organized labor also good for democrats. capital d. democrats. democratic party's electoral successes have owed so much to union voters and their organizing strength, not to mention money. when barack obama was running for president in the three presidential elections before that, almost 60% of union household voters voted for the democrat in the race. just being in a union in 2008 made you significantly more likely to vote for barack obama than all of those other factors. and look at the money part of it. in the most recent election, these were the top donors that spent the most on the 2010 midterm elections. they're all corporations, all giving to the republican side of the raise. all but three of them. the only three that gave more money to the democratic side than to the republican side were the three unions. they were the only competition to the republican side. corporations, big business, they know they have a home in the republican party. people who work for a living, the whole dream of the american middle class, is supposed to have a home

not democrats are going to try to court democratic voters. recall of the republican majority in the state senate? wisconsin is not a republican phenomenon. this is a democratic phenomenon. republicans did stuff in office that outraged people in wisconsin, the democrats in office in wisconsin stood up and fought against them tooth and nail unanimously and the democratic l democratic elect rat raised huge amounts of money and may take back the senate next week. the wisconsin democrats, the base awaits, so what are d.c. democrats trying to do to enthuse their base around the country? pointing at the republicans and going ewe, you don't like them, do you? that doesn't count. where are democrats taking a stand, where are they refusing to back down? where are they saying they are going to fight tooth and nail? they were last spotted debating on how we should let the republicans destroy the economy, the crowning achievement of that fight? >> you have been quoted coming out of your caucus as calling this agreement a sugar-coated satan sandwich. was t

democratic challenger is jennifer schilling. with 24% in kapanke leads -- excuse me, kapanke trails 49% to 51%. we'll be updating the recall election results as they come in throughout the night. but now, live from madison, wisconsin with the latest, it's "the ed show." have a good night. >>> good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show," tonight from madison, wisconsin, where the recall elections for the radical republicans under way. the polls have closed. the results at this hour. in the 2nd district, 49% reporting, republican state senator rob cowles 57%, democratic challenger nancy nusbaum in at 43%. in the 8th district, 7% reporting, republican state senator alberta darling 71%. democratic state representative sandy pasch in at 29%. in the 10th district, 29% reporting, republican state senator sheila harsdorf 59%. democratic challenger shelly moore 49%. in the 14th district, republican state senator luther olsen, democratic state representative fred clark. no results on that. in the 18th district, 7% reporting, rep

two go to the democrats.ed yet just so happens to be the one that had some shenanigans during the supreme court race. i mean, you couldn't write this. >> such shenanigans again that i will emphasize a sitting member of congress from wisconsin asked for a justice department investigation investigation. now we have another problem there. and i'm amazed, simply amazed that cathy nicholas, the county clerk there, didn't have every i dotted and t crossed. >> the scorecard says three for the republicans two, for the democrats, and the final race in district 8 with 68% of the vote in, pasch the democrat leading

if we had in december was a democratic president, democratic senate and a democratic house, if you could not when under those political circumstances, how in god's name are we going to win when at right wing republicans are controlling the house? that's exactly what happened and the democrats 7 caving in ever since. most people understand that. where we are right now with optimism or pessimism, the american people have to stand up all over this country and say no, you are not going to cut social security. let's be clear that this cpi, you go out and tell seniors today, say there are folks in washington who thinks york: today which you have not received in the last two years despite the fact your prescription drug costs and health-care costs have risen, they think that is too generous. 65, they want to take back $560 that you ever gotten when you're 85, thousand dollars. see how seniors feel about that. >> this division between democrats and republicans is so deeply entrenched, can we expect it to carry on into the election campaign? can americans expect many more months of this sort of c

two go to the democrats.at hasn't been called yet just so happens to be the one that had some shenanigans during the supreme court race. i mean, you couldn't write this. >> such shenanigans again that i will emphasize a sitting member of congress from wisconsin asked for a justice department investigation investigation. now we have another problem there. and i'm amazed, simply amazed that cathy nicholas, the county clerk there, didn't have every i dotted and t crossed. >> the scorecard says three for the republicans two, for the democrats, and the final race in district 8 with 68% of the vote in, pasch the democrat leading

