election about ideas, sweet, baby jesus, the tide had finally turned. regardless of philosophies, both sides seemed ready to debate the issues. that lasted for three days. then things like this started to happen. take a look. >> so, mr. president, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting america. >> and with that, the gloves were off, again. if you look at the news over the past few days, there wasn't much talk of ideas. actually, maybe one. over and over again. >> we have been very transparent to what's legally required of us. but the more we release, the more we get attacked. the more we get questioned, the more we get pushed, so we have done what's legally required, and there's going to be no more tax releases given. >> taxes, taxes, taxes, obama for america campaign manager jim messina seized op the romney tax return issue and issued this campaign challenge. he writes, in the governor will release five years of returns, i commit in turn we will not criticize him for not releasing more, neither in ads nor in other public communications or commentary for the rest of the campaign" since negativity is an equal opportunity gain, matt rhodes responded "if governor romney's tax returns are the core message of your campaign there, will be ample time for president obama to discuss them over the next 81 days" here is the thing, the campaign for president with barack obama and mitt romney aren't more critical or negative to what we've seen in the past. let's me introduce you to thomas jefferson and john adams. campaign 2012 has got nothing on the campaign of 1800 in terms of negativity. jefferson said adams had a hideous, helm aftmafh o fnchema character. can you imagine what the hashtags would have been on this campaign? in 1828, john quincy adams and andrew jackson brought out the fangs, clause and kitchen sink. adams support thors called jackson's mother a common prostitute and his wife a convicted adultress. and adams was accused of being a pimp, saying he arranged a hooker for alexander i, which he kind of did, with taxpayer money. this was before the ahead vent of tv. but when tv went live, so did negativeity. >> eight, nine, nine -- >> nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. >> hard to miss the point there. vote for lbj or risk being wiped off the face of the earth. nothing negative, right? let's jump ahead to 1988, a group supporting george h.w. bush dealt michael dukakis a severe blow with the willy horton ad. >> horton fled, kidnapping a young couple. weekend prison passes, dukakis on crime. >> eekz. we can focus on the negativity. let's face it, there is a lot of if, that would be too easy. negativity, ads, critique if we dig deeper, it can be a means to an end, because if a candidate doesn't want to talk about his tax returns, isn't it possible that can signal to voters he might not be hon whes it comes to other things, like our dme or reasons for going to war? and when an incumbent talks about his challenger unchaining the banks, regardless of intended meaning, it may signal to some he is not as racially progressive as some would want. getting into the proverbial weeds can tell us something about the issues that we care about. and in turn, the issues can then be made important by the voters, joining me now, anthea butler, peter goodman, author of "past due." kayton dawson, former south carolina gop chair, national republican consultant, and a consultant at the raven group. nice to you have peter, negativity is not necessarily anything new. is this different? is 23012 somehow different? >> yeah, it's different. it's different because both candidates wanted from are very fewed moderates in the is noter to go after. and a base election, trying to turn out their base, and turn off the other guys. an ugly process to watch if are you turning on your tv in ohio or florida, you are probably tempted to turn off the tv until after election day because of the negativity. and pretty much about making the other guys' base so beleaguered, you get the feeling that democracy is not for up nothing to do with solving the every day issues that ordinary people face. >> so interesting. you say it's a base election. a presidential election, not ought to be a base election. this ought to be a big, broad election, we are hoping have the independents, moderates, qings, one thing when it happens in an offyear election, is this about keeping the moderates out of the election? i think this is the beenergize e and we are looking at theorys and conservatism. >> ah! could we please have an ad about that? >> but at the end of the day, the person who doesn't identify with each party, 122 million to 16 million people in each state, what's happening in this election, human nature and technology have collided. blogs, huffington, everybody out there, and that's why this one is going to be decided so late. we were talking in the room earlier, this will be election that neither party's base will decide that that person who kicked the republicans out in 2006 over spending, put republicans back in the house in 2010 on spending in my opinion, and that's the way we're all going. >> kate, are you going to tell me that this is an issue based election. >> i wish it was. >> i feel like that's what we heard initially, with the ryan rollout, this is about ideas. i was reading frank rich in "new york" magazine, any president should go negative early and often and without apology, if the goal is victory. the notion that negative campaigning is some toxic modern aberration in democracy is bogus. is that right? should we say maybe it will be about issues, maybe it won't. the point is, if you want to win, you have to go in hard. >> every presidential campaign is about leadership and trust. how do we figure out which two people on the ballot do we trust more than the other ones, so i can make a decision. not the obama's campaign to cover up mitt romney's faults. not their job to sit there and say he agreed to the health care plan before he was opposed to it, he -- ryan agreed to the president's medicare savings before now, he's attacking it. it's their job to talk about that, to educate the voters, and the voters can make an informed decision about which one of these people do i vus trust to sit in the room and make a decision on behalf of me and my family. >> a very similar point. i want to come to you about this. the president yesterday in new hampshire. >> you will see more negative ads. than you and ever seen your life. just hope that if they can tap into people's frustration, anxiety, that somehow they will win, even though what they are selling won't work. >> we have the president saying you will see a bunch of negative ads. they are counting negative ads from places out here, but we'll really talk about the issue you. is that fair or really just going to be who can beat up most? >> one of two things. who can beat up on most of anybody else. and not about ideas, it's about ideology. ideology of both parties in play, and what's going to happen is that as we try to get that middle that kate has talked about, they have no decide which ideology, not which ideas. ideas are free floating right now. it's the ideology of both parties that is being elected. i said to somebody, i said is this election, depending on how you look at it democrats, an election about had will we continue to allow election to protect people. it's about the individual and how we're going to -- government not supposed to be in the midst of our lives and then the middle people who need government in certain ways, but don't want the intrusions on the other which side of the fence will i stand on? that's about the ideology, and that's what we're hearing more and more. >> that's interesting. come back on the issue. and i would like to hear about ideology. you are suggesting it's about leadership and character, but, of course, there is -- my favorite negative ad of all times, 1800, when the federalist said thomas jefferson was dead. i love that. not saying he's a bad guy, i'm just saying don't vote for the dead guy. he was, of course, not actually dead from the start of his campaign, mitt romney wanted to run on jobs, jobs, jobs, he invited paul ryan on the team, and now he's changing the course of the campaign, working out just fine for the democrats. that's next. my cut hurt! mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... 