>> no! >> all right. that does it for "the cycle." martin bair, it's all yours. >> so right, krystal. good afternoon, tuesday, october the 1st. and having shut down the government once again, republicans are now running away from their signature achievement. ♪ get down get down ♪ the united states government ends. oh, it has been a hell of a ride. >> one faction of one party and one house of congress shut down major parts of the government. >> they'll say it was the mean old republicans. >> we will not go to congress. >> they demanded ransom just for doing their job. >> i talked to the president earlier tonight. i'm not going to negotiate. i'm not going to negotiate. >> we don't want to close the government down. we want fairness for all americans. >> people are probably going to realize they can live with a lot less government. >> this is not about me. >> that's not a game of chicken. that's an beep beep causing a hit on collision. >> put this in another way.

>> you get nothing! good day, sir. >> i sort of feel sorry for speaker boehner. >> we're in a dead end. >> this hard right tea party group. >> you put five red necks on a mower. >> i will not give into reckless demands to deny affordable health insurance to millions of hard-working americans. ♪ jungle boogie ♪ good afternoon. we begin on the first day of what is no ordinary october. the government is shutted. affordable care act and who burned the house down is very much in play. one day into the furlough of 800,000 workers, the halting of crucial services, the closure of museums and national parks, there are no signs of a resolution. in fact, we could be in this for the long haul. in just a couple hours, the republican controlled house will vote on three small funding bills to cover. the v.a. backlog.

operations in washington, d.c. and national parks. senate republicans say they may try the same approach. but senate democrats are already stating that they're not interested in piecemeal governance or government by crisis. earlier today, the senate for the fourth time rejected house republicans' latest attempt to damage and undermine the affordable care act as a ransom for funding the government. and shortly after the senate kicked the gop's latest spit ball back to the house, demanding a clean bill, speaker john boehner took to the floor, blaming the senate for refusing to entertain their latest bill of of magical thinking. >> my goodness, they won't even sit down and have a discussion about this. today our government has big problems. the only way these problems are going to be resolved, if we sit down amicably and keep the american people in mind and come to an agreement. >> keep the american people in

mind. you mean, like the american people who don't have health insurance and can get it for the first time today? what a novel idea. and shortly after mr. boehner's remarks, the president stepped into the rose garden to detail the real terms of this debacle. >> this republican shutdown did not have to happen. they have shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of americans. let me repeat. i will not negotiate over congress' responsibility to pay bills it's already racked up. nobody gets to hurt our economy and millions of hard-working families over a law you don't like. >> republicans, meanwhile, are sticking to the familiar territory of talking to themselves and to empty chairs. just before the president's remarks, the house gop took their so-called conference committee into a meeting with each other. and as you can see, they

represent a great diversity of views and backgrounds. a veritable rainbow nation there. some of them even have different colored ties. and you remember losing vice presidential candidate paul ryan? here he is with the big reveal that the shutdown's not the half of what they've got in mind. >> we have a debt limit coming. that debt limit is coming in about two weeks. most budget agreements in the past have always involved debt limit increases. we think that's the forcing mechanism. >> in other words, there could be even greater catastrophe to come. let's get right to nbc's kristen welker at the white house. kristen, the president was clearly keen to promote the benefits of the affordable care act. as the exchanges open this morning. but instead, he was forced to chastise republicans for failing to accept the -- by the way, he won re-election in november and refusing to accept the supreme court actually affirmed the law as constitutional.

>> that's right, martin. good afternoon. president obama with some strong words for republicans. you just played some of them. he labeled this the republican shutdown. you can expect to see more events like this. in fact, the white house already announcing that on thursday, president obama will speak at an area construction company where he will call on congress, congressional republicans, to reopen the government. i can tell you that the thinking here at the white house is that they are going to continue to dig in their heels, reiterate this point the president is just not going to negotiate over his health care law, his signature piece of legislation. they believe they have the upper hand, because republicans are divided and because right now the polls are on their side. one more point, martin. it's interesting to point out that that event is taking place on thursday, indicating that the white house does not see an easy solution to this. doesn't see this getting resolved overnight. >> absolutely. now, in the latest volley, kristen, the white house has rejected a house effort at a piecemeal approach to ending the shutdown. what can you tell bus that?

