mr. steele finish. >> let me tell you where you're wrong. deal with it. >> i will deal with it. >> the reality of the facts are that -- >> the reality of the facts? >> the real facts, bob, okay? are that this administration spent $5 trillion. >> that's wrong, that's wrong. a lot of it is automatic stabilizers. >> let me finish my point. >> it's a lie. >> it's not a lie. the debt was $10 trillion on the day he was inaugurated. what is it today? almost $6 trillion. who spent that money? who spent the money? >> because of the bush economic collapse. it went into unemployment compensation -- >> all right, gentlemen, i'm going to have to call that a draw or draw that to an end. michael steele and bob shrum, thank you. remember to answer the question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter and facebook. we want to know what you think. >>> coming up, mitt romney's european vacation was either a disaster or a strong conservative statement depending on your point of view. romney's spokesman and ari melber debate the trip next.

mr. steele's insightful analysis has been here tonight, mr. shrum, president obama isn't just painting this as bad for the middle class. he's showing how this is completely unserious as a means of deficit reduction, and he's doing a pretty effective job, no? >> i understand why michael isn't into the details of this. because i think if he got into the details of the romney plan, it would probably be as vulnerable and difficult as the details that are obviously hidden in those tax returns. secondly, there's a mythology here, by the way, which is if you cut taxes, capital gains taxes, marginal tax rates for the wealthy, how or another that's the marginal job creation. this is a lie, calling the wealthiest people in the country the job creators. under bill clinton, we had a slightly higher capital gains tax rate and we created 22 million jobs. the largest number of jobs creating in any eight-year period in american history. so why don't we go back to some kind of fundamental tax fairness, also try to raise some revenue by making the wealthy pay t

mr. steele understands. i'll go ask him. happy birthday, brian. >> give brian our best.t. let's get over to chicago and the cme, rick santelli with the santelli exchange. good morning, rick. >> good morning, carl. underwater. you know, when i listen to the interview this morning and steve always has good interviews with fed officials, whether you agree or not, they're interesting. these are powerful people. but the notion that underwater anything can be improved by a lower rate, and i'm sorry, it just seems ridiculous. if you're upside down on your house and i said this during the february 19th rant, you can give people that are underwater on their house negative interest rates, they're still upside down. it isn't an interest rate problem. it isn't a funding problem. it's an insolvency/credit/bad collateral problem. so why would the logic be any different if you moved it up to countries! let's look at some gdps. all right. these are the last four quarters of gdps and i listed them by strength. these are the biggest developed economies. so you could see, the largest, the

mr. romney for his wife's death. if it did, it's unfair. it talked about what happened when bain came in, bought gs steel, overleveraged it and left mr. skoptic with nothing. while mr. romney walked away with a pretty hefty profit. mr. romney has put his business experience at the center of his rational for his candidacy. is that the type of business experience you want in the oval office? profit at any cost. >> kevin, one question for you about this new web video circulating from a group called special operations education group that has some strong republican ties, it attacks president obama very, very harshly for the president's reaction to the osama bin laden killing and national security leaks that have come from the white house or the obama administration. >> at my direction, i directed -- i directed -- i directed. >> mr. president, you didn't kill osama bin laden. america did. the work that the america military has done killed osama bin laden. you did not. >> for someone to say we killed osama bin laden, no, you didn't. >> kevin, very quickly the obama campaign calls this a swift vote style attack, does the romney campaign disa

mr. romney was still on the books as being ceo when the steel mill had shut down. ll listed as ceo and had a hand in how the company was handled. but in the ad mr. sop tick says his wife became ill a short time. it turns out it was five years after that. in 2006 his wife unfortunately died. his wife actually had other health insurance, actually her primary insurance was from her own job and she still had that when he lost his health insurance. as with the romney ad, we talked about it before the break, the fact checkers are not smiling on this one either. "the washington post" giving the same of romneys. on just every level this ad stretches the bounds of common sense and desencency. >> i don't speak for a third party group i speak for thement and adnistration. >> the campaign and spoex we have nothing, no involvement with any ads that are done by priorities usa. we don't have any knowledge of the story or family. the campaign should have some knowledge of him and his family because they used him in one of their own campaign ads earlier. >> i was a steel worker for

mr. fix-it compared to barack obama. jim steel is co-author of "betrayal of the american dream," doug holtz-eakin joins us and john avalon. great to see all of you. i really appreciate it. doug, this is a tough order for mitt romney. it's not that things are great or anywhere where they need to be, but they're getting a little bit better and the polls seem to be getting a little bit worse when you look at it from mitt romney's perspective. >> well, i think the key is that today's report might have looked good for the topline jobs number, but if you dig inside it, we did see another 150,000 people give up looking for jobs entirely. we did see more people get unemployed. and for those who had jobs, we saw hours of work flat and weekly earnings of production workers actually fall. so the important thing to remember is that the majority of americans have jobs. and for them, the key is income growth, a better standard of living. we haven't seen that in this recovery. disposable incomes grow very slowly. and today's report is another re

