we'll have leaders reid and pelosi there. as we wait for those to happen, specifically the news briefing from republican leaders, crystal ball, a democratic strategist and joe watkins, a republican strategist. when we look at what's happening right now, there are four senators out there. we were talking about this earlier. as we look at a compromise, is leader reid going to the white house right now saying i've got at least four, four who did not sign that objection letter to the reid bill. i have four that might be in my pocket or open to being in my pocket. what do you think is going to be said regarding that? >> that is exactly right. reid knows he has a shot at those four. he knows what he needs to get way needs. he needs 60 votes, of course. republicans are saying, you know, the ball is in your court and president obama's court. if if the president will tell you what he is willing to sign and you will move the chain a little bit more toward our side, if you agree to some provisions of mcconnell and some provisions of boeh

house members preparing to take up senate majority leader reid's plan.l symbolically shoot his plan down. we'll have live coverage throughout the afternoon of that happening, as well. the tallies are in. the casey anthony murder investigation and trial cost taxpayers nearly $700,000. the figure is based on estimates from agencies involved in the case and they want their money back. the hearing in late august, the judge will decide how much anthony will have to pay. the largest bill is from the sheriff's office. the grand total, $293,000. separately, equusearch is also looking to recoup about $100,000 from anthony, too. >>> day five in the search for celina cass, the 11-year-old new hampshire girl was seen at home on the computer. authorities are knocked on hundreds of doors in the area and plan to keep on going. following up on the hundreds of tips that have poured in. michelle fransend has more from new hampshire for us. >> reporter: investigators are back out here again. they will be briefed and volunteers will be out searching the area for signs of ce

leader in the senate. and by the way, this proposal by harry reid, it also wraps into it the proposal that senator mcconnelleader in the senate put forward. so harry reid has gone way beyond halfway in meeting the criteria that -- >> congressman, along that line, you're hearing some senate republicans are willing to deal right now. very quickly, are you also hearing the same in the house when it comes to getting something done here? >> well, we have not. that's what is so disappointing. we're going to have a vote in a very short time on the reid compromise proposal. i'm confident it will get a majority of the democratic votes, democrats are prepared to compromise in responsible way for the good of the country. i expect it to get very few republican votes. i hope there will be a signal a few of them are willing to compromise for the good of the country. that's what this bill is about. but instead, their leadership has decided to bring it up for the intentional purpose of shooting down what is a good-faith compromise. >> congressman chris van hollen, thank you. >> thank you. >> with all the focus on the debt

leader reid came back here. patty murray came back here.michael bennet came back here and we run the senate. president obama is the president. he happens to be a democrat. and the house won a huge victo victory, the republicans, a huge victory. the republicans run the house, the democrats run the senate, the president is a democrat. let's see, that's three branches, two-thirds run by the democrats. the republicans want it all. if one of my kids did that, if they were arguing with the other one, i'm say uh-huh, that's not right. i'm not even asking for two-thirds. as senator mikulski said, we've come a long way from where we want to come. where have they come? they haven't come toward us. now the plan that the republicans want is to revisit this debt crisis in three months, four months, five months from now. imagine royaling the markets. i used to be a stop broke -- a r the very long time ago. and in those years, when the president got a call, the market went down and everyone was worried. but we've never had a crisis like this. you know we

he then, the 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

senator reid, leader reid's plan and, of course, speaker boehner. they have a lot in common, and that they have a down payment and they create a special congressional committee to complete the work. the problem on the reid side of the issue is he has just one vote to extend the debt limit and so that raises the question, how can you be assured of getting the additional savings? speaker boehner's approach has two steps. again, the question is, if the special committee does not perform, how do you shore the debt limit, that it's extended? those are the challenges that we have. so we've worked all day yesterday trying to find a fail-safe mechanism in case the special committee of congress would fail to provide the additional savings. >> right. >> and we came up with some very good ideas for doing that, and one involves the group of six plan if congress fails to come up with the additional savings. >> i know in this "gang of six," three democrats, three republicans, but i have not heard assurances the three republicans are onboard of essentially changing