>> white house press secretary called that offer not serious. so that gives you an indication of just how far that latest offer is going to go. i think that it is possible that they might be able to find some common ground on some smaller measures, like scaling back the medical device tax. that's a possibility. the white house just isn't going to anything large like defunding the president's health care law. both sides continue to dig in their heels. >> nbc's kristen welker. thank you, kristen. right to our panel. in new york, msnbc contributor, joy reid, the managing editor of thegrio.com and jared bernstein, senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities. joy, i honestly didn't think that the miserable eric cantor could be anymore ludicrous than he was last week when he chastised the president for having the at the merty of a telephone conversation with his counterpart in iran.

now today we have him whining about the shutdown as if it's the president's fault. how did government by extortion become the moral high ground? >> well, you know what, we're dealing with a republican party that is a little schizophrenic right now. the base of the party in those districts were those 30 kamikaze pilots in the house gop live. >> you mean lemmings wearing suicide vests. >> exactly. in their districts, this is winning. this is great. this is how you stick it to obama and show him you can't, you know, shove the tyranny of giving people health insurance down the throats of the american people. >> absolutely. >> right? but where eric cantor lives, which is virginia, the governor's race coming out and you look at the three things they decided they wanted a mini fund. they're worried about veterans going wait a minute, this isn't a good idea back in their home state. d.c. operations, worried about the suburbs of virginia where a lot of these workers live where you've got a lot of suburban voters who they need, independent voters, worried about that, as well. and they're worried about sort of -- they don't want to own the

shutdown in the places where they have to still win crossover and middle of the road voters. but they want to really own the shutdown on right wing talk radio. >> of course. jared, we've even heard republicans today mock the potential impact of this government shutdown. but as i understand it, economists like yourself are warning that this shutdown will wipe at least $300 million off economic output each day, and that a three-week shutdown would slash as much as 1.4% off annualized growth. now, to me, that sounds like republicans could be pushing the nation back into recession if this carries on. is that right? >> certainly, if this were to morph into a breach of the debt ceiling, then we would have to put a negative sign in front of those gdp growth rates. we would be looking probably at something pretty recessionary. at this point, i think we're talking about something that is

not quite as bad, but is also quite inindividualous in the sense that you're talking about -- and the president articulated this. this is a recovery that is just starting to begin to gain some traction. we know that the gdp is expanding somewhere around 2, 2.5%. if you bring that down a half point or more, you're going to definitely offset whatever traction we have had about the unemployment rate recently, and it will start going up instead of going down. we're talking about furloughing 800,000 workers directly. and if this goes on -- >> but jared, speaker boehner every week says his caucus is concerned about jobs. you've just explained how this decision does nothing -- it actually does the reverse. it does the reverse. it's the opposite. >> there is absolutely no question in my mind -- having nothing to do with shutdown or default. you go back well before that, this congress has not been a positive in terms of jobs. they have been creating fiscal headwinds in this economy that's

one of the reasons why the job market recovery has been so slow. >> right. joy, the president today had to remind republicans what the affordable care act is actually about. take a listen to him. >> this is life or death stuff. tens of thousands of americans die each year, just because they don't have health insurance. millions more live with the fear that they'll go broke if they get sick. and today we begin to free millions of our fellow americans from that fear. >> so joy, it's not about death panels. i thought -- michele bachmann, congresswoman, told us that it's going to kill -- literally kill the elderly, women and children. >> right. unlike diseases that are untreated because you don't have health care. right? i mean, the thing that is so i guess maddening for people who are really sort of looking at this rationally is what is the principle that republicans are fighting for. when you get right down to it, the principle that they're willing to break and destroy the government, destroy the united states economy over is 30

million people being able to purchase health insurance at a discount. that is what we are destroying our economy over. not people getting free health insurance, uncle sam knocking on your door and handing you a welfare check full of insurance. no, people being able to purchase health insurance at a subsidized discount. that's what this is about. and that doesn't make sense, i think, to most people. and i think even republicans understand that doesn't make sense. that's why they're making all these grandiose arguments about oh, it's about fairness for the american people. no, it's about health insurance. >> that's what it is. jared, you and the vice president's senior economic adviser, and in the past, you know that joe biden has been able to resolve the impossible. but one imagines that even he would struggle to negotiate with people who literally stand there with a gun trained at his head. >> yeah. look, i think that the vice president would tell you that if he were able to sit down with the moderates on the other side of the aisle, they could hammer

something out, and they have done so in the past. the problem is, and it's actually a very serious problem going forward, is that essentially the patients are running the asylum. the moderates are checked out. and the question we have to ask ourselves is does this shutdown somehow sate -- the blood lust of the extremist wing such that the moderates, the grown ups come back on to the scene when we get to the debt ceiling. does john boehner say okay, you've had your fun now we have to pass responsible legislation along with democrats and moderates. that is possible. that could happen today, by the way. but as long as the moderate republicans are accompanying the extremists, we're stuck. >> the only good news to report is that a ku klux clan rally planned for this saturday in gettysburg has had to be cancelled, because the park is closed. so some good news in the shutdown. joy reid and jared bernstein, thank you much. how does one negotiate with

