tell his members that there is no deal yet and that the sticking point is pontial cuts to defense spending. a conference call at 8:30 with house speaker john boehner. senate democratic leader harry reid has already signed off on the deal but his support is pending the approval of his fellow senate democrats. and house speaker nancy pelosi, the former house speaker, i should say, nancy pelosi said recently she wants to see the final product before she can support it. she meets with house democrats tomorrow. make sure you join wolf blitzer and i at 9:00 p.m. eastern, one hour, where we'll have a special report on the debt crisis. we will see you then. tonight on "cnn presents" -- addicted at birth. >> what's she going through because she's just a little baby? and she can't talk and she can't tell me how she feels. >> america's pain pill epidemic. it is the youngest generation. >> we're seeing more babies being born addicted to drugs. "beasts of war." >> next thing you know, i was

staring a porpoise right in the face. oh, just got me again. a once top-secret military program that's enlisting animals to protect the country. but first, inside a polygamous sect. >> we're dealing with the exploitation of children of young girls for sexual purposes. >> reporter: gary tuchman takes you where most people never go -- exposing polygamy's dirty secrets. >> reporter: the scenery is spectacular and the polygamist families who live here along the uft-arizona border have been able to live their lives with little interference from the outside world for generations. stepping into their world is both jarring and surreal. how many brothers and sisters do you have? >> i have 18. >> reporter: albert, how many brothers and sisters do you have? >> 22. >> i am the oldest of 32.

>> reporter: these are not members of the salt lake city-based mormon church known as the church of ladder day saints. they belong instead to a splinter group who believe in polygamy and call themselves the fundamental church of ladder day saints, or flds. do you think you can win this case? >> reporter: spiritual leader, warren jeffs, has been jailed now for nearly five years an faces trial on three charges including aggravated sexual assault on a child, charges to which he's pled not guilty. the people of the flds are convinced that there is nobody on earth closer to god than warren jeffs. they believe that jeffs, even behind bars, is the mouthpiece of god, that words he utters are divinely inspired. law enforcement authorities have long been worried what would happy if jeffs told his followers to do something violent and dangerous.

>> i've never seen it like this before. i've been here for seven years and i've never seen things so unstable and so lawless. i consider this the most lawless town in the country. >> reporter: sam brower is a private investigator and writer who's been following the polygamous sect closely for nearly a decade and who's written a book about the flds called "prophet's prey." do you think there are comparisons to be made like to the taliban or the mafia? >> absolutely. i mean even the utah attorney general has stated that the flds in this community is run taliban-style and that's really all the flds church is, in my opinion, is an organized crime family. >> reporter: attorneys for the

break-away sect say that kind of assertion is nonsense, the polygamist leaders and their followers who live here simply want to be left alone to practice their religion the way they see fit. but real violence, according to some neighbors, has crept into the community. this burned down patch of grass in the town of colorado city, arizona is evidence of what authorities say is a very disturbing example. arizona state investigators say flds leaders burned dozens of books here, rather than let an open library be built, because they believe those books were collected by infidels. >> they burnt things that didn't belong to them. they broke and entered the building. >> reporter: former flds member stephanie culgrove says she worked for more than two years to cloekt books for the library, a library independent of the church. what do they do with the books? >> they hauled them out of the building. >> then what did they do with them? >> we assumed that they were burnt. we saw a massive bonfire and

assumed all of this was on the pile because we saw books in the burning pile. >> reporter: this is the remnants of one of the charred books. looks like a medical textbook. county investigators say the local police in colorado city are all members of the flds and have ignored the arson. those local police have not returned our calls. it's the county authorities who have worked to crack down on the church. so you're with the county and they're the local police, and normally 99.9% of the time police all work together. you don't work with these guys, do you? >> not at all. can't even get them to talk to me most of the time. >> reporter: that's because, according to mohave county chief investigator gary ingals, police here obey the religious leaders first, civilian leaders second. in your eyes, is their allegiance more to the constitution of the united

states or to warren jeffs, their prophet? >> i believe that their allegiance is probably more to the church. i know they are required to swear allegiance to warren in one of their church meetings here not too long ago. >> reporter: some say if you do not side with warren jeffs, there can be trouble. so are you afraid for your safety sometimes? >> well, yeah, sometimes you get a little worried. they've killed some of my animals. >> reporter: isaac wyler has lived here for years, and until he split from warren jeffs, life was more or less trank quill. not now. >> at one time there was six dead cats in my window wells. a lot of times you go out an there's a dead cat or dead pij are or dead duck. >> you feel that's a threat to intimidate you? >> yeah, definitely for intimidation. but i don't intimidate that easy. >> reporter: attorneys for the flds did not return calls for

