that is all for now. see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. "the ed show" is coming up next. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from new york. let's get to work. republicans may have problems continuing to make the anti-obamacare argument. >> we all hoped that perhaps once this bill passed that maybe we'd be proven wrong. >> this law is doing what it's supposed to do. it's working. >> let's love people. i'm not denying that there aren't a few people who have been helped. there are some. >> whatever the real numbers are -- >> 7.1 million. >> it's not for the better. >> what about the politics of this? >> i think obamacare is a loser for democrats going through this election cycle. ♪

>> good to have you with us. thanks for watching. if you had been in a time capsule for the last five years and just happened to wake up yesterday morning, you would have thought that health care in america had failed. give me a number. what would it take? what number would the mainstream media be happy with to think that we're definitely headed in the right direction when it comes to health care reform in america? we're affecting people's lives. you can't get somebody to just come out and get after it on any of the mainstream shows on sunday. this is working. they just can't bring themselves to saying it. give me a number. what number are they looking for? what is the magical number? well, it's just a situation where they're looking for the black cloud and the silver lining. i thought we'd start the show tonight with a brand-new chart. what the heck. this is the rate of americans

who are insured, uninsured in america. the number of americans in this country who are uninsured is now down to 15.6%. it's the lowest number since 2008. wasn't hard for me to say that. kind of easy. a number, verifiable, and there it is. uninsured americans. that number has dropped. it's the lowest number since 2008. what's this mean? i'm going to come to the conclusion that obamacare is working and these numbers are part of the puz toll prove it. as of march 31st, if this is the number, 7.1 million americans have enrolled in obamacare. and of course the republicans are still doubting it. here's what the talking heads were talking about on the sunday shows. here's how they're rationalizing 7.1 million americans. >> the 7 million figure, it could be at the end of the day, you know, you hear numbers anywhere up to as much as 85% of

those people were already insured, so you're not talking about getting new people onto the plan. >> how many net winners and how many net losers? we know that there are millions of people thrown off their health care and they may have gone on the exchanges and got a policy. how happy are they with it? do they like what they've got? >> if you only look at the enrollment figure, you miss the question of how many of them are previously uninsured? you have to multibibby about 80% will be the number that pay. >> since we don't know what the numbers mean and the rollout has been rather disastrous, the american people, at a time when they have such distrust of government in general, see quite clearly that the people that pass the bill really never did have any idea what they were doing. >> so hard, so negative, and don't back down. we really don't know if this is a real number or not. i'll get to that in a moment. first of all, conservatives will never give up on trying to spin the numbers into nothing. actually, it's zero.

now, this number is legitimate. it's legitimate nor a number of reasons. and i believe it's here to stay and it will only get bigger. remember, private insurance companies are reporting these numbers. private companies are reporting up to 90% of the people have paid. since when to the republicans have a war against the private sector. i thought they loved the private sector. but conservatives are making the case that, no, this is a failure. they just can't admit defeat. once again, i ask them to surrender. it's here to stay. although if this number is not correct, hmm, if this number is wrong, if there really aren't 7.1 million people that have signed up, what does that mean? it means it's disastrous for the democrats across the board because they are the ones who have ushered in health care reform in america. health care reform will be i think in serious trouble if this number is not correct.

president obama's legacy will be terribly tarnished, and the entire democratic party could be in real danger of losing elections not just this midterm. you think after this midterm that obamacare is all done with? well, we're done with that. no. if this number is wrong, this man will have a real negative effect in '14 and in '16. who will run with president obama if that number is not correct? there are absolutes. that is an absolute. politically nobody's going to want to stand with president obama in the next two election cycles if the numbers aren't right. now, the key here is the number is very verifiable. this proves obamacare is working. and if there was ever a time to embrace this law and run with it, now is the time. this man is correct. he's on point. he said the website would be fixed. it was fixed. he said there would be procrastinati procrastination, there was procrastination. he went to the fire wall

