now we can pass it on to a hero that gotham needs right now. martin bashir. >> thank you, ari. good afternoon, it's wednesday, october the 16th. suspect with one day to default, actual compromise has been spotted on capitol hill. ♪ >> lord, keep them from making any decision that will seem reckless. >> the eyes of the world have been on washington. >> stop this madness right now. >> the problem that we've got is that for speaker boehner -- >> the final hail mary moment. >> in negotiating with me weakens him. >> compromise we reach. >> hopefully once we've gotten past the drama of the moment. >> i thank the republican leader for his diligent efforts. >> reopen the government, avoid default. >> the president applauds this compromise. >> some people in my party took a stupid pill. >> once again, the washington establishment is refusing to listen to the american people.

>> ted cruz, unafraid of kneecapping his colleagues. >> official washington scoff. they scoff, they scoff. ♪ there is someone here >> a warm wednesday good afternoon to you. and on the 16th day, finally, we've got a deal. but hold your breath. because it's not over yet. with the u.s. treasury running on fumes, just eight hours to go until a possible and catastrophic default, the race is on to get a bill through congress and to the president's desk before midnight. just moments ago, speaker john boehner emerged from house republicans' afternoon huddle with a fist pump and no remarks. as he prepares to bring legislation to the floor to end the government impasse. boehner did speak to an ohio radio station earlier.

>> well, listen, we've been locked in a fight over here, trying to bring government down to size, trying to do our best to stop obama care. we've fought the good fight. we just didn't win. >> yes, mr. boehner. that's because the house vote is set to be on a senate plan to reopen the government, and extend its borrowing authority into february. a last-minute deal announced this afternoon by the senate leaders. >> this legislation ends a standoff to grouped the work of washington to a halt. >> it's been a long, challenging few weeks for congress and for the country. it's my hope that today we can put some of those most urgent issues behind us. >> but even as senate leaders displayed leadership in the midst of crisis, leave it to ted cruz to find yet another opportunity for his trademark showmanship. yes, right as senator mcconnell took the podium on the senate

floor, mr. cruz engaged in delivering a right royal middle finger to the minority leader, staging his own impromptu presser for a hoard of baying reporters. >> i have no objections to the timing of this vote. and the reason is simple. there's nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days. the outcome will be the same. >> translation, his majesty has issued the decree that he shall in no ways intervene on this day to further injury the united states and the global economy. the citizens are most grateful and wish him god speed. oh, by the way, cruz still thinks this is a win, sort of. >> and that was a remarkable victory, to see the house engage in a profile in courage. unfortunately, the senate chose not to follow the house. >> a profile in courage? really? is he actually referring to the

beleaguered house speaker there, the one who has admitted he'll be forced to rely on democratic votes to pass the deal? a human aleating defeat and a total collapse of gop efforts to punish the president and his health care law. indeed. we may see tears from speaker boehner yet today. because if this deal passes, the entire republican hostage-taking shutdown fiasco amounts to less than zero. the affordable care act will not be delayed or defunded. the melody advice tax will not be repealed. subsidies will not be taken away from congressional staffers. the big win for republicans is forcing the convening of a budget committee, something democrats have been demanding since march. and besides, republicans plunging poll numbers, the big loss, really, is for the american people. >> the economy has suffered because of it. and it was wholly unnecessary.

and let's just remind ourselves, we're not even out of it yet. this is not done. we need action to be taken so that the government can reopen and the threat of default removed. >> we absolutely do. and for the latest, let's get right to nbc's luke russert at the capitol. luke, the speaker told a radio station he expects this vote to happen tomorrow. so what happens now? are members of his caucus slugging back a few stiff glasses of elijah craig bourbon ahead of the long dark night of the republican soul? >> reporter: actually, i think they're going to get this done night. >> what about the radio -- saying it's going to happen tomorrow? >> reporter: i'll ask chris van hollen. you guys are planning on voting this tonight, right? >> that's the hope. >> reporter: that's the hope, martin. republicans took one on the chin on this. and everyone i've spoken to privately acknowledges that. a lot of them were despondent

