singing "goldfinger" 50 years later and the great production from "les mis" and barbra streisand paying poignant tribute to her great friend marvin hamlisch. finally, i you know i like jennifer lawrence winning for best actress because she really is. that's "hardball" for now. "the ed show" starts right now. >> good evening and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. here we are. it's sequester week in washington, and house republicans aren't negotiating. thart not even on the clock, like you and me. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> these cuts do not have to happen. congress can turn them off any time with just a little bit of compromise. >> four days until the sequester starts killing 700,000 jobs. and the speaker of the house is clueless. >> do you have a sense of how many jobs will be lost as a result of the sequester? >> i do not. >> tonight the one and only james carville on the republican obstruction threatening to

cripple the middle class. the big congressional panel on how the sequester will cost middle classers in their districts. plus, eric cantor is using the video game world of warcraft to deceive the public. the plot to steal electoral votes moves forward in pennsylvania. and the first lady made movie history at the academy awards. >> i am so honored to help introduce this year's nominee for best picture. >> tonight the story behind michelle obama's oscar surprise. >> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. republicans basically have embarked on a campaign to go across america and blame the president for the upcoming sequester. now according to house gop leaders, the president hasn't even tried to negotiate. >> the president really ought to stop campaigning and come back to the table and work with us. we care about what happens to this economy and the people who sent us here. >> well, if eric cantor cares so

much, he shouldn't be ignoring the proposal the president has put on the table, because it's got a few lefties upset. the president has offered an additional $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction. more than $1 trillion comes from new spending cuts. the plan includes chained cpi, which of course is a reduction to social security benefits. now hold it right there, folks. my head can explode in 20 seconds of commentary. this is not what this election was all about. there is no poll out there that shows that the majority of americans want to dig into social security so the wealthy can have more tax breaks which of course is what the republicans are all about. the plan that is on the table now, the plan is definitely compromise coming from the white house. it is hard to negotiate with somebody who has basically drawn a line in the sand. republicans have said repeatedly, there will be no new revenues. here is congressman tom cole of oklahoma. he was asked earlier today is

there any chance that republicans would put new revenue on the table. >> no, there is not. the president got revenue six weeks ago with no spending cuts whatsoever. this time it's spending cuts with no revenue. down the road we'll have another negotiation over the budget and the continuing resolution. eventually the debt ceiling again. but in this case, i don't think there is any room for revenue at all. >> this is what you do when there is a mistake in a game. you call time-out. i am sick and tired of hearing the republicans saying that the president got new revenue. that was the expiration of the bush tax cuts. everybody with a brain knows that. that's not new revenue. that doesn't take us beyond the rates that we used to have. but this is the republican strategy. you have to negotiate with them on their terms or you're not going to save jobs in america. john boehner isn't even concerned about the immediate loss of jobs from the sequester. >> do you have a sense of how

many jobs will be lost as a result of this sequester? >> i do not. but i can tell you this. if we don't solve the spending problem here in washington, this will be tens of millions of jobs in the future that won't happen because of the debt load that is being laid on the backs of our kids and our grandkids. >> well, then why don't you take the deal the president's got on the table, mr. boehner? republicans are willing to see people lose their jobs. they are willing to see projects and services fall by the wayside. this is the new mantle of obstruction. president obama is using all of his resources to put a public face on these upcoming cuts. and folks, they are real. the transportation secretary already explained how the cuts will create a national travel slowdown. tell that to your business friends. today the homeland security secretary reinforced this point. >> the lines over the next few weeks are going to start to lengthen in some dramatic ways in parts of the country.

