>> congress needs to open the government. we're now going into the second week of a government shutdown. it's causing real damage to the american people. >> treasury secretary jack lew earlier this morning on the president's refusal to negotiate with the republicans. and it's time now for our sunday group. joining us for the first time, syndicated columnist and pulitzer prize winner george will. he's now a fox news contributor. george, we're honored to have you on the panel. welcome. >> thank you. glad to be here. >> we're not quite as honored, but very excited to have kirsten powers of the daily beast website, karl rove and democratic strategist joe trippi. i'm just kidding. >> never miss a chance. >> really. >> it was not just you personally. >> no, it was all three of us. >> all three of us, yes. >> george, as we pointed out with secretary lew, this claim that presidents have never negotiated with congress over raising the debt limit is nonsense. it's happened over and over again, as we said, 27 times since 1979. do you th

raising the debt limit is congress' responsibility because congress and congress alone is empowered to set the maximum amount the government can borrow to meet its financial obligations. some in congress have suggested that raising the debt limit should be paired with accompanying spending cuts and reforms. i have repeatedly noted that the debt limit has nothing to do with new spending. it has to do with spending that congress has already approved and bills that have already been incurred. failing to raise the debt limit would not make these bills disappear. the president remains willing to negotiate over the future direction of fiscal policy. but he will not negotiate over whether the united states should pay its bills. certain members of the house and senate also believe that it's possible to protect our economy by simply paying only the interest on our debts while stopping or delaying payments on a number of our other legal commitments. how can the united states choose whether to send social security checks to seniors or pay benefits to veterans? how account united states choose whe

how congress addresses this is up to congress. the president's perspective is they do in a way that never threatens the full faith and credit of the united states. >> thank you. >> james? >> i want to talk about a different subject. the house armed services subcommittee on oversight and investigation last week held its ninth hearing on the subject of benghazi. week the witness was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general dempsey. i know you have covered the particular subject matter before in this briefing room, but it has resurfaced in a fresh context, receiving fresh surety from the investigators, and i thought it was fair to give you another chance to address it. accept the white house conclusion that no military rescue or response could possibly have been achieved in benghazi that night because the posturing of u.s. military assets around the world was so poor on that night. this has led -- >> the statement of the house committee chairman, correct? >> this is their conclusion. this has led them to refocus their atten

drone strikes were in congress and there were maybe only four members of congress who came to this briefing apart from the congressman who initiated this meeting congressman alan grayson it's no secret the u.s. congress generally approves of drone strikes so it's very difficult to expect the sudden change of heart even though hard was what these drone victims were appealing to on october twenty fourth of last year a u.s. drone strike left this pakistani family devastated the nine year old girl and her thirteen year old brother nearly a scaped death that day their sixty seven year old grandmother was killed while picking vegetables in the garden last month on the. drones don't fly when the skies are gray. the sky brightens and if you return. you know this family has never been abroad before out of their home in north waziristan in pakistan and the father said he looked at the life around here in d.c. and i met them at a lively d.c. restaurant after a screening of a documentary on drones where they were invited and the father said he wished his children too would be able to walk the streets n

outside of the bureaucratic laws of congress, and that's another dc. living in a city that is stuck in a very unique predicament. they are taking a disproportion at it hit since the shutdown. they make up 12.6% of the work force here. because d.c. is a federal district and not state, all of its budget is subject to congressional approval. so unlike states which are relying on local funds to stay afloat, d.c. cannot use any of its budget. even the 75% that is locally raised. to survise d.c. has tapped into emergency funds to cover critical services. and with a divided house, the nation's capitol pretty much remain in limbo. joining us to paint a picture of the shutdown's effect on d.c. is nathan fleming. he is what is called a shadow representative in the house but doesn't have any voting power. and the head of d.c.'s nonprofit latin america foundation. and a doctoral student in political theory at catholic university. welcome everyone to "the stream." 78,000 people in d.c. work for the government. so because of such a high concentration of jobs in a sm

