that can make incremental differences to create jobs and make people and voters feel that they're doing something from their perch to make a difference in this economy. we'll see. >> jobs, jobs, jobs, priority number one. jessica, thanks very much. i want to go to capitol hill. kate bolduan, our congressional correspondent, is standing by up on capitol hill. the house has gone into recess until early in september. the senate expected to do the same thing pretty soon, kate? >> reporter: that's absolutely right. when they return, i'll tell you, we are hearing it on the senate floor this morning and heard it a little bit from the president, you can really see where in terms of this battle, this debate over deficit reduction, where the focus is going to shift. it will very quickly shift to this special committee, this committee of 12 that will be -- these are 12 congressional members of congress that will be picked by party leaders and they will be equally divided on this committee. they will be charged with really tackling the tough stuff, taking on entitlement reform and tax

reform and really working towards more than $1 trillion in further deficit reduction that they'll need to report back to congress by thanksgiving. that might seem a far ways away now, but they are going to be tackling very meaty, controversial issues. some question if they can really get it done in time. where the immediate focus is going to shift very quickly, wolf, is the makeup of this committee, not just what they're going to have to tackle but who is actually going to be on the committee. there's going -- yes, wolf? >> hold on a second. nancy pelosi, the democratic leader of the house, is speaking right now. i want to hear what she has to say. >> -- how many days it has been since the republicans have been in office. well, today it's 210 and we haven't seen any legislation yet that has created jobs. in fact, we've seen legislation which has cost nearly two million jobs, more than 9,000 jobs a day would be lost if the republicans' legislation were signed into law. we see in addition to that, a

holdup on the infrastructure bill and on faa which we're hoping will be resolved today. we'll be hearing more about that from my colleagues. jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. you cannot say it enough. i really liked what willie nelson said or at least he was quoted as saying, american people are more concerned about a ceiling over their heads than raising the debt ceiling. we know we need to do both. i was very pleased to hear the president pivot to jobs and to talk about infrastructure, to talk about how we create jobs to meet the needs of the american people. some of his suggestions have very strong support in our caucus, whether it's infrastructure, rebuilding our country, whether it's make it in america. he said made in america, steny. mr. hoyer will be talking to us about made in america when we talk about the faa bill, which

we'll talk more about now. everybody has been intensely involved in this discussion on debt. the american people's top priority is the creation of jobs. we have crossed the bridge from that important discussion. interesting that it was something that the republicans did not have the votes to pass. i'm proud of my members that they took the step to pull us from the brink of default even though they did not -- were not happy about the legislation, but what was good about it was it's over and now it's time to talk about jobs and the person who has been a leader in beating the drum for make it in america, he'll tell you more about it. our distinguished whip, mr. hoyer. >> thank you very much, madam leader. let me suggest at the outset that talking about jobs is talking about the debt. the only way we're going to successfully deal with debt is to create jobs -- >> all right. that's steny hoyer, the number

two democrat in the house of representatives. they're wrapping up their session. they're about to go into recess. actually, they did last night, go into recess until early september. the senate i suspect is going to be doing the same thing fairly soon. let's assess what we've just heard, because the senate has passed 74-26 the legislation raising the nation's debt ceiling. the house did it overwhelmingly last night as well. now the president has spoken, he's looking ahead to jobs, jobs, jobs. the economy, the economic recovery, what he wants to see happen in the immediate days and weeks and months ahead. he's got a full agenda ahead of him. gloria borger is here, john king is here. we have all of our reporters standing by. richard quest is standing by as well. let me bring in richard first. he's flown over from london, he's here in washington out on the national mall. richard, give us a little outsider's perspective on what's going on but focus specifically on the fact you know what, there hasn't been a big bump in the stock markets today. in fact, the dow jones is going down.

