hell, no. i would not vote to increase the debt ceiling. otherwise it just shows the american people we re not serious yet. we re still going to incur more debt. we don t have to increase the debt ceiling in the next few weeks. it turns my stomach to hear the assumption articulated that we have to, despite the fact we re raking in, the federal government, $6 billion a day. take that money and service our debt first. and pay down some of that debt. make sure that we re showing the international financial markets and our lenders that we re serious about getting our debt and deficit problems under control. bret: so what would you say to the republicans republico vote for it on advice of experts in wall street and around the country who believe that not increasing it would really hurt the economy and create a disaster? i would say before you think about seriously voting to increase the debt limit and incur more unsustainable, immoral, unethical debt that is really going to ruin our
no choice but to raise the debt ceiling. not to do so would be a disaster and make our deficit problems worse. there s not a financial expert alive who thinks allowing the u.s. to default on its debt is a good idea. what will happen p the debt skreelg not raised. anybody that votes against it is a fool. the politicians will raise the roof. speaking about this. then they will raise the ceiling and the rest of us will hit the floor financially speaking. you want to see more on this subject? go to the blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile. an interesting couple of weeks. you know, financial stakes for the country interest rates, economy, economic growth are enormous. i think we all agree on that. yes, they are. thank you. political battle, huge one over tax and jobs. is the house speaker saying one thing and doing another? we will return live to the tornado disaster zone in the south. life as people know it has been turned upside down. my cre
co-chairman of the president s debt commission. one made a statement that we have a treaty to protect taiwan from china. yet we have to borrow from china in order to do it. it shows how bizarre these relationships have gotten because we ve become indebted to these countries. china is protecting us from the obama administration if nobody buys the debt, it is not sustainable in domestic terms here. i think it underlines why it is absolutely critical not just as a domestic policy matter, but for the national security implication to stop this insane level of government spending. the deficit is on an deficits on an annual basis adding to a national debt that takes us beyond anything we ve ever seen before. greta: the potential problems, national security problems with having huge debt and deficit problems. any specific instances right
so, the aarp is worried social security could be a casualty in this debate. david certner is the guy who talks to lawmakers on capitol hill about the matters. david, welcome. what do you think the president will say about social security this afternoon? it s hard to predict, but what we hope he says is what he said in the past. that social security is not a big contributor to the budget defic deficit. in fact, it s in surplus. we shouldn t be cutting social security to deal with our current deficit problems. plenty of people out there say social security hey to remain solvent. to do that we have to make changes. what would be so bad to talk about this issue? absolutely. we need to talk about making sure we have social security for the long term, so it s adequate and solvent not just to the current generation but for future generations. but we think we should have it in terms of not solving the budget problems.
highlight ways where the president essentially had to give some ground on that. and that s kind of laying the battlefield yet again before a new debate starts. all right. kelly o donnell on capitol hill for us this morning. thank you, kelly. well, the president does not have to start from scratch with this deficit speech. he appointed a commission to study the deficit problems but so far has not enthusiastically embraced that commission s recommendations. this is a point chuck raised with him at a news conference back in february. you had a majority consensus to do all this. it s now been shelved. what was the point of the fiscal commission? 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. this is not a matter of you go first or i go first. this isรง a matter of everybody having a serious conversation about where we want to go and then ultimately getting in that boat at the same time so it do