, i have said leader reid perhaps 400 times and leader pelosi five times. to that point when we were listening to speaker boehner earlier mentioning who had the power, he specifically -- he was specific about saying senator reid and president obama much the ones who could -- president obama were the ones who make this happen. he done bring up leader pelosi. where does leader pelosi fit in this calculus? >> she has been marginalized in this debate to a large extent. now i think she becomes a key player again. to get something through the house that could also have a chance of passing the senate, there is almost no doubt that a significant number of democrats are going be to have to vote for it. that is where leader pelosi has to be able to get her troops together to support a bipartisan compromise bill, one that is going to be pretty distasteful to most democrats. she's going to be the one really needed to get that across the line in the house. >> joe, want to get your response. first, i want to play you sound from the news briefing, the news conference that

the house will vote on majority leader reid's bill between 2:00 and 2:30 eastern time.ust a few moments. i'm joined by earl bloomenour. i heard you say you were tired of the debt debate being held hostage by republicans and will not accept any deal that does not include government spending, how far off is the boehner bill from a deal that you are willing to accept? >> well, remember what the speaker said last night. he said he'd stuck his neck out a mile. that he had been offering revenue increases. instead of just shooting down the proposal from majority leader reid, if john boehner decides to be speaker of the entire house and work with 193 democrats to go back to where he was originally, we can move away from this. this is an absolutely phony crisis. we've raised the debt ceiling 102 times before, and it is for spending that has already taken place. let's deal with this, have a balanced proposal. that's what the american public wants, and then we can get down to hard cases in terms of dealing with changing how we do business and a more sustainable fiscal path. >> oka

senate majority leader harry reid and democratic leaders held a press conference after the senate tabled house speaker john boehner's debt bill. senator reid called on republicans to act like adults and demonstrate a spirit of bipartisanship and negotiate with the democrats. talk about audacity. joining us now out of washington, fox news contributor, the architect karl rove. this is moments after it they just tabled the boehner bill without a vote. they said we should be allowed an up and down vote. i just heard harry reid say that republicans are blocking the ability to compromise. all they do is talk. it is time for them to step forward. they just passed two bills. they are worried about a -- 800 days they haven't passed a bill in the senate and the president has never laid his cards on the table. >> think about this they could have avoided all of this had last november and december when they still had a big majority in the house and a big majority in the senate had they voted an increase in the debt ceiling but harry reid delive rattily decided not to saying i want the republicans to

leader reid is going to have his proposal. forgive me. i'm not criticizing senator reid but he's now doing exactly the same thing house republicans did. he knows his plan cannot be the final plan yet he is going to have the motions. we're going through a debate over the weekend. if you considerate least moving the ritual forward we're making some progress. are they negotiating behind the scenes? i was having conversation, with democratic and republican aides who said not yet. they expect those conversations to start over the weekend. there is still a sense of optimism, not bubbly optimism, that they'll figure this out over the weekend. but anderson, this is not a process you would like to teach in your civics class. >> john, i kind of note answer but i'm going to pretend that i'm naive here. why not? why should senator reid go through the motions on a bill he knows isn't going to pass? why not start negotiations tomorrow? >> i think they will start the negotiations tomorrow. let's be clear. i think once the senate comes in tomorrow they'll

president obama voiced some objections to leader reid about this. so i think it's been happening at the level of leader reid, speaker boehner and now speaker boehner is planning to move it through the house with the support of his conference. >> ifill: we have heard today that the phones were jammed at the capitol with people in your constituents calling in. is that what you're hearing from your members as well? >> i think's a high level of expectation on the part of the american public that their leaders come together and solve two things: one is make sure the obligations are met and that we don't go into any sort of tail spin as a result of this. but as importantly, make sure that the debt ceiling isn't raised just willy-nilly with no pro-conditions. and i think if there's a thoughtful way forward-- and that, i would submit, is the boehner plan-- that accomplishes those two things i think most americans can get their heads around that and feel a high level of confidence. which is why i think it's interesting when you were interviewing the white ho

