strategy, frankly to turn the page from friday when the president had another awful jobs report. he doesn't want to defend that part of the economy right now. so turn this into debate about tax fairness which is what he is doing about the on the campaign trail. in the east room, the presidential campaign coming back to the white house if you will. bottom line he will take a lot of heat from republicans just extending middle class tax cuts only will not only raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year but will not provide a lot of certainty for the economy but only wants to extend for one year. in terms of the strategy allows the president allies like debbie wasserman schultz who was on "fox news sunday" to beat up on mitt romney saying is about tax cuts for the rich. take a listen. >> mitt romney would, embracing the romney-ryan budget would make sure the wealthiest most fortunate americans get more and better tax breaks. we would end medicare as we know it.

that we would blow more of a hole in our deficit than already exists now. >> reporter: this is not just a battle between the president and mitt romney, republicans on the hill. he has issues in his own party. while he is drawing the line at extending tax cuts for those making 250,000 or less, you've got democrats like nancy pelosi, chuck schumer on the hill saying dividing line should be a million dollars or less. so they have to still work that out. bill: republicans will argue this hurts right in the middle of an economic crisis, slash, recovery. what do they say to that? >> reporter: they will have a hard time because the president previously said during his administration it is not not a good idea to raise taxes in middle of the recession or economic crisis. call it what you will right now. when you listen to mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate who was on one of the sunday shows yesterday they want to really hit the president on this tax issue. take a listen. >> i negotiated with vice president biden the two-year

extension of the current tax rates we're in right now. the president sign i had because he argued to let taxes go up would make the economy worse. we have a slower growth rate today than we what then. >> reporter: these tax cuts are expiring at the end of the year. so a lot of this today is about positioning. the president trying to position himself as a middle class warrior. this is also clearly about when you look at the stakes in the presidential campaign, the president wants to make the campaign about the next four years, that he would be for the middle class, mitt romney is for the rich. not just the romney campaign but republicans on hill say wait a second, what about last four years in your record? they want to make this a referendum on the president's leadership. bill: go back month ago, bill clinton was talking about this too. maybe he beat everybody to the punch. ed henry on the north lawn. thank you. martha has a bit more. martha: why do we call these the bush tax cuts? let's give a little context on this bill when it was

passed back in 2001 and again in 2003 which of course was during the presidency of george w. bush. he has since suggested if they weren't named for him might be easier politically to hold onto them. in 2010, president obama agreed to a two-year extension of these tax cuts. right now taxpayers making more than $250,000 a year, already pay cumulative 44% of all personal income taxes collected by the irs. that is a big chunk. bill: sure is. we also heard ed henry mention jobs june jobs report that came out just on friday. telling face the nation on cbs that president obama is trying to spin bad news into hope. >> this campaign and this election is going to come down to jobs and the economy. the latest jobs numbers obviously incredibly, the president says a step forward. i, would hate to see a step backward. bill: current unemployment

rate across the country, 8.2%. nearly six million americans collecting unemployment benefits. martha: well, thousands of americans may not be able to get online this morning on their computers because of a computer virus affecting more than half a million pcs. rick leventhal live in new york city. we talked a lot about heading into the weekend and programs people needed to employ in order to evade this. how is going, rick? >> reporter: so far better than it could have been. some are calling it an internet doomsday. it is bad but truth is you could have been a lot worse. if you have no internet today, sometime over the past few years you inadvertently download ad virus called a dns changer that redirected four million innocent computers to rogue web sites that stole personal information like credit card numbers raking $14 million in stolen funds. >> you think you're going to a website that is controlled

by a legitimate, say, merchant location. and it turns out you're actually seeing a website that is owned by somebody else who wants you to think that you're visiting that actual merchant location to buy shoes, to buy books or whatever might be. >> reporter: last fall the fbi discovered this hacking ring and stepped in to keep you online creating serve vaers that quarantine computers that it wouldn't affect others. the fbi had to shut down the servers this morning. that's why half a million people have no internet. martha: what can people do if they're affected by this. >> reporter: the majority did take steps to prevent the shutdown. users were exdirected to web sites to see if the computers had the virus. it is too late to do that now. if you have no internet you may not be able to get online to do fix it yourself. you have to call the

customer service department and get ready for a very long wait. martha: doesn't sound too promising. thanks very much, rick leventhal. bill: what would we do? take the day off, right? no blackberry, no e-mail. >> no. bill: glorious. a new report raising questions about england's security program in the run-up to the olympics. a terrorism watchdog saying that police are overcompensating, arresting quote, marginal terror suspects. last week investigators arrested 13 men in two separate raids. the group say the police may be intervening in cases earlier than they would normally because the olympic games start earlier this month. martha: they are on edge ahead of those fame. we're getting new reaction from angry airline passengers. remember they were delayed by 20 hours by one man on their plane. feels like we hear too many stories like this. it was a spirit airline going from l.a. to fort lauderdale, florida, cross-country flight. an 81-year-old passenger

allegedly went best second quarter on the plane. the pilot made a emergency landing in houston. that was not a good situation. everybody was forced to wait on the ground in houston for hours and hours. >> it was terrible. it was unreal. it was painful. 19 hours. 19 hours we were in this mess. >> he was like touching everybody. he was going to the bathroom. don't let nobody go to the bathroom. come out to their seats. kicking their walls, you know, like crazy. >> what were this thinking about this? what was your thoughts? >> you're thinking maybe he will break the window. you never know what is going to happen. martha: how about that? eventually the passengers got on another flight. not quickly enough for those folks. you can understand why. the airline says everybody will get a full refund. would that be enough for you? bill: not a lot of spirit on

the plane. get one refund, right? martha: this is why whenever i get on airplane i buy extra snacks. you want to hoard food in your bag. you never know when you might be stuck on the airplane. three books, 17 magazines, bunch of newspapers. what will you do for 19 hours? bill: you get a refund but do you want to fly the airline again? martha: i don't think so. not a lot of spirit. bill: hey, we're just getting going. some of the many stories we're watching today. this strong prediction from mitch mcconnell. did you hear about it? martha: yeah. bill: the senate minority leader on his chances becoming the senate majority leader this november. larry sabato on the key senate races this fall. martha: out of control tractor-trailer, oh my, headed for a gas station. how that happened. look at that. oh, boy. bill: this guy definitely will need a bigger boat. shark sightings on both coasts and one attack.

find out where. plus what you need to know before you hop in the water. martha: paddle fast, buddy. >> i was out there fishing with my nephew and sitting in on it and our feet dangling over the edge. we know they're out there. awesome to see they're actually in there looking for food. i think they just mistake, miss took the kayaker for something to eat.

