mind, as we bring in john harwood and eamon javers. the white house is facing heat over benghazi, the i.r.s. matter, the associated press. the attorney general will hold a news conference in about 20 minutes, delayed from a 1:00 p.m. start time. he's going to be talking principally on medicare fraud, but do you expect he's going to get queried about this a.p. story as well as the other things in the news? >> tyler, if you look at that front row, that press conference that you just saw, the empty podium, the front row of reporters are all chomping at the bit, i can guarantee you to ask questions about eric holder's personal knowledge about this organization, what did he sign off on, and when did she sign off? one of the question toss watch for is whether or not eric holder will recuse himself in any of they. the question here is why did the department of justice feel it was necessary to go after phone records for over 20 phone lines impacting as many as 20 reporters, the department of

my colleague john harwood printed this one out. it is hot off the presses and we're going through it right now. i've spoken with an official who is familiar with the contents of this report who gave me a rundown on what it is that we're seeing here. a couple of key points from the report that we should highlight here for you. the report asked were there inappropriate criteria used here by the irs to scrutinize conservative groups. the report concludes, i'm told by the official yes, there were inappropriate criteria. another question were there inappropriate delays in approving the tax status of some of these conservative groups. and finally, were the irs folks asking inappropriate questions about these conservative groups? and i'm told on that question as well, the report concludes, yes, they were asking inappropriate questions of the conservative groups. another couple of points here in compiling this report they

challenges facing the obama administration, let's turn to cnbc's chief washington correspondent, john harwood. john, clearly these are all controversies, kind of looked at as one thing, but as you separate them, which in your mind meets the standard of scandal and potentially most damaging to the administration? >> they're very different. the phone records case is a legal and law enforcement controversy over a policy judgment, may turn out to be a bad judgment. people in our business don't like it, but there's no evidence the american people are going to be that upset about it just as they weren't upset with some of aggressive tactics the bush administration used in the war on terror. benghazi was a terrible security failure, cost four american lives. but we knew that on day one, and the more we learn about the aftermath, the less it looks like a scandal and more it looks like typical bureaucratic and public relations end fighting. the irs scandal is different. there's clear misconduct there. if it's tied to partisanship, that's a significant problem. if it's tied to the president, that is a

john harwood, tyler, john, handicap what we heard from the president? >> we just heard that he doesn't think we need a special prosecutors. republicans have in the next phase of their response have called for a special prosecutor to look into what happened the president said that the jcriminl investigation that the justice department has started, that we don't need that. certainly past administrations when they have appointed special councils or prosecutors have often found them a burden later on because they extend for a very long time. >> do you expect that people on the gop side who have been raising those concerns and calling for a special council or a special prosecutor will cease and desist on that? >> i absolutely don't think they will cease and desist but the president is try fog say that by all the actions i have taken including firing the active irs commissioner and his boss is gone, having been appointed, served a five-year term and left office. i think the president drew that line there and i would not expect him to waiver. >> the turkish pr

john harwood joins us from washington with more. how common is it for lobbyists to play a big role in writing legislation or regulations? >> reporter: pretty common, tyler and the reason is that the industries have a lot of expertise and many industries hire as their lobbyists people who worked on the very committees that are doing the legislation in question. so it's a very cozy relationship. this is why they call it washington's revolving door. it's been going on for quite a long time. it works both ways to the benefit of business which is something especially when republicans are in control of the house, is an aid to business. campaign contributions help with that. organized labor, environmental groups, people who align with the democratic party do the same thing. >> this is news to most americans. how should we respond to this? should we be angry or should we be pleased they are working together? >> reporter: well there is something to be said for the expert us the that they bring to the table. but i think the important thing is

john harwood joins us from capitol hill with the latest. over to you, john. >> reporter: he said he didn't know much. that's the short version. we didn't learn much new from doug shulman or from steven miller, who replaced him as the acting irs commissioner until president obama fired him last week. steve miller did acknowledge that he was the one who orchestrated that planted question at a bar conference that resulted in the disclosure of this in advance of the i.g. report, and he took some flak from senators on the committee for not having corrected the record after earlier irs officials had said the targeting had not taken place. >> you didn't mention any of this in your responses to me, to the senate, or any other congressional body. mr. miller, that's a lie by omission. there's no question about that in my mind. it's a lie by omission. >> mr. hatch, i did not lie. >> you what? >> i did not lie, sir. >> you lied by omission. you knew it was going on, and you knew that we had asked. you should have told us. >> now, we don't expect to get

