we have sinned and we want to express ourselves in clearer ways. >> steve's going to demonstrate. >> guys, i can't believe they doubled down on fast and furious. it's a total game-changer. get your cash and put it in the jar. >> we're ope to suggestions. >> yeah. we want twitter followers tweet us some phrases that you guys hate hearing. we'll consider them, come up with a long list and next week we'll have -- >> we'll keep adding to them as we go on. here at "the cycle", we have decided that the real campaign for december begins today. i think of it as the start of the baseball game. from now until the conventions we're considering that the first three innings. from the conventions and the month of debates in october are innings four, five, and six. that makes october with both the presidential and vp debates innings seven and eight. and the first week of november

will be the ninth inning. as for us, we're going to take every thursday to assess the race, look at the campaign focus, the polls, and take a look at the week ahead. so on this thursday, the president began a two-day "betting on america" bus tour in rust belt states of pennsylvaniç and ohio. meanwhile mitt romney has big named surrogates making rounds in the same towns. >> i still believe in you. i'm betting on you. and the country is betting on you, ohio. the choice in this election could not be clearer. and it could not be bigger. the stakes could not be bigger. i know. with you. >> betting on america tour. well, of course, we should all bet on america. but we shouldn't double down on barack obama. his presidency has been a losing hand for ohio and for america. i think we should dub his tour "the broken promises tour" for

america's middle class. >> the president a few weeks ago came an gand a economic speech in ohio. four years ago it was about hope and change. a few weeks ago, divide and blame. >> doubling down. >> steve is adding a dollar. >> he owes me a dollar. >> on his behalf. >> hey, governor rendell, hello. >> we're relying on governor rendell to join us. what do you think of our banl analogy and the swear jar? >> i leak both of them. i wouldn't say the first three happens between now and the convention. nothing relevant happens until the convention itself. >> what would you put ascii dates? >> the acceptance speeches are enormously important, the three debates are enormously important everything else, gosh, i think it's a lot ofç noise. by the 31st, people will be tuning out the ads.

they'll be so sick and tired of them they'll be tuning them out. >> i hear you. we've been talking a lot on "the cycle" as everyone has been about the critical blue collar voters in pennsylvania and ohio who have really always had a problem with this president but have really moved way from them as well. what advice would you give to the president about what those voters in particular want to hear? >> well, i'd go after them and i'd go after them strong. i think the president has a great case in ohio. those blue collar voters mostly are in manufacturing, and in ohio, manufacturing is to a great extent component parks for the automobile industry. it's no secret that the ohio unemployment level is three full percentage points down since the president took office. i think it has every dog with the auto bailout. so i'd hit them there and say this is what i've done for your you. and, two, my infracture plan will put more of you back to work full time quickly. those are the messages i think those blue collar democrats have

to hear, mostly democrats have to hear in ohio. and pennsylvania as well. infrastructure is the key to getting people back to work. >> how successful do you think president's bain capital attacks have been? >> i think they've worked. i criticized the tone of the first ad where they called mitt romney a vampire. but the ads themselves are fair game and think they're beginning to make anç impression on thos very blue collar workers that you're talking about. >> governor, i want to talk about the romney sort of flip flop that we've seen. it's sort of a rom in flop. >> rom flop. >> he and his head team can't get it together as to whether it is or not. but moving way from that specifically, the nature of a person campaigning for office and being inconsistent in the people who are listening to him don't know like we saw with john kerry, what we saw with al gore.

people don't know. what is your position. people don't like that, right? i think we saw that with george bush. they like consistency, even if they disagree with the man. >> you can make the argument you have the right to have your position evolve over time, and often that's true. fact change, circumstances change, so your opinion should change. but when you flip flop in the same day like they did on whether it's a penalty or a tax, the mandate, it's absolutely stunning. i mean it's stunning about how poorly the campaign is organized and it's stunning that someone who's a decent man like mitt romney would do something like that. i mean so what if you offend the base for a little bit by saying it's a penalty. the base is voting for you. tlau're not voting for you because they love you. they're voting for you because they don't like the president. it doesn't matter. >> they made clear they don't love him. we saw that in the primary. but let's take it to the cliche jar.

