>> malia and sasha generally finish their homework a y ahead of time. congress can do thee s same thing. if youno know you've got to do something, just do it. >> this week on "inside washington," president obama to republicans -- grow up. republicans to the president -- behavior self offer. sfirsrst-class sendoff fort robert gates. >> president has failed in turning the economy around. >> can edit michele bachmann off to an impressive start. >> new york has sent a message to this nation loud and c clear.

>> a major victory for new yk gov. andrew cuomo, the comeback kid. ptioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--rg here is my favorite line of the week, wrten by david rogers in "politico" -- "congress has the feel of some backstabbing midwest city council arguing sandbag techniques while floodwaters rise." as president obama put it at his news conference -- >> they ar in one week, out one we, and then they are saying that obama has got to step in here. you need to be here. i have beennn here. i have been doing afghanistan and bin laden a the greek crisis. >> the president says he wants to get worng. at he wants us to get working.

i cannot think of a better way than to have him come over today. we are waiting. >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. republicans were outraged by the president's remarks, outrage. one said that the president ought to come down and take of valium. but harry reid was listening. he canceled the senate's fourth of july holiday -- what a sacrifice. what do you make of the president's performance on wednesday, mark? >> the president recognizes two things. over the past 2.5 years democrats lost public debates on a major initiatives, the economic recovery and health care. they don't want to run the risk to this time. you have back to lay out what the consequences are recklessness and irresponsibility of even entertaining the possibility of letting this country default on its obligations. >> evan, what you make of it?

>> you cannot be partisan about this. at least he is showing some energy. but he h got to be an arm twister behind the scenes, and he is not lyndon johnson. this is his moment of leadership. this is no joke. he has got to get it done. >> nina? >> in the modn era, there is not lyndon johnson. the criticism of him, by david brooks most recently this week, is that he is too much like the senate majority leader. the president has the bully pulpit and he used it. at that republicans started screaming bloody murder indicates that they are worried about it. >> charles? >> the problem is that this has the feel of a town whe the president, the leader is not beating. he did not propose a budget. well the one he did was voted down by the senate 97-0, it was so preposterous. the democrats in control the senate have not produce a

budget in two years. republicans have. we have a president at a full campaign mode wawas not proposing anything at a public -- who knows whether in private. there is no democratic proposal on the table for a budget. he is demagoguing against medicare and the ryan plan. he has decided dohat and that is how you get reelected. that is why the town is floundering. >> consistency has not a problem with republicans. they have endorsed the ryan plan which does not provide for a balanced budget, and now they are pushing foror a balanced budget. 103 house republicans have already gone on record as saying and they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless there is aap of 18% of gornment spending -- federal spending which is 7% below what we're spending right now. in addition to that, if they insist on a constitutional amendment and to cut spending by

half, the defit by half next year. all of which are impossible. every serious person who has looked at this, whether in a group or a study group or commission or whenever, knows that they -- there have to be revenue enhancements, taxes raed as well as spending cuts. the idea of just trying to do it with spending cuts alone is just irrational. >> democrats have not even produced a budget for 2012. >> the -- >> what's -- >> the case is there -- >> w where are thebers and where is the plan? it isight there -- >> where? >> look, the president, the dealings with joe biden senators and congressmen, is there. $400 billion i revenues, $2 trillion in cuts. that is 1/5, and republicans walked away, saying we can ct touch it.

>> everybody knows the republican leadership is afraid of its own members. they think they cannot get anything passed or they mightht be dethroned if they have some sort of tax increase. the democrats are just, frankly it demagogues about medicare and medicaid and social security. if ever there was a time to package these things together -- example increases in the age qualifications for medicare, which would add a lot of money to the federal budget if you don't have to spend it, plus revee enhancements, aka taxe -- this is the time for everybody to experience pain no one wants to experience. >> everybody seems to be in campaign mode. where are the democrats the party of the downtrodden? the republicans the party of the very wealthy. is that playing out in the electorate? >> i don't think the electorate

realizes how serious this is. they are playing with fire really bad things can happen. markets get spoed. investors get spooked. interest rates go way up. we are plunged back into the serious recession. this is not just a political game -- >> and nobody -- >> i don't think the country -- >> it could be 2007 on steroids. >> evan tells us how serious it is. what do we get? the president to stand up in a press conference and not once, but six times tax breaks for corporate jets. i did the math on it. if you were to collect that tax for the next 7000 years it would not cover one year of the debt obama has added. i will put it another way. if you were to collect tt debt starting with john the baptist

and do it every year since, it would not cover the amount of debt obama has added between january 1 and june 1 of this year. and he mentioned i it six times. and you are telling me he is serious? >> yoou are right the president worker #1: over 8,000 people have jobs in ohio thanks to whirlpool. worker #2: and one reason whirlpool is in ohio is freight rail. worker #3: we ship tens of millions of appliances every year. worker #1 or 2: washers, dryers, ovens. worker #4: and freight rail helps get them from warehouse to your house. vo: freight rail businses across this country rely on it. sa.

