nbc's peter alexander at the white house for us tonight. peter, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. after weeks of questions about whether the obama care website could be fixed and when many say

nbc's peter alexander at the white house for us tonight. peter, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. after weeks of questions about whether the obama care website could be fixed and when many say that is masking what is the real issue here. how much these plans will actually cost. it was one of president obama's key selling points for the new health care law. >> if you've got health insurance, it doesn't mean a government takeover. you keep your own insurance. keep your own doctor. if you like your plan you can keep your plan. >> reporter: but in los angeles, that isn't what debra cavalaro is finding. she buys her own insurance. her employer sent her this notice reading because of the requirements of the new laws we can no longer offer your current policy. >> all i want is what i currently have. i want to keep my doctors and i would like to have lower premiums. >> reporter: the insurance company is offering her is new plan that would cost her $484 a month versus her current $293 premium, a 65% increase. why so much more? the affor

nbc's peter alexander. peter, thanks so much, buddy. appreciate it.melody barnes, ceo of melody barnes solutions. good to have you here. my head really does hurt. i'm not going to lie to you, my head hurts over this because it just seems from the department of ridiculous that we're at this point right now. so as we look at the numbers here, 63% disapprove of the way republicans are handling this, 57% credemocrats and 51% on the president. plenty of blame to go around. who wins if this mud fight continues? who's the big loser? >> i think the president said it well before when he said this -- no one is the winner here and we're not talking about winners and losers except for the fact that we have to stop holding the government hostage. we have to stop holding our full faith and credit hostage to these kinds of negotiations. so we need to reopen the government. we need to have a sensible then conversation about how to move forward and how to assure not only the american people but world leaders. we've got world leaders from china to japan to europe sayin

peter alexander is on the national mall in washington and has that part of the story. peter, good morning to you. >> good morning to you. that includes the 4200 workers at the smithsonian museum and national zoo. they have been furloughed as a result of the government shut down. we're in front of the national air and space museum. last week they had 88,000 visitors come here. today it will be zero. the door is locked and there's a simple message that reads we apologize for the inconvenience. >> reporter: in virginia, the shock is still hitting thomas fuller. a single father, he's an i.t. consultant and con track worker for the department of labor, among tens of thousands of federal contractors impacted. >> the frustration is because it seems like something that could be avoided. >> reporter: the message delivered in a short e-mail. the tasks that you are performing will need to be stopped. no work. no pay. no clear end in sight. >> we wouldn't be able to get along without pay for, you know, a month or two. it would effect us dramatically. >> reporter: near boston, fred

joining me right now is nbc white house peter alexander, capitol hill correspondent, peter o'donnell. let me start with you, that it was last night that the big congressional power players were meeting with the president and we don't know specifically behind the closed doors and it was a little more stern than what we saw presented in rockville. >> thomas, as it was described to us by the parties inside. it was nice and polite conversation. one thing was clear, was there no progress. the president obviously in maryland today is trying to press this case and he used the language that was most significant calling it the reckless republican shutdown. the white house feels strongly that the majority of americans agree with the presidentight now and they are on his side in terms of how we got to this place, but perhaps more importantly, they believe a majority of the members of the house agreed that this shutdown should end. that's why i think the sort of theme of today's remarks was just vote, do it today and they want to put it to an end mocking the republicans in a way, describing one o

nbc white house correspondent peter alexander joins me now. peter, we just heard that kathleen sebelius saying that the president was not aware of the website's problems early on. we know today she'll be in that 2:00 meeting as private health insurance ceos come to the white house. basically this is a come to jesus meeting of the who was the project leader that let this go live then? >> that's one of the questions a lot of people are asking. we now know the president didn't know about this, about the problems until after october 1st. the question is whether hhs basically said, yes, let's go ahead with this thing, we've got to get it online right now. but that meeting taking place this afternoon with health insurance executives and some of the president's closest advisers, dennis mcdonough, his chief of staff, will be one of them there today it's going to be very significant. obviously these health insurers stand to gain millions of new enrollees through this expansion of the private insurance options right now. their concerns are multi-fold inc