senate majority leader harry reid and democratic leaders held a press conference after the senate tabled house speaker john boehner's debt bill. senator reid called on republicans to act like adults and demonstrate a spirit of bipartisanship and negotiate with the democrats. talk about audacity. joining us now out of washington, fox news contributor, the architect karl rove. this is moments after it they just tabled the boehner bill without a vote. they said we should be allowed an up and down vote. i just heard harry reid say that republicans are blocking the ability to compromise. all they do is talk. it is time for them to step forward. they just passed two bills. they are worried about a -- 800 days they haven't passed a bill in the senate and the president has never laid his cards on the table. >> think about this they could have avoided all of this had last november and december when they still had a big majority in the house and a big majority in the senate had they voted an increase in the debt ceiling but harry reid delive rattily decided not to saying i want the republicans to

senate majority leader harry reid and democratic leaders held a press conference after the senate tabled house speaker john boehner's debt bill. senator reid called on republicans to act like adults and demonstrate a spirit of bipartisanship and negotiate with the democrats. talk about audacity. joining us now out of washington, fox news contributor, the architect karl rove. this is moments after it they just tabled the boehner bill without a vote. they said we should be allowed an up and down vote. i just heard harry reid say that republicans are blocking the ability to compromise. all they do is talk. it is time for them to step forward. they just passed two bills. they are worried about a -- 800 days they haven't passed a bill in the senate and the president has never laid his cards on the table. >> think about this they could have avoided all of this had last november and december when they still had a big majority in the house and a big majority in the senate had they voted an increase in the debt ceiling but harry reid delive rattily decided not to saying i want the republicans to

see you. >> greta: we have three plans, gang of six, speaker boehner and now, senate majority leader harry reid. your thoughts on where we're going? >> well, we right now we have dualing bills from the majority leader in the senate and speaker of the house. i don't know where it's going. depends on what the votes are. >> greta: do you like the senate majority leader's bill? >> not particularly. most of it comes in false savings we don't get in terms of more savings, though maybe congressman ryan claims some. none go far enough, greta. i put it out. we need $9 trillion. you just heard an economist tell us we need eight and 10. what we need is real cuts. real honesty with american people how big our problems are. and do the things that will get us there. we hougt to, if we can get a small amount now we ought to get a small amount and work to get more and more. but we, minimum we need to settle markets is $4 trillion. >> greta: you said it doesn't define us, you're speaking of speaker boehner's proposal? >> it's a start. again, we're going get more cuts over a longer period of time to give increas

reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: we are here today right now for this reason: it's spelled f-i-l-b-u-s-t-e-r. it's a filuster. they won't allow us to have an updarn vote on our amendment. that is filibusr. by the any other term, it is a filibuster. that's why we're here. i hope that the negotiations go on. we're willing to be as fair as we can, but there has to be something that the president and vice president biden and the rest of us think is a step in the righ direction. i guess talking is a step in the right direction, but that's about it. so, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the matter that we have before us which is amendment number 589, that we have an up-or-down vote on that, no -- as we have all e time, of course. there would be no points of order and like we do here all the time. have a vote on it right now. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, reserving the right to object, thes are direct quotes from my friend, the majority leader. he says, "in the senate, it's always been the case you need 60 vo

leader pelosi. she agrees with me 100%. >> we're going to interrupt that news conference now there with harry reid, leader of congress, taking questions. he was talking earlier at the beginning of the news conference about the procedure of filibustering, which is a procedure, of course, which extends time for legislature. and there was, of course, an interruption by a mobile phone. but he did talk of some movement and said that the democrats were interested in a compromise, and he then blamed republicans accusing them of just talking. marcus george is still with me in washington. marcus, they're still blaming each other, aren't they? >> yeah, very clearly so. you heard a lot of blame being placed on the republican senators therefore refusing to negotiate under mitch mcconnell, the minority leader in the senate. he said they refuse to negotiate and in fact all they're interested in doing is filibustering, effectively delaying proceedings so the senate cannot actually vote on the democrat plan for a number -- at least another 24 hours or so, as we heard. harry reid talk of a long night tomorrow night.

