'This Week' Transcript: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

And we have to look at a fiscal solution that will put everything on the table, that will get our economy moving again, and that'll put a floor under the real anxiety out there in the world. I think if we can focus on the broader challenge, which is finding at least $4 trillion in the next decade in savings, in deficit reduction, stabilize our debt, deal with our deficits, we can strengthen our economy. If it simply stays a zero-sum game, a fight between no defense cuts or no reforms to entitlement, no raising taxes, or no increase in revenue through comprehensive tax reform, no investment to grow our economy, we will simply continue to sink as a country. And we will risk, I think, a double-dip recession.

AMANPOUR: One of your fellow senators, Corker, a Republican, recently said if this super-committee -- if this Congress cannot come up with $1.2 trillion in deficit cutting, then that's a complete failure of leadership, and it -- he said we deserve to be downgraded. That's quite an indictment. Do you think you deserve to be downgraded if it doesn't work?

RUBIO: I understand the point he's making. And the point he's making is that it would be an indictment on our political process and on the unwillingness of the political class in America to deal with these significant issues that, by the way, didn't crop up overnight. These issues have been going on for a while. We knew this day was coming. And we know what lies ahead. We need to look no further than Europe to understand what lies ahead, unless we take these issues seriously.

AMANPOUR: Senator Coons, deserve to be downgraded if this doesn't work?

COONS: Well, I'm -- I'm certainly hopeful that all of us in Washington will take very seriously the caution that we've gotten from the bond-rating agencies. What's unfolding in Europe ought to be really concerting to everybody in this country.

Right now, Greece and Ireland and Iceland and other countries in Europe have a math problem. Their economies can't possibly produce enough surplus, enough revenue to deal with their debts in the short term.

Today in America, we have a leadership problem. But we still have the opportunity to right our ship, to make the bipartisan compromises we need to, to get our economy back on track by dealing with the very significant challenges that face us in terms of the size of federal spending and the absence of enough federal revenue, where if we can just get past the partisan divides, if we can make some broad and responsible compromises, we can fix our books, we can get on the right path, and we can strengthen our economy in a way that would allow us to grow forward.

AMANPOUR: Senator Chris Coons, Senator Marco Rubio, thank you very much, indeed, for joining me.

RUBIO: Thank you.

COONS: Thank you.


AMANPOUR: And at this hour, the super-committee stands on the brink of a super collapse. Can they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? The roundtable lays odds when we return.


AMANPOUR: Little joy in official Washington this morning. It looks like the much vaunted supercommittee has struck out. Yes, some precious time remains, but not much hope at this point. So what will that mean for America's economy and its politics? Let's bring back our roundtable again.

George, you were never a big fan of the supercommittee. Even if it fails or it doesn't fail, what does it all say about what's happening here?

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