but right now i am joined now by republican senator john barrasso on where republicans are on this.sso, thanks for being on right now. so it does seem as if republicans are pretty happy with what they are hearing. what is the holdup in the deal that you -- that you understand? >> as mitch mcconnell said earlier today on nbc, one of the morning shows, that, look, we're close, we're not there yet. we're still working out the details and that's what's going on now. i just came to the senate floor where harry reid's bill was defeated overwhelmingly and in a bipartisan way so he clearly didn't have the votes. republicans know what we want. we want to make sure there is no default that the social security checks continue to go out, that the military folks are paid and we also want to make sure that for any increase in the debt ceiling there is at least a dollar-for-dollar cut in the amount of money that we as a nation are spending. those are the tings that ahings fundamental for us. >> do you really think this super committee that's being created out of this deal -- frankly, all of the de

we just spoke with republican senate john barrasso, let's hear from the democrats now.r is a member of the senate finance committee. we are hearing that senator conrad is talking about the possibility of $4 trillion in deficit construction over the next ten years? do you know anything about how that is achieved? >> we may recall a year or so ago the president appointed deficit commission co-chaired by erskine bowles and by former senator alan simpson. 11 out of the 18 commission members recommended a path forward on deficit reduction that added up to roughly $4 trillion over ten years, roughly two-thirds of it on the spending side, a third on the revenue side. they did not call for raising tax rates. they did call for broadening the tax base and eliminating a number of so-called tax expenditures. so it turns out we have about $15 trillion worth of tax expenditures, tax breaks and credits, all kinds of things, add up to about $15 trillion over the next ten years. and if we could find maybe 10% of those to reduce, we could have a deficit reduction deal that did 4, four an

the vice chairman of the senate republican conference, john barrasso. you are also a doctor.want to is you about medicare and health care. it is one of the most controversial issues right now. polls show the american people don't agree with the republicans and their positions on medicare. are the american people wrong? >> the american people i've learned are never wrong. i practiced medicine for 25 years as an orthopedic surgeon in wyoming. they want care they need from a doctor they want at a cost they can afford. medicare has been a wonderful successful program. when they started in 1965, people then were live to 69, women to 70. because of the advances in modern medicine, women are living into their early 80s. men to late 70s. there's a huge challenge. the baby boomers who were teenagers when they formed medicare are now at 10,000 a day coming on to the medicare rolls. we need to strengthen medicare everyone the wakeup call was recently when the folks at medicare said we are going to be bankrupt five years sooner than we thought. 13 years from now. the truth of the matter

wyoming republican senator john barrasso was alongside senator mcconnell when he presented that proposalhank you so much for joining us today. is this dead now? is this proposal dead or is it possibly still the exit strategy out of this stalemate for both sides? >> well, as you say, this is the last chance proposal. it is not my first choice, second choice or third choice. the goal is to actually get significant savings out of this budget. we can't keep spending money that we don't have. no one's talking on my side about raising taxes and no one's talking about defaulting. what we are talking about, cutting the spending. americans know the problem is that we spend too much. we need to also make sure we do not default as a nation. that's why senator mcconnell brought this forth as a last option. >> well, what do you say to republican critics who say that this is conceding too much and taking the president off the hook? >> well, i'm not in any way ready to take the president off the hook. the president has been irresponsible. we have not seen a budget from this president that can get intro

john barrasso is the chairman of the republican conference. r from 53 senate democrats to john boehner sounds like this bill is dead on arrival in the senate. is it? >> i don't think it is. it sounds like the democrat senators are doing the bidding of the obama reelection campaign. remember what the president said last week. he said the only bottom line i have, the only bottom line the president has he said is to extend the debt limit beyond the 2012 elections. i think the president is putting his own reelection bid above the things the american people are concerned about. the american people are concerned about jobs, the economy, the debt and the spending. and i support boehner's plan because it does the two fundamental things i'm concerned about. it prevents a default and it cuts spending. alisyn: senator, there are competing plans. in the senate put out his own plan. that pushes off the debate until after the 2012 elections. the john boehner bill has this debate again in less than a year. do you want to be in this position again in under a y

