Is some hope at this hour of a deal to reopen the government, raise the debt ceiling and put an end to this ugly, unnecessary crisis. 14 days into a Government Shutdown, the timeliness to avoid possible economic calamity just three days is truly unforgiven, given the sheer mechanics of getting something passed through both houses of Congress Even after a deal is finally reached. Senate majority leader harry reid and Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell spent the day inching closer to a deal after house leaders were unable to arrive at something the president could accept. Weve made tremendous progress. We are not there yet, but tremendous progress, and everyone just needs to be patient. Perhaps tomorrow will be a bright day. Were not there yet. We hope it will be. Let me echo the remarks of the majority leader. Weve had a good day, had a good day yesterday, had another good day today. I think its safe to say weve made substantial progress. That rare display of bipartisan harmony. The very latest pronouncement from reid and mcconnell about negotiations came just about 90 minutes ago. Earlier today, the duo engaged in a similar attempt at soothing everyones collective nerves. Im very optimistic that we will reach an agreement thats reasonable in nature this week. I deeply appreciate my friend, the minority leader, for his diligent efforts to come to an agreement. Let me just echo the remarks of my good friend, the majority leader. Weve had an opportunity over the last couple of days to have some very constructive exchanges of views about how to move forward. A 3 00 p. M. Meeting between president obama and congressional leaders was postponed so that negotiations between reid and mcconnell could proceed. However, mcconnell did meet with Speaker Boehner for nearly a half hour, and mcconnell will meet with Senate Republicans tomorrow morning to review the emerging agreement. Here are the contours of the deal as we know them. Reopening the government and funding it through january 15th, lifting the debt ceiling through february 7th, requiring a budget conference report in which both houses would come together to negotiate a budget by december 13th, and flexibility for agencies to implement budget cuts from sequestration. There may be some other aspects of the deal well get into. This deal comes after democrats rejected a plan crafted by republican senator susan collins, in part because it would have extended sequestration level budget well into 2014. There is at least recent precedent for mcconnell and reid striking a deal the white house signs off on, a deal that Speaker Boehner then brings to a vote in the house, despite the opposition of a majority of republicans. It happened on the fiscal cliff and it happened on sandy aid. Of course, the great irony is that if that is how this ultimately plays out, it could have happened two weeks ago. If Speaker Boehner had brought the senates shortterm budget to a vote in the house, it very likely would have passed. Meanwhile, as the shutdown continues, republicans continue to pay a steep political price for their intransigence. The latest poll putting their disapproval numbers at 74 compared to democrats in congress at 61 and president obama at 53 . Joining me now is congressman scott ridgel, a republican from virginia. And, congressman, as far as you can tell, given the details emerging from the mcconnell and reid deal, is that something you can imagine the House Republican caucus voting for . Well, chris, like so many things that come my way up here in washington, its not actually exactly what id like, but, look, the pressure and the pain is very real from this shutdown. Its hurting the virginia 2nd congressional district, its hurting our country, and i really think the fight, to the extent there is a fight, and there is one, should really be about overall funding of our government and not the debt limit. And so, i would, based on what i know, i would support it, based on what i know. You, sir, are an outlier. You are, if im not mistaken, the only republican in the house to vote against the defunding of obama care in this last round that caused the shutdown, a vote that i happen to agree with, but if you were going to vote for this, that doesnt necessarily tell us where the heart of the House Republican caucus is. My question to you is, what is the sense you get from your colleagues . Is there communication happening in the House Republican caucus right now about this emerging deal . Not yet. There certainly will be tomorrow morning. And, chris, let me be clear, you know, i dont support what i really believe is the unaffordable care act and i voted no on that first continuing resolution because of my just absolute repudiation of how we dont budget up here, continuing resolutions hurt our country. Whats really needed is for us to get through this, to have a shortterm solution, but really, i think every member of congress, member of the house or the senate, should be required to answer this question what specific plan do you support to get ahold of our longterm spending . I have a plan. Its the America First plan. I offered it last week. And whats largely absent up here is specificity, because people are so afraid of grabbing something. This has bipartisan appeal, it has things that democrats like and things that republicans will like, and it also has things that both parties will object to, which means i think that were on the right track. Well, i want to talk about the sort of budget negotiations that may come in a second, but first of all, if it comes to pass, a deal is hammered out in the senate along the lines of what weve seen so far, it goes to the house