from washington, "the mclaughlin group," the american original. for over three decade

. issue one, w's tax cuts. >> sweeping tax cuts are one of the most popular features of the george w. bush presidency. he signed them into law in 2001 and 2003. the cuts lower the rates on personal income tax rates. in 2010, the year the cuts were due to expire, president obama signed legislation extending this. for two years. now the expiration date is up at the end of this year, december 2012. and if they expire, personal income taxes will go back up.

here's what will happen. those in the 10% brackets will see their tax go you will to 15%. though in the 25% bracket, back up to 28%. this news makes taxpayers squirm. but unlike 2010, there is no bipartisanship in sight. republicans want to extend all of the tax cuts to all of the brackets to prevent the hike. democrats also want to extend the cuts, but not extend them for those making $200 thousand or more annually. those people see their taxes give up. republican house leader john boehner vows to make sure that won't happen. >> any sudden tax hike would hurt our economy, so this before the election, the house of representatives will vote to stop the largest tax increase

in american history. >> senate republicans led by mitch mcconnell warn it if action is not taken to extend the tax break, the economy will suffer when taxpayers are blindsided by a $310 billion increase. what wags on capitol hill with calling "taxmageddon." to senate republicans wrote -- "once republicans are willing to abandon their commitment to more tax breaks for multimillionaires, i am confident that we can i am confident that we can t. unfortunately, it appears that republicans blind adhere answer to tea party extremism is making it impossible to reach making it impossible to before the election." question, is congress gambling with the economy over taxes? pat buchanan? >> here's what will happen, john. the republicans will pass extend all of the tax cuts this summer. all or none. >> on all layers we described? >> all of them! frank sinatra, all or nothing

at all. !úto t harry reid will pass the tax cut extensions for everybody but mort here, guys making more then a million bucks a year. and you're going to center a deadlock there. if mitt wins, i think quickly in january if not before, all tax cuts are extended. about but if president obama wins the election, you've got a real deadlock there, where the republicans are going to say it's all or nothing, and obama will say we're going to get the millionaires, raise taxes on them, so you really would have a deadlock then. the proper answer is if you vote for mitt, clear it up. >> eleanor? >> first of all, this is all election year positioning. nothing is going to actually happen before the november election. and we'll see where we stand. and even if president obama is defeated, he still has his veto pen until he is replaced in january. and the bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire by the end of the year. so if the congress wants do

otherwise, he can veto it. so you can kiss the tax cuts good-bye. at least for a while! and the democrats are now redefining the middle-class as anybody who makes under -- earns under a million dollars a year. that's quite a middle-class! which shows how dependent democrats are too on morton and his friends for campaign contributions, not necessarily -- personally. >> this is reductively pyrotechnic electioneering. >> rhetoric, right. >> and does -- >> to incite the two bases and their phony votes. >> nothing will happen. but we do have in store european style austerity, having sequester coming so spending cuts, with huge tax increases on top of them, unless something is done. and i wouldn't be so sure obama will veto a deal if he lose the election, the entire political environment will be different and what you want is not -- >> i didn't state a deal. if there's a deal, that's

another story. >> if romney wins, congress will do something, some holding action, that is congenial to what he wants to do. the brit al environment will change. and what you want to do is sensible tax system, lower rates, less deductions and less loopholes, spending some reasonable prudent spending restraints, and then reforming entitlements over the long- term. you want to do what paul ryan and mitt romney are talking about. >> you think this electioneering is dangerous in view of the eurozone and china faltering a little? >> china faltering a lot. euro zone on the edge of a cliff with a very high probable. >> except germany. >> . >> yes but it does make the difference. the entire southern part of europe is hanging by a thread in terms of -- a major depression in that part of world. having said that, i happen to be in favor of tax cuts on people like pat buchanan and myself, and not in that order,

of course. i think it's absolutely essential that everybody contribute to the solution of the fiscal problem that we are in. however, the timing works. so i'm in total favor of increasing the taxes. and joining it with expenditure cuts particularly on some of the major entitle. programs. >> just raising taxes -- >> just a minute. we're not going to get it alone or not -- it should be a package deal. it's just nor signal of a dysfunctional government and a government that -- >> even the democrats are now saying they moved up from $250,000 to $1 million, only folks above a million -- first you get peanuts for it and you're taking the discretionary capital of people the most successful people in the drain who do all the investing and take all the risks and everything, taking if from them and giving it to the government. how does that help? >> it only helps in the following way. if you join it properly with cuts, you have a chance to bring to fiscal hole of this country into some kind of reasonable balance.

