we got late insight in a moment from jessica yellin and dploer yeah borger. but keeping them honest tonight, there's in polling you should know about that may surprise you showing what americans really think about raising taxes to close the budget gap. here's what republicans have been saying for a long time that americans think. >> right now this economy is ailing. and we don't believe, nor do i think the american people believe, that raising taxes is the answer. >> american people understand that tax hikes destroy jobs. >> i think what the american people appreciate is that you don't reinvigorate the economy by raising taxes. >> 80% of the american people do not want to see taxes raised. >> the president's answer? let's raise taxes on job creators. mr. president, the american people don't want that. >> the american people don't want us to raise taxes. >> now, you can agree or disagree with the premise that taxes ought to be lower and government smaller. that's not what we're talking about. keeping them honest, when republicans say they are pushing for a bud

here's what jessica yellin found out. >> now, despite all that, i'm told by my sources there's not a lot of optimism, that this particular negotiating process here at the white house is going to actually end up leading to the real deal, and a lot of effort and attention is now turning to a different process that's happening in the u.s. senate and another alternate deal that's being worked out between the two senate leaders that could instead end up raising the debt ceiling. >> an optimistic late night view from jessica yellin. today president obama will update the nation with a press conference at 11:00 a.m. eastern time, cnn will carry that live. let's talk about the phone hacking scandal in the united kingdom. it might not be limited to that side of the atlantic. the fbi is now investigating murdoch's news corporation. there's an accusation that his employees may have tried to hack into the phone conversations and voicemails of 9/11 victims and their families. rudy giuliani was mayor of new york during that time. he and murdoch have been friends for a long time, so what does giulia

let's discuss the stakes and politics with jessica yellin and gloria borger. the sound we didn't quite have there was the time saying it's time to rip off the band-aid, eat our peas. he spent a half hour with the key negotiators in the room. what happened today? any progress? >> no breakthroughs, but the way it's been described to me is that they essentially turned the floor over to eric cantor, the leader in the house of representatives, who worked out so many of these details with vice president biden before speaker boehner and the

jessica yellin. is this meeting still going on?reporter: last i check, moments ago, don, it was still ongoing among the president. senate leader harry reid and nancy pelosi, and the goal, both to update the president on the discussions they have had with republican leaders, and i'm also told by some democrats to brief the president on their alternate plan to move forward. the mood here, i'm told is concern. concern, frustration with the house, for not crafting a plan of its own to solve this problem in the coming days. and also some shifting attention as kate mentioned to the senate. as we've seen in these kind of situations before, there's often the house can't get it done, the grown-ups on the other side of the building will, and in this particular situation, with the democrat in control of the white house, there's also some faith that the democrat in control of the senate could maybe do something for the white house in this instance, but the time is running short, and so much deadlock in the last few weeks. what options remain a

late detail in a moment from our white house correspondent jessica yellin. her reporter dovetails neatly with our big question tonight. keeping them honest, if a strong majority of americans is telling washington they want a deal on the debt crisis, they want these guys to compromise with the other side, they want a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. then why isn't washington getting the mage? we've got new polling that says all of that. and this is important. recent polling may also explain why we haven't got an deal yet. we'll tell you what we're talking about. in any case, americans are speaking out today. >> good morning, speaker boehner's office. how may i help you? >> a summer avalanche of phone calls hitting the capitol. president obama asked for it in his address to the nation last night. here it is. house switchboard today getting nearly double the volume of normal phone calls, house speaker baine er's office reporting as many as 300 people on hold for as long as an hour. online the same story. site unavailable. server busy. we found better tha

it's going to be tough. >> jessica yellin, let me turn to you. it is to most american people watching this, they are saying what the hell are you playing at? are you playing with our future, with our finances, the nation's economy. we are now just hours, a few days, hours away, from a potentially katcatastrophic deft and we're hearing the detail from some of the press conference just then, the senior people aren't even talking to each other and i heard a report earlier and maybe you can confirm this that speaker boehner and the president having actually exchanged a single word in five days? >> that's right. nor has the president spoken to minority leader mitch mcconnell, although mcconnell did speak with vice president biden and while that drama is playing out on capitol hill, over in the treasury department, they are making decisions about which checks will be sent wednesday and which won't. does grandma sdget her social security check or does the military family get their check if we go into default. these are real decisions while political gam

