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tv   NOW With Alex Wagner  MSNBC  December 12, 2013 9:00am-10:01am PST

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mark this date on your calendar. the house could actually pass a budget. thursday december 12th, and this is "now." i'm joy reid in for alex wagner. congress may agree on something, very, very small. the house will vote on a two-year budget agreement that is expected to pass with bipartisan support. the plan does little to eliminate status quo eliminating job killing sequester cuts but allowing long-term unemployment benefits to expire for more than a million americans. that has not stopped the internal feud from escalating into an all-out and very public verbal war.
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just after house speaker john boehner accused conservative groups of using the american people for their own goals yesterday, the top staffer on the right wing republican study committee was fired for sharing sensitive conversations between members and outside advocacy groups. a who's who of right wing agitators, heritage action, tea party patriots wasted no time firing back issuing a joint statement saying it is clear conservative movement under attack on capitol hill today. boehner doubled down or tripled down in a press conference just moments ago. >> when groups come out and criticizes an agreement that they have never seen, you begin to wonder just how credible those actions are. if you recall the day before the government reopened, one of these groups stood up and said, well, we never really thought it would work. are you kidding me? >> no, are you kidding me? here is where we are.
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speaker boehner whose unruly caucus force add government shutdown earlier this year that he now says he didn't even want is ready to make a deal while key members of the senate are siding with the very outside group that really, really wanted the shutdown. does that make sense? no. here is senator rand paul who responds to the deal by calling for, wait for it, more sequester. >> we're trading immediate cuts for the promise of cuts later. the sequester was beginning to nibble away at the growth of some of government. it was something that absolutely we need to keep and we need to add to. >> okay. asked about the reaction of marco rubio, who happens to be one of his 16r omonths, the newly pragmatic paul ryan are a message on "morning joe." >> what would you say to marco. >> read the deal and get back to me. >> joining me today political reporter at the national
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journal, "washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor jonathan capehart. senior fellow bob herbert, nbc correspondent luke russert who mercifully is not wearing a fancy christmas sweater. >> stand up to kearns, great organization. >> had to do it. now i feel bad. i now i just feel bad. i have to go to you first, jonathan, that whole series, soliloquy. >> stand up in october. where was that man in october? where has he been the entire of his speakership since the tea party folks came in. this bipartisan feeling and spirit that sort of washed over a bit of washington now, you know, it's sort of been there. the debt ceiling crisis, government shutdown, all those
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things could not have happened if john boehner decided lets just pass it. republicans you don't like it, don't vote for it, bring it in with democratic votes. what's about to happen today could have been happening all along. the whole time. you covered capitol hill. that's what's so amazing, john boehner has refused to put on the floor what extreme parts didn't want precisely because these outside groups doesn't want it. now he's throwing the outside group under the bus saying i never wanted that. does that make sense? >> there's two things at play here. there's a lot of surprise from leadership aides i spoke to that a deal orchestrated by paul ryan, who no one is going to question his conservative credentials was thrown under the bus so quickly and publicly. that upset john boehner to the point which he said, you know what, if paul ryan we've passed both his budgets, a lot of cuts that problematic for us publicly
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but we thought it was the right thing to do, if you don't trust him, this is getting to be ridiculous. then you saw john boehner go out and that reaction he had where he's moving around guess particular lating all over the podium is a riot. he basically says enough is enough. this is reflective of what gop aides have been saying the last two years and it got to this point. i don't expect ryan murray temporary budget deal to below the gasket but apparently it did. >> we have to remember gop leadership called paul ryan the jesus of our conference. if paul ryan gives something his blessing, it brings the votes. apparently not always chls i want to talk about the breakdown of alliances. supporters at the aforementioned john boehner, paul ryan who brokered the deal, eric cantor, the traditionalist wing of the
