renegades as well. now, joan, isn t that really the problem that the leadership may do what is more politically sensible and they may not be in charge as we have seen in the last several confrontations where boehner would try to make a move that at least appeared more rational, not rational but appeared that way. and he couldn t even get that done because of as jared talks about the radicals that he has in his own caucus. oh, yeah. jared s absolutely right. we shouldn t act like this danger is passed. because, you know, john boehner can t do whatever he wants. he lives in fear of his far right. he sacrificed a lot to get a solution to the fiscal cliff problem. clearly that vote, reverend al, did show us that there is a potential. there are numbers in the house if you use most democrats to do sensible things. and the question is always can the speaker bring around could he bring 85 people back to
reporter: it s not just the military itself that will take a hit, also the defense industry, defense contractors, private companies that do work for the pentagon. one democratic congressman in northern virginia whose district maybe hit the hardest by all of this says it could mean layoffs. the large defense contractors will probably be okay, they have significant cash reserves, most of them. the smaller contractors would have trouble getting their lines of credit extended, trouble keeping their employees, if they can t be assured of continued employment. reporter: congressman moran says if we go over the cliff, which he thinks we will, then the impact and severity of the automatic defense spending cuts depend how long they are in place into the new year before congress finally fixes this fiscal cliff problem. gregg: molly henneberg. these cuts were never expected to be enacted, were they? reporter: right, during the budget battle of 2011, remember that super committee they were
until the election is held in 2014. and the president is returning to washington as the treasury secretary warns the country is not in a good place when it comes to the national debt. timothy geithner says the government may hit its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit on monday. the president will hear about the fiscal cliff problem as well as members of congress return to washington to address the fiscal cliff. talks will take place behind closed doors. no public negotiations set. you have the debt and the fiscal cliff. it s not looking too good right now when it comes to the u.s. economy. geithner told congressional leaders that his department is using some accounting measures basically a fancy way of saying they re going to try to free up some cash to hold off, temporarily, this fiscal cliff. but it s still not looking good. i don t know about you at home, but kicking the can down the road, this has been happening over and over again. somebody has to make some tough decisions here.
what a welcome. he will serve in the senate until the election is held in 2014. and the president is returning to washington as the treasury secretary warns the country is not in a good place when it comes to the national debt. timothy geithner says the government may hit its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit on monday. the president will hear about the fiscal cliff problem as well as members of congress return to washington to address the fiscal cliff. talks will take place behind closed doors. no public negotiations set. you have the debt and the fiscal cliff. it s not looking too good right now when it comes to the u.s. economy. geithner told congressional leaders that his department is using some accounting measures basically a fancy way of saying they re going to try to free up some cash to hold off, temporarily, this fiscal cliff. but it s still not looking good. i don t know about you at home, but kicking the can down the road, this has been happening over and over again. someb
on? could you guys have fashioned a plan that you could have lived with? perhaps, perhaps. but that hasn t been the case in the last two years. it s usually john boehner dive left and conservatives on the outside and at the end of the day, they d call the democrats and say we ll get the votes to piece that together. we have to look at what the problem is, and that s what conservatives have been saying, my constituents are saying. there s the problem. it s not a taxing problem. it s a spending problem. but i ll tell you, both sides, both the speaker and certainly harry reid, if he ever comes back to negotiations. yesterday he said he was going to leave town and not do anything. and the president they re not talking about spending cuts now. all their spending cuts proposals are three, four, five years down the line. we ve got a fiscal cliff problem, but we actually have a fiscal abyss problem with all these entitlements coming, and that s the best thing john boehner s been doing, tal