in colorado today, romney said president obama and the democrats are trying to avoid a real debate on the issues. >> the president the other day was kind enough to give me a call on the day that i cinched the nomination and he said i congratulate you and i think the country will benefit from an important and honest debate on the issues. and on the course for america, the future for america. and i think that's absolutely right. so far, his campaign hasn't started that. all they're doing is attacking on every diversion they can come up with. >> it's difficult for the president of the united states to have an honest and open debate with mitt romney when americans still don't know much about mitt romney and his finances. vice president joe biden explained why romney's double standard hurts him among voters during his speech to the hispanic advocacy group la raza. >> instoed of answering the questions, the romney campaign

is using political hacks to dismiss these comicated financial issues. here's the rnc's shaun spicer o msnbc. >> a sterling example of romney who released 12 years of tax returns and said if less, it's ilustrative. is using political hacks to here's the rnc's shaun spicer o msnbc. >> instoed of answering the questions, the romney campaign is using political hacks to dismiss these comicated financial issues. here's the rnc's shaun spicer o msnbc. >> a sterling example of romney who released 12 years of tax returns and said if less, it's ilustrative.

>> there will never be enough for team obama. >> never be enough for team obama? really? well, don't we deserve more than just maybe one year of tax returns? romney's surrogates like this guy, prendz mitt romney has released all of his past tax returns. >> should governor romney release all of those tax returns? right now, he's in a unique position for a presidential cad dt he's only released one year. >> he's paid 100% of his taxes, complied 100% with what the law requires. >> i was asking if you think he should release them? not whether he complied with the law? >> i think he has released the tax returns. >> more of them. >> should he release them or not? >> no, i do not. most people don't care about this. governor romney has been very successful, get over it, it's a reality. >> we're over it, all right. he has been successful. we just want to know how successful on foreign soil.

what about loyalty? during a radio interview in iowa, romney said again he has nothing to hide. >> my investments have been held by a blind trust, have been machked by a trustee. i don't manage them. don't even know where they are. that trustee follows all u.s. laws, all the taxes are paid, as appropriate, all of them have been reported to the government. there's nothing hidden there. >> and if there's nothing to hide, then why won't romney just be open and transparent about his finances? this is one of several important questions the american people are entitled to know about the man who wants to lead the free world. here are four of the questions. why would mitt romney invest money in offshore tax havens if there is no tax advantage to doing so? why did romney transfer ownership of a bermuda holding firm to a blind trust in his

wife's name a day before he became governor of massachusetts? why was the ownership of this firm not disclosed on romney's federal financial reports during his presidential campaign? why won't mitt romney release more than one year of tax returns? congressman james clayborn was on my radio show today and said the silence on the questions is hurting romney's credibility. >> either you're hiding something or you're in some way against the country that you now want to head. how can we elect somebody to be president of the united states without finding out whether or not he is really loyal to the united states of america? >> it's a question of loyalty now. don't you think? are you loyal to the country? is it disloyal to send money overseas and try to make more money after getting the fruits of this land in your back pocket? we don't know the answer to a

lot of these questions, but another supporter gave us insight into the republican mindset when it comes to the rich and paying taxes. good old south carolina senator lindsey graham was asked by the huffington post for his opinion on mitt romney's offshore tax havens. this is what the senator said. it's really american to avoid paying taxes. legally, as long as it was legal, i'm okay with it. i don't blame anybody for using the tax codes to their advantage. it's a game we play. every american tries to find a way to get the most deductions they can. i see nothing wrong with playing the game because we set it up to be a game. >> really? gosh, senator, you don't sound like a guy who's been audited by the internal revenue service. when i was audited by the irs, that son of a gun wasn't playing games. he wanted to know where the money was and what the heck happened. it's amazing to me how entitled the wealthy in this country feel about their taxes. the sacrifices, think about this, the sacrifices that have

been made by americans who have come before us, they have now turned it into a game in washington. hell, it's just a game, let's try to beat the irs. did dick cheney play a game when he got five deferments. you and i as american have been so fortunate not to have to go to war and pay the ultimate price. we should be honored to pay taxes to fund the very institution that make this country great today. and to support the institutions that keep us safe. but it's just a game. it's called beat the irs. you know what? what lindsey graham said may be the most honest answer a republican has ever given when it comes to taxes. mitt romney would help the country out a lot if he could be so honest. here we are as a country, 119 days away from the election and

