>> congratulations on your budget, congress. americans still hate you. >> the american people has stated the most important problem is the congress's inability to function. >> i'm supporting the president in his efforts. >> the president has a pen. we have legislative authority too. >> this has to be a year of action. if we work together, there's nothing we can't achieve. with washington e mersed in a heated dialogue about poverty and pursestrings, this afternoon president obama headed to north carolina to lay out the latest plank of his economic agenda, manufacturing. >> we have always been about research, innovation, and then commercializing that research and innovation so that everybody can benefit. we create good jobs and middle

class families then are able to buy the products that result from this innovation. and you get a virtuous cycle where everybody's doing better. >> there remains one huge problem. an opposition party that would rather use the economy as a weapon against him. the president will announce two more manufacturing hubs in the coming weeks. if passed, do not expect much. afterall, this is a congress that wouldn't even extend unemployment assistance to those who need it. something the president took notice of this afternoon. >> folks aren't looking for a handout. they're not looking for special treatment. there are a lot of people sending out resumes every single

day, but the job market is still tough in pockets around the country and people need support. a little help. congress should do the right thing and extend this vital lifeline for millions of americans. >> republicans prefer to accuse democrats of playing politics. >> so far, i think quite frankly, senator reid, democrats have wanted the issue more than the solution. if they wanted to sit down with a trillion dollar plus bill, we're willing to find common ground and reprioritize spending. >> as long as that includes cutting spending from the very same people republicans insist they're trying to help. while income inequality, st stagnate wages have risen, can democrats actually do anything

about it? joining me now from washington is the senator from massachusetts, elizabeth warren. thank you so much for joining us. especially at this moment in american politics when i can say joyously we're at least talking about issues of fairness, about a livable wage. >> yes. on the heels of unemployment insurance, failing to reach a cord in the senate, how powerful is this narrative going to be in terms of shaping legislation? >> i think this is still very powerful. this is the moment when we really have to start fighting back and showing the republicans it's not going to work just to continue obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. this issue of unemployment insurance is really not hard. we need to extend unemployment insurance. we have done this many times in the past. we did it during the bush administration when unemployment gets too high. we do it for those who need it most. the democrats proposed this.

the republicans said, oh, yeah, we want to do this, but you need to pay for it. we said you never needed pay fors in the past. we sat down and came up with pay fors. and then they said, no, we don't mean that. we want to change this and we want to change that. are you kidding me? we have people out there who are suffering. we have people who have worked hard all their lives and played by the rules and now they got knocked out during a terrible economic downturn. they can't get back to a job. they're applying and working for it and the republicans are saying, just cut them off. just leave them with nothing. >> that's precisely the point. it's not a mystery that 1.3 million americans are hurting. when you reach this point with republicans and they back down and they back out and there's a

human cost, i mean, what do you say to your colleagues in the upper chamber? is there a palpable sense of anger today given what's transpired in the last 24 hours? >> i think there's such an enormous frustration and being appalled. they really want to look at people on the other side and say, you're willing to do this over politics? you're really willing to cut these people off, to leave them with no money to put food on the table, to put a roof over their heads, to take care of their children? the republicans are so caught in in playing political games at every single turn, at making sure that everything the president does to try to get the economy back on track, everything we all do to try to support hard working families gets blocked by the republicans. i've got to tell you, this is part of the inside game. we have to talk with each other democrats to democrats and

across the aisle to other republicans. this is about all of america. this is about america saying to the republican party, you can't keep blocking everything that moves this country forward. this has to stop. >> on that note of working across the aisle, you unveiled last week the truth in settlements act. to those of us on the sidelines, it's amazing that democrats and republicans, that republicans can agree with democrats on anything, especially something like that, which is about oversight, which in many cases in conservative circles is a problem. how was the deal done? >> remember what this deal is about. we've got all these regulations out there that should be enforced and the principal tool that the regulatory agencies use is when they find someone breaking the law, they get a settlement with them.

