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Debt Plan Faces Do-or-Die Votes; One Soldier's Evolution; Congress Moves Toward Final Debt Deal; Markets Falter In Asia and Europe; Lawyers Debate Televising Executions

Aired August 01, 2011 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Right now the only thing standing between the U.S. government and a potentially calamitous default is a deficit reduction plan that nobody loves and many people won't even tolerate. I'm speaking of the rank-and-file lawmakers who expect a vote sometime today on the only plan to win the support of President Obama and top Republicans in both houses of Congress. Passage is not guaranteed and the deadline to increase the Treasury's authority to borrow is tomorrow.

Here's how it maps out.

And don't worry. I'm not even going to try to walk you through these steps and triggers and alternative scenarios. It's just so darned complicated. But the bottom line is this: $917 billion in spending cuts now, with a special committee in charge of finding $1.5 trillion in long-term cuts by the end of this year.

The debt limit would rise by $900 billion now and $1.5 trillion next year if the equivalent spending cuts come through or Congress passes a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The asterisks mean a lot.

Already, there's one potential wrinkle. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the plan, as fully envisioned, would cut spending only by $2.1 trillion over 10 years, not the $2.4 trillion-plus, as hoped.

We're following all the developments, all the repercussions, as only CNN can. My colleague Kate Bolduan joins me this hour from Capitol Hill. Wolf Blitzer is in our Washington studios.

Wolf, I want to start with you. What do you make of the plan on the table and the likelihood that this will reach President Obama's desk tomorrow?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I think the Senate will pass it. They probably have more than 70 votes in the Senate. A lot of Democrats and Republicans will team up.

It's much more problematic in the House of Representatives. They need 216 votes, as you know, because there are a few vacancies in the House. It probably will pass the House of Representatives.

The Speaker is on board. The Senate minority leader -- excuse me, the House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, sort of noncommittal as of now. Steny Hoyer, the Minority Whip, he is on board. Eric Cantor is on board.

So we'll see what happens in the House. It will be a bit of a nail-biter in the House of Representatives, but my guess is that if it comes up for a vote -- and I think it will sometime later this afternoon -- the Speaker wouldn't allow it to come up for a vote unless all of his whips had done the head counts and they think they have enough votes to get it passed.

KAYE: Wolf, does this feel like a compromised plan to you?

BLITZER: Yes, it does feel like a compromised plan. There were concessions made all around. The president certainly made a lot of concessions.

The Republicans wanted a balanced budget amendment. They wanted a guarantee not only that there would be a vote, but that both houses would pass a balanced budget amendment and send it to the states for ratification. They're not going to get that as part of this deal.

They've punted on the whole issue of tax cuts, tax reform and entitlement reform, nice words for basically tax increases, and cuts in entitlements, or Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid cuts. They've punted until the end of November, when this super committee is supposed to come up with its recommendations by November 23rd.

And if they don't get agreement on those recommendations -- there's no guarantee that they will -- these automatic triggers go into effect. There will be across-the-board cuts, half of which will come from defense spending, the other from non-defense spending, including cuts in some -- providing funds for Medicare providers.

So they'll be painful for the left, painful for the right. So if you like this -- I just wrote in my blog post at CNN.com/situationroom -- we're going to be posting it soon. I make the point if you like this debate right now, you'll love the debate come November. If you hated this debate right now, Randi, you're going to despise the debate that's coming up in November.

KAYE: I'm sure. I'm going to have to check out that blog.

But I do have some more questions for you. So, if you can, just stick around for a moment while we bring in our colleague Kate Bolduan on the Hill.

Kate, if you can, give us a timetable here. What do we expect to happen there and when?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, we're waiting for House Speaker John Boehner to come in and speak. He's been behind closed doors, speaking with his members, rank and file, for quite a while now.

This press conference was actually scheduled for about 1:30. Not completely unusual for the leaders to be running late for something like this, especially on such a controversial piece of legislation. You can be sure that he's behind closed doors trying to make the point that while this is clearly not exactly what they wanted, that it's the best they're going to get at this point. And he's trying to probably do a pretty strong sales job of getting everybody on board, trying to see if he can vote the votes, wrangle the votes to put this to the floor.

We did just get the announcement from the Rules Committee that they have to kind of look at every piece of legislation before it hits the House floor. And it does look like they will be moving towards a vote this evening. The timing though is a little unclear, so we're going to have to check into that a little bit more -- Randi.

