our blog and follow my tweets. "the rachel maddow show" is up next. good evening, rachel. thank you for staying with us for the next hour. today at 5:00, president obama summoned the top two republicans in the house, the house republican leadership team, he summoned them to the white house, presumably to freak out about 24 hours earlier, this has been the president's message to the nation and house republicans in particular. >> we're in the 11th hour, and we don't have a lot more time left. we don't have anymore time to posture. it's time to get down to the business of actually solving this problem. >> that was yesterday. the 11th hour, not a lot of time left. today, no announcement from the president in the pressroom like you saw there, no congenial information and discussion of our options and what's before

us. today, just literally a tweet from the white house press secretary announcing this meeting. the tweet was update, the president will meet with speaker boehnor and majority leader today at 5:00 p.m. as in you guys get over here now. one of the things president obama has been pointing out lately is the deadline that's upon us to raise the nation's debt ceiling is not really august 2. he has been trying to say that there's no reason to expect that the markets, the bond markets, stock market, etc., no reason to expect that they will wait until we actually default, until august 2, before reacting adversely. as we get closer and closer to the default date, just being too close to it without a resolution may, in fact, knock the economy off a cliff. at this point it could happen any moment. moody's warned last week the u.s. aaa credit score, which we had enjoyed for 94 years, our aaa credit score is in danger of being downgraded not on august 2 when we start defaulting, not on august 3, the day after, but

they said by the middle of july. because we are flirting with the possibility of default now on purpose. they threatened by the middle of july. it is now july 20th. today moody's had yet another terrifying warning, this time to five states, virginia, maryland, new mexico, tennessee, and south carolina, they said "should the u.s. government's rating be downgraded to aa status or lower, these five state's ratings would likely be downgraded as well. in other words, moody's have identified these five states as having a state economy entwined enough with the federal economy that if and when the u.s. gets our bond rating destroyed by something that's going on in congress, something that's never happened before in the modern history in the country, these states will go down as well. tweet, tweet, hey, guys, get over here, this needs to be done now. it's worth remembering this is a

crisis created by congress. option a for dealing with raising the debt ceiling has always been hey, let's raise the debt ceiling. congress did it seven times under george w. bush. i said five times the other night, forgive me, it was seven. 18 times under ronald reagan, 17 times since the 1960s, and 130 republicans in congress right now voted happily throughout the george w. bush era to raise the debt ceiling without so much as a peep. this time however for some reason, no. this year they have decided for political reasons that they are just not going to do it. that's the whole crisis here. that's the origin of the crisis, that's where it comes from, and option a for solving this crisis has always been let's not choose to have this crisis. this is a chosen crisis. let's choose not to have it. that has always been option a.

barring the political impossibility of that this year, option b. option b, a giant all encompassing long-term debt reduction proposal to handle america's fiscal concerns for decades to come. the president has spoken frequently of his desire to do something like this, if not his understanding it might happen through this particular congress. that's what gave rise to the gang of six happy talk that we got out of the beltway yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators came up with a very, very, very conservative proposal to cut taxes on the rich, cut taxes on corporations, stick it to social security and medicare and call it macaroni, but it's bipartisan. so the beltway loves it. conservative democrats and conservative republicans agree that this is a great way forward. and god bless them, the senate is conservative enough they probably could get a super majority for it if it came up. two problems about this gang of six thing.

the first rainbow/sunshine problem is logistical. based on the gigantic slope of the legislation, the people in charge say regardless of the substance of the proposal, it's too big. there is no time to get something this big done before the august 2nd deadline. it literally cannot be passed through the senate in time even if everybody likes it. the other rainbow/sunshine problem here is the president and the senate agreeing on this or anything doesn't get you further towards raising the debt ceiling, it's not just the president and the senate, it's crazy town down the hallway too, it's john boehner's republican house, that likes the idea of the nation defaulting, that thinks the explosion of the economy might be pretty or at least warm for a second. they are not looking for a good deal or achieve particular policy objectives, regardless of what they get, they are not going to vote to raise the debt

ceiling. the republicans who are running for president from the house of representatives, for example, are not saying don't raise the debt ceiling unless, don't raise the debt ceiling until, they are saying don't raise the debt ceiling at all. let's see what happens. this is how republican congresswoman michele bachmann's first presidential campaign ad ended. >> i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. i'm michele bachmann, and i approve this message. >> i will not -- that was how the first ad for michele bachmann's campaign ended. this, today, is how her second presidential campaign ad starts. >> i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. >> i will not -- again, it's not -- i will not unless or i will not until. it's just i will not. just the answer is no. it's like -- you know what it's like? like that moment in the rupert murdoch testimony in the british parliament yesterday. we played this on the show.

