House GOP members fight increase in tax rates

>>> no budget deal between president obama and congressional leaders will survive if it can't get support from house republicans. key players, georgia congressman tom price chair of the house republican policy committee and joins me now. congressman, thanks very much. there's been a lot of talk among senators recently republican senators have said that they are over grover norquist and the no tax pledge, that pledge doesn't obtain anymore because the situation has changed. peter king said the same on "meet the press." what say you about the norquist pledge? you're a signatory.

>> i really am surprised about the obsession with this one individual that doesn't compare at all to the lack of obsession about the economic doldrums that we're in as a nation. look, people didn't sign that pledge because they were coerced into it. people signed that pledge because it encompasses the kinds of solutions that will move us in the right direction. increasing tax rates on the american people and on small businesses means you take money from people, money from small businesses , and you transfer it to the government. we don't believe that that's the wise place to do that. we believe that those dollars are best spent and the economy is helped most when those dollars are left in people's pockets and small businesses . so why folks would negotiate with themselves about whether or not they still think that that's a positive economic principle, is beyond me.

>> well, presuming that you can get a balanced approach which what is the president wants, which means real cuts and real revenue, are you willing to go against the no tax pledge if you have the kinds of cuts that you want to see on the domestic side?

>> what you just described isn't against the pledge. and what we haven't seen from the president are his spending reductions. so, we've got revenue side and spending side.

>> i've interviewed grover norquist , with all due respect, he said no tax increases period, not if ands or buts if you get cuts. that's what his pledge means, as far as the way he interprets it and he interprets it is the way that some primary opponents to yourself would interpret it presumably if you face that down the road?

>> well, look, increasing tax rates is not wise. increasing tax rates destroys jobs, 700,000 jobs. the president's plan would destroy 700,000 jobs, according to earnest and young not according to tom price or republicans and you can gain revenue closing loopholes, capping deductions, capping credits so you can lower the rates for individuals, broaden the base and then address the spending. again which the president has refused to address. he refuses to identify where he would make spending reductions. a revenue side, yes, pro growth policies help the most and then increasing tax revenue through capping deductions, credits, closing those loopholes, lowering those rates, broadening the base and a spending side which has to address of necessity, medicare, medicaid and social security that are currently on a path under the president's plan for insolvency.

>> there are reliable studies that show you can't cap enough show you can't cap enough deductions and level the playing field enough to raise the kind of revenue you need. we're talking about a trillion and a half dollars here.

>> you know well, andrea, that the president's plan to increase taxes on the upper 2% covers the spending by this federal government not for eight years, not for eight months, not for eight days or eight weeks but for eight days. eight days only. it's not a real solution. so, again, i'm puzzled by an administration that seems to be more interested in raising tack rates than in gaining economic vitality.

>> congressman tom price . the president told one of your colleagues a bit ago at the white house today is don't pack your bags . that might be good advice for all of us. thanks very much.