malaysian flight 370. we start with the affordable care act and the race to beat the midnight deadline tonight to sign up for health care coverage before open enrollment ends. an estimated 2 million people visited the site over the weekend. and yes, the site did go down briefly this morning, emphasis on briefly. and there was another brief rush this afternoon. the rush to sign up for the white house is intense. part of a pop culture push that's included celebrities from lebron james to zack. do you remember this prediction? >> i think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of march, 2014. >> the white house later backed away from secretary sebelius's claim. but some are now saying that the

numbers may reach that 7 million mark. the white house doesn't really provide a breakdown of enrollment figures, but two figures from the rand corporation is pretty amazing. we know that more than 6 million have signed up, but the white house says it could be substantially larger. the times quotes the rand survey saying that 4 million have signed up by expanded medicaid. the rand corporation estimates that another 9 million people have bipassed the exchanges and signed up directly with insurance company. the overall effect according to rachbd a steep decline in the number of americans without health care. this would be the largest expansion of health care coverage since medicare and medicaid. other organizations tracking the

rollout like gallup are offering different numbers. but no matter how you do the path, the central point is the same, people are signing up for health care because people want health care coverage. what does that mean if you're a republican? it means that you keep paying attention to the rhetoric and not the numbers. >> it's driving up costs riling now. >> they're cooking the books on this. >> it's not anything to be proud of or crow about. >> democratic congressman marsha fudge of ohio joins us, of course you're also head of the congressional black caucus. these numbers are pretty sundaying sunday i stunning if you look at the rand corporation numbers. how is this not the democrats calling card and success story going into the midterm elections? >> it absolutely is our calling card, there's no question about it. i think that when people sit back and realize that the affordable care act really did what it was supposed to do. and i listened to the clip.

there is no way that if in fact the affordable care act had driven up costs, that it would be that quiet. they would never give the president that kind of a break. we know for a fact that the affordable care act has really reduced the increase in health care. so it is doing what it's supposed to do and i will continue to talk about it everywhere i go, every single day i'm on the campaign trail. >> there's obviously another very important democratic politician that's giving the same advise that you're giving to democrats also gave democrats over the weekend, you need to run on the positives, is that something that you're starting to see happen within the democratic caucus? >> no question about it. people like me, we have been talking about it since the day it passed. i have never backed away from it. i thought it was the right thing to do. i knew there was 30 million people that needed health care. i have been running on it from the very beginning.

>> in your home state of ohio, there was controversy over weather to expand medicaid. i want to show you, there are a couple of maps i want you to take a look at. the place where is health care affordability is worse, let's start looking at that. the states where it is the worst, where people do not have the money to buy health care. alabama, west virginia, north carolina, arkansas, oklahoma, south carolina, florida, texas, arizona, mostly states governed by republicans where the unaforpdability is high. where it's affordable is iowa, minnesota, iowa, massachusetts, which already had a version of the aca. are we literally starting to have a two america situation, where you have these blue state where is they're tackling affordability, embracing the exchanging and expanding medicaid and a lot of red states where, let's keep it real, a lot

of african-americans -- >> in particular, for the health of our people. the people who live in states where their governors refused to take the medicaid expansion should do everything in their power to get rid of them. because these people really have done a disservice so everyone they represent. when you refuse to take federal dollars that will pay for three years for this expansion, you, to me, have said to your state, i don't care about you, i don't care what happens to you, i just want to stop the president from having a successful proposal or having a successful plan because otherwise, who doesn't take the money? come on, who would not take billions of dollars to help poor people in their state? >> do you think that it's been a mistake on the part of democrats not to emphasize the medicaid portion? you have a lot of push around the private insurance piece, getting the 7 million, but the

medicaid part is a big part of the expansion. >> a healthy young man in my district, he tried to get on the website early, because of all the issues, several weeks later he finds out he has to get his gallbladder removed. he's $40,000 in dead, trying to get out of it. now he finds out that as he goes back, he qualifies for medicaid, so we retroactively put him in the medicaid expansion program, now he is covered, he is healthy and he understands the significance of health care for a young person. >> those are the kind of stories that you would think would be out front for democrats. let's quickly talk about some of the polling, because what strategists are saying that republicans are in trouble despite the -- right now, in terms of what people want done, among republicans, 26% of republicans in the latest kaiser family foundation survey say

keep but fix the health care law. 27% say repeal and replace, 31% say repeal and not replace. are these people who just have health care and aren't concerned about expansion? >> they're listening to a narrative that's put out by fox and others that hear -- any right minded person, any person that cares about his fellow man are going to want to be sure that their neighbors and their family and their friends have health care. those are people who really don't understand what it is, secondly, it's people that don't want it to succeed, other than that it's a good plan. i think we are just at a point, joy, in this country where there's always going to be those who are going to be against anything the president is for and will try to destroy anything that's going to help people who are not like them. >> we're out of time. but is this going to be part of a cdc agenda going in?

