i spoke with secretary lahood just moments ago. >> mr. secretary, the president is demanding that congress come back and end this stalemate. did you think this would ever reach this point? >> well, the last few days that i've been talking to members of congress and leadership in congress i had a glimmer of hope that it could get resolved. but after the senate went home on their vacation yesterday, that's when i wondered if it could get done or not. >> when you saw the members of congress leaving town, what did you think? what did you feel? >> very disappointed. members of congress should not be on vacation when over 70,000 people are out of work, through no fault of their own, through the fact that congress can't work together through the fact that congress is not either willing or able to compromise on a bill that they were able to work out on 20 different occasions by passing a clean extension for the faa bill. i am very disappointed and i'm very upset that 70-plus thousand people are not going to get a paycheck. these are people that c

joining me now live from washington is transportation secretary ray lahood.ongressman for a long time. these are your colleagues that you're talking to. you're asking them to come back. can you just explain for americans out there what this is and why it happened? >> what it is, it's an extension of the faa money that can be available to pay for the work that employees do. we have 4,000 employees furloughed because congress didn't pass the 21st extension the way they had done on 20 other occasions. they left town on their vacations. they are receiving their paychecks. over 70,000 americans are not receiving paychecks because congress left town without taking care of providing the money to the faa so construction projects could continue and so faa employees could continue to do their jobs. >> secretary, explain to me the difference between the 4,000 faa employees who are not getting paid and the 70,000 number you just used. >> yeah, good question. 4,000 faa employees work directly for the faa. they work on research, they work on development, they work on next

ray lahood will start it off. this is "hardball" only on msnbc. >>> treasury secretary tim geithner is expected to remain in his post. the "new york times" reports today president obama and bill daley are threatening him to stay through the obama full first term avoiding a contentious confirmation battle for a successor, which may not succeed. we'll be right back. >>> this is a lose, lose, lose situation that can be equally resolved if congress gets back into town and does its job. the house and senate through a procedural agreement said they'd review this with unanimous consent and have the fight they want to have when they get back. >> right. that was president obama yesterday calling for congress to take action on the faa shutdown before the end of the week, and it looks like it worked. senate majority leader harry reid says there's a deal to end the partial shutdown of the faa that put more than 70,000 workers off the job. for more let's bring in secretary of transportation ray lahood. who joins us live. thank

. >> i'll be talking to ray lahood later on "american morning."ess returns in september, the federal government will be out more than a billion dollars in revenue. the pentagon is warning against cutting too much from its budget. leon panetta says the automatic cuts that may kick in if congress can'tgree are completely unacceptabl panetta holds his first news conference as defense secretary at 2:30 eastern time today. >>> 72 people have been charged in a global child porn ring, based in the u.s. but reached across five continents. some of the children victimized were only infants. attorney general eric holder says the bust should send a message, abuse children, we will find you, stop y and bring you to justice. >>> in the trial of polygamous leader warren jeffs, it's the defense's turn. he fired his legal team a while back. the prosecution rested yesterday but not before it played an audio tape of a man said to be jeffs sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. >> we heard warren jeffs say that feel goods, how do you feel and this little girl voice

i'm joined by transportation secretary ray lahood. let me ask you here, when we're talking about the impasse over the faa, what are the options at this point? >> the options are for congress to pass an extension of the faa bill as they have done on 20 occasions to put 70,000 construction workers back to work so the government can continue to collect the tax that they're not able to collect. and so that 4,000 faa workers can go back to work. right smack dab in the middle of the construction season. 70,000 construction workers are out of work. this is one of the highest sectors of unemployment. for all these congressman and senators who love to talk about creating jobs, send these construction workers back to work on these important jobs at airports. send the faa employees back to work and let's get the faa back in the kind of operation that it should be. >> okay. so the house has already passed a short-term extension that eliminates subsidies for rural air service. it's sort of been a sticking point on the short-term resolution for the

