let's discuss with democratic congressman elijah cummings of maryland.e oversight and government reform committee. congressman, thanks so much for joining us. >> good to be with you, wolf. >> i know you must be very frustrated. were you surprised to learn that apparently no one was really in charge of this website rollout, even though they had a couple years to plan for it? >> yeah, a bit surprised, but wolf, what we've got to concentrate now on is making sure that the website works and i'm hoping that republicans and democrats will see this not as a partisan issue, but as one that we have to make work for all the american people. failure is just not an option. >> let me get to that point, because your responsibility is congressional oversight. >> that's right. >> when there are mistakes in the executive branch of the government, your responsibility is to learn from those mistakes, report to the american people what happened and then hopefully we won't repeat those mistakes down the road. >> that's exactly right. >> your committee has a legitimate oversi

congressman elijah cummings joins us next.tay with us. [ lane ] are you growing old waiting for your wrinkle cream to work? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula. to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®. >>> as we have seen, the president is in brooklyn, promoting a new model for secondary education. his health and human services secretary is deep in the heart of texas, promoting the new option for millions of uninsured. enrollment in health exchanges through the affordable care act. earlier today, touring a health center in austin, kathleen sebelius naturally faced questions about the troubled rollout of healthcare.gov. >> now there are very specific diagnostics in place. there will be some updates and metrics on a regular basis. it is far from optimal, but as the president said on monday, health care -- the affordable care act is a lot more than a website. >> indeed, it is. and the secretary helped some texans enroll in person at that health center today. and as for

let's point to elijah cummings of maryland joining us right now. so what do you think, congressman? is there any give on the democratic side as far as this individual mandate is concerned that would allow the government to stay open? >> absolutely not. wolf, we have a situation where the republican party has allowed a small minority, the tea party republicans, to basically hijack not only in whole hostage, not only the republican party but the congress and the country. keep in mind wolf, this is a law, the affordable care act is a law that has been passed, signed into law and then affirmed by the supreme court of the united states. and i was listening to my good friend culverson as he talked about texas. in texas, one thing he doesn't mention is one out of four people there don't have insurance. and so what the republicans are asking us to do is tell folks to be denied something that they have already been granted by the congress. an opportunity to get insurance, to get well and to stay well. and they want to delay that for a year, while we extend the government, the cr, for a month

joining me now is congressman elijah cummings andmy sh michel cottle. thank you both for coming on the show tonight. congressman, 30 hours from the beginning of a default, and house republicans pull their bill after the right wing heritage action group urged a no vote. what do you make of this. >> well, reverend, if you look at the heritage memo they sent to republicans, it is all about the affordable care act. they are still upset with it. they're trying to destroy it. what they're saying is, look, the bill that boehner is presenting does not have the kind of provisions that we want -- it doesn't address the affordable care act and kill it, so we don't vote for it. so basically what's happened is that the republican party has allowed the tea party to control it in the congress. they and the heritage foundation, they are controlling everything. and at the same time threatening -- they've already shut down the government for 15 days, reverend. 15 days at $1.6 million a day. over $2 billion a already. and then at the same time, reverend, they are threaten

elijah cummings ranking member on house oversight and government reform committee. he's joining us now. congressman cummings, i appreciate your time. there's division within the democratic party over whether the administration should give people more time to sign up for health insurance. your colleague congressman barrow, a course of senate democrats. why is that a problem given the rocky rollout. >> first of all, i think we need to elect the folks that are working on this clear up this website problem. we just heard this morning in the commerce committee all of the witnesses on the panel said they believe they can have it corrected in a timely fashion. >> what's sufficient for you? >> well, it will be in the next month or two. clearly they were asked that question by ranking member waxman and they clearly stated they could get it done and get it done in a way people would be able to enroll. keep in mind we're on the 24th or 25th day out of 100 and some days. it's going to be okay. i believe that. again, the president clearly wants to make sure those people who this

let's go back to congressman elijah cummings.sman, what is this republican addiction to bimonthly chaos and fraught circumstances for the economy of the united states? >> i think it's basically to hold congress and the nation hostage. and to create these so-called emergency situations, so as to extract the things that they want, things they could not accomplish through the regular legislative process. they want to do it through the back door. >> so what are we going to do? are we going to deny veterans' benefits again in six weeks? are we going to deny meals on wheels? are we going to throw children off head start every six weeks? is that where we are? >> unfortunately, that is the concern of the democrats. keep in mind, martin. we now have 30 republicans who have come out and said they would vote with all of the democrats to have a continuing resolution, a clean continuing resolution, which would, of course, open up government immediately. and, again, we -- and i agree with the president. you cannot function with regard to a con