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the house republicans have spent most of the day trying to paint themselves as the adults in the room. the only people who have tried to act reasonably and responsibly. but their latest plot would appear to belie that image. in just a few hours, the house is expected to vote on a few less controversial budget resolutions, piecemeal, so as not to incur the anger of veterans or visitors to america's national parks. wait a minute. past budget items piecemeal. where have i heard that before? >> if harry reid kills this bill

in the senate, i think the house should hold its ground and should begin passing smaller continuing resolutions one department at a time. >> of course. today's marching orders came just over a week ago from the new speaker of the house, mr. ted cruz. joining us now is democratic congresswoman, karen bass of california. good afternoon, ma'am. >> good afternoon. >> i don't know why you're smiling, ma'am. i guess you're exasperated like almost every american. the president speaking in the rose garden a short time ago said that shutting down the government, in his words, is not worthy of this country. is it also not worthy, unworthy of republicans to introduce government by extortion, which is what they have proposed in every bill that was tabled yesterday? >> well, absolutely. that's exactly what they did. i was actually laughing, i'm not sure, i should be crying at the notion of speaker cruz. but i do think that's what you have. you have the republican caucus in such disarray that they're willing to follow anybody. and so the notion that we would

pass parts of government that they happen to like in a piece meal fashion, you know, we have women and children with the w.i.c. program who are not going to get food now. this is a very serious situation, and they are making light of it by trying to say we're going to now pass piecemeal bits of the budget. this is unacceptable. they also tried to do the same thing with the sequester, if you remember. >> i remember that very well, ma'am. it seems to be consistent for them. if it's meals on wheels or if it's a program involving food stamps, or if it's anything to do with the poor, that's fine. you can literally cast them aside without any consideration. >> yeah, but, you know, though, it is consistent with their ideology. and that's what i think is always so important. when we have these squirmishes like this, it's really important to look deeper as to why this is happening. the tea party, when they came here to congress, they came essentially to blow up government. because they don't believe that we should have a safety net in our country. which is why they only go after

parts of the government, and other parts they like. but you know what, you can't have it both ways. you said you wanted to shut the government down. you shut the government down. until the speaker is willing to be a speaker and put the senate bill on the floor and let it pass, and i do believe it would pass within ten minutes, i think putting this piecemeal strategy in place is absolutely ridiculous. >> to your point, reporters quoting their sources on the hill, variously estimate, it's really only about 30 republicans who are currently on this crusa crusa crusade. that begs the question, how is it possible that 30 republicans have more control of their party than the other roughly 200 republicans? >> well, i think from the beginning the speaker has refused to lead. he has allowed a faction of his caucus to really rule the day. and then you also have the outside forces. you have speaker rush limbaugh, you have the speaker from the heritage foundation. you have all of these different entities that are pressuring the

speaker to essentially allow a tiny faction to rule the day. and it's just a testament to his inability to lead. very sad. >> representative -- >> hurting the country. >> representative karen best, thank you. and i share your laughter at the idea that ted cruz is, in fact, the speaker of the house. >> terrifying. >> terrifying, but true. thank you. coming up, the world war ii vets who conquered the government shutdown today and you don't want to miss this. ♪ i gotcha uh-huh you thought i didn't see you now did you ♪ ♪ my name is mike and i quit smoking. chantix... it's a non-nicotine pill. i didn't want nicotine to give up nicotine. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. [ mike ] when i was taking the chantix, it reduced the urge to smoke. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior,

