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top obama official praising grover norquist. grover norquist.to grow, we have to boost our social media visibility. more "likes." more tweets. so, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team will be our new senior social media strategists. any questions? since we make radiator valves wouldn't it be better if we just let fedex help us to expand to new markets? hmm gotta admit that's better than a few "likes." i don't have the door code. who's that? he won a contest online to be ceo for the day. how am i supposed to run a business here without an office?! [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. fedex. riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks... wait, why are you taking... oh, i see...solitary. just a man and his thoughts. and a smartphone... with an e-trade app. ♪ nobody knows... [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. >> unfortunately,

today's question, would you rather go up against al qaeda or grover norquist?ican senator lindsey graham said al qaeda would love the defense cuts in the sequester to take effect. >> our enemies would love this to happen. i'm sure iran is very supportive of sequestration. i'm sure al qaeda training camps all over the world would be pleased with the fact that sequestration would gut the cia. >> republican armed services ranking member jim inhoff agrees it would be dire but not as dire as breaking the pledge to grover norquist. >> it's in the desperate enough that you can start raising taxes. >> obstacle to the republican republicans -- same as it ever was, their absolute refusal to agreeing to even a dollar of new tax revenue. they believe they can shift the blame this time to president obama. today, speaker boehner's office was sending around "call obama sequester's bluff." republicans should continue to refuse to make any concessions or compromise with the white house, he says, even write iing script for them. we are quite prepared to cut elsewhere but we alre

coming up at bottom of hour, a preview of tomorrow's state of the union address with grover norquist, and top republicans to house saying sequestration scheduled for next month are going to happen, is that a good thing for america, i'll ask congressman james land ford next, right there he is, this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it.i'll be r. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally. i work for 47 different companies. well, technically i work for one. that company, the united states postal service®, works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com®, you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. i wear a lot of hats. well, technically i wear one. the u.s. postal service®, no business too small. gerri: some republicans say looming automatic tax cuts are happening in 60 seconds. gerri: time is running out to avert the automatic spen

we have grover norquist with us. how you would articulate your argument against it. >> taking $20 from one person, running it through the government and handing it to someone else. you take the resources for one job out of the economy through taxes or debt. then you move it to the other side of the economy and you hold a press conference while you release the same dollars. you are just moving money around. if you take a bucket of water outside of the lake and then walk it around to the other side, obama thinks you are extending it to great depths. that does not work. connell: we are going through a bunch of companies on the bottom of the screen as you are talking. the theory would be, if there was more spending enacted, that some of these individual companies would benefit. we have heard that before. are you basically telling me that most of these things are just dead on arrival. speaker boehner is essentially right? it will just not happen. it will not make it through this congress. >> president obama and the democr

top obama official praising grover norquist. hell freezing over.row, we ha ts the answer next.ikes." more tweets. so, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team will be our new senior social media strategists. any questions? since we make radiator valves wouldn't it be better if we just let fedex help us to expand to new markets? hmm gotta admit that's better than a few "likes." i don't have the door code. who's that? he won a contest online to be ceo for the day. how am i supposed to run a business here without an office?! [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. fedex. >> unfortunately, the state department doesn't have our own grove norquist pushing a pledge to protect it. neil: i think that's a compliment. it was not pigs flying or hell freezing over, but it was john kerry. john kerry giving a shoutout to frequent white house contribute ire grover norquist in the first speech as secretary of state. the watchdog here to respond. grover, what he's essentially saying is no one is kind of policing us, but what did you think of the back handed compliment? >>

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finally, look, i was quoting grover norquist and i didn't make any of our colleagues sign the grover uist pledge. that was a voluntary act on their part. they signed a pledge and that pledge says that you cannot close down one tax loophole for the purpose of reducing the deficit. i want to say that again. if you decide that carried interest is a -- an unnecessary tax break to hedge mund managers, which i think -- to hedged fund managers, which i think it is, you can't eliminate that tax break and use the money to reduce the deficit under the grover norquist pledge. it was grover norquist who said that his goal, by strangling revenue, was to drown government. get it down to the size where you could drown government in a bathtub. when you make arbitrary pledges like that, two people -- to people like grover norquist on bhf of whoever it may be, that is the kind of maybe unintended consequences you get but you get that when you do that kind of arbitrary picking of numbers. . >> ok. i'll lead off the questioning and turn it over to anyone who wants to ask. what strikes me at looking at th