with me now, transportation secretary ray lahood. thanks for joining us. >> good morning, andrea. >> first of all, what about safety? let's talk about the consumers, first of all. safety, you've said, will never be compromised but you've already asked these inspectors, dozens of safety operators working without pay to keep working without pay and keep on the job. how long can you expect them to make that kind of sacrifice? >> well, these people will make the sacrifice as long as it takes, andrea. they're dedicated federal employees. their number one priority is safety. they went to work today using their own credit cards, traveling on their own credit cards, they're not being paid, but they believe in the safety work that they do. and thousands of people will board airplanes today in america and around the world and fly to america. it will all be safe. hundreds of air traffic controllers are guiding planes in and out of airports. flying is safe. we will never compromise safety in the airlines. and our people are so dedicated to their

the standstill lahood is so livid about is the failure of congress.id and millions of dollars in taxes aren't being collected at least until labor day. all the while fears of another recession are driving stocks into historic slumps. the dow seemed to be on track, but started heading upward in the last few minutes. allysiso alison kos sick at the york stock exchange. >> reporter: it is coming back a bit. after the white house said a few moments ago it does not expect the economy is going to fall back into a recession but as the market sees there are challenges and as the dow trades solidly below the 12,000 mark. and yesterday, the s&p 500 fell into negative territory for the year. and many of the 401(k)s closely mirror that. the nasdaq is also near that break-even level right now. the debt deal is behind us now. so the focus is all about what's happening in the broader economy. and americans are worried about what kind of direction the recovery is headed or lack of a recovery. we learned earlier that the service sector, where 80% of americans get thei

ray lahood will be here in the situation room. but this 500-plus point drop in the stock market, that's a huge story. it affects so 78 people out there. remember, this is not just today. it's been going on for 8 of the last 9 sessions on wall street, dropped more than 1,000 points, 10%, that's huge. >> wolf blitzer, we'll see you in a couple minutes. >>> in the meantime i've got two more people i want to talk to, we've got to get a break in. don't move. we'll be right back. what if we turned trash into surfboards? whatever your what if is, the new sprint biz 360 has custom solutions to make it happen, including mobile payment processing, instant hot spots, and 4g devices like the motorola photon. so let's all keep asking the big what ifs. sprint business specialists can help you find the answers. sprint. america's favorite 4g network. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com. [ kimberly ] the university gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives. [ carrie ] you're studying how to be an effective leader

i appreciate that and they have one now her ray lahood the second time was last year when there was some terrible tragedy. the gentleman who was beaten to death, followed almost right and -- right away by the asian woman who was thrown off the t line. both of these instances involved young black men. a lot of attention in the area in the city. and a few of us got together and tried to do something about it. i want to commend our former commissioner, vincent. we met every week at the boys' club. along with ed lee who was always out there every week. we tried to come out with some ideas in the aftermath of those tragedies. one of the ideas that surfaced was an urban peace corps. i think it was them that might have come up with that but we thought, well, what if we could place a group out there to begin the work of restoring faith and harmony in the community?

transportation -- secretary lahood is correct. there are a number of issues the need to be resolved. my guess is there will be more short-term extensions. i cannot imagine -- although i have been wrong before, that they will let the shutdown continue much beyond the september. host: if you want to read her reporting, go to national journal -- nationaljournal.com caller: i have one question on the collecting of the tax. is it the airlines? is this money not afforded to the irs? why do we need 4000 faa employees to collect the tax? what is the problem with collecting the tax? the treasury is in charge of collecting the tax. the faa is collecting it. it is true, when you buy an airline ticket right now, it does not include a federal tax. it is 7.5% as the base and there is an additional 3% for every take off. that is not being added to the tickets right now. according to the irs, passengers who purchase tickets prior to july 23 before the shutdown began are entitled to a refund of that money, if there are flying during this particula

earlier this morning, ray lahood also slam congress for taking a vacation without a vote on the bill. thousands of nonessential faa employees have been on unpaid furlough. airport projects are on hold, like the one for a new control tower at the one at oakland international. >>> the u.s. airways ticket counter had more than passengers swarming in today. a group of pea, including those from the naacp -- a group of people including those from the ncaa p dropped off -- swarmed the counter. jade hernandez has more. >> reporter: that's right. this coordinated effort was for all to see. >> i cannot speak -- >> we understand. >> i will get these forwarded to the headquarters. >> reporter: steve knew -- newell accepted the signatures with. promise to send them on to management. the group acts as an advocate for black americans and supports the 22-year-old university of new mexico student arrested early back in june for not pulling up his sagging pajama bottoms. the naacp has sorted -- has supported the family from the beginning and came to speak at sfo. >> they thought we were gonna kid all o