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he was a matted messiley in a small cage. ng day. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com over 800,000 federal employees furloughed. nearly every employee of the environmental protection agency sent home. nearly 400,000 defense

department civilian employees at home and not being paid. and if you want to take your family to visit a national park site, like 715,000 people do every day in the month of october, well, mr. president -- >> tourists will find every one of america's national parks and monuments from yosemite to the smithsonian to the statue of liberty immediately closed. >> but there's one generation of americans who don't just accept things without a fight. a group of nearly 100 worldwide war two vets who traveled all the way from mississippi to washington, d.c., world war ii memorial, were not going to let a sign stop them from paying tribute to their fallen brothers as part of the honor flight network. adding an element of the absurd, it was a member of the republican caucus, congressman steve king of iowa, who reportedly assisted the veterans to breach the security fence, and make their way to the memorial. for more now, i'm joined by nbc

news correspondent, luke russert. luke, all credit to these heroes. but does it not strike you as odd that republicans like steve king and john cornen are celebrating them and asking that niece these memorials opened despite the shutdown. and before you answer, luke, here is michele bachmann greeting the veterans and their families. take a listen to her. >> and america doesn't shut down. >> yes. >> should they really be able to pick and choose which services are affected by the shutdown? which they, after all, have provoked? >> it's especially odd, martin, considering you do have, without doubt, a sizeable amount of republicans in the house gop conference that would not -- not only want to have a clean government funding bill on the floor right now, but would spore it, within ten minutes. i guarantee that is to be true.

there are issues that we're not getting to any time soon. which is very interesting to hear, michele bachmann is somebody who actually was a champion of this whole movement of shutting down the government. >> of course! >> over the president's health care law. >> of course! >> so to see her out there celebrating. honestly, i'll be honest with you, martin. there are no words for that. there are no words for that. >> there are no words. it seems to me, luke, this is just the first in what will be hour to hour reminders of the shutdown's impact from now until it's resolved. so what will move them to act? possible cancellation of the navy air force football game this weekend? is that what's going to make them do something? >> what's interesting, martin, you've seen them trying to move forward now, keeping the national parks up, keeping the city of d.c. up and running and the v.a. backlogs, doing things optically, they think is beneficial to them, which would stop us from coming on tv and saying, oh, my god, the national parks are closed. >> do they think we're idiots. do they not see we can see the

cynicism of their obsession with -- >> the democrats will say you can't pick and choose which parts of government you have on. i don't think there is any single moment that will force them to act. the only thing that you can really see them moving on is if the public polling is more than that 72% number you showed, that gets so bad for them and the calls start coming in from their constituents that they honestly feel they need to move. but they're not calling the shots, martin. the outside groups are. heritage action, that's who the energy is in the republican party right now. those are the folks who want this shutdown to continue, as long as the president's health care law exists. >> okay. luke, we'll let you go back and chase the headless chicken, speaker john boehner. luke russ effort thank you so much. coming up, the man who compared his filibuster to the baton death march. so how does crow taste to a wacko bird? >> let me say to each of you, i

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building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. from talking points to sob stories here are today's top lines. no spin, please. >> mr. speaker, today is the first day of the republican shutdown of our government. >> i want a specific answer. no spin. >> okay. >> no talking points. >> i didn't come here to shut down the government. >> don't want to close the government down. >> president obama and harry reid are shutting down the government. >> reassertion of gop talking. >> i love it when a plan comes together. >> my reaction is that it's unnecessary. >> this is ridiculous. >> i am afraid that the american people, as they have in the past, will bring congress, ie.,

republicans. >> it's tough for us to win the merit. >> how dare you, how dare you presume a failure. >> no spin. >> okay. >> no talking points. >> i talked to the president -- >> the president -- >> the president -- >> the president will talk to syria. >> putin -- >> the russias, syrians. >> and that's just ridiculous. >> i am tired of negotiating with myself. >> if harry reid forces a shutdown. >> no spin. >> ted cruz wing of the party is driving this whole process. >> both of you did not support ted cruz in his effort last week. why? >> just have to say no. >> republicans are kind of missing an opportunity here. >> i don't want to be an accessory to a disastrous policy. >> friends have allowed the tea party coalition within their caucus to hijack our government and shut it down. >> but also we're missing the boat here on, again, the hysteria of government shutdown. >> causing harm to veterans and seniors and federal employees. >> matter of time before the republicans say we can't keep doing this. >> stopping the basic functions

