And our story begins here, the speaker of the house, theres no need to adjust your set because this is supposed to be a photo of jim demint. He resigned from the senate back in january and he last served in the senate eight years ago. He might as well based on what happened today the guy who controls the United States house of representatives. John boehner gets to hold the gavel so he controls that but not much more. Jim demint no longer holds any office in this country anymore. He now runs a conservative think tank, even though hes no longer in congress, jim demint might as well be the speaker of the house. Today we entered day 15 of the Government Shutdown, just over 24 hours away of defaulting on our national debt, hitting the debt ceiling and running out of money to pay our bills. There are Tea Party Republicans who say theyre not worried about the thursday deadline for hitting the debt cells. China is calling for a deamericanized world because of the quote intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States. The u. S. Was put on notice today from one of the big Credit Ratings agencies quote, the repeated brinkmanship over the Debt Rating Agency is threatening to downgrade americas credit which could cost us billions of dollars in higher interest payments. Those are some of the consequences of letting the u. S. Default. It was with that catastrophe getting closer by the hour that Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell laid out the frame work for a deal that would raise the debt ceiling temporarily. That was how the nation went to bed last night. The bipartisan plan was taking shape in the senate. The House Republicans were set to talk about how to handle it this more. Thats where we left the news at around this time last night. That is not where Congress Left the news. Because late last night, after senators reed and mcconnell announced that they were on the verge of that deal, republican ted cruz went to work. Hes been meeting with and delivering pep talks to republicans in the house. Telling them not to cave in, not to listen to House Republican leadership, not to fear any political consequences and last nights on the news, the senate would be sending over a plan for the house to consider, cruz met with about 20 House Republicans at this washington texmex joint. According to rollcall report, the group is a collection of members that have often given compromised measures as well as packages crafted by fellow republicans. Continuing from roll call quote, the dinner meeting was held in a private basement room, the group was spotted by majority whip kevin mccarthy. Lets stop there and remember Kevin Mccarthys job as the republican whip in the house is to keep republican members in line, to keep them voting in the right way, the way that leadership wants him to vote. And at the most sensitive possible moment, last night at this texmex joint, the republican whip discovers ted cruz not even a member of the house reportedly right there in tortilla coast. That tortilla coast summit set the stage for what played out today in washington. Because john boehner spent today desperately trying to craft a measure that could get all of those republicans who met with republican ted cruz last night on board. Reports trickled out of the tinkering with to try to win over the right. Over in the senate, both parties gave up talking for a while, gave up to see what boehner could put together. Finally, middle of the afternoon, a house vote was scheduled for a republican authored bill to reopen the government and to lift the debt ceiling. Boehner set that vote for tonight. That all happened late this afternoon, and the next thing to happen was this. Heritage action announced that it would score that vote, its the political arm of jim demints heritage foundation. He has been calling the shutdown a temporary slowdown and we essentially told republicans in congress to keep it going. That left boehner with no choice but to call off the vote, not because he didnt want to pass a bill, not because he didnt want to get this all behind him but because he didnt have the votes. Back to senator reid and back to senator mcconnell. There are reports that a deal is imminent. Any deal they reach still has to get through the house. John boehner still has to somehow get it done. Can he survive getting that done . Why should anyone believe he can . Hes not been able to do it so far. Crashing through the debt ceiling would be too terrible. Where does john boehner get the votes to make ur it doesnt happen. Joining us right now the robert costa, thanks for being here, robert. Appreciate the time. So lets start with the reports were all hearing about, you know, mcconnell and reid are back to talking again, imminent deal, do we have a basic sense of what the contours of that deal are going to be . Senate republicans are hoping the House Republicans could pass something tonight. But when that plan fell apart, now it goes back to the senate and all the republicans in senate are trying to do is protect sequestration, they know theyre on the ropes and thats all they can possibly get. Its generally a deal that the democrats are happy about, given the circumstances. The question then is, a, are we confident that boehner will take this deal that comes out of the senate and actually put it on the floor for a vote in the house . Are we confident that will happen . Im not entirely confident of that . They say boehner has two options, he can accept what the senate brokers tomorrow morning. Or heck try to float