members of congress or talking to elected officials, you've got to remind them we don't want government to do everything for us but it's got a role to play on infrastructure, basic research, making sure we've got a tax system that's fair. >> the president could get some help from a range of encouraging economic news. the dow reached a record-breaking 15,000 points this week, the april jobless rate ticked down to 7.5% following months of strong hiring and the treasury department reported the largely monthly surplus since 2008 with tax revenue coming in higher than expected. the extra cash means the annual budget gap will fall below $1 trillion. paul krugman writes "bad news for dr. evil fans. the days of $1 trillion deficits are over. in fact, the deficit is falling fast." it also means the government will only hit the debt limit this fall rather than later this month but the gop, they're already gearing up for that fight. yesterday republican house

members passed a bill to allow the government to borrow money to pay off foreign lenders and social security recipients, the pay china first bill the president vowed to veto it. as the economy picks up steam it could be throwing a wrench in the republican plans to focus the debate on deficit reduction. john boehner yesterday struck a more conciliatory tone. >> we know we can't cut our way to prosperity. we need real economic growth and that's why you continue to hear a lot of discussion about tax reform, regulatory reform, that would help us produce more economic growth here in our country. we do both, we can begin to solve this problem. >> joining me today, political editor and white house correspondent at "the huffington post," msnbc contributor sam stein, national political water at "the washington post" mika henderson, ben smith and joining us from washington is cnbc's

chief washington correspondent mr. john harwood. this is anything but a casual friday panel, ladies and gentlemen. this is a power panel finishing out the week strong and john i'm going to start with you in d.c.. we see a lot of these economic gains. i want to read a quote from zach goldfarb, "the sunnier outlook means that president obama will be able to pay the nation's bills for months without seeking additional authority borrowing for months. little appetite for compromise but no leverage to shape an agreement." we thought the debt limit would be the back stop and perhaps they'd dangle the august recess and get something done. what does that mean for the debt limit fight and the nation's finances overall? >> luke as you know everybody recognizes the debt limit eventually has to be raised, even the prioritization bill passed on the floor says the debt limit to be raised to pay bond holders but the

administration attacks it saying it averts technical default but not actual default if we have to defer payments to people like social security recipients so it's going to get raised and interestingly there is some pressure on republicans on this front, too, because remember they're up for election in 2014, president obama is not. that was part of what was hanging over him in the 2011 debt limit fight he wanted to push it past the election. republican members know they've got to come up with some sort of budget cuts to appease some of the more conservative members so they can pass it because they need to pass it. >> interestingly enough, nia, i want to go to you right off the gate here. what i find interesting is that with this being pushed back to the fall, paul ryan said this, "the debt limit is the back stop. i like to go through regular order and get something done sooner rather than later but we need entitlement reform." the debt limit is the back stop, pretty much admitting that only through crisis can actual action

occur. i mean we've admitted that now. >> that's right, and you know, there were some thinking that people were sick of crisis, obama had the early dinner with republicans, listen, we're tired of governing through crisis, but it looks like this is where we are again. i mean my sense, i think obviously if you talk to regular voters, people are sick of this governing with a gun to your head but it looks like this is what the leverage that republicans have always had with the debt ceiling limit and looks like that's where we are again. >> ben for all of the talk we've heard from regular order and this idea of pass the budget and we'll come together, the gop does not want to have the conversations, they say the democrats are not serious about tax reform. it's fascinating that the play here is just push back, push back, push back, until the point of where we will have, be on the bitter end of crisis. it's fascinating to be the

stewardship party, and want to play this game. >> it could be because there's nothing approaching the outlines of compromise. you saw boehner saying he wants to cut taxes, cut regulation and this is not where obama wants to go. i think yes, we're sort of headed for the next train wreck because there's nothing approaching a sense of compromise. i think the white house and democrats see the whole argument in their view for austerity is falling apart. they're getting more aggressive saying saying out loud what they've said in private don't worry about the white house. >> sam, how does the white house play this. it showed the revenue increase paid on the deficit and there are studies that say if you get rid of the sequester it would be better. how does the white house play this game? republicans want to move it back to thanksgiving or christmas it's a tough thing for the president to be in the bully pulpit for that many months. >> the way they're playing the

