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broad areas. at theç moment, we understand congressional leaders, house, democrat, meeting with the president and getting the lowdown when he travels a few blocks here west of university at the 1:00 hour in washington. the question is how specific will he get? it comes the day they start on paul ryan s dramatic plan the plan that will happen over ten years. the president put forward a debt commission last year. they came up with a plan, all very controversial, $4 trillion in cuts. they would do it in large part by simplifying the tax system, dramatic reductions sure to be controversial to very treasured and costly programs for the elderly and poor, medicare, medicaid and a discussion, the president said, to be had about social security. the president s plan to focus keeping spending low, savings from the defense department, the d.o.d., reducing health care spending and aids are quick to point out the american afortability care act, health care law the president signed into law last april went a long way to doing that. and tax reform interpret t. the president does not want to see a further tax reduction. and the republicans say any further hiking of taxes is out of the question. we will show the speech live at 1:35 eastern time. while the president lays out his plan for the debt in 2012 and beyond, the deal he reached with house republicans to avoid a government shutdown still has to be voted on by congress and a look at what went into the deal. just over a billion in the savings terminated 55 health laborç and education programs. the national political reporter for the washington post joining us now, your article breaks it all down for all of us, some more interesting points in this deal. i want to start with crimes victims fund used to compensate them. does the $4.9 billion equate to major cut when you look at this? it depends how you look at it. a $4.9 billion cut in the context of a $38 billion deal is quite a piece of substantial piece overall. this is for the department of justice program officials were telling us a couple days ago really isn t going to affect the spending at all. you might look at that line item and think crime victims will lose about $5 billion here. it s much more of accounting gimmick, not money intended to be spent this year regardless. as we look at epa taking a hit, $1.6 billion to be exact, a 16% decrease from the 2010 levels. it wasn t the only program along those lines to feel the squeeze, correct? the epa got one of the biggest cuts here they re suffering in this bill, 16% decrease from 2010, a department that s long been a target by conservative republicans, particularly tea party republicans that control the house. the democrats fought to preserve as much funding as they could. the environmental programs, clean water drinking programs, clean air programs are going to take a hit in this six month budget. there are important positives to pass along out of this. give us good news on race to the top and s.e.c. if you re in the white house, it s really good news. they were able to stave off any cuts to head start and other cherished social programs they have. most importantly race to the top, president obama s significant education reform effort, they were able to add $700 million in funding to that in the deal. so the democrats are really feeling like they came out with pq upper hand on that piece of the puzzle. philip rucker, thanks for joining us and breaking it down. glad to be here. president obama has been clear about his desire to reduce bush era tax cuts on the wealthiest americans but he cut a deal with the gop to extend cuts for two years. a patriot for patriotic millionaires wasn t too happy with it and said, go ahead, tax me, i m reach. ceo of blackrock and the chairman of u.s. corrugated. thank you for being here. i want to start with you, dennis. the white house said sunday it will renew its wanting to increase taxes on the wealthy. what does it mean to you when you hear about this, and to get through congress. first of all, i m not the ceo of blackrock. i gave you a promotion. i do think is our country judged by how many millionaires and billionaires we produce or do we have the funds to allow the millions of middle class americans to save money and support their families. we have a lot of people struggling in this country and a very small number of people, 300 some odd thousand people millionaires. do we need to benefit them more at the costs of whubds s os of thousands of people who can t pay their house payment and car payment and struggling to have retirement. we re talking about raising the nation s $14 trillion debt cell is that the same in taxing the wealthy or are they two separate entities? no. the deficit results from what we tax and collect and what we spend. we have to look atç expenditur, think how to be more fruingal and what other things might have outlasted their usefulness but the fiscal balance dangerous and not sustainable without looking where we can increase revenues, particularly in light of what morris said, people like he and i have received a significant reduction in our personal taxes over the last decade while the vast majority of people continue to struggle. their net income has been stagnant, particularly when you take account of inflation for 20, 30, 40 years, so we re on an unsustainable course and seems to us everybody needs to do their share. we don t understand why .1 of 1% whatever it is of the population is carved out of this other than the fact they have the capability to field lobbyists and other advocates and get the benefit the average person can t get. both you gentlemen are willing to put your money where your mouth is. what would it take for you, morris, to feel you re sharing the pain with the rest of americans. what do