did the president intend to specify that grover norquist pledge? >> i don't think it had anything to do with grover norquist specifically. he was making the point that if congress doesn't act, taxes will go up on working americans and everyone that gets a paycheck. that's a terrible idea. if you're going to have this pledge, honor it in the next several months to ensure the tax cut is passed and that americans get in this case because we're expanding the tax cut, $1,500. the average american family an extra $1,500 next year. that makes a huge difference when you are making ends meet and you are buying school supplies and paying your mortgage or your washer and dryer is broke and needs to be replaced. it's money when they spend it, it goes straight into local businesses who then have greater demand, who then hire more workers and you create a virtuous cycle. we're confident that once outside economists and analysts unaffiliated with the congress will see it as positive for economic growth and job creation. >> democrats have been blocking the trade b

did the president intend to specify that grover norquist pledge? >> i don't think it had anything to do with grover norquist specifically. he was making the point that if congress doesn't act, taxes will go up on working americans and everyone that gets a paycheck. that's a terrible idea. if you're going to have this pledge, honor it in the next several months to ensure the tax cut is passed and that americans get in this case because we're expanding the tax cut, $1,500. the average american family an extra $1,500 next year. that makes a huge difference when you are making ends meet and you are buying school supplies and paying your mortgage or your washer and dryer is broke and needs to be replaced. it's money when they spend it, it goes straight into local businesses who then have greater demand, who then hire more workers and you create a virtuous cycle. we're confident that once outside economists and analysts unaffiliated with the congress will see it as positive for economic growth and job creation. >> democrats have been blocking the trade b

office in the next election and replaced with a congress that has not signed its brain away to grover norquist's anti-tax pledge. >> anyone who assigns some pledge to protect every single tax loophole so long as they live, they should be called out. they should have to defend that unfairness. explain why somebody making $50 million a year in the financial markets should be paying 15% on their taxes when a teacher making $50,000 a year is paying more than that? paying a higher rate? they ought to have to answer for that. and if their pledge to keep that kind of unfairness in place, they should remember the last time i checked the only pledge that really matters is the pledge we take to uphold the constitution. we're already hearing the usual defenders of these kinds of loopholes saying this is just class warfare. i reject the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or teacher is class warfare. >> that is not the talk of a president who is trying to thread the needle of compromise with his opposing party in the congress. that is the talk of a president who wants

in the web version of the interview with the senator, i mentioned grover norquist was the head of the club for growth. he's actually the head of americans for tax reform, although in my defense, same [bleeped] difference. join us next week at 11:00. here it is, your moment of zen. ♪ hey hey ♪captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> stephen: tonight the latest on last week's iowa straw poll. it is now an empty dirt field full of raccoons. then anderson cooper loses his composure, it's the worse journalistic gaffe since walter cronkite covered the moon landing topless. and my guest is kevin mitnick. i'll ask him how to set up my goddamn wireless printer. it's my last blog cast for two weeks-- broadcast for two weeks but i promise to give you one last great show before i go. this-- just roll it captioning sponsored by comedy central (cheers and applause) welcome to the report, everybody. thank you so much. >> stephen, stephen, stephen, stephen, stephen, stephen, stephen, stephen, stephen! (cheers and applause) >> stephen: thank you

. >> it seems the grover norquist pledge is costing them politically, allowing the president as they have done to describe them as having signed away forever for the rest of their lives any consideration of closing tax loopholes. that's one of the forgotten elements of the norquist pledge is it doesn't allow them to even close tax loopholes because that would raise tax revenue. the president is able now to identify them as protecting every single one of those tax loopholes. corporate jets. whatever it is. in the code. they have to defend every one of those against the president in this. >> they have to not only defend every one of them but defend the principle to take a pledge to grover norquist who is not elected, somebody who has a very special particular interest in this case in protecting the rich from having more taxes that take away a little bit of their extraordinary wealth, that that kind of a pledge, tieing their hands, is constitutionally part of their responsibility. well, most americans say, no, i don't want a representative who is going to tie his hands and take a pledge

association and the american road and transportation builders association, governor rendell, grover norquist and you, our audience. we hope to see you at another national journal event. coming up next week, we have the global economy swrent timothy geithner. thank you. . .

