>> we have a party that doesn't seem to realize that the democrats only control one branch of the government. >> and eric cantor and the tea party may have been contained, but is the price america's financial future. >> we cannot hold the american economy hostage. >> this is bizarre-o, and this is the thing that turned sharron angle and others into senate gop nominees. >> it is game day as the house debate begins right now on speaker john boehner's bill. members of the house of representatives gathering on the floor to debate a piece of legislation at the center of this historic showdown over raising the debt ceiling. the vote is expected to follow in the next few hours, and we plan to bring you the best of the day. the details of the debate, how the vote goes down, and what is next for capitol hill, and the american people economy.

and don't think for a moment that today has been without the usual acrimony that has marked the last six months, indeed as the republican leaders met behind closed door to rally the magical 216 votes needed one tea party freshman, and former notre dame football player mike kelly of pennsylvania encouraged his fellow party members to join him in supporting the speaker. buckle up your chin straps, the locker room speech, reportedly went, and let's not let the you know what out of the democrats. and buckle their chin straps republican leaders did just before going into battle insisting that they are the ones behaving in a bipartisan manner. >> what this bill reflects is a sincere honest effort to end this crisis in a bipartisan way. >> the fact is that the president has asked us to compromise. we have compromised.

the bill today represents in a bipartisan negotiated agreement. >> what i'm a ashamed of are the democrats on the other side not whipping up idea, but whipping just to say no. >> and the democratic side majority leader harry reid already making his position clear assuring the senate will move to take up the boehner bill at once and at once defeat it. and as the president waits to see what his play may be, his messenger jay carney was steadfast that the white house remains in the winning position. the same side as most americans who simply want compromise. >> one thing that is clear, dan, is that on the suggestion that this is about politics, i don't believe that anybody who has looked at a poll could disagree with the idea that we are winning this based on the merit, but the president is not here to win political arguments, but he is to make sure that the economy and the american people are protected. >> and this vote is anything but a sure thing with many rank and

file members of the tea party persuasion firmly against their own speaker. let's get right to it. joining us from capitol hill democratic congressman peter welsh of vermont. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. >> we had a press conference of republicanss proposing a bipartisan bill. is it? >> well, saying it is doesn't make it so. the real question here about bipartisanship is that the democrats are willing to make cuts and the republicans make revenues and the answer is yes, on democrats, we are willing to do cuts, and they have said absolutely no to revenues, and in the bipartisanship, and the negotiations of the biden group and on the question of revenues is when mr. cantor walked away and when the president was negotiating directly with mr. boehner inrevenues on the

table, mr. boehner walked away. it is not a compromise or bipartisan, and the news for democrats is that it is whether you look at the plans, it is not balanced and it is not cuts or revenues. >> and this morning, the republicans said they agree with every aspect of the boehner bill save the fact that it forces another round in the midst of the re-election campaign. and do you agree with the bill other than the fact that you have to come back in six months? >> well, with we are in the land of make believe, because mr. mcconnell knows that this does not include every member. the gang of six which had liberal democrats an conservative republicans said we have to put everything on the table including revenues and mr. mcconnell has walked away from that. so that the balance here that we do need by the way is to look at

this as an issue of revenues as well as of cuts. if we put everything on the table, we could actually resolve it, and instead, we are at a continuation of this partisan battlement what i am seeing in the house is that the republicans are dominant on this issue by the tea party and their mantra is to cut taxes, cut spending, and somehow that increases growth. >> and mr. boehner keeps saying he is seeking compromise. he claims to be bipartisan, and what action are you aware of specifically that speaker boehner has actually taken across the aisle and sought some sort of compromise on? >> well, let me say this. i think that mr. boehner is doing his best. i think that all of his instincts and history of someone who would reach across and find common ground. he has a tough job. he's got a house membership that won't take yes for an answer. >> so, are you saying mr. welsh,

