millions of americans got yesterday. allows americans to test for themselves, allowing to lower costs and provide coverage to more 307b million uninsured. president obama took to the white house twitter account tweeting i signed the aca for people like marcelas owens. he lost his mom because she couldn't afford coverage. after getting off to a rocky start, the website is running smoothly and millions of americans are receiving coverage for the first time. in total 6 million americans signed up for coverage under the law in 2013. 2.1 million of those enrolled in private insurance through the law's health exchanges and another 3.9 million received coverage through medicaid expansion. the 4.8 million fewer therein would be if republicans in 25 states hadn't refused to refuse

medicaid. the obstacles will not end any time soon for the obama administration. on tuesday, just before leaving the ball dropping times square justice society meyer block ad provision in the law that requires some religion affiliated group to provide birth control coverage giving the administration until provide to respond. while the court order only aplace to a group of colorado nuns it makes one thing clear. affordable care act hurdles will only continue in 2014. joining me today white house reporter for buzz feed evan mcmorris. for the wire, gabrielle snider. senior editor at bloomberg business week, diane grady. and the host of msnbc's "up," steve kornacki. and ezra klein. i'm going start with you because there's always got to be a cloud in every silver lining. so -- >> that's why you need me? for the pes missile many? >> you are our pessimism correspondent for the day. there is some disparity between

the number of people that signed up which is present. the projections from the white house. what were the white house projections based on? . >> sure. one, it is not just 2.1 million that signed up that's the number that signed up through exchanges of private insurance. another 4 million got intom medicaid coverage. it is really 6 million. at this point to go to your question the number of people the administration thought would have signed up on the exchanges was 3 million. the reason was that they just adopted an estimate used by congressional budget office back in may. and in may, 7 million people would get exchange based insurance in 2014. so the administration simply extrapolated that backwards and put that owe a timetable. the problem was that the congressional budget office simply did not build in the idea that the administration would not have a working hmm.gov

website for would months. when you took two months out of that equation and the first couple of weeks when the traffic was overwhelming and the public interest was overwhelming, take that out, of course your estimate will have to go lower. that's it. it is going to be sxloer i think still unlikely that we will get the 7 million this year. on some level it is not all that important. it is very important that they get the right mix of helping sick people in the insurance pools. but as long as they do that, as long as they keep premiums into 2015, hit 7 million by june of 2014 or you hit in february of 2015 isn't the biggest deal in the world. really significant consequential thing here is, one, people already able to sign, two, much more significantly, they immediate to make a system that's working well enough and good enough word of mouth when people ask others about it. that over the first three years of life more or less and it does get the kind of signup and gets the kind of participation needed for it to become a near universal health care system. on that, they are on a much, much, much better track than a

lot of people thought they would be two months ago. >> to the point you made about the proper mix of healthy and sick people for to it work, there is data now about -- at that time state level exchange, the age distribution which is also important and gets to your point about healthy versus sick. the percent of enrollees under 35 right now in kentucky is at 4 %. washington state, 18%. you are actually seeing at least at the state level, mine, in california, seeing a significant share of people signing up are at that threshold age or under 35. at what point will we get a bigger picture on the age distribution at the practical level? how important are those number? >> that's a good question. this is very important. that 40% number is about where they need to be. washington state does not have enough young people in right now but kentucky does. you have real success from what we can see in california. you need to see that nationally, too. now, one reason the obama administration is not releasing that data yet and it is

plausible although i would like to start seeing it soon is that we expect and we have seen this when massachusetts there were reforms in medicare when we had the prescription drug benefit in 2006. it tends to be at the younger, healthy pier no matter what level they are at. they don't sign up at the beginning. they sign up at tend where the penalty begins to come in. the expectation from everybody is that you are going to get not was just surge in enrollment but the surge in young and healthy people probably in march when the individual mandate beginnings to fight. back in massachusetts we didn't see the young people really sign up until the final month of when they could do it without hitting the mandate. the same is true in the medicare prescription benefit when younger seniors didn't sign up until the last month they could before getting a penalty. the danger here, big danger for the obama administration, is that they are so afraid the mandate will be unpopular that the democrats in 2013 will