in the web version of the interview with the senator, i mentioned grover norquist was the head of theth. he's actually the head of americans for tax reform, although in my defense, same [bleeped] difference. join us next week at 11:00. here it is, your moment of zen. ♪ hey hey ♪captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> stephen: tonight the latest on last week's iowa straw poll. it is now an empty dirt field full of raccoons. then anderson cooper loses his composure, it's the worse journalistic gaffe since walter cronkite covered the moon landing topless. and my guest is kevin mitnick. i'll ask him how to set up my goddamn wireless printer. it's my last blog cast for two weeks-- broadcast for two weeks but i promise to give you one last great show before i go. this-- just roll it captioning sponsored by comedy central

grover norquist. on a lighter note, couldn't be hard to find a lighter note than that.en an unwelcome guest showed up for rick perry the other day, it was democratic congressman charlie rangel. perry was on rangel's turf, of course. rangel attracted some attention on his way in. let's hear what he had to say to the candidate and why he chose to make that appearance as a party crasher. >> i kind of think he's the best thing going for president obama, but i'm a democrat. i guess i'm here for the same reason that all of you are here, figuring out why he's here. isn't that so? >> what a great new york accent. anyway, fair enough. rangel had another chat with reporters as he left the event, before it was over. why the early exit, he was asked. >> i don't know how he's going to conclude, but i got out before they asked for money. >> got out before he asked for money. smart man. ever heard of fact checking? it's something that nikki haley is treating as a new concept president for the past few weeks, haley has been pushing for reforms that would require some sort of drug testi

from the earlier debate, grover norquist was targeting government waste and fraud and abuse. are transportation projects being held hostage to that broader situation about how government is wasting our money? do you want to -- how do you feel? >> i think that is a little deeper there, i think -- a little deep there, i think. i think there is an idea that the highway program has gotten away from its core purpose, and some would argue, just for an example, bike paths or sidewalks, that gets a lot of play. there are some who believe we should not fund those. and there are obviously those who believe we should. the question is, should we? and to what extent? and who is going to make the decision? so it all comes back to my earlier comments about reforming the programming and getting it back to where it needs to be and focusing on the things we need to do so we do have a national program, but at the same time, you know, not have a one-size- fits-all. >> to take out the hostage part of it, the overall conversation about the world government generally and the waste in it, does that

first let's open up with grover norquist. >> thank you.d said we have a debt crisis, a deficit crisis making the solution to raise taxes. the real solution is spending too much money, spending less money. now he comes and says we should have tax reform because the tax code is complicated and the rates are too high and the way that he defines tax reform is the about $2 trillion in taxes increases i assume he will jump in with both in favor of the new line which is the balanced budget amendment and he will support a balanced budget amendment which will be in his or restructure to raise taxes so the first thing he does is make sure any balanced budget amendment requires a two-thirds vote to raise taxes in the state of california and the state of arizona does so that the balanced budget amendment will not force the tax increases to balance the budget but will help the congressman and senators who are fighting to reduce spending as the way to balance the budget. let's focus on of raising taxes and then we can focus on spending. the americans fo

first, let's open up with grover norquist. >> thank you.end, barack obama, has come back in the past, and said we have a debt crisis, the deficit crisis, largely of his making, the solution of which in his view is to raise taxes. the real solution to spending too much money is spending less money. now he says we should have tax reform because the tax code is complicated and the rates are too high and the way he defines tax reform is about $2 trillion in tax increases. i assume he will jump in with both feet in favor of the new balanced budget amendment, and will support an amendment which will raise taxes. the first thing to do is to make sure any balanced budget amendment requires at least a two-thirds vote to raise taxes. the state of california does. the state of arizona does. so, the balanced budget amendment will not force tax increases to balance the budget, but will help congressmen and senators who are fighting to reduce spending as a way to balance the budget. \ , let's focus on not raising taxes, and then we can focus on spending

