>> lone star state. >> chris christie is in texas today. >> they'll be welcoming him with open arms and wall ets. >> texas is one of the big atms for politics. >> can he leave his bridgegate problems behind? >> never tell the truth when a good lie will do. >> traffic moving at about 10 to 15 miles per hour downtown dallas. that is where we are seeing the worst conditions. >> what hurts chris christie may help someone else. >> a big beneficiary of chris christie's trouble. >> scott walker at a fund raiser in dallas tuesday. >> i think jeb is much more likely to run than people thought. >> if the republican candidate is standing next to chris christie, his troubles become your troubles. >> putting this distance between themselves and chris christie, smart move. >> republican candidates and elected officials won't taouch him with a 250-mile pole.

>> everybody in texas will be on my bandwagon. >> they sold a lot of tickets for the titanic too. >> chris christie has relinquished his powers at home and is testing his power nationwide. the governor is seizing the chance to put about eight state, the appalachians, and the mississippi river in between him and bridgegate, jetting off to dallas, texas, to raise money for his fellow republicans. while christie is out of state, the governor temporarily ceases to hold power in new jersey. that is the scenario democrats are quite comfortable with as evidenced by the boatload of ads released by the dnc. >> it's difficult to explain why you didn't do something when you didn't not do it on purpose. i don't feel blamed for this at all because i had nothing to do with it. >> in a strategy they say will play out as christie travels to fund raisers across the country over the next month, texas

democrats planned a news conference today in dallas denouncing christie and tying him to republican gubernatorial candidate greg abbott, and abbott is not exactly rolling out the welcome mat. he will be miles away at a terribly inconvenient policy speech in houston. what a pity. outgoing governor rick perry and his glasses won't be around to brainstorm with christie either. texas republicans don't appear eager to offer chris christie any public displays of solidarity whatsoever. >> the secrecy of this is amazing. it's like one of those 2:00 clubs that suddenly open up in lower manhattan and only the guy who is know where you got to go can get there. >> wayne slater, i have never been to one of those clubs but i think i have a friend who went to one once. anyway, governor christie, the man once in demand, the man whose hand everyone wanted to shake and in front of as many cameras as possible, that guy travels under a veil of secrecy across the country. a few weeks ago rick scott

dodged reporters opting to be ferried into the back entrance of a christie event rather than greet his fellow governor in public. as one republican donor told "the new york times," "people like to dealle with people who have clean skirts," so to speak. so indeed to speak. joining me now is political reporter for "the new york times," michael, fascinating reporting in "the new york times." chris christie is chair of the republican governors association and yet republican governors do not seem to want to social security that much with him. from your reporting how truly in danger is his chairmanship of the organization? >> first of all, i was at that board of fund raiser and we were waiting for rick scott to come in. it was very, very memorable to not see that suv go in the front door, watch it go through a side entrance. i think what's happening is not that republican governors are

advocating for chris christie to step down as head of the party, we wept looking for that sentiment and didn't find it, not right now. what's telling is the level of unease of republicans at the state level given what chris christie is going through in terms of public appearances with him. we don't see the republican leaders clamor the way they did many the past for a chance to be seen with him. one of the reasons chris christie was put in this really important post particularly as republicans face elections throughout 2014, 22 seats they'll want to defend across the country, was that he's a star, was that he has such a presence in the room. and what we're seeing now is that he's cloistered in these private rooms behind closed doors. so we're not yet seeing the promise of chris christie the brash face of republican governors yet. i think this scandal is going to put that further down the road than he or the party would have

liked. >> i wonder how much of this is sort of the harvest one reaps when one sews the seeds of discontent or at least competition. in your piece today, in the times, michael, you talk about his relationship with rick perry and bobby jindal and that it is a fraught one, that he effectively has tried to -- he muscled jindal out of the chairmanship of the rga and tried to keep perry off the executive committee. how much is that factoring into the new sort of cold shoulder? >> i think that kind of internal drama, which is real, will play out if christie's problems continue to intensity. one complexity of the this story is things were conditional. if things get worse or better, what will happen. we know even though his position as head of the republican governors association feels secure for now, that there's not the kind of unified support within an organization one would like if things get worse. and the fact that there was this