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party. on the other side seeing a deal called pragmatist. mcconnell facing a primary in kentucky, john cornyn and john thum coming out against it. is this idea of a republican civil war real or see people going to their camps? >> i think the civil war is real. i think folks like boehner and ryan are living in the real world when it comes to politics. they saw the recent shutdown, they got clobbered. they decided no more suicide mission. it's a measure of how far we've fallen as a society that people are congratulated for coming to an agreement on the deal that's going to hurt a lot of people. that's both parties. it's bizarre to me. >> it is a sort of a new normal, alex. lets go through quickly what is in this deal causing this rift. if you look at it from the outside looking in, isn't a lot
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to your point, to bob's points. it increases spending $45 billion in 2014, replaces sequester cuts, replaces ds 2 billion in part by increasing airline fees. every airline customer has to subs dies not raising taxes on the rich, employees, they will subsidizing not doing a tax on the rich and doesn't touch unemployment. another wealth transfer upward. >> even though republicans control one-half -- they control the house, one of the three major governing bodies, if you look at the long-term over the course since they have come in it has moved in their way fiscally, the paul ryan budget here. what's going on with outside groups is not about policy, it's a power struggle. outside groups setting the agenda for the republican caucus and they want to continue that. they put the government in
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shutdown. they don't even need to see the plan before they can come out and slam it. they know they are not going to like it because they are not the ones who started it. >> that's the point. groups like heritage action, red state.com, tea party patriots, citizens united, they sort of replace the old wall street coalition that used to have a lot of sway with the party. they have been setting the agenda. this is about them trying to put their marker down? >> it's one of the more interesting by-products of mccain feingold. the party has been weakened. they can't collect money from outside groups because the outside groups have oversized influence. i can't say enough what a shift this is. if, in fact, john boehner starts playing this well, telling them piece to shove it, which is essentially what he's doing, it totally recasts 2014 where you could actually see some real change if they want it. if you want to do it on immigration, it's a possibility. the farm bill, it's a
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possibility. all this being said there's still going to be a debt limit fight and i believe the outside groups will have a lot of power when it comes to that issue. >> there will be big change, change not in the direction of the most struggling of the economy. that is still not happening. >> you said the new normal. we are in a new normal. it's a new normal in which working people, poor people, struggling middle class are hurting. they don't see on the horizon that will improve matters for them. no one doing neg about job creation. no one talking about long-term investments. no one has a vision of where to take this country. that's either party. if you don't know where you're going and don't have a vision, erosion sets in. i think that's where we are now. >> essentially, jonathan, does it also cause us to get off of the track of arguing over health care reform? it does seem to me at least part of the calculation for john boehner and the republicans is that they want to shorten and
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truncate any fight over the budget because they are weak, infighting and back to where they are strong, which is fight over health care forever. >> i'm sure they hope it does. look, they have nothing unless they are focused on obama care. the problem with that is the more the website works for people, and the more people like what they end up getting, the less of an argument the republicans have to make. there's only so long we can argue repeal, replace, defund before people start asking, okay, if you do all those things, what's the alternative? what are you going to come back to? more power to them. >> there's a political calculation. our nbc news "wall street journal" poll, it showed that people are tuning out president obama right now until this issue of health care is fixed. what we're seeing is smart politics. >> they are paying attention, lets look like we're doing this.
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>> why would we want to lose that 2014, it's a great thash worked for us in 2010. the website better all glorious for democrats but right now why would you give that ground. that's why you see the elders in the room say lets don't gift it. that's why i was surprised john boehner -- >> luke, we'll talk about this more in the next block. it does seem republicans are not afraid while they have the stage being the guys who do not care what happens to the unemployed. we're going to talk more about that. we will continue to monitor long-term debate in the house floor and bring you any updates on that budget vote as we get them. while one major legislative accomplishment may happen in washington today, members of the house could leave town tomorrow with major unfinished business. we will talk to ezra klein about the future of said unemployment benefits next on "now."
