worked and since i was 15. >> we got to feed the kids, got to pay the bills, what is more important than the bill collectors calling. >> americans are going to punish anybody who doesn't do something under these conditions when anxiety is so high. >> people are afraid to shop. >> reporter: president obama and house speaker boehner or rolling out their jobs proposals to get america's economy moving again. >> pass this bill. >> reporter: president obama pushing congress to pass his $447 billion plan paid for by tax hikes. but in a key speech yesterday, speaker boehner drew a line in the sand. >> let's be honest with ourselves. the president's proposals are a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation in america. >> reporter: yes on tax reform, no on new taxes. and in an interview with cnbc, boehner indicated that the divide over the duelling bills runs deep. >> it's almost as if we're two groups of people from two

different planets who barely understand each other. >> reporter: nbc's mike viqueira is at the white house this afternoon for us. good afternoon. >> reporter: hi, alex. >> boehner says no way to the tax piece, democrats luke warm to the president's plan calling it too big. how concerned is the white house about whether or not the president's bill can and will move forward? >> reporter: it's interesting, speaker boehner was sort of dismissive of some of the centerpiece items in the presidential jobs package, notably the tax credits of businesses, cutting payroll taxes in half for not only employees but employers as well. he says look because the regulatory structure and the tax structure in this country is so messed up to begin with, i don't know if a $4,000 tax credit is going to provide enough incentive for an employer to hire someone that they otherwise would not hire. the trouble with that logic is i guess there are a couple of things that are more likely and some of the things that are less likely in the president's jobs package to pass, but alex, it's very unlikely, as you mentioned

right there and evident from speaker boehner's comments that it's all going to pass in one package or most of it is going to pass. an extension of the employee pay cut tax package, you can find economists of every stripe, animal, mineral or vegetable that that's got to pass, it would be a body blow to the economy. everything else, unemployment benefits is up for grabs and let's not be surprised, alex, if somewhere down the line that thanksgiving deadline for the so-called super committee to come up with a big deficit reduction plan if a lot of the items aren't folded into that, including some proposals now, many senators coming out in favor of "going big" a major overhaul of the tax code so a lot of this is in flux right now, obviously as the election season heats up, complicating matters further. >> can i ask you about something, we have "the huffing post "reporting white house chief of staff bill daley is at the center of grumbling out there. forone former official says "dey

is disorganized." one anonymous source "is there a level of unhappiness with bill around the white house, yeah. do you what you have to to streamline the organization but a lot of people are," i'm going to keep my language lady-like with the last word but you can read it. your reaction? >> reporter: two things, first of this is real, some democrats on capitol hill feel as though the white house ignores them, doesn't understand them, feels as though they do not understand the legislative process which is sort of a damning allegation, many of the staffers are former hill staffers. on the other hand, i have to say this is a common complaint throughout every administration, republican and democrat, i've heard the same complaints once the chairman of the ways and means committee in the previous republican house of representatives, under the previous republican speaker, complaining to a representative

of the bush white house. remember during that big social security the "reform" of social security the bush administration was pushing that people called privatization, this chairman of the ways and means committee reading the riot act to a white house staffer saying you're not listening to us, you're not paying attention to us. to a certain extent a lot of this is expected, a lot of this happens all the time, there is some resentment, a certain chip on people's shoulders, not to say that it's not real this time. i want to say one other thing, alex. i did have a chance to ask jay carney about these articles today in anticipation of talking to you on the television. "bill daley is an excellent chief of staff. he has enormous experience for the job, he came in at a critical time and he's done a remarkable job." so that's the official line, alex? >> we thank you for that and the rest of it. mike viqueira at the white house. let's take a closer look at boehner's plan versus the president's plan. ezra klein joins us from "the washington post." good day to you. nice to see you. >> good morning. >> john boehner's big idea

includes no new taxes, rewriting the tax code, getting rid of federal regulations but even he admits the rewriting the tax code part will not happen any time soon. so does this plan have any chance of moving forward? >> not really. it could in the long run because he's not proposing all that much but what is striking it is not a plan for now. john boehner is offering up sort of a continuation of the gop's long time economic agenda which is fewer regulations, lower taxes, less government involvement and intrusion, that is fine and over time something we'll talk about, tax reform clearly has to happen in the coming years or decade given washington's normal schedule but when you have 9% unemployment, unemployment is that elevated and we're in a cryis of household debt driven by weak exports because of the eurozone with debt problems and market slowing down, boehner doesn't have a response to the short term jobs crisis.

