d a free 30-tablet trial. deadline day, and already a website hiccup at healthcare.gov, but is the president's health care overhaul ready to deliver? >> dressed jeb, if governor chris christie can't do it, maybe it's time for another bush to make a white house run. what happened in vegas and who may have hit the sheldon adelson jackpot. by air and by sea, as the black box detector has toured the search zone, more frustration and false hope for the families of the missing. good morning, i'm chris jansing. it's down to just 14 hours now and there's never been more urgency for the president's signature piece of legislation. take this live look, hunts center, tampa, florida, one place that folks are getting help to sign up before the deadline of open enrollment.

the lines were incredibly long in nevada of people waiting to get covered. community centers and offices helping people sign up from connecticut to indiana to arkansas were packed, and the administration is talking up the sign-up surge. >> we had a record number of calls to the call center, a record number of visits to the website, and you saw the events around the country. >> the website is seeing a tremendous surge before tonight's midnight deadline. 2 million people logged on to healthcare.gov over the weekend. we know more than 6 million have signed up already, with the biggest numbers coming in december and march. in moments, vice president joe biden will be on "the rachael ray show" for one more last and final interview. many have done 300 radio interviews, 45 enrollment events, and appeared in videos with 33 million hits. celebrities have done 400 radio interviews and tweeted

messages to 349 followers, got to be more than that. 349 million followers on twitter. i have more than 349 followers. 349 million followers. let me bring in our company, ezra klein, editor and chief of box and msnbc policy analyst, jack cue kucinich, good morning. >> good morning. >> we should point out the administration was talking up a smooth customer experience, although the site was down overnight, and this morning you got a message that said the site had a lot of visitors. does this last-minute surge, though, show us, jackie, we're a nation of procrastinators, the botched website threw people off, or the administration push is working? >> there is a bit of an issue of procrastinators, and this is the deadline, but only kind of the deadline. people who started to sign up might not get in today, still have until mid-april to sign up for this, so, yeah, they spent a lot of money on this push,

something to the tune of $50 million between january and march, so it seems like money well spent right now. >> a couple of reality checks right now, ezra. considering five months ago there was talk this law would collapse, now 6 million, pushing 7 million signing up by the end of today. are providers ready and is the law financially viable? >> the law is financially viable. sign-up is still going to be a little underneath expectation, the law is going to be substantially cheaper than the congressional budget office forecasted. i want to emphasize something jackie said. today is the statutory deadline of open enrollment, today is the last day it says you can enroll, but the obama administration opened up a loophole in that, if you go to healthcare.gov and says i tried to sign up before, that's on our system, you get to sign up into mid-april, because they want more people to sign up. doesn't make sense to shut the

gates when there's this kind of demand. whatever it is by the end of the day, we might see quite a bit of sign up into early april. so i'm not sure this is going to be the last big day for obamacare. >> yeah, then then republicans, of course, in the meantime, are pushing back on the numbers. let me play how john barrasso saw it on fox news. >> how much does this 6 million number actually mean? >> i don't think it means anything, chris. i think they are cooking the books on this. people want to know the answer to that. they also want to know once all this is said and done, what kind of insurance will those people actually have? >> and then, jackie, senator tom coburn today in an op-ed in "usa today" writes, these enrollees, as much as 89% were previously ensured, helping 5 million americans re-enroll in insurance is no achievement, particularly when it meant many customers were forced to give up plans

they liked. what do we know about how accurate these numbers are right now and when we'll see meaningful numbers? >> what we're seeing, there's a policy argument and political argument, and right now, democrats haven't really come up with an idea to push this. there's an enthusiasm gap. republicans who really don't like this bill, this law, really don't like this law. and democrats haven't been able to, the liberals and the democrats who like the health care law, it hasn't matched up. that's something they are going to have to work to close in order to stay alive during the midterms and beyond. >> what about this argument over the numbers and what they really are, ezra, how do you see it? >> this is actually really interesting. we don't know the precise number of people previously uninsured and now have insurance through the law, but the l.a. times reported today on a rand corporation study. they did a big survey, been talking to insurers and say the law has given insurance to 9.5 million previously uninsured