we have, as ray lahood said, he's talking about 20 times raising the budget for the faa, routinely --last few years, and yet this is being held -- there's two things going on, one is a fight around small regional airports, and surprise, surprise, the gop wants to shut down ones in democratic controlled areas. the other is a labor issue. that the republicans have tied the renewal of funding to a move that would restore a type of eviceration of fair labor practices, having to do with union votes. taking us back a decade or more. they have refused to move forward unless these fair union rules are eviscerated. and they've run out of town. the amazing thing about this, these are people who said they hate deficits. this is costing the u.s. treasury some $35 million a day. clearly as other people said today, they hate deficits, and they hate workers worse. >> right. well, republicans are blaming the senate for not passing the house funding bill. if the senate doesn't pass the bill, if they don't agree on the amendments, why don't they just pass a temporary fding measure that will fill in the

. >> transportation secretary ray lahood went to new york city's laguardia airport yesterday to point out the impact of this partial shutdown. he stood in plain view of an old traffic control tower that's supposed to be demolished by a company based in brooklyn. the contract to do that work is for $6 million. a whole bunch of jobs, right? like the other $2.5 billion worth of improvement projects this one is on hold. secretary lahood has said the partial shutdown will not affect airline safety amid all the chaos and uncertainty here, the faa did miss a deadline to publish new safety rules. and to add injury to the existing insult here, in addition to all the people out of work and the work that needs to get done not getting done. the faa shutdown is also projects to directly cause taxpayers more than a billion dollars. when you buy an airline ticket, you pay tax on that ticket that the faa collects, except with no faa, the government cannot collect that tax, so the government loses that income. delta airlines, the airline lobbying so heavily to strip funding rights in this bill, they w

and transportation secretary ray lahood joins us live. bill: also, she had been ordered to orlando, so does casey anthony have to go back home? and new pictures of where she's been living. alisyn: and celina cass as her father deals with the loss of his 11-year-old daughter. >> it incredibly hurts me. i don't know how to even explain it. it's crushing. it's heart crushing. it really -- it's like a sore that's never going to leave. d b] [ coughing continues ] [ gasping ] [ elevator bell dings, coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] congress can't ignore the facts: more air pollution means more childhood asthma attacks. [ coughing continues ] log on to lungusa.org and tell washington: don't weaken the clean air act. alisyn: casey anthony has been spotted in ohio. the once-accused child killer photographed just weeks after her acquittal. casey had been undercover until now, but she's been seen shopping wearing glasses and a baseball cap pulled down tightly over her head. it's a much more casual look, of course, than what we saw during her

and with that i give you the secretary of transportation, ray lahood. >> good noontime, everybody. i think all of new this room know that the last thing the administration wants is a republican to be their spokesman so i'm not auditions for jake's job, ok? when it comes to creating jobs, members of congress give a lot of great speeches. we've heard a lot of great speeches from members of congress. about creating jobs. they talk the talk, but they have not walked the walk. their speeches ring very hollow. to 4,000 f.a.a. employees who are furloughed, their speeches about jobs ring very hollow to 70,000 construction workers who are not working right in the middle of the construction season on construction projects all over america. i was at one of those construction sites a few days ago at laguardia airport. and i met with these unemployed construction workers. they're ready to go to work. they're ready to complete the work, taking down the tower at laguardia. and there are construction workers all over america that are ready to go to work. this is their season. this is the time when

ground and design at a ceremony attended by then-speaker pelosi, the secretary of transportation ray lahood, and whereas his commitment to the transit program goals directly contributed to the receipt of $400 million in stimulus funds and the important recognition of his involvement in the transit program, and whereas he left his position as executive director of the san francisco municipal authority, now therefore be it resolved that the transit authority expresses its most sincere appreciation to nathaniel p. ford, and be a further resolved that we wish him continued success in all his future endeavors. vice chair ortiz: thank you. i wanted to add my words for the appreciation for his leadership here. >> i spoke to mr. ford this morning. apologizes for not being able to attend to except as. he says he is deeply honored and he appreciates this board for the resolution of appreciation. >> i will move the resolution. >> second. >> and the members of the public -- and no members of the public indicated they wanted to address that item. >> we will give this to you director carter, so you can g

