>> get your ass in line. >> first, mr. speaker, i want to ask you, is it true that you told some of the republican members this morning that you need to get your "a" word in line behind this 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. but that's what happens when you have a democrat-controlled senate and a democrat in the white house. >> well, the speaker needs 217 votes or his bill is buried.

we hit the debt limit in just six days. one congressman who is in the speaker's words getting his, quote, ass in line, is alan west. he tweeted, the boehner bill is not perfect. but it's... >> the democrats sending the speaker of the house a letter saying they will veto his plan. paul ryan joins us. >> good to be with you again. >> well, it doesn't look like the boehner bill may go forward in the house, but that's about all. >> i think that's a lot of talk. i think they are making threats to reduce the chance of the democrats voting for it in the house. president obama asked for a blanket increase in the debt

limit. no spending cuts. we said no. we said you have to cut more than a dollar's worth of spending for every dollar you raise the debt limit. then he asked for big tax increases. we got rid of the tax increases. now we have a bill that does what hee we said it should do, cuttings more than it raises the debt limit by. is it perfect? no. is it as much as we proposed? no. this doesn't do that. but it gets us down the right path. it's cuts we can bank right now, it's a step in the right direction. so i think it's a good step in the right direction. >> it has to get 217 votes. have you a rowdy freshmen 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 to your 217 mark and have them go home and face their voters where they promised a balanced budget amendment?

>> we have a vote on the balanced budget amendment. >> separate? >> that was always the case. the second thing, cut, cap and balance had to be separate from the bill. >> balanced budget amendment. >> that's right, excuse me. this requires that the senate vote on a balanced budget amendment. we never had the assurances we could even get a vote on the balanced budget. what i never agreed with is that we would expect harry reid and nancy pelosi to give us the democratic votes. i never thought it was realistic for democrats to vote against their conscience. i think this is a far more workable plan, cut spending, cap spending and have a vote on the balanced budget amendment and see where people stand on this in congress. >> how realistic are the cuts? we hear the bills, in march, there was all of this hoopla and when the dust settled tlooked

like chump change. >> we had the cbo give us the most recent estimate, we are cutting $917 billion in spending. the deficit goes down $22 billion next year. should as much as i want? no. but it does cap spending. >> for how long? >> 10 years. >> all right. >> it's discretionary spending, all government agencies. we put legal statutory caps on it with a cut to kick in and we have a super majority vote threshold to prevent that cut from happening, meaning we protect the caps with the super majority protection to make sure the caps stay in place. >> meaning the next congress doesn't come along -- >> so it takes a super majority to violate these caps that we are setting into law. the last time we had legally binding caps in the 1990s, they stuck for a good while and we got spending cuts. >> for a good while. >> they replaced it with pay go.

>> a lot of americans want a balanced budget amendment because they hear, it sticks for a while. >> i think that's right. >> that's what is so distressing is that the idea -- i guess washington doesn't have a huge track record with americans, a lot of these decisions. >> i want the balanced budget amendment to have spending caps. you can balance the budget, or if you put spending caps in place, you can have smaller government and more economic freedom. so the kind of balanced budget amendment matters a great deal. >> who gets cut? >> who gets cut? >> yeah. >> across the board. with the discretionary cap, pentagon, all domestic agencies by $1 trillion. >> what about the entitlements. >> this does not have entitlements. >> so does it affect anybody on medicare or medicaid or social security? >> no. >> zero to do with them.

>> that's correct. >> this is government agencies. >> this is 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 doesn't do that. this gets him through the year. then, if he wants to have that increase, we have to cut more spending. that means you have to have a committee report out and passing the law spending cuts. and that area of law will be called mandatory spending entitlements is what this committee will look at, they have to come up with $1.8 trillion to get the debt cut he is looking for. >> and $1.8 trillion in november or december? that's when the report will be issued and it will hit the entitlements. >> i'm not a big fan of commissions and committees. i want us to do our job. >> that didn't go far. >> exactly. isn't that the point? 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 the house