people. that actually sounds a bit high to me, but they are bringing in data sources other people haven't had before, like how many people are signing up through an insurer, so that is an incredible achievement and it is worth saying, this is year one of the law. the law is expected to sign up as many people next year and the year after that, so we're at the start, trying to create a strong foundation to sign up the uninsured in the future, so it's a little bit unclear to me how much it actually matters if you're going to try to juk those numbers in that way, because ultimately what happens is how many people this signs up in the long-term, not just this second. but right now, 9.5 million, that is a whole lot more than a lot of people have been expecting. >> when you say directly, that means they didn't go through the exchanges. >> exactly. you can buy insurance through an insurance marketplace, an exchange, or call blue cross/blue shield. that is an information source we haven't had, but we know while the website was broken, a lot of people did that, so it's possible a lot of people directly went to insurers, which

is something the state insurance marketplaces cannot count, but rand can. >> we heard also, go back to something we mentioned a few minutes ago, a lot about young people and the demographics here. let me play this for you. >> it's not 35%, probably the high 20s, but that's going to be more than enough to get us there and to keep the rates sufficiently stable. that's really what you care about. >> so, you know, the other part of this is, is long term, and i think you're right, we're going to have to wait and see long term how many people get insured, but the other question is, long term, what is the impact whether or not it delivers what it said it will, which is the affordable care act, whether or not prices will come down and continue to stay down, and i'm sure you saw the american enterprise institute compare this to opening day at the hardware store where you're going to have a special, it's sort of like a lost leader and then they are going to jack the prices back up.

what's the expectation here? >> that's still a big question, whether the premiums are going to go up next year and the year after that and we still don't know the answer to that question, but again, i'm going to go back to the politics here. if democrats aren't able to keep a majority in the senate and the white house, if this is a problem for democrats in 2016, they are going to be able to start chipping away at this, so you can't ignore the politics piece of this in order to have a long term for this law. >> ezra, chuck todd was saying this morning, probably two years before you're able to really work this out and figure out where we are, i guess, both in terms of the numbers, but also politically. >> it will be january 2017, earliest, before republicans have a serious capability to do anything major to the law. by then, we would expect the law to be covering some 30-some million people, so i'm very skeptical the republicans who made a big deal about a couple million people getting plans cancelled could take insurance away from that many people. >> one of their pushbacks is,

more people had their policies cancelled than got signed up. >> this is just completely untrue. we know around 9 or 10 million signed up just through the direct measures. we know the number of plans cancelled is nowhere near that. no way that latter number is bigger than the former number, but kbrobeyond that, a lot of pe got cancelled that had terrible plans and are happier now. bad, overpriced, underinsuranced plans, plans that are not comprehensive enough for their needs and give them help to get into better plans. you have some that are real losers here, but a lot of people who are huge winners, plans really, really taking them for a ride and have something much better at an affordable price and long run question, we need to watch whether or not the marketplaces work. competition is going to keep costs down, so that is something we're going to have to see in the next couple of years. >> ezra klein, jackie kucinich,

thank you. >> thank you. checking the news feed, drier weather is going to help crews dig through debris left behind by the massive mudslide in washington state. number of confirmed dead is 21, with additional bodies located, but not yet recovered. officials dropped the number of people missing from 90 to 30. this search has been so exhausting, even the rescue dogs have been ordered to take a two-day break. an elementary school in california is closed today for safety inspections after friday's 5.1 earthquake. more than 150 aftershocks have been felt throughout the weekend, putting residents on edge, and that's not the only notable seismic activity. last night a 4.8-magnitude quake hit practicely in the middle of montana's yellowstone national park. the largest quake there in 34 years. startling reports on the dangers of climate change. it says temperatures could go up by nine degrees this century and

sea levels could rise an extra 10 to 21 inches and global warming will trigger more pockets of hunger among the world's poor. the panel of 300 experts warns the problem is likely to get worse unless greenhouse gases are brought under control. coming up, we'll hear from members of congress on both sides of the health care debate as the clock ticks and deadline day continues. later on, the update on the missing malaysian airlines flight 370 as a black box detector heads for the search zone. eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. all with a delicious taste. grandpa! [ female announcer ] look for valuable savings on boost in your sunday paper.