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[ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects hotdogs. made with 100% beef and no artificial preservatives. it's yes food. my plan has already extend the the life of medicare by nearly a decade. their plan would put medicare on track to be ended as we know it. >> that was president obama yesterday at a campaign stop in wind ham, new hampshire, telling voters why his plan for medicare was better than the plan of mitt romney and paul ryan, so let's see what paul ryan had to say about the romney/ryan plan when he spoke to a crowd at the villages retirement community three hours earlier. >> sheer what mitt romney and i will do. we will end the raid of medicare. we will restore the promise of this program and we will make sure that this board of bureaucrats won't mess with my mom's health care or your mom's health care. >> now, you know it is game on when the candidate starts talking about his mama and your mama. since paul ryan's edition to the gop ticket, some are enjoying a genuinely robust debate. campaign issue number one for full weeb week. perhaps it will lead to more substantive discussion, at least one can hope. one possibility, we'll talk about issues, like medicare which is something worth talking about. the other, we'll go all negative and if we go all negative, we shrink, divide, polarize the electorate. realistically what will happen in the campaign? >> it's hard to talk about medicare without being negative. seniors that the democrats are trying coconvince, they care about having a system that will care about them. care about their kids having a system that will be able to dare of them. if you are a 50-year-old under the ryan slish romney era, if your had 4 01 k evap waited. whose house is under water, and now you take away medicare, the only way to make sure i have health care in senior years? it's discouldn't experting and democrats will hammer in on that the next few months. >> 50 is different now. you may still be paying back student loans for yourself as you are taking them out for your kids snshgts righ kids, right? 50 at one point was well established to one's career. that's not what 50 feels like. >> let's pick up the easy part of the equation. the republican half. we can see a classic depress voter turnout strategy. they got nothing to talk about in terms of actual solutions to the large problems of the day, except for a return to free markets obsession, fantasy, the same sort of ideology that got us into the mess that we're in we don't hear any real solutions, access to health care, jobs crisis, so what we have is an attack on the democratic basis. an attempt to be leaguer the democratic voter, to confuse, exhaust us with negative campaign commercials, paul ryan wants to vouch everyize medicare, the ultimate raid on medicare and dismantling the social safety net accusing president obama of trying to dismantle medicare. this is des pair ration. i don't take that lightly. particularly when you say the goal is to exhaust and suppress. we hear paul ryan saying we're getting rid of bureaucrats making health care decisions of for your mama. we know bureaucrats are suppressing your opportunity to vote. we know there is this incorrect suppression. >> if they manage to be leaguer african-american voters and see a 95% margin in favor of president obama and yet turnout drops by 5% in ohio, florida, pennsylvania, because people say, you know, this is a horrible advertisement for democracy. i'll do something else entirely and pay attention to what's going on here, that could be pivotal. black folks don't tire so easily. we -- on this one -- young people might totally pass out, but we got a whole song on nobody is tired. >> exactly. people are motivated. a 91-year-old woman in philadelphia fighting for and leading this whole charge against this voter suppression, then you know that people won't get tired. but i think that the other part of this, when we are talking about how you will do the stuff, also about lying, let's put it on the table and say what it is, because, in part what you have to say with medicare is, okay, he's taking everything out of medicare, the president is robbing from you to pay -- you know, to pay other people and that's just not true. so part of what's going on, there will be the sort of shifting on both sides, how will we plan this, how will we do it? it all gets lost for people, you hear this rabble rousing instead of what's actually true on each side. >> let's listen to it. an ad for the obama for america campaign. is it negativity or negativity and falsehood? let's listen first to president obama's ad. >> and the ryan plan? aarp said it would undermine medicare and lead to higher costs for seniors and experts say ryan's voucher plan could raise future retiree's costs more than $6,000. get the facts. >> president obama's plan to get the facts. what the romney campaign has to say. >> you paid into medicare for years. every paycheck. now when you need it, obama has cut $716 million for medicare. why? to pay for obama care. so now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is going to a massive, new government program that's not for you. >> okay. medicare is a massive government program. i mean -- >> it was designed to be one. >> it just is. uh-huh. >> what? >> sure. >> so i mean when i look at those two, i mean, obviously this sort of the pinocchios and when i listen to the second one. you paid into medicare for years, that's a misinterpretation of what medicare is. it is a big government program and not a savings account. not you getting your money back out. so is that a less accurate -- as a matter of accuracy? >> both of the ads have to burn in eight, nine, ten times for the voter we're talking about to absorb it. those are deep-thinking ads. the president has aarp, a core group everyone going after. one with a lot of political juice, romney ad going after different things. i would contend neither one the ads is lighting fires on electoral politics. >> both nerd ads. >> both nerd ads and way deep in the weeds. if i can show my age, the rea n reagan/carter election, he collapsed labor day because of are you better off today than four years ago? george bush wouldn't let him get away from the economy, clinton went after him. brilliant politician, likeable guy. four years better. so then you come and it's the economy -- you get to obama versus mccain. mccain, not the most energetic campaign. >> no. >> and we can all disagree or agree on sarah palin's role. that was hope and change. it comes down after the noise, me lisa gets down to one thing to what the voter at home said. >> and what is the thing? >> one of the things -- we'll -- i promise we'll talk more about this. talk more about what particulst. two new voices to the conversation. what sticks makes a difference to the young people in our country. that's next. 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what difference does it make to exist in a world where we have so much negative campaigning. when we exist in a world with negativity and divisiveness. how do the issues we are discussing sound to the young people who will be citizen who's are making these voting choices in the next few years. joining me now to give their opinion on this is natasha adams, she is a student at the city university of new york and michael gelman, a graduate of the bronx science high school, who will be attending harvard in the fall of 2013, nice to see both of you. >> nice to see you too. >> at the end, peter and natasha will hang out with us. and we were talking about the 1980 campaign with reagan and carter. the first campaign i remember. jelly beans versus peanuts, and i liked jelly beans, but my parents were very clear, we didn't like the jelly bean guy, we liked the peanut guy. it took a lot for me to get over that, when you think about the campaigns that mattered to you, what are the early campaign memories that stick? yes, this is what american political campaigning is like? >> in the beginning of obama's campaign, he talked about education and making sure he empowers students to get ahead of their education, and make sure they are getting opportunities. and for someone in college, i mean, sitting in high school, i thought that was really important, and that like considering that he was going to be the first black president of the united states, i felt that really stood out to me and everyone was raving for obama, and, you know, we voted for him. >> certainly sort of the youth vote. the vote of your generation, was considered criticalory and over again in state after state. does this campaign, 201 2shg feel fundamentally