mr. romney was responsible for the death of a steel worker's wife, as portrayed in a super pac supporting the president. the president said he didn't approve or produce the ad which makes sense because super pacs can't by law coordinate with campaigns. begun again, keeping them honest, mr. obama's campaign itself has made a similar case. this can be found on the slide show on the obama campaign's website. not a super pac site but the obama campaign's own website. it says, i worked hard all my life and played by the rules and they allowed this to happen. sourcing joe soptic, employ ear for 28 years, whose wife died of hung castor after he lost his gst health plan. plenty to talk about with dana bash, wolf blitzer and david gergen. it's well known the president's own campaign manager, stephanie cutter, said that mitt romney possibly committed a felony. did it surprise you that president obama denied that today? >> well, you know, he was being very precise and he's a very precise kind of person, as all of us who have covered him over the years, know. he didn't say that -- he said no one actu

>>carl: and the current owner and manager of a long time family owned steel services and company in western pennsylvania, and mr. ryan went to his company for a "you built it or we built it event." we are told next week in tampa that is the theme, again tweaking president obama for his comments several weeks old now. >>shepard: republicans are clearly having problem but there is a lot of money in the tent and it is widening the gap in a big way. >>carl: the money talks in politics. when it talks it talk on ads and there are more than ever before. romney and mr. obama are raising more than ever before and romney is raising more than president obama and the democratic national committee. in the month of july, romney put in $100 million. president obama and the democrats only put in $75 million. when you look at the cash on hand, gas money for the bus tours, romney is new leading, significantly, fully $62 million, $180 million to obama's $120 million, a $60 million curb for the republican candidate a big advantage. as for the ads, president obama spent about $60 million, more than he took in, and he spent about $6

mr. brimmer is a former marine. he had worked at a steelill which ha the highest unemployment in all of virginia. he was wouldn't be able to have this conversation over and over again. >> the situation that we talk about the economy for those specific virginians. and then on the other side, you have someone like russell tompkins. this is what he is saying. >> when you have an unstable or uncertain future, people will not invest. >> now, did you get a sense there that for some of these people, people like him, they think the president just doesn't get it? >> well, he was quite eloquent on that subject in the full context of his conversation. although, he, too, said look, i understand that president obama inherited a lot of this but he had a very vague concept of change and didn't articulate clearly what it was he felt we should do and he is someone from the investment world felt that that uncertainty and lack of surity, if it were, really helped to make the problems we're having and wanted more from the president in terms of clarity. he was

mr. romney was still on the books as being ceo when the steel mill shut down.had left two years before to run the olympics. you could argue he still had a hand in running how the company was handled. but he said his ad became ill a short time after he lost his health care. it turns out it was five years after that, in 2006 that his wife unfortunately died. in addition, he said his wife actually had other health insuran insurance. actually her primary insurance was from her own job and she still had that when she lost her health insurance. the fact checkers are not smiling on this one either. "the washington post" giving this ad the same as romneys, four pinnochios. tonight, both the white house and the obama campaign are trying to distance itself from the ad. press secretary jay carney saying, quote, i still haven't seen the ad. i don't speak for a third party group. i speak for the president and the administration and i explain and defend his policies. the campaign spokesperson went farther than his white house spokesperson saying we have nothing to do by the

mr. romney was still on the books in bain's ceo when the steel mill shut down.ft two years before to head the olympics. you could argue he had a hand in how the company was handled. but in the ad, he says his wife became ill a short time after romney and bain closed the plants. it turns out it was five years after that in 2006 his wife unfortunately died. cnn's brianna keilar spoke to him. he told her his wife had other health insurance. her primary insurance was from her own job and she still had that when he lost his health insurance. the fact checkers are not smiling on this one either. "the washington post" giving this ad the same as romney's, four pinocchios. concluding, quote, on just every level this ad stretches the bounds of common sense and decency. the white house and the obama campaign are trying to distance themselves from the ad. press secretary jack keacarney saying, quote, i still haven't seen the ad. i speak for the president and the administration and i explain and defend his policies. saying, quote, we have nothing, no involvement with any ads

mr. romney contributed to a woman's death caom cancer because her husband lost his insurance five years earlier when romney's former rorm closed his steel plant. >> i do not think mitt romney realizes what he's done to neyone. >> reporter: why not send a message to the top super pac supporting you and say "i think an ad like that is out-of- bounds." >> i don't think governor romney is somehow responsible for the dath of the woman portrayed in that ad. but keep in mind, this is an ad that i didn't approve, i did not produce, and as far as i can tell has barely run. >> reporter: and the president idinted out that the romney campaign itself-- not some outside group-- is running ads ought now, norah, that distorts his position on welfare policy. >> o'donnell: nancy, the president was also asked about syria today. it sounded like he made some news on that as well. >> reporter: he did. ll.drew a line in the sand-- or a red line, as he put it-- for president bashar al-assad and the president said if there is any evidence al-assad is using or moving chemical weapons he would consider military intervention there. on o'donnell: nancy, thank you.