suffer from it. really, if the system will be strong in 2015 they actual need people to be afraid of paying the mandate in 2014. in that final month or two months, they do sign up and you do get the young numbers you need in order to keep premiums low no 2015. >> the question of where ezra took us is where politics will wind up being. the republicans seem to have hit a big end for the repeal message. people actually have the insurance. it makes it a lot more difficult to repeal it that issue of younger people being the later adopters and then the mandate eventually kicking in, it seems that that's where the politics goes republicans. to convince those people to not fear the mandate and take the mandate and the coverage. >> right. since the beginning of the whole process we have seen that fight go on. we saw some groups create a fake obamacare draft cards that you can then burn and not -- obamacare. there is that pressure to push on whether or not you should

sign up or not. i think people are going to undermine the law. some people are trying to do that. i think it exists, as you say and makes it harder to make that happen now. it is harder when there is -- tangible benefit to advertise to not sign up for it. on the other hand, there are other -- lot of other hurdles that are going part of this whole fight coming next year as well. sarah cliff -- that works for ezra wrote a great piece today where she mentioned access that open -- availability of doctors and network size, co-pays, these kind of things, the actual mechanics of how obamacare works now will be part of the conversation. some of that stuff is kind of negative for people who are supporters of the law in terms of having less access to smaller networks and you may have had before. you may lose your doctor at the higher co-pays may expect it because the way the law works. there is a lot of fight now about it will be about how health care works, i think, as opposed to just sign up for it. >> that is -- if that's a way of going about undermining the law.

the law is a fait accompli. going into the year, they thought they had a really big picture, obamacare nightmare must be repealed sort of. that's simple. if it is going to be processed i am wondering how that plays out. >> they thought healthcare.gov would not work out. they didn't anticipate this rule. probably could have told them that. there are a couple of things. one is that what the republicans have -- i don't know what the -- long term cane see a world where this thing works and the republicans -- at some point he is there to get off the message. i don't see where that happens. try to get through 2014 on the repeal message. not having much to say about it in terms of replacement. what i'm hearing is more specifically about those 25 states, 25 states did not expand in medicaid at this point. what the first one to go. i they have news this morning, you see up there that like ohio, casic fought with the republicans to get the expansion in ohio. news this morning that casic is in a primary challenge now.

throws the sorts of things. i don't know if this will be a serious challenge or not. if this is the kind of thing -- if john kasich is able to get through this, fine. he was able to do that. that to me is the next question. it could be millions more right now enrolled in the 25 states. get in line. is that going start to happen this year? >> that's a question i always had. the denial of coverage strategy that we will just deny people this coverage and encourage them to deny and it complicated way of doing. constituent service let alone positive particulars. >> it has been interesting watching the republicans message for the last few months. they have been -- critics of the implementation of obama air. they really -- lot of ways are almost giving the blueprint of how to fix the program. and so i think that message comes in on itself and -- makes the repeal very difficult to continue talking about it. they are saying that fix that -- fix the website. improv some of the gaps in the coverage.

some of the things that were never intended. you actually have all these republican talking points that are going to be a bit of a loophole. i don't think that -- there is going to be much will in the -- republicans to draft a new batch of policies. >> to go back to the senate finance. can you imagine to go back and start this bill all zbloefr they won't do that. all these programs are clunky and disappoint when they start. john boehner said the last time you said horrendous it was about the drug benefit that george bush introduced. all of these plans, even social security, was underwhelming to start. i think at this point people accept this as the status quo and it has to be fixed. the reality is we are in the most expensive and least effective health care system in the world so that system itself has to be fixed as well. some of the disappointment will be people coming into a system that has issues like access to doctors and that's not insurance issues. it is a wider issue we have to fix as a country. >> they have to sell that message as that goes along.