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it's a race to the finish, both for healthcare.gov and for the uninsured who have until midnight to at least start the sign-up process, even though some will have that extension if they start but can't finish. with the surge, a record number of calls and visits to the website over the weekend, the number could get close to 7

million. i want to bring in representative marsha blackburn, republican of tennessee. good to see you. welcome back. >> good to see you, thanks, chris. >> i know you, obviously, have been critical. you want this law repealed and not long ago you criticized the administration for falling short of a goal of 7 million. now looks as though they are going to go close, maybe even exceed it by the middle of the month. do you think that's an encouraging sign, we are seeing people who didn't have insurance getting signed up? >> until we know what you find in that 6 million number, it is not encouraging. look, we don't know how many of those lost their health insurance, we don't know how many got subsidies, we don't know how many are medicaid enrollees. we do not know how many of those are actual new entrants into the marketplace. we don't know how many are the young and healthy. so we're continuing to work through this at committee. we have sent letters to all the insurance providers that are involved in the federal marketplace, trying to figure out exactly what we're dealing with, so, no, it's not anything

to be proud of or to crow about. >> it is true it may be at least until the end of the month if you listen to zeke emanuel, until we get pretty hard numbers, and there are certain numbers that state exchanges are not reporting. having said that, gallop has been following this pretty closely, and they saw in the fourth quarter of 2013 that 17.1% of americans rr uninsured. by early this year it was 15.9%, so the numbers are uninsured are definitely coming down. do you dispute those numbers? >> well, i think what we there again have to do is look at what you find in those numbers, and i would direct you to the 2012 kaiser report that said 33% of all physicians are not seeing new medicare enrollees. now, if we have a lot of medicaid enrollees, they are not expanding their medicaid population and their patient base. >> you didn't offer that in

tennessee, correct? so those are people -- >> let me finish my thought here, then we'll talk about tennessee. >> okay. >> what we are doing, if we are giving an insurance card to those individuals who do not have access to the doctor, basically, it's a false promise, because you say, you have insurance to the queue, not to the physician. now the reason there was not a medicaid expansion in tennessee is because we have been to this dance before. it was in the mid '90s, the test case for hillary care, it was an abysmal failure. we have secretary sebelius, who is called the rollout of obamacare a debacle. that is exactly what happened in tennessee. a debacle. the legislature has chosen not to expand medicaid in tennessee, and with good reason, because they know it is not an affordable premise and they are very concerned about the impact that would have on the access to

health care within our state. >> what is your belief that this is not affordable, because this year premiums were actually 50% lower than the independent congressional budget office had projected they would be, and to be fair, there are a lot of people saying it's going to be another year or two years before we get the full impact, but at least the early indications are that these costs are going down. >> what you are seeing is within the marketplace with those bronze-level plans with some of the premium that is going down, but take a look at what happens with the out of pocket. it goes up. and those premiums are coming in below what the expectation was, but yet, chris, they are still higher than what the enrollees were previously paying. i have not talked to more than a handful of individuals whose

premium is less, they are seeing their premiums skyrocket. another thing we have found out from our insurance brokers who were here in the area, many times if you have mom, dad, a 19 year old, 17 and a 15 year old, what will happen is the 15 and 17 year old in that family are being pushed into the medicaid program and then you are seeing mom, dad, and the 19 year old put into an obamacare health exchange product. so we are going to investigate these numbers and see what the numbers tell us. we're going to work through this. we'll look forward to not only continuing to talk with you, but talking with our constituents and our health care providers, our hospitals, and the insurance companies. we know actuarially, if you're not going to have the young and healthy in these pools, these health pools, next year you're going to see a higher escalation in rates. a lot of my constituents will

fall between seeing a 23% increase to a 700% increase in the premiums they are paying over what they were previously paying. that is not acceptable. that is not the cost coming down, that is the cost continuing to escalate what it was before the federal government got involved in the process. >> representative blackburn, thank you for coming on the program. >> good to be with you, thank you. >> now let me bring in congressman gregory meeks. good morning. i think she does summarize what some of the complaints have been on the republican side. what they are saying is, look, i'm hearing from my constituents, their premiums are not lower, and in places where they are, their co-pay is higher or deductible is higher. what do you say? >> they are wishing and hoping americans don't continue to sign up in the numbers they are signing up, because they know that americans need health care. i mean, when i'm listening to 53 times, 53 times already in the

