week by bringing in their all-time favorite bogey man -- obama care. last night not 37th time, the house voted to repeal obama care. an exercise in futility that, as one wonk explains, gop leadership feels is something every house member should get to do at least once. it was a rite of passage. obama care has long been the pinata that republicans continue to blindly whack away at. but this week's tie-in to the irs, it would seem as if the pinata had exploded and rained down republican candy. >> many people have said that obama care is here to stay. we are here as the people's representatives, as real people from, across the united states to say -- this issue is now revived. it is back on the table. >> standing aside a towering stack of dreaded obama care regulation, house speaker john boehner pummeled the president. >> nothing dissolves the bonds

between the people and their government like the arrogance of power here in washington. that's what the american people are seeing today from the obama administration. remarkable arrogance. >> indeed, the american people are seeing remarkable arrogance, although whether the remarkable arrogance is coming from the white house or congress is up for debate. asked if the gop dpren city over the scandals were distracting from you know, actually governing, speaker boehner immediately put that issue to rest. >> that's why -- i continue to talk about jobs. it's our number one focus. >> just to clarify, jobs remain the republican party's number one focus. and why would anybody think otherwise? >> there isn't a weekend that hasn't gone by that someone says to me, michelle, what in the world are you all waiting for in congress? why aren't you impeaching the president? >> it is a malignant tumor metastasizing on american

liberty. >> someone needs to be held responsible. someone needs to be imprisoned. someone needs to be prosecuted. >> i rise with the chorus of others in -- this whole notion of, repealing obama care. >> this is run-away government at its worst. who knows who they'll target next. >> jobs is our primary focus. but while we're focused on that, we're also focused on holding this administration accountable. our committees are working overtime to uncover the truth about what happened in libya. and they're trying to get to the bottom of what happened in the irs scandal. >> one person actually talking about jobs today is the president, who left for baltimore for the second stop on his middle class jobs and opportunity tour. taking a brief break from their unrelenting focus on job creation, members of the house ways and means committee took several hours to grill the soon-to-be departing acting irs

commissioner, steven miller. >> when asked the truth and you know the truth and you have a legal responsibility to inform others of the truth, but you don't share that truth, what is that called? >> i always answer questions truthfully, mr. camp. >> i would hope that you would be willing to submit your emails, phone records, any personal meetings that you had, in the last four years. >> obviously we'll have to talk about that. >> how can we conclude that you did not mislead this committee? >> i did not mislead this committee. i stand by my answer. >> what day did the conversation took place? >> i've got to look back at my notes on that. >> you've got notes? >> i would have to try to find them. >> why did you say you had notes, if you did not have notes? >> sir, please. >> please, indeed. white house correspondent for the the "huffington post" and msnbc contributor, sam stein. >> i have notes. >> i love it. staff writer and bloomberg "business week" host of her show on msnbc, melissa harris-perry. and editor in chief of buzzfeed,

ben smith, who it must be noted, sam stein drew this to my attention yesterday, according to the "jerusalem post" ben smith is the 28th most important jew in the world. >> thanks for mentioning that on air. >> you're so welcome, it's a big title and congratulations. >> sam was actually 51. >> just saying. >> we'll get into the actual rankings. melissa i want to go to you first on this. i feel like -- there are some things that we should be talking about. including 501(c)4s, our tax code, embassy security, what it means to be a diplomat. intelligence-gathering. but we're actually kind of not really talking about any of that during the scandal week and i read "the new york times" editorial board's assessment of the situation. scandal machine, whatever cranky point republicans had been making against president obama for the last five years, dishonesty, socialism, jack-booted tyranny. they somehow found these incidents were actually the proof they had been seeking, no

matter how inflated or distorted. your thoughts? >> so remember, what we are always heading up to is whatever the next election cycle is. so in a presidential election cycle, we need big ideas, an alternate plan, all of that. all you need to do in a mid-term election cycle if you're republicans to hold on and extend the lead in the house is to shrink and polarize the electorate. the only thing you have to do with that is just to make people disgusted by government. it doesn't matter the content of that disgust. it doesn't particularly matter if it's directed towards the white house or if it's directed at congress itself. if people feel like what is this, this is stupid, why is my government doing this? i hate government. then you have a smaller and smaller group who turn out for these mid terms and the smaller the group that turns out for mid terms, the better off it is for republicans. historically the smaller the electora electorate, the more republicans are elected to the house. >> i thought it was amazing, cue the obama care legislation. why? because everybody needs to take part in this yearly rite or