>> right. as things happen now, whatever glitches might happen on the open weeks of this new benefit, nothing is open, your insurance company's fault. >> put it book the insurance company. >> off of them. >> we have to go. the last word to you on the ezra on the politics, do you foresee the white house finally actually focussing on the medicaid piece so it focuses on -- the poor which is not exactly where poll tigszs like to see it? >> funny. i have been writing about this today. i don't think they are going to focus on it. you are on the place on the politics. republicans hate entitlements. they want to free tend or put forward public pace. this is really all about privilege at insurance and government takeover. they are afraid to talk about the medicaid piece. >> "washington post" ezra klein, thank you as always. after the break, there is a new mayor in the big apple. perhaps a new standard for the progressive movement. we will discuss bill deblasio's

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putting an end to social and economic inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love. today we commit to a new progressive direction in new york. >> bill deblasio's inauguration as new york's mayor had many hoping for others and fearing a new era of progressive governance in gotham city. deblasio is the most powerful liberal in the country. running a city of over 8 million people. new york will now be a closely watched laboratory for populous theories of government that have

never been enacted on such a large scale. gavin newsom laid out on the left a lot of us are counting on his success. the centerpiece of the platform will be to address the rising inequality. in 1908 the richest 1% of new yorkers took home 12% of all earnings. a figure that shot up by 39% last year. the bottom 20%, some 1.7 million people, earn a median annual income of dlags$908900 a missou. his mission to tackle the crisis was not just empty rhetoric. >> when i said i would take dead aim at the tale of two cities, i meant it. we will ask the very wealthy to pay a little more in taxes so that we can offer full-day

universal. >> with the enjoying his honeymoon, more accustomed to schmoozing with wall street and concerned about it is drifts are now busy budying up to the red-hot it mayor. >> i strongly endorse bill deblasio's core campaign commitment. this inequality problem bedevil it is entire country and i can tell you from my work much in the world. >> yet, navigating the deblasio's political marriage will not be easy. if hillary runs for president she will need friends on wall street and main street. much of this rests outside of his control. as jonathon chase writes in the "new york" magazine the greatest galts in particular decisions to spend money the poor play out in state capitals in washington.

deblasio will need signoff from andrew cuomo and democrats to raise tax owes the wealthiest and when it comes to washington, fighting poverty is the last thing on the minds of congressional republicans. joining us now from washington is "new york" magazine's jonathon chase who offers some ideas of his own in this week's issue on how mayor deblasio can help the poor in new york city. great article, by the way. >> thanks. >> how difficult do you think it will be for bill deblasio to make real a lot of these promises about reducing inequality in the city of charles. >> it will be hard. this there is a real mismatch here. what swept him into office is the fact that new york city is a very democratic electorate and not like the united states. it is, you know, 80% democrats in the city. but it is not a job that lends itself nationally to a big attack on the inequality like you can do if you controlled congress and the white house. there's -- you know, deblasio's proposals in terms of pre-kindergarten education and slightly higher taxes on the

rich are worth and very good. but that's a pretty marginal attack on inequality. if you want to mount a much larger attack he would -- you would have to do it at the national level and does not have that kind of power. >> and it is interesting to watch, though, the clinton-deblasio dance that's happening. the question really becomes sort of who needs you more. you have bill clinton who his wife may run for president. that would mean that you want to have the left wing of the party with her and wouldn't want another challenger like obama was in 2008. but at the same time, you know, if she strays too far, i guess, into the world of bill deblasio, she risks upsetting potential allies on wall street. >> that's exactly right. the tone of the deblasio inauguration was more jarring and combative than would typically have at an inauguration. i can see why that would be concerning for the clintons to want to the get too close to that. i think that they never politically -- i think they want to -- make their peace with the

liberal critique of inequality in the economy. i think that's legitimately part of their plat form and the kind of thing they would address as president. it is the kind of thing bill clinton did address as president when bill clinton was president and in the '90s they did -- increase the earned income tax credit. that's part of who he is. he also has a political interest, like you say. >> i want to bring the panel back in. far it be for me to make everything about the clintons, even though this is deblasio's moment, i dash i want to play devil's advocate. there was an interesting take on what was happening at that inauguration. he's enly said that clinton was not splitting the difference. clinton, as always, was thinking about tomorrow. he want no one listening to he was to split the difference so he offered praise and equal amounts. here is bill clinton actually give thing equal measure of praise. >> i'm grateful to both mayors, mayor bloomberg for his years of

service and for the legacy he will leave and to mayor deblasio for his good and caring hands. >> what's your take on that? >> classic clinton in way. it was jarring to people and in part of the reason that -- that comment from bill clinton draws attention is because it was sort of -- the tone was different. he said something nays about michael bloomberg. you were not hearing that from anybody else. it must have been a miserable day to be him. the clinton thing is so fascinating. his reputation as president, obviously, he is the new democrat from the south. a lot to be said from the alliance between wall street and welfare reform and all these things. at the same time like jonathon said the message of inequality was the heart of clinton's campaign. he talked about how during the reagan and bush years the rich got richer. he ran on the call for increased