different to you than '08 did? >> i think what '08 was about, when you see obama running and running as someone who has less political experience, but who is really running on this platform of change that really spoke to us. we are not operating in the political spiers as long, but we are about change, about fixing the problems, and that was inspiring to me and i think what's upsetting about this election is as april come bent, he is now running -- and he's -- he's lost that -- that voice in a way. he's lost the voice of -- we have to continue moving forward, and they are so entrenched in that. >> you are on a college campus, do you see the same kind of shift? any way to regain the voice? >> there is a loss of the voice, this loss of innocence, i hear it in your voice and a lot of students talk about that. i have two kinds of students. one is a really engaged student. i am thinking about one of my former students, now working on the obama campaign in new hampshire. that really energized her in '08. and now sees out there running a field office, doing all of these other things, she's great. o shoutout to janice, another student who is upset. their situation is bad, i don't have a job, how much longer can i stay in school? i'm wracking up a lot of debt. neither one of these candidates are speaking to me. that's the fundamental issue and harder for college students to vote. you can't just be in one state. if you go to school in another state, you have to go back home, do these other things. a very big issue to determine how we get college students involved. >> one political issue that you wish campaigns were focusing on, it medicare, you determining where you are going in terms of medicare? in other words, is it that kind of long-term issue or short term, close to home? >> i would say definitely more short-term and close to home. i feel like all they are doing is sort of nitpicking and snapping at each other, not catching my attention, and issues i really want them to focus on is equity and education. definitely getting a woman moderator and the campaign, and, you know, focus on women's issues and definitely the job issue. you know, why aren't there jobs or security for college students that are getting out of college, and even for my generation who can't even find a job. >> equity in education, women's issues and an economic security for young people. how about you? >> i think even though we're very young, it's certainly nice to know that under obama's plan, we have our parents' heath insurance a while longer. something important to us. but what really matters to me, aside from the economy, is -- is equality. and in all its forms. equality for undocumented immigrants and really pushing for the gay rights, and these are things that i think obama is tapping into, his new sense is recapturing a lot of optimism. >> you will stick with us and come back a little later. we want to talk about exactly the issues have brought up here, equity in education. we'll talk about that. we'll have more with this pan nell a bel in a beat. but up next, jennifer beal joins us in nerdland. ry zyrtec® liqui. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. it once stomped a stain with such force, the results could be felt around the world. [ explosion ] [ alarm buzzing ] [ rumbling ] [ people screaming ] it was such epic stain fighting, even chuck norris could respect it. twice the stain fighting power as the next leading liquid value brand. era, the only detergent that's chuck norris approved. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] i'm j.j. ramberg. americans have a lot at stake. the presidential candidates debate how to move forward and small business owners sound off on all sides of the issues on this special edition of "your business." you'll inevitably find yourself on a desolate highway in your jeep grand cherokee. and when you do, you'll be grateful for the adaptive cruise control that automatically adjusts your speed when approaching slower traffic. and for the blind spot monitoring that helps remind you that the highway might not be as desolate... ...as you thought. ♪ we've confronted the problem of rait knpe and other forms of sexual assault on this show, but when it comes to sexual assault in the military there, are a unique set of circumstances. we have given you statistics, statistics which we can't be reminded of enough. earlier this year, the department of defense revealed there were 3,192 sexual assault reports filed within the u.s. military in 2011, an increase of 1% from the previous year. and just more than 76% of those reports were unrestricted, meaning the reports were meant to launch an official investigation. but the other 24% were restricted, intended to shield the identity of the accuser, and, again, those were just the reported cases, but to put faces on statistics and in order to give us a sense of what survivors endure, a new three-part series, lauren, which was on the youtube channel wigs, is a young sergeant alleging a gang rape at fellow soldiers. her complaint lands on the desk of sergeant jill stone, played by jennifer bealle. >> i am trying to get you to understand you are exposed, exposed to strut knee. only 10% of unrestricted reports get prosecuted, and even if the meant are deemed guilty, they are likely to suffer a reprimand or a slapped pay cut, nothing more. what will happen to you may expose you to repercussions for your entire career. in the prosecution is successful, you may be exposed to the resentment of your male colleagues. if it is unsuccessful, you may be exposed to further harassment. >> joining us now from los angeles is the star of lauren and many more works we've loved over the years, jennifer bealle. lovely to have you here. >> thank you so much. >> this is hard to watch and very hard to turn away from. tell me about the character you play in "lauren." >> i think major stone is a career soldier basically. i think she's come up through the ranks at a time where she's had to completely embrace the sort of patriarchal culture of the military, i think she's a really hard-boiled soldier. >> interesting you talk about this language of soldier. as i was watching the episodes, i thought this is a war movie, but it's war in such a different way, because it's not combat on the field of combat. this is actually combat of the soldier within the very system itself. what compelled you towards this project? what drew you to it? >> well, i had been studying the subject for a while. not specifically military sexual trauma, but what it means to be a woman in the military, and it's interesting to me sort of the juxtaposition of gender stereotypes within the militaristic culture if that makes sense. i was interested in how does a woman become a warrior? what does it take to become a warrior within that context. >> actually, it does make a lot of sense, particularly with the harshness that the character you play responds to the young soldier who is saying i've been raped, and that harshness is meant -- it seems to me, at least in watching it, is meant to somehow both be kind, right? it's saying don't pursue this, don't try to go for justice, because there is no justice for you to get, it's just going to be harder for you. >> i think major stone has had to go through a similar experience and maybe several times, and i think in order to survive within the culture, she has almost become oss phiossipha way and she is trying to prevent further victimization in a way. >> you direct women to the service women's action network. take this off the screen and into real life for me. what can viewer who's see this and are moved by it, what should we be doing? >> i think one of the things that you can do is write to your congressperson and support the stop act. i think there are several veterans organizations that you can support, because i think one of the larger problems in terms of the veterans community is that a lot of female soldiers, once they get out, don't even consider themselves to be veterans. that seems to be the complete sort of safe for men. i'm sorry, it's so early in the morning for me. i can't even quite put words together. but i think awareness certainly helps. supporting the stop act helps. there is also a petition to make is so that people -- assail plant who's are convicted within the military judicial system, have to register as sex offenders when they get out of military, because right now, they don't have to register as sex offenders. >> jennifer beals, i appreciate your performance. i