woe sign it tomorrow. >> through have it from harry reid saying the president would sign his proposal. there seems to be this question of who is negotiating with whom right now. no one knows for certain. it is expected that harry required is do for example to have to reach out to some republicans to get this across the finish line. 43 senate republicans sent harry reid a letter saying they would not support his current proposal under any circumstances. four did not. senator brown from massachusetts, collins and snowe from maine and makowski from alaska. for it to get to this 1:00 a.m. vote is unclear right now. there seems to be a tick-tock with this 1:00 a.m. vote. if he doesn't get it then, possibly tomorrow. the real enemy is the clock. if harry reid can't get anything out by this weekend or does it late tomorrow night or early monday morning, it would get to the house of representatives the earliest tuesday evening right up against that 12:01 a.m. wednesday morning deadline. something that could have a huge impact on the markets, not only monday, tuesday, but wednesday. folks here

there as they are debating harry reid's bill. leader reid's bill again also seen as perhaps getting some sort of compromise before moving forward. the third big thing we are watching at the daughter is in about 30 minutes, we expect to hear from leader mcconnell from the senate as well as speaker boehner from the house. they are having a briefing at 3:30 eastern time. we'll be here to watch that, too. a lot happening right now in washington, d.c. let's get right to the very latest in washington where all that's happening. house members are voting at the moment. luke russert is live at the hill with the latest for us. >> reporter: richard, how are you doing? what you're seeing is on the house floor. largely a symbolic vote. it was brought under suspension which is a parliamentary tactic which the essentially 2/3 of the house have to vote yea for this to move on. it is expected to go down and go closely along partisan line with every republican voting against it. most democrats switched over. going forward as of right now, we expect

follow are whether the white house led by biden in this case and mcconnell strike something or harry reid picks it off one republican at a time and gets it through at 1:00 this morning. >> who are the people that reid would be focusing his attention on? >> reporter: we've seen four that are fairly public in that they didn't sign that letter. two republican senators from maine, you have scott brown from massachusetts who is up for re-election in a very blue state that president obama is going to be at the top of the ticket on. lisa murkowski who had her own run ins with the tea party. she didn't sign the letter. then the next level identify are the former governor, republicans who had been governors. they know what it's like to deal with an unruly legislature. they know what it's like to sale vote, a piece of legislation that isn't perfect. so the senator from nebraska. idaho's senator whose fellow nature is part of the gang six. they could work in tandem. lamar stander, a former governor. bob corker is seen as somebody who is open to a conversation. roy blunt knows when these things are t

mitch mcconnell, harry reid. harry reid has just said the boehner plan which now looks like it will have the votes, now that he's tried to get his freshmen into line, that that will pass, most likely, then go to the senate. it will be taken up and it will be defeated. so you've got at least 51 votes plus two independents against it in the senate and possibly some republicans as well. then what happens? is there some combination of harry reid and boehner that is being worked on behind the scenes which takes the budget cuts this all have agreed on, that the biden group was talking about, and tries to move on from there? >> well, there is lots of avenues for agreement. there is -- there aren't that many big differences between the boehner plan and the reid plan other than one critical difference which is under john boehner's plan, we would be right back in this mess right at the holiday season, having this same debate, creating uncertainty in the economy at one of the most critical times for the economy, the holiday

but just to update you on what we've been watching, senator harry reid came out moments ago saying that the cloture vote on the reid bill will be put off by 12 hours. it was scheduled for 1:00 a.m. tomorrow. it's now going to be at 1:00 p.m. i found one that uses robots instead of real people. 'cuz robots work for free. robot 1:good morning... robot 1:...female child. sfx: modem dial-up noise woman: flaws? yeah, um, maybe. anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. 15 minutes could save you 15% or m♪ e on car insurance. going to the bank without going to the bank... that's a step forward. with chase quickdeposit on your smartphone, you just snap a picture, hit send and done. chase quickdeposit. take a step forward and chase what matters. ♪ we just keep on keepin' on ♪ ♪ keep on ♪ i like your messy hair ♪ i like the clothes you wear ♪ i like the way you sing ♪ and when you dance with me ♪ you always make me smile [ male announcer ] we believe you're at your best when you can relax and be y

and for the record, that something else we passed last night, harry reid had a lot of input into. that 12-member congressional panel, that was his idea with mcconnell. so this is -- this is the compromise. >> these two that boehner and reid did a lot of negotiating on this bill. >> yes. that's right. and that's why he's not being honest when he says that we don't want to negotiate. the truth is, harry reid agreed to that plan until the president of the united states, president obama, called him and said, absolutely not. and that's when reid came up with that other plan that he's going to propose. let's look at that plan. you know what that plan cuts? it cuts moneys that we never intended to expend on the drawdown in the wars in afghanistan and iraq. that's not a cut. it's more of kabuki theater or more of these budgetary tricks that the american people are disgusted with. and that's the reason we're in this problem in the first place. it's about debt. that's the problem. >> can i ask you, then, in terms of what's going on behind the scenes, if you're accurate in telling us you've g