they want to change the tax system and our john harwood has the story. stay with us.mple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed: the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ made a retirement plan, they considered all her assets, even those held elsewhere, giving her the confidence to pursue all her goals. when you want a financial advisor who sees the whole picture, turn to us. wells fargo advisors. >> welcome >>> welcome back. the tax man cometh. wheel the irs political scandal is engulfing capitol hill, there are two legislators trying to move forward on tax reform. john harwood is in washington right now with the possibilities of reworking the tax code. john? pl >> maria, everybody is wondering whether this irs scandal is going to hurt president obama, crippl

john harwood at the white house. thank you, john. >>> the president predicted the latest assault on his integrity earlier today in his remarks on the misguided benghazi conspiracy theorists. >> we've had folks who have challenged hillary clinton's integrity, susan rice's integrity, mike mullen and tom pickering's integrity. it's a given that mine gets challenged by these same folks. they've used it for fund-raising and, frankly, if anybody out there wants to actually focus on how we make sure something like this does not happen again, i am happy to get their advice and information and counsel. >> let's bring in our panel now. in los angeles, democratic strategist dob bob shrum for "t daily beast." and with us from the white house, msnbc contributor, jonathan capehart, opinion writer for the "washington post." john, the president was adamant today his administration was as transparent as it could have been in these first hours after bengha benghazi. as soon as they had more information, they released it. obviously none

john harwood joins us now with the details. good evening. >> good evening, larry. the white house dribbled out a little more information today about the disclosure at the end of the process, after the i.g.'s report, investigation had been done, jay carney last week had said the white house council's office was informed in late april and didn't pass on that information to the president. today, he clarified that earlier, lawyers in the white house council oofs in mid-april got the news. then on april 24th, kat rumner the white house council and shared that with the chief of staff and now jay carney maintains they did not tell the president because there is nothing he or anyone else could do at that point. >> we knew the subject of the session and we knew the nature of some of the potential findings, but we did not have a copy of the draft report. we did not know the details, the scope or the motivation surrounding the misconduct and we did not know who was responsible. most importantly, the report was not filed and still very much subject to change. >> reporter: of c

cnbc correspondent john harwood joins us now with the details. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry, the president again was trying to get past this scandal yesterday by firing the acting irs commissioner stephen mill early. today it was by rejecting calls for a special count sim. he justified that at a news conference at the white house by pointing to the inspector general's report, investigations by many committees of congress and more than. attorney general holder also announced a criminal investigation of what happened. between those investigations, i think we're going to be able to physical out exactly what happened, who wassed involved, what went wrong and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it. >> but, of course the president is going to be right back in it again tomorrow. because the house ways and means committee whose chairman, dave kevin, i interview -- dive dave kemp and mat t baucus. he wants more answers from miller on exactly what was behind the political target. >> well, he's still the acting commissioner until j

john harwood live in washington with the late e. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry, the senate just finished voting after holding the voting opened for senators to arrive in town. 69-27. they passed this bill. right now, there are a lot of online sales taxes that are on the books as owed but are not collected because consumers don't file tell with their tax return. senate bill would force states that have sales taxes to levy those taxes in states where it applies and not have consumers be obligated to file those on their tax return. however, larry, this is not likely to go anywhere because they tell me the appetite for anything that raises taxes on anybody, even though they're owed and not checked is not very great. look for the house to send it to the house judiciary committee. study it to death, not pass it in this congress. >> all right. we'll leave it there. many thanks to john harwood, we present it very much. -- appreciate it very much. >>> let's bring in texas republican senator ted cruz who apparently voted against t