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>> what's upsetting nancy pelosi and her fellow democrats is the fact an extension of long-term unemployment benefits did not make it into the budget deal that's expected to pass later today. as a result, they may not be extended at all. some house republicans are upset, too. a whole seven of them wrote a letter to john boehner requesting such an extension. the speaker's response, maybe. only in exchange for more ransom from democrats, a stance reiterated by paul ryan this morning. >> they wanted to put it in the
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agreement without off sets which would have blown a 20, $25 billion hole. a last minute request with no offsets. >> such is the reality of unemployment debate in congress. an issue that used to be bipartisan is now exclusively the province of democrats of the gop is perfectly comfortable with the idea of cutting off unemployment benefits to those in need. the reason, as rand paul made clear last week is a core belief unless you are a corporation, government assistance of any kind makes you lazy. >> i do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks they are paid for. if you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers. >> many including the atlantic point out despite missing an empathy gene paul is wrong about unemployment insurance. the unemployed aren't unemployed because of an overall generous safety net. they are unemployed because job applicants outnumber opens three
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to one. in that competitive environment employers tend to look unfavorably on resumes showing someone has been out of work for a long time. as "new york times" reports, any given month, a 20 to 30% chance of find agnew job. by the time he's been out of work six months, the chances drop to one in ten. republicans love to trumpet themselves as the pro growth party but continually ignore the stimulative effects of those benefits. as bloomberg business week notes, federal ben fits set to end will cotts economy $39 billion in spending next year, which would in turn have supported 310,000 jobs according to a rece sent survey by economic policy institute. joining me from washington nbc policy analyst "washington post" ezra klein. ezra, i don't understand the republican case against unemployment benefits given the fact they are basically 100% spent back into the economy
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which benefits businesses, which benefits walmart, landlords. i don't get it. can you explain it to me? >> there is noot strong case or really any case in this kind of economy to not extend these benefits. you're dealing with not just 1.3 million in the next five months but 5 million over the next year. you mentioned annie's piece in the "new york times" one of the catch-22s, vicious, the longer you're unemployed the harder it is to get work again. this is the exact group we're talking about. we're not talking all unemployment benefits. federal are an emergency extension. in the states they go up to 26 weeks. federal benefits go up to 99 weeks, catches you up there. then it got brought down to 72 weeks. these people are going to get hurt. these aren't people who aren't looking for a job. these are people who often have sent out 100, 1,000 resumes and can't find one because they are in an area where unemployment is
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high, higher ratio than three to one but employers don't want them because they have been unemployed for a long time or they are old. it is a deep cruelty to throw these people off the rolls. >> you're talking about something you're passionate about we're talking about 4.1 people out of work, a million more than the last big depression. of the 4 million, 1 million exhausted their benefits. millions of potential consumers if you want to look from the conservative side are withdrawn from the market. they aren't going to be able to buy groceries or pay bills. >> it's a hit on the economy. these are folks that are suffering. these are individuals and families in deep distress. remember, we're cutting food stamps at the same time we're talking about this. but this idea that providing unemployment benefits to people who are jobless, the idea that
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they -- that will cause dependency, people out of work don't want a job is a kinard. a couple of years ago mcdonald's announced it was going to hire 50,000 people, 50,000 positions, mostly part-time jobs. all of them were very low wage jobs and a million people applied for these 50,000 jobs. so people want to work. >> absolutely. you know, alex, it is sort of a difference in philosophy from democrats and republicans. there was a pew poll in 2012, they did a values voters survey, they asked what is more often to blame if a person is poor. republicans said circumstances 28% of the time, lack of effort 57%. for democrats it was roughly the reverse. 60% said circumstances caused poverty, 27% lack of effort. this is a difference in mind-set period. >> mitt romney's 47% seeping into the entire party. the worst thing about this if
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and unfortunately when these unemployment insurance doesn't get extended, the unemployment rate will drop. this is because people have gone out and looked for work now that they don't have cushy insurance coming in. the fact of the matter is they are getting discouraged, they are leaving the semple entirely, the denominator drops. a year from now they will point back at that and say it's a good thing. it's keeping people from looking for jobs. people sent so many resumes and turned down so many times. maybe the reason you have to to keep collecting insurance. >> i'm curious, would love to sit down and talk to one of these conservatives on the hill how in their own minds they justify, they have fiscal austerity priority, balancing the budget is their top priority. do you get a sense of the hill there is angst about being the guys who don't appear to care?
