the figures, and the politics of the great budget debate with susan davis of "national journal," john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times," janet hook of "the wall street journal," and jeff zeleny of "the new york times." >> award-winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. live from our nations capitol, this is "washington week with gwen ifill, produced in association with national journal." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875 we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. through the years from insurance to investment management from real estate to retirement solutions, we've developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this rock has never stood still. and what's one thing that will never change. prudential. >> corporate funding is also provided by -- provided by boeing. official funding by the annenberg foundation. andcontributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. by thank you. once again, live from washington,

mazzetti of the new york "times", tom gjelten of npr, karen tumulty of "the washington post, and john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times. >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill, produced in association with national journal. >> this rock has never stood still. through the years when our clients needed us we were there to meet them. this rock has never stood still and that's one thing that will never change. prudentia the -- prudential. >> corporate funding is also providing by boeing. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to pbs stations from viewers like you. thank you. gwen: good evening. musical chairs for the president's national security team. now follow the bouncing ball. with robert gates leaving the defense department, c.i.a. chief leon panetta heads to the pentagon. while general david petraeus leaves afghanistan to take over in langley. lieutenant general john allen takes petraeus's place in

let's go to john harwood. tell me how this got this done. when you look at the last several hours of this debate, was it more about face saving to come up with a compromise? >> it was. and to some degree, the democrats' decision to target planned parenthood and that potential cut in women's health service funding helped john boehner because it allowed him to make the case to his republican members. we've got to get this focus back on spending. which, in turn, gave him the leverage to go back to the administration and say, hey. give me a little more cuts and i can get the votes and that's exactly what he did. >> were either side paying attention to the american public who was shaking their heads all yesterday saying fellows, ladies, how do we get here? why can't you come up with a deal? >> they all were paying attention to the american people, and that's why the deal got done in the end. this was a very difficult ideological fight, but the one thing that both sides understood from the beginning, and it's why most people sort of very close to