democrats, senators mark warner, dick durbin and kent conrad, and three republicans, senators saxby chamblissurn and mike crapo. they're doing something almost unheard of in today's hyper positive washington, working together on tackling the nation's ballooning debt, now ticking closer to the $14.3 trillion limit. >> when we started this we were kind of viewed as the odd guys out that nobody gave much chance to. >> reporter: this odd couple, democratic senator mark warner of virginia, and republican senator saxby chambliss of georgia, started the gang four months ago. >> i've got two children and five grandchildren. should we leave them a $14 trillion debt? my firm answer is no. >> reporter: when they're not meeting in private, they're jointly hosting town halls across the country, hoping to get the business community on board. >> it's so critically important for us to get this issue under control now. >> reporter: to avoid political mudslinging, they remain tight-lipped about what their proposals might be. but do say they'll pick up where a bipartisan fiscal commission left off last december

police information about senator saxby chambliss and senator warner. nator chambliss was elected in 2002 and is serving his second term. he served on the armed services committee. mark warner, a democrat from virginia was elected with 65% of the vote. tom coburn was on this program recently and talked a little bit about the gang of six. here's what he had to say. >> you cannot negotiate these things in the press. it is difficult to take somebody like dick durbin and tom coburn, who are at the ends of both spectrum's and negotiate and make hard decisions and hard compromises if you do that in the public line. anybody who is against what you're doing is called to be critical of it. we are not there yet. any comment on what we're doing is not appropriate. and it handicaps the ability to try to come to something that will help our country. host: we are talking about the gang of six and a possible debt proposal paul krawzak paul and tim reid. here is an emerging proposal from the gang of six to reduce the debt. this comes from bloomberg. host: can you speak

reporter: this odd couple, democratic senator mark warner of virginia and republican senator saxby chambliss of georgia, started the gang four months ago. >> i have two children and five grandchildren. should we leave them a $14 trillion debt? my firm answer is no. >> reporter: and they're not meeting in private they're jointly hosting town halls across the country hoping to get the business community on board. >> it's so critically important for us it get this issue under control now. >> reporter: to avoid political mudslinging they remain tight- lipped about what their proposals might be but do say they'll pick up where a bipartisan fiscal commission left off last december. that group recommended cutting $4 trillion over the next decade, in part by raising the retirement age, reducing medicare benefits for the wealthy and reforming the tax code by eliminating popular loopholes. tough to swallow for both parties. >> how do you sell this? >> we have to check our democrat hats and republican hats on the door. >> everybody will have skin in the game. >> reporter: the gang of six could unveil i

i just noticed the other day saxby chambliss, a conservative republican from georgia and mark warner, moderate democrat from virginia have taken a road show around the country saying... the democrat is saying social security, entitlements have to be on the table. the republican is saying wref knew has to be on the table. everybody knows both sides have to back off their extreme position. >> but they're two of six senators who are meeting and they're trying to... but it's not... the white house is not going go there going into an election and those new republicans in the house are not going to go there because they really have not wrapped their minds around it of what needs to get done. >> rose: this book is called "our haggadah." captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

a bipartisan group of senators, three democrats and three republicans, led by mark warner and saxby chambliss, have been working on. that's what we should be doing. but we shouldn't be threatening to close the government. i don't think we should be threatening to close the government under any circumstances, but certainly not when the economics are as thin as that. and i know there are people, and it's not all republicans, there's some people in the house that, you know, just feel like the social issues that they've attached to this piece of budget legislation are somehow more important than keeping the government open. or that litigating those issues in the context of trying to keep the government open is the right thing to do. i disagree. i think they should have a hearing. i think that we ought to have a floor discussion about what we want to do with women's reproductive health or the other issue as that are there. i'm glad to have that debate. but don't threaten to shut the government down based on that. and so i will say again, as i said the other night, that i encourage the leaders of b

i wrote a column in t"new york times" about saxby clam chambliss but i give him credit because he and and the gang of six in the senate are willing to use the word taxes in talking about the deficit. we have to have a way that includes taxes and spending cuts some the problem. host: we will get to phone calls in a moment and you can send us an e-mail. or join the conversation online at twitter.com/cspanwj. i want to go back to something that is on the website at politico called d.c. is angry at the budget deal and president obama. there is a related story below the fold in the "washington post" c. right opponents to obama what gives? president obama's arrival two years ago inconspired un-abashed optimism in the district who yearned for their quest for statehood. it says they are disappointed. . they are. as aesident of washington, d.c. i'm disappointed. what you don't want to have happen is 600,000 or 700,000 be us as bargaining chip on capitol hill. the people who live in washington ought it be able it decide their fate and apparently that is not the case the way things work in washi

that we have today could be named, and their names are tom coburn, dick durbin, mark warner, saxby chambliss, mike crapo and kent conrad. those few have been meeting for weeks, even months, to try to come up with a comprehensive budget agreement based on the blueprint that the debt commission has given us. i would say that these six senators, they're not politicians. they're states mern. they're trying to do what's right for the country. they're trying to $what's in the country's best interest, not their own best interest. i can guarantee you, each one of the six will face tremendous criticism from their own parties and from other quarters about what they're trying to do. to me that's courage, to me that's leadership, to me that's what's being a senator -- that's what being a senator all about. right now i know there's six of them meeting. i know at some point once they come out and once they're ready to announce what they want to do, many others will join that effort. but i think that we need to cheer them on and encourage them to finish this very hard task that they've begun. i'm reminded

i wrote a column in t"new york times" about saxby clam chambliss but i give him credit because he and co-burn and the gang of six in the senate are willing to use the word taxes in talking about the deficit. we have to have a way that includes taxes and spending cuts some the problem. host: we will get to phone calls in a moment and you can send us an e-mail. or join the conversation online at twitter.com/cspanwj. i want to go back to something that is on the website at politico called d.c. is angry at the budget deal and president obama. there is a related story below the fold in the "washington post" d.c. right opponents to obama what gives? president obama's arrival two years ago inconspired un-abashed optimism in the district who yearned for their quest for statehood. it says they are disappointed. . they are. as a resident of washington, d.c. i'm disappointed. what you don't want to have happen is 600,000 or 700,000 be used as bargaining chip on capitol hill. the people who live in washington ought it be able it decide their fate and apparently that is not the case the way things

i wrote a column in t"new york times" about saxby clam chambliss but i give him credit because he and co-burn and the gang of six in the senate are willing to use the word taxes in talking about the deficit. we have to have a way that includes taxes and spending cuts some the problem. host: we will get to phone calls in a moment and you can send us an e-mail. or join the conversation online at twitter.com/cspanwj. i want to go back to something that is on the website at politico called d.c. is angry at the budget deal and president obama. there is a related story below the fold in the "washington post" d.c. right opponents to obama what gives? president obama's arrival two years ago inconspired un-abashed optimism in the district who yearned for their quest for statehood. it says they are disappointed. . they are. as a resident of washington, d.c. i'm disappointed. what you don't want to have happen is 600,000 or 700,000 be used as bargaining chip on capitol hill. the people who live in washington ought it be able it decide their fate and apparently that is not the case the way things