. >> peter alexander joins me now from the north lawn of the white house. it looks like the sun is truly shining in washington, d.c. and things are back to normal, so to speak. peter? >> tom a the sun may be out and a lot of americans believe there are plenty of more gray days ahead. this was a frustrated and also angry president obama that we heard from just a matter of moments ago, trying to break this fever hoping he wouldn't have to deal with this again and now in his second term and clearly, he does and for all of the self-congratulations that we witnessed on capitol hill yesterday that there was finally some form of a compromise. there's really no indication of how they get out of this mess and how they avoid this chaos in the future as it was described by one. our long national nightmare is only temporarily over. we've taken down the countdown clocks on the screen, but we're only 90 days away from when the country potentially faces another government shutdown. 113 days away before they have to come up with some new deal to extend america's borrowing l

. >>> our team coverage begins with nbc's peter alexander live from the white house. sounds like both sides don't want the u.s. to go into default. what is the big sticking point now? >> reporter: the big fight, obviously, jim, you just heard, exactly how these negotiations and when they would take place, the white house, the president, making very clear he's not going to have any negotiation with a threat to the american people and, frankly, to this administration right now. insisting that negotiations would only begin after agreement to extend the continuing resolution. basic lynn continuing to funding the government and reopen the government. also, he said, there must first be an increase in the debt ceiling to avoid the threat of default. john boehner, the house speaker, as you just played, he spoke within the last half hour or so and basically said the white house is demanding, in his words, unconditionable surrender and he says negotiations must happen first. so basically at this point we are not too far removed from where we were eight days ago. >> you attended

also joining us, white house correspondent peter alexander. peter, let's talk about what has just happened. 3 1/2 hours of what i will say is exhaustive testimony from kathleen sebelius, defending the president, defending the affordable care act. the president is going to sort of follow that up later today, this afternoon. how concerned is the white house at this point? republicans seem to have moved sort of -- they have a hybrid strategy of attacking both the website and the quote/unquote president's failed promises that everybody could keep their health care. from 1600 pennsylvania avenue, what's the view? >> i think there's definitely frustration. there's obviously concern, as you have conversations with white house officials privately. they hope this can have a better context. they want this to be explained. because the website is down and there's little they can do to help provide the exact information for those americans who say their plans are being canceled or changed, they want to focus on the small number of people who are being impac

nbc's peter alexander at the white house and luke russert on the hill. >> french?s what's going on, peter. >> reporter: there's no indication according to white house aids that this meeting will take place later today. it may not happen until tomorrow. but that was indicated to us by white house aides as being an indication of good signs of progress taking place right now. the president had

peter alexander is at the wougs. what is the white house going to do? >> reporter: tour'e, that's a good question. the president's strategy today was to try to create a pretty good distinction between the website and the health care law. of course, to keep with his own metaphor, this idea of a shopping store, grocery store, if you will for a lot of people, the website is the like the sliding doors, that is the entry way to best understand the law. that's why this has been so taxing to the white house. it should be spending his political capital on budget talks, not trying to defend the obama care website. one of the things to focus on over the next several days and weeks is exactly how long this takes. the white house would not indicate how long it would take. they are not stupid, they are not going to put a marker on the calend calendar. if they could be solved in four to six weeks, they are convinced the majority of people who have yet to sign up and visit, if it extends beyond that, it becomes a bigger type of firestorm for this administration. >> pe

for the latest, peter alexander live at the white house. pete, what happened?that a deal had been reached, the senate leaders had freed. they're having a glass of bourbon together, what happened? >> reporter: i better pack my sleeping bag until i get to do that for certain here. that meeting, it appears, increasingly unlikely any meeting is going to take place here today at the white house. we are being told by white house aides there is no indication it will happen at any point today, which they view as a good sign of progress, as you have been reporting. their desire is to allow the senate leaders to continue this conversation, the significant progress that's being made at the other end of pennsylvania avenue right now. the president earlier today when he was visiting a food pantry where he wanted to try to highlight the fact -- the story of these individuals who are still suffering with the shutdown taking place said he was hoping to see the evidence of progress, to make sure that it was real today. it turns out he's not going to see it, but appears to be he

