. >> house speaker jon boehner weighed in today same jobs and the economy should be the focus of the election. and for the most part, both sides agree that the economy and not social issues will decide who will be the next president. >> a recent gallup poll shows americans are evenly divided on the issue of same-sex marriage. >> medicare reportedly paid billions of dollars to more than 2000 pharmacies, including some locations in baltimore with so- called questionable billing. questionable, as in billing medicare for 1000 prescriptions a single year for one patient in kansas. they pinpointed more than 2600 pharmacies, identifying them as extreme dollars. smaller drug stores are more vulnerable to fraud, adding that may be because medicare does not require seniors to report suspicious billing patterns. >> there was a huge marijuana bust in howard county. police say a man was growing pot in the basement of his home. >> he once worked for the baltimore city police department at the crime lab technician. >> police confiscated 341 marijuana plants from a town house. the plants were being

unless he had the votes to get a contempt sigh teugs out ohis oversight committee and a nod from jon boehnerever, say boehner and the house majority leader eric cantor are not on board. that is the hol particulars. here is the case. the mitty issues a subpoena in october. it demanded documents in 22 categories, and the contempt order says the department of justice has yet to provide a single department in 12 of those 22 categories. and it has failed to turn over any documents in three critical categories. here they are. who at the justice department headquarters should have known about the could he-called reckless tactics used in fast and furious? secondly, how the department concluded that fast and furious was, quote, fundamentally flawed. remember in the beginning they denied it even existed or that it was wrong. and finally how and why the interagency task force failed. they are trying to find out why did the f.b.i. and the dea not tell the atf that the cartel bosses that the atf was looking for from the beginning was already on the federal payroll as confidential informants, untouchable,

boehner. >> nobody wants to see student loan interest rates go up. >> jon: oh, my god. everybody agrees. the planets are aligning. this is the dawning of the age of aquarius. we're going to get a bill to keep interest rates on student loans, to keep those rates from doubling. >> the obama administration is threatening to veto a bill designed to keep interest rates on student loans from doubling. >> jon: (beep) happened? we were all friends. we agreed. we were songing songs from "hair." what's the problem? >> the issue is really how they do it. >> jon: i keep forgetting we have to pay for this crap. >> republican are proposing what they call eliminating a slush fund that was created by obama care. >> jon: who would be against eliminating a slush fund? slush is a terrible thing. i'm from new york. i know slush. it's like a rain water and dog urien slumpy. what's in this slush fund? >> democrats are hitting at them saying you're going to be targeting, in part, things for women's health, testing like mammograms and that kind of thing. >> jon: oh, so this is more of a mammogram/pap smear slur

. >> jon: so a deal is a deal, rules are you will roose, and now those mandatory cuts have to take effect, right john boehnerut the sequester. >> you think that's going to be undone. >> i think it's going to have be to replasd. you are just can't undo it, it needs to be replaced. >> jon: replaced with what. you agreed to take cuts in the military if you couldn't get the-- the dem as creed to deep cuts in social spending if they couldn't get the supercommittee to work. what are going to replace. >> they are work on defense sequestered. members already voted today 21-9 on a plan to cut spending on food stamp, medicaid, a child tax credit, meals and wheels and other social programs. >> jon: that's your solution. hey, democrats, i know we made a suicide pact if we couldn't come to an agreement we would cut military and you social spending but we decided to just go back and just make it a murder pact where we cut social spending twice. what? i'm sure you'll find a way to spin that as a positive. hey, man, yeah, we're cutting meals on wheels but only cutting the wheels. meals are still in the van. housebound senio

this negotiation with obama's economic team and eric cantor and jon kyl, obama himself weighs in and negotiate directly with john boehner. but really by this point it's obvious that republicans are just not going to do the deal. what's really interesting though i think is, it is really sort of underscores, two things actually that really underscore the point that they did not intend this as a way to make republicans look bad. they intended it as a way to get a big deficit deal done. the first thing is you are a series of moments along the way where, and i described one of them but there are many more, where the republicans basically say or strongly intimate that they cannot raise taxes. bill absently not go along with tax increases. at every moment is obama himself or some of his top aides always trying to sort of rush back and put negotiations back together, long after the point where they established that they are reasonable people and negotiating in good faith and its the republicans who absolutely refuse to go along. so that's one thing. i think that's highly indicative of what's going on here. the second thing that

jon kyl. obama himself weighs in and negotiate to john boehner. it is obvious that republicans are just not going to do a deal. what is really interesting, though, i think, and this underscores two things in relation to the point. they did not intend this as a way to make republicans look bad. they intended it as a way to get a deal done. there are a series of moments along the way -- for the republicans strongly intimated they cannot raise taxes and they will not go along with tax increases. every moment, either obama himself for were some of the top aides are always trying to rush out and put these negotiations back together. long after the point where they have established, they are reasonable people, negotiating in good faith and it is the republicans who absolutely refuse to go along. so that is one thing that is highly indicative of what is going on here. the second thing that is really interesting is when this finally collapses in late july of 2011, and it becomes obvious that they are not going to get this big deficit grand bargain that th

jon: a throwdown that could end up as a big showdown between the republican house and the obama administration. speaker john boehner saying no more to any taxes in a deal to raise a debt ceiling once again. the white house might have another opinion about that. jenna: speaking of a showdown, a big draum ma over anti-violence bill on capitol hill. sound sounds like a no-brainer though. all about politics right now. which party gets the key voting bloc of women? jon: that delicious treat is all natural, gluten-free, covered in yogurt. must be better than junk food, jenna. jenna: right. jon: no. it might be worse. how marketers are shrinking your wallet and maybe expanding your waistline. it's all "happening now.". happy wednesday to you. some big-time bonuses and you're footing the bill. good morning, i'm jon scott. jenna: always seems to be if there is a bill comes to us. jon: always comes due, doesn't it? >> i'm jenna lee. our government may be in the red but certainly did not stop it from reportedly shelling out half billion dollars in merit awards and bonuses to federal workers. get this, the numbers are actually

jon: good morning to you. the showdown over the budget, it is not due until the end of the year but john boehner is taking a strongnding and taxes. what that tells us about the rest of the year on capitol hill and the race for the white house. we've also just learned the defense will rest today in the campaign finance kraoeul of jo trial of john edwards. will edwards or even his girlfriend be called hires? plus, when you're confronted with one of life's most difficult challenges, you face it with humor, at least that's how our young guest is dealing with it. an inspirational story that will make you smile coming up. bill: we can use that. buying a home can be a challenge but apparently it's tough to rent this day. and desperate times call for desperate measures as you will see. martha: how about this. a case of senioritis full swing at one high school. the prank that rubbed the whole town the wrong way when we come back. >> we wanted to cause all the teachers to be late and all the students to be late, we thought that would be gunee. >> something harmless we 0 couldn't get in too much trouble for. it wasn't that b

jon: right now the stage is set for another showdown over our nation's debt as it nears $16 trillion. house speaker john boehner is pledging to put up a fight at the end of the year to reject any tax increases. he says an increase in the government's borrowing limit must be accompanied by serious spending cuts. >> yes, allowing america to default on its debt would be irresponsible but it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process. now we shouldn't dread the debt limit. as a matter of fact, i think we should welcome it. it is an action-forcing event in a town that has become infamous for inaction. jon: so let's talk about the speaker's comments with charlie hurt. a columnist with "the washington times." a lot of people heard the remarks and thought okay, the speaker is threatening to let the united states slide into default. he said this morning. that is not what he is talking about. he will not let the nation default on its debt but pledging to get tough in the fight over the debt ceiling which doesn't seem, doesn't seem t