there are surrogates out on the talking heads in mitt romney's corner trying to make the case we know enough. that he really doesn't have to come forward with any more tax returns. the real mitt romney wants again needs to stand up to the american people and stop hiding behind accountants and hiding behind schemes and explain to us his wealth. don't we deserve that as americaned? it's amazing what you find around the office. dog gone it, here are my taxes from 2008. you know, when you file taxes, you got deadlines. april 15th, if you have an extension, you got until october 15th, beyond that, it's a penalty. if you have amendments, they're still going to wand their money. all they want is their money. and this game that lindsey graham has put together with his other friends on the wealthy side of america's ledger, they say it's a game that's set up for the wealthy. let's play it, let's see how little we can pay. for mitt romney, it's 13.9%, while middle class americans

across america are paying double that. you middle classers, you just don't play the game well enough. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, should americans be concerned that a presidential candidate keeps his money in foreign banks? text a for yes, text b for no to 622639 or go to our blog. and leave a comment, we'll bring you the results later on in the show. >> i'm joined by maryland governor martin o'malley. good to have you with us. appreciate your time on the program. >> good to be with you. >> you know, how big an issue is this, do you think it is with the american people? are the democrats just -- >> it's a very big deal. >> do you really think americans care about this? >> oh, absolutely. you know why we should all care about it is this, there is no progress without a job. we all want faster job creation. we want our economy to grow by greater strides than it has coming out of the bush recession. so we have two theories here as

to how to do it. one, that president obama has advanced that our parents and grandparents believed in which was to work hard, invest in our country, believe enough in our country that we could make it better for our children with more jobs and opportunity. the problem that the romney campaign has is this, with governor romney shielding his income outside the country, eerlth in the cayman islands or in this bermuda shell corporation or in swiss bank accounts, he is really undercutting their story. >> i want to play this. president obama was asked in a television interview in new hampshire, this question, and i think every elected official should answer this. >> is it your belief it's unpatriotic for someone to have a swiss bank account? >> you know, i think what's important if you are running for president is that the american people know who you are, what you have done, and that you're

an open book. and that's been true of every presidential candidate dating back to mr. romney's father. >> pretty clear that president obama is walking a fine line there. he didn't answer the question directly. he talked about transparency. what do you think? is it unpatriotic to have money overseas after getting the fruits of the land here in america and being successful? >> i think what's very, very clear is that having your money shelters overseas and avoiding paying your taxes in america when you're part of the highest earning 1% of our country means that you're not contributing to our economy and not making it grow. i appreciate, you know, i know people have asked, is it patriotic or not patriotic? more fundamentally, we need to ask does it work to make the economy grow or not? their theory is if you cut taxes even more deeply for the top 1%

of people, they'll invest it back in creating jobs. that's not what romney is doing with his money, is it? he put it its switzerland, in the cayman islands, bermuda, and that's the core of this and why the romney campaign is so afraid of the issue and why they won't release the taxes. >> kwl think it's a character issue. i think it's far beyond the economy. i understand the connection you're making to the economy. when you have a sitting senator saying this thing is a game, playing a gale -- >> that was appalling. i found that utterly appalling. most of us go to line of duty funerals all too regularly. what so many hard working families have had to endure over this protracted conflicts,

that's a sacrifice. that's a tremendous sacrifice. and to have the united states senator talk about playing the game at the same time that his tea party extremist allies in the house are talking about dismantling large portions of our army, of our navy, of our marine corps, is disgusting, and i think it is not befitting of a great and free people and the once proud party of lincoln. the question we have to answer this fall is do we want to move forward with a economy that is growing or continue to believe the ridiculous story that the bigger and richer a guy's swiss bank account is the more jobs is creates in america. give me a break. >> i agree with you, and the same people clamoring for obama to come forward with a birth certificate are the same people who don't want to vet mitt romney and find out about his finances. >> ridiculous. >> thank you so much. remember to answer the question at the bottom of the screen, share your thoughts on twitter and also on facebook. we love to know what you think. today, mitt romney talked about the glory days of a past president, but he was not talking about the bushes. jonathan alter joins me next. stay with us.