peter alexander has the latest on the stalemate. peter, good morning. >> reporter: hi, matt, october 17th is the next potential crisis to circle on your calendar. it's when the country hits the debt ceiling. economists warn that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be infinitely worse. it's now week two of the government shutdown that both sides insist they want to end. >> congress should do what's in the best interest of the economy and the american people. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner is demanding the president make a deal. >> mr. president, it's time to have that conversation before our economy is put further at risk. >> reporter: next up, that october 17th deadline with concern growing that congress won't raise the debt ceiling by then. what is the debt ceiling? it's the equivalent of the government's credit card limit, when the country runs out of money to pay its bills and can't borrow another dime. the u.s.'s debt limit is $16 trillion. trillion with a t. then what? if congress doesn't green light the government

peter alexander is at the national mall in washington. good morning. >> good morning. white house is telling us that the preside

let's start at the white house with peter alexander. peter, what was the thinking behind having this press conference on this day? >> krystal, it's a good question. this is part of a continued effort by the white house to be out in front of this to continue to put pressure on house republicans to put a vote on the floor, specifically, about a clean cr, continuing resolution as well as the debt ceiling to try to lift these issues away from the crises they presently face and create a president says he would be willing to negotiate. he walked down the street to go get lunch and went to fema yesterday and this today, wait and see, he'll probably do anything tomorrow. he didn't mins words with the use of words like ransom, extortion, dead beat in the course of his conversations. he did float a couple of ideas where the potential out may be, simply acknowledging that he pledged to sign a short-term clean cr, something like six to eight weeks that would remove that issue and allow for negotiations, also floated the idea of increasing the debt l

>> so we start the hour at the white house with nbc's peter alexander. ter, why is the white house still struggling here, it seems, to get their arms around all of these website criticisms? >> reporter: first of all, let me compliment the rhythm and rhyme you're used to. i appreciate that. >> whoa. >> reporter: we'll save that for another time. it's clear the white house is trying to wrap its arm around the extent taking place right now. some describe is more like the oil spill, the bp oil spill than this is like iraq or katrina, unclear exactly where the end of the line may be in some situation right here. the white house with the meeting taking place right now, hhs secretary kathleen sebelius hosting those health insurance executives right now. one of the big problems for them, of course, they fear they stand to have to bear a lot of brunt to this to get a lot of the blame. on the back side of this website problem, a lot of information that's being transmitted to them is garbled and it's a big mess, not a lot they can do it at least one health care prov

let's get right to peter alexander at the white house. peter, what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning to you. most americans are asking themselves is it over yet? i just spoke to a top republican senate aid that said optimism abounds. but this is crunch time for congress now facing intense pressure to come up with a senate deal and get it approved before midnight tonight after house republicans plan to get this thing fixed imploded. it's down to the wire. with less than 24 hours to go the back and forth on capitol hill is enough to give you whiplash. with house republican's deal going nowhere, negotiators are back at the table. sending out nearly identical statements saying they're optimism a agreement can be reached. it's basically done one aid said. among those helping end the mess, the sisterhood of the senate. they put problem solving over partisanship. still, after more than two weeks wasted, congress needs to move fast. already the u.s.'s near perfect credit rating is in danger with fitch, it grades financial strength warning that investors america may

peter alexander has that story this morning. hi, peter. >> reporter: hi, matt. good morning to you. i spoke with aids on both sides early this morning and they insist no final decisions have been made but there were more talks overnight and more talks scheduled again for today. senate republicans arrive here at the white house several hours from now but a more different tone from days ago with clear signs that the end of the shutdown and the debt limit standoff may finally be within view. after a long night of negotiations new optimism that washington might find a solution to both problems it created. house republicans describe their hour and a half meeting with the president as useful and productive, even if no final decisions were made. >> we'll come back to have more discussions. the president said he would go and consult with the administration folks and hopefully we can see a way forward after that. >> reporter: that way forward may include an end to the government shutdown by monday according to a top house republican on cnbc. >> if we're going to open the government, we need