now has a sort of fear mongering to war and this is a man who also went after george bush and grover norquist are also being part of this conspiracy so you know where these people are coming from their you know they're not of sort of muslim dating anyone out there in the world. and and have you and you've been successful in regarding their rebuttals. you know i think we have you know we've gotten a fair amount of media attention i think that a lot of not just muslim groups but a lot of other sort of interfaith groups and groups in america they're sort of pushing for religious tolerance you know groups that have fought for a long time for civil rights and civil liberties they've been allied with us and they help spread our message and i think that the reason that with the pushback has been so fierce because we have exposed them we are calling them what they are which is merchants of fear and we're saying that this is the sort of country that things are sort of that sort of thing should fly said thanks so much for being with us thank you great to see you last month the center for american progr

hundred percent of the members to the best of my knowledge correct me if i'm wrong i've signed grover norquist pledge and have said that they will put their pledge above the constitution well the reality is i don't even the democrats are any warning able to pass something like that when they controlled congress so it's an unpopular thing to pass a law passed that's cape town is really good when you're running for reelection but when it comes down to the brass tacks it's really hard to put something together that is palatable to members who are also seeking reelection so you're saying no i'm saying i'm saying no as well because we have a very conservative house of representatives right now that. this is a very important thing to. that obama is doing because he is changing the subject. he is the conservatives wanted to cut social security and medicare he wanted to focus entirely on direct pony and cuts to social programs obama is saying to the american people hey look there's another way to do this and first of all a week ago we said it's jobs getting the economy growing that's the big speech th

never raise taxes ever ever except ever even in times of war what's funny about that is that grover norquist who has had all these people side the flood he's like the the economic level of the republican party. who's had all the cyclists he also runs the reagan legacy foundation and i've never seen something that is so positively hilariously positioned between a party that would laugh at reagan today based on his tax increases we have we have we're just going i can't say that i don't i don't see i look to the left to try to paint the republican candidates as being all out there and you know that there's no one electable and i think that's so wrong i think that there one thing whoever is the nominee and i don't know it's going to be who ever is going to be the nominee people are going to unite behind that person because i don't want to promise. you that i believe either way. obama is what's motivating the republican party you know on what mitch mcconnell said the liberal goal of republican the said it was to make about a one term president and they felt to cripple the economy so that we can't

really hits the road and you see it with the pledge that many of them made not to raise taxes the grover norquist pledge and at some point at some point you really have to start making those hard decisions and it's no longer just a rhetorical gambit but you've got to make the talk policy decisions i think you are running up against that now we're running out of time a little bit so i'm going to skip the next clip and i want to push a few things together you know i feel like and as i mentioned this was a google sponsored debate they had a you tube it had this really modern feel what i feel is lacking is really discussion of the things that are happening right at this moment i mean do you think that when there's a presidential debate when we have stock markets crashing for the last couple of weeks then you have europe on the brink of a sovereign debt crisis that very well is going you know is going to affect our economy that's going to drag us back down into recession those are things that the candidates should be asked about or how about the fact that troy davis was just executed this week and sur

grover norquist has defined a portion of the political arena. nows what is like to lose an election. he has dealt with tax issues. grover is incredibly well known, not only here in washington, but nationally on the tax issue. i will put a broad question to the two of you. i will ask the question differently to both. governor, isn't big enough? does it do enough on infrastructure -- is its big enough? -- is it big enough? does it do enough on infrastructure? grover, the president called you out. some of you -- he said, some of you have signed a pledge not to raise taxes. that does not directly relate to you. >> let me begin by thanking the national journal for being here. i am honored as a private citizen to be here with someone i described as the most powerful person in washington, d.c. 2176 people -- 236 people have signed the taxpayer protection pledge. 41 senators have signed it. grover has a majority in the house and can block any legislation in the senate. one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of our country is when many republ

