thank you secretary lahood. thank you to the incredible leadership, senator feinstein, nancy pelosi and mayor lee and the board of supervisors to chairman nol an from the sfmta. i am on pins and needles. do we have anything else to report? it's still at the same point we think they're in commercials. i am reminded from the song from "top gun" "take my breath away" and $942 million takes my breath away and i think to mayor lee for that amount i think we should get a leather flight jacket to thank mr. lahood for the great gift to our great city. the new money that is going to be used here is going to create 1,000 new jobs before the end of the year with many more jobs to come after that. that is something to applaud. thank you again secretary lahood for that. this is one point 7 miles very similar to the length of the

thank you san francisco. >> secretary lahood. thank you very much for that wonderful news. >> [inaudible] >> it's a really truly a great day for san francisco. great cities need great public transportation systems, and you know what? you know what makes our city great with all these leaders? they listen. they listen to our communities. they understand -- because for years our communities pleaded we need better transportation systems what makes our leaders so great they listen and they act. that is so wonderful. that is what standard that we have for all of our public officials. secretary lahood if you could thank president obama from all of us. yes. [applause] because i know today we're going to spend a lot of precious moments thanking leader pelosi and congress women fine 79 and boxer and. >> >> we're going to thank all of our community members and from china town and all of them have worked very hard. these are not easy projects. they're very complicated and people had to work at the highest levels to make sure that every aspec

. >> reporter: that question was posed to the secretary of transportation, ray lahood when he was asked if the administration is trying to scare people about the sequestration. he quickly dismissed all of that and in his warning about transportation specifically was clear. according to ray lahood, this is the countdown to massive automatic cuts go on, it can make it difficult, if not impossible for air travelers to take to the skies at the end of next week with one week until sequestration, the secretary of transportation ray lahood is issuing a grim warning on the effects of automatic budget cuts on the nation's airways. >> a lot of people use airports and this is goings to have a real impact. >> reporter: if congress can not agree to stop $85 billion in automatic cuts by next week, lahood warns cancelled and delayed flights, long lines and angry passengers will dominate the nation's airport and lahood said members of congress will take the blame. >> your phones are going to ring off of the hook when people are delayed at airports and their flights are delayed and that is 90 minutes or

. >> they continue doom and gloom with the transportation secretary ray lahood warning the airport waites are about to become more of a mess. >> flights to major cities. like new york, chicago, san francisco and others could experience delays of up to 90 minutes. during peak hours. because we have fewer controllers on staff. >> republican rand paul introduced his own a terptive plan without layoff. charming white house is exaggerating the impact. >> i'm'd say balderdash. it's untrue, unfair, dishonest, disingenuous. the president is making stuff up. he puts law enforcement, firemen and policemen who 98% of them are paid for with the local taxes. says you will lose your local police men because of this. it's not true. >> republican duncan hunter teeing off on the white house for delaying deployment of the uss harry s. truman to the persian gulf and hunter claiming this is more about the drama than budget cuts. pentagon spokesman told fox news it was the right decision to make. that it was all about saving mup. had nothing to do with political drama. bret? >> bret: ed, yesterday, we had g

secretary lahood joins me now. thank you for being here to talk about this. >> good morning. >> as far as we can figure out, the faa budget, we're not even talking about the transportation, is about $15 billion, give or take. they'll have to cut $16 million, about 4%. why is that enough to cause planes to be delayed for an hour and a half? there should be must be things inside the faa budget where can you get rid of 4%. >> wire going to do that. we have been spending the last several months looking at and we will really focus on this now, every contract to see what penalties we might have to cut. we'll look at everything we possibly can to get to where we need to be, which is about $600 million in cuts. we can't do it without furloughing people. >> it's a very big budget. let me add something else. the budget committee took a look at some of these numbers and they found post sequester, your postsequester total at ops and equipment is going to be about $500 million more than 2008 and the planes were running just fin

