today went to above $15 trillion. and we ll keep wracking up the iou s they tell us, until our leaders in washington figure out how to stop spending tax money than the government takes in. those lawmakers supposed to be reaching a compromise to reduce the federal budget deficit are still far apart on the i they tell us one week before the deadline for the so-called super committee to vote on a deal. i am still hopeful that the republicans will see their way to bringing to us a real revenue package and that s what all of us are looking for in terms of fair and balanced. with respect to my democratic colleagues, i want to make it very clear, these are honorable people, these are good people, i believe they have negotiated in good faith. but what i get to see is a plan that fundamentally solves the problem. shepard: now the lawmakers are scrambling to figure out what to do if the committee can t decide on painful cuts or tax increases. mike emanuel is live on
get ready to announce something we hope. reporter: well they are. the left is hitting democrats who are even thinking about touching medicare. moveon.org is running ads going after democrats if they even think about up toing that entitlement. from the right you have got the tea party saying 1.2 trillion? let s try 9.7 trillion. the mood here on capitol hill is getting very, very pessimistic. here s the democratic co-chair s view. i m still hopeful that the republicans will see their way to bringing to us a real revenue package and that is what all of us are looking for in terms of fair and balanced. reporter: translation of fair and balanced in this regard is essentially the democrats are saying we want the republicans to offer up more new tax revenue. republicans say, no deal. they say if we were to offer up a bunch of new tax revenue it would never pass the house of representatives. so there you are with this dilemma, jon. jon: and the clock is still