wednesday, republican senator chuck grassley criticized him for making untruthful statements to commerce march about the bulk phone records. >> oversight by congress will play an important role as we move forward in the valuation of the wisdom and value of the intelligence programs. however, congress needs accurate information in order to conduct oversight responsibilities that the constitution demands that we do under our checks and balances of government. that is why he was disturbing to see the director of national intelligence was forced to apologize for inaccurate statements he made last march before senate intelligence committee. though statements concerned one of the very important programs that we will be hearing about. nothing can excuse this kind of behavior from a senior administration official of any administration, especially on matters of such great importance. >> let's go back -- that was republican senator chuck grassley. let's go back to march when senator ron wyden question james clapper about the nsa. >> does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundr

>> well, the latest is that senator grassley sene letter to division of revenue saying, you know when did you access the records? just to sum it up, what happens, the day i announcedny campaign, a erroneous tax lien poppeup on m records, they dismissed it as a computer error. forward 3 years later, i find out from a criminal investigator on that same day, somebody illegally, accessed my records, and may have misused them in their own words. neil: do you know who might have aked it? now we know, it was e-mails back and forth between irs, we don't know anything sinister happened. but we kn they we communicating. >> right. come on, the fact that media ard about this tax lien before i did, we don't know who lea it, t there something going on in the departmt of revenue, and the irs. and the fact that the government officials have admitted to destroying the evidence, that would answer when did they access my records and why the date keeps changing, i had to laugh last week, i saw an article where head of division of revenue said he could not answer senator grassly lee's question because i h

senator grassley put in an amendment that was forcing employees to go on the exchanges like the rest of us. that was the good part. the bad part was there was -- looked like a finding or a lot of regulators believe that it prohibited the federal government, which employs over 50 people, from doing employee -- your match like other corporations do out there. that's what had to be fixed, because no one could afford these premiums. so then both parties went to the president, both boehner and reid went to the president and they worked out this -- >> neil: oh, no, no, i understand what's going on. i understand how both sides wouldn't want to be part -- >> here's how both sides it e messed it up. >> neil: i fully agree. but gretchen, normally in a town where optics is everything, this says something and it worries me. i'm just saying, as a rolling this out, for whatever reasons -- and joe, very nicely explained them on both sides -- it's telling the american people, something is up because they're finding ways around this. >> exactly. 2011 you had the waivers being given. earlier this we'r

one is in january of this year, the ranking member of the finance committee, senator grassley of iowa, sent out a letter to something like 140 schools around the country because they have endowments on a half billion dollars or more footnote. 140, think it's actually 136. remember how many colleges i said there were? there were 2,604 year degree granting schools of which 136 have endowments of half a billion dollars or more. making the point that i asserted earlier that this wealthy institution phenomenon is limited to be really quite small percentage of schools and an even smaller percentage of students since the schools tend to be relatively small. okay. so, this letter that was sent out was -- and senator grassley made it absolutely clear there is no ambiguity that his goal is to see to it that the schools spend down their endowments or spend more out of their endowments which are much of the same thing, and use that money to substitute for tuition money, bringing down the tuition so that people could better afford college. so that is his goal. now, we could talk about that, and in

. >> paul: then chuck grassley made a bill adopted by democrats and passed but they made a mistake.hey didn't decide how to fund that? >> the problem is, the members who make $174,000 a year and some of their better compensated aides because they make too much money. they would be exposed to thousands of dollars in new healthcare costs every year. >> paul: because the coverage they currently have is richer, you get $5,000 or n subsidies? >> $10,000 for a family, a lot of choices, very well functioning program. >> paul: it's a very good plan. exchanges, in d.c. there is three options in the federal program. >> paul: so members in the staff we're saying wait a minute we're going to take a pay cut because we going to have to pay for own he'll. how is this working now? >> what they are saying, congress didn't actually kick themselves out of federal program. they are going to remain in the federal program for the subsidy and get the healthcare coverage and insurance plan in the exchange. so they created really an illegal funding stream for congress. >> paul: this isn't in the law. they a

he is like grassley. i do not know what would happen if we just had ordinary people go to congress and we could have disagreements instead of trying to talk sideways. >> was there an issue you specifically wanted to ask? >> not really. it seemed like it was going to be dominated by obamacare. i am in a very safe ready district. it is just pandering to the extreme right as far as i'm concerned. i am heavily independent, leaning toward libertarian. most ofed republican my life. i voted for rick perry when he was running for state rep. >> we are going go to our republican line. caller: on the topic of town halls, i went to a town hall recently. i agree. i think it is essential for the government. i think it is important to keep representatives on their toes. it is one thing to get a letter from a constituent. it is another to answer a question directly face to face. that is good. i can agree that a lot of the time it almost seems that what they are seeing is a reaffirmation. like it times it seems is for sho

