JEFFREY BROWN:All right, we will come back to some specifics, but let me bring in Sen. Cardin, because we also heard from House Speaker Boehner today reminding people that Americans also re-elected the majority Republicans in the House.

So what did you hear in the election results?

SEN. BENJAMIN CARDIN,D-Md.: Well, first, I want to congratulation Bob Corker on his victory. The two of us will be working in the United States Senate.

And I agree with what he said. I think we have got to come together. Clearly, the proposal needs to include revenue. The president made that clear. Speaker Boehner indicated that he's open to revenues. It's got to be legal.

What Democrats and Republicans said during this election is that we want to make sure that we protect the middle class. We want to make sure that we have a real plan to reduce the deficit. We want to make sure that we invest in job growth. And to do that, we have to have a fair system.

And, yes, the wealthy are going to have to pay more. We either eliminate these loopholes. I think the president is right on the rates over $250,000. But that's an issue that we can sit down, work together. We have got to do it in a constructive manner and reach predictability and a real plan.

JEFFREY BROWN:Well, so, Senator Corker, where is the movement on revenues? Because you both talked about revenues, but we also heard Mr. Boehner talk about not raising rates. So is there some sort of compromise in the difference between the term rates and revenues?

BOB CORKER:I don't think there is any question.

And actually there's a lot of commonality on that issue in the Senate. The fact is that folks in the upper income bracket like me, we ought to eliminate loopholes and those kinds of things that are really spending in another name. So we can generate more revenues from the upper income by eliminating those tax expenditures, which really, again, is just spending in another name.

And I think that's what...

JEFFREY BROWN:Excuse me. Can you give us an example of how -- of one of those, two of those?

BOB CORKER:Oh, gosh, there are all kind of expenditures. There is a home mortgage deduction. There's charitable contribution. There's the health care exclusion.

And the best way to keep from getting into a political argument over which one is just to cap the amount that people in upper income brackets can take of any of those. Let them choose which they want to take.

But there's been a lot of discussion in the Senate over this. And I think a lot of people have come together saying, hey, that's a pro-growth way of generating revenues from upper income citizens, because what it means is those people who file their income taxes through LLC.s and Sub-S's, at the business level, their rate is actually the same or lower.

But on the personal level, when they're making those decisions about these other things I just mentioned, they make those decisions knowing that those loopholes are closed. So it would drive business, but it would also generate revenues, which would help solve the problem that Ben and I have been working on for the last couple of years.

But to make that happen, it has to be coupled with real entitlement reform. And I have said from day one it's not the revenue issue that's the problem.

It's agreeing on the entitlement reform issue, which is so important if we're going to create solvency for our country.

JEFFREY BROWN:Well, that goes to you, Sen. Cardin, the entitlement side of things. Where do you see -- specifically now, where do you see room for some kind of movement or compromise there?

BENJAMIN CARDIN:First, let me agree with Sen. Corker that it is not right for millionaires and billionaires to pay effective tax rates of 10 or 15 percent, when a laborer working 40 hours a week is paying at a 28 percent.

So I think we can find some common agreement to make sure that everyone is paying their fair share of taxes. We can close some of these loopholes. And I also think we need to take a look at rates.

On entitlement reform, we have already started down that path with the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.

We need to change the way we deliver health care in America. And in doing that, we reduce the cost of health care, we reduce the readmissions to hospitals, we do a better job on using technology, less tests.

We manage the more complicated medical interventions. We reduce hospital infection rates. There's a lot of ways that you can reduce health care costs. By reducing health care costs, we reduce Medicare costs and Medicaid costs. That's the way to do it.

And I think we have to enforce those types of delivery system reforms. And I think Democrats and Republicans are prepared to do that. I agree with Sen. Corker. We need to combine revenues with real savings in spending. And that means, yes, we have to have reductions in the growth rate of health care costs.

JEFFREY BROWN:Well, Senator Corker, we are talking. You are both in the Senate chamber, but do you see these kinds of -- the kind of things you're talking about specifically on the revenue side, do you really feel that there is that potential for movement in the House?

Because, I mean, do you hear that in the language of Mr. Boehner and others today after the election?

BOB CORKER:I do.

JEFFREY BROWN:You do.

BOB CORKER:I really do.

Now, at the end of the day, you know, Ben and I serve in the Senate, and I have spent a year crafting a plan that goes into every detail of how I would propose to fix Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, highway trusts, all of those things.

But at the end of the day, the only two people that are going to make this happen before year-end, even though Ben and I may weigh in at some point -- and I know we will and I know we are right now behind the scenes -- but the only two people that can make this happen and have a result by year-end are the president and Speaker Boehner.

And I think Speaker Boehner did today, and he has over the course of the last several days, indicate that he's open to real revenues, not just that from economic growth, but real revenues that are scoreable, as long as we have the kinds of entitlement reforms and other spending reductions to accompany that.

So I'm hopeful. I do think it is incumbent upon the president now to lay out a plan that does that. It's time for him to get out in front of this. And I think the people are expecting him to do that. I know I'm expecting him to do that.

And I'm really hopeful that the two of them will come together with something that can pass the House, can pass the White House. And my sense is that kind of package can pass the Senate.

JEFFREY BROWN:You know, Sen. Cardin, I have heard some scenarios from folks on the liberal side, if there is more resistance, the suggestion of no deal, of just sort of go over the cliff, of let all the tax cuts expire, let everyone's taxes go up, and then everybody votes on bringing the middle class and lower-income tax cuts back down.

That would get to where the president wants, I guess. That's one sort of -- one scenario I have heard. What do you think of something like that?

BENJAMIN CARDIN:I think we need to act, the sooner the better.

What the president said is absolutely correct. We need predictability in our economy. We don't want to go off the cliff. We want to come together.

And I tell you, I think that it is absolutely essential for Speaker Boehner to be a leader. He's the speaker of the House. He has got to bring all the members of the House together.

He is going to have to show that he can bring his caucus and the Democrats together in the House to a proposal that cannot only pass the House, but can pass the Senate and be signed by the president.

We're willing to sit down and work during the lame-duck session to move as far as we possibly can. I think the president is absolutely right. Let's give some predictability to our tax code in the month of November and December.

Let's not wait until 2013. We can get some of the work done right now.

JEFFREY BROWN:So your sense is that Americans can feel a little better after this election that something might happen?

BENJAMIN CARDIN:Well, I agree with Sen. Corker. I think it's really going to be up to the leadership of the speaker. I think also the president, I think also the Senate will be important here.

But we have to show that we can pass bills that can be signed into law and pass the Senate. Right now, I haven't seen that. We haven't seen it so far in this Congress from the speaker of the House. Hopefully, we will see it during the lame-duck session.

JEFFREY BROWN:All right, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Bob Corker, thanks, both, so much.

BOB CORKER:Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF:And you can watch all of what the president and the House speaker said today on our website.