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shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. martha: patience wearing thin in ohio. some people without power for more than a week now, still living in the dark after powerful storms that tore through the mid-atlantic and the ohio valley on june 29th. these pictures show the damage in maryland. look at what these poor folks are going through. people in ohio are fed up at this point. >> people are starting to get a little frustrated because we haven't seen a truck down the street. >> we're getting frustrated. >> i called three times a day, every day.

we have no way to keep her insulin cold. we can't find ice. everywhere is sold out of ice. >> keep saying supposed toe be in by tonight. not holding my breath. martha: she is a good sport. utility companies say the crews are working 16 hour shifts to restore power. but those folks haven't seen them on their block. bill: hot everywhere, right? hard to escape the heat. so republican leader in the senate speaking out about the republican chances for winning control of the upper house. balance of power right now in the senate, democrats have a slim majority of 51 seats. republicans at 47. there are two independents who normally side with democrats. hear is the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell on his odds of becoming majority leader. >> sitting here today and looking at the landscape do you believe you will be the majority leader next year? >> 50/50. i think it will be a close,

competitive election. there are a number of places where we have opportunity for pickups. not many places where we have much chance of losing a seat. i think at end of the day i think we'll have a very narrow senate one way or the other. bill: what are the chances? larry sabato, director of politics, university of virginia. thanks for coming back to "america's newsroom.". >> wonderful to see you. bill: is he spot off on? >> yes, senator mcconnell is not leader in senate but a excellent political analyst. he pegged this correctly. bill: his words are 50/50. i think this will be close, competitive election. i think at the end of the day we'll have a very scenario senate one way or another. i don't think that is going out on a him, do you? >> it is not going out on a him, remember that includes republican gains. nebraska is automatic i think republican pickup. democratic seat turning republican. but you've got basically seven complete toss-ups as

of july. now, bill, once we get into the general election we're going to see which way the wind is blowing blowing in each of these states. we'll look first to president because coattail will have a lot to do which senate candidates win in the seven pure toss-up states. and there are another six states where it is very close leaning already one side or the other but not a big margin. bill: show our viewers the toss-up states which there are seven. florida, massachusetts, missouri, montana, nevada, virginia and wisconsin. of those seven do we key in on all of them or two or three? >> well, if i were going to look at two, i would look at one republican seat, massachusetts. the seat of senator scott brown. that's the toughest for republicans to hold. and then i would look at missouri, the seat of senator claire mccaskill, incumbent democrat, that is the toughest seat for democrats to hold.

the others kind of fall in between. bill: now the leans on our map, blue is democrat, red is republican. we have three in each category. they are hawaii, new mexico, and ohio leaning democrat today. and leaning republican, arizona, indiana and north dakota. are these tricky? or are they, they going to iron themselves out? one way, larry? >> well, you know you know, we put them in the lean category we expect a certain thing to happen presidentially and therefore we think there will be some coattail for the senate candidate. there are always surprises. a small state, lightly-populated state like north dakota, for example, look, that is heavily republican state, bill. you would think the republican nominee for senate would win and i still kind of put a quarter on that bet that the republican, rig berg will win but the democrat heidi hide camp is doing better than expected. people in north dakota vote on individual. they split their tickets a

fair amount. bill: go back to one of the other points you made there, expand on that just a bit. what does it mean if mitt romney were to win in november? >> if mitt romney wins i would put a dollar to your dime right now that the republicans would win a clear majority in the senate. bill: clear majority. >> as mcconnell suggested it wouldn't be a big majority. 51, 52 seats, but nonetheless it is a majority and you can operate the senate that way. bill: if president obama wins a second term and republicans take the senate, and john boehner and republicans hold onto the house, what does bought in america look like then, sir? >> looks like gridlock with a capital g. you can invest in all stocks that benefit from gridlock. bill: that we shall. larry sabato, thanks for coming in from the university of virginia. >> thanks, bill. bill: mitch mcconnell on the record. we'll see if four months if he is right. thank you, sir, for your time. here is martha.

martha: there are jabs on the campaign trail over the proposed $50 billion in cuts to our military. what this could mean as it become as much bigger issue right now on the campaign trail for 2012. the chairman of the house armed services committee, buck mckeown, has new information on all of this and how it will impact our security. he will be here live. bill: we also talked about the weather out there. a hot weekend across the u.s. where thousands of record-breaking temperatures happened. is there any relief in sight? ♪

bill: 23 minutes past the

hour right now on a monday morning. happening at this moment, nearly 50 years after they were lost in vietnam the u.s. military buries six airmen with full military honors at arlington cemetery. the last of their remains were recovered in 2011. russia says it will stop a shipment of fighter planes to syria saying the delivery sin appropriate while the situation there remains, quote, unresolved. an uprising against the syrian regime has killed an estimated 15,000 people. plus an island in san francisco bay is up for sale. if you've got $5 million you can buy red rock island. what to do with it though is the million dollar question. ♪ . martha: that is a good song. bill: and the rock feels no pain and the island never cries. well-done. martha: there is relief for some people out there who have been enduring this stretch of blistering heat and these severe storms.

not exactly cool out but everything is relative when it comes to heat, right? in the last 30 days the heat wave set nearly 5300 record temperatures. we're going to be looking back at 2012 for some time where those things are concerned. the blistering heat was also blamed for 46 deaths over the course of the last several days. it is especially dangerous for people who have no electricity because of these deadly summer storms that we saw about 10 days ago. now in west virginia, about 77,000 homes and businesses are still in the dark and that means no air-conditioning of course too. it is brutal, brutal. meteorologist, maria molina in the fox extreme weather center tells us what we can expect on this monday. hi, maria. >> martha, you're right. it will be a little bit cooler out there. it is the month of july but it will still be relatively warm. in new york city while you were looking at temperatures in the 90s even triple digits over the last several days now you're talking about a high temperature at

85 degrees. much more pleasant. something you will notice across the northeast and midwest, temperatures will still be warm but humidity will be lower. it will still be feeling like the temperatures on the thermometer read. we'll not look at heat index values over triple digits like the we saw over the last several days. in the south and southeast dealing with temperatures in the 90s like in north carolina and raleigh, at 96 degrees. what you will notice in the next several days you will see a flip-flop in the weather pattern. northeast experiencing temperatures cooler. west is heating up. phoenix 11 3d grease for high temperature. it will stay warm out west and continuing to do so over the next several days. that will be something with we keep eye on. look what is average this time of the year. kansas city on average your high temperature will be 87 degrees. it is still warm out.

temperatures remain in the 90s by wednesday. new york city by wednesday, high temperature only 81 degrees. relatively cool day are foy you guys as we head into midweek. we will see the possibility of more severe storms across virginia, and south carolina and north carolina with wind and damaging. martha: we'll have more coming up next hour. wherever you are if you're not in phoenix, because they're in 113. bill: but it is a dry heat. martha: it is a hot heat, no matter how you slice it. bill: i was down in the carolinas last week for several days with the hemmer family. the annual pilgrimmage to the beach. all 22 of us. it was smoking hot. it is always hot every year down there every year we go but this year especially. washington what did they have 10 straight days plus over 95, 100 degrees. martha: awful. that is a summer to remember

already. at least you can sit in the water. even the water is hot. bill: it is too. martha: all the hemmers floating in the water. bill: new campaign issues moving up on the agenda. what the pentagon plans to do with our military and how that could be a game changer in the race for the white house. watch this story. we'll tell you about it. martha: take another look at this. look at this truck as it comes around the corner and slams into that gas station. we'll show what happened and after that. we'll be right back. clear, huh? my nutritional standards are high. i'm not juice or fancy water, i'm different. i've got nine grams of protein. twist my lid. that's three times more than me! twenty-one vitamins and minerals and zero fat! hmmm. you'll bring a lot to the party. [ all ] yay! [ female announcer ] new ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge!