there's no such thing as peanuts. you're talking about several hundred billion dollars, just on the tax cuts over a period of 10 years. [overlapping speakers] >> just for millionaires? >> no, so much of the -- revenue. you -- >> mort is right. peanuts are peanuts, soon you have a whole -- and the white house is not in favor of bump. it up to a million dollars. >> it is! it's in the house! >> but you cannot put together a package that does not raise any taxes, which is what romney is campaigning on. >> at the he wins, you can? >> if he wins, he did can, there will be a revolution in this country. people will hit the treatments. >> you have four years to work on it. >> you cannot bleed all the social programs. >> expenditure for the pentagon beyond what the pentagon wants. >> wait a minute. do you think harry reid is presenting this with obama kind of pulling the ventriloquist

string? in other words, this is a soak the rich, which is appealing he thinks to the general public, who are not in your class. and that is not only intrinsically unfair, it's undemocratic, it's unamerican, but it is also a tactic that obama is encouraging on the part of reid. >> he may be doing that. if i were to be tell you the -- what motivates this whole thing, our campaign contributions. that's the way i look at it. >> what do you mean by that? >> who will be gaithersburg the democrats enough money at this stage to combatted all the -- what this campaign is going to be looking like? which will be a one of a huge -- [overlappg speakers] >> he wants to pull the subdonations and the sublevel donations? >> no -- >> that's why mort, they're going from 250,000 to a million. they just -- all those people making between 250,000 and a million are voters! and they -- that's why harry

reid is saying, let's get them their -- extend their tax cuts and only get the super-rich. >> and raising the tax rates and putting them back to where they were during the boom clinton years is hardly soaking the rich. it's not even a light rinse. [overlapping speakers] >> you cut rates -- >> do anything about this you have to have everybody contribute to the solution. and including the wealthy people. i've always believed that. [overlapping speakers] >> that's the essence of what we are. >> we're talking about competition and success? >> yes. yes. that's a part of it. >> exit question, on a political maelstrom scale you know what that is? >> rrr! >> zero to 10, zero meaning very bad weather, 10 meaning batten down the hatches, for the mother of all political storms -- rate the atmosphere for the lame duck session on taxes. discerp tow to 10. >> if obama wins, you're going to center a clear, brutal

deadlock. if romney wins, it's going to be a piece of cake. >> if romney wins it's not a piece of cake. it's going to be brutal, whichever party wins. >> if obama wins it's an 8, if romney wins it's a 2. >> i share richard's view. if obama wins, it's a difference and much worse, and if romney wins, obviously he will have a mandate and people will follow with him. as they should. >> i think it's a 10. >> okay. >> i think -- >> obama with lin? >> batten issue two, and drug abuse. tragedy is

age 42, 1968. senator edward kennin chappaquiddick island, massachusetts, that resulted in the drowning that killed a pilot and his aide. david concerned died drug overdose age 28, 1984. michael kennedy, 1984.

michael kennedy,accident aspen, colorado, 1997. john f. kennedy, jr. died while piloting his plane, plunge into the plunge into the 38, 1999. his wife karlyn in the event. question, what is the background of mary's untimely death? >> well, speaking to friends of the kennedy family immediately after the event, they basically said she struggled with depression for a bunch of her adult life, and that she also had problems with alcohol and drugs. and so i must say after watching that series of tragedies that you just put on the screen, i remember senator ted kennedy's used to say he really resisted the notion that there was some sort of kennedy curse. le would say our family is blessed and a lot of these have had

other families experience as well. and mary kennedy's tragic end has prompted her best friend, carrie kennedy, to write about bringing more attention to the problems of clinical depression. so the kennedys always try to take tragedy and make something good come out of it. >> carrie kennedy wrote a moving essay about clinical depression. and the need for treatment and focus on clinical depression as a widespread problem in the united states, which her ed fro okay. the torch is passed. >> this campaign, any campaign, is about the issues and about who goes out there and earns it. >> meet the newest kennedy on the political scene, 31-year- old joseph p. kennedy iii, the grandson of robert f. kennedy and the son of former representative joseph p. kennedy ii. let's note forget his great uncle, president john f.