at this hour we're waiting to to see whether or not majority leader harry reid can get the 60 votes he needs avoid a filibuster from minority leader mitch mcconnell and the republicans. we're getting word that majority leader reid will return to the floor coming up roughly at 9:50. earlier harry reid and mitch mcconnell sparred on the senate floor earlier today. take a listen to what they had to say. >> today the speaker, republican leader held a press conference to announce they are in talks with the president and a bargain to raise the debt ceiling is close. mr. president, members of the senate that's not true. i just spent two hours with the president and vice president and leader pelosi. it's fair for me to say that the engagement there is not in any meaningful way. republican leaders still refuse to negotiate in good faith. revenue is off the calendar. no way we can talk about revenues. entitlements, all they are after are entitlements. medicare, social security. the speaker and republican leader should know merely saying they have an agreement in front of you, the television came

see you. >> greta: we have three plans, gang of six, speaker boehner and now, senate majority leader harry reid. your thoughts on where we're going? >> well, we right now we have dualing bills from the majority leader in the senate and speaker of the house. i don't know where it's going. depends on what the votes are. >> greta: do you like the senate majority leader's bill? >> not particularly. most of it comes in false savings we don't get in terms of more savings, though maybe congressman ryan claims some. none go far enough, greta. i put it out. we need $9 trillion. you just heard an economist tell us we need eight and 10. what we need is real cuts. real honesty with american people how big our problems are. and do the things that will get us there. we hougt to, if we can get a small amount now we ought to get a small amount and work to get more and more. but we, minimum we need to settle markets is $4 trillion. >> greta: you said it doesn't define us, you're speaking of speaker boehner's proposal? >> it's a start. again, we're going get more cuts over a longer period of time to give increas

for the president to get the second installment you'd have to find $1 pomt $1.6 trillion in cuts, leader reidas not made it clear yet. from the reid side there's this letter signed by the senate democrats, almost all of them, saying, mr. speaker, we won't pass your plan in the senate. the question tonight is, is this politics and posturing? if speaker boehner can get the votes, does that change the psychology, the momentum on capitol hill? >> reporter: i think what changes the psychology the most is the timing. i think everyone agrees if this really became the eleventh hour, if you don't think we're at the eleventh hour already, it really kind of all bets are off and things will change. but at the moment the senate majority leader harry reid he was very firm today, i asked him a couple times that it would not pass the senate, it would not pass the senate, it would not pass the senate he's saying. he's pretty sure the votes aren't there in the senate, so what will we end up with, john, you and i we all kept saying it will end up looking like some kind of compromise, but what it's really going

reid motion." that's what we're voting on. and the republican leader tries to coat that or characterize that as a vote on the reid motion. it is not. we want a vote on the reid motion. we want to vote, but we will not be allowed to vote on the reid motion, on the proposal which the majority leader has offered, which has a majority support in this senate, we will not be allowed to vote on that if debate is not ended, if the filibuster continues, because 60 senators are not willing to end it. we will have at least 50-plus to end debate. but let it be clear, let the public understand that if we're not allowed to vote on the reid measure tonight, the republicans presumably will continue their filibuster, and we are not going to just simply allow them to defeat it. we are not going to simply sit down and say, well, we couldn't end the debate and the filibuster, we didn't get 60 votes, if we don't tonight. we're not going to do that. that's not going to happen tonight. this is too important to simply let a minority defeat the will of the majority by a filibu

the senate majority leader harry reid get his pizza? ght on camera. >> he said he won't negotiate with me. that is... >> your pizza is ready. >> okay, got to love that one. >> that is your last call. thank you

