Main Street has mixed feelings on debt deal

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor (Washington, DC): We spent the better part of this past week here on Capitol Hill getting the behind-the-scenes story from official Washington for our special hour-long broadcast "Taking the Hill " that we aired on NBC last night. We talked to the leadership, we talked to a lot of members of Congress and staff. But today across this country we spoke to Americans to hear what they think about all of this in their own words.

Mr. TERRY HOWELL (Mechanic, Austin, Texas): I think they're doing a really poor job. It's -- the bickering and infighting, it's all political posturing for the upcoming election in 2012 .

Mr. VAL OLIVA (San Jose, California): When I work, my boss tells me to get this done by a certain date, I got to get it done. Unfortunately, it's not the same rule for folks in Washington .

Ms. TAMMY MALOY (Restaurant Server, Atlanta, Georgia): Well, my parents are very concerned that they're going to lose their Social Security . And I do believe that if we cannot live within our budget, then there's something wrong.

Mr. STEVE HULSMAN (Attorney, New York, New York): This is my daughter Sarah . She's 12. I wonder what kind of a financial state we'll be in in 2012 .

Mr. PAUL DIEMER (Construction Worker, Columbia, South Carolina): It's made me sit and decide what I'm going to do with my 401(k). Am I going to leave it in there, am I going to pull it out and put it in bonds, which I hate to do?

Mr. ARTURO MARTINEZ (Mechanic, Austin, Texas): It seems to me like a bunch of kids playing like hot -- with hot potato or someone wants to be the savior.

Mr. KENNETH HARRIS (Insurance Underwriter, New York, New York): Yeah, I do think it's a -- it's a beauty about democracy that we can debate these things out.

Ms. GAIL SROLOFF (Athletic Director, Los Angeles, California): With the economy, with the recession, with the lack of jobs, the economy still hasn't rallied. There's just -- it's a really bad time not to be able to make a decision.

WILLIAMS: Just a sampling of what we found Americans telling us how they feel about what has been going on here in Washington .