you think is fair for you to be paying tax rates should be in the 40 to 50% range or 39% range they were 10 years ago. there s no reason why they should have been reduced for the very top earners. there should be more levels for people who earn higher rates. dennis, do you agree with that? sure. the personal income tax rate needs to go up, just restoration to the clinton era tax rate for high earners would have a huge impact and corporate rates that are high and represent being competitive globally in reality could go down to low 20s if we eliminate many special arrangements made that leave many, many corporate entities paying no taxes at all, a ç two-pronged approach we need to take. i said you were ceo of blackrock, you re managing director. what is it like to travel in the circle of friends you have on a professional level and they know you re willing to make a sacrifice like this? do you find interesting conversations of people that say, hey, what are you doing? talking about? put it way, no reason to bring attention to this? i know people on both sides of the issue. fortunately, i have a lot of friends like dennis who really believe the country should be going a different direction it has been going the last decade or so and too much inequality. i m not complete li ail touristic. i m as greedy as the next guy but i want a system with more justice and fairness for me and my family to live in. and do you find conversations interesting of people your financial illing and status? there are people who think i m nutty as a fruitcake, i will confess to that. as morris said, there s diversity of opinion but i don t know too many people believe our fiscal policy is sustainable never mind the long term, short and intermediate problem. we ll find out what the president has to say. thank you for coming on today. those remains found on the long island beach yesterday have been confirmed to be human. what police are doing to track a serial killer and get you a live update. by all accounts, today s speech by president obama is important one. he has progressives weary and republicans ready to pounce. how does the walk this line? whoa. right? get out. i know! who knew? i mean. exactly! really. that s what i mean. 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[ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. what we really need to do is we need to get specific here because for the last two months this white house has refused to really engage in the debate. house majority leader eric cantor keeping the pressure on the president this morning, all eyes on george washington university when we hear what could be a defining speech on this nation s fiscal future. the director of the house government operation committee and democratic strategist and republican strategist to president bush. there have been so many moments when americans wanted that passionate plea from the president, talking about our financial future and kids. do you expect something from this performance this afternoon? i think the president will be reasonably specific. he campaigned on what has been a disastrous economy. he has done that. it has been turned around from what he inherited from his predecessor. the republicans campaigned on deficit. republicans should take the first step. the president and republicans are essentially theç same plac cutting $4 trillion in debt over the next ten years. the differences what the republicans want to do, kill the medicare program, more tax cuts for extremely wealthy and probably increase the burden on seniors in terms of health care costs somewhere between 6 and 2 $12 billion a year. $12 billion in domestic spending will follow debt recommendations from the bipartisan commission in terms of entitlement reform. will go about deficit reduction in a responsibility and balanced way. won t go about doing it all on the backs of seniors and middle class and instead look for balance. ron, i want to play you a portion of what michele bachmann had to say on the today show and ask about it on the other side. we need to look at defense spending and see f there s redundancy and waste and whether programs make sense for the defense department or weapons procurement. we need to focus on areas we need to shore up defense but nothing should be off the table. nothing off the table. is that a safe talking point or do you think republicans really have the desire to do whatever it takes to get real fiscal change, even gofr after t after? we have to do whatever it takes to get the fiscal health in order and including looking at the defense and saying are these programs viable? troops in afghanistan and iraq and people deployed around the world. frankly, we should look at our troop deployment, do we need as many people in germany as we do? the fall of the soviet union is behind us, is that a fiscal structure viable for our forces. looking what the president has to do, his time for visionary speech is over. he needs to lay out a concrete plan, needs to be very specific. paul ryan and republicans took a boldç leadership step. democrats want to criticize everything the republicans have done. let the president come out with his specifics rather than his grandiose notion of i was for reducing the deficit before i added to it. let s see what his plans are without the rhetoric debate and partisan acmony. let s have a genuine debate. it would be nice. they will be watching the speech closely but concerned with debt ceiling and debate that goes along with that. politico addressed some of the fears saying the vote should be free of conditions. i think there s no question the debt increase will have conditions, a foregone conclusion, you hear leiberman and moderate democrats. the question is how we go about that reduction. the public is overwhelmingly concerned with jobs and economic recovery. i