we must remember that we are all brothers and sisters. host: left headline this morning. here is -- last headline on the debt ceiling this morning. here is the "washington post." independent, maryland. caller: good morning. there has been a lot of talk

about how people have held this holding hostage. 95 democrats are against it. this bill increases the debt. economists have predicted about $4 trillion added the next decade. the cuts are only in the current rate. next year, the budget will be even worse and larger. if we had a credit to hit right now, it would be better than 10 years down the road. thanks, c-span. host: here is the headline in the new york times. what this deal means for aids for states that are struggling right now. -- aid to states that are

struggling right now. virginia tops the list, followed by maryland. new mexico, hawaii, wyoming, conn., and massachusetts makes up the top 10. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. there are some of points that i believe should be made. it is something that was in a speech on the senate floor about budgeting. when either the harry reid or john boehner plan talks about making cuts in spending, they are not making cuts. they are spending less money than they planned on spending next year or down the road five or 10 years. it is an increase in spending. it is not as large as originally

planned. that is the first thing the american people need to know. plan has real spending cuts, which is what we need. democrats are still blaming republicans and all of this nonsense. the fact of the matter remains that we did not get into this debt problem, because our government taxes too little. it is not because our government lets corporations have a free rein. that mentality is outdated. the reason we are in this problem today is because our government spends too much money. there is no oversight in these programs that mostly democrats and republicans have a hand in it as well. host: was the vote in the senate

a step in the right direction? caller: a baby step. host: we will talk more about that with members of congress coming up in a few minutes. some more headlines. some more headlines. the wall street journal says it is part of 2012 campaign fodder. the washington times has a quotation. quotation. he says he thinks the president did a good job here. yesterday, president obama put out a video to his supporters talking about the debt deal can't put out the details about a fund raiser that will be happening tomorrow, wednesday,

in chicago on the day of his birthday. let's go to chicago, democratic caller. hcaller: i feel this super committee is unconstitutional. we did not in vote for them. they should not be making our laws. if we need a super committee to write our laws, maybe we need to get rid of congress, since they cannot do their job. the cbc voted no. this is a monstrosity of a right wing bill. the tea bag people took the country hostage. they were willing to throw this country over a cliff just for their stupid right wing ideology. host: we got a lot of commons last night when we reported that ffords returned to the

floor. here is nancy pelosi on her return. >> there is not a name that stirs more courage, respect, then the name of congress woman gabbie giffords. thanks. [applause] host: we are talking this morning about the debt deal. we will take a break. when we come back, we will speak

with members of congress on how they voted last night and why. they voted last night and why. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> titles like slander, dollars, demonic, in kolter has something to say. will be onnne coul coulter "in depth" live, sunday at noon, eastern. >> the president asked if i would be willing to serve an additional two years. >> for the first time since the death of j. edgar hoover,

president obama signed into law, legislation allowing a -- an fbi chief to remain at his post for an extra two years. learn more about the j. edgar hoover, the fbi online at the c- span video library. search, watch, click, and a share. it is washington your way. >> that figure is moving the veil of ignorance from human understanding. it is sort of classical for what it is really all about. >> if you missed the latest documentary, the library of congress, there is a preview on right now. be aware of the latest videos we are posting and find out about other timely videos online at

youtube.com/cspan. we now have an in hand ebook. 11 original c-span interviews with current and retired justices. it includes an interview with the newest supreme court justice, a elena kagan. you can watch multimedia clips from all of the justices. this is available now where evver ebooks are sold. " washington journal" continues. host: how did you vote? guest: yes. when you look at the options we had, and they were not all good ones, it was the best of the options. the greater risk of the country, the greater risk of the middle

class if we did not do anything. i felt it was the right to vote at this time. host: were you yes all along? did you have to get there in some respects? guest: part of it was the details of part of it. whether or not we could actually have bipartisan committee that will tackle this in a way that looks at both at revenues and expenses at the same time. given everything that we had to look at, this was the best decision. a lot of the die was cast some time ago.