it's hard to say what could pass in the short term. >> trying to get to an agreement between the two opposing sides here's speaker boehner yesterday after the big speech. listen. >> the president and his staff, most of them have never been in the private sector so we've got these competing ideas. i'm a big believer in the free enterprise system. the president and his staff tend to believe that government has more control over our economy. >> anywhere near in agreement there? does that sound like a place where you can do compromise? >> doesn't sound so agreeable, does it? i think we can let the speeches fade into the background. look closely at what he's saying. what is in the president's bill right now,

able to conduct their daily operations, people don't get unemployment checks for that long. we fade in the background, we're used to republicans and democrats say the same thing. it doesn't make much sense. >> what you wrote in "the washington post" makes sense. >> why thank you. >> you're right the real problem in american politics isn't just the two parties can't agree on what to do about the economy, they can't agree on what is happening to the economy. so if you don't have an agreement at the epicenter of even what is going on, how do you fix it? >> and that's where things get very tough. what worries me and what worried me in boehner's speech wasn't the plan. there's less on the agenda. mitt romney and others have come out with more expansive jobs

related agendas. what was worrying was how dissociated with the economic annalysis part. had nothing to say about foreclosures, wall street, household debt, emerging market economies, emerging economies, all of the things are holding back the economy, they were completely absent in the speech and what was strange, looked like they had taken solutions the one the republican party has been pushing for a long time and looked backward in the analysis. it's hard to meet in the middle, if you don't agree on what problem it is you're solving, if the problem isn't debt or insufficient aggregate demand or weak foreign experts it's hard to come to an agreement on what the solution should be. >> ezra klein thank you so much. >> thank you. 38 senators, both democrats and republicans are saying enough to the bickering in washington. >> for the betterment of the country, that's what he we're here for. >> we feel it's time to check our political hats at the door and to step up and do what is the right thing for the american

people. >> they all met in washington yesterday urging the deficit cutting super committee to go big and recommend twice as much in spending cuts as they have to. one of those 38 senators, democrat mark udall of colorado. thanks for being here. >> hi, alex. how are you? >> well, thank you. we wish we hadn't gotten in this mess. you've joined the gang of 38, we've seen lots of bickering this summer and all of the issues of deficit reduction. how long do you expect the spirit of cooperation to last especially what's coming from the house speaker and the president as they gear up for ♪ battle? >> i would tell you there are 38 senators and i think we'll generate more support. i think the spirit in the senate will last until we go big. the super committee has a big job in front of it. i trust the committee, they're smart and committed. we're poised to support them and urge them and it's not just

spending cuts. we have to find a mix of reve e revenues, spending cuts and we have to shore up entitlements in the area of $4 trillion to $5 trillion. we think it's doable but we want to support the super committee in getting to that point. if they fall short we're going to go back to work whenever we're called upon to come up with that overall proposal and move something like that out of the senate. we've got 14 months until the next election but we don't have that time to waste. the american people don't have 14 months for to us sit on our hands. >> yeah, the president very candidly saying that when he addressed congress last tweak. >> yes. >> you've got a proposal out there knowing we have to trim $1.5 billion from the deficit with the committee, being done by thanksgiving you're proposing looking at potentially $4 billion in cuts, that's what you'd like to see happen, you're reflecting the views of the senate. how do you expect that to get through the house? >> you never know as you get closer to christmas, maybe there will be a miracle looming, but you have to, based on all of the

objective economists' analysis have a $4 trillion to $5 trillion package. there are revenues in there. bev a 4:1 revenue increase to four spending cuts in dollar terms proposal. so you have to, if you're going to stabilize our long-term debt and send the right messages to the markets and the capital investors, you've got to have a bigger plan than the one that looms in the short term. $1.2 trillion would be a nice downpayment but if we make that downpayment we're still going to have to come back and have to work on this. the senators involved are saying let's go big now and create confidence. that would be an enormous jolt to our economy in a positive way. >> let's look at some new poll numbers that we have out here, and this is from bloomberg, american's view of elected officials out there. wanting to throw them all out, that's 26%. all they do is fight, 28%.

