In a side arbucarticle that the Washington Post report on the fiscal cliff this morning. Heres an article from Washington Times now this is from politico. A situation that was in the paper couple weeks ago. Looks li finally, before we go to phone calls, this article from the daily caller again, that is reported in the daily caller. We begin with a call from diane in julian, california, on our democratic line. Caller good morning, peter. My prediction came true, reelecting a president. Women against violence acts, being held up by the house. John boehner and the Republican House majority leader eric cantor. I tweeted last night quiet late saying the republicans are going to gang up on john boehner. There is an article in the New York Times showing they feel he is dragging his feet and waiting until january 3. I also understand that the chairman of the government oversight and Reform Committee darrell issa, which is from our district here, is holding up the vote on the women against violence act also, which involves the illegals, native americans, and lgbt. This is a coal in the christmas stocking for women who helped to get president obama reelected, and is an attack on medicaid for women that have children, and seniors and host we will leave it there. Thanks for calling. Olean is in tennessee, republican leeann. Caller we need to have more cuts. Look at all the thousands obama has put on the payroll. We have 109 million government workers. 49 Million People on food stamps whole. Them with a free cell phone that has been given to them. If he cannot find any place to cut anything, how about 16,000 block that hes putting on disability. 16,000. Ws and dollar host where did you get that figure . Caller the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare was talking about how people on welfare are getting more money than people working. A family of three gets 6,300 for food, 6,000 for medical, 4300 for section 8 housing, a 5,000 check for Something Else. And free telephone. Its unbelievable. Host go back to that 109 million figure. You said working for the government or did you mismean receiving benefits from government . Caller yes. Host would you support any tax increases . Caller if there are absolutely some cuts made. We have sat down with the democrats before. They say they will make cuts and they never do. We all know the federal worker that arranged the trip to las vegas and sits in the hot tub with the champagne, he refused to answer. He got a 9,000 bonus but refused to answer questions when he was called before congress. He retires with a pension of 100,000. I dont know anybody in my family that makes that, and they actually work. And hes getting a pension. That needs to be looked at. Government workers get away more in benefits, and in salary and work less than people actually working today their salaries. Host thanks for calling. Jonica pennsylvania on our independent line. Caller its too bad you dont have an instantaneous fact check button. Ton in fron thats for the last caller. You guys have forgotten about a particular man, with all these tax and cut talks, you guys should have him on to talk about it. Primarily, systems and everything else. Nfro wheelerit back on. Host thanks for calling. Caller genius robert is my complete name. Good morning, peter. I would like to focus on the blame game. I would like to be very specific. At the end of clinton, the economy awas not bad. Owe a lot of money. We had a certain amount of taxes and we went to war and all these other little gimmies under bush. The taxes should have gone up to about 43 on account of when you go to war you have to pay for it. War is very expensive. You see the elements of war all over the place. So many crooked legs and missing legs and you feel real bad to see that. People have gotten away from blaming the republicans for creating a mass mess. There was a very good article that spoke about the wrecking crew. When you wreck the whole state of michigan, and the jobs go down to the south. The south feels very happy about getting all the jobs, but michigan goes through maybe 25 or 30 years of dismantling. Thats why we have all the programs trying to save peoples skin and life and nourishment. The constitution says to promote the general welfare. Host i apologize. We have to keep moving. This in the New York Times carl in west virginia, republican line. You are on the washington journal. Good morning. Caller good morning. I watched your show every morning and sometimes i get a big laugh out of you guys. If you read every article with something negative about the Republican Party. You have straw men set up. First you blamed george bush for four more years. Now you are blaming Grover Norquist. He is the bogeyman of the democrats now. In order for a republican to get back in power, we are going to have to infiltrate the news media and we are going to have to infiltrate the educational system, because our kids are absolutely being indoctrinated in our School Systems to believe in socialist form of government. And until we get some of our people where you are sitting and where these teachers in the classroom are teaching, we will not get back in power. Thank you. Host Grover Norquist will be here in about 15 minutes to take your calls. This is a column this morning in the wall street journal dan concludes his column this way right below that is karl roves weekly column in the wall street journal. What obama is really bargaining for is the headline. That caller of this morning in the wall street journal. This is gary in ohio on our independent line. Caller good morning. I feel that the United States is divided. Just like your show, you have a republican member, democratic member, independents number. As long as we can they can divide us into 3 or four groups, they are going to do with a one two. Just like at the conventions for both parties, how on the screen they read off of, they took a vote and had it scripted on the screen what was going to happen. They already had the answer on the screen. You get all this stuff out of d. C. And no one has said a word for six months about libel. Libor. Guys th these guys have been setting the bank rates 40 years. Nobody gets in trouble or goes to jail. There is no law in washington. They are running the guns. Its up about gunrunning. There is as much dope down there as there is gunrunning. Host thank you for calling. From the daily caller and this is an article in roll call about that is from roll call this morning. John in winfields, missouri, a democrat. You are on the air. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am not for raising taxes on anybody. What they need to do is not start at the bottom. They need to start at the top, cut their budget. Take 30 off their payroll. Excuse me thats about all. Host brad is in hammond, louisiana, republican. Caller good morning. I was calling to make a comment on raising taxes on the rich. Host we are listening. Caller now they say they want to cut taxes for the middle class. Why would they take from the poor and give back to the rich . There are poor people in louisiana that nobody cares about. They arent making it harder. They talk about crime rates, robbery and burglary. My main concern is why do the poor or the middle class after a struggle for so long when you have rich people that dont want to pay taxes . Host all right. The House Foreign Affairs committee, secretary clinton to testify before the committee on benghazi and the accountability review board. The u. S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs will hold a hearing on thursday, december 20 on the benghazi attacke. Secretary clinton will be testifying. Cspan will cover this on thursday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. Cspan cameras will be there. Front page of the National Journal this morning on tuesday he delivered the gop talking points about the need for more spending cuts as part of any deal, while downplaying the role of raising incometax rates on wealthier earners, which the white house trumpets often. Boosting rates on the rich, he said, would provide enough money to run the government for eight days. That has nothing to do with spending, getting spending in line. Other than performing requisite task, Mitch Mcconnell has not emerged as a huge presence in the ongoing fiscal cliff narrative. That is a change from past budget and tax deals where his finger prints were evident, a fact that could affect the final outcome or subtlety of the deal. That the National Journal reporting. Paul is an independent in enterprise, alabama. Go ahead. Caller good morning. What a debacle out there. I sure would like someone to think out of the box. This back and forth. I think i may have an idea specifically towards the defense spending reductions. I know this will not be popular with a lot of people, but what do the marines do, that the army, navy, and air force cannot do . If your answer is amphibious assaults, include a couple amphibious assaulttrained battalions or brigades within each combat division or add another week to the Army Basic Training for amphibious assault. Just think about the duplication that could be eliminated with this concept. If all those that are in the Defense Industry now, as they profess that our future wars will be more of a technology base, this seems appropriate. Out of the box, and popular, yes. Complicated and hard to do, but that is my suggestion. Host from the Washington Times this morning and this is the wall street journal finally, we want to take this call from don in michigan. Caller good morning. About the fiscal cliff, i think we should go over the cliff and then start from there. Freedom is not free. We have forced to pay for wars to pay for. We have to pay bills. God bless america and cspan. Everybody have a great day. Host thank you. We have two guests. We will continue looking at the so called fiscal cliff negotiations with Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health news. We will specifically look at how medicare may be affected by the fiscal cliff. Next is Grover Norquist. We want to put the numbers up on the screen so you can have your chance to talk with mr. Norquist. Mr. Norquist will be out here in just a minute so you can go ahead and start dialing your phones now. First, in the New York Times, this article showing senator joe lieberman. He made his Farewell Speech yesterday. [video clip] barriers of discrimination and bigotry that a few decades ago seemed removable. Doors of opportunity have been opened wider for all americans regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, or disability. During my time here in washington we have had our first female secretary of state nominated and confirmed, and our first africanamerican president elected and reelected. It will forever remain one of my deepest honors, thanks to Vice President al gore, i was given the opportunity to be the first Jewish American nominated by a Major Political party for national office. And, incidentally, thanks to the American People, grateful to have received a half trillion more votes than my opponent on the other side. [laughter] but that is a longer story. While there is still much work to do and many problems to be solved, i believe we can and should approach our future with a confidence that is based on the real and substantial progress we have made together. What is required now is to solve the urgent problems we still have. What is really required to do that is leadership. Leadership of a kind that is never easy but which we as americans know we can summon in times of need, because we have summoned it before. Today i regret to say as i leave the senate that the greatest obstacle that i