>> shame on ray lahood. listen, i understand, but i think there's a bob woodward piece in "the post" this morning that gives the tick-tock about who really -- the idea for sequestration it was. we now know whose it was. it came from the white house and the president's aides. despite that -- >> congress went for it. >> the president said during the campaign, won't happen. i said during the campaign and so did others say we got to stop this from happening. the president has now said it was congress's fault. we know the president wasn't telling the truth about that. >> 15 of your colleagues, i want to switch to chuck hagel, nominated to be defense secretary, 15 of your colleagues including jim imhoff, sent a letter to the president saying withdraw this name, many reasons why he should not be secretary of defense. why didn't you sign that letter? >> because i did not believe that chuck hagel who is a friend of mine, is qualified to be secretary of defense. but i do believe that elections have consequences. unfor

ray lahood says, yes. he is making waves on his way out the door.listen to what he said. >> for all the talk within the republican party about helping small businesses, there are a lot of small businesses that are in the road construction business, the bridge construction business that would benefit from a bold infrastructure bill, a bold transportation bill, a five-year bill with some very bold ways to fund it. and i don't think you'd be turning off people in america, because they know that america's one big pothole right now. melissa: what? how is this possible given the billions in taxpayer stimulus money, remember that? shovel-ready? all that nonsense? it was supposed to go towards transportation project. i'm not crazy, right? you remember that. our money power panel is here to react. james freeman is from "the wall street journal," blake -- [inaudible] is president of american loss management and stephen hayes from the weekly standard as well. i mean, i'm at a loss, james. i thought -- i wanted to sort of reach through the radio there and sort

and one question came up to ray lahood, so mr. secretary, you are the first cabinet secretary to come out higher why is it they sent you out. >> i would describe my appearance here with one word. republican. they are hoping maybe i can influence some of the people in my own party. >> bill: guess what. it doesn't look like he did. you would think maybe they would listen, republicans would listen to another republican ray lahood served in the congress representing one of the congressional districts in illinois. a good man. did fell on deaf ears. on the pecht gone the cuts are equally severe. leon panetta saying this is going to harm our military readiness in terms of ships and planes and training of men and women for combat. we are going to be really hurting, and the pentagon, again, not that you can't cut in the pentagon. we should cut the pentagon. but these across the board cuts aren't the way to go t i would love to hear your take. two things, denial. there is not going to be so bad. no. i don't mean on. we can cut 13% 90% in th

transportation secretary ray lahood said during an interview yesterday. he said the u.s. was once the leader in infrastructure. however, we're now falling behind other countries. secretary lahood blamed the lack of attention over the last few decades and he also attributed the pothole problem to inadequate funding for infrastructure in the current transportation bill which by the way only this time is for two years. lahood said this administration will have to come up with a bold plan to fix our highways and unsafe bridges. back to you. >> thank you, monika. >>> a new study warns that the number of alzheimer's cases in the u.s. is going to triple over the next decade. >> vinita nair introduces us to a woman helping her father with the disease and the impact it's having on his daughter and the family. >> reporter: amy lee takes care of her father benny who was diagnosed with alzheimer's disease about three and a half years ago. >> when he was first diagnosed, he would say like what's happening to me? i don't remember anything. or something's wrong. but now he's passed that

secretary lahood was talking about april for some of these air traffic affects. what will we see and how soon after march 1st? >> well, it's hard to say. there's no question that no one is going to be furloughed next friday. and the cuts will really not be visible for several weeks if that. it's also possible that congress will reach a deal several weeks into these cuts to stop them. and nothing really noticeable, you know, would happen to government services. so they will be gradual and federal agencies have the ability to push off some of the cuts. but what they are saying is that they need to start furloughing people in about april. the defense, the pentagon says this week that it was issuing furlough notices to about 800,000 civilian employees. to prepare to be furloughed. so in the case of the pentagon, you know, that means that destroyers, various aircraft carriers will not deploy to places like the persian gulf and other theatre, and that's a big effect on local economies, in areas like rampton rode, virginia, san diego. and it's an effect affect that will