think obama has won the debate on that. every major economic indicator is all in the right direction compared to what obama inherited. i think obama has won that debate, the more important of these two. on the question of debt reduction, obama will quickly occupy the political senter and republicans are looking as emstreami emstreamists. why do i say that? politico had an interesting story saying many republicans are beginning to run for the hills on medicaid and medicare cuts. they don t like the idea of getting rid of cuts and 6 to $7,000 increase per year on seniors and see that as extremist proposal. if that doesn t stick in the republican plan, all the numbers collapse. what the president does on the republicans issue, deficit reduction, he occupies the center and republicans look like extremists and won t be able to hold all their members because of severe cuts in medicare and medicaid. he has cuts in ent[tlement and deficit spending. he s not making seniors and middle class pay for all these cuts. of course i disagree with everything he said. if you look at this president, this president has added more to the deficit than what george bush and frankly the other 43 presidents of the united states added to the debt. this president and speaker pelosi and reed put nearly $5 trillion to the national debt. for them to talk about fiscal responsibility and their inheriting the center, that s extreme. the extreme thing we need right now is to have an honest dialogue and discussion. that takes cutting social security program, medicare, medicaid, all entitlements should be on the table, all spending be on the table. for democrats to run around and saying we re trying to put this on the back of middle class and seniors is absurd. we need to cut taxes and reign in spending and the president needs to be very specific today. i think most americans want to know fiscal responsibility is a goal and not a catch phrase. thanks for coming on today. we appreciate it. thank you. should there be a fat tax to help force americans to think about their health? coming up. 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[ male announcer ] halls relieves coughs and sore throats due to allergies too. now you know. constipated? phillips caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we re gonna continue. hi, everybody. i m thomas roberts. the michigan capital is bracing for another round of compromise. yesterday, public unions fear the plan will undermine collective bargaining rights are expecting one of the largest in a series of rallies since schneider s budget debuted in january. hosni mubaric and his two sons are detained while they investigation corruption, abuse of authority and killing protesters. he will serve out detention in a hospital while suffering heart problems yesterday. he denied accusations he stole billions of dollars from the government. ahead of the president s speech for long term fiscal health, some are making sure he doesn t forget about social security. moments ago, a trio of senators unveiled new numbers with a retirement age past 67. sure to be a big battle as many have asked the president to leave social security alone. what could be more personal than excuse me. not just the average american wants to hear the details of the president s plan about our debt. congressman on both sides of the aisle want to know if the white house plan is something they can actually support. kelly o donnell joins us to talk about that. let s break this down. what is the buzz about today s speech? especially with the bigger buzz on the hill. reporter: you d be surprised, there is a sense of anticipation. i ve beenç talking with senato this morning eager to see what the president will lay out, trying to match up private conversations with the white house and what will come out publicly today. everybody has a lot invested in this. you talk to senator, this being the year, before a presidential election, far beyond that, too far to know what could happen. about the only time politically, whether republicans or democrats they think something could get done. there is a high degree of anticipation. from republicans, especially those in the house, there is the early criticism trying to get out front of the president and nick away at what he is going to say before they have seen it. here is how house speaker john boehner and majority eric cantor want to lay the groundwork. have been pushing the president for months to engage in this decision about our long term fiscal mess. i m glad he s finally decided to engage in it. this is vintage obama. he s been standing on the sidelines expecting the rest of us to make the tough decisions to lead this country. reporter: republicans are most focused on the issues of taxes saying they do not want to see taxes raised at a time with a sensitive recovery going on and the white house is preparing to ask more of high earners to try to offset debts and work on the deficit. you re getting a sense everyone is eager to hear from the president but judgment what he will say tends to fall on party lines. it seems like there s this predetermined factor what everybody will get at 1:35 and talking points instead of taking a minute to listen and process what the president is trying to say. reporter: there s a mix. in its fullest sense the president will upveil it and to it. talking about leadership, there is an inkling and political point they want to set the playing field before the president gets a chance to go before the microphone. some of what they re says in informed and some infused with the politics of the day. kelly o donnell, in washington. great to see you, thank you very much. what could be more personal than the number on your bathroom scale, one argument of the so-called falt tax, proposed fee levied on people that don t take care of their