bringsmanship like this, and then they started a serious conversation with president clinton about a whole range of issues, and they got some things they wanted. to have to give the democrats some things they wanted. >> you know, what i find fascinating about this, i went back and read some of the stuff from '95 and '96. bill clinton like president obama had a veto. that was his great strength. is the house had the ability to pass legislation regarding money. we checkmated each other. we had a brief temporary shutdown for five days, came back, thought we had a deal. about a month later, the deal fell through, we went out for 16 days. came back. by then we had a real deal, but we talked all the way through it. >> i can't debate with you about the past, because you were here and i wasn't here. but i do think this president is smarter than people are giving him credit for. i think the president sauce a lot of dysfunction and said i'm

not going to negotiate and held them at bay, and now you're seeing better voices come out. i think this president is playing it smart. luckily we have some guests with insight here. today to help us talk this through, representative rosa delaura from connecticut, and also rising star republican representative raul labrador of idaho. he will not be going to the house tomorrow. first of all, welcome to "crossfire." are you disappointed. the president asked you to come tout white house, asked every single republican to come, an you're turning him down? i don't understand why you're not -- >> i don't think i'm turning him down. i think the speaker of the house decided he would go with leadership. i don't have an opposition to that. i'm willing to go to the president, if he wants dinner

tomorrow night, i'm ready to go. >> because he said he's disappointed that all the republicans he asked to come over are not coming. are you disappointed to not be going? >> no, like i said, if he wants me to go, i'll go tomorrow night. i will clear my schedule and make sure -- >> i'm telling you, you are invited. are you going to go tomorrow? >> i've been really please with what speaker boehner has been done the last couple weeks, and i won't do anything to step on his message. >> isn't the tea party being sidelined? honestly, for real, you are a rising star, a big volcanoes any party. boehner will meet with the president without you. how do you feel about it? >> i'm totally fine with it. >> in fact, some of us having disappointed that our speaker hasn't been strong enough in his negotiations, and i'm fully

supported. he's told the speaker that he's not going to cave, he's going to continue to fight until the president is willing to come to the negotiating table, and now all of a sudden is -- >> you just came to the white house where your caucus met with the president. i understand there was a very impassioned plea down there for the president to consider seriously the problem with washington, d.c. and free clear, for conditions attacked to it. mayor gregg has -- i mean, what's your position about helping some unique hardship cases that could easily be taking care of. >> well, first of all, let me say i'm sorry you're not going, and i wish in fact the entire -- your entire caucus was going and we were chatting before, there really is an extraordinary impact in being at the white house. and the camaraderie among your

colleagues and with regard to -- the opportunity for a back-and-forth with the president. sometimes it's great not just to have leadership have the opportunity to interact with the president, but quite frankly, range-and-file. who can get up in that situation and go toe to toe with the president of the united states form it's a wonderful forum. that's true quite frankly with whomever would be in the white house. to your question -- let me just say this, you know, this is a -- i understand my colleague eleanor, and she's passionate. that's her job, is to be a fierce advocate for the district, but the issue is that one cannot deal piecemeal with the government. i'm a cancer survivor. i 23 years have fought for increased funding for cancer.

to say that we're going to do this piece over another piece over another piece, you leave people out, agencies out. folks who are not getting the benefits of the services of the federal government. we have 12 appropriations bills. we pass four in the house. in the last three years or four years. that's what appropriations are, it's a piecemeal process where you look at government individually. you do have 12 agencies, but the fact is that none of the 12 in this instant went when you did have a shutdown, and speaker, i was there in 95.

>> but you have is nothing that has finished the process. i'll give you within for instance. that bill never even went to the subcommittee. >> we passed and signed into law half of the total. veteran passed the house with 400 votes. it's now 127 days that harry reid and the senate have blocked it. they have a continuing resolution, they passed a clean continuing resolution for veterans.

to see whether it was the fda, food & drug administration. i sat 2349 committee, quite frankly, where the ryans budget was a billion in the cut to head start. all of a sudden, people have gotten religion. it sounds like it's politics, that just a few months ago we can't fund head start. >> it's a billion in cuts. >> that's not funding head start. we're telling you that we're willing to fund the perhaps that you want to fund.