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>> no, they believe this an issue of debt and deficit. that's something they go back to they view it and health care why they took the house in 2010. interestingly enough, though, i think democrats will move on this issue a lot in 2014. you hear a lot about income inequality. she's been on that street for a while. what's fascinating, you take reality, a lot of traditional republicans will say, yeah, this is money actually being spent. it goes gasoline, groceries, right back into the economy, right? so by not doing this, it actually increases the debt. a lot of the kids i went to school with, finance guys. no, we don't want to give our welfare, more benefits. you have the conversation, overall it hurts the economy. what in it adds to the debt in that point is lost on the more tea party wing of the party, traditionalists understand it but it's not an issue they want to have daylight between them.
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>> doesn't it also point to maybe the sort of lack of clout among business leaders in the republican party. i'll give you the last word, bob. walmart wants people to get these benefits. that's where people are buying with lower in come, supermarkets want people have to money to spend. old business might say a good economic reason for this but new tea party doesn't care. >> they don't care about it. even if the traditional wing of the republican party told them this, they won't believe them. they simply do not believe anybody other than themselves. that's why we have the debt ceiling crisis of 2011. when you had the financial services industry going to capitol hill signature them down telling them if you let this happen, here is what will happen to the economy. folks are like, so what? that's what we're here for. >> very quickly. >> i think it's a mistake to think they are thinking rationally about this sort of thing.
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establishment republicans or tea party or anyone else. if they were thinking rationally, we'd be making investments instead of deficits. >> last word goes to you, ezra klein, excellent husband and wonderful, everything she writes, good man there, is there any hope we might see in future negotiations, this one will expire in 2014 some movement in the direction of investment at least in unemployment benefits? >> i do think in 2014 there's hope some kind of deal is cut. if it is cut it's going to be a very constrained investment, not a full extension. one last point. luke made a good point how these go into the economy. one thing republicans do get you take taxes they take money and spend it. that's one fundamental way tax cuts help the economy. it is the exact same mechanism behind unemployment insurance. exact same way as tax cuts getting money to spend. no economic theory, same
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economic theory that under lies priced economic policies just gets wiped away when it comes to the conflict with debt and deficit reduction. not even there, not allow it to be extended when paired with a tax increase. >> of course that's tied to the fact that there's also belief that the rich who get those tax cuts are more moral than the poor. ezra klein, thank you. coming up, now that they can't use the filibuster to stop president obama's nominees, the grand old party resorted to schaar aids to stall appointments. harry reid is having none of it. we'll discuss the all-nighter. continuing to watch the house floor where members are expected to debate ryan murray budget. we'll have an update on that after the break. [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain... ♪
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right now members of the house are taking to the floor to address matters of unemployment insurance to the iran deal and, of course, the affordable care act. all this ahead of an expected vote on the budget agreement around 6:00 this evening. we'll have full coverage of that vote when it happens later today. meanwhile over in the senate republicans are still talking and talking and talking, 24 hours into a nonstop talk aathon. we'll discuss the latest on a nonstop filibuster next on "now." ♪ [ camera shutter clicks ] now, that's cardworthy. [ man ] all right. here we go. ♪
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presidential nominees. now that rules have been changed rendering republicans powerless to block nominations like they have been doing for the past five years, the new revenge strategy is to make it as long and painful as possible. senate rules require 30 hours of debate. the plan now is to run out every minute of the talk. >> i think we should follow what regular order we have left on nominations, especially after the ways the majority changed the rules on nominations two weeks ago. >> we're in this process because the rules weren't good enough to accomplish what the majority wanted to accomplish. this isn't about obstructionism. this is about limited our rights. >> by breaking the rules to change the rules of the senate what we basically saw was the ramming through just as obama was on a party line vote the president's nominees.
