Republicans have a date with the president

>> thanks, chris, and thanks to you for tuning in. last night, the largest active volcano in europe erupted. mt mt . mt .edna spewed la va and hot ash for a thousand feet in the sky. the blast was so powerful, it was visible in space. something else is blowing up. the gop 's relentless disput with president obama . yep, you can see it right there. in just a few minutes, president obama will leave the white house for a dinner to talk policy and politics with a group of republican lawmakers. he'll break bread with 11 gop senators, talking about taxes and cuts and breaking gridlock in washington . this could be the start of something.

>> i'm encouraged by the president's out reach. i hope it bears fruit. there are other senators who will be giving their views to the president tonight. they will probably try to talk sense into him and he'll try to talk sense into us.

>> talking sense into the gop ? i like the sound of that. that's probably why two republica republicans, in particular, won't be attending. that's right. senator mcconnell, no soup for you. and speaker boehner , no merlot for you, either. those two republican leaders have proven they reject compromise. they've shown they're beholden to the far right. need an example? just look at the fit speaker boehner threw over the white house decision to stop tours over atmatic budget cuts that republicans allowed to happen.

>> what's the idea that we're going to shut down tours at the white house during the ooeszer season when washington is overrun by visitors, it's just silly. and i want to know who's being laid off at the white house ? is this what's going on? all i can say is the capitol is open to visitors. we welcome the american people to come to their capitol. we've been preparing for the president's sequester for months.

>> careful now. stand back. john boehner is out raged. wouldn't you love it if he were just as out raged to the cuts we're seeing to the poor or the cuts to the vital women's programs or, i don't know, how about 750,000 jobs that will be lost if we don't come together on a budget deal? how about some out rage on that, mr. speaker? and while he's downright angry, congressman paul ryan is practically gleeful with the cuts the latest budget will make to the safety net . the new york times says, "he's likely to propose cuts to many programs unaffected by the automatic redurkss. like food stamps , medicaid u social service block grants and farm subsidies . he would use those savings to reduce some of the automatic cuts, including in the military. quiet a reverse robin hood . steal from the poor and give to the pentagon.

>>> joining me now is congresswoman out of illinois and chad bernstein for budget and policies. thank you for both being here tonight.

>>> congresswoman, let me go to you, first. some senators may be open to compromise. but it seems the same old ways with the house republicans.

>> there is such an incredible disconnect between the united states congress , the house, the republican-led house and the rest of the world . the real life , the real world that my constituents live in. and everything single thing that they're doing, the sequester, the continuing resolution, the ryan budget make income and equality much worse. created, as you pointed out, the loss of 750,000 jobs. give more tax breaks -- the ryan budget will give more tax breakst the wetiest americans. nunl none of this is necessary. this is a self-inflicted pain on the middle class and the poor.

>> jared , when you look at the president going to dinner with them tonight, reaching out, they always said he did reach out. he's reaching out again. new york times said this weekend, the president's new strategy in dealing with the gop is --

>> is this new strategy a result of what he learned his first four years in aufsz, in your opinion?

>> i think so. i think he learned from silting across the table, negotiating in fairly old-school style, the idea that the president deals with party leaders didn't work for him because the party leader , i'm thinking of speaker boehner in particular, he didn't have his troops behind him. so let me underscore something the congressman said about this. i'm very glad they're trying to work towards compromise. it's a word that's been lacking in washington . we won't move forward woult it. but look at what they're talking about. you're not telling me that these folks are getting together to try to figure out how to bring the unemployment rate down or to increase the ralt of job growth . you're telling me they're getting together to try to turn off sequester and diffuse the latest fiscal time bomb . that's good. but how about some urgency around jobs, the economy, the things that the congresswoman was talking about.

>> and then, when you look at the real suffering that people are doing and we're talking about the preserved loopholes for people's private jets and their private yachts, congresswoman, it's really amazing. but, at the end of the day , though, you have to hope that you can get something done if you really care about people not suffering. senator graham, who i've been no fan of, he did show some kind of willingness to cooperate. listen to this.

>> i have said that i'm willing to bend the retirement curve. i'm just speaking for myself.

>> i've been no fan of his on this show and other places. but, for him to mention revenue, congresswoman, is a big deal . you know, he mentioned revenue, but he also mentioned the real prize that they're after. and that is social security . that had nothing to do with the deficit. so medicare and medicaid . so that's where they really want to go. so to cut those programs, to cut the benefits of those prachls is what they really want to do. that will cause enormous pain. and i think that is a bad trade-off for us to be making.

>> jared , the president is not just at dinner tonight. there's a lot of reachings out going on. he's having dinner tonight. next week, he will address gop house and senate conferences and will join republicans for lumpk. also, he's spoking with congressman paul ryan regarding the bumgt. so he's very proactive in trying to break this gridlock and get something done, which is a good thing if you're one of those 750,000 people that may lose their job. or if you're in one of the situations that the american people talk ds about. of course that's right. the president has consistently argued for turning things off. the plan that he's put forth has been balanced between revenue increases on one side and spending cuts on the other. the thing that republicans consistently refuse to remember is we've raised about $700 billion in taxes. we already have an imbalance there. we've legislated $2.30 of every spending cut for every dollar of tax increases. the president is absolutely right, that's got to be the way forward . he's said i'm going to do some things that many of you may disagree with.

>> it's not as if democrats right-hand turn being asked to do anything, either, to koch miez. i mean, there are members of my party who violently disagree with the notion that we should do anything on medicare . and i'm willing to say to them, i diszagree with you because i want to preserve medicare for the long haul. and we're going to have some tough politics within my party to get this done.

>> both sides need to be willing to compromise.

>> so, when they say that he is not willing to compromise and that he's just inflexible and more and more and more, that's reelly not true.

>> of course, it's not true. we already cut $716 billion out of medicare . already, the republicans accused us of cutting medicare . now, they really want to cut more and more and more. we are willing to cut all the fat out of those programs to make them more e fishlt. but when you start cutting benefits, you're talking about taking life-saving health care away from seniors who make a immediate yanl income median income of $22,000 a year and are already paying 20% of their income out-of-pocket for health care . we just have to be very careful about where we make the cuts. but of course we're willing to sit down and discuss where they can be made safe lly for the american people .

>> well, congresswoman, i'm going to have to leave it there. you're right. we can cut the fat. it's when they start trying to cut the bone that bothers me. congresswoman and jared jared bernstein, thank you for coming on the show.

>>> ahead, president obama ready to mark a major milestone in the fight for equality. valerie jarrett joins us live on a winning fight for women's rights.

>>> and bill o o reilly losing control.

>> give me one damn program he's sitting --

>> it's called entitlements.

>> what are you doing? why do you want to yell?

>> b

>> because you're lie g.

>> ten years since the invasion of iraq , dick cheney sfil has no regrets.

>> well, i don't spend a lot of time thinking about my faults i guess would be the answer.

>> we do. many of them. and we'll talk about it. big show coming up. stay with us. [ kitt ]