last night when this boehner plan part b. broke up. and the reason why, questions now have to be asked, what does this mean for the future of the majority? they are seemingly unable to get anything to 218 votes to enable themselves to get some leverage. so they'll walk away from this. they're a little blooded up. and what member told me, look, we went the direction of the cruz caucus within the house gop conference. these guys hijacked the plane. the problem was, they didn't have a pilot. they didn't know how to operate this plane wauns they garnered control of it. so that's sort of how i would say the more establishment gop views what happened. for folks out there who have been struggling over the last two weeks of the government shutdown, i deliver good news, that they will be getting their back pay within this bill. and that they should be back to work, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, at least by friday, god willing, this weekend, martin. and as far as this moves forward, you have a budget conference later on, and then we come back and fight this over government funding in a january

and mid january. >> okay, luke. now, i must say, you've underplayed somewhat the bloo bloodied nose analogy. however, we've now got a statement from senator marco rubio saying he'll vote no on the senate deal. so there is still some resistance from these magnificent republicans, isn't there? >> reporter: oh, yeah, and that's a 2016 gop primary vote. you'll see -- rubio, rand paul, cruz, look for rob portman where they come down on this. those guys thinking about dinners in iowa and new hampshire, they'll be opposing this. >> fantastic. trash the economy -- trash the economy, but worry about your 2016 race. excellent. great work, senators. nbc's luke russert. thank you, luke. >> reporter: take care. >> the senate deal contains a budget negotiation frame work with a deadline of december 13th and implicit hope we won't be going through all of this again in february. my next guest will be part of that effort. joining us now, as luke just said, is democratic congressman,

chris van hollen of maryland. good afternoon to you. >> martin, good afternoon, as always. >> for the last seven months, your colleague, patty murray, has tried to begin negotiations on no less than 20 separate occasions. each time, republicans refused and blocked. at the same time, republicans went on this pointless campaign of opposition to the affordable care act. again, a complete and utter waste of time and energy. i ask you, sir. what has speaker boehner and the republican party achieved, aside from humiliating and hurting the nation? >> nothing. is the simple answer. this has been a totally unnecessary episode in american history, in congressional history. it's a sad time for congress. it's been a shameful episode, because, as you say, all that was done was to impose pain on

ordinary americans throughout the country. pain for absolutely no gain for the country. and unfortunately, it apparently took this kind of episode to hopefully let republicans know, especially these tea party caucus republicans, that you don't win partisan victories by shutting down the government and threatening to shut down our full faith and credit. i don't know if that lesson has been learned. we'll only know going forward. but the country should not have had to go through the pain in order for people to learn that lesson. >> sir, do you not think, therefore, it would be in order for those congressmen, like louie gohmert, tim humans camp, and others on the lunatic fringe to go now and apologize to those millions of new mothers who have been denied nutritional assistance, or those 50,000 elderly people denied meals on wheels? shouldn't they go now and

apologize to those parents who have been told that their terminally ill children cannot receive the experimental treatment they were promised by the nih? isn't it time that these compassionless cowards went and saw the effects of their disgraceful behavior? >> well, martin, i think a lot of these members of congress have a whole lot of explaining to do. and i hope the country will look at this episode and hold people accountable. because, you know, people are elected to make decisions on behalf of their constituents. and nobody has a good explanation for why they would have imposed this kind of pain and this kind of uncertainty on the country and so many people. so, again, i hope, number one, that voters will do what they should do any time, which is hold their members of congress accountable. and then also watch to see whether or not anything has been learned. whether or not there is another

effort to run this terrible play, where you, again, threaten to shut down the country or default on our debt, whether it's in january or february. that will be an open question. now, as you indicated, we have been trying to get to the negotiating table on the budgets since last march. yeah. >> ridiculous! >> it was blocked 20 times in the senate. >> yep. >> by folks like senator cruz and lee. it was blocked three times here in the house, martin. i tried to move a motion to get the speaker to appoint negotiators. we're glad they want to go to the negotiating table. let's see if we're able to do something good for the country instead of just run things down. >> congressman chris van hollen, sir. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. come up, deal or no deal. we'll talk default and denial with a world renown economist, straight ahead. and how does wall street feel about all of this? ♪ meet you downstairs in the