more than 100 air control towers at smaller airports could be closed, lahood said. airlines likely would cancel flights. and congress, he said, would hear of the fallout. >> it's not only the impact on the passengers, it's the impact that it has on airports, control towers, people who work there, airports. and their phones are going to start ringing. why does this have to happen? nobody likes a delay. nobody likes waiting in line. none of us do. if we can't get our hamburger within five minutes, if we can't get on the plane within 30, 40, 50 minutes after going through, you know what happens. they start calling their member of congress. >> suarez: more now on these latest warnings, the republican response and the timing of these possible cuts. lisa rein is following this for the "washington post" and she joins me now. lisa, in recent days senior members of the obama administration have laid out an exacting detail all the terrible consequences that the sequester goes through while republicans, in many cases, have said it might not be that bad. from your reporting, ca

by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> ray lahood talks about the sequestered budget cuts. then tom donahue on the federal budget. and emily miller talks about washington, d.c.'s gun by furloughing employees and posing some air traffic control towers and smaller cities. lawmakers have until march 1 until automatic spending cuts -- spending cuts are expected to take effect. this is a little less than an hour. >> i remember all of you from roll call. [laughter]you asked me all the3se dumb questions. [laughter] >> i just want to say that it is my pleasure, and clearly yours, to have with me today the secretary of transportation, ray lahood, who is here to speak with you about the impacts of sequester, if it comes to pass, on the american travel industry. and as we've talked about a lot, the indiscriminate, deep cuts will affect everyone, really, in america, and industries. and secretary lahood is here to discuss one aspect of that with you and to take some questions. and afterwards, i'll be here to take questions on other issues. i just

>> it's ray lahood laying out all these horrible things he says will affect the flying public.'ve got the pentagon saying there will be furloughing people and also now pulled back on sending a ship to the persian gulf. republicans suggesting wait a second, that is gamesmanship here and posturing, so you've got ray lahood saying no, this will be real, and rand paul saying the president is exaggerating. >> the idea that we're just doing this to create some kind of a horrific scare tactic is nonsense. >> i would say balder dash. it's untrue, unfair, dishonest, disingenuous. the president is making stuff up. >> you can see how far apart they are and that's why there is many in washington who think we're likely to have the automatic cuts kick in on march 1 and if there is a big impact, all of a sudden both sides will finally come back to the table. >> shepard: balderdash even. give them balderdash. give all of them our best. thanks so much. >>> the pentagon is grounded the entire fleet, all of its f-35 fighter jets. the single most expensive weapons program our military has. militar

. >> what do you make of secretary lahood, a republican blaming republicans? ray lahood. >> 15 minutes from now several officials are holding a news conference on the sequestration impact on air travel. mickey mccarter, washington correspondent for homeland security today. there are two big things i heard most about. one is fewer tsa agents. so if, say, 50,000 screeners aren't there, do we know what will happen? are we talking an extra half hour's wait? hours? do we? >>. >> we don't really know. where tsa is concerned, pretty much saying what other federal agencies are saying. it is going to have to furlough its workers somewhere between 7 to 14 day which is is what secretary lahood said about employees at the faa as well. he's projecting up to 90 minutes of delay time for a lot of flights in major zbloyts wow. okay. talked about the faa. that could mean -- $600 million furloughing this is according to the white house, 47,000 employees, closing 100 control towers, cutting control tower shifts. what could that mean? >> it depends on who you talk to. republicans

we've had ray lahood tell us our travel plans will be in disarray. had arne duncan warn us the teachers will be laid off, the education of our children badly undermined. but, robert, isn't this the republican rampage against government, not through the ballot box because, of course, they lost the presidential election, but through the excuse of the sequester? >> look, i think in some ways it is. there are certainly programs that you enumerated there that they would be happy to watch any federal funding squeezed off of. i do think if you again look at their rhetoric from last fall around what's going to happen to military readiness and national security, they were holding their hands up and waving them furiously just a few months ago that we couldn't possibly let this happen to now going to a mere shoulder shrug of bring it on. i think they go into this, martin, with a huge disadvantage, as you showed with the polling. i think they've got very bad cards, and they seem intent on sitting at the card table and playing each and every one of them. >> it is