the majority leader reid has already made that concession in his proposal. >> schieffer: senator, the thing that i wonder about is i think the congressional leaders on both sides are ready to make a deal but what i wonder about is can the followers go along with the leaders or will the congress stumble into some kind of default here despite the best intentions of the leaders on both sides? >> i believe they can and will. how soon is... i'm not clear on. it may require some kind of a warning shot. for example, watch the markets tomorrow, the financial markets around the world. i believe that the american people have very different views about what we're in, but the major view is disdain and even larger than that is that they want us to sit down and agree to something because they don't want this government to deprive them of the service which is they very need and have earned. >> schieffer: okay, so bizarre-o still stands but you think they will find a way. thank you, senator. if you somehow thought that this was one of those far-off arguments in washington that has no impact on you, y

>> well, i remember very well a meeting we had in leader reid's office, leader reid, myself, and jackere saying, you know, they were going for a clean debt limit, and i told them with some intensity that it's not going to happen. just, you know, you got to come up here and talk to the members and find out what they are thinking and feeling and what their constituents are thinking and feeling and just extending the debt limit is not going to happen. >> senator, if this administration, as expressed to you in that kind of meeting, was interested in a clean debt ceiling increase with nothing else attached to it, how disappointed can the president really be tonight if that's where this process ended up? >> you know, i think he is very disappointed. having met with him two weeks ago, having met with he and the vice president. the president is absolutely genuine about wanting to do the grand compromise in the range of $4 trillion to not only stabilize the debt but to begin to bring it down, because he recognizes that would provide certainty to the markets, certainty to the business community

reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following any leader remarks the senate will resume consideration of the motion to concur in the house memg to accompany s. 627, which is the legislative vehicle for the debt limit increase, with the time until 1:00 f.p.l. equally divided. about 1:00 p.m. then, the senate will vote to invoke cloture on the house message to accompany the reid amendment. no matter the outcome of this vote, mr. president, the message will still be before this body. this is -- if there is an agreement that can be met, this is the vehicle to be used to send it back to the house. mr. president, as the clock ticks down to august 2, i remind everyone within the sound of my voice what really is at stake. at this very moment, millions of seniors across this great country worry that their next social security check might not come to them on wednesday. middle-class families wonder whether their retirement accounts will be wiped out by an economic collapse brought about by default on this nation's debt. and a

here's senator leader harry reid speak. >> pelosi and leader hoyer trying to figure out when the votes are going to take place. we'll have to stand by and see what happens. we have said for weeks now that we will not accept a short-term increase to the debt. just can't do that. and now from what i learn from the two democratic leaders in the house they put more stuff in this rights-wing leading bill that is called the boehner plan. it's really hard to comprehend the confusion that they've had over there. it's really time that they legislate. as we know, they're having trouble doing this. the votes now they've basically given the right wing more than what they had before. the senate we have proposed compromise. as fred thompson said, the republicans have gotten what they wanted. they should put their chips in their pockets and go home and declare victory. it's really -- what we have now as our amendment is one that reduces the debt. ceils the debt ceiling until march of 2013. cbo has scored it and raised the number to over $2.4 trillion. so it's real compromise directed toward the repub

leader reid referred to it.here are dozens of senator, republican and democrat, who are sitting down, one on one or in small groups trying to have positive, constructive conversations, recognizing our differences and policy, recognizing our different objectives, but all committed to making sure that we do not default on america's mortgage next tuesday because of the very real consequences that would have for working families, for small businesses, for states and for our whole country. i'm encouraged by those conversations. i don't think the difference is that great. but one other thing i would like to emphasize, leader reid's proposal, the one we hope to vote on sometime tonight, has no revenue in it. it is a $2.4 trillion spending reduction proposal. it embraces everything, to the best of my knowledge, that the republicans were looking for, significant spending cuts, no revenue, in exchange for moving us past this debt ceiling debate so we can get back to dealing with job creation and tackling spending. >> rick