biannual rite of passage. whereby we do this thing and nothing actually happened. >> it's like spring cleaning. >> like switching out the sweat ars, time to put the tank tops in. >> what was the question? >> just to melissa's point, this is all -- i think i don't want to undermine the fact that there are some issues, that we should be thinking and talking about. but we're not actually having that conversation. >> sure, i actually think the irs issue, let's get rid of "scandal," it is an issue. they should not be providing filters to the groups. i think the subpoenaing of the a.p. records is a big issue and it gets to the culture of the obama administration, specifically the department of justice, over how they view the source reporter relationship. i think what the week is showing is that we've been too eager to jump before waiting for facts. i think that full disclosure, my wife works for the white house,

the benghazi issue has been a case in point in which we all jumped at an email that we thought was real. it turned out not to be real. it behooves us on some occasions to step back and let the facts come out before we start making jumgts. >> why was the email -- we're learning that republicans -- >> yesterday it was reported that the head of the obama care agency at the irs was a woman who was head of the tax-exempt group. it turns out it's more complex. she left in december 2010. her supervisor, her subordinate only found out about the issue six months after she had left to take over obama care. maybe she should have known the entire time. but when the facts come out, they make the issues much more complicated at first blush. what we should learn is that we cannot just jump in instantly without getting all the facts out there. >> i would also say i mean i think you are starting to see elizabeth, some of the more sage

minds in the republican party, say we have got to make this less transparently partisan. less transparently political, especially on benghazi. charles krauthammer was saying this the other day and now has written it. notes to gop rebenghazi, stop calling it watergate, iran-contra, bigger than watergate, it will diminish the scandal if it doesn't meet the presidency-breaking stand rds. third focusing on the political effects plays into the hands of democrats desperately claiming that this is partisan politics. >> we saw the rnc say we shouldn't impeach was too strong a word. people should be careful with using the term impeach. we've heard the term impeach by many members of congress. someone needs to go to jail. i get asked every week by michele bachmann, why aren't you impeaching the president.

thank you, michele bachmann. >> in terms of benghazi specifically, ben, it will be interesting to see how republicans and in specific, darrell issa plays this one. we know some of this as melissa points out, is about 2014. and some of this is about 2016. specifically on benghazi, the tentacle reach towards hillary would seem to be really driven by a desire to not quash her prospects in 2016. but make them more complicated. and today politico weighs in, a democratic strategist knowledgeable about administration thinking maintains that calling clinton back to a hearing would be seen as extreme and unprecedented and quite a risky proposition for house republicans. congress had her an entire day in january and she kicked their a, letter, letter. >> it's on the screen. >> not to this important person. if she performed that well a second time. they could lose the issue permanently. do you think they're going to

get her entangled in this? >> i think it's one of the reasons they're so interested. in all of these cases we shouldn't underestimate how much this is the obama administration's fault. jay carney said one word changed. a very narrow semantic claim. the irs, if we understood -- >> wait, let's stop with the benghazi thing. i think the editing of the emails -- it was undersold. >> it was obviously a communication staffs were deeply involved in this conversation about how to play it it was not the thing that romney claimed, which was covering up terrorism. which was the initial claim. that was false, there with a a traditional, but real bureaucratic spat. >> the turf war between the c.i.a. and the state department an important thing? do we need to be having hearings about it? do we need to have topical issues focused on this, when we should be asking bigger questions about benghazi? >> the state department is spending tons of time reviewing security. it seems that the centrality of

the spokespeople -- >> when you read that 100-some odd pages of the emails, the main emotion i kept having was i've done this in committee work before, right? it feems like the email when is you're trying to plan some sort of event. >> it's like sam stein, you've got to go through 100 emails. >> it's the kind of thing that before email changes would have just happened in person and you would have worked it out. it does feel like yes, they are asking some substantive questions. but it feels like somehow this long chain of emails becomes representative of something that was being hidden by, and it just feelts like no, haven't you guys ever been part of -- >> this is the aftermath of a leng legitimately horrible disaster and these guys were pointing fingers at one another and trying to make sure that when the white house said something, it would point fingers at the other agency. >> my point is not to say we shouldn't, we have to pause, because someone actually

