the family driving down the highway. a snake slithers out from under the hood of their suv and right on to the windshield. that all happened, fortunately, randi kaye, outside and not inside the car. we turn it over to you. >> thank you. well, a deal is a deal, but it's not a law until both houses of congress pass it and the president, of course, signs it. that's why the drama, anxiety and suspense is as thick as the august humidity at this hour. lawmakers are gearing up to raise the debt ceiling before the treasury defaults on some of the government's debts and obligations as soon as tomorrow. the house is expected to vote first. the senate and then sometime tonight. what are they voting on? so glad you asked. the plan worked out over the weekend by the house and senate leaders called for up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing, and slightly more in long-term spending cuts.

the process, for that, i want you to take a look here. i will not try and walk you through it. it's a mess. the bottom line is 917 billion dml spending cuts with a special committee in charge of finding $1.5 trillion cuts by the end of the year, and the debt limit rises by $900 billion now, and $1.5 later. already, there is one potential wrinkle here. the nonpartisan budget congressional office says the plan would cut spending only by 1.5 trillion, not 2.4 trillion. we are following all the claims and repercussions as only cnn can. by colleagues join me, and if you don't believe this is a huge story, look at richard quest,

all the way from london. tell us how the deal came to be, and what are the prospects it will bring? >> first, you explained it as best as anybody could involved in the process. and it is a mess. the democratic plan is rejected in the house, and it looked like a day care here in washington. we did know what the rough pieces of an agreement would look like and the republican leader and mitch mcconnell worked with the house, and other voices involved as well. the question now, you asked the right question, can it pass? on the left, nancy pelosi, the democratic leader in the house said they like it. you will lose some lib you will

votes in the house. on the right, a lot of conservatives saying there is no tax increases in the first round, but kcreates a super committee, and there are no guarantees there won't be revenue increases or tax increases in the second round. conservatives don't like it there. if you peel off the far left and far right, do you get enough votes from everybody else to get through the house, and that's why the house will go first likely sometime late this afternoon and into the evening hours, and there are enough votes to pass in the senate, and the question is will somebody try to use a filibuster to drag that debate out. here is one safe bet. it will start to get dark, and the deadline approaching, and we will sort it all out. >> is this really the mark of a good compromise when you look at all the people that don't like it? you have the liberals, and the tea party hates it, and the deficit hogs don't like about

it? >> there are two ways to look at it. since so many people are unhappy about it, does that make it a good deal because nobody thinks it's perfect, or a bad deal because nobody loves it? there are two ways to look at it. it was the compromise that was available. the president of the united states gets at least in the first round almost nothing that he wanted in it, he said it should be balanced and revenue increases in there, and what the president wanted was a candidate for re-election next year and somebody that does not want the economy to take another hit, and he was willing to compromise more than most to get a deal. again, randy, you have been watching this over the last few weeks, and they think they have a deal and votes, and we are at a unpredictable time here in washington, d.c. >> we're glad we have you with this hour hanging with us. richard quest is also with us, as i said. if the rest of the world any less appalled by the ways of washington than it was on friday? >> i think the rest of the world is relieved, and we saw that in

the initial market numbers that came out from asia and europe. but the market gains as you will hear in a second or two, those market gains just about evaporated largely because of manufacturing here in the united states and worries about jobs in europe. i am afraid there are so many unknowns, and not only that, the mere uncertainty that john king eloquently was describing about today's process. what the markets and what the rest of the world wants is for this to be grasped firmly and rooted out once and for all, and so far that doesn't seem to have happened, randi. >> are investors pleased with what they are seeing out of washington? >> reporter: you know, it's an inch think and a mile wide. everybody was so dreading a debt

ceiling crisis default that the mere fact that they came to a deal and that we're back from the brink of that is seen as being a tremendous benefit. but i remember, and you remember, the first vote in the house that went down unexpectedly with the t.a.r.p. and the dow dropped many hundreds of points. if the house decides to kick it out of the window, or the senate, but more likely the house, then you will see pretty much reactions. >> let me stop you there. senator harry reid is speaking on the hill. let's hear what he has to say. >> some on the the other side, not so enthusiastic. this legislation is typical for compromised legislation.

neither side got what they wanted, but it's the essence of compromise. i am told the house will be voting on this sometime this evening. i am going to work to see if we can vote today. that's not all assured, but we're working on that. it would be nice to get this bill from the house and start the process. there are ways that we can work simultaneously, and i hope we can work that out. as everybody knows here in the senate, all this takes unanimous consent. we will do everything that we can to see if i can get that. we need to send this to president obama as soon as we can. it has been a long process. i am confident we did the right thing for the american people. the solution cuts the deficit now, lays the ground work for congress to do much better work in the months ahead, and clears the way for us to look up at the bright sunshine and get rid of the clouds of default that have been hanging over our country for far too long. but our work is far from done.

i am hopeful and confident that we can get this done very quickly, this work -- this legislation we're working on now. but we still have to do things. many people in nevada and around the country are struggling for the essential. that's a job. and we have to move to a jobs agenda. we need to move to that as quickly as possible. so we need to put this debate behind us as soon as we complete the legislation, and put americans back to work. >> reporter: after this deal gets done, is there still a need for a prau -- >> the question is after we get this done is there need for comprehensive deficit reduction, and the answer is not only yes, but hell yes. we not only have -- we made a step forward and that's good. as everybody knows, the idea of the joint committee was my proposal, and i am glad that senator mcconnell put his arms around this. i hope that we can get something

done. i was just told as i was walking out of this, i hope it doesn't affect the vote over there today, but i was told that representative cantor said that he -- i just walked out, and maybe i am wrong but somebody told me that cantor said revenue could be part of what we do with the joint committee. so yes, deficit is still a problem and will be for the long term. when we started the last congress, we found ourself in a hole the country has never seen before. we lost 8 million jobs with the push a bush administration, and president clinton created 23 million jobs. we had a surplus when he took office of $7 trillion over ten years, and we're now because of the unpaid for wars in iraq and afghanistan and the unpaid taxes and drug programs, we're now $14

trillion, so yes, we have to do a lot more on deficit reduction. >> reporter: the committee, there has been concerns -- do you have any ideas as to who you would like to see [ inaudible ]. >> senator mcconnell and i talked briefly about this, and i will see what he thinks and the decision is his, and i will make that decision at a subsequent time. i have two weeks to do it after this bill has passed, and it's extremely important that i pick people willing to make hard choices but are not locked in. one of my friends asked, and he said he would like to be on the committee, but i think it doesn't bode well for me to choose somebody that the world knows how they feel about it before they go into it. i think they better look at other avenues, and i will do my

best to pick three people, including the cochair that will work towards a solution to the long-term debt in our country. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> i had not thought about that. that should have no baring, because people could vote against this bill and think the joint committee is still a good idea. >> reporter: do you think it will pass the senate, this deal? >> i am a long time member of congress, and i never count my votes until they are casts. so i am hopeful, but, you know, we will have to see. the republicans are going to have to produce votes and we will have to produce votes, but i am not here to declare victory. we have to get this thing passed. >> reporter: [ inaudible ].

