special real housewife. >> gretchen: theresa. >> brian: she's got a brand-new book out. colonel gatson in the after the show show. he's a movie star and army hero. >> gretchen: have a great day. bill: morning everybody. good show there. have another two good hours here. here we go again. another showdown on our nation's debt heatings up on capitol hill. speaker john boehner drawing a line in the sand hours before a showdown with the senate and democratic leadership in the house right there. good morning to "america's newsroom." i'm bill hemmer. this is round two. here we go. martha: i'm doing great. i'm martha maccallum. good to see y'all out there today. president and speaker back in the ring. you remember the last time this went down. round two of the debt fight, a stalemate brought us to the brink of defaulting on our debt. bill: that number keeps going higher. close to the 16 trillion in

debt. speaker boehner says once again he will not budge on this. >> previous congresses have encountered lesser precipices with lower stakes and made a beeline for the closest lame duck escape hatch. let me put your mind at ease. this congress will not follow that path if i have anything to do with it. the president has reducing his presidency to the size after pose it note. this is a president of the united states. the leader of the free world. who ought to be taking an active role in this conversation. he ought to be taking -- this is the number one challenge facing our country. and he is worried about all kinds of other little things. bill: measure this analyze it with with stuart varney from the fox business network. how do you analyze it? >> i see it the following way. whether or not we get another debt crisis, another standoff, more brinkmanship,

if we get to the that point, really it depends upon the results of the forthcoming election. if there is a clear-cut victory for either side, a likely, an agreement is very likely on borrowing more money. if president obama get as second term and democrats keep the senate and maybe win the house as well, clean-cut victory for democrats and president obama, you will raise taxes, keep entitlements and you will get a debt-raising agreement. if republicans take the white house and take control of the senate and keep the house, you will get tax reform, and entitlement reform and you will get a debt ceiling agreement. bill: so the way you see this then, all hinges on november? >> yes it does. bill: because you have an election which is no small matter. what the incentive to get anything done before that, is there? >> well there is incentive. country needs it. voters want agreement. investors want an agreement but there is no balance of political power that will give you an agreement. we have to reshift the balance of political power

so we can get an agreement one way or the other. what are we going to do with entitlements? what are we going to do with taxes? the answers to those questions will create an agreement on raising the debt ceiling. >> one more thing, tim geithner was at the conference, treasury secretary. last time around he said it caused a lot of pain and drama for the country. debt ceiling is best way to get washington to act. is that the case. >> i believe that is the case. speaker boehner is putting debt right on the front burner before the election. making debt one of, if not the key issue in this election. it is the hammer which will force an agreement one way or the other. debt is at the key of the whole ball of wax. bill: it will also force all politicians to show their hand and put their cards on the table before we vote. we'll see which way that goes. stuart, see you 9:15 on fbn. stuart varney there. martha? martha: after months of very tough negotiations and closed doors meetings, they

did as you remember, finally arrive at a debt ceiling deal. on august the 2nd the white house and congress agreed to raise the debt ceiling. they will do it in three steps to $2.1 trillion. this is like raising your credit card level what you can spend. that is the 11th time that sort of credit card level has been bumped up and had an increase since 2001 for the federal government. since then the debt increased, listen to this, by an average of $3.7 billion daily every single day. bill: you see the line of red. it continues to go up and up unless you do something. what do you think about the debt ceiling fight? is it good or bad or the country? go to foxnews.com/america's newsroom. right now you can vote. is it good or bad? only get two choices. show you the results a bit later in the program here. four minutes now. martha: how about this on the radar for the election headquarters right now? another tea party-fueled win

and another prominent republican taken down in a senate primary. nebraska state senator deb fisher pulling an upset victory, beating the more established candidate to take on democrat bob kerrey for one of nebraska's u.s. senate seats. this is a big deal because it could be an indicator what we might see in other parts of the country as well. this deb fisher was stuck in third place in the polls for weeks up until two weeks ago. then, out of the blue she got some big-name support. she got endorsements from sarah palin and also former presidential candidate herman cain. what does all this mean? byron york, chief political correspondent from the "washington examiner". fox news contributor as well. good morning, byron. good to have you with us. we had the murdoch case with richard lugar being taken down. similar kind of situation. obviously senate seats are a big deal in this election because republicans want to retake the senate. what do you make of it? >> this is a big win for

sarah palin. i, i don't think there is any other way to read this. sarah palin enters this race endorsing deb fisher pretty much late in the game. deb fisher has been in third place and zooms up and wins. this is not exactly at tea party versus everybody else sort of win. the attorney general, excuse me, john bruning, was the establishment candidate in this. but don stemberger, state treasurer had a lot of conservative establishment on his side. jim demint. had club for growth. had america works, tea party group. rand paul, senator mike lee. had a lot of real solid conservatives behind him. in the end deb fisher comes up and beats them all. martha: you're so right. cat gorizing this as a tea party win is not really accurate. it is a sarah palin win. and when you think about it, byron, she said, when she stepped out of the presidential race, the presidential circuit she said this is what i want to do. i will spend my time working

with candidates around the country who i like and i will support them. you're absolutely right. it does give credence to that claim on her part. look at the balance of power in the senate because republicans need, as i think i said before, four seats to take over the senate. how is that looking? >> well, it's still looking fine after this race. the, deb fisher will go up against bob kerrey, the former senator from nebraska but both of, we've had polls from, i think march that showed all three possible candidates, republican candidates in nebraska, beating kerry by at least double digits. so republicans far out number democrats in nebraska. looks like this seat is going to, go republican. and that could be a big swing. obviously ben nelson, moderate democrat is the one who is retiring here. martha: yeah. very interesting race. as you say that is ben nelson's seat vacated upon

his retirement in nebraska. one to watch, thanks, byron. >> thanks, martha. bill: four-word endorsement from george w. bush. i'm for mitt romney. the former president giving the presumptive republican nominee during a speech on human rights in washington. romney was endorsed by mr. bush's father. that came two months ago. apparently getting on an elevator on the speech, doors were closing and he says i'm for mitt romney. martha: if you want support that is all it takes is four words. bill: nothing formal of that. martha: governor romney, speaking of him taking more primary state wins last night, two to be exact, that gets him closer to losing the word presumptive and becoming the republican nominee by racking up the needed number of delegates. romney took nebraska and oregon, pumping up his count to 989. you need 1044 to get that nomination and he is getting pretty darn close with those numbers this morning. bill: from the world of business, here's a stunner, the fbi is launching an

investigation into the trade that caused jpmorgan to lose more than $2 billion on paper. the losses could go as high as $4 billion. the feds say the investigation is on going. only the preliminary stage. jamie dimon meanwhile will keep his job. the shareholders backing a $23 million pay package for the ceo. had been under fire during the weekend. the board meeting lasted 50 minutes. martha: there was never any serious question about jamie dimon hanging onto that position. those are just a few of the stories that bill and i have before you this morning in "america's newsroom." coming up details emerging in the trayvon martin case as we get ready for the courtroom part of that whole ordeal. a medical report possibly by mr. zimmerman's doctor, confirming his version of that evening events and turning this story somewhat upside down. bill: a manhunt underway for a suspected killer may be

posing as one of their own. martha: and former president george bush hitting washington, giving his take on freedom spreading across the globe. >> america does not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the middle east or elsewhere. only gets to choose what side it is on.

