good morning. great to see you this morning. thursday, july 28. this is "american morning." advice teen out. we know yesterday a little stuffy. >> she sounded. >> it she is getting better hopefully at home today. a lot going on. >> imagine what our lead story is now? it's the debt. the republicans are scrambling to line up house votes to stave off a potential first ever default of u.s. debt. the deadline, you know, this, august 2 now less than five days away. the house is expected to vote on speaker bane are's plan sometime today and it comes after the house speaker laid into the republican rank and file yesterday ordering them to get in line. many of these people he is talking about are tea partiers who insist that his plan is too soft. >> even if the bill does pass senate democrats are saying they will oppose it and working on their own proposal which has been spearheaded by senate majority leader harry reid. so if both sides failing to reach an agreement, what happens? could there be a constitutional escape hatch? there is a provenition the 14th amendment with which some say could be translated to allow the president to go it alone, to actually raise the debt ceiling himself without an act of congress. will he, though? we will break that down in a moment. we want to dig deep near house speaker boehner's actual plan. you will remember it was sent back to the drawing board and after some changes the nonpartisan congressional budget office said the plan would reduce the deficit by $915 billion over ten years. joining us is john an allen, senior congressional reporter for politico and joins us live from washington. 850 filling in with cuts. now up to $17 billion. tea partiers and other kaerts say it needs to be $18 trillion in cuts. >> a lot of people are satisfied with the new number. it is a bit of an accounting trick and forced to count the savings in a slightly different way. but it seems to be satisfactorying a lot of folks. there is a group of freshmen, two-party folks, that will have a press conference this morning and in support of it. it will be close vote today. no question about that. speaker boehner and his allies, lieutenant apartments, are going to be whipping votes up until the very friend specifically what you have these tea party freshmen, many of them said my mandate to come here was to make sure we cut spending. as you said, the -- you know, accounting tricks are a different way of counting up the -- crunching the numbers is what brought us to more savings. not necessarily because they are cutting spending. >> that's right. i mean, the bill overall has a huge number in terms of cutting spending. not just up front and not just this $900 billion now but also provides for a lot more spending cuts later on. they are running out of room to cut. you will remember the big spending bill earlier this year cut tens of billions of dollars. so if you take a step back and you look at the entire forest there's a lot of spending cuts going on. lot of real spending cuts democrats are arguing that they are going to hurt a lot of people. so those certainly are accounting tricks. in terms of that last little margin to get to the point where they are cutting more than they are raising the debt ceiling which is what republican leaders wanted to do, they needed to rely on some creative use of cbo accounting methods. >> right. this is also interesting, though. even if he does get john boehner, that is, the house, even if he does get the conservatives to fall in lynn and go ahead and vote for this, there seems to be question about whether it will get out of the senate. have you 53 senators, two independents, included who said they are not going to support boehner's proposal. now we are looking at another proposal perhaps harry reid's proposal which the cbo also downgraded. let's take a look at the numbers. instead of $2.7 trillion in deficit cuts, $2.2 trillion. does the reid plan have the support to get anywhere? >> it is not clear whether the reid plan can as if senate. phoenix it could it appears to be a nonstart other the house. a house bill that may or may not pass that's a nonstart other the senate. senate bill that may or may not pass that's a nonstarter on the house. i think what's most likely to happen is if the house passes its bill, the senate will go with another plan and amend it on to that house bill and play ping pong. i talked to former senate majority leader trent lott yesterday. he said in his view procedurally the earliest this could get done is wednesday or thursday of next week which pushes it past that original august 2 deadline. >> what happens? that appears to be an impasse. as you said one bill won't get out of one house and one may not get approved by the other. what happens come august 2? >> i think your guess is as good as mine. there's a lot of warning obviously about a possible downgrading of debt about a possible default. i think most folks think the treasury department has a little bit of wiggle room built into that august 2 deadline. we have seen reports from outside groups that say that tax receipts have led to a little bit more revenue. there is a little bit more money on hand than has been advertised. maybe a couple of days isn't a big -- as big of a deal. certain there treasury department is making plans at this point to figure out which bills are going to get paid and which ones will get pushed off. >> sounds like we are right back where we were yesterday. we will have to wait and see. senior congressional reporter with politico. >> always good to talk to a fellow terrapin. >> that's right. go terps. >> that's a turtle, is it not? >> tortoise. much larger and lives longer. >> excellent diversion from the conversation about the debt deal. all we can keep asking is what happen it is there is no deal? if i had a nickel every time we had to ask this question i would be able to pay the national debt. the white house insists president obama will not raise the debt ceiling by himself by invoking the 14th amendment. still a lot of folks out there are talking about this escape clause. that's because former president bill clinton and some house democrats say the president should use it if no deal is reached. what