someone said the of the grover norquist may be the most powerful person in america. the new pledge he has held canada is to. he has held candidates -- the new pledge he has held the new candidates to is keeping millions -- it has a role to play in a country rich in the land grant colleges, highways, bridges. i understand the bridge out here is about to be built. i am all for infrastructure. >> obama in a way has to be the luckiest politician. if you look at the republican lineup -- [laughter] it is like michael dukakis in an oversized tank hat. >> the idea that newt gingrich is now at the top of the heap. >> you do not want to be the top because they get shot out. >> it is seems like anybody but romney. >> herman cain is a breath of fresh air. [laughter] >> i am not going to reassess him as he reassesses his campaign. >> herman cain is fabulous. >> newt gingrich -- i am going to get serious on you. newt gingrich is an error lobbyist -- uber lobbyist. barney frank talk about michele bachmann. he also called out newt gingrich and said he held him responsible for the de

he had to buck grover norquist to do it. it wasn't perfect, because compromises aren't perfect but it's that kind of balanced approach that will preserve armed services and defense and enable our economy to grow instead of choking off as aware whatwe're seeing as a strong stock market and other indications we can have success if we approach it this way. >> garrett: do we have an austerity risk or do the cuts need to happen? >> i think we can do this in a more sensible way. what we need is leadership from the commander in chief. rather than-- he's been out campaign ago even though this idea came from the white house, apparently from jack liu,s had treasury nominee. he's been out trying to blame republicans. i think the american people are tierld of the blame game to come up with responsible spending reductions. we can do that without hurting our economy. also dealing with our tax code to make us more competitive instead of just the first answer being further increasing taxes. that's what away can do to help economic growth an

as you know, grover norquist is ford immigration reform. we heard senator marco rubio yesterday.d others. they are pretty fiscal conservatives. i think we would all agree on that. $18 billion per year, it is spent on immigration enforcement every year. that is more than the dea all the rest of the federal government combined on enforcement issues. we will save billions of dollars once we legalize that. a lot of people kind of think about this as, well, it costs money. you know what costs money that we cannot be innovative. we do not have the high skilled talent that is necessary. technology, innovation, we can do it right here. we don't have to spend a broad. neil: you are obviously factoring in the savings you will get. [talking over each other] [talking over each other] >> it would not to stop. you know, we currently can take our resources and better pinpoint those resources to those that are murderers, rapists, causing harm. what we are doing is having 11 million people, you are targeting them. -- there is not going to be any immigration reform package that will fill out an in

cong up at bottom of hour, a preview of tomorrow's state of the union address with grover norquist, and top republicans to house saying sequestration scheduled for next month are going to happen, is that a good thing for america, i'll ask congressman james land ford next, right there he is, my mother made the best toffee in the world. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dream go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. and make your business dream a reality. all stations come over to mith is for real this time. step seven point two one two. rify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to plac

the his explanation was that we have to push back against the todd aiken and grover norquist.this by you giving me money and i buy up a lot of air time etc. i can understand the impetus but karl rove, basically he's a snake oil salesman and this was the eastest easiest thing for him to sell. the party is in big trouble. what appeals to the constituents in these districts does not appeal to a broad swath of americans. karl rove is finding the angle in which to make a lot of money and i suspect he will win in that regard. >> john: he takes their money and bernie madeff sands in awe. sam seder and joe williams, thank you for joining me. >> take care. >> john: we'll talk about another consumer product the super bowl. >> john: ever since bobby jindal boy governor said to the republicans don't be the stupid party, devoting them to keeping it stupid. in that brief amount of time congressman lou barletta just yesterday on abc this week, he said that banning guns to prevent gun violence is like banning spoons to stop obesity because we all have had foodies tell us that obama is going t

john kerry giving a shoutout to frequent white house contribute ire grover norquist in the first speech state. the watchdog here to respond. grover, what he's essentially saying is no one is kind of policing us, but what did you think of the back handed compliment? >> senator kerry, originally from massachusetts prior to immigrating to the united states -- [laughter] i talked to kerry, and he understands the protection pledge. he was trying to get taxes raised in 2011 with president obama, and he found he couldn't because republican said they made the commitment in writing not to raise taxes. they confuse the commitment by elected officials never to raise taxes with me. i share the pledge with people, but the power of the pledge and tax issue is independent of me personally, but sometimes people, grover, tax issue, i understand what he met. the tax issue is powerful. the state department needs o focus on what america does well, profit rights, rule of law. we should be exporting property rights, not money. neil: yeah, well, we are exporting money. the a lot of millionaires and billionair

