downgrade the nation's credit even if a deal is reached. even if a deal is reached. it's a aaa, nearly as good as cash or gold and has been almost from the begin. losing that status would raise interest rates for all of us, make mortgages cost more, stifle the economy, possibly trigger a run on the dollar. tonight, president obama restated his desire for a deal that includes tax increases on wealthier americans as well as spending cuts. he cited statistics appealing to bipartisanship and invoked the words of ronald reagan and also acknowledged how sharply divided washington is while trying to channel a bipartisan frustration among americans for what goes on in washington. take a look. >> i realize that a lot of the new members of congress and i don't see eye to eye on many issues. but we were each elected by some of the same americans for some of the >> we were each elected by some of the same americans for the same reasons. yes, many want government to start living within its means and many are fed up with a system in which the deck seems stacked against middle class americans in favor of the wealthiest few. but do you know what people are fed up with most of all? they're fed up with the town where compromise has become a dirty word. they work all day long, many of them scraping by just to put food on the table and when these americans come home at night, bone tired and turn on the news, all they see is the same partizan three-ring circus here in washington. they see leaders who can't seem to come together and do what it takes to make life just a little bit better for ordinary americans. they're offended by that. and they should be. the american people may have voted for divided government but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government. so i'm asking you all to make your voice heard. if you want a balanceed approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of congress know. if you believe we can solve this problem through compromise, send that message. >> president obama tonight. there were some sharply partisan moments as well in the president's speech and we'll talk about the entire message and debt in a moment. first, a portion of house speaker john boehner's response. >> the president has often said we need a balanced approach. which in washington means -- we spend more and you pay more. having run a small business, i know those tax increases will destroy jobs. the president is adamant that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs. as the father of two daurgs i know these programs won't be there for them and their kids unless significant action is taken now. and theed is truth the that the president wanted a blank check six months ago and he wants a blank check today. this is just not going to happen. you see, there's no stalemate here in congress. the house passed aid bill to raise the debt limit. bipartisan support. this week, while the senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phone in accounting and washington gimmicks, we're going to pass another bill. one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the u.s. senate. obviously, i expect that bill can and will pass the senate. and be sent to the president for his signature. and if the president signs it, the crisis atmosphere that he has created will simply disappear. the debt limit will be raised. spending will be cut by more than $1 trillion. and a serious bipartisan committee of the congress can begin the hard but necessary work of dealing with the tough cha challenges our nation faces. >> he made no mention of the proposal he is and other gop leaders rolled out a few hours ago. a lot is still in influx and in air moment we'll talk it over. first let's start off with jessica yellin who joins us from the white house. what was the president trying to do tonight? at this point is it just about pressuring congress to get his deal done? >> yes. in a word. or to reach a compromise. it was about reaching beyond the congress and getting the american and his supporters to call to e-mail, to phone bank, their members to do what they can, and pass some version of a bill. i'll point out a few things, anderson. he aligned the democrats plan with compromise and balance, the words you've heard him say over and over as what's needed. he tried to isolate speaker boehner's plan and align it with a faction of republican's which is, you know rb lingo for sort of hardliners. you heard him use regan to say this needs to be done. i didn't hear him repeat his veto threat. where he threatened in the past where he said he -- i'm told we shouldn't read too much into that. and again, it's an interesting moment for the president if you detect the change of tone from his press conference last week when he was angry and frustrated, today very statesman like and presidential and in his voice, although quite partizan and political as you pointed out in the substance of what he said. >> right. he's saying it's about compromise. but it was a very partizan speech. boehner rolled out his proposal today but didn't give one specific of his plan in the response to the president's speech. is that because not all house republicans are on board with what boehner is behind? >> you make a good point and not all house republicans are on board and there's no clarity that will pass. it's certainly -- there's no path forward for it to pass the senate at this point. the republicans are arguing that they were very -- he was very clear in his speech about the principles. the bottom line is it was about point scoring for both of them, playing to their base and trying to get their own teams to fight the other and all this spells "impasse" with about a week to go. this doesn't move the ball forward. >> yeah. it certainly doesn't. jessica, appreciate your reporting. we've got james carville by skype. eric erikkson, april ryan, white house correspondent and senior political analyst, david gergen. james carville, listening to the speeches it sounds like to jessica's point, like there's been no movement at all and they're kind of talking past each other. >> the democrats can't surrender to somebody. they keep trying to surrender and they say we'll cut medicare, cut medicaid, give you a plan with no tax increases or spending cuts and