why congress may have breathing room when it comes to raising the debt ceiling on this "american morning." and good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, july 27th. this is "american morning." a lot going on today. let's get to it. >> it does feel like dueling bangoes, doesn't it? when you hear both sides of the debate they're dug in but insist they're right. >> and a growing number of americans want them not to be. >> they all say god bless america. how we get there is the question. >> two maker developments in the debt crisis, following minute by minute here. six days until the deadline and house speaker john boehner's plan is coming under fire from members of his own party. he's going back to the drawing board because the numbers don't add up. today's vote has been postponed and in just a few hours, house republicans will meet again as john boehner says that they are looking for more cuts and deeper cuts. >> this is the plan. i've got it here. 57 pages. what happens when you come up with a plan like this it has to be scored. they have to say will it achieve -- what's the cost of it when the congressional budget office got a look at it, they said doesn't add up. let's get to washington, where joe johns is standing by live for us. joe, what's going on? what's the latest? >> pesky congressional budget office. it could be viewed as an em basement for the speaker but for the fact that the whole debt ceiling controversy is a larger embarrassment for the u.s. government than a procedural hangup on capitol hill. the speaker had to, according to sources, postpone a vote on his proposal to resolve the debt ceiling crisis, the cbo, the folks that crunch the numbers, said the boehner plan would not create the savings he was looking for. he said the plan would add up to more than a trillion dollars in savings but cbo said only about $850 billion or so. now this is not all bad news for boehner, because having an excuse to postpone that vote that was scheduled for today, actually buys him some time to round up support from republican colleagues. he still has quite a bit of work to do, apparently. republicans, some republicans, have been saying, it won't pass and they won't vote for it. >> if you look at this it's about a $7 billion in reduction in spending from what we're currently at. we advocated something much more in the cap balance plan. we advocated more in the budget plan the house passed. real concerns about the commission, the 12-member commission, six democrats and one republican, decided they want to raise taxes, you can't keep that off the floor, comes to the floor. we think there are real problems with this plan. >> democrats for their part are trashing the bill too. the senate majority leader said it's d.o.a. even if it clears the house. >> the senate plan is a reasonable middle ground. democrats support it because it protects middle class. it prevents damaging cut ts to social security, medicare, medicaid. republicans should support it because it contains the two things they've asked for all along -- it does not contain revenues and the amount of cut meets the amount of the debt ceiling increase. >> okay. this has got to be confusing to people and what's the takeaway? there are a couple ways of looking at this. the obvious point is that the congress and the president are no closer to a deal, but on the other hand if you read between the lines, the leaders, at least, both in the democratic and republican side, seem to be moving closer toward something workable. for one thing, the boehner plan does not include a demand that both houses of congress pass a balanced budget amendment which never looked like it was going to happen, at least in the short term, and reid's plan, which is a work in progress, does not include a demand for tax increases, which a lot of people said was never going to get past the house. >> let me ask you a quick question. boehner can take this off the floor, which he's doing, and make the additional cuts. it's still not going to get out of that senate. explain to us how that's progress either way? >> well, the fact of the matter is, nobody is going to get everything that they want and in all likelihood, what happens when you're down to the wire on something like this, you end up with a sin that sis of ideas that people can go for, at least in the short term. so they'll have to be some of this and some of that in all likelihood in the hope that the president can sign off on it too. >> all right. joe johns, thanks. early in his report used the word embarrassment twice and there's the democratic process and then an embarrassment of process. >> well crossed into the -- >> i think we have. it's interesting, this morning, we're trying to assess just when the government's not going to be able to pay its bills. congress could get a little more breathing room to negotiate a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling. according to "the new york times" an analysis, slightly higher than expected income taxes could allow the treasury department to push back the deadline to august 10th, though the obama administration maintains august 2nd is quote a hard deadline. here's white house communications director dan pfeiffer speaking on "john king usa." >> spoke to the treasury secretary before i came over here who said to me that we're still planning for august 2nd being the day. and the fact is, there's no reason we have to get to august 1st. congress has to do its job, stop with the political statements in the house right now. we need to get in a room, compromise and move on. that's what the american people want. that's why they're filling up phone lines and fax machines and bringing down websites. >> i'm not surprised they're trying to find more time and space because they're doing everything they can at the treasury to make sure they can push it and do it -- >> some have accused of treasury secretary of lying, saying -- >> no. >> it's plungeble. >> perhaps. >> white house communications director dan pfeiffer did have choice words for congress as well. angry voters jamming the switchboards, crashing servers on capitol hill demanding lawmakers try to solve this debt ceiling crisis. here's a look. >> good morning, speaker boehner's office. how may i help you? >> the phones in white house speaker john