are we talking about here? this was provision that was penned after the civil war to make sure confederate states repaid the war debts. section 4 of the 14th amendment says, quote, the valid i did of the public debt of the united states authorized by law including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned. it is that last part, shall not be questioned that legal scholars say is open to interpretation and allow the president to declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional clearing the way for the white house to pay the country's bill without a deal being reached. now, president obama has said that he's talked to his lawyers and they are unconvinckoconvinc invoking this will be an argument. you had a chance to talk to michele bachmann about this. >> i sat down with the congressman yesterday. republican presidential candidate as well. exclusive interview with her and asking her a lot about the debt ceiling and about our credit rate. also, about this 14th amendment possibility. she called any move to invoke the 14th amendment to hike the debt ceiling without congressional approval unconstitutional. here is a listen. >> congress has the power to lay and collect taxes. it is congress that does the spending. the president is prohibited to do that. if hay had the power to do that he would effectively be a dictator. there would be no reason for congress to come into washington, d.c. he would be making the spending decisions. he would be making the taxing decisions. clearly that's unconstitutional. >> we are going to have more of our talk with her ahead, including why she thinks we don't have to raise the debt ceiling. and why she will be a no vote today on the house speaker's plan. also senator john mccain taking on tea party conservatives and debt stand-off accusing them of abandoning reason. as you will hear that's not sitting well with congressman -- republican congressman joe walsh. >> that is not fair. that's not fair to the american people to hold out and say we won't agree to raising the debt limit until we pass a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. it is unfair. it's bizarro. >> and insulting for a guy like john mccain who has been here for so long, politicians like him that have gotten us to this point where we have a government we can't afford. shame on him for saying that for going after those of us who were elected six months ago to change the way guys like him have operated in this town forever. >> we are going to dig deeper into all of this next hour when we talk to the republican congressman of georgia. he is not onboard with house speaker boehner's plan. new video of the aftermath of friday's bomb attack in norway. just obtained by cnn. it was shot by johan christian. he says he thought the tunnel was going to collapse on the roof of his car. he says he got out of his vehicle, as you see here, quickly began recording dazed survivors of victims covered in blood hoping the video may provide evidence to police. he was struck by how many people lost their hearing in the blast. he was also able to get rare footage inside of the badly damaged main government building. captured this image. ha a huge hole in the floor of the government building. it is not clear whether this is the location where the bomb detonated. eight people were killed in the blast and 68 others were massacred later in the day at a summer youth camp. the prime minister announced today independent commission will be set up to examine the attacks. >> perhaps some of the video he shot will be used to determine evidence. the worst downpours in more than a century triggering a deadly flooding in south korea. triggering deadly flooding there. if you look at the pictures you can see just how treacherous it is. more than 20 inches of rain falling on seoul in the last 48 hours. you see -- you hear people screaming in fear. highway roads are impassable. flood sing now being blamed for at least 35 deaths there and most of them are from landslides. hundreds of homes have been lost and it is still raining today at a rate of two inches per hour in some parts of seoul. >> where it is not raining is texas. people in south texas are preparing for the worst as a tropical storm barrels in from the gulf. rob marciano is in the extreme weather center. this is where one of the rare things, people in texas are saying i hope some part of the tropical storm gets to us so we get rain but don't want a tropical storm. >> right. it is a tropical cyclone with a positive spin. at this point we are hoping that we can get it into texas and if we can keep it at a -- you know, most category 1 hurricane, that would be ideal. the uncertainty of the intensity forecast, though, is really -- paramount here. we are not really sure how strong it is going to get. pretty sure about the track, though. it is not very organized at the moment. just off the yucatan peninsula. about 600 miles from the coast of texas. and it is forecasted to med that way here over the next couple of days. landfall likely tomorrow night. as either a tropical storm or a minimal hurricane. somewhere between brownsville and houston is the forecast track. this would bring much needed rainfall into this area. where they got a ton of rain the past couple of days across northern iowa, illinois, and including chicago, this is some video coming into us overnight from davies county where they got over six inches of rainfall in some spots. about a half a dozen swift water rescue has to be made in this area. so they don't want any more rain. texas would like to see just a little bit of that 37 check out the numbers. over seven inches. grand rapids seeing over three inches. they will probably see a couple more thunderstorms some of which could become severe today and heat starts to build across parts of the eastern half of the country as well. we will be tracking don, of course, through jit the morning and next couple of days. >> all right. rob, thanks very much for that. history making baseball in cleveland. did you watch this? >> i was at a yankee game yesterday and this happened while i was there. the news came out. >> interest didn't go 6 1/2 hours. santana threw the first no-hitter of his career. gave up one run. first hitter of the game for indians reached base and then an error came around to score. santana, third hitter in the majors this zone we have a bunch of baseball store these week. we have this one and the lawn game talked about. 