then he's surprised that kevin orr put detroit into bankruptcy.ger of detroit to then handle that same bankruptcy. if that isn't nepotism and cronism, i don't know what is. then to add insult to injury, kevin orr wants to put barkleys ahead of who worked their entire lives for that pension money and were expecting it at the end of their retirement. hopefully the city of detroit will have its day in court, the citizens will have their dare in court and hear this has been his plan all along. he never planned on being fair to the citizens. >> governor snyder tried his hardest to stay out of the court invoking executive privilege, but it wasn't enough. how important is the people of detroit hear the governor testify? >> i think it's very important we get the governor on record and that the lawyers get to ask him some very hard questions that he can't weasel out of the way he does with local reporters. >> is he going to be asked about what you just said? what you just talked about with orr and bankruptcy and the law firm? >> well, it has to lead to tha

it's very unusual but both kevin orr, and the governor of michigan are expected to testify. they earlier gave depositions in which they described their roles which they say were lawful and they followed the emergency manager law and the sweeping powers that it has. the governor has always said he's gone into this process reluctantly, he was hoping through a series of consent agreements and other measures he had hoped to keep detroit out of bankruptcy court. he and his staff are pushing full steam ahead saying this was the last resort, but it's certainly a lawful one. >> brown: matthew dolan of the "wall street journal" thanks so much. >> it's been my pleasure. i was in detroit recently reporting on rebuilding efforts there. i also recorded another chapter in the series i'm doing with poet laureate natasha trethewey that we call "where poetry lives". our goal: to explore poetry and literature in various corners of american life, seeking to connect these trips to aspects of natasha's personal experience. here's what we found in detroit. >> poetry is your wife or husband, going

the city council dutifully continues meeting, but since the state took over the finances, it is kevin orrhe shots. only his office knows the real total. >> my question is, has it exceeded $62 million and i don't have that answer and i should have that answer. >> reporter: for this town, one thing is for sure the price of paying the legal elite will rise. >> i was talking to a group of attorneys, and i said it is going to cost 10s of millions of dollars, and they laughed at me, and they said it won't be 10s of millions of dollars, it will be hundreds of millions of dollars. >> reporter: those are just the legal frees. >> this is a contention case. the amount of money lost in this case by way of written off debt is going to be in the number of billions of dollars. >> reporter: the city is asking some creditors to accept $0.10 on the dollar. detroit is finding out that going broke is expensive. the law gets $18 million, the accounting official gets $8 million, and in the final humiliation, the city is paying the auction house $200,000 to find out what treasuries like van go's self portrait w

meeting but since the state of michigan took over motown's finances it appointed emergency manager kevin orr who calls the shots and he has handed contracts to lawyers and bankruptcy experts worth more than $62 million and counting. only his office knows the real total. >> my question is has it even exceeded $62 million? i don't have that answer, and i should have that answer as an elected officials. >> reporter: for this working has auto town facing the largest city bankruptcy in u.s. history one thing is for sure. the price of paying the legal elite will rise. >> i was talking to a group of attorneys. i said it's going to cost tens of millions of dollars and it will be a very expensive process. they laughed at me. they said it won't be tens of millions of dollars. it will be hundreds of millions of dollars. >> those are just the legal fees. >> this is a con ti contentious. it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. >> reporter: the city is asking some creditors to accept $0.10 on the dollar. >> this report shows law firm jones day gets $18 million. and in final humiliation the city

city council dutifully continue meetings, but since the state took over the city's finances it is kevin orr who calls the shots. honly his office knows the real total. >> my question is has it even exceeded $62 million, and i don't have that any as an elected official. >> reporter: for this working class auto town facing the largest city bankruptcy in u.s. history one thing is for sure, the price for paying the legal elite will rise. >> i was talking to a group of attorneys. i said it will cost 10s of millions of dollars. it will be a very expensive process. they laughed at me. they said it won't be tens of millions of dollars. it will be hundreds of millions of dollars. >> more people fight, this is a contentious case. the amount of money lost in this case by written off debt will be in the billions of dollars. >> reporter: with $20 billion in debt and income of around $1 billion the city is asking some creditors to accept $0.10 on the dollar. the city is finding that going broke is expensive. the accounting firm gets $8 million. in the final humiliation the city is paying the auction hous