>> ah, just what we're looking for. democrats in congress are highlighting this for the traveling public. it's the best way to explain how everybody is going to feel the pinch, the pain because of these cuts. >> we can't allow a manufactured invented crisis to harm clickcally indispensable government services. >> there are going to be real consequences for anybody who travels in america, for anyone who comes into a port in america, and for the people who screen us to make sure we're safe. >> now, of course, republicans are calling that all scare tactics. well, scare on this one. officials from states dealing with hurricane sandy, well, they say the damage also is going to hurt in the cuts is going to have an affect on the recovery. >> this is nothing short of a fiscal hurricane, a fiscal storm for the victims that are already

been devastated by sandy. >> these are the consequences of republicans not budging on any revenue whatsoever. but democrats, they've got a line in the sand too. 107 congressional democrats have signed a letter saying no cuts whatsoever to medicare, medicaid and social security. they know what the election was about. there is revenue available to keep the big three intact. and of course the democrats, what they want to do, and something that the republicans haven't identified, the democrats want to close some loopholes. and they want to cut subsidies to big oil and big agra business. these big agra companies, they don't need the kind of money that they're getting. and of course, the democrats want to go down to the road to the buffett rule. higher taxes on millionaires. kind of even things out with the secretary, you know, the people that actually work in the office, warren buffett has a better deal, you me that story. 76% of americans want a balanced approach. this is balanced what the president has on the table and he is accused of not

negotiating. the president already signed $1.7 trillion in cuts before we even got to the sequester. he got $737 billion in revenue from the expiration of the bush tax cuts. this is not even new revenue. it's going back to the old rate it expired. and the president did exactly what he said he was going to do. he did not let those taxes go up on middle class americans. so the country still needs nearly $1 billion in revenue to get this balanced plan. republicans would rather dig in their heels. they are taking the country down a path of ruin, and they're not even concerned with it, and not concerned with the consequences. and they've got this thing pretty well figured out. here are a lot of talk about gerrymandering. let's take the state of virginia, for instance. in the state of virginia, there are 11 congressional seats. three of them are democrats. really? how in the world did president obama ever win the state of virginia? well, he did.

and the gerrymandering is protecting all of these righty seats in the state of virginia. ironically, it's governor mcdonald who is coming out saying hey, you know what? this is really going to hurt our constituents. do we really want to go down this road? these are real cuts. if you do the numbers, there are 234 republicans in the house. 15 of them probably could be defeated if the races were resourced properly by the democrats. they think they've got 219 that are untouchable because of the gerrymandering that has taken place in this country and what the republicans have done. they're on safe territory. they don't feel like they have to negotiate with the president. what they're going to do is allow these cuts to go in. they're going to blame the president on the economy. boehner knows exactly how many jobs this is going to hurt. and he knows exactly how this is going to hurt small business. and then they want to blame it on the democrats. and then they'll just limp to the midterm. and so we're going to be here fighting back and forth, doing this pr war as to whose fault it

really is. are we ready for that? is that what you and i are paying for? we can't get these guys to go to work, and when they go to work, they can't agree on anything. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, will the republicans' plan of obstruction backfire with voters? text "a" for yes. text b for no to 67622. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you results later on in the show. skroyng me tonight the great james carville. he has been down this road a whole bunch of time. democrat strategist, political consultant and author of "it's the middle class, stupid." and let me respond to that. it sure. if the democrats can't draw their line in the sand, james, what does this mean for the future of the party if they're going to turn over every time something like this comes up? your thoughts. >> first of all, i don't think they have turned over. secondly, this is what the republicans say. government doesn't do any good. it just gets in the way. so we're going to find out how

much government gets in your way. you're talking about, you know, airports and you know custom officials. you're talking about national parks, a lot of things. we're going to get a good lesson here in this country of how -- what the government does and how it affects people. but they're completely unconcerned about this. john boehner said in april 2011 he got 98% of what he wanted. i'm not sure that a lot of that caucus is not just delighted with this. i really believe that. i think they're actually excited about this. beats me why. it's going to really hurt middle class people a lot. macro-economic advisers out of st. louis, probably the most respected in the country say this is going to shave 6/10 a percentage off gdp. >> if you have a $3.5 trillion budget for the year and yank $85 billion out of it over a seven-month period, obviously it's going to have an affect. republicans don't even seem to be on the sage page with their message. some of them say the cuts are president obama's fault, and the others are saying the cuts are

no big deal. heret is. >> i would say balder. dash. it's true. unfair, dishonest, disingenuous. the president is making stuff up. >> why are they having so r such a hard time with their message? >> well, the truth of the matter is they came up with the idea because they said this is so insane, this is so out of bounds that no one would allow this to happen so we would negotiate. and the white house, i think it's legitimate to say that they underestimated just how republicans -- what lengths they would go to. the republicans actually like this. they're all out there saying this doesn't hurt anything. you're just cutting government a teeny bit. it's nothing to worry about. this is no big deal. it's the only way we can get spending under control. the republicans are actually embracing this. they want it, they can have it. >> we've been down this same road 18 years ago. let's take a look.

