winston. >> here i go. >> i do well with boys. >> there you go. [ laughter ] >> i will pick up this little sweetheart. come here eleanor. >> isn't he is a beautiful little girl. >> chris: is it true and your son didn't tell you that it was twins. >> how do you keep that secret? i think they decided earlier on they didn't tell anybody and they thought it be fun just to keep it a secret. tonight we got called, craig, what did you have. we had a boy. >> i said another boy. >> then he goes and a girl. >> i started screaming. >> i was stunned. we were both in bed and call came in at 6:00 in the morning. >> sptd eight thrill?

it's the joy parted. >> chris: what does this mean to you? >> this means everything. there is nothing more spectacular than seeing your life coming into your family and have these two arrive just filled our hearts with joy. so much fun. look at this little guy. >> chris: some years from now the romneys will tell them about the great adventure their grandparents had way back in 2012. we'll have much more of our interview tomorrow on fox news channel starting with america's newsroom. it's how he would handle the fiscal deadlock if he were in the white house. that is it for today. have a great week and we'll see you next fox news sunday. e i

should feel guilty, but i don't. huckabee is next. >> . >> john: this hour. >> i am kicking the can down the road. >> john: is that what this is going to be a bare knuckled brawl. >> already is. >> do you see courage out there. >> i'd like to see a heck after lot more. they all agree on the problem. >> everything we know is going to be gone unless we do something. >> the nation's debt is out of control. >> the underlying economic resolution. >> time is running short. >> they keep saying that we need to draw a line in the sand. >> will they cut? >> this really is sad, john, to have the chief executive of this land scaring people. >> or will they run? >> the leadership is headed over to the white house at the 11th hour, it makes them a little bit nervous. are they right to be nervous? >> fox news reporting, showdown on debt row. from the nation's capital, here is john roberts. >> something jn

washington, something just about everyone in this city said would never happen, even though everybody knew something had to be done. if you've been following the sequester battle through the endless stream of sound bites and punditry, you might have thought was the latest washington fight and the latest crisis not resolved. it's far more than that. fox followed a pitched struggle that had a point. and a messy process, beneath the mess you'll see something that looks like democracy at work and in that, you may even find a measure of hope. we begin at the turn of the year. >> and republican congress said they'd never raise taxes on the wealthiest americans and obviously raise the rates-- >> new years 2013, barack obama check mates congressional republicans in

had a 13th hour fiscal cliff deal. he makes good on his campaign promise to raise taxes on higher income earners and postpone across the board spending cuts known as the sequester. >> no, don't participate from that ruse, this debacle. >> and willing to go over the fiscal cliff unless all the bush tax cuts were extended permanently was declared the biggest loser. >> i have a message for the tea party members everywhere, destroying government is not good politics. >> and it's a financial meltdown in this country, if you don't stop spending. >> congressman paul brown, republican from georgia says the tea party principles are not the bane of the g.o.p. it's their only hope. >> somehow we have to have a party that stands firm on principles. >> and communicate them effectively. >> the republican party's message has been deplorable. >> why, they used to be good at it. >> i blame our leadership.

>> john: congressman tom price has been part of that leadership. >> congressman, what's your sense with the tea party? are they kind of the spent force. >> i don't think there's spent force. the tea party across from country are wonderful individuals who wants to make sure this economy gets rolling again. >> john: they don't want to see you blinking. >> that may be. >> john: brown worries about the next big fiscal he showdown, the debt ceiling, which the government will hit yet again in mid february. brown wants to hold the line, but he fears the g.o.p. leadership will cave. john boehner's a great speaker, but he's too nice a guy. barack obama comes, he's a bare knuckle street fighter. >> john: is that what this is going to be a bare-knuckle brawl. >> no question, it already is. >> john: days after taunting republicans for caving on taxes obama even warns him don't even test him on the debt ceiling. >> i'm not going to have a monthly conversation about whether or not we pay our bills. >> john: and in fact, behind closed doors, a cadre of

