hammered with angry questions. egyptians take security into their own hands. even some children are armed with illegal guns. the revolution giving way to a wild west mentality. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. the united states is another day closer to a possible default on its debts. 19 days before the deadline there s no sign that political leaders are any closer to preventen an unprecedented and frightening train wreck. right now members of congress are in the fifth straight day of talks aimed at raising the debt limit. the frustrations and tempers have been laid bare. let s go to our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. she s over there with the latest. what do what do we expect from the negotiations? as you know, it s been 24 hours of extremely high tension with each side accusing the other of political posturing. now they re back to see if they can sal van these negotiations or if they have to move on to plan b, or maybe plan c. today w
now, not reducing it, just simply keeping it from growing just through spending cuts. we d have to cut our spending by 35%. that s about $1.2 trillion or basically our government s entire budget for discretionary spending, including defense. now to achieve the same goal of keeping our debt where it is, just through tax increases forget about spending cuts the government would need to take in 50% more in tax revenue. bottom line is, it seems to me that we have to do both. it is simply not feasible to seriously tackle our debt without both spending cuts an increasing revenue, though you ll continue to hear some conservatives say this is a spending problem, not a revenue problem. i know this, you know this. when is washington going to start reflecting this? well, i think under a couple scenarios. one, if we have a bond market crisis which is not necessarily likely but that would definitely inspire people to get busy negotiating and compromising. the other might be, if americans
new york city. dominique strauss-khan was arrested saturday for allegedly chasing a housekeeper through his luxury hotel suite naked and trying to force himself on her. let s go straight to richard roth who s been following today s developments. richard, bring us up to date. reporter: randi, the proceedings have just concluded and basically, dominique strauss-khan, the leader of the international monetary fund, has been charged with sexual assault on a maid in a new york hotel in times square on saturday. we re just now seeing and we just heard the formal charges so it is important i think to go through these. strauss-khan charged with two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of attempted rape in the first degree, one count of sexual abuse in the first degree, one count of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree. one count of forcible touching. one count of sexual abuse in the third degree. the top charge, criminal sexual act, carries with it a ma
problems. these should be actual cuts. real reforms to these programs, not broad deficit or deficit targets that punt the questions to the future. and with the exception of tax hikes which, in my opinion, will destroy america s jobs, everything is on the table. what serious conversation about debt reduction begins by absolutely taking the possibility or discussion of tax hikes off the table? not very many serious discussions. i remember when i was little, my dad took me to a car dealership, ali, and he said, this is how you buy a car. i remember they wrote numbers on a piece of paper and passed them across the table. my dad s number, i m sure, was absurdly low. that s the only explanation i can give with boehner, is saying a very low bid to hike tup later. that s why i look to guys like tom coburn who is a party of six. you can t question his opposition, he s conservative, but he understands reality. i hope you re right, and that s what some people around me at that s
you will continue to hear some conservatives say this is a spending problem, not a revenue problem. i know this, you know this. when is washington going to start reflecting this? well, i think under a couple scenarios. one, if we have a bond market crisis, which is not necessarily likely, but that would definitely inspire people to get busy negotiating and compromising. the other might be if americans stand up and say, you know what, i don t want a third of the federal budget cut. i want to have some of the federal budget cut, but i also am willing to pay a little bit more in taxes. there was members of the conference board. they basically said, look, neither party has the muscle or the public trust to push through a one-sided solution. they don t have the votes for it. so bipartisan solutions are mandatory. it s not an option. compromise shouldn t be seen as giving up, you know, or conceding too much. it seems like it does feel like that these days.