that he is hostage to those 87 freshmen? >> i am actually. he cannot consider revenues and it is clear when he was one-on-one with the president, they had hope for a grand plan, $4 trillion, and now we would all be better off if we had a $4 trillion reduction in the deficit and when mr. boehner was talking about revenues there, there was acknowledgment that the tax code was a mess and we could generate significant revenues by getting rid of the ethanol $6 billion give a waway to that and the oil industry breaks and the fact that warren buffett pays a lower tax rate than the people who work for him is cleaning it up and not hurting the economy, but when there was any whisper of a scent of revenue even if it came by reforming the tax code, he got his hands chopped off. >> congressman peter welsh, you will need to rush in and table your own vote soon, so thank you for joining us. >> thank you. right now a white knuckler

as the white house prepares to vote on the reconfigured boehner plan. we look at those following the latest showdown, luke russert and mike viqueira at the white house. starting with luke, where the vote is about to take place, and luke, let's look at for a moment how to speaker fielded one of the queries at the press conference this afternoon. we don't appear to have that, luke, but apparently mr. boehner referred to you in his chosen term as loud mouth, is that correct? >> yes, it is correct. it is an endearing term though, because he gives nicknames to the journalists similar to bush xliii. >> and we have luke the loud mouth, and bank robbers on film used and something like an atmosphere of rugby locker room with republicans ready to get pumped up and hit high and low

and smack people and you have been the guide for the last six months as the debate has come slowly and painfully forward and we know that speaker boehner needs 216 votes, and does he have them? >> as of right now, it is difficult to tell whether or not he has 216. what we can tell you though is that all of the momentum and the enthusiasm seems to be going in that direction and this morning the conference that you are referencing is a raucous affair, and the message from john boehner is that you are with me or president obama. if you vote against me, you are voting for president obama, and resonating if you don't vote on this, you lose all of the negotiating leverage, but before here, martin, john boehner was off of the house floor in the speaker room taking in members one by one twisting the arms and emphatically saying you have to be on my side for here and not speaker boehner's nature there to be an arm-twister. >> and didn't speaker boehner say when he took the gavel

himself that he would not do that sort of thing and allowed the will of the house the go forward? >> indeed. that is one of the big m.o.s when he came into the house, and said so much hot air in the place, and let the people's voice be heard and it is the people's house, and they would be ultimately be heard, and he realizes the stakes on the debate of the debt, and if this is not out of the house of representatives, they have nowhere to go as a house of conference and it reflects poorly on his leadership to show that he cannot stop the influence of some of the most far right members of party who tried to undercut him and undercut members of defense by soliciting outside interest groups to get them to vote against the bay no bioehner bil. it is the march of the 216. >> and luke, loud mouth, thank you for the moment. can i come to the silver fox, mike viqueira. >> he is the silver fox.

>> and you were at the press conference with jay carney and how was tlit? >> well, a 20th figure once said, we are seeing politics is the most gruesome effect. and this is sausage making up here. this thing is not going to be resolved today or tomorrow or this weekend and the two sides are that far apart. if john boehner is successful as of what luke has report and what i have heard he can get to 216, a majority in the house of representatives as it is constituted right now, it will go over to the senate where, dwr yes, it is going to die. but as the house republican strategy, it is a classic political jam job. if nothing else can pass congress except for this one piece of legislation passing the house presumably later today, the thinking and the hope, and perhaps the fantasy on the side of the republicans is that president obama is going to have no choice but to tell harry reid

to put it on the floor of the senate for a vote and sign it himself and it sounds farfetched and probably is and i will go so far to say that the key is that if it passes tonight, it is mitch mcconnell, the leader of of the senate, and will he work a deal with the white house over the weekend with harry reid, allow something to go through that by its nature inherently anything that gets out of the senate has to be bipartisan and send it back to the house and leave john boehner with little choice tuesday afternoon or dare we say it wednesday or thursday after the deadline and put it on the floor of the house? bottom line, martin, nobody in this town and i can state it this with some certainty knows how this is going to end. >> okay. luke russert and mike viqueira, stay with us throughout the hour, and thank you very much. and the debate goes on and the players will soon take center stage. stay with us. ♪ this is the day your life will surely change ♪

