there may be another debt ceiling crisis. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the obama camp today launched an all-out assault on mitt romney's years as a high-powered investment company leader. vice president joe biden slammed romney's business record saying bane capital piled up cash while killing middle-class jobs. jim acosta is out on the campaign trail in florida in st. petersburg right now. here's the question, is mitt romney starting to feel the heat? what's going on? >> reporter: that's right, wolf, he is. at an event here in st. petersburg, florida, mitt romney did not take reporters' questions about his former private investment firm bane capital. in fact, his campaign went out of its way to block reporters asking romney about bane. it was all caught on video. >> thank you. thank you. >> reporter: standing in front of a mini national debt clock, mitt romney left no doubt about his message of the day. >> if i'm president i'm actually going to take responsibility and lead and get us on track to have a balanced budget. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: and after the event was over as romney was shaking hands with supporters along the rope line, aides to the gop contender made sure the candidate stayed on topic. this press aide physically stood in the path of reporters trying to make their way to romney trying to ask questions. the campaign even brought in a lone secret service agent to keep the press away from romney contrary to the agency's policy. a secret service spokesman told cnn secret service does not restrict the movement of the press within the general public areas or their movement within these areas. hours later the romney campaign admitted its mistake saying this was an error on the part of the campaign staff and volunteers. we reminded them that press is allowed on the rope line to record the governor's interactions with voters. the altercation with the media came hours after joe biden blasted the gop contender for his time at bane capital. >> does he think that experience will help our economy? let's take a look. look, with these guys, past is prolog. >> reporter: they tried to shift the focus of the monster, blaming a kansas city steel plant out of millions of dollars. >> reporter: the romney campaign released its own web video showing a steel plant prospering after bane's help. romney said little in defense of his ex-company. he did not answer a shouted question from cnn on the subject. last week at a speech in michigan romney did not mention bane by name, but he did say he wanted to transfer his private sector experience there to the oval office. >> finding solutions and opportunities an environment of change and turbulence is what i learned during my career and it's something they want desperately to bring to the presidency. >> reporter: the romney campaign says the president is playing the politics of envy, a line biden said in ohio he took personally. >> my mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams. they don't get us! they don't get who we are! >> reporter: romney did try to patch things up with reporters. he went back on his press chart tore talk to reporters about the rope line incident. he said the incident was not his doing, but wolf, he was watching. >> he clearly was. i've been through these campaigns over the years on many occasions. is it simply the case of the young press aide being overzealous or instructing her don't let jim acosta and other reporters get anywhere near the rope line? >> reporter: we did not get an answer to that question and it's a curious situation going on with the romney campaign right now because obviously reporters want to get inside that public area and get to that rope line and ask those questions. in the past mitt romney has taken questions from reporters along the rope line. just recently he was asked whether or not he would have taken out osama bin laden. even jimmy carter would have given that order. there are times when he's responded to the rope line and clearly the campaign did not want to do that today and it could only be speculated that it's because of the offensive from the obama campaign on bane capital that they did not want to deal with that question today, but the romney campaign isn't saying either way. >> at least they have the wisdom to admit a mistake and we can move on and reporters can do their own job. >> it doesn't happen often. >> they admitted their mistake. we all make mistakes, obviously. let's dig deeper with our chief political analyst gloria borger. why is bane capital resurfacing in such a big issue right now. >> this is a time of definition. as you know, wolf, voters know an awful lot about president obama, but at this point they don't know an awful lot about mitt romney. so what the obama campaign is trying to do is fill in part of those blanks, but there's something that worries the obama campaign. let's take a look at this number from usa today and gallup. the question is what would get the economy going in the next four years. romney, 55. obama, 46. that's not good news for the president. they need to discredit mitt romney as the economic manager, but this is what the obama folks have working for them. take a look at this. who is more in touch with the middle class and you see obama wins handily there, 51-33. so what's the best way to debunk the idea that mitt romney can manage the economy and solidify your own reearn as being in touch with the middle class? bain capital. he doesn't understand real people and look at what he did, look at these people that were laid off. barack obama can do a better job and did do a better job. >> romney did explain the closing of that kansas city steel plant by bain capital. he said this today, i'll play the clip for our viewers. >> the problem, of course, is that the steel factory closed down two years after i left bain capital. i was no longer there and that is hardly something that was on my watch and they also don't mention a couple of other things. one is that we were able to help create 100,000 jobs and oh, by the way he has no problem going out and doing fund raisers with bain capital and private equity people. >> here's the question, will the romney campaign and the candidate himself have to do more to explain the bain capital experience? >> i think you do, and you started to hear that in this radio interview with mitt romney, they say by the way, you want to turn this into a character issue about me and how did barack obama complain yet he's taking their money at fund raisers and by the way, i did create or help to create 100,000 jobs, but here's what they're also doing. they decided to take a turn and they're taking a turn to the deficit because all of the polling shows that over 60% of the american public believes that president obama has not done a good job managing the deficit. so we see this orchestrated response. we see it from the republican national committee, from congressional republicans and the house speaker john boehner and mitt romney talking about the deficit and how you have to get that down and how mitt romney can manage the deficit and the economy better than president obama. >> romney's got a story he could tell about bain capital with thousands of jobs that were created with sports authority or staples or dominos pizza. this is something we can discuss in the strategy session. >> those were republicans, so -- >> gloria, thank you. debt ceiling deja vu, the white house and congressional republicans squaring off over raising the government's borrowing limit. this time the stakes are higher. can you believe it? the independent vermont senator bernie sanders is not one of them. he's here to tell us why. i think you have a candidate like romney, somebody is george bush reincarnated. great shot. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and 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gridlock he wants congress to get to work on his economic to-do list. republican leaders have their own views on this. let's go to our white house correspondent brianna keilar. she's standing by live. what do we know about today's meeting over there. >> reporter: what the president wanted about his congressional to-do list as he tries to run against the do-nothing congress. it was heej aked by speak are boehner who was drawing a line in the sand, he won't accept tax increases. he wants spending cuts and tax reform, but he won't accept tax increases. of course, that goes very much count tore what the president's position on this has been and so you see a debt ceiling battle 2.0 being teed up. today during this meeting according to the white house, president obama said he doesn't want a replay of last summer where the u.s. went to the brink of default, but on the flip side you're hearing from the speaker's office that the speaker was trying to communicate that he's not going to go along with anything unless it really deals with the debt crisis. here's white house press secretary jay carney today. >> my sense is that the tone was congenial. the discussion was productive and the sandwiches were delicious and that while the topic was raised and discussed, it was -- there was no other issue associated -- no problem associated with speaker boehner's remarks yesterday. >> we had again to another one of the -- >> you have to ask the speaker of the house whether or not he intends or he believes that it is the right thing to do for the american people, the american economy to play chicken with the full faith and credit of the united states government. >> reporter: now, wolf, an aide to speaker boehner said that president obama said that he would not go along with any spending cuts in order to increase the debt ceiling and then we heard something different from minority leader nancy pelosi who said that the president was trying to talk about balance, meaning compromise and maybe some tax increasesas well as some spending cuts. so we're getting differing versions of what was discussed at the meeting. >> the speaker did leave one opening there, brian a that he would not accept any tax rate increases and there would be tax revenue from tax reform, there were loopholes, for example, that's one area that they may be able to get to some sort of agreement. it was six, seven months and not such a long time and it was a tough time during the lame duck session. thanks very much brianna keilar at the white house. over at the u.s. senate they've been spending the day spinning their wheels in heated debates. let's take a closer look on the senate chamber where they're voting on five different plans with no chance of passing. dana bash is watching this unfold. one more reason described as the broken congress. >> the senate will spend the next hour and a half on these votes and they're being put up for one reason and one reason only to give political ammunition to use against the other. it is the first time she's so-called show vote have taken place and it's no wonder voters are fed up. here's how the dechl democratic leader described the day in the world's greatest deliberative body. >> they'll vote on the series of stunt budgets. >> if you're looking for a simple three-word description, what we face is this, duck and cover. >> again, the democrat. >> we don't mind wasting a day wasting show boats. >> and the republican. >> is anybody embarrassed by the fact that they haven't offered a budget in three years. >> reporter: for six straight hours senators argued knowing full well none of the five budgets before them had any chance of passing. it was republicans who forced the issue to make the political point that democrats have not passed a budget in three years. >> the democratic majority refuses steadfastly, adamantly to produce and lay out their vision for the future while investing considerable amount of time and effort in attacking anybody who does. >> reporter: all of this raises a big question with extreme joblessness atop voters' minds can republicans really score for not passing a budget? >> gop sources say yes since several democrats promise to balance budgets. >> i'll fight to balance schools, affordable health care. >> reporter: they're enforcing a vote on his budget which they won't support. they use this political theater to stage protests on conservative plans. >> their proposals would take us back to the failed policies that brought this country to the brink of economic collapse. >> today's folks are nothing more than a republican attempt to promote a radical and unwelcome agenda of slashing middle class programs. >> the day'santics put on display, and divided, politicized washington talking past each other. >> congress has an approval rating of 11%. maybe that has something to do with the fact that we aren't doing our job. right outside the capital a glimmer of hope, they have a fix congress now caucus. >> it threatens the very foundation of our republic. >> reporter: unfortunately, only six showed up. >> reporter: the leading proposal of that new fixed congress caucus is to hit law makers where they hurt, their wallet. wolf, don't hold on anything like that getting through. when some things that members largely agree on both sides of the aisle are tied up in political knots, things like balancing the act and the idea that student loans should not go up. >> dana thanks very much. we should note that senator sheldon of rhode island is a democrat, not a republican. we put that up in the bottom of the screen. government regulations on wall street. one lawmaker says it's the other way around. the real truth is that wall street regulates the congress. they are enormously powerful. >> we'll talk about that and much more with the independent senator bernie sanders of vermont. he's here in "the situation room" and details of a potential harmful ingredient found in dozens of sunscreens. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. 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