kennedy, and senator ted kennedy. joseph is running for the 4th district congressional set into massachusetts that is vacated by barn nee frank. here's the bio. age 31, undergraduate stanford university, studied industrial engineering. harvard law school, while at harvard worked with legal aid bureau providing free legal services to low income people. peace corps, 2004 to 2006. cape and islands, massachusetts, district attorney offers prosecutor, two years, middlesex district attorney's office, massachusetts, 2011 to 2012. question, is kennedy a shoe in for barney frank's former seat? i ask you -- >> they don't automatically hand a seat to a candidate. caroline kennedy tried to get a senate seat in new york and she was rebuffed. this young man is doing his homework. he has good credentials. and the kennedy name in a

congressional district should give him a leg-up. >> oh, yeah. >> you have to favor him a a democratic district, presidential year, a big obama turnout. but his opponent is impressive young man himself. he ran first time around, very spirited run -- i think closer than that. former marine but work cut out for him in this district, running at this kid who looks like a caricatures of a kennedy. >> i don't know if he -- symptom of the earlier reaction but some people say it's a kennedy, only running on his name, brings nothing to it. >> what about that? >> i think he's got a pretty good record of public social security. he's very young, but i will say you've got to go back to the 1960s. john f. kennedy was an unbelieveable story, assassinated that was enormousl powerful 13 then. it's dissipated over the years. you've got to realize that folks over 50 years old, they don't remember any kennedy ever

in power, but in massachusetts in a congressional district, you've got to say the guy -- >> it's a very liberal, traditional democratic district. the kennedy family is still a great name in massachusetts. he will do very, very well and i can't see that he loses it. >> well, the seat has been redirected to some extent. it's not as securely democrat, as it was when barney frank held it. he's going to have to fight for it but he looks -- he looks like he -- he knows how ñañ?ñ?t that. >> he's a very hardworking young guy and i think he'll do very well. >> agreed. >> what do we have to say about van capital and what romney is now doing in his arguments against obama? >> well, you know, bain capital is now being presented by the democrats as if it's a capitalist attempt to rip off the business community or the businesses that they're in for their private gain. it's like advertising. one of the things that happens

in business. it's both good and bad. i think romney did it very well and it's a very real addition to -- [overlapping speakers] >> obama saying -- totally dishonest. >> can we get the other side in here? >> just the case, they're making consequence romney. they took this company over, they kept it for eight years, about $100 million in it. they made every effort to make a go of it, and the entire steel industry is -- >> romney opened the door to this, he shed is a job creator. >> he is! >> no, that's not what bain capital does. they have a -- >> excuse me -- they do things -- >> us keys me they have a function but their primary function to make money for their shareholders, not -- >> we have video for romney and -- [overlapping speakers] >> will take over steel companies and close them down? it's absurd. >> obama's problem is this. his ads are attacking equity

capital and bain capital as vampire capitalism in the days, and at night he's going back and raising money and cory booker and a number of democrats saying are you nuts? you're destroying the people that are coming into our communities and helping us out! and this is the heart of obama's campaign. and it's under fire. >> taking their money and then asking if these are the set of skills you want to run the 61 country two different things. and vampires do their best work at night. >> well, there are you. let me say this -- mitt romney was a brilliant businessman and manager. he brought in terrifically talented people, i know the company very well. it was in massachusetts and very big way when i was there. he is an outstanding businessman. so he was also -- >> obama's . is very simple. he says romney cannot shoehorn his way in to a -- saying he has executive experience on the basis of his experience at bain