of government. >> the sob stories are going to start coming out. you're going to have camera crews on veterans' counseling centers. >> the american people deserve better. >> i think the republicans are going to feel the heat more than the democrats. >> let's get right to our panel. joining us now is ben labolt, former president secretary for the president's re-election campaign. professor james peterson ofly high university and josh, we're delighted to have you, because you attended princeton at roughly the same time as mr. ted cruz. we may even have a picture, i believe, of you from those bright college years looking every inch the princeton man, quite magnificent hair there. slightly less now. >> much less now. >> you say that cruz is remembered by his classmates as, and i'm quoting you, a total raging a-hole. is that correct? >> yeah. you know, i -- i was in a small subset part of the university, and he was one year younger than me. and basically, everybody i

remember and know and many still in contact with, they all remember him. for some reason i either blacked it out or somehow didn't exactly cross paths. but after he started getting big in the news, i started kind of going back to people i knew and just saying, what do you remember about this guy? and one of them was my wife who not only was in his class at princeton, but was -- went on and they both went to harvard law school at the same time. they're both big fancy pants. >> of course. >> ask & virtually everybody i've talked to had some version of that response. almost to the word. >> and what was your wife's feeling about him? as an individual? similarly, raging a-hole? >> my wife's mellower than that. so she didn't quite say that. but it was consistent. >> with that thematic. ben, whatever else you might say about ted cruz, he is certainly profiting mightily from making speaker john boehner look so feckless, isn't he? >> at the expense of the american people. the fact is, he's capitalizing on the civil war in the republican party right now.

and he's winning it. there is a debate going on within the republican party between republicans who believe in small government, who you can negotiate with, and regular order to get things done. and this small minority led by senator cruz, who wants to shut down the government to relitigate the results of the 2012 election. and senator cruz is winning that debate right now. take a look at the numbers. if you look at the republican primary numbers for 2016, they've actually got senator cruz ahead right now. the problem with that is, support for the tea party nationally is at an all-time low while senator cruz and tea party's grip on the republican leadership in congress is at an all-time high. that's going to come to a head. >> let's not forget that her man contain once led that poll. we remember the last government shutdown, 19995-'96 under bill clinton. let's hear senator cruz's reflection. let's listen to him. >> what happened was

nonessential government services were temporarily suspended while the cr expired. now, that happens every single week on the weekend. on saturdays and sunday, we see temporary partial government shutdowns. and the world doesn't end. >> so there you go, professor. no big deal. it's just like a weekend. >> listen, he's not as ignorant as he sounds. i mean, he's playing a role here, and he's doing it to perfection. let's look at some of the facts and some of the data here. this shutdown is going to cost about $300 million a day over a billion dollars a week. you know, nasa is at 97% furlough. the department of education, 90% furlough. and the thing is, the longer we go into this, the worse it gets. our government is going to have to start to purchase its services and goods basically in retail instead of purchasing in bulk. and the cost of that is extraordinary. but cruz is playing a strong game mere. the talking points memo is great, because it shows how

sharp he is. but it's dangerous, as well. he's basically playing republican presidential politics ahead of the curve. you mentioned her man contain. when you look at herman cain and rick perry, those guys flamed out with the right wing madness during the campaign. he's doing that now so he will have those bona fides when he enters into the campaign in 2016. >> do you agree with that? >> i agree, but i'm not sure it's going to end up exactly that way. if you look back at really every president ever, certainly in modern history, the people who win, even the people who get nominated, are people who broad sections of the population can have a sense they're a good guy, a good -- you know, good -- hopefully in the future sometime, a good woman. and you don't get people who are generally known as a-holes who get nominated to the presidency. obviously, there is tremendous animus towards barack obama, tremendous animus towards george w. bush, but that was driven by the political factors, and, you know, in the political system. these were not people who by and

large people saw before they got into the, you know, political polarization like, wow, that guy is a raging jerk. >> yeah. >> and i think the thing is, you know -- i think as you just said, cruz is a really, really smart guy. and -- a lot of things he is saying right now he can't possibly believe in a narrow sense. i think his blind spot is his arrogance, frankly. and i'm not sure he's going to be able to pivot toward, you know, appealing to a broader electora electorate. could he win the gop nomination? possibly, just because -- just because of the tea party dominance. but i actually think that is unlikely. and i think it's -- i think someone like him, again, because of his temperament, let alone his politics, it would be extremely unlikely he would ever be like the president. >> ben, how does this fight with the republicans compare to the one that the president had with them back in 2011 over the debt

