it changing sething for the better. i know there's been an improvement. my pearly whites, they feel really good. [ male announcer ] go pro. with the brand you can trust, crest pro-health. i really wish we could keep the debate here in the realm of reality. >> now is the time since everyone's in town to pick up the phone, to work together and to solve the problem. >> today is day five of the shutdown created by the tea party extremists who are harming our country by holding our government hostage. >> we'll continue to be here this weekend. we'll continue to wait for any indication from the majority leader in the senate or the white house that they are willing to sit down and talk with us so we can relieve the pain on the american people and end this shutdown. >> so, congress is working through the weekend, right? but are we any closer to a deal? good saturday afternoon.

i'm craig melvin. you're watching msnbc. day five of the government shutdown, the house has just passed another piecemeal bill to pay furloughed workers once the government reopens. while there's still no end in sight to the stalemate, the blame game seems to be intensifying. we're live on capitol hill. >> do you feel responsible for what's been happening to people? >> look, i think it is indefensible that president obama and harry reid have forced a government shutdown. they shouldn't have shutdown the government. >> i didn't go around courting the media. and i certainly didn't go around trying to shut down the government. >> we're not going to let a federal government shutdown have an impact on our preparedness in the state of florida. >> so there's no light between us and the federal government. >> i am strongly, strongly against common core. >> it has increased my ability to reach more students. >> tropical storm karen, the system weakens as it closes in on the gulf coast.

we're live with the latest advisory released just seconds ago. also, students and teachers caught in a political tug of war nationwide over standard. what is common core and why do folks seem to hate it so much. we're going to talk to a father who's daughter's homework is overwhe overwhelming. and who was among the bikers who attack e tacked a new york city driver this as police search for a new suspect. and drinking smart, how stopping drunk driving could be as simple as using a smartphone. it's today's big idea. a whole heck of a lot to get to, but we start with developing news out of the pentagon where later today defense secretary chuck hagel will order more than 300,000 furloughed civilian employees back to work. they're going to be called back to their jobs despite the ongoing shutdown.

let's get right to capitol hill with nbc's luke russert who is standing by. luke, first of all, what does this mean? and what's behind the pentagon's decision? >> reporter: well, this is significant, craig, because as you know last week one of the few things the house and senate were able to do in a bipartisan manner and get signed by the president of the united states was during the government shutdown all folks who are in the united states military, all the troops, would be paid included in that legislation is also the civilian contractors who often work hand-in-hand with those troops who often are next to them in some capacity out in the field or back here in washington, d.c. so this is something that republicans had said needed to happen more quickly. and in fact this is now occurring and the pentagon has o okayed this, they said their lawyers viewed the legislation if it extended to paying the troops, it could be extended to paying these employees as well and calls them back.

this actually does lessen some of the impact of the shutdown on the nation's national security. remember, craig, essential people were included to be able to continue to do their work, but to add these folks behind as one member told me this makes sure the whole apparatus is up and running quite smoothly. >> how much of this is political? >> it depends who you ask. if you talk to republicans, they say that this was done by the administration, that it should have been done more quickly, that they had been dragging their heels. if you talk to democrats, they say, look, you had to look at how this was going to play out legally, whether or not this would apply to all those civilian contractors and whatnot. so it depends who you ask, craig. but this is one of those things where any time there's a delay, if congress feels that they have done their job that it's been passing the law and there's a delay, they're wondering why there's a hold up. through the fault of the president of the united states. >> before i let you get out of here, let's talk about florida's dennis ross.

according to bloomberg a few hours ago, he has become the first tea party backed congressman who now says he would be willing to support a clear cr spending bill that does not include changes to obama care. he says he'd be amenable to supporting this to open the government, "we've lost the cr battle, we need to move on and take whatever we can find in the debt limit." how significant is this, luke? >> reporter: this is a pretty big deal, craig. i won't say dennis ross is in the house gop leadership by any means, but he is a very conservative member of congress. he has a 96 rating from the american conservative union. he's not a moderate. he's not a member of the tea party caucus but certainly benefitted by grass root support. for someone like him to come out and say, look, this government shutdown fight we're having right now over government funding over the president's health care law is pointless, it's a waste of time. we should move on to the debt limit, is very significant. this is not some moderate

republican congressman from pennsylvania. this guy comes from a very conservative area of florida. he's a red-blooded southern republican as they come. and for him to say this, i think it doesn't resonate for someone as it did in the gop leadership saying it, but it certainly speaks volumes you're starting to see the splinter within the house gop conference that maybe we shouldn't keep going on this all the way to october 17th. maybe we should just quit this one and try and put everything in the debt limit. which is interestingly enough what john boehner wanted to do two months ago. his entire strategy was to avoid this. they're deep in a hole. >> luke, we'll come back to you later in the broadcast. thank you, sir. the war of words, president obama in a new interview with the associated press kept the pressure on republicans to end the shutdown. >> we can vote to open the government today. we know that there are enough

members of the house of representatives, democrats and republicans, who are prepared to vote to reopen the government today. the only thing that is keeping that from happening is -- >> i want to bring in jonathan allen, senior washington correspondent for politico, and also political reporter at "the washington post." this is a rare treat. good to see you. jonathan, let me start with you, sir. no sign in that interview that the president is considering backing down. what's his strategy at this point? >> well, let me first wish you a happy anniversary upcoming, craig. i hope you got a nice gift for your wife. >> thank you, sir. >> i would call because it's my birthday. but, look, i think this strategy of the president has been clear all along. he's not going to negotiate with the republicans. i think the white house let slip in a gaffe, which is often defined as saying something that you truly believe that you wouldn't normally want to say publicly when senior

administration officials said to the "the wall street journal" we're winning. i think the democrats believe to the extent that anybody is winning it's them right now. so i think the strategy for the president is to continue to say he won't negotiate publicly and to say he won't negotiate privately. i think the idea here is to break the republicans and to break john boehner, the speaker of the house. i don't see any movement on that at the white house. there doesn't seem to be any urgency to stop the government shutdown there. >> jamal, you wrote recently that for the republicans "this was a huge miscalculation, americans are ambivalent about the president's health care law, yes, but they don't want it repealed. and they overwhelmingly oppose the gop's decision to shut down the government over its funding." we just reported on dennis ross of florida at the top of the broadcast here. do you see any signs that the republican line is starting to crack? >> i don't see any signs of the republican going to crack. there are a few republicans here and there who think they should

get this over with and move away and essentially surrender. but my sense is that a good chunk of at least the republicans who are driving this, the tea party republicans in the house, still very much think that things are on their side, that they can use this as leverage -- >> based on what? why would they think that? i mean, i'm sure they've seen the polls that are out there. why would they think that? >> so i think they think that because in the past say the 2011 debt ceiling fight or the fight over the fiscal cliff, the prospect of something terrible happening to the economy was enough to get president obama to make concessions. i think what they're missing about this particular instance is that it's no longer about the particular policy that they want. it's that the white house and the president sincerely believe that if they were to concede anything they would be fundamentally changing the constitutional order and creating a situation for future presidents where you can create crises that you couldn't win in

the normal course of politics. >> jackie, both sides have dug in their heels. that's glaringly obvious. what's the way out? how do we get out of this mess? >> one of the ways out is that boehner could bring this cr -- the clean cr to the floor. there are enough members in both parties to support this and get it through. however, to do that it would be politically very perilous for him to do that particularly because his conservative tea party members are hearing good things from their district about this. they don't like the government to begin with. so they're cheering some of their members on. so they're not necessarily feeling the political heat that maybe someone like charlie dent from pennsylvania with a more moderate district is feeling from his people. so it's very different regionally. of course the republican brand in general, the national brand. >> yeah. >> might have a problem. but district by district is not necessarily the case. >> jonathan, you write this morning "the solution to the shutdown should be pretty simple, democrats and the small band of house republicans could outvote boehner on the floor and