wish they would compromise, 36%. they're doing the best they can, just 8%. do you see this gang of 38 as being a sign that washington is paying attention to the poll numbers and you are determined to get something done? >> i like that word "determined." we are. when i was home in colorado during august i heard over and over again "please go back there and work together. focus on a short term jobs package" and i thought ezra really pointed out the opportunity here and what we do face. couple it with a long-term debt plan. we couldn't do anything better for the country and those numbers hurt me to hear but they're accurate, and we really have to set aside this juvenile and schoolyard bickering and go to work on behalf of the economy and the american people. that's just a given right now. >> okay, colorado democratic senator mark udall thank you so much. good to see you. >> sure, we'll do it again. >> look forward to it. strange turn in the case of a missing mother, what did

authorities find in the central utah desert? thousands of bees go on the attack, one of the victims a man in a wheelchair. how it ended, next. later the outcry over the "jersey shore" tax credit. does the show deserve hundreds of thousands in dollars of taxpayer money? but first, with about three hours on the trading day, about 15 minutes shy of that, look at how things are looking on wall street, up almost 50 on the dow, up about 3.3 on the s&p 500 and close to 8.5 on the nasdaq. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ that should do it. enjoy your new shower.

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the u.s. supreme court has halted the execution of a man convicted of double murder in texas, after his lawyers argued his sentence was racially

biased. dwayne buck was spared from lethal injection thursday while his appeal is being reviewed. his attorneys acknowledge he shot and killed his girlfriend as well as another man but they argue a psychologist tainted the jury with the comment that "black people are more likely to be violent." three men in southern california are recovering after they were stung by thousands of bees. santa ana police say the bees swarmed one man in his wheelchair after he accidentally bumped his hive. businesses were closed down and streets evacuated while crews removed the bees. there is still no sign of susan powell after a search in the utah desert turned up no human bones despite reports human remains had been found earlier this week. george lewis is in utah. what is the latest the officials

are saying about whether or not there have been human remains found? >> reporter: what they've found they've been using cadaver dogs trained to sniff out human remains and the dogs alerted on a site that police describe as aisha low grave in the desert about 150 miles south of here so they are continuing to dig at that site. they've gone down a couple of feet, haven't found anything yet but continuing to dig this morning. there is a second search going on in that immediate area. why this area? it's a place not far from where susan powell's husband, josh, took their two young sons camping overnight, the night she disappeared almost two years ago so police are concentrating on that area. meantime, susan powell's father, chuck cox, is on his way down there. he wants to have a look at the area for himself. it's not sure that police will let him into the actual site where they're doing the digging but he wants to be nearby just in case they find something, so the search is going on at this hour. police say that those dogs have

a pretty high accuracy rate, that 98% of the time if they alert on something, they find human remains, and one police officer says he's, he says there's a 50/50 chance they will find the remains belonging to susan powell. alex? >> george is susan's husband, josh, saying anything about all this? >> reporter: no, he has not been commenting on this, and he has stopped cooperating with police. he did issue a statement saying that he hopes this case will be resolved, and that's obviously the hope of everyone. this case of the missing mom has baffled authorities for almost two years now. >> okay, george lewis there in vest valley city, utah, george, thanks so much. getting the job you need, nine cool yet practical degree programs and industries where companies are hiring like mad. we'll share them with you. plus the fight to keep "the jersey shore" from getting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars. oh, wow, really?