>> reporter: transportation secretary ray lahood resorted to begging as the partial shutdown of the faa moved into its 12 day. >> i'm calling them back. come back to washington. leave your vacations for a couple of hours! >> reporter: the stalemate over funding the faa has idled more than 200 construction projects for airports, putting many out of jobs. >> this is a lose, lose, lose situation which can be easily solved if congress gets back on the job and does its job. >> reporter: and 4,000 faa employees are out of a job. >> there's mortgage payment due, student loans due, car payment that is due, groceries to be bought. >> reporter: the main sticking point is workers rights. house republicans want to make it harder for airline employees to unionize. democrats, don't. republicans are trying to trim subsidies. >> reporter: democrats held an irate press conference before leaving town. >> i hope the american people wake up. this is their modus operandi. government by crisis, government by hostage taking. >> reporter: construction after new $31 million air traffic control tower has been pu

it was solved today and we'll hear from transportation secretary ray lahood. the "hardball" strategies gists are with us tonight. let me finish with the economic fear which is in the land. a big drop on wall street. maria bartiromo joins us from the new york stock exchange. thank you, maria. what happened? >> well, today we saw europe really set the tone, chris. you have a debt situation in europe that is spiraling downward. the peripheral countries are getting in involved whether italy will be able to pay its bill, same with portugal. a spiral going on in europe. that is one issue that set the tone. a new focus happened on the u.s. economy. remember, we're just coming off of a two-month stalemate where virtually, people aren't doing much of anything. whether it's companies, corporations or individuals. we were all worried about the debt, the deficit and we were watching what was happening in washington. the back and forth, and, in fact, it materialized in people sitting on their hands, unable to make long-term decisions on anything, and as a result that is im

. >> meanwhile, transportation secretary ray lahood command year commandiered the podium at today's with respect briefing and demanded an urgent response. >> come back to washington, leave your vacations, just for a couple hours. come back, congress. help your friends and neighbors get back to work. >> and while republicans claim the impasse stems from subsidized regional airports in senators' districts, democrats said today that the real issue is american workers, and one major airline that wants to prevent them organizing. >> most of the big airlines are unionized. not a problem. one isn't, delta. >> an anti-worker agenda of one airline, delta airlines, that's what this is all about and that's what the republicans in the house said. >> congressman jim moran, democrat of virginia, joins us now from capitol hill. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. >> what on earth is the congress doing going off on holiday leaving an important agency in partial shutdown, endangering at least $1 billion in tax revenue from ticket sales tax and with tens of thousands of construction workers unable to

come back to washington, pass a clean bill. >> holman: in the meantime, lahood assured travelers the nation's air safety won't be compromised. essential personnel such as air traffic controllers and airplane inspectors will remain on the job. justice department officials today announced the largest prosecution in history for online child exploitation. attorney general eric holder said 72 defendants have been charged worldwide and of those 52 have been arrested. the group called dreamboard considered itself the premier online image library of adults molesting young children, often violently. at a washington news conference, holder described how people gained access to the group. >> in order to become part of the dreamboard community, prospective members were required to upload pornography portraying children under 12 years old or younger. once given access, participants had to continually upload images of child sexual abuse in order to maintain membership. the more content they provided, the more content they were allowed access. >> holman: two administrators of the group were arreste

host: joining us is transportation secretary ray lahood. if i could ask you about as bigger reauthorization bill. fawn johnson was just explain to our viewers, this is the big sticking point. union of language. do you see a way to compromise, and if so, how? >> there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved on the larger bill. it is not just a union issue. there are probably 10 other items that need to be resolved. certainly, the nmb, national media and reporters -- mediation board, is a sticking point. central air service is another one. that is a service that provides money to smaller airports to entice airlines to fly in and out of their airports. but there are other items, too. this could have been easily resolved. this is the most unfortunate situation i have seen in a long time in washington as a result of one or two people who were just really not willing to compromise. they wanted their way. as a result of them wanting their way, 70,000 construction workers are idle in construction projects around america at airports, 4000 faa e