suffered because of this whole saga. that was susan rice, who seems like she had nothing to do with any of this. was handed talking points after they were fixed to everyone's delight. went out on the sunday shows. and for that, she did not get a promotion to the secretary of state job. and it's just like, if we had paused a little bit before we started the indignation over what we thought had happened. >> or if the obama administration had released these emails. >> and my wife will comment on me for saying this, but they should have been more transparent. there is a role for reporters and observers to say maybe we should wait and see before we jump to these conclusions. >> what about the fundamental question, should the public have known there was potential involvement of al qaeda in this attack? should we have known that? at the very beginning? >> a great question. >> do you think we should have known? >> but the emailing of the benghazi situation, i think you could say, a, they should have been transparent, there should have been a clearer explanation

from the beginning. yesterday they released a memo on funding embassy security. there's no reason they couldn't have gone out immediately in the wake. i know there are diplomats who would say it's not about having more protection around our diplomatic corps. but these concrete actions or statements, you know, it's eight months later. the reason we're talking about this now is because republicans and darrell issa had been beating the drum on this relentlessly since it happened. there's a question as to why the white house wasn't more ahead of this eight months ago. >> the only reason we know this happened is because darrell issa was beating the drum. otherwise, we wouldn't know. >> there's a weird kind of thing that happens with the question of transparency with the obama administration. and i suppose what i would say is on the one hand, i think it's not a straightforward as it appears to be in the sense that i do think that they have been not particularly good communicators, they haven't done a very good job on everything from branding the affordable care act on forward, right? but there's also this way in

which under constant attack, they then begin to behave like people who are under siege and they make bad choices because they seem to be behaving like people who are under siege. but they are after all under siege in the sort of partisan space where within three weeks of the president's initial inauguration, people were beginning to call in these tea party rally for his impeachment. three weeks into -- >> if a reporter had published those 100 pages of emails, the department of justice may have subpoenaed -- >> i think the doj thing is legitimate. but on the question of, i think this is a point where the irs thing has some pieces in it. the benghazi thing has pieces within it. but that's not what's being sold within the discourse of why americans should be mad with the obama administration. >> i'll just say the fact that the house republicans have voted to repeal obama care for the 37th time at the same time they passed a budget that garners a huge amount of savings from

obama care is an exercise in not only futility, but hypocrisy and someone needed to say that before we went to break and it fell to me. okay, after the commercial, while the irs officials face grilling on capitol hill, members of congress may also want to consider holding hearings on the tax-exempt so-called social welfare groups that inspired this entire mess. "the new york times" nick confosori gives us the 4-1-1 on 501(c)4s, a lot of digit and numbers next on "now." we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age.

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which opened the floodgates for corporate cash into elections, applications for 501(c)4 status have skyrocketed. between 2008 and 2012, the number of applications has more than doubled. these organizations on both sides of the aisle have worked the system. unquestionable political groups. like karl rove's american crossroads and priorities usa, a group with close ties to president obama call themselves social welfare groups and perhaps they are social welfare groups, if your definition of social welfare includes drowning elections in cash. in 2012, 501(c)4s, poured $332 million into political campaigns. 8 4% of the money came from conservative groups. jeffrey tuben argues that this, the rise of dark money is the real scandal here. toobin writes in the "new yorker" is that 501(c)4 groups

have been engaged in political activity in such a sustained and open way, campaign finance operates by shaky or nonexistent rules. a handful of irs employees saw this and tried in a small way to impose some sense, small sense of order for that they will likely be ushered into bureaucratic oblivion. at least some lawmakers are recognizing campaign finance as the true controversy. during the house hearing this morning, representative charlie rangel criticized steven miller, the departing irs acting commissioner for not calling out 501(c)4 tax abuse earlier. >> you should have wanted to look at this earlier before what, what my friends call a scandal. i mean this is wrong to abuse the tax system, this screams out for tax reform, does it not? >> i think it's an area ripe for redefinition and reform, yes, sir. >> it is not the first time that politicians recognized corruption in the tax code.