tax owes the rich. he got that through the first year. the question to deblasio is, yes, new york is difficult itself in terms of making huge changes. new york city. but new york state. andrew cuomo, the governor embodies that moderation of bill clinton in 1990. it may be a relatively modest idea. if deblasio can get cuomo to move symbolically that says something where the democratic party is. >> it is sort of a jarring sort of move to go from a literal from new york city to saying he is trying to wage war against inequality against new york city. if that experiment fails if it stumbles because of resistance in albany and stumbles because the legislative agenda can't be enacted, what happens to the enthusiasm of the progressive movement for where we see -- what we see happening? >> deblasio is in a similar position as obama was. he has a lot of energy and optimism and had a lofty

campaign. advanced by ideas that galvanized support. his challenge is to put up wins, to put up policy wins that liberals in new york and around the country can point to as, you know models of -- either other cities or even federal. obama had to deal with the republican house. deblasio has to deal with fellow democrat andrew cuomo. he has a much easier path than obama did in dealing with congress. so if he isn't able to come up with policy ideas, building on, you know, starting from pre-k and going forward, and -- we are looking at, you know, sort of an empty term as far as delivering on policies, i think that would be a big setback for progressives. >> i mean, jonathon, the -- it is interesting. this is a city that has 22,000 homeless children and 389,000 millionaires. i mean, the average rent, $3,049 which sun heard of to people around the country. it is a city tin equality gap is so stark and the problems are so

difficult but they are so concentrated in new york city, what is the incentive in albany to help deblasio be a success as a progressive mayor? >> right. that is a good point. the issue statewide is different. in some ways they are similar. they are within deblasio's own coalition because a lot of the things that liberals in cities like new york viscerally want, don't necessarily advance liberal goals. if you want to expand the amount of housing supply, which is the only way to reduce rents, you have to let people build up developers build more spaces and build more big buildings in the -- valuable space you have. a lot of activists at the ground level don't want that. they want to keep things where they are. that's what you need to do if you wouldn't create more housing and create more dash bigger tax base of rich people to fund the social programs of the most poor and vulnerable immediate. >> that was the argument of bloomberg. the rich people come in and their taxes are what pay for the ability to help the poor. that's their argument.

you have big box retail, walmart. that met great resistance. >> bloomberg early on in the wake of 9/11 got through attacks on the wealthy. this is -- concept that's not alien to mike bloomberg either. the question to me is -- argument in the democratic party is taking place a little bit more in new york and a lot nationally about how safe is it to be sort of as outwardly progressive to embrace the idea and how politically safe is it to do that? that's why i'm so interested to see if cuomo ends up budge oygt. cuomo is a perfect symbol of the resistance to outward progress. if cuomo is forced politically to embrace it on the tax question, i think that tells you a lot. >> perfect symbol and potential rival to one hillary rodham clinton. i great article. everybody should take a look at it. coming up, a new year brings a new round of snow. parts of the country are about to get walloped by a major winter storm. we will having a live report next. hey linda!

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the snooes bracing for a major winter storm packing subzero temperatures and plizard warnings and more an foot for some areas. with heavy snowfall expected overnight, it could mean a disaster for the friday morning commute from d.c. to maine. meanwhile, more,000 flights have already been canceled today. american airlines said it is canceling flights in the new york and boston areas tonight and tomorrow. joining us nis sarah. which areas will get the worst of this? how are cities preparing? >> new york is expecting 6 two 12 inches. some areas of the northeast up to 18 inches. the massachusetts governor authorized the national guard to assist if they are needed. he also said that they are

sending state employees home early. just to give awn idea of the preparations there. here in new york where we are seeing about 300 salt spreaders out on the roads, trying to get ahead of the storm, about a thousand snowplows standing by, as well as people at the stores buying up snow shelves, food, water, preparing to hunker down as long as they immediate to weather out this storm. officials warning people to stay off the roads. they say that if you do have to go out there, be sure to pack extra supplies and flashlights, food, water. just be prepared in case you get stranded overnight. port authorities staffing extra people. trying to keep the bridges and tunnels open and the trains running. right now the big -- takeaway from this is if you don't have to be outside, stay inside. back to you. >> get your mittens out. thank you. after the break, more an dozen states kick off 2014 with minimum wage increases. can congress follow suit and get it down at the federal level?