>> no, i was more referring to people that said the committee is a waste of time. nothing will happen there. i just think that we have to go into this with people with our eyes wide open, willing to make difficult choices but yet understand the political reality of the world we are in. >> senator reid -- >> i think that's enough. i have been standing for two hours, and i feel like i am 25 but i'm not. >> there you have it, a very tired majority leader, harry reid, and i would like to bring in john king and christine romans. you heard harry reid say this clears the way to get rid of the clouds of default, true? >> it does, actually. if they do this and get it done, default is off the table. there are many that said, randy, as you know, there's no way the united states government was not

going to pay the interest on its bonds, and that was not going to happen. and -- the question of a downgrade is still kind of hanging out here. we've reached out to moodey's fitch, s&p, and they will not say whether they are going do downgrade the u.s., and big international investors are saying the u.s. is not behaving like aaa credit rating entity. they talked about jobs. the conversation needs to move back to jobs, and it will by friday, and we have a jobs report expected to be anemic. this is a down payment on real debt reform, and bending the curve on our unsustainable benefits. this is not a jobs package. make no mistake. >> what happens to the jobs and all the people looking for work when you make more than $900 billion in immediate cuts?

>> there are programs that will be cut. there are programs that will be phased down or out. they will try and find all the fraud abuse that they can, but that's a lot, and it's a piece of the pie when you look at overall spending. there will be cuts probably in the military and in your school lunch program, maybe. who knows? the number of fda inspectors, and all of that has to be worked out, and i can guarantee every agency is lobbying to say they don't feel the pain as badly as they fear. that's something that every family will feel. >> john king, let me turn to you. look at the key players here. you have harry reid that just spoke and speaker of the house, boehner, and president obama, and who would you say comes out the least tarnished in all this? >> mcmcconnell, he laid back all along and said we will not default, and if they pass this

we will not default and senator mcconnell will have helped to negotiate the deal. he is the person who has in terms of investment in this deal, i think you would have to say senator mcconnell. but he is an establishment conservative republican and some of the grassroots of his party, his own republican party, the tea party they don't like mitch mcconnell, and he will probably come out least tarnished in the immediate. and the president's brandish, he will take some heat, and there are no guarantee of revenues in the deal. christine talked about the markets rebounding, and there will be a loss of government jobs. the big bet is the private sector will say finally they got along in washington and gave us some certainty and the private sector starts to create jobs. that's the president's biggest hope. both as the president of the united states, somebody unemployed that would like to find a job, and as a candidate

for re-election, and he's trying to do something no president has done before, becoming a second-term president with the unemployment rate above 9%. the last he needs is another hit on the economy and that's why he wants the deal even if he has to give a lot to get it. >> i know we will check back with you in a little while. thank you very much. also, of course we're waiting for house speaker, boehner, and he should be coming up to speak in 14 or 15 minutes at about 1:30 eastern time. we will see what he has to say about the current deal on the table. up next, the very real possibility that military cuts could happen automatically as part of the debt deal. we will explain. [ melody ] the bar is raised for everybody in an ap class,

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if the debt deal being debated in congress is passed members of the u.s. mill tashy won't have to worry about getting paid, they will continue to get a paycheck, but doesn't mean military programs are off the chopping block and according to the deal there is a possibility of automatic cuts down the road if a panel created to make more cuts can't reach a agreement. it's the so-called trigger deal if a deal can't be reached. we have barbara starr and our reporter from california. >> late last week there was massive concerns among the troops they could miss a

paycheck if congress did not act, and now that the president is acting and the president could sign this into law, $350 billion in defense pentagon spending cuts could be over the next decade. that's not all that different actually than what they had already been ordered to come up with by the white house. hanging out in the future is a notion of a $1.2 trillion across the board cut. the pentagon would be responsible for half of that. and some $500 billion in the congress cannot agree on how to get through this deficit reduction problem over the long term. if it comes to another $500 billion in pentagon spending cuts, that's the problem of commanders say they can't have across the board cuts they contend of that depth, it could be a real problem for the force. >> all right.

now let's head west and want to head to los alamitos, california, with sandra endo. >> reporter: a very touching and emotional reunions as the men and women return from a year in iraq. talking with them, it's clear they have not been up-to-date on what is going on in washington. they came home today and wanted to reunite with their family members and very heartfelt emotions, and clearly there is concern because they are coming home to the announcement of a deal to cuts as barbara outlined, and now i have a group of veterans who have been keeping up with what is going on in washington. what do you think of the proposed cuts to the defense budget? >> well, they are counting on money that will be reduced when we pull back from the war. i think we would be making a

poor decision if we were to do that. if you cannot protect america, then everything you have here will go away. somebody will come in and just take it from us. >> obviously it's too soon to know exactly what cuts will be made. it's obviously a big proposal out there with the potential of $500 billion more to be cut down the road. you're saying the military should not be involved in trying to balance the budget? >> that's correct. there are much better places to cut. if we are studying a gnat to see where they go poop we need to cut that. and they have to start thinking about the country as a whole and not about their individual wants or needs. >> you are sick of the whole political fight in washington? >> pretty much. the president has the leadership skills of a one-week soldier.

>> they are waiting to see details in the defense cuts. >> thank you very much. how is wall street reacting to the debt deal? we will check in right after the break. of course, we are still waiting for house speaker, john boehner, to come out and make comments. we heard from senator harry reid a few moments ago, and we will see what boehner has to say. in seven minutes we expect to see him.

we are covering all angles of the debt deal today. last week u.s. stocks did not react well to all the

uncertainty, if you recall. they delivered the worst weekly performance in over a year. alis alis alison joins us now. >> at the hope, we had a strong open. that's thanks to the pending debt deal. we saw the dow drop 120 points, and then it pulled back because of a weaker than expected manufacturing news. investors are happy about the pending debt deal, but the other signs show weakness in the overall economy and that is what is weighing on the markets today. >> do you think investors are looking at this as a little too little too late. >> any gains we see related to a debt deal could be short lived. you know, this really has really -- really hurt confidence overall because it has taken so

long for, you know, lawmakers to get their act together. you know, there is a lot of worry this has reached real deep into the economy. it certainly held back companies from hiring and kept americans holding back their spending, because they did not know what was going to be happening, randy. >> what areas have been hit the worst here? >> you know, believe it or not, the travel industry is pretty worried about it because people will hold back on traveling, you know, everybody will be staying home. small businesses would be harder hit. lack of spending could take a big bite out of their bottom line. and railroads may be hurt, and if a company stopped buying big products like lumber, you see the domino affect just because washington, d.c. dragged its feet on the debt ceiling deal. >> we talked about the possible downgrade, if the u.s. doesn't hit its $4 trillion mark, none of the numbers say $4 trillion