republican leaders, including price, is contriving to temporarily suspend the 16.4 trillion dollar debt limitment and they also pass a law that would dock lawmakers pay unless the democratically controlled senate pass as budget which it hasn't done in nearly four years. >> i think that was just a gimmick, giving barack obama a blank check for four months is just inane as far as i'm concerned. >> this is a huge day for the american people. >> john: it seems the only people that's pleased are the ones at the white house. >> the president will not delay in this billing becoming law. >> they're playing political pr. i think they want to stay in their jobs. >> john: january 29th, rozwell, georgia. >> what's the biggest challenge you've got right now. >> congressman price has breakfast with skeptical business leaders from thinks district. >> it's the same thing they've been doing, it's not working

and it's taking us down the wrong road. >> john: what are you hearing from your constituents? >> they're scared to death. >> john: two days later, in a nearby congressional district congressman brown is meeting with constituents, too. >> and actually changing until we do hit some kind of government collapse? >> it makes it extremely difficult for capitalist society to get out there and function. >> aim i'm going to thank this soldier, i'm a marine, i'm sorry, semper fi. >> and the original constitution, we wouldn't have a debt problem. >> he wants to stick to his principles and his constituents like that about him, but he they want to make sure they're not hurt. >> i know we have to make cuts, but right now, the first cut that i'm seeing is going to affect myself and a few hundred thousand if not a million other veterans and that's our health benefits. >> i believe in the constitution as our founding fathers, and that means fulfilling the promises that we made to veterans.

and we're not doing it. we've broken those promises. >> john: next objection, the g.o.p.'s agreement to give obama a debt ceiling reprieve the week before. >> the republicans leadership i don't know if our leadership, they keep saying we need to draw a line in the sand and seems a breeze comes along and the line is away. >> and next, george price as part of the g.o.p. leadership. >> we've got to come together to have our policies put together in the minority. >> some people say that you and your ultra conservative colleagues in the republican house are the problem? >> no, absolutely not. i'm not far right. i'm an original of constitution. we've got to rebuild the foundations, they've been eroded by both parties. >> do you think there's

potential for a civil war within your party? >> i don't think so, i think the principle of spending reductions, economic freedoms they are embraced by all republicans. the tactics, many of us have a difference. >> tactics versus principles, take a stand now or live on to fight another day. the tension between these two georges and the strain of republicans that they represent is about to spill out of the house as we discovered almost by accident. >> this afternoon at four o'clock i'm announcing my candidacy for the u.s. senate. >> good for you, congratulations, to you. >> thank you. >> john: georgia will have an open senate seat in two years, though price is the establishment favorite, brown thinks he has the tea party advantage. >> it's exciting to have --. >> well, we've got to have more. >> i agree. >> john: that's one race that could have national implications in 2014. a mid term election year that will surely be shaped in part by the next big showdown on debt row.

quickly approaching crisis known as sequestration. fox news reporting, showdown on debt row, returns after the break. alec, for this mission i upgraded your smart phone. ♪ right. but the most important feature of all is... the capital one purchase eraser. i can redeem the double miles i earned with my venture card to erase recent travel purchases. d with a few clicks, this mission never happened. uh, what's this button do? [ electricity zaps ] ♪ you requested backup? yes. yes i did. what's in your wallet?

>> the framers of the constitution designed the system to do the bidding. public through considered debate and formed by popular sentiment. why then does it seem that these days nothing happens in washington until a dire emergency forces a backroom deal and a late night vote on a measure that nobody's read? as good a place to start as any, september, 2008. >> history is in the making. >> has to be some kind of rescue in place. >> the bell will ring, the markets will open and after that it's anybody's guess. >> the collapse of the mortgage market threatened to meltdown america's entire financial system. treasury secretary henry paulson submitted to congress

a bold request, give him nearly a trillion dollars. give it to him now. let him spend it on whatever he wants, no questions asked. >> we need to make that bill quickly and cleanly. >> if they didn't, paulson insisted america could be hit by a second great depression. >> to help the american people is the goal of this plan. >> john: with the stock market tanking paulson got his so-called tarp money. eventually tarp was used in all sorts of ways few had envisioned, including to bail out the auto companies. meantime, barack obama had defeated john mccain in the race to succeed george bush. during the transition, incoming chief of staff rahm emanuel mapped out a governing strategy. >> you never want a serious crisis to go to waste, what i mean by that, an opportunity to do things you could not do before. >> do you remember when rahm emanuel said in 2008 never let

