savings by november. >> jon: supercommittee this is the supercommittee, right next, these guise, likeessman only without actually being cool or having superpower. it is like eight hawkeyes is really what it is like. it's just like a guy like oh, i can shoot a bow and arrow. oh, whatter, katniss. truly it was an extraordinary moment of bipartisan cooperation in washington capped off by that "time" magazine cover that john boehner and harry reid posed for. dwra, try and sleep tonight. >> orange fanta. >> anyway, here is the best part to. make sure that the supercommittee succeeded in being able to cut, they put a poison pill in the debt ceiling deal. >> there is a provision in this bill, a trigger, if you will, that if this newly formed supercommittee can't come up with 1.5 trillion in cuts, it triggers very, very deep cuts in defense and medicare. >> jon: the ultimate incentive, each side taking deep cuts to something it does not want to cut. essentially joining a joint suicide pact. well, that's got to work. >> so the called supercommittee failed to reach a deal to reduce the country'

the supercommittee got close, but didn't quite get there. the pieces are all known. we're not inventing new things. this could be the chance to do it. if congress doesn't act, then we will have i think an economic catastrophe which will force the next congress to do something. if everybody's taxes go up, if you start cutting spending mindlessly across the board that will be a super wake up call, but, we ought to have the good sense to avoid it. >> i think the action forcing events that you talk about are going to require action sometime before the end of the year. we need a medium and long-term plan to set the country on a more fiscally sustainable path. i'm optimistic the congress will rise to the challenge whenever it might be to be able to do that. >> a very bad way to run a government. absolutely terrible. i don't think we have a choice right now. if the grand bargain could come together in a lame duck session that would be better. i just don't think it's feasible. and it is feasible to do a framework which says we're going to do these kinds of things to entitlem

to the defense department last earlier it was last fall they agreed this thing you know if the supercommittee quack quack quack they said fine we'll do this house senate both now they want to read litigate this and not only that they want to pull three hundred seventy five seventy nine million billion dollars out of unemployment benefits food stamp programs and health insurance programs for working class and poor people in the united states in order to keep funding level or even raise funding for the millionaires and billionaires in the defense industry they want to know more they want to build more mansions in virginia so that and take the money out of the out of the mouths of and then the poor people do include giving tax benefits to illegal immigrants i mean they're cutting those back as well this is the argument that republicans continue continue to make every time they make these smokescreen argument like dick cheney would say it's a smokescreen oh there's a one or the one the one little bit that happens the qualifying for a tax credit means we shouldn't give tax credits middle class and

of course, the supercommittee really thought through a lot of this.t's why i'm sort of optimistic. when i talk with members of the supercommittee, it was clear that they had learned the pieces that you'd have to put together. so i think after the election, given six months' time, there's a good chance that they could find some compromise. obviously it depends on the outcome of the election. >> marty, i want to get your take on something the president said the other day. are businesses doing their part in all of this, do you think? president obama criticized private equity's role this week, just yesterday. listen in and tell me what you think. >> there are folks who do good work in that area and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries. but understand that their priority is to maximize profits. and that's not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers. >> what do you think about that? >> businesses are there to maximize profits for their shareholders. that's what they sh

the same reason they were dancing around in the supercommittee trying to have a mini reaustinrization that put another entitlement in it. these are not going to go gently into the night. i wish that my friend from kansas was prophetic. this isn't going to be easy. i've been around this block as has the chairman and it's going to be hand to hand combat and if you think there's going to be massive cuts in direct payment, magically when the reauthorization comes, when they can't even do a little bit in reconciliation, you're wrong. you're wrong. now, i'm all for job creation. my lord, that's why i spoke out against your proposal to cut transportation funding 46%. in this budget. there are lots of things that we could do that would put americans to work in a hurry. and i hope some day we do them. but concentrating the fire power on the most vulnerable is the best way to go. we're missing an opportunity to build the constituency for real reform and by all means, let's deal states gain the system. they game medicare. look at what's going on in louisiana. reimbursements are outrageous. but i

