mitchell reports," it's crunch time. with just hours to go before the country crashes through the debt ceiling, we are live on capitol hill where congress is finally working fast and furious to pass a deal. >> today they will also see congress reach a historic bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and avert a default on the nation's bills. >> you want to know what this fight is about? it's about one thing. it is about all of the people -- >> as the senator from texas says, he won't block a vote. >> i have no objections to the timing of this vote. the reason is simple. there's nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days. >> but will the house jump on board? we'll talk to democratic leader nancy pelosi. does she now hold all the cards after president obama says the speaker has lost control? >> there have been repeated situations where we have

agreements and he turns back and it turns out he can't control his caucus. the challenge here is can you deliver on agreements that are made? >> the key players joining us here for our special coverage, chuck schumer, kelly ayotte, amy clove shar and our team of reporters. in a race to beat the clock, it's now a matter of when the senate and house will vote to avoid a debt default, end the shutdown, and close the book on this american horror story. >> we see a faint light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. good day. i'm andrea mitchell. this is a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports." now to the white house. jay carney is briefing.

>> again, applause to the leaders of the senate for coming together and working out a bipartisan solution. >> is there any concern, even with this deal being made, that a downgrade from some of the credit rating agencies could still be pending? >> well, i would refer you to treasury for those kinds of assessments. we focus on the things we can control, which is calling on congress to quickly act on this compromise agreement and ensure that the government reopens and the threat of default is removed. >> lastly, this is leading to additional budget talks later this year. once those talks are underway, will the white house and president insist that revenue continue to be on the table? >> the president has insisted that in these budget negotiations that he's been calling for all year everything has to be on the table. that will be his position going

forward. what he believes is a fair approach to resolving our budget challenge is reflected in the buck budget he submitted. he knows even though that was a compromise proposition from the beginning and reflected the offer he made to speaker boehner at the end of last year that he will not get in a budget negotiation everything he wants and neither will democrats and neither will republicans. that's the nature of compromise. but he firmly believes that balance -- when it comes to further reducing our deficits and building on the work that's been done over these past four years in which we have reduced our deficits by half, we need to continue to take a balanced approach so that no sector of society unfairly has to bear the brunt of that project. that's always been his position, and it will be his position moving forward. >> thanks, jay. can you just give us a little

color how the president was informed of the deal, who told him, what his reaction was? >> no. >> none? >> right now i think we're looking to capitol hill for action to be taken. the president, as you know, has been in contact with leaders in congress as have members of his team. we are encouraged by the progress that we've seen and hope it is fulfilled through votes in both the senate and the house. >> can you give us anymore about how he was involved -- >> as congress is now poised here at the capitol to vote on these agreements in both houses, we are at the center of the political universe at a critical time in our country. right now lawmakers have a plan to raise the debt limit and end a national nightmare. let's get the latest from kelly o'donnell and mark halperin. kelly, first to you. the deal has come together.

briefly, what can we expect now? the house voting first and then the senate? >> we expect actually the senate will go first. the big cliff hanger in that whole issue was what would someone like ted cruz do? would any single senator take the opportunity to object, to slow things down. ted cruz says he will not delay a vote. by going first, the senate can produce -- again, we've got to still see the bill. we expect a vote this afternoon. we expect a sizable number of republicans to vote in favor. what does that do? it gives house republicans a little more political cover. without a delay on the senate side, it does send a message to the house that this is the way it's going and that's what we expect to have happen. then house speaker john boehner would expect the plan from the senate side, bring it to the floor, and likely need democrats to go along and some house republicans we expect will vote for it as well. but it would leave some room for those most conservative house republicans to vote no and still

have this deal wrapped up in time to avert the crisis we've been talking about. those are the steps we expect right now. it's playing out kind of in the best-case scenario. the big question was, would someone like ted cruz get in the way? he's telling us he will not. >> and mark, what does john boehner face coming out of this? obama care is not part of this, other than the verification. the debt ceiling is extended. the spending continuing resolution is extended to january 15th. what have they won after putting the country through this misery? >> andrea, the second guessing about republicans' strategy and tactics throughout the last several weeks are going to be extraordinary. there's going to be a lot of questioning about how to go forward. it's going to be interesting. i think speaker boehner has handled this in a way where he can put this on the floor, get a lot of democratic votes. my hunch is if there are a lot of republican votes in the senate, which we expect, he could get a lot of republican

