we look at those following the latest showdown, luke russert and mike viqueira at the white house. starting with luke, where the vote is about to take place, and luke, let's look at for a moment how to speaker fielded one of the queries at the press conference this afternoon. we don't appear to have that, luke, but apparently mr. boehner referred to you in his chosen term as loud mouth, is that correct? >> yes, it is correct. it is an endearing term though, because he gives nicknames to the journalists similar to bush xliii. >> and we have luke the loud mouth, and bank robbers on film used and something like an atmosphere of rugby locker room with republicans ready to get pumped up and hit high and low and smack people and you have been the guide for the last six months as the debate has come slowly and painfully forward and we know that speaker boehner needs 216 votes, and does he have them? >> as of right now, it is difficult to tell whether or not he has 216. what we can tell you though is that all of the momentum and the enthusiasm seems to be going in that direction and this mo

. >>> for the negotiations from capitol hill to help us sort through this, nbc's luke russert, kind enough to wake up for us. luke it's similar to the beginning of the song "going back to callcally" do you remem that song? i'm up, i'm up, big. >> that's a great reference at 5:340. luke, i'm impressed. you must have been up and had your coffee. help us what's going on luke. you covered the hill every single day. people who watched this who aren't like us, kind of nerds following every moment of this get home from work and they say what happened exactly today, are we any further than we were. how can beget toward a deal by next tuesday? >> well, the big news that came out from yesterday was that john boehner was having a great difficult getting to 217 votes, the majority in his house on his plan to raise the debt ceiling. then he got bad news from the congressional budget office, which is a non-partisan budget office that scores these bills which says that his plan, which claimed to have saved over a trillion dollars in spending over the next ten years really only saved about $850 billion. s

the compromise doesn't exist. >> the disease, chris, liz, luke russert, hang on.e break. first we ask, who was the last u.s. president to win the white house while losing his home state? it's richard nixon. he was a new york resident in 1968 when he won the white house. he's no longer a california resident but there you go. if you don't count nixon, you'd have to go all the way back to woodrow wilson. our thanks to jeff greenfield for that one and i promise mr. gre greenfield a shoutout, follow him for political information and a couple of laughs. we'll be right back. i couldn't conceive this as a heart attack. the doctor leaned over and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker." i was put on an aspirin, and it's part of my regimen now. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go see your doctor now. it's schwab at your fingertips wherever, whenever you want. one log in lets you monitor all of your balances and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the ma

luke russert, thank you so much. i know you'll be standing by for us.ain, i think it's worth pointing out where we are right now. first of all, you have john boehner in a meeting. you have harry reid saying he's going to move forward, and you can see we're waiting for the president, that is the diplomatic room, and we have no indication he's going to take questions, but he is going to talk about the ongoing debt negotiations. it was just yesterday that "the new york times" suggested that the president really risked being a bystander in one of the most critical moments of his presidency. well, clearly, after holding all those meetings in the white house, now he's back front and center in the =!]$uz of ë%uthis. and also as luke just suggested, we've got two huge pieces of economic news. one, the numbers on the gdp, which basically mark the economic progress that we're making, much worse than expected. the dow -- do we have those numbers? can we put up where the markets are right now? they were down more than 100 points -- well, they are 84 now. a lot of s

on the status of the debt ceiling negotiations, and joining us now is msnbc news correspondent luke russert, now, he has been following this drama all day and night. i know, because my television has been tuned and i've been seeing you. luke, first of all, do you think any chance that phone call that interrupted mr. reid could possibly have been mcconnell calling to say he was prepared to negotiate with him? >> what did reid say, must have been the pizza guy or something? that was a good joke by him. it sheds light on what's been an interesting development of what we heard from senator schumer today, is harry reid called mitch mcconnell 10:00 a.m. this morning, door is open, ready to negotiate. heard nothing back from mcconnell. about 6:00 p.m. mcconnell told reid at this point he was not going to negotiate with him, so the schedule is as of right now to try and get a cloture vote early sunday morning, actually 1:00 a.m. sunday morning, late, late tomorrow night, if mitch mcconnell does not want to negotiate tomorrow, it looks like harry reid's going to have to find about eight or nine sena