pass a clean funding bill, but so far no one is moving to make it happen." you make it sound fairly simple. is it that simple? is it simple, something that the government just can't do? >> it's that simple procedurally. it's not that simple politically. what you've got right now is a group of 18, 20, maybe 22 house republicans who have said publicly that they would vote for a clean cr, but they're not doing it when they've been given the opportunity to do that on the house floor. that is to say boehner's not bringing up the bill to do that, but nkts if they use procedural votes that would allow for that to happen, they have the power to -- it gets complicated in types of votes, but motion to previous question votes, the republicans right now are in a comfortable spot. they are declaring that they would vote for the cr, but they're not actually doing it. and so once they make the decision that they're willing to buck their leader, john boehner, they could do it. but they still won't do it for the reasons that some folks have brought up in this interview

which is that it's harmful to john boehner for them to do that. perhaps for them politically in their own district. >> jackie, how long is this going to last? how much longer is this shutdown going to go? >> i've learned not to predict these things. the conventional wisdom is that if this lasted a week, if it lasted two, it could go on for a very long time. if it was going to be short, it would have been short been two days and gotten back on track. right now seems like both sides are dug in for the long haul. depends on when the phones start ringing and people really start getting upset. >> we'll talk about that later. jackie kucinich and happy birthday to jonathan allen as well from politico. good to see all of you. >> take care. folks, we're also keeping a very close eye on tropical storm karen. at this hour we have a brand new weather advisory. i want to get straight to msnbc meteorologist bill karins for the latest. >> now, typically you'd be like

what's that mean, but conditions just aren't favorable for this one. it's literally just drifting now to the north. it's about 177 miles from new orleans. it's really not that far away. the winds are at 40 miles per hour. it's a very weak system. the radar's not very impressive. there's been some squalls that have gone through areas of louisiana, but no damage is really expected with this storm. and the forecast path just does bring it right along the gulf. i mean, if this had been a strong hurricane with this path, we would have been talking about extreme damage all the way from louisiana to florida, but not this time. we dpot lucky. as far as last night we didn't get lucky. we had horrible tornadoes go through areas right at the border of nebraska and iowa. and some of these, craig, were huge. some were about one to two miles wide. i mean, we got lucky for the most part they stayed over rural areas. the town of wayne, nebraska, did get hit. the outskirts of the town about $2 million worth of damage there. as far as we didn't have any fatalities which was amazing because these were the type of storms that they went through a city we would have been talking dozens of dozens upon fatalities and injuries.

that's good. worries we have today, that same big storm which by the way dumped 31 inches of snow in rapid city, south dakota. is firing up some storms. it's not a pretty day right now from indianapolis and st. louis. strong storms heading your way. it's a weird map, craig. we're 90 today in washington, d.c. 90 degrees. ever since the government shutdown it's like someone turned the furnace up. >> that's god's way. >> and we've been very lucky, craig. with the government shutdown we didn't need a big destructive catastrophe in the gulf. we've avoided it. >> bill, thank you, sir. appreciate that. day five of the government shutdown. and who's calling the shots for the gop? word is it's senator ted cruz, not speaker boehner in the house. we're going to ask republican congressman joe barton about that. he's a member of the tea party caucus. also, searching for answers. a family questioning if capitol police used excessive force thursday. and sound asleep, an eye opening sight this week on the house

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well, we continue to cover the government shutdown of course. there are some other top stories we are keeping our eye on. miriam carey's sisters are questioning the capitol police's tactics the other day. carey is the unarmed woman shot and killed after a high-speed chase. >> my sister could have been any woman or any person traveling in our capitol. deadly physical force was not the ultimate recourse. and it didn't have to be. >> we are also learning more about carey this afternoon. her boyfriend apparently contacted police in december and said he was worried about their child's safety. he also said that carey was acting delusional claiming

president obama had placed stamford, connecticut, under lockdown and that her house was under electronic surveillance. meanwhile today, new york police are asking for the public's help in identifying and locating this person of interest. he's wanted for questioning in connection with that motorcycle attack sunday when a man was pulled from his suv and beaten after that suv hit one of the bikers. one person was arrested and charged friday. we're also learning that as many as six undercover cops were in that bike pack. police are now investigating whether any of the officers were involved in the beating. the latest fight in washington is not merely between democrats and republicans. the conservative tea party caucus is playing a strong role in how the negotiations do or do not move forward. this morning on the house floor one democrat begged, begged for some stability from the other side. >> there's apparently a wall between the tea party republicans and the mainstream

republicans who would like to move this country forward. mr. speaker, tear down that wall. >> so, what is the tea party's next move? what's the gop's next move? joining me live now veteran republican texas congressman joe barton, a member of the tea party caucus. congressman, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> there seems to be a little bit of confusion about who's actually calling the shots in the gop right now in the house specifically. this quote is on the front page of "new york times" today, asked what the house was doing, representative deafen nunes, republican of california, you really have to call cruz. i'm not even joking about that. that's really what you have to do because he's the one who set up the strategy. he's the one that got us into this mess. so we've got to know what the next move is. so who really is calling the shots here, congressman? is it speaker boehner or texas senator ted cruz? >> well, first of all, i am a tea party congressman, so i are

one so to speak. and i don't think there's any wall in the house between devin nunes and me. we're both on the same side. we don't like obama care. we don't like excessive government. and we don't like excessive spending. as for ted cruz, he's my senator, he's a friend of mine. i had lunch with him this past thursday. he does compliment the house of representatives and the republican majority on what we're doing. >> is he calling the shots? >> he is not calling the shots. >> who's calling the shots? >> i think president obama's calling the shots. >> he's calling the shots in the house? >> by refusing to negotiate. we keep -- we want to go to conference with the senate, we passed these bills that don't even get taken up in the senate by majority leader reid. the president said he'll negotiate with terrorists overseas, but he won't negotiate with speaker boehner. >> congressman, i knew you were going to try to out that talking point at some point in this interview. >> that's not a talking point. >> it's a total talking point. it's a talking point you've been

using for five days. >> well then talk to us. have the president talk to us. >> i want to play a snip-it for our audience. this is you on the house floor maybe an hour or two ago. take a listen. >> i would ask my friends on the minority side if obama care is so great, why does it have to be mandatory? let's make it voluntary. republicans happen to support many of the things in it. >> congressman -- >> i think that's a good idea. let's try it for a year. >> of course you do. you just said it an hour and a half ago. >> i agree with myself. >> is continuing to talk about obama care and continuing to use all your time on the floor, is that really the most effective use of time right now? >> well, you listened to me. i mean, you just ran the clip. but i think -- let's let the people choose for a year. >> but the people have chosen. >> if it's as great -- no, the people didn't choose.