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i rise today, because we've got a problem in the united states of america. that is, we spin too much. nobody on my side of the aisle says let's not pay our bills. >> that comment on the house floor this morning is typical of what we have been hearing from some on the right. on the subject of the debt ceiling. they don't just deny that default would be a disaster, they deny that they deny it. now, the markets which rallied back to health on news of today's deal would seem to indicate the investing world has heard such debt denialists. but for the sake of mr. farn hold and others, allow us to rebut his contention categorically. >> i'm not worried about this

thing they term default. >> i repeat what i've said before. default is a choice. >> this october 17th deadline, to some extent, has been artificially created by the administration. >> joining us is allen krueger, professor of economics and public affairs at princeton and former chair of the president's council of economic advisers. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. >> professor krueger, is the possibility of a default disaster simply the mythical creation of the media in order to entertain our viewers during the early weeks of the fall? >> absolutely not. those kinds of comments are irresponsible, they're reckless. this behavior has already cost american taxpayers billions of dollars. you know, just go back to august of 2011. and the general accounting office calculated that the shenanigans over the debt ceiling then cost the government over a billion dollars in 2011, 2012 alone. we saw a rise in short-term

borrowing rates, and that's going to cause homeowners to pay more for interest rates and going to increase the government deficit. >> in its note on a possible credit downgrade tuesday, fitch rating cited the main reason as, and i'm quoting fitch, political brinksmanship, despite the fact that the u.s. economy remains more dynamic and resilient to shocks than its high-grade ratings' peers. in other words, your economy is the best out there, but your politics are absolutely atrocio atrocious. what sort of ripples does this episode send through the larger, national and indeed global economy? >> this is really a sad episode. we are in a position to see stronger economic growth, to see more people go back to work. and because of the gamesmanship, brinksmanship that took place in the congress, we put our full faith and credit in doubt for a period of time. and hopefully that gets resolved later today. we saw a short-term interest rates rise.

we're seeing confidence fall. in august 2011, confidence in government economic policy fell to its lowest level ever. so this is rippling through our economy and the world economy. >> how, sir, do we avoid another catastrophe come february the 7th? which is now going to be the new debt ceiling date? i mean, what happens when we have to suffer again the strategy and be subjected to the strategy of republicans? >>el with, i worry that this is the strategy that the house republicans chose. that they walked away from the bargaining table in 2011. speaker boehner did it again around christmastime last year. when he went to his ill-fated plan b. i think they did make a choice that they want trench warfare over the budget and using the debt ceiling as their weapon of choice. so i fear that enough of the members of congress didn't learn a lesson from this experience, and that we'll be back in a similar position in a few

months. >> a sober warning. professor allen krueger, thank you, sir. >> my pleasure. still ahead, the day's top lines as republicans grapplel for answers. what exactly do they believe in these days? >> we believe that every american should have the opportunity to succeed. >> except the ones you snuck over the border to take our jobs. >> right, obviously not them. >> we need to ship them the hell out. sayonara amigos. >> i think you mean adios. adios, amigos. >> no, no, i speak english, just like jesus christ. >> jesus christ. ♪ why can't we be friends ♪ why can't we be friends huh...fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids

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stay with us, the day's top lines are coming up. and we degree, senator cruz.

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from an obvious question to a dubious analogy, here are today's top lines. no scoffing, please. >> i will start today by asking a very obvious question. >> let me ask a simple question. >> what in the world are we doing here? >> wasting the public's time. >> it's over, right? >> today is the 16th day since house speaker john boehner shut down the united states government. >> the house looks completely incompetent, disorganized and chaotic. >> the fate of the american economy, however, ultimately rests in the senate. >> english i'll just tear it up. >> where a single senator, and especially a single senator from texas whose last name is --

>> senator ted cruz! >> a lot of people have referred to senator ted cruz as the de facto head of the republican party. >> relax, i'll give everyone time to set up. >> do you agree? >> well, respectfully, i disagree with the premise of that. >> actually, i think the premise of your question is wrong. >> well, the premise of your question isn't true. i didn't make that comparison. >> can't you give me a straight answer anymore! >> months ago, when the effort to defund obama care began, official washington scoffed. they scoffed at the american people would rise up. they scoffed that the house of representatives would do anything. they scoffed that the senate would do anything. >> once you start, you cannot stop. >> a friend explained to me today finally what ted cruz is doing and i finally understand. >> a new theory that oreos are as addictive as hard drugs. >> he's having bunny sex. >> do you buy it? >> are you high? >> i'm high, let me explain.