and if it comes to pass that john boehner brings it to the floor for an open vote, which is an open question, and if it comes that it passes, what will you and the Republican Party tell your constituents about what the heck the purpose of this shutdown was . Well, chris, the first day of the shutdown, i sent out this tweet, and i knew it would put us in maybe an odd position, but i knew it was the right one. I said, look, its time for a clear cr. Heres why. I looked out as best as one could and said how does this look day 3, day 6, day 12, indeed, day 14 . It didnt look good to me, and our objective became muddier, and i didnt think itd be good for our conference or our country. So, im not happy with this process that weve been through, so i think your points well taken there, but i mean the answer to that is, theres nothing to tell constituents because nothing was genuinely gained from this. Well, you know, if were going to take the American People through a very painful process of not funding the government, look, its not that im unwilling. And i understand the full ramifications of it, chris. This has real impact on real families all across america. You know some are furloughed, and they know theyre going to get their pay when they come back. A lot of families are not in that situation. I mean, theyre flat out unemployed. 900,000 jobs have, you know, are estimated to have been lost because of this whole thing. I mean, this is deeply troubling. But whats equally troubling is our failure as a country and this institution and the president to agree upon a longterm plan that slows down the growth of mandatory spending. You will not get any argument from me that the shortterm government by cr is no way to go. Congressman scott rigell of virginia. Thank you so much. Joining me now is congressman chris van hollen, Ranking Member of the house budget committee. And the first question to you, congressman, is is john boehner going to bring this to a vote . If the contours of the deal are the ones that were reporting, and id be curious if house leadership is being read into this, which dont do much to obama care, theres some talk about one tax being delayed for a year, relatively small in the scheme of things, some stronger Income Verification possibly, a few things around the edges, if thats the contours of the deal, then is john boehner going to bring it for a vote . And if you bring this to a vote, why didnt he just bring it to a vote two weeks ago . Well, chris, thats obviously the big question. First, i should say we dont know all the details of this agreement. We believe that we should have a clean cr and a clean debt ceiling extension. The dates you talked about are the dates that i think have been under discussion, but we dont think you should have the extraneous provisions, even the socalled medical device tax, which would add to the deficit if you get rid of that. So, were really focused on clean measures. But the big question is the one you posed, will Speaker Boehner bring this up . We know that he has refused to bring up the legislation thats before the house right now, which would immediately reopen the government, and we have the votes between republicans and democrats to do it. So, will he be willing to bring up this larger agreement . And this is the moment of truth for john boehner, because on the one hand stands his reckless tea party caucus, and hes been feeding that beast all along, thinking that theyd be satisfied, but, in fact, theyve just gotten stronger and more demanding, or will he stand up for the good of the country . And, look, when the countrys on the edge of default and the country continues to be in Government Shutdown, you would hope he would stand up for the good of the country. Congressman, i want to play a piece of tape of you having an exchange with one of your republican colleagues in the house about the rules. And its a piece of tape that went viral this weekend, because it looks a little bit like a smoking gun on the shutdown. Im going to play it and ask you to explain what was happening. Take a look. This standing rule of the house, which i have here, has been altered by the house. Is that what the speakers saying . The house adopted a resolution altering. The rules committee under the rules of the house changed the standing rules of the house to take away the right of any member to move to vote to open the government and gave that right exclusively to the republican leader. Is that right . The house adopted that resolution. So, you were pointing out a change to the rules. What were the change to the rules, and what effect did they have . Yeah, chris, this is really important, because i think people realize now that Speaker Boehner, you know, shut down the government and has refused to allow a vote. What people are learning now is that the republicans on october 1st, in the middle of the night, actually changed the rules of the house in order to keep the government shut down, because under the standing rules of the house, in the particular circumstance were in, where theres a disagreement between the house and the senate, the regular rules of the house would allow any member, republican or democrat, myself or anybody else, to call up the senate bill which would immediately reopen the entire government. Republicans realized that, and so they changed the rule so that the republican leader would have that exclusive right. In other words, they took a right that belonged to any member of congress and gave it exclusively to eric cantor or his designee. Just so were clear, they understood that a vote to reopen the government would pass the house. They did not want it to happen. They wanted