harry reid can't get the vote. and which raises the question, at one part will they give way to serious considerationso? the administration says they need the credit line. with no end game in clear sight, financial marktss more than nervous. wall street in its worst week in a year. the dow, down 4.2% for the week meaning your 401(k) took a hit. we are waiting for harry reid to say, what next. >> i will be honest with you, john. it doesn't seem like there is a clear path to what is next. senate major leader harry reid has an array of options before him. what we know with pretty much serenity because we have been hearing it from the senate majority leader himself, the bill that just passed the house is dead on arrival. the democrats have support and it will not be going any way. the question, what is next? he has optioned and they did not appear to know what direction they will take. here is why. the real negotiations need to begin now and quickly. they have not been negotiating because it would be really unseemly fo

heard that come from the top republican in the senate we also heard from senate majority leader harry reid as he was returning to the capitol from a meeting at the white house with the president. he was asked if they were any closer to an agreement and reid said very firmly no. one reason could be is we're hearing from democratic leadership aides in the senate, the possible pessimism they said republicans have not moved off from their position that they support the house speaker john boehner's bill. what we're seeing a lot of is a lot of back and forth here. it is a very fluid situation as you know, wolf. one thing we're keeping our eye on is potential for a very late night, 1:00 a.m. vote, the first test, a test vote for senator reid's proposal to raise the federal debt ceiling as he's pushing that proposal forward at the same time. >> they need 60 votes for reid's proposal to get through the senate because the republicans at least some of them are threatening a filibuster, as you know. they may have 58, 59. it looks unlikely they will 2k3w0e69. is that right? >> it's not clear where the

the majority leader harry reid said there were no significant negotiations going on with his counterparteveryone is watching now. the house is going to be voting down the reid version of this bill today. >> in about 40 minutes. so both sides are accusing the other of politicking here. all that americans want to know, is there some serious work getting done? are we still seeing posturing? >> there is going to be posturing until the last minute. but the question here now, one of the interesting things that's come up in the past 24 hours, people are talking more about the feasibility of this 14th amendment option, which would be the plan z in this whole argument of whether the president would have the constitutional authority to raise the debt limit on his own. there are many legal questions surrounding that. but one is whether or not this would be a good thing for the white house. and with the congressional approval rating down in the teens right now, and the white house approval rating several times more than that -- >> but still close. >> it could appear if congress can't come to an agre

when harry reid said we should be allowed an up or down vote and harry reid and dick durbin and schumer all complaining about a filibuster when they just got ton tabling a bill without a vote the second time they have done it and haven't passed a budget in 8 hyundais won't put their bill on paper seems ironic to me. >> it is disingenuous. it is always a 60 vote threshold and they held republicans to a 60 vote threshold and blocked consideration of the only proposals passed which is the work has been done in the house of representatives by the republicans their cut cap and balance and then, of course, the proposal that passed tonight. so, you know, this is i think very what he is talking about is disingenuous in terms of where we are. >> what is more, mitch mcconnell i'm speaking only behalf of all of the republican senators offered harry reided on the floor tonight right after the vote that they cast to kill the bill that came over to the house. he offered to have a vote immediately. no delay or filibuster. look at the senate floor. there is nobody there occupying the floor. we offered

when harry reid said we should be allowed an up or down vote and harry reid and dick durbin and schumer all complaining about a filibuster when they just got ton tabling a bill without a vote the second time they have done it and haven't passed a budget in 8 hyundais won't put their bill on paper seems ironic to me. >> it is disingenuous. it is always a 60 vote threshold and they held republicans to a 60 vote threshold and blocked consideration of the only proposals passed which is the work has been done in the house of representatives by the republicans their cut cap and balance and then, of course, the proposal that passed tonight. so, you know, this is i think very what he is talking about is disingenuous in terms of where we are. >> what is more, mitch mcconnell i'm speaking only behalf of all of the republican senators offered harry reided on the floor tonight right after the vote that they cast to kill the bill that came over to the house. he offered to have a vote immediately. no delay or filibuster. look at the senate floor. there is nobody there occupying the floor. we offered