for his part, majority leader reid said yesterday, quote, we're about to go over the cliff. on both sides of the aisle there's now finger-pointing after the president and speaker's speeches last night. house minority leader, nancy pelosi said in a statement democrats stand ready to find a balanced, bipartisan solution. the republican plan would send a continued message of uncertainty to the markets and risk job creation. we must come together to avoid the disastrous effects that default would pose. republicans, taking their shots as well, criticizing spending and the president. utah senator orrin hatch, the ranking member of the finance committee saying unfortunately this evening the president once again refused to lay out a path to get our nation out of the spending-fuelled debt crisis that threatens the future of 0 your great nation. the president regrettably seems more interested in his own political future than in confronting the significant challenges before us. after last night's dueling speeches, the action now turns to both chambers of congress. where a vote on both

mcconnell, senator minority leader, the lynch pin to cutting a deal in the u.s. senate with harry reid, the senate majority leader. then john boehner speaker of the house will have to shepherd that through the house of representatives and no doubt when speaker pelosi was in there meeting with the president they must have been talking about what it would take for her to get her democrats in the house to sign on to whatever bill the senate will negotiate. now it's a numbers game. >> at some point if they have a deal or close to a deal or whatever we'll hear from the president of the u.n.. but as of right now, as of right now we don't have any word of that. let's go the floor right now. i think harry reid the majority leader is speaking. >> announce talks with the president and a bargain to raise the debt ceiling is in the works and is close. mr. president, members of the senate that's not true. i just spent two hours with the president, vice president, leader pelosi. and it's fair for me to say that the engagement there is not in any meaningful way. republican leaders still refuse to neg

leader reid won't bring to the floor of the senate.s the power and authority, and the president has the veto pen. no matter their political persuasion, who if we default might see higher interest rates, moo mig might see a hit to an already struggling job market, how would you get us out of this? >> i'm willing to negotiate. ours is the only plan that passed any house, so give us some credit of actually getting together a coalition of republicans and democrats and we pass ed the house. i'm willing to talk to the president. i sent a letter to the president today. i'm willing to accept most of what he wants, cuts, the caps he wants, and i'm willing to give him beyond -- i know he's concerned about having time to fund raise, i'm willing to let him get out on the campaign and fund raise and not have to worry about this. we'll give him $2 trillion, all we want is a promise that we'll balance the budget, and it would be over a seven- to eight-year period, is that too much to ask? >> senator rand paul of kentucky, appreciates your time. let's

leader reid's plan is a compromise. let me make another thing clear. house speaker boehner's plan is a tea party plan. harry reid's plan is a true compromise. it contains all spending cuts and zero revenues. during these debates, there have been lots of ratios floating around. senator conrad, the budget chairman, proposed a balanced and sensible flan had a one-to-one spend cut to revenue ratio. personally, i like that approach. president obama was negotiating a 4-1 or even 5-1 spending cut to revenue ratio. in the reid plan, there's no ratio. it's 100% cut cuts zero revenue. secondly, will contains dollar-for-dollar spending cults to match the debt ceiling increase. this is exactly what the republicans have been asking for. yesterday, this morning i learned that 43 of my republican colleagues have signed a letter to leader reid signaling their opposition to his proposal. why? well, they say that the savings from winding down the wars in iraq and afghanistan don't count. specifically, they say that these savings are -- quote -- "a widely ridiculed accou

the senate majority leader harry reid get his pizza? for the leader caught on camera. >> he said he won't negotiate with me. that is... >> your pizza is ready. >> okay, got to love that one. >> that is your last call. thank you for

leader reid and speaker boehner had come to an agreement and the white house turned thumbs down on thatdrawing 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 process. >> i get angry tweets from the democrats when i say this. but i don't think anyone should be surprised. and they won pretty big. the question is, where l they compromise going forward. i had two republicans saying they don't want to vote for anything in the end that doesn't want to have a pass the balanced budget. to get the debt ceiling, you have to pass a balanced budget. this is too important of an issue. >> they want to vote on an amendmen