house of representatives we have voted to try to end the affordable care act, it's just them trying to find something political to hang on to, because they know over time that this program will be successful. it will bring down all costs. it will stop people from having to go to the emergency room for primary care. it is preventive care. because people will have preventive medicine at their fingertips now, it will stop people from being sick over the long haul. i can't for the life of me understand individuals don't want all americans to have health care. it boggles my mind. >> are you convinced, because when you add up all the numbers, who are signing up and 7 million, 9.5 million, if you look at the rand survey, but the medicaid people, the people who are 26 or younger who have now gotten on their parents' policy, that leaves 35 million americans who are uninsured. and what do we do for them? >> keep moving and working and

that's what we should be doing in congress, making sure every american has access to health care. we know that over time, the goal was about 8 million, you know, 6 million after we had the debacle and admit it was a debacle, but that should not stop the goal of making sure every american has health care, so it looks as though we'll be close to 8 million based upon the people that's on the websites now to sign up, close to 8 million in the first year. that's close to what the original goal was, and we know that's going to continue to increase as time goes on. so it is still going and moving towards the direction of getting every american who does not have health care, giving them access to health care. >> congressman, you're also on the house foreign affairs committee. let me ask about ukraine, we saw the change of plans by secretary of state kerry over the weekend, he changed his travel plans, went to met sergey lavrov over the weekend. here's what he had to say about that meeting.

>> any real progress in ukraine must include a pullback of the very large russian force that is currently massing along ukraine's boarders. we believe these forces are creating fear and intimidation in ukraine. >> they reached no agreement on diffusing this crisis and we know the troops are still massing near the border of ukraine. how hopeful are you there is still a diplomatic way out of this? >> i am hopeful. you see putin called president obama. it shows he does not want the severe sanctions that would take place if the soviet -- russian troops, move forward. >> you know what some critics have said of putin, it's that this is a show. he's making the phone call, saying let's talk, so he can say, well, i tried to find a way out of this, when, in fact, he feels he has the upper hand and has no intention of moving troops away. >> those individuals who try to

move the troops forward -- we don't need another cold war, and i think what mr. putin has seen is the success the president has had by keeping all of our allies together. he's seeing we've done that with reference to iran, for example, that that's put their economy into severe jeopardy and that could happen again. and he sees that our allies, the united states and nato are sticking together, you know, even china's involved, so when he sees the rest of the world coming together and staying together under the leadership of president obama, that then puts him in jeopardy. moving russia out of the g8, making it the g7 shows russia can be isolated and it would be devastating to their economy. mr. putin knows in today's world, where economies are all intertwined, that's devastating and he does not want to be on the outside, so he has to find some way to have a diplomatic solution. i understand, too, you know, russia is concerned, anybody

time you see anybody around your borders as to what's taking place there, but going into someone's sovereign territory by force is wrong, and as we heard secretary of state say, it's not going to be something that's going to be accepted. ukrainians have to be involved. the ukrainian government now, with whatever diplomatic solution that is proposed, they have to be at the table also, and, therefore, they will have a united kind of conversation and diplomatic in the end. >> congressman greg meeks, always good to have you here, thank you so much. coming up, a damaging new report on who knew what when. but first, the republican guessing game continues. what happened in vegas may very well play a role in what happens in 2016. if you're living with moderate to severe crohn's disease, and it feels like your life revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience

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the australian defense ship "oceanfield," is en route to the search zone, towing a u.s. navy pinger device, which can detect a black box up to 20,000 feet below the surface. this section of the ocean is no deeper than 10,000 feet. tony abbott said the search would continue indefinitely, despite no solid leads. >> until we locate some actual wreckage from the aircraft, and then do the regression analysis that might tell us where the aircraft went into the ocean, we'll be operating on guesstimates, but nevertheless, this is the best we can do. >> hardly reassuring words to the hundreds of family members frustrated by the lack of information and misinformation in the more than two weeks since flight 370 disappeared. i want to bring in nbc news aviation safety expert and former ntsb investigator greg

feith. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> there were times when the australian prime minister sounded somewhat optimistic, now he's using the word guesstimates. is that the best we can do? >> unfortunately, at this point it is. we've gone to this new search area, put a lot of assets in that one particular piece of the ocean, and we've come up again empty handed, so the best we can do is guesstimate that staying in that area with now all of these multiple assets might turn up something. but i'm not optimistic. >> let me ask you about one asset in particular, the new one, this navy pinger device that's on its way. i mean, how much area can we reasonably expect that to cover, and i wonder if there are even more available, given the fact that the batteries on the black boxes could run out by the end of the week? >> you bring up a good point, you know, the ship can only move at maybe 15, 20 knots max. trying to cover a very large distance, and all conditions