when harry reid said we should be allowed an up or down vote and harry reid and dick durbin and schumer all complaining about a filibuster when they just got ton tabling a bill without a vote the second time they have done it and haven't passed a budget in 8 hyundais won't put their bill on paper seems ironic to me. >> it is disingenuous. it is always a 60 vote threshold and they held republicans to a 60 vote threshold and blocked consideration of the only proposals passed which is the work has been done in the house of representatives by the republicans their cut cap and balance and then, of course, the proposal that passed tonight. so, you know, this is i think very what he is talking about is disingenuous in terms of where we are. >> what is more, mitch mcconnell i'm speaking only behalf of all of the republican senators offered harry reided on the floor tonight right after the vote that they cast to kill the bill that came over to the house. he offered to have a vote immediately. no delay or filibuster. look at the senate floor. there is nobody there occupying the floor. we offered

this comes from harry reid today. listen to this. >> we should not let these extremists dictate the outcome of this debate the time for ideological extremism should end. and they've got to break away from those extremists. >> neil: what do you think of that? >> i guess someone did a poll and told him he should use the word extreme seven, eight times in every sentence. the problem with that logic that harry reid is discussing is that by his measure, bill clinton was a radical right wing extremist. because clinton, when we were facing sip circumstances, except much less debt, bill clinton embraced the idea of putting up on a path to a balanced budget. the only argument he with republicans is how quickly we could get there. because he and the republicans in congress did work towards a balanced budget they accomplished it. that's why it is so shocking to me that we have an administration, we have democrats, like harry reid, not all democrats, but certainly, senator reid, that are so far outside of the main dream they thin

the fact is mitch has made the request and harry reid has said no. so mitch asked us to say since senator reid said his plan was the only one that could pass both houses of congress he asked us to introduce it in the house and we did it today and it was overwhelmingly defeated in a bipartisan way. this was done, mike, because we know that we are going to have to work in a bipartisan way to address this. 75 times we have seen the debt ceiling increased since 1962. the first time interestingly enough congressman don rumsfeld was there and it was a couple hundred million dollars increase. look at where we are today with a $4.3 trillion national debt. what is it that we are doing for the first time in ever? we are actually focusing on the root cause of the problem. we don't have a debt ceiling problem, what we have is a debt problem and that is why we have to get to the root of it and that is what we are going to do. >> mike: democrats are acuting you of playing -- accusing you of playing political games anded that is why you introduced the bill. it was h

you heard harry reid say the deal is being negotiated at the white house. if the democrats have to vote on cuts to entitlement programs, you and david were talking about this -- they're already on the record as opposing any sort of dramatic change to medicare and social security. when they voted against that ryan plan, which would have been a dramatic overhaul of the medicare program. even though the president, the top democrat in our country, has already put it on the table publicly talking about reduced cost of living adjustments and social security in the run up to this and reduction in medicare benefits, possibly raising retirement age and some other adjustments to strengthen those programs, they're already on record against that in voting against the ryan plan. you take away all their cover if this is what comes out of this super committee, especially if it is due to the fact that republicans are unwilling to raise taxes. those bush tax cuts, this does not touch them. correct me if i'm wrong, chief white house correspondent, but as far as i know this d

that's what harry reid's bill does.trillion in deficit reduction our republican colleagues said they want. it lifts the cloud over the economy so we're not in the same fix six months down the road and protects medicare and social security. may believe our colleagues don't appreciate that, but that's an important part from the democratic perspective. >> so if the bill makes it to the house, do you think here, congressman, there might be a possibility, do you see this as a possibility that speaker boehner might reach out to you and others? >> well, i would certainly hope so. i hope that we would be willing in the interest of the country and of our economy to reach across the aisle, because the proposal that he put on the floor the other day didn't get a single democratic vote. that's because it was so extreme, so far to the right. again, a part of their plan to end the medicare guaranty, slash medicaid, slash education, and yet protect the special interest tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jets. that's not where

you heard what senator harry reid had to say. earlier today the majority leader mitch mcconnell read a letter signed by 43 republicans including you pledging to oppose reid's bill. has anything changed your mind in the hours leading up to the vote on it and listening to him moments ago? >> not at all. think the reason he pulled that down is that there are 43 committed against his proposal. however, i think what he's saying is that he hopes that we can start having a vote on something that is an agreement between both the white house and congress, both sides of the rotunda, and he wants to not have a repudiation of his proposal and instead go on to one that might have a chance to pass. >> okay. okay. let's talk about this. today "the new york times," senator, put you on a list of republicans most likely to approve a compromise bill. you have been vocal about the need to compromise. here's what you said on the senate floor on thursday. >> the senate majority leader and the house speaker have put forward plans. i believe that we mus

but a lot of people in this town can never say yes. >> now it's senator harry reid's turn.bipartisan support? this as the deadline looms after a brutal week for the markets with increased pressure from wall street to produce an agreement before monday's opening bell. plus, what this crisis means for funding troops in afghanistan. this morning many soldiers are asking, will we get paid? >>> good morning, everyone, i'm alex witt. welcome to msnbc saturday. we're approaching 10:00 a.m. on the east coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. congress has set itself up for a day of infighting today as the debt deadline draws dangerously close. the senate will start its session at 1:00 p.m. eastern and it's planning to debate a debt bill for at least 12 hours before holding a t