game now, they're not going to negotiate and it's just one of the things where they realize the politics are in their favor, the debt ceiling when we went through this crisis in 2011 clearly backfired against the republican party, they came out worse for it and the white house said they weren't going to negotiate when we had to raise it this year and now they're seeing it again, essentially calling the bluff now. there have been plenty of instances in which the white house says they're not going to negotiate and turn around and give it the star. speaker boehner has also sort of given away a lot of his leverage here by saying well there won't be a default. that's been a condition, we want to get entitlement reform, tax reform. of course we're not going to default on our debt so that sort of indicates that they are ready to deal. it's just a matter of what kabuki theater we have to go through first. >> most likely theater that won't lead to a grand bargain. >> no, that's probably a good thing. grand bargain could be really bad. the longer that's put off the

better but luke, i think in general as long as the economy increase, economic activity and growth increases and the deficit decreases the more those two things happen obama's hand i think is strengthened in these potential negotiations because he's got a better economy, he's got fewer angry americans, fewer out of work americans, and the deficit becomes less and less salient an issue, so he can talk a little bit more on his terms, and his terms should mean as many economists, as almost every economist would say his terms should mean more public investment, more stimulus. >> one thing that could get the white house to the table they really don't like the sequester. they think it will have terrible effects in the months ahead. that could persuade obama to do something like drop the revenue demands in exchange for more stimulus. >> which would be an interesting compromise. john, the gop wants this idea of tax reform.

you've covered tax policy more than i have on the hill. it's a very complicated issue. coming up against the 2014 election it's not likely we could see something that significant, correct? >> it's possible. when they decide they want to do something they can do it quickly but it's not going to happen i believe unless it produces some more revenue to foster a deal. i see two outcomes, everyone could decide the deficit is coming down, we'll simply punt on any additional deficit reduction and defer the enforcement of the debt limit like they did in february or come up with some deal and i think a deal is going to have to, if you're going to get cuts they have to come from entitlements and if the administration's going to agree to entitlements, republicans have to come to the table with revenue. either way the debt limit will get raised. i was talking to tom cole, a member of congress you know as well from oklahoma and he said look in 2011 the president was

up for re-election, now we're the ones at risk if you plunge the economic crisis but not raising the debt limit and triggering some default you'll lose your majority. >> boehner and obama would like to have a legacy issue when it comes to the debt. john boehner says he could be on in 2016. thank you for being on the show. after the break an economy in slow recovery and improving yet shrinking jobs market and a growing amount of student debt. we'll discuss the challenges that face the milennial generation with the man who brought us the greatest generation, the living legend, tom brokaw in studio. you don't want to miss that, here with us on a friday. what a guy. the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on all purchases

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they've been called the unluckiest generation, generation jobless and the screwed generation and the young and the restless, and this week's "time" magazine is declaring milennials the me, me, me generation but just what defines a milennial generation depends who you ask. "time" may see a narcissistic me first nenlity but when senator elizabeth warren looks, she sees them stuck in a system rigged against them. she unveiled her first bill as a senator to set interest loans at the same rate given to the banks. for the last seven years bank interest rates have dropped to nearly zero, rates 0.75% but students haven't gotten that

same deal. they pay over three times the interest rate given to the banks and this summer their rates are scheduled to double to 6.8%, barring congressional action which is alarmingly nine times the rate given to the banks. when senator warren introduced the bill her argument was simple, if we can invest in the banks, surely we can invest in the future generations. >> if the federal reserve can float trillions of dollars to large financial institutions at low interest rates to grow the economy, surely they can float the department of education the money to fund our students, keep us competitive, and help grow our middle class. >> milennials represent the largest generation in u.s. history and the burdens they face, high unemployment, lower wages and debt have social and economic consequences far beyond themselves. joining the panel now is nbc's tom brokaw. thank you so much for being on the show, my friend.