>> reporter: the dow jones is going down because of worries about the wider economy. there's manufacturing numbers, what's happening, the slower growth that will come perhaps as a result of this debt agreement, that's one of the reasons. one bit of cheerful news to bring you. fitch ratings agency, one of the big three, did say, this is one encouraging point, it confirms the u.s.'s aaa rating. for the time being, at least, it says the debt agreement will confirm the aaa rating on the united states debt. we'll now wait for moody's and s&p to chime in with theirs. one other thing to note, you want to know why the dow is down? one of the reasons, that super committee. it promises between now and november to be the fighting ground as the president just said for all those issues that didn't get solved in this particular debate. >> so at least the good news, one of those three agencies now announcing as you just reported,

they are not going to downgrade. s&p, standard and poor's, moody's, we will have to wait awhile to see what they do. a lot of people assume at some point they might but it's by no means a done deal. >> reporter: absolutely not. they will probably hold on their hands, this is a very good deal for the starting process of cutting the u.s. deficit, but they are going to look three, six, five years out and say what is the deficit likely to be and how is the u.s. trying to deal with it. i expect moody's and s&p will wait before they would make any major decisions. certainly not after a massive arrangement deal like this. >> i know you were impressed, richard, with the way the house of representatives voted on this yesterday. what did you think of the way the senate operated today? give me your outsider's perspective. >> reporter: the senate is always so genteel about the way they do these things. the house, a lot more rambunctious. it is so similar in many ways to the house of commons and the

house of lords. lots of gentlemen, the noble lord from the upper chamber and a good old fist fight from the other lot. >> good point. richard will be joining us later today in "the situation room" as well. i love the fact that the senate is the house of lords, the house of representatives, the house of commons. is that a pretty good analogy? >> if only we would have question time. and the president had to go in. democrat or republican, i think it would be good for our process although i think the last couple weeks were messy enough. let's leave it there. richard makes an important point about going forward. we'll see what the ratings agencies do. a lot of that will depend on whether they see washington behaving and the president tried to make the case, this is going to be fascinating to watch because as you know, the ceos have said we're waiting to see what the tax climate is like before we start hiring people. will they have the excuse or legitimate reason to wait another five or six months as that process plays out? the president will fight for the payroll tax cut extension. most republicans support that. he can probably work a deal on

that. unemployment benefits extension, that one has been dicey. you can get the votes for it but now you have the conservatives saying only if you offset it with cuts elsewhere. if it costs x amount of money, find us x amount in cuts somewhere else. that is another trade-off after just going through this messy process about finding trade-offictrade trade-offs. when it comes to infrastructure, there are a fair amount of governors who would love that money to build roads and bridges but it's almost a nonstarter here because everybody uses the word stimulus. it will be really interesting to watch the president try to navigate for some of these proposals, well intentioned, they cost money. they cost money. so it will be very interesting going forward as we just come out of the hangover of this debate, the debris of this debate with the continuing debate on that super committee, how much more the president can make an advocate's point for look, we have to spend some to get some. >> one of the reasons, gloria, the infrastructure, getting money to build roads and bridges, used to be part of the

pork barrel. earmarks. now they can't do that. >> and that's why this infrastructure bank has such resonance. that's why possibly are for it. one observation, i don't know what you folks think, but in watching the president, he did not exactly seem exuberant about this deal. the minute he talked about compromise and we each had to give, he immediately to me took a turn to what he wants out of this joint committee. he just took that turn and said okay, here's what i want. yes, i'm going to be willing to adjust entitlements like medicare but i also want to reform the tax code, i want to take away those oil and gas subsidies and of course, as he always says, the tax cuts for billionaires. so a sharp turn. wasn't the way he was after health care reform, for example. this was clearly a president who wanted to point out i'm the grownup here, i didn't like everything in it and by the way, bang, let's go right to the

committee. >> the president has the bully pulpit. this president has been roughed up a little, his poll numbers are down, everybody who works in washington's poll numbers are down. our poll numbers are probably down. it's been a messy time. it will be interesting to watch here the pivot into more of the political season. jess made a great point. the president wanted to talk about people elected divided government last november, not dysfunctional government. that is the kind of appeal to the middle of the electorate the president is trying to make. in 2008, you got 52% of independents voted for barack obama for president. the pew research center did a study this past week, 31% of independents now say they would support barack obama's re-election. he's dropped 20 points among independents. he needs to get that number back up. these are the kind of debates that give a president, any president, a chance to build support among the middle and this president, that seems to be where he will focus his energy. >> i think what we heard today was really the start of the 2012 campaign because not only did he list what he wanted this committee to do, but also said

