healthcare spending. nothing comes close. social security we could probably fix the same way tip o'neil and ronald reagan sat down together and we could figure something out. that is manageable. medicare and medicaid, massive problems down the road. that's where, that is what our children have to worry about. >> dana: here we are, two years later and still no plan. on the left in congress refusing to deal with that simple reality. vermont senator bernie sanders caucuses with the democrats. take a listen. >> i get nervous when i hear the president and others continue to talk about quote/unquote, entitlement reform. which is just another cut for medicaid and medicare and social security. >> eric: brian, start with you, today. >> dana: you look surprised. >> brian: i am. yet honored. >> dana: do you think they are closer to a deal? after thanksgiving people get back to work. >> brian: i was encouraged when i pick up the papered president is working with people. but then i pick up the "new york times" and found out you have the liberal democrats like rockefeller, dick durbin and others saying hey, we better not touch entitlements. mr. president, you better watch yourself because we won the election. let's focus on those taxes on the rich. let's deal with entitlement down the line. that scares me. that is unrealistic. it goes against what we heard the president of the united states say. >> dana: when it comes to the math, do the math, they have a good opportunity in front of them. >> we heard senator reid said when asked he couldn't name any of the cut the democrats are willing to offer in the fiscal cliff negotiations. he said, "we need to get credit for cuts previously made." this is today. the cut previously made. i'm scratching my head to figure out what cuts the democrats made prior that they want credit for. if they did make credit cuts why did we run up four more years in a row? start fresh right now. talk about cuts and then talk about how are we going to raise revenues. >> eric: what would -- >> dana: what would harry reid mean by that? get credit on cuts they made. on what? >> bob: that is a $60,000 question. i'm not sure what he is talking about. but i know there will be cuts if entitlement program. readjust in the the entitlement program. there will be a tax increase on the wealthier americans of some size. i cannot believe that obama is going to travel around the country to make us think about this. if he doesn't think he will get them to go along with some marginal increase rates. >> dana: good point. let's get your take on that. president off campaign trail and major victory in the 2012 election. now he will go out and sell the plan he believes he just run on. does he need the road show to get support for this? >> andrea: that is all he does is the road shows. this is how he wins. how he won the election. with a giant p.r. offensive. we'll be losers because it doesn't change the policy. i don't begin to know how harry reid thinks or how his brain works. if you believe what nancy pelosi said, she said if you want to look what our plan is for medicare look at obamacar obamacare. i wonder if that's the cuts they made to medicare denied in the election, if they take credit for those. this is really scary, because he is trying to rally people on his side. he believes they think they should tax the rich. he doesn't even have the will of his party. chuck schumer says no, got to be $1 million or more. and conservative senators up for re-election in two years saying no way. >> bob: let's remember that he took a lot of heat the last time around when he got to the debt ceiling, debt ceiling issue. he was negotiating the whole time. not out in the country campaigning. this time around they decided that strategy, staying in washington. dealing with the republicans. >> eric: what though? who is he campaigning? one size says raise taxes. look, the super committee couldn't get it done. gang of six couldn't get it done. how are the people going to get it done? we have grover norquist saying all the people allegedly are going to violate their pledge, only lindsey graham said yes, we'll violate it. the rest of them are waiting for democrats to come up. >> bob: is there a way to been a grover norquist's name from the show? >> why? >> dana: let me ask you about the road show. president obama goes out and talks about raising taxes on the rich. there is a cob stitch whensy in america says it's the right thing to do. boehner says if we had more re-knew we'll get in a different way. we think raising rates hurts the economy and we'll reduce the deductions to get the same place. but with president obama's road show he doesn't answer the question he brought up in 2010. what are you going to do about entitlements and how would you make it better? i don't think raising retirement age will solve the problem. >> brian: my head will explode. we keep saying we have to balance the budget. the math doesn't add up. number two, go