a crisis go to waste. >> absolutely. >> john: what do you think? >> cynical. >> at the time he ran a plastics company in wisconsin. >> of course, they didn't let a crisis go to waste. >> when the town is burning, you don't check the party labels. everybody needs to grab a hose. >> his first month in office president obama invoked the economic crisis to ram through an 800 billion dollars stimulus bill, but there was a growing fear among some voters that america couldn't afford this new a trillion here, a trillion there attitude in washington. house republicans heard them. not a single one voted for the bill. it was a lesson for the g.o.p. in the era of obama, says georgia congressman, republican tom price. >> that was a big moment for the g.o.p.? >> it was. the unity that was expressed during, call the non-stimulus bill is the same kind of unity that absolutely must be corralled and embraced because

we remain the minority party in this town. >> you couldn't stop it? >> that's right. >> you made a statement and nothing happened. >> it wasn't that nothing happened. i would suggest that the unity on this bill in part the 2010 elections. >> why did we gain control in the house in 2010? that was the enthusiasm of the base of people that support the tea party. >> and the tea party was just as angered by president bush's tarp as president obama's stimulus. >> i'm he not a lobbyist with all kinds of funny to stuff it in your pocket. >> john: what turned it into a massive political force was the push to enact obamacare. >> make no mistake, the costs of our health care is a threat to our economy. >> john: the economic crisis supplied some urgency for this, too. >> it's a ticking time bomb for the federal budget. >> john: but the tea party couldn't derail the massive health care legislation few had even read. >> what good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages

and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill? >> democrats did pass the bill though it took a rare last minute parliamentary tactic to do it. >> the speaker. >> john: with the help of the tea party republicans took back the house in 2010. >> that didn't allow the g.o.p. to pass their own policies, only to block those of the president, but on one issue, the ability to just say no gave house republicans enormous leverage to force spending cuts. if they were willing to go to the proverbial mat. that issue was the debt ceiling which needed to be raised by august of 2011 or the government would lose its ability to borrow to cover its spending. >> that was the pinch point. that was the nexxis for getting real spending reductions and that was the genesis of the sequester. >> john: nobody knows exactly what would happen if congress

actually he refuses -- actually refuses to raise the debt ceiling, but leave the u.s. unable to fund its obligations, perhaps even default on the debt? >> i cannot believe that congress would end up being that irresponsible. >> house republicans held firm so then everybody got together to construct a sort of political goldberg machine designed to kick the problem down the road. see if you can follow this. first they raised the debt ceiling to cover part of the costs, congress would cut over 900 billion dollars in spending, spread out over a decade of course. then lawmakers created a joint bipartisan supercommittee, its job to propose at least 1.2 trillion dollars in deficit reduction. that proposal could not be debated or amended it just got one vote, yes or not. got that? now, if this plan failed sequestration. a name for the threat of a

hacksaw approach to spending reductions that was supposed to hit both sides equally. democrats would hate cut to nondefense programs and republicans wouldn't stand cuts to the military. the theory was the cuts would be so bad there was no way congress would ever allow them to happen, but after months of deliberations, the supercommittee couldn't come to any agreement and simply gave up. so much for theory. now, sequestration was to go into effect on january 1st, 2013. as it happens, that was the same time the so-called bush tax cuts were set to expire. together, it was a supercrisis. fed chairman ben bernanke gave it a name. >> under current law on january 1st, 2013 there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. >> the fiscal cliff was a classic example of what happens, as you just keep putting these things off and

another election comes up. >>, but the 2012 election settled nothing. the voters reelected president obama, but also let republicans keep control of the house. like it or not, a divided nation had just given government by crisis a second term. coming up, with one crisis averted and another on the way, t

>> welcome back. you've seen how president obama used the fiscal cliff crisis to maneuver republicans into a deal that they hated. taxes went up, the sequester, that long threatened budget ax was postponed. in a fractured g.o.p. appeared to have neither a winning message nor strategy. we resume our story on february 12th.

