(NB:
Sorry these annotations took so long.
Civic duty called for accuracy in media.)
Sorry these annotations took so long.
Civic duty called for accuracy in media.)
From the horse's orifice on MTP in DC:
DAVID GREGORY: So the obvious question. Are we going over the fiscal cliff?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, I think we're going to find out in the next 48 hours what Congress decides to do...
on midnight December 31st, if Congress doesn't act, then everybody's taxes go up...
For the entire economy that means consumers have a lot less money to make purchases, which means businesses are going to have a lot less customers, which means that they're less likely to hire and the whole economy could slow down...
now the pressure's on Congress to produce.
[Mr President, what exactly do you and Congress "produce?"]
[Mr President, what exactly do you and Congress "produce?"]
If they don't, what I've said is that in the Senate we should go ahead and introduce legislation that would make sure middle class taxes stay where they are...
[0Care raised spending and taxes $1.2 T on the middle class with 20,000 new IRS agents.
The Constitution you said you taught as Professor at U Chicago says tax bills originate in the GOP House, not the D Senate.
Mr President, how can you get a bill passed in the House and Senate unless they betray their constituents?]
DAVID GREGORY:
If you go over the cliff, what's the impact in the markets, which have been pretty confident up until now the deal would get done?
If you go over the cliff, what's the impact in the markets, which have been pretty confident up until now the deal would get done?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:
Well, it's hard to speculate on the markets, but obviously I think business and investors are going to feel more negative about the economy next year...
Well, it's hard to speculate on the markets, but obviously I think business and investors are going to feel more negative about the economy next year...
what's been holding us back is the dysfunction here in Washington.
And if people start seeing that on January 1st this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them, if they say that people's taxes have gone up, which means consumer spending is going to be depressed, then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets.
[But Mr President, you offered $7 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax hikes.
Then you reduced that offer to $5, $2, $1 to kill the Debt Ceiling Deal last year and crash the market.
Now you say you want Congress to raise taxes without any spending cuts, in fact, raise taxes with spending increases, government business as usual.]
DAVID GREGORY: Well, you talk about dysfunction in Washington. You signed this legislation setting up the fiscal cliff 17 months ago.
How accountable are you for the fact that Washington can't get anything done and that we are at this deadline again?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, I have to tell you, David, if you look at my track record over the last two years, I cut spending by over a trillion dollars in 2011.
I campaigned on the promise of being willing to reduce the deficit in a serious way, in a balanced approach of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy while keeping middle class taxes low...
I think anybody objectively who's looked at this would say that we have put forward not only a sensible deal but one that has the support of the majority of the American people, including close to half of Republicans.
[Mr President, in objective fact, you raised government spending every year you were in office.
You increased the deficit every year you were in office.
Your D House and Senate did not even pass a budget for four years.
Since when were government spending cuts and tax increases balanced in your term,
let alone our lifetimes?]
let alone our lifetimes?]
DAVID GREGORY:--breaking this impasse? You've had a tough go with Congress.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: David, at a certain point if folks can't say yes to good offers, then I also have an obligation to the American people to make sure that the entire burden of deficit reduction doesn't fall on seniors who are relying on Medicare.
I also have an obligation to make sure that families who rely on Medicaid to take care of a disabled child aren't carrying this burden entirely.
I also have an obligation to middle class families to make sure that they're not paying higher taxes when millionaires and billionaires are not having to pay higher taxes.
[Mr President, you cut Medicare spending half a trillion dollars.
You pushed Medicaid costs onto State budgets.
Your 0DCare raised 21 new taxes on the middle class and others, stunting economic growth.
Your bailouts and "shovel-ready" stimulus failed miserably.
Your policies raised the cost of living 10% a year in real terms,
more than 10% a year healthcare cost inflation since 0Care passed.]
more than 10% a year healthcare cost inflation since 0Care passed.]
DAVID GREGORY: You said that Republicans have a hard time saying yes. Particularly to you.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Yeah.