comment on either the book burning or the alleged intimidation. >> please don't point that at me. >> reporter: during my frequent reporting trips to colorado city, we were often made to feel unwelcome. >> no cameras allowed here. sorry, this is private property. >> reporter: and there's still a great deal of allegiance to the leader who's long been in jail. but that may be changing. just ahead -- a man who was once one of warren jeffs' most loyal followers now tells a very different story. >> he in his own words is admitted to what he is, and he said he's a very wicked man and he confessed to doing some very terrible things. phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. [ professor ] good morning students. today, we're gonna...

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♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh eldorado, texas. this tiny town is where warren jeffs is now in jail as he stands trial. while jeffs has been here, he's conone thing above all el -- he spent a lot of time on the phone. this past month, how much money has he spent, would you estimate, on phone cards and phone calls? >> roughly $3,000.

>> reporter: and a similar pattern when he was for a time in a different texas jail a few dozen miles away. >> i would say probably in excess of $10,000. >> and is it unusual to spend that much money? have you ever had an inmate spend that much money on phone cards? >> no. no. >> reporter: authorities tell cnn jeffs has been given cash by his loyal followers to pay for the calls and jailers say they monitor what's said. mostly lengthy sermons and detailed instructions to his followers a few miles away at his isolated zion ranch, as well as to his followers in the twin polygamist towns of colorado city, arizona and utah. if that sounds like he's still running the church from jail, he is. insiders say he's even been excommunicating those who disagree with limb. but what it hasn't done is stop a growing feud between those who still believe in him and those who now believe he's a child molester. >> i would like all of you to

think if you were standing here today -- >> reporter: three years ago, willie jess sufficient was one of jeffs' most trusted lieutenants. he even showed me around the compound in west texas that was raided by texas rangers to show cnn that there was nothing inherently bad taking place. >> so where are the carrots? >> well, there. >> reporter: today jessup says warren jeffs has betrayed his church. >> and he said is he a very wicked man and he confused to doing some very terrible things, including molesting his daughter and sister and others. i think his own words describe himself. >> reporter: jessup is talking about diaries submitted as evidence that he says were left by warren jeffs after his arrest in las vegas five years ago. he's talking about these. pictures showing jeffs embracing and kissing young girls no more than 12 or 13 years old, jess sufficient says. >> his conduct will never be

sanctioned by me. i don't think there's anyone in my church that will ever sanction what he has done. it's just a matter of time until they come to terms and figure out how to cope with what he has done. >> reporter: according to authorities in both texas and canada, jeffs orchestrated what canadian police have called a child trafficking ring. sending as many as 30 young girls ages 12 or 13 from a polygamist compound in british columbia across the u.s. border to flds enclaves in utah, arizona and texas. >> this is very serious allegations here where essentially in layman's terms we're dealing with the exploitation of children, of young girls, for sexual pumpses anded procurement of sex with girls under the ages of 18. >> reporter: and here is that canadian compound. now it's self-split into factions. one faction loyal to jeffs, the other loyal to this man, winston

blackmore. he is a long-time polygamist leader who does not want to believe accounts of child brides moving away from canada into the united states. >> i've heard those stories. just different people have come like you're come and told me about them but i would feel very disappointed if they were actually true. >> reporter: a woman who did not want her face shown told us it is true. she says she has first-hand knowledge. three of her nieces were among those sent away to be married to older men in the u.s. >> it angers me that 12 and 13 year-olds would be taken away and given to an older man and that he'd consummate their marriage vows. it angers me. i mean they're just children. you know? it's not right. >> reporter: many girls, investigators say, ended up here

at this flds compound in west texas where we tried to get some answers. [ phone ringing ]. >> hello. it's gary tuchman with cnn and we're doing a story about warren jeffs. cars and trucks passed in and out, but no one came out to answer questions. i can ask you a quick question? warren jeffs' attorney declined to comment. the people who live on this ranch in one of the most isolated parts of texas are not only loyal to warren jeffs, they're the most loyal of the loyal. you're only invited to live here if the prophet himself approves. and despite his long stay in jails in utah, arizona and texas, jail time amounted to more than five years so far, that's what warren jeffs is to people who believe in him -- a leader to be followed and

