The following is a rush transcript of the July 17, 2011, edition of "Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace." This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

CHRIS WALLACE, ANCHOR: It's crunch time in debt ceiling talks and neither side is backing down.

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With President Obama and congressional Republicans deadlocked, we'll get read on where things stand from two key House members -- Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee; and Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the budget committee. It's a fair and balanced debate only on "Fox News Sunday."

Then, the GOP presidential race. We'll sit down with candidate Herman Cain as we continue our series "2012: One-on-One."

And for all the talk about possible default on August 2nd, the real focus may be Election Day 2012. We'll ask our Sunday group which party is gaining the upper hand with voters next year.

All right now on "Fox News Sunday."

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And hello again from Fox News in Washington.

Well, with just 16 days to go until our country reaches the debt limit, and with threats from ratings agencies to downgrade the nation's credit, what deal is still possible?

Here to discuss the options are two key House leaders. Jim Jordan is chairman of the House Republican Study Committee. Chris Van Hollen is the top Democrat on the Budget Committee.

And, Congressmen, welcome back to "Fox News Sunday."

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, D-MD.: Good to be with you.

WALLACE: This week, the House will vote on something called "cut, cap, and balance."

And let's outline what it would do. You would cut the deficit $111 billion next year. You would cap spending under 20 percent of GDP in a decade. It's now 24 percent. And you would raise the debt ceiling only after Congress passes a balanced budget amendment.

Congressman Jordan, you're a big sponsor of this. President Obama says that it would cut Medicare and Social Security much more deeply than Paul Ryan's budget plan.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO: It doesn't do that. And basically, it mirrors the budget proposal that House passed earlier this year.

But we like to view it as common sense American plan. I mean, Americans know we're spending too much, we're headed for a cliff, we're headed for bankruptcy. Let's cut spending in year one, let's cap it as a percentage of our economy going forward. Everyone understands our government is getting too big.

And then let's do something historic. Let's, for the first time in American history, pass a balanced budget amendment through the House and the Senate, send it to states. Have this requirement that everyone else has to live under, let's make the federal government, an entity that has a $14 trillion debt, let's make us live in the same requirement everyone else has to abide by.

WALLACE: Sounds sensible, Congressman Van Hollen. What's wrong with "cut, cap and balance"? And what are the chances that it will get through the House, through the Senate, and get signed by the president?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, no one should be fooled about this. They're not proposing a clean balanced budget amendment. What they're proposing is to manipulate the Constitution and use it to impose the Republican budget plan.

If you look that plan, it does end the Medicare guarantee. It slashes Medicaid. It slashes deeply into education. And it protects tax breaks for special interest.

They would write that into the United States Constitution. Under their proposal, it would be easier to cut Medicare than it would be to cut subsidies for oil and gas companies.

You have a majority vote to cut Medicare. You have a majority vote to create special interest loopholes. You need two-thirds to close tax breaks. That's an anti-majoritarian proposition. Framers would be turning in their grave if they read their provision.

WALLACE: And what are the chances that will become law?

VAN HOLLEN: It's not going to become law. And that's why it's so dangerous for our Republican colleagues to say that if you don't do this, we will have the United States to default on its debt.

WALLACE: Congressman Jordan, I want to give you a chance to respond. But also, as we said, there are just 16 days left before we hit this August 2 deadline. Even if "cut, cap and balance" is as good as you say it is, should we be spending precious time on what from outside observers say is not going to become law?

JORDAN: Of course we should. This is something that fixes the problem. Everyone understands in two to three years, we're going to have a debt crisis. We've got to do big, bold things, or that's where we're headed, economists virtually agree on this.

To call balancing the budget dangerous is unbelievable.

Here's what we have to do --

VAN HOLLEN: I said your version of that.

JORDAN: Here's what we have to do. Look, Mr. President, put a plan on the table. Democrats, put a plan on table. And for the next two -- we got 16 days. For the next two weeks, if the president can ever put some details to plan, let's have a national debate. Let's let the American people decide, do they want something common sense as cutting spending, capping the growth in government and requiring a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Do they want the common sense thing versus the president's plan? Let's have national debate.

WALLACE: OK.

VAN HOLLEN: Let me be clear. I didn't say dangerous to balance the budget. We want to balance the budget. The budget that they passed doesn't get into balance until the year 2040. to balance the budget they voted for would require you lift the debt ceiling by $8 trillion between now and 2021.

WALLACE: Wait, guys, gentlemen, we've got a lot to cover. Let me move to the next thing. We'll get back to a bunch of these issues.

If cut, cap and balance fails, and I must say -- most people say whether it's good policy or not, Congressman Jordan, that the chance it is actually going to pass in the next two weeks are pretty slim. The most likely fallback is some version of Mitch McConnell fallback plan.

Let's take a look at that. It would allow the president to raise the debt limit $2.5 trillion without any spending cuts, but there is talk about including more than $1 trillion in cuts and setting up another debt commission.

Congressman Van Hollen, wouldn't that be almost total failure by Democrats, who control the Senate, who control the White House, to do anything serious about our debt when we've got a $14.3 trillion debt?

VAN HOLLEN: I'm not a fan of the Mitch McConnell deal. We agree on that because it does punt it. What it does it says, we, the Congress, will not take responsibility or accountability for our own decisions.It's a political answer. Not a real answer to the problem.