votes in the house. questions about his speakership, questions about his own leadership, i think, may be put off. i think this agreement is not bad in the sense that it gives both sides a chance to try to deal with some of these bigger entitlement issues and tax issues over the next few weeks and averts the crisis. john boehner may have done himself and the country a favor by keeping republicans together long enough to say, we tried a lot of different things, we made some mistakes, this is the best we can get at this point to avoid what he's said all along and believed all along was essential, which is avoid a default by the federal government. >> fair points all. thank you very much. here we me, senator kelly ayotte, who has disagreed with the house approach, linking repeal of obama care to funding the government. senator, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> so disaster, we hope, averted. there's an agreement in this, as we understand, that by december 13th there has to be a budget conference, something you have wanted all along.

they sit down and start working on a budget with clear guidelines and presumably some adjustment of sequester or entitlement reform. >> well, i think the ideal would be to have a budget for the country ensteinstead of what we went through and governing from crisis to crisis. this does give an opportunity. you have congressman paul ryan in the house with the house budget. you have patty murray with the senate budget to hopefully get a budget for the country so we're not going through this again. that said, i'm glad we've resolved this. this went on too long. the fact that our leader mitch mcconnell stepped forward along with harry reid to get this resolved when the house could not do it, it's important for the country that we're getting this done today. >> one of the interesting obvious facts has been the role of women. senator collins, your colleague from maine, got up on the floor and said that the first call she got for coming up with this plan, her initial plan, which was rejected but started to get

the ball rolling, were from you and your fellow republican senator from alaska. what is it about women? you're certainly outnumbered by the men, but you've reached a critical mass of power and authority where you can get things moving. >> we have. i think that we had a group of seven republicans, seven democrats led by susan collins. so many women involved in that group. we want to solve problems. we understand that the nation wants leaders who solve problems. so we may come from different perspectives, but we know we have to come together. things like the american people have to do at home in their businesses, and we need to bring that here. that's what we're anxious to do. the one thing i think that bipartisan group demonstrates is that there are a group that is anxious here on a bipartisan basis to not be where we've been on this issue and to solve the nation's problems. >> i know something of new hampshire from covering primaries. my folks live up there. what are people back home saying to you?

>> people back home say, what's wrong with you people? this is totally unacceptable. why can't you solve basic problems? why are you putting our country in this position? and that's why i'm glad that we got out of our trenches, that we're resolving this, that we are moving on, and i'm hoping that we can solve the greater fiscal challenges facing the nation by coming together. >> you've got, i think, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old at home. >> i do. >> have they asked you questions about why congress can't get things done? >> my daughter is a 9-year-old. kept saying, mom, why can't you get the government open? i don't understand it. so they ask very common sense questions. they're good questions. so i'm looking forward to going home and telling them that we did work together. think about it. we're always telling our kids to work together and to solve conflicts through compromise. i'm glad that i'll be able to go home and tell them that we did resolve this. unfortunately, i don't like where we've been on this. this took too long to resolve.

i hope that we learn from this and it doesn't happen again. >> i know the department of veteran affairs was beginning to run out of money. by next week they were not going to be able to pay disability benefits. do you, as an armed services committee member, know whether or not the checks are going to flow? how quickly do we get the government reopened and get this big machinery moving again? >> yeah, i don't know, andrea. i know all of us are going to work as hard as we can to make sure that our veterans get the benefits that they earned by serving our country and sacrificing for our country. so i think both parties have to come together after this crisis and really move to make sure that people are served like our veterans. >> kelly ayotte, thank you very much. hope you get home sometime soon. >> looking forward to that. >> we should note that the important role that the sister hood of senators has played, as we've been saying, in striking this deal has not been lost on their colleagues. here's senator john mccain earlier today. >> i think it's obvious that we are now seeing the end of this

agonizing odyssey. >> and coming up, more of our special coverage from capitol hill. we'll talk to senator chuck schumer on what happens next to move this deal forward. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports," a special edition from capitol hill only on msnbc.