promotionally in the last 30 days and it had an impact. bottom line is we still don't know the number, but we're all pretty confident it's north of 7.1 million. democratic leader nancy pelosi, who agrees with me, she says, no problem. no problem whatsoever. talking up the law on the sunday shows. >> we are celebrating the fact that we have over 7 million who have signed up, not counting the 3.1 million who are on the policies of their parents until they're 26 years old, not including over 3 million probably closer to 5 million on medicaid pgs, bringing us close to 15 million people. one person says one thing, 7 million people -- 7 million people sign up. the congress of the united states which wrote the bill, the members which are proud of what they have done are happy to not run away from what we have done, very proud of what we have accomplished. >> so, how could brit hume sound so different from nancy pelosi

on this? hmm. well, unfortunately, not all democrats are listening to nancy pelosi. not all democrats are on board. and that's not good. allison grimes in kentucky. she's trying to oust longtime republican senator mitch mcconnell. i think she has a pretty good shot. it looks like she'll be running the fix-it obamacare program. after praising the success of kentucky state exchange, her senior campaign adviser said this, which shocked me. "the law isn't perfect. and that what we need are commonsense solutions. what allison has always said is democrats and republicans need to come together to fix the l law." what? fix 7.1 million people, fixed themselves when it came to health care. come on now. if there was ever a state to run on obamacare, it would be your state, miss grimes. kentucky.

their exchange, connect, has been hugely successful. by march 31st they enrolled over 370,000 people in the state of kentucky. this number includes 250,000 who were previously uninsured and they wanted to run on a fix-it campaign? mitch mcconnell has to be sitting in his office saying we have 250,000 people talking the way we want to and we didn't even help them get insurance. overall the uninsured rate in kentucky, here's one for you -- it's dropped 40%. 40% of the uninsured people in kentucky now have it. wow. alison grimes' campaign is in deep trouble if she can't embrace these numbers and so are other democrats across the country. they should be throwing kentucky's success in the face of mcconnell every single day. this is a winnable seat and she's running around talking about republican talking points about we have to fix obamacare, fix what? we're on a roll. this is an unbelievable start.

okay. the law's not perfect. and it needs to be fixed. give me a break. come on, democrats. this is spying time. not going to beat mitch mcconnell with an attitude like that. it's all about being positive, saying look what we have done for kentucky. we have affected a quarter of a million people in the health care system that never had insurance before. and this guy right here, he had nothing to do with it. either democrats are going to be supporting obamacare or they're not. it's that simple. so if anybody is going to take up alison grimes' approach to health care across america, it's a crapshoot. if you can't walk into a town hall meeting and say more people in our state have health insurance than before the last guy went in or whatever's representing that district or state, then what are you running for? what's the sense of being in public service? you affect people's lives, you ore afraid to stand up and say that?

oh, but we have to fix that. fix what? you could fix every law in washingt washington. every law needs fixing. let's start with campaign finance reform. let me get back to the 7.1 million people. why are the right-wing talkers going absolutely nuts over this number? why are they doing this? here it is. >> why should anybody believe it? why can't the government prove it? the real question is when have they not lied about obamacare? >> this is complete bogus. this is a complete bogus fairy tale. this is completely made up. this is nonsensical. >> just because team obama cooked the books with the promise that you could keep your doctor, keep your plan and you're going to pay less, you wouldn't expect them to lie on this, would you? of course you would. >> well, now, it's interesting, those three guys, limbaugh, beck, and hannity, are concerned about this number, 7.1 million americans. first of all, they're probably

the wealthiest broadcasters on the right side. don't they have resources? hannity always brags about how many people work for him. hannity always brags about if he moves the show to florida how manies it's going to affect. beck has the blaze, limbaugh's e got just about anything any right-wing talker wants. you guys have all these resources but you don't have anybody on staff who will go after this number. prove that it's wrong. because if you can prove that that number is wrong, then the democrats are going to be in big trouble. and then you'll be able to say i was the one that came out and proved this 7.1 million -- use some of those resources, some of those websites and get after it. i'll just sit back and follow your coverage because it's going to be very entertaining. you can't disprove that. call up the insurance companies who are publicly held. see if the ceo wants to lie about how many people have signed up. this is easily verifiable.