thanks, john harwood there, very much. mandy? >> indeed. let's talk more about this. have joining us today david french, senior vice president of the national retail federation. that's an association of retailers that is working to support the proposed new law. steve dobianco is executive director of net choice, an association of retailers including ebay working to oppose it. to both of you, great to have you on the show. david, i'll start with your side, first of all, why you think taxing internet sales is a good idea. >> well, you know, it's all about a level playing field. the business of retail is changing, and channels of distribution are converging. but we believe retail is retail. a sale is a sale. and fair is fair. >> steve, on the other side of that you represent some of the retailers who i would imagine would lose out from this like ebay. and they oppose this new tax. >> yeah. it's funny, when the largest retailers in the country spend millions lobbying for a bill that's about fairness and level playing field, i think you need to hold on to your wallet. espe

john harwood now with the story. john?ust stepped out of a white house briefing with press secretary jay carney, where he is dominated by questions about the benghazi public statements the administration made, but he also, at the beginning of the briefing, got questions abouts this irs revelation. basically what happened is last year the irs denied that it was singling out tea party groups for special scrutiny. today, the irs acknowledged that that had happened. jay carney said that this was inappropriate. he wants to see the irs make corrections. said there's an inspector general's investigation. he didn't add new information to what we had already heard about it, but this is an embarrassment for the white house, especially as these questions about the public statements on benghazi are also dominating public attention, maria. >> so john, let me get this straight. during that heated, you know, presidential campaign, that we both covered, as so many other colleagues, basically, the irs targeted conservative groups and audit

john harwood in washington now with the story. john?ittle bit more information about disclosure of the scandal. last week jay carney, white house press secretary, said the white house council's office was informed the week of april 22nd, didn't tell the president. today he clarified that lawyers in the council's office heard the prior week. white house counsel kathy rum ler herself was informed on april 24th. she shared the news with white house chief of staff and other senior officials. carney maintains still they didn't tell the president because there's nothing he or any of them could have done. >> we knew the subject of the investigation and we knew the nature of some of the potential findings. but we did not have a copy of the draft report. we did not know the details, the scope or the motivation surrounding the misconduct. and we did not know who was responsible. most importantly, the report was not final. and still very much subject to change. >> reporter: now, maria, it's important to note that nothing that jay carney talked abo

john harwood joins us now with the details. od evening, john. >> larry, we didn't get a lot of new information at the senate finance committee hearing from doug schulman, the irs commissioner who left office last december. or from steven miller, the acting irs commissioner who president obama fired last week. steve miller did acknowledge that he was behind the flawed rollout plan involving a planted question for an irs official to come out with the news of the misconduct. and he took some heavy fire from senator orrin hatch for failing to correct the record after the irs had told congress targeting did not happen. >> you didn't mention any of this in your responses to me, to the senate or any other congressional body. mr. miller, that's a lie by omission. there's no question about that in my mind. it's a lie by omission. >> over at the white house, press secretary jay carney got a little bit impatient when he was peppered with inquiries about the exact timing of when the white house was informed of the end of the ig report audit

john harwood has the latest developments from washington. john?ott, the biggest news today, aside from the fact that the president appointed a mid-level omb official as the new acting irs commissioner, he fired the old one yesterday, was that the president ruled out the calls that have been made from some for a special council, special prosecutor to take over this case. he said, in light of the inspector general's rooteport t the irs has done, that the treasury has done, that the various congressional committee investigations, and more beyond that, that we've got plenty of investigating. >> the ig has done an audit. it's now my understanding going to be recommending an investigation. and attorney general holder also announced a criminal investigation of what happened. between those investigations, i think we're going to be able to figure out exactly what happened, who was involved, what went wrong, and we're going to be able to implement steps to fix it. >> now, earlier today, i also interviewed the chairman of the house and senate tax writing com

john harwood's covering it all for us and has the details in front of the white house. john?r, starkly different economic messages from the white house and from house republicans today. president obama went to austin, texas, to push the message that was contained in his budget, which is that the key for the growth of the middle class, growth of the economy, is economic growth, as indicated by two executive orders, one of which would expand government data sharing for businesses and also would foster the creation of manufacturing centers. he says that government action is necessary to encourage the growth of the middle class. >> part of our challenge, you've got to try to see the same kind of seriousness of purpose in your leaders, from washington to wall street. all of us have to commit ourselves to doing better than we're doing now. and all of us have to rally around the single greatest challenge that we face as a country right now, and that's reigniting the true engine of economic growth, a rising, thriving middle class. >> now, republicans on the other hand in the house of