>> luke russert on the hill for us. we want to go now to the white house and check in with nbc's mike vicar with more on the president's push for a deal. good evening tao. >> reporter: good evening. after weeks of fits and starts, the two sides appeared this afternoon to be moving closer. but as we come on the air tonight, another angry dispute between the two leaders of the senate breaking out into the open on the senate floor. lester, the key to all this at this point is senate republicans. and indeed white house officials confirm that for the first time in days, so far as we know, the president spoke directly with mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate. later he met here at the white house with harry reid and nancy pelosi, the democratic leaders of congress. of course, the first time they have met face-to-face in a week. lester, not really much separates the two sides. the bottom line for the white house, the debt ceiling be raised high enough, $2.5 trillion, to last until after next year's elections. f

let's go to luke russert. good sunday morning to you, luke. can you tell us what the tentative deal is that's on the table, at least by some reports? >> sure, let's emphasize this is presumed tentative, not concrete, the ink is not dry on the paper if you will. for starters, a debt ceiling increase of $2. trillion, initial spending cuts of $1 trillion, discretionary. a clean vote on a balanced budget amendment, and a commercial committee to find $1 trillion in cuts before thanksgiving and automatic cuts by committee are not adopted, they will be across the board, trying to target republican sacred cows and democrat sacred cows. this is the first glimmer of hope over the past few weeks. that being said, already this looks like a plan that's tailor made to go through the senate. mitch mcconnell saying this morning, it has to get democratic votes in the senate. he believes when all is said and done, he believes this is something he can recommend to his republican members. i cover the house, been calling house sources and seeing from initial repor

luke russert remain on standby at the capitol.se awaiting reaction there and our mont mega panel on duty early offering analysis and insight to the debt ceiling two step, which we're doing instead of worries about jobs orring in policy or anything like that, because you know, while we worry about having people work or not wasting energy, blowing money, we can just call each other names in a political, two-party political system that's kind of stupid? anyway, tim carney is here. i'm excited about that.

. >> our coverage begins with msnbc's luke russert live from capitol hill right now. luke, we have dueling plans coming out in hours of each other, but we are eight days of the deadline. is there enough time to bring them to the floor and get them into action? >> there absolutely is if you were going to do one of the plans, thomas. as of right now, speaker boehner is proposing a plan that you mentioned $900 billion in cuts followed bay -- extension of the debt ceiling and followed by 2 $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and it assigns a committee to find more cuts to garner $1.8 trillion more heading into the next year. this committee has a up or down vote before congress of their findings of what could cut the budget deficit and what exactly they believe could pass. what is interesting also about that plan, thomas, it contains a vote on a ball lansd budget amendment to be done by the end of the year and a clean balanced budget amendment which many republicans feel it fits into the cut, cap and balance plan they have passed in the house of representatives. and moreç impor

luke russert is also here with me. he is at the capitol. luke, we were just listening to leader reid saying in his question time with normal people, real people, as he calls it. what he had said here was that he had no communication with the republican leader, leader mcconnell. is that really the factor some back channel discussions that are happening here? >> well, what the democrats say yesterday reid and mcconnell had good discussions. then mcconnell essentially broke them off and said -- around 6:00 p.m., that he would no longer negotiate with harry reid. mcconnell's folks said that was because it was clear whatever would come out of congress wasn't necessarily going to be signed by the president. they wanted the president's input on the discussions. that's an interesting point. now the news that harry reid is going over to the white house where viq is and going to bring nancy pelosi, perhaps president obama is mentioning what he would be willing to give on them, any compromise, not only get any democrat in the senate but keep a sizable

luke russert is on capitol hill.kristen, this has got to be a frustrating monday for the white house. the president went into the weekend completely frustrated that he said i can't even get a phone call back. how do you move the ball at this point? >> frustration sa good word. most of the action right now is on capitol hill. and one democratic aide who has knowledge of the situation tells me that the white house really believes that the ball is on the other side of pennsylvania avenue right now. they say that this is the congress's job to come one a plan and move the situation forward. having said that the president is still very much involved in these developments. staffers here at the white house in constant contact with the folks of capitol hill. as you said there were meetings over the weekend so they're keeping those lines offense communication open. but you know the president continues to insist he's not going to accept a short-term deal. he remains steadfast in that statement. as you know speaker boehner's pro

let's go now to the capitol and to nbc correspondent luke russert for the latest. hi, luke. >> hi, melissa. and a wonderful introduction telling everybody what occurred. since 6:00 we have been in a holding pattern here, and that's really because at this moment, speaker boehner still does not have the votes to pass his debt limit extension plan. over the last few hours, we can tell you that members have been brought in and have sat before speaker boehner, eric cantor, kevin mccarthy, they have twisted their arms trying to convince some of these no votes to come on the yes way. interesting folks to look at. the south carolina delegation, five republicans there, the gop delegation. they all think now they are going to stay as no votes. and that's important because a lot of them follow jim demint in the senate and what his lead is. a few other interesting things that have occurred here on what is quite a chaotic night. you mentioned the prayer off to side. we had an altercation between police officers and reporters trying to clear out the hallway in front of speaker b