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bill: right about 9:31. new poll until "america's newsroom" on the health care law. most people expect a repeal of that law if governor romney wins the white house come november. check it out from rasmussen reports. 80% of voters surveyed, they believe the governor's promise to scrap the legislation. just 15% say repeal is unlikely. that poll done in the days after the supreme court upheld the health care law. that is a snapshot of what you're feeling at home. martha: we talk a lot about jobs and the economy of course but there's a new really hot button issue that is starting to become a lot more important in the campaign for the white house for 2012 because we've got looming mandatory defense budget cuts, up to one trillion dollars over the next 10 years. a number that the defense secretary has called devastating. he is a member of the administration of course. secretary of defense leon

panetta says these reductions, if indeed they happen, will lead to the smallest ground force the u.s. military has had since 1940. it would leave a naval fleet of fewer than 230 ships that is the lowest level we've had in the navy since 1915. it would leave the smallest tactical fighter force in the history of the air force. these are things we really need to think about as a possibility they may kick in. joining me a man who thinks about this an awful lot. california congressman bud mckeown. he is chairman of the armed services committee. you've been really ssionate about this issue. we talk about sequestration and what it really means. this is what it means, a of stating impact you feel on our defense systems. >> we held, last september we held six hearings. the first five were the impact this would be on the defense of our nation. the constitution does say we should provide for the common defense of our nation. so that is very, very important. we do not have a defense

industry to provide jobs. that is a side benefit but the last hearing we held what the economic impact would be on, on our nation if these sequestration cuts came through. and, one of the professors that came from george mason university had done a study. he said we could lose a million and a half jobs. that is out of uniformed military personnel, defense people that work for the civil defense. and then the contractors. and i'm going to say today for the first time we do have the director of omb coming in. i was meeting with one of the top industry leaders. he went to the omb to find out what direction the administration was giving him. the administration just backed away from this. the president has been outcome paining and they have just ignored this. it is huge. so what the director of omb

told this industry leader was, don't pay any attention to it, don't worry about it, it is not going to happen. so we have him coming in to testify. we have industry leaders coming in july. martha: what does that mean? the head of omb says to the industry leader in the defense industry don't worry about sequestration and defense cuts you're hearing about why would that happen when the president said he would veto any bill that would turn these cuts back? what is going on? >> hard to imagine. we need to find out. that's why we have him coming in to testify. we want to ask him why are giving this information the law states that this will kick in. the super-committee was supposed to fix it. i heard people say well, we'll fix it during the lame-duck session but, it needs to be fixed right now. martha: one of the things that really strikes me about this sequestration, just to remind everybody, came about as a result of an inability

to find, to come to a grand bargain agreement, right? to cut spending really across the board in a lot of areas. but only area that seems to come under any cuts after all of that fell through is our defense of our country, right? so we're not having these talks talking about cutting back benefits or services in any way. we're really focused when it comes to spend, cutting spending on wednesday, -- defense, right? >> defense accounts for 17% of our overall spending right. >> yet half of savings we generated from the cuts come out of defense. it is time for people to really focus in on this. i think it will be a campaign issue because the president is not addressing it. i know mr. romney has said he will re, you know, he will replace these cuts. he is going to build the military up. he understands. you know one of the top leaders, military leaders in the nation told me a couple months ago in his 37 years in this business he had

never seen a time as dangerous as right now. we look at iran. we look at north korea. we look at arab spring. we look at things happening around the world and we're choosing at this time to cut a trillion dollars out of our defense. martha: it is interesting because it is twofold as you say with this issue. you've got jobs and you've got readiness. so the readiness issue you folks have talked about quite a bit how it would change our readiness and our capability the jobs issue strikes me, when we talk about the fiscal cliff that could happen at the beginning of the next year, this is part of that because when you talk about companies including defense companies and some companies across the country who say they don't know what they're planning and you talk to the defense industry leaders they say the same thing to you, we don't know what this means for us and jobs right? >> the sequestration that kicks in january 2nd will be 1.1, $1.2 trillion of cuts. i've just been be at thatting on the defense side. that will amount to 1 1/2

million jobs, which puts us back up to 10% unemployment. martha: wow!. >> when we have this shaky recovery we're talking about losing that many jobs. that is just half of it. what about on all the social spending side? we're going to cut fbi. we're going to cut education. we're going to cut all the social spending. that is another five or $600 billion. so, the job losses on that side will push us up, well up over 10%. i think, i think this is got to be something that we have to look at. martha: indeed. congressman buck mckeown. great to see you sir. thanks for coming in to the studio of "america's newsroom." we'll be following this. thank you so much. have a great day. bill: figure something has to give. 22 minutes before the hour. reports of a new controversial invite by the white house, is it a good idea, fair and balanced debate on that to slug it out. plus there is this. roll it. >> talking to you --. martha: oh, boy.

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all-clear. back into the game. bill: like a rifle shot, wasn't it? nolan ryan sat there like a frog on a rock. martha: he was under the eve there. bill: he did not move. new reports the white house extending a an invite to egypt's newly-elected president to the u.s. extremist islamic group, rather in control of a major american ally in the middle east. mohammed morsi taking oath of office after considered to be egypt's first free presidential election. this is close look at the muslim brotherhood ruling the country. they are egypt's oldest and largest islamic organization. one of their aims to be governed by islamic law or sharia law. the u.s. does not consider the muslim brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization. is president obama doing the right thing by inviting egypt's president here. kirsten powers, fox news contributor and tony sig,

republican campaign consultant and national political correspondent for talk radio news service. good morning to both of you. where are you on this, kirsten? >> well, i don't think it is clear that he is actually been invited to the white house. i know he is coming to speak to the u.n. general assembly. bill: to be clear we didn't say he was invited to the white house. we said extended invitation here to the u.s.. >> oh i thought you said the white house. this is not obama extending the invitation. it is typical, sort of protocol for him to be invited to the u.n. general assembly and the president may meet him there. i think that the united states needs to be engaged with egypt regardless of who the leader is. i'm not a fan of the muslim brotherhood or any islamist government but as you know we have a relationship with saudi arabia, for example, which is a very repressive government, very islamist government. so i think that it is good for president obama to

engage them. bill: tony, is this a good idea? >> well, listen, it is critical bill, that the united states has some sort of constructive relationship with this new egyptian government despite the fact it is being run by what really frankly is a terrorist organization. they promised to be reforms with this new president. he talked about civil order. he talked about human rights particularly for the cop tick christians and other social and ethnic and religious minorities there. we need to verify he will come through to with some of the commitments he made. bill: how do we do that, tone any. >> i think we should have dialogue. i'm not suggesting that we should invite him for a state dinner at the white house. if he is at the united nations and president is there too, there is suite at waldorf where the president could host anyone he wants. i think a good idealogue with the president of egypt is critical. secretary of state hillary clinton has to go to egypt and make it unquestionably clear that peace with israel is clear to maintain our