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frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. the federal minimum wage may stand at a poultry $7.25 an hour. as of january 1, 21 state minimum wages now exceed the federal level. this week, 13 states from arizona to vermont saw their minimum wages increase. giving roughly 2.5 millilow inc workers a raise. the last time congress raised the minimum wage was four years ago. before that they hadn't raised it in a decade. the practical minimum wage is so low that it is $3 less an the minimum wage of 50 years ago which in 1958 was the equivalent of $10.60 an hour. as many as 11 states are expected to consider increases in 2014. fueled by the living wage protests that took place in over 100 cities last month and

overwhelming public support. a new gallup poll shows three-quarters of americans support raising the minimum wage. 57% of republicans and 64% of independents according to a recent poll. a campaign was launched for a higher wage in 2014. according to "the new york times," they see it as a wedge issue that they hope will replace candidates in a difficult position but also as tool and puts republicans on the wrong side of an important value issue when it comes to fairness. the current democratic bill in congress, the fair minimum wage act, would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016. a raise that would increase the pay for an estimated 27.8 million workers. this is an issue that obviously -- democrats is a good political issue but also a really important bottom line issue for millions and millions of americans.

>> it is. we are in a economy where 70% is fueled by consumers. those consumers need money in their pockets and reality is that in real terms they lost 6% of their spending power since the last time we raised the minimum wage four years ago. we are not even keeping up with inflation at this point in a period there has been very little. it is a fairness issue but it is an economic issue. republicans understand the level you are actually sabotaging the economy because people have no money to spend. >> that's a great point. the idea is that if you raise the minimum wage, you know, employers will lay people off and reduce jobs. but the actual sort of economic theory, right, economic policy, and they -- estimate that raising the minimum wage would generate $32 billion in new wages for 27.8 million workchers they could then spend that into the economy. without it create 85,000 new jobs. why does that economic case not move the republicans? >> i think it should. you see a lot of -- right now we are at a situation where the

minimum wage is not enough to keep a family of lee out of poverty. i think that is something that's -- understood across the political spectrum, it is not a -- not a good status quo. but it all comes down to whether or not d.c. wants to pick up this issue. and there's very little enthusiasm in the congress. >> not only not -- you know keeping a family out of poverty but -- on the bottom line, in order to afford your rent, okay, on the minimum wage, west virginia and arkansas, you need to work a 63-hour workweek in order to afford the average rent in west virginia. two-bedroom apartment working 40-hour-a week on minimum wage. california, maryland, virginia, d.c., high-cost states like new york, you need to work 130 hours in a week in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment. in hawaii, 175 hours. it is not just a subsistent issue. >> the fight about democrats

want to use this sort of simple, easy-to-access and minimum waging to blow out to a larger discussion about income and about buying power and economic power and in the country right now. and that idea where -- i have to work harder to get the same stuff i had 50 years ago is a message that translates across middle class. not just the poor, all the way up. there is a -- this is a very serious part of this discussion is that it is -- it is like a tallisman to tell a tale of the income problem and wage problem, wage gap in the country. numbers like that are really the kind of thing they are hoping to drive discussion toward when talking about middle class or minimum wages that affects the very poor. >> i would use the words work and word wait. steve, typically what republicans are arguing against federal spending and things like that, on the basis of sort of the indigent taking from the better off. minimum wage is inherently about work. inherently about people who have

jobs that work. >> in the last 17 years, there have been two examples of congress passing the federal minimum wage increase. both spurred by in 1996, the democratic president and republican congress, republican congress just taken a beating over the government shutdown, gingrich was leading the republican congress and numbers -- parallels here to the dmn 1996 and today. in what newt gingrich as speaker in 1996 basically decided this is an election year, our numbers are in the trash. minimum wage is popular back then as it is today. he said this is what we are going to eventually -- middle. take this off the table and he did it in exchange for tax credits for small businesses and tax breaks for small businesses. something roughly similar happened in 2007 when democrats took over congress and they got the bush administration to budge again. the thing that democrats are typically able to offer to republicans in these negotiations is some kind of small business or business taxes and tax credit. i'm wondering if the republicans of 2013 will be open to the same kind of tradeup in the face of similar poll numbers. >> i'm wondering whether or not