. >> well, what's sort of interesting is when the law was passed it was senator chuck grassley that putision that said congress would have to have it for themselves and staff and they didn't like what chuck grassley did and what politico writes they hurried to get the deal with the president on friday because the enrollment starts october 1st, and they are just getting back from vacation, you know, in september, and it wouldn't have time to change, it yet the continuing resolution which affects all of us expires september 30th and they left that one high and dry so they took care of themselves before the rest of us. >> exactly. any other -- and the other big part of the problem, we keep hearing we try to repeal like the health insurance tax on these things. one side of the aisle keeps looking for what the payback is, how we're going to pay for this, and i've yet to hear anybody say when you eliminate all of these congressional staffers and congressmen themselves not having to pay for their premiums that it's going to be paid by the federal government, where is that payback coming from.

that's apparently what they turned out they didn't like with chuck grassley.litico writes to get this deal on friday because the enrollment starts october 1st and just getting back from vacation in september and wouldn't have time to change it. yet, the continuing resolution which affects all of us expires september 30th. they left that one high and dry when they went on vacation. they took care of themselves before the rest of us. >> exactly. and the other big part of the problem is the thing we keep hearing when we try to repeal, the health insurance tax on these things is one side of the aisle keeps looking for what the payback is. how we are going to pay for this and i have yet to hear anyone say when you eliminate all of these congressional staffers and not going to be paid by the federal government, where is that payback coming from? we'd like a little equity there and give us some breaks, too. >> sir, thank you very much. good luck, sir. >> thank you, ma'am. appreciate it. >>> the real story behind the latest jobs numbers. turns out 65% of job growth in

in a report to senator charles grassley, the group said the regulation infringes on free speech. under the current policy, houses of worship that openly back candidates risk losing their tax-exempt status. the group americans united for separation of church and state urged congress to keep the ban and enforce it. >>> the country's largest lutheran denomination, the evangelical lutheran church in america, has elected its first female presiding bishop. reverend elizabeth eaton is the elca bishop of cleveland. she is described as a moderate who supported the denomination's decision to allow openly gay clergy but said the church needs to make room for those who do not agree. eaton's selection was a surprise. she defeated the incumbent bishop who had been widely expected to win a third term. >>> what happens when a country has a social preference for male children? in india, a history of female infanticide and abortion has led to a noticeable distortion in the population. the country has almost 40 million more men than women, a gender ratio far out of balance with most of the world. o

. >> amendment sponsored by chuck grassley adopted by democrats who were in control congress at the timend passed. they made a mistake, didn't they? they didn't decide how to fund that. >> the problem is that -- the members who make $174,000 a year and some of their better aides wouldn't qualify for subsidies. >> because they make too much money. >> subsidies based on income. so -- they would be exposed to phonily thousands of dollars in new health care costs every year. >> because the coverage they currently have is richer. you get if you are an individual 5,000 or so in subsidies. >> $10,000 for family, lot of choices, very well-functioning programs. >> it is a very good plan. as you would expect. >> the exchanges are more like medicaid plus. d.c., will is only three options versus 21. >> three options versus -- >> federal program. >> members and their staff in particular were saying wait a minute here. we are going to basically take a pay cut because we are going to have to pay for our own health care. and they are squawking and that's led to this deal. >> how do you -- how is this wo