>> let me ask you a -- >> you are cherry picking for politics. >> isn't this a bit of a trick? it does seem like you need to take these things that we complain about and -- what would stop it from opening up everything about obama care? this makes me feel very sad. why not just have a clean resolution? it should be a continuing resolution for the government. right? >> it seems to me that they were there for a reason.

we were elected to stop the obama agenda. we have been very successful. we a divided government. i understand there is a frustration, but it amazes me that people continue to argue that only what the democrats want to do is what should be done in washington, d.c. when the american people elected us to also have our say. >> i find that just incredible. you want to pick and choose whatever it is you want to get done. >> isn't that the appropriations process? >> no, we have a process and we come to a conclusion. the president talks about a compromise. the president accepted the republican budget numbers. smart it's much lower than -- >> that's a great talking point, but it's not true. >> no, no, it is true. >> the appropriations number was lower no 2014. >> your number is $967 billion.

i know the number. but this is lower, but the president has accepted lower than what the original ryan budget. now, the president did that. a bipartisan debate in the senate, they came to the conclusion that, okay, based on an agreement with the speaker and with harry reid that said remove the die funding of obama care, bipartisan, democratic president has agreed to that. the republicans didn't agree to that. >> why don't we -- >> that's why your founding fathers wanted. >> let me ask a question. bhald be the problem of bringing that up for a vote on the house floor? what are you afraid of? >> i ask differently -- the republicans have sent over a clean c.r. for -- nutrition, for

health and -- for the -- national institutes of health, for the national parks service, for memorials, there are a whole range of things going over. >> it's about 7% of the budget, and you can't do it, open it up. you're picking and choosing agencies. >> i'm with john boehner. why don't you surrender to us and we'll be happy? if i were a democrat, i would love that solution. i'm sorry. your turn. >> i think there's just this -- with all this bickering is resulting in nothing but pain and suffering, and a lack of certain for markets, so, look, i'm tired of the bickering. when we come back, we have a former speaker of the house. i am going to ask all three of you how we get out of this mess and get to a real deal. ♪

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welcome back to "crossfire." we are here with two members of congress. we have the legendary rosa delawyero, and the rising star raul labrador, and my co-host, who used to be the speaker of the house. now, listen, i am tired of all this crap. we have this bickering all day long on cable tv for weeks and weeks and weeks.

i want for people at home to feel like there's some way out of this mess. if you got a phone call from boehner and obama, they're three-ways you in. give us some hope. >> first i would say, can i have van join us? you asked me this earlier when we were talking about the show, with two talented people like this. people around the country just think we have lost their minds. the first is you've got to talk. the president wants to call it, negotiate. whatever. just the act of talking starts some process. second i had a -- that said, listen, learn, help and lead. he was talking about his own

conversation. that's how clinton and i operated internally. we had to listen to each other to learn the boundaries. and last ly start with the eastiest part. obama care, you'll get to it last, and the president doesn't want to give up anything, and out of the 2700 pages -- put it to one side and say, what can we gra on? >> so that strikes me as somewhat near good. >> but you do not need the government shut down while you speak, while you talk. open the government, reopen it -- no, hang on -- reopen the government and have a conversation. the president said, first paragraph of his speech, when, you know, i heard him and read it, i am happy to talk about anything that my republican colleagues want to talk about.

but let's open the government and talk. >> he's had five years to talk. >> oh, that's not true, raul. >> he doesn't even talk to his own caucus. >> that is not true. >> something we could do. there's something we offered as house conservatives. we had a bill that was introduced a few weeks ago, with a one-year -- i think in any negotiation, both sides need to be -- >> you know that's a nonstarter. fair is fair. somebody has to give up also some that's real. >> i'm concerned about having negotiations on ointo mania care on the debt ceiling. in fact the house conservatives told the leadership we didn't want negotiation on the debt ceiling about obama care. we wanted negotiations about debt, future deficits, about all those things. this would be a concession on my part -- i would do a debt

ceiling increase for six weeks, and i would keep fighting on the continuing resolution and obama care. separate the two issues. i don't want to worry about the creditworthyness. >> that's interesting. you would accept a six-week clean debt ceiling vote. >> that means the government is still shutdown while that's occurring. >> it will be, but at least we don't have to worry about the creditworthyness. i am concerned about that. i don't think any republican in the house wants to actually bridge the debt ceiling. we are very concerned about that. i think we can continue to negotiate. on the other issue, but we don't have to worry about the nation going into chaos if anything happens. >> i think there's a problem with leaving the government shut down because of the impact on what is happening to people.