mr. aitken has sunk his own ship. , steel look at other media, other editorial pages to hone your message and it would you write about. finding most of your sources in the papers? funding a lot of it on line? >> much of it, of course, is on line. i don't personally subscribe to our copy of anything aside from town hall magazine, of course. i do visit these publications on-line. i have also found, we were doing this interview five years ago i would not be saying this, but i found a lot of the sense that pulse on twitter where i try to follow a cross-section of folks across the aisle from elected to officials, members of the media, average voters, and everything in between command has been a very helpful resources well. of course, when you're covering a story you it sort of want to get a sense of what the people. i try to avoid particularly when it comes to instant reaction to speeches or some sort of policy initiative, something that i want to sort of lead on with an opinion of my on and on necessarily shop around and get a sense of what other people are saying. i prefer to kind of give my

mr. romney's business. this may be the worst merger since aol bought time warner. with me are bob shrum and michael steele. i want to start with you, michael because you're always a stra straight shooter around here. is cold feet too cold a term to tough a term for the feeling some are having about ryan with his difficult budget to sell? >> i don't think it's so much cold as it is nervous. i think that as the dust has settled on this and particularly those down ballot congressional races, we're only talking about 25-seat change in the house. when half are close to half of these seats may be in districts that are too close to call for some republicans, if it becomes a major concern, now that as you already noted, the conversation had shifted away from even you know, taxes and tax returns and the like to okay, let's talk about the specifics of your budget cht let's talk about the specifics of medicare and i've begun to hear a little bit of that rumbling among republicans. are a little nervous about it. >> politico's story today was headlines gop pros fred over paul ryan reports. quote, away from the cameras

steel plant workers. the president goes to ohio and nevada. yesterday mr. obama made himself available to the national press for the first time in months and responded to governor romney's claim that he gutted work requirements for welfare recipients. >> everybody who has looked at this says, what governor romney is saying is absolutely wrong. not only are his super pacs running millions of dollars worth of ads making this claim, governor romney himself approving this and saying it on the stump. so the, the contrast i think is pretty stark. that's, they can run the campaign they want. but the truth of the matter is, you can't just make stuff up. jon: in new hampshire yesterday congressman ryan went after the president on the economy. >> let's be very clear and fair. the president inherited a difficult situation, no two ways about that. the problem is he made things worse. and that's why the president has run out of ideas and so, his campaign is now been relegated to waging a campaign based on frustration and anger. dividing people, distracting people, to tr

steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪ >>> this may be mr.omney's convention, but it's the tea party's agenda. the gop has been taken over by the far right of the party and they don't want you to know about it. that's next. cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover. hey america, even though slisa rinna is wearing the new depend silhouette briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even under a fantastic dress. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. we invite you to get a free sample and try one on too. >>> we're back with a delegation getting a huge welcome at this republican's convention. take a look. >> who's proud to be a tea partier now? >> barack obama is a direct threat to the survival of the country i grew up in. >> in washington, d.c. they said the revolution will not be happening. don't they only wish. >> they may be getting a huge welcome, but

mr. romney or me another tax break? >> tax breaks for the middle class, tax breaks for the wealthy. he's spinning hard an the president hammers him. bob shrum and michael steele here with their reaction. >>> today, the obama care birth control mandate is in full effect and republicans are overreacting. >> i know in your mind you can think of the times when america was attacked. one was december 7th, pearl harbor. the other is september 11th. i want you to remember august 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. >> the panel weighs in on a new era in women's health. >>> and d.l. hughley's new book is causing a stir. he joins me live tonight. governor mitt romney's tax plan went to that strange foreign land called independent analysis and came back looking like a loser. unfortunately for mr. romney, the truth is out. his tax plan would slash taxes for the very rich and raise taxes on the poor and middle class. the independent study by the tax policy center bent over backwards to view romney's plan in a favorable light, but concluded that the net effect of romney's plan would be this. millionaires would get an $87,000 tax cut, but 95% of americans would s

mr. romney at kinko's. but the truth is. all he has to do is release the returns and all these questions would be answered. joining me now is former pennsylvania governor ed rendell and michael steeleboth for being here. >> good to see you, rev. >> it's a pleasure. >> tonight, michael, i was waiting to talk with you. >> i bet. >> let me start with you. you're the former chairman of the republican national committee. >> yeah. >> does it make political sense for mitt romney to release more tax returns? >> i think politically it does. at this stage of the game and i've said this for several weeks now. i think that somewhere in the five to seven range of years back i think would give people a sense of what he's done and i think a lot of this noise goes away. the brew ha-ha with harry reid becomes a footnote. and the country can focus on things that matter. the discussion that the president and mitt romney need to have about the direction of the country and how much it's going to cost us to get back on our seat. >> your successor called the senate majority leader a dirty liar. you took a lot of shots when you were chairman. some of it friendly fire. i've never heard you use that kind of