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it's like an extra bonus savings. [ cackling ] he's my ride home. how much can the snapshot discount save you? call or ick today. >> before we ask our seniors to pay more for health care, before we cut childrens' education before we sacrifice our commitment to researchnd innovation that will help create more jobs, i think it is only fair to ask an oil company or corporate jet owner that has done so well to give up that tax break that no other business enjoys. >> there's charles'corporate jet . what iss the president up to?

>> he is playing class warfare. there are real loopholes th need to close. but charleses' point is right. this is tiny, tiny little drops in a big ocean. it is not going to solve the problem to go after corporate jets or even to go after the hedge fund guys, although i would sure like to. they have got to raise revenues, i hate to say, on the middle- class. everybody, everybody -- is the point that gets lost in this -- everybody is in this boat. there is no way out unless every single american does something. >> raise revenues on the shrinking middle class mark. >> evan is right, because it is going to affect everybody. evan raised the possibility of defaults. when that happens the federal government of the united states, which rose 40 cents of every single dollar we spend every single day, it is faced with the

option -- do you face a sergeant in combat in kandahar, a grandmother in a 1-bedroom apartment her social security check, or did you meet obligations of bankers who are holding their debt in beijing and beverlyills? the answer is simple. the prior claim is on the second group. the reality is we are talking about -- the president is proposing increasing taxes, revenues by 1% over the next 10 years. $400 billion. they are going to collect a $39 trillion in the next 10 years. he said we ought to increase that by $400 billion as part of the package right now. you cannot cut a single blond hair o on th beautiful head of our tax system, according to grover norquist and all of hi apparatchiks who serve in congress. >> there is something wrong when the top 400 earners -- it said

they are not earners -- richest americans pay taxes that are half what they were paying during the clinton administration and they are earning 33 times more. it is just an astonishing income gap we have. that is not to say -- we know what the drivers of the deficit are. it is not just that. it is the entitlement programs and defense third, and lastly is taxaxes. >> the political argument is ok, old folks and ks here, fat cats in corporatjets. >> it is demagoguery. >> so what? >> if you confiscated all the wealth of the top 1000, it would not make a dent in the $14 trillion debt. the problem as larry lindsey. out, is not that somebody is not going to get a coupon onin

august of this year, but that in 10 years we are not going to be able to pay anybody anything on our debtbt. is that 10 years which is now at stake. i will give you one example of the demagoguery on the part of the democrats'. what republicans would like is what was propoposed by lieberman and coburn, which is to indndex retirement age of medicare the way social security was in the greenspan commission in the early 1980's. as a result, social security is now about 66, 67, but still stuck at 65 for medi-scare. if you index eight -- you are right. >> you will save billions of dollars. the democrats want, and you know why? medicare is the one issue of next year. you are telling me that democrats and the president are serious about -- >> here -- >> washington is still stuck in outer partisanship. but on this one particular issue, everybody thinks about this for half a second realizes

that you absolutely have to -- is not negotiable, not an argument. you have to, have to, after to raise taxes and you have to, have to, have to cut entitlements, and not just a little, a lot. if you don't do that, the entire countries standard of living is going down. >> me that the republican nor the democratic leadership will admimit that -- neither the republican nor the democratic leadership will admit that puicly. >> wait a minute, it is easy to talk about cutting a program that is absolutely crucial to the survival of seniors in this country. why not talk about it being based upon need and ability to pay? the very edge fund managers that evan talked about wou pay at a rate of 1/2 of what a firefighter or a teacher or nurse pace in income tax in this country. they collect full social

security, they collect f full medicare benefits. that is outrageous, that is indefensible. i don't think to arbitrarily cut people off at age but you do based on who needs a and requires it. >> you may not have noticed, but in the republican plan, you had means testing for medicare, precisely as you suggest. democrats have refused. the democrats have refused also on a bracing -- raisining the age, indexing the age trade is the republicans who have gone out on a limb, and your guys are the ones -- >> we have to table this debate because of time.

