karen tumulty is back with us.t tomorrow was a big day with the supreme court, we're back at it. >> this is over the constitutionality of the federal defense of marriage act. when that act, today's arguments were whether gay marriage is essentially established as a right. when the defense of marriage act was signed by president clinton in 1996, gay marriage didn't exist. now it is legal in nine states. the question before the court will be, once people are married, does the government have the right to discriminate against that kind of marriage versus traditional heterosexual marriage? >> important distinction. prop 8 about people's right to get playered, doma about, what to do when they're married and can they get federal benefits. >> this is a case brought by a woman who was in a long term relationship with another woman. was married. when her partner died, was charged estate tax that she would not have been charged. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." make s

gjelten of national public radio, david sanger of "the new york times," john harris of politico, and karen tumulty of he "washington post" >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. nation's capital nays. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by --. >> we know why we're here. to charty greener path in the air and in our factories. >>

. >> karen tumulty, john harris, thanks for joining me. >> thanks a lot, chris. >>> if guns are one part of the big conversation on capitol hill, the budget is the other part. joining me for the republican perspective on all the budget activity happening right now on capitol hill is wyoming senator, john brasso, chairman. public policy committee. senator, thank you for taking the time. we're in the midst or about to be in the midst of a vote-a-ramma, 400-plus amendments to the budget.a, 400s to the budget. >> for the lay person, why are we doing this? and is this progress? that we're having this open amendment process? how should the average person watching you guys be there until midnight or 3:00 in the morning, 400 amendments being voted up or down, how should they take it? >> for the first time in four years we're actually on the floor voting on the budget. the democrats even though by law they have to offer one, haven't offered a bumt in the last four years. there are a lot of things we want to bring as amendments, the democrat budget is one that increases taxes, increases spending a

. >> around the electoral topic, a colleague of ours karen tumulty of the post said po said you havede it known that you are considering the presidential race. do you want to comment on that? she said you are doing it quietly so this would be a good format to discuss it. leftists be by plate is so full now that kind of contemplation would be the kind of thing that would keep me up at night and i lose enough sleep as it is so i am fine with where we are at. >> we will welcome you back to make the announcement whenever you want to. >> speaking of senator mccain yesterday at a town hall meeting he announced he would never live away from losing -- using the term illegal immigrant and sometimes that phrase is appropriate. should we use that term or should we always say undocumented? >> i don't really get caught up in the book capillary wars. there are immigrants who are here illegally. there are immigrants who are here without documents, undocumented immigrants but keeping the focus on how we write the system so we don't have as perennial large group who has in some respects a de facto am

cook" political report and carol tumulty for the "washington post" and gridiron performer and the chief congressional correspondent, chris drake. thank you very much all. karenyou, can you recall the president going to the republican senate and house caucuses on the hill? i remember him going in 2009 to the house republican retreat. but i don't recall him doing these caucuses before. >> no, i cannot recall it, either. i think there are a couple of things going on here. one is an apparent change in opinion on the part of the white house, that they have been a little neglectful in the kind of outreach they need to be doing in washington, if they actually want to get something done. i also think they have begun to realize that what is turning the public off entirely is just this idea that washington is this totally dysfunctional place where people can in the talk to each other at all. and i think they want to make sure that the public kind of throws up its hands on all of this, that they're not going to be blamed for being part of that particular problem. >> i seem both amy and chris nodding at the table here. amy, first to you. >> i think that karen is exactly