i'll ask former senate majority leaderertrent lott and tom daschle if it's even possible. to break through today's p partisan paralysis. their take on the debt showdown and the path forward next. anananthis...is the network. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advanced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪ but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >>> well, i think the best thing we can do is to work together to try to seek a common agenda.

. >> senate minority leader, tom daschle, democrat, south dakota, former senator. "precisely the sort of well- coiffed nonentity who passes for a wise man in washington, d.c." nonentity? >> yes, i'd say so. let me put it this way. a couple years ago i read a piece called "the league of undistinguished gentlemen" about the senate, and tom daschle had a long record of service, does anybody really miss him? in the end he was just a time- passer and he wasn't even a big enough presence for the obama administration to fight for him to be their secretary of health and human services. i don't necessarily mean it as an insult to him or to the senate but let's face it, most of our elected officials even in the world's greatest deliberative chamber are interchangeable. >> you wrote this. "in a world where our choices aren't limited to john boehner and nancy pelosi, the survivors envy the dead." >> yes, i think that's true. >> and explain that? >> what "the declaration of independents" is about is how throughout virtually every aspect of our lives we are seeing greater indivi

water control board sign -- tom daschle regulators say contractors failed to cover routine practices and used straw veils to prevent dirty water from reaching the storm drains. >> >> as we close in on an unprecedented default, see preparations california has made to try to deal with. >> >> take a look at this, origins of this colorful jelly fish and where this run turned out . >> new video shows a dramatic cliff rescue. a man and a woman posing for picture along the side of highway 1, a mile south of stepson beach when they both slipped and fell 150 feet down the cliff base. rescue teams, as you see here this these pictures used a helicopter to pull the couple to safety. the man was air-lifted to john muir hospital in walnut creek. the woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital. their identities and conditions have not been released. >> >> uncertainty over the debt limit has people worried. sacramento state leaders prepare for the worst. >> >> reporter: no 1 knows exactly what will happen on august 3rd. but, just in case federal funds stop flowing to the states, california has borr

their guilt but skeptics say hail cycle me is on which hunt to score political points off he's tom daschle reports now on what's being seen as anti russian hype. georgia is on a spying roll and not for the first time this time the spotlight being shined on those usually behind the camera for photographers were arrested on thursday on suspicion of spying but who was that supposed it must but first georgian authorities didn't say who they thought the alleged spies were working for but a day later they did russia into the moscow has accused georgia of power knowing the judges are so quick to stick a splash into anyone i guess is just a level of democracy and that has been noticed not just by russia but by various key international organizations like the un one of the photographers was released without charge the other three were charged with espionage and will remain in pretrial custody for two months one of them has gone on hunger strike in protest. however georgian president mikheil saakashvili his personal photographer has reportedly made a video confession admitting to spying for russia o

he's the former senate majority leader, tom daschle. he's a democrat.d states actually has enough revenue for the month of august to pay the interest on its debts and to stave off a default. but here comes the key bit. the country would have to slash spending radically. let's crunch the numbers now. the united states is likely to get about 170 to $3.2 billion in federal tax revenues in the month of august. what it has to do is balance it against this amount. this is about $306.7 billion worth of as yet unauthorized spending. to get to those two figures, what you have to do is cut spending by no less than 44%. then if we move along and take a look at exactly where the cuts may come, this is what you see. as you can see, the united states will have to be spending about $29 billion on interest to make sure that it keeps that costed aaa rating. it will have to pay the interest on its bonds to form a default and next comes the next big check. we've got social security amounting to no less than $42.9 billion in total. next is medicare and medicaid. those are

george mitchell was being honored in washington by tom daschle. in six years as majority leader he and bob dole never agreed on everything, but they never had a cross word in public or private. six years of working together majority leader, minority leader. >> and we raised the debt ceiling in those days with only democratic votes. when it was his turn, when he was in the leadership to raise the debt ceiling, he would raise the debt ceiling. >> lawrence, we'll have much or on all of this on "last word." thank you for being here. "last word" every night at 8:00. >>> why is mitt romney in ohio today? the presumed 2012 republican front runner is outside columbus, ohio, today, not iowa, not new hampshire. he'sç talking jobs. we're talking jobs today, we're talking ohio. but what is the strategy here? >> well, look, the campaign will tell you this is an intentional strategy. they say they're not ignoring the early states but they're trying to run a national campaign versus president obama. they want to make fast in swing states in. they've been moved

tom daschle, before he was thought about as secretary of health and human services, wrote a book as majorityin the senate. i sat around any number of budget reconciliation bills where you get a group lawmakers, members of the house and senate, citing health care minutia that decisions about how doctors and hospitals and nurses should be paid, that should they pay in 15-minute increments? you get the feeling that these are members of congress making rather medical decisions about how people should be paid. they are making these decisions behind closed doors, but are coming out and telling us reporters that we should not be making these kinds of decisions, people who are more expert than we should be making these kinds of decisions. their lobbyists, and they are trying to get them to do one thing or another, and they are uncomfortable with making these decisions. they wish that there were people more expert in health policy making them. part of the motivation is that, and the idea behind ipab is that these will be experts in health policy. one person's bureaucrat is another person's expert. th

tom daschle, before he was thought about as secretary of health and human services, wrote a book as majority leader in the senate. i sat around any number of budget reconciliation bills where you get a group lawmakers, members of the house and senate, citing health care minutia that decisions about how doctors and hospitals and nurses should be paid, that should they pay in 15-minute increments? you get the feeling that these are members of congress making rather medical decisions about how people should be paid. they are making these decisions behind closed doors, but are coming out and telling us reporters that we should not be making these kinds of decisions, people who are more expert than we should be making these kinds of decisions. their lobbyists, and they are trying to get them to do one thing or another, and they are uncomfortable with making these decisions. they wis that there were people more expert in health policy making them. part of the motivation is that, and the idea behind ipab is that these will be experts in health policy. one person's bureaucrat is another person's exp