john harwood will join me and zachary carabel.lus the department of homeland security with the student visa system. nbc justice correspondent pete williams will join us. and the n.r.a. holding its annual conference at the same time connecticut officials are grappling with what to do with sandy hook elementary where 26 students and educators were massacred. should the building be demolished? our "news nation" gut check. too celebrate the union of tim and laura. it's amazing how appreciative people are when you tell them they could save a lot of money on their car insurance by switching to geico...they may even make you their best man. may i have the rings please? ah, helzberg diamonds. nice choice, mate. ...and now in the presence of these guests we join this loving couple. oh dear... geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day

that's what our own john harwood wrote in his "new york times" op-ed piece today.ns have powerful incentives to strike a budget deal right now. >> what are those incentives? let's ask the man himself, john harwood joining us now, along with our very own rick santelli. john, why is it the gop might actually want obama to reach some type of entitlement reform here? >> there are two reasons. one, kelly, is that the republicans still need to raise the debt limit later this year, and leaders have told their members that they're going to have the chance to vote for spending reductions, equivalent to the amount that they're going to raise the debt limit. where do you get the spending reductions? they show no inclination to go back at domestic spending. we're dealing with a sequester right now, so the place to get the money is entitlements. but the only way entitlement reform is going to happen is with a deal with president obama. the second thing is that, remember, republicans have talked for a very long time about reining in these programs. they're very costly, they driv

. >> you just heard john harwood report about a concession that yes, in fact, certain groups applying tax exempt status whose names include cparty pariot in them. do you think it will become something large. >> i think that singling out any particular point it sounds as if the end of the day that the organizations were not penalized. it seems to me that there is a fine line between a chartable organization and one that is going to do politics. and the american taxpayer needs to know are we now giving tax exempt status to an organization that is going to try to influence the politicians or political votes or policy. so i think that those that may cross that political line do deserve a bit more scrutiny. >> thank you very much for being with us. >> the s&p and bull market territory next where hedge fund managers now are putting money to work in this record breaking market. as we go to break, a look at 3m. another dow component hitting a 52 week high. so as their financial advisor, i'm helping them look at their complete financial picture -- even the money they've invested elsewhere -- t

john harwood at the white house. turning now to our market focus. we begin with big name tech out with earnings after the bell. dell said it's earnings fell as pc sales continue to decline. the world's third largest pc maker made 130 million in its latest quarter. sales also fell off more than 2% to 14 billion, that was actually ahead of estimates. chairman mychal bell wants to take the company private for about $24 billion, but activist investor carl icon and another major shareholder say that's too low and they want new leadership. shares were flat today to close at 13.43 but are up about 32% this year. shares of net app spiked today after reports that activist investor elliott management has taken a stake and will push for changes on the company's board of directors. the storage equipment maker is the second best performer today. >>> kohl's fell more than 4%. the earnings results still managed to beat expectations, the first quarter started slowly. its growth in its second quarter expects between one and three%. shares started up 5% today. at the

john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times." and ed o'keefe of "the washington post." >> award-winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we know why we're here. to chart a greener path in the air and in our factories. >> to find cleaner, more efficient ways to power flight. >> and harness our technology for new energy solutions. >> around the globe, the people of boeing are working together to build a better tomorrow. > that's why we're here. >> additional corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by prudential. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. this week saw a remarkable collision of outrage and investigation, preening and politics. and as the week en

. >>> john harwood, chief washington correspond spoenent more. when you look at the scandals, irs, benghazi, a.p. issues, is the white house handling this correctly? >> hard to say whether they are handling it correctly, erica, until more time passes and we see the president's political standing. they ended the week on an aggressive note. slow on irs, but waited until they got the i.g. report and fired steven miller. that was adecisive step and the president rejected calls for a special counsel. on benghazi, they finally released e-mails after republicans did some political maneuvering to put out stories on the benghazi attack. and ap phone roecords case, the did lay out their rationale and support a shield law. >> what does this do to the second-term agenda? are we starting to work their way to washington? >> it potentially could interfere with his agenda, but, remember, republicans themselves have powerful incentives to cooperate with him on some issues like immigration, they need that to broaden their party base and on the budget deficit, the