we cannot balance the budget on the backs of the people who have borne the most during this recession. you know, that was clearly speaking to the liberal interest groups who may be disappointed in this deal but saying to them no, we haven't forgotten you and also, he reminded us why the recovery has been so slow. he went through a whole list of things including the arab spring, right? >> but he's the president. as you well know, the buck does stop with the president when it comes to the economy. >> the white house will have their own briefing. press secretary jay carney will be briefing reporters coming up. we'll monitor that, obviously, as well. there you see the white house briefing room. jay carney will be taking reporters' questions fairly soon and then at some point later in the day, the president of the united states will sign this legislation into law. i suspect he will do it relatively low-key. i don't think he's bringing in the democratic and republican leadership from the house and the senate for a formal signing ceremony. he'll sign it into law, the

white house, i assume will release some sort of still photo of that event. i'm not sure they will do a big deal. it's not one of these events where there's going to be a huge celebration in the east room of the white house with invited guests. they're just happy they got this done, the nation's debt ceiling has been raised and they can move on to some of the other important issues facing the country. let me bring back kate bolduan, our congressional correspondent. she's up on the hill. i interrupted you because i wanted to hear what nancy pelosi had to say. are we expecting to hear from john boehner, any of the republican leaders? are they doing any news conference as far as we know right now? >> reporter: i don't have any information we will hear from house speaker john boehner but we had heard earlier there was a possibility we could hear from the top republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell. he is meeting for a policy lunch that happens quite often with fellow republicans as we speak so we could be hearing from him shortly at some point today. but going -- part of the discussion you all were just having about this committee and the point i was trying to make

is that it's going to be interesting just how the committee is actually made up, who these leaders pick to be on the committee. there are some concerns up here on capitol hill that this committee is kind of going to be stacked with hard liners from both parties, which will then set up the committee to basically fail, which would then set into place that trigger, that automatic spending cuts kind of across the board that everyone says they want to avoid. instead of maybe possibly seeing some of the members of the gang of six in the senate that really sat down and decided from the very beginning, they spent i think almost a year working together to try to tackle some of the tough stuff in terms of entitlements and medicare and social security and tax reform. so it will be very interesting and very telling kind of where the fight will be when they return from the august recess, when we see how this committee is made up. i believe i heard leaders say yesterday that they have about two weeks to decide who they are going to be putting on that committee and that will set up for the next battle we will all

be watching very intently because they have a big job ahead of them. >> as you say, three democrats from the house, three republicans from the house, three democrats from the senate, three republicans from the senate, 12 members all together. enormous burden will be on their shoulders. it will be fascinating to see the leaders, who they appoint to serve on this committee, because they will have a lot of work between now and thanksgiving to come up with their recommendations. kate bolduan, thanks very much. i want to check in with alison kosik. depressing numbers for the eighth day in a row. doesn't look like any great bounce by any means, despite the fact the president is about to sign this increase in the debt ceiling into law. >> reporter: exactly. if the dow doesn't rally in the next few hours, we will see an eighth straight loss for the dow. it would actually be the longest losing streak since october of 2008, one month after lehman brothers collapsed. wall street knew all along a deal would be cut here.

i just got off the phone with a couple traders. they tell me there's nothing in this deal that shows that it will stimulate the economy. it didn't cut spending enough and they say this is a great deal for politicians but they say not a great deal for wall street. you look at the numbers that keep coming in, these lackluster terrible numbers on manufacturing and gdp and even the numbers today on personal income and spending. reports that wall street usually wouldn't even notice but something that caught their eye was that consumer spending down for the first time in almost two years, and actually, the savings rate, americans are putting away, socking away more money. it's at its highest level in almost a year. you know what that shows? it shows that americans are saving for a rainy day. they're worried about their jobs, worried about the future of this economy and they're trying to put away as much money because they don't know what's going to happen. it's that uncertainty you're seeing reflected in the markets today. >> it's interesting that fitch, one of the three credit rating agencies, has decided they are not going to decrease america's

aaa credit rating. you'd think that would have a little impact on wall street. certainly hasn't in the last few moments since richard quest reported that for our viewers here on cnn. it doesn't seem to have had an impact, has it? >> reporter: no, it hasn't. that's surprising as well because fitch was one of the rating agencies that was sort of dangling that carrot. we didn't see any reaction when that statement came out. we saw it as well, no reaction really the focus that wall street seems to be centered on is the weakening economy, especially jobs. you will see in the next couple sessions, you will see the markets kind of maybe in a holding pattern, kind of waiting it out, waiting to see what's going to happen on friday when these big job numbers come out as well. >> nobody's expecting big increases in the number of jobs on friday. the number of jobs created in the month of july. that's an indicator, very important if not the most important indicator they look at to see how the economy is doing,