>> you cannot get a life or wrong. i am committed to life. [applause] >> congresswoman michele

bachmann at a campaign appearance in south carolina. she was talking about the time she suffered a miscarriage and hurt renew our friends for life. she makes mistakes, but nobody is ridiculing her for this one. what does this tell you about michele bachmann? >> it gives a personanal narrative to her pro-life position, consistent with the vast rimajority of republican primary voters. i would contrast her introduction to this race withh that of the former speaker of the house newt gingrich. th each passing day, in spite of the stumbles, her stock has been enhanced. her position has been improved. newt the last time i was trying to close out his tiffany 's account. >> she was no. 2 in one of the polls behind mitt romney. >> democrats under rate her at

her peril. they talk about -- at their peril. theyalk about her the way they used to talk about ronald reagan, and that is really dumb. having said that, politifact analyzed her statements and found that of the ones ty analyze, not were really true, and 10 were pants-on-fire false. ththese are things he cannot continue to do. >> -- you cannot continue to do. >> she is the best thing that happeneded to the democtic party, because she might actually win the nomination, but i don't think he can win the presidency. >> think and she can win at the republican nominion. >> it is possible, it is not likely. she remains a longshot. she has a good chance of winning iowa but i am not sure where she goes in terms of winning after that. she could easily end up number two.

she is very appealing. the more you learn about her -- she had a 23 foster kids, five kids of her own, she talks about life and family, looking after each other. this is a person who has lived in. it is not only rhetoric. ideologically, she would have a hard time in the general election. >> defense secretary robert gates retired this week. if they gave him a good sendoff at the pentagon. he said that when he looks back on this service he will look back at the y young warriors and the ones who kept on fighting and it would never came back until the end of his days. remarkable guy, don't you think? >> only secretary of defense in the nation's history to serve successfully under two presidents o different parties and have the trust and admiration of both of them. he had a sobering remarks on the way out. "i go to arlington, i go to hospitals, and the with the families, i know the awesome

responsibility and the unpredictability of war and those who be the drums have to be aware of that." they asked him what he was most proud of, and he said it was listening to the press on the mine-resistant vehicles that we finally got to our troops so they would not be blown up by ied's i afghanistan and hospitals, the condition of hospital a the treatment of our veterans and warriors at places likwalter reed. > he was exactly what is missing today in washington. politically i'm afraid. he stood up to the military industrial complex -- politically unafraid. he stood up to the military- industrial complex. fairly credible guy who could ststand up to petty interests. that is what we are missing. >> i want to say something about the advantages of moving up the

chain. this is a bureaucrat made brilliant secretary. for people who talk about zero, they are just bureaucrats is the best of the bureaucracy made ino an actual leader. >> in addition to the deep sensitivity he had for the soldier and sacrifice he was concerned about the count. one of his last speeches he talked about -- he almost intimated that one of the reasons it was his time to lead that -- to leave is that he led a titime when america was dominant, and it looks like america is looking to reduce its ro in the well, and he implied it was not a world he wanted to be leading in.

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entire discussion. >> that is andrew cuomo the governor of new york resignwho signeded legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in new york. he had a few rough years. >> he is priced at 8 "the new york times" as the comeback kid. not just on gay marriage, but he managed to get its budget through t the legislature in new york. whether he has long term leggs, i am not sure, because he is a volatile guy. >> andrew cuomo can do it in new york, why can we not do it in washington? >> good question. good question, gordon. [laughter] same-sex marriage has a sense of inevitability, but right now is in the area that barry ldwater said w we ought to cut off the eastern seaboard of the united states. >> and iowa --

>> but they deeded by court, and the court is about to leave. the reality is that this estima -- is a signal achievement, and othe budget, for a guy who lost the democratic primary in 2002 and a bad way, to come back like this is a real achievement. >> i wanted out with the advance man was for the president who put himim in theere day before the vote, and his weaselly answer in front of o gay audience may enter cuomo look better and the president look worse. >> this is a historic moment. it was not done by judges, as in massachusetts. it was done by the people, their representatives. it is really a matter of time. this is an issue that is now essentially decided as generational change. cuomo did somhing interesting

the morning after this. he is goin to propose expanded drilling for natural gas, the process in new york which is going to appeal the people on the right. this is a guy was looking for a large constituency and will look a lot higher than the governorship. >> interesting. that is eight, and see you next week. -- that's it, see you next week.