it passed by one vote when the democrats and majority in the house. >> congressman -- >> and the senate three years ago. >> the house represents the people at last check. the house voted for it. the president signed it. >> i didn't vote for it. >> the supreme court signed off on it. >> on a five-to-four vote that's very questionable. >> the supreme court signs off on it, that was largely seen as a referendum on obama care. at what point do you stop this silly game? >> first of all, i don't think governor romney made obama care a key part of his presidential campaign. >> what campaign were you looking at? like what campaign were you watching? >> you know, let's try it for a year on a voluntary basis and see. let the american people choose. if it's really good, the democrat -- like the democrats say it is, the people will choose it and it will work. if it's really bad like

republicans like myself say we'll come back next year and determine how to repeal it or fix it. i don't see anything wrong with that. >> congressman, there's a quinnipiac poll out right now shows american voters disapprove 74 to 17% of the jobs of republicans in congress doing lowest score ever in that particular poll. there's a cbs poll out now 44% of americans blame republicans in congress for shutting down the government compared to 35% blaming democrats. is it fair to say that you don't really care about these numbers because you're one of the many republicans in congress that's in a pretty safe district? this could go on for four or five weeks and wouldn't really affect you at all politically, is that accurate? >> that's not accurate. i care about this country. i want it to succeed. i think the huge fight we really need to be fighting is on the debt ceiling. you know, i don't want to see a debt that's 200% of gdp. but in terms of listening to my constituents, the people in the sixth district of texas almost

universally, not quite universally, but almost were very supportive of the fight they were having here in washington. they want to see obama care replaced or repealed. they want to see federal spending come down. >> but they don't want to see the federal government open for business. >> no. i wouldn't say that. but they understand if when you have these kind of watershed moments -- >> this is a watershed moment you guys have created. it didn't have to be a watershed moment. >> no, sir. no republican voted for obama care in the house. and no republican voted for obama care in the senate. >> congressman, you continue to talk about obama care. are you aware that the program itself was rolled out just a few days ago? >> i'm aware that in certain parts of the country where the exchanges are actually operational that some people have been able to apply and apparently some people have enrolled. >> and you think that it's reasonable to expect that the senate and that the president of the united states would in any

way, shape or form repeal obama care, adjust obama -- this is something that you really believe in your heart of hearts? >> i don't believe obama care as it is a law will ever really work. >> that's not the issue, congressman. >> that is the issue. >> no, that's not the issue right now. the issue right now is reopening the government. that's the issue and you know that. you know that. >> well, but parts of obama care are part of the continuing resolution. skbl congressman, thanks so much for your time. i always appreciate it when i can get folks on who will talk about the issues. i appreciate you doing some of that. congressman barton. >> i appreciate your interview, sir. >> from texas. how is the shutdown affecting you? and do you have a message for congress? you can use #don'tshutmedown. we're going to show you some of your tweets throughout the show. you're watching msnbc.

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and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums! sitting congressman caught sleeping on the job. north carolina congressman george holden caught on camera right there earlier this week eyes closed. at one point his head's in his hands. during texas congressman gomer's speech. he woke up. looks right at the camera. he is a freshman after all. meanwhile, former secretary of state weighing in on the shutdown. clinton spoke at hamilton college in upstate new york friday night. she said members of congress are damaging the country to advance their own agendas. >> i know we've had plenty of partisan combat in the past. i've lived through my share of it. but it is hard to recall in our own lifetimes a previous time

when politicians were willing to risk so much damage to the country to pursue their own agendas. >> president obama and vice president joe biden went for a stroll friday. the president stopped at a d.c. deli where he grabbed a couple sandwiches and talked about the government shutdown. the scene left many die-hard west wing fans with a case of deja vu. >> i say we walk the rest of the way. >> yes, sir. >> assault team deploy east. i need two positions on pennsylvania. how that feels. copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. you know, spiriva helps me breathe easier.

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students will be able to read at college or career-ready level by the end of high school. language and speaking is also covered. students should be able to use formal english and converse in one-on-one or group settings. and math as well building a solid foundation on number concepts in kindergarten through fifth grade. and in middle and high school, hands-on learning of algebra and geometry, but the program has become mired in politics. at andrew academy in indianapolis. >> what numbers are we going to divide -- >> this is the second year she's used common core standards to teach her sixth graders. she's a fan. >> it has increased my ability to reach more students and be able to teach them different strategies for math. >> in 2010, the national governor's association and state school officers created the set of standards designed to improve performance at reading, writing and math nationwide. the new guidelines would also

make sure students in south carolina would learn the same thing as those in oregon. teachers unions and the u.s. chamber of commerce applaud it. 45 states and d.c. jumped onboard. but that rare bipartisan push for reform has become another political fight. >> i'm strongly, strongly against common core. >> at town halls across the country voters are speaking out and lawmakers are listening. >> there's a very big concern of federal encroachment into education. >> scott snyder is a state senator in indiana who wants to see common core go away altogether. and he's not alone. common core opponents in 15 states including indiana have introduced legislation this year to stop or slow down implementation. >> this has become a real rallying cry. and it has become a very effective organizing tool for some of these groups on the right. >> mieblgs petrilli is with a think tank that supports common

core. he claims the opposition caught fire because president obama helped light the match. >> four years ago we started race to the top. the competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards. >> this was what really hurt president obama took credit for these standards. >> now a multimillion dollar push is onto save the standards. >> let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. >> exxon mobile released this ad in dozens of top ceos met recently to galvanize support. the bill and melinda gates foundation already spent $100 million promoting plans to spend more. but in some places it may be too late. >> the more information that's coming out to me it's clear that indiana i think is ready to move on. >> not seria walter. >> there are people out there that don't have the actual experience in the classroom that is making these assumptions and these opinions about common

core. >> meanwhile, her students and millions of others are now caught in the middle of a political tug of war. steven crashen is emeritus professor of education of the university of southern california. dennis van roek el is the president of the national education association, the nation's largest teachers union. good to see both of you. dennis, let me start with you. why are we seeing so much opposition to common core? >> you know, it really confuses me. i think the standards are -- they're well-written, there are fewer than they were and they're so important. when people are opposed the first question i want to ask is have you read them. secondly, if you read them, is there something in there that shouldn't be in there? or is there something missing? and the last question i want to ask is if you don't want common standards for all of our students so they know what's expected of them, what's your alternative? do you believe that 50 different sets of standards in 50 states is somehow better for students? i doept. >> steven, is your opposition to the standards to the idea of a

national standard, or is your opposition to these particular standard? >> my opposition is to both. >> okay. >> the common core standards in my opinion are a bad solution to a nonexistent problem. the idea comes from the false claim that our schools are broken, our kids aren't doing well in school, our teachers are no good, et cetera, et cetera. and this is based on international test scores. when you look at the scores, if you control for poverty, we look very good. we're right up there at the top with all the other countries. what the studies show is that poverty is the biggest problem. and dennis knows about this, one out of four of our children lives in poverty. and children who live in poverty, this means lack of nutrition. it means lack of health care. it means lack of access to books. you can have the best teaching in the world, but it's not going to help when children are hungry, they're not well, they can't see the board, their teeth hurt, et cetera. this comes first.

>> dennis, that's a very interesting take. that's not a take that i've heard before. the assertion there essentially being that this is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. >> well, i believe it's a solution to a problem but is often misstated by some on the right. i agree to say our system is broken because kids who live in poverty aren't doing well. that's not the blame. poverty has real impact on kids. and i agree with steven, we need to invest and change in that. i also believe that this whole testing mania has not helped education. it has hurt education. it's narrowed the curriculum. it's labeled teachers, students, schools, but i don't believe -- i reject the theory that we can't have good standards and good assessments. the idea that somehow if we have good solid standards that that somehow causes bad assessments, i don't believe that is true. it's not a cause and effect. i believe what we ought to have are good solid standards so all

students know what they need to be able to do. and i think we can build good assessments and provide good information to students, to teachers and to parents, not to some test maker. >> steven, again, your assessment a few moments ago, again, is something i really hadn't heard before so i'm somewhat taken aback by it. but what's wrong with common core being used in addition to some of the other things that many school districts around this country are trying to try and bridge the chasm that exists that we know exists because of the undeniable relationship between poverty and achievement? >> i'm in favor of standards. >> okay. >> but i'd like to have standards that have been tested, that we've done some research on. these standards, are -- my colleague describes it as an untested curriculum coupled with nonstop testing. standards have to be enforced by tests. we are now planning more testing than has ever been seen on planet earth.