to keep the shutdown going because they saw it as leverage, and so, they rewrote the rules of the house of representatives to make sure only eric cantor or someone he said could bring up the senate bill to reopen the government because they were so terrified that any member bringing that to the floor would pass it and reopen the government . Thats exactly what happened. I mean, they were afraid of the democratic process, because they can count. That is the smoking gun. And the big question now is, whatever deal comes out of the senate, the thing were going to watch and hopefully we can get you back here to talk about it is does Speaker Boehner bring it for a vote . Congressman chris van hollen, of maryland, thank you for joining us. Good to be with you. Joining me now is Richard Costa with the National Review and cnbc contributor. So the big question today, robert, is Mitch Mcconnell is working out a deal with harry reid, weve seen this before, and the way this has ended up is john boehner going to the house floor to bring up a vote on something that he does not have a ton of republican support for and that passing with democratic votes. Are we headed down that road again . Chris, i just met with some House Republicans this evening on capitol hill, and i asked for predictions about what Speaker Boehner would do tomorrow, especially when House Republicans meet for their Conference Meeting in the basement of the capitol, and they think because now the senate is brokering a deal, they think boehner is not ready to come to the conference and ask them to accept it. The deal isnt even finalized. So, House Republicans as of now, based on my reporting, are looking at sending their own package back to the senate. If they do that, of course, lets keep in mind, this is precisely what happened with the continuing resolution. It is precisely the series of events that have led us to the shutdown, which continues to this moment, and yet, we are doing this up against a very, very different kind of deadline with the debt ceiling just three days away. Heres the mindset in the house, especially among republicans and conservatives, boehner has to exhaust all of his ammunition, and that includes sending Something Back to the senate, perhaps on tuesday or wednesday, before finally, perhaps, at the 11th hour, the 11th hour, he embraces some kind of senate compromise. So, this is essentially political theatrics, i mean, meaning, john boehner has to show to his caucus he fought until the last second before the clock ticked over and the world Financial Markets went into disarray, in order to be able to save face with his caucus, thats what youre saying. This isnt exactly a new story. Weve seen since Speaker Boehner decided to adopt the ted cruz strategy, to push for a defunding obama care. Weve seen Speaker Boehner very much work in sync with the right flank of the house. He is not acting as an independent operator. I think thats a misconception about Speaker Boehner. When you watch him in action every day, this is someone who is an independent thinker, used to be a committee chairman, but when it comes to being speaker of the house, he very much walks in step with the right. I want to play a clip for you of Sheldon Whitehouse saying why hes untroubled by a temporary continuing resolution and a temporary raising of the debt ceiling for only four months because he thinks republicans have learned a political lesson from this. Listen. The republicans, and particularly the tea party republicans, really burned their hands on this hot stove, and the idea that in january theyre going to want to grab it again and burn themselves all over again doesnt seem very likely. I think they learned a lesson from the damage that they did to our country with this latest stunt. Do you think hes right . Partially. I think republicans privately look at the poll numbers and they see 74 of americans are dissatisfied with the way theyre operating. Theyre aware of that. Theyre aware of the constituent calls coming in. But because of the way the conservative movement operates today and the way it influences the Republican Party, if Speaker Boehner does embrace the senate deal, youre still going to see many, many House Republicans oppose it because it does not include provisions related to obama care. And the biggest question i think is are the outside groups, heritage action, for instance, who pushed the whole defense of obama care strategy, will the entire sort of machinery of Movement Conservatism then crank itself up for another one of these fights in four months because they didnt need to go through this to understand this would be unpopular the first time around. Robert costa from the National Review, thank you so much for your time tonight. Thank you. Coming up this country isnt ran by just one individual. Its ran by four branches, but three branches that are in control of this. Our feature, these are the people who are running the country, continues tonight with this guy, a u. S. Congressman who thinks we have four branches of government. Well be right back. Kes you dift is what makes us different. We take the time to get to know you and your unique health needs. Then we help create a personalized Healthcare Experience that works for you. And you. And you. With 50 years of knowhow, and a dedicated network of doctors, health coaches, and wellness experts, were a partner you can rely on today, and tomorrow. Were going beyond insurance to become your partner in health. Humana. Because an empty pan is a blank canvas. [ woman 2 ] to share a moment. [ man 1 ] to remember my grandmother. [ woman 3 ] to show my love. 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