financial support. >> you will have to watch his actions, not just his words. >> oh, absolutely. this is not a group of people who is particularly friendly to the united states or to israel. and i think that they have to be watched very, very, closely. i don't think this is the best outcome for egypt. but this is the, this is the person that they chose to lead their country. they have a lot of control in the parliament though it has been dissolved. they have a lot of control in the country. and i think that, because we give them so much aid, it is important that the president, you know, pays close attention, secretary of state clinton pays close attention to what they're doing. bill: here is your aid dollar. 1.3 billion per year in military aid. >> yeah. bill: about 3 billion overall with everything thrown in. that is substantial amount of money going into that government for decades now. >> bill, right now the egyptian government is asking for 3.4 billion from the imf. they need the united states to support on something like

that. so that's where a lot of their incentive to cooperate with us will be. but we have to have a very clear agenda and make sure that the united states does not waiver from it. not only do we need to make sure they protect their peace with israel and the other international peace treaties, don't forget they have sovereign rights over the suez canal. that is the only way iran gets warships into the eastern mediterranean that is very important to our national security. bill: indeed. a cordial relationship is still very critical no matter who is in charge of the country of egypt today and going forward. tony, thank you. kirsten, thanks to you as well. we'll speak again. >> thank you. bill: martha, what's next? martha: well a meeting of lawmakers that looks a little more like the wild west. that is what started. look at this ruckus. he pulled out a gun on the right-hand side of the screen. bill: how did he get that past the tsa? martha: good question. bill: nothing like a day in the beach, taking kayak out of the water and seeing a

giant dorsal fin right behind you. this man, his terrifying encounter in his own words. martha: that is the picture of the day, right? are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

bill: this is about one of the most unbelievable close calls you will ever see. tractor-trailer careening down an offrampings squeezing between two cars and flipping over into the gas station moments before hitting the pump. akron, ohio. the driver said, he told police he lost his brakes and get this, no one was hurt. and the truck driver, and his passenger made it out with only minor cuts and bruises. the gas station is still in one piece. martha: lucky it didn't start a major explosion at the gas station. how about the guy at the gas

station getting gas? very frightening. hard turn. speaking of hard turn, close calls with sharks on both u.s. coast. in massachusetts off the coast of cape cod. this is my favorite picture. look at size of that fin, okay? that is a big shark, folks. look at this guy with his kayak. and a paddle boarder in front of him. what do you do? do you paddle really fast and possibly draw attention to the shark or disappear and not paddle at all? they have had two great white sightings this year over in in the chatham, or liens area of cape cod. one on the west coast, a shark taking a bite out of the kayak. that shook up the locals there. >> i've been surfing for a lot of years and never seen a shark. >> doesn't desire me. i'm eyewear of it. we're in their turf. always that element. i would be lying to tell you every time i paddle did out you don't think at least once about it. martha: sure you do, right?

here is a shark advisor for the discovery channel. also the director of fishes for the national aquarium. andy, welcome, good to have you here. >> good morning. martha: what is your reaction of the picture of the guy with the kayak and that shark right behind him? >> certainly is a stunning image and for families at the beach that can be fairly frightening but we do need to understand that sharks are part of the national ecosystem in the ocean. martha: when you look at that picture and see that dorsal fin, what is your estimate how big that shark is? >> from the reports i heard that could be up to 14 foot shark but probably 10 to 12 foot range. martha: what would you advise this man to do who went out for a little kayaking trip in the afternoon? should he paddle really fast to try to get in or do you disappear by not paddling near the shark? >> i think he did the right thing. started a slow track to the beach. that is best way to be. great whites are visual predators. they're not out to hunt

human beings and they will come up and mouth certain things that. is the case that happened in california where the kayak got it about. great white came up to test it and to see what it was and realized it wasn't food. martha: that is shocking. i'm very familiar with this beach. it has to be pretty close in. this guy is on a paddle board and paddle boarders don't generally go out where it is too deep. we know there are a ton of seals in this area. that's why they're there. this one seals very close to the human beings. >> this is the closest these guys have come in shore. it is because of the seals. seal populations in that area grown from 10,000 animals to almost 300,000 animals over the last 40 years since we protected seals. at the same time we've been desit maing the shark populations at a rate of about 73 million per year. so now that the great whites are protected and seals are protected we know this will happen as sharks keep coming back to the same area because there are lots of seals there. >> you make the great point. now the seals have been

protected. you can't kill a seal legally. now their population has been just thriving. at the same time, people do try to poach the fins from some of these sharks. and that has severely shrunk their population. so boy, there is whole lot for the few sharks out there to eat, isn't there? >> there is. it is a bount they're of seals in that area -- bounty of seals in that area. two of the animals that were tagged come back into the massachusetts area. martha: they tag them. they know these sharks. the spotter planes go in and get out on edge of boats and shoot them with a little computer trip so they can track them which is a good way to keep track of them. there has not been an attack on the a human in that area since 1936. are we testing fate out there? what do you think about how safe it is to swim in those areas? because they close the beach from time to time but not all the time. >> historically there has only been three attackses massachusetts. the last fatality was in

indeed in 1936. the lifeguards are doing right thing when a great white is spotted. they pull people out of the beach. that is the right course of action. be aware of your surroundings. if there are a lot of see lions in the area whether east coast or west coast move out of the beach while the seals are in the water. in massachusetts in particular the seals are really plentiful in a protected area people are not particularly bathing so the risk is little lower. martha: every once in a while a seal pops up next to you when you least expect it. you have to be careful. andy, thank you very much. >> thank you. martha: that is the picture of the day, folks. tune into "happening now" after the show. they will talk to the man you see in that picture. i will stick around for that. find out what was going through his head when you suddenly found himself maybe in the purview of the lunch menu. that comes up at 11:00 a.m. on "happening now". bill: 300,000 seals. that is a issue. martha: they look like a black mass on the beaches.

bill: fighting hard in the battleground states. brand new poll numbers from the swing states that will determine winner in november. brit hume is here to analyze. martha: we always like to talk to brit. release from the heat coming with a price. a tornado crashed through a building that was filled with children. we'll tell you what happened. we'll be right back. >> we were scared and like praying to god that we weren't going to die. >> she was trying to tape up the window and saw the funnel start to, she just told everybody to get in the dance room.