the capital's getting ready for the state of of the union and lawmakers are taking a chance to make their own points ahead of the president's big speech. >> we have to-- establish from that hearing. >> at that budget committee hearing first term republican senator ron johnson questions budget director. >> in general don't tax increases harm economic growth. >> i think what the alternative is-- and. >> the alternative it is to run large deficits. >> federal deficit was increased-- >> johnson a successful businessman with no prior political experience was swept in by the tea party wave of 2010 and he came here to solve problems and the experience frustrating. >> increasing taxes on the rich is 1/10 as effective than if we returned the economy to

a reasonable economy. >> and showed interest payments. >> it's another hearing with so many questions and too little time. a century ago, wisconsin was really the birthplace of the progressive. and of late, the vanguard of reining in government. what are your constituents who are in favor of smaller government telling you about what's going on here in washington? >> wisconsinites are common sense people. this have a basic belief that government ought to live within its means. even when you look at the sequestration, if the cuts go through, this is not cutting the budget, this is merely slowing the growth of the budget. >> do people at home understand that? >> i think so. on a macro sense, the voters are solidly behind republicans. >> i've worked for the government over 30 years. >> and another district, represented by another first-term lawmaker, but with another story altogether. >> i have friends that are working now and they're upset

because they may get furloughed. >> they're nervous a little bit. >> a lot of my district is tied to government and its citizens either work for the government directly. work for some enterprise that's somehow tied to the government or came here to work for the government. that's a large percentage. >> maryland congressman john delaney is also a successful businessman serving in his first political post. last november he defeated a republican who held the seat for nearly two decades. he represents a swath of bedroom communities just north of washington d.c. >> maryland is a state overly dependent upon government spending. we're the third most dependent state in the country on government spending and we only ranked like 30 or 35th in terms of private sector job creation. >> john: so when you talk to your constituents. >> yes. >> john: what are you hearing from them? >> what i'm hearing from them, they're concerned about the sequester. >> i'd like to hear the president say about the sequestration, which i believe

he will, is talk about how this isn't a good solution. what is a good solution is for the parties to come together and work on a long-term balanced proposal ♪ happy birthday dear erin nigh-- abraham ♪ . and it's abraham lincoln's birthday. between the thai food dinner and they're e-mailed a copy of the president's speech. >> he's going to ask for taxes again, particularly using the language, this won't raise the debt or deficit. by the way i have all the new programs. >> john: schweiker says it will only strengthen the g.o.p. resolve to cut spending. >> we're working our way over to the floor of the house. my guess is republicans kind of sit pretty quietly through most of the speech. >> john: senator johnson heads to the capitol, too. >> democrats will cheer when he asked for a balanced approach. >> the president of the united

states. [applause] that's going to be called what's the sequester. his position is i represent the people, they represent ideology. i represent the folks and they represent the rich. he won the election on that find of argument. he won on the fiscal cliff, on that kind of argument. if he came out and wins the next round on the sequester, i think he will have weakened and fractured the republican house in a way that will clear the way to his being the dominant actor in washington for the next term. >> democrats, republicans, business leaders and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in washington as the sequester, are a really bad idea. >> john: and though the president says he is willing to cut spending, he spends much of his one-hour speech proposing new programs. >> i'm announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs. >> and use some of our oil and

gas revenue. >> put people to work as soon as possible on most urgent repairs. >> make high quality preschool available to every single child in america. >> redesign america's high schools so they better equip graduates, training and equipping forces. >> and invest in capabilities, reduce waste in war time spending. >> invest in worldclass hacare including mental care for our warriors. >> and he throws out platitudes and the underlying economics behind that are illusional. >> i think that a lot of politics here, we're not funding things that are obsolete and the obvious things, there's a whole variety of things that need to be done in government today, because if we don't deal with this we will not as a country be able to invest in the things that are important. these problems are solvable. they take some courage. >> john: do you he see courage out there? >> i see some courage.

i'd like to see a heck of a lot more. i'd like to see more people coming to the table and say, listen whether i get elected or not is irrelevant. what's relevant is how i deal with the trust i've been given. if people don't tell the american people the truth, they're compromising that trust. >> john: that trust is about to be put to the test. as congress adjourns, the american people begin to hear stories of the sequester comments, meant to frighten them. >> every american that flies for business or vacation will be impacted. >> federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. >> john: but are those stories true? when we come back, the sequester as ap