they give a big headline with this settlement. what they don't do is they don't tell you what's down in the fine print. they don't tell you it may be tax deductible. sometimes they totally hide the settlements. they announce the headlines and keep the details considerable. i -- this is an area where we agree. we need for the government, if it is going to stand up and say, this is the settlement, then you've got to make the details available so the rest of us, those of us in congress but the public generally can look at it and say whether we think it is such a great deal or not. >> i want to ask you as we talk about handouts and oversight, the issues of corporations and

increasing power. this is something the supreme court is dealing with. washington state announced today they may give $9 billion -- they've given $9 billion in tax breaks to boeing. they may give more. if there's a priority for the republican party at this point, it seems like it is a corporations. mitt romney says corporations are people too. what happened to people? are they not people too? corporation person hood and the health and strength of corporations is being con flated with the health and the strength of the american people. how do we recalibrate? >> i think you've got the real heart of it. i think that's the fundamental issue right here in washington. who does the government really work for? does it work for the rich and the powerful, for the big

corporations, or does it work for real people, for families who work hard and play by the rules? and right now, we've got a game that's rigged. it's working for the big corporations. it's just not working for families. unemployment insurance is one example of that. look at the sequestration as another example. we cut head start. we cut meals on wheels, the things that effect real people. the things that people put out of work. and yet, if you already had your big juicy tax break, your ability to move money overseas, remember it didn't get effected by the sequestration. it was just as big and as rich as ever. we have these tilts in the government so the rich and the powerful and the big corporations, they keep raking it in. and families just keep sliding further and further down. we've gotten as hard as we can get on this, as close as we can

get on this. we've got, got to pull this back. that is our task right here, right now, here in this city. >> the battle continues. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. after the break, president obama has laid out his plan to work with congress while members of congress are trying to figure out their way of working around republicans. that's next on "now." ♪

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president obama may be ready for a year of action, but that's not stopped the gop from ending

obstruction. the same party that shut down the federal government last year blocked not one, but two measures to extend long-term unemployment insurance for 1.3 millions. the first vote would have extended the benefits for 11 months and it would have paid for that with a cut to medicare health providers. the second vote, which would have extended the unemployment assistance for just three months, failed. to hear it from republicans, you'd think unemployment insurance was some newfangled untested government program and not a well-established program signed into law by president franklin d. roosevelt and extended by republicans five times without any offsets under

republican president george w. bush. he knew extending unemployment insurance was really important to a lot of people. >> no final bill was sent to me extending unemployment benefits for about 750,000 americans. these americans rely on their unemployment benefits to pay their mortgage, rent, food, and other critical bills. they need our assistance in these difficult times and we can't let them down. >> the same goes for increasing the minimum wage, which is set to be an uphill fight thanks to the contemporary gop even though it was raised by republicans under that same guy, george w. bush. the same goes for immigration reforms, which to conservatives

raises a new frontier. immigration reform, it was very nearly passed under, you guessed it, george w. bush. what can the gop agree on? according to poltico, presidents can't get through a sentence without mentioning obama or obamacare. didn't they already shut down the government over obamacare? and aren't people signing up for obamacare by the millions? so what. according to chief deputy, i think the shutdown is now ancient history. it's been eclipsed by obamacare overwhelmingly. joining me now from washington is congressman from minnesota's

fifth district. thanks so much for joining us. congrats on the book. >> thank you, alex. thank you so much. >> i'm in vague disbelief that i just read civil minutes of text sort of in praise of what george w. bush accomplished. your thoughts. >> it's often said this is not your father's or grandfather's republican party. it's not even the republican party of five years ago. these folks are gone tea party over the edge and they're obsessive, they're extremists. they destroyed the republican party and use it only in name. the fact is we haven't done anything. we've only pass about 60 bills. most of them are suspensions and post office namings and a few of them have been to reopen the government after they have

shutdown. those critical issues, they're not going anywhere near them. we are happy and quite pleased to see a republican bill that won't shut down the government. that's the bar that they have established. that's the legacy of john boehner. >> the president today talked about a year of action and somehow i don't think that year of action included a bunch of post office namings. the people in this country would like to see something done about income inequality. given this republican party is republican in name only and they don't actually want to do anything, are we going to get anything done on these big ticket issues? what's your thinking on the minimum wage, for example? >> i'm one of those people who is eternally optimistic. we may get them to agree to do what's right for the american people. if we don't, we're going to make

it clear to the american people who is standing in the way of their better quality of life. i think we have to fight to do what's right and to promote the public welfare. >> if we're talking about getting things done, this appropriations bill, would seem to be the exception to the rule. it sort of caused us all here at the show to pause and think, how is such a thing possible? this is almost a $1.1 trillion bill and it is likely going to get through the house. it seems as if you have one idea, one thing you want to get passed, the house republicans, it won't happen because they'll plant an ideological flag in it. if you have it packaged in paperwork, they will pass it. >> you have a point there. here's the thing. if you talk to republicans on