we've had a week of critics including the sunday shows questioning whether the 7.1 million, questioning whether it's successful or not, but nobody wants to throw any resources in finding out whether it's the truth or not. gosh, come on. give us a little benghazi work, will you? get your cell phones out. want to know what you think. tonight's question, is the mainstream media being fair to obamacare? text a for yes, b for no to 67622. you can always go to our blog, leave comment there at ed.sin nbc.com. results later on in the show. let me bring in senator bernie sanders of vermont. great to have you with us. your response to republicans trying to smear the enrollment numbers, sir. >> ed, it's laughable if it were not really pathetic. and if we were not dealing with the lives of tens of millions of people. the united states remains the only country in the industrialized world that

doesn't guarantee health care to all of its people as a right. second of all, the republicans have opposed the affordable care act from day one. it is their nightmare that it succeeds. thirdly, these are the same guys that want to end medicare as we know it, convert it into a voucher program, who want to make massive cuts in medicaid, who had eight years under bush, knew something, eve an little thing about health care, they did nothing. so these guys have nothing at all to say. and their nightmare is that as millions of people begin to get affordable health care, as the medicaid program expands and people who have never had health insurance in their lives finally are able to go in to adopt, for the republicans this is a nightmare. imagine if you the united states government does something for ordinary people and not just billionaires. what kind of nightmare is that? that is what their fear is, ed. >> the number of uninsured has

fall on the lowest level since 2008. >> right. >> is it obamacare? what is it? >> of course it's obamacare. when you're talking act 7 million people getting into the exchange, millions of young people getting insured through their polici policies, and millions more getting medicaid for the first time in their lives, what else do you think it is? it is of course significantly obamaca obamacare. now, we have got to do more. we have got to do more. but this is a very important step forward, and it is exactly what republicans are fearing. look, at the end of the day ed, the american people, despite right-wing republicans, they like social security. they think the government should be involved in retirement. they like medicare. they like medicaid. republicans want to cut all of these programs and if we can bring forward a new program, which says to americans, you know what, your citizens of this great country, you have a right to have health care, whoa, what a terrible political moment it is for republicans.

>> senator, coming up in about 15 minutes there's going to be a vote on the senate floor, long-term unemployment benefits extending them, making them ret retroactive. your call. what's going to happen? >> i believe, ed, and i knock on wood or whatever this thing is, that we are going to have the 60 votes that we need. we have finally gotten some republicans to come on board. this will provide insurance to some 2-plus million americans who are at the end of their rope, long-term unemployment remains a very, very serious problem. it's not only the right thing to do morally, it is the right thing to do economically. we'll put money into the hands of people who need it and we'll spend it. >> you think you have the 60, think they're there. >> i may be proven wrong in a few minutes but i do believe we e do. >> that will force the hand of boehner and we'll talk more about that later. senator bernie sanders, good to have you with us tonight. let me bring in michael from the "l.a. times." there are republicans saying the number 7 million is meaningless,

the number of sign-ups, because people haven't paid. what's your response to that? >> well, you know, it's certainly in the republicans' interest to try to knock down this figure anyway they can. they'll talk about the number of people who haven't paid yet. they'll talk about the number of people who were previously insured. all of these things. i think these are all marginal issues. the fact of the matter is that we're going to see 80, maybe more than 90% of the people who enroll in the qualified health plans paying their bills. they're not enrolling just to be deadbeats. we're going to see half, maybe 60%, 70% did not have insurance in the past. when you combine the enrollments on the exchanges with medicaid. these are, as you pointed out -- this is a big problem for the republican party because their plan a was to knock down and knock out obamacare. now they need a plan b. the nearest they have, there's sort of a plan a-minus right now, but they've got a long way to go before they come to grips