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from maryl in just about two hours the shouse set to vote on an amended version of the john boehner bill which was originally questioned by the nonpartisan congressional budget office, and now the cbo says that the revised proposal will cut deficits by $917 billion over ten years. it is $66 billion more than the original. the new bill is expected to save $22 billion in 2012 alone. meanwhile, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is reportedly still in talks with vice president biden on how to avoid a default. speaking on the floor earlier today, mitch mcconnell reaffirmed the support for speaker boehner's bill saying it is the only way to go. >> it is inconceivable to me that they would block the only bill that could get through the house of representatives and prevent a default right now.

inconceivable. it is inconceivable to me that they would do this for no other reason than to avoid the president having another debate before his election about the need for washington to get if fiscal house in order. >> joining us now is msnbc contributor and washington post editorial writer jonathan capehart. the senate leader mitch mcconnell says that the party has endorsed every feature of the version except for revisiting it in six months when he says it is not about the re-election when economists say we can't go through another period of uncertainty in few months, so tell me, jonathan, who is right here? >> well, look, the president and the administration and the economists right here. the president is right to want to push it off of the 2012 elections and is there a political benefit to him and the democrats, yes, of course.

you don't want this coming up in the middle of a presidential election, but because of the politics involved and we are seeing it play out here right now, you don't want to have to come back at this six months from now in the middle of the primary season in december trying to push the debt ceiling over the limit, and raising the debt ceiling again. it does not make fiscal sense and it does not make political sense from the democrats' point of view, but again, i want to emphasize the fact that right now that argument pushing it past the 2012 elections shouldn't be viewed in terms of politics, but viewed in terms of putting the country first. the country cannot go through this again. >> a fundamental economic issue. what white house press secretary jay carney said if the president were playing politics, he would be happy to do it, because it looks like the republicans are ready to push the economy to the precipi precipice, and is he right that the republicans are coming out of this in a worse condition

than the democrats? >> well, look at the latest poll and our poll the washington post poll showed that a ma jority of the american people want to see some sort of compromise in getting this issue resolved. look, the american people are anxious. they are worried about what is happening with this debate in general. but specifically, they do care about the fiscal and financial trajectory of the country, and they do recognize that debts are an issue, but this is certainly not the way to go about it. they want the two sides to come together and come up with a real viable solution. >> jonathan capehart, and brilliantly defines the economics from the politics. thank you very much. >> thank you, martin. >> the deficit blame game not playing well on wall street. the head of the banks are urging the president and congress to get the deal done. a sobering warning is released from standard & poor's saying that the reverberations of the showdown may be deep and wide

particularly if washington does not come to a timely agreement on the debt ceiling. and bill sullivan is live for us at cnbc headquarters for us. hello, bill. >> well, let's talk about this if we can, because you heard of the conversation with jonathan about the politics behind this, but think of the economics behind this. this is trillions of dollars in securities held here and around the world attached to the aaa credit rating or the stock market. the fundamental issue is this, nobody knows what would happen if we have a debt downgrade to a aa. maybe nothing would happen. maybe it would be sort of stock market or economic disaster. anybody who comes on your program, martin, and says they know, send them over our way, because we'd like to meet them, because the reality is that computer kons troll controls so if we were to get the credit rating downgraded, we don't know the outcome, and that is the scary part. >> but, brian, we have had four

days where the dow has gone down, and this could be the worst week in the dow's performance since april off this year, so that the signs are already negative whether you wish to project or prophecy about the future, we have already seen evidence. >> well, today on cnbc, we talked to the realtors and in a week housing market, they had peopleand signed up to buy a home have backed out because they are concerned of what is or is not happening in washington, d.c., they are canceling the contracts to buy a home. that is one angle, but there is another angle. what about the consumer spending? are consumers starting to sit on their hands and close the wallets more, because they are afraid of what might not get done in washington, d.c.? to my previous point, if we don't know an outcome, and don't know what is going to happen, generally the best thing to do is to batten down the hatches and perhaps do nothing which is what consumers are starting to

do and it is what corporate america is afraid would happen even greater en masse if we don't get a deal or if we get a credit ragt downgrade and the stocks are fundamentally earnings, martin, so if the consumer clams up for whatever reason and does not spend, corporate america suffers and the stock market suffers and that is what we are starting to see this week. >> a serious situation. cnbc's brian sullivan, thank you so much for the analysis. >> you're welcome. next, don't worry about a default, it could actually be paradise. we will explain when we come back. [ announcer ] who could resist the call... of america's number-one puppy food brand? with dha and essential nutrients also found in mother's milk. purina puppy chow.