there was an opportunity maybe there was a little optimism, not a lot that the supercommittee was going to be able to find a grand bargain. obviously that hasn't happened. what would it take? what would it take to be able to reform taxes to have a tax code overhaul and at the same time not have major effects on the deficit? >> what will it take to have the grand bargain? well, it's going to take adopting the kind of framework that has been proposed by the bipartisan commission. a pathway has been laid out that says you've got to get here through this convince of increased revenue and some tough cuts including some reforms and modernization of the health programs. and as we started out the conversation with the action forcing events that we're going to see at the end of this year, i do think that has the potential for bringing the parties together. look, you had a lot of political gridlock. i think it's pretty clear when you have an overwhelming majority from one party that's actually signed a pledge the grover norquist pledge that says they won't allow one penny to go to debt reduction,

but we're 23, i want to make doggone sure that we're not below the 23 which was offered to the supercommittee sometime ago. so i think under the banner of caution and remarks by the distinguished chairman that we better -- and the senator from north dakota, you know, let's look at this. and let's work on it, but let's, you know, wait until the floor. >> debbie? >> senator? >> madam chairwoman, back here in the corner. i agree with that, i don't think there's anything wrong with being north of $23 billion in savings. i don't think we've got to spend it down to being 23. the score we have now or the score we got at $23.4 billion, i think speaks well for this committee that we went above what was actually sort of expected in terms of what we're going to save. so i appreciate the effort to find ways in which to cal interstate resources -- to allocate resources, but i think it's important as we head to the floor that we have a good, strong mark, and that we not compromise that or putting it in jeopardy by adding amendments until we find out what final scores are, could take us in the opposite dire

the reason they were supposed to be scared of the supercommittee not getting anything done is there wouldly large cuts to defense. we'll still spend more money on defense than the next 20 countries combined. the cuts they're proposing is a one-to-one dollar transfer from these programs to the military include eliminating the federal social services block grant which provides hundreds of millions of dollars for child care every year. removing 1.8 million people from the federal food stamp program or s.n.a.p. which cut the number of extremely poor children during the recession in half. it would cut 300,000 children from the rolls of the children's health program and the bill would remove another 280,000 children from low income families from the free school lunch program. democrats have introduced a bill called the pregnant workers fairness act which would require employers could make reasonable workplace accommodation for pregnant women. this won't get the cover of "time" magazine because it's not as sexy as breast-feeding until they're four in the mommy wars. >> the buffett rule, we heard

if the grand bargain fail and the supercommittee failed and things are only getting more polarized what's the hope for debt reduction? >> i always go back to that great winston churchill quote "you can always count on the americans to do the right thing afteafter they've tried everythg else." we've kind of tried everything else now. >> reporter: just like the rest of congress the members of the gang of eight are often divided so crafting legislation is a slow process, scott, especially when you consider that they are proposing leave nothing pocket of the federal government untouched by either cuts or reforms. >> pelley: interesting to hear warn err democrat and coburn a republican on the same page. nancy, thanks very much. the u.s. economy is showing new signs of life. the government reported today that production at america's factories rose .6% in april compared to the previous months and home construction in april was up 30% over the same month last year. a lawsuit aimed at stopping a tactic that police say the vital, the stop-and-frisk policy. a new tragedy for the kennedy family. and

the supercommittee failed.ian automatic budget cuts will go into effect as in $1.5 trillion to cuts in defense and entitlement programs. that was the deal but it wasn't. some democrats are furious that ryan is trying to get rid of these cuts. joining us now, democratic congressman peter welch of vermont. welcome, congressman. >> good to be with you. >> nice to have you here. you say that a deal is a deal. what do democrats plan to do? >> well, the republicans with this ryan plan are running from the agreement that they made. the supercommittee had a shot. they could put everything in the table and included revenues which would have softened the cuts both on the pentagon side and on the domestic side. they failed. but the agreement then was automatic cuts would go into effect when we get back to washington in january and half would come from the pentagon and half from domestic discretionary. there would be shared pain. is it realistic that you would fence off the pentagon and in fact break the deal, try to have

the supercommittee on which both of you sit didn't get the work done. so, let me ask the question. if you didn't have to worry about the political blow back from your own parties, and from public opinion how difficult would it be for the two of you to sit down and solve, come up with a solution that you think would be in the public interest and not violate your principle. >> how hard substantively. >> you could do it in 20 minutes. >> we just did it. look. first of all, it is more difficult than it was in 1997. or in 1990 or 1982. the fiscal hole that washington has dug is deeper. and for those who say let's just go back to what we did in '97, we h we had a growing economy. we don't have that now. we have both weak economic growth and increasing spending on the entitlement side particularly. it's a far higher level. 100% gdp ratio. hasn't been that way since world war ii and then it was defense spending that could be curtailed and we didn't have these long term of medicare and social security issues that we have now. medicare wasn't even in existence. so it's a different type of pr