conflict that attended his rise to that position and that he did have to muscle out somebody and did want to take somebody else out. these are big names, bobby jindal and rick perry. it means that not only they but their allies may not be there if he falls. and you want that. >> let me ask you, michael, because as much as things are fraught on the republican side of the coin as it relates to chris christie, there are issues with democratic responses to this entire scandal. you point out, you know, the question of overreach is something that i think a lot of democrats have been asking themselves about. you point out the dnc alone has issued 58 e-mails about the christie administration's role in several alleged acts of american bridge, another democratic research group, has issued 169 requests for information from the christie team. that seems to be having in a weird way the reverse effect at least -- in the party which is maybe endearing christie to hard

right conservatives in sort of -- who see him as a victim here. how cognizant do you think the democrats are of this issue of overreaching? >> i'm not sure. i'm a bit surprised at their willingness to discuss their strategy and to put it out there and to claim credit and to be so voluminous in their e-mails and videos and mockery because the real danger for them sl that the elements of this scandal that are spontaneous and organic, people being sort of genuinely outraged at the nature of these allegations, will be swamped by the sense that it's partisan and being trumped up by people who have a political motivation. that's a real danger. i think it's something republicans are going to use to their advantage. but i also think that democrats have a strategy that could inflict real damage on him. and it's going to be a balancing act for them particularly new jersey, because there's an investigation going on there whose motivations and purity are

constantly going to be questioned. and so if national democrats start to look like they're on a witch-hunt, it's going to make it harder for whatever democrats in new jersey find to seem credible. >> let me ask you one question, michael, before we let you go, which is how much consternation are you sensing inside republican circles? obviously there's the stage craft and the management of the party on the stage. but when you talk to republicans about chris christie, how worried do you sense they are at this moment? >> i think they're bewildered by the whole thing in the same sense that people in new jersey were. they're sort of sad this has happened. i think they're a bit despondent that such a fascinating and compelling character within their party who represent a great promise for their future is, you know, reached such a difficult point in his career. but what's fascinatinfascinatin loyalty is really power informal politics as is the old adage that you wouldn't want to do to

somebody what they might turn around and dough to you, there's a very strong brand of loyalty to him and that remains a real kind of security blanket for chris christie. >> we will see about that brand management over the course of the next few months. "new york times" michael barbaro, thanks for being on the show. coming up, moments ago the senate voted yet again on legislation to extend unemployment insurance, something at least one prominent republican calls immoral and a disservice. but to say speaker john boehner killed immigration reform would imply they had a plan in the first place. are you flo? yes. is this the thing you gave my husband? well, yeah, yes. the "name your price" tool.

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just days after unveiling house republicans' highly anticipated standards for immigration reform, complete with preamble, house speaker john boehner did today what he does best -- he caved. speaking at a press conference this morning, boehner dashed any lingering hopes for an immigration overhaul this year. >> you all know for the last 15 months i've talked about the need to get immigration reform done, but i never underestimated the difficulty in moving forward this year. >> the reason for that difficulty -- trust. >> the american people, many of my members, don't trust the reform we're talking about will be implemented as it is intended to be. the president seems to change

the health care law on a whim whenever he likes. now he's running around the country telling everyone he's going to keep acting on his own. >> but the speaker's trust issue may lie a lot closer to his end of pennsylvania avenue. even before boehner announced the house immigration principles, there was a very passionate, sizable block of conservative who is oppose the idea of actually doing anything on the issue. and yesterday the speaker's senate counterpart, minority leader mitch mcconnell, basically issued a slap back to the speaker's half-hearted attempt at unity. >> i think we have an sort of irresolvable conflict here. the house won't go to the senate on comprehensive and wants to look at step by step. i don't see how you get to an outcome this year with the two bodies in such a different place. >> as it stands, the man who shut down the government only to later claim that he didn't want to shut down the government has made an attempt at legislating, only to see his efforts