i don't mean democratic as in party, i mean democratic as in democracy. >> people of the united states of america, your congress is bought. >> this super committee is so distressing. >> republicans are complaining about the democrats on the super committee because they are democrats. >> republicans object to harry reid's big. >> max baucus, john kerry, patty murray. >> signed a pledge against any tax hikes. >> really is going to have to be who can fight ideologically. >> 82% of americans now disapprove of the way congress is doing its job. >> it's also very disturbing, the lack of diversity. >> this super committee is so distressing. >> melissa harris-perry can't stand talking about the super committee, so she'll review a movie for us instead. >> all right, i'm going to do it. but i need to make sure she understand this ain't no game. >> republicans are trying to explain how losing two senate seats in wisconsin is actually a win for them. >> what we saw happen in wisconsin. >> two seats picking up last night was decent. >> this is sort of a test for progressives. >> this is devastating

it was true the democrats held staggering majorities in both houses of congress, but that huge democratic majority was deceptive. because conservative democrats, many of whom were from the south, were allying themselves with republicans and voting together to strike down key new deal bills. and yet when those conservative democrats were up for re-election, they ran on fdr's coat tails and milked the magical name roosevelt for all it was worth. but when it came to voting, they were happy to knock down new deal programs. and so fdr made a tough decision. well, it was an impulsive decision, an emotional decision and would turn out to be a poorly-managed plan. he decided to spend much of the summer of 1938 traveling across the country and intervening in democratic primary races. he decided to go to rallies and speak out against conservative incumbents and in favor of liberal challengers. he was one angry guy. he was frustrated and deeply resentful at being blocked by member of his own party who had the nerve, the chutzpah, to exploit his own name and his own popularity when it was to their ad

it includes some democrats. it also includes three groups after becoming a larger and more powerful part of the electorate. i will let them describe them for it. arguing against is my colleague michael barone. he believes we are in an era of open field politics when either party will be down. let me give you the ground rules. each will present by minute opening arguments after which a bill will bring. -- bell will ring. then you have a question and answer time. it also some that your questions on twitter. after, we have this 25 minutes question and answer period. let the debate began. >> thank you for that introduction. also this summer and my book. army going to get intermediate levels? what is the claim we are discussing today that it is good to get clarity. i will take this on the flyer. they are shifting in a direction that will permanently benefit the democratic party. i do not believe in permanent means -- liens and restructuring. one thing michael has written is that there are no permanent majorities. i d

caller: the democrats have not voted for this. please don't vote, democrats. stand with the veterans and i thank you so much host: last call is from bowie, maryland, good morning. , democratic line. caller: i don't like this a vote at all. i think they have to vote for it because seniors like me depend on this and if they don't it means we would not get our benefit. people call in and saying they should vote for cap and balance, cap and balance would cut medicare and social security worse than the ryan bill did. i'm glad they didn't. anyone who votes republican this time should not be complaining. the last time they voted them in and they almost destroyed our country. they are laughing at us and around the country because they could not get together and compromise. it took them all this time to compromise. it hurt us. it brought down -- people did not go buy things because they were afraid to spend their money. it was hurting us. senior citizens, if you want your social security and medicare, you better vote for the democrats this time because ryan and the rep

host: williams, a democrat, hallandale, florida. caller: america must remember that were our brother's keeper. look around you and see how our nation is falling apart around us. if we do not do athing and try to help ourselves, we cannot blame who we put in office. when 2012 comes, think about that. are those names. to help or hinder you? we are not stupid people. if we let one part to get away with this stuff, we will have problems. that is why we have checks and balances. we must remember that we are all brothers and sisters. host: left headline this morning. here is -- last headline on the debt ceiling this morning. here is the "washington post." independent, maryland. caller: good morning. there has been a lot of talk about how people have held this holding hostage. 95 democrats are against it. this bill increases the debt. economists have predicted about $4 trillion added the next decade. the cuts are only in the current rate. next year, the budget will be even worse and larger. if we had a credit to hit right now, it would be

