right now on "andrea mitchell reports," with no solution in sight on day two of the shutdown, president obama has now summoned congressional leaders to the white house later today. with all the players finally face to face, will they start to compromise or keep playing the blame game? >> right now, republicans led by john boehner are the only thing standing between congress and compromise. >> majorly leader made it clear he's not interested in talking either. he shot down just about every attempt to engage in serious discussions with the house or anyone else for that matter. >> collision course with the debt ceiling looming. can they breakthrough the budget

battle before the fiscal cliff? and the closings are sparking protests and outrage. >> right now i'm terrified. i'm terrified. they had to live on what most of us work at and live on, they couldn't make it. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell in new york. it's day two of the government shutdown. so far party leaders are digging in their heels, but could they be about to break under the pressure? the president has called john boehner, nancy pelosi, mitch mcconnell and harry reid to the white house this afternoon. joining me mow for our daily fix, chris cillizza, and nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. kelly, first to you. what do you expect? are there any signs a all of

negotiating or of beginning to budge on this, especially if the white house is saying consistently that they are not going to change their position on obama care? >> well, ann dree yarks i think there are new activities, but does that mean there's any new real movement? that i don't see yet. i can tell you that senator harry reid has placed a phone call to speaker boehner followed up by a letter that i've got here on my ipad that begins with this sort of interesting political statement. this is reid to boehner. i hated the iraq war. i think i hated it as much as you hate the affordable care act. sort of setting the tone of they've both been in difficult positions politically in the past. now, reid goes on later in the letter to say to boehner, if you open the government, i will appoint the negotiators from the senate side to work with negotiators from your side to begin a bigger conversation about the long-term debt of the country and how to resoft some of these bigger issues. that is not a new position, but it's a new way of packaging this offer with the phone call, the

letter, prior to it the meeting at the white house today. what i get from republican sources is that there is not an expectation that the white house meeting is going to bring about any breakthroughs, but it is an opportunity for people to sit in the room, see where things are, and i'm still getting the indications from house sources that they expect this standoff will continue for a period of days. now, that does not mean that it automatically keeps rolling a few more weeks into the whole debt ceiling discussion. there might be some ways to reopen the government and begin the debt ceiling conversation, but one of the things to keep in mind is even if the house were to cave in a way and say, let's just open the lights and open the doors and vote for a spending measure that has nothing else attached to it, it's only a short time that less than two weeks period when they've got to negotiate again. so there is a bigger problem, a colliding of calendars in a way, so i think there are public movements happening, but i'm not certain they suggest any real solution yet.

andrea? >> chris, you've been doing your own web count. i think so far the last i checked with you, you had 14 house republicans willing to vote for a so-called clean continuing resolution. they only needed 17 to reach the magic number. where do you stand? >> there are three leaning that way, andrea. you know, i'm skeptical, i would say, about the white house meeting at least moving any numbers. kelly points it out. i would just point you to what they said, both the white house, john boehner's office, mitch mcconnell's office. john boehner's office said we're glad the president has finally given up his position he won't negotiate. mitch mcconnell's office said they were confused why the meeting was called. a white house official said this was so the president could make clear the need for a clean cr and raising the debt ceiling without any conditions attached to it. that is not exactly a recipe for

deal making at this point. i think that this has at least as much potential to sort of make it less likely or the same amount of likelihood that a deal gets done as makes it more likely a deal gets done. it seems like we're headed for a relatively short meeting in which entrenched positions are rehashed. they both come out to the cameras and condemn the other one, which really doesn't, as you might guess, move us all that much closer to a solution here. >> i think you're right on that, chris. i think that's the mood. >> and john boehner's most recent public statement was his "usa today" op-ed, where he said, the fact is that washington democrats have slammed the door on reopening of the government by refusing to engage in bipartisan talks. they continue to reject our calls for fairness for all americans. so getting back to your whip count, though, is there -- i mean, has boehner put enough pressure on the democrats in the