how jobs are doing and what's going on. jay carney is the white house press secretary. let's listen in briefly. >> okay. thank you all for being here. before i take your questions, i have an announcement. on september 11, 2011, the president and mrs. obama will join with the rest of the american people in marking the tenth anniversary of a day that we will never forget. the president will participate in commemorations at each of the three locations where we lost so many loved ones, in lower manhattan, in shanksville, pennsylvania, and at the pentagon in northern virginia. throughout the day, he will pay tribute to those we lost, honor the americans who responded on that day, and who served in harm's way over the last decade. he will underscore the strength, resilience and unity of the american people. further details about the president's schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.

on september 10th, the day prior, the vice president will attend the dedication of the flight 93 national memorial in shanksville, pennsylvania. further details about the vice president's plans will also be announced in coming weeks. with that, i will take your questions. ben feller of the associated press. >> thank you, jay. on the debt legislation, when does the president plan to sign it? i assume as soon as possible, and how do you plan to let us know? >> you don't think he should just wait for a few days? yes, as soon as possible. i'm sure we will let you know. there's a process by which legislation having passed both houses makes its way down here, down pennsylvania avenue and lands on his desk. we will let you know when it's signed. >> by hand or auto pen? >> i believe it will be by hand. >> we heard the president talk extensively about the need for balance, the need for tax increases on wealthier americans and why.

i'm wondering for anybody who has been following the debate why they should have faith that's going to happen in this next round? i don't want to get in to a whole debate about the trigger but that argument we've heard for weeks and it didn't happen in the first round. why would people have faith it's going to happen next time? >> that's an excellent question. there are a lot of reasons why americans may have lost a little bit of faith in the process here in washington, as they watched what for much of the time seemed like a circus that wasn't producing anything but stalemate. in the end, however, as the president noted, republicans and democrats, the president came together and reached a compromise that averted a crisis and will do some good things in terms of reducing our deficit that will be positive for our economy. as to the next step, the second stage, the need to move beyond just cuts in discretionary spending to go at some of the issues that really drive our debt, entitlements and tax

revenues or spending through the tax code, you're right. these are hard issues. we didn't get there in the grand compromise that the president was negotiating in good faith with the speaker of the house. a reason perhaps for some optimism is that while in the end, we were not able to achieve that, there were great strides made in terms of making the case for why balance is so essential and why if you really want to get ahold of our deficits and do something about our long-term debt, you have to deal with revenues as well as entitlements. i would note that after the gang of six released its framework, its proposal, that nearly 20 republican senators endorsed that approach in addition to obviously the many democrats who did. i would note that the speaker of the house by his own account put revenues on the table in his negotiations with the president of the united states.

there are many other voices in the congress and certainly outside of the congress that recognize, on the republican side, that recognize the need to take a balanced approach. i noticed in a statement that senator graham made just today probably in the last hour or two, where he said that he certainly thinks we can close loopholes and deal with things like itemized deductions in the name of reducing the deficit. so it doesn't mean it will be easy but we do have a mechanism in place through the super committee, the so-called super committee, special committee that will be set up by this legislation and through the incentive placed on congress by the so-called trigger to hopefully reach a situation where congress will recognize that the best way to tackle this problem, really the only fair way to tackle this problem, is by approaching it with balance. i'll move along the line here. >> one quick follow.

we are already hearing rumblings from republicans they won't take members who are inclined to go for tax increases. my question is does the president indirectly in your view have any say over who gets picked for this committee? will he try to have some say? >> well, the authority is vested, if you will, in the leaders of congress to appoint these members. bicame ral, bipartisan membership of the committee. the president will obviously -- has made his opinion known and will make his opinion known that it's important to take this seriously and to appoint members who will try to get to a product that can emerge from the committee and get a yes vote from congress, and balance is required to achieve that. this is not -- to decide otherwise, to stack the membership with folks who don't want to get anything done, you might think is a fine political