kate bolduan, jessica yellin, gloria borger, will stay with us.the mcconnell/reid principal if you haven't followed it closely would let the president raise the debt ceiling on his own, it would give him the power to raise it three times between now and the presidential election, but the president would get the power so republicans would never have to vote to increase the debt ceiling. that is one proposal. it's pretty complicated and it's your economy that could be at stake. speaker boehner just moments away, stay with us. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] more people are leaving bmw, mercedes and lexus for audi than ever before. experience the summer of audi event and get over 130 channels of siriusxm satellite radio for 3 months at no charge. athe nascar nationwide series, of siriusxm satellite radio i know pleasing fans is a top priority, 'cause without the fans, there'd be no nascar. just like if it weren't for customers, there'd be no nationwide. that's why they serve their customers' needs, not shareholder profits. because as a mutual, nationwide does

joining us jessica yellin and jeffrey toobin.t was talking about a meeting at the white house i think on sunday that she said was harry reid and nancy pelosi who came up with a plan and the president passed on it. is that true? >> reporter: well, the president was willing to make some -- the president was willing to move forward on certain plans. but there was a lot of -- they needed agreement with the republicans in order to go forward. and the fundamental breakdown was that they didn't have that agreement. there's a lot of backward looking we could do at this point, anderson. but the bottom line is, right now at the white house there's enormous frustration. because what they're looking at is the clock ticking and the fact that speaker boehner has a bill that in their view couldn't get any democratic votes, couldn't get through the senate. and he couldn't get republicans at this point to even sign onto the bill. so why are they in their view wasting all this time still on a bill that was just going to get republican support? the

jessica yellin, kate bolduan, gloria borger and ali velshi.meeting going on? >> reporter: it seems they have call it a night at least for this evening. the house is back in at noon tomorrow and the senate's back in around the same time. but other than the very symbolic vote that you've been talking about, anderson, where the house is going to take up harry reid's bill and block it to prove it can't pass in the house, other than that action on the floor, the action's not going to be on the house or the senate floor. it's going to be in these back room behind the scenes conversations between leaders if there is going to be a compromise reached it's going to be between them. but as we've been talking about, that hasn't started yet. >> and jessica, at the white house any word tonight on what happens next from their perspective? i mean, how involved are they going to be over this weekend? >> reporter: there are no plans, anderson, yet for any kind of a meeting. but i believe that if they decide it's necessary the president will sit down with these

here's chief white house correspondent jessica yellin's take. >> it was about point scoring for bothng to their base, trying to get their own teams to fight the other. and all of this spells impasse with about a week to go. this doesn't move the ball forward. >>> coming up in the 7:00 hour of america morning, i'll speak to gene sperlg. i'm going to ask him what is next in this fight. >>> the hotel maid of accusing dominique strauss-kahn of sexual assault will meet with prosecutors tomorrow. the 32-year-old woman is speaking publicly for the first time. about what happened in that sofitel hotel room. dominique strauss-kahn said that the encounter was consensual. anderson cooper talked to the news week reporter who interviewed the maid. >> i thought she was very believable when she was talking about the incident itself. the alleged attempted rape and sexu sexual assault. she told that story many times and also, we know almost all of the physical everyday supports her case. >> strauss-kahn is charged with sexual abuse, pleading not guilty on all counts. >>> a small private funeral is pl

it's no so close. >> jessica yellin, a good question. would it be productive.verage american watching the home, why does the house have to plant the flag knowing the democratic senate will not pass it and the democratic senate majority will not say yes. when can people sit around the table and figure it out? >> if you go back to last weekend, they were very close. they had a frame work in place. leader reid and speaker boehner had come to an agreement and the white house turned thumbs down on that. and they came back to the drawing board and boehner to the house. and reid in the senate. and the votes are going to happen. both sides need to have their votes. we are going to vote when the paper work comes over from the house. it will go down and it will trigger a negotiation that will yield a result. >> we know what is going to happen. why do we have to go through a ritual? >> there are a lot of people that want to demonstrate they can govern and they want to stand up for their principles. and submitting it to the senate for a vote is an important part of the pro

