to pay this. unbelievable. mr. president i have a message for you tonight, put your plan on tape and stop being gutless that's my message. thank you all for being with us. greta is next. we'll see you tomorrow night. >> greta: tonight, do you know who said this? get your ass in line! come on you heard that before. those are speaker bane's -- speaker boehner's words not mine. >> first mr. speaker, is it true that you told some of the republican members this morning that you need to get your a-word in line behind in debt ceiling bill? >> i sure did. listen this is time to do what is doable. and this bill isn't perfect. i told the members that the last couple of days. that's what happens when you have a democrat controlled senate and a democrat in the white house. >> greta: the speaker needs 217 votes or his bill is buried. do we need to remind you, we

hit the debt limit sick days. one congressman in the speaker's words getting his ass in line is florida congressman allen west. tweeted boehner plan is not perfect. however the fact pelosi, reid and obama hate it, makes it perfect enough. where is their plan? even if the boehner plan passes the house the word is it is dead on arrival when it gets to the senate. theti÷o áqnate majority democrs just an -- just a short time ago sending the speaker a letter they will vote against his plan. paul ryan joins us. it may far in the house that's all. >> i think that's a lot of talk. what they are trying to do is make these threats to reduce the chance of democrats voting fortunate the house. look where we started. resident obama asked for a blanket increase in the debt

limit, no spending cuts, nothing. we said no we said at least cut more than a dollar's worth of spending for every dollar you raise the debt limit. they he asked for big tax increases. we got rid of the tax increases. and now we go a bill that does what we said it should do. is it perfect? to. but it is a good step on spending cuts. is it as much as we proposed and passed? no. but it gets us down the right path. it cuts we can bank now and a step in the right direction. i think it is a good step in the right direction. >> greta: it has to get 217 votes. you've got a rowdy freshman crowd who ran on the promise of a balanced budget amendment. and the balanced budget amendment is not in the boehner bill. how do you get enough of them to get your 217 mark and have them face their voters?

>> we are going to have a vote on the balance budget amendment. separate from the boehner bill. that was always the case. the second, cut, cap and balance had the bba separate from the bill. >> greta: balanced budget amendment. >> right, excuse me. we never had assurances we could get a vote on the balance budget amendment in the senate. what i never agreed with was the idea we would expect harry reid and nancy pelosi to deliver 40 to 15 votes from democrats. i never thought that was realistic to demand democrats vote against their conscience for our version of the balanced budget amendment. i never thought that would work. i think this is a far workable plan. cut spending, cap spending and then have a vote on the balanced budget amendment. and see where people stand on this issue in congress. >> greta: how realistic are the cuts you talked about? we hear these bills, six months ago in march there has

hoopla about how much was i can cut we the dust settled it was chump change. >> today we are cutting 917 billions in spending. bringing the deficit down by 917 billion dollars. going down 22 billions next year is this as much as i want? no. we offered far more but it does cap spending. >> greta: for how long? >> 10 years. discretionary spending all government agencies, legal statutory caps on it with an across the board cut to kick in if spending goes above that amount. we protect these caps super majority protection to make sure caps stay in place do i want them lower? yeah. for future congress's it takes a super majority to violate these caps. the last time we had legally binding caps in the 90s they stuck for a good while. they did another budget agreement which replaced it

with paygot. >> greta: that's why a lot of americans want a balanced -- balanced budget amendment that is so dis-- so dissaysing. i guess washington -- >> i want to make sure the balanced budget amendment has spending caps in it. you can balance the budget with a big government with high taxes or if you put spending caps in place you can balance the budget with a smaller government with more economic freedom to me the kind of balanced budget amendment that we pass matters because that will determine the kind and size government we have. >> greta: who gets cut? >> across the board. pentagon, all domestic agencies by a trillion. >> greta: entitlements? >> this particular agreement does not have entitlements that's what the select committee is about. >> greta: does it affect anybody on medicare, medicaid or receiving social security? >> no.