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tonight's nominee is an example of that. this is going to have enormous consequences. >> president obama and the majority party in the senate will do anything, even if it means running roughshod over the minority and ignoring the will of the people. >> the reason democrats put nuclear in in the first place, republicans were blocking an enormous amount of his nominees. >> under president bush they filibustered 38, under obama, 81. that's 16 a year. needless to say harry reid is not impressed with the continued obstruction. >> i understand the republicans are still upset the democrats moved to alleviate the gridlock in washington, something american people have been looking for for several years now. i can't wave a magic wand and
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heal hurt feelings but i can appeal to schedule votes in a timely matter on the important work we're left to do. i say again, what they are the last few days is a picture of why we had to change the rules. nothing but obstruction. >> but harry reid should expect to do nothing for a little bit longer, or a lot. since the talkathon began, the senate has been able to confirm several nominees. senate republicans are ready to yield debate time of ten pending nominees and keep the senate open for their talkathon until 6:00 a.m. on sunday. so it's never going to end. we're going to do the talkathon forever. it's interesting as a tactic. they can't stop nominees. they are going to do what? what do they think they can get? >>ner using post cloture debate time, nine hours debate, last homeland security because it's a cabinet official, 30 hours of
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debate. the idea is we're going along on this to make a point, playing by the rules the democrats took away in this power grab that's the end of democracy as we know it. rah rah rah. what i would say is interesting, this is senate rules working if you want to obstruct showing what you actually have to do. instead of a cloture vote where you can't get to 60, no stay on the senate floor until 3:00 in the morning. going old school to see what they have to do. at the end of the day i think this is once again, it's for show, feeds into the conservative blogosphere, feeds into conservative media. the ample independent voter looks at this and says i have no idea what's happening. >> he or she told the hill, they are highlighting their own impotence. republicans no longer have the tools to delay they had before. so essentially they are putting obstruction on television. >> look, cry me a river.
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harry reid said the reason -- what we're seeing is the very reason why they had to go nuclear in the first place. these are folks who are on recess more than they are actually in town. so to the american people, they don't work anyways. they are going to stand in the well of the senate 30 hours nonstop and boohoo. they won't be able to vote until 6:00 a.m. sunday. >> at least we know they are working. they are there. >> they are there, working. ultimately the president's nominees will be confirmed. the other thing, we're talking about tactics in politics. the president is trying to fill positions in the government that need to function. homeland security secretary. i thought we were under threat, terrorist attack, need someone at the helm all the time. we don't have anybody there because the nominee hasn't been confirmed because he was being obstructed. now that there's nuclear option
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jeh johnson will be able to be confirmed but we have to go through the court to get them. >> president obama is court packing because he appointed vacancies. >> he's allowed to do. >> we talked about earlier, had to be mike lee to said the president is so dedicated to enacting his progressive agenda that he's actually enacting his progressive agenda that he ran on, that's what they do. >> who does he think he snis millions of americans voted to enact the agenda. he thinks he's president of the united states. >> how dare he? >> to understand what's going on, go to the local schoolyard and watch the teacher confiscate a ball from any student and watch them throw a temper tantrum. they can't do anything about it but they are going to make a lot of noise. all nominees will get appointed thanks to the rule change. if they don't like it they can change it back when they take
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back the senate in the future. >> they will probably go further in the other direction. >> this buys them time before they have to vote on the senate, budget deal going through the house. >> i'm in favor of this. the more gop madness that's on television that people are talking about, let it be. let people see what this party is really like. >> bob, on a more serious night, one of the issues that caused harry reid to do this was the d.c. circuit. the president has been hamstring on the house getting his agenda through. instead progressive agenda is in alet of ways going to run through the court. the republicans do not want it to tilt. >> they know it's the most important circuit and they have been doing everything they possibly could. that's why i was in favor of the dems going for the nuclear option. fill those court vacancies. don't worry about the next system or two years from now. >> that is a calculation for republicans, too. not just the d.c. circuit but