summarily shot down by the people in his own party. and he has now blamed the other guys for not being people you can trust. really? really. >> you know when they say don't trust something the president does, why don't we pack up and go home? that's not a reason not to do an immigration bill. that's an excuse not to do it. around here you have to always differentiate between what is a reason and what is an excuse. >> joining me from washington is the president of vote latino and howard fineman. howard, let me ask you first here, what is the strategy behind putting out principles that you know or that you suspect may be only rejected by your own party? >> well, i think in john boehner's case it was the wish, not the act, and it was kind of a window dressing display designed to provisionally show

his concern and those of what passes for the establishment left in the republican party while he pretty much knew that his own caucus in the house, that republicans in the senate who are worried about tea party challenges including mitch mcconnell, and the tea party base itself were going to say no, were going to absolutely say no. so he put it out there knowing if he didn't shoot it down himself, everybody around him would. the strategy is twofold. you have the problems with the tea party on the substance of immigration and the substance of it is a lot of republicans say you have a slow recovery that's going to be blamed on the president, obamacare that's controversial, let's not get in the way of that by actually legislating anything. >> maria, the reality is that republicans need to do something to get minorities, women, people of color, the working class back

on their side. and i wonder what your thoughts are. the "national journal" predicted three weeks ago that no matter what boehner did, regardless of whether his efforts failed or succeeded, he would get credit and he would get credits from the business community and parents of the very broad coalition pushing for reform. as an advocate and someone deeply familiar with this issue, do the republicans get anything from all of this? >> not auto all. the only trust that boehner should be worried act is how do you get the trust of the voter, in this case the latino voter. the absence of immigration reform is dead on arrival when you're trying to recruit the largest majority group of americans. this is what i don't understand when it comes to the republican strate strategy. they're behold on the tea party, but those members running for re-election in 2014, they all come from safe districts. why don't you throw a bone to a couple members that are in the central valley in california that are republican a large latino population where they could easily win if they

actually have an immigration reform bill? that's what makes everybody inside washington curious. they don't understand the overall strategy because again boehner -- if he drafted something, even if at the end of the day it didn't make it through the house and conference, he could say the republican party cares about the latino vote, we're making our best efforts and let the voter decide. but this doesn't make any sense. >> howard, a lot of people have been writing, politico has a piece about boehner versus mcconnell and an expert on all things kentucky. you seem to suggest this is almost a gentleman's agreement between john boehner and mitch mcconnell, they understand they have to play two sides of the same coin here. i feel like in the process john boehner is humiliated once again. he did come out with standards. this is a behind closed doors meeting, members of his own caucus, and it looks like he can't even sort of get a piece of paper through his own party without the senior senator from

kentucky slapping him back. i just wonder truly if you think there is a line of communication where those two men understand each other. >> i think if john boehner had been the kind of guy who shriveled and went away at the prospect of being humiliated, he would have left washington a long time ago. >> that is true. because it keeps happening over and over again. i think what's happening here is that it's possible -- it was very downbeat by boehner today, killed it maybe, but i think that after the senate primaries in which a number of republicans including mitch mcconnell are facing tea party opposition, if mitch mcconnell wins, if lindsey graham wins, if the others get through safely on those primaries through tea party opposition, i could see the senate maybe more slightly willing to do something. i think what's happening is the republicans are now saying to

themselves let's forget the substance of immigration right now. we'll be in a stronger position to deal with it in 2015 because we might win the senate back, and why should we get in the way of our attacks on the president over obamacare and the pace of recovery. let's not complexify our message right now because later we'll be in a stronger position and then able to do something. and that's a hard argument for people like john boehner to counter. he deserves some credit for having those principles that sort of included a path to citizenship. that was a radical move by him. and now he's kind of throwing up his hands. but i have a sneaking suspicion that it's still theoretically possible they would try something after these primaries this summer. >> marimaria, from immigration reform advocacy community, how optimisti inic are you that sceo

may play out? some folks say 2015 would be worse for electoral politics because who's going to want to hand a sitting democratic president a legacy victory on something like immigration reform? >> that's absolutely right. every single piece of major immigration legislation has happened actually in off-year elections for the most part, midterm elections for the most part. it's been with the stronghold that the opposite party, in this case the republican party, is trying to hold onto the house and possibly pursue the senate. it doesn't make historical sense from where we are from this standpoint. i had heard before that the republicans were waiting after the majority of their primaries like howard just pointed out. now the concern is what do they have to lose if they wait until after their primaries? they don't have to worry about extreme party contesting their election come november. and that's the challenge, is that i don't think they have a strategy. they just basically wrote eight principles, tested them, put their toe in the water and said,