to many of us. are investors worried about the possible downgrade that is looming out there? >> there is a worry. you know, s&p, standard & poor's made no secret a deal does not mean the u.s. is out of the woods, and they may downgrade the country's pristine aaa grade. some say it's too late for s&p not to downgrade, and they wanted to see bigger cuts than lawmakers came up with. and the long-term out look is still a concern to the agency, but a downgrade is not the same thing as default, and that's much worse. the reason we are seeing stocks in the red is because of this weak manufacturing report that we got. randi? >> alison, thank you very were. a possible break in one of the open cases in fbi history. the search for d.b. cooper. we will tell you about the

evidence next as we sit and wait for john boehner to take the podium. we will wait for his words on the debt ceiling negotiations. we know the house republicans are meeting and the democrats are meeting, and we will bring you the latest as soon as it happens. a risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more, and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol, stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39 to 60 percent. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect.

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and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. once again, we want to remind you, we are waiting for house speaker, john boehner, and he is expected to take the podium any minute to tell us what his thoughts on the current deal, the debt ceiling on the table. the deal calls for the $2.4 trillion in savings over the next decade and it needs to reach president obama's desk by tuesday night. we will see what he has to say. we will bring it to you live as soon as he starts to speak at the podium there. this story is one of the most talked about crimes in american history, the hijacking and escape of d.b. cooper. coming up on the 40th

anniversary this year. but now, the fbi has new evidence in the investigation. it's an item that they sent to the fbi lab in quantico, virginia, to check out. they are looking at the fingerprints that may match the fingerprints that man jumped out of an airliner. it was in 1971, when a man calling himself dan cooper hijacked the plate with a note that said he had a bomb in the briefcase. they landed in seattle, and the fbi handed over $200,000 and four parachutes. they take off again, and then over oregon, the man put on the parachute and they never saw him again. the man called himself dan cooper. investigators went to the house of a man named d.b. cooper who lived in portland at the time, and he was cleared. there have been numerous books

and songs about the saga. a kid found some of the money buried on a beach near vancouver. some believe the hijacker died during the jump. the fbi lists the case as open. the new revelation comes from an article out of the uk. a reporter was talking to the agent that handles cooper enquire t enquires, and the agent said she thought the article would not be published until the anniversary in november, so seeing it now may have caught them off guard. we will have to wait and see on the fingerprints being examined, and maybe they match the ones from the plane in 1971 or maybe they don't. either way the cooper story will live on in american fork lowlkl.

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38 minutes past the hour. let's check some of the news and other headlines you may have missed today. president obama and congressional leaders agreed to a plan that would raise the nation's credit limit, but in order to avoid a default on the national debt, congress has to approve it today. the democratic official involved in the deal says there is more concern about the bill passing the house than the senate. britain sunday telegraph said anders behring breivik used

ebay to by explosives, and he also ordered a full face respirator and hazmat suit. he says, ebay is your friend. banking giant hsbc says they will cut thousands of jobs even though their numbers are up. they were not specific about where the cuts will take place, but it did say it will sell 195 branches in the u.s. to niagara bank. they are part of the plan to save the bank around $3 billion. minnesota today is remembering the victims of the i-35 west bridge collapse, four years ago today. governor mark dayton requests the flags be lowered.

casey anthony may not be able to hide from reporters much longer pap florida judge signed documents today requiring anthony to serve one year of supervised probation in orlando for check fraud. the judge said she would be reporting to probation officers within 72 hours. check fraud cases unrelated to anthony's recent murder trial. last month the jury found her not guilty of killing her daughter, caylee. and then the network that brought us "jersey shore," and music voedios. mtv launched on august 1st, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. the first images were the launch from the "apollo" spacecraft. if congress can agree on specific spending cuts, why would a smaller group of lawmakers do much better? we're digging deeper on the

bipartisan panel that would be created as part of the debt deal being debated today. and house speaker, john boehner, expected to take the podium any minute now. he's just a few minutes late, and as soon as he starts to speak we will bring you the comments live here in the "cnn newsroom." ♪ that "old flame" you should have called. ♪ that leap of faith you never took. but there's one opportunity that's too good to miss. the lexus golden opportunity sales event, with exceptional values on the lexus is. but only until september 6th. see your lexus dealer. with two children and no way to support them. people told me i wasn't going to do anything. and i just decided i have more to offer than that. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree.

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is nothing new. check this out. >> will there be compromising? absolutely. i think there will be and has to be. >> the next time one of those folks gets up and complains about the deficit, they better have a smile on their face. >> the deficit, the big spending deficit is a dark cloud hovering over the future of these kids. >> you have to get the debt down because the interest payments eat you alive. >> the interest cost more than the defense department. you will pay more taxes when you go out and get a job to pay interest on the debt than you will to defend the country. >> the nation has asked to raise the debt limit. >> and my budget will keep our commitment to cutting the deficit in half in five years. >> the bush plan would put us

another $2 trillion in the red. boy, that looks all too familiar, doesn't it? it's not a done deal yet, but if congress passes the debt plan over the weekend it will take affect in two stages. the debt ceiling will be raised immediately. about $1 trillion of spending will be cut right away. then, and this is what we want to dig deeper on, a bipartisan committee in congress will be created to come up with a plan by the end of november foreign more cuts. congress will vote on it and if it passes the debt ceiling will be raised again. joining me for more on this committee is john king, the host of "john king usa" as well. who do we expect will be on the committee and how will they be chosen? >> by the leadership. the democratic leader chooses

three and the republican leader chooses three. you just heard harry reid in the last hour saying he gets two weeks. and they get two weeks to name the members. would you think they would put on the panels, people who would want additional spending cuts,p committee, and they will say pass the compromise and we will set this aside until the presidential election. don't believe that part. the republicans say they want six members who will hold the line, no tax increases. and the democrats say there is no tax increases in the first installment, $19 billion in cuts, and the democrats want some tax increases, revenue increases in the second part. you will have six and six. six democrats and six republicans, and they have to negotiate a deal. when it comes out of the committee, assuming they get a

deal, and that won't be easy to get an agreement, they have to go up and down, and they cannot amend it. you vote yea or nay. >> well, some could say this is putting off the decisions, and we will be deadlocked again in december. is there a way to get around it? >> no way to get around it now because it's a negotiated part of the deal. if they pass the deal it's the next step in deficit reduction. their goal is to come up with recommendations to the congress sometime around thanksgiving, so in december, they are having this vote. if you don't think that's going to involve huge politics already today, randi, people coming out because they say it's a recipe to have social security and medicare cuts, and people on the right saying it's a recipe for tax increases or defense cuts or both. already we're seeing the politics. and thanksgiving, december of this year, which happens to be, what?