about 20 times increase over no child left behind. the billions we're going to spend on testing and a lot of that is because it's going to be administered online, which means enormous costs to make sure all children are connected with computers, that the computers are updated. this money should first go to protecting children from poverty. once again, food, health care, libraries, that comes first. >> steven crashen from the university of southern california, dennis from the nea, i so wish we had more time to dig into this a bit more. we'll have to get you back. thank you so much, both of you thank you so much for your time. we will be right back. [ female announcer ] you walk into your laundry room,

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starting at 49 dollars. there's a new device to keep drunk drivers off the roads, and it is today's big idea. more than 9800 people died in drunk driving related crashes in 2011. that's one person every 53 minutes. and get this, on average one in three folks will be involved in a drunk driving crash over the course of their lifetime.

but one company has now created a tool that hopes, hopes to bring those numbers down. charles michael yen is the founder and ceo of breathometer. it turns your smartphone into a breathalyzers helping drivers keep track of how much they're drinking. charles, good to see you. >> good to see you too. >> how does this work in the simplest terms? >> sure. it's a basic device. basically the size of a key fob. plugs into the audio jack of your smartphone. so you can do just like so. takes a few seconds for the app to go ahead and activate the sensor, you can breathe into the device like so and within seconds you'll actually know what your breath alcohol level is. >> really? >> it's pretty simple. >> and how did you come up with this? don't tell me a dui. >> no, not at all. i have a clean record. i basically have always kind of geared towards the kind of more cautious side of had a couple breathalyzers when i was in college. it's much more of a career saver than anything, right.

playing it safe and making sure you're making responsible decisions, but it donned on me when i was with a few colleagues drinks and i thought since i have a background in mobile development why couldn't i convert my smartphone into a breathalyzer by attaching an actual sensor device to my smartphone. so i was able to prototype the device within a few months and now you actually have what is an actual device that you can use. we'll be drop shipping in about three weeks. >> how much does it cost? >> it's only $49. you can actually go to our site, breathometer.com to preorder the device. we start drop shipping the device in just a few weeks. >> what other services does it provide besides just the breathalyzer? >> sure. so there's two other things. we have a feature called what's backed zero. so it can basically estimate how long it will take you to essentially sober up back to zero breath alcohol level. so that's pretty neat. and lastly if need be if you're over the legal limit, you can push a button in the app and you can actually hale a cab within a

matter of seconds since the gps on the smartphone knows exactly where you are. >> how concerned are you that there might be some clever college kid out there that might turn this into a new way to compete while they binge drink? >> sure. first and foremost we promote and encourage making smart and safer decisions. that's kind of the culture we want to provide with breathometer. second of all, we've actually capped the reading to .20. if in fact hypothetically a college student wanted to use it for gamification purposes, we obviously go ahead and thwart that by capping the reading. >> gamification, you just also introduced me to a new word. breathometer, and, again, we generally don't like to use our segment here, the big idea segment to promote products and businesses, but we came across this one and we really thought, well, this is something that's fascinating. we should note there are other products out there like this one, right? >> no, not necessarily. >> no? >> breathometer is synonymous

with the breath print, like how people have fingerprints on their fingers. so ultimately the whole idea and vision of the company is to start with ethanol but to move into other types of elements or variables that you can detect through your breath. so for instance diabetes is being one of them, nitric oxide which is relevant to asthma. but essentially breathometer, it's the analysis of your breath. we're just beginning with ethanol. >> charles michael yim, thank you so much. appreciate your time. keep us posted on the new developments with the company as well. time now to flash back to this day in history. the 1988 vice presidential debate between democrat lori benson and republican dan quayle in a memorable moment, senator quayle asserted that he was in fact qualified to be president should fate force him to be as john f. kennedy had been. that prompted senator benson to deliver this memorable line. >> i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of

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homework, how much is too much? and it's not just students complaining anymore apparently. one father says his 13-year-old daughter's unbearable homework load is turning her into a, his words not mine, sleep-deprived teen zombie. to get a better idea of just how much she had to do, he did her homework for a week. that father is journalist carl terrell greenfield. we enjoyed it so much we wanted to invite him on. he's also the author of seven books, most recently the novel. joins me live now from california. carl, good to see you. >> hi there. >> your first night's homework assignment consistent consisted following, 11 algebra equations, 79 pages of angela's ashes and find three important and powerful quotes from the 79

pages and then had to write a one or two-sentence analysis of its significance and study for the next day's earth science test as well. again, first night, took you somewhere between three and five hours according to the article. how did it go? >> well, that was what i was trying to figure out. like many parents, i'd noticed how much homework my daughter was doing every night. often two to five hours a night and it was cutting into family time and extracurricular time, so i thought i'd sit down and actually do her homework for a week along side her. i didn't do her homework for her. and what i was trying to figure out is this is taking up such a big part of her time and it's obviously such a great influence on her life that i would try to find out firsthand what was really going on here. and i was first of all surprised by the sheer volume of homework, the amount of work, the amount of reading. angela's ashes is a great book, but 79 pages is a challenge for me and reading and writing is literally what i do for a living. that was just the start of it. it was an awful lot of work and hard work.

>> there are a lot of folks out there who would contend that the homework load that you criticize in your article is a crucial part of the effort that has been a foot in this country for a long time, to make sure that our students are prepared not just to succeed on standardized tests, but also helps prepare them for workload at a reputable college. what say you to that? >> well, that's one of the things i was trying to figure out. first of all, i thought it would be helpful to do her homework to understand what work she's doing, second of all to try to see is this really necessary, is this sort of heavy amount of homework load which i think a lot of parents have observed and noticed, is this really the only way to do it? i'm not a professional educator. that's not my job, but i do feel that there is some homework that's useful. reading angela's ashes is a great assignment, but there's also a great deal of busy work that i think teachers are assigning because they feel like they have to cover a certain amount of material because of standardized testing. they have to get from a to z within this time period.

if they don't -- because they know they're going to be tested on it, and if they don't, they're worried the teachers test scores and students will suffer as a result of not covering that material. so i think the testing in some ways is driving the bus on this. and it's forcing teachers to assign more homework or to assign homework as homework material that they can't cover, don't have time to cover in the classroom. >> what's been the response to your article? what's been the response to your experiment? >> a lot of parents are responding. a lot of parents are saying like we've experienced same thing. a lot of kids are saying we've experienced the same thing. and there's a lot of parents saying in order to keep up with students from country x, china, wherever supposedly where kids are doing more homework, we have no choice but to mile more and more homework on our kids. get, i'm not a homework expert, i'm not a professional teach ore, but i noticed in terms of my kid's life i think a little less homework and more time for other activities would probably lend to a happier childhood. there's time to do work later. there's time to do a lot of homework later, high school, college, maybe that's where you

could do a little more work. but for an eighth grader i think a couple hours a night is fine. one hour, two hours, but four or five hours, i think that's too much. >> thank you, sir. do appreciate your time. up next, the latest war of words over just who caused the first government shutdown in nearly 20 years. we're live on capitol hill. you're watching msnbc. mom? did nana ever give you cheerios when you were a little kid? yeah, she did. were cheerios the same back then? cheerios has pretty much been the same forever. so...when we have cheerios, it's kind of like we are having breakfast with nana... yeah... ♪ yeah. you're so smart. of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal.

