in washington, white house press secretary jay carney downplayed the report. >> we support dialogue, political dialogue. and president saleh has publicly indicated his willingness to engage in a peaceful transition of power and we believe the timing and the form of that transition should be accomplished through dialogue and negotiation. so we urge that process to continue. >> sreenivasan: saleh has been a close u.s. ally for years, particularly in yemen's role in fighting al qaeda. two american soldiers were killed in afghanistan today by a man dressed as an afghan police officer. the incident happened inside a compound in the north, as they were training security forces. witnesses said the shooter fled the scene, but it was unclear if he was an actual police officer or dressed in disguise. meanwhile, hundreds of people across the country protested for a fourth day against a recent koran burning in florida. u.n. helicopters fired on forces loyal to the entrenched president of ivory coast today.

it was all fodder for the jay carney briefing. and jay carney said, oh, no, no, no, we agree with john boehner. we know when you have a deal, it's a deal for all of it. we just think that we all agree we're pretty close on the number, we're just working out the details. the white house doesn't want to throw john boehner under the bus publicly, do they? >> he's their negotiating partner. boehner has been in private in these talks from all reports pretty reasonable. he recognizes that he has a balancing act to do. he must get support from some republicans, but in the end, this deal is likely to be like the tax deal they passed during the lame duck session and like the last cr was. this is likely to be a deal that gets passed only because it gets sufficient votes from both republicans and democrats, the kind of bipartisan compromise that the president said he would put through on a range of issues as president. this is a challenge for john boehner more than anyone else, but it's clear he knows from the comments he made today, he can'

means business now when asked about all this by house spokesman jay carney responded and said quote we believe the political process will outperform the s. and p. projection lauren lyster joins me to talk more about this we just watched her story lauren several things to talk about but love is jay carney i mean america's political process will outperform expectations i think that you know you always hear corporations and companies talk about the way that they talk about their business to the market to investors is all about in terms of performance outperforming underperforming so i think it essentially saying that he believes that democrats and republicans can get together and get a deal passed to deal with the deficit which is what this warning this negative outlook is all about so i think the markets need to say we're going to reform these negative expectations how big of a deal is this i mean s. and p. they didn't lower the rating but they said hey we're keeping an eye on you are you going to clean up your act is this a big deal i think that it is a it is certainly significant s. an

when asked about this white house spokesman jay carney responded and said quote we believe the political process will outperform the s. and p. prediction. i know without all means are his loyalists or if you're we just want to report some interesting way in which they're used by the white house spokesman what do you think jay carney meant by the political process well i think he's saying that he thinks democrats and republicans can get together to deal with this deficit i mean this whole negative outlook has to do with the deficit and of belief that washington may not get it together there's very political timing that something a lot of analysts are saying coming out of this as we see this deficit debate go on very divided over partisan lines and really no answer as to whether or not it's going to be resolved in the deficit really is going to be tackled i mean we saw in your government shutdown just to get some kind of budget passed that kept the government working so in that in that whole atmosphere that's kind of one of the reasons why some people are saying this negative outlook was i

white house press secretary jay carney is optimistic. >> we believe that there is ample reason to beimistic, that common ground can be found, as long as all sides get to work. >> but the tea party says the spending cuts are not enough. house tea party caucus leader michelle back man wants the bill to include language to defund obama care. if obama care is not de funded bachman says, she will not vote to pass the whole multi- trillion dollar budget that keeps the federal government running. and repeat, chairwoman bachman heads the tea party caucus. >> i will not because i'm going to fight on this issue, because the american people want us to. 62% of the american people, more than in any other time for since obama care pato get rid o >> question, in addition to removing all funds, to implement obama care, what else does the g.o.p. want defunded in this budget? eleanor? >> they want to defund planned parenthood, public radio, pell grants, and the u.s. institute of peace. and they're especially interested in attaching a rider that would render neutral various epa requirements. actually,

. >> reporter: white house spokesman jay carney said standard & poor's assessment was overly pessimistic. >> we simply believe that the prospects are better. >> reporter: but s&p says the u.s. faces a significant risk of a ratings downgrade. >> there's approximately or at least a one in three chance that the rating could decline. >> reporter: and with the u.s. debt now at $14.2 trillion and rising, the consequences would be expensive. >> what that means is that going forward u.s. borrowing costs are a little bit higher and that trickles down through the rest of the economy and increases the cost to everybody. >> reporter: for example, with its triple-a rating, it costs the u.s. 6.5 cents to borrow a dollar for two years. but greece, with a double-b rating, these pay 20 cents for every dollar it borrows. u.s. debt is still viewed as one of the safest investments in the world, but this is the first time ever u.s. credit has been tagged with a negative outlook. katie? >> couric: anthony, we heard analysts saying it will trickle down to everybody. if the rating is actually lowered, how will