white house because of the refusal to negotiate? is that part of the reason why the president's calling this meeting? or is boehner the one under pressure because the republicans are really taking most of the political heat? >> sure. my take on it, andrea, is this. i think that the white house is walking a fineline between not wanting to look like they are fully disengaged. they know republicans are trying to make this point that the president's refusal to negotiate is unprecedented and a huge mistake and show he's not interested in a deal. look. john boehner has the same problem that john boehner had four days ago, three days ago before the government shutdown. there is a group of republicans in the house, and it's a lot bigger than the 14 people who said they would sign a clean cr who are republicans. there's a group of 40 to 50 republicans in the house who simply are not going to vote for a continuing resolution that does not include delaying or defunding obama care. at least today they're not going to do that. that's the bigger problem here,

andrea. if john boehner wants to pass a clean continuing resolution with the votes of a vast majority of democrats and a handful of republicans, the idea of speaker john boehner if republicans hold the house majority in 2015, that's going to go away. >> and jack lew has written a letter to congress. it says, if we have insufficient cash on hand, it would be impossible for the united states of america to meet all of its obligations for the first time in our history. he's obviously talking about the debt ceiling. for this reason, i respectfully urge congress to act immediately to meet its responsibility by extending the nation's borrowing authority. >> the debt ceiling is the real issue that i think all sides recognize has even more painful impact in the world than what we're seeing now with the government shutdown. so one scenario could be we get closer to that point if there is some trust. that's going to be a big, big if. if they can put together some trust to begin serious conversations about dealing with

the debt ceiling, looking at long-term debt problems in the country, having those conversations where a lot of things are on the table and these are not easy asks in any way, then i think you could see there might be some willingness to at least get the lights on and that sort of thing. that's still days away, i think, from all the sources i'm talking to. so i think we're in a period now where both sides want to always have sort of the optics of looking engaged, offering ideas, even if the ideas aren't new, saying them in a new way today, and looking for that moment when there's a break. even if you do a whip count and find there are enough votes, the leadership still has to say they're going to go that way. we don't have any indication that house republican leadership will offer a spending bill with nothing attached related to the health care law. at least not yet. so i think it's certainly a sign to watch when the president engages himself with the officials here on capitol hill. and every one of these steps can teach us something, but it

doesn't necessarily mean there's an imminent end or a big change. we hope there will be one. we just don't see signs of it yet. >> and we should also point out that the president has now canceled the last two stops on his asia trip. he's leaving this weekend. secretary kerry is going to pick up those two stops in the philippines and in brunei. that's affecting at least one part of diplomacy. thank you very much chris and kelly, working overtime there around the clock on the hill. frustration, of course, is mounting across the country. millions are affected by the shutdown. here's part of peter alexander's report from the "today" show. >> reporter: in virginia, dawn wondered when she'll get her next paycheck after being furloughed. >> it means we have to make our groceries extend for two, three weeks instead of the one week we have. we have to maybe make the gas in the car last that much longer. >> reporter: she and her stay-at-home husband john have two children anne only a week's worth of savings. >> it makes our life harder

to -- because we're already down to the bare minimum. >> one family story. how much longer will the public be asked to put up with this? joining me now is bill crystal, editor of "the weekly standard." you've watched washington from inside the white house. you worked in the vice president's office. you've worked on the hill. you've been a journalist for many years. this does leave the impression with the american people that we're the grown-ups. that, you know, the asylum is being run by the inmates, to mix metaphors here. >> they've had that impression at times over the last 25 years. there have been other shut downs. >> this feels worse partly because there are no appropriation bills and partly because of the debt ceiling showdown. >> i think kelly is right to focus on that. i think republicans are thinking a lot about how to manage this in a way that sets up a real negotiation over the debt ceiling, which they want to obviously have be a successful negotiation. that's one piece of reporting to kelly's good reporting, which i believe what house republicans