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[ humming ] [ male announcer ] kraft macaroni & cheese. you know you love it. martha: new developments right now in the standoff with syria. the rogue regime conducting very bold war games out there using live fire in an attempt to show off their military might. now the u.s. and the global community in a knew way reacting to what is going on in syria. that's how we start this brand-new hour of "america's newsroom" on monday morning. grad to be with you i'm martha

maccallum. bill: i'm recommend recommend. the syria state media says the live missile display was aimed at showcasing the ability to defend its shores against quote any possible aggression in the future. with syrian opposition groups putting the death toll from the uprising at about 17,000, hillary clinton the secretary of state saying the regime for syrian president's bashar al-assad days are numbered. martha: leland vittert joins us live. what are the latest on the diplomatic efforts going on here? any good developments? >> there is one big piece of news now coming from russia. the united states and its allies spent the entire weekend blasting moscow for sticking behind the syrians. it appears as though things have chained a little bit. just today the russians announced that they would not sell syria 40 fighter jets that had been promised for delivery some time this year. that is significant. this is the first time the russians have really come down

and publicly penalized the syrian regime and bashar al-assad who they have been so supportive of and protecting at the u.n. the war games did not help. they blasted off ground to ground missiles, also sea to shore missiles that was very clearly a threat not only to the united states but nato and turkey to syria's note, an unveiled threat in terms of what the possibilities would be if anyone tried to get involved. they have very extensive defense systems provided by the p*ugss. russians. they are sending a message, do not get involved here, it's a want of worms you're opening. martha: what is the status of the violence going on in the country against its own people? >> the rebels are holding on fighting these battles city to city with the syrian army. the rebels are still badly outgunned.

the death toll continues to go up. we hear reports of a hundred, two hundred people killed this weekend alone. what we are seeing on the ground here is the sebls tak rebels take control of one area, the army comes out of its barracks, pushes them out of there, as soon as they leave the rebels come out again. no one is able to firmly hold any ground. martha: thank you for the update. bill: syria is no stranger to international scrutiny. the political system is currently under the rule of the stoegthe social lis baath party ruled by bashar al-assad. it's a state sponsor of terrorism well before that back in 1979. martha: in afghanistan nato is confirming six troops killed by a roadside bomb this weekend, all of them were americans. the military saying that the blast tore through their armored vehicle on sunday morning. the taliban claiming responsibility.

later the same day afghan police led an air strike in the same province killing a local cal ban commander and wounding three of his men. bill: also there are protests and there are threats of retaliation in libya over the capture of two respected journalists. the men were on their way to vote in libya's first parliament tear re-elections when they were taken by alleged loyalists to gadhafi. they are threatening armed conflict this the journalists are not allowed to go free. martha: fox news alert. awaiting a big announcement from the white house that could come at any minute. president obama apparently set to extend the bush era tax cuts for the middle class, and he will do that for a second time, but we're told this time it will be only for the middle class. he extended those low rates back in 2010 for all income groups, but he said that he would oppose further extensions, we're going to bring you that announcement and talk a lot about that.

steve moore is with us, lanny davis is with us. we'll discuss that in a little while. bill: the legal battle overt voter id law in texas starts battle. the lone star state suing the justice department which blocked the law back in march. doug mckelway is with us. what do we expect is going to happen? >> reporter: we are expecting 25 hours are five days of arguments over the texas voter id law before a three-judge federal panel in washington. three of the judges were appointed by democratic president. at stake is the law that provides people to provide an id at the voting boot. they say twice as many hispanics as caucasians lack the necessary photo id such as driver's licenses or passports. supporters of the texas law point out that dead people have

cast ballots for president obama and that photo id's are a common and necessary tool to function in every day life. >> you have to have it. if you want to make an appointment with the attorney general you have to have the photo id or you're not getting in the justice department, i've tried. and as we know, you look at the facts. georgia created a requirement for a photo id, and in the two elections since they haven't disenfranchised minorities. >> reporter: the three-judge panel is not expected to rule on the case until late this summer, certainly before the november elections. most observers believe it will be decided by the supreme court. bill: there are other states that have similar laws, are there not? >> reporter: yeah, as you said you heard the congressman mention georgia's voter id ahh. indiana has a voter id law. neither has been challenged. the supreme court upheld the indiana law in 2009.

that ruling was very finally tailored, and it does not cover the constitutionality of the whole law. bill: thank you. doug mcelway is on that out of washington today. martha: good news now for states battling rain, and plenty of it. coming to colorado and it is battling through the worst wildfires in the state's history. the governor lifted an open burn ban which had been in place since early june but the governor is still urging caution. listen. >> we are not saying that the fire season is over. we are just saying that we are not in that situation where we felt that we had to take every precaution. we are still urging counties to be cautious, to be -- not to take unnecessary risks, we are asking citizens, be careful out there but we are not in the same place we were a week ago. martha: camp fires, charcoal grill fires, fused explosives

and fireworks are not allowed until this situation improves. bill: the fires raging in colorado have left behind scars on lives and land that will last for years to come. there are still 11 fires burning across that state alone scorching an area of one and a half time larger than the city of denver. the waldo canyon fire was by far the most destructive destroying about 350 homes and burning more than 18,000 acres of dense forest in the process. martha: so a swing state showdown in what could be some of the most important battleground states in the 2012 elections. we have brand-new polls that are coming in. we'll show you how the numbers are stacking up between these two gentlemen in about a dozen different contests. fox news senior political analyst brit hume is here to break down the numbers coming up. bill: looking forward to that. also the president's healthcare plan drawing an explosive comparison from an outspoken critic. >> we the people have been told

there is no choice. you must buy health insurance or pay the new gestapo, the irs. bill: the key word gestapo. we'll play the rest of that address from the governor of maine and talk about his comments and maybe a little bit of backlash too in a moment. martha: watch this. a daredevil stunt that almost ended in disaster. he's blindfolded and going backwards. what really happened here? we will show you when we come back. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one.

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woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year. for an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. . bill: a republican governor unleashing a scathing criticism of the president's healthcare plan. the governor of maine airing his displeasure on a radio address talking about a penalty that some will have to pay good they don't sign up for healthcare. lapaige not shining away from explosive rhetoric. >> this decision has made

america less free. we the people have been told there is no choice. you must buy health insurance or pay the new gestapo, the i.r.s. bill: maine's democratic party chair is demanding a full apology, quote, on behalf of all those who suffered at the hands of the real gestapo. martha: well that is the music that means the election 2012 is our topic and the race for the white house very likely to be a swing-state slug fest as we usually see. some of the latest numbers that we are getting a look at today come from a usa today gallop poll of 12 states that they see as the likely battle grounds, and they show the voters pretty much split in two. let's take a look at how things stack up. president obama leads governor romney 47-45 in this look within the margin of error, and both sides of course in recent weeks have come out in some sort of key places with some pretty

heavy attack ads from both sides. brit hume joins me now, fox news senior political analyst of course. it's good to see you good morning. >> thanks, martha, nice to see you. martha: first of all it's a tight race, i guess that is no surprise given what we knew coming into this. when you take a look at the way that the ads are influencing voters. let's pull this up, it says, have the recent tv ads that you've seen, some folks are seeing a ton of them, some of us are not seeing so many at all depending on where you live, has it confirmed your feeling about your candidate or changed what you already thought about them. interestingly only 8% say that the ads that they are watching have changed their mind at all. >> well 8% in the close race is meaningful. it is, however, the case that at this time -- this season of the election year sentiment tends to be soft, and changeable. and people's level of interest and intensity of interest is relatively low.