health. but to deal with the rising cost of medicare and medicaid, the fact is obesity costs according to the center for obesity control, it is cradraining a whopping number from the health care system each year and some put the numbers higher. we ve been hearing about this debate since the 1970s. what s giving it actual traction now all these years later. reporter: a long time we heard about the debate at the national level and federal level and nanny state thrown around and people feeling their personal choice was being infringed upon. we re seeing this debate on the state level and traction. arizona governor jan brewer has been the first to impose a so-called fat tax of people who keep unhealthy lifestyles through their diet or activities like smoking even when advised by a doctor. lay out the argument of fat tax for us. there s been a lot of talk about surcharge for those who don t take the steps to improve their health and taxes on junk food reporter: this is a personal choice what people eat. you laid out the number of $150 billion, the national cost of ç unhealthy lifestyles and health care costs. when you have people who make unhealthy choices with their health, you raise the risk in insurance pools. if they go to emergency rooms, they re paid by taxpayers and a societal cost paid by taxpayers and the taxpayer shouldn t be on the line for those activities and maybe those costs should be paid by people making those choices and if we collect that money, maybe we can put it elsewhere and solve problems we re currently solving by using that money instead. when we talk about semantics of this a little, the word tax is turning heads a lot these days. reporter: that s the word, tax. in alabama, they call it a health insurance surcharge, sounds a little more benign, it blends in on your insurance bill, really doesn t have that fire behind it like tax. if it is an issue of semantic, what are we talking about here? it stands and we ve been talking about it many decades and will be traction on the state level. arizona is doing it. alabama and north carolina has done it for state employees. whether more states jump on the bandwagon will probably be determined on the success of those ideas. thanks so much. the search continues for the long island killer as it continues and deepening. one victim is a young child, probably a toddler. live with the latest on this. ron, good morning. reporter: good morning, thomas. this morning, there is a limited search opening a new front out here as the investigation continues to widen just down this road where all these bodies have been found, a small dive team is about to look around in a huge fresh water pond for more clues, more bodies and remains. the mystery continues to deepen out here and for some, the pain deepens as well. while investigators look for more bodies and remain, it s much more personal for lynnç bartholomew. she wants revenge for a lost daughter. we will fight as hard as we can to take his life like he took these girl s lives. reporter: her daughter, melissa would have turned 26 tomorrow an aspiring hairstylist never told her family she was a tex worker taunted by half a dozen phone calls by the man believed to be the killer insulting his victim. he s sick and has to be caught. reporter: her body was found and identified in december, along with three other women. orange arrows now mark the spots along a beach road where these first three bodies were uncovered. it s also revealed one of the new victims found last week was a young child wrapped in a blanket lying beside an adult, probably its mother. in yet another gruesome twist to a case that seemed like a sexual predator stalking prostitutes. some criminal profilers think one person is responsible for much of the carnage. the fact a serial killer may kill a child means he doesn t care one way or another. if a child got in the way or a witness, happens to be there, oh, well, he has to kill it, too bad. reporter: another crucial question, when did all this happen? do you believe the killer is out there now? some of the remains would indicate it has been gone a while ago. reporter: barthelamy has been missing since july 2009 and barnes has been missing since july 2007. that long timeline might also reveal something about the killer. not a transient who has come in and gone out, we have no idea who he is and resident of the ar stop? we would never say we are completely done. reporter: for theç victims families none of this can end soon enough. i want this guy to be caught especially before any more girls go missing. i don t sleep at night, haven t slept in two years. reporter: a lot of grief and unanswered questions. we hope to get an update today from the investigators on this case. we ll tell you what we learned. back to you. thank you. miami south beach is a party destination known around the world for its vibrant night life. today, an fbi investigation reveals a sinister side targeting wealthy businessmen from out of town with the lure of alcohol and attractive women. kerry sanders joins me live. good morning. reporter: good morning. agents say they were able to infiltrate this underworld enterprise, 17 people, mostly women from eastern europe are now charged with fraud. the elaborate nightclub scene exploited sex and booze all in attempt to get at tourists credit cards. in south beach s pulsating night clubs where the beautiful people party well into the early morning and sometimes the continuous flow of liquor leads to something else, the so-called b girls hunted in pairs, say investigators, their targets unsuspecting wealthy men. a russian speaking mafia the fbi calls the organization, stands accused of exploiting out of town businessmen, selling them wildly overpriced bottles of wine, champagne and vodka. an fbi affidavit ased by t orgas little as $5. one