Rep. Cole: 'Nobody elects Republicans to raise taxes'

>> congressman tom cole , a republican from oklahoma. good to see you again, congressman, good morning. what happened with susan rice , do you think that it is adding to, alleviating some of the tension that clearly is going on between some democrats and republicans over the fiscal cliff or has no impact at all?

>> frankly, obviously i don't know if it was susan rice 's decision or the administration's decision, but i think she was going to have a pretty rough and tough nomination process, confirmation process, and that's a fight the president doesn't need right now, it would have been a distraction.

>> duds he get credit for that? duds she get credit for that? okay there,'s a concession that's been made here.

>> i'm sure that the president didn't want to make this move or have this made. but again, you can only fight so many battles. he's got a lot of other fightses that are coming. this is one he didn't need, he needs and i think the country would be best served by someone that's a unifying figure and can side step some of these situations. it's a smart and a very clear eyed decision by the white house .

>> let me tell you what the president had to say about the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations in an interview with a local station. think speaker boehner has a contentious caucus, as his caucus is tough on him, sometimes he doesn't want to look like he's giving in to me somehow because that night hurt him in his own caucus. is the hard right of your own party still resistant to revenue at all, raising taxes on the rich?

>> remember, the revenue, the taxes go up attend of the month. and that's current law, that's not something that by digging in and holding on we can pre-vent. if we could, we certainly would u barks because none of us favor tax increases period. but i think speaker leads this caucus, he's not led by this caucus, and this caucus supports him tremendously. he's in a very strong position right now, and people think he led us through a very contentious election and they think back to some of the tough decisions he made in the negotiations and the debt ceiling negotiations, i think he's been vindicated in those decisions. he's got a line on the republican proposal , so i think actually the speaker's negotiating from a position of strength, but there are limits, obviously, just given the fact that taxes are headed up for most americans at tent of the month. so there's also some leverage only the democratic side.

>> there's also a report that says there is no conclusive evidence between tax cuts and economic expansion.

>> you can find plenty of economists that would quarrel and disagree with that and there's about as many disagreements on these kinds of things as there are congressmen. but nobody elects republicans to raise taxes. it's just something that most republicans instinctively don't want to do. i never met one who actual ran for office who said i'm running in order to raise taxes. you would be surprise issed if republicans were anything other than totally resistant to this. on the other hand i have never heard of democrats who want to cut spending. that's the issue here. we haven't heard anything from the president in terms of spending cuts and entitlement reform.