but congressman elijah cummings says... republicans should not focus on partisan politics. (cummings) "we've had a few tea party republicans who have hijacked the congress." (cummings) "they are so concerned about the affordable care act that they are willing to shutdown the congress, deny people an opportunity to get the services that they need." mayor stephanie rawlings-blake expressed her concern over the shut down she says lawmakers' inability to compromise sets a bad example. "we're showing our children that the federal government can not function can not comprise the lessons that we try to teach them everyday theyre showing us that the people that we send to washington to do the work of the people can't figure it out. " despite the government shutdown, obamacare officially opens for business today. open enrollment is officially underway on the government healthcare page... healthcare dot gov. ((ad lib)) new online exchanges will allow you to buy policies -- even if you have pre- exisng medical conditions. there are four packages... "bronze" is basic, "silver," mid- ra

congressman elijah cummings will continue to pocket his paycheck as he works to protect the interests of those 800 thousand furloughed federal workers... and representative chris van hollen-- says he's focused on opening the federal government.. ...and with an 89 thousand dollar net worth-- when it comes to his salary--he's keeping it. by the way those net worth numbers came from federal financial disclosure forms and that... brings us. ..to our question of the day./.. how do you assess..the performance... of... elected leaders in washington? to weigh in.... go... to... fox- baltimore dot com... where this question's... on... our... news survey .../. of course ... you can ...also sound off through facebook. or send us a tweet... at fox- baltimore... criminal charges have been filed against a 55 ye

. >> elijah cummings says he knows why families are enticed by the quick fix loans. >> it's like quickand. and people are already drowning in debt, and this puts the speed of that drowning on steroids. >> earlier this year he co-sponsored the safe lending act, if passed the bill would force online lenders abide by the laws in the state in which they are lending. it would allow the federal government to help enforce state rules. >> so what we want to do is be a deterrent. we want the federal government to be able to step in and help out. >> we reached out to the online lenders alliance which represents companies that offer internet pay day loans. it opposes the safe lending act and says it would effectively eliminate online access to short-term credit for millions of americans. ed addses that it supports the consumer credit access innovation and modernization act it says would create a federal framework for online lenders to be chartered. for ratcliff she paid $210 to borrow 500. next time she says she'll avoid payday loans entirely. >> never. i will never go through that again. >> if y

. >> now, congressman hoyer, and another congressman like elijah cummings and jim more ant from virginia, wanted the federal workers that were standingstand behind them to know that theytht are being supported and it was time to end this game that congressmen hoyer called it. federal workers can't be pawned in this obsessive game. tom. >>> live from capitol hill.hi thanks, paul. >>> virginia congressman jim j morant was no traininge strangee issues, he was in office, during the clinton administration. i want to start where we are a right now. are you hearing anything from the chambers of the capital that there could be some kind of deaf in place to end this. >> not to end it, in fact, the deal so far is to extend it, byb picking and choosing small agencies that don't cost a whole lot of money but are causing ag whole lot of anx in terms of members con constituents. for example, the national parks being closed the smithsonian orr the national holocaust museum. those are the three agencies that the majority is going to i trys to exexempt from the shutdown. >> congressman, you servedsm duri

joining me now are congressman elijah cummings and krystal ball. thank you both for coming on the show. >> good to be with you. >> thanks for having us. >> the gop didn't have problems with glitches under president bush, so what's changed? >> well, clearly they want to do everything that they can to destroy the affordable care act. reverend, they have tried to defund it. they've tried to delay it. and they've tried to destroy it. keep in mind, we're just off of them wasting a $24 billion trying to do that. in other words, when they shut down the government, they did. that was an effort to kill the affordable care act. and for what? and so they have changed their tactics a little bit. what they've decided to do is they're going to have hearing after hearing after hearing throughout several committees in the congress to simply criticize. they're not about trying to make it better. they're about criticizing it. and i am convinced that the glitches that we see will be worked out, and that when we go back to medicare part "d" that you talked about a mom

with that intra-party dispute, i want to bring in congressman elijah cummings. look, some are saying that he will not negotiate, even democr democrats are critical of his unwillingness to reach out to folks on capitol hill. why not negotiate now? >> negotiate over what? see that is the question. they -- at one time -- >> well, they say delay for a year -- >> let me ask you a question, the affordable care act, that was one thing. they realize that they could not -- they tried to defeat it when we got it through the house and the senate. and then had it signed by the president and affirmed by the supreme court. so they couldn't get their way that way through the regular democratic process. so then they said okay, let's shut down the government. well, they shut down the government. now, they say we're going to threaten the creditworthiness of the united states and possibly the world economy. to do something that we're supposed to do. >> i don't understand -- >> wait a minute, we're supposed to keep the government open and we're supposed to pay our debts. >> what ha