. >> to capitol hill now, senate majority leader harry reid in the room. let's take the full screen and see if the expectation is that he will be speaking. let's check in with kate bolduan on capitol hill as well to give us an idea of what is taking place right now. we know that senators mitch mcconnell had a lot to say. so did patrick leahy moments ago as well dick durbin. we have been hearing from all of them who have been debating this whole issue of trying to reach some compromise as the sparring continues, kate. while we wait for harry reid to speak, give us an idea of what is taking place. where are we as it pertains to these proposals? >> reporter: we're tracking a couple of things at this very moment, fredricka. one thing we're watching, we're waiting to hear from harry reid, who will be integral in reaching whatever compromise if there is a compromise, to be reached, he'll be integral in being part of those negotiations on the part of democrats here in congress. i think he's actually speaking, fredric fredricka. let's listen in for a second. >> be

that harry reid hasn't sent over to the house. but it was a proposal he cooked up that was not passed by the senate and it is the reid bill it is from the republican congressman from california . this is elements of what harry reid put together. it is tit for tat. >> house passed the bill and reid killed it and they will kill what reid proposed. >> they are voting on a shell bill. >> like what you are doing atime. >> and there is no way it will pass. they are doing it under suspension of the rules. meaning you need a super majority to pass it. this is no way it will get that. a lot of democrats don't like the proposal. >> where is this going? >> what is interesting is that the house and senate are talking past one another and not closer to forging a deal. the last hope is harry reid trying to get seven or eight republican senators involved. lisa murkowski of alaska and get them to sign on to a package and send it back to the house. john boehner has a deep problem in the house. they could lose 23 republicans before they needed to re

. >> and the democratic side majority leader harry reid already making his position clear assuring the senate will move to take up the boehner bill at once and at once defeat it. and as the president waits to see what his play may be, his messenger jay carney was steadfast that the white house remains in the winning position. the same side as most americans who simply want compromise. >> one thing that is clear, dan, is that on the suggestion that this is about politics, i don't believe that anybody who has looked at a poll could disagree with the idea that we are winning this based on the merit, but the president is not here to win political arguments, but he is to make sure that the economy and the american people are protected. >> and this vote is anything but a sure thing with many rank and file members of the tea party persuasion firmly against their own speaker. let's get right to it. joining us from capitol hill democratic congressman peter welsh of vermont. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. >> we had a press conference of republicanss proposing a bipartisan bill. is it? >

harry reid's plan would cut about $2.7 trillion.r's plan is really the reason the boehner plan may trigger a downgrade. as we indicated, some investors, and this is a very subjective view of what would happen. think you could see the increase of a quarter percent to a half percent. if you remember, a year ago, when california had to issue those ious, california' rates go up half a percent to a percent. that a big increase and that happened even when they stopped paying the ious and stopped paying cash again. the long term implications stay with us even if the downgrade is very short. >> that translates into real money when all is that and done. glory yark you're getting more information on what we might be hearing. >> one of the interesting things coming from the administration to erin's point, they believe there is a possibility of a downgrade. not only because boehner's plan doesn't have as much deficit reduction about it means you have to come back again to this same debate six months down the line to have the question of whether

it, see, harry reid's bill couldn't get through. reid's not ready to give up on his bill. he's not ready, because reid believes and democrats believe they could if they really wanted to, basically claw out three more republicans with a couple changes to his bill. and get this through in a way that would be very ugly, probably 0, 61 votes at best, to bring the filibuster, at least read believes he could still do this. mcconnell people feel confident they could kill it, they believe they could kill it right now, reid wants to keep as much time open, as it stands now, the -- reid is planning for a 1:00 a.m. vote, just after midnight tonight, 1:00 in the morning, as soon as the normal senate rules apply, mcconnell's saying hey, let's have it now, mcconnell wants to send a message, reid couldn't pass either and try to put more pressure on cutting the deal. that's what this game has been the last 48 hours, thomas. it's been this contest for leverage. democrats want to believe they have the leverage right now, because boehner couldn't get a