the reality of that impact. >> but you want us to surrender on everything. >> no, no, i'm saying why -- this is not something new that you all have engaged in. i recall when we got to the brink on the last debt ceiling. what do we do six weeks from now if you don't get everything you want, do we then just keep moving along? you bring us to the brink of the cliff every time. >> but he wants to be able to negotiate. we're giving him the opportunity. >> but then what -- is there if we -- with the negotiations, if you don't get everybody that you want, what do you want? >> i just cave in? >> this is why a lesson learned is important. clinton and i met vastly more often that i we wanted to, but i want to ask you this.

if i could. if the republicans brought up a clean six-week debt ceiling, without getting involved 2349 fight over the shutdown, do you think that the caucus would be willing to vote to give us six more weeks to talk? >> well, the caucus has been give to give a six-week reprieve for talking with regard to the shutdown of the government. why are we separating the two out? let's reopen the government. we can have the conversation about the debt ceiling, i won't put a time frame on it, but if there is an opportunity to talk, i believe in having that opportunity to talk about these things, to negotiate. in the shutdowns that occurred,

the shutdown was over a spending issue, not 11 times, it was about a spending issue. four times it was contraeight. two times it was contraaid, which was spending areas.

in a tax cut for the wealthy. fast forward 2013, the -- it is about the affordable care act, and shutting the government down. what this is all about, underlying everything, and this is really fundamental in terms of a republican party. it is rollback, social insurance that benefits working and middle-class families. that's what this is about. >> what we said at the time is

it was about welfare reform, about reforming the entitlements and getting to a balanced budget. the only four consecutive balanced budgets in year lifetime came out of that. >> but you had bloc grants for welfare, for medicaid, for food stamps, social services. >> we were modernizing. >> in the time we have left, a couple more questions for you. two things, i was curious about. one paul ryan comes out -- again, we're trying to get to a deal here. paul ryan came out with a constructive proposal. i never thought it would be -- but here we are, but he left out obama care. is paul ryan to move forward without obama care. will you get on team paul ryan? >> he's doing the same thing i was suggesting. he was separating the debt ceiling from the c.r. everything in that article was actually about the debt ceiling. it was about how do we get a handle on our debt and the deficits? i actually great with

everything. >> why did all your friends jump on him so bad then? >> i think people were misunderstanding what he was saying. i talked to paul today about it. he maid it clear that he was separating both issues. >> my feeling about that as well is he didn't include retch in that. is revenue off the table? >> probably. i hate to do this but because of the time of the program, i have to thank representative. we're delighted to have you back. next we cease fire. we look for common ground. we want to you weigh in on today's fire back question. would reaching the debt limit be catastrophic for the u.s. economy? tweet yes or no using hash tag crossfire. we'll have the results after the break. la's known definitely for its traffic, congestion, for the smog.

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tonight on "crossfire," we've been debating what could make washington get serious about negotiating. now let's call a cease fire. is there anything we can agree on? >> there is one thing which we didn't talk about a lot on this show but is in everybody's hearts. the death benefits for those fallen soldiers needs to be handled. that needs to be the number one job for the president. i don't like the cherry picking but that's one cherry everybody has to pick. >> i could not agree with you more as an army brat and i appreciate you bringing it up.

>> you can go to facebook or twitter to weigh in. would breaching the debt limit be catastrophic for the u.s. commit? 71% of you say yes. the debate continues online at cnn dorkt/crossfire. from the left i'm van jones. >> from the right i'm newt gingrich. join us tomorrow. senator sheldon whitehouse and ted cruz will be on "crossfire." erin burnett starts right now. >> let's make a deal. we'll do everything we can to get this solved. >> is president obama only talking about the royal we? and a woman vanishes from a hospital. she is found dead weeks later. it turns out now she may never have left. >> what happened