peter alexander, thank you very much. chuck todd is nbc's political director and chief white house correspondence. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> optimism coming out of the senate but as peter mentioned what can be in the bill that will give john boehner political cover to take it to a vote in the house? >> the best thing to give him the cover is if it's 80 votes in the senate. if it's some big number. if you remember the end of the year tax deal in 2012, fiscal cliff, there was more than 80 votes in the senate. what that gave john boehner was saying more than half of the senate republicans voted for this, guys, i'm putting it on the floor and i'm going to let everybody vote for it but i'm not convinced they're going to get that big vote out of the senate. the only thing that can give boehner the cover to throw it on to the floor and let democrats bring this home is if it's just the calendar. if we're starting to expire. >> given what members of congress heard from the public over the last couple of weeks t fact

peter alexander is at the white house this morning with the very latest. good morning, peter. >> reporter: good morning, david. no deal in sight and not a lot of progress here. the next days will be critical on the u.s. closing in on a thursday deadline. that's when the government could begin defaulting on it's bills. a heavy focus will be on the financial markets including the stock market open today on the holiday that could put more pressure on republicans and democrats to finally make a deal. with just three days until the u.s. is expected to run out of money to pay it's bills it's hardly inspiring, the top party leaders in the senate talking is touted as a break through. >> i'm positive today. >> reporter: among the sticking points spending levels, the length of a short-term deal to reopen the government as well as any extension of the nation's borrowing limit. >> to my colleagues in the house and senate we're ruining both institutions. >> reporter: with the shutdown in it's third week americans on both sides are furious. frustrations on display across

joining me now for a closer look is nbc news correspondent peter alexander. 00 workers in d.c. alone will be furloughed by this, but the impact goes far beyond federal workers, right? >> reporter: yeah, it's certainly having an impact on those people who came to this area to enjoy themselves. the national zoo being affected. the panda cam is shut down. >> say it ain't so. >> reporter: federal workers for the smithsonians and for the zoo have all been furloughed as a result of this. we're outside the national aerospace museum. the sign says due to the shutdown, we are shut down. we apologize for the inconvenience. some of the people that have been inconvenienced, some friends that we've just made. we have everett love, dennis polly. dennis, you said cns was the most excitement you've had today. >> traserrible, terrible day. i feel sorry for the foreigners that just come all this way. >> reporter: just met some folks from brazil that were frustrated. everett, you said when you get back to minneapolis, you're looking for a ballot box. what do you think? >> well,

nbc's peter alexander is live with more on this. >> reporter: savannah, good morning. there are short-term solutions out there. out of this meeting here at the white house this afternoon, the president republican leaders couldn't even agree on a guest list. president obama inviting all 232 house republicans, speaker john bohner insisting only 18 will come. how dysfunctional is d.c.? even the invite list for this afternoon's white house meeting required negotiations. with the u.s. barreling towards its borrowing limit the so-called debt ceiling deadline exactly one week away, there are few signs of real progress. house democrats huddleing with the president late wednesday. >> the debt ceiling needs to be lifted. >> reporter: among the glimmer of hope, some republicans are expecting a short-term deal and several top republicans have shifted their focus away from gutting the president's health care law. in an interview with wrc, president obama warned of economic turmoil if the u.s. doesn't cover its debt. >> the financial markets can't even image than we would get into a

let's go to white house correspondent peter alexander, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you. nice to have that countdown clock off the screen. this is what we got early this morning just before 1:00. the memo from the president's director, it says simply, all members on furlough may return to work. a federal worker is enjoying her first day back at work at tax court. she said it felt like a vacation. a lot of americans did not feel that way a. 16-day shutdown, at least for now this crisis is finally finished. early this morning the first signs the u.s. government is once again opened for business, barricades removed at the washington monument, furloughed workers back on the job. >> i'm quite glad to go back to work. >> reporter: overnight the president set a debt deal to law promising this ugly epide won't happen again. >> we can let this cloud of unese and uncertainty from our businesses and the american people. >> reporter: racing to beat the deadline, the senate voted overwhelmingly to end the shutdown and avoid a possible default. >> i think one of the most import

