0 sequester. so the question is why won't he work with with us? and the answer, quite simply, is because he wants higher taxes. >> republican governors meeting today in washington are asking the federal government to solve the spending crisis and not to add to the burden on the states. >> don't pass the balancing the federal budget on the backs of state governments because we're still recovering, too, from the national recession that we've been through. >> and the obama administration filed a legal brief friday asking the supreme court to strike down a key part of the defense of marriage act. the administration's case deals with the portion of the law that bars recking on negz of same-sex marriage by the federal government. the pressure on congress to end the sequester. mr. obama said friday after meeting with japan's prime minister that it's not too late to solve the crisis. let's take a listen. >> i never think that anything is inevitable. we always have the opportunity to make the right decisions. my hope is that we can see a comes in the context of president obama having the upper hand in messaging his popularity. polls are showing it is at an all-time high and congress and the popularity is low so he thinks as we go down to yet another showdown that he can't tough it out and one very dramatic point that the administration is making is that for extra pressure is that why some of these cuts will take longer for you to feel an impact, they are cutting out controllers and having flights delayed up to 90 minutes and having them cancelled and that was a very interesting point because that will hit a lot of people right away. >> i'm glad you mentioned the air traffic controllers because ray la hood friday defended his statements that his public would have to cut air traffic controllers and disrupt air travel. >> the idea that we're doing this to create some kind of a horrific scare tactic is nonsense. >> we are required to cut $1 billion. >> ed, i want to direct this to you. is this a scare tactic? how does the administration think it will react to air travel delays? >> i think we would expect that the public should be very concerned about that. each agency has determined in different ways that they can save money and have to cut back and my colleague lisa ryan has a fantastic story in the post today about how the unions that represent these federal employees are trying to sort out with the agencies how exactly these furloughs or got earnly how long this were to stretch layoffs might actually occur. it is a really messy situation for these agencies and it's something important to remember. this happened with the government shutdown a few years ago. they might devote a month's worth of planning to having shut down or curtail services and it would take a few more weeks if at some point sequestration is avoided. so not only are we facing, you know, contingency planning for these types of thing, but you're also dealing with the fact that agencies can't actually do their actual job because they're trying to sort out how they will have to do less of their job if that happens so it is an incredibly disruptive process for government generally, and in a host of different ways americans will start to notice this. a lot of it might not come on march at midnight or march, 2, but it will come throughout that month and that's why conceivably, congress might use the expiration of the current continuing resolution and the short-term spending plan to come up with some kind of a fix to at least put back some of these changes and perhaps find other ways to cut money. >> before we go. i want to switch gears a little bit. president obama got a boost this week and florida's governor, republican rick scott reversed his position wednesday and said he would support expanding medicaid in his state. he became the seventh republican governor to agree with that expansion. so far 22 states said they'll expand medicare coverage. why did governor scott reverse himself? >> one reason could be thatstit have it attached and the election is over and maybe they'll seem that they used the old maximum politics that you might deal with your self-interest first. >> thank you both, so much. ed o'keefe, and lynn sweet from the chicago sun-times and they'll both be back with me later in the program. coming up, the first lady gets her groove on, but what else did she share with jimmy fallon last night? my next guest says in the sequestration fight the government has already failed the american people and charlie rangel is here in the studio after the break and you're watching msnbc the place for politics. we break out new behr h stain-blocker from the home depot... ...the best selling paint and primer in one that now eliminates stains. so it paints over stained surfaces, scuffed surfaces, just about any surface. what do you say we go where no paint has gone before, and end up some place beautiful. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. behr ultra. now with advanced stain blocking, only at the home depot, and only $31.98 a gallon. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? 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