the president, democrats in congress and republicans in congress all disapproved now by the american public. we show the president 50% disapproval. democrats in congress about 60% and republicans at 70% disapproval right now. the country not liking what they are seeing at all. the president about to come out and restate his position right now. we don't expect any new offers from the president in this press conference. as we said, he just spoke to speaker boehner a few hours ago and dug in one more time saying he absolutely is not going to negotiate. the president now. >> good afternoon, everybody. i am eager to take your questions. so i'll try to be brief at the top. this morning i had a chance to speak with speaker boehner, and i told him what i've been saying publicly, that i am happy to talk with him and other republicans about anything, not just issues i think are important but also issues that they think are important. but i also told him that having such a conversation, talks, negotiations shouldn't require hanging the threats of a government shutdown or economic chaos over the

the president took his message outside of the beltway today, and in congress there are no plans for further negotiation between the house and senate. today we'll discuss the real economic and personal impacts of the partial government shutdown with the real possibility of a showdown on the debt ceiling, but we begin with lawmakers when the talks broke down on wednesday. >> in times like this americans expect their leaders to come together and try to resolve their differences. >> we're through playing these little games. >> it was a worthwhile meeting. i'm glad it was held. we had -- shall we say some candid discussion. >> at some point we have got to allow the process that our founders gave us to work out. >> that's not what our constitution had in mind that -- if you don't like something you threaten to shut down government. it's not that kind of a system. >> the president reiterated one more time tonight that he will not negotiate. we have got a divided government. >> what the speaker has to accept is, yes, for an answer. >> every bill that ever passes in the congress is subject to anothe

the law is that congress has to raise the debt ceiling to meet its obligations that congress has obligated the country towards. so it is law that you have to do your job. and if you want to have a debate about spending, the president is happy to have that debate. spending is cut by 2%. you're not getting what you wanted. it's cost the country $20 billion. >> this isn't done of course. and i'm not about to take the position that we should simply get up and pack up our bats and go home. we are in the middle of this debate. we have constitutional responsibility and authority. and when a previous congress should pass and by the way, legislative shenanigan is how obama care got passed. they put automatic spending in there. >> congress pass baobama care. obama care was passed by congress, upheld by the supreme court. we've had two elections on it already. if you're worried, the $20 billion that we've lost because you shut down the government, what could that be paid on? two years of the school lunch program? the women and infant program. >> how much will obama care cost. >> keep in mind congress

congress or hemorrhoids. congress, 31%. hemorrhoids, 53%. congress or dog poop. >> that poll found congress is less well liked than the irs, wall street. on the plus side, it did hedge out miley cyrus and twerking. congress seems to be the most hated institution of american life and there seems to be something almost -- house gop's suicide caucus has hijacked the political process along the way. but there's also something disturbing about this. this is the branch of government with the power of the purse. the one that's supposed to declare war and oversee the executive branch and it's now seen almost universally as a bad joke. at this point, they just hope congress stops making them worse. with each day, the shutdown drags on. the each threat, the full faith and credit hopes grow different. joining me now is dan kildee. i imagine most of the people in your district know who you are, but you must occasionally find yourself in a circumstance, at a baby shower, out at a restaurant, and someone doesn't know what you do. i'm a member of the unite

why should congress not act? we should act, and i hope very soon we can do our job and honor these fallen and their families in an appropriate way by coming together as republicans and democrats and making sure that these survivor benefits to those who have lost -- to the families who have lost loved ones on the field of battle are paid on a timely basis without being caught up in the political games occurring inside the halls of congress. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask consent to speak for up to 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, a colleague recently described on this floor his experience flying in a private aircraft when a fire broke out in the cockpit of the plane. he observed that putting out the fire distracted the pilots from flying the aircraft and that they precipitously lost altitude just so this tea party shutdown and the tea party's threa

raising the debt limit as congress' responsibility because congress has the power to set the maximum amount of government can borrow to meet its financial obligations. some in congress have suggested that raising the debt limit should be paired with spending cuts and reforms. i have noted that the debt limit has nothing to do with new spending. it has to do with spending that congress has already approved and bills that have been incurred. failing to raise the debt limit would not make these bills disappear. the president remains willing to negotiate over the future directions of fiscal policy, but he will not negotiate over whether the u.s. should pay bills. certain members of the house and senate also believe it is possible to protect our economy by paying only the interest on our debts. while stopping or delaying payments on other commitments. how can the u.s. choose whether to send social security checks or pay benefits to veterans? choosing whether to provide food assistance or meeting obligations to medicare providers. the u.s. should not be put in this position. there is no wa