in fact, when kevin orr was asked about it on 60 minutes he said basically, you know, i'm sorry. that's "the ed show." "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton begins right now. >> good evening, ed. >>> and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, the gop's ted cruz problem. his camera-loving crusade against obama care drove the party to record lows. and it seems the texan is just getting warmed up. he spent the weekend pretending to be a populist in iowa. and what's better than having the right wing pr game of a little pheasant hunting trip with the far right tea party congressman steve king. great for the image. before hunting, cruz received multiple standing ovations from the rabid right where he continued his myth-telling campaign and the crowd loved it. >> we are facing extraordinary tletss to our nation. we are seeing an administration that seems bent on violating every constitutional protection we have in the bill of rights. >> an extraordinary threat? more of their trademark fear mongering on display. and despite poll numbers sinking like a stone, the gop hasn't lea

since the state of michigan took over the finances, it's a state-appointed emergency manager kevin orr who calls the shots. he's handed contracts to lawyers and bankruptcy experts worth more than $62 million and counting. only his office knows the real total. >> my question is, has it even exceeded $62 million? i don't have that answer. i should have that answer as an elected official. >> reporter: for this working class auto town facing the largest city bankruptcy in u.s. history, one thing's for sure. the price of paying the legal elite will rise. >> i was talking to a group of attorneys, and i said, oh, you know, it's going to cost tens of millions of dollars and it's going to be a very expensive process. they laughed at me, and they said it won't be tens of millions of dollars, it will be hundreds of millions of dollars. >> reporter: those are just the legal fees. >> the more contentious the case is, the more they fight. amount of money lost in this case by way of written-off debt is in billions dollars. >> reporter: with $20 billion in debt and income around $1 bill, they're askin

. >> reporter: but kevin orr, the emergency managementer appointed by michigan's republican governor snider to take over the city's finances says bankruptcy really is the only alternative. >> it gives us an opportunity to have a structured environment with federal court supervision for a comprehensive solution to some very real problems. >> reporter: if the city prevails in this trial, detroit could have its finances reorganized as soon as the spring. and we learned today that governor snyder, a lightning rod in this whole dispute, has agreed to testify in the trial. he could be on the stand, larry, as soon as ponl monday. >> all right. many thanks, scott cohn. appreciate it. once again, we are jam-packed with very important news on obama care tonight. that includes news on four key democratic senators now calling for delays and key changes to the obama care individual mandate. we have more on that coming up. but first, it's time for some tonight's obama care comedy lightning rounds. check it out. >> the president said yes today that it was taking too long when you're having trouble,

is on up for debate is whether kevin orr overstepped his powers in recommending bankruptcy protections correct. we are concerned that the filing of a bankruptcy here in detroit violated both the federal constitution of the united states and the michigan state constitution. the michigan state constitution contains what we've been calling a pension clause, which provlt is any xhin usety kies. the afsme employees, their pension benefits, those retirees are only about $18,000 now. if they're cut, it's going to create starnl hard times for those folks. >> there's a question on whether this is a plan po cut pensions. >> well, that is one of the issues that the judge is crappeling with right now. we have said that people right now, because of the uncertainty, really don't know what to do. so you have retired people living on the edge a little bit. wondering day-to-day if they can feed themselves, if they can feed their kids, if they should be taking their prescription drugs or if they should be putting off a day, putting off two days. and what the judge is saying is that you don't really kno

serious issues with the finances we need to make sure we do whatever we can and that the tenure of kevin orrted hopefully gone by a jittery first by giving back to the elected mayor to the city of detroit. then focus on the other issues. one of those issues is insurance detroiters are played with the highest insurance rates of the nation we need to focus to on getting finances straight and crime and focusing on issues that. >> thank i think there should be judged on one standard is the population going up or down? of the population of this city is building down then more people want to leaf i will work hard to decline -- reverse the decline the population. we will attack the police response time we have to be confident in this city that the officers will show up and right now the criminals are not afraid. we have got to repair the street lights it is an embarrassment living in the dark. third we have to start taking advantage of the house to move the family is in. if in the first 100 days they see the street lights are on and the police show up in the building is occupied we can generate hop