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we need to decrease federal spending. we need to decrease our deficit. the last thing we need is to we are following a live debate on the house floor on speaker boehner's debt bill and you may not know it, but the

last country to default on the debt was jamaica in 2010. yes, jamaica, the middle income developing country with a population of under 3 million and best known for the tourism and music and island paradise and the visitors from all over the world, and it is also an island nation with one of the most abysmal debt burdens in the world. in the 2009/2010 fiscal year, jamaica's interest payments on the public debt were 45% of the government's expenditure which left hardly any room for spend on anything else. the government was forced to turn to the imf for help, but unfortunately the 2010 imf program called for policies that would be expected to make things much worse, including a reduction of the fiscal deficit as well as decreases in spending on health, education and childhood development. if february of last year, the jamaican government reached agreement with the country on debt exchange which supported

the imf which extended the average maturity of the debt and lowered the interest rates in order to lower the government's interest but just by 3% over three years which is not enough, but hey, they have reggae, and red striped beer and they haven't got the greatest financial future, but they have got bob marley. i can't offer you beer or island music, but ki offer yi can offe on our show at martinbashir on facebook. and more on the debt. the list that may surprise you. ♪ boy don't cry me calcium is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal.

this bay the way is the worst challenge by boehner.

elections are all about politics, and then the winners have to actually govern, and i can see on election night that some of the new member of congress will hold the debt ceiling hostage because they would not understand when the politic politics ends and the governing begins. >> "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell week nights at 8:00 eastern. ♪ 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. speaker boehner, speaker boehner. >> loud mouth?

you earned it. >> that was speaker boehner in a light moment with whom he called luke loud mouth russert a few moments ago. but we will see if he has wrangled the freshmen to vote for the house bill. it will lower the debt by $2.5 trillion in exchange for $917 billion in spending caps. luke russert is covering this for us at the capitol hill, and luke, any interesting questions or comments today from the floor? >> there have been a few interesting things, martin, and that is mainly hearing a lot of of the republicans urging their colleagues to vote yes on this bill. essentially going on the house floor, basically saying for all intents and purposes that if you do not support this legislation, you are handing the democrats a golden opportunity, and also, this is the only serious proposal out there, and also using words that we have not heard a lot of republicans

lately, martin, and that is compromise. speaker boehner used the word compromise and eric cantor used it earlier saying it is a bipartisan bill saying that it is not as rigid as before and not as tea party-backed before. >> and luke, aren't they being disingenuous with that word as they were talking about the cut, cap, balance agreement with a bipartisan compromise and it only included four or five votes from the democrats. >> well, there is a difference of meaning of that word compromi compromise. >> are they stretching the word. >> well, last week they were compromising for the raising of the debt ceiling, and now it is to which mr. reade hid had litt input in, and off to the side of the house floor as we speak right now, speaker boehner is still twisting arms. this is an intense effort, and it is a squeaker.

a lot of folks and the popular thing is that it will pass, but it is by no means a slam dunk right now. >> so, speaker boehner is still having to do the arm twisting and persuade people even though we expect to vote within an hour? >> well, within probably two hours is safe, but it is still a lot to go this the way of persuading folks to come on over. look, the idea that the loss of leverage has not resonate nod the folks very much to the right of speaker boehner on this issue. if you look at a it from the macro level, martin, what happens to the republican cause on the debt limit if this is not out of the house? some folks are willing to sacrifice that on the republican side staying true to the purity of the let's cut spending morals that they felt they were elected on. if that is in fact the case, it is an awful predicament for the house gop to be in and embold embolden