see standing between us and a brighter american future we all want is right here in washington. The partisan polarization of our politics, which prevents us from making a principled compromise on which progress in a democracy depends. Right now it prevents us from restoring our fiscal solvency as a nation. We need bipartisan leadership to break the gridlock in washington that will unleash all the potential that is in the American People. And so, i would respectfully make this appeal to my colleagues, especially the 12 new senators who will take the oath of office for the first time next month. I know how hard each of you has worked to get elected to the United States senate. And i know that you worked so hard because you wanted to come here to make a difference for the better. Theres no magical mystery about the way to do so in the u. S. Senate. It requires reaching across the aisle and finding partners from the opposite party. It means ultimately putting the interests of country and constituents ahead of the dictates of party and ideology. Washington journal continues. Host someone whos been in the news and on the news lately is on your screen now, Grover Norquist, president of americans for tax reform. Mr. Norquist, make your case for no tax increases at this point in our economic situation. Guest peter years ago president obama extended all of the tax cuts that lapse degenerate. He did so because he said the economy was weak and raising taxes ordered. The economy is not any stronger now than it was. In addition to the tax increase, he wants to impose by letting some of the bush tax cuts laps, he has already got a trillion dollars in tax increases that starting in january to pay for obamacare. When you think about fiscal cliff, the bush tax cuts have collapsed, sequestration cuts spending, and then theres a trillion dollar tax increase that obama has over the next decade to pay for obamacare. Interestingly, he decided to delay those taxes until after he was reelected. But they start kicking in in january. Very painful and hit the middle class hard. The reason not to raise taxes is to have a spending problem. We spent too much money. Raising taxes is not part of spending less. Its not part of a compromise or anything. It is what politicians do instead of. Reforming of instead of reforming government. Europeans eventually put in energy taxes and that is what obama is doing. He spent his five trillion dollars in the first term and wants to take us a trillion dollars more in debt over the next decade. Theres no way to raise taxes to pay for that. We have to rein in spending. Raising taxes is what politicians do when they dont have the courage to reform government. Host you can read this new press release on the internet. Canada and middleclass families face high medical bills tax under obamacare, it says. Heres the pledge you have heard so much about brokest request sent to members of congress. Mr. Norquist, theres no mention of spending in here. But you do mention the elimination of deductions. That is one of the issues on the table now is changing the tax system, eliminating some deductions. If they are matched by spending cuts, does that work for you . Guest the pledges focus is on the tax issue. Until you say no to tax increases, historically, politicians never look for spending restraint. In 1982 they said Ronald Reagan lets raise taxes and we will cut spending. They raised taxes and spending did not go down. It went up. Then they went to bush eight years later, who learned nothing from reagan, and they said we will give you 2 of imaginary spending cuts for every dollar tax increase why not offer them 10 in imaginary, since it is all imaginary . He was offered 2. Spending went up and not down. So we have played this game before. Politicians who want to spend more money say we will cut spending in return for tax increases. They take the tax increases. Because of that, you have to get to spending restraint. The 50 states have made a commitment not to raise taxes. Those states that dont raise taxes, texas, florida, reform government. Those states where taxes are on the table, maryland keeps raising taxes and spending like crazy. Illinois keeps raising taxes instead of reforming government. California just decided to raise taxes instead of reforming their pension system. So the states are divided into those states that dont raise taxes and are reforming government. Those states that to raise taxes that dont reform government. Host the first call, joe in georgia, republican line. Caller peter, i think Grover Norquist is the greatest taxpayer champion in history. We love him in georgia. We totally agree with him. We think the answer is electing more people like tom price. My big question is i think a lot of john boehner, and hes been there 22 years. A lot of us in georgia feel tom price ought to be elected speaker. He would be much more aggressive and would not capitulate on taxes to obama. What do you think of tom price being speaker . Grover, you are a national hero. But you are exactly right on taxes. God bless you. Guest thank you. Very kind comments. All the republicans in georgia in the house of representatives have been stalwarts in opposing tax increases. Neither of the republican senators have voted for a tax increase. Congressman price is a great republican leader and a great conservative leader. I point to John Boehners success over the last years in holding all the republicans together not to oppose the stimulus package where obama and nancy pelosi put tempting cash on the table, other peoples money, and the setup which Congress Person would like to take some of this home and spent it . Some republican appropriators were tempted to do a little shoplifting, but everyone of them decided not to. Not only their own internal Good Behavior helped on that but the leadership from john boehner