>> greta: only to do with government agencies -- >> the first half of this bill, the second half -- remember the president wants a debt limit increase to get him through the election. this gets him through the year. then, if he wants to have that increase we got to cut more spending. that means you have to have this committee report out and pass into law spending cuts. that area of law what we call mandatory spending, entitle s is what the committee will look at. they have to come up with at least 1.8 trillion cuts to give the president the increase he's looking for to. >> greta: that 1.8 trillion going to come in november, december. >> right. >> greta: that's where going to hit the entitlements. >> i'm not a big fan of commissions i just want us to do our job. [ talking over each other ] >> i think we should put our bills on the floor. say here's how we are going to cut spending, pass it. that's what house republicans

did. we passed a budget that cut 6.2 trillion in spending. we showed new detail how we would do that. it has been almost 820 days since the senate passed a budget. the president still has yet to offer a plan to do -- to deal with this. that's why we are doing this committee. >> greta: let's assume this is the greatest plan ever. >> it is not. >> greta: i know. it has to travel to the senate. they hate it. the majority hates it. where does that leave us now? >> i think they are going to say they hate it now because they don't want it to pass. >> greta: it matters. >> i does harry reid put out a bill to the right of barack obama. john boehner put out a bill to the right of harry reid. harry reid's bill says we disagree with the president we are not going raise taxes we will cut spending. at least we've moved to not if,

but how much we cut spending. however much you want to raise that debt limit you have to cut more spending. harry reid has agreed with that premise. i think his bill is full of budget gimmicks, accounting tricks. but the premise to cut ing to raise the debt limit has been embraced by both parties. cuts that boehner put in his bill were preagreed to in this biden group by democrats. this bill has spending guts -- spending cuts agreed to by democrats. if we pass in and move to the senate, we think this improves the likelihood this can pass the senate and the president won't have much of a choice. we'll see how this plays out. if this passes, we think this puts the president and the senate in a difficult position of saying do we reject spending cuts we've already agreed to because we don't like the fact it is boehner's bill? or do we sign it, risk default

or sign it? >> greta: i think i bet against whether it is going to become a bill. president obama has said, the word from the white house staff -- >> the white house there's a difference. >> greta: white house staff he would veto it. capitol hill democrats majority in the senate are not wild about it, now so it is being said. >> if they try to ping-pong this back and forth we start running out of time. >> greta: the president said if it is a short term until november the commission would report back in december, that the people who do our credit rating they are still going to downgrade our credit. >> what would be worse is if we passed a deal that was full of gimmicks that didn't cut the spending it claimed like harry reid's bill does. >> greta: is there something that would avoid a downgrade? don't get me started on the credit rating agencies --

>> i know. >> greta: i'm so scandalized by that. these people are the reason we are in this mess. they gave aaa ratings to the horrible toxic ceo's and now we are listening to them and running in fear. they have their foot on our throat about our credit rating ìc% about them? >> that's another conversation. we can did a show on that. >> greta: that should outrage the american people. >> you have to cut spending to prevent a default and a downgrade. we put up a plan that would prevent a down great. >> greta: cutting spending to an individual a downgrade by the people who put us in this horrible situation is a little appalling. >> ironic. >> greta: it is not ironic, it is pauling. i don't know how these people -- it is appalling. i don't know how these people sleep at night.

>> i would agree with them on this. america is running out of road to kick the can down. we can't keep having a president and a senate that chooses to ignore this problem by offering no solutions. we're borrowing 42 cents of every dollar the government spends. half of that money comes from other countries like china. you can't cash flow half your deficit by borrowing from it other countries. we are losing our sovereignty, our own control, based upon our spending policies. tax increases aren't the answer. that kills job creation, slows economic growth. and it doesn't solve the problem. it comes back down to, will congress cut spending or not? we've shown how much we are willing to cut we will fix this problem and payoff our debt. now we are trying to get as much spending cut as we can. greet greet we'll see was. -- >> greta: we'll see what happens. congressman ryan, nice to see you. >> the heat is on.

the tea party heat holding a rally at the capitol they are cranking up pressure on republicans to hold out for cut, cap and balance. they want republicans to hold the line. griff jenkins was out in the middle of get. >> reporter: with the deadline fast approaching, americans wanting their voices heard across the country, 100 or so tea party activists turned out today outside the u.s. capitol to have their voices her. their message, hold the line. -- voices heard. their message, hold the line. why are you here? >> i think the senators and congressman already know what we want. what we need is first of all to discontinue or end the spending. >> in my family, your family, you can spend more than you make. >> it is going to come down on us and we are going to be left paying. they need to do the right thing and fix this problem.

it is not going to get better. >> they are playing tug-of-war with our money. we feed the republicans to grab that rope and yank harder. >> a compromise is not possible when one side refuses to cut spending. >> your message? >> the message is hold strong, hold the line. the ryan budget is -- [ inaudible ] this offer on the table is only -- [ inaudible ] if we don't even whole the line of the ryan budget in the next fiscal year all the promises don't count for much. >> it is scary if we don't do something about in budget now we'll have a big collapse. >> reporter: why did you come out today? >> i came to stand with the people and mix with people who feel the same as i do. and want the same as i do. >> with my generation and my kids', grandkids, it is getting dumped on.