>> he has had meetings with leaders of congress, he has had phone calls with leaders of congress. he invited all members of both houses to the white house. it is also the case that we don't inform you of every phone call that he makes, either to members of congress or others. he has been engaged in this process, his team has been involved in this process. his position has been clear, therefore not that complicated to communicate to you, the public, or to congress. we've simply urged all sides to put down sort of--put aside the efforts to achieve partisan advantage and leverage, and instead to move forward with an agreement that opens the government and raises the debt ceiling so the threat of default does not hang over us at the time, you know, at this time. >> the president said yesterday basically once this whole mess was resolved, once that's done the day after i'm going to be pushing to call a vote on immigration reform. does he really think to deal with one divisive issue is to deal with another divisive issue? >> the decision comes to the floor that now needs approval of bot

he's had phone calls with leaders of congress. he invited all members of both houses to the white house, and it is also the case that we don't inform you of every phone call that he makes. either to members of congress or others. he's been engaged in the process. his team has been engaged in this process. ultimately, our position has been consistent and clear and therefore not that complicated to communicate either to you or to the public or to congress. we have simply urged all sides sort of -- put aside the efforts to achieve partisan advantage and leverage and instead to move forward with an agreement that opens the government and raises the debt ceiling so that the threat of default does not hang over us at the time -- you know, at this time. >> the president said yesterday basically wants this whole mess is resolved, once in is done, the day after i'm going to be pushing to call a vote on immigration reform. does he really think a recipe for success on immigration reform, one divisive issue is to deal with this after another

congress never voted on the delay. it was a unilateral choice made through rule making at the treasury department. so the notion that questions surrounding spending and the debt limit are congress alone to answer is to put it mildly a case of false advertising on the part of the obama administration. there have been several other instances of false advertising from the administration concerning the debt limit. one is the president's claim that non-budget items have never before been attached to the debt limit increase. a claim to which a fact checker at the washington post assigned pinocchios as we have on the chart over here. under both republican and democratic presidents, only 26 were quote clean unquote. another is that in 2011, we entered some sort of a brave new world in which for the first time in recent history people were commenting on the inability of treasury to make timely payment on incoming obligation. if you go back to clinton's administration and read some press conferences you will see this claim is al

in congress we have these gerrymandered districts. congress doesn't look like america. and so we are at loggerhead. really no surprise on the type of districts that, you know that we have created in all of the state legislatures. >> joining me now, e.j. deion, columnist for "the washington post" senior fellow at brookings. and joy reid, an msnbc contributor. you heard it right there. a member of congress we know that they don't usually say. this congress doesn't look like america. it's become a place where the members are picking the voters. and the voters don't have much of a say in picking the members. >> yeah, like a revelation. sure on fox news. did you see where the other guy, before, that congressman was from virginia. if you are in virginia, one of the dwindling number of sort of blue and purple state republicans. you are panicking right now. your district looks more like america than let's say districts in alabama, georgia, or texas or ted cruz's state. the problem in virginia is you have a governor's race coming up. that sequester was hurting you. a lot of peop

so congress knew about it, yep. >> if congress knew about it, the white house knew about it. the president as the commander in chief, is the chief executive. is there literally nothing he could do to assure that these families were taken care of? >> he's doing it today, john, because it was not addressed by congress in our pay our military act. john, the republicans shut the government down. two, the department of defense, as every agency did, warned congress of the myriad of consequences of a shutdown and it was not addressed in our pay our military act. it was not addressed, unfortunately. he directed the omb and his lawyers to work on a solution and we expect one today. so i don't think there's any disagreement that this is a matter that needs to be resolved, that it's unthinkable that these benefits would not be available and, therefore, he's doing the right thing as commander in chief in making sure that it's resolved. >> but what i don't understand is there is discretion clearly in deciding who is essential and who is not essential and who is furloughed and who is not f

this is not our congress. we have the good guys and good women of congress on this stage. this is john boehner and a few extremists who are saying they want to crash the economy. do you know what's bizarre? even the koch brothers right now are telling them to stop. so this is -- i'm a social studies teacher. i am a social studies teacher. as a social studies teacher we teach the kids that democracy works when the parties get together and do what's right for america. that democracy is about lifting all votes. that democracy is about making sure that kids could good education and that our seniors are good. that people are not one step away from a health crisis or bankruptcy because of cancer, that immigrants have a safe passage and have a reasonable shot at life just like my grandparents. if you work hard and play hard you can do well. we don't teach them that government workers who every single day are working but are not getting paid right now. we don't teach them that a few people, a few crybabies are stopping the government from working. if the votes are there on the flo