a couple weeks away from the iowa caucuses, and a couple weeks away from the 2012 presidential election. anybody that tells you the compromise will turn the volume down on the politics here is crazy. it may turn down the volume for a couple weeks, but that's it. >> president obama came out and said he wishes he could have made the tough choices on entitlement reform and tax reform right now. why would he have agreed to put this off. did he not have a choice? >> it's the best deal he could get at the moment. the republicans did not want to give the big crease in the debt ceiling. let's deal with this next in 2013. they wanted to see a first round of cuts and then a second round of cuts. they also hope that when they get the second -- when that committee, that super committee is meeting closer to a presidential election, if the democrats on the committee are hung up because they want bigger tax increases, a democratic president doesn't want to be running on the platform of

re-elect me because i want to raise your taxes. if you are going to have tax increases, make them modest and sellable and only if you can get it through the committee. the timing for the republicans, it could work to their advantage. read all your e-mails, people out in the conservative grassroots, nobody likes this, which i guess could be the definition of compromise. >> what happens if congress rejects the whole plan? where do we go from here? >> if they reject the plan today or tomorrow we're dealing with the question of will we have default. the governor is going to take $172 billion in august, and the government has to make a choice if they don't get the deal passed today. if they get passed the deal, and then the committee gets locked in and if the committee cannot come up with cuts, then the congress will have to come up with cuts, and it's pretty

confusing. >> this is all very confusing. i am glad we have you with us to make sense of it. we are waiting for house speaker, john boehner, to take to the podium. right there you see it. we have been waiting here for just a little while. we are expecting he will come out and claim a gop victory for the greater fiscal restraint. we're very anxious to hear what he has to say about all this. we'll bring it to you as soon as he takes the podium. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

i want to get you now to gloria borger who's in washington, d.c. watching all of these debt ceiling talks along with us. hi, gloria. first your take on the current deal that's on the table and its chances of getting passed through both the senate and the house. >> reporter: i think the senate is pretty much a done deal. i think that the house, as usual, is the place what you have to worry about. and my mind takes me back to 2008. remember when we're in the middle of the economic crisis and that whole t.a.r.p. bank bailout proposal came to congress and it failed? it was a deal that had been reached and it failed. the market dropped 700 points. then they had to come back the next day for a do-over. and they did it. this time, i think house speaker

boehner's speakership is on the line. he has a lot of votes, about 25 in the senate. i presume he's going to lose about 80 conservatives. many of those freshmen. so it's going to be interesting to see if nancy pelosi can give him the vote that is he needs. i was talking to a democratic official in the administration close to the budget talks who said to me today that they're feeling, quote, pretty good that the house will be able to deliver this vote. but nobody really knows what the final count is going to be. maybe john boehner will tell us spg in something in a few moments. but he's got a really tough job. >> do you get the feeling that there are negotiations under way still here to get this through? >> reporter: it's interesting. i think probably, yes. i think right now, it's all about the convincing. because you have to convince

republicans that it is in their self-interest to get this done. there are lots of republicans who believe it's not a good deal for them. they're word ooabout the potentl defense cuts, et cetera, et cetera. but john boehner is saying, look, there are no tax increases in this bill, this joint committee will be able to shape at this time way we want. and by the way, if the country goes into default and the house is the place that does it, they're going to get blamed and that probably wouldn't be a good thing. so i think the speaker, at this point, has got to make the political arguments to these people that whatever you don't like, we'll be able to deal with down the road. but right now, we're up against the wall and i need your votes. that may not be enough for lots of republicans. but we're just going to have to wait and see. it's going to be close. >> certainly sounds that way. gloria borger, we'll continue to check in with you. thank you very much. tanks, machine guns and snipers all part of the latest

syrian government crackdown against anti-regime protesters. a live report on that right after this. and we were just talking about house speaker boehner. we are waiting for him to start talking. he should be taking that podium any moment now. we're expecting him to talk about what's on the table and how his caucus feels about it. we'll bring you that comment from the house speaker right after this quick break. [ waves crashing ]

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the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th. so i want to major in biology. miss gopie is the best teacher i ever had. she's amazing, i love her. [ jade ] i'm teaching jasmine ap biology. i knew she had the talent... i always pushed her. [ jasmine ] her class you literally have to think, like it takes so long to do her homework. [ jade ] she's gained the confidence that she can achieve anything. [ jasmine ] i'm going to be a pediatrician... and i'm going to make this dream come true. a 100 percent. ♪ the people will not p surrender. that's the rallying cry of anti-government protesters in the syrian city of hama. government tanks opened fire today. four people were killed.

bloodshed far worse yesterday. more than 70 people were killed across the country yesterday. most died in hama. the crackdown is the latest attempt by president ba sash al assad to crush a four-month uprising against his country. arwa damon joins us from beirut. what do we know about the situation in hama right now, arwa? >> reporter: it seems as if the military at some point overnight largely withdrew from the city. but then two residents who are also activist that is we spoke to said that they heard tanks going off as well as what they described -- one of them described as being intense gunfire that lasted for around 20 minutes, presumably that is what caused those casualties that we were then hearing about. residents also saying that even though the military had largely withdrawn, snipers continued to man position on rooftop, making it incredibly difficult for

people to continue to move around the city. yesterday doctors we were talking to at hospitals were describing how they were having to tend to the injured on the hallways because they quite simply could not handle the volume of wounded that were coming into the intensive care units. now we're hearing about the beginnings of shortages in medical supplies and in food supplies. hama very much remaining a city under siege. at the same time, residents fearing another military incursion. also we're hearing, begun to set up makeshift barricades to prevent that from happening. >> arwa damon, thank you for the update from beirut. right now, the only thing standing between the u.s. government and a potentially calamitous default is a deficit reduction plan that nobody loves and many people won't even tolerate. i'm speaking of the rank-and-file lawmakers who expect a vote sometime today on the only plan to win the support of president obama and top republicans in both houses of congress. passage is not guaranteed and the deadline to increase the treasury's authority to borrow is tomorrow.

here's how it maps out. i'm not even going to try to walk you through these steps and triggers and alternative scenarios, it's so darn complicated. but the bottom line is this -- $917 billion in cuts now with a special committee in charge of finding $1.5 trillion in long-term cuts later. the asterisks mean a lot. already there's one potential wrinkle. the nonpartisan congressional budget office says the plan as fully envisioned would cut spending only by $1.3 trillion over ten years. we're following all the developments and the repercussions as only cnn can. kate bolduan joins me from capitol hill this hour. wolf blitzer is in our washington studios. wolf, i want to start with you.

