Twenty-two days until the fiscal cliff deadline and it still seems as if both sides are holding firm on their positions. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy charged the president with not being responsive in negotiations. "Ask the president to come off the campaign trail," McCarthy pressed to Senator Durbin, "It's now time to govern. The election is over."
There are sticking points on both sides: For Republicans, raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, and for Democrats, where to cut spending and how to handle entitlements. Senator Durbin was clear this morning that he does not think Medicare should be on the table in the fiscal cliff negotiations.
"I just don't think we can do it in a matter of days here before the end of the year," Durbin said. "We need to address [Medicare] in a thoughtful way through the committee structure after the first of the year."
Some Republicans (like former presidential contender Rick Santorum said in our PRESS Pass interview) argue that the president wants to go over the fiscal cliff so he can place blame on Republicans in Congress. However, as both Helene Cooper and Bob Woodward pointed out on our roundtable, that strategy may not be the best decision for the president over the long haul.
"Presidents own recessions," Woodward said.
You can watch the entire program on our website to hear more from our roundtable; including the 2016 buzz around outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a lively exchange between Newt Gingrich and Lawrence O'Donnell on the Clinton-era tax levels.
We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.
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Why are you increasingly becoming a passivise when it comes to these Conservatives dogging the President? You just sit there like a bump on a log and let them get away with lies, and distortions against the President and his Administration. Santorum's allegations were pretty strong against the President and you did nothing to question Santorum's positions against President Obama. MTP is getting more and more painful to watch with every week.
Yes, the campaign is over. David, why don't you remind the obstructionist GOP that they are the ones who lost the election. We, the people want the wealthiest to sacrifice too. They are not entitled to tax breaks America cannot afford. Preserving their tax breaks on the backs of the poorest is unacceptable. Stand your ground, President Obama. We the People are behind YOU.
Obviously the Republicans are not quite honest about their proposal they put forth as an alternative to the President's proposal. Furthermore they claimed or Speaker of the House Boehner, that the President's proposal was in "La la land." However the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Republican proposal to offset the tax hikes and spending cuts due to take effect come January 1 or 2, 2013, by FY2022, would raise the national debt by 3.18 trillion.
If then the President's plan to reduce the deficit and debt rather than allowing the country to go over the cliff, that is, the law automatically kicks in and tax hikes and spending cuts, sequestration, which becomes law, is called la la land by Republicans, then their plan must be called, "Bye bye America." If interested in reading the read of this short blog titled, 'Cliff Forecast: 2013' go to www.globalbabbler.com
We Have A Serious Problem -- The Congress Has To Start Acting Like Americans Not Repubs -- Not Dems -- Americans!
Respectable & Acceptable Compromise On Taxes & Spending!
The Debt Ceiling Should Not Be Used As Leverage By Anyone -- Because Of the Negative Effect That Will Result -- As Last Time -- Americans Paid Once For This With A Lower Credit Rating And Huge Personal Losses In Savings, Investments & Retirement Accounts! Everyone Takes The Hit Here -- Self Inflicting Wounds -- It's Just Plain Crazy!
We Know Taxes Have To Increase -- We Know Spending Cuts Must Be Made -- We Know That Tax Deductions & Loop Holes Have To Be Addressed -- We Know That Corporate Tax Rates & Entitlements Have To Be Addressed -- We Know That Bush Cuts Are Going Bye Bye For The Top End -- We Know This And Alot More -- Fighting Over What One Calls Things Is -- Semantics -- Just Plain Crazy Again -- Nuts --
Get On The Stick -- Or Get Another Job Chlidren!
You Folks In Congress Keep Forgetting Who You Work For -- All Americans -- Because All Americans Pay You Not Just Those That Got You There!
David, How could you allow Rick Santorum to go unchallanged on his comments regarding how the president has addressed sharia law? I think in his orginal speech in Cario he made it clear these types of laws had no place in country that was moving toward democratic rule. I see you on Morning Joe and recently you seem to be more appeasing to one party over the other. I will continue to watch for a while longer but I tell you if this continues I will have to let it go. I have been wiht Meet the Press for a long time and I will miss it on Sunday mornings. But I guess you feel you have to live up to your journalistic integrity/
Senator Durbin,
I have news for you, Medicare is going broke and SS is just an IOU from the Federal budget.
A single man or woman who turned 65 in 2010 and earned the 2011 average U.S. wage of $43,500 will pay $58,000 in Medicare taxes and $294,000 in Social Security taxes, making for a total of $352,000, according to a 2011 report by the Urban Institute.
But the average Social Security and Medicare benefits that single man will receive will come to about $432,000. And the single woman will get benefits worth about $475,000 out of the system.