>> senator grassley deserves credit, he knew when he passed it, they had to put one thing in, be partf obama care. the main difference, the government was contributing 75%. that's unbelievable. >> they get 75%. it is incredible. somebody that's not an employee and pay as an individual, yeah. it rubs me the wrong way. to say they don't have to be part of obama care at all is not accurate. >> i could not get health insurance in maryland because i had open-heart surgery. they were the first ones to implement obama care. i now pay $400 a month and get it. >> doesn't it look bad. >> you only pay $400 a month. >> i do. look at my health insurance bills. >> $20,000 deductible. >> $3600 deductible. >> that's a good deal. >> poor bob. >> they carve them out, said legislative aides weren't federal employees. now that part is what office of professional management is doing. >> looks really, really bad. >> coming up, charlie rangel gets racial. should those comments be acceptable in 2013? >>> later, facebook friday on "the five." go to our facebook page. send us your questions, maybe not any ques

bill: senator grassley sent a letter to the department of justice. what was he looking for?ting fast can furious and going back and forth with the department of justice on getting information about this program, and about a month ago he sent a letter directly to attorney general eric holder asking him why the justice department hadn't been disclosing these connections between fast and furious weapons and violent crimes in mexico, and the reason he sent that letter was because shortly before that we found out that a mistakes can police -- mexican police chief was killed, and firearms that were left at the scene were part of the fast and furious program. so these guns are being used in crimes not only against mexican civilians, but against mexican public officials w. e saw the death of a mexican beauty queen last year, and so we're just seeing the very violent and fatal consequences of trafficking guns to narco terrorists. bill: in the beginning, the government denied this program existed, right? >> right. bill: and then it backtracked a little bit of knowledge using the strat

senator grassley? >> mr. chairman, thank you for holding this hearing, and i think it's very important that congress do its oversight work which this hearing is part of, but it's even more important the more secret a program is the more oversight the congress has. and as you said, probably more about this program could be told to the public and the more that could be told, may be more understanding and less questioning on the part of the public. the foreign intelligence surveillance act requires the statutory framework for electronic surveillance and in the context of a foreign intelligence gathering investigating threats to the national security gives rise to the tension between the citizens' privacy rights and the government legitimate national security interest. congress through the legislation has sought and i hope successfully to strike a balance in the sensitive area. but whether it is the right balance of course is one of the reasons we are having this hearing. the reports in the media have raised impo

senator grassley. >> mr. chairman, i thank you for holding this hearing and i think it is important that congress do its oversight work which this hearing is part of, but it is even more important, the more secretive program is, the more oversight that congress has, and as you have said, probably more about this program could be told to the public and the more that could be told, maybe more understanding and less questioning on the part of the public. the foreign intelligence surveillance act provides the statutory framework for electronic surveillance in the context of foreign intelligence data. investigating threats to our national security gives rise to a tension between the protection of citizen privacy rights and the government's legitimate national security interest. congress, through this legislation, has sought and i hope successfully to strike a balance in this sensitive area. but whether it is the right balance is one of the reasons we are having this hearing. the reports in the media have raised im

likely to accomplish anything that is useful, and basic arguments is even if you accept senator grassley's view there could be a larger payout from endowment and the debt payout could substitute for revenue from tuition. even if you believe all of that that these things could happen. it's a long way from that. there would be lower constitution wigs. >>> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see online. type the author or the book tight on the search bar on the upper left side of the search page and click search. you can share anything easily by clicking share and selecting the format. it streams live every weekend for 48 hours. booktv.org. >>> you're watching booktv on c-span2. here is the prime time lineup. that happens next on c-span2 booktv. maurine beasley is next. she discusses her book "women of the washington press: politics, prejudice, and persistence." at annual festival is hosted by the franklin d. roosevelt museum in hyde park, new york. this is about 45 minutes. >>> good morning. my name is jeff and i'm the especialist here at the >> g presidential library andducati

we will call on senator grassley, and then the first panel. we will put the statement in the record. it did not arrive in time. senator grassley. >> mr. chairman, i thank you for holding this hearing. it is very important that congress do its oversight work, which this hearing is part of, but even more important the more secretive a program is, the more oversight the congress has. as you have said, probably more about this program could be told to the public. undetanding and less questioning on the part of the public. the foreign intelligence surveillance act provides the statutory framework for electronic surveillance in the context of foreign intelligence gathering. investigating threats to our national security gives rise to a tension between the protections of citizens' privacy, rights, and the government's legitimate national security interests. congress has sought through this legislation -- i hope successfully -- to strike a balance in this sensitive area. balanceit is the right is one of the reasons why we're having this hearing. the r