cnbc correspondent john harwood joins us now with the details. g, larry, the president again was trying to get past this scandal yesterday by firing the acting irs commissioner stephen mill early. today it was by rejecting calls for a special count sim. he justified that at a n

john harwood joining us here. i believe in an interview, the drone issue was a daily struggle for him. obviously a very pertinent and important issue. just to very quickly show you what is going on with the markets. the dow is up by 16 points. it was up sharply. it's only 1/10th of a%. the markets want to go high. do not like a two-way market. >> i think i can speak for the whole team when i say that you're welcome, america. >> why? >> on deck. >> you're going to take credit for that? why not. >> sure. >> do you need to lock in your mortgage today? >> plus wi will give you 1,142 reasons why japan should be smiling today and then we will get market insight from germmy seagull. he thinks that the dough is going to go to 17,000. does he think you need to hedge your bets at all? a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the

john harwood live in washington with the late e. ng, john. >> good evening, larry, the senate just finished voting after holding the voting opened for senators to arrive in town. 69-27. they passed this bill. right now, there are a lot of online sales taxes that are on the books as owed but are not collected because consumers don't file tell with their tax return. senate bill would force states that have sales taxes to levy those taxes in states where it

john harwood is in washington with details. john? >> reporter: bill, this coming week, the house of representatives is going to vote when they return from their break on a republican bill to allow the treasury to prioritize payments in the event we hit the debt ceiling later this summer. what this bill would do would be to say, we're going to first pay bond holders and not default, in the legal sense, on those obligations, and then we'll prioritize after that, which bills we can pay. i spoke to a senior administration official this morning. they are adamantly opposed this bill. they say it would spook financial markets. that even if you meet your obligations to bond holders, that, in fact, if you defer any only obligations that the government has committed to, in a practical sense, that is default, that is going to frighten financial markets. that is going to affect future treasury auctions and so this is the beginning of the negotiation that's going to play out for some time. i talked to a staff member of the house leadership. they

john harwood, the so-called cadillac tax was always part of the plan but people are finding this a bita surprise. we have not followed the details of this health care debate. they're going to be learning more as this law becomes fully implemented. this is an intended consequence. that is to say, we wanted to find a way to restrain health care costs, something that both parties had wanted to do. one way to restrain it is to put the tax in. it's a 40% excise tack on the cadillac plans. it applies to those plans that have a value per family of more than 27,500. it doesn't kick in until 2018. why are they doing this? they're doing it to restrain health cost inflation, the principal goal of this tax. they do it, that will be accomplished, if it works through a higher deductibles and co-pays, and the people most concerned about this have been labor unions the why? labor unions tend to negotiate the most valuable health insurance plans. one of the things that will be a challenge for ordinary consumers is separating what happens because of the tax on what happens every year, businesses being h

john harwood is in d.c. with details on that. john? >> bill, i want you and kayla to brace yourselves, sit down, our viewers too, because this is shocking. there is some good news coming out of washington and it's contained in this cbo report. a new estimate of the federal budget deficit. it's now $200 billion smaller than it was estimated just in february, $642 billion is the projection for the current fiscal year. that's 4% of gross domestic product, which is less than half in both dollar terms and percentage of gdp than it was in 2009, the first year of president obama's presidency. this shows that because of better than expected revenue, slower than expected growth in spending, in part because health care costs are slowing, the deficit is going to fall to 2.1% of gdp in 2015. so, we've had a lot of concern that we've discussed for years about the size of the u.s. deficit. it is now coming down pretty rapidly, bill. >> you know, it's symptomatic of our new normal here. we consider $3 gasoline cheap and we think $642 billion deficit

chief correspondent john harwood. anyway, john, so here is the question. i saw starting on friday, we saw all sorts of different news reports. and depending on what newspaper you read, you get a different sense of what was really happening. do we believe the obama administration knew about what was happening? not that they directed it, but they knew about it early on. >> look, there was stories about the allegations that were made by conservative groups that this was happening. then you had testimony by doug shulman who we're going to hear from this week who was the irs commissioner appointed five years, his term ended in december and he left, he wasn't fired, he just left. but he said it wasn't happening. there's nothing on the record to indicate that the administration knew otherwise while that was going on. now, you did have the white house council informed in april that the ig had completed an investigation and we learned that the treasury department had heard that the ig's report was under way while it was going on. nobody knew of the clugdzs about th