the last congress under john boehner was the least effective congress in the modern history of congress. the one we have now is on track to be even worse. republicans and democrats disagree on a lot of things. republicans and republicans disagree on a lot of things. but after they lost in the white house and they lost in the senate and they lost in the house last year during the last election, the one idea that the republican party itself formally recommended to its own members is that they find a way, they find a republican way to say yes to doing something about our broken immigration policy. find a way, find a republican way to say yes on immigration. and that door is now propped open in front of them, beckoning them to walk through it. a bipartisan bill already passed the senate. if that bipartisan bill was put on the floor of the house today, it would pass the house. democrats in the house even tried to make it more attractive to republicans by folding in an additional republican border security thing that got unanimous bipartisan support in the homeland security committee last spr

the reality is the fcc is not the top priority of many members of congress. the issues that members of ,ongress are aware of probably three or four, at some the once at the top may not be the obvious. indecency issues. i think the big overriding issue of the commission is the auction foot. the spectrum auction and what is going to happen and how it goes forward. i think there a lot of members of congress who do focus on that when they hear fcc anything broadcast auction. >> i think that is right. auctiond aren -- uctions are important. with created rules around a network that is not a critical network anymore is what a freak out what is essential in terms of regulation. outnd we have to figure what is essential in terms of regulation. there's a lot of concern about and if we're getting adequate bandwidth. i think there are number of different issues were congress can be very helpful. the problem is they often act in a way that this kind of like a creek from the sideline. that is not helpful. -- a critic from the sideline. >> i want to go back to what you said

but we are obviously focused on working with members of congress, leaders in congress on an effort to do what we said was essential all along, which was open the government, and make sure that the united states pays its bills by extending the debt ceiling and doing that in a way that we don't simply put us on a trajectory to re-create this crisis again in a few weeks. so we're encouraged by the progress that we've seen in the senate. but we're far from a deal at this point. so we hope that -- we hope that progress continues. >> reporter: what is there about the senate deal that doesn't re-create the crisis in a few months down the road and doing this all over again in the new year? >> there's not a bill for me to analyze for you right now. >> the pending -- >> every participant in this exercise would hopefully understand that it should not be repeated. not in a few weeks, no the in a few months and when it comes to the fundamental responsibility of congress to ensure that the united states does not default, not ever. that's certainly the president's view. that is why he has been so in

congress needs to work. the majority needs to be given a chance. >> if it is as bad as you say it would be if this happens, if they don't raise the debt ceiling by the 17th, why wouldn't the president come to the negotiating table? if it's going to ruin -- it's going to shake the world markets and ruin our credit worthiness, you know, we're the superpower. we can't not be paying our debts. if it's that vital, why isn't he at the table saying what can we do here? >> i think you know the president has been, is, and will always be looking for that way to negotiate to find a sense of middle ground. he it in 2011. he did it last year. he did it this year in the budget where he put forward tough policies. >> if this is so dire, why not do it again? >> i think you look at where we are right now, we've just gone through a couple months where very extreme parts of congress to control. i don't think the leadership in congress wanted a government shutdown. they ended up with a government shutdown because of the tactics

blaming each other and unable to agree, both parties in congress gave up and went home last night, and with the president's order as the time zones played out to the western u.s., the official word went out to begin shutting down the federal government. the financial cost of the shutdown is already being felt, along with its impact out in america, which is where we will begin tonight. nbc's john yang is in chicago. good evening, john. >> reporter: good evening, brian. on these three blocks in downtown chicago, three big federal office buildings. today, people came to their offices left out of them, to the voice e-mails and voice mails, and then went home to wonder when their next paycheck would come. in chicago, epa employee elizabeth witel went to apply for unemployment benefits. >> right now, i'm terrified, i'm terrified. to the point, what is going to happen. >> reporter: we first met her yesterday when she joined other workers to protest the shutdown. >> congress needs to be turned over somebody's knee and spanked real hard because they're acting like small children. >> reporter: i