what do you make of the plan on the table and the likelihood this will reach president obama's desk tomorrow? >> ting senate will pass it. they probably have more than 70 votes in the senate. a lot of republicans and democrats will team up. it's much more problematic in the house of representatives. they need 216 votes because there are a few vacancies in the house. it probably will pass the house of representatives. the speaker is on board. the senate minority leader -- the house minority leader, nancy pelo pelosi, noncommittal as of now. steny hoyer, the minority whip, is on board. eric cantor is on board. we'll see what happens in the house. it will be a bit of a nailbiter in the house of representatives. but my guess is if it comes up for a vote, and i think it will, the speaker wouldn't allow it to come up for a vote also all his whips had done the head counts and they think they have enough

votes to get it passed. >> does this feel like a compromised plan to you? >> it does. there were concessions made all around. the president certainly made a lot of concessions. the republicans wanted to guarantee not only that there would be a vote but that both houses would pass a balanced budget amendment and send it to the states for rad fication. they' ratification. they've punted until the end of november when this super committee is supposed to come up with its recommendations by november 23rd. and if they don't get agreement on those recommendations, there's no guarantee they will -- these automatic triggers go into effect. there will be across-the-board cut, half from defense spending, the other from non-defense spending, including cuts in some -- providing funds for

medicare providers. it will be painful for the left and the right. i wrote on my blog post, we're going to be posting it soon. i make the point f you like this debate right now, you'll love the debate come november. if you hate this had debate right now, you're going to despise the debate that's coming up in november. >> i'm sure. i have to check out that blog. i have more questions for you. stick around for a moment while we bring in kate bolduan on the hill. give us a timetable. what do we expect to happen there and when? >> reporter: well, right now, we're waiting for house speaker john boehner to come in. this press conference was scheduled for about 1:30. not completely unusual for the leaders to be running late for something like this, especially on such a controversial piece of legislation. you can be sure he's behind closed doors trying to make the point while this is clearly not exactly what they wanted, this is the best they're going to get

at this point. he's probably trying to do a strong sales job of getting everybody on board to see if he can wrangle the votes to put it to the floor. we did get the announcement from the rules committee that they have to look at every piece of legislation before it hits the house floor. it does look like they will be moving towards a vote this evening. the timing is a little unclear. we'll have to check into that a little bit more. >> kate, not all of us get to roam the halls of capitol hill every day. take our viewer there. what's the mood? what are people talking about? >> reporter: i would say it's a bit of a frenzy today, especially with having vice president biden come here to speak with both democrats in the house and the senate. it's been crazy. not only do you have reporters, me and my colleagues standing here waiting for john boehner to speak with us right now. but when is the vote at this point since they reached agreement late last night. it's quite a busy place today. everybody's trying to see how many democrat, how many republicans, either side is

going to lose, how many they can wrangle to hopefully threat the needle and pass it in both the house and the senate. no one can accurately get guess that at this point. >> let me get back to wolf blitzer. the tea party hates this plan, progressives hate the plan, defense hawks hate the plan. then you see somebody like joe biden who is going to try and rally support among the democrats. it sounds like, as kate was saying even among the republicans, that the votes may not be there. >> on the house side, she's right. the votes -- i think the votes will be in the senate. i think they'll get enough votes in the senate to pass it. on the house side, it's very, very close, 216 being the magic number. there are all sorts of people looking at the democrats, the republicans. you have a lot of conservative republicans who will vote against this. a lot of the tea party activists, they hate this plan. they're not going to go wit. michele bachmann one of them. she's a member of the house of representatives. on the other side, you have members of the congressional

black caucus, members of what's called the progressive caucus. they don't like it. they don't think there's any shared pain, if you will. there are no tax increases on millionaires and billionaires or corporate jet owners or big oil companies or anything along those lines. all the entitlement tax reform has been punted down the road to november at the earliest. they're not very happy about this. and to get to 216 is not going to be easy. it's doable. you have boehner on board, if you have eric cantor on board, you have steny hoyer, the number two democrat, on board. but nancy pelosi is not yet on board. we'll see how many more democrats are willing to let this thing die. it would be a huge, huge embarrassment for the president, the republican democratic leadership if this thing were to collapse. if it were to collapse on the house and they didn't get the 216 votes, remember back in 2008, october 2008 when the initial vote on t.a.r.p., the economic recovery -- the marks

collapsed 780 points within a day. then a few days, they had another vote and it passed. if this were to fail in the house of representatives, i suspect they're going to wait for the roll call until after the markets close at 4:00 today just to be on the safe side. you could see a huge, huge collapse in the markets on wall street. that might prompt some members to consider. as issue, let's not forget what we're talking about. default for the first time ever in the history of the united states, the u.s. government defaulting on paying its bills. that's a big deal. >> and we heard senator harry reid earlier who said this clears the way to get rid of the clouds of default. so everybody has a different opinion about this. but senator dick durbin also came out and had a very interesting comment. i want to play that and get your take on it. >> i still think that has merit. and i still think it should be actively considered when we talk about the long-term reduction of debt. it is bipartisan, it is honest,

it achieves real debt reduction and it does it in the fairest possible way. it puts everything on the table, everything. there are no sacred cows. everything is on the table. it means it goes beyond spending cuts to the entitlement programs which make those of us on the democratic side particularly nervous. but it also goes into revenue, new revenue to reduce our deficit which makes those on the other side of the aisle nervous. but what we should be nervous about is a continuing deficit and a weakening economy and a debt left to our children. >> wolf, what do you make of that? >> well, when we says new revenue, he means tax increases which many democrats right now, moderate democrats, especially in the house, some in the senate, they don't want that either. so -- but they're punting. this super committee, 12 members, six democrat, six republicans, they're going to have to come up with some recommendations.

there would be a straight up-or-down vote in the house and the senate if they passed it. the president would have to sign it. it would be presumably painful down the road. if they don't do that, they've got this trigger, as i said earlier, that there would be these automatic prearranged cuts in defense spending, non-defense spending, including some medicare-related cuts, cuts to providers of health care benefits for medicare recipients. so that would be painful as well. this is not going to be an easy ordeal for anyone. >> that trigger you mentioned was set up as an incentive so we don't get there, right? >> right. that was set up because the republicans will hate the projected cuts in defense spending. the democrats will hate the cuts in non-defense spending, the medicare-related cuts. they would love to see a proposal come through of what some have called the gang of 12. there's going to be a gang of 12. we'll see what they can do over

the next four months. not a lot of time for them to get their act together. right now the immediate focus is on the house of representatives. all these experts are doing their own head counts. it doesn't look like this is a guaranteed 216-vote passage that's going to be coming forward. it's going to be a nail-biter >> i think you should put the best political team on television together and come up with a gang or however many there are of you. and you could be the leader. >> we've got a lot of them. >> we sure do. wolf, we'll check back in with you in about ten minutes or so. we are watching and waiting for house speaker john boehner. let's take a look at other top stories we're following. the suspect in norway's terror attacks reportedly used ebay to buy chemical and other tools he allegedly used to kill 77 people last month. it's reported that anders breivik bought sulfur powder

