instead of the recognition of the economic realities is what we're looking at here. >> maria-theresa, two sides of this. one a social side and one as melissa points out, the economic side. one of the reasons there are so many more households headed by female breadwinners is due to necessity, which is to say, there are more single moms now more than ever and if you look at the discrepancy of households with married women, the top breadwinners and the households that have single moms as the top breadwinner, $23,000 and $83,000 on average. >> they're making it sound like these women have a choice. they have a choice to go out and stay at home or go out and work. oftentimes, not only are the ones that are the only sole breadwinners of their family. and also look at the men who have lost their jobs in the economic downturn. industries in construction, hospitality, in manufacturing. and why did women keep their jobs? because they were cheaper for the most part. >> because women get paid less. >> right, 70 cents on the dollar and we're not even talking about african-american women and latino

>> joining me now is robert costa and msnbc contributor maria theresa cumar. >> i love the pronunciation that. >> i want to go to you first. that quote by rubio admitting that this faces an uphill battle in the house is telling to me. i spoke to one member of the gang of eight who says that marco rubio is more important than 50 gangs of eight. if this needs to be changed, it's a jenga game. you pull out one thing and the whole thing can fall. this is significant. this is not a slam dunk by any means in the u.s. house of representatives. >> what's happening in the house is interesting. you have two different groups working. a housewo working group. and both groups will take their time especially chairman of the judiciary committee. he wants to make it more easy to pass. rubio recognizes that it's going to be a slow walk. >> in terms of the electoral strategy, obviously you guys want to see immigration reform move forward. in terms of election politics, if the house gop, this blocking minority stops immigration reform that had marco rubio's name on it, that's a big precedent for democrats.

ezra klein, and maria theresa kumar will be here, and "now" with alex wagner comes here next.left the building and taken it to d.c. >> the bird has flown, hello, thomas, we are live in washington, d.c. today. where president obama is weathering storms from the sky and on capitol hill. we'll discuss the white house's rebuttal to the irs controversy and the gop's creative interpretation of the facts. with robert gibbs, ryan grimm, nia malika henderson and ary shapiro. and while the beltway fixates on the "s" word, lawmakers move forward on comprehensive legislation reform. and virginia becomes the latest ground zero for the culture wars, we'll look at the gop's incendiary new nominee for lieutenant governor, and the tea party's deepening hold on the state. all of that is coming up next. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more

slate group, jacob wiseberg, host of her show on msnbc, melissa harris-perry, msnbc contributor, maria theresaior nbc national correspondent, josh green. there's a lot to be said about this. melissa, let's start out with eric ericsson's contention and he began that litany of complaints by saying i'm so used to liberals telling