credit card debt is manageable. >> the sat truth is the president wanted a blank check six months ago and he wants a blank check today. >> for the last decade we've spent more money than we take in. >> if you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it. ♪ default. >> $1 trillion. >> god bless you. >> god bless you. >> your family. >> god bless the united states of america. >> at least someone can still laugh about it. "american morning" starts right now. hi, ali. i'm christine romans, with less than a week left it's back to the drawing board for house speaker john boehner. crucial vote to solve the debt ceiling crisis postponed after they rupp the numbers. we're live in washington. >> i'm kiran chetry. on main street frustration is boiling over. congressional phones ringing nonstop, websites are crashing as americans give lawmakers a piece of their mind. >> i'm ali velshi. is august 2nd really d-day?

why congress may have breathing room when it comes to raising the debt ceiling on this "american morning." and good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, july 27th. this is "american morning." a lot going on today. let's get to it. >> it does feel like dueling bangoes, doesn't it? when you hear both sides of the debate they're dug in but insist they're right. >> and a growing number of americans want them not to be. >> they all say god bless america. how we get there is the question. >> two maker developments in the debt crisis, following minute by minute here. six days until the deadline and house speaker john boehner's plan is coming under fire from members of his own party. he's going back to the drawing board because the numbers don't add up. today's vote has been postponed and in just a few hours, house republicans will meet again as john boehner says that they are looking for more cuts and deeper cuts. >> this is the plan.

i've got it here. 57 pages. what happens when you come up with a plan like this it has to be scored. they have to say will it achieve -- what's the cost of it when the congressional budget office got a look at it, they said doesn't add up. let's get to washington, where joe johns is standing by live for us. joe, what's going on? what's the latest? >> pesky congressional budget office. it could be viewed as an em basement for the speaker but for the fact that the whole debt ceiling controversy is a larger embarrassment for the u.s. government than a procedural hangup on capitol hill. the speaker had to, according to sources, postpone a vote on his proposal to resolve the debt ceiling crisis, the cbo, the folks that crunch the numbers, said the boehner plan would not create the savings he was looking for. he said the plan would add up to more than a trillion dollars in savings but cbo said only about $850 billion or so. now this is not all bad news for boehner, because having an excuse to postpone that vote that was scheduled for today, actually buys him some time to

round up support from republican colleagues. he still has quite a bit of work to do, apparently. republicans, some republicans, have been saying, it won't pass and they won't vote for it. >> if you look at this it's about a $7 billion in reduction in spending from what we're currently at. we advocated something much more in the cap balance plan. we advocated more in the budget plan the house passed. real concerns about the commission, the 12-member commission, six democrats and one republican, decided they want to raise taxes, you can't keep that off the floor, comes to the floor. we think there are real problems with this plan. >> democrats for their part are trashing the bill too. the senate majority leader said it's d.o.a. even if it clears the house. >> the senate plan is a reasonable middle ground. democrats support it because it protects middle class. it prevents damaging cut ts to

social security, medicare, medicaid. republicans should support it because it contains the two things they've asked for all along -- it does not contain revenues and the amount of cut meets the amount of the debt ceiling increase. >> okay. this has got to be confusing to people and what's the takeaway? there are a couple ways of looking at this. the obvious point is that the congress and the president are no closer to a deal, but on the other hand if you read between the lines, the leaders, at least, both in the democratic and republican side, seem to be moving closer toward something workable. for one thing, the boehner plan does not include a demand that both houses of congress pass a balanced budget amendment which never looked like it was going to happen, at least in the short term, and reid's plan, which is a work in progress, does not include a demand for tax increases, which a lot of people said was never going to get past the house. >> let me ask you a quick question. boehner can take this off the

floor, which he's doing, and make the additional cuts. it's still not going to get out of that senate. explain to us how that's progress either way? >> well, the fact of the matter is, nobody is going to get everything that they want and in all likelihood, what happens when you're down to the wire on something like this, you end up with a sin that sis of ideas that people can go for, at least in the short term. so they'll have to be some of this and some of that in all likelihood in the hope that the president can sign off on it too. >> all right. joe johns, thanks. early in his report used the word embarrassment twice and there's the democratic process and then an embarrassment of process. >> well crossed into the -- >> i think we have. it's interesting, this morning, we're trying to assess just when the government's not going to be able to pay its bills. congress could get a little more breathing room to negotiate a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling. according to "the new york times" an analysis, slightly

higher than expected income taxes could allow the treasury department to push back the deadline to august 10th, though the obama administration maintains august 2nd is quote a hard deadline. here's white house communications director dan pfeiffer speaking on "john king usa." >> spoke to the treasury secretary before i came over here who said to me that we're still planning for august 2nd being the day. and the fact is, there's no reason we have to get to august 1st. congress has to do its job, stop with the political statements in the house right now. we need to get in a room, compromise and move on. that's what the american people want. that's why they're filling up phone lines and fax machines and bringing down websites. >> i'm not surprised they're trying to find more time and space because they're doing everything they can at the treasury to make sure they can push it and do it -- >> some have accused of treasury secretary of lying, saying -- >> no. >> it's plungeble. >> perhaps. >> white house communications

director dan pfeiffer did have choice words for congress as well. angry voters jamming the switchboards, crashing servers on capitol hill demanding lawmakers try to solve this debt ceiling crisis. here's a look. >> good morning, speaker boehner's office. how may i help you? >> the phones in white house speaker john boehner's office were twice as busy as usual with hundreds of callers waiting on hold for nearly an hour yesterday just to leave a message. cnn surveyed the websites of 279 members of congress and found 104 of them either crashed or were spotty and there were reports that the white house switchboard was so overwhelmed with calls it had to shut down during parts of the day yesterday. >> trying to direct people to the constituency offices. for all the post during and tough talk, there is common ground. listen to what president obama's senior adviser david plouffe told wolf blitzer. >> the truth is the boehner and reid proposals have quite a bit of similarities so we ought to be able to do something that

reduces spending, that sets up a process so we can do more deficit reduction and make sure what's hanging over the economy isn't a debt -- it's clear this debt ceiling drama has not been good for the economy or country. why we would want to have it again in five or six months defies logic. >> plouffe says one similarity, both proposals have a congressional committee charged with trying to identify additional reductions. >> california taking out a temporary $5 billion loan to help pay its bills in case congress fails to raise the debt ceiling. eight major institutions including goldman sachs and wells fargo put up the money. the money will only be used if federal government delays services for health care and transportation. pat toomey introducing a blueprint for how the government should spend its money in case the debt ceiling is not raised by august 2nd. debt payments, social security and paychecks to troops a priority. everything else would be covered if possible with cash on hand or

put off until the u.s. can take on more debt. coming up in the next hour, 7:10 a.m. eastern we'll talk to senator toomey about his payment plan. >> we'll talk to republican rick scott, republican governor rick scott, making headlines saying if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling it will have almost no effect on the financial markets. we'll hear from the florida governor's point of law. >> clearly a minority view. most members of congress say we need to raise the debt ceiling. it's how we do it, under what conditions it's so important. he says you don't need to. as we've seen americans are not with the lawmakers, flooding washington with phone calls and e-mails. our question of the day, what would you like to tell your elected representative. keep it clean. what would you like to tell him or her. >> send us an e-mail, tweet, facebook. the latest on the norway massacre. police detonated a cache of explosives on a farm rented by suspect anders breivik about 100 miles north of oslo.

that's where police say he built the fertilizer bomb used in friday's attacks. we're getting a glimpse inside the mind of breivik courtesy of his lawyer. he said his client is surprised he succeeded pulling off his massacre. that he considers himself, quote, in a war and insists he was working with terror cells in norway and abroad, although he wouldn't provide details. libyan state tv broadcasting footage of the lockerbie bomber at a pro-gadhafi rally in tripoli. al megrahi was the only person convicted for the bombing of the pan am 103 flight over lockerbie scotland and then released from prison two years ago on the grounds he had cancer and only a few months to live. looking frail and in a wheelchair was introduced at the rallies as a victim of a conspiracy. 21-year-old man from ubez stan charged with threatening to kill president obama. the justice department says the suspect was arrested in alabama earlier this month.

after obtaining a machine gun and grenades from undercover agents. officials say he was in the u.s. illegally after his student visa was revoked. he was indicted yesterday on four counts of threatening to kill the president. oregon congressman david wu says he's stepping down after allegations he made unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's 18-year-old daughter. wu has been in congress since 1998. he was the first chinese mn american to serve in the house. he plans to leave after the debt ceiling crisis is resolved. wu's resignation follow's anthony weiner's fall from grace as well. >> rod blagojevich claims he was unfairly convicted on corruption charges and deserves a new trial. his lawyers have filed a motion alleging judicial bias and trial errors and says blagojevich, quote, never stood a chance at a fair trial. jurors found blagojevich guilty on 17 of 20 corruption counts for trying to sell or trade barack obama's vacated illinois

senate seat. fans are ready, the players are getting there, the world championship green bay packers arriving at lambeau field after the nfl players and owners agreed to ten years of labor peace. michael vick was in the house for the eagles training camp opens for ten nfl teams today, including philadelphia, the first preseason games will be played on august 11th. as a guy who spends a lot of weekends in philadelphia i'm glad football is back. i don't know what we would have done with the eagle fans if they didn't have games to go to. driving around in philly without traffic jams and people dressed up. >> replays of the philly games. >> eagle fans, i mean this is in the most loving way, crazy. >> you don't have to tell me. i'm married to one. i had to renounce the redskins as part of the marriage agreement. >> it was in the vows actually for kiran. the seattle mariners have now lost 17 -- 17 games in a row. they extended that losing streak last night at yankee stadium, struck out 18 times. mariners are now six games away from the major league record of

23 consecutive losses. >> which was set by the philadelphia phillys. >> 50 years ago. >> that was half a century ago. >> listen, winners you can't talk about this, they were the losing team of any professional sport, am i right about that, guys, the losing team in history? >> they don't know. they're all yankee fans. >> if i'm wrong on that one, i'm just never going to be able to go home. >> but i don't think i'm wrong. here's a catch that the nfl would never allow. this is australian football. aussie rules, totally different. andrew walker of the carlton football club uses the defender as a stepladder. there you go. look at that. and makes the mark. >> wow. >> not called a catch. it's called a mark. >> the defender doesn't seem to be troubled by this. he's taking it all in stride. >> wow. >> pretty amazing. >> no helmets. >> all right. that was good. coming up next, the sexual assault case against dominique strauss-kahn. cnn has learned there is a big

meeting this morning at the manhattan d.a.'s office. are the charges against the former imf chief about to be thrown out? and the media demanding to know the identity of every juror in the casey anthony trial. the judge has to comply. why don't we have the names? >> can we get help here? how the guy got stuck head first in a sewer. 14 minutes past the hour. [ male announcer ] you have dreams for your children. don't let times like these stand in the way of them. protect your family with the gift of financial security. backed by the highest possible ratings for financial strength. new york life. the company you keep. backed by the highest possible ratings for financial strength. ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors.