understand it's been green lighted to go on to more pieces. it's bringing light to such a critical issue. >> thank you. >> thank you. after the break, we turn our attention back to the gop running mate, paul ryan and a dead russian novelist who helped shape his plan for the u.s. economy. sometimes a good deal isn't such a good deal. but bounty gives you value you can see. in this lab demo, one sheet of bounty leaves this surface cleaner than two sheets of the leading ordinary brand. bounty. the clean picker upper. than two sheets of the leading ordinary brand. ari'm fine.y, babe? ♪ ♪ ♪ with a subaru you can always find a way. announcer: love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. mitt romney's announcement of paul ryan's running mate a week ago caused a flurry of media attention and caused the name of a russih novelist to trd on twitter, even though she's been dead for 30 years. ayn rand is best known for "the fountain head" and "atlas shrugged." while i was poring over "retched of the earth "oishg my libertarian friends went through the i'm only in it for myself, rand books. it extols the virtues of unfettered, unchecked, fully individualized capitalism. it is par on theed more than a decade later by gordon gecko, remember, greed is good? it's the ethical case for the selfish individual. so why was rand trending on twitter last week? because itturns out, paul ryan is still in his i love rand phase. >> it doesn't surprise me that sales of "the fountain head" and "atlas shrugged" have surged with obama coming in. that kind of writing is sorely needed right now, and a lot of people would observe that we're living in an ayn rand novel, metaphorically speaking. more to the point, the issue under assault, the attack on democratic capitalism, individualism and freedom in america is an attack on the moral foundation of america. and ayn rand more than anything anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, of the more ality o individualism, and this matters most. >> ryan went so far as to make rand's work required reading of his congressional staff. let's clear up i few points. no, it does not mean that ryan is an atheist, as rand avowedly was. and it doesn't mean that ryan on mant sizes rape and sexual assault as many of rand's leaders believe she did. and that's reassuring. but it might mean surprisingly little about how he plans to help mitt romney govern if elected to the heartbeat away spot. you see, agree with rand or not, she was absolutely committed to the singular goal of liberating individuals from all collective projects. including tradition, moralism, and government. each person had only one responsibility, to pursue his own happiness. nothing about paul ryan suggests this level of ideological parody. ryan isn't a devotee of rand, he uses her as a convenient, philosophical crutch. as the nation's magazines, ben adler points out, ryan opposes the dream act, equal rights for gay americans and reproductive rights for women, all that runs counter to rand's libertarianism. and there is also having a government job for his whole career. being elected and using your elected office to help people is the definition of being a good member of congress, but it will definitely get you kicked out of the tuesday night ayn rand reading group on campus. when we come back, i'll show you why congressman ryan's record would make ayn rand throw up a little bit in her mouth. with the spark cash card from capital one, sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thing work? 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how does the romney campaign not know about this trip? where "up" is playing, oh, my gosh, how does the ram knee campaign let this get through? >> mitt romney has been flip-flopping around the entire career. the reality is, presidential campaigns are through a completely different order. you can get through a congressional campaign without paying a lot of attention. but when running for president or vice president, people pay an extraordinary amount of attention. almost every bipartisan group says not only do we have to cut spending, but increase revenue get a second job and spend less money. that's the hole we're in. and until both parties come together and say we'll jump off the cliff together, woe won't solve the problem. most american voters much more concerned about the deficit and their own checkbook than their national checkbook. this is just a failed -- a really crazy kind of strategy to take on. >> if this could happen. >> they don't matter, right? >> we can play this game with romney and ryan. who is the real guy ryan was for the stimulus when it was the bush stimulus. now against it. it doesn't matter. at the end of the campaign, if they win, they will be beholden to the people who wrote the checks. they have branded themselves, as the guy who's administer the tough medicine. dismantling a social safety net. it means redistributing down, up, more tax cuts for the wealthiest americans, slaps for middle class. >> tough medicine, but tough medicine to the sickest folks, right? tough medicine to the poorest people, not to those. >> i think in the entire morning discussion, we're sometimes boring the politics, where we end up governing after the election. the public is being served up day by day. policies where arithmetic not remotely involved. president obama bears some responsibility. as he gave us the stimulus absolutely necessary in the beginning of 2009, he began to talk about the deficit. >> i'll ask my naive deficit question. will this cause mitt romney the race? we'll answer that, or at least ask about it, when we come back. you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen.... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect. this is new york state. we built the first railway and the first trade route to the west. we built the tallest skyscrapers, the greatest empires. we pushed the country forward. then, some said, we lost our edge. we couldn't match the pace of the new business world. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. build energy highways and high-tech centers. nurture start-ups and small businesses. reduce tax burdens and provide the lowest middle class tax rate in 58 years. once again, new york state is a place where innovation meets determination and where businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. hgotta start the day off right. wardrobe. cute. then new activia breakfast blend. a great way to help start the day. mmm... creamy lowfat yogurt with grains in yummy breakfast flavors, like apple cinnamon. its hearty, with twice the protein of regular lowfat yogurt and helps regulate your digestive system. our morning routines are important, aren't they? 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[ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, try new purina cat chow healthy weight. welcome back. i'm me lis najer rhys perry. debt is a technically four-letter world. debt is a tool. a student loan or mortgage on a home may be smart reason to get into debt. even in tough economic times, debt may be necessary. maybe you secure a better paying job that requires a commute it may be a good idea to take out a loan to get a car to get to that job. a similar rule might apply sometimes short-term increases in debt are necessary for long-term investment in the country. for wisconsin congressman paul rye arrange the gop supposed money man with a plan, debt is always a very bad thing. >> we also have to stop spending money we don't have. cut spending, get the deficit under control so we leave our children and grandchildren a debt-free nation. >> paul ryan talking about one of his favr subjects, the national debt. if you don't love talking about it, i sure hope you love hearing about it. adding ryan to the gop ticket, mitt romney guaranteed the debt deficit and spending will be at the top of the national agenda from now election day. peter, my naive question. if i'm a single mom living in ohio. one size. he has gone from 18 to 14 in his class size because they had to cut teachers because of the budget crisis. why does the national debt matter to me and my son. i get why stimulus makes it better, why is the debt bad? >> the debt is bad because the day will come when the people who are paying the bills, a lot of them foreign central banks, will say we doubt your ability to pay us back and we're going to demand much higher rates of interest. something a lot of conservatives and libertarians warning is around the corner