obeyed. he's pled not guilty to the most recent charges against him of sexual assault of a child and bigamy. officials of the mainstream mormon church reject jeffs and his practices. but within the flds, there seem to be more people supporting warren jeffs than those trying to unseat him. how long that will last is anyone's guess, but from his jail cell here in texas, there's little doubt jeffs is still controlling the destiny of the nation's largest group of believers in polygamy. just listen to this young believer in arizona. tell me what warren jeffs means to you. >> i don't know what you mean by that. >> how important is he to you? >> everything? >> he's everything to you? >> um-hmm. >> and are you married yet? >> i'm not. >> do you want to be married some day? >> course i do. >> do you want to have sister wives, too? >> course i do. >> how many sister wives would be perfect do you think in your family? >> as many as i can. next on "cnn presents" -- the new face of america's pill

epidemic. innocent infants. >> if you are pregnant and you know that it is harming the babies, why don't you just quit using the pills? >> it's just not that easy. you feel like you're going to die. and later -- >> caught me like a bear in a bear trap. >> caught by the u.s. navy's underwater recruits -- marine mammals. it was not until the university of phoenix that i was able to work full-time, be a mom, and go to school. the opportunits that i had at the university of phoenix, dealing wh profesonals teaching things that they were doing every day, got me to where i am today. i'm mayor cherie wood, i'm responsible for the largest urban renewal project in utah, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu.

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>> reporter: from the outside, they look more like nightclubs than doctors' offices. >> hey [ bleep ] [ bleep ].

>> reporter: and they're not too happy to see our cameras. we're here in a parking lot of one of these pain clinics. >> get out of here. get out of here. leave us the [ bleep ] alone. >> reporter: broward county, florida is filled with pain clinics. doctors making millions doling out prescription opioids, also known as heroin in a pill. >> roxies, blues. >> i can get hundreds hundreds of pills a day going from one doctor to the next, then they sell tell on the street. >> reporter: authorities are struggling to shut down these pill mills, but not fast enough. more and more people keep dieing from prescription drug overdoses. >> these doctors are killing our children every single day. look at us, we're desperate, we're begging you. >> reporter: as one generation

succumbs to prescription opioids, a new generation of addicts is being born. >> we saw the number of crack babies that died and this is just another version of that. we all need to be concerned. >> good morning, ladies. i'm jessica. i feel good today. casey goes for her follow-up appointment at the doctor so hopefully they'll say she's doing better and i hope everybody has a blessed day. >> this is casey's bed. like i said, she's a princess so -- >> and that's -- >> that's the track when she was born. that's her neb lieser. just put that on her face and turn it on. kind of loud. this is why we're going to the doctor's, that nasty cough. that nasty cough. >> reporter: for most of her

pregnancy, jessica flooded her bo body, and therefore casey's, with the prescription painkiller, oxycodone, a synthetic version of hay heroin, these prescription pills that emerged as the nation's fastest growing drug problem.eroin, these prescription pills that emerged as the nation's fastest growing drug problem. jessica fears the drug use is responsible for casey's frequent respiratory infections. >> with my other two kids they were never sick this young so it's kind of new to me. god comforts us in a way a loving parent comforts a flight frightened child. >> reporter: two years ago jessica a husband died. a friend gave jessica a couple oxycodone pills to numb the pain. >> when i started i was taking like one to two and within a six-month period i was taking 30. 30, 30 milligram -- snorting them. >> reporter: jessica was getting her pills from florida's numerous pill mills.

and then she got pregnant. if you are pregnant and you know that it is harming the baby and you know it could possibly cause birth defects, why don't you just quit using the pills? it's just not that easy. you feel like you're going to die. >> reporter: this recovery center used to be filled with pregnant women who had abused crack cocaine. now it's pills. when did the first patient start coming in addicted to pills? >> okay. in 2000, this is all cocaine. >> the blue line. >> the blue line versus primary drug of choice prescription. and the crossover was some time in 2009. >> reporter: pregnant women addicted to crack are encouraged to quit. but with opiods, babies get just as addicted as the mother. if she quits cold turkey, the baby could die in utero from withdraw withdrawal. when were you going through withdrawal did you feel casey