martha: well firefighters by land and air scrambling to beat back a wildfire that is threaten an historic mining town. crews say the high winds are usually their enemy. this time actually pushing flames away from homes and cabins in crown king, arizona. everybody in town under hand mandatory orders to leave. the fire tee destroying two homes and a trailer. firefighters have their hands full with this one battling five fires over the past several days. bill:. there are growing concerns over a new report on president obama's health care law suggesting that millions of low income seniors could lose their

medicare coverage over the next few years. dr. marc siegel, fox news medical a-teamer and professor the medicine at nyu langone medical center. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: we're trying to sort through all this stuff. what does the report say? >> here is the bottom line, bill. poor seniors can't afford thrills of secondary insurance with medicare. so they look around and choose medicare advantage, gives them coverage for prescription drugs, basic services in one shopping place, medicare advantage. most seniors, according to this survey don't live in counties where the frilly plans are. that is not surprising. medicare advantage that offers everything, doesn't happen to be in the places where the poor lives. along comes obamacare. it says, hey, we'll give bonuses to the plans rated very high by the center for medicare & medicaid services. we'll give bonuses so you will have lower co-pays. sounds good on paper but the poor are not going to bennett from that because they don't have access to

these plans. even if they did, they wouldn't choose them because the premiums are higher. so another example where obamacare says we're going to help you but it really makes things worse for poor people. bill: what do they do then under this option or this plan as forcast? >> i don't know what the poor are going to do because they're not going to get the benefit of obamacare. bill: do they go to the local hospital and get treated at emergency room? >> if they can't get the services. here's the pot line, if the services aren't able available they will have to go to a local hospital and get treated by the emergency room because doctors are bailing out of medicare advantage and less and less doctors are taking medicare in general. worry seeing the same problem with medicaid, bill, by the way. obamacare puts 16 million more people on to medicaid, basic services are being cut by states who can no longer afford them. once again the poor suffers. poor seniors are suffering because the medicare advantage plan will not be available or won't offer

what they used to. straight medicaid patients are suffering because their services will be cut and more and more people will be flooded in and not get access to care. bill: medicare basically for the seniors who are not in poverty according to the government figures at that point anyway. medicare coverage, almost 50 million people in america. what happened to the whole argument if you like your coverage you can keep it? >> by the way many medicare patients are poor. when you turn 65 you may be poor and get medicare. that is why you can't get a frill plan. president obama's idea that everyone will keep their coverage is not true at all. first of all we talked about you how you may not keep your medicare advantage plan. i said medicaid itself will basically change. if you have employer-based coverage we'll talk about how your employer may drop you. may end up on the state exchange or medicaid. you have medicaid and don't have a doctor to take care of you. bill: you take care of patients every day.

what is your solution? >> my solution understanding that all our insurance programs are bloated. too many people waiting in my exam room. we have too few doctors. we have already a problem with the system instead of expanding already broken system to 32 more million people and scale it back and reexamine what basic services were that needed to be covered. bill: on that point, you made this point repeatedly, where are the doctors that take care of newly insured or seeking out control, the emergency room to get protection and get insurance? >> bill, and understand, that is a twofold problem. problem number one we'll be 160,000 doctors short by 2025. problem 2, doctors we do have are dropping out of insurance. expand insurance but your doctors are saying i'm taking cash only or moving to a hospital. bill: a story today but not one going away. we'll look for solutions next time. >> we need solutionsers

thanks, doctor. >> thanks, bill. bill: martha, what is next? martha: a hunt for a killer who could be posing as a policeman. >> there are incidents described as vehicle described as white, unmarked crown victoria attempted to pull people over. we heard of gold in color crown vic tore yaw. >> a bat bad situation. martha: how a murder suspect could be posing as police officer pulling people over and taking victims by surprise. bill: for first time police calling this disappearance of this young girl, isabel celis, an abduction. a fbi profiler is here to tell us the clues in the case.

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bill: 22 minutes past the hour now. checking some top stories. a good time for the u.s. housing market. builders breaking ground on more than 700,000 new homes last month that is the up 3% from march. ambitious new national plan to occur alzheimer's by 2025. the national institute of health committing $20 million to that cause. there may the not be crying in baseball but there is arguing. toronto bluejay, bret lowery ejected after tossing his helmet into the umpire. he a big no, no, he called it a unlucky bounce. one of the fans through a beer at the umpire. martha: it would have not have bounced if he hadn't thrown it so hard at the ground. there is that. take the situation unfolding that has a lot of people on

edge across the south as police are hunting for a killer in a pair of highway murders. the victims were killed in cold blood by someone who the investigators believe may be disguised as a policeman, pulling them over for what they think may be a legitimate reason. investigators have very little to go on here. both shootings in rural stretches of northern mississippi, no witnesses to either shooting. so they're doing their best to keep people calm and offer some advice. >> i know that a lot of rumors are going around and a lot of things are going around and i want to say that we don't know anything right now for concrete. if they are being pulled over by an officer and they're concerned about, because of what has gone on, with these two homicides, you do have a right, don't have carte blanche right not to stop at all but you have a right under our law to put your flashers on, drive a safe speed and proceed to a lighted, populated area. martha: that's very important information right

there. so joining us on the phone from jackson, is warren strain. spokesman for the mississippi department of public safety. so, warren, two brutal killings, a 47-year-old woman and a 74-year-old gentleman on the way to pick up his grandson at college apparently got pulled over or pulled over for some reason. at least one of them was robbed. and both of them were shot and killed. >> yeah, it is a terrible situation for both of those families. our hearts go out to them. we are pursuing, to say we have little to go on, martha, would not be accurate. that district attorney made those comment monday. he is not directly involved with the investigation but we do have several leads that are being pursued at this time. evidence collected at both crime scenes is being processed. >> do you feel any level of confidence that these two incidents are linked? >> well, you know, because both vehicles were on the

side of the road on rural stretches of north mississippi and in close proximity to one another there are a lot of similarities. martha: mr. shlender, the 74-year-old gentleman on the way to pick up his grandson at college, his wallet was taken from the vehicle according to these reports. what about the young woman? was there any robbery in that car? >> at this point we don't have any indication that robbery is a motive. in fact the motives in both cases have yet to be determined. it is just an unfortunate situation all together. martha: why do they think it might be somebody posing as a policeman? >> well the similaritieses that both vehicles were on the side of the road. in fact the young lady, her vehicle was pulled over and flashers were on, emergency signals were on. being on the side of the road at that time of day and no apparent problem with the vehicles that would lead you to believe that someone,

posing as a police officer pulled them over. but again that is just one of the scenarios and also, just out of, abundance of caution and concern for public safety we want to let the motoring public may not have known they have that 911 option to make that phone call, we want to make sure that they were aware of that because in these rural areas you may not have the option to go to a lighted place where other people are around. martha: you know what? so important to get that message out because i've heard this said to women in particular, that if you ever feel like you might be being pulled over for something a strange reason or nervous about it, put on your flashers and pull to well-lit public spot and call 911 to check it out. thank you very much. we'll stay on top of this story. it is a mystery and tragedy for both families. good luck to you. bill: a big challenge on their hands. is there new evidence now about george zimmerman's injuries? this in the hours after he

shot trayvon martin dead. what a doctor said he found on zimmerman's body, his injuries. could that change the case? martha: former president george w. bush saying that the u.s. can not fear freedom in the arab spring. does he have a point? and ambassador john bolton joins us live. >> in the long run this foreign policy approach is not realistic. it is not realistic to presume that so-called stability enhances our national security. nor is it within the power of america to indefinitely preserve the old order which is inherently unstable. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