republicans did. we passed a budget that cut $6.2 trillion. we showed you exactly in detail how we would do that. it's been almost 820 days since the senate passed the become. the president has yet to offer an actual plan to deal with this at all. so because of that, that's why we are doing this committee. >> let's assume for a second that this is the greatest plan ever. and that i am for it, you are for it -- no, i know. it has to travel across the hill to the senate. they hate it. the majority hates it. so where does that leave us now? >> i think they are going to say they hate it because they don't want it to pass because this puts -- >> it doesn't matter. >> it does. >> if the democrats don't want to pass it. >> harry reid put out a bill to the right of barack obama. john boehner put a bill to the right of harry reid. >> to the right of harry reid? >> yes, reid's said, we disagree with the president, we will cut spending so we moved it to not

if we cut spending, but how much we cut spending and we have moved the debate for however much you want to raise the debt limit, we have to cut spending. harry reid has agreed with that premise. his bill is full of budget gimmicks and accounting tricks, but the premise that we have to cut spending to raise the debt limit has been embraced by both parties and the cuts that john boehner put in his bill were pre-agreed to in this group by democrats. so this is a bill that has spending cuts that were agreed to by democrats. so we believe if we move this to the senate, know that this reid bill cannot pass the senate, this improves the likelihood that will pass the senate. we will see how this plays out. but we think this puts the president and the senate in a difficult position to reject spending cuts we had previously agreed to because we don't like that it's john boehner's bill.

or do we sign it? do we risk default or sign it? >> i think i would bet against him whether it will become the bill. president obama has said, the word from the white house staff i. the white house staff. there is a difference in this. >> the staff has said he would veto it and on capitol hill, they are not wild about it, at least not now. >> if that's the case and they try to ping-pong this back and forth, we start to run out of time. >> the president has said, if it's a short-term deal, which this is, in november and not going to be done until january, that the people who do our credit rating, that they're going to downgrade our credit. >> i think what would be worse if we passed a deal that was full of gimmicks that didn't cut the spending that it claimed to cut like harry reid's bill does. >> but -- all right, but is there something that would avoid the downgrade? don't get me started on the credit rating agencies. >> they are the ones who gave us

the mortgage bank securities. >> i am so scandalized by that. these people are the reason we are in this mess because they give triple-a ratings to horrible, toxic ceos and the credit slop. now we are listening to them? now we are running in fear. and they have their foot on our threat. >> but they do affect the interest rates. >> what are you going to do about them? that should outrage the american people. >> i would say, have you to cut spending to prevent a default and to prevent a downgrade. we put out a plan that would prevent a downgrade. >> we have to cut spending to avoid a default. but cutting spending to avoid a credit downgrade by the very people who put us in a credit -- in this horrible situation, it's a little appalling. >> it's ironic. >> it's even worse than that. i don't know how these people sleep at night. >> look, i would agree with them on this -- america is running

out of road to kick the can down. america can't keep spending money it doesn't have. we can't keep having a president and a senate that chooses to ignore this problem by offering no solutions. we are 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 of your deficit by borrowing it from other countries. we're losing our sovereignty. tax increases are not the answer that kills job creation, slows down economic growth. and it doesn't solve the problem. and so it all comes back down to, will congress cut spending or not? we have shown how much we are willing to cut. we have shown we will pay off the debt with our budget. now we are trying to get as much as we can, given the fact that we have divided government. >> we seal what happens. congressman, thank you, from the great state of wisconsin, of course. nice to see you. >> the heat is on, the tea party heat. the tea party out in full force,

holding a rally at the united states capitol. they are putting on the pressure for republicans to cut, cap and balance. they are adamant. grif jenkins was out in the middle of it. >> greta, with a deadline fast approaching on the debt crisis and americans wanting their voices heard across the country, 100 or so tea party activists showed up in washington. their message -- hold the line. >> why are you here? what is it you want the senators and congressmen to know about what you want to see happen in this debt crisis? >> i think the senators and congressmen know what we want. what we need is, first of all, discontinue or end the spending. >> my message is like in my family, your family, the cameraman's family, you can't spend more money than you make. >> it's going to come down on us. we are going to be left hanging. they need to do the right thing and fix this problem. it is not going to get better if