in and roll up the shres and get it done behind closed doors. if the media is frustrated, let them be frustrated. he has to go in and make a deal and give the framework out. he did not -- >> bob: the difference this time around he won. >> brian: i want him to go with speaker boehner. here are my cards and what are yours? >> eric: they did that. they did that at the debt ceiling. here is the deal. you come up with $600 billion. we'll have $600 billion. then president obama wanted $800 billion. >> andrea: they didn't want entitlement cut. that sunk the deal because president obama couldn't get his side to come along with it. is increditable from a p.r. standpoint that republicans get attention for being divided. it's actually the democrats more divided. they don't get as much attention. why is that? >> eric: they want to take shots. on the right, republicans and the right, there is another divide. you have a divide on the right that says fiscal conservatives saying don't raise taxes or close loopholes or do anything to increase re-knew. the establishment republicans say we need to work it. >> bob: deductions will be on the table. what is the difference between raising rates -- if you take desuction out, they have fewer in the pocket. wealthy people have fewer dollars in the pocket. raise the rates, less money. >> andrea: economy is more sensitive to playing with the marginal rates than deductio deductions. >> eric: if you let the bush tax cuts for over $250,000 expire, $80 billion. deficit of $1 trillion a year. you are only 18% of the way. you are still missing 82% of the pie here. that is the number. >> dana: two minutes left, can i ask you one other thing. transparency. some on right try to push for negotiations to be in the public and broadcast on cspan. that is a terrible idea. >> brian: it is terrible idea. the only time they dealt with the sleeves up and working deals out, grant you, eric, you are right. the grand compromise. you talk about stimulus and obamacare and the auto bail-out they did it on their own. president was not engaged. he passed it along. i don't care what harry reid says. medicare and medicaid and social security have to be restructured, not fine tuned. obamacare has to be in play. >> eric: you don't want to see it on c-span? i do. >> andrea: you worked on the hill, i did. we worked in washington. the chances of it really happening on c-span would happen in the men's room and the hallways. call each other after the camera left the room. someone brought this idea to me and it's really crazy. what if republicans said i'm not going to vote on this. if you want higher tax increases, boehner brings it to the floor. they don't vote and this becomes the obama tax hike, the obama spending cut. on him. let him own it. they voted for him. let them own it. >> brian: house democrats going along with maybe john boehner caucus to pass it. that is how divided it could be. it could cost them the house. when it's said and done and we're sitting here on december 31, emergency session of five five -- i'll be here in case of injury -- there will be sitting there saying this is deal we got to cut. we got to get the democrats to come along with republicans. >> dana: aside from politics i don't think enough people are talking about what is the right policy and the right answer and solution to get the economy going again? see that social security and medicare is saved for the next generation. >> eric: one quick point, can we as five or the con seventives, bob you should be interested in this, too. forget social security. we pay to the social security system. it's self-fulfilling. >> bob: they pay in medicare, too. >> eric: but we way with payroll and fica to social security. government raids social security. only reason that social security is on table they took $2 trillion we paid into it. >> bob: dana's question do you want transparency and grover norquist down there shooting his mouth off -- >> dana: he is not a member of congress, bob. >> bob: he seems like he's a member of congress. >> dana: he's not. if i were republicans i'd come out for getting away with the payroll taxes. find the spending cuts to do it and put it on the table. >> brian: retirement age 912, reform social security. >> andrea: with had a presidential ticket to talk about the policy, had the courage but they were -- >> brian: i know. >> dana: je to follow it. right before we came out, keith hennessey of the hoover institute put out a piece and said he says the president is bluffing. president saying through the spokes people he would veto anything that did not have the tax rate increase. but the economic consequences of that is dire and keith is right, president is bluffing. we'll see. warren buffett thinks it's good business for government to tax the rich. eric disagrees with the oracle of omaha. that discussion is next on "the five." ♪ ♪ >> announcer: meet jill. she thought she'd feel better after seeing her doctor. and she might