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bashar al assad, bashar al basset al megrahi,basset al meg, 17 minutes past the hour. we may now know soon whether sexual assault charges against former imf chief dominique strauss-kahn will be dropped. cnn has learned there is a meeting scheduled this morning at the manhattan district attorney's office. dsk's accuser the hotel maid nafissatou diallo is expected to be there with her lawyer. this is an interview diallo gave to abc this week. cnn has learned diallo is planning to file a civil lawsuit against strauss-kahn set to be filed with the courts in the next few weeks. even though the law says he

has to do it, the judge in the casey anthony trial is refusing to release the names of jurors in the case, at least for now. many of those jurors have received threats since finding casey anthony not guilty. chief judge belvin perry says he will wait for a cooling off period to expire before he turns over the names to the media after october 25th. federal appeals court is reversing itself saying accused it tucson shooter jared lee loughner can be forced to take anti-psychotic medication. the court cited loughner's bizarre and suicidal behavior going back on its earlier ruling allowing him to refuse the drugs. he's charged with killing six and injuring 13 others including congressman giffords. water roaring through the philippines. a slow moving tropical storm unleashing flash floods and landslides, killing ten people, leaving many missing, report theedly fishermen. police in california are trying to figure out how this happened. a man found himself stuck upside

down in a sewer over the weekend. police said it was a drunken accident. how did we know alcohol would be involved in this one? the guy claims gang members beat him up and threw his cell phone in the storm drain and angry that police released that picture. police say he never mentioned there was any such attack when he was rescued by them. >> but did he get the darn cell phone back? >> that's a good question. that's a good question. >> rob marciano is in the extreme weather center for us. we're going to be getting to him shortly. it feels so cool here in new york this morning. i actually tweeted on my way, felt like a great walk in. it's not that way in much of the rest of the country. still very hot. >> i want to ask rob marciano, because we heard the cicadas and an old saying in the midwest once you hear cicadas it's six weeks until the first sfloost i've never heart that, but i like it.

it's encouraging, thinking about cooler weather at least. have a little bit of a fataste fall. temperatures still in the mid to upper 80s across the new york city area. i wouldn't say fall, but relative to what we've seen, right? feels good. a price was paid. rough weather across the northeast. check out the video from springfield, massachusetts. a lot of storm damage there with gusty winds. in excess of 60 and 70 miles an hour, taking down a lot of trees, old growth trees, and injures because of this and power outages. the threat for severe weather today will be across the northern plains and then the heat is building up down across parts of the south. 105 expected in dallas. that's the actual high temperature forecast there. and again these temperatures don't include humidity and they're measured in the shade. the streak continues of 100 plus temperature days in dallas and oklahoma city. heat warnings for those areas because when you couple the humidity you know the deal. the tropics, this thing is

heading into the gulf of mexico and we've got a hurricane hunter aircraft scheduled to arrive in there this afternoon to check it out. some of our preliminary forecast models, guys, bring it somewhere into texas or louisiana. friday, saturday or sunday. if we can keep this thing below hurricane strength, it won't be a bad thing. because we desperately need rain in texas, so hopefully we'll get the best of both worlds, that's not a guarantee. it looks like it could become our next tropical storm. >> and we're early and too slow to see those great trajectories but they extend from louisiana to mexico. >> they do. right now looks like upward texas coastline. once we get a closed circulation, hard core data from the hurricane aircraft our models crunch better numbers and have a better guidance later afternoon and tomorrow. >> still ahead on "american morning," the outrage over a controversial decision affecting some of the hero first

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25 minutes after the hour. minding your business right now, stock futures trading mixed ahead of the opening bell, flat overall. investors are watching washington, more stalls in the debt ceiling talks pushing asian and european markets lower overnight. executives from standard & poor's and moody's will testify on capitol hill today about a potential downgrade of america's stellar credit rating. the buzz on wall street today, that a downgrade could happen even if the u.s. avoids default and congress raises the debt ceiling in time.

another big day of second quarter earnings. nissan's are out beating analyst expectations which were low because of the tsunami and earthquake in japan. boeing and delta report their openings before the opening bell and visa's earnings after the closing bell. apple shares closed above $400 a share for the first time yesterday, valuing the company at $374 billion. that makes its world's second largest company in terms of market cap trailing behind exxon mobil. investors waiting on several economic reports today. information on durable goods orders in june comes out two hours from now and the fed's beige book on the economy releases at 2:00 p.m. eastern this afternoon. ford is scrapping cd players in its new models opting to install usb sockets for music players. the automakers says all new cars will have a computer hub to access your music library via the web. "american morning" is right back with investors fleeing from the u.s. dollar, amid fears of a default next week.

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30 minutes past the hour. time for a look at your top stories. six days left until the debt ceiling deadline and it's back to the drawing board for house speaker john boehner. he's had to postpone today's vote on his bill because republicans wanted more spending cuts. that bill will not come to a vote now until thursday at the earliest. this morning, "the new york times" is reporting there may be some flexibility on the august 2nd deadline. the paper reports higher than expected incoming taxes could allow the treasury to push the

date back by a few days to buy some more time, perhaps as late as august 10th. california moving forward with a contingency plan in the event that this debt ceiling is not raised in six days. the state has secured a $5.4 billion loan. that money will cover california in case the federal government delays payments on services such as health care and transportation. >> unusual move to get that money all raised privately. >> the fifth largest economy, they have to make sure they pay their bills. if you listen carefully you can hear the sound of servers crashing and switchboards jamming all over capitol hill. lawmakers getting bombarded by e-mails and phone calls, millions, from frustrated voters who want the debt ceiling crisis solved. here's brian todd. >> good morning, speaker boehner's office. >> reporter: this is what an avalanche looks like on capitol hill. phone switchboards are jammed, staffers inundated at house speaker john boehner's communication center. >> we're at 149 right now on hold.

>> reporter: on an average day there are about 20,000 calls an hour to offices of house members. on this day, that's nearly doubled. out of nearly 300 members' websites we sampled more than a third were inaccessible for part of the day because of volume. much of this can be attributed to a few simple words from another part of town. >> if you want a balanced approach to reduce the deficit let your member of congress know. >> reporter: that triggered calls from millions of americans worried about possible default. angry at the political posturing, but also this -- >> a lot of it has been, you know, stand strong, we support your plan. >> reporter: and this at the office of democratic senator bill nelson of florida. >> i really need him to support the president on this. >> reporter: we pounded it on capitol hill, sampling mostly republican offices. freshmen republican frank ginta of new hampshire said his voice mailbox was filled when he first got in this morning. >> people want to see an agreement done, but they don't, at least from new hampshire, want to see taxes raised and don't want to see the debt

ceiling raising without some sort of spending reform. >> are they expressing frustration at you, at others in your position? >> there is frustration at the process. this back and forth, you know, we've heard some things about dueling press conferences. >> reporter: the solution to the budget crisis that does not place the burden on the backs of the poor. the mood here not so charitable to politicians on either side. people know the clocks are ticking and fed up. >> i think we're all disappointed that both sides are so locked into their own narrative. >> there is a sense of anger and also a sense of wariness i've picked up on. >> reporter: you want weary? glance at young aides fielding these messages all day. congressman ginta takes a lot of calls himself and seems to thrive on them. >> democracy is worth the time and the energy and effort that i

and others put into it. >> do you think you'll feel that way in a week? >> yeah, i will. >> confident? >> yes. very. >> reporter: despite the inundation it doesn't appear this was a record day. the average rate of calls on this day, 15,000 fewer an hour than at the peak of the health care debate. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> all right. that brings us to our question of the day this morning. what would you like to tell your elected representative? e-mail us. >> getting good e-mails already. >> tweet us, let us know on facebook @cnnam is our twitter handle. we'll read your thoughts. >> lawmakers saying i'm carrying out what my constituents want me to do, hold the line or fight for this. it will be interesting to see what people say and whether or not they're listened to. >> america's aaa credit rating is days away possibly from a downgrade and sobering prediction comes from the ceo of the world's biggest bond trader pimco. mow mam head el erian telling cnn a downgrade to aa may happen

this week even if lawmakers are able to reach a compromise on the debt ceiling crisis. >> that is the question mark for us. not whether the u.s. defaults, we do not expect the u.s. to default, but whether the u.s. does enough to avoid a downgrade of its aaa rating. if s&p sticks to what it said, the u.s. will be downgraded in the next few days. >> two "d" words that matter, default, even if there's no bond default, you could have a downgrade that matters to interest rates and the future of the country. >> this one individual is influential enough to do that? >> they trade in bonds. pimco is the largest bond mutual fund company in the world, so when he speaks and bill gross from pimco speaks, these are the people to listen to. everything has to come with the caveat we haven't been through this before. >> who actually decides you know what, i don't think we can have this aaa rating anymore. >> the decision made by s&p and moody's and fitch and said they'll do it.

we'll have to see what happens. later this morning joined by the assisting managing editor at cnn money, asking him come of these questions about a downgrade and the impact it could have for you and your family. the all mighty u.s. dollar has always been a safe haven, not the case anymore. investors around the world looking for more stable currencies right now. >> nina dos santos joins us. >> looking at the u.s. dollar for the reaction about the uncertainty on the debt ceiling, even if you're not seeing stock markets move, watch it in commodities and the dollar. >> obviously the dollar has been on a downward trajectory in the best part of the last year, down against the major peers since june 2010. it's fallen about 17%. that gives you an idea of how much this once safe currency has been grabbed by the jitters in the market. obviously as talk of a potential technical default by the united

states continues to intensify, what we've got is a lot of people heading for the hills, heading for those safe havens and, of course, the ultimate safehaven the commodity gold. this precious metal pushing to other records, trading at $1,624 an ounce. what traders have been telling me in london, that kind of price is, perhaps, just a little bit too expensive to buy. so people have been putting their money in other currencies, notably the swiss franc which hit another record against the greenback yesterday. and we've got surprising spots here on the currency marks because the aussie dollar has also been gaining significantly. it's up at a 30-year high against the u.s. dollar. recently, a lot of that momentum is thanks to concerns about the debt situation in the united states. must point out, though, it sounds great, doesn't it, if your currency is appreciating so much. it is also quite dangerous. the major export driven economies and yen is one of the currencies that's suffering from the back of this, is

traditionally seen as a very strong currency, strengthened even more as this debt situation in the united states intensifies and that is bad news for some of the major exporters over there in japan, like, for instance, nissan and toyota because every time they sell a car in the united states, and then repay treeate the money, exchange from dollars to yen, they make less money on the international sales. >> nina in london, thank you. if you're in the market for a virtual ghost town we have a deal for you. an entire town for sale in south dakota, town of scenic. it's a spec on the map. 46 acres and the population under 10. you can change that. >> you don't get them. >> you're the boss of all ten of them if you own the town. almost all of them related to the current owner of the property. this is an elderly woman who recently fell ill, why it's listed. $799,000. that's down from $3 million. almost think it was a movie set.