we'll hear from mitch mcconnell, lamar alexander and john barrasso. followed by minority leader harry reid. >> good afternoon, everyone. we had a chance to talk to the republican members of the gang of six, and this was our first exposure to their work and we will be looking at this as we move forward. the issue on the floor is of the military construction bill. this will be a balanced proposal that we anticipate will pass the house tonight, and majority leader has indicated that it will go into that and before the week is out, we may be voting on a balanced budget amendment as well, with how long it takes to get through this process. we will spend the weekend the weekend working on other than unemployment, the most important issue in the country right now is doing something about the debt and the deficit and the spending problem. >> i participated in this with former governors, and we talked about balancing the budget. in my state, we have zero road debt, then we use our gas taxes to pay for this. we followed the budget proposal projections, and at t

mcconnell, republican with johncock, lamar alexander and johnson who is the policy committee chair and john barrasso is the republican conference vice chair. >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] said republican leaders, this story from "cq" today from just a short time ago. senate budget committee chair kent conrad putting off release of the fiscal 2012 budget resolution. for at least another day. he said after meeting for more than a with budget committee democrats. the plan will trim trillions of dollars and could become a vehicle for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit. i don't think today because we have got to make a presentation to the caucus and listen to them, he said. i hope to do it this week. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we are waiting as the u.s. capitol for the arrival of senate republicans to talk about the deficit and debt talks that are happening after this weekends, after this week's party meetings. that's the story from "cq." democrat

the primary sponsor is senator john barrasso of wyoming. this legislation ensures that congress makes the call on regulating greenhouse gases, now the e.p.a., through regulatory fiat. or another example that i would offer up is the gas accessibility and stabilization act that i am pleased to cosponsor with senator roy blunt of missouri and others that will simplify the complex rules and regulations that govern refining and distribution of fuel throughout the united states. and there are many other examples that i could give as well. but the point is with 14 million americans out of work, we can no longer delay. and it's not just regulations. it's legal tax and regulatory certainty that will empower investment by people, by entrepreneurs, by companies all over this great nation. and we don't want to just have to talk about regulations. let's talk about trade for a minute. right now we have three free trade agreements pending: the u.s.-south korea free trade agreement, a free trade agreement with panama, and another free trade agreement with

coming up senator jon kyl, david plouffe, senator coburn, senator barrasso, rick klein, sam youngman and more. first, south dakota senator john thune. >> as we are list anyone to the two speeches do you think we are at all close? >> what was striking about the president's speech is what he didn't say. he didn't say i will veto a short term extension of the debt limit that was significant. other parts of the speech were you would expect. everybody is trying to win the message war. right now we need to get something done. the president needs to provide leadership. i hope that he will. i hope he will step up many if congress can move something through this week, he will agree to sign it. >> greta: two plans, speaker boehner's and senator reid's. speaker boehner said this week while the senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and washington gimmicks, he talks about his speech that doesn't sound that the republicans in the house of representatives are the least bit interested in the senate -- reid's bill. >> the key is what republicans are interested this is real spending reduction. real spending reforms,

coming up senator jon kyl, david plouffe, senator coburn, senator barrasso, rick klein, sam youngman and more. first, south dakota senator john thune. >> as we are list anyone to the two speeches do you think we are at all close? >> what was striking about the president's speech is what he didn't say. he didn't say i will veto a short term extension of the debt limit that was significant. other parts of the speech were you would expect. everybody is trying to win the message war. right now we need to get something done. the president needs to provide leadership. i hope that he will. i hope he will step up many if congress can move something through this week, he will agree to sign it. >> greta: two plans, speaker boehner's and senator reid's. speaker boehner said this week while the senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and washington gimmicks, he talks about his speech that doesn't sound that the republicans in the house of representatives are the least bit interested in the senate -- reid's bill. >> the key is what republicans are interested this is real spending reduction. real spending reforms,