john boehner survive? there are questions this morning about his future as house speaker after he couldn't get enough republican votes to pass his plan b fiscal cliff proposal. just moments ago he addressed this embarrassing setback.
>> while we may have not been able to get the votes last night, to avert 99.81% of the tax increases, i don't think they weren't taking that out on me. they were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes .
>> seeing an increasingly divided republican house where dozens of conservatives refused to go along with his back up plan.
>> i disagree with john boehner , actually caving on taxes. he went over to the white house over the weekend and said we'll give you a trillion dollars of tax revenue and maybe raise the debt ceiling for a year and take a lever out of the hand of the republicans but did that i think without the support of the congress as we found out.
>> he has worked his heart out to try to get the best deal he can, and to have this happen is very sad. for the country.
>> let's bring in strategist and former hillary clinton adviser kiki maclaine and chip salts man. are you surprised by what happened last night?
>> it is not shocking that the republican conference as a whole didn't want to raise taxes. that's our base position. the speaker thought he had worked the best deal he could and fell through with the white house negotiations and he thought this was a way to jump start it, and they very much were pitching this like it was a republican conference and going to be a republican proposal he would put forth to move the white house on the senate. obviously it was not a great night for the speaker.
>> is he in trouble?
>> i don't think he is. look, i think there is a lot of people with great respect for the speaker and they understand that he thought he was trying to get the best deal that he could and let me be honest. there is a lot of people that disagreed with the deal and they never had any doubt that the speaker was trying to do the best he could and they appreciated his hard work and disagreed with the outcome.
>> last night's descent on plan b would be seen as a vote of month confidence in boehner. the natiis he right on either of those points?
>> absolutely. there was a lot wrong with the plan. both sides, and you have to look up and say what are the sides in the republican congress . people need to understand, you're afraid to vote for something? it is governing from fear. it is not governing from leadership. this has gotten to a level of ridiculousness and endangerment for the american public. at least he should have been allowed to put up what he thought was the legislation. my team wouldn't vote for it but in his own party they can't come together to give him the room to negotiate. i have to say i am at a place of incredible disappointment. i kind of thought the conference might have begun to get it together and recognize what the american people said they wanted. this is a place now that makes it very difficult to move forward and given all that's happened in our country in the last week, the fact that we can't get two sides to the table or at least both sides on one side of the table to come to a solution and fix an economic problem so that we can move onto these other heartbreaking challenges our country has is something i hope they all take home this weekend and worry about.
>> obviously we know, chip, a lot of these republicans that come from very conservative districts look at this and say this is a matter of political survival in addition to the fact they may believe that they don't want to raise taxes or -- sorry, having said that, do you think there is a larger problem here, that they're not seeing the forest through the trees when you look at the poll that just came out, 53% of americans say republicans are too extreme, up from 36% two years ago. are there bigger implications for this even beyond the fiscal cliff, chip?
>> i think if you look at all the issues out there, whether you want to talk about immigration or traditional marriage or taxes, a lot of republicans look like they're on the wrong side of it and we have to communicate better what we believe and how we communicate it. going back to this original question, there is a lot of republicans that fundamentally believe that raising taxes is not the answer and the top 10% of people in this country pay 70% of the federal income taxes and they're like you say you want to be more fair. what do you want the top 10% to pay? 100% of the taxes? they have cases to make and you may disagree with them and they did with the speaker last night on the top 1% that already pay 40% of the taxes in this country and you can't get mad because they are talking about what they believe.
>> here is where we are now. i want to make two points clear. chip and i agree on a lot of the fundamental political analysis of this. we will stay at a stand still in this country if both sides continue to say it has to be only the a i believe. in everybody's home around everyone's kitchen table when a husband and wife had a disagreement eventually somebody says i don't agree with you but we'll give your way a shot. we'll give it a try. that's what has to happen. here is the second point at this point, kris, getting out of this will not be completely fair, right? we have to bring in revenue where it is available. it is not available at the lowest levels of the income. for those who look up and say let's go off the cliff, that's a ridiculous point of irresponsibility from my point of view. those people who need our help and need a stable government most will be those who are immediately hurt. they don't have three, four, five months to wait for another deal. this is the burden that is sitting on the shoulders of the american people and ought to be the burden that sits on the shoulder of every elected official this weekend before christmas.