KAYE: Kate, you know, not all of us get to roam the halls of Capitol Hill every day. So take us there. Take our viewer there.

What's the mood? What are people talking about?

BOLDUAN: I would say it's a bit of a frenzy today with having especially Vice President Biden come here to speak with both Democrats in the House and the Senate. It's been absolutely crazy.

Not only do you have reporters, me and my colleagues standing here waiting for John Boehner to come to speak with us right now. But everyone is asking the same question, do they have the votes? And honestly, when is the vote at this point since they reached agreement late last night?

So it's quite a busy place today because everyone is trying to see how many Democrats, how many Republicans either side is going to lose, how many they can wrangle to hopefully try to thread the needle and pass this in both the House and the Senate. It doesn't seem like that is -- anyone can accurately guess that at this point -- Randi.

KAYE: All right, Kate. Stand by if you can.

Let me get back to Wolf Blitzer.

Wolf, the Tea Party hates this plan, progressives hate the plan, defense hawks hate the plan. But then you see somebody like Joe Biden, who is going to try and rally support among the Democrats. It sounds like, as Kate was saying, even among the Republicans, that the votes may not be there.

BLITZER: On the House side, she's right. The votes may not -- I think the votes will be in the Senate. I think they'll get enough votes in the Senate to pass it.

On the House side, it's very, very close, 216 being the magic number. And there are all sorts of people looking at the Democrats, the Republicans.

You have a lot of conservative Republicans who will vote against this. A lot of the Tea Party activists, they hate this plan. They're not going to go with it. Michele Bachmann, one of them. She's a member of the House of Representatives. But on the other side, you have members of the Congressional Black Caucus, you have members of what's called the Progressive Caucus. They don't like it. They don't think there's any shared pain, if you will.

There are no tax increases on millionaires and billionaires or corporate jet owners or big oil companies or anything along those lines. All of the entitlement and tax reform, as they call it, that's been punted down the road to November at the earliest. So they're not very happy about this.

And you know what? To get to 216 is not going to be easy. It's doable if you have Boehner on board, if you have Eric Cantor on board, you have Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat, on board. But as I pointed out earlier, Nancy Pelosi is not yet on board. And we'll see how many more Democrats are willing to let this thing die.

It would be a huge, huge embarrassment for the president, the Republican, Democratic leadership if this thing were to collapse. If it were to collapse in the House and they didn't get the 216 votes -- remember back in 2008, October, 2008, when the initial vote on TARP, the economic recovery -- the markets collapsed 780 points within a day. Then a few days later, they had another vote and it passed.

If this were to fail in the House of Representatives, I suspect they're going to wait for the roll call until after the markets close at 4:00 today just to be on the safe side. You could see a huge, huge collapse in the markets on Wall Street. And that might prompt some members to reconsider once again.

You know, at issue, let's not forget what we're talking about potentially, Randi, is default for the first time ever in the history of the United States, the U.S. government defaulting on paying its bills. And that's a big deal.

KAYE: Yes. And we heard Senator Harry Reid earlier, Wolf. He came out and spoke, and he actually said that this clears the way to get rid of the clouds of default.

So everybody has a different opinion about this. But Senator Dick Durbin also came out and had a very interesting comment. I want to play that and get your take on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ASST. MAJORITY LEADER: I still think that has merit. And I still think it should be actively considered when we talk about the long-term reduction of debt.

It is bipartisan, it is honest, it achieves real debt reduction, and it does it in the fairest possible way. It puts everything on the table. Everything. There are no sacred cows. Everything is on the table.

It means it goes beyond spending cuts to the entitlement programs, which make those of us on the Democratic side particularly nervous. But it also goes into revenue, new revenue to reduce our deficit, which makes those on the other side of the aisle nervous. But what we should be nervous about is a continuing deficit and a weakening economy and a debt left to our children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Wolf, what do you make of that?

BLITZER: Well, when we says new revenue, he means tax increases, which a lot of Republicans and many Democrats right now, moderate Democrats especially in the House, some in the Senate, they don't want that either. So -- but they're punting.

This super committee, 12 members, six Democrats, six Republicans, they're going to have to come up with some recommendations. Then there would be a straight up-or-down vote in the House and the Senate if they passed it. The president would have to sign it.