nbc white house correspondent peter alexander has the latest. what can you tell us? >> hi, savannah, we will have a warning about how this shutdown is now also threatening national security. but any hopes that this session would be resolved by putting the president and republican and democratic leaders behind closed doors at the white house to hash things out. they were quickly shut down yesterday, themselves. at this point it appears this shutdown is no closer to an end. with the paralyzing government shutdown in its third day, no signs of a break through, even after congressional leaders have an hour with the president wednesday night. their first gathering since the shutdown began. >> the president reiterated one more time tonight he will not negotiate. >> we are where we are. we are not going to play, we are through playing these little games. >> reporter: the stalemate could last until the 17th when the nation faces default, an economic catastrophe, if congress doesn't raise its borrowing limit. in an interview on cnbc, president obama blamed republicans insisti

we have our own panda correspondent, peter alexander joining us live. meet the visitors today. you had the exclusive interview this morning. >> let's be clear. you had the count down clock going for days. we are now counting down 12 minuting until the zoo opens up. this is a capitol hill stake out here. these are the guys you see at the white house and on the hills. they are now over to the zoo with us. look who we can introduce you to. you have to go online and we met a lot of folks from around d.c. and the younger folks here today. we answer have natalie and samantha. you are almost 8. are you really excited or kind of excited? >> really. >> how about you. >> kind of. >> what animal do you kind of want to see most? >> um -- >> you think about it. how about samantha? >> pandas. >> what are is it about pandas that we love so much some. >> i like when they get born because they look cute. >> you guys look cute. it's professional development day and that's why the kids are out here. i said to mom and dad are they supposed to be out of school today? they a

let's get to peter alexander, good morning to you. >> reporter: savannah, good morning to you. the countdown clock is finally off the screen. this is the message sent out yesterday. the employees on furlough may now return to work. that is the case today, returning to work across washington and the country. one woman described it as a long vacation. most americans would disagree. the president, in a half hour will address the erosion in trust. according to white house sources, map the way forward. this crisis is finally finished. early this morning, the first sign the u.s. government is once again open for business. crews removing barricades. furloughed workers back on the job. >> i'm glad to go back to work. >> reporter: overnight, the president signed a deal back into law and promised this would never happen again. >> we can lift this cloud of uncertainty from the businesses and the american people. >> reporter: racing to meet the deadline, the senate voted on the bill to end the shutdown and avoid a possible default. >> one of the most important things we have been able to d

. >> joining me with a preview of the president's remarks, peter alexander. so, peter, what website changes are in the works and what specifically do we understand that the president is going to give as a reason to why this was so botched on the rollout? >> yeah, thomas, i doubt in terms of the latter, i doubt he'll lay out exactly what went wrong. he'll probably focus less on the problems and more on the solutions. you noted that tech surge, the health and human services putting out that blog statement acknowledging some of the changes that are already taking place right now. let me show you if i can right now one of the changes that already exists. this happened overnight. on the front of the healthcare.gov website, you can see it there for yourself, it demonstrates the fact that people can apply online or apply by phone. that's different. the president will certainly make the case that the health care law is about more than just botched, at least at this point, a flawed website, it's about affordable health care. they will point out among other things that

peter alexander and capitol hill correspondent, kelly o'donnell. peter, let me start with you. the president insisted that the health care law is more than the website. the product is good. the quality of the product is good. but it's just this initial glitch with the website that is the biggest problem and he doesn't want people -- americans to be dissuaded from actually figuring out that they do need to sign up and the best ways to do it. >> thomas, i think for a lot of americans, the problem for this white house is that the website is really been sort of like the bill board for most americans. it's the way they've been drawn into better understand this health care law. what's interesting here and although it's unlikely at least for the moment, it appears possible that these technical glitches could accomplish what the republicans could not over the course of that shutdown strategy where they try to defund or delay obama care. it's possible if the glitches are not resolved that the white house would be forced to extend the enrollment period for individuals and also perhaps de