you don't fix. >> it they are playing tug-of-war with our money. we need the republicans to grab the rope and yank harder. >> a compromise is not possible when one side refuses to cut spending. >> congressman, your message to these folks? got a deadline coming fast? >> hold trong. hold the line. the ryan budget is $31 billion in cuts in 2012 this. offer on the table is only $7 billion in cuts. $24 billion difference. if we don't hold the line of the ryan budget in the next fiscal year, the rest of the promises don't count for hutch. >> it's really scary. if we don't do something now, we are going to have a big collapse. >> why do you come out here today? >> i came to stand with the people and to mix with people who feel the same as i do and want the same as i do. >> with my generation and my kids' generation and grandkids, it's getting dumped onto our

happeneds. we are going to have to pay extreme taxes to repay the debt caused by the generation before us. >> this is about our credit rating being downgraded. and why? not because of the debt ceiling but because of the enormous debt that we have. we have to cut the spending. we need permanent mem mechanisms so this doesn't happen in future years. >> so what if we do default? one congressman has an idea that may be more like dropping a stink bomb in congress. he won't be popular. jim cooper of tennessee is proposing a bill to ban members from receiving their paychecks during a default. and once that default is over, the members of congress will be barred from getting the back pay. that's one way to cut federal spending. and he has 18 bipart son co-sponsors. and if speaker can't get 217

votes, can he peel off the democratic votes? maybe. also, tea party favorite, rand paul is here. and he's next.

an accident doesn't have to slow you down.

with better car replacement ailable only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? a living, breathing intelligence that's helpi drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪

>> our next guest says we shouldn't focus on the far left and the far right but rather have a center-out approach. good evening, sir. center-out approach. what is that? >> i think the way to solve this problem, instead of looking at the extremes and say how can i get 218 votes, we should start in the middle. get the republicans and democrats who can work together and build out from there. and the ultimate idea is to get 110 democrats, 110 republicans to agree on a solution. kick it over to the senate, hopefully, they can have a similar result. and we would have a much better end result and the bond market you have been talking about and the credit rating agency and it is american people would accept the result more than what you are going to see happen. >> all right.

in order for that to work, although we may be way down the road too far for that, we would have to have a huge moderate contingency in the house. and it seems we have people with extreme passion on the far right and the far left. so we don't have that sort of universe of people to do what you want to do. right? is that a fair analysis? >> i think that's fair. but we are approaching in in a way where we are pointing fingers, casting blame and not working together in the way that the american people would expect us to do on such a big issue. we are facing an incredibly momentous deadline. i think the more sensible way would be to start from the middle and work out, rather than start from the extremes and work in. >> do you think speaker boehner has the votes to get this passed? >> i think he would bring it up if he didn't have the votes to get it passed in the house. he clearly doesn't have the votes in the senate. just today 53 senators sent him a letter saying they would oppose it if it got to the

senate. >> you said he wouldn't bring it up if he didn't have the votes. we are up against a deadline. he has to get something on the floor. secondly, what excuse could he use to lolled it off for a day or two? i would think, you stand at the door and glare at everybody on the fence? >> i guess it's possible. the tea party contingent is unhappy. a lot of groups that represent that constituency are unhappy with the bill. i can't see it coming to the floor unless he has the votes to move. >> it why do so many democrats hate the balanced budget amendment? americans are saying, i balance my budget at home. why is -- why do so many democrats hate it? >> i'm a co-sponsor of the balanced budget amendment. >> what do they say to you? >> i think the concern is, is that we don't have the capitol budgets. we build aircraft carriers and we have locks and dams that are

program tremendously expensive. when you budget year to year under a balanced budget, maybe that falls by the wayside. but i agree with you. businesses and families in the count row, they live within their means, they make decisions on balancing the household budgets, we can make the same. >> wouldn't there be a way to accommodate the unusual questions, like the subject of war. if you balance the budget, with the expectation of peace and 9/11 happens and things change. >> all balanced budgets have a contingency if there is an event of war or national security implications. so that exists. i support it. in the 1990s when the balanced budget came up, we got over 100 democrats to support that. so there is precedent for democrats supporting it. >> any estimate tomorrow for the vote in the house, how many democrats -- what would you expect -- >> i can't speak for everybody. but i have yet to talk to a

