joining me tonight is sam stein, political reporter for the huffington post who reported on that storyvening, sam. first off, we have to ask you for your thoughts about, what do you make of washington post report tonight that tomorrow's meeting with the house and senate leaders, the president is going to be pushing for entitlement cuts in exchange for republican support for tax cuts? what do you make of this tonight? >> it's a big deal. it's a new development obviously in these negotiations. we have to consider where these started with near unanimous agreement that the debt ceiling should be raised by both speaker boehner's office and the presidency. at first the white house was insists on a clean vote, now we've gone to the point where we're mimicking the bowles simpson plan. whether you're talking about raising the retirement age or means testing, for instance. those are major concessions that are going to rang wrangle a lot of democrats. >> why would the president go down this road when he has overwhelming support from the american people on medicare, medicaid and raising taxes on t

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sam stein, he's moving quickly to shore up support. >> the cb score did him no favors.se the debt ceiling and we want immediate cuts. he's got to pull back the plan, refigure it. resell it to the caucus. remember, republicans are devoted to not voting from any raise. >> this is like the french revolution, i think. after barack obama and harry reid, a lot of folks are after boehner and people they think are ka capitulators. if they don't give boehner a vehicle to send to the senate to say we raised the debt ceiling, no taxes, real cuts, maybe not as many as you want but here you go. we are doing the right thing, the responsible thing. >> we get a workable bill. >> let's turn to other news. good news as far as health goes. miracles still do happen. remember the guy that we heard only had three months to live in libya? well, he's made quite a comeback. for the first time in a couple years, he appeared in public. footage from libyan state tv shows him attending a rally in support of moammar gadhafi. he looked frail, he was sitting in a wheelchair. his appearance may not be

ç joining me now with the latest lori montgomery and sam stein. lorry, first to you on the hill.ons, a lot of briefings. what's the latest because of the hearings? >> it's pretty much what we heard yesterday is that speaker boehner is moving ahead in the house with his two-step process that would be tied to an approximately trillion dollar increase in the debt limit to get you through february, march. in the meantime they would create this new 12-member committee to look for additional savings. that committee would have to the recommendations could have to be adopted in order for the debt limit to go up again. then in the house, the senate, excuse me, senate democrats are fixing to brief us on their plan which has they harry reid indicated last night was going to be a $2.7 trillion package of cuts that would be paired with $2.4 trillion increase in the debt limit that gets you through the 2012 election. >> it's hard to figure out sam, how harry reid is getting to $2.7 without any revenues? >> the going theory, the saufs not confirming it ises they're going to take the trillion do

joining me now is howard fineman and sam stein. both from "the huffington post."ou're in the capital. it's all happening around you. where are we? what's going on? >> well, it takes two reporters from "the huffington post," lawrence, to cover the fact that absolutely nothing is happening right this -- at this very minute, at least publicly. you know, behind closed doors, john boehner and big crowds of reporters have been outside his office for hours, looking to see people coming in and, you know, see whether they have had their rear ends realigned by john boehner as they try to get the votes that they need. this is crucial, because if boehner can pass the republican plan in the house, they will at least -- that is the republicans -- will at least be able to say, hey, we put something in the table. and in the physics of blame, and in the last phases of negotiations, that would mean something. but he's having a terrible time getting the votes. i just talked to one tea party guy who said, look, if not me, when? if not us, you know, who? the way the tea party people v

sam stein and peter alexander are still with us.nbc guys, they are needy. >> they are needy. >> yeah. look at them. >> also, we have former governor howard team and the editor of nationalmemo.com. joe, great to see you again. >> great to have you. >> let's begin first of all with, we just heard john boehner talking act a possible debt deal. it looks like john boehner, by day, talks to rush limbaugh and by night is holding secret negotiations at the white house. >> if you believe the newspapers, that's what he's doing, yes. >> oh, yeah, that's the problem. >> it's very hard to tell. every time a leak comes out about the discussions taking place between the republican leaders and the white house, everybody denies ha is happening. it would be an odd time for the president to surrender as they say he is doing when it seems to me the republicans are starting to blink, don't you think? >> what you read about grover norquist yesterday appeared to blink and he's backed off. >> then he said he wasn't thought a default would be a terrible exp