It would be presumably painful down the road. But if they don't do that, then they've got this trigger, as I said earlier, that there would be these automatic prearranged cuts in defense spending, non- defense spending, including some Medicare-related cuts, cuts to providers of health care benefits for Medicare recipients. So that would be painful as well.

And so this is not going to be an easy ordeal for anyone.

KAYE: And that trigger that you mentioned was really set up as an incentive so we don't get there, right?

BLITZER: Right. That was set up because the Republicans will hate the projected cuts in defense spending, the Democrats will hate the projected cuts in non-defense spending, including some Medicare- related cuts.

They don't want that. They would love to see some sort of proposal come through from what some are already calling the Gang of Twelve.

There was this Gang of Six. They come up with some ideas, didn't go very far. Now there's going to be a Gang of Twelve, and we'll see what they can do over the next four months.

Not a whole lot of time for them to get their act together. But right now the immediate focus is on the House of Representatives, Randi, because all these blogs are coming out, all these experts are doing their own head counts, and it doesn't look like this is a guaranteed 216-vote passage that's going to be coming forward. It's going to be a nail-biter.

KAYE: I think, Wolf, you should put "The Best Political Team on Television" together and come up with a gang of however many there are of you. And you could be the leader. There we go.

BLITZER: We've got a lot of them, yes.

KAYE: We sure do. All right, Wolf. We'll check back in with you in about 10 minutes or so. Thank you.

We are watching and waiting for House Speaker John Boehner. And while we do that, let's take a look at some other top stories that we're following.

(NEWSBREAK)

KAYE: Up next, we're live at the White House for the latest on the debt talks. Don't go anywhere. We are also waiting for House Speaker John Boehner to give us his thoughts on the efforts to raise the debt ceiling.

We'll bring that to you live as soon as it happens, right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: As we've been covering for you all day, Congress needs to vote today on a last-minute agreement to raise the federal government's debt ceiling while imposing sweeping spending cuts. The measure needs to reach President Barack Obama's desk by tomorrow to avert this unprecedented national default with catastrophic economic consequences.

I want to talk about that with Dan Lothian. But we also want to remind our folks at home that we are waiting for House Speaker John Boehner.

He was supposed to speak live here on CNN about 1:30. Now we're told that that has been pushed back to 3:30. So we will bring that to you live here in the CNN NEWSROOM at 3:30 Eastern Time.

The talks were delayed. We were hearing from Kate Bolduan, our correspondent on the Hill there, that it's a bit of a frenzy there. So maybe he's working to get some more votes. Maybe there's a little bit of talking going on, negotiating still under way.

But we do expect to hear from him at 3:30. And who knows who will step to the podium?

I have to tell you, we've been watching this all. We have a lot of folks on the Hill, at the White House, watching all of this play out. And it's a bit dramatic, I must say.

So, whoever does come to the podium, whoever wants to speak, wants to come to our camera, our microphone, we will bring to it you here to talk about the debt ceiling as it happens. So we won't let you miss a moment.

Meanwhile, let's get to the White House, where our Dan Lothian is standing by.

Dan, what is the latest there at this hour?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, what's happening here at the White House behind the scenes is the hard-sell job trying to make sure that they can get those Democrats in the House to accept, to embrace this plan.

As you know, liberal Democrats are not happy about the spending cuts, they're not happy about the fact that there's no revenue, no tax increases, if you will, for wealthier Americans. And so the White House has to tell them that this is a good plan.

And, in fact, Vice President Biden is up there on Capitol Hill, has been meeting with both the House and the Senate Democratic caucuses, explaining to them about the plan, also answering any questions that they might have. And according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, he's laying out -- or trying to make the case to them that this is a plan that is good for the American people.

As for the president himself, we can only surmise that he also is involved in that hard sell as well, although the White House, not giving us any specifics about his schedule, any readout about any calls that he might be making to the Hill.

KAYE: So we don't exactly what he's doing to gather support. Do we know how Joe Biden has been received?

LOTHIAN: Well, we could only go by what the ultimate vote will be, right? There are a lot of issues still unsolved. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

And earlier, the indications we were getting is that they seem to be getting movement on the Republican side, in the House, that that appeared not to be as much of a problem. But it was among Democrats that there were still some concerns. And so, ultimately, the answer to your question will come when that vote happens, if in fact they do have those Democrats, all the Democrats on board that they need.

KAYE: All right.