i talk about the current impasse with our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. so, jessica, what does this mean? does this mean everything has stalled? what does it mean? >> reporter: it means it's deadlocked, don, and it's hours until the markets open in the u.s. and all eyes are in washington to see how those markets react. at the white house now a sense of frustration and concern. the president himself said if the markets take a hit, if the u.s. economy takes a hit because congress could not make a deal on the debt ceiling, that is a self-inflicted wound. one that could have been avoided and at this hour, there is no clarity that a deal will happen by the time the sun comes up in the morning. >> so what happens now at the white house? there is no further statements going to be given and no one is speaking on behalf of the democrats so pretty much, this is it until morning. >> reporter: well, that's right, but the president spent just over an hour meeting with the democratic leaders in congress discussing amongst themselves their own path forward, alternative w

. >>> let's take you to washington now, live pictures of capitol hill, sources tell cnn's jessica yellin that a meeting is going on down the street from the white house about raising the debt ceiling limits. during the president's weekly address today, he again said he wants both tax hikes and cuts in popular entitlement programs on the table. >> it will take a balanced approach, shared sacrifice and a willingness to make unpopular choices on all our parts. that means spending less on domestic programs, it means spending less on defense programs. it means reforming programs like medicare to reduce costs and strengthen the program for future generations and it means taking on the tax code and cutting out certain tax breaks and detections for the wealthiest americans. >> republicans insist a deal cannot be reached with tax hikes, they are sticking to their no-tax pledge and are now pushing for a balanced budget amendment. >> the solution to a spending crisis not tax increases, yet washington has consistently demonstrated that it cannot control its urge to spend. that is why the only long-t

jessica yellin is at the white house tonight with what her sources are telling her. jessica, what have you heard from these differing accounts? >> reporter: anderson, democratic sources say that bottom line is that the president was schooling the crowd in the room when eric cantor changed his position. all along eric cantor as you have said, the house majority leader, had endorsed doing a deal that did reduce the deficit. and that had some of these vary krause components we talked about. but when he supported the short-term deal which as you've pointed out the president has made clear he opposes, the president sort of told the entire group that this is exactly what americans think of as washington at its worst, washington catering to the base, catering to politics, putting their own political future ahead of doing important things and taking on the big issues. and that he called on the group to take on this challenge and then called the meeting to an end. no matter how you read that, it's clearly an increase in tensions on day three of these debt negotiations with no

but i'll keep you posted if that changes, don. >> thank you, jessica yellin and kate bolduan. >>> the new york city hotel maid who accused the former imf director of rape is going forward with her accusation. in interviews with media outlets including ""newsweek,"" the 32-year-old guinean gives her comments. they're still deciding whether to move ahead with the case or to drop the charges. now listen to this. >> i now pronounce you legally married. >> the first time those words were ever legal ly spoken to a couple in new york stay. the bride and bride tied the laws in new york state. the wedding bells have been ringing all day since then. this hour you're going to be a guest at a gay wedding in new york city. we're going to get you some live pictures. the official home of mayor michael bloomberg. in just a short while mayor michael bloomberg will officiate at the wedding of two of his male staffers and we'll bring that to you here live in the cnn newsroom. >>> new york city was so swamped for marriage licences they had to hold a lottery for 764 open slots. if all of those weddings ha

jessica yellin, thanks so much. even before the latest shocking employment numbers, a recent poll showed strong disfavor for president obama's record on creating jobs. asked how the president is doing on that score, only 38% approved. 57% disapprove. that can only encourage republican presidential candidates as they pounce on these job numbers. what will be the impact on the 2012 race? cnn jim acosta is here. i did see just a blizzard of press releases after the jobs report came out. >> yes. these press releases came out and shot up about as quickly as the space shuttle "atlantis". it was the closest this presidential campaign came to looking to past presidential campaigns. i want to talk about what mitt romney had to say about these unemployment numbers and about this jobs report. he seized on something that the president's senior political advisor over the white house said at a bloomberg breakfast a couple of days ago. i want to put this on screen. he said people won't vote based on the unemployment rate they are