capital. >> false! it's absolutely false! you don't run a company like that -- >> the governor of the state! [overlapping speakers] >> was romney successful as governor of massachusetts? >> yes, he was successful. >> would he have gotten another term? why didn't he run for if it. >> i don't know the answer to that. >> massachusetts was number 47 in job creation. [overlapping speakers] >> exit -- all right --. >> unemployment rate was already very low and it went down further. >> so where the job creation skills he supposedly -- [overlapping speakers] >> has obama or biden had any executive experience? >> obama spent his whole life in tax supported institutions. he knows nothing -- >> does biden have any executive experience in. >> no, and obama experience is from -- his friends. he has been in universities -- [overlapping speakers] he's got no private sector experience! >> claim to fame of romney is

executive experience in the area of business. >> and government! >> and government! and its current state. >> obama has terrible relations with the congress. he can't know how to deal with these people to establish relationships. >> he can't talk in economic terms? >> no. there was a story front page story in the new york times. help hadn't had a meeting with mitch mcconnell the first 18 months of offers. >> the have truth is there aren't many mention of congress who do have very much experience in the economic sector and financial sector. >> and romney does. >> this might be just what the country needs! we never had a ceo as p issue three, coy colin. >> not just a matter of whether you support obama or romney. it's who they have with them. >> former secretary of state and four star general colin powell is not ready to renew

his presidential endorsement and barack obama. he is a registered republican. but he endorsed democrat obama in 2008 over republican presidential candidate senator john mccain, a vietnam war veteran and prisoner of war. powell's endorsement caused an uproar in his republican party, especially for describing then candidate obama as a "transformational figure." but this week powell declined to back either obama or romney. >> the beautiful part every being a private citizen is you can decide when you want to throw your wealth, if you want to throw your weight. i'm still listening to what the republicans are saying they're going to do to fix the fiscal problems we have, to get the economy moving. and i i owe that to the republican party. >> how important would general powell's endorsement be for second term presidential candidate barack obama? >> not at all. not at all. it will be a zaire. it had impact last time for around because it created added to the sense barack obama was a

unifying transformational figure. this time zero impact. i can guarantee you he won't endorse or vote for mitt romney. >> president obama is going to request powell to support him publicly. doesn't you think that will impact general powell? >> ask powell. >> into, no. he will -- ask paul to go -- [overlapping speakers] >> he will come out publicly and endorse him. >> focus on motivation. here's the motivation. look, you saw powell in the opening statement. it depends on who he brings in with him. powell is part of a realist foreign policy group that george h.w. bush who are at war with the nee neoconservatives is powell is not a fan and they're moving into romney's camp and it's a huge blazing issue, and powell is saying it depends on who they bring in with him. his concern is foreign policy. he doesn't know anything about that. >> what kind of policy does the general want?

>> it wants a strong american defense but a non- interventionist foreign policy and no more wars. >> non-interventionist. >> the powell doctrine. >> publicly crit sized romney for going after russia as one of our global enemies. he said let's get real, mitt. he is worried about the takeover of the neocon and he's a nominal republican. >> ruiz mischaracterizing accidentsly or deliberately? i don't know. >> mischaracterizing what? >> the position of romney on russia. >> no, i think i'about russia that you think is venomous. >> the greatest danger to the united states -- [overlapping speakers] >> he's moved away from that. >> stupid statement, he should have taken it back immediately take it back recently? >> he has not taken it back. >> are aware of that? >> yes, i am aware of it. i agree. i think it was a stupid statement without question.

but i've had enough exposure to romney and the people around him, i don't think this is a extremist foreign policy that he has. he is not extreme on anything frankly. he is just a centrist and moderate on most issues. >> he brings in with him -- there are people who want -- >> what are you saying general -- powell might like about romney? >> well, i think a lot about romney. >> support him. i agree with rich. >> on the international scene. if that's his position -- >> china position -- >> i think 92 -- >> taunting of china, how will he stand up to china? that's make colin powell uncomfortable. he is a cautious diplomat. i don't think he likes the rhetoric coming out of the romney camp. >>i think she's dead right. >> do you think romney is doing that and that's' miscalculation on romney's part? >> is he catering to the far right? he had to win the -- conservative enough to win

. next president of egypt will be moussa, yes or no. >> no are the brotherhood man. >> looks like it. >> no. >> yes. >> the answer is yes. the "the mclaughlin group" salutes our fallen heroes this memorial day weekend. bye-bye!