coming up, whaults the deal with mitt romney's political romance with bill clinton? jonathan alter on that next. it's ground hog day in the house of representatives where

republicans are about to stage their 31st vote on repealing obamacare. democrats are foiging back. congressman steve israel is here later. >> and how in the world can a city in america get away with paying a firefighter less than a fry cook at mcdonald's? scranton, pennsylvania, is short changing its bravest and we'll talk to one of them tonight. share you thoughts with us on facebook and twitter using the hash tag ed show. we're coming right back. rick! wow, you look terrific! [ female announcer ] crest 3d white glamorous white toothpaste removes up to 90% of surface stains in just 5 days. crest glamorous white toothpaste. for a smile so white, you won't just be the ex. you'll be the one that got away.

welcome back to "the ed show." president obama and mitt romney are at a standoff on taxes and democrats definitely should get behind the president on this because he's got the winning aurlt. it's very simple. the president wants to keep tax cuts for the middle class. the president wants to let the bush tax cuts expire for the top 2%. mitt romney pushes the old line about how this will hurt the job creators. but today, in grand junction,

colorado, romney did something rarlth strange and extraordinary, i think. he got very nostalgic about the policies of president bill clinton. >> bill clinton called himself a new democrat. he put that behind him. he believed in smaller government, reformed welfare as we knew it and try today get the economy going with trade and other provisions, lowered taxes. new democrats have done some good things. a lot of republicans have done some good things, but this old style liberalism of bigger and bigger government and bigger and bigger taxes has gault to end and we will end it in november. >> that's right. you just heard the republican nominee for president talking about the glory days of president bill clinton. funny thing, though, romney got his facts wrong. taxes were higher under president clinton compared to president obama. not lower. that's why president obama always makes this point.

>> anybody making over $250,000 a year, including me, we go back to the tax rates that we were paying under bill clinton. which, by the way, was a time when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history, and created plenty of millionaires to boot. >> scratching your head yet? if romney wants to talk fondly of a past president, why not pick one from his own party, like president george w. bush. after l he wants to keep all of the bush tax cuts and add more tax cuts for the rich. that's why clinton said romney basically wants to do what they did before on steroids, which will get you the same consequences you got before on steroids. let's bring in msnbc political analyst and bloomberg columnist jonathan alter. you're writing a book on the campaign. i think you got a chapter

tonight. is it possible that mitt romney doesn't know what he's talking about and he got hung up on his bs on the stump? >> he's trying to do something specific here, which is to say that barack obama is a paleoliberal, as some kind of very old fashioned, big government liberal before bill clinton came along and said the era of big government is over. the problem is that not just because hillary clinton is serving in his administration, but if you go down the issues one after another, barack obama is a clinton democrat. he is not some kind of, you know, 1950s style democrat. so they might not always get along that well personally, but politically, obama and clinton are in the same place. as you just said, taxes under clinton were actually -- >> no question. >> higher. so all that obama is proposing and for which they're calling him a socialist, is to return to

the tax structure of the clinton years and for people to object to that is to object to an era where we created 23 million new jobs. >> here's more from president obama today. >> so we tried what they're selling. and it didn't work. and somehow, they think you don't remember. but you remember, and we don't need more top down economists. what we need is somebody who is going to fight every single day to grow the middle class because that's hout our economy grows, from the middle out, from the bottom up. >> good aumpt, does it stick, does it work? should democrats be on this? >> it's a good argument. finally, by crystalizing it and saying the middle class to build from the middle out from the bottom up, not from the top down, that's language that people can understand. this president has had some trouble in framing the argument in ways that people get. and i think it's starting to clarify for folks, and there is a danger that some people will

buy this argument about the so-called job creators. what creates jobs is demand. and to have demand, you must bolster the middle class. not screw the middle class, which is what has been happening in this country for some years now. >> here's more from mitt romney today in grand junction. >> the very idea of raising taxes on small businesses and job creators at the very time we need more jobs is the sort of thing only an extreme liberal would come up with. >> i want to say that is completely false. >> totally false. >> independent analysts say that only 3% of small businesses would see a tax hike. so, i mean, they're lying. the republicans, they just throw it out there and lie and all these head shakers get up and start saying oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. it's amazing to me. >> this is a key fact, it comes from the congressional joint economic committee, it's beyond dispude.