>> unfortunately, republican leaders in washington have put ideology ahead of common sense and shared values in their pursuit of a budget plan. we can balance the budget without doing what they seek to do. we can balance the budget without the deep cuts in education, without the deep cuts in the environment, without letting medicare wither on the vine. >> now, james, you know republicans got killed in the polls when they shut down the government down in 1995. will the outcome be the same this time around? >> you know, go back and remember what president clinton said. you know what is interesting? every word he said was true. >> yeah. >> he said we can balance the budget without doing all those things. and guess what happened? we did balance the budget. we didn't destroy medicare. we didn't destroy education. we were able to do that. and they didn't want to do that. and president clinton stood up, just like today. they're sitting there saying who needs government. they're excited about shutting this stuff down.

you watch them on tv. they think this is good. they think that this gets in the way. they're going to find out just what it is. and they're going to find out in a defense department what this is like. and a lot of places like that. you got to understand. their whole philosophy is government is a bad thing. and so if you have less of a bad thing, you're better off. >> you think the president is going to get any help from the republican governors that know how bad it's going to be in their backyard? >> i think the phone is going to start ringing. not only that, i think they're going to get some help from the business community that knows how bad this is. i think they're going to get some help from the national defense community, which knows how bad this is. i think they're going to get some is help from places where all these national parks are that are going to be cut that so much of the commerce around these areas depends on this. i think they're going to get a lot of phone calls. >> yeah. >> and they're going to be surprised because they're going to find out that the government does a lot of worthwhile things. >> you see a parallel between president obama handling this

the same way president clinton did? >> well, it was a little bit of two different things. but i think that president obama now realizes that he just kept going along with them and coming up with this and they just kept moving the ball on him. and now he is saying look, i have put $1.8 million in deficit reduction out there. that's the legislation called for in august of 2011. it didn't say spending cuts. it actually said deficit redux. he has $1.8 trillion on the table. some of this unduly hurts middle class. there is a story today in the paper that health care costs have flattened so much it's saving 100s of millions of dollars. >> sure it is. >> there was a wonderful story in "time" magazine how medicare delivers health care much cheaper than any other system in the united states. people should read that, because it's an important thing in this health care debate. but at any rate, he probably started out further than a lot of democrats like to go. but the president has already put $1.8 million in.

>> i think they do a better job of lying right now than they did back this your day. i think they're doing a heck of a job of that. james carville, always a pleasure to have you on the "ed show." >> you bet. >> remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts with us on twitter and ed show and on facebook. we want to know what you think. a new white house report lays out exactly how folks are going to be affected by the sequester. the congressional panel tells us what it means for their communities and all middle classers. stay tuned. we're right back. [ man ] visa prepaid opened a new world for me. i have direct deposit on my visa prepaid. my paycheck is loaded right on my card. automatic. i am not going downtown standing in line to cash it. i know where my money is, because it is in my pocket. i got more time with my daughter, we got places to go. [ freeman ] go open a new world, with visa prepaid. more people go with visa. [ male announcer ] available at walmart.

republicans are obstructing and the middle class is going to pay for it. and big surprises led to big ratings for last night's oscars. we'll have the highlights and low lights from the academy awards. you can listen to my radio show tomorrow on sirius xm radio channel 27, monday through friday noon to 3:00 p.m. share your thoughts on facebook and twitter using #edshow. we're coming right back with the