some people in my party took a stupid pill. >> bunnies like sex, apparently. >> let's get to our panel. joining us now is a completely did he amused krystal ball like myself. mckay coppins and josh barrow of business insider from the penalty box. five minutes for a high stick in just a moment. josh, should we all now be completely grateful that king cruz has issued a decree announcing that he's decided not to provoke a global financial catastrophe by filibustering a bill to raise the debt ceiling. should we not as good, obedient subjects bow down in gratitude to king cruz? >> i think we should be pleased. i don't think he could have caused a global financial catastrophe, because he could have delayed this a day or two and really it was going to be another five days, at least, before the government ran out of money. but good not to run up close to that deadline. what i find strange about his statement today, he said there's not a point in delaying this vote another day or two, it won't achieve anything. nothing ted cruz has done here has achieved anything. >> good point!

>> other than putting his own party's poll numbers into the tank. and he has been talking about this like there was some arousing success. he said months ago nobody said we could do this. months ago, everybody was saying he couldn't stop obama care and he couldn't stop obama care. i don't think they were saying he couldn't cause an enormous political catastrophe for his party. that he has proved he can to. >> mckay, do you think ted cruz is a bit like the david koresh of the republican party? he's a bit like a character who believes himself to be anointed, believes himself to be a prophet, ignores everything, and torches the place in the process. >> you always come to me with these excellent comparisons that get me in trouble with republican sources. no, i think, look, you know, ted cruz -- >> is he the david koresh of the republican party? >> there are two lines of thinking. one is that he truly believes that he is -- you know, the savior of the republican party. >> so he does believe that. >> the other line of thinking, this was purely cynical, he knew from the start he was never going to defund obama care, but

this would put him, you know, in a great position for 2016 to run for president. >> right. >> it's unclear which of those is true. i tend to lean toward the laer. i think most politicians like that generally are setting themselves up. but the question is next time he stages, you know, a student like this, will the house conservative caucus, will the tea party caucus, follow him the same way that -- they did this time? because i'm hearing from a lot of republicans that even among the tea party set, they're feeling pretty burned. >> and krystal, wear hearing from the "houston chronicle," which, of course, endorsed him -- >> right. >> they now describe him as part of the problem in washington. and they now know better, that that was a bad thing for them to do. >> yeah. that's absolutely right. and, of course, his predecessor was kay bailey hutchison and we are talking about how the women in the senate from the republican party, you know, they were actually part of reaching across the aisle and trying to help craft a deal. so swapping her for cruz has been devastating. but back to answer your

question, mckay. i think if ted cruz does decide to do this again, absolutely they will follow him, the line was -- lemmings with suicide vests. even if they feel burned, even if they feel they didn't get the things they were promised, they have been feeding their base this diet of knowledge that they can get rid of obama care, that they can stop the president. so they can't just turn around now and say oh, that was nonsense, we were wrong. >> that's true. mckay, you wrote something interesting recently. you want conservative activists do not care if they hurt the republican party. >> right. >> you really believe that? >> oh, yeah, absolutely. i was at the value voters summit, which is sort of this gathering of the conservative -- >> sensational event. we covered that. >> right. and i talked to a lot of them about -- it was the day after that devastating nbc poll had come out that showed the republican party's approval rating lower than ever. i asked people about that. most of them were aware of the poll. but they didn't particularly care. because what's happened in kind of this fracturing of the gop is

that every faction of the party now views the gop as the enemy. right? tea partiers think the party is way too moderate. moderates think the party has been overrun by whack owe birds. libertarians think it's way too religious. the religious right thinks they're abandoning their values, right? and so you kind of see this area where all of them are operating in their own realities. where the republican party is the villain that needs to be conqu conquered. and so, you know, when you ask people what do you think about the future of the republican party, the most common answer that i got was, well, i'm a conservative, not a republican. . right. so josh, i mean, listening to what mckay says, he describes the republican party like a sack full of ferrets. is that how you would describe it? >> that's a good and colorful way to describe it. and i think when you go to the logical conclusion of this thing mckay is saying, these activists hold, i think -- at one level, it's good to say, i'm not a party person, i'm an ideology person, i care about the government doing things that i

