GOP sends White House a counter-offer on debt plan

>>> good evening, americans . welcome to "the ed show" from new york. the republican plan to solve the fiscal cliff is the same one america rejected on november 6th . this is "the ed show." let's get to work.

>>> flabbergasted. i said he can't be serious.

>> john boehner finally puts a plan on the table.

>>> and breaking news the middle class gets the shaft. richard wolffe and molly ball on the republican political theater and the white house response.

>>> bob costas issues a common sense relief for gun control in the wake of the kansas city chief murder suicide story. and the right wing just explodes.

>> bob costas based on the standards of our society today deserves to be fired for these remarks. bill roden and dan gross respond.

>>> corporate profits break records again. we'll tell you what it means for workers.

>>> just when you thought it was too early for a horse race , i'll ask michael if this was the first campaign video for decision 2016 .

>> good to have you with us, folks. thanks for watching. john boehner is hanging on to their ideological hats. the latest attempt to change the conversation is a plan the american people rejected a month ago. the republican counteroffer to the white house plan relies on $800 billion. the plan does not raise any tax rates on the top income earners. it also contains $600 billion in health care cuts. who has been for that? nobody. there are $300 billion in cuts in mandatory government programs and another $300 billion in cuts to agency budgets and discretionary spending . the speaker's office sent a letter outlining the plan saying new revenue would be generated through pro-growth tax reform that closes special interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates. oh boy. it's the mitt romney plan again. the offer letter actually described the proposal as the bowles plan. republicans say the plan is based on the outline for the debt commission co-chair. the approach outlined in the letter speaker boehner sent to the president does not represent the simpson- bowles plan nor is it the bowles plan. the white house also rejected the offer in a statement today. the republican letter released today does not meet the test of balance. in fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthiest americans and sticks the middle class with the bill. their plan includes nothing new and provides no details on which e deductions they would eliminate, which loopholes they would close or which medicare savings they would achieve. hold it right there, folks. loopholes, aren't we tired of hearing about loopholes? timothy geithner made appearances on all the sunday talk shows to hammer home the specifics of the white house plan. republicans tried to counter his presence using their favorite media source.

>> timothy geithner scheduled a round of interviews, but friday afternoon speaker boehner 's office said he wanted to come on fox news to tell his side of the story.

>> gosh, i wish i could get those calls. they gave john boehner the floor but he showed up with nothing.

>> we have laid it out for him. a dozen different ways to raise the revenue from the richest americans as the president would describe them.

>> what's the biggest proposal you put on the table since the election in terms of raising revenue from closing loopholes and deductions?

>> there's a lot of ways to get there, but you could cap deductions at a percent of income. that would be one way to get there. you could eliminate deductions for the wealthiest.

>> let me ask you a couple specifics. would you limit the home mortgage deduction?

>> there are a lot of options. i'm not going to debate this.

>> really? not going to debate this? so he specifically did not say no on the home mortgage deduction. didn't do that. that's the biggest write off that middle class americans have. nor any specifics on loopholes. give us just one loophole, mr. boehner . can't you get one? our tax code is how many thousands of pages and you can't give us one loophole? well, on tv and on paper, republicans refuse to offer details about just how they are going to get all this revenue. timothy geithner explained by the republicans can't sell the specifics of their plan.

>> if republicans would like to go beyond these reforms, they should tell us how they want to do it.

>> what if they were to propose the republican budget that they passed?

>> there's no reason they are going to do that. the american people could take a careful, hard look at that plan and they found no mer merit in it.

>> this thing called the ryan plan, president obama continues to take his case to the american people who rejected the ryan plan. today he answered questions directly on twitter. one person asked, why won't keeping tax rates low across the board encourage more hires and therefore, more tax revenue ? the president responded, high-end tax cuts do the least for economic growth and cost almost $ 1 trillion. extending middle class cuts boosts consumer demand and growth. the white house released a video today showing how president obama has been consistent on his message throughout the last couple of years. it was central to his campaign.

