this is debt ceiling cliff and approaching much faster than we previously thought, specifically around february 15th. the government can not borrow anymore money. the treasury is moving money around to make sure it can pay its bills. it runs out of the ability to pay all the bills right around february 15th according to this bipartisan group. at that point we run out of money and the government has to start prioritizing who it will pay and who it will not pay. bill: some in washington argue it is a head fake. it is a kind of a sexy headline. the u.s. government takes in tax receipts and that money will pay its bills. that s right. it is not true to say america defaults on february 15th or whatever the date is because tax money is still coming in. when the government has to do when the cliff arrives is decide who gets paid and who does not. they have to pay the interest on the debt. have to pay out
cnn congressional correspondent kate bolduan joins us now from capitol hill, what is the latest? reporter: you know the cbo numbers, the congressional budget office, jessica, this office that scores, gives a cost estimate, for legislation, it s very critical, and this evening it came out the cbo brought out gave out its estimate, and it says that the speaker boehner s bill falls short of what its target was. it says that it would only reduce the deficit by $850 billion, rather than the more than a trillion dollars than the legislation said it was going to said it was going to. here s why it s such a big problem. because of speaker boehner, he said there s one major principle, you ll remember, jessica, as they moved forward to raise the debt ceiling, that the amount of the cuts be greater than the amount they raised the debt ceiling. and in this legislation right now is called for raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion, $850 billion, is less than $900 billion, so know
you isle ask the former pakistani president musharraf in he knew osama bin laden was hiding in his homeland and if he knows terrorists may be holed up in pakistan right now. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. first, a powerful reminder today, if they don t reach an agreement in the next 11 days, all hell could brea look. standard & poor s is warning the nation could be shoved back into recession very soon after the august 2i deadline passes with the clock ticking and stakes rising, our own jessica yellin learned that leaders plan to meet this hour at the white house. we re learning a good deal more about where the talks stand. kate bolduan has the latest. what do you know? both sides, all sides are cautioning and stressing that there is no deal. we are learning that president obama and house speaker john boehner are making a fresh drive to strive for one maybe last effort on this some of the ideas could include $3 trillion in debt reduction. that could includ
some serious concessions from democrats. we have over $50 trillion in unfunded liabilities. all of them are unsustainable. we need to raise the debt ceiling both short term, medium term and long term. that s what it would take to get my vote. will cain is a cnn contributor. secretary geithner said not raising the debt ceiling would be catastrophic for the economy. he concedes no one knows for certain in the event that it s not raised. are republicans willing to risk sending this fragile recovery that we re in into chaos to find out if they re right? no. but neither are democrats. let me tell you why i m so certain about this. the debt ceiling has been raised 74 times since 1962. second, the consequences for not raising the debt ceiling are dire and everyone knows it. i have my prop here. the issue is, if we don t raise the debt ceiling, the government cannot issue new debt. the problem is we take in 60 cents for every dollar we spent. we spend 40% more than we take in
topic in washington right now, and soon it will be at the center of a major fight on capitol hill. today key figures in the looming budget battle made their positions very clear. we re monitoring all of that live in washington. hi, peter. i want to ask you about treasury secretary geithner confident congress will pass to raise the debt ceiling before we default on our national debt. is that what you re hearing? very confident, jamie. secretary geithner did not mince his words, and wants to make it clear that he says congress will raise the debt ceiling, and he says if america defaults on its debt it will be a catastrophe. we d have to stop making payments to our seniors, medicaid, medicare, social security. we have to stop paying veterans benefits, paying all the other things the government does, and then we would risk default on our interest payments. if we did that, we d tip the