reid has not yet announced what the future of that vote is at this point, so let's bring in nbc's luke russert on capitol hill and mike viqueira at the white house. luke, let me start where you are. that's where the action is. what's going on up there, what are you hearing, this 1:00 vote, still up in the air. is harry reid sort of using it as that last bit of leverage that he might have? >> perhaps, chuck. but for all the optimism we've heard about a possible deal struck between republican leaders and the white house, it would seem odd that harry reid would still try and have a vote on his plan of which 43 republican senators had already said no to. we talked about his strategy yesterday trying to pick off some republicans to come on board to get the 60. but if they are in the midst of a grand compromise, it is hard to see why he'd do that. as of now it is unclear. what i can tell you though is that sort of opinions are now starting to trickle in about this possible compromise and for all intents and purposes, mitch mcconnell can deliver senate republicans, reid will deliver the senate democr

luke russert, luke, republicans are cashing in. is this report exactly what they need to say to the democrats in the debt talks, come to pop pa? >> it's certainly something they feel is beneficial to them in terms of these negotiations, matt. there's three things speaker boehner said republicans had a problem with, rather the country has a problem with today. there's a debt problem, a jobs problem and spending problem. they're going to take this report as use it as a catalyst to try to get what they believe the best deal they can get in terms of a deficit reduction but also that cuts spending. one thing that's interesting within this type of agreement we're talking about right now, they want to have comprehensive tax reform. when the president is saying things, we need to eliminate the economic uncertainty to have a better business environment, those are direct republican talking points. they really feel with this type of economic climate, any kind of thing they can do to get a done quicker would deal better with them in their favo

thank you so much, luke russert. >> take care, richard. appreciate it. >> the debt debate in washington having ripple effects from across the globe including men and women in our armed forces over their checks. admiral mike mullen is in afghanistan today. he discussed the issue with some of our troops. atia is live in afghanistan. >> reporter: he made his way down to kandahar and helmand. he was expecting questions on the war. i'm sure he wasn't expecting questions on the debt crisis. one of the number one questions he got from the troops here in afghanistan was, will we get paid? his answer was, quote, i actually don't know the answer to that question. i have confidence that at some point in time, whatever compensation you are owed, you will be given." what's interesting here is that the sailors, the soldiers, the air men and the marines here in afghanistan have enough to worry about. they are thinking about bombs, ieds, rpgs, the taliban and the insurgency. now they are thinking about their paychecks, as well. will they be paid? will the

on one end it's luke russert. on the other, mike viqueira. luke -- there you go.re we right now. the fact is it's 1:30. we don't have a deal and we keep hearing people emphasize, particularly democrats, that we don't have a deal. >> yeah. i was just over around the senate, chuck. i think the appropriate word to use for democratic senators especially ones who are more progressive is there is a little bit of anxiety right now. nobody really knows for certain what are the underpinnings of this agreement. barbara mccullsky said look, democrats have already given away 80%. we don't have a lot left to give here. i'm encouraged by senator mcconnell's words he wants to end this and get to some sort of compromise but i'm anxious to see exactly what it will be. that said, if there is a deal that's proposed by the white house and backed up by the white house, democrats will ultimately fall in line but we talked a lot about this optimism and this hope of oh, my goodness, this crisis of debt will finally be over. there's a little skepticism on the democratic side and that also

. >> we have luke russert live on the hill with the latest. according to politico, the story said get his blank in line. >> reporter: i know it would be get their behind in line, thomas. that has been reiterated here. even from eric cantor. saying stop grumbling. they need to get behind the boehner bill. the question is after the boehner bill was scrapped because it did not save enough money. the cbo said it saved $150 million. any debt ceiling would have to have larger spending cuts. the new bill will be on the floor tomorrow. the question remains whether or not boehner can get to 217 votes within his conservative house. why cantor and mccarthy, and these guys trying to push these things through. if the bill does not come out of the house as a deficit reduction eleme element, the republicans have lost their leverage. harry reid is watching this play out. mitch mcconnell believes there has to be a compromise because the republican bill doesn't have a chance on get through the senate. it will be vetoed by president obama. >> what do we know of

