>>>
in washington, the temperature will soar today. this as talks heat up on finding ways to raise the debt cerealing with the deadline tendais days away.
chuck todd
is the politico correspondent and director. good morning to you.
>>
good morning.
>>
we listened to the president that he had separate meetings at the
white house
. democrats, republicans. the image that comes to my mind is
divide and conquer
. any progress at all?
>>
it depend on how you define progress. in many ways we're in the same place we were two months ago, three months ago, four months ago. no one has a plan to get through the republican-controlled
house of representatives
. not
president obama
, not
speaker of the house
john boehner
, and not
mitch mcconnell
and
harry reid
. that's the issue. house republicans don't like any of these ideas that are coming out of the senate, whether it's this gang of six,
big deal
idea, or the backroom legislative gymnastic idea that
mitch mcconnell
has put together. in fact, they hate that idea so much that if there's one piece of optimism here, matt, is that got them to decide, you know what? we're better off dealing directly with
president obama
.
>>
the reid-mcconnell plan, 780 house republicans got together, they signed a letter to boehner and cantor saying they don't like this deal at all. they're circulating the letter trying to get more signatures. which brings the question up. if we get to the
august 2
deadline with no larger deal, the reid-mcconnell plan had been considered the fallback, the
safety net
. is that now dead?
>>
well, no. but it could be this -- it may be that house republicans won't vote for it the first time. i've had many republican members tell me this, matt, which is the likelihood that we're going to see some sort of t.a.r.p.-like moment, back in september of
2008
where the house voted down the big bailout of the banks, the markets reacted and then congress voted again. i'm hearing more and more that might be the only way something gets thu house. now, under that circumstance, it actually probably would lead to the
bigger deal
after the near catastrophic financial reaction.
>>
let me explain one thing in the last few seconds, if you will, the
white house
suggested yesterday that the president might be in agreement with a short-term raising of the debt ceiling if he thought the larger plan was in the work. we have not heard that from the president's lips yet. is it an opposition? oh.
>>
it has to be if he wants it
bigger deal
. the president wants one badly. he's winning politically short term right now. he knows he'll lose politically if he doesn't get a
bigger deal
. he's trying to buy time, matt.
>>
chuck todd
at the
white house
this morning. as always, thank you very much.
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