>> yes, we are all in. there are two investigations into bridge gate, but that's not slowing down governor chris christie, in fact he might be running evening harder. we're getting a live update on the mudslide in washington state. the search continues. we're listening and we'll keep you posted. multi-layered security solution to keep your information safe & secure. century link. your link with what's next. you've reached the age where you know how things work. this is the age of knowing what needs to be done. so why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain;

it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long- term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to you doctor. marge: you know, there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk.

the problems are mounting for general motors. gm has recalled another 824,000 cars due to faulty ignition switches. that brings the total to more than 2.5 million recalled vehicles. and the problems have been linked to at least 13 deaths. and now constitutional investigators say they found evidence that gm kpegtives

continued approving the design of the faulty switches even though they didn't meet specifications. today house democrats sent a later asking why it took so long to recall vehicles if the automaker knew about the problems. government regulators are also accused of brushing off warnings about the problem. tomorrow ceo will mary bara. >> this weekend on up, he interviewed one of the people named in the report, belman ---the report says that daughterity overheard a conversation that -- she was threatened by a member of christie's administration is

false. here's dougherty on up. >> do you believe that you did not hear mayor zimmer say any of this, anything that she alleges took place, you believe you heard the entire conversation and you believe then that she's fabricating? >> i don't believe she's fabricating anything. >> you said you heard the conversation. use didn't hear this? >> i did not hear the constable in in way, shape or form threaten the mayor. >> so she is making this up? >> did i hear ever word of the conversation? i don't know. could he have whispered it? i guess. but i'm telling you, they weren't whispering, they were talking like you and i were talking. >>-share information that could cob rate zimmer's claim. christie would probably like to put bridgegate in his rear view

mirror so he could perhaps focus squarely on 2016. but folks aren't letting him do that. among the skeptics that called the -- in thinking he could get the political press to play along, christie just insulted a class of people that were formerly his greatest allies. for its self-serving presentation, and for missing -- two of christie's surrogates went on the sunday showings and tried to defend it. >> it is a vindication that the governor didn't know before hand. had he not done this investigation, he would have been accused of closing his eyes to it. he's got a guy doing this report that's not about to do a whitewash. that's not in his character. >> we haven't seen a shred of ed that the governor knew anything about this lane realignment before hand.

we have had no incentive at our law firm other than to get to the truth. it reminds me of the movie line, they can't handle the truth. we believe we got to the truth. >> christie stumbled into another error before his speech to the crowd in las vegas. >> i took a helicopter ride from the occupied territories across. and just felt personally how extraordinary that was to understand. the military risk that israel faces every day. >> that remark by christie about occupies territories drew murmurs from the crowd, some of whom saw it as a gaff. the governor reportedly apologize to sheldoned aalson who's auditioning candidates

to -- an asbury park press recorder bob engel. he helped write the book on chris christie and his rise to power. i've got to start with you, the chris christie bigger picture. the governor's office commission this is report. it was supposed to kpon rate him. same day he schedules a prime time television interview and then goes on a media tour. it doesn't seem to have worked. on the national level, did chris christie help himself last week or hurt himself? >> it's a bmixed bags, i talked to those in the key states when you're looking at 2016 and you're looking at the maps and the succession of primaries and caucuses there. they essentially said that it's a mixed bag, that chris christie has the defense now which his lawyers back up in saying that's nothing to say here, there's no

evidence yet as to whether he had anything to do with it. i think the keyword from everyone i have talked to is yet. in some states, particularly iowa, they never really liked chris christie to begin with, and none of this held. there was some idea that there would be a rallying effect around chris christie because the press in some people's view were beating up on him over this bridgegate thing and people who weren't inclined to like him would come to his defense. that doesn't seem to have happened either, especially in states like iowa. it's still a mixed bag, he's still got some making up to do, he's still got some ground to make up. a 61% approval rating back in november, it's about 40% now. >> meanwhile, these people rallying to chris christie's defense, are the same two people as before, which is mastro, his attorney and rudy giuliani. >> you have to understand that

