Mary Matalin appearing on ABC's 'This Week' with George Stephanopoulos Sunday morning got into a confrontation with Paul Krugman over the nature of Republicans' negotiating position on the fiscal cliff. Matalin responded to Krugman's claim that Republicans have not been specific in their dealings with Democrats:
MARY MATALIN: That's completely mendacious -- the Republicans have offered in theory and specificity - not eliminating, but capping certain deductions - the CBO says would raise $1.7 trillion over ten years. We have been very specific. Professor --
PAUL KRUGMAN: That kills charitable deductions. It hits the middle class hard, if you do this right, we've done it before -- it would only raise $450 billion if we (cap certain deductions).
MATALIN: Are you an economist or a polemicist? Make up your mind. Do you want to talk about economics or polemics? We (have) two different ways of going forward. We will not have Medicare or Social Security, senior Democrat Dick Durbin saying Social Security isn't causing a problem (and) Medicare, not the drivers of this deficit. What these guys should do, Coburn is right, this is meaningless, they should either give (Obama) 98% (of tax cuts) or they should do what President Clinton proposed - extend (the tax cuts) for three months (and) let the new Congress (address this issue).