David Gregory discusses this morning's MTP - including Sec. Geithner's comments on the recovery, and Tim Pawlenty's dig on Michele Bachmann.
A lot happening on a busy Meet The Press this morning. On the heels of Speaker Boehner's announcement that he will not seek a "grand bargain" on the debt limit, I sat down with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to talk about the state of the negotiations.
He told me that, even after Speaker Boehner's decision, President Obama still wants "the biggest, most substantial deal possible."
On the other side of the aisle, Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty made news by finally going after his fellow GOP hopefuls Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann - something he was criticized for not doing in the debate a few weeks back.
On Bachmann, Pawlenty said, "her record of accomplishment in Congress is nonexistent. It's nonexistent."
Pawlenty also called out Romney on health care, saying, "I think if you're gonna prosecute the political case against President Obama and one of the top three or four issues that's going to be the direction of the country in healthcare, it's gonna be very difficult for our nominee to be one of the co-conspirators."
You can watch our entire program on our website here, including our roundtable with insights and analysis from the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, and NBC News' Chuck Todd.
We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet The Press.
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Bachmann's record of accomplishments in the US Congress is nonexistent. There is no other way to say it. As a Republican, how can I vote for a Congresswoman with no results, no success in any manner, when i ripped on Democrats for voting for Senator Obama with no record in two years in the Senate?
Will my fellow Republicans vote for a candidate with zero Congressional achievements? I find it very difficult to believe that it wil happen. Will see.
You have a point. We see what happens when the US elects a President with no real experience, no matter how well he reads a monitor.
You got to go back to the IRS Tax Lawyer career for accomplishments. Check the wiki page for her candidacy ... all will be quite clear for those looking for affirmation or condemnation.
Regards,
Cooter
You're interview with Mr. Pawlenty was a disappointment. I've been a fan of you and your professional performance, UNTIL TODAY ! Seems to me that you had some kind of hidden agenda; a desire to badger and take down the "nice guy". He'd answer your questions if you gave him the time, but that didn't seem to fit your game plan today. I was hoping that somewhere along the line, Pawlenty would get fed up with your attitude. Unfortunately, maybe he is just too nice a guy. Please give the candidates their due respect in the future and forget the partisan bickering. And perhaps next time, get at least one conservative panelist on the show. Really, Robinson and Todd ??? How about some balance.
Mr. Pawlenty was not answering the questions asked, he was giving his usual canned responses. When David Gregory asked "what would you do now" about specific issues such as the debt ceiling talks, social security and Libya, Mr. Pawlenty would respond by bringing up what President Obama had done and what he thought should have been done. Mr. Gregory kept saying "okay that's in the past, what would you do now" and Mr. Pawlenty would never give a straight answer. The only things I really know about Mr. Pawlenty after this interview is that he would not raise taxes and the only thing he thinks President Obama has done right is get Bin Laden. I don't see any difference between him and Michele Bachman.
Yes, and where is the balance on Fox News in their panels. I just must have missed them over the years.
Mr Greggory earned his Tim russert badge today.Tim asked tough questions of both
T. geithner andPawlenty.kudos
I must disagree. I have never missed Tim (and his unbiased approach) more. I am very disappointed in David. I think he should be fired for his obvious Liberal slant on every show. This show continues to propogate the NBC Liberal bias that turns off most viewers. Sorry Tim!
Liberal slant on every show? David Gregory? The man bends over backwards to try to get any Republican to answer any question posed, but he makes Democrats answer questions three different ways and still isn't happy?
The Pawlenty (Choo-Choo) interview was a joke. Typical Republican playing catch-me-if-you-can, and when the interviewer does is accused of playing gotcha politics.
In the Geithner interview, David, was emphatically trying to get Mr. Geithner to commit to saying that President Obama was in favor of ending medicare as we know it, or at least a statement that would overshadow the deficit meeting news today. Mr. Geithner rightfully didn't take the bait, but he answered the questions in more than one way.