was going through withdrawal? >> absolutely. >> how is that? >> she would like curl up because it was in the latter part of the pregnancy, she would crawl up in like a ball and my stomach would be like rock solid and she wouldn't move. i mean you could feel it. you could just feel that she was in torment. it's really sad. you know? to know that your baby's in pain while you're in pain. then you just feel horrible because you did it. you know? did you it. you put yourself there. >> reporter: jessica was weaned off the pills before casey was born. those that aren't give birth to babies who begin to suffer with their first breath. so you actually have to detox the babies. >> right. they go through their withdrawal symptoms, yes. they start out by having feeding intolerances, diarrhea, you can tell that they're crampy, they're miserable, they're irritable. they sweat. they can have rapid breathing. sometimes they can even have

seizures. >> reporter: according to state health records, during the first half of 2010 alone, 635 florida babies were born addicted. you're saying that the number of babies you've seen addicted to prescription drugs doubled last year. >> yes. there are some situations where we have three or four babies at a time. it just makes everybody a little reflective and a little sad about the whole situation. >> reporter: even more troubling, researchers still don't know what the long term effects of opiod use will be on infants. and neither does jessica. >> because i know that i'm going through stuff getting off of the pills. so what's she going through because she's just a little baby? and she can't talk and she can't tell me how she feels. i want to make sure that she doesn't want for anything, that she doesn't have to hurt anymore than i already put her through.

because she didn't deserve that. she's a princess. coming up -- we're going to see her drug dealer. he's got tear drops tattooed on his eyes. >> i own got 12 until later. >> reporter: we see first-hand how the pill trade works. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back. right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the jetta, awarded a top safety pick by the iihs. that's the power of german engineering. hurry in and lease the jetta s for just $179 a month. ♪ visit vwdealer.com today.

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hello, everyone. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta.

>> and i'm wolf blitzer here in washington. we're tracking breaking news this hour on the debt ceiling talks here in the nation's capital. we've just learned that the president of the united states will be in the white house briefing room within the next ten minutes or so to make a major statement on where these talks stand. you're looking at live pictures from the west wing of the white house right now, reporters are gearing up to hear the president. the camera crews are getting ready. this was not expected. the president will be making a statement on where the situation stands as far as this debt ceiling crisis is concerned. we are also expecting a statement on the senate floor at some point from the senate majority leader harry reid. no word on what the republicans are up to at this point but we've got a lot of news that we're following right now. don, this is a night that a lot of people will be watching not only here but in the -- around the world. this is harry reid. i don't know -- is this a live picture? >> this is live. >> let's go to harry reid on the senate floor right now.

>> -- on the full faith credit of the united states. sometimes it seems our two sides disagree on almost everything, but in the end, reasonable people were able to agree on this. the united states could not take the chance of defaulting on our debt risking the united states' financial collapse and worldwide depression. america and the world have been watching our democracy expectantly. and my message to the world tonight is that this nation and this congress are moving forward and we're moving forward together. reaching a long-term accord that would give our economy the certainty it needs was not easy. but our work is not done. leaders from both parties and both chambers will present this agreement to our caucuses tomorrow. senate democrats will meet at 11:00 a.m. to pass this settlement, we'll need the support of democrats and republicans in both the house and the senate. there is no way either party, neither chamber, can do this alone. as president lyndon johnson said, and i quote, "there are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves."

democrats and republicans have rarely needed to come together more than today. i know this agreement won't make every republican happy. it certainly won't make every democrat happy either. but both parties gave more ground than they wanted to and neither side got as much as it had hoped, but that is the essence of compromise, of consensus building and the american people demanded compromise this week and they got it. >> madam president? >> the republican leader. >> this is an important moment for our country. i appreciate the majority leader's comments and i want to say a few words to our colleagues who have been so patient over the past several days and whose ideas and encouragement have been so helpful in getting us to this point. first of all, let me reiterate that before any agreement is reached, republicans will meet to discuss the framework that the white house and congressional leaders in both parties think would meet our stated efforts to cut spending

more than the president's requested debt ceiling increase, prevent a national default, and protect the economy from tax increases. and to that end i'd like to say to my republican colleagues that we'll be holding a conference meeting in the morning to discuss the framework and give everyone a chance to weigh in. but at this point i think i can say with a high degree of confidence that there is now a framework to review that will ensure significant cuts in washington spending and we can assure the american people tonight that the united states of america will not, for the first time in our history, default on its obligations. >> clerk will call the roll. >> so there you have it. the two leaders of the united states senate trying to reassure the world, especially those jittery markets out in asia that are just beginning to open right

