some combination of mcconnell-reid. >> the mcconnell-reid plan which does deal with the debt crisis byust 2nd is the operative piece of legislation that's on the floor. now whether it can incorporate some other things down the road we go further, that's remains to be seen. that's being discussed among the leadership of both parties and the white house. >> part of this is a mechanical problem with the time running out. you guy haves to vote on the senate on this cut, cap and balance amendment which by all reports is not going to have a majority many the senate. it's not going to have the 60 votes needed in fact to get through. >> it's not -- >> you have to vote on that first. that's a friday vote. >> we have to vote on it because the republicans are insisting -- we're willing to have a vote on it. i doubt it will get a democrat vote. there may be a few republicans that won't vote for it. it decimates, medicare, social security. it's the most unrealistic piece of legislation i've seen and it's for show. why are we taking until the weekend on it? the reason's very simple. there are a numb

it's been an ugly 24 to 48 hours between mcconnell and reid. sometimes they seem to know how to work together, the two men understand the rules of the united states senate in the only way that robert byrd knew them. mcconnell and biden, they've talked twice in the last couple hours, they are talking about triggers oath. mcconnell's looking for a guarantee on no tax hikes. doesn't want taxes to be part of the trigger. what they're talking about is the particulars, sort of -- so how do you guarantee that second round of deficit reduction if the joint committee fails, which, of course, is where they've been stuck for three weeks. the president and boehner were stuck on it, reid and mcconnell were stuck on it. boehner and reid were stuck on it. this has been the sticking point for so long. now, what mcconnell does want here, there is a little bit of a game of leverage still going on, believe it or not at the last minute. reid has the leverage, he doesn't want to give it up. mcconnell wants him to give his bill up, so that -- they force more of the c

the mcconnell/reid plan is the likely outcome, we know that. they don't know how it will end in the end. no one knows how it will end. >> a senior republican described it to me as the break-glass kit. you have it there behind the glass and in the emergency you break it and you pull it out, and, you know, he said the cut, cap and balance plan is a way for the house republicans to let off steam. >> let off some steam. we'll talk about it later in the hour, jess, gloria, kate, with us as the house debates their plan. we'll watch the vote. >>> when we come back, presidential politics and an allegation from former aides of michele bachmann suggesting that he has a condition that could keep her from serving as president. our dr. sanjay gupta after the break. there's a nurse who can access in an instant every patient's past. and because the whole hospital's working together, there's a family who can breathe easy, right now. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest healthcare questions. and the over 60,000 people of si

let me ask you again about the mcconnell-reid plan. let's say just hypothetically let's say that the balanced budget amendment does not pass as people expect doesn't get through the senate. would you then consider backing the fall back plan? >> i think not. again, we'll have to take a look at it and see if it does come over from the senate this is just kicking the can down the road. it's what the american people are so angry about. washington not accomplishing and meeting the challenges that we face. it doesn't make any sense for me to have the legislation branch cede to the congress authority to override that. the same complaints we have heard on the balanced budget amendment with the 2/3 vote come into play on the converse with the mcconnell-reid program that would be in place that is that congress would never be able to keep the president from raising the debt ceiling even if we had a better idea. so, look, the american people want us to address these remarkable challenges. president obama came into office unemployment was 7.8%. now

conservative supporting that bill predicts mass republican defections on egg anything like the mcconnell/reide mcconnell plan doesn't have 218 republican votes. who knows if there's a combination of rs and ds go for it. but i'm not going to support the mcconnell plan. >> former "news of the world" editor rebekah brooks was arrested today in connection with british police investigations into phone hacking and police bribery. this morning u.s. lawmakers are split on whether this shoib a congressional investigation. >> what's going on in england is startling. to think the extent they went to to break the law to try to report a story. we need to follow through with the fbi investigation and also with congressional investigations. >> we need to let law enforcement work here. congress has got a big issue in front of us. we need to handle our own bune

democrat from delaware senator chris kunz, do you feel as if harry reid and mitch mcconnell want to seeg of six come to fruition on the senate floor? >> well, i can't speak for leader reid and senator mcconnell but i know there is a growing chorus of senators who are joining the gang of six. there's more than 30 as of midday yesterday who signed a bipartisan letter of support. it is a tough, big balanced bipartisan deal that includes some very hard choices and six senators, three democrats, three republicans, who dedicated the last six months to hammering out this framework i think have done a very hard and very good work. at this point that is our only path forward for dealing in a responsible way with our record deficits and debt. the mcconnell-reid framework is an equally valuable and necessary way to get past america's impending default crisis, as you said, just 12 days away. the two aren't necessarily linked but we need to deal with them both at the same time. both s&p and moody's last week gave us dire warnings they might downgrade america's debt rating even if we get past the def