a temporary spending bill, that house republicans already passed and transportation secretary ray lahoodider using his powers to block some of the house bill spending cuts that target small regional rural airports. more importantly, the deal sends about 4,000 government employees and a debatable number private contractors, get to that in a minute, back to work. senior political analyst, gloria borger, in touch with her sources on capitol hill. this was sort of a silly squabble between republicans and democrats, the best thing is the 4,000 inspectors, the construction workers, go back to work. how did they bring this one about? >> well, because the transportation secretary ray lahood kind of stepped in and said i'm going to settle this squabble and the issue that you're fighting over right now, which is these rural airports, i have the authority to decide whether we cut funding for some of those or not, so leave it up to me. he didn't commit, john, whether he was going to do it or not, but as you know, on capitol hill, sometimes fights are about the things they look like and sometimes the

later here in "the situation room," i'll speak with the secretary of trps ray lahood. we'll talk about what happened, lessons learned. he's been very outspoken with his anger at what happened in congress. he'll join us later here in "the situation room." >>> there's not a lot for president obama to celebrate on this, his 50th birthday. he's seeing fallout from the recent debt deal and now the massive sell-off on wall street. we'll talk about the dangers for his reelection bid. >>> she allegedly smuggled high-powered ammunition in clothes, even food. we'll tell you what happened. discover customersl are getting five percent cashback bonus at the pump... and at many of the places their summer plans take them. it pays to switch, it pays to discover. the authentic, the rare, the hard to define. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real from we who believe we know just how you feel. haagen-dazs. >>> let's get right to jack cafferty for "the cafferty file." >> not exactly a slow news days, is it? >> no. >>> the old saying is you can't fight city hall. the cou

. >> reporter: transportation second ray lahood resorted to begging today as the partial shutdown of the f.a.a. moved into its 12th day. >> i'm calling them back. come back to washington. leave your vacations. just for a couple of hours. >> reporter: the stalemate over funding the f.a.a. has idled more than 200 airport construction projects putting at least 70,000 contract workers out of a job. >> this is a lose-lose-lose situation that can be easily solved if congress gets back into town and does its job. >> reporter: an additional 4,000 f.a.a. employees have also been furloughed, including boston engineer mike macdonald. >> there's a mortgage payment due. there are student loans that are due. there's a car payment that is due. there are grocery to be bought. >> reporter: the main sticking point is it workers' rights. house republicans want to make it harder for airline employees to unionize, democrats don't. republicans are also trying to trim subsidies for rural airport service. >> i call upon speaker boehner to end this. >> reporter: democrats held one last irate press conference

i will be hearing from ray lahood.not acting. the faa routinely gets authority extended through congress. this has happened 20 times 32007. congress has decided to place in politics with it. as a consequence, the have left town thousands of workers are followed. -- as a consequence, they have left town. thousands of workers are furloughed. it means projects all across the country is also including tens of thousands of workers being suspended. that means folks who were on construction sites. there are important projects which are left undone. here is what happens. it turns out that this extension gives the authority to collect fees from airlines. the airlines are still collecting these fees because it is priced into their tickets but they're not turning it over to the federal government and the federal government stands to lose too glutted million dollars a week. that would be a billion dollars at a time when we are worried about how we pay for everything from education to head start. we don't anticipate it will be easy

but the bill allows secretary ray lahood to continue the service if he deems necessary. >>> a honda recall underway covering some 1.5 million cars in the u.s. the company wants to update software on the automatic transmission to decrease the possibility of any damage. the recall affects four-cylinder accord models from 2005 through 2010. also recalled, the cr-v from 2007 through 2010. and finally, three years of the honda element, 2005 through 2008. the company says without the change part of the transmission could be damaged. so far the problem hasn't caused any injuries or problems, but you should take it back. >>> topping our "health watch," turning the tables on the phenomenon known as mindless eating at the dinner table. i'm guilty of this. >> so am i. researcher at cornell university found that most people don't know whether they're full so they tend to eat more than they should. they recommend reducing the size of your plate and glasses. storing unhealthy foods out of sight, and not eating in front of the tv. in one study people ate 73% more when given bottomless bowls of soup compa