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bill: we are learning new information about the night trayvon martin was killed. in medical report revealing that george zimmerman suffered several injuries in the alleged scuff fell that led him to shoot the unarmed teen. phil keating is live in miami. what does that medical report tell us, phil? >> reporter: tells us a lot of the same things a few eyewitnesses in the gated neighborhood, supporters and family members of george zimmerman said all along. that he actually suffered injuries from being punched by trayvon martin, including lacerations, cuts or gashes on the back of his head. zimmerman's claim is that trayvon martin was bashing his head into the sidewalk only then did he fear for his life, pull out his gun and shoot and kill the

unarmed 17-year-old. according to abc which first obtained medical records here, this is all part of a massive discovery dump going out to the defense team, there are reports of a closed fracture on zimmerman's nose, two black eyes, two lacerations on back of his head, bruising to the upper lip and cheek. but he was not diagnosed with a concussion. this does nothing in the opinion of benjamin crump, the family attorney for the martin family to absolve zimmerman of killing trayvon martin because they say you can't initiate or provoke an encounter and then claim self-defense towards the end of that suggestion if you're losing the fight. that is the whole point bit special prosecutor's office. that is why they charged zimmerman with second-degree murder. bill: what can we expect? what else can we expect when it is made public, phil? >> reporter: that is massive amount of documents. it may come out today. could be any day now. may not be as soon as we all hope but trayvon martin's

autopsy report is also going to be in this discovery document dump and according to one of the orlando tv stations last night they are reporting that the autopsy entree von shows that he had a obviously a single bullet wound to the chest but also scrapes on his knuckles. the state's witness statements will be part of this discovery. 67 cds worth of documents. video of martin the night of the shooting. reporting that the 7-eleven nearby, where trayvon martin bought skittles they have video of martin going in there. lastly the lengthy multihour interview of george zimmerman the night of the shooting. we saw the surveillance video in the sanford police department sally port as he was walked in there. this was 30 minutes after the alleged shooting and fight between martin and zimmerman. this is multihour interview, all video and audio recorded. bill: will tell us something in addition to what we

learned already. phil keating live from miami. >> president george w. bush speaking out for the first time on the toppling of dictators in the middle east and the spread of democracy saying that the united states should always be on the side of freedom anywhere, and everywhere. listen to his comments. >> america does not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the middle east or elsewhere. it only gets to choose what side it is on. the tactics of promoting freedom will vary case-by-case. but america's message should remain clear and strong. we stand for freedom and for the institutions and habits that make freedom work for everyone. martha: interesting comments there by the former president. joined by john bolton, who was appointed by president george w. bush as u.s. ambassador to the u.n. and now of course a fox news contributor. good morning. good to have you here today, sir. >> glad to be here. martha: there are mixed reviews how the outcome has been from the arab spring

particularly in the case of egypt where there are a lot of concerns that the muslim brotherhood may have too much power after mubarak's ouster. what do you think of president bush's comments? >> well what he's say something obviously a further elaboration of the principles that he set out in his second inaugural address and i think as a matter of high level abstraction it is hard to debate with that. the united states will not come out in favor of forms of government other than representative government and other than individual freedom but as the president himself said in the remarks you just showed how you handle that tactically will vary from case to case. there are many cases where it's not one side wearing plaque hats and another side wearing white hats. egypt is a good example of that. there are people on side of opposing mubarak didn't want democracy. they wanted a authoritarian

state. >> it is argument for hanging in there anding being involved in the long term. initially we don't know how the governments will fare in tunisia and libya and egypt. there are things we can do to sort of promote democracy on those fronts and nurse it along for the lack of a better word. >> not to be pedantic here but where the president tends to focus on words like freedom and liberty i think is key, democracy is derivative from free and open societies and from individual liberty. you don't start with democracy then get freedom. you start with institutions of a free society from which representative government flows. i think if we made mistakes in the past, saying gee, let's hold an election and see what the result is before the conditions for a truly free and free society are present. martha: interesting. i mean, you know, when you think about it and look back at the war in iraq for example, i mean is the former president in some ways continuing to support his actions there and his legacy

saying no matter what the outcome it is always best to see a dictator fall? it is in the interests of long-term change and long-term reform for any country? >> well i think you could have a dictator fall and be replaced by something worse. there is always a risk of that. in the case of iraq, you know the dictatorship of saddam hussein was a continuing threat to u.s. interests in the region. so replacing him was something that we needed to do to try and create conditions for security in the region. ultimately though since we weren't able to stay there long enough to insure that it's really up to the iraqi people. they're going to have to make that decision. they're being influenced by others like iran but with american combat forces now withdrawn there is very little we can do. martha: i wonder how this comes out in the course of the 2012 presidential election? because clearly president obama feels that the arab spring and the toppling of

those governments is on the positive side of the ledger for him and for his role as president of the united states. mitt romney, you know, where will he come down on this as opposed to what we're hearing now from president bush do you think? >> well as president bush bush said, we don't get to start these movements and we don't get to stop them. if you look at president obama's record in the case of egypt in particular during the 30 to 35 days between when the demonstrations started and mubarak stepped aside the administration had four different positions what they wanted mubarak to do. that kind of inconsistency hurts the united states worse than anything at all. then nobody knows where we stand and our ability to influence events is really reduced. martha: ambassador bolton, interesting. good to have you here today. thanks very much. >> thank you. bill: markets trading eight minutes down on wall street. check out the big board there. better numbers for the housing sector came out a bit earlier today but

lingering worries what will happen in grease, what's going to happen in the rest of europe. dow closed down 63 points yesterday. we're up at the moment, up 31 points. keep you updated. martha: action hugging the line as we wait for more clarity on all of that. there are new details in the showdown over "fast and furious." the justice department shrugging off threat of contempt against eric holder. darrell issa is responding. bill: now officially treated as an abduction. where is 6-year-old isabel celis? a veteran fbi profiler who worked on cases involving natalie holloway and elizabeth smart is our guest live next. my new hearing aids

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bill: in a rather significant development police now call the disappearance of this young 6-year-old girl out of arizona an abduction. it has been almost a month

since 6-year-old isabel celis was reported missing from her own home on a saturday morning around 9:00. shortly after that time her mother made this chilling 911 call. bill: your heart really goes out to that women. mary ellen o'toole, a retired fbi profiler. good morning to you. you worked on some of the most high-profile cases in country we've come to know. elizabeth smart and natalie holloway. you wrote the book, dangerous instincts, how gut feelings betray us. thank you for your time. your heart goes out to the mom. can you learn anything from that other than a hysterical mother who is very concerned about where her daughter is?