This isn't about "earning" one's own benefits. With Medicare, money being paid in isn't being held for the individual who paid for it. As the Associated Press reported last year, "Many workers may believe their Medicare payroll taxes are going for their own insurance after they retire, but the money is actually used to pay the bills of seniors currently on the program."
The point, though, is that Medicare is a transfer program in which the federal government takes money from current workers and gives it to retirees. One might call that a handout.
Social Security, meanwhile, certainly isn't a guarantee. Obama might consider the retirement program a "bedrock commitment," but the Supreme Court doesn't. The court has ruled on two difference occasions that citizens are not entitled to the dollars they pay into the entitlement. Money paid into the program can be used to fund other totally unrelated government activities, just like any other tax dollars. The commitment to the program is dependent on the whim of politicians who are legally allowed to tax you for one thing and use that same money to pay for something else. That — and nothing else — is what seniors paying into Social Security have actually earned.
Let's face it, our politicians are in un-civil war. Neither side will compromise. Why? Because they know that Bernake will just print more money to pay for the deficit. This causes inflation, which is a TAX. Unfortunately, it is not a progressive tax. Wake up America. Neither Republicans or Democrats have your interests in mind. Only their POLITICAL Interests. They all need to be fired.
BTW, Capital gains TAX is dumb. It just gives people an incentive to move their investments OFFSHORE....like India and China. Estate TAX is better. You can't take it with you. Finally, BAHAMA OFFSHORE Loopholes like GOOGLE and IR use to lower marginal tax rates should be CLOSED ASAP. But you would have to ban lobbyists first.
Guns are blamed when we should be looking at harder questions like,
Who took prayer out of school?
Who took the Ten Commandments out of our courts?
Who gives the kids video games that reward violence without constraint nor moral accountability?
Who replaced God with government? Well it wasn't God!
Who traded Christian values for worship of butterflies? It wasn't God!
What is our reward oh great egotistical nation?
Youth that only know to 'get on the system'.
Out of wedlock children to get on the system.
Crime without remorse - because remorse is regret of sin - and sin is actions outside the will of God.
We revert to our baseline. If our baseline for driving is established in a drivers safety course, that's good. If we can learn to fly airplanes quite realisticly via our computer..., If our baseline for communication skills is established in a solid loving home, that's good. But..... People watch movie stars marry and break up "just because" Where does it say,"Thou shall not kill"? If a child's baseline concerning guns is video games (and they get more vilent and graphic every year) what do you expect?
As this country turns from Christian based government to a government based government, the citizens' moral base will colapse and you will see it first in the younger non-churched,non-praying generation.
Thank you , American Government
President Obama said something had to change.
Try this: Reestablish the 10 Commandments:
1. You shall have no other gods before me
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy
5. Honor your father and mother(that your days may be long...)
6.You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit audultry
8. You shall not steal
9. Youshall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house (or anything else)
Oh by the way, Jesus said, "I am not here to change the law but to complete it". He also said, "I am the way, the truth and the light. No one gets to the Father except through me.'
You might say that is too exclusive. I say that is God giving mankind one last ray of hope and way out of judgement already due us.
Obama, the lampstand in this country is about to be removed. Politics and voter approval won't protect you then. I do not threaten you or anyone. I offer you Jesus Christ.
Again, David Gregory becomes the def, mute and blind when he had the NRA CEO sitting in front of him and did not ‘seriously’ attack his rhetorical nonsense. It appears that Mr. Gregory becomes the spineless one when he is facing pseudo power players like NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.
Did not these killers had a sound mind and judgment when planning the mass killings? Did the police record show that any of these individuals were criminals, drug addicts or someone of a deranged mind?
Gregory ‘never’ used the opportunity to attack the many holes in LaPierre’s gutless argument. Oh yes, let’s fill the schools with armed teachers, policemen and even perhaps the arm forces; of course, this is the solution to the problem; to the kinds of weapons that are readily available to ANYONE who so desires to do harm to others, and then blame it on mental illness. So, Mr. Gregory, now you have empowered that sicko to go back out there and promote his brand of defending the 2nd amendment. LaPierre has left Meet The Press even more empowered. Mr. Gregory, now go and tell the families of Newtown what a good job you did in calling for a ban on the types of weapons that has brought them so much sorrow. David Gregory, all you did again, is puff more hot air to the viewing public. Boy do we miss the likes of Tim Russert who would have carved him a new hole.
It appears to me that, soon and very soon; all Americans will be faced with the decision as to whether or not to deal with the pseudo power lords of the NRA and the Congressmen and Senators who are afraid to go against them. They will be again face with the painful acceptance of 'the chickens coming home to roost.'
How much longer can the American public tolerate spineless Senators and Congressmen who are more concerned with, the appearance of protecting the 2nd amendment rights of their constituents and thinking about the next election, rather that doing the right thing for the nation at large?