the sidelines, in the different places that we can talk informally, many of them are not for this extremism. the fact is that there is a hard core ideological crew that other people get swept away with because they fear a primary from their right. that's one of the problems. i'm waiting on those republicans who remember eisenhower and reagan and bush. they've been buffaloed and corralled by the extreme and that's a sad thing. >> it's a shot in the arm for those who have been buffaloed. i want to switch gears a little bit because you have just written this book about your faith and your family. we talk a lot about being black in america and muslim in

america. i have to get your thoughts on a member of the republican national committee that asked the question, have you ever seen a muslim that contributes anything positively to the american way of life? it's sad to me that that's where the conversation is at from these people who claim to want to serve the nation. do you have a response to that? >> well, you know, my 19-year-old son is an active duty -- a member of the united states military. he's a muslim. he loves his country. and i think he owes him and 6,000 other muslims serving in our armed forces an apology. i remember general collin -- oh, my goodness. >> colin powell.

>> thank you for that rescue. he talked about that young muslim man who gave his life in service to his nation when people were attacking president obama saying that he was a muslim trying to use that to attack him. and he talked about how, you know, you look at the cemetery. there are crosses there. there are jewish stars. here there was a crescent where this young man had made the ultimate sacrifice for his family. in the book, i talk about a first responder who ran into the towers site when other americans were trying to escape the flames of the burning towers because he so loved his fellow countrymen and women. he doesn't have the facts. he's wrong, but he wants to divide us. he's trying to create scapegoats. he's exactly what's wrong with the modern republican party. they need to denounce this guy and reject him.

this hate stuff has got to go. herman cane tried it. they tried to make it part of the republican brand. thank god there are people in deerborn who are saying no to it. >> it's a story that needs to be told. congratulations on the book. thank you for your time. >> thank you ma'am. coming up, a new season of "duck dynasty" airs tonight. while equal rights may still be a problem on the small screen, there are major strives forward in the big leagues. i'll explain after the break. er. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ]

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words will have on the ratings? where watching duck dynasty is a form of escapism, now it can't help feeling like taking sides. maybe that's not such a bad thing. our country is at a cross roads on the issue of equality. this week the cofounder of go proud, an organization of gay conservatives, announced he was leaving the republican party and becoming an independent because of the, quote, tolerance of bigotry in the gop. i can't bring myself to carry the republican label any longer. adding, the current leadership lacks the courage to stand up to it. i'm not sure they ever will. he's not alone in standing up and making hard decisions in service of equal rights. yesterday a federal judge struck

down oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage just days after a similar decision in utah. judge kern wrote, equal protection is at the very heart of our legal system and central to our consent to be governored. it is not a scarce commodity. a congressman offered a crass rebuttal saying the judges need some basic plumbing lessons. the sources of it, including the congressman, are becoming increasingly marginalized. these decisions in oklahoma and utah will be litigated. even in these reddest of red states, that progress looks irreversible. once you've gotten up the courage to take sides, it's

really hard to go back. the highest court in the land is taking up the issue of reproductive freedom. it is questioning buffer zone law in massachusetts. i will discuss the shame game with the president of pro choice america. that's next on "now." ...but he'd wait for her forever, and would always be there with the biggest welcome home. for a love this strong, dawn only feeds him iams. with 2x the meat of other leading brands... ...to help keep rocky's body as strong as a love that never fades. iams. keep love strong. with 2x the meat. love the iams difference or your money back. plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin

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0f the 2014 olympic winter games. it's connecting over one million low-income americans to broadband internet at home. it's a place named one america's most veteran friendly employers. next is information and entertainment in ways you never thought possible. welcome to what's next. comcastnbcuniversal. there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate.