all that's missing is clint eastwood. got a salon covered in cow skulls. i wouldn't ask for whiskey there. >> no fun colored mixed crinks. >> dance hall, a bunk house, train depot and one, quote, operating jail. >> good. you may need to throw someone in. >> you never know. >> that's an interesting option. >> it is. ahead on "american morning," an atheist group suing to prevent a cross from being displayed at the ground zero memorial site. >> actually that is the steel beams in the shape of the cross preserved after the towers fell. >> and a 70-year-old grandmother comes face to face with be a would-be burglar in his birthday suit. what happened after the break. it's 39 minutes after the hour. ♪

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a u.s. olympic skier who won a silver medal at the 2010 games found dead in utah in an apparent suicide. police say jeret speedy peterson called to tell them where he was before he shot himself to death on monday night.

the u.s. olympic committee saying it was a sad day, he was an inspiration to people all over the world. battled alcoholism, arrested for drunk driving as recently as last friday. he was just 29 years old. >> awful. >> that's sad. 9/11 responders who developed cancer since the terrorist attacks in new york, are now not eligible for benefits. officials in charge of the health fund say right now, there is not enough evidence to add cancers to the list of diseases covered by the law which provides health care for ground zero workers. that could change in 2010. there will be another review but it has people in the city really riled up. >> coming up in the 8:00 hour, we'll talk to someone who has been a tireless advocate for a people down there, who says these people that are sick, they don't have time to wait to see -- >> for another review. an atheist group is suing over a cross scheduled to be displayed at the 9/11 memorial and museum in new york city. you're looking at it now. it wasn't made. those are cross beams from the

twin towers. it was found jetting out of the rubble at one world trade center following the 9/11 attacks. the group of american atheists, called american atheists says the cross display is, quote, impermissible mingling of church and state. >> it's really historical artifact from the -- i mean this is a symbol to many of the people of all religions who were there of the moments after the attacks. >> it will be interesting to see how the ruling comes down, if this goes to court. this was not made into a cross. that was -- >> it was what it was. >> i'm not really fully understanding the church and state part but because it's a memorial they're concerned that's the state part. interesting. >> well the congress as well as the president giving fbi director robert mueller a new two-year term. the special legislation allows for mueller to stay on the job until 2013. his current ten-year term expires august 2nd. something else expires august 2nd. president obama will now formally nominate mueller and

his confirmation will be fasttracked in the senate. the school year might be saved in memphis after all. last week we told you about the memphis school board voting to delay the start of the year until the district gets about $55 million part of what the city owes them. last night the board voted to start the year as scheduled on august 8th as long as four conditions are met including payment of a $12 million for the month of august. this is a rude awakening for a 70-year-old grandmother in new hampshire who confronted a naked intruder in her home. police say the man climbed through the kitchen window in the middle of the night took off his clothes for some reason, maybe because it's hot, and came face to face with her. she told him to leave. she refused. she took matters into her own hands. >> i said oh, no you didn't. and that's when i grabbed the bat. it still didn't impress him i was going to use it. i hit him with it. and beat him out the door. what he was going to do upstairs i have no idea, but he definitely wasn't going to get

beyond me. >> wow. >> wow. >> good for her. >> wasn't getting beyond me. the intruder is at large. police say nothing was missing from the house. they're not sure what his motive was. >> she might be helpful in the debt ceiling negotiations. >> nothing getting by me. >> let's see if we can get her a ticket to washington. >> quick thinking, though. i would be rattled. she grabbed the bat, did what she had to do. right now it's 46 minutes past the hour. a check of the morning headlines after a quick break. >> how many congressmen does it take to get a debt deal? it's late night laugh, debt ceiling edition. that's ahead. .. what's left behind? [ female announcer ] introducing purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena® naturals. developed with dermatologists... it's clinically proven to remove 99% of dirt and toxins and purify pores. and with natural willowbark it contains no dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. dirt and toxins do a vanishing act and my skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] new purifying facial cleanser

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just say, show me the carfax. 48 minutes past the hour. a look at your morning headlines. today's key vote on house spe speaker john boehner's debt ceiling plan pushed back by a day in the house. the bill has been losing conservative support after the congressional budget office says it it didn't cut as much as promise. phone banks jammed and web servers crashing on capitol hill. millions of frustrated voters bombarding lawmakers and the white house with calls and e-mails demanding a solution to the debt ceiling crisis. police in norway detonating explosives that were found on a farm rented by massacre suspect anders breivik. norwegian officials reaching out to our countries now investigating breivik's claims he was working with terror cells abroad. he says he did nothing wrong but oregon democratic

congressman david wu is resi resigning after allegations of sexual misconduct with an 18-year-old girl. wu plans to step down when the debt ceiling crisis is resolved. a landslide? south korea killed 32 people and injured two dozen others. about 400 families have lost their homes. more than 14,000 were left without power. the judge in the casey anthony trial will not release the identities of the jurors, even though it is required by law. judge belvin perry says everyone needs to cool off and he will turn over their names to the press after october 25th. and baseball's seattle mariners have now lost 17 games in a row, they're just six losses away from the major league record which was set by the philadelphia phillies 50 years ago. that goes to show you, fortunes can change in baseball. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" is back right after this.

51 minutes past the hour. a new travel warning for americans overseas. the state department says al qaeda and its affiliated organizations continue to plan terror attacks against u.s. interests in europe, asia, africa and the middle east. officials say the death of osama bin laden has increased the potential for anti-american violence including suicide s, hijacks and bombings. americans traveling near the horn of africa toldold to be careful. police will begin pulling out of sue dad juarez after the situation is under control. thousands of police have been patrolling the violence plagued border since lais april. they determined forces are ready to take control of the security

operation there. shocking accusations against the united states leveled by bow live van president morales. he says america is planning to plant something on his plane when he arrives for a general assembly meeting at the u.n. today. telling a farmers convention in bolivia he fears u.s. officials will try to link him to drug traffickers and confiscate his presidential plane. the u.s. embassy in la paz has declined comment. rank and file americans answered the president's call to let lawmakers know what they thought about the stalemate. jamming the phone lines, a lot of the congressional websites as well either crashed or had spotty service because of so many people calling in. >> in case you couldn't get in, our question of the day, what would you like to tell our elted representatives. kelly on facebook says -- >> matthew on facebook says -- >> and colby --

>> we had to put this on from edward on facebook -- trump. >> keep the comments coming. e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook. we'll read more of your comments a little later. i wonder, i wonder if congress people are getting it, the outrage seems to be at them as a whole not -- >> some of the advisors we've spoken to get input on this say they've spoken to congressional leadership and feel congressional leadership but a lot of rank and file particularly a lot of those who have signed those no tax pledges who are sticking to their ideological guns. don't tell them it's no laughing matter. the boys of late night were laughing all the way to the bank about the debt talks. listen in. >> what are we doing having a show. our country is in serious trouble. we're all here, yeah. >> when china calls for their money, say you're your roommate. that's what i always did. >> the president spoke last

night. you probably all saw his speech. good. in his speech last night i don't know if you saw this, president obama said that compromise has become a dirty word. yeah. then he told republicans to go compromise themselves. >> the president was in full educator in chief mode. >> for the last decade we spent more money than we take in. if we stay on the current path, our growing debt could cost us jobs and do serious damage to the economy. >> oh? you know i think your financial austerity path message may be slightly undercut by the begolden shared red carpet path. you walked down to tell us ate it. isn't there any way to do the tighten the belt speech from a room that doesn't look like the foyer of the vatican. >> still no resolution to this

stupid debt ceiling crisis thing. iowa congressman steven king says if president obama allows the country default he could be impeached. obama could stop that with three words president joe biden. okay. okay. ! okay. all right. forget i said anything. >> well, there you go. late night laughs. the boehner plan to resolve the debt crisis in trouble this morning. live in washington after the break. it's 55 minutes past the hour. but, i have to support my family, so how do i go back to school? university of phoenix made it doable. a lot of my instructors were principals in my district. i wouldn't be where i am without that degree. my name is dr. carrie buck. i helped turn an at-risk school into an award winning school, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu. but not your wrinkles.

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of breathing room to negotiate a deal that would raise the nation's debt ceiling. according to the "new york times" slightly higher than expected taxes incoming could actually mean there's a little bit more time past august 2nd on this "american morning." all right. more money, more problems. the house speaker's debt reduction plan runs into trouble when they run the numbers. good morning. welcome to "american morning." i'm ali velshi, these are my friends. >> for now. >> it's wednesday, july 27th. at least we can agree on things. still having problems over any type of agreement on the debt ceiling. >> that's right. >> and raising it. let's start there. a key house vote to prevent an unprecedented government default being postponed six days to save america from not being able to pay all of its bills, potentially defaulting on its debt. house speaker john boehner is now rewriting his bill because

hey, it doesn't cut enough spending as he promised so he's going back to make sure it does. >> it went to the congressional budget office, has a look at these things and the math doesn't add up. developing this morning reports there might be wiggle room on the deadline. straight to washington on both of these developments. joe johns standing by live. good morning. >> certainly a setback, i suppose you could call it an embarrassment for the speaker. but for the fact that the whole debt ceiling controversy is an embarrassment. nonetheless, the speaker according to sources had to postpone this vote on his proposal to resolve the debt ceiling because the cbo, the congressional budget office, the folks who crunch the budget numbers, said the boehner plan would not create the savings he was looking for. he had said the plan would add up to more than a trillion dollars in savings, but cbo said it was only going to get about $850 billion. this is not all bad news for boehner because having an excuse

to postpone the vote that was scheduled for today, buys him more time to round up support from republican colleagues and he clearly still has some work to do, rank and file republicans have been saying it won't pass and they won't vote for it. listen. >> if you look at this, it's about a $7 billion reduction? spending from what we're currently at. we advocated something more in the cap and balance plan, something much more in the budget plan the house passed. we have real concerns about the commission, the idea the 12 member commission, six democrats and one republican, decided they wanted to raise taxes. you can't keep that off the floor. it comes to the floor. then a potential tax increase. we think there are real problems with this plan. >> complicating this, democrats are trashing the bill, too. the senate majority leader said it's d.o.a., even if it clears the house. he continues to sell his bill. listen. >> the senate plan is a reasonable middle ground.