and i think the failure of the supercommittee speaks ill for this time. boehner said on tuesday, we're not going to be doing these kinds of gimmicks this time, which means they need to come to some kind of an agreement. >> as you look at where we were last year, i guess to summarize what this president was saying, the president saying we're not going to go through this again this year, congress, you've got to resolve this. and the speaker of the house saying we're not going to raise the debt limits without rereforms and tangible budget cuts. neither said really had any longlasting harm with the debate last summer. >> i think they both did. the thing was that harm was pretty evenly dispersed stween them. what winds up happening, because the republicans got hurt and congress's brand got hurt, but the president also got hurt. it wound up being kind of a wash as far as elections go and both sides have a good shot at this year's election. i'm not sure either side learned a lesson becauthey have just as a chance as the other in whenning the election. people may

we did this previously with the supercommittee, and now we're doing it again. so in terms of deficit reduction, i think we're standing up to our responsibilities. let me repeat it. the senate ad committee draft add bill that voluntarily provided $24.7 billion in deficit reduction. we've eliminated four commodity programs, rolled them into one while saving approximateliy $15t disturbing the safety net. 23 streamline into 13 taving $6.4 billion. $4 billion saved in the nutrition title. 15 program authorizations are eliminated in the rural eliminating over $1 billion of spending ober ten years. two programs combined and yore two eliminated in special pi crops. $1.2 billion in mandatory money to discretionary and the energy title. five programs eliminated in forestry redicing authorizations by at leasts 20ds million and over 60 authorizations are eliminated from the research title reducing authorizations by at least $770 million over five years. madam chairman that is $24.7 billion. writing it in the press almost $25 billion and mandatory savings, at least $1.8 bil

we worked on the supercommittee. we came closer than the folks in the media would acknowledge that in the end we were rebuffed by a lot of different factors, but it's got to be a combination. growth side, more revenue. we got to get in tax reform, including as you know in the supercommittee, republican side put votes on the table, revenue as well. pro-growth action reform. been on the entitlement side we've got to do with this issue before it bankrupts the country. >> it seems to me the polls reflect this, you have a radicalized center. that is, independent moderates are just as anxious, just as frustrated with the status quo as we'll see on the left and the right where we are accustomed to seeing people being more extreme in their view. the last time we had that on this issue was the 1992 with ross perot running a third party candidate on this issue bring it front and center. it's things like the conditions are right. where is the ross perot this time? he seems to be nowhere along. >> i think a lot of independence a

>> the supercommittee. bill they would have cuts. are they going to get away with that.k about that and take your calls here at 1-866-55-press on the friday edition of the "full court press." we'll be right back. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. vaccinations save lives. >>we are very committed to the safety of our products. >>but are mandatory shots doing more harm than good? >>i see children injured every day. >>the controversy has gone viral. >>how many are being sacrificed? >>see "the greater good" on current tv. >>and while you watch, join the live chat at current.com/greatergood. >>our system is not working. >>there are always some risks. >>i don't think it's that back and white. the science is not there. >>only on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show" live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: 26 minutes afte

let me finish we all walked into this saying we will we will have to cuts here and cuts if the supercommittee cannot come to a deal we agreed to our part of the bargain the republican the fortunate want to renegotiate their part and now the americans have to suffer because they can't get anything done in washington they carry neg without bipartisan support so it's obviously not going to pass the senate it was only going to happen it shouldn't it wasn't it let's move on to speaking of republicans let's move on to mitt romney after the far why right religious wing of the party forced mitt romney into basically shutting up at all timidly pushing out arguably his foreign openly gay foreign policy advisor record now this bryan fischer had led that charge the american family association bryan fischer it's been a guest on this program a number of times. this is what bryan fischer had to say this is how he spike the football watch this. if mitt romney can be pushed around intimidated coerced co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in middle america then how is he going to stand up to the chin

the failures of last summer over the debt ceiling issue and the failure of the supercommittee ended upoth hurting the republican party and the president. and i suspect that a deal that is perceived as kicking the can down the road, in other words, not dealing with these problems, has sort of the same impact. >> simon johnson, what do you think will be the economic impact, the market uncertainty if we have to wait for this lame duck session, what's going to happen in markets during that period of time? >> i think a lot depends on europe really. the european situation is so bad and so out of control that remarkable though it may seem, the suggestion is becom-- the u.s. is becoming a stronger safe haven in recent weeks. now, a lack of agreement or some sort of really messy politics, political spectacle in december would certainly not help us. how could that possibly help us in the eyes of investors? but we may be the safest port in the some the. or -- in the storm. or we may be due for a round of market pressure ourselves. that's the danger of completely taking over the budget or saying,