are going to do today is move five of those small bills. they moved three yesterday. they didn't get the two-thirds vote they needed because it was on the suspension calendar. today they'll have a regular rule. they'll only need a majority. they'll get a majority. yesterday they got 38 democrats to vote for those bills. >> are they going to move all five? >> i believe so. funding nih, funding veterans. i think that's a tough -- that's a shrewd move by speaker boehner. i gather that some democratic senators have gone to senator reid and say i don't want to vote against funding nih. >> you have cancer patients waiting for their treatments. >> the analysis last week was extremely certain among pundits that it the republicans are going to be totally on the defensive and they're just going to pummel this. i think it's more complicated. if the house republicans can pass those bills today, that puts pressure on the senate democrats. the administration sent a letter opposing those bills but not threatening a veto on them. that may account for president obama suddenly deciding, hey,

maybe i'm not simply winning this. maybe it's time to be president and call the leaders down to the white house for a discussion. i think the republicans have handled this pretty well over the last 24, 48 hours. again, i think that's a pretty smart tactic. it's legitimate, too. it really is going to fund nih and d.c. government. how do you f you're a democratic government, say, no, i'm sorry, we can't do that because we have a separate disagreement over the continuing resolution. >> senator kristen gillebrand was saying you can't pick and choose what part of government you want to fund. you know, it's the government. you can't just say, i like this from "a," and this from "b." >> well, you can for a week or two. if you're in a crisis, there's a disagreement, the negotiations haven't been fruitful. if you can't do that, the republicans say, let's pick and choose for a week. there are some things that --

honestly, the federal education department can close down for a week and nothing dire is going to happen. nih, cancer trials, you know, the whole d.c. government, veterans affairs, treating veterans hospitals, that's another question. so i think you can pick and choose for a while, but the key point, i think republicans can now play this into the debt ceiling negotiation. that has to be a negotiation. there are not 50 democrats in the senate who will vote for a clean debt ceiling increase. there certainly aren't 218 republicans in the house. at some point harry reid, mitch mcconnell, john boehner, nancy pelosi and the white house have to sit down and say, what deal can we cut? >> when we talk about what deal can be cut, the president has indicated and certainly the republicans are interested in entitlement changes in medicare and important things that have long been part of budget negotiations but not the affordable care act because

there'ses no way that he's going to give up the one piece of legislation that is the center piece of his, you know, first term. also, what he won re-election on and the supreme court upheld. >> the notion of defunding the whole thing was impractical. could you delay the individual mandate for a year, considering the somewhat chaos we've seen? if people want to use the exchanges, fine. why are we forcing it? could you give up the congressional exemption, which is unpopular? i think those are things that could be negotiated. i don't think the president will yield on the individual mandate because it's important from his point of view to the whole structure of obama care. you can imagine him giving up on the congressional exemption. you could imagine other compromises. you might get a deal on some entitlement tweaks it and return for discretionary spending on defense and domestic. i don't think the deal is that impossible to envision. i agree for now we have this kind of dramatic standoff, but i actually -- who knows. i think we could imagine a deal with a continuing resolution

rolling to the debt ceiling, maybe an extension of both to negotiate a little longer and actually something like -- in august 2011, there was this huge clash and everything was going to collapse. they ended up with a budget control act from a republican point of view that has constrained spending, has leveled spending off for the national government for a couple of years, didn't destroy the economy, didn't destroy anything much. i think it hurt defense a little bit. >> the pentagon would say you want to deal with the sequester. >> could they deal with the sequester in the debt ceiling negotiation, give defense more and spending more p that's a doable deal. >> bill crystal, thank you so much. >> thanks. >> and two men have been arrested following a bomb scare last night at one of florida's busiest airports, jacksonville international. the airport was shut down, terminals evacuated for nearly six hours because of two supposedly suspicious packages,

one of which was destructive. one of the men arrested was stopped going through security when he told a screener he had a bomb hidden inside his backpack. he's been charged with manufacturing and possessing a fake bomb. a second man was stopped in an airport garage for acting suspiciously. he was charged with resisting arrest. authorities believe the two men were not working together. the airport reopened shortly before midnight, and it now has resumed normal flight schedules. before they sat down, one more time, just for themselves. before the last grandchild. before the first grandchild. smile. before katie, debbie, kevin and brad... there was a connection that started it all and made the future the wonderful thing it turned out to be... at bank of america, we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is.