>> ki ki maclaine, and the dow down 99 points at this point. thanks to both
>> while we may have not been able to get the votes last night, to avert 99.81% of the tax increases, i don't think they weren't taking that out on me. they were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes .
>> seeing an increasingly divided republican house where dozens of conservatives refused to go along with his back up plan.
>> i disagree with john boehner , actually caving on taxes. he went over to the white house over the weekend and said we'll give you a trillion dollars of tax revenue and maybe raise the debt ceiling for a year and take a lever out of the hand of the republicans but did that i think without the support of the congress as we found out.
>> he has worked his heart out to try to get the best deal he can, and to have this happen is very sad. for the country.
>> let's bring in strategist and former hillary clinton adviser kiki maclaine and chip salts man. are you surprised by what happened last night?
>> it is not shocking that the republican conference as a whole didn't want to raise taxes. that's our base position. the speaker thought he had worked the best deal he could and fell through with the white house negotiations and he thought this was a way to jump start it, and they very much were pitching this like it was a republican conference and going to be a republican proposal he would put forth to move the white house on the senate. obviously it was not a great night for the speaker.
>> is he in trouble?
>> i don't think he is. look, i think there is a lot of people with great respect for the speaker and they understand that he thought he was trying to get the best deal that he could and let me be honest. there is a lot of people that disagreed with the deal and they never had any doubt that the speaker was trying to do the best he could and they appreciated his hard work and disagreed with the outcome.
>> last night's descent on plan b would be seen as a vote of month confidence in boehner. the natiis he right on either of those points?
>> absolutely. there was a lot wrong with the plan. both sides, and you have to look up and say what are the sides in the republican congress . people need to understand, you're afraid to vote for something? it is governing from fear. it is not governing from leadership. this has gotten to a level of ridiculousness and endangerment for the american public. at least he should have been allowed to put up what he thought was the legislation. my team wouldn't vote for it but in his own party they can't come together to give him the room to negotiate. i have to say i am at a place of incredible disappointment. i kind of thought the conference might have begun to get it together and recognize what the american people said they wanted. this is a place now that makes it very difficult to move forward and given all that's happened in our country in the last week, the fact that we can't get two sides to the table or at least both sides on one side of the table to come to a solution and fix an economic problem so that we can move onto these other heartbreaking challenges our country has is something i hope they all take home this weekend and worry about.
>> obviously we know, chip, a lot of these republicans that come from very conservative districts look at this and say this is a matter of political survival in addition to the fact they may believe that they don't want to raise taxes or -- sorry, having said that, do you think there is a larger problem here, that they're not seeing the forest through the trees when you look at the poll that just came out, 53% of americans say republicans are too extreme, up from 36% two years ago. are there bigger implications for this even beyond the fiscal cliff, chip?
>> i think if you look at all the issues out there, whether you want to talk about immigration or traditional marriage or taxes, a lot of republicans look like they're on the wrong side of it and we have to communicate better what we believe and how we communicate it. going back to this original question, there is a lot of republicans that fundamentally believe that raising taxes is not the answer and the top 10% of people in this country pay 70% of the federal income taxes and they're like you say you want to be more fair. what do you want the top 10% to pay? 100% of the taxes? they have cases to make and you may disagree with them and they did with the speaker last night on the top 1% that already pay 40% of the taxes in this country and you can't get mad because they are talking about what they believe.
>> here is where we are now. i want to make two points clear. chip and i agree on a lot of the fundamental political analysis of this. we will stay at a stand still in this country if both sides continue to say it has to be only the a i believe. in everybody's home around everyone's kitchen table when a husband and wife had a disagreement eventually somebody says i don't agree with you but we'll give your way a shot. we'll give it a try. that's what has to happen. here is the second point at this point, kris, getting out of this will not be completely fair, right? we have to bring in revenue where it is available. it is not available at the lowest levels of the income. for those who look up and say let's go off the cliff, that's a ridiculous point of irresponsibility from my point of view. those people who need our help and need a stable government most will be those who are immediately hurt. they don't have three, four, five months to wait for another deal. this is the burden that is sitting on the shoulders of the american people and ought to be the burden that sits on the shoulder of every elected official this weekend before christmas.
>> ki ki maclaine, and the dow down 99 points at this point. thanks to both