harry reid is a fine man. he loves this country. and i am asking everybody to -- all senators, congressmen, representatives, before you vote, just take a few minutes. get the bible out and turn to the book of revelations. all the answers are right there. the have been there for thousands of years. host: an optimistic note this morning. we have a call on our independent line. what is the way forward here now that the bill has sold in the house? caller: the way forward this -- i believe the republicans just have to stand firm, get the democrats to quit spending. we have got to cut the debt. we cannot borrow 40 two cents on every dollar. i am still waiting for the transparency that our president promised us in the election. i have seen no negotiations. and no plan from him. i think we have got to get the government to quit spending money, cut taxes, and let the economy grow. host: the hill is reported to have one, lawmakers said the bad economic news as stocks plunged further. house lawmakers struggling to reach a deal on raising the d

that the way that boehner is positioning this, he could get something past the house that whereas harry reidht have difficulty within the senate. it remains to be seen how the head count goes on what reid is now proposing, but if reid can't get 60 votes, then he has a stalemate of the senate and we know how that works, and they could push something through the house, and then you would have the president left with the dilemma of having to accept default or veto a house bill, something he has said he would veto. >> so in effect, what you are saying, andrea, john boehner would have put the president in a invidious position to which he ultimately will be blamed if there is a default? >> what you are seeing now is the positioning of exactly that over who is going to take the blame. and if the last bill that is passed at least one house is john boehner's then he could make the case that the president is the one standing in the way, and ooetser w ither way, you aro have both sides claiming that the opponents are to blame if this goes down. what the markets are saying today at least is that we thin

harry reid is frustrated. nancy pelosi who is not involved in the shut down talks this year not playing big role here. and people are getting jealous that the president is meeting with john boehner and on republican side a lot of the tea party guys are not trusting john boehner, they are skeptical that he is going to blink and both the left and the right are so entrenched here and i don't know how someone is not going to be badly politically damaged with whatever tell they come up with and, again, why see the votes at this time. how do they get there? john boehner has called this a rubic's cube. it is difficult to get a solution. >>neil: but they are aware of the deadlines and this is the day that the administration argued you had to get the agreement in place so you could avoid the august 2nd potential default and by that we just mean that you hit up against the limit and it doesn't mean that a downgrade, per se, or that we go and solve it, there is a higher risk of that. we will play that out. we hit that de

before they do the vote on harry reid's proposal that he had on the floor to avoid default. while it's likely to go down in this cloture motion, this issue of stopping the filibuster, shutting down the debate, that may not happen. there's a procedural and some clock reasons to keep this going, keep this alive and then when they swap out the agreement, it may be able to speed up this process. so that they can still get the whole agreement passed by both houses of congress and signed by the president before midnight, august 2nd. here's where we stand. that's where we stand right now. i am joined now by andrea mitchell, the anchor of "andrea mitchell reports," one of the grand poohba s in the washington bureau. >> this is a meltdown beyond meltdowns. they're taking attendance but it is really a delaying tactic until they've got everything in place and they're ready to go to the floor and they know exactly what the routine will be, then it will be pro forma. but behind the scenes they are lining everything up and dotting the "is" and crossing the "ts." >> i poke to someone on th

to stick to cut, cap and balance and wait out the president and wait out majority leader prince harry reid the end, reid and the democrats, the five -- 53 that sent a letter to boehner did boehner a favor. >> that's the course i would have prefered. if you poll most grassroots tea party activists who worked their hearts and souls out to put in majority in office last november, that's what they want as well. i have to struggle not to roll my eyes when i hear harry reid accusing boehner and the gop leadership of pandering to the tea party. the tea party folks wish they were being pandered to, as a result of this deal. they certainly did not, as a message of their mandate for change in november, hope that at this point in time, we would have the boehner plan and reid plan look like each other! look like pale imitations of each other. i think it was fairly mortifying after the cbo as flawed as its analysis sees have been over the last couple of years, -- some out yesterday and expose the shortfall in the spending cuts and having boehner to go back and do i agree me rewrite on the whole thing.

ceiling at least for a temporary base base. >> greta: have you heard or had any conversations, harry reid the republican leadership in the senate? >> yes, they are talking. there's no doubt about that senator reid and senator mcconnell talk on a regular basis. it appears sunday night they had an an game >> greta: what happened? >> they went to the -- they had an agreement. >> greta: what happened? >> they went to the white house and the president said no. >> greta: why? >> he didn't want this debt limit increase he wanted a bigger amount to take him past the next election. i don't see if there is anything wrong if we can achieve a significant reduction in our debt -- experts tell us we need to reduce spending by four trillion at a minimum over 10 years. this plan would only reduce it by one. this cannot be a long term solution. it can own be an interim solution to get us past this august 2nd, date. >> greta: many republicans are critical of the president because he wants to go"k past the 2012 election and they say he's doing it for political, selfish reasons. the president says he wants t