and as we continue to talk about the government shutdown and the latest from washington, i'm joined by virginia senator mark warner. senator, thanks so much for joining us. what do you expect to come out of this meeting with the leaders and the president today? any give at all from the

democratic side? >> ale, awell, andrea, i hope t house will go ahead and reopen the government. >> i think that's not very likely from what we're hearing. >> andrea, i heard, you know, some of the earlier commentary and stuff. the idea respectfully that you're going to pick and choose which pieces of government to reopen, i mean, we have 1700 people at the national science foundation. there are 30 working today. it's not like the rest of the world is going to say timeout on all science because america has stopped. we've got 70% of our civilian employees who work in the intelligence community who help protect our troops, help protect our agencies, help protect our country who are been furloughed right now. that's not protecting our country. the idea that you pick and choose, yeah, we got things to debate. if this was a debate about our balance sheet, how do we deal with entitlements, how do we deal with tax code and revenues that a lot of us have been calling for, i still wouldn't like it, but at least it would be connected. you've got now a group that says, you know, this kind of our way or the highway.

i don't characterize it as democrats versus republicans. it's not democrats versus republicans. it's democrat, republicans, and a small group of this tea party crowd who have this burn down the house mentality, which to a degree is succeeding because we are grinding our economy to a halt. if you sell things around the skyline drive, you're losing resources as well. >> you had been a leader among senators of democrats and republicans who got together over the years to talk about budget solutions and budget cuts and compromises. where has this hit, you know, this hard reality of the government shutdown and no conversations, no negotiations of any kind? >> i've been talking to a lot of my republican senators who are very frustrated as well. again, it's why i don't believe this is a democrat and republican thing. it's almost like there's this

sense that this kind of anti-government fervor, you know, let's not try to improve obama care, let's wreck it. let's not try to see how we make government more efficient, let's shut it down. there's almost a feeling it has to burn itself out. the unfortunate thing is we have an economy, it's not just the 800,000 workers who have been furloughed, but the fact of, you know, the person who owns the restaurant that they buy the food from, or the person at the gas station that they're not going to fill up their tank now. this has a ripple effect across the economy. i think there's an awful lot of us in both parties who are ready to go back to whether it was our gang or six or simpson bowles or any other legitimate plan, and maybe we'll see some of that outcome coming out of the meeting this afternoon. but it ought not to be, you know, this is a precondition to reopening the government. this is not the way you responsibly govern the post powerful country in the world. >> do you think the president should delay any part of the affordable care act? >> listen, i think there are

parts -- i've been on record for sometime around the affordable care act that if there could be improvements. but you don't do it during a tenure of a government shutdown. and you do it with people who want to see how to improve the law, not find a way to make sure it fails. you know, that, to me, is a rational approach. but we've seen from some of these, you know, what can we do to basically make sure it fails. that is not in the best interest of this country. >> what is mitch mcconnell doing? is there any conversation behind the scene with the senate republican leader? >> you know, andrea, i'd like to say i know there's a room somewhere where people are working things out and i'm just not in the room. i'd still be frustrated. i'd like to be in that room. i'm not sure there's that room right now. my hope is that maybe this afternoon the president and the leaders of both parties will start a way out.