what are the cliches that drive you nuts the most? >> nothing matters until election day. no polls matter. the only poll that mattersç isn election say. if that's so, why did candidates spend so much money on pollingful that's the most ludicrous one of all. i would like to get one thing in, guys, and i'm not sure you're going to ask me about it. but i heard it in the run-up today. governors who are turning down the medicate money. >> right. >> it is unconscionable. they're using politics and their own ambition at the price of hurting people in their states. >> and, governor, let me ask you about that. how many governors do you expect to see across the country turning down the that funding? >> i think they turned it down. i don't think you'll see more than a handful. remember, for the first three years it's 100% federal plun. then 90% and 10% state money, but we're used to states getting medicate funds that are 55%

federal, 45% state money. right now the state contribution of medicare, almost every state is above 407. so to get at a program where you only have to contribute 10% and where the first three years are absolutely free and you're turning that down for your constituents for political reasons, shame on you. >> agreed. >> governor, i wanted to turn back to the point crystal was making about obama and blue collar white voters. we had a graphic on the scene that shows among noneducate men romney is losing. there's also -- loorks obama has come out forcefully for gay marriage. he's talked aboutç legalizing 800,000 children of illegal immigrants and picked apart the contraception issue. what effect do you think emphasis on these sofrtsishes

have had or might have as it plays out with blue collar voters. >> a lot of it sups up that a lot of voters are not like throw vote for president obama. if you're one of those voters, laborers, a member of a union and a laborer, you worked last year 40 op f the time, you were on what's called the bench 60% of the time and president obama say his ee going to put another $50 billion into infrastructure in the next 12 months and your union is telling you if that comes to pass, you're going do be working 80% of the time, gay marriage becoming a little less important. >> i hear that. and, governor, "the wall street journal" editorial page was very critical of romney's campaign team. bill crystal has also been very critical in op ad today. how would you rate the effectiveness of the romney campaign at this point? >> on the one hand, stunningly bad. they seem to have made every mistake in the book, etch a

sket sketch, you name it. on the other hand, after being battered in the primaries they're almost dead even in the nati national polls. how bad could they'd be? it's such a paradox. if you're telling me the republicans could make the mistakes that romney knead and this would still be a close race, i wouldn't have believed it. >> got you. well, we have a longç ways to as well for them to make more mistakes or make up for the ones they've made so fafrmt governor rendell, thanks so much for joining us. >> our guy isn't pushing a shutout either. >> that's true. >> your guy. >> that's right. my guy. >> now we are waiting for the president who will speak this hour at an ice cream social in ohio. i'd like to be there. we'll bring that to you live in about 30 minutes. that and more as "the cycle" rolls on for thursday, july 5th. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing

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for the supreme court has the final word and their final word is that obama care is a tax, so it's a tax. they decided it was constitutional. so it is a tax and it's constitutional. that's the final word. that's what it is. >> oh, what's in a name. more on that now. would a tax by any other name still raise the funds? that's mitt romney explaining why the mandate is a tax, seemingly counter to what his top adviser called it earlier in the week when he said it should be a penalty or a fachine.

guys, i want to talk about this a little bit here. i think -- i'll put it out there. let me know what you think. this is a per review of how a mitt romney presidency would look. what we saw was the instincts of romney and the people around him were to basically fight the idea that it was a tax. the instingtss of the republican party and the conservativeç movement would rally behind the attacks and what you had is conservatives got angry and frustrated with romney that he wasn't coming their way and they sort of pressured and shamed him into coming their way. is this a guy who's afraid of his base and if they push him and pull him, he's going to go their way eventually. >>? >> you could make the argument that romney is impressionable but not in this case. chuck todd was on earlier talking about how fehrnstrom didn't say anything. he wasn't supposed to say this was their way of keeping romney consistent on what he's been saying about mass care, romney care since 2006. now, it's nuanced.