chuck grassley put an amendment into the bill that said if congress passes this, congress has to livenow not so much. >> correct. senator grassley put that amendment in, it was supported by chairman max baucus, the democrat chair of the committee who has since called its implementation a train wreck. then harry reid decided to try to fix something for congressional members and their staffs so they could continue to receive their premium subsidies for their health care while, meanwhile, any other american not working in congress or being a congressman would still not qualify for some of these -- bill: but bottom line is you don't like it, you don't think -- >> hypocrisy at its best. i would love to hear anyone defend congress could not live under the same laws -- bill: kirsten, can you? >> first, obamacare wasn't rammed through, it was passed like any other law. >> in the dark of night. >> yeah. it was passed. people voted for it, and it passed and became a law. and i, and this is not my understanding of what's going on, and i don't think we really know. it's actually a lot of speglati

grassley, andtor i could not help but show this.iggest pig in the iowa state fair. >> i think it was 1100 pounds. their orf for five things i go see -- there are four or five things i go see. the butter sculpture, the biggest bowl. bull, the biggest pig, and i make some time for the republican booth. us.hanks for joining this is c-span town hall. are town halls? that is the question tonight. a quick tweak. -- tweet. he asks -- let's go to our first caller. >> i went to the town hall meeting in our town a week or two ago. at 10 after nine he was built -- stillting .ontificating i talked to his staff people and said this is a waste of time. i have got better things to be doing that in this. it was part of the dog and pony show. aren't you glad you elected me to congress? he may be a nice guy. i do not have anything against arepersonally, but they politicians. i do not know what would happen if we just had ordinary people. have our disagreements instead of trying to talk sideways. >> is there an issue you wanted to ask congress? really

them the legislative history in great detail, you can see exaly how the senator put this together, grassleylly tried to fix it and got voted do. again, what happened. when scott brown won in massachusetts and then no longer have the filibuster proof majority i was nancy pelosi is said take the we have an sve it through. that's what they did. gerri: of fascinating study. a legislative nightmare that exists. unfortunately where the ones picking up the tab. grea job. thank you for coming on. now we want to know what you think. here's our question. should congress play by its own rules? log on to gerriwillis.com, vote on the right hand side of the screen. all share the results of the end of the show. we have more. would you pay 35 percent more for something that is actually worth less? it turns out millions are. we will explain what's goingn there is smart phones could be killing your relationship. i believe it. coming up. ♪ ♪ gerri: wireless carriers over hundreds of choices for service hundreds of choices for service plans, but they make no ♪ gerri: well, the most confusi pricing options ever

bill: despite chuck grassley, republican senator, had an amendment written into law, members of congresse to live with the law if they pass it. that has been trumped, doug. >> that's true, but to be fair, both democrats like the president, democratic leadership, bill, but also republicans in -- bill: i'm not taking pubs out of the argument. doug, you have to find out how many members of congress will reject this and do it publicly. >> bill, only got 10 fingers. i don't think it will be that many. bill: fewer than 10. >> that's right. really a sign of what monica is talking about, bill, it is an elite political class, acting against interest of the vast majority of the american people who can't alter laws like employer mandate when they don't like it. so is really sad and bad for our democracy. bill: monica, you were saying. >> i will give you one republican who is standing up fighting against this. so far i haven't heard anything from chuck grassley, as you mentioned put the explicit -- bill: we reached out to him. apparently on vacation. we're still working on it. >> clear just to get h

quote, the proposed regulation to be issued next week will provide for the implementation of the grassleylear these employees will enroll in marketplace plans, will not qualify for premium tax credits and like private sector employees will not lose their employer contributions for these health plans. the white house also says this regulation is in response to questions from democrats and republicans about what the law meant for them. jon? jon: so they get obamacare, and they will live under its programs, but they also get the federal government to help pay for it. >> reporter: right, right, right. jon: peter doocy in washington, thanks. alisyn: well, congress is getting ready for a long summer break with new fears of a government shutdown looming. can lawmakers make a deal before it's too late? we'll take a look at that schedule. >>> plus, if you need another reason to hit the gym, how about this? it may be very good for your genes. and we're not talking about your blue jeans, jon. a member of the fox medical a-team explains all that coming up. jon: i don't work out in blue jeans. ♪ ♪ i'm

