0 serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. you should not start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have symptoms such as persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, it's the little things that mean the most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. >> congress has a major crisis on its hands and they have no one to blame but themselves. at the start of this week, we are reminded of accelerated passage of time. in congress, lawmakers have seen to it the clock is kicking down to another government shutdown. the deadline is now only days away. they are the ones that activated the detonator. we will have full details on that in just a moment. we will also be looking at the calendar for the time president obama has left during his second term to get things done to meet the promises of his 2012 re-election campaign. you may think he has three more years. washington's calendar does not necessarily match the one hanging on your mother's kitchen. my money for the most interesting race in the country right now is on the great state of virginia. it's not exactly a tough calm. there are only two governor's races going on this year. with weeks to go, we will be joined by a former governor of that state to hash out where we stand and where he stands. are you ready to go up against the clock? it's time for another exciting edition of our look back at stand together like they did this week, well, there almost has to be a catch. . >> if you remember, this bill responds to the clear will of the american people by defunding obamacare, a tremendously flawed law that is casting havoc upon businesses and citizens alike and there must be repeal. >> there it is. >> that is the price that speaker boehner decided to pay, he decided he hado choice but to pay in order to bring his party together, passing a bill that the president has no chance of ever signing. >> right now, the debalt that's going on in congress is not meeting the test of health and middle class families. it's just, they're not focused on you. they're focused on politics. they're focused on trying to the senate. as things stand now, though, it looks like democrats in the senate will be able to take out the part of the bill that defunds obamacare. then, thanks, to some procedural craftiness they will be able to do it in a way that gives some coverage to republicans who don't fight them. >> that will then put the ball right back in the house's court. right back in john boehner's court. the senate will hand him a bill that doesn't touch obamacare. with the country on the verge of a shutdown, boehner will be in a pick him. will he convince them that it is better to do that than be blamed for a shutdown in will the tea party bog at that and force ban tore rely on democratic votes to keep the government opened? a move that could precipitate a coup that could cost ban ter speaker's gavel. maybe he'll do nothing as october 1st comes and goes and the government closes down. here to help answer that, i want to bring in msnbc's former it looks like this is sort of coming down to a prourl vote that will take place i think in the senate on monday. the ted cruz is threatening to launch a filibuster. can you explain what ted cruz is threatening and why this ultimately should get through the senate. what is going on there? >> so, basically, ted cruz is threatening to do something that would force basically for that bill without the obamacare revision to pass, debate has to stop and basically what ted cruz has threatened to, do although his comments earlier in the week suggested maybe, you know, it's kind of an empty threat, so to, you know, basically keep going, to talk, filibuster basically means you are just talking and talking and talking and then they won't be able to close debate and hold a vote t. question, ted cruz kind of already showed his hand earlier this week. this is the reason that all these republicans are attacking him. i would say for very different reasons. what you are seeing right now which is very interesting, you had some moderate republicans in the house who realized that ted cruz is their out. basically, they could blame ted cruz for not standing up tall enough that, yes, he's saying all these things now, yes, i will definitely stand tall against obamacare. he said earlier in the week, after all is said and done, this is going nowhere, so now they kind of have an out for blaming ted cruz, having him take the fall for the reason that obamacare didn't actually pass. everyone knew this was the case to begin with, but, you know the question is now, how long is this going to take basically will the senate kind of at the last minute pass a bill with obamacare and force them to make a midnight decision. >> that was a really interesting dynamic you talked about with the republicans in the house. i haven't seen him turn on a prominent member of their own party since obama became president. peter king, a republican from new york in the house talking about ted cruz this week. >> whether it's custer, kamikaze or whatever, we are going to lose this and we have so many winning issues against the president. i think he's at wing with our party led by people like ted cruz who really sfarsz i'm concerned is carrying out a fraud with the people by seeing or implying that this strategy will win. >> take us inside republican world here. ted cruz's gain for the last two years, he is positioning himself as the voice of purity the standard which purity is measured. all these squishes in washington. boehner, they don't measure up to him. is na turning it all in the minds of republicans now because of this? >> i think so. there is something remarkable ab ted cruz, he mansion to make people hate him. it's not just the house. we is seen it in the senate. republicans around in the senate for a long time think that cruz doesn't respect traditions in the institution, doesn't respect them and you've seen a lot of complaint from people like john mccain about him. i think what you are seeing in the house is the top goal for leadership and republicans close to leadership in this fight over the continuing resolution with the government opened, was they want to keep the low levels of funding set out by sequestration the government won in the last debt ceiling fight in 2011 t. whole obama push has been interfering with that. when this goes to the senate and harry weed read strips out the obamacare revision. what will le he do, he gets the chance to jam republicans in the house, not with a bill that defunds obamacare but might spend more overall. the republicans correctly real easyize if they kept their eye on this and not been distracted with that obamacare thing. they would have had a longer hand to play and achieved their goal. >> is that the expectation the democrats in the senate in sort of as they touch this bill that they actually would change sequester levels. they'd change spending levels or would they say we'll be happy to let the continuing resolution go through a few months? >> what's fun 234i. we don't talk about sequestration at all. this is a whole, there is a huge issue that is now being pushed off by the obamacare talk. so in a sense, i don't know what the democrats will do with that. there is some discussion with fixing it i think that the white house would like it to be fixed. woem people would like it to be fixed. be you the battle is really now about keeping the government opened and less about if ocalm care vision really. >> steve, i'm sorry. il i'm going to have to laugh. not only do the republicans the continuing resolution that they passed in the house, it keeps sequester level funding for non-defense spending, the part that they really want to cut and they actually add 20 billion to the defense side which the whole idea of sequester was that the defense side holds the republican's feet to the fire. the non-defense cuts would hold the democrat's feet to the fire. they're trying to ease their side but not on the democratic side. i don't think democrats will stand for those levels of funds and as we look down the road at how this is going to play out, i don't think that the ted cruz, me first, really what they have is incredibly selfish. they're both destroying their party and threatening the country. i don't see them backing down on this they want to really go to the wire. look, ted cruz is a hero among the tea party base even if his colleagues hate him. this has been great for him. so i think they're going to have to go to nancy pelosi and democrats for help. and they're going to have to change the funding levels in order to get there. >> first of all, you said non-discretionary 3.50. >> sorry. >> susie, let's pick it up for a second. that's the dilemma for democrats here. because as i've understood it. on the democratic side, they were more willing to accept the sequester the reduced level of spending just to get obamacare out of it t. house side is not quite as tested. >> ted, this is the interesting thing. i think what is easy to forget as recently as over the summer. you had some house democrats saying, yes, i think it's worth risking a shutdown to get rid of sequestration. the democrats were making this threat and instead you have this playing out on the republican pseudo. is on the downside, republicans could get blamed for a shutdown. this could be blamed for their party and so forth. on the republican side, they've become a distraction. in fact, boehner in terms of sequester seems more reasonable like, oh, okay, we want to continue what we are doing all along. no one pay attention. keep going along. the longer sequestration stays in place the longer it's -- the more likely it is. >> it becomes the new normal. right. the new standard. >> that's the advantage of having this, you could argue, this is the reason if boehner decided, yeah, i'll bring this bill forward. it makes them seem crazy. it makes me with my conservative ideas about spending seem more normal. >> what sui is i is saying is true, let's not forget when they actually were trying to pass appropriations bills to put numbers to the budget at sequestration levels, even republicans were unable to do it because the funding cuts were so draconian. >> the big question is can the kind of unity we saw from the republicans yesterday, can that exist before the shutdown dead loin if the bill they passed gets altered in anyway. let's talk about that after this. and then another. and another. and if you do it. and your friends do it.