there's no more perfect representation from the republican position than this clip from the murdoch testimony. watch. >> when were you informed about the payments made to gordon taylor and max clifford? >> nope. >> no? when were -- was that a yes or no -- it was not a yes or no. no. the answer is no. doesn't matter what the question is. they don't want to do it. so the only way out of this, well, there may be two ways out of this. one, if the president can circumvent congress, the president could theoretically break the law that says it's congress that has to raise the debt ceiling by instead raising it himself by using powers out of the constitution which says our debt has to be honored. that's one of the things in politics that may be technically feasible, not that he wouldn't do it to save the country.

presidents have done things more extreme, but the idea he would be made to do it or consider it, it is almost impossible to imagine. putting that aside, is there anything short of something that dramatic that could be done here? yes. at least used to be something. mitch mcconnell, the top republican in the senate proposed last week -- remember this? proposed last week -- he proposed republican surrender, a surrender they thought would make them look great politically. mitch mcconnell came up with a complicated by which congress would vote to raise the debt ceiling, but only a third of congress would have to vote in favor of doing it, so it could just be the democrats who did it. it was a complicated thing involving the republicans saying they didn't want to do it, congress not overriding his veto. it was kind of a mess, but the

idea the debt ceiling would be raised, but it would be raised by the president and democratic members of congress alone. that was the republican surrender in this fight and ever since they introduced the prospect about a week ago, everybody has been assuming this, frankly, is the escape hatch, if republicans and democrats can agree on nothing, if republicans and democrats cannot even agree we should take mutual action to not default, then at least republicans and democrats can agree that democrats could keep us from defaulting. but now, days into this, days into this, days closer to this apocalyptic deadline, congress has decided they can no longer even meet the soft bigotry of these expectations. 80 republicans have signed on to a letter saying no, we do not even want the escape hatch. we do not even want the model that has the democrats do it for us because we abdicate. we don't want this to come up in the house. do not let it come to the floor

for a vote. maybe republicans want to force president obama into taking presidential actions so they can turn it into a dramatic plan to impeach him. maybe they want to see how pretty it is when it explodes. maybe they are bluffing and as the beltway common wisdom had it today, maybe they'll come to their senses and get scared about the prospects of what they are doing to the american economy and whole country and come around. even if you believe that ultimately republicans in congress are planning on doing the responsible thing, even if you believe that, next week in all likelihood would be too late. where is the new escape hatch? joining us now, e.j. dionne, "the washington post", e.j., it's good to see you again, thanks for being here. >> good to be with you. >> you are more experienced with

washington, i have to move my flag pole, hold on. more experienced with washington and by constitution i think you are a sunnier person than i am, e.j. do you see a way out of this mess i do not see? >> i am a glass one-tenth full person. oh, things can be okay. i have rarely been this depressed, i think, and i've been here awhile about the way washington is working. this is a totally politician-induced crisis. we didn't have enough crises, so we had to induce one out of cloth, the problem is, you cannot see how to get 218 votes in the house of representatives for anything because of this rejectionist caucus you mentioned, otherwise known as the tea party caucus, and both speaker boehnor and the majority leader, eric cantor, are kind of playing to them. they don't want to sort of annoy them. at some point, i think they are going to have to say we will not

let the country get wrecked by this. i agree with the remarks at the beginning. we could get downgraded at any moment. we are courting real trouble, and if only we would pay -- if all it was we'd pay more interest, that's crazy. more interest means less of everything. we would prefer to pay for interest, kids go to college, it's crazy. >> after weeks of saying that he would not support a short-term extension of the debt ceiling, today president obama came out and said he would, he would support a short-term deal as long as there were plans in place to move forward to a bigger bargain after the bridge. do you see that as a potential pivot here, as an important point towards moving forward? >> i think people in the white house are really legitimately scared. they are not paralyzed, just looking at the same stuff we are. yes, he drew a line in the sand, now he may cross it, but it was

some sense a negotiating posture. i think when boehnor and cantor saw the president today, what i was told they were going to tell him we may be able to do a billion dollars in a few months so we keep this game going for awhile. i guess that would be better than defaulting, but it's still -- it's still an enormous wasted effort. john kennedy said he who seeks power by riding the back of the tiger usually ends up inside. and i think that's where boehnor and cantor are. they rode the tea party, and now the tea party is threatening to devour the republican party. >> your column published tonight on "the washington post" website the crisis already is forcibly cleaving the republican leadership from the tea party. you say that ann rand in her writings may help explain how that is happening. can you explain that? >> in her first most popular