. >> congress does not just have to and this shutdown, congress has to stop governing by crisis. they have to break this habit. it is a drag on the economy, it is not worthy of this country. >> for washington, this is almost personal. the nation's capital is very much a government town and the shutdown of federal buildings like this hurts. many federal workers turned up this morning and a few hours later were sent home. >> the trickle-down effect is scaring me. everybody is hurting already and this adds to it. >> i had to come in and shut myself down and i go home again and i don't know how long i will not be working. i feel like congress and in doing their job. >> the mall is lined with some of the most impressive museums in the world, all shot. as are other attractions. these veterans came to see the the worldroman to -- war ii memorial. >> it is stupid that they're closing it down. >> this is very disappointing. >> even the white house has sent 2/3 of its staff. the president made sure the military was paid. his wife's twitter account fell victim to the shutdown. aftergress, t

what would you tell the congress about this shutdown? share your dear congress comment with our wusu9 facebook page and check out the chatter. >> investors could be in for a wild ride during the shutdown. we saw triple digit losses for the dow at the beginning of the week and today the index lost another 60 points. jessica doyle takes a closer look. >> worries about a government shutdown didn't create a rush of worried investors at this office in midtown manhattan. but the top market analyst expects the mood to change. >> given this latest shutdown and the debt ceiling, i would expect another hit to occur to consumer confidence, business confidence, and investor confidence. >> investors paid a price during the last shutdown. the s & p 500, the stock index of the nation's biggest companies, fell nearly 4%. stocks rebounded after the end of that shutdown, up 10.5% the next month. but the market may not be as resilient. the washington standoff, businesses have in a recovery. that appears fragile. >> they are less willing to take risk. by th

congress, 2016, potus, 2024. later that day he tweeted, i want to thank everyone for the overwhelming support and encouragement about my decision to pursue elected office to. day dakota meier officially confirmed to a local kentucky newspaper that he is considering a congressional run in 2016. saying -- it is something i have always been interested in. it was my dream to serve this country in the military. and now it is my dream to serve this country in politics. joining me now, the first iraq war veteran to serve in congress, former pennsylvania congressman patrick murphy. thank you, as always, congressman for joining us. i want to talk to you first about the news of date here. veterans seem to have become pawns in all of this, shutdown talk and debate. rnc chair offered to pay for security guards to keep the world war ii memorial open. members from both sides of the aisle have greeted the world war ii vets decrying the shutdown, but while all this is happening, va facilities are going to reman o -- remain open

because only congress can act to raise the debt limit. no president has ever been put in a position of having to figure out what bad options-- >> ok, i understand. i'm almost out of time. >> -- [inaudible] if congress doesn't act. >> on tuesday, the president said, and i quote, "we plan for every contingency. so, obviously, you know, worst- case scenario, there are things we will try to do," end quote. could you tell us about these contingencies? >> well, you know, senator, the the options are all bad. >> i agree. >> secretary, you've been very generous with your time. we deeply appreciate it. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> hearing's adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> this is two hours. >> i call this hearing to order. the committee has many important issues to consider and plenty of challenges to solve together on a bipartisan basis. we find ourselves in day 10 of the government shutdown. it drags down our economic recovery wi

there should be no treatment, special treatment for members of congress. we all live under the same laws. mr. speaker, hardworking americans across this country wants a government that puts people first. and since obamacare was passed in a highly partisan manner, the president himself and other members of his party have offered unilateral exemptions and delays for special interest groups and for members of this congress. so you have to ask why are members of congress exempt from the pains of obamacare? why are these special interests exempt from the pains of obamacare? shouldn't we also exempt the hardworking families of this country from the pains of obamacare? there should be no special treatment for anyone under the law. that is a founding principle of this country. no special treatment for anyone. equal application, equal treatment under the law. delaying the individual mandate for american families and withdrawing the exemption for members of congress is what this bill is about and it is the right thing to do. now is the time for our president to lead

>> congress needs to do it's job. we just spent the last several months with congress creating a ridiculous choice where you either appeal the affordable care about or we will default. these are old bills, these are not new bills. we're open to negotiation. the president is and will be open to reasonable discussion. >> i want to ask you about obama care. that's what a lot of this is about. the public exchanges in obama care opened up this week. in fact, the middle age to sign up to enroll for obama care has been taken down for repairs during off peak hours this weekend. you had three years to prepare, if we had doubts about the ability of the government to oversee this, shouldn't this add to my doubts? >> we saw seven million people to rush to go on to the web page to find out what are their options. >> how many signed up? >> they have six months. >> the government refused to tell us. >> i may look and have no interest. the question is how many people have signed up. >> we know that people take time to make important