jessica yellin is reporting that the president is trying to win them on a deal. democrats are expressing doubts not wanting to face the dilemma of choosing between entitlement cuts and a government default. as you saw earlier, a tight group of house republicans are resisting any kind of compromise with this president. i spoke about the talks earlier with the former george w. bush press secretary ari fleischer. these days you can follow him at twitter.com/ari fleischer. also obama '08 gloria borger and my guests tonight. >> gloria borger, one reason we know there might be some progress, everybody is nervous. the democrats are nervous the president might be selling them out on social security and medicare. republicans are nervous, speaker talking about tax increases with the president of the united states. what are your sources telling you specifically about where they are? >> they're telling me the same thing. everybody is nervous and there is no deal until there's a deal. and a good sign, john, is that the president is now meeting with democrats separately. becau

cnn's chief white house correspondent jessica yellin spends the next 18 seconds giving us the big picture. >> reporter: what's happening now is democrats are waiting. they're just waiting to see what happens with the republican's bill before making their own move in the senate. the big picture here is neither the republican's bill in the house nor the democrats' bill in the senate seems to have the votes to get through both houses of congress. so we're back at stalemate. >> and so it's wednesday and there's no deal. the ted line is tuesday of next week. if congress can't get it done by then, you could start to see higher interest rates, a declining dollar and other problems. the white house website has put up a chart that breaks down the u.s. debt by administration over the last ten years. i was just looking at it. more than $3.5 trillion because of changes to the economy, not policy changes, but less tax income and things like that. the two wars, tax cuts, t.a.r.p., the so-called bank bailout, the stimulus is all listed there. worth checking out if you have some time. don't worry, it's s

>> allison does knick new york, our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin with me. now perspective from david gergen, advised four u.s. presidents. david, i'm going to go back to the report t is almost impossible to find anything encouraging in this report. if you look at it you see employment down in government, down in education, down in financial services, down in construction, down in manufacturing. if you look deeper in this report, david gergen, you see temporary workers being laid off, wages flat lineded. advising this president, what do you do now? >> well, john that is very tough and politically it is very tough. you know, this was an administration that promised a stimulus bill that could hold unemployment below 8%. we have had 29 months, a modern record of unemployment being above 8%. this is rare. we haven't seen this kind of thing since the great depression. it is not just a question of getting the numbers coming back, he has to got to build confidence in his leadership and that people have a sense he can get things done and knows where he is going, psy

jessica yellin and cory borger and kate bolduan join us. about to have this vote, i assume the majority knows it has the votes to pass this plan. if the senate passes it, the president said he would veto it. is this is a stepping stone or an act of defiance for the house republicans say, no, president pl president, this is the best we'll give you? >> you can look at it from both perspectives to be honest. part of the discussion as we're leading into the vote, where people -- everyone knew it wasn't going to go anywhere in the senate, many have made the point that maybe allowing this vote and allowing house republicans to have their say and make their stand for deeper cuts and stricter controls, maybe it will clear the air. create some room if you will for maybe compromise as the clock ticks down and asks for this vote. at the same time, we are hearing from house conservatives continuously, they don't want to compromise, even after this point, so it's -- it's unclear exactly where we'll go from here. >> and it's an important point kate makes

jessica yellin has details as does gloria borger. >> the president says he still wants the biggest deal possible. still no deal. where do things stand right now? >> after five days of negotiations and almost eight hours of discussions, practically speaking they are no further along than they were when this thing started last sunday. as you say, the president has said he wants this big deal, but this thing broke up today. the meeting ended with the president telling these leader toss go back to their members and ask them what do they think can pass and then report back to the president with something that they believe can pass by this saturday morning. they're not even having a meeting tomorrow. now, despite all that, i am told by my sources that there's not a lot of optimism that this particular negotiating process here at the white house is going to actually end up lead together real deal, and a lot of effort and attention is now turning to a different process that's happening in the u.s. senate and another all the ate deal that's being worked out between the two senate leaders that co

jessica yellin, appreciate the reporting tonight on a fast-moving story. joining us now is former mccain and palin adviser, nicole walish, a novelist and author of "18 acres." senior political analyst david paul bagala. paul, what do you make of what happened in this meeting and signs of potential progress? >> what we thought was no drama obama sounds like a pretty dramatic meeting. i do think the only way you can get to a deal is if both sides want to deal. and the only way you get that is if the republicans believe that president would walk away if they don't meet him halfway or at least part of the way. it does seem to me untenable for one side to say, well, we'll even put social security on the table which apparently what the president has done and the other side says we won't put a nickel of revenue even from corporate loopholes on the table. it does seem like it's a pretty unfair negotiating strategy for the republicans, and it looks like maybe it's blown up in their face. >> david gergen, your take on this and especially on this day where moody's is