what do you say to grover norquist and the others? the gospel according to grover is what that is. anybody who would sign a pledge 20 years ago to do something or not should not be in congress. you don't sign things before you hear the debate and listen to the arguments and all of the rest of it but i can tell you you can't get there without getting additional revenue. you see coburn take $6 billion off of ethanol and call that a tax increase it's ludicrous, it's ridiculous. >> a card-carrying strong republican but willing to go along with getting rid of some of the tax breaks. what about trying to cut through the political gridlock in washington. would it have been better if the president and others had fully endorsed your commission back when, when it first came along? >> i think that's exactly what bill clinton would have done, knowing him as i do, he would have embraced that. come in with five dems and five republicans. >> president obama appointed you all. >> obama couldn't have done it because he would have been torn to bits so

they say that's proof and why you have grover norquists of the world to pledge we will never raise taxesactly the wrong thing to do in one of the worst recessions in modern times. >> there is a new book by ron suskin, largely about the administration and i know you're not a fan of people who do tell-all books but goes back to the bush administration and quotes you in the 2002 mid-terms shouting down paul o'neill with the combination of bush tax cuts and price of the war in afghanistan and potential of the coming war in iraq at that point more needed to be done about deficits and quotes you as saying reagan proved deficits don't matter. do deficits matter? >> they do definitely. >> did you say that? >> i said it within a different context. i don't remember yelling at paul o'neill. we ended up having our differences but we're both relatively mild spoken individuals, don't use a lot of foul language or cuss each other out so to speak. what i was talking about was what president reagan did in his first term, he came in and did two things on the surface seemed controversy. turned out to be im

but republicans are remembering their names are signed on grover norquist's anti-tax plan. this afternoon speaker john boehner's spokesman reacted to the white house's plan to pay for the bill saying "this tax increase on job creators is the kind of proposal both parties have opposed in the past. we remain eager to work together on ways to support job growth, but this proposal doesn't appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit." joining me now is the co-author of "that used to be us,: how america fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back." "the new york times" columnist and three-time pulitzer prize winner, thomas friedman. thanks for joining me tonight, tom. >> lawrence, thanks for having me. great to be here. >> the infrastructure portion, at least, of the president's jobs plan seems to present us with a classic, "that used to be us" riddle. no one in our politics seems to be saying they're imposed opposed to building better schools, improving airports, rail systems. we can't seem to agree on how to pay for these things. is that the fundamen

ed rendell will debate how to address these issues with grover norquist and it will be live this morning. calvin on our democrats' line. what would you do to overhaul the tax system? caller: you cutting the post office down, but why not look into the internet? all your money is going into the internet. if all of us e-mailed -- don't you know the postal service don't have no work? host: speaker boehner from yesterday. >> a plan that would create thousands of new full-time jobs for american workers only to be assumed by a federal agency that wants to shut this down. let me make sure i have this right. american companies are free to create jobs in china, but they are not free to create jobs in south carolina? host: freddie, you are a republican in south carolina. caller: before we start talking about taxes we have to start with the problem, and that is limiting our federal government. our government to should conform to our constitution and do its fiducial duties and limit itself to that. cut the spending. cut how much the federal government spends. then stauk start talking about tax reform

. >> would that be a violation of the commitment under grover norquist? no tax increase, even if there's a -- i ask the question, not as a gotcha kind of question. >> i honestly don't know the answer. >> the bush tax cuts were for a limited number of years. they expire now based on the last aagreement, beginning of 2013. if they expire across the board that will be seen as a tax increase. i wonder if they allow the payroll tax cut for middle class families to expire at the end of this year? will that, under that definition be seen as a tax increase? >> it may be. i don't know the pledge, but i do think it points to the fundamental issue, which is, tax reform is something that is not in violation of anyone's pledge. says we need a tax system that's coherent, raises the money to pay the nation's bills and doesn't compete with economic growth. i'm sympathetic to what gloria said, how hard to get things done and should have had leadership earlier in the year. if we are going to talk about taxes, talking about tax reform. missing in the discussion is the big p

