shutdown. do you think it will happen, though? there are some house republicans in particular who say maybe that s what we need to do. because congress is a crisis activated constitution. maybe we need to have a crisis. i think you ll see a shorter stopgap measure to get to the next stopgap measure until they can figure out what they want to do. a loot of inching along. absolutely. house republicans have targeted $61 billion in cuts from different current programs in the budget, but what specifically is on the the chopping block? cnn s lisa sylvester has that part of the story for us. house republicans are proposing cuts to some programs that are very popular, particularly among liberals. topping the list is a americorps. they also wan to cut funding if
an adult conversation to invest social security in wall street. we have to have an adult conversation about how to get rid of the debt. it s time for us americans to have an adult conversation with us about the serious challenges facing our country. my hope is that what is different this time is that we have an adult conversation where everybody says here s what here s what s important and here s how we re going to pay for it. donna, i ll start with you because the president began the conversation by presenting his budget and talking about it today, but his conversation didn t include tackling the debt with medicare, medicaid or social security. is there a plan? first of all, i want to let you know that i m proud to be part of the best adult team in american politics. look, the president has put forward a responsible balanced approach to cutting the deficit while still keeping his eye on the number one goal i think of
struggling to deal with the fiscal crisis at home and dramatic change abroad, while pleading patience in both cases. let s face it. you guys are pretty impatient. if something doesn t happen today, then the assumption is it s just not going to happen, right? reporter: the president insisted he s confident there will be a deal with republicans on deep budget cuts to avoid a government shutdown. even though he continued to be vague on the details, about big-ticket items like social security and medicare. what i ve said is that if you look at the history of how these deals get done, typically it s not because there s an obama plan out there. it s because democrats and republicans are both committed to tackling this issue in a serious way. reporter: mr. obama stuck to positions himself in the middle of democrats who think his budget is too lean and republicans who think it s too fat. we ve got to be careful. again, let s use a scalpel. let s not use a machete.
investigated for hooking him up with young women. wolf blitzer is off today. i m jessica yellin. you re in the situation room. president obama faced reporters today after enduring 24 hours of mostly bad reviews about his new budget blueprint. he used a hastily called news conference to defend his spending plan as well as his response to the revolution in egypt, and he laid down some new markers for his next two years in office. our senior white house correspondent ed henry was there. ed, the president seemed pretty defensive today. reporter: he was a little defensive in dealing with the situation certainly in the middle east, but he was trying to push back by saying that iran needs to stop beating up and murdering protesters, and he also had some tough talk for republicans while saying that he wants to work out a deal on the budget. he said he s not going to give in to dramatic budget cuts. it was a tale of two news conferences, a president