really have to be optimal. you have to hope that the pingers are still attached to the box. we've had accidents where the pingers have actually separated from the box, so that has to be in place. you have to have the boxes in an area the signal can get out and not be attenuated by the bottom of the ocean or wreckage, so there's a lot of things that have to fall into place, then again you have to get that device almost on top of the pinger itself. i mean, there's a lot of things that have to line up to make this successful to use it as a water search. >> in the meantime, the emotional roller coaster continues for family members, who have had their hopes raised so many times, only to be dashed. let me play for you a little compilation of sound. >> there is a credible belief. >> most credible lead. >> very credible leads. >> the most credible lead that we have. >> then friday was the latest example of when officials announced their most credible lead, and you do wonder if these

families have been given false hope. >> you know, and that's the sad thing, and as we've talked on this air for better than three weeks, you know, credible, it's the words that these folks are using, credible leads, which raises that optimism and hope, only to be let down. and there has to be a reality check, and with, you know, all the talking heads and all of the folks that are providing information, you have to use words cautiously. when i was working doing value jet and a variety of other accidents, you have to pick your words carefully, because the families are hanging on every word, and that's the critical part of all of this, and i think that's what's led to the mistrust of the malaysians and the work they are trying to do in conducting this investigation. >> greg feith, who has been so terrific in helping us understand all of this throughout. greg, good to see you, thank you. >> you're welcome. after the break, our strategists will read the signs from las vegas and place their

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who's the big winner after this weekend's unofficial sheldon adelson primary in las vegas? maybe not new jersey governor chris christie, maybe former florida governor jeb bush. so he could be the front-runner and the one to watch. joining me now, angela rie and matt sclaff. let's look at some of the headlines, influential republicans looking to push jeb bush, gop insiders pushing jeb bush to run for president in 2016. where is he now? is he the guy to watch? >> well, definitely. if he gets in this race, i think he becomes the de facto front-runner. i bet there's a lot of people making bets in their own head as to whether or not he'll actually get in this race. i think he's seriously looking at it, but i don't think it's a done deal. if he doesn't get in the race, it is completely wide open for

the first time in my lifetime. >> angela, wasn't so long ago we were talking about chris christie in this front-runner position. of course, he's had political problems since then, but in 24 hours, the beginning of the weekend, he did a national tv interview, released the report his administration commissioned about bridgegate, gave a press conference, where he frankly was his old feisty self. take a listen. >> it's colorful, brian, colorful. why don't you just get to the question and cut the commentary back a little. not my top person. can you get to it already? i'll answer. seriously. i'm up here trying to very carefully answer your questions, and i don't know whether you can't take notes or you're not listening. >> so then he goes to vegas with adelson and then rudy giuliani is defending him and the investigative report, frankly, on bridgegate. here's rudy giuliani. >> it is a vindication of the fact the governor didn't know

befo beforehand and the governor didn't order it. i think it's a strong report, it's not conclusive, nobody says it is, but it's a good start in the right direction. >> the question becomes, did he take back any control this weekend? >> yeah, chris, i don't think he did. i think at this point given all that's going on, chris christie's story is certainly more se lashs than the other folks that attended the adelson primary, but this thing is still far from over, the investigation is far from over, and there's a lot left to figure out. >> let's look, angela, what happened this weekend. he got a lot of attention this adelson event was actually the republican jewish coalition spring event and christie talked about the occupied territories, which is a big no-no, and you do sit back and you wonder if part of his selling points before bridgegate was his competence, where were his staff people when he was on the plane on the way to vegas? >> right. well, what i was getting ready to say is this is still so very early. what this has done is distracted