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the white house says that the house speaker has given his commitment that he will finally permit a floor vote on the senate deal to end the shutdown and avert default. joining me now is democratic senator from new york chuck schumer, who has been instrumental in all these negotiations. so the deal is a conference committee on the budget december 13th. >> right. >> a continuing resolution until january 15th. >> funding the government until then. >> funding the government.

and extending the debt ceiling until february 7th. >> right. so it's basically, we're ending up where we started. you know, when we began, at least senate democrats and house democrats and the president said we want to do three things, open the government, we're doing that. pay our bills, we're doing that. and then let's negotiate. so for all this drama, all this, we're ending up just where we started. you can say you feel great. i don't. i don't think this is a day for happiness or exaltation. we came really close to the edge of a cliff, one of the highest cliffs we could have come to. all for basically nothing, and we're ending up where we started. >> former defense secretary and former budget director leon panetta has said that there's a criticism of the president here, that, you know, we can't continue to lead by crisis. there was a lack of engagement from the white house. >> i don't buy that.

i think, look, i think the president stood strong and he had to. the people who were running the show, the ted cruz tea party republican, basically said unless we get our way, we're going to do huge harm to the nation, huge harm to millions of innocent people, so give into us. had we given in this time, we'd be doing this again and again and again. there would be brinksmanship every quarter. i fully supported the president's idea. i was one of the people who, you know, believed in it strongly, that we stand firm, we don't negotiate with a gun to our head. and we won. the only silver lining in this cloud, andrea, is hopefully the day of brinksmanship is over, that most of the republicans, certainly in the senate, and maybe even in the house, will say, this hard-right group that is so sure they're right and says unless you do it our way, we're basically going to cause huge harm to the nation and we know you're soft hearted, you'll do what we want, those days are

over. >> but are those days really over? february 6th at midnight, are we back on the brink? >> i can't believe speaker boehner would go through the same exercise again. a, the republican party poll numbers are down. b, he's regarded as one of the least popular and least effective leaders in washington. and hopefully, like all of us, he can learn a lesson. so i am hopeful, i am very hopeful that we will not have brinksmanship. look, i give some real credit to senator mcconnell. he's got a primary. he's been threatened by the tea party. but he, unlike speaker boehner, stepped up to the plate. admittedly, it would have been nicer if this had all happened earlier, but he did it and deserves credit. >> what happened behind the scenes? how did this finally come together? were there calls from wall street? was it the fitch warning of a downgrade? >> i think what finally happened was there was a realization among the mainstream conservative republicans in the senate that the house couldn't get anything done. so if they didn't step up to the

plate, which admittedly they were reluctant to do, there would be default and default would fall on their shoulders more heavily than on anybody else's. so i think late in the game, leader mcconnell, backed by most, not all of his caucus, said, we have to do something, even if the tea party doesn't like it, even if ted cruz doesn't like it. for several weeks, they let tea party and ted cruz lead them around by the nose. that's what happened in the house until the very last minute, until the senate let. >> how much has this poisoned the atmosphere, even in the senate? >> the senate atmosphere is going to be better. we had a group of 12 get together and propose some useful ideas, democrats and republicans. i think that's a very good thing. and even more important than that, i think that the days where the hard, hard right is going to run the show, which is what's happened here and that's been the cause of all this

brinksmanship, has peaked. will they have no power? that would be false. they'll have a lot of power. but the idea that what they say goes, over. because the proof of the pudding is in the eating. when the republican poll numbers get down to 20% because they followed the tea party, they're no dummies. they're going to change. >> so the conference starts. it's patty murray on the budget on the senate and paul ryan from the house. it's december 13th. it's going into a holiday season. are they going to be serious about putting everything on the table? and that means entitlement cuts. >> it means entitlement cuts, revenues, both. >> altering the sequester? >> that hasn't happened. we all know if we don't do it, sequester hits and that's painful. there's some incentive. and they're both very -- i like them both. i deal with them both. they're both very capable people. they're very far apart. but maybe, maybe, maybe this crisis has the idea of confrontation and standing in

your corner has peaked. let's hope so. let's hope so indeed. chuck schumer, thank you very much. up next, how are the markets reacting to the latest developments here on capitol hill? stay with us. we'll talk to cnbc's steve liesman here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. has it's ups and downs. seasonal... doesn't begin to describe it. my cashflow can literally change with the weather. anything that gives me some breathing room makes a big difference. the plum card from american express