when we work we have to pay, extreme amounts of taxes to repay this debt caused by the generation before us. >> this is more about our credit rating being downgraded. why? not because of the debt ceiling but because of the enormous amount of debt. we have to cut spending. we need permanent mechanisms in place so this doesn't happen in future years >> greta: what if we do default? one congressman has an idea that may be more like dropping a stink bomb in congress. he's not going to be popular. jim cooper of tennessee is proposing a bill that would ban members from receiving their paychecks during a . once that default is over members of barred from getting back pay. he has 18 co-sponsors. we'll let you know what happens with his bill. if speaker boehner can't get the republicans he needs to pass his bill, can he peel off

democratic votes? maybe. jason altmire is here. tea party favorite rand paul is here. is he going to budge? one thing is certain, he's made up his mind, he's next.

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>> greta: sick days to go until we hit the -- six days to go until we hit the debt ceiling. republicans and democrats are working over time. our next guest says we shouldn't focus on the far left or right but have a center out approach. jay -- jason altmire joins us. >> i think the way to solve this problem instead of looking at the extremes and say how can i get 218 votes we should star in the middle and get democrats and republicans that work together and they do exist. -- the idea is to get 110 democrats and 110 republicans agree and kick it to the senate. the key is we would have a better end result. i think the bond market that you have been talking about the credit rating agencies and most important, the american people would act -- accept the

result more than you will see happen. >> greta: in order for that to work we have to have a huge moderate contingency in the house. it seeps we have people with extreme passion on the -- it seems we have people on with extreme passion on the far right and left. so we don't have the people to do what you want to do, right? >> i think that's fair. but we are approaching in the way we are pointing fingers, casting blame not working to the in the way the american people would expect us to do on such a big issue we are facing an incredibly momentous deadline. we have to find a way to get this done. i think the more sensible way would have been to tart from the middle and work out rather than from the extremes and work in. >> greta: do you think speaker boehner has the votes to get this passed? >> i don't he would bring it up if he didn't have the votes in the house. clearly doesn't have the votes in the senate. today 53 senators sent a letter saying they were going to oppose it. >> greta: you say he wouldn't

bring it up if he didn't have the votes. we are up a deadline. he's got to get something on the floor. secondly, what excuse could he use to whole it off for another day or two? -- to hold it off for another day or two? >> i guess it is possible the tea party contingent is unhappy with the bill. a lot of groups that represent that constituency are unhappy with the bill. maybe he will bring it up and it won't pass. i can't see it coming to the floor unless he has the votes to move it. >> greta: why do so many democrats hate the balanced budget amendment? a lot of americans saying i balance my budget at home. >> i'm a co-sponsor of the balanced budget amendment. >> greta: what do they say to you within your own party? >> the concern is we don't have capital budgets, we build aircraft carriers and we have

locks and dams that are expensive and when you budget year-to-year under a balanced budget maybe some of that falls by the wayside. i agree with you. businesses and families in the country live within their means make decisions on how -- we can do the same in congress. >> greta: wouldn't there be some way to accommodate the expenses even war if you have a balance budget and balance it for the next cup of years with the expectation you are going to live in peace on things change. >> all the amendments have contingency for exceeding the balance cap if there is war or national security implications. that exists. again i support it. in the 90s when the balance budget came up, we got over 100 democrats to support that. so there is precedent for democrats supporting it. >> greta: any estimate tomorrow for the vote in the house? what would you expect for speaker boehner's bill? >> i can't speak for everybody. i've yet to talk to a democrat

who going to support it. >> greta: he has to get every republican. >> right. the concern i have and a lot of democrats have, this bill with its doubled tiered phase-this is designed to provoke confrontation to continue the and moss if i which is what we started this conversation talking about. >> greta: they say to put the lid on. rather than give a blank cheque, because the history unfortunately with both republicans and democrat administration you give a blank cheque. >> this won't be a blank cheque because there will be a 2 1/2 trillion cut if you look at senator reid's proposal. we'll have this debate on the debt ceiling august 2nd, also september 30th, when the fiscal year expires and the following fiscal year. we'll continue to talk about

deficits, debt and spending. it is not going to go away. i don't think provoking confrontation is the way to do that. >> greta: congressman, thank you sir. we'll be watching tomorrow. >> coming up senator chuck grassley taking on harry reid. he says senator reid's plan is dishonest i am senator grassley is fired up. tea party -- tea party leader ran paul says if default happens blame it squarely on the president's shoulders. he will tell you why coming up. mine was earned over the south pacific in 1943. vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. autonsurance is often handed down from generation to generation,