commentators from what's really going on. you have kasich there, as well, who has a 2014 race to figure out if he can win, then you also have scott walker, who is almost lost his state in a recall because of what he did with labor unions, so, yes, chris christie has a major problem here. he has been deemed competent, but this scandal demonstrated substantial incompetence, whether it's inability to manage and also another problem, so jeb bush, at this point, is probably the most spotless, if more no other reason than his record is so far away. >> going back to what you said, what if he doesn't get in the race and look at the other people who were there this weekend, scott walker, john kasich, and there's the latest poll, which reflects paul ryan, who, you know, obviously these numbers are not huge, it's not an overwhelming lead, but he has the lead. how much more important does that make sheldon adelson, and his hundred million or who knows

how much money he's willing to put into the republican primaries. >> it's a lot of money and it's going to take a lot of money to get this nomination. the fact is, it's always been true the first primary on the republican side and true in the democratic side, too, is all these conversations with the big republican donors, and if you could get them on your side, it helps you tremendously as you go to run for president. and as you remember over the last few years, the rules have changed. so it's not just that direct contribution you could take into your own presidential campaign or exploratory committee or leadership pac, it's also these outside groups that have sprung up that can spend money to help you, and we saw that help, newt gingrich and others in the last republican nomination. you're right, chris, this nomination is wide open if jeb bush doesn't get into it. i think that's a good thing, not a bad thing. we're going to have a real healthy debate and you have conservative senators looking at running, outside washington governors considering running. just like the 1950s, i think we're going to have some people outside the box who are not

talking about looking at this and i think the american people are open to that. >> matt, angela, good talking to both of you, thanks. checking the news feed this morning, more protests expected in albuquerque, new mexico. check out what happened yesterday, police officers in riot gear clashing with demonstrators who blocked traffic and climbed street signs. they were protesting against police shootings. 37 since 2010. 23 of them fatal. the justice department is investigating allegations of excessive force and civil rights violations by the albuquerque police. the south kept its promise to shoot back if the north went through with fired drills off the western coast. the southern then returned fire, even scrambling f-15 fighter jets. this region has been contested since the u.n. drew the border after the korean war. general motors and government safety officials

facing tough new questions about the massive gm recall. cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. this new report ahead of tomorrow's hearing on capitol hill, what do we know? >> the investigators, just to give a little background once again, they are looking at why gm took a decade to recall the vehicles with the faulty admission switches and said federal regulators declined two times to open complaints about the cars and gm projected a proposed fix for the problem back in 2005 because of it would have taken too long and cost too much. this helps, obviously, to fill in some of the blanks we're trying to work out here. we need to know more about the events that led up to the recall of 2.6 million vehicles and the investigations are continuing. but we do know that both gm and the national highway traffic safety administration will be pressed on why they missed several opportunities as spelled out during that time to alert the public to the dangers posed by the cars that had the faulty

ignition switches that should have then shut down and could disable the air bags and the power steering and brakes. as for gm, this is their statement, we deeply regret the events that led to the recall, we fully are cooperating and hope to have both full understanding of the facts. >> last week we talked about the fact taco bell was going into the fast food breakfast market. looks like they are making mcdonald's nervous. >> interestingly, new turn of events, mcdonald's is fighting back against taco bell's breakfast challenge from now until april the 13th, mcdonald's is offering a free small cup of its coffee, and no purchase is required, chris, so mcdonald's has launched a social media campaign as it's trying to fend off taco bell, which last week started selling breakfast. it was thursday. so this tweet says, nothing beats the original. and this is a great tweet, this

one, shows ronald mcdonald petting a chihuahua, which use the to be taco bell's mascot, and reads, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. >> of course, we're talking about the ads where they got together people named ronald mcdonald who ate the taco bell breakfast and loved it. all those people are named ronald mcdonald. clever ad. >> at the same time, it's great entertainment for all of us. >> cnbc's mandy drury, thank you. it is the first full day of the major league baseball season, go indians. hope always springs eternal at the beginning of the season. aside from the game, you go for the eats. check out the best ballpark foods. phil's bbq at petco park makes the list, meat ball parm sandwich at yankee stadium, ben's chili bowl half smoke.