giuliani and christie have some things in common. i go into this in the book, by the way. because dike duhaim is the political consultant for both of them. bill stephien came out of that giuliani duhaim. so it's not like they raised their hands and said i'll go defend them. >> the stephien relationship is not exactly on good terms. to have his relationship with him was rolled under the bus. >> why the heck was that in there? nobody can explain why that was in there. it made no sense. >> i want to play you a little bit of the attorney mastro

defending that part of the interview and christie's -- attack women as a potential presidential candidate. >> bridget kelly is at the heart of the problem here, so is david wildstein. >> is going after bridget kelly a way to increase chris christie's -- >> he could broaden the appeal of the republican party, particularly with women, particularly with african-americans and latino. so the lawyer there says they were treated exactly the way they should have been in that report. but they were also treated very differently. right, bridget anne kelly came off as very emotional, almost as if she hatched this whole scheme because she had her heart broken in this relationship. that was the tone and theme of it.

chris christie said that the reason why there wasn't a more personal window into what kelly was scheming, but they didn't have any documentation to that effect. in a lot of republicans' minds, even main stream republicans, a party of one. there's always been this sort of whispering campaign around him. remember the speech he gave in 2012? a lot of people said why didn't he talk about mitt romney? i think you're seeing that all over the place with republicans thinking that he's damaged goods in some ways and that's why you're hearing all of this stuff now about jeb bush who possibly could make that argument that chris christie had made all along, which is that jeb bush could possibly appeal to women and latinos and african-americans. >> the party of one theme that you bring up is actually important. because even in new jersey, which is remarkable, you don't even see a rallying of new

jersey republicans around this guy. >> you don't and you won't if the people who came on to represent the governor got the short straw. they come on and you almost feel sorry for them because they're trying to defend a report that just can't be defended. >> and neil, lastly, you mentioned jeb bush, is he in your mind the biggest beneficiary of what has to be seen as the continued christie flameout? >> jeb bush, because there's always going to be some establishment candidate that runs in any gop primary. jeb bush is in line to take that possibly. there's a lot of big money republicans, but the other person, rand paul who has been on quite a tear over these last many weeks, really surging in the polls, he's in double digits and chris christie is in single digits.

>> thanks to both of you. up next, how social media is tackling the story of those california earthquakes with selfies. name of eight princesses. i'm on expert on s and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there. so, what'd you think of the house? did you see the school rating? oh, you're right. hey, babe, i got to go. bye, daddy. have a good day at school, okay? ♪ [ man ] but what about when my parents visit? okay. just love this one. it's next to a park. [ man ] i love it. i love it, too. here's your new house.

♪ daddy! [ male announcer ] you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. zillow.

(agent) i understand. (dad) we've never sold a house before. (agent) i'll walk you guys through every step. (dad) so if we sell, do you think we can swing it? (agent) i have the numbers right here and based on the comps that i've found, the timing is perfect. ...there's a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (dad) that's good to know. (mom) i'm so excited.

coming up, we read between the lines on the birth of a new controversy over birth control and who's paying for it? but first, it's time for the stories you can't stop buzzing for. the "walking dead" season four finale was last night. and it was epic. apparently you're as flabbergasflabbergas flabbergasted as i was. one hash tag that sums it all up, damn, rick. most of you are agreeing with the sentiment of this tweet. give me the strength to make it through these next seven months. from zombie tv to a real life calamity, twitter has been buzzing with what i have to say

is the weirdest response ever to the recent earthquakes in lavm. most of you have been tweeting earthquake self eyes like these taken over the weekend. letting folks know that during the 5.1 magnitude earth quake on friday was the most important thing you could do. just a friendly public service announcement, next time an earthquake hits, take cover, don't just stand there and take a tweet pic. here's what the stan by me and star trek star told the brainy type what should she do when she's called a nerd at school? >> i know it's really hard when you're in school and you're surrounded by the same ordinary people that make you feel bad about yourself. there's 30,000 people here this weekend. who are doing the exact same thing and we're all doing really well.