Dan Lothian, watching it for us at the White House.

Dan, thank you.

Next, a look at the stark physical and mental transformation of one young soldier experiencing war for the very first time.

Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: From a small-town teenager to a lean, mean combat engineer, Will McLain became a man on the front lines in Afghanistan.

Our Jason Carroll chronicled the evolution. It's part of a weeklong series that starts today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL MCLAIN, U.S. ARMY: That was the bike I learned to ride first. JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We first met Will McLain when he was an 18- year-old high school student desperate to escape his small town, Rosamond, California.

MCLAIN: I'm kind of glad to be getting out of this little town, you know, just because it gets old, but there's a lot of things you will miss. You know?

CARROLL: That was nearly two years ago. Since then, we've watched McLain's dramatic physical transformation --

MCLAIN: I, William McLain, Jr. --

CARROLL: -- following him from recruit --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pick up your bags.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yes, Drill Sergeant!

CARROLL: -- through basic training --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate this.

CARROLL: -- to soldier.

(on camera): Will, how much more weight have you lost? It looks like you've lost even more weight.

MCLAIN: I'm about around 170, 175.

CARROLL: A hundred and seventy, 175 pounds.

MCLAIN: Down another 15 from when I was at the states.

CARROLL (voice-over): McLain is now a combat engineer at Forward Operating Base Lagman in Zabul, Afghanistan. It's his first deployment, his first time in a war zone.

We caught up with him minutes after returning from a 40-hour mission.

(on camera): The training is much different from the reality being here on the ground, right?

MCLAIN: It's a whole different story going from training to here.

CARROLL (voice-over): Here is a place where searches for roadside bombs routinely kill and injure. McLain and his company of combat engineers specialize in finding those bombs. His captain telling us on their last mission, their convoy got hit by one.

(on camera): It's very serious out there.

CAPT. TIMOTHY BUTLER, U.S. ARMY: It was. There were several injuries. Everyone was fine. Everyone will fully recover.

CARROLL (voice-over): Sergeant Herbert Joseph received second- degree burns on his leg.

(on camera): Is this the first time you've been hit like this.

SGT. HERBERT JOSEPH, U.S. ARMY: The first time.

CARROLL: Your first time.

(voice-over): And it's been a few more times for Staff Sergeant Robert White.

(on camera): How many times have you been hit?

STAFF SGT. ROBERT WHITE, U.S. ARMY: Too many. Too many times to count.

CARROLL (voice-over): It's a constant threat for these combat engineers, and while the bomb didn't hit McLain's vehicle during the mission, the worry is always there.

(on camera): How do you psychologically sort of move past that and focus on the job at hand?

MCLAIN: I think the big thing is you've just got to trust in the person beside you, you know? Like, you know, you've got to know how to do your job, do it as well as you can, and trust the guy next to you is going to do his.

CARROLL (voice-over): McLain has come to terms with the reality of what fighting a war really means. Though he has changed much over the two years, he says even if he could, he wouldn't change anything about his decision to enlist. But he has had a change of heart about Rosamond, California.

MCLAIN: You know, looking back at my hometown, I was a lot more harsh towards it --

CARROLL (on camera): I remember.

MCLAIN: -- than I should have been. But now I look back, you know, it raised me to be what I am.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And Jason Carroll joins us now from New York.

Jason, what would you say was the biggest change that you saw in Will two years after first meeting him stateside?

CARROLL: Well, that's an interesting question. You know, beyond the physical transformation, Randi, I think what I really saw in Will was a maturity that I saw evolve over the past two years. Literally, just saw this young man grow up in front of our eyes, going from that high school football student to the soldier that we see today really -- Randi.

KAYE: And how much longer will he be fighting there in Afghanistan?

CARROLL: Well, he's in the middle of his deployment. He still has another several months to go. He won't be finished until April of 2012.

And just being out there on some of those missions, I think a lot of people don't have any idea that some of these mission that you see, some of the video right there, 12 hours. They can last a very, very long time. So it's a lot of hard work. But once again, he feels extremely dedicated to the cause.

KAYE: Jason Carroll, a wonderful story. Thank you so much for bringing it to us. Appreciate that.

Your 401(k) and other investments, a lot is riding on the next few hours, including your life savings. We take you to the New York Stock Exchange for the latest from the markets coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We are all holding our breath as Congress gears up to vote on the last-minute debt deal hatched last night by President Obama and congressional leaders. But some students are breathing a sigh of relief.