have, if not for kari, the identity thief who stole jill's social security number to open credit cards, destroying jill's credit and her dream of retirement. now meet amanda. with a swipe of her debit card, she bought some gas... and an all-expense-paid trip to hawaii for ben. ben is the intity thief who used a device called a skimmer to steal her formation from her card to open a fraudulent account. every year millions of americans just like you learn that a little personal information in the wrong hands could wre havoc on your life. this is identity theft, and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. lifelock offers the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. ordinary credit monitoring services tell you after your identity has been stolen; they may take 30 days to alert you! too late for amanda. with lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection, jill would have been alerted as soon as they noticed an attack in their network, before it was too late. and lifelock's bank account takeover alerts would have notified amanda in time to help protect her money. lifelock guards your social security number, your money, your credit, even the equity in your home. while identity theft can't be completely stopped, no one protects you better than lifelock. and lifelock stands behind that, with the power of their $1 million service guarantee. you have so much to protect, and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and try 60 days of identity theft protection risk-free. 60 days risk-free! use promo code: onguard. order now, and get this document shredder, a $29 value, free! call or go online now. [♪...] ♪ ♪ >> eric:come back, everybody. i have been an investor, company stocks, businesses for 20 years. the one person in the world i respect most mr. warren buffett when it comes to investing. but, but you got to know your strength and you got to know your weaknesses. that said, i wouldn't take ping-pong lessons from mr. buffett. take a look here. here is another thing i wouldn't do. i wouldn't listen to the oracle of omaha on this. >> ♪ i've been working on the railroad all the live long day ♪ ♪ i've been working on the railroad just to pass the time away ♪ ♪ dinah won't you blow ♪ dinah won't you blow your horn ♪ [ laughter ] >> eric: so now warren buffett wants to weigh in on taxes. politics and americans need to hand over more of our dough. mr. buffett, oh, sage one. put down the ping-pong paddle and the ukulele and the tax plan. the gift is with profit margins, ebidah. the man, fantastic investor, but he is suggesting a minimum tax, to raise etch's wealth. wealthy people's taxes to trickle down to everywhere else. i can't imagine the economy can handle that. >> dana: i have very little patience for the extremely rich who want to make it harder for other people to get where they are. for this, he doesn't pay incomes tax. he has enough money he would haven't to worry about. this i don't have enough money to invest like he does. my example, on charitable contributions. he gets full market value of the stock he donates, most of which is not taxed. he doesn't have to pay on all the stuff he has. so he is trying to impose on other people policy proven not to work in the past rather than working to find revenue another way where the rich would pay more but a way that doesn't hurt job growth. >> eric: are you buying in to this? >> bob: of course. don't you find it odd, you are against buffett who is talking about 2% of the american people. and 90% of the people will be held up by republicans. i don't know how the republicans handle pressure on them. what are you going to do? stand up and say i'm for rich people? >> eric: 2% of filers including a lot more of businesses, raise taxes on. most of, of, or good percentage of the jobs 4 million businesses. >> bob: that is not right. >> eric: mr. buffett wrote op-ned the "new york times." i'm almost laughing. he is so smart in investing but that was laughable. suggests going to 18.5% of gdp in the tax re-knews and 21% in spending. we're far, miles and miles away from that. it would be dramatic slash to the economy. >> andrea: don't you want to talk about going to clinton era tax rates. but they don't want clinton rare spending. far cry as well. i'd have more respect for warren buffett if he talked about 30% tax on wealth. he doesn't talk about the full totality of his wealth. it almost strikes me he is trying to get out in front of this because he knows it's come something i'll get behind the scheme and support everything that doesn't affect me. it upset mess because the whole election, the democrats lambasted mitt romney for taking the best deductions he could and paying the least amount of taxes he could. now you have the warren buffett who has become spokesperson on this evident in the same exact position. he is deemed a hero. >> bob: how in the world can you defend this? how do you defend people take having --dais i didn't defend