. >> for the latest on the negotiations, let's turn to sam stein and michael eric dyson, a professor of sociology at georgetown university and author of "can you hear me now?" . sam, what's the latest? >> lucky for you and congressman kucinich, i'm hearing this big bargain with the big three on the table is off the table so to speak. right now, senator mcconnell and reid are working on their hybrid approach. there's not enough time to consider this package that's been put for by the gang of six. there's some members who have talked about getting a one month extension to the debt ceiling, so they can have the congressional budget office score it. that's probably not going to happen p. it doesn't make sense legislatively. the more we're hearing from the gang of six proposal, the more opponent's it's getting. conservatives are against it. even though congressman kucinich is right, it would get rid of the alternative minimum tax. >> senate republican leadership aids sent mike allen an e-mail explaining why republicans don't like the gang of six plan. here it is, the president killed any c

also sam stein from the huffington post.matt lewis, senior contributor from the daily caller. >>> are freshman republicans playing the hypocrisy game. you have how freshman are quietly begging supporting hometown projects while blasting spending in public. here is one example. representative steven fincher writes, the transportation department asking for $13 million and to days later they have reckless spending. sam, it seems like they are trying to have it both ways. >> i think the the more honest interpretation is that they recognize there sr actual benefits. stimulus benefits to spend on infrastructure projects. it does help in jobs and in the districts. the explanation congressmen gave to me in researching for this article is, yes, they like the spending because it is effective. the spending they don't like is wasteful spending. what is waifrt wasteful is different in each of their eyes. >> how can you say that if you are doing intrastructure and you are building and creating jobs, it is wasteful. but if it is in my dist

sam stein in washington. sam? >> thank you.cause obviously this is being done behind closed doors. obviously our discussions about a grand bargain and a fallback plan that your leader mitch mcconnell is crafting. is raising the nation's debt ceiling enough of an importance to you that you would be willing to vote for for a compromise or are you going to wait and see, read the plans and possibly reserve the right not to vote something simply because you haven't seen it and not given enough time to consider it? >> what i've been pushing behind the scene, trying to get them to pass a -- >> that's not my question. >> listen, that actually would solve the problem. i've always felt, if we're really going to prevent america from going bankrupt, it's a two-step process. first we have to instill the fiscal discipline. the hard spending caps. i think honestly in the end we need a constitutional amendment to limit the size of government and --. that's not my question. >> but that is what we need to do. anything else, all these other negot

sam stein?ow at 9.2%, a large chunk of those jobs, is now a good time to piggy back on the social security question, what do you say to members of your party that consider it? >> our biggest priority is administration, is getting the economy back on track and putting people back to work. now, without relitigating the past, i'm absolutely convinced and the vast majority of the economists are convinced that the steps we took in the recovery act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs. part of the evidence of that is, as you see what happens with the recovery act phasing out. you know, when i came into office and budgets were hemorrhaging at the state level, part of the recovery act was giving states help so they wouldn't have to lay off teachers, police officers, firefighters. as we've seen that federal support for states diminish, you've seen the biggest job losses in the public sector. teachers, police officers, firefighters losing their jobs. so my strong preference

sam stein? >> is now a really good time to -- [ inaudible question ] what do you say to members of your own party who say, let's consider it and not -- >> our biggest priority in an administration is getting the economy back on track and putting people back to work. without relitigating the past, i am absolutely convinced and the vast majority of economists are convinced that the steps we took in the recovery act saved millions of people their jobs or creating a whole bunch of jobs. part of the evidence o thf that as you see what happens with the recovery act phasing out. when i came into office, and budgets were hemorrhaging at the state level, part of the recovery act was giving states help so they wouldn't have to lay off teachers, police officers, firefighters. as we've seen, that federal support for states diminish, you have seen the biggest job losses in the public sector, teachers, police officers, firefighters losing their jobs. so my strong preference would be for us to figure out ways

sam stein. >> [inaudible] a large chunk [inaudible].e social security questiti, what do you think members of your own party will say [inaudible]. >> our biggest priority in this administration is getting the economy back on track and putting people back to work. now, without relitigating the past, i am absolutely convinced and the vast majority of the economists are convinced that the steps we took in the recovery act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs. and part of the evidence of that is, as you see what happens with the recovery act phasing out. when i came into office and budgets were hemorrhaging at the state level, part of the recovery act was givinin states help so they wouldn't have to lay off teachers, police officers, firefighters. as we've seen that federal support for states diminish, you've seen the biggest job losses in the public sector, teachers, police officers, firefighters, losing their jobs. so my strong preference would be for us to figure out ways that we can continue to provide hel

sam stein. >> thank you, mr. president. with unemployment now at 9.2% and a large chunk of those lost jobs coming from the private sector, is now a really good time to cut trillions of dollars in spending? how will we still create jobs? and then to piggyback on the social security question -- what do you say to members of your own party who say it doesn't contribute to the deficit, let's consider it but not in the context of this deal? >> our biggest priority as an administration is getting the economy back on track and putting people back to work. now, without relitigating the past, i'm absolutely convinced, and the vast majority of economists are convinced, that the steps we took in the recovery act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs. and part of the evidence of that is as you see what happens with the recovery act phasing out. when i came into office and budgets were hemorrhaging at the state level, part of the recovery act was giving states help so they wouldn't have to lay off teachers