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at chantix.com. when you're drunk, sometimes you kiss girls. >> what up, boo, let me holler at you for a second. [ bleep ] what up, girl? >> i'm excited to get to the beach, i'm dying to wear my bikini and see what guys look like in speedos. >> some scenes there from "60 minutes." i'm kidding. "jersey shore" just earned a $420,000 tax credit from the garden state, a situation that's got some folks upset that nair tax dollars will be used to offset snooki, paulie d. and others. we're going to just come clean and say the both of us do not like this show at all. i was ranting about it during the commercial. >> i did and i hear you loud and clear. >> but on a professional level,

as the republican budget officer, let's talk about what you want to see happen here, from a fiscal perspective, delan o'skon lon jr., new jersey is sem bleeman. >> if you were to put these credits in such a way to make the taxpayers money and generate more money than they're costing us you could convince me. i never want money going to "the jersey shore" but you can't do that, even for other programming. the tax incentives are not wise and when you're having the taxpayers pay the beer bar bill or the tanning bill for the situation, i'm sorry. they shouldn't be involved. >> let's listen to what the seaside heights burrough administrator said. >> the phenomenon has been unbelievable. all of the meals, tens and thousands of room night, thousands the production crew needed the visitors that need

the same things. >> okay and we have governor christie's spokesman "the bottom line is the governor's not been in favor of the tax credit, his opinions about the jersey shore and its cast are well-known, they are phonies and the show is a false portrayal of the shore and its communities." he's saying he has no control over the economic development authority. >> at this point we don't. these were commitments made under the previous administration, the application was filed under the terms then so if the governor were to take action he still might but i don't think so, to veto this, very probably would be sued and probably lose and cost us a few hundred thousand dollars to defend it. you need to know when to cut your losses. >> it is also bringing in the money. we've heard it brings as much as a 20% increase to visitors to this small burrough. >> let's talk about that. >> why? >> the question you have to ask is would they come anyway even if it were not for the incent e

incentives? >> what do you think? >> they filmed in a few other places. >> have you seen a decrease as a result of them being in italy this season? >> they filmed in italy and other season, in the summer in new jersey, every summer for the last four summers, even when the program was suspended. when the program was suspended they still came despite the fact there were no tax incentives, indicating the tax incentives are not what got them there or keeping them there. they would have that economic benefit anyway. that's the question ask you, the tax incentives you don't give credit for 100% that comes in, it's the incremental difference and i think they'd be here anyway. >> declan o'scanlon thank you for weighing in. the ipad age, we'll talk with lebar burton with the app that helps more children to read. how the drought in texas may leave consumers asking where's the beef. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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welcome back to msnbc. i'm alex witt. president obama signed the american events law into act this morning. the legislation will streamline the patent process and reduce costly legal battles. south korea experiencing nationwide blackouts in the middle of an unexpected heat wave. thursday power was cut off to different areas temporarily. nasa's kepler space telescope is named tatoua new p named tatouin. paul mccartney is planning to we had sometime in october. back to politics now and the piling on president obama keeps getting deeper as we told you earlier "the huffing post" and politico are quoting anonymous sources griping about white house chief of staff bill daley on the job for less than a year,

after james carville wrote a cnn op. ed ournlging president obama to "fire a lot of people." guys, feels like a sunday to me. good morning, or afternoon. it is afternoon, here we go. all right, so kiran, what is going on here? what are you hearing about the grumbling over daley? >> james carville, come on. he has made an industry out of. throwing from the outside. i put his comments aside. that being said, you know, you're kind of not doing your job in washington, unfortunately, and robert knows this from having worked in the white house and this is my experience in the clinton white house, if you're not being attacked by the "anonymous sources." look, there was a lot of controversy when daley came in because of his ties to the business community, something that was perceived as an area of

need within the administration, and without defending obama or daley specifically i think the issues that they are having and the problems are more systemic and i don't think that you can say it's one person or another person. i think they're trying to get their act together as we're seeing in the way that they are pushing out and rolling out the jobs act, but i think it's unfair to blame one person. >> okay so robert, listening to what james carville calls for and others, should the president be getting rid of his economic team and start over? >> i think the president should listen to his gut, and remember, president obama is no drama obama. this is not what he does. he doesn't throw his staff under the bus. that has never been his m.o., if you will. what i think happened and i think karen would agree, democrats are frustrated they're shut out of the decision making process. rahm emanuel was a staffer, clearly was a member of congress so he was one of them so he kept them in the loop. you hear a lot of members of congress on the democratic side