obviously republicans opposed it of the at one point in the debate senator charles grassley, republicanenator from iowa said, look if we force all the americans to buy health care on exchanges let's fours orselves to do it too. we put in the amendment that would force congress and their staff to get their health care through exchanges. he thought the democrats were going to kill it but they actually let it go. it is part of the obamacare law. bill: meaning what grassley wanted was to make sure that people serving in congress or work forge members of congress were living by the same rules that the rest of the 300 million americans would live by, right? >> that is exactly right. now that it is on the horizon they are not happy about it. so what will happen is, if the law actually takes effect in the wait that it is written members of congress and their staff who now have this good health insurance, the government pays for 75% of it, they will have to go on the exchanges and buy insurance themselves. lower income ones would be eligible for subsidies like everybody else on obamacare. higher

this happened with chuck grassley during the crafting of the bill.exchanges where congress should have to participate democrats said sure and jumped at it. end up in the situation where we are now. the issue is not that they're trying to exempt themselves from the law, but that the federal government pays a good chunk of the health care premiums from its workers. the exchanges don't have a template available or didn't have a template available for employers to continue paying premiums. basically the exchange set up for individuals and small businesses, not for huge employers like the federal government. so congress was left with this problem. could they continue paying 75% or so of the premiums for the workers and if not, then that meant the staffers and congressmen themselves would have to pay huge premiums, 100%, all of it. they were worried about the brain drain that would happen if you had that kind of cost incurred by staffers. what happened last night, essentially the president came in with in consultation with members of congress and said we'l

this provision was stuck in at the last minute by republicans, if you recall, senator grassley. >> it was stuck in there, they felt like if the rest of america had to live under obama care, surely the sauce for the goose is good for the gander. that was the whole point. >> yes, it was. and i do understand that logic. and i personally don't like circumstances where congress literally exempts itself from laws they apply to the rest of the country, which they do. you may have seen the congressional power plant violates all sorts of clean air act rules that apply to everyone else. that sort of thing does drive me a little nuts. in this case i don't think that's fair because that's not exactly what happened here. they added this provision if you want to call it what's good for the goose provision, but did so in a way that was totally different than the law applies to everyone else in the country. >> that's the point. they rushed it through. that's why you're seeing even the president come out and delay certain pieces of it. some suggested maybe before this cake is brought out of the oven,

>> senator grassley deserves a lot of credit.knew they were going to have to be part of obamacare and it is a difference, the main one difference is, evidently the government was contributing 75% -- that's unbelievable. >> they do get 75% -- >> it is uncredible. somebody who is not an employees and i pay as an individual, an yeah. wrong way.the but to say they don't have to be part of obamacare at all, that's not accurate. >> two americas. >> i could not get health all insurance in the state of maryland because i had open get heart surgery. they were the first ones to implement obamacare.ere i now pay $400 a month and i get it. >> doesn't it look bad? >> you only pay $400 a month? >> i don'tsn buy that. >> you can look at my health insurance bills. >> you gotd a $20,000 deductibli >> yeah. >> i have a $3,600 deductible. >> that's a good deal. >> poor bob. >> but the thing is that they had carved them out and said>> legislative aides were not the federal employees. now that part is what office of professional management is of doin

grassley chimed in, it is presidential amateur hour because obama doesn't counter putin granting asylum to snowden. and another senator saying, the signature foreign policy accomplishment has just collapsed. joining me now, former indiana republican senator richard lugar. he worked for years to dismantle the former soviet union's vast arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. he traveled to russia with then senator obama to inspect facilities there. can't think of anybody better to explain what's going on here. you have deepeni eninknowledge relationship. is this a putin issue or much deeper? >> primarily a putin issue. you've described the switchover from president medvedev to putin in 2012 and that's made a very large difference. i would just say from personal experience i went to russia a year ago in august of 2012 to try to keep going the nuclear reduction program, going on for 20 years. made a proposal that the united states and russia might -- if an emergency came work together to mop up the syrian chemical weapons. because we'd had very great experience out in sucha an

the support of senator grassley and harkin. it was one that had the support of representative grayley. we were able to get support across the aisle for a bill. you know what the bill does? it strengthens our safety net for our farmers. it reduces the debt by $24 billion over the last farm bill. why would republicans in the house be against this? that's what it does. it makes sure we have the conservation programs in place. i'm glad to be on the senate side of the conference committee to get the farm bill done. but literally, i keep asking our staff every day, have the republicans in the house called to set up that conference committee, no, they haven't. called today? no, they haven't? you know why that bill isn't going anywhere? because it's in the cutting room floor in the house because tea partiers decided to shred it to pieces because they want to eliminate nutrition programs that for decades have kept millions of kids and seniors and working people from hunger. this is from the fargo forum, okay? this is not a bastion of li