Low-income students end up winning in the proposed debt deal. Pell grants get an extra $17 billion in funding between 2012 and 2015. But now here's the catch. The bill cuts subsidized student loan funding by $22 billion over 10 years, which will affect many graduate students.

That's a huge concern to the students that we spoke to at the University of Southern California. Many are worried about what this means for interest rates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY BINGHAM, FINANCIAL AID DIRECTOR, USC SCHOOL OF LAW: Our students do borrow a great deal of money. Probably close to -- greater than 80 percent of our students borrow student loans to attend law school. And in some cases, they're borrowing more than $70,000 per year. So it's already a very huge burden on them.

SEAN RICKS, USC LAW STUDENT, 2ND YEAR: When I get done with school and have to face repayment of those loans, it could affect me to the tune of several thousand dollars.

ANDEW PHAM, USC SENIOR: I'm totally reliant on the financial aid package I received from USC, which is actually very generous. If it wasn't for those packages, I doubt I'd be able to come here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KAYE: Not only could you be paying for your kids' college education, but the markets have put your money, your retirement and life savings in a wild roller-coaster ride, especially after last week's performance. Stocks posted their worst weekly performance in more than a year, dealing a major blow to many of us.

From the markets to the politics of this debt deal, we've got you covered right here on CNN. My colleague Wolf Blitzer joining us from Washington, D.C. And from the New York Stock Exchange, Alison Kosik. You're watching the numbers closely there, Alison. Looks like investors are still pretty nervous. How are the markets doing right now?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They really are. You know, we saw that nice pop, the bulls took charge right after word of this debt deal pending on Capitol Hill. But then we saw the gains fizzle out on a much weaker-than-expected manufacturing reading. What it showed is that manufacturing practically didn't even grow last month.

So, yes, investors are relieved about this debt deal. But there are these other very strong signs showing weakness in the overall economy. That's really what's weighing on the markets today, Randi.

KAYE: So, what are you expecting? A possible rebound here? Do you think investors need to brace for a long-term hit?

KOSIK: You know what? It would probably take a full-on default for people to really see a long-term blow to their portfolios, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen. But I'll you what, there are other sectors of the economy that need to improve that are going to weigh on your portfolios more. For one, the manufacturing figures that I mentioned. Also, the jobs market, the housing sector, those areas are stagnant in the economy. And if you really want to see a rally that sticks first, those areas are going to have to improve.

We're going to get an indication of jobs, that comes this Friday when we get that big government jobs report. Randi?

KAYE: And, Wolf, as you watch this all play out from Washington to Wall Street, how do you think this will have, in terms of the impact on the 2012 election, what will happen?

BLITZER: Well, I think it's way too early to think what's going to happen when President Obama actually has a Republican nominee who's going to be challenging him. A lot of time to go between now and then.

It's interesting, though, with the exception of Jon Huntsman, I think all -- all the major Republican presidential candidates have come out against this compromise agreement that's worked out between the president, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid. They don't like it, either, including - I was surprised to see the strong statement, Mitt Romney was basically largely invisible over these last several weeks in this debate. But today he issued a statement saying he can't support this deal that's worked out. He doesn't think it's a good one.

And he's widely seen as the more establishment Republican candidate, unlike Michele Bachmann, let's say, somebody favored by the Tea Party movement. So it's still way too early to think what the fallout is going to be a year from now.

KAYE: But do you think people are ready to hear about jobs? And let's get back to talking about the economy and stop talking about the debt ceiling right now and the deficit?

BLITZER: Yes, absolutely. People want to see this economy recover.

But you know what? The numbers have not been very encouraging; for the last quarter, the growth was a lot smaller than it was expected to be. Then they revised the first quarter of this year down to really to a horrible number. And then they revised the last quarter of 2010. That lost a whole point in job growth in the economic recovery, if you will. It's really anemic right now. It's very fragile.

And a lot of the liberal economists say this is the worst time to cut spending because it's only going to guarantee a continued economic slowdown. But that's exactly what's going on. There's going to be significant budget cuts right away. And then more down the road.

And if you believe in the liberal economists, what they're suggesting, it's only going to make matters worst as far as an economic recovery is concerned. I think these numbers that is we're seeing on Wall Street today reflect that so many of these investors basically built in, assumed it was going to passed, they were going to work out a deal. But they're looking at the broader picture of economic growth, job creation, they're not very encouraged by what they see in the short- and medium-term.