we're waiting for senate majority leader harry reid to explain why that decision was taken. i'm here with wolf blitzer, my colleague. wolf, what is about to happen here? what is the explanation? is it as simple as, sorry, you are republicans, we didn't like the bill. we're democrats, we're not having it? >> it's not that simple. they have to come up with some compromise, some sort of plan that can pass the senate and go back to the house of representatives and pass there something that the president could sign that would allow the united states to raise the debt ceiling and avert some sort of financial disaster come tuesday. it's not simple at all, so they need to work together. the mainstream, main leadership, democrats and republicans, they need to find a way to come up with the bare minimum to get over this hump. it's a huge, huge obstacle, standing in the way of an mechanic recovery, if you will. so the stakes really are enormous. >> what we're waiting for here is senate majority leader harry reid, about to explain why the senate has rejected john boeh r boehner's bill.

>> i know that speaker reid is talking to leader mcconnell. will be modifications in the reid proposal in an effort to bring us closer together. hopefully we'll have a bi-partisan agreement in the senate. i mean that is what we're working for. i think leader reid said on the floor of the senate today that he's willing to open up for more compromise, so i do think there is a willingness in the senate to try to come together. we haven't seen that yet in the house. it looks like that the so-called tea party republicans are controlling the agenda in the house of representatives. jenna: we'll see if the senate can lead the way here . i'd like to just talk to you for a moment about your state, your state of maryland, because something interesting happened a few days ago about your state being put on a watch list for a credit downgrade. it wasn't the only state, there was others, but the reason being is that maryland has a lot of military personnel, a lot of federal workers and if something doesn't get resolved in washington the credit rating company

reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: we are here today right now for this reason: it's spelled f-i-l-b-u-s-t-e-r. it's a filibuster. they won't allow us to have an updarn vote on our amendment. that is filibuster. by the any other term, it is a filibuster. that's why we're here. i hope that the negotiations go on. we're willing to be as fair as we can, but there has to be something that the president and vice president biden and the rest of us think is a step in the right direction. i guess talking is a step in the right direction, but that's about it. so, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the matter that we have before us which is amendment number 589, that we have an up-or-down vote on that, no -- as we have all the time, of course. there would be no points of order and like we do here all the time. have a vote on it right now. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, reserving the right to object, these are direct quotes from my friend, the majority leader. he says, "in the senate, it's always been the case you ne

i view leader reid's offer as a last-ditch effort to avoid default.e is that republicans can hear us saying, yes. it's a deal that doesn't touch medicare, medicaid, social security or include revenue increases. hits the $2.7 trillion target in savgz over the next ten yours and ought to give us a vehicle that i can't imagine how the republicans would object to it, because it uses savings that they've already included in house passed budget plans. so my hope is that we will move quickly to restore some santy here to this politicized debate to give reassurance to the markets and to the american people who are watching us, and that we will get back to the serious and deliberate work of dealing with our record deficits and focusing on creating jobs. >> wouldn't creating jobs actually reducehthe deficit? >> yes, of course. one of our problems is -- >> why not focus on jobs instead of the deficit then? >> we've got a politically created debt ceiling crisis connected focus on spending and deficits right now. i do think that we have tried in the senate over a

leader reid's plan is a compromise. let me make another thing clear. house speaker boehner's plan is a tea party plan. harry reid's plan is a true compromise. it contains all spending cuts and zero revenues. during these debates, there have been lots of ratios floating around. senator conrad, the budget chairman, proposed a balanced and sensible flan had a one-to-one spend cut to revenue ratio. personally, i like that approach. president obama was negotiating a 4-1 or even 5-1 spending cut to revenue ratio. in the reid plan, there's no ratio. it's 100% cut cuts zero revenue. secondly, will contains dollar-for-dollar spending cults to match the debt ceiling increase. this is exactly what the republicans have been asking for. yesterday, this morning i learned that 43 of my republican colleagues have signed a letter to leader reid signaling their opposition to his proposal. why? well, they say that the savings from winding down the wars in iraq and afghanistan don't count. specifically, they say that these savings are -- quote -- "a widely ridiculed accoun