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or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. the threat to not raise the debt ceiling after you've already spent the money, it's really a political weapon of mass destruction. both sides should say, we're not going to touch it. >> so how are the markets reacting to the latest developments here on the hill? and what are the risks if this doesn't get resolved quickly, as we're now told at least it will? joining me now is cnbc's senior economics reporter steve liesman. steve, as you've heard the deal, it does involve a budget conference december 13th and extending the debt ceiling until february 7th and government

spending through january 15th. what if we go through this all over again? >> first, let me say the god part of the deal, andrea, and i think this is significant, is it gets us through the christmas shopping season. i think having this kind of uncertainty over the economy while people were figuring out what to buy each other for christmas and the holidays risked a more serious slowdown than we would otherwise have had. you're right. it does push it ahead to january 15th. that's going to be another problem. i think what's interesting is the market kind of smelled this out as a fake from the very beginning. well, it is off 400 points from where it was september 18th. in general, the market has been strong throughout this, thinking this 11th-hour deal was going to be reached. >> obviously people got hurt because it'll take a while for people to get back pay. checks weren't flowing. food wasn't going to the wic program, the women and infant children program. so there was a lot of real pain

out there in the real economy with people. >> at the moment, andrea, i hate to say this but ignorance is bliss. one of the effects of the government shutdown is we have no data on the economy. the labor department stopped putting it out. so we're not exactly clear what's been going on. the data that has come out from the private sector and those government agencies still issuing it have suggested we've had some weakness but not very strong weakness. it's been okay. i think you're right, that there are individual stories of pain that are out there. from a macroeconomic basis, it's less painful than it would have been. >> and of course we had the imf chief warning on sunday on "meet the press" that there's an international fallout here. we have really hurt ourselves in terms of our image around the world. that isn't easily repaired. >> i think that's right.

i think americans maybe don't appreciate the special place they have in the world of global finance. actually, the historic role they have in the world of global finance. they are the risk-free asset around the world against which everything else is measured. the good thing for america is that our competitors are in such bad shape in the sense that we don't really have a strong competition, but i think that the next time this happens and the time after that, there is some measurable amount of higher rates we will pay because we call into question whether or not we could potentially default. if you read the rating agencies, andrea, it's fascinating. the reports they write read like they're about to upgrade the united states because of the finances. the debt is down, deficit's down. all that good stuff is happening. the only reason they call us into question is because of politics. >> as always. thank you, steve liesman, from cnbc. thank you so much. >> pleasure. >> next up right here, house democratic leader nancy pelosi. we'll ask her how she plans to

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we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ house speaker john boehner is going to have to turn to nancy employpelosi. she joins me now. this is a situation i don't think any of us have ever seen, where the speaker of the house has completely lost control of the votes to put something up. they tried another proposal yesterday. what is going to happen later today, assuming the senate votes on the deal that's been described. >> well, assuming that the senate will act in a timely fashion, we will hopefully receive the bill this evening, the agreement this evening that the speaker has enabled his people to have their say, to let off steam, to sew their oats, and as the leader of that caucus and now as the speaker of the house will allow the house to

work its will in a responsible way. >> how many democratic votes do you think you're going to have to put up for him? >> well, we'll see what he puts up. but nonetheless, suffice to say, when we receive the legislation, the bill will pass. >> and with this episode closed, presumably, what are have we learned about leading through crisis, about shutting down the government, threats, extraneous issues being attached? are we going to face this again on february 6th as we go into the next deadline on the debt ceiling? >> i hope not. we are pleased with what's happened in the senate. they came to terms and convinced the speaker that we should take this up in the house, which is something we've been suggesting for a while. it's really a sad state of affairs, that government would

be shutdown now for 16 days, that the full faith and credit of the united states of america would be in doubt, even for a moment. so it has taken its toll. what could come out of it is however enthusiastic we are about our issues and our point of view, that we don't hold the government hostage and the full faith and credit of the united states hostage. i think that hopefully that lesson was learned. it shouldn't have been anything that needed to be learned, but hopefully we've crossed that. the american people are fully aware of the consequences. >> this is basically a clean continuing resolution. why do you think john boehner did not bring it to the floor 16 days ago? >> i don't know. you really would have to ask him. i think the unrest in his caucus -- and actually, they would come up with ideas they never had the votes for. we kept saying, we can end this in five minutes on any one of these days that the government

