not changed with doma.he same and that is why i question the advice that mr. wallin spoke about when he talked about legal advice given to him about how to survive. it seems as though the legal advice he was talking about assumed that doma would be repealed but it seems to me that the legal advice of a competent adviser ought to understand the situation that exists. nothing has changed since doma past for these couples. >> section 2 of doma has nothing to do with any things -- anyone's benefit. to be the effect in what on what justification do proponents of repealing doma offer or repealing section 2? >> well, section 2 is that section of doma which excuses states from being required to recognize same-sex marriage as performed in other states. these are the states that have overwhelmingly determined what marriage is for the citizens of that state. overwhelmingly they have voted for that. if doma were to be repealed, presumably same-sex marriage performed elsewhere would have to be recognized in those states

of doma. many other vermont families reached out to share their experience, where small business owners pay more in federal taxes because they are not allowed to file like other married couples do. young couples are attacks when their employer provides health insurance to their spouse. there are working parents of teenaged children's, retirees with reason of life care. these are powerful stories. and there are stories, all of them will be part of the hearing record. the respect of marriage act would allow all couples were married under state law to be eligible for the same federal protections afforded every other lawfully married couple. nothing in this bill would obligate any person, religious organizations, state and locality, to perform a marriage between two persons of the same-sex. those prerogatives would remain. what would change and must change is the federal government treatment of state sanctioned marriages. time has come for the federal government to recognize these married couples

so i hope we will repeal doma. cbo came to the following conclusion in 2004, if doma were repealed, revenues would be higher by less than $400 million a year in 20052010. i want to say this. there are three fundamental prince pals at state. it makes good fiscal sense, respects states rights, and treats all married people the same. it's fair, it makes sense, and it's time. i would say to many in the audience that have waited a long time, that one of my favorite expressions was what martin luther king said and what i was proud to repeat over and over again at the gay pride parade in new york a few weeks ago. that is the arch of history is long, but it bends in the direction of justice. the hear is adjourned. [gavel] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> here's what's ahead. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> next, a look at the history of race relations in the unit

[laughter] the point is doma, defense of marriage act, is all that stands between us and the inability to distinguish between beer and water. >> president obama has ordered the justice department to stop defending the constitutionality of the defense of marriage act. >> the obama administration announced that under federal law same-sex marriages should be treated just like traditional ones. >> jon: what? no! that would mean that as of now marriage is completely defenseless and open to attacks from all kinds of mischief, something like this. >> these are pictures of anthony mack and his husband bradford wells getting married seven years ago in massachusetts. but anthony, who you see there on the right in these pictures, faces deportation back to his native australia. bradford suffers from advanced aids. if his husband is deported, he loses his caregiver, the man who has been his lifesaver. >> jon: this insidious process of anchor nursing must be stopped. [laughter] but wait a second. i thought obama said he wasn't defending the defense of marriage anymore. so why does this man have to l

to bring up doma in the midst of all this. apples and oranges here. >> when it comes to the religious right the elephant in the living room is gay marriage, let's be honest about it. >> it is, and the elephant is being painted over, what will happen next? we'll see. shannon: thank you both. have great weekend. shannon: sir paul mccartney is going to the police claiming he's the victim in a phone-hacking scandal rock england. greg palkot has more. >> reporter: the phone hacking scandal taking a new turn. we are seeing new faces and new newspapers in the spot live. it started earlier this week when paul mccartney's ex help the tere mills spoke to the bbc. she said an editor had talked to her back in 2001 and at that time he quoted to her verbatim voice mails between mccartney and milss and allegedly has admitted hacking her phone. mccarthy, who is divorced from mills says he didn't know of the hacking, but he said when he got back to the u.k. he would discuss it with police, he called it a violation of privacy. the person many h

that he could be doing and we've starting to see some movement there with this immigration thing with doma not defending the. it's a very jack that was another positive move but not quite there what about another stimulus of course the president says he's going to announce another jobs plan after labor day right after september fifth but why does the just go for another stimulus well you have to get that through congress if you're going to make it a big thing but he could sell it if he wanted to right i mean you could say david sirota wrote a piece about this today to comparing george w. bush with president obama you are part of this political system you can't just act like you're a bystander and say that congress is doing all this work and i'm just standing around here the american people elected you to do something so if they need to go out make a speech make a strong statement instead of always coming out like somebody who wants to compromise and just say i'm not sure if this would work with congress right shouldn't you push for ideas that you believe in rather than just ideas you think

now everyone is focused on doma and not focused on lots of the other little sort of wonky things that he has done that might not need a whole lot to folks who want doma done but mean a lot to people living in non-urban areas for whom that one little thing has improved their lives. >> is ironic -- who would have thought that this president would have problems communicating the narrative. but, there are problems in the respect that you just mentioned in terms of explaining the debt crisis, the debt ceiling on so many different issues. it seems to come up that we wonder or i wonder where is the connection? are you explaining this to people and what is the story you are going to tell us to help us to understand it and help us understand what you are going to do about it? >> i want to switch gears a little bit and go back to those on the right. you attached on social issues. in the past we have seen republicans and gop try to use issues like lgbt or abortion to fight off some votes from african-americans and democrats. i was at the naacp conference, as for you, there was a panel on lgbt wr

i mean, in terms of gay rights and don't ask, don't tell, doma, he hasn't really done everything thatf gay rights activists would like to him to do. he hasn't delivered on immigration reform and if he does so, i don't think it will be until after this election. so some of those wedge issues i think are going to be sort of set back for a while. at least another couple of years. and also just that sort of difference between how presidential elections work versus the sort of state and local battles you get in initiatives in initiative voting. >> broadly speaking, to go back to what johnson said in the beginning, the other thing about elections and this is true, president obama's biggest card is who the republican nominee. in every election it takes a horse to beat a horse. if you don't have a thoroughbred coming out of the republican stable it's going to be tougher for them to take on someone who's such a good campaigner as president obama is. so it's -- right now we're judging the president against -- >> i'm sorry. >> it's a question literally. >> and there's no thoroughbred in the stab