Boehner: We can still overturn Obamacare

>>> it would appear mitt romney has moved on from the election, the 47% and his post-election comments to donors about gifts the president handed out to voters. here he is at disneyland looking like the terminator. for him the election is truly over. for his republican counterparts, here's speaker boehner on an editorial on the fiscal cliff. he makes it very clear that the battle over obama care is far from over. he says, quote, the tactics of our repeal efforts will have to change. we need to repeal obama care and enact common sense, step by step reforms that start with lowering the cost of health care . clearly speaker boehner hasn't quite accepted the fact that the president was re-elected by an overwhelming majority. nope, is he right back to defending the 1% and corporate welfare at the expense of none other than the middle class . for more, we go to joy reid, managing either of grio.com and jared bernstein. welcome to you both.

>> nice to be here.

>> earlier we asked you to come up with a figure, because you know i have -- like a dog with a bone on this. we asked you to come up with a figure how much corporate welfare per year is dolled out. what did you find out?

>> from the tax policy center , nonpartisan, highly reliable group, $150 billion in tax expenditures that favor corporations in 2012 . so, there's your number.

>> now, if i'm not mistaken, the amount we actually spend on entitlements that we actually are entitled to because we pay into a system is about half of that? in terms of who's getting the better deal, corporate welfare seems like the better deal and if we're looking for cuts, maybe that's where we should start?

>> i think the point is that in both of these cases it's absolutely nonsense, and i know you share this view, to write off all of the social programs as, you know, welfare that just layabouts are -- that 47%, clear nonsense. at the same token, there are certain things on the corporate side that you and i would probably agree on are useful tax policy . if you think about incentives for investment in new technologies, the tax credit , tax credit for solar and wind power . some of that is actually helpful.

>> you're being far too reasonable. far too reasonable.

>> now, some -- wait a second. let me get -- i don't know if it's unreasonable but let me tell you what i was about to say. if you think about oil and gas subsidie subsidies, if you think about all the profits, and this is the big money stuff that are deferred, held overseas, if you think about the ability of private equity funds to deduct interest payments on their debt finance deals, all of that is corporate welfare . so you know, there's balance here to be seen.

>> now, joy, i mean, you know -- i told joy earlier, speaker boehner is tripping. he writes that the tactics are --

>> i agree.

>> -- repeal efforts have to change. are you kidding me? three times they've been defeated on this. what has to change is their attitude on this.

>> oh, is john boehner going to be pissed when he finds out mitt romney lost the election. if they let him out of that time machine , he might be something. the thing i find humorous about this, as well as about the whole issue of taxes and whether or not we should repeal the bush tax cuts , is that republicans do seem to have decided that the election that just happened didn't really happen. and that they are going to propose pretty much all of mitt romney 's ideas as their negotiating starting point. well, we just --

>> we needed paul ryan actually to help get the job done.

>> even having paul ryan talk about it. it's amazing. they decided while mitt romney lost the election, his ideas, they think won. i don't know how they get there.

>> i feel like what they're trying to do is say, we lost, never mind but we're going to keep doing what we do. if we keep saying it enough, maybe --

>> i read that -- john boehner 's op-ed pretty carefully. here's one thing he said. he said there are three ways to take down obama care, through the courts, through the election -- by the way, both of those haven't worked out -- three through what he called congressional oversight . to me, what he's saying there is congressional sabotage.

>> right.

>> maybe i'm -- maybe i didn't listen closely enough to, you know, civics back in elementary school , but the job of the congress is to implement the supreme court -backed law of the land .

>> that's right.

>> to me what he's saying is really quite scary when you get down to it.

>> i want to ask -- there's a question on that because essentially they've been defeated three times in each of those venues. what is it they're thinking -- now they're trying to drag it into the negotiations over the fiscal cliff, which does not sound like compromise to me. what am i missing?

>> what they're thinking here is you can use smoke and mirrors to block the thing. you can send misses to health and human services to gin up all kinds of things to keep republicans happy. they're talking about blocking implementation of something the american electorate has voted on and supreme court has held constitutional. i find this to be a little scary.

>> i think it's a lot scary. i think it outs them about not being sincere about wanting to work with the president at all. a final question to you. a month from today the congress is going on vacation. that's how long we have to get this fiscal cliff situation. are democrats going to hold their spine and stand up to republicans on this? there's a lot of anxiety on the left about this.

>> i think there is. while i think the president, if he could get it, would like to have a big deal before christmas. i think it's doubtful it will happen. i think the john boehner op-ed shows you why. boehner is still guarding his right flank. everything he does, he's still trying to give gimmes to the republican base. we can say all we want -- the republican operatives want to change the party. but the base of the party is still there. they still exist. the tea party base. not only are they still there, 87 are still in the lame duck congress. you see boehner regarding his speakership into december. i would say we get past december 31st , get to january 3rd , reorganize the congress and then they make a deal.

>> let's hope that's right. thank you for joining us. have a great thanksgiving.

>> you, too.