>> there are restrictions now on the kinds of activities that for example 501(c)3 and(c)4 organizations can engage in. that are being abused not just by people on the right. but most of the so-called charitable organizations who are involved in political activity in this country, who are in my judgment involved in arguable violations of the tax-free stats and violation of campaign laws happen to be groups on the left. >> whether another 26 years will pass before the issue is taken up again is anybody's guess, joining us now is "new york times" political reporter nick confosori. you're the ace reporter on the subject of 501(c)4s. what is the true scandal here, the more we like at 501(c)4s have been doing. and how they get tax exemptions,

the more it is clear at least to me that that's the real scandal. the stuff that's happening legally. not the stuff that's happening illegally is the stuff we should be focused on. >> first of all i'm happy to share my arcane knowledge with you on this section of the tax code. as you point out, there's been a debate for some time now about these large (c)4 groups, not the mom-and-pop groups, but the big groups spending hundreds of millions of dollars on political ads. you've got to separate these two things. the people in cincinnati are in charge of approving the tax status of all different kinds of groups. the question of whether to look more closely at ha these big groups are doing lies somewhere else. so what's interesting here is we're not really sure what if anything the irs has been doing about those big groups. you know for all we know, because audits take place in secret. and they can take six years. for all we know, there is no investigation that's going on. but one way in which it is relevant would happen in

cincinnati, is it's very clear that even internally at the front line, people working on these applications at the irs in cincinnati didn't really understand the rules about what (c)4s are allowed and disallowed from doing in elections. so if the agency doesn't even understand its own rules on this, how can anybody else? >> and it brings to the fore the question of what is social welfare, right? i mean i have, i think a lot of people have a hard time understanding crossroads and priorities usa to be social welfare groups. they would seem to be decidedly political groups. and i wonder how much that's a question that the irs can sort of determine an answer on. >> you have to realize is that in tax terms, you know, social welfare just means that you're not promoting a specific person's interests. or a certain group's interests. you're trying to provide benefits that would apply to lots of different kinds of people. and that can be conservative or

liberal. now let's take crossroads gps. if all crossroads gps did was spend money to lobby on taxes for example, and it was pretty clear that they were lobbying on taxes and they ran some issue ads during you know, sort of on the hill. that would fall for the most part under what (c)4s are allowed to do the place where it gets very confusing is when those issue ads edge over into election season. and when it begins to seem that some of these groups really exist just to be sort of adjuncts to the major parties with their ad campaigns against candidates in election years. >> i want to open this up to our panel here in new york. elizabeth, i mean one of the things, it's a, always entertaining to play vintage clips of mitch mcconnell. just the, just to see him back in the days. probably worth devoting a segment to. but the idea of tax reform and campaign finance reform is like,

it's cyclical, not as cyclical as the repeal of obama care. but something that is bandied about from time to time and little is done on it. the president came into office sort of presumably positioned as someone who wanted to take up the issue of campaign finance reform and has dot the very opposite. he's sort of opened, ofa in a lost people's minds, the next step in adult rating the political process. in terms ever having money involved in elections. i guess i wonder what your prognosis is for meaningful reform around any one of those issues. >> it's a great question. the definitions obviously are completely confusing. look at what a (c)4 is, a group that's supposed to be primarily engaged in social welfare. supposed to have limited political activity. the rule that 49% of their expenses can be on politics and the rest has to be on social reform. try to take a bureaucrat in cincinnati, what are they going to be aweding the expenditures of the thousands of applications they're getting? they cannot do that.