committee democrat who is going to support t. i think he is going to get zero. >> really? he has to get every republican, essentially. >> that's right. >> he could lose a couple. >> the concern i have and a lot of democrats have, this bill with the double-teared phase-in is designed to provoke confrontation. it's designed to continue the animosity, which is what we started this conversation talking about. >> i think they say it's to put the lid on it. what their argument is not to provoke controversy, but to put the lid on it rather than a blank check because the history with both republicans and democratic administrations, you give a blank check -- >> it won't be a blank check because there will be a dollar amount, a $2.5 trillion cut. we will have the debate on the debt ceiling, august 2 and on september 30 when the fiscal year expires and next september 30 when the following fiscal year expires.

so we will continue to talk about it. it is not going to go away. i don't think provoking confrontation is the way to do that. >> ckman, thank you. we will watch what happens in your neck of the woods on the hill. >> coming up, senator check grassley taking on harry reid, saying his plan is intellectually dishonest. senator grassley is all fired up. and senator rand paul says if the default happens blame lies squarely on the president's shoulders. he will tell you why he thinks that, 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,

because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. ben your lega. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve. ♪ let me make you smile ♪ let me do a few tricks ♪ some old and then some new tricks ♪ ♪ i'm very versatile

♪ so let me entertain you ♪ and we'll have a real good time ♪ [ male announcer ] with beats audio and flash, you can experience richer music and download movies straight to the new hp touchpad with webos.

>> 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. [ male announcer ] to the 5:00 a.m. scholar. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu.

it's the cleanest, clearest water. we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster we can find. yeah! [ male announcer ] hurry in to crabfest at red lobster. the only time you can savor three sweet alaskan crab entrees all under $20, like our hearty crab and roasted garlic seafood bake or sn crab and crab butter shrimp. [ jon i wouldn'tut it my table at home, i wouldn't bring it in. my name's jon forsythe, and i sea fd differently. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. no, he doesn't have it. yeah, we'll look on that. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. so i want to major in biology.

miss gopie is the best teacher i ever had. she's amang, i love her. [ de ] i'm teaching jasmine ap biology. i knew she had the talent... i always pushed her. [ jasmine ] her class you literally have to think, le it takes so long to do her homework. [ jade ] she's gained the confidence that she can achieve anything. [ jasmine ] i'm going to be aediatrician... and i'm going to make this dream come true. a 100 percent. ♪

>> from america's news headquarters, i'm lauren greene. the death toll is spiking to 38 in south korea, after flashfloods and landslides buried parts of the country. walls of mud and fast-moving water, piling huge trucks together in seoul. heavy rains filling streets and destroying buildings. 10 college students were among those buried alive. hundreds of soldiers, police and firefighters helping with the

cleanup effort. the only person convict in the plane bombing over lockerbie, scotland, has attended a pro-muammar al-qaddafi rally, in a wheelchair in the rally in tripoli. he was freed from a scottish prison in 200 19, supposedly with terminal cancer. he returned to libbia, a hero. the bomb killed 271 people, mostly americans. now back to "on the record." -- 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? check out huge savings during the bass pro shops summer clearance sale, like...

and make plans now for the fall hunting classic starting august 5th. you know, the ones who do such a super job, they're backed by the superguarantee®? only superpages®. wherever you are, wherever you're going, you'll find the super buness you need. so next time, let the good guys save the day. get the superguarantee®, only at superpages®. in the book ... on your phone or online.

>> 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? these debt talks? jimmy fallon [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. no, he doesn't have it. yeah, we'll look on that. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. host: could switching to geico [ male announcer ] reon car insurance? or more host: do people use smartphones to do dumb things?

man 1: send, that is the weekend. app grapgic: yeah dawg! man 2: allow me to crack...the bubbly! man 1: don't mind if i doozy. man 3: is a gentleman with a brostache invited over to this party? man 1: only if he's ready to rock! ♪ sfx: guitar and trumpet jam vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

>> 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 put