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supreme court. >> when this happened, the initial outcry from republicans was that the rules have changed. it's the worst thing that happened. most of the aides i spoke to said this is fine, this is great. someday we'll take that chamber again. when we take that chamber, who plays harder than gop? nobody. democrats are wimps when it comes to playing hardball and getting what they want. i suspect in the future you'll see something even on supreme court justices and down the line. one point, though. there is no chance in the world if this was next weekend this would happen because everyone wants to go home for christmas. just going to put this out there. it's beneficial the schedule they are in, they are recessing tomorrow. recessing next friday, the wives and the husbands would say, come on home. >> that is the point, too. this is not a hardworking congress. we can't accuse them of working too hard. they are sort of republicans anticipating that one day they
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will be able to use this weapon. they will use it far more viciously than democrats dreamed of because democrats aren't built that way. >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell on the senate floor the day they took the nuclear option, he said, you will regret this. you will rue the day, trying to scare democrats, who lets face it they scare easily, oh, my god, if we do this, they will go after us more vigorously. i think harry reid and democrats were right to stare them down. first on the shutdown, second on nuclear option and say, you know what, we're tired of this. there's a bigger issue here, it's the functioning of government. it's the ability of president to make no, ma'am nations and have those nominations confirmed especially since the american people re-elected this person with 51% of the vote for the second time. >> knows he was going to stick with affordable care. >> what should progressives expect out of this. what could harry do for the
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progressive base? >> you what need is a change in policy coming out of both the white house and coming out of congress, democrats in congress. no really anticipate that. i think you will get the appointments, which are really important, but i don't think that you're going to get much of a change in terms of overall policy going forward. i think very, very quickly president obama is just going to be a lame duck and we're going to talk about nothing more than the presidential election. >> are you that pessimistic? have we reached the point democrats have allowed the bar to be moved so far to the right and already begun to focus on conservative policy and the nibbling around the edges of it for progressives that there really is no chance having done this this late that harry reid and the democrats can effect change. >> i'm not quite that pessimistic. certainly in the legislature there's almost no hope of getting anything big through. immigration may be an exception, tax reform, maybe but thought
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don't look good. there's a lot they can do through executive action, climate change one of the big ones. rule change is a big part of that getting more people onto the d.c. circuit and other courts and other branches of the administration. i think what we'll be talking about in terms of policy, although i'm sure we'll talk about 2016 more than we should, everything happening exclusively through administrative actions from now on. >> and particularly the administration of the affordable care act, all about what the administration does going forward. >> masterpieces and city debts. could detroit's expansive art collection save the pensions of city employees or would selling off priced artwork for motor city rob it of its cultural legacy. coming up we'll look at the possible grand bargain evolving for that city's treasures. first new details about who that interpreter was at president nelson mandela's memorial tuesday and why he wasn't signing the correct words. we'll have the latest on that next. did you get chips for the party? nope.
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now an update on the story of the sign language sberptder at tuesday's memorial more nelson mandela. the south african using signs, waving his hands said he suffered a schizophrenic episode and heard voices while on stage. he told "associated press" he saw angels while guess particular lating meaningless signs to viewers. i would like to tell everybody i've offended, anyone please forgive me. but i was doing what i believe is my calling. i was doing what i believe makes a difference. south african official also report his employer, a company called sa interpreters seem to have vanished into thin air. the south african government who was in charge of the memorial said they had no idea who he was prior to the event and there is
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still no world on how thoroughly he was vetted before being allowed to stand behind u.s. barack obama and other world leaders. coming up next, have you heard -- talk about a left turn -- snoopify. we'll share snoop dogg's app after the break. my mother and my grandmother are very old fashioned. i think we both are clean freaks. i used to scrub the floor on my knees. [ daughter ] i've mastered the art of foot cleaning. oh, boy. oh, boy. oh, boy. [ carmel ] that drives me nuts. it gives me anxiety just thinking about how crazy they get. [ doorbell rings ] [ daughter ] oh, wow. [ carmel ] swiffer wetjet. you guys should try this. it's so easy. oh, my. [ gasps ] i just washed this floor. if i didn't see it i wouldn't believe it. [ carmel ] it did my heart good to see you cleaning. [ regina ] yeah, your generation has all the good stuff. [ daughter ] oh, yeah.
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last week the city of detroit became the largest bankrupt city in u.s. history. but with $18 billion in debt, detroit will be forced to make hard cuts. it's not just pension payments that are on the line. last week the city's emergency manager kevyn orr told detroit free press he would like to, quote, find a way to monday ties the detroit institute of art. art museum full of picasso, van goghs, recommend brants, worth $452 and $866 million.