democrats support it because it protects middle class. it prevents damaging cuts to social security, medicare, medicaid. republicans should support it because it contains the two things they've asked for all along. it does not contain revenues and the amount of cut meets the amount of debt ceiling increase. >> now, there are a couple ways of looking at this. the obvious point is that the congress and the president are still no closer to a deal and the clock is ticking. on the other hand, if you read between the lines, this is a very public negotiation and the leaders, each seem to be giving something up on the republican side, the boehner plan essentially does not include the demand that both houses of congress pass a balanced budget amou amendment, something the republicans wanted and they continue to talk about the reid plan, which is also a work in

progress, does not include a demand for tax increases which is something democrats very much wanted. it looks like -- i mean you can construe this as democrats and republicans at least the leaders moving a bit closer together. the bottom line, though, is getting those votes from the rank and file and it doesn't look like anybody has the votes just yet. back to you. >> all right. joe johns. >> let's hope something gets worked out. joe johns in washington for us. also this morning, word that congress could get a little bit more breathing room to negotiate any deal that would raise the nation's debt ceiling. according to the "new york times" slightly higher incoming taxes could allow the treasury to have enough money to push back the august 2nd deadline to august 10th. we're not talking about a ton of time. the white house maintains that august 2nd is a, quote, hard deadline. >> before everybody gets nuts about this, why are we, you know -- >> can't run your life this way. i don't think anybody needs to

sit there and say, what a relief. i frankly don't want to report on it for another eight days. >> if you're afraid you're not going to get your social security check that you rely on august 3rd, maybe there's hope. >> to get the wiggle room treasury is pulling strings behind the scenes. >> nothing has changed about the fact we hit the debt ceiling on may 16th. >> california taking out a temporary loan to pay its bills in case congress fails to raise the debt ceiling. eight major institutions, goldman sachs, wells fargo among them putting up the money, only used if the federal government delays payments for health care and transportation. >> republican senator pat toomey introducing a blueprint for how the government should spend its money in case the debt ceiling is not raised. the bill would make debt payments, social security and paychecks to troops a priority. everything else covered if possible with cash on hand or put off until the u.s. can take on more debt. coming up in less than ten minutes we'll talk to him. republican senator pat toomey of

pennsylvania about his payment plan if there's no debt deal. then 7:30 eastern we'll talk to republican governor rick scott. here's what's interesting here. he's making headlines because he says if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, it's almost -- will have no effect on the markets or state budgets or his state. >> wow. that's new. that's different. >> a minority opinion for sure, goes against well, just about everything we've reported. we'll see what he has to say. police in norway uncovering a cache of explosives at a farm rented by massacre suspect anders breivik. there are some of the sounds of the explosions as police detonated them yesterday. the property located about 100 miles north of oslo. officials believe that breivik used this farm to build the fertilizer bomb that killed eight people in friday's attack. we're also getting a look inside the mind of the suspect. he says breivik is, quote, surprised that he successfully pulled off the massacre, that he

considers himself to be in a war and insists he was working with terror cells in norway and abroad although he is not providing specifics. he said he wouldn't seek re-election now congressman david wu says he will resign over a growing sex scandal. the seven-term democrat accused of unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's 18-year-old daughter. no criminal charges are expected, but wu plans to leave office once the debt ceiling crisis is resolved. former illinois governor rod blagojevich is asking for a new trial, alleging judicial bias and trial errors leading to his corruption conviction. jurors found blagojevich guilty of 17 of 20 counts in his corruption retrial last month, including attempted extortion for trying to sell or trade president obama's vacated illinois senate seat. they played more than two whole games last night, braves/pirates game lasted 19 innings, over six and a half

hours, those who stayed up to see the end witnessed maybe the worst call of the year. >> this is bad. >> really is. look at it. >> take down the kiron so we can see. >> see how that's happening. >> couldn't see it. >> we'll re-rack it and show it to you. the braves won 4-3 on a play at the plate in the bottom of the 19th. there we go. take a look at this. looks like the runner is out by a mile. by a mile. but the umpire called him safe. >> wow. >> that's -- >> maybe the poor ump was tired. >> a long game. i woke up at my normal waking up time and that game was still going on. >> people joking that the umpire wanted to get home and get to bed. >> game's over. go home. >> there you go. it was exciting day for baseball to say the least. still to come on "american morning" a new debt plan pushed only this time it has nothing to do with spending cuts but a blueprint for a post-august 2nd world if no plan is approved. why the judge in the casey anthony trial is refusing to give out the names of those

jurors even though the media is demanding them and he's required to by law. what is worse than getting stuck in a sewer? stuck in a sewer head first. we'll tell you about that when we come back.

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if august 2nd comes and goes without a deal to raise the debt ceiling the treasury might have to decide which bills get paid and which ones don't. there's a new bill this morning that would prioritize which payments would get made first. they include payments on the nation's debt, social security checks, and paychecks for u.s. troops. joining me to talk about this is republican senator pat toomey of pennsylvania. he's the former president of the club for growth. senator toomey, thanks for being here. good to see you again. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> senator toomey, you've come from a background where you have strongly believed that increased taxes hurt the economy so you are not somebody who is going to -- likely going to support

tax increases in a deal to increase the debt ceiling but you have said that you think the debt ceiling should be increased? >> yeah. absolutely. certainly it's not something that i enjoy, but the fact is, we've gotten to the point where we borrow so much money if we didn't raise the debt limit then the sudden cut in spending that would be required would be very disruptive. so i think it's very important that we change the course that we're on, that we make real cut ms spending and we have structural reform of which kind my preference would be a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. i would definitely be willing to, you know, have -- be flexible and negotiate what that would look like how we would get to a balanced budget. but i think that's an important part of raising the debt ceiling. >> the fact is the balanced budget amendment would be a long process, longer than this process would be, that's something we have to consider as a discussion a little later. you're working off the same figures we largely are. if we hit the debt ceiling about

40% of our government spending would stop. that's got to be worse for the economy than closing some tax loopholes wouldn't you say? >> no. i think the most important thing for the economy is getting us on a sustainable fiscal pathp we have seen what's happening in the periphery of europes to c f countries that refuse to grapple with this problem. it's going to do harm to the economy and not solve the underlying problem. you know, the other thing to consider, if we haven't raised the debt limit by august 2nd, i think more likely than not we probably will, but an increasing chance we won't, if we don't, we'll almost certainly raise it thereafter because the political pressure will be enormous to raise it at that point. so my legislation is designed to deal with the possibility that we might have that interim period and we will have the ongoing revenue from taxes to easily be able to afford interest on our debt so we don't have a catastrophic default, we can easily afford social

security benefits and easily afford to pay military pay. >> i don't think we have a dispute as to what the figures are. based on the math we did on your proposal, if you do pay, the interest on debt and you pay social security checks and you pay active military, here's what you might not be able to pay. the department of justice, fbi, courts, salaries of federal workers, department of education, pell grants. >> a long list. >> what happens? i mean that is a big shutdown. that is jobs that could be lost? >> look, there would be a partial government shutdown. those payments would be delayed until this were resolved. my guess it would be resolved in a matter of days. i'm not advocating this. i'm not suggesting it's a good idea to go ahead down this road. what i am suggesting is none of us can guarantee that there's going to be an agreement that raises the debt ceiling by august 2nd. and since we can't guarantee that outcome, we ought to have a plan b. and a plan b, you know, the administration is quietly making phone calls according to

published reports, to big banks, that they won't default on our debt. that's fine. how about sharing that with the american people so they can have that. >> you and i have talked for years on this and i know you come from a place of wanting financial responsibility but i want you to react to this letter from -- treasury secretary geithner from february 3rd where he says a homeowner could decide to prioritize and continue paying monthly mortgage payments while creasing to pay other obligations, although the mortgage would get paid the damage to that homeowners credit worthiness would be severe. your reaction? >> i think the treasury secretary is confused about what constitutes debt, so in his list of things that, perhaps, a homeowner wouldn't pay he includes credit cards and student loans and the kinds of things that obviously do constitute debt. he has predicted great financial catastrophe if we default on our debt. anticipate suggei'm suggesting probably right so let's not default.

we're going to have the resources to avoid it. does that mean we'll have to make some temporary and tough decisions in other areas and probably furlough government workers and postpone vendor reimbursements yes. that's unfortunate but better than a catastrophic default. >> one last question. i want to show you a new pew poll that has come out and the question was, for lawmakers who share your views on this issue, they should -- 6% say willing -- 68% willing to compromise 23% stand by their principles, the number to compromise up 13 percentage points since april and if you just looked at republicans, 53% want lawmakers to compromise and that's up 10 percentage points since april. how do you read that? >> look, i think people want us to get this resolved. they want a solution. so do i. the solution that i think is laying on the table available to be had, is for the president to join us and say you know what, it does make sense to put us on a path to balanced budget. how quickly we get there, what

we cut to get there, whether we reform the tax code as part of that process, all those things we ought to be flexible and be willing to negotiate. but i think the country desperately needs to have a sustainable fiscal path. a goal of getting to a balanced budget is not radical. a democratic president named bill clinton embraced that goal and with the republican congress, achieved that goal. and so what some of us are saying is, why can't we strive for that now? why can't we fix this so we can have a strong economy and the job growth we need. >> all right. keep a good level tone in the conversation, senator toomey. we're hoping for that to continue. senator pat toomey, republican of pennsylvania. all right. even though the law says he has to do it, the judge in the casey anthony trial is refusing to release the names of jurors in the case. many of those jurors have received threats since finding casey anthony not guilty. the chief judge belvin perry says he's going to wait for a cooling off period to expire before he turns over the names to the media. he says that will not happen until october 25th or beyond.

police in california trying to figure out how this happened. a man stuck upside down in a sewer over the weekend. police say it was a drunken accident, but now the guy claims gang members beat him up and threw his cell phone in the storm drain. he's angry for the cops for releasing this picture. police say he never mentioned an attack when he was rescued. still to come, gold glimmers as concerns mount over the debt ceiling. how much is your gold worth? you're going to love this. we're going to hit the streets to find out. s. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older,

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minding your business this morning. right now stock futures pretty much mixed ahead of the opening bell.

investors worldwide watching washington today. more stalls in the debt ceiling talks pushing european and asian stock markets lower overnight. exbetives from credit rating agencies standard & poor's and moody's will testify on capitol hill about a potential downgrade of america's stellar credit rating. the big buzz on wall street today that a downgrade could happen even if the u.s. avoids default and congress raises the debt ceiling in time. a dow chemical announced a few minutes ago its second-quarter profits jumped 74% from last year from the same time last year, better than wall street expected. other earnings out today, boeing and delta will report before the opening bell. conoco phillips expected later and visa's earnings come out after the closing bell. investors waiting on several economic reports today. information on durable goods orders for june in about an hour from now and the fed's beige book, a look at the economy, their regional economy, released at 2:00 p.m. eastern this afternoon. now california prepping for a potential u.s. default.

the state has secured a loan worth about $5.5 billion from various big banks including goldman sachs and wells fargo. that's so it has cash on hand in case the debt ceiling is not raised in time and it can't get the federal funding that it relies on to run. ford reportedly scrapping cd players in its new models opting to install usb sockets for digital music players. the automaker says all new cars will have a computer hub that will include wi-fi so you can access your music library. ford is the first mainstream auto maker to make this move. like the 8-track tape player gone. "american morning" will be back after this break. [ male announcer ] if it's true that sharks can sense even a drop of blood from a quarter of a mile away, which razor would you use? ♪ ♪

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humidity. >> it's going to be a great, fantastic day. >> perfect day. >> the alarms sounding when it comes to the debt ceiling at risk our nation's credit rating. our financial standing and crucial role in the world's markets. >> with so much uncertainty investors are turning to gold, a safe haven and price hit an all-time high yesterday. like $1600 an ounce now. >> it's almost as if every day we say gold hit a high, and it keeps going up. joining us poppy harlow, you hit the streets to find out how some thought their gold was worth. >> $1622 an ounce, the price of gold. if you were one of those, gold $800 that hit the high, you were very, very wrong. gold can go higher from here. we went out in new york city to see if people were wearing gold, how much it was worth, was it more than they expected, less than they expected, ready to sell it? take a look at what we found.