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>> greta: blue smoke and gimmicks a few of choice words senator grassley has for harry reid's plan. what does he think about the tea party stepping up the pressure on republicans? we spoke with chuck grassley a member of the senate budget and finance committees. nice to see you. >> nice to see you too. >> greta: what do you think of senator reed's proposal and speaker boehner's bill? >> i think speaker boehner has a bill that is going to get good support. i don't know whether he's got the votes entirely yet. secondly, his real reductions, the most important thing about his program is, short term so we get a chance to review this from time to time. i think short term is good for the fiscal responsible of the federal government. when you have to review

increasing the debt limit it gives congress more control over where we are going. the reid proposal is blue smoke from this standpoint. that he calaises a great deal of the savings -- he calculates a great deal of the savings from things we know are going to be saved any way. >> greta: a gimmick? >> yeah from this standpoint, safelying we projected we would in the iraq and afghanistan war when we know we are going to be out of there. it is dishonest to say you are going to have savings from something that isn't spent any way. >> greta: what would he said? >> he would probably say the republicans -- the budget never becomes law. if reid's bill would pass it would become law. a budget is nothing than an outline. >> greta: you are saying you did it so we do it?

>> probably his argument. >> greta: what do you think the american people would think of that? >> american people are fed up with the partisanship in washington. they want us to reach an agreement. a large share of the calls we've gotten since the president's speech monday night is, just get it done. >> greta: there are a couple of factions. within the republican party in the house, you have the tea party people who say there must be a balanced budget amendment in this bill or we are voting no. that's divided. over here the senate says if the boehner bill comes here it is not likely to pass if it does the president says he's going to veto it. >> first of all, i have not heard a single member of congress say they want this government to have default. i haven't heard a single member of the senate and i don't remember hearing anybody in the house say that. secondly, you mentioned the tea party.

we wouldn't be where we are today if it hadn't been for the tea party's influence on the last election. these people that are not well-organized, in the sense of being a political party, they are different individuals with different ideas, but they made a tremendous impact on the election. elections have consequences. so this debate is entirely different this year than we've had on most spending proposals. it was always are we going to spend or more less? today it is 100% republican and democrat on how much less we are going to spend. >> greta: spending an issue near and dear to your heart, ethanol subsidies enormous amount that we spend not only for iowa, huge amount of money. what do we do about things like that? you don't want give that one up? >> there are no sacred cows when you are in the situation that this fiscal problems right now. >> greta: would you give that

one up? >> we are going to look at everything. everything is on the take. there can't be any sacred cows. and it has to be related to the proposition that it -- we don't have a deficit problem because these people in america are under taxed. we have a problem because congress overspends. >> greta: everything is on the take? >> yes. >> greta: if terms of senator mccain blasted the members of the tea party in the senate -- the tea party caucus in the senate, you agree or disagree with senator mccain they are creating more of a problem than helping? >> let's put think way. on any particular day there may be a problem if you look at where we are today, compared to where we've been in the last 10 years on fiscal debate within the congress of the united states, the tea party as reflected through the last election and elects are supposed to have consequences and they do in this instance,

we've got a new approach to spending in washington today when we're concentrating on how much less we are going to spend and when the president submits his budget to the congress on valentine's day with a 13 trillion dollar deficit and it is defeated on a vote of 97-0, you know very clearly, you have clear proof that things are different in washington. and it is not different just because republicans want to make a difference or tea party people want to make a difference. there's a consensus among everybody that things are -- let's put it this way, business as usual can't continue. >> greta: the president thinks that? >> the president is behind the eight ball on this. he kind of lost out over the weekend. that was his speech monday his speech monday was a political speech. can you believe it? he spent the first two minutes blaming president bush for everything. i know that president bush left a bad situation for this

new president. but we're 30 months into the presidency. and it is about time the president starts taking responsibility for what he's done if you look at any measure of the economy, you pick any measure you want to, it was bad when he took over. january 2009, but he has made the situation worse in every one of these measures. >> greta: nice to see you, thank you. >> we spoke with kentucky senator rand paul. nice to see you. >> good to be with you. >> greta: if the boehner bill as we understand it makes to the senate, would you vote yes or no? >> i can't vote for any plan that doesn't balance, ever. >> greta: no balanced budget amendment? >> no that doesn't balance. his plan will never balance, 10, 20 years. there isn't a significant change in policy that will ever balance the budget. so i can't vote for any plan that doesn't balance. the boehner plan will add seven trillion to the debt over 10 years.