first, to the pro wrestling we go, nbc's loudmouth luke russert! speaker boehner dubbed limb as such today on the capitol hill. luke, no nickname whatsoever, and incredibly gel us of your new status as the loudmouth on the hill. how does it feel? >> reporter: you're the people's champion. >> appreciate it. it needs to come from speaker boehner. you've got the status now. >> reporter: we'll tell him in give you one. >> me and viqueira will have to cry about that. >> reporter: the billion dollar question, whether john boehner can get to 218. it's unclear. we expect the vote to come in around 215. speaker boehner was probably meeting with members an hour ago off the side the house floor twisting arms trying to get to this number of 216 votes. certainly a lot of confidence. spoken like it will happen, get out of the house. why that's so important is that house republicans need leverage to go against harry reid, against president obama. it if it doesn't pass today they essentially have lost their seat at the negotiating table because speaker boehner has

bring in nbc news' kristen welker from the white house, as well as capitol hill correspondent, luke russerteid bill now put off by this 12-hour stretch, until 1:00 p.m., does that indicate that he can really get the bill done by then, or is this just a desperate hail mary? >> reporter: i wouldn't call it a desperate hail mary, thomas. i spoke to one aide who's been close to this on the republican side, and they said this was actually the first glimmer of hope we've seen all weekend. that, in fact, the talks between the white house and mitch mcconnell had picked up to a degree. folks on the republican side are also adamant that harry reid was not going to be able to reach cloture tonight on his plan, whatever which way he changed it up to try to republican members. one aide said, if harry reid were able to get cloture tonight, i would personally cut off my right hand on msnbc. so they were quite confident that was not going to occur. but what i'm hearing, maybe a white house meeting tomorrow between congressional leaders and somehow a way to figure out what exactly, what chuck was speaking a

thank you for your time and to break down where we go from here we go to nbc's mike viqueira, and luke russerton capitol hill, so to both of you, we have the reports of a deal in "the new york times" and as well as the "washington post" and luke, what are you hearing on the hill? >> well, harry reid said that he at the democratic lunch said that he was informed that there is some sort of deal, but he urged president obama to make sure that there is revenue raisers with any compromise. i heard from one source that there is a possibly $3 trillion in cuts with the promise of having some sort of tax reform next year. that would not be very shall we say palpable to a lot of liberal, because it would not have a revenue raiser, and i'm told that the one issue that both sides can still not come to an agreement on is to allow the bush tax cuts of the wealthiest americans expire and that is a hinge right now of any deal and what we are hearing from the sources. now the official people, and speaker john boehner was on the rush limbaugh program saying no deal privately or publicly, and they are pushing ba

. >> nbc's luke russert is live for us on capitol hill. another good morning to you, luke. how bad is the breakdown between the parties right now, and have you heard anything this morning on capitol hill that indicates that things may go favorably today? >> reporter: as of right now, alex, there is still no movement between both sides in the united states senate. i spoke to one aide and said, what do you think the percentage chances of a deal getting done today? they put that at 15%. so slim to none if you will on the lower side on saturday. really what we're expecting to see today is harry reid trying to negotiate with mitch mcconnell who said the president must be president at any of these negotiations throughout the day on the debt limit increase. unclear as to whether or not that will happen. but harry reid's strategy will try to be and convince eight to ten, 12 republican senators to come on board with his compromise. he'll put a sweetener in there for them to try to say, look, come over to our side, let's pass this through the united states senate and send it over to

. >>> nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill. luke, good saturday morning to you. >> good morning. >> as we look at what's happening here, by the sounds of it, the two sides appear farther apart than ever. this is the time for them to buckle down and get to work toel together. are they going to be able to do it today, tomorrow, or monday? >> you would think that. the words rationale and commonsense have not been prevalent here in washington over the last three weeks, and it really goes to what is compromise? the gop's original position on compromise was just raising the debt ceiling. essentially what had to be done. that's where the starting point has been, and that's why it's been so difficult really because a blocking minority called them in the house side really these newly elected tea party freshmen that very contrarian and not wanting to allow any type of compromise through over there. speaker boehner took three days for him in order to get his bill through the house. as to where exactly we'll go in temz of negotiations today

congressman mccarthy, nbc's luke russert is on capitol hill. the speaker of the house went into caucus yesterday and told everybody to get in line. it didn't happen. how did it come down tonight? >> an absolutely real shocker out of washington, ed. there's a lot of confidence in the gop leadership staff this morning even saying by the time the night is over we'll have passed two bills out of the house that have raised the debt limit. well, that's just not the case. around 6:00 this bill was pulled. it was clear they didn't have the votes. there were rumors they were two votes away. they became six votes and then 10 and 12. the number is around there. but this is a huge setback because it shows that john boehner, as of right now, cannot pass a bill through the house of representatives to raise the debt limit that every single democrat in the house and in the united states senate has said they are against. this is clearly a republican bill despite the fact that republicans said it was drawn up in a bipartisan way over the weekend with harry reid.