businessman from philadelphia drank some wine with the females and then took a shot of vodka and then became ç woozy. his fuzzy recollection was people physically holding him up at an unknown location and having him sign something three times. turned out he signed credit card bills totalling $43,000. in all, 88 men were snared in the scam allegedly masterminded by 43-year-old alex, in latvia. it s very creative. the old story of women, sex and liquor. reporter: john fits gibbons is the prosecutor and says it s ingenious in florida under the inn keeper s law, the customer has to painfull and can be arrested. if you re a married man and have a dispute over a bar bill in miami and police are called or threaten to call the police, your choices are limited. you can either sign the tab or the police get called and you could go off to jail. reporter: in some of the cases, the men signing those credit cards were lucid enough, sober enough to see they were being overcharged and they balked. the club owners called the police and police showed up. the club owners told the man, hey, you ve not only been here with women, we have video cameras and may send home to home to your family putting pressure on them as well. i might add all arrested, none have entered a plea so far. wow. nbc kerry sanders. thank you. the white house welcomed military families to an event yesterday. some asked why there was a noticeable absence? we ll take a closer look. [ male announcer ] germs in your mouth build up and form a layer called biofilm so strong it survives brushing. thankfully, there s listerine® antiseptic. its triple-action formula penetrates biofilm, kills germs and protects your mouth for hours. fight biofilm with listerine®. we could ve gone a more traditional route. . but it wouldn t have been nearly as memorable. looks like we re in for a bumpy ride. go ahead, ignore me. but in this turbulent market, you re going to need help. protecting some of your assets for retirement. an axa equitable annuity could give you. guaranteed income for life. i d call them, but what do i know? i m just the 800-pound gorilla in the room. don t worry. i m here. want guaranteed income for life? axa equitable is redefining what you expect from annuities. ooh, peanuts. s welcome back. one of the most important scientific discovers the past century comes from a poor african-american tobacco farmer who died six months ago. her cells have been used to treat polio and even aging. before i doing of cervical cancer, she had the biopsy cells removed and biopsied in a lab and found her cells could reproduce infinitely outside her body, the first to do so. it exams the life of the woman and her trickses to the world. i m joined by rebecca, the book s author. good to have you with us. an amazing story. you spent 10 years working on this book. what attracted you to this story and what do you find people take away from this? i first learned about these cells when i was 16 in a basic biology class. for some reason my teacher knew her name, reasonable henrietta lacks on the black board and that was it. it stuck with me. who was this woman and why did her cells grow and did she have a family and what did they think about it? i worked on it several decades. you ask what people take away from it. there s a lot of important history, a story about race and class and education and raises a lot of current issues we re still dealing with today in terms of informed consent, whether people should know whether their tissues are used in research and access to medicine and a lot of issues wrapped up in one story. give us a breakdown of the substantial contributions these cells have made. we talked about cancer and polio and also aging. yeah. i could have probably filled several books with the research done on her cells. they were the first cells ever cloned, genes first ever mapped and plants canplants-kander medicine and lactose intolerance, there wasn t much that wasn t helped by these cells. the fact is henrietta was never compensated for her countless contributions, especially modern medicine. henrietta never knew it happened. she died a few months later from the cervical cancer. she had five kids when she died and they never knew about the cells being alive, until 25 years after her death scientists came back to do research on her kids to learn more about the cells. her family never profited from the research. to this day, they can t afford health insurance. and they say, mother s cells were so important to medicine, why can t we go toç the doctor. what is their recourse? not a lot of recourse, there were no laws broken. it was standard practice to take cells from people and today you have to get someone s permission and if there s not, they can take them for standard purposes to be stored and not a lot that can be done now since it was so long ago. ? any research done on her descendants whether or not they had these same type of cells as henriet henrietta? they don t. her cells c the cancer that grew was cervical cancer caused by hpv, sexually transmitted. it wasn t something passed to her kids. the research on her kids didn t look at anything having to do with their health and genetics, more looking at specific markers to understand the cells. the book is called the him mortal life of enry etta lacks. you said you were in biology class and i m sure many of us can pick this up and learn from it. appreciate it. the white house received a lot of attention for the good it was doing. there was a noticeable absence that got us talking, next. you need to change your lifestyle. dermatologists have these money saving tips. before bed, get rid of grime with face wash and avoid the sun but when out use a 30 sunscreen. exercise, the infusion of oxygen produces collagen. 