martha: there you have it, harry reid says, look, this is a pretty good deal, guys. ou have rush limbaugh talk about this and he says, look we are being played, folks, if you sign onto the reid deal, you are going to get not what you think is in the package and angela joins us, and dug shone, political contributor and -- and doug schoen, fox news contributor. >> boehner has a job ahead of him and the fact he cannot whip his members in line to vote for his measure, and that he has to delay the bill, shows weakness in leadership and i talked yesterday to several grassroots tea party leaders, and, they don't like the boehner plan, and they told me if any tea party member of congress -- part of the tea party caucus votes for the boehner plan they'll vote them out in 2012 and they say, we put you in and we and take you out and that is the rub. martha: we remember when tea party folks were elected they were told they were on probation and they would be watched closely and that seems to be what is still guiding them, doug schoen and this is an amazing action we are watching

here at 1:00, as emily suggests there might be some sort of deal made between mitch mcconnell and harry reid understand it mcconnell didn't accept reid's invy thation itation to and talk, so what does that mean right now? >> senate republicans even though they have so much leverage right now and a deal will be negotiated with mcconnell and reid if one is to be negotiated, they are hanging back because they don't want to crowd john boehner as he tries to whip his reluctant house caucus members into shape. so, they don't want to muddy the waters or take anything away from whatever leverage boehner has right now. they know boehner at least has to get through this process and try to get a vote, get that out of the way. the boehner bill per se is not going to succeed in the senate, but that's one step that has to take place. what reid did in starting the clock today, senator reid, the majority leader, is at least start the process for the senate to consider all weekend their plan, which will be amended. so, this will all be discussed and debated in back rooms, that's the way the process is going

he is harry reid to bring it for . we are waiting right now until 1:00 tomorrow morning and the fact it, mitch made the request and harry reid said no. mitch asked us to say since senator reid said his plan was the only one to pass . he asked us to introduce it in the house and it was overwhelmingly defeat in a bis partisan way. we know we have to work in a way to address this. there are 75 times we have seen the debt ceiling increased since 1962. don rumsfeld was with the first one and he's talking about this on his book tour and look at where we are 14.3 trillion dollar national debt. what are we doing the first time. we are focusing on the root cause of the problem. we don't have a debt ceiling problem. we have a debt problem. that's what we are going to do to get to to the root. >> mike: congressman, this is a bigger issue over the long haul. demdeps accuse you of playing games. but your point is, it was reid who said he had the only bill that could pass the house. you proved it can't pass the house. what is the me

republican leader offered to have a vote on the reid plan tonight, and our leader, democratic leader harry reid, said fine, if you will permit a majority and mcconnell objected to a majority vote, and then leader reid said so, you intend to filibuster the only vehicle that has a chance of solving this problem in a timely way? and that's where we are tonight. with the republicans deciding to filibuster the only vehicle that can possibly solve this problem since the boehner bill is dying in the senate tonight. >> senator, that is an absolutely stunning report on where we stand. i just could not imagine it turning this way, but we've been in uncharted territory for a couple of weeks now, and there was a moment where people thought that the only place this could be worked out, the only place, is in the offices of harry reid and mitch mcconnell. for the republican leader to refuse to even begin the discussion says to me that he believes we are still in the stunt stage, that here we are on friday night approaching the deadline of tuesday and there's still time for stunts, because it's always a stunt

, he said, did harry reid just say it was his bill or default?s irresponsible. a little bit of the finger-pointing and name calling. we're now actually going to go back to the senate floor. mitch mcconnell speaking now. the man who may hold the key to finishing this deal. >> the treasury said we'll be in a default situation, and the president of the united states is rolling out new mileage standards today. how about this? how about a plan from democrats in washington that can pass both chambers, prevent the crisis, and protect americans from a worsening economy? i would suggest to my friends on the other side this morning, they start taking their responsibilities as a majority party a little more seriously. because at this point, the only people who are disregarding the consequences of default are senate democrats, not the republicans in the house, but senate democrats. republicans have been doing the hard work of governing this week. it's about time our democratic friends joined us. mr. president, i yield the floor. >> president? mr. president?