feel like they're not in the loop so in the process they feel they are losing the message vacuum. two, i also believe a lot of democrating out there are frustrated because everything that they're trying, whether it's the stimulus package a couple of years ago, whether it's the messaging on health care, nothing seems to be resonating with the american people right now, so they're frustrated and nervous and panicking, and if you look at the apparatus of the presidency, presidents should not panic. presidents should never throw their staff under the bus because that fuels into the perception they're not in control. >> here is a no panic reaction. mike viqueira spoke with white house spokesman jay carney. "daley is an excellent chief of staff, fantastic internally and externally advancing the president's policy goals, brings enormous experience to the job and i would simply say he took over that job at a critical and remarkable time." okay, that being said, does that sound like a ringing endorsement to you, karen? >> it sounds like a ringing

endorsement in washington. which everybody knows the way we talk in here is a little different than the rest of the world. again, i go back to i don't think the issues for example with the communication with capitol hill, as a democrat, i'm very frustrated in that relationship and i do think the white house could be doing a better job, is bill daley the reason that it's not good? no. there are a number of people who can participate in improving that communication and that relationship. so again i'm reluctant to -- it is very much the sort of washington habit to say let's go after one specific person and i do think again there is, you know, a lot of people in here who could be helping to do a better job and don't forget they've already fired or gotten rid of a lot of people who were here at the beginning. it's a different team in many ways than we had at the beginning. >> here's something that's interesting and let's talk about a big name here with you, robert. there's the bloomberg poll, a new one showing a third of

people say we would be better off with hillary clinton in the oval office. does anyone believe she would have been able to do things differently, given everything that president obama has been handed, from where he started? >> who knows, but hindsight is 20/20. secretary clinton has the benefit of not being a politician so she's not on the ballot. she does not have to make tough political decisions domesticcally. a lot of people can look back and say i would have, should have. we don't know but this is what i do know, if hillary clinton was president probably this messaging vacuum that karen speaks to, that a lot of democrats speak to probably wouldn't be happening right now. she was a student of her husband's presidency and something tells me secretary plnt clinton or president clinton would say shut up, i am in control, if you don't like my message get the hell out of the kitchen. >> quick. >> the u.s. could benefit from a

feminine leadership style but i agree with robert, it's who knows who would have been the better president but look when you have a republican congress that is so hell bent on making sure that you can't get anything done, no matter who is in the white house, that's going to be a tough job. >> karen and robert, see you sunday morning. thanks so much. >> thank you. unemployment in this country is holding steady at just over 9% and lawmakers on capitol hill are debating the best way to bring that down. "mother jones" lists some programs in practical industries that are hiring. jao lee is here with us. good day. >> good day to you. >> you have nano technologist at suny albany, renewable energy at oregon institute of technology, cyber security of university of maryland, video game design from the digipen institute of technology. the last one, parents are going to say video game really, are you kidding me? yet it is a big business.

>> it is a big business and you know, there is a creative aspect to it, too, i think could be an appeal to young kids graduating from high school and going into college and you just mentioned the unemployment rate for the unemployment rate for americans ages 16 to 24 is almost double that of the 9% plus that it is nationwide, so you know, it's a critical time for high school grads to be thinking about what kinds of college programs make sense for them, and i think there's a sort of shift of thinking that's emerging and kind of necessary to think about what kinds of degree programs will actually lead to a job afterward and not just, you know, what you feel like studying at the moment. it's unfortunate, but it's unfortunately the reality. >> absolutely, given the reality that you've got to get a little bit practical. for those, say english majors

who decide i'm going to step this up, gone on to graduate programs, for instance urban planning from portland state university, elementary education, inner city teaching corps, veterinary science university of florida florida, biochemistry at cal-berkeley, education, biochemistry, all of those things, that makes a lot of sense and those have been there for a while. urban planning orthotics, those are successful areas that are seeing development right now? >> yes and just as a little bit of background, the way we put together this list was by looking at the bureau of labor statistics and some projections for the fastest growing occupations in terms of employment, between the year 2008 and 2018, and within that, we sort of looked at you know, what areas are actually somewhat interesting and what you said about an english major looking at advanced degree programs, a

