he believes a comprehensive deal could be reached but he seems to be acknowledging for scaled back plan for cutting taxes on the middle-class. even though democrats and republicans are arguing about whether those rates should go up for the wealthiest individuals, all of us, every single one of us agree that tax rates shouldn t go up for the other 98% of americans which includes 97% of small business. reporter: president said the middle-class tax cuts achievable in the next ten days and he wants to preserve unemployment benefits that is set to expire for two million americans. gregg: steve, thanks. heather: what would it mean if lawmakers fail to sfreiblg a deal? 90% of americans would see a tax hike in 2013. 121 million people will be paying more in payroll taxes and families making between
problem connecting here. you are listening and you got the sense he was waiting for me to finish so they could say something back is. look. we know in our business in government, in anything personal relationships matter. he has got this distance from everyone. and he hasn t been that relationship with his party leaders. harry reid has to go into the oval office with his chief of staff to make a point to the president that on these negotiations, they didn t have a follow back plan. president obama had the chance to attack the debt with the simpson-boles commission. how did that break down? how did president obama push away from a commission that he was looking from? two months ago when i interviewed the president for the book i asked him about that,
allow the president to raise a debt ceiling and avert crisis. a vote on that could happen this week. the fallback plan would likely pass the democrat-controlled senate but face a bigger challenge in the house where republicans hold the majority. let s get the latest with brianna keilar. are we any closer to a deal? on a deficit reduction plan, kyra, it doesn t appear so. no announced meetings between the white house and congressional leaders over the weekend, there were staff-level meetings and a lot of focus has to do with this fallback plan you mentioned. it s sort of the brainchild of the center republican leader, mitch mcconnell, working out some details with the senate majority leader harry reid. essentially, it would give the president for all practical purposes the ability to increase the debt ceiling with really just a minority of support from congress. it would allow congress to voice its disapproval and this is something that the president would have to do in thre