ceiling? you were involved at that point. how do you feel this is similar and how might it be different? >> well, i think the president has drawn a line in the sand here, and said i'm not going to negotiate over the results of the 2012 election. the american people have come to a decision on that. we litigated obama care during the 2012 election. they made absolutely clear they don't support the repeal of it. there was a time to debate defunding obama care and that was the 2012 election. mitt romney and the republicans lost the debate. the supreme court has taken a look at the law and said its constitutional. and i think americans have seen a split screen today of millions of people going to the health care exchanges to check them out and consider enrolling. >> around 3 million people, no less. >> exactly. with republicans shutting down the government over nothing, but an ideological agenda. 3 to 1 americans oppose oh what the republicans have done. and they're on a very short timetable to resolve this before

tempers flair. there are 800,000 people who have been furloughed today. >> yeah. ben labolt, professor james peterson. i wish we all had more time. but thank you. coming up, the facts and fiction of the affordable care act. just give me some truth. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment.

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you make him rookie of the year. we took care of your cold symptoms. you take him on an adventure. tylenol® has been the number 1 doctor recommended brand of pain reliever for over 20 years. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. do you agree with the affordable care act or obama care? >> the affordable. >> and why do you prefer the affordable care act over obama care? >> i just don't agree with the whole obama care policy they think that's going on. i just don't agree with it. >> what plan do you support? obama care or the affordable care act? >> the affordable care act. >> the affordable care act. but as you can see from those clips, there's more than a little confusion when it comes to this new law, which opened for enrollment earlier today. and much of this

ideolol opponents of the law have spent the last few months purposely misleading and misinforming the public. and in some cases, even going so far as to prevent people from getting the correct information they need to sign up. however, as the president said this afternoon, the affordable care act is the law of the land, and it's not going anywhere. >> the affordable care act is a law that passed the house, it passed the senate, the supreme court ruled constitutional. it was a central issue in last years election. it is settled and it is here to stay. >> and here to clear up some of the misinformation is one of the finest minds we could find, msnbc policy analyst, ezra klein. good afternoon, ezra. i want to start with the most basic, which is that between 40 and 55 million americans do not have access to health insurance. with the federal and state exchanges opening today, will those people be able to get more affordable coverage than they've

ever been able to get before? is that true or is that not true? >> a lot of them will be and some of them won't be. we expect the affordable care act, if you listen to the congressional budget office, we expect the affordable care act to cover about 25 million of the uninsured over the next decade. now that leaves you -- you know, about 30 million, a little less, a little more, who are still going to be uninsured. some of those folks could get coverage. could get in many cases free coverage through the affordable care act. some of them live in states where the republican governor has refused to expand medicaid and so they could get free coverage from the affordable care act but the governor will not allow them to or the state legislature will not allow them to. >> thank you. >> some are not documented residents so they're not eligible. some won't find insurance affordable for one reason or another or will choose to go without it by paying the individual mandate. but for 25 and a certain number more than that, even, they have the ability, if they choose to use it, to get much of more subsidized, much more affordable, much more secure insurance than they have ever

had before. >> okay. that's an excellent answer. now, ezra, given that the deficit issue appears to have evaporated from republican talking points, is it fair to conclude that this shutdown battle coincides perfectly for republicans with their desire to injure the implementation of this law and there be hope that it fails? >> this has been 100% the entire shutdown and debt ceiling demands, with injuring and undermining the affordable care act, as much as the strategy and efforts have been the last year. as you say, as the deficit issue has reseeded in american politics, in parts because it's dropping so quickly, the deficit, the one thing that truly unifies our republican party today is opposition to the affordable care ability. and today has been an extraordinary juxtaposition. the government shutting down because of anger at the affordable care act. on the other hand, across the country, these marketplaces, these insurance marketplaces, have opened up, and they're all

i don't know line, basically. and they have crashed under the traffic of people trying to access them and looking into whether or not they can get better health insurance. so on the one hand, you have republicans shutting down the government, to stop something that is proving so -- people are proving so desperate for that the servers can't even handle the load. >> yes, absolutely. and we have a figure of around 3 million people just today seeking to get access. i want to get into a few more myths and misinformation that's being put out there. there's this argument from republicans that because the president delayed the mandate for employers, that he also should delay the individual mandate. but as you know, and i wonder if you can make this clear to us, ezra. these are not really equal aspects of the law, are they? >> no. this is a really bizarre analogy. look, the employer mandate was something that was first published in part by republican senator, olympia snow. the white house didn't like the way it ended up. nobody liked the way it ended

