Monday's views on Sunday's news: Biden defends Obama's tax deal with GOP

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Biden defends Obama's tax deal with GOP

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David Gregory writes: The administration took a lot of heat from progressives in the Democratic Party for not fighting hard in the tax cut debate. Progressives wanted to see the tax cuts repealed for Americans making over $250,000, as did President Obama. However, as Austan Goolsbee told me last week, the high-end tax cuts are a tough pill to swallow, but was necessary to get other concessions like the extension of unemployment benefits. When I asked the Vice President whether or not they "went to the mat" over the high end tax cuts, he told me they absolutely did.

On Saturday the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military was repealed. Vice President Biden told me that repealing "don't ask, don't tell' puts us in line with seven US allies around the world. He continued, "whether you are gay or straight does not affect whether you can shoot straight of whether you can speak Urdu."

Though the repeal of DADT may put us in line with our allies, according to VP Biden, WikiLeaks has done the opposite. He told me that the release of classified documents has made it more difficult for the U.S. to conduct business around the world and that some leaders are now requesting to meet with him alone without staff in the room.

Finally, we discussed foreign policy and the war in Afghanistan. In July 2011, the administration is planning to begin the process of evaluating the situation on the ground and withdrawing the number of troops accordingly. Today, Vice President Biden made news by telling me that, "come hell or high water," the U.S. will be out of Afghanistan in 2014.

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MTP Monday Trivia

This week's trivia question: For the Meet the Press Christmas show 12/24/50 – what one-time change in format was adopted as " a tribute to the healing powers of Christmas�? ?

Executive Producer Betsy Fischer (@BetsyMTP) reveals the answer this week via Twitter.

Last week's question: The late Richard Holbrooke appeared several times on MTP over his long career. In what capacity was his first?

Answer: Holbrooke made his first appearance as a panelist when he was managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine on February 2, 1976.

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