luke russert and mike viqueira. luke, i'd like to start with you. speaker boehner says he want to bring the bill back now, and maybe it can now pass, but wouldn't it be deader in the senate if that is possible? >> absolutely, martin. what speaker boehner had to do was for the third time in three days bring up a new republican debt limit in the house gop and this one moved the bill to the right. he absolutely catered to the tea party republicans, and how do i know this? i spoke to a few of them who said they went in and met with him yesterday, and floated this balanced budget amendment option aroundp 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. saying it is the only way to get to 216 votes. so that is the situation, and that plan will go nowhere in the united states senate, and as you heard chris van hollen say, they don't want a judicial branch to dictate the budget, and not to mention before a debt ceiling can be raised in the second go around, they have to go to the states, and the possibility of trying to see a balanced budget amendment go through state legislatures, and t

. >> msnbc's luke russert has been following the tale of two bills. we're watching what's happening in the house. this vote, has this been done before? >> yes, in the history of the house they do things like that. it's supposed to say to harry reid, look, even before you pass any semblance of your bill out of the united states senate, we're going to show you that it's dead on arrival. it's going to be interesting to see then what exactly harry reid can send over to the house by the end of the weekend, possibly on monday. it's supposed to be a compromise on his current bill. the strategy we hear so far is that mitch mcconnell has said he will only negotiate with harry reid if president obama were to be involved. you expect he will lighten up a little bit on that strategy, that's what we heard. i spoke to one gop aide and they said look, essentially congress is "motionless until harry reid can tell republicans what exactly the president will sign." kind of putting the burden on president obama, putting the burden on harry reid saying look, republican se

luke russert covers capitol hill for us. luke, part of that discussion is the mini deal with senators reid and mcconnell were discussing earlier. where does that stand in this discussion so far? >> it's interesting, one of the things that is being thrown up on capitol hill is somewhat of a mini deal. saying look, there's not enough time within the next three weeks in order to hammer out a long-term deficit reduction. perhaps there could be a piecemeal deal to allow there to be more time served for negotiations to develop that. is something that the white house came out strongly against yesterday and also had an unlikely ally in that that's house speaker john boehner. why does the white house and the house of speakers not want to have another debt deal talked about in the next few months? political. it's a very difficult vote to tell members that they voted to increase the nation's deficit in an election year. why is this senate for inclined to support that? mitch mcconnell could become the republican majority lead ner the sen

nbc's luke russert has the latest. >> reporter: good afternoon, richard. it's around 1:00 here on the west coast. the house has gaveled into session and essentially we are where we were this morning and last night. there is still no clear path for harry reid to garner the 60 votes he needs to file cloture on a debt limit extension plan. right now it does not seem he has republican support. as far as negotiations go, we have spoke on the a gop aide who said look, right now it's motionless until harry reid can tell us what president obama will sign into law. that being said, there are some other folks who say that mitch mcconnell and harry reid had discussions yesterday, that their staffs are in communications in an attempt to throw things by the white house on what they would like to do. but there is no clear path except for harry reid trying to convince maybe 8, 10, 12 republican senators to come on board with a compromise, offering them a sweetener, specifically in this case, there is going to be a two-part extension to the debt limit and there would be s

nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill. the onion seems like they have it right. sometimes satire is the best commentary, police commentary. where are things at this hour? >> reporter: a lot of rumors floating around capitol hill now about last hour. there is rumors spread by democratic senate aides and the fact that the white house and president obama and speaker boehner agreed some sort of $3 trillion deficit deaf deal that would, in fact, not have revenue in it. right now the promise of tax reform next year. that was immediately shout down by the white house. the president's communications director tweeting that there has to be any new, debt deal would have to contain some sort of revenue right there. speaker boehner on the rush limbaugh program and said there's been no deal publicly or privately. so that's what the official word is now. a lot of stuff going on behind the scene. we can tell you harry reid, a democratic senator, said revenue absolutely must be if any debt deal. can't all be spending cuts. that sentiment echoed by a lot of democratic members and

we are joined from kristen welker from the white house briefing room, also luke russert who is on capitol on when and why the president decided to address the nation tonight? >> hi, there, lawrence, well, white house officials tell me the president wanted to address the nation tonight because this is really a pivotal moment. they say we are almost exactly one week out from the august 2nd deadline. i asked when the decision was made to make the speech this evening, the president has been considering for quite sometime, but again, because we are about one week out, he wanted it to be tonight. you're really going to hear him speak to the american people tonight. we've heard him address the issue publicly several times, lawrence, but tonight he's going to speak to the american people, he's going to really try to break this down, this is going to be debt limit 101. he's going to explain why it is so important to increase the debt limit. timothy geithner said the nation will default for the first time in history if we don't increase the debt limit. you're going to hear him address the american