there's no way that the system is set up, that anyone can enforce it and obama says that he's angry about this. and he is angry. but they were nowhere during the election cycle when tons of groups were getting tax-exempt status that probably were abusing the tax break. >> i wonder, on that practical level, sam, in terms of the folks that are on the front line of the controversy, right, as nick says, probably don't really even know how to interpret or let alone confer the 501(c)4 status. we know that the irs budget was cut by 17%. the groups are mushrooming up around. these are civil servants who clearly don't have the means by which to, i mean i'm not trying to excuse, the targeting of conservative groups. but the system, it is a systemic problem here. >> yes and he can't imagine they're going to get much more money after this tough to budget that in. but i think it goes back to what nick was saying, which is that these rules are very difficult to follow. so difficult in fact that people within the irs don't know how to

do it. and until we get some sort of clarity on that, i don't see how this improves at all. i know lawrence o'donnell has been hammering this point. but the whole notion of exclusivity and primary function of social welfare for these groups seems lie a key point. and if you set aside a rule that says you cannot do anything that is campaign-related but you can do as much issue advocacy as you want, that seems like a possible way to resolve this. but we're in such a toxic political climate, that nothing can get done. when charlie rangel is saying how could you abuse the code, you know you're in a weird place. >> i want to replay charlie rangel talking about the ethical problems of the tax code over and over and with underneath it your point about the hypocrisy of congress. are you kidding me? >> self-awareness. >> a little bit. on the hill. >> at least -- what is the nick, what is the prognosis for the 501(c)4 exemption or the political activities piece of

that getting changed back to where it was. saying if you're a social welfare organization you cannot engage in political activity. is that a likely change to result from the controversy? >> it could be, but here's the hard part. everyone involved in this is doing kind of a kabuki. everyone knows how the rules work to their benefit or detriment. republicans understand that without these groups and their spending advantage over the liberal versions of these groups, they would have a harder time holding on to the house, or achieving the senate. everyone knows this. it's not in their interests, really. you know, these kind of tea party groups got banged up. it doesn't affect the big players very much. it's the big spenders who have good lawyers who know how to apply for(c)4 status, who know how to stay ahead of the regulators, who matter in this debate and everyone knows what the game is. >> that is decidedly pessimistic prognosis. we will take it, though, my friend, the new york times, nick

confossore. thank you for your brilliant analysis. following a series of catastrophic accidents, dozens of retail companies have signed a pact to protect workplace safety overseas, will the agreement truly offset the dangers of cheap manufacturing? we'll discuss, just ahead. mine was earned in djibouti, africa. 2004. vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve military members, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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a day before the collapse, an inspection team asked the owner to keep the building closed after they aidentified cracks on the wall. despite this, workers were told to come their factories the next morning. hours later, the building collapsed. the search to find the bodies amid the rubble took nearly three weeks and the scene was so deadly, that the stench of decomposing bodies forced workers to conduct the search with masks and air fresheners, the garment work done in ranna plaza in bangladesh puts low-priced clothes on lots of americans' backs. it has the lowest minimum wage in the world. $37 a month. the "new yorker's" james zarwicki argues that western companies and consumers are the ones with blood on their hands, writing the problem isn't so much evil factory owners, is a system that's great at getting western consumers what they want, but leaves developing world workers toilg in misery. this time instead of going on with business as usual, the

world's leading apparel companies are signing on to a pact. h & m and zahra have committed money to help enforce safety standards and enforce factory inspections. but according to the "washington post" nearly all u.s. clothing chains citing the fear of litigation, declined to sign an international pact, potentially weakening what had been hailed as the best hope for bringing major reforms in low-wage factories in bangladesh. the gap, walmart, target and jcpenney have been pressured by labor groups, but have yet to sign. giving new meaning to american exceptionalism. american companies may want to increase profits and american citizens may enjoy your cheap t-shirts but when your labels have been found amid bodies that have been crushed to death we should save room in the profit margin for safety. we'll discuss more when scott nova from the workers rights

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what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all? that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. made with care, for you or your family. this morning, garment factories reopened in the capital city of bangladesh after three days of protests over working conditions and wages. last month, more than 1,000 workers died when a factory building collapsed, burying them in rubble. joining us from washington is executive director of the workers rights consortium, scott nova. scott, thanks for joining us. >> happy to be here. >> scott, what, let's talk first about this agreement around factory safety that a lot of companies have signed on, international companies. is it going to be effective? >> the critical thing to understand about this agreement, is it is not the usual promises from corporations. that they can easily break. as soon as the media focus shifts elsewhere. this is a binding contract. between major global apparel