now, the united states government will not default for the first time ever. this is an important moment, don lemon, as we get ready to hear the president of the united states. i suspect his reasoning for going out and speaking within the next few moments from the west wing of the white house, from the white house briefing room, also to try to reassure the markets in asia and, in effect, the markets here in the united states that will open monday morning that the united states is moving in the right direction and will not default. it's one of those moments that is critical in this process right now. harry reid once again speaking. >> -- the time for the two leaders be reserved for the use later in the day. following the remarks, senate resumed the consideration and motion to concur and house message the legislative vehicle for the debt limit increase. senate recessed from 11:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. further at 12:30 the sflat enat

resumed consideration until 2:00 equally divided and controlled between two leaders of the designees for leaders permitted to speak up to two minutes each. >> without objection. >> there will be a democratic caucus at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow. there's no further business come before the senate,sky that we adjourn under the previous order. >> the senate stands adjourned until 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. >> wolf, you heard there is going to be a democratic caucus tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. we need to say as we wait for the president to speak and he's scheduled to speak in just a few minutes here, there is a conference call, if it is all going on on time, with john boehner now, conference call with fellow republicans that will get under way, or should be under way now. he's expected to talk to them and say that there isn't a deal yet but they are working on it. wolf, there were some sticking points. we are told that the house speaker was concerned about defense spending cuts. >> defense spending is a

critical issue for so many republicans, a lot of democrats as well. because if -- if in fact parten, the framework, if it doesn't go through and around thanksgiving they're supposed to have recommendations from a super congressional committee on additional spending cuts and ways to deal with this long-term u.s. national debt crisis, if they don't have that, that would trigger automatic cuts across the board, including in defense spending and right now we're told, as you point out, that a lot of republicans, especially in the house of representatives, some democrats, they're very nervous about that. they don't like it. you're looking on the left part of your screen, there's jessica yellin getting ready for our coverage as well, our chief white house correspondent. the president of the united states will be walking in to the briefing room to make his statement, presumably explaining to all of us why he's encouraged by what has happened, and while,

i suspect the problem will not be in the united states senate. i think the senate will fall in line behind the president and this agreement. the real problem will be, don, in the house. >> i have some news here real quickly. a senior administration official confirms the white house an republicans have struck a deal. they have struck a deal to raise the debt ceiling. as wolf and i have been reporting, are you looking at a live picture of the white house. briefing room, just shortly the president will come out an make a speech to the american public and you saw the leaders there, the democratic leader and also the republican leader on the house floor saying that there has to be some sort of consensus on this. really, wolf, both men have been saying now compromise, compromise. and a good deal, a good deal by most accounts is a deal where not everybody is laep and both leaders said, especially harry reid, he said not everybody's going to be happy but we have to do this for the good of the country and the american people. >> let's just set the scene once again, don. the president getting ready to

go into the white house briefing room, make his statement. we'll see if he sticks around and answers some questions from reporters. the speaker of the house, the republican leader in the house, john boehner is on a conference call with his republican caucus right now presumably explaining the details of the framework agreement. let's go to cnn's jessica yellin, our chief white house correspondent. we're only a minute or two away from the president, jessica. but this was not expected that we would hear tonight from the president. >> reporter: no. the white house has been notice pli silent all weekend as they've waited for elements of this deal to come together and just moments ago noticed the president would be coming out, we are told to announce the framework or acknowledge the framework that this deal has been struck with congress to raise the debt ceiling. of course we'll be listening to him closely for details. there was this last sticking point with speaker boehner sources told us over the nature of defense cuts and whether there would be -- what defense cuts would come in that first round of these negotiations. but so much more at stake beyond

that and many questions for him to answer. we will hear from him in less than two minutes. >> jessica, any idea on the deal that has been struck here? we're just going to hear it from the president, but do you have any idea of what they have come to? >> well, it's been a fast moving story and i wouldn't want to prejudge what they're going to say. what we've been reporting so far is that it is a $2.4 trillion deal to raise the debt ceiling by that amount. the big question is how much will the spending cuts equal, will it exceed that. we've heard reports that it could exceed that, which of course some democrats have been concerned about. we'll listen closely to hear what he says on that front. the other big question is in what nature, what ways, will revenue come up at all. will there be any assurances that democrats can even attack that at all. and then the other big matter is the spending issue i addressed up front. overall, it is a lot of numbers.

