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So let's go to Capitol Hill. Let's hash through some of this with Senator Tom Carper, Democrat from Delaware.

And, Senator Carper, bear with me as we -- we're going to rip through some of these basics, Senator. We're hearing $3.7 trillion in debt reductions over 10 years -- all part of this "Gang of Six" plan -- 75 percent of that is spending cuts, 25 percent from increased revenues.

I just want to ask you, that is what we're hearing, is that what you're hearing, sir?

SEN. TOM CARPER (D), DELAWARE: That's what we're hearing, yes.

BALDWIN: So we have received --

CARPER: And the history goes back about a year ago, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes.

CARPER: About a year ago, the president created under an executive order a deficit reduction commission, as you know, co- chaired by Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton, who actually negotiated a real deficit reduction deal in '97 to negotiate that led to a balanced budget, and also co-chaired by Alan Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming. And they have put together a plan that reduced the deficits over 10 years by about $4 trillion, two-thirds to three-fourths on the spending side, roughly one-third on the revenue side.

And the "Gang of Six" is really an outgrowth. Some of the people who served on the deficit commission with Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson are the people who are now part of the "Gang of Six," which I would like to think may someday grow to be a gang of 16 or 26 or 36 or even a "Gang of 60."

BALDWIN: Well, we have received -- we have word from the White House that is this plan, so far of just six, moves forward, that the president is now willing to agree to a short-term extension on the federal debt ceiling. We listened to him before, what was it, last week in the daily briefing where he derided the whole plan. He said, I don't want to kick the can down the road, I want a long-term fix.

What is your reaction to the turnaround? What do you think, Senator, changed the president's mind?

CARPER: Well, the president sat in negotiations with John Boehner and others in the House and Senate. He wanted a big deal, he wanted it over 10 years, he wanted to try to get to $4 trillion in deficit savings. As a Democrat, he said we need to be willing to put on the table entitlement programs and we would ask for Republicans to join us by putting at least some revenues on the table.

We go back to '93 and '97 when we had real deficit reduction agreements and actually balanced budgets for three or four years in a row at the end of the Clinton administration, they actually did about a 50/50 deal, 50 percent spending cuts and 50 percent on the revenue side. So this is actually a little more on the spending side then the revenue side.

The American people want a deal like this. Not everyone. The folks on the far right don't want any revenues. The folks on the on the far left want a lot of revenues and not much on the spending side. But (INAUDIBLE) meet in the middle --

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BALDWIN: So is that what it is, sir?

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CARPER: -- when they do, it looks a lot like this.

BALDWIN: Is that what it is, sir? The fact that now president is saying OK to a short-term plan, is he just having to listen to loud voices on the right?

CARPER: Well, I hope in terms of a short-term plan the president would be willing to let us have a month or two to try to work out the details of the "Gang of Six's" proposal. And the idea of raising the debt ceiling for a month or two, I think that's the smart thing to do, and that way we don't have to rush needlessly to get something done that we'll later regret.

BALDWIN: So, perhaps then it would be moot to ask you how many votes in the Senate that the "Gang of Six" plan would need for approval if that's actually not the plan that they would try to get through in 13 days.

CARPER: I think ultimately what we might do is take different parts of the plan and say divide it into two or three or four parts and get separate votes on those parts of the plans. And by doing that, it might be easier to get to 60, which is the magic number in the Senate.

The other approach would be to do it all at once and see if we can get 60 votes for the whole kit and caboodle. That might not be the best approach.

But we've got some time -- I think the smart thing to do, raise the debt ceiling for a month. If we have good faith negotiations in good faith, I think it's clear that we do. We have 50 Democrats and Republican senators (inaudible) divided, yesterday morning in a room had a lot of good spirit, a lot of willingness to move this forward. And we have a lot of Democrats and Republicans signing a letter to our leadership saying, we think this is the way to go.

BALDWIN: I want to ask something I asked the Republican senator of Oklahoma, Senator Tom Coburn, he was on last hour. This plan, this particular "Gang of Six" plan, appears to hinge upon rewriting the tax code. So how -- how, Senator, do we do that? How do we agree on all these other changes? How do we avert a government default in less than two weeks? How do we do all that in an orderly fashion without the American people feeling like they got hoodwinked?

CARPER: Well, what we can do is if we want to raise the -- we're spending about -- running about $120 billion a month. That's a lot of money, And if we were to extend that for a month or two, that gives us some time to work through this, and to basically say to the -- give, if you will, direction to the committees -- I serve on the Finance Committee which is the tax writing committee in the Senate, but to suggest to us what the amount of money that we're looking for from revenues, what we're looking for from savings from different programs, give us a couple of month.

You know, if we give ourselves 18 months to do this, we'll use 18 months. My dad used to say, Brooke, work expands to fill the amount of time that we give to a particular job. We don't need to wait 18 months to do this or 12 months or six months. We can do this a lot faster, we don't have to rush to do it tomorrow, but we need to get moving.

BALDWIN: Senator Tom Carper, I think a lot of Americans will agree with you on the getting moving things. Thank you so much.

CARPER: Good. I know they do in Delaware. Thank you.

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