book, "the fountain head," the guy who doesn't get what he wants blows up a building. there are ann rand followers in the majority that would rather blow things up than make any concessions at all. i think quietly there are moderate conservative republicans, not any moderate republicans anymore, they are saying this is taking us all too far. they are looking at the polls, not helping republicans in the polls, but they want to govern and are looking at this and saying we can't govern this way, and i'm hoping they are thinking about saying to these other folks we can't walk the rest of the way with you. >> e.j. dionne from "the washington post" and brookings, i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> one sign that your high profile, full of hope presidential campaign is not going well is when a polling

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so here's who's running for the president republican nomination. michele bachmann, hermain cain, the former ceo of a mafia-themed pizza chain. newt gingrich, designed to

separate the gullible from their money, jon huntsman, gary johnson, former new mexico governor. fred karger, and gay rights activist, andy martin, a man who proclaims himself to be the king of the birthers, and who am i to question? thaddaeus mccarter, very, very fancy socks in youtube videos. jimmy mcmillan, congressman ron paul, who, of course, needs no introduction. former minnesota governor, tim pawlenty, who would love a introduction, but i'm busy. john romer, former massachusetts' governor and current moneybags, willard, mitt romney, and rick santorum. there are a lot of people who think they should be the

republican party's choice to run against president obama next year. who has a real shot at it? you can tell by polling. each poll is expensive. if you are a polling firm, particularly if you are polling nationally, you have got to decide who is viable enough as a candidate to warrant inclusion in your poll, who you think has a real chance. you cannot poll on every one every time, you would go broke. you have to narrow down the field. are you going to poll on jimmy mcmillan? he seems like a very nice man, and indeed, the rent is too damn high, but he'll probably not be president or vice president. pollsters have to make what amount to editorial choices when they poll, and yesterday a major polling firm made a major choice. after minnesota governor tim pawlenty performed the opposite of well in its latest poll, the firm public policy polling announced it was dropping

governor tim pawlenty from its general election polling. they are replacing pawlenty with rick perry, who is not technically running yet. although it seems he is going to run. he's taking steps to sort of clean up his act, to scrub his record a little bit, to thin out connections between him and more headline worthy people with whom he's associated. as you know, perry is hosting a extravaganza in texas next weekend. the official endorsers include a pastor who says that talk show host oprah winfrey is the harbinger of the anti-christ, another pastor who said god september hitler to hunt the jews, another who claims softness in the japanese stock market as a result of the emperor of japan having sex with demons of the all those pastors

have been highlighted on the website of the stadium prayer event as event endorsers. names there, pictures there, you get information about them. late last night we noticed something about that, the menu at the top of rick perry's website no longer has a link to all of the events endorsers that it has been endorsing all this time. after growing attention, the endorser link has been removed, erased, scrubbed unless you speak spanish. at the spanish version of the prayer website, the endosantes still exist. we contacted the rick perry folks to see what was going on, they said the endorsers were not removed from the english website, they were not removed, they were just moved. now to find them if you click in faqs, about how to get there,

where to park and whether or not there will be designated areas for bus parking and the availability of spanish translation and breaking a group and what the response believes in, after that, you get to a link about who else is supporting the event. if you click on that, you will get to the old endorsers page. maybe governor perry wanted to bury the endorsers and he forgot to deep six the endorsers list on the site in espanol. we do not know. but i know somebody who might know. wayne slater, writer for the dallas morning news. thanks for joining us tonight. >> great to be with you. >> why do you think the rick perry folks made the list of endorsers a needle in a hay

stack when it used to be right on the front page. do you think that has political implications here? >> yes. you can find those endorsers with a rod, that's about it. it's amazing, your discussion. look, clearly the exotic ideas and news and reports on your show and else where about how exotic and unorthodox these views are have caused heart burn inside the perry camp and has threatened to distract from what they wanted to do, look, we're having a prayer rally, people are going to show up, they are going to pray, they are going to sing, then you have the guy who has sex with the sun goddess as part of the story, it's not helpful. clearly, they wanted to do that. i don't think it's a big problem for him because religious conservatives who will be there

