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>> lunch, but we already know that, right? today, speaker boehner, majority leader cantor and mccarthy trekked up to the white house to have lunch with president obama and vice president biden, in an effort to find common ground. oh, boy. they made a ? talk after lunch and common ground was a theme.
>> it was a very good lunch. and we were able to find enough common ground, i think, to show the american people we’re willing to work on their behalf.
>> we’re coming out of this lunch committed to trying to do that because the economy so desperately needs us to work together to send the signal that we should start growing again as america, because that’s what america does best. it innovates and leads.
>> i would say the main portion of the entire lunch was talking about the economy, ways that we could grow the economy, a lot to deal with regulation, reform to unleash those shackles that government holds, especially on small business.
>> shackles. small business is shackled. the only way to free them is to cut spending. by the way, big business is spending on over $1 trillion and they won’t spend it. so all this talk about small business is nonsense. all they want to do is cut their taxes and lower their regulation. and we should say that while republicans were pretending to look for common ground with the president, they were also at the same time releasing details of their proposed spending cuts to the president’s budget. their budget cuts will officially be unveiled tomorrow, but they put them out today just to no one would make the mistake of believing they would ever agree with anything with the president. this is what america looks like under republican rule and it looks scary. first, i want to start with nasa. nasa is a program republicans claim to like. they had their budgets slashed by only $100 million. that’s what they did to a program they liked. so you know it didn’t go well for the rest of us. republicans apparently think there’s too much being thrown at a program that provides healthy food and formula. american under public roule wants to cut $1 billion to the ? institutes of health. wants to cut the epa by $1.6 billion. pollution — it’s what’s for dinner. and american under republican rule wants to cut the cops program that helps local law enforcement coordinate against child predators. come on, don’t hard-working criminals need a break, too? and they also want to eliminate americorps. everyone knows that teachers are for the weak. and what about jobs? nay said that the gop majority was going to be laser focused on it. well, the republicans want to cut job training programs by $2 billion. look, for all these different programs, i don’t know what the right numbers should be, so can some of them be cut? yeah, maybe. maybe you should add to some of them. it’s hard to tell exactly what the right numbers are, but these numbers are draconian. i don’t trust the republicans because time after time after time, they get a paycheck from a lobbyist, they turn around and they do that lobbyist a favor. we show that and we prove that on this show all the time. so in this case, why are they cutting $1.6 billion from the epa? because they got paychecks from lobbyists who work for the polluters. if you get paid for the polluters, of course, you want to take away the regulations that stop the pollution. it’s obvious, and it’s simple. but the main thing was they promised jobs. that’s how they won the whole election. and they cut $2 billion from job training? did you know it’s been 35 days and 18 hours since they took over the house and they still have proposed exactly 0 bills to create jobs. what happened? i thought it was supposed to be ability the jobs. joining me now is ohio congresswoman mar cy kaptur. a lot of cuts here. which ones were you most upset by?
>> the ones that impact ordinary people, of course. they didn’t do anything to ? address the fact that hedge funds on wall street don’t pay taxes at the same rate as small businesses in my area. they didn’t do anything to propose prosecution of those who took equity from the american people and sucked it right up into the six biggest banks in in the country. there hasn’t been one prosecution to recover any of those assets. they’re focused on taking away heating assistance for people in ohio, for example, tonight for people who will be living in zero temperatures. these are senior citizens, people who can ill afford to pay high heating bills. as you said, they’re taking away job training from people who want to work in this country, who want to make a contribution. the reason we can’t balance the budget, too many people are out of work. and the way you get people back to work is make sure they have the skills for an economy of a new age. they want to cut energy programs to invest in energy production in america that will create jobs, rather than importing more and more and more from abroad and extending our military into these unending wars to protect the petroleum lanes around the world. wouldn’t it be better to put people to work in america?
>> congresswoman, you can’t expect them to cut the bankers. no, no, no, no. they don’t mean share pain that way. you can’t expect them to cut spending on wars and weapons we don’t need. no, no, of course not. i know that. what i want to know is, are there any cuts you would agree to or that you want to put on the table and say these are the things we need to cut?
>> everything has to be on the table. for example, military spending, homeland security. when i look at the amount of money wasted by the department of homeland security, it’s unbelievab unbelievable. if you look at the department of defense and those gold-plated contract, oh, my goodness. the military is asking for help to trim back. they know we can in-source a lot of these services. if you look at what they’re leading ?off, military construction, we can extend the years of construction. it doesn’t have to be all done in the first couple of years. there are ways to exact, i would say reasonable cuts in almost every program. but they’re cutting over $850 million from police. from police across this country and local law enforcement. with what we’re facing in community after community with the drug trade doing all this damage all over the united states, does that make any sense to you?
>> i thought the republicans were tough on crime, but apparently the way you cut the police is by cutting the police. i’m not sure how that works. if i were a listener or viewer, i would be wondering, how would i know what the budget of the epa would be, how much money the police say this, the republicans say this, the pratt democrats say that. how do you tell them? how do you make that decision?
>> look at your own community, if you feel that there are fewer cops on the beat and crime is going up and that crimes are not being addressed which is happening coast to coast in this country, you know there’s a problem. look at the streets in your community. if you look in cold weather, whether people are not able to pay heating bills. through your church or through your work, look how many people remain out of work. you can judge by your own experience, not just what you hear on virtual media. but from your own experience. there are parts of the country that are protected from the recession. look around your community. how many empty homes do you see? how many foreclosed homes? people can judge by what is happening in their own area. and certainly, when there’s an advertisement for a job, when 5,000 people line up for 50 jobs, you know america has a problem.
>> yeah, you know, when i look around my community, i see, you know, billionaire bankers who just desperately need more money. i don’t know why you’re not seeing that, congresswoman.
>> there hasn’t been one criminal prosecution by the government of the united states against the absolute meltdown that wall street caused our nation and nations around the world. think about that. and they want to cut the fbi. one of their proposals to cut the fbi, we ought to increase the fbi? so we can go after the wrong doers, confiscate their assets, make them pay their criminal penalties and help balance the budget.
>> are there any key party people you might be able to agree with on cuts? of course, they want to propose and bigger cuts, but are there — is there any room for agreement there?
>> i think that we’re looking for agreement. i think that across every account, we have to make reasonable cuts. i think the president’s proposal for a freeze over five years in some accounts makes sense. i think we’re going to get into the negotiation now, but i don’t think that you really take it out on the people who have been hurt the most in this economy. i don’t agree with that at all.
>> i brought up the tea party. i think a lot of them do want to cut defense. i think some of them might be amenable to your ideas on banks. one last thing here, i’ve got to be honest with you, how did you guys lose to these folks? you’re right, there are local communities all throughout this country who are incredibly hurt and they say let’s not address them, let’s cut them. and let’s give tax breaks to the very richest people in the country. i don’t understand how the democratic party loses to that platform.
>> trillions of dollars. the american people were so upset over just what you said — jobs. they want jobs, they want this country to thrive. they’re upset about the debt. they have a right to be upset about the debt. you get the debt problem solved by having a productive robust economy, and that’s why people have to be working. we can’t have people being idle across this country. that would heal so much. i think many people, including the tea party members that were elected, there are many of them very well intentioned, but they’re not familiar with the programs. so they might want to take a meat ax rather than a scalpel. and i think we’re now going to get into the discussions where we will, i hope make wise and intelligent choices that won’t jeopardize the recovery and will help put people back to work.
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