we pay our bills, whether we left the debt ceiling, suspend it. we can t default. what the problem solvers have said, we have to deal with our debt and deficit issues and be responsible. this can t be looking at tomorrow. it has to be looking down the road. neil: thanks, gentlemen. we re tight for time here. democrats now are speaking on this. hakeem jefferys, the house minority leader made some ways with progressives that he was open to a spending freeze. let s listen in. that is fiscal responsibility? but yet three times house democrats worked with the trump administration without gamesmanship, partisanship, brinksmanship to make sure that america did not default and that we paid our bills. so why are things different right now? why are house republicans being so unreasonable and so extreme?
exceptions for things like veteran benefits and and defense. the gap still remains. the two sides are working. the white house says that mccarthy is working in good faith. that s not what is being echoed by house democrats. pete aguillar said that kevin mccarthy is beholden to the most extreme members of his conference. hakeem jefferys spent the day slamming maga republicans for dangerous default gamesmanship. is jeffries speaking for the party? he s the leader of the democratic caucus. there s a bit of a divide between the rhetoric that he s using and the rhetoric out of the white house. multiple things can happen at the same time. clearly leader jeffries is a partner in this, has been a partner as well as leader schumer. that will continue. karine jean-pierre rejected the idea that a discharge petition that jeffries is pushing signals that house
the president cannot pass his proposal out of the u.s. senate. if he could, chuck schumer would do it. that is why he has to have an agreement with speaker mccarthy. let s get the job done. trace: all right. we might have gotten a first sign among the democrats, hakeem jefferys that said he s somewhat open to a spending freeze. he s caught hell from progressives a couple of your members that said the president s plan is worth looking at with or without the tax increases that you alluded to. does that form the mild ground, chairman? i don t want you to give away negotiations. seems like that indicates a democrat willing to do something republicans want, a republican open to something that democrats want. what do you think? yeah, i think that whenever you have negotiations, you have to meet somewhere in the middle.
i hope nobody, nobody draws red lines in the sand. but there s now optimism that the sides can reach a deal even with the president overseas and the senate in recess next week. we know how this will be. there s going to be a deal. there s no use blowing it up and not having the president to go to australia. it s silly. find the middle ground and get on with it. i ll leave it up to the president s judgment. hakeem jefferys today advocated that his members sign a discharge petition. they could go around the speaker and put a debt ceiling bill on the floor if they get 218 votes. but gop members are not expected to sign. neil? neil: bottom line, chad, even if they strike a deal this hour, there s a process to go through. that takes time, right? it would probably take through the weekend to get this in to legislative form.
you ll know it when you see it. what that means is that we ll not sacrifice or values. they ll probably not sacrifice their values but we ll have to come together on something that can avoid default. default is a disaster. full stop. everyone understood that in the room. i was glad to see that everyone understood what a disaster default was. are you closer the a deal today than a week ago? yes. it was as the leader said, it was a much more cordial meeting. there were honest and real discussions about differences that we have on a whole variety of issues. it was all respectful. that was a good sign as well. okay. you want to say one thing? i know this is new for you. but if both of you could speak to the challenge. our commander-in-chief is a tough negotiator. president biden has done an