>> what would be important to get a baseline of behavior from the mother to that understand how she acts in another crisis situation. is this out of the ordinary or is this in keeping with how she would normally respond? bill: you wonder, you know, mothers watching at home they would probably react the same way. if their child was missing and had no answers where he or she is. contrast that with what the father, what the father's 911 call is. i want to play a clip of that too. get you to analyze this right here.

bill: what do you take from that? >> well he does sound very calm, cool and collected, but the point is, is that how he traditionally is when he is under stress? i know a lot of people who are listening to that say, that is just simply not realistic but it may be for this person. it may be the way he acts under stress. now there were a couple of interesting things that he provided to the 911 operator and that was when he was listening to the ballgame, he didn't hear anything unusual. however the window of opportunity for this little girl to go missing went well beyond that baseball game. so why did he focus on that time frame? that would be a question i would ask. bill: there are a few more questions in this too. now this girl disappeared on the 21st of april. and the father has now been

told to stay away from her two brothers. why would that be? >> i think that's pretty unusual actually. i have not had that experience in another case where the father or the mother has been asked to stay away from the other children. now there could be very legitimate reasons for that and that could include that the father is being too demanding on the children. maybe trying to interfere with the children's statements and what they want to tell police, or it could be that police do not want this whole situation to escalate even further because he is a suspect. bill: the one thing that strike as lot of us is the laughter at the end there. can you explain that? >> i have seen people in very troubling, very stressful situations, you bring them in to the fbi office, you bring them into law enforcement offices and they laugh inappropriately,

they just do it. you double take on it but i've seen it happen over and over again. again i would have to put that in context. bill: here is some more context then. another 911 call from the father on that saturday morning. bill: so they stay there. and now the mystery continues. why then would the police change the category of this case to an abduction? what does that tell you? >> that tells me that they have ruled out the possibility that she just wandered away on her hone. that there is enough evidence now to say that she was taken against her will but i think what's really interesting here, yes they do call it an abduction but, you will notice they did not call it a stranger abduction. bill: what does that mean?

>> i believe that means that there are still people within the family or close to the family who knew the little girl that could still be considered as suspects. a stranger abduction means exactly that, a stranger unknown to the family, unknown to the child. they did not use that word. bill: as you well know abductions from a child from a home, from strangers, it is so rare as you point out. >> it is very rare. bill: often times you find that the missing, whomever is responsible often tied back to some relationship with the family. is that a fair statement to make? >> that's a very fair statement. stranger, genuinely, genuine stranger abductions are very, very rare. the danger to children, especially that age, comes from people who are closer to that child whether close family friend or someone within the immediate family. bill: you have to hope and pray this young girl comes back soon. mary ellen 0'toole, thanks

for al youing us to tap into your experience today in washington. hemmer@foxnews.com. also twitter at bill many hemmer. we can talk about anything on your mind. bya because you asked. our hearts go out to the family. >> madelyn mccann. there are times children of this age are missing and sometimes never solved. we'll keep an eye on it. how about this question this morning. are college kids victims to some extent of the health care law? interesting story came up. a catholic university is dropping their health care plan for the students and we'll tell you why. bill: also a cheaper option at the pump? we like to hear that. why the cost of a gallon of gasoline might be going down. fill 'er up.

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bill: new details now on a shocking story about a manhunt for the newlywed husband of a woman found stabbed death only hours after her wedding. police in chicago finding the victim's body on sunday, wearing the cocktail dress she wore at her reception friday night. investigators are searching for 30-year-old, arnold dough jimenez. he was last seen driving a black maserati. he is wanted for first-degree murder out of chicago. martha: national average for a gallon of gas gasoline down 20 cents a month ago. it has come down a bit. $3.73 a gallon. this summer new ethanol gas blend may be dream cheaper

than that. that fuel may cost you more in the long run. with all that, rick leventhal is live in york, pennsylvania i should say. what are the concerns there? >> reporter: good morning, martha. we're at a station that actually sells pure gas. more than 95% of gas stations across america sell a blend of 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol which is made from corn. now the ethanol industry says it is saving drivers more than a buck a gallon. it wants to up the mix to 15% ethanol this summer. that could save drivers even more. but a new study out today from the petroleum industry and carmakers said many vehicles currently on the road can't handle much ethanol and engines may break down. we asked both sides about the new e-15. >> some people that don't want to have ethanol in their gasolinings okay, then don't. but, there are far more people that think it is very important that we be reducing our dependence on imported oil. they think it is critical to

this nation's economic and energy security we be expanding ethanol production and use and want to see more ethanol in our gasoline, not less. >> we're not against using these biofuels but we want to make sure that they work with the automobiles. that's all. >> reporter: the petroleum industry is actually suing the epa to force more studies and a decision is expected next month, martha. martha: very interesting. some are will, i would assume to pay more for pure gas, right? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. we're at a sqen store in dover, pennsylvania. this is the only place in york county where you can buy pure gas. no ethanol sold here. nearly 20 cents more a gallon. people are willing to pay for it, studies show pure gas bet gets better gas mileage. they don't trust ethanol based fuel for smaller engines or older cars. they say customers drive 100 miles or more to load up on the fuel. >> man, i'll tell you one

thing, you see a lot of cars. people out driving and they don't want ethanol in their tank. >> reporter: randy says corn belongs in our bellies and bellies of our animals and not in our cars, martha. martha: that is very interesting. i didn't know about that debate. thanks, rick leventhal out in pennsylvania today. bill: the justice department firing back over possible contempt charges facing eric holder. the message it has for republican leaders in the house looking for answers on "fast and furious". martha: a leading senator has a strong warning today about america's financial future. >> we're in the midst of committing murder to our republic. i think it is time we cheat history.

martha: new developments in the fast and furious scandal to tell you about this morning. the justice department is now firing back at congress, calling

the contempt charge against attorney general eric holder ill advised. that's how we are kicking up a brand-new hour in "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning to you. despite that warning, darrell issa a telling greta van susteren that he sees no other way to get to the truth. >> after the abuses under nancy nancy pelosi it is pwhraoer w clear we -pbt wan want to have belts and suspended, and make sure we check everything, including whistle blowers and other ways to get this information. there is going to come a point where there is nothing left but to say, we find, broadly, this attorney general to be in contempt. martha: will that happen? here now tucker carlson the daly caller editor and fox news contributor. good to have you here. we had darrell issa a here last week and spoke with him.