which he may have used for the bombing in oslo. ebay released this statement saying -- we are deeply saddened by this recent event in oslo. ebay and paypal coordinate regularly with law enforcement around the world and we are assisting norwegian law enforcement with their investigation. on the job front, hsbc is cutting another 25,000 jobs worldwide by 2013. this is just the latest round of cutbacks. and it comes despite a surge in profits. the job cuts are a part of the bank's restructuring plan that shifts its focus to rapidly growing emerging markets. hsbc hasn't revealed which specific locations would be hit but says it will sell 195 u.s. branches, mostly in western new york. if you fly delta you may be getting a refund. the airline says it will issue refunds to those who paid federal taxes on tickets bought on or before july 22nd of this year. the faa stopped collecting the

tax on july 23rd after congress let them expire. after that, delta and other airlines raised prices enough to recoup the taxes. more information, of course, can be found at delta.com. the fbi says it's working a new lead in what it calls one of the great unsolved mysteries in the agency's history. a man calling himself dan cooper told a flight attendant he had a bomb and demanded four parachutes and $200,000. he jumped out of the jetliner and disappeared. some of the money was later recovered. the fbi says it's looking for a new suspect. the agency only says that the person may be connected to cooper. officials say it's very unlikely cooper survive that had jump. casey anthony may not be able to hide from reporters much longer. a florida judge signed court documents today requiring

anthony to serve one year of supervised probation in orlando for check fraud. the judge said she should be reporting to probation officers within 72 hours. the check fraud case is unrelated to anthony's recent murder trial. last month, a jury found anthony not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter. up next, live at the white house for the latest on the debt talks and for john boehner to give us his thoughts on the efforts to raise the debt ceiling. we'll bring to it you live as soon as it happens. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas.

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imposing sweeping spending cuts. the measure needs to reach president obama's desk by tomorrow to avoid default. i want to talk about that with dan lothian. we are waiting for house speaker john boehner. he was supposed to speak live here on cnn about 1:30. we're told that that has been pushed back to 3:30. we'll bring to it you live here in the "cnn newsroom" at 3:30 eastern time. the talks are delayed, we're hearing from kate bolduan, it's a bit of a frenzy there. maybe he's working to get some more votes. maybe there's a little bit of talking, negotiating still under way. we expect to hear from him at 3:30. and who knows who will step to the podium? we have a lot of folks on the hill at the white house watching all of this play out. it's a bit dramatic, i must say. whoever does come to the podium, whoever wants to speak, wants to come to our microphone, we'll bring to it you here to talk

about the debt ceiling as it happens. we won't let you miss a moment. let's get to the white house where our dan lothian is standing by. what is the late tles at this hour? >> reporter: what's happening here at the white house behind the scenes is the hard sell job making sure they can get the democrats in the house to accept, to embrace this plan. as you know, liberal democrats are not happy about the spending cuts, they're not happy about the fact that there's no revenue, no tax increases, if you will, for wealthier americans. and so the white house has to tell them that this is a good plan. and, in fact, vice president biden is up there on capitol hill, has been meeting with both the house and the senate democratic caucuses, explaining to them about the plan, also answering any questions that they might have. and according to white house spokesman jay carney, he's trying to make the case to them that this is a plan that is good

for the american people. as for the president himself, we could only surmise that he also is involved in that hard sell as well. although the white house not giving us any specifics about his schedule, any read-out about any calls he might be making to the hill. >> we don't exactly what he's doing to gather support. do we know how joe biden has been received? >> reporter: well, we could only go by what the ultimate vote will be, right? there are a lot of issues still unsolved. there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. and earlier the indications we were getting is they seem to be getting movement on the republican side and the house. that appeared not to be as much of a problem. but it was among democrats, that there were still some concerns. ultimately the answer to your question will come if they have all the democrats on board that they need. >> dan lothian watching it for us at the white house, dan, thank you. next a look at the stark physical and mental

transformation of one young soldier experiencing war for the first time. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve.

from a small-town teenager to a lean, mean combat engineer, a man on the front lines in afghanistan. jason carroll chronicled the evolution. >> that was the bike i learned to ride first. >> reporter: this is will mclain, he was desperate to eggs cape his hometown. >> there's a lot of things to miss. >> reporter: that was nearly two years ago. since then, we've watched his

dramatic physical transformation, following him from recruit through basic training. to soldier. how much more weight have you lost? >> right now, i'm at 170, 175 pounds. another 15 from when i was in the states. >> reporter: mclain is now a combat engineer at forward operating base in afghanistan. it's his first deployment. his first time in a war zone. we caught up with him minutes after returning from a 40-hour mission. the training is much different from the reality of being here on the ground, right? >> it's a whole different story, going from training to here. >> reporter: here is a place where searches for roadside bomb routinely kill and injure. mclain and his company of combat engineers specialize in finding those bombs. his captain telling us on their last mission, their convoy got hit by one. >> it was very serious out there.

there were several injuries. everyone was fine. everyone will fully recover. >> reporter: sergeant herbert joseph received second-degree burns on his legs. is this the first time you've been hit like this? >> it's the first time. >> reporter: a few more times for staff sergeant white. how many times have you been hit? >> too many to count. >> reporter: it's a constant threat. and while the bomb didn't hit mclain's vehicle during the mission, the worry is always there. how do you psychologically sort of move past that and focus on the job at hand? >> i think the big thing is you have to trust in the person beside you. you have to know how to do your job, do it as well as you can and trust the guy next to you is going to do his. >> reporter: mclain's come to terms with the reality of what fighting a war really means. he says even if he could, he wouldn't change anything about his decision to enlist. but he has had a change of heart about rose mont, california. >> looking back at my hometown,

i was a lot more harsh towards it than i should have been. it raised me to be what i am. >> and jason carroll joins us now from new york. jason, what would you say was the biggest change that you saw in will two years after first meeting him stateside? >> reporter: well, that's an interesting question. beyond the physical transformation, randi, i think what i really saw in will was maturity that i saw evolve over the past two years. literally just saw this young man grow up in front of our eyes, going from that high school football student to the soldier that we see today really. randi? >> and how much longer will he be fighting there in afghanistan? >> reporter: well, he's in the middle of his deployment. he still has another several months to go. he won't be finished until april of 2012. and just being out there on some of those missions, i think a lot of people don't have any idea that some of these mission that is you see, 12 hours, they can last a very, very long time. so it's a lot of hard work.