♪ >> all right. gold is at record highs and we wanted to head out to the streets in new york city to see just how much folks think their gold is actually worth. >> they were going to give me $500 for each. >> i have no idea. >> do you remember what you paid for it? >> i don't even want to talk about it. a lot. >> how much do you think your gold is worth? >> i have not a clue. >> not a clue. >> i'm leaving it to one of my daughters and she thinks it's worth a lot. >> let's ask. >> take a look at it? >> you bet. >> just the gold weight worth $364. >> anyone got gold? >> what we got here. >> your necklace at melt is worth $3,010. >> at melt. okay. >> i was expecting more, to be

honest. >> when people buy gold jewelry in a store, what kind of markup are we talking about here? >> going to stores like macy's, jp penny, sometimes a 500% markup. huge. >> $700. >> that's not bad. >> sure it's real? >> no. >> can i scratch the edge of it right there? you'll see when i put the acid how that line disappears. which means that it's not real. your gold is worth $1,868. >> excellent. >> i found it next to a house. >> look at that. what luck. >> found my bracelet. >> right. >> your bracelets are gold rope with the heart pendant on the end. >> that lady found my gold. >> what luck that woman had to

find a gold bracelet worth more than a thousand bucks. some worth more, some less. thinking about selling gold now we are at an all-time high. >> how do you make sure you don't get ripped off. >> how much is this? let me scratch that for a second. what happened to that lady, scratched gold that wasn't real. >> wants to sell her wedding ring, which she doesn't, correct? here's what you need to do. pull up what your gold is worth. you need to know what it is worth. if it is 24 karat gold, pure gold, the most expensive, 18 karat, most in terms of jewelry is 14 karat gold. >> soft and doesn't bend. >> know what your gold is worth. shop around go to at least three different locations. i've done this in new york, the diamond district, six, seven, locations, compare prices. there are a lot of people out there that will try to rip you off. >> you did a story about how little, popping up all over the country these corner stores that

say we buy your gold and what a small percentage some will give you as to the value. >> on the same necklace in six stores i got every offer between $200 and $800. so know what it's worth. do the math, weigh your gold yourself and don't get ripped off. >> what matters is the purity and weight. you might think it's your grandma's and old and worth a lot. we're going to melt it. >> brand name you're going to pay more for a brand name piece of jewelry, many times higher than just for the weight of the gold. >> that's the difference also, a piece, a good piece, may be worth more than what the melt price would be. so think. >> what the expert told me, take it to your local jewelry. go to a department store they have a lot of overhead costs. take it to the local jeweler you trust they will give you the best price. >> should you buy gold? >> here's my thought. i bought myself a gold ring and i thought, i thought this is not only do i like it, i could wear it every day, an investment. whether you buy gold in the market or buy the actual gold as

long as you don't lose it -- >> she has bars of silver? her bottom drawer. >> don't leave it by the river. >> am i the only one who wants to know the reaction of the woman who told her it wasn't gold. >> you have to go to cnnmoney.com. >> best tease ever. thank you. >> 31 minutes after the hour. in afghanistan, the mayor of kandahar killed by a suicide bomber. officials say ghoulen ha dar was inside a meeting hall when the attacker detonated an explosive device inside his turban. 21-year-old man in uzbekistan has been charged with threatening to kill president obama. the justice department says that the suspect was arrested in alabama earlier this month after obtaining a machine gun as well as grenades from undercover agents. officials say he was in the u.s. illegally, had a student visa that was revoked. he was indicted yesterday on four counts of threatening to kill the president. and with six days until the debt ceiling deadline back to the drawing board for house

speaker john boehner. he had to postpone today's vote on his bill because republicans want more spending cuts. the bill will not come to a vote until thursday u.s. wasn't they just wanted more, when they added up the bill didn't add up to what he thought it was supposed to. in the debate over the debt ceiling and raising it and what to get in exchange, almost everyone whether republican or democrat agrees that the debt ceiling has to be raised. the results could be catastrophic. the florida republican governor rick scott is saying the opposite. listen. >> we can decide how we want to spend the money but we cannot continue to have trillion dollar deficits. you just can't do it. we've got to decide, and now's as good a time as any, what you have to do in businesses and at the state, stop spending money, stop borrowing more money. we need to have balanced budgets like we do in the states. i wouldn't raise the debt ceiling. i would say no more. >> joining me live from tallahassee, governor rick scott. welcome to the program.

your opinion and advice runs counter to about what everyone from both parties is saying, and it goes against what everyone in the financial markets is telling me. in 15 years of my own capital markets reporting experience. tell me exactly why raising the debt ceiling wouldn't have an effect on markets in the economy or state? >> what do families do if one of the parents loses their job, they stop spending. they have to. they don't just keep borrowing money. what do businesses do if the revenue goss down? they have to stop borrowing money. our government is no different. what's the limit? $14 trillion, $16 trillion, $20 trillion? who's going to pay for this? our kids will pay for this. we have got to say that look, we have enough revenues, we have to prioritize how we spend money. when i became governor in january we were looking at almost a $4 billion budget deficit. we had to pick and choose. we can't do everything. government can't do everything.

now we are walking into -- >> those are two different arguments. you're right our deficits and debt is unsustainable, it is. that's a question through the democratic process we have to figure out how to fix that. but raising the debt ceiling, that's paying for what congress has already spent. that's paying for the obligations that congress, both parties, over the past tedecade the money they have spent. what about the message it sends to the rest of the world we're not going to pay all our bills? >> no. we can pay our bills. we have to stop spending. we have enough revenues. we need to say look, we're not going to borrow any more money, today, today, just like what we do in business, today what we're going to do is figure out how we're going to spend the money we get. we're going to prioritize what's important. >> so if you prioritize what's important, what that means is that if you don't raise the debt ceiling, at some point either august 2nd, august 10th, some time in the coming days, you

have 40% less money available to pay those bills. not all the bills can get paid. the rest of the world looks at us and says the united states is picking and choosing what bills it's going to pay. how is that sustainable for markets, how is that -- what if there are companies in your state that have to -- they see higher interest rates for the debt that they're taking on to grow and to create jobs for floridians? >> higher interest rates are going to be caused by borrowing more money. i mean, this is not different than a company. if a company has a drop in revenues, you have to stop spending money, you have to say that was a nice to have, but doesn't make any sense. we have to prioritize. that's what our states are doing, that's what we did. that's how we're going to get our economy going again. we should not be spending more money. there's a limit on how much money we can spend. >> with all due respect spending more money and paying for what we already spent. >> you don't mind, i just have to -- governor, i'm not understand.

christine has asked you this four times already. we're talking about paying the bills you already committed to. why is this difficult for you to understand, governor? >> well, look, this is what we did in florida, we stopped spending more money, prioritized how we're going to spend money. we have to do the same. we can stop borrowing money at the federal level if we cut our spending at the federal level. we don't have to keep borrowing more money. there's a -- >> tell me what spending? if you had to cut 40%, what would you cut? what you would pay is social security recipients first, active duty military, you'd pay the interest on our debt. now you pretty much gotten up to what's coming in. so what do you cut? you cut food stamps, federal education spending, you cut disaster relief, you cut foreign aid? what would you cut? >> well, you go through the most important things, just like what you do at the state level, the most important things and then you have to cut back. you have to figure out what do companies do when they have to do it they have to say, i could

outsource that and do it less expensively. we don't need to do that to get the revenues we need. we can figure out a way to do that less expensively. >> you don't think this will crash jobs in the near term, if we don't get jobs growing we're not going to have a an economy growing and still have a problem. >> i agree. >> even ben bernanke says if you don't raise the debt ceiling you have an immediate cut in 40%, 40%, of federal spending, i mean the impact near term on the economy would be disastrous. doesn't this have to be done with a little more thoughtfulness than 11th hour ele electshun earring. >> we did the stimulus didn't help our economy. what's going to help our economy -- >> years and years of tax cuts supposed to grow jobs and that hasn't helped either, right? >> well, if you look at the states growing like our state, we have no personal income tax, we're phasing out the business tax. texas they have lower taxes and

they're growing. lower taxes make the economy growing. higher taxes, more regulation, trillion dollar deficits kills our economy. this is about jobs, about our future. we cannot continue to borrow money. >> governor rick scott, republican in florida, thanks for joining us. ben bernanke the fed chairman said it would hurt jobs, immediate impact on jobs. it's interesting. the chamber of commerce, ali, you know, some research from pew, about every economist i've spoken to, currency traders, i think there are five governors who agree, five who have lined up and said don't raise it. >> there has to be a distinction. we can have a reasonable discussion about what we spend in the future. i wish this would clear up. that's a different discussion. >> this is the clearest for people who are not in completely into the markets and into the economy and are wongish about it, saying i'm spending too much money on my credit card, so i'm going to not pay the bank back. >> stuff i've already bought. >> that is the debt ceiling issue. >> completely. >> cutting the deficit issue is something different.

the reason they're linked is because many on the conservative tea party republicans who believe that unless there is some linking of these two, unless there is a consequence. >> it will never get solved. >> we have raised the debt ceiling over and over. >> it is dangerous not to make that distinction. i'm worried that's what governor scott is doing. >> expects the ideological purity of the people holding on to it, these are not flip floppers, believe and were elected on this platform, but in the near term it's the worry about jobs and the near term impact on the economy if it's done too quickly and not in the right way. >> that's correct. >> frustrated voters are jamming the switchboards, crashing servers on capitol hill demanding lawmakers solve the crisis. we want to know what would you like to tell or maybe you told us to your elected representative. e-mail, give us a tweet, tell us on facebook. >> still ahead, remarkable story of a teenage assassin, u.s. born boy convicted of being a drug

cartel hitman in mexico, sentenced for these outrageous crimes. we'll tell you about it on the other side. 41 minutes after the hour. great! at progressive, you can compare rates side by side, so you get the same coverage, often for less. wow! that is huge! [ disco playing ] and this is to remind you that you could save hundreds! yeah, that'll certainly stick with me. we'll take it. go, big money! i mean, go. it's your break, honey. same coverage, more savings. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

44 minutes past the hour. rattled nerves in oslo less than a week after 76 people were killed in a massacre. a suspicious suitcase forced police to evacuate the city's central train station. >> the details from zain verjee live in london. what do we know? >> we know that the police found it suspicious, an abandoned bag and they ended up bringing in a robot to get rid of it. it ended up being okay, but it does underscore the situation in norway, the country is on edge and the police themselves are just not taking any risks. when they heard about it they immediately addressed it. fort if nately everything was okay. big development, zain, in mexico. an american-born teenager, a hitman, found guilty of torturing, beheading at least four people. remarkable for his age. also remarkable for how little time he will have to serve because he's a minor. >> right. that's exactly right.

because of mexican law, the maximum he's going to get is three years for beheading four people in a correctional facility and also going to have to pay a $400,000 fine. a lot of people are saying that this is really about the drug wars and it's the drug gangs that are recruiting young kids like this to go and do their dirty work. he was asked, this 14-year-old boy, how did you execute these people and his response was, i slit their throats. >> that's just so disturbing on so many levels. it shows you how dangerous and how much this has escalated over the years. on a lighter note, 2012 olympics, a year away, we understand that the games have already begun on-line at least? >> well, i'm officially inviting you to come to london next year. >> i'm in. >> exactly one year away, and there is actually something cool launched on-line. ali, you like this. >> yeah. >> a way for you to win in the

olympics, competitive tweeting. >> wow. >> he's good, actually. >> he is. i know he has millions of followers around the world. but basically, right, ali? basically, what it is, countries around the world are being encouraged to support their teams starting from today and they're going to hashtag one year to go, looks like the u.s. is still second place in that competition. guess who's number one? it's brazil. >> wow. >> okay. >> on-line competition. get tweeting, ali. >> no kidding. >> everyone you know. >> what is the hashtag? >> one year to go she said. >> hashtag one year. >> one the number or one the word? >> 1, the number. >> you taught me how to do proper tea when i was there for the royal wedding. >> pinky's up. >> you said pinky's sort of bent but not totally up, right? >> sort of kind of. >> i need a refresher course.