chief white house correspondent jessica yellin joins me now. jessica, both sides putting their own spin on things. what exactly happened today? >> reporter: well, i'll tell you from here at the white house, isha, when the president received the call from speaker boehner saying the deal was off, i'm told there was a sense of actual surprise, frustration, even exasperation here that congress cannot come to negotiate a real deal. this is now the third time what seemed on directionally leading to an actual deal broke down >> and now with less than ten days to go until potential default, no deal and each side blaming the other again with this clock ticking and each side not sure how deal would get done, isha. >> indeed. jessica, speaker boehner appeared to raise the stakes earlier on making a big deal at >> i went and looked outside to see a wall, a giant cloud of dust and smoke rising from the plaza area where the bombing occurred. and i could see the debris spreading outwards and people kind of being covered with it in the same sense that i saw on

jessica yellin, thanks. let's get a perspective from fareed zakaria. want you to listen, the president sounds pretty optimistic. >> everybody acknowledged that we have to get this done before the hard deadline of august 2nd to make sure that america does not default for the first time on its obligations. and everybody acknowledged that there is going to be pain involved politically on all sides but our biggest obligation is to make sure that we're doing right by the american people. >> do you really believe that polarized partisan washington is about to do right by the american people? >> the crucial sentence in what president obama said was all parties acknowledged there was pain -- going to be pain on all sides. if that's the case, if that's an accurate representation of what the republicans are now saying and are now feeling, that's great news. pain is good. because what that means, we have a compromise possible. a compromise is only possible if both sides feel the pain. if there are concessions made on both sides and both sides feel that giving up

thank you, chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin.'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 don't think mitch mcconnell would be saying, you know, they're close it a deal, he's optimistic, there won't be a default -- on i don't think he would be saying that unless he had a basis. he really used to talk all the time to harry reid, thought he had a deal a week ago with reid but felt the white house so

let's discuss the stakes and politics with jessica yellin and gloria borger. the sound we didn't quite have there was the time saying it's time to rip off the band-aid, eat our peas. he spent a half hour with the key negotiators in the room. what happened today? any progress? >> no breakthroughs, but the way it's been described to me is that they essentially turned the floor over to eric cantor, the leader in the house of representatives, who worked out so many of these details with vice president biden before speaker boehner and the president started negotiating. and they sort of let cantor spell out how he would get to a deal. cantor speaking largely for the conservative caucus in the house. and the bottom line is when cantor added up all his cuts, what i've been told is that it only came to 1.7 to $1.8 trillion. well short of the 2.4 trillion needed, according to their own math, to raise the debt ceiling. so they sort of let him walk out there, show that it's just not enough on its own and let the whole group decide, how do we get to that 2.4 trillion, is i

joining me chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and jeffrey toobin here in new york. jessica, let me start with you. why now, of all of the moments to add one more name to the list of departures, this seems absolutely horrific for the president. >> well, frankly, eliot, the reason why now is because i think it leaked. i think that the treasury secretary, we all know, as wanted to go for some time. has indicated repeatedly that he'd be willing to. the white house has wanted him to stay. and this could be a good window for him to go after a debt ceiling. multiple officials familiar with the discussions have said that he did indicate that. one person -- and so then it got out. one person familiar with those conversations said to me that, quote, this is an idea more than a plan. and i do not get the sense that this is something that's at all cooked. there is not somebody lined up to take the job. there is not a clear plan for a senate to confirm somebody next. that's a big question. they clearly can't have an opening in the treasury secretary's post right now. so it would