want it to do. that's all fine. the problem is that you need a political vehicle to advance your goals. and that vehicle needs to be smart and strategic. and you need to figure out what you can achieve and what you can't achieve. and by blowing up the republican party, these activists are blowing up their own ideological agenda. i think democrats are inappropriately down about what they have achieved policy-wise over the last few years. i think actually most of these fights really have gone liberals' way when you look at the federal budget as a whole. they're upset about sequestration -- >> we're at sequestration levels here. and what we're talking about out of this deal is some grand bargain, which is always on the terms of republicans cutting he entitlements, rather than focusing on job growth. >> well, sequestration is a win for republicans on nondefense discretionary spending, which is about 17% of the federal budget. that's where republicans are winning. liberals are basically winning on everything else. the goal of the democratic party is to protect the legal status quo on social security, medicare, obama care, entitlement programs for the

poor, like medicare and food stamps. and democrats are basically winning that fight by preventing any policy change. and republicans have this wish list for entitlement reform. but they'll only get it if they get democrats to agree by giving up something else in exchange. so i think when you look at most of the federal budget, democrats can win by preventing any legislation from passing. that's why republicans are so angry and they're freaking out and trying to break the legislative process. >> and mckay, to your earlier point, it looks as though mr. cruz is doing very, very well personally, because he's managed to raise over $1 million during the third quarter. so from his own personal point of view n terms of assessing his own motivations, all of this has been an absolute triumph, hasn't it? there is nothing in what he has done in which he has been undermined or failed in any way. >> no, not really. i mean, look, if he was setting out to become the unchallenged star of the tea party, the banner carrier of the right wing of the republican party, he is

100% been successful. you know. there was a good article in the "washington post" about, you know -- but won't this hurt him in the general election. no one is thinking about the general election right now. they're thinking how do i make it through 2016 republican primary. and, you know, this has done nothing but help in that regard. >> yeah, and to mckay's point, the sub title of this whole crisis could be marco who? >> yeah. what happened to him? poor guy. >> and it's a sad thing, because -- >> it is. >> he actually tried to have some positive role with immigration reform and you see how far it's gotten. >> i would say it was a good move probably for him to keep his head down throughout this whole thing. he is -- like you said, he has not been associated with it. every republican in congress will to some extent. but he's kind of backed away from this. >> certainly. >> immigration comes back up, he might be able to come back, you know, into that issue. >> except we are happy to report, there he is on the senate floor right now, and he is opposing this agreement. >> right. >> he's back! >> krystal ball, mckay coppins and josh barrow, thank you so

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house, martin, white house press secretary jay carney saying he's not going to weigh in on the odds. this is not a done deal until all of the votes are counted. still, things are looking good. one white house official says that they liked this deal, because it adheres to the principles president obama had initially mapped out, namely to reopen the government, increase the debt limit without gutting the president's health care law. that is what this deal accomplishes. so carney urging both chambers to pass this deal quickly, to get the government back open and running. they like what they're hearing from republicans, certainly, the fact that ted cruz has said he won't oppose. this the fact that house speaker john boehner has said we fought the good fight, but we just didn't win. of course, those are all signs that this is moving smoothly. but it's interesting, martin. we've not seen the president, haven't heard from him, haven't heard from him in a few days. that is in part strategy aimed at allowing this process to play itself out, to not get in the way, not get in the way of house

speaker john boehner as he's dealing with his own conference and let the pressure build up on republicans as we have been reporting for several days. polls show a majority of americans are putting the blame squarely on republicans for this government shutdown. and this impasse we're seeing right now. so the president sort of taking a step back, allowing the process to play itself out. i wouldn't be surprised if we saw him, heard from him once this is all finished. but, again, it's not a done deal. and they're not ready to sort of take the odds. one other point i want to make, martin. a lot of people are sort of getting ready to celebrate. remember, this deal is only for a couple of months. so it is very likely that we will be having the same conversation right after the holidays. >> indeed we will. nbc's kristen welker. thank you, kristen. >> reporter: thanks. while the house of representatives continues to score lower on approval ratings than a severe dose of gonorrhea, the senate has at least tried to spend the last few weeks as a

