Can the Republican Party just say yes . It is tuesday, 15th, and this is now. Joining me today Huffington Post, Washington Bureau chief ryan grim, New York Times columnist and cohost of cnbcs squawk box andrew ross sorkin, msnbc contributor and queen bejoy reid, and cohost of msnbcs the cycle steve. Will the gop once again play the role of dr. No . This version of the actionpacked thriller would not involve threatening the launch of a u. S. Spaceship wan atomic powered radio beam. Instead, the victim would be the United States economy and the potentially disastrous impact of failing to raise the debt ceiling brsh according to speaker boehner, the ends justify the means. In a statement yesterday, boehner asserted the consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling are real, but so, too, are the consequences of allowing our spending problem to go unresolved. It was a response to this stern warning from the president on monday. They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the american economy. The financial well being of the American People is not leveraged to be used. If the tenor of the president s last press conference of his first term is any indication about what he expects in his second term, prepare for a bondstyle showdown as the government barrels towards its borrowing limit. That said, there might exist a solution that would allow congress to do what it does best, which is to say nothing at all, and still save the economy. This do nothing approach was floated by Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell in 2011, and president obama gave it a hat tip yesterday. They want to put the responsibility on me to raise the debt ceiling, im happy to take it. Mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, had a proposal like that last year, and im happy to accept it. How does it work . Step one. President asks congress to raise the debt ceiling when its within 100 billion. Step two, the Congress Rejects that request and sends a joint resolution of disapproval back to the white house. Step three, obama vetoes the resolution of disapproval. Step four, congress does nothing. As long as the house and senate wait 15 days before addressing the white house veto, then the president gets his original wish and the debt ceiling automatically goes up. In other words, a redo of the fiscal cliff threatening the u. S. Economy. Give extremism and allow congress to basically do anything. Welcome to washington. Andrew, is this is this the way it goes now . Im depressing. It is depressing are but its also maybe the viable path forward. In terms of harm done to the u. S. Economy sshgs that the best solution . I cannot get behind that. By the way, count get behind the platinum coin. We could draw something on a little piece of paper, and they could hand it to me. I cant get behind any of that. Ultimately, we have to actually figure this out. The president has to figure it out. Congress has to figure it out, and thats going to be the end of it. I have to think were wasting our time. Not just you us talking about it, but the fact that were having these conversation bz what kind of wackado arrangement we can create so everyone can pretend everything is okay. Isnt it a result of a congress that seems to have dug in its heels over a matter that was really a parliamentary procedure more than anything else . I dont disagree with you, but i do think there is a real issue in this country about the level of debt. I dont necessarily think this is the time to use that leverage. Having said that, its not clear to me that the president has come to the table and said i actually want to actually have a real grand bargain either. Its to me this is the pock is in everybodys house. In terms of the fights, and there are three of them brewing, right . Theres this one over the debt ceiling. Theres a continuing resolution to actually fund the government. Then theres sequestration. Yesterday politico reporting that house gop members are gearing up for a fight over the debt ceiling, but now you have people like newt gingrich, choice of reason in the wilderness. Lets play the sound. He is advocating for them not to fight over this. Its a threat they cant sustain. No one is going to default. No one is going to allow the United States to not pay its bills. They have much better news to fight over spending. They have a continuing resolution that funds government, which comes up at the end of march, and they have this sequester that automatically cuts spending. Gingrich isnt saying lay down your arms, but he is saying there are better battles ahead. He is saying youre going to lose this debt fight because he has said previously that the entire global world of finance is going to come into washington the week before the debt ceiling is hit and theyre going to pressure you to cave. I actually disagree with andrew here. I think that the scenario that mcconnell laid out in that obama is willing to take is a much smarter approach because as of now, raising the debt ceiling, the responsibility for it is diffuse and spread across congress so they can pass blame and pass responsibility around so they might actually not do it. Whereas, if the main responsibility is on the president , then whatever party that president is in, he is always going to do it. It would still allow the congress, if they desperately wanted the country to default, by a twothirds vote, they could override the veto, and they could push the country into default. It still allows him to blow everything up if they are really passionate about it. It takes this off the table, and it does it in a much more rationale way. Weve learned that as the fiscal cliff showed us, this is