it came out as a mess, a total mess. the way fehrnstrom handles it and then romney comes out and tries to clarify it some more. there was a clearer way to do this and remain consistent. but this was not a mistake. mine this is chuck todd talking. >> let me make clear what she's saying. do you think the message fehrnstrom delivered on monday and the message that romney deliver dodd you think there was tweaking between monday and then? >> yes. >> do you say that. >> yes. they didn't change the message, they clarified it. i don't like the way they did it. i think 90% of the population doesn't understand what they're trying to say. not because they're dumb but because it's so esoteric and nuanced. but this was not a campaign mistake. this is what they meant to do. >> no, this was totally a mistake. "the wall street journal" rightly called it an unforced error. what's happened is the romney campaign has pivoted -- >> exactly.ç unforced. >> unforced error. >> to us, but not them.

>> what if it wasn't planned. >> they planned to do this. >> if they planned to do that, it makes it even worse. >> they don't plan to make an unforced error. >> now we're -- >> when we get done with the show we'll watch wimbledon. we talk about is it tax, is it a penalty to romney personally and romney's inability to express his character and to show a center. >> you haven't. we have. the conversation is still happening. >> no, no, no. american people are going to see romney is not sure who he is as a man and now we have doubts about his character. >> nobody has doubts about his character. he has impeccable character. >> everybody has doubts about his character. >> he has convictions. >> romney has no carrick tell. romney's trying to date a gal who's a supermodel.

>> you're talking about his convictions, toure. >> he has no spine. >> that's a conviction. >> i think what most people will get out of this, tax, penalty, who really cares, do i have to pay it or not, thing what they will get oust this is it's another instance of romney seems unclear on where he stands and seems to be moving to whatever expedient place to be is. thing that's the general impression. >> no. think generally that impression is true. in this case, the politicaméy expedient thing do would be to come out and say very quickly, this is a tax, the supreme court said it, obama has been campaigning incorrectly and lying about it. that would have been politically expedient yemt. but he didn't. >> i want to move onto another topic. i want to ask a question first. i think this is a great time to have a conservative on the show. we had the clip up there on "the wall street journal" where they were blistering a n attack on

mitt romney. bill crystal was sort of making same port, jack welch. what i'm asking you as a conservative, is this widespread that their campaign is sort of incompetent at this point? sniet was the question. i was thinking if i had a chance to sis down with mitt romney, i would ask him that. from the outside it looks like there have been some missteps but from all accounts they've heard internally, they're very policed with how everything has gone. >> to governor rendell's point it's dead sneechb we're going to turn to foreign policy for the second half of the segment. iran, amid signs that international sanctions may actually be working. they broadcast this video earlier of ballistic missile tests and it warns it could take

out u.s. military bases in the middle east and they went so far as to make mock-ups of foreign bases for its war games. you know, guys, i thurng this s this is an underappreciated story. i think it clears at this point the strategy has been to make rhetorical concessions to the hawks in the country, to keep them at bay as much as possible orks to pursue sanctions but what he's really tried to avoid is any kind of military confrontation with island. you look at mitt romney. you look at the people he's surrounded himself, the statements he's mae. he's embracing a very hawkish position on the middle east, aligning himself with the right in israel and on iran, you know, basically we have a quote here actually. i can read it. he said of obama, he almost sounds like he's more frightened that israel might take military

action than he's concerned that iran might become nuclear. so, you know, romney, i think if we take him at face value, this is a guy who's actually opened a military operation in iran. >> to your point, steve, actually the most we've heard about iran was in the republican primaries during the debates when they were using it as an issue to sort of set their more hawkish foreign policy against the presidents because they've had such a hard time criticizing the pret's foreign policy in other areas. it's quite remarkable actually that americans in multiple polls have said they trust the democrats and the president on fighting terrorism and on foreign policy which is historically unusual. >> i think the notion of romney being hawkish and talking about a military confrontation with iran is completely fanciful and i think most americans don't understand that iran is larger and tougher and has -- i mean we understand that they have(a! relatively crazy leader, but i don't think we understand this is not iraq, this is not kuwait.