we are going to senator harry reid now. >> mr. speaker, there are negotiations going on right now at the white house about negotiations of the debt ceiling of the white house, and there are many elements to be finalize and still a distance to tgo before any arrangement can be completed, but we need to give everyone as much room to do their work. i have spoken to the white house quite a few times this evening, and they have asked me to give everyone as much time as possible to reach an agreement if one can be reached. for that reason we will hold over the vote until tomorrow at noon when we can talk and we will come in tomorrow at noon at 12:00, and i am glad to hear this cooperation and compromise and hope it bears fruit. i hope that we can adopt a long-term approach rather than the band-aid approach of the house of representatives will be reached. i am confident that reasonable people from both parties should be able to reach an agreement. i believe that we should give them time to do. so mr. president, i ask unanimous consent cl

harry reid's proposal needs 60 votes right now in order to avoid that filibuster. doesn't look like they're going to get the 60 votes. having said that, it will still enable this process to go forward. i think they're still wrapping up but let's listen. >> mr. reid of nevada. aye. >> mr. schumer. mr. schumer. aye. >> all right. so they're just wrapping up the roll call right now. they're getting ready to move on to the next process. as we await this roll call, i don't think they'll break the filibuster, but they'll have the structure in hand, the negotiations continuing. you heard mitch mcconnell. he told you not only is he speaking with the vice president, former senator joe biden, also speaking with the president, former senator barack obama. they're having a good conversation. he told you, i like these guys. he was very upbeat, very positive. >> well, they're listening to him, wolf, which is why he likes them. he doesn't like them so much when they're not listening to them. >> he seems to like biden and the president more than he likes harry reid. >> i think mit

we're waiting to hear from harry reid. let me show you the shot on capitol hill expecting him to come out in the senate and to address reporters on what the next step is on his plan about collie tur in the senate. in the meantime, we're asking the president who's insisting on any solution at this point, it must be bipartisan. my big question today, have we reached a point in american politics where a bipartisan solution is just a pipe dream? it seems like we're getting to that point. a lot of frustration from capitol hill. here's the way you reach me, facebook, twitter on email. okay, so right now there's no path to a deal. time's running short. the president has urged both sides to get together. get a deal that he can sign. >> there are plenty of ways out of this mess. but we are almost out of time. we need to reach a compromise by tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time. >> senator ben carden is a democrat from maryland, a member of the budget and finance committee. senate, good to see

so as kate reported, you heard harry reid saying no, we're nowhere. e were glimmers of hope from -- on this end of pennsylvania avenue especially before that meeting with reid and pelosi. a deal has to happen this weekend. we are getting close, maybe by tomorrow morning we'll have more to report for you. >> okay. thank you, chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. don't go far, we'll be covering this through the weekend. rolling coverage. thank you very much. to help make send of all this, i want to -- make sense of all this, i want to bring in wolf blitzer. wolf has been covering the story the whole time. so here's a question -- deal or no deal? are they close? and are they just really talking at each other now? >> my sense is that mitch mcconnell is probably closer to what's going on right now than harry reid, the majority leader in the senate, in the sense that mitch mcconnell's been speaking with joe biden. remember, he used to be a united states senator, there's a longstandinging relationship there, and he's speaking with the president. i

john boehner put a bill to the right of harry reid. >> to the right of harry reid? >> yes, reid's said, we disagree with the president, we will cut spending so we moved it to not if we cut spending, but how much we cut spending and we have moved the debate for however much you want to raise the debt limit, we have to cut spending. harry reid has agreed with that premise. his bill is full of budget gimmicks and accounting tricks, but the premise that we have to cut spending to raise the debt limit has been embraced by both parties and the cuts that john boehner put in his bill were pre-agreed to in this group by democrats. so this is a bill that has spending cuts that were agreed to by democrats. so we believe if we move this to the senate, know that this reid bill cannot pass the senate, this improves the likelihood that will pass the senate. we will see how this plays out. but we think this puts the president and the senate in a difficult position to reject spending cuts we had previously agreed to because we don't like that it's john boehner's bill. or do we sign i

but harry reid's strategy will try to be and convince eight to ten, 12 republican senators to come on board with his compromise. he'll put a sweetener in there for them to try to say, look, come over to our side, let's pass this through the united states senate and send it over to the house. the problem is the clock becomes a main issue. in order to go by the procedures, you'll see the 1:00 a.m. test vote, that could be pushed back to tomorrow if negotiations are ongoing between reid and mcconnell. but unless they agree to expedite the process, the earliest the house could see this is possibly tuesday morning, tuesday afternoon. you saw how difficult it was for speaker john boehner to get a bill out of the house that just had republican support. any compromise bill that reid sends over there, even if republicans back it in the united states senate is expected i've heard from the gop aide to lose 100 to 140 republicans, maybe even more than that. you could see a scenario where on tuesday night john boehner receives a compromise bill from the united states senate and he's going to have

