the center's debt reduction task force, former senate budget committee chair pete domenici and alice rivlin. their recommendations propose just two tax brackets for individuals and a lower corporate income tax rate of 28%. live coverage now here on c-span 3. >> good morning. welcome to the bipartisan policy center. i'm michele stockwell, vice president of public policy. for those of you not familiar with the bipartisan policy center, we are a think tank and advocacy organization that works with both republicans and democrats to develop solutions to the key problems facing our country. we have some packets of information out front that hopefully you guys can take a look that include our most recent proposals, including our tax reform proposal and a recent report that we did on the sequester. we were founded in 2007 by the former senate majority leaders, howard baker, tom daschle, bob dole and george mitchell. the bpc brings together all sides regardless of political affiliation or position when tackling a problem and certainly our federal debt is one of the most pressing issues facing our na

>> i'm like alice rivlin, i'll tell you where i come from, and that is i'm a pragmatist. you need to get a majority of people saying yes and the atmosphere has been such that you're not able to at this time. senator baucus is a creature of the senate. the senate deals in concepts. i'm a creature of the house. the house deals in specifics that have to be written up ahead of time and scored before we vote. i think one of the important things that we need to stress is people shouldn't sit around making lists of what they will not do. that automatically limits your ability to move. secondly, this panel is described as the tax part of the debt problem. coming from the ways and means committee, the tax part is the debt problem, because social security is a tax. the medicare, part a, is a tax. medicare part b is the general fund which goes back to see number one, the income and corporate tax. so addressing that broad tax question, not splitting it up into entitlements, a social network, if you want to make sure, and i agree with alice, the system needs to be progressive, why, be

let's start with doctor alice rivlin. did it change at all?> i was glad to here him say several things he said. one, clearly we will need more revenue as we address the long-run deficit problem. and he stuck with progressive rates. he is a more cautious man, i am more radical -- i am a centrist, i would go for a more dramatic tax reform. but i thought he laid out many of the reasons that we need tax reform, and laid them out well. >> to gain any insight from his comments about where the tea party might find areas of consensus, or was there not enough they are? sumac i'm sorry? >> i was referring to this. there were several questions asked by journalists to try to hone in on specifics, and i thought chairman baucus his answers were that i want to avoid laying out any specifics that around which there would be partisan division before the election. there was a consistent theme there that they need to be behind-the-scenes discussions now, to lay the framework for more intensive discussions when the election was behind us. so while on the one hand

senator domenici, alice rivlin, the simpson/bowles commission, every one of them has said we cannot get our budget in balance without new revenues. in many contrast, republican presidential candidates when offered the choice of $1 of new revenue for $10 of reduced spending said they wouldn't agree to a bipartisan agreement like that. would you? >> ten to one? >> yeah, this will prove i'm not running for anything. let me finish. >> i appreciate your candor. basically we cannot close the budget gap without addressing both spending and revenue as all of those bipartisan commissions have recommended. wouldn't you agree? >> if you could bring to me a majority of people to say that we're going to have $10 of spending cuts for $1 of revenue enhancement, put me in, coach. >> problem is the ten never materializes. mr. langford. >> i've never seen a $10 -- that would be wonderful. let's see it. that would be spectacular. >> thank you. thanks all of you. it is interesting when you talk about targeted tax cuts we seem to go back to the same areas that all the problems in america seem to reside arou

>> i am like alice rivlin. i will tell you where i come from and that is diamond pragmatist. you need to get a majority of people saying yes and the atmosphere has been such that you are not able to at this time. senator baucus is a creature of the senate. the senate deals and concepts. i am a creature of the house. the house deals and specifics that have to be written off ahead of time and scored before we vote. i think one of the important things that we need to stress is people shouldn't sit around making lists of what they will not do. that automatically limits your ability to move. secondly, this panel is described as the tax part of the debt trouble in. coming from the ways & means committee, the tax part is the debt trouble in. because social security is a tax. the medicare part a is a tax. medicare part b is a general fund which goes back to theme number one, the income in corporate tax, so addressing that broad tax question, not splitting it up into entitlements and social network. if you want to make sure, and i agree with alice, the system needs to be progressive.

alice rivlin, who spoke yesterday before the senate budget committee, a democrat, former budget directorer clinton, said the same thing. we're not interested in extending tax rates for a year by themselves. we think they ought to be extended, but also have instructions in there to simplify the tax code and do comprehensive tax reform. i think there's actually pretty good agreement among republicans and democrats in the house, and in the senate finance committee that we need to simplify our tax code and make america more competitive. >> you obviously have staked out a position on the economy that seems to be the mantra of the gop. but there is going to be a contempt vote today about eric holder. do you think those types of things -- and abortion votes distract from the message of the economy, which could prove to carry you to victory in the presidential side in november? >> well, i think for the most part republicans have been unified on their message of the economy. i think despite all of this distractions that the president has tried to throw up, whether it be contraceptives or guy marr

in this room five or six years ago, alice rivlin stood up and said during a debate like this that sheas afraid that we would not solve this crisis until a disaster occurred on until there was a crisis, some sort of financial crisis i think it's still a realistic possibility. were going to have some kind of disaster are given worse in our recent financial disaster before politician will face what they have to face. having said that, the revenue side ironically for all is the easiest. the tax code is so bad. in fact, i'll tell you how you might get republicans to do appear a tax code is so bad that everyone agrees you had to broaden the base and reduce rates through the classic way to reform. you should have a broad-based embolus rates possible. you can do that by getting rid of the polls. that's politics comes in. you've got to move a lot of people i think. you can't just do it for a few people. it's got to be a lot of a lot of sacrifice them a lot on the spending side. the way you do it is you do it in a way that might be revenue neutral. republicans say yeah come to fix the tax code.

director alice rivlin who appeared before the finance committee earlier this week and who both agreed we need a short-term extension of current tax law in order to get us to a place where we can consider fundamental reforms to our tax code and our entitlement programs. madam president, even former president bill clinton, a major surrogate for the obama campaign, admitted the obvious when he said resently that a short term extension of the tax cuts might be necessary. former president clinton and other democratic members that i mentioned have not suddenly become supply-side tax cutters, but they realize that it is simply common sense that with the economy slowing, the last thing that congress should do is slam on the brakes by allowing massive tax increases. we were reminded earlier this week just how destructive the proposed income tax rate increases would be on the sector of our economy responsible for the bulk of new job creation, and that's our small businesses. according to an analysis by the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation released on june 18, the tax increases that presi