>> returning to our story. we're four-plus years into a brutal economy, the national debt now edging towards 17

trillion dollars. and in washington's loudest voices are crying, the sky is falling, but it's not the folks who say we're spending too much. it's those who say we're cutting too much. joining that chorus, president obama after a brief break from the crisis. february 16th, with automatic spending cuts he called sudden and harsh just two weeks away, the president heads to florida for a boys weekend of golf. the president in the middle of this crisis took a weekend to go to florida and play golf with tiger woods. smart move? >> i can't comment on the president's schedule, you know? i've learned a long time ago not to worry about the thing i can't control. one thing i can't control is the president. >> john: democratic congress freshman delaney. >> if you had a crisis in your business would you have have taken time to go to the golf course. >> i have an expression in the

private sector, which is you can't yell charge from your second home. >> john: meanwhile, congressional democrats and administration officials are fanning out across the country and they're not exactly saying the sky will fall if the sequester goes through, but close. among the things they say could happen, children exposed to lead paint, mentally ill patients untreated, uninspected meat, crops, closing of parks, more wildfires, cuts to early education, nutrition for seniors, community healthsters, small business employees, flight inspections and job training. and hurricane sandy victim. military, civilian employees, longer wait for gun background checks, fax refunds, passports, visas, epa inspections, and hospital closures and work place deaths all up, and cyber security, maintenance and terrorist surveillances down.

>> the ones like we're here today to help community respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. >> john: february 19th, president obama back home from the golf trip adds to the litany. >> it will jeopardize our military readiness, eviscerate job creating readiness, education, medical research, border patrol agents will see their hours reduced. fbi agents will be furloughed, federal prosecutors will have to close caseses and let criminals go. >> john: he went on for more than 12 minutes. >> air traffic contollers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays in airports across thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care. hundreds of thousands of americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. >> already the cuts forced the navy an aircraft that was to

deploy to the persian gulf. >> it's sad, john, to have the chief of this land scaring people when in fact if any of those things happen it will be because the president wants them to happen. >> the cuts are not smart, fair, it will hurt our economy. >> john: is this all a little over the top? >> look it, i don't think -- these are the facts, what people who report on the facts, how they decide to describe them is their decision, but i think the facts are the facts. certain cuts will be made, certain programs will be affected. >> but is it over the top to say that all of the these horrible things will happen? >> what depends-- there are clearly negative outcomes associated with the sequester, there are clearly negative outcomes not dealing with it, including threatening the public. i could describe the sequester, if i needed to, as

horrific. >> and back home in georgia, republican congressman paul brown holds a town hall meeting. >> is there enough stomach on the republican side to let that go through if we can't get spending cuts? if we don't stop this irresponsible spending that both parties have been doing, we're going to have a total financial meltdown. we're going to be just like greece. you're hearing from a lot of constituents saying congressman brown, hold the course, don't back slide on this despite all the dire warnings coming from the white house, coming from democrats in congress? >> that's correct. >> john: so, what do they think of what the president is saying? >> i think they've seen the president has put out a whole lot of false information. >> john: they think that the president is crying wolf here? >> a lot of people contact me

they think he's crying wolf yes the wall street journal echoes the line that the sequester will be ugly and dangerous and cost thousands of jobs. >> were you concerned that the the speaker was to some degree helping the president by saying it would be ugly and dangerous. >> compared to what the president says, yes, that he was helping the president's, the message that the president was trying to give to the american people you think in some ways that the president helped the speaker with that editorial. >> i do, yeah. >> john: do you think senator that speaker boehner is laying the groundwork for a last minute deal with the president? >> he might, but i don't think he'd have the support of his congress. >> february 23rd, the president's weekly radio address. >> these cuts don't have to happen. congress can turn them off anytime with just a little compromise. while he keeps the pressure on, some republicans talk of another 11th hour deal.

>> well, i want to get my republican colleagues to come up with a plan instead of, you know, firing the soldiers or to fire the politicians. >> for some people, the wedge is more important than the policy. >> john: republican congressman david schweiker is back in arizona telling his constituents he will hold firm. you're going back to d.c. on monday. from there there will be five days to either solve this or go over whatever fiscal cliff will happen when the sequestration kicks in. how do you see this unfolding in the next few days. >> the first mistake in the question is saying solve it. because if we can't do this tiny marginal reduction in spending, which ultimately, by the end of the decade isn't a reduction in spending, it's just a reduction in the growth of spending. god forbid what our future is if he we can't do that. >> john: could america's future come down to another last minute meeting with the the prprprprpr

[beep] [indistinct chatter] [kids talking at once] [speaking foreign language] [heart beating] [heartbeat continues] [faint singing]