it is not a good precedent to tie average debt limit to this kind of rancor that we went through. we also needed to move forward. host: a u skeptical about the so-called super committee? guest: speaker boehner said he would only bappoint someone who would look at revenues. i think that is a mistake. both sides of the files need to appoint members to make sure they have good volunteers that are willing to be as open as possible. host: when and did you decide you would vote yes? you would vote yes? guest: i had been thinking about this for a long time, as have

all of my colleagues. we have been hearing from many of our constituents. they were fearful, they felt as i do that the middle class is not getting a fair shake. we need to rebuild that american dream for people. that is very important. i could argue both sides of this issue. the bottom line for me is where is the greatest risk, it is this the best thing for the country right now? right now? host: did the vice president convince you in that meeting? guest: he was convincing in that we needed to move forward. what is really important is the mood of the country not congress.

there was almost a release, you could feel it throughout the country. nothing could have been more helpful to members of congress and those that share a fringe ship with giffordds s and have her return to the chamber last night. it is something i will always remember. remember. i did not know she was going to show up. i was surprised. i was like everybody else. what is going on? who is that? i have seen her in the interim. i have had opportunities to be with her. i look forward to doing that again. [unintelligible] i think she was happy to be there. when she came in, she did not

have a seat right in front of the voting spot. the voting box was behind her. we lean across the chair and vote. you have to make sure you are voting in the right way. to see her do that and to know that this has been a very important issue for her into the fact that she was tracking it so well. she expressed how disappointed she was at watching these events unfold. we have always raised our debt ceiling when we knew we had to pay those bills. like everybody else, she wants it better for people in this

country. we are all concerned at what is going to happen next. host: any word if she will be coming back after this next recess or when she might return permanently? guest: it is unresolved right now. we want her to get healed and be better. when you think about the fact that she was with us yesterday after this horrendous act, we are also delighted that she will be back. host: let's take phone calls. our time with you is short. republican, youngstown, ohio. caller: i want to congratulate gabbie giffords on her recovery. i think the debt bill they

passed is a whitewash. i have a couple of questions. we should be looking at getting rid of nasa. we should be looking at having fair trade instead of a free trade. we are the united states of america. we should not be too concerned about the global impact. we need to worry about what we have here at home. we need to limit the foreign aid. cut entitlements to foreign countries. we should look at getting rid of the federal reserve. the treasury should print the money, lend it to the banks, money, lend it to the banks, they led it to the consumers, we pay it back with interest. the banks make money. the government makes money to finance any programs they want. we would not be in this terrible situation that we are in. we have to have a balanced budget.

something has to be done. guest: he raises a lot of questions. i do not have a chance to go through all of them. we are a global power in the world. it does help us to engage with other countries. we can do that on trade and in many other ways. it is important that we make certain that we are making our best for the middle class in this country. we have to continue to ask ourselves that. sometimes we have people that want to cut every where. i understand that. i understand that. we have to do it in a reasonable way. sometimes, when you work in that arena, you can do some things that are harmful to the country.

host: most of the house and the u.s. public has no idea what is in that debt bill. we should read it before signing it. guest: we need to always look at bills before we vote on them. we all had an opportunity to look at that as quickly as we could and ask questions about it. i did that, and i think others did that as well. the super committee, which is made up of members of congress, not people coming from the outside. there is a trigger and consequence if they are not able to come to an agreement. that is an important part of it. we will not have to go through this right away. some of my colleagues were proposing that we turn this issue around in another five or

six months. that would not be in the best interest of the country. we are trying to spread out the cuts on this in the next 10 years. in the second round, we will look at ways we can do that as well. host: here is something from the washington post editorial page today. guest: it is important to avoid a crisis. a crisis. the fact that we did not get it

all done and solve all of the problems is not surprising. it takes a long time to get to this place. we're able to do that under the clinton administration. we need to do it again. it matters how the leadership assigns people to that committee. i hope the american people will i hope the american people will call upon our leaders to make certain that the committee will go in and solve the problem in front of us. they want to do it in a balanced and fair way. host: in my point of view, president obama did not get any of the things he wanted. guest: i think that is not true.