we can't walk into iran and knock them over, whether or not they're nuclear armed. this would be an extraordinary bld yoo and difficult confrontation. if romney thinks we're going to roll into iran -- >> i read romney's white paper on foreign policy and's eh's not talk about rolling into iran and wiping them out. he's exposing a very good weakness of presidents which is his policy on israel. if he's going go after the president anywhere on foreign policy it would be israel, vee a vee iran. >> we'll end it there, our relationship with iran to the war in afghanistan. up next, what a soldier things of the american exit strategy and what hi thinks it's like really coming home. plus, the president live from ohio. we'll bring it to you live on "the cycle." >> time for "your business" entrepreneur of the week. mcallister toeing is one of the oldest businesses in new york.

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for several months pakistan blocked the border crossing after u.s. killed several pakistani joerlds. hillary clinton apologized publicly for tuesday and that ended the standoff. the roads in and out of afghanistan will be critical as the u.s. remove a decade's worth of equipment and 90,000 troops in the country. a soldier saw us collapse there and every week we spend there we're losing not winning. in the guest spot today we've got army reserve captain matt zeller who for eight months in 2008 served in western afghanistan as a combat adviser and in his book "watching without time: an american soldier in afghanistan," he gives us a really unique insight into the war inside the batt battlefield and back home. mattç was running for congressman. thanks so much for joining.

we appreciate your coming here. >> my pleasure. i want to congrat lalgs yulate on the show. i think you've got a hit on your hands. >> thank you. preerk yat that. with comments like that, we're going have you back. he is a politician, there you go. i actually wanted to start with a quote i found quite moving from your book. you say the next time you hear that the united states is sending soldiers to war, chances are those soldiers will go through similar experiences, and i hope after reading this, you'll have a better understanding of what it means to send our countrymen off to fight. so we were just having a conversation here about what's going on in iran and saber rattling and some on the part of americans. we have a situation in syria where some are advocating for more aggressive u.s. response. what would you say to the politicians who are making these decisions, many of whom who haven't served in a conflict overseas? >> you know, that's great point.

i sit on a t board of a politicala committee called vet pac. i would hope that anyone watching would vote for our candidate, specifically tammy duckworth. i think we need more vets in office. that's why i ran. the decision to send mem and win off to fight on our behalf should never be taken lightly. there are some great patriots like jill brandt who do everything they can. ultimately vets take care of vets better than anybody else and look noç better than senat jim webb and senator john mccain. what they've done for the veterans office ha been faef snook are you specifically suggesting someone in particular is taking it lightly when what they talk about sending people to war? >> i'm not citing out any one individual in particular. what i'm saying is politicians when they go downrange to deploy and if you haven't served in the militarying yo ire getting what i call is a dime tour.

you're taking to relatively safe fobs. you're not going to be taken where i was. gold top if someone like me had been elected to congress or if we had people like pat murphy who actually served on these small bases, they'd understand what it is for soldiers to go through war. i can give you a prime example. on april 28th, which is what i call my alive day, i got surrounded by 45 members of the taliban with 14 of my fellow army brothers and we fought our way out of an ambush. we ran out of grenades that day and i put in for a request. and that quest came on november 309 as illustrated in my book. >> wow. in another issue that you talked about very compellingly in your book is the difficulty to reacla mating to civilian life and we actually have a lot of people coming home now and what advice would you give to them and their

friends and loved ones that are helping them reacla mate. >> don't do what i do or did rather. first off, find yours"a good partnerful be a fellow veteran who's deployed or a loved one like a husband or a wife or a significant other. i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my wife. the second thing is go to counseling. and that's a lesson i had to learn the hard way. i -- the best thing you can possibly do is go and talk with people. my father said it best. the army spent several years training me to kill people and to think a certain way and then spent five days and then dumped me back out into the civilian world and expected me to act normal. it's a job. i mean getting back to civilian life, reacla mating is a job itself and i would urge any veteran watching gorks to your local veterans center, talk to the counselors, get involved with other vets groups. the best possible is talking to the vets.