a lot of the response i got from viewers was why wait? at this point why are they waiting? now you've got this response from the administration, basically saying we have given everything we're going to give on this and we have given very full disclosures and the questions have been answered. >> there were 22 questions in the last subpoena, 13 of them remain unanswered, the justice department hasn't forwarded documents that the house oversight committee has requested. some of them pertain directly to the attorney general eric holder. the justice department's position appears to be, we can investigate this internally, so we don't need to comply with congress. i think this is a collision course. this subpoena was issued in october. it's been more than six months now and they have refused to comply. and they have not invoked executive privilege, by the way, so it's not even clear on what grounds they are refusing to comply. i don't think there is any question, at least at this point that there is going to be a

contempt citation. martha: we'll see. it feels like stalling and feet dragging to a great extent on the part of the department of justice. they are saying they can't fire anybody, they are doing their own investigation and that is going to take quite some time, most likely until after the election is over, and that until they finish that investigation, snicker, snicker, and until they feel the investigation is over it won't be right to come out and say what they new, and that eric holder was wear of this program that saw a law enforcement killed. >> i've seen a lot of investigations, a lot of them don't amount to much because the underlying scandals aren't historically significant. in this one you point out, people died, including an american. the question is very simple, and that is did the justice department in washington, did the leadership have knowledge of this program? that is not clear. that is a question that must be answered. by the way, i think issa has been intentionally restrained in

issuing subpoenas. you haven't seen a flurry of them coming from his committee to the white house. if the president is reelected and the peps hold the house i would expect that to change fairly tramatically. martha: there's been a question of whether issa has the backing of g.o.p. leadership on capitol hill if he goes ahead with this contempt proceeding. what do you think? >> our reporter mac boil has been on the story six months and i think he's counted over 120 separate members of congress, most republican who have called for the attorney general to resign or expressed outrage over this. that is a pretty strong backing as far as i can tell. martha: thank you. we'll see you soon. bill: we have a stark new warning now from a top republican in congress. oklahoma senator tom coburn says that america has two to five years before the real financial meltdown, predicting a fiscal disaster unless we drastically change our course. >> john adams says there has not

yet been a republic that did not murder itself. we are in the midst of committing murder to our republic. i think it's time we cheat history i. think it's time we have the leadership that stands up and talks to american people like adults, here are the problems, here are the possible solutions. bill: charles payne has been looking at this for some time. bring in the pain you are. you say this could happen even sooner than coburn predicts, why? >> every year we hear that the social security fund is going to run out of their money sooner than they thought. medicare will run out of money, sooner than they thought. our interest rates are going through the roof and our ratios are amazing. there are less than three people working who are receiving social security. the rate we are having kids are down. unemployment is a bad situation, quality of jobs. i think the more important thing that coburn talked about really when he talked about

leadership. yeah there is the big issue of political will, but here is the thing we are not being honest about, the american people and their inability to accept or take pain and that is just american. you look over to european you see exactly what is happening, he's right. republics kill themselves, countries kill themselves simply because they will not accept or take pain. we all know this is coming. not a single person can dispute what road we're on right now. bill: the point is it's happening a lot sooner than anybody is preparing to face. you found a study out this past week that compared how america feels about its future for its kids as opposed to the european countries when measured against china what did that tell you. >> boston consulting said listen will the next generation be better off than this generation? in america only five people strong lee -- 5% strongly agreed with that statement. in france only 2% strongly agreed with it. the same across europe.

in china 22% strongly agreed their kids will have a better life. 60% believe they'll have a better life. overall it was 83% versus 23% in america. we know our kids aren't going to have a better life than we are and we still won't change. that gets back to the notion of leadership. the reason our leaders are flaccid and this is because the american people are flaccid on this. we can quibble how far out it is and fool ourselves, it's ten years away, it's 20 years away, when it hits us it's going to sit us sooner and harder than we think. bill: you look at places like california as you point out, states like illinois, stuff sledding. charles, thank you. we'll check you out every monday through friday with stewart varney starting exactly at 9:20 in the morning. fox business network. check it out. thank you, charles. martha: former president bill clinton breaking with president obama on the issue of taxes,

tell a financial group in washington that he believes that taxing the rich will not help us get out of our financial situation in this country e. says the only way to balance the budget is to hike taxes across the board. here is what he said. >> i'm not speaking for the white house, but i think you could tax me at 100% and you wouldn't balance the budget. we are all going to have to contribute to this. and if middle class people's wages were growing up again, and we had some growth in the economy i don't think they would object to going back to the tax rates that pertained when i was president. martha: very interesting argument that he has and it is that after growth kicks in to a certain extent then you already bake into the cake certain tax increases. he says that he acknowledges that the current political climate seems to be making any tax reform very difficult to pull off since nobody seems to be willing to compromise. bill: that is one debate. the other debate is on the debt ceiling. what do you think at home?

is the fight overt debt ceiling good or bad for the country. round two is on its way at 90 minutes of the white house. that is our question of the day, overwhelmingly 80% believe it's a good thing, 20% say no it's bad for the country, which yesterday. log onto our website and you can vote right now while we are on the air here. martha: new questions about whether the white house was making back room deals with drug companies to get the healthcare law passed. there is a congressman who is going to speak to us about this investigation and he has something to reveal to us this morning about it. he'll be here soon. bill: haven't we been here before, martha, another budget showdown brewing on the hill. how we could see the repeat of the big battle last summer and the deadlock that went on and on. martha: new fallout from president obama's healthcare law as one catholic university says that they really cannot continue to cover students at their campus. that is coming up. >> we said, we cannot comply with this sort of order. it goes against our deeply-held moral and religious beliefs, and

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bill: new developments right now in the case against john edwards. the defense may rest its case today, we're told. we are also told that edwards daughter might take the stand in his defense, but apparently she has not shown up at court today. jonathan serrie is live in greensboro, north carolina. what is the defense strategy, then? it appears to shift by the way. good morning. >> reporter: yeah, it is certainly fueling a lot of speculation. every previous day we had seen cate edwards arriving with her father, today that was not the case, and she is not in court. is that because she doesn't want to be in the same room if reille hunter is potentially called to testify, or is it because she is going to be called to testify? those two women are among a list of four high profile potential witnesses that the defense had

listed yesterday, but the defense also saying that if they did not call these witnesses that they would rest their case. legal experts tell us that this is intended to keep the prosecution guessing. listen. okay, i'm sorry, we don't have that sound. but if the defense does indeed rest today it remains unclear how it will affect the other witnesses in this case, whether they are going to call from that list of four high profile witnesses, which includes cate edwards, john edwards himself, his mistress, reille hunter and andrew young his former am pain aide, bill. bill: the defense indicates young might be on the stand. what purpose would he serve at this point, jonathan? >> the defense is trying to poke holes in his testimony. andrew young is after all the prosecution's key witness in this case. if they brought him back they'd be trying to question some of