big sticking point was this question of triggers, what they call triggers -- and there's the president. let's take a listen. >> let's listen to the president. >> good evening. good evening. there are still some very important votes to be taken by members of congress but i want to announce that the leaders of both parties in both chambers have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid default. a default that would have had a devastating effect on our economy. the first part of this agreement will cut about $1 trillion in spending over the next ten years, cuts that both parties had agreed to early on in this process. the result would be the lowest level of annual domestic spending since dwight eisenhower was president. but at a level that still allows us to make job creating investments and things like education and research. we also made sure that these cuts wouldn't happen so abruptly that they'd be a drag on a fragile economy. now i've said from the beginning that the ultimate solution to

our deficit problem must be balance, despite what some republicans have argued, i believe that we have to ask the wealthiest americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share by giving up tax breaks and special deductions. despite what some in my own party have argued, i believe that we need to make some modest adjustments to programs like medicare to ensure that they're still around for future generations. that's why the second part of this agreement is so important. it establishes a bipartisan committee of congress to report back by november with a proposal to further reduce the deficit which will then be put before the entire congress for an up or down vote. in this stage, everything will be on the table to hold us all accountable for making these reforms, tough cuts that both parties would find objectionable would automatically go into effect if we don't act. and over the next few months i'll continue to make a detailed

case to these lawmakers about why i believe a balanced approach is necessary to finish the job. now, is this the deal i would have preferred? no. i believe that we could have made the tough choices required on entitlement reform and tax reform right now rather than through a special congressional committee process. but this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default an end the crisis that washington imposed on the rest of america. it ensures also that we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months or eight months or 12 months. and it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy.

now this process has been messy, it's taken far too long. i've been concerned about the impact that it has had on business confidence and consumer confidence and the economy as a whole over the last month. nevertheless, ultimately the leaders of both parties have found their way toward compromise and i want to thank them for that. most of all i want to thank the american people. it's been your voices, your letters, your e-mails, your tweets, your phone calls, that have compelled washington to act in the final days and the american people's voice is a very powerful thing. we're not done yet. i want to urge members of both parties to do the right thing and support this deal with your votes over the next few days. it will allow us to allow default, it will allow us to pay our bills, it will allow us to start reducing our deficit in a responsible way, and it will allow us to turn to the very important business of doing

everything we can to create jobs, boost wages and grow this economy faster than it's currently growing. that's what the american people sent us here to do, and that's what we should be devoting all of our time to accomplishing in the months ahead. thank you very much, everybody. >> president of the united states in the white house briefing room, the vice president joe biden was there as well. president announcing that he has reached an agreement with the democratic an republican leadership in congress that would avoid a u.s. default. it is a two-part agreement as the president explained and we'll go into a lot of details as we're watching what's going on. we've got all of our correspondents, don, standing by. our analysts are here as well. gloria borger, our chief political analyst, richard quest is here from london watching as well. the timing, richard, fascinating right now. just as the asian markets are

opening in hong kong and tokyo and australia. all of a sudden the president of the united states announces a deal has been struck. i want to pick up that thought with you in a moment. but gloria, there's no deal until it's approved by the senate and the house of representatives. i suspect it won't be much of a problem in the senate. i think they'll get those 60 votes now that reid and mcconnell, the two leaders, are on board. question remains the house of representatives. >> yes. and i think that the president has probably gotten some assurances from nancy pelosi that she can deliver the democrats for this proposal even if the house speaker loses 80 to 100 of his republicans, which i believe he could actually lose, because there's lots in this for them not to like, they didn't get everything they wanted, and they didn't even like john boehner's plan. and a lot of this seems to be very much based on john boehner's plan. so i would assume that he's gotten some kind of assurances from his democrats that they're going to deliver the votes. as he said, it's not over yet,

but he clearly came out to reassure the markets and i don't think he would have done that unless he felt reassured himself. >> because we've already heard some leaders of the congressional black caucus, of the progressive caucus, they don't like this and i assume some of the tea party activists on the other side won't like this. the question will be -- and we'll be checking this thoroughly if john boehner the speaker, and eric cantor, the majority leader, if they can get their republicans on board and vote yea, vote in favor of this. richard quest is here as well. i assume when the markets in asia hear the president of the united states say deal struck, this is going to reassure them, we're not going to see any major collapse of the markets. >> i don't think the timing is accidental. it is quarter to 9:00 in the morning, monday morning, in asia. we'd already seen a small rise in the nikkei on the hong kong hang seng and the australian market, so the markets have been rising by about 1%. we heard on the floor of the