for years. it hasn't happened. that's a real fear out there, and we have to address it, have a credible plan to pay back the bills we owe. the way to do that is not cut ourselves to smithereens and throw poor people and middle class people under the bus. the way to do that is have a credible growth strategy. invest in infrastructure spending, and investment in basic research that will give us the next crop of big winners in the economy, whether it's renewable energy, life sciences, what have you. and then over years, pay back the debt through a roaring, growing economy. and that's simply not going to happen if we just cut. >> let's take a look at the scope of the problem. because it's so big, i think it could be difficult for folks to really get their heads around it. look at a few numbers so we can get a sense of how big -- >> real nerdland stuff. so we can see how big the deficit is at this moment and how big it's been in the past. let's take a look at that. what do we have? we've got numbers. there they are. okay. fiscal year through this year in july of 2012, $974 billion with a "b." let's see what that looks like. again, we had interest on national debt which is the other piece of what i want you to talk about a bit. $53 billion, up to $104 billion in june. one more here. again, more on the interest on the national debt. that's part of that tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, ticking occurring on numbers behind us. these are numbers that occur in the trillions. what does that mean? how big is that compared to the past? >> we never had a bigger debt as opposed to the last time we had a debt larger than this, now about 100% gdp, just after the end of world war ii, a different time. part what peter was talking about applies here when you talk about interest payments on debt that is an enormous part, about 220 billion in our yearly budget just servicing the debt, the interest on the debt we have so far. that's a big piece of $1.3 trillion budget and is expected if the bond vigilantes show up, which they haven't yet. i assume they will. they show up in places where you have done austerity. here they haven't. we have a ten-year rate at 1.8%, basically free money. in any event, when they show up if they do show up, that's what balloons. the payment on the interest that we have, and then we don't have any money for anybody. whether it's tax cuts or the poor or food stamps or medicaid or medicare or building the bridge or what have you. >> so i hear you. it sounds like this long-term thing that is out there. the possibility of these folks coming in, the sense of a reasonable plan. our credit ratings drops, not because of something we did financially, it took us so long to raise the debt ceilg, so we look like a bunch of children incapable of creating a plan. the fact is, we have actually seen -- this debt is old. alexander hamilton set up the debt. it got better, reagan ballooned it. a surplus with clinton. is this partly about chilling out, making a plan, moving forward, being reasonable. not freaking out about the deficit. >> let's have real talk for a second. we can't fix the deficit problem if we don't have economic growth. most people recognize the government has to play. job numbers, we xwroe in tgrow private sector and when we talk about african-americans, 20% of african-americans work in a state, federal, or local government agency. we want to attack 14% of unemployment in the african-american community, we can't do that by cutting government spending. that's a real problem for real people. >> what the xworchlt jobs are. black middle class comes from postal workers and teachers. when you hear the language of government workers, not sure what we think that is. some sort of black and white marxist film or something. teachers and postal workers, clearly we have paul ryan saying ten years ago, we need stimulus, we need the government to play in increasing expenditures in order to grow the economy. everybody thinks the best deficit reduction plan are more people working and paying taxes on their income. how do you get away from that to where ryan is now? which is basically awe staustea. >> dan give us the information for the great republican case. >> didn't mean to do that, by the way. >> mitt romney made it about medicare. >> at the end of the day, and that's because the president's team won last week, because we're not talking about what we're talking about this morning. barring 40 cents out of every dollar of foreign countries and foreign banks. spending too much money. the people at home get it they can't go barrow no more money. they came back, and why -- >> we have a printing press. print it up. >> i was going to say -- >> in the short-term, that's what we they'd to do. >> five years ago, we had plenty. i don't believe that any more. there is a debt that somebody has got to pay. somebody has got to pay it. either we grow the economy -- either we grow the economy -- here is the electoral politics. >> i like where you are going, peter. >> if your kid comes to you and said, mommy, daddy, i want to borrow $100,000. first, what do you say what do you spend the money on? if the answer is i want to drink mountain dew and play video games, the sabs no. but if you say i want to go to a university and maybe take care of you when are you old, the answer is yes. europe refuses to use the printing press they could use to bail out countries. >> europe has worn it out. >> and as far as the printing press being the ultimate solution. we need to fin something that has an approximation that will stimulate growth obviously, but what the republicans, in fact, put forward in order to stimulate growth doesn't, in fact, stimulate growth. that's been proven. it continues to concentrate wealth to the upper 1%. not even the 1%, the .01%. this is the problem in temps of upward mobility, not in terms of poor people, but middle class people. only so much wealth to go around. as we continue to move it upward, there is less room for people in the middle. making $20,000, $80,000 to give a better life to their kids than themselves. people don't want to talk about, there is a trouble not in the lower class, which is entirely being thrown your honor the bus. we know that. in the middle class. >> almost like -- >> talking about people in the middle class. totally false. they are the ones that will get screwed the worst. >> it's gone from bad to abysmal. also talking about in the middle. >> the only one that gets help is romney. we saw where we figured out under this plan, gets to pay 0.6%. >> there was a kaiser family foundation poll that said democrats and independents put the deficit in the third most important thing to focus on. only republicans think that debt and deficit is the number one thing in the election. who is romney talking to? is this a base turnout strategy. is that why he picked ryan? otherwise, it really doesn't make any sent. >> i appreciate it and appreciate that we come back to the language of kids. that's what we're in part talking about. can't talk about the debt without people consistently talking about what are we doing to the future and the kids. that will continue to be our focus. thank you, all. coming up, more on our kids. talk about an emergency. the way forward for public education goes to this table, next. 