retailers, and labor unions, that can be enforced in court, under which these brands and retailers must pay, to undertake the building renovations repairs and retro fitting necessary to transform these death trap factories in bangladesh into safe factories. >> what of the american buy-in? we talked earlier in the sort of like intro to the segment, that only two american companies have signed on, the other ones have sat on the sidelines due to fears over litigation. how much can we, how much can activists, how much can advocates or grassroots organizations help to change that position? >> well first of all, it's important to understand, litigation is what they claim to be concerned about. but that's not their real concern. their real concern of companies like gap and walmart is they want the right to break their promises, whenever it suits them to do so. they don't want to sign a billed binding enforceable agreement. h & m is a giant global retailer with stories all across the

united states. they're not worried about litigation. zara, the world's largest fashion retailer, they're not worried about litigation. the bottom line is gap and walmart don't want to make a meaningful commitment to pay what it takes to stop workers from dying in their factories in bangladesh and what's going to change that is tremendous grassroots pressure and i think that's exactly what these companies are going to see. scott, i want to open it up to our panel in new york. melissa, we talked about there are a host of issues that confront consumers. and there are a host of issues that affect american workers and we rarely talk about them. part of the reason we started talking about the bangladesh factory is a, because of the death toll. and b, the fact that there isn't a lot of attention paid to the after-effects, what can be done to prevent something like this from ever happening again. same with the factory explosion of west, texas. we were focused on boston, but there's a situation where 14 people died. there are regulations that can be put in place. and yet the conversation around

regulation, worker safety and the plight of the worker in america and abroad, gets no daylight. >> well the bangladesh story is a complicated one for americans who could potentially make a big difference by voting with our feet, right. american consumers could decide we don't want to support garments, we don't want to buy from companies that won't sign this the problem is american consumers who shop at low-cost retailers, especially places like walmart, are often american consumers who are themselves living in poverty within the context of the u.s. and often there's chances with there is no other available competitive retailer. particularly if you're looking at walmart and target being unwilling to sign it. if you're a low-income, low-wage worker in the u.s., the likelihood that you are then not going to buy products from wal mart and targets is extremely difficult. so the very group that needs to do the grassroots organizing here, in order to vote with our feet, are in the least capable position as consumers to do that kind of organizing. >> you know, scott, fazle

hassen abed, the founder of anti-poverty.org said i appreciate the unease a werner might feel knowing that the clothes on his or her back were stitched together by people working long hours in dangerous condition. but ceasing the purchase of bangladeshi-manufactured goods would not be the compassionate course of action. as low as the minimum wage is in bangladesh, $37 a month, if you look at the stats, the country's poverty rate has fallen to less than 40% from 70% since the late '70s. so clearly, the manufacturing sector is having some sort of positive effect in terms of lifting people out of poverty. >> well you know, no one is asking brands and retailers to stop producing apparel in bangladesh. they're being asked to produce it with a reasonable degree of attention to the safety of the workers who make the clothes. the cost of upgrading these factories in bangladesh and putting an end to these

horrendous disasters that have taken the lives of almost 2,000 workers in bangladesh, the cost will be less than 10 cents per garment to these brands and retailers. and you know, i understand consumers seek low prices, i don't think any consumer has ever called up gap or walmart and said i'd like you to shave ten cents off the cost of a shirt and i don't care if you have to kill people to do it. >> it's ten cents, you spent ten more cents on a piece of clothing in bangladesh. you could prevent disasters like the ones that just happened. >> the retailers have weathered over the years, these sort of protests against places like walmart and gap over working conditions overseas. light up and then i think they feel you know what, you wait a little while and go away. i'm curious why you think this one's going to be different. why they won't be able to wait you out this time. >> that's why this agreement is so important. you're keying on exactly the crucial dynamic. normally companies make promises in the glare of the media spotlight under public pressure