it's a nonpartisan statistic. 3.3%, that is all of the small businesses that would be affected. and by the way, those folks that would be affected are high net worth individuals who can afford to pay clinton era taxes. remember, you don't pay that on the first $250,000. it's only on money above that. all this is is an effort to confuse people, to get them thinking that somehow bill clinton -- barack obama is against small business. he's cut small business taxes 17 times. a bunch of different fees and other taxes that small businesses paid. it's just not factually accurate to say he's against small business. >> why don't all of the democrats just absolutely grab on what the president was talking about yesterday in his tax proposal and take it to the house? i mean, go right after it, go on the campaign trail and just emulate the president and what he wants to do? how can you say that you're for the middle class and be against

what the president was talking about yesterday? >> well, i don't think you can. >> every democrat should be on board for this. >> there were some democrats who wanted the amount to be a million not $250,000, but they're circing it up and going along with the president. for the democrats to hold the white house and hold the senate, they are going to be on the same page. the period of kind of creative dissent, which we believe in and certainly in the media we like seeing democrats fighting each other, but for their own good, they're going to have to pull together now. >> jonathan alter, thanks for coming in. >> coming up, the republicans get ready to appeal obamacare again. they're hoping the 31st time will be the charm. we'll talk about the politics of it all and the opposition next. pennsylvania republicans, this is a warning, folks, maybe it's a wake-up call. pennsylvania republicans are trying to steal the election. find out what they're about to coming up next. catherine crier, donna lieberman, and new jersey gop assembly leader john bramnick

will join me for the discussion.

big day on the hill tomorrow. tomorrow, the republicans are going to prove for the 31st time just how determined they are to block president obama from helping middle class americans. the house plans to vote to repeal the affordable health care act tomorrow. it will be the 31st time these representatives vote to repeal, gut, or simply dismantle the affordable care act.

let me repeat that, these republicans led by speaker john boehner, have voted to get rid of the affordable health care act 30 times. it passed the house every time. only to die in the senate. speaker boehner insists this is what america wants. >> i promised the american people on opening day of this congress that this would never be about us. our congress would be about listening to the american people and following their will. the american people do not want to go down the path of obamacare. that's why we voted over 30 times to repeal it, defund it, replace it. >> well, speaker boehner is wrong. america wants him to stop it. the newest poll shows voters want republicans to stop blocking the law and move on to other issues. that's 56% overall. 51% of these voters are independents. the republican effort to block affordable health care is

unpopular and it's pointless. president obama will veto it. >> our health care law was the right thing to do. it was the right thing to do. and you know what, i will work with anybody to improve the health care law where we can. but this law is here to stay. >> and the president's getting traction with that message. attitudes are changing. since the supreme court upheld the affordable care act. a new washington post/abc news poll shows growing support for federal health care reform. tomorrow, the republicans will vote to repeal health care. they'll be wrong for the 31st time in a row. let's turn to congressman steve israel of new york. chairman of the democratic congressional campaign committee. steve, good to have you with us tonight. good to see you again.

thanks for coming on. what are these guys up to? this is political theater. i think they think there are some head shakers out there who think they have a chance of getting this through. what's the mission here? what do you think? >> the mission is to protect health insurance company profits even if it undermines the middle class. they'll keep doing it for as lock as they have the majority in the house of representatives. they'll do it every day if they have to until they protect the insurance company profits even if they're taking away important patient protections from the middle class. house democrats want a vote on comprehensive legislation to create jobs to strengthen the middle class. house republicans want to move backwards and vote 31 times to repeal an important patient protections that help the middle class. that's the difference between

us. and that's why there's this buyer's remorse that puts the house in play. >> new jersey governor chris christie calls it extortion. here it is. >> obamacare on midcade to the states is extortion. it said you expand your program to where we tell you. if you don't, we're taking the rest of your money away. that's extortion. >> what's your response to that. >> >> extortion is taking people's money for health insurance and telling them if you're a woman with breast cancer we took your money but it's a pre-existing condition so we're kicking you off the policy. extortion is telling people who want to keep their kids on their health insurance policies until they're 26 that the kids get kicked off. extortion is with the republicans are doing now, extortion is taking votes to protect health insurance company profits and then extorting the middle class by doing nothing to help them. >> in some way, is this vote going to help the democrats on the campaign trail? >> let me tell you f i were a house republican, i would not want to go home to my district next weekend and explain to people why i took away their protections. i would not like to talk to a woman with breast cancer and splap to her why i voted to make breast cancer a pre-existing