senator chambliss broke with grover norquist's pledge not to raise taxes. chambliss says he understands that sometimes higher taxes are appropriate. i see a country that is not adding enough jobs, struggling for economic growth. lagging in education i'm not putting saxby chambliss on a pedestal. but are too many of our political leaders beholden to the extremes of their parties to be part of the solution? >> there's no question that that's the case. i think john hit it exactly right when he talked about democrats being extremists on the point of entitlements, but republicans are also being extremists when it comes to the tax code. our tax code needs reform. if you reform it in the right way, the economy can take off. that's certainly for small businesses and corporations that have $1.7 trillion of cash sitting on the sidelines right now. could go to investment in plant and equipment and job creation that would create taxpayers and that would bring revenue actually into the treasury if you did this right. so you know, even to those folks that are saying don'

you don't need to do a tax increase so that you irritate and get the bile of up grover norquist and allis minions. >> we're basically saying that over the next ten years you've got about 13 trillion, trillion dollars worth of money that's going into these tax expenditures and we're saying use something like 500 billion dollars of that amount to reduce the deficit. i don't think that's asking for a lot. >> erskine, did you guys look at this issue. you heard denis mcdonough over the weekend talk about raising the eligibility of maked. he said it's not a cost-saver, it's a cost-shifter. did you guys look at this and determine and look at that critique because that has been the main critique from the left. >> what we think is we've got to get serious about bending the healthcare costs, and to get serious, one of the things you have to focus on is the aging of the population. >> if you can't figure out with ten,000 people a day turning 65, if you can't figure out that the social security system is $900 billion cash negative right now, if you can't figure out if you don't do something with he

[applause] unfortunately, the state our ownnt doesn't have grover norquist pushing a pledge to protect it. we don't have millions of aarp seniors sending in their dues and rallying to protect american investments overseas. the kids whose lives we are helping save from aids, the women who are -- who we are helping to free from the horrors of sex trafficking, the students who can choose for the first time to walk into a school instead of a short life of terror, their strongest lobbyists are the rare, committed americans who stand up to them and for the resources that we need to help them. and i hope that includes all of you here and many listening. you understand why every time a tough fiscal choice looms, the easiest place to point fingers -- foreign aid. as ronald reagan said, "foreign aid suffers from the lack of domestic constituency," and that is part of the reason everyone thinks it cost a lot more than it does. so we need to change that. i reject the excuse that americans just aren't interested in what happens outside the media field of vision. i don't believe that about anyone of

the super committee and when all the republican members on that super committee had pledged to grover norquist they would not raise revenue only to cut and after it failed, after all going to we ended up with-- >> let me a-- >> i could rant and i'm going to. we'll let you get a word in. >> sean: you're so nice to give me a word on my own question. >> i changed my mind. >> sean: let me ask you, you said the-- congressman, i will give you your chance i gave you three minutes to rant, calm down. i gave you three minutes, relax, i've got a question for you. you were invited on the program to answer a question, i want to give awe couple of questions. >> no, i'm going to-- >> congressman, you said. >> i'm going to say what i think is right. >> sean: why are you so angry, you're so angry. >> why are you angry. >> sean: i'm not angry i'm laughing the at you because i think it's caomical. >> i'm latching at youghing at it's not the first time. >> sean: and i invited you on and let you rant for three minutes and spirit of bipartisanship, let's-- >> a republican. >> sean: i'm a registered conservative yo

. >> caller: yeah, to grover norquist, how are they legally an officer of the congress?any times. since when do you take an oath to a guy. >> the oath that matters is the oath to the constitution and no pledge has precedence over that oath. i think the oath that take the no-tax pledge would say it is consistent with the constitution. >> stephanie: grover norquist nor wayne lapierre are elected to anything so if you are signing some oaths or trying to get ratings from a guy -- >> i have never pledged an oath to anyone named grover. >> the only people you should take an oath to are your constituents. >> stephanie: right. alan you are on with congressman schiff. >> caller: yes, sir, good morning. they knew that march 1st, 2013 would be coming and i have to deal with my home budget. now all of a sudden it's one side's fault that we're not going to work with this march 1st deadline. i just want to know your comments and would like to hear this. thank you. >> stephanie: okay. >> i think it's easy to feel that, well since there is no agreement in congress both sides are equally