DAVID GREGORY: What is it about you, Mr. President, that you think is so hard to say yes to?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That's something you're probably going to have to ask them, because David, you follow this stuff pretty carefully.
The offers that I’ve made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me.
I mean I offered to make some significant changes to our entitlement programs in order to reduce the deficit.
I offered not only a trillion dollars in -- over a trillion dollars in spending cuts over the next 10 years, but these changes would result in even more savings in the next 10 years.
And would solve our deficit problem for a decade...
[Whom are you kidding Mr President? The deficit problem is not solved.
What's fair about raising government borrowing, spending and taxes on the backs of Americans and future generations after you are out of office?
You cut entitlement programs and called it 0Care.
Your so-called spending cuts over the next 20 years are government ghosts after you are gone.
Your actual record is you doubled Federal Deficits in four years.
You signed off on Federal Debts larger than our economy.
You increased government inflation, spending and taxes faster than the economy and population combined.
You oversaw an inflation plus unemployment Misery Index higher than Jimmy Carter.
With MSM union enabling,
voting irregularities and
a weak Presidential challenge from the rich kid who created 0Care in MA,
you were re-elected.]
voting irregularities and
a weak Presidential challenge from the rich kid who created 0Care in MA,
you were re-elected.]
...Now I think that over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle class families do not go up that would hurt our economy badly.
We can get that done.
Democrats and Republicans both say they don't want taxes to go up on middle class families.
That's something we all agree on.
If we can get that done that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff.
It avoids the worst outcomes...
[So Mr President, just like Lucy pulling the spending football away from the Charlie Brown GOP, you yet again tried to change the mainstream agenda from spending cuts to raising taxes? ]
And we're then going to have some tough negotiations in terms of how we continue to reduce the deficit, grow the economy, create jobs.
[Like the last four years Mr President? Give us a break!]
David, as you know, one of the proposals we made was something called Chain CPI, which sounds real technical but basically makes an adjustment in terms of how inflation is calculated on Social Security.
Highly unpopular among Democrats. Not something supported by AARP.
But in pursuit of strengthening Social Security for the long-term I'm willing to make those decisions.
[Mr President, surely you meant cutting and weakening Social Security,
by making sure it does not keep up with the real cost of living,
impoverishes those who were forced to pay into it and
did not even get a real return on their Trust?]
What I'm not willing to do is to have the entire burden of deficit reduction rest on the shoulders of seniors,
making students pay higher student loan rates,
ruining our capacity to invest in things like basic research that help our economy grow.
[So Mr President, exactly when will you stop robbing the Social Security Trust,
When will you stop taxing retired folk and future generations with deficits, debts and inflation?
When will you deal with a trillion dollars of taxpayer subsidized student loans facing default like credit card mortgages?
When will you stop forced taxpayer funding uneconomic bankrupt crony union Wall Street boondoggles like:
Abound Solar, Amonix Solar, Beacon Power, Eastern Energy, Ener 1, GM, Solyndra, Spectra Watt et al? ]
DAVID GREGORY:
Would you commit to that first year of your second term getting significant reform done? Telling Congress, "We've got to do it in--"
Would you commit to that first year of your second term getting significant reform done? Telling Congress, "We've got to do it in--"
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:
No, no, no--
No, no, no--
DAVID GREGORY:
--"the first year?"
--"the first year?"
David, I want to be very clear.
You are not only going to cut your way to prosperity. [?]
One of the fallacies I think that has been promoted is this notion that deficit reduction is only a matter of cutting programs that are really important to seniors, students and so forth.
[Mr President, a divided house cannot stand,
and a bankrupt country cannot survive on funny money.
If government borrows, spends and taxes productive people less,
there will be more for everyone.
We proved that since 1776
under Presidents from various Parties
who cut government borrowing, red tape, spending and taxing to create prosperity.]
under Presidents from various Parties
who cut government borrowing, red tape, spending and taxing to create prosperity.]