understand that they are a species, a group that's persecuted, they are victims, and that this movement of them is something that's understandable. the governor would do this to kind of deflect some of the attention and even more importantly, one of the things they've also done, the american family association, is put up some new co-sponsors, james dobson, tony perkins, richard lamb, god's lobbyists in washington. these are substantial figures on the religious right on the political side. these are the kind of figures that won't get perry in so much trouble but the people who will attend will say i like those people too. >> doesn't he have to finesse that a bit and take a guy like john hagee, doesn't he have to sort of take their concern seriously that they might feel like they were being thrown under the bus by rick perry? he's tried to court an association with these people and they do, after all, have influence among social

conservatives even if they are seen exotic from the point of view of mainstream religion. >> the mainstream religion and media and the rest of us who noticed this at our level see this large. but at the same time, rick perry, like george bush and other politicians can micro cast. they can go to these smaller groups on e-mails, on websites, in personal appearances, with representatives and can speak directly to social conservatives, christian conservatives, who will be assuring them that perry is behind them, is with them, and is committed to them. that's why when rick perry said -- to the des moines register, it was a religious speech to those folks he wants to appeal to. >> one of the things we have

been able to see up until this point is rick perry and his relationships, how he's managing it and using things like micro casting to micro target his response or message, we've bipartisan able to cover that. it has been harder to cover rick perry's relationship with the republican establishment and people who would catapult him to the category of being a contender. we reported last night that fundraisers are meeting in austin to discuss a perry presidential run. do we know anything about how these big republican establishment money people are responding to the prospect of a perry run? >> well, we know a couple of things. we know they are looking for somebody. somebody other than michele bachmann. not necessarily somebody other than tim pawlenty. though, the people here in austin were still unaffiliated and looking to somebody like rick perry.

one of the things that perry heard as part of this gathering, a really blue chip republican bundler money guys, is that he's got a problem, not in texas where he can raise $4, $5, $10, $20 million easily, but in places like new york city and wall street where some of the big money in this key place of republican fundraising isn't convinced yet that whether they are put off by the secessionist talk and his religious affiliations or the suggestion he is the tea party candidate who would not compromise. wall street doesn't like this no compromise approach, i don't know. but i know that perry has been given word that he's got a weakness in this very key money source and he's going to have to take steps if he hopes to raise the kind of money he would need from wall street, new york, and the traditional business republican establishment. >> which means we should probably look out for a rick perry speech to the big traditional republican think tanks to the chamber of commerce, to the commerce clubs,

to all these different groups to try to establish. wayne slater, senior political writer for the dallas morning news. i learn so much about this campaign every time i talk to you. thank you so much, wayne. >> great to be with you. >> all right, we have a live satellite hook up tonight to a tree. look, we paid extra money. it's live. for the shot of the tree, because the story of this particular tree is an epic tale of revenge and rivalry. this tree is a hero, and it is the scientific subject of our moment of geek in just a moment. ♪ [ engine revving ] [ male announcer ] 125 years ago... we invented the automobile. ♪ and 80,000 patents later, we're still reinventing it. ♪ it's no coincidence that the oldest car company has the youngest and freshest line in the luxury class. mercedes-benz. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer

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excuse me, paul finebaum, prominent radio show host in alabama. every day, all year long somebody calls to talk about the alabama-auburn football game, called the iron bowl, it's played once a year, even if there is a reason to talk about it every day of the year. >> after the iron bowl, i went to auburn and poisoned the two toomer's trees. >> is that against the law? >> do you think i care? >> that confession is a lot of things, but for our purposes, it has led to a totally unexpected, totally awesome moment of geek tonight.

somewhere in america, there's a doctor who can peer into the future. there's a nurse who can access in an instant every patient's past. and because the whole hospital's working together, there's a family who can breathe easy, right now. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest healthcare questions. and the over 60,000 people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers.

this is ely, nevada, ely, pronounced ely, not eli, no matter how it's spelled. if you're wondering what's by ely, nevada, not much.

it's a stage coach station for the pony express, today it's got tourism, a few thousand people, it's got these bathtub races, and because ely is so isolated, it is really very handy that ely does, at least, have an airport. an adorable airport with two runways and one commercial airline. they also have a jet center offering first-class hospitality even though you are all the way out there in ely, nevada, and in this picture, the ely, nevada, airport is the dog, and the man holding the dog is john micah, republican congressman from florida. congressman john micah and the itty bitty airport in ely, nevada, are in the news today because the faa is due to shutdown on friday. the faa's legislative authority expires this friday, the day after tomorrow. unless congress acts. agency has two days to live,

everybody freak out. the reason not to freak out about this is the faa has been this close to shutting down 20 times since the year 2007. september 2007 was when the last long-term authorization of the faa has expired. 20 times since then congress has passed temporary extension after temporary extension, 20 of them. now we come to the 21st time when democrats and republicans can't even agree to kick it down the road. they cannot even agree to keep the faa for another short-term lease. why, the reason they are fighting is republicans are insisting on a provision in the reauthorization to trip union rights from people who work in transportation. republicans want to make it harder for people who work for airlines and railways to join unions.

