international norm that we believe in and for us to provide strong support to continue to talk to the russians, the chinese, and others about why it is that they need to stand up on behalf of people who are being shelled mercilessly and why it is important for them to join us in a coalition, that s the most important thing that we can do right now. there may be immediate steps to discuss to make sure that humanitarian aid is being provided in a robust way and to make sure that an opposition unifies along principles that ultimately would provide a clear platform for the syrian people to be able to transition to a better form of government. but, you know, when we see what is happening on television, you know, our natural instinct is to act. one of the things that both of us are going to learn in every one of these crises, including libya, is to make sure that we understand thought true all of our actions before we take those steps and that s not just important for us. it s also
spending cuts in ten years. reid would hike the debt by $2.7 trillion now and mandate an equal amount of cuts. but the congressional budget office says the boehner plan would trim spending by $850 billion, and the reid plan by $2.2 trillion. boehner went back to the board and postponed the vote that was supposed to happen today. reid s plan can t pass the house, and not only is boehner s plan doomed in the senate, a great many house republicans don t like it either. so what happens now? well, time marches on. a never-before-seen default on u.s. debt and obligations could be just six days away, but potentially just as bad would be a downgrade of debt, and a downgrade that would say we are not reliable as we used to be. that could up the cost for borrowing for all of us. here is richard quest on cnn international, and the smart money still says default will be averted, but downgrade, is it inevitable, are foreign investors alarmed? no, it s not inevitable. nothing is inevitab