this is a live picture of the u.s. capital building where no doubt aides are burning the midnight oil. as we ve been telling you, democrats and republicans in the u.s. congress are battling down to the wire over a bill to fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year. but there s still no agreement and the clock is ticking towards a partial government shutdown at midnight on friday night. maggie lake took to the streets to find out what ordinary americans would do if they had to tackle the budget deficit. reporter: politicians in washington are squabbling over how to deal with the enormous deficit problem facing the u.s. we have got to solve the debt crisis in this country. they want to just use a meat ax and cut everything. reporter: neither side can agree on how to best balance the books. so we decided to talk to ordinary working people to see if they could lend a hand. we started with recommendations from the republican senator from oklahoma, tom coburn. $200,000 to
sidep on this budget debate. the chairman of the house republican policy committee and a member of the tea party caucus, congressman tom price of georgia joins us now. thanks for being with us. hey, ali. great to be with you. senator schumer says they want to use a scalpel to deal with this budget. you guys want to use a meat ax. now the fact of the matter is, their scalpel would keep us on the path to bankruptcy that we re currently on. we believe and the american people understand that clearly that it s time to get on the path to prosperity and you need fundamental reform which is why our budget this week, that we will lay out, which is our vision for the future, will address the spending issues, will significantly change the way washington does business. the american people know and their families, they have to balance their budgets. washington should do the same. we have to enact pro-growth policies. hold on. congressman price, i get where you re coming from. i think the amer
cut everything and they re losing ground. that poll, your cnn poll, which showed 32% of the people like the tea party, showed 47% don t like the tea party. it depends on which party you re talking about. no. 47%, as i understand it in your poll of a week or two ago, said they don t like the tea party, and those numbers are going up. and that s because not because they want cuts. the american people wants cuts. we want cuts. $33 billion is a lot of cuts. but you can t cut your seed corn as well. the kinds of things the bottom line, there s so much, this isn t a fault of either party, this is the system, so much untouchable in the budget. the social programs that make up a huge chunk of the budget and the interest on our debt, you re cutting around. this is a good point. we want to one of the things that i talked about, gave a speech about this a few weeks ago and now is right on the table, is not just to look at the 12% of the budget that s
starting point? i m anxious to see congressman ryan s plan. my understanding is he will do all of these things and not look at defense spending, not look at major tax reform that would raise revenues. i don t know how you get there without taking basically a meat ax to those programs that protect the most vulnerable in the country. i ll give anybody the budget of the doubt until i look at it. i think you have to put everything there, including defense spending and tax reform. is there tax revenue would you look at to say, yeah, i think we can gain more revenue by raising this tax? we can t raise taxes enough to close this deficit or pay off this debt. no, you can t. you can t cut spending enough. we need to look at everything on the table. the reason why congressman ryan is leading with this budget proposal is because the president refuses to lead and so republicans and the house will have to lead. the political strategy is clear.
of cuts in medicaid. giving them block grants, rather than paying per person. rollout spending, cut corporate tax rates, but close loopholes and make permanent bush tax cuts. starting point? i think, candy, i m rank shouse to see congressman ryan s plan. my understanding is he will do all of these things and not look at defense spending, not look at major tax reform that would raise revenues. i don t know how you get there without taking basically a meat ax to those programs that protect the most vulnerable in the country. i ll give anybody the budget of the doubt until i look at it. i think you have to put everything there, including defense spending and tax reform. is there tax revenue would you look at to say, yeah, i think we can gain more revenue by raising this tax? we can t raise taxes enough