under grover norquist's proposal, there always have to be tax neutral? in terms of tax revenue?words, reduce the rates for some if you're going to increase rates for others but in the end there be an increase from tax revenue? that's not going to happen. is that your understanding of what he and his purist tax increase -- have in mind? >> i think that's grover's definition. i'm not an expert on his pledge and haven't paid much attention to it. i will tell you, i think gloria's got it right. in this environment i can tell you how many angels fit on the edge of a pin, but this is really in the eye of the beholder. the key has to be to stop having a discussion about up and down and talk about the quality of taxation. oil company, for example. always a target for these write-offs they get. we actually have wind, solar biomass, name it. a million different tax credits and special considerations in the tax code. real tax reform says we'll have an energy policy that we understand but not run it through the tax -- broaden the base, take the revenue and try to create jobs. that's missing

any liberal institution in washington or grover norquist or even the blowhard -- c-span has been skewedo the right. host: thank you for the comment. caller: i think this president, it is about time he grew some backbone. he has been trying to police the right for some time. there are now turning around -- he has been trying to police the right -- please the right for some time. it serves him right in a way. host: dave from oregon. caller: good morning. i'm wondering how long it will take for folks back their to define stupidity because they keep doing the same things and the same results. host: denise from florida on our republican line. caller: i believe one of the first collars made a comment about sport businessmen spending investing. the federal government money they spend is not their own money. the government is borrowing close to 50% of every dollar it spends. as long as we're spending social security checks to dead people and income tax return checks to people in prison and one of every 18 americans is receiving a disability check, i think the government needs to rein in a more

they have all sworn oaths of obedience to grover norquist and his basic construct that we never again should ask for not $1 more from any american, from any corporation, from anyone to help solve our problems. they come closely to the tea party line. they have laid out a familiar prescription for america, one that we have seen very recently. that is to continue to cut taxes at the very top, to maintain tax loopholes for corporations, to roll back all the wall street reforms that promote transparency and accountability on wall street. it is the same formula that we heard 10 years ago and that helped lead to this crisis. yeah, this is the economic massed ground that you probably hear from this podium and you'll hear in the debate in a couple of weeks. when republicans gather in new hampshire. this is not just -- this is not new wine in old bottles. this is old wine in new bottles. i believe is ultimately not going to sell. what americans want is an economy where everyone is a fair shake and where responsibility is broadly shared so that we will meet our responsibilities, meet the challe

grover norquist, a famous activist in washington, his tax pledge is a disaster for the country. we believe no politicians should be taking pledges that bind them in ways that they cannot find common ground. and no new taxes' pledge is observed as a matter of policy. we did a calculation at third way that basically said what would you do if you have to reduce the deficit and you did not touch taxes at all, and that is pretty close to what the paul ryan plan does. you essentially, other than social security, you basically cut everything in half -- fbi, border guards to let air traffic controllers, go on down the list. it is not an option. we're going to have to raise some taxes if we are going to close the deficit -- a very, very large deficit that we have. might bexes' pledge good politics, but it is horrible policy. host: rabin, an independent in syracuse, new york. caller: ok. question and comment. health-care reform -- how will the government supports the with no one working? guest: well, a couple of things. a lot of people are working. the unemployment rate is far too high, b

grover norquist should address that fact.st: and let's get this straight, and the comment you are making is absolutely true, i have heard again and again and again at the bottom 50% pay no taxes in america. that is false. that is false. someone making $30,000 a year is paying out of their own share about $2,100 in medicare and social security taxes, and their employer is matching that, which comes out of their wages as well. someone making $30,000 a year is paying about $4,200 out of their income to the federal government. people understand them. so when people say that modest income people are not paying taxes, they are not telling the truth. host: steve is next, a republican in florida. caller: i have a plan for congress. why don't they take 3% of all the social security paychecks that they send out, 3% of all military paychecks, 3% of all the federal and state employee paychecks out, and just cut it. 3%, knowing gets hurt. the comments -- are you listening to how angry that these people are every day that congress? everyda