senate, you heard both leaders talk about the need to calm the world market, doing this for the global economy. president re-affirms this now. this has been timed to try and give confidence to the markets. >> don lemon is co-anchoring with me tonight. he's watching what's going on. don, we were about to say that this timing -- you heard richard say -- not a coincidence that they came out just now that announce to the world they have not only a framework but in the words of the president we have reached an agreement. >> absolutely, wolf. we'll get to our chief business correspondent ali velshi to weigh in on this in a moment. first, you and gloria talked about the house. how does the house feel about this. kate bolduan is standing by live on capitol hill. where do the house of representatives stand on this particular issue? >> it is so interesting because just as we were reporting actually a couple hours ago that just as the president was actually coming out to speak,

speaker boehner was actually on a conference call with members before we started getting this breaking news that the president was going to come out to announce this and we heard the senate -- top senate democrat -- top senate republican come out and say they'd reached this deal. house speaker john boehner has been on a conference call and my colleague says he's actually going through a power point presentation kind of walking through the contours of this deal with members right now. i'm actually working right now to see what house speaker john boehner has to say, but i assure you that they're not going to be coming forward with this deal, while there might be a couple details to be worked out. big announcement was not going to come without sign-off from all of the parties involved here. everyone has a stake in this. everyone needed to sign off on this and everyone needs to be able to find a majority in the house and in the senate to move this ford so this is a very momentous occasion in this long drawn-out stalemate we have been following for weeks now.

>> i want to bring in our chief business correspondent ali velshi. you heard what the president said. $1 trillion in spending over the next few years. this deal coming in this late on a sunday night so close to the deadline and the number in that spending. does that help at this point with our credit rating and with not making the market so jittery? >> well, it helps on the second part of it, the not making markets so jittery. the nikkei had already opened higher. there was really anticipation in asian trading that there was going to be a deal and these late afternoon shenanigans sort of unsettled it a little bit. when the deal was announced the nikkei popped up again. the latest information has the nikkei up 1.5%. >> will you stand by and help me out with this? i want to bring in kyung lah standing by to talk to us about the asian markets. ali velshi, you can analyze it for us. talk to us about that kyung. >> don, i can tell you that as

the president was speaking i was refreshing my screen to see what was happening with the nikkei and the nikkei was up sharply. what happened this morning is when the nikkei did open just under an hour ago, the stocks were high. it was expected to be high because of the rumor of this debt deal. but certainly what we're seeing here already in 45 minutes, 50 minutes of trading is that asian markets are welcoming this news. the cloud of uncertainty that president obama was speaking about is not just in the u.s. financial markets, it's also in the worldwide global markets. something else i do want to point out as well -- the dollar is also up. the dollar is strengthening. that's good news for japanese businesses and in turn that's good news for investment in america. these companies that then invest in america like toyota and panasonic. all of the news here at least from this side of the globe is they are welcoming -- >> i want to bring ali back. markets in tokyo, in just about ten minutes sydney's going to open, singapore will open, in about 30 or 40 minutes

shanghai's going to open, hong kong. then at 10:00 p.m. eastern, mumbai, seoul opened at 9:00, and thailand in a couple minutes as well. we'll be watching all of these to see what happens as well. >> i think you'll see a very similar pattern. the other question was what does this do to interest rates ond our downgrade. remember the world stock markets are worth about $40 trillion. the wolkd's bond markets are double that. it's a much bigger deal credit markets and bond markets. we've got differing opinions on that. mark zandy from moody's says he thinks we avert a downgrade if we get a deal. others say we can't avoid a downgrade and it will get more expensive. we've lost a lot of money in the stock markets last week because of this debate. we just need to get back to zero before we see whether markets are actually cheering this or we just make up the losses we've had. we've got our team around the

world watching markets very closely so that our viewers know what they do with their own investments. >> ali, you're a smart guy. sometimes this may go over some people's heads but just let's bring it home for the people who are watching. what does this all mean now for the american public, the people who are watching us right now? >> well, there's the immediate effect. what this means to your 401(k), what this means to your interest rates here in the united states. there's all of that. more importantly this is not a monumentally leap ahead. this is less than the cuts that moody's and s&p said that we needed to make over the course of ten years. there are no substantial tax increases. in fact, no tax increases at all in this deal. this is -- you know, it seems to have been much a do about nothing. it is a little puzzling as to why we got here. this has been largely a victory for republicans and very much a capitulation economically for democrats. there's a real research, don, that shows that the type of money that we think of as