19 innings tuesday night. baseball admitting the ump blew the call. joe torre weighed in on the call that ended tuesday night's 19-inning game in atlanta. watch it. everybody else thought he was out. the ump calls him safe. looked like he was out by a mile. the braves beat the pirates 4-3. twitter began blowing up with calls for instant replay after that which always happens in baseball. they always call for it. torre says he has been on both sides of the calls and feels they will always be part of the game. the ump admitted and everybody said it. >> what would have happened? the game would have continued on? >> a long game. >> for what, another -- >> i don't know. >> maybe they should redo the game. it was only 19 innings. ahead on "american morning," heroes of 9/11. some of them learned they will not be eligible for federal assistance that got toxin that were caused by toxins at ground zero. they confronted some of the people behind that decision and we will get more from the meeting that took place last night. just ahead. >> newt gingrich says we should all buy american. somebody forgot to tell his staff that. the candidate's awkward moment when we 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[ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can now come from any faucet anywhere. introducing the brita bottle with the filter inside. 9/11 first responders and others that became ill from working at or around ground zero expressing their anger and frustration at a town hall meeting in new york city. >> they are reacting to the news that those who have been diagnosed with cancer will not be covered by the new 9/11 victims' compensation fund. we have details of last night's meeting. we talked yesterday to a 9/11 advocate who has been saying how can you say our cancers were not caused by the toxic air we breathe in the days after 9/11? >> that's right. you can imagine the passion that this issue is stirring up because so many people feel in their gut they would not be sick were it not for their response. this is one of three meetings by the justice department to explain how the new victims compensation fund is going to work. that's the fund established by the act. the big issue which came up again and again why is cancer not being covered? especially because of the fires that burned for so long down at ground zero. one man who spoke last night -- he spent three months working at ground zero and also landfill where the debris was taken, five years later, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. take a listen. >> i just think that this is an injusti injustice. i'm a retired police detective. i was down there for three months. i want to show you something. sometimes i have to eat through this tube. because the muscles in my neck don't work to swallow. i wave ask talk through this tube. and i'm the lucky one. because i had health insurance. all these other people have cancer that don't have medical insurance. you are pushing them aside. >> so many healthy people didn't get sick because of ground zero and some this is so controversial because people believe that it is linked to ground zero. the decision not to include cancer was made by the national institute of occupational safety and health and reviewed all available data and found no scientific evidence proving a direct link between exposure and cancer. and essentially there is no finger principle. the woman in charge of the money, sheilah, had nothing to do with excluding cancer. she told the audience they need to be patient. she said if and when scientists can prove a link between 9/11 and the cancers they will be covered by the fund. >> it is an emotional thing. you know, our hearts go out to people who have suffered cancer. but people suffered from cancer, all kinds of cancers, who are not exposed to 9/11. i think we have to wait to see what the medicine is going to tell us. >> the doctors say cancer takes at least ten years to develop. the rate of cancer is no higher in this particular age group than it would be otherwise. of course, many first responders who were sick say they don't have time to wait. even an extra year. they are hoping other studies will come out proving what they believe and that is that their cancer is because of the exposure. >> what's -- what do they think will change with the new reviews? when you stay is no finger principle what happens to change that? >> there's only one study that actually found what is even a remote link between cancer and ground zero and that is blood cancers. things like leukemia, something called multiple myloma. those the ended to develop much faster than other area cancers. they believe that maybe if they can make this connection that it will open the door to other types of cancer. >> you are saying ask people to wait. some of these people are die. >> you hear the emotion. there's nobody that doesn't agree that this is heartbreaking. i think that, unfortunately, the science hasn't caught up. we will be interviewing in an hour the doctor that you referred to in that study, dr. moline. her study is the one that suggests some link between cancers and the 9/11 responders. she also believes that more research needs to be done which is happening now. as you said and as you heard in the heartbreaking testimonies a lot of people said i may not be around and meantime, my family has been bankrupt. our lives have been changed forever. how can we be pushed aside. >> emotional trauma that -- >> right. thanks so much. we are taking a quick break and will be right back with more. including kiran's exclusive conversation with michele bachmann. in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move easily and securely to reach many clouds, not just one. that's why the network that connects, protects, and lets your data move fearlessly through the clouds means more than ever. hey can i play with the toys ? 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