i know that there's -- i'm seeing what it's doing to an awful lot of not just federal employees but other businesses and others who rely upon a functioning economy. it's hard for me to look them in the eye and say any of us are doing our job at this point. >> and speaking of not doing your job, and i'm not speaking of you personally, the sequester. that's the kind of blunt instrument which was devised specifically because it was too horrible to -- >> sequestration was supposed to be so stupid that no rational people would let it happen. you know, i think about this person who could make a lot more money in the private sector who works for the national science foundation. she just came off of six or eight days worth of furloughs. she's now got furloughs as far as the eye can see. you've got a group of folks who work here in the congress who denigrate anybody who works in the federal government somehow as being irresponsible. i mean, what young scientist is going to sign up, what young

person is going to go serve whether it's in veterans or agriculture. you know, this is kind of a cancering side. sequester is cancer inside a federal work force that we are going to ask to do more with less. no matter what happens, you know, we're going to have to find ways to cut government spending as well as reform entitlements and generate more revenues through tax reform. but i got to tell you, as a business guy for 20 years, this is not a way to build the morale of your work force if you're saying we got tough times in front of us. >> and you were a successful governor. you've seen it from all sides. if you find that room in the capitol where they're actually negotiating, would you let me know? >> we'll try to break our way in. again, i just, you know, there was that great winston churchill quote that says, you can always count on the americans to do the right thing after they've tried everything else. well, the house has tried everything else. it's time for us to do the right thing. get this government open. >> hear, hear.

thank you very much, senator mark warner. and the impact of the government shutdown is being felt across the country, including on the college football field. saturday's navy versus air force football game currently in limbo after the department of defense announced it will temporarily suspend all intercollegiate athletic competitions for service academies. coming up, the shutdown's impact on our nation's military and when the va says cash will run out for benefits. stay with us right here. all the latest on andrea mitchell reportins, only on msn. . oh, no, i'll get it! let me get it. uh-uh-uh. i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat. what about a tip? oh, here's one... get an allstate agent. nice! [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-905-6500 now. here we go! hold on man. is that a leak up there? that's a drip. whoo. okay.

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the honor flights that bring veterans of world war ii to see the memorial. if the shut down doesn't end soon s veterans could be among those hit the hardest. joining me from washington are former congressman and msnbc contributor patrick murphy and tom tarantino. welcome, both. first, congressman murphy, you're an iraq war veteran, you're a former member of congress, and we should point out you're a former member of congress largely because of your vote in favor of the affordable care act, obama care. >> that's right, andrea. i'm proud of that vote, even if it did cost my my seat. i have a piece on msnbc.com about that. and i'm proud. we have the greatest country in the world, andrea, but to know that in 2010, 26,100 americans died because they didn't have access to health insurance was just wrong. so i was proud of that vote. it probably did cost me my seat, but my conscience is clear and i

sleep well at night. >> tom tarantino, i know you and pat murphy have been talking about some of the services veterans will not be getting. what's the backlog likely to be? the va is already under criticism for not processing things quickly enough. >> the good news is the va has been on quite a tear over the last six months. they've reduced the backlog by about 33%. this is due to new initiatives like mandatory overtime, better communication with the dod and social security administration. the shutdown is essentially throwing a huge wrench into the works. while most claims processors will still be working, all the tools that they use to help develop claims are going to be shut down over at dod and at social security and other parts of the government. so what it's really doing is putting a huge roadblock in the progress that we need in order to get rid of the backlog in the next year and a half. >> now, counseling services, clinics, other medical facilities, pat murphy, for the veterans, tell me what's open, what's not. >> so no travel for our

soldiers. there's no childcare at these military posts. no counseling or educational services. so that -- when you have military families who are so strained because we have the longest war in the history of our country and then add this burden that is manufactured and unnecessary, it's unconscionable. andrea, tom is absolutely right. we just got done cutting about 30% of the backlog. now politico report the about 20,000 claims will be laid off from the va. instead of cutting it down 33%, we're now increasing 2,000 claims per day in a backlog. it's these knuckleheads in washington that can't get it straight to take care of these heroes. >> now, let me ask you also, i know you've got a situation in your own family. do you want to share? >> yeah, you know, my brother