his previous testimony. they've been trying to portray andrew young as soliciting the funds in question from two wealthy donors without the knowledge of john edwards. john moylan a south carolina attorney and close friend of john edwards described a visit with one of those two donors, rachel bunny mellon in which the heiress informed edwards about secret money she funneled to young. he said bunny should not be sending money to anyone. he went onto say, i believe to this day that andrew young was using senator edwards' name to get money from mrs. mellon. so the defense trying to discredit young's testimony and portray him as having alterior motives, bill. bill: thank you jonathan serrie, live in greensboro, north carolina. martha: there is new fallout in the standoff between the white house and catholic

institutions. francis can university, which is a steubenville, ohio becomes the first school now, this happened late yesterday, to scrap its entire healthcare plan for students because of the healthcare law. school leaders saying that the law is driving their costs too high and also the issue of the contraception mandate infringes, they are saying on their religious freedom. here is some of that, listen. >> we were the first catholic university to take the oath of fidelity and so if we're in the classroom and our sciences and our theology program is saying one thing and we are telling our students that we are doing something else with our money, this is unconscionable. i would never imagine in this day and age in america that the federal government would compel us to do something against our religious believes. martha: joined by father jonathan morris. he's a roman catholic priest and a fox news contributor. good to have you here. there are two elements to this, the financial element and we

spoke about this and i know you said that the university claims that the costs would just be simply driven too high, they are being priced out of covering students with their healthcare plan. >> that's right. michael hearnan, full disclosure is a friend of mine, i didn't know he was going to be on before me, i did go to school with him. told me that the problem here is prime air plea a financial one, and that is that they were told that the healthcare plan that they offered the students was going to double in price next year and then it was going to triple the year after that. and they had a policy requiring students to have healthcare. and they said it's unconscionable for us to force students to pay for something that is so exorbitant in price. the issue of when this healthcare law does go into place there is also going to be the mandate that this institution provide things that go against their conscience. martha: the university offered a fairly low-cost healthcare plan

for kids who did not have a plan who weren't on their parents' plan. the plan they were offering did not include contraception as part of that plan. now because of this new healthcare plan that is put into place, unthe new law they would be forced when they up their plan to include those services, right. >> that is true. martha: that's a deal breaker. >> that would obviously increase the cost for the insurance company. the insurance company under the new law would have to increase the total amount of payout up to a hundred thousand dollars and then eventually to an unlimited amount of coverage. and then the university is telling students they have to buy into that. so, in other words, i think the moral issue is not only this question of what is in the healthcare plan, but also when you're a university and you're telling people they have to buy something they can't afford that is a moral issue. they say we are going to get out of this all together, you find health insurance wherever you

have to, we are not going to force you to buy something so expensive. martha: they had a catastrophic coverage plan and a low cost plan, but now under the law if you offer healthcare it has to go up to a hundred thousand dollars and eventually it has to go up to unlimited coverage in the future. it seems to me this university is not unlike many small businesses across the country when they weigh how they are going to afford this kind of unlimited coverage, they get to a point where they say, we can't fis fiscally do it and that forces people onto a collective plan. >> that's why i think any time we are talking about fiscal decisions or budgets there is also going to be moral and ethical consequences, right of whether or not you're able to provide something for your students in this case, for example. although it sound very good to say, we're going to provide free healthcare for all, or whatever it happens to be, or we're going to increase the amount of coverage you're going to get, but who is going to pay for that? and the question is whether or not those people will be able to

pay for it, whether an institution will be able to pay for it, there are consequences, we have to look at every single one of them. i had a good time studying there. we had a lot of fun. martha: it seems like a great place. thank you very much. good to have you here. i'm glad we could bring you for an appearance with our buddy for catch up. bill: he was found not guilty in one of the most watched criminal trials in history, but later went to jail for armed robbery. guess what o.j. simpson is up to today? martha: and they have been sitting behind bars for years, picked up on the battlefield in iraq or afghanistan, and now critics say that the administration is trying in some way to reward some of these detainees. we're going to tell you what that is all about when we come back.

martha: 23 minutes past the hour. let's take a look at some of the headlines right now. a new lawyer nor o.j. simpson is taking action for the former football star to be released from prison. the new lawyer saying that the juice was badly misrepresented in that trial. he is serving time, as you may remember, for armed robbery. and rescue crews recovering the cockpit voice recording of a jetliner that crashed in indonesia last week killing all 45 people on board. and how about this. take a look at that one, 34carats that diamond heirloom selling at auction for nearly $10 million, and you can just head over and probably pick that up for me. $10million, just a small chunk

of change. bill: take two of them. martha: take two, one for each ear. bill: for the low, low price. a plan to rollback detainee laws amounts to rewarding terrorists. that from several former high-ranking security officials in a letter criticizing democratses for trying to end rules holding terrorists. quote ... kelly simpson, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainees, kelly, good morning to you. >> hi, bill. bill: you helped draft or at least sign onto this letter, why? >> sure i helped put the letter together. look, last year's national defense authorization act simply codified the existing state of law, and these amendments would

essentially require the president not to have the option of detaining people for intelligence purposes and allowing our intelligence professionals to question them. it forces them to go right to federal court, and it forces our folks to mirandize these folks. bill: make that case a little more clear for us. it would give the terrorists more incentive to come here? how so? >> look, look, if you're captured in the united states right now and you're an al-qaida member whether you're a citizen or noncitizen you have the writ of habeas corpus, that's it. that means that the government could hold you for intelligence purposes, detain you as an enemy combatant and interrogate you lawfully. they don't have to send you to federal court. if these amendments go into law, then the only option for the government is to read you your miranda rights and send you right to federal court, which means they get the full glory of the constitution, and we can't talk to them, that's the problem. bill: isn't that the age-old argument, suggesting that federal law enforcement can take

of this. it's a police matter as opposed to something more? >> we are almost back to the future, bill. i mean we are in a state of armed conflict. we are at war. so you not only have the law of armed conflict and the tools available under that, detention, interrogation, but then you have the option as the executive to federally prosecute people when they come here to our shores. but you don't want to handcuff the president and take the law of armed conflict tools off and just force them into federal court, miranda, a lawyer, you want to be able to lawfully interrogate peep. this president has already said he's going to send them to federal court any way, but he may find a situation where he doesn't want to immediately send them to federal court. he may want to have them lawfully interrogated for a period of time. if this bill becomes law that is off the table. bill: those who argue that what was happening at gitmo right now would have been a joke if they were brought here or anywhere else in the country. will this amendment pass? does it have a shot in. >> i hope not. it is capitol hill and politics

will come into play. set aside bush or obama and think about the presidency and the commander-in-chief you don't want to take lawful options off the table. we are still at war, we know al-qaida is recruiting westerners and americans to take up arms against the united states, don't defanning the government's lawful tools. bill: an american passport is the golden ticket if they can get it. >> sure. bill: thanks. we'll talk again. martha: sometimes they say as good as california, so goes the country, so could the bankrupt state be amir or for the federal government? we will talk to california congressman kevin mccarthy. what he says we should learn from his home state. bill: also a high school prank that drives commuters crazy, and i guess you could say the police a little bit too. >> it's just not a safe idea, there is a lot of reasons why, one is emergency vehicle traveling on the road. >> we didn't really think through that. i guess it probably wasn't the best idea. i love cash back.