really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. right now in the state of massachusetts, it is against the law for any person to stand within 35 feet of the entrance of any health clinic that provides abortions provided that person is not trying to enter the facility. it was a law that was enacted in 2007 in response to years of relentless intimidation and sometimes deadly violence

directed at women entering these clinics. after hearing arguments on massachusetts so-called buffer zone, the supreme court seemed poised to strike it down. specifically the court is arguing over a 35 foot wide area that exists in front of a health clinic. a space that is roughly the width of two parking spots. that's the space that anti-choice activists claims is violating their rights. it is one quarter the size of buffer space in polling zones throughout the country. according to anti-choice activists, that infringes on their right to free speech. the face to today's legislation is eleanor. she is a 77-year-old

anti-abortion activist who plants herself outside a planned parenthood in boston. she posed no threat. and it frustrates her attempts to talk to women entering the clinic. buffer zones weren't enacted because of peaceful grandma types. buffer zones were a response to over 4700 incidents of clinic violence and over 140 clinic blockades that have occurred since 1995. buffer stozones were a response eight murders, 17 attempted murders, and 42 bombings that have targets women seeking abortions and the men and women who have provided them since 1997. that's why the buffer zone exists. but that violent history is not something justice scalia

remembers. he insisted what protesters really want to do is engage in conversation. as he put it, in a friendly matter, not in a hostile way. joining me in washington is elise. as the anti-defamation league as said, anti-abortion violence, they have called it america's forgotten terrorism. do you agree with that? >> i do. i don't think it's -- there's an intention to make americans forget by putting people like her out in front. as you read the litany of statistics, unfortunately there's no way for justice scalia to know when there's going to be a grandma type there or someone like mr. hill who

gunned down a doctor as he was entering the clinic he served to take care of women who needed his services. that's not that long ago. we do a real disservice to the memories of those who have been killed and threatened and harassed when we allow scalia to infer motives of everyone that goes to these clinics. we get reports daily about being spit on, being shoved off sidewalks into traffic. in 2012, five clinics were burned to the ground due to arson events. there's a concerted effort to shift the face and we should not be fooled and the supreme court should not be fooled. >> what do you make of justice kagan's remarks about the 35 foot distance? she says 35 feet is a ways.

is your thinking that they'll make it smaller or it may be done away with entirely? >> perhaps justice kagan was thinking 35 yards. 35 feet is easy to hear people, easy to see people. there's nothing that prevents women who want to engage in conversation, want to take the literature from walking over there. we have a long history in this country of protecting free speech, but we make expectatice all the time. there's a clear history of threats to public safety in this case. and it chills me to think about the message the court would send if they show a tolerance for the kind of violence we've seen in the past at these clinic entrances. >> if we dig deeper, this isn't just about free speech.

this is part of a broader movement. we have some charts here. if you look at the number of states that have enacted anti-choice measures in the last year -- or i think this is more disturbing the number of anti-choice measures enacted since 1995, it is shocking. we try to decipher why this is happening and why now. why are we doing this to the women of america? >> what we're seeing is a strategy by the minority to take over the state houses, to take advantage of redistricting, to look at judicial appointments

and nominees. there's a pattern here. what is important for your viewers to understand is we're also seeing the tide shift. it will take a while for the pendulum to swing back. we live in a pro choice country. this is a mainstream issue for most americans and americans are waking up to the threat and we're starting to see the wind shift. i think 2014 we're going to see more offense on the part of the movement. we're going to see more anti-choice legislators defeated at the ballot box and more ballot measures like we saw if albuquerque go down. people understand the gravity of what's at risk. these anti-choice politician are not just anti-abortion. they're anti-contraception and anti-women. that's note the diversity we embrace in america. it's not the reality for most

american families. >> yeah, i think part of that is holding elected officials accountable today. carrying pregnancies to term very much promotes job creation. having choice is bad for the economy. >> i heard you talking to representati representative ellison. they are obsessed with this issue. i think they're going to pay for it at the ballot box. >> we shall see. always a pleasure seeing you. >> thank you, alex. coming up, the latest chapter in the book of republican insensitivity and outlandishness. it's a long book. starring dick black. do not forget that name. that's next on "now." you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea.