>> good to see you. your morning headlines next including a brand new lawsuit over the world trade center cross. two intersecting steel beams, they came that way, that were found when the twin towers collapsed on september 11th. who is suing and why? >> and do you sleep in shifts? if so you better go to the doctor. why it could keep you from making memories and what that does to your brain later in life. can't remember what time it is. >> 47 minutes after the hour.

a look at your morning headlines. today's key vote on house speaker john boehner's debt ceiling plan in the house is being pushed back at least for a day. the bill's been losing conservative support after the congressional budget office says it didn't cut as much as possible. let's check in on the markets right now. stock futures trading mixed at the moment but flat overall. investors seem to be sorting through a lot of corporate earnings this morning, taking that as well as the debt ceiling talks. boeing just reported that its earnings for the second quarter were in line with wall street expectations. federal appeals court is reversing course now saying that accused tucson shooter jared lee loughner can be forced, can be forced, to take anti-psychotic medication. the court cited his increasingly bizarre and suicidal behavior in going back on the earlier ruling that allowed loughner to refuse those drugs.

an atheist group is suing to prevent a cross from being displaced at the 9/11 memorial site. the cross is made from two steel beam girders that were pulled, the way it looks now, that's how it was pulled out of the wreckage of the twin towers.tow. a group of american eighth yists called it intermingling of church and state. responders who developed cancer after the terror attack in new york are told they are not eligible for benefits. officials say that, right now, not enough evidence to add cancers to the list of diseases covered by the law which provides health care for the ground zero workers. waking up too many times in the night can cause harm. fragmented sleep can lead to dement dementia, alzheimer's and affect your overall memory and base their findings on tests conducted on lab mice. "american morning" is back after a break.

it seemed likes a nice dah in washington. partly cloudy' 9 degrees there and feels only like 80 degrees and get up to 90 and sunny today. i don't know. a beautiful day here in new york. still very hot in other parts of the country, though. >> he is one of the stars of the super bowl the cute kid who played minidarth vader. remember the volkswagen commercial? it was so cute. take a look. ♪

♪ >> i thought that was so -- >> it never grows old. everyone loved the commercial. it was usa. the boy behind the mask has a spirit that will knock you over. but he is also very sick. >> he went to washington to use a jedi mind troop in washington. >> reporter: as you may know, i've been following the story of little max page for some time. he is a crazy, cute kid. you saw him as a minute i didn't darth vader there. he also was born with a heart condition. he had eight operations over six years and while in the hospital, he met a lot of kids like him. kids who required care and specialty hospitals and children's hospitals. he also met kids who were dependent in part on medicaid to get the sort of care they were

getting. now he is heading to washington because amidst the budget talks is a potential impact on these hospitals, a potential impact on these kids, kids like max. he had a meeting with senator grassl grassley. take a listen. >> can you tell the president this? if he -- if the budget gets cut, he needs to realize children might need it. if the budget makes -- they cut about like 75% off, it's going to be really bad for maybe his daughters. >> you can see there max is making a personal appeal to the president and to the president's daughters. again, just 56 of these children's hospitals in the country. they are responsible for not only taking care of a lot of sick kids but also train training the nation's pediatricians. >> when you have less money you have less options of providing that care so you may not hire a physician, you may not offer the clinic, you may not have the

program that is necessary for the chill. it's not something that is going to happen overnight, but, over time, the whole effort to support children's health care has weakened if you don't adequately fund it. >> reporter: both sides could have an impact in terms of what they are proposing. the white house plan could impact the number of pediatricians trained in the future and the republican deal, as far as we can tell, could have an impact overall on medicaid in terms of cutting its funding. so, max, good luck. may the force be with you. back to you for now. >> great story. there is more to it. >> you can see the rest of that report on minidarth vader max page this weekend on sanjay gupta m.d. this saturday and sunday at 7:30 eastern. >> while we have sanjay, should we ask him about you? >> i know. i have a summer cold. don't touch anything i've touched. >> i don't want you to be sick and not around this debt ceiling stuff. >> you don't want me to be sick and sitting next to you. >> lawmakers are bombarded by

e-mails and phone calls from frustrated voters who want the debt ceiling crisis solved. in case you wouldn't get through to your lawmaker, we want to know what you would tell your elected representative. it's our question of the day. >> roger says compromise and get this done. stop worrying about this election or there won't be one for you. >> our elected representatives need to become statesmen and not politicians. >> two things. put the country first and i can't wait to vote you out in two years. so thanks so much. keep the comments coming. >> people are frustrated on every side. >> if i had a dime every time he heard i heard that i would be able to pay off the nation's debt. who are the credit agencies? why do they matter and who listens to them? i'll explain it to you after this break.

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a bill to raise the debt ceiling doesn't quite cut it. i'm christine romans. today's vote on john boehner's plan is pushed back because it doesn't offer the spending cuts republicans thought. we are live in washington what edge means for the deadline six days away.

it's debt d-day. i'm kted. from america's aaa credit rating to the overall economy and your finances. we break down what will happen if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling in just six days. >> i'm ali velshi. a 9/11 health plan won't cover cancer. we will speak to first responders and advocates who call it an insult on this "american morning." ♪ good morning, everyone. it's wednesday, july 27th. the debt stalemate continues. >> time is running out. house speaker john boehner has a plan considered a live plan and put it up for a vote -- actually he ended up pulling it because it's under fire from members of his own party. >> the problem is the numbers do not add up. today's vote has been postpone. in a few hours, house republicans will meet again. >> joe johns is live in washington. how big of a setback is this for the speaker on this? >> reporter: if you lose a day

and you only have six days left, yes, that's a problem. but the greater problem, perhaps, is losing credibility. the speaker said his plan was going to save something like well over a trillion dollars. turns out it's only $850 billion by the score from the congressional budget office. that is a problem, too. on the other hand, he gains a little extra time to try to round up some support because as we all know now, some republicans on the hill have been saying they won't vote for his plan, it can't pass. he certainly needs a win when and if he puts this thing on the floor. >> so when we say when and if, is there enough time for some sort of deal to be worked out? >> reporter: well, you know, the elephant in the room, if you will, there could be just a bit more time than has been publicly acknowledg acknowledged. the united states government saying borrowing authority ends on august 2nd, but an lialysts e

ug suggested the cash position may be stronger than expected due to additional tax revenues coming in. i spoke to the treasure department and they would not tell me what a stronger cash position might mean. if this is true, as the analysts may suggest, the u.s. may be able to buy another week or so to pay the bills. treasury has been downplaying that but as the tinkering goes on, they could use the extra time. the other thing to watch is around 10:00 eastern time, right on capitol hill, representatives with standards & poors and moodys investor service will be there listening to congress. the one thing everybody is worried about is a downgrade of the u.s. credit rating. >> can i make a remark about the extra time? people are buzzing about that today and some are saying it shows the treasury department, they were overplaying what -- it doesn't matter.

a few extra days doesn't matter. that is what they are supposed to be doing. this is -- this is the end of the runway. whether it's a couple of days. the tax receipts change every day what is coming in. >> just we get a few days here could be taken off on the other side. >> reporter: all you're talking about is wiggle room at this point. just a little bit of wiggle room. >> thanks, joe. >> reporter: you bet. it still makes us look bad. >> we talked about the pressure that people are hearing that members of congress are hearing from their constituents. i don't know if that will help move this forward as you talk about maybe having a few more days. clearly, people are very frustrated by this. >> we talked to florida republican governor rick scott a few minutes ago. he would rather not see the debt ceiling increased despite what every economist has been saying. early on "american morning," i asked him why he doesn't think an unprecedented government -- potential government default, not raising the debt ceiling would wreak havoc on this nation's economy. if you don't raise the debt

ceiling you have an immediate cut in 40%, 40% of federal spending. i mean, the impact near term on the economy would be disastrous. doesn't this has to be done with a little more thoughtfulness than election year? >> we did the stimulus, it didn't help our economy. what is going to help our economy is act responsibly. >> after years and years of tax cuts supposed to grow jobs and that hasn't helped either, right? >> if you look at the states growing like out our state. no personal income. phasing out the business tax. look at tax, they are lower taxes, they are growing. absolute lower taxes make the economy grow. higher taxes, on more regulation and trillion dollar deficits and kills our economy. >> paying for what both parties of congress have already spent. >> republicans senator pat toomey of pennsylvania what will or will not get paid if congress

fails to raise the debt ceiling. i spoke to him early in the morning. what is worse, raising the revenue or failing to raise the debt ceiling if we hit the debt ceiling 40% of our government spending would stop. that has to be worse for the economy than closing some tax loopholes. >> no. i think the most important thing for the economy is getting us on a sustainable fiscal path. we have seen what is happening on the periphery of europe to countries that just refuse to grapple with this problem and raising taxes a little bit here and there or a lot is going to do some harm to the economy and it's not going to solve the underlying problem. >> senator toomey went on to say he does not believe we will default but he just wants a plan b in place just in case. before you can get a credit card, banks run a credit check on you. the agencies run checks on companies and standard anne poor's and moody is and ficht

rating they give the debt a grade that reflects the borrower's ability to pay its underlying loans. the safest bet the united states government get a aa credit rating and since 1917 when moody's first assigned a credit rating to the united states and this could change soon. take a look at the 19 countries. these are the countries that have received s&p's ratings. you can see them here. why do these credit agencies matter? who listens to them? well, investors across the world look to these credit rating companies to judge where to invest their money. for governments, the ratings agencies have a lot of power because they help determine the interest rate that the bonds those companies -- those countries sell to investors will receive. as i mentioned, the safest bets, the most secure countries pay the lowest interest rate when

they borrow money. who pays these agencies? another question we have been getting. agencies are either paid by the borrower, the country, or the company has is requesting a rating, or from subscribers who receive the published ratings and related credit ratings from standard & poor's and fitch. the u.s. government does not pay for its credit rating. >> great analysis, ali. our aaa credit rating is not the only thing on the line. if the congress cannot reach a decision on raising the debt ceiling, defaulting on our bonds. we're not going to do that. we are going to pay the interest on our loans but it might not prevent us from being downgraded by these agencies anyway if we don't raise the debt ceiling and get our house in order. what happens here? the difference between default and downgrade and what does a

downgrade mean for us? >> a downgrade could be bad news. losing the aaa credit rating in theory should mean interest rates will go higher and bond rates go higher and all of the rates tied to that, things like mortgages and auto loans, student loans, et cetera, they could go higher as well so it could be more costly for consumers to borrow money, not just corporations. >> how much political damage is being done by this debate now in washington? i mean, could it be -- we have heard people say this, people who hold bonds, it could be we are downgraded no matter what happens at this point. >> i'm getting the sense that unless there is a real plan to not just tackle raising the debt ceiling but a real long-term viable plan to cut the deficit going forward, there could possibly be a downgrade by one or more of the rating agencies because they have explicitly said they want to see not just raising the debt ceiling, they want to see us lowering spending and getting our fiscal house in order. >> we talked to governor rick scott earlier. he said we should forget about

the debtcele. we don't need to raise it. that is a minority opinion. >> if we don't raise the debt ceiling and then that wiggle room runs out and we come past the middle of the august or whatever is and we have to worry about making other payments, period, that is very bad news. right now, the financial markets have been relatively calm despite what is going on in washington and i think the sense is something is going to get done. this is politics as usual, but we saw what happened in 2008 when politics as usual meant voting down the bank bailout and the dow fell nearly 800 points. >> suddenly they passed the bank bailout when they saw. they are calling it a t.a.r.p. moment. we certainly don't want another t.a.r.p. moment because that affects our 401(k)s and i.r.a.s. >> a lot of people i have spoken to have been mentioning the good news about the u.s. we are not europe. things are not a is dire as greece, portugal, some of the debt laden countries there.