[heartbeat, music playing louder] ♪ i'm feeling better since you know me ♪ ♪ i was a lonely soul, but that's the old me... ♪ announcer: this song was created with heartbeats of children in need. find out how it can help frontline health workers bring hope to millions of children at everybeatmatters.org. >> a week to sequestration. the president has invested a huge amount of political capital to get republicans to cave on the spending cuts. if he wins that fight, he'll severely weaken and fracture his opposition. it might even be lights out for the tea party. so the president keeps pushing and pushing. history suggests there's plenty of time for a last minute deal.

february 25th, congress is returning to the capitol. at the white house, vice-president joe biden delivers remarks about the economy. he says americans are pleased. >> very little doubt in any circles out there about america's ability to be in position to lead the world in the 21st century. >> he needs to get out of his bubble. he needs to get out across this land and talk to real people who continue to hurt because of our economy. >> john: those real people, congressman says-- >> they understand that washington is out of control and because of that spending it's harming their ability to get the job that they want. create the kind of jobs that they want to in their small business or their large business. >> john: here we are, it's monday, march 1st is looming. there are four and a half days left to come up with some alternative plan to this sequester. are there efforts underway now, congressman on capitol hill to avoid the sequester? >> there are folks that are

giving it a lot of lip service. >> i hope you speak with your congressional delegation and remind them in no uncertain terms exactly what is at stake. >> john: what is at stake? listen closely, obama seems to step away from the apocalyptic scenario. >> these impacts will not all be felt on day one, but rest assured, the uncertainty is already having an effect. companies are preparing layoff notices. families are preparing to cut back on expenses and the longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become. >> john: could it be a dawning realization at the white house that president obama could lose the sequester showdown? >> nobody ever thought, and you can count me among those people, that this would actually happen. now it looks like it's going to, if you'll forgive the phrase, how high up in the pucker factor are we right now? >> again the spending

reductions have to occur, 40 plus cents of every single dollar that we spend in this country. >> john: february 26th, newport news, virginia, president obama speaks to ship yard workers. >> what the sequester does, it uses a meat cleaver approach to gut critical investments in things like education and national security. >> john: but he again resists talk of an immediate catastrop catastrophe. >> the impact of this policy will not be felt overnight, but it will be real. >> john: it's tuesday, congressman, there are just a few days left to avoid the sequester. do you see anything coming down the pike in the next few days that will avoid the sequester being triggered? >> i think the sequester will be triggered, yes, indeed. >> john: georgia republican congressman paul brown. there are a lot of republicans, yourself included, who say this is really bad for the u.s. military and for na reason they were opposed to the sequestration. senator lindsey graham says the party of ronald reagan would never let this happen and john mccain says the cuts

are unconscionable. >> we've got to stop spending and whatever it takes to start that process and we can come back and fix it. >> john: you want to fix it going on. >> that's right. >> john: are you comfortable this week knowing that this sequestration will occur? >> we've got to let it occur, yes. i'm comfortable with that. >> john: that day, with the sequester still two days away, homeland security officials announce they have released illegal immigrants from arizona detention facilities. are they releasing illegal aliens now? >> the white house supposedly didn't know about it-- >> wednesday the president invites congressional leaders to a last minute meeting on friday, the day the sequester hits. >> he hopes that they will have a constructive discussion about doing something to prevent sequestration. >> john: some republicans are suspicious. >> here we are 11th hour once again, the last minute, the president sweeps in. >> john: could a deal be in the works that would neutralize the spending cuts? perhaps by adding the higher

taxes the president wants? >> i don't think so. >> john: senator ron johnson of wisconsin. >> what do your tea party constituents say to you if you don't hold the line on sequestration and there's another 11th hour deal that's brought to the floor without the support of the majority of the republicans in congress? >> well, i don't quite honestly believe that speaker boehner would be speaker if that happens. i think he would lose his speakership. >> john: thursday morning, february 28th, the sequestration will trigger at midnight. hours later, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell will meet with the president. >> we've talked to a lot of republican voters out there in the congressional districts and frankly we've heard from them anytime the leadership is headed over to the white house at the 11th hour, it makes them a little bit nervous. are they might to be nervous? >> no, they're not right to be nervous in this instance. there's really nothing frankly to discuss. we made the commitment to reduce spending this amount of money this year. now we'd be happy to talk with him about reconfiguring the