boehner's office were twice as busy as usual with hundreds of callers waiting on hold for nearly an hour yesterday just to leave a message. cnn surveyed the websites of 279 members of congress and found 104 of them either crashed or were spotty and there were reports that the white house switchboard was so overwhelmed with calls it had to shut down during parts of the day yesterday. >> trying to direct people to the constituency offices. for all the post during and tough talk, there is common ground. listen to what president obama's senior adviser david plouffe told wolf blitzer. >> the truth is the boehner and reid proposals have quite a bit of similarities so we ought to be able to do something that reduces spending, that sets up a process so we can do more deficit reduction and make sure what's hanging over the economy isn't a debt -- it's clear this debt ceiling drama has not been good for the economy or country. why we would want to have it again in five or six months defies logic. >> plouffe says one similarity, both proposals have a congressional committee charged with trying to identify additional reductions. >> california taking out a temporary $5 billion loan to help pay its bills in case congress fails to raise the debt ceiling. eight major institutions including goldman sachs and wells fargo put up the money. the money will only be used if federal government delays services for health care and transportation. pat toomey introducing a blueprint for how the government should spend its money in case the debt ceiling is not raised by august 2nd. debt payments, social security and paychecks to troops a priority. everything else would be covered if possible with cash on hand or put off until the u.s. can take on more debt. coming up in the next hour, 7:10 a.m. eastern we'll talk to senator toomey about his payment plan. >> we'll talk to republican rick scott, republican governor rick scott, making headlines saying if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling it will have almost no effect on the financial markets. we'll hear from the florida governor's point of law. >> clearly a minority view. most members of congress say we need to raise the debt ceiling. it's how we do it, under what conditions it's so important. he says you don't need to. as we've seen americans are not with the lawmakers, flooding washington with phone calls and e-mails. our question of the day, what would you like to tell your elected representative. keep it clean. what would you like to tell him or her. >> send us an e-mail, tweet, facebook. the latest on the norway massacre. police detonated a cache of explosives on a farm rented by suspect anders breivik about 100 miles north of oslo. that's where police say he built the fertilizer bomb used in friday's attacks. we're getting a glimpse inside the mind of breivik courtesy of his lawyer. he said his client is surprised he succeeded pulling off his massacre. that he considers himself, quote, in a war and insists he was working with terror cells in norway and abroad, although he wouldn't provide details. libyan state tv broadcasting footage of the lockerbie bomber at a pro-gadhafi rally in tripoli. al megrahi was the only person convicted for the bombing of the pan am 103 flight over lockerbie scotland and then released from prison two years ago on the grounds he had cancer and only a few months to live. looking frail and in a wheelchair was introduced at the rallies as a victim of a conspiracy. 21-year-old man from ubez stan charged with threatening to kill president obama. the justice department says the suspect was arrested in alabama earlier this month. after obtaining a machine gun and grenades from undercover agents. officials say he was in the u.s. illegally after his student visa was revoked. he was indicted yesterday on four counts of threatening to kill the president. oregon congressman david wu says he's stepping down after allegations he made unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's 18-year-old daughter. wu has been in congress since 1998. he was the first chinese mn american to serve in the house. he plans to leave after the debt ceiling crisis is resolved. wu's resignation follow's anthony weiner's fall from grace as well. >> rod blagojevich claims he was unfairly convicted on corruption charges and deserves a new trial. his lawyers have filed a motion alleging judicial bias and trial errors and says blagojevich, quote, never stood a chance at a fair trial. jurors found blagojevich guilty on 17 of 20 corruption counts for trying to sell or trade barack obama's vacated illinois senate seat. fans are ready, the players are getting there, the world championship green bay packers arriving at lambeau field after the nfl players and owners agreed to ten years of labor peace. michael vick was in the house for the eagles training camp opens for ten nfl teams today, including philadelphia, the first preseason games will be played on august 11th. as a guy who spends a lot of weekends in philadelphia i'm glad football is back. i don't know what we would have done with the eagle fans if they didn't have games to go to. driving around in philly without traffic jams and people dressed up. >> replays of the philly games. >> eagle fans, i mean this is in the most loving way, crazy. >> you don't have to tell me. i'm married to one. i had to renounce the redskins as part of the marriage agreement. >> it was in the vows actually for kiran. the seattle mariners have now lost 17 -- 17 games in a row. they extended that losing streak last night at yankee stadium, struck out 18 times. mariners are now six games away from the major league record of 23 consecutive losses. >> which was set by the philadelphia phillys. >> 50 years ago. >> that was half a century ago. >> listen, winners you can't talk about this, they were the losing team of any professional sport, am i right about that, guys, the losing team in history? >> they don't know. they're all yankee fans. >> if i'm wrong on that one, i'm just never going to be able to go home. >> but i don't think i'm wrong. here's a catch that the nfl would never allow. this is australian football. aussie rules, totally different. andrew walker of the carlton football club uses the defender as a stepladder. there you go. look at that. and makes the mark. >> wow. >> not called a catch. it's called a mark. >> the defender doesn't seem to be troubled by this. he's taking it all in stride. >> wow. >> pretty amazing. >> no helmets. >> all right. that was good. coming up next, the sexual assault case against dominique strauss-kahn. cnn has learned there is a big meeting this morning at the manhattan d.a.'s office. are the charges against the former imf chief about to be thrown out? and the media demanding to know the identity of every juror in the casey anthony trial. the judge has to comply. why don't we have the names? >> can we get help here? how the guy got stuck head first in a sewer. 