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Overlapping things. one is cutting programs, including programs to help some of the people who are suffering, and the other is cutting the deficit. so you have the tea party over here cutting programs and washington elite opinion saying if we're not focused only on the long-term deficit, we are not serious. what about all these other problems? i think the tea party can claim some victory in shifting the whole discussion away from the problems that i at least think we ought to be talking about. >> ej, what i loved about your column is it raised issues that we have forgotten about, and for gotte...

It worked for him back in the '90s. but already, there are winners in the budget battle. tea party republicans. as "the washington post" columnist ej deyoung junior explained. joining me now, ej deyoung of the "the washington post." what has the tea party already won? >> when you look at what we're talking about, compared to what's happening in the country, and it is good to see you, lawrence, you know, take -- what are we worried about. we have 9% unemployment. lots of working class people have stag nanlt inspection. working class kids can't afford college. a lot of communities around the cou...

>> when you get to the budget, you're cutting foreign policy and commitment as broad, cutting programs at home. maybe going to curtail social security. you're going to have to do all these things. you put this out there and say this is what we're going to do. the democrats pile on and say they're slashing the programs we spent our whole lives building up. and you have a contest like that instead of a referendum on obama and the democrats which is what the republicans want. >> another key story in the papers today. the republicans have restocked their war chest. gave out all the reasons why the...

There. what would it mean to us in our everyday lives? >> reporter: well, jane, if you know if we're going to avoid essentially a national bankruptcy, the government's going to have to make some very difficult decisions at some point, cutting programs, raising taxes, but just to give you some more per perspective on this, the share of the federal debt for each household in the u.s., when president obama took office the federal debt by household was about $56,000. today it's already jumped to $72,000, and now these numbers projecting by 2020 we're going to have a debt of more than $20 trillion....

>> well said, martha, because essentially the politicians are throwing up their hands, they're saying look, we can't do this. doesn't matter how big a majority we've got in the house or the senate, doesn't matter, we can't do it. and i have to ask a serious question, martha, which politician can really cut medicare and medicaid? who can do that? who can really reform social security? it's already runing in deficit. who's going to straighten that one out? which politician? which party can actually do that? by going to a commission, the president gets political cover, by cutting programs and for...