i received a letter from the republican caucus sent to me under the supercommittee saying there coulde. >> the last thing you want to do is impose more taxes on the very people that you need to create the jobs. that is what allowing these automatic tax increases to go into effect would result in. i think that is one of the key reasons why the cbo is saying don't let that happen if you want to avoid a recession. >> the nonpartisan cbo, congressional budget office, had a report out this week that suggested that the economy will continue to slink. in fact, grow perhaps just by half a percent of the entire next year. if the bush era tax cuts are allowed to expire. and another round of tax cuts are allowed to expire january 1. and spending cuts, harsh spending cuts called the sequester stay in place. what about this? and the status of the economy as it stands now with this looming? bring in the panel. steve hayes, for "weekly standard." a.b. stoddard, associate editor of the hill. welcome back syndicated columnist charles krauthammer now. the e-mails can stop. charles, your thoughts? >> on

no supercommittee. nothing. >> gavin, are you seeing any of the fallout yet in california as cutbacks for chaos? >> i love these guys. always concerned about uncertainty. here's the ultimate manife manifestati manifestation. how can anyone be surprised. george to your point, they don't feel a bebackle. not only cost our bond rating but a lot of confidence. it cost the president and i think there's pure politics in this. his ratings dropped significantly during that debate. congress, generally speaking. it was very telling to see speaker boehner talk about those 88 frogs. >> laura, this is kind of a deliberate strategy to hurt president obama before the election. >> when i heard nancy pelosi say, it's time to look responsible. $15 trillion look mature? responsible? the debacle is the conversation about what to do with the debt. but it's not called a debacle by huge flaws of the political classes. whether pelosi's positioning herself here or boehner, it's beside the point. outside the confines of this stu

the supercommittee would have been more successful. the very intense, and i guess at certain times for a advanced talks between president obama and speaker boehner would have reached consensus. what's your -- >> if you're decided elite of members of congress. there is know leet consensus. there's very clear. it if you define elite as the chairman of the joint chief, who has said that our debt deficit is the greatest threat to the national security, if you define elites as leaders around the whole communities who understand budgets understand how to balance the budget, and understand what's not happening, and i think the real consensus is among the american people. i think they are out ahead of the leaders on this. the leaders need follow the people. they need follow them. >> what is your evidence for that? >> i would say ante-dotely when i go to campaigns. when i talk to people, in cafes or starbucks and talk about conversations when i'm coffering the presidential elections. s. people are worried. >> so worried you should cut my benefi

and then on top of that, the supercommittee -- the special committee, supercommittee, was supposed to find savings on the mandatory side of spending because if you eliminated all of the discretionary spending, we would still be running a decifit of about a half trillion dollars a year. so the real problem that we have to address is reforms in the mandatory spending programs. bill: let me just pick up on the point you're making. you say that troops make up 20 percent of our budget but they're going to pay 50 percent of the cuts. now, why would washington want that deal? >> well, a lot of us in washington don't. you know, if you keep trying to solve the decifit problem on the backs of our troops, who's going to have our backs the next time we're attacked? bill: secretary panetta says the house and folks like you are just inviting more gridlock. what do you say to that? >> no. we pass the dollars decifit reduction act which will take us on a glide path to start cutting our overall spending, on top of the $487 billion that we cut from defense already in this budget, we have another 5- $60

especially on the budget issues like boles simpson and the supercommittee did nothing. >> greta: nice >> mitt romney is issued a new challenge to president obama and he is not talking about a debate. debate. wait until you hear what kind last season was the gulf's best tourism season in years. in florida we had more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spotn the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. >> greta: you have seen our top stories but here is the best of the rest. governor mitt romney is taking the presidential race into unchartered waters and issuing an unusual challenge to president obama. >> i don't think i will play the president a round of golf but i will be happy to take him to a water ski course. we have different s