DAVID GREGORY: But I'm asking you about timeframe because, as you well know, as a second term president now, about to begin to your second term, your political capital, even having just won reelection, is limited.
So what is your single priority of the second term?
What is the equivalent to healthcare?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, there are a couple of things that we need to get done.
I've said that fixing our broken immigration system is a top priority.
I will introduce legislation in the first year to get that done. I think we have talked about it long enough. We know how we can fix it. We can do it in a comprehensive way that the American people support. That's something we should get done.
The second thing that we've got to do is to stabilize the economy and make sure it's growing.
Part of that is deficit reduction. Part of it is also making sure that we're investing, for example, in rebuilding our infrastructure, which is broken.
And if we are putting people back to work rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our schools, in part paying for it by some of these broader long-term deficit reduction measures that need to take place that will grow the economy at the same time as we're also setting our path for long-term fiscal stability.
Number three. We've got a huge opportunity around energy.
We are producing more energy and America can become an energy exporter.
How do we do that in a way that also deals with some of the environmental challenges that we have at the same time? So that's going to be a third thing.
[Mr President, he asked for one thing, you said a couple, and gave three.
So far, how have these fantasies worked out so far with your credibility,
while expanding global military conflict,
running guns to Mexico,
running up debts, deficits, spending and taxes,
creating shovel ready shinola,
a 28% defacto unemployment rate,
50 million on foodstamps,
endless pre-emptive undeclared wars,
canceling the Keystone Energy Pipeline,
closing down and polluting the Gulf,
violating civil liberties
with Cyberwarfare, BP EPA Fukushima Gulf Pollution, FEMA Sandy Failures, Food Wars, Indefinite Detention, Patriot Act Domestic Espionage, Police State DHS and TSA?]
DAVID GREGORY: Those are four huge things and you didn't mention after Newtown, although I know you're thinking about it, new gun regulations.
Mayor Bloomberg of New York told me a couple weeks ago on this program that ought to be your number one agenda item.
You know how hard this is.
Do you have the stomach for the political fight for new gun control laws?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: David, I think anybody who was up in Newtown, who talked to the parents, who talked to the families understands that something fundamental in America has to change.
And all of us have to do some soul searching, including me as president that we allow a situation in which 20 precious small children are getting gunned down in a classroom.
And I've been very clear that an assault rifle ban, banning these high capacity clips, background checks, that there are a set of issues that I have historically supported and will continue to support.
[Mr President, speaking of our Bill of Rights and Second Amendment,
which you wrote you taught as a Constitutional Law Professor at University of Chicago,
you surely would know that Sandy Hook, like Aurora, was a gun free zone,
CT has the third tightest gun laws in the country,
the perp stole guns because he could not legally buy them as a minor,
and your same old Assault Weapon and Magazine OD hot air ideas didn't stop Columbine or the DC Snipers the last time they were passed into law?
Mr President, do you see any connection at all between your Depleted Uranium munitions,
Drone Strikes on civilians and the growing violence in the USA?]
One of the things that you learn, having now been in this office for four years, is the old adage of Abraham Lincoln's.
That with public opinion there's nothing you can't do and without public opinion there's very little you can get done in this town.
[Mr President, is it possible you may lose your political capital and public credibility,
with DC Congress, Courts and Nationwide citizens,
after blaming everyone else but yourself for failures of State commission and omission?]
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Absolutely.
DAVID GREGORY:
Let me ask you about a couple of foreign policy notes.
Let me ask you about a couple of foreign policy notes.
After the attack in Benghazi is there a need for more accountability so that this doesn't happen again?
And do you know who was behind the attack at this point?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:
Two points.
Two points.
Number one, I think that Tom Pickering and Mike Mullen who headed up the review board did a very thorough job in identifying what were some severe problems in diplomatic security.
And they provided us with a series of recommendations.
Many of them were already starting to be implemented.
Secretary Clinton has indicated that she is going to implement all of them.