today we heard from the president and ray lahood, the cabinet's lone republican. >> what i'm trying to do is to wake up members of the congress on the republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table, offer a proposal so that we don't have to have this kind of calamity in air service in america. >> lahood said air traffic and safety would be drupted. defense secretary le onpennetta said the nation would billion less safe. republicans say it's overblown. how much does the public really care, john? >> well, it's a big deal. but it's not as dramatic as a government shutdown where everybody can see that the washington monument's closed. you left out one, the interior department said that visitors to national parks will find locked restrooms in many places. talk about the hammer coming down. look, it's one of those things that the effects will build over time. airline waits will get longer. and this is one of the things that people who want a long-term budget deal including the president including some republicans want top happen because the public which favors spending cuts

>> i will bet you had secretary lahood said these things could happen, that says it could happen.the administration makes the worst possible management positions, you will have the worst outcomes. if they make halfway decent decisions, the right option will get funded and the savings, there are plenty of savings in these accounts. when i was governor we were spending 9.4% because of the recession. wthey managed it right, nobody ever missed it. we're talking 2.5% in the biggest cuts above 5%. if they can't manage that, they ought to get another job. melissa: to threaten people into doing something is crazy. thank you for spending time on our show, we appreciate it. >> thank you, melissa. melissa: it is day one of the trial against bp to determine how much the oil giant should pay for the worst offshore oil spill. in opening statements, justice department lawyers said before people, safety and environment. 11 workers died when the rig exploded back in 2010. the business roundtable offered ways to boost the economy by producing more oil and gas, upping energy efficiency and supportin

that will create a 22nd century of transit for the tronst century of jobs so thank you to secretary lahood and thank you to the leadership for all that we have accomplished here today. [applause] >> peter rogof was dominated to serve in the federal administration by the department of transportation in 2009 by president barack obama. he has over see the disbursement throughout the country through the american reinvestment act and has done so meeting every milestone established by that act. getting money into hands of transit operators whose budgets were severely strained by the worse economic downturn since our great depression. please welcome fta administrator peter rogof. [applause] >> well thank you mayor lee and let me just say as the federal transit administrator it's great to be in a federal transit city. as many people know a rail connection was promised to the people of union square and chinatown going on two decades. they made that promise because this quarter is the most densely populated quarter in the entire western united states that doesn't have an adequate rail connection and

and secretary lahood said that could affect things like air travel. it could mean you have longer lines at security or have delays when you're trying to catch your flights. now there's been a lot of back-and-forth as you can match with both sides pointing the finger about who's to blame. if these forced spending cuts go through. whether the blame should be shared. here's what senator john mccain had to say this morning also on "state of the union." let's listen. >> i won't put all the blame on the president of the united states. but the president leads, the president should be calling us over somewhere, camp david, the white house. somewhere and us sitting down and trying to avert these cuts. >> so there you heard it from senator mccain. he wants to see more leadership out of the white house, fred? >> thank you so much, athena jones at the white house, appreciate it. >>> more now on what's taking place in rome as the pope blessed thousands of catholics in the vatican for the last time. there have been questions raised on why he's resigning. although h

on friday, outgoing transportation secretary ray lahood said travelers would see major delays. >> this is going to have a real impact. calamity. it's a big deal. >> reporter: lahood said faa would need to trim $1 billion, less than 2% of the entire transportation budget. >> i think you've got a little bit of scare tactics going on there. >> reporter: and there is still finger-pointing over whose idea this was in the first place. in a "washington post" op-ed, bob woodward claims it came directly from the white house, writing, "obama personally approved the plan." white house offials have argued that the majority of house republicans voted to approve the sequester. as for furloughs, government officials say the majority of them won't take effect for about a month. >> for more on how all this is playing out we're joined by cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood. if we get to friday, they don't make a deal, do is they cuts all play out at once or does it transpire over a series of weeks or months? >> they'll play out for a while, maybe not for a long while. even though body par