just as senate majority leader harry reid had promised. the boehner bill was killed within minutes of arrive no contest the senate chamber. the senate tabled it by a vote of 59-41. but just before arriving in the senate the debt ceiling bill had passed the house and it was a squeaker for the speaker but he did get the votes. here is what the very fired up speaker said to get the votes in the house of representatives. >> this will be the seconded bill we sent over to the senate and yet not one lease of legislation out of the senate has passed that deals with this crisis. and my colleagues i can tell you that i have worked with the president and the administration since the beginning of this year to avoid being in this spot. i have offered ideas. i have negotiated. not one time, not one time did the administration ever put any plan on the table. all they would do was criticize what i put out there. i stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the president of the united states. i stuck my neck out a mile. i put revenues on the

which speaker boehner and majority leader reid, senator reid coming to an agreement. but the president of the united states got a hold of senator reid and said, absolutely not. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. dreier: an additional 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. coffman: thank you, madam speaker. the reason why he pulled the agreement was because it didn't have enough money to get him through the election of 2012, november of 2012. the president's campaign considerations is not putting america first. we need to put america first -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. coffman: vote down -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. van hollen: the chairman of the rules committee wanted to yield -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is not is recognized. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. dreier: we have a lot of members who would like to be heard. i extended time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlema

reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, today the speaker and republican leader -- the presiding officer: would the majority leader -- could we've a little -- mr. reid: thank you, mr. president. today the speaker and republican leader held a press conference to announce they're in talks with the president and that a bargain to raise the debt limit is in the works understan and i. mr. president, members. senate, that's not triewvment i just spent two hours with the president, the vic vice preside, and the agreement is not in a meaningful way. the republicans still refuse to negotiate in good faith. revenues off the calendar. no way we can talk about revenues. entitlements, oh, they're after entitlements -- medicare, social security. the speaker and republican leader should know that merely saying you have an agreement in front of television cameras doesn't make it so. the republican leader says he's engaged. fortunately members of his congress, at least as far as i'm concerned, are more engaged than he is. there ar

reid. >> the minority leader just told the majority leader that he will not negotiate with him. that is really quite extraordinary. republican leader mcconnell has told the majority leader reid that he will not negotiate with him. he'll only negotiate with the president. i've been here 25 years, i have never heard anything like that. >> nbc's luke russert is for us on capitol hill. wow. good morning, luke. where do we stand now? >> wow, that is right. really is a crunch time, if you will, alex. both the chambers are in session today. the senate comes in around 1:00. we're expecting a very important about 1:00 cloture vote. we expect reid to negotiate with republicans throughout the day really needing to grab between eight to ten of them to figure out a way to raise the debt limit. while also cutting spending in ways that are acceptable to both sides. no raising of taxes and no cuts to entitlements. over in the house of representatives around 1:00 they will gavel in. it's expected today their will in fact even before it's passed or whatever variation will vote down the reid bill

reid: mr. president? thpresiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: we are here today right now for this reason: it's spelled f-i-l-b-u-s-t-e-r. it's a filibuster. they won't allow us to have an updarn vote on our amendment. that is filibuster. by the any other term, it is a filibuster. that's why we're here. i hope that the negotiations go on. we're willing to be as fair as we can, but there has to be something that the president and vice president biden and the rest of us think is a step in the right direction. i guess talking is a stein the right direction, but that's about it. so, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the matter that we have before us which is amendment number 589, that we have an up-or-down vote on that, no -- as we have all the time, of course. there would be no points of order and le we do here all the time. ha a vote o it right now. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, reserving the right to object, these are direct quotes from my friend, the majority leader. he says, "in the senate, it's always been the case you need 60 v