. >> do you approve of the job congress is doing? >> i do not. >> do you approve of the job congress is doing? >> no. >> do you approve of the job congress is doing? >> disapproval. not coming to a conclusion. >> do you approve of the job congress is doing? >> not really. >> do you agreen wipprove of th congress is doing? >> absolutely not. >> do you approve of the job congress is doing? >> no. >> no. >> do you approve of the job congress is doing? >> not particularly. >> do you approve of the job kong re congress is doing? >> no. >> do you approve of the job that congress is doing? >> no. >> do you approve of the job that congress is doing? >> hold on. i'm on tv. >> what did you say? >> do you approve of the job that congress is doing? >> do i approve of the jobs that they're doing, the shutdown? >> in general, yes, no. ask your friend. >> do you approve of the job that congress is doing? >> no. >> hi. >> do you approve of the job that congress is doing? >> no. [ speaking foreign language ] >> jimmy: one out of 17 people approve of

it's solely congress' job to pass a budget. they have to pass a budget. >> are you refusing -- are you saying the president is refusing to negotiate, sir? >> i'm saying the president wants to negotiate, he wants to negotiate -- >> negotiate on the debt limit? >> chris, we need congress to do its job and we then need to negotiate. the president has taken many steps over the last several years to show his willingness to negotiate. he's done it with democrats saying he's too eager to negotiate. republicans have not come forward and made comparable movement. if we were in a place a year ago or two years ago where everything was on the table, where entitlement reform and tax reform were equally on the table as part of a solution, we wouldn't be where we are now. we came forward and were willing to do entitlement reform. the republicans need to move forward as well. >> the words of your report catastrophic. will the president accept a short-term extension to fund the government and raise the debt limit so you can have talks about the

that congress will make no law applicable to a citizen of the united states than to congress. who can argue that? >> it is sad that we have to pass a law. it seems sort of obvious. yeah, why not. this should be the way it is. but on the other hand, is this a big problem that we face in this country? the primmar example is the afford believe care act and republicans have exaggerated the so- called congressional xechlz. it is basically, just going to be in the exchange ands subsidies to offset what they are losing from the old health insurance. >> that was the genesis of what rand paul is suggesting. that congress will be forced to join obama care starting january 1st but will receive the federal subsidies. and not all americans will be able to receive federal subid is. it depends on your federal paycheck. should congress? >> of course not. congress is friendly to itself. that is no great shock here. it is insider trading laws and shouldn't be the case that you go to congress and when you leave you are significantly richer. as far as the constitutional amendment. i was under the

this is what congress is supposed to do as a routine matter. and they shouldn't wait until the last minute to do it. the last time republicans even threatened this course of action, many of remember back in 2011, our economy staggered. our credit rating was downgraded for the first time. if they go through with it this time and force the united states to default on its obligations for the first time in history, they'd be far more dangerous than a government shutdown as bad as a shutdown is. it would be an economic shutdown. so i'll speak more on this in the coming days, but let me repeat. i will not negotiate over congress's responsibility to pay bills it's already racked up. i'm not going to allow anybody to drag the good name of the united states of america through the mud just to refight a settled election or extract ideological demands. nobody gets to hurt our economy and millions of hard-working families over a law you don't like. there are a whole bunch of things that i'd like to see pass through congress that the house republicans haven'

congress has the authority. whether it's to devise a scheme or plan along the lines you talk about, or simply just take the vote and raise the debt ceiling, that's not an authority that the president has, but an authority congress has. >> any conversations about that? >> i just refer you to the enate. >> basically you're saying thursday. you're not going to be able to pay all your bills. what should the american public be bracing for? >> let me be clear on thursday the united states runs out of its borrowing authority. that means that the treasury only has cash on hand to meet the obligations that the united states government has. >> did you or can you not say the united states would not pay all its bills. >> what we can do and how it works, what i'm saying as nation the reason why we need to raise the debt ceiling is to make sure the treasury can borrow money to make sure we meet our obligations. inevitably if your obligations exceed what you take in, you're in a situation where default is a possibility. but th