KAYE: How risky Wolf, is it, do you think for Congress, the president and Wall Street, really, that this is coming down to the wire? I mean, this has to be on the president's desk by tomorrow night, correct?

BLITZER: It's very risky. It's got to be by midnight tomorrow night. They've got to get the president to have signed the legislation that will pass the Senate. But it's really problematic, as I've been pointing out, in the House, if you do some of the head counting that's going on right now. They're working really hard.

And I think one of the things they fear is the longer they delay this vote, the opposition is going to gear up more momentum. Some of the conservative group, some of the liberal groups are going to be pressing their respective supporters in the House to oppose this legislation. That's why they want to get it done and get it done quickly.

But it's by no means a done deal right now. They have some procedural votes that are under way right now. We'll see what happens. They need 216. I don't think they're there yet. They might be there when the actual roll call occurs.

But one of the reasons, by the way, why Joe Biden is up there meeting with members, he's trying to convince the liberals, you know what? It's not perfect, but don't let perfection be the enemy of good, as Voltaire once said. And a lot of politicians, including Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton used to say all of the time.

KAYE: You know, a lot of people have strong opinions about how the deal went down. Do you think it was driven by the Tea Party and Speaker Boehner, as some have suggested? Certainly the Democrats?

BLITZER: Yes. I think the Tea Party supporters played a very, very significant role in this whole debate. The fact that they even linked raising the debt ceiling with spending cuts, they haven't done that before. And the Tea Party movement, I think, is responsible for getting that on the agenda, forcing that on the agenda. The Tea Party movement certainly comes out a winner in this debate, even if so many their supporters in the House are going to actually vote against it.

They did get this discussion going, this debate going, , spending cuts linked to the raising of the debt ceiling. I never heard of that before this time around. So, they deserve a lot of the credit -- or blame, depending on your perspective -- for this whole debate.

KAYE: Yes. We've been talking about vice president Joe Biden being dispatched to rally support. He actually just spoke to our cameras on the Hill, Wolf. So, let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're up here -- I never asked another person to vote against what they think their interest is. I am confident -- my sense is they expressed all their frustration, which I would be frustrated if I were sitting there as well. That it's been taken down to the wire like this.

And so what they want to know is -- they asked questions specifically about the proposed legislation. I thought it was a good meeting and --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Well, there you have it. The vice president saying he thought it was a good meeting. What do you think he needed to say in order to rally support?

BLITZER: He needs to convince the liberal base in the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives, the progressive caucus, if you will. They don't like this. The Congressional Black Caucus and others. He needs to convince them, yes, this isn't perfect.

But if you don't vote in favor of this, there potentially could be a default. That would mean interest rates would go up, unemployment presumably would go up. The value of the dollar would go down. The economic consequences of failure right now would be horrendous even if the economic benefits of passing this legislation might not be all that obvious in terms of job creation or economic growth. The consequences of failure would be enormous. That's the message the White House is giving right now, certainly the message that John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, have been putting forward. Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House.

You haven't heard that argument yet from Nancy Pelosi. We'll see what her final vote is on this. So far, she's avoiding saying whether she's going to vote yes or no on this legislation.

It's tight. It's very, very close right now. And what's interesting, you don't see it. It's not very visible, Randi. But the lobbying groups outside, the liberal groups and the conservative groups, they are really beginning to weigh in big time on various members. And the longer this is delayed, the more problematic the outcome could be.

KAYE: All right. Wolf Blitzer, appreciate your insight. Enjoyed chatting with you here. Thank you very much. We'll check back with you a little bit later on.

The eleventh hour is quickly approaching, and President Pbama's debt deal with Republicans is our last chance to stop the country from default as we've been telling you. But it is not a done deal. Far from it. The newly minted debt ceiling plan is up for debate in Congress as we speak. Senate Republicans are expected to filibuster the measure. And the plan still has to pass the Republican-controlled House.

We'll be right back as we continue to follow this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: As we've been telling you, Vice President Joe Biden was dispatched to try and rally support for the debt ceiling plan that's now on the table. Just moments ago, he spoke with reporters at Capitol Hill. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're up here -- I never asked another person to vote against what they think their interest is. I am confident -- my sense is they expressed all their frustration, which I would be frustrated if I were sitting there as well. That it's been taken down to the wire like this.