it grows as the year goes on and gets much more intense as you get close to the actual election day. so the history of this is that ad dollars spent at this time of year do not tend to get the results that ad dollars do spent later on. republicans have a general history of holding back the spending at this phase and loading up the back end of it. the worry about that, of course, martha, is that if the other side does the opposite they may get to define the republican candidate before he does, and that -- there are indications in the swing-state polls that the ad blitz that the obama campaign has been mounting against romney in a number of states may be having a effect. martha: how do you think the romney folks are doing? how are they playing it? >> they are using what you might call the brave heart start gee. you remember the famous battle scene, and mel gibson saying, hold, hold, hold. they are holding. you might call it the

rope-a-dope strategy, where ali laid back and let for man punch and punch and punch, and then when he got tired he won the fight. that is the strategy they seem to be employing at the stage, not that they are not answering some of these ads, they are. you have to be concerned if you're a republican strategist that this effort to mark romney as a corporate raider and so on may be telling in some way. i don't know the answer. if i did, you know, i'd be one of these wizards running campaigns and making tense o tens of millions of dollars. martha: the brave heart analogy, and the boxing analogy, it can work well if that does turn out to be the strategy. we'll either be sitting here several months from say saying, gee that was a great idea, or boy that was the dumbest thing they could have possibly done. we are learning a little bit

about people's enthusiasm levels. as you well point out this is july, august, a lot of people have other stuff on their mind at this point. what do you make of these numbers? you've got basically, you know, about 70-plus percent who say that they are either extremely, very or somewhat interested in all of this. 39% sa29% say they are not interested, they are not interested at all. >> the poll is how interested are you in voting. if a pollster calls you on the telephone and says, are you interested in this campaign, and how interested are you? you kind of don't want to say, i don't know. i don't know about this. leave me alone. you may be inclined to say you're more enthusias enthusiastic than you feel. presidential elections bring out intensity. i think the anti-obama intensity

is greater than the proobama intens intensity. people are disappointed about how things have gone and they are not as excited about voting as they were when they were in a rapture three and a half years ago. martha: what do you think is the next kind of inflection point in this process, before i let you go? >> you don't know, mart that. martha. you've got the convention coming up and the presentation of the conned dates in the best possible light, that has an effect. you get a bounce out of that. you look forward to that. something else is something we haven't calculated to happen . let's say iran closes the strait of shaeuz hormuz. and the president comes back out and opens the sthait. kaboom, it might come late enough in the year that it would

help the president. they could have an enormous effect, broadly speaking that type of thing has the greatest effect on politics. martha: brit hume, always good to see you, sir, have a grit day. bill: we are awaiting a big announcement from the white house that could impact your bottom line. president obama will talk about extending some of the bush-era tax cuts. are you in the right category? how it could affect your bottom line. a terrific fair & balanced debate on that. we'll debate it in moments. [ male announcer ] for making cupcakes

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martha: do not try this at home, folks. a very close call for a tightrope walker. watch this. a professional daredevil just nearing the end. he's blindfolded and going backwards. bill: ooh. martha: i might had when that happened. tell me he was attached, wasn't he? martha: yeah, so he slipped off, and it happened in china.

incredibly he wasn't hurt. he says he started to feel faint, and was knocked over by the wind, but it turned out that the actual angle underneath him at the spot that he was at was not as deep as it appears on that, and so his fall was not as far as it could have been. bill: really. martha: and he was okay. bill: you had that cat at niagara falls. he had a cord attached to him. martha: he said the network insisted on that. he never even came close to even waivering. bill: he was solid. all right. a fight over freedom gathering steam at a summer destination. two brothers suing over a monopoly given to a ferry company. they say they offer poor service on the boats. dan springer is live. >> reporter: the brothers say they are suing for the right to make a living them. want to run a competing ferry in

order to improve their resort business. but the state of washington is supporting a monopoly in the form of a boat company. it has been the lone operator on the lake for decades. this is a place you can only get to by boat. the brothers along with the national group institute for justice say this violates the 14th amendment by infringing on the cour courtney's rights. they hope the justices come down on the side of free markets and competition. >> the leading express is a very inefficient boat. i could run a boat for half the coast of what they are running their boat for. >> reporter: the institute for justice took this case believing it may ultimately be decided by the u.s. supreme court, bill. bill: the state says the monopoly can provide better service, is that true? >> reporter: well, yeah, the state is essentially arguing that the regulated service being provided on the lake right now is adequate and if the boat company had competition the

customers might end up losing some options. the fo fear is that profit during the summer tourist system would be split making it less likely that either ferry would operate during the winter loss and the ferries operate at a loss. the commission says the ultimate responsibility is to the public and a handful of people who live in a place only accessible by ferry. >> since they did take over the regulation on this lake there has always been a dependable service since 1929. and prior to that there was none. >> reporter: both sides concede monopolies make sense in some areas, like railroads and utilities but they obviously disagree when it comes to ferry service. bill: dan springer, thanks. it's that time of the year up there in that beautiful water. martha: a key republican slamming the white house for their handling of syria. why the senator says the administration is, quote,

showing a lack of leadership on this issue. plus, the robber appears to be living up to his disguise, a no nonsense encounter with an apparent ninja has police on the prowl. and we have the details when we come back. ♪ go, go, go, go ninja, go ninja go. go go go.

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bill: hillary clinton, of state now is saying the days of number for the regime of syrian president sad r-frplt reports that more than 17,000 people have been killed in syrian silence, that is according to some of the opposition groups working on the ground in there. senator john mccain is saying the white house can do more. >> my question is to the secretary of state, and the president of the united states is, how many more have to die before we take action to help these people with other nations, and i don't mean american boots on the ground. it's shameful the total lack of leadership that the united states has displayed for the last 14 months. bill: shameful is the word he uses. mike baker former c.i.a. covert operations and diligence. take the word shameful, is this

a new level? >> he's eluded to his disgust and the fact that he thought the effort so far has been lacking and somewhat pathetic. going up now and calling the administration's responsible an effort to date shameful it's all part and parcel of what he's been saying. he's been consistent for quite some time. bill: this was not just president obama, it was hillary clinton. >> she is representing the obama administration in our foreign policy. there is a lot of confusion over syria at this point from i think our allies and certainly the american public, because we had the recent example of libya, and we ran into libya almost before we realized what was happening, and there were people saying, well where are our critical interests in libya? well, we really didn't have any, we had a lot of pressure from the french and italians in particular who had oil and gas interests in particular. libya didn't have serious allies, a strong defense

capability. bill: it was east coast west coast, a tribe on the right and one on the left. >> a much easier lift. they have a very capable military changs to russia and iran and china in part. to say we went into libya, this is where the confusion is. we went into libya bass we wanted to protect the population from potential slaughter from gadhafi. if you put that automatic there and look what is happening in syria and our lack of response or effort even in the margins or the sideline -- bill: i don't see us changing our position. hillary clinton said, your days are numbered. >> we should have one of those little counters every time she says that. they've been saying for some time now the days are numbered. apparently they are not numbered. the number of syrian casualties are numbered, and those are in the thousands and thousands. even if you take it with a grain of salt some of the opposition sta particular advertise you're talking about 10,000 to 12, 14,000 civilians killed since the past 14 months or so when

