Debt Ceiling Looms; ObamaCare Glitches Continue; Interview with Rep. Reid Ribble
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: A Senate leadership meeting has just ended. Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill with more on what happened, what was discussed, and what a possible outcome may be today. Dana, hi, we're getting awfully close to that debt ceiling crisis.</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are, and according to Senator Reid who I just spoke with, along with many other reporters in the hallway, walking from Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader's office back to his own, I asked if they were getting closer to a deal. And he said, we are getting closer. He said, we're not there yet. But they are getting closer. And the other question that was asked is whether or not he thought that they could have a deal by the time leaders go to the White House, which is at 3:00 Eastern, so that's in two-and-a-half hours. He said, I sure hope so. He said that, we're still talking about everything. Not there yet. But he certainly sounded more optimistic than we have heard people talking and people sounding in the past. And let's face it. Just the fact that he was walking out of Mitch McConnell's office, the Republican leader, that just is a good sign based on everything that has been going on, or rather not going on, up until the past 24 hours. So it definitely has the feel of something that could gel soon, but we're going to have to see what the details are. Now, I should tell also you that our understanding is that the Democratic leader has been pushing, at least in the past day or so, a shorter-term bill to fund the government in order to make sure that the sequester levels, the new forced-spending-cut levels that kick in, new spending cuts that kick in in January aren't locked in. Unclear if that is still part of the discussion, really the crux of the discussion, or if they've move on to other issues. Of course, the big issue is the debt ceiling and length of raising the debt ceiling and what price if any Democrats are willing to pay on that. Just one last thing, I was told just before coming down to the hallway here to stake out this meeting that the whole concept of medical devices, the tax on medical devices which Republicans have really been pushing on because it has to do with ObamaCare, repealing that or at least maybe delaying that is still possibly on the table as part of this short-term deal. But, again, it's very fluid. They're still trying to finalize it.</s>HALA GORANI, CNN CO-ANCHOR: And short-term there being a key word that we keep hearing. Thanks very much, Dana Bash. We'll stay in touch with you, of course, for more on a possible deal, still very uncertain, though. So let's bring in someone from Capitol Hill, Reid Ribble is a freshman Republican congressman from Wisconsin. Thanks for being with us, sir. You've been hearing about potentially there some sort of deal with the Senate leadership there. How close or far are we from this actually being resolved?</s>REPRESENTATIVE REID RIBBLE (R), WISCONSIN: Well, I think we're getting closer for sure. They're going to go over to the White House this afternoon. It will be bicameral and bipartisan to actually try to lay out this framework. It's always been the Republican position that we should have a longer- term c.r., shorter-term debt limit. What you just heard from Dana is that Senator Reid is offering a longer debt limit and shorter-term c.r. So they're still going to have to work that out. I find the whole thing kind of interesting now that they've shifted, or Harry Reid has shifted to talking about the sequester, because, on the one hand, they want to say ObamaCare is settled law, but they don't want to admit the sequester is settled law. And so in reality in Washington, D.C., there's no such thing as settled law. We can continue as the Congress, to vote and pass things as long as the president will sign it.</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Yeah, Congressman, I'm interested, though, in your thoughts on the broader question here. When you look at redistricting, it's really meant that no one on the right has suffered for being too extreme, but they have for being too moderate. Going forward, what do you do when there really is no electoral upside to bipartisanship in some areas of the Congress to cooperating if you like for the benefit of the country over ideology? What's your view on that when you look forward?</s>RIBBLE: I've been very outspoken on the whole idea of gerrymandering. It's not just on the right. It's on the left. As time has gone by, restricting has taken place, districts have gotten bluer and redder. And as they get bluer and redder, you have members of Congress representing those very blue and very red districts. Stop and consider, we know longer have a system where voters are selecting representatives, but representatives are selecting their voters by redistricting them. This is the problem we have. It's causing the gridlock.</s>HOLMES: A very good point.</s>GORANI: I want to ask you what the Republican Party here at the House level wants. I mean, initially there was a group that wanted defunding, gutting ObamaCare, then it shifted to something different. Now we're talking about the sequester cuts that are due to come into effect in January. What is it that the Republican Party at the House level wants in order to get something agreed on here?</s>RIBBLE: You know, it's actually a great question because we're having kind of a convergence of two discussions taking place. One is on the debt limit. One is on the continuing resolution to fund the government. I think they want different things, but at the end of the day, I think the broad number of members in the Congress really want one thing and that is to fix the systemic long-term threat, the very things that you talked about prior to coming into this segment about how the international community views how we're managing our nation's finances. We've made promises to that American people that are going to be broken unless we address them now. They will get more expensive to address the longer we wait to take care of them.</s>GORANI: But do you shut down the government to keep long-term promises? The American public certainly doesn't seem to be very pleased with their congress people. You're at approval ratings that are in the single digits here.</s>RIBBLE: Yeah, yeah, and I have very few family members left, and so they might go down lower. The reality is that what has to actually happen -- and this is happening. One of the side things that has happened that the American people don't see because the news coverage can't see it is that there are an awful lot of sidebar meetings taking place now between regular members of Congress like myself. Now you introduced me as a freshman. I'm actually in my second term, but the reality is members of Congress are meeting together privately trying to find a pathway forward and asking the correct questions. And it is, how can we help you -- as Republicans how can we help you as Democrats get to see this position? And Democrats are saying how can we help you as Republicans get to this place? And these conversations are being done thoughtfully, respectfully and behind the scenes. And I think that maybe more than anything, this is starting to break some of the gridlock that we've seen and some of the partisan wrangling that's actually unhealthy for the process.</s>HOLMES: I think a lot of people would be delighted to see more moderate voices.</s>GORANI: Maybe you should have cameras behind closed doors because it seems like that's where the conversations, the polite conversations, are taking place.</s>RIBBLE: There's more pragmatism here than you might it be aware of, and you know, I came out of the private sector having never served in Congress before, or in any elected official capacity.</s>HOLMES: You must have been shocked.</s>RIBBLE: Well, yeah, and I was surprised at how sequestered we are and how politics rules the day, when in reality, most of us want to get something good. We want to make sure that we protect our seniors and we want to protect our future seniors, which are our children, and those things can happen, but they'll only happen if we set politics aside for a while, lay down our swords, and actually do what's right for the American people.</s>HOLMES: And as they always say, you go in there hoping for all these wonderful things and do you -- are you able to achieve it long-term? Wish we could chat more. Some good points there, Congressman Reid Ribble, thanks so much.</s>RIBBLE: Thank you for having me. It's good to talk with you.</s>GORANI: All right, well, we're going to take a short break. We'll be right back. Stay with us on AROUND THE WORLD.