emboldeneds harry reid, and will the colleagues on the fence understand that? >> we wait on tender hooks. >> thank you. >> standby, and we will be back with you for more soon. in the boehner bill, it is put up or shut up. those elected on hard-line tea party politics in their district now with a push for pragmatism from their leader and will they follow the line or stand their ground and stand a federal default. we have a first-time republican from new hampshire, and he joining us now. congressman, speaker boehner says to ai is tday is the day, say you will stand behind the bill and will you get the magic 216 number, and luke russert says that the speaker is having to twist arms off of the rooms of the floor of the house. >> well, that is an exaggeration. look -- >> i don't think he is exaggerating, sir, because he saw people with the speaker. >> well, we are a conference that is united, and we are

focused on making sure that we reduce the debt and deficit and move forward and move past this challenging time in the economic history, and quite frankly, it is the senate that is blocking not just this, but cut, cap, and balance, and they have not, martin, put anything of substance on the table. so, it is now time to vote. we should move the country forward and i'm asking not just republicans in the house, but democrats in the senate to do the right thing and move this bill to the president. >> you know, sir, that senate majority leader harry reid has said that if the boehner bill passes, the senate will vote on it tonight and defeat it. >> well, martin, that is disappointing, because last week the speaker was working with harry reid to put components into the bill he could support, that his conference could support and appeared some sort of agreement in place, and then from my understanding the white house stepped in, and told harry reid what to do. that is not good government. that is not leadership. we have to do the right thing here and let's all collectively put our partisan politics aside

and get this bill passed for the good of the country. >> as you know, sir, the markets and every economist that we could find says that increasing this debt ceiling just for six months would be a dangerous decision. it won't lead to stability in the markets. i won't reassure the global financial system. why won't you increase the debt ceiling into 2013? why not? >> well, start with the fact that the president suggested that we do that for political reasons, and he wanted it passed his own election. and -- >> sir, i was referencing economists on this broadcast that we have had on everyday this week, and we cannot find one who suggests that this is a great idea. six months only. >> well, sure. i have talked to the rating agencies as well, and they haven't definitively stated that there would be a downgrade simply if the deal is not quote big enough in their eyes. they want to see the components of the deal.

this is a two-phase deal, and 1.2 trillion in cuts and then 1.8 trillion in cuts, and that is substantial change in what our historical averages have been for spending cuts so i am actually thinking that this is a good thing for the markets. you have seen with the markets with the exception of today have been starting to lose points, because they are getting concerned that something can't get done. so we are going to take the vote tonight and get it passed and tell the senate to do the same. >> what about the organizations of the conservative group club for growth who recommend that people like you vote against speaker boehner's bill. >> well, i look at my constituents in new hampshire and fry to reflect what they would want me to do and then use my best judgment given the information that i have and that is my focus and where my attention should be as a member of the congress. >> congressman frank guinta, thank you for joining us.

>> thank you. and with the debt debacle, who has the most to lose? joining us is joanne reed and thegrio.com managing editor just appointed. good afternoon and kn grachlations. >> thank you very much. >> how is the president coming out of this? >> well, it is clear that the president has won the public policy debate and the polls are unanimous that the public agrees with the obama approach, both sides have to give, and taxes revenues and budget cuts. and the public is going to give the president a wider latitude, because he seems reasonable. >> and yet, yet, a poll that has just been published finds that 31% of independent voters would like to see him re-elected which compares to 42% in may, so by that poll, the president's actually slipping down? >> well, if you look at him compared to the republicans and obviously, a great deal of preference for president obama and his approach over the republicans in the more extreme they look, the better for him,

but no doubt at all the longer this drags on and the appearance of chaos in washington and the inability of any of the sides whether it is congress, and the congress and the white house to work together and get things done for the american people is a bad deal for all of them and a pox on all of their houses. >> we have been following the bill today, and the vote, and it is a big game day and harry reid has said, it is not going to do anything. it is dead on arrival. what will the president do to bring the sides together given six months of the ongoing row to not do anything. >> well, that is incredible, we are watching this all day, martin, for something that is not going to be passing the senate, and not going to become law, and you have the theatrics in the house of the representatives that are meaningless at the end of the day, and nothing that the president can do to bring both sides together, because one side is on the age of unreality, and this bill is a waste of time in that it will not become law, and the only game in town is the harry reid plan and the