and quietly break them when the media and the public move on to other issues. in this case, these companies have now signed a binding enforceable contract that lasts for five years. that compels them to finance the upgrades necessary to make the factories fundamentally safe. the thing is, they can't walk away. it's a contract, it's enforceable in court. they're going to have to follow it. that's one of the reasons why it's been difficult to get some of these giant u.s. retailers to join. they want to reserve the right to make promises now, in the midst of a public relations crisis and brake them whenever it's convenient. this contract will prevent brands an retailers from doing that. >> elizabeth, you were talking in the break about the power of these companies to actually make a decision and change things, and i think it's heartening that some of them are taking up the mantle. the question is whether u.s. companies will follow suit. >> i think the six major retailer companies can influence the entire government of bangladesh. this is a government that's cracked down on unions and killed union activists, i think

there's a lot they can do. they also have very deep pockets. so i really wonder why they can't put you know, a couple 100 million dollars, i'm surprised that they wouldn't just agree to that i think it is the litigation. i think they don't want to get sued by human rights groups in u.s. courts. for if people die. in the future. >> there's obviously a cost benefit that's playing out here, right? and thus far the lack of attention on workers' rights and what happens in the manufacture of clothing globally has not been a great point of discussion. but the fact that this is happening, scott, i think is is a positive sign and obviously part of this is just keeping the pressure up. are there companies in particular before we let you go, that don't rely on unsafe working conditions, that deserve particular sort of accolades in respect to this issue? >> you know there aren't many. one we work with in the context of university logo apparel, is a terrific clothing brand called

altagrassia, made in a factory in the dominican republic. the workers have a union and a state-of-the-art safety plan. what we need is more factories and clothing lines like that. a lot fewer like gap and walmart. >> scott nova from the workers' rights consortium, thanks for your time. coming up nothing says gangsta like the stylings of a pair of tea party lawmakers. we'll profile their street cred just ahead.

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i didn't bring my shakespeare book. let me just begin by quoting a modern-day poet, his name is wiz kalifa, it's called "work hard play hard." >> senator marco rubio dropping some knowledge during rand paul's old timy filibuster. >> who let the dogs out, who, who? >> you can't play that one enough. now there's another florida governor vying to be the face of hip hop in the gop. >> public enemy "bring the noise" tupac is what it's i'm going to be listening to in my car. >> congressman trey raidle is not scared, saying he can go toe to toe with marco rubio old school on hip hop.

is this good news for the gop? >> just in part an indication of a simple reality. hip hop culture was not and really, passed its infancy was not black culture, it's youth culture. at a certain point, the fact is hip hop is 40 and so everybody who is 40 and in their 40s, it just is kind of the soundtrack of our youth, childhood, young adulthood. so on the one hand there does seem to be a little bit of weird pandering but i think it's in certain ways aauthentic. >> don't you think this is bart of the gop knows it has a problem with young people, i do think that young people still -- >> you can't fight it and so, their elders in the republican party were denouncing hip hop, but they were listening to it when they were kids growing up. >> you don't think this is at all a bid to just seem like the cooler -- >> marco rubio -- >> i'm not saying he doesn't know. >> but that's how it is in your 40s, right? >> lets not forget the rnc

prescription -- >> you thought that was great politics, with trey radle? >> it got him a lot of google hits. >> exactly. >> posturing, depending on what type of hip hop they choose, if it's the tribe and the roots, i would think that's legitimate. because that's what my white people listen to. >> i would think there are people of many colors that list ton jay-z and wiz kalifa. i'll leave our audience with this. of the music industry backers, the democrats, which is a president obama has jay-z, bruce springsteen, beyonce, stevie wonder, katy perry. >> mitt romney had kid rock, meat loaf and ted nugent. >> thank you, sam, elizabeth, melissa and ben, that's all for now, i'll see you monday, noon eastern, live from washington, d.c. until then, you can follow us on

twitter at "now" with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next.

right now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- on the griddle. the fired irs chief in the hot seat. over his agency's targeting of conservative political groups. as acting commissioner i wants to apologize on behalf of the internal revenue service for the mistakes we made and the poor service we provided. is an apology enough? congressional republicans want to know why steven miller did not disclose the targeting after being told of it last year. >> when asked the truth, and you know the truth and you have a legal responsibility to inform others of the truth, but you don't share that truth, what is that called? >> i always answer questions truthfully, mr. camp. >> you knew the targeting was taking place. you knew the terms tea party, patriots were being used. you just acknowledged a minute ago that they were outrageous and then when youe