Look it is obvious to me what Mr. Geithner meant when he stated that there are savings that can come from medicare that could help bring down our deficit. Because there still is much waste in that program that doesn't relate to cutting benefits or en ding the program as we know it, and that's what Mr. Geithner was referent.
I think David is a bit tired of the Republican merry-go-round when it comes to getting his questions answered. He pushes Democrats on his shos because they at least will answer his questions forthrightly. He has an one hour show to produce each week and it needs to be interesting. I tire of tuning in every week (by video feed thanks msnbc) to find Republicans talking in circles. That gets frustratingly inane.
Fox makes no claim (valid claim) to be impartial and no one is fooled by them if they do. I watch MTP because I DO think Mr. Gregory is normally a terrific and fair moderator. Not today tho. If MTP wants to educate voters on the candidates and their positions, then let them speak and explain what they envision for the future. All voters need to educate themselves on what these people think and moe importantly, what they say they will do. Can't make a good choice based only on how well someone can speak to a crowd or how much money they can raise in a quarter.
Bob Beckel
Alan Colmes
Juna Williams
..just to name a few.
The point is not which network does the best job of promoting some idealistic sense of balance and fairness, but which network/interviewer does the best job of presenting the candidates and their positions. If all people want to do is watch programs that are aligned with their party and vote in lock-step, then we all deserve whatever we get. Independents will determine the outcome in 2012, not Repub. or Dems. IMO the country is looking for a moderate who understands what the middle class is going through. Not the elite Progressives or the ultra fanatical Conservatives.
If you fact check Governor Pawlenty's statements about debt and deficits under Bush and Obama you will find that his statements are partly false and otherwise confused, or misleading. However, because Pawlenty made them on Meet the Press they will be accepted as true on TV shows, blogs, etc.
I just don't get what Pawlenty and all the other repubs keep arguing that cutting spending AND cutting taxes will solve our debt woes! IMO to compare it to a say an individual in the same "debt crisis" then decides to cut spending by disconnecting his cable, cancel Netflix... and then says "I'm now also going to drop my work hours down to part time" (ie cutting taxes). I think most would see this not only wouldn't work, but doesn't make sense. Why then do they think this would make sense for America?
Obama is doing to the new Congressional Reps what the Dems did to Bush 41. Offered a balance budget if he would violate his pledge on no new taxes. Remember "Read my lips." Now Obama is pressuring the Reps to raise taxes so the Dems can say in the next election, "you cannot trust the Reps to keep their word.
Shameless. The Reps need to hold their ground. Raising taxes in a recession is a job killer.
Can't believe I wasted my time watching this show. I could have did a better job at questioning this guy.
Number one the taxes that this guy said Obama is raising is at the lowest it has been in over 50 years so how much lower does taxes need to be?
Second the tax breaks that are suppossed to help create jobs were in place years before Obama was even heard of during the Bush years that actually started the process of shipping jobs over seas. Their is proof that the economy was great during the Clinton tax policies and weakened during the Bush republician policies, so when is reporters going to put the rest these tax lies the republicians are throwing out? Why would we go back to poicies that fail?
Third as far as jobs go, the private sector is creating jobs, but it is the public sector through all these republican cuts that are bringing the jobs numbers down.
Fourth the debt is due to the unpaid wars and bush tax cuts, not social security.
Fifth Obama went beyond the 2 trillion in tax cuts and you let this guy get away with saying the president is not trying to bring down the debt? He went to 4 trillion with a most being in tax cuts and billions in closing tax loop holes and you let him wiggle his way out of that? Obama approach is not balanced because it hurt the middle class and poor more than the rich and these republicans won't budge and say Obama is the bad guy because they won't to protect the rich when the Democrats are trying to have everybody take some kind of cut.
Sixth, how did you forget that the Obama recovery package was mostly TAX CUTS and not spending?