the reid-mcconnell battle. ry reid does not like hearing that mitch mcconnell is doing an end run around his reid's leadership vice president biden. so in general, i expect we'll hear a maneuver from harry reid to make his effort to find a compromise the more important one. and if he doesn't think he has the votes, it could be delaying the vote we're anticipating at 1:00 a.m., it could be some alteration in the plan or in the bill itself. i'm not sure. but to put his plan back at center stage and not this kind of side negotiation between mcconnell and biden. >> michael, right now, though, what are the options that senator reid has? especially if he doesn't have the votes needed to get there at 1:00 a.m.. >> well, i agree with gene, of course. if he doesn't have the votes, he's got to try to yank this thing back into his orbit. you know, the potato charles simick talked about having a banquet in a madhouse. i don't know if this is a banquet in a madhouse, but it's certainly a cafeteria in the midst of chaos. i th

now we have leader mcconnell in the senate asking for the president to sit down before he'll sit down with leader reid. what should the president do here? >> well, there are back channel communications going on all the time. the idea that you need a photo-op with the president and mcconnell and reid to get something moving isn't practical. it's a good talking point. republicans have found a rallying cry around the idea that the president hasn'tment presented a plan. they want to see something on paper apparently. that's not how this is going to get driven. it's about rounding up the votes on both sides and getting something to the house where speaker boehner is going to have to say either we get nothing done, just with republican votes. or we get something done, but the strategy changes. i need to get votes from democrats, as well. that's a strategic decision that speaker boehner has to make. it's irrelevant whether the president is photographed with the senate leaders or not. >> reverend jesse jackson has said the president has not been strong enough in this process. has the president been strong eno

the white house, do you expect them to be discussing some variation on what was the mcconnell plan and then became the reidlan, basically a way to get to a debt ceiling increase in a way the congress can claim to not have its fingerprints on it? >> yeah, i expect reid-mcconnell, mcconnell-reid, however one terms it, will be the basis of the discussion, and, you know, we had met with the two leaders this morning, the group of six, we met with both leader reid and senator mcconnell and talked about how the group of six formulation might fit into a new offering, and so i anticipate on monday there will have been formed a new plan for going forward. and something that will involve an extension of the debt limit, but also a plan to deal with the debt, because i don't think anything passes either body unless it fundamentally and credibly deals with debt. >> but as we get closer to the clock ticking to midnight on august 1st, doesn't that actually increase the possibility, given the resolve expressed by speaker boehnor, senator mcconnell, senator reid, the president, all of you, to raise the debt ceiling. doesn't

then lawmakers took up majority leader reid's debt proposal after a question from minority leader mcconnel senator reid try this. ed to get a vote on it tonight by a simple majority. minority leader mitch mcconnell refused meaning that nothing happens until sunday. >> it really is the worst possible time to be conducting a filibuster. they're forcing us to wait until tomorrow morning at -- let's see. today's still friday? until sunday morning at 1:00 a.m. to have this vote. our economy hangs on the balance. and for the first time in the history of our country, unless there is a compromise or they accept my bill, we're headed for economic disaster. >> harry reid accusing senator mcconnel of using obstructionist tactics. some republicans accusing senator reid of game playing trying to jam his bill at the last minute. the time it takes the senate to do anything means that this is all coming down to the wire. the markets don't like it one bit. the dow industrial shedding nearly 100 points today. newly revised numbers on show the recession was much worse than believed. jessica yellin is at the