here's what congressman elijah cummings said. >> we have sadly, and it pains me to say that, sadly a republican party at war with itself and it basically has suspended government, it's suspended our democracy, it's suspended almost any kind of order. >> just to give you a review of what happened yesterday, it started around 11:00 a.m. john boehner coming out and announcing he's got his own plan to open the government and avoid default. then late last night or late night, rather, it turns out he can't get the votes. the tea party conservatives didn't think the deal had enough in it. heritage action opposing the plan and so did moderates. a great line from jake sherman in politico we were reading this morning. boehner, can tor, mccarthy face an ongoing dilemma. the house gop conference is like a balloon. squeeze it in one place and a problem pops out somewhere else. so, joe, looking at this balloon, what does boehner do right now with it? >> he's going to -- it's going to pop in his face. i mean he has to give up on this now, and i think he knows it. your reporters are saying so. this

. >>> joining me now is congressman elijah cummings.gressman, welcome to the show. >> good to be with you. >> my friend, you're in congress. the president has been over backwards to be bipartisan. so tell us what the real lesson here is of these republicans who fail to not only be bipartisan, but to do anything that would help the nation get on a more healthy and, if you will, progressive path. >> i think you state it very clearly a little bit earlier. keep in mind, we have now had some 45 votes, and those votes were to destroy the affordable care act. they have pushed for defunding it. and they have pushed for delaying it. but all of it is about trying to kill it. and it's so interesting, revere revere reverend did ison that suddenly we have these naysayerers saying we're in trouble, i'm so afraid, we've got to throw it out. that is not the america that i grew up in. it's simply not. we are a can-donation. and so we have some glitches. we'll work those out. but the president is absolutely right. this is far far more than the website. i

. >> elijah cummings is here. >> elijah cummings is the ranking member of the government reform committeeand is our point person on issues related to federal employees. it would be better if all the folks with us were at work on behalf of the american people. they don't want to shut down. neither do democrats. the proposition that some republicans have said the democrats want to shut down the government is so absurd and unbelievable that it is not worth responding to. we had a shutdown 17 years ago. the republicans were in charge of the house of representatives and they tried to stare down bill clinton by cutting education of our children and bill clinton said, we are not going to do that. they should on government. this is a pattern for them. economy pattern for our and our national security. play aeral employees crucial role in keeping america strong, safe, and free. to useepublicans decided them as pawns in their sensitive partisan game -- their obsessive partisan game. i remind them that there was an election and it was an issue that was front and center. the american people reelected

this is from democratic rep elijah cummings followed by republican howell rogers. let's listen. >> today is day five of the shutdown created by the tea party extremists who are harming our country by holding our government hostage. their placing our economy and our national security in jeopardy by waging an ideological wash to overturn the law of the land. >> the house has approved 15 different options to fund a government, sent them over to the senate. sadly the only response is a loud snore. >> so there you hear the arguments coming from both sides. now senate democrats say these smaller funding bills are dead on arrival because we want to pass a spending bill to reopen the government all together and then we'll talk about the budget issues of so much importance. that's not where things are standing now. and that's how it's been for the last several days here. we are on the fifth day of the shutdown. still totally unclear when it will end. we expect to put the question to the republican leaders that are coming to the mikes in just a few minutes, fredricka. >> and

barak obama continues to, do well, i would have as much money as willie gooichlts let's go to elijah cummingng. >> you are the moderator. >> actually, carl, i am the moderator. >> congressman sounds like he wants in. go ahead, congressman. >> let's go back to the song "amazing grace." it says i once was lost, i was blind, now i can see the song i have been seeing all my life. i can tell you that we have, sadly, it pains me to say this, sadly a republican party at war with itself and it basically has suspended government, it's suspended our democracy. it's suspended almost any kind of oefrd. they don't know what they want. the sad part about all of this is the american people suffer and you know i hear people say, well, you know, it's not going to be as bad as you think. well, you wait tore those social security checks and disability checks, those 58 million checks stop going into the bank and the people who have. >> elijah, do you think we could get there? >> i don't know. hopefully today we will get something from the senate that we can live with, then the question becomes, joe, what happen