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Allan simpson and erskine bowles. earlier they told congress they must act. >> what's right for this country is to solve this long-term fiscal problem. we face the most predictable economic crisis in history. the fiscal path we're on is not sustainable. they know it, and they've got to stand up to it. we've simply made promises we can't deliver on. >> nbc's capitol hill correspondent luke russert joins us from washington. luke, good morning to you. what's the point of today's hearing? >> good morning, chris. the point of today's hearing before the supercommittee really is to hear this message ...

Both senate leaders, mcconnell and reid, didn't like it when the gang of six got together, which was sort of, frankly, a senate version of what you guys were trying to do. if you had both members of the leadership -- now, i'd argue you're elected leadership to get into the majority, period. that's your job, and until that changes to getting rewarded for governing, i don't know how to fix this. but what do you do? >> you know, i think you're elected to leadership to lead. and that means doing what's right for the american people, not necessarily what's right for democrats or republicans. and wh...

Public employees, this had to do with the right to work legislation. you said something interesting. you said you chose not to pick this fight because you didn't campaign on it. and you believed if you had not made a case to voters about right-to-work legislation, that you shouldn't be trying to do it once you've been in office and in the legislative session. did governor walker, you think, lose the political fight here? >> i have no way of knowing. the taxpayers of wisconsin won. seems to me that he committed to do the sorts of things he's trying to do and we taught agree or disagree with peo...

Government do more or less, one thing that was clearer is that people rank jobs and economic growth over deficit reduction as their priority. and i think that kind of -- it didn't back up republicans this week, but it made people pay attention. >> i'm curious about whether republicans realize that -- it doesn't seem to me that message is resonating. that is, if we don't deal with our fiscal problem, we have uncertainty, and therefore the economy can't grow. that's the line that they're drawing through it. and you see from our polling, people want that focus on immediate job creation, and that ...

And deficit down, we're going to have to have a broader decision. it's going to have to include both houses and both parties. right now, however, the president is the only one who has a plan now that actually reduces our national debt by a trillion dollars. we still haven't seen what's coming from the republicans, but absolutely this president would like to see washington work well together in a cooperative way where we see common ground to try to solve both our short-term and long-term fiscal problem. to give you an example of the type of bipartisan needed is what we saw in december. the fact...