so that's the reason -- >> is there any difference in the version boehner and harry reid are looking reid has $2.2 trillion in cuts and doesn't raise taxes. is there any version you would suppo support? >> andrea, i've proposed over $7 billion worth of cuts in the appropriations bills. the thing is if l the accounting gimmicks and the budgetary tricks that barack obama and harry reid are giving us are just that. we can't have anymore of that. we need to be truthful with american people. they deserve is truth. i'm voting for america. i'm voting for a strong economic future for america for my kids and grand kids. i believe firmly that we've got to deal with this debt. we cannot continue to create more and more. barack obama, nancy pelosi, harry reid have created more debt in the last congress while i was here i voted against all that stuff. is the stimulus bill which has been an abject failure. bush's first staunch on tarp and obama's second, i disagree with all that. we've got to get headed in a good financial direction and to do that, we have to deal with the debt. we cannot create mo

harry reid is watching this play out. mitch mcconnell believes there has to be a compromise because the republican bill doesn't have a chance on get through the senate. it will be vetoed by president obama. >> what do we know of the talk of the 20 or 30 day extension? >> reporter: that has been floated out there. obviously you heard from the white house saying they don't want to do that. it does reflect the political reality. a lot of folks don't believe they can make the august 2nd deadline. we are here, less than a week away, and so vastly apart. remember, if anything will come together, it looks like it will be on sunday. it will be some sort of plan that harry reid and john boehner will craft which will be shot through in the dead of the night through both chambers. that was unpopular with the house the last time the government shutdown. that is why you are hearing it. in terms of the august 2nd deadline, there has been some discussion that perhaps the treasury will have money to pay through the end of next week. a lo

house republicans rejected a bill by senate majority leader harry reid saying it completely fails to nation's fiscal imbalance. senator reid and house minority leader pelosi were summoned to the white house. their meeting ended just moments ago. a vote in the senate could happen late this evening. now back to "the family secret." >>> kimberly, 12 years old, saw her mother standing in the living room of their house on clark street in boise, idaho. behind the bedroom door, her step-father was in a stupor, induced by the very sleeping pills kim said her mother had sent her to buy. now, said kim, she heard her mother say -- i'm ready. >> she told me to go in the bedroom, which i didn't like, because we weren't allowed in there. if she had been in there prior, checking on him and whatnot, at some point had put him on the floor on a sheet. and i really didn't know exactly how she was going to do it until i walked in and saw the gun at the end of the bed. and she went over and turned up the stereo really loud and she said it would cover the noise. first, she asked me to pull the trigger. >>

harry reid?isten to my point. >> okay. >> when the senate did not address raising the debt limit at the end of last year harry reid said, no, after the election, we'll leave that to the republicans to handle that next year. he passed the buck at that moment. he did not take the leadership responsibility -- >> who dropped it, then? >> look, ron -- you can cut this any way you want, bro, the bottom line, democrats controlled the senate and the house and the white house up until election night, up until january when the new republican -- >> who controls the house now? and where does the legislation originate? >> and b reeshgs refused to extend the debt limit when he had an opportunity to do it. don't start blaming -- >> blame other people all you want. i think the american people know better. >> don't step away from the facts and the read reality how we got here. >> the public needs re-educated constantly. never news worthy. this debt creeling is news woirnlg, as ron said, the conservatives wanted t

it was harry reid because harry reid, you see his plan? no tax increase.wants to save, he has 23 seats, most democrats, and he does not want them run on tax increases so all the talk, patting ourselves on the back, it was reid who told obama "no" on taxes. >>neil: you can be nicer on your show but always a pleasure, thank you, buddy. unions have been getting in the act, too, blaming republicans and particularly one very important republican for holding this up. the union is not talking but the senator certainly is. turn left. you have arrived. sweet belt. e-reader for textbooks. gps. video camera for lectures. game pad. have you considered this ? it's got all tha and more than 200,000 apps. technology to learn and play on-the-go. only at verizon. android powered. playstation certified. the xperia play by sony ericsson. only $99.99. diabetes testing? what else is new? you get the blood, hope it's enough, it's-- what's this? freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, i'll try it, but-- [beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. it's

but i can tell you this right now, harry reid is dangling a lot of things to try to attract republicans. a few more cuts up front. a promise of a vote on a balanced budget amendment. not linking passage to the next round of cuts. making quote, the trigger stronger for the second round of deficit reduction. all this is about one thing that the white house cares about, getting rid of the second debt ceiling vote that would take place in six to nine months if john boehner and mitch mcconnell got the bill that they wanted. >> is the starting point for what's about to transpire in the senate that which just passed the house, prior to the vote here on "hardball" you said it was almost of no consequence, they could adopt the number from the bill and treat it as a blank slate. >> that's exactly right. there were some similarities to this bill before boehner had to put the balanced budget amendment deal in there. that was some of the cuts up front. there there be some similarities that will be used and using for instance, promising a vote on the balanced budget amendment, harry reid will argue t