for the reform that have surfaced, the bowles/simpson commission the government ignored, the supercommitteeget it done. it's an imperative. we have not seen any leadership anywhere else take on these issues. seniors should be disturbed by that. >> i'm disturbed by these ads. it's almost like they feel like the rest of us are just stupid, to show someone throwing your grandma off a cliff, it's really rude. >> both sides have equally played the granny card in the past but going forward it is imperative that we change course. the status quo is dangerous to america. it's dangerous in the near term. we will see sharp tax increases. it's very different in the long term because we are going to see the debt explode. we'll have a downgrade fiscal crisis. >> we all know the issues, greg. we know that these tax cuts are expiring coupled with the spending that's going to be expiring as well. spending on infrastructure projects, on unemployment benefits, discretionary spending. why aren't we seeing the president come forward, take leadership and say, here are the real facts of what we're facing and here

we worked on the supercommittee. in the end, we were rebuffed by a lot of different factors. it has to be a combination. we need more revenue and we ought to get it in tax reform. on the entitlement side, we got to deal with this issue, but otherwise it's bankrupting the country. >> polls reflect you have a radicalized center, that independence, moderates are just as anxious and frustrated with the status quo as we see on the left on the right. where we are accustomed to seeing people be more extreme. the last time we had that on this issue was in 1992, when ross perot was running. it seems the conditions are right. where is the ross perot this time? >> dependence -- independents are wondering this. where is the person speaking our language, the people who knows what we are going through and is willing to take a step outside politics and try? i think people were thinking that there could be a third- party candidate, although the thinking was that if the nominee was romney there might be a third-party candidate to the right of romney. it is difficult to say. the parties are so

especially on the budget issues like boles simpson and the supercommittee did nothing. >> greta: nice >> mitt romney is issued a new challenge to president obama and he is not talking about a debate. wait until you hear what kind of contest he has in mind. also, texting and walking could get you in trouble in one town. is it your town? science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dlars into american education. that's thousands of ks learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool ♪ the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. ♪ spread a little love my way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ [ female announcer ] fresh milk and real cream makes philadelphia and the moment a little richer. >> greta: you have seen our top stories but here is the best of the rest. governor mitt romne

he was also a member of the supercommittee and someone intimately involved in the budget and spending issues up on capital hill. jodi, take it away. >> if we talk really fast we probably won't get through it so i will get started on december 31, 2001 and 2003 income tax cuts expire. the estate tax will rise to 35% to 55%. automatic reductions in spending will begin in january, and the alternative minimum tax, and as we all know as we just heard, the u.s. debt limit will probably run out in january. so, given all that, and the fact that congress had enough trouble finding $200 billion to extend its payroll tax cut this past year, what are the chances of congress addressing the so-called fiscal cliff before the end of this year? and what are the potential economic and fiscal implications and implications for the budget deficit of congress waiting? >> do you want me to lead off on that? all right. i heard passionate the previous panel said it was all gridlock on capitol hill. as to the first part of your question whether i think is a reasonable prospect of us resolving some of these majo

pat toomey in the supercommittee put revenue on the table. bowles-simpson put revenue on the table. the gang of six put revenue on the tabl the key is do you create a tax code that will, in fact, enhance investment which will grow our economy rather than use the tax code to take those decision makers who have capital now and make them not players in the economy. >> woodruff: you also write, senator, about what's happened in europe. you talk about the international welfare state, the collapse of that, the disincentives to work. now, what we've seen lately in europe is governments have reacted to that with these so-called austerity programs and now the voters are saying it's too much, it's too far. is austerity a sound economic policy? >> no, you have to have both. you have to incentivize growth but you have to have austerity. but my contention in our country is we don't have to have austerity, we just need to have common sense. when you have 47 different job training programs that we spend $19 billion a year on all but three of them overlap one another. there's no met trik say... as

the supercommittee didn't use the superpowers and failed and interestingly, when do you think we will face this again? no one thinks we will face this and sequester mr chamber for the election which is one of our points. you can't govern if you're thinking about the election all the time. >> let's go back because of where we are. the investments we can learn from history. you talk about the grand compromise and constitutional convention 1787, slavery compromise, unequal representation compromise which were not necessarily that brand. also you cite some of the rules that helped achieve the compromise, one of which was mutual respect. no walking around or talking. translate that to the current house floor on any given day or the senate and you could almost say no talking. [talking over each other] >> little things can make a big difference. there were some small rules of respect and when of the features of the compromise mindsets was mutual respect and you don't have to agree with people to respect them. tip o'neill and ronald reagan were fierce opponents but when it came to governing t