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[ male announcer ] hey, there s oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. indescribably good. by giving me huge discounts on rooms hotels can t always fill. under that fudge! with unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin hotel, for less. where you book matters. welcome back, everybody. detailed news from the pentagon for us concerning libya. officials say u.s. aircraft have in fact been conducting air strikes on libya since the handover to nato forces. this is according to reuters, however, they say it is only in a support role. but, again, they do confirm that they have been conducting air strikes on libya since the handover to nato. also, in less than two hours from now, president obama gives an important speech on our debt. he s got progressives in his own party weary, republicans ready to pounce. so how does he walk the line here? a spirited debate will be coming up this afternoon. andrea mitchell will head the coverage for this network and have heads of both the rnc and dnc among her guests. again, at 1:00 and into the afternoon right here on msnbc. it is now time for today s l flip side where we take a look at a story behind the headlines. there was an event at the white house yesterday that got a lot of attention. first lady michelle obama and dr. jill biden welcomed the military families as they kicked off a new initiative to honor america s service members. but the event also gained attention for a notable absence. can you explain why months after signing the repeal of don t ask, don t tell the white house didn t allow representatives of gay military families to attend today s event? i actually don t have anything for you on that. i will take that question, not aware of it. the first lady s communications office released this statement saying the adminys,iq%=9 is moving forward with the repeal of don t ask, don t tell. it still remains the law. the white house looks forward to working with the families of gay and lesbian service members after certification occurs. for us, it was a good reminder to check back on the progress of that repeal of don t ask, don t tell. we found this update by general james amos of the marine corps given to congress just last week. readiness and combat effectiveness is personal to our marine leadership. and in that regard, we have not seen any drop in it, but, again, we are we are in the implementation stage right now. but my expectations are the truth of the matter is i don t think we re going to see a drop in it. other top officials from the army, the navy and the air force also testified that training to implement this policy would be completed as early as june. but we thought it was worth noting that gay and lesbian service members exist already and that they should be part of that meeting. anyway, that does it for me today. i m thomas roberts. i k he next. if you have the need for speed, you re not the only one. one state is now considering perhaps bumping the speed limit up to are you ready for this, 85 miles an hour. sounds like fun. the tsa is rethinking security pat-downs on children after this video goes viral. you can see it for yourself and a former tsa expert joins me to discuss whether this is a problem. i grew up in the bronx. i just loved it here. i m sam chernin. owner of sammy s fish box. my uncle owned a restaurant up on city island. and we started going to the restaurant in the summers. 8, 9, 10 years old. i knew immediately that this is what i like, never dreaming that i would own seven restaurants. i want people that work for me to feel that they re sharing in my success. so we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. and we accumulate as many membership reward points as possible. and use those points to reward our employees. they get a trip with their family, and some wonderful memories. the average employee is with me over 20 years. i have busboys that are with me 30 years. when i tell them that i m giving them a trip, they just can t believe it. giving back to my employees makes me feel great. and when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. how can the gold card help serve your business? booming is taking care of your business by taking care of your employees. delicious gourmet of gravy. and she agrees. with fancy fest gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast, the best ingredient is love. carpools, conferences, microwave dinners. they blur one into the next. we lose ourselves in the fog of everyday life, and drift away from what matters. but like a beacon in the night, it finds us. the light of more than 100 lighthouses, burning through that fog, and beckoning us back to what s real and true. this light shines for us all. this light is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org good wednesday, everyone. i m contessa brewer covering the big news coast to coast. the big story we re watching right now, president obama s plan to solve the nation s debt dilemma. thank you. with the nation s debt at $14 trillion and counting, washington s clamoring to come up with ways to cut costs. today, president obama lays out his vision for getting the nation s finances under control. before he even says a word, lawmakers on both sides are telling him what they want to hear. i would hope the president, i m confident he will, will address the long-term fiscal problems we have as a country. i want to hear how he wants to deal with entitlement. top house democrats and republicans got a preview at the white house this morning. obama will reportedly push for an overhaul of the tax code, aka, a tax hike. republicans say that s a nonstarter. there is no way to tax our way out of this problem. tax rates are high enough already. that s not a reasonable position if we re going to actually have a deal. besides the president s proposal, three other debtreduco