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Entitlement programs. >> yes. but the compromise on taxes everybody holds up on a great compromise on taxes was half a compromise on taxes. the republicans agreed to $650 billion of revenue over 10 years at out of $4 trillion of cuts, 15% of the total. that really isn't a compromise. boehner was ready to give more than that last december. >> in that deal, republicans came halfway to the compromise. >> halfway to the compromise. >> how far did the president go towards the come mines the last deal. >> the last deal was just about taxes. >> correct. he didn't do anything. >> the previous two bill...

Air-traffic controllers. that would really put democrats in a bind because the white house does not want that kind of latitude. they want to keep the pressure on. >> that is interesting. meredith, i want you to take a listen to congressman john yarmouth, with whom i spoke with earlier this weekend. >> the real deadline is march 27th because we run out of money -- funding authority anyway. we're going to have to come to some kind of agreement on how to fund the government between the end of the month and the end of the fiscal year, september 30th. so friday's kind of an artificial deadline. >> ...

Provisions like corporate jet taxes. republicans have said we already gave you $650 billion in revenue when they raised the top income levels during the fiscal cliff negotiation, so you'll see senate democrats push that as part of their balanced approach, and then off lot of republicans in what jonathan talked about earlier pushing these flexibility measures. senator toomey had a provision like this, senator inhofe has a provision like this, that would grant the administration more leeway to apportion the cuts and hit the same top lines as the sequester mandated. so republicans see two sides o...

Too much on taxes during the fiscal cliff. i think the sequester happens and somehow in the appropriations process down the line they try to fund some of the defense funding again. but beyond that, i don't know what happens. >> what do you think, ben? >> i think that's likely. i think obama hears republicans complaining about what's going on inside their caucus, and says that's your problem, not mine. >> i think the big problem for the president was, look, he's been fairly consistent, he started out wanting $1.6 trillion in revenue. he got $650 billion. so he still has almost $6 billion in rev...

Get back to work and do their job. i just want to remind everyone, totally obvious, we all know it. but this is yet another self-inflicted wound. there is absolutely for reason for us to be taking $85 billion out of the 2013 economy in government spending at a time when the economy is already too weak as far as i'm concerned. so this is exactly the opposite of what we ought to be doing. >> ezra there is a new simpson-bowles plan out today, of sorts. you talked to erskine bowles today, what is their approach? >> it is really striking, the simpson-bowles one had more tax increases than president...