milennial unemployment, 18 to 29, 11.7%, called the boomerage generation because a quarter of american adults between 18 and 30 still live at home with their parents. you said we're an innovative generation, apps, quick moving, quick thinking but this is an awfully hard brick wall that's been put in front of this generation. >> ther's no question about that and i think that's an innovative idea that senator warren has. the larger question is, what do you get for the money you spend on education. that's what we all have to be addressing. lot of young people have compiled extraordinary debt, come out of college with a degree in physical education or math times two. >> irish dance studies. >> what do they get for that? i think we have to have a complete reevaluation of how we prepare this next generation for the realities of the world that they're about to inherit. you're seeing a lot of effort now going into community

colleges for example. not everyone is destined to go to a four-year institution. you go to a community college, get a skill set, go to work in the modern workplace. that makes a lot of sense to me. they're moving home a lot of them because they can trust their family. they can't trust institutions, they can't trust the world that took their parents' jobs away from them or put them on furlough or the banks that told them this is a great deal on a house and within two years that house was underwater. i think it's the wary generation at this time and with good reason. i'm making a commencement address at loyola over the weekend and said i don't know why you would ask us to give you advice. in the last ten years we've given you the two longest wars in our nation's history, the greatest recession since the great depression, the political culture now is a food fight really symbolic of "animal house" the great film with john belushi, pizza stained walls and people yelling at each other and not a lot of things advancing. why shouldn't they retreat to

the comfort of their homes saying i'm going to take my time here. >> from your book you did in "the greatest generation" something about the g.i. bill, could you do some sort of variation of that, because there are so many out of work young kids, is there some sort of way, you saw what senator warren was doing with student loans is there a way to fast track kids who are smart wanting to do something to get that technical degree? >> actually i've been going around the country talking about the brokaw plan for new public services. six public service academies across america and the fellowships are public/private. for example a johnson & johnson fellow in medicine could be everything from a nurse practitioner to a technologist to an advanced degree in infectious diseases, so it's a win for the corporations, it's a win for the country. it gives young people a connection to the country that they're doing something and they get a skill set after four years in the field domestically or internationally or whatever the number happens to be, they did

back to the home office, have two years to prove themselves up. if it doesn't work out they move on to something else. i think we have to change the formula. >> sam, you're a member of the milennial generation. >> i think so. i think i make the cutoff. >> as am i. these are remarkably insightful ideas. >> tom you're in the milennial generation, too, right? >> i am, i am, divided by four. >> they all seem to run into huge political opposition. it's difficult to get these through. it seems a good idea but then it comes into the cost factor. >> yes, and since i am now a member of the me, me, me generation, i'm going to tell a story about an article i wrote which gets to your point. you talk about a g.i. bill. we did a piece on how sequestration and budget cuts in general have taken down research and development money, federal money way below common trends. there's about a $9 billion cut across the board because of

sequestration. we interviewed a researcher at a prominent state school, i can't name the school because she didn't want her identity revealed, spent 11 years in academia getting this degree, did her chemistry research project for a year, the project lost money. she had to find work. she could not get work because she had a ph.d. on her resume, she had to take the ph.d. off her resume, within a week she got a job as a secretary at an auto parts store. she likes the job, but this is a microcosm of what's going on here, people accumulating education, getting these advanced degrees and entering a labor market that's hurt by a lack of government investment, a lack of business activity and having nowhere to go. >> it's almost this permanent intern class. i have friends that have advanced degrees who are struggling to get an internship and once they get that, they stay in this unpaid internship for a few years. it's amazing. >> that's right, some of these internships are unpaid, people look at them as a way to maybe move up in a company, but

they're also usually very low paying jobs but the idea is you can hang on. i do think one of the questions is what does this mean in the political system. here we have had a generation that very much look to obama as somebody who was going to make a lot of change in d.c.. that hasn't really happened for all sorts of reasons. does this mean this new generation, maybe they'll look to somebody like warren as somebody who could have a chance in 2016, but does it also mean is there a third party movement out there where they think this political class is in place so far hasn't served them right. >> go ahead. he'll have the final word. >> be careful. >> you'll have to bring a note from home. >> i was just going to say that this generation does not have a lot of political class consciousness. there are issues like gay marriage where they've totally changed the landscape, where it's almost universal support for gay rights in a sense that from incomprehension of anything