president has de facto backed the plan and the harry reid plan is the only one that can pass the senate, so the onus is on john boehner the educate the caucus they will not be able to impose tea party doctrine on america with the debt ceiling. >> good look with that joy-ann. you run thegrio.com, and what are the users of the website and you have thousands of people who are members, what are they saying about what is going on in washington? >> well, a sense of complete frustration, and most people have not heard of the debt ceiling, because it passes without comment, and people are stunned it is this far. but i will tell you that there are a lot of our raders who believe that president obama is uniquely being targeted for just almost insane opposition to anything he does, anything he says. >> and that is because -- >> well, a component of it because he is a democrat and always the reaction it happened to bill clinton as well. and the other part is that the tea party has decided they dislike this person and the

person of barack obama is so offensive that anything he gets behind even if it something they used to be for, they will fight him for it. >> and thank you, joy-ann reed. we ask you to stay with us for the remaining of the hour for more developments and a deeper look of capitol hill, don't miss brian williams' nbc special "taking the hill, inside congress" sunday 7:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. we are getting closer and closer to a vote on boehner's bill. stay with us. rejected, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california. gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, in 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.

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finance funding washington, next, you will never guess what country owns pieces of the u.s. debt. stay with us next. ♪ the sky keeps on turning

i'm veronica de la cruz in

the msnbc newsroom with breaking news. ongoing news with the soldier who has been plotting to attack fort hood personnel. we are looking agent live pictures here. police say that he was nabbed in a hotel room full of explosives after going awol in june. first class jason abdo admitted to planting an installation at the same place where the deadliest shoot on a u.s. military base has taken place. he had asked for release due to his religious status, but in the meantime, he had been arrested for child pornography. >> thank you, veronica. let's not lose mind of what is stake here. the u.s. owes a lot of money, $14.3 trillion and most of it, the u.s. owes to social programs

like social security and medicare, and we also owe the world $4.3 trillion worth of debt. who holds that debt? we owe china a staggering $1.2 trillion. we owe japan $904.2 trillion, and we are in debt to united kingdom for $246.5 billion and to russia $115.2 billion, but not forgetting the industrial powerhouses, and we cannot forget mexico with $27.7 billion, and the mighty philippines who the united states is indebted to for $23.6 billion. and those are just a few of the 30 top debt-holding countries, and yes, there are even more. back to the team luke russert and mike viqueira and joining me on set is joy-ann reed, editor of grio.com.

and luke, we are little more of an hour from a vote, and how pe we were a few moments ago, martin, but he did pick up an endorsement from the house floor from thad mccotter who is a favorite of the tea party and some even said to the right of michele bachmann and he went to the house floor and actually gave support to boehner bill, so that could have an effect of saying if thad mcconnor can get behind it, it is okay for us to support it over here on the right. nevertheless, it is a long way to go to get to 216 votes, martin. it is interesting to see what happens in the next few minutes on the house rule vote, procedural thing to get there and usually the rule is always passed be i the republican party if they want to see a bill going forward on the floor, however, if you do see a defection if you will, and get a first look at it on this real vote. >> mike, the white house, and we have heard that actually a uk

soccer team was in the white house visiting earlier today, and apparently the president didn't have time to meet them. do you know if he is paying attention to the debate ongoing on the flor of the house today? >> on the floor of the house today? >> caller: i don't know for certain. i don't think so. if they were to admit it would run counter to everything they've been telling us, spinning from the white house, both on and off camera, what's happening on the house floor according to the white house is a political act that the speaker is simply doing this to nullify this base. we've heard this over are the course of the debate, over the course ever the last several week, really, coming from the white house, this is anners ask futility, grandstanding and ain't going anywhere as jay carney the press secretary said today on camera. the question, where is it going? nobody at the white house has an explanation. hoeb has a crystal ball that isn't clouded up by all the politics and everything that's at stake here coming from both sides, saw it on this thing.