with the fact that this really has been a successful launch. >> it has been a successful launch. there's no question about it. and the fact is these insurance companies, they are accountable to their stockholders. they have to come up with accurate numbers. correct? >> well, it's not only that. the insurance companies are coming up with accurate numbers and by the way they're pleased with the numbers for the most part that they're seeing. so let's not forget the biggest numbers are coming from states that ran their own exchanges. california, 1.2 million enrol e enrollees in the exchange, 1.1 million on medicaid. new york, 450,000, maybe a half a million in each of those categories. they're giving figures to the obama administration. they're not getting figures from the obama administration. so i think you can take a lot of these numbers to the bank. >> and how important is this drop that we've seen in the uninsured, the best numbers since 2008? >> well, look, this is the bottom line. and all of these figures, we have the gallup poll, we have

mckinsey, we have the rand corporation, they're all pretty much within the same range, and what they show is at least 5 million americans have insurance that they did not have before. maybe as many as 10 million americans just in this first year, going back to 2010, so, you know, this is a real achievement. and i think more americans are coming to the recognition that that's so, and i think more democrats and the media are beginning to change their narrative. >> i think it plays into the hands of the republicans for a democrat to run around running on, a, we're going to fix obamacare. do you have thoughts on that? it's almost as if they're being walked right into a negative narrative because they don't want anybody pointing at them later. >> it depends on how they put it. you pointed out just a few minutes ago that most big laws, they do need help, they do need -- they need fixing. i think the way to think about this is that this is a solid foundation to improve the law

from where it was. we always knew and certainly have seen that there are flaws. but so what, there are flaws -- there are flaws in social security still, and that's an 85-year-old law. so, yeah, we've got a solid foundation. we need to build on it and we need the republican party to stop talking about repeal and help do what has to be done. >> good to have you with us. thanks so much. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen, share your thoughts with us on twitter and on facebook. like us on facebook. appreciate that. we want to know what you think. coming up, conservatives take issue with president obama's plan to close the gender wage gap. rapid response panel weighs in on that and the gop's war on women continues. but first jeb bush softens his language on immigration ahead of his decision to 2016. the day we rescued riley was a truly amazing day. he was a matted mess in a small cage. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley.

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ed show social media nation has decided here are today's top trend errs reported on by you. >> oh! >> the number three trender. deep space 999. >> you will be assimilated. >> i believe home sexuality is a sin. >> sin of sins. >> herman cain's website compares the gay community to "star trek" villains. >> i think that you believe that being gay is a choice. >> captain, they've adapted. >> you show me the scientist that says that it's not and i could be persuaded.

>> resistance is futile. >> the number two trend eer. paul bearer. >> excuse for what they already wanted in iraq. >> mother jones uncovers video of a kentucky senator taking dick chin cheney to task on iraq. >> there's a great vision of dick cheney in 1995 defending bush number one. >> if we'd gone to baghdad, we would have been all alone, nobody else with us. >> said it would be a bad idea to go into baghdad. >> it's a quagmire. >> dick cheney works for halliburton, maybes hundreds of millions of dollars. next thing you know he's back in government. it's a good idea to go into iraq. >> one of the chief ark techs of the campaigns. >> when the war started halliburton got a big contract. >> is it worth that? >> i think so. >> today's top trender, bush league. >> jeb bush is getting a lot of attention. >> not running has generated more interest than if i said i was running. >> speculation about whether he will make a run for the white

house continues. >> a year from now. into the year i'll make a decision. >> we've had enough bushes. >> jeb prepares for a 2016 decision while softening his stance on immigration. >> they come here because they want to provide for their families. yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. it's an act of love. it's an act of commitment to your family. shouldn't rile people um if people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families. >> joining me tonight, chairman of the broward county democratic party, has been in florida politics for some 40 years. mitch, good to have you with us tonight. first of all, do you think jeb bush is going to run? and do the people of florida koshgs they have a sense he's going to run and seek the nomination? >> well, i think any bush by genetics has to think about running for president. but he seems to have a very odd perspective on his value. heed a made comments over the weekend in texas, saying he hoped he would not be pulled into the vortex of mud and

talked about that he hoped he wouldn't have to go to the cattle calls in iowa or new hampshire. he needs to understand that this is not the republican party of his father, this is not the republican party of his grandfather, and it sure isn't the republican party of his any more. those days are long gone. >> do you think there's bush baggage? let me ask that. is florida bush tired? could he win the state? >> well, it's an interesting question because, you know, with hillary clinton thinking about getting in, they're talking about whether there's bush fatigue, clinton fatigue. i think what happens is when hillary clinton gets in, that creates a greater fatigue problem for bush, but interestingly doesn't cause one for hillary because her race, her candidacy is historic. his is just another bush guy running. kind of like let's sit on the couch and open up another bag of pork rinds.