this is a politically default. china, for example is the largest holder of our debt and not in our best interest tick them off probably. this does not bode well if we can't get our act together and play nice and do what is nice for the country. >> paul on why a downgrade would matter to you each if there isn't a default overall on our bonds. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> a good distinction. >> voters jamming the switchboards and crashing servers on capitol hill demanding that lawmakers figure out a way to solve the debt ceiling crisis. the phones in john boehner's office were twice as busy with hundreds of callers waiting on hold for nearly an hour to leave a message. cnn surveyed web sites of 279 members of congress and found 104 of them were crashed or sputtering. there are reports that the white house switchboard was so overwhelmed with calls it shut down during parts of the day

yesterday. >> we want to know. what would you tell your elected representative? e-mail us, give us a tweet, tell us on facebook and we will read through some of them later in the show. a republican from arizona is one of the republicans who said they cannot support john boehner's plan to put forth to try to get this debt ceiling cap raised. we are going to ask him why and whether there is room for compromise at this eleventh hour. >> better bring an umbrella to work this morning. rob is watching severe weather. winds, hail, possible tornadoes. tell you where after the break. [ cherie ] i wanted to make a difference in my community.

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seattle mariners have now lost, 17 games in a row! whoa! >> we are here to rub it in. poor mariners. >> that streak continued last night. struck out -- gosh, 18 times in yankees stadium. mariners 16 games away from the major league record of 23 consecutive losses set by kiran's husband's favorite team in the world, the phillies.

>> ali then said in the 6:00 hour of "american morning" that the losingest team in the history of professional sports. >> that is true. we backchecked it. >> to be fair you play more games in baseball so more opportunities to lose. >> world series champions. >> a lesson to be learned here. you can be the losingest team and be the world series champs and have an incredible season. >> the phillies are probably proud of that. >> you mean that in a good way are. >> they played what amounted to more than two games. last night's braves/pirates game was 19 innings and more than 6 1/2 hours long and those who stayed up to see the end were not happy and witnessed what many are saying the worst call of the year. the braves won 4-3. but this play at the plate at the bottom of the 19th. at the bottom of the 19th, that feels weird saying that. check it out. he is out, clearly. no, he was called safe. the runner out by a mile. the umpire called him safe. >> because he was tired and

wanted to go home. the umpire says i signed up to be a baseball umpire not a cricket umpire. >> we are in the 19th hour of the debt ceiling negotiations. >> 19th inning. it was going on when i woke up for work this morning. the quarterback coach for the university of south carolina was arrested after police say he relieved himself outside a restaurant right in the middle of downtown greenville. police say george magnus was drunk and has been suspended from his coaching duties until this get straightened out. >> rob marciano is hard to say when your nose is stuffy. >> both of your voices are ringing in my ears on both sides. let's show you this piece of video of the australian rules football. kind of similar to rugby. look at that! climbing the ladder to go high! nice catch!

>> that would be so bad when he fell. >> i'm thinking -- >> you know the funny thing about this? the other guy is unfazed. >> he is. they are on different teams. he just got faced. and -- >> that is excellent. all right. from there, we go to the much more tranquil sand castle building contest. com akon is happening in san diego. one of our photographers decided to head to the beach and it's been lovely when everybody is searing in the 100-degree heat. san diego, beautiful sand castle building weather. if you are traveling today, we are looking for delays in tampa, orlando, and miami because of afternoon thunderstorms and chicago may see thunderstorms as well and some could become from maps to madison and chicago. record breaking rain in chicago over the weekend and 7 inches in a few hours. if they get another half inch or

so i think they will break a record for the month of july. it's been wet there, but they will take it versus seeing some of the heat. one of the reasons i showed you a lot of that video is because our maps aren't working all that well. but one point i do want to make is this. here is your drought monitor showing exceptional drought across pretty much the entire state of texas. we have a tropical system developing right now and expected to get into the gulf of mexico. if it goes into texas it may not be a bad thing. we could use that rain. we don't want it to get to hurricane strength and a possibility that happening but hoping for rainfall in texas. monitoring that throughout the day. it could affect the u.s. as early as friday or sometime over the weekend. >> like you said it just brings a little rain, it will be fine. any more than that, it is a concern. track it along with you. thank you. >> we are "minding your business" your business next and a comedian makes a rack video about the set dealing crisis and one of the most compelling

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"minding your business" this morning. the state of california is preparing for a potential u.s. default. the state has secured a loan worth about 5.5 billion from various big banks including goldman sachs and wells fargo so it has cash on hand in case the debt ceiling is not raised in time and it can't get the federal funding it needs to pay its bills. right now u.s. stock futures trading flat down slightly ahead of the opening bell. investors worldwide are watching washington today. stalls in the debt talks. health care provider aetna

reported its earnings for the second quarter were in line with wall street's expectations. boeing also reported expect earnings for the quarter. big surprise this morning is profits for dow chemical jumped 74% in the last quarter compared to the same time last year. still waiting on delta to report its earnings before the opening bell this morning. a debt plan by speaker john boehner forced the nation's republicans to choose sides. one of those republicans, congressman jeff flake, who says no way he would be on board is going to be talking to us live in a couple of minutes. "american morning" is back after the break. where do you go to find a business backed by

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the house speaker's debt reduction plan rah run into some trouble. it happened after the congressional budget office ran the numbers and ended up falling short of a trillion dollars in spending cuts. so with time running out, he pulled the bill. he says he will revise it and

republicans are now delaying a vote on the house floor. joining us is congressman jeff flake who signed the cut, cap, and balance pledge and not supporting the speaker's bill. thank you for joining us. more than a dozen in the house say you will not support this bill put together by your own speaker. why is that? >> well, i think we ought to at least have a bill that doesn't get us further down the road we don't need to get to. this bill, if implemented, would cause us to go back to our own appropriations committee and plus up your spending for the current year by about $24 billion and that is not right. i can't imagine trying to sell that. >> the speaker says he is going to -- i mean, he already has pulled it. they are going to comb through it again. what if he can revise it to a trillion dollar in cuts. are you on board? >> even the plan that where he said it was going to be 1.2, that still required about a $24

billion bump from our current budget upward, so it would have to cut more significantly than that, i would assume. i would like to be able it to support it. i'm not one of those who says we don't have to raise the debt ceiling. we do. but i'm worried about our credit rating as well. even if we do raise the debt ceiling unless we have a credible plan in place to deal with our debt, we are going to get downgraded so we have to take this more seriously. >> speaking of that, if we continue to play chicken with this, if we continue to be in some ways derighted by the rest of the world as we appear and not able to compromise on this or any long-term spending doesn't that also threaten the stellar credit rating we have enjoyed for almost a century? >> certainly a default would. i'm confident that we will reach some agreement. but if i look at the agreement that was put forward yesterday, i think a straight no strings attached, just raise the debt ceiling for a short time to give us more time to work it would be better than the agreement that

was put forward yesterday. >> really? >> as i mentioned, the agreement yesterday would actually cause us to go in in the house, because we never want to give the senate more spending authority than we have. and it would cause you to actually increase our spending by $24 billion above the house passed budget this year. >> i want to make sure i heard you correctly. you said that just a no strings attached yes to the debt ceiling would be better than your speaker's plan? >> well, i'm saying a short-term one. i'm not saying pass the elections like the president wants. we have got to address the situation long before then. but raising it -- without anything for a short time to give us time to negotiate this and get a better deal than we have gotten would be preferable than having a budget that actually or an agreement that actually requires us to increase spending. >> you talk about getting a better deal. according to an article in politico this morning. fascinating. republican leadership in the senate could be forced to take

up and actually pass this house plan. then it looks like perhaps some republican leadership may be taking the chance if they get the bill in front of the president within a week of a possible default he would sign it. that be a huge victory for fiscal conservatives like you? >> i'm not so sure. basically, like i said the short-term cuts are not there and we are basically punt to go a commission to go ahead and do our work. i think having the 17th commission -- we had 16, i believe, in the last couple of decades -- isn't going to calm the markets. they have a commission now. >> at this point, no one is talking about tax hikes. these are all cuts whether the reid plan or this one. what about compromise? you guys seem to be holding a lot of the cards and seems to be a pretty good victory for fiscal conservatives. >> we are talking about cuts but like i said the agreement we were offered yesterday would lead to an increase in spending

in the current year. i can understand you have to phase this in and you may not see massive cuts in the first year. but having to go back and actually spend more this year, kind of a bank error in our favor, we are going to spend more doesn't send the right signal to the markets nor to the country. >> the other question about compromise. the pugh study asked even if you share your lawmakers shares your view on this issue, what should your lawmaker do? 68% said be willing to compromise. and when we talk about republicans, 53% want some willingness to compromise, up 10% since april. what are you willing to give in order to make sure that we don't default, that this does not happen to us, that we raise our debt ceiling by the deadline? i would of liked to have seen a big deal, one that would lower the rates and broaden the base and actually deal with all sectors of this thing and to get some good tax reform as well. that would require a great deal of compromise. i think a lot of us are willing to do that.