saying ok we've got a democratic house a democratic senate we got a good good democrat in the white house first african-american president let's not show up because you know you look at of the voting polls in florida for example forty two percent of the eligible democrats showed up to vote sixty seven percent of eligible republicans that you know that know that's i mean i can't see one they where they were there was excitement behind those candidates they came in with the excitement that we have now you know it would be opposition to you know that you're making my point but here this is a viewer wrote this in let me just ask this it's not rhetorical why is taking away benefits for oil drilling a tax increase or taking away benefits for drilling children's cavities a spending cut why is taking away benefits for aging airplanes a tax cut and taking away benefits for aging grandparents as a spending cut and why is it taking away benefits from hedge fund managers as a tax increase for taking away benefits for social security and medicare is a spending cut i think you miss it i think you

before leaving town, house republicans rejected the democrat democrats compromise deal on a temporary funding bill for this agency. they haven't had funding for four years. they extended funding 20 times, but for some reason the 21st time we have a problem on our hands. delta has decided they will shut down the whole faa to make congressmen move. the shutdown is keeping tens of thousands of construction workers off of these jobs. >> because they passed the bill and said to the united states senate, either you take it our way or it will be no runway and no highway, and no way. >> transportation secretary ray lahood went to new york city's laguardia airport yesterday to point out the impact of this partial shutdown. he stood in plain view of an old traffic control tower that's supposed to be demolished by a company based in brooklyn. the contract to do that work is for $6 million. a whole bunch of jobs, right? like the other $2.5 billion worth of improvement projects this one is on hold. secretary lahood has said the partial shutdown will not affect airline safety amid all the chaos and

there will be an equal number of democrats and republicans. but the question -- say they put moderate democrats and moderate republicans. they could come up with a deal. what if they put much more radical republicans, much more radical democrats on that committee. they will never be able to come up with a deal. >> and then you're in your straitjacket. as the president said, tough cuts both parties find objectionable. we used to have an old saying, that's no way to run a railroad. they have boxed themselves in with one route out. if they don't take it, there will be nasty cuts for everybody. that's what's on the table. what the markets are going to be looking for over the next six months is exactly how the supercommittee is doing its work. and the first whiff of trouble then you're going to be back to square one. >> it's interesting. you did have a supercommittee. you had the erskine bowles commission. senators and house members will say, they not elected officials. they behave differently, but not necessarily better. you have a committee. ther

vote on something that passes, vote for something that is defeated. 91 democrats, a majority of democrats will have voted against it. looks like 91-88. 91-90. that's close. interesting party divide. >> and the democrats -- howard mentioned progressives are uneasy with this, of course they are. they didn't get nearly the level of -- they didn't get any increased revenue, euphemism for tax increases. but some cuts are potentially in areas that are near and dear to the hearts of folks in the democratic base and they're going to have a lot of explaining to do. this is not the type of thing that's going to motivate high base turnout on either side. this is something that really the electoral gains and sort of -- wash out. >> looking at a human interest story. the fact that gabrielle giffords of arizona, has a blue shirt on in the screen in the back of the picture, she's surrounded by supportive members of congress. she's wearing glasses, she's right there voting on this measure. so excited she came back to make it. there it is, the final count. all times expired. republican, 174 for it, democr

the democrats overspent the republicans hundred percent it was two to one spending on the democratic side so you're talking about the official party spending you know i'm not i'm talking about no i'm talking outside interest groups we don't know about it but we don't know the numbers what we do know we don't know the numbers karl rove went into that state and spent we don't know how much we know it was over a million dollars we don't know how much the koch brothers went to state we don't know how much they spent on that they got you got to go and have a nice day sharon asked them democrats spent over spent the republicans to do one of the last so if anything it's as anything that's a win for democracy no is it shows it shows that your point is what it shows is that the party had to spend the money because the outside interests were fun in the public eye true there are other thought have to raise any money because they got over the bad school for the last few months wisconsin has been a rallying cry a clarion call for democratic support this the democratic way has been under assault r

how long will the democrats wait to bebrujingly cast the votes?e're watching a stunning example of divided government at a time of fierce partisanship. nobody, there is nobody who loves this deal. there are some people who kind of like it. a lot of people who don't like it at all because if you're on the left you think it would bring social security and medicare cuts down the line and if you're on the right you think it's a back door to tax increases down the line. it appears we're moments away from watching the gridlock broken in the house. i say appear because given the last week or so i won't be convinced and how many republicans is john boehner about to lose? that's the first question. how many reluctant democrats come forward and then there's the immediate questions? how does this debt ceiling spending cuts debate play out and there's so many questions about how the ramifications and ripple effect into 2012 and beyond that i think are fascinating? a lot of people will say the volume will go down after today. maybe the volume will go down for