up. it was creating a lot of problems for the law. because it created problems for employers who are on the bubble of it, and they might end up cutting worker hours. and it had almost nothing to do with coverage. it might -- it might, if you believe -- if you really believe it would work, end up with a couple hundred thousand more people covered. that was it. it was a very small piece. and when they killed it, what they did, or when they delayed it, rather, they ended up taking away a lot of promise for the law without hurting the affordability or really hurting coverage at all. the individual mankato owe the individual mandate is central to the law. if you took it out, you would deprive 11 million to 14 million people of health insurance. every marketplace would see insurance premiums go up. you would take apart the entire law. they're completely noncomparable. >> washington post ezra klein as i said earlier, brilliant. thank you so much. coming up, the house republicans say the senate democrats are to blame. we'll welcome a senate democrat for his response. stay with us. [ female announcer ] when it comes to your smile,

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there are a lot of areas that we do have agreement. but, again, i point to you and note that this table is empty on the other side, and we need the senate democrats to come join us. >> the one thing you did not see in that clip of eric cantor is he nor any other republican holding their breath that cheap optics can overcome the drubbing they're taking in the polls. here for his perspective from the senate is democrat richard blumenthal of connecticut. welcome, sir. >> thank you, martin. >> at this very moment, your friends in the house are discussing the possibility of a piece meal approach to resolving this government shutdown. we've heard that they want to table the idea of the v.a. backlog, d.c. operations and national parks, for them to remain open and functioning. i guess the question they have for you, sir, as a senator is do you agree to a piece meal

approach to stop this overwhelming shutdown of government? >> what there has to be, really, is more than a piecemeal approach. a straight forward, simple resolution to keep the whole government operating, rather than picking and choosing which functions should be continued or not. the harm to the economy and job growth is cumulative, day after day. and should be avoided. not to mention vital services that they may not include in that piecemeal approach. and we simply cannot agree to this kind of hostage-taking tactic. we've compromised. those funding levels in the resolution are below what i wanted to see what many of us democrats wanted to see. we have reached a compromise number. let's not do the hostage-taking tactics that they have foisted on the american people. >> so we have seen them -- we see them now at this moment in the house. and they've also tried this kind of empty chair oppose oh particulars during another fight in 2011 over the payroll tax

holiday. why do they think that the same fights that led to their defeat last year is somehow going to win them seats in congress next year? >> i honestly have trouble getting inside the heads of some of our tea party extremists, idealogues in the house of representatives. i think that one explanation is that shutting down government is part of their agenda. they simply are on this kind of anarchist agenda that dislikes government and many of its functions, and this effort fulfills it. but the bottom line here is that we really need to deal with the keeping open of government. john boehner, the speaker of the house, has the key that would unlock this process, reopen government, all of it, in a matter of hours. >> senator, he can't find the key. senator, the key was stolen off him by ted cruz.

he is still looking for it. he can't find it. >> well, it's right under his nose. it's members of his own caucus. his own conference, who want the him to use that key. they're willing to vote. literally, today. and you've heard them. >> i have. now, sir, i would like you to hear what the president said about the impact on the economy. take a listen to the president. >> what's weighing on the economy is not the affordable care act, but the constant series of crises and the unwillingness to pass a reasonable budget by a faction of the republican party. >> and not only is that the case, sir, but we know that an estimate -- economists are now suggesting the economic output will wipe off something like $300 million of gains a day, a day, if this is allowed to continue. i mean, how long are your republican friends prepared to see the economy, which as we know, is only recovering very slowly. how long do you think your friends in the house are happy to see this go on for? >> this economic recovery is

very fragile. we see it in the state of connecticut, where we will lose hundreds of jobs just in a matter of days as a result of the shutdown. the uncertainty, the inability to plan for the future and invest. and if it's longer than a few days, a month or two, we will lose 2 million jobs. that's one of the recent estimates by an economist at the university of connecticut. so markxan degree, moody lan particulars, says a couple percentage points or 1.5 percentage points off his prong projection of national economic growth. these are real-life consequences and we can debate whether or not the obama care affordable care act can be improved and strengthened. but it ought not to be in the context of hostage-taking demands. >> senator blumenthal, thank you so much for joining us, sir. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. rveyy you're home" dance? that's real love. and so is giving him real tasty food. now there's new so good! dog food from iams. some leading brands

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