if president obama were to take what a lot of people in the progressive movement want him to do is raise the wages of low-income workers. what would be the reaction of republicans understanding that this is a popular issue? >> i think one thing is how much you raise it. when you say let's raise it to $9 it is a lot more support than raising it to $10.10 an hour. that's one factor. i think that there is some support and we will see a remarkable amount of support in part because the nature of workers have changed. it is not just teenagers. only 50% of the people making minimum wage are under 24. half of them are over the age of 24 and trying to support family. i think that you see a lot more support if that happens. >> executive action by obama like that, we know what -- >> insight impeachment furor. >> it would not go through. >> that's not -- as i said, they are trying to have a larger discussion and election narrative based on income. i interviewed chuck shumber this. he talked a lot about this minimum wage thing.

you know, he said that this is supposed to be a discussion about the -- larger issues. something like that,ing a direct action to minimum wage, i think that might veer them off course and do a discussion over executive power. they don't want to be talking about rather than minimum wage and wages in what they want to be talking about into the election year. >> to be completely political about it, it is a great issue to have it on the ballot. playing out at the state level is not a bad thing in a midterm election when we have lower turnout. >> absolutely. i think obama is at a point where his involvement on issues instantly polarize it. so those numbers that we showed, republicans for minimum wage if obama was at the press conference today, you know, urging the -- adoption of this law, you would see those republican numbers drop dramatically. >> i'm wondering, you would see them drop dramatically but in the real lives of their own constituents, this is something that's no only popular but that it is important for at what point do republican voters begin to say that my ideology not

important than my pocketbook. >> the interesting balance act, i watched, mark pryoror, up for re-election, this year, 2014, up for re-election this year and -- arkansas is one of the states where democrats it is a red trending state with -- democratic roots where they -- lot of working poor in arkansas, putting minimum wage on the ballot in arkansas in 2014. mark pryor put the position i'm against raising the federal minimum wage. this is a washington power grab. within the state of arkansas, i'm for doing this. it meets the interest of the constituency but also allows him to distance himself from the national democratic party and there is that -- i don't know how to explain the attitude that's prevalent in a lot of states. >> like people in kentucky being all for connect but aiding obamacare. same thing. coming up, colorado redefines the meaning of rocky mountain high. we will discuss the mile-high state's legal recreational pot.

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the majority leader harry reid has just confirmed the senate plans to vote monday to extend unemployment benefits for three months. the bill would extend jobless insurance retroactively. meanwhile, they legalized it! colorado officially became the first place in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use yesterday. surprise. hundreds of tourists in cole and residents flocked to the shop to legally purchase the drug. >> i would just like to go down to my basement and listen to music and have a good time and not bother anybody. >> to pick up a quarter bag and go home and smoke weed and watch movies and play video games.

>> i think he went to central casting to find people that looked like they would buy legalized marijuana. pot purchasers must be at least 21 years old. colorado residents can purchase up to one ounce. non-residents are limited to a quarter ounce. pot shops cannot open until 8:00 a.m. and must close by midnight. people get the munchies around the time. i wasn't that surprised colorado took the lead on this. i grew up there. it is an interesting state and interesting mix of pro-gun and pro-individual freedom. what does this do to the drug legalization movement? will this catch on or will colorado be an outlier? >> had is one of the few issues where you see the progressives are moved on it and want this to happen. and it is still such a hot-button issue in washington. where i live in washington. not here in new york. i'm stuck in. but -- you know, obama has shown

like very little interest in evolving on this issue. he evolved on gay marriage. this is one of the things they can't touch it at the national level. but this bubbling up from the state perspective seems to really be a place where the left is trying to make this happen on the marijuana thing. colorado is now going to be the big test. does all of the things that have been said about it for a long time. increased crime, does it raise tax revenue? does it save the state money? everything is now going to be looked at and examined and assume ring not going stoned very, very well analyzed. >> i wonder, though, if this does become an issue that does of do tail into the conversation of fairness and inequity. if you look at who gets arrested for possession of marijuana, 2012, 749,825 people arrested. 48% of drug arrests were for marijuana. if you look at the racial gap in terms of who gets arrested african-americans, four times is likely as whites to be arrested on charges of marijuana