>> we need to give tax relief to working families trying to raise their kids to keep them healthy, send them to college, keep a roof over their heads. that's the choice in this election. that's one of the reasons i'm running for a second term as president.

>> how quickly we forget. in the words of secretary timothy geithner , this is why republicans have no choice but accepting the tax increases on the wealthiest americans .

>> why does it make sense for the country to force tax in increases on all americans because a small group of republicans want to extend for 2% of americans ? why does that make any sense. there's no reason why that should happen. we can't afford those tax rates . we can't afford them. so we're not going to get to the end now without a recognition of republicans of that basic reality. that's going to be the responsible thing to do. my judgment is they are going to do it because there's no alternative to that.

>> behind closed doors , republicans know there's no alternative. abc news reports house republicans are preparing to extend the middle class tax cuts and push everything else off into next year. two senior republicans tell abc news this doomsday plan is becoming the most likely e scenario. in public, republicans are pretending the election just never happened. in private, they know the end is very near and their options are limited. this is why they put it out today, to change the conversation to make people think they really have some plan out there. they don't. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, whose plan is better for the middle class ? text a for democrats, text b for republicans to 622639. we'll bring the results later on in the show. joining me tonight is robert riech, former u.s. labor secretary and author of "beyond outrage." i have been following your writings on all of this. in a short phrase, you have gone down this road how quickly we can explain who gets hurt. let's take the republican plan for what they are presenting. who gets hurt in this deal?

>> it's reverse robin hood , ed. it's the same plan that paul ryan and mitt romney were touting. it's exactly the same. they want to have limited deductions for the rich, but will not specify what the deductions are. they want to raise the age of eligibility for medicare , thereby cutting medicare and hurting a lot of people. . they want to cut a lot of spending. they are not clear what spending they want to cut. they just know that a lot of it is domestic discretionary spending . a lot of the programs that they depend on and yet they refuse to raise tax rates on the rich. we have been here before . this is deja vu all over again.

>> how troubling is it to you when you hear john boehner not protect the mortgage interest? e i mean, that tells me that they are going to go wherever they have to go to the middle class to get the money.

>> well not only are they going to go after the middle class , they are obviously going to go avenue the middle class because given that we have a large budget deficit down the road and given that if we don't want to and they don't want to cut military spending , what's left? they will have to cut programs beneficial to the middle class . this is another example, this is a continuation of the war on the middle class that they started years ago. now it's becoming clear for everybody to see. it was very clear before the election, but we had an election. americans repudiated the republican idea. reverse robin hood economics and yet they are coming back with it. over and over and over again. i think the fact that boehner will not schedule a vote on the middle class extension of the bush tax cuts that the president wants, the senate has already passed this. boehner is under increasing pressure to schedule a vote on this and get it out of the way. once they do that, the game is over.

>> nancy pelosi is trying to take care of that. she plans to bring a discharge petition to the floor of the house tomorrow. this would force republicans to openly accept or reject the middle class tax cuts . did this influence the republicans desire to release a plan? do you think this conversation in recent days about this technique that she's going to put on the floor, do you think that prompted this deal today?

>> if you call this deal a plan. there's nothing here, ed. this is exactly what romney was touting. they don't want to raise taxes on the rich. the top 2% are held basically sack ri singt.

>> what about pelosi's move?

>> they are going to be vulnerable. the back story here is not only 2012 and the election of 2012 . the back story is 2014 . if republicans continue to stick to being the shoes for the wealthy in this country and maintaining a war on the middle class , america is going to vote them out of office. we're going to have a republican party that not only is a minority party , but is a minority party for years.

>> robert, great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. and this programming note. democratic leader nancy pelosi will join me tomorrow for an e exclusive interview. you won't want to miss it. remember to answer tonight's question. answer that on twitter and facebook.

>>> coming up, republican maneuvering on the fiscal cliff can't hide the truth. they still want the middle class to bare all the pain. richard wolffe and molly ball join me. stay with us. we're right back. [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of