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>> tonight, i’m going to prove to you the country is clearly and indisputably liberal. here’s the people that don’t get it — everyone in washington who insists the country is center right, when it’s no such thing. and republicans. exhibit a, john boehner. “the wall street journal” explained today, quote, house speaker john boehner said he’s determined to offer a budget this spring that curbs social security and medicare, despite the political risks and that republicans will try to persuade voters that sacrifices are needed. boehner wants to cut social security and medicare. now, how many times do we have to go through this? people don’t want to cut social security. look at the polls. they want you to cut the deficit by raising taxes on the rich. that’s not me. that’s the american people. the polls couldn’t be clearer. but wait until you get a load of this latest poll. the program from public consultation, part of the maryland school of public policy decided to do something really different and revolutionary. they said to the voters, you do it. you do the federal budget. after all, it’s just basic math. the americans did a way better job of reducing the deficit than the politicians did. guess what else they found? americans are totally liberal. now, they might not identify as liberals, and they might even identify themselves as republican. but most americans are united in what they value. now, let me give you the numbers and examples. these are the things that they sads should be increased. increased spending in pollution control at 17%, 18% in humanitarian assistance. then the numbers get really big. 92% increase in higher education, 110% increase in renewable increase. and 130% increase in job training programs. look, the american people want us to make an investment in jobs. it’s obvious. but they also want cuts and where do they cut? well, defense spending. 26% cut from the military operations in iraq and afghanistan. 18% cut from weapons purchases. and 15% cut military aid to ore other countries. what’s the total? the american people cut spending by more than $145 billion, now that’s excellent work. the republican budget slashers can only dream of a number that big. but americans didn’t say mission accomplished. they, unlike the republicans in congress, are actually serious about deficit reduction. so they aren’t happy to just cut spending. they also raised taxes. 65% raised corporate taxes and 75% raised income taxes. they raised taxes just a little bit on people making over $100,000 a year. they actually believe in a shared sacrifice. so here’s the bottom line, when the american people did the budget, they cut spending by more than $145 billion and they increased revenues by more than $291 billion. so the total deficit reduction was a whopping $437 billion. nicely done. now, if all that was not clear enough for you, i’m going to give you one more poll. the whole country is like oh, no, you don’t understand. no, it’s not. look at the nbc/ wall street journal poll. the top scorers, number one, they said ending tax breaks, 81%. . eliminate earmarks, cut defense funding, end big oil tax cuts, and end tax breaks for people making over $250,000. those are the things they find acceptable. are you ready for what they find unacceptable? coming in at number one — number five, actually. is cutting unemployment benefits. and then this is in order of priority. cutting head start, cutting student loans. they don’t want any of this. cutting heating assistance to the poor. cutting medicaid, medicare, education, social security. they’re saying don’t do it. those are the things we don’t want cut. and those are exactly progressive priorities. absolutely in line, all the polls that you look at. sof now you know. that’s the reality. the country is progressive, the country is liberal. the only place that isn’t is washington, d.c. joining me now is economist, a professor at the university of maryland. profess professor, thanks for joining us. i look at that poll and i say god, can it get any clearer? it looks like the american people are pretty darn liberal based on those numbers?
>> i think you’re missing a lot. they did elect 90, 95 republicans to congress last year because they were upset —
>> nope.
>> wait, they didn’t elect that many?
>> i’ll tell you — we’re beginning with a false premise.
>> oh, you get to talk and i get to listen. okay, i understand now.
>> just they elected them doesn’t mean they have the same priorities.
>> can i finish my thought then?
>> go for it, have at it, hoss. go ahead.
>> they reacted a lot of republicans and it was in reaction to barack obama’s liberalisms. americans are much more moderate than either republican party or the networks with their slants will admit. if we have a democrat in the white house who’s very liberal, they tend to get disgusted and show in polls they’re not happy. they were against health care and so forth. now the republicans have come to town and they think victory means they can slash victory all over the place, get rid of government regulation, cut taxes, the american people will be happy. that’s not true either. americans tend to be more moderate than leaders of either party will acknowledge or either fox or msnbc will embrace.
>> professor, i’m going to challenge you with facts. the facts i just gave. is it a so-called moderate position in washington for an overwhelming majority to say raise taxes. cut defense spending. that’s not what washington considers a moderate position. if it was, i would love it. i would agree. the american people are right there in the center, right? if obama proposed that, the washington media would lose their minds.
>> i did have — i do have the burden of having read the results of the poll. and it’s also fair to say that americans talked about raising the retirement age, that’s a way of cutting social security. they did reject a national sales tax, something that nancy pelosi and barack obama salivate to have. so i think that —
>> they just want to raise other taxes.
>> i think what they’re talking about is shared sacrifice. they want to cut spending in places and willing to cut spending on things that affect them. also willing to increase taxes but they most would like to increase taxes on other people. wouldn’t we all. if you ask the majority of americans should we tax people making more than $100,000? you’re going to get a yes vote because most people get less than $100,000.
>> so then why don’t we do it? the politicians represent us. if the great majority want to raise taxes on people over $100,000, we’re in a real budget mess. why don’t we do it?
>> now we’re getting someplace. the seminar is making progress.
>> i love your condascenion, it’s hilarious.
>> people on both side tend to see elections as mandates for extreme positions. barack obama is more liberal than more people would like.
>> that’s 100% wrong. i just showed you the numbers. their positions are much more progressive than barack obama. we just showed you the numbers. and you’re the university!
>> i had nothing to do with the poll. i’m in the business school.
>> that’s obvious.
>> choo is good thing. the country is not as conservative as boehner would like it to be. the majority of americans did not want the health care law passed but he forced it on us anyway. and we get this kind of back and forth.
>> nonsense.
>> i think it’s unfair to say that americans are extremely liberal or extremely conservative. if they were extremely liberal, they wouldn’t have booted the democrats out of kaufs r office for passing health care. that’s a fact.
>> thank you for your time. i appreciate it even though you’ve been completely and utterly wrong.
>> as are you!
>> we appreciate you for joining us. i just want to make this absolutely clear. when you say the elected republicans– no. they raised million’s and millions of dollars frf millionaires to make it act like they’re for the people. they tricked the american people. you know in the election it turns out commercials make a difference.
>> that’s why barack obama can raise so much money on wall street.
>> i agree. the democrats are the party of wall street.
>> i agree with that, but then you’re agreeing with me they’re too conservative.
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