Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) discussed the upcoming fiscal cliff and the record number of women elected to the U.S. Senate in an interview with co-hosts Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell that was broadcast live today, Nov. 28, 2012, on CBS THIS MORNING on the CBS Television Network (7:00 AM – 9:00 AM). Watch the interview in full below!
Below are excerpts from the interview:
O'DONNELL: What do you think about-is this posturing on the fiscal cliff, or is there real work being done? What's your sense?
KLOBUCHAR: Well, I wouldn't have been surprised that this is going on. People are going to stake out positions. But I think the most significant thing is you're starting to see a number of major Republicans just mentioned, representatives, but also Saxby Chambliss, Lindsey Graham, others saying, you know what, I'm going to be willing to look at revenues in addition to spending cuts. That's what we need for a compromise here. That's what the President's been pushing for. A number of us that really legitimately want to bring down the debt, that we are going to have to see a mix of significant spending cuts as well as revenue and the way you get a big chunk of revenue is by looking at the plan that the representative mentioned, which is extending the middle-class tax cuts for people, $250,000 and below. You then save $700 billion in 10 years. You add that to the spending cuts. You close loopholes and subsidies and you can get to that number $4 trillion, where we want to be in reductions.
O'DONNELL: But Republicans say you can also get that $700 or $800 billion by capping deductions and closing loopholes above about $50,000.
KLOBUCHAR: Yeah, and I don't think you see anyone saying it has to be one plan. Warren Buffett put one out this week as a way to bring in some revenue and some of the wealthier. And so people are open to different plans and that's, to me, is the most important thing. You haven't seen people say it's my way or no other way. That's not happened.
ROSE: It seems that the President believes you can't get there by deduction, you have to raise rates. Is that your view?
KLOBUCHAR: If you need to get that significant revenue, I believe you do have to do something with rates. But let's just let everyone put their proposals out. We want to do something significant here, not just pretend that people are doing something.
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