condition again. i would not like to talk to a senior citizen at a town hall meeting and explain to them why i increased the doughnut hole and increased their prescription drug prices. i would not like to explain why i have put insurance company profits ahead of the middle class. they started the majority by voting to end medicare. they're going to end the majority by repealing patient protections to help insurance company profits. >> on the tax issue, should every democrat get on the same page and support the president and go home and campaign on what he talked about yesterday? >> i think every democrat needs to coalesce to continue to middle class tax cuts. that's what the president said. i wish we could find the right balance and compromise with the republicans. if we said it's a million, they would say no, if we said a billion, they would say no. they're saying no to everything. we need to create jobs, protect the middle class and move on. >> good to have you with us. >> a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. >> your right to vote, it's one

thing you never want to miss out on. >> the state of pennsylvania gets busted for paying a mitt romney fund-raiser to run their voter id campaign. the big panel takes on that story next. >> florida governor rick scott is answering charges that his administration covered up a tuberculosis outple break so they could shut down a government hospital. details ahead. and short changing the bravest. tonight, my exclusive interview with the scranton firefighter forced to take a pay cut all the way down to the minimum wage.

[ feedback ] attention, well, everyone. you can now try snapshot from progressive free for 30 days.

just plug this into your car, and your good driving can save you up to 30%. you could even try it without switching your insurance. why not give it a shot? carry on. now you can test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. in our efforts to protect voting rights and to prevent voting fraud, we will be vigilant and we will be strong, but let me be clear. let me be very clear. we will not allow political pretext to disinfranchise american citizens of their most pressure right.

>> eric holder speaking earlier at the naacp's annual convention. he plenged the justice department would be aggressive in challenging a new wave of voter restrictions. the question now is will it be enough? republicans are trying to steal the election in pennsylvania. one gop leader admitted it. >> voter id which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done. >> so pennsylvania is now ground zero for voter disenfranchisement. four years ago, barack obama bon the state by the biggest majority of any candidate since 1962. now, keeping the keystone state blue will be a much larger task and challenge. over 758,000 registered voters in pennsylvania might not meet the new voter requirements bah of a lack of identification. that's 9.2% of all voters in the state.

and democratic strongholds will be hit the hardest. the new law could affect 18% of voters in philadelphia. a must-win for president obama. but republicans are forging ahead with their plan. a lucrative state contract was awarded to a republican lobbying firm to create ads that educate the masses. >> your right to vote, it's one thing you never want to miss out on. this year, the law requires that every pennsylvania voter show a photo id at the polls. >> as the philadelphia city paper reports, the psas were reported by a company called the bravo group. bravo group's president and ceo is a former executive director of the state's republican party. he's also a pharmaceutical lobbiest, a school voucher supporter, and best of all, he's a fund-raiser for mitt romney. a lot to take down here. let's bring in donna lieberman, the executive director of innew york civil liberties union. new jersey gop assembly leader john bramnick, and attorney and

author catherine crier. great to have all of you with us tonight. this is a big and developing story in america. donna, let me ask you, the american civil liberties union and the naacp are challenging the law. what are you expectations? what's going to happen here? >> it's really hard to imagine that this kind of law would survive judicial scrutiny because the law is not about voter impersonation. it's really about imp personating democracy, and there's no evidence of voter fraud, but there's lots and lots of evidence that what this is designed to do is steal the election for governor romney. and the way it's designed to do that is by disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of vulnerable pennsylvanian citizens who are entitled as a

matter of constitutional right to participate in the electoral process. >> the republicans say it's about voter fraud. ufo sightings are more common than cases of voter fraud. why risk disenfranchising voters? >> i don't think you disenfranchise. the most important system we have is the people's right to vote. here's a situation where all we're saying is you need identification to vote. i don't think that's a weird idea or a crazy idea. it's probably -- it's what most americans think is the right thing to do to protect the system. and the arguments that somehow it's done for suppression, to me, that's someone who simply wants to argue that to vote is important, you should have identification. that's what the important factor is. >> i'm the one who is going to take the other argument because you have to be kidding me. if i'm sitting on the bench and somebody comes in and you're looking at a stat sheet. what's the problem? no evidence of rampant voter fraud. none anywhere. we have had these conversations before. the bush administration working as hard as they could came up