program like the inner city teaching corps, if that is something that a recent grad is interested in or they're thinking about aivity? career, let's say, it doesn't really matter what you majored in, in undergrad, you just sort of have to prove a commitment to stick it out for two years and that it's more of a willingness to do the job. but yeah, i mean, these areas are indeed growing. another source that we have looked at was recent spread in "wired" magazine that focuses on urban planning, nanotechnology talks about cyber security as having grown in the last few years up until 2010 so those were our indicators for the occupations that are hired. >> and the good thing to note is no matter where you are, a british studies major went on to

medical school and got a masters in foreign city. jaeah lee from "mother jones" we appreciate that. "reading rainbow's" lavar burton is back more than 25 years after the show premiered. it is entering the ipad age. we're more than leased to have him here with us. good day to you. >> good to see you, alex. >> this venture is called rr kids. let's hear about it. >> right, rr kids is actually an app, free app that you will be able to download that will launch you to our world of wonderful children's literature, enhanced digital books. >> we were talking about where kids go from college into grad school and trying to get jobs. it starts at this young level, learning to read and being literate. when is this going to be out there? >> we are releasing as of today on track to release q4 this year

or the latest squrq1 in 2012, ae latest december and january. >> what about reading rainbow and the roots about that? you're going back to it. why? >> um-hum, because there's still a need to connect kids to literature. we are really falling behind in terms of how we educate our children and get them prepared for the world. the game is changing, and you can't reach your most full potential without really having that facility of literacy, and i certainly recognize that i am the person that i am today in part because of my love for literature and the written word, and i've always had -- my mother was an english teacher so i've always had a pooassion for real wanting to foster that aspect of education for kids. >> super, super important. people look at what you're doing and you've got this start-up

company particularly during this climate, well done on that front. what's the biggest challenge? you're rolling your eyes. what is the biggest challenge trying to do that? >> perseverance, keeping it simple and finding the right team. i am so lucky to be surrounded with like the superstars in the worlds of entrepreneurism and technology. my business partner, mark wolfe and i embarked on this journey over a year and a half ago and we have received incredible, good advice from the people in silicon valley and they pointed us in the right direction in terms of where to go to find the right talent to put this company together. >> yeah. can i just ask you, i'm curious, because look at all the things you've been associated with, lots of iconic television shows, "roots" "reading rainbows" "star

trek" which do you get noticed for most? >> depends on the demme grasks you a demographic you're talking about. people my age "roots" the reading rainbow nation are adults beginning to have their own children and that's why it was so important to me to try and do what we did with "reading rainbow" for the new generation of kids, the reading what i call rainbow nation, reading rainbow nation they are sick that there's nothing there for their kids the way "reading rainbow" and other shows were there for them so using this new technology, this sexy tablet computer technology made good sense. >> i was going to say, rr kids, there you go, the reading rainbow kids. i'm betting that's what it stands for, that's just me. lavar burton, congratulations. >> thanks, alex. outrage in indonesia over orangutans allowed to smoke.

tourists have been giving cigarettes to them for years. earlier this week an orangutan at a zoo in malaysia was placed in quarantine in an effort to help her quit. there are just 50,000 left in the wild. got to quit smoking, guys. no good for anyone. sam: i'm sam chernin. owner of sammy's fish box. i opened the first sammy's back in 1966. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? fine, i just got a little fender bender.

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continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. in our "political sidebar" big endorsement for jon huntsman. tom ridge says he's the only candidate with success at creating job. ridge appeared with huntsman in new hampshire. speaking of endorsements is that jimmy carter giving an ado,ment to mitt romney? >> i'm hoping he would win. i don't think anybody's going to beat obama next year but my

preference obviously would be for his religious faith not to be an adverse factor in the choices made about who should be representing the republican party. >> don't look for any endorsements from house speaker john boehner who let it all hang out during a q&a session after his economic speech yesterday. >> what is it like to have 11 brothers and sisters? >> chaos. the same thing i deal with every day. you have to learn to deal with every jackass who walks in the door. trust me, i need all the skills i learned growing up to do my job. people ask me, are you having fun? hell no i'm not having any fun. somebody show me where the fun is. i like to accomplish my mission and get the hell out of here. got a lot of great candidates, i love all of them. well, some i might love more than others. >> and if one of them said to you, "you've done a great job as

speaker, we'd like you to be vice president of the united states to be on the ticket, would you consider that? >> it's hard enough for me to go to funerals i know, much less people i don't know. >> he might not be having fun but we had fun listening to him. . according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? woah! [ giggles ] helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health.