>> there is a lot of angry house democrats. i spoke to a few of them coming out of the meeting with vice president joe biden which was described as quite a somber affair, if you will. joe biden essentially telling the house democratic caucus, look, this is the best we could do, and hinting that the debate was really framed by republicans saying we will not compromise, and if you guys don't give us what we want, essentially, we are happy to go all of the way to the brink of default, and then biden also said as we cutted away that the gop kind of sees themselves now that they kind of see themselves as a continuation of reagan revolutionaries and it is very difficult to do business with them. i heard a lot of the house democratic members got a lot off of their chest and expressed anger saying that the administration had told them out once again, and they had gone way too far to the right to cater to the gop and should have taken more of a stand. nevertheless, it still looks like they will, some of them at least will try to support

earlier today, the senate democratic leader signed off on the deal. depending on fellow democrats. nancy pelosi said she would take the deal to her caucus tomorrow, but wanted to see the final product before committing her support. >> cnn has been devoted to this breaking news story it is important to us and the world. many, many more adtwo hours in a special report here on cnn wolf. >> listen to what the president of the united states said. >> there are still important votes to be taken by members of congress. the leaders of both parties in both chambers have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid default. a default that would have had a devastating effect on our economy. this will cut $1 trillion in spending over ten year, cuts that both parties agreed to early on in the process. the result would be the lowest level of annual domestic spending since dwightizen hour was president. but they they wouldn't happen to be so quickly they would be a drag on the economy. it must be balanced. despite what some republicans have argued, i believe we have to ask the wealt

democrats must feel comfortable, especially with the republicans in the house would like to see democraticotes on the table. they must feel comfortable that this framework will protect that. they want to avoid default but wanted a balanced, bipartisan approach. republicans have ignored that and they put forward their ideas. >> okay. >> if this deal continues think ms. pelosi will have a tough job but may have to come up with democratic votes to get it over the finish line. we'll see what happens. >> before you jump in, alex, i want to bring in wolf. >> very quickly, donna, will the congressional black caucus and the progressive caucus -- and together they are well over a hundred members, a hundred democrats in the house of representatives. will they be with the president of the united states and vote in favor of the deal? >> you know, the black caucus has always said there are no permanent friends or enemies, just permanent interests. they will vote in the interest of their constituents. i don't have to tell anyone on cnn their constituents like many americans are hurting right now. they w

only 19 democrats. this is the house floor, we're moments away from the conclusion of this vote, the democratic controlled senate will take this up next. as we watch this vote, dramatic breaking news. more details in a minute, but let's bring into the conversation kate baldwin. when the speaker walked by you moments ago you asked the right question, you didn't get a verbal answer, but he gave you a bit of a nod. he seems to think finally he's going to get a plan out of the house and senate? >> he's smiling more today than he was earlier -- they were getting votes for his original bill. i think there's more a more optimistic mood. >> you have the votes tonight? >> john, while we -- speaker binner has not answered my question. paul ryan is the chair of the house budget committee. he seemed pretty confident today at a news conference with speaker boehner saying he thinks this bill will prevail, going to prevail with a majority of republicans. one thing we've been tracking throughout the day is where do hou