else totally transformed that issue but around the huge wealth transfers from young to old that are like that of the traditional meat and potatoes of class warfare, the milennials need to step up. they elected obama who in his signature health care plan a huge transfer of wealth, if it works, he hopes it will work, from healthy young people to older people who need end of life care. that's like a core part of the plan, that's why they're scrambling to get the young people to buy into the plan. >> and lastly, on that point, he sort of made that play i think with looking at entitlement reform as a play to younger voters you don't want to keep on supporting the older ones because they're the future. what do we need to do in the milennial generation, tom, do we have an aarp for young people, do we need to somehow mask our political power? >> they have their own organization, they have the strongest social network i have ever seen and that's all on the internet. they share everything. they share ideas. they share aspirations. they share where they're going to meet for whatever they're

going to do, they share, for example, jobs. i found a job something you might want to take a look at. big part of what we're going to see from them is that they're going to hang back for a while in the valleys we all talk about, you got to get that job, got to get a house, got to have a two-car garage and send your kids to college. wait a minute, i'm going to take my time and figure out what works for me. we are in a transformative time in life not just in this country but around the world. lot of it has to do with technology. they're growing up at a time when we saw again in boston last week islamic rage has not been extinguished. we don't have a grip on that yet and it's going to change their lives here and where they go to public places and what they think about what the world is all about so they're in transition. we ought to give them a little bit of lead time and see what their ideas are. it's still the generation that's teaching their parents how to drive the new technology. >> the new technology we learn about politics through cat

pictures on the internet thanks to ben smith. tom brokaw thank you for joining us and the students in loyola will have a treat there. we are getting new information on benghazi, a live update next, do not go anywhere. a

. developing now, nbc news has just learned new information on the benghazi and how the talking points were crafted by the administration. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell is following this from washington. kelly a lot of moving parts today. what did we find out? >> so many moving parts, to bring people up to speed we know the house speaker is asking the white house to make public some of these e-mails. what happened is the white house ogreed to provide congress about 96 e-mails that deal with how the talking points were created prior to ambassador susan rice going on the sunday morning

shows talking about the benghazi attack where she referred to a spontaneous demonstration and all that became so politically toxic. there are a number of house members and key staffers who were able to personally review the e-mail, but were not able to make any copies or anything like that, which is why the house speaker would like to see these made public. they give us a new window into that process, over about a 24-hour period, 12 iterations of the talking points were processed. some of that, minor word changes, moving a sentence here and there but in the big picture there was a substantial change from the original draft which included the administration through the central intelligence agency saying it was certain it had been a terrorist attack. in addition it had talked about the cairo issues, there were those other protests at other embassies, namely cairo, and it went into a much broader detail. then that information was passed through an inner agency process where a lot of officials in key departments had a chance to look

at it and comment, and what we now know is that one of the senior state department officials, victoria nuland, raised some concerns and we have quotes, this is quotes that have been determined by our sources who reviewed the e-mails we dot no have possession of the e-mails. part of what we know when the reference is made in the talking points to an al qaeda linked group, she says, "why would we want the hill fingering al sharia if we aren't doing that ourselves until we have an investigation result. this could be used by members to beat the state department to not paying attention to agency warnings so why would we want to feed that either? concerned." we learned after that there were other discussions and changes were made. ultimately a top white house official, ben rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, also weighed in and expressed concern that all of the concerns needed to be looked at. we have information that he participated in at least one

e-mail where he writes, let's get the right page, pardon me. >> no worries, breaking news. >> yes, thank you. "we want to take into account every department's equities including those in the state department. we don't want to undermine the investigation so given all that we're going to work this through in the morning in a deputy's meeting." sources say what that indicates is instead of sorting this out through e-mail they did so in a personal meeting. another e-mail that contains a sort of an attempt to try to assuage the concerns of victoria nuland. they were told the number two at the cia mike morell was doing handwritten notes and there were further discussions from the national security council and the white house, the state department and the cia. >> so kelly, to ask you here then to sort of reset this for everybody.