And so what they want to know is -- they asked questions specifically about the proposed legislation. I thought it was a good meeting and --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Well, the eleventh hour is quickly approaching. And President Obama's debt deal with Republicans appears to be our last chance to stop the country from default. But it is not a done deal. Far from it, in fact. The newly minted debt ceiling plan is up for debate in Congress right now. Some Senate Republicans may filibuster the measure. And the plan still has to pass the Republican-controlled House. There's a real chance the debt deal could actually fall apart. The next hours will be crucial. Default still a very real possibility.

The Bipartisan Policy Center looked at the numbers for a big reality check. If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, we simply won't have enough money coming in to pay our bills. So, it would be a question of what we choose to pay of course. These are essentially the nation's bills. You can see all the big-ticket programs. The Treasury will have to pick and choose who to pay and who not to pay.

So, if you keep in mind that the nation is estimated to bring in $172.4 billion in revenue from August 3 to the end of the month, say the Treasury chooses to - let's just pick a few here - let's go with interest here on Treasury securities. Then we add in Social Security, you can watch, we're getting close tore the debt ceiling, which is this line right here as we add this up. Maybe we pay for for Medicare and Medicaid, maybe we pay for our the defense contractors. And let's throw in, say, unemployment insurance, look at that, we've already hit the debt ceiling. That's right. That is the debt ceiling line. We've already reached it under this scenario, OK?

But look at all the other bills that we still have not paid. The U.S. would be unable to fund all these other programs worth $134 billion. And really, this isn't the only scenario. We can clear this up and just pick a few others. Say - see what else gets us to the debt ceiling. Let's go with military active pay. We'll throw in the interest one more time and Social Security. But say we pick food and nutrition, maybe some HUD programs. So, you can see, it's all starting to add up. Let's throw in federal salaries. See where that gets us. Another $14 billion. Military active duty, $3 billion.

You get the idea. We'll throw in defense contractors there, and once again we're already at $153 billion, again very close to reaching the debt limit there. You get the bleak picture. Unless Congress passes the deal today this is just a glimpse of what is at stake and what we may not be able to pay as a U.S. government.

A big sigh of relief in this country over the debt deal, but what about Europe where many countries are struggling with their own debt issues? We'll go live to London for some answers right after this.

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KAYE: With the announcement of the debt deal, all eyes were first on the opening of European and Asian markets. Just like on Wall Street, all markets initially were up. But they didn't stay up for long. And much of the reason may have to do with serious concerns about debt issues in Europe.

Jim Boulden joins us from our London studio for much more on this. Hi, Jim. What's the bottom line do you think to the debt deal in Europe? JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the thing here is you have these twin problems, don't you? You've got the debt problems in Europe and the debt problems in the U.S. and for the last couple of weeks, they've been focusing on the U.S. And when we saw the markets open up much higher in Europe on Monday, it was a bit of a relief rally coming on the back of the Asian markets doing so well, and everyone thought, well, maybe this compromise is going to go through.

Then the afternoon came along. The U.S. manufacturing numbers came out, and it all fell apart again here, and the European markets down, some eight-month lows because they're worried about the U.S. economy whether there's a debt deal or not. And then you go back to the idea of what will happen with the European debt issues. They thought they sorted it out a few weeks ago, sorting out the euro. Now they're not sure. It all went really sour in the last hour of trading here.

KAYE: And there's still of course plenty of concern by all about a possible downgrade, possibly from AAA to AA. But how would Europe react, do you think, if that were to happen here in the U.S.?

BOULDEN: The U.S. is seen as this gold standard, isn't it? It has this AAA rating. And every country would like to have that. If the U.S. lost its AAA rating with enough of these ratings agencies, then I think all bets are off because we've seen so many countries here downgraded. We've seen Spain, we've seen Ireland, Greece downgraded. If you don't have this top and it falls down, everybody else could start falling down. I think it could be a real worry.

KAYE: Jim Boulden for us in London. Jim, thank you very much.

Coming up, violence on TV -- we're pretty used to it these days, right? But what about a live execution? Is that going too far, do you think? Our stream team weighs in on that topic next.