all about giving cover to the more raucus members of your caucus, right . This allows john boehner to sort of move forward, provide a spoke smoke screen for people that dont want to raise the debt ceiling and get on without tanking the u. S. Economy, joy. Yeah, absolutely. I think that is the most important thing. Im with ryan on this. You always have to provide political cover. The republicans need to be able to run against barack obama as the tax and spend liberal who keeps plunging us into debt. This would allow them to do that and still not blow up the economy. I mean, the only thing here that we know for certain is that they are going to raise the debt limit. Theyre going to do it. They know it. We know it. Its just a matter of how messy its going to be before that. The way that you know republicans many my opinion are not serious, where is their list of things . If spending is such a horrible thing and we have a spending problem, not a debt problem, show us your list. What is it you would like to cut . Lets see it. The last time they showed it to us, it was the ryan plan to destroy medicare and turn it into a voucher, and then they ran away from that during the president ial campaign when they should have been showing it off. If theyre so into cutting the deficit and they think spend issing the problem, show it off. Lets see what you got. They dont want to do it. What i dont understand about this is why if you believe that ultimately theyre going to have to cave, why dont we just let them cave . Why do we need to create all of these other sort of as i said wackado arrangements so this can happen . Its all leverage, right . If the sequester, that deal is not great for the republicans or that battle is not great for them because that disproportionately hurts republican industries, which is to say the defense industry, which is not to say that there arent plenty of democrats whose bread is not being buttered by defense contractors, but if you look down at the breakdown of sequester cuts, defense gets hit with 55 billion in cuts, but they are much more severe, and as dave wood from the Huffington Post has said, its like taking a meat clever to the defense industry. The nondefense cuts, 55 billion, same amount, but social security, retirement, veterans medicaid, snap, food stamps and jobless benefits are all exempt, steve. I think theres a sort of story here now thats been two years in the making where at some point this is going to have to come to a head. At some point president obama is going to have to call the bluff of the republicans. There were battles over continuing resolutions to fund the government in 2011. There was a summer of 2011 with the debt ceiling. There was the super committee. They were setting up the fiscal cliff. Now weve got continuing resolution in march. Now weve got the sequester, march 1st. Now weve got debt ceiling all over again. One of these points i thought the ideal time for obama to do this would have been the fiscal cliff because i thought that was the softest none of these deadlines are pretty, but that was the softest deadline you could possibly have. Clearly Public Opinion was going to be on obamas side if we went over there. Maybe he could have gotten he would have had more leverage if he got over that date, but i think the good news to the extent theres good news here is you are hearing republican voices. You play gingrich, but im hearing republicans in the house right now who are talking more in terms of making the continuing resolution, funding the government, making that the point where they make their stand on spending cuts and not the debt ceiling, so if its the debt ceiling and the consequence is default, its catastrophic. Its across the board. If its the continuing resolution and the deposit shuts down for a few days. S weve been down that road before. Clinton and gingrich can certainly attest to that. I think that the lesson is, if you remember back to the clinton and gingrich showdown in 1995 and early 1996, the Republican Party emerged from that changed a little bit. The Republican Party then in the first part of 1995 was just like the Republican Party. Total hell bent on confrontation with president clinton. When they lost lost the shutdown of 1995 and 1996 they emerged yes, they still impeached bill clinton, but they were a slightly more Reasonable Party in terms of reaching compromises on other issues with clinton from that point forward. Let me ask you. If theyre just threatening a downgrade, again, what is your view on how bad that is for the u. S. Economy . . I mean, there are lots of perilous things that will kick into place. In the shortterm, sadly, perversely not so bad. Right. I dont think its going to have a huge impact on shortterm. The question is its a longterm thing, and thats two, three, four, five, ten years out, and thats what you are fighting against. Yeah, shortterm, i dont think anyone will care. Nobody goes to fish to decide why do they rate treasuries . Go, fitch. Go away, s p. We know what the Interest Rates are. Thats how people think of debt. What we are capable of, and are we pa what our standing should be and what our rating should be. Theres no question. I dont think in the shortterm we have any and, sadly, that gives no cover to anybody in washington on this issue. It does not. Well, we will certainly be discussing this in the days ahead. After the break, one of the most glaring examples of what colin powell calls the gops identity problem is its stance on immigration. Will the party come together on reform, or forfeit a chance at course correction . We will ask jose diaz when he joins us next. You know my heart burns for you. Im up next, but now im singing the heartburn blues. Hold on, prilosec isnt for fast relief. Cue up alkaseltzer. It stops heartburn fast. Oh what a relief it is cue up alkaseltzer. It stops heartburn fast. And you see the woman you fell in love with. Shes everything to you. But your erectile dysfunction that could be a question of blood flow. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. 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Or bestever meatloaf. Go to campbellskitchen. Com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. Campbells. Its amazing what soup can do. President obama will forge ahead with his plan to reform the nations immigration system. A process that he may outline in his state of the Union Address next month. The morning times reports that the president will push for one single comprehensive bill that would include a pathway for citizenship for the roughly 11 million undocumented workers. Behind the scenes the white house has been working on the contours of a bill that is expected to be rolled out in march with the senate vote planned for august. Speaking to the New York Times, senator Chuck Schumer vowed action on the issue. This is so important now to both parties that neither fiscal matters more guns will get in the way. As for the bill itself, the pathway to citizenship would come with a payment of fines and back taxes. The bill would also include a nationwide legal verification system for all newly hired workers. Additional visas for highly skilled immigrants and a guest worker program. Top Senate Democrat harry reid sounded optimistic about its passage. Tentatively on a path to citizenship which has been a stumbling block. We need to promote bipartisan bills quicker than you think. You are confident this will amount to something substantial . Well do something significant. Then again, theres always the lower chamber. According to texas congressman lamar smith, any bill with a pathway to citizenship will have a hard time passing. Phil, the Georgia Republican who weighed in so very eloquently on todd akens rape comments this weekend, told the New York Times he remains opposed to amnesty of any kind. Joining us now is Telemundo Jose diaz. It is always a good day when you are on this program, my friend. Great to see you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Jose, let me ask you if they think that this is an issue thats going to go away, theyre wrong. Let me ask you, jose. In terms weve been talking ad naseum about skisms within the g. O. P. Obama is preparing to prioritize Immigration Reform on his second term agenda, a move that would do as much to divide the gop as it would to score points among hispanic voters. It would threaten for engulf the gop with in a heated internal debate that would make the fiscal argument seem like childs play. Do you think thats true . Yeah. Its a debate that if one side wins could marginalize that party for generations to come because the fact is that when you see that 71 of almost 12 million voters the last elections, voted for one political party, and that group that voted 71 for one political party, is the Fastest Growing group in the country. Already 50. 5 million strong. 18 years of age equals voting age. If they think they can ignore the concerns of a large portion of this country or simply use words like am midwesty, i cant even deal with talking about it, then theyll got something coming. They may become the Minority Party for generations to come, and im not sure that any politician that sits down worrying about their future really thinks they want to be a part of a party that has no shot at National Office because of something they could today choose not to do. You know, bringing to us our panel many new york here. Steve, one of the things frank luntz had an op ed in the Washington Post with lots of tips, if you will, for the Republican Party. One of the things he says is you cant tell people to selfdeport. They are not asking for open borders or blanket amnesty. They just dont want to be regard as criminals. Because of often repeated phrases like illegals hispanic voters dont think republicans like or respect them. Does the gop have the discipline because i think thats what is required at this point to not use that phraseology in this debate as its sort of put before them . At this point they dont because there are sort of two parallel americas right now politically speaking. Theres the america that reelected obama by five million votes thats growing, thats diversifying. Its the coalition of the descendent. Then theres the america that just gave us the majority of house republicans, and that america those districts are not diversifying like the rest of the country, so that kind of language, the language that frank luntz is warning against actually still sells very well and insulates the republican members in those districts from the threat of a primary challenge, and i think that the longterm problem for republicans is this. If you think of the democrats if you think of the republicans and the black vote circa the mid 1960s, we forget the Republican Party was the home of the black vote for almost a century after the civil war, and what happened was they turned they embraced the southern back lack to civil rights, and then its been 80 plus. The republicans or the latino vote are not yet at that point. It was just eight years ago that george w. Bush got 44 of the latino vote, but if they keep this up much longer, they are in serious threat of the same thing happening with latino vote that happened with the black vote. You have to remember, it happened really fast. Nixon got 40 of the black vote. By the time carter came along, you had a big dent in that black