i want to bring in peter alexander from a fairly empty national mall. they closed and that's one of the casualties of the government shut down. we have been talking about the lighter effects and tourists upset and things like that. the serious effects and impacts on people's everyday lives. people are there at the knife's edge when it comes to economic well being. you have been talking to people. >> this has been the united nations of tour i. we met people from all over and all of these people are struggling to read english and walking up to the doors where they learn that the museums will be shut down. they come up to us trying to figure out what this means and how it got there. as one person said how does this happen in america? a lot of people are asking themselves that right now. we had an interesting conversation with a couple that doesn't live far from where we are in alexandria, virginia. they are talking about their experience as a stay at home father. the mom just was furloughed from her job as a data analyst with the health and human services

joy reid in for me tomorrow, "andrea mitchell reports" with guest peter alexander coming up next. >>>sday to you. business travel looks pretty good throughout the afternoon and evening hours. no problems at any of the big airports. still chilly, definitely for traveling anywhere midwest, northeast, mid-atlantic, be prepared for a cold night tonight and a chilly, early morning tomorrow. much of the western half and southern half of the nation remains absolutely gorgeous with dry weather. enjoy. what if we could keep enough plastic waste to cover mt. rainier out of landfills each year? by using one less trash bag each month, we can. and glad forceflex bags stretch until they're full.* so you can take them out less often.

. >>> nbc's peter alexander is live in washington with more on how it's affecting people. t alone but i'm sure you've heard a lot. >> reporter: we definitely heard a lot today as you look like what should be a gorgeous shot down the national mall but there's not a lot to see. national air and space museum shut down, national gallery of art shut down. we've had people from the czech republic, russia and china and japan and west royalston, massachusetts. nice to meet you guys. give me a sense of the frustration. >> we came down here for our anniversary and planned on doing the mall here -- >> how is that going? >> everything is closed down. >> reporter: very quickly, what do you see to these guys at the capitol? >> how about grow up and act like adults and get this thing solved. >> reporter: enjoy your time here. it was nice to meet you. that's just a small sample of what we're hearing. sometimes with language we can't share, that's the point we're hearing from people today. >> all right, peter. thank you very much. you smile but it's to hide the sadness and unfortunate situa

i want to head back over to the white house and my colleague peter alexander who is standing by. peter, we know that administration officials are going to hit the road. they're going to start talking about what the president talked about today. help people sign up for this. what is the white house's strategy moving forward? >> i think in some ways this sounds a lot like a campaign. obviously, with remarks on october 1st by the president. the remarks again today to try not so much to dismiss but tamp down the concerns about the website and focus on the product itself. over the course of the next several days, several weeks, frankly, beginning this week, the president is going to send out his team, cabinet officials, top members to try to head to areas they really rely on. the populations, the communities with large populations of the uninsured, obviously, to focus on them. one of the real problems i think that focus -- that has been a concern point for a lot of the folks here is that it's almost worse, but it's very difficult to get into the website than it would be impossible to g

. >> nbc's white house correspondent peter alexander joins us. based on what that one member of congress wants to ask, you have a laundry list. it's going to be a hot one on k will be speaking and president obama simultaneously to massachusetts, they implemented something to obama care in 2007-2008. white house advisers say we're okay here. we expect most signups to happen in later months. if you take the example of massachusetts, only 123 people signed up in the first month. that's .3% of the entirety of the signups there. there are other issues that are frustrating americans, including sticker shock. a lot of americans who believe they could keep their present plan, because they do not meet the minimum standards required by the president's health care law, are forced to have their plan canceled or changed or some say they simply can't afford the affordable care act. we've spoken to some families, because of the new rirpts, new laws, we can no offer your current policy. this individual tells us that the closest comparable plan available from an