i think with respect to boles simpson it was important for us to -- boles simpson wouldn't have happened had i not set up the structure for, it as you will recall. this was originally bipartisan legislation that some of the republican supporters of decided to vote against when i said i supported it. that seems to be a pattern that i'm still puzzled by. so we set it up. they issued a report. and what i said was this provides us an important framework to begin discussions. but there were aspects of boles simpson that i said from very early on would not the approach i would take. on defense spending a huge amount of their discretionary savings came from the defense spending. i think we've got to cut defense but as commander in chief we've got to make sure we cut it in a way that recognizes we're still in the middle of a war, we're winding down another war and we've got a whole bunch of veterans we've got to care for as they come home. so what we've said is a lot of the components of bowles-simpson we are willing to embrace, for example the domestic spending cuts that they recommend we've ba

this whole conference has been discussing this plan, bole simpson because it's the only one with everybody in the game. we're not torching seniors or putting match sticks under the toenails of people. this is madness. but i'll tell you one thing. but i'll tell you one thing. if the country and the legislators are enthrall, that's a wonderful two words, enthrall, it means bondage of your mind. if they're enthralled to the aarp, then grover norquist, you don't have a prayer. >> what do you mean i haven't got a prayer? >> because we won't do anything and you'll be the one that is beat up. don't worry about us old coots. guys your ages will be sucking canal water when you're 60. when you waddle up to your window to get your check, whatever year, you're going to get 23% less. these young people say i'm not going to get anything. great. when you waddle up there, you put in 6.2% of your salary or wages, so you don't care until you get up to the window and find a check for 23% less. so the drinks are on me. have a ball. >> so in other words, we're putting in money into the social security pot, and

think there is broad bipartisan consensus backing the president's bipartisan commission report, simpson boles. it's a $4.5 trillion reduction in spending and balanced budget amendment. it tremendously reduces future borrowing of the united states and has strong bipartisan support. >> gregg: i spent the morning rereading simpson-boles and it includes revenue increases of $995 billion. so you are advocating a tax increase, aren't you? >> i think the key features of this bill are number one to cap spending and generated savings there. number two, the reform of entitlements including social security and medicare. then number three, tax reform that wipes out all tax expenditures but defend mortgage interest and charitable interest deductions. that goes from 39% and 28% and share the revenue between deficit reduction and the lowering of taxes. >> gregg: simpson-boles which you advdvocate calls for a tax increase. are you in favor of a tax increase? >> i think the tax reform in simpson-boles is right because if you lower the tax rate from 39 beneficial to the economy. also i think we've got to see t

so, for example, the bipartisan fiscal commission, the boles simpson commission said if you cut tax expendituresould both reduce tax rates for americans and still have a significant amount going to reducing our deficit. that is certainly the type of idea that is on the table. >> if he gets a deal that he likes and it it includes significant savings in the medicare program and the democrats run ads in the 2012 campaign accusing the republicans of pushing grandma off a cliff, will the democratic president said my party is wrong, and they're demagoguing this issue? >> look, i mean, i don't deal in hypotheticals a week from now. i'm not dealing in hypotheticals more than a year from now. i think what's important is that the president is asking leaders from both parties to come to the white house, come talk about how we can get there. i think that there is in this town an understanding that when you have divided government and huge problems, you've got to compromise if you want to make hard choices and solve big things. >> as you know, some criticing question what the president did to try to recover.

it comes from boles simpson, embraced by president obama and representative paul ryan.illion won't do the trick to stabilize debt-to-gdp, but would take you far along and signal seriousness. imf, international monetary fund, says you need 7.5% of gdp to stabilize. we think it's more than that, $4 trillion would be a good downpayment. charles, what i read from that quote is that we're not even close to $4 trillion on either of the plans currently being debated. >> well, there was a plan that was over that, and that was the ryan plan, which is $6.6 trillion, but that's not in discussion right now. the grand bargain, which was going to hit the number you mentioned is also not on the table now. but i think that's really important here is that it completely undermines the obama argument against the boehner bill. its argument is it's got to be a year and a half, because if it's shorter that will call the rating -- that will cause the rating agencies to lower our rating, because of uncertainty. what you're hearing here is if the ratings are lowered because of what's going on h