albeit a trillion less than the cbo baseline, but still seven trillion of additional debt. every year under the boehner plan, we will pen more and borrow more and the debt -- we will spend more and borrow more and the debt will grow. boehner plan in 10 years, will be 21 trillion. it is too much. it doesn't change the trajectory we are on. >> greta: i guess you dope like the reid plan coming out of this senate? >> my litmus test for raising the debt ceiling, one, we have to significantly change what we are doing. i don't think we are to be trusted with more money. somebody who spends unwisely shouldn't be given more. we shouldn't raise the debt ceiling unless we have a plan that balances our budget. think how reasonable this is. the balanced budget amendment allows five years to balance if we pass it would it take two to three years to pass the states. we are talking about eight

years to balance the budget and that's unreasonable? the president needs to explain to the american public why please against balancing the budget. >> greta: senator mccain has the tea party.hd"ñ i think they are saying maybe you are impractical that we are down to the line, because the deadline is rapidly approaching. are you spoiling in the isn't it might make sense to work something out in the short run? >> we have been the tea party conservatives in the senate and in the house really against leadership advice got cut, cap and balance going through, we passed it through the house, against great odds many we showed we were willing to raise the debt ceiling under certain conditions. i think what is impractical is a trillion and a half new debt every year. if interest rates rise by 1 point that adds another trillion in interest payments

over 10 years. if they go back to s we are going to be at trillions in interest payments. >> greta: if you don't have the numbers to win in the u.s. senate, you are going to walk away with zilch, other than principle. and you met obligations to your constituents. >> right. i think that is important. >> greta: i'm not denying that. >> i would say what is also important is we change the trajectory. if i have to go home to kentucky and tell vote there's the debt is going up myself event trillion and voted for it that will be an ultimate failure. if i go home and say think that fought the good fight and i said no we shouldn't increase the debt myself event kwroefr over the next 10 years i think -- over the next 10 years i think i will be applauded for that the country is headed for a debt crisis in the ensuing months and maybe years. that debt crisis is from spending too much. we have to rein it in.

the entitle -- the entitlements are broken. the way we fix it is by balancing the budget by doing something that every american family has to do and every american family expects us to do. >> greta: what can the president do to show to your satisfaction that he's leading on this issue? >> well, the first thing, if the president were true leader he would take default off the take. it shouldn't be considered. it is obligation, a constitutional obligation to pay for your debt to pay the interest on your debt. >> greta: how do you take that off? >> it is interesting. we bring in 200 billions a month in tax revenue. our interest payment is 20 billion. we have more than enough that comes in every month to pay the interest on our debt. we can't pay for everything. we can pay for social security. he should quit scaring seniors. and we can pay for our soldiers' salaries and another 70, 80 billion worth of government.

he could take default off the table then this wouldn't be such a crisis. he's manufactured a crisis if we don't have an an arrangement by suggest eck, the blame lies on -- by august 2nd, the blame lies on his shoulders for encouraging this crisis. >> greta: thank you. rick santorum wants to be president now he's stepping into the debt ceiling fire. he joins us next. [ male annocer ] things seem better with travelocity's best price guarantee.

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>> greta: rick santorum goes on the record in a few s. but first to our new york newsroom. >> reporter: frightening flight for people onboard an air canada plane. a fire in the kitchen forcing the flight to dump fuel and turn back to the airport. the 777 had just taken off for we -- we the fire broke out.

so far no word of any injuries. >> new video released of the bombing in norway's capital. the video coming from inside a store. the force of the blast shattering windows and knocking merchandise to the ground. eight people died. another 68 died at a summer camp. police believe 32-year-old anders vick acted alone but they continue to search for clap . now back to on the record. -- >> greta: rick santorum wants to be the income president. -- want to be the next president before i ask you about speaker boehner's plan, i'm curious looking at the acrimony and what is going on in washington, do you miss the u.s. senate or are you glad