has been shutdown or even the days before leading up to it, we could have ended this in five minutes by passing the bill that passed in the senate and was sent over to the house. they went to extraordinary lengths, including even changing the rules of the house, so we could not exercise our prerogative to bring it up as the minority. nonetheless, we're here now. it's about how we go into the future. how we go into the future has to be about how we create jobs and as we go to the budget table, how do we create growth, how do we create jobs, how do we do so in a manner that says we respect each other's positions, but that doesn't mean you have a right to shut down government. no, we still have -- i would have liked in this agreement for the lifting of the debt ceiling to go way beyond february, for at least another year. but hopefully the good faith negotiations will take us to a place where we're not subjecting the american people, our economy, our reputation in the world to what just happened.

>> the white house has said everything is on the table in these budget talks that will start on december 13th. there's going to be a conference. >> that's right. it may start today. it ends december 13th. >> oh, i'm sorry. there's a deadline of december 13th. the budget conference is starting right now with patty murray and paul ryan. >> in the next days, so that it would be finished in time. >> with that, will democrats and the liberal wing of the democratic party go along with entitlement reform? how much is on the table? >> well, when the president says everything is on the table, it is. as the republicans are always challenges, will the democrats make any changes in entitlement, we have and we can. but you cannot go to the table and say, we're going to reduce the deficit by focusing on entitlements if you want to take revenue off the table. i believe that the republicans

have been comfortable challenging us on entitlements, but if we ever accepted their offer, we would have to accept it with revenue involved, with increased revenue coming in. why should granny, and i being a granny, why should granny who's in a less economic beneficial situation than i am, why should granny pay the price when we won't touch one hair on the head of the wealthiest people in our country? it has to be balanced. it's something we want to subject every dollar we spend to the harshest scrutiny so we know we're getting our money's worth and the people are well served. that includes tax expenditures too, with all of these tax loopholes that are there benefitting special interests and saying rather than addressing those at the same time as we look at how to make our entitlements work better for people, they're saying only one side of it but don't go any near tax breaks. >> do you think john boehner's

speakership can survive this crisis? >> sure, sure. he's a decent fellow. he has done the right thing at long last, by having this come up on the floor of the house. we've had moments where we've depended on the republicans to do something. for example, the t.a.r.p. bill five years ago where the market went down 775 points or 778 points in one day because the republicans refused to support their president, george bush, democrats had to produce the votes. so we have to recognize there's a difference of opinion in our country on the role of governance. right now you saw they let the t.a.r.p. go down the first time. we had to produce many more votes the second time, 170 votes. this time they're allowed two weeks of uncertainty and definite shutting of the government. this isn't right. at least we have to respect the responsibility that we have. president washington, when he left office, he cautioned

against political parties which were at war with their own government. that's really what we have here, a group of people who want top shrink, shrink, shrink. we don't want anymore government than we need, but we have to have cops on the beat and referees on the field in terms of regulating what goes on in our country, whether it's the air we breathe, the water we drink, the safety of the food for our children, and the rest. >> you've been around here a long time, as have i. have you ever seen anything quite like this, a battle over what most people felt was nothing, nothing relevant to the issues at hand? >> i think that republicans even forgot what they were shutting down government for. but i was here in the '90s. i saw that series of events that shut down government, which was about saving face for the speaker at the time because he didn't like a seat he got on a plane. so that was terrible. it's the same breed of cat that

wants to reduce the role of government so if you shut it down, no problem. then they went on to impeach the president, president clinton. so there was an echo of an earlier period when something like this happened. but this really was unnecessary. it's unfortunate that it happened. hopefully there are lessons learned. i think part of it is they don't want our president to have the successes our country needs. this is one way of standing in the way of that. but you know what? we're on a new path now. we have an agreement. we're going to pass it -- it's going to pass in the senate. we're going to pass it in the house. i can't believe that many republicans will vote against opening government and lifting the debt ceiling, but we'll see. we'll see in a few hours or maybe tomorrow morning. but whatever it is, we have to use it as a template on how we go forward recognizing that this was an opportunity cost of time. we could have been talking about jobs, farm bill, immigration,

