Senator Rubio: “I have watched the President give press conferences, I have watched the President give speeches, but I have yet to see a plan from the President. And with all due respect to my colleagues in the other party here in the Senate, I haven't seen a plan from them either. They are the majority party. They control this chamber. They con

"A lot of the spending cuts that we're making should be around areas like defense spending as opposed to food stamps," President Obama told in an interview with NPR. "What is true is that given the rising number of seniors and given the huge escalation in health care costs, that if we don’t structure those programs so that they are sustainable

"You can't cut your way to a happy future because the more you cut, the more you get yourself in a downward spiral like you see in Greence," CNN's Fareed Zakaria said.

Fmr. Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) says we can't pay Social Security, Medicare and military members while paying off the debt if we default. Dean warns that the Republican party "will ultimately destroy the country."

Rudy Giuliani: "This is because the President doesn't lead. I mean, Republicans, Democrats in the House .. the President has never outlined how he would do -- this is outrageous! This would be like when I was mayor of New York, if I said 'I'm not going to do a budget, I'll let the city council [do it].'" (source:

"Anyway, so Boehner schedules the Cut, Cap, And Balance vote, which he knew would pass. But all the while he is looking for a way to appease and accommodate Obama. Just like when we had the continuing resolution. Laying down his hand, face up to the President: 'I don't want to shut down the government, I don't want to shut down the government, I wo

You know who would be against the balanced budget amendment (BBA)? The Founding Fathers. So says Senator John Kerry (D-MA). "As I have said in the past, the most compelling argument against this amendment doesn't come from me or from anyone on the floor. It actually comes from the real experts, the people who framed the Constitution of the Unite

SEIU/Americans United For Change: The clock is running out. With the August 2 deadline fast approaching for Congress to avoid defaulting on the nation’s debt obligations, which the business and economic communities warn could lead to another Great Recession and cost hundreds of thousands of Americans their jobs, a new TV ad begins airing today in

"If they [Republicans] want to debate it tomorrow for a period of time, they can do that, but I'm going to -- I think this piece of legislation is about as weak and senseless as anything that has ever come on this Senate floor, and I am not going to waste the Senate's time day after day on this piece of legislation which I think is an anathema to w

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney: "Well, two things remain uncontestably true. The economy is vastly improved from what it was when Barack Obama was sworn into office as president. We were in economic free-fall. There were predictions that we were headed to the second Great Depression. We were losing up to, over 700,000 jobs a month, we were

Michelle Malkin on the Wasserman Schultz/Allen West back-and-forth.

E.J. Dionne, columnist for The Washington Post and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, talks with Rachel Maddow about what shreds of hope remain that economic disaster will be averted through a debt ceiling deal in Congress. Dionne Jr. calls the debt limit fight a "politically induced crisis."

At an afternoon press conference held by fiscal Congressional conservatives Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) bet a Porterhouse steak that President Obama would sign the Cut, Cap & Balance legislation if it reached his

"That is not happening. This is a pattern I referred to in that email that goes back to 2010. Finally I think I have the right to stand up and defend my honor and make sure that this type of activity does cease. I sent her a private email, she decided to make it public by releasing it to the news media," Rep. Allen West (R-FL) said about the prospe

(full audio from The Right Scoop)

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says if the Cut, Cap & Balance legislation lands on President Obama's desk he would sign it. That means the bill would have to pass the Senate, which is unlikely. "So the point is I'm willing to go out across this country, even if the polls are 70 percent against what we're doing -- the fact is you can't solve our probl

SEN. JIM DEMINT: People need to be clear about what's going on, Greta. In the last couple of days, by intent, the president has covered over the message of what Republicans did in the House. We've done all we can do. I mean, we can't get a proposal out of the White House. We can't get a proposal out of the Democrats. The Republicans in the Senate

Major Garrett on MSNBC: "The latest rumor is that the President is now floating an idea of a $3 trillion with no revenue in it, and Senate sources have said that they are concerned about this possibility. And when there is a letter opposing the gang of six which has revenue in it, you can only imagine the entrenched Democratic reaction to a plan w

In an interview with local affiliate KMBC-TV in Kansas City, President Obama says 2012 will be about him. "And if next November they feel like I’ve been on their side, and I’ve been working as hard as I can, and I’ve been getting some things done to move us in the right direction, I’ll win. If they don’t, then I’ll lose," Obama said.

Bill O'Reilly: "Michele Bachmann is new to national politics, and she'll have to figure it out just as Barack Obama did. All the candidates have to be very, very careful. But their security must be mature enough to know who's the enemy and who's just trying to do his job."

"Now, Mr. President (of the Senate), they call this plan Cut, Cap, and Balance. They should have called it Cut, Cap, and Kill Medicare, because that's really what this plan would do. It would cut, cap, and kill medicare. Why do i say that? Well, if we look at the House budget proposal that underlies this plan, we see what happens under traditional

"I think it would be irresponsible on behalf of the Congress and the president not to be looking at backup strategies for how to solve this problem. But in the meantime, the House has acted. We've passed our cut, cap, and balance bill. It's time for the Senate to act," Speaker John Boehner said at his press conference this morning.

Charles Krauthammer: "The Pawlenty attack I thought was a cheap shot by his standard. At the job, all the time, every hour. FDR and Kennedy and Eisenhower would not have been people who should have been president of the United States."

Ed Schultz says he agrees with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who said that Republicans have "morphed into a kind of a cult, driven by a singular fixation and obsession [with] preserving and expanding tax breaks for the wealthy at all costs."

Chris Matthews: Obama is "going to the Republicans with a debt reduction plan that leans heavily in the Republican direction."