stimulus government money going to social assistance and entitlement programs has -- does more for the economy than the kind of money that goes in to tax cuts or things like that. they're both money. whether you increase taxes or cut spending, it is both money but this doesn't seem to be the most stimulative of approaches. other thing that this leaves still later is the decision as to how to apply those cuts. that's problematic because if they don't come to an agreement, it triggers automatic cuts. that's something a lot of deficit hawks, conservatives, say is very dangerous and could be haphazard. >> ali velshi, our chief business correspondent, please stand by. wolf blitzer, you heard ali say this is a deal they were going to come to sooner or later. >> it is amazing how that pressure of a deadline has an enormous impact on these negotiators, the white house negotiators beginning with the president, and the vice president of the united states,

the democratic and republican leadership in the senate, the democratic and republican leadership in the house, the deadline is tuesday and now on this sunday night here in washington, d.c., the president saying they have reached an agreement. richard quest, we were talking about this, ali was just mentioning it as well. none of us believes it was just coincidence that the president comes out into the briefing room at 8:40 p.m. on a sunday night here in washington. >> absolutely not. harry reid said it in words of one syllable -- the world is watching, the global economy is threatened and we have to do what is necessary. and that is what tonight is really all about. i have to say i think when the markets look at the complexity of this deal and the uncertainties, i mean particularly this special congressional committee and the cuts that are still to come, they'll be relieved the debt ceiling is going to be raised immediately. they will be less pleased at the tightrope that's being put in

place. >> assuming that the senate and house of representatives, richard, approve this deal that the president announced tonight, can we simply assume, at least for the next several months, until thanksgiving, november, here in the united states when the super committee's supposed to come out with their recommendations that the ratings agency will not down graid america's aaa rating? >> no, you can't assume that and for the simple reason that the creditworthiness has been called into question by the process that's taken place. many people -- and i don't think they will actually downgrade in the short term. however, the issue is now on the table. the negative warning has been put out there. >> right. but mark zandy this morning who works for moody's analytics, said essentially this is a larger deal in whole than they were anticipating. right? because it is a $3 trillion deal. >> almost $3 trillion. >> if you look in the long term. >> assuming part two gets off the ground. >> if you look in the long term and he said that is good and he thought that might possibly avert a downgrade.

but again, it's a long way from here to there because we do have to see what this congressional panel comes up with. we have to see what congress does with it. and we have to see what kind of cuts they get. >> that's the point! and remember, this debt downgrade wasn't predicated purely on the potential of a default on tuesday or next week or whenever it was going to be. it was on the long-term deficit position of the united states. now $3 trillion sounds like a lot of money, but you put it in terms of the total budget and it's over 10 years and it is $1 trillion now. we've been here before. everyone's forgetting, weaver's had deficit cutting measures before. grand rudd man in 1985. the budget enforcement act 1990. pay-go, '92. again and again congress has done this before. she try to shackle themselves on spending only for it to fall apart. >> let me go to kate bolduan, our congressional correspondent up on capitol hill. we know the speaker, john boehner, was on a conference

call with his republican caucus. what are we learning about that? >> my colleague dedridra walsh s passed along excerpts of boehner's comments to his colleagues. really enlightening. very interesting. on the call he says he understands this deal is not ideal. and he also says that he apologizes for that, but he also says in his remarks that he realized that this is pretty much the framework that we have been operating with. i'm going to read you one remark that he made because you can tell that he's really trying to make the case to his members why it is not a deal they really need to get on board with this. at least he's trying to make that case to them. he says, in part, "there is a framework in place that would cut spending by a larger amount than the debt limit and raise spending. it would do so without any job killing tax hikes and it would also guarantee the american people the vote they have been denied in both chambers on a balanced budget amendment while i create -- while creating, i think, some new incentives for

past opoen innocents of balanced budget amendments to support it. you can see while he's saying this deal is not the perfect one, wolf, kind of going along with what we've heard -- how he tried to sell his own previous plan to his members saying don't let the perfect be the enemy of good or at least the doable is how they sold it. you can see he kind of has that same tone in these remarks here saying we're getting a lot in this deal, it is not perfect, it doesn't probably go far enough for many of you, but this is something that we can all come around and can agree to and should agree to. he says that he hopes to file it obviously the procedure they need to to get it to the house floor. he says and get it to the house floor as soon as possible. >> so basically from what i can tell, kate, you're up there on capitol hill, the senate's going into recess, the house is in recess. they're going to all recon seen and some point tomorrow and beginning the process of taking up this legislation. they're going to have to draft what this agreement is all about. >> right.