does search and rescue for the air force. he's an air force major. he's 1,000 miles away from his family in new mexico. he basically went into work. they said, we don't know if you should come in. we don't know if you're essential. it's jerking around these military families. that is such a disservice. i want to mention something else. you showed that honor flight, those world war ii heroes that are frankly probably in their last days. you know, i think it is sickening. the folks who shut down the government rush over there and use those world war ii veterans as a political prop, the ones who are responsible. they have no shame whatsoever using those heroes as political props. it just ticks me off. >> we have those pictures of the world war ii veterans at the memorial today. they did get through. tom tarantino, what can you do, what can any of us do outside of government to help some of the

veterans who are facing these backlogs and facing the service cuts? >> all right. well, you know, there's a huge veterans service network out there. you can go to iava.org and you can -- one of our case managers can help a veteran out there who is looking for some sort of assistance whether it's with your claim or whether it's with another service that's shut down. you know, bottom line is we just need to get the government started again. that's the only real solution to this. it's not just about the backlog. it's not just about benefits. it's the entire structure for care and services for the military, for veterans and their families that's suffering, and nothing short of simply restarting the government and getting congress to actually do its job is going to fix that. >> certainly patrick murphy and you have sent a message to the so-called knuckleheads. message transmitted. thank you very much. and coming up next, chris matthews and his new book about a time when presidents and house speakers from opposite parties actually got along and worked

things out. his old boss tip o'neil and ronald reagan. they knew more than a thing or two about government shutdowns and solutions. in fact, not lost on republican congress made. >> house speaker tip o'neil shutdown government seven different times. seven different times during president reagan's time in office. he invited tip o'neil down to the white house and sat down over a cup of coffee and talked the problems out. that's what leadership does. i love that just washed freshness, but then it goes to the closet...to die. so try new glow unstopables. they fill your closet with scents so fresh they last for 12 weeks! downy unstopables. try with downy infusions.

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there's been an outpouring of tributes today for best-selling author tom clancy as news of his death has been confirmed by his publisher. he saw huge success at the box office with the movies "the hunt for red october," "patriot

games," and "clear and present danger." >> if i go down, you're going down with me. >> clancy, a baltimore native, wrote 16 number-one best-selling novels. his latest book "command authority" is due out this december. tom clancy was 66 years old. no word yet on the cause of his death. among those giving voice to a tribute is colon powell, who said he was terribly sad to hear about the death of his good friend and always had been amazed by his inside knowledge and his expertise on military and intelligence matters. they became friends back in 1988 just as he was bursting on to the literary scene. powell wrote he enjoyed all his books but had a special feeling for "clear and present danger." . vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down

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gridlock, something president ronald reagan and tip o'neil knew a lot about. they also knew how to work around it. >> i enjoy his company when i go over there. philosophically, we're completely different. do i agree with his politics? absolutely no. >> that was, of course, tip o'neil with judy woodruff. former o'neil speech writer chris matthews explores this historic friendship. how could politicianins today learn from them? chris matthews, congratulations. this is great. tip and the gipper. you knew them both. your insights as to how they worked around these problems, i was just jureading a section he about one of those alleged government shutdowns, which lasted hour, not days. it was a fight over the budget. as you're pointing out, there were appropriation bills then. a lot of the government stayed open. >> congress did its job. they would pass the bills by october 1st. there was some appropriations

that hadn't passed. they had a cr back then. the other thing is these weren't like cataclysmic events. they were over quickly. as the congressman pointed out earlier, they did know they could deal with each other. the problem with this is it's almost like barbara tuckman and the guns of august. one side is making an ultimatum toward the other side. get rid ofbaby, if you will. they don't realize he will fight for this. i think the parallel here isn't a partisan parallel, it's more like padco. they don't realize these wildcatters on the right -- this president means business now. he's not going to buckle like reagan did. by the way, that was an important event in reagan's career. he showed the soviets -- and tip found out this from dewayne andrews, that this president was for real. he was somebody to deal with.