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so the saying goes don't mess with texas, i got my boots on to prove it there but mother nature not listening. record drought in the lone star state got worst last week and won't get any better in the coming months. the drought helped fuel the wildfires this year that scorched nearly 4 million acres and left four firefighters and six civilians dead. there's another casualty to talk about, cattle, extreme drought is threatening the herds and experts say the cattle industry has taken a $2 billion hit because of the drought. >> we have the lowest inventory

in 50 years, so there's going to be less beef supplies in 2012, and that should lead to higher prices as long as the economy holds up. >> cnbc's jane wells is live for us in dallas, texas. good day to you in dallas. is it hot like it has been there lately? >> reporter: it's been a little cooler right now, in the 80s, alex. they have had some rains in a few spots in texas today, so all those prayers they've been asking for have paid off a little bit but not enough to make a difference. the cattle industry has been devastated. >> you look at the parchness of the ground and the feed and the like. if you look at texas it is one of the largest suppliers of meat. what is this going to mean? are we going to pay more money when we buy hamburger meat, steaks and the like at the grocery store or even to mcdonald's potentially? >> reporter: potentially. not in the short term. and it's more hamburger than steaks. here's what we're talking about. the ranchers have to decide okay for mostly their female cows if

they're getting up in years, maybe they still have a calf or two they could produce over the next few years, is it worth it to truck in feed to feed you or better for me to cut my losses and send you to the slaughterhouse now. the females usually turn into hamburgers. the steers are where you get most of your steaks. there's going to be a glut of this hamburger which may this winter drive down prices but the next year because you don't have as many females producing calves you could end up with a shortage and could see hamburger prices go back up. >> what about exporting, there will be fewer exports because there's lower supply? >> reporter: here's the thing. here's one reason why you may not see prices go down so much in the short term. exports are exploding for cattle, for u.s. beef, they're up 33% this year because in part due to a growing hungry world, growing middle class and cheaper relative dollar. so even though there is a sort of glut of hamburger coming into

the market, there is still a world that is willing to pay for it, so you and i may see a drop in prices at the grocery store but not that much. >> cnbc's jane wells braving the elements and stay away from the cattle behind you. is there a fence behind you, jane? i can't see. no, i guess not. >> reporter: there's a bull right there, keeping an eye on me. >> i'll bet he is. jane wells take care of yourself. thanks so much. i'm alex witt. thank you for watching. watch the launch of "weekends with alex witt" tomorrow at 9:00 eastern here on msnbc. watch sundays at 10:00 eastern as well. meantime up next "andrea mitchell reports." new triple double oreo. ♪ yo stufy, come here! [ shoes squeaking ] looked better on paper. [ strike! ]

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports" read my lips, speaker boehner says no new taxes to pay for the president's jobs plan or are we headed for another round of washington gridlock. >> it's almost as if we're two groups of people from two different planets who barely

understand each other. rick perry hits back at mitt romney. the 2012 republican front-runner returns to iowa to step up his attack on romney's massachusetts health care law. >> government mandated, government-run health care. it is part of what he put in place as the governor of massachusetts. it is time -- i think it's very important that we put someone as our nominee that does not blur the lines between president obama and the republican party. >> romney is getting support from a former president, in an exclusive interview with rachael maddow. >> i hope he'll win -- i'm not taking a position but i would be very pleased to see him win the republican nomination. >> is that an endorsement he would want? education nation, s.a.t. scores plummet to their lowest point in decades. why critics say standardized tests are partly to blame. michelle lee will join us this