, and as i understand it mcconnell didn't accept reid's invy thation itation to and talk, es that mean right now? >> senate republicans even though they have so much leverage right now and a deal will be negotiated with mcconnell and reid if one is to be negotiated, they are hanging back because they don't want to crowd john boehner as he tries to whip his reluctant house caucus members into shape. so, they don't want to muddy the waters or take anything away from whatever leverage boehner has right now. they know boehner at least has to get through this process and try to get a vote, get that out of the way. the boehner bill per se is not going to succeed in the senate, but that's one step that has to take place. what reid did in starting the clock today, senator reid, the majority leader, is at least start the process for the senate to consider all weekend their plan, which will be amended. so, this will all be discussed and debated in back rooms, that's the way the process is going to work, based on whether boehner does deliver anything, the leverage -- >> what i'm tryin

so, on the question of the path forward, this reid/mcconnell fallback plan is not appetizing for thehouse republicans, at first read, that does not have the support to pass. there's now the growing conversation about some kind of a short-term smaller kind of extension, some $1 trillion to just kind of move this thing forward, but the president just this evening said that he doesn't want to accept that. >> it is a mess. kate bolduan, jessica yellin, gloria borger, will stay with us. the mcconnell/reid principal if you haven't followed it closely would let the president raise the debt ceiling on his own, it would give him the power to raise it three times between now and the presidential election, but the president would get the power so republicans would never have to vote to increase the debt ceiling. that is one proposal. it's pretty complicated and it's your economy that could be at stake. speaker boehner just moments away, stay with us. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] more people are leaving bmw, mercedes and lexus for audi than ever before. experience the summer of audi event and get over

mcconnell reid which was dead just4 urs ago may be revived in a slightly different form tomorrow. they need to have some ki of cover. both sides but especially republicans. some kind of cover to pass an increase in the debt ceilingment i don't know if it is by august 2, there are some reports that maybe they have a week or so me. i'm not ite ear sure when it would be. but sometime very soon because the clock is ticking. i don't think they had time, actual, to do anything else even if they had the will to do it as far as deficit reductio >> mcconnell reid, is that where they have to go to or some other. >> well, charlie, the simple thing would be just to say all right, we're going to do what floyd norris said a moment ago. we're going to extend the debt ceiling because that would be a catastrophe and wage this battle over the next 15 months and see which side wins. they could simply do that. they don't tend to do simple things so i think they're going to have to come up with some kind of mcconnell reid variation which would put the onus on the president but would also increase the

reid-mcconnell is an amaljum of three previous plans on the table. mcconnell was to continually have debt votes into the fall. then the biden negotiations which identified $1.5 trillion in spending cuts that democrats were somewhat okay with and will now be wrapped into the mcconnell plan. and a new fiscal commission that would tbe 12 negotiators reportd by the end of the year. what they do could not be filibustered or amended, would just have to get a direct vote on the senate and house floor. that's the way to get the big deal, the grand bargain into this. >> piecemeal, if you will. >> correct. >> i want to get your response here, representative, but first let's listen to comments regarding the president's leadership on this issue. >> you saw real leadership in action. i can't think of another president in my memory who would have devoted that much time and that much patience to trying to bring both sides together. >> well, you're seeing real leadership in the house now from john boehner and that's the only leadership you're seeing in washington ri

mcconnell's original draft of the plan, no spending cuts would be required. now they are negotiating the possibility of attaching a $1.5 trillion package of cuts to the reid-mcconnell plan and creating a congressional committee to deliver deficit reduction recommendations to congress by year's end. joining me now, founder and president on the center of policy priorities, bob greenstein, the recipient of the 2010 monahan prize, thanks for joining me tonight, bob. >> my pleasure, lawrence. >> walk me through cut, cap, and balance. i haven't studied it, bob, because i don't spend a lot of time studying something that's not going to become law. >> but it's very revealing, so the cut part has cuts so deep, so fast, starting october 1st, 75 days from now, they are so deep at a point when the economy is this weak that based on mainstream economic estimates, it would cost about 700 thousand jobs in the fiscal year. the cap part is more severe than the cut part. the cap part would put a cap on the total amount of federal spending allowed each year for the next ten years at precisely the level you get to if you do every one of the cuts in paul ryan's budget. it would lock in

. >> reporter: all along you remember that mitch mcconnell working with harry reid, they had a plan viewed as a fallback plan scaled back. it was something house republicans didn't care for. today we hear they've abandoned that plan. they're working on a new path forward. if they're going to pick up the pieces and salvage something here, obviously time is running very short. at the least they have to find that least common deno, ma'am nart to lift that debt ceiling before the deadline of august 2nd. >> we'll see you next hour after that meeting saturdatarts. i spoke with carolyn maloney about the debt crisis. >> he has bent over backwards to find common ground. he has spent more face time negotiating with the other side than any president in history. yet, you have a record of the republican leadership walking away from the biden proposal, walking away from the $4 trillion grand plan, walking away from mcconnell-reid, from the gang of six, they seem to walk away. i truly do believe, alex, if the president came out with a cure of cancer, they would walk out of the room and say no. >> coming