>> okay. holy smokes. you think it would just be more bushi bushisms, if there's not enough separation between jeb and his brother and his dad? >> yeah. i think there's clearly fatigue. i'll make this prediction way ahead of our time here, that if indeed it comes down between hillary and jeb bush, i will predict tonight that hillary will win florida and put to rest the bush legacy, whatever it may be. it's not a good brand anymore, and frankly, you know, because of the tea par and other groups, you know, with the decline of chris christie, the money, the old established republicans are look looking for another supposed -- >> because of that. >> absolutely. there wasn't -- there was no talk of him before. >> what do you make of this comment it's an act of love? illegal immigration being an act of love. is this part of the new republican rebrand and bush is the one that's going to run it up the flagpole to see how this

works? how is that going to go with marco rubio or john mccain or lindsey graham and the right-wingers? i've never heard a republican talk -- put it like that, coming across the border illegally is an act of love and we got to be sensitive to that. >> well, i guess he's obviously never at the republican party platform for the last number of years. i think his party's going to be in a very different perspective than his. i think because he, you know, represented florida, had a good relationship with the hispanic community and speaks spanish, that that would be enough to say all the hispanics, whether cuban or puerto rican or colombian, argentinian, mexican, they're all fall in line. that's the nature of the hispanic community. frankly the days of jeb bush have gone by. we're a different type of state. the demographic has changed and it's not with him. >> mick, thanks to much. coming up, the conservative war on women continues as president obama pushes close.

-- pushes to close the gender wage gap. [ laughter ]

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welcome back to "the ed show." the right-wing war on women is escalating. conservatives are taking issue with president obama's plans to sign two executive orders aimed at help advance the issue of equal pay for men and women. new rules would stop federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their salaries with other employees in the workplace. they would also force-fed ral contractors to give the labor department data about their employee's pay along with their race and gender. >> many republicans feel that it's undue burden to companies to file this paper work but you would think it's a no-brainer and that's what the administration is trying to do, to try to use it as political issue. >> well, because, brett, they invented this. when mitt romney was running

against barack obama, they invented the phony war on women. but nobody really turned it around and said, by the way, mr. president, what about your white house? women are not making as much there as the guys do. so, you know, it's embarrassing. when you peel back the onion and look right there at what's going on. >> makes you cry when you peel back an onion. >> there you go. trying to accuse president obama of being unfair to women just isn't really going to cut it. that is a joke. but if that is the case and the president needs to address that and he will, president obama has been the champion for closing the wage gap between the richest 1% as well as the gender wage gap in america. congress has done nothing to help them both of the executive order's mere provisions in the paycheck fairness act, which congress has failed to pass twice. joining me tonight, rapid response panel. all right. let me give you the old guard to start the conversation tonight.

this is lamar alexander from tennessee. he says that the paycheck fairness bill would not help women make more money and would only result in more lawsuits. zerlina, what's your reaction to that? >> that's crap, right, because i think the bottom line here is that women need to know that they are not making the same as their co-worker. when i was in my early 20s, that exact thing happened to me. i was talking to a male co-worker who had the exact same job that i did and he was making more money. and that allowed me then to go to my boss. the lou would prohibit my employer from retaliating against me for that discussion, which i think every woman and every man would agree is a perfectly acceptable thing to be talking about. >> goldie, this executive order is only going to apply to 22% of the workforce of course as federal employees and not even half of that as women. what impact is this going to have? >> i think the real impact here is that those 1 in 5 americans