95 democrats voted against. the measure now heads to the senate for a vote on the bill is scheduled for later today at noon eastern. you can watch the live on c-span 2. >> this morning, we will speak with several members of congress on raising the debt ceiling. later we will hear from bloomberg business week about a cover story on the debt crisis. >> the ayes are 269. the nays are 161. the motion is passed. ♪ ♪ host: last night's votes breaks down like this. 66 republicans voted for it. 95 democrats opposed it. eyes turn to the senate with a vote today at noon. 60 votes needed for final passage. our coverage begins around 9:30 a.m. eastern time today on c- span2. good morning, everyone. august 2 is here. it looks like the nation's debt ceiling will be raised. you will get a chance to talk directly to members of congress about this debate. if you are republicans, dial 202-624-1115. richard coe hand is joining us on the phone, the senior congressional correspondent. the house voted 269-161. what are you watching f

conservative groups said they too would launch recalls against the democrats, because those democrats had left the state. as of last night, all of those elections are over, in the end, none of the democrats were recalled and two of the republicans were. if you do the math on that, the ultimate cost of the big scott walker union-stripping adventure of 2011 is the wisconsin senate used to have five more republicans in it than democrats. now the republican margin is not five but just one. it's only 17 republicans to 16 democrats in the wisconsin senate now, and one of those 17 republicans, this is important, is the republican senator who voted against all his colleagues, who voted against the union-stripping law. so thanks to the recalls, there is now a majority in the wisconsin senate against stripping union rights. john nichols at the nation wrote about it today, on the issue that started this standoff in wisconsin on the union-stripping wall, the senate majority is now at odds with the governor on the issue that provoked the mass demonstrations against the governor's agenda as well as

i talk with democrats every day.n fact, the democrats say the rich need to pay more of their fair share and bear more of the burden. i can accept that premise. i think we could come together on that premise and then the question is how should they do it? by paying more taxes or maybe we can get the rich to pay more by saying they should pay more for their benefits. the reason we don't want to do it for the most part is we think it will hurt job creation. >> look at approval ratings of congress people it's about as low as ratings of journalists and that's not very good. the is this debate a sign that government works or doesn't work? i think a lot of folks see this as a sign that government don't work. but from your perspective on the inside, what sign is this? >> on the debt ceiling i would say there's that debate. think how great it is that no one is shooting each other and the nice story of gabby giffords came back today. well, i mean, think about it compared to other countries where there's violence involved. peop

vice president biden met with house democrats today. look what he said after the meeting. >> they expressed their frustration, which i'll be frustrated if i was sitting there as well. we keep on taking it down to the wire like this, and so what they want to know is they ask questions specifically about the proposed legislation. excuse me. i'm sorry. the proposed legislation. i thought it was a good meeting. i feel confident that this will pass. >> did vice president biden's speech turn some no votes to yes votes? >> i think what the most important thing that vice president biden did is he reassured us that the white house is definitely on our side. they don't want these deep cuts any more than we do. they felt like they were backed into a corner and did the best they could with what they had. that's pretty much, i think, what he did. i don't think he took -- >> on that line politico reports that the vice president said that the tea party republicans had, quote, acted like terrorists. now, the white house is denying that report. did you

one of the worst elections defeating democrats in 7480 years.rs and significantly in the senate. we're down to 53. compromise whether we like it or not it is the name of the game. the president did the best he could with a weak hand. some of that criticism is undeserved and serves no purpose if democrats want to come back into the majority. host: was that the masses of joe biden that the caucus meeting yesterday? guest: he allied why we arrived at this point and then listened a lot. he stayed to the bitter in listening to dozens of my colleague, including myself, expressed concerns and shared views with him. he did so very respectfully. i think it helped. host: described the exchange between your colleagues and the vice-president and other members of your party over this deal. guest: it was a respectful set of exchanges were a number of people express some of the concerns you just reflected in that article. in some cases, to specific questions about what was in the deal, how will that work. i think some of my colleagues were seeking reassurances

also this, the state democratic party chairman in wisconsin today citing internal polls that show democratsa lead or a tie in all of next week's races recalling republicans. saying all six of those races are eminently winnable. some of this, of course, is just a political animal barking into the wind, you have to look like a winner before you can be a winner, but we are one week away now, one week away from knowing if wisconsin republicans celebrated anti-union rights binge and the budget that went along with it, we are one week from learning whether or not that churned up a lot more than a lot of people's resentment. in one week we will find out if it has also churned up a majority of the vote. joining us now is jon erpenbach, he and 13 other state senators left the state in an attempt to halt passage of the union-stripping bill. senator erpenbach, good to see you. >> good to see you too and welcome back. >> thank you. things are going great for your side of things coming up to tuesday's elections. what are your expectations for these elections, what do you think is going to happen? >> wel