harry reid had a deal pencilled in with mitch mcconnell and john boehner. nancy pelosi being on the periphery has been described for most of that deal. pelosi and reid came to the white house, took it to the president. the narrative from republicans go the president said, no, harry, that's not good enough. republicans claim they moved the goal post yet again and pulled the rug out from under a deal. here comes harry reid again. we don't know why he is coming down here. what we do know is that these talks behind closed doors have been going on at a frenetic pace throughout the course of the day. harry reid needs seven republicans in the senate, the more the better for their purposes, to come onboard. there is a critical test vote tonight at 1:00 on sunday morning, we should say. that could all slip and slide. i don't want to get too far into procedure here. what they are having to do and the key to all of this now is senate republicans, whether there is another tentative deal on the table. whether there is something that the majority leader wants to run by th

mcconnell. it tied down reid. you've seen this pessimism around capitol hill in this sense the country is fed up with what's going on here. the ideaes things are so dysfunctional the american economy and american people are going to suffer because of it and you're starting to garner that from leaders, established figures here. really a disgust. i spoke to one senator before i came over here. they told me, look, this is one of the saddest moments i ever had in congress. you're hearing that. kent conrad. i haven't heard people not negotiating in 25 years. we can't breakthrough this fog right now. it's the 401(k), the stock market, kids trying to get hired, someone wanting to buy a house. that is starting to resonate with folk once capitol hill. >> you said months ago, you wait until we start talking about the debt ceiling of 2012 and you were right. i will always remember that. thank you so much, luke russert. >> take care, richard. appreciate it. >> the debt debate in washington having ripple effects from across th

mcconnell and reid on one page, which was interesting and the rank and file on another. why was the president so quick to come to the cameras to praise the bipartisan gang? a lot of reasons, but the white house has seen some of the same polling we have. according to our new nbc "wall street journal" poll, voters prefer a big plan, the president's idea of a $4 trillion deficit reduction package that's mixed with some tax hikes on wealthy americans and corporations, over this idea of a cuts only approach of 2.5 trillion that house republicans say they would prefer. it was a 58-36 split. wasn't even close. independents, 54% of them preferred that bigger approach, the president's approach which is similar to gang of six and why he came out for it. the only people that seem to be on the other side of this were some of the core rank and file republicans and tea party supporters. more from this poll. 52% believe democrats in congress should not compromise on entitlement cuts even if it's the only way to get a better deal. 62% believe republicans should compromise on taxes. look

i told harry reid and mitch mcconnell i want them here at 11:00 tomorrow.have run oust time and they are going to have to complain to me how it is that we are going to avoid default. they can come up with any plans that they want and bring them up here and we will work on them. the only bottom line i have is that we have to extend this debt ceiling through the next election. into 2013. the reason for it is we have now seen how difficult it is to get any kind of deal done: the economy is all right weakened and the notion that five or six or eight months from now we will be in a better position to solve the problem makes no sense. in addition, if we can't come up with a serious plan for actual deficit and debt reduction and all we are doing is extending the debt ceiling for another six, seven, eight months, then the probabilities of downgrading u.s. credit are increased. that will be an additional cloud over the economy and make it more difficult for us and more difficult for businesses to create jobs that the american people so desperately need. they will co

it will go to the senate, mcconnell and reid have not been smoking cigarettes, they have been workingh boehner. they need--. >>neil: the mcconnell backup is something like giving the president 14th amendment type powers raising the debt ceiling and they work on budget cuts in stages and the idea is this deal gets done but not to your liking. >>guest: putting aside the 14th amendment because the president doesn't have to do anything drastic and he won't, the president will sleep well tonight, and--. >>neil: you think a deal is done? >>guest: i think a deal is all but done and they have been working on it and boehner had the guys walk the plank for something that is not even going to happen and the boehner plan is the mcconnell and reid and boehner plan, and, do you know who went to obama and insisted not to raise taxes? it wasn't boehner, boehner had $800 billion in revenue increases. it was harry reid because harry reid, you see his plan? no tax increase. he wants to save, he has 23 seats, most democrats, and he does not want them run on tax increases so all the talk, patting ourselve

