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One of things they were asking about is raising the retirement age and social security benefits age to 63. what would be wrong with that? >> first of all, i love ruth, but her column is a very simplistic and very, very shallow analysis of that whole conversation that we had. it was an in our and a half long. >> we both love ruth, but her point is that you are not looking at the deficit side and you want to put the burden on the rich. >> in short term, we don't have a deficit problem. it's the long-term that we have to look at. and the social security problem is not contributing in naj maker wa...

Primary concern should be job growth. >> is it possible to not see this coming, though, mark halperin, given the fact that we were coming into this with an economy on the brink, and we were starting unbelievable spending on top of unbelievable spending? >> it is not the best time to be a president of hope and optimism because this is an intractable problem. part of the reason he did health care reform, although the white house never emphasized this as the main reason, was to try to cut costs because that's where a lot of this deficit explosion's going to come from. i think unless he radically ...

Victory because the democrats will start pouncing on this. >> and savannah guthrie asked paul ryan about this very issue. >> are you saying that the growth you're going to get from this tax cut will equal the amount it would cost on the deficit side so that it is a wash, so that you're not adding to the deficit at all because of this? >> nobody knows the answer to that question because that is in the future. but what we do know is that this will increase economic growth. >> that is an encapsulation that the bet the purchases are making. >> that's right. and in some ways we've seen this script ...

We have a lot to get through. the house is voting this hour on the tax bill it passed yesterday. it's called a procedural snafu after findsing the house approved version that violated senate rules. something called the byrd rule. the bill was modified and passed in the senate but the edited version needs another okay from the house. >> paul ryan was out in force this morning making his case for the bill across the morning shows addressing the debt with nbc's own savannah guthrie. >> are you saying that the growth you're going to get from this tax cut will equal the amount it would cost on the ...

Let me tell you people are saying regarding the bill not totally sold. >> are you going to vote for it? >> i don't know. we're still working on it. i have some concerns on the deficit side. >> what do you see? >> well, there are lots of concerns. concerns that it the won't do enough for growth. concerns that it will increase the deficit. concerns that it gives too. to the rich. on the deficit which he just mentioned, this idea of a trigger where deficit hawks are saying that given widespread expectation, the deficits will go up under the bill. they are proposing a trigger mechanism that would ...