>> now the video is actually from the june 2013 denver comic con convention. but we posted it on sunday, so it's going viral now. apparently you can't -- you can join the conversation with fellow reid report fans and keep tells us what's important to you. and violent protests, alpro- then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently,

if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

until you're sure you do. bartender: thanks, captain obvious. co: which is what makes using the hotels.com mobile app so useful. i can book a nearby hotel room from wherever i am. or, i could not book a hotel room and put my cellphone back into my pocket as if nothing happened. hotels.com. i don't need it right now. a quick update for you on the search -- 21 people are confirmed dead, including an additional four victims discovered on sunday. search crews got a brief respite

from bad weather, including rain today, however the area is still under a flood watch through tonight. and also, super bowl winning seattle seahawks are now scheduled to visit the air today. now an update on the missing malaysian flight 370. with search efforts over the weekend turning up debris that's not from the missing flight, the focus is now turning to the black box and whether it will continue pinging until it's batteries will run out in a week's time. >> reporter: the latest news conference is a slilgghtly contentious one. the last words out of the cockpit were already, good night. now refusing to confirm that during the press conference, but it's come out just now, that the actual last words were good night, malaysia 370.

he's also confirming something the families were showing t asian airlines making a loop animal laza and not just a left turn. unclear why that would be confirmed to the families and not confirmed to the press. this is only fueling the -- time the literally running out. the batteries on those flight data reporters are expected to run out later this week. it's been 24 day -- the u.s. has put a pinger on an australian defense ship. now that pinger can see a flight data recorder, over 20,000 feet over the surface of the water. since the search area is so vast, the size of new mexico, it's not quite as effective as they want it to be. it needs to be a much narrower area that they have to search. australia is ---intensify their efforts, not scale them back. but the families so far have

only gotten frustration, they have only gotten disappointment and so far no closure. turning now to new mexico where for two days, the streets of albuquerque have seen scenes like this. and those protesters are expected to be back today, demonstrating against what they stay is excessive force by albuquerque police, on sunday police officers in riot gear fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who had been marching peacefully but eventually blocked traffic and climbed everything from light poles to street signs. several arrests were made and one officer reportedly was injured in what's been described as total mayhem. there was a fatal police shooting of a homeless man camping outside the city on march 16. the police department released this video last week of the moment when 38-year-old boyd jennings was shot. two officers involved in the

shooting have been placed on leave and the fbi is investigating. the website hacker group anonymous was behind this weekend's protest. the group posted it's own version of the police shooting video and threatened to shut down the apd's website, which it successfully did just one hour before sunday's march began. protesters say boyd's death is just the latest in a string of police using excessive force. the department of justice has been investigating the albuquerque department since 2012. according to an account by the associated press, of the 37 shootings on record by the albuquerque police since 2010, 23 have been fatal. critics say that number is disproportionate for a city of 554,000 people. tony decople writes about police brutality. you write about the bigger

picture in terms of the police brutality and the trouble defining exactly what it is. >> i've been looking at what the standard is for police forces around the country and academics have looked at this and said there is no standard at all. there's 7,000 disdepartments in this country and every one of them gets to define what force is used in what circumstances in their own way.variations. in albuquerque, if a citizen is armed, use of force, including deadly use of force is authorized. so what might seem like bad policing may not be a crime. >> it's difficult to convict police in this situation, because weapons were found, it's very unlikely that you're going to see police convicted in these situations. >> extremely difficult. they have a wide leeway. what's also kind of scary in this situation, we're holding out albuquerque to be a

particularly bad city for police brutality. but 20 years ago after the rodney king beatings, the attorney general has to provide a report on it. no report has every been issued. there is no national database. so we have no idea if they're being more forceful relative to dallas, relative to new york city. >> in this one instance, but we do have some numbers in terms of the amount of people who are dying at the hands of police. we have charlotte police killing five people last year, the most in a decade. but less than washington where 49 people were killed. ft. worth, 32. austin, 17. all of these numbers creeping upward. 52 in philadelphia in 2010, prompting the police commissioner to do a special review, on and on and on, dallas, miami, baltimore. all these cities that you're seeing anecdotal evidence that police are more violent on

civilians, but no national tracking of that data. >> and what's more crazy is that more police violence allows more police violence. because the definition of excessive force is was it reasonable or not? well i'm a cop and my friends are doing more shooting and i acted like other officers in the same situation would have act #. more shootings can lead to more shootings. >> we were talking at the break about the jonathan ferrell case, but without big protests like we're seeing in albuquerque or a case that captures the national attention, how do we get more attention and more action? >> we won't get more attention until that database that the attorney general is going to set up in '94 is set up. so if there's a wrongful death lawsuit filed in this albuquerque case, that will probably get settled but it won't be revealed how the decision was made and no outcome

for public release. so people can't get angry because they don't know how it resolved. >> then you end up with a big protest. >> albuquerque has actually gotten together and taken to the streets and said we want accountability. >> and hopefully that will bring more attention to the issue. next, what will it take to get politicians to take action on climate change? we'll dig into a new report that says the worst is yet to come. gas at the same location. during the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. at night and when it's cloudy, we use more natural gas. this ensures we can produce clean electricity whenever our customers need it. ♪ hi dad. she's a dietitian.

and back when i wasn't 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. became big business overnight?

♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine a company's future with the future of trading. company profile. a research tool on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade.

man corrupts his world. >> that was a scene from "noah." if you saw the film and breathed a sigh of relief on the way out of the theater, saying thank goodness, the world's not really

going to esnd in an armageddon like weather event, think again. just like in the days of noah, there's good news and bad news. left unchecked, here's the potential bad news. coastal and inland flooding could devastate shore areas and big cities. global drought and floods could lead to widespread hunger. and now for the good news, scientists say governments can protect their people from those risks if they act now. so the question s what exactly will it take for congress to act? or perhaps are they waiting for a sign from god? joining me now to answer those questions and break down the new report. michael mann from penn state university and a and brian

walsh, environmental editor at "time" magazine. talk sort of more about the real world implications of global warming/climate change. what is beyond what i mentioned there, sort of the real world scenario of what will happen if we don't tackle global warming? >> i think this new report, more so than any previous report from the ipcc really drives home the fact that climate change and global warming are not just some far off, abstract problem that might affect polar bears decades from now. it's impacting us negatively here and now. in every continent. what the report show is that? every continent in the world, we're seeing impacts already on food, on water availability, on land, on human health, on our economies. as a result of that national security as well. increased conflict, more

competiti competiti competition among a growing population, diminished food, water and resources. in a sense, we are now the polar bear. >> and brian, you ran a piece on today's detail report, it's still a distraction for most people. you have a certain subset of people who just don't believe it in at all, or who do believe in it or don't see that as any immediate threat to their own personal ely lives. what's the challenge to get them to see their impact? >> we have to see long-term. it's not something as a species we're very good at. we're trying to make it clear when we see the oceans becoming more acidic, which is having a huge impact on marine life, we're seeing a change in water, look what it's happening in california right now. there will be an impact, the questions are now that we know that, what are we actually going

to do about it? >> what are we going to do about it? >> in the united states, the big act is going to be with the epa, the cut back on carbon emissions, but that's the only choice at this point, congress, i don't see anything happens there, given the current makeup right now. then you have to think about globally, because the u.s. as big as it is, only 30% of the global carbon emiss. what are places like china and india going to do on a global scale as well? >> china has passed the united states in emissions. how do you tackle a problem that is international in scope and the united states is not the sort of sole bad guy in ruining the atmosphere in terms of carbon emissions. >> we have to set a good example for the rest of the world to follow. we have had a legacy of two centuries of access to cheap, dirty fossil fuel energy and we know that that two centuries of fossil fuel burning has had an

impact on the planet. so if we are to ask other countries like china and india, that are now developing their own economies, if we are to ask them to decrease their carbon emissions, then we have to show some more leadership on this problem. we have to get our own house in order. and ironically, we are falling behind the rest of the world. china, india and other nations are actually investing a lot more in renewable energy, in clean energy than we are here in the u.s. that's a problem. >> brian, in this country, ed markey and barbara boxer are sort of leading the charge in terms of trying to get something to happen. i believe they released a report that a frightening compendium of frightening occurrences on the planet. they're attempting to raise the alarm among their fellow members in congress, why does it fall on

such deaf reears? >> senators are more concerned about what's going to happen in the next elect shan than 50 or 60 years down the line. so barring some changes, you have people like tom stier who says i'm going to spend $50 million to push climate change as an issue. >> you do have the imperative a lot of people have just for job creation, so you still have people fix ating on focusing on shale oil and -- >> what's changed about fossil fuels here in the united states, no one would have expected ten years ago that we would be producing all this oil, all this natural gas. what it's sort of doing is sort of tie us even more closely to

being a fossil fuel producing company. when you take that money, it's going to be harder to get off that habit down the road. >> are we just going to be in this problem with people not understanding global warming because they are distracted by the weather? >> well, you know, we always had weather, and, you know, it's cold in the winter, and yes, this winter was cold, but if you look at the statistics, what we see is that we're actually breaking all-time records for warmth than you would expect from chance alone. we're seeing the signal of climate change in our daily weather patterns, and it's already having a devastating effect. as we have alluded to, there are some special interests that have poisoned the well somewhat when it comes to having a meaningful discussion about this problem. the coke brothers, for example have invested tens of millions of dollars in running primary campaigns against republicans who have recognized chilimate

change as a challenge. you know, we can have a debate about how to solve the problem, and there's room for people of all political views at the table when it comes to having that discussion, we can't continue to pretend that the problem doesn't exist. and next, the wright's fringe benefits dilemma. we'll read between the lines on who's really paying for that birth control. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder. isn't that a conflict? search "proprietary mutual funds". yikes!! then go to e*trade. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. e*trade. less for us, more for you. the fund's prospectus contains its investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other important information and should be read and considered carefully before investing.