the mcconnell-reid fall back plan dead for now. so what's left? the obama-boehner bargain that would cut spending at some time under some mechanism reform tax. the republicans don't like the tax increases and democrats are upset over the depth of the spending cuts. now they're going home for the weekend. just when you thought it couldn't get worse for the murdochs, we learn that james murdoch may have been less than truthful when he told parliament he was not aware of how extensive the phone hack was until recently. now the u.s. justice department is investigating. also to paraphrase bob dylan you don't need a weather man to know it's hot out there. so hot, we're going to ask is overpopulation partly responsible for global warming? and caddy sacked. few people closer than a golfer and his caddy, tiger woods' firing of his caddy of 13 years is beginning to look like an ugly divorce. the caddy has said five words that must terrify tiger and thrill his critics. those words, when i wrote a book. >>> finally, let me finish with the end of your neighbor

the speaker would lose a lot of votes and would be then on democrats to pass what would be the reid mcconnell bill. >> bret: and probably some more boehner factors in there. try to merge one would think the reid, mcconnell and boehner bills. there will not be the balanced budget amendment because democrats would not have that. and as the press conference is wrapping up the hope there on the hill on the senate side is that they get this compromise and then there is a push by the democrats and speaker boehner is able to cobble together some kind of coalition probably with all of the democrats and some republicans but still there is a lot of head counting that has to go on for the deal to get done. as we get closer to the tuesday deadline the pressure will be on obviously everyone to try to get something done. one more thing, they do have in their back pocket each of them another piece of legislation that has been passed already called the military construction. it passed the senate, it is in the house. they could speed through a temporary increase of the deadline to try to work on a bigger deal

stalled and guess what, the same thing that's falled reid boehner, it's the same thing that failed mcconnell reidin the day. no one is agree on what the second trigger is. it's going to be a two-step deficit reduction process. boehner wants to do another debt ceiling vote. reid wants it to be this commission of some form, but what's going to be the personality if the commission doesn't work? that's the problem. now down on the other end of pennsylvania avenue, the white house is still trying to deal themselves back into the conversation. monday of course it was the president. now look at tuesday's blitz. all on tv tuesday pushing compromise trying to get something done. but they're not at the center of the talks. behind the scenes, white house officials are essentially working through and with senate majority leader harry reid to shape a deal. he's the proxy here. now yesterday they did issue a veto threat on the john boehner plan. but that is it, the boehner thing would be as it when it got to the president's desk. the real news of yesterday as the day wore on is lots of whispers that the likeli

the speaker would lose a lot of votes and would be then on democrats to pass what would be the reid mcconnell bill. >> bret: and probably some more boehner factors in there. try to merge one would think the reid, mcconnell and boehner bills. there will not be the balanced budget amendment because democrats would not have that. and as the press conference is wrapping up the hope there on the hill on the senate side is that they get this compromise and then there is a push by the democrats and speaker boehner is able to cobble together some kind of coalition probably with all of the democrats and some republicans but still there is a lot of head counting that has to go on for the deal to get done. as we get closer to the tuesday deadline the pressure will be on obviously everyone to try to get something done. one more thing, they do have in their back pocket each of them another piece of legislation that has been passed already called the military construction. it passed the senate, it is in the house. they could speed through a temporary increase of the deadline to try to work on a bigger deal

the speaker would lose a lot of votes and would be then on democrats to pass what would be the reid mcconnell bill. >> bret: and probably some more boehner factors in there. try to merge one would think the reid, mcconnell and boehner bills. there will not be the balanced budget amendment because democrats would not have that. and as the press conference is wrapping up the hope there on the hill on the senate side is that they get this compromise and then there is a push by the democrats and speaker boehner is able to cobble together some kind of coalition probably with all of the democrats and some republicans but still there is a lot of head counting that has to go on for the deal to get done. as we get closer to the tuesday deadline the pressure will be on obviously everyone to try to get something done. one more thing, they do have in their back pocket each of them another piece of legislation that has been passed already called the military construction. it passed the senate, it is in the house. they could speed through a temporary increase of the deadline to try to work on a bigger deal