with about 32 cases over an eight-year period. secondarially, what's the remedy? we want a picture id? how hard is it for any college kid to go nowadays, in fact, you can go online and make up your phony id. is the remedy addressing the artificial problem? absolutely not. and what it is, it is causing a major birden, analogous to a poll tax -- >> that's what eric holder called it, a poll tax. do you agree with that? >> absolutely not. it's difficult to identify fraud. >> what's the motivation for doing this if it's not fraud. >> it is fraud, but how much is out there? there has to be an investigation to determine how much is out there. to say there's no fraud out there, that's not true. >> i think that's really a misstatement of reality. the bush administration spent

five years not just trying to find voter fraud, but pressuring u.s. attorneys on threat of losing their jobs, that was the scandal in and of itself, to prosecute voter fraud, and they came up with nothing. in two digits. and this is involving like five years. you know, the point is well taken. you know, we're more likely to see a ufo than find voter fraud, and it's not for lack of looking. you know they looked hard. they looked under every bed. >> driving a car is not a right -- >> but you need a license. to go in and do what i think is one of the most important civic duties you have, in order to have some identification and make sure that the voting people know you're the voter, i don't think that's crazy. >> it's not crazy. >> 9.2% of the people might not vote in pennsylvania because of the new laws. you think that's right? >> right now, as soon as they learn it's the law, as soon as they understand it's relatively simple to get the id -- >> it's really simple.

it's really simple for my 99-year-old great grandmother if i had one to get a voter id. really simple for somebody who suffers disabilities. >> counties in state after state that don't have the dmv facilities, the argument is so ludicrous that we're having this debate when there's no evidence, years of investigation, and this is a problem when the remedy is so easy to get around if you truly were trying to commit fraud. and you look at the disaffected people. >> what about pennsylvania who said these laws are going to deliver the state for mitt romney? kind of damaging isn't it? >> you can't speak about everyone's comment in the party. i can only speak on the basic concept, in order to vote -- >> he's a gop leader. you're a leader. you know there's a responsibility with what you say. >> there's a lot of leaders, i don't know him personally. >> he said these laws were designed to deliver the state to

pennsylvania. >> he has his opinion. >> this isn't just a matter of opinion. the facts say otherwise. look, this is about disenfranchising people who are persived by the gop to be likely to vote democratic. now, you know, it's one thing if you win an election fair and square. but to steal it, that's not democracy. that's fraud. >> just fine with the system -- >> does that mean you have no responsibility whatsoever? there's no need whatsoever to get identification? >> there's lots of identification required to register to vote. >> at this point? >> you don't need a photo id at this point to vote. >> what's wrong with using a utility bill? what's wrong with using a mortgage bill? what's wrong with using what they use now? >> you think new jersey should have photo id? >> i would have to look further into it. >> appreciate it. great to have all of you with us. >> coming up, lawmakers in florida close their state's only tuberculosis hospital after the cdc warned of a major outbreak.

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there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. up next, florida closes its only tuberculosis hospital even after a report from the cdc warning of an outbreak of the disease. >> and the big finish, budget cults force the mayor of scranton, pennsylvania, to slash wanls for public workers. i'll ask a local firefighter what the pay cut means to his family. stay tuned.

> welcome back to "the ed show." in a recent austerity measure, florida governor rick scott closed his states only tuberculosis hospital in the midst of a dangerous tb outbreak. they voted to close ag holly state hospital in palm beach county, citing a decline in tb cases since 2010. just nine days after the vote, the cdc reported jacksonville,

florida, was suffering one of the largest tb outbreaks in 20 years. it caused 13 deaths and infected 99 people, mostly among the homeless. according to the report obtained by the palm beach post. most of the sick were poor black men. and 3,000 people in the past two years have had close contact with contagious people at jacksonville's homeless shelters. the cdc issues a stern warning saying the high number of deaths in this outbreak emphasizes the need for vigilant active case finding, improved education about tb, and ongoing screening at all sites with outbreak cases. this report allegedly went unseen by key decision makers in florida and the public was not made aware of anything until early june.