tactic if there is no consequence to that, but there is, obviously, which is the very onerous actions that would be forced on the congress by the sequestration, forgive me for using that word, but by the trigger. we hope and believe that there will be pressure on congress to take this seriously, on the leaders to appoint members who take it seriously, and who will respond not just to what we say but what the american people are saying, what some of the very republicans that i just mentioned are saying, which is that if we are serious, as many people claim they are, about getting our deficits under control, and doing more than just cutting discretionary spending, then we have to approach these big thorny issues, entitlements and revenues, and the way to do that is through the committee. yes. >> jay, you mentioned yesterday extending the payroll tax and the president alluded to that in his statement today as well. how do you expect to do that

with this congress? >> how do i expect to get this congress -- how do we expect to get this congress to pass a tax code? >> how do you expect to get this through the congress? >> well, i don't have a legislative strategy to lay out to you, that congress obviously acted to extend the payroll tax cut last december for this year. that decision has resulted in $1,000 extra in the pockets of every american, typical average american family. that's obviously a very positive thing for those families as they deal with making ends meet and for the economy because that money they spend, the extra money that ends up in their paychecks by and large gets spent and put back into the economy which helps generate jobs and business and that's very important. so i think the same arguments that made it compelling last year will make it compelling this fall, when the president takes up that case again. >> do you see bipartisan support for doing that?

>> i think we expect there will be bipartisan support for doing that, yes. >> the president mentioned in his comments just now that he would be speaking about more measures to help businesses hire and expand. can he give us a clue? >> i'll let him do that. i think he will certainly be talking a great deal about the need to grow our economy and increase hiring, create more jobs and that will be something you hear a lot about from him in these coming weeks and months. >> if he had more measures, wouldn't we have seen them by now? are there big new measures you have planned? >> that suggests that everything, every idea you have, you have on day one and you implement on day two. obviously that's not the case. we have a dynamic changing situation both in the economy and in our politics, and so you are constantly thinking about and putting forward new ideas to address this number one priority, which is growing the economy and creating jobs. so no, i think the answer to that is no. we will have more ideas to put

forward. he also mentioned very clearly about the things that are already up on capitol hill that can be acted upon immediately in terms of the trade deals that have already been negotiated that will support or create something like 70,000 american jobs, the need to get patent reform through, to allow -- to free up, cut red tape and free up innovation and then obviously, a measure that we believe will have bipartisan support to create an infrastructure bank, to leverage the public loans to private sector companies that want to help us rebuild our bridges and highways and airports so these are things that congress can act on either right away or very quickly after they return from recess, and we look forward to them doing that. >> it just seems like after this big bipartisan struggle we've seen over the last weeks and months, that trying to get congress to pass an extension of unemployment benefits which republicans will probably call more stimulus and possibly the

payroll tax cut as well is going to be a hard sell. >> i don't think there's anything that we assume is an easy sell in washington because these are tough issues. but we believe there will be bipartisan support for doing the absolutely right thing, which in this case is extending a tax cut for working americans that will help them deal with high energy prices, but will also give them more money to spend which in turn spurs economic activity, allows businesses to make decisions to hire more people, it has a very positive effect overall on the economy. so you know, we need to do everything we can in washington to make sure that we're taking measures that help the economy and help americans and help them find work. now, as the president said, it should not take a crisis to get us to come together to do the things that we need to do to help the economy. and he looks forward to further bipartisan cooperation in the coming weeks and months.

>> i couldn't help but notice the president's tone in his remarks. he seemed a little disgusted with washington, d.c. no? you don't think that's fair? >> i think that the american people rightfully were appalled by some of what they saw, the willingness to even hint at the possibility of allowing the united states to default for the first time in its history, in order to advance specific agenda items that had already been rejected by a majority in congress and certainly a majority in the american public. now, the fact is that in the end, as we calmly predicted would be the case, cooler heads prevailed and compromise was achieved. the frustration that we all have is that it shouldn't take something this dramatic to force that kind of compromise, because

in the end, everyone is here for the same reason, which is to make washington work in a way that is good for the country and good for the american people. >> we will break away from this exchange but we will continue to monitor with jay carney, white house press secretary. we will take a quick break on this historic day. the united states senate has done what the house of representatives has done, passed this legislation raising the nation's debt ceiling. we heard from the president. later today, he will sign this legislation into law. much more of the breaking news coverage here in "cnn newsroom" right after this.