we're the only ones who know what to go through. there's a chapter in my book called ducks and turtles and right before we deployed we had an army chap lab who sat in a room with us. he said how many have you deployed. four of us. he said the rest haven't. we said yeah. >> he said do youotice they're different than the rest of you. we said yes. >> he said they're like turtles. they retreat in their shell. they retreat in their shell. they don't like to talk to anyone. ducks are loud, boisterous, they get easily frighten and they don't like talking turtle and turtles don't like to talk ducks. >> i think we're at table of ducks here. >> i think that's a really deep point. and the lastç chapter of your book is called back to the world i no longer know which builds off of what you were just saying. i mean the sort of person male or female who would self-select

for the military, are they going to be able go to therapy, g it the therapy they need when they come out of the theater of war? >> if we fully fund the va. that's one thing that congress at large fails in its responsibility to govern. if you look at who's in office, and crystakri krystal, you can with me on this. that's not going to chancht think the military does a wonderful job at preparing civilians to be soldiers. what the society, our american society and i talk about this in my book, what we don't do is as a society do a very good job at helping soldiers become citizens again. that's what we need. i mean i think that's something -- i don't know how you solve that other than having the average american citizen get to know something about the military. read my book. understand what it means to be

in combat. wait means to serve in uniform. >> thank you both for joining us and for providing a book that can help us understand more wait's like on the ground and getting re inting reaction la m >> that's fine. up next, can you be devoted to your religion and respectç someone's else beliefs at the same time? a guest who wrote a book joins us. and we're still awaiting president obama's remarks at a campaign event in ohio. still ahead, we'll bring them to you live right here on "the cycle." are so amazingly good,

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>> would you believe that guy's a rock star. as the world celebrates the discovery of the so-called god particle it's left people pondering more effects. it's an idea our next guest explored by having 15 different leaders from the three major religions including jimmy carter and others pen passionate is says on behalf of tolerance. so what better way to celebrate our freedom this week. joining us now is kelly james clark, the editor of "abraham's children: liberty and tolerance in an age of religious conflict." professor clark, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me on your exciting new show. >> thanks. i'm going to assume the title "bray ham's children" are the origins of the abrahamic traditions. abraham being the father of the jus, ishmale being the father of

the arab people and the point you're trying to make with the title is we all came from the same place and so we should sort of connection in our shared roots. >>ç we all believe in a god th is compassionate and should motivate us to be kind to the stranger even if they hold different beliefs from the beliefs that we hold, so sharing these common roots ought to ground respect and toll reps and liberty, not hatred and violence. >> well, you know -- you know, like to say when i'm talking about religion or writing about religion that it actually requires intolerance. it requires you to take a stand and say that my doctrine is right and your doctrine is wrong. that is demanded of you as a religious person. for example, a christian cannot accept from judaism that christ is not the messiah and is just a

prophet and vice versa. so if we agree that being a religious person, at least an institutionally religious person requires intolerance, how can we be intolerant and yet still get along? >> i guess i don't agree with your pre miss. i think really deep religious belief demands disagreement but it doesn't demand intolerance. it doesn't demand that we create laws against people that hold religions that are different from ours, that we look down upon people who believe things different than what we believe or that we treat people who hold -- that christians should treat jews or muslims with any less respect or dignity than they do any other christians so think religious belief demands disagreement. in fact, i didn't ask any of the righters of my book to agree with each other. i asked this em to do çthis, look, we disagree, can we find grounds in each of our faith traditions to help us get along

with one another. and everybody was able to find those grounds. >> yeah. and that respect is what i mean. i mean being intolerant, you can be intolerant of another faith and still do it respectfully and i think that's what we want to get at, right? >> i think both of you are making skplemt points. i think what you're talking about, i can't believe in this and accept what you believe because you believe something opposite of what i believe so -- >> you have to do it respectfully. >> you try to do it respectfully. you think that loving your neighbor would be part of every faith, right, but it's not always. but the think that i -- the thing i find really interesting is that you are so deeply versed in all this spiritual education. >> god talk. >> that you are -- >> i'm an atheist. >> an atheist. >> you know, i study religion. i i'm a masters of religion. i envy religious people and write great defenses. . and speaking of atheists, find

athei atheists, militant atheists to be among the most intolerant people they've ever come across in my religious sort of dealings. >> but i mean most people who i know believe in something, all right? i think most people on the globe believe in something. >> a full 90%. >> in every country on the globe. people believe in something. it seems almost a default to believe in something. and i have struggled with atheism throughout my life but i can't not believe that there is >> well, i just haven't gotten to the point where i can believe in a higher power. i don't know the answers to all of life's mysterious questions, but i'm not ready to put religion or god in that box, in that hole. and that doesn't mean i don't

try. i envy the faithful. i would looic to be a person of faith. but i'm not there yet. i would like to make a quick distinction though. i am not one of these crazy militant atheists and i say crazy and mean it. there was an article in the washington times today that i mean gets my blood boiling. there's an atheist group, i'm not going to name them and give them any credit but they're going out and grading mitt romney and president obama on their sec you larness. they gave mitt romney an a and president obama a c for saying he prays for guidance in leading the country. find that to be abominable. that is intolerant, that is arrogant. that is not who we are. >> well, you know, it's interesting. i wouldn't necessarily disagree what you're saying. i look at the role religion is playing in this entire campaign. i'm thinking of romney's

religion. you look at the most striking thing to me about the long process, the relatively long process that took romney to win theç nomination is even when i became clear he was going become the republican nominee and he was going have the delegates and all of that, there was still stubborn resistance. he was still losing that segment of the election tort to rick santorum, in some case getting swamped. i do think that there's that basic incompatibility that evangelical christians see with mormonism. >> to that point -- >> can i please -- >> professor clark, please, jump in. >> i true to stay out of politics in my book. >> smart man. i agree it's going to be hart for evangelicals to vote for a mormon so there's going to be some intolerance operative there and i also think a lot of evangelicals who are racist and

we have a black president and it's going to be hard for them -- they'll definitely not want to vote for obama but they're going to be torn. >> maybe evangelicals don't want to vote for obama for reasons other than race, i'm sure. >> i don't mean to shay that's the only thing. >> right. it's just intolerance is my topic. >> religion always plays a huge role in presidential elections whether it was 40 years ago, jfk coming tout say i lent l not be behold on the the pope or john kerry having to come out and cently prove he was catholic enough. >> mitt romney did eventily get the republican nomination and the evangelicalç christians wh didn't vote for him there will swallow whatever their hesitations are and vote for him. but what if he was atheist? >> no chance. i would never vote for an atheist president. >> really.

why? s.e., why? >> i do not think that someone who represents 5% 2010% of the population -- >> but should it be -- >> should be representing and thinking that everyone else in the world is crazy but me. >> but s.e., take yourself as an example though. you study -- you understand these religions. you with well versed. you appreciate the perspective. what would be wrong with having someone that was like you in that way? >> well, the other part of it is i like that there's a check, okay, that there's a person in the office who doesn't thing he's bigger than the state, he doesn't think that he's bigger than sort of esoteric. i like religion being a check and knowing that my president goes home every night addressing someone above him and not thinking all the power resides right here. i don't -- you know, atheists don't have. >> the more interesting -- that's very interesting -- the more interesting part of intolerance is it's going to be

a very long time before we have a jewish president. >> i don't know if that's the case. lieberman got close. >> lieberman got close? >> thing it would be very hard to get a -- >> go ahead, professor. >> i was just going to say i think to me human beings are tribal. we like people who are like us, and as long as the there's a christian majority in the united states, they're going to voteç for people who are like them. it's going to be tough for atheists, muslims, jews. maybe it won't take decades, but i think it will be a long time before people can break out of their desire to have people in office who are like them. >> i think we're a lot more open minded and tolerant than that. thank you, professor clanch i appreciate you being here. i really do. up next, president obama is about to speak at an a ice cream parlor in ohio. we're checking in on the "betting on america" bus tour here on "the cycle."