it. i had policy and facts and history on your side. >> brian: i would love to see him take the billions of dollars that he earned from the paper route and the success story is phenomenal and famous. why does he start a myriad of businesses and use the great knowledge to employ tens of thousands of people. or say here, i have money to throw down a rat hole? why not demand the things from this country that he demands from all the businesses he starts? that is from accountability and efficiency. he doesn't waste his money any other place but the government. >> bob: look at the camera to say you defend people making $500 billion a year and not have increase? [ overtalk ] >> bob: what percentage of the people are they? >> eric: the top 1% pay 50% of the tax revenue. and top 2-3% pay 75%. >> dana: what reform do you get in return? raise money to raise money. get money to solyndra. it's not to shore up the entitlement system. >> eric: in the op-ed, buffett starts out with an investor you admire and has investment idea, this is a good one. i'm in it, you should be in it, too. if taxes were raised would you not invest in that investment? buffett is talking about company. of course you would say okay, i want to make money. i'll pay the tax on it. government isn't an investment. what do we get back for money we shovel in that pile? >> andrea: right. we have had a lot of losses if the government is managing the portfolio this time around. he makes the case, warren buffett, he says they need to be more progressive tax rates. this is what george bush doesn't get enough credit for and what they talk about with the fiscal cliff. he made them more progressive. he created 10% tax rate and took lower income people off the tax roles. because of it, the rich are making more and paying more in taxes. before reagan took office. the bottom 50 paid 7%. the top 50 paid 90. now the top 50 pay 98%. the bottom 50 only pay two. >> bob: what do the top 5% pay? >> andrea: over 80%. 90%? >> bob: are you not embarrassed defend this? >> dana: embarrassed that the policy is so bad and you defend it and you act it will be a great savior and you know it's not. >> bob: i'm getting rap for people making half a billion snore if you do, what president obama is suggesting, raise taxes on the 250 and above you come up with 82 to $83 billion. >> bob: take in account the spending cuts that come in to that. >> dana: what spending cuts? show us. i would love to see any spending cuts. i'll believe it when i see it. >> brian: i think we have to give credit to producers of this world and not vilify them. we have to do what will allow them to grow the economy. to hire more people. >> eric: online for this -- >> brian: leave it there. >> eric: coming up. >> eric: face to face with the critic over the bungling of benghazi. we'll tell you what went down on capitol hill. it wasn't pretty. that is next on "the five." ♪ ♪ ♪ >> brian: thanks to greg gutfeld for the lights on his book tour. he didn't want two it. came out great. meeting that white house hoped would smooth susan rice's nomination, but the republican lawmakers set a stage for showdown over the ambassador comments following the benghazi attack. senator john mccain, lindsey graham, kelly ayotte of new hampshire met privately with her today. it did not go well. listen. >> bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before. information given the american people was wrong. ambassador rice said it was wrong and to be clear, if you are an ambassador to the united nations you go well beyond the unclassified talking points in the daily preparation for that job. >> we are significantly troubled by the answers that many got. some we didn't get. >> she had no intention to mislead the american people. >> the white house blames the critics. listen. >> the focus on some might say the obsession on comments made on sunday shows seems to me and to many to be misplaced. >> the national shows get too much attention. are you surprised that ambassador rice didn't have a better explanation for her interview? >> dana: i got home last night and checked e-mail for the last time and saw she will have a meeting. i said they have it wrapped up. go in and smooth it over. you should have these things organized before you go to a meeting. you know what the result will be. i was surprised to see senators were not satisfied today. i admire them for sticking to the guns to call it like they see it. >> brian: conservatives said senator mccain caved. why is he having the meeting? in the end, he did the right thing and hoping to be impressed. then the comments were shocked they had no better explanation. >> i said yesterday, i was shocked that mccain was softening his position on it as well. they just couldn't soften. couldn't find it in themselves to soften. here is the thing the way i understand it. they pulled al-qaeda out of the talking points and pulled the protest out of the talking points and she still went with it.