and kristen welker is at the white house and luke russert at capitol hill., we have learned of a veto threat against the boehner bill, and a major development after the president's talk of compromise yesterday, and was this expected? >> well, you know, martin, this was a bit of a preemptive strike, if you will. the president has been saying for weeks that he won't support a short-term bill like the one that speaker boehner has proposed under speaker boehner's proposal and increase the debt limit for six months and then lawmakers have to come back to the issue in the middle of an election year, and the president has said he won't support a plan like that, and he says it is unstable for the economy, and speaker boehner has accused him of politics for that reason. this is not exactly a surprise, but what is interesting is that last night when the president spoke, in the remarks to the nation, he didn't use the term veto. he did come out and say he does not support speaker boehner's plan, but he never used the term veto, so a lot of people were questioning today

continuing luke russert, you've been covering this allç weeken and for the last couple of weeks.as you see the two sides shaping up, it's clear that john boehner and the president both want some sort of solution. they're saying they're flot going to let the debt ceiling lapse. it's not just positioning. it seems to be they were the grown ups in the room. there's a lot of resentment in the white house from what boehner walked away from what they thought because deal. they're claiming the president didn't change the terms he just suggested raising the tax side. he didn't say it was a take it or leave it deal. how did it break down? how did it fall apart on friday night? >> it's your classic washington he said, she said. on friday night spaker boehner was emotional and gnat in the briefing room said we had a deal. it was for $800 million billion in revenue. there's speculation that speaker boehner spoke to folks on capitol hill and realized this type of tax increase was just very difficult. this was personal. i think if you look at the way in which this broke down there was sniping

. >>> and for the reality from the rhetoric, we go to mike viqueira and luke russert. mike, it is your sense that the president is slowly persuading john boehner to move forward? or is this an illusion like a mirage in the heat wave? >> well, first of all, martin, welcome to the sweltering east coast of the united states. well, you know, if politics as it has been said is the art of the do-able, it is time for the divincis and the michael angelos to come to the floor. it is time for someone to paint the legislative masterpiece. and radio silence pretty much all day today except for the public pronouncements and martin, i caution you, because there is a lot of head faking. part of the reason that you have seen all of the reports stirring up all of the sudden is because the people have the agendas to promote one side or another or kill one side or another's proposal which you have seen in the last few days. congress will be working all weekend and now more behind the scenes wrangling, and luke can tell us more about that, but when the president talked about shared politi

we have a triple threat, luke russert, chuck todd and mike viqueira. i want to start with you, luke, we just heard john boehner left the capitol for the night. he's not needed as much right now, his work is done? >> correct. and that's something they've said for a long time, thomas, that he is done. and he left the capitol a short time ago. it's not expected, there's some speculation that perhaps he and mitch mcconnell could go back to the white house for some meetings. from what i've heard here on capitol hill. one of the key folks at this negotiation is turning out to be joe biden. mitch mcconnell mentioned before he was on the floor with senator harry reid, that he just got off the phone with joe biden, i heard from one aide who said, joe biden spent a lot of time at the state senate, i believe over three decades, he's really trying to work those relationships to bring this to an end. he's tapped into the pulse of the senate which does not want to see a default. and he tells me this is getting "embarrassing" for the country. if that's the case and he

. >> northbound's luke russert is live for us on capitol hill. with a good saturday morning to you, luke. we heard senator kent conrad put it in perspective there, but for you how bad is this breakdown between the parties right now? >> it's pretty bad. just in the sense that there is so far we know of no real communication between harry reid and mitch mcconnell and president obama. at least that's public. i'm sure there are things going on behind the scenes, but when you have both parties still publicly asserting very rigid positions, essentially saying they're not really in the budget this moment, it presents dilgts simply because of where we are in terms of timing. in order for a compromise to come out of the united states senate, ideally in order to avert a default, it would come out tonight. that's probably not going to happen. these negotiations will probably carry into tomorrow, most likely harry reid will try to persuade nine to ten, 12 republicans to come on board with some sort of compromise, and the attempt to hope he can get that. mitch