but what we simply can't do is go backward here and actually spend more money in the short term than we are now. and i just don't think that that sends the right signal. i'm confident we can come to an agreement but it has to be better than the one we were presented yesterday. >> congressman jeff flake on your take why you and as well as several of your people with you in congress are not standing by the speaker's plan at this point. you'd like to see changes to it. thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> you mentioned the aa credit rating. the american dollar has always been seen an a safe haven to investors around the world but not the case any more, at least not right now. >> some investors looking for something more stable. inos has been following this closely from london. the peripheral things through this debt negotiation that markets are looking at. nina, what are you finding? >> reporter: we should mention that the u.s. dollar has been steadily declining over the

course of the last year. 17% down since this time last year against a basket of other currencies on the dollar index. but what we have got at the moment is, of course, as all this talk about the debt debacle everybody it seems it heading for the hills so to speak, and heading for the safe haven. goal is safe haven and reaching records in excess of $126 an ounce. that means this precious metal is getting too expensive for some people and they are also looking at to put their money into other safe currencies. the swiss franc hit another record this week. other surprising bright spots such as france, the australian dollar to a 30-year high this week against the u.s. dollar. sounds great if your currency is

appreciating so. . the japanese yen is a strong currency has continued to rise and makes japanese exports like toyota less competitive because by the time they sell cars in the united states, convert the money from dollars back into yen, surprise, surprise, they make a little bit less money every single time. >> some people are floating the idea that the world's reserve currency, the u.s. dollar might at risk in all of this. what are you hearing in europe? seems a little bit far-fetched. even if we get an 11th hour agreement to raise the debt ceiling, well, what the politicians will have to do is issue more u.s. treasuries and given the fact that, obviously, foreign holders of u.s. debt have been having a white knuckle ride recently, it will be interesting to see what kind of appetite there is for that extra 1 trillion or 1.2 trillion they issue to raise that debt sealing when we do eventually get some

kind of agreement, if, indeed, we get an agreement. >> all just getting started, really is. >> white knuckle, really is. >> have you heard this raise the debt ceiling rap? >> this is great. >> the comedian remy released a video and nothing like a little kom comedy in the face of a crisis, right? ♪ raise the debt ceiling raise the debt ceiling raise the debt ceiling ♪ ♪ 14 trillion in debt. spending money we don't have. the name of the game. >> they call me this. because you got to make it right ♪ ♪ >> pretty good rap. >> it was pretty good. >> perhaps you want to cut your own youtube rap and send it to your elected leader. either way, people want to let their representatives know how they feel about this issue. >> they were jamming up the phone lines and web sites. we would like to know what you

would like to tell your elected representative. e-mail us, give us a tweet, tell us on facebook and we will read through some of them later in the show. firefighters and police officers worked add ground zero on september 11th a ruling came down they will not get their cancer treatments covered. asthma is covered and post-traumatic stress but why not cancer when so many have lost their lives or trying to recover from cancer as they say were caused by ground zero. we will talk more about it coming up.

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♪ they may have saved the school year in memphis after all. you may remember last week, the memphis school board voted to delay the start of the year until the money gets part of what the city owes them. last night they voted to start the school year as scheduled. a payment of $12 million to cover the month of august. 1 in 3 detroit teachers say they are under pressure from their bosses to cheat and change grades on state tests. this is according to a new detroit free pass survey. the paper did a survey after

uncovering allegations of grade fixing and comes after atlanta's cheating scandal continues. investigators say there 80% of atlanta schools fudged numbers to boost scores. i think fudge is too nice of a word. >> they changed them. >> they cheated. >> yeah. when the nation's report card came out a pretty depressing stats. kids don't know much, if all, about american history. they can recognize abraham lincoln but not entirely sure why. jacob goes into education overtime for us. >> reporter: most of you know who this person is. but can you name two reasons he is important to american history? if not, you are in good company. a recent study called the nation report card says fewer than a quarter of all students are proficient or sew a solid economic performance in american history. while most kids could identify a photo of abraham lincoln they

could not say why he was president. can you tell me who this person sf? >> abraham lincoln. >> first name? >> abraham. >> why was lincoln an important president? >> because he was honest. >> he did very important speeches. >> i don't know this. >> reporter: both the study and my field trip made it clear that kids aren't learning history. why that is the case and how to fix it up for debate. possibilities are lazy students and testing and squeezing history out of the classroom in favor of math and reading. when i went to see the guy in charge of the nation's report card he told me poor history scores are actually nothing new. >> there are a core of kids who are outstanding and another small percent that our policymakers would probably call proficient and a big chunk of kids are below that line and

that is not changed much. >> we just got a pile of essays which i have to go through. >> reporter: in massachusetts a journal is published highlighting the core group of history students and he thinks the history scores are troubling. >> it's an old story. nobody is doing anything to fix it. >> reporter: i tracked down some of the bright, young minds he spotlight to ask what advice they would give to a struggling history student. >> they need to find the fun. the history is about people like us who have shaped the course of this nation's history. >> reporter: maybe he is right. one option might be to keep reminding students the history is just that. all about people. just like them. for education overtime, i'm jacob silveroff.

it's 44 minutes after the hour. here are your morning headlines. illegal immigrant from uzb uzbekistan threatening to kill president obama. they say the suspect was arrested in alabama after purchasing machine gun and grenades from an undercover agent. today's key vote on house boehner's plan is pushed back. the bill has been losing conservative support after the congressional budget office said it didn't cut as much as promise. "the new york times" reporting flexibility perhaps on the august 2nd deadline. the paper reports higher than expected could push the report back as late as august 10th but

the underlying problems persist here. investors worldwide watching washington today. its news on the debt ceiling talks, the impasse there is so important. investors also sorting through a ton of corporate earnings coming out this morning. a federal appeals court reversing decision that loughner can be forced to take anti-psychotic medication. the court cited his bizarre and suicidal behavior and going back on its ruling to allow loughner to refuse these drugs. an olympic u.s. skier who won a silver medal at the 2010 games committed suicide. jeret "speedy" peterson called to tell them where he was before committing suicide. he was 29 years old. training camp opens for ten nfl teams today including the

cowboys, patriots and eagles, this after the players and owners ended the lockout on monday. the first preseason games could be played on august 11th. you're caught up on tooday's headlines. "american morning" is back after the break.

♪ 48 minutes past of the hour. a shot of new york city. a beautiful morning. it's sunny and 73 degrees. a little bit later, it's going up to a high of 87. but should be a very pleasant day here. in the meantime, an atheist group is now suing over a cross that is scheduled to be displayed at the 9/11 memorial and museum in new york. the cross is made of two steel

girders. it was found as is jetting out of the rubble at the world trade center site following the 9/11 attacks. the group says the cross display is a, quote, impermissiblinimpe mingling of church and state. you can see the cover of the newspaper here in new york. "go die!" tells cancer stricken ground zero workers go die. a nut report not finding enough evidence to link cancer in 9/11 responders to the dust and smoke at the world trade center site and other areas where firefighters and police officers were working. it means those who worked at ground zero and plays like landfills in staten island following the days of the 9/11 attacks will not have their cancer treatments covered as part of a government health program. our next guest called it an insult. he lost part of his foot at ground zero and he has

respiratory problems. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> there is a lot of outrage this morning. how do you feel this morning and what are your biggest concerns about this ruling? >> as a 9/11 responder, i'm insulted. as an advocate, i'm disappointed. i goat about 200 to 300 e-mails a day on average. last night i had 900 and phone calls, people crying, grown men, wied doze and those who have husbands sick and dying in the hospital right now of cancer. this is utterly, utterly a slap in our face and it's adding insult to a wound that hasn't closed in ten years. >> do you have any sense of why the ruling came down like this? you say you've gone to more than, what, 55 funerals? >> 53. >> 53 funerals. >> 51 with cancer. >> cancer. >> uh-huh. >> these are people who had no signs of anything, any health problems before 9/11? >> never. >> why was cancer not included

in this bill to help monday area and treat first responders? >> they say because no scientific evidence. i need nobody from 12 years of college telling me there is no evidence. every time these stories are covered. the people that have passed away is enough proof already. we have ten years of people getting circumstance and dying. i don't need scientific research. the numbers are staggering. it's alarming and they know that. dr. howard knows that. let's not make dr. howard out to be the -- >> dr. howard has been a i ask them to step up bring an attention to this cause. for years we advocated for it to get passed and now advocate again to get this added to the bill. this bill is not perfect but

adding cancer to this bill will surely help those who need it. >> there is some hope in that. you said you need the delegation to be vocal. >> sure. >> i know many of the elected leaders both on the senators and congressmen from new york have been trying to get this passed. >> absolutely. >> they said there were some political wrangling involved with the cancer diagnosis. but the good news they say they are going to revisit this in a few months and perhaps by then they will have the results or more results of some studies that have been done to sort of bolster the claim that cancer was caused. >> i'm confident cancer gets added to the bill. i give my one kidney i know dated it gets added. we are not waiting a year. we want this done yesterday. i'm asking the new york delegation to get the doctors and scientists doing these studies now for them to come out in front of the camera and to say that 9/11 and this aftermath, the toxins created these cancers. if you took every toxin, one by

one in the air at ground zero, individually put it in a bottle, you'll have skull and cross bones on it. now have you a toxic soup. we had no hazmat suits, no proper respiratory, through the nodes, through the mouth and through the skin it was absorbed and causing blood cancers and these leukemias and all of these cancers. don't insult our intelligence. we are sick and deg but not stupid. >> some say why is this money needed? is there not insurance for these people who went dounel thewn th put their lives on the line. no insurance to help pay for this and compensate them? >> cops and firefighters have a pension. some of them are still fighting for three-quarters and only getting half. have to pay out of pocket. they lost their insurance. the only place they can go is the center of excellence and if you can't be treated there, where else can you go? i have people call me every day

asking for gas money to get to the doctor. >> you say this is so vital for the people fighting it again? >> vital? it's a life line. they need it. $2.7 billion in the compensation and 1.5 in the health care is not enough money to treat and compensate cancer. that is why i think this was said yesterday. >> we are going to have to see where this goes. they say they are going to revisit it and there could be a chance they will add cancer to -- >> they will. >> john, i know you've been a tireless advocate for the feel good foundation. thanks jo joining us and best of luck. >> god bless you. >> we will take a break. act my age?

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trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more. ♪ washington, d.c. it's fair and 84. going up to sunny and 90 degrees today. >> the boys of late night were laughing all the way to the bank about the debt talks. let's listen. >> what are we even doing here having a show? our country is in serious trouble. we are all year, yea! >> when china calls for their

money, just say you're a roommate is what i always did. >> the president spoke last night. you probably all saw his speech. good. in his speech last night, president obama said that compromise has become a dirty word. yeah. then he told republicans to go compromise themselves! >> the president was in full educator in chief mode. >> for the last decade, we spent more money than we take in. if we stay on the current panel, our growing debt could cost us jobs and do serious damage to the economy. >> oh? you know, i think your financial awe sisterity path message may be slightly undercut by the begoldoned share red carpet path. you walk down to tell us about it. any way to do the tighten the belt speech from a room that doesn't look like the foyer of the vatican?

i'm saying if willie waonka migt not do it from the waterfall room. >> still a resolution to this stupid debt ceiling crisis thing. iowa congressman stephen king says if president obama allows the country to default he could be impeached. of course, obama could stop that with three words -- president joe biden! okay, okay, okay, okay! all right! forget i said anything! >> the funny stuff is from jon stewart. the banner the end of the world as we owe it. that's funny. >> i'm fascinated they can have so much fun with this. maybe i've just been doing this too long so think -- i think it's dull for people. these guys make it kind of funny. >> one said federal government