jessica yellin working her sources at the white house.peak to someone on capitol hill that said the vice president called senator mcconnell earlier this week, but it was not to negotiate, just to check in and say how things are going. let's talk to two veterans who have advised presidents in tense moments in the oval office and know a lot, quite a bit a lot about political campaigns, james carville and mary matalin joining us from their home in new orleans. mary, i want to go to you first, because it's the speaker's credibility that is on the line, if john boehner scheduled the vote and can't get a majority, what happens? >> well, john boehner has already moved mountains. it's a herculean task. the house is the only body that has passed a real budget. the senate hasn't passed a budget. the president doesn't have a budget. john boehner's leadership, the house passed a real compromise here in the spending bill that they sent over before that was roundly rejected. so, it's to the senate. if there's any rekcarecalcitran going on here, it's th

at the white house, so we'll start things off there with our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. jess, the president's supposed to have his party on his side. but there are some problems. what's going on? >> reporter: well, john, these democrat held a meeting with president here at the white house for nearly two hours. that's never terribly good that it went on that long. no one is speaking publicly about it, but i have been in touch with some democrats on the hill who are still very upset this evening after that meeting. the bottom line is they have heard these outlines of a possible framework of a deal. and some democrats are concerned that this is a, happening too late, and b, that it's possible the white house is agreeing to a deal stall essentially jam democrats into agreeing to something that does not go far enough on the issues that they care about, an they'll ultimately be in a position of either voting to agree with their president and raise the debt ceiling or risk default and untenable position in their view. >> untenable in their view. let's dig into the detail. what

john king, jessica yellin. first, i want to go straight to is that they're trying to win over some of the undecides of some of the no votes amongst the conservatives in their party. what they were discussing at one point was trying to tweak the bill in order to win over conservatives who are unhappy that the bill didn't go far enough, piers. and what they were talking about doing is making the second debt ceiling vote that is part of this bill, making that increase contingent upon congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment. this goes further than the bill does at this point. they thought this was going to win over conservatives. conservatives shot it down in the room. and they're back at square one. so what we're told is that their leaders are meeting this evening still at this hour. they're still talking and they will be meeting with their conference, all of their republican members, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. but let's be honest. this is not how they wanted this to go. they do not have the support at th

. >> let's bring in jessica yellin. what are your sources telling you about tomorrow's meeting. >> the goal is to jump start this process until the u.s. hits the debt ceiling. all sides i speak to are hopeful they'll get a deal accomplished. they want to discuss true specifics and set up hopefully a process, probably with smaller meetings in the coming days and weeks to solve this once and far all. the positions remain the same -- republicans want to cut spending an equal amount to the amount that the debt ceiling will be raised. democrats are insistant that must be paired with tax increases, call it what you will. people close to the negotiations are telling me today that they now like the y canned of a bigger deal, a dpeel between $3 trillion to $4 trillion. now, that's a pretty surprising change, because just a week ago, right here in the white house, the president held a press conference talking about the difficulty getting to a $2 trillion deal. why the possibility of something bigger? well, some democrats close to

jessica yellin, cnn, the white house. >> the white house being a rather large white rabbit. let's take a closer look at the debt. cnn's tom foreman breaks it down for us. >> this is a dollar spent by the united states government right now. 6% of it is interest on the debt over here, 20% is defense, discretion nair spending, 19% nondefense discretion nair and 55 is mandatory. they say we have to provide these programs. this is where those entitlement programs are that john boehner was talking about earlier that there's been so much discussion of earlier. social security, medicare, medicaid, add them up, and it's close to 75% of mandatory spending is in the programs but over here in the nondefense spending, social security, transportation, veterans benefits, justice department, international affairs, 40%, others. figuring out how you squeeze money out of this is all part of the equation because as long as these debts keep mounting up over here, then our deficit rises like this. it gets higher and higher. that adds to the collective debt, which right now is right at $14 trillio

. >> that's jessica yellin. well, this was the scene in the white house over the weekend as the lawmakers struggled to come to an agreement over the best way to move forward. as it stands right now, there's still a deadlock in washington with neither side wants to budge. let's introduce you to some of the key characters. h harry reid says he's preparing a proposal to raise the debt ceiling through next year and cut through $7 trillion of debt. the democrats want to raise the ceiling enough so the issue won't come up again until after the november 2012 election. on the other side, cnn understands house speaker john boehner wants to stick to the principles of cut, cap, and balance bill that the house passed last week. that would proprovide for two smaller incremental rises had the senate not rejected it. so it remains to be seen whether the two sides can come to an agreement before the deadline falls. as charles said, the clock is very much ticking. if congress fails to act, the u.s. could run out of money in eigh