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all of us are concerned about our politics, both in our own parties as well as the other parties. but at some point we've got to do some governing. >> president obama speaking today to the nation's governors, with just four more days until the sequester hits, the white house is sounding an alarm, with a new report with details on how it will hit all 50 states. and the state by state calculations are pretty grim. no area or issue goes uncut from law enforcement to clean air and water programs. we would see a slowdown of sandy

cleanup in new jersey. well would see military cutbacks in the state of texas, and fewer children would be vaccinated in georgia. in california, 9600 low income students could lose their financial aid. in the state of ohio, hundreds of teachers and teachers' aides are at risk of losing their jobs. and in the state of minnesota, thousands of unemployed folks will not get the training and assistance they need to find a jobs. despite the start numbers, john boehner is not budging. >> listen, the president says we have to have another tax increase in order to avoid the sequester. well, mr. president, you got your tax increase. it's time to cut spending here in washington. >> joining me tonight on the congressional panel, congressman john garamendi of california, congresswoman marcy capture of ohio and keith ellison of minnesota. great to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> let's respond to what the republicans are saying. john, you first. they're saying no revenue.

where does that leave us? >> the american people know what we should do. and that's a balanced approach. you gave the statistics a moment ago, ed. america wants a balanced, they want a compromise. some taxes, some cuts. we can do that. the proposal has been on the table now for more than three weeks. and we've got the revenue out there. we need to get that revenue back from the oil industry. my god, they got enough of our money at the pump. we don't need to give them a subsidy. that's but one example of many, many. >> marcy, your thoughts on getting the republicans to give up revenue, or is there going to be a deal without revenue? >> i don't think for the democrats there can be a deal without revenue because we need a balanced plan. in the original bill that passed, we provided revenue, but that was on individuals' incomes. as congressman garamendi has said, there are so many loopholes in the tax code, why should children in ohio who are disabled have to pay the price for their those who are

offshoring jobs and not paying their fair share of the load? why should the unemployed in ohio or anywhere have their unemployment benefits cut by 9 to 11%? you're talking millions of americans who are living at the edge. and our senior citizens who are going to have their nutrition programs cut in ohio. 3/4 of a million dollars out with out. what are they going to do? give them fewer green beans? >> a lot of the programs slated for cuts are extremely popular with the public. their polling is very strong for the democrats. congressman ellison, what you hearing from your constituents in minnesota? >> well, what i'm hearing is we still have a number of people unemployed. and the training and the assistance that they get to get back into the workforce is going to be dramatically cut, and thousands of people will suffer. not only that, food assisting, assistance, law enforcement. but i want to go back to another quote that john boehner had about two years ago. and that is that if they won't eat the whole loaf, we're going give it to them a slice at a

time. and what the republicans have done since then is set up crisis after crisis after crisis. and this is just the latest one. we got another one we're dealing with in just over a month when the continuing resolution comes up. we just passed one with the fiscal cliff. so this friday here we are one more time, seeing the fulfillment of a philosophy of reducing government to the size you can drown it in a bathtub. >> congressman garamendi, military cuts are going to hit your state of california really hard. can you put a number on how many jobs that would affect? >> well, the jobs are going to be enormous. we've had five hearings in the house armed services committee with the top generals and secretary panetta and others coming in and saying we can't stand this. this is going to be a horrible problem for the safety of this country. and to hear mr. boehner and others simply say it's no problem, hey, the military says it's a big problem. travis air force base, they're looking at not being able to do the kind of training that is necessary, the readiness that is

necessary. you're looking at as will of some $30 million of wages. they're clearly going to be layoffs among the civil servants, 3200 there. some of those people are going to be lose their jobs. the rest are going to clearly be on furlough. losing perhaps 20 hours of work or more. you are looking at the coast guard. take a look at the coast guard, just this cruise ship incident. the coast guard is going to lose 20% of its ability to do its job. what are we talking about here? this is terrible for the nation's security. it's terrible for the health of the people of this nation. >> you have a republican party that will not budge. these cuts are going to go into effect. the only solution is to hold the line. congresswoman kaptur, do you think the democrats have the intestinal fortitude? i know you have signed on to this letter of 107 of your colleagues that say no cuts in medicare, medicaid and social security. this is going to be who blinks first. >> well, i think that the