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not everyone peaks in their twenties. throughout their lives. passion keeps them realizing possibilities. an ally for real possibilities. aarp. find tools and support at aarp.org/possibilities. all right. right now at msnbc, day five of the shutdown. the first tea party member defects. is this the first step to compromise? good saturday afternoon to you. i'm craig melvin. today, the house unanimously passes a bill paying furloughed government workers when it reopens. but the shutdown and the finger pointing, both seem to be far from over. >> it's been an orwelian week in which black is white and white is black. >> we're five days into a government shutdown caused by,

well, i'm not sure what it's caused by. >> time and again all week long what we've seen is the senate refuse to even take the bills up. and in fact to try and vent their anger and impose that on the american people. >> meanwhile, president obama calls for an end to the political circus. >> a small faction of the republican party ends up forcing them into brinksmanship to see if they can somehow, you know, get more from negotiations by threatening to shut down the government or threatening america not paying its bills. >> so the real life repercussions of the shutdown on one family with a chronically ill 3-year-old daughter. we'll talk about that. and the root of the dysfunction, why deep divisions between city and country, liberals and conserve tifftivative conservatives, why those are probably here to stay. all those in a few moments.

let's get straight to the hill where the house passed a bill a few hours ago guaranteeing that the furloughed workers, those furloughed federal workers will get all of their pay back for the time off the job they have incured during the shutdown that passed with a 407-0 vote. nbc's luke russet is on the hill for us. what's next? we know the senate still has to take up that bill. when is that likely to happen? >> reporter: more likely than not, craig, that will happen on monday. i'm told it could be done by unanimous consent meaning they might have to have a real vote on it. and it's something that's very significant, especially from you're a former washingtonian, there's a lot of worry from a lot of federal workers that all this time off they were going to get because of the government shutdown, time they would not be able to work, they would lose their pay because in order for them to get their pay, congress had to pass like they did today. there was a few days ago an element within the house of

republican conference we shouldn't be paying federal workers for doing a job they didn't do. however, it seems the gop leadership is able to dissipate that and pass this bill unanimously today, which is a quite significant win for federal workers decided to get their money. however, if you are a federal worker, you don't get your money until after the shutdown. it's retroactive. so it's still tough for a lot of folks who if they don't have savings, some are still going to be filing for unemployment until this shutdown is over, craig. but it should be passed on the president's desk by monday. >> in addition to that unanimous vote this morning, one very conservative florida congressman, named dennis ross, now says that he would be willing to support a clean cr, a clean spending bill that does not include changes to obama care in order to stop this shutdown telling bloomberg in part "we've lost the cr battle. we need to move on and take whatever we can find in the debt limit." at what point do other republicans follow suit? is this just the beginning? >> yeah. it's interesting, craig.

now there's over 20 republicans that say they clean government funding bill were to go on the house floor, they would support it. as that number grows, it becomes increasingly more difficult for the house gop leadership to say we're not going to put a clean bill on the floor when folks around the country know the government can be funded within a matter of hours if they did such a thing. the fact though that dennis ross bho has a 96 rating from the american conservative union, by no means a moderate, not known for wanting to work across the aisle with ndemocrats, the fact he says throw in the towel, let's move on to the debt limit, which is actually what john boehner wanted to do weeks and months ago is quite interesting. will this cause a sort of tsunami of the flood gates breaking? is dennis ross that important? no, he's not. but starting to tell us you're seeing the internal divisions within the gop, folks not known for moderation who are more on the right saying, you know what, is this the best strategy? as you walk around here, craig, the question becomes why are we

doing this, what is this about. one term i've said is this is the seinfeld shutdown. a shutdown about nothing at this point because the democrats continue to hold this position, which they've said you saw the president saying he will and they're not going to give an inch because they don't want to set a precedent for this, where does it end? does it end all the way the debt limit of october 17th? or could it end on monday if you put a clean bill on the floor? we don't know the answer to that. but as this goes on and on and on and you start to see that break within the house gop conference, at some point you got to say when is enough is enough is enough. i think you're starting to see that resonate within more conservative members of the house of the gop. >> luke russert, thank you. take care. >> thank you. be well. >> so are we any closer to reopening the government? joining me live now democratic new york congressman charlie wrangle. good to see you, sir. >> beautiful tie, craig. beautiful tie. >> it's in honor of walk for life of course happening all over this country today. so wanted to wear the pink.

let's start with a question that i know a lot of folks at home are going to be asking if they haven't already tweeted, charlie wrangle sitting onset with craig melvin in new york city while his colleagues are at work in washington, d.c. i always love having you here in the flesh. but why are you here and not there? >> because we've completed what work we've had there this morning. and we don't go back until monday, which is a hard thing as to why are we not going back until monday? and the reason we're not is because the republicans can't get their act together. it is so hard for me to explain how one person out of 435 of us can bring this thing to a close. >> this isn't just the one though. >> one. it's one person. >> well, are you talking about ted cruz? >> of course not. he doesn't even count over there much less in the house. >> you're talking about john boehner specifically? >> john boehner. and he cannot be challenged. one person can wake up in the morning and say i want to be a

patriot, i love my country, i love the congress, i've tolerated the tea party members, but enough is enough. >> have you talked to him personally? >> no, no, no. he looks so ragged. he is such a responsible member of congress. i work with him on tax issues, i've worked with him on education issues. >> yeah. >> but something happens in the water when you become speaker and that you have chairmen in your party, he has to be prepared to lose that. he has to be prepared. he cannot be speaker without these handful of right wing tea party members. he cannot. >> so you think it's that simple? >> i know it is. >> just john boehner desperate to hold onto his job. >> listen, if you've been doing this for days and weeks and months and i hope soon we'll be talking about something else. >> yeah. >> but nobody but nobody challenges the fact that john boehner can go into his room,

look himself in the mirror and say enough is enough. they brought disgrace on my party. the congress and national republicans. >> yeah. >> people are beginning to make fun of the republicans. donors are threatening to cut off funds. and if we ever hear from the religious community talking about help the poor and give them health care, he has to collapse. >> i want to ask you the question that majority leader eric cantor posed earlier in our broadcast in a sound bite. why not reopen the government in part? why not acquiesce and allow these piecemeal attempts to go through. >> we're talking about the united states of america. we're talking about the economy of the united states. we're talking about a country in intensive care, critical. and you ask, why don't you take these aspirins that they come up with? i mean, they can't hurt you. and it's popular. this one would be for chaplains,

don't you like jesus in the military? we got another one here for just federal employees. the hell with all the rest, these are federal employees. we got one foot in national parks. and you're saying, hey, that's my patient, that's my country, why don't you take him out of here and give him a full economic health life. it's simple. >> defense secretary chuck hagel announcing that now these 300,000 previously furloughed d.o.d. workers are going to essentially be unfurloughed. they're going to be paid under the military now act. this came down maybe an hour or two ago. how political of a move is that? >> well, when you talk about national security, i don't want to take any chances at any time. i don't know if it's political or national security, but i'm for it. the question has to be, how do you think one person can do this or one party can do this? where are the voters?

you know, tragically most people haven't the slightest clue of the name of the person that represents them in the house of representatives. and that is sad. >> voter apathy. >> and i don't know why we give tax exempts to churches and spiritual leaders, but the rabbis haven't talked, the catholics haven't talked, the protestan protestants, the mormons, just seems to me so much we're talking about with affordable health care, it is so moral. we're talking about the vulnerable, the sick, the kids, the old folks. i mean, that's not democratic and republican. that's what america stands for. and yet they've put no pressure on those people who says we want to destroy the presidency because he's in for the people don't like president obama. and they want to stop the affordable care act. and they cannot legally do it. >> congressman charlie rangle, we'll have to leave it there. we'll get you get back to d.c.

when are you headed back? >> i'm headed back monday morning. >> all right. always appreciate it. thanks for seeing me. >> thanks for having me. life or death, for a 3-year-old girl every day that the government stays closed another day goes by without crucial medical experiments. we are live with the real life repercussions of this government shutdown. also a shocking revelation on that new york city road rage attack, why the nypd is now pointing fingers at their own officers. this is msnbc. (dad) just feather it out. that's right. (son) ok. feather it out. (dad) all right. that's ok. (dad) put it in second, put it in second. (dad) slow it down. put the clutch in, break it, break it. (dad) just like i showed you. dad, you didn't show me, you showed him. dad, he's gonna wreck the car! (dad) he's not gonna wreck the car. (dad) no fighting in the road, please. (dad) put your blinker on. (son) you didn't even give me a chance! (dad) ok. om vo) we got the new subaru because nothing could break our old one. (dad) ok. (son) what the heck? let go of my seat! (mom vo) i hope the same goes for my husband. (dad) you guys are doing a great job. seriously.