this thing started to get ugly. bill: there is breaking news today that russia says it will suspend a shipment of airplanes, jet fighters into syria until another period where it is not as unstable. i believe is the word that was used in the report. >> hthat is a big brave move for them. bill: are you in the school that says if you bring down bashar al-assad's regime that you not only change the future for syria, but you hurt iran, and alternately you may damage its intentions to go nuclear? do you buy that? >> i don't necessarily want to draw a straight line to their nuclear capability. that is well down the road. i think bashar al-assad living or dying in terms of being in charge of the syrian regime isn't necessarily connected directly, iran has tremendous interest in seeing bashar al-assad stay in power. all we are looking to do, what we should be doing, what the leadership of this administration should have been doing, is working with our

allies, particularly the turks, the saudis who would be quite happy to be conduits for our weapon support, logistical support, we don't want to put boots on the ground, senator mccain was clear about that. bill: you could get help from saudi arabia, through qatar. i want to bring it back to what senator mccain said at the top of our segment here. how many more have to die before we take action is the words we used. that sounds like john kerry 1973 in front of a house committee. >> but you look at some of the other incidents that we've had in relatively recent history and you look at afterwards when we could have stepped in, when we could have done something, and, again, you know, we are working with allies because the allies are out there and making an effort. we provide intelligence support and provide all the other support in the margins. we don't have to put boots on the ground to do this. and the current administration has been willing to standby and originally hillary clinton and

others were saying well bashar al-assad is a person i think we can work with, i think he'll be reasonable, western educated. i think he'll step down. his father with us a butcher, bashar al-assad himself is a butcher. nobody else has more blood on his hands in the middle east than bashar al-assad. he's a well-known quantity. for some reason this current administration thought somehow he would be reasonable and peaceably step down. he hasn't, it's been 14 months and he's still killing his own citizens. bill: as we sit here today 14 months later there is no end to that. mike baker, thank you for your time. here is martha. martha: a stunning piece of information where the economy is concerned, more workers joined the federal disability ranks in june than got new jobs. that is a sorry situation. take a look at this graph. the economy created only 80,000 jobs last month, okay. but 85,000 people left the workforce entirely to enroll in the disability program. what is going on here? liz joins us now with the

details. liz, you know, why are so many more people disabled than were 20 years ago, for example? >> reporter: well, maybe it's easier to say, why are so many more people disabled, martha, than since the financial crisis started. it does lead to the big question, are these people really disabled, or are they looking at social security disability benefits as sort of the insurer of last resort, the paycheck of last resort? you have seen these numbers have jumped exp within the past couple of years. there is a little bit of history to be had here. you have the disability benefits recovery act back in 1984 that made it a lot easier under president ronald reagan to actually be qualified for disability benefits. if you look all the way back to then you do see the curve continue to jump pretty dramatically. recently, though what we've seen is that the pace of job creation is slower than the actual pace of people jumping onto disability benefits. and you do have to ask the question, are all these people really deserving of that?

martha: no doubt there are many people in this country who are, of course, deserving of it and that's why it was create. you look at an environment where work-place safety rules are more in place than ever before in history. people tend to be, you know, healthier and living longer in this day and age. it really goes against common-sense that we have rising, rising numbers of people on disability. >> let's just call the elephant in the room right out here. are there cheats? and that becomes the big question that people are unable to find a job that they feel is good enough for them, and so they look at the benefits and they say, wait a minute, wait a minute, i can actually be screened, i can figure out a which to get on social security disability and get a paycheck without actually having to work. it of course goes completely to the contrary of what america is supposed to be which is okay the chips are down, let's fight it. important to note, of course, martha, what you said there are some very deserving people of this but the numbers show differently.

martha: yeah, and sometimes you wonder if people put the same effort into actually finding a job that they put into sort of figuring out how to work the system and this is some people i point out, we might be in a very different situation in this country. liz, thank you very much. distressing chart there. good to have you here. make sure that you catch liz on the fox business network. countdown to the closing bell, heirs at 3:00pm eastern time. then you can tune in for after the bell after it closes. we do after the bell at 4:00. liz coanchors with david asman, they bring you the breaking business news and explain what it all means for the bottom line and the market as they look ahead. bill: it's cool how it works that way. thank you. new concerns about the impact to keep student loan interest rates from doubling this year. some say it could add to the ballooning federal budget deficit and impact the middle class. mike emanuel in washington with more on this. >> reporter: the overall outstanding student loan balance

both public and private is $904 billion. the average federal student loan for a debt for a graduating senior from a four-year undergraduate program is according to the department of graduation $17,063 per borrower. press callepresident obama called this vital for millions of student. >> education is the suress path to finding a good job and earning a good salary and making it into the middle class. it can't be a luxury reserved for just a privileged few. it's an economic necessity that every american family should be able to afford. >> reporter: if congress hadn't aebgtd interest rates on student loans with would have jumped to 6.8% and ended up costing an average student one thousand dollars for one more year according to the congressional research service, bill. bill: how does this break down, or do we know in terms of what this cost an individual taxpayer. >> reporter: let's crunch some numbers on the taxpayer calculator. the cost of the student rate

extension is $5.985 billion. if your salary is between 15 and $30,000 you pay 2.80 centss. between 30 and and $50,000 it's $9.76. between $50,000 and $100,000.26.27. $100,000 to $200,000 it's $73.92. you can go to foxnews.com and punch in the numbers. bill: is that annual. >> reporter: that is your share for one year of this extension which is almost $6 billion. bill: we will check that out at foxnews.com. thank you, mike. nice to see you. martha. martha: we are awaiting a major white house announcement this morning that could impact your wallet. the president is expected to talk about the bush era tax cuts, but reports that the white

house will not be extending it for everybody. we'll have a fair & balanced debate on what that means for the economy, plus this. [cheering] martha: there it is. bill: lucky seven to roger fe federer. 17-time grand slam champion beat andy murray out of scotland. his record is now 17-7 in the grand slam finals. martha: congratulations to him. andy murray cried when he lost. it was very sad. >> roger reclaims his wimbledon title and the number one ranking. stay in the moment sanya

focus lolo, focus let's do this i am from baltimore south carolina... bloomington, california... austin, texas... we are all here to represent the country we love this is for everyone back home it's go time. across america, we're all committed to team usa. bill: we are now 16 minutes before the hour. lance armstrong is asking a judge in texas to block a case

by the u.s. anti-doping agency from going forward, the psychist saying the agency cannot constitutionally bring up the doping charges against him. turns out having a pet in the home could significantly improve the health of your baby. a new study finding having a dog or cat around during the first year of a child's life can help boost their immune system. if you think you drive everywhere, meet herb gordon and his 1966volvo pa18s, inseparable for 45 years. months away from racking up a record-breaking 3 million miles. martha: that is pretty incredible. bill: pretty good ad for volvo too by the way. martha: all right. we are waiting for a major announcement this morning. stay tuned for this. from the president as he prepares to officially extend some of the bush-era tax cuts.