republicans, at least this particular group, care more about manufacturing crises than manufacturing jobs. and we have to hold the line. we know that there is a lot of ill will toward the president. he won the election. and what they're trying to do, though, is to stop his program in its tracks because they're not satisfied with what happened last november. but you shouldn't do this to the american people. >> you've got a republican governor there in ohio in john kasich. you think he'll help the president? >> i hope he'll help because in the speaker's home state of ohio over 26,000 personnel who work for wright-patterson air force base and our garden reserve facilities across the state are going to be furloughed. 13,000 of those in the speaker's own backyard. up at nasa, glen lewis and cleveland brook park, we think we're going to lose the cryogenic hydrogen program and power program, which is one of the two major missions of that sight. so this is going to be felt throughout ohio. and we're a state that is

crawling its way forward to recover. we don't need more job loss or underinvestment in states like ohio. >> senator rand paul says local law enforcement won't be affected by the cuts. keith, you want to answer that? >> that's absolutely not true. in the state of minnesota, several law enforcement programs, people who protect our streets, people who run to the crisis when the rest of us are run away from it are going to see cuts and possibly layoffs. the fact of the matter is this is the most irresponsible legislative action i've ever seen. and i believe that the american people are going to get first hadn't experience as to what senator paul's philosophy really does mean. shrinking government down, cutting government down, government's the problem. we're going to find out sadly how wrong he really is. >> these tax loopholes that we're talking about, we're talking about oil and gas. we're talking about big agra business. >> yachts and jets. >> what about that? >> yachts and jets.

>> yachts and jets, no doubt. this is plenty of money to be found there. john, you're on the -- you're on the ag committee. can these subsidies be cut and agriculture still be strong in america? >> absolutely it can. in fact, the two farm bills, one from the senate, one from the house did reduce these subsidies that are now being discussed as part of the democratic proposal. senator stabenow has been working on this. she has figured out how to make this happen in a way that does not harm agriculture. it shifts over to an insurance program. but ed, let's go back to the beginning here. these issues were thought to be so bad, the sequester was thought to be so terrible that it wouldn't happen. and now the republicans are embracing what everybody said was so bad that it couldn't possibly happen. i don't understand where they're coming from. >> it's all about president obama. that's a big part of the equation. >> i'm afraid so. >> congressman john garamendi, congresswoman marcy kaptur and congressman keith ellison, great to have you on the program tonight. eric cantor's world of lies

about the world of warcraft. we'll are the facts between the gop's latest dishonest talking points. and the two governors disagree. the big panel on the president's big plan for infrastructure. stay with us. we're coming right back. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thankyou card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? and with all the points i've been earning, i was able to get us a flight to our favorite climbing spot even on a holiday weekend. ♪

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welcome back to "the ed show." seems like every time republicans don't have their facts on their side, they just go ahead and make stuff up. let's take the sequester, for instance. the country wants a mix of tax increases and spending cuts to undo the austerity bomb. instead of compromising on those, republicans are making

stuff up where? on twitter. here is a tweet from house leader eric cantor. president obama wants to raise your taxes so he can pay people $1.2 million to play world of warcraft? and of course cantor's buddies in the house leadership all followed suit with similar tweets complaining about the spending on world of warcraft. this is world of warcraft here on the wall. i never heard of it before until we were doing the story tonight. it's one of those violent fantasy video games that kids like to play. so why in the world would president obama want to spend over a million dollars to pay people to play video games? well, it turns out there is a real good reason. the national science foundation, something that the republicans are always short on, science, that foundation awarded north carolina state university two grants totalling $1.2 million to

study whether video games can slow mental declines in senior citizens. seniors play puzzle games as well to understand how video games can improve cognition, develop games for seniors that will improve cognitive function, and reduce the cost and impact of diseases like dementia and alzheimer's on the health care system. and it turns out that cantor was wrong about the game. in fact, it turns out the seniors aren't playing world of warcraft. they're playing games like boom blocks and a simple puzzle action game like jenga. wrong again, cantor. not only is cantor and the republicans lying to you one more time, they're demonizing a program that could help america's seniors deal with diseases like alzheimer's and dementia. the facts aren't on their side, so they're just making stuff up again. >> whatever your party, the last thing you want to see is washington get in the way of