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let's get right to our top headlines this hour. washington, d.c. police say the man that doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire at the national mall friday has

died. he was air lifted to the hospital after joggers used their t-shirts to try to put out those flames. the man's name at this point is not known. and police are still trying to figure out precisely why he did it. family of an unarmed woman shot and killed after a high speed chase between the white house and capitol thursday, that family is now questioning whether police used excessive force. >> my sister could have been any woman or any person traveling in our capitol. deadly physical force was not the ultimate recourse. and it didn't have to be. >> the woman shot dead was named miriam carey. we are learning more about her today. her boyfriend apparently contacted police in december and said he was worried about their child's safety. he also said carey was acting delusional, claiming president obama had placed stamford, connecticut, under lockdown and that her house under electronic surveillance.

and new york police are asking for the public's help in identifying and finding a person wanted for questioning in connection with that motorcycle attack sunday. a man was pulled from his suv and beaten after his suv hit one of the bikers. one person was arrested and charged friday. we are also learning that as many as six undercover cops were in that bike pack. police are now trying to figure out whether any of the officers were involved in the beating. back to the shutdown now. the government shutdown is having ripple effects on people all over this country including those who rely on the national institutes of health for research on life threatening disorders. much of the nih's budget is used for grants to support researchers and clinicians nationwide, but with most of the nih staff on furlough, those grants and much of their research are on hold. one of those affected by the stoppage, 3-year-old elisa

o'neil. she's diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder. they join me live now from columbia, south carolina. her parents, cara and gordon and little eliza there on her nap not wild about being on live television. >> say hi. >> good to see you guys. >> right, right. >> let me start with you. >> thanks for having us. >> thank you. >> thanks for coming on. walk us through hour your family in south carolina has come to be affected by something that's happening at the national institutes of health in bethesda, maryland. >> yeah, well, our daughter has been diagnosed with san felipo syndrome type a. she's trying to get in a trial in ohio, a clinical trial which can actually cure this disease. a lot of steps to get to that point. a lot of money that needs to come in. and a lot of approvals from the

fda. and when the government shuts down and there's less obviously resources and staffing, some of those steps along the way begin to get pushed back, not to mention funding not only for san felipo syndrome but also many other rare diseases that children with these terminal conditions are kind of waiting on for expedited approval. >> so until the government reopens, precisely what does that mean for you guys? >> so they're interacting with the fda and all the preclinical steps that have to happen to get things set up for this trial, whether there are meetings and data that has to go back and forth. and all of that process will be stalled while the government is shutdown. >> and the syndrome is -- go ahead. >> no, go ahead, glenn, i'm sorry. >> yeah. the syndrome is such where usually by age 6 eliza will be 4 in november, usually by age 6 the brain damage is so

significant that sometimes it's irreversible. and it is a degenerative condition. so literally weeks and months matter everything to us. so anything that gets delayed even by a week is life or death for her getting into this trial. not to mention other san felipo children. >> we know all the researchers and workers at the fda and nih want to get back to work. this is their life's mission. and it's now our mission to try to get these things moved forward in a timely manner so that we can save our daughter and the many other children out there like her. >> earlier this week house republicans passed a bill that would have funded the nih. it was blocked by democrats in the senate. what's your message to lawmakers as they continue the brinksmanship over funding the government? >> it seems surreal that a child's life could hinge with these timelines on political

matters. it just -- when you tell that to a parent, there's no way that's ever going to make sense. >> we just want to save our daughter and we want the two sides to resolve whatever differences there are. we know this impacts a lot of people in the country in a lot of different ways. and it impacts us, you know, very personally. and the whole sanfilippo community that's awaiting this trial. >> we've lost three children in the sanfilippo community in the last month alone. and today in georgia a family of a 12-year-old little girl, they're laying her to rest today as we speak. >> how is eliza doing right now? >> eliza, we feel so very fortunate that she is still making some gains. she recently had a sinus infection and a little bit of a setback in her behavior. and every time she has those

behavioral changes, we're thinking in our minds is this it, is this the beginning of the decline? because that is a big question in everyone's mind in this community is, you know, when do they reach their peak? and every child is different. so to have that weigh on your mind all the time is really concerning. and to hear about the parents experiences that have walked before us when they say i've had to see my child so frustrated when they began to lose speech, when they can no longer run and play with their siblings. it's just, it's hard to go there in my mind for eliza and i hope we never have to. >> cara and glenn o' neil, our thoughts and prayers with you. good luck to you. keep us posted, okay? >> thank you so much for this opportunity to share the story. >> thank you. >> thank you. and we will be right back. when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals:

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has a sick child that's being affected by the ridiculousness in washington, d.c. you can't visit national museums and parks. local businesses that rely on that tourism revenue are hurting. i spent some time with furloughed civilians this week who work at fort dicks in southern new jersey. they're worried about how they're going to get their next paycheck. many are young with children who don't have a pile of money stashed away. those workers that test dangerous consumers products aren't going to work and hundreds of thousands of their federal colleagues have been furloughed. why the shutdown continues depends largely on who you ask or what you read. oftentimes there are, well, there are at least two sides to every story. sometimes three, maybe even four. but not this time. if you don't know me, i'm not a partisan guy. but facts are facts. and this time the facts are undeniable. the story is simple. a minority of a minority has

shut down the government. and now they're passing piecemeal attempts to reopen parts of it to get democrats on record is actually being against veterans on mt. rushmore. silly shows and predictable pandering are precisely what got us in this mess. and what's most annoying about this sideshow is oftentimes d.c.'s silliness doesn't have a -- have an immediate real world impact, not true this time. you just heard from a family. i'm so sick and tired of hearing from lawmakers boasting, well, my constituents are flooding the phone lines, i'm getting e-mails every few minutes, they're okay with all of this, they want us to hold the line. they want less government anyway. here's a thought. perhaps the last few remaining reasonable people who care, not about politics but about their fellow americans earning a wage, getting help for sick kids, perhaps they should flood the zone, call, e-mail, write,