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KAYE: The videotaping of an execution in Georgia last month has renewed an old debate about the public's right to see justice. Grant Young was convicted of murdering his mother, his father, and his sister. He was put to death by lethal injection. His attorneys wanted it videotaped because they believe the drug cocktail would cause unnecessary suffering. It was the first time an execution was taped in two decades. The Young's attorneys don't want the tape made public, but just the act of taping it started a debate. Should people be able to see justice served?

We're putting the question to our stream team today. On the team with us is "In Session" contributor and attorney Sunny Hostin. Also with me is attorney Holly Hughes and former federal prosecutor David Lat. So let's start with you, Sunny. Should executions be televised?

SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR, "IN SESSION": I think absolutely. And that is because I am an opponent of the death penalty. My view of the death penalty was shaped as a former federal prosecutor because I saw how the sausage was made, Randi. Once you've seen how it's made, you don't eat the sausage. My hope is when the public starts seeing these executions by lethal injection, gas chamber -- we still have that in the United States -- electrocution, hanging, fire squad, I think it could possibly be a deterrent.

KAYE: Holly, what do you think?

HOLLY HUGHES, ATTORNEY: No, I am for the death penalty. I am against it as entertainment, Randi. When we take what is a private moment for the family of the defendant and the family of the victims and put it on TV, we have risen to a level of voyeurism. This is no better than taking your five-year-old to the public hanging in the square with a picnic lunch.

KAYE: David, is there any benefit, do you think, to possibly televising this?

DAVID LAT, FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Oh, absolutely. I think this is a matter of public accountability and transparency. If we're going to have the death penalty in this country, we should be forced to look it in the eye. So I disagree with Holly's point that it's a matter of entertainment. I think this is a matter of public education and understanding what the policies we support as citizens actually entail.

KAYE: Sunny, what about just the high-profile executions? Timothy McVeigh, we all remember him from the Oklahoma City bombing. He wanted his execution televised. Would high-profile executions be OK?

HOSTIN: I think any execution should be televised, no question about it, regardless of whether or not it's high-profile or not. And I've got to say nothing to Holly's statement. She said this was a private moment. I don't understand how state-sanctioned executions or even federally sanctioned executions could possibly be a private moment between a victim's family, a defendant's family, and the world. That doesn't qualify as a private moment.

And I would say for those of you who are not opposed to the death penalty and who are proponents of the death penalty, then everyone should want to see these things. Why don't we pull the wizards thing and have everyone see it?

KAYE: Let me give Holly 30 seconds to respond to that.

HUGHES: Basically, Randi, what we're talking about is the justice system. This should not be open for entertainment. And let's face it, there are trials in America that are not televised, where a judge says cameras aren't allowed in.

So no, we don't make an open spectacle of every case that comes before the court. And furthermore, the taxpayers don't get in on military secrets and private meetings at the Pentagon. We don't televise those.

When I say it was a moment, it's because justice was served as our system allows it for one particular defendant and a family member. Even if it is a lot of people with the McVeigh thing, then fine, put those victims in a televised room, closed circuit, but no, not as entertainment, absolutely not.

KAYE: All right, Holly Hughes, Sunny Hostin, David Lat, thank you all very much for weighing in.

My own take on the debt deal, mortgages, and an unusual Texas law you won't believe coming up next in my "XYZ."

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KAYE: Time now for my "XYZ." As Washington takes a critical vote on raising the debt ceiling, keep in mind this is not a done deal. And if the U.S. does default, we could see much higher rates for mortgages, which may mean buying a home even harder for some, which is why this story out of Texas caught my eye.

Imagine paying just $15 for a home worth $340,000 -- pretty good deal, right? Well, a Texas man got that steal of a deal because of a bizarre law in Texas called the adverse possession law, more commonly known as squatter's rights. Kenneth Robinson figured out that the owner of record had moved out about a year ago and he can't be found. So he filed an affidavit with the county for a $15 fee, turned on the electricity and, yes, moved right in. Neighbors aren't exactly thrilled.

It's never good when your home is worth $300,000-plus and your new neighbor's is now worth about $15. But, on the bright side, Robinson plans to fix up the swimming pool and put some new grass in the yard.

Kenneth Robinson plans to enjoy his 3,000-plus-square-foot home and that $15 price tag for many years to come.

Let's hope Washington is paying close attention to that story.

That will do it for me. But CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Brooke Baldwin.

Hi, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Whew. Speaking of Washington, we have a busy, busy two hours ahead, don't we? Randi, thank you very much.