we were told on background, a senior official chuck todd said, dead set against having nor vote to raise the debt ceiling again, creating uncertainty in the markets. that's what they are trying to avoid at this point, martin. >> we're watching, mike, conservative congressman mike pence speaking about what a marvelous compromise mr. boehner is offer. >> reporter: that is significant. hear a lot about the conservative caucus. republican study group. c.a.t.s. trivia. running for governor, governor's indiana. he's supporting this compromise. that's significant. one other thing to a if we watch this, martin, having spent time in the house of reprehensibles myself if this moves forward -- a term of endearment, like loudmouth. if this is going forward, if this debate continues a pace

here at the house of representatives a sign boehner, mccarthy, cantor feel they have the votes. if they blue screen they call it around the house of representatives you know they've got problems. martin? >> absolutely. thanks, mike. and just a final question with you, joann. what is the likely outcome here, the house votes, let's say they get the 216. >> right. >> senator harry reid -- this is it, said he doesn't want it, what happens next? >> i'ms reprehensibles. using that. i think what will happen is you're going to either some per mutation of the reid bill. you'll see worth the adults in the caucus can get the kids to come along. this is a test. to get them to vorationally. maybe they can get them to vote for a portion of the reid plan. other than that, right down to the wire and as lawrence o'donnell has said, around

midnight on august 2nd we get a clean debt ceiling bill. >> you think it will grind down to that? >> one of those two options. i don't think there's another option. >> thank you. stay with us. thanks very much. we'll be right back. i find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists and use pre-defined screeners to work smarter. not harder. i depend on myself to take charge of my financial future. [ bell dinging ]

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plaque and gingivitis and it provides all these other benefits. crest pro-health invigorating clean rinse. clean, protect, and invigorate your way to better dental check-ups. life opens up when you do. mont we are now an hour closer to the vote on speaker boehner's bill as we watch the live debate on the house floor. i'd like to bring back luke russert on capitol hill, joining me mere in new york, joann reid, and final thoughts. luke, you've had a busy day for us so far. what about the weekend? what do you think's going to happen? >> reporter: well, interesting, martin. today at speaker boehner's press conference i specifically asked, is it take it or leave it? if it got out of the house would the house work on anything else? he did not shut the door on that. essentially saying it was not take it or leave it. it's a reasonable bill, a

bipartisan bill that should pass through the senate. that's not going to happen. but it's important. it means speaker boehner is open to perhaps amending this bill over the weekend down the line. what mike viqueira said is very important. over the weekend the kingmaker as this goes through the house is mitch mcconnell. does mitch mcconnell fight for this bill? fight for no cloture on the reid proposal, trying to say it's the only thing senate republicans will support or be open to some sweetener from harry reid to try and get the debt limit through 2012, like president obama wants somewhere boehner was open to that being a possibility. certainly he does not want to see it. his goal through this process is to jam the president, get this through to the weekend and it be the last proposal standing, however, he did not completely shut the door on further compromise. a significant point's in in a don't so rigid, folks not wanting to get out of their corner to leave the tiny window available says there's still a long way to go and we could go

through the weekend. no one wants this the markets to open monday with this still on the table. however, it's a possibility to see this go through to tuesday. >> take your first scenario. say mitch mcconnell decides he'll hold fast. what happens? do we get to midnight? on august 2nd? what happens? >> reporter: that's the question that i think everyone in your city right now, who's a few blocks away down there on wall street, wants to know. if the boehner proposal is the only thing standing, the oath thing to get through the house of representative, nothing else through the senate, the president says he won't use a 14th amendment, you're in a pretty dire straits, if you're president obama. >> thank you, luke. and joann, final thought from you as we inch closer to the vote? >> the key number here is 58. chuck todd reported earlier today, 5 again8 against the boe bill. the guy that's important is mitch mcconnell. i think john boehner has been

put through the wringer in this process proving it's difficult for him to control his caucus in a way it wasn't for say nancy pelosi. his speakership has take an hit and at the end of the day he needs to demonstrate he can get 216, 217 votes for something, because he has to probably try to shepherd the reid bill through, because i just don't see this bill getting through the senate. >> luke russert on capitol hill. joanne reid here in new york with us. thank you so much for your insight. thanks for watching. dylan is here to take us forward even as the house moves closer towards a vote. all yours. >> thank you, martin. we're on the verge of a conversation with senator tom coburn. hi tha his thoughts what will happen to the boehner plan. "the dylan ratigan show" starts right now. the big story today, whip it up, my f