whoops, they recoiled because it wasn't -- there wasn't overapplause of their achievement in what they received but that's not surprising, alex, because nothing that the republican party is going to put forth is going to unite them at this point. what they need to do is figure out what is enough that will unite at least the majority of the party so they can win not just the senate come the 2014 election but more importantly the white house. >> you know, howard, i have to say this, and i feel very despondent because i do believe in a two-party system, but i feel like the republican maneuverings around any piece of policy have at this point become so transparent and so crass that i read an excerpt from brad freeman's -- i will call it a takedown but it is really a dismissal of the party as it stands now. he says "the gop has given up on advocating seriously for whatever policy positions they believe in and have simply take on the lying in hopes of scamming americans into voting for them and buying into their policies. that is not the earmark of a serious policymaking organization.

and it is for that reason we sadly no longer regard the gop as a legitimate political body." he was talking more about the republican reaction to the cbo report and the affordable care act and job loss. you can extrapolate that more broadly to something like immigration reform or even unemployment insurance. anything they have had to tackle recently. the political maneuvering has been front and secenter stage. >> and i wouldn't say that they're lying so much is that they are bound and determined not to do anything. using the old phrase, standing before history shouting stop. they don't want government involvement, obamacare, extended unemployment insurance, they don't even want a solution, a bipartisan sensible solution on immigration, which would be tremendously in the interest of their party if they did it. >> it is an ongoing saga, my friends. thank you for your time today.

maria teresa kumar and howard fineman, thanks for your time. >> thanks, alex. >> coming up, a trio of democratic senators are introducing new legislation aimed at preventing chemical spils like this one. the one that left hundreds of thousands of west virginians without safe water. we will discuss when one of the lawmakers behind the bill, west virginia's joe manchin, joins us just ahead. first, say it ain't joe. vice president biden talks trains, plane, and automobiles and proceeds to insult a major u.s. airport. body pain? back pain? try bayer back and body. it's bayer aspirin plus a special pain relief booster, to relieve sore backs and soothe aching muscles fast. get moving again, with bayer back and body. it fills you with energy... and it gives you what you are looking for

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if a blindfolded someone and took them at 2:00 in the morning into the airport in hong kong and said where do you think you are, this must be america, it's

a modern airport -- if i took you and blindfolded you and took you to laguardia in new york you must think i must be in some third-world country. >> that was vice president biden speaking a few hours ago about blindfolding people and dragging them to airports around the world. the veep was pushing for more investment in american infrastructure at an event to unveil a new amtrak train engine. but possibly the best thing to come out of this event is the photo behind me. an instant classic of scranton joe at the controls of an amtrak train, the very same line he rode as a senator while commuting from delaware to washington. after the break, how bad are things in west virginia nearly a month after its massive chemical spill? just today, three more schools closed due to reported illnesses from chemical vapors believed to be connected to the spill. west virginia senator joe manchin joins us to discuss the ongoing disaster. [ male announcer ] this is kevin.

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don't drink the water. that is still true for people in wa virginia today four weeks after a chemical spill left some 300,000 residents without safe water. the state officially lifted the ban on tap water for some parts of the state on january 14th, but since then the west virginia department of health and the centers for disease control have advised that pregnant women should not drink the water. the company responsible for the spill, freedom industries, has now revised its estimate twice and revised it upwards as to how many gallons of chemical was actually spilled into the river. freedom industries admitted to the presence of a second toxic chemical, one that can cause vomiting, dizziness, headaches and irritated skin. this week, mostly pediatricians

in the area are telling patients not to drink the water. in the past two days several schools have closed early because of a liquorish smell in the water. students complained of lightheadedness, itchy eyes and noses. one teacher fainted. and a student was take on the hospital. on a hearing tuesday for the public works committee west virginia's secretary of state spoke about what's happening to the people of her state, rashes, headaches, nausea, and vomiting, and called for a ten-year study to monitor the long-term health of the men and women and children affected by the spill. ten years. back in washington, a group of senators, including west virginia's joe manchin and jay rockefeller, have introduced the chemical safety and water protection act to prevent spills like the in the future. it would require inspections and cleanup plans for chemical storage plants. the senate could take it up this week. but the question remains -- is it enough? joining me is the democratic senator from west virginia and