>> sure. >> we have two hours, the talking points were changed 12 times. this is something that, a, obviously house republicans are going to want to get to the bottom of and hammer the administration on but this is sort of admitting here then that we had a real change of policy from what we heard originally from susan rice on the sunday morning show when she went on. >> some of it is a window into the process and normally this would fall under executive privilege. any president would say you don't need to have this, which is why this was a real opportunity for the white house to try to negotiate with congress. they provided these with the express promise from congress they would not block the nomination. the points are interesting, many were not substantive but there was a big change between talking point version number one and 12. the biggest difference is they became shorter deferences to a

specific knowledge of terror attack was removed, references to other warnings that had been given, references to i believe five prior attacks on foreign installations in libya, all of that had been spelled out in the original version and much of that was not in the final version. let me just add this. at the end of this whole two-day chain, general petraeus. >> what do we know about that? >> he was then cia director, he was not participating in the back and forth but a top aide to petraeus sent him a note saying we worked through d.c. this morning. these are now for final approval, jake forced strong concerns with the original text. jake, referring to jake sullivan of the state department. >> right. >> petraeus then responds and says these will not respond to what rupersberger asked for and i'd just as soon not use them. the cia director saying i would just as soon not use them. they won't let us add the cairo

warning. it's their call, national security staff's call. >> this is quite a window into what usually is a hush-hush process about how to deal with these types of attacks and the spin that irrevocably comes afterwards. kelly o'donnell thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. thank you for doing a lot on the run. >> a lot of detail i didn't mean to hit you with a firehose of info but we're working it out. >> i want to go to the panel real quick. politically this is not good for the white house right now. does it stick? >> sure, they look terrible. there have been comparisons to watergate. they did not try to kill people, get their staff killed. this was them trying to save face after something terrible had happened and try to prevent what looks like accurate perception that they had not been careful enough in benghazi, they had been sloppy about security and ignored warnings. as you read that, it sounds like the state department is very concerned about this. at one point reportedly the

state department official nuland says the leadership of the building is worried about this. the white house deferring to them. >> does this become an election politics thing, so obviously you talk about the connection to hillary clinton which the gop has been trying to push forward, but also the issue of the president trying to sit on this because the election was only a few weeks away when this attack occurred. >> sure, it becomes an election issue, it becomes a 2014 issue, becomes a 2016 issue t becomes a potential should i say that word that starts with "i" the three-syllable word. >> say it. >> you know the word, it becomes a potential impeachment issue as long as the republicans are in control of the house. >> for clinton it looks clintonian. it reminds you of that era of politics and the secrecy and the slippery things that came out of that administration and also i think reminds us that there is only one person at the far right

wing hates more than obama and that's hillary clinton. if she is somewhere sort of figuring out whether or not she wants to run for president this is what she -- >> this is certainly to put it in a political offense will be the super pack ads in iowa about this story. will 38 times be the charm for the gop on repealing health care? we'll discuss that ahead. which is why he's investing in his heart health by eating kellogg's raisin bran®. good morning dad. hi, sweetie. [ male announcer ] here's another eye opener. not only is kellogg's raisin bran® heart healthy it's a delicious source of potassium. ♪ mom make you eat that? i happen to like raisins. now that's what i'm talkin' about. [ male announcer ] invest in your heart health with kellogg's raisin bran®. constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't.

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>> if you thought the fight over health care was over, think again as more provisions of the affordable care act are set to go into effect this fall the political debate over president obama's signature first term achievement is entering round two. this week eric cantor announced republicans scheduled another vote to repeal the law next week, the 38th time since its passage in 2010. back in november john boehner admitted obama care was the law of the land but yesterday he explained the rationale behind another repeal vote. >> the law should be repealed because it's increasing the cost of health care, it's reducing access to quality health care. i believe at the core of who i am and i'm going to do everything i can to make sure that we don't wreck the best health care delivery system the world has ever known. we've got 70 new members that have not had the opportunity to vote on the president's health care law. frankly, they've been asking for an opportunity to vote on it and

we're going to give it to them. >> that drew a predictable response from democrats who noted that beating a dead horse is not the best use of congressional time. >> this is like the 40th time they will do it, isn't it, 38, 39, 40, 41. i don't know what the clamor is. it seems like a week doesn't go by some version of it isn't there. >> the white house was similarly indignant with jay carney telling reporters "the fact that republicans have continued to push for the repeal of the affordable care act demonstrates how out of touch they are with the american people, who are tired of efforts by republicans to refight the political battles of the past." like it or not the debate is being relitigated and the conscious of the administrative pitfalls in implementing the law and facing head winds in public opinion the white house is gearing up to fight. this afternoon president obama will deliver a statement on the impact of the law in advance of mother's day, surrounded by women and families who benefited from its passage and also using commencement speeches by key

