we are talking with andy sullivan on the u.s. budget agreement, and will there be an agreement. orning, sherry. caller: mr. sullivan mentioned a couple callers ago, when the woman commented that she was willing to pay $50 more a month. you said that they were going to change the rates back to what they previously were. they have been 7.65% from the employee, and 7.65% from the employer for about the last 16 or 17 years or so. what are the previous rates you are talking about, and i have said this before -- since this was a trust account, aren't ees that are in charge that should have made sure that social security and medicare should have been taking care of properly and invested properly so we would not be in this position today? also, i know that a lot of states could have -- and i know in louisiana, a lot of state workers who have their own retirement system never paid into medicare for years and years, and now -- well, i will say the last 15 years or so -- they are 1.45%. the states match it as well. host: thanks for the call. guest: they are all very good questions and very

andy sullivan will be our guest tomorrow morning. he is a congressional course, with riders to talk about the gang of five in the deliberation to bring down the debt and the discussions that continue led by vice president joe biden and michael can of the cato institute to talk about the health care law and white states are pushing businesses to seek waivers from that legislation. "washington journal" is heard every day at 7:00 a.m. here and on cspan radio. thank you for joining us this sunday and enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week ahead. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] ♪ ♪ guest: the only way to cut money is to cut money. representative paul dax ryan has done well enough score. >> we share altogether as a country the problem of rep ryan is that health care needs to become sustainable and our country. there are two ways to do that and one way is to cut. you can cut a budget and take things away for people and his plan does that effective

montana on "washington journal," a discussion on efforts to resolve debt and spending issues with andy sullivan. also a look at the political debate of the health care law with michael cannon of the cato institute. and a discussion on the national flood insurance program. that is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> monday on c-span, a senate home larnled security on the white house proposal for protecting cyberspace. that is live at 10:30 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> the c-span networks.

monday on "washington journal," a discussion on efforts to resolve debt and spending issues with andy sullivanalso a look at the political debate of the health care law with michael cannon of the cato institute. and a discussion on the national flood insurance program. "washington journal" is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span. >> monday on c-span, a senate homeland security hearing on the white house proposal for protecting cyberspace. that is live at 10:30 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> next, prime minister's questions from the british house of commons. member's question the prime master on the future of the u.k. nuclear deterrent policy, the queens a state visit to ireland, and disability benefits. benefits.

. >> i am andy sullivan. you mentioned the idea of caps. you might not be able to agree on all the specifics on how to overhaul the tax code. if congress commits to certain deficit targets and we do not reach those targets in the coming years, automatic traders would kick in that would cut spending or raise tax revenue. would this loan be enough for republicans as far as the debt ceiling is concerned? >> i do not think so. we are working off of our budget. we cut $6.20 trillion from the president's budget over the next 10 years. we have lots of cuts to choose from. we think actual spending cuts up front are important. we do three kinds of budget process reforms in our budget. we proposed statutory caps in a lot and discretionary spending. we propose a cap in overall spending as a share of gdp. then we have a debt cap. we kept the debt as a percentage of the economy. we reinforce that with triggers. the question is what we typically use in the past. we put out three types of spending caps in our budget. we see our budget as a menu of options

let's bring andy sullivan into this discussion. he writes for reuters and has been following the statements on both sides carefully. mr. sullivan, vice president biden has talks opening today. where are both parties? >> good morning, susan. two parties remain pretty far board at this point. -- remain prettyz -- far apart. republicans like to talk about reductions to popular benefit programs like medicare and medicaid. democrats generally say they should not be changed and instead we should look at things like cutting defense spending and revamping the tax code in a way that would bring more revenue. republicans alike that. host: are you beginning to hear signs of concession that this may not be possible with the election so closed by? skepticismere is groupther the by tiden will be able to reach a deal. a group last year could not reach a deal, so how could this group reached a deal in a month and a half or so that obama has given them to find a solution? and people say look at the members of this panel, they are not real budget ex