation. The better way to get revenue is to eliminate deductions and exemptions for businesses and wealthy individuals and take that money back into the treasury, lower tax rates to create jobs and pay down debt. Thats what bowlessimpson did. Not juan Bipartisan Group who has tried to solve our debt problem and our spending problem and our revenue problem suggested raising tax rates. Bools, a bowlessimpson, a Bipartisan Group, actually lowered tax rates and did it by eliminating deductions and exemptions and they put a lot of money on the debt, they had a 25 corporate rate and the top personal rate was 30 . They took this 1. 2 trillion we give out every year in exemptions and deductions to the favored few, they brought it back into the treasury, they paid down debt and they lowered tax rates to help create jobs. This president s approach is the opposite of simpsonbowles and the gang of six. You had six senators, three democrats and three republicans, how did they try to solve our longterm problems . They reformed the tax code by eliminating virtually all deductions. They took that money back into the treasury. They paid down debt and they lowered tax rates, just like simpsonbowles. Now, this president has taken another path. He wants to raise tax rates to generate revenue. My concern is the higher the tax burdens in america, the less likely to create a job in america. There are better ways to generate revenue. But hes gone his way and hes going to win. Hats off to the president for having the courage of your convictions. You said during the campaign youre going to raise tax rates on everybody who made above 250,000, but youre probably not going to get that but its going to be somewhere around 400,000. The money to be generated, you say you want it to go on the deficit. Thats good. Yesterday, the proposal by our democratic colleagues was to take that increased revenue from raising tax rates and they spent 600 billion on the government. And thats why we dont have a deal. I am willing to swallow my prid