it's been long-term and we've been going through this for years a wasngton in the doing anything. what does that do to the economic recovery? >> i think you see it with the stock market, brenda, everything is pretty much frozen. look, you cannot pic up a paper, a paper or lk on the internet and see fiscal crisis. everyone now is focused on it and i don't care if you're inside the beltway or outside the beltway. and it does a couple of things, if we don't get past this deadline and i agree with larry principle, but the fact if we don't get past the deadline, people are one, going to view government as totally inept or more inept than it is right now. and businesses free us up and they're afraid of doing anything and the individual freezes up. look, who is going to be out there actively investing and looking for work? you just don't know what's going to happen with all that we need to get something done, as bad as it might be. >> and does a mth or two really make a difference? at some point, they're going to come up with somethin >> yeah, that's right. i mean, i think a month or two

wants a bad dea at theesame time, as i read some comments from business leaders wh have been in wasngton the st couple of weeks, they would like a plann approach. neil: what i is a balanced approacho you. >> i'm not going to get into that. neil no is it dollar for dollar or ratio. in both parties to wor out. and adminisation. neil: then why go to the white house? ratio used to be 3 to 1, and that is $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in hes, now just the opposite, n it is dolrs 3 in tax hike f a highway patrol for $1forfor hope for $1 in speg cuts. >> why go to the white house. neil: concerns about the fiscal implication what it could mine for state budget. d secondly, the iact on our econom and. neil: you fear even if is not a grat deal, the risk of no deal, and recessiary risks are so eat, thatrumps a. >> certainly, if middle class taxes go up, that is not good for those taxpayers, or for any ofur economyy that is critical, i think again, certainty for business community so they can invest i in and high ser also important. >> tnk you governor. >> all right. neil. neilopen me night at chu

democrats keep taking so much off the table, i don't know about you, but the only concrete thing from wasngtonpretty much how much to hike taxes, not how much tout spending. should that worry us? it's a deal so disportioned in raising taxes and not cutting spending, what then? a lot of pressure to keep the gravy train running. what if it runs unabated? the unions who legislated the president remind us every day in ads you owe us, mr. president. cut to the chase. no guts, no glory, for now. the risk of a bad deal over no deal. john, what do you think of that? >> well, the democrats, neil, obviously, are not interested in cutting at all. th hold entitlements out, even though they are completely broke, between medicare, medicaid, and social security. there's a hundred trillion dollars in unfunded entitlement liabilities. tax the rich a 10 for the next hundred years. they are intent on preserving them, extending them, and creating them, making them larger meaning bigger bills and government conol. neil: can't they throw a bone to republicans, offer you at the gate, $800 billion in tax hikes? could

. >> ifill: in the wake of the shootings, the debate in wasngton turnedmmediately w a whether new limits on gun ownership can, and should, be enacted. democratic senator dianne feinstein of california has pledged to revive a law banning assault weapons. she is chairwoman of the senate intelligence committee. welcome senator >> thank you very much ifill: with the members getting an r-rating from the national rifle association, do you have any sense that things will be different now for the assault weapons ban than it has been in the past >> i have every sense that it's an uphill road. it was in the past when we did it in the past. i wrote that bill. my office wrote that bill. it went through. it was not amended. it went through the senate. the house. it was signed by the president. it was the law for ten years. i think what is unique about this is it's really just one class of gun. the assault weapon. the assault weapon is developed for military purposes, to kill in close combat. and it doesn't belong in the streets of our cities. it doesn't belong where it can be picked up easily by a gr

it's nice to close the doors from the rest of wasngton, and the fiscal cliff debate for a little while and talk about fiscal challenges elsewhere. whether it's a good news or bad news, at least it gives us an opportunity to talk about something a little bit different than the news of the day in this final two weeks, i ink, before hopefully congress finds an opportunity to either avoid or move or solve some of the fiscal cliff issues and fiscal challenges that we face. and thank you for dick ravitch for his remarks earlier, and the work of the panel, the commission that he co-led. there are copies of that report that werel. to help us understand. and i fully agree, dick, with your comments earlier about the disconnect. here in washington, obviously, we're facing our own serious challenges, and sometimes those challenges seem so overwhelming that the notion of adding in the layer of complexity to think about the consequences outside of washington and the state legislatures and the governor's offices, and in the states themselves, may seem overwhelming. we're all fortunate to some extent,