>> john harwood. thank you. we appreciate it.enate majority leader mitch mcconnell warned about this move last spring. take a listen. >> earlier this year, dozens of tea party affiliated grupts across the country learned what it was like to draw the attention of the speech police when they received a lengthy questionnaire from the irs demanding, listen to this, demanding attendants lists, meeting transcripts and donor information. >> yeah, by the way, it's illegal. it's illegal to ask for donor information. that's just a side point here. we have congress and tea party with me on set for most of the hour this evening cnbc contributor and co-host of the msnbc "the cycle" and former director of the republican governor's association. david schweiker, why now, how do you read this? what is going on here? >> you know, have you ever had one of those afternoons where you are trying to get your head around? at least i have one reality. it's been a really bad week for the administration. and i actually now have to apologize no some of my c

john harwood. this is anything but a casual friday panel, ladies and gentlemen. this is a power panel finishing out the week strong and john i'm going to start with you in d.c.. we see a lot of these economic gains. i want to read a quote from zach goldfarb, "the sunnier outlook means that president obama will be able to pay the nation's bills for months without seeking additional authority borrowing for months. little appetite for compromise but no leverage to shape an agreement." we thought the debt limit would be the back stop and perhaps they'd dangle the august recess and get something done. what does that mean for the debt limit fight and the nation's finances overall? >> luke as you know everybody recognizes the debt limit eventually has to be raised, even the prioritization bill passed on the floor says the debt limit to be raised to pay bond holders but the administration attacks it saying it averts technical default but not actual default if we have to defer payments to people like social security recipients so it's going to get raised and interestingly

. >> more on this unfolding story from john harwood and politico's ben white in just a knew minutes pb but fist, cisco posting better-than-expected earnings on current quarter revenue. ceo john chamber says his company is seeing good signs in the united states and other parts of the world are, quote, encouraging. shares rising sharply on the results and comments. we'll speak to an analyst who covers the company in just a few minutes. 8:40 a.m. eastern time, don't miss john chambers himself in a first on cnbc interview on "squawk box" itself. >>> ge and boeing warning of a problem on the engines on 777 jets. an engine shut down mid flight twice this year. the twin engine aircraft is able to continue flying with the remaining engine. the companies are telling airlines to inspect or replace transfer gearboxes introduced between december and march. phil lebeau will join us with more on the story in the next hour. >>> i'm personally very excited, and maybe you should be, too. 8:40 eastern, we'll get weekly jobless claims, the cpi and housing starts. then at 10:00, philly fed survey. analyst

john harwood, what is the obama administration saying about these numbers today? >> reporter: they're delighted by these numbers, of course. any incumbent president wants to see the unemployment rate go down, see robust job creation and especially after we've had these spring slowdowns over the past couple years and there was fear we were headed in the same direction. they're much more comfortable with the state of the economy. the top white house economist came out, put out a statement and said we continue to recover from the worst downturn since the great depression. and it shows it is not time for congress to have more self-inflicted wounds on the economy. wants republicans to join republicans in replacing the sequester with what he calls balanced deficit reduction and not surprisingly, that was not immediately persuasive to john boehner, the house speaker who said it is time to grow economy rather than grow government. both sides remain in their positions. >> this all came down as the president is wrapping up his trip in mexico. john, we know, focusing there o

well i'm john harwood of washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. and wind tunnel bay detention center has been the talk of the nation's president obama told reporters on tuesday he wants to close it down what's the story behind the headlines to get a detail look at the cuba prison from an attorney for the detainees in just a moment also austerity has been a total failure in europe yet political leaders here in the u.s. still think it's the best way to restart our sputtering economy really interested in fixing the debt to something more sinister and people ask me all the time a big i want government to be just how big and why in tonight's daily take. you need to know this on tuesday president obama told reporters at a white house press conference that he wants to close down the gone to animal bay detention center. the mo is not necessary to keep america safe. it is expensive. it is inefficient. is. hurts us in terms of our international standing it lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts it is a recruitment tool for extremist