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designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. welcome back to msnbc. i'm craig melvin. here's a quick look at some of the other top stories making news right now. president obama is weighing in for the first time on the naming controversy around washington, d.c.'s pro football team. the president says if he were the owner of a team whose mascot offended people, he'd think about changing the name. the team's attorney quickly responded to the president by citing a recent a.p. poll showing eight of ten americans do not think the name should be changed. meanwhile the oneida indian nation responded a few moments ago with this statement. as the first sitting president to speak out against the washington team name, president obama's comments today are historic. and former secretary of state

kond leeza rice is expected to be one of the nine people named to the new college football playoff selection committee. that playoff will replace the existing bowl championship series because it's awful. the stalemate continues. we're in the fifth day now of the government shutdown forced by the failure of house republicans and democratic-led senate to agree on a plan to fund the government. how did we get here? it's a very simple question. judd bernstein, msnbc contributor and former economic advisor to vice president joe biden and mark murray, a big deal for both of these men to be working on a saturday, but we wanted to bring them here to talk about what a lot of folks are saying is the real true cause of this. jar jared, you wrote about it this week, what you see as the root cause "gerrymandering is clearly implicated, the fact of safe noncompetitive districts robs

the political process of a disciplinary force where members could conceivably be held to task for shutdowns and defaults." is that it? is that why some republicans are unwilling to deal? >> it's one of the reasons why. there are numerous perpetrators here, but that's certainly an important one. let me throw just a few numbers at you. back when we had the last shut down, '95/'96, by the way i was working for the government then, 79 house districts -- i'm sorry, 79 house members on the republican side came from districts that clinton had won. in this case only 17 house republicans came from districts that president obama had won. if you look at the national election, obama won by four percentage points on a national level. but if you look at the shutdown caucus, the caucus behind the current shutdown among house republicans, romney beat obama by an average of 23%. so these are very isolated districts. if you look at the demographics

within those districts, they're trending very different from the rest of america. in that sense they are safe, noncompetitive districts. and that means that they're not under the sway of the leadership. again, if you think about the 80 or so republicans that are members of this kind of shutdown caucus behind what we're going through right now. >> yeah. >> they represent only a third of the republican caucus and less than 20% of the house of representatives. >> mark, we know that we are more polarized than we've ever been, but what i find most interesting is that we created the polarization. >> oh, well, there's no doubt about it. i mean, you talk about everyone it seems to be in their red corners or blue corners and you are right about that, craig. gerrymandering is one role in that. i'd also mention that self-sorting is another, that if you are a democrat, you're more likely to live in an area that is filled with a lot of democrats. if you're a republican, you're probably going to be in a rural area with a lot of other

republicans. and then of course it has to do with the fact that the parties are more hom oj nous than ever. 30 years ago you saw a lot of conservative southern democrats, those could be potential swing votes in a battle just like this. you also ended up having a lot of liberal or moderate republicans particularly in the northeast. those folks are more and more extinct right now in politics. so when you add up all these things together, you know, you're looking at the self-sorting, you look at the redistricting and the gerrymandering. you look at all these things and it goes to what jared was just citing right now. there are fewer and fewer potential crossover votes to be able to resolve these type of political stalemates. >> jon stewart's daly show put the finger on gerrymandering this week as well. take a listen. >> it's actually louisiana's sixth congressional district. obviously it makes no physical sense, but when it was redrawn in 2010, it's white majority increased from 60% to 74%.

taking it from republican to turbo republican. >> turbo republican. jared, first of all, for folks who may not understand how this comes to be, how are districts -- how are congressional districts, how are they drawn? who draws them? what's the process? >> every ten years -- and this is in the constitution, there is a census of the nation. and districts are supposed to be redrawn based on the population shift that occurred over that decade as recorded by the goldie sen yal census. the redrawing is done by a state legislature. so in 2010 many state legislators became much more red and then in some cases much more blue. >> yeah. >> so they took that constitutional rule, and by the way you just look at a picture like the one you just saw and i would argue that they abused it in such a way as to gerrymander the districts. >> i want to bring in tennessee

democratic congressman steve cohen because he's actually got a plan to undo some of this. congressman, in the simplest of terms, how would the bill that you presented, how would it limit gerrymandering? >> it would take redistricting out of the political process and require it to be done by independent nonpartisan, nonpolitical groups in each state. looking at compactness of districts and contiguous districts so they would be geographically close and compact. they would not look at the politics or incumbency as an issue. >> what's been the response to your proposal? >> well, it hasn't been the most popular thing since, you know, french toast. >> nicely said. >> well, mark, here's the thing and congressman i want to come back to you in just a second. how reasonable, is it mark murray, to expect -- ndemocrats and republicans mind you, how reasonable is it to expect safe

lawmakers to change a system that benefits them? >> craig, you hit the nail on the head. i mean, that's one of the big reasons why it's very hard to have change. now, the kind of change that the congressman has just proposed is something that the state of california has adopted. so it is possible, but you talk about this comes down to pure political power. and one of the reasons why democrats ended upholding the house of representatives for 30, 40, 50 years even when there were republicans in the white house like ronald reagan, was because they'd controlled the powers of redistricting, they'd be able to hold the state legislatures, governorships just at the right time when that discentennial process was being played out. and then republicans in 2010 ended up striking gold, that they had such big wins in state capitals across the country it really benefitted them. and then it becomes incumbent why 2020, the next time and it's linked with a presidential contest, will be a big fight and chance for democrats to really try to make gains and change the system and change congressional

districts more in their favor. it just comes down to pure political and partisan politics. >> congressman, you were on the floor of the house a few hours ago calling on republicans to unite for the sake of the country. for our viewers at home, this is what you said. >> there's apparently a wall between the tea party republicans and the mainstream republicans who would like to move this country forward. mr. speaker, tear down that wall. >> you're there in d.c. on the hill. congressman, any indications atd 3:30 on the east on a saturday afternoon that that wall is coming down any time soon? >> not really. and you know that republican president, i paraphrase, president reagan also said playing politics with the debt ceiling was irresponsible and wreckless. i'm afraid president reagan wouldn't be allowed to be a member of the majority in this caucus. >> congressman cohen, thank you so much for stopping by on this saturday. nbc news senior political editor, mark murray, big thanks

to all of you for breaking down some of that for us. up next, our week of discontent. and whether we might see more of the same next week. the brain trust on the other side of this break. ♪ [ male announcer ] you know that family? the one whose eye for design is apparent in every detail? ♪ whose refined taste is best characterized by the company they keep? ♪ well...say hello to the newest member of the family. the cadillac srx. awarded best interior design of any luxury brand. take advantage of this exceptional offer on the 2013 cadillac srx with premium care maintenance included. and you're not very proud of that. but tonight he made pizza... ...with johnsonville italian sausage. and everybody loved it. and you're definitely proud of that. johnsonville. served with pride since 1945.

i made some missteps -- i switched to some weird bargain detergent instead of tide... but no matter how much i poured, our clothes were missing that tide clean we were used to. so i'm back with tide... and i'm back on top of the world. that's mytide. christine needer mooir former u.s. chief of staff now runs straight scoop politics, it's a blog for king features, amy holmes is the anchor of "the hot list" at the blaze, direct your tweets directly to her. kristen, i do want to start with you though. texas republican senator ted cruz has become the face of the gop during this crisis. in an interview with nbc yesterday he again laid blame for the shutdown at the feet of democrats. take a listen. >> the democrats want government by crisis. they want shutdowns. this is harry reid's shutdown because he thinks it benefits democrats politically.