. >>> but nbc's mike viqueira live for us at the white house, also luke russert is following every twist and turn on capitol hill. luke, i want to start with you, because i know it's been a long night, early morning for you and today is another critical test of leadership for speaker john boehner. he is toast, if he can't secure this deal, how long does he have? >> reporter: well, news that just came out of the house gop conference, thomas, was the bill was going to be altered, the boehner debt bill. there will now be a portion of the bill with a balanced budget amendment attached that basically says, look, there will be an immediate $900 billion increase to the debt ceiling with $917 billion in cuts. but then six months from now after the commission comes up with some sort of idea of how to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion, in order for that to occur, the trigger would be the states would have to ratify a balanced budget amendment. something that was a centerpiece of the house gop's cut, cap and balance legislation. now, what's significant about this, thomas? well, it will garner the

we begin this morning with nbc's luke russert. good morning. >> two days away from when the nation is supposed to default on its loans lawmakers on capitol hill are scrambling to find a compromise. today senator harry reid hopes enough republicans will support some variation of his debt limit extension plan. >> we'll come in at noon and have a vote at 1:00. >> reporter: still rangling to get his 60 votes harry reid delayed the procedural vote on his plan by 12 hours. >> i'm confident a final agreement that will adopt a senate long-term approach rather than the short-term band aid proposed by house representatives. >> reporter: after a compromise ben b between senate republican leaders and the white house may be on the horizon leaving hope that a deal could be struck by tuesday's deadline. >> the bill is not passed. >> reporter: but earlier in a special weekend session, house republicans overwhelmingly voted down senator reid's plan before its final version was even offered. >> the reid proposal is full of budget gimmicks that the

luke russert will join us live in a minute. >>> meanwhile the new imf christine lagarde speaking in new their political games will have consequences beyond the beltway, the question is will politicians in d.c. listening to her? >>> and house republicans fired themselves up yesterday for this debt fight by watching clips

luke russert covers capitol hill for us. te list didn't seem to go over well with everybody on your side of pennsylvania avenue. tell us about that. >> reporter: in terms of, chuck, on the house side? >> yes, that's right. >> reporter: you know, a lot of folks are saying, look, you have these big group of folks who will come together at the white house later on tomorrow, this elite eight. this debate will be settled by speak he boehner and president obama and the one thing we've heard from the speaker's office recently is that they are trying to figure out what exactly is going to be in the trillion. we heard trillions not billions for a long time. within these trillions of dollars of cuts, it becomes the real question how much is domestic, how much is defense and how much will we talk about any sort of tax raising revenue. so far as you know, republicans have said that's not an option at all, now we're talking, we're hearing from one source i spoke on the democratic side possibly $500 billion in medicare savings. will republ

luke russert covers capitol hill and joins me now. luke, you've been doing a lot of reporting. there was an exclosive meeting yesterday and they were still venting this morning. that and the republican house problem. >> the meeting was yesterday. it was the senate democratic luncheon a lot of democrats were uncomfortable because jack lou was telling them the underpinnings of this plan possibly between speaker boner and president obama which would have some entitlement reform within there. third degree be spending cuts, but there's no guarantee of added revenue. that upset a lot of democrats saying that added revenue needed to be in any deal. yesterday i spoke to rank and file republicans saying there wasn't an agreement like that as democrats were making it out to be. they expected to be an announcement of a deal next week. speaker boehner spoke to his house republican conference this morning saying a deal needed to be on the house floor on wednesday of next week. they want to abide by their 72-hour limit of viewing the deal. then the senate is going to need roughly a week to w

. >> 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 that has been submitted to the senate. they should have no problem doing that. it's quite entertaining alex. last night the boehner bill passed out of the house of representatives, it was killed by the senate within two hours. this reid bill will be killed many the house of representatives before it's even passed out of the senate. it'

. >> nbc's luke russert is live for us on capitol hill. i don't know, luke. these two sides sound farther apart than ever as they get ready to buckle down and work together. can something get done today? >> reporter: that's the question, i think everyone around the country is really asking. and the question that needs to be asked is where are the negotiations? and quite frankly, no one really kno knows for sure. mcconnell said to reid he would not negotiate an extension unless president obama was involved in the talks. harry reid then said he was trying to negotiate with rank and file republicans in the senate but they wanted to come aboard, but they'd not had the permission of their leader. so really it many comes down to who do you believe? it probably is somewhere in the middle, but in terms of going forward the real situation is the clock becomes the most important issue. if the senate does everything they could do to figure out some sort of compromise possibly by tonight or it gets pushed over to tomorrow morning, there's still going to be the earliest a