any number of issues that need to be addressed. i commend the speaker for coming around to bringing it to the floor. i salute -- i never saw anything like what harry reid did. to watch him was to watch a master at work. he was superb, intellectually, politically astute. just the sheer stamina of it all. it's a sign of the republican his members have for him. >> speaking of masters at work, you've just been inducted into the women's hall of fame, which is such a high honor. congratulations to you. >> thank you. >> a very special thing that's happened in the midst of all this. we should not let it pass unmentioned or unnoticed. >> thank you. when i was there, we talk about when women succeed, america succeeds, how to make respect for women in the workplace something that increases our gdp and improves our families own our country. >> here and around the world. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> democratic leader nancy pelosi. we'll be right back with senator

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women senators from both political parties have been the driving force behind the compromise. senator amy klobuchar of minnesota was part of the bipartisan group of senators trying to craft this deal to avoid the impending debt limit and reopen the government. she's a senate chair for the joint economic committee and joys me now. giddy with excitement here that we're getting close. >> we just know this means the work begins. for all the people that have been furloughed, hundreds of thousands of people, for the people who have been waiting to go our national parks or even help getting help on their veterans benefits, we're glad that's happening as well as paying our bills and sending a message to the rest of the world that america is still strong and moving forward. so that's what today is about. but i think as you know, andrea, the work of our bipartisan group hasn't ended. there's a lot of work to be done in terms of long-term budget for this country. >> and that is a big deadline.

december 13th. the deadline for a budget agreement. they haven't even met at all on a budget. now they're going to be meeting. nancy pelosi said they might be meeting this afternoon. >> well, exactly. >> patty murray and -- >> senator murray heading up the budget side on the senate. paul ryan in the house. we have been waiting in the senate, as you probably know. i think patty has come to the floor, a number of us, 20-some times asking to bring the senate budget to a conference. that's what you're supposed to do. you know that old song with the schoolhouse rock, when there's a bill on capitol hill, people are supposed to get together and make a decision. that's what this is about. so we can finally make sure that the two sides are meeting. different budget, but a purpose for keeping the government steady so we don't lunch from fiscal crisis. >> is that the next crisis, december 13th, this conference is going to blow up? >> well, as you know, we have until mid-january with the continuing resolution.

so you won't see -- this date is very important, but i think that mid-january date is equally as important. so the hope would be we can take a balanced approach where we replace some of these sequestration cuts, which in mid-january you're going to see over $20 billion in additional cuts with other things. revenue. i could be on for an hour telling you ideas there as well as maybe some reform. >> what kind of revenue? what kind of taxes? >> i would throw out that you could get rid of some of the subsidies out there. ethanol subsidies have gone away. oil is at 40 billion right now. you could have a negotiation of prices under medicare part d. that brings in over $200 billion in revenue. home mortgage deduction, very important in our country. you could set it at $500,000 in value on a home and still if you buy a $1 million home, you get it up to that $500,000 value. that brings in tens of billions of dollars. there are many things we could

do that wouldn't be balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class butting looking prudently at the programs in place and then saying, you know, there are priorities in our budget. infrastructure, roads, bridges, rail, the idea we're going to do with nih that we put the money we need into alzheimer's research, the idea of an infrastructure bank, tax reforms. i think there's a lot of exciting things. the best part is we have this group in the senate that's come together, complementing the work of the gang of six, gang of eight, where we've said we've had it with this. we've had it with people in the opposite corners of the bocking ring. let's come together and get something done. >> what are you hearing from your constituents? >> they don't like this kind of stuff. they want people to move forward and be sensible and the kind of insults they've seen being hurled on tv doesn't make any sense to them at all. so my guess is they're going to be happy we get through this, but they understand that this is just the beginning, not the end. >> finally, do you have a message to ted cruz? >> well, i think that our job is

to govern. yes, checks and balances is incredibly important in this democracy. so is governing. governing means finding co compromi compromise. it means the group susan collins help put together that's willing to put partisanship aside and say, look, you can go to the floor, you can give a speech for 24 hours, but is that really courage? i think courage is whether you're willing to stand next to someone you don't always agree with for the betterment of this country. not obstructing everything that comes in the door. >> senator amy klobuchar, thank you very much for being with us. coming up, the next step on passing the debt deal. stay with us for more of our special coverage right here from capitol hill on "andrea mitchell reports."