reid could possibly have been mcconnell calling to say he was prepared to negotiate with him? >> what did reid say, must have been the pizza guy or something? that was a good joke by him. it sheds light on what's been an interesting development of what we heard from senator schumer today, is harry reid called mitch mcconnell 10:00 a.m. this morning, door is open, ready to negotiate. heard nothing back from mcconnell. about 6:00 p.m. mcconnell told reid at this point he was not going to negotiate with him, so the schedule is as of right now to try and get a cloture vote early sunday morning, actually 1:00 a.m. sunday morning, late, late tomorrow night, if mitch mcconnell does not want to negotiate tomorrow, it looks like harry reid's going to have to find about eight or nine senate republicans to come on board with a deficit reduction package, which would also yield itself to an increase in the debt limit. so there's a long, long way to go on this, and i would also add that the timing, now, becomes ever so important, because with the cloture rules and the way in which the parlia

all eyes on the united states senate which mitch mcconnell and harry reid can come up with. so far mitch mcconnell has doubled down on the plan with a balanced budget amendment. and it's going to be a big question mark as to how long mitch mcconnell will stay on that position and whether or not harry reid tables the boehner bill later today or tomorrow. there is no clear consensus on capitol hill over what they will do in order to raise the debt limit. there are ongoing negotiations between staffs, between mcconnell, reid, boehner all talking to some degree in unison. right now the gop wants to pursue the boehner plan which is a dead end in the united states senate. they're confident it's going to pass today. the rules committee meets at 12:50. john boehner said he was smiling as he left the meeting with his fellow members today, contessa. >> mike, let's go to you. we just found out from president obama's twitter page that he's even reiterating his request again for america people to call their lawmakers to demand a solution. the time for putting party first is over. if you w

mcconnell, reid and the senate plan time is interesting. en having these discussions, watching these discussions for some time. a little late in the game. we're hearing from mcconnell and reid now. >> the action is shifting from the cabinet to the white house back to capitol hill. you had house speaker john boehner and minority leader nancy pelosi met yesterday. so they are now working out the details of what this fig leaf will be to get it past the debt ceiling and show the american people that they cut some but not nearly as much. historic opportunity has been missed here and really put the united states on a firm financial footing and to cut up that credit card. could it have been done. i think historians and i know in my next book i'll look back at this period as a period where it was really all on the line, these discussions sound abstract but they affect every household in the united states and the politicians could not get it done. so in that scene it's not a happy week. >> jonathan alter telling us about his next book, it will be cal

>> well, we don't quite know what the mcconnell/reid or reid/mcconnell fig leaf will be. they are negotiating that right now. the first fig leaf, i call it the big fudge to change metaphors that senator mcconnell offered was problematic for democrats because it required the president to go back three times between now and the election to get the debt ceiling raise sfld in stag raised. >> in stages. >> after what we've been through you'd have to have your head examined to sign on to that if you're the president or democrats so they are going try to amend what mcconnell proposed, but something along those lines is likely to come out of this proses. >> jonathan alter, thanks so much for that. 13 days ahead of us and hope to see some progress. >> thanks, richard. >>> has the discussion over michele bachmann's health taken a sexist turn? new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. for the efficient absorption my body needs. somewhere in america, there's a doctor who can peer into the future. there's a

it's by no means 100% even sure that that mcconnell/reid last-ditch formula would have enough votes in the house of representatives. it will be close to get to that 218 number. so this is an important step forward. it does underscore once again the democrats and republicans at least in the senate can get together and make some tough decisions, just as they did in the bowles and that simpson/bowles excision thcommi came out last year. there is still an enormous amount of work to be done. one additional note. they will have this vote in the house of representatives later today to cut spending, cap spending and have a federal balanced budget amendment. it will pass the house. it will not pass the senate. the president's not even going to have to veto it if it doesn't pass the senate. so the president, once they get through what the president calls this symbolic gesture, then they can resume those negotiations for a much more sweeping plan with the speaker and the other leaders. it's still a work in progress. that's the bottom line. >> i think everybody in washington are anxious to move fo

and so maybe we'll get to the mcconnell reid. a lot of house republicans signed a letter. >> explain that. >> it is too complicated to explain and understand but essentially it is a very complicated set of procedures which allow republicans to raise the debt without ever actually voting for it and it gives the democrats a lot of uncomfortable votes. >> and the president essentially has the power to do it. >> and hands a lot of authority, it does fog but kick the condition down the road. the second offer and more likely solution to all this is some sort of minimal just okay, we'll take what we can get. and they are sort of 500 million over ten years of cuts sitting on the table. and that would be the default position which we may fall back to. the problem with that is the rating agencies have said or at least one of them have said that's not enough. if you don't really cut 4 trillion then we're going to downgrade your debt and interest costs will then rise for a lot of us. and so that is the most likely 34ri9 call solution. it may