ray lahood says construction projects at airports have been halted costing more jobs. >> it is not fair to the 70,000 construction workers who need these jobs, it is not fair to the faa employees. >> i'm joined by faa administrator randy babbitt to talk about what's happened here. let me begin by asking does this impact the men and women in the towers and control centers and tracking our planes in the sky? >> no, i want to assure everybody in the traveling public the safety system is up and running. all of our air traffic control, all of our inspections of airplane, pilots, mechanics, though are those are ongoing. what are have ben furloughed is tens of thousands construction workers. >> the airport inspectors are working without pay right now? >> that's right. these folks, to be clear, they will when the funding is restored, they will be paid retroactively. but right now we're asking literally hundreds of airport inspectors to did their j s ts without compensation, to carry the burden of expenses as they travel on their own credit cards. that's not right and not fair. >> and i wonder h

. >> reporter: transportation secretary ray lahood begged as the partial shutdown of faa moved into its2th day. >> i'm calling them back. come back to washington. leave your vacations, just for a couple hours. >> reporter: the stalemate over funding the faa has idled more than 200 airport construction projects putting at least 70,000 contract workers out of a job. >> this is a lose, lose, lose situation that can be easily solved if congress gets back into town and does its job. >> reporter: an additional 4,000 faa employees have been furloughed including boston engineer mike mcdonald. >> there's a mortgage payment due, there's student loans that are due, there's a car payments that are due. there are groceries to be bought. >> reporter: the main sticking point is workers' rights. house employees want to make it harder, democrats don't. republicans are trying to trim subsidies for rural airport services, democrats don't. >> i call upon speaker boehner to end this. >> reporter: democrats held one last irate press conference before leaving town. >> i hope the american people wake up. this

in addition to faa employment, babbitt and ray lahood say it will affect them.nspectors are being asked to stay on the job without pay. >>> president obama has just signed legislation raising the debt ceiling, but the big issues of jobs and taxes are still on everyone's minds. what does this debt ceiling deal mean for both? the parties are clearly divided how to create jobs and how taxes factor into growing the economy. moments ago the president called on congress for more action. >> we need to begin by extending tax cuts for middle-class families. so you have more money in your paychecks next year. if you've got more money in your paycheck, you're more likely to spend it. that means more small businesses and medium-sized businesses and large customers will have more customers and that means they'll be in a better position to hire. >> i want to bring in terry savidge. hi, terry. first i want to ask you do you agree with what the president said. and then it becomes what's the offset of the revenue. >> it's nice that the president says you don't raise taxes in the

. >> ray lahood layed it on the line for congress, put summer recess on hold and finish work on a funding bill for the federal aviation administration. >> congress is on its summer recess but another funding stalemate created a new furery and left thousands of workers off the job. >> it means projects across the country involves construction workers being suspended because congress didn't get its work done. >> president obama today accused congress of playing politics. lawmakers left town without renewing the funding for the faa. shut down hundreds of projects, one is a tower being built at oakland. 4,000faa employees and 7,000 construction workers are out of work. >> we are disappointed. we are struggling a way to pay bills. >> congress is dead locked over funding for rural airports and a provision that might encourage employees to unionize. the faa is losing $25 million a day from tax money. but republicans are holding fast. >> someone has to say no, no to wasteful spending. >> democrats say the issue could be resolved while congress is on vacation and they introduced a bill to do that.

and transportation secretary ray lahood says operators were not affected by the shut down and says swaiftz never compromised. >> thousands of people are boarding planes, they'll arrive safely today because our people are on their jobs. >> this continues funding until mid september. congressional leaders hope they can reach a deal long before then. >> firefighters are mopping up a series of fires in the east bay. those fires erupt in an eastern contra costa county alock the railroad tracks. the fire came close to one home. the flames destroyed a barn and heavy equipment and caused a shelter in place. and residents say the fire started right after a freight train went by. >> i was coming home from work. i saw the train going by. it was on fire. it just kept going. >> there was a big, oh, sheesh. really big fireball. and we started hearing explosions. it was just really scary. >> there is no official cause of the fire. officials say it's too early to know the cause. >> hundreds of residents are marching along international boulevard and 17th avenue tonight. they're rallying behind a bill boar