play something interesting that came out of the white house briefing yesterday with the spokesman jay carney he was asked by one of the reporters at the white house had anything special to say about the gerund anniversary and he had this to say take a listen. i wish i had a great one liner in russian or in english but i don't i'm not sure what we have on that but we've sort. we congratulate the russian people on that historic accomplishment and i got to the moon for. that i mean obviously he was joking there but does that say something about our sort of inability to move wholeheartedly into the whole space cooperation thing is there still some sour feelings over who has bragging rights to space exploration apparently for the white house yes i mean what i wish he would have sent it is hey you know we apologized for two years later that we were the only nation that would not accept you repeat here in the victory tour when an extraordinary moment when we wouldn't accept them and we had separate seats on later but number two but we did not observe during the period and i think there was a cheap

limited humanitarian intervention is on the table quite the opposite of white house press secretary jay carney only announce that every country is to frank and different indeed but is that in action toward syria once again prove that there is no such thing as an overarching ideology for human rights and democracy and the duty to protect but only when political conditions favor joining me to discuss it is robert farley assistant professor at the university of kentucky patterson school and blogger lawyers guns and money robert thanks so much for joining us tonight now clearly every situation is different nobody can deny that but if you look at syria where upwards of four hundred protesters have been killed now according to human rights organizations where the violent or the government is clamping down violently and where the protestors are rebels where they have no arms how can you look at that situation and then look at libya and the way the international community has acted and justify the two. i mean i think that you can't on any reference to high principle and i think you make a very good po

white house press secretary jay carney warned of an economic disaster if republicans do not vote on a plan to raise the debt ceiling. >> raising the ceiling, the debt ceiling is so important because it involves the faith and credit of the united states government. as the most powerful economy in the world. >> reporter: the stage is set for a show down between congress and the president next month when the federal government is expected to exceed it's $14.25 trillion debt ceiling. republicans have threatened to block an increase unless it contains significant debt reducing measures. >>> president obama plans to lay out his plan to reduce the nation's debt in a speech tomorrow at george washington university. the president is expected to call for a bipartisan deficit. including a plan to cut medicare and medicaid costs. the president is also scheduled to meet with congressional leaders for a briefing tomorrow morning prior to his speech. >>>-- to call attention to what they call disproportionate spending on the military. protests lined the street. the effort to balance the budget has fo

all this coming up at the briefing with white house press secretary jay carney.ere is a portion. >> balance is essential. the burden has to be shared by everyone. and what is not acceptable in the president's view, and we believe in the american people's view, is a plan that achieves serious deficit reduction only by asking sacrifice from the middle class, seniors, the disabled, and the poor. while providing substantial tax cuts to the very well-off. host: jay carney yesterday at the white house briefing. jack hollen says from baltimore. you are a republican and from your perspective, has or is the president losing his political base? caller: first of like to mention that i liked the guy this morning, but with respect to the primary question, i am not really a republican. i am conservative. i have no better means of indicating my preferences except by calling the republican line. all like to identify myself with the goldwater side rather than the other side of the party. and probably only caller you get today they voted for barack obama in 2008. my primary sense

at the white house today, press secretary jay carney said those should not be part of the current debate. >> this is not the appropriate vehicle on which to stack a lot of contentious, ideological, politicized issues that will derail process. we need a deal, the american >> woodruff: lawmakers must pass an agreement by april 8, when the current spending stopgap expires, in order to avert a potential government shutdown. i spoke a short time ago with democratic senator benjamin cardin of maryland and republican congressman mike pence of indiana. senator cardin, representive pence, good to have you both with us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: let me start with you, congressman pence. we have vice president biden saying both side have made progress, they're aiming for 33 billion in cuts. on oh other hand, speaker boehner is saying there hasn't been agreement on anything. which is it? what's your understanding? >> it feels a little like the old parlor game in washington d.c. where one side leaks a number to the press, in the hopes it will be a self fulfilling prophecy. but look, it's good news t

but white house press secretary jay carney said the president welcomes the s&p statement. >> any call for a bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction on fiscal reform is a welcome one. and in that context i think that it adds to what we believe is some momentum towards that end. >> woodruff: last week the president introduced a plan to cut $4 trillion from the federal deficit over 12 years. house republicans passed a package cutting the deficit by more than $4 trillion over ten years. in the meantime, the two sides remain at odds over raising the federal debt ceiling which sets a limit on government borrowing. house majority leader eric cantor said today that any action on that issue must be accompanied by meaningful fiscal reforms that immediately reduce federal spending. both sides pledged sunday not to play politics with the debt ceiling. >> congress is going to have to raise the debt limit. they understand that. that's absolutely essential to preserve the credit worthiness of the united states of america. >> nobody wants to play around with the country's credit rating. nobody want