progress. >> the president takes his case to republican governors. >> you're the ones who are on the ground. seeing firsthand every single day what works. >> up next, the big panel weighs in on the president's strategy to go around d.c. republicans. pennsylvania republicans have another trick up their sleeve to steal electoral votes. and forget the sock puppets and the talking bears, the first lady stole the show at last night's academy awards. >> and now for the moment we have all been waiting for. >> ahead, david edelstein on the oscar's big winners, big losers, and the big surprises. ♪ ♪

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powerful republicans which totally disagrees. today president obama avoided the naysayers in congress and appealed directly to the tea party republicans who agree with him on infrastructure. >> i know that some people in congress reflexively oppose any idea that i put forward, even if it's an idea they once supported. but rebuilding infrastructure is not my idea. it's everybody's idea. it's what built this country. >> the president explained how his fix it first plan would put people to work to make critical repairs. then he sweetened the deal by offering regional teams to help every governor access federal funding. for instance, the president is offering help with renewable energy products in the pacific northwest. the northeast corridor would get faster high speed rail service. governors in the midwest and in colorado would get help improving water access to deal with the drought. and the dakotas and montana, the regional team would focus on oil and gas production. the president is offering this

kind of help to every state because the benefits are obvious. >> didn't this used to be a bipartisan issue? i don't know when that happened. it should be a no-brainer. >> the president has found the sweet spot with the nation's most conservative governors on infrastructure. republicans like jan brewer, sam brownback, rick scott, and rick perry are asking their legislators in their state for more infrastructure funding. unlike congress, these republican governors realize that compromise is the key to improving their states and their political futures. let's turn to sam stein, political reporter of the huffington 30es with us tonight. heather mcghee, vice president of policy and route reach. and richard wolffe, executive editor of msnbc. richard, you first. employing these republican governors what they're advocating in their states, how good and how effective could this be? >> the president has faced tougher oppositions not just

from republicans, but from republican governors on his signature health care reform legislation. and what we have seen in the last several weeks and months is that these republican governors, no matter what their rhetoric, no matter what their national aspirations have begun to crack. because in the end, they are going to be measured by what they can deliver to folks in their state. so i think it has been effective. i think it will be effective. will it change the nature of the debate among house republicans? no. but it does say to the public republicans are a much more varied group than just what you hear out of john boehner's mouth. >> heather, how can crumbling brings across america be a political issue? you're either going to fix it or not fix it. has he kind of cornered the republicans on this? >> i think he has there is overwhelming support by the public for not just infrastructure, but the fact that we want to have safe roads to drive on and mass transit to get to work. but also because people know it creates jobs. if you look at what you get in terms of bang for the buck from the dollars that could be spent

on job creation, infrastructure spending is one of the highest ones. it's actually five times as strong as corporate tax giveaways. so, you know, we've still got 10s of millions of americans who are out of work or looking for more work to put food on their tables. and we need to be looking at what is going to create more jobs. >> sam, how effective is governor mcdonaougald going to n virginia? this could turn him awry with some others. what do you think? >> the back story here is governor mcdonald passed a landmark transportation plan through virginia, through the virginia state house in large part by, you know, relying on revenue raisers. and it's endeared him to the pragmatists in the party. but it's made him a villain of some sorts among the conservative in the party who think by sheer fact of raising taxes and revenues to pay for this, he is a traitor of some sort. i'm waiting eagerly to see how this place out, whether it helps him politically or not. i have to say i'm not as bullish

