we're joined now by bob bixby, executive director of the concord coalition. thank you for joining us this morning. >> guest: you're welcome. >> host: over the weekend it was reported that negotiators are getting closer to a budget deal. tell us what that's likely to look like and what it means. >> guest: well, it looks like what they're going to try to do is replace about two years' worth of the sequestration cuts which was a lower level of cap that went into effect earlier this year and replace the savings so it wouldn't add to the deficit by increasing some government fees and perhaps requiring a higher contribution from federal workers for their retirement program and maybe about a 65 to $70 billion deal. it wouldn't be a deficit reduction deal, but it would, it would be an agreement on the level of discretionary spending or the appropriations bills for the next one or two years. >> host: and talk to us about scale. is the a large deal? is it a small deal if how does this kind of fit in our range of options? >> guest: this is not what you would call a gran

bob bixby says there's no budgetary or fiscal strategy in the choices that murray and ryan have usedrategy of avoiding any hard choices. so what do we expect this agreement to look like? here's somewhere what it looks like. it's a two-year deal that sets the budget number for the appropriations committees to do their work, which would decide how the nonmandatory spending of the government. it's about a trillion dollars, give or take $10 billion. $990 billion is one of the goals, it could get over a trillion depending on how they buy things back. the committee is seeking alternative cuts in revenue raisers, including fees on airline passengers and adjusting pensions for federal workers. and the democrats do have one last new demand and that's an extension of unemployment insurance. they're pushing for a jobless pen bits program to continue. 1.3 million will lose the insurance after the program expires on december 28th with an additional 3.6 million by the end of 2014 according to the labor department. chris jansing is next. i'll see you tomorrow. and now my journey across the country

. -- bob bixby. we will be right back. -- >> i gotupset upset. they covered my health that my mental health work to few meetings. then they did not show up anymore. woman who is one of the press people. i said, nobody ever covers my meetings. she said, mental health is just not a sexy issue. tour the country, found out what was needed, developed past the mental health systems act of 1980. congress one-ugh month before being voluntarily retired from the white house. >> first lady rosalynn carter tonight at 9:00 eastern. >> the wireline world is the central security or system of our country. it is the veins and arteries that connect what is now the information economy in the united states. data traffic increase at the rate of 40% per year. it connects all forms of communication whether they originate in a wireline environment or not. i would say america' to is a wireline future. >> the future of communications industry with walter mccormick tonight on the communicators at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span two. >> "washington journal" continues. the: we are