they keep rejecting it. this thing is a -- the republicans are winning this thing in a route in terms of getting what they want and poor speaker boehner came up with a plan today and as jessica pointed out, the tea party didn't even want that. i think that you can't negotiate if one side is not interested in negotiating. this is like napoleon and moscow in 1812. i don't want to negotiate. there's nothing to talk about here. so i don't know with where this is going to end up. maybe the democrats can find somebody to take the white flag. so far they haven't been able to do it. >> eric, is that how you see it? >> no. i actually think they're closer than all these speeches would suggest. if you look at what harry reid is proposing and john boehner, other than john boehner require two votes and a few other issues, by i by and large their plans are identical. i suspect they'll get merged within the next week. guys like me won't like it. we knew a compromise was coming. the problem is neither plan cuts three to $4 trillion which is what s&p said they need to do to keep the credit rating at triple-a. >> how big of a concern is that? even with the plans the credit rating might still be downgraded? >> it's a very big risk, anderson. there's two different events here and it's hard to keep them separated from each other. the first is getting the debt sealing lifted. that's the critical negotiation under way now. even if we get it lifted, eric's right. standard & poor's is saying even if you get it lifted it's how much you're willing to cut the deficits that they will really judge the triple-a rating of the united states on and if it's something less than $3 to $4 trillion in real cuts they're going to lower the credit rating of the united states for the first time in our history. we've had it since 1917 we've been triple-a. there's a growing sense at top levels here in washington that the chances of a credit rating downgrade is becoming more than just a possibility but moving towards a probability. >> april, for those who haven't been following this as closely as everybody in washington and a lot of other folks have been following it, where do the -- do both plans stand right now? you have harry reids and john boehner. >> you know, really, all the plans right now, are in flux. but yet, they're not in flux. a lot of he say she say. the bottom line is, the american people want this to be done. they want this to be over with. they want to make sure they're safe and the bottom line -- safe financially. the bottom line is, i'm hearing from the republican side that, at the end of the day the president will wind up having to sign this boehner plan where you have these two parts of raising the debt limit and then the white house is saying, look, we're not for this. we want -- we don't want a short-term fix. they're going to hold out as long as they can because they're feeling if it's taken this long just to come up with this, going back six months later is not going to work and the bottom line is, what's missing in the equation is the american people. and, again, as you just talked about, also, the standard and purs triple-a credit rating we have to remember that credit rating also helps the engine of this country, small business. small businesses, a lot of times, employ people when they feel, i've got a government contract or some kind of monies coming in. if they don't feel that security, what's going to happen to the jobs' rate again? >> david, can you try to break down just where these two plans are in some way? one's head can kind of explode trying to figure out all the details. how does boehner's plan and reed's plan, which are the two plans out there, how do they differ? >> well, john boehner's plan is the more ambitious plan and very controversial. it divides itself into two parts. the first is in effect, about a trillion dollars worth of extension of the debt ceiling and it forces a second vote on -- a renewed fight over the debt ceiling about six months from now and what the white house and president adamantly feel strongly about is he doesn't want that second vote. and that's because they worry the republicans will put a gun to their heads on the eve of the second vote and say take these cuts in entitlements or you're going to go into default and they don't want to be in that situation. that's the boehner plan and frankly, the boehner plan may not pass the house but it will surely die in the senate. harry reid has a plan which is only -- takes the debt ceiling all the way until january of 2013. it gets rid of that problem for the president but from a republican point of view isn't as big at it seems. he's saying, i got $2.7 trillion worth of cuts but a trillion of them from a republican point of view are phantom cuts. they take -- they say we're going to wind down in iraq and afghanistan and save a trillion dollars without having a war for ten more years. who thought we'd be there for ten more years so republicans say that's a gimmick. the reed plan will have a hard time passing and will not pass the house so you've got the two plans out there are ultimately horses you can't ride to the finish line and the issue becomes, what comes after them and can you get it done before monday or tuesday of next week? i think we're heading towards a two or three-week extension of this fight. i think the president will accept some sort of extension for two or three weeks to allow this fight to play out. >> when we come back we'll talk to our panel and get james carville's take and eric erikkson's take on those two plans. let us know what you think. i'll be tweeting and on facebook. ahead, norway terror suspect. what we learned and his new claims he didn't act alone and the chilling 100-page anti-muslim manifesto. and the dominique strauss khan case. the made at the center of the assault. breaks her silence. interesting details about her and her allegations of sexual assault. and an autopsy performed today in the tragic premature death of amy winehouse. we'll have the early results of the autopsy. results may just deepen the mystery. we'll talk to dr. drew pin ski about her public struggle with addiction. ananananananannouncer] this...is the network. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advanced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪ at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, man: good job. where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car are guaranteed for life or they're on us. these are just two of the valuable features you can expect from liberty mutual. plus, when you insure both your home and car with us, it could save you time and money. at liberty mutual, we help you move on with your life. so get the insurance responsible drivers like you deserve. looks really good. call us at... or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ i like your messy hair ♪ i like the clothes you wear ♪ i like the way you sing ♪ and when you dance with me ♪ you always make me smile [ male announcer ] we believe you're at your best when you can relax and be yourself. and at thousands of newly refreshed holiday inn hotels, you always can. holiday inn. stay you. and now stay rewarded with vacation pay. stay two weekend nights and get a $75 prepaid card. most americanss regardless of political party, don't understand how we can ask a senior citizen to pay more for her medicare before we ask a corporate jet owner or the oil companies to give up tax breaks that other companies don't get. how can we ask a student to pay more for college before we ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries? how can we slash funding for education and clean energy before we ask people like me to give up tax breaks we don't need and didn't ask for? that's not right. it's not fair. >> president obama earlier tonight. joining us back again is democratic strategist james carville and red state.com eric erikkson. what's wrong with boehner's plan? >> he doesn't have the votes. he can't get the tea party to vote for it. and, according to the president, he doesn't want to revisit this thing during an election year. i'm not sure as a democrat i mind revisiting it during the election year. it seems like the politics for this, is pretty favorable for the democrats. our poll is up 51-30. 21 points is a pretty big lead in american politics with something like this. they think it's bad policy, as do other people, to revisit this. and boehner has the sort of super congress thing in there, some sort of controversy among the tea party about that because they think it will lead to tax increases and all kinds of different things here but hopefully they'll get it worked out because they're playing with some awfully dangerous combustible material here. it could blow up in somebody's face. >> the other thing in boehner's plan they're talking about setting up, yet, another commission, to look at ways to cut spending down the road. haven't we had endless commissions that have come up with plans about this? >> that's one of my biggest complaint about boehner and harry reid's plan, both of which set up commissions of some sort. since 1982, january 1st of 1982, we've had 18 commissions. we've seen the deficit or the national debt go from $1.12 trillion to now $14.02 trillion with these 18 commissions to ring in the deficit. they don't work. they have never worked. sometimes we get tax increases out of them and rarely do we get cuts. boehner and reed's are both too clever and i have the same problem with boehner plan that james does and i think it's ridiculous to fight it over again in six months in an election year. it winds up helping the democrats but more importantly i think it's bad for the country to have a debate like this six months in a row. >> i was saying this with some of the tea party problems. some of it might not be my individual problem but i'm making a point of what they say is wrong with that and i don't know if the politics of having another vote on this. i don't know if they're bad or good, eric. >> james, what do you think will happen? >> you know what? i don't know. to be honest, anderson, i talk to a lot of people on the phone today and i've detected in people that follow this closely, i'm detecting a slight element of something i've never heard before, like, maybe it can't get there. i don't believe that. it doesn't look like the bond market believes it but this is a very, very, very touchy situation. a significant number of republicans as i pointed out, that says it's not a big deal if we default. senator demint, sean hannity, the "wall street journal," ran a big influential piece by a big-time editor saying it would be better to go into default. they don't believe in expertise and sent the establishment guy down there and they think it's all made up and this is something they've been sent here to do so we don't know. boehner has -- they've got to get some democratic votes to do this. >> james, i would say that's a mischaracterization of their position in that they were not saying go to default. what they were saying is after august 2nd we wouldn't default because we'd have enough money to pay the principal and interest on the debt so it technically wouldn't be a default but it's worth pointing out in december of 2010, harry reid had the opportunity to raise the debt ceiling and i have the politico piece pulled up where he said he would rather wait until the republicans got in charge in the house to do it. >> they said if you didn't do it on a 2nd there would be plenty of money coming in. most people say that's not true. most experts say this is very, very dangerous thing. there's a significant number of influential people on the right that say it won't be a big deal. aid hate to see the experts be proven right in this. >> james, eric erikkson, appreciate your time. thanks very much. did the suspect in friday's norway terrorist attack. and the autopsy on the singer of amy winehouse. details about her funeral as well. as much as i can about a company before i invest in it. that's why i like fidelity. they give me tools and research i can't get anywhere else. their stock screener lets me search for stocks with more than 140 criteria. i can see what their experts are thinking and even call them to bounce an idea off of one of their investment professionals. a good strategy relies on good insight. if you wanted to learn more about a company, i think you'd actually have to be there. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. norwegian pause today for the victims of friday's attacks