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ahead of this week's milestone election in afghanistan, a look at the views of the wars on our veterans. more than half of post-9/11 vets say they have a fellow service member who has attempted or committed suicide, 41% have experienced outbursts of anger, 55% feel disconnected from service life. let me bring in kevin, a former ranger who served in iraq and afghanistan and is now running for congress as a democrat in pennsylvania's eighth district. good morning. >> good morning. thank you so much for having me on. >> first, let me get your reaction to what i found to be

many shocking statistics, but as someone who has served four tours, is this shocking to you? >> no. i mean, in fact, it's not. if you think about where these veterans are coming from, they are coming from a culture of success, of problem solving, of getting the job done, and then they get out and they look at what's going on in congress right now and what they are seeing is a culture of failure and, frankly, lame excuses. and it makes no sense, because they were sent overseas to serve on behalf of this country, to put themselves at risk and they see their elected officials can't work together to get anything done. >> we also see 58% of the veterans say the v.a. does a poor or fair job of dealing with their problems. one vet told the post he waited seven months just to see a doctor. we do know president obama has been pushing for more money, asking for a 3% increase in the next budget to nearly $164 billion, and under him, the v.a. budget has increased by 60%, but

is the money the answer, i guess? >> well, it's part of it, and it's interesting you raise this backlog, my brother-in-law got out of the marines last year and filed his paperwork around november and so far all he's got is two letters saying we know you've submitted a claim and we're too backlogged to do anything about it. ultimately, money is a band aid approach to this and certainly something we need to be doing, but at the end of the day, we're going to have to make a strategic investment in the v.a., certainly, to upgrade i.t. infrastructure, so they can process these claims and work more closely together with the department of defense and really improve the rate at which they adjudicate these claims. >> there's interesting numbers, 1 in 9 say they performed actions in iraq and afghanistan that made them feel proud, but 44% say that the war was worth fighting, 53% say they felt the afghan war was worth fighting.

why such a big gap? >> well, you know, let me just make a couple comments. first of all, every single veteran should be proud of serving their country. they put themselves at risk, you know -- >> i'm sorry, i misspoke, 90% say they are proud of what they did in afghanistan and iraq. >> i think it should be 100%. but in any event, i understand when you look at -- if you take a look at these wars, all right, the afghan war, this war came to us and we were attacked and we went to the afghan war. now we've gone over to, when you look at what we did in the iraq war, let's look at the result now. you have an emboldened iran, you have an al qaeda-affiliated group that's grown from being the islamic state of iraq to serious, the terrorism problem has expanded, then we have an iraqi government closer to the iranian government than they are not united states government, so when some of the soldiers looked back at the sacrifices they

made, it's hard to, you know, show that the sacrifices really made the united states safer. and i think that's where a lot of that skepticism comes from. >> kevin strauss, thank you for your service and thank you very much for coming on to talk to us today. >> thank you very much for having me. >> and we'll be right back.

to politics now. the uconn upset over michigan state helped put a dagger in the president's bracket. he had the spartans going all the way. the huskies have plenty of room in their cheering section, tweeting at the president, sorry about busting your brack bracket @barackobama. we have room on our bandwagon if you're interested. a young mayor reminded us with this instant classic on "meet the press." >> biggest problem you're facing right now as mayor?

>> potholes. potholes. >> spoken like a true mayor. >> he called it a national epidemic, which almost anybody with a car would tend to agree with. that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and co." i'm chris jansing. up next on "news nation," after two earthquakes in two weeks for the los angeles area, craig melvin will talk to a seismologist about if the big one is next. see you tomorrow.

cut! [bell rings] this...is jane. her long day on set starts with shoulder pain... ...and a choice take 6 tylenol in a day which is 2 aleve for... ...all day relief. hmm. [bell ring] "roll sound!" "action!" good monday morning, everyone, i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall, and this is "news nation." we're following developing news about today's deadline to sign up for health insurance under the affordable care act. with just 13 hours to go now until that midnight deadline, millions are rushing to sign up, flocking to enrollment centers around the country. the unprecedented surge in demand even caused the healthcare.gov website to go down once again temporarily this morning. it was quickly brought back online, but many users were put

in virtual waiting lines and reminded they could also sign up by phone. the 1-800-number hot line is also flooded with calls. in the last week alone, the call center took in more than 2.5 million calls. that's compared to 2.4 million for the entire month of february. more than a quarter of a million people called on saturday. overall, the administration says more than 6 million have signed up on those new exchanges. and in the past hour, vice president joe biden continued to push to get young people to enroll by appearing on "the rachael ray show." >> any young person listening, if you don't need this for your peace of mind, do it for mom. do it for your dad. get health coverage. do it for mom. >> jay engoff, appointed to oversee the