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martha: we want to get you up to speed on a hazmat situation that has just dropped into our urgent cue this morning in "america's newsroom." this is hollywood, florida, macarthur high school where 12 students and a teacher have all come down with similar rash-like symptoms. they evacuated that classroom and the classrooms on either side of that and the hazmat folks are on the scene. they are trying to figure out what has caused this rash in this classroom.

hollywood, florida is between miami and fort lauderdale. we'll keep a close eye on that one and tell you if we can figure out what is going on at macarthur high school. bill: 10:31 now in new york. and in one hour congressional leaders meet at the white house to talk about america's next great debate, taxes and the debt. house speaker john boehner insisting he will not raise the debt limit without a deal that slashing spending and extends the current tax cuts which are set to expire at the end of the year. it's going to be an interesting six months, folks. i talked to republican kevin mccarthy a bit earlier about all that. >> good morning to you. thank you for coming back to "america's newsroom." >> thanks for having me. >> can you guarantee a vote on this tax extension this summer, or at least before the election? >> well, this is what the republicans are doing. the ways and means chairman and myself were holding listening sessions inside my office because we think the only way

out of this is to expand the economy, and that means you need tax reform so america can compete. you lower -- you close the loopholes, you expand our ability to compete in other places of this world, and we think there will be a vote inside the house because the difference between the democrats and republicans, they want to add more taxes, it's just going to further hurt the economy. bill: what you're trying to do is show your hand to voters ahead of the election in november. you talk to your memorandum berths every day. armembers every day. are they in support of this. >> they are in support. i know the president said he's more flexible after the election. i think the voters should see, what are we more flexible on, this president makes a lot of promises he doesn't keep. he promised he'd cut this deficit in half, he's added more debt than the last 40 presidents combined. bill: we have a battle over the debt ceiling. timothy geithner had choice words yesterday, treasury secretary. he called last year's showdown

drama he says it caused pain and damage to the country. it seems like we are heading toward another battle. what do you say to those words? >> if we waited for the president you still wouldn't even have a debt ceiling. the idea that he continues to add to the debt when the senate democrats won't even propose a budget, i know they'll vote on five today, the president's budget in the house, not one democrat even voted for it, it didn't even get a vote, there is no direction -- there is a lack of leadership in the white house. so when republicans proposed out there that we have to do something dave rerpbgt different, you have to control the spending of government at the same time expand the economy, the president went awol and that cannot be the case. bill: in california too you're drowning in debt, the headline was staggering. you went from a 9 billion deficit to a $16 billion deficit. that is one state now. and you have governors across the country now competing for businesses who may want to leave the state of california. terry bransted tweeted this ...

the republican governor from ho*euz hive said, not if we get them first. california leads america in forecasting what is to come for the rest of the nation. what are we to learn about what is happening now. >> we should learn from california. california has a millionaire's tax and cap and trade and they go further into debt. they have 12% of the entire nation's population but 32% of the entire nation's popularity on welfare. 25% of their entire budget comes from 144,000 people out of 37 million. this is the wrong direction. it's only the third time since 1886 no republican won statewide. a lot of these governors that live in other states, they say impson.t's like living next door california through their high regulations, high tax burdens and now they are proposing higher taxes, businesses are shifting away and that is the wrong direction.

and unfortunately that is the same direction this white house has proposed. we've seen the experience lose in california, you don't want to put that onto the nation. bill: kevin mccarthy thank you for your time. we'll follow the meeting at the white house that gets underway in an hour opens time. we'll see what headlines come out of it then. you have the tax vote in the summertime, then you have the election pending the outcome in november. you have about a move in a where all these issues need to be hammered out. just like last thanksgiving and last christmas, they haven't gone away. these are to be debated. martha: they are turning the wheels on this process now. a lot of people thought they might avoid this process until after the election, the republicans as well. apparently they want to be on the record for the type of action they want to taken if they can't get there. it has taken the senate a longtime to come up with everything. president obama could be the first president in 30 years to have more vacancies on the federal bench than when he took

office, and there is a big blame game on between republicans and democrats. molly henneberg is going to sort all this out for us, she is live in washington. let's take a look at the numbers, molly. how many vacancies are there? >> reporter: we are talking here about federal judicial vacancies, vacancies at the district court level and the circuit court level. according to the left leaning alliance for justice which is pushing for more of president obama's nominees to get confirmed by the senate there are 77 positions open and 31 judges have been nominated by the president so far that we know of for 31 of those 77 positions. that potentially leaves dozens of slots for which there isn't even a nominee. how fast is the senate moving on president obama's tphopl fees? about the same as it has in the past according to these judicial confirmation rates. at this point in their first terms, presidents clinton had a 78% confirmation rate for his judicial nominations. george w. bush had a 78% as well and president obama has a 77%.

but there are still those dozens of vacancies martha. martha: very interesting. why the hold up? >> reporter: republicans and democrats as you might guess disagree on that. republicans say the president isn't moving quickly enough and nominating judges for the jobs. the democrats, including the white house say the g.o.p. is slowing the confirmation proce process. >> when you look at facts, however, the reason for so much of the delay is because republican senators are not allowing obama nominees to move forward to their hearings. >> they are making it to the floor for a confirmation vote within a very reasonable period of time after their hearing and after their vote in the judiciary committee. so they are being confirmed, it's just that the president hasn't nominated most of these slots. >> what these vacancies mean to americans and businesses is that their cases don't get heard and resolved in a timely fashion.

martha: imagine that the wheels turning slowly. hard to believe. molly, thank you very much,. bill: so president obama promising the most transparent white house in history, remember this? >> transparency and the rule of law will be the touch tones of this presidency. our commitment to openess means more than simply informing the american people about how decisions are made. bill: now new questions about possible back room deals between the white house and the biggest drug companies in america.

