Can Democrats, Republicans meet in the middle?

>>> cliff and senator pat tombeny now joins me from allentown. do you think that mitt romney is the person that the president needs to be speaking to? is is he the leader of the republican party ?

>> will, i think it would be terrific if president obama would speak to mitt romney . mitt romney had a lot of very good constructive ideas to get us on the right path. i'm not so sure that that's going to be an extremely fruitful conversation, but it's a good place to start.

>> what about your concerns? you've always been a fiscal conservative yet at the same time, republican leaders, mitch mcconnell indicated that there is no give no compromise is going to be possible, that was the signal in his statement last night. don't republicans and democrats and the white house have to start over and try to build some trust?

>> well, andrea, first of all, i wouldn't characterize mitch mcconnell 's views that way. i don't know what statement you're referring to. let's remember the actual history. i was there. i was a member of the super committee. and when the democrats insisted they had to have a trillion dollar tax increase even though that doesn't solve the problem i agreed to meet them half way and they left the table. so we were willing. we've been willing to be very reasonable and flexible. what we're saying is let's solve the actual problem, the problem we have, our government programs that are growing too fast. no government program can grow faster than the economy indefinitely and we have a whole bunch of them doing exactly that. if the democrats will come to the table and work with us -- and i hope they will. now that the election is over, i hope we can sit down and put politics aside, at least for a little while and get to work on this, because i think we're living on borrowed time . we have to get the spending under control.

>> senator, you well recall that early debate where the candidates at least for the nomination were asked, would you accept $10 in spending cuts for $1 in tax increases and they all said no. is that kind of a deal that you would consider? would you consider any kind of tax increases if it's balanced by enough spending cuts.

>> andrea -- as i just said, the deal that i put on the table put new revenue on the table. the democrats asked for a trillion dollars. that was just way too much. it would be damaging to the economy. but i agreed to offer half of that provided that it come in the context of pro growth tax reform . at the end of the day , we really need to get this economy moving. so i think that sensible and responsible thing to do is to solve our fiscal problem in a way that actually encourages economic growth , not discouraging it. you know, i know the optimal way to solve this problem is not with any additional tax increase, but if that's a price we have to pay, in order to actually solve the problem, as long as it comes in the context of pro growth tax reform , it's something we've considered in the past and we would be willing to consider.

>> senator pat toomey , thanks so