>> chris, i don't know about more than ten years, but certainly as you know, simpson boles, senator simpsonmer chief of staff irskin boles, in their report they proposed making substantial cuts, raising revenues and across the board with all items of expansion. but they said in the near term, meaning the next year of so, we need to be very careful that we did not have the opposite effect by dampening down the struggling economy, obviously, as we saw today, which will decrease revenues and make the problem worse, not better. so in the short term, i agree with the bowles-simpson suggestion that we be very careful in the short term. there's no doubt, however, in the white house yesterday, or thursday -- yesterday -- there was a clear agreement that this was a serious, serious challenge that confronted us and it demanded at all of us try to come together and reach an agreement whereby we will certainly over the next 10 years and 20 years bring this deficit town and bring the debt down because it's not sustainable. >> do most of the members in your caucus agree that this is an urgent matter, tha

for me, that means implementing the simpson-bole regulation, lowering tax rates, ensuring solvency of medicare and social security and stabilizing our debt. the house should consider a clean balanced budget amendment, h.j.res. 2 which says the country can't spend more than it takes in. this must be coupled with a debt limit increase to get us through the next 18 months. it's time for cooler heads to prevail with the clock ticking down, our nation's first ever default is at hand. we cannot afford to wait a minute longer. default is not an option. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california. continues to reserve. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: madam speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, ranking democrat on energy and environment committee, mr. markey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for two minutes. mr. markey: i thank the gentlelady. the republican party deficit plan is very simple. number one, sent the -- send the financial markets into a nosedive. number two

. >> i know you're plot -- [inaudible] is he more supportive of this than boles simpson? >> no, i would -- simpson-bowles? >> no, i would say he's supportive of the approach taken by both and what is significant about -- >> [inaudible] . >> we made clear at the time the president agreed with many of the proposals put forward by simpson-bowles, disagreed with some, we embraced some of the proposals in his -- in the president's even -- own legislative proposals, ones them a nated from simpson-bowles. including corporate -- ones that emanated from simpson-bowles. fully paying for the alternative minimum tax pass for three years, strengthening social security for the future, these are all things that were part of simpson-bowles. the president endorsed them right away. in terms of enthusiasm, i think we're at different -- we're at a different period now in terms of where we are legislatively. the introduction by the gang of six of a concrete proposal put forward by six members of the senate, three republicans, three democrats, representing a broad ideological spectrum in americ

the simpson boles commission did it. >> appreciate your time.ome back, we are wait fog see the debate begin on the senate major. and we have the senator from south dakota when we continue in a moment. it all happened so fast. it was clearly too late for me to do anything as my mercedes collision system automatically kicked in. the next thing i know, the mercedes stopped itself. ♪ watching what mercedes has done in bringing together these sensors in a car with software that has the ability to save your life. that's magical software. [ male announcer ] the innovation, the engineering of mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. ♪ let me make you smile ♪ let me do a few tricks ♪ some old and then some new tricks ♪ ♪ i'm very versatile ♪ so let me entertain you ♪ and we'll have a real good time ♪ [ male announcer ] with beats audio and flash, you can experience richer music and download movies straight to the new hp touchpad with webos. >>> live pictures of the floor of the united states senate. we are waiting just an hour or so after the house passed its

at the same time your fellow wyoming resident al simpson and of course mr. boles laid out a very aggressive outline for future deficit reduction which did include significant taxes down the road. it doesn't have to be triggered immediately while the recovery is still sort of limping along. what is your position on taxes and where we go at this deficit summit? ? the, andrea. i just came out of the meeting of the republican senate leadership. i spent the fourth of july with al simpson in his backyard in codey, wyoming. i think with 14 million americans looking for jobs, can't find someone to hire them, the wrong thing to do is to raise taxes on anyone in nick times like this. our problem is not that we're taxed too little, it's that washington spends too much so we need to cut the spending, cap the spending and the president talks about a balanced approach. we need a balanced budget and the way to do that is with an amendment to the constitution. >> senator, i just came from a bloomberg breakfast and their point is that the deal has to include tax measures. it has t

and most importantly the president's fiscal commission, the simpson-boles commission, also recommended exactly what this amendment does today. keeping defense spending at 2011 levels. especially in this area the simpson bowles commission is correct. i want to read from the report, every aspect of the discretionary budget must be scrutinized. no agency can be off limits and no program that spends too much or achieves too little can be spared. any serious attempt -- and i'll say that again, any serious attempt to reduce the deficit will require deliberate, plan red duckses in both domestic and defense spending. personally, i'd like to think i'm serious about cutting our deficits. i hope i'm not alone. many of us have gone around back home and told people how serious we are. but how can we look them in the eye and tell them we're serious and then come in and plus up the base defense budget. admiral mullen himself said that with the increasing defense budget which is almost double other the last 10 years, it has not forced us, the defense department to make the hard trades. it hasn't force