. >> joining us is staff writer lori montgomery, fiscal policy reporter for "the washington post," and humberto sanchez, staff writer for "roll call. "let's start with lori montgomery. >> you have had con -- been confronted with constant drama with the funding of the government. can you talk to us about the c.r. that just passed yesterday where there was a bit of drama. we were going to go with one number we thought we set last year, but no, that wasn't good enough, and now we came back to where we were in the first place. >> well, the budget control agreement passed, which was in the aftermath of the debt ceiling, the back of last year. overall spending is set for fiscal 13 at $1.37 trillion. well, the senate would have been marking that up to $10.47. we would have been automatically in disagreement with all of the bills. but we have gone ahead and passed through the committee bills, and seven of them on the floor of the house. in the meantime, the senate was saying, we were not going to youzhny of -- use any of those bills, so we had no one to negotiate with. so consequently, we came

c[c[g9g9c[g9g9g9g9c[c[c[c[c[ >> and we are back with lori montgomery from "the washington post" and humbertosanchez from "roll call" after talking to hal rogers, the chairman of the appropriations committee. you both asked a lot of questions about how much more there was to cut in discretionary spending. it sounds as though, as the chairman says, not much. but do the members of the republican caucus agree with that? >> i think there is attention there. several of the feshmen came here with the -- freshmen came here with the avowal of cutting spending. they said they won't come back unless they do that. it is something the committee it is something the committee will have to work on if they

. >> and we are back with lori montgomery from "the washington post" and humberto sanchez from "roll call" after talking to hal rogers, the chairman of the appropriations committee. you both asked a lot of questions about how much more there was to cut in discretionary spending. it sounds as though, as the chairman says, not much. but do the members of the republican caucus agree with that? >> i think there is attention there. several of the feshmen came here with the -- freshmen came here with the avowal of cutting spending. they said they won't come back unless they do that. it is something the committee will have to work on if they are going to do that. >> they have promised to cut spending, but as the chairman said, they have reached the bottom of the barrel on the parts that's easy and vague, and some various agencies people don't think about very much. judging from what's happening on the campaign trail, they are quite ready to make a very explicit case about medicare and certainly not social security, which is the single largest program. so getting down to 15% of g.d.p., i thi