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we have point counter-opponent on the panel. jonathan, you say sell the artwork. >> it's like having a late model mercedes or ferrari or driveway of an abandoned home. people live there and have a fabulous car but wrecked house. detroit is in trouble. $18 billion. >> this is $452 million. so it's not putting a big dent in it. >> they have to do something to whittle away $18 billion. if selling artwork can alleviate pain i say go for it. >> it's scandalous to even think about selling this art. that's a wonderful museum. it's open to all the residents of detroit. i was out there a couple of years ago. it's really fabulous. they talk about what this art worth and put a dollar figure on it. it's priceless. it's inspirational, lifts the
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human spirit. when school children go into that museum and see it's their city's museum, learn about art, go back to school, some of them become artists themselves, we cannot get rid of our cultural artifacts, art, music. >> i'm going to crush the spirit here. i have never understood people that donate millions of dollars to art galleries to be in the benefactor circles. i get asked to do that by national art. my money goes to kids, people who directly need it. if you make $850 million and put it in another museum and go to pensioners and go to underprivileged kids, go to putting the city back on track, by all means do it. for all who donate art museums, i do not question your morality or do that but give it to the girls and boys club, some charities that help underprivileged kids. there's better places for that money in my humble opinion.
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i just blew up twitter. >> you just crushed the spirit. keeping in mind, alex, a lot of people came back from art basel and may be highly offended by your next answer. >> i'll take the middle opinion. i love art, i agree absolutely with what bob said. on the other hand, the city needs money. there is a huge art bubble. it's setting records. it's the perfect time for the city to sell this art and put it where it will really help real, human people. >> here is the question, what is the guarantee that the money would be plowed back into pensions? why wouldn't the completely arbitrary manager, who reports to no one, apparently, but rick snyder put the money in pinks. why not just sell the art to private people and put it into more -- >> there is no guarantee. one of the things we do know is this money will disappear quickly whereas had art is timeless. that art should be in that museum next year and the next
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decade and 50 years from now. do not sell that art. >> sounds like we're not going to get a quorum. bob is alone. we're running out of time. the snoop thing is completely on the other side of seriousness and, of course, snoop released this app in may called snoopify. he was just on late night television a few days and comeback into play. we thought it would be fun to let our panelists do this app. lets go through and see the snoopification of jonathan capehart looking fantastic. >> i love my crown. >> alex looking snoopirific. bob. luke. >> i like it. >> genius. >> was i snoopified? i don't think i was. i might have gotten out of this. thanks to the panel, thanks for
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playing along and thank you all for watching "now." alex will be back tomorrow noon eastern for a special edition of "now," women in politics where she's going to talk to some of the most influential women in politics including house leader nancy pelosi, gill grand from new york. do not miss that. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. blob is metamucil. and this park is the inside of your body. see the special psyllium fiber in metamucil actually gels. and that gelling helps to lower some cholesterol. metamucil. 3 amazing benefits in 1 super fiber.
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if you're trying to manage your ra, now may be the time to ask about xeljanz. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start taking xeljanz if you have any kind of infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests, including certain liver tests, before you start and while you are taking xeljanz. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you are pregnant, or plan to be. taken twice daily, xeljanz can reduce the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe ra, even without methotrexate.
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ask if xeljanz is right for you. i have a cold with this annoying runny nose. [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat all that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh, what a relief it is! you, merry christmas. >> "andrea mitchell reports," fault lines. congress hammered out a bipartisan deal. can the budget survive its first deal tonight with a revolt brewing inside the republican party? >> marco rubio said this, though, last night. quote, your deal is going to make it harder for americans to
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achieve the american dream. what will you say to marco? >> read the deal and get back to me. >> talk around the clock. a race for democrats to push through judicial nominees. majority leader harry reid's solution, turn the chamber into a 24-hour operation frf if we have to work through christmas, we will work through christmas. >> they have been up all night. yes, they are still going. the sign language interpreter at the memorial called out as a fake is speaking out. we'll share what he says caused the miscommunication. >> if i've offended anyone, please, forgive me.