possession. even though the two groups don't use the drug at the same rate. the idea it is a resource issue, i'm wondering why president obama and democrats don't embrace it. >> what strikes me about the issue is there is a lot of energy on the left on the issue. a lot of generational energy. i think it is something that breaks across party lines and get to younger voters. how many young dash i'm saying young, under 40, very, very libertarian-minded conservatives all for rand paul in the race and one of the pre-eminent issues that did it. i noticed on this issue, i think will is a lot more room for sort of -- lot more of us in the bipartisan-cross partisan support for it. when you get to elected officials, you have rand paul out there on the right, barack obama wants to be quiet and governor of colorado and hay wants it. the mayor of denver and political leadership class wants to stay away from this. i thin underneath them, this is a lot of cross-pollination going on in the country. >> poll after poll shows that

americans by and large support decriminalizing and a lot of the medicinal use is probably not -- wide banned on medicinal use. i think that it is -- i think the main issue that drives people is not the morality around drugs whether it is a gateway druk and incarceration and the huge cost, huge cost as a society of incarcerating these people. you saw the numbers. also the cost of the drug war, going after people for smoking pot just does not seem like money well spent. >> all right. we will change gears. pope francis may be earning accolades from everyone from "time" magazine to paul ryan. the home depot's ceo isn't having it. in an interview with cnbc, income inequality, generalities. i accused the pope of focusing on the negative. he relayed thinks concern to new

york, cardinal timmy dolan who had an obvious response. >> i said, well, that could be a misunderstanding of the holy father's message. the pope loves poor people and rich people. he loves people. all right. >> i just find it absolutely hysterical that we are now at the point the rich are fooling that they need to have the actual love of the pope conveyed to them personally. how much more entitlement can you have than saying weigh also need the pope to show us the love? >> obviously it isn't affecting their power very much if they are able to communicate that to the pope. i don't think i'm able to do that. what's interesting about this is this pope is such -- interesting division of political division now because you have -- i mean the pope is international leader of the fight against lgbt rights and abortion rights is now the darling of the left. and the right wing would generally sort of -- would like to see and it is also -- made catholicism much more interesting now.

helped get it past the bad years. people interested in becoming catholics, becoming christians, don't like it as much. right wing leaders are pushing back. this is another example of this. this guy is a strong republican, bug republican donor and expressing concerns of this pope and lot of other republican leaders are express. >> hay is in a fund-raising campaign right now for st. patrick's. he may -- in fact be -- as to why he is raising money. having good catholic school girl that i am, i have never seen the catholic church skew towards the rich. they always had that thought of making the world more equal and it is very much about the poor. i think that it is -- lot of rhetoric here. i think that if he is having challenges with his fund-raising campaign, it probably doesn't have a lot to do with what's happening at the vat ran. >>sy wanted to quickly get this take on harry reid.

>> i think right now it is an open question. would questions here. can you get to 60 votes? harry reid putting it on the floor, do you have 60 votes? highest unemployment rate in nevada, he is for this. the question is can you pick up a few others? is it mccain, make from arizona? the other question is, are there going to be any of the red-state democrats, heidi heidkamp that says no to this. if you get it to the senate you still have the house. >> still have the house. thank you so much. don't forget to watch steve every weekend on "up" at 8:00 a.m. eastern on msnbc. that's all for now. i will see you tonight when i fill in on "the last word." this is for you. ♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," bracing for impact. a major storm takes aim at 100 million people from the midwest to the east coast. blizzard-like conditions, heavy snow, high winds and extreme freezing temperatures. already creating dangerous conditions on the roads. we will bring you the very latest forecast, the travel delays, and storm preps. health care roller coaster. wild ride continues for the affordable care act. signed into law nearly four years ago. as of wednesday in full effect for nearly 2 million people. now there is another wrench thrown into the rollout. 11th hour decision by supreme court justice sonia sotomayor. antarctic mission accomplished. 52 passengers on the australian ship locked in ice and stranded since christmas finally hitching a ride home