who are going to be impacted in this way, well will they happen to know the other 4 in 5 americans not impacted. they may, indeed, press this congress to do its job and cover the other 80% of americans who do not have the right of equal pay, who do not have, say, the right of a higher minimum wage that this president signed in for federal contractors. this impacts every federal contractor that sells goods or does business with this federal government. that happens to be an awful lot of firms, and that puts a lot of pressure on those firms really to do the right thing. when you talk about women in the workforce going to work and doing an honest day's work for an honest day's pay an not receiving an equilibrium in pay with their male counterparts, that ought to smell pretty bad to republicans. that's going to smell pretty bad in the ballot box this fall if they can't get behind it. >> speaking of the ballot box, the american association of university women they have a 98%

voting record when it comes to turnout, 170,000 members. they're an organization of 130 years. they went down to arkansas recently and got mark pryor to sign on as a co-sponsor of the paycheck fairness act. i want both of your reaction to this. is this a winning issue at the polls? is this going to motivate women to say, hey, look, republicans, independents, conservatives aren't doing it for me? they're not the warriors for the women on this when it comes to pay? what do you think, zerlina? >> yes, because there are 400,000 reasons why. 400,000 is the number of lifetime earnings that women are losing. i mean, literally our wages are being stripped from us. i don't want to retire and not have the same amount of money as someone who did the exact same job as we monopoly $400,000 means women would be lifted out of poverty when they retire because the largest number of people in poverty are women. so i think that, you know, 400,000 reasons is definitely a reason whether i'm a republican or a democrat. why aren't republican women on

board with this? why do they think in 2014 we should be live like we're in an episode of "mad men"? >> if the american association of university women can go to ark antarctimark pryor to sign why doesn't it work every are where? >> it does work everywhere. i saw a study recently that men thought women in their housewives, their wives, voted the same way they did. of course women answered that same survey and said they didn't vote the same way their husband did. it seems to me women are voting with their pocketbooks as well. they're voting with their wallets. so when you talk about denying a woman equal pay or denying, you know, more than half the women in this country -- more than half of the people who earn minimum wage happen to be women. when you talk about not raising the minimum wage, women take that to heart and take it directly and to the ballot box. i think some of these male legislators are misjudging their constituents. they're misjudging the idea that women aren't going to vote on this issue and women who also happen to be republicans. >> and i thought you heard that

clip we played earlier, conservative narrative now is it was a phony war on women in 2012. goldie, what do you think? we have this phony war going on now. there are no women's rights issues being attacked by state legislatures across the country, all phony. your response to that. >> well, you know, it's just as phony as they would say some of these discrimination laws are. i think that -- we've heard some republicans say just that. they have said that, you know, when i launch a lawsuit about equal pay, that that's a frivolous lawsuit. it isn't frivolous to me if i'm trying to feed my family, keep a roof over my family's head. that isn't frivolous to me. so to continue to discount, you know, the way that people try to survive, cope and make it in this world, continue to discount the daily lives of everyday working americans i don't think will pay off for them in the voting booth quite in the way they think it will. i think the white house and this cast of democrats in washington today, this is the first time they are coming together around an issue in a cohesive manner that they can truly take to november, and i really hope all

get on board and do it. >> zerlina, what about war on women? is that a player in 2014, the way it was against mitt romney? it was very clear and of course the paycheck fairness act and all of the abortion laws that have been attacked on a state level? >> yes. >> is this something that should have some resource behind it from the left? >> i think so. i mean, i think that certainly we have women's groups but i think progressive organizations and superpac money need to go to messaging to young single women who are more likely to vote democrat but may not consistently vote -- >> to the base. >> yes, absolutely. because 77 cents to the dollar is the average. and, you know, particularly in areas where there is strong union, strong unions, that gap closes. so i think that democrats are on the right side of this historically and right now and we need to push that so single and young women go out and vote in november because we can make a difference. >> zerlina maxwell, goldie taylor, thanks so much. still ahead, newt gingrich

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>> welcome back to "the ed show." this is a story from the folks who punch it, take a shower after work. you're looking live at the united states senate floor where senators are voting whether to pass a five-month unemployment insurance extension bill. more than 2 million americans have lost their benefits since congress let the federal emergency unemployment program lapse back in december. a lot of people have been thrown off the rolls since then and unemployment continues. if today's bill pass, it's probably going to be a showdown in the house. now if it's up to boehner, he

doesn't want anything to do with it. it's dead on arrival. he doesn't want to put a bill up for a vote on the house floor, but some of his republican colleagues are now putting pressure on him. seven house republicans headed up by peter king in new york sent a letter to speaker boehner asking him to pass the senate's bill. they want the house to produce an alternative instead of standing around doing nothing. they're obviously hearing a lot of it back home. time is running out. there's only four days left until congress takes another break for two weeks. one congresswoman from illinois joins me tonight and told us last week that josh, if they put it to the floor, there would be enough votes. but this is something new. now you've got a number of republicans who are asking boehner to act on the senate. will they do it? will boehner move on this? who's put pressure on these seven republicans in the snous go house? good to have you with us. >> the republicans for extension of unemployment benefits understand that's really important to them in their

districts. and i do believe if john boehner were to call a clean bill it would get the votes. the problem right now is john boehner is talking about things like adding the approval of the xl pipeline or saying that employers don't have to pay the health care benefits unless someone works 40 hours a week. so he's looking at all kinds of extrainous things. but i am hopeful that in a few minutes we'll know that the senate has actually passed this extension. it's now 2.35 million americans. this is the number of people in illinois, 153,400 that have -- you know, need it. and by the way, that's $300 million that illinois has lost because these people have not gotten their unemployment checks. >> it's not very often the senate gets 60 votes. and this has been out there, the republicans said back during the christmas break over the holidays they would address this. well, they're doing it in the

senate. but how much of a bargain do you think boehner is going to be looking for? he's not going to get xl pipeline out of this. he might try to get something else. but will he cave on just a clean bill? >> well, i'm certainly hoping that the pressure will be enough from soom of the members of his own party. and from his own state. people like rob portman that will talk to him about extending unemployment insurance benefits. i mean, after all, he has a districting and it's in ohio, and they are hurting. and so i'm hoping that he will finally see the light and move on. it's going to help some of his targeted members. >> would this be retroactive? would this go all the way back to the beginning of the year if these folks? >> yes, the senate bill it would. and hopefully that will, again -- you know, the best deal would be to pass whatever the senate passes, to do that in the house of representatives. if he starts fooling around with another bill and all kinds of additions, but yes, it would be retroactive in the senate anyway.

>> some in the house said they wanted to wait and see what the senate does. which makes me believe if they do get 60 votes over there, they're going to have to do something about it. how much influence will the seven republicans have on boehner? >> i think they will have influence. these are people they want to keep. we need 17 seats to take back the house. some of those people are in very vulnerable districts, swing districts where there's a lot of democrats who will be mad if unemployment insurance is not extended. and so i think he has to take the politics into consideration. i think many of the same republicans would want to see that as well. >> congresswoman i want your take on the $7.1 million and the

pushback by the right wing saying that these are phony numbers that this is a joke. it's a miss keasquerade and the numbers aren't real. what are the numbers and in your opinion how verifiable are they? >> which numbers? >> the healthcare numbers. >> oh, please. if that's the best they can do is to say those numbers that were somehow cooking the books, actually most of those numbers came from the states all together. and so there was no real opportunity for the federal government to cook the books. those are the real numbers of people who have now taken private health insurance. anticipate it's really good news. and they can't bear it. >> and what do you think the number will be a week from tonight when the sign-up is over in 24 hours? they have until the 15th. >> i think we're going to see -- we know there was a mad rush of people who went to the website. we could perhaps see a million more. we'll see. but it's going to a lot more. anybody who was in the queue

will be eligible. >> okay. congresswoman thank you so much. >> thank you. >> remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. always do that. tweet the show as well. >> tonight's lead, a federal prosecutors are closing in. there are two reports tonight that a key figure in the chris christie scandal is talking. and it raises the prospect that david wildstein has struck a deal with the u.s. attorney. of course we don't know that for sure. david wildstein is the bridge official who carried out the lane closings. the one who replied "got it" after receiving that infamous e-mail, time for some traffic problems in ft. lee. wildstn