white house press secretary jay carney said the obama administration deplored the violence and called on the syrian government to "cease and desist." it was billed as "great friday." as this amateur video appears to show, tens of thousands of anti- government demonstrators took to the streets across syria after friday prayers, once again demanding reforms and the resignation of president bashar al-assad. freedom activists claim that these images are evidence of president assad's security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition into crowds, as they've done in recent weeks. protesters marched in the capitol, damascus, and at least ten other cities, including daraa, banias, hamah, and homs, despite winning a concession from the government. this week, the cabinet, on orders from president assad, agreed to lift the nearly 50- year-old state of emergency in a bid to defuse the unrest. it had been one of the protesters' main demands, but turned out to be not enough to prevent further marches. in preparation for today's rallies, security forces and plain-clothed secret police officers were

this week, the white house spokesperson jay carney put out a statement saying oops, president obama actually doesn't agree with senator obama four years ago. fine. now he's principal and he understands it. the republicans because of the budget battle they just took, boehner did not come out of it unscathed but he came out of it. now the republicans are going to be demanding more. and even if it doesn't make sense necessarily to not raise the debt ceiling because we are talking a little bit of apples and oranges that is not going to be easy to communicate and boehner will be under tremendous pressure to do more. >> chris: you say "pressure to do more" because it turned out to be $350 billion? >> yes. >> chris: where is the basis for a deal? it seems that what the republicans are saying we need structural changes. we're not expecting the 2012 budget to be passed in the next two months but we need caps. some kind of assurance that we are on a downward path. >> let's just look at medicare. the public, the medicare cuts that ryan is proposing, those are for people down the road. not for people no

. >> lehrer: i noticed jay carney, the white house press secretary, said the president asked for thatting at 8:45 eastern time tonight at the white house because not enough progress has been made. you know, can you read anything into what that means? >> well, it's a little bit hard to know what they mean. i mean, one could perhaps draw the conclusion that president obama is trying to position himself a little t he. if a deal is reached he'll look like he stepped in at the last second and made the whole thing happen and if a deal isn't reached he'll look as though he did everything possible to prevent the government from shutting down. so there's a little gamesmanship going on on all sides. i wouldn't read too much into that comment. i think a lot of people on capitol hill feel like progress is being made. again, that doesn't mean a shut down is not going to happen but it means things are in a better place than they were 24 hours ago. >> lehrer: is there any new word on what... one of the major dividing points was this issue of policy riders versus clean cuts. the policy riders the rep

host: white house press secretary jay carney was talking about the budget yesterday in the news conference. talked about time being of the essence. the president feels he can meet the friday deadline. let us hear what he had to say. >> he remains confident that if we, together, roll up our sleeves and get to work, very quickly, we can find a compromise that reduces spending by $73 billion, protects the investments that are key to our future economic growth, allowing us to out-innovate, out- educate, and out-build the rest of the world, yes, that can be done. but that is why he is meeting tomorrow and why he made calls over the weekend. host: representative mcclintock, will you be involved in those discussions? guest: no, that is a few pay grades above me. it is good that the president recognizes that time is critical. it is long overdue for him to provide leadership. right now, it is coming from paul ryan and the budget committee in the house. i heard today democrats on the budget committee could be offering their own budget, independent of the president. that gives you an indication of ho

white house press secretary jay carney maintains that democrats and republicans are close on budget talks that the president will accept cuts for the good of the american people. >> the president will make tough choices. he will, in the spirit of compromise and finding common ground, accept kucuts that are hard, accept some details that he would not otherwise in an ideal world want to accept. but he believes that the american people expect us to find that common ground, be reasonable. political rhetoric and shooting spillballs is not, i assure you -- and i know you know this -- is not what the american people want. >>> got to take a quick break. next in my "xyz," a slithering snake's final chapter. sort of. [ male announcer ] this is charlie whose morning flight to london starts with arthritis pain... and a choice. take tylenol now, and maybe up to 8 in a day. or...choose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. enjoy the flight. but basically, i'm a runner. last year. (oof). i had a bum knee that needed surgery. but it got complicated, because i had an old injury. so i wanted a doctor w

. >> earlier today, white house press secretary, jay carney told reporters president obama has invited congressional leaders to the white house tomorrow to discuss government spending for the rest of the fiscal year. a spending bill that he passed by midnight friday in order to avoid a government shutdown. this is 50 minutes. [inaudible conversations] sound [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon. i want to begin with a couple of scheduling announcements or updates. first, regarding some energy events this week for the president. the president this week will make two trips begin directly with americans about his long-term plan to protect consumers against rising oil prices and decrease oil imports as well as key components of his broader energy plan. on wednesday, as you know, the president will travel to philly adelphia -- rather the philadelphia area to hold a discussion with workers at gamesa technology corporation. this was built at a former u.s. steel industrial state. on friday, the president will travel to indianapolis where he will tour the facilities at allison transmissio