the president extended all the cuts as you may remember for all income levels earlier in his term and said that he would eventually let them all expire. so what does this move mean? we are joined by steven moore, senior economic writer for the wall street junior, and beenee davis, former special counsel to the clinton administration and a fox news contributor. good morning to you gentlemen. good to have you here. the president pre grudgingly said he could continue all the tax cuts because he felt we were too deep in the hole and it wasn't a good idea to raise taxes on everyone. now he's changed his mind when it comes to those making over $250,000. i guess we expected he would revert to that position, right, steve? >> you're talking about what happened in 2010 when the president compromised with the republicans and they extended all the tax cuts, because the economy was limping along and was so we can. at a point that i would make to the president today is wait a minute, what is different now

than two years ago? we still have a really we can economy, allows see jobs number last week, manufacturing is slowing down. the dow has been doing pretty poorly in the last couple of weeks. there are no signs that the economy is in recovery. and, martha, i don't see any case, i want to hear lanny's case for it, i can't think of any case for raising taxes on anybody in january. martha: lanny, he also runs the risk of having it do two things, having a negative impact on the economy, a and b intensify his opposition on the other side. >> well first of all i'm going to take a very unusual position. i love being to the right of steve moore who i greatly respect. my conservative position. >> that's a first. >> we have a 15 trillion-dollar debt, almost as high as the gross domestic product of the entire count tee heading for an insolvency position and we are about to cut taxes? we were prosperous under bill clinton. if we go become to the income

tax rates under bill clinton and pay down this debt i'm willing to defer that, steve for one year as long as you commit to going back to the clinton tax rates and doing something as a good conservative should about the national debt. martha: steve, what do you say? >> i think at least i think we'd have an agreement on deferring all the tax increases for one year. if you look at the people in the top one and two percent, the people that president obama is going to say should be having higher taxes next year, the study just came out by the joint tax committee, which is the official referee, and what they found, martha, is that 53% of the income that is going to be taxed at those higher rates. the lanny davis and president obama want to put into effect, 53% of that money is small business income. lanny, if you want jobs you've got to have employers, you've got to have small businesses. taking more money out of those businesses is not going to create more jobs. martha: what do you say to that, lanny? >> to be a little bit more conservative than my friend steve.

senator pat toomey who is a friend of steve's and a conservative republican supported tax loopholes that benefitted wealthy people. >> i'm all for that. martha: the president -- i don't know if the president is behind that, though. >> so if steve and i today can agree that the president should extend the bush tax cuts for one year if the republicans commit to supporting simpson-bowles, and if barack obama will support simpson-bowles which is across the board cuts, closing the tax loopholes and entitlement reform then you'll make history by steve and i agreeing on your program. >> hold on, hold on here. hold on. martha: go ahead, steve. >> wait a minute. lanny, this was president obama's own commission, simpson-bowles, he appointed the commission and then he let the report die. so if you can get barack obama to get behind this entitlement reform tax reform we can talk about it. but if the president is not going to jump on board his own commission i don't think republicans should. >> fair point, steve. fair point. >> okay. martha: we've got to go.

lanny, take ten seconds. a lot of democrat dos not like this 50 number. they would like to see it only affect those making over a million. how do you feel about that before we go. >> i am in strong disagreement with my fellow democrat. we should go back to the nixon -- nixon who actually wrote the tax code. we should go back to bill clinton tax rates and a tax across the board and pay down the debt through simpson-bowles which president obama should endorse. it was his commission. martha: he got so carried away that he's starting to go back to the nixon years. lanny, thank you. steve thank you. always a pleasure, gentlemen. bill: you never know who is going to drop in on day like today. jon scott standing by. "happening now" rolls your way in short ten minutes. jon: i'm doing well. all this arguing, you know why this is so controversial. we are awaiting president obama and his plan to extend part of the bush era tax cuts.

there is a different plan for those who make a certain amount of money. how much? an exclusive interview with texas governor rick perry. he'll talk with us about what this is state will do about the medical overhaul. will they take federal funds or tell the government to butt out. joe trippi is also here. and the guy who got tailed by a character. bill: trying to outrun mother nature, that is next. summer road trip, huh?

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martha: this just in. a lot of people were wondering what the obama campaign did in terms of fundraising in the month of june, because the romney numbers were a big headline the other day, romney brought in $106 million in campaign funds for his campaign. big gap. the obama camp and the dnv have

raised 71 million in the month of june. so u know, a lot of folks have been talking about what has been going on in the last month, a lot of fundraising. that's for sure. 106million for the romney camp, there is the obama number, 71 million, a lot of dollars out there, folks. bill: and this tornado now tearing through northern virginia. that area has been hit by rough weather again and again in an area still recovering from a storm at the end of june, just about a week ago. fox dc has more from the scene. check this out. >> reporter: we are standing right here in the middle of a business park on flemming road in fre virginia. take a look at where the damage behind. several yards from that white building on the street front, that roof came off, parts of it landed right here. it hit some vehicles that are in this business park. then take a look at this. this is what used to be a four-walled cinder block building, it used to be the

shear fusion dance studio. the storm hit before 6:00, it took the roof and threw it several hundred yards down the road on top of a home. the winds here were 35-mile an hour sustained, very much higher gusts, just before it hit and then the lights went out. 25 people huddled in fear inside the cheer fusion dance studio. the roof was torn off, the cinder block toppled. the roof landed on the home of an elderly couple knocking the home off its foundation. people jumped into action to help each other out of the buildings. the winds hit the front of the business park ripping off part of the roof and collapsing another part inward. the owner of the hair salon and her daughter were inside when the hail and sheets of rain struck. and while the damage here is absolutely amazing, even more amazing is that no one in any of these buildings was seriously hurt. in virginia, fox news. bill: that is the best news of all there at end. again, they've been hit by another storm after storm.

hang in there, folks down there in virginia. martha: here is what we've got coming up, a kayaker and a paddle border. this is my favorite picture of the day. look at that dorsal fin. they said it was 14, 15 feet long. and the guy is like, i've got to get out of here! we'll be right back. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. @ male spirit present.trong it's the priceline negotiator. >>what? >>sorry. he wants you to know about priceline's new express deals. it's a faster way to get a great hotel deal without bidding.

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martha: good to have you back. bill: it's good you survived. martha: just barely we are glad to have you back. "happening now" starts right now. we will see you right back here tomorrow. can't kebt to your computer through our internet? it may be infected with malware. it is affecting computers around the world. what can you do about it now. we'll tell you coming up. the landmark supreme court decision on the president's healthcare plan has a handful of governors up in arms. governor rick perry joins us live to tell us what he plans to do in his state, it's an exclusive interview in about a

half an hour for now. one man's close encounter with a great white on cape cod. just like a scene out of the movies. this kayaker will join us live with his story. it's all "happening now." jenna: you can hear the jaws music. that is enough. no more kayaker this sum sneer that is a big great white. jenna: definitely big. a reus for the white house is where we start getting very tight in a dozen key battleground states. we are glad you are with us on this monday. i'm jenna lee. stpho: i'm jon scott. take a look at this u.s.a. today gallop poll, in swing states like colorado, florida and michigan. independents could make all the difference, and president obama stands at 47%, governor romney at 45% support, pretty much a dead heat. then taking a look at the "real clear p