ag holly state hospital ended up closing three months after the federally issued warning on july 2nd. earlier today, scott's office denied the secrecy allegation, however, the hospital was still closed after the report. as a former hospital corporation executive, scott should have known tuberculosis is highly contagious and is the world's second biggest infectious killer. we should also point out that governor scott will not expand medicaid as outlined by the affordable care act. his state will lose billions of dollars in federal funding for health care. even though it's clearly needed in his state. tonight, in our survey, i asked, should americans be considered a presidential candidate that keeps his money -- should they be concerned that a presidential candidate keeps his money in foreign banks. 96% of you said yes. 4% of you said no. coming up, scranton, pennsylvania, cuts pay for police and firefighters to minimum wage and a firefighter

from scranton, pennsylvania, will join us next to tell us what this means to his family. stay with us. [ male announcer ] if you had a dollar for every dollar

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for our druks, and for our land fillsuric have to take care of the whole city. our employees are great employees who do an outstanding job and we have to take care of the whole city and we'll get through this. >> the state judge has issued an injunction against the mayor to prevent him from paying firefighters and police less than their salary, but he did it anyway. now they're trying to appeal to a federal court. i'm joined by john judge, a firefighter in scranton and president of the scranton firefighters international association of firefighters local 60. appreciate your time. tell us, what does this mean in real dollars to you and your family and what's the reaction of you and your colleagues going through this? >> first and foremost, it's about $1,000 every two weeks that our members are losing. it works out to about an 80% pay cut. and it's concerning for the

membership, obviously. they're trying to figure out how they're going to make bill payments. a lot of our members are family members, they have families, they have children. and you know, figuing out how they're going to pay for their children becomes a real issue. that's on their mind right now. the more immediate thing is he hasn't told us, the mayor hasn't told us how long this is going to last. the fear is can this go on for two weeks infor a month, for two months? we don't know how to actually even plan for it. i mean, you're a father as well. i think you have, what, six children? can you imagine going from, you know, you're the head of the household making a salary and it gets cut to minimum wage and your son or daughter works at an ice cream stand down the street makes more than you.

we're concerned about what this means and we're taking all appropriate steps to right thing wrong. >> what recourse is to there take other than the legal avenue which could take a long time? >> well, that's what we started with. we started with the legal avenue and today we filed a contempt of court hearing and we're hoping to be in front of the judge that issued the injunction last week. we're hoping to be in front of him some time early next week, and we also filed two federal lawsuits today as a violation of, you know, our contracts. >> do you think the city wants to raise taxes to make this right for employees? do you think the city is willing to raise taxes to make it right for the employees? >> i think it's a very complicated issue. it's been -- we're caught in the middle of a basically a conflict between city counsel and the mayor, and he wants to raise it 79%, and for the first time in his three-term tenure as mayor, he's got a counsel that is

checking his policies and his borrowing and making sure he's not just running rampant. they have solutions that he doesn't want to put in, alternative revenue items. he has proposed a 78% tax increase which would be crippling on the city, and the counsel has proposed alternative ideas and he doesn't want to take them into account. >> what we're seeing is the scrumbling of america's infrastructure. we don't have the money to pay for the essentials, and the question is how many firefighters are going to becom disinchantded, get out of the business, get out of the line of work and leave communities vulnerable and we have a new template on how we're going to have public employees service our communities in america. john judge, we'll do the story again. i appreciate your time. that's "the ed show." the "rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> incredible news there. thanks to you at home for staying with us this hour.

james carville is here tonight for the interview. james carville, of course, is the campaign strategist who brought us the presidency of a man named bill clinton. he was elected in 1992. he beat papi bush, beat him easily. he was then wildly pop aural yz most presidents are right after they're elected. by the very next election, after the '92 one, by the very next election, by the midterm election in 1994, the pendulum had swung way back in the other direction. the republicans won a landslide in the first election of the bill clinton presidency. they took control of the house from the democrats, newt gingrich became the speaker of the house. the house swung 54 seats to the republicans. 54 seats they picked up. we have showed this before, but this cover from "time" magazine in 1994 gives you an idea of how huge the victory was for the republicans in the first midterm