CNN 2011-07-21

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The fallback plan would likely pass the Democrat-controlled Senate but face a bigger challenge in the House where Republicans hold the majority. 

 

Let's get the latest now with CNN's Brianna Keilar. She's at the White House. 

 

Well, Brianna, are we any closer to a deal than we were a week ago when we talked? 

 

You know, on a comprehensive deficit² reduction plan, Kyra, it doesn't appear so. But while there were no announced meetings between the White House and congressional leaders over the weekend, there were definitely staff- level meetings and a lot of focus has to do with this fallback plan that you mentioned. 

 

It's sort of the brainchild of the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and he's working out some details with the Senate majority leader Harry³ Reid. What it would essentially⁴ do is give the president, for all practical purposes, the ability to increase the debt ceiling with really just a minority of support from Congress. 

 

It would allow Congress to voice its disapproval⁵ and this is something that the president would have to do in three increments⁶ over time between now and the November 2012 election. 

 

But, Kyra, this doesn't address entitlement reform and certainly that idea of the tax increases, the Democrats⁷ are still demanding and the White House is still saying no to -- pardon me, that the White House also wants and Republicans are saying no to, there's still an impasse⁸ over that, just like when we spoke⁹ last week. 

 

All right, Brianna Keilar at the White House. And we'll continue to talk about it, I am sure, all this week. 

 

All right, all two developments in the Rupert Murdoch scandal. Police investigating the illegal wiretapping and bribery¹⁰ charges of a top executive in the company. We'll have more on that in just a moment. 

 

But first the resignation of Britain's top cop, the man in charge of Scotland Yard. Sir Paul Stephenson says that he did nothing wrong but regrets the criticism that -- that his police failed to do enough. 

 

However the issue of my integrity is different. Let me state clearly, I, and the people who know me, know that my integrity is completely intact. I may wish we had done some things differently, but I will not lose any sleep over my personal integrity. 

 

Let's get the latest now from London and CNN's Dan Rivers. 

 

Well, Kyra, another scalp has been claimed by this ever-growing scandal. The most senior policemen in Britain, Sir Paul Stephenson, has resigned. 

 

Meanwhile, the former chief executive of News International, of Rupert Murdoch's newspaper group here, Rebekah Brooks¹¹, she has been taken in, arrested by the police for questioning. She was detained for some 12 hours on Sunday night and finally released just after midnight. 

 

There was speculation¹² that that would have meant that she wouldn't have turned up on Tuesday afternoon, London time, to be grilled¹³ by politicians. But we're being told by her spokesman that she will be there. She won't appear together with James and Rupert Murdoch. 

 

She'll appear after them. But she will be there. She'll have to be careful about what she says and the politicians, equally, have said they will be careful about which questions they ask and how they frame those questions. They don't want to see clearly prejudice any possible trial that may come out of this. But it will be a committee session that will be viewed by millions of people, I would expect, with lots of people wanting to know who knew what, how high up the newspaper group into Rupert Murdoch's empire this scandal went -- Kyra.

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