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welcome back, we know which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours. chris cillizza is back with us. let's talk about the deadlines and what nancy pelosi said when

she said the vote could be tonight or even tomorrow morning, going past midnight won't matter if the vote is a done deal. what have we learned? we've got this deal, the budget confer ees will be meeting, supposed to come up with a budget by december 13th. the government will stay open until january 15th when the temporary spending bill they are supposed to pass tonight in the senator today in the senate and tonight or tomorrow in the house goes through and the debt ceiling, importantly will be extended until february 7th. >> well, andrea, on your timing point, the debt ceiling we all focused on the october 17th date. but most economists said until about october 23rd, you might not see the really big impact. a few hours here or there, if wall street and the global economy knows a deal is coming will be fine. on the broader point, i worry

honestly, there's a lot of self-con grat lags going on. if you watch the senate and house, you would think they accomplished world peace. but what they've really done here is setup another framework that in two and a half or three months -- >> i have to say. >> we could be talking again. sorry. >> chuck schumer was saying to me this is not a victory lap. nancy pelosi was saying this should have been done 16 days ago. so i don't think they are patting themselves on the back. they were praising the leaders reid and mcconnell for being grown-up and mcconnell taking real risks since he has a tea party challenge in the primary and did it any way. >> i think what we've learned, andrea, is this kind of brinkmanship, crisis to crisis governance, i hate to say might continue but it's hard to imagine by mid december these budget conferees will have settled on a long-term

agreement, or even a shortish term agreement on our debt and spending issues, entitlement reform, tax code reform, maybe revenue increases. it doesn't seem as though our government is built to do those sorts of things. while the deadlines certainly do, it gets us beyond these dire deadlines that you're bumping up against, they just set up another set of deadlines that come february or come january will also look dire. i don't think we've solved the fundamental disagreements between the two parties. mitch mcconnell is the ultimate operator and closer. he said this is already a disaster for our party politically, it will only get worse if we go over the debt ceiling. i'm cutting a deal. >> well, chris cillizza, let's hope the deal stands up. we have learned a profound lesson about our democracy, there is a growing disconnection between the people who are governed and the people governing them because they see it isn't working.

thanks you so much. that does it for this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" follow the show online and on twitter. tamron has a look at what's next. >> we have got breaking news, a deal to reopen the government and prevent default before tonight's midnight deadline. the senate set to vote this afternoon as house republicans plot their next month. what is next for senator ted cruz after announced he will not use a procedural tactic to block a vote. a major newspaper that endorsed him, now well they are having buyer's remorse. an alleged rape victim goes public after their family says they were forced to move out because of retaliation. some of the people they accuse are part of a popular football team. we've heard a similar story like this in the past. we'll get the latest on the grand jury involved in this

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for a body in motion. hi, everyone, "news nation" is following breaking news. we'll wrap it up, after announcing a bipartisan deal with senate majority leader harry reid that avoids default and reopens the government after an exhausting 16 days. >> after weeks spent facing off across a partisan divide that seemed too wide to cross, our country came to the brink of disaster. but in the end, political adversaries put aside differences and disagreements to prevent that disaster. i thank the republican leader for his diligent efforts to reach this important agreement. >> for today. for today the relief we hope for is to reopen the government,

avoid default, and protect the historic cuts we achieved under the budget control act. this is far less than many of us had hoped for frankly but far better than what some had sought. >> the president applauds leader reid and minority leader mcconnell for working together to forge this compromise and encourages the congress to act swiftly to end this shutdown and protect the full faith and credit of the united states of america. >> and even as senators reid and mcconnell were announcing the deal, red senator ted cruz who led the charge for shutdown announced he would not use a procedural tactic to try to block the vote. >> there's nothing to gain from delaying this vote one day or two days. the outcome will be the same. every senator, every member of the house will have to make a decision where he or she stands.