congress needs to do its job. pass a budget, pass the debt ceiling and then lets talk about priorities moving forward. >> how many more people, how many millions of people do you expect will be enrolled in health insurance? what would you consider a successful marker? >> the congressional budget office, andrea, projected 7 million newly insured americans by the end of the first open enrollment period. we're kind of shooting for that target. that includes not only the federal marketplace with the plans that are offered but also various state marketplaces. i think the notion that we had just on the federal marketplace, over a million people before 7:00 a.m. this morning, it's an indication of how eager people are for real information, to get the facts, to do some shopping themselves. so healthcare.gov is the website. there's also a call center. 1-800-318-2596. 1-800-318-2596. people can call on the phone. we have translators available in up to 150 languages to answer questions, help people understand some of the ter

should congress not be part of that? some of us think it's illegal for the president to do it without our authority. so, really, i think we should be part of the mix and he shouldn't get 100% of obama care as he wants it without any input from republicans as well as the rest of the country. >> so, senator, kind of how this all really -- this end stage kind of kicked off is you stood with senator ted cruz in that marathon protest on the senate floor. when you look at that, where you stood there and where we are today, do you think that protest helped or hurt negotiations? i ask that because we are hearing more and more some moderate republicans in the house saying things like the ted cruz wing of the party in terms of criticizing how things have been handled. >> i think it was helpful to talk more about it. we haven't had a big debate about obama care since it passed in congress. it was helpful to have a debate. i'm going on the exchanges, buying my insurance on the obama care exchanges. in my state there's only going to

very poor approval ratings, the president in the 40% range, congress much lower. the longer this goes on, the more likely both will be receiving responsibility. however, it's also fair to say that republicans in the house of representatives are likely to get most of the blame. >> but you say they'll get most of the blame, but congress will pick up the ball later again next hour. can we expect any real action today or is it really going to drag on for sometime. >> we heard speaker boehner last night indicate that he had appointed members for a conference committee. he is waiting for a response from senate leader harry lead to see if he will appoint members of the is not to talk about this. this is beyond the midnight deadline, and so, whatever they're going to do presumably they could have gone into conference before, but as long as some aspects of the affordable care act, obamacare, remains in the house version of a funding bill, the senate is saying no deal, so here we are, impasse. >> we've been here before, congress using budget deadlines to push for concession

of the congress or a supplement to the congress. it would be hard to disagree with that. >> our community tuning? passionate about this. >> the real media shield is the constitution of the united states. >> i'm not going to disagree with him, he's an expert and an attorney, and the fact is that i believe that the more protection we can get, we're not talking about trading favors here, we're talking about doing what's right. i would love to be able to rely on the first amend: it's a very powerful tool for journalists and others for free speech. but we talk about protect being the afflicted, but the most powerful is the u.s. government. and their job is to create a mythology, or spin about themselves and sell it. that's why there are press conferences and press secretaries and releases, and we need every tool we can get in order to counteract them. so we have a campaign that's about redaction. the government redacts document. >> don't get me started on that. the black indelible line. and we'll come whack and talk about what happens to

he noted that only congress has the authority to raise the debt limit. failure to do so would have grave consequences for middle- class families and the american economy as a whole. that is the latest from the president. that is incomplete reputation of any anonymous statement that any staff person may have said and is pretty clear. i want to come back to you and ask you again, another question. can you guarantee that if this commission were to meet and bring out findings, that you and or the speaker can guarantee that tea party members will support those recommendations? >> i thank the gentleman for yielding and i would like to say mr. boehner does recognize your friendship and support of your district and is delighted that you are here on the rules committee with us. that is an outstanding question. i would say that as the american people hear the debate that takes place between these members who would be there, we hope that the american people really engage on this issue that would have great leverage with all of our members and it would be i think be

congress should have addressed that. and so we need to have oversight and we need to hold members of congress accountable if they don't have oversight. if you're not going to have oversight, don't be up here. it's hard work. last question. or next to last. >> senator, i'm -- >> say that three times quickly. >> i admire your decision to impose term limits on yourself as a public servant. i understand though that congressional leadership and leadership within the party is often tied to the number of terms that a legislator serves and how long he or she has been in office. how can you help us to feel good about your decision without feeling like we're losing hope in having a