the democrats have problem with the bill in the senate.e home and the senate is calling the house back to action as is the president. senator reid was asked if the temporary extex was on the floor at the end of the day and didn't happen, would the democrats accept the house version and reopen the faa? at the end of the news conference he said -- >> bret: that is not the case. we are in a standoff right now. bring in the panel. steve hayes for "weekly standard." a.b. stoddard from the hill. and sindcated columnnist crowd crowd crowd. we all have handoffitis, a.b. give us a synopsis for those at home who have to get caught up on the faa standoff. >> it's gone back to the senate passage of the bipartisan bill in the winter. this ends up being i don't like your version and you deep like mine. the house on july 20 passed a short-term extension because you were on the stand off. at that point, the senate democrat passed an extension through september 30. so there would be no furlough, no problems, but it kicks in action a few days later. because

if you are from a conservative state, west virginia, he's a democratic senator, former democratic governor, but west virginia, if you look at the presidential politics of late, has been trending conservative. the general consensus among the political strategists is if you are republican or conservative democrat, the safe vote is to vote no. i talked to sherrod brown last night, from ohio. he will vote yes. he wants to say he voted for deficit reduction. liberal groups are angry with him because they think the super committee opens the door to social security cuts, opens the door to medicare cuts. but we are seeing here, you just saw mitch mcconnell and harry reid disagree. mitch mcconnell said you might not believe it, my tea party friends, you might vote no but you won here. you won because we have changed the tone, the tenor and direction of the debate in washington, it is now about cutting spending. harry reid got up and said he finds it very, very disconcerting, the impact of the tea party. well, we'll see how this plays out but on the point of impact, mitch mcconnell's right. the lawm

so when the results come in tonight but we see a truly democratic electoral victory for democrats or will we see yet another major election in america's subverted by corporate interests using last year's supreme court's citizens united united decision here to offer his take on this is jim dean the chair of democracy for america jim welcome. hey tom thanks for having me if i could just make one slight correction the polls are open for another hour until eight o'clock central time and i just want to make sure that if any listeners out there have not voted and live in these six districts this is a great time to go out because your vote is really going to matter really should've told you before you came on the air jim we pre-record the show an hour early so ok this will play at night and by then it will polls will be closed so what i want to look like on the ground. you know it looks pretty good i get up i must say the folks here i mean our staff has been here for six weeks as well as a lot of great organizations that have been here are very very pleased with the way the field program ha

now that we have this behind us, it's time for democrats and democrats to come together. >> is speaker pelosi onboard with you? >> she's talking to her caucus and she's going to make her decision about how she approaches this bill. we heard from many, many democrats who figure it's the right thing to do. it's not the perfect deal, but we have divided government. >> i've heard from a lot of democrats and i believe the republicans deliver the votes they promised they would deliver. >> thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> they started the debate just a few moments ago on the house floor. there's one hour scheduled of debate on raising the nation's debt ceiling. and after that, we expect the roll call to take place. it could take place in an hour or so. the actual roll call. i suspect they're not going to have one unless john boehner is convinced he has the votes. once it passes, it will then go to the senate. we'll see if the senate will vote tonight or wait till tomorrow morning. the white house says the president is anxious to sign this legislation into law and move on. the americans

a democratic president and democratic majority leader of the senate would never have agreed to the stupidest deficit reduction package in history if the stupidest republican congress in modern history had not taken the debt ceiling hostage. because it was the only way that they believed that they could find the way to raise the debt ceiling 95 house democrats, including minority leader, nancy pelosi voted in favor of the bill along with 174 republicans, including speaker john boehner, who traditionally, the speaker, does not vote on legislation. during the vote, the house of representatives applauded arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords, who appeared in the capitol and cast her first vote since she was critically wounded in the january tucson shooting rampage. she voted in favor of the legislation. senate majority leader harry reid announced the senate has reached a unanimous consent agreement to do a roll call vote tomorrow at 12:00 noon. the bill is then expected to pass and head to the president's desk where he said he will sign the legislation into law just hours before the united st