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what does a good education system mean today? are the days of a well-rounded critical thinking behind us in favor of tech sector training. here with us is anthea butler, and the director for better education for kids. lila leff, co-chair of the chicago consortium for school research. andilliana jimenez, a high school english teacher and founder of feminist teacher.com and an active, excited tweeter. i've been following in part of your tweets about your xwimt about being on the show. i'm excited to have you on the show, in part because you teach feminism, not too college students, but to kids, to young people. that constitutes food education, but if i'm the i.t. training sort of person, i say that if he nichl is nice, but it's time to get a job in the i.t. sector, what is a good education? >> you mentioned that i teach feminism to high school students. i actually think it's one of the most successful courses i teach. because it's completely interdisciplinary. i'm trained as a literature major. i have been teaching english for 15 years, but the reason why that woman's study course is very successful is because i don't just teach literature. i teach literature, history, activism, media, blogging, art history, all of those different disciplines are coming together, converging for students to make connections in very innovative, creative, collaborative ways, for example, the tech person who might question why are you teaching feminism. i teach media and blogging. i ask them to look at issues of sexism, racism, homophobia in the media. what is the way we can use the lens of feminism, which for me is intersectional feminism, looking at all of the different ways in which real issues that students face every single day can be understood through that lens. >> yet i can feel like i hear the 140 characters around me saying, i'm sorry, my kid needs to learn to read. we have to pass those high-stakes tests. so i love this, but then i'm wondering is this me in my ultimate elite isaac demmic chair loving this, or is this what a good education is? what is a good education at this point? >> it's really important to look at this from a multimodality perspective. the reity, education is being charged with something it's never been charged with before. preparing people for jobs that don't yet exist. we never asked education to do that before. ith a complicated task. what we do know to be true, there are a variety of things that students need to have to be successful. and some of them certainly include the basic skills. but the small amount of content that students used to need to know and be able to report back to be qualified to enter entry level jobs, that's never coming back. >> that's because jobs are gone, because jobs no longer exist in that way. >> right. what students need to do now is to be able to enter act with information to gather information when they need it, to sort through it analyze it, apply it in different contexts and very quickly to integrate things both within their own minds and also through their ability to collaborate with other people. >> and is this what our schools are doing? >> the one thing i have found in the classroom, what happens is that they know thousand get the information. everything off wikipedia and the web, he don't know how to discern good information from bad. and that's part of the education. in this is where i'm like you can't just teach to the task, can't do this other stuff. you have to do something that encompasses a lot of different things. they don't have analytical skills, critical thinking skills. when some students get to me, you know, it turns out they can't write their way out of a paper bag. cannot make a sentence make sense. what did you spend the last 12 years doing? what did they have you doing? >> and you teach at an elite university. >> i have found there is always a student or two who has had a tremendous amount of problem. i really am thinking about the ways in which we don't have enough people in the classrooms to be able to deal with the students that are there to, and cut backs, all are we supposed to deal with american exceptionalism if we are not exceptional? >> so this is a complicated set of questions. one point talking about whether or not testing should be the weight of testing. no one believes testing should be the end all, be all. i think we need some objective way to know if kids got the message. many ways, it's important to know that we're testing the floor. it's not like we have an unusual high bar very specifically narrow. we normally have a low one. and the fact that we have a focus on the low one really says more about what's happening to kids is than it says about the role of testing in all of this. the other part of this, too, if you ever get a chance, this video you can watch online, that talks about the dna of american public education being grown in the industrial era, so we batch kids based on how old they are, not what they know. bells and whistles going off all over the place. and that thing has failed to recognize the challenge of the rest of the world. right now from technology standpoint, economic standpoint, all of the other ways, we have the sputnik events happening, we don't have a sputnik type response with cool schools at large. >> our vision of the little red school house, the bells that tell you to go to the next thing, the rogue testing that are you doing makes sense for a version of education that was in the industrial era for certain kinds of jobs. we have much, much more to say. imagine what it means to be a teacher in a school where eight students have been shot and killed in one year. you know, i was once used for small jobs. yeah, and i took on all the bigger, tougher ones. but now that mr. clean's got this new select-a-size magic eraser, i mean, he can take on any size job. look how easily he gets things cleaned. it's enough to make you cry. you, specifically. not me. i'm just happy we don't go near rex's mobile home as often. because it's hard to clean or because you're scared of an itty-bitty doggy? 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[ announcer ] beneful. play. it's good for you. >>. >> there is nothing more important to our country's future than the education we give our kids and no more important than the person at the front of the classroom. teachers matter, most work tirelessly with modest pay, sometimes digging into their own pocket for school supplies, just to make a difference. they give interest for our kids, and we should invest in them. >> the president's weekly address focused entirely on education yesterday. and he underscored the need to support teachers in the classroom. if teaching wasn't a challenging job, imagine you were a attacher in a school where eight students shot in a single year. imagine trying to teach algebra to stunlts wdents to come to sco escape street violence. i stopped on an annual conference called umoja university, helping teachers to become better advocates and create the best environment they can i spoke with jim dorell, a teacher in marshall high school and marcus pruitt, a counselor in inglewood. i asked them how in a city where the murder rate soared 60% in the first three months of this year, when students lost to gun violence on the street, how they and their students are able to walk through the doors each day. >> always resort back to, okay, we still have kids coming in this building daily. daily. if they can do it, so can i. if i struggle or trip, i try to do it, then and i go back to some of my old teaching from my grandmother and resort to my spiritual side. honestly, that's how we keep going. >> it's amazing they can do it some of them. the obstacles are tremendous. a lot of homelessness in our schools, gang violence, drug abuse in the community. most of them live well below the poverty line. some are coming to school hungry. making on time and finishing the day with those sorts of obstacles, the resiliency is amazing. >> an accomplishment. i want to pause, to come to school on time, make it through the day, that in and of itself is an accomplishment of the challenges they are facing. >> they are resilient. i don't known i could do it. >> on the day after a student has been lost in your community, what do you hear from students? >> a day after a loss. a lot of students come to school. >> that's interesting. >> they are reaching out. we try to wrap our arms around them as if they are our own. >> one student in particular or a couple of students, where you are like these are the stories i most remember. >> i coached a debate team. some kids rough on the exterior, i bring them into the debate team, they learn to argue in a productive way, they need that. know how to express themselves in a professional way. but they are still very tenacious. >> even as a counselor, i'm more than that to a lot of these students. i find myself purchasing shoes, giving money for bus cards, buying food. items they may need, so i know that in order for these students to be successful, i really have to step outside of the box, just a little bit, to help provide the support that they need. so that they can be successful in life. >> with me is anthea butler, university of pennsylvania. dorell bradford, director of better education for kids. lila leff, creator of amoja university, and ms. jimenez. >> this is sort of the second revolution in a discussion about modernizing and updating the education system for the 21st century. the job and the weight of the job that we're asking classroom teachers to do, has radically changed in the last 15 or 20 years. we need to you be a mom, a dad, sort of a police officer in some instances and realize you are