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and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. the president's running a bit late as presidents are want to do. he'll be speaking at the ice cream social in ohio in the next 15 minutes. that doesn't stop us from talking about it. sandusky, ohio, no reason to be embarrassed by the town name. it means cold water in a native american language. appropriate since it sits on lake erie. it was rank number one by forbes in 2011 as the best place to

live cheaply. >> it's the setting for the 1995 movie "tommy boy." chris farley goes back to sandusky, ohio. >> perfect. >> wow. the brain is a little bit bigger than everybody else's. but the reason, of course, why the president is in ohio is because since ohrp is because since 1964, ohio has voted with the winer in every election i think going back to 1776, it's only mised twi missed twice. over and over and a town of a lot of non college educated white voters, who we've been talking a lot about on this show. the white people and the bain attacks. causing romney as the 1%, not creating anything are certainly having an impact, aren't they? >> there was about a month ago, a couple of strategies asking voters in several swing states did they think that private equity helped the economy or hurt workers?

and it was interesting because voters in different states respond differently to that question. and in particular, voters in ohio and other sort of industrial heartland states as i like to call them, were much more likely to say that private equity hurt workers. it was about a 15% margin. so attacks on bain, which he's been running state by state campaign, have been effective in ohio and pennsylvania and another line of attack that i think we'll be seeing more from the president as the campaign unfolds is what "vanity fair" was talking about in a recent article. mitt romney's offshore accounts. the murkmurkinessç and how low income tax rate is.

how do you think people are going to feel when they grasp the fact he has a much lower rate? >> when you get to april 15th, you just want to pull your hair out and steve, don't you think this is like a worst time to be running as a business man, especially a financier who doesn't create anything? >> you had ed rendell saying it doesn't matter in the summer. >> we're still waiting on the president to speak in ohio, but next, krystal's going to get her say on everything. >> finally. >> frank ocean for you. ♪

so, suppose your boss wants you to work overtime and you need more money, but don't really want to work more hours. your boss says i'll pay you ten times your hourly rate r for each hour of overtime. okay, no reasonable person would behave this way. what kind of person can't say yes to 90% of what they want? well, allow me to introduce you to governor rick perry of texas. the guy whomts to eliminate a bunch of federal agencies, but can't be bothered to remember which ones and the guy alon with reject a spending deal with a cut to tax rh owe of 10-1. they were just given a real

world choice by the supreme court. in upholding the individual manda mandate, the the supreme court allowed states to -- in other words, states can decide if they want to cover more poor people under the federal medicaid insurance program and have the federal government pay the tab. in normal times, this would be no big deal. after all, who's say thanks but no thanks to the federal government offering 90 cents on the dollar to help your state. it's 100 cents on the dollar in the early years. unfortunately, these are not normal times. rick perry happens to be the governor of texas. one in four of texas residents have no health insurance. costs have skyrocketed faster than the national average, but do you think that means he's going to go along with the plan? texas isn't alone here. seven states have said they're opting out and another eight

look likely to. that means 2 million residents will continue on without health insurance. these states have done the worst job of covering the uninsured. have the greatest need for federal assistance and they are the least likely to accept health. if that's not politics over principle, i don't know what is. 17 million uninsured americans can't wait another decade until republicans have moved on through another litmusç test. privatetizing military, eliminating public education or requiring poor people to pay more taxes. i could care less whether we call the mandate a tax or a go america surcharge. many americans right now, in the fate of 17 million of these uninsured americans is in the hand of america's governors. will politics take over at the

expense of the lives of uninsured americans? i hope and expect not. what do you think? >> maybe steve can answer this question. how many governors are actually going to opt out and how many are going to say, going to rattle the saber and say, oh, that's fun were the square jar, and then won't because as krystal laid out, it's a fair question. >> the thing here is there's going to be a lot of political pressure from like the hospital industry. basically telling governors even republican governors, you've got to get on board with this. there's a clear sentiment in today's republican party, you want to be against obama, show that any way you can. so as long as obama's in the white house -- >> voters are demanding that washington address the deficit! that will do it for today, guys. martin, it's all yours. thanks, krystal and to all of you. great show and