Must-see morning clip: Obama talks debt cuts on "Morning Joe"

In a pre-recorded interview the president says he "stole" healthcare ideas from Romney

Published October 29, 2012 12:08PM (EDT)

"Morning Joe"'s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski interviewed President Barack Obama during a recent New Hampshire campaign stop for a segment which aired Monday. The hosts lightly grilled the president over the Libya embassy attack and gave him the opportunity to talk about his immediate plans should he win a second term.

Obama told the hosts that "our first order of business is going to be to get our deficits and debt under control,” for which he said the Bush-era tax cuts' expiration would be a "forcing mechanism." He appealed to conservative undecided voters with talk of "steamlining" and questioning the size of government, but managed to slip in a back-handed compliment to Romney over healthcare. "I stole a whole bunch of ideas from a Massachusetts governor," he said.

Watch the full interview below, via MSNBC:

 

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By Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

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Election 2012 Joe Scarborough Mika Brzezinski Mitt Romney Morning Clip Morning Joe