>> he has not gotten -- i mean, senator grassley has done an excellent job of investigating.ice has been anything but cooperative. grassley sent a letter to the department of justice and directly to attorney general eric holder about a month ago. after we saw this revelation of mexican police chief being killed asking why his justice department was not informing congress of these new deaths that are linked to fast and furious weapons. you know, the oversight committee is still in a court battle when it comes to getting documents into deciding whether president obama's assertion of executive privilege will stand and so, you know, we have seen lots of redacted documents and we haven't seen much progress. can i tell you that brian terry family doesn't feel like they have seen much progress either. >> clayton: they are outraged. of course we spoke with them recently. here is what the atf had to say about. this they say atf has accepted sonsability for the mistakes made in the fast and furious investigation and the attorney attorney general's direction we have tone appropriate and

. -- protecting him the with call it body checking a didn't chuck grassley even mention that they should be so quick to protect somebody that is presumed innocent. the trial started october 15th 2007 and headlines like this every day agent of death they basically convicted him but the star witness was the will but i told you gave the live dash a and it was alleged by these reporters on the left you will see what of the greatest reporter armen organized crime he has had a column for years and even played himself in "the sopranos." tom robbins had worked with him and they had interviewed linda in 1988 and they claim it is suspicious they just happen to look giving you for your behalf she would be a star witness but by the way i am half italian so these are accurate. but mike was the prosecutor in you and linda was on trial so jerry, by the way at the height of the colombo war, 14 people killed including two issa bystanders and six people literally that scarpa killed himself and was no doubt leaking information to him that led to the debt that is why the d.a. indicted him. there brodeur abo

senator grassley of iowa is at 11. you can see the rest of the list.democrats making the top 10. guest: i think town hall meetings are a great thing. after 2009, it may not be a fingrise that the astrotur democrats saw on health care that they are doing fewer of these. democrats will be there. if they are supportive of obama care and immigration reform and commonsense measures, we will be there for them. we will be there for republicans if they believe and those things. we have not found any republicans that support those issues. n, massachusetts, democrats line. caller: good morning. keeping in the questions about retired federal employee, civil service. they are still going to have the federal employee health benefit plan, aren't they? to an be directed exchange? basically that is about it. guest: that is a good question. i profess that i am not a policy expert on the aca. thatt is my understanding people who are already in retirement plans, because it is your choice, you will be able to remain and those did but i would encourage folks with those typ

grassley: i support the nomination of raymond t. chen to be united states circuit judge for the federal circuit. this is the 29th judicial confirmation this year. with today's confirmation, the senate will have confirmed 200 lower court nominees. we've defeated two. that would be a 200 approval versus 2 disapproval, a 99% ra rate. i think we've had a pretty outstanding record this congress. and also doing it at a fast pace. during the last congress, we confirmed more judges than any congress since the 103rd congress and that goes way back 20 years. so far this year, the first of president obama's second term, we've already confirmed more judges than remember confirmed in the entire first year of president bush's second term. at a similar stage in president bush's second term, only 10 judicial nominees had been confirmed. so we're now at a 29-10 comparison, with president oba obama's clearly -- being clearly ahead of where president bush was at a similar time frame. as i have said, we've already confirmed more nominees -- 29 this yea

i want to get your take on a piece of tape from the committee would senator chuck grassley. [video clip] >> what information does the government collect under this program and specifically is anyone's name, address, social security number, or location collected? >> to answer the second part -- name, address, location, social security number is not collected under the 215 program at all. never has been and never will be. secondly, the nature of the collection is really very dependent on this reasonable particulates suspicion. a lot of metadata excess and a data base, it cannot be accessed unless you go through the procedures of documenting that there is reasonable articular of all suspicion that the phone number you want to ask about is associated with terrorists. host: reaction? guest: it is irrelevant. it is misleading as well. every time you make a phone call, every time i make a phone call, every time your listeners call into this show, the nsa gets a record of that call. that is what people are concerned about host: what is the answer? >> guest: the answer is to stop it

