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
lose 22 republican votes. ten have said they re voting against it. i want a solution not a deal. does this end the batter. harry reid has his plan which saves more without touching medicare and social security. you ve got to cut real programs if you re going to get this deficit down. this is a plan that gets us where we need to go by august 2nd. what are americans thinking? totally frustrated. i feel they all need to get their acts together and settle this thing. for now it s unsettled with just six days to go. now, the fear is that all this instability will affect america s credit rating whether or not there s a last-minute deal. one of those ratings agency testifies here on capitol hill her today. amora? no doubt the country will be watching. tracie potts for us in washington.
let s say $2 1/2 trillion without touching medicare and social security? well, look, over 60% of our budget we don t even vote on. it s popular entitlement programs like social security, medicare, medicaid and interest payments. you can t do anything serious about our deficit without impacting the biggest percentage of the budget. and so i commend the president for putting medicare and social security on the table. he is correct in doing that. you can t have a serious deficit reduction program without dealing with those programs in the long term. in the out years. what do you say to democratic critics who say you republicans aren t coming to the table with a lot of gives? well, we are we have 9.2% unemployment and their prescription is to raise taxes? i mean, my goodness, who thinks
let s say $2 1/2 trillion without touching medicare and social security? well, look, over 60% of our budget we don t even vote on. it s popular entitlement programs like social security, medicare, medicaid and interest payments. you can t do anything serious about our deficit without impacting the biggest percentage of the budget. and so i commend the president for putting medicare and social security on the table. he is correct in doing that. you can t have a serious deficit reduction program without dealing with those programs in the long term. in the out years. what do you say to democratic critics who say you republicans aren t coming to the table with a lot of gives? well, we are we have 9.2% unemployment and their prescription is to raise taxes? i mean, my goodness, who thinks