and they want to threaten a default to scare people. >> how did senator cruz become the pointman on all of this? >> i just have to say at first, he's really out of touch with reality as we begin here. he became -- >> well, some would say he's probably in touch with reality of his constituents. >> of his constituents, but increasingly alienating the moderate republicans in the senate and in the house. he has gotten a lot of publicity over this, but in the meantime his point about the government wanting to be shut down by the democrats is totally false. it wouldn't have happened unless speaker boehner instead of acting like a minority leader acted like a speaker and brought this bill to the floor of the house without an amendment, a clean cr so we get the budget passed. >> senator cruz in the house gop these days? >> well, he's certainly getting a lot of attention. but, look, it's one of the worst kept political secrets that democrats did want a shutdown because they think it harms republicans. and i would actually gree u agree with them. i think it is harming republicans. it's not a strategy i thought

was a good one moving forward. i think republicans have lost the big picture, which is if you want to reform obama care, you need to have control of the senate and you need to have control of the white house. because a democratically controlled senate and president obama is not going to change obama care. >> the democrats want this bob franken? >> probably are benefitting from it. >> but that's a different question. >> right. >> do you think they wanted it? >> well, i think that anything that benefits somebody, he's probably at some level going to want. the fact of the matter is i'm not a mind reader. i'm not being evasive. but certainly they're benefitting from it. john boehner and others realized that was going to happen. but ted cruz is the flavor of the month. he's the new sarah palin or newt gingrich, whatever you want to go. and he's appealing to a base, the only base that would allow him to stand out. >> but let's remember there was a white house official who was anonymously quoted this week in "the wall street journal" who said we don't care how long the shutdown goes on, how long it goes on because -- >> i'm always leery about

anonymous -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> "the wall street journal" is fine, but there's nothing unusual about people looking at it as a game. as a matter of fact, there's this wonderful tape that i'm sure you've seen by the two senators of kentucky. >> rand paul -- >> but. >> rand paul was quoted when they had the mic on that they want to win this thing. i've worked on the hill in the '80s and '90s. i think what has to be pointed out to the public is the climate has changed. the segment you just did, craig, was right on in terms of how the districts have changed. but what's really changed and what has caused in my view this conflict on the hill are four things. number one, no relationships on the hill anymore back in those days they didn't have big travel budgets, they didn't go back to their districts as often. they built relationships. number two, campaign money wasn't what it is. not only are parties weaker, but the campaign money is there. and used to be -- i sound like i'm really old here, but trying to still be young, but it used

to be in the old days that you got at least two years out of a four-year presidential term to get stuff done on the hill before it got very political. and the first year out of a two-year term in a house term. these days you get nothing. and then on top of it you've got in all due respect to us which i think we do a good job in the media but a 24-hour media as a state legislator i was involved in getting bills through and getting budgets through. you have no cover now because the minute you vote it's on all over the country. >> first book called "hardball" but he's saying it is a game. of course unfortunately the game these days is bean ball. i think everybody is throwing at each other's heads, the rules are gone. >> the presence of senator cruz has come at the expense of another notable high profile republican that we have not heard a great deal about. his name of course is marco rubio. amy kramer of the tea party expresses, "ted cruz is new and

he's a rock star. i just think health care is a much bigger issue for most americans right now than immigration." what happened to marco rubio? he hasn't been on a national television outlet in eight days. >> what happened to marco rubio was immigration reform. and a lot of the tea party base, conservative base, did not like what he was doing on immigration reform. and so he was -- >> he was banished? >> he was losing that momentum because of that issue. and i think he's standing back and watching, you know, what happens with ted cruz because ted cruz is getting a lot of attacks from republicans for his strategy. >> but that's the reason why this strategy in the house doesn't work. because you have moderate republicans who are going for cover. you have the republican candidate for governor in virginia flip-flopping now decide he's against the shutdown. it is hurting republicans. and it was amazing to me that that picture of the house con r conferees. talk about no diversity. >> well. >> no women, no -- you know, they're only -- but the reason

that's important is because -- >> are you saying women would have ended the shutdown? is that what this is? >> there are a lot of conservative women who would like to see the shutdown continue. >> in the last election the republicans when it was all over said we made a mistake, we made a mistake by broadening the base. >> last word before the break. >> ultimate gop is rhino, republican in name only. i think he's been labeled that by any number of the people. >> rubio you're talking about. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back we'll spend time talking about house speaker john boehner and we got our hands on a new ad that's going to run in a nationally televised football game tomorrow. the brain trust after this when we come back. so i c an reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7. i'm sorry, i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum! (cat screech) you feel that in your muscles? i do...

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it is day five of outrage and discontent of furloughed works and millions touched by the effects of the government

shutdown. just a few of the voices of the shutdown. >> back up on the hill and do your work. >> i'm terrified. >> we have to make our groceries extend. >> not thinking about us. >> two, three weeks instead of one week that we have. >> i'm out of work. >> we are already down to the bare minimum. >> no, it's because the government won't do its job and pass a budget. >> no faith. >> hurt too many people. >> we would rather be working. >> there's a whole lot of people going to be suffering. >> brain trust is back. christine, bob, amy. so, let's talk about the idea of opening the government piecemeal. the number of proposals that we have seen, these mini bills to open various parts of the federal government. according to huffington post include but not limited to national parks, cancer research,

fema, national weather service, food and drug administration, nutrition and feeding programs for preg yant mothers and infants and head start, as well. respect these the programs the gop is trying to rein in? you're opening up the programs, you have essentially reopened the federal government. >> you had a family on in an earlier segment talking to them about the real world consequences of this and not funding the nih, for example, their child is in a fatal situation here. or mortal i should say potentially and harry reid had the opportunity. he was asked by a rival network journalists, why not fund nih, he said, why would we do that? we would do that right now because there's children suffering right now. it's shocking this is so petty. >> please, please, please. >> such a much easier way and to stop interrupting for purely political reasons with the federal government. if you want to shut down the agencies, go through the process to do that.

i'd like to mention my wife works for the federal government. she's with the voice of america. >> full disclosure. >> yes, absolutely have to do that. she, however, is one of the essential people and will go back to work. >> what say to you to what amy just said? that's been -- >> a real family that needs help right now. >> if you give a rat's butt of real families you wouldn't have shut down the government over it. >> leadership passed a funding measure for the nih and democrats rejected it and a fact and on the table. >> they're just offering amendments to get democrats to voice against them and all a game, number one. number two, if they cared about -- it's not just people out of work, the republicans say they care about government operating efficiently. they voted today to give back pay to all federal workers which they should and not getting any work for the money. we have everything closed down in terms of food inspections and and one last point before we go if possible. you have the ripple effect.

president obama who's canceled the third trip now to asia. you have got defense workers being furloughed. >> christine, why not fund the nih now? why not? >> let's fund all of government. that's the responsible way to do things. >> i want to play a piece of this ad right now that's running tomorrow during one of the national football games. one of the nfl games. this is an ad, a snippet and talk about it right after this. take a look. >> speaker john boehner didn't get his way on shutting down health care reform so he shut down the government. and hurt the economy. >> the ad calling john boehner a cry baby. whatever your politics, it is a clever ad. is john boehner able to bounce back from this? >> i think it's tiny bit unfair. to be honest with you, i know that's not a popular position but the fact is that john boehner was saying we shouldn't do this. but he has a faction in his

party that is demanding this kind of thing. >> but he has the power, bob, to put the bill on the floor on monday and pass in it a bipartisan caucus and discard the hastert rule. it would pass tomorrow. >> i suspect what he's trying to do is look a couple of moves past the immediate one which is to say if he did that and totally antagonized his -- the faction in his party, he's now risking a real problem with the even bigger problem which is the possible default of the united states government. >> my question -- >> does he have to have politics in football? can't we just watch a game? >> you raise an interesting point. there's folks, bob, that surm e surmised the end of the day what will end up happening is getting closer to october 17th and the government runs out of money his hand will be forced and able to go back to tea party conservatives and he will be able to say, listen, guys, if we

don't raise the debt ceiling, the market's going to crash and the game's over now and part of a comprehensive deal. we don't have time for your response. sorry. christine, bob, amy, big thanks to all of you on a saturday. i'll be back tomorrow. up next, karen finney. she'll disrupt. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the new twin turbo xts from cadillac. 410 available horses. ♪ room for four. twice the fun. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] life is full of little tests, but bounty basic can handle them. in this lab demo one select-a-size sheet of bounty basic is 50% stronger than one full sheet of the leading bargain brand. bring it. bounty basic.

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