republican's dream of ending so-called big government, endi job-killing regulations, to do what grover norquist has always wanted to do, to shrink government and make it so small that you could drown it in the bathtub. and even though between 1.4 and 2 million jobs will be lost, republicans would have accomplished an aspiration for their party that they have had for a long time. >> no doubt. >> and they figure that they can come in through the back door, introduce a bill to restore the defense cuts, and with a bill that would pass both houses by 2/3 votes, that they could get a supplemental bill to restore defense cuts. this is what i think their plan is. and were it not for the president, we may -- they might have tried to -- they might have succeeded. >> the scary thing about this is that once you see these cuts kick in and once you see americans lose their jobs there's no guarantee that these folks are going to get back and get rehired and get back into the game. and this is the dangerous thing about these cuts that are one week from tomorrow. congressman shaka fattah, what about that? peopl

. >> we know that grover norquist starving the beast of resources.hey're starving the beast of credibility. they're starving the beast of the federal government with any public confidence that it can actually solve problems. this is part of the destruction of our federal government. they would be delighted if people lost confidence in the government and if they could further tear it down. a lot of people run for congress against the government. that's a tried tradition in american history. but usually once they have office and they have responsibility to govern, they find they have to be for something as well. but this crowd has never made the transition to being for something. >> but they take a salary, don't they? >> they take a salary -- >> where they work in the united states government, they're working for the government to function, at least, even if they vote against it. they do want a functioning government but now i get the feeling they don't. >> i think there was a little truth serum from the congressman. you campaign against the government

this is a guy for the present for president a club for growth somebody somebody needs to call grover norquist and tell him the path to me is in favor of raising taxes but are you sure you are or are you he nowhere is this a metaphor for letting the bush tax cuts expire. metaphors for putting cheap in. here the other words when you say raising taxes really what you're talking about obama saying i knew that the bush tax cuts were going to expire he was willing to you know i know there was there was there was and you guys of all that it's actually no there were times it's a no it was it was they were there were real revenue increases rate increases whatever you talked about it was going to be part of the mix and the democrats at the last minute blew up the deal. it's and right now well i will see how this plays we'll see other things i think we've all had our say on this the sequester is austerity i think we all agree on that no i do austerity is reducing spending and it's reducing future spending increases but it's not decreasing spending well but that's about it's going to go back to your smil

it's such fun for me to irritate the aarp and grover norquist, in equal measure. make sure life worthwhile. so they're willing to be savage. anything we do we will be savaged. >> when was the last time you talked to president obama? >> well, certainly erskine was close by, and he goes up and he checks with me after they have their conversation. i think personally i talk with joe biden on the phone. i've known joe for 30 years, greg bell. we don't always agree but a good man. and i love him. but, you know, personally i suppose a year and a half or something since i've personally talked the president. erskine has that ability to do close by and then he checks with me. >> when was the last thing you talked to the president? >> right before the election. i talked to vice president biden since the election, and i talked to members of the white house team constantly, you know, whether it's been jack lew or gene sperling or -- >> it's pretty remarkable you have not talked to the president since the election. why is that? >> i don't think it's remarkable. having worked in

it irritates the aarp and grover norquist in equal measure. it makes your life worthwhile. we are going to be savage. anything that we do, we will be savage. >> when was the last time the spoke to president obama? >> certainly we check with him after they have their conversation. personally i talked with joe biden on the phone. i've known him for 40 years. a great pal. we do not always agree, but he is a good man and i love him. personally, a year-and-a-half for some things, pushing to talk to the president. erskine has that ability and he checks with me. >> the last time you spoke to the president? >> since the election -- before the election. i have spoken to to members at -- team members of the white house. >> it is remarkable. >> having worked in the white house, these guys have a lot on their plate. they have got plenty to do. >> if joe biden were president, would we have had a grand bargain? >> who knows. if bill clinton had been president, would we have gotten a grand bargain? both sides will have to move out of their comfort zone for a grand bargain. >> let's talk a

that is the goal of the grover norquist set out, tan that's what you do with a date opposed to economic reality and the desire to grow an economy in the way that strengthens the middle class, so i will just close by saying that we have litigated a lot of the issues. it was in the last presidential campaign, and mitt romney and paul ryan talked about how people of this country based a clear choice, different paths. they laid out their path, the president laid out his path. on these questions, on these big questions of how do we deal with the economy, how do we ensure we strengthen middle class, how do we deal with deficit reduction in a balanced way? the people voted. every public survey from then until now shows the american people still support the president's strategy of reducing the deficit in a sound way consistent with sound economics, not with political ideology, so if we can focus on economic plan, and that comes first as what i laid out, as our north star, then, together, we can move this country forward, but if we have threats of artificial shut down, it's difficult to change.