republicans want to strip the union rights and democrats don't. we have an impasse, time is up. the reason the dog is looking at john micah in this picture is because instead of passing another extension of the faa, john micah now says unless republicans get their way on the union stripping thing, even a temporary extension, this time, would put the screws to small town airports, cutting support for the few commercial airlines that serve them. it's going after, it so happens are in states represented by powerful senate democrats who get a say in these matters. reid's home state. another airport in glendive, montana, not near anything else except north dakota. montana is represented by max baucus who is in the finance committee. and alamogordo, new mexico, represented by democratic senator tom udall, who serves on the senate transportation committee, which makes tom udall

the counterpart for john micah, from florida. this is not really overall a fight about airports or subsidies for rural air service or whether the people of ely can ever get on a plane. this is not even a fight really about the faa and regulation of air travel in this country. this is very clearly a fight about union rights and the republican will in 2011 to strip union rights away at every opportunity. as long as senate democrats will not give in to republican demands to strip union rights here, as long as senate democrats stand up for those rights, republicans are telling them these are your choices, either the faa can shut down altogether or republicans start threatening american airports in bunches, and this is just for now.

come september, we are back here again and we're going to have to get another dog because something will have already happened to this one if you know what i mean. is this too graphic a metaphor? yes, it is, but that is how republicans are trying to govern on the issue of union rights right now. [ male announcer ] you sprayed them. thought they were dead. [ laughter ] [ grunting ] huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. america's number one weed killer. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. guaranteed. weeds won't play dead, they'll stay dead. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem. a network of possibilities. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities,

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in 1992, bill clinton beat george h.w. bush in the presidential election. bush became a one-term president. bush got 43% of the vote. those numbers don't add up to 100%. somebody else ran and took 19% of the vote, a texas billionaire named ross perot. >> pretty simple, if you're paid $12, $13 an hour as a factory worker and you can move your business to below the border, pay $1 for labor, have no health care, have no environmental controls, no pollution controls, and no retirement and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south. we've got to clean this mess up, leave this country in good

shape, and pass on the american dream to them. we've got to collect the taxes to do it. if there's a fair way, i'm all ears. >> ross perot got nearly 20% of the vote in a presidential election. for awhile he was first, ranked first in polls in california and in his home state of texas. ross perot was popular in texas because frankly he was a great character. even though he was quite pint sized and had a funny voice, he carried himself as a tall, tough texan. another big part of his popularity was his business savvy that made him a billionaire for founding and selling computer services that employed thousands of people, but ross perot was popular in part because he had a habit of making grand gestures of topics close to people's heart. for example, in 1989, a man

tried to murder a tree, the last of austin, texas' oak tree with a massive dose of herbicide, ross perot responded by handing over a blank check to pay for the cost of nursing the tree back to health. the costs ran into six figures. that tree these days i have to say is not in great shape, but it is still alive and produced its first acorns eight years after it almost got tree murdered and survived thanks in part of ross perot and his act now america is dealiit another sentimental case of tree murder. it happened earlier this year at auburn university in alabama where somebody poisoned two oak trees in auburn. there was not a blank check figure to come to the rescue. this time there's a entire community of people who have joined facebook groups and donated money to pay for an

effort to try and save these trees, even entering a lottery to buy seedlings to keep their genetics alive somehow. in january, a man called into a alabama radio station to claim he had done the unthinkable by the auburn trees. >> the weekend after the iron bowl, i went to auburn, alabama, because i live 30 miles away, and i poisoned the two toomer's trees. >> did they die? >> did they what? >> they are not dead yet, but they definitely will die. >> the reason that man allegedly targeted these 130-year-old live oak trees is they are where auburn football fans celebrate when their team wins. they call it rolling the trees, but now that the trees have been poisoned, the university is collecting rolls of toilet paper instead with get well notes for the trees. this is what the trees looked like before, this is what they look like now, tonight, about six months after the attack was