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bill: breaking news right now, i want to update you on what is happening in court collins, colorado, firefighters battling a blaze in northern colorado. 700 acres large.

there are storms in the area for today. the rain might be good, the moisture, but there are winds that could hit 50 miles an hour, that is not good. we are told the fire was caused by arson. the fire within a quarter mile of some homes. we will watch that through the morning and into the afternoon in fort collins. martha: new questions this morning about whether the white house may have cut a back room deal with drug companies in order to get the healthcare law passed, and to get their support in doing that. the house committee behind this probe says that they believe that there was some sort of deal that was definitely made, and that they want to know more. let's find out a little bit more about this. texas republican michael burgess is on the house, energy and commerce committee that is leading this investigation. welcome, congressman. what evidence do you have that there was any sort of arrangement between the white house and pharmaceutical companies as they headed into the vote on this bill? >> well, you know, this all goes back to about three years ago, it was may, june and july of 2009 when the president same out

and had some photo ops with leaders in industry and said we've carved $2 trillion in healthcarence expenses out of of the next ten years. that is a pretty interesting figure for somebody like myself who has a background in healthcare delivery and an interest in health policy. so what was the make up of this? and for three years we've been stymied in trying to find the answer to this. now, when the house republicans took over the leadership of the committee in 2011 we really began to investigate this in earnest and now some 12, 14 months later we are beginning to get -- pull the curtain back a little bit on just exactly what was going on, were companies actually trading public support in order to get their policy provisions in the healthcare law? and that appears that was the case. martha: your suggestion is that the pharmaceutical companies were going to make out better financially because of the way the bill was written, that it would somehow benefit them. according to these documents

that you put out you said that the internal records you obtained from outside stake holders who were engaged in the negotiations -- you have sources within these pharmaceutical companies who have turned over these negotiations to you? >> that is correct. and the -- by implication, then, the individuals in the white house were part of the communications stream. martha: so, there was an email that definitely caught your attention from jim messina in the white house, and under the subject it's written to a pharmaceutical lobbyist, correct? >> correct, correct. martha: under the subject it says, what the hell, this wasn't part of our deal. do you have any more than that to sort of back up what is being discussed in that email? >> yes there is more. and more will come out about this. but, look, even going back to the fall of 2009, when senator mccain tried to offer an amendment in the senate finance

committee dealing with reimportation, now senator mccain and i disagree on this as a principle but he should be able to offer his amendment. and when he was prohibited from offering that amendment with the statement that this was not part of our deal, again, that has got to make the hack hles go up. as you pointed out in the lead in to this piece. the president himself promised no back room deals on this healthcare stuff. everything is out in the open. we are not going to close the door and cut a deal with lobbyists, but that's what was going on. martha: is it not i will logic illogical, it's taken up such a huge portion of the u.s. economy, the healthcare business overall that they would be discussing the way the bill was constructed with all of the players, you know, obviously pharmaceutical companies are big employers in this country and nobody wants to see those huge american companies be hurt by this bill either.

>> correct. and i have no quarrel with the pharmaceutical research and manufacturing association arguing on their behalf. what i do have a problem with is that it happened behind closed doors. the american public was excluded. look, the house of representatives was excluded. this would have been an important place to bring in -- the house leadership was in democratic hands at that point but why weren't at least they in the room while these policy provision were put into the healthcare law essentially in exchange for the silence, while this bill was being debated. martha: i understand you want more disclosure. i've got to go. when will you be releasing what you have, you know, you seem to be claiming there is a smoking gun from the pharmaceutical side. when are you going to fill in those blanks about exactly what this deal was? >> there is more to come for the balance of this week, and, you know, honestly it took three years to get us to this point. i don't know why the white house hasn't been more forthcoming on this. again, it does make you wonder what in the world were they

trying to hide? was it just the fact that it went counter to the president's promises during the election and during the early part of his term where he said, i'm not going to do these back room deals, i'm not going to do these deals with lobbyists and yet there they were around the table with the doors closed. martha: we look forward to seeing what you have in the future. congressman, thank you for sharing the story with us. we'll talk to you soon. bill: jon scott standing by waiting in the wings now. "happening now" eleven minutes away. what do you this. jon: good morning to you. the showdown over the budget, it is not due until the end of the year but john boehner is taking a strong stance on spending and taxes. what that tells us about the rest of the year on capitol hill and the race for the white house. we've also just learned the defense will rest today in the campaign finance kraoeul of jo trial of john edwards. will edwards or even his girlfriend be called hires? plus, when you're confronted with one of life's most difficult challenges, you face it with humor, at least that's

how our young guest is dealing with it. an inspirational story that will make you smile coming up. bill: we can use that. buying a home can be a challenge but apparently it's tough to rent this day. and desperate times call for desperate measures as you will see. martha: how about this. a case of senioritis full swing at one high school. the prank that rubbed the whole town the wrong way when we come back. >> we wanted to cause all the teachers to be late and all the students to be late, we thought that would be gunee. >> something harmless we 0 couldn't get in too much trouble for. it wasn't that big of a deal. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink? ♪ wer surge, let it blow your mind.

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spring fever folks, high school senior prank that turned a busy road into parking lot in the heat of the morning rush to work.

about 50 seniors from a school outside of st. louis rode their bikes, there they are, skate boards, scooters to class. they didn't use the sidewalk they rode down the town's main thoroughfare. drivers were furious and apparently the principal was none too pleased either. >> he gave us kind of our warning, he said if we think about doing anything else, that there will be serious consequences and people not being able to graduate. so they said they were going to have cops on campus the rest of the school week. martha: ooh, that doesn't sound good. students say that they did their research first to make sure they didn't break any laws and they say they wanted to hold up their teachers and classmates a little bit, make everybody kind of late for school. doesn't seem so bad does it. bill: a case in pennsylvania, all these kids got suspended. they pulled a prank during the lunch hour, and they were told, no, no, no.

martha no. martha: too many rules. bill: they called the colleges where they were about to go. martha: that is bad. bill: the rising cost of rent causing any americans to shack up with their friends or family, a trend spreading across the country and hitting folks especially hard in cities like denver, colorado. alicia c u.n. a works there. >> reporter: 30% of american adults are now doubling up in order to make housing affordable. that is a rate not seen since the depression. if folks aren't looking for a roommate finding an apartment is no treat either. rebecca is on the hunt for a new place. >> i could definitely sign a lease tomorrow for sure. >> reporter: the landlord tried to raise her rent by 14%. it was negotiated down, but she says it's still too high. >> that is not shocking at all. we do get calls from some people in the public who are concerned about that as well. >> reporter: ryan with the colorado division of housing says finding a place to rent in

denver is getting harder and and for expensive. even if folks with qualify for a mortgage many are worried about another housing bust. many people are being pushed to rentals. as vacancies shrink the rates are going up. >> they are well within their legal rights to push rents right now if they think the market can bear it. >> reporter: places like boston, san francisco, detroit and orlando, saw rent increases in the fourth thwarts of 2011. they conduct deducted a study that found out why it's a landlord's market. >> we have not been building many apartment complexes or units over a handful of years and it takes some time to catch up twars permittin as far as permitting and building these. >> reporter: lower income folks say they feel stuck because they can't afford the rents and also can't qualify for a mortgage.

bill: a fascinating time for so many reasons. alicia acuna in denver. martha: it says reduced fat on the label. does that mean it's necessarily any better or healthier for you? reduced from what, right? the real skinny behind so-called healthy junk food. we'll be back. and me and me. new dulcolax laxative tablets for women are comfort-coated... so they're gentle on sensitive stomachs. new dulcolax laxative for women the overnight relief you're looking for.

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martha: this is great. dana perino on the clicker on celebrity "jeopardy", watch. >> finish it it out the five for 1,000. >> taking place over the long years of this american conflict. dana? >> what is the civil war? >> good. martha: side by side with my old friend cnbc anchor david faber and our old buddy, kareem abdul-jabbar. david won overall. dana did a heck of a good job. i did a row oh reilly quiz