>> and you heard luke russert say, could you get the reforms done by august 2nd? and they did not answer that question, but again, as president obama said today, everyone is very aware of the august 2nd deadline and they want a deal done, so they will be back here over the weekend to get to some real progress on the debt ceiling debate. thomas? >> kristen welker at the white house for us. thanks. >>> joining me now is republican committee national chairman reince priebus, and kristen is talk about what is happening with these talks at the white house with john boehner calling them productive and the president hopeful about getting it done by the looming datef of august 2nd which is the deadline for the u.s. to default on the dets. in your estimation, what do you think will happen? can we make it to that date and get something moved to the middle? a compromise before that? >> well, i mean, obviously, as you know, and i think that youm -- you almost said it yourself that the devil is in the details, of course, and we don't know what the details are, but i can tell y

nbc's luke russert starts us off with the latest. >> reporter: around around around they go, where itstops, nobody knows, you're alluding to the fuzzy math. let's start off with the harry reid plan the cbo scored it as 2.2 trillion. they're still going to present that plan, not so much on the other side, the republican plan by john boehner promised over 1.2 trillion in cuts. that number was scored by the cbo at $850 billion, about $350 billion short. that caused john boehner last night to pull the bill from the house floor. they are rewriting it as we speak. it will be on the floor tomorrow. the real question is, can john boehner get 217 votes for the new bill that's going to come about? they've been whipping it hard, a team effort. he and top depend i eric cantor, kitchen mccarthy, they're still not there jet as we speak. if they don't get too 217 and pass something out of the house with solely republican finger pripts, john boehner has lost all leverage with negotiations, and would effectively have to work out some compromise with them. the idea now is this will pass through the hou

. >> we begin with kristen welker and luke russert on capitol hill. luke, what kind of response are lawmakers getting today on capitol hill? >> quite a big one, contessa. we can report that earlier this morning the house call center the communication arm of the house in charge of all the house telephones sent out an email to members saying quote, due to the high volume of external calls to the house telephone circuits they are near capacity. some members should be receiving busy signals. several house websites crashed specifically that of speaker of the house john boehner. the question is whether or not it will transfer into some sort of change of what the status quo is right now and that really is both sides digging in quite rigidly on their plans. democrats supporting harry reid's plan the $2.7 trillion cut across the board. republicans in favor of john boehner's plan, with an extension of the debt limit. that's where both sides are still very much. >> kristen, let's talk with you about where the white house goes from here. can they capitalize on thi

we're at the white house and luke russert is covering capitol hill. we've just gotten a note here, luke, that staff in the house of representatives are getting the warning that the house telephone circuits are again near capacity following on the president's request they they call their lawmakers and pressure them to get a a bipartisan solution. where do we stand on that? >> reporter: once again the president said call your member of congress during his address to the nation. ehe said it again. he showed it's reflected on populous. but here's what we can report. about 10:00 a.m. the house gop met. john boehner said he would alter the bill by adding a balanced budget amendment as the trigger for the debt limit to be raised again in six months. that is enough to win over the votes immediated to get to 216. a lot of folks who were no yesterday and left that meeting and said they would be a yes. a balanced budget amendment goes nowhere in the united states senate. brings the bill that was opposed by every single democrat in congress further to the right. t

that's what luke russert and kelly o'donnell's report say. when they send it to the senate, harry reid wants to file something called cloture by midnight, why? because he's trying to, at some point, get a bill passed, sent back to the house by monday, giving the house about 24 hours to pass an amended version of whatever bill the senate sends back to meet the august 2nd deadline. so that's the clock they're working with, and the calendar that they're working with. what does that mean? as soon as boehner files this bill there's going to be a serious amount of back room negotiations between reid and some republicans. there's some sort of quiet negotiations now with some moderate republicans, possibly people like tennessee senator bob corker, alaska senator lisa murkowski. some folks like that who publicly said they're talking about working with reid on some form of a compromise. right now the senate republican leadership is not engaging in these talks. they want to wait to see what happens in the house until boehner comes over. and this is very

. >> luke russert joins me, and i guess it is a gang of seven now, luke, involved in this, and there was just a report that you have folks on wall street really starting to get worried about some of the rhetoric coming from the tea party and if a deal can be secured here? >> right, indeed, tamron and new hope given to an idea that many thought had gone to the wayside here on capitol hill, and this morning the gang of six, again, and gang of seven rejoined by tom coleburn and lamar alexander, this idea of $3.75 trillion in deficit reduction with components for both sides. there would be new revenue, but entitlement reform which is something that has been worked on for months and many folks thought it was the last best hope and it got president obama's endorsement and not completely, but he said he is looking more to it, and it will run into two main problems so far that we have heard of. number one is the house representatives, and there is no indication of whether or not the house gop would accept this plan, because it has a revenue-raising aspect to it, and a lot of the republicans