for a current prospectus visit www.etrade.com/mutualfunds. grossemisconduct... ortho crime files. ...disturbing the pantry. a house, under siege. homeowner calls in the big guns. say helto home defense max. with the one-touch continuous-spray wand. kills bugs inside... ...and prevents new ones for up to a year. guaranteed. nothing to see here people. ortho home defense max.

get order. get ortho®.

fringe benefits. a term defined as any nonwage payment or benefit granted to employees by employers. examples include pension plans, profit sharing programs, vacation pay and company paid life, health and unemployment eninsurance. the term became popular after

world war ii, as for profit insurance companies that jumped into the health care industry in the 1930s expand medical plans blue cross and blue shield. 70% of u.s. businesses offered fringe benefits to attract and retain workers, a figure that's about 60% today. when you get a job, your compensation is a combination of cash compensation and fringe benefits. which the employer essentially pays you in lieu of salary. the benefits t life and the health insurance, the vacation pay all of that is part of your compensation package. you earned it and you contribute to it. just check your next pay stub and note the deduction for your health plan. your employer can't tell you what to do with the cash payment they make to you on payday. even if you do something that completely violates their moral

code. want to blow your paycheck at the strip club? i wouldn't advise i, but as long as it's legal, your boss has nothing to say about it. why do some of the right believe that your employer should be able to tell you what you can and cannot do with the portion of your compensation that comes in the form of fringe benefits. the hobby lobby case is about that question. can an employer limit what you're able to do with the fringe benefit portion of your compensation? or can they force you to spend out of your cash contribution to pay the extra costs? in some cases the prohibitively high extra cost of buying birth control out of your pocket. a price that can be the ekw equivalent of a month's salary. and if they're so inclined, can they stop you from using your benefits to get a blood trance physici

fusion for your kids. she walks up to the counter and presents her insurance card and she obtains her birth control using the benefits she earned in l l lieu, by presenting your car another the pharmacy or your health care center is buying your birth control, distorts the relationship between employer and employee. we would certainly never say that employees are buying men's viagra when a man walks up into the pharmacy for their viagra pills. be sure to visit us online at the reid report at msnbc.com. the cyclist is up next. >> i'm going to take up that hobby lobby conversation as well and talk about how people use religious liberty as a bible as a sort of force field to protect

themselves. we're also going to talk about the sheldon adelson primary going on in vegas and we're going to talk about minor league baseball and it's also a deadline for something. what is it a deadline for in. >> i can't really remember? >> it's on the tip of my tongue. >> i think it rhymes with elk care? or something? >> i certainly will be watching the cycle starts next. we're gonna be late. ♪ ♪ ♪ oh, are we early? [ male announcer ] commute your way with the bold, all-new nissan rogue. ♪ with the bold, all-new nissan rogue. my she's awesome.st, when i go in there, i want to be awesome too. so i've totally gone pro with crest pro-health.

go pro with crest pro-health. the first time i tried crest pro-health it felt different, i mean it felt clean. crest pro-health protects all these areas dentists check most. she's going to do backflips when she sees this. 4 out of 5 dentists confirmed these pro-health products helped maintain a professional clean. i am extremely impressed. i guess that's what happens when you go pro. go pro with crest pro-health. excuse me, did you say you want to see my teeth, oh i'm sorry.

psyching right now, d-day for obama care, the last day to fa dance to the music or -- let's face it, our medical system is not going to be fixed until the healthy person sings. see what i did there?

and we start with obama care, there's just a few hours left to sign up for health insurance, but potential signees like luke russert waking up to find healthcare.gov down again. people were told they would get an e-mail alert when they could go back down. now the website is fully operational. 6 million people have already signed up with just one million to go to meet those original projections, with the big day for the president's health care law, and opponents ready to pounce on any missteps, let's bring in washington bureau chief for buzz feed, the numbers are better than expected, a lot of people now have the health care that the president wanted them to have and those sort of options. but the challenge to implementation, the difficulty in getting this things up and running has, i think, prejudiced peop a