you are out of there? >> des moines is a wonderful place to be now. although traveling around the state of iowa as i have, we are on a 50 city tour over the next couple of weeks. i'm hearing is acrimony any in iowa over what is going on in washington. people are not happy we don't have leadership from the president and the republicans people to be all over the map and not delivering a clear message to the american people. >> greta: in other words you are glad to be in iowa, at least tonight? >> that's why i'm running not for the senate because i think we need leadership. that's been the problem. we've had a president who hasn't told the truth to the american people about the gravity of the problem. he's been hiding the ball. not putting forward a plan. still haven't put forward any concrete plan. it has put the republicans in a difficult position. john boehner has a tough job. i think both the house and senate republicans have done a

poor job in articulating what we want to accomplish. we have to outline principles to the american public. we are for a balanced budget and limited government. >> greta: you may disagree with some of them. they are within each party there are several plans to pick from. everyone doesn't have agreement. these parties are big tents. speaker boehner has a land that a lot of tea party people aren't wild about. tell me, if you were in the senate and speaker boehner's bill came to the senate, would you vote yes or no on it? >> i would not i've said from the beginning what we need to do is be focused. we have to focus on what we want to accomplish. the principles we want to accomplish is to balance the budget and limit the size and scale of government. there's only one continuing that does that as rand paul just said, the american public supports a balanced budget amendment. we can say mr. president, i'm

happy to negotiate on cuts right now. i'm happy to do less cuts right now if that -- if you feel that's the worst thing for the economy, fine. let's agree to balance the budget as rand said, seven to eight years is what it would take into effect. that give us a timeline to get there. it gives the market the certainty that the budget will be balanced. that we will get our fiscal house in order. we will have limited government cap spending 18% of gdp and we accomplish what we want. boehner's plan is very modest. all these plans that are being kicked around are not close to where we need to go to get there. we are playing around, dancing with how many angels on the head of a pin instead of getting to the core of what we want. the reason i think the democrats will support it, is because it doesn't require big cuts now. >> greta: let me ask you, if i this right, you have more of a

long term vision you want to put the lid on the balanced budget and even deal with the the -- the unhappiness now. you want the big picture? >> right. i think we need to -- you have a president who doesn't want to cut anything. the president is worried about his own election. protecting his liberal legacy, fine give him his year or so of going out there telling the american public he's going to give them everything, expand government, do inks this get the balanced budget amendment. and all of that is not going to be deal real -- to be real. you can get something long term and give the president something he wants to say he protected his perhaps. >> greta: senator, thank you. enjoy iowa. thank you for joining us. >> thank you very much greta. >> greta: this is something you do not want to miss. senator mccain versus christine o'donnell. a new battle, next.

>> plus, just announced, alaska governor sarah palin is headed to iowa. is the history over? is she announcing? stick around. only one a day women's 50+ advantage has ginkgo for memory and concentration, plus support for bone and breast health. a great addition to my routine. [ female announcer ] one a day women's.

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>> greta: here's the best of the rest. sarah palin sure is fueling those rumors.

she is now headed to iowa, again. this time we are told it is to keynote a tea party rally september three. everyone wants to know is this a chance to jump into the race? the former governor has not announced her intentions. neither has one thing we know. neither she norick perry has announced his intentions. we are standing by to find out what he intends to do. is on the ballot of the iowa straw poll. we are standing by to see what is going to happen. >> there's one senator not a fan of balanced budget amendment. it getting him into a new feud with tea party favorite christine o'donnell. senator mccain said this on the senate floor reed reading from an editorial in the "wall street journal." >> the idea seems to be that if the house gop refuses to raise the debt ceiling a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue

and the public will turn en masse against barack obama. republican house failed to raise the debt ceiling which somehow escape all blame. then democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements and the tea party hobbits could return to middle earth having defeated mordore this is the kind of crack political thinking that turned sharon angle and christine o'donnell into gop senate nominees. >> greta: uh-oh. christine o'donnell released this statement: i think it is inappropriate to insult the judgment of the majority of republicans in nevadan

>> greta: ouch. what does senator mccain say about that? tune into tomorrow night you can hear from him, right here. you have the best of the rest. where is vice president during these debt talks? jimmy fallon has some insight, next. [ barks ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪

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>> greta: 11:00 is almost here, flash studio lights, it's time for last call. now, jimmy fal onhas insight into what's happening inside of the white house during these debt ceiling talks. >> you can see this on cnn. tim pawlenty accused president obama of hiding in the basement during talks. and joe biden accused him of locking him in the basement. >> and we're closing down shop, thanks for being with us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow night. make sure you go to greta wire.com. i just pu