cabinet members to tout the positive effects of the law to young adults, with commencement speeches, pr blitzes and repeal votes, expect continued debate about a law that is anything but settled. woo! >> wow, that's a lot. sam stein, i'm a freshman republican in the house of representatives. is this my initiation process? to have a vote on the repeal of health care? >> don't you want it to be, even if you're a freshman. it used to be repeal and replace, they were tied together. they tried to do a replacement thing and it was high risk pools and i could be wrong, they took money for preventative medicine that was passed into the law and used it for that and they couldn't get it to a vote and all that says is that there is no alternative plan here and i think they would be more effective in doing what they're doing if they had an alternative plan. instead they go back to this well it's looking, i know i understand the health care law is not popular and this may be the easy politics for them, but

it doesn't seem like serious politics. >> it's interesting you made that point about the health care law not being popular. kaiser had an interesting poll which said 42% of the american public are unsure that it's the law of the land and 49% don't understand how it will impact their family. nia, that's tough news from the white house that we are so far into this, it is the law of the land after the supreme court but part of the reason why this is still line of attack is because of poll numbers like that, the white house has not defined what this is and what it means. >> that's right and that was their problem from the very beginning, are you in the case for health care, was it an economic one, was it about just the morality of wanting to cover people. obama has been on the offense on this. it hasn't really worked. you saw him in that press conference sort of say oh, there's nothing to see here with health care. it will be fine t will be implemented, 85% of folks you've already seep the impacts of it. i think what helps the

republicans' case at this point, you have prominent democrats coming out and saying it's going to be a train wreck, angus came out and said it's going to be a problem, harry reid as well so they've got to figure this out but it's clear the republicans want to make this an issue in 2014 and 2016. >> if several states set up the health insurance exchanges. what i understand in terms of the politics, could you see the gop do this, we'll see it definitely in 2014, move it to 2016 and have that romneyesque line of attack, when i become a republican president in 2017 in january i'm going to order an executive order all the states saying you can repeal it if you want. is it still a possibility? >> sure, the exact same thing is possible. the only thing that might change that i think is, and this is a substantive fact about the bill, that again, no american knows, apparently it is helping health care costs go down a bit. health care costs are going down in this country for the first time in many, many years, for the first time really in the

modern history of this country. it's not clear how much you can assign that reduction to the affordable care act but you can assign some to it and i don't think obama and his people in his administration have done a good job at all of explaining that yet and maybe that's what they're going to do at commencement speeches. >> even with the obstacles put in place by some republicans in different state houses by 2016 you'll have millions of additional people covered on medicaid expansion or through the exchanges, a lot of the provisions like no discrimination against people with preexisting conditions, fully instituted, to repeal that is a lot harder than to repeal the concept of that. >> that's why republicans felt a need to extend the benefit. you can't ever take it away. in effect you extend it to a lot of republican voters, a lot of people in republican states, a lot of older people in particular. >> that being said when you do that extension the fact there's not been a clear line of explanation from the white house about what exactly, it's i goin effects on different people, if you don't have health care, you

have to buy it, life could be more expensive but if i have a preexisting condition -- >> it's amazing the gop in 2013 still thinks a repeal vote is a good way to go, that it fires up the base and -- >> congressional time is at a premium, like a valuable resource? >> there have been reports saying these votes waste $50 million. >> it's about the base and who votes in off-year elections and there the republicans are hoping for an electorate in 2014 like the electorate in 2010. it reminds us that one of the democrats' big jobs is to change that. >> when boehner made the comment it was law of the land there was intense backlash almost instantaneously against him for saying that. i think he is protective of the whole idea as well. >> eric cantor tried to tinker with the bill. >> he didn't even ask mccarthy if he had the votes. >> and ted cruz campaigned against it, killed the thing. it's really --

>> it will be a gop primary iss issue. >> definitely. they're hoping for a replay of 2010. this got their folks out there in 2010 i think, democrats have a real uphill battle trying to take the house back and even hold onto the senate. >> and likely we have, we're going to talk about the chance the democrats have to take back the house. after the break if you're wondering how the house became to look like this, you have to look no further than the congressional district map, gerrymandering and what it means for 2014, this is my pet issue, i'm so fired up the team let me do it, gerrymandering, it's sexy, it's hot, it's neat. check it out. to the cleaning games. let's get a recap, merv. [ merv ] thanks, other merv. mr. clean magic eraser extra power was three times faster on permanent marker. elsewhere against dirt, it was a sweep, with scuffed sports equipment... had it coming. grungy phones... oh! super dirty! and grimy car rims... wow! that really works! ...all taking losses. it looks like mr. clean has won everything. the cleaning games are finished?