but once again, he feels extremely dedicated to the cause. >> jason carroll, wonderful story. thank you so much for bringing it to us. your 401(k) and other investments, a lot is riding on the next few hours, including your life savings. we take you to the new york stock exchange from the stock markets coming up. ♪ that "old flame" you should have called. ♪ that leap of faith you never took. but there's one opportunity that's too good to miss. the lexus golden opportunity sales event, with exceptional values on the lexus is. but only until september 6th. see your lexus dealer. didn't really know what i wanted to do. didn't like high school. and then i met my teacher, mr. mccooey, and that click happened. i would never have even thought about going into the engineering field

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>> our students do borrow a great deal of money, probably close to -- greater than 80% of our students borrow student loans to attend law school. and in some case, they're borrowing more than $70,000 per year. so it's already a very huge burden on them. >> when i get done with school and have to pace repayment of those loans, it could affect me to the tune of several thousand dollars. >> i'm totally reliant on the financial aid package i received from usc which is very generous. if it wasn't for those packages, i doubt i'd be able to come here. >> not only could you be paying for your kids' college education, but the markets have put your money, you retirement and life savings in a wild roller-coaster ride, especially after last week's performance. stocks posted their worst weekly performance in more than a year, dealing a major blow to many of us. from the markets to the politics of this debt deal, we've got you covered right here on cnn. wolf blitzer joining us from washington, d.c.

and from the new york stock exchange, allison kosik. looks like investors are still pretty nervous. how are the markets doing right now? >> reporter: they really are. we saw that nice pop, the bulls took charge right after word of this debt deal pending on capitol hill. then we saw the gains fizzle out on a much weaker-than-expected manufacturing reading. manufacturing practically didn't even grow last month. investors are relieved about this debt deal. but there are these other very strong signs showing weakness in the overall economy. that's really what's weighing on the markets today. >> what are you expecting? a possible rebound here? do you think investors need to brace for a long-term hit? >> reporter: you know what? they would probably take a full-on default. it doesn't look like that's going to happen. but there are other seshgctors the economy that need to improve. the jobs market, the housing

sector, those areas are stagnant in the economy. if you really want to see a rally that sticks first, those areas are going to have to improve. we're going to get an indication of jobs, that comes this friday when we get that big government jobs report. >> and, wolf, as you watch this all play out from washington to wall street, how do you think this will have, in terms of the impact on the 2012 election, what will happen? >> i think it's way too early to think what's going to happen when president obama has a republican nominee who's going to be challenging him, a lot of time to go between now and then. it's interesting, with the exception of jon huntsman, all the republican presidential candidates have come out against this plan between boehner, reid, mcconnell. they don't like it. mitt romney was basically

largely invisible over these last several weeks. but today he said he can't support this deal that's worked out. he doesn't think it's a good one. and he's widely seen as the more established republican candidate, unlike michele bachmann, let's say, somebody favored by the tea party movement. so it's still way too early to think what the fallout is going to be a year from now. >> do you think people are ready to hear about jobs? let's get back to talking about the economy and stop talking about the debt ceiling right now and the deficit? >> yes, absolutely. people want to see this economy recover. but, you know what? the numbers have not been very encouraging for the last quarter, the growth was a lot smaller than it was expected to be. then they revised the first quarter of this year to really down to a horrible number. it lost the whole point in job growth in the economic recovery, if you will. it's really anemic right now.

it's very fragile. and a lot of the liberal economists say this is the worst time to cut spending because it's only going to guarantee a continued economic slowdown. but that's exactly what's going on. there's going to be significant budget cuts right away. and then more down the road. and if you believe in the liberal economists, what they're suggesting, it's only going to make matters worst as far as an economic recovery is concerned. i think these number that is we're seeing on wall street today reflect that so many of these investors basically assumed it was going to passed, they were going to work out a deal. but they're looking at the broader picture of economic growth and job creation, they're not encouraged. >> how risky is it for congress, the president and wall street, really, that this is coming down to the wire? this has to be on the president's desk by tomorrow night, correct? >> it's very risky. it's got to be by midnight tomorrow night. they've got to get the president to have signed the legislation that will pass the senate. but it's really problematic, as

i've been pointing out, in the house, if you do some of the head counting that's going on right now, they're working really hard. and i think one of the things they fear is the longer they delay this vote, the opposition is going to gear up more momentum. some of the conservative group, some of the liberal groups are going to be pressing their respective supporters in the house to oppose this legislation. that's why they want to get it done and get it done quickly. but it's by no means a done deal right now. they have some procedural votes under way right now. we'll see what happens. they need 216. i don't think they're there yet. they might be there when the actual roll call occurs. one of the reasons why joe biden is up there meeting with members, he's trying to convince the liberals, it's not perfect, but don't let perfection be the ep enemy of good, as voltaire once said. >> a lot of people have strong

opinions about how the deal went down. >> i think the tea party supporters played a very, very significant role in this whole debate. the fact that they even linked raising the debt ceiling with spending cuts, they haven't dneb that before. and the tea party movement is responsible for getting that on the agenda, forcing it on the agenda. the tea party movement certainly comes out a winner in this debate, even if so many their supporters in the house vote against it. they got the debate going, spending cuts linked to the raising of the debt ceiling. i never heard of that before this time around. so they deserve a lot of the credit or blame, depending on your perspective, for this whole debate. >> we've been talking about vice president joe biden being dispatched to rally support. he actually just spoke to our cameras on the hill. let's listen to that. >> we're up here -- i never

asked another person to vote against what they think their interest is. i am confident -- my sense is they expressed all their frustration. i would be frustrated if i were sitting there as well. it's been taken down to the wire. what they want to know is -- they asked questions specifically about the proposed legislation. i thought it was a good meeting. >> there you have it. the vice president saying he thought it was a good meeting. what do you think he needed to say in order to rally support? >> he needs to convince the liberal base in the democratic caucus in the house of representatives, the progressive caucus, if you will. they don't like this. the congressional black caucus and others. he needs to convince them, yes, this isn't perfect. but if you don't vote in favor of this, there potentially could

be a default. that would mean interest rates would go up, unemployment presumably would go up. the value of the dollar would go down. the economic consequences of failure right now would be horrendous even if the economic benefits of passing this legislation might not be all that obvious in terms of job creation or economic growth. the consequences of failure would be enormous. that's the message the white house is giving right now, certainly the mess j that john boehner, mitch mcconnell, harry reid, steny hoyer have been putting out. you haven't heard that from nancy pelosi. she's avoiding saying whether she's going to vote yes or no on this legislation. it's tight. it's very, very close right now. and what's interesting, you don't see it. it's not very visible. but the lobbying groups outside, the liberal groups and the conservative groups, they are really beginning to weigh in big-time on various members. and the longer this is delayed,

the more problematic the outcome could be. >> all right. wolf blitzer, appreciate your insight. enjoyed chatting with you here. we'll check back with you a little bit later on. the 11th hour is quickly approach egg and president obama's debt deal with republicans is our last chance to stop the country from default as we've been telling you. but it is not a done deal. far from it. the newly minted debt ceiling plan is up for debate in congress as we speak. senate republicans are expected to filibuster the plan. and it still has to pass the house. we'll be right back. that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th.