14 minutes past the hour. [ male announcer ] you have dreams for your children. don't let times like these stand in the way of them. protect your family with the gift of financial security. backed by the highest possible ratings for financial strength. new york life. the company you keep. backed by the highest possible ratings for financial strength. ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors. stunning visuals, intelligent performance. this is visibly smart. like new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. get more with new splenda® essentials™, a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. new splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in. look in this sunday's paper for a three dollar coupon. you want to keep your loved ones safe and secure. give them the gift of financial security from new york life. we've been protecting families for over 166 years. new york life. the company you keep. bashar al assad, bashar al basset al megrahi,basset al meg, 17 minutes past the hour. we may now know soon whether sexual assault charges against former imf chief dominique strauss-kahn will be dropped. cnn has learned there is a meeting scheduled this morning at the manhattan district attorney's office. dsk's accuser the hotel maid nafissatou diallo is expected to be there with her lawyer. this is an interview diallo gave to abc this week. cnn has learned diallo is planning to file a civil lawsuit against strauss-kahn set to be filed with the courts in the next few weeks. even though the law says he has to do it, the judge in the casey anthony trial is refusing to release the names of jurors in the case, at least for now. many of those jurors have received threats since finding casey anthony not guilty. chief judge belvin perry says he will wait for a cooling off period to expire before he turns over the names to the media after october 25th. federal appeals court is reversing itself saying accused it tucson shooter jared lee loughner can be forced to take anti-psychotic medication. the court cited loughner's bizarre and suicidal behavior going back on its earlier ruling allowing him to refuse the drugs. he's charged with killing six and injuring 13 others including congressman giffords. water roaring through the philippines. a slow moving tropical storm unleashing flash floods and landslides, killing ten people, leaving many missing, report theedly fishermen. police in california are trying to figure out how this happened. a man found himself stuck upside down in a sewer over the weekend. police said it was a drunken accident. how did we know alcohol would be involved in this one? the guy claims gang members beat him up and threw his cell phone in the storm drain and angry that police released that picture. police say he never mentioned there was any such attack when he was rescued by them. >> but did he get the darn cell phone back? >> that's a good question. that's a good question. >> rob marciano is in the extreme weather center for us. we're going to be getting to him shortly. it feels so cool here in new york this morning. i actually tweeted on my way, felt like a great walk in. it's not that way in much of the rest of the country. still very hot. >> i want to ask rob marciano, because we heard the cicadas and an old saying in the midwest once you hear cicadas it's six weeks until the first sfloost i've never heart that, but i like it. it's encouraging, thinking about cooler weather at least. have a little bit of a fataste fall. temperatures still in the mid to upper 80s across the new york city area. i wouldn't say fall, but relative to what we've seen, right? feels good. a price was paid. rough weather across the northeast. check out the video from springfield, massachusetts. a lot of storm damage there with gusty winds. in excess of 60 and 70 miles an hour, taking down a lot of trees, old growth trees, and injures because of this and power outages. the threat for severe weather today will be across the northern plains and then the heat is building up down across parts of the south. 105 expected in dallas. that's the actual high temperature forecast there. and again these temperatures don't include humidity and they're measured in the shade. the streak continues of 100 plus temperature days in dallas and oklahoma city. heat warnings for those areas because when you couple the humidity you know the deal. the tropics, this thing is heading into the gulf of mexico and we've got a hurricane hunter aircraft scheduled to arrive in there this afternoon to check it out. some of our preliminary forecast models, guys, bring it somewhere into texas or louisiana. friday, saturday or sunday. if we can keep this thing below hurricane strength, it won't be a bad thing. because we desperately need rain in texas, so hopefully we'll get the best of both worlds, that's not a guarantee. it looks like it could become our next tropical storm. >> and we're early and too slow to see those great trajectories but they extend from louisiana to mexico. >> they do. right now looks like upward texas coastline. once we get a closed circulation, hard core data from the hurricane aircraft our models crunch better numbers and have a better guidance later afternoon and tomorrow. >> still ahead on "american morning," the outrage over a controversial decision affecting some of the hero first responders from 9/11. don't want to miss this. >> people don't come around these parts anymore. a town time seems to have forgotten. a fixer upper but it can be yours. >> the whole town? >> for the price of a home. >> wow. >> 22 minutes past the hour. 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