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much of the partisan gridlock in washington has been blamed on gerrymandering. we saw the process in south carolina with the triumphant return of mark sanford. sanford still won convincingly in a district won by mitt romney by 18 points. one only needs to look at the maps themselves to see how

rigged the incumbent's favor the process has become. process employed by both political parties. why else would a district look like this in south carolina it's far from the most egregious example. how about north carolina 12 or ohio 9 or the best of all-time, maryland's third congressional district which you see goes from the chesapeake mountains north of pikesville. this is to me ladies and gentlemen on the panel the most significant issue that were hassers the democratic process in the united states that is really the cause of all the gridlock, that people do not know about, and the parties have jammed through on the citizenry in a way which would obviously make the founding fathers quite displeased. >> it started back in the 1990s. i remember when it started, i did my first piece about a houston district in 1992 that used the houston ship channel to join one piece of land to

another. it started with technology and the advent of computers and they could trade this census district for that one because there were 75 republicans in this census district and 69 democrats in this census district and in each state capital they would swap that way and make the districts that suited the incumbents. >> a by-product of the 2010 elections it set the republicans next for the house in the next decade. "national journal" redistricting was a blessing for us who runs the committee to get republicans lected to the house. regardless of how low they're polling, things will be okay for house republicans." there's literally 45 seats that can be competitive, sam, and it's very tough for mrs. pelosi to become speaker pelosi. >> it extends to the policy arena where immigration reform will have a lot of difficulty

getting through the house of representatives because of this. gun policy hadn't even made it through the senate, would have had an incredibly uphill battle in the house and it's because the only thing that a lot of these members have to fear is not a general election but getting primaried by someone from the side of your party. >> and in an entitlement reform would do the same system to liberals as well. it kills the process. >> it kills the process because there's absolutely no overlap between folks in these gop districts and what obama wants to do. i think there are only 17 or so or 15 or so districts where obama won where a republican sits. that's why you have this log jam in congress. there's no inis enive for house democrats to play with obama, to play with the democrats at all. >> last word, ben smith? >> you have crossed party alliances, too, particularly african-american democrats. >> in the states they keep this the way it is. republicans and democrats at the state level do this together.

>> it's helping certain people in certain states. it's not just the parties but certainly moderates get shut out. >> ladies and gentlemen, some people are passionate about guns, immigration, freedom. i'm passionate about gerrymandering. thank you. that's all for "now." joanne reed will be here on monday, and until then you can follow alex @nowwithalex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. couple areas of severe weather, up across the great lakes, moving into ohio and pennsylvania this afternoon, and also earlier today down through louisiana, moving into mississippi we could see some large hail and gusty winds out of both of those rounds of

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reports" a new chapter in manhattan, this morning on "today" with matt lauer. the freedom tower stabs high above manhattan blocks from ground zero. in cleveland charges, confessions, about you no remorse. the man at the center of the house of horrors could face the death penalty. on capitol hill calls for hillary clinton to return to answer more questions about benghazi. >> you have four dead americans here. i don't expect the president to be impeached. i don't expect that, but i do expect the truth to come out. >> in bangladesh an incredible tale of survival 17 days after the garment factory collapse a woman is found alive. at arlington national cemetery britain's prince harry who served in afghanistan pays tribute to america's fallen. good day, i'm andrea mitchell

live from washington. ohio authorities will throw everything they've got at cleveland kidnapping suspect ariel castro. he could face the death penalty. let's get right to nbc's craig melvin. craig, you've got breaking news now for us, the dna testing? >> reporter: we found out a short time ago that the dna testing on 52-year-old ariel castro has been completed, based on the results we can confirm according to police that castro is the father of that 6-year-old girl who was born in the house just behind me. amanda berry's daughter. they also took castro's dna and they compared that dna to other missing persons cases in ohio. we can t