arguably the most important person that this child will ever see and you are helping that child. you are on the front lines of that child's future. that's not what the job used to be. >> we'd like to pay you less, and take away your unionizing rights and do it at 21 years old. >> i don't know anyone who doesn't want to pay great teachers more and who descend understand this. the anxiety on the organizing side is that we are told we have to pay them all the same, based on whatever their ability is and how long they have served, which are not reliable predictors of exlebs, and if we have to down size for some reason, we can't do it based on ability. we have to do it based on how long you have been there. there is a huge disnance on how we identify and raise up teachers who are excellent. that seems like it comes out of the corporate space now. but the -- the other side of that is that like we can't treat you any differently. we can't acknowledge that you are better than anyone else. >>illiana, as a teacher in the classroom, this right? do we basically all feel the same way about teachers, just different opinions about unions? or simply not doing enough to support teachers doing this kind of work to support kids? >> in my 15 years of being a teacher, teachers are the first responders to all of the issues that kids face every single day. so if -- in my 15 years, i've seen suicide attempts, depression, cutting, all the behaviors that say that kids are not feeling safe at school. they may not feel safe at home, may not be feeling safe on the street. we are the first ones to respond to the issues in the classroom, in a private meeting with the student. ith something they write when they hand in an assignment perhaps. we see all of that, and we always transfer over students we feel very concerned about to appropriate school admin straighters, counselors, we are the first line of defense, and one of the things that i'm very alarmed about is the fact that the -- the romney/ryan ticket does not support the safe schools improvement act and that the student nondiscrimination act. both of those acts actually protect students against bullying and harassment in schools. and if we don't have the right resources and tools and skills for teachers and students to address bullying and harassment in school, it will escalate to other things like violence, just as the segment said earlier. >> one of the things interesting in talking to these teachers, you can see, literally experience them as amazing teachers and counselors in that conversation. part of how i experience that in particular is this notion, i see these students i see and say you are a debater, and him saying, hey, these kids are going through so much, just making it through the day is a big deal. how do we capture that kind of quality in a teacher, b also that kind of a quality in a kid that's not just kes testing and also not just length of time on the job. what are the reasonable measures for quality of kids and students? and teachers. i'm sorry. >> i think first of all, looking at nations doing this right, getting to us places where there are xwault teachers and quality processes that get people to move into a profession and keep that growing and thriving. we're simply failing at that nationally. backing up and saying what are the things we need to put into place? one, incent people to come into this field. who on earth -- people don't want to stay in it, let alone come into it right now. what are the ongoing learning mechanisms. people come to teaching ready to learn and be good at this job and what happens, most of them leave the field within five years. those who stay don't feel they continue to be developed that allows them to thrive unless they are an exception. we have created a system where our schools are not really -- they don't have a learning mechanic nuchl. not learning organizations. thriving organizations in our country learn, reflect, refine. not and that happens in our schools. >> on the organization itself. the school saying -- not just learning for students, but learning for institutions. >> they have to look at their practice, and american teachers have less time to plan and reflect in meaningful ways than almost any other nation that's really driving educationally. and the other thing just in terms of what students need in the kind of support they need, i think it's really important to look at the idea of first responder, and asking teachers in the highest needed communities to be more than simply straight -- >> and i love that. we'll stay right on that. as soon as we come back, we'll talk about first responder who's have lost their jobs, how many have lost them in just the last month alone. we'll stay right on the topic. ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express. ♪ it says a lot about you. ♪ in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. guts. glory. ram. in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. a little snack. on a wednesday. at 2 am. get that great taste anytime with kingsford match light charcoal. you have a plan? first we're gonna check our bags for free, thanks to our explorer card. then, the united club. my mother was so wrong about you. next, we get priority boarding on our flight i booked with miles. all because of the card. and me. okay, what's the plan? plan? mm-hmm. we're on vacation. this is no plan. really? [ male announcer ] the united mileageplus explorer card. the mileage card with special perks on united. get it and you're in. a new report from the white house council of economic advisers show since the end of the recession, 300,000 education jobs lost. 7,000 teachers, school aides and support staff, have lost their jobs in the last month. for the most part, these are not teachers fired for poor performance, like michelle apperson. she became one of 4 00 school teachers given pink slips in the city, just after she was awarded teacher of the year by the school district. it cut teaching jobs to make up for budget shortfalls. some blame teacher unions for the last hired, first fired standard and others ask why cities insist on balancing local budgets on the backs of school kids. who are we kidding if we think we can build a first class country with a third class system of education. perhaps i needed more spanish in my public education. and yet i am -- so here i am. advocate of public education. the kid of a teacher, i am myself a teacher in many ways. i see something like that and i say that is nuts. we ought to have teachers supported, based on what they do. but i know that workers of all kinds do better when they have unions. how do we give parents the ability to be judged on merits and the ability to be worker who's can organize for rights? >> i think we've done some of this in new jersey. recently, passed a tenure reform law that we collaborated with the big unions. in the end it prioritizes student learning, and it gives you how we determine the effectiveness, and that gives you tenure and a whole bunch of other stuff there. what we got to, everyone knew we had a 100-year-old tenure law. everyone knew it was horribly broken. what came out, an acknowledgment from the union and the reform community that there are quantifiable ways to look at excellen excellence. we ought to prioritize that over time served. >> i hear you, it feels like there is a quantifiable way. it feels like something is missing. >> you talk about the organizational pace. how do you re-learn how to do something? i don't want to penalize someone in the system a long time. able to withstand all of the things that happened in the classroom, if you are in the classroom like, say, chicago, very difficult. you have to hold things together. you want to reward people doing good things. how do you reward them? how do you measure it? the benchmark, all of the things we talked about has to be different. i bring up the whole issue for profit. what is happening in philadelphia right now is ridiculous, moving to the charter system, and many soft charter systems are not that good, okay? some of this just about malfeasance, a public system being he eroded by this am for profit. and even in the profit system -- >> this is the one we just don't -- i need another three hours. i don't think we'll give me "weekends with alex witt" times. >> that's a place where we have disagreement about what constitutes excellence for students and for teachers, this idea of objective standard and testing being thrown around as a blanket term, i want to push on that all