jay carney, the spokesman, during his daily briefing, talk about what's s&p had to say. >> s&p affirmed aaa bond rating of the united states but emphasized the importance of timely fiscal reform. the same emphasis the president made when he gave his speech last wednesday. the s&p analysis also said the american economy is strong, growing, a diversified, dynamic, and continues to be the most important and powerful economy in about world. host: "the wall street journal" this morning says "s&p currently rates 19 out of the 27 sovereign aaa. the u.s. is the only one among the 19 that has a negative outlook." "those downgrade's usually take place within six months of the outlook change." let's go to don, a republican in maryland. caller: this will be typical of the calls. you have to go to "the wall street journal" or "the financial time" to get any factual information. i would imagine that if you read the headlines from "of the new york times or -- headlines from "the new york times" or "the washington post" you will probably find stories about charlie sheen. host: hold on. is on the front

on friday, following another day of violence in syria, the white house press secretary jay carney issued a statement. we condemn and deplore the use of violence against citizens demonstrating in surry. we applaud the dignity and courage of the syrian people. violence is not the answer to the grievances of the syrian people. what is needed is a path to greater freedom, democracy, and justice. over the past few months, we have spoken out repeatedly and we will continue to do so. it is not a surprise that when we see acts of violence against demonstrators, we are going to make it clear that that is the wrong way to proceed. because if there is any thing anyone in the region should have learned over the past couple of months, it is that trying to deny and suppress and stifle the call for a responsible -- us -- a response to legitimate grievances, it is not going to work. the government of bahrain should recognize, if you tried to shut down newspapers or arrest blockers, this is not going to be the path to a political dialogue or a successful political outcome. clearly the obama administratio

this is a jay carney statement from the white house.his does not make them new to us than they were part of the materials the obama administration poured over during its guantanamo review in 2009. it condemns the release of documents. it warned of possible consequences. there could be an impact on operations -- as the to chantilly, va., the republican line. good morning. caller: i want to thank you for the program. i do not call them whistleblowers. i call them truth tellers. just like jesus, he came to tell the truth. the guy with wikileaks, he should get a medal. he did something that not too many of us are willing to do. it takes a lot to do what he did. my favorite whistle-blower, thanks to him i am alive right now. i lost weight, and i will never get sick anymore after i got into a contract with this guy. kevin trudeau. he has lots of information. he is a whistle-blower. he is not afraid of the government. the government is trying to put him into jail because he wrote a book that reveals things that they do not want you to know. an

. >> press secretary jay carney said today's report does not reflect current efforts in congress to reduce the deficit. other topics in today's briefing include the debate over raising the nation's debt ceiling and the one-year anniversary of the gulf of mexico oil spill. this is 55 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone. before we get started with questions, i just wanted to give you a rielle of the president's call with the israeli prime minister -- are read out of the president's call with prime minister netanyahu. he noted he would host a seder at the white house and recall that the story of passover is one of liberation and freedom. he expressed hope that the israeli people would be able to celebrate in peace. they discussed cooperation on counter-terrorism and how best to move forward, and the reason balas near the gaza strip. prime minister netanyahu expressed his deep appreciation for u.s. funding for the iron dome rocket and mortar defense system, which it he noted had successfully intercepted several rockets aimed at israeli communities. the president congratulated the prime minist

. >> jay carney said it could be armageddon in terms of the economy. president obama will unveil his deficit reduction plan on wednesday afternoon. it is expected to include reforms to medicare and medicaid and social security. >> before i get started taking questions, i would like to remind you at the end of the week last week, the first lady and joe biden are launching a national initiative to support american servicemen and their families tomorrow, april 12, at the white house. it aims to spark action from all sectors of our society, citizens, communities, businesses, nonprofit, faith based institutions, philanthropic organizations, and government. to ensure american families have the support they have earned. i just want to remind you of this important event tomorrow that will begin several days of focus on this by the first lady and dr. baden. you are also aware that general mcchrystal has been asked and accepted the job of leading the advisory panel that will oversee this effort. with that, i will start with your questions. >> a couple of questio

white house press secretary jay carney today said president obama has invited congressional leaders to the white house tomorrow to discuss government funding for the rest of the year. the spending bill must be passed by midnight friday to avoid suspension of most government services. >> good afternoon. i want to begin with a couple of scheduling announcements or updates. updates. the president this week will make two trips as he continues speaking with americans about protecting consumers against rising oil prices. on wednesday, the president will travel to philadelphia to hold a town hall discussion with workers at the mesa technology corporations. this facility was built as a former u.s. fuel industrial side. on friday, the president will travel to minneapolis where he will tour the facilities before speaking to workers there. is a manufacturer of hybrid people shouldn't systems. in june of 2010, they announced the dedication of a new facility, which once fully operational will have the capacity to produce thousands of systems each year. i would like to inform you that earlier today