congressman peter welch, democrat of vermont, member of the caucus. am i understating this? >> you're not the master of understatement, but this could be the most serious vote that we take on domestic policy for all of those who serve under congress. what's happening here is we have this debt crisis. we've got the debt ceiling coming up, we've got to pay our bills. the majority of the democratic caucus voted for the debt ceiling so we would pay our bills. that included, by the way, many of us who voted for it who were against the iraq war, were against credit card funding of the afghanistan war, we're against what congress voted for, americans voted for it and we have to pay our bills. >> congressional members said they met with the president a month ago and they asked him, are you going to throw us under the bus? and they're telling me tonight they were thrown under the bus. do you feel that way? >> you know what, what i'm hoping is this. when the president is talking about medicare and social security, it's about making medicare and social security strong, survivable and s

host: elaine, on with congressman peter welch.ler: i have a a couple of comments before might question grid with republicans are talking, even on your show, how they act -- they act like bullies, and trying to keep our children from being belize, and if they watch anything on tv and see how republicans are always bullying, democrats putting all the blame on them, it has to stop. this man who said that his main job in the republican party is to get rid of that man and so he only has a one-term presidency -- someone walking down the street would be arrested for threatening the life of the president of the united states. i understand that federal and state employees get 2% cola increases every year. i am retired, i was on disability. we have medicare, yes, and each one pays every month. and then we have a sub-plan where we are paying almost $80 a month. the pharmaceutical industry, we pay more for our drugs than we do for our health care. the main question i really want to ask is why don't they investigate welfare? this is nothing bu

democratic congressman peter welch from vermont and republican congressman joe walsh from illinois join me now. good morning to both of you. congressman walsh, let me start with you. what if congress doesn't act by august 2nd? >> chris, i'm not obsessed with august 2nd. we're obsessed with getting this right. we met with standard & poor's yesterday and they walked us through various scenarios. they made a couple of things very clear. they may downgrade our credit rating even if we raise the debt ceiling. what they told us -- >> well, the chances would certainly increase, wouldn't it, congressman, if this doesn't get done? >> what they told us for certain was if we raise the debt ceiling without real fundamental structural spending reform, serious reform, we still risk having our credit rating downgraded. so we have to make sure we do this right, whether it's august 2 pd, 3rd, we all want to get this done as soon as we can. but clearly what we heard yesterday was we have to do this right. >> congressman welch, what would doing it right be? these reports we heard about there would be some

he get why nothing happens face or maybe over the weekend people get on board with the bill that peter welch just introduced which just calls for a clean vote on the death dealing with let's just do what the president actually talked about months ago let's do the debt ceiling have that vote and a month ago let's just do it let's go back to let's hope that's where we end up with a revisit that that that would be the very best scenario put these guys seem like they are and i think your point that this seems new in seventy nine we actually defaulted for about two hours in the carter administration and it jacked our interest rates up by half a point for the next six months to a year and that was just a minor technical default you know really a congress a couple hundred billion dollars or couple hundred billion dollars actually. reagan had to go on radio and castigate his own republicans you know it's been used in the democratic right i think in every one of those cases there was a clear path forward and nobody was really seriously talking about what these guys are talking about which is let's se

congressman peter welch, thank you for joining us. >> thank you.: a lot of people angry over the result of that big florida trial this week. across the country states are proposing what's called caylee's law. we'll tell you what it calls for. >>> rick folbaum, also, now with our three hot stories. rick? >> reporter: that's right. this is you did, we report. which one do you like best? is go to the home page for "happening now" at foxnews.com. here are your options today. we've got the unearthing of an old eighth century relic. what is that from? we'll tell you. also a police officer is safe today because of a good samaritan who saved his life. we'll tell you that story after this fiery crash there. the cop is okay. also the other option, the final one, football season. high school football season hasn't even begun, but it's already getting ugly. we'll tell you about a little fight that broke out on the gridiron if you decide that's what you want to hear about. go to the home page and vote. we'll have the results and the story coming up later on in

bill: peter welch, thank you for your time.rom vermont with a proposal to raise the debt ceiling, clean. which is something i think the white house wanted several weeks ago and if not months ago, peter welch, thank you for your time, we are waiting on the camera, as you can see, with the camera at the white house. martha: we are hearing from chris turner, tim geithner has been speaking out about the financial peril that is already in his opinion, starting to ensue to some degree, that the international community according to the treasury secretary is starting to get unnerved by what they are seeing as us pushing perilously close to the default line and the serves the administration, because, they are clearly pushing to get this situation handled and quickly, and henry -- ed henry is standing by with us. i wonder if the president still strike the same note we hear from tim geithner who may be the warm-up for the president who we'll hear from moments from now. >> absolutely, some version of "can you hear me now" because the presi

let's ask vermont democrat, peter welch, one of the lawmakers leading the charge for clean extensionthe debt limit and joins us to talk about where we stand. thank you for your time today. >> good to be here. >> shannon: talk about where we are now. the recess cut the holiday short. house back at work as well. what are the hopes of getting something done and making progress on negotiating a deal? >> well, there is two issues. this is what the american people need to understand. one is do we pay our bills or do we default on our debt? that is going to happen on august 2. and we can not allow america for the first time in its history to default. the consequences are enormous. the second issue is equally important, getting a long-term solution to restore fiscal balance. there is a big debate. in my view, we should have balanced cuts and balanced re-knews, but what we can't do is policies generally do, use the leverage available at the moment, the debt ceiling and overplay our hand to the point we go in default. if we default, let's say the interest rates spike as they do, 1% increase, t

peter welch. thank you for joining us. mr. welch: thank you. we are in a very serious situation now. we are 11 days away from perhaps the first time in the history of this country not paying our bills. and it is extraordinarily damaging what that will do to our economy. interest rates will go up. 1% increst in our debt service and $140 billion more to service the debt. i don't care whether you have a nancy pelosi point of view that we could use that money better on infrastructure or eric cantor point of view that you could use it for tax cuts, that is money out the door. that is squanered money. and the a.a.a. rating is enormous and starts hurting people, individuals. you have a mortgage, mortgage rates could go up. if you want to buy a car and borrow money, your rates are going to go up. if you put aside money for your kids to go to college, which we know is incredibly expensive. the markets will create turmoil and will take a hit. retirement savings, about to retire and been saving a all your life, that can get whacked. this is reckless and i