Sunday, December 12, 2010

This Week with Christiane Amanpour - December 12, 2010

Guests:
David Axelrod - White House Advisor
Tzipi Livni - Israel Opposition Leader
Salam Fayyad - PM Palestinian Authority

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Amanpour: Welcome David - Congressional Dems don’t want to cut taxes for the rich!

Axelrod: well do they want to raises taxes on the middle class and end unemployment benefits?

Amanpour: make me an offer

Axelrod: I’m not here to negotiate

Amanpour: what about the estate tax?

Axelrod: hey did you know there is a payroll tax cut?

Amanpour: Obama said he wouldn’t accept a tax
cut for the rich

Axelrod: right he never ever will - that would borrow money from China for no reason

Amanpour: but the deal extends the cuts

Axelrod: ah but not permanently

Amanpour: so will you raise taxes in 2012 which is after all an election year?

Axelrod: sure because the economy will have recovered by then

Amanpour: you negotiated with the GOP and
didn’t include any Democrats

Axelrod: It all happened so fast - Obama was at home watching the finale of ‘Dancing With the Stars’ with Mitch McConnell and suddenly we had
an agreement

Amanpour: Is Obama ditching liberal Dems?

Axelrod: not at all - he’s just ignoring them

Amanpour: Is Obama too much pulpit and not enough bully?

Axelrod: ha good one

Amanpour: Larry Summers says if we don’t make a deal we will have a double-dip recession

Axelrod: no he only said that it might happen

Amanpour: what’s so great about the deal?

Axelrod: it will get corporations off the economic sidelines and in the game!

Amanpour: this will add a trillion dollars to the debt!

Axelrod: these are existing tax cuts Christiane!

Amanpour: even so - how can we live with this debt?

Axelrod: what we can’t live with is this crappy economy

Amanpour: will any Democrats vote for the deal?

Axelrod: hey we hate this deal too - politics is the
art of compromise

Amanpour: thanks!

[ break ]

Amanpour: This just in - Israel and Palestinians
are still fighting

Audience: wow

Amanpour: Why are you humiliating the
United States?

Livni: We all want a peace treaty - I think

Fayyad: the process is broken

Amanpour: Can we make Jerusalem a place for all faiths to come together in peace - like Epcot

Livni: that’s a nice fantasyland

Amanpour: why don’t you recognize that not all refugees won’t be able to come back?

Fayyad: if only there were some sort of process to discuss all that

Livni: the answer is to create a Palestinian state to take refugees like Israel took Jewish refugees fleeing oppression in Europe

Amanpour: interesting analogy

Amanpour: Can the U.S. help at all make peace between the parties?

Livni: you can’t even do that in America!

Amanpour: good point

Fayyad: why not - they could be our broker

Amanpour: the U.S. has a bloody nose!

Livni: sorry about that

Amanpour: Fayyad has accomplished so much - why not assist him?

Livni: we are - we sent him a whole bunch of hannukah gifts!

Fayyad: thanks so much for those

Amanpour: would you like anything else?

Fayyad: um let's see - how about ending
the occupation?

Amanpour: can you do that?

Livni: Have you tried working with Bibi - he’s nuts

Amanpour: thank you both for coming
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