if congress cannot agree to stop $85 billion in automatic cuts by next week, lahood warns canceled and delayed flights, long lines and angry passengers will dominate the nation's airports, and he says members of congress will take the blame. >> your phones will start ringing off the hook when these people start being delayed at airports 90 minutes or their flights are canceled. >> reporter: dot itself faces a $1 billion cut with 600 million coming from the faa. 74,000 employees and air traffic controllers face furloughs. faa says if it has to cut staff, it will limit the number of planes that will fly. >> at the major international airports, average wait times to clear customs will increase by 50%. >> reporter: but delays will only be in the air, just getting through the airport could be a nightmare. at a valentine's day hearing, homeland security secretary janet napalatano said furloughs could make security check points slowing down to a crawl. >> peak wait times, which can already reach over two hours, could grow to four hours or more. >> reporter: but what's not uncertain is that th

not popular but bold. >> thanks, monika. >> thanks, secretary lahood for his service. he's been a wonderful advocate for livable communities. >>> 6:48. time to answer our question of the morning. the question one more time, according to "u.s.a. today," two out of ten of us have never done this. is it a, flown on a plane, b, gone to a concert or c, traveled outside of your home state. >> wusa9 facebook friend wrote, it's an awn semghting fact that -- an unsettles fact that 60 million americans have not flown on a check or traveled to see a little more of their world. >> the answer is b. 20% of us have never gone to a concert. >> and some of us never went back. terry moen told us. went to journey, never been to one since then but she got it right. >> maybe i will find you some concert tickets in daily deals in the future. some good ones. we've been combing through them and here are some of my favorites this morning. do a little decorating with this zeal from target. you get -- deal from target. you get two leather club chairs, real leather, nail head design. deep espress

i had to chance to meet with ray lahood today. you'll hear what he had to say about california's controversial high speed rail project coming up at 6:30 or so. then i'll have more later on in the hour, back to you. >> grou you mentioned ray lahood to talk to cabinet members about issues that affect us here in the bay in÷ how did that go? >> it went well. i had the chance to meet with arnie duncanful we talked about issues affecting young people that we have a diverse population, many lang wajz spoken in our schools. we talked about gun controls and a chance to meet with administrator of the small business administration and talked about job creation and what can be done. she was in walnut creek so we had an opportunity to do that as well well. have great conversations today z i'll share them with you as the evening progress autos dan, we'll see/xh%v you later on in e newscast. you can see the interview conducted with the president today just go to our web site abc 7 news com. >> some well known high tech billionaires handed out $3

lahood had some biting words for congress specifically for republicans saying, wake up. this is, quote, not rocket science. >>> new at 6:00, the new law in ne nevada. shares of san francisco-based online gaming companies up nearly 8% after nevada became the first state to legalize online gambling. they do not allow gambling for money on the site but says it is exploring the idea. >> it is the biggest pension fund in the entire country. thec california public employee retirement system. they carry a lot of cloud. even a small symbolic gesture like $5 million of gun stock can create big waves. in tonight's reality check, sam brock examines whether or not the state can really claim it's looking out for the public safety interest by selling the stock. >> reporter: good evening. it's a very good question and it's also where you could argue calpers finds itself in murky waters. if you look, there are some that are just as harmful, if not more so, than gun manufacturers. to this day, the nation still bows its head to the victims of newtown as capitol hill lawmakers figure out w