tests not created equal and, in fact there, are -- it's really important for to us push below the surface and say testing is a very expensive business, and to act like the only way for us to measure student or teacher performance is based on the test without sort of determining whether or not tests are of quality. >> because it's expensive, and also profit making for some. >> absolutely. so we've certainly spent a tremendous amount of money as opposed to more authentic assessments, seen as very subjective. demonstrating our knowledge and our learning has all of the aspects of objective assessment. >> tests skewed a certain kirnd of way, this is the game everybody played with the s.a.t.s., a.c.t.s., there are other ways to measure. the end result of this stuff with no child left behind, everybody has been left behind in certain kinds of ways. >> i want to go back to the testing to say we can have a conversation that allows for the new ones. tests predict our ability to do well in other tests it does predict our ability to get into college. but the predictor of lifetime earnings is your gpa, whether it's true if it's a tough school on the west side of chicago or -- >> and deeply troubling, predict for of act is actually your parents' income. so much more. you are just getting the charter thing that makes me want to talk more about it. what we will do is make sure some young folks get to have a voice. you have to come back, we'll have a charter fight at some point. and when we come back, we'll hear from some students themselves. gomery and abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. we believe small things can make a big difference.e, like how a little oil from here can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. we discovered that by blending enhanced botanical oils into our food, we can help brighten an old dog's mind so he's up to his old tricks. it's just one way purina one is making the world a better place... one pet at a time. discover vibrant maturity and more at purinaone.com. welcome back. we need to talk about education and talk about the very young people that this affects. joining us now, natasha adams for girls for gender equity and a student at the city college of new york and michael gelman of bronx high school. high school of science and soon to be a student at harvard university in 2013. still with me here,illiana jimenez, folks, you are taking a gap here. tell me why. >> i am doing a gap year for a number of reasons, the most important reason is to gain the exp experiential learning i don't think i got in high school. i went to a academically rigorous high school. took 12 aps, which is definitely an extreme. i spent so much time reading and studying and taking tests, i felt like in order to make the most of my time in college, i need to step away from the academic treadmill and i need to go out and experience living by myself, living in a new place, going to guatemala and anythinia and doing spanish immersion. >> you have done very well academically if you are heading to harvard. and you also have a broad definition of what constitutes a good education. >> for me, my education experience was different. i felt like i wasn't being challenged enough in school. and they wraent really teaching us the emotional component and civic component. so i took a step back from the education process and i began being heavily involved in community organizing and social justice work, because i felt like that was my passion and that was where i was being nurtured the most and where my voice was needed. >> if there was a teacher that would allow to you say this is what a good teacher is, this helped to turn me on to learning. >> i had a teacher, mrs. goodman who taught my ap history class and advocated for having two extra periods per day or per week rather. instead of five, would you have seven periods and she would use those not to cover what was in the textbook, not in the college syllabus, but look at art and music and culture of this, and it was -- that was an amazing experience and we wrote -- i wrote a 20-page term paper for her that was me set in a salon in paris, in the time of the enlightenment, meeting all of the greats, and inserting myself into the conversation. i read letters between kathryn the great and voltaire and learned about voltaire's conflicts and brought that out in this fictional world. but more substantial research. i had done for that paper than i had done for any other cookie cutter paper. >> who is your great teacher? pushed to you feel like you were sufficiently challenges? >> at high school, i had a creative writing teacher, sharon lesfater. during my high school process, i dealt with anxiety and felt like i was another face in the room. didn't feel like i had a presence in school, and she really challengesed me to explore creative writing and think critically about my community and what it really meant to be someone who was a social -- who fought for social justice and passionate about all of these community needs, and i -- i really love it, because it wasn't me just sitting down, taking a test, or just reading another book. it was just -- you know, she really made an effort. >> and i hear it's about something more than just testing. about something broader, bigger than teachers bring. on a programming note. september 23rd, nbc news, and platform msnbc, will launch the third annual education nation week. we have a lot no say. national summit held at the new york public library. more information online at educationnation.com. my footnote in a moment. first, time of a preview. "weekends with alex witt" with craig melvin. >> fortune magazine sitting down with mitt romney with tough questions. everything from gun control, tax cuts, to his plan to fix the economy. the reporter who got those answers. and wikileaks founder julian assange step out of the british embas embaslm b embassy. and the spider hole. one of the poo few people saddam hussein shared his story with. and annie cohen tells alex why he was frustrated with the president on the topic of gay marriage. plus, the story fitting for a sunday perhaps. the battle over songs with god in the lyrics, like now i lay me down to sleep. should they be banned from school music class? all of and thaw and more at the top of the hour. >> next, a message for my daughter. 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[ female announcer ] rembrandt® deeply white™: whiten in just 2 hours. wo i hen er r so l anfo the start of a new school year. despite all of the challenges facing american education, i remain hopelessly romantic about the vast possibilities inherent of a young person with a sharpened pencil opening the first page of an empty notebook. those pages are the land of dreams. my daughter, parker, begins middle school this week. i asked her what she feels is the most important part of anned education. here is what she had to say. >> i think the most important part of school is to make mistakes and learn how to fix your mistakes. it's easier to figure things out. >> making mistakes. but having second chances to figure things out, we owe that to every child. often we don't achieve our dreams by making a straight line of perfection. we stumble toward them along a path littered from mistakes. we learn strength, innovation, work, hope, for our whole country. you the pore of dreams in the faith of bstacles on sign in chicago this week. the u.s. congress repeatedly refused to pass the dream act, president obama acted, on june 15th, his administration offered undocumented immigrants under 31 who came to the u.s. as children, a pathway for legal study and work. young people determined to continue the pursuit of american dreams waited in line for hours, despite the continuing risks, they came out fortunate shadowed. i borrow this from "the little prince." if you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work. but, rather, teach them to long for the immenseity of the sea." those who are teachers, parents, can help our young people to articulate the endless immenseity of their own dreams. we can build the ship to sail toward them. go to our blog and share the dreams of the young people in your life for this school year. that's our show for the day. thank you to my guests for sticking around. thank you at home for watching. i'll see you next saturday, 1:00 3 10:00 a.m. eastern. up next, i weekends with alex witt." ahh, now that's a clean mouth. i wish i could keep it this way. 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