Howard Dean: "I think the smart thing to do here is to go over the cliff..." [View all]

[ProSense]

<...>

DEAN: You see, I think the smart thing to do here is to go over the cliff and then wrap -- then do a big deal, then wrap the debt ceiling, the cliff, the tax rates, the cuts all into one big deal. It's going to take some time, but I think you can -- if you go -- also, if you go over the cliff, you reduce the debt ceiling problem by $600 billion, so the debt ceiling gets postponed some more and that should give you enough time to do -- to do the deal. I think that's the way to go.

Obviously, you can't let us go over the cliff on the debt ceiling. That's a much more serious problem. This is really not a cliff. We call it the fiscal curb, which is really what it is.

<...>

DEAN: It's the size of the deficit. If you go over the cliff, you've done something for the first time really serious about the deficit. All of a sudden, the financial horizons look pretty good.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-senators-charles-schumer-jon-kyl/story?id=18083734