here is ray lahood. >> it will ripple across the country.s mean preventative maintenance and quick repair of runway equipment may not be possible which could lead to more delays. >> what you heard was a hundred small airport towers could be shut down. control towers because of lack of funding. you will see 90-minute delays. furloughs every week. visitors centers, rest rooms, garbage cans won't be serviced as efficiently as they are now. again, they are trying to build a ground swell of outrage against what will happen. put pressure on republicans. republicans so far standing their ground. >> har wood, thank you very much. john harwood reporting from washington. another big story today, focussing on washington. and boeing's trip to the nation's capitol to meet with the faa. shares of boeing up about 61 cents at 76.63. and those shares, since first sign after battery problem on january 16, the stock has pretty much recovered, as you see by that chart of about the fast month or so. phil lebeau live on the beat in chicago. phil? >> tyler, that m

no compromise when it comes to safety. >> that is transportation secretary ray lahood taking questionss introduced by jay carney and the press asking a lot of serious questions about what the murfurloughs would mea for regular movement around the country talking specifically about airports. the secretary saying they have been in touch with airlines and the unions talking with everybody at the same time so that they have all the information that they need. however, he did concede that it's impossible to keep the same schedules with less people but have, however, is guaranteeing that all safety standards will remain the same. we're back with much more right here on msnbc after this. ein ba, with simple, real ingredients, like roasted peanuts, creamy peanut butter, and a rich dark-chocolate flavor, plus 10 grams of protein, so it's energy straight from nature to you. nature valley protein bars. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for m

>> shame on ray lahood. no. listen. i understand.at gives the tick-tock about who really -- the idea for sequestration was. and we know whose now it was. it came from the white house and the president's aides. >> 19 past the hour. joining us now from washington, the secretary of transportation, ray lahood. also with us, assistant editor and columnist for the "financial time times", jillian tett. mr. secretary, how seriously should we take how we're going to feel these cuts if they go into effect? >> well, look at when it comes to transportation, we have to cut a billion dollars. $600 million from faa. that's why we announced there will be a slowdown and delays from flights. we'll have to furlough air traffic controllers which is the largest number of people at the faa. we're not doing this because we like it, we are doing it because we are required do it. it is in the law so we're sending up a warning flare, not to scare anybody but just so that people understand there are consequences to this sequester and it can all be avoided if p

i mean, transportation secretary ray lahood? why? because his name's got a car part in it? that's a low standard. [ laughter ] what is next? secretary of the treasury penny mcnickel? now he wants the new defense secretary to be former republican senator chuck hagel. thankfully, today 15 republican senators demanded the withdrawal of hagel's nomination and it's no wonder. senate republicans have found all sorts of shady associations in hagel's past. for instance, he was once a senate republican. [laughter] and now, according to conservative news anger-gregator breitbart.com, hagel may have taken money from an organization called "friends of hamas." friends of hamas! that's serious! being friends with a muslim terrorist is a big commitment. you've got to be a groomsman in all four of their weddings. i mean, the suicide vest rentals alone! [laughter] folks, this bombshell lit up the conserv-osphere. >> let me bring up one piece of information that ben shapiro at breitbart put out today, which is one of the foreign funders behind senator hagel that he has not yet disclosed form

in a letter from secretary ray lahood, he says the cuts will fewer air-traffic controllers, lager airport lines, and extensive delays in travel.ir the faa budget cuts could result a hiring freeze immediately of a furlough of thousands agency workers. it's that time of year when ambitious college kids go looking for internships. you would be surprised how much them.ompanies are paying that's in the next hour. headquartersberg new york, linda bell reporting for abc 7 news. back to you. >> thank you. 4:39, 37 degrees on this friday. from the hardwood to capitol hill. what is bringing a lakers star >> good morning, washington. tgif. it's friday, february 15. it's 48 degrees. chill factor at of the the wind out today at 7 miles an hour. 27 in manassas, 36 in winchester, frederick, 30 in gaithersburg this morning. we have two systems we will be watching the next couple days affect us today and this week and. the first is a weak cold front be approaching to rain and a wintry mix afternoon into the evening. the first is an area of low pressure that will be .eveloping that could potentially get ad