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the 2014 elections may be nearly a year away, but that doesn't mean it is too early for extremism, especially in the old dominion. meet state senator richard black. the man who will be running for congress in virginia's 10th congressional district. a seat held by a republican moderate dick wolf. he is no moderate. the man who threw his hat in the ring one week ago, this man thinks spousal rape should not be a crime. he opposed making spousal rape a crime because according to dick black, quote, it is impossible to detect. >> i do not know how on earth you could validly get a conviction of a husband/wife rape where they're living together, sleeping in the same bed.

there's no injury. there's no separation or anything. >> it would appear that dick black's message to the ladies is this. if you're married, it's not a rape. if you're in a nighty, you're asking for it. if you are raped by your spouse, there's to injury. unbelievab unbelievably, that's not the end of the controversy of dick black. this is a man who has also called emergency contraception baby pesticide. a man who once invited a television reporter to film him watching violent rape porn in a public library to demonstrate why libraries should block pornography. he's not some dastardly villain that brought you e.w. jackson, but one can only hope come 2014

dick black meets the same resounding defeat that they did. coming up, will tomorrow be a day of reckoning for chris christie and his staff? subpoenas could be issued as early as tomorrow. first, morgan brennan as the cnbc mark wrap. stocks rallied for the second straight day. the dow finishing up 100 points. s&p closing at a record high earning 30 points. first in business worldwide. my dad has atrial fibrillation, or afib. he has the most common kind... ...it's not caused by a heart valve problem. dad, it says your afib puts you

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the christie administration's alleged political payback schemes are drawing comparisons to chicago politics. >> i'm here to tell you right off the bat that i'm not guilty of any criminal wrong doing. i will fight. i will fight. i will fight until i take my last breath. i have done nothing wrong. >> now the prosecutor that put him behind bars has joined the investigation into bridge gate. we'll discuss what's next for the jersey governor after the break. i'm tony siragusa and i'm training guys who leak a little,

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♪ and the press conference went on and on ♪ ♪ it was longer than one of my own damn shows ♪ >> all is quiet on the christie front for the moment. christie's defenders were out in force last night. scott walker said, i think the bottom line is christie stepped up. utah governor said, politics are politics and i guess we need to find out what's behind all that we hear about. if republicans are content to let politics be politics or whatever they actually are, it might not be for long. the -- this is the man who

prosecuted the chicago man. i'll say it again. everybody could have done themselves a favor just read the book and read all the salacious details about chris christie and the problems he's had in terms of vetting, defamation lawsuits. when this broke, were you all that surprised? >> we wrote double down without subpoena power. imagine the book we could have written. chris christie is a big personality. people compare him to bill clinton sometimes. nobody had heard of him outside jersey until just a few years ago and now he's considered -- at least was considered, for the

republican nomination. but his posture towards other people in the party, telling mitt romney when he hadn't endorsed him yet, don't raise money in new jersey. until i endorse, don't try to get money in my state. i'm too busy to hand in all the materials you've asked for right now. showing up late not only late for romney's fund raisers, but was a no-show. >> he's here never minutes. >> there was traffic that day. it happens. >> yeah, it does. >> he was a no-show for one of the fundraisers. he was supposed to come and introduce governor romney. huge crowd. he came so late that he ended up

having to be introduced by governor romney. he plays by his own rules. that's served him well. he's the governor of new jersey. it's a big powerful position. but even month other politicians, he stands out as a guy who feels somewhat entitled to presidential level entourage treatment. you see that attitude reflected by the culture of the christie operation. >> politics ain't bean bag. it's also about doling out favors. here he is in a tough spot. is he political kryptonite for

his party? >> there's clearly part of it i know from talking to republican sources is a reflection of people feel like he's getting what he deserves because he hasn't treated people as nicely. he's a very personable nice guy. he's left himself with fewer allies than he might have at this time. now that this prosecutor is in place, that's a slow story on the christie day, but it's a big deal. it was run by a lawyer before. now they have a real federal prosecutor who understands how to depose witness, issue subpoenas, follow the evidence. this is something that chris christie could not have anticipated. his circle is now under the gaze of a guy who knows how to build

a case as chris christie does himself. >> and the subtle message that there's similarities between him and blogovich. >> just reading about him so far, it's a serious choice. they've been very few cases where governors have been investigated. this guy is going to come in and break new ground. you've got to be worried about in the christie circle where are my e-mails. >> where's my alibi? >> yeah. if this guy is what he appears to be, this is going to be a big time investigation for the state

assembly, which in the past has not been a big deal. >> thank you for your time. everybody should read that book. the show is ending. "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans and welcome to "the ed show" live from new york. stop fast track. let's get to work. >> what is fast track? >> this is the next big battle on the horizon. >> this is the way to railroad through disasterous trade agreements. >> negotiations are being held behind closed doors in secrecy. >> if we are not included, we will oppose fast track. >> this has been classified. >> i'm talking about the transpacific partnership agreement. >> they can look at it. they can't