beacon of reason and decorum. it's worth saying it's the senate that brought the current disarray to some kind of order. we're glad to be joined by senator chris murphy, a democrat from connecticut. good afternoon, sir. thank you for joining us. i know that you have rushed to our camera. we do appreciate it. let's assume that this deal passes through the house and the senate, signed by the president. are we not back to square one? what was the point of all of this risk and harm to the american people? and was it right of the president to say to republicans that if they couldn't have their way, since they lost the election, then they were certainly not going to have their way by way of extortion? >> you know, you have three ways to try to get your way here in washington. you can pass a bill, or you can stop a bill. you can have the supreme court uphold the legislation or strike it down. and then you can take the whole thing to the electorate and see if they throw out the people that supported the legislation in the first place.

of course. >> , the health care law passed all three tests, a bill signed by the president, upheld by the supreme court and then confirmed by the electorate. good enough for your friend ted, cruz, sir, not good enough. >> that's right. and so the president had to draw a line here. and so did harry reid and the democrats in the senate. we had to say that we are not going to negotiate over the government keeping its doors open and paying our bills. and what did the republicans get out of this? zero. zilch. nada. and the only silver lining, martin, is that hopefully -- hopefully they have learned their lesson and that when we have to go through this again in three months they are not going to bring the economy to a stand still again. >> well, i don't think there's any guarantee, sir, they have learned anything. last night, you suggested that speaker boehner has to make a decision between abandoning the tea party or collapsing the world economy. do you feel that his decision to do the former will now allow him to take back some of the control that he appears to have keycede

the tea party. >> he may have done this tortured dance with them to show he did everything in his power to get them what they wanted and then had the ability to abandon them. that's no way to run a railroad. but it certainly should still carry over to the debate that we're going to have in january and february, because they know how this play, essentially, runs itself out. and the same thing is going to happen again. so i think he's given himself some room here to hopefully avoid this catastrophe, if we get in the same position again in the early stages of 2014. >> right. now senator ted cruz was one of the master minds behind this shutdown and debt limit. he got absolutely nothing. yet he still says he is doing what the american people want. i'd like to you listen to what he said just earlier. >> sure. >> i want to commend the house of representatives.

the house of representatives has taken a bold stance, listening to the american people. but unfortunately, the united states senate has refused to do likewise. the united states senate has stayed with the traditional approach of the washington establishment of maintaining the status quo. >> finally and briefly, sir, has this man learned absolutely nothing? >> yeah, you know, the american people are not your twitter followers, right? the american people are something broader. and we have this crazy thing called elections in which the american people get to actually tell washington what they want, and they sent back to washington a president who said he was going to implement the health care bill, and they sent back every single senator who voted for it and campaigned on it. i don't know that ted cruz has learned his lesson. his agenda is very different than the rest of ours, running for president, running for a republican presidential nomination and will guide his future actions, not what guides many of us, which is what's the best for our country. >> he has been running mad for a few weeks. senator chris murphy. thank you, sir.

>> thank you. coming up, we'll dissect that john boehner fist pump. but first, hampton here son has the cnbc market wrap. >> hello, martin. here's a look at how the stocks stand going into tomorrow. the dow adding 205 points. the s&p up 23. the nasdaq gaining 45 points. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some financial folks

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and now, a brief word of advice for mr. john boehner on corralling your unruly conference for the next fight. start your preparations now. because even as this unnecessary fight, current one, appears to be at an end, the man who helped

cause it has implied there will be plenty more next time. >> this fight, this debate, will continue until collectively the american people can make d.c. listen. >> joining us now is angela rye, a political strategist with impact strategies and also joining us is maria teresa kumar, ceo of voter latino and msnbc contributor. maria theresa, in less than four weeks, one week before valentine's day, we get to do this all over again. my question is whether mr. boehner has learned how to lead. and if not, are we in for another repeat performance? if you look at him earlier, throwing his fist pump, he looks like he's ready to go again. >> go again against his own republican party. that's completely de facto, the right wing of the republican party that he doesn't identify with. what's happening right now, and that was basilically the battle cry that ted cruz was really saying, was that come 2014, he knows that there's going to be a lot of republicans that are up