author of the senate chemical safety and drinking water protection act, senator joe manchin. thanks for joining us on this incredibly important subject that doesn't get enough national attention. >> it doesn't. thank you for bringing it into the national spotlight. >> my first question, we get reports every week it seems about increased dangers in the west virginia water supply. why at this stage, weeks after this spill first happened, do the men and women of west virginia still not know definitively what is in their water supply? >> i'm as frustrated and upset as everybody. my -- i have a home there, my wife is still there. i'm there on weekend weekends. we're in that affected area. and everybody has a right to be upset because we just don't have clear, definitive answers. i don't know if everyone is scared to speak out because they're afraid they'll get sued because there are so many lawsuits. i called the cdc today and i've been in contact from day one when this happened.

cdc, epa. they've been working with the governor and the state. and with that being said, i said listen, guys, enough's enough. where are we? is everything below and all the affected areas, are we below the one part per million? they said yes. that's what determined safe consuming. you can consume it as a human. they went further because of ap expectant moth we are the fetus, demands of a fetus and growth of a fetus, it has extra precaution was being taken, and they want it nondetectable. nondetectable can do down to ten parts per billion, not million, which is 100 times more stringent than the one part per million that they declared to be safe. they're telling me most all the sl entire system now falls within that. but if you can still smell it then it's detectable. that's concerning. >> would you tell your wife to drink the water? she's in the affected area. >> right now we are using the water normally. we're back to normal.

we're there, and she's there because we don't have any detection whatsoever. i've seen the tests and the tests are ten parts per billion. and that's nontraceable, nondetectable. there are some areas of the affected arias, all the schools have been tested. but we need to continue to test those schools and flush them out until it is nondetectable and make sure the people see it and believe it. that's the hard thing we have right now is communications. no one understands what's being said, who to believe and not to believe, and after four weeks we've lost all confidence. >> senator, i want to talk about what we're doing to make sure this doesn't happen again. the century tofoundation was talking act west virginia culture in and around regulation. it makes the point this is the state that sued the epa and issues a friends of coal license plates, official west virginia tags, and that culturally west virginian s hate the kind of regulation that would have prevented this thing in the

first place. dwug th do you agree with that? and if so, parallel to that, how is your bill going to change the landscape? >> that is so unfair. i've sued the epa because of their overreaching. do you believe the state of west virginia and our industry tapd coal we produce, energy for this nation for over 100 years and give us the country we have today, do you believe we should be held to a different standard than other parts of mining -- other mining states around the country? that's all i said. treat us as one of these wonderful 50 states that make up this beautiful union. and it's been awful what we've had to go through. with that being said, they think we turned a blind eye, that we could care less. i don't want to drink bad water and i don't want to smell bad air. we've cleaned up the environment more in two decades than ever before. even the president recognized that in his state of the union speech. but they go right to this, no different than your friends in north dakota. they have a tanker, a train explode with 400,000 fwgallons

crude oil. we have friends in the midwest now, two explosions of fertilizer factories. it's just -- you know, these are things when you're doing hard work and producing what the country is still needing and you have to do everything you can to make sure the workers are safe and the environment is safe. those things have to be done and it can be done. people who say we throw caution to the wind, we don't. the bottom line is everybody thought that there were laws on the books, i guess, federal, that basically said all above-ground storage had to bement in ed. if it's nonhazmat or nonlethal toxic, if you will, chemical, it doesn't have the same high priority so it didn't come under the same regulations. this piece of legislation that we're introducing now, i've worked with barbara boxer, she's been very helpful on this, working with me, that basically says anything you have above ground storage and definitely on any waterway and most definitely close to any intake for your

