senate. the speaker understands that the senate understands that that s why, as you heard yesterday, the leaders have come together to try to figure out today what type of arrangement is going to work. get through both houses, that the president can sign. chris: how do you think the markets will react in asia starting this afternoon in the united states starting tomorrow morning if, at the end of this day, at the end of another weekend, there is no plan at all? you know, you can t ever tell what markets will do. so far confident america is going to do the right thing. chris: it will run out at some point. very close now to the deadline. and the longer the politicians take it, the more risk people start to look at us and they start to wonder whether this place can work again. it s important that the leaders demonstrate that they can find a way to make the compromises necessary to make this work. i want to ask you about one specific part of the negotiations up to this moment. s
we do not have the ability, chris, to protect the american people the american people from the consequences of congress not taking that action. chris: president said you have discussed what adjustments will have to be made. just remember, this is the united states of the america. we have write 80 million checks a month. there are millions and millions of americans that depend on those checks coming on time. not just people that supply our military but people who get social security benefits. medicare and medicaid benefits. we cannot put those payments at risk. we can doo not have the ability to limit the damage on them if congress fails to act in time. chris: it made more sense when you said it in i april than when you said it in july. what s your plan? it would be irresponsible to have a plan. the president says you have a plan. what is it. do everything we can to mitigate the damage. i want to be clear. congress will be putting 80 million checks payments at risk of delay and
involved in all of that political sniping. i m looking at the solution. to the problem that we face. i don t want to see default. i don t frankly want to get anywhere close to. chris: you are close to it? we are bad for our economy and bad for our country. i m trying to find a common ground that s doable in the time that we have remaining. chris: let me ask you and that s the last question, sir. how disappointed are you. according to the plan we understand now and it may change trillion dollars in spending cuts in the short-term. how disappointed are you that after months of talking after this urgent deadline that it seems now that maybe the most that washington can come up with when you are going to spend $46 trillion over the next decade is $1 trillion in spending? after over six months, conversations with the president, about doing the big deal, about taking a big step in the right direction, it s pretty clear to me that they are just not willing to do it.
for more cuts that if approved the debt ceiling would be raised past the 2012 election. will the president sign that into law? chris, let me tell you what we are trying to do what the president is trying to do is first and most important we have to lift this threat of default from the economy, you know, nor for the next 18 months. we have to take that threat off the table through the election. but we also want to try to make sure we come together and make some tough choices, lock in some long-term savings to help get our fiscal house in order. we need to do both those two things so the congress can get back to the business to make the economy stronger and get more americans back to work. chris: so for lack of a better word i will call it the boehner plan, would the president veto that. again, let me step back for one second. there is two types of plans on the table now. one is the framework that the president and the speaker of the house had been talking about for the last severa
trillion dollars in spending right away and raise the debt ceiling into early next year. then there would be a mechanism for more cuts that if approved the debt ceiling would be raised past the 2012 election. will the president sign that into law? chris, let me tell you what we are trying to do what the president is trying to do is first and most important we have to lift this threat of default from the economy, you know, nor for the next 18 months. we have to take that threat off the table through the election. but we also want to try to make sure we come together and make some tough choices, lock in some long-term savings to help get our fiscal house in order. we need to do both those two things so the congress can get back to the business to make the economy stronger and get more americans back to work. chris: so for lack of a better word i will call it the boehner plan, would the president veto that. again, let me step back for one second. there is two types of plans on the t