>> and this was the ruunion struggle over the work rules for air traffic controllers and reagan did not give in. >> not only that, he said, if you go off on a strike and break your oath as well as your contract, you'll never work for the federal government again as long as you live. >> and they didn't. >> that was how tough he was. that sent a signal. now, obama hasn't sent that signal early enough in his administration. that's a weakness on his part. i think he'll do it this time. >> you point out on page, what is it, 255, in reagan's diary, he wrote about a real issue they had over the budget early on. they were going at each other, and they were -- jim wright -- >> jobs bill. >> jim wright was the majority leader. tip o'neil was in there with him. they really had a bad fight, one of the worst they had ever seen. 15 minutes later they were in the state dining room jovial at a budget meeting. >> every time they get into an

argument, whether tip said something bad about mrs. reagan by accident, think it was off the record, he'd call up and say, what do i do? he'd say, write a hand-written letter. you'll be okay. reagan called him a demagogue. he called him the next day, let's be friends again. they were always drawing limits. that's what old-school politics was like. you knew when you'd crossed the line. reagan knew the country had an 11% unemployment rate. david stockman apparently came to the president right after they had that big donny brook. he said to it the president, we're pretty close here. so he goes running after tip in the other room and says, come on, i think we can get together on this. he sends stockman up the friday before he got married. remember, he gets married then. he goes up that friday before, meets with him, and cuts a bill for a big jobs bill. this getting together after the fight. they always fought.

>> the president is having the leaders come down today. >> i'm hopeful. >> does he have the basic relationships -- does he have a relationship with john boehner and mitch mcconnell, or has it been so poisoned now by their past disputes? >> it's tougher today. i'm not going to say it was tougher back then. i think what's going on, and you know this, it's going to be about the debt and the debt ceiling. they can't have a short-term compromise now and then be back at it in two weeks when it's far more important. i think ted cruz is brilliant. he basically shut down the appropriations process by refusing to let the budget committees meet and basically lay out a budget for the appropriations committee. so the government is complete ily exposed now. i think whatever deal they make in terms of medical devices, something like that where it will cost about $30 billion, but they can deal with that with other revenues for the health care bill. that has to be part of a debt ceiling extension. i think the deal comes the 24th of this month when the interest payments don't go out.

that's when we lose our credit standing in the world. i would say if they meet today, the president, if he's smart, will say it's got to be about the debt too. i'm not making a short-term deal over the cr. we got to make it the big one that saves this country's credibility. >> well, and it's no accident the president met with some of these wall street executives today. they're coming out and saying, this is serious. so he's getting -- trying to get wall street to weigh in on it, which has some influence on republicans. >> i'm just hoping this book -- i hope people read it because it shows the political norm is still there, where human beings -- we're all americans, and you can make a deal in the interest of the country in the end after you've made your philosophical points. politics is argument, but it's also compromise. if you don't believe in compromise, we're finished as a country. we're always going to have this half and half situation. we'll never have a situation again like lbj. he could do anything he wanted. it's always going to be a compromise. it's like marriage. if you don't believe in compromise, stay out of politics. >> tip and the gipper.

they proved that you could get along. as reagan said when they were asked what were they whispering about when they were talking about cutting a deal, he said, we're just two irishmen talking. they had that basis of relationship. >> they even prayed together. which is something. >> really? >> right after reagan was shot, tip was in there with him reciting the 23rd psalm together where reagan was recovering. >> and as we later learned was far more seriously wounded. >> they prayed together. they had a personal -- it's wonderfully american. we got to get back to that, i think. >> chris matthews, love the book. thank you so much. thanks for being here. of course, "hardball" at 7:00 tonight. and which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next here on "andrea mitchell reports." i don't like the ups and downs of the market, but i can't just sit on my cash. i want to be prepared for the long haul. ishares minimum volatility etfs. investments designed for a smoother ride.