cnn's jessica yellin is in washington. >> the president sort of told the entire group that this is exactly what americans think of as washington at its worst, washington catering to the base, catering to politics, putting their own political future ahead of doing important things and taking on the big issues. and that he called on the group to take on this challenge and then called the meeting to an end. no matter how you read that, it's clearly an increase in tensions on day three of these debt negotiations. with no sign of real progress with the clock ticking. and i do have it confirmed that this president really did say, you know, with my presidency at stake, i will not yield on this issue. >> the longer the deadlock goes on, the more the world is beginning to worry. moody's put america's credit rating under review on wednesday, hinting at a possible downgrade. that follows similar action from the other two big ratings agencies, standard & poors as well as another agency. >>> ben bernanke warned that congressional lawmakers and he warned them what could happen if they run out of time. >

our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin begins our coverage this hour. all right. what we're learning right now. >> reporter: hi, wolf. first i'll begin by giving you the highlights of the two different competing pieces of legislation moving on the hill. first there is the bill moving by speaker john boehner, and his plan would break down in two parts. first, it would cut discretionary spending by $1.2 trillion and raise the debt ceiling by less than $1 trillion. it would require a vote on the balanced budget amendment which democrats vehemently oppose. it would create a commission to come up with future savings, some of them through entitlemen entitlements, but it's left rather vague, and it would increase the debt ceiling again next year by $1.6 trillion. that is the plan speaker boehner has proposed. over on the senate side, the democrat-led reid plan proposed by senator reid would raise the debt ceiling in one vote, slash the deficit by $2.7 trillion and some of it in spending cuts, but it would also cut $1 trillion from winding down the wars in afghanistan and

jessica yellin, let us know you'll hear anything.upposed to be back at the white house talking about this potential deal. they all want to get a deal done. just how is the question. thank you, ma'am. i appreciate it. i talked a short time ago with republican paul brown of georgia and i asked him about the republican party's position that any tax increase against anyone would kill job creation. watch this. >> you talk to families, you know, the one word that resonates know matter what side you're on is jobs. and you and your party say raising taxes will kill jobs. but bill clinton raised taxes his eight years in office, the economy raised 27 million jobs. these numbers from "the wall street journal" and the census bureau. george bush cut taxes, eight years in office, 3 million job ps. so if raising taxes automatically ir refutably kills jobs as your side is saying, how did bill clinton raise taxes and create those 23 million jobs? >> brooke, we had a good economic environment during the clinton administration. we do not have that toda

let's talk to chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and senior political analyst david gergenhat is the latest on where things stand tonight? >> reporter: the president tomorrow is going to meet with house my known leader nancy pelosi to address some of the democratic concerns about where things stand. meantime, the staffs from the various congressional offices are working with white house staff over the next 48 plus hours to see if they can cobble together a deal ahead of this sunday meeting. during this meeting that happened today, the president did two big things. one, he unequivocally ruled auto short term deal. he said no way is he going to sign any small debt ceiling increase. he has to have a deal that goes through 2012. secondly, he laid out the terms that he'd like a deal, the deal that they're discussing up until sunday would be the bigger deal. something that is $4 trillion over 10 years. and the thinking on that is, going for some bigger deal allows essentially john boehner, the speaker of the house, to try to put more into a deal, get more deficit reductions, and

but jessica yellin is reporting that some of her sources are telling her that this is anything but a normal crisis. she joins us now. jessica, thanks. your sources are saying this is becoming an abnormal crisis. what happened today? >> reporter: well, there was a lot of process, sanjay. and a lot of discussion and still no break through is the bottom line. we are less than two days away from the president's self-imposed july 22nd deadline for a deal. and still there is no deal. and now some on capitol hill, some of even the president's allies are saying this is now in their view time to cut bait and stop going for the big deficit reductions package they've been talk about and find the easiest path forward to get the debt ceiling raised and worry about deficit reductions at another time. >> it seem like there was some enthusiasm and progress yesterday. but if the two sides are even further dug in, even further apart so to speak, why is the president still pushing for something big? >> reporter: well, there's the overt politics of it. he seems to be nominally winning. the republicans an