really what we're expecting to see today is harry reid trying to negotiate with mitch mcconnell who said the president must be president at any of these negotiations throughout the day on the debt limit increase. unclear as to whether or not that will happen. but harry reid's strategy will try to be and convince eight to ten, 12 republican senators to come on board with his compromise. he'll put a sweetener in there for them to try to say, look, come over to our side, let's pass this through the united states senate and send it over to the house. the problem is the clock becomes a main issue. in order to go by the procedures, you'll see the 1:00 a.m. test vote, that could be pushed back to tomorrow if negotiations are ongoing between reid and mcconnell. but unless they agree to expedite the process, the earliest the house could see this is possibly tuesday morning, tuesday afternoon. you saw how difficult it was for speaker john boehner to get a bill out of the house that just had republican support. any compromise bill that reid sends over there, even if republicans back it in the unite

the reason for -- you go back to why would reid not just -- mcconnell has been trying to pressure reid to pull his bill. and part of that could be politics and posturing, in that you successfully kill boehner. and we should let go and let harry reid talk, it looks like. >> mr. president, there are negotiations going on at the white house now on a solution that will avert a catastrophic default on the nation's debt. there are many elements to be finalized, many elements to be finalized, and there is still a distance to go before any arrangement can be completed. but i believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work. i've spoken to the white house quite a few times this evening. they've asked me to give everyone as much time as possible to reach an agreement, if one can be reached. for that reason, we'll hold over the vote until tomorrow at noon to give them more time to talk. in fact, we'll come in at noon and have the vote at 1:00. i'm glad to see this move toward cooperation and compromise. i hope it bears fruit. i'm confident that a final agreement that will

white house and said that where she was would in fact be this type of deal, where you have mcconnell and reid and then a gang of six attached to that in some sort of framework saying we would pass a temporary deal with mcconnell and reid and the sgang of six written up, vast bipartisan support would, then, in fact, be enacted later. look, matt, only 12 days until the united states government defaults on its loans. republicans met with s&p at 3:00 on the house side, the agency essentially telling them, look, you are need to get a deal done. the u.s. economy cannot afford to default. a lot of trains leaving the station now. the question is which one ultimately gets to you a debt deal? it is still very much unknown. >> luke russert on capitol hill for us tracking all the trains in all the stations. thank you. >> reporter: a lot of trains. take tanchcare. >> thanks as always. >>> the balanced amendment, calling the president arrogant for telling americans to eat air peas and accept higher taxes. welcome. >> nice to be with you. >> you've been around a long time. here for the 1995 shutdown. essent

leader reid is front and center, but it could change back to the white house fairly easily. >> on that note there, erin, leader mcconnellhe wants the president sitting at the table. is he basically saying i don't want to have to deal with reid here? >> well, right, but president obama has been working around the clock with these congressional leaders. but over the weekend, it has come out that president obama has said he's going to give speaker boehner some room so that he can negotiate with his own caucus. so president obama has been at the table. he's given news conference after news conference. president obama might have to get involved later this weekend, if it looks like this reid proposal is going to go down further. president obama is going to have to get back in and try to rangle up support. >> erin, any show of bipartisanship here from senate republicans as we talk about the senate to convince house republicans to do the same? >> it's possible. but when you talk about house republicans, as jackie mentioned earlier, it's a very big freshman class, many of whom are tea party candidates and they have not been will

i think it heads to the senate, i think mitch mcconnell will emerge. harry reid and mitch mcconnell are the last two standing trees in this forest. a week ago it was the president of the united states and the speaker of the house. they have both been effectively sidelined by the events of the past week. >> lehrer: do you agree, it's up to those two guys now? >> i completely agree. senator reid are has initiative right now. there will be modifications in his approach in order to get some republican senators but that's the likely course here. but i do think it's a real challenge to boehner who now may have to get, i don't know, 60-some democratic votes at least in order to pass whatever happens. that's going to be itself a pretty difficult task. >> lehrer: you're assuming something comes out of the senate and goes back to the house. >> back to the house, and there won't be much time to make adjustments in this process with a tight time frame. >> lehrer: pick up on what you said earlier, explain one more time, why the whole constitutional amendment thing is symbolic