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the least they could do. he's asking them to extend

funding at the levels set in the previous fiscal year to keep the government open. >> which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? clearly that meeting at the white house that jay carney was talking about. chris, this is a meeting really for the president to say i've just talked to wall street and the sky is going to fall if we don't get this resolved. what are you prepared to do? what happens when john boehner says well delay obama care, delay a part of it? >> i could be wrong about this, but it seems to me this meeting today is not going to for folks that's almost everyone who would like to see the government reopen and workers get back to work, i don't think that we're going to make significant progress towards that. you know, you hear more and more in the last 24 to 48 hours that we may be looking at the combined -- the debt ceiling,

which is obviously a huge deal with massive implications on october 17th, that continuing resolution all wrapped into one, which would mean we would probably be looking at a couple weeks of a government shutdown and that's presuming that we can find a way to a deal on a debt kreel being. i think if you're a betting person, longer rather than shorter, we're probably talking weeks not days. at least as of right now as it relates to the shutdown. >> jack lew, the budget director and treasury secretary, who has the debt ceiling on his mind. that is clearly, he's written a letter to the hill. that's what they are going to talk about, when that kicks in. they know there's wiggle room, he's got money tucked away but when those bonds do go on sale, not the week of the 17th but the week after, that's when the rubber might hit the road. there's a km of other things, john harwood is interviewing president obama this afternoon. we'll see the first sign of that sometime after 4:00 and i'll be heading right over across town

to interview prime minister benjamin netanyahu and get his reaction to iran and talk about his big speech at the u.n. and what his red lines are and would he take military action against iran and risk having israel blamed if this diplomacy blows up? we're going to have a lot to talk about on tomorrow's show as well. you can see that interview tomorrow on "andrea mitchell reports." that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we'll have the interview with prime minister netanyahu and you'll see some of it tonight on msnbc. and follow the show online and on twitter at mitchell reports and craig melvin has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> good to see you. how long will the shutdown last? in just a few hours as you've been reporting, president obama sits down with top congressional leaders from both parties at the white house. but will a face to face meeting

be enough to break the stalemate? we'll talk to chris murphy, also assistant democratic leader jim clyburn. heavy fighting in syria on the same day u.n. inspectors start their work to get rid of that regime's chemical weapons. and pope francis is now in talks with church leaders to revise the vatican constitution but will his tough talk lead to reform that many catholics are hoping for? all of that and much more on "news nation." lyrics: 'take on me...' ♪ ♪ 'take me home...' ♪ 'i'll be gone...' ♪ 'in a day or...' man: twooooooooooooooooo! is that me, was i singing? vo: not paying for scheduled maintenance feels pretty good. no-charge scheduled maintenance now on every new volkswagen. that's the power of german engineering

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okay, who helps you focus on your recovery? yo, yo, yo. aflac. wow. [ under his breath ] that was horrible. pays you cash when you're sick or hurt? [ japanese accent ] aflac. love it. [ under his breath ] hate it. helps you focus on getting back to normal? [ as a southern belle ] aflac. [ as a cowboy ] aflac. [ sassily ] aflac. uh huh. [ under his breath ] i am so fired. you're on in 5, duck. [ male announcer ] when you're sick or hurt, aflac pays you cash. find out more at aflac.com. i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall. "news nation" is following developing news on day two of the government shutdown. leaders will be heading to the white house in a few hours to meet with president obama. vice president joe biden will also join that meeting.

speaker john boehner's spokesman already issued a statement which did not bring much hope. we're pleased that the president finally recognizes that his refusal to negotiate is indefensible and unclear why he would be having this meeting if it's not meant to be a start to sear yis talks between the two parties. minutes ago white house press secretary jay carney repeated, president obama will not negotiate. >> no, the president is not going to sit down and start asking for puts and takes and he's not going to engage in that kind of negotiation because he does not want to hold our have held the openness of the government and functioning of the government or the world and american economy hostage to a series of ma