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as we've been telling you, vice president joe biden was dispatched to try and rally support for the debt ceiling plan that's now on the table. just moments ago, he spoke with reporters at capitol hill. listen to what he said. >> i never asked another person to vote against what they think they're interest is.

i am confident -- my sense is that they expressed all their frustration. which i'd be frustrated if i were sitting there as well. being taken down to the wire like this. what they want to know is they asked questions specifically about the proposed legislation. i thought it was a good meeting. >> well, the 11th hour is quickly approaching. and president obama ease debt deal with republicans appears to be our last chance to stop the country from default. but it is not a done deal. the newly minted debt ceiling plan is up for debate in congress right now. some senate republicans may filibuster the measure. and the plan still has to pass the republican-controlled house. there's a real chance the debt deal could fall apart. the next hours will be crucial. default still a very real possibility. the bipartisan policy center

looked at the numbers for a big reality check. if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, we simply won't have enough money coming in to pay our bills. so it would be a question of what we choose to pay. these are essentially the nation's bills. you can see all the big-ticket programs, the treasury will have to pick and choose who to pay and who not to pay. if you keep in mind that the nation is estimated to bring in 1 $172.4 billion, say the treasury chooses to pay treasury securities, social security, you can watch, we're getting close tore the debt ceiling, which is this line right here. maybe for medicare and medicaid, the defense contractors and let's throw in, say, unemployment insurance, look at that, we've already hit the debt ceiling. that's right. that is the debt ceiling line. we've already reached it under this scenario. but look at all the other bills that we still have not paid.

the u.s. would be unable to fund all these other programs worth $134 billion. and really this isn't the only scenario. we can clear this up and pick a few others. let's go with military active pay. throw in the interest one more time and social security. say we pick food and nutrition, maybe some hud programs. let's throw in federal salaries. another $14 billion. military active duty, $3 billion. you get the idea. we'll throw in defense contractor, we're already at $153 billion, very close to reaching the debt limit there. you get the bleak picture. unless congress passes the deal today, this is just a glimpse of what is at stake and what we may not be able to pay as a u.s. government. a big sigh of relief in this country over the debt deal, but what about europe where many countries are struggling with their own debt issues? we'll go live to london for some answers right after this.

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with the announcement of the debt deal, all eyes were first on the opening of european and asian markets. just like on wall street, all markets initially were up. but they didn't stay up for long. and much of the reason may have to do with serious concerns about debt issues in europe. jim bouldin joins us for much more on this. what's the bottom line to the debt deal in europe? >> reporter: well, the thing here is you have these twin

problems, the debt problems in europe and the debt problems in the u.s. for the last couple of weeks, they've been focusing on the u.s. when we saw the marks open up much higher in europe on monday, it was a bit of a relief rally coming on the back of the asian markets doing so well and everyone thought, maybe this compromise is going to go through. then the afternoon came along. the u.s. manufacturing numbers came out and it all fell apart again here and the european markets down, some eight-month lows, they're worried about the u.s. economy, whether there's a debt deal or not. and then you go back to the idea of what will happen with the european debt issues. a few weeks ago, sorting out the euro. now they're not sure. it all went really sour in the last hour of trading here. >> and there's concern about a possible downgrade, possibly from aaa to aa. but how would europe react, do you think, if that were to happen here in the u.s.? >> reporter: the u.s. has the aaa rating.

every country would like to have that. if the u.s. lost its aaa rating, all bets are off. we've seen so many countries here downgraded. we've seen spain, we've seen ireland, greece downgraded. if you don't have this top and it falls down, everybody else could start falling down. i think it could be a real worry. >> jim, thank you very much. coming up, violence on tv. we're pretty used to it these days, right? but what about a live execution? is that going too far, do you think? our stream team weighs in on that topic next. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve.

the videotaping of an execution in georgia last month has renewed an old debate about

the public's right to see justice. grant young was convicted of murdering his family and was put to death by lethal injection. his attorneys wanted it to be videotape. it was the first time an execution was taped in two decades. the youngs' attorneys don't want the tape made public. but just the act of taping it started a debate. should people be able to see justice served? with us is sunny hostin, also with me is attorney holly hughes and david latt. sunny, should executions be televised? >> absolutely. that's because i am an opponent of the death penalty. my view of the death penalty was shaped as a former federal prosecutor because i saw how the

sausage was made. once you've seen how it was made, you don't eat the sausage. my hope is when the public starts seeing these executions by lethal injection, by gas, i think it could be a deterrent. >> holly, what do you think? >> no, i am for the death penalty. i am against it as entertainment, randi. when we take what is a private moment for the family of the defendant and the family of the victims and put it on tv, we have risen to a level of voyeurism. this is no better than taking your 5-year-old to the public hanging in the square with a picnic lunch. >> david, is there any benefit, do you think, to possibly televising this? >> oh, absolutely. i think this is a matter of public accountability and transparency. if we're going to have the death penalty in this country, we should be forced to look it in the eye. so i disagree with holly's point

that it's a matter of entertainment. i think this is a matter of public education and understanding what the policies we support as citizens actually entail. >> sunny, what about just the high-profile executions? timothy mcveigh, we all remember him from the oklahoma city bombing. he wanted his execution televised. would high-profile executions be okay? >> i think any execution should be televised, no question about it, regardless of whether or not it's high-profile or not. and i've got to say nothing to holly's statement, she said this was a private moment. i don't understand how state-sanctioned executions could possibly be a private moment between a victim's family, a defendant's family and the world. that doesn't qualify as a private moment. and i would say for those of you

who are not opposed to the death penalty and who are proponents of the death penalty, then everyone should want to see these things. why don't we pull the wizards thing and have everyone see it? >> let me give holly 30 seconds to respond to that. >> basically, randi, what we're talking about is the justice system. this should not be open for entertainment. let's face it, there are trials in america that are not televised, where a judge says cameras aren't allowed in. no, we don't make an open spectacle of every case that comes before the court. furthermore, the taxpayers don't get to see private moments. justice was served as our system allows it for a particular defendant and a family member, even if it is a lot of people with the mcveigh thing, fine, put those victims in a televised

room, closed circuit, but not as entertainment. >> thank you all very much for weighing in. my own take on the debt deal, mortgages and an unusual texas law you boept believe coming up next in my "xyz." college is the place for you. it's my number one goal. ♪ students like me, who take these ap math and science classes and have these opportunities, this is where the american dream lies. when i write that book, you know, i plan to dedicate it to my school. ♪ those hopes and dreams that you have, you know, they're within reach. and i'm living proof.

time now for my "xyz." as washington takes a critical vote on raising the debt ceiling, keep in mind this is not a done deal. and if the u.s. does default, we could see much higher rates