[Mr President, exactly who was held accountable for the Benghazi deaths caused by withholding military support and covering it up,
officially calling Benghazi a spontaneous demonstration reacting to a youtube video?
How many responsible parties actually left government in disgrace instead of just being transferred or promoted up to another department?
How could recommendations be implemented before they were made?
How will Secretary Clinton implement all the recommendations after she leaves?]
DAVID GREGORY:
In the politics, in the back and forth in this, do you feel like you let your friend Susan Rice hang out there to dry a little bit?
In the politics, in the back and forth in this, do you feel like you let your friend Susan Rice hang out there to dry a little bit?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:
No. First of all, I think I was very clear throughout that Susan has been an outstanding U.N. ambassador for the United States.
No. First of all, I think I was very clear throughout that Susan has been an outstanding U.N. ambassador for the United States.
She appeared on a number of television shows reporting what she and we understood to be the best information at the time.
This was a politically motivated attack on her.
I mean of all the people in my national security team she probably had the least to do with anything that happened in Benghazi.
Why she was targeted individually for the kind of attacks that she was subjected to is was puzzling to me.
And I was very clear in the days after those attacks that they weren't acceptable.
So the good thing is that I think she will continue to serve at the U.N. and do an outstanding job.
And I think that most Americans recognize that these were largely politically motivated attacks as opposed to being justified...
[Mr President, do you really believe Susan Rice should keep her job as UN Ambassador,
after she fumbled the Benghazi ball you threw her to replace Secretary of State Clinton?
Do you honestly believe they were unjustified political attacks for misleading the American public?
Do you really believe telling Rice critics to "bring it to you" enhanced her or your stature or credibility?
Was it just a coincidence your Beghazi coverup came just before your re-election,
when most people were clear Benghazi was a terrorist attack on US mercenary weapon running to Syria
and torture renditions in Libya on the anniversary of 9-11,
as disclosed by the mistress of General Petraeus,
whom you fired along with other military leaders,
who stood up to your multiple decepticons?]
...What I'm arguing for are maintaining tax cuts for 98% of Americans.
I don't think anybody would consider that some liberal left wing agenda.
That used to be considered a pretty mainstream Republican agenda.
And it's something that we can accomplish today if we simply allow for a vote in the Senate
and in the House to get it done...
and in the House to get it done...
[So overtaxed and underemployed Americans
should just plain forget about debts, deficits and spending
ruining the economy and markets, Mr President?]
...People have been asking me a lot about the film Lincoln and--
...People have been asking me a lot about the film Lincoln and--
DAVID GREGORY: Is this your Lincoln moment?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, no. Look, A, I never compare myself to Lincoln...
[Mr President, did you not announce your candidacy for President Feb 2007 in Lincoln's hometown Springfield, IL on the same County Courthouse steps Lincoln trod?
Did you not take the same pre-inaugural train trip as Lincoln?
Did you not bobble and swear the Oath of Office on the same Bible Lincoln used?
Did you not "nominate a team of rivals" like Lincoln to serve in the Cabinet?
Did you not plagiarize Lincoln repeatedly in your speeches?
Did you not allow Newsweek to put you on the cover with Lincoln before they went belly up?
Mr President, did you not in fact repeatedly compare yourself to Lincoln by citing him repeatedly today and previously?
...in this situation I'm confident that one of two things are going to happen when it comes to the fiscal cliff.
Number one, we're going to see an agreement in the next 48 hours, in which case middle class taxes will not go up.
If that doesn't happen, then Democrats in the Senate will put a bill on the floor of the Senate and Republicans will have to decide if they're going to block it, which will mean that middle class taxes do go up.
I don't think they would want to do that politically but they may end up doing it.
And if all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1st,
then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4th and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families...
then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4th and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families...
[Mr President, we are watching you.
Mr President, are you not yet again blaming the GOP for your shortcomings?
Mr President, do you wonder why some consider you The Liar in Chief?
Mr President, as your GOP hero Honest Abe Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time:
"All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true within itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.
It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.
Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.
For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying."
—Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X]
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