battling democrats and republicans battling republicans and democrats battling democrats. and is the tea party a big winner in all of this? joining me is connie mack, and you voted on a deal with bipartisan support and saved america from going into catastrophic default and i only assume that you are quite happy for the country to go into catastrophic default? >> well, then you would have assumed wrong obviously. my point is this, that we now have over about $14.5 trillion of debt. and with this bill that passed today, we are assured to have over $17 trillion in debt, and none of the cuts in the bills are cuts off of real numbers. they are all cuts off of increases in spending, and what i have heard over and over again from my constituents, people around the state, and all over the country that have been calling my office, they are saying enough is enough. we want a solution, and we don't want a deal or a compromise. we want to solve the problem. so my vote was for solving the problem. and this bill did not do that. >> the problem is that any sensible economist around the w

on the democratic side you mentioned some groups upset with this deal. specifically the progressive caucus, black caucus. the general consensus from what i've heard with democratic aides is that nancy pelosi will do her absolute best and try to corral these groups together and rank and file democrats and say we need to get to 95, 100 votes because the president needs us for his re-election. they got the debt limit issue off the table until 2013. we need the president's back on this. that's what i'm being told her message is going to be. nancy pelosi is also the most prolific fund-raiser for the democratic caucus, so she has some power in that regard. so the question now becomes, chris, can john boehner get to that 120, 130 number? the words he's using on this conference call are really trying to make the point of, look, we don't want a job-killing default. he's trying to bring in this idea that they have won. this is going to make the changes they came to washington to pursue. it's going to be a real tough sell job. and no one knows how it's going to tur

d democratic world, global democratic world who perceived the genuine threat that came from the fascistsn europe. and in 1937 he went to chicago to the dedication of a bridge. and as with many presidential speeches, the occasion was neither here nor there, but the location, i think, was significant. chicago was, of course, chicago is more or less the capital of the midwestern united states. the midwest is the, at that time, was the citadel of isolationism in the united states, and chicago was the home of roosevelt's old classmate, colonel robert mccormack, who was the publisher of "the chicago tribune" and by far america's most prominent and vociferous isolationist. so he came to chicago, he came into the lion's den to say, in effect, that america, that to lay out what he felt -- and this was all done in kind of slightly ambiguous language, but clearly he's saying that we face a threat from the rising tide of authoritarianism in europe and that the united states, uniquely situated as we are, uniquely conceived as we have been as the great democratic republic, we must be the great arsenal

they vote 75% democratic. by 2040 as most of you have heard, around then, we'll probably be a so-called majority minority change. the whites singaling down half a point which is much less friend will i constituency for democrats. not all whites are the same. the white working class which is far more conservative is going down at the pate of 3/4 of a percentage point a year. three years for example -- three points over a four -- presidential cycle. like college graduates they are increasing their share, at least the voters, by about a quarter point a year. that is very important to keep in mind and kind of highlights the difficult mathematical situation for the republicans, which is that their chief constituency, the white working class, declining rapidly while majorities are increasing rapidly and why college graduates are decreasing an amendment. your shifting democratic voters for unfriendly republican voters. over the short term it is possible for the republicans to thread the needle by upping the share of

host: blood me ask you about the democratic side -- let me ask you about the democratic side. which one might give you pause that they could deal with the other side and who do you have confidence with? guest: i know the three folks in the senate. they are all smart and strong people. i know the house folks as well. i would simply hope that the democrats hang together and they demand fairness and they demand policies that help us create the kind of jobs that we desperately need in this economy. we cannot continue to surrender to the republicans who say we have a deficit problem but we don't want the wealthiest people in this country, millionaires and billionaires, to contribute one penny more nor do we want large corporations to contribute. it has to come completely on the backs of the poor and the children. that is not what the american people want. i would hope the democrats hold firm and maybe the republic -- republicans will do some yielding >> and if the republicans were willing to yield on taxes, would you be willing to see reductions in social security, medicare, and me