. >> grover norquist, right? >> the last election. yes. >> explain why this guy is so important?nizes we shouldn't raise tax rates. there's a difference between generating additional revenue that comes from tax reform. that's great. pay down the debt faster, but raising tax rates to levels that are unsustainable in terms of being able to compete is just not right. >> let's be honest about this. taxes are the lowest since the 1970s. so the wealthiest are enjoys lower taxes and have been for quite some time. the wealthiest businesses are sitting on millions of dollars and they're not hiring, even though the taxes are low. so i think that many in america are sitting there wondering, well, what is the answer? because we already proposed all of these debt reduction things. right? that's happening right now. the super committee's planning what, to cut 1. -- something trillion from our debt? so -- >> remember to cut 1.-something million more we're running over a trillion dollar a year deficit right now. if you cut $1 trillion more, that's over a ten-year period. we frankly need to cut a

who died in may ignore -- grover norquist so powerful?ost: next to a viewer from pittsburg, mike on the republican line. caller: i am in a higher bracket and i would just spend that money on microwaves and other things, home repairs, that would generate more economic activity. secondly, i would pay higher taxes here if there was an across-the-board cut and it was done evenly and fairly. i would be happy to pay the piper to higher tax. i've been looking everywhere and i have not seen warren buffett's tax returns are the specifics of what he is going to leave his family or what he pays in taxes. host: michael from michigan, the president calling for a tax hike for those who make more than $1 million in the year. what do you think? caller: i think it is about time. steve, i want to tell you about an incident i had. during alcor's campaign, i gave $1,000 to the primary, $1,000 for the general, and $200 for the recant. i was immediately audited because i'm self-employed. since then, i actually dropped off giving donations over. a couple of yea

the pledge to uphold the constitution, the majority has worked to fulfill campaign pledges to grover norquist and the far right. instead of creating jobs our colleagues on the other side spent months on end pushing a partisan agenda that has covered everything from the trivial to the very real dangers of default. instead of funding the department of energy, the majority has tried to micromanage our light bulbs. instead of funding the nation's schools, they tried to eliminate big bird. instead of funding the e.p.a., they tried to sell the land surrounding the grand canyon to the state-owned mining companies of russia and south korea. instead of funding cancer research conducted by the national institute of health, they have tried repeatedly to repeal health care reform. instead of setting responsibility budgets for the next fiscal year, they brought or economy to the brink of default and led to the first ever downgrade of our nation's credit. even today our colleagues on the other side are injecting politics into the stopgap c.r. today we are considering legislation that will only provide disa

grover norquist should address that fact. guest: and let's get this straight, and the comment you are making is absolutely true, i have heard again and again and again at the bottom 50% pay no taxes in america. that is false. that is false. someone making $30,000 a year is paying out of their own share about $2,100 in medicare and social security taxes, and their employer is matching that, which comes out of their wages as well. someone making $30,000 a year is paying about $4,200 out of their income to the federal government. people understand them. so when people say that modest income people are not paying taxes, they are not telling the truth. host: steve i next, a republican in florida. caller: i have a plan for congress. w don't they take 3% of all the social security paychecks that they send out, 3% of all military paychecks, 3% of all the federal and state employee paychecks out, andust cut it. 3%, knowing gets hurt. the comments -- are you listening to how angry that these people are every day that congress? everyday

they have all sworn oaths of obedience to his basic -- to grow vern norquist and his based -- grover norquist and his basic constructs that we never again should ask -- not $1 more from any america, for many corporate -- corp., from anyone to help solve our problems. they have laid out a familiar prescription for america, one that we have seen very recently. that is to continue to cut taxes at the very top to maintain tax loopholes for corporations, to roll back all the wall street reforms that promote transparency and accountability on wall street. it is the same for below we -- same formula we heard 10 years ago which helped lead to this crisis. yet this is what you probably hear from this podium and he will appear in the debate in a couple of weeks when the republicans gather in new hampshire. this is an old line -- this is old line in old bottles. -- old wine in old bottles. i believe it is ultimately not going to sell. as i said, what americans want is an economy where everybody gets a fair shake and where responsibility is broadly shared so we will meet our responsibilities -- meet the