about the prospects of something done federally on transportation. president obama has tried in various forms in various bills to put a $50 billion infrastructure bank into action. it's failed every single time. i think much more likely scenario is that states go first, ask the federal government for matching funds of some sort, and then the federal government is forced to act. i think that's the much more likely scenario. >> i mean, richard, the president is going to the people. the president is going to governors. the president is going everywhere he can to try to get the republicans to move. they say no revenue. where does this end up? >> oh, i think this falls into a much bigger discussion where we are getting into the furlough question and partial government shutdowns. you know, this fever will break. and it will break because people understand what it means for jobs. but it's also the way things used to get done in washington. i'm not saying this was a great period in washington, but earmarks transportation projects

were what greased the wheels of legislation along, and it will come back. because that's how things will get done again. >> heather, what do you think of louisiana governor bobby jindal says the president just trying the scare americans when he starts talking about all the jobs that are going to be lost and all the people that are going to be affected, the programs that are going to be cut, and also the travel appeal. i mean, that's what is going to affect people the most. when business travelers are knocked out for six or seven hours because of logistics, that's going to get a lot of people's attention. but jindal says he is just scaring americans. what about that? >> i think it's great that the president is going out, speaking directly to the american people about simply what is government and what actually are the millions of different ways that what we do together that we can't do ourselves is actually really helping us on a day-to-day basis. because if he were to stay in washington, he would really be surrounded by the beltway donor class, which is who we know is actually pushing the austerity agenda. affluent americans who make up the donor class is twice as likely to want to push an

austerity agenda, to want to protect from tax cuts, want to push for changes to entitlements. so we really need the president to be doing exactly what he is doing, which is going out to people who are close to the ground, talking to the american people directly, talking to the governors and say you know what? this is what government does in our lives and it's worth paying for. >> can i add the notion that if president obama just saturdays around the table a little more with john boehner and eric cantor and that would persuade them to drop their resistance to hikes is silly. they would never do it. i'm not sure what he gets by visiting their offices, by going to the hill, by having them over to the white house. i think this is obviously a political way of getting them to come to yes on this. and i do agree that there is a benefit to getting outside of the echo chamber of the bubble, seeing real people, getting their stories out there and publicizing it. >> sam, i've got to ask you quickly. >> sure. >> inside the bubble, maybe i'm missing this, why is it the washington media pushing the republicans to identify loop holes? why can't we get one loophole from the republicans in this deal? >> i don't know.

i mean because they've declared that the revenue debate is over, right? and so if you declare that the debate is over, there is no logical follow-up question which says which loophole would you like the close. >> but they said during the campaign, they said during the campaign that they would close loop holes. they were supporting romney back then. >> correct. >> but now they won't support any loopholes whatsoever nor will they identify them. >> the bigger debate is if you do close the loopholes, what would it go for in republicans say it shouldn't be for deficit reduction, it should be to lower tax codes. it's a non-starter for democrats. great to have you on with us. >> thank you. >> just ahead, the republican plan to steal electoral votes is going forward in one state. that's pennsylvania. we'll have the details next. stay with us. think how perfect they'll be for everyday stuff. yeah. scan me. stride on, pale-legged, short-shorts guy.

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we brought you a number of stories on this program about the republican effort to rig future presidential elections. so far attempts by republicans in four swing states to rig electoral college votes have failed. but this is not the case in pennsylvania. keystone state republicans have just introduced a new bill that would change the way they allocate electoral votes. under the plan, a large chunk of pennsylvania's electoral votes would be awarded to the republican candidate, even if they didn't win the state. two votes would go to the winner of the popular vote, but the rest would be split based on vote percentage. gerrymandering. that's what it's all about for them. if bills like this are passed in other swing states, it would greatly increase the chances of a republican winning the white house. not surprisingly, this bill comes right out of the rnc chair's playbook. in january, reince priebus said republican-controlled swing states should change the way they award electoral votes. he argued a new system would give more control to states. however, we should point out no

such bills have been introduced in any solid red states. in the past, pennsylvania governor tom corbett has supported similar vote-rigging legislation, but this time around he has remained silent on the current bill. the governor is up for a tough reelection battle in 2014. i'm guessing corbett knows the people of pennsylvania do not appreciate republicans rigging presidential elections. tonight in our survey i asked you will the republican plan of obstruction backfire with voters? 95% of you say yes. 5% of you say no. michelle obama wasn't the only big surprise at last night's academy awards. "new york" magazine's david edelstein recaps the night's big night. stay with us. first kid