drinking water has to be inspected. we have to know what's in there and how to handle it and what effect it has on humans. for 30-some years here, alex, in this congress, there's been the fighting between that, the political fighting that basically we don't even know 80,000 chemicals what we have. >> yeah. >> this is a wake-up call for the entire country. let's get it done now. >> have you gotten any pushback from the industry and the state? regulation is a tricky subject. >> i have not. >> you have not. so you seem ready to accept -- >> alex, when we had the horrific mine tragedies, i didn't have any pushback. we did mine safety. i said specifically this -- if you can't mine the coal safe, if those miner, the greatest assets we have to our whole economy, you, will is the people who do the work. if you can't go to work in the morning and come home safe, you shouldn't do it. if it can't d done safe, don't do it. if we can't produce chemicals that can't keep our environment

safe, we shouldn't be making them. that's about as simple as i can make it. you have to be tough here, but you don't listen, you have to do it. we want everybody's input, but that plant needs to be torn down. it should never be there. it's an 80-year-old plan. it should be gone. the governor said they're going to tear it down. i'm proud of that. get it out of there. make sure we inventory everything we have on the waterways and not just in west virginia, alex. every state, this should be a wake-up call for. >> i hope it is indeed. joe manchin, thanks for your efforts on this. thanks for your time today. >> thanks, alex. >> after the break, can you really say you're committed to fighting poverty when you are still stuck on trickle-down economics? we'll discuss with former labor secretary robert reich. the end.

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we don't want to turn this safety net into a hammock. >> hammocks and lies of complacency. that was the old paul ryan. the new paul ryan is a one-man pr machine focused on rebranding his party as less possible to the poor. the first part of that strategy involves assailing democratic policies, fist among them obamacare. attack those policies by alleging they are preventing hardworking, lower-income americans from living the american dream. >> these changes, they disproportionately affect low-wage workers. translation -- washington is making the poverty trap much worse, inducing a person not to work who is on the low-income scale, not to get on the ladder of life to begin working, getting the dignity of work, more opportunities, rise in their income, joining the middle class. this means fewer people will do that. >> but as for the gop solutions, republicans are in kind of a bind.

that's because any effort to directly help those in in need runs counter to the party's firm conviction that the central problem in american life is a government that takes too much from the rich and gives too much to the nonrich. another problem, any republican plan in the post bush era must, by necessity, somehow involve cutting costs or run afoul of the party's ideological obsession with the deficit. in other words, ignore the rhetoric and watch the votes. vote like the one this afternoon when the gop once again killed an extension of unemployment insurance for 1.7 million americans. or the negotiating that took place last month over the farm bill. house republicans wanted to gut food stamps by $40 billion. republicans may talk a lot about helping the medimmediate needy it seems sure they're doing more to keep the poor staying poor. joining me is robert reich, author of "aftershock" and star

of a great documentary "inequality for all." great to see you. >> hi, alex. how are you. >> so i want to talk to you from a policy perspective. given the fact that in the republican party the market continues to reign supreme, revenue raisers, spending increases seem to be off the table, given those unmovable forces, how serious can any gop policy be to alleviate poverty in america? >> the interesting thing is they're now talking act poverty and inequality and equal opportunity. the problem is that talk is cheap and what they're doing actual lly as legislators is exactly the opposite. they are cutting food stamps, they are say nothing to extended unemployment benefits, they are attacking every chance they get. the obamacare and the affordable care act's provisions that extend medicaid to additional

poor people, they are doing what they can to attack unions. in fact, they have declared war against working families and against the poor. they don't say this, obviously. they say the opposite, this kind of george orwell, but that is exactly what's happening. >> one sort of machiavellian read into this would be that they are not actually trying to appeal to poor people or solve the problem of poverty and lack of mobility in american society, but they are trying to reach sort of middle-class voters who want to feel like the party that they belong to cares about the poor regardless of whether that party actually does anything to help the poor. >> yes, and i think this is a very -- on george w. bush's compassionate conservativism, which turned out to be another kind of trickle-down economics. you give tax breaks to the rich and hope that the benefits trickle down to everybody else. the problem is we now know that trickle-down economics is a cruel hoax.