Get it together. It's a shame that John Stewart does a better job at interviewing these lying republicans
Well, I agree with all your "questions". However, this is the first time I actually thought David did a decent job in attempting to get answers, but as usual Republicans or I probably should say politicians in general, don't usually answer them. Dumb answer about Lady Gaga though. How can someone in this day and age possibly think being gay is a choice. Unbelievable.
I appreciated parts of the interview, but DG totally let Pawlenty get away with bragging about his record in Minnesota. He never pressed him on his claims (other than challenging him on casting a positive light on the past gov. shutdown). Our AAA rating was recently downgraded in large part due to all the budgeting gimmicks and shifts that Pawlenty employed in order to balance the budget. He needs to be called on this! He did MN no favors.
TPaw did MN absolutely no favors. He left office with a structural deficit. He seems to think otherwise.
I gotta say I watch this show every week. I'm an independent, and I get this show is attempting equal tough questioning of both political parties, but today's show was ridiculous. Here are the 2 points, that left me thinking I was watching an overzealous attempt to paint a biased picture. You can agree or call me out on it.. but this is what I was left thinking.
1) Today was the second time a snapshot was shown of what unemployment was at Obama's inauguration and what it is today. A snapshot in time does not a trend make (and I agree with Geitner's statement that the graph was ridiculous). The US economy was in a downward spiral with job loss well before the inaugeration and we have seen a significant period of job growth since the stimulus packages and the bailouts. Sure, the rate has slowed the last 2 months and unemployment edged up, but we are not seeing job loss bleeding like we did when Obama first came in. I think this show has to give credit here that there was a reversal in trend. You should be discussing job growth trends from the initial point of the collapse.
Also, what this show seems to be selling is this imaginary concept that the economy is affected only by the government stimulus policy. As Geitner pointed out, there are multiple facets to job creation and business confidence (i.e. gas prices, Japanese economic situation, business uncertainty from the tax policies of the debt ceiling negotiations, etc). Until we start seeing job loss exceeding hiring, I'm not sold on a failure of any policies we have had in place.
Also, I swear I heard Mr. Gregory mention that the healthcare initiative was brought up as a failure in job growth stimulus, but (correct me if I am wrong) don't the biggest elements of that bill take effect in 2014. I don't really get the whole point of that being an immediate job stimulus effort. I thought the point was to reduce the growing rate of healthcare costs.
I want to hear more discussion on this show of what other courses of action does the US government have up it's sleeve for stimulation.
Now, the US deficit is another story and that trend is only increasing and what comes out of that I am awaiting a result of the current stalemate in Congress.
2) In regards to Pawlenty, sure I too feel everyone in the republican candidacy is the same candidate with no real differentiation, but I have to say, you weren't giving this guy much of a chance. The way I heard the interview, "Hey, so this newspaper calls you a loser, why are you a loser?" and this went on 4-5 times. I personally felt this was a very vicious interview.
I just had the urge to speak my mind, but feel free to disagree or point out the error in any of my logic.
Tax increases (or closing of loopholes and elimination of deductions) may be needed, but it's known for a fact that spending needs to be be cut. So work on both ! Tax revenue would probably be sufficient, IF those 12 million people were back to work and paying taxes, rather than collecting unemployment. Neither party has done much of anything to address this. Too busy pointing blame. Disgusting....each and every one of elected representatives.
I felt Tim Geithner's interview to be sobering and (refreshingly) not as politically spun as most interviews. The layers of politics involved with the debt ceiling agreement are tremendous, but at the end of the day, something needs to be accomplished. Do individual politicians have the stomach for this? We shall see.
Great hard hitting interviews as usual. I enjoyed this debrief.
Dear David - Next time someone from the GOP spouts the party line that "the federal Government under Obama has gotten out of control" like pawlenty did on your show today, would you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask them to point to something speciific that is fundamentally different between now and when Bush was in office. Aside from the healthcare bill, not one thing has changed. All of the bailouts and stimulus packages were one time occurances, were mostly started under Bush, and are now fading out (and the economy is tanking by the way, which indicated that they were not large enough, not that the didn't work). This administration has only CUT taxes, so please were is the difference. As a responsible journalist you MUST call these people out. Make them cite specifics.