he was pleading with people across the country to weigh in with their congress people. it did what is critical to many of my constituents. it sent a message that we will preserve medicare and social security and medicaid, and we will be careful and not touch benefits of others. we have to make adjustments in those areas. we were looking at some draconian changes. that is not going to happen. i hope we can look at this in both the short-term and long- term way to affected generations to come. people come to congress and want to do the right thing for the country. there may be a different way of approaching it.

that is what this is all about. it is ok. it is our democracy. host: democrat, florence, california. caller: i think you should have a list of their top contributors on the screen so we can see how they build. -- vote. -- [unintelligible] -- [unintelligible] they are representing their lobbyists. host: maryland, independent color. caller.-- caller: the debt ceiling has been raised over 100 times since 1917.

i think the credit card has been mapped out. what i did not appreciate about what happened in washington is how everybody blames the tea party for everything. i was a democrat for 20 years. what has happened in this country is unbelievable. rand paul wanted to have a balanced budget amendment that would be implemented over the six to eight years. i do not believe for a second that that is unreasonable. guest: susan, you raise an important point. when we raise the debt ceiling, we are talking about money that has already been spent. the time to think about what our priorities are is before we spend the money. that is the budget we deal with. having restraint is important. we want to be sure that we are not hurting people that are most

vulnerable in this country. we did have a balanced budget. they were able to do that, because we had a more robust economy, which we do not have today. that was very important during the clinton administration. the clinton administration. in the end, it was a good thing that it occurred. now we have to decide where we want the balance to be. that is why taking the next step and taking it openly and sincerely will be the best thing for the country. that committee should do the job that it should for the country. people should feel passionately about their desire to do that. about their desire to do that. host: 01 and who lost?

-- who won and who lost? there was a press conference yesterday to talk about that. i want to show it to you and come back and get your reaction. >> this will further harm our economy and hurt americans. with unemployment still above 9% in stagnating economic growth, taking out of the economy money will only place a heavier burden on working families. this is the wrong approach for our economy at the wrong time. guest: if we could have started this in a different way, we could have made those changes. we knew absolutely those that

would be most vulnerable and making sure those that have been out of a job for a long time have the opportunity to find a job. we are encouraging businesses as well and banks and everybody else to help our small businesses. we really would have hurt a lot of people in this country if we had not moved the now and tried to write this ship right now. that is important. host: the financial times headline last night. the standard and poor's have the been the most explicit. what are you hearing about that? are you concerned? guest: of course i am concerned.

we are trying to solve an existing problem right now today. that is important. it sends messages around the world. they will do everything in their power to change it. that is our responsibility. it is a responsibility to my constituents. i will have a lot that will not i will have a lot that will not agree with my vote. i understand that. i could argue both sides of this. we did the right thing. i think we will stabilize our economy right now if we continue to move. nothing magical will happen today. it gives us more ability to move forward. host: i want to show what leaders had to say yes today

about the super committees and who they might nominate end of. . bridgett nominate. -- who they might nominate. >> i have two weeks to do it after this bill is passed. it is extremely important that i pick people who are willing to make hard choices but are not locked in. i think it does not bode well i think it does not bode well for me to choose someone -- we need to look at other avenues. i want to choose people that will work hard for a solution on long-term debt in this country.

host: you had to the gang of six that served in the senate, and you heard the majority leader that said i do not want to pick someone that has are the said no on tax revenues or spending cuts or what ever. guest: i think he said, he wants someone that is open. i think it is important to have that on the republican side. that on the republican side. i hope that people want these problems solved. i have great faith in members of congress to do that. we do not have a great history on that. this is a very different time. our economy needs the best and brightest and most reasonable people to sit down together and solve this problem. host: