>> e.j.dionne has the latest. and they're burning obama in effigy. the growing resistance movement on the far right. >> look out. look out progressives. this is what america is at her best, and you'll never see us coming because you don't understand us. >> good to have you with us. thanks for watching. top republican leaders are finally revealing what the health care debate in the country is all about. for republicans, health care is a privilege. and if you can't afford it, well, you're just out of luck. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell was asked on safe haven fox news on sunday, you know, what are you going to do with the uninsured if you guys go out and you repeal the health care law? >> one of the keys to obama care is it will extent insurance access to 30 million people who are now uninsured. in your replacement, how would you provide universal coverage?

>> well, first, let me say the single best thing we could do for the american health care system is to get rid of obamacare. >> well, if you didn't hear an answer to the question, you're not alone. chris wallace tried to get the senator to answer the question again. >> the single biggest step we could take in the direction of improving american health care is to get rid of this thing. >> but you're talking about appealing. how would yoprovide universal coverage? >> chris wallace is getting a good taste of what president obama and the democrats are dealing with. mcconnell is the master of obstruction. nobody has done it better, nobody has done it more. but the third time was the charm for the question about the uninsured. >> billions and billions of dollars are lost every year by hospitals and doctors in defensive medicine. >> but we're going to run out of time and i want to ask, what specifically are you going to do to provide universal coverage to the 30 million people who are uninsured?

>> thais not the issue. >> it is not the issue. 30 million americans cannot afford the cost of health care insurance in the country and they receive no government assistance an entire political party does not believe these americans have done enough to earn the right to get insuranc chris wallace gave mitch mcconnell a chance to clarify what he meant. >> it is already the finest health care system in the world. >> but you don't think that -- >> what our friends -- >> 30 million people uninsured isn't an issue? >> let me tell you what we're not going to do? we're not going to turn the american health care system into a western european system. >> they don't come up with any good ideas at all. in other words, if they come up with a cure for cancer in some western european country, we're americans, especially republican view, we don't want knns to do with that at all, do we? what exactly is he talking about? the united states has the highest cost of health care in a

study of seven industrialized nations by the commonwealth fund. the united states was also dead last in quality and access to care. as you can see, three of those countries are from western europe. and one of them is what i call the denial to the north. good old canada. republicans hate to talk about what the canadians do when it talks to health care. all they want to talk about is long lines and nobody gets to see a doctor up there. in fact, you have to wait years to see a doctor in canada. it's all bs. it's clear the gop was absolutely blind sided by this supreme court ruling. speaker john boehner is still planning on holding a repeal vote in e house, but he cannot answer questions on what he would replace the law with. >> what are you going to replace it with? >> we're going to take a common sense step by step approach. >> why not then if you like some of the provisions in the affordable care act, why not work with it rather than appeal the whole thing?

>> this has to be ripped out by its roots. this is government taking over the entire health insurance industry. >> so all those people who have pre-existing conditions, you say we're going to get rid of this and at some point we'll deal with it. >> we believe there's a better way to provide access to high quality health insurance in a different way than we have in obamacare. >> really, a better way? common sense? that's a better way? come on, mr. boehner. john boehner has been in charge of the house for almost two years. there has been no committee meetings about replacing the health care law. the house has not drafted any replacement legislation protecting the uninsured in this country. they have not acted because they don't care. congressman paul ryan had no answers on abc. >> when you do that, will you also look to preserve any of these programs or does everything going? >> we will vote to repeal the

entire law on i believe july 11th, and what's frustrating about this is when obamacare was being deberated, we were offering patient centered solutions and we were proposing them now, we're proposing them now. >> those provisions that are already in place now, which are covering young adults under the age of 26, not placing lifetime limits on care, those are all going to go in the house vote? you're not going to vote to replace them? >> we're going to repeal the entire law and then we're going to advanish patient centered reforms that address these kinds of issues. >> they are amazing. see, ryan keeps talking about patient centered solutions. ask yourself, do you know what a patient centered solution is? how about just getting coverage to start with. it really sounds important. it must be something really good, don't you think? it means nothingfolks. you see, in 2009, republican pollsters wrote a report called

the language of health care. he told republicans don't ever say things like private health care or free market health care. forget that. don't ever say that. instead, he told them to say patient centered health care. it's meaningless, but republicans say it over and over again to sound like, hey, they really have solutions here, don't they? democrats don't need a frank lunts poll for this one at all. the health care law, let me tell you something, it's all upside. when you can put millions of americans in front of a doctor and have insurance, you're going in the right direction. the good is outweighing the yet to be achieved in this country. you think the democrats are going to stop right here? no, they're going to do more. that's what scared the hell out of the republicans. democrats should go home and they should run on this issue. don't run from this fight. don't do that. i asked ryan today from ohio, do you want your opponent to run against health care? he said, absolutely.

he gets it. ohio gets it. this is about winning for american families and for american workers who don't make enough money to buy insurance. they need the democrats, they need to stay strong and defend this law and all of the benefits it's bringing to the american people. just keep one thing in mind throughout all of this, this was a real whammy that was thrown at the republican party by the supreme court last week. they really had no clue how to formulate. they had to go back to old 2009 talking points about patient centered solutions. it's almost comical. they don't have a plan. and they don't want a plan. they have spent generations trying to take down the new deal. and now look what's happened on their watch. more is being added to help americans who want it. where is the country going to go from hire? this is a political question. do the republicans really think that there's enough americans out there that don't like this law that they think it's going to be advantageous for them to run against it on the campaign trail?

they got about 120 days to figure it out. in the meantime, they're going to go on fox news and everywhere else and say patient centered solutions. tell me what that is? tell me what common sense in health care is? if someone doesn't have health care, that's not common sense? get your cell phones out. tonight's question, do republicans care about providing health care to the uninsured? text a for yes, b for no. to 622639. you can go to our blog. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. we can talk about health care until the cows come home, but the political element here is now upon us in this election season. for the next four months, i think it's going to be a political football for the republicans to reveal their cards on exactly what they're going to do. how can they go in front of the american people with generic statements and expects people to believe they have an answer? let's ask howard fineman tonight. howard, great to have you with us tonight.

what are we going to see in the next 120 days here, the next four months, what's it going to deliver to the people when it comes to the debate on health care? >> i'm tempted to say in the court where you don't have the facts on urside, you pound on the table. the republicans are going to pound on the table. what chris wallace exposed there in his very good interview on fox on sunday is the fact that mitch mcconnell did not want to say directly that he doesn't believe in the idea of universal health care because chris's question kind of implied it was a given that you should be for universal health care. if you recall the sound bites you just showed, but mitch mcconnell wouldn't cop to that. and i think that's very revealing and i think the basic republican philosophy here is in not so many words, but the ideological thrust is going to be we don't agree with the fundamental idea of president obama's legislation, which is essentially to create the idea inand to afirm the idea that

everybody in the country is entitled thealth care they can afford that won't bankrupt their family that will allow them to live a decent live. that's the essence of the argument. the republicans will talk philosophy, and the democratics will talk specifics. >> polls show they're split whether they like the health care law, but the court ruling did change opinions on the debate. a new poll shows 56% of americans think opponents of the law should move on. 51% of independents also agree. are republicans aware of this perception? is this a real political gamble for them to bad mouth the health care law for the next four months? init is, and they're not quite aware of it. they were caught by surprise. they are stuck in their original philosophical stance. they don't want to commit to specific ideas for change as is shown by all of what you showed tonight.

and they're going to take this vote in the house which is going to put them in specific opposition once again to individual elements of the law that are popular. and that people keep repeating, but it's true. kids on until 26. no deial for pre-existing conditions. no denial on lifetime coverage. those are things that are very popular, that the president and his allies are going to drive one after another after another, especially if the republicans don't have an alternative and they're afraid of commit to one because they're blinded by their fury and anger that the president with the support of the supreme court has kind of enshrined the idea of universal health care as an ideal for this country which it has been for virtually every industrialized democracy in the world and many other countries. he succeeded in pulling that off, ironically with john roberts' support last week. >> howard fineman, great to have you with us.

thanks so much. >> remember to answer tonight's question. share you thoughts on twitter. coming up, mitt romney's campaign adviser, you could say, stepped in it in a big way. he contradicted the big republican talking point about the health care law. richard wolf and joan walsh join me. we're coming back on "the ed show."

coming up, mitt romney's spokesman needs to by a bigger etch a sketch after his appearance on nbc. richard and joan join me for the conversation. >> former insurance executive and current florida governor rick scott is threatening not to implement the new health care law. >> and a meteorologist in washington, d.c. is taking heat for his comments on the connection between this summer's weather and climate change. bill nye the science guy will join me later in the program. share you thoughts on twitter using the hash tag ed show, we're coming right back.

welcome back to "the ed show." republicans have tried to make the best of the supreme court ruling calling the individual mandate a tax. it's pretty much a republican chorus, isn't it? it is a tax. >> yes, it is a tax. >> they call it what it was, a huge tax increase. >> now a tax since the court said it was a tax. >> it's a tax. >> huge tax. so, it's a tax, according to republicans. but wait a minute, here's mitt romney's campaign adviser, eric burn strm. >> the mandate was not a tax. >> i'm sorry, would you please repeat that?

>> the mandate was not a tax. the mandate was not a tax. the mandate was not a tax. >> oops. in other words, mitt romney and his people will twist themselves into knots over this because if they say it's a tax, then romney care's individual mandate was also a tax. that's a big problem. this is kind of a problem ck santorum was talking about when he said romney would be the worst candidate to go against president obama. >> it would be probably the worst candidate for us to nominate to go after barack obama on gas prices and on government takeover in health care. heck, he created the blueprint for the government take over of health care that president obama followed. >> time-out, did he say gas prices? where are they? we'll do that story tomorrow heading into fourth of july. by the way, the penalty for not buying insurance affects less than 1% of the population. less than 1% of the population has been one of their big talking points.

even if you count it as a tax and combine it with the taxes in the affordable care act, this is what you get. look carefully at the supersmall blue bar at the bottom of your screen. that's the tax increase from the affordable care act. the big blue bar at the top of the screen is, well, that's ronny, ronald reagan's tax increase, son of a gun. the next one is president george h.w. bush's tax increase, and the next one is bill clinton's tax increase. gosh, they're all much larger than any tax increase than president obama's health care bill, don't you think? let's turn to richard wolf and joan walsh, editor at large at salon.com. >> he created a problem for the romney camp. damage assessment. let's go. how much damage did he do today? >> i think the damage was being done over the weekend when

journalists were taking clips of mitt romney saying it's a penalty, not a tax about massachusetts. and the one thing we should add to the montage of people calling it a tax is mitt romney. he said it was a tax increase. he sent his advisers out to talk to reporters and he said we have a brand new issue with the most gigantic tax increase in history. it was the romney team that started it or went along with sarah palin, i should say, and they were happy to talk about it like this for 24 hours and then someone was like, uh-oh, it reminds me of that old school yard saying, i'm rubber and you're glue. we're finding on the issue of health care is president obama is rubber and mitt romney is glu. anything that is said about obamacare could be said about romney care and it sticks to him. they're in a world of pain today. >> ironically, mr. murdoch says that mitt romney has to get new people around him. richard, is this the time that

the romney camp might want to think about throwing fernstram under the bus and moving forward? >> he's the closest of all of the advisers there. you have to have a shake up in the campaigns. i think both campaigns are going to have strategic maneuvering, but you don't want to look like you're panicking. the problem isn't his fault, the problem is they made a strategic choice about health care. they could have said their record in massachusetts was a great success, the greatest achievement mitt romney made as massachusetts governor or they could have said we were completely wrong about it. and it was a disaster, we were wrong on the policy, it will never work. instead, they tried to do both. they tried to say it was great in massachusetts but terrible for anyone else. when you twist yourself into a pretzel like this over and over again, eventually, the contortions are going to hurt. >> it's interesting, the romney campaign spokesman said we will no longer allow the main stream media to define the political

realities in america. the campaign said it will use center right media like drudge, but eventually, they have to answer questions and this happens to be it, doesn't it? what do you think, joan? >> yeah, and richard's right. they put themselves in this box. you could be proud of romney care if you were a different mitt romney and tout it as something that worked in your state, say what was good about it, what you learned. he's in the protection program. he was not gchber of massachusetts, he did nothing, accomplished nothing, and he's run away from it. now he's stuck with it. i agree with richard, i don't think getting rid of fernstrom is likely because of the relationship, but he told the truv. it's the truth that the governor has argued that, a penalty is not a tax. they stuck to that. >> republicans continue to run around calling it a tax, richard? >> yeah, because they have nowhere else to go. mitch mcconnell tried to say there were no conservatives

whoport this thing until john roberts said it was okay and that's why you're seeing the polls move. their have a bunch of talking points. the reality is defined by the media, it's defined by reality. you know, the reality is that a lot of conservatives think this health care approach was fine and among those people is the guy that was their nominee. they can talk around it as much as they like. the reality is still right there. >> according to the washington post, the romney family vacation is mandatory. he really does like mandates. let's take a look. >> the knowledge you have been given, you are now on the inside of what i like to call the burns family circle of trust. >> is there a romney circle of trust there in the family? just a little joke, but should romney be trying to have a few campaign strategy meetings in his family vacation? mandated, i mean, he's actually mandating his kids to show up.

how many parents do that? joan? >> i hope i never have to. i hope my son continues to want to spend time with me, but you never know. parenting is hard work. >> richard and joan, thanks so much for joining us. coming um, they're turning down millions of dollars, denying people health care, and you know what? they seem to be proud of it, wearing it as a badge of honor. we'll talk about the politics of saying no. that's coming up. and the tea party, uh-oh, according to glenn beck, they're brewing up fresh valleys on fourth of july to protest the president's health care law. our panel will weigh it what it means for november. stay tuned.

the push back against historic health care reform, you know it really has no boundaries, they're going to do anything. republican governors are tripping all over one another trying to deny affordable health care to people in their states. >> we're not going to implement obamacare in florida. we're not going to expand medicaid because we're going to dethe right thing. >> they're going to do the right thing, ignore who needs help. florida governor rick scott is saying no to those who need medicaid. they will pick up 100% of the tab for three years, after that, florida would pay a maximum of

10% of the cost, but rick scott is saying no to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid to help a heck of a lot of people. and you know what? he's not alone. he's one of seven governors who could refuse affordable care. if you live in iowa, south carolina, missouri, wisconsin, louisiana, or kansas, you might be out of luck. every governor has the option to say no. it's legal. the question is is it smart? since 1972, have we been down this road before? yeah, 1972, every state in the union started participating in medicaid except for arizona. arizona hospitals struggled to provide charity care. after ten years, they surrendered. they give in and joined the rest of the nation. almost 2 million people were enrolled in medicaid in arizona by 2010. florida governor rick scott wants to do the same thing arizona did in 1972, but he

claims he really cares about providing health care for the poor. >> we care about having a health care safety net for the vulnerable floridians, but this is an expansion that just doesn't make any sense. >> right now, florida medicaid does not cover people who don't have children. and it only covers parents who earn less than $6,400 a year. states like florida are dealing with a health care disaster. president obama is doing what? offering disaster relief when it comes to health care. a handful of governors seem to be playing politics instead of protecting the people. t's bring in e.j. dionne. author of the book "our divided political heart." don't we have one on this issue. e.j. dionne, thank you for joining us. what are the governors doing? trying to build strength in numbers to build a big enough narrative to get people to think

they're doing the right thing? >> i don't know what they're doing. they claim to be saving their states money down the road. what is terribly wrong is these expansions of health coverage are aimed at working people who don't make a lot of money. and what we hear all the time is, what we really have to give people incentives. for work, we have to honor people who work. yet this is walking away from health care for people who work. this is quite outrageous. you have otherovernors who have been walking away from setting up the exchanges, which is outrageous, and walking away from the ideal in the marketplace. a lot of it is propaganda around obamacare and not a lot to do with public policy. >> howo they politically make the calculation this is the right thing to do? that they will win favor with the majority of voters by denying americans?

they talk as if these folks, well, they don't pay any federal tax. they're not in the system. you know, it's amazing. what is the political measurement here? >> you know, ed, that's one of my pet peeves, the argument that poor people don't pay taxes. they pay a lot of their income in sales taxes. a lot of them pay property tax directly or indirectly through tax. poor people pay a lot of income taxes. i think their view is the folks they're going to deny coverage to for the most part are not part of the constituency that elects them, and they talk about big numbers down the road when they have to pay the 10%. they're going to be in a lot of trouble with a very important group in their states. that's the people who run hospitals. because people who run hospitals want them to take this medicaid because they don't want to have to treat people and not get reimbursed because they have to treat people whether they have insurance or not. they're going to get a lot of grief from a lot of local hospitals around their state. >> they are banking on the news

consumption of the novice news consumers, and the question is, do the people get it? >> you know, i think their view of this is that the only people who care about this are the two bases of each party, the liberal democrats, conservative republicans, so the conservatives will cheer them for doing this. i think they forget about a lot of doctors and nurses and people in those local hospitals who are going to look at this, they may not be particularly political, but this won't make any sense to them. >> e.j., good to have you here on "the ed show." >> there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour. stay with us. >> it will be an issue, a big issue, in the fall election. >> can the tea party rise again and take down obamacare? the big panel weighs in next. >> the man who owns fox news is picking a fight with tom cruise and scientology. >> breaking comtomkat/rubeert murdoch news ahead.

>> and colorado is still in flames as global warming skeptics have their heads in the stand. bill nye the science guy is here to tell us what is happening out

extinguished in my lifetime, not under my watch i'll do everything i can and i'll go down swinging. >> why didn't i think of that? >> that was tea party mastermind glenn beck throwing red meat to his followers for the fourth of july barbecue. after the supreme court's health care ruling, tea partiers are dusting off the tricorner hats and tea bags. they're planning rallies to protest the president's health care law. they hope the gathers are just the kickoff to a long season of rallies. a freedom works organizer told

talking points that members what kind of machine? a group in michigan has started their rally. they machine, a tea party organization, turned their protest into a barbecue in the town of, really, hell, michigan. they took turned soaking the affordable care act in lighter fluid and then burned all 2700 pages of it. the tea party, they know a few things about book burning? i don't know, just asking. let's turn to our panel tonight. for more, let's go to democratic strategist keeve boykin, essay kup, and also errol louis. there's a lot inside city hall of late. essay, i'll go to you first. whats this going to do for the tea party? is this the steroid, the energy

they were looking for to get back after it? >> i think it is for a small -- i don't want to say fringe, but a small population among the right wing conservatives. for most republicans, they're going to pivot off education just as quickly as mitt romney is, and they're going to want the election to be more about the economy and jobs. certainly, for a certain group of conservatives, the tea party conservatives among them, they're absolutely motivated by this and will probably make this a single issue event that will carry them through the summer. i don't think it's going to be enough, you know, to give mitt romney any kind of sweeping majority in november, but i think it does represent a certain fraction of the conservative base. >> will it help romney? >> i think it's going to hurt because this is exactly what mitt romney doesn't want. these people do what they did a couple years ago and create all this nonsense at the town hall meetings.

if they do that, i think what is going to happen is the american people are going to see that and say what is going on? this is not the party i thought i could possibly sign up with. >> how is it going to hurt them in 2012? >> it's a tote aldifferent thing in a presidential election. you're trying to get independent voters as opposed to reach your base. it's going to be difficult for the republicans to operate that way and it's not going to increase enthusiasm among the middle. the base. >> if the presidency is different, the worst case scenario is they get a larger majority in the house and take back the senate, that's a good plan b, right? >> you look at a poll from another network, enthusiasm for the tea party opponents is higher than it is for tea party supporters. so there's no guarantee this will translate into a higher turnout in terms of voters, elections for the republicans. >> if you're advising a campaign, would you tell your candidate, go out there and campaign against health care?

withed you do that? >> if i'm advising mitt romney? >> mitt romney or any republican? would you tell them to campaign against health care? >> no, i would tell congressional members, mitt romney to pivot off health care as fast as possible. that most people in this country care about the economy and jobs. but i would never say that getting the tea party base of the party is going to hurt you. that absolutely makes no sense. >> i would tell people to find every district where it looks like health care, health win majorities, victoies in 2010, put a laser on those districts. >> is this a tough sell for republicans to gethere and tell people in their backyard, sorry, got to take this away from you even though the country has passed it? >> it is hard. here's the reason why. health care reform has been approved and validated by all three branches of government. the tea party has been repudiated and rebuked by all three branches of government. barack obama won 67 million

votes when people knew he was going to do health care reform. they passed this bill, and then you have the judicial branch -- the american people are going to move on. >> the only institution who hasn't given it is the american people. they did not like the bill in its entirety. sorry, voters. >> and the congress approved it. that's what democracy is all about. >> after that entire process, after the supreme court ruled, some prominent people said i don't care what the court says, it's unconstitutional. >> this doesn't come as a shock to somebody in the country. the president was clear when he was campaigning, he said i'm going to do health care reform. this wasn't blindsiding anybody. how can you say the people don't want it? >> this isn't my opinion. this is polling. polling that suggests that 67% of the american people either want the mandate overthrown or parts of it repealed. >> there's a lot more than the mandate.

>> i said either/or. it's not popular. >> mitch mcconnell not answering what he's going to do to the 30 million people not to get them covered. >> he worked very hard not to answer. incredible performance. >> like the stimulus, the bailout, and health care, there are a lot of people who already have coverage. they're fine, their family is fine. >> and the president said they could keep their health care. >> but if somebody comes to them and said it's going to cost you to cover somebody who didn't have enough responsibility to buy some insurance, there are some people, and this is what the tea party was based on, who say i don't want to do it. >> that's 1% of the people. >> republicans have a plan. i think mitt romney needs to articulate his more. it looks a lot like jim demint's. things that republicans and democrats agreed to. it discusses medicaid, tax deconductions. >> why didn't they talk about it yesterday? >> a great question.

>> you said this earlier, they have never been serious about health care reform. when president obama takes republican ideas and puts them into a bill and republicans are opposed to their own ideas, it shows you it was never about reform, it was alwaysunts politics. the reason the american people are upset is he spent a quarter of a billion dollars to make people hate this bill. misinformation and disinformation and distortion. once you have some leveling off and people start to see the impact of it, this will be an extremely popular bill and that's what the republicans are afraid of. >> the spin has been near constant since obamacare came out. first, they'll like it once x happens, they'll like it once y happens. finally, the supreme court has given its acceptance and they don't like it. when are we going to like the bill? >> you think the $250 million spent against it telling people it was a lousy bill, you think it had an effect? >> the general argument -- they're pretty smart.

i think they go home, they look at their wallets, their bank accounts, they have conversations around their kitchen counter and look at it. >> why would republicans campaign against it? if it's such a bad law, why don't they campaign against it? i think they know they're on the wrong side of history. >> they want to stop talking about it and they want to talk about the economy. >> keith, s.e., errol, always a pleasure to have all of you here. thank you. the tomkat breakup, i'm heart broken. rupert murdoch is in a frenzy. he's going after scientology and tweeting like a man with his pants on fire. stay tuned. we'll be right back.

up next, rupert murdoch weighs in on the divorce of tom cruise and katie holmes. and the church of kind scientology. >> in the big finish tonight, a d.c. meteorologist is in trouble for telling the uth for this weekend's freakish weather. bill nye the science guy weighs in.

>> don't forget to listen to my radio show, follow me on twitter, and like the ed show on facebook. i would appreciate that. thanks. coming right back.

welcome back to "the ed show." it looks like the breakup of tomkat has gotten the attention of rupert murdoch. no better distraction for murdoch than news of katie holmes filing for divorce from tom cruise and asking for sole custody of their daughter suri. he gave his two words worth, he got that off his chest, but he wasn't done. murdoch got some push back via tweeters, so he responded,

scientology tweets hundreds of attacks. expects they will increase and get worse and maybe threatening. still stick to my story. maybe he was worried after the "new york times" reported katie holmes thinks scientologists are following her every move. of course, it's just as likely the people in the suv were paparazzi, not scientologists, so rupert, relax, will you? tom cruise, by the way, is in iceland filming a movie. tomorrow, he is 50 years old. tonight, i asked in a survey, do republicans care about providing health care to the uninsured? i got a high number, 9% of you said yes. 91% of you said no. coming up, a meteorologist said the heat wave is a sign of global warming. now he's under attack. we'll sort the facts out next. stay with us.

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degrees above average from the upper midwest through the southeastern portion of the united states. the heat is still fueling eight separate fires in colorado. the high today, 99 degrees. they're hoping for rain on friday. these high temperatures, well, they're not normal. look at this map. it was 109 degrees in nashville this weekend. that's hotter than it's been since we started keeping records right after the civil war. it's hot enough to buckle the road in fargo, north dakota. temperatures have stopped 100 degrees for several days in a row. the chief meteorologist in washington, d.c. said global warming is causing this heat wave. >> if we did not have global warming, we wouldn't see this. i really believe this. i think this is because maybe we would have seen 101, 102, but not 104. we have set all-time records all across the entire portion of the country. are we in an unusual pattern.

yes, does it happen? yes, it does. is this an unusual pattern to see temperatures this high? it's fairly unusual. >> he's a believer in global warming although some conservative bloggers are calling him a nut case and insisting global warming is a myth. bill nye, the science guy. dr. nye, gd to have you with us. appreciate your time. this is fueling the conversation we haven't had a whole lot of in the media as of late. who's right, who's wrong? your thoughts? >> well, i strongly believe in climate change. not because it's my opinion, it's the opinion of a lot of professional people. further more, it's reasonable to me that the fires in colorado that is the dehydrating of the forest and the extreme temperatures across north america are consistent with all of the models of climate change. in washington, d.c. on friday,

there was a 30 degree fahrenheit drop in temperature in less than a half hour. and this is evidence of extreme weather. this is a big storm. this is a storm that knocked out the power in the world's most influential city. and there's nothing to do about it. this is bigger than we are. so this is a chance for us all to pull together and address climate change, to all get together and work to make our energy distribution systems more efficient. >> what do you say to the critics? this is just one of those years, you know, and why are people so hard to convince sometimes? >> why they're hard to convince is always troubling to us in science education. but let's keep in mind factually, of the last 17 years, 16 of those have been the hottest of the last 17. 1996 is the one exception, the big el nino. the last 17 years have been the hottest, the last 16 years have

been the hottest ever. and so this is consistent with models of climate change. the big hurricanes are consistent with models of climate change. the big storms, the dehydration of the forest in colorado and forest fires are consistent with models of climate change. you can say since no one event is provable, that dismisses the whole thing, but it's not good science. >> if you were in a position of power to do something, what would you do? what can we do? >> well, i would -- the old saying is we would do everything all at once. this is to say we would make the distribution grid much more efficient. you hear the saying smart grid. we would invest in research for better electrical storage systems, batteries, extraordinary ways to store energy. for later use in electricity. and invest in wind and solar power. i'm open minded to the idea of

nuclear power, but right now, it's so dangerous that i don't think our technology is up to it. instead, we would invest in these more conventional energy sources. this would be a national effort and we would lead the world in these new technologies and people would embrace it and the united states, and i was born here. i'm a patriot, the united states would be a world leader in the stuff rather than watching everybody else not only have better quality of life but also have a better economy. the people who are going to get rich are going to do it elsewhere instead of here. >> bill nye, thank you for your time. a lot to talk about here, no question about it. thank you for your time. >> that's "the ed show." ezra klein is filling in for rachel maddow. good evening. >> good to see you. >> good to see you. >> thank you for sticking around for the next hour. rachel has the night off, but we have a really great show. in fact, we literally have a report that will change your

understanding of the fundamental understanding of the universe. but we're going to begin with a smaller but still pretty important question. after republicans lost in the court and if they lose in november, can they still stop the affordable care act? and would they even want to? now, some say they can. they have come up with an excitingew plan to keep the affordable care act from stealing your freedom. they will fight it in the states. states can't actually overturn federal law, but they can maybe, possibly be convinced to refuse to go along with it. that's what the republicans are trying to do. michele bachmann has joined 12 republican senators and 60 republican house members to send a letter to all of the house members, asking them, begging them not to cooperate with the affordable care act. it says the supreme court has ruled significant parts of the medicaid expansion of the president's health care law unconstitutional as well as ruling that an individual mandate violated the commerce claus. as members of the commerce,