it's cruel because nothing trickled down. in fact, the middle class and the poor are in many cases worse off because of those tax cuts that george w. bush created. and i would's a hoax because it is, well, simply doesn't work. we know it doesn't work. >> but, okay so, secretary reich, if we are to legislate and actually get anything done in terms of law in this country, it will require a buy-in from both sides of the aisle. and you look at the polling in and around why people in this country believe americans are poor and the divide between democrats and republicans is pretty stunning. among republicans, 51% of republicans believe people are poor because of a lack of effort. 32 believe it is so because of circumstances. those numbers are almost flipped. among democrats, 29% believe it's people are poor because of lack of effort. 63% believe it is because of circumstance. given that, i mean, if we are looking towards the future, how do we bridge that divide? what needs to be done so that we

are more on the same page about the stimulus that is needed and both the sort of cause causality here? >> even if you can't change people's minds about what counts as poverty, what you can do is appeal to a basic principle to which almost everybody agrees, alex. and that is if you work hard, work full-time, you should not be in poverty. you should be able to make the most of your god-given abilities. you should get a good education. we should not have an aristocracy in this country that simply provides just huge benefits to their children who don't work for those benefits at all and who become kind ofarist. if those principles are the principles that actually most americans, and by polls, most americans do believe in, then you've got to support an increase in the minimum wage. you've got to say unemployment insurance for people who are trying to look for work when there are three people out of work for every job that's

available, that has got to be there as a critical safeguard, and for people who again have fallen out of luck in a period of very high unemployment, you do need to have food stamps so their children don't starve. you know, it's interesting. here in california, that has a very high minimum wage, for example, people are very conservative, saying lift the minimum wage further because we shouldn't taxpayers have got to provide all of these benefits for the working poor. >> and to say nothing of the stimulative effect that raising the minimum wage has on the economy. >> absolutely. raying the minimum wage would help create more jobs. republicans who are saying no to the minimum wage like they're saying no to food stamps and medicaid and unemployment benefits are say nothing to the economy. >> the irony is thick. former labor secretary robert reich, thank you for your time. >> thanks, alex. coming up, 1.7 million jobless americans are indeed

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1.7 million people have been without unemployment assistance since their insurance ran out sometime around christmas. but don't expect republicans to throw them a lifeline. we will talk morality in today's failed senate vote next. but first sue herera has the cnbc "market wrap." sue? >> here's how the market stands going into tomorrow. the dow jones industrial average on the close gaineds 188 points, the standard & poor's up 21 and the nasdaq up 45. that's it from cnbc. first in business worldwide. hmm,

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legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. this is the right thing to do. at this moment, this is the right way to do it. and the only question before this senate is will we do the right thing for the american people. >> apparently, no, we won't. that's because this afternoon republicans once again filibustered a bill to reinstate employment assistance to 1.7 million jobless americans. that badly needed assistance ran out for 1.3 million over the christmas holidays and in each of the five weeks since another 70,000 americans have seen their lifeline cut off. the fate of those 1.7 million americans including 20,000 veterans was sealed by a single vote.

while every single senate democrat voted in the affirmative, just four republicans refused to go along with their party's filibuster. the others presumably agree with senator rand paul, who said extending assistance to unemployed workers would be a, quote, disservice to them. or they listened to texas congressman pete session who is had this to say earlier in the week. >> i believe it is immoral for this country to have as a policy extending long-term unemployments to people rather than us working on creation of jobs. >> one single vote separating 1.7 million americans from an average weekly paycheck of $300. 1.7 million americans abandoned by a tar pi that claims to care about society's least fortunate. that is going to be an uphill climb. that's all for now. i will see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. "the ed show" is up next.

good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from detroit lakes, minnesota. it's chilly here and it's chilly on capitol hill. major news from capitol hill today. the senate voted 58-40 against a three-month extension of unemployment benefits. a couple votes short. can you believe it? there are currently 1.7 million long-term unemployed americans who have lost their benefits in this country. we got nothing on the table for them. and make no mistake, senate republicans have flatout abandoned these unemployed americans. democrats agreed to what i thought was a horrible bipartisan budget that has left the most needy among us out in the dark, in the cold, so to speak. they promised to come back and fight in the new year, and this is the result. president obama, the democrats, trusted republicans to do the right thing and they did the wrong thing. nothing. this is not just democrats who want an extension.