discovered. experts in everything from horticulture to chemistry to try to fight the poison and keep the trees alive. they have removed and replaced contaminated soil, trying to neutralize the affects of the poison, they coated the leaves with an anti-transperent to slow down the water the trees send to the leaves because doing that it could make them take up less new water contaminated by the poison. joining us now, gary keever, professor of horticulture at auburn. professor keever, thank you so much for your time. >> glad to be here. >> going to ask you to explain the point of the anti-transperence on the leaves

better than i just did. >> sure. the leaves have openings on the back side that serve as gas exchange. the anti-transperent coats those openings so the transfer doesn't occur. the gas that's lost from the leaf is water vapor, and this process of losing water vapor creates a tension stream. in the conductive tissue of the tree and it pulls water up from the root zone. at the same time the water is pulled up, the herbicide is also pulled up from the root zone to the trunk to the foliage. >> i know you used liquid charcoal to try to keep the poison out of the root system. how does that work? >> well, what we use -- we use both liquid and powdered activated charcoal. this has a tremendous service

area, and it has a hot -- it has sites that bind other chemicals. what we did. we poured it into the root scene and watered it in, the intention with this was to bind the herbicide until we could get around to removing the soil, the contaminated soil. >> in terms of removing the soil, i know you built a little bit of a barrier around the tree. you have gone to great lengths to get the contaminated soil from around the trees. they're old trees i, imagine you can't just uproots them. what was the process by which you took the soil away from the trees as best you could, while still trying to keep them standing and safe? >> it was really a two-step process.

we built these plastic greenhouses to enclose the area around the two beds the trees are growing in. the purpose of this was to retain any dust that was blown up during the loosening of the soil around the roots. our first attempt at removing soil involved coming in with an air spade and is basically the instruments that are attached to an air compressor. and it's used to blast soil off of the roots, and it does minimal damage to the roots. and the enclosure kept us from contaminating other areas. we used this in combination with what i call a super vacuum. this large truck with a hose on it that would suck the loosened soil out and we would carry that to a disposal site. we came back in later, when we realized we didn't get all the contaminated soil out, and we used high pressure water to break up more of the soil and go

deeper into the beds and we also used a similar truck to suck out the slurry of water and soil. this was carried off to an isolated sites. >> bottom line, what's your prognosis. how and when will you know if these trees have survived or if it was too late? >> well, from the very beginning we knew that this herbicide had a proven track record of killing trees. it's been around since the '70s, it's extremely toxic. it has a half life, meaning it breaks down slowly over a 12 to 15-month period. the activity is only reduced by 50%. it will persist in the soil for five to seven years, we have seen the tree's decline over the summer in the heat and humidity of the south alabama site. and while the trees have declined, they're also putting out a new flush of growth. we're not ready to give up on

them yet, but the prognosis is not very good. >> professor of horticulture at auburn university. men working night and day to keep these trees alive. thanks for your time in helping us understand this. good luck. appreciate it. we will be right back. with the hotels.com 48-hour sale, the possibilities are endless. interesting... save up to 50% this tuesday and wednesday only. hotels.com. be smart. book smart.  woman: saving for our child's college fund was getting man: yes it was. so to save some money, we taught our 5 year old how to dunk. woman: scholarship!

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of these abandoned racetracks in america today. automotive performance is gone. and all we have left are fallen leaves and broken dreams. oh. wait a second. that is a dodge durango. looks like american performance is doing just fine. ♪ carry on. ♪ carry on.

in 1987 ronald reagan told congress to get their freaking act together and raise the debt ceiling. >> congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility.

this threatens the holders of government bonds those who rely on social security and veteran benefits. interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets and the federal deficit would soar. >> that little graphic of reagan's words from 1987 was done by the democrats yesterday. because it's today's republicans who say they don't think the country defaulting would be any big deal. they went back to the same well delivering this letter that reagan wrote to senate republicans in 1983. the full consequences of a default or even a serious prospect of a default by the united states are awesome and impossible to contemplate. the nation can ill afford to allow such a result. the risks, the costs, the disruptions lead me to but one conclusion, the senate must pass this legislation to raise the debt ceiling. if you want to see this online one place can you do that is at the progressive caucus. the progressive caucus sent this

to all republicans today. is this because liberals have fallen in love with ronald reagan? because ronald reagan was right about the economy? no. no, no, no and no. it's because liberals are now to the point of using anything they can think of to try to get through to republicans. if you don't believe the treasury department when they say default would be a disaster, if you don't believe the republican economists when they say default would be a disaster. do you believe ronald reagan? could ronaldus magnus really be wrong? that does it for us tonight. now it's time for the ed show, have a good night.