for re-election and they're going to need those primary voters to vote for them in spades. and unfortunately, a lot of them are tea party members. they're going to it use this discussion, once again, the debt ceiling, the american economy, as a battle cry to go -- make sure these folks go back to the polls. and that's where we have to see how do we extend this. and boehner really has to rein in the extreme tea party, because otherwise they're not going to be able to win long-term elections and also an opportunity for gms to start actually running folks that maybe before didn't feel qualified. the democratic party needs roughly 17 people to -- 17 seats in congress. >> right. >> to basically take on the majority. this is the fight that we're really looking at is what does it mean for the 2014 elections. >> and yet, angela, at a forum of far right house members today, one said that standing for what you believe is more important than having a majority. i mean, what does speaker boehner do with members like that? >> hope they leave. you know, at the end of the day, martin, you really have to question, not only what they're

saying, but what they're actually it thinking. you know, we are 16 days into the shutdown, and republicans have never put forth a strategy. it's not a cohesive strategy. there is no good talking points on this. i think that fist pump that you saw was one that was just like, and i fought and that's all i've got. i think boehner has surrendered at this point. we have talked often on this program he is someone who actually likes the art of negotiation. and he's not even had that opportunity. i think that's even more sad, martin, i talked to a colleague on the hill earlier today. and it was brought to my attention that if they were not able to pass this measure by this coming friday, members of congress and their staff would not be paid on time. so you also have to wonder the motive behind this. because they've surrendered everything. there's not even an obama care provision in this senate deal. >> right. maria, the irony is that these house republicans are saying that speaker boehner -- boehner's speakership is safe. how is that possible?

>> i think -- i think they're kind of -- they're trying to lure him into thinking that it's safe. but the fact that he basically walked away, saying he wasn't going to negotiate unless they got some sort of take-aways that they can give back to the republican party to the right wing of the republican party, and basically coming back saying we have nothing, and we still have obama care, he is coming back empty-handed. i actually think they're probably trying to mobilize internally and see if they're going to replace him. i just have a really hard time believing, martin, how long he's actually going to hold on to speakership. because either the -- either the extreme right of the party, the tea party is going to want to take him down or the republican establishment themselves are going to want to take him down because he's so ineffective. >> absolutely. >> angela, republicans are still trying to make a controversy out of the closing of the world war ii memorial. i would like to play a clip on the hearing of that this morning. and in the exchange, a republican congressman is haranguing the park service director to admit that he treated occupy protesters two

years ago differently than the vets this past weekend. take a listen to this. >> you agree with me, you did not issue a single citation for camping, right? >> i believe that is correct. >> either it is or it isn't. is it? not one single citation for camping. >> i do not remember exactly. >> well your previous testimony was you had not issued a single citation for camping, despite 100 days of noncompliance. >> that was two years ago. >> okay. well, i -- >> there it is, angela. the work of darrell issa again, and just that kind of nasty partisan witch hunt continues. >> well, martin, you know what makes these matters worse, actually. i was thinking about this. the fact that benghazi is this manufactured controversy that they continue to bring up time and time again, and then you see this kind of same strategy take place with the national park services. these folks are at fault here. they underfunded embassy security in benghazi.

>> of course. >> and then they facilitated the government shutdown. >> of course they did. >> so you've got to turn around and at some point look in the mirror like the national park service's director is working for free technically right now. he's a furloughed employee, volunteering at your hearing. you need to look at yourself's in the mirror. >> absolutely right. angela rye and maria theresa kumar, thank you so much. we'll be right back in a moment. ♪

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apply to republicans 2013. it is high time to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. ye are a factious crew. ye are a pack of wretches and sell your country for a mess of pottage and betray your god for a few pieces of money. is there a single virtue remaining amongst you? is there one vice you do not possess? you have no more religion than my horse. gold is your god. is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the commonwealth? ye sordid prostitutes. have you not defiled this sacred place and turned the lord's temple into a den of thieves by your immoral principles and wicked practices? ye have grown intotalbly odious to the whole nati