way the spending reduction is achieved, but we're not going to cut a penny less than we said we would. >> john: are you expecting that he will propose tomorrow some more revenue raisers? >> that's what he's been advocating out on the campaign trail. >> john: so your response to him will be, mr. president, with all due respect, no? >> the answer is no, he's already gotten all the taxes he's going to get. he got it two months ago. we're asking this big bloated government that's going to spend 6.3 trillion, to reduce spending 2.4% over the next six months and people i've discussed that with think it's laughable that the federal government could not he reduce its spending by that amount of money. >> john: it does seem like a drop in the bucket. why then was it seen when this budget control act was cut in 2011 that cutting that much would be horrible? >> look, my members didn't think it would create a calamity. he's the one that's characterizing this as some kind of armageddon experience. i don't think it's going to

produce armageddon at all. >> john: it's becoming clear that after all the talk of a crisis apocalypse isn't nigh. technically 85 billion dollars will be cut, but only 44 billion this year. and only half from domestic programs. 22 billion out of 3.8 trillion dollars in total spending. so what exactly will be cut? >> i was wrong-- >> white house spokesman jay carney can't really say. >> i don't have any more for you on it. >> john: at 2:07 p.m. congress adjourns. representative david schweiker of arizona, one of the tea party conservatives who held the line on the sequester from day one, leaves town. >> we're beyond the 12th hour now. >> john: so you're headed back to the district. what are you thinking about all of this? >> congressman paul broun of georgia heads home. >> the world is not going to come to an end, tomorrow or monday. >> john: coming the boys used double miles from their capital one venture card

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>> welcome back, if there's anyplace that's going to bear the brunt of the sequester it's washington d.c. and the communities that surround it, places that prosecutpered despi the economic down turn. i went to one of the towns as doom dawned. >> john: in congressman john delaney's district, a town of 60,000 just north of washington d.c. here we are friday morning, as far as i know the sky didn't fall. are you kind of surprised? what are you thinking about where we are today? >> obviously, nothing's going to happen today, but i think we'll feel the effects of this and unfortunately, i think there was a much better way to do this.

>> john: last time we talked i asked you if the president was somewhat over the top and i sense that you were a little bit uncomfortable with the tone of the rhetoric at that point. >> i don't generally agree with a lot of ranting and raving without the fact, and both parties. >> john: was the president guilty of that. >> as i said both parties were guilty of that. >> john: at that very moment at the white house president obama is meeting with congressional leaders and no last minute deal. >> they decided to protect special interest tax breaks for the well off and well-connected and think that's more important than protecting the military or families. it's going to mean less growth, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, that's real, that's not a scare tactic, that's a fact. >> john: but down pennsylvania avenue, signs of budding bipartisanship. >> we've already got an agreement with the democrats on how to fund the pentagon and other military based agencies like veterans, we're

going to pass that next week which gives us the flexibility to put these cuts in place in a better way. >> john: if the deal materializes or even if it doesn't, it may be that this sequester, which was supposed to signify a profound failure of government, was in fact a real, if untidy success. senator ron johnson has been saying this all along. >> if and when sequestration goes through, would that be a victory for the tea party? >> sure, absolutely. tea party taxed enough already. the federal government gets enough revenue, it's about time to lower the rate of spending, lower the size of government. >> this is a great debatet what you want to have, how big a government do you want to have, things like sequester, the operation of government, raising of the debt ceiling all are opportunities to try to achieve the kind of result the american people need, just go back to the debates between hamilton and jefferson, the beginning of the country. >> john: do you see that as being a healthy part of the discourse? >> do i.

i actually think that bringing people to the table with different perspectives is a core strength of the common and working through those perspectives and find a common ground that serves the people is what we should be doing as elected officials. >> john: now the cuts begin, the real question he how they'll play in the long run both economically and politically. if the sequester is is a tea party victory, then it is also the first true test of the tea party's philosophy of smaller government. if it works, its supporters will push for more spending cuts to curb the debt. if it fails, its opponents will say they were right all along in their call for higher taxes. so, it turns out the sequester created in a moment of desperation may actually be a turning point, perhaps it will even be the first step in a path away from these showdowns on debt row. that's our program. thanks for watching.