chuck grassley had an amendment with obama-care that says you have to do the same thing now.akers come on tv to talk about whether they are going to take it exemption. 57% think it's a joke. >> i can't wait for you to have harry reid on this show to explain to your viewers why the united states senate wants to exempt itself from a law that it says is so good for the rest of us. this is a double ca -- a double standard. they said if you like the healthcare you have right now, you won't lose it under obama-care. but what members of congress are saying they are afraid they will lose the coverage they like. why not give that right to opt out. bill: if a law is so good why are you worried about a brain drain people leaving their jobs on the hill? >> there are 10,000 people who work on cap him in addition to the members of the house and senate. it's a separate issue. but congress has one of the best healthcare plans anywhere in the country. wouldn't it be wonderful if they gave it same healthcare plan they have to us. bill: which means they will get subsidies to subsidize their hea

you could have shown bob schieffer interviewing chuck grassley. >> i'm sure -- >> right?hat's sexy. >> the kids. >> ashton kutcher said on the video now viral now that's sexy. >> i thought i was glad i was back from vacation. >> no. >> it's monday, august 26th welcome to "morning joe." >> what was that. >> we have richard haas author of "foreign policy begins at home". >> t.j. wants to know what you think about that? >> yeah. >> white house correspondent for bloomberg news and bloomberg tv juliana goldman, welcome. >> we're sorry that it started that way. >> the way it starts. >> wearing blinds already. >> exactly. >> and in washington, senior political editor and white house correspondent for "the huffington post" sam stein. >> who is actually was going to be there, but not old enough yet. next year. sam stein. >> he got carded. >> i wouldn't make a joke of it actually. i think that was really, really disturbing. that young lady who is 20, is obviously deeply troubled, deeply disturbed, clearly has confidence issues, eating disorder and i don't think anybody should have

it was the result of something chuck grassley, a republican, wanted to include.s sure that the federal government can still contribute these amounts that staffers in the thousands of dollars would have to pay otherwise. we'll see if they hear about it at the town halls. >> i'm predicting they will. >> steve, thank you very much. good to see you. >> thank you, shannon. >> we love hearing from you at home. today we're asking you which side are you on. should you tie government funding to defunding obamacare or do not link the two? it could lead to a government shutdown. chris writes, keep them together. last chance to slow down this disaster. will disagrees saying the two should not be linked. we want to hear from you. keep your tweets coming and tell us why. we'll read more later on in the show. police in california have arrested a man they believe is responsible for a deadly day at one of the west coast's most popular boardwalks. one person was killed, 11 more injured. we're live at venice beach with the latest. hello, dominic. >> hi there. around 6:00 yesterday

grassley also said the key to controlling cost is to help the consumer side of the equation.hat today and "the washington times." i think the president is doing a good job in trying to get the cost of tuition down in this country for our children to go to college, and at the same time, the colleges have to bring the cost for them down because if they don't, and we keep trying to get our young people to go to college, and have all college, coming out of you're not going to want to go. we need them to go because if they don't go, then we are not going to be able to have a strong nation. host: thank you for calling. in the washington post, is as the president's plan relies in part on his executive power to collect, manage, and publish data, but it is likely to draw significant criticism from colleges intent on protecting their market share come in a divided congress will present an immediate obstacle to the owners of the planet require legislation. to that last caller's point about what colleges can do, college leaders they write say, rising tuition is the function of labor cost

what the congress did under chuck grassley, put in provisions saying members of congress and their officialbe in the exchanges; right? they didn't put in the tax credits for them to buy the insurance and exchanges so low and behold, went bananas say, hey, wait a second, we don't want that deal, but 75% subsidy. do the math. watch this. say you're a congressman, make $174,000, go for the silver plan. that costs you $5300. the subsidy we pay for for members of congress and staff everies, they get out of pocket, only payy$1300. we pay $# 4,000 for that subsidies, taxpayers, for those guys to be in the exchanges. the regular guy doesn't get a subsidy at that level or a tax credit because they make too much money to get the tax credits; right? this is such a mess the way they tried to fix this for members of congress and staffers where they can still preserve the taxpayer funding for the health insurance. the other thing, too, is that it's really controversial. congress gets to pick and choose which of their 20,000 staffers will be in the exchanges. >> how convenient. >> they have to be official