some kind of sixweek extension of simply the debt limit. I think the leadership would like to embrace the senate deal. But as we saw today, the way things are so fragile in the house, boehner may just go for a debt limit extension. And do we have any sense of how democrats will respond to is that. As much as republicans want to get beyond this impass, as much as republicans are boehner starts trying to really tinker with the senate deal, it could be chaos on wednesday and thursday night. So it absolutely could. So youre talking about the two choices that boehner sort of sees himself having right now. This whole issue hes been talking about since he became speaker in 2011, hes auld got to worry about the coup, hes always got to be looking around the corner for the threat to his leader ship. Do you think that if he put the deal that was cut by reid and mcconnell on the floor, i think its pretty safe to say it would pass, but could he survive Something Like has a speaker . We have seen a lot of political theater from the leadership. Theyre trying to prove that theyre doing everything they can. Theyre exhausting all possible offers on the table before they accept some kind of deal. Thats why tonights failure to pass it in the house, on the surface, its a huge failure for the leadership, but it does show those conservatives on the right that the house cant even come up with an agreement on its own plan, and thats a lesson to them that they have to move toward the senate. The dates are floating around out there for if this Senate Becomes the deal that ends up getting passed in the end and were able to funds the government, the government being open through january 15, were talking about the next debt ceiling deadline being set for february 7. You look at everything weve just been through the last three weeks, all this dancing around that boehner has to do, that he still is doing really as we speak right now, is there any sense that we wont go through this all over again in january and early february . I think the closer we get to the midterms, theres going to be a reluctance to be another type of showdown. Republicans especially in the house are very interested in the house in having a showdown. Lets say it goes into early january of 2014, they want to have a fight on the delay of the individual mandate. Obama care is the republicans message ahead of 2014. So dont look for them to relent in any way. We talked about the announcement from the jim demint, the announcement from heritage that said this is a key vote, if youre a republican in the house, you better be voting against this thing. Can you talk about what affect that had on the most conservative members of the house. Its sort of these outside pressure groups or in the case of cruz as senator coming over and talking to them, what affect thats had on boehners ability to lead and how that played out today . Its easy at first blush to shrug off what happened at tortilla coast meeting with house conservatives. But in the way the Republican Party functions right now in the house, these are critical events because the leadership has very limited ability, no earmarks to really whip votes, so these outside Movement Groups like Heritage Action and Movement Leaders like senator cruz has been really able to corral votes in the house. They have been, as you said in the introduction, whipping votes in the house. Thats something we really have never seen in the american house. You know the factions of the republican membership in the house really well. We always hear about theres this really hardcore group of ted cruz republicans in the house and theres secondary layers of that, i guess. If the senate deal, the framework or which youre describing, goes to the floor, how many House Republicans safely could vote for that . What kind of support do you think it would get . Its very fluid, because that block of 50 conservative hard liners theyre going to resist it. The question is, does that larger group, i call them the silent majority, 100 to 140 House Republicans who are sort of center right push back against the leadership . That could easily be the case. What does boehner do if his conference is not influenced by him but by that block of 50. Theres so much sort of craziness in the air today, but the bottom line, do you expect that when this debt default deadline comes later this week, that we will ultimately be in the clear, we will not be having a debt default, are you confident that will at least be the outcome . I think Speaker Boehner from day one says he wants to avoid a default. He said that publicly and privately, can he bring something to the floor that does do that. I think he has difficulty bringing anything to the floor so well have to see. Robert costa, we thank you very much for joining us tonight. T. Only clear this inge in this bat system that the senate has not wavered in its position. Fios having a big tire event . Your ford dealer. Who has 11 major brands to choose from . Your ford dealer. Whos offering a rebate . Your ford dealer. Who has the low price tire guarantee, affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of tires . Your ford dealer. Im beginning to sense a pattern. Get up to 140 in mailin rebates when you buy four select tires with the Ford Service Credit card. Whered you get that sweater vest . Your ford dealer. Wake it up with olay regenerist. Formulated with a skin energizing complex, it penetrates 10 layers of the skins surface, because energized skin is younger looking skin. Some kind of. This is. 