brian wesbury, what do you think? let's look at our list. who would you like to bailout? how do you feel about the fha? >> if i look at your list, your full list, melissa, it is the post office that is the next on the list. melissa: yeah. >> but eventually, you know, one of the things that's happened in the economy over the last few years is that the only people making long-term fixed-rate mortgages at such low interest rates is the government. melissa: yeah. >> and i believe this is, this, we're going to have the s&l industry all over again. the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of losses because you won't be able to fund 3.25, 3.50, 30-year fixed rate mortgages when interest rates and inflation are a lot higher than that. melissa: i'm unclear, who are you voting for here? are you voting for anyone on our list? for our audience we're talking about the fha, which is independent audit last month said it was facing $16 billion deficit. the post office we love to talk about them. they're always in troublee $16 billion net los

brian wesbury. >> merry christmas. connell: you to. this republican brand looks like it is getting damage. before we talk more about that and the consequences, watch this clip from a republican congressman. he tried to convince fellow republicans to vote in favor of the speakers bill. interesting logic. >> some of my colleagues say this pairing some of these -- a lifeguard who sees ten swimmers drowning off of his speech, if you can only save nine of them, that does not mean he has drowned the tenth one. connell: okay, john. i am going to put you on hold. we have some breaking news. the breaking news is the nra and the comments coming out right now. let's listen in to this. here it is. >> no sane person can ever possibly comprehend them. they walk among us every single day. does anybody really believe that the next adam lanza isn't planning his attack on a school he has already identified at this very moment? back how many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame? back from a national media machine that rewards t

joining us now is brian wesbury, chief economist at first trust advisors.t strikes me people are sort of between a rock and a hard place, politicians are. >> right. >> what's the rock? >> yeah. the rock obviously is this cliff. if we, if we go off the cliff unimpeded, in other words, they don't make any kind of deals whatsoever, it's a $400 billion tax hike. it is one of the biggest tax hikes we have ever had in the history of the country. gregg: right. and the hard place? >> yeah. the hard place is the negotiations. you think about it. reid and pelosi and boehner and obama all trying to come to an agreement? that seems almost impossible, doesn't it, when you know all of them? gregg: how do you close the tax gap? >> yeah. right now you can not do it. so the tax gap, at least in my opinion, would be the deficit. it's over a trillion dollars. if we raise everyone today, that pays the top tax rate, 35%, if we taxed them at 100% on all the money that they currently pay 35% on, and remember, i'm assuming that nobody changes their behavior. they still work just a