Thank you
What is different is that we are now in another war (oops sorry humanitarian action) in Libya, we are on the verge of hiring 16,000 new IRS employees for the health care reform bill, government employment at the federal level is up and at higher salary levels than the private sector (for lesser return on the investment IMO), we have semi-crippled our oil drilling off shore, we have paid for others to buy new vehicles to replace theirs, paid for home downpayments for others.
There were not any women on this show today. As over half of the population, I feel that the voices of women should be invited, heard, and taken seriously. Please invite more women onto your show.
Given the mess the men have made of our country and government, I have to say you're right Melissa. Let's consider seriously the perspective that the women bring to the table and ensure that they are heard from also.
Pawlenty left MN in a mess. Because of his "funny smoke and mirror" accounting the state is 5 Bil in the hole. He did not govern, he dictated (his way or the highway no comprise). His solution (as is the GOP's) was to balance budgets on the backs of the middle and lower class, and the less able to help themselves. He kept "borrowing" from K-12 (obviously not supportiing education). He was never elected in MN with a majority vote. MN tends to run qualified third party candidates that get 10-15% of the vote. Jess Ventura was a better governor than Pawlenty. Poling shows that if he rans for POTUS he would not carry MN. For future segments on potential candidates I would appreciate harder questions/research for their "talking points". Pawlenty left MN in shambles, the state is currently shut down because of his legecy and what the GOP has done. He did not balance the budget, he gave the wealthy the tax breaks, and he did raise taxes, under Pawlwnty my property taxes went from approximately $600 per year to $2300 (which includes school districts, remember him "borrowing" and not paying K-12) , but according to him that is not a tax increase.
If you don't like the way Mr. Gregory schedules his guests just change the channel. Can you handle that one?
I was not criticizing how guests are scheduled, I think what they say could be handled without kid gloves. Pawlenty's handling of MN government has been in the news and is on record and does not jive with what he says. If this is to be a forum for seeing potential candidates, I think they should get the hard questions, or at least make it known that the answers are untrue or canned statements. Check out Hot Dish Politics at the Star Tribune (Minneapolis paper) for comments by local people on his appearance.
I have a standing date w/ Sunday morning news programs- All of them! Sometimes I am dissapointed w/ the way the questioning is carried out, never the less, the host knows how to do his/her job.
As for Pawlenty: He believes his own lies, web spining, whatever? nothing can be done about that. Simply ask the people of Minnesota, will they vote for him again? Ask the new governor of MN ? He did not balanced their budget, but he does-have delusions of grandeour
As for Bachman: Lots of blubber, nothing that makes sense. Doesn't even know American history. As for all her 5 kids & 23 foster children? Believe me! they were not in her house all at one time, totally impossible and she was paid by the state for taken in those children! I know about foster care & how it works. She was paid for that service! Unfortunately that c/be considered a business!!
Good job on Pawlenty David. Shades of ole' Tim there. I'm happy to see it. Great job. Keep up the pressure.
What I see with Pawlenty, Bachmann, Palin is politics & as in the past. Nothing changes in a positive as long as we the people elect those who are there at all to serve the people. Rather, all of the current congressman, senators, etc. are there for power, & money. Washigton DC needs a complete overhaul before this country begins moving in the right direction.
Any ideas? JParker
Mr. Pawlenty commented that there isn't scientific proof establishing the origin of one's homosexuality. Therefore, he takes the position that the GLBT community should not have the same rights as the straight community. Does he know that it has been very difficult over the years for scientists to obtain funding for such research, usually done at universities? Historically this is due to the bigotry against the GLBT population. If Mr. Pawlenty does know this, what a sleazy way to make his argument appear plausible.