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One by one, they took turn at the microphone and they all said that the plan Republican House leaders were crafting to end the shutdown and avert a default would receive absolutely zero support from democrats. They have to know if it is as it has been described that theyll have to do that with 100 republican votes. Whats notable here is that the plan that House Republicans were working on, the plan that those Democratic Leaders announced themselves unaltering opposed to. Its a deal the democrats seem ready to support. The main difference is apparently over obama care which takes place in the senate would make relatively small changes to the law, nothing that would seriously undermine it. They also werent target about defunding the law anymore. So why did democrats denounce what they were pla planning to swiftly . It only makes sense when you look at it in the context of the last three weres, it was a line in the sand that was basically wiped away in the 2010 election. Republicans picked up more seats than in any Midterm Election in almost 75 years. It was back then a sheepish feeling to put it mildly among democrats including the president. Im not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like i did last night. That was president obama the day after that shellacking back in november 2010. Two years earlier, being elected with the largest share of the vote for any democrat since lbj, now here he was acknowledging just how far Public Opinion had shifted. I get it, he was telling the country, i was going to change. Then the next month after that shellacking but before the new congress got sworn into office, he made a deal with republicans to extend the bush tax cuts. After losing so badly at the polls, he changed his tune and he cut a deal that also included some new stimulus money. For the most part the left hated it. The polls also showed that the public actually liked it, they liked what they were seeing a real bipartisan deal. So the white house that was take home message, take a congress sill tear tone and you get rewarded. The only problem with the plan, bush tax cuts deal in december 2010 was made when democrats had lame duck majorities in the house and the senate. In january 2011, scores of democrats officially left office. A brandnew batch of 63 republican freshman were sworn in, freshman who didnt share the white houses willingness to make deals. This is the backdrop for what became the lowest moment of the obama presidency. He spent the first seven months of 2011 convinced he could strike a sweeping fiscal deal with that new republican congress. He entered into talks with john boehner as a debt ceiling deadline approached and then he discovered that boehners caucus were opposed to any deal with obamas name on it. Comes in the wake of yesterdays 513point drop in the dow jones. Today the u. S. Stock market had finished largely flat. Two other big Credit Rating agencies, moodys and fitch have maintained the aaa rating, though they warned that downgrades were possible in the future. A downgrade of course is what the Obama Administration and congress were hoping to avoid when the president signed a deal to raise the debt ceiling at the very last minute to keep the u. S. From defaulting on its debt. This downgrading of the nations Credit Rating is essentially an indictment of the nations political process. At roughly 8 20 p. M. Eastern time tonight on a night full of confusion as to whether this would happen. S p went ahead with their downgrade decision. It is summer of 201 1rks House Republicans claimed the debt cells as leverage and they threatened a default if the president didnt give away the store. Took a lastsecond deal to avoid catastrophe, its a deal that haunts everyone to this day through whats known as the sequester. Markets freaked out in 2011, the credit of the United States was downgraded, the republicans, those dozens of republican freshman who promised never to blink, they walked away from all of that who believed the threat of a shutdown was just Standard Operating Procedure from the minority party. The line in the sand that had previously prevented debts even hostage taking had to be reestablished. They have to know if it is as it has been described that theyll have to do that with 100 republican votes. Joining us now is congresswoman barbara lee, a democrat of california, a member of the house Budget Committee. I wonder if we could start with, we talked a little bit about what happened in the summer of 2011 when the president who had been sort of humbled by the 2010 midterms who decided his way back was going to be through compromising and negotiating with republicans and he tried to compromise and negotiate over the debt ceiling with them, he felt that he got burned. I wonder how that experience of watching that all play out and of living through that in 2011 has shape shaped the way you deal with this crisis. I did not support that deal, because we saw what was to come. Understanding that the Tea Party Republicans once again came here to washington, d. C. To congress to do one thing and that was to dismantle and to decimate government. And we saw that in 2011, we see that now. This is part of who they are, this is their agenda, this is what they want to do and i think the history that you have recounted tonight, im glad youre doing this because people have to remember who the radical extremists are and they are obsessed with denying millions of americans Affordable Health care. And i always thought congressw