it's a grover norquister. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. poe: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. poe: madam speaker, as the sun was rising in the iraqi desert, three dozen mortgage arse rained down on camp liberty. camp liberty is where innocent iranian exaisles, including women and children, live. this unprovoked attack left six people dead and dozens wounded. now, who was responsible? was it the iraqis, the iranians? looks to me that both governments should be held accountable. these dissidents stand for an iran free of the extreme mullahs and the tyrant ahmadinejad. over 3,000 unarmed freedom fighters currently live at camp liberty and remain in imminent danger. the iraqi government has proven on more than one occasion it is unwilling to protect iranian dissidents in this country. the united nations has a responsibility to ensure these people are moved to safer l

[applause] unfortunately, the state department does not have our own grover norquist pushing a pledge to protect it. we don't have millions of aarp seniors who send in their dues and rallied to protect american investments overseas. the kids whose lives we are helping save from aids, the women we are helping to free from sex trafficking, the students who for the first time can choose to walk into a school instead of into it a short life with terrorism, their strongest lobbyists are the rare committed americans stand up for them and the resources we need to help them. i hope that includes all of you here and many listening. you understand why every time a tough fiscal choices loom, the easiest place to point fingers is foreign aid. as ronald reagan said, foreign aid suppers for the lack of-- suffers from a lack of domestic constituency. that's part of the reason everyone thinks it costs a lot more than it really does. so we need to change that. i reject the excuse that americans just are not interested in what's happening outside their immediate field of vision. i don't believe that ab

committee and when all the republicans members on that super committee had already pledged to grover norquist not raise revenue and only do cuts and then after it failed, after all going to-- >> let me ask you a question. >> no, wait a minute. >> you said i could rant and-- >> i've given you plenty of time to rant, congressman. >> do you have a question for me, sir. >> yes, i do, first of all, it was max baucus and it was boob woodward that said that the president requested the sequester point one. point number two my question to you is very simple. barack obama, you said what he said is a-- >> here is my question, here is my question. >> by the republican party sequester is a provision of the republican party. >> the rah, rah, rah, i got it, you know, i know you're a broken record, now let me give you my question. >> you're a broken record. >> is it immoral, is it immoral-- >> you are immoral. >> i'm immoral? what did i do that's immoral? i didn't do anything immoral. >> you say things that aren't true. >> give me one example, sir. >> well, to try to say that it is the president's fault, tha

we have grover norquist going poopy heads. they are the pee wee herman heads.ediments, suicide conservatives, who would rather lose elections than win seats with moderates. yes! yes! have some principle! i implore that! >> move further to the right. >> stephanie: yes, go. and the many groups on the hard right that requires a high degree of audacity and borderline shrewdness. throw in a third obstacle, loud-mouth personalities, and candidates who are hard to control. [♪ mysterious music ♪] >> stephanie: there are your monsters enjoy. they brought you abby normal brains. >> perhaps i could help you that hump. >> stephanie: i urge them to put the candle back. >> listen to me very carefully. put the candle back. >> stephanie: i don't know what that means but -- >> i have no idea. >> stephanie: it's better advice than you are getting from anywhere else. >> better advice that christine o'donnell gave you. >> i'm not a witch. i'm one of you. >> stephanie: a parade of crazies. [♪ "world news tonight" theme ♪] >> stephanie: steve king. >> the stunning steve king. >> ste

[applause] unfortunately, the state department does not have our own grover norquist pushing a pledge to protect it. we don't have millions of aarp seniors who send in their dues and rallied to protect american investments overseas. the kids lose lives we are -- whose lives we are helping save from aids, the women we are helping to free from delores of sex trafficking, -- free from sex trafficking, the students who for the first time can choose to walk into a school instead of into it a short life with terrorism, their strongest lobbyists are the rare committed americans stand up for them and the resources we need to help them. i hope that includes all of you here and many listening. you understand why every time a tough fiscal choices loom, the easiest place to point fingers is foreign aid. as ronald reagan said, foreign aid suppers for the lack of domestic constituency. that's part of the reason everyone thinks it costs a lot more than it really does. so we need to change that. i reject the excuse that americans just are not interested in what's happening outside their immediate fie