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starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. and in the big finish tonight, the oscars were packed with song, dance, and a few surprises. seth macfarlane hosted the show with some help from william shatner. >> the show is a disaster. >> what -- what are you talking about? it's going fine. >> no, it's not. >> and this was a bizarre skit in which sock puppets played pilots in a plane that is about to crash. >> all systems go, captain. >> okay. hang on a sec. glug glug glug, glug glug, glug glug glug. let's do it. >> ah, ah, ah! >> there wasn't much singing and

dancing. we can't possibly give a full recap, but here is a sample. >> we saw your boobs in the movie we saw we saw your boobs. ♪ ♪ but he's got high hopes ♪ but don't ♪ memories >> then there was the best kept secret of the night, the surprise guest. >> the first lady of the united states. michelle. >> i am so honored to help introduce this year's nominees for best picture. >> do you have your envelope? >> not yet, jack. but i'm about to. and the oscar goes to "argo." congratulations! >> harvey weinstein and his

daughter initially pitched the idea for the first lady to appear in the telecast. the producers loved it and the first lady quickly agreed. producers borrow addis any jet and made a secret flight to washington to hammer out all of the details. one producer said the planning of it was like "argo." it was a cia mission, it was so complicated. joining me tonight david edelstein, chief film critic for "new york" magazine and contributor for cbs sunday morning. great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> thanks for your time again. we had you friday night. the boobs song, what did you make of that? >> you know, ed, it would be really easy for me to sit here and say that seth macfarlane stank up the screen. so i'll just say seth macfarlane stank up the screen and just leave it at that. the whole idea was it was supposed to be bad. it was supposed to be offensive. they were being ironic. they were being post modern. but somehow or other saying that your joke stinks and then

delivering it anyway and being surprised that nobody is laughing at it seems the ultimate in absurdity. >> it's a thankless job. you're in front of the most talented people this the world. how do you win doing a job like that? >> you know, i've liked some of them in the past. i thought jon stewart did a really nice job. parts of chris rock really good. there have been some highlights. but the seth macfarlane thing, he just could not -- he was all sniggery and juvenile. and i love sniggery and juvenile. the writers, this was third rate material they were doing. >> highlight of the night, streisand in my opinion. totally unexpected. it was that and the goldfinger. >> babs killed it. shirley bassey killed it. adele killed it. actually, i made a list of the things that i liked. oh, sorry, this is communists and harvard law school.

no, i made -- jennifer lawrence tripping on the stair, adorable, adorable. oh my god. shirley bassey, adele, babs, ben affleck when he won. he is fugue staked. the man actually entered another dimension. he thanked his wife for putting up him as a terrible husband. then he told the members of the academy he was not going to get revenge on them. whoever thought he was going to get revenge on them? i don't understand. >> best picture? >> best picture, we knew it was going to be "argo." we knew it was the pity vote. we knew he didn't get best director. and it glorified hollywood. it made hollywood people look heroic. >> spielberg didn't get a lot of love. >> a lot of spielberg hatred. i can't account for it at all. i thought he did a beautiful job on "lincoln," but i thought ang lee did a beautiful job with "life of pi" as well. everybody should rush to the heater to see "life of pi."

ang lee is a very charming fellow. christoph waltz was a surprise. wonderfully adorable as he splatters slave owners all over the screen. >> okay. the first lady. there have been -- it's not the first time a president or a first lady have appeared in an oscar. was this a hit? >> i loved michelle obama, and i thought this was really a horrible idea. it just felt wrong. it felt like another universe entering in there. i mean oscar -- movies are pretend. this was like -- i don't know. all the formality and the guards behind her. and it seemed creepy to me. and pairing her with jack nicholson? >> that was interesting. definitely gave him some cover. but quickly, would it have worked better obviously if she had been there? would it have worked if she was there? >> i don't think she should have been there. she doesn't belong there.