>> ray lahood was saying that. that the safety system is still very concern eed but a lot of concern. they would love for that funding to come through and make sure that those employees, those faa employees all get their paychecks. >> it's ridiculous. think about what $1 billion could do for a problem resolved easily. thanks very much. dan lothian over at the white house. republicans, by the way, pushing back hard against the democrats. senator orrin hatch tells me that member of the president's party could have easily ended this standoff if they backed down on provisions to make it easier for airline workers to unionize. >> they just think they've got a good political issue here and they're crazy. they're the ones costing $30 million a day and they're the ones that won't budge. they're the ones that want and it's all over that improper change of labor law. the power of the united states senate and house where bureaucrats just determine to overturn the law. >> senator hatch blocked the compromise agreement that cou

. >> when asked about the house passed bill, or the president could take action himself, lahood responded. >> thefocus is getting congress to come backnd fix this legislative ily. that's where we focus the time and energy. congress has done it in a short period of time. >> harry reid sent a letter to speaker boehner to ask them to put aside differences to pass a clean short-term extension to put those affected back to work. >> more with this on the panel. thank you. just because the debt debate is behind him for the time being it does t pine that other problems for president obama are in my way the i min nicheed. ed henry has the story. good evening. >> the president said even the threat of a default was a huge drag on the economy that is putting are re-election in major jeopardy. >> after calling himself a simple guy, the president ordered the cheeseburger well done with dijon mustard and pried onions as he treated advisors to a lunch celebrating the passage of debt deal. on the way out, some yelled out happy birthday. a day shy of his 50th. >> at the white house, the president digested

he is joined by ray lahood the transportation secretary and also richard trumka of the afl-cio, sayset together to get some of the jobs done before it is too late. bill: it will be a battle next week when they come back to work on tuesday. martha, no parade for you. union leaders in wisconsin are telling republican lawmakers they are banned from a labor day parade. remember the union battles earlier this year? republicans won in the end but not after democrats fled the state and rallies in madison went on for weeks. pam galloway, republican state senator in wisconsin. you represent the district where the big parade takes place and i understand as of today, or even late last night, that the ban has been lifted, is that true? >> yes it is. so we will be able to attend the parade. bill: so it was a fact that you were barred from attending? your own parade in your own town? >> yes. the republican lawmakers who had been elected last fall had been banned from attending the labor day parade but the labor council reversed their decision. so we'll be able to attend and be there with the folks

secretary of transportation, ray lahood overseas the faa.e former congressman had harsh words for his old colleagues at the capital. >> this is the thing that really makes the public mad, that congress can't do their job. when ordinary citizens around the country hear that their friends and neighbors ought to be working on a construction site at an airport and they're not because congress couldn't do their work, this is what infuriates the american people. >> now, as ted rolands reports with the lawmakers out of town on vacation, those who are out of work and waiting have few places to turn. neil bolland has been building radar buildings for the faa for 22 years. he has two kids and a mortgage but now, without warning he doesn't have a paycheck. >> i'm incredibly disappointed and frustrated, particularly in our congressmen and senators. they went on vacation for four weeks when they could have taken an extra day and finished this job. >> reporter: neil is one of 4,000 faa employees who are out of a job until congress passes a funding extensi

we will have ray lahood on "hardball" tomorrow. we'll be right back. >>> welcome back to "hardball." republicans may have gotten their way in the debt ceiling fight, something they won in many ways, but is there any evidence that cutting spending is the way to revive this slagging economy? senator casey, i guess there's a battle that's over, and i'm just wondering who won. when you cut spending, usually that's a sign you cut jobs. is that your view? >> well, chris, i don't think there's any question, when i talked with people in pennsylvania, they want us to cut spending. we cut by a record amount in the 2011 budget, we will be cutting as a result of this recent agreement. i think the debate now will be when you propose budget cuts, what effect does it have on the economy? but also what's the difference between a smart cut and one that hurts investments and jobs? and i think that's where some of the debate is. i think they did see a different this spring where they cut medical research by a billion. that's a bad idea. when they sla