>> you can say that. kristen welker is live for us at the white house this morning. we do know, kristen, that technically the heat is on, coming from all directions there. where do we stand right now as the white house is speaking, has it done anything to calm the president's base when it comes to these negotiations? >> reporter: hi there, thomas. even though white house speaker boehner denying these reports that they are getting close to a deal, there certainly is a lot of chatter around here about a potential big deal, something that would reduce the deficit by $3 to $4 trillion over the next decade and under that plan you would see some cuts to discretionary spending right up front. then changes to entitlements, things like medicare and social security kick in a little later and also some changes to the tax code that would kick in later, things like rolling back tax breaks for wealthy americans and large corporations. now we're also hearing about the possibility of getting rid of that deduction for home mortgage interest. here's what's interesting, thomas. to your point earlier in the week, republicans were really